The Strength of a Name

A HABANO IS MUCH MORE THAN A MASTERFULLY HANDMADE LONG-FILLER CIGAR. FIRST, WE THOUGHT ABOUT IT, THEN WE SPELL ITS NAME —SIMILAR IN ALL LANGUAGES AROUND THE WORLD— AND ONCE WE HEAR ITS NAME, WE KNOW IT IS A GENUINELY CUBAN PRODUCT

The Protected Appellation of Origin (DOP is the Spanish acronym) defines, above all things, the origin of products. This characteristic determines the origin of a place, region, and exceptionally, a country, which gives unique features to a product due to its particular geography, the natural and human elements determining each production stages that take place in the demarcated geographical area.

DOP is applied to agricultural products whose quality and characteristics are exclusively determined by the geography where it is originated, produced and transformed —in the skilled hands of inhabitants within the site. This appellation makes them different to those similar, existing products in the market produced in other regions; indeed, they sometime substitute some of the stages of the original producing process with industrialization techniques.

Each producer assuming DOP is committed to maintain the highest quality of the final product. Likewise, there are regulatory authorities of the appellation of origin dedicated to guarantee and authorize the exhibition of such category.

Clearly, DOP main advantage for consumers is the guarantee of a sustained level of quality and the unique features of the product. DOP provides legal protection against the making of the products in other regions even though similar ingredients and procedures may be used.

DOP AROUND THE WORLD

Known worldwide, the Protected Appellation of Origin catalyzes the prestige of different products such as the Roquefort cheese: a sort of French blue cheese produced in the region of Causses del Aveyron, which got its Appellation of Origin in 1925.

The same applies to the wine of Xerez, produced in the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, province of Cadiz. To the list of selected products, we can add the Venezuelan Rum, Mexico's tequila, Peruvian pisco, Chilean pisco, and Colombian coffee…among others.