Rocky Patel – Part 1

In an industry built on establishing name and reputation, Rocky Patel has turned his passion into a brand that has reached heights not reached by many boutique cigar makers. A survivor of the ‘cigar boom’, Patel has overcome his competition with an unsurpassed tenacity in his pursuit of excellence. With an extremely busy schedule of travel, office responsibilities and production, Rocky still maintains the enthusiasm he had from day one.

Rakesh Patel (Rocky Patel)

The story of Rakesh Patel (later in America he changed his name to Rocky Patel) began in India. Born and lived in Bombay (Mumbai) until the age of 14, then immigrated to the USA with his parents. Rocky Patel lived and worked as a Hollywood lawyer in Los Angeles. Among the actors, directors and other figures of the cinema, cigar smoking was a common part of the Hollywood atmosphere.

So, watching the numerous films whose legal cases he dealt with, he met his passion, inhaling the strong smoke of Cuban cigars. Along with his work, Rocky became a member and then an investor of the Grand Havana room, where he gathered with celebrities to relax and smoke cigars.After some time, the idea came to turn his passion into his own cigar manufacturing business. No one believes in the success of the venture, but Patel proves to everyone: nothing is impossible, and today the whole world knows his name.

The perfectionist

Rocky is a true perfectionist, and before getting serious about the cigar business, he carefully studied this art for five years: he traveled and spent a lot of time in the plantations of Honduras and Nicaragua, studying the production process, fermentation and drying of tobacco. He blended and tried hundreds of tobaccos from Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic until he learned to recognize and combine them. So after full training and business research, he sold his law firm and moved to Florida.

In 1996, Rocky Patel, Indian by birth and without a drop of Cuban blood, devoted himself to his love, making cigars – unique and different. At that time in America, the period of the so-called “cigar boom”, the market was flooded by numerous cigar manufacturers with low-quality tobacco. Rocky Patel, used to doing everything the best way and no other way, bets on the true connoisseurs and connoisseurs.

To be continued …