Pre-light Experience

The wrapper on the Davidoff 702 Series No. 2 is medium brown and has some lightly raised veins present. The seams are all raised and the single cap is finished with a pigtail. There are two bands with the primary being the traditional white label design. The secondary band is white and gold and denotes the line and vitola. The aroma from the wrapper is a light mix of wood and earth while the foot brings the lightest aroma of cedar. The pre-light draw brings a light mix of cedar and orange peel.

First Third

The cigar begins with a mix of toasted wood, orange oil and mild black pepper. At an inch in, a light mustiness joins the profile. The retrohale has toasted wood up front with the orange oil a little behind. As the third comes to a close, the toasted wood is up front with the mustiness and orange oil a bit behind. The strength in this third was mild-medium.

Second Third

As the second third begins, the toasted wood is showing more dominance as the overall profile is becoming a bit dry. At a half inch in, the black pepper picks up a bit. The retrohale is now musty, toasted wood and light orange oil. At an inch and a quarter, the toast becomes fairly heavy. The strength in this third remained at mild-medium.

Final Third

As the final third begins, there’s a slight bitterness from the combination of the heavily toasted wood and orange oil. Some earth has joined the profile and the black pepper is back to being mild in the background. At three quarters of an inch in, the bitterness has picked up a fair amount. The retrohale remains musty, toasted wood and light orange oil. The cigar wraps up with the musty and heavily toasted wood up front with orange oil and bitterness a bit behind and light amounts of earth and black pepper. The strength in this third bumped up to slightly below medium.

Burn

The burn line was wavy at a few points, but self corrected. The ash held on in about one inch increments.

Draw

The draw was perfect, with just the right amount of resistance that I prefer.

Overall

The Davidoff 702 Series No. 2 had an interesting orange oil note that I don’t recall getting before, but overall the profile wasn’t that pleasurable. The combination of the toasted wood and orange oil was a bit aggressive and with some dryness and then the bitterness later, it wasn’t ever able to create a balanced profile. Not sure if it’s the wrapper and the small ring gauge that creates the combination or if a bigger ring gauge would smooth things out or not. The experience I had wouldn’t lead me to come back to this and the very high price point kind of cements it.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.30

Cost/Point

$4.04

Scoring System

Personal Cigar Review: Davidoff 702 Series No. 2