Revisit: Tatuaje TAA 2015

• Vitola: Box-pressed Toro
• 5.625” x 54 ring gauge 
• Price $11.99
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

It’s been about 11 months since the Tatuaje 2015 TAA release arrived at Burns…and 10 to 10.5 months since I reviewed it, declaring it a 10/10…”Perfect 10!”…and deciding that it was the late front-runner for my 2015 Cigar of the Year. As it turned out, there was another cigar that came in at the last minute and beat the Tat TAA 2015 for top honors in my book, but that didn’t stop me from buying a box of 20 of these Broadleaf beauties. I continued to smoke through singles that I would buy in the shop through October, November, December and part of January…then Burns ran out of sticks completely soon after some other blog did in fact name the Tat TAA 2015 as #COTY. It wasn’t until late January or sometime in February that I cracked open my box.

Aware that a lot of Nicaraguan tobaccos don’t age really well over 2 or 3 years, I made the decision to  smoke through most of mine before 2016 was over. After all, why hold onto sticks until 2018 or 2020, just to smoke them and think “these were really great at one point.” I figured I’d enjoy them now since I know how good they currently are, rather than hoping they will retain some measure of that greatness for the future…though I will keep the last 3 or 4 around to age long-term and see how they do. I’m currently about halfway through the box and thought I would re-visit the blend and see how my assessment from last year holds up.

As a reminder, I reviewed the 2016 version just a few weeks ago. It’s supposed to be the same blend, but in a different size. The 2015 Tat TAA is Nicaraguan filler and binder with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, made in the My Father factory in Nicaragua. I’ve heard tell that one place still has these available online…I won’t reveal the source, but I’m sure you can find it if you look around…you should do so.

Notes

Time has done nothing to diminish the rich aroma coming from the wrapper leaf. It had rich cocoa notes, along with ripe earth, notes that were repeated when I took the cap off with my Xikar cutter and took a cold draw.

Once lit I got loads of espresso bean and earth up front, while red pepper followed on closely behind. Tertiary notes were of roasted nuts and leather and cocoa powder, while the retrohale was pure peppery burn, just like the first time I lit one of these up. Midway through the first third, I was getting mostly earth with semi-sweet chocolate and pepper, while fainter notes of cedar worked their way into the mix.

The cigar fell a little flat during the second third. It was still chocolatey and sweet but lacked much else in the way of notes that would make for a more compelling and complex smoking experience.

It picked up again in the last portion, and the overall experience is still a great one…but…the extra time really hasn’t done this cigar any extreme favors. Already, it seems a little less complex than it was last September. Is that a permanent thing or is the cigar just in a “sick period” (a period in aging when the cigar tends to not taste as good as it did before or will after)? I don’t know. I know that I still enjoy these sticks and I’m glad I bought a box when I did. But this particular smoke on this particular day did not compel me to go buy more of these, nor did it cause me to have a growing interest in buying a box of 2016s.

In other words…you people out there who say “I’ve got 2012s and they’re better than they’ve ever been!”…I don’t believe you. Unless you’re a collector, you should enjoy these smokes when they come out and not try to hold onto them too long. They are likely to never be better than right now.