Punch Rare Corojo Magnum

Manufacturer: Punch
Series: Rare Corojo [2009]
Price Paid: +/- $13
Shape/Vitola: “Magnum” [Essentially a box-pressed toro]
Length: 5.1“
Ring Gauge: 54
Body: Medium
Strength: Mild-Medium
Wrapper: Colorado
Binder: [Supposedly] Connecticut
Filler: Dominican & Nicaraguan
Number Smoked For Review: 3

I’m a bit green as far as Punch’s go, but I heard through the grapevine that the 2009 series Rare Corojo was of top-shelf quality and so I set out to find if this was in fact true.

I don’t actually care, but in case you’re interested; there’s a bit of a story behind the name “Rare Corojo”. I’m far too lazy and disinterested to paraphrase, so here is a direct quote of why the Rare Corojo line sits at the cool kids table:

“The cigar starts with a red and rough looking Colorado shade wrapper that conceals a complex blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan long fillers. The result is a robust full-bodied cigar that is exceptionally full flavored. One of the most notable characteristics of the Rare Corojo is how well it ages. While these cigars are great right out of the box, an additional one to two years of aging takes the Rare Corojo to a whole new level. Many aficionados pick up at least two boxes every year so they can put one aside for long term storage.”

Bullshit back-stories aside, here is my take on the Punch Rare Corojo Magnum:

The presentation was excellent. The band is elegantly understated and the light brown wrapper is lightly speckled with gold flakes. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not though. It could have just been that the gold texture from the band flaked all over the damn place but at any rate it’s interesting if nothing else. The wrapper was smooth as butter with minimal veins and no bumps. Seemed to be well kept after a quick pinch test and a final visual going over.

The draw of these sticks is smooth and light for a very relaxed draw. You won’t feel like you’re breathing through a tube, but you also won’t have your cheeks touch inside your mouth just to get some smoke flowing. The burn is very even and consistent. If ever one side started to shit talk the other about how fast it could fall the other side evened up the odds before you realized it. What I really liked about this stick is that it smoked itself. With a slight draw it produced an obscene amount of pleasant, creamy white smoke; which to me is the hallmark of a well-packed cigar. My only issue with this cigar is the construction.

It was probably a fluke as it only happened with one of the three, but it burns my ass when a perfectly gorgeous wrapper starts to tear and/or unravel. I don’t care what the cause is – the fact of the matter is it’s annoying enough to keep you from truly enjoying the relaxed nature of a nice smoke. As soon as I cut it, the shoulder flaked a hair and I already knew I was in for some trouble. About half way through it started to become an issue but with a bit of patience and dexterity I was able to hold the wrapper together long enough to smoke it down to the nub. This was only a 1/3 occurrence, but still annoying enough to me that if I was a first time smoker, I would’ve said to hell with it after it was over if I even finished it in the first place. Laying that aside, the flavor and body that this thing packs is a bit strange in a good way.

The one that unraveled on me a little is the best example of how it was a little odd. It may have been my cut, but because of the loose draw of the middle stick, the first puff hit me pretty hard and gave me a very unwelcomed peppery kick. Now, I love peppery cigars. In fact one of my all time favorite cigars is the La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Toro (DL-700) which is an absolute cocksucker of a cigar, but the kick from that first draw was just needlessly harsh and got me thinking almost immediately that I was not going to enjoy this stick. However, as I ended the 1st third and began the 2nd, the complexities of the flavors in this cigar started to unfold on my palette and it was so much so that I completely forgot about my unwelcomed kick in the face that I received at the start. There was a dominant overtone, which I cannot place. It is very creamy and rich tasting but is lost somewhere between a sweeter vanilla coffee taste and cocoa/milk chocolate. And when it gets on your palette, it stays there. I tasted it well after the smoke was long gone. Beyond that, the middle and finish were undeniably smooth with more notes of cocoa, a hint of nuttiness and some very faint woody tones in the very beginning and very end. Fairly complex flavors can be found if you give the smoke just enough time to roll around your palette.

They claim that this is a medium-full bodied smoke and I’m going to go ahead and agree, but not in the way it’s usually intended. Even though there are a good deal of complexities to the flavors, it’s a sweet tasting, incredibly smooth smoke that I would recommend to someone just getting started so long as I warned them about the initial harshness that may come. Thereby for my palette at least, being on the medium side of medium-full, but earning that off-hand title either way. As for the break down:

Presentation: 4/5
Construction: 4/5
Draw & Burn: 4/5
Flavor/Taste: 5/5
Overall: 4/5 [Not an average]

Last word: Despite the minor construction issues of what would otherwise be a wildcard or fluke, this is a fairly medium bodied, sweet tasting, smooth and at times very complexly blended cigar. If you’re looking for something medium-full with a fair bit of smoothness and sweetness to it, pick up a Punch Rare Corojo Magnum.