Padilla Ships 2020 Version of Miami 8 & 11

The newest version of the Padilla Miami 8 & 11 is now shipping to stores.

Earlier this year, Padilla announced the famed Miami 8 & 11 would return, this time produced at El Titan de Bronze using Nicaraguan tobaccos from AGANORSA, the company that supplied the tobacco for the original release in 2005.

It’s being offered in a 6 x 52 toro sized packed in boxes of 10. Pricing is set at $16 per cigar.

Padilla planned to release the new version on April 25 at ZT Cigars’ Smoklahoma event. However, two days after we reported about the return of the Miami 8 & 11, ZT Cigars announced it was indefinitely postponing Smoklahoma due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

That likely wouldn’t have mattered as El Titan de Bronze was shut down until early May due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Ernesto Padilla told halfwheel that one unintended consequence of the pandemic was the cigars were aged longer at the factory than was planned.

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.