Tatuaje Cohete Capa Especial

I doubt I’ll be able to get a review in next weekend as we may be expect snow in the desert, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t skip out this weekend. Today, I take a look at the Tatuaje Cohete Capa Especial paired with a can of Martin House’s Acheron whiskey barrel-aged imperial stout beer.

The Good Stuff:

Originally released in 2006 as a shop exclusive for Tower Cigars, the Cohete is a stubby little 4 x 50 similar to the same format as the T110, but utilizes the Seleccion de Cazador as it’s base. Also similar the last year’s T110 release the 2022 Cohete line features 3 different wrappers: The standard Ecuadorian Habano, the newly added Ecuadorian Sumatran, and the newly added Connecticut Broadleaf. Rolled at the My Father factory in Nicaragua, each line comes packaged in boxes of 25 running $9 per cigar. I picked mine up from our good friends at Fox Cigar.

• Size: 4 x 50
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatran
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Price: $9
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium/Full
• Pairing: Martin House Acheron (Imperial Stout 12%)

Prelight:

The Tatuaje Cohete Capa Especial starts off with a gorgeous, consistently dark brown wrapper. The wrapper’s texture is both extremely toothy/grainy and very oily. The cigar as a whole feels very well packed and really heavy with no soft spots at all. Rather, the cigar is quite hard. The wrapper is laid so seamlessly over itself I can’t even tell where it beings and where it ends. There are a few very minor veins running throughout the cigar’s stubby body leading up to it’s round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with the standard brown Seleccion de Cazador band we all immediately recognize as well as an additional white and gold band stating that this blend is wrapped in the “Capa Especial” Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper.

The Tatuaje Cohete Capa Especial gives off some soft raisin and cedar scents from the wrapper while the foot of the cigar carries some brown sugar and cinnamon over natural tobacco aromas. the cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces raisin and honey over loads of natural, musky flavors.

First Half:

Note: Due the small stature of the Cohete, I will be reviewing this cigar in halves vs. thirds. The Tatuaje Cohete Capa Especial starts out with a very soft black pepper punch that only lasted through the first few puffs allowing the cigar to release bold raisin and dark chocolate flavors over sweet brown sugar, vanilla, honey, musk, and a grainy/dirt/earthy mixture of flavors. The draw is absolutely perfect. I don’t know what it is about these little stubby cigars but the draw always feels great as each little puff kicks out a whole mess of thick, white smoke which really spends some time hanging out with you before dissipating while the cigar releases only a small amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted white ash which held on for a little over a half an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Half:

Into the second half of the Tatuaje Cohete Capa Especial and the flavors began to balance out a bit more. One thing about the Seleccion de Cazador line is it’s very well balanced as the profile leads with cedar and dark chocolate over raisin, vanilla, brown sugar, musk, honey, and a great floral black tea that I am really enjoying. Every once in a while I get a flavor pop in that I can only describe as root beer. I am sure there is a better description of the flavor, but root beer is what comes to my mind as a relatable memory. The retrohale brings out quite a bit of spice and some softer black pepper. The cigar actually burned quite slow offering a little over an hour worth of experience. I experienced no harshness nor extended heat and closed out the cigar with no nicotine kick at all.

Overview:

I have always been a pretty big fan of Tatuaje’s Seleccion de Cazador line so I jumped right on these especially after how great the T110’s were and I am glad I did. Whatever Pete Johnson’s Ecuadorian Sumatra lands on, I’ll smoke. It’s not a wrapper I granite to normally but it just suits many of the Tatuaje blends so well, and always have. I’m glad we’re seeing it more often. The Cohete Capa Especial starts off with a quick trip down memory lane which quickly transitions to “man, this blend was made for this wrapper”. The flavors are decently complex and extremely enjoyable while the cigar burned flawlessly form start to finish. The price is slightly on the high side for the size of the cigar but you do get quite a longer experience than I expected so it’s worth it. I definitely want to make sure I stock up on more of these to keep in my daily rotation.

Pairing:

Acheron is probably my favorite beer Martin House has made. This whiskey barrel aged imperial stout comes in at 12% Abv and leads with notes of vanilla, brown sugar, milk chocolate, malt, and just a splash of whiskey with a decently heavy mouthfeel before finishing with more milk chocolate, brown sugar, and vanilla with a slight whiskey aftertaste. This alcohol is so well hidden in this beer that it could be dangerous. Matching up with the Tatuaje Cohete Capa Especial is easy for the Acheron as the vanilla, chocolate, and brown sugar marry up perfectly with the flavors found in the cigar and the cigar itself added a great level of complexity to the beer by adding spice and woodsy flavors.