Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 6.375 x 54
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $11.00 MSRP ($10.00 at Small Batch Cigar –10% discount = $9.00)

Pete Johnson is an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a rug wrapped in an empty oil barrel wrapped in a concrete footing. I have offered him my top 5 commenters as sex slaves if he would put me on his reviewer’s list. No. I get no. I even substituted fake photos for the real photos of the commenters so they’d look like women…which a couple do anyway.

Only 2500 boxes of 20 were released back in September of 2013. That’s nothing because of Tatuaje’s non rejection rate. And popularity. So the fact that I could even find this limited edition series at all is a friggin miracle. And yes, boys and look alike girls, I got them at Small Batch Cigar who sells them by the box and the 5 pack for a dollar under the MSRP. No, not a dollar over the MSRP because they are limited edition and soon to pass into extinction…they are a dollar under. And then another dollar under that with the Katman10 coupon code. Is this nutsty crazy or what?

The cigar was made to commemorate the Tatuaje 10th anniversary. But there have also been a 2011 and 2012 version of this blend. And word is there will be a 2014.

The TAA refers to the Tobacconists’ Association of America. They are a small, but highly influential group of retailers. They have massive buying power and are therefore listened to.

The Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013 comes in one size only.

Construction is impressive. A firm, well packed cigar with a dark and oil coffee bean colored wrapper. If the sun comes out you may get to see how oily it is. Most seams are tight. There are few small veins but some large redwood tree types in the mist. The triple cap is near flawless. And the cigar has just the slightest amount of tooth.

The Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013 also has a closed foot. I’ve smoked two sticks already and the foot creates a fireworks show that sends sparks a’flyin all over my clothes so be careful. (This has been a Public Safety Announcement from the TV network Katman “Porn, all the time, Porn.”

I clip the cap and find aromas of luscious dark cocoa, freshly ground coffee beans, herbal notes, spice, exotic spices, cinnamon, sweet cedar, fresh leather and a hint of spearmint.
Time to light up.

The closed foot makes it a sonovabitch to get the char line off on the right foot. Yes, I now laugh at my own jokes when no one else does. Do you have a friend or two that does that?

Spice, spice, spice. Ha-Cha-Cha! Tears drip down my cheeks like I just watched the movie “Road House.”

Very earthy. Very earthy. (I repeat myself while under stress. I repeat myself while under stress..I repeat myse….)

The spiciness ratchets down a bit and creaminess, cocoa, coffee and some aromatics fill the air. The draw is spot on and the burn line is dead nuts.

Wow. The red pepper is strong! My nose is running. I can’t see through my third eye. My throat feels like I just ate a jalapeno.

This has the makings of an early flavor bomb. Here are the flavors: Spice, creaminess, cocoa, coffee, herbal notes, exotic Indian spice, mixed nuts, sweet cedar, leather, and maple syrup.

I read one review and it was one of the A List guys and in the entire review, he only mentioned one flavor: Spice. He waxed on elegantly about everything else but the flavors. I don’t get it. This cigar is chock full of wonderful flavors and I have only burned 1-3/8”.

Candied orange peel shows up next alongside some very tart lemon citrus. A nougat element joins the group. Now we have some sort of LSD influenced chocolate bar.

The strength started out at classic medium but now is medium/full. That was quick.

The Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013 is a very unique Pete Johnson stick. You smoke enough of his blends and you begin to detect a pattern in the way he blends. This stick is out of his comfort zone. He has gone where no one has gone before. To the moon, Alice!

Is 64 too young to start dementia?

So far, I have disagreed with everything that other reviewer said. That is why it is imperative that the reviewer state how long he has allowed the cigar to rest before smoking and reviewing it. Imperative. This could be comparing apples to oranges, so to speak.

It is a very slow smoking cigar. And the fact that these cigars were boxed back in 2013 gives the aging a little oomph. I have only allowed my 5 pack two weeks of rest.

I just checked and SBC only has two 5 packs and two boxes left of the Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013. You may scrounge around and find some somewhere but it won’t be at these prices.

I’ve been smoking for an hour and just now begin the second third. I don’t mind spending a few bucks on a cigar as long as it is a journey or experience. But it galls me to buy an expensive stick that burns like a cigarette. There are plenty of those out there.

The char line is spot on. The draw remains perfect and billows of white smoke fill the room.

Black cherry. Yum. A flavor so typical to Nicaraguan and Ecuadorian Habano leaves.

In fact, it is not black cherry, it is red cherry pie. I can taste a rich buttery crust.

The strength pulls back from medium/full and goes back to classic medium. Just perfect because I know the last third will kick my ass.

The cigar hits flavor bomb status. What a great cigar. Normally, I don’t like such a big stick but obviously, this stick’s size was the perfect conveyance for the blend.

I am at the halfway point and the complexity sets in. The balance is perfect with a nice long finish.

