Skip the fluff and jump straight to the review!
Cigar Stats
Brand Owner: Oliva Cigar Company – Miami, FL
Factory: Tabacalera Oliva S. A. (Tabolisa) – Esteli, Nicaragua
Model/Vitola: Oliva Serie V (Ligero Especial) Torpedo
Size: 6.0 x 56
Wrapper: Nicaragua (Habano Sun Grown)
Filler & Binder: Nicaragua (only specially fermented Jalapa Valley ligero)
Body: Medium to Full
MSRP: $6.75 USD
Cigar Insider Rating: 94 (September 2007)
Cigar Aficionado Rating: 94 (December 2007)
Cigar Aficionado Rating: 93 (2007 Top 25 List – January 2008)
Six other vitola sizes available
- Double Robusto 5.0 x 54 (robusto grande)
- Belicoso 5.0 x 54
- Double Toro 6.0 x 60 (toro grande)
- Special V Figurado 6.0 x 60
- Lancero 7.0 x 38
- Churchill Extra 7.0 x 52
All sizes come in dark lacquered cedar boxes of 24, packaged naked with no cellophane sleeves. The Lancero is the exception packaged in boxes of 36. Although I have not seen one, Cigar Insider states the Serie V also comes in a culebra size available exclusively at special events.
The Olivas
The Oliva Family has been growing tobacco for a little over 120 years. Melanio Oliva first grew tobacco in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba beginning in 1886. His growing operations were suspended while he fought in Cuba’s War of Independence. On his return, Melanio resumed his operations and in the early 1920’s his son Hipolito took over. Hipolito cultivated the Oliva family fields for several decades but as Cuba became over-run by communists, the tobacco landscape changed. Hipolito’s son, Gilberto Sr., was born literally across the street from Cuba’s Hoyo de Monterrey factory and following in his fathers footsteps, that is where he first worked in Cuba’s tobacco industry. When Gilberto, Sr. took over the family’s business he shifted from growing to brokering tobacco. In the early 1960’s the pressure in Cuba became unbearable and Gilberto, Sr. left in search of growing conditions that would produce that distinct Cuban taste. His travels took him to Honduras, Panama, Mexico and even the Philippines before he finally found his desired fertile ground in Nicaragua and today the Oliva Family is Nicaragua’s second largest grower of Cuban-seed tobacco.
In 1984 Gilberto, Sr. decided it was time to expand into cigar making for other brands and in 1994 began to produce the first Oliva Family cigar line. After success with their frontmarks in the USA, last year the Oliva’s began selling their cigars in Europe and today Oliva lines are enjoyed around the world. Business is booming!
The Oliva Family.
(From left to right, Jeannie, Carlos, Gilberto, Sr., Jose and Gilberto, Jr.)
Management of Oliva Cigar Company activities is still very much a family affair with Gilberto Sr. overseeing growing, curing, and fermenting operations and Gilberto, Jr. deeply entrenched in blending. Cigar rolling falls under the direction of Carlos. Jeannie and Jose manage marketing, customer relations and distribution operations from the Miami office.
The Oliva Serie V
The Oliva’s have been listening to their customers asking, “Where’s the beef? Love the quality of your cigars but we need more power!” Finally their answer is ready. With a soft-release in June 2007 and official release at the 2007 RTDA the buzz on the Serie V has been high volume. Vice President of Operations, Jose Oliva describes development of the Serie V blend as the most challenging undertaking the company has ever embarked upon. In his opinion, a cigar smoker should feel the strength of a cigar in the stomach and head, not in the throat. Striking the right balance of potency with ultimate smoothness was the goal.
With all of the tobacco for the Serie V grown on Oliva Family Farms in Nicaragua it is the strongest cigar they have released to-date. With maximum production anticipated at 750K per year due to limited availability of tobaccos, they will be quickly be at that level and following a Cigar Aficionado rating of 94, it will be a challenge to stay up with demand. I can see the price on these puppies going through the roof.
Cigar.com claims, in order to be an authorized Serie V dealer, tobacconists must undergo special training from Oliva representatives aimed at providing insight to the sheer power of the blend. This cigar only contains ligero leaf (the strongest variety of tobacco), but is blended so the initial taste doesn’t overwhelm the enthusiast with in your face power. In other words, the Serie V is very strong but can still be enjoyed by individuals who prefer medium bodied cigars. Upon lighting, many may believe the Serie V is medium in body, but as Jose Oliva himself has explained, if you exhale through the nose you will realize the true strength of the Serie V.
Cigar Insider released a vertical tasting of the entire line in September 2007 with the average rating weighing in at a whopping 89.7 points. The Torpedo led the pack with an individual rating of 94 points. CI claims, “The Torpedo was an outstanding cigar, with aesthetics, strength, complexity and many flavors that kept the cigar interesting and balanced.”
