There are twenty-seven Cuban cigar brands. Not thirty, not “hundreds”, and not whatever number a resort gift shop implies when it fans out four boxes and calls it a selection. Twenty-seven marcas make up the entire current portfolio of Habanos S.A., the state monopoly that sells every legally exported Havana on earth, and once you can hold that list in your head the whole subject becomes navigable.
It was not always so tidy. On the first of January 1959 the Cuban price list carried a hundred and forty export brands, between them offering more than a thousand sizes. Nationalisation, the embargo, a blue-mould catastrophe and three separate rounds of rationalisation reduced that to the twenty-seven that survive today, which is less a curation than a series of amputations. Some of the losses were real. Most of what remains is very good.
What follows is the full list, grouped the way Habanos itself groups them, with what each marca is like, what is worth hunting, and where the tier structure tells you something useful rather than merely commercial. One note before the table: this is an editorial guide. Cigarro sells nothing, links no retailer and takes nothing from any manufacturer. If you want the separate question of whether you may legally buy these at all, we have answered it country by country.
| Marca | Founded | Tier | House style | Signature vitola | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohiba | 1966 | Global | Grassy, sweet, exceptionally clean | Siglo VI | Third fermentation of seco and ligero, unique to the marca |
| H. Upmann | 1844 | Global | Almond, toasted bread, light honey | Magnum 46 | Founded by a banker; promoted to Global only around 2007 |
| Hoyo de Monterrey | 1865 | Global | Delicate cedar and hay, dry finish | Epicure No. 2 | The lightest of the Global six |
| Montecristo | 1935 | Global | Cocoa, coffee, a tang of citrus | Montecristo No. 2 | Largest market share of any Habanos marca |
| Partagás | c.1827 | Global | Earth, leather, sweet spice, strength | Serie D No. 4 | Factory built 1845, the year used for anniversaries |
| Romeo y Julieta | 1873 | Global | Cedar, cream, gentle sweetness | Wide Churchills | The Churchill vitola takes its name from its most famous customer |
| Bolívar | 1902 | Value | Full, dark, tarry, powerful | Belicosos Finos | Bought by the Cifuentes family in 1954; still rolled at Partagás |
| Punch | c.1840 | Value | Coffee, wood, dry earth | Double Coronas | Range cut twice, by the 1980 blue mould and the 2002 rationalisation |
| Quai d’Orsay | 1973 | Value | Pale, restrained, herbal, dry | Coronas Claro | Created for the French monopoly and named for its Paris quay |
| Ramón Allones | 1837 to 1845 | Value | Rich, dark, sweet, brooding | Allones Specially Selected | Used for more Regional Editions than any other marca |
| Trinidad | 1969 | Value | Floral, honeyed, precise | Fundadores | A diplomatic gift brand until it went on sale in 1997 |
| José L. Piedra | 1880s | Volume | Rough, honest, faintly sweet | Cazadores | Short filler throughout, from Vuelta Arriba rather than Vuelta Abajo |
| Quintero | c.1924 | Volume | Light and simple | Londres Extra | Handmade short filler, Vuelta Abajo blended with Semi Vuelta |
| Vegueros | 1997 | Volume | Full-strength Vuelta Abajo | Tapados | Discontinued in 2012 and relaunched in 2013; sold in tins of sixteen |
| Cuaba | 1996 | Other | Medium, earthy, characterful | Salomón | Created specifically to revive the double-tapered figurado |
| Diplomáticos | 1966 | Other | Montecristo with the volume down | Diplomáticos No. 2 | Launched as an affordable Montecristo for France |
| El Rey del Mundo | 1882 | Other | Light, cedary, refined | Choix Suprême | Parent brand of both Rafael González and Sancho Panza |
| Fonseca | 1892 | Other | Mild, creamy, nutty | Fonseca No. 1 | The only marca whose cigars are wrapped individually in tissue |
| Juan López | 1870s | Other | Medium to full, with backbone | Selección No. 2 | Small market share, consistently strong Regional Editions |
| La Flor de Cano | 1884 | Other | Light, straightforward | Elegidos | Regular line is short filler; the Regional Editions are not |
| La Gloria Cubana | 1885 | Other | Refined, cedary, elegant | Medaille d’Or No. 4 | Lapsed in 1959 and reinstated around 1965 |
| Por Larrañaga | 1834 | Other | Sweet, delicate, aristocratic | Petit Coronas | The oldest continuously registered Havana marca in production |
| Rafael González | c.1928 | Other | Light, gentle, easy | Petit Coronas | Run as El Rey del Mundo’s sister brand since 1965 |
| Saint Luis Rey | c.1940 | Other | Medium, rich, understated | Regios | Created by a British firm; a UK exclusive until 1993 |
| San Cristóbal de la Habana | 1999 | Other | Medium-bodied and earthy | El Príncipe | Sizes named for Havana’s forts and its old streets |
| Sancho Panza | 1848 | Other | Mild, cedary, easy | Belicosos | Only ever really prospered in Spain, and then from the 1940s |
| Vegas Robaina | 1997 | Other | Full, sweet, earthy | Famosos | The only marca named for a tobacco farmer, Alejandro Robaina |
How Habanos Sorts Its Own House
Until 2019 the portfolio was split four ways: Global, Niche, Multi-local and Local. It was a distribution map dressed as a hierarchy, and it had stopped describing reality. Trinidad had been classed as niche while behaving like a flagship. Quai d’Orsay had quietly become one of the most talked-about marcas in Europe while sitting in the local bucket. Cigar Aficionado reported the change when it landed, quoting a Habanos source to the effect that the old system had lost its meaning for consumers.
