Cohiba is to cigars what Hermès is to leather or Patek Philippe to watches: the broadly recognised pinnacle.
No other brand can really carry the prestige – or price tag – of the Cuban flagship. So when they release a new stick, the cigar world takes notice. Aficionados from around the world congregate, desperate for the first taste of what will immediately become the most coveted cigar on the market.
For their latest launch gala, but not for the first time, they chose London.
Habanos SA/Julio Antonio Alvite Piedra
The Cohiba Talismán is a new addition to the brand’s Linea Classica, a core range of cigars intended to be in regular production and available all year round. Its vitola (the name given to the size and shape of a cigar) is imposing: 54 ring gauge by 154mm, or 6 ⅛ inches for the traditionalist.
This translates to about 60 to 90 minutes of enjoyment, with medium to full strength and plenty of flavour notes including rich dark chocolate, sharp cedar, and tangy coffee throughout. Once they hit shelves, the retail price will be in the region of £150 per stick. No wonder, then, that the party was swanky.
Under an Ottoman-style tent in the garden of a glamorous-but-secret Central London venue, 400 people from around the world gathered, eager for first taste of the new release.
Lights projected the Cohiba logo onto the walls; rare boxes from the 60-year Cohiba archive lined the hallways. A spectacular ice sculpture of El Laguito, the legendary Havana factory where the cigars are made, glistened gently in the centre of the smoking room. Cuban music played, Cuban rum flowed.
Piotrowski Photo
Dignitaries from Habanos SA, the holding company for all Cuban cigar brands, and Hunters & Frankau, their sole UK importer, gave speeches and drew tickets for the traditional raffle in support of the Cuban Public Health system, a fixture of all high-profile Habanos events. Thick plumes of steel-blue smoke swirled in the crisp night sky. In short, it was a lavish affair.
Guests were offered a small cigar on arrival before being given the new release to sample halfway through. Gift boxes of three cigars, available exclusively to the UK market from later this year, were presented upon departure.
Throughout the evening I spoke to guests from all over England, Dubai, China, and the USA, each of whom had travelled for the specific purpose of being at this party. That kind of international draw is more often associated with high fashion than cigars. A tribute to the esteem in which Cohiba is held.
Piotrowski Photo
Piotrowski Photo
That esteem can also be inferred from the sums aficionados are willing to pay. Eyebrows raised when the prices of Habanos’ Premium brands shot up a few years ago. Sales did not even flinch. Like anything else at the top end of a market, cigars this good are a rarity, and a product of exceptional talent in both farming and rolling of the tobacco to make them. Those in the know are willing to pay accordingly for the time spent on their craft, and for the opportunity to be one of the few who can enjoy them.
The Talismán of 2026 is the second time this shape has been used by Cohiba. In 2017 a Limited Edition was released (traditionally, there have been up to 3 per year since 2000) of the same name and dimensions. It was wildly popular.
The richness of the flavour, packed with spice and sweetness and deep, earthy tobacco notes, had collectors scrambling to add them to their humidors. If you can still find a box of 10 today, it will run you around £5,000.
That original was also unveiled to the world at an opulent London soirée, the Garden Room of the Corinthia hotel packed to the rafters with the great and good of the cigar world. Today’s regular release version is intended as a tribute, rather than a reproduction.
Limited Edition Habanos use more exclusive tobacco, all aged for at least 2 years in the curing barns; the Cohiba Linea Classica which the new version will join – itself launched in London, at Claridge’s back in 1993 – uses Cohiba’s usual leaf stock. The result is more creamy and less intense, but will be no less desired.
That the flagship Cuban line has been celebrating its most important moments in London for more than 30 years is testament to the affection the industry still has for the capital. Other cities around the world may be making a play for its position at the pinnacle of the luxury cigar scene, but on the evidence of this latest launch, they’ll have to wait a bit yet.
