Padron 60th Anniversary: The $75 Question That Has Only One Answer

The Padron 60th Anniversary arrives in an individual gold coffin, adorned with a band that announces its pedigree with the confidence of an aristocrat. At $75 per stick, it is the most expensive regular-production Padron ever released, and it forces a question that the cigar community has been debating since its arrival: is any single cigar worth seventy-five dollars?

Let's dispense with the suspense: yes. If you have the means and the palate, this is an experience worth having at least once.

The Perfecto/Salomon shape—only the second such format the Padron family has ever commercially released—is rolled with the oldest reserves of Nicaraguan tobacco in the family's inventory. These are leaves that have been aging while some of us were still in school, and the depth of flavor they produce is staggering.

The first third opens with malted milk, cocoa powder, creamy coffee, and cedar—a combination that evokes German chocolate cake in the most sophisticated possible way. The smoke is impossibly smooth, dense, and aromatic. There is zero harshness, zero rough edges, zero evidence that you are combusting plant matter. It is, simply, elegant.

The second third evolves into silky walnut, cayenne, nutmeg, cinnamon, and an intensifying cappuccino froth that coats every surface of your palate. The tapered shape means the smoke concentrates and intensifies as you progress, each inch revealing new dimensions. It just keeps getting better.

The final third delivers coffee bean and molasses layered over cocoa powder and orange peel, with a remarkably long finish that continues for minutes after each puff. The cream, cedar, and gentle cayenne on the retrohale are exquisite. When the cigar finally ends—and you will wish it didn't—you sit in contemplative silence, understanding exactly why the Padron family charged what they charged.

Is $75 a lot for a cigar? Absolutely. Is the 60th Anniversary worth it? Also absolutely. The counterargument—that a Padron 1926 at $20 delivers 90% of the experience—is fair but misses the point. That last 10% is where the magic lives, and some of us are willing to pay for magic.