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Having had the rather attractive Partagas Serie P No.1 jar sitting around for a month or so and being a great fan of the Serie P No.2 I thought it wise to try out these baby piramides to set some sort of benchmark before I put them away for a year or two to get some age on them.
I had them out of the jar as soon as they arrived and into the box I will be storing them in for the foreseeable future. Since the jar can?t absorb moisture as a humidor lined with Spanish cedar can, then any over-hydrification of the humidifier will just end up saturating the cigars and mould could get a foothold. I had no intention of risking that with my rather precious, scarce hoard.
The jar itself is, of course, quite the most attractive that Habanos have produced. I?m sure you will have all seen the pictures and I have to say that it looks even more handsome in real life than it does on the screen. It has made a very attractive addition to my smoking room for storing a selection of Havanas waiting in line to be sampled.
I took myself off to the pub with my good friend Dave who was very tolerant of me taking photographs of my cigar repeatedly. I offered him the opportunity to record his Golden Virginias for posterity but, on this occasion at least, he was a camera-shy torcedor.
Appearance 12/15
The P1 is, as you can see, a smaller version of the P2; a petit piramides , but I was not anticipating a comparable experience because of its youth and because of its diminutive size. I thought I might get 45 minutes out of it, which was not really enough to my mind for what should be a rather special cigar.
I couldn?t fault the wrapper and the characteristic Partagas band with the unfamiliar 1 on the end helped to build the anticipation. Then again, I am very partial to a Maduro wrapper and although there was nothing to fault with the P1, it was a long way from the dark oiliness that really gets my juices flowing.
Construction 24/25
The cigar lit well and burned pretty much faultlessly to the end. I have problems with burn sometimes and try to keep the humidity levels in the humidors down at around 65%, as well as leaving the cigar out for a while before smoking to dry it out a little & help burn and draw. The draw with the petit piramides was effortless and the smoking of it a pleasure. The ash seemed to have reasonable sticking power and would stay on for over an inch at a time which did not seem to impress Dave as much as I would have liked. The cigar did seem to peter out a little at the end and, had I the choice I probably would have wanted to squeeze a few more clouds out of it before laying it down.
Flavour 21/25
Having been warned that the P1 was tasting a little young I was very pleasantly surprised by the voluminous mouthfuls of creamy smoke that lasted for over an hour before it gave up the ghost. Initially a little bitter, this soon gave way to slightly vegetal flavours and then the delightfully smooth creaminess that characterises an aged example of its big brother.
The last third, to my mind, was where its youth finally showed. It started to become bitter again and although I was disappointed that it self-extinguished, I expect that realistically those last few puffs would not have been particularly pleasant.
Overall Impressions 31/35
I enjoy the Partagas Serie P No. 2 a great deal and it was fun to see its little brother beside it. It looked good, burned well and generally outperformed my admittedly mediocre expectations of it. Having said that, the overwhelming feeling I had when the cigar came to a full stop was that it has a lot more improving to do. It seemed obvious that although this was a reasonable and enjoyable hour?s smoke at present it has the potential to become an exceptional one in a few years. So, yet another of those boxes to sit at the back of the humidor waiting for its time to come. But at least I get to look at THAT JAR every day.
Overall 88/100
I had them out of the jar as soon as they arrived and into the box I will be storing them in for the foreseeable future. Since the jar can?t absorb moisture as a humidor lined with Spanish cedar can, then any over-hydrification of the humidifier will just end up saturating the cigars and mould could get a foothold. I had no intention of risking that with my rather precious, scarce hoard.
The jar itself is, of course, quite the most attractive that Habanos have produced. I?m sure you will have all seen the pictures and I have to say that it looks even more handsome in real life than it does on the screen. It has made a very attractive addition to my smoking room for storing a selection of Havanas waiting in line to be sampled.
I took myself off to the pub with my good friend Dave who was very tolerant of me taking photographs of my cigar repeatedly. I offered him the opportunity to record his Golden Virginias for posterity but, on this occasion at least, he was a camera-shy torcedor.
Appearance 12/15
The P1 is, as you can see, a smaller version of the P2; a petit piramides , but I was not anticipating a comparable experience because of its youth and because of its diminutive size. I thought I might get 45 minutes out of it, which was not really enough to my mind for what should be a rather special cigar.
I couldn?t fault the wrapper and the characteristic Partagas band with the unfamiliar 1 on the end helped to build the anticipation. Then again, I am very partial to a Maduro wrapper and although there was nothing to fault with the P1, it was a long way from the dark oiliness that really gets my juices flowing.
Construction 24/25
The cigar lit well and burned pretty much faultlessly to the end. I have problems with burn sometimes and try to keep the humidity levels in the humidors down at around 65%, as well as leaving the cigar out for a while before smoking to dry it out a little & help burn and draw. The draw with the petit piramides was effortless and the smoking of it a pleasure. The ash seemed to have reasonable sticking power and would stay on for over an inch at a time which did not seem to impress Dave as much as I would have liked. The cigar did seem to peter out a little at the end and, had I the choice I probably would have wanted to squeeze a few more clouds out of it before laying it down.
Flavour 21/25
Having been warned that the P1 was tasting a little young I was very pleasantly surprised by the voluminous mouthfuls of creamy smoke that lasted for over an hour before it gave up the ghost. Initially a little bitter, this soon gave way to slightly vegetal flavours and then the delightfully smooth creaminess that characterises an aged example of its big brother.
The last third, to my mind, was where its youth finally showed. It started to become bitter again and although I was disappointed that it self-extinguished, I expect that realistically those last few puffs would not have been particularly pleasant.
Overall Impressions 31/35
I enjoy the Partagas Serie P No. 2 a great deal and it was fun to see its little brother beside it. It looked good, burned well and generally outperformed my admittedly mediocre expectations of it. Having said that, the overwhelming feeling I had when the cigar came to a full stop was that it has a lot more improving to do. It seemed obvious that although this was a reasonable and enjoyable hour?s smoke at present it has the potential to become an exceptional one in a few years. So, yet another of those boxes to sit at the back of the humidor waiting for its time to come. But at least I get to look at THAT JAR every day.
Overall 88/100
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