Vitola: Pita (Toro)- 6” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $8.19
- Samples provided by General Cigar Company
Background
Another day, another installment of “Is it General or is it Forged?” I’ll cut to the chase and say that the Punch brand remained in the General Cigar Company catalog…but you would have figured that out if you read the material above this paragraph, I guess. The Punch Signature blend was originally released in 2015, although its development stretches all the way back to 2012 “when the HATSA (cigar factory) team worked with an independent grower to cultivate a special Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper.”
The blend pays homage to the original Punch blend by using tobaccos from the same countries of origin, although different growing locations or varietals were used to add layers of complexity. The Punch Signature uses Dominican and Nicaraguan filler leaves and a proprietary Connecticut Habano binder along with the Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper leaf mentioned earlier.
For 2021, General decided to freshen the look of the Punch Signature, at least with its presence on the shelves. They moved away from the wooden box with the plastic window in the lid and toward a cardboard box that is very similar to the other products from the line released in the last 4 or 5 years.
General sent me samples for this revisit of the Punch Signature. I gave it a full review when it came out, and a look at the Pita size when it was originally added.
Notes
The new packaging is a mixed bag, in my opinion. The cardboard boxes look good on the store shelves…when they don’t get crushed in transit…and speaking from experience of working in a cigar shop…they do sometimes. They are thin, soft cardboard construction and are pretty easily deformed. Still, the added information they added on the flap at the foot of the box is a great replacement for a shelf talker. And I love the fact that they highlighted the artwork from the back of the band on the flap at the head of the box. That artwork is tiny on the band and it deserves a better place to stand out…now it has it. The overall effect is to make the band itself (which was always bordering on “plain”) make more sense and be more attractive. Packaging matters…marketing matters. Does it make the cigar taste better? No…but it makes a person more likely to pick it up and buy it the first time without a warm body from the shop telling them they should.
The cigar still feels and looks about the same as it did when it came out…medium brown in color with a rich earthiness and a good amount of oiliness under my fingertips. The foot of the cigar was earthy, too, but also had notes of cocoa powder, cedar, and hay in the mix. Once clipped, the draw was good and had a mix of earth and unsweetened cocoa powder flavors.
Once lit, the Punch Signature held out flavors of leather and earth, semisweet chocolate and espresso bean, along with a touch of citrus and a little pepper on the finish. The retrohale was nutty and woody with some white pepper burn to it.
It seems like a good opportunity to repeat what I’ve said about a few times about a few cigars…and what I said about this same blend in this same size when I looked at the Pita size…if you liked this blend already, this is a good addition…if you didn’t, this isn’t going to change your mind. General has done a great job at maintaining the consistency of this line over the years.