Cigar Aficionado ranks the Oliva Serie V Torpedo as #4 on the list of the top 25 smokes of 2007. Impressive!
From the website …..
Serie V is a complex blend of Nicaraguan long filler tobaccos. Blended with specially fermented Jalapa Valley ligero, and finished with a high priming Habano Sun Grown Wrapper (high priming being closer to the top of the tobacco plant and therefore soaking up more sun). It is blended to deliver full body taste while maintaining an unparalleled smoothness. This flavorful blend exhibits complex tobacco with rich coffee and dark chocolate tones. A subtle and well balanced spice is present throughout.
Bottom line up front …..
Although not the powerhouse I was expecting, the Serie V is a beauty to behold and a premium quality full flavored smoke with balance and finesse sure to become a favorite for many cigar smokers. Definitely the richest and strongest Oliva Family cigar on the market today! My only concern is if the Oliva’s can keep up with demand and thereby maintain the reasonable price-point. As of this writing they are very hard to find in-stock.
Pre-light
The Serie V sports a silky smooth colorado maduro wrapper with no veins to speak of and a small tooth evident over its length. The chubby torpedo is a very solid, tightly packed 56 ring with the conical cap packed too tight IMO. Handsome to look at, the stick feels very nice in the hand. Scent from the wrap is very mild tobacco except toward the foot where there was a slight touch of barnyard. A good whiff of the foot tingled the olfactory and caused a tobacco sneeze. The bunching at the foot shows a healthy amount of dark ligero as advertised (about now the drooling has begun!).
One of the three cigars smoked for this review had a lengthwise crack in the wrap about one and one half inches long located about a half inch from the foot. It caused no burn problems but was unsightly and worrisome. Not sure the stick was properly cared for prior to coming into my possession. This always concerns me when a review is in the offing. I would rather smoke the best sticks and offer a review on the merits. That is part of the reason I smoked three Serie V cigars prior to writing the review. The other part is I just love smoking cigars and probably would have smoked five if they were around.
The clip took some hand strength as I had anticipated. On the first stick I removed about a half inch (half of the torpedo cone) and the draw was very tight. Flavor in the pre-light draw was interesting with a light sweet grass and nuts on the palate. After lighting, the first few pulls on the draw were still too much work so I clipped a bit more (toward the cap end just below the shoulder of the cone) and the draw opened up to perfect. Don’t be shy when clipping this one and you will be rewarded with a fine draw. Remove most of the torpedo cone.
The Smoking Experience
The aroma from the toasting foot is exquisite. Due to the amount of ligero in this cigar, the lighting takes a little more effort. Toast the foot really well before beginning to pull for the light. Initial pulls were very smooth and creamy. So much so I found myself thinking, where’s the bang associated with ligero. No worries. It was coming. I just had to exhibit a little patience. Like the pre-light draw, initial flavors were of sweet grass and nuts with a little pepper on the tongue. About a quarter inch in the ligero twang on the nose arrived in force. At the one inch mark the blend smoothes out to a base of creamy toasted hardwood and earthy leather with slightly sweet notes of vanilla/caramel with some spicy nuances. Over the first 2 thirds the flavor is consistent and then builds in intensity with the entrance of some cocoa and espresso flavors. The finish starts crisply short but builds over the length of the cigar to a long one with distinct flavors of dark, unsweetened chocolate and black coffee.
The ash is light gray and very smooth. Stack of quarters effect is barely visible. It held for me to about two and a half inches and took several solid taps before it fell. Interestingly, the ash is the same color for the wrap and the filler indicating well fermented tobaccos.
The burn is slow and cool with a few bumps developing in the burn line but no torch corrections necessary. This cigar is a dream for smoke rings as the volume of smoke is incredible.
In addition to the wrapper anomaly discussed above, I had other wrapper splits and unraveling in all three cigars for this review. Amazing to me, none of the problems caused the burn to waver but they did detract a bit from the smoking experience. I’m not sure this isn’t a phenomena typical to habano wrappers in general. I’ve had several treat me this way. Just a very sensitive and fragile wrapper leaf.
Smoketime ~85 minutes.
My take …..
I find Oliva Family cigars are generally mild to medium and a little less potent than I prefer. Although the Serie V is most definitely stronger, it was not the monster I was expecting with all the hype and the “Ligero Especial” moniker. I would call it medium to full bodied but for $5, a fine flavorful smoke. I enjoyed it very much. The $5 price tag must have carried allot of weight in CI 94 rating which was a little high IMHO. Most definitely a quality smoke for the price and I can see it becoming very popular in regular rotations if the Oliva’s production can match demand. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
MSRP is $6.75 per stick. Best online price at the moment is Cigar Place at $119.95/24 or $5.00 per stick but as of this writing they are out-of-stock as is the case most everywhere. This is a fine cigar and with the high CA/CI rating don’t hesitate to pull the trigger if you find them available.
