The Particulars

The Review

This review for the Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2020 - Toro (6 x 54) is based on the journal entry dated 2026-07-06

Appearance & Construction (0-3):  Good (3)

Six years of rest and the cigar doesn’t look a day over three years old. As Billy Crystal would say playing Fernando Lamas, “You look mahvelous!” But seriously, this cigar does look fantastic. The Sumatra-seed wrapper has a lot of color variation, with light tan veins accenting the warm, medium-brown leaf. It has beautiful yellow undertones, lots of mottling, and a really nice sheen. There are a couple of larger veins running through the leaf, but the seams are tight with a clean triple cap. It’s the pretty standard affair here for the annual limited edition, featuring the classic brown and gold bands paired with an extra red and gold band for the year.​

Draw (0-3) & Burn (0-4):  Good (3) / Great (4)

The draw is spot-on and the burn is just beautiful. Dead-nuts even, razor-sharp char line, with only the absolute slightest hint of a wave until close to the midpoint. The ash is a light gray, speckled with oil crystals that blend right in. The ash stack has medium-spaced striations and tight cracks that hold strong until nearly the midpoint. When I finally and gracefully rolled the ash off into the tray, it landed with a satisfying thud.

Flavor Profile (0-5):  Excellent (5)

Earthy nutmeg tones, toasted bread notes, mild cinnamon, and baking cocoa all hit immediately on light-up. Then a light honey sweetness comes in, carrying a moderately creamy finish. This is starting off beautifully. It is still your normal Melanio profile, but the age has done wonders for it. The creaminess has a very powdery and floral vanilla quality to it that’s really enjoyable.

With the second third, the complexity builds and the transitions start to occur. The sweetness has pulled back slightly to make room for more creamy espresso notes and a slight almond nuttiness. Combined with the baking cocoa and spice, it’s a very rich and creamy mocha flavor. There are bits of white pepper, but they’re very mild and sporadic. Breadiness and earthiness are still holding down the base while that powdery creaminess finishes each draw. It’s more of a confectioner’s sugar feel than a chalkiness, and it’s really elevating the blend at this point. The strength has definitely mellowed with age, but the complexity and nuance have remained perfectly intact. At the tail end of the second third, the white pepper and cinnamon start to perk back up.

The spice is definitely picking up in the final third. It’s mostly white pepper with some red, but it’s enough to leave a sharp tingle on the tongue and wake up my sinuses. This Melanio is going out like the old guy who wants to prove he’s still virile and got the stuff. Dammit, that analogy hits a little too close to home 😂. But either way, even with six years of age on it, it’s nice to see this blend still has a little pep in its step and can finish on a strong note. The final flavors I pick up in the blend are toasted bread, baking cocoa, earth, nutmeg, cinnamon, white pepper, honey, and a lightly floral, vanilla-creamy finish with that powdery mouthfeel.

Overall Experience (0-5):  Excellent (5)

Complex, smooth, and creamy, this cigar has been beautifully mellowed with age and eases you into a surprisingly strong finish. Overall, it’s a wonderful expression and a prime example of the Serie V Melanio blend, made even better at the heavily discounted price. But that brings us right back to the main issue I have with Oliva: I really can’t advocate buying them at full MSRP, which ultimately hurts your B&Ms that carry them. They’re much better suited for heavily discounted commodity prices.

Overall Score and Individual Journal Entries

While the review is based off one instance of journaling this cigar; there’s a number of reasons you can have different experiences smoking the same cigar multiple times. A blend can evolve with age (for better or worse), palates evolves, preferences change, and sometimes you just get a bad example!  This section captures the ratings from each journal entry and the related journal photo.  Below you’ll find an aggregate score based on every time the cigar has been journaled. Unless it was a gift or on-off smoke, this section will be updated every time I journal this cigar!

The Flavor Wheel

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.