MEGA Review: Ginger (Tatuaje La Casita Criolla Corona)

[buzz]

About the cigar:
Brand:	Tatuaje	Color:	Maduro
Name:	La Casita Criolla	Wrapper:	USA
Country:	Nicaragua	Binder:	USA
Type:	Corona	Filler:	USA
Size:	5.125'' x 42	Price:	$ 4.93
Strength:	Medium	Website:	www.tatuajecigars.com

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Information from Cigars International:

Introducing La Casita Criolla, Pete Johnson's latest endeavor. A reflection of his ingenuity, the La Casita is a cigar made exclusively with Connecticut broadleaf tobaccos. You heard correct - the filler, binder, and wrapper are all premium broadleaf, and the entire line is manufactured in Don Pepin's prestigious My Father factory in Nicaragua. Traditionally, broadleaf is too expensive to use for an entire cigar. As a result, most manufacturers utilize the leaf as a wrapper or binder - where its flavorful characteristics bring balance and character to a cigar. Sparing no expense, Pete Johnson packed the finest broadleaf tobaccos into one solitary blend. The end result is flavor bomb that delivers a smooth, rich, and medium-bodied experience. This unique blend truly shines as La Casita produces a slow burn bringing forth plentiful notes of cedar, nuts, cocoa and syrupy sweetness. Never bitter, and exceedingly smooth, Casita might be the most flavorful Tatuaje to date.

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General:	Experience	Date Smoked	Where Smoked	Duration	Smoked
badwhale	Amateur	4/4	Basement	1 hour	Nubbed it
buzz	Newbie	4/5	Backyard	1 hour	Nubbed it
craig	Newbie	4/5	Here	1 hour	Nubbed it
heftysmokes	Amateur	4/8	Front yard	1 hour	Nubbed it
Irish79	Newbie	4/8	Deck	1 hour	Most of it
kevin7	Been around	4/6	Patio	45 minutes	Most of it
logan37	Amateur	4/8	Front porch	1 hour	Nubbed it
Mangyrat	Amateur	4/6	In my shop	45 minutes	Nubbed it
Mizicke5273	Amateur	4/5	Basement	1 hour	Most of it
mrtr33	Newbie	4/6	Back patio	1 hour	Most of it
TheGreekTitan	Newbie	4/5	My office	1.25 hours	Nubbed it
VancouverMark	Newbie	3/29	Walking the dog	1.25 hours	Most of it

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Other Info:	Food	Drink	Entertainment
badwhale	N/A	Bell's Porter	N/A
buzz	N/A	Nimbus Oatmeal Stout	The Quiet Man
craig	Never	Always	Sometimes
heftysmokes	Might have been a good idea	The Don! Don Julio Anejo	The Masters
Irish79	Grilling Supper	Water	Birds chirping, kids playing and distant traffic.
kevin7	Meat lovers pizza	Heaven Hill 100 proof bourbon	Voices in my head
logan37	N/A	Water	Pandora radio
Mangyrat	N/A	Coffee	N/A
Mizicke5273	N/A	Cragganmore and a Diet Coke	George of the Jungle
mrtr33	N/A	Elysian Bete Blanche Tripel	Dresden Dolls
TheGreekTitan	N/A	High Quality H2O	Dire Straits Pandora

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Miscellaneous:
Maduro-oscuro shade wrapper. Medium veiny with a pretzel finish to wrapper. Musky tobacco scent. Not much pre light flavor.	Out back watering our new lemon tree and watching the Quiet Man on the laptop.
Davidoffs are for snobs.	Pretty nice day outside for smoking a cigar.
Drying out my laptop that my wife spilled tea on.	Great day for a great smoke. Sunny, 78 deg. with a slight breeze. Maybe I'll go play the back 9 when I'm done here.

