Tag Archives: Partagas

by Craig Vanderslice | August 20, 2023 · 9:15 am

La Unica, Partagas and Black Works Studios Cigars

I’ve had a handful of these enormous La Unica No. 100 cigars in the humidor for a few months and have only had a few occasions to smoke them come up. This is an 8½” x 52 double corona made at Tabacalera Fuente for J.C. Newman. Back in the ’90s La Unica was the first premium cigar that was sold in a bundle, it’s since been moved to boxes, more befitting the quality of the cigars. I generally lean toward heavier cigars, but this Connecticut shade wrapped cigar is really quite good. It’s smooth and creamy, and actually burns a little bit faster than one might think, sadly, I clocked in around two and a quarter hours with it, which worked fine for my schedule. It was creamy and nutty, and I enjoyed it. These are also available in a Connecticut Broadleaf, which are also very good, and something I want to revisit, it’s been years!

I was surprised with a package of samples from STG this week and felt compelled to smoke one of the Partagas Valle Verde Toros right out of the box. Of course, this can be a risky proposition, but that’s what the Cigarmedics Humidimeter is for! This Partagas is a bit of an odd duck, it has a green band, a San Andrés wrapper, some San Andrés in the filler along with Nicaraguan, and a Cameroon binder. It’s also made in the HATSA factory, which is in Honduras, which seems to be another oddity for a Partagas, which is normally made in the DR. I’ve long been a fan of the Partagas line, they have been second only to Fuente in their mastery of Cameroon, and their Broadleaf Partagas Black ain’t bad either. This Valle Verde was really quite good in my estimation. It hit all my preferred flavor receptors. I got the earthy black coffee from the Mexican, the sweet nuts from the Cameroon and some sweet spice from the Esteli Ligero. I’ll be shocked and amazed of this isn’t my favorite out of the batch of samples, I hope I’m not disappointed! More on those in future posts. I would urge sampling the Partagas Valle Verde if you enjoy the same kinds of cigars I enjoy!

Remember last week (I think, maybe the week before) when I said that I really like Black Label Trading Company‘s cigars, but I find that they all kind of hit me the same? I clearly haven’t smoked enough of them, because I smoked the new Black Works Studio Poison Dart Corona Gorda yesterday and it was clearly on another level. Now, I get that the Studio does some different stuff than the regular line. The Poison Dart just came out at the July trade show, and Famous Smoke Shop had them when I was there recently so I grabbed one. This is a 5½” x 46 corona gorda with a pointy cap, a Brazilian Matafina wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This cigar had a rich, mouth-coating kinda thing going on, almost licoricy, or maybe meaty, or some weird combo of the two. It was delicious and was good for ninety minutes or so of afternoon enjoyment. Lots of cocoa, coffee and spice, not unlike a lot of the BLTC cigars, but more intense. I liked it a lot.

That’s about it for today. I am smoking a Buffalo Ten Connecticut while writing, a perfectly acceptable cigar with coffee, actually quite good. I keep saying I don’t lean toward shade cigars, but I really quite enjoy them when I smoke them. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Black Label Trading Company, Black Works Studio, cigar, cigars, J.C.Newman, La Unica, No. 100, Partagas, Poison Dart, Valle Verde

by Craig Vanderslice | March 25, 2023 · 8:26 am

News: Partagas de Bronce Due in April

Following the Cohiba M and La Gloria 8th Street, we have another General Cigar Co. offering being made at Al Titan de Bronze in Miami. These are pricey, it’s not cheap to make cigars in the US. I expect to see a Macanudo made there next. I’ll be honest, my favorite from ETB is the Cornelius, at half the price of most of these. Sadly they are extinct, fortunately I still have a bunch. I may spring for one if I see it in the wild, but I haven’t shelled out for the La Gloria yet, so…

PARTAGAS RELEASES FIRST US-MADE CIGAR IN COLLABORATION WITH EL TITÁN DE BRONZE

Partagas will release its first collaboration in April with Partagas de Bronce, an exceptional cigar handcrafted in Miami by the Cuban expatriate rollers of the famed El Titán de Bronze Cigar Factory.

