Tatuaje Black Label Torpedo | halfwheel

When I first started getting into cigars, there were a few non-Cuban cigars that were often listed as holy grails for the cigar nerds.

Pick your favorite vintage Davidoff, maybe even an AVO 22, whatever special OpusX you wanted to name, and, if you were a bit hipper, the Tatuaje Black Label from the jar. This was before the Black Label was a regular production line.

In late 2007, Tatuaje released the first batch of the Black Label Corona Gorda, first in 24-count bundles. A half year later, there was a second release, this time in black ceramic jars of 19 cigars.

The Black Label’s formal name is Private Reserve. That’s because the blend started out as a cigar made personally for Pete Johnson, Tatuaje’s founder. In fact, the bottom of the jars literally said “Pete Johnson’s Private Reserve.”

Many years ago, Johnson wrote about the inspiration for the cigar, which traces back to a trip he made to Cuba:

On a recent trip to a famous island known for historic cigar making, I spent my time in a small town enjoying the simple life. Every day was peaceful and every night was festive, with both having cigars involved throughout. My favorite cigar was not a cigar bought at the local store or factory, but a cigar that was handed to me every morning.
Mornings, after taking a shower with a bucket of water warmed with what looked like a curling iron, I would walk to the front of the house and sit on the fence to get some sun and take in the fresh air. I also took in the fact that I was miles from home and no one knew where I was. My phone didn’t work and I had no cares in the world other than trying to decide what to smoke.
My first morning on the island an older gentleman came along on his bike. This was not a motorcycle but something like an old Schwinn that he had likely been riding for decades. This gentleman was well dressed, almost dapper, and I probably appeared to him to be a strange character. My usual outfit of jeans, t-shirt, loads of silver jewelry, and an arm full of tattoos didn’t seem to faze him. He saw I was enjoying myself so that morning, and every morning after that, he would stop and give me a cigar from his shirt pocket.
This cigar was far from being a ‘pretty’ cigar but that did not bother me a bit. It was a treasured and unexpected gift that I was thrilled to be given. After smoking this cigar I realized that this was one of the best cigars I smoked on the island. Later that day in speaking with my host on this trip I came to understand that these cigars were something special to every person who carried them. They were cigars that they made for themselves. Even the guys who worked hard in the cigar factories all day would return home at night and make their private cigars. Simple cigars with flavors they personally enjoyed. Over the course of the next few days my host and I visited his friends and asked for cigars that they made. Before I left I had cigars from a few locals who all used different tobaccos from the different growing regions. They were all great but there was one that really stood out for me as special.
I decided when traveling to Nicaragua to work with the Garcia family that I would try to recreate this special cigar for myself. Together we spent quite some time working on the blend and looking at different leaves for wrapper. The marbled toothy wrapper was perfect for this cigar, rustic looking but with tons of aroma. After smoking the first sample, I was immediately brought back to that island relaxing on a fence, enjoying life, smoking a great cigar. A great cigar that will always in my mind represent the place, the time, and the experience of the purity of the simple life. This cigar may be considered ugly by some but inside that surface roughness it contains such rich flavor and aroma.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. This is a tribute to that cigar.

In its early years, the Black Label was offered in just about every format other than as a regular production release. There was the Corona Gorda, sold in limited edition bundles or jars. A toro was once made to raise money for the then-relatively new Cigar Rights of America. If you went to select Tatuaje events, you might be able to get a three-pack of robustos.

In fact, prior to 2011, the only real chance you had of walking into a store and seeing the Black Label for sale was via the 2009 release of the Black Label Tubo, a 6 1/8 x 52 torpedo that was sold in metal tubes. While limited, the production run of nearly 50,000 cigars gave consumers a much greater chance of getting the cigar.

By 2011, the Black Label Petite Lancero was introduced—first as a store exclusive for Tobacco Grove in Minnesota, and then as a regular production release nationwide—and in 2016, Tatuaje added four more regular production vitolas.

This year, as the Black Label line approaches its 20th birthday, Tatuaje added two more regular production cigars that carry a special 20th anniversary secondary band.

Interestingly, both of the new additions are box-pressed versions of previous vitolas: one, a box-pressed version of the aforementioned torpedo, the other a pressed version of the robusto with its unique cap.

• Cigar Reviewed: Tatuaje Black Label Private Reserve Torpedo
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Criollo)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 1/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Shape: Pressed
• MSRP: $13 (Box of 20, $260)
• Release Date: July 2026
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The wrappers used on the three cigars are super pretty. They have more red tones than I recall from other Black Labels, though there’s also plenty of dark spots mixed in, at times giving the brown color a purple look. Veins are mostly well-integrated, though there’s a particular one on the third cigar that has me inspecting closer to make sure a knife didn’t slice through the wrapper, which it did not. I think the box press, torpedo cap and compact covered foot all work extremely well to make this cigar look fantastic. As great as all that is, I’m even more struck by how supple the wrapper is, another quality I don’t really recall from other vitolas. The aromas from the wrappers share some similarities but are noticeably different. The first is medium-plus with red pepper and gravel over some milk chocolate, the second is more muted with barnyard and cocoa at a medium, the third is medium-full with much more chocolate and some generic potato chips. The covered feet are similar, with the second cigar being noticeably more muted. Cold draws are consistently medium-full with semi-sweet chocolate the leading flavor on each. The first cigar is smoother, with accents of leather and vanilla; the second has some Cap’n Crunch cereal flavors; and the third adds some acidity.

