PUNCH EGGROLL

It's meant to be lighthearted. Yet I am somewhat on the fence about the name, because I associate 'eggrolls' with mediocre take-out food in the vast interior, meth-heads, trailer parks, and college life. Several years ago, when I was part of a team working very long hours for a local utility company on a special project with an impossible deadline, I discovered that if everyone else had their way, the delivery food would be nothing but Eggrolls, Shrimp Fried Rice, and Sweet 'n Sour pork. With extra (!) red food colouring.
Plus Chicken Chow Mein. Soy sauce packets, no hot sauce.
This was before General Tso, you understand.
No Orange Chicken either.


Not that there is anything wrong with that.


Anyhow, I am a little ambivalent about the name 'eggroll' for a cigar, and the packaging in a to-go container. But it is meant playfully, as a fun change of pace from the self-important image so many products in that field have.


Hypothetically:
"Perfecto from Le Grand Château Épongees, de la série "Z", Les Jonquilles Cacaotées, avec la meilleure capo primo colorado, si raffinée que les primitifs ne peuvent pas se permettre."
Appealing strictly to European class-sensibilities.
Sold primarily in the non-Cuban world.

The nicely printed pamphlet explains how the founder of Château Épongees fled from Antartica with nothing but a vision and a ragged silk handkerchief, and through self-discipline and sheer hard work he and seven generations of descendants created the best cigar in the world. The now sadly stained handkerchief hangs framed in the entrance hall, to remind his heirs to maintain the family legacy.

It's embroidered with the family motto: "soy una tortuga".


This is not that.



THE PUNCH EGGROLL LIMITED EDITION

Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Ecuadoran Sumatra binder and a filler blend of Colombian, Mexican, American and Dominican tobacco.

It's a well-constructed Rothschild (4½ x 50) that burns evenly, and delivers sweetness and a mild peppery note. Toward the end it is richer and fuller, earthy. All told, nearly an hour well spent.

Source for both images: https://www.cigaraficionado.com/


Hints of leather and cocoa, tea, dried fruits.
Medium bodied. Evenly burning.
An elegant little smoke.
Quite tasty.


The Chinese character on the band (击) represents a punch, as in the company name. It is a simplification of 擊 ('gik'), from seventeen strokes down to four. Easier to write without creating an illegible ink-blob.

擊 击

Went well with morning coffee. I did not fly the concept by my Cantonese American apartment mate; she's sensitive to Whitey doing weird Chinesey things and hates cigars anyway. Waited till she had left for work, firmly shut her bedroom door and opened up all the windows, toasted the shaggy foot by rolling the tip underneath the water kettle, then relaxed for an hour.

I am cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.




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