If you have read my reviews the past month you may have noticed that all of them, except for the limited edition Cain F Lancero, are all releases from the latest IPCPR or Intertabac trade shows so you might think that I only like to smoke the new stuff, be hip and fast but let me assure you, i’m not. It just happens that I’ve gotten the cigars at Intertabac and put them all aside in one box, my “to review” box. And yes, when I grab something else to review from my collection I often think “what lesser known cigar would my readers like to read?”. So yes, I am a curious human being with a passion for cigars so I love to try new stuff, but I also love the classics and the neo classics. Today, when I noticed the list of new cigars I reviewed and was browsing through my humidor, I realized myself why I started this blog approximately 10 years ago. I was quite new to cigars back then and was trying out all different cigars I could find, just to explore the world of cigars. Little did I know that 10 years later I’m still exploring and only scratched the surface, but that aside. I wrote down weather I liked a cigar or not, but knowing myself and knowing I would lose those notes I decided to store them online for easy access and with automatic backups, and if you do that, why not make them public? But basically I started the blog for myself. So why not smoke a classic, a cigar that you can find many reviews off, and review it for myself? I picked the Padron 1926 #1 Maduro, a 6 3/4×54 Double Corona with a maduro wrapper around Nicaraguan tobacco.
Now Padron, I don’t think they need any introduction. I think that they are the highest rarest Nicaraguan cigar manufacturer, the Nicaraguan Cohiba or Opus X, the flagship of the whole country and the 1926 and 1964, named after the birth year of Padron founder Jose and the year he started Padron Cigars, are the most praised lines with a huge reputation. I have smoked them and always loved them, even reviewed some but never this 1926 #1.
The cigar has an added band, specific ring tells me it was distributed in The Netherlands and is at least a few years old. It’s the Dutch tax band that got replaced by a new system a few years back so the cigar has had a minimum of three years of aging on tip of the minimum of five years the tobacco aged before the tobacco was used for rolling the cigar. It also tells me that back then the cigar had a price tag of 22 euro. The wrapper is dark, rough with some veins and is leathery to the touch. The construction feels good and the cold draw is a bit loose. The band, which are actually two bands, are beautiful, no corners are cut on the quality there and classic classy. A deep and rich barnyard aroma is what I smell from the cigar.
I taste a lot of coffee with red pepper. Soon I also taste a little sugar and the pepper mellows out. After an inch the cigar slowly changed to earthy with a little pepper. After a third I also taste a little citrus acidity while the pepper is just lurking on the aftertaste. During puffing i taste a sugary sweetness. A little before halfway I taste a sweet woody flavor with spice and pepper. Halfway I get the earthy flavor again and the pepper is getting more prominent again.
The draw is a little loose due to a ripped wrapper close to the head of the cigar which got fixed by removing the complete triple cap, that fixed the draw. The smoke is thick, white and there is plenty to go around. The burn is reasonably sharp. The ash is white, dense and firm. This is a full flavored full bodied cigar but with a great body flavor ratio and a nice evolution. The smoke time was around an hour and 40 minutes.
Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, and I think that every cigar aficionado should have a few of this in his or her humidor.
Score: 91
Review including pictures on :
https://cigarguideorg.wordpress.com/...padron-1926-1/