H. Upmann is 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 brand of premium

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 ...

s established by banker

Hermann Dietrich Upmann Hermann Dietrich Upmann (1 May 1816 in Bielefeld-Altstadt, Germany – 29 January 1894 Bremen, Germany) was a banker, merchant and cigar manufacturer in Cuba, creator of the H. Upmann 1844 brand. At 23 years old he embarked for the New World in ...

(who also founded the H. Upmann & Co. bank on the island). The brand is currently owned by a British corporation,

Imperial Brands Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...

. The cigars are manufactured by Habanos S.A., the state-owned tobacco company in Cuba, and

Altadis Altadis is a Spanish-French multinational purveyor and manufacturer of cigarettes, tobacco and cigars. It was formed via a 1999 merger between Tabacalera, the former Spanish tobacco monopoly and , the former French tobacco monopoly. Through its i ...

La Romana, Dominican Republic La Romana is a municipality and capital of the southeastern province of La Romana, opposite Catalina Island. It is one of the 10 largest cities in the Dominican Republic with a population estimated in 2010 at 130,426 within the city limits ( m ...

History

Establishment

H. Upmann is among the oldest cigar brands in existence. In 1843,

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

Hermann Dietrich Upmann (16 May 1816 – 1894) arrived in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Cuba, to arrange business affairs for the firm of Gravenhorst & Co., an importing and exporting firm located in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, Germany.The South American, New York: South American Publishing Co. Inc.,Vol. 4, November 1915, p. 248 Seeing the potential for further importing opportunities, Upmann purchased a local cigar factory. The factory, located at 85 San Miguel Street, Havana, began producing cigars under the H. Upmann brand in 1844. At the same time, he began a banking business, initially catering to

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

dealers and manufacturers.Anwer Bati, ''The Cigar Companion: The Connoisseur's Guide.'' Third Edition. Philadelphia and London: Running Press, 1997; pg. 115. Hermann Upmann retired in 1890, and was succeeded by his nephew, Heinrich Upmann, who continued operating the business with his partners Heinrich Runken and

Theodore Garbade Theodore Dietrich Garbade (September 12, 1873 – January 26, 1961) was a merchant and banker, he was President of the Union of Manufacturers of Cigars of Cuba. As a young man he moved from the German Village of Cigarmakers “''Zigarrenmacherdorf ...

, until his death in 1914. Heinrich Upmann was in turn succeeded by Hermann and Albert (Alberto) Upmann, nephews of Heinrich. By 1900, H. Upmann cigar manufacturing had moved to a large building located at 159-169 Paseo de Tacon (later renamed Avenida Carlos III) in Havana, sited between Calle Belascoin and Avenida Carlos III (Tercero). The H. Upmann Bank was at Calle Mercaderes Amargura 1–3 in Havana. Upmann is sometimes credited with the invention of packaging cigars in cedar boxes to give to their customers. These original boxes were labelled with the H. Upmann name and contained other manufacturers' cigars, most likely as an advertisement for the operation, until the Upmanns bought their own cigar factory in 1844: the famous H. Upmann Factory, now known as the José Martí Factory, in Havana. Through the late 1800s, the H. Upmann brand gained international recognition at various exhibitions and won seven gold medals which still carry the lithographed art on today's H. Upmann boxes, along with Hermann Upmann's original signature. In North America, Charles Landau became the exclusive agent for H. Upmann cigars for many years.

Spy network

At the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Hermann and Albert Upmann used their business interests in Cuba and the US to conceal their operation of a German intelligence network.Bisher, Jamie, ''The Intelligence War in Latin America, 1914-1922'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. Inc. Publishers, (2016), pp. 129, 144-164 The Upmanns and their agents were suspected of fomenting revolts in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

in 1916 and the Dominican Republic in 1916, and of providing arms and assistance to Cuban General Jose Miguel Gómez in his attempted coup against President Mario Garcia Menocal after the Cuban Presidential Elections of 1916. The H. Upmann bank building on Calle Mercaderes was regularly used as a stopover point by German agents traveling between

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. After the Cuban government declared war on Germany on 7 April 1917, the H. Upmann bank was closed for thirty consecutive months.''Records Relating to H. Upmann and Company, 1917 – 1920'', Office of Alien Property Custodian, Bureau of Investigation, College Park, MD: U.S. National Archives, Identifier 7372725''President of Suspended Cuban Bank of H. Upmann & Co. Released on Large Bail'', The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, New York: Wm B. Dana & Co. Publishers, Volume 114, Part 2, p. 2297Ross, Ciro Bianchi, ''La larga saga de H. Upmann'', Juventude Rebelde, 24 Septiembre 2016 On 5 December 1917, the H. Upmann company was named to the very first U.S. Enemy Trading List of foreign companies with whom U.S. banks and companies were forbidden to trade, while Hermann and Alberto Upmann were both named individually as to the list on 26 July 1918 and 4 October 1918, respectively. At the same time, the U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized H. Upmann Bank's U.S. based assets, which were transferred to U.S. owners. Hermann and Alberto Upmann were interned by the Cuban government on 16 October 1918, just a month before the Armistice. While 24 other German nationals languished in

La Cabaña ''Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña'' (Fort of Saint Charles), colloquially known as La Cabaña, is an 18th-century fortress complex, the third-largest in the Americas, located on the elevated eastern side of the harbor entrance in Havana, ...

prison, the Upmanns were placed under house arrest. After their release, Hermann Upmann traveled to the U.S. and retained a law firm to claim the monetary value of H. Upmann assets during the war. Although Upmann received a settlement from the U.S. Alien Property Custodian in March 1920, the amount left over after payment of attorney fees and expenses proved insufficient to cover the bank's other expenses, such as paying employee salaries and maintenance costs incurred during the period of the bank's closure by the Cuban government.

