Tag Archives: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust

by Craig Vanderslice | March 29, 2022 · 1:40 pm

News: Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Announces Muestra de Saka “The Bewitched” Release

Here’s some news from Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust. The Muestra de Saka line is always interesting, I like to try them when I can get my hands on a few. US grown fillers is interesting, it’s not defined, but one might guess that it’s tobacco from Massachusetts, based on the Owl Shop’s location? Just a guess.

Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust® (DTT) is currently taking pre-orders for “The Bewitched”, its newest addition to it much heralded Muestra de Saka line. The deadline for pre-orders is April 8th, 2022.

“Muestra is the humble, common word for “sample” in Spanish, however it takes on much more important, sometimes reverential, meaning when used in a handmade cigar factory. A muestra is the vision of the ligador and torcedor realized, it is the promise of a new experience and possibly the key to financial success for the fabrica. Muestras are hoarded and coveted by not only their makers, but by the cigar smokers who seek to catch a glimpse into the cigarmaker’s soul within their smoke” states Founder and Master Ligador, Steve Saka.

“The Bewitched” is an intoxicating liga of choice Nicaraguan and US Grown fillers with our exclusive Cultivo Tonto San Andreas Negro binder swaddled in a Grade 1 Ecuador Habano Seed capa. Presented in a beautiful 6 5/8 x 50 prensado vitola with a spiral colita, this cigar rewards the smoker with a beguiling smoking experience with notes of cafe, caramel, cedar, and tempered spice. It is truly an entrancing medium-plus bodied smoke, so hard to describe, yet so perfect in balance and nuance, from the moment I finished it I was mesmerized with it,” states Saka.

He continues to share, “Originally this was a liga I created to celebrate the Owl Shop of Worcester’s 75th Anniversary. For those of you who know Zach and his shop, please know we do so with his blessing. In fact, he is the one who said this cigar was too good to not share it with our other accounts, so please thank him on my behalf. I was ecstatic that Zach blessed my crafting more because from the moment I finished this liga I was spellbound by it, so much so I decided we would call the release “The Bewitched” because of how it so captivated my own palate: So intricate, so harmonious, so refined, so difficult to define, yet so difficult to ignore. Everyone I smoked made me want to smoke another.”

“But I wanted to honor the Owl Shop and Zach’s family legacy, so I decided to pay homage by keeping the Owl as the icon since that is where it all began, but here is where the story gets peculiar. It turns out totally unknown to me that there is a superstition among Nicaraguans that Owls are the physical manifestation of witches who cast their spells upon the people in the dark of the night. My understanding is that some consider black owls to be evil witches, while brown owls are regarded as good witches.”

“So I make a cigar I find mesmerizing for the Owl Shop, am encouraged by Zach to make more, decide to call it the “The Bewitched” because of how it makes me feel, then decide to keep the Owl as the icon to pay honor to ultimately learn that in Nicaragua Owls are regarded as witches… wow, that is just too much of a coincidence for even me to ignore. Fate is a fickle thing, but I am wise enough to not fight it. This was a project that simply was meant to be. Now whether it is the spell of a black owl or a brown owl, I don’t care because I love this cigar’s magic!” concludes Saka.

Like all Muestra de Saka ligas except the Unicorn they are packed in individual cedar coffins in a 7-ct box and will be $138.25 per box. Current anticipate delivery to Select Purveyors is Summer of 2022.

About Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, LLC

Founded in 2015, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust (DTT) has quickly become the premier craft manufacturer of ultra- premium handmade cigars. Founded by cigar and industry expert Steve Saka, a former Executive Consultant to JR Cigar and President and CEO of Drew Estate, with the singular focus to create only “Puros Sin Compromiso” – Cigars Without Compromise. Included within their portfolio are Sobremesa, Mi Querida, Todos Las Dias, Sin Compromiso, StillWell Star, Umbagog and Muestra de Saka. DTT is the only company ever to be named the “Company of the Year” for four consecutive years by Halfwheel. For more information, please visit: www.dunbartoncigars.com.
®Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and their brands are registered trademarks of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and/or affiliated companies.

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by CigarCraig | June 21, 2018 · 4:53 pm

News: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Sin Compromiso Debut

Here’s number three for today, ridiculous, isn’t it? I’ve smoked the Sin Compromiso in two sizes in pre-release versions and it’s spectacular, truly without compromise. On the torpedo especially I was able to detect the wood used in the drying barns, very unusual for me personally, and it was verified by Steve. This is a special cigar to be highly anticipated!

Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust (DTT) is debuting it’s much awaited Sin Compromiso series of ultrapremium
handmade cigars at the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers 86th Annual Convention in Las
Vegas, NV, on July 13th, 2018.

“Sin Compromiso is the result of over three years’ of experimental black tobacco harvests in Mexico, Ecuador and
Nicaragua and the culmination of my experiences as a cigar blender,” states the founder and Master Ligador,
Steve Saka. “The marquee’s name translates to ‘no compromise’ and that is the exact approach I took when
creating this cigar. This blend is a direct reflection of all the skills I have learned and developed over the last
twenty plus years and I am genuinely excited to share it with my fellow cigar smokers.”

To which he adds, “Sin Compromiso is a truly unique, complex cigar that is simultaneously smooth, yet strong. It
delivers a captivating and entrancing smoke for the experienced palate with flavors that are constantly swirling
and changing from puff to puff. At its core is an inherent sweetness paired with a savory spiciness, but hidden
within its layers are notes of cocao, espresso, loam and even a hint of smoky chicory root. I spent over three
years meticulously crafting and tweaking this blend and I can say without reservation it is personally my very best
liga ever bar none. I have never experienced such an intriguing and satisfying smoke.”

Initially offered in 5 sizes: Selección No. 2 Torpedo (6×52), Selección No. 5 Parejo (6×54), Selección No. 7 Parejo
(7×56), Selección “Intrépido” (5.63 x 46) and the Selección “Espada Estoque” (7×44). The MSRP will range from
$15.95 to $18.45 USD per puro.

Each cigar is gently soft pressed, sleeved in Spanish Cedar and packed in beautifully crafted 13-ct matte
lacquered boxes. Available at only our very best Select Purveyors and very limited in supply.

The anticipated ship date to those Select Purveyors who pre-order is late August 2018.

About Steve Saka
Regarded as a cigar expert throughout the industry, he is credited as being an experienced cigar blender and
maker, a prolific author regarding cigars and black tobaccos, a forefather within the online media segment and a
dynamic tobacco industry executive. In 2000, he worked directly for Lew Rothman, the former owner of JR Cigar,
as an executive consultant for four years and he subsequently served as the President, then CEO of Drew Estate
from 2005 through 2013. In 2015, he established the family held Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust to craft and
distribute traditional handmade puros. For more information, please visit: www.dunbartoncigars.com.

®Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and Sin Compromiso are registered trademarks of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
and/or affiliated companies.

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by CigarCraig | · 4:43 pm

News: Todos Las Dias Thick Lonsdale “Mas Fuerte” at 2018 IPCPR Tradeshow

Big news day, here’s the second of today. It seems Steve’s screw up is a bonus for fans of the Todos las Dias, bringing a “more strong” version to the market in the lonsdale vitola!

Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust® (DTT) will be showcasing a single vitola line extension to it’s fullbodied
Todos Las Dias (TLD) brand that is even bolder. It will be made available at the International Premium
Cigar and Pipe Retailers 86th Annual Convention in Las Vegas, NV, on July 13th, 2018.

The TLD Thick Lonsdale “Mas Fuerte” is a 6.00 x 46 parejo with a pig tail finished head and packed in 10ct boxes
with a red “Mas Fuerte” label applied. The MSRP is $11.95 per cigar and $119.50 per box.

Steve Saka, the founder and master ligador of DTT, shared, “The Thick Lonsdale “Mas Fuerte” is the result of
some confusion between myself and the factory. When originally blending the TLD liga there were two finished
core blends comprised of the same tobaccos, but with different proportions. Ultimately, I selected the one I felt
worked best in the original formats to be released and relegated the other to my blending diary. When it came
time to add the Thick Lonsdale to the line, I inadvertently gave them the recipe for the stronger iteration. In their
defense, the factory asked me to verify the blend twice, but I managed to still muck it up and authorized them to
produce 200 boxes as instructed. I didn’t actually realize my mistake until I was smoking the post production
cigars for quality control purposes. Right away I knew something was askew.”

“My initial reaction was to destroy the cigars, but as I continued to smoked them I came to realize that this
variation of the liga was perfect for this unique 6×46 format. So in the end, I decided my mistake was a blessing
and have opted to add this tweaked vitola to the lineup for our connoisseur customers to enjoy.”

The anticipated ship date to those Select Purveyors who order at this year’s tradeshow is August 2017.

®Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and Todos Las Dias are registered trademarks of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
and/or affiliated companies.

