By Tony Casas | October 2, 2017

Back on track today I spent some time in a much cooler (80 degree) backyard with a Padron 1926 No. 90 and a bottle of Saint Archer’s Tusk & Grain Wee Heavy.

The Good Stuff:

By now you should all be familiar with the Padron 1926 series which has been held as a standard and quiet easily one of the best cigars ever produced. To celebrate  the founder of Patron Cigars and chairman of the company Jose Orlando Padron’s 90th birthday Padron has released a 90th Anniversary edition tubo. While it’s the first 1926 tube we’ve seen it’s also the first non-box-pressed version of the cigar we’ve seen as well being offered in a single 5 1/2 x 52 format. Like the rest of the 1926 line the 90th Anniversary is offered in both a Natural and Maduro version. Today we are concentrating on the Maduro version. You can easily scoop these up from our friends at Fox Cigar Bar in Gilbert, Arizona. You can cop the Maduro Version here, and the Natural version here. Keep in mind that Fox Cigar offers Free Shipping on all their orders. That means you can order a single stick, or a 100 boxes and pay nada.

Size: 5 1/2 x 52
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium / Full
Price: $19.50
Pairing: Saint Archer Tusk & Grain Wee Heavy (Scotch ale 11.3% ABV)

 

Prelight:

It’s so strange seeing a Padron 1926 in a round format. The Padron 1926 90th Anniversary starts off being packaged in a maroon and gold tubo which is as elegant as any of the packaging you would expect by the premium brand. Once opened you can take a look at the beautiful, round cigar. The Padron 1926 90th Anniversary starts out with a stunning, consistent dark brown wrapper. It’s hard to even spot an area with any discoloration. As seemless as the color, the wrapper is laid perfectly over itself coating the cigar leading up to its round, double cap. The wrapper’s texture is pretty toothy and gritty with a whole mess of thick oils. The wrapper feels very thick and dense while the cigar has absolutely no soft spots whatsoever. The Padron 1926 90th Anniversary is polished off with the standard 1926 band we’ve all grown to love as well as an added secondary Gold band with “No. 90” embossed in the front as well as Jose’s signature on both sides.

The wrapper on the Padron 1926 90th Anniversary gives off a ton of sweetness, cocoa, and spice while the foot of the cigar carries a much more natural bouquet of scents leading with some bold earthiness, moss, and natural tobacco. The cap cut like butter using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw leads with a ton of rich cooca, spice, sweetness, and earthiness. A bit of pepper left my lips tingling before I even lit up the cigar.

First Third:

The Padron 1926 90th Anniversary starts out with a whole mess of cayenne pepper which left my tongue and lips tinging. After the first few puffs the pepper dies down and is now only resident on the aftertaste. The flavor profile now leads with a strong dark chocolate, cedar, sweet brown sugar, moss, and some great dark berry flavors mixed in. The draw is incredible and I don’t think it gets any better than this. Each tiny puff kicks out massive clouds of thick, white smoke which hand around for a good amount of time before fading away while the cigar releases minimal stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is dead even and razor thin leaving behind a trail of bright white and light gray ash which held on for almost and inch before giving way.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Padron 1926 90th Anniversary and the flavors are just pouring it on. The cigar leads with the dark chocolate and cedar, backed by dark berry, spice, sweetness, some moss, and great nutmeg and cinnamon flavors. It almost tastes like a Christmas themed treat. The retrohale leads with cedar and helps bring back the pepper so I don’t really find myself retrohaling this cigars too often. The burn line is still dead even and I close out the second third with only a tiny nicotine kick.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Padron 1926 No. 90 and the body and strength have both really ramped up. Leading with bold dark chocolate and cedar the flavor profile hasn’t changed too much, but thats not a bad thing. Backed by dark berry, caramel, spice, moss, and a resurgence of the spice it’s a hell of a profile. The cigar burned like a dream from start to finish with no help needed from my torch. It took me over 2 hours to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I loved every second of it. I experienced no harshness nor extended heat and it left with me with a decent nicotine kick.

Overview:

It’s hard to find a cigar that I enjoy more than the 1926 Series Padron, and the 90th is another great extension to the line. While I’m still in a bit of shock with the round format, I loved the tube aspect of the cigar. The Padron 1926 90th Anniversary is complex, balanced, and exposes you to an incredible flavor profile which lines up with just about everything I personally look for in a cigar. The price point is steep, but you are paying for the quality, and experience Padron offers which is second to none. I could easily see my buying a box of these to have on deck for those times I’m craving an uber-premium. Again, hit up our friends at Fox Cigar Bar for the goods.

Pairing:

Hailing from San Diego, California Saint Archer is one of the fastest growing breweries in California. The Tusk & Grain series featured experimental beers aged in bourbon barrels. This specific brew is their Wee Heavy, brewed with Hazelnuts and Cacao Nibs aged in Bourbon Barrels which comes in at a whopping 11.3% ABV. The beer leads with a ton of malt, hazelnut, vanilla, cocoa, and caramel with a very heavy mouthfeel before finishing sweet with brown sugar, caramel, cocoa, and a whole mess of more malty goodness. While the flavors don’t necessarily match up with those in the Padron 1926 90th Anniversary they complimented each other very well. The cigar added some great spice to the beer while the beer added more malty complex to the cigar which turned out to be an amazing pairing. Anything less could easily get overpowered by the Padron.

Contest Winner:

And we have another winner! First of all, thanks again to everyone who entered. We wouldn’t be doing these reviews if it wasn’t for the support from all of you. And the winner is…

Jeffery Hilker

Shoot your address to [email protected] and I’ll get your Hit and Run 5pk out to ya! Stayed tuned though as Fox Cigar has been in beast mode with these giveaways and I am sure we will have more coming up soon!