Cigar Aficionado

The Padrón Serie 1926 80 Years cigar -- known as the Padrón 80th Anniversary -- should be on sale the second or third week of November. "Before Thanksgiving," promised company president Jorge Padrón, sitting in his Miami packing area alongside his father, Jose Orlando Padrón, namesake of the 80 cigar.

The cigars will come in boxes of eight, and will be available in natural or maduro wrappers. The maduro version will debut first.

Quantities of the cigar will be very limited, as the family has only one roller making the shape, the first perfecto rolled by the company in its more than 40 years in business. The cigars are made in Nicaragua, where the company now makes all of its cigars, and contain some of the company's oldest leaf.

An 80th Anniversary cigar right off the roller's bench -- it is the first perfecto from Padrón ever.

"It's going to come out very slowly," said Jorge Padrón as a visitor puffed on an unbanded sample of the cigar, which is among the company's bolder blends, with prominent flavors of dark chocolate and vanilla and a long finish. He said the first shipment will be only one box per store, and he feels it will always be made in small quantities. "I don't see production of that cigar going over 40,000 cigars a year."

The cigars will have a suggested retail price of $30 each. Look for a taste test in an issue of Cigar Insider when the cigars go on sale.

For a video on the Padróns smoking the 80 along with European Editor James Suckling, visit our Cigar Cinema gallery.