The Banker’s Cigar
H. UpmannHerman Upmann was the name of a banker. A fanatical cigar enthusiast, in 1840, he offered to open a branch of his family-owned bank in Havana, Cuba. Four years later in 1844, Herman invested in a cigar factory, and from then until 1922, the company traded as both a bank and a cigar business. The success of the family’s operations on the island culminated with increasing political influence. With the advent of World War I, it was revealed that Herman and his brother Albert had used their businesses to house a covert German intelligence network suspected of arming opposition leader general Jose Miguel Gomez in an attempted coup following the 1916 Cuban elections. Subsequently, the cigar manufacturer had become bankrupt, and the family bank closed, amidst anti-German sentiment, prompting a new chapter for the temporarily disgraced H. Upmann brand.
Following a tumultuous series of acquisitions in the following years, the large H. Upmann factory was sold to the famed Menendez cigar dynasty, responsible for the newly established Montecristo brand in 1935. The complete overhaul of operations by the Menendez family swiftly resuscitated the brand. The new H. Upmann factory, still located at 405 Amistad Street, became the largest exporting manufacturer in Cuba by the time of the Cuban revolution.
Insider's Brief
In 1844 Hermann Upmann, a German banker in Havana, began sending cigars to friends in Europe; the gift became a house. H. Upmann is balanced, smooth and gracious. As the story goes, on the eve of the 1962 embargo, President Kennedy asked his press secretary to secure a supply of his favorite Petit Upmanns before signing the order. Few cigars are so entwined with the history of diplomacy.
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H. Upmann
