Vitola: Panatela- 7” x 37 ring gauge
- ~$5.25
- Purchased from Small Batch Cigar
Background
Early in 2019, General Cigar Company’s Punch brand shipped a limited edition cigar unlike anything they had done before. Egg Roll was cleverly and humorously packaged in Chinese food container-style boxes and priced very inexpensively. It was an enormous hit and turned out to be the first of an annual release…but they weren’t all going to be Egg Rolls.
For 2020, as we celebrate the Chinese Year of the Rat (and suffer under another Chinese export), Punch has released Chop Suey, packaged again in to-go containers, this time with chopsticks through holes on the top. It features Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, a Nicaraguan binder, and an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper.
The Egg Roll was in the shape of a Rothschild with a shaggy foot. This year’s release is a shaggy Panatela, a size that you simply don’t see all that frequently. Carrying on one tradition from last year…each band has one of 5 fortune cookie fortunes on the underside of it, so make sure not to just toss the band without reading it.
I purchased a 10-pack of these from Leaf Enthusiast sponsor, Small Batch Cigar.
Prelight
The packaging for these, like I said before, is fun and clever. Where Davidoff went ultra-expensive and elaborate with their Chinese Zodiac releases, General went ultra-cheap and guaranteed to make you laugh. I like both ways because they work with the brands in question and are not boring. The band this year is red background with gold foil art and type…very lucky colors.
The wrapper leaf was a medium brown color with lots of lumpiness to it. Surprising at first until I remembered that with such a small ring gauge, imperfections in other leaves come into play more readily. There wasn’t a lot of difference in the color of the binder where the shaggy foot peaks out, but the cut line is very apparent. The wrapper was moderately oily and smelled of cedar and earth. The shaggy foot had a stronger earthiness, with hints of cocoa powder.
After cutting, I got a decent draw. I have to say the draw has been the biggest downfall of this cigar. While never too tight to smoke, all three previous samples have been snug at best. The cold draw had flavors of natural tobacco, earth, hay, and cedar.
Flavor
The Punch Chop Suey opened up with flavors of hay and earth, along with small touches of dried apricot and black pepper. The sweetness and spice weren’t much…just enough so you knew they were there. On the retrohale, I got floral and nutty notes. Once I got past the shaggy portion, there was a stronger cedar flavor, with a little more sweetness and spice coming through, as well. The retrohale changed even more with quite a bit of pepper and cedar showing up.
In the second third, the cedar maintained a high level but the pepper died down. There was more floral sweetness, with earth and hay coming in on the finish.
The last third was mostly the same…more cedar, a little mix of floral and earthy notes.
Construction
As I stated before, the draw was a bit tight and that was common in every one of these I smoked. The ash was solid, though, and the burn line was even enough.
Value
Great price tag on this one…helps to make up for the variable construction quality and relative lack of complexity.
Conclusions
Punch Chop Suey is an interesting and fun second installment in this series, although it didn’t bowl me over nearly as much as the Egg Roll did a year ago. I would have bought 2 or 3 boxes of the Egg Roll with its mix of fantastic price point and complex richness. Chop Suey is a good cigar, but it didn’t really rise above that for me. Partially that was a function of a poor draw on several samples, but it’s also a function of a ring gauge that might just be too small for the blend. Add that into the fact that the price tag went up some from last year’s installment and I just didn’t find it to be compelling beyond the 10-pack that I purchased.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8/10
