The best-selling brand

Montecristo

since 1935

Montecristo was founded in 1935 by Alonso Menéndez, a Spaniard with a thorough knowledge of tobacco, who bought the Particulares factory in Havana. He named the brand after Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Count of Monte Cristo", a favourite of the torcedores when the lector read to them as they worked. In 1936 Menéndez took on José Manuel "Pepe" García, formerly commercial manager at Partagás, as a partner and formed Menéndez, García y Cía. After the company bought H. Upmann in 1937, production moved to the H. Upmann factory. Alfred Dunhill played an important part in the brand's early spread, selling it in London and New York from 1936.

Habanos S.A. rates Montecristo medium to full. The Línea Clásica goes back to the five numbered sizes of the 1930s; the No. 4 is the best-selling Habano in the world, and the No. 2, a pirámide, is among the best known. The Edmundo followed in 2004, the milder Línea Open in 2009, and later the Línea 1935 with the Maltés, Dumas and Leyenda.

Smoke carries aged single cigars of the No. 2 and the Edmundo, the 80 Aniversario and 90 Aniversario anniversary releases, and Montecristo Puritos.