Today's Smoke 2025

Monster Smash Bride

Full throttle from the first puff with a big blast of pepper. Once that settles down to staying mainly in the retro, a charred meaty flavor takes center stage, with some prune in there as well. Vinegary BBQ sauce and oak in the middle third. Charred wood, earth, minerality in the final third.

Very open draw and soft on one side, and so burned fast but otherwise fine. Thick clouds of smoke on every puff. Very strong flavors, and good ones for the most part, though the final third got a bit too minerally without quite turning straight up bitter. Still in the top half of the set, I'd say.

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‘03 Partagas Serie du Connaisseur #2 (6 1/2 X 38) - was on the vHerf so didn’t take any notes. Suffice to say it was damn good. Classic old school Partagas flavors that I only occasionally find in Lusi, P2 & 898 of the current production vitolas. Along with the Charlottes & Lonsdales the 3 PSdCs are the best Partagas ever produced at least for my taste. All long gone now 😒

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Tatuaje Monster Smash Creature

A little more of an in depth review since this blend is such a mystery.

Great construction on this final cigar of the set. Solid feel, just the right bit of resistance in the draw, slow burn.
Mottled chocolate brown wrapper, with a nice oily shine.
Barnyard and cedar aroma.
Stronger hay aroma on the foot.
Cold draw is cookies and cream.
First third: Spice and cocoa with some underlying sweetness. A bit of tanginess that reminds me of a Sumatra wrapper. Strong but not overpowering pepper on retro.
Middle third: cocoa and charred wood, with a bit of sweetness and tanginess. The retro is now mostly charred wood with some pepper at the very end.
Final third: Tanginess comes to the fore with the charred wood, a bit of sweetness still in the background which disappears toward the nub. Same flavors on the retro and keeping the peppery finish.

Overall an above average stick. The tangy flavor was a bit much at times, but other than that it was quite good.

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Monster Smash final thoughts:

I won't try to rank all of them, particularly with the construction issues I had on several cigars, but my favorites and the ones I marked down to buy again sometime were the Jason, Michael, Chuck, Bride, and Creature, and in about that order I think. The Chuck might edge ahead of the Michael with a better example than mine was.

The big surprise for me was the construction problems. Out of 14 cigars, 3 had significant tunnels, one of which was unsmokeable, and another one had a light bunch and burned fast as a result (but was otherwise pretty decent).

There were another three at the start that canoed a fair bit in the final third, but that may have been because I was leaving them in the box, laid open in my humidor, so the tops may have been drier than the bottoms. I didn't notice this as much once I removed them all from the box so I think that was it, but after the later issues I can't help but wonder a little.

It was fun to smoke all the different blends, and it did reinforce my preferences for wrapper types (not a fan of Sumatra and Connecticut for the most part). Overall, just as you'd expect, I liked the cigars that align with my preferences and didn't like those that don't. No big surprises or revelations there.
 
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