Rocky Patel Twentieth Anniversary

Last year, 2015, Rocky Patel celebrated his 20th anniversary in the cigar industry. As is his custom, Rocky released yet another anniversary cigar, the Twentieth Anniversary. Similar to his last two, the Fifteenth Anniversary, and the Decade, Rocky Patel honors the successful milestones of the brand with a special blend.

Much like the other anniversary lines, Rocky has spent a lot of time perfecting this blend—the last four years in fact. As many of the brand’s biggest releases have come out of Honduras, it is only fitting that this, the 20th anniversary blend, would use primarily Honduran tobaccos. The Twentieth Anniversary features a Honduran wrapper, with Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers, from Jalapa and Estelí, and Jamastran respectively.

The Twentieth comes in five sizes: Lancero 7½” x 38, Rothschild 4½” x 50, Robusto Grande 5″ x 54, Toro 6″ x 52, Sixty 6″ x 60.

Twentieth Anniversary Breakdown

As far as presentation goes, this is easily my favorite Rocky Patel cigar. The Honduran wrapper is beautiful, sleek and oily. Both the normal band and the foot band compliment the cigar very well, with a gold, white, and black design. The cigar has no tooth, with small veins and small visible seams. The pack is slightly uneven to the touch, mostly being firm with a few soft spots.

Smoking Experience

Although box-pressing cigars makes them look more elegant, it often hinders the cap’s cutting ability. Thus is the case with the Twentieth, as my perfect cutter slices unevenly, slightly damaging the shoulder. After blowing off bits of loose tobacco, the cold draw reveals, first, a very loose draw, followed by musty notes of citrus, wood, and coffee.

Not surprisingly, once lit, the Twentieth Anniversary maintains a slightly too-loose draw; not detrimental, merely annoying. The flavor, however, was a bit surprising. A blast of smooth and creamy smoke is easily detected, having rich notes of cocoa, spice, sugar cane, oak, a little lemon zest and some deep pepper on the retro-hale. Now that’s a full palate, not something you experience from most of Rocky’s cigars.

Burning well into the first third, more floral notes join in with the lemon and cedar, adding a bit of a rosemary finish, with a good amount of pepper still lingering on. Burn has been absolutely perfect so far, all save for the irritably loose draw.

Leading past the halfway mark, a very noticeable flavor transition has taken place. Pepper is almost completely gone, as well as most of the floral notes. Added notes of dark chocolate, espresso, a sweet cream flavor, and good bit of sarsaparilla all make up a wonderful flavor combination.
Finishing off, flavors develop again, with a spicy rosemary on the draw and a good amount of dry cocoa and coffee on the finish. The smoke also loses its ‘creamy’ texture, turning into a bit of a dry barbecue rub. The draw remains consistent, causing the smoke to heat up too quickly and diminishing some of the flavor.

Would I smoke this again?

Absolutely. This may be one of Rocky’s biggest hits, once more people get to try it. With a great amount of flavor and some rather decent complexity, this is not something you want to pass up. If it’s been awhile since your last Rocky, now is the time for a revisit!

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