Leasons learned from the Month of Monsters

[DogRockets]

October has recently passed us by. While October is known for many things, like Halloween and my Cincinnati Bengals being undefeated, it is also known for the annual release of Tatuaje's Monster series. I read a thread elsewhere called Month of the Monsters to celebrate this release and the poster got the thread started by a very simple but thought provocing line - "Bust out them Monsters, boys!".

A year ago I had never even heard of Tatuaje (before my life on cigar forums) let alone the Monster series. I bought 3 full size earlier this year from @jp1979 to try them out (Jekyll, Jason, Mummy) and I was instantly hooked. I loved those 3 smokes. I went on an all-out search for Monsters. Any and all Monsters. Full-size, Pudgy, or Little. I was able to pick up some of everything with the exception of any full-size Frank. But due to the limited nature of these cigars, how much effort I spent finding them, and frankly how much these things costs, I was finding myself to be timid about actually smoking them. Then that thread kicks me in the butt and says to bust them out.

So I set out on a journey to actually smoke the cigars I had been buying. In my humble opinion (learned through this process), cigars are meant to be smoked, not collected or hoarding. I won't say I was exactly collecting or hoarding my Monsters, but I certainly wasn't smoking very many of them. Many thanks to 3/5King for impacting me in a huge way without even knowing it. Thank you sir!

I decided I wanted to smoke 31 Monsters during the month of October, the #MonthofMonsters. I ended up smoking 32 during October. Some full-size, some Pudgy, some Little. It was interesting to be smoking different versions of the same cigars that had been aged different lengths of time. I think I'll do a series of posts inside this thread with some lessons learned and thoughts on the Monsters as I compared and contrasted them.

To start with, I'll discuss my experience with the Full-Size Monsters. During October I smoked at least one full size Drac, Face, Wolf, Mummy, Jason and Jekyll. I didn't have any full-size Frank so I didn't smoke one and while I meant to smoke a Hyde on Halloween evening my plans fell through. Here is my first observation about the full-size Monsters - not sure if this will be controversial or not. For me it was ground breaking and somewhat freeing as it relates to future purchases of them.

Observation: The full-size Drac, Face and Wolf (for me) aren't worth smoking. Flat out, I didn't enjoy them. They weren't very good. Now, I'm not saying they weren't good at one point in time. Matter of fact, Face is my favorite Pudgy and Drac is my favorite Little. But time has not treated these full-size versions well. The flavors were muted. It was disappointing to say the least. Now, if you happen to like these full-size smokes now, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying they didn't do it for me. Especially when to obtain a full size Drac it's about $30, Face $25, and Wolf $20. Matter of fact, I ended up selling my left over full-size Drac, Face and Wolf after October was over.

If I had to rank the full size Monsters as of today I'd say:

1. Jason (far and away my favorite full size)
2. Mummy
3. Jekyll
4. Face
5. Drac
6. Wolf

Note: I haven't smoked the Frank and don't know where it'd fit. Also, I haven't gotten around to smoking a Hyde yet but I'm hearing/reading good things about it so far. Most people seem to think it's better than the Jekyll.

To me the full-size monsters are interesting. They are very long, so you need at least 1 hour 45 minutes to smoke, so for me it doesn't make a lot of sense to keep a huge amount on hand anyway of the older ones (Jason, Mummy). However based on my existing inventory, I believe the only full-size I'd personally consider buying in the future is the Jason. I've got enough of the Jekyll and Hyde to last for a while. I enjoy the Mummy a lot but this makes me wonder if I should smoke all of my full-size Mummy now while I know I like them. Smoke them before they turn boring like Drac, Face and Wolf.

Anyway, I'll post some other thoughts in this thread over this month. The #MonthofMonsters was a lot of fun and heck even earned me a badge here! And I'm glad my cigars got enjoyed for their ultimate purpose - to be smoked!

[jhedrick83]

Awesome post and an impressive accomplishment!

[RenoH414]

Awesome thread and post. I'm gonna keep following this. For me personally, the full size are just to large and take more time than I want to dedicate at one sitting. I'm more of a pudgy and little monster fan. I do look forward to reading your findings though. I watched through Oct as you and a couple others were burn'n them up...

Reno

[Rocket Scientologist]

So were you smoking 1 every day during October, or were there days that you smoked several?

Cause if you were able to smoke a cigar every day for a month, I'd be impressed. I'm lucky if I can smoke 1 or 2 a week.

[defetis]

This thread is very interesting. One thing you do have to take into account is the face and wolf are 1 and 2 years older in fullsize than they are in the little box. and even older in the pudgy obviously. Everything ages differently. I will be interested to see how much more you like the wolf and face in little and pudgy size( very different from one marca to the other)

[DogRockets]

So were you smoking 1 every day during October, or were there days that you smoked several?

Cause if you were able to smoke a cigar every day for a month, I'd be impressed. I'm lucky if I can smoke 1 or 2 a week.

Not 1 a day for me. If I remember correctly, I didn't start until October 2nd or 3rd. Some days would have 1, some none. A few days I was able to have 2 or 3 in a day.

[RenoH414]

DogRockets inspired....lol. Burnin a pudgy wolf.

Reno

[jhedrick83]

For those who didn't notice, @Nature made an award for this feat and Jeremy is the first recipient. Anyone else who can pull it off, go for it there's an award for it now.

[Old Smokey]

Very cool thread!

[AndyCAYP]

Interesting. Face was my favorite by far (considering I smoked about six boxes worth) but I ran out and haven't had one in probably 18 months.

All I know is that I thought they were phenomenal, and it was taking me over 3 hours to smoke them so it was always a committment.