Macanudo
Launched as a stand-alone brand by General Cigar in 1971, made in Jamaica for three decades and the best-selling premium cigar in the United States for much of that period.
Macanudo began as the name of a single size within the Cuban Punch brand. General Cigar took the rights outside Cuba and in 1971 launched it as a brand in its own right, developing the blend in Jamaica with Ramon Cifuentes, formerly of Partagas in Havana. The cigar was built deliberately mild, with a Connecticut shade wrapper over Jamaican, Dominican and Mexican leaf, and aimed squarely at the American market.
That formula worked on a scale few premium brands have matched. By the early 1990s Macanudo was the best-selling premium cigar in the United States, and Macanudo Cafe became the reference point against which mild cigars were described. Production moved from Jamaica to the Dominican Republic in October 2000, and the brand is now made at General Cigar Dominicana in Santiago.
The modern range extends well beyond the original mild profile. Inspirado, introduced in the 2010s, covers fuller Nicaraguan and Honduran blends, while Gold Label, Maduro and Vintage lines sit between. General Cigar has been part of Scandinavian Tobacco Group since the American cigar portfolio changed hands. The brand is also a useful marker of how the American premium market changed: a cigar built for mildness led the category for two decades, and the later Inspirado lines were a response to buyers moving toward stronger Nicaraguan blends.