Earlier this year Davidoff released a interesting project: the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition.

Each coffin-bound culebra is made up of three cigars, with each of those cigars being one of Davidoff’s Discovery Series blends: the Nicaragua, Escurio and Yamasá. Those three blends all started with a big divergence from the Davidoff norm back in 2013 with the Davidoff Nicaragua. Over the next few years the Brazilian inspired Escurio, and the Yamasá from an unforgiving tobacco-growing region in the Dominican Republic, fleshed out the trio of the Discovery Series.

So with these three cigars, it is quite appropriate that they should be presented together, and what better way to do that than with a culebra? While it might seem counterintuitive, since a culebra kind of mangles a perfectly good cigar, it does make for a striking display. With only a small number of these difficult and time consuming culebras produced, it makes sense that these were only sent to Davidoff’s flagship stores.

With the addition of the twisted culebra size – the Nicaragua blend now sits at seven sizes:

  • Cigar Reviewed: Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition Nicaragua
  • Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
  • Factory: Cigars Davidoff
  • Wrapper: Nicaragua Rosado
  • Binder: Nicaragua (Jalapa)
  • Filler: Nicaragua (Condega, Estelí & Ometepe)
  • Length: 6 1/2 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 33
  • Vitola: Culebra
  • MSRP: $18.50 (Coffins of 3, $55.50)
  • Release Date: April 2017
  • Number of Cigars Released: 400 Boxes of 8 Culebras (3,200 Total Cigars)
  • Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Culebras aren’t going to win any beauty contests, but they are certainly fascinating to look at. The Culebras Limited Edition Nicaragua is of course on that boat, with a soft wrapper that’s pinched and wrinkled from being twisted into the trio of cigars. There is certainly some softness to it, which is somewhat expected, but all even across the board and not enough to call it squishy. The aroma coming off the wrapper is enticing, with sweet hay, cedar, earth and some leather mixing together pleasantly. Sweet brown sugar, light earth and a hint of leather make up the cold draw: certainly less complex than the wrapper aroma, but still quite enjoyable.

Starting out it’s a fairly light profile, with some pepper, generic sweetness, nuttiness and a hint of cedar. The draw is excellent, which surprised me somewhat, but even more surprising was the near-perfect burn line. Dense ash held on to what I thought were preposterous lengths, reaching nearly an inch and a half before I got nervous enough to roll it off in the ashtray. The mellow profile has started to develop, with the cedar growing and becoming quite creamy, the nuttiness entrenching itself in the middle and finally the sweetness balancing out a light pepper and earth combination.

Shifting into the second third, sweet, creamy cedar seems to be up front, with pepper, nuttiness and some leather following closely behind in the middle. The earth remains in the background, and has an older, mustiness to it that actually lends itself well to the profile. Finally as I would have initially expected, the burn does get slightly crooked right about the halfway mark, though before I could decide to touch it up, it corrected itself. The smoke production from such a petite little cigar is actually quite impressive, filling the air around me with the pleasing aroma of the profile.

As I start the final third I see much of the same, with creamy cedar, pepper, nuts and leather more evenly mixing, while the musty earth continues to bring up the rear. The burn is still impressive, not having had any issue after the little hiccup in the middle. With only three quarters of an inch left, the profile stays smooth and enjoyable, though it’s hard to actually hold onto anything without burning my fingers or my lips, forcing me to finally set it down.

Final Notes

  • Individual culebra pieces are not intended to sit in an ashtray groove very well, though I doubt if you lit all three up and sat them down in an ashtray that they would sit very well either.
  • Having said my previous statement, please don’t light up all three sticks in a culebra together.
  • Two samples tasted like aged, delicate examples of the Davidoff Nicaragua blend, while the third tasted much younger and was not nearly the sublime experience the first two were.
  • I’ve been able to try all of the sizes in the Nicaragua blend and before I smoked the Culebra, the Diadema was certainly my favorite.
  • I haven’t had a chance to smoke the other blends in the Culebra size yet, but I’m curious how they’ll compare.
  • I remember how big of a deal it was that Davidoff was releasing a Nicaraguan cigar. While Davidoff certainly had a lot of fanfare surrounding the release, people acted like it was the craziest thing they had ever heard. With the Escurio and Yamasá, while Davidoff continued the same level of excitement, people seemed to just take the new blends in stride like it was business as usual.
  • Davidoff of Geneva USA advertises on halfwheel.
  • Cigars for this review were provided to halfwheel by Davidoff of Geneva USA.
  • Final smoking time averaged about one hour 10 minutes.
91 Overall Score

I’ve smoked plenty of the Nicaragua blend fresh and I’ve smoked a number of them with some age, and the blend certainly ages well. So with the first two samples of the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition Nicaragua I smoked tasting like they had some age on them I was pretty excited. The third sample wasn’t nearly as enjoyable, but that isn’t to say it wasn’t good, but just being “good” pales in comparison to the first two. If you’re a fan of any of the Discovery Series blends and you can find these in stock at one of the flagship stores, I certainly would take a chance and try them for yourself before they’re gone for good.

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Brian Burt

I have been smoking cigars since 2005 and reviewing them as a hobby since 2010. Initially, I started out small with a 50-count humidor and only smoking one or two cigars a month. Not knowing anybody else that smoked cigars, it was only an occasional hobby that I took part in. In March of 2010, I joined Nublive and Cigar Asylum, connecting me with many people who also shared an interest in cigars. Reading what they had to say about brands I had never heard of, I quickly immersed myself in the boutique brands of the industry and it was then that cigars transformed from a hobby into a passion.