It’s hard to think about good cigars without doing two things: thinking of H. Upmann, and drooling. To many cigar lovers, H. Upmann is the cream of the crop, the apex of ashes. Sold under two brands, one made by Habanos SA in Cuba and the other made by Altadis SA in the Dominican Republic, H. Upmann provides smokers with an experience unlike any other. To not smoke an H. Upmann is to be let down. To not smoke an H. Upmann is also to miss out on one of the most interesting stories in the history of cigars.
Dating back to at least 1844, the legend of H. Upmann cigars is a bit ambiguous; there is more than one version, more than one version that involves two brothers — Hermann and August. Some versions of the tale believe the brothers’ last name was originally Hupmann, and the “H” was turned into an initial because H. Upmann was more artistically appealing than simply Hupmann. Others believe that the H in H. Upmann stands for “Hermanos,” meaning brothers in Spanish. Still, some insist that is simply stands for “Hermann.”
Prior to 1844, the brothers were German bankers who relocated to Havana, Cuba. Lovers of cigars, they were rumored to use cigars as a marketing tool for their bank, as a lure for potential customers. This account has led Hermann and August to, according to some, be credited for being the first to package cigars in boxes made of cedar.
Originally, the cedar boxes were filled with the cigars of various manufacturers, but the outside of the box contained the H. Upmann insignia, introducing the name into circulation. Once the Upmann’s purchased a cigar factory, called The Jose Marti Factory, the cigars inside the boxes were no longer filled with the cigars made by other manufacturers. In some versions of this legend, it was not Hermann and August who were bankers, it was their nephews, German and Alberto.
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