Brands
Padrón
In 1964, Cuban exile José Orlando Padrón opened a small cigar factory in Miami — with a handful of employees and the aim of recapturing the taste of the lost homeland. In 1970 he opened a production facility in Estelí, Nicaragua, where the volcanic soils gave Cuban seed a new home. The path was not straightforward: civil war and the US embargo against Sandinista Nicaragua forced production temporarily to Honduras in the 1980s; it was only in 1990 that it returned permanently to Estelí.
The family’s formula has remained unchanged ever since: Puros exclusively from their own sun-grown Nicaraguan tobacco, long ageing, a carefully contained range. “Slow growth over compromise” — as the house has described its ethos for decades. Many formats appear boxpressed, with the characteristic squared shoulders.
Two anniversary series established the international reputation: the 1964 Anniversary Series, launched in 1994 for the thirtieth anniversary, and the Serie 1926, named after José Orlando’s birth year — both are considered the embodiment of the powerful, cocoa-deep Nicaraguan style. The house is led today by the next generation around Jorge Padrón; it remains entirely family-owned and deliberately limits production volumes.