Today's review is of the first cigar in the Tatuaje Monster series, The Frank. This was a very limited release in October of 2008 around Halloween, with a production of 666 Coffin shaped boxes of 13 cigars, and $13 a stick. This is a large, box-pressed cigar, measuring in at 7 5/8 X 49 (Double Corona). The Nicaraguan filler/binder is covered by a sun grown broadleaf wrapper, and has a very cool looking green Tatuaje band on it.
The wrapper is ugly, rough and veiny, exactly what a cigar named after Frankenstein's monster should look like! Like all Tatuaje's, The Frank is a solidly constructed cigar with a perfectly applied triple cap. This is a box pressed cigar, but only slightly. The predraw shows a perfect draw with a light earth and cedar flavor.
The Frank starts off with classic Tatuaje spice, earth and some cedar. This cigar is over a year old, and isn't showing any signs of youth. The flavors are very clean and crisp and very complex! The further into this cigar I get, more and more flavors are developing and building a very full flavored cigar. Black pepper, roasted nuts, a slight citrus zest flavor...there is no question about the complexity of this cigar. The wrapper leaves a slight sweet flavor on your lips which is quite pleasant. The burn is dead even and the ash seems to hold on for right around an inch. At the halfway point, a floral undertone shows up that I really didn't expect, but it works well with the flavors going on here. (wasn't there a scene in Frankenstein where he throws a girl picking flowers down a well?) By the end, this is a solid medium/full bodied cigar.
Overall, I really enjoyed The Frank! A very generous buddy of mine gifted me this one, and I can't thank him enough for the chance to smoke this very limited cigar. This was one of those cigars that I was excited about trying, but figured I wouldn't get my hands on. This cigar is going to age very well. The flavors are already quite complex, and I imagine that over even more time, they will continue to marry and develop. If you got yourself a coffin of these, count yourself lucky!
I will doing a review of the 2nd cigar in the Monster series from 2009 (The Drac) in the near future, so keep an eye out for that one!
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