lover of fine cigars. It came as no surprise when, in around 1840 he volunteered to open a bank in Havana. The cigars he sent home proved so popular that in 1844 he invested in a cigar factory. The company traded successfully until 1922, when first the bank and then the cigar business failed. A British firm J. Frankau & Co saved the brand and ran the factory until being sold to the newly founded Menendez y Garcia company in 1935.
Havana Upmans are light flavoured, very smooth, subtle cigars. They are a good beginner?s cigar, or one to be smoked after a light meal.
These are among the best of the medium-priced Havanas. The box of this brand, originally created for the English market, carries the unusual legend,, originally hand written by an English importer in the 1930's: - 'In order that the connoisseur may fully appreciate the perfect fragrance they should be smoked either within one month of the date of shipment from Havana or aged for about one year.'
These first class cigars have a delicate, but rich and subtle flavour, with a complex aroma akin to a lighter Montecristo.
The name means 'King of the World', a confident enough title for this brand, originally founded in 1882 by the Antonio Allones company. Many connoisseurs would rate it among their favourite brands; these include the film producer Darryl F Zanuck, the former head of 20th Century Fox, who incidentally once owned a plantation in Cuba, and the British tycoon Sir Terrance Conran.
These Cuban cigars are well constructed, light to medium flavoured with a subtle aroma, with smooth, oily wrappers, particularly the larger sizes. Again they are a good beginners cigar, and very suitable for daytime smoking.
To celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Columbus's discovery of cigars in Cuba, five new sizes were launched in November 1992. Named Siglo (meaning century).
There is an old wrought-iron gate overlooking a square in the Vuelta Abajo village of San Juan y Martinez which bears the inscription ‘Hoyo de Monterrey: Jose Gener 1860’. It leads to one of Cuba’s most renowned ‘vegas finas’, a plantation specialising in sun grown tobaccos for binders and fillers, where Jose Gener started his career before founding the brand in 1865.
Hoyo’s flagship is the Double Corona, with its delicacy of flavour combined with a richness of taste is a credit to the rollers and blenders at the La Corona factory where it is made.
Launched in the autumn of 1996, this is the latest Havana to hit the cigar market and is produced in the Romeo Y Julieta factory in Cuba. Its name derives from an old Taino Indian word for a type of bush that was used for lighting cigars at religious ceremonies
The cigar is reminiscent of vintage cigars with its taped end, known as a 'figuardo', this shape was very popular during the 19th Century.
Manuel Lopez founded the brand, the second oldest still in production, in 1840 with the British market in mind, where the humorous magazine of the same name was much in vogue. A contented Mr Punch, cigar in hand, remains a feature of each box.
These cigars are renowned for their fragrant bouquet, distinctive spicy aroma, and slightly sweet flavour.
One of the very best-known Havana brands, especially in Britian. The brands early success was directly due to the efforts of Rodriguez ?Pepin? Fernandez.
He was originally a manager of the Cabanas factory in Havana, but unhappy with its imminent take over by American Tobacco, he decided to branch out on his own in 1903.
Using all his savings he bought a little known factory, which since 1875 made cigars solely for the domestic market. Within two years he had transformed it into an international brand specialising in providing personalised cigar brands for celebrities and heads of state (at one stage the factory was producing 20,000 different brands).
They are well made cigars with an excellent aroma and classically medium bodied. They are at their best straight from the box, especially the Exhibition No4, with its dark, oily wrapper, providing a rich smoke after a heavy meal.
San Cristobal de la Habana was officially launched in Havana on November 20th, 1999. It was named after the original name of Havana which dates back to the 16th century.
Before the Revolution, a brand by the name of San Cristobal de la Habana existed, and it was produced until the Revolution. However, this new brand is completely unrelated and not a resurrection of the old brand.
The brand initially launched with 4 cigars (El Morro, El Principe, La Fuerza, and La Punta). In 2004, to celebrate the brand's fifth anniversary, 3 additional cigars were produced for the V Anniversary Humidor and eventually released for public sale. These new cigars, the Officios, Mercaderes and Muralla, also feature an additional "La Casa del Habano" band as these cigars were only available at La Casa del Habano retailers.
This is the most popular Havana by far. Around half of the cigars exported from Cuba in any one year bear its simple brown and white band.
In 1935 the brand was created by Alonzo Menendez and Pepe Garcia as the H Upmann Montecristo Selection, and was to be the 'Grande Marque' of the recently acquired H Upmann brand and was limited to just five sizes.
The change of name simply to Montecristo was due to the British firm of John Hunter, who was appointed to be British agent, wanting to differentiate the brand from H Upmann, which rival company Frankau handled.
Montecristos, with their characteristic Colorado-claro, slightly oily wrappers and delicate aroma offer a medium to full flavour spiked with a unique, tangy, spicy taste.
