Cigar Review: New Partagas 1845 Releases

Background

A couple years back General Cigar introduced a new look and attitude to the Partagas line of cigars, using the “Partagas 1845” name. In March 2014, they announced that they were expanding the Partagas 1845 with two new blends, keeping with their recent tradition of one blend exclusive to brick and mortar shops and one blend exclusive to online retailers (although with the prices so close for both, I wonder if this splitting of lines is really necessary). General sent me several samples of each soon after they were announced and I weigh in with a short look at each new blend..

You should also check out Keith’s take on both the Extra Oscuro and Extra Fuerte.

Extra Fuerte

The Partagas 1845 Extra Fuerte is a brick-and-mortar exclusive available in 4 front marks, ranging from a MSRP of $7.49 to $8.49. According to the marketing literature I was sent, it is…

…a full-flavored cigar featuring high priming tobacco for a deep, rich smoking experience. The wrapper is a dark, lustrous Ecuadorian Habano ligero, and the binder is Habano Connecticut. The blend is bold, with Dominican PIloto Cubano, peppered with Nicaraguan tobacco from three growing areas: Gurdian, Esteli and ASP.

It features a band with a silver and black color scheme. I like the Partagas 1845 sideways banding and this latest version is nice, too…and nicely differentiated from the original release. The wrapper is dark…for an Ecuadorian Habano, anyway. It was about the color of milk chocolate and was moderately oily to the touch and the eye. The aroma from it was straw and cedar with a touch of barnyard. Giving the foot a sniff, I picked up an earthiness that I normally associate with La Flor Dominicana sticks, so I’m guessing that was the Piloto Cubano; there was also some pepper and wood. A cold draw revealed a bit of cool fruity flavor as well as plenty of earth and hay.

Initial puffs of the lit cigar were woody mostly; this cigar’s profile is definitely heavy on the cedar. There was also some earth and pepper in the mix, although not as much sweetness as I would have expected from the prelight flavor. While it started off in the medium range in terms of body and strength, it quickly lived up to the “Extra Fuerte” (extra strong) name, turning up the dial as I finished the first third and cruised into the second. The flavor profile remained mostly cedary, with lots of pepper spice and natural tobacco notes bolstering it.

Despite a flawless draw, I started getting a lot of tarry sap buildup on the head during the second third, something that usually only happens to me with a tight draw. I tried to re-cut but ended up practically destroying the remainder of the cap in the process. This was the only one of these that this happened on so it must have just been a single leaf that was causing the issue. I was able to finish the stick (carefully) and found that overall this blend is bold and strong, not just for a General Cigar product, but by any measure.

Extra Oscuro

The counterpart cigar is the Partagas 1845 Extra Oscuro, which is debuting in the same four vitolas as the Extra Fuerte, plus one extra front mark.

Extra Oscuro is a robust smoke with a unique flavor unto its own. Extra Oscuro’s blend begins with an oily Connecticut Havano Oscuro wrapper. The binder is a proprietary Dominican leaf and the blend features a selection of the most full-flavored tobaccos that the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua have to offer.

This one’s band is silver with royal purple accents; the wrapper leaf is definitely “Extra Oscuro” (extra dark), with such a dark brown hue that it is almost black in places. It was very oily, too, with an aroma of leather and raisins. The foot of the stogie had more of a hay and manure scent. The cold draw was good, but revealed very little flavor.

Once lit the Partagas 1845 Extra Oscuro had a strong anise note, with lesser notes of black coffee, earth and wood. The smoke had a creamy, oily texture and the retrohale had just a touch of red pepper spice. As the first third burned, I noticed the pepper decrease and a touch of citrus sourness start to come through. So far, the balance was pretty good.

As I continued through, I noted the citrus and anise flavors were the strongest, with just touches of coffee and earth underneath. By the end there was little pepper left at all.

Wrapping Up

I would say both the Extra Fuerte and Extra Oscuro were good additions to the Partagas 1845 line as they are both unique and different from the original blend. For myself, I prefer the Extra Fuerte in terms of flavor, but neither of them were as pleasing to me as that first blend.