1492: Columbus's Discovery of the Century
1492: Columbus's Discovery of the Century
October 12, 1492 - when Columbus's Santa María made landfall in Cuba, he and his crew saw the local Taíno Indigenous people smoking rolled dried tobacco leaves.
This was the starting point of human cigar civilization.
Columbus wrote this discovery in his voyage log - this was the first record of tobacco in Western history. Crew member Rodrigo de Jerez brought tobacco back to Spain and became "Europe's first smoker", only to be imprisoned by the Inquisition for 7 years on the grounds that "smoke coming from the mouth was demonic possession".
But tobacco could no longer be stopped.
1535: The Origins of Tobacco Cultivation in Cuba
1535 - Spanish colonists began large-scale tobacco cultivation in Cuba's Vuelta Abajo region (located in today's Pinar del Río province).
The climate, soil, and rainfall of this region were later proven to make it the most suitable place in the world for growing top-tier tobacco. Vuelta Abajo remains the core source of tobacco leaves for Habanos Cuban cigars to this day.
1717: The Spanish Royal Monopoly
1717 - King Philip V of Spain declared "Cuban tobacco to be a Spanish royal monopoly" (Real Factoría de Tabacos de la Habana).
This monopoly system lasted for 100+ years - and at the same time:
- It greatly elevated the status of Cuban tobacco among European royalty
- It triggered multiple uprisings by Cuban tobacco farmers in resistance
From then on, cigars became "a luxury of royalty and nobility".
1817: Liberation Through Free Trade
1817 - King Ferdinand VII of Spain abolished the royal tobacco monopoly, allowing Cuban tobacco farmers to trade tobacco freely.
This liberation allowed the Cuban cigar industry to enter explosive growth - the next 50 years became the beginning of the "Golden Age of Cuban Cigars".
1834-1900: The Golden Age of Cuban Cigars
1834 Por Larrañaga - the oldest Cuban cigar brand still in existence was founded.
1845 Partagás - the family dynasty founded by Don Jaime Partagás.
1865 Hoyo de Monterrey + Trinidad (the later Trinidad was not founded until 1969) - the king of elegant Cuban cigars was born.
1873 Por Larrañaga began exporting in large quantities - it was the first Cuban cigar brand to truly enter the European market.
1875 Romeo y Julieta - a tribute to Shakespeare's famous play and a synonym for Churchill cigars.
1882 Montecristo (some historical sources record it as reorganized in 1935) - the king of torpedoes.
By 1900:
- Cuba had 120+ cigar brands
- Havana had 300+ cigar factories
- It produced hundreds of millions of cigars every year
- Cuban cigars were "a synonym for aristocratic luxury worldwide"
1959: The Cigar Turning Point of the Castro Revolution
January 1, 1959 - the revolutionary army of Fidel Castro entered Havana, and the Batista regime fell.
The impact of this event on the cigar world was permanent:
Inside Cuba
- 1962 Castro nationalized all cigar factories and consolidated them into Cubatabaco (later changed to Habanos S.A.)
- Many cigar families chose exile - the first wave of cigar exile after the revolution
- Cuban cigars changed from "diverse family dynasties" into "a unified national brand portfolio"
United States
- February 7, 1962 - President Kennedy signed the "comprehensive embargo on Cuban goods" (including cigars).
- Legendary detail: the night before Kennedy signed the embargo order, he sent his aide Pierre Salinger to purchase 1,200 Cuban H. Upmann Petit Coronas for his own keeping - the most famous private collection story in cigar history.
- The U.S. embargo continues to this day (still in place in 2026).
Exiled Families
- The Padrón family went into exile in Nicaragua and founded Padrón
- The García family went into exile in Nicaragua and founded My Father and Don Pepin Garcia
- The Plasencia family went into exile in Nicaragua and later became the world's largest tobacco leaf supplier
- The Fuente family went into exile in the Dominican Republic and founded Arturo Fuente
This wave of exile gave rise to the entire non-Cuban cigar world of today.
1985-1994: The Internationalization of Cohiba
1985 - Cohiba (originally a cigar custom-made for Castro personally in 1966) was released internationally for the first time.
1994 - Cohiba launched Linea 1492 (commemorating the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the Americas): Siglo I to Siglo VI - Cohiba's second major flagship series.
1995: Cuban Crisis and the Cigar Boom
1995-1998 - the U.S. cigar boom (Cigar Boom), the founding of Cigar Aficionado magazine, and the great explosion of cigar culture also caused Cuban cigars to fall short of demand:
- To meet demand, Cuba rapidly expanded production
- The quality of some products declined
- This triggered the "Cuban Crisis 1996-1999" - quality issues with Cuban cigars
Cuba ultimately restored quality - but this event allowed non-Cuban cigar brands (Padrón, Fuente, Davidoff) to rise with the trend.
2014: Obama Visits Cuba
December 17, 2014 - President Obama announced the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.
2016 - Obama visited Cuba, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years. But the cigar embargo was still not lifted (only traveler carrying limits were relaxed).
2024: Habanos Massive Investment
2024 - Habanos S.A. announced a USD 1 billion investment to expand Cuban cigar factories and increase annual production.
2026: The Birth of W Cigar Bible
May 4, 2026 - "W Cigar Bible" (Asia's first Chinese-language cigar bible) was written and planned by Cigar Prince Wilson Tsai, and officially launched.
From Columbus's landing in Cuba in 1492 to a Chinese cigar professional writing this Chinese bible in Taipei's Da'an District in 2026 - 534 years of cigar civilization finally has a complete Chinese-language record.
Welcome to W Cigar Bar, the Gentleman's Cigar House, to appreciate the crystallization of 534 years of cigar civilization together with the Cigar Prince.
