Angel Oliva is the patriarch of the Oliva family and founder of the Oliva Tobacco Company, not to be mistaken for the Oliva Cigar Company which is a whole other family as far as I know. In 2006 the Oliva Tobacco Company decided to honor the late Angel Oliva by creating a cigar to remember it was 100 years ago that Angel was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. He moved to the United States in the 1920's to become an assistant to an unsuccessful tobacco broker and developed his business skills and tobacco knowledge. In 1934 he founded the Oliva Tobacco Company. Oliva became one of the biggest tobacco brokers in the world by the 1950's but he was also one of the first to see the real face of Castro and decided to build a farm in Honduras in 1961 and was the last broker to be able to buy a shipment of Cuban tobacco before the embargo. The Oliva empire would eventually extend to almost all of the primary tobacco growing regions of the world: Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic (at the request of the Fuente family) and Ecuador. Tobacco from the Oliva Tobacco Company is used some of the biggest names in the business like Don Pepin Garcia, Rocky Patel, Fuente, La Gloria Cubana, La Flor Dominicana and also in cigars from the Oliva Cigar Company.
After the last Amsterdam herf, Savvy left a five pack of the Angel 100 OTC, 6 x 48 at my place for me to try and share with friends. The tobacco used for this cigar comes from their own farms and the cigar is a Nicaraguan puro. The five pack comes in a very nice box with a beautiful band. The wrapper is fabulous, not to dark, almost a milk chocolate color and hardly any veins. The cigar is a box pressed and the construction feels good. The aroma of the cigar reminds me of horses. After I punch the cigar I taste a mild raisin flavor with a peppery aftertaste. The predraw has the right amount of resistance.
I can taste a smooth and pleasant coffee flavor with earthy notes. The flavors are warm and comfortable. After half an inch I also get a mild pepper and a hint of wood. The coffee is gone by then. After an inch I taste something that reminds me of something like a hazelnut spread that you can put on a sandwich with some terroir and a pepper in the back of the throat.
The flavor changes to hazelnuts and toast towards the middle of the cigar. The toast slowly becomes the dominant flavor with a mild and creamy chocolate as aftertaste. Near the end the chocolate disappears and I can taste some herbal flavors which are mild spicy.
I get a lot of smoke from this nice cigar and the ash is almost white. The ash is also very compact of structure. The draw is just fine and the burn is great too, almost as straight as an arrow. This cigar is medium bodied but full flavored. Even though the flavors are full, they are also soft, subtle and well balanced.
Would I buy this cigar again? If I can find any! I loved it.
Appearance: 8 / 10 (9 if I take the packaging into consideration)
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 8 / 10
Aroma third part: 8 / 10