The Rocky Patel Premium Cigar Company is a manufacturer of
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...
s, founded by Rakesh "Rocky" Patel and based in
Bonita Springs, Florida
(beautiful), eng, beautiful springs
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline = Bonita_Beach.JPG
, imagesize = 250x200px
, image_caption = Bonita Beach
, image_flag ...
.
History
The company was founded in 1995 as Indian Tabac Cigar Co. by Hollywood attorney Rakesh "Rocky" Patel, who became interested in cigars when spending time with actors between takes, and sold his legal practice to start the business.
It was named under license for the
Indian Motorcycle
Indian Motorcycle (or ''Indian'') is an American brand of motorcycles owned and produced by American automotive manufacturer Polaris Inc.[Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...]
. The company later moved to
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...
,
and was renamed to Rocky Patel Premium Cigars in 2006; the Indian Tabac brand was discontinued in 2014.
[
Initially run entirely by Rocky Patel, since 2013 the company has been co-managed by his brother Nish Patel, who heads sales and major client relations, and his cousin Nimish Desai, who is head of production.][ , it was based in Bonita Springs.][ In 2008 the Rocky Patel Decade cigar, produced to mark the tenth year of the business, achieved a classic 95 rating in ''Cigar Aficionado''.][
In 2010, Patel opened a cigar and drinking lounge in Naples called Burn by Rocky Patel; in 2018 and 2019, other lounges opened in ]Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
, Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
, and Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. In 2020 the Naples lounge hosted one of the preliminaries for the Cigar Smoking World Championships.
Production
The cigars were initially all produced from tobacco grown in El Paraíso, Honduras, leased from Nestor Plasencia Nestor Plasencia Sr. (born circa 1950) is a tobacco grower and cigar maker of Cuban descent whose factories in Honduras and Nicaragua produce over 30 million cigars a year. Contracting out the use of his factories to Rocky Patel and other leading br ...
;[ Patel later expanded production to ]Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
, where he began growing in Estelí
Estelí (), officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and municipality within the Estelí department. It is the 3rd largest city in Nicaragua due to the high urbanization of its municipality, at 83%, with an urban population of ...
with Amilcar Perez Castro and the company built a factory.[
]
See also
*List of cigar brands
This is an alphabetical list of cigar brands. Included is information about the company owning the brand name as well as a column allowing easy viewing of the source of that information.
If a brand name begins with the English word "The" or its S ...
References
External links
Rocky Patel Premium Cigar Company
interview with Rocky Patel, Fall 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Rocky Premium Cigars
Cigar brands
Companies based in Florida
American companies established in 1995