Montecristo

Montecristo was registered in 1935 by Alonso Menendez, who with Jose Garcia had bought the Particulares and Byron brands and the factory then operating on Calle 23 in Vedado. The name is usually traced to the Dumas novel read aloud by factory lectores to the rollers. The house later took over the H. Upmann brand and moved both to Calle Amistad in 1944, where Montecristo grew into the largest-selling Havana brand through the numbered series that still anchors it.

The Cuban line is built on a comparatively narrow range of core vitolas, the No. 2 torpedo and No. 4 petit corona among them, supplemented by the Edmundo family and the Linea 1935. Production is spread across Havana factories rather than confined to one house. The blend leans on Vuelta Abajo and Semi Vuelta leaf and is generally described as medium-bodied, which is a large part of why it has carried mass volume for eight decades.

After the revolution the Menendez family left Cuba and re-established the trademark abroad, and the non-Cuban Montecristo eventually settled with Altadis. Today the Cuban brand belongs to Habanos S.A. and the United States brand to Tabacalera USA, whose cigars are made mainly at Tabacalera de Garcia in La Romana. The two portfolios share a name and a fleur-de-lis motif but not a blend.