The Padilla Family has deep ties to Cuba. Born in Cuba in 1932, Herberto Padilla was involved in journalism during the Cuban Revolution, and the Castro Regime, until his exile to the USA in 1980. He was a journalist, poet and teacher. He passed away in 2000, but his legacy lives on with the Padilla line of cigars.

The “Hybrid” wrapper is a cross between Cuban seed tobacco, and Connecticut seed, not a new model of car from Hyundai. Smoking one of these will not gain you access to the HOV lanes in California. Smoking one of these can make you look “Cool”. It is grown in Ecuador, where due to the climate, looks more like shade tobacco than sun-grown. The cloud covered mountains act as a filter to the suns rays, much like the muslin covers used in Nicaragua and Honduras to grow shade tobacco. The Hybrid wrapper turns out to be very flavorful, as well as disease resistant. A win-win situation. Good news for growers!

The wrapper is a creamy, light shade of brown, with mostly unperceivable veins, and one small wire vein. It was “Velvety” to the touch, with no variances in color. It possessed feint but familiar barnyard aromas, indicating that fermentation was still progressing. This cigar appeared to be densely packed, with no soft spots noted along the cigar barrel.

I gently clipped the generous cap with a two-bladed cutter, and took a pre-light draw. The draw was firm, but not overbearing, and giving away notes of nuts and light spice.

I toasted the foot with my TSA approved Zippo lighter. Now I say “Toasted”; that means to lightly heat up the foot with the heat of the flame, not the flame itself. You should not be charring the tender foot of the cigar, but rather warming it up, then continuing to light the foot with the heat provided from beyond the blue end of the flame. Care and patience is a must. Charring the foot only adds a yucky burnt taste to the first half-inch of your precious, and possibly expensive cigar. Caramelize, not carbonize your stogie. Your taste buds will thank you.

This cigar rewarded my patience with rich amounts of smoke that was “Nutty” in taste and aroma. This nuttiness proved to be the primary flavor of this cigar, but as it progressed, the cigar took on notes of wood and light spice. At the halfway point, the smoke took on a light, tangy taste. This may have been the Peruvian tobacco giving its notice. This light tang came in short waves throughout the remainder of the cigar. The flavors proved to be mild to medium in body, and had a short woody finish.

The ash was a light grayish-white that was dense and resistant to my attempts to brush it off at the one inch point. The ash broke off flush with the body of the cigar, and displayed a wonderful, consistent burn.

This cigar would usually be too mild for my taste preference, but it provided interesting flavors and characters that would be the envy of many powerhouse cigars. So readers, it proved to me that you don’t always have to have power in a cigar to enjoy the subtle characters and nuances of many of the great, milder cigars. This is worthy of a try for all of you, and we’ll rate this again in three months.

~Blake