In 1962, José Orlando Padrón, a third-generation Cuban tobacco grower, ended up in Miami after the Castro regime confiscated his family’s farms. It took only two years for him to set up shop making cigars employing just one roller. Padrón eventually relocated his factory to Nicaragua, where the mineral-rich volcanic soil, which imparts the leaves with distinctive earthy characteristics, was similar to Cuba’s Pinar del Río. As a result, Padrón Cigars has become renowned for its puros, the wrappers, binders, and fillers of which are made exclusively from Nicaraguan tobaccos. Last year marked the 60th anniversary of Padrón Cigars, and in the decades since it was founded, it has grown to produce some of the world’s most coveted smokes, ironically rivaling many of the best Havanas today. Padrón now employs around 1,200 workers, including torcedors (cigar makers) and tobacco farmers, who together make more than 8 million puros a year...