The replacement has two headline categories. Six Global Brands, sold in every market where Habanos are sold at all and stocked in every La Casa del Habano. Then twenty-one Portfolio Brands, subdivided into Value, Volume and Other. It is a commercial structure rather than a quality ranking, and the distinction matters, because the tiers tell you where the money and the special releases go, not where the pleasure is.
Here is the practical translation. Global brands get the innovation budget: the Limited Editions, the Reserva and Gran Reserva runs, the anniversary humidors. Value brands, currently Bolívar, Punch, Quai d’Orsay, Ramón Allones and Trinidad, are where the Regional Editions and La Casa del Habano exclusives cluster, which is why they are the most interesting tier for anyone who likes hunting. Volume brands are the cheap end: three marcas of short filler and workaday smoking. The Other group is thirteen marcas kept alive with a handful of regular production sizes each and used as vehicles for occasional regional releases. A brand appearing in the Other tier is not a verdict on the tobacco. In several cases it is the opposite.
The Six Global Marcas
Cohiba is the youngest of the great names and the most argued about. Created in 1966 as the Cuban state’s own cigar, made first for diplomatic gifts and for Castro himself, it was not sold commercially until 1982. Its distinguishing feature is technical rather than mythological: the seco and ligero leaves in a Cohiba undergo a third fermentation in barrels, a step no other marca uses, and it produces the grassy, faintly sweet, unmistakably clean profile that makes a Siglo VI recognisable blind. It is also the most counterfeited object in tobacco, and the price has roughly doubled since 2022. Worth smoking. Rarely worth the queue.
Montecristo was founded in 1935 and is the volume leader of the entire Habanos portfolio, which is a remarkable thing for a brand that had only five sizes before the revolution. The house style is cocoa, coffee and a faint tang of citrus, medium in body and reliable to the point of dullness in the wrong company. The No. 2 is the reference torpedo against which every other figurado is measured, and the No. 4 is probably the most-smoked premium cigar in the world.
Partagás is the oldest of the six, dating to around 1827 with the famous Havana factory built in 1845, and it is the loudest. Earth, leather, sweet spice and real strength. The Serie D No. 4 is the robusto that taught a generation what a robusto should be, and the Lusitanias remains one of the great double coronas.
Romeo y Julieta, registered in 1873, is the crowd-pleaser: cedar, cream, gentle sweetness, medium body, an enormous range and the Churchill vitola named after its most famous customer. It is the brand most often handed to a newcomer, most often dismissed by people who have moved on, and most often returned to quietly some years later.
H. Upmann, 1844, was a bank before it was a cigar and it still smokes like something drawn up by a careful banker, in the best sense: precise, mild to medium, all almond and toasted bread and light honey. It was promoted from the multi-local tier only around 2007. The Magnum 46 is the connoisseur’s everyday.
Hoyo de Monterrey, 1865, is the lightest of the Global six and the most elegant. Delicate cedar, hay, a dry finish, nothing shouted. The Epicure No. 2 is the cigar to hand someone who says Cuban cigars are too strong, and the Double Coronas is a two-hour argument in favour of taking your time.
The Value Five
The Value tier is the enthusiast’s tier. These five see the bulk of Regional Editions and La Casa del Habano exclusives, which means they are where the genuinely unusual cigars appear.
Bolívar, 1902, is named for the liberator and blended like it. Full-bodied, dark, tarry and unfashionably powerful. The Belicosos Finos is a small figurado carrying more weight than its dimensions suggest.
