Dag! Oliva! Still Maduro After All These Years.

M

Mister Moo

The Pinnacle of Style
granmaduro%20(200%20x%20200).jpg


Now for a stroll down memory lane. From the bottom of the winecoolerdor comes one of the 6.5 x 52's. The Oliva Grand Maduro Torpedo. I smoked a mess of these in various sizes a couple of years ago and bought a few boxes of the longies in 2005 and stuffed them away. The box is built like log-cabin solid - I mean, you could drive a dump truck over it and it probly wouldn't crack. The price was very modest (sub $5) but the wrapper is naturally colored and fine-grained and the vitola is quality built. Never had a plug, flaw or bad wrapper that I recall.

So I fired one up today, homebound and sitting still under the weight of a repaired eyeball. I am supposed to be still for a day so I will use my time wisely and smoke.

Clean clip. Clean wrapper. Easy light and solid burn on the foot. A 90% even burn and, at 63%, no relights of hint of sourness that appears in many a too-wet maduro. This cigar tasted about like the ones I smoked in 2005 but with an unexpected difference.

The cigar was mild, sweet and earthy, and plenty of smoke from the get-go. It's good, really, by any standard. It progressed as I remembered with increasing strength, finishing as a punchy number that might make a newbie on an empty stomach just a tiny bit green behind the gills. The flavor stayed sweetish and tobacco-ie until the 2nd half and that is where the unexpected appeared - a new cedar tone layed in and dominated. The cedar tone was not a "hint" - it subtly dominated, and it was quite nice. I do not remember this accent from 2005.

Maybe I'll smoke another one tomorrow evening and then have another in 2008. I can hardly stand the excitement. :)
 
Wow, great cigars! I wish I still had some from then... I'll have to stock up again! :ss
 
You can turn a phrase nicely. I'm drooling. Nothing like getting together with and old friend.
:ss
 
Yep, I still have some of these in Robusto size.
Nice to pull out once in a while, as they just keep getting better.
 
Very nice review, Mr. Moo! Makes me want to go digging and see what I can find on the bottom of mine.

:ss
 
smokin5 said:
Yep, I still have some of these in Robusto size.
Nice to pull out once in a while, as they just keep getting better.
Click to expand...
I have smoked a bunch of these guys but don't remember ever getting the sweet cedar thing. Mostly, cedar taste is not my bag as it comes off too sharp in combination with a natural wrapper. It usually reminds me of smoking a Kool cigarette or sucking on a Hall's Mento-Lyptus drop. Once I got a shot of cedar flavor from another brand of cigar that was wrapped in overtones of ammonia - I assumed the cigar was not quite ready for prime time and pitched it but never lost the notion of the relationship of two flavors. I could suddenly imagine where a cedary taste was very nearly an after-effect of maduro aging or fermentation.

The unexpected shift on this smoke was softened or rounded out nicely by the very heavy/sweet tasting wrapper.

If you have some of the older Oliva maduros to try I'd be interested in hearing your take on them. Esp., since you too are on the "maduro" side and wise enough to know sweet wrapper plus cedar from cheeseburger w/onion. The rookie kids around here (like drob) just lack that certain... maduro-ness to qualify. :D
 
Oh man, I received one of these from the Oliva whore himself Papajohn.
I think I will let it rest some more, maybe like another hour or two!!!!
Cant wait to fire this one up
 
I'll trade you a can of Maxwell House for a couple of those..:D

Those Oliva Grands are one of my favorites. I bought a 5er of the Robustos from Famous back in Dec. 06.
After trying the first one I got on the computer ASAP and ordered 10 more 5ers.
Are the G Serie maduros the same cigar just new packaging?? The G maddies seem real close to the same flavors as the Old Grands..
 
JaKaAch said:
I'll trade you a can of Maxwell House for a couple of those..:D

Those Oliva Grands are one of my favorites. I bought a 5er of the Robustos from Famous back in Dec. 06.
After trying the first one I got on the computer ASAP and ordered 10 more 5ers.
Are the G Serie maduros the same cigar just new packaging?? The G maddies seem real close to the same flavors as the Old Grands..
Click to expand...
I haven't tried the Oliva G maduro* (yet) since I had older boxes in the cooler and my B&M kept a box or two of the old red labels on the shelf until only recently.

*exception - the little G perfecto, which did not compare favorably. Not to say the little perfecto wasn't a good tasting cigar, but it was rolled loosely compared to the old box press Grand maduro and lacked the punchiness. At least the ONE I had.
 
according to mrbundles.com Uncle Mikey says its the same smoke, just rebanded and repackaged. I buy that story, and I love the serie G maduro, the petite belicosos rock as well....... great smoke.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top