Padrón Family Reserve No. 45 Maduro Review

2026-09-03  Box Buy · 4/4 My Money · by Eric

Filed under: Box-Pressed · Limited Editions · Maduro Is a Process · Nicaragua · Retrohale · What Cigars Cost · Puro

Appears in: The Box Buys

Verdict: The Padrón Family Reserve No. 45 Maduro is a Box Buy (4/4) at about $32 street... it never dipped, never needed a touch-up, and never got boring for the better part of two hours. I gave the 1926 40th Anniversary a Five-Pack in July and said two things kept it off a box: the price, and a fall-off at the very end. This one costs the same and the fall-off never came. The final third was as good as the middle. That's the whole difference, and it's the difference between a 3 and a 4.

Brand

Padrón

Line

Family Reserve No. 45 Maduro

Vitola

No. 45 (box-pressed toro)

Size

6 x 52

Wrapper

Nicaraguan Maduro

Binder

Nicaraguan

Filler

Nicaraguan

Made in

Nicaragua

Factory

Tabacos Cubanica (Estelí)

Street price

$32

Family Reserve is Padrón's top shelf: a Nicaraguan puro rolled from tobacco they aged ten years, released in numbered vitolas to mark family milestones. The No. 45 came out for the family's 45th anniversary in 2009 and was Cigar Aficionado's Cigar of the Year that year. The band says "Family Reserve" up top with "1964" in it and "45 Years" underneath, which is why you'll hear people call it the 1964 45th Anniversary. Same cigar.

The Setup

• Cigar: Padrón Family Reserve No. 45 Maduro, No. 45 (box-pressed toro, 6 x 52)
• Blend: Nicaraguan puro... Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, all of it grown and aged ten years on Padrón's own farms
• Factory: Tabacos Cubanica (Padrón), Estelí, Nicaragua
• Street price: about $32 a single online, $317 for a box of ten, and up around $36 at the big-box places. Padrón doesn't go on sale, so that's the price
• What I paid: picked it up at a B&M while traveling, and I don't remember the number. It wasn't on sale, so figure street or a little over... my own money
• Storage: out of a Boveda bag at 69% RH
• When/where: lit up a little after 8pm on the back deck... 86°, feels like 87, 60% humidity
• Food beforehand: dinner at Texas Roadhouse about two hours earlier: herb-crusted chicken with a decent amount of salt and pepper on it, a baked potato with a good amount of butter, corn, four or five mild boneless buffalo wings, water. A few water crackers right before lighting to clean the palate
• First cigar of the day, paired with water. Cut with the Xikar XO, lit with the Jetline single torch

Cold Draw and Light Up

Padróns always surprise me with how rustic they look, and this one is no exception. It's a firm box press, but the press isn't straight. It's a double cap, but the wrap isn't on symmetrically and the cap is basically useless as a cap. There are $10 cigars that look a lot cleaner than this. You don't buy a Padrón for its looks, and they clearly know it. No cracks, no holes, no real imperfections in the wrapper itself... just a small spot up by the cap that looked like it maybe wasn't glued down all the way. More on that in a minute.

Cold draw was a touch snug with a nice sweetness and a little tingle on the retrohale.

Toasting the foot smelled like spicy milk chocolate, which is a very nice way to start. First puffs lit were spicy, nutty dark chocolate with a little coffee. The retrohale went white pepper with a sweet breadiness, coffee, a little cream, and maybe a touch of woodiness.

That spot by the cap turned out to be a loose piece of wrapper right where I cut. Not unraveling, not going anywhere, just loose enough to move with your lip. Mildly annoying. I thought about going in for the glue and didn't feel like it.

First Third

About a half inch in, the draw was baking spice... not pure spice, there's sweetness behind it, which is why I call it baking spice and not pepper. Some woodiness, dark chocolate, a little coffee, and a tiny bit of nuttiness on a long finish. The best way I can describe it is a Mexican hot chocolate. Not the sweet American kind. More spice, more bitter chocolate, but that same idea.

Retrohale was close to what it was at the light: the spice had calmed down to somewhere between baking spice and white pepper, with breadiness, a little cream, coffee, and only a hint of chocolate. What stuck around on the really long finish was a milk-chocolate texture, more than a flavor. Not cream. That coating feel of milk chocolate on the palate, with a little spice in it.

This is also where I noticed the cigar smokes differently depending on how you pull on it. I mostly double-draw. On a single draw this thing turned into a milky, chocolatey, creamy, lightly spicy cigar. Both were really good, they were just different cigars.

Near the end of the first third, a single draw was light baking spice, woodiness, a light nuttiness, a medium-roast black coffee, and something else I never pinned down. A double draw brought in leather and light cream alongside the coffee and spice. The retrohale was baking spice, heavy cream, a good amount of coffee, and a little leather... mostly coffee and cream on the finish.

Smoke production was good. The burn line was nearly razor sharp and I hadn't thought about rotating it once. The ash stacked tight with no flyers, a little crooked toward the bottom where gravity was pulling on it. I did flip the cigar over, but only because I didn't want the ash landing in my lap, not because of anything the burn was doing.

Second Third

Coming into the second third the retrohale went white pepper, cream, leather, and coffee. A single draw picked up a little minerality alongside chocolate, coffee, light cream, and a touch of leather. A double draw was baking spice with a slightly stronger leather, dark chocolate, and coffee. The draw was better than it had been at the start, not quite perfect but very good. That loose bit of wrapper was still loose and still sticking to my lip every time I took the cigar out of my mouth. Still not unraveling. I still didn't go get the glue.

