Origin : Honduras
Format : Toro Grande
Size : 6 x 58
Wrapper : Costa Rican Maduro
Binder : Mexican
Filler : Honduran / Nicaraguan
Hand-Made
Price : ~$91.95 for a box of 20
Rocky Patel delivers a private reserve cigar great to honor one of the world’s best pipemakers (Erik Nording). I had three in my humidor which were given to me by a close friend of mine, and I had enjoyed all three tremendously. I smoked the last one in order to write this review. The cigar (when available) can be found in four vitolas: a Robusto (5.5 x 52); a Torpedo (5 X 54); a Toro (6.5 X 52); and the subject of today’s review, the Toro Grande, a 6 x 58 masterpiece.
I looked in several websites to track down who carries it and how much are they running, but it was difficult to find a retailer that had them in stock. Most of them were listed as “Backorder.”
Appearance : Rating: 
This cigar features a dark-chocolate maduro wrapper. Coming out of the cellophane wrapper, one can tell that this was a well-constructed cigar. Only one medium-sized vein was observed. The cigar had a nice oily sheen to it.
The cigar has one major band with the word “Nording” written in copper color and two rams butting heads above “Nording.” The band also had three very nice stripes of black, copper, with the third being a black stripe.
There is a secondary band with the name “Rocky Patel” written on the band.
Construction : Rating:
No soft spots were detected in the cigar, and the cigar felt very firm to the touch. This vitola of the Nording seem to be double capped.
The bands were easily removed from the cigar.
The cigar fit very nicely in my hand, and it was very comfortable during the smoke.
The burn was very even for the entire smoke; I was able to get about an inch of charcoal grey ash before, unfortunately, it fell in my lap.
Flavor : Rating:
The wrapper and the foot had a very earthy and barnyard smell to it. Once the cigar was cut with a Palio cutter, the pre-light draw had a honey and sweet taste to it. The draw was very good for such a solid cigar. The cigar had a spicy taste to it prior to lighting it up, and the spicy taste seem to last for a few minutes before dissipating.
After lighting the cigar, the initial draw and retrohale had a roasted nut and roasted coffee taste. These were very pleasant. About an inch into the cigar, some leather notes were present. It had a nice, long finish, which got even longer for the second half of the cigar.
The cigar’s smoke was very abundant which rose very quickly.
All throughout the cigar, all flavors were very balanced and very pleasant. The cigar was definitely a medium body, very pleasant full flavor cigar.
Value : Rating:
Since the cigar was given to me by a friend, it was definitely of great value for such a quality smoke. However, at around $92.00 for a box of 20, it is an incredible value. The Toro Grande was a good 1.5 hr smoke, so if this is factored into the value of the cigar, it is a great stick. This is priced very appropriately.
As it was noted before, most of the websites where the cigar seemed available showed the cigar as “backordered,” so it may be difficult to find this cigar.
Overall Rating : Rating:
It was an absolute joy to smoke this Rocky Patel Nording Toro Grande. From the quality point of view, there were no flaws identified in all three cigars that I smoked. This is a high quality cigar which, to me, would be a good one to teach a new cigar smoker a good flavor profile. It would also be a good cigar to introduce someone how to retrohale as it is very pleasant in the nasal passages.
If one can find a box, a sampler, or a single cigar, I would encourage that people buy it and enjoy it.
