From February 27 to March 3, the city of Havana will be home to the eighth edition of the Habano Festival, the cigar’s much-anticipated big bash for those who love this Cuban extravaganza. This year, the event will be set to honor the 40th anniversary of the Cohiba, the most emblematic brand of Cuba’s cigar portfolio.

Cohiba will be sharing the limelight with Romeo & Juliet, another brand of top-notch stogies founded 131 years ago. The five-day event will be open for dialogue, businesses and a chance to make new friends. In 1995, the Habano Man of the Year Award was dished out in three different categories. A fourth prize was added and now it goes down again to three awards in communication, retailing and production.

The party of the ultimate smoke also provides a perfect meeting ground for dealers, experts and lovers of the world’s best cigars, let alone be a one-and-only backdrop for introducing new products to the 2006 Habano portfolio. The tradeshow and the international seminar also set the tone for countless exchanges of knowledge, experiences, products and ideas, and create a unique atmosphere around these cigars. The Habano Festival targets primarily exclusive dealers, managers of Habano Houses, managing producers, business execs, businesspeople, harvesters and sellers of deluxe cigarrelated items, among others.

The program kicks off with a welcome presentation staged by Cuba’s National Ballet Company at the Havana Grand Theater, followed by a cocktail reception at the Salon de los Pasos Perdidos (Hall of Missing Steps) in Havana’s Capitol. The event’s second day will be reserved for tours to the tobacco plantations in the western province of Pinar de Rio, home to the world’s finest tobacco leaves. By March 1, delegates are scheduled to pay a group-by-group visit to El Laguito Cigar Factory to take a firsthand look at the Cohiba haven. On that same day, the International Seminar will

The first keynote presentation at the seminar will be “Top Outcomes of Habanos in 2005” by Manuel Garcia, deputy marketing president of Habanos S.A.

Chats and tasting sessions will mark the event at the Havana Conference Center, where for the first time there’ll be a cigar hand-roller contest and a Habanos-meet-Armagnac powwow. The Habano Sommelier Contest –featuring selection, cutting and presentation of cigars and their linkage with cuisine- will put quite a spin on the festival, alongside debates, lectures and gatherings.

The closing ceremony will feature the traditional gala dinner and auction, this time around honoring the 40th birthday of the Cohiba brand, at the EXPOCUBA Fairgrounds, in the outskirts of Havana.

Habanos-Armagnac Trophy A very peculiar alliance with Armagnac will top things off at the Habano Festival, a new proposal that’s destined to give Cuban cigars a much bigger name. Armagnac is one of the oldest Gascogne sugarcane rums, right at the base of the Pyrenees Mountains, in a location trapped between Bordeaux and Toulouse in southwest France.

Two handmade products and a one-and-only experience. This meeting is supposed to lay bare common ground between these two items for consumption.

With that view in mind, Habanos S.A. and France’s National Armagnac Trade agreed to provide attendants with a special opportunity to take part in the festival and fully enjoy this magnificent combination.

In order to get a better picture, the first trophy trial took place in Paris last December 15, featuring a tasting session for members of the press and presidents of Cigar Aficionado Clubs in France. The event was headed by Jorge L. Fernandez Maique, president of the Coprova & Habano Exclusive Distributor in France, who’s by the way leading the contest down to the wire. Unmarked Habanos and Armagnac drinks were doled out, their only IDs being the numbered rings and labels. Attendees picked between two Habanos and 16 Armagnac drinks, leaving four harmonies for each and every cigar. The second and third trials will be held in Havana within the framework of the Habano Festival. As many as 40 people have signed up for the second trial, while some 150 enthusiasts are registered for the grand finale.

The same bands will be presented in Havana and the best alliances will be logged in the Millésimes Category, while the best two runner-ups get to the XO/Hors d´Age. The grand finale of the Habanos-Armagnac Trophy is slated for March 1 at 2:30pm at the Havana Conference Center’s Main Meeting Hall, picking one out of the four semifinals. The final results will be announced at the end of the competition.