A while back I visited with Jose Padron Sr. and his sons Jorge and Orlando in their Little Havana office. Whenever I am in Miami I always try to visit them to say "hi," talk about cigars, and smoke a few Padrons - plus they make a wonderful cup of cafe cubano. I always enjoy myself during these informal chats as they are the most gracious of gentlemen and splendid hosts. So I asked if they would mind if I taped one of our "talks" to share with the readers on CigarNexus.

Although it is an interview, it is a rather informal one. You will see by the transcript that it is more like a running conversation. Jose Padron Sr. answered most of the questions, but his son Jorge did the translation from Spanish to English on behalf of his father. So the responses labeled "JP" are Jorge retelling what his dad just said to us. While those responses labeled "Jorge" are those he added on his own to our discussion. It is a lighthearted dialogue full of seldom heard tidbits about the Padrons and their cigars.

One thing this transcript may not convey is the mood of the moment. We were all sitting around an old beat-up desk smoking Exclusivos in the back of their old factory now offices as we chatted. The conversation was lively and fast paced with rapid fire Spanish exchanges between Jorge, Orlando, and their father. Everyone was laughing as they shared the story of their history with me. If nothing else, the one undeniable feeling I get whenever I talk with the Padrons is one of happiness. They are truly a family whose love and respect for one an another shows and to share some time with them always makes me think lovingly of my own father and my two sons.

SS: Why don't you tell us about Padron cigars and where it began, how many generations back does it go?

JP: Padron Cigars was started in Miami in 1964. Since he was seven years old, he's been involved in the cigar business. At that time in Cuba his grandfather and his father had already been involved in the cigar business. In the growing aspect of the business... growing tobacco in Cuba. Upon arriving in Miami he decided to continue this tradition of being in the cigar business. He started focusing all his energy on establishing a brand in Miami that the Cubans could enjoy and not have to miss. One of the few things that the Cuban community did not miss after leaving Cuba was the cigar. He feels that was part of him that he was giving to the community that he would let them enjoy what they used to enjoy in Cuba.

SS: What year did you actually come over, sir?

JP: 1961

SS: It was 1961. At what point made you decide it was time to leave? What was the part that made you say, "This is it, it's time to go?"

JP: There were several things that made him decide to leave Cuba. He was at the point of being put in jail, because he was very much involved in the revolutionary movement, and he felt that he did not want to be in a position where he going to have to be under somebody else or in other words-taking orders from somebody else and that was pretty much the way that it was headed. He had the opportunity to see the pattern that the way the revolution was going and he was noticing that it was headed in the direction of communism. He left in 1961 and he went to Spain. In Spain he got there without any money at all and so there were times when he didn't have a penny and there were very difficult times in Spain. He arrived in Miami in 1962, and he started finding odd jobs, he worked as a carpenter, that's his hobby, carpentry and he did several different things to..

SS: Is he making humidors now? (laugh)

JP: No (laugh) He was doing all sorts of carpentry work in offices.

SS: Was he able to bring his family when he fled? Did he have a family?

JP: He left alone first, then he brought over his two kids, Orlando and Elizabeth. Orlando and Elizabeth were from a prior marriage. Then I was born here with another sister later on. He was able to save about $700.00 which helped him start his factory. He rented this space in March of 1964. In that area over there where our driveway is now. He paid $62.50 rent a month... (laugh)

SS: See not everything was bad then, was it? (laugh)

JP: The problem was that he had rented the space, but he couldn't start to produce cigars because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms hadn't give him the permit and it took them like four months to give it to him. He was already using up his reserves to pay the rent and everything else. When he got the permit, he had already spent all the $700.00 he had. (laugh) Then he started working at night again to buy some more tobacco. At that time it was pounds at a time, it wasn't like...

SS: Where did he buy the tobacco at that point? He bought it from other people here in Miami?

JP: He bought tobacco in Tampa, and Philadelphia, by pound...

SS: How much was a pound of tobacco in 1964?

JP: $70.00 for five pounds, on the pound.

SS: Really?!?!?!

A little argument for clarifications ensues between Padron and son.

JP: Seventy dollars a hundred pounds...

SS: Ah, that makes sense. (laugh)

JP: Seventy cents a pound. He bought from Brazil and he bought from Puerto Rico.

SS: So the very first cigar you made, what was it called?

JP: The first cigar that they were making at the time was the Cazador. At that time they had one roller. He would make the cigars during the day and my father would sell the cigars at night. Two hundred cigars a day, that's what they were making.

SS: Was he also rolling? I mean two hundred is a lot of cigars.

JP: No. One roller.

SS: He was quite quick.

JP: And it got to a point where he would go out at night and visit all the stores he would sell tobacco, cigars to... but it got to the point one day where walked up to a store and he saw a bundle that he had sold to them two weeks before and the bundle was still there. And it hadn't sold. They had only taken out one cigar. Out of the bundle they had only sold one cigar.

SS: So you're telling me the Cazadore was not a good cigar? Is that what we're saying? (laugh)

JP: No.

