Oliva Serie G Special G Review

The Special G is the pocket size of the Serie G - a 3.75 by 48 petit that I keep around for the days I only have half an hour. Mine wore the line's African Cameroon wrapper, a matte tan-brown with fine tooth and a slightly toothy, dry feel under the fingers. The cold draw ran a touch quick and gave up dry cedar, a walnut note and a whisper of grass off the leaf. This is a short smoke that promises to say what it has to say without dragging it out, and I lit it expecting the Cameroon toast to arrive early.

It comes on faster than a bigger vitola would, which is the whole point of a petit. Toasted nuttiness leads straight away, dry cedar underneath, and a light sweet spice that sits on the tongue rather than up the nose. The 48 ring and the short length mean it burned warm and fast, so the flavours concentrate quickly instead of unfolding slowly. There's a faint grassy edge that keeps the Cameroon honest and stops the whole thing turning too sweet. My draw stayed open and generous, and the first ash flaked away early into a short grey stub.

The middle is brief but it holds together. The nutty core deepens toward toasted bread, the cedar stays dry, and a bit of black coffee builds behind it - fitting, since this is the cigar I reach for beside a morning espresso. The warmth of the small ring pushes the spice up a notch here, so it reads a shade livelier than a fatter Serie G would. It never crosses into medium-full; it stays a friendly medium. The burn ran a hair uneven on one side and I gave it a quick relight rather than chasing it, and the smoke came in tidy, moderate puffs.

The last stretch arrives quickly, the coffee and toast tightening as the nub warms, the grassy note fading out under the nuttiness. Over about thirty-five minutes it delivers a complete little arc - opening, middle and finish - without any of the sag a long cigar can hit. My verdict: the Special G is the coffee-break Serie G, the one for a short window when you still want the Cameroon character. The honest trade-off is that the small ring runs warm and the flavours move fast, so it lacks the slow, cool development of the toro or figurado. But for a quick, nutty half-hour it does exactly what it sets out to do.