Objectivity is a challenge some days – things have their influence on opinions, whether it’s an overheard comment, a perception of a person, or just the way something looks.
In this case, it’s a comment that was overheard about the Thunder by Nimish from Rocky Patel Cigars that kept playing over and over every time the cigar was considered for a review.
“It’s the Traviata killer.”
That was the comment overheard when walking by the Rocky Patel booth at this year’s IPCPR trade show. One of the company’s salesmen was showing a retailer the Thunder by Nimish, and that’s how he described it. Quite a statement.
The Traviata, for those who don’t know, is CAO’s La Traviata, a 93-point rated cigar that was priced under $5 and was the buzz of the 2010 IPCPR trade show.
So how does Rocky Patel plan on taking down the much-heralded La Traviata?
With a cigar that uses a Habano wrapper, dual binders of Nicaraguan and Honduran, and a filler blend that consists of Nicaraguan, Honduran and Costa Rican tobacco. Blended by Nimish Desai, Rocky’s cousin who oversees the company’s Central America operations and has been behind several of the company’s blends. It comes in three sizes – robusto, toro and torpedo - with prices between $5.50 and $5.95 before taxes.
For this review, a pair of 6” x 52 toro vitolas that were provided by the company were smoked.
The cigar is firm with some give, with a double-banded, dark brown wrapper. It’s attractive with a bit of sheen and some veins that give it just a bit of texture.
The pre-light aroma has a decent bit of spice leading a somewhat cool note that hits the nostrils with just the faintest bit of sweetness tagging along. The cold draw is easy with a bit of spice to tempt the palate.
Once lit, the cigar has a bit of a sweet & spicy flavor of the gate – more spicy, but definitely some sweet background notes that play well with the spice. After a few puffs, there’s a real lingering spice that sits on the tongue well after the smoke leaves the mouth and the cigar is put down
The cigar burns fairly quickly in the first half inch – having smoked some slow-burning sticks recently, this one seems to move fairly quickly. The sweetness starts to fade away in the transition to the second third, which starts to become marked by a flat note of earth that certainly doesn’t evoke any connotation of thunder. The spice has backed off just a bit and the flavor hits a lull approaching the midway point.
There’s not a lot going on once the cigar crosses the midpoint – mainly because neither of the cigars wanted to stay lit. Both sticks, which came from different sources, simply refused to burn for more than a minute or so in the second half. While there was a bit more effort to try and work through this hiccup in the first cigar, the reappearance of the problem in the second one proved too frustrating to battle through. It was reminiscent of some of the problems the Rocky Patel 15th Anniversary had when it first came out.
When it was burning, a consistent note of spice provides the ramp up to the transition to the final third, with the earthy note evolving a bit towards a coffee note, with just the slightest touch of acidity that didn’t sit well in the upper chest.
The Thunder by Nimish may be marketed as the Traviata killer, but these two cigars just couldn’t go the whole way in the fight, running out of gas just past the midpoint. While there would seem to be some hope for this cigar once the burn issues get resolved, it earns an incomplete grade at this point with no scheduled date for a rematch – at least with this palate. Rocky Patel might be going to battle against National Tobacco over the trademark registration of the name, as Frank Herrera at Cigar Law reports that the name ‘Thunder by Nimish’ is being contested.
Read reviews of more cigars by clicking here, including new cigars from the 2011 IPCPR Trade Show.
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