Padron Series 3000 Maduro
Saturday, December 31st, 2011A recent post from Walt over at Stogie Review rang true to me in a way. Walt’s dilemma in 2011 was his local cigar shop closed. This limited his ability to reach to the shelf for new stuff, BS with reps, and be connected. Also there was a decline in “Perks” AKA free stuff. He is aware we are not privileged and he wasn’t complaining. It was just a combination of financial issues, priorities, and life. Not a complaint.
How does this relate to me? My issue was sort of the opposite. Walt’s post inspired me to inspect the shelves at Ed’s shop. I started to realize, I’ve reviewed a lot of stuff he carries. It seemed like I reviewed myself out of doing reviews. Obviously I did eventually find some stuff that slipped my mind. As far as the perks go, 2011 had some generous people sending me some cigars to smoke. I can’t complain, nor would any of us. As for me, I am to the cigar industry what Shaquille O’Neal is to major motion pictures. And I’m fine with that. This place is a hobby after all.
This brings me to today’s review. I used to smoke the Padron 3000’s fairly often, and I wonder how it slipped off of my radar. Once upon a time Matt and I reviewed a Padron thousand series, but the footage ended up screwy and ultimately shelved. So my last review of 2011 is below. Let’s see how revisiting this old friend went.
One last update… After these holidays are over, Ed and I will be back on the small screen reviewing something. We are going to go old school and just roam his shop until we find something that inspires us.
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder/Filler: Nicaragua
Size: 5.5 x 52
Price: Around $5.50 to $6.00
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
The dark wrapper was a bit toothy looking, had minor blotches in color, but overall looked nice and shiny. The wrapper had a slight barnyard and earthy smell, and the foot was more woody and sweet. When squeezing the cigar, I found minor soft and hard spots, but nothing of concern. The pre-light draw had some resistance, but fell within my tolerance.The pre-light flavor was dark and reminded me of a bitter chocolate.
The burn required no corrections, and the ash dropped off at just under an inch.
Flavor:
The first third started off with a flavor that reminded me of black coffee. After 5 to 10 minutes of smoking, a chocolaty flavor was picked up. It was like cooking chocolate, not what you’d get in a candy bar. Passing smoke through the sinus, there was a slight peppery spice. The smoke felt dry and smooth.
The second third basically kept the same flavors of black coffee and dark chocolate. At times the flavors melted together. At other times one would dominate the other. It was random from draw to draw. The smoke felt smoother and thicker. It wasn’t creamy but it was similar to creaminess. During this third the overall flavor profile seemed to really come together.
The last third saw an increase in the chocolaty flavor. It was somewhere in between dark chocolate and the standard milky chocolate you find in candy bars. Black coffee was mixed in as well. A spicy tingle was left in the mouth after exhaling.
Conclusion:
This was a good medium to upper medium bodied cigar. While there wasn’t any wow factor, it did provide a pleasant smoking experience. The flavors weren’t very complex, but they were good. This slow burner is definitely worth trying. I will re-visit it again for sure.