Rocky Patel Broadleaf - Cigar Review

PROLOGUE

Busy as a bee, me.

THE CIGAR

Rocky Patel Broadleaf
5 1/2" x 50 Robusto
w. Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
b. ?
f. Honduran & Nicaraguan

Many a thank ya to Cigars City for this kind offering.

PRE-LIGHT

Leathery looking insofar as eyeballed texture. Hi. My name is Kaplowitz and I thank ya for stopping by www.kaplowitz.xyz, where every day is an homage to Shemp's last one. Cigars, boxing, horse racing, and jokes. Check, check, check, and check. Complexion is somewhat uneven and ranges from a dark peanut butter to a light Nutella. Espresso bean marblings happen throughout. Very medium-thick veiny but with no foretelling of burn impediment. Seams are tight and even, but one is cut a bit oddly and jaggedly so. Cap is a bit short on longer shoulders and is coming up a tick. Foot tobacco is a mousy brown with dirty blonde high-lights and packed to a -full density sayeth mine eyes. Nice flat gloss sheen over-top and in an even manner.

Hand-feel sports a substantial and well-balanced heft. Woodsy, natural almost dry leaf texture. Go figure, gentlepersons. -Full packing density off the Charmin squeeze test and very even. What give there is, offers a lively spring-back to form. Toothy hand-feel and visually it's there too, but the marbling grabs the peepers first. Lifting the Rocky Patel offering to my schnoz, I get a creamy mocha leathery hay sensation. At the foot is a bit of a sweet peppery note addition.

I cut the cap with a cutter. A Xikar Xi2 cutter. It cuts. The draw tension is a medium+ resistance and offers cold notes of sweetly spiced cocoa with a caramel high-lighted cold finish.

LIGHT

A chocolate laced wood note is the aroma given off as I toast the foot. Lights well and evenly and perhaps takes a bit longer than is average to do so. First hot draw is a nice zetz of pepper front and what follows that is a caramel addition to the mocha. There's a sense of the pepper being restrained. Second hottie is retro-haled to a strong pepper that's again somewhat muted. It's at the forefront but somehow leading from the rears. Kitchen spices come into the middling with the wood note that seems headed to a oak wood shaving. Third pull sees the kitchen spices mix with earth/dirt. Caramel comes in and out of the cocoa. Pepper and wood seem yet to have settled into anything further distinguishable.

Ash is mainly white and the charred tooth takes on a silver tone. Line is even and set to a thin+ thickness. Packing has not softened off Djeep lighting. Draw is very nice and locked in on a medium+ tension. Plenty of smoke-hole saturation and off-the-foot out-put. Room-note is a sweet woodsy leather. Nice smoker, this Broadleaf. We shall see how well it tests.

ACT I

Caramel flits back and forth from becoming more of a honey note. Wood is remaining at oak shavings but also picking up a slightly toasted vibing. Leather slides into the under-belly. Primary is mocha and its makings held up by a pepper note. Middlings are kitchen spices, wood, honey, and a new toasted cream. Construction and combustion are the co-headliners in this RP offering. Ash is a white sheath on an even burn. Smoke out-put is very consistent off both ends.

Finish is a sweet light tobacco of medium length'd legs. Turns to a fresh hay at its ending. Nice and clean. Mouth-feel is a great moisture level on a light creamy body. Profile is a medium. Strength is a light+. Retro-hale is a nice peppercorn sweetened with caramel. Not a full zetz of peppercorn, but a nice one. Ash lilts at shy of an inch and I roll it off in my $0.99 Walmart tray. I can see well the combustion now and toke into my Dollar Store hand mirror. As suspected, it showcases a fantastic even char. Mocha up-top is getting a wing-man of coffee and cream. Pretty neat ending to the opening act, gentlepersons.

ACT II

Smoke texture creams up a tick. A bread note floods into the lower middling, a brick oven fresh loaf of crusty white. The creamy texture marries the notes a bit, but delineation remains. There's a definite sharp and finely ground black pepper zetz on the retro-hale. Peppers have dialed well back on the draw. Ash is in a ladder-rung form now and gets a flake or two.

I'm giving thought to recording myself reading some of my already posted reviews and posting that bit o' audio fun to this here blog. Gentlepersons: thoughts on the matter?

Wood and leather are dancing now. Coffee and cream are an upper middling under the mocha primary. Said mocha primary gets another pull of espresso. A nutty vibe is added to the lengthening finish. Retro-hale gets some coffee beans included into the black pepper. Construction and combustion purr through. This Rocky Patel dangles nicely in the lips, and its smoke is kind in even my sensitive and intelligent sexy green eyes.

Ash surprise-clumps at just shy an inch and my schmatta whisks. Rebuilding burnt offering is of a darker hue and seemingly oilier texture. Denser. Strength is up to a -medium and profile is pushing up to medium+, but not quite there. A very classic blend, this. A very smokeable smoker, this.

ACT III

Smoke out-put hefts up insofar as density. Added espresso shot sharpens primaries a tick. Ash pales. Construction and combustion and all notes thereof, hold fast. Flavor is vastly unchanged lest an increasing honey/caramel hits nuttiness. A dry hay note hits leathery under-belly. Black pepper gets sweeter and creamier on retro-hale. Burn-pace is phenomenally even-keeled. Ash lilts once more again at 3/4" and I roll off a cool solid chunk of the stuff. Room-note gets a graham addition.

A homeless woman approaches my porch and asks if I have a cigarette. I say "Baruch Hashem!" and hold up the remaining bit of the Broadleaf. I cannot recall the last time I smoked a cigarette, actually. Bread note gets crustier, innards stay soft and airy. With the band looming nigh, methinks I shall see no more to share with ya, Dear Reader.

Nub softens comfortably and smoke stays cool as a cucumber.

SMOKE TIME

80mins (approx.)

NOTES

A classic smoker. A fine smoker. Simple nuances and attainable complexities. Would do well with tending roses and propagating mint with which to infest my fat neighbor's yard. He simply won't stop blaring Foxnews Radio and slow jazz. He rides his bike in slow tight circles in the across the street park and listens from there. "Enjoy yer mint infestation," I say under my breath. Over my breath, I say "Weeeeeeeeee!" each time he coasts closely 'nuff to hear.

PAIRINGS

Anything coffee. "Concord Grape Manischewitz," it doth scream.

K A P L O W I T Z SCALE

K being the least, Z the greatest

Appearance W
Construction I
Combustion I
Flavors/Body W
Strength L

FINAL GRADE

****B+****

EPILOGUE

EDITOR'S NOTE

You can listen to an audio version of this review HERE.