Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor and Umbagog Cigars

I did some searching around locally last week for Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust‘s latest release, the Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor. The closest practically local source was only selling by the box, and as much as I’d treasure having seven of those in the humidor, and as much as I trust Saka’s palate to line up with my own and not get stuck with cigars I don’t like, It’s hard to drop over $100 on seven cigars right now. I just can’t do it. Heck, I’m a cheap bastard (and Saka is well aware of this), it was hard enough for me to shell out the 18 bones each for two of these. I finally ended up buying them from 2 Guys Cigars in New Hampshire, and I have a bone to pick with them! I should have called Barry and ripped him a new one (listeners to The Cigar Authority will appreciate the following). I placed the order on Tuesday and, once again, being cheap, I chose the least expensive shipping option, USPS. This was a 3 day option, which ended up with a Saturday delivery commitment. No problem, I thought. Friday rolls around and what shows up in my mailbox but a parcel from 2 Guys, a fricking DAY EARLY! What the heck? I mean, they promise a guy it’s going to be delivered on Saturday, and it shows up on Friday, doesn’t anyone do what they say they are going to do any more? Do they want my cigars to be delivered in better condition than I expect? Am I supposed to smoke these sooner than I planned? What if I hadn’t made room in my humidor yet? C’mon guys!  Of course, I kid, 2 Guys always provides exceptional service, Dave has always been a great friend and I’m happy to through a little bit of business his way here and there. I did try shopping locally and it didn’t work out, so I shopped Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust’s local. 

I normally would have let the cigars rest in the humidor for a while, and one of them will spend a while with some other Muestra de Sakas hanging out, but I checked the cigar with the Humidimeter and it was in great shape, having arrived in a timely manner, and I decided to smoke it yesterday. It rained yesterday so instead of taking a walk I parked my butt on the porch with this beautiful cigar that was blended not by Steve Saka, but by Raul Disla, who oversees the NACSA factory where it is rolled along with the Mi Querida and Umbagogs. I’m sure this is common knowledge among my readers,  but Raul Disla is the brother of Esteban Disla, who is a partner in RoMaCraft’s Nica Sueno factory. He also has quite a pedigree, having worked for Cuevas y Torano, Davidoff, AJ Fernandez, and British American Tobacco. Saka had Raul make some blends and they each chose their favorite, and Saka chose his favorite to release under his banner. This is a Nicaraguan puro, from what I can gather. It seems Saka has been too busy fishing and being the guest on podcasts to update his website  😂.  I can say that the burn and draw were what I expected from an expensive cigar, perfect. it had a flat ember that tells me all the components are burning at the same rate, no small feat. It helps that I smoked it slowly, savoring every pull. It had a fascinating flavor. There was a sweet component that was reminiscent of the Mi Querida, but then there was a savory, barbeque/mesquite almost flavor that was there. I’m almost…almost regretting not putting myself into debt to get the box of seven, although seven wouldn’t be nearly enough. 

After dinner the skies cleared and I was able to get my daily walk in so I grabbed an Umbagog Toro Toro and hit the bricks. I love the Umbagogs so much. I look back and am surprised at how many Mi Queridas and Umbagogs I’ve smoked, but I shouldn’t be, because they are just so darned good and hit my palate perfectly. There’s not much more to be said that I haven’t said before, so I’ll let these pictures say it.

That’s all for now. It’s Memorial Day Weekend. This seems a little surreal from my standpoint, three day weekends mean nothing to me right now, I’ve had about a 192 day weekend and I’m a little bit tired of it. We are doing a little something for the neighbors today, so I need to get to picking out cigars…er…setting things. up for that, and getting that contest together I promised last week. Until the next time, 

CigarCraig