El Rey del Mundo
A nineteenth-century Havana marca now reduced to a handful of sizes, with a far larger Honduran namesake sold in the United States.
El Rey del Mundo is traditionally dated to 1848 and attributed to Antonio Allones. In its prime it was positioned as a luxury house, and the name, meaning the king of the world, was matched by elaborate packaging and a claim to the finest available leaf. It later came under the Fernandez Palicio group alongside Sancho Panza and La Flor de Cano.
The Cuban brand today is a shadow of that. The core range has been cut back to a few small formats such as the Demi Tasse and the Choix Supreme, with occasional regional editions. The blend is light to medium, and the marca is chiefly of interest to collectors and to readers tracking the consolidation of the Cuban portfolio after the revolution.
A Havana factory also carries the El Rey del Mundo name and has been used to absorb rolling capacity when other buildings were closed. The non-Cuban El Rey del Mundo is a General Cigar brand made in Honduras out of the Villazon lineage, and it is considerably more widely available than its Cuban namesake. That the same name attaches to a Havana factory, a diminished Cuban marca and a substantial Honduran brand makes it one of the more confusing entries in the split-trademark record.