Cigar Review: Dr. Jekyll by Tatuaje

Vitola: Churchill
Size: 7” x 49 ring gauge
Price ~$13
Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

I guess I can be excused for missing the first Tatuaje Monster Series release. I was in the middle of getting ready for a cross-country move and while I definitely still enjoyed cigars with friends during that time, it was before I attempted much to stay current with industry news and before I started writing about cigars. That almost seems like half a lifetime ago, but it was just 6 years ago…6 years and about 3 months (when this review posts) from when the original Tatuaje Monster cigar was released with just over 8,000 sticks hitting stores…6 years this month when we finished packing up our lives and got out of Southern California and starting trying to put down some roots in East Tennessee.

I did get a chance to try a single “Drac” later that year and the following year my home shop, Burns, was an Unlucky 13 store and host to Pete Johnson as The Face was released. By that time production had more than doubled with more than 21,000 sticks being released and “non-dress” boxes making their debut. Now production has more than doubled again, with over 50,000 examples of “Dr. Jekyll” making their way into the hands of leaf enthusiasts. As I’ve done since 2011’s “The Wolfman” I made no attempt to get a Dress Box (I’ll leave that to the certifiably insane, rabidly fierce collectors out there), but I did make it a priority to buy a 10-count non-dress box, affording me the opportunity to smoke a few for review now and save some for future years (I still have aging samples of The Face, The Wolfman, The Mummy and JV13 (Jason)…as well as a sealed box of Little Monsters…but I’m not “a cigar collector”…I am going to smoke every last one of those at some point).

The Dr. Jekyll is made by My Father Cigars in Nicaragua. It features Nicaraguan fillers and binder, along with an Ecuadorian Sancti Spíritus wrapper leaf, the kind that first seen on the L’Atelier flagship release (it’s the first time it’s been used on a Tatuaje-branded cigar). It is a part 1 of a 2-part release that will conclude in October 2014 with Mr. Hyde. I smoked a couple samples before I picked one out for review purposes.

Prelight

The wrapper leaf looks as good here as it does on the L’Atelier…which is to say, it looks fine. The color was a light brown with an even tone and mostly small veins. It had a fairly oily feel to it and a bit of sheen under the light. The band was a variation on the theme that Tatuaje has been using since day one…narrow, straight-sided band, with pin-striping along the long sides and Tatuaje in script. Here the background is white and the striping and branding are in a bright green (next year’s release will be the inverse). Additionally, as has been done the last several years, the sides of the band spell out that this is a “Monster” release for the “Halloween” season (yes, I’m late to reviewing this…that’s my tradition!).

The aroma from the wrapper was faintly earthy with touches of hay, while the foot of the stogie was rich with sweet earth and manure notes. The cold draw was good and had a mix of sweet and earthier flavors.

Flavor

Once lit, I got a good amount of pepper right up front. This may sound like a hundred other “Don Pepin cigar reviews” you’ve read, but this was different…while many of the Garcia-produced blends start off with a blast of red pepper, this was more of a medium burn of black pepper on the palate with an even more modest white pepper burn on the nose. The Nicaraguan interior of the cigar did provide for a strong earthy core with a bit of coffee and unsweetened cocoa powder, there was also some mild sweetness, a bit of hay, and a creaminess to the whole thing. So far, I found the Dr. Jekyll to be quite different from the L’Atelier that previously used this wrapper leaf, but no less compelling.

Up through the start of the second third, the Dr. Jeckyll was really a solidly medium-bodied stick with a good amount of pepper. I did notice that the body started to creep upwards a bit during the second third, although still maybe just a “medium-plus.” I got an introduction of cedar flavor in the second third that steadily increased until it was about equal with the earthiness. Pepper spice continued but at a decreased level, while notes of coffee and cocoa powder essentially disappeared along with much of the sweetness.

In the last third the wood notes diminished a bit, allowing more sweetness through along with a resurgence of creamy hay notes. The earthiness was still providing a solid core to the experience and overall I felt like the cigar improved from a bit of a lull in the flavors of the second third.

Construction

As is the norm with My Father, I saw perfect construction attributes: great draw, very fairly burn line and solid ash.

Value

It used to be that these were very hard to find and prices were artificially driven up. I can remember paying $16 or $17 per stick for some releases of Monster Series cigars. With the vast expansion in production over the years, the cigars are less rare and more likely to be found at or near the $13 MSRP, making for an excellent value when just about every other cigar line has increased in price over the last six years. The fact that this was an enjoyable cigar only enhances the value.

Conclusions

This is not my favorite of the Monster Series, but it’s not my least favorite, either (that distinction belongs to The Wolfman…just couldn’t get into the Sumatra-wrapped blend on that one). I found it to be medium-plus in body but fairly strong in nicotine delivery, with one of the sticks I burned just about knocking me on my butt. It is a good, solid smoking experience and a nice change of pace from almost everything else in the Tatuaje catalog. One additional note here: I know this review comes fully three months after its release, but because of the large number produced, with a little effort you should be able to find some of these to either purchase or trade for.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10