Rocky Patel, Counting the Decades

There are few things worse than visiting a tobacconist and the person behind the counter is absolutely clueless about cigars. Sadly, this is, at least in this environment, the norm which, I guess, is borderline understandable because cigars are still quite niche. Fortunately, during my early cigar partaking days, before I got the real hook-up, the manager at a particular tobacconist I frequented , did enjoy the occasional cigar and appreciated that understanding his clientele’s respective palates was a sure-fire way to sell more cigars and to have people coming back for more.

He is the person who introduced me to the Oliva Serie V Double Robusto which, if you follow this column regularly you will know is one of my trusted go-to cigars. He also introduced me to the Rocky Patel Decade Robusto. There was one box with about 10 cigars left and he talked it up so much, I bought one and was not disappointed. The draw was, and is, perfect. The machine-pressed cigar with its Sumatra wrapper holding together a secret blend of filler and binder is medium to full-bodied and rich with complex flavours.

Every week, I would go back and pick up another one until the box was done and then I couldn’t find it for a couple of years until my hook-up started bringing a fuller range of Rocky Patel Cigars. Rocky Patel, the man, is a bit of a rock star in the cigar world and seems to operate at a superhuman pace.

An entertainment and product liability lawyer by profession, his first steps into the world of cigar manufacturing was an investment, initially as a silent partner, into the establishment of the Indian Tabac Cigar Company, with Phil Zanghi, in 1996. He eventually bought Zanghi out and renamed the company the Rocky Patel Premium Cigars in 2006. Since then, he has opened his own facilities in places like Esteli, Nicaragua and Honduras and created a portfolio of over 100 brands.

Within that portfolio are the ‘number’ cigars like the Fifty and the Sixty, which were created to celebrate, you guessed it, his fiftieth and sixtieth birthdays, and the previously mentioned Decade, the Fifteenth and the Twentieth, which were created to celebrate the number of years he has been in the business.

The man is a bit of a marketing genius driven by a willingness to experiment, while creating exquisite tasting cigars. I would argue that what makes any Rocky Patel cigar is the attention put into finding the perfect blends of tobacco. For example, the Twentieth anniversary cigar has a blended filler with tobacco from Esteli and Jalapa in Nicaragua and Jamastran in Honduras.

There’s a video of him talking about how they even look at where on the plant the specific leaf comes from and blending it with a leaf from another plant at a different farm. They also demystify the cigar making process with a From Seed To Smoke timeline on the website.

They are too many to name but some of my favourites are: the Sun Grown Maduro with a Broadleaf Wrapper and triple-cap; the Aged Limited Rare (A.L.R) Second Edition, with a San Andrés wrapper and aged for two years before release; the LB1, which takes its name from the factory code used during creation, and is made with tobacco from Condega and Esteli in Nicaragua and Jamastran, Honduras wrapped in Ecuador Habano; and the Edge Maduro — B52, with its Costa Rican wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and a blended Nicaraguan and Honduran filler. Oh, and the 38-inch ring gauge and 101mm long Juniors which come in a tin of five and are great for travelling. I particularly enjoy the medium-bodied Vintage 1990 which features a 12-year-old Honduran broadleaf wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers.

Not content with simply making cigars, Rocky Patel also has an exquisite range of accessories, including cutters, lighters, ashtrays, cigar cases and humidors. And he has the BURN by Rocky Patel lounges in several US cities, namely Naples (the flagship in Florida), Atlanta, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma City

It will take a lifetime to try all of Rocky Patel’s cigars but I am definitely going to give it a shot.