Every garden needs weeding, and perfectly healthy trees need a trim now and again. So it was with Padilla Cigars a few years ago, when Ernesto Padilla restructured his company. It seemed like the catalog companies were unearthing forgotten troves of Padillas on a monthly basis. They were good cigars selling at a nice price — but they went largely unappreciated (except by the bargain hunters) and were finally closed out. (Some are still in the process, so get ’em while you can.)
Today the Padilla portfolio is lean and mean, with only a few top-tier blends in circulation. One of them is the Padilla Reserva, available in two wrappers: Habano and Maduro. Both cigars are made for Padilla by Tabacalera Oliva in Esteli, Nicaragua. The Habano features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with binder and filler leaves from the Oliva farms in Condega and the Jalapa Valley. The Maduro swaps out the natural capa for an oily San Andres maduro. Both variations were introduced in 2012 and are produced in four sizes:
- 4 x 60 – Short Robusto
- 5 3/4 x 50 – Toro
- 6 x 54 – Torpedo
- 5 3/4 x 60 – Double Toro
I smoked both Habano and Maduro cigars for this review, just to contrast and compare, both in the Toro size.
Construction Notes
Both cigars were very well made, though they shared a common flaw: a tight draw. The draw on the Habano was firm, but productive, while the Maduro was on the uncomfortably tight side for the first two inches and then opened up a bit. Both are nice looking smokes. I generally don’t care about band design, but the Padilla band exudes class.
The Ecuadorian leaf on the Habano is a gorgeous milk-chocolate brown, smooth with a slight sheen. The Maduro is matte black with little variation in color. It’s a little bit rustic with its lumpy round head, but that’s the nature of maduro. Both cigars burned very well, especially the Habano. “Razor sharp burn” is a cliche to which I occasionally fall prey, but in the case of the Habano it was no hyperbole.
Overall construction: Very good, with some slight hesitation about the draw.
Tasting Notes
The Habano Reserva focuses on cedar and cocoa, while the Maduro tastes a little richer — think pine rather than cedar, combined with the dark chocolate flavors typical of San Andres maduro. A tannic dryness is apparent in both, a slight astringency that wanes as the cigar burns.
The Habano is the more complex of the two — the aroma is sweet and spicy, assertive like a good perfume, but not overwhelming. The cedar gradually fades into the background as an earthy note takes over, accented by mint. The finish is lengthy and the aftertaste spicy.
The Maduro starts out with a heavy, almost resinous pine which is slightly harsh on the tongue. It mellows out though as the pine turns to cedar with occasional spikes of bittersweet baker’s chocolate. It bangs this drum all the way to the end, making it somewhat one-dimensional, though still tasty. The aftertaste is tannic, with some black pepper toward the band.
In both cases the smoke texture is medium in body, though the Maduro is a bit thicker, and both are about medium in strength.
Conclusion
The Padilla Reserva is a top tier cigar in both the Habano and the Maduro incarnations, but the Habano is the more complex and interesting smoke. The Maduro is a decent cigar, but I might be just as happy with a musty old St. Luis Rey Serie G for half the price if those are the flavors I’m after. Both cigars ring in at around $8 USD for the toro size, but I would only be willing to pay that again for the Habano.
Bear in mind that my assessment is based on one cigar only in each wrapper, and was perhaps skewed by the Habano’s utterly perfect construction.
Cigarfan.net 
Well, I’m going to have to give the Habano a shot now. I’ve had and enjoyed the Maduro, but that’s the only one of the current lines that I’ve smoked.
I really like the touch of mint (or eucalyptus or whatever it was) in the Habano. I smoked it before I did any research on the blend, so I thought it might have a Cameroon binder, like the Partagas Benji Master. It doesn’t, but I love the aromatics anyway. Let me know what you think when you get around to it!
Will do. Did you get the impression that the Maduro is more like an “old time” Maduro, with less sweetness and more earthiness and leather than the modern ones? That’s kind of what I remember, but of course, my old age could be playing tricks with my memory.
That was the impression I got as well. That style of maduro always reminds me of my old baseball mitt, carefully stored away in my Grandpa’s shed on the farm when I was a kid. It’s a little bit mitt, and a little bit shed. Leather and must and all that good stuff.
LOL, I came back from my first year of college only to find that my dad had given away all of my baseball stuff (including two gloves and a Stan Musial signed baseball), card collection (MLB and NFL/AFL, some from the sixties, as well as War of the Worlds and WWII series), and slot cars. Was I pissed off? Uh, yeah. All these years later, it makes no difference, but man, it was aggravating. Haha! Good thing I didn’t have a cigar collection at the time.