Padilla Miami 8 & 11 Returns for 2020

Padilla’s famed 8 & 11 is back, this time being made at El Titan de Bronze.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because similar news came out in 2011. This year’s version will be produced in a single 6 x 52 toro size to start, made with AGANORSA Leaf tobacco from Nicaragua.

Ernesto Padilla, the company’s founder, says the first boxes will go on sale during ZT Cigar’s Smoklahoma event, which takes place on April 25. The event will feature 30 of the first 100 boxes to be produced. Pricing is set at $16 per cigar and it will come in boxes of 10.

The original 8 & 11 was made in 2005 by the then upstart José “Pepín” García and his small El Rey de los Habanos factory, located on 8th Street and 11th Ave. in Miami’s Calle Ocho neighborhood. The García family would go on to rapidly grow its business into the My Father Cigars, Inc. that is known today. The original Padilla 8 & 11 was one of the first cigars from the Garcías to receive notable ratings from Cigar Aficionado, which helps to explain the popularity all this time later.

Padilla and the Garcías had a falling out and by 2008 Padilla was trying to launch his own factory in Miami. In 2010, a new cigar called Padilla Miami was being produced at Raíces Cubanas in Honduras. In 2011, Padilla moved production to El Titan de Bronze. In 2016, Padilla again tried to bring the cigar, now named Miami 8 & 11, from El Titan de Bronze. Confusingly, by 2017 he was talking about it being produced at Raíces Cubanas.

The latest version seems to be the logical conclusion to all of this.

Not only have there been different names, factories and packaging for this cigar, but the blends have also all been different. For the 2020 version, Padilla says that he is using the original bands and the tobacco will come from AGANORSA, who was supplying the Garcías with tobacco when they were starting out in the U.S.