Oliva Cigar Company – IPCPR 2017

Oliva Cigar Company’s booth was the same basic format as with many years past. The look is upper scale, splitting the booth between the classic feel of the Oliva brand and the more clean and modern style of their Cain and NUb brands.

In 2016, Oliva announced their first truly new brand in a decade with Facundo—named after company patriarch Gilberto Oliva Sr’s father (and son of Melanio Oliva, the first Oliva to enter the tobacco industry). Facundo seemed to follow the family heritage naming structure set into place by Oliva Serie V Melanio—an offshoot blend of Oliva’s Serie V line—but the cigars were stalled due to trademark issues. Oliva headed back to the drawing board and returned with Gilberto Oliva Reserva for 2017; named for Gilberto Oliva Sr.

Gilberto Oliva Reserva marks the first new brand released since Oliva Cigar Co. was purchased in the summer of 2016 by J. Cortès Cigars N.V., a Belgium-based company that specializes in machine-made cigars for the European market.

Gilberto Oliva Reserva

Outside of Oliva’s popular Serie V line, the majority of the company’s products have typically focused on high value, low cost, Nicaraguan premium blends. This holds true with Gilberto Oliva Reserva. The cigars feature a simplistic, yet sophisticated appearance and a Nicaraguan core blend that is bound in an Ecuadorian leaf and wrapped in Indonesian Sumatra—a wrapper not found on any other Oliva blend. The profile is described as medium/full in body.

Gilberto Oliva Reserva Blanc

Accompanying the Gilberto Oliva Reserva is the more mild, slightly more expensive Gilberto Oliva Reserva Blanc. Like its sibling, the Reserva Blanc focuses on a Nicaraguan core blend; this is paired with an Ecuadorian binder and an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper to showcase a smoother profile and medium body. Both cigars are offered in the same five sizes, being sold in twenty-count boxes that present the same look in altering color schemes (red for Reserva, white for Reserva Blanc).

Short Link: