Rocky Patel Premium Cigars (RPPC) will introduce a new brand at the IPCPR trade show called ALR, an abbreviation for Aged, Limited & Rare. The cigars are the first run of small batch releases the company plans to unveil in the years to come.
Rocky conceived the idea of ALR three years ago – before he even had the brand name – when he blended a cigar featuring a smooth Habano-seed wrapper paired with select Nicaraguan fillers and a Nicaraguan binder. Rocky had decided that this great blend would develop even further with aging, so he ordered a short production run of 100,000 cigars.
“I remember in early 2015, there was this blend I kept coming back to” explained Patel, president and CEO of RPPC. “I was down in the factory working on new brands, and this one fulfilled an idea we had – maturing fully rolled cigars for greater complexity.”
The cigars were rolled in the TaviCusa factory based in Estelí, Nicaragua, and laid to rest in an aging room where they remained for three years. Now ALR is ready and will begin shipping to tobacconists in August, crafted in three vitolas: Robusto (5 x 50) retailing for $13, Toro (6 x 52) retailing for $14, and Sixty (6 x 60) retailing for $15. All three shapes will be packed in 20-count boxes totaling 1,500 boxes each. The surplus ALR cigars will be held as private inventory kept in Rocky’s personal reserve.
“These fine cigars are special to me, and I’m proud to finally offer them to the cigar market,” Rocky said. “They’re silky, complex, medium-bodied. But they won’t last. Grab them while you can!”
