Popular meeting place for bankers Zurich's high-end bar sells counterfeit cigars for a lot of money
In a high-class Zurich restaurant, copied cigars are sold as genuine ones. No stranger to this. The bar takes a stand.
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- Journalists discovered counterfeit Cohiba cigars being sold for 115 francs in Zurich's upscale Tao's restaurant.
- When tested and analyzed, the cigars showed clear deviations from the original, both in terms of taste and appearance.
- The restaurant admitted its mistake and removed the counterfeit products.
The Cohiba brand cigars produced in Cuba are the top product of the state-owned cigar manufacturer Habanos SA. They are among the best cigars in the world and are correspondingly expensive. A Cohiba Siglo VI costs 115 francs in the upmarket Zurich restaurant Tao's.
However, these are counterfeits, as the trade magazine "Cigar" and the online financial medium "finews.ch" report.
The restaurant with bar and cigar lounge is located in the heart of Zurich's financial world and is a popular meeting place for the latter. The menu is appropriately decorated with expensive wines and champagne.
Two journalists from the two magazines paid a visit to the upmarket bar in search of evidence of counterfeiting. They bought two Cohiba cigars for 115 francs each. They smoked one on the spot and took the second with them for more detailed analysis.
Devastating verdict
The verdict was already devastating when tasting the cigars in the bar: "The test cigar shows none of the aromas typical of the brand and lacks any depth," writes "Cigar". And examination of the second cigar confirms the suspicion: "The iconic head on the band is not neatly printed and the width of the Cohiba lettering does not match the original."
A few days later, the journalists bought more, cheaper cigars from Tao's, which also turned out to be fakes.
According to the manager of the bar, the restaurant was buying the Cohiba cigars from a certain Cubaruedi. This is no stranger: Back in 2018, it became public that Rudolf R. alias Cubaruedi promised his customers direct imports from Cuba - and delivered counterfeits.
Short supply exacerbates the situation
Cuban cigars are not only expensive in Switzerland, they are also in short supply. The company Intertabak from Pratteln BL, the official Swiss importer of Cuban cigars, is barely able to meet demand. This allows the market for cigars of dubious origin and unrealistically low purchase prices to flourish. The journalists also find counterfeit cigars in other restaurants.
Manuela Summer, Operations Manager at The Tao Group AG, has commented on the accusations: People had "acted too gullibly and naively", she tells the magazines.
Only a few of the affected cigars were sold, and the rest have since been removed from the humidor. Tao's did not say how long the fake cigars had been in the range when asked.
