Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve

[craigchilds]

Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve
Size: 6.5 x 52 (Toro)
Tobacco: Nicaragua (filler), Honduras (binder), Costa Rica (wrapper)
Price: $9.90

Special thanks to my favorite cigar company CigarsDirect for sending me 4 Olde World Reserve cigars to try and review.

I first saw this particular cigar back in 2006 while visiting a now-defunct local B&M named Cigar Depot. The box of OWR was sitting right next to a box of Padron 1926 and
in fact had a slightly higher selling price of $22.50 per cigar. It was--and still is,
as far as I know--Rocky Patel's superpremium cigar, although prices have since descended to the $7-10 range.

The Maduro:

I split my maduros with my cigar-smoking buddy, Shaun. We smoked the first one on his back porch in late Fall 2008, paired with Willett's,a new single-barrell bourbon his wife had brought back from Kentucky. Wow! what a combination. It was so good, we paired them again a few weeks later in early December while watching the SEC college football championship game. Alabama lost to Florida in the 4th quarter, but despite my heartbreak, at least the cigar was superb.

The OWR maduro sports an an elegant brown band around its head, and a paper sleeve adorns its foot. It's prelight aroma is dense and bespokes a toasty, medium-body smoke. The post-light flavor, however, is much more sophisticated: tastes that shift from an early spice to a muted coffee and then finally a smooth maduro-sweet climax. The burn was perfect, slow and cool, lasting nearly 2 1/2 hours. As I've said before in these reviews, I'm not a big fan of maduros, but this one was clearly top-notch. The only real drawback was the blackish-brown stain on my fingers, which suggests this cigar may have been dyed during the fermentation process.

This cigar would probably have rated an 8.0 or 8.5 on our 10-leaf scale. Because of the
stained fingers, it got lowered slightly to a 7/10.

The Corojo:

The maduro was so good, it really set up my expectations for the corojo. This corojo wrapper is actually a cross-breed between a pure corojo (rare) and a criollo.

The first OWR corojo I tried was spongy in the middle, all the way through the cigar, despite having 9 months of age in 65-70% RH. I gifted one to Shaun, who had the same problem with his. These cigars wouldn't stay lit no matter what we did. They wouldn't burn straight. They tasted bland, like a medium-bodied bundle stick.

A few weeks later, I gave it another shot. This second one did not feel spongy to the touch but it still canoed and exinguished itself when left unattended for more than 45 seconds (and no, that is not an exaggeration!). The taste was bland, followed by bitter, followed by foul. I couldn't even finish it.

I cannot remember being this disappointed in a cigar since I smoked that $40 Don Carlos Edicion de Aniversario in May 2008. At least that cigar was decent, even if it didn't live up the hype.

This cigar ranks only a paltry 3/10 on the 10-leaf scale. (It might have fared worse, but I reserve the bottom "1" and "2" ranks for Polish cigars and Cremosas, in that order).

[Jim2903]

I just got some of each wrapper to try. Hope my corojos are better.

FWIW, I was at a Rocky cigar event last weekend and saw a guy smoking an OWR with the paper sleeve still on. Rocky himself set the guy straight

[tx_tuff]

Wow I guess I have been very lucky. I like the Corojo better and never had a problem with it.

Thanks for the review.

[Sigarz]

Originally Posted by Jim2903

FWIW, I was at a Rocky cigar event last weekend and saw a guy smoking an OWR with the paper sleeve still on. Rocky himself set the guy straight

HAHA thats funny!

I bought two corojo robustos when they first came out had one right away and was very dissapointed tasted kinda young so Ive been aging the other for the past 5 years. I hope it has improved by now. thinking about firing it up in the next week or so.

[MattB]

Thanks for the detailed review(s). I have been lucky too and like the corojo better than the maduro, have never had a problem with either. Both top notch IMO.

[92hatchattack]

Wow, i had the Corojo with only 4 weeks of age on it and thought it was outstanding. Perfect burn, great ash and wonderfull light flavors. Maybe RP needs to work on some QC!

[havanitascigars-cl]

To me this is another over-hyped cigar. I have had so many bad Rocky Patels of this, and other flavors, I have really been turned off by the whole brand. I have the same advice for Rocky as I do for the Camachos... stop trying to be celebrities and go back to making good cigars.

[Juicestain]

Thanks for the good review. Got a few of each resting, now I must light one up!

[Carpe Diem]

Thanks for the review.

I`ve been staring at this RP cigar at the online stores. I`ll now try the maduros first.

[havanajohn]

Thanks for the reviews. I too like the Maduro. Lotta flavor, and no burn issues for me!

[piperdown]

Had the RP OWR maduro in a petite torpedo about 2 weeks ago. Liked it so much that I went back for another single pt and also grabbed a toro (I think it was a toro).

Interesting about the cigar is that pre-light draw had a hint of sweetness that really opened up after lighting it Not too sweet mind you but it reminded me of really really dark chocolate....almost to the point of bakers chocolate.

Needless I enjoyed it and will be back for more.

[DoctaJ]

I myself had a bad experience with the corojo version as well. Same thing...just seemed bland. This is one smoke I will go back to at some point because of the good reviews it seems to get and the fact that I love the Vintage 90, Edge and Decade bands. Perhaps I will get the maduro next time and see how that one is. Different strokes for different folks I guess . Thx for the detailed review!

[Greenwit]

I've had just one of the corojos......bad sample size LOL. But I put it out about half way through. I won't give these a second chance. Tasted bitter and flavorless.

[Jim2903]

I just got some Rocky OWR maduro robustos from Cigar Monster (5-packs for $19.98!). In one of the 5-packs, the cigars were dark brown and lightly box pressed -- gorgeous. In the second 5-pack, they were much darker, practically black (almost artificially so) and more severely box pressed, some with sharp creases. I've read some of the concerns about maduros (natural vs. treated/dyed), but I was surprised to see such a difference between 5-packs of the same cigar in the same order. I'm letting them sit a while before I try them, and I have a couple toros in maduro and corojo I'm waiting to smoke, too.

Another weird thing: the OWR toros (from a sampler) are cello'd. The robustos in the 5-packs came without cellophane.

[commonsenseman]

I really like the Corojo OWR, sorry you had a bad one....hopefully that's all it was.