Cohiba Celebration Ends in a Record BreakingHhumidor Auction

It took more than a year to Habanos S.A. finally celebrate the anniversary of its most prestigious brand. From September 6^th to 9^th more than 650 cigar professionals and enthusiasts finally gathered in Havana for the 55^th Anniversary of the Cohiba.

The event that was kind of a small Habanos Festival (with a similar format but designed for less people and days) kicked off on Tuesday 6^th with an activity dedicated to the specialized press at the pool level at the Grand Packard at Havana.

But it was on the Wednesday 7^th that the Celebration of the 55^th Anniversary of Cohiba officially began with the welcome night at the well-known El Laguito Protocol Room. The attendees of night that was dedicated to the four Cohiba Lines (Linea Clasica, Linea 1492, Linea Maduro 5 and Linea BHK) were saluted by the Habanos S.A. Co-Presidents, Mr. Inocente Nunez Blanco and Mr. Luis Sanchez-Harguindey. On this evening Habanos also presented the nominees for the Habanos Man of The Year awards for the 2021 and 2022. Live music presentations and dance and artistic performances filled the hot Havana night on the beautiful venue.

Thursday morning were the opportunity for the attendees to visit the mythical El Laguito Factory, home of the coveted Cohibas. The 300 people that visited the factory were more than happy to take a close look at all the phases of the factory process of preparing a Cohiba, going from the Despalillo, passing to the Galera and finishing the visit at the Terminado de Producto were the cigars are finally packed. It was a unique opportunity for the Habanos lovers since the factory is not open for visit for the general public.

The Gala Dinner took place at the PabExpo that traditionally hosts the Gala of the Habanos Festival. The event was a small scale Gala Dinner for those who are accustomed to attend the Gala of the Habanos Festival and instead of the six or seven humidor usually auctioned, on the occasion there were only two.

The night was totally dedicated to the history of the 55 years of the Cohiba brand with the periods being told by the music and video shows. The 650 participants of the dinner could try in firsthand the 3 Cohibas presented at the Habanos World Days to celebrate the brand anniversary: Ambar, 55 Aniversário and Ideales.

After the dinner, the Habanos Man of the Year Awards from 2021 and 2022 were presented with the following winners: Vicente Fausto Torres (Production), Eulalio Bejarano (Business) and Walid Saleh (Communications) for 2021 and Nelson Rodriguez Lopez (Production), Riad Boukaram (Business) and Angel Garcia Muñoz (Communications) for 2022.

The beautiful night ended with the traditional humidor auction. The first humidor sold was the Rare Rituel and Cohiba Ambar humidor. This piece that is the number one of a serie of ten humidors bringing a bottle of the Champagne Rare Millésime 1988 and 44 units of the Cohiba Ambar. The highest bidder takes also 24 bottles of the Rare Millésime 1998 and 24 bottles of the Rare Millésime 2008 that are not integrated in the humidor. This piece was sold by 100,000 Euros.

But the biggest star of the auction was the Cohiba 55 Aniversario. This unique piece was made to celebrate the anniversary of the Cohiba brand and brings more than 500 Cohibas, including some rare editions like the LE Cohiba 1966, Robustos Supremos and Talisman, among others. The humidor were sold by a record breaking 2,800,000 euros for Jimmy Ng, a cigar collector and merchant from Singapore. The new figure surpass the 2,400,000 euros of the Cohiba humidor auctioned in the 2020 Habanos Festival.

The celebration marked the return of the Habanos physical events after suspending the 2021 and 2022 festivals due to the Cohiba restricitons. The 23^rd Habanos Festival is set to happen from February 27^th until march 3^rd, 2023.