Quintero (Cuba)

Quintero y Hermanos was founded in 1924 by Agustín Quintero and his four brothers in Cienfuegos, a graceful port city on the southern coast of Cuba known as the Pearl of the South. It is one of the few Habanos brands that did not originate in Havana, and the only major Cuban cigar brand to come out of Cienfuegos, a region whose tobacco-growing traditions draw from the Vuelta Arriba rather than the more celebrated Vuelta Abajo. By the 1940s the brothers had grown the operation enough to open a larger factory in Havana and begin exporting in earnest, with Spain emerging as their most devoted market. Following the Cuban revolution and the nationalization of the cigar industry, Quintero was repositioned as primarily a machine-made and machine-bunched brand, and for decades it held the unusual distinction of being the only Cuban machine-made cigar marketed globally by Habanos S.A. In 2002, as part of Habanos' broader effort to promote Cuban cigars as premium handmade products, the Quintero lineup was retooled into fully hand-rolled vitolas, though the brand continues to use short filler tobacco rather than the long filler associated with premium Habanos lines. Today all Quintero cigars are made Totalmente a Mano con Tripa Corta, with tobacco sourced from the Vuelta Abajo and Semi Vuelta regions of Pinar del Río. The brand sits in the Volume category of the Habanos portfolio, meaning it is positioned as an affordable everyday option rather than a prestige line, and it remains particularly popular in Spain and Cuba for exactly that reason. Young Quinteros can be tannic and rustic, but fans of the brand consider that character part of its authenticity.