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Mas Fuerte, Todos Las Dias

by CigarCraig | June 17, 2018 · 9:44 am

Todos Las Dias, Farce and Truth and La Aurora at the Track

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there, I know later today I’ll be digging out my traditional father’s day cigar for the 19th or 20th year (I’ve lost track…the cigars came out in 1998, but I think it was 1999 by the time I bought a box, can’t remember). I refer, of course, to the obscure Esperanza Para los Niños, which was made by Christian Eiroa when he owned Camacho as a charity project to help children orphaned by hurricane Mitch. The cigars have held up extremely well, and it’s through the kindness of several friends that I’ve been able to continue the tradition of smoking one on Father’s Day every year this long, and I might be good until 2020 when the last toro from the box I bought will go down. Until cigar time rolls around, I got some typing to do, so lets recap some notable smokes I had this week! I smoked another Todos las Dias from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust this week. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the brand, everything Steve has produced has been a win for my palate, but this liga has been a slow starter for me. Maybe it’s because the first three examples I smoked didn’t draw well enough (moisture…ironic given Steve was checking internal humidity of each sample at the trade show, video here, and they came from multiple sources, they just have to be kept dryer, I guess). To recap, the Todos las Dias Double Wide Belicoso is a 4.75″x 60 figurado identical in size to the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Consul and the Rosalones 460, using the same molds and made in the same factory. It’s a Nicaraguan puro, with a sungrown Nicaraguan wrapper, and fillers from Esteli and Jalapa. This blend is growing on e finally, I’m starting to get the cocoa and a hint of the chili spice reported, and the cigar was great to the last drop. This is a cool shape, I still think I’m reaching for the TlD fourth in line in the regular DTT production, but it’s good, I like it.

Friday was a special day in the small village of Frazer, PA. The CigarCigars store, just 1.7 miles from my home, was host to a cigar event featuring Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars, and, as is their custom at this shop, the event was from noon to 3. Normally this would cause me problems, life has not been normal in recent months. So I was able to be present for this auspicious event and hang out with Mr. Booth, although, culturally, Frazer, PA is pretty much polar opposite of what Mr Booth is used to…it’s not Amish country, but it’s not the Sunset Strip either…anyway, I had occasion to smoke the new Farce. This is important, and I can’t stress this enough, it’s Farce, not THE Farce…just Farce. Very important to note. Farce is made in the Ventura factory in the DR, it’s a full flavored, complex and sophisticated blend and was very nice. I liked it, I picked up a couple and will smoke another very soon in a non-event environment. I also smoked The T, not Mr. T, it the Toro size. I had previously smoked an IPCPR sample of this collaboration between Booth, Caldwell and AJ Fernandez made in Nicaragua and really liked it, and this one was no different. It’s dark and rich and heavy and right up my alley. My biggest regret was setting it in an ashtray with a couple of inches left and Steve, the manager cleaning up after the event thinking I was done with it, which I was not…my bad. Watch for the next CigarCraig podcast in the next few days, by the way. I highly recommend attending an event featuring Mr. Booth if you have the opportunity, he’s a gentleman and a scholar, and one who’s earned every one of his eccentricities.

Another annual family tradition which may seem odd to some is celebrating our granddaughters birthdays at the horse races. There is a track that’s reasonably convenient to both sides of the family free to park and get in, had a family friendly picnic grove with tables and bounce houses and slides and playgrounds for the kids, of course, horse races, and is cigar friendly! We try to get there early to get a good spot and have a cigar before everyone gets there. I lit up a La Aurora Preferidos Emerald Ecuador Corona, and there’s a reason I usually light up something from La Aurora at family events. My daughter’s name is Aurora, and I figure she’s not going to get upset at me for smoking a cigar if it’s got her name on it. Clever, eh? She’s a great kid, got me cigar related coffee for Father’s day! Anyway, I really was enjoying the crap out of that corona, what flavor and balance! Nice tobacco sweetness I didn’t want to put down, and I felt bad standing off to the side after people started showing up. I wanted to join the party, eat lunch, but I wanted to enjoy the cigar too, it was one of the few times I wished I had chosen an even smaller cigar! We stuck it out until the Ninth (last) race, because Smoke En Fire was running, and we put $5 on it to win, which it did, and paid $9.50! It was a beautiful day with family at a great horse park. I don’t know if Delaware Cigars still has their cigar festival there in the fall or not, but the coupe times I attended that event it was a good time!

