Tatuaje Anarchy (Prerelease)

In early 2010 the hype drums started rumbling about an exclusive Tatuaje cigar dubbed Anarchy. No details were given about who was behind the project, but what was known was that it wasn’t Pete Johnson himself behind the marketing of the project; he was only part of the blending process. It was most likely a store owner celebrating an anniversary but that was all we knew. Well, less than two weeks ago that mystery was solved

Smoke Inn of Florida is among the most popular stores in the United States and sells a lot of cigars, so it’s no surprise that an exclusive Tatuaje cigar would be made for one of the many shops that have been established under the Smoke Inn banner. The stores is owned by Abe Dababneh, who is as well a close and personal friend of Johnson.

Dababneh has said of the project:

Pete & The García Family cigars have long been dominant popular favorites in all our retail locations. After every Monster series mayhem, it just seemed like it was a no win situation. They only folks who seemed to be happy were those who actually got what they wanted. It was chaos for consumers and retailers alike. No matter what retailers did, someone was upset. So I approached Pete to make us something special for our upcoming 15 Year Anniversary. But instead of the chaos and craziness, I wanted to make sure this was something that was going to be affordable AND available. Pete was immediately on board.

The marketing was a little out there, but we hoped you enjoyed it. You see, in order to make Tatuaje Anarchy readily available to all who wanted it, we had to produce a SIGNIFICANT amount more than the Normal LE. This was a big risk on our part, but Thanks to Pete & The Whole García Family….They made such an incredible cigar, for my taste, that if I get stuck with the whole lot, I will enjoy making it my every day smoke until I run out!

When you look at the cigar and find out the MSRP you come to realize the idea behind the name “Anarchy.” It’s a pretty big salomon type cigar with a really unique honey bun looking pigtail cap, no doubt that this cigar wasn’t cheap to make however they were able to keep the MSRP right at $10 per cigar.

The cigar is packaged in plain black boxes with an anarchy logo on top which matches the plain anarchy band on the cigar. Each box contains 15 cigars each wrapped in cellophane. Approximately 1,000 boxes were produced making this not quite as limited as other Tatuaje single-store releases, but the idea was for everyone who wanted to smoke one to have the chance. The preorder for the cigars started a few days ago on black Friday and cigars will be shipped out around December 10, which is the day of the release party for the Anarchy cigar. A lot of people will be in attendance, including Pete Johnson and José “Pepín” García. Abe has said this of the matter…

• Cigar Reviewed: Tatuaje Anarchy
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Size: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Salomon
• MSRP: $9.99 (Boxes of 15, $149.85)
• Date Released: December 2010
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,000 Boxes of 15 Cigars (15,000 Total Cigars)

The cigar itself is an astounding example of great construction. The wrapper is a dark espresso brown color and is totally smooth to the touch, almost silky smooth. There is also a surprising amount of oil on the wrapper, so much in fact, that I was reminded of the original Tatauaje T110. It is a very interesting vitola, a perfecto with a cut foot and a pigtail wrapped around the cap that looks quite a bit like a cinnamon bun. It is very firm when squeezed, but just short of being hard. The wrapper has a very strong barnyard smell, with some dark chocolate and pepper thrown in.

The band has a jet black background with the Anarchy symbol embossed in red on the front on either side of the Anarchy symbol, “Tatuaje” is embossed in black, so it is almost invisible unless it catches the light just right, on the back of the label, a small “PJC” logo is embossed in red.

The first third starts out with quite bit of spice on the tongue and lips, as well as flavors of hay, espresso, leather and earth. The draw is a bit tight for the first quarter inch or so, but that is not unusual for a perfecto. The spice dies down quickly to a background note about 18 puffs in.

The second third has the same basic flavors, and the spice does not go anywhere, still a nice background note. There is a little more leather flavor, and the profile adds some oak notes as well as a very small amount of nuttiness. However, there is a point—about halfway through the second third—that the flavors seem to get quite muted and mild, almost like someone turned off the flavor switch, which lasts about 15 puffs or so, then the flavors picked right back up where they left off. It’s very odd and I am at a loss to explain why it happened.

The final third really does not add much, sadly. The core flavors stay pretty much the same, although the spice does pick up in the last eighth of an inch, as well does the strength…the cigar also adds a nice finishing flavor of coffee, but by the time I get to that at the very end, I am done with the cigar.

Final notes

• The “Pig Tail” on the cap of the cigar immediately reminded me of the Flying Pig, but unlike the flying pig, you cannot tear off the tail and start smoking, i.e. you have to cut the cap to smoke it on the Anarchy.
• While it did get stronger in the final third, this cigar never really rose above a medium in strength, and, much like The Face, was fairly mild for the first two thirds.
• As I mentioned before, the construction and look of the cigar is great, the vitola is unique, the wrapper is seamless and oily, the burn was spot on and the draw was effortless.
• I really want to applaud Abe at Smoke Inn for a masterful job at marketing this cigar. Not only did he come up with a catchy name and logo, he really took it to the next level with the website. He also decided to send out samples to quite a few bloggers to review before they were released, thus building up even more press and anticipation. Having said all of that, I was honestly surprised and a bit disappointed with the blend this cigar has, considering the name. I expected a bit more power and complexity to go along with the “Anarchy” theme, but that was not to be.
• The final smoking time was one hour and 50 minutes.

Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.