Starting next week our reviews will be posted 3 days a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Today’s review came to me as a gift from a member of cigarlive.com.

The Skinny:

Cigar: Oliveros XL For Men
Size: 5 x 52 (XL/52)
Wrapper: Brazilian Maduro
Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
Filler: Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican

Pre-Smoke: At first look the cigar is a nice looking toothy cigar. However, upon closer inspection the cigar reveals an ugly amateur cap that is lopsided with horrible leaf cuts. Continuing the inspection of the cigar there are crooked leaf cuts on the wrapper making this one amateur looking stick. The prelight wrapper offered notes of sweet spices and the foot offered wood and pepper that put me in a sneezing fit. The prelight draw was woody and spicy and it was a little tight.

Smoke: Upon first lighting the cigar I was taken aback by some notes of ammonia that made me angry. I realize a lot of cigar companies don’t have the space to properly age a cigar, but why they release a cigar to the market that is not yet ready is beyond me. Mixed in with the ammonia there was some pepper and earth, but the ammonia took away from the cigar.

Overall: I wonder if this cigar came from the same factory as Cusano, because it was very similar to almost every horrible experience I have had with them. For a cigar to be put on the market not yet ready to smoke is deplorable and embarrassing for the manufacturer. Stay away from the XL For Men. A lot of people think that cigar companies buy rating from major magazines and this cigar might back up that notion as Cigar Insider/Cigar Aficionado gave it a 90.

Rating: 65
Price: $5.00