Part 1 - A History of Cuban Cigar Brands (Belina, Bolívar, and Cohiba)

Belinda is probably the least known Cuban marcas available internationally today.

The brand was founded by Francisco Menéndez in 1882. Menéndez was a veteran cigar man, and the brand was to be the flagship product of his new factory, and he spared no expense on first class tobacco and packaging.

While Belinda enjoyed initial success, historical events would soon catch up with the young brand. 

The Cuban War of Independence in the 1890s devastated the tobacco industry. The following period, from 1900 until the 1930s, is remembered in Cuba as the era of ‘The Trust,’ referring to a US owned cartel took advantage of Cuba’s war damaged economy and acquired many Cuban tobacco plantations, processing facilities, and cigar factories, vertically integrating these with their large holdings in the US and elsewhere. The factories that remained independent formed a loose coalition known as the Marcas Independentes, and a chaotic time ensured with both groups competed on price and cutting costs in all areas, which in turn lead to frequent layoffs and strikes by tobacco workers.

Many brands were shuttered or changed hands during this period: Belinda first merged with the Punch brand in 1897, and the two brands would change hands four more times before ending up with the Fernández y Palicio company in 1930. This company went on to acquire the Hoyo de Monterrey brand and the famous La Escepción factory in 1931, and production of Belinda moved there shortly thereafter. This new conglomerate was one of the largest tobacco exporters in Havana, and Belinda one of their biggest brands. Around 50 different vitolas of Belinda cigars appear in catalogues from the 1950s.

The La Escepción factory was nationalised and shuttered not long after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and production of its brands moved to the La Corona factory. The Belinda brand gradually declined through the 1960s, particularly after the loss of the US market in 1962, and last appeared in catalogues 1969.

Belinda was relaunched in 1989 with eleven low-cost machine-made vitolas for Eastern Bloc countries. Uniquely among machine-made cigars, this incarnation of Belinda reportedly used ‘long strand’ short filler, which is to say that the shredded tobacco that makes up the body of the cigar was in larger pieces than typical machine-mades.

International availability of Belinda expanded somewhat over the 1990s and into the 2000s, however, the number of vitolas gradually decreased to just a single cigar after 2005. The brand had virtually no international distribution after 2014 and was rare even in Cuba.

One last hurrah, however, came for Belinda in 2022. At this time cigar production in Cuba was greatly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and retailers all over the world were scrabbling for stock, which was answered by the appearance of a large volume of Belinda in many places around the world. One can only surmise that Cuba was exporting whatever cigars they had available, and warehoused stocks of Belinda that would otherwise have gone to domestic stores were shipped overseas.

The Bolívar marca was created in 1902 by José Fernández Rocha. He named it for Simón Bolívar, who had liberated much of the South American continent from the Spanish in the early part of the 19th century. The fact that Cuba had won its own independence from Spain in 1898 was a likely inspiration for Fernández Rocha’s choice of namesake.

The brand found modest success, and Fernández Rocha was able to purchase the La Gloria Cubana brand in 1905. 

Fernández Rocha died in 1954, and his brands were sold to the owners of the Partagás factory. No doubt benefiting from large scale of Partagás’ distribution and marketing, Bolívar went on to great popularity, particularly in the British market.

The Partagás factory was nationalised after the Revolution, but production of their brands continued without interruption. Partagás remains the mother factory of the Bolívar brand to this day.

Habanos S.A. classifies Bolívar as a ‘value brand’, meaning that it sits in the second tier just below the six largest global brands. It has seven cigars in regular production, with most recent release being the New Gold Medal in 2023, which has been very well received by consumers. Many Regional Edition cigars have also been released under the Bolívar brand, as have a few Limited Editions and cigars from most other special release categories.

There can be no question that the most prestigious cigar brand worldwide is Cohiba.

In 1963, the head of Fidel Castro’s bodyguard unit, ‘Chico’ Perez, offered the revolutionary leader a cigar made by his friend Eduardo Rivera. Castro enjoyed the cigar so much that he had Rivera set up as his personal roller (although there is no doubt that Rivera was a fine roller, the fact that Castro would go on to smoke exclusively his cigars may have been more for security reasons – the CIA is known to have plotted Castro’s assassination via exploding cigar).

In 1964, a small factory was set up in a converted country club in Havana’s leafy suburbs to expand production of Castro’s cigars (still unnamed) for other high ranking party members and for use as diplomatic gifts. Rivera supervised the small group of rollers, although continued to produce all of Castro’s cigars himself. 

In 1966, the brand was named finally given the name Cohiba, meaning “cigar” in the language of Cuba’s indigenous Taíno people.

Three models of Cohiba were produced from 1967, all thin sizes in deference to Castro’s preferences (many other brands also introduced identically cigars around this time). The cigars remained unknown to the general public, and only available to Cuban officials, as diplomatic gifts, or very occasionally for sale on Air Cubana flights.

This changed in 1982, when the brand became generally available internationally for the first time. Three new cigars, the large Churchill size Espléndidos, the small Exquisitos, and a Robusto were introduced from 1989.

Prior to the general release of Cohiba, Davidoff had been the flagship premium brand from Cuba, and the Davidoff No.1 and No.2 were produced alongside the identically sized Cohiba Lanceros and Coronas Especiales at Cohiba’s El Laguito factory. Zino Davidoff moved production of his namesake brand away from Cuba in 1991, and in 1992 the Cohiba Siglo series of five cigars was introduced, replicating many of the former Davidoff sizes.

The General Cigar Company, a United States based cigar manufacturer, registered the “Cohiba” trademark in the US in 1978, and sells their own cigars under that name in the US (popularly known as “red dot Cohiba” as the O is filled in red in their design). Many Cuban cigar brands have some dispute over their trademark, but this is generally to do with brands that were nationalised after the Revolution. The Cohiba dispute is unique, in that the registration in the US came well after the brand existed in Cuba, but before it was ever sold to the public. Cubatabaco and General Cigar have been involved in a protracted lawsuit over this trademark for several decades.

As a contingency in case the lawsuit were to fail, in 1985 Cubatabaco registered the name Behique for use as an alternative to Cohiba, altering this to Behike in 1988. They would eventually use this name, first for a luxury limited edition humidor in 2006, and then for a line of top-end cigars from 2010. These Cohiba BHK cigars are some of the most highly sought-after cigars in the world to this day (and some of the highest priced).

The later part of the 2010s saw high growth in demand for all Cuban cigars, particularly in China, where no brand is more desirable than Cohiba. Since 2022, Habanos S.A. has increasingly tried to bring Cuban cigars into the position of a high-end luxury consumable, and Cohiba has led the charge in this effort, with prices more than doubling in most markets. 

Even at the new prices, the alure of “Castro’s personal cigar” remains irresistible, and Cohiba cigars are as in demand as ever.