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by Craig Vanderslice | May 25, 2022 · 12:06 pm

News: Punch Launches “The People’s Champ” Cigar

General Cigar has a long history of crowdsourcing their cigar releases like this. They did it with the Cameroon Excalibur, a CAO release, at least those are two that immediately sprang to mind. None of these were actually named after the process from what I can recall. It sounds like a good blend, and good for them for keeping the price down, this seems to be Punches thing these days. We can all use a break, ri

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ght?

A new cigar from Punch called “The People’s Champ,” will ship in early June. The cigar is the result of input from thousands

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of dyed-in-the-wool Punch fans who guided every aspect of the cigar and its packaging.

The Punch Brotherhood, an online-based group of Punch brand enthusiasts from across the US, started collaborating on The People’s Champ cigar in 2019, providing feedback to the Punch brand and cigar-making teams in the U.S. and Honduras. Three years later, with input on everything from the profile and the size of the cigar to its packaging, Punch will proudly unveil the limited edition robusto.

Punch brand manager John Hakim said, “We asked. They told. We crafted. This is the best way to describe how The People’s Champ cigar was created. While some may say we spent a lot of time on such a limited run of cigars, we beg to differ. We learned so much from Punch’s most devoted fans, and those insights will be incredibly valuable in guiding us on future releases.”

Crafted at HATSA in Honduras, The People’s Champ cigar features a five-country blend, made with a rich Honduran Habano wrapper from the Talanga Valley, with a Mexican San Andrean binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Nicaragua.

The People’s Champ is a brick and mortar exclusive that will be sold to an elite group of Punch retailers across the country. The cigars will be available in both 5 and 10-count, paper-wrapped bundles which will ship to retailers on June 1. The cigar’s imagery will be revealed at that time via the Punch website.

The People’s Champ (5” x 50); SRP per cigar $6.49

The medium bodied experience begins with a hint of sweetness and builds to notes of nuts and leather, with a white pepper finish.

About Punch Cigars

Punch cigars are produced by General Cigar Co. Inc., which manufactures and markets handcrafted cigars for the premium market. Committed to delivering cigars of the finest quality, General Cigar also produces Macanudo®, Cohiba®, Partagas®
Hoyo de Monterrey®, Excalibur®, La Gloria Cubana® and several other leading premium brands. In addition, the company grows its own premium Connecticut Shade wrapper tobacco, as well as natural and candela wrapper in the Dominican Republic. General Cigar also operates Club Macanudo®, a cigar bar in New York City. Based in Richmond, VA, General Cigar sells through tobacconists nationwide. For more information, please visit www.cigarworld.com.

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by Craig Vanderslice | April 24, 2022 · 9:22 am

Punch Knuckle Buster, El Rey Del Mundo and Pichardo Cigars

I’ve smoked a few of the new Punch Knuckle Buster Cigars recently and I have to say that I really like them. I had recently smoked my last Knuckle Buster natural, which had been recommended to me a while ago by a tobacconist. This had been a good recommendation, as I had found this to be a tasty smoke and had revisited it frequently. So I was excited to try the maduro version. I’m tempted to say that this is a really good cigar for the price, and these are very reasonably priced at under $6 for the Toro, and I’m amazed that they can make a Connecticut Broadleaf cigar so in

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expensively. These have an Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers and are made in Honduras. This is a really good tasting cigar, with a different flavor than many Broadleaf cigars. I want to say it’s a savory, meaty kind of flavor, whatever it is, it appeals to me and I like it. This will be a cigar I will pick up from time to time for sure, and wish they had in the rothschild size as it would be a great short smoke.

I smoked the El Rey Del Mundo Natural this week, and, once again, was taken back to the 90’s when I smoked these often. My go to in this line was the Rectangulare, a box pressed corona gorda basically, which seems to be included in the current lineup. I smoked the Robusto en Vidrio, a 5½” x 50 robusto. General Cigars (this actually falls under their Forged division) likes the longer robusto vitola, it shows up in a lot of lines. I don’t have a good argument against the extra half an inch in most cases. Again, this is a sub-seven dollar cigar, and a very good smoke. It’s creamy, medium bodied with some woody notes. I’m not at all displeased smoking this cigar.

