It's time to give the devil his due. Ya'll slept on one of the highest-reviewed oscuro cigars in the history of Cigar Aficionado history, and missed your chance to score one of the greatest strong stogies of the modern age.

Yes, I am speaking of the demonically delicious Diablo from Punch Cigars. But while the blend may sport an embossed Punch Cigars band, it is actually an AJ Fernandez product, earmarking it as the first General Cigars product to be produced outside of Honduras. And by Satan's belt buckle did AJ whip up a good one.

With its oscuro-grade Sumatran wrapper, American-grown Broadleaf binder, and bold, 100% Cuban-seed ligero leaf filler blend, this dark, demonic-looking stick is a specialty item hidden in plain sight. And for whatever reason the blend has struggled to catch on with the average Klaro consumer... until now. 

[Buy 5-Pack]

Unlit Impressions 

Medium roast coffee bean in color, with a good bit of tooth touching its perfectly finished surface, this Ecuador-grown Sumatran oscuro wrapper is almost too pretty to torch. If anyone finds a construction flaw on one of these sticks please let me know, because I have yet to find a single physical flaw on one of these smokes. Oh, and the band is a blinging, but appropriate representation of what awaits. Dark, light, sinister, yet sophisticated. 

Smells of chewy dark chocolate and Ecuadorian coffee, complete with some spicier, earthier Sumatran single-source caffeine beans come at you as the wrapper is nasally embraced. The foot forms a funkier, sweeter rum-raisin aroma, which grows into a salty cocoa note the more you sniff. This is balanced by a lot of dark soil and some peppery spice from the all-ligero filler blend.

Cold draws are surprisingly nondescript, with bits of black pepper and cocoa being the main flavors behind some clay-like soil and a kick of oaky tannins and cedar.

Initial Smoke

Pepper spray spicy at torch-off, this demonic blend leans toward leather and a good bit of bitter cocoa before bringing the dark soil of South America to your doorstep. Retrohales are particularly intense, so I suggest skipping them entirely at first if you are sensitive to these sorts of flavors and sensations. 

1st Half

Sweet tones of homemade, salty hot cocoa (perhaps with a marshmallow or two on top) and a walnut crunch are the first major cigar flavor profile to form. Coffee beans and oak, along with truckloads of topsoil and a devilishly delicious dose of fermented tobacco depth.

There is some bitter bite to this smoke still, but by now it has become synonymous with what you find in toasted walnuts and certain coffee strains. This brings up the level of enjoyability by quite a few notches, with retrohales rocking the senses with a rich, woody whiff of cedar and oak, along with an unusual, generic floral note.

Everything is already full by this point, including body, strength, flavor, and finish. Yet due to the smoothness of this blend, it does not feel this way, even though you know it should.

2nd Half

American-bred Connecticut Broadleaf binder building in intensity, while dumping even more soil than ever before on your senses, the second third starts to show the duality of this cigar.

On one side, there is the regular old smoky exhale, which can be slightly dry at times and oaky. This also produces a very rich maduro flavor that is more mocha and nuts than cracked peppercorns and rain-sparged soil at times. Retrohales tell a very different tale though, with the exotic spice notes from the Sumatran wrapper making the finish feel lighter, yet more intense as well. Together, these two methodologies give you the ability to choose what is detected and when.

Parting Puffs

As the surprisingly floral Sumatran Oscuro wrapper combusts, grilled fruit flavors form. Combined with the lingering tastes of oak, milky mocha, and a good bit of bittersweet chocolate bar, the long finish of this cigar and its parting puffs portion push my review score even higher. There is some spice to be tasted and felt, and it is both dried black and red pepper flake in intensity, but this folds fluidly into the mix and makes parting puffs pretty damn outstanding. I also detected the emergence of cereal grains and granola just before putting each cigar down for good, which is a pity, because they would have been a welcomed addition earlier on. 

Ash / Burn / Smoke / Draw

Outside of a slightly dirty color to some sections of the ash on my review cigar, I didn't encounter a single issue with either stogie smoked, and loved the way in which the draw allowed the perfect amount of smoke to be pulled within each puff. Don't you just love it when that happens?

Final Thoughts

By this point, I have lost count as to how many award-winning blends AJ Fernandez has produced for other cigar brands. I have also been unable to count how many times I told myself that I wasn't going to drool in front of the camera when I reviewed the Punch Diablo Scamp. Yet there I was handkerchief in hand, trying to keep it together, as I fought the urge to take a big-ass bite of the cigar in my hand. 

Floral, spiced, spicy, and playful at times, and darker than the halls of Hades at others, this maduro makes a strong case for the additional fermentation of Sumatran wrappers. Strong yet smooth, this filler of this blend somehow takes ligero, which is arguably the most intense tobacco leaf on the plant, and buries it behind a nutty earthen wall of dark Broadleaf. Allowing these innards to produce their own cigar flavor profile is part of the reason why this blend tastes and smells so good.

Throw all of that at a dark fruity chewiness and a good bit of oak and cedar, and you are left with a maduro cigar that is just as intense and rich as it is balanced and well-built. 

Flavor, Aroma & Transitions

Depth & Complexity

Construction, Burn & Physical Appeal

Backstory & Branding

Overall Balance & Repeatability

Stogie Specs