Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Mexican San Andres, Connecticut
Filler: Nicaragua
Size: 5.5 x 50 “Robusto”
Body: Medium/full
Price: $8.00
My buddy Jason Harding at BestCigarPrices.com gifted this single Bold by Nish Patel to me. It was a pre-release model without the proper cigar band. And since it was released back in August of this year, it should be ready to smoke as it didn’t come in cello.
This is the Bold by Nish Patel Press release:
“Bold by Nish Patel is a well-rounded, full bodied cigar with strength and complexity. Up front flavors of white pepper & cocoa transition into a hearty profile of sweet spice, roasted coffee, and a long sweet finish.”
So there you have it. The cigar comes in four sizes:
Robusto 5.5 x
Torpedo 6.125 x 52
Toro 6.5 x 52
Sixty 6 x 60
I cannot find anything interesting enough to dazzle you with concerning this cigar so on to reviewing it.
Construction is quite excellent with invisible seams but lots of veins. The wrapper is a dark coffee bean color with no sign of oiliness and fairly toothy. The triple cap is flawless. The stick is solid without a single soft spot.
I clip the cap and find aromas of spice, baking spice, sweetness, and an Asian spice of some sort.
Time to light up.
I am first bombasted by spicy hot pepper. The cigar doesn’t exhibit much else at this point. And then at the half inch mark, it digs deep and finds a nice earthy note. And then some sweetness. The body hits classic medium right away but then moves on up to medium/full fairly quickly. I think I am going to be sorry I didn’t have my bowl of cereal by the end of this cigar.
Due to how jam packed the cigar is, it burns very slowly. Time for a story at the end of the review.
The char line is very wavy. May need to correct it. At the 1” mark, a welcoming creaminess appears. Up to this point, it has only been red pepper and some earthiness. So far, I am not impressed with this $8 cigar. Where are the flavors? Send in the clowns.
The spice continues to get stronger…overwhelming any chance of tasting other flavors. I should be enjoying the cigar by now as I say my good-byes to the first third. Brother Nish seems to be uninventive with his blend.
The second third sees the creaminess really take off and the spiciness tamp down a bit. But no other flavors on the horizon.
And then a flavor arose. It is caramel and sticky apple.
At the halfway mark, no additional flavors. The cigar is stagnant. And I have to correct the burn line for the third time.
This cigar has turned out to be a one trick pony. And if it wasn’t for the review, I’d have put the cigar down.
The char line just won’t behave. If I didn’t know better, this would be a $2 bundle cigar.
Clearly, this cigar will be a flash in the pan. A year from now people will be saying, “Bold by Nish Patel? What the hell is that?”
Here are the flavors: Creaminess, sweetness, coffee, earthiness, caramel and apple.
The strength moves up to a solid medium/full. So I have to get through this cigar and on top of it I will get the nicotine spins. Oy.
One of the seams begins to unravel. Oy again.
This is a perfect example of a yard ‘gar. Mostly pleasant but nothing challenging. And certainly not worth the $8 price point. And the prices go up from here up to $9.
I look outside of my dining room window where I work. Snow covers everything and it the snowflakes just keep on falling. It is dreary. Like this cigar.
I was about to review another cigar but stopped. And chose this one instead. Du-oh.
The last third gives me the spins. The char line is a mess. And the seam looks nasty.
And flavors don’t change. I read a couple of other reviews prior to sitting down and writing mine. They were even harsher than me. And I am sure they didn’t smoke one with as much rest time as this one. I correct the char line for the 5th time.
I am hoping for some kind of redemption at this point of the cigar. Something to have made my time better used.
The flavors do become more intense but nothing that would put the cigar under the heading of flavor bomb.
I finish the cigar totally disappointed. Having only this one cigar to try, I should be fair and give the cigar the benefit of the doubt and maybe I just got a stinker. But I doubt it.
And now for something completely different:
If you’ve read me for a while, this is a repeat story. One written years ago after another cigar review.
1974. My girlfriend, my best buddy Skip, and his wife, bought one way tickets to Amsterdam. I brought my bass, amp, and speaker cab. Skip brought his guitar and combo amp.
We were going to be rock stars. Well, things didn’t work out well. We miscalculated our spending money and were going broke after only a month on the Continent. So we decided to head for England where, if we were broke, at least we could beg on the street corner in our native language.
We got a basement flat together and the girls had to get demeaning jobs to keep us afloat.
Melody Maker is the big music rag over there. It had a musician’s classified section. I saw two ads with the same phone number. One was looking for a bassist and the other a roadie.
I called for the bass gig first. An audition was scheduled but I asked if it didn’t work out what about the roadie gig? The man on the other end of the line told me to just worry about the bass gig.
I took my last £5 and spent half getting to St. John’s Wood. A block away from Abbey Road Studios (EMI Studios).
It was the house of Miles Copeland III. I was led down to the basement, and to my horror, saw 20 other auditioning bassists. I turned heels and ran. I got as far as the driveway when the drummer came running after me and asked where I was going? I told him I didn’t do well in cattle call auditions. He called me a douche bag and dragged me back downstairs where he proceeded to make me tea and biscuits (cookies).
There was a sound proof room where the band auditioned the bassists. I could hear everything they played and they were making the bassists play the same four tunes over and over and over.
