IPCPR 2015: Palacíos Cigars

While much of the IPCPR Convention & Trade Show is catching up with brands I’m very familiar with, it’s also a good time to learn about brands I’ve never heard of. Palacíos Cigars is most certainly in that category. It’s not because the brand is new, it’s been around since 2002, but hasn’t ever made it onto my radar for whatever reason. Regardless, after spending a few minutes, I became intrigued by the company’s approach to dealing with an aged old question: what happens when you run out of a specific tobacco.

Palacíos The Old Quito Reserva No.2
Mario Palcíos told halfwheel about his newest creation, Reserva No.2. It’s the second release of the company’s The Old Quito lines, created after a limited amount of binder tobaccos ran out. The Palacíos way sees the company use a blend until one of the components runs out, once that happens, it updates all the blends to incorporate the new tobacco(s). Interestingly enough, the next version won’t be Reserva No.3 for whatever reason.

There are three different blends under The Old Quito Reserva No.2: a Pennsylvania maduro wrapper version, Ecuadorian Connecticut version and Ecuadorian habano blend. The filler blend for each is described as proprietary, but the binder is a seven-year-old San Andrés habano.

Each line is offered in the same four sizes Robusto (5 x 52, $8.25/8.75), Torpedo (6 1/8 x 52, $9.75/10.50), Churchill (7 x 52, $9.75/10.50) and Gigante (6 x 60, $12.10/12.60). While the Connecticut and Habano versions are priced the same, the Maduro version is slightly more expensive.

Palaciós says that its cigars are produced entubado style—with buncheros rolling long cylindrical tubes of tobacco leaves to produce a better draw—and triple caps, a more classic Cuban style. The cigars are produced in Estelí by the Gomez and Sanchez families and Palacíos says it can produce around 300 boxes each month.