Jorge: That's what he was getting at.

JP: He told the owner of the store, "Let me buy that bundle back from you. I want to try them to see what..." And he got here back to the store at 11:00 at night with the bundle. And he starts to try the cigar and he says the cigar was excellent, that there was nothing wrong with it. And he said to himself, "Either I continue or I close down because I have no money left." (Jorge laughs) But he remembered something that one of his first customers had told him, a gentleman by the name of Bernando Corniff. He use to always tell my father that he missed the cigars from Cuba, particularly one called the "Fuma." It is one of those with a curly-cue on the top...

SS: A pigtail?

Jorge: Yes, a pigtail, and it was a very dark cigar.

JP: The next day he came up with the idea, he said, "Let me try telling the roller to make instead of the Cazadore, some Fumas with the pigtail on the top."

SS: The same size? Just with a pigtail?

Jorge: The same size, a little pigtail.

JP: And he asked the roller the next day to make the cigar this size with the pigtail on top. When he had the fifty cigars made, he had a little countertop, where he sold some cigars out of, and he saved some there and he asked someone to go get this gentleman, Bernando Corniff...

SS: The gentleman who had asked for the Fumas, right?

JP: He asked them to bring this gentleman over and when he came in he had those cigars waiting and he put them on top and the guy goes, "Oh, that's exactly what I wanted." And that's when he told the rollers, "Keep making those cigars." (laugh)

SS: (laugh) Just the pigtails, that's the only difference?

Jorge: That's right.

JP: And at the time he had nothing to wrap the cigar in, the packaging, because they had all the words were "Cazadore," so he got the paper from the Cazadore and he scratched out "Cazadore" and just wrote "Fumas" under it.

SS: (hearty laugh)

JP: There was another brand at the time that was trying to dominate the Miami market. And although the new Fumas was more popular he would go to the stores and maybe sell one bundle of cigars while the other manufacturer would come and sell fifteen bundles, ten bundles every time. The whole trick was... at that time nobody had the Fumas with the pigtail. So he decided he needed to make the package show off the pigtail, so people could see it. The recycled Cazadore bundle came completely covered.

SS: So no one could see the curly tops...

JP: So then he came up with this type of packaging so the head of the cigar could be seen.

SS: And this was the difference between starvation and success? The pigtail?

JP: That's right. That's right. That cigar was being sold at the time for thirty cents.

SS: A piece?

JP: A piece. He takes that cigar out to the market in their new package exposing the pigtails and everybody loved the Fumas. And all the other brands and people were asking why is it that we're not selling any more cigar. And some of the sales reps for the other companies said, "Because Padron came out with a Fuma. And everybody's buying it!"

Jorge: He's not going to mention the names of the companies that were there.

SS: Are they still around?

Jorge and Jose confer.

SS: He crushed them, that's what he said isn't it? (laugh)

Jorge: No, there are still a few brands that are scattered around.

JP: The owner of one of the other factories asked the salesman, "Bring me one of those bundles of Padron, I want to see what they look like." And the salesman later on told my father the story, that's how he knows about all this. The owner of the factory asked the salesman to go and buy him the bundle. The salesman brought it back and he took it to one of his rollers and said, "You see this bundle of Padron's Fumas? Make me a cigar like this one but longer, an inch longer." They had capital, they had good tobacco... at that time. So they started selling their own pigtail cigar. He went to one of the stores one day and saw the new pigtail of the competition...

SS: And it was an inch longer? (laugh)

JP: And it was an inch longer. He asked the person at the cafeteria to show him the bundle so he can take a look at it, but when he takes looks at it they had priced it at thirty-one cents. And that's what saved him. (laugh)

SS: The penny?

Jorge: At that time...

SS: Do you really believe that's what saved him? You know what saved him, don't you? It was the quality, they hadn't tried the Padron's before. It was the same as before, right? No difference except the cap.

JP: Justice happened - the factory with the inch longer fuma failed and had to leave the market.

SS: Well they were way overpriced. (laugh)

JP: And since 1967, eighty percent of the market here has been controlled by Padron.

SS: Well I know they're definitely the most popular cigar in Little Havana. I see everyone smoking them. And they smoke these Padrons. They don't smoke the ones that most of us that go into our retailers buy. How are these different?

Jorge: Yeah, sure. Well this is a different cigar. This is a short fill cigar...

JP: We call it our "battle cigar." It's something that is not expensive, we only produce enough to supply the market here.

SS: But I'm assuming that the short filler is really just the trimmings from your premiums. So it's very good tobacco?

Jorge: Excellent tobacco.

SS: It's from the clippings when they were shortening them and when they were trimming the leaves for the wrappers and all that. Why don't you sell these elsewhere, I see them nowhere but here?

JP: We haven't wanted to abandon this market. It wouldn't be fair to the longtime customers that we have in this market. We haven't wanted to take away from this because we would have to stop selling in here to sell it.

SS: Because you only have so much?

