Punch

Habanos writes, in its December 2025 press release celebrating the brand's 185 years, that Punch was registered and then founded in 1840 to serve the growing British market; its brand page says only the middle of the nineteenth century and has it founded by Don Manuel López de Juan Valle y Cía, who wanted to enter the English market, where a humorous publication of the same name was popular. Wikipedia writes that the brand was registered in 1840 by a German named Stockmann, then bought in 1874 by Luis Corujo and in 1884 by Manuel López Fernández, and that it owes its name to the puppet Mr. Punch; the magazine Punch, for its part, first appeared on 17 July 1841.

The clown Mr. Punch, symbol of the publication of the same name, still appears on every box, a Habano in hand, says habanos.com, whose 2025 press release links the brand to the emblem of Punch & Judy.

Wikipedia writes that the firm Fernández, Palicio y Cía bought the brand in 1930, whereas habanos.com says that in 1931 Punch moved to the Hoyo de Monterrey factory; that after the American embargo, Fernando Palicio sold his brands to Frank Llaneza and Dan Blumenthal, of Villazon & Co., who make a Punch in Honduran tobacco for the American market; and that Cuba then nationalised the industry, with Punch production continuing. That Honduran Punch is a different cigar from the Cuban Punch of Habanos.

Habanos classes Punch among its brands of medium strength (“Medium”), with leaves from the Vuelta Abajo, rolled by hand with longfiller.

The Double Corona measures 194 mm for a cepo 49 (vitola de galera Prominentes) and the Punch 143 mm for a cepo 46 (Corona Gorda), according to Wikipedia's list of vitolas.

Where is it rolled? In Cuba the question has a two-storey answer. Since 2002 each Habanos brand has had a mother factory, responsible for leaf selection and blend, and its cigars may be rolled in any of the island's few dozen factories under the mother's supervision; Habanos does not publish that map, the trade press reconstructs it. Its mother factory is La Corona — the Miguel Fernández Roig —, Avenida 20 de Mayo, in Cerro, a former cigarette factory converted into a cigar factory in 2000, says the trade press, which also makes it the mother factory of Hoyo de Monterrey and Cuaba. In October 2026, the page “The Habanos Brands Academia” on habanos.com places Punch among its five “High Value Brands” (with wide distribution and interesting portfolios, it says), with Trinidad, Bolívar, Quai d'Orsay and Ramón Allones, in a portfolio of 27 brands; the trade press had announced on 1 August 2019 a classification into twenty-one portfolio brands, including a group of four called high-value — Bolívar, Punch, Ramón Allones, Trinidad. The official page says it: in 1931 Punch joined the factory where Hoyo de Monterrey was made, and the two brands are produced at La Corona. The Short de Punch, presented as a world première in Zurich on 12 July 2019, gave it its first cepo 50 (50 x 120 mm, box of 10), says habanos.com.

Range Depth

• Double Corona

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Medium

  Vitola de galera Prominentes, cepo 49 x 194 mm according to Wikipedia. Habanos describes the brand as medium in strength, with leaves from the Vuelta Abajo.

  Double Corona

• Punch

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Medium

  Vitola de galera Corona Gorda, cepo 46 x 143 mm according to Wikipedia's list of vitolas, which also places the Royal Selection No. 11 in this format. Habanos describes the brand as medium in strength.

  Punch

• Short de Punch

  Wrapper Vuelta Abajo · Strength Medium

  Cepo 50 x 120 mm, presented in 2019: the brand's first cepo 50, in a box of 10 (Semi Boîte Nature), for a large ring gauge and a faster smoke with the characteristic flavour of Punch, says habanos.com. It had already been used in regional editions.

🥃 Pairings

• British real ale

  Beer

  Suggested pairing for a Punch (cepo 46 x 143 mm), a brand that Habanos describes as medium in strength and designed for the English market.

• Laphroaig 10 years

  Whisky

  Suggested pairing for a Double Corona (cepo 49 x 194 mm), a long vitola of the brand.

• Rioja Reserva

  Wine

  Suggested pairing for a Short de Punch (cepo 50 x 120 mm), a large ring gauge with a faster smoke according to habanos.com.

👤 Associated figures

• Don Manuel López de Juan Valle

  Habanos credits him with the brand, founded by his house Manuel López de Juan Valle y Cía around the middle of the nineteenth century to enter the English market, where a humorous publication of the same name was popular. Wikipedia tells of another lineage: a brand registered in 1840 by a German named Stockmann, bought in 1874 by Luis Corujo and then in 1884 by Manuel López Fernández, whose name still appears on the bands and boxes.

✨ Notable limited editions

• Punch Serie d'Oro No. 2 EL (2013, première Edición Limitada de la marque)
• Punch Regios de Punch EL (2017)
• Punch Princesas EL (2025)