Padilla Cigars

PADILLA BRAND HISTORY

Padilla is a boutique brand named for brand founder Ernesto Padilla, who is also the son of celebrated Cuban poet Heberto Padilla. The Padilla family owned land in the well-known tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Río in Cuba. They contracted workers to farm the land and sold their tobacco to factories and brokers in Havana. When the Cuban Revolution unfolded, Heberto Padilla found himself at odds with Fidel Castro’s regime. Initially, he was permitted to continue his writing endeavors by Fidel’s government under the auspices that he wouldn’t address politics. However, as oppression of Cubans spread, Heberto spoke out. Eventually, he was targeted and imprisoned. He was placed under house arrest from 1972 until 1980. The family sent six-year-old Ernesto to Miami to join relatives who had fled the communist dictatorship years earlier. Ernesto remembered his father as always smoking a cigar.

In 2003, Ernesto Padilla began to pursue making his own cigars, wanting to create stronger blends than the milder profiles that were common during the Cigar Boom of the 1990s. He got his start working for Nick Perdomo, owner of Perdomo Cigars. After a short time, he set out to develop his own brand. Early Padilla cigars consistently scored high ratings in Cigar Aficionado with three consecutive rankings in the publication’s ‘Top 25 Cigars of the Year.’ The brand benefited from the boutique cigar craze of the mid-2000s, and also because legendary cigarmaker Jose ‘Pepin’ Garcia blended and produced the company’s first releases.

Like other emerging boutique brand owners, Ernesto recognized the talents of the Garcias and was thoroughly impressed with the Pepin Garcia’s natural ability to blend premium tobaccos according to old-world Cuban traditions. Padilla contracted the Garcia family to make his cigars at their small but distinguished Miami-based cigar factory. In 2002, the Garcias had only recently immigrated to the States from Cuba, where Pepin spent decades as a master cigarmaker charged with training hundreds of rollers to produce iconic Cuban brands, including Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta. Today, the Garcia family is known best for making the top-rated My Father and La Aroma de Cuba brands, among others.

Ernesto focused on small-batch, limited releases, but his production channels have changed over time. The greatest common denominator in Padilla cigars is Ernesto, himself. After parting ways with the Garcia family in 2008, he has introduced Padilla-branded cigars that are made in a variety of factories and countries, including the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and the U.S. At one point, he attempted to open a Padilla-branded factory in Miami’s famous Little Havana district. Ernesto has worked with several blenders and factories over the years, eager to learn from their expertise. Other key factories Ernesto has contracted to make his cigars include Tabacalera Aguilar, AJ Fernandez, and Oliva Cigar Company.

Ernesto’s willingness to experiment with many different cigarmakers over the years has resulted in a diverse portfolio of brands, but it has also led to confusion in the market and wildly varying price points for his blends. For example, alternative versions of the Padilla 1932 blend have ranged in price from under $4 per cigar to around $30 apiece. Distinguishing the many Padilla brands of past and present requires some investigation. Below we provide a solid introduction to Padilla’s best-known cigars over the years.

PADILLA BRAND OVERVIEW

In 2009, the critics in Cigar Aficionado rated Padilla Miami 94 points, making it the highest-rated blend in the Padilla portfolio to date. Its medium to full-bodied profile was drafted entirely from a Nicaraguan recipe that shows off notes of chocolate and whiskey with a complex finish. Padilla Reserva, made by Oliva Cigar Company, also earned high marks with a ‘Top 25’ appearance in 2014 and a 93-point score for its intricate profile of wood, pepper, and citrus. A Cuban-seed wrapper leaf, grown in Ecuador, covered a balanced core of Nicaraguan long-fillers. The 92-rated Padilla Miami 8 &11 was a cornerstone for the brand for years, earning a ‘Top 25’ ranking for 2015. The blend has been produced in Miami as well as outside the U.S. The critics enjoyed its profile of oak, pine, and dried fruit.

Ernesto Padilla worked with the Raíces Cubanas factory in Honduras to produce many of his blends over the years. More recently, he has also enlisted the AJ Fernandez factory to make some of his newer cigars. Certain Padilla blends are available for significant discounts due to fluctuating demand. In 2009, Padilla Signature 1932 scored a 93-point rating, thanks to its approachable profile of cocoa, cedar, and leather. The original release sold for around $13, but subsequent releases were regularly available for under $4. An Ecuador Habano wrapper leaf concealed a medium to full-bodied core of Nicaraguan long-fillers. The line was also available in a shimmering San Andrés Oscuro wrapper leaf in the Padilla 1932 Black blend.

In 1968, Ernesto’s father, Heberto Padilla, was jailed by Fidel Castro for publishing writings the dictator found disruptive to his communist agenda. Ernesto came out with his Padilla 1968 blend to commemorate the event. The 93-rated smoke debuted for around $6 and was blended from a recipe of Nicaraguan and Honduran long-fillers tucked under a Nicaraguan wrapper leaf. Notes of earth, cedar, and coffee bean characterized the blend. The series has been released in a handful of additional wrapper options that also sold for generous discounts. Padilla 1968 Black Bear was drafted from a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper that displayed medium to full-bodied flavors of dark chocolate with an amplified sweetness on the finish. Ernesto also blended Padilla 1948, which celebrated the year that Heberto Padilla’s first book was published.

Named for the Greek Goddess of the Hunt, Padilla Artemis displays a medium to full-bodied profile with a peppery sweetness, courtesy of its Corojo wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. The Dominus blend is finished in an oily Corojo wrapper that offers more spice. Because Ernesto elects to close out certain product lines as he introduces new cigars to the market, we occasionally sell out of one blend or another until more cigars are produced, which is common among small-batch brands.

The Padilla Fumas line consisted of popular utility cigars that came in Connecticut, Habano, and Maduro wrapper options for under two bucks apiece. In each blend, a handcrafted amalgam of Honduran and Nicaraguan sandwich tobaccos offered rich and earthy tasting notes in a collection of budget-friendly yard ‘gars.

The Padilla Hybrid blend debuted in affordable bundles of 20 cigars that are handcrafted in a trio of classic sizes. Named for its hybrid wrapper, a Connecticut-seed tobacco grown in Honduras, Padilla Hybrid features a complex blend of Dominican, Nicaraguan, and Peruvian long-fillers on the inside. This mellow profile comes together with notes of cedar, cereal, pepper, and leather, starting at just over $3 per cigar.

If you’re a bargain hunter, Padilla cigars are worth exploring when you’re in search of decent utility smokes that you can toss in the coolerdor for a reliable discount.