Wednesday, Jul. 09, 2008

Oliva makes a cigar that starts at the sweet spot

Cigar smokers have favorite brands and prefer certain types of wrappers, shapes, lengths and ring sizes. The variety of tastes defy placing them into simple black-and-white categories.

But I’ve identified a line on which all of us stand one side or the other. While some of my brothers of the smoking lounge enjoy a stick only to the middle, then put it aside, others know that’s the point at which it gets really good.

It’s called the sweet spot. Smokers who have discovered the truth find every puff after that is better than the one before. Some of us won’t give up on a great cigar until our moustache hairs get singed.

Don’t misunderstand me; I often find the front end of a cigar worthy of a contented sigh. But if someone could make a cigar that begins at the sweet spot, oh, mama.

Someone did.

The Nub, by Oliva Cigars, is the brainchild of a man who switched from the liquor industry to the premium cigar industry. Sam Leccia said that most cigar smokers recognize a sweet spot a couple of inches into any stick.

The Nub concept, he said, is to get to that sweet spot immediately and stay with it throughout the smoke.

That’s done with a short length and extreme ring. Leccia said he worked out the balance between length and ring gauge through a lot of experimentation. Lucky man, he works for a cigar company and didn’t have to pay for his test subjects. I envy him.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to try a couple of Leccia’s creations. As I write this, in fact, I’m enjoying a Nub Habano 4-by-60.

Leccia knew what he was doing.

My palate isn’t sensitive enough for me to describe the taste in terms of "hints of exotic fruits and flowers" or "undertones of cedar, cherry or Bois d’ Arc." But I can identify the difference between mediocre, good, great and excellent cigars. For the record, and a surprise to none of my smoking buddies, my idea of excellent is the Padron 1964.

The Nub that’s beginning to scorch my fingertips is great. It started out great and got better.

Now, whether it actually started at the sweet spot or is just a great cigar from beginning to end, well, I’m willing to give Leccia the benefit of the doubt.

The cigar draws exceptionally well. That may be because of the rolling technique Leccia developed, or it could be due to the enormous ring size. I find rings larger than the mid-40s a little cumbersome, but if that’s what it takes to make a smoke like this, I’m OK with that, too.

Nubs may not have gotten to all the tobacco stores yet, but Tobacco Lane on the Square has them.

Oliva makes three varieties in four sizes each.

All three feature Nicaraguan filler and binder, and are differentiated by wrappers.

The Habano and Cameroon wrappers come in 3-by-58, 4-by-60, 4-by-64 and 4-by-66. The Habano 464 has a torpedo shape, as does the Cameroon 464. But the Cameroon 466 is a box-pressed torpedo.

The Connecticut wrapper is 3-by-54, 3-by-58, 4-by-60 and 4-by-64.

I’ll savor each of them, from the sweet spot to the moustache-scorching last puff.