6. Tatuaje TAA 51th
Tatuaje
- Country of Origin: Nicaragua
- Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
- Wrapper: Mexico (San Andrés)
- Binder: Nicaragua
- Filler: Nicaragua
- Length: 5 Inchse
- Ring Gauge: 52
- Vitola: Robusto
- MSRP: $11.95 (Box of 20, $239)
- Release Date: April 25, 2019
- Number of Cigars Released: 3,000 Boxes of 20 Cigars (60,000 Total Cigars)
- Original Score: 91
Tatuaje is well-known for any number of different series of cigars, but only one has placed in halfwheel's Top 25 five out of the last eight years.
Named after the Tobacconist Association of America (TAA) organization whose retail members get the exclusive right to sell them, the Tatuaje TAA has been through nine different incarnations since it debuted in 2011: from a Connecticut Bboadleaf wrapper in its first two releases to an Ecuadoran Hhbano cover leaf in 2013 before returning to Connecticut Broadleaf for the releases from 2014-2018.
However, the TAA 51th—the name was mistakenly printed on the band at the factory—was blended with a type of tobacco that owner Pete Johnson had never used in the series before, specifically a San Andrés wrapper from Mexico. The resulting cigar is a flavor-bomb of a blend, with a profile that bounces from flavor to flavor like a ping pong ball: sweet earth, licorice, multiple types of nuts and even wasabi..
In the end, you can call it the Tatuaje TAA 51th or the Tatuaje TAA 51st, but we call it the number six cigar in this year's Top 25. — Brooks Whittington.
