A couple of weeks ago, on April 23, 2026, the brand new Davidoff Puro Dominicano cigar made its debut in the UK.

You might have seen the buzz on social media with photos and videos from a series of launch events taking place across the country…

…along with footage from this year’s PCA Trade Show in the United States.

I was lucky enough to nab a ticket to attend this week’s Davidoff event at No. 6 Cavendish, an exceptional cigar merchant with a sampling lounge just around the corner from Oxford Street and Bond Street in London. I first visited this establishment back in 2021, and you can read my previous review of it here.

I’m even more intrigued by Davidoff’s latest release this time around because I recently had the amazing opportunity to tour the Davidoff tobacco farm and factory during the ProCigar Festival in the Dominican Republic. I met Hamlet Espinal, Davidoff Cigars’ Vice President and Head of Global Production, who is the mastermind behind this new cigar.

I even had the chance to plant my own tobacco in the Davidoff fields, which was absolutely mind-blowing! 🤯

But don’t worry — it’ll be years before my cigar makes it anywhere, and with my questionable planting skills 😬, who knows if my crop will even survive! 😅 With all this in mind, I was super excited to try the new Puro Dominicano.

Background

The Puro Dominicano is the latest addition to Davidoff’s Black Band Collection and marks the first cigar in the line made entirely from Dominican tobacco. Unlike Davidoff’s lighter White Label profile, the Black Band series focuses on fuller, more intense blends.

The Black Band Collection

2013 – Davidoff Nicaragua:

This was Davidoff’s first 100% Nicaraguan cigar, known for its full-bodied strength, rated at 4 out of 5 for intensity, which established the Black Label as a line for bolder cigars.

2015 – Escurio:

This cigar introduced Brazilian Mata Fina tobacco, offering a slightly milder, yet complex profile with sweetness, rated at 3.5 out of 5.

2016 – Yamasa:

Known as Davidoff’s strongest cigar to date, it comes from a unique region that took 20 years to prepare for tobacco cultivation. It is celebrated for its spicy, peppery, and salty-sweet character.

2026 – Puro Dominicano:

The Puro Dominicano is a true Dominican puro, with every part of the cigar — wrapper, binder, and filler — sourced entirely from the Dominican Republic. Hand-rolled in Villa Gonzalez using long-filler tobacco leaves, this cigar carries an intensity rating of 4 out of 5, placing it firmly in the fuller-bodied category. It utilises aged tobaccos with a combined age of 32 years, meaning it is intended to be enjoyed immediately without additional aging at home.

The blend incorporates tobacco from six different growing regions across the Dominican Republic, each contributes to its distinct character to the smoking experience:

• Martin Garcia: Creaminess
• Piloto: Sweetness and bitterness
• Mao: Strength and body
• Navarrete: Citrus notes
• Villa Gonzalez: Herbal character
• Yamasa: Pepper and depth

To enhance richness and structure, the blend relies heavily on higher primings from the tobacco plant, particularly ligero leaves.

These upper leaves receive the most sun exposure, resulting in more intense flavour, greater strength, and higher concentrations of essential oils. In contrast, lower primings, such as seco and volado, are generally lighter and milder. Davidoff often employs ligero in fuller-bodied cigars, such as the Late Hour and Puro Dominicano, while milder lines like Signature and Grand Cru rely more on volado and seco tobaccos.

Davidoff describes the blend as one designed to evolve throughout the smoke while maintaining balance from start to finish.

Davidoff’s website provides an excellent infographic detailing the flavour breakdown of this cigar. If and when you smoke yours, it would be great to compare your flavour notes to these:

The Puro Dominicano is available in three vitolas:

• Short Robusto — 52 ring gauge, 4.5 inches
• Perfecto — 50 ring gauge, 5.5 inches
• Corona Gorda — 44 ring gauge, approximately 6 inches

The Perfecto is particularly notable as the first cigar in this shape to appear within Davidoff’s Black Band Collection.

Visually, the cigar features a striking amber-coloured secondary cigar band inspired by Dominican amber stone, subtly connecting the presentation to the country’s natural heritage and craftsmanship without being overly elaborate.

