I've smoked many great Padron cigars, but tonight I pulled what I thought was a Padron 6000 from my humidor and it was awful. From the first puff I was struck by how bitter it was. Hoping it was an illusion, I continued to smoke but the sour, harsh, bitter flavor was too much to take and I put it out after a few minutes.
My only explanation is that it was counterfeit. I then went to the Padron web site and saw the alert on the home page. I wish I could remember who sold me these cigars, but they've been aging for about six months so it could have been any number of vendors. Has anyone else had a similar experience. I know and love Padrons for the smoothness, spiciness, and complexity of flavor, but if this were my initial sampling of the brand, I would have gotten the totally wrong impression.

I've never seen or heard of a counterfeit 6000...usually, counterfeiters stick to the Anniversary series because that's where the money is. A 6000 probably wouldn't be worth their time.

What is the humidity level and temp in your humi? Sometimes if a cigar is overhumidified the core can actually become damp, and a wet cigar can taste horrible. I had the same thing happen recently with a Cohiba Edicion Limitada....I thought it had to be fake. It wasn't. It just shipped very wet from the seller...wring-it-out-like-a-sponge wet on the inside.

I guess it's possible you got a counterfeit 6000 but it's unlikely. "Padron" and "awful" are two words that seldom appear in the same sentence.

Thanks for the responce, I appreciate it.
Padrons are one of my favorite cigar lines, hence my bewilderment. Upon careful inspection of my remaining 6000s, I noticed that one cigar had patches that appeared to be glued onto the wrapper. It looks like these were repairs of holes or tears. They are actual bits of wrapper tobacco glued onto the outside of the cigar. I doubt that would have passed QC at the Padron factory. My cigars are kept at 70/70 and I'm anal about monitoring that. However, I did, just the day prior, transfer these cigars to a larger, newer humidor, that had been conditioned for a week prior to transfer. I'm very upset about the probable loss of some of my favorite cigars. I'll be calling the B&M that sold me them, to see what they say.

Thread caught my attention since a buddy of mine sent me a text message today asking me to go to our local B&M and check their padrons to see if I thought they were counterfeits.

Said he smoked one last night that was horrible

Brent are you still using Halfway to Habana?

I spoke with the owner of the B&M that sold me the Padrons and he says there is no way the cigars are fakes. He gets them directly from Nicaragua and Honduras, from a long time friend at Padron. That's what he says. He told me to bring them all back for an exchange of refund. You know I'll be carefully inspecting his stock of cigars before I'll do an exchange.

quote:

Originally posted by Robustojoe:
I spoke with the owner of the B&M that sold me the Padrons and he says there is no way the cigars are fakes. He gets them directly from Nicaragua and Honduras, from a long time friend at Padron. That's what he says. He told me to bring them all back for an exchange of refund. You know I'll be carefully inspecting his stock of cigars before I'll do an exchange.

Well, I stand corrected. They're probably fake. That's the strangest story I've ever heard. It makes no sense -- if you want Padrons, you simply call the company in the U.S. and set up an account. On the off chance what he says is true, I'm sure the Padrons would be interested to hear how this guy is smuggling in what amount to gray market cigars. It's also strange that the guy would even tell you that story since it throws up so many red flags right off the bat. Stop buying from this clown immediately. Take back the cigars, exchange them for something besides Padron, and start buying elsewhere. If it were me, I'd rat this guy out to Padron ASAP.

My local B&M told me how difficult Padron was to deal with. They would not allow terms for the vendor, and wanted only cashiers checks or other certified funds no business checks. He said that he would have to close his shop down to goto the bank to get the special funds, and only for Padron products. This is a guy that has been in the business for over 30 years, and would not have a bad history.

"a friend from X" is the same crap people say about their trusted sources from cuba that 99% of the time are fakes.

I'd call or write Padron right now about that story. They are very interested in hunting down fakes, and your story is very suspicious. Heck, there might even be a few boxes of thank you's headed your way if this guy is passing off bad stuff.

I'll be going there this week. I'll try to get more info about what's really going on there.

Riddl- Yes I'm still frequenting there. Though the one I mentioned in my post here was Outman Knives & Cigars in the Haywood Mall, it's where my friend buys his cigars.

Ive never seen any Padrons at Halfway actually. Im going to Charleston next week and plan to stock up on some Padrons at The Smoking Lamp there.

Brent, when you go to buy your Padrons, check the boxes for bar codes. The Padron website has a warning regarding counterfeit cigars, and suggests doing so. Although it seems pretty easy to put fake bar codes on boxes of fake cigars.

Brent why don,t you go to Boda Pipes in Mcalister Square? They have all of the Padrons including the Anniversary series in stock all of the time.

Robusto- Already thought of it, but took it one step further. I emailed padron and had them confirm that the store in Charleston was an authorized retailer. Very timely response as well.

Riddl- I've actually never gone there, I remember passing it the other day though. Go down Laurens Rd(Coming from motormile) and take a left right after the shopping center with Half-Moon, Great Escape, and Earshot right?

Brent, I'm glad you got a response from Padron. I emailed them for the same reason but have not gotten a reply.
I just came back from the B&M in question and all looked good, very good. I did some research and found that the owner, Karl Kolpin is the son of Ed Kolpin, founder of The Tinder Box. Karl himself opened 87 Tinder Box stores and has been in the business for 35 years. He has had a personal relationship with Padron for a very long time, and confirmed something I had heard from other vendors; Padron doesn't use a distributer and sells only to Vendors with Padron accounts. This would explain why many stores don't carry Padron cigars. So this guy is legit to say the least, and his store, Kolpin's Cigar Co., which I love, is above reproach. So...did I get a bad Padron? I think so. In fact, I smoked one at the store and it wasn't as good as the ones in my humi from a year or so ago. I don't profess to be an expert, and this in only one man's opinion, but what was once my favorite cigar is slipping in my hierarchy of "go to" cigars. It's a bit upsetting.

Brent you take a left at Great Escape and go to Pleasantburg dr. and turn right then got to main entrance of Mcalister Square ( it may be called university center now) and turn left into entrance. Go into the front entrance and it is the first place on the right.

Alright thanks Riddl, I have to go to the dentist tomorrow near there so I may try and stop by on my way back.

Glad to hear all is well Robusto.

Brent, how did your friend make out with his bad tasting Padron? Did the vendor check out okay?

Not sure, I believe he is still out of town.

I'd imagine the vendor is ok though. Seems like a fairly respectable store.

I told him I'd let him smoke one of the 1926s or 1964s I buy so that he can taste a proper Padron haha.

Perhaps all the good tobacco now goes into the 26s and 64s, and all the other Padron styles get what's left over. I'm not kidding. The Padrons I knew and loved were all great cigars.

truthfully ive had alot of bad cigars this year. IMO maybe there was some strange weather in Nic and Honduras this year. I have bad Padrons, RP Edges, Hoyo's, etc.....

My humi's are all kep around 65/70 65/70