I picked up a Pichardo Reserva Familiar San Andrés yesterday on the recommendation of Vince at Son’s and smoked it last night. I regret only grabbing one, and I almost always get two, but I’ve been trying to be frugal. We’ve had a seemingly endless parade of household expenses this month, plumber, appliances, veterinarian, IRS, I don’t need more cigars. Anyway, I’ve been wanting to t

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ry more cigars from the Pichardo factory, so I gave this one a try

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. This was a toro, with San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder, and Fillers from Ometepe, Esteli, and Jalapa. From what I could tell, this was

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a delicious cigar, heavy on the espresso. I say that because this was plagued with apparent voids in the fill. It was weird. It started with a tunnel for the first third of the cigar, it took two or three puffs to get any smoke. Then for an inch it would be OK. Then there was another void. It was irritating, because the cigar tasted really good. I’ll try another, you know, for science.

That’s all for today, don’t forget to check out the Red Meat Lover’s Club Presents Battleship, Beef and Bourbon for the Ship event (I posted about it here). I hope to see some of you there! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | April 3, 2022 · 10:41 am

Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua, Aladino Vintage and Punch Rare Corojo Cigars

I had an interesting week, so I smoked some interesting cigars, at least to me. I had a situation which required fasting, so I smoked a Perla Del Mar Connecticut which was really quite good, and after breaking the fast, I had a Diamond Crown, keeping it in the family, and also fairly mild! But let’s start with the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua in the Vibrato size. This is a 6″ x 54 box pressed toro with a dark Nicaraguan Sumatra wrapper. It’s a puro, all Nicaraguan. This cigar was in a sampler I received at the TPE show from the Altadis USA booth. There were some Upmann and Romeo cigars in there too. I think it’s weird that this size isn’t lists on the Altadis website, so maybe it’s new. As folks who have followed along may recall, my preferences don’t generally favor Altadis products, with some exceptions, notably the cigars made by A.J. Fernandez, and the occasional Montecristo here and there. I’m not entirely sure why this is, it just is. Different strokes, I guess. Anyway, this one was exceptional. It was CA’s cigar of the year in 2019, I guess, and I remember smoking it back then, but this one was much better, darker, more rich and dense. There was a sweetness, which I attribute to the Sumatra. I enjoyed this cigar so much more than I remember liking the cigar of the year when I smoking it in early 2020. The size was to my liking as well.

Friday evening one of the cigars I smoked while working at Son’s was an Aladino Vintage Selection Elegante, which is the 7″ x 38 lancero. For some reason I was in a Lancero mood. It seems that the interruptions, interactions, et cetera, involved in smoking while working retail lend themselves nicely to the pacing required to the enjoyment of a lancero. At least for me. This cigar has a Habano wrapper, and, unlike the next cigar I’m going to talk about, has Corojo binder and fillers. Of course, the Eiroa family is well known for Corojo tobacco. I can’t tell you how many Camacho Corojos I smoked back in the early 2000’s. This was a very good smoke, again with a hint of sweetness, but overall just good, clean tobacco goodness. Even after having smoked a very good Oliva Masterblend 3, not nearly as good as they used to be, by the way, the Aladino Lancero was excellent. I think it smoked for nearly 2 hours.

Yesterday I smoked the new Punch Rare Corojo Aristocrat. The funny thing about this cigar has always been, despite the name, it has never had any Corojo tobacco in the blend. It has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Nicaraguan, Honduran and Dominican fillers. I never could figure out why they called it Rare Corojo, obviously the Corojo is so rare in this cigar that it’s non-existent! Let’s talk about the size of this cigar for a minute. It’s a 6 1/8” x 40/54 figurado. The press release says “This special size was originally made at the Villazon factory, commissioned by Frank Llaneza who founded Punch in Honduras. Frank made what he referred to as a baseball bat-size cigar for Red Auerbach and Art Rooney, two sports legends.” It reminds me of the Cuban Partagas Presidente, but I looked it up and that’s only a 47 ring gauge, and an eighth of an inch longer. I love the size and shape. I also love the flavor, and always have enjoyed the Rare Corojos, despite the name thing. That hint of sweetness from the Sumatra that I love, and it builds in strength. I dig it.

That’s all for today, until the next time.

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | October 17, 2021 · 11:11 am

Punch Aniversario, La Gloria Criollo de Oro and Reinado Grand Apex Cigars

It’s been an odd week, another reason I don’t like this time of year. It was cloudy most of the week, but the temps were fairly warm. Then yesterday it was sunny most of the day and nearly 80 degrees and then it stormed and dropped 20 degrees. Of course, this is the perfect set up for a migraine. Anyway, once I got the grass cut (hopefully for the last time), I saw able to smoke a cigar. But let’s back up a bit. I had a choice on Friday evening to either watch the Drew Estate Freestyle Live event, or the Flyers season opener, of course I chose the Flyers. Freestyle Live I can watch the replay, the Flyers not so much. It turns out that I missed our friend CigarProp/TrashPanda Kevin winning the Harley, which was exciting, but I did catch it the next day. I’m happy to have hockey back and have sports to watch again! I lit up a Punch Aniversario, whic

