Initial Thoughts
Tucked away in a dark corner of a local cigar shop this bright blue metallic band drew my eyes towards the exiled corner of the humidor. I walked over and saw the familiar RP encircled by dots and recognized the familiar Rocky Patel logo. I was immediately at ease. Although I had seen this blue banded cigar before it had never caught my attention as much as it did this day in the humidor. I thought to myself … I need to try this cigar.
Looks
Right away this cigar just looks amazing to me. As you’ll learn I love everything that is blue, from the ocean to the sky. So when I see something blue I am instinctively drawn to it. If you look closely, you can see the detail of this cigar. I love being able to see little bumps on the wrapper and the lines of where the cigar maker wrapped this stick up. There are no large veins on the wrapper leaf which i like. It makes it look very smooth. This is the Robusto size of the cigar measuring 5 1/2″ with a 50 gauge it’s not the biggest cigar but it looks wonderful
Function
As always I want to test the dry draw of the cigar. So I nipped the cap off the head with my double guillotine cutter. I know from previous Rocky Patel cigars that they typically draw very well. This cigar is no exception, incredibly easy draw and I can really start to experience what this cigar is going to taste like. That’s a beautiful thing for me. I felt up and down the barrel of the cigar trying to find any soft spots and luckily there weren’t any. This cigar felt incredibly light in weight. In my experience if a cigar feels lighter the draw is typically easier because the filler doesn’t appear to be as dense.
Time to kick the tires and light the … Cigar.
Smoking
I lit the cigar with matches which was a mistake being that I was outside it took a few matches to get it going. (I forgot my butane torch)However through my mastery of matchwork I got this stick burning evenly and it was smoking light a freight train rolling through the countryside. I’m fairly certain we annoyed a few of the people that had gathered with us out on patio at a local sports bar. One girl even went as far to basically give me the ‘Stink Eye’. Oh well I’m enjoying my smokes!
The smoke was a thick white smoke and had it not been for the wind I would have been able to bathe in the heavy smoke put off by this cigar. I was even able to blow a few smoke rings with the smoke before the wind whipped it away and destroyed my beautiful works of art. At this point we had moved tables directly behind ‘Stink Eye’ girl and they began to really hate us, oh well, she had an ugly hat on anyway.
Flavor
According to the Rocky Patel site this cigar is supposed to give off notes of sweet spice, cedar and a nutty finish. I’ll have to say I did notice the nutty finish, but more than anything else I picked up on a leathery flavor. Now I know some of you may be thinking…”Has Siz been eating cowboy boots?” … The answer is yes … I mean NO! Truthfully though the leathery taste is quite common in cigars. I believe this cigar was blended so well that a lot of the flavors can’t be picked out individually and that led to an overall leathery and tobacco flavor.
Would I Buy It Again?
Absolutely! I love most of RP’s cigars
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
I believe this very could be. It’s a light enough smoke and the flavor isn’t too heavy that you could enjoy this cigar every time you smoke it.
Would I Buy a Box?
In a heartbeat. In fact if you want to buy one and send it to me I’ll email you my address 🙂