About halfway through, the milk chocolate came way up, more than anywhere earlier, with nuttiness and cream and only a little spice left on the regular draw. Strength from the light to here I'd call medium, probably a little under that at the start. A double draw here was baking spice, dark chocolate, coffee, a tiny bit of cream, a tiny bit of nuttiness, very little leather, and woodiness on the long finish. The retrohale was a good amount of baking spice... not sinus-clearing, just present... and then coffee as the primary note behind it. Wicked good coffee, a nice medium roast black coffee, with chocolate and cream. No leather or woodiness on the retro at this point.

Here's the thing about this stretch: I wasn't retrohaling much. Usually if a cigar isn't great I retro more, because sometimes the retro is a different and better cigar. This one was so good on the regular draw that I just didn't think about it. Single draw, double draw, slightly different profiles either way, and different notes taking the lead on different puffs... one draw heavy cream out front, the next nuttiness, the next coffee, the next leather. All the same family of flavors, just trading places. About two thirds of the way through the second third a single draw was all milk chocolate with baking spice at the end and some leather.

Strength climbed a little late in the second third, to medium-plus, maybe medium-full. The burn line was basically razor sharp the whole way. This is a cigar you can sit and focus on and chase the subtleties, or hand-carry through a crowd and a conversation without ever babysitting it. It just works.

About that minerality: it showed up both times I ashed the cigar, first to second third and second to final, right after the ash dropped, then faded as the ash rebuilt. The ash seems to protect the ember, and you can taste the difference. If you get a mineral note off this cigar, look at how much ash you just knocked off.

Final Third

I didn't take many notes through the final third, I just smoked it, so this is the short version, and the short version is that nothing changed for the worse. No dip. The ash kept stacking and holding on. The same family of flavors kept trading the lead... milk chocolate, cream, coffee, nuttiness, a little leather, baking spice... the way they had all night. The woodiness that had been floating around in the first two thirds dropped off here.

The one real change was the retrohale. The spice ramped way up and turned from baking spice into black pepper, a moderate amount, but enough that my usual retro (about a third of the draw) would make my eyes water. Not a sneeze, but watering eyes. So I cut it to about half my normal amount, and right behind that pepper came a mouthful of sweet cream and coffee, sometimes leather, sometimes nuttiness. It never went earthy, which is where a Padrón maduro usually heads at the end. It just got peppery on the retro and stayed sweet everywhere else.

Strength went to full here. Not medium-full, full. After the meal I'd had, that says something about the tobacco.

A little more than halfway through the final third I tried to knock the ash off because I was worried about it falling. I tapped it probably ten times, normal taps, not hammering the cigar, and half of it came off. The other half wasn't interested. An ash that stubborn is a construction compliment, but it should have come off, and it's worth knowing before you ash one over your lap.

Construction

• Wrapper: rustic, like every Padrón. Crooked box press, off-center double cap. No cracks or holes. A loose piece of wrapper up by the cap where I cut it stayed loose all night, stuck to my lip every time I pulled the cigar out, and never once unraveled. I never glued it
• Draw: a touch snug on the cold draw, better by the end of the first third, really good if not perfect for the second half
• Burn: basically razor sharp start to finish. No touch-ups. I flipped it once, for the ash angle, not the burn
• Ash: tight, stacked well, no flyers, a little crooked from gravity. Held so well that ten normal taps in the final third only took half of it. Each ash brought a short burst of minerality
• Smoke output: good throughout
• Strength: medium for the first half, medium-plus to medium-full late in the second third, full in the final third

Bottom Line

I expect a Padrón to be good. That's the whole deal with the name: you pick up any one of their sticks and you know it's going to be a solid cigar. What I don't expect is to spend $30-plus and have it be this good. It opened as spicy dark chocolate and coffee, turned into Mexican hot chocolate, then spent an hour and a half trading milk chocolate, cream, coffee, nuttiness, and leather around on every draw without ever settling into one thing. It never dipped. It never went earthy. The burn never needed a hand. The only thing wrong with it was a flap of wrapper by the cap that annoyed my lip, and that's the kind of flaw I've stopped caring about once a cigar is lit.

This is the thing you're paying for with a $20-plus cigar when it's actually worth it: it changes, it's complex, and you can sit with it for two hours and never get bored. Plenty of expensive sticks don't deliver that. This one did.

Would I smoke it again? Box Buy. I don't hand that out to a $32 cigar lightly, and the 1926 40th at the same price didn't get it. The difference is simple: that one fell off at the end and this one didn't. Everything I said back then, that if it had carried the sweet chocolate all the way to the nub it'd be a box without me thinking twice, applies here, and this one carried it. Yes, I want these in the humidor. Yes, I'd spend my own money on a box.

Best for: a night when you've got two hours and want a cigar that rewards paying attention, or a night in a crowd when you want a cigar you never have to think about. It does both. Eat first... it finishes full. I kept it to water.

My scale, one question only... would I spend my own money on this again? 4 Box Buy (box on hand, always) / 3 Five-Pack (yes, a few live in the humidor) / 2 Hand-Me-One (wouldn't buy it, wouldn't turn one down) / 1 Not Even Free (I'd rather smoke nothing).

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