The El Cobre by Oliva is a very special and unknown cigar, it is the personal blend of the old man Oliva, the father of current Oliva CEO Jose Oliva and they are only sold at the shop of Brian Shapiro in the USA. The blend was used for family use only and was named after a little mining town in Cuba and is nicknamed ‘the lobotomiser’ and ‘el muerto’ while discountcigars mentions on their website that this cigar should come with a warning label because it’s such a full bodied and full flavored cigar.

A friend of mine met Brian Shapiro and Jose Oliva at a dinner in Amsterdam and Brian Shapiro was kind enough to send a bundle of torpedo’s and a bundle of robusto’s to the Non Plus Ultra shop in Den Bosch, as the owner of NPU is also the official importer of Oliva cigars in The Netherlands. My friend invited me to come to Den Bosch to try the El Cobre torpedo & robusto in the smokers lounge at NPU. And I gladly accepted that invitation, my curiosity was bigger then my fear of the reputation of this powerhouse.

We started with the 6.5 inch ring 52 torpedo, which has a heavy scent of manure, a nice dark wrapper and a distinctive band that compliments the cigar. The predraw released some sweetness.


While we all expected a big bang right at the start, the cigar surprised us with a nice, easy coffee flavor, not a powerhouse at all, but we could feel that the cigar was building up to something heavy and something special. The coffee was replaced by herbs and pepper and about halfway I discovered dark chocolate, my favorite. At the end of the cigar the pepper made a comeback.

The El Cobre torpedo produced a lot of smoke and light gray ashes. The draw was fine.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, if it becomes available in Holland or online.
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