How Cigar Brands Were Created

Many cigar brands have an interesting backstory to the name they hold. Here are a few I have selected which could make you the smartest person at the party!

H. Upmann - Herman Upmann was a banker in Germany when in the early 1840’s he decided to quit and move to Cuba to establish a bank and a cigar company. Along with his brother they looked into producing high quality cigars and to do this they knew they needed to create something to protect them, this is why they started selling cigars in cedar boxes. The bank closed in the 1920’s but the cigar company lives on and produces some of the best cubans available.

Cohiba - First created for Fidel Castro in 1966 at the El Laguito factory in Havana, Cuba. The cigars were exclusively crafted for Castro and other high level Cuban government officials but were available as gifts to foreign diplomats. Due to their exceptional quality and exclusivity, Cohiba cigars are the most counterfeited in the world! The name Cohiba comes from the taino tobacco leaves, which the natives rolled together and smoked.

Montecristo -  Inspiration for the name Montecristo came from The Count of Monte Cristo (or Le Comte de Monte Cristo) written by Alexandre Dumas and considered a literary classic. The brand was started up by Alonzo Menendez and Pepe Garcia in 1935. Combining a brilliant sense of quality with some great marketing, Menendez and Garcia managed to rise to the top and become the standard that other cigars are measured against.  Cigar factory rollers were (and still are) often read books by ‘El Lector’ and no doubt this book was one of the favourites. 

Gurkha - The name Gurkha is often associated with the fearsome fighters of Nepal. They were enlisted by the British to fight in different parts of the world, protecting the British empire. The cigar was named after a town in Nepal called Gurkha - It is known that the British used to call the Nepalese soldiers’ cigars Gurkhas. The name was later used by Kaizad Hansotia when he started manufacturing and selling cigars in the 1980s. Gurkha holds the honour of making some of the world's most expensive cigars.

Brick House - When Julius Caesar Newman created his cigar manufacturing company, he decided to name it after his family’s house in his Hungarian village, which happened to be the only one made of brick! Newman later immigrated to America.

Davidoff - The name Davidoff is known all over the world. The famous luxury brand can be traced to Europe, Cuba and South America. Founded by Zino Davidoff, who was born in Kiev but his family moved to Switzerland in 1911 before moving again to South America in 1924. Originally, Davidoff cigars were manufactured in Cuba. In 1967, he was approached by Cubatabaco, a state-owned tobacco company that intended to produce their own personal brand of Davidoff cigars. Zino was not happy with the quality of the Cuban tobacco and so moved production to the Dominican Republic where it has been ever since.

Rocky Patel - Rakesh “Rocky” Patel was originally a Hollywood attorney who became interested in cigars after talking to actors between takes. From there he created Indian Tabac Co in California while he created a partnership with Phillip Zanghi III who ran the farming and operations in Honduras. The company moved to Naples, Florida and was renamed Rocky Patel premium cigars.

Written by Oliver Partington