The cigar’s name calls upon the Spanish spelling of “bronce” in tribute to the origins of Partagas and El Titan de Bronze.

Partagas de Bronce was blended by STG’s Justin Andrews, with Sandy Cobas and the blending team at El Titán de Bronze. Made with a Corojo wrapper, Partagas de Bronce is a medium- bodied Nicaraguan puro that brims with nuances. Cocoa, earth, wood,hints of citrus and an intriguing creaminess deliver a cigar that highlights the heritage of Partagas with the artistry of El Titán de Bronze.

John Hakim, brand manager of Partagas said, “For a venerable brand like Partagas, collaborating with a legend like Sandy Cobas and creating a special, limited edition cigar at her family-owned factory marks an important step in Partagas’ evolution. Partagas de Bronce highlights Partagas’ devotion to old-world cigar making techniques, and its commitment to marching the brand forward through innovation. We look forward to sharing this exceptional blend with cigar lovers across the country.”

Partagas de Bronce will be released in April, when 5,000 boxes, each signed by the El Titán de Bronze cigar maker who crafted them, will ship to retailers. Each box contains ten cigars.

Partagas de Bronce Corona Gorda (6.25” x 46) – SRP per cigar $22.99

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, el titan de bronze, Partagas, Partagas de Bronce

by Craig Vanderslice | September 28, 2022 · 7:17 am

News: Partagas Añejo Returns

This is a really good cigar priced far less than it should be! Don’t tell that to the General Cigar people though. Read all about it:

Partagas will soon ship this year’s second allotment of “Añejo,” a refined cigar named for the profoundly-aged wrapper tobaccos that define its appearance and attributes.

Shipping to retailers on October 3, Partagas Añejo is being re-released in the two original sizes that launched earlier this year. Both frontmarks are 4.5” in length as commanded by the scarcity and fragility of the cigar’s Cameroon wrapper leaves.

John Hakim, brand manager of Partagas said, “Partagas Añejo is a small-batch offering that we are releasing twice a year. This special blend provides the opportunity for cigar lovers to experience the mystique of a Cameroon wrapper in the context of masterful blending. The initial release earlier this year was met with a tremendous response, and we anticipate that the second allotment will sell out quickly.”

The limited-edition Partagas Añejo is predominantly adorned with a rare 1998 Cameroon which is intertwined with 2013 Connecticut Shade in a barber-pole format. The aged wrapper tobaccos establish a foundation of exceptional depth. When blended with the Mexican and Dominican filler and Dominican Vega Especial binder, the complexity deepens to deliver an intricately layered smoking experience.

Partagas Añejo starts off mellow and unfolds to medium-body as the smoke progresses. Notes of wood, leather and earth abound, stemming from the artisanal blend.

Petit Robusto (4.5” x 49) – SRP per cigar $6.99 (25 cigars per box)
Esplendido (4.5” x 60) – SRP per cigar $7.49 (25 cigars per box)

About General Cigar Company

General Cigar Co. is a leading manufacturer and marketer of handcrafted cigars for the premium market in the US. The company is owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group.

Committed to delivering cigars of the finest quality, General Cigar’s skilled artisans produce Macanudo®, Cohiba®, La Gloria Cubana®, Partagas®, CAO®, Punch®, Hoyo de Monterrey®, Excalibur® and several other leading premium brands in the company’s Dominican, Honduran and Nicaraguan factories.

In addition, the company cultivates proprietary tobacco which is used exclusively in its blends and has a dedicated R&D practice that develops new varieties of tobacco and revitalizes vintage seeds.

Based in Richmond, VA, General Cigar sells through wholesalers and retailers in the US. General Cigar also operates Club Macanudo®, a cigar bar in New York City.

