Cuba's Golden Age: The Century of the Habano

In the nineteenth century, the centre of the cigar world shifted decisively from Seville to Havana. Cuban tobacco — above all from the Vuelta Abajo in the west of the island — soon commanded a reputation as the finest in the world, and the city filled with factories whose names still resonate today.

The Great Marcas

In 1844, the German-born banker Hermann Upmann founded the H. Upmann brand. A year later, in 1845, the Catalan Jaime Partagás opened his factory, whose standing rested on carefully selected tobacco from the Vuelta Abajo. Romeo y Julieta followed in 1875, founded by Inocencio Álvarez and Manín García. The marcas competed through tobacco quality, craftsmanship and an ever more finely graded range of vitolas — the cigar had become a brand product long before the word existed.

The Lector

In 1865, the journalist and poet Saturnino Martínez conceived an idea that would become the most Cuban of all traditions: in the factory El Fígaro in Havana, he arranged for someone to read aloud to the workers during their shift. Rolling occupies the hands and eyes but not the ears — and so the torcedores listened to newspapers, political debates and novels while cigars ran through their fingers. By early 1866 the Lector was established in Havana’s factories. Tradition holds that one brand even owes its name to the practice: the workers’ favourite novel was said to be Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo — the Montecristo brand, founded in 1935, is said to trace its name to that.

The Habano as Status Symbol

What left Havana carried prestige with it. In the drawing rooms of London and Paris, in the clubs and parliaments of Europe and the United States, the Habano became a marker of rank and taste — statesmen and writers alike had themselves portrayed with one. Cuba had created not merely a product but a currency of esteem. That an island of its size could dominate the world market for a luxury good was unique — and it made the rupture that followed in the twentieth century all the more profound.