I wasn’t even really thinking that I only smoked Macanudo and Punch cigars for this week’s post, it just sort of happened that way! I was really impressed with the Macanudo Emissary España last year, it’s really good, and on the stronger side for a Macanudo. It has tobacco grown in Spain, and the new one, the Emissary France, believe it or not, has tobacco grown in France! The tobacco cultivated in the Mugron River Valley, where it gets an Atlantic sea breeze. Emissary France has an Ecuadorian Habano Wrapper (10-Year Aged), a USA Broadleaf Binder (10-Year Aged), and a filler blend composed of Dominican Piloto (10-Year Aged), USA Broadleaf (8-Year Aged), Brazilian Arapiraca (7-Year Aged) and French (4-Year Aged). This was a really interesting cigar, another Macanudo that’s up my alley. It’s bold, it has a lot of espresso, and a hint of Mesquite. Very interesting and entertaining! The last few weeks cigars have been more therapeutic than usual, and this one, although too short at 5″ x 50, was a hit.
In the spirit of the season, I finally completed an experiment. Back in March of 2020 I found a Macanudo 1968 that had been inadvertently left out and was on the dehydrated side. It measured only 35% on the Humidimeter. I labeled it with the date and humidity, and stashed it in a corner of one of the humidors. I hate to complain, but it actually took me a while to find it, I had forgotten which humidor it was in. This cigar was from a box that I was given in 2011 when I went to tour General Cigar’s operations in Santiago. I might still have one floating around somewhere, I don’t think this was the last one. Anyway, I took a Humidimeter reading and it was right around 60% so I lit it up yesterday while watching a movie. The Macanudo 1968 was probably the first of the stronger Macanudos, so I wasn’t worried it had aged out, more concerned with the dehydration. It actually smoked really well, tasted like an older cigar, mature, with some spice. It shows that resurrecting a cigar is possible, and probably didn’t take 5 years, I just kept forgetting about it!
Let’s move away from Macanudo and on to one of it’s stablemates, Punch. Punch is an old Cuban brand, with roots in the English market. So it stands to reason they would come out with seasonal releases with Chinese themes. It was food for a bit, then fireworks. This year’s is the Bottle Rocket. It comes in a single size , a 4½” x 50 figurado. It has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, a Nicaraguan Estelí binder, and Nicaraguan, Dominican, and Honduran fillers. I have enjoyed ll of the cigars in Punch’s lunar new year series, and they are priced well. I was in The Wooden Indian Tobacconist yesterday grabbing a few cigars (sadly they were sold out of the WIT60, their 60th anniversary cigar made by Espinosa), and I saw the Bottle Rockets and they really are packed with a stick attached, my samples were sans stick. My notes said “tasty little bugger”, full bodied, loads of cocoa and a deceptively long burn time. I think I got over an hour out of this one. Another winner from Punch.
While at the Wooden Indian I grabbed a Punch Dad’s Home Movies and smoked it last night while not watching home movies. This is another perplexing branding theme for Punch. Every year ahead of Father’s Day they come out with some kitschy themed cigar, this was last year’s and I’m just now getting around to trying it. I was especially critical of the “Dad Bod”, hated the name, the stupid necktie band, and samples I had were mostly damaged. I had one last week and it about fell apart. This one is more my speed. It’s a 6″ x 50 box pressed toro, made in Honduras with an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and not a hint of Honduran tobacco! This one started out with a dry cocoa powder flavor, then sweetened slightly. I’ll tell you what, for under $8 you could do a lot worse, I quite enjoyed this one. The branding is less egregious than the Dad Bod (which won a HalfWheel packaging award, go figure).
That’s all for today. If you’re given to celebrating the holy days this time of year, I hope they are enjoyable! Don’t forget to check the Flatbed Cigars Daily Deal on the left sidebar (or on their page), there’s always a great deal on some great cigars. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
