The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - The Rocky Patel 1961

Date: 6-14-2010

The Man Shed

Dave and Randy

Rocky Patel - 1961

Robusto - $8.00 from Churchill’s in Topeka

Randy and I decided to try this cigar from Rocky Patel . We have rarely been let down by a smoke from Rocky Patel (except the Indian Tabac Super Fuerte) and we are always excited to try a new product. Rocky Patel produces two of our all time favorites the Connecticut and the Decade. The 1961 has a fairly dark brown wrapper and has a bit of an oily sheen to it. It is well packed but not overly firm. It has some prominent veins that leads to it looking a little on the rough side particularly when compared to the exquisite appearance of the Decade or Old World Reserves.

The draw was relatively effortless and produced an abundant amount of thick smoke. Initially the cigar seemed to have a fairly strong taste profile with a significant amount of spice on the finish. However, very quickly (within about half an inch) this cigar turned into having a more medium body and mellowing out on the finish. It maintained some nice rich flavors but lost the spiciness and bite on the finish.

The burn started pretty well with this cigar, but it began to produce a wavy burn line and then Randy noticed that he was having trouble keeping his lit. There was significant flaking in the ash consistent with a cigar that is not tightly packed as are intermittent burn problems.

We paired this cigar with some Hoppin’ Frog Silk Porter (who knew they made good beer in Ohio?) and a bump of Glenmorangie Single Malt scotch. Both of these were very good and complemented the smoke.

In the end we liked this cigar but we did not love it. We gave it a score of 3. Randy indicated that he might give it a 4 if he smoked it again and enjoyed the flavor as much as he did this time and did not have the burn issues we experienced. I was not as enthusiastic about this cigar. To me it is clearly a 3, a good smoke but I could think of a number that I would prefer to have and most would cost less. Both of us would definitely smoke it again.