Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper on the Patina LE 2024 is a marbled dark brown and has some raised veins and a decent toothiness to it. The seams are smooth and the caps well applied. The band is blue, bluish-green and white and denotes the company and line. The aroma from the wrapper is a mix of damp wood, earth and dark chocolate while the foot brings cedar and barbecue smokiness. The pre-light draw brings a dry cedar note.
Seth: The Patina LE 2024 has a rich aroma. Very rich. Strong manure and barnyard notes. Leather, tobacco and dark cocoa powder notes are present as well on the wrapper. The foot is softer, but with some pepper qualities. The wrapper is toothy with medium to large sized veins throughout. It is coarse in texture with some oils. Very firm in hand. Dark espresso coloring. Oscuro coloring.
John: The Patina LE 2024 came in cellophane and did not have a UPC sticker. I weighed the cigar at 17.3 grams. There is a single primary band indicating Patina 2024. For aromas on the wrapper, I could pick out bread, tobacco and peaty wood. From the foot, I could pick out only hay and light wood.
Jiunn: The Patina LE 2024 has a wide range of variability in wrapper coloration. It ranges from Colorado Maduro to Maduro. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and the head is well wrapped and capped. Pre-light aromas tell of slight gasoline and campfire, barnyard and cedar.

Patina LE 2024

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with lightly toasted oak, creamy and slightly chalky earth and mild black pepper. At a half inch in, the earth loses the creaminess and becomes a bit gritty along with the chalkiness, while some smokiness joins the profile. The retrohale is toasted oak, earth and mild black pepper. As the third comes to a close, the toasted oak is just ahead of the gritty earth with light chalkiness and the black pepper is just behind the middle of the profile and some smokiness is in the background. The strength was right at medium.
Seth: The first third starts out with rich malt and coffee notes. Dark cocoa powder is present as well, along with some anise and black pepper spices. Tobacco and leather notes are present as well. Rich and full in body. Medium-full in strength.
John: The first third opens with notes of creamy bread, chocolate to follow and wood and spices combining on the finish and post draw. As the first third settles in, some light leather joins the wood and spices already present through the post draw. Some time later, the profile has settled into creamy bread, wood and tobacco center, with some light-plus strength earth notes mixing with spices and wood to finish.
Jiunn: The first third has sweet milk chocolate, fudge, cedar and effervescence. Retrohaling brings subtle spicy cedar and a hint of campfire. The finish is long with subtleties in cedar and effervescence. Strength is medium and body is medium-full.

Patina LE 2024

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, the black pepper mellows a bit and the overall profile is now a bit dry. At a half inch in, the earth loses a bit of its richness. The retrohale remains toasted oak, earth and mild black pepper. As the third comes to a close, the toasted oak is just ahead of the lightly chalky earth, with black pepper in the back half of the profile along with a bit of smokiness. The strength remained at medium.
Seth: The second third continues with those rich flavors from the first third. Malt, coffee and dark cocoa powder with touches of anise and black pepper spices. Tobacco, leather and rich earth are still present. Full in body with a medium-full strength level.
John: I’m greeted to creamy coffee and wood in the second third with earth and a light-plus spicy wood combination through the center of the profile. That wood takes on some tannins as it finishes into the post draw. As the second third continues, the profile is wood forward with the coffee, earth and spices falling away.
Jiunn: The second third has a slight increase in cedar. There’s also some nice baking spices coming through. The overall profile is still all about the sweet milk chocolate, fudge and effervescence. Strength and body remain medium and medium-full, respectively.

