Oliva Master Blends 3 Churchill Review
Filed under: Cigar Bands · CT Broadleaf · Tight Draw · Fixing a Wavy Burn · Ligero / Seco / Viso · Nicaragua · One Draw or Two · Parejos · The Ash · Retrohale · Strength vs Body · The Draw · What Cigars Cost · Bitter Cigar?
Verdict: The Oliva Master Blends 3 Churchill is a Hand-Me-One (2/4) at about $16 street... a really good first inch of milk chocolate, red pepper and cream, then a draw that needed the tool, a hole in the foot, three touch-ups, a bitterness that came and went, and a final third that turned generic and earthy enough that I laid it down with half an inch left. The middle was a decent, slightly above average smoke, and that's the problem: at this money, decent isn't enough.
- Brand
- Oliva
- Line
- Master Blends 3
- Vitola
- Churchill
- Size
- 7 x 50
- Wrapper
- Connecticut Broadleaf
- Binder
- Nicaraguan
- Filler
- Nicaraguan
- Made in
- Nicaragua
- Factory
- Oliva (Estelí)
- Strength
- Medium
- Street price
- $16
Master Blends started life as an Oliva limited release and the third edition stuck around as regular production. It's the ligero-heavy one in the Oliva lineup, Nicaraguan filler under a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, rolled at Oliva's factory in Estelí. It also looks like it's on its way out: a couple of shops are blowing it out at a third of the normal price right now, which is how I ended up with a 10-pack. The other Olivas here have landed all over the scale, from a Five-Pack (3/4) for the Serie V Toro to a Hand-Me-One (2/4) for the Serie V Melanio Figurado and a Not Even Free (1/4) for the Serie V Maduro Toro.
The Setup
- Cigar: Oliva Master Blends 3, Churchill, 7 x 50. Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, Nicaraguan filler. Made by Oliva in Estelí, Nicaragua.
- Street price: about $16 a single online. The shops still carrying it at regular price have the box of 20 around $315, which is $15.75 a stick, and singles run $16 to $21. The catch is that at least two shops are closing the line out right now at $7 a single and about $95 for 20. The verdict is judged at the regular price, the closeout gets its own note at the bottom.
- What I paid: $4.70 a stick, $47 for a pack of 10 on an online deal in July 2025, before tax and shipping. My own money.
- Storage: the Herf-a-Dor at 69% RH, resting a little over 15 months.
- When/where: lit about 8:20 on a Friday night on my back deck with the fireplace going. 60°, feels like 57, 70% humidity, no wind at all, and warmer than that next to the fire.
- Smoke time: laid it down about 9:45 with half an inch left, so about an hour and a half.
- Food beforehand: spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread about two and a half hours before, with a San Pellegrino. Only water since.
- First cigar of the day, and my first in three or four days, paired with water. Cut with the Xikar XO, lit with my Guevara Lux single torch.
Light Up and First Third
A Churchill is a big cigar in theory, but this one feels thin in the hand, a pretty narrow profile for a 50 ring. Dark brown wrapper, not toothy, slightly rustic looking, with what looks like a double cap. The cold draw was pretty tight, so I clipped a little more off the cap with the Xikar XO and it was much better. On the cold draw retrohale there was almost a plum sweetness, with a slight tingle in the sinuses.
I toasted it with the Guevara Lux and got some nice milk chocolate on the toast and light. Once it was lit: chocolate and leather, with a bit of spice on the palate on the retrohale. A few draws in it was milk chocolate, red pepper spice, a little leather and a little cream. A good stick so far.
About half an inch in, the draw was definitely snugger than when I started, and the first pull on it gave almost no smoke. I ran the draw tool up about an inch and a half. Slightly better, not great. On a single draw I was still getting very little smoke, and it took two draws to get what I'd call adequate smoke production. The flavor had gone decently bitter at that point too, not earthy, just bitter. On a single draw it was a very light leather and a decent amount of bitterness sitting on my tongue, which was not pleasant. A double draw gave a touch of woodiness, leather, black coffee, and that same underlying bitterness.
The retrohale was better. A mild red pepper spice, some leather, cream and coffee, with a creamy sweetness that lingered and coated everything and nicely rounded it out. On regular draws, blowing it out of your mouth, not a great cigar right there. Retrohaled, it was pretty good.
By 8:31, about an inch in, the burn line was decently crooked, about a quarter inch ahead on the top side. The ash was compact, not flaky, a decently fine white. I grabbed a photo and knocked it off because there was a lot of cigar left.
That's when it got weird. After knocking the ash, there was a hole in the foot. Not through the whole cigar, but a nice ligero point in the center with a hole in the top third of it, which is odd. I touched it up to get it even and waited to see if the flavor from the start would come back, because it was really good to start and then just went bitter.
