I'm not going to lie to you people. I'm a fan of Rocky Patel. There are some who definitely are not. I'm not sure why. Perhaps they've just had too many bad experiences. Patel does have a lot of different cigar lines on his label and, with that many, I'm sure it's hard to make cigar after cigar with consistent construction and flavor. Maybe some people just don't like the amount of cigar lines he has. There are those for whom I'm sure the RP brand does lose credibility because he has so many different types of cigars. Personally, I can only speculate about all that because, as I mentioned, I've always liked Rocky Patel cigars that I've smoked (with few exceptions).
So when I was at a Seattle B&M called Rain City Cigars (great place), and the TAA Signature Series Toro caught my eye, I was intrigued. An RP line I've never heard of? I had to pick one up. And, after about a month spent resting in my humidor, I figured it was time to try it.
I lit up this cigar and immediately tasted some woodiness and earthiness, with the woodiness being the dominant flavor. Perhaps there was some leather as well. But I looked down at the cigar and it was burning extremely unevenly. Uh oh...have I found an RP with poor construction? Then I realized something. To my horror, and this is very embarassing to admit...because I lit this cigar outside at night I failed to remember the very long footband (that covers the bottom half of the cigar) and was smoking through it. I then very quickly panicked and removed the band.
Well, the burn definitely improved a lot after the foot band was removed. Throughout the cigar, the flavors didn't change much. In the final third, the earthiness took over as the dominant flavor and the woodiness faded into the background somewhat. The final third did introduce one new flavor: a savory meaty flavor that I quite enjoyed while it was present.
I'll be honest, there wasn't a lot to this cigar. It wasn't bad...it was decent, just not great. The strength remained a mild-medium throughout, while the body and flavor both remained a solid medium. It does make me want to pick up a few more of these just to see if the others are the same (and so I can try to redeem myself by remembering to remove the foot band PRIOR to lighting). Those who are already RP fans won't find a lot in this one to experience any kind of renewal of passion for the manufacturer, but it probably won't tarnish his reputation for them either. Those who are definitely not fans of RP will probably want to stay away from this one as much as any of his others that they're already ignoring.
Until next time, as always...go grab some cigars and burn em down!
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