What does it take to transcend a business category and take things “to the next level”?
That may have been the question José Orlando Padrón and his sons asked themselves in the early 1990s as they contemplated what to do for the 30th anniversary of their company’s founding. Ultimately, the family decided that they would gather the very best four-year-aged tobaccos they could find in Nicaragua and produce a cigar series unlike any other they had manufactured before.
The 1964 Anniversary line they introduced was a wild, international success that knocked it out of the park for Padrón amidst the mid-1990s cigar boom.
This edition of that line — the “A” vitola in a Natural wrapper — is the longest size of the series (and the second-longest cigar Padrón makes overall), at a hefty eight and a quarter inches. Box-pressed, with an extremely flat head, the medium-to-full-bodied, medium-to-full-strength Padrón 1964 “A” Natural possesses a dark, oily wrapper, a lush draw and a beautifully even burn.
Well-balanced and elegant, this double-corona-sized smoke saturates the smoker’s palate with complex layers of coffee, cocoa, toast and earth, accented by bits of vanilla, dried maraschino cherry and brown sugar. The finish can be described as woody.
Cigar Aficionado was more than impressed with the Padrón Anniversary “A” Natural, according it a rare 95 rating — not just once, but twice — in addition to two pairs of 92 and 91 scores on other occasions.
When it comes time for a serious smoke, are you ready to bring your “A” game? Pick up a box of the Padrón 1964 “A” Naturals today, and prepare for that contingency.