Cohiba

The Cohiba story began when Fidel Castro noticed that one of his bodyguards, Bienvenido "Chicho" Perez, was smoking a "very good and aromatic" cigar. When Castro asked him what brand this vitola was, the bodyguard replied that it was rolled by a friend who gave him some of these cigars.

The man in question was a cigar roller called Eduardo Rivera, who worked at the La Corona factory in Havana. Castro hired Rivera to roll cigars for his own consumption, and put him to work with five other rollers in a former diplomatic villa on the outskirts of Havana known as El Laguito (Spanish for "the little lake"). Later, this factory became the first to have an all-cigar crew. Security at this factory was taken very seriously, and only workers and regime officials were allowed into the most critical areas of the factory.

These cigars were reserved for Fidel Castro and high-ranking figures in the Cuban government, and were often used as presents for foreign dignitaries. What's more, given the rumors of assassination attempts on Fidel Castro by the CIA, it's not surprising that Castro decided to smoke only cigars produced under extremely safe conditions, especially since one of the means the CIA was considering for eliminating Castro was, according to some rumors, an explosive cigar. Castro himself is said to be particularly fond of the long, fine cigars rolled for him, which gave rise to the Lancero and Corona Especial.

Castro decided to turn his personal cigars into a brand of luxury cigars for public consumption during the 1982 Football World Cup in Spain. At the time of its launch, the range consisted of three modules: the Panetela, the Corona Especial and the Lancero. In 1989, three additional modules were introduced: the Robusto, the Exquisito and the Espléndido. This total of six modules is known as the Línea Clásica.

In 1992, Habanos SA launched the first cigars of what the brand calls the Línea 1492, which pays tribute to Christopher Columbus and his voyages to America. Each cigar has been named after a century since the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. Initially, we had the Siglo I, Siglo II, Siglo III, Siglo IV and Siglo V, with Siglo VI added in 2002. Rumor has it that Línea 1492 was originally intended to replace the Davidoff brand range, which had just left Cuba for the Dominican Republic (each of the first five Siglos corresponded to a size in the Davidoff range).

In addition to its regular production, Habanos SA regularly makes limited edition cigars for events such as the annual Havana Festival, as well as the «Edición Limitada» version of certain modules, which are then wrapped in a cloak of aged leaves. Since 2007, Habanos SA has been producing a new series of three Cohíbas vitolas wrapped in Maduros leaf.

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

Habanos SA has also used the Cohiba name for products other than cigars, producing Cohiba cigarettes since 1987 and Cohiba Extra Cognac since 1999.

At the end of 2006, Cohiba had produced three different Cohibas Edición Limitada: the Pirámide launched in 2001 and manufactured again in 2006, the Double Corona in 2003 and the Sublime in 2004.