The Legends
of Havana

By Mark Bernardo

The Names, Faces, and Legends Behind the Cigar World’s Oldest and Most Famous Brands

Here in the still-dawning days of the 21st Century, with increased access to all kinds of information, we have become a society with a thirst for knowledge, both vital and trivial. CNN, Discovery Channel, programs like “E! True Hollywood Story,” “Behind the Music,” “Biography” - all these speak to our growing need to know more about the things that interest us. One of the most telltale signs of our need to have all the inside info is that a “Making Of...” behind-the-scenes feature, once a novelty, has become standard for DVD movie releases, from The Godfather to Shallow Hal.

Aside from where they’re made, what’s in them, and - sometimes painfully - their price, how much do we know about our favorite cigars, especially the well-known brands that came out of Cuba over 150 years ago? Herewith, SMOKE’s A-to-Z guide to the most famous long-lived cigar brands... and the stories of the legendary figures who created and inspired them.

Bolivar
You could say this was a revolutionary cigar, in the most literal sense of the word. Born in what is today known as Venezuela, Simon de Bolivar (1783-1830), the cigar’s namesake, was a child of privilege whose parents died when he was very young. After several trips to Europe as an adult, Bolivar used his vast fortune and personal charisma to gather a revolutionary army to lead a revolt against sovereign Spain, thus winning the liberation of the nations we know today as Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and the one which was named after him - Bolivia. He remains a revered historical figure - known as “The Liberator” and “the George Washington of South America” - despite his turbulent later years as ruler of Colombia, where he resigned his post following an assassination attempt. His icon status was assured in 1901, when Jose F. Rocha, a Spanish businessman residing in Havana, and apparent admirer of Bolivar, named his new cigar after the 19th century revolutionary. However, the brand was not well-known until the 1940s, when it was purchased by the Cifuentes family of Partagas fame. Since then, it’s become known as one of the strongest Havanas around, still made in Cuba, as well as in the Dominican Republic. And though the design of the band has changed, old Simon’s face still adorns the center of the band - much like his counterpart General Washington’s still does from the U.S. dollar bill.

Cohiba
One of the world’s most sought-after brands, the Cohiba is also one of Cuba’s youngest, with substantial parts of its origin still subject to debate. Here’s what we do know: Its name comes from the Taino Indian word for “tobacco,” and it was created in 1966 as a private cigar brand for Cuban president Fidel Castro. The brand is still made in Cuba, as well as in the Dominican Republic for General Cigar. From there it gets hazy: one legend claims that Che Guevara commissioned the cigar while he was Castro’s Minister of Industry. But Guevara’s death before the Cohiba’s release casts doubt on this story. Another theory posits that one of Castro’s bodyguards (who tasted his food and taste-puffed his cigars, as he was under constant threat of being poisoned) gave him an unbanded cigar rolled by a man named Avelino Lara (or, others claim, an Eduardo Rivera) and Castro loved it so much he contacted the roller himself to make a private brand. Whatever the true, full story may be, the mystique surrounding the brand was further enhanced by the uniqueness of its construction and blend: whereas most cigar tobaccos are double-fermented, the Cohiba’s went through an additional third aging process in oak before being rolled into cigars. For years, no one outside of Castro and a select inner circle of dignitaries and diplomats ever tasted the exclusive cigar, until 1982, when it was finally commercialized, and made available to the public. Since then, the Cohiba has become one of the cornerstones of the Cuban cigar industry, and the General brand that bears the title has also become extremely popular in the U.S. market.

Davidoff
Whereas many of the men who lent their names to today’s brands remain a mystery to most, the image of Zino Davidoff is still quite alive and well in the brand that bears his name - many years after this venerable brand left Cuba for the Dominican Republic. Davidoff was born in 1906 in Kiev in the Russian Ukraine, and moved to Geneva in 1911. Young Zino learned all about cigarette and pipe tobacco blending from his father, a tobacco store owner, but when he went out to see the world at 19, he found himself drawn to Cuba - and the special magic of Cuban cigar tobacco. After convincing his father to install a cigar section in the shop, Davidoff ‘s became one of the world’s most renowned outlets for fine Havanas. Around the end of World War II, he was given permission to create his own cigar brand. A clever marketer, Davidoff hit upon the idea of naming cigars after famous French winemaking chateaus. There was one problem. As Richard Carleton Hacker relates in The Ultimate Cigar Book, “...he had neglected to obtain permission from the owners of the chateaux to use their names on his cigars. But in those pre-litigious days, the diplomatic Zino simply sent a gift of cigars to each individual. When they saw their chateau immortalized on a box of cigars, all was forgiven.” Try getting away with that trick today. Truly one of a kind, Zino passed on in 1993, but his unique spirit and love of “the good life” still permeates his luxurious products.

El Rey Del Mundo
Watch the movie Titanic with Spanish subtitles and you’ll come across the name of this cigar - which rather immodestly proclaims itself as “King of the World.” It just goes to show the confidence that the cigar’s originator, Antonio Allones had in the masterful Havana blend he cooked up back in 1882 (or earlier, in 1848, as others believe). The grandiloquent moniker paid off; this was one of the most expensive Cuban brands, and one of the most popular. The El Rey del Mundo factory also had the distinction of turning out some of the first Lonsdales, helping to popularize that shape. And yes, Antonio is the brother of Ramón Allones - who may not have been “king of the world” but whose name certainly is more recognized these days. El Reys are still made in Cuba, and Lew Rothman’s J-R Cigars owns the Honduran brand sold in the U.S. market.

Henry Clay
Ulysses S. Grant and John F. Kennedy both loved a good cigar, and Bill Clinton was - ahem - known to enjoy one occasionally, but Henry Clay is the only U.S. politician to have a cigar brand named after him. Clay was a 19th century senator from Kentucky, a member of the Whig party whose platform, according to Hacker, “was to transform the U.S. from an agricultural bartering nation into a country that relied more on economic principles.” Clay himself was known to bring a box to Washington, on horseback, along with a jug of whisky, to hand out to his fellow legislators. One can assume that these neighborly gestures aided Clay’s successful political career; he served as Speaker of the House from 1811 through 1821, and again from 1823-25, and became Secretary of State from 1825-29. This brand originated in Cuba, but is no longer made there - though the old factory is still pictured, along with Henry himself, on the boxes of the current, and still-popular Dominican-made Henry Clay cigars.

Hoyo de Monterrey
One of the few early brands named for a place rather than a person, Hoyo de Monterey is a very popular cigar in both its incarnations - the original Cuban version launched around 1867 by the legendary José Gener, and the line currently being produced in Honduras that has expanded to include the prestigious Excalibur line. Gener came to Cuba from Spain in the 1840s to make his fortune, buying a tobacco farm in the most renowned area of the Vuelto Abajo, and rolling the first cigars, naming them after his farm - literally, “Valley of Monterey.” Interestingly, this was one of the first trademarked “brand name” cigars to come out of Havana, most previous cigars having been sold by shapes and sizes only. After Gener’s death in 1900, his ownings transferred to his daughter Lutgarda, but left the custody of his descendants in 1931 and has changed hands several times since. Through it all, Hoyo de Monterey is still being produced, and its founding father’s name still adorns every box - albeit still second fiddle to that of his famous farm.

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