Rocky Patel Edge Maduro Torpedo

[T2P]

Today we ended up with a really nice spot of weather (28F) and I decided to throw on a sweatshirt, coat, and gloves to brave the outdoors for a decent smoke. Sifting through my humidor I found on the bottom level a Rocky Patel Edge Maduro that I received in a newbie sampler when I first joined CP. Few of the cigars sitting in my desktop are maddies so this 6 x 52 torpedo stuck out to me. Gathering my supplies including my faux 70's flower patterned folding chair I set in for a treat.

The first thing about this cigar that I noticed is its appearance. I like the fact that the band is flush with the foot of the cigar rather than at the traditional location towards the head. It gives it a more "modernly elegant" feel. The wrapper is pretty smooth with one more distinguished vein running down the left and right sides. Overall construction looks pretty solid down to the well secured cap. Looking at the foot I notice a few prominent stems present, which I find a little offputting but not detrimental. Pinching the length of the smoke produces nearly zero give, I mean this one is pretty much rock solid despite having rested in my main humi at 70% for nearly 4 months and my desktop at 65% for another. Fearing a terrible draw to come I cut the cap.







The cap cuts very cleanly with my Xikar double blade and surprisingly the draw is perfect. Nice and tight but no plugging at all. I am even more surprised because the cut reveals the that the stems I saw at the foot continue all the way through the head. The prelight draw produces slight grassy tones with a more pronounced coffee line. A sweet Wood, perhaps Spanish cedar, is evident as well.

Due to the solid nature of this smoke along with the cold and wind, this smoke takes some time to get lit. Once it gets going, however, the start of the burn is very straight. My initial puffs reveal the coffee discussed earlier but it is much more forward like a strong espresso. Underneath is a combination of toast and a hint of what I believe to be vanilla. The major flavors are intense and what is very nice is the way those notes stay with you after exhaling the smoke. A lot continues to be present on the pallet.



At about the end of the first inch to inch and a half a strong pepper taste takes over and overshadows the coffee. This is a bit disappointing to me because the coffee and sweet (vanilla?) were what was making this more complex and enjoyable. The burn also starts to go a bit off but rotation and a slight wetting almost correct this. I fight with this for much more of the smoke than I would have liked.



The rather one dimensional profile continues through about the half way mark at which point I decided to escape the shade and take my smoke for a walk.

***Prepare for a non-smoking aside - If uninterested skip to next asterisked area***

My wife and I recently moved to the area of WI we now live in and sad as I am to say, we have just recently started exploring the area more. I took a fairly long walk around the neighborhood enjoying both the man made (hot air balloons anyone?) and natural scenery. Feeling like being close to the water I made my way down to the river by which we live. There was a small park that only had one, maybe two, sets of footprints going through the day fresh snow so I trudged my way through the park. After reaching an overlook on the river I was taken aback by what I saw. Spanning in front of me was a large network of roads. This in itself is nothing to really speak of but the interesting thing of this is that the roads were on the ice of the river! I knew we lived by a boat landing and I knew we also had a lot of people who ice fish the river but I never thought it was as common as it was. I mean everything from four wheelers to passenger cars to large moving style trucks used these pathways between Wisconsin and Minnesota and everything between. It was a beautiful site and I spent a large amount of time smoking there.







***End Non-Smoking Aside***

Throughout the time that I took the walk, came back, and finished on my porch the flavor profile of this stick did not change much. At about half way the pepper did subside but instead of revealing the flavors that were present at the start it faded from a black pepper to a white pepper.

Overall I think this smoke promised a lot. The burn was not the most even at times but I attribute some of that to my distractedness of the walk, wind, and perhaps the cold. What I cannot write off, however, is the lack of dimension after about the 1/3rd mark. If those flavors would have faded in and out alongside the pepper tones I think this could have been very enjoyable. Its flatness, however, causes me to rate this smoke as mediocre. I would not be opposed to trying another one again some time or at least reading a few reviews to see if my experiences are unique but it is not one that I will actively seek out.