By Tad Gage
Partagas. Plain old Partagas. Not the Partagas Ciefuentes, or Partagas Serie S, Partagas 160 Signature or the other fine offerings in this classic line. But the plain old, reliable red-and-gold label General Cigar product I’ve been enjoying for years. Partagas: a brand so ubiquitous it can easily be lost in the sea of new brands, limited editions, fancy shapes and sizes, and cigars with exotic leaf with mystical names. Those are wonderful, too, but it was nice to wrap my lips around a good old Partagas.
In the interest of full disclosure, the Dominican-made Partagas has been a part of my humidor for the past 25 years. Mostly represented by the No. 10, a 7 ½ inch, 49 ring Cameroon-wrapped wonder that it is always perfect for a long, leisurely smoke, and the 8-9-8, which shows how well a 44 ring gauge cigar can be constructed and smoked.
