This is the first year that we will be giving out this award. To be honest, I don’t know why we didn’t do it sooner. But we are doing it now, so it is really irrelevant. Anyway, through the course of the year, many different cigars and their accompanying packaging are brought to market and as much as we always try to convince ourselves that the packaging doesn’t matter, we all know we are all lying to ourselves.

This year we are giving this award to Davidoff for the Year of the Dragon release. The packaging one the Chinese Zodiacs has been Stella pretty much every year, with the red lacquer boxes and subsequent accessories that have joined the collections as well. When I first saw the rich red with the gold flake dragon scale pattern on everything that was being released, I fell in love with the design. The bands were simple and classic yet with just enough extra to feel that the product you were holding was extra special, even for a white banded Davidoff. The foot bands really brought it all together.
I know that many of us here at Smokin Tabacco were blown away by the very crisp and vibrant detail, especially on the cutter, ash tray and the limited edition humidors that were released as well. One of those humidors featured a smilier design to the boxes, and the other featured a glass mosaic pattern on the lid depicting a dragon by artists Zhang Zhaoying and Sika Viagbo.
Congratulations to Davidoff on this award and I look forward to seeing what comes out in 2025.