Oliveros Sun Grown Gem

Oliveros is a cigar company that is working hard to accomplish its goals.  They want to provide the market with both a traditional cigar as well as doing some more edgy things.  Rafael Nodal, who runs the company, has managed that quite nicely.  He segregates his more traditional offerings into the Oliveros brand and uses his Boutique Blends with the SWAG and Aging Room front marks for his edgier sticks.  Both are worth investigating.

Today’s cigar is the Toro in the Oliveros Sun Grown Reserve Line.  When you first look at the cigar it presents well.  It has a nice medium brown color that comes from it’s Habano wrapper.  It feels good too.  It’s a little silky and evenly packed.  I punch and light the cigar without trouble and it produces nice smoke.

This cigar was well constructed.  The draw was open and easy without smoking quickly.  It burned cool.  The ash grew to a respectable length and was a nice light grey.  The cigar burned evenly and held a tight edge.  It’s amazing in today’s day and age that we find a well built cigar remarkable, but, unfortunately, too many cigars are not as well made as they should be.  Oliveros in general and this cigar in particular represent those that take pride int he quality of their products and make well constructed cigars.

Flavors are nice in this smoke but not overwhelming.  In the first third of the smoke I got some nuttiness to go along with a caramel flavor.  The caramel gave way to a dry nutty taste as the cigar moved toward the halfway mark.  Towards the end I got notes of cinnamon and nutmeg.  These are nice flavors and make for an enjoyable smoke.  It would have been nicer if there was a broader range of flavor.  On the strength scale this is a medium bodied or ‘lunch’ cigar.

Value for this stick is off the charts good.  Even when you find this stick above market price, it will be below the $5 point.  At that price to get anything that is well constructed, flavorful, and looks good is amazing.  I can’t imagine a humidor that shouldn’t have some of these cigars.