Cigar Review: Davidoff Escurio

Vitola: Robusto
Size: 4.5″ x 54 ring gauge
Price $15.90 MSRP
Obtained From SmallBatchCigar.com as a review sample

Background

Well, it the first of July and the year is officially half way over.  Where has the time gone?!?  We are only a couple weeks away from the IPCPR show and it is just over a month until the Chattanooga Tweetup and Cigar Festival.  Seems like there is the normal excitement going on in the cigar world with some of the new releases coming out.  Speaking of new releases I got the chance to smoke the new release from Davidoff that should start showing up in your local retailers right after the show.  This is a line expansion of the Nicaragua showing off some of the tobacco not normally found in in the Davidoff line.  This cigar is comprised of Brazilian Cubra Criollo, Brazilian Mata Fina and Dominican San Vicente fillers, the same Brazilian Cubra Criollo as a binder with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper.  They come in three sizes at release; petit robusto (3 1/4 x 50, $8.50), gran toro (5 1/2 x 58, $17.90) and the subject of the review the robusto.  They come packed in 12 to 14 count boxes.  I debated whether or not this was going to be a preview or a review but I decided to do it as a review since these are the same blend that will be going out to shops in a couple weeks.

Prelight

The top band is the same one you’ll find on the Nicaragua with the second band letting you know it is the Escurio not the Nicaragua.  The wrapper on this cigar was a nice dark ruddy brown in color and a good amount of oils to it.  It was fairly smooth to the touch even though there was some tooth to it.  When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give and no soft spots.  When I put my nose to the wrapper I got some light leather with barnyard from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it there was a good draw with a slight amount of sweetness.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a pretty heavy blast of spice on the tongue and retrohale.  Not something you expect from a Davidoff.  After a few puffs I start to get some leather, cinnamon and sugary sweetness out of the cigar.  The cigar starts off in the medium-full range in regards to strength.  Once I got into the second third the spice had toned down a bit especially on the retrohale.  The flavors changed slightly to cinnamon, leather, cola, and earth.  The cigar moved up in strength to the bottom end of full.  Once I got into the final third the cigar was definitely full bodied and I was getting a slight nicotine hit from it.  It was causing me to sweat a bit more than I would have been sitting out in the 90 degree heat smoking it.  The spice came back and flavors didn’t change a whole lot other than the finish got sweeter.

Construction

As you’d expect from a Davioff the construction was great.  The draw was perfect and it produced a large volume of smoke.  The burn line while not perfect didn’t need any correction.

Value

While I think $16 for this cigar is a little much I could see myself buying it as a special occasion cigar.

Conclusions

I was surprised at how much I liked this cigar.  I’m not the biggest fan of a lot of Davidoff cigars, but I really liked this cigar.  It is definitely a departure for them in my opinion.  While the Nicaragua was a branching out as far as the tobaccos used, this to me is a branching out in taste and strength.  I do think this was the strongest Davidoff I’ve ever smoked.  It also had more dark and earthy flavors and didn’t have the normal Davidoff mushroomy flavor I get.  This probably wouldn’t be a aimed at the normal Davidoff cigar smoker, but would interest those who prefer a bolder and stronger cigar.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10