To celebrate his 15th anniversary in the cigar trade in 2010, Rocky Patel created what would ultimately become his most lauded smoke to date, topping even his Decade line in terms of elegance and recognition. Very simply, it’s unlikely you will find a better cigar from Rocky — or from anyone else for that matter.
The Fifteenth Anniversary boasts a high-primed Ecuadorian Habano wrapper loaded with a masterful blend of what Rocky calls “the richest and spiciest [aged Nicaraguan] tobaccos I’ve ever had.” Making use of a Nicaraguan binder, the Fifteenth Anniversary is an exercise in perfection assembled at Patel’s Tabacalera Villa Cuba (Tavicusa) factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.
The Tavicusa factory employs traditional Cuban methods of entubado rolling, triple-cap finishing and the use of two binder leaves instead of one. The result is a superbly constructed, box-pressed cigar that affords satisfying, robust draws of coffee, cocoa and earth flavors, with inklings of fruit, oak and vanilla that only increase as you smoke.
Cigar Aficionado claims the medium-to-full-bodied Fifteenth Anniversary has the best finish ever for a Rocky Patel cigar, and the line’s plaudits speak for themselves: the Toro vitola of the Fifteenth Anniversary ranked 19th in the magazine’s Top 25 for 2010 with a rating of 92. A year later, the Torpedo ranked sixth in CA’s 2011 Top 25 with a 93 rating. Two years subsequently, the Robusto ranked 18th out of the Top 25 for 2013 with a 93 rating, and in 2018, the Toro Tubo Fifteenth Anniversary ranked 20th in that year’s Top 25, with a rating of 92.
In 2018, Rocky gave the packaging for the line a makeover, using a sleek all-black box embossed with silver lettering. With such a prestigious pedigree, is there any reason why you shouldn’t have your own private stock of Fifteenth Anniversaries?