Tag Archives: oliva

by | February 5, 2023 · 10:02 am

Oliva Serie V, Cuba Aliados and La Patissier Cigars

Last Sunday I was out and about and came across a couple cigars that I hadn’t tried yet, so I bought them.  I smoked a couple this week, although by Saturday it had gotten ridiculously cold, so I opted for a shorter smoke so as not to over-tax my propane heater.  I started off with the Oliva Serie V 125th Anniversary Edicion Limitada. I thought this would be priced higher, but it was reasonable $10, and well worth it.  It wasn’t all that long ago that I felt like I was really going top-shelf spending $8-12 on a cigar.  Times have changed.  Still, what else could I do for an hour and a half or more that costs less than $10?  This is an interesting figurado, it’s tapered at the foot, once you burn past the first inch and a half it may as well be a parejo.  It measures 5½” x 54 overall and is Nicaraguan filler and binder wrapped in a Sungrown Ecuador Habano leaf.  That narrow foot not only makes it easy to light, but seemed to make the opening few puffs pretty sharp and powerful.  It settled into leathery and earthy with some cocoa sweetness.  Overall I really enjoyed this cigar. I haven’t smoked a lot of Serie Vs lately, they have to be priced higher than this one.  It’s highly recommended.  By the way, the 135 refers to the anniversary of when Melanio Oliva started in the tobacco business, Oliva cigars has only been around for about 30 years.

 

Next up was another cigar connected with Oliva, from the  recently acquired Cuba Aliados brand. I smoked a bunch of these in the ’90s when they were made by Rolando Reyes and existed alongside Puro Indios in their lineup. I can’t say I remember too much about them, but I know the Cuba Aliados brand was a favorite of Steve Saka back then.  This one is made by Ernesto Carillo, it has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. Ernesto is kinda famous for using Sumatra, and I like Sumatra. The cigar I smoked was a 6″ x 54 torpedo, and I probably selected that because it was the only vitola the shop had available. This was a really nice tasting cigar with a sweet spice.  It’s burn and draw were perfect and I quite enjoyed it.  It was closer to $15, so I don’t think I’ll smoke a lot of them, but it was worth the money.  I’m a fan if EPC from way back, so that probably worked in the cigar’s favor.  

 

Like I said, Saturday was super-cold, and I know we weren’t along in this weather pattern, a lot of the country seems to have had a cold snap. below a certain temperature, my propane heater doesn’t do as good a job.  This is the perfect time for shorter cigars, so I had a La Patissier No. 50 from the PCA show that would fit into this scenario perfectly.  It’s 4 3/8″ x 50, not tiny, but not huge.  I don’t smoke a lot of Crowned Heads cigars, and this particular one was made at the Pichardo factory before they had the falling-out. I don’t recall where they will be having this made, it might be made by Ernesto Carillo which would connect all three of today’s cigars in some circular way.  Anyway, this cigar has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Jalapa binder, and fillers from Costa Rica, as well as the Ometepe and Pueblo Nuevo regions of Nicaragua. My guess would be that future iterations of this cigar will not have the Puebla Nueva tobacco, as that seemed to be a favorite of Luciano Marielles. This cigar was really good, although I’m a little surprised to see it was Broadleaf, it didn’t smoke that way to me. It started out bold, and had an exotic spice that I couldn’t put a label on.  It was very good, I may see if I can find some of these older ones so I can see if it changes.  

 

A week or so back I smoked a La Gloria Serie S, their new San Andrés offering, and I guess I bought a couple of them and forgot that I had, because I couldn’t remember where it came from. Last week I got some samples of these and smoked one yesterday.  I’m going to set them down for a while, lets just say that I had pretty much the same experience the guy who smoked one on Dojo’s last Smoke Night Live show had.  I like San Andrés and I love La Gloria, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. More to come on that. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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by | November 28, 2021 · 9:07 am

Paladin de Saka, Old Cain and New Partagas Cigars

Yesterday my wife and I went to the 35th Annual “not just” Rock Expo in the nearby Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, which sound much better than it actually was.  It was basically a flea market of records, tapes and CDs, not that big a deal, but we did come across a few neat things. I managed a record store in the eighties, so I can’t start going through bins of records without compulsively alphabetizing and sorting by genre, so don’t look too hard at stuff like this anymore. My wife spied a CD though, and I dropped $2 on it because it looked good, and I can always listen to Cuban music, Hecho en Cuba 3. I haven’t give it a listen yet, I have to dust off the CD changer, and remember how to get music from the iMac onto my phone. Anyway, one never knows what one might find out and about.

