When it comes to the retail side of the Cuban cigar industry, Enrique Mons could be considered the most well-known person in the business. Mons oversaw quality control for Cubatabaco in the 1970s and 1980s before turning to the retail side of the business. He has been the director of the La Casa del Habano Quinta Avenida, the La Casa del Habano at the Hotel Nacional, and most recently at Club Habana, formerly known as the Havana Biltmore Yacht & Country Club, a building with more than 80 years of history. His name is practically synonomous with the La Casa del Habano brand, and in an segment of the cigar industry that hasn’t adopted the philosophy that companies need public faces, it could be argued that Mons is the face of La Casa del Habano. Essentially, in the same way that Alejandro Robaina was, and in many ways still is, the face of the Cuban cigar industry, Mons could be seen as the face of Cuban cigar retailing. The story behind the Monsdale is that Mons loves the Montecristo No.1, a 6 1/2 x 42 lonsdale, but that he wanted to tweak it a bit and make it a touch longer and fatter. The resulting cigar is ...
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