Hola Oliva

The family-owned Tabacalera Oliva Tabolisa, known in the United States as the Oliva Cigar Company, traces its roots back to Melanio Oliva, who first began to produce tobacco in Pinar del Rio, Cuba in 1886. The farm was continued by his son, Hipolito Oliva, who took over the growing operation during the 1920s and continued the work for several decades.  

The tobacco growing business was assumed by Hipolito's son, Gilberto Oliva Sr., who continued until the 1959 Revolution, at which time he ended his career as a grower and began working as a tobacco broker. This job took Gilberto Oliva to various countries as a buyer and eased his decision to emigrate from his native land for Spain in 1964 and from there to Nicaragua.

After working for others, Gilberto Senior began growing tobacco on his own in 1969.  For Oliva, no other locale compared with Nicaragua for the production of potent Cuban-style tobacco: "Nothing compares to Cuba like Nicaragua," Gilberto Senior later declared. "Northern Nicaragua enjoys all the natural blessings for great Habano."

Gilberto Oliva Sr. had four children, the last of which, José Oliva, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1973 because the Olivas wanted an American-born child.  He continued to farm tobacco in Nicaragua for a decade, but was forced to leave the country in 1979 as a result of the Sandinista revolution.  Gilberto Senior spent the next six years growing tobacco in Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and the Philippines before returning to Nicaragua in 1995. Upon his return, Gilberto Senior also moved into the world of cigar manufacturing.

The "Gilberto Oliva" brand was launched in 1995 with Gilberto Oliva Sr. initially making use of one of Plasencia's Honduran factories for his production. The cigars initially were composed of fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, Dominican binder, and wrapper grown in Ecuador from Connecticut seed.

The following year the brand name was shortened to "Oliva."

John Henry, never one to let grass grow under his feet, met with both the CFO and the COO of Oliva yesterday.

These fine gentlemen have promised Third Street Cigar their total support as we enter into what has become known in the cigar industry as a "break-away" cigar store business.

A "break-away" cigar business is one, essentially, started by customers of an established cigar shop who feel that they have become disenfranchised, ignored and otherwise not appreciated.

'Nuff said.....