MONTECRISTO

In July 1935, Alonso Menéndez purchased the Particulares Factory, makers of the popular Particulares brand and the lesser-known Byron. Immediately after its acquisition, he created a new brand named Montecristo. The name for the brand was inspired by the Alexandre Dumas, père novel The Count of Monte Cristo, which was supposedly a very popular choice among the torcedores (cigar rollers) in their factory to have read by the lector on the rolling floor. The nowfamous Montecristo logo, consisting of a triangle of six swords surrounding a fleurde-lis, was designed by John Hunter Morris and Elkan Co. Ltd., the brand’s British distributor.