Oliva Special “S” Torpedo Thursday, Jul 31 2008

Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown
Filler: Nicaraguan Habano
Size: Torpedo 6.0″ x 52 ring

The Oliva Special S is the Oliva’s top shelf offering in their regular production lines. The limited production Master Blends are the other top shelf line from the Olivas. One thing I noticed on the Oliva site is that they have an aging recommendation for their cigars. The Special S apparently should be aged for five years. I find this a little strange, because to the best of my knowledge Oliva does not date their boxes. I could be wrong because I haven’t bought a whole box of Oliva’s since I bought my box of the original Mater Blends several years ago. However, if I’m right and they do not date their boxes, the aging recommendation seems kind of silly to me because there is no real way to know how old the cigars are at the time of purchase. I guess you’d have to start counting from when you bought them. Anyway, as far as I know, this Special S is no where near 5 years old. It has been in my humidor for about 2 months.

The Special S is a handsome looking cigar with an elegant presentation. Unfortunately I failed to take a picture before I pt the cigar to flame and this one certainly deserved a photo display. I was unable to find an adequate picture anywhere on the web to share with you here. Thanks to the cigar band collection at StogieFresh.com I am at least able to display the band. In addition to the elegant band you see above, the majority of the cigars length is hidden in a cedar sleeve that is decorated at the foot with a deep brown band printed with the words “Special S” and the Oliva “O” logo in shiny gold lettering. The overall effect is a beautifully presented cigar. I have heard a rumor the the Special S’s days are numbered and that there are plans to discontinue this line. I have not been able to find anything to confirm that. I also heard the Master Blend 3 will become a regular production cigar, effectively replacing the Special S as Oliva’s regular production, top-shelf smoke. Again, these rumors are from a single source and I haven’t been able to find any more information on this to confirm it. If it does turn out to be true and you are a fan of the Special S, you may want to think about stocking up.

Even though the Special S sports some nice duds, the cigar can hold it’s own in the beauty department even if it were naked. The Ecuadorian Sun Grown wrapped used on these smokes is flawless. Smooth with only very tiny veins, it is milk chocolate in color,has an oily sheen, and is perfectly applied to a well filled cigar. I clipped the tapered head with my trusty Palio and tested the draw. It was too tight so I trimmed a bit more off the head in hopes of opening up the draw a little more. It didn’t seem to help so I was left to hope it would loosen up a bit during the smoke. As it turns out it didn’t. The cigar wasn’t plugged and it was certainly smokable, but I had to pull harder than what feels comfortable to me. By the end, my jaw was tired and I developed a bit of a headache because of the tight draw. Other than the draw, which was probably a fluke and not common, there were no other construction related issues. The burn was perfect and the ash firm and well formed. Flavor wise this cigar was pretty good, but nothing I would call “Special” (pun intended). This was a very smooth smoke, medium bodied, and medium in strength. I tasted good flavors of leather and coffee and there was a bit of spice on the finish. The cigar never changed, never did anything to make me think wow, just good solid flavors that remained consistent from start to finish. Near the end it became difficult to keep the cigar lit because of the overly tight draw so I put it down a little sooner than I probably would have otherwise.

The Special S is a good smoke that is refined and smooth. Construction seemed excellent except for the draw problem and the flavors are very enjoyable but one dimensional. I would hope for a bit more from what is supposed to be a premium cigar.

You can get your Oliva Special “S” cigars at Cigars Direct.com.

Rating - B

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Oliva Serie V Double Robusto Saturday, Nov 3 2007

Country: Nicaraguan
Wrapper: Habano Sun Grown
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Jalapa Valley Ligero
Size: Double Robusto 5″x54 ring

The newest offering from the Oliva Family is the Serie V Ligero Especial. This cigar has taken the industry by storm receiving glowing reviews from enthusiasts and professional alike, even scoring a 94 in Cigar Aficionado (take that however you like). Here is the official story on this cigar from the Oliva website.

Serie V is a complex blend of Nicaraguan long filler tobaccos. Blended
with specially fermented Jalapa Valley ligero, and finished with a high
priming Habano Sun Grown Wrapper.

