Havana’s cigar factories change venues for tours

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Few experiences in Cuba area as intoxicating as the pungent, earthy, sweet-sour aroma of tobacco that hits you as you enter one of Havana’s venerable cigar factories, where rollers still produce cigars as they have for two centuries.

The artisanal process of rolling cigars hasn’t changed in that time, and a visit to a cigar factory is a treat, although some visitors may be dismayed to discover that the world’s finest smokes aren’t actually rolled on the thighs of dusky maidens, as folklore would have it.

On June 23, 2009, I posted about which cigar factories are open to visits (see “It’s all change at Havana’s cigar factories”). Well, now it’s time for a postscript, as things changed again earlier this year, when several aging cigar factories closed for restoration.

Most importantly, the iconic Partagás factory—traditionally the staple tourist-friendly venue—has temporarily closed its doors. I don’t expect it to reopen any time soon, as the place was built in 1845 and on my last visit, in late 2009, everything from its creaky doors to crumbling staircase needed fixing.

The Partagás factory’s superb Casa del Habano store remains open however.

Meanwhile, the Partagás rollers have temporarily relocated to the recently renovated El Rey del Mundo factory, which is not open to visits.

The La Corona factory, which I described in my June 23 post has also closed for a make-over. This sober, even somber, factory has always lacked the atmosphere of Partagás, or the recently reopened (hurrah!) Romeo y Julieta factory (Padre Varela e/ Desague y Peñal Verno, Centro Habana, tel 07/878-1059, CUC10).

For now, all visitors are being steered to Romeo y Julieta, which until earlier this year served as a cigar-rolling school. It was previously a full-production facility (open to tours) famous for its namesake Romeo y Julieta brand of cigars. However, here’s where things get complicated, as the factory is also now rebranded (temporariliy, one assumes) as the H. Upmann factory.

The original H. Upmann factory (Amistad #407 e/ Barcelona y Dargones, in Centro Habana), founded in 1844 by the London banking house of H. Upmann, closed its doors permanently in 2004, when production of the famous brand moved to a “modern” facility at Calle 13 e/ 14 y 16, in Vedado. That facility closed in February 2011 for renovation, when Upmann production relocated to the Romeo y Julieta factory. Hence the new name.

Some Romeo y Julieta’s, Montecristos, and Cohibas are also rolled at the new Romeo y Julieta/H. Upmann factory, although many of the Romeo y Julieta sizes are rolled elsewhere. Confusing!

The three-story building features a huge galera—rolling gallery—where more than 200 torcedores (rollers) craft cigars. Sunlight pours in through huge windows, open to the steamy tropical air, while the rich baritone voice of a lector (reader) entertains the torcedores by reading from the day’s newspaper and from novels.

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