Punch Dads Home Videos | halfwheel

While the cigar industry has long celebrated numerous holidays with special editions—Christmas, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and even Black Friday—there are few cigars marketed as Father’s Day editions. For example, Ventura Cigar Co. released a limited-edition cigar called Father & Daughter in 2016 to celebrate the occasion, while Drew Estate released a special Viola in its Undercrown Shade line for Father’s Day 2019.

Last year, General Cigar Co. added Dad Bod to the unofficial list of Father’s Day cigars, a 4 1/2 x 60 perfecto packaged in four-packs with tins designed to look like beer cans, complete with removable lids. In addition, the cigars themselves were adorned with ribbons modeled after a tie to evoke the classic Father’s Day gift.

In May, General announced a second Father’s Day release in as many years: Punch Dad’s Home Movies. The 6 x 50 Box-Pressed Toro features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper encasing a Nicaraguan binder and an inner blend of tobacco from the Condega, Estelí and Ometepe growing regions of Nicaragua. It is rolled at STG Danlí in Honduras.

Each cigar has an MSRP of $7.49 and is packaged in boxes of 10 designed to look like a two-cassette VHS release, complete with case. The top of the box even includes window stickers on each end showing photos of VHS tapes on reels.

“With the release of Punch Dad Bod for Father’s Day last year, we knew we were onto something,” said John Hakim, Punch brand manager, in a press release. “It serves three purposes in one: It shows the dad in your life how much he means to you, gives you a chance to tease him about his age, and gives you a chance to enjoy a great Punch cigar with him while he reminisces about the good old days.”

• Rated cigar: Punch Dads Home Videos
• Country of origin: Honduras
• Factory: STG Danli
• Packaging: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 inch
• Ring size: 50
• Vitola: Toro
• RRP: $7.49 (box of 20, $149.80)
• Release date: June 2024
• Number of cigars released: Unknown
• Number of cigars smoked for testing: 3

Visually, the three Punch Dad’s Home Movies have a lot in common: the same striking reddish-brown wrappers, the same soft but clearly recognizable box pressing, and the same small amount of oil. These wrappers have virtually no teeth—though there are plenty of flat veins running down their length—and all three cigars are nice and firm when squeezed. Sweet earthiness combined with farmhouse flavors leads the aromas coming from the wrappers, followed by creamy woodiness, herbs, chalk, and light meatiness. The feet are dominated by a powdery cocoa nib scent, though I can also smell cedar, wet earth, leathery stuff, sweet raisins, earth, and a small amount of cornbread. The first flavor I taste on the cold draw is like an oak barrel that has previously held red wine, followed by roasted peanuts, sourdough bread, cinnamon, earth, and a sweetness that reminds me of SweeTARTS.

Light spices and a cardboard taste start the cigars, but the profile quickly transitions to the main flavors of charred meat and sourdough bread. Secondary notes of almonds, cinnamon, bitter espresso, sawdust, and gritty earth make themselves known at various points, and while my first cigar has a zesty jalapeño flavor on the finish, this dissipates before the end of the first third and the note never appears in the other two cigars. The retrohale features black pepper and a slight floral sweetness, though the latter note increases in intensity as the first third burns down. The flavor finishes at medium strength in the first third, but both body and strength fall short at one point just below the medium mark. In terms of construction, all three cigars have wavy burn lines—but none have become problematic enough to need correcting—while draws are excellent and more than enough smoke is produced.

In the second third, the main flavors turn into a combination of simple popcorn and creamy cedar, followed by additional notes like leather grain, pencil lead, cinnamon, citrus peel, coffee bean, and a slight meaty note. Compared to the first third, the amount of black pepper increases on the retrohale and the sweetness now reminds me of dark brown sugar. The flavor builds to full while the body rises to a solid mid-range and the strength hits a point just above the mid-range mark. One cigar needs a quick correction with my lighter to stay on track, but the other two are fine in that regard, and the hits and smoke production continue to give me no problems on all three cigars.

In the final third, flavors of sourdough bread and creamy cedar take over the top spots in Punch Dad’s Home Movies profile, though secondary notes of dark chocolate, earth, charred meat, leather, and cinnamon aren’t far behind. In two of the cigars, the combination of dark brown sugar and black pepper continues to dominate the retrohale, but my first cigar contains a little less black pepper and a sweetness that reminds me of red licorice. The flavor remains full, but the body increases slightly to just above medium, and the strength transitions into the medium-plus range. As with the first third, the burn lines were never anywhere close to razor sharp, but none of the three cigars required correction, while the draws and smoke production continued on their excellent path to the end.

Concluding remarks

• The muddy red color of the cover reminds me of the red clay that is so common in Alabama, where I graduated from high school.
• The packaging of these cigars is absolutely fantastic and captures the mood that General was trying to achieve. The box cover looks and feels like an empty VHS tape case – it has the notches cut out in the case and is, from what I checked, almost the size of a two-tape VHS package – while the box inside the case looks exactly like VHS tapes. Kudos to whoever came up with this idea and I expect it to be a contender for Half wheel Packaging prices 2024.
• Speaking of packaging, General’s Dad Bod – last year’s Father’s Day release – took fifth place in our 2023 Packing Awards.
• Over 20 years ago, I saw a cartoon called “Home Movies” about an eight-year-old aspiring filmmaker who made homemade movies in his spare time.
• The combination of oak barrels previously used to store red wine and the flavors of SweeTARTS that I tasted when taking a cold draw on these cigars is one of the most interesting I have tasted in a long time.

• These cigars are listed as 6 x 50 vitolas.
• General Cigar Co. advertises on Half wheel.
• Cigars for this review were purchased from Half wheel.
• The average smoking time of all three cigars was one hour and 58 minutes.
• Site sponsors Cigars Direct, Famous Smoke Shop, Gotham Cigars, JR Cigars and Smokingpipes stock the Punch Dad’s Home Movies on their respective websites.

Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. I am a documentary wedding photographer by trade and worked as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star Telegram for seven years. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing there was a need for a cigar blog with better photos and more in-depth information on each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the most influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing pre-production, pre-release, rare, extremely hard to find and expensive cigars. I am the co-founder of halfwheel and now work as an editor for halfwheel.