Originally published at Tiki Bar Online
Churchill, 7” x 48 ring gauge / $30.00, MSRP
As I was walking out of the cigar shop this last Saturday I was quite surprised as the owner of my regular shop, Ammar, handed me this cigar and told me to give it a try. I was taken aback a bit and excited as this cigar is way out of my normal price range and pretty rare. This cigar was created by Davidoff to celebrate 2013, which according to the Chinese calendar, is the Year of the Snake. These cigars come in one size and are comprised of Piloto Seco, San Vicente Ligero, Piloto Viso, Hybrid 192 Seco/Yamasá fillers, a San Vicente Seco binder with an Ecuador 702 wrapper. They come packed in 8 count boxes. It looks like he might still have some in stock online. This was the only one of these I smoked.
The wrapper on the sample matched the second band and the box very nicely as it was a slightly reddish milk chocolate brown. The wrapper exhibited a good amount of oils and tooth as well. Not something a Davidoff cigar is known for, but I seem to see this more often on the non-Dominican wrapped cigars. I noted an intense aroma of cedar coming from the wrapper with barnyard coming from the foot. I did get a slight amount of give when I gave it a squeeze and as expected I didn’t find any soft spots. After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got green herbal notes and cinnamon with a good draw.
As soon as I lit it up the taste was of rich roasted nuts. As I took a few more puffs on it the spice started to build and I got a slight wasabi like burn on the retrohale. The other flavors I got were of leather, cream, cinnamon, and a hint of mushroominess, thought no where near as much as the AVO LE13 from last week. The draw was pretty good, and the draw while slightly uneven didn’t need any correction. I would classify this first third as medium strength.
The second third saw the spice tone down quite a bit but never go away. The flavors changed a bit to notes of cream, leather, cinnamon, and salt along with some floral notes. Even thought the spice mellowed out the strength built a bit.
(yeah, I know that is a Year of the Dragon Pen, it is all I’ve got)
I didn’t really notice much change in the flavors as I moved into the final third, although the finish started to get a slightly sugary sweetness. The spice did start to come back but not as much as the first third and the cigar built into the medium-full range in regards to strength. The construction continued to be great and caused no problems.
Overall while this was a very enjoyable cigar I can’t really see the reason for the high price. I don’t know why but I was expecting fireworks and angels singing or something because of the price and hype behind the cigar. I didn’t get any of that. I don’t know if it is just me or what, but this was just a good cigar. I can’t really see myself paying that much for this cigar.
Body: 7/10
Strength: 8/10
Complexity: 7/10
AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 8.5/10
Keith Fireworks and Angels singing those are the reasons I rarely buy a stick over the 12-15 dollar range, once you start getting in to 16-20 dollars a stick and up its nearly impossible to please me. I find some of the best sticks I smoke are give or take around $8, some of the better ones like the T52 is worth the coin but even those I wouldn’t pay over $16 dollars for. maybe its me but there is no reason for me to spend that kind of cash on a cigar. But to each is own. Great review.