Cigar:            Padron 1964 Aniversario Torpedo Maduro

Size:             52 x 6.0"

Country:          Nic

Wrapper:          Nic, Maduro

Binder:           Nic

Filler:           Nic

Flavor Strength:  Medium-Full (starts medium, evolves to Med-Full)

NicotineStength:  Mild-Medium

Date Received:    2006-02-15

Suspected Age:    No. 414145

Vendor/Price:     Gifted by TiCo

Hype:       Lots.  The Padron 1964 Anniversary Series line was introduced in 1994 to commemorate our company’s 30th anniversary. This line consists of nine sizes that are all available in natural and maduro wrappers. All tobacco used in this limited production series is aged for four years, creating a smooth and complex flavor. In honor of the age-old Cuban tradition of box pressing cigars, the 1964 Anniversary line was introduced as a box-pressed series. For the protection of our customers we have introduced measures to safeguard against counterfeiting with a specially designed double band featuring an individually numbered guarantee label.

Beverage(s):      Nicaraguan coffee, Mehana Volcano Red Ale (insipid, but not               offensive), Water

Smoke time:       1:45

Date:             2006-03-12

Posted to ASC:    2006-03-12

Overall score:    4.8/5.0

Overall:    A great cigar, and a must try for all.  Flavor profile fairly consistent over the smoke.  Leather and cocoa to start.  Soon the cocoa comes to dominate, coffee is a transient, leaving a leather back, with vanilla and other aromatics entering just beyond the halfway point.  Long aftertaste gets minty.  Near perfect burn, fair smoke volume increasing over the smoke.  Firm, long, compact ash.  Fine, slightly sweet minty finish.  A box purchase except at $250/20 one can get a box or more of many fine Habanos (3 boxes of Fonseca KDT Cadetes, 2 boxes of Trinidad Reyes, 2 boxes of QdO Coronas, box of M4s).  Still, a wonderful cigar, and I greatly appreciate the gift. 

Ambience:   Early afternoon on the lanai at Maui Kameole.  Spent the morning at the beach body surfing, sunning, and generally frolicking in the waves.  Mourning doves coo, chukars chuckle, and the mynas randomize in the palms, their fronds clicking in the light breeze.  Sitting down with this cigar and the weekend WSJ.  It looks like employment is way up again, despite the dems continuously, boringly, predictably talking the economy down.  The employment numbers do not bode well for filling my open positions easily. 

Appearance: Dark, shiney wrapper with small veins and some tooth.  Nice spiral cap ending in a point.  Medium box press.  Firm, yet slightly yielding along length.  Seems heavy for its size. 

Cut & Prelight:   Leather and cocoa with a slight foral note.  Cut well yielding a slightly restrictive draw.  Cut it at 1/2" diameter.  Rich, mellow, slightly sweet cocoa draw flavor.  Bit of a lip tingle. 

First third:      Initially, bitter chocolate and leather.  Quite nice with the coffee.  Lowish smoke volume.  Bitter edge has waned, and the after is sweetening a bit.  Now into the beer.  Even burn, and a compact ash.  A coffee note, heretofore masked by the Nicaraguan coffee, starts to come through.  A hint of spearmint in the long after.  So far this is a great cigar. 

Second third:     Smoke volume increasing.  Leather, cocoa, and coffee, with a slightly sweet and minty long after.  Perfect burn.  Ashed itself for the first time with 2" of compact ash.  Leather and cocoa has intensified.  At the halfway point some aromatics are beginning to emerge. 

Third third:      Like smoking an 80% cocoa bar with a 15% leather back and 5% aromatics.  Nice after which sweetens the longer one waits.  Yumm.  Ashed again at 1".  Vanilla has emerged from the aromatic background.  Approaching the nub a minty/anise aromatic appears in the after.  Abandoned at 1/2" holding onto a 1.5" ash.  Finish LONG, slightly sweet and minty.  A wonderful cigar.