Cohiba Cigars: The US Brand, Line by Line

The two Cohibas, and why the confusion is permanent

The word cohiba comes from the Taíno language of the Caribbean, the term Spanish chroniclers recorded for the rolled tobacco leaves indigenous people smoked. That shared root is part of why the name ended up on two unrelated brands.

A short history of the American Cohiba

General Cigar Company, whose roots run back to the Cullman family's tobacco business in the nineteenth century, held the Cohiba trademark in the United States and began building a premium cigar around it. The modern US Cohiba took shape in the 1990s in the Dominican Republic, using the Connecticut-seed and Cameroon leaf that defined the company's high-end blends at the time. The Red Dot became the anchor and remains the line most people picture when they see the band.

Ownership moved with the industry. General Cigar became part of Swedish Match, then part of Scandinavian Tobacco Group in 2010. On 2 February 2026, STG reshuffled its US premium handmade portfolio between two houses. Cohiba, Punch and Havana Honeys moved to Forged Cigar Company. Partagas, Room101 and Don Tomas moved to General Cigar Company. Those were the only brands that changed hands.

At Forged, Cohiba joined Bolivar, Diesel and La Gloria Cubana, which had been there since the house was created in February 2021, and Alec Bradley, which arrived in 2023. General Cigar kept Macanudo, CAO, Hoyo de Monterrey and Excalibur. Both houses remain inside Scandinavian Tobacco Group.

Every US Cohiba line at a glance

We stock the five core lines. Availability on Macassar, Royale, Weller and Spectre moves with allocation, so check the Cohiba collection for what is on the shelf right now.

Cohiba Red Dot

The Red Dot is the reference point. A Cameroon wrapper over a Dominican binder and a filler blend of Dominican piloto cubano, Nicaraguan and Jamaican leaf. Cameroon is the whole story here: grown in West Africa, thin, toothy, with a distinctive sweet-and-savory character that no other wrapper duplicates. It gives the Red Dot the cedar-and-toasted-nut profile people recognize blindfolded.

Cameroon is also delicate. The leaf is prone to cracking, which is why you handle a Red Dot gently and why you keep humidity steady rather than swinging it.

Sizes we carry: Robusto 5 x 49, Churchill 7 x 49, Toro Tubo 6 x 50 in an aluminum tube, Corona 5.5 x 42 in a crystal tube, plus the small formats: Pequeño 4 3/16 x 36 and the Miniature 3 7/8 x 24.

Cohiba Blue

Blue was built to put the band in more hands. The wrapper is Honduran Olancho San Agustin, a varietal grown in the Olancho valley that gives a darker, slightly rustic appearance and more body than the Cameroon. Underneath sits a Nicaraguan Jalapa binder and a filler of Dominican piloto cubano, Nicaraguan and Honduran leaf.

The result is a fuller cigar than the Red Dot at a lower price. If you like the Cohiba name but want something with more pepper and less sweetness, start here.

We carry the Blue Robusto 5 x 50 and the Blue Toro 6 x 54.

Cohiba Black

Black is the maduro expression: a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper aged and fermented until it goes near-black, wrapped over Dominican binder and filler. Broadleaf is a stalk-cut, sun-grown leaf with heavy body and thick veins, and long fermentation converts its starches into the dark-sugar sweetness that defines a good maduro.

Expect espresso, cocoa, dark bread and a long finish. It is the heaviest of the core lines.

We stock the Black Gigante 6 x 60 in an aluminum tube and the Black Pequeño 4 3/16 x 36 for a short smoke.

Cohiba Connecticut

The mildest of the five. An Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper, grown under cloud cover at the equator rather than under cheesecloth tents in the Connecticut River Valley, over Dominican binder and a Dominican and Nicaraguan filler. Shade-grown leaf is thin, elastic, pale golden, and low in oils, which is exactly what produces the creamy, gentle profile.

Available as the Connecticut Robusto 5 x 50 and the Connecticut Toro 6 x 50.

Cohiba Nicaragua

The line that leans Nicaraguan. A Nicaraguan Colorado wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and filler drawn from the country's four main growing regions. Colorado is a shade designation rather than a varietal: a reddish-brown leaf sitting between claro and maduro on the wrapper color scale, usually indicating good oil content and a sweet-spicy character.

We carry the Nicaragua Robusto 5 x 52 in a crystal tube and the Nicaragua Gordo 6 x 60.

