The visit to Habanos factories La Corona and H.Upmann at the Habanos Cigar Festival 26 Feb 2015

Aficionados, journalists, experts and business people linked to the realm of tobacco agreed to say this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Most of them never believed there could be such a wonderful world concealed behind a Cuban cigar. The H. Upmann factory, located on Belascoain Street on the corner of Peñalver, produces the Montecristo vitolas, one of the most sought-after habano brands in the world and a benchmark in terms of international taste. Its cigar rollers will be tasked this year with the making of the Montecristo 80 Aniversario commemorative vitola, selected to mark birth of this brand back in 1935. For its part, La Corona, on 20 de Mayo Avenue on the corner of Línea del Ferrocarril, stands as the main house of the Romeo y Julieta, Hoyo de Monterrey and San Cristóbal de La Habana brands. From here they reach out to countless markets around the globe, including the Romeo y Julieta Gran Reserva, hand-rolled cigars that have been aged for five to eight years. In this factory, some 625 employees –a majority of them with vast experience in this trade- churn out over 30,000 cigars on a daily basis. Quality controllers, hand rollers, labelers, ringers, readers, that is, men and women linked to habanos, answered pleasantly all the questions asked by guests, who eventually left fully pleased for having learned a little bit more about the world’s best tobacco.