Montecristo cigars

Montecristo is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in La Romana, Dominican Republic for the Franco-Spanish tobacco monopoly Altadis SA.

The Montecristo brand was created in 1935 by Menéndez, García y Cía,[citation needed] then the owners of the popular H. Upmann brand of cigars. Having just purchased the H. Upmann marque from J. Frankau & Co., Menéndez and García decided to produce their own subset of the regular H. Upmann line, called the H. Upmann Montecristo Selection.
The name for the brand was inspired by the Alexandre Dumas, père novel The Count of Monte Cristo, which was supposedly a very popular choice among the torcedores (cigar rollers) in their factory to have read by the lector on the rolling floor.
On the insistence of the John Hunter firm of Great Britain (which would later merge with J. Frankau & Co. to form Hunter & Frankau, Britain's sole importer of Cuban cigars to this day), the name was shortened to simply Montecristo and a new logo was designed for it: the yellow and red "crossed swords" logo the brand still bears today.
Through the efforts of Alfred Dunhill (the company), the Montecristo brand became incredibly popular worldwide and to this day accounts for roughly 50% of Habanos SA's worldwide cigar sales, making it the most popular Cuban cigar in the world. After the Cuban Revolution and the nationalization of the cigar industry in Cuba in 1961, Menéndez and García fled to the Canary Islands where they re-established the brand, but were later forced to quit due to copyright disputes with Cubatabaco. In the mid-1970s, the operation was moved to La Romana in the Dominican Republic and released for the US market, where Cuba's rights to the brand weren't recognized due to the embargo. Menéndez, García, y Cía is now owned by Altadis SA, who controls its distribution and marketing in the United States.
The original line had only five numbered sizes, with a tubed cigar added during the 1940s, but otherwise remained unchanged until after nationalization. With Menendez and Garcia gone after 1959, one of the top grade torcedores, José Manuel Gonzalez, was promoted to floor manager and proceeded to breathe new life into the brand. In the 1970s and 1980s, five new sizes were added: the A, the Especial No. 1 and 2, the Joyita, and the Petit Tubo. Three other sizes, the Montecristo No. 6, No. 7, and B, were released but subsequently discontinued, though the B can occasionally be found in very small releases each year in Cuba.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, Montecristo continued to rise in popularity among cigar smokers and firmly entrenched itself as one of Cuba's top selling cigar lines. The Montecristo No. 4 is, itself, the most popular cigar in the world market.
In 2004, another new edition to the regular line was made with the Edmundo, a large robusto-sized cigar, named for the hero of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantès.
Montecristo is also regularly chosen to be featured in Habanos SA's annual Edición Limitada selection of cigars with a darker vintage wrapper and there are numerous limited edition releases of special Montecristo cigars for special occasions, anniversaries, the annual Habanos Festival, charities, etc.
In 2007, a cigar called the Edmundo Dantes Conde 109 was released as a part of Habanos' regional edition series. It uses a Montecristo blend and is believed to have a different name because of trademark right problems in Mexico.
Montecristo also produces three machine-made cigarillos: the Mini, the Club, and the Purito.

The following list of vitolas (sizes) within the Montecristo line lists their measurements in English and metric, their vitolas de galera (factory name), and their conventional name in American cigar slang.
Hand-Made Vitolas
No. 1 - 6 1/2" x 42 (165 x 16.67 mm) Cervantes, a lonsdale
No. 2 - 6 1/8" x 52 (156 x 20.64 mm) Pirámide, a pyramid or torpedo
No. 3 - 5 5/8" x 42 (142 x 16.67 mm) Corona, a corona
No. 4 - 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Mareva, a petit corona
No. 5 - 4" x 40 (102 x 15.87 mm) Perla, a tres petit corona
A - 9 1/4" x 47 (235 x 18.65 mm) Gran Corona, a presidente or giant
Especial No. 1 - 7 1/2" x 38 (192 x 15.08 mm) Laguito No. 1, a long panetela
Especial No. 2 - 6" x 38 (152 x 15.08 mm) Laguito No. 2, a panetela
Joyita - 4 1/2" x 26 (115 x 10.32 mm) Laguito No. 3, a cigarillo
Tubo - 6 1/8" x 42 (155 x 16.67 mm) Corona Grande, a long corona
Petit Tubo - 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Mareva, a petit corona
Edmundo - 5 3/8" x 52 (135 x 20.64 mm) Edmundo, a robusto
Petit Edmundo - 4 3/8" x 52 (135 x 20.64 mm) Petit Edmundo, a petit robusto
Edición Limitada Releases
Double Corona (2001) - 7 5/8" x 49 (194 x 19.45 mm) Prominente, a double corona
Robusto (2001) - 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a robusto or rothschild
C (2003) - 5 5/8" x 46 (143 x 18.26 mm) Corona Gorda, a toro
D (2005) - 6 3/4" x 43 (170 x 17.07 mm) Dalia, a lonsdale
Robusto (2006) - 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a robusto or rothschild
Regional Releases
Edmundo Dantes Conde 109 (2007) - 7 2/8" x 50 (184 x 19.84 mm) No. 109, a double corona
Special Releases
Millennium Reserve Robusto - 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a robusto or rothschild
B - 5 3/8" x 42 (135 x 16.67 mm) Cosaco, a corona

