The Padrón Family Reserve series started as a box-pressed line of cigars offered only at special events where a member of the Padrón family — often legendary company founder José Orlando Padrón or his son Jorge — was present. Special events became more frequent after the 1990s, when Padrón graduated from being a small but respectable cigar-maker to a firm that gradually became known for consistently crafting some of the greatest sticks in the business.
In honor of the company’s 50th anniversary of its founding in 2014, the Padrón family released this special 50 Years edition, which — in this Natural variation — promptly went on to be the fifth-best cigar on Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list for 2015, with a rating of 94. It’s been accorded a 92 rating on two other occasions, and it exemplifies the finest qualities of Padrón smokes, which have regularly placed in the first five positions of the CA Top 25 rankings every year they’ve been published, save one.
As a medium-strength smoke with a perfect draw and an impressive body, the 50 Years Natural is a “puro” cigar, with its exceptional wrapper, binder and filler tobaccos all originating in Nicaragua. The 50 Years Natural possesses hearty flavors of earth, coffee, caramel, vanilla and Padrón’s signature cocoa essence that each hit the palate individually and then harmonize to produce a sublime smoking experience. With lush smoke and a floral, tea-like finish, the 50 Years Natural is as complex, refined and sophisticated as a half-century achievement should be.