Hunters & Frankau, Exclusive Distributor for Habanos, S.A. in United Kingdom hosted a double launch party for the UK cigar industry on Monday 1st July at The Churchill Bar & Terrace in London. They launched their new House Reserve cigars, alongside the 2018 UK Habanos Regional Edition, El Rey Del Mundo La Reina (A Laguito No.1 size).

Guests were treated to Cuban inspired cocktails and food while enjoying the latest UK Regional Edition. They were also the first people to view the new House Reserve cigars being released.

House Reserve

The House reserve project has been many years in the making. Every year since the turn of the century, Hunters & Frankau have set aside a few particularly noteworthy boxes of Habanos for ageing. These boxes have been carefully stored in perfect conditions of temperature and humidity until now, two decades on, the first of these precious cigars have been released for sale exclusively within the UK. They are sold as either Aged & Rare, or as part of the Series 1790

Aged & Rare

The Aged & Rare collection consists of cigars that have been matured for a minimum of ten years and every box is marked with a 10+, 15+ or 20+ to indicate the number of years since they were rolled, boxed and dispatched from the factories of Cuba.

However, it is not only their age that makes House Reserve cigars especially rare. Some of the releases have additional noteworthy features. These can be separated into three categories.

First Releases are boxes of cigars that arrived in the UK during the year they were launched by Habanos, S.A.

Discontinued Lines are cigars that are no longer being rolled in Cuba. Often once very popular cigars that have now, for any number of reasons, ceased to be made. These cigars attract additional attention due to the scarcity value.

Limited Editions, Regional Editions, Reservas & Gran Reservas are cigars that were limited production at the time of release and so rarity is an integral part of their initial concept.

Series 1790

The Series 1790 is the jewel in the crown of Hunters & Frankau’s House Reserve and is named in honour of founding year. It consists of collections curated from some of the rarest and most sought-after Habanos within the House Reserve. Each collection will be housed in specially commissioned humidors or boxes and will contain a themed selection of Havanas.

Collection Number One

The first Series 1790 collection is an elegant humidor, containing very rare and special cigars taken from H&F’s reserve of Habanos UK Regional Editions dating from the first in 2005 up to and including the 2017 release.

In total there have been seventeen different UK Regional Editions from eight different brands. Collection Number One contains ten cigars of each, and so houses one hundred and seventy cigars in total.

The humidor has been commissioned from Italian humidor makers, DEART S.r.l. Massimo de Munari, whose family owns the company, has built an exceptional worldwide reputation for the quality of his work. He said “The challenge was to create a humidor to contain all of these rare cigars, in all of their different shapes and sizes, without compromising the need to store them in perfect conditions.”

Only thirty (numbered) humidors have been made and each one is signed by Jemma Freeman, Managing Director of Hunters & Frankau.