Tatuaje – Mummy – Monster Series #5

I wanted to get this review posted on Halloween, but I just hadn’t had the time. I got set back a bit with work, but I am back on schedule now kicking out this week’s review of the Tatuaje Mummy Monster Series #5.

The Good Stuff: The Mummy is the 5^th installment in Pete Johnson’s Monster Series. For those of you who live on another planet, Pete Johnson of Tatuaje has been releasing super-limited runs of Monster themed cigars each year on Halloween since 2008. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on each one to date and have thoroughly enjoyed them. The first was the Frank, followed by the dual released Boris and the Drac, Then the Face, the Wolfman, the mini-monsters, and now the Mummy. The blend starts out with a Nicaraguan Sun Frown Criollo stuffed with Nicaraguan Filler and Binder. Pete Johnson made mention that the blend is basically a cleaner version of the Black Label, but that the size will alter the flavor slightly. The Cigar runs $13 a stick and comes in painted dress boxes of 13, or plain boxes of 10. While I was in Phoenix a few weekends ago I picked a few of these up at Fox Cigar Bar. (Don’t worry, I’ll have a post up from the event soon.).

Size: 7.75 x 47
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun Grown Criollo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $13
Pairing: Unibroue  Grande Reserve 17 (Belgian style strong dark ale, 10% abv)

Prelight: The wrapper on the Mummy is a rough looking one. Again, I am a fan of rustic looking cigars as you can tell there hasn’t been much treatment done to them. The wrapper is very oily and toothy carrying lots of smaller veins and a messy, folded over foot. Once again, everything about this wrapper screams monster series. As you follow the thin, medium brown body up to the round triple cap you can see lots of areas around the veins where the wrapper is a much lighter shade of brown. The Tatuaje Mummy is polished off with the standard Tatuaje band, this time in white and gray keeping up with the mummy theme.

The wrapper on the Mummy gives off a very sweet tobacco and cashew aroma while the foot of the cigar lets loose a crazy strong spice and tobacco smell. The cold draw on the Mummy produces a really organic tobacco, soft spice, and subtle pepper flavor.

First Smoke: Once lit up the Mummy greeted me with a whole ton of up front spice. Not pepper, spice as in cinnamon and maybe nutmeg. There was a bit of pepper on the first few puffs, but not a whole ton. Just enough to tingle my lips a bit before fading off and leaving me with a nice sweet tobacco, cedar, spice and a neat black cherry after taste.  The draw on the Mummy is slightly tough, but not anything that one or two hard puffs doesn’t take care of. The burnline is razor sharp and dead solid leaving behind a flaky, white and dark grey ash. The ash only held on for about ¾ of an inch before giving way into my lap. I anticipated it this time as you can tell, I took the first picture early enough to catch it just before the first ash fell.

Halfway There: An interesting spearmint flavor snuck into the cigar in the second third. I’m not sure if I was really picking it up or if I smelled something in the air cause just as soon as I noticed it, it was gone. The cashew I picked up in the prelight has started to show in the experience while the black cherry, spice and cedar as still rocking hard over the sweet tobacco. The retrohale produces a really smooth, sweet, and mellow cedar priming. The burnline is still spot on and I am feeling only a slight nicotine kick after the second third.

Finish: As if I wasn’t already enjoying this Tatuaje Mummy, the final third of the experience really made the cigar shine. It started with similar flavors, black cherry, cedar, spice but then morphed into this really bold, pleasant, cashew and leather with this musky taste. I loved it. The cigar finished bold and smooth with no harshness at all. I smoked this cigar until I could no longer hold it in my hand. It took about an hour and a half and required no touch ups or relights. Despite feeling a bit of nicotine in the second third I felt absolutely nothing after I finished the cigar.

Overview: As much as I enjoyed the mini mum, I have to say this format suits the cigar so much more. It’s the final third experience in which I didn’t see from the mummy in the smaller format. This is probably one of my favorite monster series to date. If I had to rank it I would put it in second place just slightly below the boris. The price point is a bit steep as is for all the full size monster series, but you get a lot of bang for you buck. I would highly recommend any one interested to pick these up while you still have a chance. There aren’t man left!

Pairing: I picked a winner with this pairing. Unibroue’s Grande Reserve 17 is a 10% abv Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed by the Unibroue brewery in Quebec, Canada. Unibroue, in my opinion, is one of the few non-Belgian brewery who have successfully nailed down the Belgian style of brewing. This limited edition brew is only brewed once, then oak aged and bottle fermented producing a bold, yet smooth experience. This beer carries lots of spice, clove, ginger, cinnamon over a malty and sweet palate. That being said it’s obvious that the beer and it’s flavors were a match made in heaven (or hell?) for this year’s Monster Series, the Mummy.