Oliva – Series V Maduro
Posted By ironmeden on November 18, 2009
I’m a big fan of Oliva Maduro. The Series O and Series G are delicious cigars whereas their natural wrapper counterparts are nothing to rave about.
My local cigar shop finally got a shipment of the rare Series V Maduro. I saw the box and pulled out the cigar. I thought to myself, this looks exactly like the regular Series V cigar. I pulled out both cigars and lined them up and there is almost virtually no difference in the color of the wrapper. The Maduro is slightly darker…i’d like to stress slightly. The bands are exactly the same also. No difference in these could make some less scrupulous cigar shops make a little more money on regular Series V and charge for the Maduro. The Maduro is on the right hand side. But maybe there is a difference in taste, lets find out.
The cigar has that dark chocolate maduro wrapper. The wrapper has a soft toothy appearance. A roll through the fingers finds the cigar a bit stiff.
I clipped the torpedo head and lit it with a table top lighter. My first impression is that of a tight draw. There is a light spice note which lingers on the tongue. Very full bodied with a tart chocolate taste.
At the 1/4 mark the cigar has a razor sharp burn. The draw is still a little tight, but it doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the cigar. The tart flavor is gone, it has smoothed out. I did notice as the cigar burned there appeared to be what looked like slight cuts in the binder of the cigar. Probably just slight breaks in the binder and during the burn it just broke apart.
Halfway through hasn’t changed. The spice note has disappeared. The strength of the cigar seems to have lightened up. I did note that after each puff, the smoke was hard to take in. Usually its easy to smell and take in the smoke, but it was difficult to truly enjoy the smoke.
At the 3/4 mark I noticed another tear in the binder. The strength reappeared, my head was starting to spin. I’m glad I ate before this cigar, but I should ate a more.
Whew, this was a strong cigar. I was hoping to smoke the original Series V to compare the flavors but I don’t think I could handle another full bodied cigar. I did smoke the Series V the next night and there is certainly a difference in the 2 cigars. The Maduro is a smoother stick with more body and complexity. Its amazing to see how much a Maduro wrapper can change a cigar. I give this cigar a 4 out of 5. Rating: 
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I just want to make sure you didn’t over look the band. Last year the maduros had “maduro” instead of “liga” on the band it’s such a small difference it’s easy to miss. Otherwise the band was identical except for some real small letters.