Tatuaje Releasing 50th Robusto Especial & Toro Especial by Year’s End

Tatuaje founder Pete Johnson will turn 54 in December, but later this year, fans of the brand will get to smoke a cigar made specifically to commemorate his 50th birthday.

The aptly named Tatuaje 50th line will consist of two different vitolas: the 5 1/2 x 52 Robusto Especial and the 6 1/2 x 52 Toro Especial, both of which were shown off during the 2024 PCA Convention & Trade Show. Blend-wise, the 50th cigars are Nicaraguan puros capped off with a corojo 99 shade-grown wrapper.

In a text message, Johnson told halfwheel that all of the tobacco used in the cigars was “between 3-5 years old when we rolled them in late 2019 and early 2020.” The two cigars will feature Tatuaje’s Escasos secondary band, indicating that they were rolled at My Father’s El Rey de los Habanos factory in Doral, Fla.

Both vitolas will be packaged in 10-count boxes, and each size will be a one-time release with a total production of 5,000 cigars. In addition, Johnson told halfwheel that the boxes of the Robusto Especial will have two date stamps on the back of each box: the first stamp will be for when the cigars were initially packaged in 50-count cabinets in December 2020, which was the original plan for that vitola. The second date stamp of September 2023 will indicate when those same cigars were repackaged in the final 10-count boxes.

According to Johnson, the Tatuaje 50th cigars will be priced between $50-55 each and are scheduled to show up on shelves sometime around his birthday, which falls on Dec 7.