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Partagas
Cuban Cigars Habano Cigars
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Partagas Cuban Cigars History
Partagas Cuban Cigar Brand was found by The Spaniard Don Jaime Partagas Ravelo that had worked in the Cuban
tobacco business for years before establishing his own
factory, Real Fabricas de Tobaco Partagas, on 60 Industria
Street in Havana, one of the largest of its time. The name,
which translates as "Partagas Royal Tobacco Factory," was
supposedly chosen because of Don Jaime's status as cigar
supplier to various European and Asian nobility. Don Jaime
owned many of the best plantations in the Vuelta Abajo
tobacco-growing region of Cuba and being able to choose from
among the finest tobaccos on the island made the brand
incredibly successful. Don Jaime is also believed to have
experimented with various methods of fermenting and aging
tobacco and is legendarily credited with hiring the first
lector to read to and entertain the cigar rollers as they
worked.
Don Jaime was murdered (supposedly by a jealous rival he'd
been vying with in one of his love affairs) on one of his
plantations in either 1864 or 1868 and his son Jose Partagas
took over the business. Later on, the factory and brand were
sold to a banker named Jose A. Bance, who in turn sold it to
the firm of Cifuentes, Fernandez y Cia in 1900. In 1916, Don
Jose Fernandez seems to have left the firm and Ramon Cifuentes
Llano joined with Francisco Pego Pita to form the new firm of
Cifuentes, Pego y Cia. In 1927, the firm would acquire the
rights to the Ramon Allones brand and at some unknown point
the factory began to produce a brand named for its owner,
Cifuentes.
Cifuentes died in 1938 and Pego in 1940, leaving the Cifuentes
family solely in control of the increasingly-prestigious
factory and brand (it's unknown why Pego's heirs didn't claim
anything) and renaming the company simply Cifuentes y Cia. In
1954, the Cifuentes family acquired the Bolivar and La Gloria
Cubana brands from Jose F. Rocha and moved their production to
their factory. In 1958, the Partagas Factory was the second
largest exporter of Cuban cigars (the H. Upmann Factory being
the only one bigger), accounting for over a quarter of all
exported tobacco goods.
A box of Partagas shorts after tobacco was nationalized
following the Cuban Revolution, the family's patriarch, Ramon,
was initially offered the job of leading Cuba's tobacco
industry, but refused and the Cifuentes family fled the
country and the newly-formed Cubatabaco arm of the government
took over the factory and cigar production there. After a
hiatus of almost seventeen years, the patron of the family,
Ramon Cifuentes began to produce Partagas and Bolivar cigars
for General Cigar Company and the US market at first from
Jamaica, but later from a plantation and factory located in
the Dominican Republic, where they are still made today. Ramon
Cifuentes passed away in 2000.
Before and after the Revolution, the Cuban-produced Partagas
has been one of the most revered and highest-selling brands of
cigars in the world. Many cigar connoisseurs consider this to
be their favorite brand of Cuban cigars, with the Serie D No.
4, Lonsdales (now discontinued), Lusitanias, and Shorts all
being incredibly popular and renowned sizes. The Partagas
Factory (since renamed the "Francisco Perez Germano; factory)
still produces Partagas and numerous other cigar brands for
export and has proven to be a very popular tourist destination
for cigar smokers vacationing in Havana.
In 2002, when Altadis bought a controlling share in the Cuban
government-owned cigar distributor, Habanos SA, a number of
changes in cigar production were instituted. One of these
changes was the decision to gradually turn the various brands
of Cuban cigars to either all-handmade or all-machine-made
lines, reduce the number of redundant sizes within a brand,
and cut many low-selling cigars from production. Partagas,
which has historically produced a variety of handmade and
machine-made or machine-finished cigars, had several of its
vitolas cut from production, much to the dismay of
connoisseurs worldwide.
Since the introduction of the Edicion Limitada annual
releases, Partaga has gotten a special size made almost every
year: the Piramide in 2000, the Serie D No. 3 in 2001, the
Serie D No. 2 in 2003, and the Serie D No. 1 in 2004. In 2005,
Partagas introduced a new addition to its regular line up
pyramid called the Serie P No. 2. So far, this new size has
proved incredibly popular with cigar connoisseurs.
Partaga also produces two machine-made cigarillos (the Mini
and the Club) and a brand of cigarettes.
Vitolas in the Cuban Partagas Line
Partagas Serie D No. 1, Edicion Limitada 2004The following
list of vitolas (sizes) within the Partagas line lists their
measurements in English and metric, their vitolas de galera
(factory name), and their conventional name in American cigar
slang.
Hand-Made Vitolas
Lusitania - 7 5/8" x 49 (194 x 19.45 mm) Prominente, a double
corona
Churchill de Luxe - 7" x 47 (178 x 18.65 mm) Julieta, a
churchill
Presidente - 6 1/4" x 47 (158 x 18.65 mm) Taco, a perfecto
Serie P No. 2 - 6 1/8" x 52 (156 x 20.64 mm) Piramide, a
pyramid or torpedo
898 Cabinet Seleccion Barnizados ("Varnished") - 6 3/4" x 43
(170 x 17.07 mm) Dalia, a lonsdale
898 Cabinet Seleccion Sin Barnizar ("Unvarnished") - 6 1/8" x
42 (155 x 16.67 mm) Corona Grande, a long corona
Partagas de Partagas No. 1 - 6 3/4" x 43 (170 x 17.07 mm)
Dalia, a lonsdale
Serie du Connaisseur No. 1 - 7 1/2" x 38 (192 x 15.08 mm)
Delicado, a long panetela
Serie du Connaisseur No. 2 - 6 1/2" x 38 (166 x 15.08 mm)
Parejo, a panetela
Serie du Connaisseur No. 3 - 5 5/8" x 35 (143 x 13.89 mm)
Carlota, a panetela
Serie D No. 4 - 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a
robusto or rothschild
Corona - 5 5/8" x 42 (142 x 16.67 mm) Corona, a corona
Short - 4 3/8" x 42 (110 x 16.67 mm) Minuto, a tres petit
corona
Machine-Made and Hand-Finished Vitolas
Corona Senior - 5 1/4" x 44 (132 x 17.46 mm) Eminente, a
corona
Petit Corona Especial - 5 1/4" x 44 (132 x 17.46 mm) Eminente,
a corona
Partagas de Luxe - 5 1/2" x 40 (140 x 15.87 mm) Crema, a
corona
Super Partagas - 5 1/2" x 40 (140 x 15.87 mm) Crema, a corona
Mille Fleurs - 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Petit Corona, a
petit corona
Aristocrat - 5 1/8" x 40 (129 x 15.87 mm) Petit Cetro, a petit
corona
Corona Junior - 4 5/8" x 40 (117 x 15.87 mm) Coronita, a petit
corona
Princess - 5" x 35 (127 x 13.89 mm) Conchita, a short panetela
Habanero - 4 7/8" x 39 (125 x 15.48 mm) Belvedere, a short
panetela
Chico - 4 1/8" x 29 (106 x 11.51 mm) Chico, a cigarillo
Edicion Limitada Releases
Piramide (2000) - 6 1/8" x 52 (156 x 20.64 mm) Piramide, a
pyramid or torpedo
Serie D No. 3 (2001/re-release in 2006) - 5 5/8" x 46 (143 x
18.26 mm) Corona Gorda, a toro
Serie D No. 2 (2003) - 6 1/8" x 50 (156 x 19.84 mm) Robusto
No. 2, a robusto extra
Serie D No. 1 (2004) - 6 3/4" x 50 (170 x 19.84 mm) Partagas
No. 16, a robusto extra
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