That’s all for today. Time to get some stuff done! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigar store, CigarCigars, cigars, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Farce, La Aurora, Matt Booth, Preferidos, Room 101, the T, Todos Las Dias

by CigarCraig | July 30, 2017 · 9:36 am

IPCPR 2017 – Southern Draw Cigars

At the IPCPR show this year I finally had the chance to meet Robert Holt of Southern Draw cigars at his award-winning booth. The booth had an inviting back porch feel, and as I was standing at the booth waiting to introduce myself I met his in-laws (I hope I’m right remembering the relationships) who were helping man the booth. Lovely folks giving the Southern Draw company the family feel that is consistent with what I’ve heard of the company. When Robert finished he came and greeted me like an old friend, already knowing who I was. I can’t get used to being recognized, I was similarly surprised earlier in the week by Mickey of Blind Mans Puff, who is a long time reader and former contest winner. Anyway, as it was the end of the second day of the show, we agreed to meet first thing Thursday morning when the show opened.

Southern Draw featured three new cigars this year, the Jacobs Ladder, the Rose of Sharon and the Quick Draw with a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper. I smoked the Rose of Sharon at the show, it’s named after Robert’s wife Sharon. Since I can’t really make any kind of judgments on cigars smoked at the show, I smoked another one last night in the Gordo format, a generous 6.5″ x 60. Â The wrapper is Ecuadorian Sun Grown Connecticut (Ecuador has perpetual cloud cover, so the sun Â grown description is accurate, but the wrapper is indistinguishable from a shade grown Connecticut wrapper). The binder and filler are Nicaraguan, ~~based on the information on the website I don’t think there’s ligero in the blend~~. (edit: after watching the video again, Robert said that it has 25% ligero! Still smooth and flavorful!) As with all of the Southern Draw cigars, this is made at the AJ Fernandez factory. The Rose of Sharon is buttery smooth, with loads of flavor. It has the signature nutty/grassy shade wrapper flavor with a level of richness and depth that was really enjoyable. I enjoyed the heck out of the Rose of Sharon at the show, and even more on last night’s walk and for an hour or so after getting back.

Rewind to Thursday when I selected the Jacobs Ladder, again in the 6.5″ x 60 Gordo size. This new cigar isn’t yet listed on the company website, but it is listed at Famous Smokeshop, which says it has a PA broadleaf wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers specifying Esteli ligero and Ecuador Habano binder. The name is both a biblical reference and another family name as Robert and Sharon have a son named Jacob (middle name). The importance of family was abundantly clear in the IPCPR booth. I didn’t like the Jacobs Ladder. Â I LOVED it. Holy crap this is a great cigar! Strength, flavor and balance like crazy. It’s not a morning smoke, or a cigar for the faint of heart. Â The PA broadleaf (incidentally, grown in the next county to the west of where I live). It hit on my favorites, cocoa, espresso, with some spice and earth from the broadleaf. I appreciate the signature closed foot on Robert’s cigars, as it gives an initial blast of wrapper flavor at the start, that is, unless you toast it like you would a finish footed cigar. I go straight to the mouth with the closed feet cigars so I don’t miss anything (let to a burn hole in a shirt once…). This is another gem from Southern Draw, I think that makes them five for five with me now, I dig the Kudzu, Firethorn and Quickdraws too (although I’m behind on sampling the Quickdraws, haven’t had the Connecticut or PA Broadleaf yet). Generally the cigars coming out of AJ Fernandez appeal to me and these cigars from Southern Draw are at the top of the heap. Well done, Robert Holt!

Speaking of Famous Smoke Shop, they have a new Cuban Cigars Hub on their site. Since it’s now permissible to buy Cuban cigars in countries where they are legally available (most) and bring them in to the U.S., The folks at Famous have put together this hub to further educate consumers on not only the cigars, but the rules and the history of the Cuban Embargo and all it encompasses. Head toÂ http://cubancigars.famous-smoke.com/, there’s a lot of great information they’ve put together.Â

Finally, I stopped in to my favorite local shop, the Wooden Indian, Friday night for there Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust event with Steve Saka. Of course, if my old friend Steve is in my ‘hood, I feel compelled to visit, buy his cigars and hang out and smoke with him for a while. As a bonus, his wife Cindy was there too. I smoked the new Mi Querida Mas Sucia, which is an enormous 7″ x 58 which generally more of a good thing in the Mi Querida line. It started mellow and built over the two and a half hours I smoked it. Odd that I smoked all very large cigars this week, but why not? I enjoyed them all! I also managed to score a never released Liga Privada No. 9 with a Connecticut wrapper with my purchase, which will be a very interesting cigar, considering it’s seven years old.