Tasting Note

Rocky Patel has built his company into one of the cigar world’s most recognized brands, one that now counts its annual production in the tens of millions. His brands seem to improve each year. One of his most recent, the Emerald, enchanted our blind-tasting panel. Like many Rocky Patel cigars, the Emerald is box pressed, but he intentionally blended this one a little less powerful than he typically does for box-pressed cigars. (He calls it “on the light side of medium.”) The Rocky Patel Emerald hit the market at the very end of 2024. The cigar is rolled in Patel’s factory in Nicaragua with a complex blend that’s not mild but not strong either, landing somewhere in between, offering a flavor profile that isn’t overpowering and very easy to love. While most cigars have one binder leaf, this one has two of them, one from Mexico and the other Nicaraguan. The filler is a mix of Honduran and Nicaraguan tobacco, and it’s all held together by an Ecuadoran wrapper. The result is lots of ground coffee, leather and hickory notes, with just a touch of spicy black pepper. Price is not taken into consideration when we rate cigars (the reviewers don’t know the price, producer, blend or any other potentially prejudicial detail) but with cigar prices trending ever higher, seeing one that performs this well for less than $12 is considerably appealing.