Villiger TAA, Punch and Partagas Cigars

I was going through some of the newer cigars I have and realized there was one I hadn’t written about yet, but more on that in a bit. I want to start off talking about the new Villiger TAA Exclusive for 2022. This cigar is interesting for a couple reasons. Foremost, it’s made at Espinosa’s La Zona factory. Villiger has been making cigars with a lot of different companies, Joya de Nicaragua comes to mind, as well as having their own factory in Brazil. I suppose logistics would make it less favorable to make the cigars in Brazil, but I would think they’d want to highlight that operation. Villiger is still not very well known in the premium market, and may still suffer from the abysmal way that they handled changing their outside sales model (stranding reps on the road around the holidays isn’t a very nice way to sever ties!). I’ll tell you this, I’ve always enjoyed their premium cigars, and have had a good relationship with them for a decade or so, through various regimes. This TAA exclusive is a good cigar. It has a San Andrés maduro wrapper with NIcaraguan binder and fillers. It’s a box pressed 6″ x 52, and is priced at $10. Honestly, it tastes like a cigar with that blend should taste, and I liked it. Does it have any overly distinctive flavors? Not really, but it’s a good, solid Mexican maduro, and if you like those, you’ll enjoy this. Of course, that;s m take, and someone with a more refined palate will have a different take.

I made plans to be in Las Vegas for the weekend of the PCA show, although I have no plans to get into the show. There are a couple avenues I could take to get in if I wanted to, but I’m on the fence as to whether I want to do that or catch up with people after hours. I neither want to waste the trip, nor compromise my position on media being admitted to the show (I want to do it the right way, their version of that is selling me a membership which gets me nothing but entry to the show, my version is the media being invited to promote the show). I still have some things to work out. Anyway, I smoked the newest cigar from Punch this week, The People’s Champ. The blend on this was basically crowd-sourced. Apparently there’s a “Punch Brotherhood” group of Punch enthusiasts that were polled on what they wanted in a cigar, and this is what they came up with. I maintain that this is rarely a good idea, and cigar making should be left to the experts. The blend is a Honduran Talanga Habano wrapper, San Andrés binder and fillers from the DR, Brazil, and Nicaragua. There’s a lot going on there. These will be in 5 and 10 packs and will SRP for $6.49 for a 5″ x 50 robusto, so at least it’s not an expensive cigar. I found the flavor to be very pungent, with some spice, which could be confused for acidity, I suppose. I’m guess some age will do these a lot of good. I put this down for a while while running an errand, and came back to it a few hours later and finished it and it was a little better. I am hopeful that the enthusiasts who suggested this blend enjoy it, it wasn’t for me.

I realized that I hadn’t yet mentioned the Partagas Añejo Petit Robusto here yet, and thought I’d fix that. This s a cool little cigar, available in two 4½” sizes, one with a 49 ring (Partagas has a thing for 49 ring robustos historically), and 60 ring. This cigar is unique in that it is a barber pole presentation, with Cameroon and Connecticut shade wrappers, with the CAmeroon being from 1998. Something makes me think I saw bales of Cameroon tobacco from 1998 when I was at the factory in 2011, it sticks in my head because Skip Martin was trying to buy them. I could be wrong. This is a cool little cigar. It has the nuttyness of the Cameroon, tempered by both age and the Connecticut. Some Mexican leaf in the filler blend, along with Dominican, adds some body. I liked it, it smoked well and tasted great. If you want to be entertained, Kaplowitz did a twelve part review series on this cigar, which is quite creative. Start HERE. It would have been nice if he had linked his table of contents to the actual articles, but he’s kinda lazy. He puts the burden on the reader to use the search feature, I’m a nice guy, I’ll do it for you (HERE). I think the takeaway here is I’m a nice guy, and that Kaplowitz character…he’s creative, give him a read.

