Rocky Patel Renaissance Review

Enjoyed a Renaissance toro this morning on my walk with the dogs. Beautiful day and I hope you all are enjoying some form of activity outside as well.

Appearance:
Striking cigar. A darkish brown/reddish Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. The band on this stick is very elegant as well. Double capped with small veins and zero noticeable seams. As always RP knows how to put out a top notch made cigar.

Construction:
The cut was perfect, as the first cap went almost a half-inch down the cigar to allow for no error. Again, beautiful and seamless. The burn and draw were perfect throughout as well.

Flavor:
First inch of the cigar offered a good amount of spice with woodsy flavor in the background. The remainder of the cigar, the woodsy flavor was the main flavor, but not strong, with hints of charcoal, cream and charred wood. These other flavors never popped out, as I wish they would have. This was a medium bodied cigar that was very pleasant to smoke.

Afterthought:
My only wish is that the flavors would have been more pronounced. This was a freebee at the last RP event at JRs (buy 3 get 1 free). After searching the web, MSRP is $8.xx for the toro. A little too much for this cigar, in my opinion, but maybe after aging one for a while the flavors would be more pronounced. Overall a very relaxing and pleasant cigar.

7.5/10

Take care-
Joe

Inventory

What is everybodys inventory right now? I have one home humi and one work humi. I have my kick around smokes at my work humi (about 75) and my home humi (300 + 25 in the drawrer underneath with some humipacks) has the good stuff under lock and key (so don't get any ideas Adam).

Man, I need to smoke more.

Matt

What are you smoking today?

I plan on smoking a Don Lino Afrifa Tembo, 7.5 x 50, after work. I just received two singles from cigarbid. I've never smoked a stogie this size before and it looks like a rough and tough cigar. Ever had one?

What are you smoking today?

-Joe

REVIEW: Diesel Unholy Cocktail Torpedo 5 x 56

Just received a 10 pack of these from cigarbid.com. I was immediately impressed with the weight of this cigar--almost unreal for its size, and I noticed the bands are positioned the foot of the cigar (just like the Edge). Dark, leathery wrapper; prelight was sweet; and I could immediately tell this was going to be a spicy smoke. The cigar was indeed spicy from start to finish, almost over-powering at times. It didn't necessarily start off as a full strength smoke, but it certainly finished as such. A tremdously pepper & spicy cigar. This guy runs right along (if not a bit before) The Edge. 10/10

Adam

How do you refresh your tastebuds?

Jeff brought up a subject at the last OCCS meeting that I found very interesting. He told me that he heard that having a soda between cigars is a good way to clear your palate, or refresh your tastebuds if you will. I find that when I smoke multiple cigars in a row, I can't get the true taste or full taste of any cigar after the first one, especially when I smoke the cigars back to back as on OCCS meeting nights. I realize that it could be my personal issue, but Jeff's suggestion made me think that I'm not as wierd as I initialy thought (maybe anyway). Do you all have this same problem? If so, what are your remedies?

-Joe

October OCCS Meeting and El Baton Review

Another fine night of cigars and friends at Growlers. I hope our picture makes it into Cigar Aficionado. Cigars were plenty and even a cooler/humidor made an appearance. Good to see that everyone made it to another meeting, and Rich's first as an OCCS member. Also, happy birthday to Matt! I think he turned either 27 or 49, but not sure. John hosted this one and he brought an El Baton cigar as the cigar for the night.

El Baton is made by the J.C. Newman Company and I believe we had the double toro at 6 x60 (correct me if I am wrong). It is a Nicaraguan puro with a corojo wrapper. This was my second cigar of the evening after enjoying a delicious Oliva G maduro toro. I've heard great things about the El Baton, so I was eager to try. The El Baton started out as a smooth smoke and finished the same way. Even burn, no touch ups or corrections needed. The draw was good and cool all the way to the end, as was expected of the large ring gauge. The flavors I experienced were leather, earth and a tad bit of spiciness. Not sure of the price point, but I hear this is a good value cigar. I will definitely try again. I followed up the El Baton with a RP Sun Grown 6 x 60, which was also excellent.

El Baton rating=8.5/10

Take care-
Joe

check this out guys...jeff