Jack Adamović Davies Published September 3 2026 From his perch in the corner, fumes wisping up past his frameless glasses, Mitchell Orchant puffs contentedly on an Hoyo De Monterrey Epicure No 3 as he surveys his compact kingdom. Three decades ago he founded the C.Gars chain of tobacconists, and this is his flagship store in the smart St James’s district of central London. Havana has been the subject of a US embargo for more than six decades, which has cost the Cuban economy at least $1tn, according to the country’s estimates. For a nation that struggles to keep the lights on, cigars are a vital source of revenue. The ruling Communist party runs the island’s tobacco industry as a monopoly, which for a long time generated a reliable half a billion dollars in revenue each year. In April 2022, that income stream was turbocharged after Habanos decreed that prices would go up steeply, including for its most cherished offerings, such as the Cohiba and Trinidad marques. By 2024, the most recent year for which figures are available, Habanos’s annual revenue had reached $827mn.

Cigars are shaking off their reputation as an old, rich man’s hobby: Orchant’s clients in their twenties tend to buy online, and the demographic coming into his shop skews middle-aged. He insists the cigar lounge is inherently democratic. But behind the egalitarianism of a cigar is the story of an opaque investment by a mysterious tycoon — one who has recently experienced a most precipitous fall. With Chinese-Cambodian investor Chen Zhi, Cohibas became ultra-luxury symbols — then things came crashing down for the billionaire.