Montecristo

According to habanos.com, Montecristo was born in 1935 at the H. Upmann factory in Havana, in Vuelta Abajo leaves; the page names no founder. The accounts that do name founders diverge: a 2004 report has Alonso Menéndez and José García González buy the Particulares factory in July 1935, then the H. Upmann factory in 1936; the trade press (2013) has the first Montecristo come out of a building on calle 23, in Vedado, and dates the H. Upmann licence to 1937; Wikipedia places the purchase of the H. Upmann factory in 1937. The name comes from Alexandre Dumas's novel The Count of Monte Cristo: a tabaquería reader read it to the torcedores of the H. Upmann factory, says habanos.com, and the novel was so well received that its hero's name was given to the new brand. The lector, paid by the rollers themselves, was an institution of Cuban factories, writes Mental Floss in 2015. Wikipedia writes that the logo, six swords around a fleur-de-lis, was designed by the brand's British distributor.

Habanos writes that the brand originally had five vitolas, numbered 1 to 5. The No. 4 is a petit corona with a cepo 42 x 129 mm; a 2004 report notes that it is rolled in dozens of Cuban factories.

After the nationalisation of the Cuban tobacco industry, Menéndez and García left Cuba, writes Wikipedia: the brand was relaunched in the Canary Islands, where trademark disputes set it against Cubatabaco, then made around the mid-1970s in La Romana, in the Dominican Republic (unsourced points in Wikipedia). This Montecristo, whose distribution in the United States is controlled by Altadis, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands, is a different cigar from the Cuban Montecristo of Habanos. In the United States, the Cuban brand cannot be sold because of the embargo, and Wikipedia writes that the Cuban government's rights are not recognised there.

In Havana, Montecristo continues under state ownership. Habanos names the H. Upmann factory as its cradle and says it is where the 2011 Gran Reserva No. 2 was rolled; the trade press sees Montecristo rolled there (2011, 2015), and Tobacco Reporter also notes some at La Corona (2024). The sources do not place Montecristo at the Romeo y Julieta factory: only the Belascoaín building, which H. Upmann has occupied since 2011, was Romeo y Julieta's. The No. 2 is a pirámide (torpedo) with a cepo 52 x 156 mm. In 2011, the house drew from it its first Gran Reserva, Cosecha 2005, which it says is regarded by many as the flavour benchmark of the Habano; a 2004 report wrote that the No. 2 was made mainly at Partagás or H. Upmann.

The Edmundo (cepo 52 x 135 mm), presented in Paris on 13 May 2004, and the Petit Edmundo (2007) open a line of medium to full flavour, says the house; Wikipedia links the name to the hero of the novel, Edmond Dantès, without a source. The Línea Montecristo Open, presented at the 2009 Festival del Habano, has four vitolas, Eagle, Master, Regata and Junior, of medium strength. The Línea 1935 (Maltés, Dumas, Leyenda), announced in March 2018, is, says habanos.com, the brand's first full-strength blend. Among the recent editions are the 80 Aniversario (2015), the Dantés (2016), the Supremos (2019) and the Elba (2025, for the brand's ninetieth anniversary).

Among the most recent, the Brillantes (cepo 53 x 128 mm) was launched in Hong Kong in February 2024 for the Year of the Dragon, and the Fragata (cepo 54 x 140 mm), a travel humidor holding twenty cigars, was presented on 1 October 2026 for the duty-free and travel-retail channels only.

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 H. Upmann — the José Martí, a name that Havana's city portal dates to 1960 —, which has changed address several times and has occupied, since February 2011 according to the trade press, the former Romeo y Julieta building on Belascoaín, in Centro Habana (852 according to the press, 853 according to Havana's portal). In October 2026, the page “The Habanos Brands Academia” on habanos.com places Montecristo among the six global brands of Habanos, with Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, Partagás, Hoyo de Monterrey and H. Upmann; the trade press dates this classification to 1 August 2019 and says these brands are sold in every market where Cuban cigars are found. The official page has it born in 1935 at the H. Upmann factory, where a reader read Dumas to the rollers; the trade press sees Montecristo rolled there (2011, 2015, 2024), also notes some at La Corona (2024) and wrote in 2004 that the No. 2 came mostly from Partagás or H. Upmann.

