The Sextooth by Tatuaje

You guys were all very good today, so you get one more review!  But let's be honest, you could be shitheads and I'd post another to punish you. 😂 So either way...

The name SexTooth makes me think of two very different things. The first, if you're a fan of, "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia,"  is it makes me think of Maureen Ponderosa with her dead tooth and the scene where Dennis confronts her at her wedding and realizes that she's been augmented and they end up having sex.  The second thing I think of is the Spinal Tap song, "Sex Farm." 😅 But this is neither and you're stuck with me. 😁

BRAND / CO:  Tatuaje
CIGAR:  SexTooth (Vampire)
VITOLA:  Belicoso - 5" x 58
STRENGTH:  Medium
WRAPPER:  Ecuadorian Habano, Natural
BINDER:  Nicaragua
FILLER:  Nicaragua
ORIGIN:  Nicaragua, My Father Cigars S.A.

APPEARANCE & CONSTRUCTION:   Average
So, we have a medium brown Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with light sheen but medium mottling.  There's a lot of veins in the wrapper, but you get some contrasting lightness around the veins giving it an older leather look.  For a cigar named SexTooth, I am disappointed that the rapper isn't toothy.  The seams are quite visible as this is a thicker wrapper, but I'm not seeing any edge lift.  The cigar is quite firm with no give when it's squeezed. It's Tatuaje which means it's made at the My Father factory and as such I expect solid construction here.   The label is simple and thin, like many others Tatuaje cigars, with red accents over a black background.  But at least the font looks aggressive and it's slightly angled! 😅

DRAW & BURN:   Average / Good
The draw is completely open with no resistance.  Maybe you like that, but to me you need just a little drag.  The burn starts beautifully but quickly gets uneven side to side.  It's flat, but one side of the cigar is racing ahead.  The ash is a very light with narrow cracks.  There's a little bit of flakiness but it's holding together on the first third.  This cigar generates huge amounts of smoke on each draw too, total smoke bomb!  The burn self corrects and improves in the second third, but it never gets back to dead even.

FLAVOR PROFILE:   Average
Immediate charred wood, pepper and coffee off the first draw.  Then a big hit of very dry earth.  This is starting off with a good mix of dark and spicy flavors.  It's a little bit mesquite BBQ, but it's lacking the savoriness you would really want, and it's starting off too dry.  A dry coffee rub would actually be more accurate because the coffee flavors are picking up.  There's a moderate, honey-like sweetness, but it's just above mild.  At the end of the first inch, I'm getting some dark chocolate baking cocoa, but it's just compounding that dry, powdery aspect to the blend.

Pepper increases in the second third.  It's strong but not quite a pepper bomb, but it might be enough to burn your sinuses if you like to retrohale.  That charred oak flavor is still the big driver with a lot of coffee and some harsher leather notes.  In the final third, it's disappointing because this one starts to fall really flat as well.  Pepper pulls back coffee also pulls back leaving a mostly charred, woody, gritty and dry earth mix of flavors.  This is not sexy, but it is toothy. 

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:   Average
Compared to the Crowned Heads Thunderkiss (notable because it’s similarly budget priced, released around the same time, and sports a similar blend) this is a budget cigar that reminds you it's a budget cigar, and it's the more expensive of the two.  Is it bad? No, but it's not great either and there are clear better options.  If dry charred wood, coffee, and pepper are your go-to combination then this might be your new budget banger, but this one strikes me as more of a pricy yardgar than anything else.   Spend the extra couple bucks and grab the Surrogates or one of Tatuaje’s many far better blends.

Purchase Singles or by the Box HERE

Reviewed by Sean McCloskey of The Collective