Tag Archives: davidoff

April 12, 2026 · 9:43 am

Davidoff Puro Dominicano, Avo Syncro and Camacho Ecuador Cigars

I was sorry to read about the passing of Gary Korb, who fairly recently retired from Famous Smoke Shop where he was the main guy behind their Cigar Advisor magazine site. I first had contact with Gary in 2004, he tried to weasel his way into a ticketed event I hosted as media. He was an inspiration, for sure! I had a pretty good rapport with him, last time I saw him he actually told me that he had mentioned my name in their search to replace him. I felt honored. My condolences to his family. He probably would have loved the cigars I’m about to talk about.

I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t smoke Davidoffs if they didn’t send me some to try. I consider myself fortunate to have done whatever I have done to warrant this consideration. I recently received some of the new Davidoff Puro Dominicano in their Black Band line. These come in three sizes, a Short Robusto (4½” x 52), a Corona Larga (5 7/8″ x 44), and a Perfecto (5½” x 50), which is the only figurado of this size in the Davidoff portfolio, which is what they sent. They used tobaccos from six regions in the DR, Yamasá for the wrapper, Martin Garcia for the binder, and Villa González, Mao, Piloto, Navarette and Yamasá in the filler. I went into this cigar wondering if it would be a good fit for me, many times I don’t appreciate the flavors found in Dominican puros, though a lot of folks do. This cigar was a delight. I was surprised by the prelight draw, which was very free. Odd for a perfecto. I’d say that it started off earthy, maybe loam or mushroomy, not usually my jam. The burn was perfect with a flat ember, no cone, no tunnel, just perfect. I sipped it, like I would a lancero, because the draw was so free I didn’t want it to heat up too much. I really enjoyed this cigar much more than I thought I would. I wanted to smoke another one this week, but I felt like that would be pretentious. $25 is a lot for a cigar, but they could probably have gotten away with asking more, this is a really nice smoke.

Somewhere along the way I came into possession of an Avo Syncro Nicaragua in a square tube. I can’t remember where or when, but it has to have been in my humidor for seven or eight years. I decided to smoke this one finally after hearing some discussion on KMA Radio about the square tubes, which Avo apparently released in 2015. This one was a bugger to get out of the tube. The cigar is a 6″ x 54 box press, which is probably obvious since it’s in a square tube. Who would put a round cigar in a square tube? By the way, Abe and Coop, CAO Anniversary had a square tube going back to 2003 or so, so Padron and Avo weren’t the pioneers in this area! ( while I’m at it, Coop: ” The Spanish phrase el reloj (the clock/watch) is phonetically pronounced el rreh-LOH or el rreh-LOHKH. The stress is on the second syllable of “reloj” (loh), with a rolled “rr” at the beginning and a soft “h” or slight “kh” sound at the end”. It’s my mission in life to correct Coop on this). I was surprised that this started with some harshness, but the dark fruit took over and it was really a nice cigar, very tasty. Kudos for not putting a cedar sleeve in the tube, I can’t seem to learn to take cigars out of tubes for long term storage because they always seem to just taste like cedar after a while. This one was good, I wonder if they are still available?

I had picked up a five pack of Camacho Ecuador Toros a few weeks back, and thought I remembered liking this blend. The toro is 6″ x 50, which feel like a corona in this day and age. It has an Ecuador wrapper of some sort, Brazilian binder and Dominican and Honduran fillers. These came out in May of 2014, so they’ve been around for a while. I realize that this is probably my least favorite Camacho. I’m starting to question my palate lately, but it’s always been questionable. This started out with some sourness, which I’ve gotten a lot lately for some reason. It didn’t get better, and while I powered through it, I really wanted to put it down and get something else. Perhaps I’ll stay away from this one for a while, maybe some age will help, maybe I’ll give the rest away, I don’t know. Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess. I smoke more delicious cigars than not, so I have that going for me. Side note, I kinda wish Davidoff would have an informational site about their cigars and not a direct to consumer sales site. If I’m looking at the wrong one, someone please correct me! I feel like more of a shill than I already am linking to a sales site!

