The fact that it is a Laguito No. 3 already endows this size by Montecristo with Special qualities. A small cigar with a gauge of 26, it is unquestioningly the king of this format, together with the Panetelas by Cohiba. It has very little in common with all the other brand sizes. With an apparent lightness in both aroma and flavor, once you taste it you shall feel convinced and satisfied.
Montecristo A Cuban Cigars Only $43.00 each
A great Clasic of the Cuban Cigar size range and the most attractive for smokers of the large formats. This Gran Corona ("Great Corona") can say, like Napoleon, that is has crowned itself. Is the Habano of great events. Within the brand, it is not the strongest, although it is the most redeemed. Its length demands a wrapper of great quality, which makes its presentation something very special and with great impact.
For those interested in trying some of our authentic Cuban montecristo cigars we offer many varieties and shapes, the two most popular and the ones we most strongly recommend to the novice smoker, or the experienced smoker new to montecristo brand are as follows:
Montecristo A
This is the largest production size cigar made in Cuba. Packed with powerful spice and leather. A cigar made and inteded only for the true cigar aficionado.
Montecristo Especial
A smoother and slightly cigar than the Montecristo ?A? with gentle hints of cocco and butter notes.
You can find them both and more at Cigar-humidors.usDistributed far and wide throughout the world and purchased originally by Dunhill New York, the Montecristo brand cigar presently makes up almost half of all Cuban cigars exports every year, making Montecristo the most well known Havana cigar in the world. The Montecristo was first branded in 1935 under the name "the H. Upmann Montecristo Selection". When selected as the British distribution agent, the John Hunter firm changed the brand's name to Montecristo. The John Hunter firm also altered the brand's logo to its unique red and yellow box with the triangular x-'d swords. These wondrous, full-flavored cigars are very recognizable to the taste due to their unique tobacco mixture, and their highly unique flavor. The Montecristo brand is also highly popular as the result of it's exeptionally consistent quality.
Distributed extensivley internationally and sold originally by the company called Dunhill in New York, the Montecristo brand cigar currently makes up almost half of all Cuban cigars exported every year, making the Montecristo brand the most popular Havana cigar in the world. The Montecristo was first branded in 1935 under the monkier ?H. Upmann Montecristo Selection?.
When they were selected, the British distribution agent, the John Hunter firm reduced the brand?s name to simply Montecristo. The John Hunter firm also redesigned the brand?s logo to its well known and recognized red and yellow box with the triangular crossed swords. These wonderful, full-flavored cigars are very distinctive to the toungue because of their unique tobacco mixture, and their extremely unique flavor. The Montecristo brand is also extremely popular as the result of it's incredible and consistent high level of quality and production value. The name is widely belived to have been inspired by Alexandre Dumas' 1844 book called ?Le Comte de Montecristo?.
Tours of the Partagas and La Corona factories usually start in the rolling rooms, or galeras, as the Cubans call them, skipping all of the tobacco preparations. This is sad, because watching the casing, stripping, selecting and other processes affords a better knowledge of the lots of steps it takes to create a hand rolled cigar.
Nevertheless, the galeras are the heart and soul of all Havanna cigar factories, the place where visitors will get a feel of the history of a trade that has been passed down for generations. Rollers, or torcedores, sit in rows, quietly and methodically rolling cigars as they work to the sound of salsa or son music on the radio or the reading of a newspaper. Most rollers can roll from 100 to 150 cigars a day, utilizing only a wooden board, metal knife and small guillotine as well as a bit of glue. The cigars are definitely hecho a mano--or handmade.
After viewing the rollers, visitors are treated the quality-control methods by which large bundles of cigars, about 50 each depending on the size and type, are regularly inspected and weighed according to standards dictated by the Ministry of Agriculture. (The cigars are also randomly tasted in a room that is not part of the tour.) Recently, the number of rejected cigars has been greater than average because of the influx of new rollers and pressure to make more cigars. Apparently, however, the proportion of rejected cigars is returning to a normal level (it is normally about 2 to 3 percent of the total production daily). Once they pass the quality-control process, the bundles are put in a conditioning room at about 70% humidity for three to five days to normalize the moisture in the cigars.
The next stop on the tour is in the color-grading rooms where the escogedor, or sorter, groups the finished cigars according to the color of their wrappers, or outside leaves. Factory spokespeople say they sort using around 65 grades, with color a primary factor. The sorted cigars are packaged in unfinished cedar boxes in order of darkest to lightest, left to right in the box. The cigars are then brought next door to another section of the factory where the bands are put on and they put in semi finished boxes. In the last step, the green-and-white government seal as well as the red, gold and white "Habanos" label of the government controlled cigar exporting department is put on the box. This helps to indicate the authenticity of the cigars.