I am certainly digging this cigar. I want more Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013. But I have to talk my wife into it. I’m pretty sure that Andrew at Small Batch Cigar doesn’t have any more. And even if I could find them online, I don’t want to spend an extra $15 for a 5 pack.

The last third begins and goes back to medium/full. And only the slightest bit of nicotine.

Here are the flavors: Creaminess, cocoa, coffee, cherry, spice, mixed nuts, sweet cedar, maple syrup, and leather.

The Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013 has turned out to be a killer cigar; even with less than two weeks humidor time. The flavor profile is screaming laughter. The last third turns out to be the real sweet spot. It is oozing flavor.

I am very glad that the cigar isn’t any smaller than it is. I get to roll naked on a plastic sheet with cooking oil and revel in its flavors.

The construction has been flawless.

I’m now working on two hours of smoke time with a couple inches to go.

The nicotine kicks in and my typing slows down.

The Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013 finishes out perfectly. A real gem of a cigar.

Only two left at Small Batch Cigar. And I may grab one of them. Charlotte is still asleep and I must wait for her to wake up. Drat.

And now for something completely different:

How I met my wife. 1984

I was busted, broke and agents can’t be trusted. I lost everything in that stupid Eddie Munster production: my house and they were after my car. The record company owed my over $50,000 before the FBI swooped in and shut them down for embezzling from Hughes Aircraft where the owner’s wife worked. She siphoned $15 million bucks into the record company.

I had put every dime I had into that project and as it was paying off, like a bad dream, it was all gone.

A good friend allowed me to stay at his house in Anaheim. A really good friend who I am not in contact with anymore. We called him the Martian. He was really different.

I went to a club and discovered that the leader was a guy I went to high school with 16 years earlier.

They were a four piece band and were terrific. The band leader, Eric, played guitar, sang lead, and played violin. They did a great version of The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly.”

We got to talking during a break and discussed lots of things. It was great to see Eric again. A solid guy who now had a wife and young daughter.

They were based out of Lake Tahoe but came down to So Cal to break things up.

We had a meeting that week. We smoked a potent doob and talked for hours. We had so much in common when it came to music it was like talking to a long lost brother.

He got together with the band and they asked me to manage them. I still had all my Hollywood contacts and could do something with them. So, I gladly accepted.

A few weeks later, I was on the road with them. We played a few gigs going north to Tahoe. I did their sound and made them sound better than they ever could have dreamed of. All of their fan base commented on how good they finally sounded.

My recording studio experience proved me worthy.

I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor wherever we went. I was broke. I had my car and a couple bucks and that’s it. And both my Fender P bass and my beloved Schecter fretless.

They always allowed me to come on stage and play one song with them. I made the crowd wild with my antics and playing. What a ham!

Eric’s wife’s family had a very nice cabin in South Tahoe. But again, I was sleeping on the floor. The whole band stayed there and I shared the room with a female friend of the band who developed a crush on me. But no hanky panky occurred because she wasn’t my type.

They played a regular gig at a place called Rojo’s.

The first afternoon of the night we were to play, we loaded the gear on to its stage in the basement. What a hassle.

After setting things up, the plot thickened.

The band had a big fan base in Tahoe. Huge.

One girl was the one they had in mind to hook me up with as a joke. She was German and Catholic. How funny to match make a Jew with her.

Well, it back fired on everyone.

She heard we were setting up at Rojo’s and came down.

She walked in and all I could think was WOW!

And then she spoke. What a trash mouth. Like an iron worker. Fuck this and fuck that and what the fuck? Over and over.

I was told later that my mouth just hung open the entire time she was there.

A week later she asked me out. She says I asked her out. She’s wrong.

We went out for dinner and she paid. It was an upscale Swiss restaurant and I had my first good meal in ages.
Afterwards, we went to one of the casinos where the all black band The Bus Boys were playing. I knew the guys because we recorded at the same place my band The Attitude (“Hound Dog”) did.

During a break, I took her on stage to meet the band. I was going to show off.

They didn’t remember me. I had to keep giving them hints and minutes later, out of pity, they said, “Oh yeah, we remember you.”
Charlotte still tells this story at parties.

Well, she got me drunk. I don’t drink and we had two bottles of German wine. I could barely walk.

She took me back to her place where I commenced to pass out on her floor.

Great first date. No sex. And I passed out.

We continued to see each other exclusively while I was up there for about 5 months and then I tired of the band and decided to go back home to Long Beach.

She went with me. The woman had great faith in me to do that. I had nothing.

But my dad hired me as a project manager at his structural steel fab shop. So not that much later, we could afford our own apartment.

We knew each other for 9 months before we married. Eleven months after that, she gave birth to our only kid, Katharina.

So I guess the laugh was on the boys in the band. It had totally backfired and 30 years later, we are still together.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, pete johnson, Tatuaje 10 Grand Chasseur TAA 2013 Cigar Review, tatuaje cigars