Cigar Review: Tatuaje TAA 2016

• Vitola: Toro
• 6.25” x 50 ring gauge 
• $11.99
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

The 2015 version of this smoke was my second-favorite cigar of that year. Its mix of sweetness, earthiness and pepper was too much to resist and I was ready to proclaim it as “Cigar of the Year”…up until another great stick swung my vote at the last minute. I still bought a box of 2015 Tat TAAs and have enjoyed about half of that box so far. So I highly anticipated the 2016 version and couldn’t wait until it showed up in September. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait until September as Pete Johnson decided to release them early this year.

I’m actually fairly certain the decision to release them early had more to do with the FDA regulatory burden that starts in early August and will make all releases more problematic and time-consuming. Therefore, be ready to see a boatload of new cigars hitting the market in the next few weeks…but not that many boxes of each, and not all of them in every shop. Just enough to satisfy requirements with bigger role-outs later in the year.

As with last year, this year’s TAA release from Tatuaje is Nicaraguan filler and binder, covered with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. While last year’s vitola was a repeat of the original 2011, this year the redux is of the 2012 release. What’s up next year? Well…who knows if there will even be a TAA release next year? I did look at my 2013 and 2014 reviews, though…both of which scored 9.5 of 10…the 2013 was the “10th Anniversary Tatuaje” release, using the basic Brown Label blend in the Gran Chasseur size…and in 2014, the Broadleaf blend was back in a 6 x 52 Toro.

For the uninitiated, the TAA in question here is the Tobacconist Association of America, a group of about 80 stores nationwide. They meet once a year to discuss business and industry matters amongst themselves and with a small group of manufacturers. They also have a trade show during the week, with certain manufacturers offering special blends or special sizes of current blends which are available only to TAA member stores.

I’ve smoked several Tat TAA 2016s already, all of which I have bought at Burns Tobacconist. Both locations of Burns have them available for sale…and we have them online, while supplies last (and just to let you know…last year we got 75 boxes in September and sold out in mid-January; we are getting more boxes total this year, but they also showed up earlier…I’d expect sell-out at or before the same time).

Prelight

Plain-Jane boxes and bands…but that’s pretty standard for most Tatuaje stuff, to be honest. And I give them extra points for the foil wet-pack that the cigars are shipped in inside the box, because cutting that open and sticking your nose in it is like aroma therapy.

The wrapper leaf is a typical milk-to-dark chocolate brown Broadleaf with some large veins and an excessive oiliness. It smelled of chocolate and earth and cedar, even after being taken from the box in the store and put in my aging humidor (where it wasn’t near anything else like it) for a couple weeks. The foot had a richer earthiness, with some chocolate notes, as well.

Once clipped, I tested the draw and found it good. The cold draw had flavors of cocoa powder and cedar mostly, with a little pepper spice lingering on the lips.

Flavor

I lit up the TAA 2016 using my single flame S.T. Dupont torch; it took some doing with the fold-over foot, but I got it going. Initial flavors were of cedar and sweet earth. Some pepper was on the back of the palate in the early going, but the nose had an abundance of fiery notes. As the first third continued the cedar flavor held sway, while sweeter notes faded and the pepper on the palate just about disappeared. toward the end of the third. The retrohale still had some cocoa powder and a mild pepper.

The strong wood notes continued into the second third, offset only slightly by sweeter flavors from the wrapper leaf. There was also a mix of natural tobacco and hay in there, which resulting in the mellowing out the body to a medium-plus place.

The final third saw the body build up to the medium-to-full range and more sweet notes come through in the form of chocolate. The pepper spice pretty much was gone by this point. There was some earthiness and a bit of cedar still in the mix. The hay notes that came around in the second third disappeared.

Construction

The draw has been good on every sample of these I’ve smoked and the ash has been solid. The burn line is a bit variable…being Connecticut Broadleaf, it rarely burns perfectly straight, but it rarely gets too far out of line, either.

Value

As always, these limited edition cigars are a little pricey, but they are worth the price of admission.

Conclusions

I have to say…this year’s Tatuaje TAA just isn’t as good as last year’s. It’s still a very good cigar, but I have to wonder if releasing in June instead of September is part of the issue. Maybe the cigars were rolled around the same time they would have been in previous years but didn’t get as much time in the aging room before shipping thanks to the FDA regulations? If that’s the case, these sticks should really start waking up and taking on a better overall flavor profile in a couple more months. Right now, though, I have to admit to being a little underwhelmed. Maybe it’s just that last year’s was so good…because this was still a very good cigar when judged in a vacuum.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10