Henry Clay
A 1840s Cuban-founded name now made in the Dominican Republic
- Founded by
- Julián Álvarez Granda
- Family
- Altadis, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands
- Made in
- Honduras
- Lines here
- 2
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The house
The story of Henry Clay
Henry Clay was founded in Cuba in the 1840s by Julián Álvarez Granda, a Spanish immigrant to the island. Named for the American politician Henry Clay, the cigars became one of the more popular brands in the 19th-century United States and were made in Old Havana.
Following the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro's government nationalized the brand. Manufacturing was severely reduced throughout the 1960s. In the United States, its trademark was held by Henry Clay and Bock & Co. Ltd. of Trenton, New Jersey, which became part of the Tobacco Trust scrutinized under American antitrust legislation.
By 1986, Consolidated Cigar Corporation owned the American trademark and began producing non-Cuban Henry Clay cigars. Consolidated Cigar Corporation was later purchased by Altadis; today Altadis, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands, owns the brand, and Henry Clay cigars are manufactured in the Dominican Republic.
The name also has an unusually broad literary record. Henry Clay cigars appear in works by James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Maurice Leblanc, Georges Simenon and Jean-Paul Sartre, while Vladimir Mayakovsky set his 1925 poem “Black and White” in a Henry Clay and Bock cigar factory in Havana.
Milestones
Moments that made the house
- 1924
The Magic Mountain
Thomas Mann’s novel includes a reference to smoking two small Henry Clay cigars.
- 1925
Mayakovsky’s “Black and White”
The poem places its story in a Henry Clay and Bock cigar factory in Havana.
- 1929
Blackmail appearance
In the film Blackmail, the blackmailer is offered a Henry Clay cigar but chooses a Corona instead.
- 1945
The Age of Reason
A character in Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel writes that he smoked a Henry Clay without the ash falling.
- 1986
Consolidated ownership
By this year, Consolidated Cigar Corporation owned the American trademark and began making non-Cuban Henry Clays.
Craft
How they make them
Henry Clay Brevas Finas Maduro cigars are described as hand-rolled, long-filler cigars made in the Dominican Republic, using a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over Dominican binder and filler. The Honduras-made War Hawk Churchill is also hand rolled with long filler, pairing an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper with a Connecticut broadleaf binder and Honduran filler.
Details
Things most people don't know
- Political namesake
- The brand is named after Kentucky politician Henry Clay, known as “The Great Compromiser.”
- Literary setting
- Mayakovsky’s 1925 poem “Black and White” is set in a Henry Clay and Bock cigar factory in Havana.
- Joyce appearance
- Chapter 15 of Ulysses describes subsheriff Long John Fanning smoking a pungent Henry Clay.
- Mann appearance
- In The Magic Mountain, Hofrat Behrens says he almost died smoking two small Henry Clays.
- War Hawk departure
- War Hawk breaks with the brand’s Connecticut Broadleaf-wrapper tradition by using an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper.
- Historic box image
- The Henry Clay box depicts the Havana factory where the cigars were previously made.
In the humidor
Henry Clay up close
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