Oliva Connecticut Reserve

xmacro

My palate is very unrefined, so I won't go into flavors too much (kinda hoping someone else can tell me what it is I'm tasting). I've had this resting at 67% humidity and about 72F temp in my humi for almost 2 months, so it's been able to rest for a decent period of time. Been really looking forward to trying this for awhile now, so I was pretty excited about lighting it up.

I had 3 eggs and 2 cups of coffee this morning, a light breakfast, figuring a mild bodied cigar wouldn't affect me. So I lit one of these up this morning (robusto), expecting a mild smoke - that was a mistake. This little sucker is a definite medium in body, giving me a decent buzz at 11am, something I wasn't expecting.

Now, I haven't had a Verdadero Organic in over a year, and as I said, I don't know what I was tasting, but when I exhaled and smelled the smoke, it smelled exactly like a Verdadero Organic - that was the only thing I could think of; that raisin smell was constant throughout the smoke. Anyway, the burn was perfect, and the draw was a tad on the loose side, but not too loose; very nice IMO.

All in all, I'm kinda disappointed - I was expecting a mild bodied cigar, something I could enjoy in the morning, but this cigar ain't it. Because I was expecting a mild cigar, and got something different, my experience wasn't that good and I'm not real pleased; I'm gonna have to try one again when I have something on my stomach and know what to expect

bigharpoon

I know what you mean. Mild is a relative term and these are definitely not as mild as the Organics. These two cigars have similar wrappers so maybe that was the flavor connection.

Now that you know a little more of what to expect I'd try one again in a little while, I bet your experience is completely different. These things are delicious.

Fourtotheflush

I thought that these were mild, but Im going to go back and check my review. I remember liking them, but I did have some band/glue issues with the two that I smoked....

Fourtotheflush

So Ive had at least a couple of these and I didnt post a review of them. I do remember liking them, I do remember having construction issues (that I post on and oliva O review). I do remember them being clearly in the mild waters though. IMO.

xmacro

bigharpoon:

I know what you mean. Mild is a relative term and these are definitely not as mild as the Organics. These two cigars have similar wrappers so maybe that was the flavor connection.

Now that you know a little more of what to expect I'd try one again in a little while, I bet your experience is completely different. These things are delicious.

Yeah, that light color and connecticut wrapper definitely fooled me. Here's hoping the next experience will be better

Fourtotheflush:

So Ive had at least a couple of these and I didnt post a review of them. I do remember liking them, I do remember having construction issues (that I post on and oliva O review). I do remember them being clearly in the mild waters though. IMO.

I suppose our definitions are different :-/ I don't get a chance to enjoy a cigar very often, so my nicotine tolerance isn't that high. It may have been the early hour (typically don't light up until the afternoon), or it may have been the light breakfast, but this thing just gave me a buzz that was totally unexpected. In general, Nub Connecticut is one of my favorites, and my general benchmark for what I expect a mild to be, so I was hoping for something like that. If it makes any difference, I smoked a Gurkha Centurian right after lunch and didn't get any buzz, so the Connie Reserve buzz may well have been caused by an empty stomach

Either way, now that I know what to expect, I'm later this week I'll get a chance to give it another try

xmacro

Well, I had another chance to try this on a fuller stomach, and it was a much more pleasant experience. All in all, it's a pretty nice mild cigar; quite enjoyable. That said, although this sucker falls in the mild category, it's on the upper end of the scale, which is to say, it's on its way to being a medium