How do you tell if a Cuban cigar is genuine?
How do you tell if a Cuban cigar is genuine?
A genuine Cuban cigar sold in the UK carries the green English Market Selection stamp applied by Hunters and Frankau, the sole authorised UK importer, alongside the Habanos S.A. warranty seal with its holographic strip and barcode. The box also carries a factory and date code stamped on the underside.
- Green EMS stamp: applied by the UK importer, Hunters and Frankau
- Habanos warranty seal: holographic strip and a scannable barcode since 2010
- Box code: three-letter factory code plus month and year, stamped underneath
- Cuban cigars have no cellophane on the individual sticks in most box formats
The English Market Selection stamp
The green EMS stamp is specific to Britain. It is applied by Hunters and Frankau, the only company permitted to import Habanos S.A. cigars into the UK, and historically indicated cigars selected for the British taste for a slightly more matured, less oily smoke.
Its practical value today is provenance. A box with the EMS stamp came through the official UK channel. A box without it may still be genuine — it might have been bought in Spain or at a duty-free — but it did not come through the UK importer, and you are relying on whoever sold it to you.
The Habanos warranty seal and barcode
Every genuine box carries the Habanos S.A. warranty seal across the opening. Since 2010 it has included a holographic strip and a unique barcode.
The seal should be cleanly applied and undamaged. A seal that has been lifted and re-stuck, is misaligned, or has blurred printing is a warning sign.
A barcode alone proves nothing — counterfeiters copy barcodes — but a missing or obviously poor-quality seal on a box being sold as new is reason enough to walk away.
Box codes
The underside of a Cuban box carries a stamped code: three letters identifying the factory, then a month and a year. It tells you where and when the box was packed.
Codes are useful for dating a box, not for authenticating one on their own, since they can be forged. A code that does not correspond to a real factory or that pre-dates the format being made is a clear problem.
The signs that give fakes away
Price. Genuine Cuban cigars carry duty, VAT and an import premium in the UK. A box of Cohiba at a third of the usual price is not a bargain that everyone else has missed.
Individual cellophane. Most Cuban box formats ship without cellophane on the individual cigars. Cellophane on every stick in a supposed box of 25 is unusual.
Construction. Genuine Cuban cigars in a box are closely matched for colour and size. Obvious variation in wrapper shade or ring gauge across a box is a bad sign.
Where it came from. Cigars sold from a beach, a taxi driver, or a marketplace listing shipping from an unexpected country are overwhelmingly likely to be fake, whatever the packaging looks like.
Related questions
The variations of this question people search for most.
What does the EMS stamp on a cigar box mean?
English Market Selection. It is a green stamp applied by Hunters and Frankau, the only authorised importer of Habanos S.A. cigars into the UK, showing the box came through the official British supply chain. It historically also denoted cigars selected for British tastes.
Can you buy real Cuban cigars online?
Yes, from a UK retailer supplied by Hunters and Frankau. What to avoid is marketplace listings and sites shipping from countries with no authorised Habanos distribution, where counterfeits are common. Look for the EMS stamp and an intact Habanos warranty seal.
Are cheap Cuban cigars fake?
Not always, but a large discount on Cuban cigars in the UK is a strong warning sign. Duty, VAT and the import premium set a floor on what genuine stock can cost. A price well below that usually means the cigars are counterfeit, stolen, or were never Cuban.
Do all genuine Cuban cigars have a barcode?
Boxes produced since 2010 carry a barcode on the Habanos warranty seal. Older boxes pre-date it, so the absence of a barcode on genuinely aged stock is normal. On a box being sold as current production, a missing or poorly printed seal is a problem.