Angel Oliva is the patriarch of the Oliva family and founder of the Oliva Tobacco Company, not to be mistaken for the Oliva Cigar Company which is a whole other family as far as I know. In 2006 the Oliva Tobacco Company decided to honor the late Angel Oliva by creating a cigar to remember it was 100 years ago that Angel was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. He moved to the United States in the 1920's to become an assistant to an unsuccessful tobacco broker and developed his business skills and tobacco knowledge. In 1934 he founded the Oliva Tobacco Company. Oliva became one of the biggest tobacco brokers in the world by the 1950's but he was also one of the first to see the real face of Castro and decided to build a farm in Honduras in 1961 and was the last broker to be able to buy a shipment of Cuban tobacco before the embargo. The Oliva empire would eventually extend to almost all of the primary tobacco growing regions of the world: Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic (at the request of the Fuente family) and Ecuador. Tobacco from the Oliva Tobacco Company is used some of the biggest names in the business like Don Pepin Garcia, Rocky Patel, Fuente, La Gloria Cubana, La Flor Dominicana and also in cigars from the Oliva Cigar Company.



After the last Amsterdam herf, Savvy left a five pack of the Angel 100 OTC, 6 x 48 at my place for me to try and share with friends. The tobacco used for this cigar comes from their own farms and the cigar is a Nicaraguan puro. The five pack comes in a very nice box with a beautiful band. The wrapper is fabulous, not to dark, almost a milk chocolate color and hardly any veins. The cigar is a box pressed and the construction feels good. The aroma of the cigar reminds me of horses. After I punch the cigar I taste a mild raisin flavor with a peppery aftertaste. The predraw has the right amount of resistance.



I can taste a smooth and pleasant coffee flavor with earthy notes. The flavors are warm and comfortable. After half an inch I also get a mild pepper and a hint of wood. The coffee is gone by then. After an inch I taste something that reminds me of something like a hazelnut spread that you can put on a sandwich with some terroir and a pepper in the back of the throat.



The flavor changes to hazelnuts and toast towards the middle of the cigar. The toast slowly becomes the dominant flavor with a mild and creamy chocolate as aftertaste. Near the end the chocolate disappears and I can taste some herbal flavors which are mild spicy.



I get a lot of smoke from this nice cigar and the ash is almost white. The ash is also very compact of structure. The draw is just fine and the burn is great too, almost as straight as an arrow. This cigar is medium bodied but full flavored. Even though the flavors are full, they are also soft, subtle and well balanced.



Would I buy this cigar again? If I can find any! I loved it.

Appearance: 8 / 10 (9 if I take the packaging into consideration)
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 8 / 10
Aroma third part: 8 / 10

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In june 2009 a Dutch friend & I visited Las Vegas with two friends from Florida. A bunch of other friends from Cigar Asylum flew to Las Vegas too to herf with us, which was amazing. While planning our trip and this herf, the Las Vegas part of the trip got the name E.L.V.I.S. which stands for Epic Las Vegas International Smokefest. Andrew Wood from Guillen Cigar was coming too, so I asked him to make a special E.L.V.I.S. cigar. Unfortunately the cigars were stuck in customs, but we were able to buy bundles short after I got back home in The Netherlands.



The first thing I notice is the beautiful shape, the top of the cigar is quite slender. The cigar has a nice color of milk chocolate and the wrapper only has a few minor veins. The cigar has a nice hay smell. The construction feels good. The wrapper has a dry leather look to it. The predraw of this 6 x 50 torpedo is good and I taste raisin.



First flavors I get are earth and coffee but after an inch the coffee disappears. Wood takes the place of the coffee. The flavors are quite dry.



Halfway I taste some herbs and wood, the cigar is mild sweet too. After ⅔ the wood gets stronger, the cigar is still a bit sweet and the earth flavor is gone.



The smoke time of this one dimensional but pleasant cigar is 90 minutes. The draw is good and I got a reasonable amount of smoke. The burn is good and the firm ash is light colored. I would call this a medium bodied and medium flavored cigar.



Would I buy this cigar again? I still have half a bundle, so no. This was a limited production, I don't evne know if Andy has any left.

