Rocky Patel The Edge A-10 Celebrates Brand’s 10-Year Anniversary
Better late than never—this May, Rocky Patel Cigars introduces The Edge A-10, an anniversary cigar that was scheduled for release in 2014. The Edge A-10 marks the 10-year anniversary of The Edge brand but was delayed due to a longer-than-expected production cycle. The cigar features a barber-pole style wrapper that pays homage to the brand's beginnings by intertwining the Honduran and Costa Rican wrappers of the original Edge Corojo and Edge Maduro, respectively, and placing it over a Honduran binder with filler from Nicaragua and Panama.
"When we came up with the A-10 blend, we wanted a barber-pole of the original Corojo and maduro wrappers, but it took a little longer to develop, which is why the cigar is coming out this year instead of last year," Nish Patel, executive vice president of Rocky Patel Cigars, told Cigar Insider. "With the two wrappers, you get the sweetness from the maduro and the spice from the Corojo."
As a brand, The Edge has come a long way since its introduction in 2004. When it first came to market, The Edge was a very simple, wallet-friendly cigar: two sizes (Toro and Torpedo), two varieties (maduro and Corojo) with no bands on the cigars. They came packaged in roughly hewn, rustic boxes of 100. The following year, a new mini-torpedo called the Missile was launched and it shipped in 25-count boxes. A Connecticut version called The Edge Light was also released, which came in boxes of 50.
As the brand grew in popularity, more versions and line-extensions were released. There is now an Edge Sumatra, an Edge Candela and an Edge Nicaragua, as well as Edges available in a wide range of vitolas, from Robusto to Double Corona to Battalion (a 6 inch by 60 ring parejo) to last year's Howitzer release—a truly massive 7 by 70 cigar. (Click here for a look at all of Cigar Aficionado's ratings for The Edge brand.)
The company also introduced a band at the foot of the cigar, which all Edge's now carry. According to Patel, the Edge was being copied so much in the marketplace (and counterfeited as well) that he believed a foot band would help to certify authenticity and avoid customer confusion.
The Edge A-10 is intended as a reminder that the brand's history lives on and the company hasn't forgotten about the explosive success of its first two Edge lines.
Measuring 6 inches by 52 ring, the limited-edition Edge A-10 will retail for $7.50, and has an release date scheduled for the middle of May. As with many cigar lines in the Rocky Patel portfolio, The Edge A-10 is made at Nestor Plasencia's El Paraíso factory in Honduras. Look for a rating in an Cigar Insider.
This story first appeared in the April 21, 2015 issue of Cigar Insider.
