Oliva Series V - Lancero

Wrapper: Habano Sun Grown
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Jalapa Valley Ligero

This is one of my favorite vitolas, and this one is perfectly constructed, triple capped. Nice and firm. The wrapper feels toothy and smells of dark chocolate and coffee. It really smells fantastic. The wrapper almost looks like it was taken from the Padron reserves. It is really that rich and dark and flawless. Pre-light draw tastes of cocoa and nuts.



Easily lights up and right off the bat I get a subtle sweetness off the rich tobacco flavor. Good helping of cedar and wood shows up here in the first third. By the second third, the sweetness fades out and the cedar and wood seem to over take the smoke. I wouldn’t call this leathery, but I suspect some of you might pick up leather components to this. There is also a hint of spice on the back palate.



By the final third this cigar was starting to disappoint. The cedar and wood flavors developed a bitter edge and the smoke was getting very warm in the mouth. I put this cigar down just before it would have burned past the band. It’s almost as if the cigar started off with the best flavors and then slowly degraded every one of them. I was really digging the taste of this cigar in the first third. Too bad it just couldn’t keep it up.

If you like cedar/wood flavors and for some reason like a little bitter edge too it, this is the cigar for you. It is not, however, the cigar for me.