Padilla Black Bear

Padilla Black Bear

• Strength: 4 / 5
• Size: 6 x 60
• Origin: Honduras
• Price (local): $7.85
• Wrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf
• Flavor Text:
  

A beary good boomstick.

This line extension to Ernesto Padilla’s delectable Series 1968 is a real bear. With a dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper coating a robust blend of Cuban seed Nicaraguan long-fillers, this blend kicks up the intensity and flavor with a slow burn that provides a pleasant and relaxing medium to full-bodied experience. You’ll be met with the same flavor profile as the original Series ’68, with additional notes of spice and earth coming from the wrapper. As with all Padilla blends, Black Bear is perfectly constructed, contains an impressive host of flavors, and is available at a price that will have you questioning our math skills. 

A 6 x 60 cigar for me is not my usual go-to for a weekend smoke; in fact, I try to avoid the bigger ring gauges as much as I can. Nothing wrong with them, I'd just prefer to smoke 2-3 Robusto sized cigars as opposed to 1-2 60 ring gauge beasts like this Padilla Black Bear. A friend came back from Florida recently and brought me one of these, and he described it as "good and heavy," so immediately I was interested. I have never smoked one of these before, and nowadays brands that are not as common to me are always interesting to try, if only to add a new brand to the blog. I have to say though, that despite not being my exact preference size wise, this cigar was actually really good and I did not struggle much to taste the very earthy flavor it presented from top to bottom.

The first thing I noticed about this cigar was how true to it's name it was: it is a thick, dark cigar with a gold and black wrapper, with the words BLACK BEAR on the bottom of the shiny label. It is a 6x60 cigar, pretty standard for a Gordo-sized cigar, and the cut was very easy on this one; the cap popped right off and this smoke was ready to roll. The draw was very good, which is not surprising because I very rarely have draw problems with bigger sized cigars. I'm not sure what it is about some of the smaller ones, but those cigars are the only place where I sometimes experience draw problems. Anyway, this cigar is billowing with smoke and earthy flavor from the beginning, with some notes of light spice and maybe some vanilla in there as well. The burn was uneven at times, but not enough to make the cigar form a boat. The experience of smoking this cigar remained enjoyable throughout and there were no maintenance issues or construction problems at any point. 

As I continued to smoke this one, I began to consider how good of a value this cigar is. Usually, for the stronger smokes, you'll be spending up quite a bit for the experience alone. I know some of my favorite Gordo-sized stronger smokes tend to run about 10-13 dollars per cigar. At $7.85 per cigar, you are getting an excellent, powerful smoke for a great price with these Padilla cigars. I had the good fortune of getting a cigar with a great roll and good flavor, but from what I have read online, sometimes you can catch one with a tight roll or some muted flavor. For me, though, the Padilla Black Bear was a consistent smoke of earthiness, some vanilla, light spice, lighter black pepper, and maybe some darker hickory smoke. 

For what it is, and the price it is sold at, you sure do get a lot to explore with the Black Bear. It scores as a medium-full cigar on the body and power spectrum, but I'd probably rate it as more of a high 3 out of 5 instead of the 4 it is usually endorsed as. I don't think it is as powerful as many cigars out there, and I also don't think smokers who are just venturing into the harder stuff will dislike this one. It's perfectly palatable, tasty and a great medium body smoke especially for the price point. I'd give it a whirl, it was really nice.

Happy smoking! CB