The story of Cohiba began when Fidel Castro noticed that one of his bodyguards called Bienvenido "Chicho" Perez was smoking a "very good and aromatic" cigar. When Castro asked him what brand this vitola was, the bodyguard replied that it was rolled by a friend who gave him some of these cigars.

The man in question was a cigar roller named Eduardo Rivera who worked at the La Corona factory in Havana. Castro hired Rivera to roll cigars for his own consumption and put him to work with five other rollers in an old diplomatic villa on the outskirts of Havana called El Laguito (le petit lake in Spanish). Later, this factory became the first to have a team composed entirely of female cigar workers. Security in this factory was taken very seriously, and only workers and regime officials were allowed to enter the most critical areas of the factory.

These cigars were reserved for Fidel Castro and high-ranking figures in the Cuban government and were often used as gifts for foreign dignitaries. Furthermore, given the rumors of assassination attempts on Fidel Castro by the CIA, it is not surprising that Castro decided to smoke only cigars produced under extremely safe conditions, especially since one of the ways the CIA was considering eliminating Castro was through an explosive cigar. It is said that Castro himself is particularly fond of long, fine cigars rolled for him, and that gave rise to the Lancero and Corona Especial.

Castro decided to turn his personal cigars into a brand of luxury cigars for public consumption during the 1982 soccer world cup in Spain. When it was launched at that time, the range consisted of three modules: the Panetela, the Corona Especial and the Lancero. In 1989, three more modules were introduced: the Robusto, the Exquisito and the Espléndido. This total of six modules is called the Línea Clásica.

In 1992, Habanos SA launched the first cigars of what the brand calls the Línea 1492, which pays tribute to Christopher Columbus and his voyages to America. Each cigar was named after a century since the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. Thus, there were initially Siglo I, Siglo II, Siglo III, Siglo IV and Siglo V with a Siglo VI added in 2002. Rumors say that the Línea 1492 was originally intended to replace the range of the brand Davidoff which had just left Cuba for the Dominican Republic (each of the first five Siglos corresponded to a size of the range Davidoff).

In addition to the usual production, Habanos SA regularly produces limited edition cigars for events such as the Havana Festival, which takes place every year, as well as the "Edición Limitada" version of certain modules, which are then wrapped in a wrapper of aged leaves. Since 2007, Habanos SA has been producing a new series of three Cohibas vitolas wrapped in Maduros leaves (dark leaves).

Cohiba also produces two machine-made cigarillos: the Mini and the Club.

Habanos SA has also used the name Cohiba for products other than cigars, producing Cohiba cigarettes since 1987 and Cohiba Cognac Extra since 1999.

By the end of 2006, Cohiba had produced three different Cohibas Edición Limitada: the Pirámide launched in 2001 and then manufactured again in 2006, the Double Corona in 2003 and the Sublime in 2004.