A Borrowed Hammer and $600: The Founding of Padrón

José Orlando Padrón was born in 1926 in Cuba, near the tobacco country of Pinar del Río, into a family that grew the leaf. In 1962, after the revolution, he landed in Miami with the rest of the exile wave, and with no way to make cigars.

A friend named Raúl Fernández gave him a gift: a small hammer, with instructions to put it to good use. Padrón did carpentry with it, day after day, until he had saved $600. In September 1964, that hammer money opened a small cigar company in Miami with a single roller.

The company grew the slow way, on consistency rather than flash, eventually moving production to Nicaragua. Then, with a patience that matched the cigars themselves, came two defining releases. In 1994, for the company's thirtieth anniversary, Padrón released the 1964 Anniversary Series. In 2002 came the Serie 1926, honoring José Orlando's 75th birthday and the year of his birth.

Both lines became benchmarks, the cigars other makers measure against. The hammer, meanwhile, became company scripture, the reminder that one of the most respected names in premium tobacco started as a carpenter's wage. Padrón still tells the story themselves. It is better than any slogan they could buy.