PCA 2021: Oliva

It seems most years, Oliva Cigar Co. doesn’t have a new item at the annual PCA Convention & Trade Show, but 2021 is different. Not only is there a new item, there are new items, plural. Multiple lines, including the company’s popular Oliva Serie V, Serie V Melanio and Serie V Melanio Maduro, are all getting extensions, though the newest Oliva cigar I’m most looking forward to sadly isn’t on display.

Also different this year—for the first time since I’ve been covering this trade show—is the booth. Rather than a centralized booth structure in the middle of a booth that was often divided between the Oliva brand and the company’s Cain and NUb brands, it’s one singular shape with display cabinets on the outside and nothing but seating inside the perimeter. One neat trick, Oliva added some lockers for its sales reps. While the booth is probably a bit smaller in overall footprint, I think the company has roughly the same space as this is just a much more efficient design.

Oliva Serie V 135th Anniversary Edición Limitada

This is the main release for the trade show, a cigar that pays tribute to the 135th anniversary of Melanio Oliva’s first crop of tobacco in Pinar del Río, Cuba. The Oliva family has been growing tobacco ever since, though it’s only been rolling cigars for a rather short period of that history. By my math, this is the 20th anniversary of the company’s own brands, though Oliva took the time to celebrate the more impressive anniversary.

For a line that’s got dozens of sizes—including a culebra and multiple diademas—this is a very peculiar vitola.

• Wrapper: Ecuador
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua

• Oliva Serie V 135th Anniversary Edición Limitada (5 1/2 x 54) — $10 (Box of 12, $120)

Production: 15,000 Boxes of 12 Cigars (180,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: October 2021

Oliva Serie V Melanio Extensions

The standard toro vitola is new for 2021 and ready to ship. One note, there’s also a lancero coming to the Serie V Melanio line, but my understanding is that it will be exclusive to Cigars International. You can guess which one of the two I’m more interested to try.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Sumatra)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua

• Oliva Serie V Melanio Toro (6 x 52) — $14 (Box of 10, $140)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: July 2021

Oliva Serie V Melanio Maduro Extensions

Some of them are pictured above, some are not. There’s a trio of new sizes, all of which are regular production. I’m actually most curious to try the 6 x 60 and not the No.4.

• Wrapper: Mexico (San Andrés)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua

• Oliva Serie V Melanio Maduro Double Toro (6 x 60) — $16 (Box of 10, $160)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Maduro No.4 (4 1/2 x 46) — $9 (Box of 10, $90)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Maduro Toro (6 x 52) — $14 (Box of 10, $140)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: July 2021

Oliva Holiday Countdown Calendar 2021

Informally, it’s the “Oliva Advent Calendar.” Officially, it’s got a different name but the concept is familiar to many children who celebrate the pre-Christmas tradition. Only, this is made for adults. There are 25 cigars, one to be opened on each day leading up to Christmas. I’m told the order might change, but the cigars you see pictured above are the ones that will be in each sampler.

MSRP is $200.

Production: 10,000 Samplers of 25 Cigars (250,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: Oct. 1, 2021