Before the Castro regime stole the cigar brands and factories from the rightful owners, the Cifuentes family owned the Partagas factory. They even had a brand with the Cifuentes name. Rafael Cifuentes III is now bringing the name back into the cigar industry with the Altezas Reales 1871, a cigar with the old Partagas taste, as the blend is based on the Serie D no.4, but not the current blend but the one from the 1990s when Cuban tobacco was stronger.

The cigars, available as a corona, robusto and toro, are made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami and come in boxes of 10. The cigars are Nicaraguan puros. Production is limited to 1000 boxes of each vitola.

Born in 1967, Cifuentes III is the great grandson of Ramón Cifuentes Llano, who purchased the Partagás factory more than 100 years ago. The family business in Cuba was passed down over three generations until the Castro’s stole it all.

Rafael Cifuentes III has been in the tobacco industry for 35 years working at his family’s tobacco supply and distribution company headquartered in Spain, among other ventures. When developing his Altezas Reales 1871 line (which translates to “royal highness”), Cifuentes wanted the cigars to be manufactured in the Cuban style.

“I was looking for each cigar to be made in the traditional Cuban style of tubing the filler and then finished with a beautiful triple cap, then inspected by another master roller/blender, boxed and dated to ensure the cigar is of the highest standard,” he explains.