images/news/new_website_launch.jpg 04/06/2011 images/news/new_website_launch.jpg images/news/ecj_award.jpg 10/01/2010 images/news/ecj_award.jpg images/news/ipcpr_logo.jpg Come see us at the IPCPR Trade Show in New Orleans!

IPCPR 78th Annual Convention and International Trade Show
August 9 - 13, 2010, Ernest N Morial Convention Center, New Orleans LA.

The IPCPR Annual Convention & Trade Show is the most important event of the year for tobacconists! It's your best opportunity to select the high quality products your customers expect, and to discover the new and exciting merchandise that will keep your customers coming back!

Admission to the IPCPR Trade Show is free to members of the IPCPR and is not open to the public.

Visit www.ipcpr.org for full info on this event.]]> 08/09/2010 images/news/ipcpr_logo.jpg images/news/ca_2009_cigar_of_the_year_no45_maduro.jpg
The Padrón Family Reserve No. 45 first reached cigar shops on September 8, the 45th anniversary of the creation of Padrón Cigars by José Orlando Padrón. The 83-year-old Cuban immigrant is the embodiment of the American dream, having come to the United States in the early 1960's with nothing more than a few hundred dollars, a solid work ethic and the burning desire to make cigars that tasted as good as the ones he smoked as a young man in Cuba. The image of a hammer on this special release commemorates a most precious gift given to him by a friend when he was virtually penniless. José O. Padrón used this hammer to earn a job as a carpenter at night. Through a lot of sacrifice and hard work he managed to save up $600, using the hammer, and opened Padrón Cigars in 1964. The cigar smokers of the world owe that benefactor a great debt, for the Padrón family continues to give us one brilliant cigar after another.

No company has dominated our ratings in the way Padrón Cigars has. This is the third time it has been named Cigar Aficionado's Cigar of the Year, an honor that has only existed for six years. The No. 45 is stronger than typical Padrón and is an intense smoke jammed with rich, hearty, coffee notes and a heady amount of spices. The Padrón's are tobacco hoarders, keeping stocks of tobacco for years, and this cigar is made with some of their oldest leaves. Company president Jorge Padrón says the leaves inside are as old as 10 years.

The first of the Padrón's Family Reserves were torpedos made from very old tobaccos, served only for special occasion dinners and never sold at retail. While the 45 shares the original's old tobacco, it's a slightly different blend and an entirely different shape, being a severely pressed parejo. While the majority of Padrón Family Reserve No. 45's are made with maduro wrappers, some are wrapped in natural leaves. The cigars come in tidy boxes of 10, the cover of which bears the signature of the Padrón clan. "This is something you carry in your blood," says José Orlando Padrón about making cigars. "I was born in the middle of all that and that is why I love it so much."]]> 07/01/2010 images/news/ca_2009_cigar_of_the_year_no45_maduro.jpg images/news/padron_88_sampler.jpg
The cigars will be packaged with a Humidipak humidification device and will be attractively presented in a custom printed box bearing the Padrón logos. With your help, we feel that we have created one of the strongest brands in the industry. We want to ensure that we adapt to the needs of our loyal customers.

The Padrón Sampler No. 88 will be available in Natural and Maduro and will contain the following cigars: 1 Padrón 2000, 1 Padrón 3000, 1 Padrón 4000, 1 Padrón 5000, and 1 Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Exclusivo.

In addition to our newest sampler pack, we will also be offering our traditional holiday assortments:

PADRON SAMPLER: Contains 8 cigars - 3 Padrón 1926 Series (No.1, No.2 & No.6) cigars; 3 Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series cigars (Imperia1, Torpedo & Exclusivo); 2 Padrón Series cigars (4000 & 6000)

PADRON 1964 ANNIVERSARY SAMPLER: Contains 5 Anniversary Series cigars including the 1964 Anniversary "A". ("A", Diplomatico, Imperial, Torpedo & Exclusivo)

PADRON 1926 SERIE SAMPLER: Contains 4 1926 Series cigars - (No. l, No.9, No.2 & No.6)

Please visit your local tobacconist and inquire about our new products.

Sincerely, Jorge Padrón.]]> 10/28/2008 images/news/padron_88_sampler.jpg images/news/gamboa_visits_padron.jpg 05/12/2008 images/news/gamboa_visits_padron.jpg images/news/little_hammer.jpg
In 1962, I arrived in Miami, an unknown city in a foreign land. I had to start from zero. At first, I received $60 monthly, as government aid given to Cuban refugees. I was thirty-six years old, strong, and in good health. Every time I cashed that check, I felt like a burden on the country that had taken me in. For many days, I looked for a job and did not find one. Every night, I went home and thought of the future. I was determined to do something so that I could support my family.

One day, Raul Fernandez, a friend who worked in the Cuban Refugee Office asked if I had any carpentry skills. I said I did. He gave me a gift - a small hammer - which he asked me to put to good use. The hammer made me feel I had the necessary tool to become self-sufficient and not depend on a government hand-out. During the days, I worked as a gardener. At nights, I did carpentry with the hammer.

My dream was to save enough money to open a factory to make great cigars, like the ones we used to smoke in Cuba. Through a lot of sacrifice and hard work, I managed to save $600 - money I made working with the hammer. With that, I made my dream come true and opened Padrón Cigars in 1964.

I still have the hammer as a reminder of how it all started. More than forty years later -The hammer is still here and so is Padrón Cigars, the brand the hammer helped build.

José O. Padrón

Click here to view the little hammer story on our website]]> 01/01/2008 images/news/little_hammer.jpg images/news/padron_counterfeiting_band.jpg
In an effort to stymie counterfeit operations that have plagued it for months, Padrón Cigars Inc. has added a second band to its sought-after Anniversary cigar. The new bands, which began appearing on February 1, will sport numbers to guarantee the cigar's authenticity.

Jorge L. Padrón, president of the Miami-based company, said that Padrón had been working on the anti-counterfeiting measure for a year. "We've been working on new ways to make the band more difficult to counterfeit," he said, "and to make consumers feel more secure that they are getting a genuine Padrón."

Numbered bands are fairly rare in the cigar industry, but Padrón already uses a numbering system for its Padrón 1964 Series Millennium cigars. The Millenniums have one number for each cigar -- if, say, cigar No. 1,100 has been smoked, it's gone for good. The numbers on the Anniversary bands may repeat, but never in the same box. The company said there was a system to the numbering to help track possible fakes, but it won't be revealed to the public.

For Padrón, the move is a logical one, as counterfeiting has been a growing problem over the last year and a half. In June 1999, the first fake Padrón Anniversary cigars surfaced in Nicaragua. In January 2000, police seized more than 3,000 counterfeit Anniversary cigars and 5,000 fake bands from a Los Angeles warehouse. Two months later, a seizure in Miami forced the Padróns to send a letter to retailers warning about the surge in counterfeiting. Most recently, undercover agents seized more than $60,000 of fake cigars in a September raid that took place in New York City.

Along with adding the additional band, Padrón has modified its Anniversary boxes: all of the box hinges will now be engraved. Other measures to hinder counterfeiters will be added. In the future, changes to the regular Padrón brand and the Millennium brand could also take place if necessary.

"We have to make it as hard as possible for someone to counterfeit our cigars," says Padrón.

- Mike Marsh, Cigar Aficionado]]> 03/02/2001 images/news/padron_counterfeiting_band.jpg