Romeo y Julieta

Romeo y Julieta is a Cuban cigar brand sold around the world by Habanos S.A. It was registered in Havana in 1875 and is named after Shakespeare’s play. The brand became well known after 1903, when José “Pepín” Rodríguez Fernández bought it. He was one of the first cigar makers to see how much a band could do to sell a cigar.

Winston Churchill was the brand’s best-known customer. After his visit to Havana in 1946 his name was used on bands, and the Churchill became the brand’s best-known size. The Short Churchill, a robusto, followed in 2006, the Wide Churchill in 2010, and the Petit Churchill in 2012. Romeo y Julieta has one of the largest ranges of sizes of any Cuban brand. The leaf comes from the Vuelta Abajo region of Pinar del Río. Habanos describes it as the classic medium-strength Cuban cigar.

Because of the U.S. embargo, Cuban Romeo y Julieta cigars cannot legally be sold in the United States. In the United States the name belongs to Altadis U.S.A., part of Tabacalera USA. It sells a separate non-Cuban Romeo y Julieta, made in the Dominican Republic and Central America with no Cuban tobacco. The split goes back to the 1959 revolution, when Cuba took over its cigar factories and the U.S. rights to many old Cuban names passed to companies outside Cuba.