Lately I’ve been exploring Ernesto Padilla’s line and I have made some very good discoveries.   The Padilla Cazadores is the latest in the Padilla brand that I managed to try.   What I discovered was a pretty good stick at a real good price.

I consider a “value priced” stick in the $5.00-$7.00 range.   Pretty much, from what I’ve seen the Cazadores falls under $6.00 a stick.  Don’t look at the price to judge this cigar. When I looked at the construction of this cigar, there were no corners cut.  This looks and smokes like a premium style cigar.

As always, let’s take a closer look at the blend of the cigar:

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua

The Cazadores is available in 5 vitolas:

Churchill: 7 x 48
Toro: 6 x 50
Robusto: 5 x 50
Toro Grande: 6 x 60
Torpedo: 6.25 x 52

For this review, I opted to sample the Toro size.   I opted to punch cut the beautiful cap, toast the foot and began the smoking experience.   The initial puffs gave me a taste of cedar.   However this wasn’t a heavy cedar spice that I’ve found in a lot of cigars, but more of a natural cedar taste.   I found an interesting transition as I approached the 40% mark of the smoke – notes of black tea began to emerge.  The black tea notes become the dominant flavor tone over the cedar.    As the cigar approaches the second half, a spice emerges and eventually overtakes the tea notes.   This spice can best be described as a combination of baker’s spice and cedar spice (now this is what I was expecting from the cedar notes up front).  The spice notes increase in the second half and give you a kick toward the end.   In fact toward the end, the spice even has some pepper notes.   The finish was wonderful – cool and firm.

I mentioned this cigar smoked very well for the price – this includes the draw and the burn.   As for the strength and body, I’d classify both in the medium range (although toward the end of the cigar, the body probably is medium to full).

One way to summarize the Cazadores is that this doesn’t follow the typical flavor profile of a Nicaraguan cigar.  I found some unique flavors with this cigar.  While I’m not doing handstands over the black tea notes or the early natural cedar flavor – I did like how this cigar uniquely brought these notes to the table.   If you are looking for an “under the radar”, change of pace and value priced cigar – the Padilla Cazadores is one to check.

Burn: Good
Draw: Excellent
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium (although medium to full at the end)
Assessment: Nice to Have