Cuaba is the name of a
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...
brand produced in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
for
Habanos SA
Habanos S.A. is a Cuban manufacturing company of tobacco that controls the promotion, distribution, and export of premium cigars and other tobacco products for Cuba worldwide. It was established in 1994.
Ownership of Habanos S.A. is split equal ...
, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company.
History
Cuaba was officially launched by Habanos president
Francisco Linares on November 19, 1996, at
Claridge's Hotel
Claridge's is a 5-star hotel at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in Mayfair, London. It has long-standing connections with royalty that have led to it sometimes being referred to as an "annexe to Buckingham Palace". Claridge's Hote ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, as an all-perfecto line of cigars. Perfectos are cigars that are closed at both ends, with a rounded head. The brand was launched in an attempt to revive figurados, which had initially been very popular in the early 20th century but had declined since about the 1950s. For the release party, the creator of the line,
Carlos Izquierdo González, and fourteen other highly skilled ''torcedores'' (cigar rollers) demonstrated making figurado cigars. The original Cuabas were of slightly differing sizes within the same box, due to a cigar mold not being used to press them into shape. When molds were finally made for Cuaba around a year later, these original non-molded cigars became great collectors' items.
González claims he styled the Cuaba blend after
Montecristo
Montecristo, also Monte Cristo (, ) and formerly Oglasa ( grc, Ὠγλάσσα, Ōglássa), is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea and part of the Tuscan Archipelago. Administratively it belongs to the municipality of Portoferraio in the province o ...
, but most cigar connoisseurs believe the blend used is more similar in taste to
Romeo y Julieta. Unsurprisingly, most Cuaba cigars are manufactured in the Briones Montoto (Romeo y Julieta) factory.
In 1998, Cuaba had the distinction of being one of the cigar brands chosen to be released with a special vitola (the Distinguidos) in a Millennium Reserve ceramic jar humidor and is often a brand chosen for special releases and humidors.
Construction
All Cuaba cigars are made at the Briones Montoto (Romeo y Julieta) factory in Havana Cuba using tobacco sourced from the Vuelta Abajo (Pinar del Rio). Each Cuaba cigar is hand-made, using only Grade 7 rollers (the highest certification).
[Mara, Will, ''Cubans: The Ultimate Cigars'', New York: Lyons Press, (1998), p. 88]
''Vitolas'' in the Cuaba Line
The following list of vitolas de salida (commercial vitolas) within the Cuaba marque lists their size and ring gauge in Imperial (and Metric), their vitolas de galera (factory vitolas), and their common name in American cigar slang.
''Hand-Made Vitolas''
*Diademas - 9" × 55 (232 × 21.83 mm), Diademas, a giant perfecto
*Distinguidos - 6" × 52 (162 × 20.64 mm), Romeos, a perfecto
*Divinos - 4" × 43 (102 × 17.07 mm), Petit Bouquet, a petit perfecto
*Exclusivos - 5" × 46 (146 × 18.26 mm), Exquisitos, a perfecto
*Generosos - 5" × 42 (133 × 16.67 mm), Generosos, a perfecto
*Salomónes I - 7" × 57 (184 × 22.62 mm), Salomónes, a double perfecto
*Tradicionales - 4" × 42 (121 × 16.67 mm), Favoritos, a petit perfecto
See also
*
Cigar brands
This is an alphabetical list of cigar brands. Included is information about the company owning the brand name as well as a column allowing easy viewing of the source of that information.
If a brand name begins with the English word "The" or its S ...
References
* Nee, Min Ron - ''An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars'' (2003, Reprinted: 2005), {{ISBN, 3-9809308-2-3
External links
Official website of Habanos S.A.Cuban Cigar Website
Habanos S.A. brands