Winston Churchill appears in a cigar book because a cigar size, or vitola, is named after him and because he smoked Cuban cigars in public for most of his long life. This chapter is not a full biography of the prime minister. His wars, elections, and books are covered elsewhere. This chapter covers only his special connection with cigars.
Cuba, 1895
Churchill went to Cuba in 1895 as a young army officer, to observe a war and to write about it. He developed his taste for Cuban tobacco there. Biographers and cigar writers agree on the year and the place. From then on, a cigar to him meant a Cuban cigar. The brand most often linked with him in public records is Romeo y Julieta. His suppliers kept him stocked with Habanos even in years when shipping goods was difficult. At Chartwell, his house in Kent, he kept thousands of cigars in a room near his study.
He was photographed with a cigar so often that it became part of his public image, like his hat. That is why a cigar size could be named after him and everyone would know who was meant. The cigar had already become a symbol of him before any factory printed the name Churchill on a band.
The cigar size
As a size, a Churchill is a long parejo, classically about 7 inches long with a 47 ring gauge. In Cuban factories this shape is called a Julieta No. 2.
Public records do not establish when the name Churchill first appeared on a band. Some accounts link it to his visit to the Romeo y Julieta factory in the late 1940s. Others date the name to the 1950s. This book does not give a year that cannot be confirmed. His connection with the cigar is certain; the date the name was first used is not.
Later cigars called “Petit Churchill” and “Wide Churchill” use his name for sizes that are not the classic 7 × 47.
He did not smoke only one size or only one brand. Shop records and memoirs describe him buying mixed boxes and smoking a great deal.
How a person’s name became a size
Cigar factories have always named sizes after places, shapes, and people. The Churchill is unusual only because the person is still famous among people who do not smoke. The long parejo already existed as the Julieta No. 2 before any British politician visited Havana. The name gave English-speaking shops a simple word for a long cigar, instead of a factory mold number.
After his death, the name became even more widely used. Accessory makers put it on their products. New World factories used it as a size name, sometimes accurately (about 7 × 47) and sometimes loosely. Cuban factories have added shorter and thicker “Churchills” to the Romeo y Julieta line. The glossary entry describes the classic size and treats the others as variations.
Romeo y Julieta, and other brands
Romeo y Julieta is the brand most closely linked with him, both because of the size named after him and because he actually smoked its cigars. Biographies also mention La Aroma de Cuba as another favorite; this was a Cuban brand of his time, not the later New World brand that reused the name.
Churchill died in 1965, but the name is still used. Factories that never sold him a single box still print Churchill on their bands. The word is now simply a size name, like corona, and does not claim any connection with the man himself.
Sources: Public biographical record of the 1895 Cuba visit; trade writing on Romeo y Julieta and the Churchill size. Naming year omitted as disputed.