1964 was the year that Padrón patriarch and founder José Orlando Padrón started the cigar company that’s become world-famous. In 1994, for the firm’s 30th anniversary of its founding, it released a line of smokes unlike any others the company had produced until that time. Making use of the finest tobaccos it could acquire in all of Nicaragua, Padrón produced a series that catapulted it to the very top tier of the cigar trade, where it’s remained ever since, having accumulated more critical plaudits than any other manufacturer of the modern era.
All the leaves in this dark, silky, box-pressed puro Nicaraguan stick — the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Monarca in a Maduro wrapper — have been aged no less than four years, producing a Toro-sized smoke that’s medium-bodied, medium-to-full-strength, rich and nutty.
Dense with coffee, toffee, cocoa, and anise flavors, the Padrón 1964 Monarca Maduro burns and draws as well as any other stick the brand has put out. Cigar Aficionado has accorded this smoke a 90 rating — not just once, but four times.
It’s not for nothing that Padrón has a reputation for making consistently exquisite cigars; order a box of the Anniversary Monarca Maduros, and see why this series elevated the company to a more rarified league.