Partagás cigars

Don Jaime Partagás y Ravell arrived in Havana from Catalonia, Spain, built his tobacco fortune on Vuelta Abajo plantations, and in 1845 opened La Flor de Tabacos de Partagás on Calle Cristina — one block from the Capitolio Nacional. He is also credited with being the first manufacturer to hire a lector, the factory reader who kept workers engaged with novels and newspapers while they rolled. Partagás was murdered under disputed circumstances in 1868, but the factory and brand continued under successive ownership, always maintaining their identity as the boldest cigars in Havana.

The factory building — still at its original address in the heart of Old Havana — became the most famous cigar factory in the world. After the 1960 nationalization, Habanos S.A. assumed control of the brand and continued rolling there for decades. Production eventually shifted to the Franscisco Pérez Germán factory, though the storied address remains associated with the marca in the public imagination.

Partagás is defined by its full-bodied, earthy profile: dark wrapper leaf, deep cocoa and leather notes, and a richness that has made the Serie D No. 4 — a robusto — perhaps the best-selling Cuban robusto in the world. The Lusitanias, a double corona of grand scale, is a benchmark for long-smoke connoisseurs. The 8-9-8 collection (named for the three-row cedar box arrangement) preserves some of the most classic vitolas in the Habanos system.

In the US, a separate Partagás line is made in the Dominican Republic for General Cigar (a Scandinavian Tobacco Group division). As with other dual-branded Cubans, the two share only a name.