"Cigars are no longer just for the seasoned smoker.      They have become a staple in society for rookies and veterans alike,        representing an air of character, class and pleasure. Whether it's a          satisfying smoke after dinner, during a round of golf, or out at the          bar for drinks, cigars are the perfect complement to your lifestyle        because that is exactly what defines cigar smoking:      -- your lifestyle. Welcome to the good life!"
CURRENT PARTAGAS CIGARS
SPECIAL REALEASED CIGARS
DISCONTINUED CIGARS
PARTAGAS CIGARS
PARTAGAS CIGARS

Year of Foundation: 1845

Tobacco Country: Cuba

Tobacco Procedence: Vuelta Abajo (Pinar del Rio)

Cigar Factory: Partagas


The Spaniard Don Jaime Partagás Ravelo had worked in the Cuban tobacco business for years before establishing his own factory, Real Fábricas de Tabaco Partagás in 1845, on 60 Industria Street in Havana, one of the largest of its time.

The name, which translates as "Partagás Royal Tobacco Factory," was supposedly chosen because of Don Jaime's status as Cuban 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 Cuban island made the cigar 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 cigar plantations in either 1864 or 1868 and his son José Partagás took over the business.

Later on, the factory and brand were sold to a banker named José A. Bance, who in turn sold it to the firm of Cifuentes, Fernández y Cía in 1900. In 1916, Don José Fernández seems to have left the firm and Ramón Cifuentes Llano joined with Francisco Pego Pita to form the new firm of Cifuentes, Pego y Cía.

In 1927, the firm would acquire the rights to the Ramón Allones brand and at some unknown point the factory began to produce a cigar 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 cigar factory and brand (it's unknown why Pego's heirs didn't claim anything) and renaming the company simply Cifuentes y Cía.

In 1954, the Cifuentes family acquired the Bolívar and La Gloria Cubana brands from José F. Rocha and moved their production to their factory. In 1958, the Partagás 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.

After Cuban tobacco was nationalized following the Cuban Revolution, the family's patriarch, Ramón, 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, Ramón Cifuentes began to produce Partágas and Bolívar cigars for General Cigar Company and the US market at first from Jamaica, but later from a cigar plantation and factory located in the Dominican Republic, where they are still made today. Ramón Cifuentes passed away in 2000.

Before and after the Revolution, the Cuban-produced Partagás has been one of the most revered and highest-selling Cuban cigar brands 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 Partagás Factory (since renamed the "Francisco Pérez Germán" factory) still produces Partagás 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.

Partagás, 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 Edición Limitada annual releases, Partagás has gotten a special size made almost every year: the Pirámide in 2000, the Serie D No. 3 in 2001, the Serie D No. 2 in 2003, the Serie D No. 1 in 2004, a reissue of the Serie D No. 3 in 2006, and the Serie D No. 5 in 2008. In 2005, Partagás introduced a new addition to its regular lineup, a pyramid called the Serie P No. 2. So far, this new size has proved incredibly popular with cigar connoisseurs.

Partagás also produces two machine-made cigarillos (the Mini and the Club) and a brand of cigarettes.