From Rich Perelman at CigarCyclopedia:

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 the Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars, a wrapper color guide is included in the brand tables and they didn’t use anything other than “maduro” for cigars with dark brown wrappers for several years. Simply put, they didn’t see anything which they 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 they 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!