I’ve been plagued over the last few days with attempts to take over my social media accounts and I’m sick of it. I’m not really that interesting. It’s not like there’s money to be made, it’s just a huge nuisance. It’s absurd how many hoops one has to jump through to change passwords. I’m too old for this shit, please leave me alone! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Avo, Camacho, cigar, cigars, davidoff, Davidoff of Geneva, Ecuador, Perfecto, Puro Dominicano, Syncro, toro, Tubo

March 29, 2026 · 9:42 am

Ortega Esteli, Zino Nicaragua and OM Essential Blend Reserved Cigars

Another month down, the last three months have flown by, it’s getting to be the time of year that things can just slow down a little! I could stand for the summer months to not pass by so quickly! My friends at Best Cigar Prices recently advertised some ridiculous deals on some five packs, and I was surprised to see some Ortega Cubao Esteli cigars listed. I have a soft spot for Ortega cigars, going back to the early days of CigarCraig.com. I haven’t talked to Eddie in a long time, but he seems to have a retail site that’s still out there, which, ironically, does not have any Ortega cigars listed. I’ll have to drop him a note and see what’s up. Anyway, the Cubao Esteli has a. Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I sampled the 6″ x 60 Gordo size, and I think this is a really good $5 cigar! It burned properly, had nice nutty, clean flavors and was really enjoyable. I really need to reach out to Eddie and see what’s up with these, and see if the Serie D is still around anywhere.

Here’s an interview with Eddie from the 2013 IPCPR show:

I picked up a Zino Nicaragua locally recently, and gave it a try this week. This has been around a while, I even saw the Zino trailer at the Smoke-onos event last year, but this is the first I’ve smoked. It was a little startling a few years ago when this high-class brand was released as almost a budget brand, with a bright yellow band. People have raved about this so I figured I’d better give it a shot. It’s got an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and a filler blend from Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Nicaragua. I smoked the Toro, which is 6″ x 50. This isn’t a super mild cigar, it has some nutty flavors with some cream. It didn’t have any spice, but it had some body, not strong, but you knew you were smoking something. Overall, it was enjoyable, and a good sub-$10 cigar these days is a good find.

Last year when I ran into Osvaldo Morales at the The Cigar & Lifestyle Fest at the Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA. he gave me a cigar with the condition that I review it on his site. I’ll paste an edited version of this after I finish this post. I hardly consider myself a reviewer, I just write stuff about cigars, but I paid a little extra attention to this one, and put it off for a while because of the pressure. This cigar is the OM Cigars Essential Blend Reserved and the cellophane was a deep amber. Did the cello start out clear or was it yellowed with age? I don’t know. I believe this to have been a product of the Artista factory, as I believe many of his various Essential Blends are. I also believe he told me this was in the neighborhood. of 20 years old. I’ve smoke my share of 20+ year old cigars, and this had an impressive amount of flavor. It started out bitter, with an almost cloying oily meatiness. You know when you get a glob of tar from a cigar and it gets on you lips? Not nearly that bad, but is wasn’t what I’d call pleasant. I soldiered on. It continued with the umami taste as the bitterness tempered. I rather expect some refinement from a cigar of this alleged age, this one was wild. I’ve only been smoking cigars for 30 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a cigar that tasted like this one. Not my cup of tea but obviously someone thinks this is exceptional. I have never tried any of his other Essential Blends, maybe if I run across some I’ll give them a shot, but I’m not going out of my way.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Cubao, davidoff, Essential Blend, OM Cigars, Ortega, Reserved, Zino, Zino Nicaragua

February 1, 2026 · 9:33 am

Colonel E.H. Taylor, Camacho and Maestranza Cigars

We are saddened here this week by the passing of our beloved dog, Macha. Many have met Macha over the years, she even made an appearance on the Cigar Authority once, and she was a large part of our household. We suspect she was 14 or 15 years old, so she lived a long life, especially since the last 12 were with three legs. We adored here and she leaves a hole on our hearts. I appreciate everyone’s condolences. I smoked a Padron 1964 Anniversary that I got in 2014, the year we adopted Macha, in her honor.

A few weeks back I walked into a local shop that I haven’t been to in a while, and asked the owner what was new and exciting. He said that they just got the Colonel E.H. Taylor San Andrés and it was selling well. I don’t know anything about this brand, I suspect it’s a Meier and Dutch (CI) creation. It, obviously, has a San Andrés wrapper, Criollo binder and Nicaraguan fillers and is made in the Dominican Republic (La Isla, I generally like their stuff). It isn’t really budget priced, I think it was around $12. I smoked it, and my first thought was that I should have asked Jeff what was good, not what was new. It was OK. I would think it would be better at half the price. I know E.H. Taylor is a bourbon brand, and I didn’t get any boozy flavors, but I really wouldn’t know one if I tripped over one. It was a typical dry cocoa, San Andrés cigar. Nothing special. My notes say that the E.H. is for eh…

For obvious reasons (welcome Davidoff to the CigarCraig family! thanks for the support!), I feel the need to get back into some of their lines, such as Camacho and Avo. This week I revisited the Camacho Triple Maduro in the gordo size. This 6″ x 60 has a Honduran wrapper, Mexican binder, with a filler blend from Brazil, Honduras and the DR. The website is a little out of date, it says it’s the only all maduro cigar, a category which now includes the Drew Estate Blackened. Fun fact: Abe Dababneh, owner of Smoke Inn, coined the term Triple Maduro and licensed it to Christian Eiroa when he owned Camacho. Davidoff bought the brand and I want to say they paid Abe off. (Edit: Abe tells the whole story on the latest Prime Time show with Cigar-Coop, which I listed to a whole 24 hours after writing this post.) I remember smoking this a long time ago. This was a really good cigar. It’s heavy and rich, with a load of cocoa and some sweet earth. I enjoyed this and will pick up some more.

