Rocky Patel created a cigar called the Olde World Reserve. These come 50 to a box and the ones I tried were the box pressed torpedo which was 5” x 54 ring gauge. The cigars are made in Honduras with a Honduran wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and filler.
Flavor and Aroma
The flavor is very woodsy and has a strong dark coffee taste. Even in the beginning of the smoke there was another flavor that kind of grabbed the back of my throat. I could not place it so I went online to see what it might be. I found one review that described what I was tasting as a ‘mineral’ flavor. Well, I guess ‘tin’ is a mineral because all I could taste was something that reminded me of tin cans. The taste never got any better or much worse either. When my wife came outside where I was smoking the first thing she said to me was, “Whew! That stinks.” This was the first cigar that I have ever smoked where the ash had a brown tinge to it.
Draw and Construction
The cigar is tight and firm bordering on just plane hard. The draw was also very tight. It was hard to light and the burn was terribly uneven (see photos). I smoked 3 of these to make certain that I did not just have a fluke. All three cigars smoked the same and the wrappers split open in each of them during the smoke. The appearance of the wrapper shows that it is very tight and has a ‘stretched’ look to it. I was waiting for it to fall apart on me but it didn’t. Actually the cigar smoked for about an hour and 20 minutes and the ash did not fall off until I was under the 2” mark.
Value
This is not a tough call. The cigar sells for about $400 for a box of 50, which puts them at $8 per stick. I paid close $10 at my local tobacconist. Was it worth it? NO! I expected much more from a Rocky Patel cigar and certainly from a cigar that cost as much as it did. The only good point about this cigar was its ash. If you are going to enter a ‘longest ash’ contest this is a good one. The ash finally fell off at 3 ½” leaving only 1 ½” of the cigar un-smoked. Needless to say this is not one I will keep in my humidor. Yes, everyone has different tastes and it might be that the cigars I smoked came from a ‘bad’ box. I might be willing to try them again, but not at those prices.
