Cohiba (Cuban)
Cuba's flagship marca, created for state and diplomatic use in 1966 and sold commercially only from 1982.
Cohiba began inside the Cuban state rather than in the market. In 1966 a blend rolled privately for Fidel Castro was formalised at a converted mansion in the Cubanacan district of Havana, the building that became the El Laguito factory. For its first sixteen years the brand existed as a diplomatic gift, unavailable to buyers anywhere. Commercial release came in 1982, initially with three long, slim vitolas: the Lancero, the Corona Especial and the Panetela.
The line widened in 1992, when the Linea 1492 marked the quincentenary of Columbus's landfall with the Siglo I to Siglo V; the Siglo VI followed in 2002. The Behike line, released in 2010, was the first Habanos blend built around medio tiempo, the small top-priming leaf that appears only on some plants. Cohiba tobacco is drawn from selected Vuelta Abajo vegas and is reported to undergo an additional fermentation stage in barrels.
The name is a Taino word for the rolled tobacco leaves Spanish sailors recorded in 1492. Because of its price and prestige, Cohiba is the most counterfeited Cuban brand, and Habanos has repeatedly changed bands, holograms and box seals in response. The trademark is also the subject of a long-running dispute in the United States with General Cigar, which sells an unrelated Dominican Cohiba.
Cohiba Behike BHK 52
Smallest ring gauge of the three-vitola Behike range and the mildest of the three; built around medio tiempo, the leaf found atop only some plants, and finished with the line's signature pigtail cap.
Cohiba Esplendidos
The largest Linea Clasica vitola and long treated as Cohiba's benchmark Churchill; a fixture of Cigar Aficionado's Top 25 lists across multiple decades.
Cohiba Siglo VI
Added to the Siglo range in 2002 as its largest ring gauge; also offered in an aluminum tubo, and one of the vitolas most associated with the Behike-era Cohiba style.