Well, October came and went, and with the passing of the month I was fortunate this year to pick up three Tatuaje Karloff cigars. The Karloff is the latest addition the company’s Monster Series that debuted in 2008. This particular cigar is a nod to Boris Karloff, the actor that played Frankenstein’s monster in the classic 1931 film.
Pete Johnson, owner of Tatuaje Cigars, deceribes the blend as:
- Wrapper – Ecuadorian Sumatra
- Binder – Nicaraguan
- Filler – Nicaraguan
Pete also notes, this is a tweaked blend of the original Boris and the Little Boris. For those that don’t know, Jeff Borysiewicz, owner of Corona Cigar Co. had a cigar known as the Boris 11 and made an agreement with Pete to allow him to keep the name Boris, so long as he made a limited release, exclusive “Little Boris” for Corona Cigars.
The Tatuaje Karloff is expressed in a 6 5/8 x 49 vitola that comes packaged in 13-count dress boxes with a total of 4,000 boxes produced (52,000 cigars). If you can still find these, they are prices at $13.00 MSRP.
For this review, I sampled 3 Tatuaje Karloff’s that I purchased for the review, as part of the Stogie Press mission to Keep The Lights On.
Pre-Light Examination
The Tatuaje Karloff is a beautifully marbled, dark reddish brown and oily cigar, that is solid to the touch and firmly packed. It is smooth to the touch with minimal veins running along the barrel. An expertly applied triple cap and closed foot finishes the presentation.
In typical Tatuaje fashion, a single thin white and black band adorns the cigar with the name Tatuaje printed in the center. Simple yet elegant.
Running the Tatuaje Karloff along the nose, I detected a pungent fermented leaf aroma along the barrel but not much more off the closed foot.
My double blade Lotus cutter did the trick to slice the cap straight across the shoulder, as I proceeded to take some cold draw puffs which I would describe as is quite good, maybe just a little looser then I prefer but still ok. The cold draw offered notes of light pepper and a hint of earth.
Using my Bugatti lighter, I warmed the foot gently, which took to the flame well and developed an even orange glow as I drew in the first pepper blasted puff that hit the throat and opened the nasals on the retro-hale. Follow along as I burn Karloff to ash.
Cigar Review Notes
- Right off the first light the palate and nose is awakened with a peppery blast
- Medium grey ash forms on top of thick but wavy char line
- As pepper pulls back the true nature of the cigar begins to show with cedar and toasted caramel notes
- Char line gets a tad wonky but I let it go and it begins to find its way
- Full volume of smoke fill the palate
- Buttery notes add to the pleasure with a charred oak background
- Ash falls in a nice chunk revealing an off centered burn cone
- Dark chocolate notes move in starting the second third
- Woody aroma
- Raisin adds to the profile deep in the second third
- Spice starts to build while wrapping the raisin notes
- Cream adds to the pleasure starting the final third
- Touch of sea salt entering the final third
- Pleasant spiced finish
- Medium to full in strength
- Total Smoking Time was 1 hour and 50 minutes
Overall, the Tatuaje Cigars Karloff was a complex yet balanced cigar in both flavor and aroma from foot to nub. With notes like toasted caramel, butter, dark chocolate, raisin, and cream, you can’t go wrong enjoying this medium to full strength cigar after a good meal and paired with a fine dark rum or rich bourbon. It had a bit of a wonky wave early on but it found its way with out the need of a touch-up. These are definitely worth picking up multiples of, if you can find them. I rate this a 92.
Point Deductions: (-1) Wavy burn; (-1) Off Centered Burn Cone; (-1) Medium Grey Ash
Bonus Points: (+1) Consistent Across Multiple Samples
