Por Larrañaga
One of the oldest Cuban cigar brands.
Registered in 1834 by a Spanish immigrant Ignacio Larrañaga, the Por Larrañaga brand is one of the oldest Cuban cigar brands. It is said to have been the first registered after the brand Cabañas. Actually, the latter one was itself the second Cuban brand to be registered according to Zino Davidoff ("The book of the cigar connoisseur", 1967). In English, Por Larrañaga means "By Larrañaga".
By the end of the 19th century, the brand had already acquired a solid reputation as a premium cigar brand, prized by high society and celebrities because of the excellent quality of its cigars. In fact, it was so coveted that some artists have featured it in their works. Notably, the famous British writer Rudyard Kipling dedicated a poem to it “The Betrothed” in 1886: “There is peace in a Larrañaga, there is calm in a Henry Clay”.
What’s more, in addition to producing luxury cigars, the brand also offered inexpensive cigars for a more modest clientele.
In fact, Por Larrañaga was the first factory to introduce in 1925 the machine into the cigar-making process. This innovation allowed lower production costs. However, this led to a boycott by the factory's employees, leading Por Larrañaga to return the machines to the United States.
Until the 1970s, the brand maintained the solid reputation it had acquired since the end of the 19th century. But in the 1980s production inexplicably began to decline; and in the 1990s, due to a litigation, the brand had to reduce its exports to just a few countries, thus sustaining the decline in activity.
Since 2002, all the vitolas have been entirely made "Totalmente a Mano" with a long or short filler made of tobacco leaves from the Vuelta Abajo and Semi Vuelta regions.
The current regular catalogue of the brand offers three vitolas with a power ranging from light to medium: the Petit Coronas, a Marevas (42 x 129), the Panetelas, a Vegueritos (36 x 127) and the Montecarlos, a Deliciosos (33 x 159). Each of these vitolas bears the entirely gilded band, the brand’s distinctive feature. Both sober and elegant, it has changed very little since its introduction in the 1960s.
In spite of its age, Por Larrañaga remains relatively unknown to the general public due to its laconic vitolario. Yet it occupies a special place in the hearts of aficionados as it’s often presented in Habanos special productions. Due the excellent quality in terms of manufacturing, the brand has been frequently selected for regional editions since 2006. Among them we can mention the first one introduced, the Lonsdales of 2006, a Cervantes (42 x 165mm) exclusively for Germany. We had to wait until 2009 to see the first Swiss regional edition of the brand with the Valiosos, a Pirámides (52 x 156mm), produced in only 2'000 boxes of 25 cigars. And more recently the Gran Robusto from 2017 in Edición Regional Países Bajos. Today we can name 17 regional editions produced by the brand. These special productions also include humidors such as the Magnificos Humidor (Edición Regional Reino Unido) of 2007 and the Small Robustos Humidor (Edición Regional Italia) of 2012.
Finally, Por Larrañaga also produces an exclusive vitola for La Casa del Habano and Habanos Specialist stores: the Picadores, a Hermosos No.4 (48 x 127mm) reintroduced in 2014. It bears a special band, which repeats the colours of the Picadores (discontinued in the 1970s), integrating them in the brand’s current design. Whether in its old version or in the current one, the Picadores is the only Por Larrañaga cigar with a coloured band.
To learn more about Por Larrañaga cigars and the history of the brand, we are delighted to invite you to our Art and Culture area, where you will find exclusive pieces - the original documents of the creation of the brand as well as the printing plates and vintage vistas.
(Pieces from our private collection)
For more information, contact us on +41 22 552 2799