Brands
Montecristo
Montecristo was founded in Havana in 1935, when Alonso Menéndez took over the Particulares factory and launched a new marca; shortly thereafter he formed with José “Pepe” García the house Menéndez y García, which also acquired H. Upmann. According to tradition, the name derives from the reading culture of the factories: Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo is said to have been the favourite novel of the torcedores to whom the Lector read aloud during their work.
The original range was of plain severity: five sequentially numbered vitolas, No. 1 to No. 5 — still the backbone of the brand to this day. The most celebrated of these is the No. 2, a Pyramide that many aficionados consider the reference for its format. Stylistically, Montecristo represents the Cuban middle ground: spicy, balanced, neither mild nor powerful — which has made the brand the best-selling Habano in the world.
The Revolution divided this story as well: after the nationalisation of 1960 the founding family left the island, and since the legal dispute of the 1970s Montecristo has existed in duplicate — as a Cuban version for the world market and as a Dominican-made version for the USA. Same name, two cigars: hardly any brand shows the legacy of 1959 to 1962 more plainly.