Padilla Obsidian (CI bundle) Review

[rizzle]

Thanks for the review Ratters. I've read many of your posts that indicate to me that our tastes are similar and if you like them I'm up for giving them a try. I've been hesitant to try them because I have never seen anyone post about them and I've always thought they sure are handsome looking sticks. I'll have to put that one on the list now.

[Big D]

Nice review! I've been enjoying these since you bombed me with one.

[borndead1]

They are very tasty smokes indeed, but they not only need quite a long nap but also low humidity. Mine were nearly fireproof until they sat for 6 months at low 60s humidity.

[bigswol2]

Great review. I have a few of these in my humi with about a year on them. Time definitely helps with the burn. Good Job!

[Ratters]

Originally Posted by Big D

Nice review! I've been enjoying these since you bombed me with one.

Yeah, I think you liked this thing more than the TM.


I think I may try dry boxing my next one for a day before smoking and see how it goes. But the touchups are no big deal for me as I have other maduros that require the same care.

[texasbadbob]

Thanks for the review. It's good to know they get better with age. I "bit" on a Joe's daily deal awhile back for 2 bndls and was not impresses with the one I smoked, but it's been 6 months or more so I will go back and try one again. Thanks again!

[ksibew]

I bought some of these awhile back. I tried to burn one within a couple days and it was impossible to get that thing to draw. Like trying to pull a door knob through a straw! The answer is to really let it sit in the humi for a couple maonths or so. Nice review.

[BlackIrish]

Bought some of these on a CBid private auction back in February and after smoking one ROTT I've been letting 'em sleep. Think it's time they paid their rent.

[ca21455]

Thanks for the nice review, this is a nice smoke for the price.

[ahbroody]

these are good and they definetly bene from a few months humi time. Just smoked my last a week ago. should order some more.

Rg bumped

[Benwoo]

I'm new to the whole cigar scene so I may have made many faux pas in sampling this cigar, I don't know. I've read guides on smoking cigars and most of them are pretty consistent and I try the techniques to try and find the flavors and what not.

A Padilla Limitado Edicion Especial 2006 arrived from one of my OCD CI Sampler purchases about 2 or 3 weeks ago when I started this hobby, so it hasn't had time to set too long. I pulled the cello to try and prep this for smoking sooner, maybe that was the first mistake...

When I arrived at my weekly beach/ run it was close to sunset and cooling off nicely. There was also a stiff breeze (prolly the second mistake: smoking in the wind).

I popped open my little 5 stick travel humidor and chose the Padilla. The
wrapper was dark n sexy, the smell of it made my eyes roll back into my head and I was quite excited about trying this lil guy out.

I had to max my torch lighter and almost touch it to the foot to get enough heat to roast this thing. I finally get it lit and it appears to be lit evenly.
The draw was good, the smoke seemed to be thin but had great flavor while I could keep it lit. I was trying to take it slow and enjoy this smoke but I couldn't keep it lit, even if I tried to freight train the thing... I noticed the ash had an olive greenish sections towards the middle, I'm not sure if that's common or if I didn't have it lit as well as I thought. After about and inch of screwing around and relighting, retouching and people trying to bum cigarettes off me, I decided to move us to a picnic bench behind the seawall in a bit of a swale which dropped the wind significantly (YAY!). Hope is renewed!

Take 23 of trying to light this guy was a screaming success with a huge billowing cloud of smoke that surprised me and caused me to choke because I inhaled a bit >.<

The flavor picked up a lot and I was happy and thought I was in business, that was a short lived triumph. I noticed the filler was burning down but the wrapper wasn't, ok retouching again. Oh shite! it went out again, relight time, sweet it's relit. Puff a bit...Hmm I think it's dead again... Relight... *click click click* goes the lighter... *Click click*... WTF?!? Stare at it a bit puzzled. *Click Click* it's sparking. Hold it up to my ear *click click* OMFG! I'm outta butane now! Lighter is dead. After almost throwing it into the ocean I remembered I brought matches as a back up. The matches wont stay lit. After 3 or 4 match attempts I hang my head in defeat. After smoking maybe half of it I toss it into a warm BBQ pit that wasn't being used to give it a final send off. Now that I think about it I probably should have tried to lite it off the coals but I was so frustrated and irritated by this cigar and my situation I just packed up and headed home...

On the up side, the sunset was quite beautiful with the clouds and from the info gathered from my fellow brothers on this thread there maybe hope for the others I have in the Humi. I really did like ths cigar when I could keep it burning, just a shitter of an evening for burnin.

Crap this took to long to write, back to work!

Chris

[hoax]

I spoke with the Padilla rep at West Coast Cigar's Padilla tasting regarding how the maduro's look a little blotchy.

What he told me was that Padilla does not use any artificial methods to darken their Maduro leafs other then the natural fermentation. No steaming, cooking, or dyes. However the end result is that the color is often not a uniform shade.

Any thoughts?

[Coop]

I didn't like this cigar much the first time I tried it, but it's one of my regular smokes now. I found that that keeping them at 70% they are plugged and hard to dray, if I dry them out a bit, they smoke really well. They are also a great value, I can usually get them for $2/stick on cbid.

[gary106334]

Thanks for the review. I have a number of these resting. Will have to try one in month or so.

[Ratters]

Great review Benwoo, but you really have to give these a MINIMUM of 3 months in 65% till their somewhat smokeable. Last one I had was probably about six months old and dry boxed for a day and only needed two relights the whole time. I love these sticks, just picked up another bundle for $34 of cbid. Best sub $2 cigar I know.

Hoax- that sounds reasonable, you'd think artificial dyes would leave a more uniform finish.