📩 Padrón 60th Anniversary Perfecto: Sixty Years in One Shape
Perfection takes time.
In Todays Letter...
Dear Cigar Lover,
In 1964, Padrón had a single cigar roller and struggled to sell its cigars for a quarter each.
Sixty years later, its anniversary cigar costs $75, and at launch only one roller in the factory was making the shape.
Last winter, Cigar Aficionado named it the finest cigar of 2025.
The perfecto: a shape that asks for patience.
The Review
Origin: Nicaragua, a Nicaraguan puro.
Wrapper: Nicaraguan, in natural or maduro.
Size: 6½ x 56, a round perfecto tapering to a 48 ring foot.
Strength: Medium-full, edging towards full.
Smoking time: Two hours or more, by one reviewer's account.
Price band: Special occasion. $75 a cigar, in boxes of ten.
Those who know it best agree on one thing first: this is a richer, stronger Padrón than most.
Cigar Aficionado scored it 97 and crowned it Cigar of the Year, noting how it gives up a little more of itself with every inch.
The opening third is all comfort. Malted milk, cocoa and creamy coffee, like a café au lait, with a little cedar.
By the middle, walnut arrives with warm spice: nutmeg, cinnamon, a pinch of cayenne. Halfwheel found it turning toastier here.
The final third brings coffee bean, molasses and a flicker of orange peel. Halfwheel called the closing act the best part.
Construction is where opinions part.
The narrow foot asks for patience before the draw opens up. Cigar Coop found the maduro burned straight with few touch-ups, if a touch firm on the draw. Halfwheel's naturals needed touch-ups, and one cap came loose.
The wrappers divide people too. Cigar Coop preferred the maduro and was disappointed by the natural. Boozemakers scored the natural 95.
And then there is the price, which every reviewer mentions sooner or later.
The Cigar Letters verdict: keep this for a milestone. A birthday with a nought on the end, a long-awaited reunion, a deal finally signed.
It suits the smoker who already loves Padrón and wants to see the house at full stretch.
Pour an aged rum alongside, or a strong black coffee to answer the mocha.
Not a cigar for every evening, but one you will remember an evening by.
The Story
José Orlando Padrón grew up on a tobacco farm in Pinar del Río, Cuba.
He left in 1961, first for Spain, then the United States.
On 8 September 1964, he opened a small factory in Miami's Little Havana. One roller. Cigars that barely sold.
The family, led by his son Jorge, still runs the company today.
Anniversaries have become something of a Padrón habit.
The 40th Anniversary went on to become Cigar Aficionado's very first Cigar of the Year, in 2004. The 50th arrived in just 500 commemorative humidors of 50 cigars each.
The 60th breaks with house style. Most of Padrón's finest cigars are box-pressed. This one is round, a perfecto with a bulbous base.
Each rests in its own gold coffin, which Cigar Coop notes is a Padrón first.
And, according to halfwheel, the finished cigars still travel back to the Miami headquarters to be boxed.
One for the lounge: the company that once struggled to sell a cigar for 25 cents now makes one that costs 300 times as much.
The Venue
Ashton Cigar Bar, Philadelphia. A leather-and-whisky lounge on Walnut Street near Rittenhouse Square, above Holt's, the merchant behind the Ashton cigar brand, with a humidor Cigar Aficionado once ranked among the most impressive of any cigar bar.
The finest things are rarely made quickly, or by many hands.
What occasion would you save a cigar like this for? Hit reply and tell me.
Until next time.
Yours truly,
The Cigar Lover
Cigar Letters
No. 40
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