Champagne and cigars are always a welcome way to greet a new year, and for more than a decade my favorite celebratory New Year’s Eve cigar has been Davidoff’s Chinese Zodiac blend. But the Switzerland-based brand is taking their tradition to the next level for the Year of the Snake, with three sizes to choose from.
The Year of the Snake is receiving an appropriate size for 2025: a long and narrow lancero at 7 inches by 43 ring. But Davidoff is also releasing a Toro size at 52 ring and 6 inches, which will be exclusively available at the brand’s Flagship store and lounge locations. Davidoff has been mastering the Chinese zodiac cigar game for years — enough to make a full circuit of the entire zodiac for the 2024 year. So the 2025 Year of the Snake is actually the second release to bear that name — the last one having launched in 2013.
“To mark this very special occasion,” explained Edward Simon, CMO at Oettinger Davidoff, “We wanted to delight our aficionados with novelties around our Lunar New Year celebrations, while preserving our original intention of these product launches. 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.”
Davidoff has released 17,500 boxes of the Lancero and just 600 of the Toro. Lanceros will run $62 per cigar and come in boxes of 10, while the Toro size will run $89 and come in boxes of 24. As for the blend, it’s mostly comprised of Dominican tobaccos, with Ecuadoran binder and wrapper leaves. It’s a fairly typical Davidoff blend on first glance, though the Mexican leaf should add some sweet spice. But notes provided by the company called out “surprising flavors of lemon, leather, and coffee.”
It’s also a (modestly) new innovation — the Dominican San Vicente and the Mexican Negro San Andres filler tobaccos “drive the fresh and lemony notes without ever overpowering the palate. This is only the second time that Davidoff’s Master Blenders have used a Mexican filler tobacco in a cigar, and the first time that they have used a Dominican hybrid seed 98 tobacco from the Martin Garcia terroir, which adds sweet and creamy notes.”
Davidoff has also released a collection of accessories for the occasion, including an ashtray, cigar case, and punch cutter. They’ve also commissioned a “Masterpiece Humidor” for the caucasian, which will hold 88 Year of the Snake cigars in a special “Gran Toro” size measuring 6 inches by 56 ring.
Davidoff’s main release is typically pretty easy to find, even after the ball has dropped in Times Square, but those limited edition sizes will require some leg work and handshakes if you’re not already connected to the right folks. But what better new year’s resolution could you ask for than to start making new cigar-savvy friends?
G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for perspectives on drinks, and stuff.
