Punch Cigars
Punch cigars enjoy historic roots that date back to the mid 1800s. Bold aromas and generous flavors have made Punch a big name brand that is recognized everywhere cigars are sold. Punch focuses on a primarily medium to full-bodied Honduran profile with rich, earthy notes and leathery spices. With several brand lines and formats available, Punch cigars are in the regular rotation of numerous cigar connoisseurs and include several value-priced options, such as Punch Vintage, which are aged considerably at the factory before they are shipped to our warehouse.
CIGARS
Punch
Price Per Cigar:$1.56 - $10.9924 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: HondurasWrapper: Ecuador Sumatra, Connecticut Broadleaf35 Reviewsread more
Punch Deluxe
Price Per Cigar:$8.92 - $11.996 options availableStrength: FullCountry: HondurasWrapper: Ecuador Sumatra, Connecticut Broadleaf2 Reviewsread more
Punch Diablo
Price Per Cigar:$7.43 - $10.396 options availableStrength: FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Sumatra21 Reviewsread more
Punch Gran Puro
Price Per Cigar:$7.39 - $9.596 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: HondurasWrapper: Honduran8 Reviewsread more
Punch Gran Puro Nicaragua
Price Per Cigar:$6.39 - $9.698 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf19 Reviewsread more
Punch Grand Cru
Price Per Cigar:$8.65 - $12.996 options availableStrength: FullCountry: HondurasWrapper: Connecticut Shade1 Reviewread more
Punch Rare Corojo
Price Per Cigar:$6.58 - $11.3910 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: HondurasWrapper: Ecuador Sumatra9 Reviewsread more
Punch Signature
Price Per Cigar:$5.36 - $10.896 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: HondurasWrapper: Corojo10 Reviewsread more
Punch Vintage
Price Per Cigar:$6.39 - $12.2528 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: HondurasWrapper: Ecuador Sumatra, Connecticut Broadleaf63 Reviewsread more
SAMPLERS
ACCESSORIES
PUNCH BRAND HISTORY
Whether you’re a devoted smoker of Punch Vintage or you eagerly anticipate the annual release of Punch Rare Corojo, the Punch brand encompasses dozens of world-famous blends and a storied legacy that originates in Cuba in the 1800s. Named for a cantankerous 17th century British puppet, the first iteration of Punch cigars was registered in 1840 in Cuba to a German by the name of Stockmann. Although little is known of the registrant, subsequent manufacture and distribution of Punch can be attributed to a B. Perera whose name remained on the box labels throughout the brand’s early rise to prominence, as well as throughout the proprietorship of Luis Corujo during roughly the 1870s.
Consumer familiarity with the iconic, jester-clad Mr. Punch puppet certainly benefitted the brand’s early success and can be cited as an effective example of consumer marketing following the Industrial Revolution. In 1884, Manuel Lopez Fernandez took ownership of the Punch brand. As the brother of Fernando Lopez Fernandez, manager of the prolific Juan Valle y Cia cigar factory, Manuel Lopez oversaw Punch rise to new levels of popularity past the turn of the century.
Exacting a precise lineage of Punch brand owners throughout the early 1900s is difficult due to the habitual swapping of businesses among Cubans. We do know, however, that the brand was sold for a mere fraction of its value following the stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression in 1929 as a result of plummeting U.S. and European import values. Punch was purchased and folded into the portfolio of Fernandez & Palicio y Cia, who continued to promote it alongside the Belinda, La Escepcion and Hoyo de Monterrey brands up until the Cuban Revolution. Although Punch once boasted as many as 143 shape offerings in its baseline blend, by 1961 only 6 sizes, ranging in price from 30-cents to 75-cents, were available for sale in the U.S.
Punch cigars were sold worldwide at the time Fidel Castro assumed authority in Cuba and enjoyed a particularly strong demand in England. The brand remained available outside of the U.S. after the Cuban trade embargo took effect and has been a frequent target for prolific counterfeiting and imitation as a result of demand outstripping production.
In the early 1960s, U.S. tobacco entrepreneur Dan Blumenthal and his business associate, Frank Llaneza, began to grow their corporation, Villazon and Company, into a global cigar distributor. The pair had been friendly with Punch brand owner Fernando Palicio for a number of years. In anticipation of the looming impact a Cuban trade embargo presented on cigar sales in the U.S., Blumenthal and Llaneza bought copious amounts of Cuban tobacco. With a robust stockpile, the business partners were able to continue producing and selling cigars in the U.S. that were made from Cuban tobacco (otherwise known as Clear Havanas) up through the 1970s. Additionally, in 1965, Blumenthal bought the rights to the Cuban trademarks for both the Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey brands from Palicio. Blumenthal and Llaneza had already planned a new cigar-making operation in Honduras with the intention of continuing to sell cigars in the lucrative U.S. market well beyond their supply of Cuban tobacco.
After decades of pavement-pounding and persistent growth in premium cigar retailers across the U.S., Blumenthal and Llaneza established a prosperous demand for their Honduran-made Punch brands. Consumers discovered a taste for a more medium to full-bodied profile than what many of the milder cigar brands available in the U.S. offered at the time. Riding the gigantic surge in business created by the Cigar Boom of the 1990s, Blumenthal and Llaneza sold Villazon and Company along with its entire portfolio of Punch cigars to General Cigar in 1997. The acquisition of Villazon merged Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey into General Cigar’s iconic portfolio with Macanudo, Cohiba and Partagas.
Today Punch is regarded as a top-selling, classic Cuban-heritage brand available in most premium brick and mortar cigar shops, as well as in every major online retailer in the U.S. A high quality portfolio of affordable blends identifies Punch as a phenomenal option for cigar lovers who would like to get acquainted with Honduran cigars.
PUNCH BRAND OVERVIEW
Due to the brand’s well-known Cuban legacy, the makers of Punch enjoy a tremendous spotlight among other premium handcrafted cigars made in Honduras. The original blend furnishes a meaty, medium-bodied profile in either an Ecuador Sumatra or a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. Full-flavored notes of chocolate, black pepper and hickory deliver balanced spices.
The bestselling Punch Vintage blend is among the brand’s most requested cigars. Punch Vintage is outfitted in your choice of an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper or a Connecticut Broadleaf. An extended period of aging in specially designed cedar cabinets distinguishes Vintage from other Punch cigars, in addition to a rich and unique pair of Connecticut Broadleaf binders which provide an enhanced sweetness.
Although most Punch blends are widely distributed year-round, fans of the brand eagerly anticipate the annual small-batch release of Punch Rare Corojo. Limited quantities owe their distinction to an extra oily, reddish-hued Ecuador wrapper leaf characterized by decadent flavors of cayenne and leather with a creamy finish.
Punch Grand Cru stands out as one of Cigar Aficionado’s ‘Top 25 Cigars of the Year’ in 2010, having earned a superb 93-point rating. Although the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper variety scored the acclaimed rating with a full-bodied profile of cocoa and wood, Grand Cru is also available in a slightly more approachable Natural Connecticut Shade leaf.
The Punch Deluxe blend harbors decades-old praise having been manufactured in Honduras since 1969 from Cuban-seed tobaccos. Magnificent, full-bodied flavors captivate the palate for less than ten bucks per stick.
Big, round and consistent flavors of cedar, oak and earth build a phenomenal medium to full-bodied profile in Punch Gran Puro. The all-Honduran blend creates a vibrant tour of signature Honduran spices for a great value which earned the cigar a ‘Best Buy’ award by Cigar Insider.
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