This is a fat robusto from Padron; with a ring gauge of 56 it’s a mouthful. The wrapper is rough and the cap especially so. As much as I hate to say anything negative about a Padron, I have to admit that it’s not an attractive cigar. Prelight it has a definite barnyard aroma, more so on the foot than the wrapper; a harbinger of things to come…

The draw on this one is very loose, but at the same time the burn is very slow. After each puff tendrils of smoke waft from the head of the cigar. There’s a huge volume of flavorful smoke from the first draw to the last.

It’s a very well balanced cigar. It starts up with a slight bite and lots of pepper. Soon it drops down a notch and presents a woody profile, with cedar in the spotlight. This is what I love about Padron cigars– they always make me think of the first days of fall when the folks around here start using their fireplaces. Juniper seems to be the log of choice, and while this Padron tends more toward cedar, it’s so aromatic that it could almost be juniper. It smells like a humidor on fire… though that isn’t such a pleasant image, I agree.

After well over an hour I had burned this to the band with only two taps of the ash. There’s a good nicotine kick with this stick, so I had to let it go at that point. But on a different day after a bigger meal I would have probably nubbed it.

The standard Padron series, of which this is one, has been called “a good everyday cigar.” I would go further than that– it’s a great everyday cigar. Maybe not as profound or complex as the Anniversary series, but a well balanced tasty smoke that’s better than most of the Altadis cigars I’ve sampled in the past couple of months. At 5 or 6 USD it’s a little pricier than my average “everyday” cigar, but it’s worth the extra couple bucks.