Bankruptcy and re-emergence

In 1917, H. Upmann's U.S.-based property and asset investments were seized by the Custodian of Alien Enemy properties, and the firm was placed on the U.S. Enemy Trading List. To compensate for the loss of these assets and the suspension of bank operations, Hermann Upmann had invested heavily in speculative currency investments and Mexican oil properties, using funds obtained from depositor assets without the consent of the depositors. After a rumored attempt to escape Cuba by airplane, on 1 May 1922, Hermann and Albert Upmann were arrested and charged with bank fraud by the Cuban Attorney General, after bank examiners discovered that US$2,000,000 in depositor securities had been fraudulently sold or transferred. While in jail, Albert Upmann claimed he had no knowledge of the firm's banking activities, stating that he had confined himself to management of the firm's tobacco manufacturing operation. Both brothers eventually relinquished their personal balances and claims with the firm for the benefit of creditors, and fraud charges were dropped against Albert Upmann, who later moved to the USA.Estévez Rolando Alvarez and Guzmán Pascual, Marta, ''Germans in Cuba's Tobacco Industry'', Excellences Magazine, Issue No. 121 Hermann Upmann was later released on $100,000 bail, and criminal charges were dropped in October 1922. Although Hermann Upmann lost most of his fortune and his position as an influential Cuban financier and businessman, he managed to save a few of his properties after collapse of the H. Upmann bank. He died in Havana on 3 September 1925. By May 1922, both the H. Upmann Bank and the Upmann cigar operation were in bankruptcy. That same year, J. Frankau & Co, one of H. Upmann's licensed agents for the United Kingdom, bought the H. Upmann cigar brand and factory at auction for 30,000 Cuban pesos, and after a three-year negotiation with Upmann creditors, managed to restore cigar production under the H. Upmann brand. In 1935, J. Frankau was purchased by J. R. Freeman & Son, who found it difficult to manage a Cuban cigar company from London. In 1937, the company was sold to the recently established Menéndez, García y Cía Co., makers of the

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 ...

brand. J. Frankau retained the rights to H. Upmann in the UK as part of the deal. Menéndez y Ciz continued production of H. Upmann cigars until the nationalization of the tobacco industry after the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

on 15 September 1960. The night before

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

signed the

Cuban embargo The United States embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses organized under U.S. law or majority-owned by American citizens, from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern hist ...

, he had aide

Pierre Salinger Pierre Emil George Salinger (June 14, 1925 – October 16, 2004) was an American journalist, author and politician. He served as the ninth press secretary for United States Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Salinger served a ...

procure every box he could gather from

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

tobacconists, totaling 1,200 cigars. These machine-made cigars went by the name H. Upmann Petit Upmann (sold as Demi Tasse in the United States) and are now discontinued.

Post-Cuban Revolution

After the revolution, Menéndez and García moved the brand first to the Canary Islands, then the Dominican Republic, where production continues under the ownership of Imperial Tobacco. Cuban-produced H. Upmann cigars are produced in Havana for the Cuban state-owned organization

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 ...

(formerly

Cubatabaco Cubatabaco, short for , is the Cuban state tobacco company. The company was formed in 1962, after the Cuban tobacco industry had been nationalized by Fidel Castro's socialist government. Cubatabaco handled all production and distribution of Cub ...

). Cuban H. Upmann cigars are hand-rolled in the original H. Upmann (since renamed José Martí) factory, using tobacco from the premium Vuelta Abajo region. The Cuban-made brand still remains a cigar on the world market, where it is made in hand-made '' vitolas''. Machine-made cigars were discontinued in 2002. That same year, when Altadis SA bought a controlling share in

, numerous changes were made to the H. Upmann lineup, with the vast array of more than 30 ''vitolas'' rationalized so that redundant and poor selling sizes were eliminated. By 2006, according to the company, the H. Upmann line had been whittled down to just 16 ''vitolas''.Habanos SA's website.
/ref> In 2005, Habanos SA offered a new H. Upmann as part of their annual ''Edición Limitada'' release. In the past, the limited edition releases had only been produced for their five globally distributed brands ( Cohíba,

, Romeo y Julieta, Partagás and

Hoyo de Monterrey Hoyo de Monterrey is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company and the other produced in Honduras by General Cigar Company, now a subsidiary of Swedish Ma ...