Enter the phrase "buy Cuban cigars" into any search engine, and you'll find thousands of websites, online retailers, and clubs that sell Cuban cigars online. Most will ship cigars to the United States without a problem. Stephen Mawdsley operates one of these foreign cigar retailers, and he claims that around 90 percent of the customers who shop at his Casa de Malahato in Victoria, Canada, are American. He also guesses that he does the majority of his sales online.
"You give them your credit card, you tell them which ones you want, and you close the deal," our anonymous cigar smoker said of such websites. "Within a few weeks, your cigars arrive in a package, either by mail or courier."
US law enforcement agencies can?t do anything to stop these websites, since they operate in countries where US laws do not apply.
"Unless there's some treaty with that country that says we'll work together on this issue, putting an obligation on that country to go out and squash that operation, then there's absolutely nothing" that can be done, US Customs Service supervisory inspector Mike Freatis remarked. "If it's legal in that country, then it's legal."
The importance of tobacco in Cuba, however, goes further than its potential to save the island from the financial crisis. Tobacco is to Cuba what scotch is to Scotland.
Shop for a Montecristo Cuban Cigar"Talking about tobacco is talking about the national cultural identity," said Zoe Nocedo, the director of the Museum of Tobacco in downtown Havana. "It is not only a fundamental product for the economy, but a product that helped the development of the history of Cuban culture."
When Cubans don't want someone to talk for hours on a topic they say: "Don't tell me the whole history of tobacco." And they have a very good reason.
The cozy scent of tobacco wafts in the room. Wooden tables covered with piles of tobacco leaves are lined up. Sitting at their desks like children in an old classroom, more than 100 Cubans hand roll some of the world's most sought after cigars: Montecristo (This famous name in cigars is quite news, as the brand was started in 1935 in Cuba), Cohiba, Bolivar, and Romeo y Julieta. As they work on rolling, the soft wrapper leaves over rougher tobacco, they listen to a morning radio sitcom.
"The man's face is the face of a dog," says a deep and strong voice on the radio. "It's a threatening face."
No one pays much attention. Instead, workers talk amongst themselves. While they joke, even yell across the room, their fast fingers effortlessly grasp the brown leaves and shape the cigars. Despite the daily production quota of over 100 cigars per worker, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. Most of the hand-rollers are young people, have known each other since they were even younger, and seem happy to be there. The opening of this cigar factory has made their life better.
First opened in January 2000 in the small town of Pilotos, about three hours away from the city Havana, the Juan Casanueva factory, named for a local hero of the revolution, is the direct result of a local effort and the latest outcropping of the community's strong belief in the revolution.
The factory became a reality when a organization of tobacco growers from the town's agricultural coop made an unusual move. They went directly to Fidel Castro and asked him to transform the abandoned military base into a cigar factory. They had two purposes: to create new jobs to keep more young people in the small town, and to help the revolution. Castro supported both.
By June 1999, they were ready to open a hand-rolling school for the factory and receive the first group of workers: 73 people took the first class, including Rolando's wife. Since then, lots of new recruits have been chosen and taught every season, leading to the production's steady rise. Last year they rolled 1.4 million cigars, surpassing their goal by more than 200,000. This year, the factory hopes its 206 workers and 66 students will roll more than 2.4 million cigars.
Freatis and customs officials at the US Customs Service mail-inspection facility in Oakland, California, and at eight other inspection facilities around the country, inspect packages arriving in the United States for contraband goods, including Cuban cigars. In 1999, customs agents confiscated nearly 300,000 of the illegal stogies. In 2000, the Customs Service mounted a major raid, sweeping through upscale Manhattan restaurants and clubs like Patroon and 21 Club, and arresting managers and patrons alike.
But Freatis said he estimates a high number of Cuban cigars are still getting into the United States despite customs officials' enforcement best efforts. With more than 3 million packages being handled each month at the Oakland customs facility alone, it is next to impossible for the government to stop all of the cigar smugglers.
Judging from the crowds that often swarm the rolling rooms of the Partagas and La Corona factories (the only two in Havana that are ussually open to visitors), factory tours are a powerful lure for travelors to the city. Of the 42 factories making Cuban cigars for export, it is the handful found in Havana that are widely considered to be the very best. Partagas (also known as Francisco Perez German) and La Corona (Fernandez Roig) are among the cream of the crop, and with their scheduled tours of 30 to 45 minutes, costing between $5 and $10 a person, they deliver a memorable visit.
