Pudgy Monsters, Part 1: Tiff and Chuck

Background

The Monster Series has become quite the franchise for Tatuaje and the company owner, Pete Johnson. Six (so far) annual releases have taken us from classic movie monsters to more modern horrors, while the Little Monsters release two years ago gave late-comers to the party (myself included) a chance to try out some of the earlier blends, albeit in a different vitola than the originals.

This year, Pete decided to throw another release into the mix…Pudgy Monsters. This 10-pack of cigars would feature the same lengths as the LIttle Monsters releases, but the same ring gauge as the original full-size releases, making for a bridge between the two.

When Little Monsters came out, there had only been 4 releases to date, and the collection featured a “preview” of sorts for the 2012 Monster release: The Mummy. The collection had 2 each of all the blends, for a total of 10. Johnson opted to change things up with the Pudgies. First, each of the 6 previous releases is represented one time. The other 4 spots are made up of 2 each of 2 new blends, which do NOT presage this October’s cigars: Chuck and Tiff…based on characters from the Child’s Play movie series.

On a side note, there are a couple other notable changes from the “Little” release to the “Pudgy” release. “Little” originally featured a cartoonish drawing of the “Little Monsters” on the outside of the box. By the time it shipped, the drawing was relocated to the inside of the box, so as not to be seen as marketing to kids. “Little” also featured a trading card, similar to the Garbage Pail Kids Cards from the 1980s, in each box (well, most boxes…there were some issues, as I recall). “Pudgy” eschews both monster drawing and trading card, both of which could not have been seen in a positive light in this age of undue FDA scrutiny and overreach.

Child’s Play debuted in 1988, near the end of a decade that proved quite lucrative for horror film franchises, from Friday the 13th and Halloween to Hellraiser and Nightmare on Elm Street. The premise is that a murderer (played by the inimitable Brad Dourif) gets mortally wounded and transfers his soul into a “Good Guy” doll…which isn’t so good anymore. Chucky hacks and slashes his way through 3 movies before finding a suitably-sized girl, Tiffany, in 1998’s Bride of Chucky.

And that brings us to the two pint-sized cigars I’ll be looking at today…ladies first…

Tiff

Size: 4” x 50 ring gauge

From everything I’ve been able to determine, the blends for both Chuck and Tiff are undisclosed. Tiff appears to be a Connecticut Shade wrapper of some sort, most likely Ecuadorian and most likely considered a “dark” Shade wrapper because the color is definitely not the golden hue seen on many other Connys I’ve smoked. The aroma of the wrapper was classic Shade…slightly sweet hay…and the foot wasn’t much different…hay with the addition of a bit of wood and earth. Testing the cold draw, I got notes of grass and citrus.

After setting fire to Tiff’s foot, I noted a flavor profile that has become fairly familiar in the last few years: Nicaraguan-based filler with a Shade wrapper…more or less part of the “New Wave Connecticut” paradigm. This iteration of the theme started off with fairly prominent cedar notes, along with the sweet hay. There wasn’t a lot of pepper on the palate, but on the nose it was piercing. I would put body at the upper end of mild at the get-go.

Matt, co-owner of Burns Tobacconist, told me he thinks Tiff is milder than Cabaiguan. I don’t know…it’s been at least 3 years (maybe more) since I’ve smoked a Cabaiguan…that’s probably something I need to remedy. I found the Tiff to be pretty mild overall with a good flavor, though not something I would run out and buy a box for. It had lots of grassy hay notes, mild sweetness, occasional citrus and touches of earth and pepper.

Chuck

Size: 4” x 50 ring gauge

As noted before the Chuck blend is presently undisclosed. The wrapper was a milk chocolate brown and mildly oily. It had a leathery aroma and the foot was mostly earthy. The prelight draw had a sweet note and left a bit of peppery tingle on my lips.

I held Chuck’s foot the fire and immediately got a earthy flavor with notes of creamy coffee and dried fruit sweetness. The retrohale was very nutty with just some white pepper heat. Before long, the sweetness changed into more of a milk chocolate note to go along with the appearance of the wrapper. Some pepper showed upon the palate, as well.

Chuck ended up being an excellent full-bodied cigar that reminded me in some ways of the Fausto blend. It displayed notes of earth as well as the chocolate and pepper spice through to the end.

Okay…so this was “part 1”…the plan is to smoke up the rest of my first box of Pudgy Monsters and offer you some thoughts on the experiences contained therein over the next few weeks, probably two sticks at a time.

Chuck & Tiff together…almost like a wedding picture

One last thing: in the interest of full disclosure, I purchased my box of Tatuaje Pudgy Monsters at Burns Tobacconist, a sponsor of this blog and a part-time employer for me. You can call Burns at 423-855-5200 to buy yours while supplies last.