In terms of the lists of flavors, the three cigars start quite similarly: chocolate, minerals, woods, red pepper, earth, pencil lead, and sugar. However, the first two Tatuaje Black Label Private Reserve Torpedo start with a remarkably thin body, whereas the third cigar has a thickness closer to how I remember the blend. The first two cigars are quite dry with toastiness and woods over some generic bread—at times, like a buttered pita bread—along with grass and white pepper. The third cigar has those flavors, but with some mud, caramel, pound cake, and a lot more body. Each cigar finishes quite dry, with flavors ranging from acorns, bread and earth, and each has a touch of sweetness.  Retrohales continue the story of two profiles as the first two lean into dry woodiness and minerals with secondary notes of black pepper, kiwi sweetness and some creaminess. By contrast, the third has a pear sweetness that hits the palate before a fuller earthy mineral flavor emerges. Flavor is consistently full, body is barely medium for the first two cigars, but medium-full for the third, and strength is varying levels of medium, not close to medium-full. The ash formation is pretty uneven, but most of the time, consistently rotating the cigar in the ashtray leads to a self-correction. The second cigar requires a touch-up. The draws are a tad open, though understandable given the box press.

The first two cigars get much toastier, though fortunately, there are other new flavors like nuttiness and mint in the first, while the second cigar has an interesting sweet and salty mixture that accents some of the charcoal elements quite well. The third Black Label Torpedo remains much more interesting. At the beginning of this section, there’s a heavy dose of vanilla, though it eventually gets toastier, too. It retains most of the flavors from the first third, though the spatial arrangement has been rearranged. There’s hardly any new flavors during the finishes. Retrohales for the first two cigars have gotten a bit thicker with flavors of bread and sweet creaminess. The third cigar has creaminess, pink salt, leather and some green olives. Flavor continues to be full, body is thin for the first two cigars but medium-full for the third, and strength remains right around medium. Construction remains as it has been, with uneven but generally self-correcting burn lines; the third cigar is the only one that needs any touch-ups in this section.

By the start of the final third, the differences between the cigars—at least in the mouth—have mostly gone away. Each cigar is dry with toastiness leading earth, creaminess, saltiness and woodiness. The largest variance is that the second cigar has some red pepper, whereas the other two cigars do not. Retrohales are the only area where my notes look different, though each has plenty of toastiness. The first cigar has a sour bread and black pepper combination, the second cigar’s retrohale is led by burnt earth over a normal bread flavor and a slight dose of sugar, while the third cigar has black olive and a spicy creaminess that is almost like a paprika schmear. All three cigars finish much more normally with a classic black pepper and toasty combination. Flavor is full, body is between mild-medium and medium-plus, with the third cigar being the thickest, while strength is medium or medium-plus. Construction is fine in the final third with no need for any touch-ups. The only real change is that the combustion rate increased.

Final Notes

• Without seeing the vitola-by-vitola shot, I didn’t realize just how much darker these wrappers are compared to previous Black Label releases. This seems to be a bit of a trend as the four 2016 releases we have were noticeably darker than the previous cigars, though the two most recent have really taken that to a different level.
• Regardless, I cannot stress how pretty the wrappers look in person. The pictures hide some of the complexion I can see with my eyes.
• I try to go into most reviews with as few preconceived notions about a cigar as possible, but I’ve copied and pasted Johnson’s story about how the Black Label came to be enough that I cannot forget it. For the most part, I’ve found the cigars to have the rustic elements he wrote about, while also delivering complexity and nuance that have put this blend in the upper echelon of modern cigars.
• When smoking the first two cigars, I was alarmed by the lack of body. The third cigar was more along the lines of what I was expecting, though I still wish it were closer to full body.
• Luke Thomas, my favorite mixed martial arts media member, often talks about how the most difficult thing is to defend a UFC belt for multiple years, arguing that it’s far easier to win belts in two different weight classes. I think that logic also probably applies to cigars. I imagine it’s a lot more difficult to keep a great blend like Black Label tasting the same for a decade than it is to make a second or third great blend. This website’s focus on new products means we rarely look at that challenge.
• Tatuaje is using a similar secondary band for two new Havana VI releases. The Havana VI line was introduced in 2006.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.

• Tatuaje lists the cigars as 6 1/8 x 52 torpedos. Above are the measurements I found for the three cigars smoked for this review.
• Final smoking time was a pretty quick two hours and 15 minutes on average. I think the pace of combustion increased in a linear manner.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigars Daily, Corona Cigar Co. and Small Batch Cigar carry the Tatuaje Black Label Torpedo.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. Previously, I started TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors blogs of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry since 2010, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. Beyond writing, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff from weighing cigars to coordinating the tech. Outside of work, I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.