General Adds New Sizes to Partagas 1845
General Cigar Co. has added two new sizes to its Partagas 1845 brand-the Toro Grande and the Crystal. These two cigars mark the first extension to the line since it was released last year.
Now at six sizes, the Partagas 1845 line is made in the Dominican Republic at the General Cigar Dominicana factory. The two cigars are a 6 1/4 inch by 54 ring gauge Toro Grande ($7.09) and a smaller smoke at 5 1/2 by 50 called Crystal ($6.99) that comes in a glass tube.
The cigars first caught Cigar Insider's attention last year during a factory tour before the brand was released. What appeared to be gleaming, oily reddish-brown wrappers turned out to be Ecuadoran Habano-seed cover leaf that General had never used on any Partagas brand before, and now adorns the Partagas 1845 line.
The rest of the Partagas 1845 blend consists of a proprietary Habano-seed binder grown in Connecticut. Dubbed Connecticut Habano, it took nine years to develop and has been blended with Dominican Piloto Cubano as well as Nicaraguan tobacco from three regions. Some of the fillers were aged in rum barrels.
More striking than the wrapper leaf, however, is the unique packaging of the finished cigars: a gravity-fed display box designed for retail shelves, and a rotated crest on the cigar's band that was easily identified while the cigar lays on its side in the box. The design was a departure from the traditional heraldic composition found on most of General's Partagas bands.
This article first appeared in the July 9 issue of Cigar Insider.
