Tasting Note

Walk into the bustling El Titan de Bronze factory in Miami’s Little Havana section, and you’ll be standing in one of the last important bastions of handmade cigar production in the United States. The rustle of tobacco leaves and clanking of chavettas is constant. This is a busy place. And one of its finest cigars is the Padilla Miami 8&11, which it produces for Ernesto Padilla. The brand has been made in different factories and different countries, but now Miami 8&11 is back in the city where it started. The Churchill, with notes of walnut, molasses and gingerbread, calls to mind a Christmas cake, although this is a fantastic smoke, no matter the season.