Tolstoy had a knack of getting to the heart of things and it’s hard to disagree with the great novelist when he wrote: ‘A cigar – it’s not so much a pleasure as the crown and hallmark of pleasure.’ These are the words of Prince Stepan ‘Stiva’ Arkadyich Oblonsky in Anna Karenina. Had ‘Stiva’ been in London in June, he would have felt right at home when a nimbus of blue smoke formed over Belgrave Square as its railed gardens became a piece of Cuban territory hosting the three-day cigar marathon known as Habanos World Days.
Habanos World Days was conceived during the pandemic as a digital event to compensate for the absence of the annual Cigar Festival that takes place in Havana in February. It was a valiant attempt, but enjoying a cigar over Zoom has its limits. In 2024, the decision was taken to hold a physical event, the first of its kind outside Cuba: think of it as a kind of Art Basel Miami-style spin-off, but for cigars; and the choice of venue reflects London’s status as the market for Havana cigars.
‘The UK has long been a natural home to Havanas, and there is huge historical significance,’ says second-generation cigar merchant Eddie Sahakian, owner of the famous Davidoff store in St James’s and the Sahakian sampling room at the Bvlgari Hotel in Knightsbridge. ‘It may not have the sunshine of Cuba, but the mild climate favours ageing cigars over long periods and the peculiarities of the UK market mean that cigar merchants are incentivised to keep and age cigars. And there is an additional level of quality in the English Market Selection quality seal, which commands a premium among collectors.’
English Market Selection has been a thing for over 100 years and denotes the superior quality of cigars designated for the British market, but was only codified in the 1990s with the introduction of the seal: a coloured label about the size of a postage stamp that carries the year of import. Hunters & Frankau, the sole importer of Cuban cigars into the UK, describes EMS as ‘the cornerstone of the UK’s long-established reputation as the world centre for the finest Havana cigars’.
Moreover, the recent spree of grande luxe hotel openings in London has resulted in some of the finest cigar shops and sampling rooms in the world: places where lovers of fine Vuelta Abajo tobacco can enjoy the best that Cuba has to offer in a comfortable and contemplative environment. Indeed, opening a smart hotel without a cigar shop these days is like dispensing with the Michelin-starred restaurant or heavily marketed cocktail lounge. (My current favourite is on the top floor of The Emory hotel; it is hard to feel too bad about life when sampling a limited-edition Partagas Series D No.1 from 2004 while looking out across the treetops of Hyde Park.)
It is this spirit that Habanos World Days has tapped into. For all the depredations the capital has suffered at the hands of our political leaders in recent years, not least Rishi Sunak’s fiddling with VAT refunds that drove tourist shoppers across the Channel, overseas visitors remain attracted to London, in part because it is still regarded as the locus classicus of a certain type of dandified luxury, of which cigars are a component. Britain neither cultivates tobacco nor rolls it into cigars, but somehow it does add value to them. From the preceding weekend, cigar enthusiasts start flying into London from around the world. Some go straight from the airport to Mayfair and begin scouring cigar shops for vintage treasures, and placing advance orders for the latest limited edition – the Trinidad Cabildos, which made its world debut at Habanos World Days in London a couple of years back.
In 2024, the three-day programme of parties, dinners, seminar and exhibition all honoured the Trinidad brand, which was celebrating its 55th birthday. Named after the Cuban city (not the Caribbean island), Trinidad was once so exclusive that for its first 29 years it was only used as a diplomatic gift, which, it is said, only Fidel Castro could bestow. It was finally released commercially in 1998 and, even then, only in one size, the slender Fundadores. In terms of prestige, it was positioned only slightly beneath the triple-fermented Cohiba. Its blend showcased the seco leaf, which accounts for the fragrant aroma and smooth character. For some years it preserved much of its mystique, even when the range expanded to include, among other gems, the Robusto Extra and the Robusto T. But, as is often the way with Cuban cigars, when something really good comes along it is soon discontinued. Sadly, this was the story with the Extra and the T, and when these were killed off in 2012 I lost interest for a while. But now the cry has gone up to Make Trinidad Great Again. As well as the Cabildos, London was favoured with the first 20 commemorative humidors packed with 55 Trinidad Fundadores Vintage 10, matured in Cuba for at least a decade. In effect, Habanos World Days is a reboot for Trinidad, which is now to be positioned as a luxury brand – not just a luxury cigar brand, but a luxury brand, full stop.
The recent spree of grande luxe hotel openings in London has resulted in some of the finest sampling rooms in the world
Habanos S.A., the body that makes and markets the cigars, is half owned by the Cuban state and half owned by a Hong Kong-based consortium that bought out Imperial Brands, the previous shareholder, for a sum rumoured to be over a billion dollars. The Asian investors have raised the perception (and prices) of Cuban cigars by seeing them not as a means of delivering nicotine into the body – a Trinidad or Cohiba has as much in common with cigarettes as a bottle of Petrus does with a bottle of plonk – but as a luxury product with its own world of quality, tradition and craftsmanship similar in stature to haute couture. After all, the torcedors who manipulate the aromatic leaf into instruments of pleasure are as skilled in their own way as les petites mains who create a Chanel suit or Dior gown.
In short, the unique character and culture of the Cuban cigar warrants a sophisticated level of connoisseurship and appreciation – and, at Habanos World Days in London, it receives it.