Jorge: Right. Our production, remember, is not a huge production and has not increased that significantly over the last couple of years. So whatever is available is only available for here. In a lot of cases it's his burden, but in a way he's proud of it because it's the people have brought him to where he is. Obviously there are certain cigars that we sell in this market that could be sold at a higher price in other markets and we don't do it. We will not take away from here to sell at a higher price somewhere else.

SS: I can tell you as a smoker, I've only been smoking about twelve, almost thirteen years now, and my father-in-law, he's been smoking cigars about 45 years, and he's felt just what you're talking about. He used to every week be able to go and buy his cigars with his paycheck, he was a blue collar worker, he worked in a foundry, and for him it was a big joy to go buy his cigars, But now they're so expensive, he can't enjoy the same cigars he enjoyed all these years.

JP: Give him your father-in-law's phone number...

SS: A mooch! (laugh) How 'bout that! I give him plenty of cigars, don't worry... It's very nice to hear somebody is worried about these old time cigar smokers though, because they were the people that you made your life on.

Jorge: That's right.

SS: It was these people here, that really gave you your start.

JP: That's the cross that he carries; that he will support these people here, he has to. One of the problems that we've had is that people from other states are coming here, buying these cigars and reselling them.

Jorge: And it's a problem because we had to write a letter to all the little supermarkets and cafeterias that we sell to here, we have salesmen that visit them, and we had to tell them please limit sales, try not to sell a whole box to anybody because those boxes are then being resold. What happens is somebody comes in, one of these people from out of state, buys four boxes of cigars; that's four boxes that they're taking away from a poor old Cuban man that is used to walking everyday to the grocery store and buying his four cigars, and he gets there and there's no cigars.

SS: My father-in-law... you're absolutely right.

Jorge: And he gets there, and he can't buy them, because they're not available because somebody has just come in and bought all four boxes. So we've had that problem that since the brand has gotten the recognition it has, people just because they see "Padron" they'll buy, and they're charging prices that are just outrageous.

SS: How much... I mean it was thirty cents to begin with, what does it cost now in 1998?

JP: Sixty-five cents. This is what it sells for.

SS: That's wonderful!

Jorge: You know how much we could sell this cigar, even though it's a short filler, it could be sold in a retail store for a dollar fifty, dollar sixty-five. It's excellent quality. Now, we have people that are coming in from out of town, buying this cigar at sixty-five cents a piece for a whole bundle, then they resell the same cigars elsewhere for three and four dollars each! And then that hurts us, because people then think that we're exploiting the consumer field, because they think we're behind it.

SS: And really, you're actually taking a beating on the cigar because you want to provide the people here in Little Havana...

Jorge: I said, "Dad, we're going to have to take some steps here," because of these thieves. When people see this cigar being sold at those ridiculous prices, they think it us, that we're trying to capitalize on the name. And that's totally false, and it's a problem for us now.

SS: Another thing that you do that's a little bit different, is you don't sell any of your retailer lines here, within Padron itself. You can only buy them from a licensed retailer...so not only do you protect the people here that are smoking these cigars, you also protect your retailers, right?

JP: Yeah, this is a business that he considers a serious business. We're not trying to undermine the people who help us and we will not undercut our loyal retailers. We only sell our short-fill cigars to local Little Havana merchants who own small stores, cafeterias, and such. And our premiums are sold only through tobacconists.

Jorge: It's a serious business, a two way street, we want a build a relationship with the retail stores. The only way to do that is to protect them. And when we sell to them we want them to represent us. And if somebody calls us from out of state, "I don't have a cigar store in my area, but I want to get your cigars. " I'll say, "Okay, fine. I'll give you the name of the retail stores closest to you so you can mail order from them."

JP: He learned from his grandfather and his great-grandfather that this is a business of respect and honor and you have to be serious at all times. In those days, business transactions were made on handshakes, not on contracts. In Cuba, him and his family used to sell, on a yearly basis, three thousand hechos of tobacco. A hechos is a bulk weight of a hundred pounds. One year, they told his grandfather that they'd pay him ten dollars more per hechos, not the people who he had originally been doing business with, somebody else that came along and offered him more. When they came and offered him that he said, "Look I'm not interested. I have my agreement with these people. I have my word on that and I'm not about to sell at a higher price." In Cuba they didn't use contracts for sale. It was all done by handshakes.

SS: Ask this: does a contract even matter with lawyers and courts, if the man"s word isn't honorable, he's going to get out of the contract, he's going to fight the contract, it's not going to matter is it? What value does it have anyhow?

Jorge: It's always important, nowadays you can not do business without contract. Even in Nicaragua, anywhere, you have to have a contract. The farmer has a responsibility to sell it to you, because you finance the farmer. What happens is that they go and start selling part of their crop to somebody else and they sell a part to you and it's almost impossible. Since you're putting up the money, you have to have something to lock them into selling you the tobacco. It's actually good.

SS: Is it more difficult to do business this way than it was in 1964?

JP: Those were other times, there were a lot less people in the business. There was a very big crisis in the late eighties and early nineties with tobacco. Nowadays there's a lot of people who have gotten into the business who don't know a lot about cigars.