Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the release of one of the bestselling cigars in the world, The Edge by Rocky Patel.

In a manner that’s only fitting of the cigar business, earlier this year it became known that the company was planning a release to commemorate the 10th anniversary. While this release would keep the cigar’s trademark 6 x 52 shape, it ditched the 100-count cabinets the cigar is known for being sold in and added a few other changes.

Most notably, it’s a barberpole-style cigar with both a Honduran corojo and Honduran maduro wrappers, the same leaves found on The Edge Maduro and Corojo.

While The Edge has come in all sorts of wrappers and sizes, The Edge A-10 appears to be the first to carry a traditional main band, as all other versions of the cigar use just a foot band.

Rocky Patel The Edge A-10 1

  • Cigar Reviewed: Rocky Patel The Edge A-10
  • Country of Origin: Honduras
  • Factory: El Paraiso
  • Wrapper: Honduran Corojo & Maduro
  • Binder: Honduras
  • Filler: Panama & Nicaragua
  • Size: 6 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 52
  • Vitola: Toro
  • MSRP: $7.50 (Boxes of 20, $150)
  • Date Released: May 13, 2015
  • Number of Cigars Released: n/a
  • Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 3

This cigar has sort of a mint-chocolate vibe going on, even if the band is a bit darker than your typical mint color. I assume a large part of that has to do with barberpole, but it still isn’t entirely clear to me despite it being written down in my notes, twice. Whatever the case, while it’s not necessarily a bad sign, taking The Edge A-10 out of the cellophane produces a variety of foul smells with a mixture of manure, barnyard and sweet cocoa. It’s much better on the foot with leather, earth and some sugar cookie, but there’s also a touch of paint in there, which isn’t great. Cold draw has some vanilla ice cream, the familiar paint taste, leather, nuttiness and earth—and it’s somewhat open.

It starts as if a volcano is erupting with smoke pouring out of the foot of the cigar. Flavor-wise, it’s pleasant: leather, warm cedar, a rich and textured vanilla, nuttiness and some white pepper on the back of the throat. It’s medium for the most part, but detailed. An inch in and the cedar has taken the forefront over some oak and creaminess. There’s some saltiness and sourness behind that, but my biggest issues is a bit of metallic flavors in the back. It’s not overwhelming, but it’s never pleasing. Some bourbon notes find their way into the profile of The Edge by the two-inch mark, which helps the sour and salty notes on the back end. It’s still pretty much medium. The draw does tighten from the initial puff, but just slightly.

Rocky Patel The Edge A-10 2

Fortunately, the metallic and sour flavors fade into the second third. There’s still saltiness all around, but it’s accompanied by earthiness, herbal flavors and burnt hay. Through the nose, there’s some lighter floral notes and burnt molasses has emerged from the more generic bourbon flavors. Strength picks up to medium-plus and seems to be building. While the construction is still pretty much the same, including a pretty slow pace, the ash has gotten even flakier and is just not very pretty. It’s not completely going all over the place, but I’m thankful I’m not attempting a longest ash competition with this cigar.

Rocky Patel The Edge A-10 3

The final third of The Edge A-10 remains earthy with the cedar coming back into play with the saltiness and herbal flavors. Retrohaling shows a rather pleasant progression with burnt grapefruit followed by some breads and then a harshness. While much of the construction remains the same, the burn line seems to have a mind of its own and is going all over the place forcing me to touch-up a few times. Strength is now medium-full, which is definitely not what I was expecting from the start.

Rocky Patel The Edge A-10 4

Final Notes

  • This is limited, but I haven’t seen any production numbers.
  • There is a lot of glue on the cap, which is kind of annoying.
  • The ash was the flakiest I’ve seen on any cigar. I’m surprised it held on for as long as it did to be quite honest. Also, it managed to stay fairly straight for most of the cigar, which seems a bit odd given the issues.
  • Strength ends medium-full, well above where I would normally consider most of The Edges I’ve smoked.
  • This was an extremely slow burn time, taking me just over two hours to finish each sample.
  • Site sponsors JR Cigar and STOGIES World Class Cigars (713.783.5100) have the Rocky Patel The Edge A-10 in stock.
80 Overall Score

The Rocky Patel Edge A-10 was a bit pedestrian, but that’s fine. I found it to be smoother, more balanced and fuller than the memories I’ve had smoking a few different versions of The Edge over the last few years, which is fine for me, but potentially too much for your everyday The Edge smoker. I think this would be a very good candidate for those looking to pair with fuller-bodied rums and whiskeys, as I think things could use some smoothing out. I’ve got a couple saved for a redux down the road as I’m interested to see what the cigar would do without some of the rougher and metallic notes. I enjoyed the cigar a bit more than the score likely indicates, but the constant touch-ups are punishing under our scoring system.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.