For those of you that don’t know…

Released around Halloween every year, the Tatuaje “Monster” series is one of the most anticipated cigars on the market…Each year, a different classic movie Monster is immortalized with a different blend, with the box and cigar itself being representative to the Monster it is named after (i.e. “The Drac” was a stake like torpedo vitola)….

From Left to right, here are the different boxes and cigars in the Monster Series so far…

• In 2008, it was The Frank, named after the infamous “Frankenstein” Monster
• In 2009, it was “The Drac”, named after “Dracula”
• and in 2010, the newest release is dubbed “The Face”, after the character “Leatherface” from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie

For the newest release, dubbed “The Face”, Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars chose a very different look to both the box and the cigar itself…

As with The Frank, only 666 Dress boxes (i.e. the Cool Boxes) with 13 cigars each will be produced and sold through 13 different Tatuaje Retailers (The Drac release had 1300 dress boxes of 13)…However, new this year (due to the trouble that people had getting a Drac last year), Pete is also releasing 1300 simple boxes of 10 (individual cellophaned) Face in each one, plain boxes that just say “Tatuaje Halloween 2010 No. 3″…If you are counting, that is a total of 21,658 “Face” cigars released, as opposed to 8,658 cigars of the Frank and 16, 900 for the Drac…

The “Wolfman” is rumored for 2011′s Monster Release (my idea for a nickname? “Wolfie“), which according to reports will most likely be a torpedo with a shaggy foot…

Another interesting fact about the “Face” blend is the fact that it uses a Mexican wrapper (albeit a Seco priming, which is why the color is lighter)…While this is not the first time Pete has used a Mexican wrapper on a cigar (that would be the “Outlaw” release, which I was not overly impressed with), it is certainly an interesting choice for this specific blend…

Says Pete:

“It has a Mexican wrapper. We don’t use a high priming; it’s a Seco leaf, so the shade is more like Café Rosado color. But gnarly-looking! The crazy thing about Mexican wrapper is that when it’s drying out, it’s almost like the oil pockets [in the leaf] explode . . . and turn white. When we went through the production, a few thousand sticks had these white spots all over them; those cigars look perfect for The Face, but Jaime and Pepin don’t want to put them out on the streets. I liked it, because I thought it fit perfectly for Leatherface, but they re-wrapped a bunch of them. But I told them to keep some of the ugly ones, because I liked it.”

Like the last two Monster Releases, the box for “The Face” is quite a sight to behold…Made of reddish colored wood, each box is extremely rustic looking, with cuts, gouges, nicks and red “blood” (which I assume is paint of some sort) splattered all over it (although I would have thought there would be more blood on the box, considering the movie)…Interestingly, the aforementioned details on the box are unique to each and every box…The cigars inside the box are covered in Brown paper, and are wrapped with a piece of burlap instead of a ribbon (or anything else)…

But enough of that, let’s get down to business, shall we?

• Cigars Reviewed: Tatuaje “The Face”
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: San Andreas Mexican Wrapper (Seco priming)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Size: 6 3/8 inches
• Ring Gauge: 56
• Vitola: N/A
• Est. Price: $13
• Release Date: October 13, 2010
• Number of Cigars Released: 666 Dress Boxes of 13 & 1,300 Boxes of 10 (21,658 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 3

The first things you notice about “The Face” is the fact that it is a huge cigar, and the lack of an actual band…The “Band” that is used is actually another piece of tobacco (Connecticut Ecuador, if you want to be specific) that is added after the cigar has been rolled…(In fact, Pete has said that unlike most cigar operations, where there are only two people putting together a cigar, for “The Face”, there were three: One person to Bunch the cigar, one person to wrap the cigar, and one person to put the “band” on the cigar)…

As I said, it is a physically large cigar, and quite weighty in your hands…The foot of the cigar is covered (i.e. the wrapper is wrapped around the foot of the cigar, instead of cut off cleanly) and there is a bit of a bump on top (reminding me of the OR Tatajue Corona Gorda)…It is also very firm when squeezed, but not quite what I would consider “Hard” (it still has a bit of give)…

Here is a photo comparing The Face to The Frank, to give you an idea of the size difference…

