Punch Kung Pow! (2022 Year of the Ox Limited Edition)
Following up on last year's Punch Limited Edition release of the Chop Suey Lancero, This year's release was the Kung Pow! (no, the exclamation point is not a mistake) Toro, for the Year of the Ox (hey, I was born in the Year of the Ox!). I've already discussed the background of these smokes in my previous reviews, so I'm going to just jump right in.
Cigar: Punch Kung Pow! (Limited Edition 2021)
Vitola: Toro (6” x 52)
Price: $6.00/stick
Origin: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Dominican, Mexican, Brazilian, Honduran
Body: Medium-To-Full
Rating (out of 10): 9.3
Appearance:
Kung Pow! is another shaggy-footed stick, a rich, milk chocolate brown with light veins and a neat cap. The band is metallic red on gold, of course featuring the Punch"击.”
Construction:
Construction is nice and even, with just the right amount of give between the fingers. A tiny little wrinkle in the cap, but it cuts just fine. Perfectly oily wrapper.
Aroma:
The barrel smells of leather, and the foot lends a potent scent of cocoa, along with a blast of pepper. I may have sniffed a little too hard, because I almost sneezed!
First Third:
The pre-light draw is nice and earthy, with some leather to it, and a gentle undertone of cocoa.
Giving this one a match light tonight, because... why not?
On lighting, the smoke tastes distinctly of cedar and anise, with a sharp, peppery finish. It wouldn't deserve the name “Kung Pow!” without a nice spicy kick to it.
The shaggy foot is only about a half-inch long on this one, so it burns down to the wrapper leaf pretty quickly, where we add notes of coffee and cocoa.
The shaggy foot was leaving a semi-flaky, medium-grey ash, but now at the wrapper we have a much firmer, white ash building behind an even burn line.
Second Third:
Still burning evenly at the start of the second third, and just as the others in this line of Limited Edition Punch cigars, the flavor is holding pretty consistently.
The smoke is rich and chewy, pushing closer to full bodied, but absolutely saturated with flavor.
Final Third:
Removing the band in the last third; let's see what this 'fortune' says:
That definitely was a bad taco I did eat…
“The only bad taco is the one you didn't eat.”
Well... having gotten a terrible case of food poisoning from Taco Bell last year (I honestly thought I might actually die), I can declare this statement to be absolutely false.
Flavor is still consistent, coffee-cocoa profile overall, with a bit of fiery pepper behind it.
Closing Thoughts:
Another Solid Limited Edition by Punch. Spicy, so you'll have to be in the mood for that to smoke one of these, but it's fantastic, and I'm very much excited to see what Punch rolls out next year!