Wrapper leaf
Habano wrapper
A Habano wrapper is tobacco grown from Cuban seed outside Cuba, most often in Nicaragua or Ecuador. Habano names the seed family. The country on the band tells you where it grew.
One word doing three jobs
Habano comes from Havana, Cuba's capital, and cigar people use it in three different ways.
| Where you see it | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| In Cuba | A cigar made entirely of Cuban tobacco. | Cuban-made cigars, wrapper to filler |
| On a non-Cuban band | A wrapper leaf grown from Cuban seed somewhere else. | "Nicaraguan Habano," "Ecuador Habano" |
| In a seed catalog | A named Cuban-bred strain. | Habano 2000, a Corojo cross |
Cigar Aficionado's glossary gives the first meaning. Wikipedia's tobacco-types entry gives the second: a leaf grown from a Cuban seed, named for the city. The third is where it gets technical, and where most of the confusion lives.
On a Nicaraguan, Dominican or Honduran cigar, you're reading meaning two. Sometimes a maker names the exact strain, which is meaning three.
Seed travels, soil stays put
Cuban seed means a plant whose seed came from Cuba at some point, even if generations of it have since grown somewhere else.
Cigar Aficionado's glossary puts it plainly: the seeds only have to leave Cuba once. After that, the soil takes over. A Cuban seed planted in the Dominican Republic won't taste like the same seed grown in Pinar del Río.
Genetics stay. Character drifts. In the magazine's 2015 seed report, growers said it takes seven to 10 seasons for a transplanted variety to settle into new traits. So a Nicaraguan Habano and an Ecuadorian Habano are cousins, not twins.
Where is Habano seed grown?
Nicaragua and Ecuador are the two big homes of Habano wrapper, with Mexico and others growing it too.
Nicaragua. Wikipedia says Habano wrapper has been grown in the Jalapa Valley and around Estelí since the 1990s. You'll see it sold as Nicaraguan Habano.
Ecuador. The country traditionally grew Connecticut and Sumatra seed. Cigar Aficionado's glossary credits Oliva Tobacco Co. of Tampa with bringing in Habano seed, which it describes as dark, oily and very flavorful. Ecuador's cloud cover shades the crop for free.
Mexico. The Turrent family, the largest grower in Mexico's San Andrés valley, grows Habano 2000 alongside its native black tobacco. More on that valley on the San Andrés page.
Habano 2000 and the blue mold years
Habano 2000 is a Cuban-bred cross of Corojo and Bell 61-10, a cigarette tobacco, made to survive blue mold.
Blue mold is a leaf disease that wrecked Cuban production in the late 1970s. Cuba's answer was breeding. Wikipedia describes a first cross called Habana 2.1.1, then a second cross back to Corojo. One Cuban grower quoted by Cigar Aficionado said the result saved Cuba.
It had a rough start abroad. Oliva's people told the magazine that early Habano 2000 got rushed to market during the cigar boom, and that is where its poor early reputation came from. It needs more fermentation time than it got.
The parent strain has its own story of rise and retirement, told on the Corojo page.
How a Habano wrapper looks and tastes
Habano wrappers tend to be darker than Connecticut leaf and to taste spicier and richer than pale wrappers.
Wikipedia calls the leaf darker, spicier and richer in aroma than many other wrappers. Smokers reach for pepper, cedar, leather and baking spice. The growing country nudges it one way or the other. Those are tendencies. A Habano leaf can also be fermented into maduro, which pulls it toward sweet.
Match the color on the wrapper shade chart, name the notes with the flavor wheel, and don't read spice as nicotine. The strength scale keeps the two apart.
Habano seed questions
Is a Habano wrapper Cuban?
No. A Habano wrapper on a non-Cuban cigar is grown from seed that came from Cuba, but the leaf itself grew in another country, most often Nicaragua or Ecuador.
What is Habano 2000?
Habano 2000 is a Cuban-bred cross of Corojo and Bell 61-10, a mild cigarette tobacco with more resistance to blue mold. Cuba developed it after blue mold wrecked its crops in the late 1970s.
Is Habano the same as Corojo?
Not exactly. Corojo is one specific Cuban strain, while Habano is a looser label for Cuban-seed leaf, and some Habano strains such as Habano 2000 descend from Corojo.
What does a Habano wrapper taste like?
Habano wrappers tend to be described as spicy and rich, and Wikipedia calls the leaf darker and spicier with a richer aroma than many other wrappers. The blend inside shifts that a lot.
Where the Habano facts come from
- Types of tobacco: Habano and Habano 2000, Wikipedia
- Tobacco Typology, Cigar Aficionado
- Glossary: Cuban seed, Cigar Aficionado
- Glossary: Habano, Cigar Aficionado
- Glossary: Ecuador, Cigar Aficionado