James Nungesser
New Member
So last night I was gifted a Rocky Patel Sun Grown from a fellow Marine and decided to light it up for a session. I had one of these many years ago and it was a truly enjoyable smoke. However, this time i was less than impressed. Upon initial lighting i noticed it gave off some rough orders of dried hay and it wasnt very pleasant. I gave it some time and worked my way into the first third when I noticed it had a very "rough" basic profile that was of hay, a little pepper spice, and just an off flavor that was reminiscent of something like charcoal. It wasn't very enjoyable. I was like this is not at all what I remember this stick to be. As I worked into the second third I noticed it calmed down a bit but still that funky "off" flavor and thought that maybe it would change as I worked through it. Unfortunately, it didn't. The hay profile mixed with this funky off note made it less enjoyable as time went by. I was really disappointed. What I had originally thought as a solid stick at one time now was a complete mess of non-appealing flavor. I had smoked a lot of Rocky Patels years ago and most were at least enjoyable, but this one was not. The burn was ok and didn't need to be touched up at all and the smoke output was fair, but the flavor profile was way off and not enjoyable. I did some research and saw that many people had stated that the sun grown had gone downhill a few years back. I don't think I will be trying this stick again the future. Has anyone else had one these recently? What was your experience?