I had an online vendor call me and say “We don’t know how your order for these snuck through since we are currently out-of-stock. You must have pressed the submit button just before we updated the website.” @*&#*^^^!%@$$#!!
Like it … Yes
Buy it again … As long as the price remains reasonable
Recommend it … Yes
What others are saying about the Oliva Serie V …..
20 May 2007
Walt – Stogie Review
(Video Review) Pre-release Oliva Serie V Ligero Especial
1 June 2007
Topshelf14 – Topshelf Cigar Review
Oliva Serie V – 6 x 60
4 July 2007
Jesse – Cigar Jack
Oliva Serie V Figurado Cigar Review
24 July 2007
Brian – CigarBeat
V For Vigoroso: The Oliva Serie V Ligero Especial Review
17 September 2007
Walt – Stogie Review
Oliva Serie V Ligero Especial – Lancero
3 November 2007
Matt’s Cigar Journal
Oliva Serie V Double Robusto
5 November 2007
Multiple Reviewers – Cigar Review
Oliva Serie V Lancero
3 December 2007
Jesse – Cigar Jack
Oliva Serie V Lancero Cigar Review
Multiple Reviews – Dates Vary
Famous Smoke Shop
Oliva Serie V Ligero Cigar Reviews
Cigar Aficionado Forum on Oliva Serie V
Date Unknown
Dr. Mitch Fadem – About.com
Review of Oliva Serie V Ligero Especial Cigars
Top 25 Cigar – As of 7 January 2008
Oliva Series V Cigars Torpedo
11 reviews
8.18 out of 10
Publications
… lucky7
“It has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep,
and never to refrain when awake.” (Mark Twain)
Cigarfan.net 
One of the best cigars to come out in 2007 by far. I pick up a few whenever I can. I just wish my local shop would get enough stock in to actually start selling boxes.
It’s funny, the V’s I have had also had some wrapper splitting issues and I have seen pictures from a few others that had their Vs explode apart on them. Great cigar though. I agree with your assessment. I was expecting more punch from it, but found it to only be a medium to full bodied cigar. Not a powerhouse smoke by any means.
And now I have a crush on Jeannie Oliva.
There is something royal about a cigar. Meaning when I see someone smoking a cigar it makes me think that this person has class, that they are dignified. And Oliva brand cigars inspire just that feeling, just by holding one. Keep it going guys and heres to you, wishing you and yours another 120 years of dignified class.
Having just finished one of these in the belicoso size, I’m left a little nonplussed… I wonder sometimes what people really mean by “full bodied,” but by my definition (which relates to the texture of the smoke) the Series V beli was not. I didn’t find a whole lot of flavor here either, which I thought strange given the reviews I’ve read. Plenty of nicotine, but a finish bordering on evanescent. I liked the aroma — Lucky7 hits it perfectly with “toasted hardwood” — but overall I must say I wasn’t impressed. An uneven burn didn’t help matters. Time to try a different size, I think.
This is an absolutely wonderful cigar. I enjoy this one, but I think I enjoy the figurado and lancero vitolas even more!
The lanceros are schweet! I’m liking them a lot more than the belicosos I tried a couple months ago. They start out subtle with an exquisite aroma and build to a powerful denoument. It would be great to see a lancero renaissance inspired by this one.
Been trying to let the travelers rest but you are making it very tough. I think this BOTL is unable to hold out. If the temps reach the heights predicted today one of those bad Johnson’s is going up in smoke tonight!
Boy, you guys hit the nail on the Lancero. What a special smoke. Draw is a little firm but workable. Other than that, there’s nothing bad to say! A big thanks for the recommendation. Already purchased a box.
Does anyone know why Oliva changed it’s labeling on it’s cigars from Ligero Especial to Liga Especial? I contacted Oliva via their website, and they won’t respond. I know that cigar companies are small businesses, and, being a business owner myself, know that changing labeling is not cheap. So they didn’t do it on a whim. They wouldn’t take a cigar that is earning stellar reviews, and alter the labeling just for kicks. Who can figure this out?
Burned a double toro 2 weeks ago as a second stick in a nice long evening and wow, hadn’t had that much nicotine in the system in a long time but it was very enjoyable to smoke, flavor was not over powering but still smooth and satisfying… Purhcased another, waiting in rotation to be smoked!
The price is right and the smoke is great. I will continue to purchase. ( V serie ) I enjoy them after a hard weeks work… it is my reward at the end of the week so to speak. lol !
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