Punch dates to around 1840 and had its range gutted twice, once by the 1980 blue-mould crop failure and again in the 2002 rationalisation. What survives is a medium to full profile of coffee, wood and dry earth. The Double Coronas is one of the best-value large cigars Habanos makes.
Quai d’Orsay is the strangest entry on this list and the most rewarding. Created in 1973 at the request of the French state tobacco monopoly and named for the Paris quay where its offices stood, it was designed to French taste: pale, restrained, herbal, dry. For decades it was almost unobtainable outside France. The Coronas Claro is a masterclass in what a light cigar can carry.
Ramón Allones, established somewhere between 1837 and 1845, is the marca used for more Regional Editions than any other by a considerable distance, which tells you what the blenders think of it. Rich, dark, sweet, brooding. The Specially Selected is a robusto with genuine depth.
Trinidad was created in 1969 as a diplomatic gift brand and not sold to the public until 1997. Floral, honeyed, precise, expensive. It is the one Value-tier brand priced like a Global one, its 2022 repricing having pegged it to Hong Kong retail alongside Cohiba.
The Volume Three
Three marcas make up the cheap end of the portfolio, and there is no shame in any of them provided you know what you are buying.
José L. Piedra, from the 1880s and relaunched in 1996, is short filler throughout, blended from Vuelta Arriba tobacco rather than the celebrated Vuelta Abajo. The Cazadores is a rough, honest, faintly sweet cigar that costs very little and asks nothing of you.
Quintero, around 1924, is handmade short filler blending Vuelta Abajo with Semi Vuelta leaf. Light, simple, entirely pleasant with morning coffee.
Vegueros was created in 1997, discontinued in 2012 and brought back in 2013. It is full-strength Vuelta Abajo sold in tins of sixteen, and it is the one Volume brand that regularly surprises people. The Tapados is a great deal more cigar than its price suggests.
The honest note on this tier: short filler burns hotter and faster, and the flavour arc is flatter. That is a description, not an insult. A Quintero on a cold morning between errands is a better decision than a Cohiba you have no time to finish.
The Other Thirteen
Thirteen marcas sit in the Other group. Most have only a handful of regular production sizes, and several are among the best-kept secrets in Cuban tobacco.
Cuaba, 1996, exists for one reason: to bring back the figurado. Every cigar in the range is double-tapered. The Salomón is a spectacle and a genuinely fine smoke.
Diplomáticos, 1966, was launched as an affordable Montecristo for the French market, and the original five sizes matched Montecristo Nos. 1 to 5 exactly. It still smokes like a Montecristo with the volume turned down a fraction.
El Rey del Mundo, 1882, is the parent of both Rafael González and Sancho Panza. Light, cedary, refined. The Choix Suprême is an underrated robusto.
Fonseca, started 1892 and registered 1907, is the only marca whose cigars come individually wrapped in tissue paper. Mild, creamy, nutty. Remove the tissue before lighting, which is advice more people need than you would expect.
Juan López, from the 1870s, has a small market share and a devoted following, largely because its Regional Editions are consistently excellent. The Selección No. 2 is a robusto with proper backbone.
La Flor de Cano, 1884, is now a short-filler line blending Vuelta Abajo and Semi Vuelta. Its Regional Editions, when they appear, are another matter entirely.
La Gloria Cubana, 1885, lapsed in 1959 and was reinstated around 1965. The Medaille d’Or line is what survived from a far larger pre-revolution range, and the No. 4 is a long, slim shape of real refinement.
Por Larrañaga, 1834, is the oldest continuously registered Havana marca still in production. Sweet, delicate, quietly aristocratic, and hopelessly under-distributed.
Rafael González, around 1928, has been run as El Rey del Mundo’s sister brand since 1965. Its Petit Coronas is one of the most consistently pleasant small cigars in the catalogue.
Saint Luis Rey, around 1940 and created by a British firm, was a United Kingdom exclusive until 1993. It is now down to a single regular production cigar, kept alive largely to hold the trademark. The Regios, when you find one, is superb.
San Cristóbal de la Habana, 1999, is named for the city, its first sizes for Havana’s forts and its later ones for the old streets. Medium-bodied, earthy, more serious than its youth suggests.
Sancho Panza, 1848, only ever really prospered in Spain, and then only from the 1940s. Mild, cedary, easy. The Belicosos is a gentle introduction to the figurado shape.
