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.

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The Good Stuff: As I said, the Aquitaine Blockhead is a shop exclusive to Monte’s in Albuquerque and used to be only available at events. The Aquitaine blend itself is not an exclusive and made it’s debut at last year’s IPCPR. The exclusiveness pertains to the box-pressed format of the blockhead while the blend remains the same. The Aquitaine blockhead isn’t RoMa Craft Tobac’s first shop exclusive. Actually, it’s not even the first “Blockhead”. Skip Martin of RoMa Craft Tobac had previously released a Blockhead version of the Aquitaine’s sister line, the Cromagnon (which I reviewed here) to Tower Pipes and Cigars in Sacramento, California and Tobacco Grove in Maple Grove, Minnesota. The Aquitaine starts off with an Ecuadorian Habano Ligero wrapper, a Cameroon binder, and 3 different Nicaraguan fillers each from Esteli, Condega, and Pueblo Nuevo which is a small town on the Northern border of Nicaraguan and Honduras. The blend is identical to the Cromagnon only replaces the Connecticut Broadleaf with the Ecuadorian Habano Ligero. The Aquitaine comes in 8 different sizes including the Box Pressed Blockhead (6 x 54), the Knuckle Dragger (4 x 52), the Mandible (4.5 x 60), the EMH Early Modern Human (5 x 56), the Anthropology (5.75 x 56), the Cranium (6 x 54), and two limited edition sizes including the Atlatl (7 x 38) and the Mode 5 (5 x 50 perfecto). The Blockhead runs $9 a stick and they had plenty in stock at Monte’s while I was there. For more information about Monte’s you can visit their site here, Facebook here, instagram here or twitter here. I always stop in whenever I am in town (El Paso isn’t too far from them) and they have always been great people.

Size: 6 x 54 Box Pressed
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Ligero
Binder: Cameroon
Filler: Nicaraguan from Condega, Esteli, and a Ligero from Pueblo Nuevo
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $9.00
Pairing: Prairie Artisan Ales / Evil Twin Brewing Bible Belt (Imperial Coffee/Vanilla/Chili/Cacao Stout 13% ABV)

Prelight: The Aquitaine Blockhead is one badass looking cigar. We’ll start with the format in which the name “Blockhead” is obviously pulled from. It’s box-pressed to the max almost forming a perfect square. The corners and edges are real sharp and hard. Again, I’ve said it over and over I am a huge box-press fan and absolutely love this size. It’s very comfortable in both the hand and the mouth. Next we have the wrapper. The Aquitaine carries a very thick, incredibly toothy, and incredibly oily texture. It’s definitely one of the prettier wrapper leafs as the medium and dark brown color showcases the natural webbing in the leaf and carries only a few smaller veins. The Blockhead is rather firm and packed pretty tightly. It’s a heavier cigar but again the box-press makes it really comfortable to hold despite being a longer format. There are absolutely no soft spots or construction flaws. The cigar is capped off with a stoutly round, seamless, triple cap. The Aquitaine Blockhead is then polished off with the standard brown, and white layered, letterpressed bands with the word “Aquitaine” pressed into the front and the RoMa Craft Tobac logo in white on the back. I am a HUGE fan of these bands. Simple, elegant, clean, and they serve the purpose of distinguishing your cigars without the need to be overly flashy letting the cigar’s appearance speak for itself. I’ll put these bands up there with the Liga Privada, Most Tatuaje, and Illusione bands as my all time favorites.

The wrapper on the Aquitaine Blockhead lets looks a whole ton of syrupy, molasses, chocolate aroma mixed over some bold tobacco notes while the foot of the cigar is a bit more modest only showing some natural tobacco and spice aromas. The cap cut very clean and easily using my handy Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces some strong syrup, and raisin notes with a bit of spice and tobacco mixed in.

First Smoke: The Aquitaine Blockhead starts off with some modest black pepper backed by some sharp spice, raisin, espresso and some grassy tobacco flavors. As I smoked down the first inch the pepper completely faded away and a real nice brown sugar sweetness crept its way in. While the Blockhead is very tightly packed with tobacco the format makes it incredibly easy to get a nice, big, thick draw with every little puff kicking out tons of dense, white smoke. The burnline is a bit thick, but dead even forming a compacted medium and dark gray ash which held on for about an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Halfway There: As I venture into the second third of RoMa Craft Tobac’s Aquitaine Blockhead some really interesting charred meat flavors began to sneak into the flavor profile. Maybe I’m just hungry, maybe the heat is starting to get to me but it was actually pretty potent and mixed in well with the syrup, cedar, and spice while there was still a slight sugar and espresso on the aftertaste. The retrohale far more modest than I was expecting as it coats my nasal passage with some soft cedar, spice, and plum. I really enjoy the retrohale from the Aquitaine and find myself routing it that way quite often. The draw is still flawless and the burnline is perfect and I am feeling zero in the nicotine department.

Finish: RoMa Craft Tobac’s Aquitaine Blockhead really took off into the final third. The spice and espresso ramped up, the pepper came back, the brown sugar and raisin stayed strong, and even that meaty flavor stayed with it. This is a flavorful cigar and I found it pretty bold, but the one thing I enjoyed the most was how creamy and balanced the flavors were. They weren’t fighting for your attention, instead they complimented each other resulting in a complete performance. The burn and draw were perfect the entire time and I never had to take my torch back out of my pocket for any touchups or relights nor did I feel much in the nicotine department. It took me about 2 hours to smoke this bad boy down to the nub and I enjoyed every minute of it. I experience no harshness and the only heat I felt was from the sun on my head.

Overview: It’s not hard to tell how much I enjoy the Aquitaine blend. I always have. Jeremy and I actually had a conversation the other day about where we would rank each of Skip’s blend and both of us had the Aquitaine right up at #1 or #2. The Blockhead has to be one of my favorites in terms of formats for the Aquitaine. The boxpress is comfortable and produces a massive draw which really lets the cigar showcase how complex, yet balanced it’s flavors are. At $9 a pop these are priced perfectly and I am glad I picked a few up while I was at Monte’s. The shop is about 4 hours away from me, but I tend to visit Albuquerque quite often so it’s not too hard for me to get my hands on them and I plan on picking up quite a few more next time I make a trek up there. Hell, this is a box purchase for sure as these are the perfect addition to just about anyone’s rotation.

Pairing: This is the second time I’ve paired a cigar with Prairie Artisan Ale’s Bible Belt which they produced in collaboration with Evil Twin Brewing (see Espinosa’s 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster). Why? Two reasons: 1) It’s simply a badass beer which pairs perfectly with most bolder cigars and 2) Skip has been on a tear with these beers lately and I found it fitting to do an homage to him. Bible Belt is a hefty Imperial Stout weighing in at 13% ABV which is basically a mash up of Prairie Artisan’s popular Prairie Bomb! (which I paired with Viaje’s 2013 Christmas Tree) and Evil Twin’s Even more Jesus. The result is a crazy flavorful stout aged over coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and chili peppers. In contrast to the Prairie Bomb! the Bible belt is much more chili heavy which creates this awesome spice which pairs up perfectly with the spice in most cigar experiences while the creaminess, sweetness, coffee and chocolate do the rest of the work marrying up with the robust flavors of the Aquitaine creating a pairing that’s near flawless and impossible to replace. Knowing how often Skip smokes his own supply it’s easy to see why he’s been such a fan of this beer.

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