The Velvet Cigar

Posted By Elvis on September 3, 2009

Geez, what a day. I’m sure you all read the millions of copycat status reports by your friends on Facebook today concerning healthcare. I spent the whole day pissing people off by daring to argue the other side. I will never understand how people will post a totally controversial status remark and then get shocked when someone doesn’t agree….and then un-friend you. Screw em…I know first hand what more government power can do to things I love, like cigars. So to relax from all the BS, I thought I would try a new cigar that came into my local hangout, Vino and Stogies, today. The Cain by Oliva. The shop owner ordered 12 boxes because he was forced to by Oliva, which I think is total crap. Especially in a state like Minnesota where the cigar tax is 70%. And that check has to be written to the state the moment all 12 boxes come through the door. And if you are a smaller shop, this could pretty much strap you for the month. Oliva really needs to look into exemptions for states with high taxes on this minimum buy nonsense. You are supposed to commit to 12 boxes of a brand new product and his rep only gave him one sample to try. But if he doesn’t commit, then guys will go elsewhere to try the new stuff. Oppressive if you ask me.

That being said, I like all the Olivas I’ve tried and even though this new Cain is much more expensive that the G series, I bought a couple to try out. To me, this looks like Oliva’s attempt to finally come up with a competitor to the Edge as many cigar companies have done. The bandless, thickly packed powerful cigar with a shiny wrapper.

The Cain has 85% ligero tobacco…the leaf that gives a cigar it’s oomph. I think they are advertising the stick as being ALL ligero, but we know if that was the fact, the cigar wouldn’t burn hardly at all since the ligero is a much thicker leaf. This scared me a bit because as I get older, my butt seems to get kicked more easily by stronger cigars. So, I was cautious and smoked this baby slow.

The cigar is impressive looking. The Habano wrapper is a nice dark brown with a great sheen and seems very oily. The cigar is heavy in the hand which is totally the opposite of the other Olivas…those seems to smoke quickly and are wrapped much looser than the Cain. As I lit the stick up, it had an amazing aroma and a very slow burn, again due to the ligero, but the draw was perfect and the burn razor sharp.

The first half of the cigar was totally flat. There were no special flavors I could pick out….but I did feel the impact almost immediately. Because of the slow burn and the fact I was taking it easy, I didn’t get light headed or spinny, but in my gut I could feel the power a bit. But other than pure strength, I got no flavor…almost like it wasn’t blended for taste at all…or not blended period, just power.
Thankfully, this changed halfway through and and I got a really smooth, nice leathery flavor piping through the stick. I enjoyed it very much.

This is a good cigar, but take it easy and don’t try and make this a daytime cigar out in the sun or something like that. I am now excited to try the maduro wrapper.

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Categories: Cigar Indulgence
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