The Velvet Cigar

Posted By Elvis on February 26, 2008

I have to admit I’ve never been on the Rocky Patel bandwagon. I’ve always tried everything he’s put out there and that loyalty came from one of my first true cigar loves…the Indian Tabac Maduro. This is still an outstanding cigar, but when the Vintage 1990 and 1992 came out, I just was turned off by those flavors. But with each new cigar he puts out, I am hopeful and grab up a few to try.

I tried the REO to the tune of a whole box when they came out only to be disappointed. I tried the Vintage Connecticut and thought it was blah. And then I started seeing all these exclusive RP’s come out at places like Famous Smoke and just lost interest.

Now, the one exception has always been the Edge maduro and corojo. But recently I was very upset with a marketing ploy of his that I would like to blow the cover off tonight. I bought an Edge maduro a few weeks ago and I was amazed at how shiny and deep black..almost purple….the sticks were looking and it just made me hungry to buy one. The flavor was the same deep and rich butt kicker that I always loved. But about a quarter through this Edge, I noticed my fingers were getting all reddish brown. And later when I made a trip to the restroom, I saw that my lips were being stained with this same nasty color! What the hell? Then it dawned on me….no stick can look as shiny and as black as these Edges looked without being spray painted with some glossy gooey crap. Sure enough, I wetted down my finger and ran it up the remaining smoke and the color came right off the thing. Why in the world would you take a perfectly awesome cigar and resort to some gimmick to make them look that way when they don’t need it? The normal Edge is shiny enough from it’s natural oils and the taste speaks for itself. Why Rocky why?? Is this even an aged Maduro wrapper on these anymore or a spray painted Connecticut or something?? Could you not keep up with production of this line due to the demand and cheated the fermenting process a bit?
Maybe I’m naive…perhaps there are other cigars that employ this practice. But I’ve never had my fingers stained in smoking thousands of other cigars before. I would be interested in comments if someone else got a little suspicious at a recent too shiny crate of Edges.

Well, regardless, I picked up a 5 pack of Rocky’s newest cigar called the Vigilante. Now, they are selling at CI for ridiculouly cheap, so I would bet that you won’t see this stick anywhere else. Perhaps yet another sellout web exclusive for RP.
This cigar looks very nice. An oily dark maduro with some prominent veins and a wrapper that really makes it look classy. This is a sungrown maduro that is aged for 5 years, but they also come in a 5 year Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper.

When I lit it up, it had a very unique flavor that reminded me of no other cigar…much like the Vintage line…very unique. Perhaps this time it’s the exotic Peruvian filler that I don’t think I’ve had before. The flavor is best described as your darkest, blackest, earthiest coffee you can find. In fact having tried the Gurkha Double Maduro roast coffee a few weeks back I can compare it to that…no sweetness whatsoever, no chocolate notes…just plain dirt tasting. And add to that a bitterness that I really didn’t like. Some might like that, but the aftertaste of this cigar just turns me off. Thankfully about half way through this overbearing flavor backed off a little and it became a nice full flavor with a pleasant aroma in the thick plumes it gave off. Then at the very end, it gave off a slight bit of spice.

Look, this is a fine cigar and you can tell Rocky tried to give us something different here. But it isn’t for everyone. And I can’t help but wonder why the hell the price is so waaaayy below normal RP sticks. CI has them for under $2 per stick. If you just can’t help yourself and you want to try the latest RP, then go for it…get a 5 pack like I did at cigarbid.com for $10. You can’t get hurt for that cost. But, I think overall RP is losing his Edge.

Elvis

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Categories: Cigar Indulgence
Tags: cigar international, rocky patel, RP, the edge, Vigilante