New La Gloria Cubana Hoyo and Partagas Cigars

Before i get started, don’t forget to go back to Wednesday’s post and enter the contest! It occurred to me (after I got a phone call from Danny Ditkowitch of La Sirena Cigars), that I should smoke a La Sirena Anniversario Especial cigar to celebrate, so I smoked another one of those this week and they are fantastic cigars! Check out my post from June here for the specifics about this outstanding cigar celebrating their tenth anniversary! La Sirena has been one of CigarCraig.com’s longest supporters and I’ve been a fan for even longer.

I received some new samples from General Cigar Co. a few weeks ago, among them was the La Gloria Cubana Spanish Press. I was excited, as I always am, about a new La Gloria Cubana cigar, it’s a brand I have long been a fan of. Sure, there are some cigars in the line I can take or leave, but the majority of the line are cigars I like a lot. The Spanish press has a Nicaraguan Jalapa wrapper, a Mexican San Andrés binder and Brazilian Mata Fina, Dominican Olor , and Nicaraguan Jalapa. The vitola I smoked was the 5½” x 50 robusto. I’ll have to smoke more of these, as the initial cigar didn’t hit my palate with flavors I found particularly in line with my preferences. I’m not sure what it was, but there was a sourness that didn’t hit me right. I’m not one to give up, especially on a favorite brand, so I’ll give it another shot.

Another old favorite brand is the Hoyo de Monterrey, and they came out with a new cigar this year in the Hoyo La Amistad Dark Sumatra. There has been a Hoyo de Monterrey Dark Sumatra made in Honduras around for some time, but this new one is made in Nicaragua by A.J. Fernandez, using the same blend as the original. It has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper and Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. This sample was the Noche size, measuring 6″ x 52, my favorite size. This cigar started out with a powerful punch! Strong pepper from the get-go, I almost thought it was too strong but I like nice strong cigar followed along on the ride. It mellowed out a little in the middle, continuing to have good, strong flavors of rich, dark, earthy flavors. Near the end the pepper returned and it got stronger again and finished off with as much oomph as it started with. Like the other three cigars in the La Amistad line, I really liked this Dark Sumatra.

Finally, last night I lit up a Partagas Decadas Limited Reserve 2019. I used to love these when they had the green band. This version is still in the 5 ½” x 49 size, which is a very nice size, and are packaged in a glass tube (my samples were cellophaned). The new band is white, and has a “10” on in, which seemed appropriate to celebrate the site’s 10th anniversary. The ten represents the age of the Cameroon wrapper leaf on this cigar, Partagas is well known for using Cameroon wrappers. For the binder they use the Honduran San Augustine tobacco that General has been using in a great many cigars recently. The filler is Piloto Cubano fro the DR and Ometepe from Nicaragua. Like I said, I always enjoyed smoking the Limited Reserves, and this cigar was no different. It was a smooth smoke, with the subtle nutty flavor from the aged Cameroon wrapper. I have a pretty good assortment of LE Partagas cigars in the humidor, many are good but not remarkable. These join the Limited Reserves in the remarkable category for me, I like them.