Cuba

Although sometimes disputed for this honor, Cuba remains the producer of the richest cigars in the world. Experts agree on the fact that it is the lands of Vuelta Abajo, located in the northwest of the island of Cuba that produce unique tobacco. Spreading around the town of Pinar Del Rio, the Vuelta Abajo enjoys a temperature, humidity and soils that allow the cultivation of tobacco of a luxuriant richness and a beautiful intensity. It is generally agreed that the European history of the cigar began with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in Cuba in October 1492. In fact, it was probably the natives of Yucatan who were the first to cultivate tobacco in Mexico long before the arrival of the conquistadores. If Columbus was not himself a fan of cigars, European navigators quickly took a liking to cigars. The practice gained popularity in Spain and Portugal, then in France. The French ambassador in Lisbon, Jean Nicot, not only extolled the therapeutic virtues of tobacco, but in addition he bequeathed his name to the famous plant. During the first years of the conquest of the Americas, tobacco will be discovered in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia. Then other varieties are updated in Brazil and Peru. It was the plants from Peru that were considered the best and which, when transplanted to Cuba in particular, gave astounding results. As for the manufacture of cigars, it was for a long time under the monopoly of the crown of Spain, in particular in the royal factories of Seville before Ferdinand II encouraged from 1825 the manufacture in the colony of Cuba. The Cuban cigar industry therefore took on a lightning boom that would continue throughout the 19th century. The 1959 revolution led to the creation of a state monopoly: Tabacuba and its commercial subsidiary Habanos SA . Today Habanos SA markets all Cuban brands worldwide.