Vegas Robaina, 1997, is the only marca named for a living tobacco farmer, the late Alejandro Robaina of San Luis in Pinar del Río. Full, sweet, earthy. The Famosos is a proper robusto and a proper tribute.
What Fell Off the List
The twenty-seven are what survived. It is worth knowing what did not, because the names still surface in auction listings, in older books and in the patter of anyone trying to sell you something.
Of the roughly one hundred and forty export brands trading in 1959, only around twenty-four remained by the mid-1960s. Later deletions took Davidoff, which left the Cuban range in 1991 after a public rupture with Cubatabaco, along with Dunhill, La Corona, La Escepción, Gispert, Los Statos de Luxe, Cabañas, Siboney and others. Several of those names live on as non-Cuban brands made elsewhere, which is a fertile source of confusion: a Dunhill or a La Gloria Cubana bought in a shop in Florida is a different cigar entirely from the Havana of the same name.
A second group, including Belinda, Troya and Guantanamera, was moved out of the Habanos portfolio and is now made in Cuba under licence by Internacional Cubana de Tabacos, using Cuban tobacco but machine-made. They are Cuban cigars. They are not Habanos in the sense this article uses the word, and they do not sit within the twenty-seven.
Then there are the ghosts. Canaria d’Oro was proposed for reinstatement around 1994 and never produced. La Vigía got as far as eight boxes of coronas sold in Canada purely to secure the trademark, and then nothing. If someone offers you either, you are not being offered a rarity.
Hugh's Verdict on What to Hunt
An honest ranking of the tiers by what they give back, rather than by what they cost.
Start with the Value tier. Ramón Allones and Quai d’Orsay in particular give you more character per pound than anything in the Global six, and because they carry most of the Regional Editions they are where you will find cigars that genuinely do not exist anywhere else. If you have one box’s budget and want the most interesting outcome, this is where to spend it.
Buy the Global six for reliability, not romance. A Hoyo Epicure No. 2, an H. Upmann Magnum 46, a Partagás Serie D No. 4 and a Montecristo No. 2 between them cover most of what Cuban tobacco can do, and all four are stocked almost everywhere. Cohiba is the exception in the other direction: exceptional cigar, indefensible price, the highest counterfeit risk on earth.
Raid the Other tier when you see it. Por Larrañaga, Juan López, Rafael González and Vegas Robaina are all better than their distribution implies. They appear irregularly and disappear quickly, so the correct response to seeing them on a shelf is not deliberation.
Treat the Volume tier as what it is. Cheap, short filler, honest. Buy singles, not boxes.
One word on the vitola rather than the marca, because it matters more than the tier. The same blend behaves very differently at different sizes, and a marca you dislike in a robusto may be a revelation in a corona. If the Cuban shape names are unfamiliar, our dictionary of vitolas covers the whole naming system, which is the one part of this subject where the vocabulary genuinely earns its keep.
The Counterfeit Caveat
Every word above assumes the cigar in your hand is what the band says it is, and outside a proper tobacconist that assumption fails more often than it holds. Cohiba is the most faked brand in the world. Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta are not far behind. The fakes cluster where buyers are least equipped and most excited, which is to say tourist markets, hotel lobbies, beach vendors and anyone who approaches you first.
The protections are real and checkable. Cuban boxes have carried a government warranty seal since 1889, and the version introduced in 2009 adds a hologram and an individual bar code that can be checked against the official Habanos authenticity checker. Since 1994 every box carries the Habanos Denominación de Origen Protegida seal. Since 1960 the underside has been hot-stamped “Hecho en Cuba”, with “Habanos s.a.” added in 1994. Two ink stamps sit alongside it: a factory code, and the month and year of boxing in Spanish abbreviations, running from ENE for January to DIC for December, with the year system starting at 00 in the year 2000.
That last stamp is the one worth learning, because it doubles as an ageing record. We have set out the whole authentication sequence, seal by seal and band by band, in our guide to spotting a fake Cuban cigar, and the anatomy of a band is worth reading alongside it. The short version: buy from a Habanos Specialist or a La Casa del Habano, and be suspicious of anything cheap, anything in a glass-topped box and anyone in a hurry.
Logging a Havana Properly
Twenty-seven marcas, several hundred regular production vitolas, and a memory that will confidently tell you a cigar was excellent when what it actually was, was Tuesday.
This is the practical reason to keep notes. The Havana range rewards a record more than most, because so much of it turns on which box, which year and how long it sat. A Partagás Serie D No. 4 from a box stamped MAY 22 and the same cigar from a box stamped OCT 25 are, in any meaningful sense, two different cigars, and the only way to know which you prefer is to have written both down in the same format on the same scale.
