Rocky Patel 30th Anniversary Debuting at PCA 2025 (Update)

[JohnS]

Rocky Patel 30th Anniversary Debuting at PCA 2025 (Update)

March 21, 2025 - Charlie Minato

This year will mark the 30th anniversary of Rocky Patel’s time in the cigar business. And of course, there will be a cigar to commemorate the occasion.

The company that bears his name has teased the Rocky Patel Thirtieth Anniversary, a new release that uses a Mexican San Andrés wrapper over two binders from Nicaragua and fillers from Honduras and Nicaragua. The company says that the wrapper is aged for seven years, while the fillers are aged for at least five years. It is made at the company’s Tabacallera Villa Cuba S.A. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

In 1995, Patel was working as an attorney in Los Angeles and the cigar boom of the mid-1990s was underway. He teamed up with Phil Zanghi to start Indian Tabac Cigar Co. The company survived the downfall of the boom, though Patel and Zanghi eventually split and Patel changed the name of the company to Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. The company has regularly released cigars for its major anniversaries including Decade, Fifteenth Anniversary, Twentieth Anniversary and Quarter Century.

It is very likely that the Rocky Patel Thirtieth Anniversary will be shown off at the 2025 PCA Convention & Trade Show, which takes place April 12-14 in New Orleans.

Update (March 21, 2025) — The company has released some additional details about the cigar and says more will be coming. This story was originally published on March 18, 2025.

Source: https://halfwheel.com/rocky-patel-teases-30th-anniversary-release/448434/

[Cigar Surgeon]

This will be the year of the Mexican San Andrés wrapper for the new world market.

[SCgarman]

2 hours ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

This will be the year of the Mexican San Andrés wrapper for the new world market.

This is considered top tier wrapper. My preference seems to revert to the Ecuadorian Sumatra wrappers that are on many good NC cigars. 

[Cigar Surgeon]

1 hour ago, SCgarman said:

This is considered top tier wrapper. My preference seems to revert to the Ecuadorian Sumatra wrappers that are on many good NC cigars. 

The wrapper is a great choice. Unfortunately what has happened in years where economics drives the choice is oversaturation and many of the blends fall flat as a result.