The Autopsy of a Padrón 1964

[moki]

WARNING: This material is not suited for cigar lovers with weak stomachs. It is brutal, vicious, and stomach-turning. A Padrón 1964 Anniversary Natural was brutally killed in order to bring these pictures to you. Please bow your head in silence briefly.

That said, I've always been a bit too curious for my own good. I know how amazingly rolled these Padrón 1964 Anniversary cigars are, and as such, I've always been curious what they'd look like if they were unrolled. I also have always been curious how good the leafs put into these cigars really look.

So... I decided to murder and dissect a Padrón. The first step was to soak it in some water for 7-8 hours, to loosen it up:



I honestly thought that after soaking it for that long, it'd just fall apart, and I'd be able to look at the leaves. Not so. It was still quite solid even after sitting in the water for almost 8 hours, but I was able to carefully unroll the outer wrapper:



Quite a nice leaf! The cigar itself STILL held its shape, even waterlogged and bereft of its skin, though it did look rather embarrassing, sort of like a wet cat:



Next I peel another leaf off, this one was still wrapped around the cigar, in wrapper-esque fashion, and was quite a nice leaf as well!



The holes in these leaves are a result of me pulling them apart a bit too hastily -- it's pretty cool that they are so well preserved and whole when rolled up, especially after all I put them through:

[moki]

A little further in, we started to get to leaves that weren't really rolled up around the center, but were rather bunched together accordion-style, but still rather nice looking leafs:



This was the last really whole leaf; the inside of the cigar remained rather dry, so it was hard to get the final few leafs apart:



These are all of the leaves that made up the cigar. Looks like a murder scene, doesn't it? It reality, it really was one -- I felt bad doing it, and would rather have smoked the cigar, but my curiosity knows no bounds:



Here's the same tobacco from the cigar, all bunched up in a lump. A sad sight indeed, it didn't even get a nice funeral pyre as a burial ceremony.



After soaking the cigar for so long, the previously crystal-clear water was now completely stained with tobacco juice. I was tempted to see if my cat would drink this, but thought better of it. Don't need the humane society on my back:



So there you have it. This is what happens if you do the unthinkable, and destroy a perfectly good cigar by soaking it and then unrolling it. Once again, I humbly do the idiotic, so that you don't have to.

[Quixote]

That experience was akin to driving past a car accident. You can imagine what you'll see when you get there, but you just can- not- help looking.

Hope you aren't a member of a pet owner's message board.







-Quixote

[edisonbird]

Nice post!!!!

[jimmy]

why....why....WHY!!!!



jimmy

[robmcd]

it's a good thing your shades were pulled

[MoTheMan]

Congratulations on your successful autopsy!!

I do that often with cigars. A lot of knowledge can be gained from doing that, i.e the quality of leaf, sometimes the origin of leaf (both by smell and texture), the rolling trechnique, the blend, and the occcassional proprietary secrets.

But, may I ask, why the water? I auopsy mine dry!! Of course I take greater care doing so (it's harder that way), but I appreciate the natural aroma of the leaf that way more as well. [More on that in a post I'll be putting up soon].

BTW, I'll mention this again, there is a rash of counterfeit cubans making their way in the Baltimore area. The reason I'm saying this is that 3 weeks ago a friend gave me a Trinidad Fundadore to smoke, told me it was from a very nice box he recently obtained. Well, it started out OK, but turned to crap very quickly and stayed that way. I had my suspicions that it was counterfeit. The proof came in the AUTOPSY (of the remaining half). A couple of our local herfs were in attendance when I did the dissection so they can attest to that. So what did I find? SANDWICH FILLER!! And cheap looking short filler at that. [That's a mix of short filler and long leaf in the filler blend.] Now any Habano lover will tell you that the Cubans are fanatic about using long fillers in their blends. Even a Cohiba Panatela (which measures 4 1/2" X 26 ga.) is all long filler!!

So as you can see, even an autopsy delivers useful information.

Kudos to you Moki.


MoTheMan

P.S. Not an hour later I dissected the the second half of a Partagas Short that I was smoking. ALL LONG FILLER, and real nice leaves. Again, local herfs were with me to witness.

[drac]

Oh the humanity!! Call the cigar police!!

[Habana Mike]

I'm not quite sure you're entirely sane, but do appreciate reading about your escapades. Quite interesting to see the Padron disassembled - I don't think I could ever bring myself to doing that.


By the way, that second leaf you removed,

Next I peel another leaf off, this one was still wrapped around the cigar, in wrapper-esque fashion, and was quite a nice leaf as well!

would be the binder, I believe.

[moki]

Originally posted by Habana Mike
I'm not quite sure you're entirely sane, but do appreciate reading about your escapades. Quite interesting to see the Padron disassembled - I don't think I could ever bring myself to doing that.

I'm fairly sure I'm not sane.

Ahh, right, so, wrapper, binder, and long leaf filler, right?

[Scuba Steve]

I would rather see that done to a person...you animal

Now I know who to send anything that needs to be unwrapped

Smoke Out!

[Chef Richard]

I agree with steve

[Scuba Steve]

Rick, good to see you buddy! Sending you a pm

Smoke Out!

[Mayor]

Great photos!

J

[BayouDawg]

the horror! the horror!

better you than me, that made me want to go home hug my PAs and tell them I love them. I frequently disect cigars that were never completely fiined for whatever reason, don't have that problem with Padrons.

I have to 'fess up that I thought about drinking the tobacco tea left over. Am I the only one?