Vitola: Churchill- 7.625” x 49 ring gauge
- $13
- Gifted by a Friend
Background
A lot of times you don’t get a second chance. That applies to a lot of things in life…getting into the right career, a failed relationship, getting a low mortgage rate on your house. When the genie has left the bottle, it’s hard to stuff it back in. Same thing with a lot of limited edition cigars. Especially when it’s the first time they’ve been released and the numbers were fairly small and no one really knew what was going to happen. Such is the case with Tatuaje’s “The Frank” for me.
The Frank was originally released in October of 2008. It was the inaugural “Monster Series” cigar with 666 boxes of 13 sticks made. An “Unlucky 13” group of stores got a bunch of boxes each, but many stores in the country never saw a single box. I never saw a single stick available to purchase and didn’t get to try the blend at all until it came out in the “Little Monsters” set a few years later, in a different vitola. Since then I’ve had the Pudgy, Skinny, Skinny Cazadores, and Mash sizes, but never the original. And now I have a second chance.
Since the Monster Cigar Series ran its course of 13 releases, Pete Johnson, owner of Tatuaje, apparently has decided to start over again. I had guessed that would be the case, but my guess was that he would do different sizes for the second go-around. That was not the case…The Frank Redux 1 is the same size as the original.
The Frank Redux 1 is a Nicaraguan blend using fillers from Estelí and Jalapa, dual binders from the same regions, and a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper. This time around they made 5,000 boxes of 13 sticks for a total of 65,000 sticks, which were distributed mostly, but not exclusively, to retailers that went the PCA trade show.
I had the chance to buy a whole box, but was sadly money is a little tight this year, so I had to pass. I was gifted a single stick by a very good friend. I got some information on the background from Cigar-Coop.
Notes
This is “Frank Redux 1,” which indicates there very well may be more reduxes of Frank…or it could be that Drac will be Redux 2 next year.
Even with the Monster Mash version having the “same ring gauge, but 1.5” shorter than the original” as a size, I was surprised by this one once I got it. It amounts to a really long Churchill size, specifically about 5/8” longer than a standard one.
The wrapper leaf was dark chocolate brown, rough in spots, but very oily, too. It smelled of earth and unsweetened cocoa powder. The closed foot didn’t allow for much else in terms of aroma, but the earthy notes there were richer and more intense. The cold draw had tons of semisweet chocolate, along with lesser notes of earth and pepper.
I paired this cigar with some Elijah Craig Rye, reasoning that with a cigar blend that has proven this sweet in other sizes, a whiskey that is less sweet and more spice might be nice.
Image from Tatuaje Cigars
I fired up the Frank Redux 1 and got huge earthiness from the outset, with semisweet chocolate following closely and a good amount of black pepper on the palate. The retrohale was more fiery with notes of red pepper ahead of earth and roasted nuts.
The Elijah Craig Rye paired reasonably well, although I found myself missing the Magic that happens with something like a chocolate coffee stout paired with a Tatuaje Broadleaf. The cigar continued on very earthy throughout with plenty of semisweet chocolate and some pepper in the mix.
I found the full-sized Frank to be more in the medium-plus bodied range compared to more full-bodied in smaller ring gauge sizes and to have a little less sweetness. After this I have to conclude that the Jason is still my favorite full-sized Monster Series cigar, although the Frank runs a close second. Thanks again to my friend for letting me try this out.