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[buzz]

Appearance:	Poor	Fair	Good	Outstanding	Perfect
badwhale			X
buzz			X
craig			X
heftysmokes			X
Irish79			X
kevin7			X
logan37			X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273				X
mrtr33			X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark				X

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Construction:	Poor	Fair	Good	Outstanding	Perfect
badwhale			X
buzz			X
craig			X
heftysmokes			X
Irish79			X
kevin7			X
logan37			X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273				X
mrtr33			X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark				X

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Burn:	Very Uneven	Uneven	Even	Perfect
badwhale			X
buzz			X
craig			X
heftysmokes			X
Irish79			X
kevin7		X
logan37				X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273		X
mrtr33				X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark		X

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Draw:	Too East	Easy	Perfect	Tight	Too Tight
badwhale		X
buzz			X
craig			X
heftysmokes			X
Irish79				X
kevin7			X
logan37		X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273			X
mrtr33			X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark				X

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[buzz]

Ash Color:	Black	Dark Gray	Gray	Light Gray	White
badwhale					X
buzz				X
craig					X
heftysmokes				X
Irish79			X
kevin7				X
logan37					X
Mangyrat		X
Mizicke5273					X
mrtr33					X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark			X

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Ash Structure:	Flaky	Typical	Solid
badwhale			X
buzz		X
craig		X
heftysmokes	X
Irish79	X
kevin7		X
logan37	X
Mangyrat		X
Mizicke5273		X
mrtr33			X
TheGreekTitan		X
VancouverMark		X

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Ash Length:	< 1 inch	1 inch	1-1/2 inch	2 inch	> 2 inch
badwhale	X
buzz		X
craig		X
heftysmokes		X
Irish79	X
kevin7	X
logan37	X
Mangyrat	X
Mizicke5273	X
mrtr33			X
TheGreekTitan		X
VancouverMark		X

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Aroma:	Horrid	Poor	Fair	Good	Great
badwhale				X
buzz				X
craig				X
heftysmokes					X
Irish79				X
kevin7			X
logan37				X
Mangyrat				X
Mizicke5273			X
mrtr33					X
TheGreekTitan				X
VancouverMark			X

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[buzz]

Strength:	Mild	Mild-Med	Medium	Med-Full	Full
badwhale				X
buzz			X
craig			X
heftysmokes		X
Irish79				X
kevin7				X
logan37				X
Mangyrat				X
Mizicke5273				X
mrtr33		X
TheGreekTitan					X
VancouverMark			X

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Prelight Taste:
Not much prelight flavor.	Slight pepper, cedar, muted spiciness.
Pepper, then leather. I want to say I've smoked this before...saying that, I'm sure I've never smoked this before.	I'm looking forward to this one, as the vitola is one that I normally enjoy.
None really.	Pepper.
None. Absolutely nothing. Wrapper looks to be Oscuro.	I actually get a lot of spice out of this. The draw is absolutely perfect.
Not a whole lot of flavor here for me. Very little aroma from the foot as well.	Cedary pre-light. Sweet tobacco taste, grassy as well.

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Taste 1st Third:
Bitter oily blast right out the gate. Backed off now but still oily, heavy oil and leather twang with a mint like effect. Strong retrohale.	Perfect draw, nice amount of smoke, slight pepper spice and maybe some sweetness to it too.
Some cherry.	This is an ugly little cigar...big nasty vein sunning the length. What it is lacking in looks it is more than making up for in goodness. Clipped easily, perfect draw. Chocolate and leather dominate.
Some spice - leading me to think Nic. Cut easily. Not producing a plethora of smoke.	Started out harsh.
Tons of spice right off. Earthy, Leathery flavor. Huge bite of spice on finish.	I don't know if it was the coffee i was drinking or the cigar but it had a hint of coffee with pepper on the exhale.
This cigar started out with a very earthy taste with some strong pepper as well. The burn became uneven; which persisted throughout the duration. This cigar tastes familiar.	First third, and I'm very impressed with how 'smooth' this smoke is. There's no harshness at all, and just a tint of spice of some kind, but not so overwhelming as to trump the rest of the flavors in the cigar.
Peppery - Spicy. Woodsy maybe? Difficult to describe, but I like it. Ash fell off suddenly on my desk right at the 1'' mark.	Lot's of cedar and hay. Struggling to get a good draw. Developing some leather taste.

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[buzz]

Taste 2nd Third:
Earthy now with the major oil twinge, but more balanced. The minty oil mix is leading me down the DR path. This is a full body cigar with full flavor.	Spice died down but still a good taste, ash seems tight but doesn't hold long, straight burn.
A good cigar.	Not much change, very nice. I hope this is cheap. I'll be buying if it is.
It evened out, not as hot and acrid.	Grassy tones. Spice mellowed out a bit.
Consistent with how it started out (hint of coffee with pepper on the exhale).	The earthy taste began to subside a bit and a woody taste has appeared at the back of my throat on the exhale. Though as the 2nd third wore on, the taste started to fade.
Around the halfway point, this cigar is really getting good. Extraordinarily smooth, it's holding a razors-edge burn and holding that ash for dear life. Lots of smoke, no problems at all with the draw, this is great.	Spice is mellowing just a bit, but still damn good. Nice tingle in my nose and at the tip of my tongue.
Earthy and grassy now. Leather is still the dominant flavour. Had to do some purging. Walking while smoking this cigar was not a good choice.

