As we have documented on Cigar Coop, the past two years at Davidoff has seen many of its iconic blends return to the market for limited runs. Within the Davidoff company, these runs have been seen across the Davidoff, Camacho, and AVO brands. With the Davidoff brand, the company has chosen its Davidoff Vault series as a mechanism to re-release many of these cigars. While the Davidoff Vault Series was designed to be a small(er) batch model to bring back several of these cigars, there have been some re-releases with larger allocations that have gone the traditional route through the Davidoff Appointed Merchants. One such cigar that was re-released through the traditional route was the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7. Today we dive deeper and explore this cigar.

The Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 was first re-released in 2014. It is considered one of the brand’s more iconic releases. The number “7” refers to the fact that there are seven different tobaccos used in the blend.

Without further ado, let’s break down the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 and see what this cigar brings to the table.

SPECIFICATIONS

Blend and Origin

The seven tobaccos used in the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 include an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and six tobaccos of different primings from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican tobaccos include the familiar trifecta found in many Davidoff releases: Olor, Piloto Cubano, and San Vincente.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Dominican Olor Seco
Filler: Dominican: San Vincente Ligero, San Vincente Visus, Piloto Seco, Piloto Visus, and Olor Seco
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: Cigars Davidoff

Vitolas Offered

The Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 comes in one size – a 5 1/2 x 48 rounded parejo. The cigars are presented in ten-count boxes. A total of 4,000 boxes were released for the U.S. market. In addition, Davidoff has made four-packs at travel locations worldwide.

Appearance

The Ecuadorian wrapper of the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 had a medium to dark brown shade to it. Upon closer examination, some mottling was seen on the surface of the wrapper. While this is a cigar that had some visible veins and visible wrapper seams, it is also a wrapper I considered to be on the smoother side.

There are two bands on the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7. The first band uses the design of the Davidoff White label band. It features the name “Davidoff” in classic cursive gold font on an oval field of white. There are small gold circles going around the perimeter of the oval. The word “GENEVE” (in gold font) flanks to the right of the oval field. To the left of the oval is the text “LIMITED EDITION.”

The second band is also white with gold pinstripes near the top and bottom. On the center of the band is a large gold “7” with the text “ESPECIALES” going across it – also in gold font.

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw

A straight cut was used to remove the cap of the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7. After the cap was removed, it was on to the pre-light draw. The cold draw delivered mostly earth notes with a slight chocolate sweetness. While this wasn’t the most complex of pre-light draws, I still found it to be satisfactory. At this point, it was time to light up the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 and see what the smoking phase would deliver.

Tasting Notes

There was a nice assortment of flavors right out the gate with notes of earth, black pepper, classic wood, natural tobacco, chocolate. It took a little while but the earth and hay notes moved into the forefront. During the first third, the wood, chocolate, and floral notes occasionally surfaced from time to time in the forefront. Meanwhile, there was an additional layer of pepper on the retro-hale.

The second third saw the earth and hay notes remain in the forefront. During this stage, the floral and pepper notes increased in intensity. The classic wood, natural tobacco, and chocolate notes remained further distant.

The last third saw an increase in the black pepper notes. The pepper notes closed in on the earth and hay, but did not quite move into the forefront. The floral notes receded further back joining the wood, natural tobacco, and chocolate. This is the way the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 came to a close. The resulting nub was slightly soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn

The Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 scored nicely on the burn. While there was a slight amount of curvature on the burn line, this is a cigar that had no problem maintaining a straight burn path. The resulting ash was firm with a silver-gray color to it. Meanwhile the burn rate and burn temperature both maintained ideal levels.

Draw

The draw to the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 also performed very well. It was in the sweet spot of having a touch of resistance, yet at the same time, this was a cigar where it still was low maintenance to derive flavor from.

Strength and Body

In terms of strength and body, the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 is a cigar that is going to be in the medium range for both attributes. Along the way, this was a cigar that didn’t exhibit a lot of variance in the intensity levels of the strength and body. At the same time, when it came to comparing the strength and body of the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7, both attributes balanced each other nicely and maintained a nice equilibrium.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

One thing to mention upfront is that I had never smoked the original Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7, so there isn’t anything for me to use as a baseline for this review.

On one hand, if you want some of the signature Davidoff flavors of hay and black pepper, the Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 is going to deliver that. While it’s a relatively complex cigar in terms of delivering flavor nuances, I didn’t find the complementary flavors did enough to take this cigar to the next level. The Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 is considered one of Davidoff epic releases, and I had high hopes when I heard it was going to be re-released. Davidoff’s made some epic limited cigars, but this one fell short of my expectations. Expectations don’t factor into the score as this is simply the fact that this cigar did not perform high in our review criteria. Not a bad cigar, but I expected more from it. This is a cigar I’d recommend seeing if you can try first but given it’s a more limited release that might be difficult to do.

Summary

Key Flavors: Earth, Hay, Black Pepper, Natural Tobacco, Wood, Chocolate, Floral
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium to High
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Very Good

Rating

Value: Try a Sample
Score: 88

References

News: Davidoff Robusto Real Especiales 7 Returns
Price: $28.50
Source: Purchased
Brand Reference: Davidoff

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop, except where noted