Blending Notes:This cigar is blended to deliver full body taste
while maintaining an unparalleled smoothness. This flavorful blend
exhibits complex tobacco with rich coffee and dark chocolate tones.
A subtle and well balanced spice is present throughout.

Today I’m smoking what Oliva is calling a Double Robusto, but I’m not sure why they don’t just call it a Robusto. I guess you might say the 54 ring gauge is a bit big for a robusto which more commonly measure in at 50 or 52 and that could be the justification for it, but to me it’s just a Robusto. The whole idea of a double robusto is silly to me but before I get too side tracked lets get back to this cigar.

The wrapper is a beautiful rich brown and it is smooth and oily looking with only a few small veins running through it. The cap really catches your attention. It’s huge Covering the almost a full half inch of the cigar and it looks like a 4 seam cap winding it’s way up the head. Here’s a picture (click to enlarge):

(Sorry, my camera sucks for closeups)

The monster cap on this beefy cigar clipped nicely with my Palio. There was no evidence of any rib veins anywhere is the thick head or foot. The bunch of the filler looks perfect and the cigar is well filled, firm its entire length with no soft spots. Sometimes these large ring gauges can be tricky to get a good even light on but this one took the flame nicely. The well executed light made for a nice even burn right from the start.

This cigar is very smooth and refined. It started off with a classic tobacco flavor with cocoa notes. The finish is smooth with a subtle sweetness. I have heard a lot of talk of how this is a robust full bodied cigar but I just wasn’t getting that. it is on the fuller side of medium, but I’d still describe it as a medium bodied smoke. At about the halfway point the flavors change a little. The tobacco flavor is still dominate but it gets more earthy with some pepper and it maintains that cocoa undertone. It also split a bit vertically and the wrapper also cracked horizontally around the diameter of the cigar right next to the vertical split. it still held together though and smoked fine. I talked to some who had this cigar literally blowup and unravel on them so I guess I was lucky it wasn’t worse that it was. the issues were not caused by the band which came off the cigar perfectly without damaging the wrapper at all.

I found this to be a very enjoyable cigar and liked it more than any other Oliva I’ve tried since the original Master Blends. It didn’t live up to the hype on strength but the flavors were really good so that fact didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the cigar. Unless the vitolas are that drastically different, I just don’t agree with the exceptional 94 rating CA gives the Serie V. It is certainly a good cigar but I would expect more, especially in the construction department from a cigar that rates that high. I look forward to trying some of the other vitolas because I’ve seen some glowing reviews of them, particularly the Figuardo and the Lancero. I am rating this cigar a B+ even given the minor construction issues because flavor wise this was a really good cigar.

Rating - B+

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Oliva Master Blend 5.0×50 Saturday, Nov 19 2005

Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Cuban seed Nicaraguan grown tobacco
Filler: Cuban Seed Nicaraguan grown long filler
Size: Robusto 5″x50 ring

This is a special cigar. Master Blends is a limited production, limited release premium cigar. Oliva uses rare and limited tobaccos to create it. The fine Nicaraguan fillers and wrappers used are not for mass production. They are limited amounts of tobacco which would usually be reserved for private family use. Master Blends are available every year; however, each year the blend and wrapper will be different. I have the current release, a Master Blend II currently resting in my humidor and I look forward to smoking it if this original Master Blend is any indication of how good it will be.

This was a superb cigar. Full flavored and strong, this cigar gave me a pretty wicked buzz. It had a strong woody flavor and was surprisingly smooth for such a full flavored cigar. I had a problem with the burn. It started out fine but then began to canoe a little on me. I tried to let it correct itself but it kept getting worse so I had to intervene with my torch to even it back out. After that I never had a problem with the burn again. It had a nice firm ash. I only had to tap it twice before putting it down. This was a great smoke and I am going back to the shop to pick up a couple more while they still have them. I plan to stow them away and save them for a special occasion.

I almost forgot. This cigar also had an interesting design printed on the wrapper leaf itself. It look like some kind of laser etching or something. A very nice, very unique touch.

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