Davidoff Year of the Snake Returns for 2025

For the 14th year in a row, Davidoff will release a cigar inspired by one of the 12 symbols on the Chinese Zodiac calendar. For all intents and purposes, this is the 13th year in a row; more importantly, it means that Davidoff has started the second cycle of the calendar.

On Nov. 14, 2024, the Swiss company will begin selling the Davidoff Limited Edition 2025 Year of the Snake collection. For the first time in the Davidoff Zodiac Series history, there will be three different cigars:

• Davidoff Limited Edition 2025 Year of the Snake (7 x 43) — Standard Release — $62 (Box of 10, $620)
• Davidoff Limited Edition 2025 Year of the Snake Flagship Exclusive Toro (6 x 52) — Flagship Exclusive — $89 (Box of 24, $2,136)
• Davidoff Limited Edition 2025 Year of the Snake Masterpiece Toro (6 x 56) — Humidor Exclusive — $556.82 (Humidor of 88, $49,000)

Blend-wise, the cigars use an Ecuadorian wrapper over an Ecuadorian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Mexico’s San Andrés Valley. According to the company, this is the first time that the company has used a Dominican hybrid seed 98 from Martín García, an area located west of Mao and south of Monte Cristi. It’s also just the second time that the company has used Mexican tobacco for the fillers of a Davidoff blend.

The 7 x 43 cigar is the standard release, those cigars have an MSRP of $62 each.

There will be 17,500 boxes made, of which 4,200 will be sold in the U.S.

Davidoff Limited Edition 2025 Year of the Snake Flagship Exclusive Toro is the thinner of the two toros. It will only be sold at Davidoff’s flagship stores, known as Davidoff of Geneva — since 1911. In the U.S., those stores exist in Hollywood, Fla., Houston, Las Vegas and New York City.

Worldwide, there will be just 600 boxes of 24 cigars, half of those boxes are slated for the U.S. store.

The most limited cigar of the trio will be the Davidoff Limited Edition 2025 Year of the Snake Masterpiece Toro. It will only be sold inside of the Davidoff Year of the Snake Masterpiece Humidor. Each humidor will contain 88 of these cigars and there are just 25 humidors being made, meaning a release of 2,200 cigars compared to 175,000 of the standard cigar.

The humidors were designed by Feifei Chen, a Chinese illustrator, and Mariane Léger, a marquetry artist who has collaborated with Davidoff before. Each humidor uses 326 pieces to create the unique design, which includes tobacco leaves covered in 24-carat gold.

Historically, these humidors have only been sold through Davidoff flagship stores.

Each humidor has an MSRP of $49,000—roughly $550 per cigar—and there will be just 25 humidors created.

“To mark this very special occasion, we wanted to delight our aficionados with novelties around our Lunar New Year celebrations, while preserving our original intention of these product launches: Celebrate in style, honour the zodiac and create truly unique cigars that will fill our aficionados’ time beautifully – for the first time with three different formats,” said Edward Simon, cmo of Oettinger Davidoff AG, in a press release. “I am convinced that with this new cycle we will distinguish ourselves through our leap forward in terms of innovation and packaging design. The changes we have made make our collection more relevant than ever to our customers around the world.”

The company says that the boxes used for the release reduce “hard-to-recycle materials,” making them more sustainable. As with previous Davidoff Zodiac Series cigars, the cigars lean heavily on red and gold colors, which are believed to be considered lucky within Chinese culture.

For many years, Davidoff has released various accessories to coincide with the Zodiac Series cigars. This year, it will continue that trend, except that rather than selling the accessories individually, they will only be sold as part of a singular gift set.

Each set will include a porcelain ashtray, cigar case, Duocut punch cutter and cigar stand/collector’s coin.

Each set is priced at $1,888. The sets are limited to 500 units.

Davidoff pioneered the concept of making a limited edition cigar in honor of the Chinese Zodiac calendar and its associated symbols. While the series traces back to a Year of the Dragon cigar released in select Asian markets in 2011, it really kicked off in 2012 with the release of Davidoff’s first Year of the Snake cigar, which was made for the upcoming 2013 Chinese New Year, which was the year of the snake.

Since then, the company has followed a similar format: each year a new cigar is created, typically in a new vitola and different blend. These cigars go on sale in November, ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year. The packaging leans on red and gold colors and oftentimes the number eight, which is considered lucky in China. Over the years, Davidoff has added accessories, pipe tobacco, and more limited cigars, such as Flagship exclusives and humidor releases.

The series has been an incredible success for Davidoff; halfwheel estimated that last year’s Year of the Dragon products generated $14.5 million in retail sales. Other companies have taken notice; more than a dozen companies—ranging from Maya Selva to Drew Estate to Rocky Patel to Habanos S.A.—released Year of the Dragon-themed cigars.

One company that has taken a special notice is Gurkha, which is suing Davidoff over its Year of the Dragon cigar. Gurkha has the rights to various dragon trademarks and applied for a trademark on Year of Dragon. The case remains ongoing.

K. Hansotia & Co. Inc.—a company named after Gurkha’s owner, Kaizad Hansotia—also has a registered trademark for Year of Snake, which would seemingly open the door for more potential litigation. To date, it appears that Gurkha has only sued Davidoff over its Year of the Dragon Cigar. Trademark records show that K. Hansotia & Co. Inc. currently has one other zodiac-themed trademark: Year of Tiger.

So far, Davidoff, Gurkha and VegaFina have announced Year of the Dragon-themed cigars. In addition, Elie Bleu has shown off a new Year of the Snake humidor.

Update — Added pricing info.