Saturday, June 7, 2008

Herf #13 - Meat Lover's Paradise

June 1st, 2008 - Woodway, WA

In attendance were Fernand, Robert, Eric, Pat, Joe, and Tom. As usual, we gathered to enjoy a good cigar and give our opinion on it by holding a 'group tasting' following dinner.

The Six of us feasted on Tom's famous smoked meats, on his back deck. The slow-smoked beef and pork roasts were amazing and combined with his artful grilled romaine heads and washed down with Joe's home brewed winter ale. Once everyone had their fill, it was time for the tasting session.

Our selection for this Herf was the Rocky Patel Decade Torpedo. A beautiful figurado measuring 6 and 1/2 inches long with a ring guage of 52. This Decade was Cigar of the Week back on May 12th which received a 95 from Cigar Aficionado's expert tasting panel.

Following CA's 4-part rating system (Appearance & Construction, Flavor, Smoking Characteristics, and Overall Impression) we began the tasting. This proved to be a very well-liked cigar among our group of tasters.

After averaging our scores, The Cohiba Club's official rating for the Rocky Patel Decade Torpedo is 91. An outstanding cigar.

Here's the points breakdown:
I. Appearance & Construction: 14 pts (93% of the points possible)
II. Flavor: 23 pts (92% of the points possible)
III. Smoking Characteristics: 22 pts (88% of the points possible)
IV. Overall Impression: 32 pts (91% of the points possible)

With an appearance of high quality construction, we couldn’t find much wrong with these torpedoes (though there were a couple previous Patel horror stories recounted which did have us a bit cautious going forward).

As for the draw, several of us remarked that this was exactly the degree of draw that we like to find in a cigar. Perhaps a bit thicker smoke would have really made it, but this did not inhibit the experience much.

The flavor was powerful up front, very rich, pretty spicy. It was strong, but smooth in that there was little or no harshness or bitterness. We kept noticing throughout that the strong flavors would smooth out and then return again repeatedly.

All in all, a very enjoyable cigar which we highly recommend.

See you at the next herf, July 6th.

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