Wrapper, binder, filler: what the words on the band mean

Every cigar on this page is a long-filler handmade cigar built from three components.

The wrapper (capa)

The outermost leaf, and the single biggest driver of flavor and appearance. Wrapper color is graded on a scale that runs, roughly light to dark: Double Claro / Candela Claro Colorado Claro Colorado Colorado Maduro Maduro Oscuro. Across the US Cohiba lines you will find Cameroon, Ecuadorian Connecticut shade, Ecuadorian Habano, Honduran Olancho San Agustin, Nicaraguan Colorado and Connecticut broadleaf maduro.

The binder (capote)

The leaf that holds the filler bunch together. It is chosen for structure and burn more than flavor, though it contributes. Cohiba uses Dominican and Nicaraguan binders depending on line.

The filler (tripa)

The core. Long-filler cigars use whole leaves running the length of the cigar, and the blender combines leaves from different plant positions to build the profile.

The commonly seen spelling "lahero" or "lejero" is ligero, pronounced lee-HEH-roh. It is the leaf that gives a blend its punch, and blenders who overuse it produce cigars that burn poorly and hit too hard.

Sizes, vitolas and what the numbers mean

A cigar's size is written as length in inches by ring gauge, where ring gauge is the diameter in 64ths of an inch. A 6 x 60 is six inches long and 60/64 of an inch thick.

Other vitola names you will meet elsewhere in our catalog: Petit Corona, Lonsdale, Lancero, Panetela, Belicoso, Torpedo, Piramide, Perfecto, Culebra, Double Corona, Presidente, Salomon, Rothschild, Super Gordo and Diadema.

What we actually taste, from our own humidor

These are our notes from smoking the cigars we sell, not manufacturer copy.

Red Dot Robusto

Cold draw is cedar and dried fruit. First third opens toasted almond with a distinct sweetness on the retrohale that is pure Cameroon. Midway it picks up a light black pepper and a leathery note. Burn line stays fairly straight but the wrapper is thin enough that a rough cut will tear it, so use a sharp double blade. About an hour and ten minutes at a slow pace.

Blue Toro

Noticeably more aggressive from the light. Red pepper and cocoa in the first inch, settling into a bread-and-earth core. The Olancho wrapper has more tooth than the Cameroon and the ash is looser. Wants a slower draw than you would give the Red Dot.

Black Gigante

Dark and sweet as advertised. Espresso, molasses, a little dark chocolate bitterness on the finish. The 60 ring gauge means a big volume of smoke, so pace it. Best after a meal, never first thing.

Connecticut Robusto

Pale gold wrapper, almost no oil sheen. Cream, hay, blanched almond, a touch of white pepper on the retrohale and nothing more. This is the one we hand people who say cigars are too strong for them.

Nicaragua Gordo

The most "Nicaraguan" thing on the list, which is the point. Earth, black pepper, and a cocoa-ish sweetness underneath. Burns cooler than the ring gauge suggests. If you smoke Perdomo or Oliva, this will feel familiar.

Pairing, cutting, storage

Red Dot goes with a lighter aged rum or a Highland scotch. Blue and Nicaragua take bourbon and rye without being flattened. Black wants espresso, port, or a heavily peated Islay if you want the fight. Connecticut is a coffee cigar, morning, milk optional.

Cut cleanly. A guillotine works for the parejo shapes here, but the Cameroon wrapper on the Red Dot punishes a dull blade. See our cutters and lighters. For storage, hold 65 to 70 percent relative humidity at roughly 68 to 70 degrees. Our humidors and humidification range covers everything from a travel case to a cabinet.

The bottom line

The US Cohiba is a genuinely good line of cigars carrying a name that guarantees an argument. Judged on its own terms, without the Cuban comparison, the Red Dot is a distinctive Cameroon-wrapped medium that has no direct competitor, the Black is a serious maduro, and the Connecticut is one of the more reliable mild cigars in wide distribution. Buy it for what it is.

Keep exploring

Same house, Forged: Punch · Bolivar · Diesel · La Gloria Cubana · Alec Bradley
Sister company, General Cigar: Macanudo · CAO · Hoyo de Monterrey · Partagas
Similar profiles: Ashton · Davidoff · Arturo Fuente · Plasencia

For adults 21+. Please enjoy responsibly.

Cigar Inc. · 21900 Burbank Blvd UNIT 265, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 · 1 818-719-9885 · Info@Cigarinc.com