Rakesh "Rocky" Patel is the founder of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars. His cigars are made at the company's own TaviCusa factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, and by the Plasencia family at El Paraíso in Honduras.
He was born in India (New Delhi, raised in Bombay), moved to the United States in 1974, went to high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and practiced entertainment and product-liability law in Los Angeles. He smoked cigars on studio lots, joined the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills as a founding member, and in 1995 invested in Indian Tabac Cigar Co. with Phillip Zanghi III, a boom-era startup that used an Indian Motorcycle name. Its first cigars were rolled in Honduras, and its big debut came at the 1996 RTDA trade show. Patel moved from silent partner to running the business and took manufacturing under closer control with Nestor Plasencia.
He put his own name on the company in 2003 (2002 by Cigar Aficionado's count). Vintage became the flagship, and The Edge followed in 2004, sold as 100 unbanded cigars in a rough wooden box. Brother Nish Patel joined in 2004. TaviCusa, run with partner Amilcar Perez-Castro, makes the Fifteenth Anniversary, Royale and other Nicaraguan lines. Sun Grown Maduro was Cigar Aficionado's No. 2 cigar of 2016. The company is headquartered in Naples, Florida, and is independent of STG and Altadis.
Industry Connections
- founded byfounded Rocky Patel Premium Cigars
- brotherbrother Nish Patel
- establishedestablished by Tabacalera Villa Cuba (TaviCusa, Estelí)
- long-term manufacturing partnermanufactures for Plasencia Cigars
- core Honduras production atmanufactures for El Paraíso (Plasencia Honduras)
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