Wrapper: Dominican Yamasá
Binder: Dominican Martín García
Filler: Dominican Villa González, Mao, Piloto, Navarrete
Size: 4.5 x 52 Robusto
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $19.80
Date Released: April 2026
Quantity Released: Regular Production
Factory: Cigars Davidoff, Dominican Republic

BACKGROUND:
From Davidoff of Geneva:
“For the first time, Davidoff’s Master Blenders created a Dominican puro using tobaccos from six distinct Dominican terroirs – Yamasá, Martín Garcia, Villa González, Mao, Piloto and Navarrete. Each terroir contributes its own aromatic character, resulting in a complex and layered cigar that captures the richness of Dominican soil, climate and craftsmanship. The Short Robusto offers a full-bodied and expressive interpretation of this remarkable Dominican blend. Crafted from well-aged tobaccos with a combined age of 32 years, the cigar unites leaves grown across six distinct Dominican terroirs. Thanks to its shorter length and wider ring gauge, the Short Robusto delivers a more immediate expression of the blend. Flavours develop quickly on the palate, revealing a rich combination of dark chocolate, dried fruits and cream.”

THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
The cigar is made from 6 different Dominican terroirs. And their age totals 32 years. My question is, did they find a huge cache of these tobaccos? I ask because this is a regular production cigar.

The wrapper smells gorgeous with notes of fresh plums, raisins, dark chocolate, black earth, and then the more I sniff there are notes of dried apricots, malted milk, chocolate covered raisins, and aged cedar.

I gently pierce the toast with my PerfecPunch. The cold draw is immediate fudge brownies. In the subtle category are notes of black walnuts, pistachios, espresso, black pepper, and creamy banana pudding. This cigar should have followed the course of Ezra Zion and just name the cigar after an exotic food. Clearly, EZ has found the formula as it names every cigar after a dessert causing the throngs to flock. Flock away, my friends.

I checked around to see what the reviewing community thought of this cigar. Almost to a man, it received a big thumbs up. Except for Halfwheel. They dive bombed the blend with a 74. Ouch.

Upon lighting up, it takes only seconds to taste the aging. There is a zero warm up phase. I have goose egg patience, which I’ve told you too many times. If a cigar makes me smoke an inch of nothingness, I toss it. I might put up with it if I’m smoking a Quorum or an Avanti (kidding…or am I?).

One of the things that Minato hated was the burn issues. I’m having those problems. Drat. I gotta keep lighting it to get it to burn evenly. I’ll allow it if it doesn’t go beyond the first half inch.

I created a char effect from putting torch to foot thrice. It’s now going to take a few minutes before it calms the fuck down. Those immediate nice flavors have disappeared. Damn those cavemen for inventing fire.

5 minutes later: The cigar is as relaxed as a ferret on holiday in the new ballroom.

I’m hot or cold when it comes to Davidoff offerings. Occasionally, the manufacturer releases stunning cigars. Even more often, they do not and it costs an arm and a leg to testify. What I’ve found with Davidoff is that they need a long time at parade rest in your humidor. HW only gave the review cigars 2 months. CM and I had a conversation about this a few years ago. He told me that unless a cello is printed with the rules and regs that tell the consumer to age them, the obvious intent is you can smoke them right away. Maybe, but common sense and experience tell a different story. Most cigars do better in a cloistered environment. My review cigars have nearly 5 months of age. The blend should be able to tell its story even as it begs for more hibernation.

The prime flavors are dark chocolate, brown sugar, and rich earthiness. And the cigar goes out.

This is only my second Puro Dominicano. It had similar issues a month ago. Extended humidor aging does not fix imperfect rolling.

Constant relighting destroys everything good about a cigar.

Normally, if a cigar takes 20 minutes to burn the first inch, it’s a good thing. Not when I’ve got my Dupont in constant standby mode.

Before lighting up, I stabbed the cigar with my HumidiMeter and it read 65%. This indicates it’s ready to unrobe its naked beauty and bring down the house.

It never ceases to amaze me that Frank Barone was best friends with John Lennon. Lennon was the best man at Peter Boyle’s wedding.

In order to keep the hot cherry mama lit, I must suck on the cigar way too often. As I type this, a big fruitiness comes into play that calms the savage breast in me. OK. Too much attention to combustion and not enough to flavor.
The second inch is much better. Suddenly, I’m able to enjoy the Puro D.

HW attaches a million exotic flavors to this blend. He too, despite the burn issues, finds a flavorful cigar. I don’t taste the detritus that he does, rather, I taste a well-rounded blend that had the best intentions.

I tried to ignore the combustion problems in the first half. But the second half won’t stay lit. If this issue resolved itself early on, I could have taken a forgive and forget attitude. But after more than 2” in, the cigar is screaming to be put out of its misery.

RATING: 3.14159265358979323846264 Pi are round
(Charlie is smarter than I look)

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar reviews, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, Davidoff Puro Dominicano | Cigar Reviews by the Katman, katman, phil kohn