Tatuaje The Mummy Redux 5

Ask cigar retailers to name the top three most successful limited edition series in the past two decades, and one series will inevitably be mentioned over and over again: Tatuaje’s Monster Series.

The Monster Series debuted in 2008 with a cigar called The Frank, which came packaged in boxes designed to resemble coffins and featured branding inspired by the Frankenstein character from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. The next year, Tatuaje released The Drac, inspired by the legend of Dracula. In total, the company released 13 full-sized Monster Series cigars, each inspired by a different monster character.

In 2019, the final full-sized Monster was released, and in 2021, the company began revisiting the original Monster Series with these redux releases, which see the company reproduce the original cigar in the same original vitolas. The 5 in the name implies that this is the fifth release for the Monster Redux Series.

As with the original The Mummy, which came out in 2014, the newest release is a 7 1/2 x 47 Nicaraguan puro, highlighted by a criollo wrapper. In describing the original cigar’s blend, Pete Johnson, Tatuaje’s founder, described it as a cleaner version of the Tatuaje Black Label, with the larger size also altering the flavor slightly. The cigars were made at My Father Cigars S.A. in Estelí, Nicaragua.

Like The Wolfman Redux 4 last year, Tatuaje produced 5,000 boxes of 13 The Mummy Redux 5 for a total of 65,000 cigars. However, there are three different box versions:

• 666 boxes are numbered 1-666 and feature a gold funeral mask on a gray painted exterior (pictured above)
• 34 boxes are numbered “XX”, these will not be sold and are reserved for events and Tatuaje’s private use
• 4,300 boxes are unnumbered; these boxes are white

The sarcophagus-inspired boxes feature a familiar rendering of a mummified Egyptian body. Inside each box is a single cigar in the middle of the bundle that is completely wrapped in tissue paper, another nod to the cigar’s name, which comes from the 1932 film The Mummy.

Pricing is set at $13 per cigar and $169 per box, regardless of whether the cigar box is numbered.

Through the years, Tatuaje has created smaller versions of the different Monster blends that have been released in samplers, meaning that this is the 100th different commercial release for the larger Monster Series family and the 10th version of The Mummy.

• Tatuaje Mini Mum (5 3/4 x 42) — June 2012 — 10,000 Samplers of 2 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)
• Tatuaje The Mummy (7 3/4 x 47) — October 2012 — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 3,100 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (39,658 Total Cigars)
• Tatuaje Mummy (5 3/4 x 47) — June 2014 — 20,000 Samplers of 1 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)
• Tatuaje Skinny Mummy (6 x 38) — April 2016 — 10,000 Samplers of 1 Cigar & 400 Boxes of 25 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)
• Tatuaje Skinny Cazadores Mummy (6 3/8 x 43) — May 2017 — Regular Production
• Tatuaje Skinny Lanceros Mummy (7 1/2 x 38) — May 2017 — Regular Production
• Tatuaje Monster Mash Mummy (6 1/4 x 47) — September 2021 — 13,000 Samplers of 1 Cigar (13,000 Total Cigars)
• Tatuaje Advent Calendar 2022 Mummy (4 1/2 x 46) — October 2022 — 5,000 Boxes of 1 Cigar (5,000 Total Cigars)
• Tatuaje Monster Smash Mummy (5 1/4 x 52) — August 2024 — 13,000 Boxes of 1 Cigar (13,000 Total Cigars)
• Tatuaje The Mummy Redux 5 (7 3/4 x 47) — September 2025 — 5,000 Boxes of 13 Cigars (65,000 Total Cigars)

Above are the 100 Monster Series family cigars. In an effort to make this post easier to scroll through, just click here if you’d like to see the full list and more details about each release.

• Cigar Reviewed: Tatuaje The Mummy Redux 5
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Criollo)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 7 3/4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 47
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $13 (Boxes of 13, $169)
• Release Date: September 2025
• Number of Cigars Released: 5,000 Boxes of 13 Cigars (65,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Redux: 1

Editor’s Note: This is one of the rare cases when we are doing a redux review of a new version of a cigar and not of an aged sample of a cigar we have already reviewed. — Charlie Minato.

The Mummy has long enjoyed the distinction of being the longest vitola in the Monster Series—albeit, by a very small amount—and it is easy to see why when it is held in my hand. Long and somewhat imposing, the cigar is covered in a cinnamon brown wrapper that is extremely smooth to the touch. There is an abundance of oil as well as a couple of large veins, and I can see some noticeable mottling that seems to become more obvious near the foot. When squeezed, the cigar is extremely firm, which makes it that much easier to find two soft spots: a large one located just under the band and a smaller one about an inch up from the foot. Aromas from the wrapper include a strong, sweet breadiness, followed by barnyard, generic nuttiness, white pepper, leather, and coffee beans. Due to the closed foot, scents from that part of the cigar are very similar to what I noted coming from the wrapper, but there are also a couple of new notes, including cinnamon and toasted cedar. After a straight cut, the cold draw is led by a distinct potato chip flavor, followed by creamy cedar, a light floral note, leather tack, peanuts, meatiness and a touch of milk chocolate sweetness

The first half begins with an aggressive combination of spices on my tongue, including black pepper and coffee beans, but the main flavors of toasted cedar and powdery cocoa nibs quickly take over the profile. Secondary flavors of cinnamon, sourdough bread, herbs, sawdust, gritty earth and rich coffee beans flit in and out, while a combination of black pepper and distinct brown sugar sweetness is present on the retrohale. Just before the end of the first third, a crisp citrus note that reminds me strongly of grapefruit shows up on the finish and remains present through the first half. The flavor is full, the body hits a solid medium, and the strength increases to medium-plus by the end of the first half. The construction is fantastic so far, with a razor-sharp burn line, an abundance of thick, off-white smoke, and an amazing draw.

During the second half, the profile shifts in a major way, as flavors of cinnamon and peanut butter take over the top spots. Additional notes include dried tea leaves, creamy cedar, leather tack, dry earth, chalk, charred meat and a touch of a floral flavor, while the finish is still full of the same grapefruit note that debuted in the first half. There are changes to the retrohale as well, as the amount of black pepper has decreased by about half, and there is a new sweetness that makes me think of chocolate-covered coffee beans. The flavor remains full, the body increases to medium-plus, and the strength reaches medium-full. When it comes to construction, I touch up the burn once close to the end of the cigar, but the draw remains excellent, and smoke production continues to be copious until I am finished after two hours and 13 minutes of smoking time.

92
Overall Score

I have often said that the original Tatuaje Black Label Corona Gorda remains one of the best non-Cuban cigars I have ever smoked, and the quality of the blend has been consistently proven through numerous different vitolas and iterations. The Mummy Redux 5 is a fantastic version of the blend, combining clean, familiar flavors of cinnamon and creamy cedar with some slightly surprising notes, such as peanut butter and grapefruit, into a bold yet balanced profile that is unapologetically Nicaraguan. Throw in the amazing construction—seriously, other than one minor correction, I could not ask for a straighter burn line or a better draw from the first puff to the last—and I am left with one of the best Monster Redux releases so far, bar none. 

Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.