Cigar Review: Padilla Cava

The Padilla Cava, which translates in Spanish to “it digs” or “digging,” is blended by Ernesto Padilla at the Oliva factory in Nicaragua. This is Padilla’s first foray into large ring-gauge cigars, as he has usually favored to blend in smaller vitolas in the past. The sample for this review came to us by way of Famous Smoke in Pennsylvania.

Blend Specifics:

Cigar: Padilla Cava

Vitola: 8” x 60

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano

Binder: Ecuadorian Habano

Filler: Nicaraguan

Appearance and Construction: This massive 8” x 60 cigar has a slightly darker than milk chocolate wrapper, a large foot band with an embossed Padilla lion’s head on the front and a poem written by Padilla’s father on the backside. Slightly veiny, which stand out with a lighter color than the rest of the wrapper, but they are small and smooth enough to not distract from the cigar’s appearance. Very smooth texture; slightly oily with a satin feel, a nicely applied triple cap, and an evenly bunched look on the foot. Not dense, but not really loose looking, either. This sample appears to have a crack underneath the foot band, and we’ll see how things get on during the session.

Flavor & Smoke Characteristics:

Cold Aromas: On the wrapper, a slight cocoa and coffee bean but not much else. The foot shows a nice amount of baking spice, nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon, a dry plaster mineral note, and sweet tobacco. The cold draw is very sweet, loads of chocolate, a very airy draw, and not much else, but the chocolate stands out very nicely, very dessert like.

First Third: The Cava starts with a very airy draw, almost feels like one isn’t even puffing at all but produces a decent amount of cool smoke early on. A little white pepper on the front with a bitter dark chocolate in the middle and back to white pepper on the finish and retrohale. The most noticeable and dominant note is a faint sweet tobacco, with a very tiny touch of nutmeg. Overall, the finish is the most dominant characteristic of this cigar, so far, with a cinnamon tingle lasting long on the back of the tongue and white pepper in the nose. The aroma is chocolate and cedar, and is quite pleasant. Burn isn’t really even but manageable. The side with the crack seems to lag a bit but looks like it’ll catch up on its own. Producing a very cool smoke, contrasting with the tingle of the cinnamon. Ash formation is a light grey to almost white, slightly flaky looking but seems to hold nicely. Profile so far is medium in body, medium to medium to full in flavor and medium to full in strength. Spice wash dominates! Wrapper is starting to crack more but smoke and performance are maintaining. Burn line is also becoming uneven but I’ll hold to touch it up to see if it changes on its own. The cigar definitely needed to be touched up and with doing so; I also knocked off the ash at 1.5 inches. Knocking the ash off is very flaky and breaks off in several pieces. Flavors are holding steady with not much change in the progression. The cigar is very airy with the profile on the sweeter side on the draw and spicy on the finish. The spice starts to drop back a bit and leaves more room for the sweet tobacco and slight chocolate note that shows up here and there.

Second Third: The flavor comes up a bit, mainly with the dark chocolate note with now a dry mineral note, as well. The spice has fallen way back but is still present at times. The burn overall is evening itself out. There’s also a very metallic note that also comes into play. Smoke production is becoming greater but flavor is still is still very much lacking. The profile is holding consistently with minor changes and is at medium in body, medium to medium to full in flavor, and now medium in strength.

Final Third: The start of the final third is still holding through from the second third with no change since that point. The band comes off easily and is held together with self-adhesive glue. The metallic note is now a more dominant characteristic with the aroma still being cedar and chocolate. The chocolate on the draw has come down and is now faintly on the finish. About halfway into the final third the sweet tobacco is met with nutmeg, in not so much of the spice but the flavor of nutmeg. The smoke is still extremely cool and is becoming a bit more creamy and thicker. The cigar finishes at a solid medium in body, medium in flavor, and medium in strength.

Final Thoughts

To note, this cigar has great construction and is blended very well, the burn is consistent throughout and I’m sure the uneven burn early on was due to the crack, once passed that point the burn line stayed pretty even. Smoke production is nice, as it gets creamier, even if only by a little as the cigar progresses. The smoke was generally smooth with a tiny bit of grit that could be felt on the tongue. Flavor wise, when it did show some, was pleasant and enjoyable but totally lacked overall in flavor and enough of it to keep one concentrated on the cigar. The blend tended to be fairly bland with primarily a sweet tobacco flavor mingled with a metallic note. Not a bad cigar by any measure of the meaning, and performed quite well, just no flavor to it. When it did show flavor, notes were characterized by a bitter dark chocolate and nutmeg, which I found as a nice combination and complemented each other quite well. The cigar burns very cool, but for a three-hour smoke, I found myself asking for more. The room aroma is very pleasant and actually shows more flavor (of chocolate and cedar) than the cigar itself. A blend that shows potential, maybe in a smaller vitola. The cigar is also a slow burner, which in addition to its massive size comes to about an hour a third.

Smoking time was 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Grade: B

Purchase the Padilla Cava Here