Cigars

The Padróns I buy again are the 1964 and the 1926.

A cigar is my favorite way to spend time with people. You sit down, you light one, and you stay until it is done.

I love cigars. I have four humidors. Most of what is in them I have smoked once, or I have not smoked it yet. I do not smoke as often as I used to, and when I do I want it to be one I already like.

What I want in a cigar is smooth and creamy. When another one gets close to that, a Padrón is the one I am holding it up against. They go with tequila. The 1964 is the one I tell people to buy. The 1926 is fuller, and on some days I like it more than the 1964. I also put a box of 2000s away for two years. Sobremesa was the favorite for a while, and it is the only cigar my uncle will smoke. Flathead is one of about seventy or eighty cigars I would call a favorite.

Padrón is a family company in Estelí, Nicaragua. José Orlando Padrón left Cuba and started rolling cigars in Miami in 1964. The tobacco is Nicaraguan, all the way through: the wrapper on the outside, the binder under it, and the filler in the middle.

1964 Anniversary

The 1964 Anniversary came out in 1994, for the thirtieth year of the company. The name is the founding year. The tobacco sits at least four years before it is rolled, so the smoke is smooth from the start.

It is box-pressed. After the cigar is rolled, it goes into a press and the sides go flat, so the shape is a square with soft corners instead of a round. You can feel it. That square is what people copy when they want a cigar to look like a Padrón. A ring gauge is the thickness, counted in sixty-fourths of an inch, so a 50 is a bit over three quarters of an inch across. The Príncipe is the short one, four and a half inches by a 46 ring. The Monarca is longer, six and a half inches, and still that same 46. The Exclusivo is the size most people picture, five and a half inches by a 50. I have smoked all three.

There is a Family Reserve above this line, made in small batches. The No. 50 is five inches by a 54. You need to smoke it once. You do not need to smoke it again. The 1964 is the way to go.

Maduro means the wrapper was fermented longer, until the leaf goes dark. Natural is the lighter sun-grown wrapper on the same blend. In November 2024 I smoked the 2014 release, the fiftieth anniversary of the company, in maduro. It was a next-level 1964. The same taste, and better. The most refined one I have had.

1926 Serie

The 1926 Serie came out in 2002. The number is the year José Orlando Padrón was born, and the line was his seventy-fifth birthday. It is the same Nicaraguan cigar as the 1964, aged a year longer, at least five years, and it is fuller. Fuller means more tobacco in the draw and more of it stays with you. In some cases, and in some moods, I like the 1926 more than the 1964. I buy them by the handful and smoke through them with the 1964s.

The No. 90 is five and a half inches by a 52, and it is round. Most of the anniversary cigars are pressed square. This one is left as it was rolled. In March 2025 I smoked one. It is a cigar you have to have at least once.

Padrón 1926 No. 90, the cigar on the right

2000

Under the anniversary cigars is the old line, the thousands: 2000, 3000, and on up. They cost less, and the tobacco has not had those extra years. The 2000 is the one I age on purpose. Buy a box, put it at the bottom of the humidor, and do not think about it for two years. A humidor is the box they live in, kept damp enough that the cigars do not dry out and crack. The bottom is where a box can sit and be forgotten. The first 2000 I smoked was in July 2024.