Olivia Serie G: Slow Down and Smoke

Sometimes you've just got to slow down, especially when you smoke a cigar!

Today I'm smoking the Serie G from Olivia. It's a wonderfully well-made medium body cigar and one to take one's time with. 

The Olivia Serie G

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Type: Parejo

Size: 6 x 50

Cost: $6.50 ea

"This Nicaraguan beauty is made from Habano long-leaf fillers, a Cuban-seed Habano binder, and your choice of either an African Cameroon or Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper. It’s simple, elegant and inviting. To satisfy the palate, this medium-bodied handmade cigar features a warm cedar flavor complemented by notes of coffee and a subtle nuttiness. Needless to say, the Serie G is a treat from the first draw to the last." Courtesy of Jr Cigars

My Review

• Nice aroma
• Perfect wrapper
• It feels really good in my hand
• Wonderful flavorful smoke

This cigar is smooth. It's not a strong cigar. To me this is a light to medium strength cigar. It is extremely well made and smokes well. 

During the second third, the flavor kicked into another gear and opened up well. 

Your Speed of Life

You know, there's a routine to smoking a cigar that I quite enjoy. First comes lighting it properly, then comes the draw. That is to say, drawing the smoke into your mouth and sensing it, enjoying it.

There's a flavor and a scent like none other. There is also a rhythm to smoking which this cigar makes me think of. This isn't by any means an expensive cigar, but treated well, it is quite enjoyable.

Drawing on a cigar is not like smoking a cigarette. For one, you don't inhale the smoke and two it takes much longer. This Serie G that I'm smoking today may very well take me 45 minutes to an hour to smoke.

The time depends on the rate one draws.

If I take a draw every 45 seconds, you can see that it will take a while.

But, it's so good, you say, isn't more better?  In this case drawing more often isn't better.

Have you ever had a cigar noticeably heat up? Have you had a cigar whose wrapper began to crack and fall away? Have you ever had a mouth that felt and tasted like the inside of an ash tray?

These are all sign that you might me smoking too quickly.

In general, too quick equals hot and tar-like, and too slow equals cigars goes out. Too slow is okay though. Letting your cigar go out is just fine.  Simply gently remove the ash with a match stick or a key and then relight it.

The speed of which you smoke a cigar can be compared to the speed in which you live your life. Too fast and you'll burn out.  Too fast and you'll miss the little things, the enjoyments only known by taking one's time. 

Simplicity and balance and rhythm are all important to enjoying one's life. What did the bull say? Take time to smell the roses? I know, there wasn't ever a bull that said anything, but I am envisioning a strong bull under a tree relaxing and smelling some flowers. He's enjoying his life. 

Living one's life in this way is increasingly more difficult in our hyper-connected-online-artificial-reality lives that most of us engage in daily. 

There isn't anything specifically wrong with any of the technologically advanced advantages that we have today versus what human kind had one hundred years ago, but... are you reacting to them or are you leveraging them to improve your life?

That's the question?

What is too much?

How fast is too fast?

How does one slow down, enjoy life, and smell the roses?

-Daft Sage