My first Dud

[MurphyDawg]

Today I experienced my first tru cigar dud. I bought a Padron 2000 at one off the local discount cigarette retailers for $2.00. The only thing that was nice about it was the look it was a robust light brown and smooth and had a sheen to it. It also seemd to be box pressed as I detedted four obvious corners. The fun ended there. It was a pain to light, it burned unevely, the draw aas way too tight and after an inch, it started to unravel at the foot. The taste was also one dimentional (wood and a little nut, not to fancy, not fabulous either, with medium sized smoke), and EXTREMELY mild. It went out twice, and the second time I was so annoyed I pitched it. I will have to try another sometime, as if this really was a dud this brand would make a good everyday smoke at an everyday type price, but this one really pissed me off!

TomC

[B_Dub___Cigar_Ambassador]

Bummer.

Padron is known for the quality of their cigars, and is one of my very favorite brands. They have a taste all their own, and smoke very well.

The problems you encountered could be a result of a couple things:

1. After buying a cigar, let it rest in your humidor for a week or so (at least) before smoking it. This allows the humidity of the cigar to stabilize, and become uniform throughout the entire barrel. If part of the cigar is wetter or dryer than another, the cigar will burn unevenly or cause draw problems.

2. If a cigar is too wet when smoked, it may be difficult to keep lit and the draw will be too tight. If it is too dry, it will burn very hot which scorches the smoke. The resulting taste will be awful. And it will draw too easily and burn too quickly.

Since the Tobacco Tax here in California is so high, I buy almost all of my cigars online and have them shipped in. But I don't wait until I'm out of cigars to place my next order. I personally like to let my new aquisitions rest in the humidor for about a month to recover from their journey. Because who knows what kind of temperature and humidity changes they went through on the way?

As you begin to expand your cigar collection, there will naturally be any number of cigars that will have been sitting in your humidor for some time. Smoke those, let the new ones recover, and you'll have far less burn/draw issues down the road.

And of course, don't write off the Padron line just yet. They really are exquisite cigars!

[MurphyDawg]

The only thing I can think of is that it would have been to wet. The Padron tasted okay, and I am sure I would enjoy one that smoked right. Because I had heard so much about the quality of the Padrons I was suprised at the result. My guess it the quality of storage at the store was decidedly sub par.

I will pick up some next trip to the good cigar joint in columbus, odds are that they are in good shape there.

TomC

[Jal]

Personally, the only Padron's I've found to be worth a damn are the anniversarios (especially the maduros). They're a bit on the pricey side (around 10$ a stick) though.

For around $5 you could sample one of my current favorite smokes: Cuesta Rey Centenario Sungrown (make sure it's the sungrown and not the standard line). The #60 is my fav, but I'm biased towards larger cigars.

[B_Dub___Cigar_Ambassador]

It was obviously too wet.

The foot will often split and begin to unravel when it's too wet.

Sounds like you might want to get your cigars from another retailer. But in any case, a couple weeks in a properly humidified humidor will solve that problem anyway. Did you smoke it soon after you bought it?

Some retailers intentionally keep their cigars a little on the wet side. Much of the foot traffic in a cigar shop are people who are just coming in to buy an occasional cigar for a special event. By keeping them a little wet, the cigars will remain smokeable an extra day or so after taking it out of the store.

Cigars will almost always come either too wet or too dry for optimum smoking. Another reason to let them rest a bit after your purchase.

[MikeD]

I didn't like the Padron 2000 the first time I tried it either. The others were right. It was too wet and needed to settle a bit.

[MurphyDawg]

That sounds like it to me. I figure I will have less of a problem with this as my collection of stogies grows past the "only having 3" stage. Natural againg as I can only smoke so many at once.

TomC