Finally, I was in yet another store nearby and picked up a couple of the RomaCraft Maestranzas Caballería Valencia (6 x 52). These were very reasonably priced, around $10 I think. This is a core line cigar that’s been out for a year or two and this is the first I’ve come across them in the wild (granted, I don’t get out much). This is another San Andrés wrapper cigar, with a Brazilian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. It’s made at the Nica Sueńo factory. I’ve been a fan of the Nica Sueno output going back to 2011 or thereabouts. Fortunately the new ownership of the local CigarCigars stores brought in RomaCraft stuff, so I have a local source now. I enjoyed this 6″ x 52 cigar quite a bit, although it didn’t have the intensity that I find in most of their stuff. Again I got a dry cocoa predominantly. I’ll be grabbing more of these, as well as the Cromagnons, next visit.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Camacho, cigar, cigars, Colonel E.H. Taylor, davidoff, Macha, Maestranza, RoMaCraft, Triple Maduro

January 4, 2026 · 9:14 am

Davidoff, Rojas and San Lotano Cigars and the Giveaway Winner

Happy New Year! Another year of writing stuff about cigars! I’m a few years away from the twentieth anniversary of CigarCraig.com, I’ll have to come up with something big to celebrate. Speaking of celebrations, last Wednesday was New Years Eve, and I celebrated like I celebrate just about every evening, with a cigar on the porch! Davidoff was kind enough to send a couple of the Year of the Horse cigars, their 2026 Limited Edition. I know, the Chinese New Year isn’t until February, but I couldn’t wait to try this. This is the first “Year of the” Davidoff I’ve ever smoked, they are way out of my price range. Kudos and thanks to Law Ream and Jack Heyer for getting these out to those of us who choose to write stuff about cigars! The Davidoff ornament looked great on our tree. Anyway, I decided to close out what was not the greatest year for me with a great cigar (I hoped). I have previously stated that I have a very limited range of experience with the Davidoff line overall, so I was hoping for the best. I believe this is the best Davidoff I’ve smoked to date. There wasn’t a hint of horse at all in this cigar. This is a 6½” x 55 cigar with wrapper and binder from Ecuador and Dominican fillers. I have to assume the wrapper is a Habano varietal, it’s too dark to be a Connecticut Shade, and doesn’t taste like it either. It had an interesting sweetness, with some nuttiness and what I think of as a lemon zing. It was delicious, burned perfectly and was a great way to spend New Years Eve. After that I watched hockey until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Great cigar, as it should be for $65.

Getting back to reality, I smoked a Rojas Street Tacos Al Pastor Gordo Friday, after treating myself to a Padron Damaso (not as good as I remember, but still tasty), and a Diamond Crown Black Diamond, one of my favorites. I chose the 6″ x 60 gordo, as Noel Rojas is the self proclaimed king of the small ring gauges, and it seems funny to me that he even makes a 60. The Al Pastor has an Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan fillers. Like the Davidoff, which is in excess of six times the price, this burned perfectly. I looked at a few other reviews, as Rojas doesn’t seem to have a working webpage, and one reviewer listed flavors of “earth and cedar”, “espresso, and white pepper” and “dark brown sugar and cream”. I don’t get any of that. I got some leather and baking spices. I liked it, it was a good cigar, and well worth the price. I’ve enjoyed a lot of cigars from this factory, especially some of the Stolen Throne lines, and this was a good one. I’m sure I’ve smoked the Carnitas and Barbacoas before, I needed to give this one a shot and I think it’s my favorite of the bunch.

Yesterday I dropped a few things off at Goodwill and stopped into JM’s Cigars in Exton PA. Unlike Rojas they have a website, however it hasn’t been updated in 12 years. It’s fine to have a static landing page, but delete the event from 2013 please! This was the first shop I sent to in the mid-90s (apparently when the website was created) and it’s been a while since I stopped in. It really hasn’t changed much over the years (like the website). I picked up a couple cigars that I hadn’t had before, one of which was the A.J. Fernandez San Lotano Requiem Habano in the “Churchill” size. It’s probably closer to a Double Corona, as a Churchill is 7″ x 47, and this is 7″ x 54. Actually, I don’t even think a Double Corona is 50 ring, but times change. It’s a big cigar. I think the last San Lotano I smoked was an Oval, and it’s been well over a decade. This has a Brazilian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. It started out spicy, and had some nice coffee flavors. I liked this and I think it was around $10 so I call it a very good value. I may be overly concerned about the shops website.