That’s all for today. This week is the Battleship, Beef and Bourbon for the Ship Red Meat Lovers Club event. Don’t forget to check out www.battleshipbeef.com and come out and join the fun. I’ll be there with Kevin and Jess from Cigar Prop, and Saka and a few other people. I can’t wait to have a cigar on the deck of the ship! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Añejo, cigar, cigars, Partagas, punch, TAA, The People’s Champ, Villiger

by Craig Vanderslice | November 28, 2021 · 9:07 am

Paladin de Saka, Old Cain and New Partagas Cigars

Yesterday my wife and I went to the 35th Annual “not just” Rock Expo in the nearby Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, which sound much better than it actually was. It was basically a flea market of records, tapes and CDs, not that big a deal, but we did come across a few neat things. I managed a record store in the eighties, so I can’t start going through bins of records without compulsively alphabetizing and sorting by genre, so don’t look too hard at stuff like this anymore. My wife spied a CD though, and I dropped $2 on it because it looked good, and I can always listen to Cuban music, Hecho en Cuba 3. I haven’t give it a listen yet, I have to dust off the CD changer, and remember how to get music from the iMac onto my phone. Anyway, one never knows what one might find out and about.

Rewind to Thursday, when we finally got done with cooking, eating and delivering food, it was time for a cigar, and I decided on the Paladin de Saka that Steve had given me when we saw him in South Carolina. This is in the Sin Compromiso line, I suppose it would be the flagship of the line, as it’s aged a year longer than the rest. It’s also the largest of them all, measuring 7″ x 52. There’s one more difference in that there’s some Pennsylvania broadleaf added to the filler that gives it some additional oomph. I’m a big fan of the Sin Compromiso, except that they are so darned pricey. They are worth it though, and I don’t say that often, as Steve would agree. I love the sweetness of the cigar, and the espresso notes. This was a good two and a half hours of pleasure. These are north of $29, so I’m not going to be smoking many of them, but Thanksgiving is a special day, so a special cigar is always in order, and I thank Steve for special cigars. He is welcome to share my Stillwell Star posts…do they have to be videos? 🙃

I was reorganizing a tray in the cabinet Friday and I came across a cigar in a ziplock that I had completely forgotten I had. It had a handwritten note in it that said “Cain FU IPCPR 2013”. I remember this was after Sam Leccia’s “departure” from Oliva/Studio Tabac and they had this guy named Brian Scholle trained to travel around doing rolling demonstrations. I had met him a few times. He was making hi-octane Cain F’s he called Cain FU, I think we can figure out what that meant. It was a strong cigar then. So I figured after eight years in the humidor it might have lost some of its luster. I’ve smoked a number of Cain Fs over the years, many in the lancero vitola. I have some squirrelled away somewhere, perhaps I’ll find them one day. Anyway, this cigar was a toro, and it had a pretty rustic look, but it burned surprisingly well. It was still pretty strong, a notch up from what I would expect from a Cain F. It was pretty good, considering it sat in a baggie for over eight years ignored. Of course, It’s not something anyone will ever have again, and I wonder what ever happened to that Brian dude?

A week or so ago I posted the news about the Partagas Decadas 2021 that was coming out. Some samples arrived and couldn’t wait to smoke one. The Decadas have been treats for me for a long time. I’ve really liked the green banded ones going back many years. This one was intriguing because of the Brazilian Cameroon wrapper. First let’s work out the deal with the whole deal with the semantics surrounding wrapper. The foremost grower of Cameroon tobacco says there’s no such thing as Cameroon seed, but Sumatra seed grown in Cameroon. So it’s the soil and climate that make the tobacco Cameroon. Which begs the question: how can “Cameroon” tobacco be grown in other countries? I will say that this cigar, I don’t care where the wrapper was grown, tastes far more “Cameroony” than a lot of Cameroon cigars I’ve smoked. It was loaded with the sweet, nutty flavor that the Decadas, and Partagas should taste like. I was completely enthralled with this cigar. Whatever the seed, wherever it’s grown, it tastes good, and was a lovely cigar. It’s even the right size!

This afternoon I’m going to Son’s Cigars to meet up with the gang from Stolen Throne Cigars who are doing an event there, I’d encourage anyone in the area to pop in. I’m looking forward to finally meeting these guys as I’ve been enjoying the Stolen Throne cigars. I’m still looking for Secret Santa participants, we’re up to three, which is an awkward number, but I’d make it work if I had to! The more the merrier! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cain, Cain F, cigar, cigars, Decadas, oliva, Paladin de Saka, Partagas, Sin Compromiso