Rocky Patel Legends 52 Ray Lewis Toro

Rocky Patel has collaborated with a couple pro athletes for his legends series and the Rocky Patel Legends 52 Ray Lewis Toro is as good as it gets. If you don’t know who Ray Lewis is, lets recap his incredibly successful career: he was a first round draft pick in 1996 who spent his entire 17-year career with the Baltimore Ravens, was a ten time all pro linebacker, won two super bowls, was named NFL defensive player of the year twice, was MVP of Super Bowl XXXV when his team won against the New York Giants, and is considered by many as one of the best linebackers of all time. Likewise, Rocky Patel has a well-earned reputation for uncompromising quality. He has received so many stellar ratings and awards from industry groups and publications that he's in a class by himself. Every cigar he makes undergoes rigorous quality control measures to ensure that only the best cigars from the rolling table make it to a consumer's hand. No wonder his sticks are some of the most sought after in the world!

One of Ray Lewis’s favorite pastimes off the field includes smoking fine cigars and that only broadened when he met Rocky Patel at BURN by Rocky Patel in 2013, and despite Rocky’s allegiance to the Green Bay Packers, the two hit it off right away. The resulting stogie features a stunning chocolate brown Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and two binders – one Brazilian and one Mexican, and is chocked full of Nicaraguan and Honduran long-fillers. Unlike Ray Lewis’s style of play, this smoke is not a powerhouse and instead is mild to medium in body, exactly the type of smoke Ray Lewis prefers. Expect well-rounded notes of subtle spice, coffee, chocolate, and earth. We aren’t sure what Ray Lewis would pair with this beauty but our panel recommended a scotch.

Honduras has been a tobacco growing and cigar manufacturing area for hundreds of years, but it was the Communist revolution in Cuba that really put Honduras on the map. In the 1960s, many Cuban cigar makers fled their homeland and arrived in Honduras to re-establish their way of life. The immigrants took advantage of the climate, soil, and geography, which were well-suited to tobacco growing, and began producing high quality cigars. The center of the Honduran cigar industry is the city of Danli and the nearby Jamastran Valley. The majority of the world’s pure Corojo tobacco is grown here, now that Cuba has stopped production of this iconic, spicy, and rich variety in favor of Corojo hybrids. Other important areas of Honduran cigar production include the Talanga Valley, Copan, and Trojes.