Trinidad
Created in 1969 as a Cuban diplomatic-gift cigar and withheld from sale for almost thirty years before a commercial release in the late 1990s.
Trinidad was created in 1969 at the El Laguito factory as a second state cigar alongside Cohiba, reserved for diplomatic gifts and official use. For most of its existence only one size existed, a long, slender Fundadores, and its scarcity gave the name a currency well out of proportion to the quantity made. The brand takes its name from the colonial city of La Santisima Trinidad and has no connection to a pre-revolutionary cigarette label of the same name.
Habanos brought the marca to market in the late 1990s, first with the Fundadores and then with a widening set of formats. The modern line includes the Vigia, the Topes, the Esmeralda, the Media Luna and the La Trova, together with reserva and limited releases that have made Trinidad one of the more actively extended Cuban brands of the last decade.
Blends are drawn from the Vuelta Abajo and sit in the medium-to-full range, with a house character usually described as sweeter and more floral than Cohiba. A non-Cuban Trinidad exists in the United States under Tabacalera USA and is unrelated in blend and manufacture. Publicly available accounts differ over whether commercial release should be dated to 1997 or 1998. The brand's early scarcity means that verified examples from its diplomatic period are effectively unobtainable outside institutional collections.