Oliva Master Blends 3 Robusto (5x50)

Travelling for work has kept me from entertaining all of you with hard hitting reviews recently, I am just being kept down by the man it seems.  Some of you may be surprised to see that I have chosen this particular cigar to review.  I usually keep my reviews to new items and boutique trends, but if any of you listen to the radio show I co-host every Saturday (shameless plug coming), on 1280 AM in the Sarasota area or on wtmy.com, you know that my partner and I often talk about something called a cigar evolution.  I have long held that most cigar smokers go through periods of refinement in their palate and often find themselves enjoying cigars they thought they never would, or enjoying a cigar that they had tried before but discarded as not for them.  This process is what I call the cigar evolution and in nearly 24 years of cigar smoking I have had several personal evolutions of my own.  I hold up the cigar being reviewed here as evidence of said evolution.  I have smoked these before and I was not able to get my head around the super premium price for what I considered an average cigar.  In recent years my palate has begun to appreciate more subtle flavors and less strength as I search for cigar nuance so I figured giving this cigar another try might be interesting.

The cigar presents very well, I have always thought these were some very attractive smokes.  The wrapper just bathes the senses in a warm glow of finely tuned tobacco that looks dark and rich.  There are some prominent veins here, but I don't feel as though they will be an issue.  An inspection of the smoke does not show me any areas of concern and the construction looks and feels sturdy without being too tight.  The band work is nice to look at as well, so I will give it a nod in the visual department.  The pre light aroma is full of rich tobacco and coffee essence.  The pre light draw has some subtle cocoa flavors and some light mint that I find very interesting.

The cigar opens with an opus of flavors that I do not recall experiencing in my prior Master Blends endeavors.  The profile is awash with bold textures and flavors of tobacco, coffee, cocoa, dark wood and mint.  I am stunned by this early profile extravaganza and I am wondering how I could have missed this when I smoked it before.  At the back of the palate there is an earthiness that is heavy but not overwhelming, and while it lacks complexity, it can stand alone as the flavor in the backdrop and serves as a wonderful platform for the early flavors.  The draw is a little tight for me, but I am drawing a decent amount of smoke so I am not overly concerned.  The burn is solid and a crisp gray/white ash is forming nicely.

The first half of the cigar continues to be a paragon of my cigar evolution virtues.  It is subtle, balanced, complex and flavorful and I am realizing that I could not have enjoyed this smoke two or three years ago because I was a dolt, an ignoramus if you will, about the intricacies of the cigar world.  The core profile is booming right along while showing coffee and cocoa as the main actors in this cigar aria, but there is a fantastic rip of dark wood that keeps laying in some rustic qualities to a cigar that wants to show off so much refinement.  At the back of the palate the earthy flavors remain, but there are some fantastic runs of pepper here as well that is knocking up the spice quotient into the full bodied range.  The draw is still a bit too tight for me, but I am moving along with eager longing for the last half.  The burn is still very solid and there is not a single issue.

The final half of the cigar actually sags a bit for me, but after the open and the first half it really had nowhere to go but down or it may have gotten a 99 or 100 from me.  As it is, it is still a fabulous smoke that I enjoy right to the end.  The core profile becomes a less subtle array of flavors as some strength is brought into the mix.  There is a slight flavor of tannin here that could be mineral in nature, but there are still some excellent coffee flavors coming through.  At the back of the palate there are still some nice earth tones and the dark wood is showing through here with some pepper remnant that I would have like more of.  The draw stays just a hair tight to the end for me, but it will not lead to a huge downgrade from me.  The burn is solid to the end.

The finish was full of pepper and dark wood for many minutes.  This is a prime example of cigar evolution at its finest in my book.

Appearance- 93 a very nice looking cigar
Taste- 95 an excellent array of flavors, particularly in the first half
Construction- 92 some tightness in the draw leads to slight reductions
Strength- 97 a fabulous medium/full that complements the flavor profile in a profound way
Overall- 94 a near classic experience and a wonderful cigar