Oliva Melanio Maduro

The Oliva family is behind the Oliva Cigar Company which has established itself as a cigar maker that consistently wins awards. The modern Oliva brand was launched in 1995 and endured several rocky periods but the family can trace its tobacco roots back into the late 1880’s in Cuba. The descendants of the founder are still active in the company today.

The best known series from Oliva is the Oliva Serie V which started winning awards back in 2007 and continues to do so. In 2013 the Melanio Maduro was added to the series. It is a box pressed torpedo, 6 ½ X 52 with a San Andres Maduro wrapper and a blend of Nicaraguan Habano grown in the Jalapa region of the country for filler and binder. This cigar was a hit right out of the box as Cigar Snob rated it 4^th out 25 top cigars for 2013 and Cigar Aficionado rated it an 89. Now it is our turn.

The cigar is almost picture perfect in appearance. The bands are also not overly ornate. The dark San Andres wrapper had a nice feel to it that was not oily and the construction was excellent. The first taste was black pepper but by the middle bittersweet chocolate came to the forefront. The last third was the chocolate and some coffee. The draw was a little tight and the smoke volume was acceptable. A very nice ash confirmed the good construction for this full bodied cigar. It took an hour to smoke but with a SRP of $13 my overall rating drops from 4.5 to 4.0.