 

Rewind to Thursday, when we finally got done with cooking, eating and delivering food, it was time for a cigar, and I decided on the Paladin de Saka that Steve had given me when we saw him in South Carolina. This is in the Sin Compromiso line, I suppose it would be the flagship of the line, as it’s aged a year longer than the rest. It’s also the largest of them all, measuring 7″ x 52. There’s one more difference in that there’s some Pennsylvania broadleaf added to the filler that gives it some additional oomph. I’m a big fan of the Sin Compromiso, except that they are so darned pricey. They are worth it though, and I don’t say that often, as Steve would agree. I love the sweetness of the cigar, and the espresso notes. This was a good two and a half hours of pleasure.  These are north of $29, so I’m not going to be smoking many of them, but Thanksgiving is a special day, so a special cigar is always in order, and I thank Steve for special cigars. He is welcome to share my Stillwell Star posts…do they have to be videos? 🙃

 

I was reorganizing a tray in the cabinet Friday and I came across a cigar in a ziplock that I had completely forgotten I had. It had a handwritten note in it that said “Cain FU IPCPR 2013”.  I remember this was after Sam Leccia’s “departure” from Oliva/Studio Tabac and they had this guy named Brian Scholle trained to travel around doing rolling demonstrations. I had met him a few times. He was making hi-octane Cain F’s he called Cain FU, I think we can figure out what that meant. It was a strong cigar then. So I figured after eight years in the humidor it might have lost some of its luster. I’ve smoked a number of Cain Fs over the years, many in the lancero vitola. I have some squirrelled away somewhere, perhaps I’ll find them one day.  Anyway, this cigar was a toro, and it had a pretty rustic look, but it burned surprisingly well. It was still pretty strong, a notch up from what I would expect from a Cain F. It was pretty good, considering it sat in a baggie for over eight years ignored. Of course, It’s not something anyone will ever have again, and I wonder what ever happened to that Brian dude? 

 

A week or so ago I posted the news about the Partagas Decadas 2021 that was coming out. Some samples arrived and couldn’t wait to smoke one. The Decadas have been treats for me for a long time. I’ve really liked the green banded ones going back many years. This one was intriguing because of the Brazilian Cameroon wrapper. First let’s work out the deal with the whole deal with the semantics surrounding wrapper. The foremost grower of Cameroon tobacco says there’s no such thing as Cameroon seed, but Sumatra seed grown in Cameroon. So it’s the soil and climate that make the tobacco Cameroon. Which begs the question: how can “Cameroon” tobacco be grown in other countries? I will say that this cigar,  I don’t care where the wrapper was grown, tastes far more “Cameroony” than a lot of Cameroon cigars I’ve smoked. It was loaded with the sweet, nutty flavor that the Decadas, and Partagas should taste like. I was completely enthralled with this cigar. Whatever the seed, wherever it’s grown, it tastes good, and was a lovely cigar. It’s even the right size!

 

This afternoon I’m going to Son’s Cigars to meet up with the gang from Stolen Throne Cigars who are doing an event there, I’d encourage anyone in the area to pop in.  I’m looking forward to finally meeting these guys as I’ve been enjoying the Stolen Throne cigars. I’m still looking for Secret Santa participants, we’re up to three, which is an awkward number, but I’d make it work if I had to!  The more the merrier!  That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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by | July 25, 2021 · 10:31 am

Smoking Through a Cain Cigar Sampler

Last week I was auditing some of my advertising partners (OK, that’s a euphemism, I was shopping…), and I picked up a couple Cain samplers from CigarThief.  This happens all the time, I start browsing and see something that I don’t need or have room for and the price is too good to pass up, I’d be nuts not to buy it, so I do. I then have to worry about where to put the stuff later. In this case it was the five cigar sampler of Cain cigars from Oliva. It arrived the next day. I remember walking in to my local shop at the time and the proprietor, fresh back from the trade show, said to me “throw away your Cubans, you gotta try this new cigar called “Cain”. This guy was a guy who was into Havanas too, he had gotten into some trouble years earlier with the BATF for having them in the store. This was a major boast coming from this guy. Of course, I had to wait for them to come in. Turns out that this was another brand that Sam Leccia was behind, following his success as the brand ambassador for Nub with Oliva Cigars. He would continue to do rolling events featuring both cigars for a few years until his unceremonious departure. I was a fan of the Cains early on, smoked a bunch of them, I was especially fond of the Cain F Lancero, which is what prompted me to take this little sentimental journey. 

