There’s a new Rocky Patel cigar that has been created to support the New York Tobacconist Association, an advocacy group for New York cigar retailers.

The NYTA Rocky Patel Empire went on sale this week. It’s a 6 x 52 toro made in Honduras using a blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos. The MSRP is set at $11.99 per cigar and Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. will be donating the proceeds of the sale of the cigar to the NYTA.

Those proceeds are designed to help two efforts spearheaded by the NYTA. The first is S.B. 6741, which would establish a 50-cent cigar tax cap in New York State; the second is S.B. 6742, which would create a special liquor license to make it easier for cigar stores to serve alcohol in their stores.

“We have seen acceptance of our bills in the Capitol and are grateful to our sponsors, and co-sponsors,” said Mike Glynn, owner of Rocky’s Cigars and the president of the NYTA, in a press release. “We have made great progress, and fund-raising partnerships like the one created with Rocky Patel will be important in our continued push toward passage.”

The first run of the NYTA Rocky Patel Empire is limited to 1,000 boxes of 10 cigars; it went on sale earlier this week.

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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.