While many manufacturers choose to quietly ship new products last year to just a handful of retailers, Tatuaje took a slightly different approach to adhering to the Aug. 8, 2016 deadline set by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The company shipped—in sparse quantities—a variety of new items to a bit wider audience.
Last week, two of those items began shipping to retailers nationwide: the Tatuaje Reserva Broadleaf Collection and the Skinny Monster sets.
The Reserva Broadleaf Collection is a 100-count box featuring 10 of Tatuaje’s Brown Label sizes in Reserva form. For Tatuaje, Reserva almost always means Connecticut broadleaf and that’s exactly what’s happened here.
Each chest contains the following 10 sizes, all with broadleaf wrappers:
- Tatuaje Havana Cazadores Reserva Broadleaf (6 3/8 x 43)
- Tatuaje Unicos Reserva Broadleaf (6 1/8 x 52)
- Tatuaje Noellas Reserva Broadleaf (5 1/8 x 42)
- Tatuaje Tainos Reserva Broadleaf (7 5/8 x 49)
- Tatuaje Especiales Reserva Broadleaf (7 1/2 x 38)
- Tatuaje Regios Reserva Broadleaf (5 x 50)
- Tatuaje Reserva SW Broadleaf (7 x 47)
- Tatuaje Reserva J21 Broadleaf (5 x 50)
- Tatuaje Reserva K222 Broadleaf (5 7/8 x 52)
- Tatuaje Cojonu 2003 Reserva Broadleaf (6 1/2 x 52)
Each box contains 10 of each cigar. Pricing is set at $1,200 per box. Production was originally supposed to be limited to 5,000 master cases, though Pete Johnson of Tatuaje has since indicated it will be far less. The Reserva Broadleaf Collection will also be offered in 10-count boxes.
Also shipping are the Skinny Monster sets: 10 different boxes of the Tatuaje Skinny Monsters, which were released last year. Unlike the original release, which was a sampler containing one of each cigar, the Skinny Monster sets are 25-count boxes—painted versions of Tatuaje’s Black Label Petite Lancero box—containing just one particular Skinny Monster.
Note: the picture above shows the German version of the boxes, the U.S. version will not have German warning labels.
There are 400 boxes of each cigar made, priced at $8.50 per cigar or $212.50 per box. One notable catch is that retailers were not allowed to choose which Skinny Monsters they wanted, they had to buy them in sets of 10—meaning if a retailer wanted two Tatuaje Skinny Wolf boxes, they had to buy two full sets, or 20 boxes.
The Skinny Monsters are:
- Tatuaje Skinny Frank (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Drac (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Face (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Wolf (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Mummy (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Jason (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Hyde (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Chuck (6 x 38)
- Tatuaje Skinny Tiff (6 x 38)
Both items debuted at the 2016 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show.
Update (Feb. 15, 2017) — Added info about 10-count boxes for the Reserva Broadleaf Collection and a change to master case production.