Tatuaje Corojo Staff Review
I’m smoking the newest small-batch cigar from Tatuaje, the Corojo T110, which is handcrafted in a 4.375-by-52 Robusto. Tatuaje brand owner Pete Johnson has a deep catalog of limited-edition blends that he’s produced as seasonal or retail exclusives over the years. He often revisits these cigars and re-blends them with different wrapper varietals to taste how different wrappers change the cigar’s original profile.
For the Corojo series, Pete reworked three unique blends with a Corojo wrapper: Avion 13 from the Fausto line, Cohete from the original Brown Label, and the T110 I’m smoking today. The “T” stands for “thermonuclear” and 110 refers to the cigar’s length in millimeters. The cigars are handcrafted at the My Father factory in Estelí, and they feature a secondary band indicating the Corojo wrapper leaf. Only 4,000 boxes of 25 cigars were produced.
Tatuaje Corojo T110 is a powerful smoke, blended with a reddish-brown Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper, dual Nicaraguan binders, and Nicaraguan long-fillers at the center, all grown by Pepin and Jaime Garcia. Much of the cigar is blended from Ligero tobacco, which provides more strength than other leaf primings on a tobacco plant. Ligero grows near the top of the plant, where sunlight imparts greater oil and flavor in the veins of the leaf.
In the tradition of Tatuaje cigars, Corojo T1100 is visually immaculate when I chose one from a fresh box. The cigar is perfectly firm and shows little tooth across the oily, reddish wrapper leaf. Intense aromas of cinnamon, hay, leather, and dried fruit emanate with a potent spice at the foot of the cigar. The cold draw unleashes pronounced notes of earth and dried fruit, with less spice than I anticipate, after I clip the cap with my guillotine and pull air through the cigar before firing it up.
Upon toasting the foot, robust tasting notes of dark chocolate and black pepper mingle with hints of mesquite. The finish is intense and charry when I allow the smoke to resonate on my palate after each draw. Undertones of leather and moss emerge as the cigar progresses. The cigar is particularly peppery in the retrohale when I push the smoke out through my nasal cavity. I pick up hints of espresso bean and roasted nuts.
I recommend smoking this dense and spicy blend slowly. Oily notes of espresso come into focus in the second half. Tatuaje Corojo T110 gives way to a creamy texture that coats my palate evenly, as the cigar’s earthy taste recedes. The short, slightly thick shape offers complex transitions of flavor from where the cigar began.
The third phase of the cigar delivers a strong and satisfying flavor with an ideal balance of maltiness and pepper. Tatuaje Corojo T110 burns slowly but evenly from start to finish, requiring no touch-ups. It leaves a firm white and gray ash at the foot. For a smaller smoke, the T110 packs a significant punch with a Corojo wrapper and lasts close to an hour. Grab a few of these while we’ve got them in stock and savor another beefy Cubanesque gem from Pete Johnson and the Garcia family today.
