Fonseca’s box

There are two brands in the world named Fonseca. The first to appear in the early part of the 19th century was Fonseca port. But today this wine is known only to a small circle of connoisseurs who specialize in expensive alcoholic drinks. Fonseca cigars were not produced until much later, and history has preserved the precise year of their birth – 1907. Unlike the port of the same name, Fonseca cigars are known not only by real aficionados, but by people who have little to do with cigars at all. Fonseca is one of the most popular Cuban brands.

The person who created the brand name was Francisco Fonseca, a Spaniard by birth, who came to Cuba at the end of the 19th century. He hoped that he would stand a much better chance of success on the promising and developing Caribbean island than in the strict and conservative Spain. His parents had educated him to be a very democratic and free-thinking man. He could react rapidly to unexpected events and was able to adapt himself easily to changing environmental conditions. But what was of no small importance was the fact that Fonseca, unlike many of the other Spaniards who came to Cuba, never tried to set himself above others, nor particularly did he entertain any of the nationalistic pretensions that were so wide-spread among the Spanish. He socialized and made friends not only among the ex-pat Spanish, but also with the native Cubans.

Being an active and enterprising person, Francisco Fonseca was not afraid of low-paid work. When he first arrived in Cuba, he had to work as both a night watchman and a shop assistant, and even as a lamplighter. He didn’t earn much money, and so he resisted any temptation to squander it in the taverns, living instead modestly and saving his money till the moment arrived when he decided that he had put away enough. Apart from this small capital, he had also made a large number of friends over the few years that he had been on the island, and was always able to rely on their help and support.

In 1891, Fonseca established his own small cigar factory in the provincial town of Quivican near Havana. Many were surprised that he hadn’t rented premises in the Cuban capital, but chosen some tiny, unknown town. But Fonseca had simply decided to save money, because property prices in Havana were much higher.

Most Spaniards who opened their own cigar factories did so in what was virtually the centre of the country’s capital, and were thus forced to pay enormous rents. They put up bright signboards, hired rollers and bought tobacco. As a rule, their money was soon spent, and they had to start economizing, by buying poorer quality tobacco and sacking their more professional cigar rollers. Meanwhile, their prices continued to rise. The result was that they were rapidly bankrupted, because no amount of fancy sign work or advertising could attract customers if the products they were offered were of low quality and high price. Hundreds of Spaniards tried their hand at the cigar business in Cuba, but very few managed to survive, let alone immortalize their names.

By opening his factory in a provincial town, Fonseca had made a small saving which he spent on hiring as many of the most experienced and professional cigar rollers as he could. He was certain that the success of a cigar largely depended on the person who had rolled it. And so for a period of many years all the cigar rollers at Fonseca’s factory were under the control of a man named Mecallin, whom to this day specialists believe to have been the finest cigar roller of all time. One other factor determining the fate of a cigar, Fonseca believed, was the quality of its tobacco – and in that he was quite right. This was the reason why right from the beginning only choice tobaccos grown on plantations in the Pinar del Rio Region were used in his cigars. To this day, Fonseca cigars are produced only from tobacco grown in the finest region in Cuba.

The cigar rollers would arrive at the factory early in the morning, many of them bringing their own folding chairs and rolling tables with them, as well as their own knives and other tools.

Fonseca’s contemporaries recall how factory employees would all eat together in a separate section. Poor Cuban workers all ate the same food – rice, bread, eggs, meat and fruit.

But things at the factory got better and better every day, and by the turn of the century Fonseca’s cigars, which were made in provincial Quivican, had for many connoisseurs set a standard of quality. The Fonseca brand was officially registered in 1907, and at approximately the same time Francisco Fonseca moved to Havana. The factory was opened at 128, Hervacio Street.

The popularity of Fonseca cigars now grew so rapidly that production had to be increased. Furthermore by 1909, Fonseca had created a new brand – Hamlet. Accordingly in 1910, the whole works were transferred to a huge factory located at 102, Galiano Street, where it remained for many years.

Francisco Fonseca made a number of innovations, which became the distinguishing characteristic of his product. He was the first to use metal tubes for packing cigars, and each was wrapped in thin Japanese silk paper. It was a very successful marketing ploy. Cigars packed in this way were sold individually, but were protected against bad environmental effects including smells, dirt and dust, against careless handling, and even against an excessively dry or humid atmosphere.

But Fonseca’s cigars were also sold in traditional cedar boxes. Francisco himself took personal control of their design, rejecting more than a dozen different alternatives. The one that he chose is still used for packing cigars today, and the picture shows Fonseca with his beard, moustache and thick, light, bushy hair. To one side of him there is a representation of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, while on the other there is a picture of the Farola del Morro Tower that rises up on the shores of the Gulf of Havana.

