Today, we take another look at another installment of the Tatuaje Skinny Monsters collection, the Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll. Skinny Monsters is a sampler of ten 6 x 38 petite lanceros based on various Tatuaje Monster Series releases. Since 2008, the Tatuaje Monsters Series has been an annual release right before Halloween. For each installment of the series, a different blend with a different size pays homage to a monster / horror movie character. While the Monsters Series remains an annual release, there have been several off-shoot sampler releases, one of which is the Tatuaje Skinny Monsters series. With the Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll, this appears to be one of the highlights of the Skinny Monsters collection as I found this to be an excellent cigar.

As mentioned, there are several offshoots of the Monsters Series Collection. With the exception of the original Monsters Series, all have been made available in sampler packs. Each of the collections are (or have been) limited in production. Here is some further details:

• Monster Series:  Released annually (usually around Halloween) since 2008. These have been Double Corona or Churchill sizes
• Little Monsters: Released in 2012, these are shorter, thinner versions of the first five Monster releases from 2008 to 2012. The sampler includes two cigars per blend. The Mini Mum was the little version of the Tatuaje Mummy and is the only case in any Monster Series collection where one of the offshoot sizes was released before the full monster sized vitola.
• Pudgy Monsters: Released in 2014, these cigars are the same length of the Little Monsters and same ring gauge of the original Monsters. This collection introduced two new monsters not previously released before, Chuck and Tiff. Each sampler contains two Chuck and two Tiff cigars as well as one Pudgy size for each of the Monster Blends released from 2008 to 2013.
• Skinny Monsters: Released this year, this includes one 6 x 38 petite lancero of each of the first eight full monster releases as well as 6 x 38 versions of the Chuck and Tiff. At this year’s IPCPR each of the Skinny Monsters were made available in 25 count boxes consisting of a single blend.
• Skinny Monsters Cazadores Edition: This includes a 6 3/4 x 43 vitola of each of the first eight full monster releases as well as 6 3/4 x 43 versions of the Chuck and Tiff. This format was introduced at the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show.
• Skinny Monsters Lancero Edition: This includes a 7 1/2 x 38 lancero of each of the first eight full monster releases as well as 7 1/2 x 38 versions of the Chuck and Tiff. This format was introduced at the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show.

The grid below maps each monster / horror film character blend to the cigar that was released in each of the Monster Series collections. A blank indicates the blend was not released in that collection.

Character/Collection	Full Monsters (The +) -Annual	Little Monsters – 2012	Pudgy Monsters	Skinny Monsters	Skinny Monsters Cazadores	Skinny Monsters Lancero
Frankenstein (2008)	Frank	Frank Jr.	Frank	Frank	Frank	Frank
Dracula (2009)	Drac	Lil’ Drac	Drac	Drac	Drac	Drac
Leather Face (2010)	Face	Baby Face	Face	Face	Face	Face
The Wolfman (2011)	Wolfman	Wolfie	Wolf	Wolf	Wolf	Wolf
The Mummy (2012)	Mummy	Mini Mum	Mummy	Mummy	Mummy	Mummy
Jason Voorhees (2013)	JV13		Jason	Jason	Jason	Jason
Dr. Jekyll (2014)	Jekyll			Jekyll	Jekyll	Jekyll
Mr. Hyde (2015)	Hyde			Hyde	Hyde	Hyde
Chuck (Child’s Play)			Chuck	Chuck	Chuck	Chuck
Tiff (Child’s Play)			Tiff	Tiff	Tiff	Tiff
Freddy Krueger (2016)	Krueger

 

Without further ado, let’s break down the Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

When the original full-sized Tatuaje Jekyll was released, it was the first Tatuaje cigar to utilize the Sancti Spiritus wrapper – a wrapper made popular by Tatuaje’s sister company L’Atelier Imports. Sancti Spiritus is grown in Ecuador. The wrapper is a hybrid of Criollo and Pelo de Oro and was originally designed to be a replacement seed for Pelo de Oro. The wrapper is also designed to have a strong resistance to mold. Sancti Spiritus has been a staple leaf used on many blends from Johnson’s other company, L’Atelier Imports.