It’s time to pick a winner for last week’s giveaway! I haven’t even selected cigars yet, but I don’t think the winner will be disappointed. The random number generator spit out the number 4, which corresponds to Ron Hunt! To answer Ron’s question, While I purchase most of the cigars in the northeast, most should be available all over. There are some brands that just seem to be regional, All Saints comes to mind, but that’s a function of the brand being small and maybe one or two people involved and they can’t get all over the country to support the sales. Different shops in the same area will have a different mix too. I’ll try to include some cigars that may not be widely available in your package. Ron is the host of the All About Wine podcast. I had the good fortune of meeting him a few years back at the Tampa Heritage Festival, and I talk to him regularly. Send me your address Ron!

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as A.J. Fernandez, aj fernandez, Al Pastor, All About Wine, davidoff, Davidoff of Geneva, Rojas, san lotano, Street Tacos, Year of the Horse

July 27, 2025 · 9:05 am

My Father Blue, Diamond Crown Tampa and Davidoff Maduro

I smoked a few pricey cigars this week, outside my usual comfort zone. However this first one wasn’t one of those! I picked up a few of the new My Father Blue in toro and gordo, and smoked one in each size. This is from the company’s new Honduras factory and uses tobacco grown on their Honduran farm. It has a Connecticut rosado broadleaf wrapper, and Corojo and Criollo tobaccos from Honduras. My first impression was what a gorgeous cigar this was. The bands are beautiful, tying in the whole “Blue” thing, they really pop on the shelf. Blue was once considered the kiss of death on a cigar band, but now longer, this is a stunner. It starts with some spice, who’s surprised? The best food comparison I can make is rye bread (TY NK for putting that in my head). I smoked both the Toro Gordo and the Toro and they were superb, a real winner. I’ll be very interested in smoking more cigars from the Honduras factory, including whatever Tatuaje might do there.

I was fortunate that J.C. Newman shared some of their new Diamond Crown Tampa cigars with me, it’s hard to say when I’ll get back to Tampa, as these are exclusive to shops in the city. I also have a hard time dropping $30 on a cigar. This is a Diamond Crown with a little extra, which is the Florida Sun Grown tobacco grown at Jeff Borysiewicz’ farm in Clermont, Florida. These are still made at Tabacalera Fuente, and still have an Connecticut Shade wrapper, although it looks darker to me than I’m used to. It’s only available in a 6½” x 52 Toro. The guts are Dominican, except for the FSG ligero. I was amazed at how good this cigar was, but I shouldn’t have been, I guess. My first Diamond Crown cigar was back in 1998 and it, along with all it’s siblings, have been favorites ever since. The new Diamond Crown bands are beautiful, and they added a large band on the body of the cigar that has Tampa imagery, El Reloj (not El Rehol, dammit Coop!), a rooster, Gaspar’s ship and other Tampa landmarks. It’s my week for smoking beautiful cigars! This was another bready cigar with the FSG spice which is unique. I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to try it, and recommend it, it’s a special treat.

I could have smoked something more ridiculously expensive than this next cigar, but I’ll hold off on that one for a couple weeks. Once again, I was fortunate to receive a sampling of the newish Davidoff Maduro, and selected the 6″ x 54 Toro for my Friday evening smoke. This has a chocolaty maduro wrapper from Ecuador, a Mexican binder and Dominican fillers. A box will run you a little over a grand, make sure you get free shipping if you buy online! If I ever have a box of these you’ll know I won the lottery. This was another pretty cigar, the bands are classic, in this case it’s the wrapper that catches the eye. This cigar burned perfectly, razor straight with a perfect draw. It had some of the cocoa one expects, some spice, and that musty umami that I think Davidoff cigars usually have. This was stronger than I expected, it being a Davidoff and all, and I had to put it down sooner than I usually do (most cigars are finger burners for me). I had to take Zino’s advice and put it down around the band, which made me sad. My value brain saw me leaving $15 in the ashtray! I inherited frugality from my late mother. This was an impressive cigar anyway, and I very much appreciate Davidoff sharing these with me. It was a special treat.

We’ve been busy with the stresses that go with handling an estate, getting a house ready to sell, going through generations of stuff, and trying to turn some of it into cash. Cigars have been my therapy, hopefully it’ll be behind us soon. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig