Padilla Artisan Habano

[Don Fernando]

Last year I lost my job, very unfortunate not only because I was unemployd but my it happened 2 weeks before my then girlfriend now wife, who’s from Singapore, had the results of the language test she had to do at the embassy before we could apply for her access to the country and I need to have a job to get her here. That was a major setback, but that has nothing to do with this review though. But because I lost my job I had time to reorganize my walk-in humidor, which was a huge mess and bugged me a lot, put everything into a database on stogierate.com and in the process I found a lot of hidden gems that I didn’t know I had anymore. Including this wonderful Padilla Artisan Perfecto.

I remember buying these cigars at the Padilla factory & shop in Miami on Calle Ocho when it was the Padilla factory, nowadays its no longer a factory or owned by Padilla but just a beautiful shop called Little Havana Cigar Factory. Padilla made these cigars for events and later sold them at his own shop and at cigarsinternational. I bought a pack just for the looks and I did a review years ago, but now that I found one in my humidor, my last one, I will do a redux and see if I still like it and what a 8 extra years of age have done to it.

The cigar looks amazing, I mean, have you ever seen a cigar like this on the market and for a reasonable price of around 8 dollars? I mean, I have seen some exhibicion sticks from La Flor Dominicana and Fuente with this form of art but haven’t seen any of them on the market like this one used to be. The Connecticut Shade, Habano and Connecticut Broadleaf wappers are wrapped around the cigars in a perfect pattern that its more like art than a regular cigar and it shows the skills of a highly trained roller. The construction feels good and even after 8 years the cigar still has a medium strong barnyard aroma. Too bad the ring isn’t of a high quality, the golden Padilla letters are a bit blurred just like the habano letters under the red & golden logo on a yellow background. The rest of the band is brown with golden decorations but the gold print is of a low quality. Too bad as a cigar with these looks deserve a much better looking ring.

Because of the shape I had to cut the cigar and I used a flat cut. The cold draw is a bit tight but that has to do with the shape of the cigar. I taste some pepper and some raisin, and the flavors feel a little meaty. I lit the cigar with my vintage varaflame as I usually do. I’m surprised by the flavor right from the start, coffee with dried chilies and some cocoa beans. Slowly the flavors turn to fresh wood and pepper and the amount of pepper surprised me for a 9 year old cigar that was never known for its strength. The wood changes to a mild bitter kind and the pepper is now on my lips and I’m not exactly liking the flavors a lot to be honest. Probably because Connecticut Shade is used more than I prefer. Halfway the cigar gets a little better with a little salt, some pepper and wood but it’s still not a flavor I like. Near the end the pepper gets really strong.

The draw is great, after the first puff I felt something pop and the draw opened up immediately. The smoke is quite thick and plentiful. The ash has a bit of a brownish gray color. The ash is light gray with some darker smears. The burn is straight. The cigar is medium bodied at most and medium plus flavored. The smoke time is an hour and ten minutes.

Would I buy this cigar again? It’s impossible but if I got the chance I wouldn’t.

Score: 87

I suggest taking a look at the pictures because the cigar is a piece of art: https://cigarguideorg.wordpress.com/...bano-artisano/

[CEC_Tech]

I bought a few Padillas back in the day when I was still trying to figure out what I liked, they were always ok. They were never anything I would want to try again and they certainly weren't life changing. Thanks for the review!