Wrapper: Sancti Spiritus (Ecuador)
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Country of Origin: Nicaragua (My Father Cigars SA)

Vitolas Available

Jekyll: 7 x 49 (Churchill)
Skinny Jekyll 6 x 38
Skinny Jekyll Cazadores: 6 3/4 x 43 (*)
Skinny Jekyll Lancero: 7 1/2 x 38 (*)

* Showcased at the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show, wider distribution coming soon

As mentioned, in addition to being a part of the Skinny Monsters sampler, the Skinny Jekyll has also been made available in 25 count boxes:

Appearance

The Sancti Spiritus wrapper of the Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll has a medium brown color to it. Depending how the light shows on the wrapper, it may give off a colorado red tint to it. There was some oil on the surface of the cigar. While there was some thin visible veins and the wrapper seams are somewhat hidden, I still found the surface of this cigar to be on the bumpy side.

The band is based on the standard “Tatuaje” scripted logo. The script font is green on an antique white background. To the left of the “Tatuaje” scripting is the text “SKINNY” in the a gothic style black font. To the right of the scripting” it says “MONSTERS” – also in black font. To the far right is a black Tatuaje “Tattoo” stamp. The band is finished with a white pinstripe across the top and bottom.

It is worth noting the band to the full-size Jekyll has more of a bright white background as opposed to the antique white found on the Skinny Jekyll.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I normally do, I went with my usual choice of a straight cut to remove the cap of the Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll. Once the cap was removed, I moved on to the pre-light draw phase. The cold draw of this cigar was quite simple – a mix of cedar and mixed fruit notes. Overall I considered the pre-light draw of this cigar to be satisfactory. At this point, I was ready to light up the Tatuaje Jekyll and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll started off with notes of wood and mixed fruit. In the background I also detected a mix of red and black pepper. The red and black pepper was also something that was prominent on the retro-hale with a little more emphasis on the red pepper.

During the first third, the mixed fruit sweetness became primary. At the same time the wood notes evolved to more of a cedar sweet-spice. The cedar notes slowly increased during this stage of the smoke. Meanwhile the pepper notes remained in the more distant background.

The second third of the Skinny Jekyll saw the cedar notes moved into the forefront. In addition, an earthy note also surfaced with the cedar. Meanwhile the fruit notes receded into the background. The pepper notes still remained subtle.

During the final third of the Skinny Jekyll, the combination of earth and cedar remained primary. The fruit sweetness morphed into more of a caramel note. There wasn’t much of an increase in the pepper as it remained grounded in the background right until the end. This is the way the cigar experience came to a close. The resulting nub was firm to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Overall the Skinny Jekyll scored very nicely when it came to burn and draw. The cigar maintained a straight burn path and had a straight burn line. The resulting ash was mostly light gray with some darker speckling mixed in. The ash wasn’t an overly firm ash, but it was not loose, nor flakey either. As for the burn rate and burn temperature, both were ideal from start to finish.

As for the draw, I found it to be on the open side and not too loose, nor too tight.  The Skinny Jekyll is also a cigar that is going to produce an ample amount of smoke.

Strength and Body

Strength-wise, I found the Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll to start out medium. During the first two thirds, I didn’t see much change in strength. Toward the start of the final third, there was a small spike in strength and it was enough to progress the Skinny Jekyll into medium to full territory.

In terms of body, the Skinny Jekyll was in the same wheelhouse as the full-sized Jekyll. I assessed the Skinny Jekyll as a medium to full-bodied smoke.

When looking at strength versus body, I found the body had the edge throughout the smoking experience.

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned at the beginning of this assessment, I found the Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll to be one of the moe enjoyable cigars in the Skinny Monsters series. On one hand, I found there was less in the way of complexity of the Skinny Jekyll compared to the full-sized Jekyll. On the other hand, I didn’t find any shortage of flavor when it came to the Skinny Jekyll. Overall, this is a cigar I would recommend to an experienced cigar enthusiast. I’d also recommend this to a novice looking to graduate to something in the medium plus range. As for myself, this cigar is one that I would smoke again. Given these are now available in 25 count boxes, it’s worthy of a purchase of one of them in my book.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Low to Medium
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: 4.0-Box Worthy
Score: 91

References

News: Tatuaje Skinny Monsters Coming Soon
Price: $85.00 (Skinny Monsters Sampler)
Source: Purchased
Stogie Geeks Podcast: Tatuaje Skinny Jekyll
Stogie Feed: Episode 201
Brand Reference: Tatuaje