At last year’s XVI Festival del Habano, Habanos S.A. took another step into the big ring gauge craze. While the cigar itself only measures 5 x 58, it’s a Cohiba, and not just any Cohiba, the Edición Limitada for 2014. There are inevitably Cuban cigar purists that continue to scoff at smoking the extra large Cohiba, but for many—including retailers—it was greeted with a smile. Big ring gauges aren’t just an American thing, something I’ve documented for the last few years, but Habanos S.A. has generally avoided it. The company’s most noted foray into a large ring gauge was with the Cohiba BHK 56 in 2010, but there’s a pretty big difference between 56 and 58. The Cohiba was the last of the three Edición Limitadas to arrive last year, showing up in the Swiss market in late 2014. I briefly described the program in the news story last year: In 2000, Habanos S.A. launched the Edición Limitada series, which creates cigars that are not offered in the regular production portfolio for select brands. Since 2004, Habanos S.A. has limited the series to three releases per year and since 2007, all cigars are said to use tobacco that has been aged ...
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