Rocky Patel Battle: Edge Sumatra vs Renaissance

Ben — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:11:54 +0000

Rocky Patel discontinued the ever popular Edge Sumatra shortly after its inital release. In 2008, Rocky Patel cigars released the Renaissance. The Renaissance was supposed to be a rebranding of the Edge Sumatra as a new dedicated line. Many people said the cigar was nothing like the old Edge Sumatra. So, to try to settle the debate, I smoked both back to back. What’s the verdict? Watch the video and find out.

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Partagas Serie D No. 4

Ben — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:37:44 +0000

The Partagas Serie D No. 4 (PSD4) is probably the most famous and most loved robusto on the market today. First introduced in the 1930s as an export cigar for the British market, it was discontinued around 1965. Luckily for us, it was reintroduced in 1975 (my birthday year!) and has grown in popularity ever since. Known as a full power spice bomb, it’s always been one of the highest rated robustos whenever it is scored by Cigar Aficionado or anyone else. This cigar is from April 2004 so it has some good age on it. Let’s see how it tastes.

Appearance

The wrapper is very nice with a toothy appearance and it has a nice plume on the wrapper. Good medium mocha brown color and a nice triple cap. No soft spots on the feel either. No large veins at all. This cigar should smoke very well.

Pre-Light Draw

The draw is firm, but not too much. The tastes on the draw are nice toasty tobacco and sweet spices. Reminds me a lot of a biscotti cookie. It’s very nice.

First Third

This first third is loaded with spices. It tastes of allspice, nutmeg and pepper. There is a super buttery note underneath it all also. It’s very smooth and surprising that it’s not more in your face with spices. The burn is razor sharp and the ash is good white and mottled grey.

Second Third

Ok, the spices have expanded and they are getting more on the hotter side of spices and moving away from the sweeter side. It still has the buttery note, but its having a more blackened season type flavors. I’m also getting a coffee note that really meshes well with the other notes. It’s actually smoothing out more even with the spicier notes making an appearance.

Last Third

It’s pretty much like the second third except I taste even more butter flavors along with some mild creaminess. It’s pretty pleasant. It really does remind me a good blackened piece of fish or steak. Not the meatiness part, but the spicy crust. The black pepper note from the first third is back and it’s getting stronger as the cigar gets shorter.

Overall Impression

This cigar lived up to it’s reputation. The cigar is spicy, sometimes sweet, cigar with some nice coffee notes and pepper on the finish. I’ve smoked a few of these and it’s amazing what some aging does for these cigars. The mellow out a lot and they lose that roughness they have when they are young. They’re like me. Rough and boisterous when young and then mellow out and get smoother with age. LOL. This one had 5 years of age on it and I think that is a good amount of time on these. I think they are near their best between 5-7 years of age. Definitely give these a go if you get your hands on some.