Vitola: Cazadores- 6.375” x 43 ring gauge
- MSRP $90, set of 10 cigars
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
In 2016, Tatuaje released the first Skinny Monsters collection, 10 Petite Lanceros in the blends released in the full-size Monsters that had come out to that point, plus the two that had debuted in the Pudgy Monster collection. The set included Frank, Drac, Face, Wolf, Mummy, Jason, Jekyll, Hyde, Chuck and Tiff. 2017 saw the release of two new sets of the same blends, a Lancero Edition that featured full-size Lanceros, and a Cazadores edition, featuring the Lonsdale vitola made popular in the original Brown Label release.
While the original Little Monsters and Pudgy Monsters collections had a set number made and were discontinued after those numbers were sold, Skinny Monsters seem to be a limited production, regular release in all three versions.
I picked up a box of the Skinny Monsters Cazadores Edition and decided to evaluate it a couple cigars at a time here on these pages—backwards, because…why not? And also, I believe the Frank will probably be the best stick in the bunch, so I want to save it for last.
Both Small Batch Cigars and Cigar and Pipes have the collection listed on their pages, though they are both out of stock as of this writing.
Face
After smoking most of the previous sticks in this series in my truck on the way to work, I actually got to sit down on my front porch and “enjoy” this one with an adult beverage. The “enjoy” is in quotes because it was about 38 degrees, so enjoyment is definitely questionable…I did suffer a little bit for my art. The Face was the first Tatuaje Monster stick that I had more than 1 of. I split a dress box with Keith when Burns was an Unlucky 13 retailer the year it came out. At the time it was truly an exceptional Mexican-wrapped cigar, but this is one of those cigars that got really good with 2 or 3 or even 4 years of age on it. I wonder if the same would be true of the Skinny Cazadores edition, but it’s unlikely that I’ll be waiting that long to smoke it…assuming I do buy another set of these at some point.
I broke open a Terrapin Beer Company Moo-Hoo to go with the Skinny Caz Face. Terrapin is out of Athens, Georgia, and this beer is described as a Chocolate Milk Stout using cocoa nibs from Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Company. The chocolate in this is definitely in the very dark semisweet chocolate range. It went well with the Face, although the cigar was the tightest of this collection that I’ve had so far, so it was not as enjoyable as it could have been. Compared to what I can remember of the original Face release, this seemed to have less sweetness and a markedly higher amount of pepper spice.
Wolf
This blend was one of my least favorite Monster releases when it first came out. Seems like that was the year Pete Johnson was throwing “Capa Especial” Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper leaf on everything…7th…Cojonu 2012…Monster…and I just plain did not care for them. I got sharp metallic/coppery flavors from the leaf and that dominated the flavor profile for me. I don’t know if the wrapper these days is undergoing longer fermentation and aging or if my palate has changed…but…
Nowadays this blend has a different and much better flavor profile. The coppery mineral note is still there, wrapped up in a cedar and pepper spice note that is very nice. Earth is there and an underlying sweetness balances it all out. I would probably buy this one if it were available as in singles like the Petite Lancero Skinny Monsters are.
