Providencia Cigars El Padre Cigar Review – Can I Get an Amen

The other week, I introduced you to the Providencia Cigars El Santo (The Saint), which was a bold and enjoyable maduro. Today we shift the gears slightly and turn to its lighter brother, the Providencia Cigars El Padre (The Father). Of course in real life, a Father could be a Saint but not all Saints are Fathers. I know my Father was a saint; he raised three sons, worked long hours as a laborer, owned his own house, and still managed to leave my mother in a fine financial condition when he passed away. Logic aside, I think it is fair to say that the Providencia Cigars El Padre is not the El Santo. In fact, the El Padre stands on its own, delivering its fair share of delight throughout its error free burn and flavorful puffs.

You may have noticed something in the names of these two cigars, El Padre and El Santo, the Father and the Saint. Yep, there is a deep spiritual reference being made here. The reference is by no accident. The Providencia Cigars website certainly offers some insight:

PROVIDENCIA CIGARS has three founders, Jim Faber, Reed Grafke and Raymond Zinar.

Jim Faber and Reed Grafke are two American guys whose friendship began in 2006 over good cigars and missions work in Honduras. Jim, an ex pro soccer player and coach, lived in Honduras for 15 years where he married a beautiful Honduran woman. They have two natural children that were born there and one adopted daughter that was born in the cigar region of the Honduran countryside. When Jim and Reed met, the Grafkes were living in Southlake, Texas where Reed served as Executive Pastor of Global Ministries for Gateway Church and engaged in other business ventures and sustainable initiatives.

Let’s look a little deeper at the Providencia Cigars El Padre cigar.

The El Padre is the company’s  inaugural cigar and it was recently re-named the E l Padre by one of their greatest supporters of the brand – Ransomed Heart Ministries.  The El Padre is a blend not to far from the El Santo. The core of the cigar is a blend of aged Honduran tobacco grown on the  Providencia Cigars plantation along with premium aged Nicaraguan leaf. It is finished with a beautiful Nicaraguan Connecticut wrapper.

Further examination reveals a well packed and constructed cigar. The wrapper itself is darker than normal Connecticut leaf and has a decent amount of marbling to it. The wrapper also has a very mature network of leaf veins. You may ask what I mean by this? Look at the wrapper closely and you will see a network of vein cells throughout the leaf, this is not always noticeable, but in the case of mature leaf, it starts to become more discernible. This is an excellent quality, as veins large or small carry the nutrients and those nutrients provide flavor.

 

The El Padre has the same primary band as the El Santo and the secondary band declares it as the El Padre. Providencia Cigars offers the El Padre in two vitolas:

• Robusto Gordo (4.5 x 58) MSRP $8.00
• Torpedo (6 x 52) MSRP $8.00

Running the El Padre across the nose I picked up a curing barn leaf aroma along the barrel and an enticing chocolate and fruit set of notes on the foot. I can say these cigars were not rushed to market. Once clipped, the lightly restricted cold draw offered a trio of flavors, including butter, pepper, and fruit. The Stogie Press “Palm Test” demonstrates no leakage in the draw. So far this is starting out to be a cigar I want to smoke. Thanks to the Raymond Zinar from Providencia Cigars I had both the Robusto Gordo and Torpedo to review!

Time to fire it up – for this review I sampled both the Providencia Cigars El Padre Torpedo and Robusto Gordo

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Cigar Review Notes

First up was the Providencia Cigars El Padre Torpedo

• Well finished pencil point torpedo cap
• Early puffs are buttery and with a bitter coffee and dry cocoa back note
• Mild pepper burn on the nose
• Slight lingering fruit on the palate
• Coffee and butter cream  increases through first third
• Floral like aroma fills the air around me
• Ash is med grey and solid
• Excellent burn line – medium thickness and straight
• The typical bitter Connecticut flavors are nicely toned down with creamy notes
• Sweetness start to fill the profile near the second half
• Finishes with citrus and cedar notes
• Light to Medium Strength
• Total Smoking Time was 1 hour and 20 minutes down to the nub!

Additional notes on the Providencia Cigars El Padre Robusto Gordo

• A touch more fruit on the cold draw
• Early puffs had an increased amount of Cocoa powder
• Ash was solid and well-formed
• Hint of mineral near the mid way
• Wrapper showed more oiling than the Torpedo
• Total Smoking Time was about the same as the Torpedo – an hour and twenty minutes

Overall, the Providencia Cigars El Padre was a smooth and delightful smoke. It has less dimension than the El Santo but still offered solid flavor notes through a creamy smoke. Construction was spot on with no burn issues. This is certainly an early morning or late evening cigar, light to medium in strength it will pair well with a creamy cup of coffee or a late evening Irish Cream cordial.