Once it was somewhat even, a single draw was very dark chocolate, leather and coffee, with the bitterness still in the background but much milder than before. A double draw was woody, leather, coffee and earthy, with much less bitterness. But even right after the touch-up, the top was already running ahead of the rest of the cigar again, so there's something going on with the roll on this one. I was hoping it wouldn't race too far ahead.
That was the end of the first third. I knocked the ash off for a clean start and grabbed another photo of the hole, because that is a hole in this thing. It's not dead center, and it's nowhere near where I ran the draw tool. Since the burn was already heading the wrong direction again, I touched it up a second time. Not horribly off, but I wanted to give it its best shot for flavor. My feeling at that point was that the hole was going to keep doing this to the burn the rest of the way, but maybe it would fix itself.
Second Third
Right after that touch-up, a single draw was milk chocolate with a little bitterness, but more of a dark chocolate bitterness this time, with leather and coffee behind it. A double draw was woodiness first, then a decently strong black coffee, leather, and a little earth on the finish. The retrohale was a medium-strength white pepper, coffee, and cream and leather mixed together.
The draw was substantially better now, and I was getting an adequate amount of smoke off a single draw, where before the first draw got you nothing and the second was where the smoke came from.
By the start of the final third, around 9:17, smoke production was what I'd call average and the draw was pretty good. The flavor had shifted: the bitterness dropped out, and it was mostly woody and leather with a little nuttiness and coffee. The hole in the center was gone. Through the middle it was a decent, maybe slightly above average smoke. The burn needed one more touch-up in the second half, and no relights.
Final Third
Halfway through the final third, about 9:35, it was more of the same, and the bitterness was starting to come back. The draw was really good at this point and smoke production was about average, but flavor-wise it was just kind of generic. Heavy leather, getting earthy, not much sweetness at all anymore. Kind of forgettable. I hadn't retrohaled in a while, so I did: heavy black pepper, coffee, with leather and earth as the main tone. The band came off totally clean.
At 9:45 I had about half an inch left that I could have smoked, but it was mostly just earth, and it beats up your palate at that point. I laid it down and was done. Draw and smoke production through the whole second half were good. The flavor just kept changing, more and more, toward that earth the whole way.
Construction
- Wrapper: dark brown, not toothy, slightly rustic looking, double cap. Feels thin in the hand for a 7 x 50.
- Draw: tight on the cold draw, better after a second clip, then snug again half an inch in with almost no smoke on the first pull. One pass with the draw tool, about an inch and a half up. Slightly better, not great, and it took two draws for adequate smoke through the first third. Substantially better by the second third and really good by the final third.
- Burn: crooked from the first inch, a quarter inch ahead on the top side, and it went right back to running ahead after a touch-up. Three touch-ups total, two in the first third and one in the second half. No relights. There was a hole burned into the foot off center that showed up after the first ash and was gone by the final third; it wasn't where the draw tool went, so it's the roll.
- Ash: compact, not flaky, a decently fine white, with a nice ligero point in the center after ashing.
- Smoke output: very little on a single draw for the first third, adequate on a double. Average from the second third on.
- Band: came off totally clean.
Bottom Line
The first inch of this cigar is the whole sales pitch: milk chocolate, red pepper, a little leather and cream, and a plum sweetness on the cold draw. Then the draw closed up, a hole showed up in the foot, the burn started running away on the top side, and a plain bitterness moved in that only the retrohale could cover. The middle was the best part, a woody, leather, coffee smoke with a touch of nuttiness and no bitterness, decent, slightly above average. The final third slid into heavy leather and earth with the bitterness coming back, and by the last half inch it was nothing but earth working over my palate.
Strength was medium the whole way, so like a few other Olivas here, this is a flavor story, not a strength story. Draw and smoke production fixed themselves in the second half, but it took a draw tool and three touch-ups to get there on a cigar that's supposed to be a $16 stick.
Would I smoke it again? Hand-Me-One (2/4). I wouldn't buy it at $16, and I wouldn't turn one down, because that first inch and the middle are worth sitting through. The exception: at the $5 to $7 closeout price I actually paid, this is a different question. At that money it's a perfectly fine deck cigar, which is why there are nine more of them in the Herf. That doesn't change the tier, because the tier is judged at street, and at street there are a lot of better cigars at this price on this site.
Best for: a long, slow night by the fire when you want something medium that leans chocolate and pepper early and goes dark and earthy late, and you're not going to be picky about a touch-up or two. Pair it with water and retrohale it; the retrohale is where this cigar is at its best.
My scale, one question only... would I spend my own money on this again? 4 Box Buy (box on hand, always) / 3 Five-Pack (yes, a few live in the humidor) / 2 Hand-Me-One (wouldn't buy it, wouldn't turn one down) / 1 Not Even Free (I'd rather smoke nothing).
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