Rocky Patel Renaissance Review

3/26/2014

Cigar: Rocky Patel Renaissance
Size: Torpedo, 6.0”x52
MSRP: $8.45
Strength: Medium
Wrapper: Ecuador Sumatra
Origin: Honduras

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Prelight: The wrapper looks oily and toothy, and has an aroma like a stinky foot. Yes. A combination of sweat and toes. It wasn’t off-putting, but it was odd. The foot (of the cigar) smells of cedar and cocoa, and after clipping the cap, the draw tastes the same. I notice a soft, under-filled spot right beneath the cap, which is odd because the cold draw feels tight.

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1/3: I am hit with salt and pepper right of the bat. There is a slight sweetness too, but I am reminded of a pepper crusted steak. As the third progresses, I notice a sweetness like chocolate and caramel come into play. A split appears mid-way on the wrapper.

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2/3: The second third is when things get weird. Although I liked the taste which reminisced of steak at the beginning, now I am getting green onions. I’m not kidding. Grassy yet spicy. Bitter and a little sweet. This transitions into a more pure hay profile for a bit, before cardamom is apparent. No, I’m not reaching for complex flavors to make myself sound like a snob. The cigar tasted just like a cardamom pod. Perhaps it was just a mixture of the onion/hay flavors changing into leather which is what was all I could taste by the end of the second third.

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3/3: The leather takes on a more earthy tone, but there is something not right in the profile. Plastic? Yes, it tastes like plastic. There is also a patch-job hiding under the band which seemed to have slipped by the QC at RPHQ. The wrapper had a hole in it, and a piece of another wrapper was glued over it. The glue job left a sheen around the hole which caught my attention to this oddity. Earth with a back-note of grass finished up the nub.

Overall: As much as I like interesting cigars, this one was too much. Shoddy construction and too many too odd flavors throughout the smoke. I’m hoping I just got a bad one for the rest of you guys out there, but I will not be having this cigar again. After reviewing five various RP cigars, if I grab another, it will undoubtedly be The Edge.