danthebugman
BoM Nov '10
I braved the 102 degree heat yesterday to sit on my porch and have a cigar. Maybe I was a little crazy for choosing a Churchill, but that's what sounded good. The Oliva Serie O is a Nicaraguan puro with a combination of Habano seed filler and binder grown in Esteli, Condega and Jalapa Valley. It features either a Sun Grown Habano wrapper or, as it the case here, a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. And what a beautiful wrapper it is...dark chocolate color, pretty toothy, a few small veins here and there. The seams look a bit loose, but are solid. The cap is a little off kilter, but neatly applied. The cigar feels well packed, but has a slight lean to it.
The band on these cigars has a simplistic classiness to it that I think suits the cigar. I cut the cap with my Palio and was met with a slightly loose draw. The cold draw flavors were an airy, graham cracker with some pepper on the finish. Torched it with the Ronson and away we go...
My initial thoughts on the first few puffs were "Jebus that's a lot of pepper!". It has been a little while since I've had one, but I don't ever remember them being quite that peppery. It was almost eye watering. After about half an inch the pepper started to die down and a dark roasted coffee started to come though.
A little further in and the pepper is still pretty powerful, but mellowing out more as it smokes. Along with the coffee there is now a slightly bitter chocolate and a bit of cinnamon through the nose. It's hard to get the cinnamon though with all the pepper frying my senses.
The burn has been great so far and the draw is easy, but I wish there was just a tad more resistance. Ash has been layering nicely and holding for and inch or more before being deposited in the ash tray.
Flavors are still consistent...peppery opening, coffee, bitter chocolate, little cinnamon. By about the half way point the pepper had finally worked it's way from being the dominant flavor in the cigar to more of a note on the finish.
Toward the final third of the cigar it explainably went out. I tapped the ash off and relit with no noticeable effect on the flavors of the cigar. Little later though it went out again so instead of fighting with it, I respected it's wishes and laid it in the ash tray.
Overall not a bad way to spend the afternoon. A hell of a lot more peppery than I remember though. I have usually smoked the Robusto size, but I wouldn't think that the two sizes would be that much different. I'll have to dig out a Robusto and see if I'm just not remembering correctly or what. At around the $6-7 mark they're not bad, but can be found often for less.
Dan
The band on these cigars has a simplistic classiness to it that I think suits the cigar. I cut the cap with my Palio and was met with a slightly loose draw. The cold draw flavors were an airy, graham cracker with some pepper on the finish. Torched it with the Ronson and away we go...
My initial thoughts on the first few puffs were "Jebus that's a lot of pepper!". It has been a little while since I've had one, but I don't ever remember them being quite that peppery. It was almost eye watering. After about half an inch the pepper started to die down and a dark roasted coffee started to come though.
A little further in and the pepper is still pretty powerful, but mellowing out more as it smokes. Along with the coffee there is now a slightly bitter chocolate and a bit of cinnamon through the nose. It's hard to get the cinnamon though with all the pepper frying my senses.
The burn has been great so far and the draw is easy, but I wish there was just a tad more resistance. Ash has been layering nicely and holding for and inch or more before being deposited in the ash tray.
Flavors are still consistent...peppery opening, coffee, bitter chocolate, little cinnamon. By about the half way point the pepper had finally worked it's way from being the dominant flavor in the cigar to more of a note on the finish.
Toward the final third of the cigar it explainably went out. I tapped the ash off and relit with no noticeable effect on the flavors of the cigar. Little later though it went out again so instead of fighting with it, I respected it's wishes and laid it in the ash tray.
Overall not a bad way to spend the afternoon. A hell of a lot more peppery than I remember though. I have usually smoked the Robusto size, but I wouldn't think that the two sizes would be that much different. I'll have to dig out a Robusto and see if I'm just not remembering correctly or what. At around the $6-7 mark they're not bad, but can be found often for less.
Dan
