Festival del Habano XXV: Feb. 24-28, 2025

Habanos S.A. has announced that the Festival del Habano XXV will take place in Havana from Feb. 24 to 28, 2025.

Next year will be the 25th Cuban cigar festival, which also happens to line up with the year. The Festival del Habano is the most important week of the year for the Cuban cigar world. Distributors from all around the world, prominent retailers and consumers will venture to Havana. Each day, there’s a trade fair that includes booths from companies selling cigar accessories, rum, and other things. In addition, Habanos S.A. hosts seminars—like cigar pairings or historical talks—as well as more interactive events like cigar rolling demonstrations and the annual Habanosomelier competition. Outside of the official public program, there are hundreds of meetings, private parties and other networking all across Cuba’s capital.

The Festival del Habano is also when Habanos S.A. will make most of its new product announcements for a given year. Typically, all major new regular production lines, the various Edición Limitada cigars, the new Reserva or Gran Reserva and other new items will get announced during the Festival.

There are three official dinners, each dedicated to a different cigar brand. Typically, these dinners will focus on one brand and also feature a new release from said brand. Next year’s dinners include:

• Monday (Feb. 24) — Welcome evening dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Romeo y Julieta
• Wednesday (Feb. 26) — Mid-week evening dedicated to H. Upmann
• Friday (Feb. 28) — Gala dinner dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Cohiba BHK

It hasn’t announced pricing for the various events nor has it started registration. This past year’s dinners ranged from €530-1,325 per person per dinner, while the events during the day ranged from €170-425.

The week concludes with Friday’s black-tie gala dinner. Typically, Habanos S.A. goes all out for this event, which includes multiple performances during dinner as well as the annual humidor auction. In 2024, eight lots generated a record combined sales of €17.8 million ($19.3 million). That dinner was attended by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and The Village People performed after the auction concluded.

Over the last few months, there have been rumors that Habanos S.A. is working on a new BHK 58 or BHK 59. When asked earlier, a representative for the company said that “we will have a very good initiatives and news for the Behike line in its 15th Anniversary,” something that has been formally confirmed by the Feb. 28 gala dinner.

The BHK debuted in 2010 during the Festival del Habano XXII. The Behike name was not, it’s a follow-up to the Cohiba Behike, a 2006 limited edition that was released for the 40th anniversary of Cohiba. Habanos S.A. positioned Behike BHK as the flagship line for Cohiba, itself the flagship brand for Cuba. To help separate it from the rest of the Cohiba cigars, it got more elegant packaging and Habanos S.A. said the blend used rarer leaves known as medio tiempo.

In basic terms, tobacco plants are divided into three vertical categories: seco, viso and ligero. On most plants, ligero leaves are at the top of the plant, but a small amount of plants—farmers say between 5-10 percent—can have extra leaves, known as medio tiempo. For years, these leaves were oftentimes just categorized with the ligero leaves, but the BHK highlighted the use of these leaves. When the BHK was introduced, pricing ranged from around $25-35 per cigar, though after Habanos S.A.’s massive 2022 price increases, the cigars routinely retail for more than $200 each.

When the Behike BHK debuted, it was offered in three regular production vitolas. Despite the line’s massive success, Habanos S.A. has not added any additional sizes, though rumors of a large Behike BHK 58 have existed for more than five years. It seems likely that those rumors will finally come to fruition, though even if new vitolas are introduced during the Festival del Habano, there’s no guarantee that they will next year. Many of the products introduced during past Festival del Habanos have not shipped to stores during the calendar year that they were announced.