Cohiba

Cohíba is a brand for two kinds of premium cigar, one produced in Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in the Dominican Republic for General Cigar. The name cohíba derives from the Taino word for "tobacco".

Cohíba was originally a private brand supplied exclusively to Fidel Castro and high level Cuban government and communist party officials. Often given as diplomatic gifts, the Cohíba brand gradually developed a "cult" status. It was released commercially for sale to the public in 1982.

Cuban Cohíbas are known to use some of the finest cigar tobacco available in Cuba. The tobacco for Cohíba is selected from the finest Vegas Finas de Primera (first-class tobacco fields) in the San Luis and San Juan y Martinez zones of the Vuelta Abajo region of Pinar del Río Province. The tobacco used to fill the cigars is unique among Cuban marques because it undergoes a third fermentation process in barrels, which is reputed to give it a smoother flavor than other cigars. Originally all Cohíbas were made at the El Laguito factory, a converted mansion located on the outskirts of Havana. Later, production of some Cohiba vitolas was expanded to other factories.

The flavour of these cigars tends towards medium to full-bodied.


History

A slide lid cabinet box of Cohiba RobustosCohíba began with the cigars smoked by a bodyguard of Fidel Castro's named Bienvenido "Chicho" Perez. Castro noticed he often smoked a "very aromatic, very nice" cigar. When asked by Castro what brand he smoked, he replied that it was rolled by a friend of his who would give him some of these special cigars as gifts.

The man in question was a cigar roller working at the La Corona factory in Havana named Eduardo Rivera. Castro approached Rivera about rolling cigars for him personally and set him up with five other rollers in a former diplomatic mansion in a suburb of Havana known as El Laguito (Spanish for "the little lake"). Later, the factory became the first cigar factory to be staffed entirely by women torcedoras (cigar rollers).

The cigars were reserved for Castro himself, other high-ranking Cuban officials, and were commonly presented to foreign dignitaries as gifts. Castro himself is reputed to have been particularly fond of the long, thin cigars rolled for him, especially the sizes that would become the Lancero and Corona Especial.

To coincide with the 1982 World Cup being held in Spain, Castro decided to release his personal cigars as a premium cigar brand for public consumption. When it was first launched in 1982, the Cohíba marque consisted of three vitolas or sizes: the Panetela, the Corona Especial, and the Lancero. In 1989, three more vitolas were added (the Robusto, the Exquisito, and the Espléndido) and together with the first three vitolas are referred to as the Línea Clásica.

In 1992, in comemoration of Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the Americas, Habanos SA launched the first sizes in what it calls the Línea 1492, with each size named for a century that has passed since Columbus' discovery. The initial launch included the Siglo I, Siglo II, Siglo III, Siglo IV, and Siglo V, with a Siglo VI added in 2002. A long-standing rumor is that the original Línea 1492 was a replacement for the Davidoff marque that recently ceased production in Cuba (as each of the first five "Siglos" corresponded to a size in the Davidoff line-up).

Outside of the regular production lineup, Habanos SA regularly releases limited release Cohíba cigars for such events as the annual Habanos Festival, brand anniversaries, and their annual Edición Limitada release of limited edition special sizes of their various cigar brands wrapped in a darker vintage leaf.

Cohíba also produces two machine-made cigarillos: the Mini and the Club.

Habanos SA also leveraged the renowned Cohiba brandname throughout the years and have produced Cohiba cigarettes since 1987 and Extra Cohiba Cognac since 1999.

As of late 2006, Cohíba has released four different Edición Limitada Cohíbas: the Pirámide in 2001, the Double Corona in 2003, the Sublime in 2004, and a remake of the Pirámide in 2006.

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