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"IF I CAN CREATE WAVES I WILL DO IT!"

The latest from Tatuaje’s ever-inventive Pete Johnson

Los Angeles, July 4 – Pete Johnson is feeling pretty good these days. Why not?

From his new showroom and office on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Johnson runs his Havana Cellars cigar empire, led by the white-hot Tatuaje brand with a new project on the way.

“I’m trying to have a good time and I don’t really pay attention to whether or not the big companies actually get what I’m doing,” he said Tuesday. “If I can create waves, I will do it.”

Johnson created an enormous wave in 2004 with the introduction of his Tatuaje brand – which means tattoo in Spanish – made by the then-little known Jose “Pepin” Garcia in a tiny factory in Miami named El Rey de Los Habanos (meaning, “the King of the Havana.”). It was a cigar the way he wanted in it, in traditional Cuban sizes with a taste derived from a blend of all Nicaraguan-grown tobaccos.

It has been an enormous hit.

The brand has 16 sizes, but connoisseurs are already picking their favorites and Johnson has limited production on some sizes to ensure quality:

• “The Havana Cazadores (6 3/8 inches by 43 ring) has very small production, maybe only 10,000 sticks a year,” he said. “It’s one of the cigars I like to smoke.” Once he looked up the actual order list, he saw that only 283 boxes were made last year! That’s a mere 7,7075 cigars!

Happily, production for the first six months is way up, with 308 boxes produced (7,700) and more on the way for the second half of the year.

• “In the RC series – those are the perfectos – we made 173 boxes of ten in 2006, but 207 so far this year,” he noted of the 7 1/4-inch by 57-ring Salomon-style No. 184. “There’s one roller for the 184s and one for the 233s.

“We made 45 boxes of ten of the No. 233 last year, but we’re up to 86 this year.” That’s a giant perfecto of 9 1/8 inches by 55 ring. “We usually only make them when the factory says they have the tobacco for it.”

• What about the giant Reserva A Uno, a 9 1/4-inch by 47-ring chair rung in the same dimensions as the famed Montecristo A? “We don’t make a lot of those,” Johnson said; “We made 109 boxes of ten last year and 100 so far this year.

“There’s one guy who makes the A and 500 of those is a week’s work.”

While the Tatuaje brand is going strong as is the Cabaiguan blend, his other two brands are being downplayed for now.

“Nuevitas on indefinite hold for right now; we might do something down the road,” he said. “Tabacos Baez is one of those things we use for factory seconds or student-rolled cigars. We use that brand name for cigars that Pepin has trained people on. If [a batch of student-made cigars] seems good to me, we pack it up as Tabacos Baez. “It’s gained a little cult following, since people found out that they are student-rolled cigars and are half the price. It’s made from similar leaves [as Tatuaje]; if a roller knows how to blend them properly, they’re pretty good.”

For the upcoming Retail Tobacco Dealers of America trade show, he’ll debut his newest blend, Verocu.

“It’s kind of my answer to regional specialties,” Johnson explained. “The No. 1 is for west of the Mississippi and No. 2 is for east of the Mississippi.”

The No. 1 measures 6 1/4 inches by 52 ring and is an extension of the red-banded Tatuaje Havana VI series, while the No. 2 measures 5 1/2 inches by 54 ring. “We’re making 50,000 per size and that’s all,” Johnson said.

“The blend is a little stronger than the Havana VI; we added a little ligero [to the filler].”

The new Verocu is made from all Nicaraguan-grown leaves at the Tabacalera Cubana, Garcia’s factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The cigars will be presented in cabinets, uncellophaned in wheels of 50 and packed in wax paper. Both are expected to retail for $10.00 per cigar.

At that price, Johnson will have a lot of takers, possibly including a Tatuaje fan who is one of the leading contenders for the Republican Party’s 2008 Presidential nomination, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“Giuliani has been to visit factory [in Miami] twice,” Johnson remembered. “I know that he smokes, on occasion, the Tatuaje Gran Cojonu, so he took a picture of the roller for that size!”

Asked about whether he gives Giuliani free cigars, Johnson shot back immediately. “No, he buys ‘em. Pepin traded him a box with his autograph for one with Giuliani’s autograph, but otherwise, he bought his.

“He shops at W. Curtis Draper in Washington D.C. a lot and he was introduced to us there.”

Johnson is riding the crest of a wave of popularity for his unique vision of what cigars can be. He’ll never be the biggest maker of cigars in the U.S. and doesn’t want to be. But he’s happy to be able to share his concept with so many people that have found common taste in his endless quest for quality, at any price.

It’s just one of the things that makes the United States such a unique country, one that not just cherishes, but encourages creativity, independence and enthusiasm. It’s something to celebrate on this Independence Day 2007.
~ Rich Perelman

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