Padrón Cigars

And a lot of the proceeds of that cigar went to the families and victims of 9-11 and stuff.

So I definitely, and I mean, Fuente, is there a bigger name in the cigar game than Fuente and Padron? If there is, I mean, I don't

know.

No, I don't think so.

I think Fuente is about as up there and well known as it gets.

Now, didn't they do recently a collab with Padron? Yes.

So I saw that on like Cigars Daily, Brandon.

Did you ever have a chance to try one of those collabs?

Yeah.

So my, my question for you is starting, you know, you being a veteran in this game and me being a rookie, what pitfalls did you come through as when you were in my s- in my shoes coming up, coming up with the o- the bigger names ahead of you, the Fuentes, the Olivas, the Padrons, the Perdomos? You know, you have to make a mark with all these big leg- legacies, and they're kind of looking at you like, "Who the fuck is this guy?" So you have to be different.

So you have, you have to become totally different.

You have to make cigars, not just for your palate, you know, for your clients.

sounds very derogatory.

Yeah, but what I mean when I use mid-tier is like in my mind, brands that have gone past boutique and now they're not a legacy brand like a Fuente or Padron, but they've hit a certain threshold in my mind where they're not boutique in the way people use the word boutique.

So like to me, Cavalier is in that that category.

Like I, uh, if you have a better word, I'll, I won't use mid tier or I'll start using craft, but, um, there's, we've built this kind of no man's land of like, you're either boutique or you're, you know, a huge legacy brand that's doing millions of cigars.

They don't change the game.

They don't challenge anyone else.

Padron and Fuente and Rocky and General and Altadas, they do what they do, right? And you can argue whether or not there's heart and soul in that until the day, you know, when it comes to a conclusion.

But I think at the end of the conversation, what it all boils down to is boutique, these brands that are not as big as your legacy brands, non-legacy, whatever you want to call them, craft.

Davidoff is family-owned and operated, but they are a larger corporation as far as I'm concerned.

You got companies like Padron.

You have, uh, EPC.

You have, uh, Perdomo.

At their level, what they're doing, now you need to have passion.

When you're Davidoff-

Padron, Padron, n- next generation down

... next generation's-

What about like brands that people tend to love, but you just can't find something that you like from their lineup? Like, do you guys have brands-

... that you keep going back to? What, Padrón? Was that, Felipe?

Padrón.

[laughs]

Yes.

You haven't had-

Sad

Number three, the Adventure Explorer.

Number two, Padron Anniversary.

And still number one is that Industrial Luciano.

That's going to be a tough one to beat.

You know, the fact that something beat the Padron was, you know, that was a big moment.

Yeah, that was.

Yeah, it's just getting tougher and tougher.

and that's Cesar's goal.

Cesar's favorite company that he's looked at is a Padron.

Because Padron has kept it in the family.

It's legacy.

It's handed down to the family.

You pick up a Padron, you're going to get a Padron, right? You know what you're getting every time.

And so they've always kept it in the family.

Everything is integrated.