he Cigar Wrapper recently had the honor of interviewing one of the men responsible for setting the standard by which all other Nicaraguan cigars are judged. Jorge (pronounced "George") Padron, of Padron Cigars, during his travel schedule between Nicaraguan and Florida took some time out to answer a few questions for our readers. We hope you enjoy!

tcW: Being born into a tobacco family, do you feel you were destined to be a tobacco manufacturer from birth?

Jorge: I think destiny is a good way to put it. I have had the privilege of being surrounded my entire life by tobacco and some of the most knowledgeable people in the tobacco industry. My father never pressed it upon us, but we all naturally gravitated to working in the family business.

My summers, during high school, were spent working in the distribution center in Miami. When I was younger, my father would bring me with him to work and I would spend the day running around the rolling tables. As you can imagine, my responsibilities changed as I got older but when I was younger I was the “gopher” of the office. One of the things I did the most of was get Cuban coffee for all the employees. They would all take turns paying and then send me to the cafeteria next door to bring it back to the office. This happened about 8 to 10 times a day.

Nicaraguan Cigar Masters at Work

I remember my cousin Rudy and I had a long standing joke about being in the Padron Institute of Technology. We would be in charge of all painting duties inside the offices, cleaning of recycled boxes (a program we still have), sweeping the floors; basically anything that needed to be done that nobody else wanted to do. Obviously, I did not think highly of my responsibilities in those days, but I now realize that those responsibilities helped shape me into who I am today. I now find myself doing the same things to my nephew Marcos and nieces Melissa and Jessica who have been working full time with us for the last two years.

As I mentioned earlier, my father never pressed any of us into working in the family business or even smoking cigars. He knew that by exposing us to the business we would all develop the same passion and love for what he had created in Padron Cigars. Time has proven that he was right! (continued...)