 Are the ones in Cuba the originals?”
Los Angeles, September 14 – We get questions . . .
Roldan V. asks about “why Cuban brand cigar names like Cohiba, Romeo and Julieta, Montecristo or Partagas, which are usually known as Cuban made, are being made in the Dominican Republic? . . . Are the ones in Cuba the originals or the ones based in the Dominican Republic?”
Excellent question, but the answer is complex.
All of the brands you list, and more than a dozen others, are produced under the same brand name in both Cuba and in other countries. Here’s the how and why:
• All of these brands originated in Cuba, mostly starting in the 19th Century. These famous brands are still produced in Cuba today and sold around the world, except in the United States.
However, the brands are now owned and marketed by the Cuban government, which nationalized its cigar industry (and everything else in the country) in 1960. Thus, the original owners of the brands were stripped of their property – fields, farmhouses, factories and all – and many fled to Spain, the U.S. and other countries.
• These original owners of the famed Cuban brands such as H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, Punch and others wasted no time in filing suit against the Cuban government to try and retrieve ownership of their trademarks. As with any court challenge, the eventual outcome took years to complete and the old Cuban masters came out with new brands such as Don Diego, Flamenco and Montecruz.
In the meantime, the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba was imposed and no Cuban products were allowed to be imported for U.S. sale. And, in a series of cases decided between 1969 and 1975 (except for Cohiba and Trinidad), U.S. courts agreed with the original owners and granted them ownership of their old marks for the purposes of sales in the United States. Cuba had perfected its trademarks in other markets, but in the biggest market of all, the way was clear for new cigars with old brand names.
• In 1969, Hoyo de Monterrey and Punch, which had been owned by Fernandez, Palicio y Cia., began manufacture in Honduras for sale in the U.S. In 1975, a Dominican version of H. Upmann, which had been owned by Menendez & Garcia prior to nationalization, appeared on the U.S. market.
It wasn’t long before there were Dominican or Honduran versions of virtually all of Cuba’s pre-1960 brands.
• Today, the following brands originated in Cuba and still made in Cuba (as handmade or machine-made cigars) are produced for distribution in the United States by non-Cuban manufacturers:
> Belinda, made in Honduras
> Bolivar, made in the Dominican Republic
> Cabanas, made in Honduras
> Cohiba, made in the Dominican Republic
> El Rey del Mundo, made in Honduras
> Fonseca, made in the Dominican Republic
> Gispert, made in Honduras
> H. Upmann, made in the Dominican Republic
> Hoyo de Monterrey, made in Honduras
> Juan Lopez, made in Honduras
> La Corona, made in Honduras
> La Gloria Cubana, made in the Dominican Republic
> Montecristo, made in the Dominican Republic
> Partagas, made in the Dominican Republic
> Por Larranaga, made in Honduras
> Punch, made in Honduras
> Rafael Gonzalez, made in Honduras
> Ramon Allones, made in the Dominican Republic
> Romeo y Julieta, made in the Dominican Republic
> Saint Luis Rey, made in Honduras
> Sancho Panza, made in Honduras
> Trinidad, made in the Dominican Republic
> Troya, made in Nicaragua
So, Roldan, the Cuban brands are the originals, but those who produced them in their native Cuba created them again when given the chance.
Tomorrow, the fight over Cohiba and Trinidad, and what the future holds!
~ Rich Perelman
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