Patina LE 2024

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the toast level of the oak increases a bit. At a quarter inch in, the richness of the earth and black pepper both pick back up. At a half inch in, the toast level is pretty heavy and a mid-level bitterness becomes present. The retrohale is now toasted oak, earth and zingy black pepper. As the cigar wraps up, the toasted oak is just ahead of the rich, lightly chalky earth, with black pepper and wood bitterness in the middle of the profile and light smokiness in the background. The strength bumped up to slightly above medium.
Seth: The final third delivers a barnyard flavor profile with malt and strong coffee notes. Dark cocoa powder, anise and rich earth qualities are still present, and there are tobacco, pepper and sweet spice notes present on the end. Touch of mineral qualities as well but pairing well with the earth notes. Medium-full in strength with a full body.
John: Creamy earth starts the last third with wood to follow that intensifies all the way to medium strength and brings some sharpness to it through the post draw. The profile remains static until the halfway point, where the earth ramps up to medium strength for the remainder of the third.
Jiunn: The final third is just like the second third in terms of flavors. The only change is the strength meter is starting to ramp up, but it never made me feel the nicotine in my head or gut.

Patina LE 2024

Burn

Aaron: The burn was a bit wavy, but didn’t require any intervention. The ash held on in inch and a half increments.
Seth: The burn was great from beginning to end. No issues.
John: The burn was wavy through the first third, becoming uneven as it continued. That burn self corrected, but became uneven again and required a touch-up to correct. That waviness continued in the second third where it became uneven again and required another touch-up. The burn was wavy for the remainder of the review but did not require further intervention.
Jiunn: The burn was nearly perfect. The only downside was a quick touch-up needed within the first third to get the burn back on track.

Patina LE 2024

Draw

Aaron: The draw was slightly tighter than I prefer, but didn’t cause any issues with the smoki9ng experience.
Seth: The draw is great throughout. Perfect level of resistance.
John: The draw initially had some resistance to it, roughly 2-1/2 to 3 notches towards the resistant spectrum. As the first third settled in, the draw opened up to 1-1/2 to 2 notches towards the resistant spectrum.
Jiunn: The draw was perfect, giving the ideal balance of air flow and resistance.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with lightly toasted oak, creamy and slightly chalky earth and mild black pepper. The creaminess dropped from the earth fairly quickly and it became gritty and some smokiness joined the profile. The second third saw the pepper mellow and the earth lost some of its richness. The final third saw the earth gain the richness back and the pepper increased while some wood bitterness joined in. The Patina LE 2024 had a nice start with a good combination of flavors. It dropped a level in the second third as the earths richness faded and maintained that level the rest of the way. This didn’t quite live up to the Anniversary offering, and I wouldn’t really see myself coming back to this cigar.
Seth: I loved this Patina LE 2024, and found it captured all the tobacco present in the cigar. It had the qualities of Broadleaf, Mexican San Andres, Nicaraguan and USA. It was rich and full in body from start to finish. The flavor profile of anise, malts, coffee and dark cocoa were great, and it had a long finish as well. The construction was fantastic, and the size was perfect for a blend of this nature. Patina has been on a roll, and I am always looking forward to their next release.
John: I thought the Patina LE 2024 delivered an interesting and engaging list of flavors through the first third. For the remainder of the review, the profile was pleasant, but the profile wasn’t layered or as complex as what I experienced through the first third. The draw was a minor amount towards the resistant spectrum, and the burn required two touch-ups to correct. Patina has put out some stellar releases over the years, many of which have landed on our end of year top cigars list. I think if the price point of the cigar was sub $15, this is something I might want to revisit to see if my experience was an outlier. Unfortunately, with a $19 MSRP, this isn’t something I’d be likely to return to. Total smoking time was 1 hour and 38 minutes.
Jiunn: The Patina LE 2024 is just as enjoyable as the 2023 version. Although both cigars use Connecticut Broadleaf, the cigars tell different stories. The 2024 version is sweeter and tends to be more dessert like. Whereas the 2023 version carries more savory and spice notes. Regardless, both represent the chocolate goodness of what Connecticut Broadleaf should be. Well done.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.85

Cost/Point

$3.25

Scoring System

Seth Geise

SCORE

7.27

Cost/Point

$2.61

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.75

Cost/Point

$3.30

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

7.07

Cost/Point

$2.69

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Patina LE 2024