Halloween Cigars To Haunt Your Humidor

Source from:  Cigar Aficionado 10/30/2015

Every Halloween season, coffee drinkers get their pumpkin spiced lattes, beer drinkers get their Oktoberfest brews and kids get their candy, so it's only fair that cigar smokers get something out of it too. For lovers of the leaf, treats in October come in the form limited-edition cigars, and there are a trio of spooky smokes ready to be enjoyed this season.

The Tatuaje Monster Series-now in its eighth incarnation-presents Hyde, a 7 inch by 49 ring gauge cigar named after the evil alter-ego of Robert Louis Stevenson's iconic Dr. Jekyll character who endured a tragic split personality. The usual run of 666 decorative picture boxes containing 13 cigars will ship in time for Halloween, each with a drawing of Mr. Hyde. An additional overrun of the same cigars packed in 4,500 nondescript 10-count boxes will also hit the market to satisfy customer demand. The cigars have a suggested retail price of $13.

Hyde's all-Nicaraguan filler and binder is wrapped in a leaf of Ecuadoran Sumatra. Like last year's Jekyll cigar, the head of Hyde is shaped like a Cuban 109 belicoso.

In a creative twist, collectors can take last year's Jekyll box and abut it against this year's Hyde box to form a complete picture of Dr. Jekyll on one side and Mr. Hyde on the other.

If the strange duality gives you shivers but scary pumpkins don't, Viaje has taken a lighter approach to Halloween with its Full Moon cigar, which has a bright orange pumpkin as its main motif. It comes in a large black box emblazoned with an evil looking jack-o'-lantern head. This is the third year that Viaje has released Full Moon, and brand owner Andre Farkas has really carved out an audience for the smoke.

"If there's one image that signifies Halloween, it's the pumpkin," he said. "So we designed our evil pumpkin and let him take center stage on the boxes. Some may not know it, but there are two different bands in each box. When you take the two bands off the cigars and put them together, they form a Halloween panorama."

The cigar, which retails for $11.42, measures 5 by 58 and is made up solely of Nicaraguan tobacco. Farkas has also added a limited-edition offshoot of the 2015 Full Moon with a dark, Mexican San Andrés wrapper. Only five retailers received the San Andrés Full Moon, so it's truly a limited edition within a limited edition.

If the evil troll in you is thinking about mischief this Halloween, consider lighting up a Devil's Night instead. The smoke was conceived by Asylum Cigars co-owner Tom Lazuka and is intended to bring awareness to Devil's Night-the evening before Halloween where hundreds of arsons occur in Detroit, Michigan. Because of this dubious tradition, a portion of the sales will go to benefit the firefighters of Detroit.

"Devils Night is something that is often misunderstood outside of Detroit," Lazuka said. "And I wanted to spread light on the fact that Detroit is on the rise, even in the face of crisis."

The cigars will come in two sizes, 5 1/2 by 46 and 6 by 52. Made in Honduras of entirely Honduran tobaccos, only 500 boxes of 10 were produced and are set to retail for $11 and $13 respectively. Devil's Night will debut on Friday October 30, Devil's Night, at both Jenuine Cigar Bar locations in Michigan.

"Help a firefighter," said Lazuka. "Burn a cigar, not a house." Enditem