But it was not only the packaging of Fonseca’s cigars that attracted the attention of smokers; they also stood out from the rest in point of their unusual sizes. For a long period of time, Fonseca had his cigar rollers experiment with various vitolas in a bid to find the optimum combination of length, ring size (diameter) and shape. The previously mentioned cigar roller, Mecallin, made an enormous contribution to this work by creating exclusive vitolas, to which specialists have given the classification ‘de luxe’. To this day, Fonseca cigars are manufactured in four unique formats: Cosacos, Delicias, Fonseca No.1 and Cadetes.

The successful entrepreneur was able not only to attract clients, but to hold on to them, and it is quite possible that it was this that ensured the long life of the brand. In one section of his factory, Fonseca set up a hall specially designed for cigar tasting, where smokers could try cigars and make their wishes known. Francisco Fonseca attended these ‘tastings’ personally, and paid a lot of attention to what was said about the taste and aroma of his cigars. It is due to this that Fonseca’s cigars have always tried to satisfy the requirements of even the most demanding smokers.

Fonseca’s ‘tasting’ hall began to be visited by some of the most famous and respected people in Havana. According to contemporary reports, they were delighted with Fonseca. The golden-haired gentleman appeared in magnificent suits, snowwhite shirts, and with the obligatory bow-tie or cravat at the neck – exactly as he is depicted on the cigar boxes. Fonseca always carried an expensive cane with a gold knob, fashioned in the form of a tiger’s head. He might not order the most expensive dishes in restaurants and was not known to throw his money around rashly, but he was a stickler for maintaining the rule that any self-respecting man should be well-dressed and produce a pleasant impression on every occasion.

Francisco Fonseca soon became a fully-fledged member of Havana society. His friends included leading politicians who were supporters of colonial power and simply well-to-do Cubans. These contacts allowed him to set up distribution channels – at one time, more than 60% of all the cigars manufactured under the Fonseca brand name were distributed at banquets, receptions and guest-nights given by the beau monde of Havana.

But Fonseca mixed not only with high society. He was a great admirer of beauty and this drew him towards people engaged in the arts – actors, musicians, painters, writers and poets – though his activities in this field were not restricted to those of a patron and he became a real friend of the Cuban literary and creative intelligentsia. 

By that time, he had acquired a house in the aristocratic district of Serro, and every week he held something akin to creative evenings, which were attended by the most famous painters, writers, poets and musicians in Havana. It didn’t matter whether they were rich or poor – the main criterion was that they should be talented. These evenings were frequently attended by famous Spanish painters and poets, who were passing through Cuba. It was even said that Fonseca did not have to seek them out specially and invite them; they themselves considered it their duty to pay a visit to his muse sanctuary. According to contemporaries, the evenings were spent in a very carefree, happy atmosphere: music was played, poets read their verses, and painters argued about paintings. And all the while waiters would bring round trays full of food and drink. The menu was very extensive and the food always refined and delicious. Most often, Fonseca offered his guests ham, fresh goat’s cheese, olives, crackers and, of course, the finest Spanish wines. And, naturally, everyone smoked cigars.

Fonseca knew that the majority of his guests were poor, so the whole evening they ate delicacies, drank wine and smoked cigars, even though on the streets outside they often hadn’t enough money for a simple piece of bread. Fonseca never offered his guests money – he was afraid of offending them – but he managed to find a way of tactfully supporting them. In one of the rooms in his house, he put an elegant wooden box, in which as the days passed he put all his spare change and small notes. It wasn’t long before the box was filled almost to the top. Then on the next evening, any guest could go to the box unnoticed and take from it as much money as he needed. The intelligent and grateful guests never took more than they required, and so there was always enough money for everyone.

Francisco Fonseca continued to run his cigar business and support the creative intelligentsia right up to his death in 1930, and his work was continued by his wife, Dona Tereza Botticher. But faced with growing competition, the frail woman found it increasingly difficult to cope with the family business, and she decided shortly afterwards to unite with two successful businessmen, Castaneda and Montera. So for the first time in more than forty years, the Fonseca enterprise lost its family character. But neither that, nor the Cuban revolution that took place in the middle of the twentieth century had any effect on the quality of Fonseca cigars. They have remained at the very highest level that was set for them in his time by Francisco Fonseca.

Cigar Clan 4'2006 vol.1. Eldar Tuzmukhamedov