Phase 2: Cuban Series
The Cuban Cigar Collector's Handbook
The serious collector's reference for vintage Habanos. Authentication at depth, vintage valuation, LCDH navigation, and collection-building strategy.
The Cuban Cigar Primer
Phase 2: Cuban Series
The Cuban Cigar Primer
What You Actually Need to Know Before You Buy Your First Cuban
Miguel has been smoking Habanos since 1998. He has bought authentic Cubans at LCDH stores in Mexico City, Havana, London, and Madrid. He has also been ripped off by counterfeits enough times to recognize the patterns. This is the primer he wishes someone had handed him before his first trip abroad.
Launches 2026-06-09. Drop your email and we will tell you the day it goes live on Amazon.
Inside this book
- Why the Cuban mystique exists (and where it falls apart)
- Authentication: box codes, factory codes, holograms, bands
- The 12 main Cuban brands and what each one is known for
- Where to buy authentic Cubans (LCDH, duty-free, travel)
- Real vs fake: the visual, structural, and smell tests
- The legal landscape for Americans (current as of 2026)
About the author
Miguel Solano
Lead Author, The Modern Cigar Library
Miguel Solano started smoking cigars in 1997 when his friend Augusto Reyes handed him a Fuente Hemingway Short Story at a lounge in Coral Gables. That cigar changed his life. Since then he has built a career in the premium cigar industry that has taken him to factories in Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, to fermentation warehouses in Cuba, and to every PCA trade show since the late 1990s. He consults with boutique producers, maintains relationships with distributors and retailers across the Americas, and writes the books he wishes had existed when he was learning. He lives in South Florida with his wife Liliana, who manages the spreadsheets that track his cigar spending, and their cigar friends who fill the screened porch his late father Gerardo used to sit on every night.
More about Miguel SolanoOther books in the Cuban Series series
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