Many times you might have thought that a Cuban Cigars box is just a box. Serving as storage to its valuable content. Guess again. The story behind cigar boxes is not as superficial as many smokers believe. From the creation of the first cigar box to the codes, digits, and numbers that each box carries, there’s more to cigar boxes than meets the eye. Often underappreciated, today we discuss the history behind cigar boxes, taking a look at all the interesting facades of the cigar box.
“UPMANN WAS THE FIRST TO INTRODUCE CIGAR BOXES”
FIRST CIGAR BOXES – Cigar boxes weren’t always ‘a thing’. Habanos were originally sold in bundles covered with pigs’ bladders with a pod of vanilla - just to improve the overall smell - while, soon after that, there were chests, capable of holding up to 10,000 sticks. Although these forms of packaging were efficient back in the day, they seemed to lack finesse, sophistication and practicality. Sometime around the 1840s though, shortly before the rise of H. Upmann Cigars, packaging was reinvented.
Herman Upmann, the founding father of H. Upmann, was the one to revolutionise cigar packaging forever. However, the first cigar box did not have Upmann cigars inside. Coming from a family of German bankers, Herman and August Upmann convinced their father that opening a bank branch in Cuba would be very beneficial for the future of their business. Soon after their father’s approval, Herman, who was also a cigar enthusiast, relocated to Cuba and started sending cigars from various different factories as gifts to his most influential clients back in Europe. All of Herman's cigar gifts were placed inside sealed cedar boxes stamped with the bank’s emblem. When Upmann decided to further expand his cigar business and started manufacturing his very own habanos, the cedar box had already become the most popular form of packaging amongst major Cuban Cigars Online brands.
Proving to be one of the most influential habano brands to this day, H. Upmann never disappoints when it comes to great smokes. Since its first appearance at 2008’s Festival del Habano, the H. Upmann Magnum 50 Cigar has become a favourite amongst cigar aficionados. Handmade using tobacco leaves selected from the premium Vuelta Abajo region, Magnum 50 produces a light to medium flavoured profile, typical of the Upmann DNA. Shorter in length but equally pleasing, the H. Upmann Connoisseur No. 1 Cigar is as good as any other smoke to come from the brand. Measuring at 127 mm long by a ring gauge of 48, the Connoisseur No.1 stick is dressed in a bold orange band and is safely placed inside a slide-lid cedar box, reminiscent of the ones that the brand first introduced to the cigar world.
Left: The Vintage H. Upmann Magnum 46 Cigar, Right: The Vintage H. Upmann Magnum 50 Cigar
“DIGITS HELP RECOGNISE AGE AND COLLECTABILITY”
CIGAR BOXES AS INSTRUMENTS – Of course, cigar boxes were, and still are, almost as necessary as the sticks themselves. Nevertheless, soon after their creation, an interesting question arose about their usefulness once they were all empty. Nonetheless, American industrious forefathers came with the solution to this problem. During the American Civil War, soldiers started making fiddles out of cigar boxes in order to pass the time between battles and marches. But that's not all of it. While the catastrophic results from the Great Depression ravaged the American South, many artists had the talent but not the funds to purchase real instruments. As an answer to that, a number of makeshift music instruments, widely known as “primitive” instruments, were manufactured out of cigar boxes which eventually became necessary to the progression of the blues movement.
CODED BOXES – Every box has a story to tell; and, thankfully, its stamps and marks are there to help them tell their tale. When it comes to Cuban Cigars for Sale Online, numbers, digits, and certain codes, both in and on the box, are helpful in determining the collectability or the age of a box. In 1985, Francisco Padron, Habanos S.A. president at the time, introduced a unique encryption system that informed factories, distributors, and retailers about the month and year that the cigars were manufactured. With the USE NOV ’08 digits stamped on its box, the Vintage Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios Cigar is aged for an additional 12 years. Coming in the unique Genios 5 vitola that measures at 140 mm in length by a ring gauge of 52, these Vintage Cigars are part of possibly the most sought after cigar line in the world.
The Vintage Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios Cigar is aged for over 12 years
Like anything related to the cigar world, boxes have their own fascinating history, dating back from the early 1840s. From Edicion Limitada to Vintage boxes, purchase your favourite smoke from our wide selection of Cuban Cigar Shop now. Why not learn more about the cigar world from our daily updated Cuban Cigar Blog?