I’ve been watching old episodes of Top Gear on Amazon Prime, and James Nesbitt was the celebrity guest on the episode I watched yesterday. He looked so familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him until I realized that I had thoroughly enjoyed his portrayal of Hyde and Tom Jackman in the BBC mini series of Jekyll. I felt that he had executed the role of two men in one physical form quite well, he almost felt animated as Hyde. This is still one of my favorite adaptations of the story and if you can get a chance to watch it, please do. It’s definitely a horror story with elements of a crime drama and just a dash of dry humor to really be enjoyable.
But as I was watching his go around the track with the Top Gear crew, I remembered how I had saved two of the Tatuaje Pudgy Monsters for years to have an occasion special enough to smoke them: the Jekyll and the Hyde. A few months back, I was in a rather nasty accident with an uninsured driver. Had it not been for my own fast reactions, more than my car would have been totaled. Those next days, I decided the occasion that was special enough to smoke those cigars was that I was still standing (albeit, painfully, but still standing) and that saving things for a special occasion may not always lead to that said special event. So I broke out the Han in Dark Chocolate Carbonite, some wine, and my Jekyll and Hyde.
I was still a little shaken to drive the Sunday after the accident, so my friends met me at my apartment’s patio to enjoy their cigars with me. And I had saved these for so long that I honestly don’t remember where the Jekyll came from (it was released in 2014), but I know that the Hyde had been given to me by a friend who also loved the Pudgy Monsters series. The Hyde had been enjoyable but I had forgotten to get any evidence of this (which is a damn shame), so we’re going to go full force into the Jekyll, which was definitely my favorite of the two.
Tatuaje did a clever thing with the rings on the Monsters series– they’re all colors that would be associated with the beastie they’re named after. For the Jekyll, it’s a lighter cream label with a hint of green while the Hyde label is full on green and black, in honor of the potion that Jekyll made to become is more dramatic half. While one might think a cigar that has been crafted after a character who was conflicted about his own goodness and vileness would be mild and demure, the Jekyll is probably one of the pepperiest cigars I’ve had. I absolutely loved it. The first whiff while unlit was earthy and peppery, with a tinge of something that reminds me of the ocean.
After being lit, the spicy pepper smoke takes over. It feels as though there’s a bit of salt to the stick, just to make the peppery notes even more pronounced. The beginning of this cigar were both light and punchy at the same time– as the aroma of chili wasn’t expected but it wasn’t a heavy handed tobacco flavor. At the midpoint, the earthiness comes back, and the saltiness dies down. The peppery smoke stayed with me through the whole of the smoke, though. It was relentless and amazing. The draw was firm, but not difficult and this cigar was definitely a longer smoke. It made me slow down and actually savor the moment, which was precisely what my rattled nerves needed.
This is a fantastic stick, and I am hoping to grab more of the Pudgy Monsters this October, if I’m so lucky to find another box of them.
