Oliva Cigar Company is a widely successful cigar maker.  Their history can be traced as far back as 1886 when the Oliva family was growing tobacco in Cuba.  After the Cuban Revolution they emigrated out and eventually settled in Nicaragua, where they have become one of the most successful and largest growers and distributors of Nicaraguan tobacco.  The Oliva family has only recently entered the cigar industry in the early 1990s when the cigar boom was taking place.  Their initial entry wasn’t anything huge, and widely unnoticed.  Slowly that changed …

Romeo y Julieta is one of the oldest cigar makers, dating back to 1875 by Inocencio Alvarez and Mannin Garcia.  The brand is named after Shakespear’s famous play, though the brand itself and its cigars are most definitely not a tragedy.  The brand took off in the early 1900s when Jose “Pepin” Rodriguez Fernandez took over the brand and started promoting it worldwide.  Interestingly, he used his racehorse, Julieta, to help garner name recognition and fame for the name, and strangely enough it worked well.  The brand became very popular …

Padron… well, what more can I say after my last review on their 1964 Anniversary line?  They’re famous for their delicious flavor, outstanding quality, and unparalleled consistency.  They’ve regularly rated as good as or better than any Cuban made cigar, and many prefer them over Cubans.  Blasphemy, I know, but it’s the truth.  I’ve had a handful of Montecristo #2s and Romeo y Julietas that were Cuban made, and they were indeed excellent.  However, they varied in consistency depending on the year that crop of tobacco was grown, and I …

How much do cigars vary from one size to the next?  How about between the same cigar with a different wrapper? While I’ve experienced these situations myself, it was usually on different days, accompanied by different foods and moods, and hence a clear comparison wasn’t possible.  To address this, a few friends and I decided it was time to get deeper into this issue, and have a herf devoted to one type of cigar – the Taboo Limited Reserve.  There were 3 of us smoking, selecting a Maduro Toro, Havana …

Stogie Review just put out a list of their bottom 10 cigars of 2009, which is a nice contrast to the seemingly endless list of “best” cigars.  Their list included the Cubao Maduro, Don Tomas Cameroon Collection, Tatiana Mocha, 5 Vegas Miami Knuckle, and Verdadero Organica among others.  While I can usually agree with “top 10″ lists and others listing great cigars, I can’t say the same for this list.  I suppose it goes to show that there are certain cigars that everyone likes, but very few cigars that nobody …

When you’re preparing for a scotch tasting, in particular one held at a private home in the summertime, bringing along an accompanying cigar should be a priority.  Some tastings may even sell them at the event. For A Dram Come True, I chose to purchase what I was told was a good value Nicaraguan cigar at $12, Thomas Hinds Maduro Robusto.  Had the tasting itself required less of an initial investment, I may have chosen something more extravagant. As the tasting was coming to a close and the auction was …