I sat there working things out in my head how I would play those tunes differently.
The room really began to fill up and I heard whispers of, “Oh no. So and so is here. We ain’t got a chance, mate.” I was starting to have an anxiety attack.
90 minutes later, it was my turn.
The band leader, Darryl Way, said to me, “We’re tired of playing the same thing. Why don’t you give us something to play?”
@#&(JG&*((*#*))(_++(&#!!
Jazz fusion had not hit the shores of England yet. But huge in the States. So I was a big fan of Stanley Clarke and all the jazzers on the CTI label.
I played a thumping riff and we took off. Mind you, at this time in England, everyone played like Chris Squire of “Yes.” All technique, no soul or feeling.
I played the opposite. And they liked it so we played some more and they all had big smiles on their pusses.
I played my ass off that afternoon. Once finished, Darryl, Mick the guitarist, and Stewart Copeland, the drummer asked me a bevy of questions about myself and told me they would bring back the cream of the crop that following Sunday for a playoff.
When I left the room, several bassists approached me as I put my gear away and asked if I got the gig? I looked quizzically at them and said, “How the fuck should I know?”
I got home and the phone rang as I walked in the door. It was Darryl telling me how much they enjoyed playing with me. And then Stew called saying the same thing. I felt elated. I was given a time to come back on Sunday.
We were dead poor and another ride on the bus to St. John’s Wood was expensive from Bayswater.
I got there, went down to the basement, saw the guys but no other bass players. They smiled, patted me on the back and said, “Son, you got the gig.”
$%&*((^#@@%&*^%***^%%
I was immediately put on the payroll. What I didn’t know was that Darryl played in Curved Air, a legendary English progressive band. And Miles was putting together a new band for him. Stew was flown in from Berkeley where he was going to school to join the band.
I had no idea who Curved Air was. Good thing or I might have been mighty intimidated instead of relaxed when I auditioned.
They layed out the plan for me. Holy shit! I was about to become a rock star.
To be continued…..
That’s me on the far left.
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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
Well Kat I hope you don’t get tired of me replying to your reviews but I do enjoy them and I do smoke a lot of cigars. And I can’t help myself adding my 2 cents to everything. So here it goes. I don’t care for Rocky’s cigars, ouch! I feel that he has to many construction issues. Loose draw, under filled cigars, tunneling and bad burns. Just not worth my time and money. There are to many good inexpensive smokes out there. You would think by now he would care about quality by now. I know this review is based on his brothers cigar but I just feel this is just another Rocky thing going on here. I just started to discover Man of War cigars and man I just can’t get enough of them right now. Love you Bro keep up the good work I’m watching.
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Hi Marco,
I’m not a fan of Patel either. He certainly has some very good cigars but they are just a handful. The rest is drek. He is an ex-entertainment lawyer from L.A. And having been in the music business for 10 years, I know how scummy those guys are. I cannot say enough bad things about those guys.
So Mr. Patel is in a contest with Hansotia for the greediest cigar blender on the planet. Neither care about quality control…this is a business and there ain’t a lick of passion. I bet they don’t even smoke their own cigars except in public.
Both are the king and queen of house brands. And for taking credit for bringing new blenders to the public.
The only sticks of Patel I like are the following:
Platinum, Royale, Ocean Club, Freedom, Fifteenth, and Naples.
The other thousands of cigars can suck my choda.
Thanks for the comment, Marco.
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And you just know he is carrying his two brothers…who have even less talent in blending cigars. They are like Gomer and Goober.
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Sent from my iPad
>
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Thanks Ana.
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Absolutely, I’ve not only lit the wrong end of the cigar, I’ve put the lit cigar in my mouth countless times. Ouch.
Oh yes, I know the whole history of the Copelands.
There are three Miles Copelands. Copeland III was our manager. Copeland II was his dad. He was a trumpet player back in the late 1930’s when he got drafted. He was a smart fella so he was inducted into the OSS. The precursor to the CIA.
He then went on to actually be one of the main dudes to develop the CIA and spent most of his career in the Middle East. Stewart grew up in Beirut, along with his brothers; Miles and Ian.
At 18, Stew went off to college at Berkeley. Copeland III dragged him out of his junior year there and put him in Curved Air. At the same time I did.
I used to talk for hours with Copeland II about all that spy shit. He also kept with him the biggest dog I’ve ever seen in my life as a bit of protection. He told me about the famous double agent Kim Philby who defected to Russia. They were family friends and on the night a Russian submarine was waiting for him, he was supposed to be at the Copeland’s for a dinner party. Philby’s family was there, fretting about his whereabouts. He never returned. Just fascinating shit.
Copeland II wrote books about the CIA and became persona non grata with the agency. And he became a commentator for the BBC. I believe he died in the 1980’s. And poor Ian, died just a few years ago of cancer. He was one year younger than me and ran the I.R.S. booking agency. Miles was ultra conservative. Ian was a wild man. And Stew was in the middle.
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LOL.
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Gomer and Goober ? Damn !!! I’m not a fan of Patel either,primarily because of construction and inconsistency issues…Price point is high on most of their sticks, so I have a tendency to stay away…Even the sticks they make with DE, and you know how I feel about DE, have burn and quality control issues…So…Gomer and Goober ? Do these guys know where you live ??? Good BOLD review as usual…Cheers mate !
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