Fat New Padrón Blacks Coming This Fall
The Padrón family is conservative with new releases, so a new Padrón is typically a big deal. This fall, the company will begin shipping the Padrón PB-99, a line extension to the sub-brand that is better known as Padrón Black. The cigars in that line are powerful, stronger than most other Padróns.
The PB-99, which will come in maduro and natural versions, measures 6 3/4 inches long with a 60 ring gauge. Hand-rolled in Nicaragua using Nicaraguan tobaccos, they’re slated to retail for $44, and will come in boxes of 10. Shipping is expected in September. Unlike most Padróns, these cigars are round, rather than box pressed, which is consistent with the Padrón Black series.
The 99 in the cigar name honors what would have been the 99th birthday of José Orlando Padrón, who founded Padrón Cigars in Miami in 1964. (He died in 2017.)
Padrón Blacks are small-production brands, one of the lesser-known entries in the Padrón library and one that’s not even listed on the company’s website. The company began making them in 2015, starting with the 89, which originally was made for a cigar-shop event and later became a TAA exclusive released in 2019.
Padrón Blacks have appeared in sampler packs offered by the Cigar Rights of America, and now the only one that’s available in cigar shops is the PB-97, a torpedo. That’s the only Padrón Black size we’ve rated so far, and it did well, with both the natural and maduro versions scoring 93 points in a January Cigar Insider tasting.
