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Rocky Patel Freedom

As I often do, I ran across this cigar at a local cigar shop. The Freedom is an obvious tribute to America. Since the Rocky Patel brand played a big part in my introduction to cigars, I usually keep an eye on their blends. Let’s see how the Freedom went. America, yippee yo!

 

Wrapper: Oscuro

Binder & Filler: Nicaragua

Size: Toro 6 x 52

Price: $7.49

 

Pre-Smoke & Construction:

The wrapper had a minimal veins, and a nice oily appearance. The scent of the wrapper and foot was a rich, dark sweetness. Squeezing the cigar revealed a bit of a spongy feel, but it wasn’t extreme. The draw had slight resistance, and the pre-light flavor was dark chocolate and earthiness.

The burn required a few minor corrections. The ash was flaky, and held for about one inch.

1 Rocky_Patel_Freedom cigars

Flavor:

The first third had a combination of dark cocoa, coffee, and zingy spice. Earthiness and wood lingered in the background. The smoke feel was heavy, but not quite creamy.

2 Rocky_Patel_Freedom cigars

The zingy spice really calmed down in the second third. Sweet cocoa, combined with coffee, dominated the flavor profile. The tingly aftertaste was creamy and sweet. It took effort to pick up the subtle earthy and woody notes. They hid themselves way in the background.

3 Rocky_Patel_Freedom cigars

The last third had a nice uptick in strength and flavor. It was very hearty and satisfying. The flavors were consistent with the previous third.

4 Rocky_Patel_Freedom cigars

Conclusion:

This was a very good medium to full bodied cigar. I had modest expectations, mainly due to the gimmick factor, but this one lived up to the hype. Rich flavor, good construction, and a decent price, leave little to no room for complaints. This one is worth a try.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at 1:00 am and is filed under Cigar Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Rocky Patel Freedom”

Vulture October 16th, 2012 at 3:44 pm

I hope my local shop will or can get these in. I’ve just noticed them on the radar and was wondering how they were. Now I’ll have to start searching for some to try out.

Thanks Tom!

Micah October 16th, 2012 at 4:57 pm

Great review. Sounds like my flavor profile. Just wish my broke ass could afford them in high quantities!

Steve October 17th, 2012 at 1:42 pm

We must be on the same wave length. I smoked the same cigar yesterday. I’m not a big Rocky fan but, I liked this one!

Cigarmonkey

Tom October 22nd, 2012 at 9:21 pm

Steve – It’s good to see our experience was similar. It may sound strange, but lately my favorite Rocky blends are the Xen (by Nish), and now this one.

Vulture and Micah – I hope your experience is like mine. Just a fine smoke!

Rick December 13th, 2012 at 7:55 am

Nice review Mike. I have a robusto that came as a surprise freebie with an order from Famous and can’t wait to smoke it now! I did hear that they tend to burn a little quick. How do you feel the burn time on the Toro was?

Also, on a side note, a comment was made to me that “ONLY” $7.50 for the robusto was a “great deal”. I’m sorry but I think the prices of many cigars are getting a little out of hand IMHO. It seems a lot of manufacturers are starting to call every new release or even what used to be core lines “Limited Edition”, “Small Batch” or something (not sure if the Freedom is considered limited though) and feel justified in jacking up the price (even higher than this). I’m on a tight cigar budget right now (as I’m sure many others are) and this just prices a lot of them out for me and others I suspect. A cigar I won’t name but I used to get for $4+ not too long ago is now almost twice that, the only difference is they put limited edition on the box, producing the same core brand cigar in the same quantities every year. Well, technically, you can call every years offing a “Limited Edition” because it’s limited to what is produced that year. Sorry for the rant but it seems like ever since the Boutique craze started with higher pricing, some feel justified in over pricing their cigars by calling them small batch or limited when they could just as well be a normal production run without inflated prices.

I would like to here your thoughts on this if you wish to comment or you may feel inclined to do a segment on the topic.

Thanks again for your great reviews and I apologize if I hijacked this post,
Rick

Whodat January 31st, 2013 at 2:45 pm

I’m no expert, however I’ve done a little research and I think this cigar is less of a gimmick and more of a statement about the cigar rights movement.

Tom January 31st, 2013 at 8:01 pm

I think you’re right, which I can appreciate. I figure that is sort of gimmicky itself. Which is fine, as long as the cigar delivers. It’s all good.

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