Oliva cigars

Oliva is a Nicaraguan house with Cuban roots, the family having left Pinar del Rio in 1964 and spent decades growing tobacco for other people before putting their own name on a box. That background shows in the blending. Serie V is the cigar that made the reputation: Jalapa Valley ligero under an Ecuadorian Habano sun-grown wrapper, full-bodied but structured rather than merely strong. Melanio sits above it, Serie G and O below, and the Master Blend and Nub lines sit alongside. For anyone moving from Cuban to New World cigars, this is one of the more natural places to start.