Expert: James Yee - 7/30/2007

Question
I recently went to the dominican republic and purcahsed Dominican Republic
Cohiba Esplendido cigars. Can anyone tell me about these?

Answer
Hi Keith,

I'm not sure which version of Dominican Cohibas you purchased but there is a story behind the Dominican Cohiba brand.  In the mid 90's, there were two Dominican cigar companies (General Cigar Co. & Monticristi Co.) producing non-Cuban "Cohiba" brand cigars.  General Cigar Co. manufactured "red dot" Cohibas in which the cigar band was black and white and the "o" in the word "Cohiba" was filled in with a red dot.  This caused people to give the cigars the nickname "red dots".  Monticristi Company (who produced Dominican Cohiba cigars first) produced yellow band Cohibas which resembled the original pre-1990's Cuban Cohiba band except at the bottom of the band, it read "Republica Dominicana".  (Monticristi also produced "Indian Head" Cohibas. Design-wise, the band was also similar to the pre-90's Cohiba band but instead of the word "Cohiba", the cigar band would have the Cuban Cohiba "Indian head" logo.  These cigars were considered to be yellow label “factory seconds”.)  

Both General Cigar and Montricristi produced these cigars to cash in on the popularity of the [Cuban] Cohiba name but because neither owned the US trademark for the name, both companies were allowed to produce and sell their cigars simultaneously.  General Cigar Co. eventually claimed the trademark rights to the name "Cohiba" so they were allowed to legally produce their red dot Cohibas.  As a result, Monticristi Company was ordered to stop producing their Cohibas but was allowed to sell off their existing supply of yellow label cigars.  

Though yellow band Cohibas are not being produced anymore, you can still find existing supplies of these cigars in the Dominican Republic and the United States.  Montricristi Cohibas are fairly inexpensive but fading in supply while red dot Cohibas normally have a high price (due to the popular brand name) and are commonly available in the United States.  General Cigar Co. has also expanded the non-Cuban brand now (ie: Cohiba XV).

I hope this answers your question.  If you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I’ll be happy to help.

Regards,
James