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The
renowned Oliva cigar brand has a long history that supports its prestige.
Its
beginnings date back to 1886, when Melanio Oliva obtained his first tobacco
harvest in Pinar del Río, Cuba. Although the island's War of Independence
forced them to suspend operations for a few years, they grew tobacco in that
country until the early 1960s, when Fidel Castro's revolution came to power and
they were forced to leave Cuba.
After a
time of exploring possibilities in some countries such as Mexico, Honduras and
Panama, they decided to settle in Nicaragua, where they found land with
conditions similar to the soils of the Caribbean Island, an objective they had
in mind to reproduce the distinctive Cuban taste to which they were accustomed.
In 1995,
Gilberto, Melanio's grandson, founded Oliva Cigar Co., a company with which,
after a few years and thanks to his fidelity to the traditional methods of
curing, blending and rolling, he managed to rebuild the prestige they
previously had as Cuban producers. Although initially, the cigars were made up
of fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, Dominican binder and
wrappers grown in Ecuador from Connecticut seeds, the success was such that,
shortly after, they had immense cultivation areas distributed throughout the Nicaraguan
territory, and had become one of the largest growers of Cuban seed tobacco in
Nicaragua.
Barely 10
years later they had already reached second place as tobacco producers in
Nicaragua, with a production of 6 million cigars per year and they only needed
four more years to reach the 13 million per year they produced in 2009, which
were made with tobacco harvested by themselves in the lands of Estelí, Condega,
Jalapa and Somoto, places all located in Nicaragua.
The
following years were of great success and recognition and, in 2014, they
obtained the coveted award "Cigar of the Year", asigned by Cigar
Aficionado magazine in its annual rating. The award-winning cigar was Oliva
Series V Melanio Figurado.
Although in
the summer of 2016 Oliva was acquired by J. Cortès Cigars NV, a Belgian company
specializing in machine-made cigars, the members of the Oliva family, including
the great-grandchildren of Melanio Oliva, continue to be actively involved in
the family brand and, of course, the Oliva brand is still available, since they
were a fundamental part of the business. At the time of the company's sale,
they were producing almost 16 million cigars, of which 95% were sold in the US
market.
Beyond the
change of ownership, Oliva Cigar Co. has continued its expansion and, last
year, acquired the traditional Cuba Aliados, Puros Indios and Roly brands,
owned by the Reyes family, Honduran producers responsible for Honduras
appearing on the restricted map of producers of premium cigars.
In our
store, the G, O and V Series are available, plus the Oliva Connecticut Reserve
series, all in their various Churchill, Robusto, Toro and Torpedo
formats. In addition, we have the Flor de Oliva series, in its Churchill,
Torpedo and President formats, all in their economical presentation of bundles
of 20 cigars.
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