Cuban Delights

Sherwin Hing and Simon Heo bring the best Cuban cigars to the Philippine market through La Casa Del Habano

- Gabriel Bohol

Nestled in a quiet corner of the Ayala Triangle Gardens Tower Two sits the Philippines’ first branch of La Casa Del Habano, the international chain popular among cigar connoisseurs around the world as a reliable source for authentic Cuban cigars. Chairman and CEO of Alliance Towers Sherwin Hing brought this passion project to the country, born from his trips abroad. “Everywhere you go outside the US, there’s a La Casa Del Habano, but we don’t have one in the Philippines. On New Year’s Day 2020, I was in one of the La Casa Del Habano [branches] in Bangkok, and I had this idea while smoking. I wanted to put the Philippines on the map of cigar aficionados,” shares Hing.

The demand for optimum quality cigars is predicted to grow in the Philippines, according to Hing, but there is a scarcity of lounges that can rise to the occasion. Back in the Nineties, the hot spot was Kipling’s Cigar Bar in the defunct Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which allowed cigar culture to flourish in the country. “When Kipling shut down, there were a lot of smaller, independent shops that arose—telling us that people wanted more,” says Simon Heo, one of the partners of La Casa Del Habano Philippines.