Today’s Review: Partagas de Bronce

Today, we review the Partagas de Bronce cigar from Forged Cigar Company. The word Bronce is Spanish for bronze and is used in the name of the cigar because Partagas de Bronce comes from the famed El Titan de Bronze boutique factory located in the Little Havana district of Miami, Florida. Sandy Cobas own El Titan de Bronze and, over the years, the factory has worked with many companies to blend and produce cigars and also produces its own brands. Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) is one company that has partnered with El Titan de Bronze for several releases. One might wonder why a giant like STG has decided to work with a small boutique cigar factory in the U.S., but El Titan de Bronze has garnered an excellent reputation for excellence and craftsmanship.

El Titan de Bronze

STG has released several limited editions with El Titan de Bronze for three different brands under General Cigar (Cohiba) and Forged Cigar (La Gloria Cubana and Partagas). All of these releases have been small batches.

This past year, STG agreed to distribute one of El Titan de Bronze’s brands, Redemption. A new version of the blend has been released. It is being distributed under General Cigar and is also a limited and small batch in nature.

Let’s turn our attention back to the Partagas de Bronce.

Partagas de Bronce – Cigar Review

SPECIFICATIONS

Blend and Origin

The Partagas de Bronce is a Nicaraguan puro. The cigar is highlighted by a Corojo seed wrapper grown in Nicaragua. The blend was developed by Sandy Cobas, Justin Andrews, and the blending team at El Titan de Bronze.

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
County of Origin: United States
Factory: El Titan de Bronze

Vitolas Offered

Partagas de Bronce comes in a single size—a 6 1/4 x 46 parejo referred to as a “Gran Corona.” The cigars are packaged in ten-count boxes. When it was released in 2023, there was a total production of 5,000 (individually numbered) boxes (50,000 cigars).

Appearance (*)

The Partagas de Bronce’s Corojo wrapper is medium-brown. Contrasting with the bronze-colored band, the wrapper has a slight bronze tint. There was a slight amount of oil on the surface of this wrapper, and it was also slightly toothy. There were some visible veins and wrapper seams on the wrapper’s surface.

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw (*)

Before lighting up the Partagas de Bronce, a straight cut was used to remove the cap of the cigar. Once the cap was removed, it was on to the pre-light phase of the smoking experience. Overall, I picked up notes of cedar, citrus, mineral, and natural tobacco. All in all, this was a satisfactory pre-light draw. At this point, it was time to toast the Partagas de Bronce and move on to the smoking phase.

Tasting Notes

The Partagas de Bronce opened with notes of mineral, nut, citrus, and white pepper. Early on, the citrus and cedar notes moved into the forefront, while the nut, mineral, and pepper notes settled in the background. Later in the first third, some earth notes surfaced in the forefront, joining the citrus and cedar. Meanwhile, the retro-hale delivered an extra layer of black pepper.

During the second third of the Partagas de Bronce, the mineral notes increased, and the citrus notes decreased. By the midway point, the mineral and cedar notes were in control. Normally, a flavor combination like that would be a disaster for me, but the earth, citrus, pepper, and nut notes provided some nice balance and made the flavor profile work.

The final third saw the mineral and cedar notes in control. The pepper component on the tongue and retro-hale increased, but it never became a primary note. Meanwhile, notes of citrus, earth, and, to a lesser extent, nut rounded out the flavor profile. This is how the Partagas de Bronce came to a close. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn

When it came to the burn of the Partagas de Bronce, there were a few times when the burn meandered off a straight path. This resulted in several touch-ups, and the touch-ups were more frequent than I preferred. The resulting ash was a salt and pepper color. A couple of the samples had quite loose ash. As for burn temperature and burn rate, both maintained ideal levels.

Burn of the Partagas de Bronce

Draw

The draw of the Partagas de Bronce was slightly resistant, which is a positive in my book. At the same time, this was a low-maintenance cigar from which to derive flavor.

Strength and Body

The Partagas de Bronce started out dead-center medium in terms of strength and body. By the midway point, both attributes progressed into medium to full territory. This cigar surprised me as it had more strength and body than I expected. While both attributes balanced each other nicely for most of the cigar, the strength had a slight edge over the body by the final third.

BANDING AND PACKAGING NOTES (*)

STG did a great job with the presentation of the Partagas de Bronce. I mentioned the bronze-colored band earlier on, and it really looks nice with the Corojo wrapper, which has its own bronze tint. The band’s design is similar to the one seen on Partagas’ core lines, but I think it looks good with the bronze. I also like the look of the secondary band denoting El Titan de Bronze and the shelf talker on the right side. Having the signature of the cigar maker is a nice touch.

Packaging of Partagas de Bronce (Photo Credit: Scandinavian Tobacco Group)

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

I was delighted to see STG give Partagas some love by commissioning a blend out of El Titan de Bronze. I’ve enjoyed many of the STG releases that have been done for Partagas. STG and El Titan de Bronze did a great job with the Partagas de Bronce. Usually, flavors like cedar and mineral don’t excite me, but it works pretty well with this release. The Gran Corona format worked well here, and I’m curious to see if, down the road, STG releases other sizes under this line. Overall, the Partagas de Bronce is a cigar I probably would steer toward a more seasoned cigar enthusiast, but I certainly wouldn’t discourage a novice from trying. As for myself, this is a cigar I would buy and smoke again.

Summary

Key Flavors: Cedar, Mineral, Earth, Citrus, Pepper
Burn: Very Good
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium (1st Half), Medium to Full (2nd Half)
Body: Medium (1st Half), Medium to Full (2nd Half)
Finish: Very Good