Tatuaje Cojonu 2018

Description

The Tatuaje Cojonu 2018 is a genuine long-lost release — a cigar Pete Johnson quietly held back for five extra years before finally letting it ship.

Construction & Origin

Tatuaje’s Cojonu series launched in 2003, drawing its name from the Cuban slang “cojonudo” — roughly, “ballsy” — a nod to the line’s strength within Johnson’s Brown Label collection. The series originally aimed for a new release every three years, but the 2018 edition never arrived on schedule. Johnson kept it back to age further, and it wasn’t confirmed and shipped until May 2023 — five years after its name would suggest. This 5⅝ x 54 soft box-pressed robusto extra uses an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper made from higher-priming leaves over a Nicaraguan dual binder and potent, ligero-loaded Nicaraguan filler, hand-rolled at My Father Cigars S.A. in Nicaragua.

Flavor Profile

Medium-full to full-bodied and genuinely potent, reviewers describe confectionery chocolate and rich molasses on the cold draw, developing into sweetness, black pepper, coffee, and floral notes as it burns. The heavy ligero content gives this cigar real strength — reviewers consistently note it lives up to the “ballsy” name, delivering a stronger nicotine kick and bolder overall profile than most of Tatuaje’s Brown Label lineup.

Why It’s Sought After

Few releases carry a backstory quite like this one — a cigar that sat aging for half a decade before finally reaching the market, exactly as Pete Johnson intended. For Tatuaje collectors who track the Cojonu line’s irregular release schedule, the 2018 represents a genuinely long-awaited addition, and its extra years of aging set it apart from a standard on-schedule release.