Fat Cuban Partagás Being Released
The Partagás Serie E No. 2, the fattest straight-sided Partagás in the Cuban cigar portfolio, is finally ready for sale. The cigar will reach cigar stores around the world over the next two weeks. Cigar smokers have been waiting on the new cigar since news of its creation was announced in February, just before the Habanos Festival.
Measuring a sturdy 5 1/2 inches long with a 54 ring gauge, the cigar is longer and fatter than the Partagás Serie D No. 4, Cuba's best selling robusto and one of the world's most popular cigars. The name of the new smoke is a bit confusing—when a cigar aficionado sees a Cuban cigar marked No. 2 he thinks the cigar is going to be a stately pyramid, such as the benchmark Montecristo No. 2 or the H. Upmann No. 2. But the Partagás Serie E No. 2 is a straight-sided parejo. In Cigar Aficionado taste tests, it would fall into our corona gorda category.
There are fatter Partagás cigars, but they are figurados. The massive 7 1/4 inch-long Partagás Salomone has a 57 ring gauge.
Few prices have been set for the cigar. In Italy, the E No. 2 will retail for 11.50 euros (about $16.56 each). Retailers in the United Kingdom and Canada have yet to get an official price for the cigar. "As far as local pricing, I would not even venture a guess," said Marc Melanson of the Casa del Habano in Montreal, who expected his first shipment soon.
The cigars will come in semi boite nature boxes of 25 or five cigars, with a lithographed piece of paper on the outside to make the plain cedar box pop in a retailer's humidor display.
For the first rating of this cigar, see an issue of Cigar Insider.
