Punche Mexicano

'Punche Mexicano' is the New Mexican punche — the Nicotiana rustica that early Spanish settlers carried north from Mexico in the late 1700s and early 1800s and that stayed a smoking and barter crop in northern New Mexico until the 1930s. Native Seeds/SEARCH keeps it as accession N001 and, notably, kept it in public distribution when the organization withdrew its other tobacco accessions, on the reasoning that this one is a New Mexican smoking tobacco rather than a community ceremonial variety. That makes it the accessible entry point for anyone who wants to grow a rustica-type tobacco with documented provenance instead of an anonymous seed-packet strain. It is a genuine regional landrace, not a modern selection, and Native Seeds/SEARCH characterizes the cured smoke as strong but mellow.