Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Robusto

[michael88n]

I got these smokes about two weeks ago and put them in the 'dor to chill for a while. I know that RP smokes have a tendency to divide groups of people. Some people honestly don't like them. Some people people are haters for whatever reason. Some people love them. So I really wanted to try and smoke this one and be objective about it. *DISCLAIMER: I Love RP Sun Grown.*

I had a rough couple of days at work and I needed something different. So when I popped open my 'dor, the RP was off to the side and it was calling to me, "Miiiiike. Smoooke meeee...". All right, you bastid. You're mine.

I grabbed a bottle of water and headed out to the gazebo for a little quality time for my little friend (the CIGAR, not little mike).

Undoubtedly, this is a beautiful cigar. Dark brown, natural wrapper. It's got the oil thing goin' on. It was firm... Smelled pretty good.

Clip... It has a nice draw. A little tight, but some things in life are nice when they are a little tight. Will this cigar be one of them?

It lit well. Right away I had big plumes of smoke! I like the big plumes. But WTF? I was hit with a bitter, earthy, leather, boot in my mouth. This wasn't going as well as I was hoping it would!

Luckily for me, the bitterness lasted only about half an inch and it quickly mellowed out. Absolutely no problem with the draw. It almost seemed like it loosened up. Big, gray ash that help on for an inch and a half at a time before falling off. For the next half of the smoke, it was almost too mellow going back and forth from woody to a faint nutty. I thought this was supposed to me medium-bodied. But wait a minute... what's that?

The last third of the smoke is where you get your money's worth. The spice train was coming through. Not overpowering like the guy who says, "Gimme the strongest thing you got." But a nice balance of spice, cedar, and "damn that's good!" It started to burn hot, but I think that was because I wanted to smoke more and more. Too bad I didn't have another inch to smoke (don't go there - that's a different website) since the flavor came on late in the game. I only quit smoking it because I didn't want to burn a hole in my gloves.

I'm not going to attempt to grade this smoke. I wouldn't know where to begin. But I definitely liked it. Next time, I'm going to light it with a couple of my wooden matches and see if that changes the first hit of flavor. Maybe that's where I got the bitterness.

Smoke it again? Sho' nuff!

Cheers,
Michael

And that is my first review.