November 5th, 2018

I’ve been asked by Cigar Weekly to rate the cigars in the Rocky Patel Luxury Sampler for Holt’s Cigars, available at www.holts.com.

It’s a heavy load to bear, but someone has to do it. Holt’s sent me a gift card to purchase the sampler, which I did. Upon receiving the sampler, I put it in my humidor for a week to acclimate before smoking any of the cigars. They are all Toro-size cigars.

The sampler is a ten-pack, containing a pair of each of five different cigars. My plan is to smoke both samples of each cigar before finalizing my reviews. After all, two cigars represents a 100% better sampling than one. I am also not doing any research on any of these cigars prior to smoking in order to avoid any skewed personal bias. The only cigar in the sampler I have had previous experience with is the Decade.

My first choice for reviewing is the Rocky Patel Velvet Edition Toro. It has an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper with aged Nicaraguan fillers, and measures in at 6 inches long by a 52 ring gauge.

Pre-light

The cigar was a light matte brown, firmly wrapped cylinder. There was a just a little give when squeezed. The foot aroma was of toasty tobacco. I clipped the cap with my trusty Xikar cutter and tested the draw, which was very open. This was a good start!

First third

I lit the cigar with a match, and it caught fire readily, immediately yielding lots of thick smoke. I felt some minor dry harshness at the back of my palate. The flavor was good, being slightly sweet with some citrus notes. The burn was uneven from the start, and into the second inch I used a match to touch it up. The harshness faded after the first inch as well. The ash was firm and a mottled gray.

Second third

By this point the initial harshness was gone. There was a better, richer depth of flavor. Was that a hint of cherry? I liked the flavor profile. What a light wrapper cigar lacks in strength is often made up for in complexity. The burn was going sideways and burning inside the wrapper, so I used another match to even it up.

Final third

The flavor was still good. A slight dryness in taste persisted throughout the smoke. I didn’t mind. The burn was still uneven, and I had to use yet another match to fix it. At the one inch mark, the cigar was turning bitter, and my fingers were getting hot. Time to quit!

Construction

The Rocky Patel Velvet Edition cigars are pretty well made. The wrappers are fairly smooth, and the cigars are straight and firm. They look and feel good. But both of the cigars I smoked performed about the same. They burned unevenly and required touchups. It seems like the bunch must have been a bit uneven.

Scoring

Pre-light: 9
Burn: 6
Draw: 10
Flavor: 8
Construction: 7
Power (not included in rating): 5
Final Rating: 8 out of 10

Excluding the burn issues, I liked this cigar. The flavor was good. If the other four cigars in the Rocky Patel Luxury Sampler are as good, I think it’s a good buy.

Editors Note: The cigar in this review is part of the Rocky Patel Luxury Collection Sampler available at Holts cigars online.  For all Rocky Patel Cigars available at Holts, click Rocky Patel