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Taste 3rd Third:
Wicked. This is fuckin' ligero! Minty full power oil. Dense oily aftertaste. It's bitter like a really strong black coffee.	Nubbed it, good cigar, not great but worth having again. Not sure why, but while smoking it I kept thinking that a cabernet would go nicely with the cigar. Maybe I was just in the mood for wine.
Good, but not memorable.	Nice. Full, rich smoke. Great, heavy mouth feel. Burn got a little crooked but didn't effect anything negatively.
Stayed pretty enjoyable after the nasty start.	Spice came back in full force. Straight tobacco with that big spicy bite on the finish.
Slightly bitter and nice peppery hints.	Nothing at this point. No taste; just air. I tried purging and letting the cigar rest a bit longer. But nothing brought the flavor back.
All of a sudden, I get a little bit of a run on one side. But I'm a total newb, so I'm probably smoking it too fast or something. The flavor is still great, lots of smoke, and the cigar never loses that solid feel. Good stuff.	Purged it after it began to get a slightly acrid taste. Glad I did! Right back to the spiciness I like. The profile for me did not change much throughout this smoke...Which is a good thing.
Bit of a tingle at the back of the mouth. Not particularly peppery though. Leather and cedar still dominant flavours, but hay and grass are still lingering as well.

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[buzz]

Grading:	1st Third	2nd Third	3rd Third	Overall
badwhale	B+	A-	A-	B+
buzz	A	B	B	B+
craig	B	B	B	B
heftysmokes	A	B+	A-	A-
Irish79	A	-	-	A
kevin7	C+	B+	B+	B
logan37	A	A-	A	A
Mangyrat	A-	A-	B+	A-
Mizicke5273	B+	B	D	C
mrtr33	A-	A-	B+	A-
TheGreekTitan	A-	A-	A-	A-
VancouverMark	C	C	C	C
Average	B+	B+	B	B+

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Thoughts:	Smoke Again	Buy a Box	Recommend
badwhale	Yes	Maybe	Maybe
buzz	Yes	Maybe	Yes
craig	Yes	Maybe	Yes
heftysmokes	Yes	Maybe	Yes
Irish79	Yes	Probably not	Yes
kevin7	Yes	Probably not	Maybe
logan37	Yes	Maybe	Yes
Mangyrat	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mizicke5273	Probably not	Definitely not	Probably not
mrtr33	Definitely	Maybe	Maybe
TheGreekTitan	Definitely	Maybe	Yes
VancouverMark	Probably not	Definitely not	Probably not

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Last Words:
I think this is a LFD L200 Oscuro / Maduro whatever.	I posted my review before reading anyone else's this time. I liked this cigar and will try it again for sure. There was a sort of sweetness in the background and that initial spice at the beginning was great.
Good maddie.	Tequila drunk on Easter...better put that on the Entrance To Hell Resume'.
It to me had that Dominican ''bite'' that almost every Dominican cigar has.	Tatuaje La Casita Criolla H.C.B. I put USA since it would be a Conn. broad leaf puro, if I'm right...Last MINUTE!!
I may be totally wrong on this cigar but it reminded me of a San Cristobal.	This cigar started off to a good start and settled into a nice flavor profile by the 2nd third. But by the final third, it became disappointing and lackluster.
This cigar didn't have a lot of crazy profile flavors. It's construction, while solid when squeezed, had kind of a rougher look/feel to it. There wasn't anything wrong or bad with it, but it did look like not as nice and smooth as some other higher-end smokes. I enjoyed the smoking experience. It provided a consistent flavor, but wasn't boring, as there were hints of spice throughout. I loved that it burned so evenly during the whole cigar. Perfect size. Perfect smoking time. I really enjoyed this cigar.	I really liked Ginger a lot. Nothing overwhelming, but still a lot of flavor and aroma.
I feel my lackluster experience with this cigar has more to do with the fact I was out and about walking rather than enjoying it while sitting around. LFD L200?

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