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 7 / 10

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Now if you browse through my old reviews you can see that I love Oliva cigars quite a lot, almost every blend is a treat for my palate. This time I got myself a Oliva G special G maduro, a cigar I never smoked before. This weird looking 3.7x48 cigar is a Nicaraguan puro and stands out from the crowd because of the shape. The price tag of this cigar is € 3,50 in The Netherlands.



The wrapper is really dark and oily with one big vein. The shape is a mini figurado and it has a nice, recognizable band. The cigar has a hayshed smell. The construction and predraw are very good, I taste a dry tobacco flavor.



Espresso is what I taste with something sweet and wood. The sweet flavor gains some power. The espresso turns into regular coffee after an inch. I still taste the wood and the sweetness too.



The coffee loses some of its strength while the wood gets stronger. The sweetness slowly disappears.



This small cigar lasted me for 55 minutes. I got a lot of thick white smoke. The draw is great and the burn is phenomenal, slow and straight as an arrow. The ash is firm and has a pepper and salt color. This cigar is full flavored and medium to full bodied.



Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, this is a great value smoke. Loved it.

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 8 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 9 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Aroma first part: 8 / 10
Aroma second part: 8 / 10
Aroma third part: 8 / 10

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A friend gave me this cigar, another AJ Fernandez blend, as he liked them a lot. So far most of my experiences with AJ Fernandez are pleasant ones so I was looking forward to this Nica Libre. The reviews I have read mentioned Padron a lot, which only raised my expectations.



This box pressed 6 x 52 torpedo has a nice, silky San Andreas maduro wrapper with some small veins. The Nicaraguan puro has a nice round head and a tasteful band, although I can see why people would call it a Padron Anniversary rip-off band. The construction feels good and the cigar has a pretty full barnyard aroma. The predraw is loose and I taste pepper.



I can taste a full flavored coffee flavor, mild bitter, maybe even harsh and after half an inch I also taste a sour flavor for just a few puffs. The bitterness fades a bit, but there isn't much change in flavors.



After 2/3rd I can taste a bit of chocolate as an aftertaste. The chocolate disappears and I get some wood instead, that tries to break through the coffee.



The draw is way too loose, but I still get a lot of thick white smoke from the cigar. The ash is a bit frayed, pepper & salt colored and quite firm. The burn is good, but a bit fast. This cigar is full bodied and full flavored.



Would I buy this cigar again? No. This is a boring, dull cigar and I didn't like it a lot.

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 6 / 10
Draw: 6 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Aroma first part: 6 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 6 / 10

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I smoked two Rocky Patel 1990 Vintage's before, a robusto in 2007 and a 'A' last week and both cigars didn't agree with my palate. I still got myself a Rocky Patel 1990 Vintage torpedo as the importer stops importing them for The Netherlands and is having a blown out of the last remaining boxes at his Oliva Cigar Lounge/NPU cigarshop in Den Bosch. You can get a box of these 6¼x52 cellophane wrapped smokes for €80.00 while it lasts.



The maduro broadleaf wrapper has a nice chocolate brown color and contains a lot of veins. The wrapper is also shiny and oily. I love the classy bands. The construction is great and I get a pretty good predraw that reminds me of a mild pepper. The cigar has a unique smell of dry autumn leaves.



I taste a somewhat bitter earthy flavor with some wood. The bitterness disappears soon and the wood becomes the main flavor with some spices in the aftertaste. After an inch I also taste a hint of chocolate. Wood is still the main flavor with some scorched earth and chocolate on the background.



Halfway the wood turns into a nut flavor. The sweet chocolate has disappeared, just like the other flavors. The nut flavor gains some strength and a herbal freshness joins in.



The smoke time of this cigar is exactly two hours. The draw is good and I hardly had any burn issues. I got a lot of smoke that was medium thick. The ash is light colored and quite firm. The wrapper tore on some places while smoking. This cigar is medium bodied and medium flavored.



Would I buy this cigar again? No, most Rocky Patel's just don't do it for me and this is one of them.

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 6 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Aroma first part: 6 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 7 / 10

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