That said, cigar enthusiasts shouldn?t expect an all-absorbing experience visitin a Cuban factory. In this new area of tourism, explanations of tobacco processes or manufacturing procedures are limited or nonexistent.
Some cigars, especially premium brands, use different varieties of tobacco for the filler and the wrapper. "Long filler cigars" are a far higher quality of cigar, using long leaves throughout. These cigars also use a third variety of tobacco leaf, a "binder", between the filler and the outer wrapper. This permits them to use more delicate and attractive leaves as a wrapper. These high-quality cigars almost always blend varieties of tobacco. Even Cuban long-filler cigars will combine tobaccos from different parts of the island to incorporate several different flavors.
Those who want more than to simply watch production will not be disappointed. At the La Corona and Partagas factories, shops offer some of the best selections of cigars in as well as a cup of coffee or a glass of rum.
The bad part of these tours resides in the absence of organization and their being overcrowded with occasionally rude tourists.
Last year, I registered for a tour through the Partagas cigar shop and found myself packed into the galera with a ton of French people who left very little space to move down the aisles between rolling tables. It must have been hard for the rollers to do their work, as lots of the visitors shoved video recorders with bright spotlights in to their faces. The tour leader, to her good credit, was trying her hardest to translate the steps in French, but the few visitors who were interested in what she had to say were hard-pressed to hear it over the noise of the rest of the guests.
In 1957, production was 50,500 tons; in the harvest of 1975/76, it grew to 51,500 tons. But distinct factors caused deterioration in the harvest yields. Among them was the tobacco mildew disease that started to invade the plantations after 1978. The harvest deteriorated to the point that in 1979/80 they only collected 6,700 tons, the lowest collection of Cuban cigar tobacco in history.
Contrasting with smoking cigarettes, cigars taste very little of smoke, and usually very strongly of tobacco with hints of other tastes. A good cigar - especially ones of Cuban origin prior to 1990, can have almost no taste of smoke at all. The act of smoking a fine cigar can be likened to eating a fine meal that leaves your stomach empty.
After being sheparded into the color-grading room, I decided that I had had enough and left. Too bad for the color grader, who didn't have the same option. He must have been blinded by all the camera flashes and video lights being shoved in his face. In light of these problems, the government has thought about limiting or banning the cigar factory tours. In fact, they were outlawed for a time late last year at Partagas and La Corona.
At that stage, measures were taken in Havana to achieve a recovery in production and it was possible to obtain a recovery in production and there was a progressive increase that in 1976 reached 50,669 tons, the best harvest for 15 years.
These increases were not stable and produced a new decrease that reached a critical point in 1980 with a harvest of only 7,636 tons, the lowest harvest in the whole of this century caused by the devastating effects of tobacco mildew, 80% of the production was lost. The highest yield in this period was obtained in the harvest of 1965-1966 with 876kg/hectare.
The unions are powerful, however, and though they know that such visits may inhibit workers' efficiency and quality, they also see the tours as a source of revenue. A cut of the entrance fee is given to the factories and the Ministry of Agriculture, which use the money to improve the workers' lives, including providing better food, healh care and child care.
An interesting alternative to the Havana tours is visiting Francisco Donatien, the factory in the city of Pinar del R?, about two hours west of Havana. Visits are free but very limited. You only witness workers rolling cigars and none of the other steps in cigar making. However, it is a much more relaxed tour than the tours in Havana. Also, Francisco Donatien has an incredible cigar shop with a knowledgeable and helpful staff, and you can visit the local tobacco fields.
The first four harvests in Havana after the revolution were the highest and most stables in the history of Cuban cigar tobacco with annual yields reaching over 50,000 tons. This was possibly the highest output obtained surpassing 600kg/hectare. The harvests between 1966-1968 were above 45,000 tons, later descending to only 24,757 tons in 1971.
The first four harvests in Havana after the revolution were the highest and most stables in the history of Cuban cigar tobacco with annual yields reaching over 50,000 tons. This was possibly the highest output obtained surpassing 600kg/hectare. The harvests between 1966-1968 were above 45,000 tons, later descending to only 24,757 tons in 1971.
Some cigars, especially premium brands, use different varieties of tobacco for the filler and the wrapper. "Long filler cigars" are a far higher quality of cigar, using long leaves throughout. These cigars also use a third variety of tobacco leaf, a "binder", between the filler and the outer wrapper. This permits them to use more delicate and attractive leaves as a wrapper. These high-quality cigars almost always blend varieties of tobacco. Even Cuban long-filler cigars will combine tobaccos from different parts of the island to incorporate several different flavors.