Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars - BLACK IS BLACK, BUT IS IT MADURO, DOUBLE MADURO OR OSCURO?

BLACK IS BLACK, BUT IS IT MADURO, DOUBLE MADURO OR OSCURO?

BLACK IS BLACK, BUT IS IT MADURO, DOUBLE MADURO OR OSCURO?

Plus: More spirited bidding on Padron Serie 1926 40th Anniversary cigars

Los Angeles, March 10 – Copy chief Gary Korb ran a great item in his latest “Shop Talk” newsletter from Famous Smoke Shop entitled “Oscuro vs. Double Maduro. Which is which?”

It’s a great question with subtleties which are not always appreciated. Korb gets to the bottom of his question quickly with Keith Sparacio from General Cigar, whose answer is worth reading carefully:

Allow me to explain the difference between a Maduro and Double Maduro cigar to you with regard to General Cigar. The shade of the wrapper does NOT make a Double Maduro cigar. . . . A Double Maduro has both a Maduro wrapper and also a Maduro BINDER, hence the name "Double Maduro."

Sparacio notes that Villazon & Co. – acquired by General in 1999 – was the first to develop this type of cigar on its Hoyo de Monterrey and Punch lines (including Punch Deluxe and Punch Grand Cru) using Connecticut Broadleaf for both the wrapper and binder. The name “double maduro” gained more notoriety lately with the 2002 debut of the Sancho Panza Double Maduro line in four shapes, all featuring a distinctive yellow band (shown above).

But the underlying question of “maduro” vs. “oscuro” requires more explanation. In Spanish, “maduro” is usually translated into English as “ripe” or sometimes as “mellow.” The “maduro” tag is usually given to wrapper leaves which have been exposed longer in the field and grown extra dark, and/or which have been sweated longer in the fermentation process to become darker and yield a sweeter taste. Genuine maduro wrappers are dark brown in color and offer the smoker a slight sweetness on the finish.

“Oscuro” in Spanish is usually translated into English as “dark.” In our Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars, we include wrapper color in our brand tables and didn’t use anything other than “maduro” for cigars with dark brown wrappers for several years. We simply didn’t see anything which we thought was dark enough – black enough – to consider “oscuro.”

That changed when the Felipe Gregorio line introduced some extra-darkly-wrapped Felipe Gregorio Belicosos in the late 1990s and we had to think hard about whether to call them maduro or oscuro. But the issue was settled when the Victor Sinclair cigar company introduced its Series 55 Grand Reserve Blue line in 2001. Their Connecticut Broadleaf wrappers are pitch black, actually the shade of a hot dog left out way too long on the grill, but smooth to the touch.

Today, only the Series 55 and three other brands offer true “oscuro” – black – wrappers:

• Victor Sinclair’s Bohemian Black line, using Brazilian-grown wrappers;

• Hoyo de Monterrey’s Dark Sumatra line, started in 2002, with an Ecuadorian-grown wrapper, and

• Mombacho, introduced in 2004 by the Tabacalera Tropical, showing off a Nicaraguan-grown Corojo ‘99 wrapper.

Oscuro-wrapped cigars can be a little off-putting because of their color. But they’re also likely to be oily and full of flavor with a pronounced sweetness on the finish. Skip the sugar . . . black is beautiful!

Generally speaking, your cigars now cost more:
You’ll be paying more for your Hoyos, La Glorias, Macanudos, Partagas and Punch cigars in the near future if you aren’t already. General Cigar has pushed through a small price increase (mostly in the range of $1-5 per box) on its brands which is already reflected on the larger mail-order and Internet-sales sites.

Hammer time:
More Padron action: the humidor of 40 Serie 1926 40th Anniversary cigars did sell on eBay on Tuesday, drawing only three bids, but a healthy final price of $2,225, equal to $55.63 per cigar if you discount the special humidor that comes with it.

That beats the $1,999 paid for the same item on eBay on March 4. That box had a “Buy It Now” option at that price and it was claimed within an hour and 42 minutes of being listed!

A five-pack of the Padron 40ths went for $197.50 in spirited bidding on March 3, with 26 bids received for the sampler. The seller is the same Deerfield Beach, Florida fellow who has been selling 40th Anniversary cigars individually and has some up on eBay now with the high bid as of Tuesday evening at $36 each.

Amazingly, Famous Smoke Shop’s Cigar Auctioneer.com site also has a third box of Padron 40ths up for sale. The bidding starts at $1, but the previous full box they had went for $2,055. That auction ends on Monday, March 14th at 9:59 p.m. Eastern time.
~ Rich Perelman

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