Davidoff Nicaragua Primeros 4 1/8″ * 34

A short, slim panatela built around the same blend used in Davidoff Nicaragua’s larger formats, the Primeros packs Nicaraguan character into a quick-smoke shape.

The Primeros line draws directly from the parent Davidoff Nicaragua range, which was voted Cigar Aficionado’s No. 3 cigar of 2013 in its launch year. The Nicaragua Primeros pairs a Nicaraguan Habano seed wrapper with an Ecuadorian binder over a short-filler of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobacco, hand-rolled at Cigars Davidoff in the Dominican Republic. The cigar measures 4 1/8 by 34 and ships in tins of 6 as well as boxes of 25, sitting at the mild-to-medium end of the body scale.

The flavor tends to lean toward cedar, cream, and a touch of pepper at the start, with light cocoa and roasted nut character through the middle before a finish carrying a soft earthy sweetness. The narrow 34 ring gauge keeps the smoke concentrated and the wrapper forward, with burn time running around 25 to 30 minutes. The tinned packaging holds an integrated humidity pack, making the format suited to a brief break or a coffee-side smoke rather than a longer session.

Pairings: espresso, café au lait, or aged white rum.