The wrapper is a lighter milk chocolate brown color, fairly rustic looking (but also very smooth) and smells faintly of tobacco, sweet chocolate and a bit of pepper…The wrapper does seem to be a bit fragile (delicate) to the touch…

The First Third starts out quite differently then a “Normal” Tatuaje, with just a bit of spice on the tongue, a nice tobacco flavor and some cedar and sweet earth…It starts out quite mild, and takes about 10 puffs to get going, but the flavors seem to get stronger as the cigar goes on…There is also a wonderful sweet undertone (no doubt due to the Mexican Wrapper) that is quite nice…Having said that, it is a fairly boring First third, and I was wondering if there was going to be any more to the cigar…

Interestingly, the smoke smelled so good coming from this cigar, that I had bees around me the whole time I was smoking it…they literally came within inches of the stick, and flew around in the smoke…I even got a photo of one (albeit a bit soft)…

The Second Third starts with the cigar obviously getting stronger and full bodied, and the flavors starting to become more distinct…I was tasting more sweet chocolate, as well as a nutty note, more earth and cedar…Still not much pepper or spice (there is a little there, but barley enough to mention), but the cigar just keeps getting better and better as it progresses…

The Last Third is where this cigar made it’s mark…The strength ramps up quite a bit, surprising me with it’s aggressiveness, and the flavors seem to combine into a wonderful, complex soup that is just a joy to smoke…The spice picks up as well, adding an extra dimension that was missing for the first two thirds, and combining perfectly with the sweet undertone to really set off the flavors of nuts, raisins, chocolate, licorice and wood…Honestly, I was surprised at the complexity of the last third of this cigar, thinking that I had it figured out…I really did not want it to end, it was just an amazing ending to an otherwise fairly boring cigar…

Final Notes:

• As I mentioned, “The Face” was quite a bit more mild then I expected (being a Tatuaje)…This seems to be due to several reasons: 1. The Mexican Wrapper is considered (rightly so) to have a “sweeter” profile then most…2. I imagine it is quite difficult (and perhaps extremely expensive) to make a cigar with this large of a Ring Gauge a powerhouse and 3. Pete just wanted it that way…
• The strength at the end of the cigar is so strong, it is almost shocking…you are moving nicely along, smoking away, when about halfway through the 2nd third, you start to feel a bit woozy…And it just gets stronger from there…The Strength seems to creep up on you the further you get towards the end of the smoke, it is certainly not an “in your Face” (pun intended, sadly) strength like in the T110 blend, for example…
• The construction, burn and draw on all three samples I smoked were nothing short of amazing…Perfect burn line, never needing to be touched up, just a joy to smoke…
• As I said, this is a Huge cigar, and seemed to burn fairly slowly, and it took me 2 Hours and 20 Minutes to smoke (although as you can see, I went as far as I could)…
• I want to publicly thank Mark at Tower Cigars for getting me a box of these as quickly as he did…Great BOTL, and a great store

The Bottom Line: As I was smoking the three cigars for this review, I kept thinking of the “Sour Patch Kids” commercials, the one where it says “Sour, then Sweet”…To me, this cigar was kinda like a reverse Sour Patch Kid…instead of Strong and then Sweet, it was Sweet, and then Strong…Honestly, I think quite a few people are going to be surprised at the choice of profile for this cigar, especially considering what the “Monster” series is supposed to represent, and who it was named after…Although it IS a strong cigar (see the Final notes and the Last Third details), it is not overwhelming by any means, and honestly, the strength adds a much needed aspect that was missing for the first half of the smoke…

The question you are asking (I am sure) is, Is the “Face” better then the Drac? Yes, Yes, a Thousand times Yes…But it is not better then the Frank (or the Boris for that matter), at least not yet (although I am interested to see how they age, especially with that strength to factor in)…A good, solid cigar for the first two thirds and a great cigar for the last third…

[Editor's Note: There is a second question you might be asking yourself... "how can you say The Face is better than the Drac when your review of the Drac was full of so much praise?" The answer is the Pre Release Drac we smoked for the review was a far superior smoke compared to the regular production release, for reasons we don't quite understand. The Regular production release doesn't have the complexity or refined flavor profile that the Pre Release had. ~ed.]

Final Score: 90