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h commemorates the 180th anniversary of the brand. I published the press release back in July, and I take issue with them saying this was an hourlong smoke. It’s a 7¼”x 54 corona doble (same size as a Horo Excalibur No. 1, by the way), certainly a two hour smoke. For a cigar that has a Broadleaf wrapper and binder, I didn’t find that is tasted heavily like a broadleaf cigar! I thought it was fairly medium bodied and not real bold in the flavor department. It certainly was a decent companion while I watched my first real hockey game of the season! The couple more I have will rest for a while and I’ll revisit them later.

Yesterday after finishing chores I sat down with the new La Gloria Cubana Criollo de Oro toro. As with the Punch, this was a sample provided by General/Forged/STG. I’ve had a long association with them and they’ve always been great about providing samples. As I think about it, it’s coming up on the ten year anniversary of the blogger trip to the factory. It’s about time for a reunion, isn’t it? 😉 Full disclosure,I’m traditionally not a fan of Criollo

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tobacco, so I’m not sure how I’m going to take to this Criollo/Pelo de Oro hybrid. Criollo is one of the few tobaccos I actually kind of find off putting. I’ll avoid it if I can help it. Of course, there are exceptions I suppose, but generally I find this to be the case. On the other hand, I generally like La Gloria Cubanas, but one can’t like every cigar in a given brand, right? This was the first one I tried, and they just came in last week, so I’ll be giving them more of a chance, but the initial thoughts weren’t off-putting but weren’t mindblowing either. There are several of their more recent releases that I like a lot more, but, as I said, this is an initial impression. It certainly worked well. I can’t believe it’s been a decade since I toured the factory!

Last night I smoked a Reinado Grand Apex. I had previously smoked a sample that Antonio had given me, this one was a banded version that I purchased (along with a T-shirt that I happened to have been wearing). I need to buy some more. The Grand Apex is made at Aganorsa, and has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. This is a bold cigar with bold flavors. It’s heavy on the espresso and earth, with significant spice. If I had a cigar of the week feature, this one would be it. Maybe I should do that, but it seems like a lot of work. Maybe I’ll just bring it up when a worthy candidate presents itself, much like this one. Reinado Grand Apex: CigarCraig.com’s Cigar of the week for October 17, 2021! Maybe that will make the Reinado webpage. Should I make up a badge? I kid, I never troll for recognition, it’s a great cigar, and I might need to talk to some of my local PA (ahem, Son’s) retailers to carry it!

That’s about all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | July 29, 2021 · 1:13 pm

News: Punch Aniversario Set For September Launch

More news from General Cigar, or Forged, I can’t keep up with which company has which brands. Either way, Punch was one of the first cigars I bought in quantity, of course it was Punch Rothschilds, probably in maduro. I would probably get five or six for the cost of a single one of these new Aniversarios, but that was 25 years ago. This sounds like a tasty cigar, I’m looking forward to it!

Since its humble beginnings in 1840 as a cigar created for export to the United Kingdom, Punch has been a stalwart brand that has weathered many storms and withstood the test of time. It has captured the palates and hearts of generations of cigar enthusiasts, most notably discerning American smokers who continually turn to Punch for its expert craftsmanship, indulgent flavor and confident branding.

To commemorate the momentous occasion of the brand’s 180th anniversary, Punch is proud to release its most limited offering to date with “Aniversario,” a spectacular cigar befitting the Punch legacy.

Ed Lahmann, senior brand manager of Punch said, “Perhaps more than any other handmade cigar brand that has graced a tobacconist’s humidor, Punch has been symbolic of a trailblazer, a maverick and one who is unapologetically self-assured in their choices. Today, we celebrate Punch as the first name in Honduran-crafted cigars with this special release. We look forward to upholding the brand’s legacy for today’s Punch loyalists and the next generation of Punch enthusiasts.”

The Punch blending team at the HATSA factory in Danli, Honduras developed the cigar to offer an indulgent, hourlong smoking experience, giving the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper additional cedar aging to enhance the tobacco and create a deeper, richer profile. The blend features proprietary, hand-selected leaves from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras and a Connecticut Broadleaf binder to create a dimensional, earthy cigar that is equally as indulgent as it is satisfying.

Punch Aniversario will be released exclusively to select brick and mortar retailers in early September and only 3,400 boxes of this commemorative blend have been produced. The cigars are presented in ten-count wooden boxes, handsomely accented with navy and gold.