Cifuentes Robusto

Long before Fidel Castro came into power in Cuba, Partagas cigars were crafted by hand in Havana under the direction of Ramon Cifuentes and his father. The last of the great cigar-makers to leave Cuba in the early 1960s, Ramon Cifuentes eventually discovered the ideal place to manufacture the Partagas line, Santiago, Dominican Republic. Ramon Sr. first introduced the Cifuentes brand in Cuba in l876. In 1997, some 36 years after being exiled from Cuba, Ramon Jr. succeeded in recreating the Cifuentes cigar. And in tribute to his father, the portrait inside the Cifuentes cigar box is the same one that was used to introduce the brand over a century ago. The search for ways to recreate the Cifuentes cigar was a personal quest of Ramón's for several years. How could he echo the complex and subtle taste and character of a cigar that his father and he had crafted so very long ago exclusively with Cuban tobaccos? The answer came from three different worlds of tobacco. For the blend, he began growing Piloto Cubano tobacco from the same seed that his father and he had used in Havana. Then, after having tried several different binders with indifferent success, he selected a Jember, one of the darkest, most supple binders in the world. And for the wrapper, he found that the best leaf for a Cifuentes cigar was Connecticut Shade. We are please to bring you this extraordinary cigar. Limited to 150,000 cigars annually and aged for 2 full years before boxing, this dynamite brand was rated '90' by Cigar Aficionado and "Superior" by Rudman's. Enjoy!

If you like a good Partagas, you're gonna love Cifuentes! Hand-rolled in Jamaica, these rich, complex-tasting smokes are full of flavor and perfectly constructed. Note a gorgeous slightly oily Connecticut Shade wrapper encasing a firm and substantial cigar. It burned evenly to the very end and never needed relighting. The draw is a perfect as it gets. A solid, light grey ash indicates this cigar has been well-aged. We found this medium-to-full bodied smoke exceptionally smooth. Look for some spice, a hint of cocoa bean and even a bit of nuttiness in this complex smoke. We found the finish spicy. We loved this cigar and know you will too! Consider pairing it up with a full-bodied India Pale Ale.