Cohiba cigars

Cohiba did not begin in a factory. It began in a bodyguard's hands. In 1966, Eduardo Ribera, a personal security aide to Fidel Castro, was noticed rolling cigars of unusual quality. The blend was refined at El Laguito, a stately mansion in Havana repurposed as a rolling school, and for sixteen years Cohiba existed solely as a diplomatic gift — something handed to heads of state, never sold. When it finally reached the public in 1982, it arrived with a mythology already fully formed.

Today Cohiba is produced by Habanos S.A. — the joint venture between the Cuban state tobacco company (Tabacuba) and Spain's Imperial Brands — and remains the only Habanos brand in which two of the three leaf types undergo a third fermentation, adding the silkiness and depth that separates it from every other Cuban line. Tobacco comes exclusively from the Vuelta Abajo region's top vegas in San Juan y Martínez and San Luis.

The portfolio runs from the accessible Siglo series (six sizes launched in 1992 to mark Columbus's voyage) through the richer Línea Clásica, anchored by the Espléndido and Robusto, to the Maduro 5 range introduced in 2007. At the summit sits the Behike, launched in 2010 with the addition of Medio Tiempo leaf — the two rarest leaves at the very top of select plants — making it the most limited and sought-after cigar in the Habanos catalogue.

A parallel Cohiba exists for the US market, produced in the Dominican Republic by General Cigar, but the two brands share nothing beyond the name — a consequence of trademark disputes following the 1960 US embargo. For anyone outside US territory, Cohiba means one thing: Havana, El Laguito, and fifty-plus years of Cuban state-of-the-art rolling.