Punch

Punch is among the world’s oldest, current-production cigar brands, which was named for the European puppet show character, Mr. Punch. The cigars use tobaccos of Cuba’s most premium region, Vuelta Abajo and are billed as medium in body. Since the early ’60s, the cigars have shared the name with a Honduran-made blend; after the brand’s owner (Fernando Palicio) fled Cuba, selling the rights of Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey, among others to Villazon & Co (which was eventually acquired by General Cigar Co.), whom continues to produce the cigars to this day.

Punch is one of the oldest brands of Habanos. Don Manuel Lopez de Juan Valle y Cia founded this brand in the mid-nineteenth century, with the idea of ​​attacking the growing English market, where a humorous publication of the same name was fashionable in those days.

Mr. Punch, the clown who symbolized that publication, continues to appear in each of the boxes of the brand with his Habano in hand, surrounded by 19th century images that show the manufacture of Habanos, which are practically the same as those seen in the current factories of Cuba.

—Habanos S.A.

While Habanos S.A. lists 14 vitolas under the Punch brand, connoisseurs often regard the Punch, Double Corona, Churchill, and Super Selection No. 2 as the best and most sought-after in the collection (the Super Selection No. 2 was discontinued in 2002).