Oliva Serie V Melanio Figuriño Arrives at Stores

Officially, it’s called Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2023, but it will likely be known as the Figuriño.

Whatever you’d like to call it, a new-to-most vitola of Oliva’s popular Serie V Melanio line is arriving at shelves around the world. It’s a unique 5 1/2 x 52 double perfecto shape that the company calls Figuriño. The cigar was actually released last year in extremely limited quantities, but Oliva brought it back for a widespread, albeit still limited, release.

The Edición Año 2023 has an MSRP of $20 and is limited to 14,500 boxes of 10 cigars.

It uses the same blend as the regular Serie V Melanio—Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper over tobaccos from Nicaragua—but the cigar is round instead of box-pressed like a normal Melanio.

The Figuriño was originally offered as part of a special Elie Bleu humidor that Oliva commissioned in 2021. In keeping with the 21 theme, the humidors contained 21 Figuriños, there were just 21 humidors made and they were priced at $21,000 or €21,000 depending on the market.

Those cigars had special bands that marked the uniqueness; the 2023 release uses the normal Serie V Melanio bands but with an added red band that reads 2023.

“Figuriño came about after long discussions between myself, Gilberto (Oliva) and the team at Elie Bleu,” said Fred Vandermarliere, owner of Oliva, in a press release when the humidors were announced in 2021.

Now, the cigar is being released as part of Oliva’s Edición Año moniker, a program that has existed for more than a decade.

Each year, Brian Shapiro, who has led Oliva’s international efforts, would have the company create an exclusive size to use as a limited edition for non-U.S. markets. Originally, these cigars were oftentimes Serie Vs, but since 2017, the company has used the Serie V Melanio. Typically, the cigars have been round versions of Melanio, a cigar that is normally sold as a box-pressed size.

• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2017 (6 x 60) — 2017 — 1,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (15,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2018 (5 x 50) — 2018 — 1,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2019 (6 3/4 x 48) — 2019 — 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2020 (6 x 54) — 2020 — 3,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (30,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2021 (4 x 60) — 2021 — 3,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (30,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2022 (6 1/2 x 44) — 2022 — 4,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (40,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2023 (5 1/2 x 52) — 2023 — 14,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (145,000 Total Cigars)

This is the first time the Edición Año release has been sold in the U.S.

“When the Oliva and Vandermarliere families united to become one big family of cigars, it was because of a shared passion for an incredible heritage and out of an ambition for its future,” said Vandermarliere. “With the Figuriño limited edition, we prove once again that tradition and innovation can go hand in hand, if they respect the heart of the craft: purity and purpose. We are convinced that this Limitada will bring moments of deep and intense enjoyment to the biggest fans of one of the best cigars out there.”