Hey Jon, Is your alias Pete Johnson? Happy New Year, bud, and to that beautiful family of yours! It's been great reading your posts here this year, and it's been great smoking those Piranhas all year, too! Next year I am going to break down and try that lonesome MX2 of mine. I am afraid to smoke it, because it may lead to credit card meltdown. Viva CAO!
This is from CA, re Jon's second favorite new cigar lines of 2003:
Pete Johnson, the cigar buyer for Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills, California, has created his own line of cigars called Tatuaje. Named after the Spanish word for tattoos, Tatuaje refers to the sleeve of inked images that Johnson sports down the length of his arms.
Tatuaje cigars, which Johnson made in conjunction with Tabacalera Tropical, are completely Nicaraguan, but Johnson's ultimate goal was to create a Cuban taste. The cigars are rolled in Miami's El Rey de los Habanos factory, located in Little Havana. The head roller, Jose "Pepin" Garcia, is a veteran master roller from Cuba; he was on hand for the debut of the cigar, at the Grand Havana Room in New York City, where he showed off his skills. Churning out delicious cigars all evening, he even rolled a beautifully made cigar pipe, as well as a cigar shaped like a baseball bat.
"This is old world Cuba for a new generation," said Johnson. "What they are doing in Nicaragua is the closest right now to what they are doing in Cuba -- the sweetness of the wrapper and the aroma coming off the foot." He describes the cigar as medium to full bodied. "People find it mild because when they first light up, the corojo wrapper adds a sweetness, but [the cigar] builds up strength toward the end, and that's how Cuban cigars are to me."
Tatuaje comes in six sizes: Havana Cazadores, which measures 6 3/8 inches long by 43 ring, Unicos (6 1/8 by 52), Especiales (7 1/2 by 38), Noellas (5 1/8 by 42), Regios (5 1/2 by 50) and Tainos (7 5/8 by 49). Prices range from $7.25 to $12 per cigar.
As with Cuban cigars, you may have a hard time finding the Tatuajes. They are available only at a few retailers, as well as at the Grand Havana Rooms in New York City and Beverly Hills. This is a "boutique production," said Johnson, "I keep them in small orders so that they don't rush the production since there are only six rollers." He expects to make about 6,000 cigars for each production and about 30,000 cigars a year.
Not that Johnson isn't thinking big. Two limited-edition Tatuaje lines are planned for the future, he said: The Cojonu, or "monster blend," (6 1/2 by 52, retailing for $13.00), set to hit shelves in a week and the Gran Gener (date and measurements not yet specified). These two lines will be so strong that they "would be a novelty cigar that just true smokers will smoke," said Johnson.