 

Cain Cigars are made by Oliva Cigar Co., although you wouldn’t know it looking at their website. I can’t figure this out. Is Cain still in production? It seems like they are still widely available. I just can’t find them on a website anywhere. It’s a cigar they should embrace! I started with the original Habano 550. Their sizes are confusing, because this one is 5¾” x 50, which is pretty close to a toro, which is like, but it ain’t 550. I’m not sure what they call the 5″ x 50, which they clearly have in the portfolio. This is where having them listed on the manufacturer website comes in handy. Retailers websites aren’t always all-inclusive.  I seem to recall the old Studio Tabac website having a breakdown of the blend, with percentages of the ligero too.  These were billed as “Straight Ligero”, which, of course, didn’t mean they were 100% ligero. They are bold cigars, and the Habano was excellent. It took me back to one of my very first blog posts, where I was celebrating the birthday which I received the CigarCraig.com domain as a gift with a Cain Habano. Deep, rich earthy flavors.  These remain very good cigars. 

 

I deviated from the chronological order of the brand’s releases by smoking the Cain Daytona next. I believe this cigar came after Sam’s departure. This was a little bit mellower representation of the Cain blend, maybe more sophisticated. This one, whatever they called it, was definitely 5″ x 50, has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers. This is probably better suited for a sunday morning with coffee cigar, but it was a great cigar for a Saturday afternoon after cutting the grass and running errands, before taking a nap. Just enough strength and loads of flavor. Definitely a solid robusto, and I am fairly certain I have an old lancero or two in the humidor.

 

Last night I tackled the Cain Maduro. I’m pretty sure this is a the same blend as the Habano with a Maduro wrapper, although,, lacking information on a manufacturer’s website, I have no way to verify that. As a maduro lover, I have to say that I can do without this cigar in the line. It’s a good cigar, if it was the only Cain, I’d be happy with it, but I think the other iterations are better. The wrapper adds the espresso component, but I actually prefer the Habano wrapped version more. If I’m picking Cains, I admit that the Maduro is on the bottom of my list. Weird, huh? It’s still a pretty strong cigar, having a high percentage of Ligero. 

 

Sometime around 2012 They came out with the Cain F. I think the F stood for Fuerte, maybe Sam had his hand in it before he left,  I don’t recall. By 2013 they had replaced Sam with a guy named Byran Scholle. They had trained him to do rolling demonstrations something like Sam did, without the artistic flair. Bryan’s signature was. rolling a cigar he called the Cain FU, which was an amped up Cain F, which I smoked fresh and it wasn’t all that ass-kicking. I am smoking the Cain F 550 Robusto as I write this and it’s a rich, flavorful cigar, with a fair amount of strength, especially for a Sunday morning. It’s especially good with coffee, and I’m glad I had a heaping bowl of Cheerios! I can’t tell you how many Cain F Lanceros I’ve smoked over the years, and I still have a couple squirreled away, so I’m fairly familiar with the cigar. I like it a great deal. I don’t know why I like it , I just do, it checks all the boxes for me. It’s burning perfectly for me, although I have let it go out a few times. It’s a good way to start the day! I’m glad I picked up a few of these samplers! It’s been a fun trip down memory lane! 

 

That’s all for now, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | April 12, 2020 · 10:05 am

Vicarias Negotiator and Cain F Lancero Cigars and a V-Herf

I finally dipped my toe in the V-Herf pool last night briefly. I was smoking a fairly old Cain F Lancero Tubo (having removed it from the tube, of course), and checked out the Smoke Inn Room on the Whereby app. It was fairly early, and there were only a few people there, but it was pretty cool, and I enjoyed it and will return for more virtual herfing. Perhaps I’ll try to pop in at various times of the day to see who might be in there. In all the years I’ve been interacting digitally with people, I haven’t just video chatted with people, so this was neat, and I’ll keep doing it. I usually just sit around listening to podcasts keeping to myself, but I’ll try to be more social. Suggest some other popular video herfs besides Smoke Inn. I’ve been trying to get in on the Jersey Cigar Lounge’s herfs on Discord, but they always seem to be too late for me! Oddly, by 8:30 I’m done with my cigar and on to other things!

