H. Upmann

Hermann Dietrich Upmann, a German banker, established the brand in Havana in 1844 as an adjunct to his bank, packing cigars in the cedar boxes stamped with his name that the house still uses. The bank failed in the 1920s and the cigar business passed through several hands before being acquired by Menendez and Garcia, the partners who had created Montecristo. Both brands were rolled together, first on Calle 23 in Vedado and from 1944 at Calle Amistad.

The Cuban line is medium in strength and traditionally associated with smaller formats, among them the Magnum series, the Half Corona and the No. 2 pyramid. Rolling moved to the Briones Montoto factory in 2011 after the Vedado building was taken out of service, and H. Upmann has been produced there since. Habanos also uses the marca heavily for regional editions.

Outside Cuba the trademark belongs to Tabacalera USA, which produces H. Upmann in the Dominican Republic at Tabacalera de Garcia and in Honduras at Flor de Copan. Non-Cuban releases have included Nicaraguan-tobacco blends made in partnership with outside blenders. The Cuban and non-Cuban brands share the banking heritage in their marketing but are otherwise separate products. The band, the cedar box and the banking imagery are used by both, which makes H. Upmann one of the harder split trademarks for a buyer to distinguish on a shelf.