Cuban Box Codes Evolution.

Coding...

Till 1985 not a single box of Cuban cigars had any codes. Nothing except for the proud inscription Hecho en Cuba. Neither the dates, nor factory names. Francisco Padron, who was the president of Habanos S.A. at that time, entered the modern history of Cuban cigar industry with a decision to define the manufacturers and to introduce production identification. In 1985 there appeared the stamps that contained information about the factory in which the cigars were produced, month and year when they had released. Though this information was encoded.

Two Spanish words of five letters each were chosen for date coding: Nivel and Acuso. Their letters corresponded to numbers from 1 to 0. The code consisted of four letters. The first two corresponded to the month, the second two - to the year of release:

Factory codes consisted of two or three letters, which were an abbreviation for post revolutionary factory names.

For example, FPG OAUC means that cigars were made in Partagas factory in June, 1987. Does any aficionado know that factory founded by Haime Partagas in 1845, now in the Cuban state annals is named after Fransisko Peres Germana, the hero of the Cuban revolution (this gives a code FPG)? Who can discover a return address of cigars?

Codes were necessary purely for service using. Particularly, to reveal those who make defects. Actually, the Spanish words are translated as level ("nivel") and accusation ("acuso"). By that time the number of complaints regarding poor quality of Havanas had overflowed and this had brought out the necessity of strict punishment against careless employees including factory directors.

Another reason for encoding "data out" was that the crop of this or that year could be of a good, average or poor quality. It's hard to conceal that in the tobacco industry, because you can't fool professionals. Some part of that information can reach common smokers as well, and of course they wouldn't want to buy cigars made of bad tobacco. Besides it happens (not often, hopefully) that there is a lack of good quality tobacco from Vuelta Abaho at factories of central or east provinces due to some problems, first of all - transport. These factories have to use local tobacco, which is far from the best quality.

If something is coded during manufacture (except for a secret blend and other technological nuances - it's clear) that means that there is something to hide. Usually it's negative information that is kept back first of all.

Some producers in other countries, for example, Dunhill, not only put the information about the place of production on the boxes, but also tell the names of the roller, the sorter and the controller who has checked the quality of the cigars. There's someone to demand from if necessary.

Pig in a poke

The first system of codes existed for almost fourteen years. Probably because there were practically no foreign tourists on the Island except for the Soviet workers and militaries. However after the USSR was dissolved and Cuba stopped receiving financial help the Cuban leadership had to support the state somehow. First of all they opened their borders for tourists (now, by the way, this is their main source of income). The tourists (first of all, afisionados) have revealed the mysterious cigar codes visiting factories and systematizing the data.

In December 1998 this information appeared in the Internet and Habanos decided to change the codes and outwit those who wanted to crack them.

The phrase Codigo Uneta was taken for a basis. The first word is the "code", the second - the name of the organization which supervised the work of all factories - La Union de Empresas del Tabaco de Cuba (now it is Tabacuba). To fit 5 letters format, the word Codigo has lost the last "o". And the correspondence of letters to figures has been changed as well: the word Codig corresponded to figures upside-down 98765 and Uneta - to figures 01234. Thus, the word for decoding was quite strange: Netagidocu.

Besides if earlier the date was stamped in a format "MMYY" now the sequence has changed: the first two - last figures of year, then month.

They have also introduced a new letter designation for the place of manufacturing that consisted of three letters and had no rule except one: first letter stood for the province from which the cigars came. Letter "E" corresponded to the factories of Havana city, "T" - to the factories of Havana province, "O" - Cienfuegos province, "N" - Granma, "U" - Houlgin, "G" - Pinar del Rio, "C" - Sancti Spiritus, "D" - Villia Clara, "A" - Santiago de Cuba.

For example, if the stamp on the Montecristo Especial box was EAT CCUE it means that these cigars were made in the Partagas factory in February 1999.

Having appeared in January 1999, the new codes existed only four months. After they were cracked and the key has appeared on the Internet, www.cigarnexus.com site, Cubans were forced to replace the coding again.

From May 1999 till January 2000 the designation of date of manufacture looked in the following way:

Since January 2000 Cubans stopped hiding the date of manufacture and made it quite clear: first three letters of month (in Spanish) and two last numbers of year.

Factory code now consisted of two to four letters and could change from time to time. It was selected with the help of computer, and one factory could have two codes at the same time. Thus it is much more difficult now to tell precisely the factory and the city in which the cigars were made. In such chaos even checking inspectors not always receive the duly information on the stamps in time to reveal those who make poor quality cigars. The only good way for us, fans of Havanas, to "keep abreast" - is to bypass all Cuban factories and "read" the codes every few months.

"Checked up: good draw!"

We should also mention about an additional stamp on the bottom of a box - revisado, that means "checked". And that's how it appeared...

On the occasion of a new millennium Cuban authorities decided to release two hundred million cigars (Cuba hadn't produced such volumes of cigars after revolution). However the nature decided otherwise: the crop of 1999 turned out to be not really good and the quality of tobacco appeared mediocre. The decision of the Party was not affected in any way, besides they put additional lines of sorters and twisters, which weren't skilled and qualified enough (it is clear - professionals were engaged already).

As a result only one hundred forty five cigars have been sold out of two hundred millions. The others were stored in warehouses for several years. The information about unsuccessful crop has reached consumers and smokers did not want to buy these Havanas. Even official distributors refused from buying cigars of 2000 year production.

When it was clear that these cigars couldn't be sold, the direction of Habanos S.A. decided to give them a "second life". It was impossible to change the quality of tobacco, but technical problems could be corrected.

They opened a box, checked the draw, blend and taste, tried to eliminate the drawbacks and "repair" the cigar. If they succeeded the cigar was returned to the box, otherwise - destroyed. All "checked" boxes were marked with a stamp revisado, which served as a guarantee to smokers that all problems were eliminated and cigars can be smoked.

Usually it was really so, but pay attention to such a nuance. While opening a box for check, the guarantee seal is cut and when a stamp is put the new seal is attached above the old one. However you can meet Havanas with a revisado stamp and only one seal. It means that the stamp was put without cigars being checked. Better stay away.

You can find out more about Cuban factories in our article "Why Need to Understand Box Codes?"