When Oliva Cigar Co. released Serie V in 2007, the brand was not only the company’s most full-bodied offering to date, but it showcased the complexity of Nicaraguan tobacco. The V stands for vigoroso, or “strong” in Spanish. Serie V evolved in 2012 with the Melanio line, an elegantly blended cigar in an Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper. The box-pressed Maduro line takes Melanio into darker territory with a Mexican wrapper. It gives the cigar an alternative yet equally polished character that’s clearly rendered in the Robusto size, which shows a core of dark chocolate, raisin and caramel underscored by a mineral quality from first puff to last.

—Thomas Pappalardo

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