Summary:

A mild to medium-bodied, maduro cigar with a rough-appearing and veiny wrapper that is oscuro-dark black. Those looking for a “wicked touch of spice” in their cigars should probably look elsewhere however…and that probably explains why this cigar has gone from being a promising devil to a ghost of Halloween past.

Those of you familiar with my cigar reviews should know that this one is a bit different. The Diablo line has been discontinued by the manufacturer due to low sales. If you want to try this cigar, you will have to hurry, search out the few suppliers who still have it in stock — and it will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you.

So, why the review?

As I said, I’m doing something a little different here. This review is the first installment in a two part series. The first part, which you are reading, will review the cigar independent of its marketing campaign and hype. Think of it as similar to a blind tasting — or as similar as I can possibly make it.

The second article, which will follow, will focus on the question of “what went wrong,” and I frankly find that question quite interesting. Hopefully, so will you.

When the Diablo line was introduced, there was much fanfare and a well-coordinated guerilla marketing campaign that a lot of time and effort went into. The cigar was created by a really talented blender, and is really not a bad cigar at all. Despite that, only a little over a year later, the cigar is history. Considering that it was backed by one of the major companies in the industry, I think that the Diablo story deserves a second look.

So, enjoy the review today and come back for the post-mortem soon.
 

Background Information:

A medium-bodied cigar with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, an oily Connecticut Broadleaf binder, and a filler made of a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican Piloto Cubano (cuban seed) Ligero tobacco. From cigar master-blender Daniel Nuñez, and manufacturered by General Cigar at their Dominicana factory .

From the Manufacturer:

“The Cigar With A Wicked Touch of Spice. Diablo cigars are medium to full-bodied, with a devilishly spicy finish. Available in four different sizes, including a 6” x 60 pyramid, Diablo cigars are sure to please the serious cigar smoker looking to try something new, something “devilishly delightful”. Give into temptation!.”

Cigar Envy Cigar Review:

Appearance:  10 of 10 points

The appearance of this cigar was probably as well thought out as the marketing campaign. It is very well-constructed, and the black and red modernistic logo looks good on the dark cigar. Choosing to go with an almost black, oscuro-like maduro wrapper, choosing to go with a rough and veiny appearance but finishing the cigar well — that fits in with the “devilish” marketing presentation. The appearance of the Diablo sets the stage for the wicked experience that was promised.

The black boxes and red logo were also very good, and quite a departure for General. Excellent appearance overall.

Aroma:  10 of 15 points

Pre-light, the cigar has an earthy scent from the tobacco blend that, when combined with the spices or oils infused into it to try to give Diablo that “wicked spice” they were playing on produces an unfortunate, sour and musky undertone that can be mistaken for mold.

This is not a great first impression for a cigar to give — especially a cigar in the suggested retail price range of the Diablo when introduced. My hunch is that part of the problem here comes from trying to get enough pepper and oils in to produce heat and spice, but at the same time trying not to overpower the tobacco.

Once lit, the cigar produces an incredible amount of creamy, white smoke. My friend Richard, at Blank Mind Blog, suggested in his review of the Diablo Picante that this cigar is a “must have” in any smoke ring contest. I would have to agree with him. The smoke aroma was very earthy with a few wood tones and sharper notes. Not unpleasant at all, but not as spicy as one might expect either.

Burn:   9 of 10 points

Slight uneveness in the burn, but easily correctable. The ash is Cuban gray, quite firm, and holds on the cigar for a long time.

Consistency:   14 of 15 points

I can’t judge how consistent they are from box to box, since I chose individual cigars from three shops for this review. However, the cigars appear to be very consistent based on the sample that I smoked. High marks here on achieving what they set out to do.

Construction:   10 of 10 points

As I mentioned above, this is a very well-constructed cigar. The rough appearance of the wrapper is deliberate and deceptive. This is not a poorly made cigar.

Draw:   10 of 10 points

The draw was excellent on all of the Diablo cigars that I sampled. Again, this cigar scores high marks in the areas that usually matter most.

Flavor:   22 of 30 points

Deceptively mellow on the draw, the Diablo hits the palate first with zesty, spicy notes — although don’t be looking for something comparable to the red hot chile pepper depicted on the brand logo. The experience is a lot milder.

As I said before, I am scoring this review as if it was a blind taste test and I didn’t know the name of the cigar or the marketing hype surrounding it.

The cigar has a good flavor but it is rather one-dimensional. The initial hit of spice and pepper mentioned above goes away after the first few puffs and settles into low tones of earth and wood that persist into the final third of the cigar. There are some upper notes with sharper citrus or mint tones that come through for most of the smoke in a consistent fashion, but they too are constant throughout the smoke rather than coming and going to keep the palate alive and keep interest up.

On the finish, the earthiness dies away leaving a papery-wood flavor behind. The sharper notes predominate but for me this combined into an astringent taste that I didn’t care for. I didn’t smoke any of the ones I sampled all the way down.

I like maduros. I like full-flavored cigars. I like strong cigars. The Diablo Caliente was extremely mild and mellow for a cigar that looked like it was a powerhouse and billed itself as spicy and medium to full-bodied. I would not under any circumstances call this a full-bodied cigar.

Mind you, I am not naive enough to believe that the color of the wrapper equates to the strength or body of the cigar. The filler has a lot more to do with those factors than the wrapper leaf, and the Diablo is living…make that once-living…proof of that. I have varied tastes in cigars and appreciate smokes across the spectrum of body and flavor. However, the Diablo is just too mild and too linear a smoke for my taste.

High marks for a good, consistent blend. Graded down for the reasons listed above.

Number Sampled For Review:   Five.

Other Reviewers:

Cigar Aficianado gave it an 88, commenting on its “flavors of chocolate and caramel as well as sweet spice on the finish.” Smoke Magazine gave it a 4.1 on their old 5 point scale, with panelists called it a “an all-occasion smoke,” a “meat-and-potatoes cigar,” and suggesting that “you can’t go wrong with this one.” (As I said, if you don’t allow the packaging to pre-condition you to what to expect — taste it blind as these reviewers did — then your experience of the cigar will be more enjoyable.

Price:

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price was US $190.00 per box of 25 ($7.60 each).

Atlantic Cigar has the current online low price per box 0f 25 at US $90.70 (which is a savings of about one-third off — only $3.25 a stick). The next best price is $98.95 a box at Cigars International. A quick Google search showed them at Top Hat Tobacco for $128.99, Cigars For Less at $114.95, and at Mission Liquor and Wine for $109.95, but those are not suppliers I have any personal experience with. You can probably Google a few more on your own. As always, caveat emptor.

The best price on a sampler of Diablos at the moment is U.S. $9.00 for a three-pack at Atlantic Cigar. This sampler price is actually lower than the best box price per stick, and gives you one each of the Caliente, Pimento and Gran Fuego sizes. Cigars International has a five pack for $21.00 ($4.20 each), and Atlantic Cigar has the five-pack for $21.75.

Ordinarily, I would recommend that you check the cigar auctions, but nobody is listing them. Don’t look for Diablo cigars to be offered anywhere at bargain-basement prices as closeouts, because the manufacturer recalled all of the unopened boxes. I think that General would have preferred that this little experiment gone wrong got as little notice as possible at the end and they really didn’t want to see a fire sale.

Prices do not include shipping and are current at the time of this review for as long as Diablos last.