), whereas the non-Cuban H. Upmann was a locally distributed brand. The limited edition size was a large Magnum 50. Shortly after,

Quintero Quintero is a Chilean city and commune in Valparaíso Province, in the Valparaíso Region, 30 kilometers north of Valparaíso. The commune spans an area of . It was the first port in the country, created during the expedition of Diego de Almagr ...

was demoted to a locally distributed brand in the Habanos portfolio, while H. Upmann was raised to a global brand with distribution in every nation that imports Habanos cigars. H. Upmann also produces two machine-made

cigarillo A cigarillo (from Spanish ''cigarrillo'', meaning "cigarette", in turn from ''cigarro'' ("cigar") + ''-illo'' (diminutive suffix), pronounced in parts of Latin America or in Spain) is a short, narrow cigar. Unlike cigarettes, cigarillos are wra ...

s (the Mini and the Purito) and a brand of

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...

s under the direction of ICT.

Cuban H. Upmann ''Vitolas''

The following list of handmade '' vitolas'' de salida (commercial ''vitolas'') within the H. Upmann marque lists in order, their length in Imperial (and Metric),

ring gauge A ring gauge, or ring gage, is a cylindrical ring of a thermally stable material, often steel, whose inside diameter is finished to gauge tolerance and is used for checking the external diameter of a cylindrical object. Ring gauges are used for ...

, their Factory name, a colloquial description of size/shape, (release date and current manufacture): * Half Corona - 3.5" (90 mm) x 44. '' Corona'', a petit corona (a 2011 release. Current) * Epicure - 4.3" (110 mm) × 35. ''Epicures'', a short panetela (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Corona Junior - 4.5" (115 mm) × 36. ''Cadetes'', a short panetela (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Corona Minor - 4.6" (117 mm) x 40. ''Coronitas'', a petit corona (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Robusto - 4.8" (122 mm) x 50. ''Robustos'', a robusto (a 2007 release. Current) * Connoisseur No. 1 - 5" (127 mm) × 48. ''Hermosos No.4'', a corona extra (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Petit Corona - 5.1" (129 mm) × 42. ''Marevas'', a petit corona (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Regalias - 5.1" (129 mm) × 42. ''Petit Coronas'', a petit corona (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Corona Major - 5.2" (132 mm) × 42. ''EmEminences'', a corona (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Majestic - 5.5" (140 mm) × 40. ''Cremas'', a corona (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Connoisseur A - 5.5" (140 mm) x 52. ''Genios'', a corona (a 2013 release. Current) * Magnum 46 - 5.6" (143 mm) × 46. ''Corona Gordas'', a grand corona (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Upmann No. 2 - 6.1" (156 mm) × 52. ''Pirámides'', a pyramid (a pre-1960 release. Current) * Magnum 50 - 6.3" (160 mm) × 50. ''Double Robustos'', a double robusto (a 2008 release. Current) * Monarcas - 7" (178 mm) × 47. ''Julieta No.2'', a Churchill (a pre-1960 release. Discontinued 2009, but still available) * Sir Winston - 7" (178 mm) × 47. ''Julieta No.2'', a Churchill (a pre-1960 release. Current)

''Edición Limitada''

* Magnum 50 - 6.3" (160 mm) × 50. ''Magnum 50'', a double robusto (a 2005 release. Current but limited) * Magnum 48 - 4.3" (110 mm) × 48. ''Magnum 48'', a petit robusto (a 2009 release. Current but limited) * Robusto - 4.8" (122 mm) x 50. ''Robustos'', a robusto (a 2012 release. Current but limited) * Magnum 56 - 5.9" (150 mm) × 56. ''Magnum 56'', a double robusto (a 2015 release. Current but limited)

Dominican H. Upmann ''Vitolas''

''1844 Reserve''

* Demitasse -- 4-1/2" × 33. * Corona -- 5-1/2" × 44 * Robusto -- 5" × 50. * Churchill -- 7" × 50. * Belicoso -- 6-1/8" × 52 (a Torpedo) * Toro -- 6" × 54. * Titan -- 6" × 60.

''Legacy''

* Corona -- 5-1/2" × 44. * Toro -- 6" × 52. * Robusto -- 5" × 54. * Churchill -- 7" × 54. * Magnum -- 6" × 60.

''Vintage Cameroon''

* Petite Corona -- 5" ×40. * Corona -- 5-1/2" × 44. * Lonsdale -- 6-5/8" × 44. * Churchill -- 7" × 50. * Robusto -- 5" × 52. * Belicoso -- 6-1/8" x 52 (a Torpedo). * Toro -- 6" × 54.

''Reserve Maduro''

* Robusto -- 5" × 54. * Toro -- 6" × 54. * Titan -- 6" × 60.

''The Banker''

* Currency -- 5-1/2" × 48 (Corona). * Annuity -- 6" × 52 (Toro). * Private Holding Ingot -- 6" × 54 (Toro) (A different blend from the rest of the Banker line) * Arbitrage -- 7" × 56 (Churchill).

Bibliography

* Min Ron Nee and Adriano Martínez Rius, ''An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars.'' Hong Kong: Interpro Business Corporation, 2003.