My first Partagas serie D no. 5 BAO DIC 22 (FRWApr24)

[Fishey]

First time I try the serie D, let's see if it lives up to its hype. 

I tried to drybox, although I took it in and out of the box too many times and this may have ruined my experience, as I will explain soon.

The cold draw taste nice, earthy spice with some sweetness. looking forward to smoke it!

First third - failed to light it properly, one side got charred. Tastes bitter and harsh, very sad about the taste and I just hope that it gets better in the other thirds. Very earthy and lot off burnt wood. 

Second third - Begins to get better, tastes a bit smoother but still not the normal cuban smoothness that I'm used to. Small hint of saltiness that I like, but it's a very subtle undertone. The earth taste is still in the front. Still far away from its hype.

Last third - the harshness is gone, although the burn gets bad and begins to tunnel a lot, noticing that the wrapper stopped burning while the fillers kept burning (probably from the inconsistent dryboxing, or because of the wind... does this happen to you?). The taste is dark, earthy, spice. 

Verdict - Bad experience with my first partagas D... I just bought a couple of D4 and I just hope they are different from this D5. I think that the worst thing about smoking this cigar, is that it was so similar to a NC, that I would never be able to tell the difference. I just felt that I could get this experience from a NC, without the bad burn/harshness, for a third of the price. I really hope the D4 that I bought can be more distinctly Cuban.

Points: 6/10 

[ha_banos]

Cuban consistency... Was it underfilled at all? 

 

 

[Fishey]

14 hours ago, ha_banos said:

Cuban consistency... Was it underfilled at all? 

Not really, the construction was not bad.

[NSXCIGAR]

I've found D5 to be all over the place in the last 3-4 years and mostly similar to your experience. I stopped buying them a while ago. D4 has had less issues. Neither are a regular rotation cigar for me so it's not a huge deal but D5 specifically has been in the doghouse for a while. 

[AusDyer]

I've never had a good D5 or D6. Maybe there are some occasionally well blended boxes from better batches of tobacco, but the ones I've come across are always bitter and clearly rolled from inferior tobaccos. They also show frankly no signs whatsoever of being potentially great even if done well. D4s can be up and down, like all Cuban cigars, but are usually always at least decent with a more softer and creamier quality in the blend, and the good boxes are of course exceptional and entrancing cigars with incredible ageing potential. You'll have to be a billionaire soon to buy any of course.

I'd suggest, from experience, that most newer vitolas from Habanos are just branding for their inferior tobaccos and often even not much care gone into trying to blend them either. Like all things now, shady profiteering has taken over every business at the expense of any desire for quality and integrity. With less and less good tobacco being available in Cuba for various reasons now, they still keep pushing new vitolas every year... Just concentrate on making the standards exceptional. Given the insane pricing now, the very least they could do is ensure the vast majority of cigars they produce are exceptional blends. Instead, it's just the same old arrogant, ignorant business management mentality of "Pff, whatever, we can sell these people anything and they'll keep paying for it." Also remember to fire anyone who cares about the craft and is passionate about making great cigars and replace them with dogsbodys who'll just do whatever the bosses tell them to instead.

No love, passion and care anymore for the age old art of Havana cigars. The new Cuban gov and Habanos SA and probably vape companies who are funding anti-smoking lobbies (to get people off tobacco and onto vape products with a vastly higher profit margin for them) are destroying an ancient art and passion in the world. Seems a similar story in every industry too.