Holguín

Holguín is a municipality and city, the capital of the Cuban Province Holguín.

It was founded as San Isidoro de Holguín in 1545, and it is named after its founder García de Holguín, a Spanish military officer. Prior to 1976, Holguin was located in the province of Oriente.

There are several small city parks, most central the Calixto García in the downtown area. Close by one finds the galleries Centro Provincial de Arte and Bayado, a library, the club Casa de la Trova, the Martí cinema, the Theatre Eddy Suñol, the Province Museum La Periquera, a science museum, and a history museum. From the hill Loma de la Cruz, where a large crucifix is installed, which can be ascended by its 465 stairs, one can oversee the whole city.
Holguín has a baseball stadium. The Frank País International Airport (city code HOG) is connected to Havana and several other world destinations.
The municipality is divided into the barrios of Aguarás, Aguas Claras, Alcalá, Arroyo Blanco del Sur, Báguanos, Cabezuelas, Cacocún, Calderón, Camazán, Cauto del Cristo, Corralillo, Cruces de Purnio, Damián, Floro Pérez, Guabasiabo, Guayabal, Guirabo, Haticos del Purial, La Aguada, La Cuaba, La Palma, La Rioja, Las Calabazas, Managuaco, Melones, Norte, Omaja, Purnio, San Agustín, San Andrés, San Francisco, San Juan, San Lorenzo, Santa Rita, Sur, Tacámara, Tasajeras, Uñas, Uñitas, Velasco, Yareyal and Yayal.
The main secondary education institution is the University of Holguín.

The brewery Cerveceria Bucanero - a joint venture with Labatt of Canada - is based in the city. It makes three brands of beer (Bucanero, Cristal and Mayabe) sold in convertible pesos.
Near Holguin, the Villa El Quinque and the Villa El Cocal are world-renowned centers for addictions treatment, receiving patients from around the world. Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona was treated for his cocaine addiction there. Disfrutan de Playa Pesqueros, situada nada mas que a 40Km.

In 2004, the municipality of Holguín had a population of 326,740. With a total area of 666 km² (257.1 sq mi), it has a population density of 490.6/km² (1,270.6/sq mi).

Guantánamo

Guantánamo is a municipality and city in southeast Cuba and capital of Guantánamo Province.
Guantanamo is served by the Caimanera port. Producing sugarcane and cotton wool are traditional parts of the economy.

The municipality is mountainous in the north, where it overlays the Sierra Maestra (mountains), and borders the Windward Passage of the Caribbean Sea in the south. It is crossed by the Guantánamo, Yateras, Guaso, San Andrés and Sabanalamar rivers. The Guantánamo Bay is a natural harbour south of the city.
The municipality is divided into the barrios of Arroyo Hondo, Baitiquirí, Bano, Bayate, Caimanera, Camarones, Caridad, Corralillo, Cuatro Caminos, Filipinas, Glorieta, Gobierno, Guaso, Hospital, Indios, Isleta, Jaibo Abajo, Las Lajas, Macurijes, Mercado, Ocujal, Parroquia, Palma de San Juan, Rastro, Tiguabos and Vínculo.

About 15 km away from the city lies the Guantánamo Bay, a superior natural harbour which has been controlled by the United States as the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base since 1902, following a controversial unlimited lease of the harbour to the US.
The military base contains detention centers, currently used for "unlawful combatants" captured in the War on Terrorism. The detention centers consist of the temporary Camp X-Ray, which is now closed, and the permanent Camp Delta.

In 2004, the municipality of Guantánamo had a population of 244,603. With a total area of 741 km² (286.1 sq mi), it has a population density of 330.1/km² (855/sq mi).

Notable natives of Guantánamo include athletes Joel Casamayor, Yumileidi Cumbá, Jaime Jefferson, Yargelis Savigne, Dayron Robles, Luis Delís, and Cuban-American gymnast Annia Hatch; and cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first Cuban cosmonaut and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States to travel into earth orbit. He was also the first Hispanophone and first person of African ancestry in space.