Review of Oliveros King Havano Knight Cigars

Generally, I am not asked to review cigars from a certain manufacturer by the actual manufacturer of the cigar (try saying that 10 times fast). This is one of those rare occasions that I was asked, and very pleasantly surprised at a cigar coming from a virtual unknown in the tobacco industry, at least from the consumer’s point of view. Rafael Nodal, Alina Nodal and Hank Bischoff just seven years ago took the final step in a three generation dream of owning their own tabacalera. To make a long story short, they have a built a new factory in the Dominican Republic and warehouse in Miami with a promise to bring you the finest quality cigars possible. Lets see how they did.

For this review, Hank Bischoff sent me four King Havano Knight torpedos (6.5x54), two having an Oscuro wrapper and two with a Claro wrapper. They are clear cello wrapped with a large band (in normal position) and a nice foot band as well. For those of you that collect bands these are worth keeping. Here are the details for these two cigars:

Three sizes; Jester 4x60, Kight 6.5x54, Monarch 6x54
All Nicaraguan tobacco:
Wrapper – Havano Claro & Oscuro
Binder – Nicaruguan
Filler – Nicaruguan blend of Ligero from Estili, Condega & Jalapa

Condega is just north of Estili and also part of the Valle Guayucali. Jalapa is further north of Condega and just west of Danli, Honduras another fine tobacco growing area of Central America. I believe that this region produces some of the best tobacco in the world equal to, if not surpassing the tobacco grown in Vuelta Abajo region of Cuba back in the 1950’s.

Flavor and Aroma

In my opinion this is a medium cigar in strength but full bodied in flavor. I smoked the Claro with a nice scotch and the Oscuro with some good Nicaraguan coffee and both of these beverages brought out the best in these cigars, especially the coffee. Speaking of coffee, that is the most prominent of all the flavors with a hint of semi-sweet chocolate in the Oscuro. There is no spice in these cigars from my palette, they are both very smooth smokes and very consistent. The flavor did not change from first lighting to the last puff. The cigars are also very aromatic, typical of ligero tobacco from Nicaragua and very pleasant.

Draw and Construction

These are extremely well made cigars without any construction problems at all that I could see. The wrappers are very rich in color, they lit easily, burned evenly and had a very light and free draw. My only complaint is that I had to relight the Oscuro twice and I did not have to do that the cigar would have gotten a 5 star rating. The bands could easily be removed without damaging the wrappers. The ash on both only stayed on for about 1 ½ “ and the total smoking time for both cigars was a huge 1 hour and 50 minutes and down to the last inch of the cigar.

Value

Perfect is as perfect does and these cigars matched up well to the best Padron 40th Anniversary (a nearly perfect cigar as well and priced about 5 times what this one is). I found this cigar online in boxes of 20 for as low as $75/box which puts this at around $4/stick. It is really unbelievable that you can find a cigar this good at these prices. In singles, I think they are selling for as much as $6/stick and that is still a good price for an excellent cigar. This is now a favorite of mine and will be in my humidor. As well, in my opinion, this cigar is way better than the Casa Magna which was touted as ‘cigar best of the year’ as published in one of the fancy cigar magazines that everyone likes to quote. My last comment is that I smoked these cigars while talking with some friends, also smokers, and all of them asked me what I was smoking and where did I get them. I remember my last remark as I finally put the cigar down; “Wow, that was a really good cigar.”