Holds Its Own in a Wind Storm: Punch Magnum

Every time I grab a non-maduro cigar, I'm always afraid it will be wimpy and weak. Not so with the Punch Magnum, a fat, light brown robusto (sumatra wrapped) that lives up to its name.

All the elements were against me on the evening I smoked this: The wind was howling outside (but Cigar Jones was calling, and I had to heed) and as soon as I lit up, feeling like King Lear on a deck chair, my wife informed me that the hot water wasn't working and could I please boil some water on the stove to warm up her bath...

I said yes, always up to the challenge. Taking a few puffs on the Punch (which from the very first was full and spicy), I raced back into the kitchen, filled four pots of varying sizes with water, and set them on the burners. Then I raced back out to the deck to drag a few times on the Punch and exhale into the howling wind. The Punch was good and held its own.

From then on it was mad hectic race, emptying pots in the bathtub, filling them again, stealing back out to the deck for a Punch break, and ferrying fresh pots of hot water back to the tub, where Sally soaked languidly. I was a man on a mission, like one of those plate-spinning wretches that used to pass for entertainment on the Lawrence Welk show. Run, fill, dump, smoke. Run, fill, dump, smoke.

Key takeaway from all this: The Punch remained excellent. I look forward to smoking the other four in my humidor, and giving a proper review after sampling under prime lounge-by-the-pool conditions.

Not that I have a pool.

I do have a deck, strewn with ashes from last night's Punch magnum. And a water heater that needs to be replaced.

Thank God my humidors are full--and that my last cigarbid win included the Punch magnum 5-pack--because it looks like I won't be buying any new stogies for a long, long time.