Cohiba 55 Anniversary Celebration: Day 0 & Day 1

For the first time in more than two and a half years, I am back in Havana, Cuba.

My last trip to the island in February 2020 to cover the XXII Habanos Festival—I was there with Charlie Minato—did not end well at all, at least for me. While we finished photographing and writing about the event with few issues, I became extremely ill on the plane back home. At that point, the U.S. did not have a multitude of COVID-19 tests, so while I never officially tested positive for the coronavirus, I am pretty sure that was what put me on my back for almost a week.

After that, pretty much the entire world shut down, including the island of Cuba. Among much more grievous issues, one result of the global pandemic was the cancellation of the annual Festival del Habano in 2021 as well as the 2022 Festival that was scheduled for earlier this year.

Unfortunately, last year’s Festival was particularly special to Habanos S.A.—the Cuban cigar monopoly—because 2021 marked the 55th anniversary of the Cohiba brand, which was founded in 1966. In fact, the company previewed a special Cohiba 55 anniversary humidor last year that was supposed to be the main draw to the humidor auction.

However, as the pandemic began to ease, there were rumblings that Habanos S.A. would be putting on a special event to commemorate the popular brand and its anniversary, a smaller gala celebration that would concentrate solely on the Cohiba marca. In July, the company publicly announced specific details regarding the event—appropriately known as the Cohiba 55th Anniversary Celebration—including a private event before the main festivities started exclusively for the media that would be covering the celebration.

• Sept. 6 (Tuesday) — Private event for media members
• Sept. 7 (Wednesday) — Welcome Evening, El Laguito Protocol Room
• Sept. 8 (Thursday) — Visit to El Laguito factory, the primary factory for Cohiba and Trinidad
• Sept. 9 (Friday) — Gala Dinner & Humidor Auction at Pabexpo Fairgrounds

Like Habano S.A.’s annual Festival del Habano—the larger event that has historically been held in February—the week will be capped off by an auction of “very special humidors”, one of which ended up being the aforementioned Cohiba 55 anniversary humidor, with proceeds donated to the Cuban health system. The last humidor auction, held during the 2020 Festival del Habano, generated €4.27 million ($4.71 million at the time) to be donated to the Cuban health system, more than half of which was for a Cohiba humidor.

Since I have covered every Festival del Habano since 2016, it was decided that I would make the trip to Havana to cover the celebration.

Day 0

As has been the case pretty much every time I have traveled to Cuba, I left home on a fairly early flight, landing in Miami around 12:30 a.m. I had a bit of time to kill before my flight to Havana left at 4:05 p.m, so I decided to eat a Cuban sandwich for lunch to set the mood.

After an uneventful hour-long flight, I landed at the José Martí International Airport in Havana around 5:30 p.m. During past trips to the island, the waiting times to get through customs and pick up my luggage was as long as three hours, but due to a much smaller number of people landing at the same time as I did, I was able to breeze through and exit the airport in about 45 minutes.

From there I took a taxi to the house that would be my base of operations for the five-day event, located in the Miramar neighborhood, facing the ocean. The home is one of the few in the city that has its own high-speed internet, although the speeds to vary from day to day.

Since all of the government offices were already closed by the time I exited the airport, I decided to get a bit of work done and smoke a cigar to end the night, going to bed around 11 p.m.

Day 1

After a breakfast of eggs, bacon, coffee and light sandwiches, I took a cab to the press office in order to get my official Cuban press credentials for the event. In years past, I have learned this process can take as long as five hours, so I wanted to have plenty of time to get it done before the press event started at 2 p.m. Unfortunately, this year the process took about three hours in total, but a large part of that was due to the fact that there was a blackout in the offices just as our application was being processed, which eventually meant that I had to sign the paperwork that was lit only by cell phone flashlights.

Then it was back to the house I was staying at to get changed and gather more equipment, only to turn around and come back the same way, albeit ending up in a different location. That location turned out to be the Ibervilo Grand Packard, one of the best hotels in the city.

My first stop after arriving at the hotel was to get credentialed for the Cohiba event—a different process than the press office credentials, but just as important—and pick up a press bag before taking an elevator to the sixth floor. There I was greeted by people handing me an excellent mojito, as well as a wonderful view of the ocean over the Malecón, which is the famous road and seawall that runs for five miles along part of the Havana coast.

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Inside the bag were seven Cohiba cigars, two of which are still not released, though previously announced by Habanos S.A.:

• Cohiba Ambar, a new 5 1/5 x 53 vitola that is completely new to the Habanos S.A. portfolio
• Cohiba Ideales, the 2021 Colleción Habanos release

There was also the Cohiba 55 Aniversario Edición Limitada 2021, which has been released in select markets.

For those wondering about when the Ambar and Ideales might go on sale. I asked and was told, in true Cuban fashion, “perhaps soon, perhaps not so soon.”

The press event started with some heartfelt speeches by a number of people, including Leopoldo Cintra González, commercial vice-president at Habanos S.A. While the star of the event was definitely the bag that contained the various Cohiba cigars, there was plenty of food floating around as well as glasses of Torres 10 Smoked Barrel, which is the first smoked brandy to be aged in vintage American oak barrels.

The event started winding down around 4 p.m, so I left and returned to the house to get more work done while smoking a cigar, specifically a Cohiba Siglo II. I then went to dinner before returning to the house and finishing writing the very post you are now reading, eventually going to bed just before 2 a.m.