Since I began exploring the world of cigars, I have stumbled across many references to the Limited Edition’ Year of…’ cigars. Last year (2021), it was the Year of the Ox, and I saw a couple of cigar brands, including Davidoff and Plasencia, appear on my social media. This year I thought it would be most appropriate to try the Davidoff Limited Edition Year of the Tiger cigar as my first cigar of 2022.
The stats:
Shape: Piramides
Size: 5″
Ring gauge: 52
Strength: Medium
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Available at: Havana House @ £63.95 | Simply Cigars @ £64.97 | Davidoff @ £68.00
Background:
Davidoff created these cigars to celebrate the Chinese New Year (which takes place on 1st February 2022) and drew inspiration from the Chinese zodiac.
The Chinese zodiac is a classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Originating from China, the zodiac and its variations remain popular in many East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Chinese zodiac animals have lucky meanings. Chinese people associate each animal with specific characteristics. It’s believed that people born in a given year have the personality of that year’s animal.
This year it is the Year of the Tiger. The Tiger is the third of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. The Year of the Tiger is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 寅.
Strong in spirit, the Tiger is always ready to seize an opportunity. According to the http://davidoff.com/year-of-the-tiger website, the Davidoff Year of the Tiger Limited Edition cigar shares this nature. With flavours as bold as the Tiger’s personality, it is also a natural leader in quality and craft.
My experience:
Firstly, this is the most expensive cigar I have purchased, so my expectations are incredibly high upon smoking this cigar. Secondly, the cigar itself looks absolutely stunning and highly unusual with its tiger-like print all over the Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper leaf – a charming touch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cigar quite like it. I can imagine cigar collectors will love showing off these cigars as they purchase boxes of these.
The cigar has two cigar bands, the standard traditional white and gold Davidoff cigar band, followed by the red and gold Year of the Tiger cigar band.
It is presented in a Piramides format, which I’m not a massive fan of, as I never know where to cut the cap on these cigars. I usually find I cut too much off, and my lips touch the cigar band, so I have tried not to cut the cap too much this time around.
After cutting the cap and lighting this Davidoff Limited Edition 2022 Tiger of the Year cigar, I find it quite hard to light at first. Once it gets going, a solid spicy flavour begins to appear, very wood, cedar and leather-like flavour notes, full of strength, which is a surprise as it is classed as a medium-bodied cigar.
As I get to the second third, there are many heavy, earthy tones here and serious, rich smoke output. It’s an enjoyable experience.
Once I removed the cigar bands, the final third was my favourite part, with many robust flavours. I didn’t get any cream or honey flavour notes, but the pepper is consistent throughout.
My rating: 8 out of 10 – overall a great smoke! Not my favourite. As you may know, I’m a big fan of the Davidoff Winston Churchill Late Hour cigar, and nothing seems to top that, but a unique experience and an excellent first cigar of the year for me. Does the experience justify the price? Hmm, I am not so sure, I have other cigars I prefer that are cheaper, but I am glad I have experienced this one! I now want to try the Year of the Ox, but maybe I will wait for the Year of the Rabbit 🙂
If you get to smoke this cigar, I would love to hear how you find it! Leave a comment or reach out to on my social media accounts twitter.com/ldncigarsmoker and instagram.com/ldncigarsmoker.
As everyone has different palates, I thought I would share what others said about this particular cigar…
London Cigar Smoker 
Thank you for the very well written review..please keep it up. All the best, Eddie
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Thank you Eddie for your support and encouragement. Much appreciated.
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