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| REMEMBERING A FREEDOM FIGHTER |
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Page 1 of 2  Tasting and grading the latest blends from the sons of Heberto PadillaLos Angeles, July 4 – Cigars are bound in tradition with many of the most famous brands tracing their heritage back decades, if not centuries to Cuba, the traditional homeland of the cigar. That’s certainly the case for the recently-introduced Padilla lines, the work of the two sons of the famed Cuban poet Heberto Padilla (pictured above). On a day when Americans remember the beginnings of the United States in 1776, it’s appropriate to check out four blends of the Padilla line, three of which are memorials to Heberto. The Padilla brand was introduced in 2003 by brothers Ernesto and Carlos Padilla with a unique three-blend line. The Padilla Habano line followed in 2005, along with the wildly-popular Padilla Miami 8 & 11, made by a then-little known cigar maker named Jose “Pepin” Garcia. Since then, the Padilla line has added three blends, each named for a specific element in the life of Heberto Padilla (1932-2000), born in Cuba’s cigar district of Pinar del Rio and revered for his role in exposing the suffering of writers and other creative personalities in Cuba. In his obituary in the British newspaper The Guardian that ran on October 14, 2000, Nick Caistor wrote: For many years, the name of Heberto Padilla, who has died aged 68, was synonymous with the censorship and intolerance to intellectuals of the Castro regime in Cuba. For many writers in Latin America and Europe, the “Padilla affair” of 1971 marked the end of their support for the Cuban revolution because of the heavy-handed way it deal with criticism and dissent expressed in one man’s poems.Caistor wrote further that Padilla’s poems that criticized the government led to “when he was forced to appear before the writer’s union, make a public confession of his ‘crimes’ and accuse other writers – including his wife, Belkis Cuza Male – of harbouring similar ‘counter-revolutionary’ ideas that his predicament became an international scandal.” Padilla finally left Cuba, with American help, in 1980; he left four children: Maria, Giselle and the cigar-making brothers, Carlos and Ernesto. On Independence Day in the U.S., could we do better than review the work of Padilla’s sons? Padilla 1948: [USA: available in 4 sizes] The Padilla 1948 line was introduced in 2007 and is named for the year in which Heberto Padilla’s first book – “Las Rosas Audaces” (The Audacious Roses) – was published. It’s a medium-to-full-bodied blend made in Miami with all Nicaraguan tobaccos and a Corojo wrapper. It has a toasty aroma and a light, caramelized taste with a short finish. It’s clean and light, enticing with a rich flavor, but mellow and easily to appreciate. Don’t oversmoke this cigar; it is best enjoyed slowly. It eases toward the finish with just a bit of spice at the end, but is a fine companion on a summer’s evening. |
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Did you know?
“Cigars were introduced to the American Colonies by British Col. Israel Putnam on his return from Cuba in 1762.