Diplom?ticos was the first new brand of cigars to come out of Cuba after the Revolution. They were initially created as a "value" Montecristo, primarily aimed towards the French cigar market. The Diplom?ticos line mimics the original Montecristo line in having five numbered sizes, all handmade. The blend used for this line is milder than that used for Montecristo, most likely to cater to the taste of French cigar smokers, and nowadays is usually still a bit cheaper in price than corresponding Montecristo sizes.
The original line consisted of five numbered sizes, corresponding to Montecristo. In 1976, the No. 6 and No. 7 were introduced to the line and were the same size as the Montecristo Especial No. 1 and Especial No. 2, but were discontinued a few years later in the mid-1980's.
The famous Bolivar label and box featuring a portrait of the 19th Century Venezuelan revolutionary Simon Bolivar, liberator of much of South America from Spanish rule, is one of the most instantly recognised brands. In 1901, seventy-one years after his death, the Rocha company in Havana created this brand in his honour.
Bolivars are among the strongest, fullest bodied of Havanas. They are certainly not for the beginner, but appeal to many seasoned smokers.
Dating from 1837, Ramon Allones, although not one of the best known Havana brands, is a favourite with many cigar connoisseurs. The arms on the box are of the Spanish royal house. Ramon Allones himself emigrated from Galicia in Spain to Cuba, and was the first man to put full colour labels on his cigar boxes.
The cigars themselves are well made, relatively full bodied, with a strong aroma (similar to Partagas, but certainly less than Bolivar).
The Cohiba story begins in the mid 1960's when one of President Fidel Castro's bodyguards enjoyed a private supply of cigars from a local artisan. They so pleased the president that their creator, Eduardo Ribera, was asked to make cigars of his blend exclusively for Castro under strict security in an Italianate mansion in the Havana suburb of El Laguito.
For 14 years the three sizes (Lancero, Coronas Especiales, Panatelas) were reserved for government and diplomatic use only. Yet by 1982 word of this fabled cigar was out and a decision was taken to fully market it. Thus in 1989 three new sizes were added to the range; The Esplendidos, the Robustos, and the Exquisito.
Partagas is one of the oldest of the Havana brands, started in 1845 by Don Jaime Partagas.
The name is well known, not least because Partagas cigars are produced in large quantities: there are no fewer than 40 types available (world-wide) – many of them machine made – and cellophane wrapped. There is also a Dominican version of the brand, made with Cameroon wrappers grown from Havana seed.
In general the brand has a rich, earthy and full flavour, which is particularly noticeable on the heavier ring gauge sizes like the Series D No 4 (Robusto). There are two sizes in an 8-9-8 packing: one is a Corona Grande (6 inches x 42) and the other a Dalia (65/8 Inches x 43). Ernest Lopez, the factory’s director sees the Dalia, as his flagship size.
According to Adriano Martínez, a former executive of Habanos SA, in Min Ron Nee's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars, the Trinidad brand was first produced in 1969 at the El Laguito factory in Havana.
In the early 90's, the cigar received much attention in Cigar Aficionado after an interview with Avelino Lara (formerly the manager of El Laguito and, as of this writing, a producer of cigars for the Graycliff Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas). In the 1992 interview, Lara claimed that Trinidad was an ultra-exclusive brand that only Fidel Castro was authorized to hand out as diplomatic gifts. Lara also claimed Trinidads were of a higher quality than the much-lauded Cohibas that had formerly been diplomatic exclusives before their mass-market release in 1982.
Two sources have contradicted Lara's claims: President Fidel Castro himself and the afore-mentioned Mr. Martínez. In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, when asked about Trinidads, Castro stated that he only gave Cohibas away as diplomatic gifts. In the Illustrated Encyclopedia, Martínez stated that Trinidads were actually a lower-level diplomatic gift than Cohiba cigars, made with a tobacco blend similar to that used in the Cohiba vitolas, but without the third barrel fermentation that Cohibas receive.
In 1995, Cigar Aficionado hosted the Dinner of the Century in Paris, France where, among other rarities, the guests became the first outside of diplomatic circles to taste Trinidad cigars.
In February 1998, the Trinidad brand was released for public consumption at an opening ceremony in the Havana Libre Hotel in Havana. The initial release was only in one size: the Fundador. Though Martínez and others maintain that the blend did not changed in the transition from a diplomatic gift to a mass-marketed cigar, the size did. The diplomatic Trinidads only came in one size, that of a Laguito No. 1 (the same as the Cohiba Lancero). The Fundador instead comes in a new size with a factory name of Laguito Especial, the same length as a Laguito No. 1 but with a ring gauge of 40 instead of 38.
In November 2003 at a black tie dinner hosted by UK importer Hunters & Frankau at the Hilton Park Lane in London, England, three new sizes were debuted for the Trinidad line: the Colonial, the Rey, and the Robusto Extra.
