Padrón Event Raises Nearly $200,000 For Charity
Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, was the site of a Padrón cigar dinner and charity auction held by Tobacconist of Greenwich on Wednesday, June 11. The sold-out affair featured an array of Padrón cigars and appearances by several members of the Padrón family, including Jorge Padrón, who runs the company. Padrón is based in Miami, crafts all of its cigars by hand in Nicaragua, and has won Cigar Aficionado’s Cigar of the Year a record four times.
Even though it was a seated dinner with multiple courses (including an assortment of shellfish, Italian antipasti, beef and several pastas) there was even more food before dinner began, including pizzas from Grigg Street and a lobster roll truck. There was also a full bar. Each guest received several Padróns to smoke throughout the evening, plus a boxed four pack of high-end Padrón cigars to take home: a Padrón Serie 1926 40th Anniversary (Cigar Aficionado’s first-ever Cigar of the Year), the new Padrón 60th Anniversary cigar, a Padrón 50th Anniversary (the humidor version, not the smaller boxed version) and a Padrón Rare Finds A Hammer & A Dream, a cigar that was made especially for Tobacconist of Greenwich.
The Rare Finds A Hammer & A Dream is a box-pressed toro measuring six inches long by 54 ring gauge. The cigar comes in natural and maduro versions, and Padrón made 500 individually numbered boxes of each, which were on sale at the event. (The shop still has some left for purchase.)
Smoking was allowed (and encouraged) before, during and after dinner. At the conclusion of the meal, Michael Cafagno, owner of Tobacconist of Greenwich, took to the stage to introduce the charity auction that would take place. Jorge Padrón spoke about the lots as well, which included many rarities from the Padrón family, including the first release of the cigar that became the Padrón Family Reserve No. 44, prototypes of the Rare Finds A Hammer & A Dream and several other cigars.
One cigar lot in particular garnered immense interest: a prototype of the 30th Anniversary Padrón cigar. Padrón was founded in 1964, and in 1994 the company came out with an anniversary smoke called Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series, a line of box-pressed cigars. But before that cigar was created, Jorge Padrón came up with an idea for a celebratory smoke that was long and skinny, with pigtail caps, somewhat reminiscent of the early Fumas made by Padrón in its infancy. That cigar was rejected by Jorge’s father, company founder Jose Orlando Padrón. But Jorge held onto a box, and that 30-plus-year-old box of cigars was auctioned at the event, and was won with a winning bid of $30,000. A trip to see the Padrón Family in Nicaragua was also auctioned off, and that lot also went for $30,000.
The auction raised nearly $200,000 for the Padrón Family Foundation, a charity founded in 2012 by Jose Orlando and Florinda Padrón and their family. The family organization helps raise funds for education and health programs in Nicaragua, where all Padrón cigars are made.
Read Next: Peter James Discontinuing Leather Travel Humidors, Few Still Remain
