How to Improve Your Palate: Davidoff Chef’s Edition 2025 Tasting

Davidoff Chefs Edition 2025 launched on 11 September. We sat down with Roy Sommer to smoke it together and talk about palate building, pairing with food and drink, and how the cigar changes as you move through the thirds.

On camera we discuss why this release was built to be enjoyed with a plate or a glass, how memory and food references help you recognise aromas, and what shifts we both notice as the cigar develops. Roy explains the chef collaboration approach and how menus are created to match the cigar in certain markets. We keep the focus on tasting, progression, and practical pairing ideas rather than trying to name every note.

A few context points that Roy covers. The project links Davidoff’s blending team with chefs, with events where the chef designs dishes around the cigar’s character. The profile sits in the medium range and shows a creamy side with touches that can read as citrus. It is intended to work alongside food and wine, not compete with them.

We filmed at Uyare in Leeds city centre. The rooftop bar gives you space and air with comfortable seating to enjoy a good cigar. Although It is not a cigar lounge, the restaurant offers a cigar friendly terrace

Cigar specs
• Name: Davidoff Chefs Edition 2025
• Vitola: Toro, 6 1/4 x 54
• Wrapper: Ecuador
• Binder: Mexico San Andrés
• Filler: Dominican, including San Vicente aged fifteen years and Piloto aged five years in yagua palm leaves
• Profile in our tasting: medium, creamy, light citrus hints
• Format: single vitola, box of ten