[jerseyjay]

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In the spirit of celebrating 4th of July with explosives and smoke, I followed my fellow cigar smokers and decided to pull couple Tatuaje ‘M80′ samples. This powerhouse cigar is another exclusive collaboration between Pete Johnson ofTatuaje and Dave Garofalo of 2 Guys Smoke Shop. Similar to many other Tatuaje exclusives, M80 arrived in quantity of 333 boxes and sold out in a matter of days. The expectation that was set for Tatuaje M80 was: full, bold, power, spice … yes, if you are a mild connecticut aficionado, you should skip this release. Visually, this cigar along with carefully applied pigtail, or I should say long fuse, resembles its predecessor – Don Pepin Garcia ‘Firecracker.’ There are few other firecracker look-alikes in the cigar industry. I collected and photographed four of them for your viewing pleasure (left to right: Don Pepin Garcia ‘Firecracker’; Tatuaje ‘M80′; 601 ‘La Bomba’; Viaje ‘TNT’). Clearly, no longer a novelty.

Let’s take a look at the Tatuaje ‘M80′ in more details. The construction of this petite robusto is excellent. No visible seams and one not too obtrusive vein. Packed to the gills, feeling like one solid piece of handmade art. Right from the start, good amount of smoke throughout the entire experience. Couple touch-ups along the way but no negative impact on the bottom line. To my surprise, I was able to extract some sweetness on more than one occasion. Perfect complement to obvious spice and heavy ‘dark’ flavors. Speaking of dark … when I think of dark chocolate, I think of few recently smoked cigars: Oliva Master Blends 1 & Cohiba Genios. Tatuaje ‘M80′ takes dark chocolate to another level. Very heavy, full, bordering bitter, dark chocolate. Somewhere in between, slight hint of leather. Tatuaje ‘M80′ was blessed with tight and light grey ash falling in one inch chunks.

This was indeed a different experience. I faced Tatuaje ‘M80′ right after heavy dinner so I have to blame lack of expected nicotine buzz on a) full stomach or b) immune system. Nevertheless, if you enjoy full body cigars with ‘dark’ flavors, Tatuaje ‘M80′ should definitely be up your alley.