The Cohiba Behike cigar, the flagship tobacco of the Habanos SA company and presented as the “most expensive in the world”, sells for $400 each. The authorities of the Island boast of the data in the middle of a Campaign frantic, launched this week by the official press, to attract foreign customers to the XXIII edition of the Habano Festival, which will be held until next Friday in the Cuban capital.
The Behike line is, since 2010, the most expensive of the Cohiba brand, created in 1966 by Fidel Castro to entertain diplomats and international guests. It contains the vitolas –formats– BHK 52, BHK 54 and BHK 56, made at the El Laguito factory in Havana with superior quality tobacco leaves, from the towns of San Juan y Martínez and San Luis, in Pinar del Río, an area which in tobacco jargon is known as Vueltabajo.
The mixture of leaves to achieve the aroma and flavor of Behike is “the best kept secret” of the cigar makers of the El Laguito factory, which, together with the aura of mystery that Castro tried to give to its manufacture, skyrocket the price of this pure in international tobacconists and national stores, at prices that scandalize Cubans.
In addition to the usual presentation, in a lacquered box of ten units, Cuba manufactures Behike cigars with special wrappers, which affects the price that “high solvency aficionados” – a euphemism with which Prensa Latina designates the millionaires who attend the Festival– are willing to pay.
During this week, while the Festival is taking place at the Havana Convention Center –the same space that houses the most important meetings of the Cuban Government–, the official press has even offered lists of “best cigars” or “best sellers”.
Latin Press public a top ten which includes cigars from the Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Partagás and Cohiba brands, which continue to be the most prestigious in the international market. According to this list, the three best cigars in the world are the Montecristo number 4, the Churchill from Romeo y Julieta and the Lancero from Cohiba. The three sizes are well known and, moreover, frequently appear in films, magazines and international catalogues.
At the Habano Festival, collectors eagerly participate in the auction of humidors –the cedar box with humidity control where the cigars are kept–, the price of which rises to the absurd if it bears the signature of Fidel Castro, who left initialed hundreds of them, or some celebrity.
In addition to the usual presentation, in a lacquered box of ten units, Cuba manufactures Behike cigars with special wrappers, which affects the price
As part of the sales campaign, the official press associates the act of smoking cigars with historical figures such as Ernesto Guevara or Winston Churchill, scientists such as Albert Einstein, actors such as Robert DeNiro and Arnold Schwarzenegger – “who was almost clandestinely in Cuba several years ago to smoke real cigars”, they affirm – and even American presidents such as John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy or Bill Clinton.
Some 2,000 participants from 110 countries, millionaires and collectors -mainly from Europe and the Arab world-, leaders who are cigar fans and politicians from all over the world will spend their money in Havana until this Friday. The important thing, says Prensa Latina, is to present all the guests not only as aficionados of cigar culture, but as “a kind of army of Cuba lovers.”
The Cuban government received 545 million dollars in 2022, but the situation of the producers, who have seen the tobacco harvest destroyed after the passage of Cyclone Ian, augurs a bad future for a sector that depends, above all, on the excellence of its raw material.
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