Unless you have been wandering the Gobi Desert for the past few months without food or water, chances are you are becoming increasingly familiar with name Rocky Patel. Rocky is the brilliant founder behind the Indian Tabac brand and after a few tough years in the beginning, Rocky is really coming in to his own with a recent string of releases that have quickly become some of the hottest and most highly rated cigars on the market. If ratings are your game than you surely couldn’t have missed the huge 92 rating the Vintage 1990 Robusto received just a few months ago outscoring the Opus X with ease!

Everyone seemed to stand by waiting to see if the Vintage rating was a fluke or at best, a one-trick pony. Then came a few more fantastic editions to the Rocky Patel label including the Edge and the Sun-Grown by Rocky Patel…

So let’s get down to it. The Sun-Grown is the newest edition to Rocky Patel’s lineup and is produced with a beautiful and oily Ecuadorian Sun-Grown wrapper. In the past it has been my experience that most Sun-Grown wrappers tend to deliver an overpowering and spicy smoke. Not so with the Rocky Patel. The 5 years of aging these wrappers undergo really tones down the spice without sacrificing that rich buttery flavor that you expect from a quality Sun-Grown wrapper. Upon lighting up a Sun-Grown you will first be greeted with a mellow and woody flavor followed by just a hint of spice that develops on the back of your tongue. As the cigar continues to burn you will quickly notice a slow and even change happening as the Sun-Grown gains complexity and trades spice for an intensely rich yet smooth smoke that will keep you guessing as to what will come next. Since their release I have smoked roughly 75-100 of the Rocky Patel Sun-Growns each time putting the cigar down between the half-way and three-quarter mark where the cigar becomes so complex that it just boggles the mind.

Truly a cigar fit for the most discriminating of connoisseurs, the Rocky Patel Sun-Grown achieves a new level quality and consistency that previously could only be found in cigars costing upward of $8-$10 each.