Quai d'Orsay

Quai d'Orsay carries the name of a Paris address: the brand was created in 1973 by Cubatabaco, at the request of Seita, the French tobacco monopoly, says habanos.com, which describes it as reserved for the French market; the trade press (2018) ties the name to the quay along the Seine, and Wikipedia gives three explanations (an avenue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Seita headquarters). Habanos classes it as light in strength, totally hand-rolled, with a long filler.

The house's page describes neither a wrapper nor tasting notes. Wikipedia, which admits to a single source, writes that the Coronas existed until the late 1980s in two wrapper shades, Claro and Claro Claro, the second abandoned with the decline of pale wrappers.

Habanos writes that the brand remained confidential for more than forty years, known mostly to experts of the French market, and then picked up again with two new vitolas distributed internationally: the No. 50 (110 mm, cepo 50) and the No. 54 (135 mm, cepo 54). The page lists four regional editions reserved for France, among them the Secreto Cubano of 2016 (40 x 110 mm); the trade press announced on 2 October 2018 the Capitolio, 6 1/2 inches on cepo 54, in a run of 15 000 boxes of ten, the first lots rolled at the Partagás factory.

Light strength is the only indication of taste the house gives.

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 Partagás, according to the trade press, which writes in 2020 that the Partagás factory also rolls Quai d'Orsay. Habanos today places that factory at 806 San Carlos Street, having long had it at 520 Industria Street, behind the Capitol, without giving a date; the press (2020) adds that the old site has closed its production and houses a shop. In October 2026, habanos.com lists it among the five value brands (Trinidad, Bolívar, Punch, Quai d'Orsay, Ramón Allones) of its portfolio of twenty-seven brands, outside the six global ones; the trade press classed it, on 1 August 2019, among the other brands of the twenty-one-brand portfolio. The official page tells of its exit from the French market: created in 1973 by Cubatabaco at the request of Seita, whose offices it places at a Paris address from which it takes the name, it remained for more than forty years a brand for experts of the French market, then launched two vitolas, No. 50 and No. 54, for international distribution, with a band bearing Havana and Cuba; the Coronas Claro (42 x 142 mm) appears in the same catalogue.

Range Depth

• Coronas Claro

  Wrapper Claro · Strength Mild

  Corona of 142 mm on cepo 42 (about 5 5/8 inches), light strength according to habanos.com. Wikipedia: the box says Coronas, the official production name is Coronas Claro; until the late 1980s, wrapper Claro or Claro Claro.

  Corona

• No.50

  Wrapper Claro · Strength Mild

  110 mm on cepo 50, one of the two vitolas the house launched internationally; shorter than a Robusto de galera (124 mm). Light strength for the brand (habanos.com).

  No. 50 (110 x 50)

• No.54

  Wrapper Claro · Strength Mild

  135 mm on cepo 54, a new vitola of the regular portfolio launched with the No. 50; light strength for the brand (habanos.com).

🥃 Pairings

• Chablis

  Wine

  Suggestion: a dry, lively white for a cigar of light strength.

• Sencha green tea

  Tea

  Suggestion: a light tea for a cigar of light strength.

👤 Associated figures

• La Seita

  The brand was born in 1973 at Cubatabaco, at the request of Seita, the French tobacco monopoly, which was its French distributor; the name refers to a Paris address (the quay along the Seine, says the trade press; Wikipedia hesitates between an avenue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Seita headquarters).

✨ Notable limited editions

• Quai d'Orsay Secreto Cubano (Edición Regional France, 2016)
• Quai d'Orsay Capitolio (Edición Regional France, 2018)
• Quai d'Orsay Hermosos No. 2 (Senadores, 2019, selon Wikipédia)