Cigar Review: The Chefs Edition by Davidoff

• Vitola: Toro
• 6” x 54 ring gauge
• $31.99
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

In a bit of rebellion against high-end class-restrictive-pricing on certain cigars, I began the writing of this review while listening to “Might As Well Get Stoned” by Chris Stapleton. Seemed like a nice way to contrast the lofty pretentiousness of the cigar I had chosen for today’s write-up. I have to say right from the first…just to dispel any notion otherwise…that the Davidoff Chefs Edition has nothing whatsoever to do with the TV show South Park and the “Chef” character on that show. Nor does the cigar taste like “Chocolate Salty Balls” and the suits at Davidoff have asked me to quit calling them and asking those questions.

So, with that all put behind us, I guess I can get down to being a little more serious for the rest of the review…at least, I’ll try to control myself. The basic idea of Davidoff’s Chefs Edition is to combine the world of cigars and “haute cuisine,” collaborating with celebrated culinary artists to create a cigar unlike any other. They explained it like this:

Davidoff and the great chefs of haute cuisine take you on a voyage of discovery into the sensory world, combining culinary delights with cigar enjoyment. 

For the first time in history, Davidoff’s masterblenders have collaborated with six of the world’s renowned chefs to create Davidoff’s latest cigar creation, the Davidoff Chefs Edition. 

The Davidoff Chefs Edition is the equivalent to a memorable culinary masterpiece. Like a perfect meal the cigar begins gently with complex layers of subtle flavors, and builds up to a sublime and unforgettable crescendo.

Davidoff uses all Dominican fillers for this stick: Dominican San Vicente Mejorado Seco, San Vicente Mejorado Visus, Piloto Visus, and San Vicente Visus. The binder is an Ecuadorian Connecticut and the wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano 2000. The first thing I noted in this line-up is the absence of any of Davidoff’s signature Olor hybrid, the source of the “Davidoff Funk.” So right from the outset, this cigar is promising to be unlike any other with a white label on it. They come in boxes of 10, running $30 (or more) per cigar…quite expensive, though not nearly the most expensive offering Davidoff has. Only 1,500 boxes were made (15,000 total sticks).

I paid for my review sample…it is the only one I bought, but if I enjoy it, I’m sure I’ll end up picking up a few more.

Prelight

Davidoff long ago figured out how to exude class with packaging. The box the cigars come in is a fairly plain and traditional wood box, but with just enough gilding to let you know you’re going to pay some big bucks. The simple white label with the embossed gold foiling of the logo and oval around it simply do not get old. And even the new “Chefs Edition” secondary band is modern enough to stand out, yet melds seamlessly with the old-style primary band.

The wrapper leaf of the cigar is as beautiful and flawless as you would expect from a Davidoff white label line. It was a milk chocolate brown color with a large amount of oiliness under my fingertips and a strong aroma of earth, along with lesser notes of leather and molasses. The foot had more grassy and hay aromas, with touches of earthy and vegetal aromas.

The prelight draw was very easy and had light earthiness mixed with cedar, bell pepper and molasses notes. I guess I should have expected cigar made in collaboration with top chefs to have a very complex pre-light flavor, but this was even more than I would have thought.

Flavor

Earth and wood…those were the two major components of the Davidoff Chefs Edition upon initial light-up. Getting deeper into those components, though, there was Dominican earthiness and creamy coffee up front, along with just the faintest hint of cocoa powder. The woodier notes started off with a touch of cinnamon in the up-front mix and was followed by a solid cedar in the finish of the puff. There was also a faint touch of lemon and some bell pepper in the profile, and just the barest hint of pepper on the palate. The retrohale had more citrus and cedar at first, along with a fresh, quick, and short-lived blast of red pepper. As I got deeper into the first third, I noted that the body was just short of the straight-up medium mark on the dial and that notes of roasted nuts and a touch of saltiness were coming through.

The second third had a creamy smoke with a peppery tang to it, while the flavor profile tended more toward the woodier notes of cedar. Earth and citrus rode constantly underneath and the finish was nutty and salty, still. All the time, the cigar burned slowly and produced an amazing amount of luxurious smoke.

During the last third, the Davidoff Chefs Edition picked up in body, moving into the medium-to-full range.  The smoke was still creamy and thick, with a profound mix of cedar, earth, citrus sweetness and pepper.

Construction

I saw the ash build up to an inch or more, the burn line was as even as I have ever seen in an Ecuadorian Habano, and the draw was nothing short of perfection.

Value

Assessing value for a cigar that sells for north of $30 a stick is tricky, but for me it comes down to one simple question: Would I buy it again? The answer is “Yes.”

Conclusions

The Chefs Edition from Davidoff is a marvelously rich and complex cigar. While I did find myself missing that essential “funk” from Davidoff’s Olor hybrid tobacco, I did find plentiful notes of earth, wood, coffee, citrus, and pepper, just to name a few. The cigar was full-flavored in the extreme, never moving away from one dominate note without another taking its place. There are just a handful of cigars I would pay this amount of money for…but this is one of them.

By-The-Numbers

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