Range Depth

• Línea Clásica

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Medium-Full

  The brand's base line, medium to full in strength according to habanos.com, made with Vuelta Abajo leaves and hand-rolled with longfiller, from the Montecristo A down to the small formats; the brand began with five vitolas numbered 1 to 5. The Montecristo A, a gran corona, measures 9 1/4 inches (235 mm) with a cepo 47; the No. 1, a lonsdale, 6 1/2 inches (165 mm) with a cepo 42; the No. 2 is a pirámide (torpedo) with a cepo 52 x 156 mm; the No. 3, a corona, measures 5 5/8 inches (142 mm) with a cepo 42; the No. 4, a petit corona (Mareva), has a cepo 42 x 129 mm; the No. 5, a petit corona, is 4 inches with a cepo 40. The dimensions of the A and of the No. 1, 3 and 5 come from the trade press and from retailers, the habanos.com brand page not giving them. A retailer describes Cuban colorado wrappers, more or less dark, for the A and the No. 1 and 3; habanos.com says only the origin of the leaves. A Reserva (2007) pays tribute to the No. 4; the Gran Reserva Cosecha 2005, presented in 2011, is a No. 2. Outside the regular line, Habanos presented on 12 February 2015, in its new Añejados line, Churchills with a cepo 47 x 178 mm (galera Julieta No.2).

  No.1 · No.2 · No.3 · No.4 · No.5 · Montecristo A

• Línea Edmundo

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Medium-Full

  The Edmundo (cepo 52 x 135 mm) was presented in Paris on 13 May 2004, in Vegas Finas de Primera leaves from the Vuelta Abajo, medium to full in flavour; the house writes that no new format had been created in its category for more than thirty years. The Petit Edmundo (cepo 52 x 110 mm) followed in 2007, the Double Edmundo and the Petit No. 2 (figurado, cepo 52 x 120 mm) in 2013.

  Edmundo · Petit Edmundo · Double Edmundo

• Línea 1935

  Wrapper Natural Carmelite · Strength Full

  Announced by a press release of 27 March 2018 and sold in boxes of 20, it has three vitolas: Maltés (Sobresalientes, cepo 53 x 153 mm), Dumas (Prominente Corto, cepo 49 x 130 mm) and Leyenda (Maravillas No 2, cepo 55 x 165 mm, the shape of the 2015 special vitola 80 Aniversario). Habanos presents it as the brand's first full-strength blend, stronger than the Open, in Vuelta Abajo leaves under a natural Carmelite wrapper.

  Maltés · Dumas · Leyenda

• Línea Open

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Medium

  Presented at the 2009 Festival del Habano (press release of 11 July), it has four vitolas: Eagle (Geniales, cepo 54 x 150 mm), Regata (Forum, figurado, cepo 46 x 135 mm, which follows the tradition of the No. 2 closely in a finer smoke, says the house), Master (cepo 50 x 124 mm) and Junior (Trabucos, cepo 38 x 110 mm). Habanos describes it as medium in strength.

🥃 Pairings

• Rioja Gran Reserva

  Wine

  A pairing suggestion for the No. 2 (pirámide, cepo 52 x 156 mm), a vitola of the Línea Clásica that habanos.com describes as medium to full in strength.

• Glenfarclas 25 years

  Whisky

  A pairing suggestion for the No. 4 (petit corona, cepo 42 x 129 mm), a short format of the same line.

• Ristretto espresso

  Coffee

  A pairing suggestion for the No. 2: a short coffee rather than a long one.

👤 Associated figures

• Alexandre Dumas

  The author of The Count of Monte Cristo died on 5 December 1870, sixty-five years before the registration of the brand in 1935. Habanos writes that a tabaquería reader read the novel to the torcedores of the H. Upmann factory and that the name of its hero was given to the brand; the lector, paid by the rollers themselves, was an institution of Cuban factories, writes Mental Floss (2015).

✨ Notable limited editions

• Montecristo Reserva, hommage au No. 4 (2007)
• Montecristo No. 2 Gran Reserva Cosecha 2005 (2011)
• Montecristo 80 Aniversario (2015)
• Montecristo Dantés EL (2016)
• Montecristo Supremos EL (2019, Italie)
• Montecristo Herederos (2020)
• Montecristo Brillantes (Hong Kong, 2024)
• Montecristo Elba EL (2025)
• Montecristo Fragata (duty free, 2026)