Hoyo de Monterrey

Hoyo de Monterrey owes its origin to the plantation of the same name, at San Juan y Martínez, in the Vuelta Abajo, says habanos.com, which gives no founding year for the brand. Wikipedia links the name to a concave piece of land that tobacco growers look for, and the trade press to the Monterrey basin. The brand was registered in 1865 by José Gener, say Wikipedia and the trade press. Wikipedia has him emigrate from Spain at thirteen, in 1831, open a factory in Havana, then buy a tobacco farm in the Vuelta Abajo with his profits before registering the brand; the trade press calls him a Cuban and dates the purchase of the plantation to 1860.

Wikipedia writes that the brand became popular, especially in the British market; that José Gener died in 1900, his daughter Lutgarda then running the business for some thirty years; and that the firm Fernández, Palicio y Cía bought Hoyo de Monterrey and La Escepción in 1931, adding them to a portfolio that already included Punch and Belinda.

Wikipedia writes that the revolutionary government nationalised the cigar factories in 1959, that Fernando Palicio left Cuba for Florida and sold his brands to the Villazon family; a Honduran Hoyo de Monterrey is today made by General Cigar, and it is a different cigar. The Cuban Hoyo de Monterrey is the one from Habanos S.A., which describes it as a brand of mild strength, made with Vuelta Abajo leaves, rolled by hand with longfiller.

The Epicure line brings together, according to habanos.com, the Epicure No. 1, the Epicure No. 2 and the Epicure Especial, with a distinct presentation; the Epicure Especial was an Edición Limitada in 2004 before joining the regular portfolio in 2008, and a December 2024 press release makes the Epicure No. 3 (cepo 54 x 125 mm, the brand's first figurado) the fourth vitola of the line. In October 2016, habanos.com wrote of the Epicure No. 2 Reserva Cosecha 2012 that it is a symbol of the brand.

The Epicure de Luxe is a special production from 2012, reserved for the La Casa del Habano network: vitola de galera Mágicos, cepo 52 x 115 mm, box of 10, says habanos.com (press release of 2 October 2012). The Grand Epicure, an Edición Limitada from 2013, measures 130 mm for a cepo 55 (leaves aged at least two years), and the Monterreyes No. 4, an Edición Limitada from 2023 (cepo 55 x 145 mm), is said by habanos.com to be the brand's seventh since the Epicure Especial of 2004.

Where is it rolled? In Cuba the question has a two-storey answer. Since 2002 each Habanos brand has had a mother factory, responsible for leaf selection and blend, and its cigars may be rolled in any of the island's few dozen factories under the mother's supervision; Habanos does not publish that map, the trade press reconstructs it. Its mother factory is La Corona — the Miguel Fernández Roig —, Avenida 20 de Mayo, in Cerro, a former cigarette factory converted into a cigar factory in 2000, says the trade press, which also makes it the mother factory of Cuaba and Punch. In October 2026, the page “The Habanos Brands Academia” on habanos.com places Hoyo de Monterrey among the six global brands of Habanos, with Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Partagás and H. Upmann, in a portfolio of 27 brands; the trade press dates this ranking to 1 August 2019 and says these brands are sold in every market where Cuban cigars are found. Punch's official page says that in 1931 Punch moved to the factory where Hoyo de Monterrey was made, an association that endures, and that the two brands are produced at La Corona; its Spanish version writes that in 1931 Punch moved to the La Corona factory, where it is made together with Hoyo de Monterrey. The gate of the original plantation, at San Juan y Martínez, bears the inscription Hoyo de Monterrey, José Gener, 1860, says habanos.com — five years before the registration of the brand, dated 1865.

Range Depth

• Epicure

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Mild

  Habanos groups the Epicure No. 1, the Epicure No. 2 and the Epicure Especial in a line with a distinct presentation, and a December 2024 press release adds the Epicure No. 3, cepo 54 x 125 mm, the brand's first figurado. The Epicure No. 1 measures 143 mm for a cepo 46, the Epicure No. 2 124 mm for a cepo 50 (its Reserva Cosecha 2012 dates from 2016) and the Epicure Especial 141 mm for a cepo 50 (Edición Limitada in 2004, regular portfolio since 2008). Habanos describes the brand as mild in strength.

  Epicure No. 1 · Epicure No. 2 · Epicure Especial · Epicure No. 3

• Double Coronas

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Mild

  A vitola of the Prominentes galera, cepo 49 x 194 mm according to Wikipedia; habanos.com cites the Double Coronas and the Le Hoyo series for their slim and medium gauges. Its Gran Reserva Cosecha 2013 is, the house says, the brand's first Gran Reserva in this vitola.

• Série Le Hoyo

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Mild

  A series traditionally made up of slim to medium vitolas. Le Hoyo de San Juan (2014, cepo 54 x 150 mm, galera Geniales) adds a large gauge to it, with no novelty of this kind for decades according to habanos.com, made with seco and ligero only; Le Hoyo de Río Seco (2018) measures 56 x 140 mm.

• Petit Robustos

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Mild

  A vitola of 102 mm for a cepo 50, added to the portfolio in 2004 for smokers short of time, says habanos.com.

🥃 Pairings

• Oolong

  Tea

  Suggested pairing for an Epicure No. 2 (cepo 50 x 124 mm), with a brand that Habanos describes as mild in strength, delicate and aromatic.

• Calvados Pays d'Auge XO

  Spirits

  Suggested pairing for an Epicure No. 1 (cepo 46 x 143 mm), a vitola of the Epicure line from a brand of mild strength according to Habanos.

• Meursault Premier Cru

  Wine

  Suggested pairing for an Epicure Especial (cepo 50 x 141 mm), from the same Epicure line.

👤 Associated figures

• José Gener

  Wikipedia has him emigrate from Spain to Cuba at thirteen, in 1831, and open his factory in Havana twenty years later; the trade press, which calls him a Cuban, writes that he bought in 1860 the plantation whose name the brand bears and that he registered the brand in 1865. The gate of the San Juan y Martínez plantation still bears his name and the year 1860, says habanos.com.

✨ Notable limited editions

• Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial EL (2004)
• Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure de Luxe (La Casa del Habano, 2012)
• Hoyo de Monterrey Grand Epicure EL (2013)
• Hoyo de Monterrey Double Coronas Gran Reserva Cosecha 2013
• Hoyo de Monterrey Hermosos No. 4 Añejados (Edición Especial, 2016)
• Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No. 2 Reserva Cosecha 2012 (2016)
• Hoyo de Monterrey Petit Belicosos (duty free, 2017)
• Hoyo de Monterrey Primaveras (2021)
• Hoyo de Monterrey Monterreyes No. 4 EL (2023)