 

On to cigars. The Cain F Lancero I smoked last night was spectacular. I had a ten count box I bought several years ago, and still have a few tubos left. It’s been a while since I smoked one, I tend to save tubos for some time that never seems to come because they are nice and portable and I can throw one in my pocket. I either forget to do that, or end up packing a travel humidor or case, rarely just taking one cigar. I end up with a load of tubos, I have a few that are pretty old. I won a box of Don Tomas Classico Tubos well over ten years ago and have two left, I should smoke them and see who they are. I really liked them. I think I still have a Montecristo Tubo from one time when I had lunch at JRs in Whippany, and that was 10 years ago.  I suppose that one is ready to smoke! Like I said, I save them for a time that never comes. Maybe that’s this week’s project for Wednesday’s post. Anyway, the Cain F had the Studio Tobac footband, and was generally the stronger of the Can line, but the lancero was not strong at this point, but a wonderful smoke, with a hint of sweetness and earthiness. It burned perfectly and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have every one over the years. I had sen several friends post pics of this cigar on social media recently, which inspired me to grab one. So glad I did. I need to rummage through my lanceros, I know there’s at least one Can Daytona in there, might be more! Oliva doesn’t list Cain or Nub on their website, are they even still a thing? I still see them around. We have Sam Leccia to thank for both of those great lines!

 

My new cigar of the week was the Vicarias Negotiator. I met Jay Clark at the TPE and he gave me his Negotiator cigar and told me the story behind it. He used to be a buyer in the metals industry, and I used to buy metal powders and steel, among many other things when I was a buyer, so we had some common ground. He would go into negotiations and had out this cigar, which is a box pressed, 5″ x 48 robusto (Hermoso?) with a San Andrés wrapper, DR binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The negotiations would last the duration of the cigar, and if a deal wasn’t done when his ciga was finished, he would walk away. As a former buyer myself, I could relate to this story and wish I had used this tool in some negotiations myself! The only trouble I might have would have been that the cigar was so good that I might have been distracted from the task at hand! It was just the kind of cigar I like, dark, espresso flavors, good amount of strength, and a perfect burn and draw. The only thing I didn’t care for was that it wasn’t a toro, but that would defeat the purpose, right? No need for negotiations to go on for an hour and a half or so, right? I really enjoyed The Negotiator, Might not be easy to find, but really a great cigar.

 

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. A few months ago I removed a cigar from a tube I had put it in several years ago to see how long it would last in the tube before it would dry out. When I started the experiment I really had no way to tell how dry it would get. Through the miracle of technology, I have cince gotten a way to find these things out, the CigarMedics Humidimeter! I removed the cigar from the glass tube with the corks stopper, and the foot of the cigar read 35%, not good. Not 0, but certainly not optimal for smoking. So I labeled it and put it in the humidor. After about a month I checked it again and it was up to 54%. Getting there. I tend to think it might take longer than two months for a dried out cigar to rehydrate, but maybe not! It’s nice to have a tool to actually check without guessing. I do have a control cigar, one from the same box that’s been properly stored (for the last 8 years), when the time comes to smoke the cigar, I’ll see what effect the drying/restoring process had on the flavor. I should have started this project much earlier, it would have been appropriate to post the findings today. ( I think I’ve made that joke before…probably every year). Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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by | July 31, 2019 · 9:16 am

Contest: Welcome Fox Cigars Episode Two!

OK, so let’s do another giveaway! As we continue to celebrate our new friendship with Fox Cigars, let’s announce the winner of last weeks giveaway before we get on with this weeks. But first…I’ve been announcing things like this on various Facebook groups for years now, and I think I have to stop  doing that now. It seems that Facebook frowns upon any sort of tobacco transactions on their platform whatsoever, and has even shut down some groups because of this. I think one of the largest cigar groups on Facebook is gone now. Anyway, I’ll post a link to my root domain with a very general message that there’s something of interest there, just to not rock the boat, I don’t want to be the cause of any groups being shut down. I’ll continue to put this on Instagram, but I’ll be a little careful! Anyway, I made a list  of all of the people who commented on the blogpost and Instagram and assigned them a number in the interest of fairness. The winner of the Perdomo goodies is @imatexican8  who was an Instagram entry. Several people took advantage of multiple entries, and many people are Blazing Saddles fans! @imatexican8 needs to send me his address so I can mail out his winnings!  

 

Episode Dos!

Round two of our celebration of Fox Cigars features some Oliva goodies. We have a Nub cap, another awesome Lotus lighter, this one is a nice single jet torch with a double punch which comes out of the side, and an eight pack of cigars.

 

There are a couple of Nubs, a few Oliva Serie Os, a couple Oliva Serie Gs, and a Cain Daytona. All nice really cigars.  So, leave a comment to enter! I’m going to post this on Instagram, and I’m going to include comments on that post as well, just to make my life more difficult, so you can get two chances.  As usual, you must be of legal smoking age in your jurisdiction to win (and even that’s getting to be a PITA these days!), one entry per person  (per site). I’ll select a winner next Wednesday, August 7, 2019. Once again, thanks to Rob at Fox Cigars!  

 

That’s all for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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