For more insights, you can listen to Roy Sommer of Davidoff UK talk about the cigar here:

and hear Eddie Sahakian (from Davidoff of London) and Joe Berg share their experiences with the cigar here:

My experience

I’ve been wanting to attend one of the cigar events at No. 6 Cavendish for quite some time, but they are notoriously difficult to get tickets for. These events are among the hottest tickets in town — they appear out of nowhere, and before you know it, they are gone! 😅 So when I spotted an event celebrating the launch of the new Davidoff Puro Dominicano cigar for £45 (one of their cheaper events), I knew I had to grab a ticket quickly.

For those who may not know, No. 6 Cavendish is owned by Ajay Patel (the father) and managed by Rekha Patel (the daughter). They also own La Casa Del Habanos in Teddington. I always associate them with Cuban cigars, so I was particularly intrigued when I saw they were hosting a Davidoff night.

I had the absolute pleasure of meeting up with Elio, a reader of the blog originally from Cuba, who reached out to me through social media. I shared the details of the event so we could sample a cigar together, and it also gave me the chance to introduce him to a cigar establishment he hadn’t visited before.

Elio is a talented musician who has performed at various festivals across the world, including the Habanos Festival, and continues to perform internationally.

While we were there, we also ran into Ben, a fellow cigar enthusiast and regular attendee of cigar events across London.

As we walked in, the venue was buzzing with energy. The staff were all in great spirits — big shoutout to Marshall – the cocktails and mocktails were class! Inside the cigar sampling lounge were members and loyal regulars alongside newcomers to their events, including myself.

Rekha welcomed everyone to the venue and then handed the floor over to Vaibhav from Davidoff UK, who introduced the new Perfecto cigar and explained the background of this latest release.

The shape of the cigar immediately reminded me of the Cuaba Distinguidos I sampled recently in Chester — that distinctive double figurado shape, which I believe the new Davidoff also uses. I’m a huge fan of the Davidoff Winston Churchill Late Hour cigar, and I probably compare every Davidoff release to it — completely unfairly 🙈 — especially as I’m now learning more about the vast breadth of cigars in the Davidoff portfolio from the black bands to the white labels – all completely different experiences from one another. Anyways I digress…

After the cap had been cut, Rekha lit our cigars.

The initial draw felt a little unusual at first, largely due to the distinctive shape of the Perfecto’s foot. However, within the first few draws, it became immediately clear that this was a spicy cigar — a characteristic that remained consistent throughout the entire smoke. Early on, I picked up a nuttiness — possibly hazelnut — and midway through the flavour profile shifted, although I struggled to pinpoint exactly what note I was detecting. Towards the end, it became a tad bit bitter, but thankfully that faded fairly quickly. To me, this tasted most similar to the Davidoff Yamasa.

Overall, it was an enjoyable cigar. I may have mentioned this before, but reviewing cigars at events can sometimes be challenging. There’s often so much happening around you — conversations, presentations, and the atmosphere itself — that it can be difficult to give the cigar the full attention it deserves. Personally, I find I form my most accurate impressions when I’m sitting quietly on my own with a cigar.

The entire evening was incredibly dynamic. Ajay shared fascinating insights into the cigar industry, and there was plenty of lively discussion between Rekha, Vaibhav, and everyone in the room, which made the whole experience educational. I also picked up some useful tips — for example, if the wrapper near the head/tip becomes uncomfortably hot to the touch, it often means the cigar is being smoked too quickly — usually from puffing too frequently or too aggressively. A slower cadence is better. A small detail, but something I had never known before.

The company I had made the evening even better, also chatting with Rekha and Ajay towards the end of the night, hearing Ajay’s stories about the cigar industry, and learning more about the history of La Casa del Habano in Teddington added another layer to the night.

All in all, it was an unforgettable evening at No. 6 Cavendish — a chance to enjoy the new Davidoff cigar among fellow enthusiasts in a world-class lounge setting. It genuinely exceeded my expectations. Credit where credit is due, I can see why Rekha and AJay’s events are so popular. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend trying to get a ticket to one of their next cigar events.

My rating

I would give the cigar a 7.5/10. It was slightly too spicy for my taste, but it was an enjoyable cigar to sample. Similar too the Davidoff Yamasa.

Vaibhav also gave us a heads up on other cigars coming our way later this year from Davidoff UK… those include the new Zino Honduras in June, Avo Expresivo, and The Year of the Sheep at the end of November.

Read more about this cigar here: https://www.davidoff.com/discover/black-band-collection/puro-dominicano-limited-edition-2026

And sign up to the No 6 Cavendish mailing list to hear about future cigar events at https://www.no6cavendish.com/