In Cigarro that means recording the marca, the vitola, the box code from the underside, and then the cigar itself in thirds, which is the Cigarro Method in its entirety: what the first third gave you, what changed in the second, whether the last third held. Add the resting time since you bought it, because with Habanos that number explains more variance than anything else. Over twenty or thirty entries a pattern appears that no amount of reading produces: your own preferences, in your own words, with dates attached.
Questions Readers Ask
How many Cuban cigar brands are there?
Twenty-seven. The current Habanos S.A. portfolio is six Global brands (Cohiba, H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, Montecristo, Partagás and Romeo y Julieta) plus twenty-one Portfolio brands split into Value, Volume and Other. A handful of further Cuban brands, including Guantanamera, Belinda and Troya, are made in Cuba under licence by Internacional Cubana de Tabacos, but they are machine-made and sit outside the Habanos range. Before the revolution there were around a hundred and forty export brands.
What is the difference between a Global brand and a Portfolio brand?
Distribution and marketing spend, not quality. Global brands are stocked in every market where Habanos are sold and receive the bulk of Limited Editions, Reserva releases and anniversary humidors. Portfolio brands are subdivided into Value, Volume and Other, and are generally sold through La Casa del Habano and Habanos Specialist shops. The Value tier in particular carries most Regional Editions, which is why experienced smokers often find the more interesting cigars there rather than in the Global six.
Which Cuban cigar brand is the best?
There is no single answer, and anyone who gives you one is selling something. For consistency and availability, the Global six are hard to fault. For character relative to price, Ramón Allones and Quai d’Orsay in the Value tier are our picks. For elegance, Hoyo de Monterrey. For strength, Partagás or Bolívar. The more useful question is which marca suits your own palate, which you answer by smoking several and writing down what happened.
Is Cohiba worth the money?
As tobacco, it is genuinely distinctive: the seco and ligero leaves get a third fermentation that no other marca uses, and the resulting profile is unmistakable. As a purchase, it is the most expensive marca in the portfolio after the 2022 repricing, and it is the most counterfeited cigar on earth. If budget is a factor, a Partagás Serie D No. 4 or a Hoyo Epicure No. 2 will teach you more about Cuban tobacco per pound spent.
What happened to Cuban Davidoff, Dunhill and La Corona?
They were deleted from the Habanos range. Davidoff ended its Cuban production in 1991 after falling out with Cubatabaco and now makes cigars in the Dominican Republic. Dunhill, La Corona, La Escepción, Gispert, Cabañas and others were discontinued over the decades following nationalisation. Several of those names still exist as non-Cuban brands made elsewhere, so a box bearing one of them is not evidence of Cuban origin.
Are Cuban cigars the best cigars in the world?
Not automatically, and the argument is less interesting than it used to be. Cuban tobacco has a particular sweetness that nothing else quite reproduces, and a well-kept Havana in good condition is among the finest things the hobby offers. But the ceiling in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic is now very high and the floor is considerably more reliable, which is the case we set out at length in our comparison of the two great New World schools.
What is a Regional Edition?
A cigar produced in a limited run for a specific market, using a vitola not otherwise available in that marca, and released under a Portfolio brand rather than a Global one. They carry a second band naming the region, they are made in small quantities, and they are the main reason the Value and Other tiers repay attention. Ramón Allones has been used for more Regional Editions than any other marca.
How do I know a box is genuine?
Check the government warranty seal, which since 2009 carries a hologram and an individual bar code that can be verified through the official Habanos authenticity checker. Confirm the Habanos Denominación de Origen Protegida seal, present on every box since 1994. Turn the box over: since 1960 the underside has been hot-stamped “Hecho en Cuba”, with “Habanos s.a.” added since 1994, alongside a factory code and a boxing date in Spanish month abbreviations. Then buy from a Habanos Specialist rather than a stranger, which remains the only method that works reliably.
What the List Cannot Tell You
Twenty-seven marcas is a small enough number to learn and a large enough one to keep you occupied for years. What the list will not tell you is which of them is yours, because that answer is not in the tier structure or the founding dates or anyone else’s ranking. It is in the cigars, smoked at your own pace, in your own chair.
The tiers are a distribution map. Read them as a shopping guide rather than a hierarchy and the portfolio opens up considerably: the Value five for character, the Global six for certainty, the Other thirteen for the pleasure of finding something nobody mentioned. Then write down what each one did. Notes outlast bands, and after thirty of them you will know more about your own palate than any guide could tell you, this one included.
