Tatauje Hyde Monster Series #8

By Tony Casas | November 2, 2015

While I wrap up my trip to the Foxtoberfest event last week I ventured out back with a Tatuaje Hyde in one hand and a bottle of Marble’s Imperial Stout in the other.

The Good Stuff:

It’s that time of the year again. Every year around Halloween cigar smokers nation-wide flock to retailers to get their hands on the limited edition Halloween Series produced by Pete Johnson of Tatuaje. Each release has two different box option. The first is a limited edition Dress Box which features a intricate design, and are limited to only 666 boxes which are only available through 13 retailers nationwide. These boxes contain 13 cigars each. The second option is a standard box which contains 10 cigars each, a plain box design and is much widely available. For the Hyde, Pete produced a total of 4,500 of these boxes.

Following last year’s sub-theme, the Hyde is the alternate version of the 2014 release of the Jekyll and is the eight installment in the annual Monsters series put out by Tatuaje. Here they are in order:

2008 – The Frank
2009 – The Drac
2010 – The Face
2011 – The Wolfman
2012 – The Mummy
2013 – The JV13
2014 – The Jekyll
2015 – The Hyde

Much like the monster itself, the Hyde is relatively the same blend as the Jekyll with only a slight modification. The Hyde uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper instead of the Ecuadorian Sancti Spitirus found on the Jekyll. Both carry Nicaraguan binder and fillers as well as the same 7 x 49 Churchill format. Each Monster series is only available in a single size with the exception of the Pudgy and Little Monsters sampler boxes. There are a total of 53,658 Hydes produced which again come packaged in boxes of 13 and 10, and run $13 a stick. These always go extremely fast so grab some while you can. I purchased by box over from our good friends at Bonita Smoke Shop.

Size: 7 x 49
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body:  Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $13
Pairing: Marble Brewing Imperial Stout (Imperial Stout 11% ABV)

Prelight:

Fist off, like most cigars in the Monster series, The Tatuaje Hyde is a beefy cigar. While it’s large in size, it’s also very heavy, hard, and tightly packed. The wrapper is a very dark brown in color with lots of darker, almost black areas scattered throughout the leaf but found more consistently around the edges of the leaf and natural tobacco webbing. The wrapper has a very toothy, grainy texture with some slight oils while it feels very dense and thick. There is only one medium sized vein noticeable in the cigar’s body. The Tatuaje Hyde is finished up with a stubby, round, triple cap and a lime green Tatuaje band.

The wrapper on the Tatuaje Hyde gives off a nice espresso and tobacco aroma while the foot of the cigar carries a ton of spice, pepper, earthiness. The cap cut clean and easily using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw on the Hyde produces some deep espresso, oak, and lots of spice.

First Third:

The Hyde starts out with some slight black pepper which was much more subtle than I had expected. Once the pepper faded out the cigar showcased some nice espresso, grain, oak and spice with a pretty potent pine flavor that hung around on the aftertaste. The draw is flawless. Each tiny, little puff kicks out a massive cloud of thick white smoke. The burn line is solid for the most part with some slight waves leaving behind a trail of white and medium gray ash which held solid for about an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Tatuaje Hyde and that pine isn’t letting up. It’s not leading the charge backed by the oak, honey, spice, and espresso. This cigar isn’t nearly as bold as I thought it would be yet, but the flavors are great and combine to create a great profile. The retrohale really showcases the spice an pepper the cigar carries with it and helps add that extra dimension to the experience. The burn line is still slightly wavy while I close out the second third with no harshness or nicotine kick.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Tatuaje Hyde and now the cigar is really showing what it’s all about. The pine has faded completely and now the cigar is letting loose a full-bodied profile which leads with a lot of sweetness that wasn’t there in the first two thirds, chocolate, espresso, lots of oak and spice, as well some great honey and tartness. I wish the rest of the cigar preformed this well. It took me a little over two hours to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I experienced no harshness, no extra heat, and a decent little nicotine kick at the very end.

Overview:

Like the Jekyll, the Hyde isn’t one of my favorites in the Halloween series, but it does hold it’s own. The flavors were interesting, and enjoyable, but I just felt as if it fell short of the “umph” that the Monster series usually have. The final third really showed what this cigar had to offer and I only wished the rest of the cigar smoked the same. It’s not often that I say this, but this cigar could use some aging. Is this worth picking up? Absolutely, especially since they won’t be around for long. It’s still a great cigar. While the price is a bit steep, it’s expected with this release and more time than not the Monster series fare very well when stored away for a few months.

One note: I smoked a Jekyll as well this week and the difference a year made in that cigar is incredible. It was leaps and bounds over what it was when I first smoked it. Maybe some time in the humidor is just what the Hyde needs to get to the next level.

Pairing:

Marble’s Imperial Stout is a thick double stout aged in oak barrels. Coming out of Albuquerque, New Mexico this beer clocks in at a whopping 11% ABV and is pretty easy to come by in these parts. When I say “these parts”, I mean New Mexico of course which is a few miles west of here. I often venture out there a few times a month to see what they have cooking that I can’t find in Texas. It’s great to be so close. The beer leads with lots of malt, chocolate, vanilla, and espresso with a very heavy mouthfeel before finishing milky with lots more malt, chocolate, spice, and oak with just a splash of booze. The flavor profile married up very well with the Tatuaje Hyde while it added more sweetness to the experience which I wish the Hyde produce more of. I think the Hyde would go great with any sweet stout, porter, or bourbon.