Just to let you know...I’m not a huge Rocky Patel fan. Nothing against his seemingly thousands of lines, but it almost becomes confusing when trying to weed out the crap from the good stuff with his cigars. He puts out a new cigar for each season, and they are gone and forgotten before you can find them. Recently, I was in discussion about this type of production, a couple of trustworthy smokers said the summer 2008 selection is a good smoke right out of the box. So I figured I’d give this one a try.
The Summer 2008 is bound and filled with Nicaraguan tobacco, while the wrapper is a Ecuadorian grown Sumatra. I couldn’t find much more information on the cigar, so that will have to work.
Prelight - The Lancero is a nice looking cigar. It has a light brown wrapper, almost looking like a Connecticut shade leaf, and the leaf is think and delicate. A couple blemishes on the wrapper and a thin veiny look to it. The cigar looks rather dry and smells like hay.
The highlight of the appearance is a nicely done pigtail. For some reason, those pigtails always add something to the look of a cigar. The draw is a little tight and offers little in the way of aroma or taste.
Sparking it – The cigar lights easily and produces little smoke. The draw opens up as the cigar progresses, but still doesn’t offer much smoke. Construction wise, I don’t see any problems, but the ash falls off pretty quickly. The cigar offers a mild-medium flavor profile; nothing special so far. I’m unimpressed and hope something changes. At 8$ a cigar, this seems like a bust, and I’m only 2” in.
Smoking it – I don’t like it. This cigar has a unique citrusy taste, but it isn’t aromatic or flavorful. Most of the smoke I was trying to figure out what I was tasting, but the profile was to faint to really pin point anything. The burn on this cigar was the best thing it had going. The burn stayed even and required no touch ups.
Thinking about the cigar, the only thing that comes to mind is unimpressive. Unimpressive in appearance, taste and value. I will not be smoking this again. The cigar was flat and dull. I doubt resting this cigar for a few years would do anything special to it. I just wasted $8 and a little over an hour of my time.
Overall – D
The draw on both samples I smoked was spot on perfect. This is a great construction of cigar. The burn rate is about average while the burn line is thin and even.
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