Partagás cigars

About Partagás

Partagás is one of the oldest cigar brands still made. Jaime Partagás y Ravell, born in Catalonia, founded it in Havana in 1845, first on Cristina Street and later on Calle Industria. He was murdered on one of his plantations in 1868, and his son José took over before the business was sold to the banker José A. Bances.

Around 1900 Ramón Cifuentes Llano, a tabaquero from Spain, joined and soon became sole owner. Under the Cifuentes family the house grew, acquiring Ramón Allones, Bolívar and La Gloria Cubana, and by 1958 Partagás was second only to H. Upmann in Cuban cigar exports. In 1960 the government seized the factory, and Ramón Cifuentes Toriello turned down the job of running the new state monopoly and emigrated to the United States.

The Serie D No. 4 was introduced in 1975 and, in the early 2010s, became the best-selling Cuban cigar in the world, ahead of the Montecristo No. 4. Outside Cuba, General Cigar makes a Dominican Partagás with no Cuban tobacco, whose box shows "1845" where the Cuban one says "Habana".

My Partagás note is the Cuban Serie D No. 4, which scored 92.