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Montecristo Cigars (Cuba)

The Montecristo cigar brand is a relatively new brand in the scheme of the Habanos S.A. portfolio, being established in the 1930s.

The Montecristo legend began with Alonso Menendez, a Cuban entrepreneur, who gained control of Particulares cigars in 1935. Menendez set about reworking cigar operations to create an all-new Cuban cigar brand. Myths abound about how Menendez came up with the Montecristo name, yet the most common tale suggests the factory’s “lectores” or readers inspired it.

A lector reads books, poems, magazines, newspaper articles, and other writings to cigar rollers in the factory. As the story goes, the 1845 novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was a factory favorite. Menendez liked the sound of it and chose it as the name for his new cigar brand.

Menendez later joined with his business partner to form Menendez, Garcia y Cia. In 1937, the partnership acquired Havana’s famous H. Upmann factory, which would serve as the new home for Montecristo cigars. From here, the Montecristo brand rose in prestige and, by the 1960s, was the unquestioned king of Cuban cigars.

Following the nationalization policies of Fidel Castro after the Cuban revolution, the Montecristo brand was taken from Menendez, Garcia y Cia and fell under the auspices of the Cuban government’s Cubatabaco. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, other Cuban brands, such as Cohiba, would emerge to challenge Montecristo’s legendary status. Yet the brand has endured, and Montecristo cigars are now celebrated the world over like never before.

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