Initial Thoughts
I’ve long been a fan of Rocky Patel cigars. The first cigar that got me hooked was the RP Decade. It was my first venture into a cigar over $12. For probably 2-3 years that was my all time favorite cigar. My wife even knows that was my favorite at one point and still buys them for me as a gift, which is incredibly thoughtful of her. I’m never going to turn down an RP Decade. In fact Rocky Patel cigars were the first cigars that I bought a box of. I remember there was an event here where Rocky actually showed up and hung out. I ended up buying an entire box of mix & match cigars because me and buddy Brian were going to Vegas. I thought, you know what, we need an entire box of sticks for 3 days. Needless to say we didn’t smoke them all.
It has been a while since I’ve smoked RP’s so I was excited when these Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve showed up in the mail courtesy of Thompson cigar. None of my local shops carry this line and I’ve seen other people talk about them, but I had forgotten about them simple because I never see them, you know, out of sight out of mind kind of thing. It comes in two distinct wrappers, one is a maduro, the other one that I’m smoking is a Corojo. This line was released awhile ago now, in fact the maduro wrapped stick was the #8 cigar in CA’s list back in 2010. Both of Honduran origin made with Nicaraguan filler & binder. I’m ready to hop into it and see what else we have going on with this stick.
Looks
This Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve is a box pressed cigar, and you all know how much I love a box press! This cigar has a very large foot band on it. When I took the pictures the way the light reflected off the band it almost makes it look green. It’s a dark brown with some muddled gold spots that look like they resemble tooth from the cigar. In fact I’m glad I turned the light on to take the picture because otherwise I might have lit the band on fire.
The featured band on this cigar has the distinguished RP logo as always. It uses a gold font to stand out from the dark brown background. There are a couple of leaves floating on either side of the logo. The script at the top of the band spells out Olde World Reserve to tie everything together. It’s not an overly complicated band, but it doesn’t have to be. Most of RP’s bands aren’t exotic and outrageous. They merely get the point across and let the cigar do the talking. You guys do hear cigars talk don’t you?
The wrapper on this Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve is a nice milk chocolate color. Very oily when held under the light. It’s very thin wrapper from what I can tell. I know wrappers are generally thin, but it’s actually something that I picked up on specifically on this cigar so there might be something to that. Not sure though. Let’s get into the pre game so we can get this thing going.
Function
As you probably know it’s hard to do a pinch test on a box pressed cigar. I still gave it the ole college try though. I’ve never understood what that saying really meant, but I like it and I’ll continue to use it! I softly rolled the cigar between my fingers up and down the barrel and luckily there were no soft spots in the filler. Whew passed that test.
Taking a look at the foot the tobacco looks like it’s packed perfectly in this Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve. It has a nice rolling S look to the tobacco. The head of the stick has a couple of distinct seams, but I can’t tell if it’s a triple cap or a double cap. My initial guess is triple, but I only see a couple of lines. There is also a small flaw with the cap. There is a dark spot that I’m not sure about. So I went ahead and cut that part off when I nipped the head.
Speaking of nipping the head, it’s time to test the dry draw. Probably my favorite pre-smoking ritual is testing the dry draw. I was smoking with some friends the other day and they saw me going through all this ‘pregame’ stuff and they were like, “what the hell are you doing?” So I explained everything to them and why I do what I do and you could see minds blowing up at that very instant. Now I doubt they’ll continue doing it on their own, but that day they followed my lead. Anyway, back to the dry draw. This cigar has a perfect draw out the gate. A good dose of air comes flowing through the barrel just like you expect it too. I was able to pick up on some subtle hints of flavors as well, but we’ll get to those. Time to fire it up.
Smoking
Luckily I remember to take off the foot band of this Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve before I put the torch to the foot. I toasted the foot really well and got a nice orange glowing going. Then I began puffing away to make sure the cigar was going to draw in the flame. This stick started out perfectly and the smoke was just puffing out of the end of this stick.
The first third had a perfectly even burn line all the way through. I was able to hold an ash for just over an inch. It was a nice solid ash that held on very well, even when I tried to knock it into my ashtray. I continued powering through the second third of this stick and I hit a little bit of a glitch about half way through. I began to get some bitter flavors so I figured it was a good time to purge this stick. It then began burning perfectly again.
The stick continued on the straight and narrow until the mid of the final third where I had to purge the cigar again. It was just building up some tar and having trouble drawing in decent flavors. Not a big deal, but it is kind of annoying. All in all I don’t have anything to complain about this cigar though. Never had a draw issue, never had a burn issue, just a bit of tar build up that was fixed up quick and in a hurry. Let’s hop into those flavors and see what all we have going on here.
Flavor
This Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve starts off with some nice sweet cocoa notes on the foot of the cigar. The wrapper gives off a bit of spice followed with some sweetness on the backend. It’s not a heavy dose of spice, but I have a feeling it’ll rear its head during the retrohale.
Once I got this cigar burning I picked up some nice coffee and nutty notes in the mouthfeel. The nutty flavor was dark and roasted very savory feeling. I didn’t get much spice until about half way through the first third then it came on like a freight train. The retrohale brought the fire. I was surprised by it, it was a nice good burn that lasted longer than I expected. At first I didn’t really enjoy it, but as it lingered I began to appreciate the notes that it was giving off.
The second third began to dial everything back. The nutty flavors kicked up more here and gave that nice bit of savory notes that I always enjoy. It’s a very smooth cigar, very palatable and easy to enjoy. The retrohale was relaxed some and still the tinge of spice, but not as forceful as the initial third.
The final third brought more of the earthy notes along side the nutty flavor. I didn’t get as many coffee notes as I thought I would which I was a little surprised by, but it was still a very good stick. Overall I would say this Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve is a medium bodied stick with about half a click towards full bodied. Very balanced and not overly complex but there were definitely some flavor changes throughout the profile.
Would I Buy It Again?
Absolutely, the great thing about RP cigars is that they usually moderately priced and you can load up on them either online with a nice discount or typically B&Ms have them at a reasonable price.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
Potentially, the robusto size makes it a smoke that can be handled in about an hour and a half and the price fits the bill so yeah it could be.
Would I Buy a Box?
Potentially, I enjoyed it and if I had room and came across a good deal then I’d buy a box.
Conclusion
Overall a very tasty cigar! Perfect construction, great burn, and some great flavors along the way. What more could you ask for? I’ve been a big fan of RP cigars for awhile now I can officially add this Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve to my list of RP faves. It’s still second to the Decade, but I really enjoyed it. If you can find them give them a try. I’d like to find the maduro and see how it measures up. If anyone has any thoughts on that leave a comment below!
