Tag Archives: Umbagog

by | May 24, 2020 · 10:04 am

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 

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by | October 27, 2019 · 11:31 am

An Afternoon at Famous Smoke Shop and Their Dunbarton 80th Anniversary Cigar

I’ve been beset with a head cold all week, adding insult to injury, of course. I did have a productive phone interview with a recruiter which could lead to something hopefully, so it wasn’t a wasted week.  Having a cold like this messes with the taste buds, so after a few days of not even considering having a cigar, I broke the ice with something familiar to see where I stood. I grabbed a Nica Rustica El Brujito, which is a favorite. I know this cigar very well, so if my palate is skewed, I’ll know it smoking this cigar, and it was. It was still good, but tasted different. So I knew not to try anything new for a while, or at least to temper any expectations based on this information. This is important for you to know moving forward. 

 

Yesterday I took a drive up to Easton, PA to Famous Smoke Shop where Steve Saka was hosting the launch of his contribution to their 80th Anniversary, the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Famous Smoke Shop 80th Anniversary Edition. Steve had a blending seminar which was attended by 35 or 40 people, who had tobacco ad chavettas and actually rolled and tasted tobaccos with Steve’s instruction. I didn’t attend this event, but those who did raved about it and appeared to have enjoyed it and perhaps were a little overwhelmed! I’ve known Steve long enough to know that he can throw a LOT of information at you quickly, and that the 2 or 3 hour seminar could easily have been 8 if he’d have been allowed. Saka’s a shy guy, but if you can get him out of his shell, you can’t shut him up. I kid. I probably should have gotten a ticket and attended, but I didn’t, so I’m going on what I heard from others. To test my questionable palate, I lit up an Umbagog on my drive up, still a little off, but the Umbagog was still delicious.  I got there while the blending session was going on, and hung out with folks in the shop, including familiar faces such as Ali, our local EPC rep. Eventually the event ended and Dave Lafferty emerged and began selling the new Famous Smoke Shop Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust 80th Anniversary Edition cigars. I did purchase said cigars, and eventually lit one up. This is an interesting cigar in the DTT line up. It’s box pressed, made at NACSA with a sun grown Nicaraguan H2000 wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. They only made 250 boxes of these, and there will be some available for sale on Famous’ website tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday, but don’t wait on account of me, look Monday). 

 

 

Full disclaimer (for the third time, in case you haven’t been paying attention), this cold has my palate screwed up, so my tasting notes on the DTT Famous 80th aren’t what they should be, but really, folks, when are they all that detailed?  I talked to Steve about the wrapper, which looked like a dark chocolate maduro in Famous’ press pictures. Good enough to eat, really, like a Godiva chocolate cigar. It turns out it’s not a maduro, but a H2000 wrapper. 20 years ago when this hybrid came out, it was bred to be disease resistant, but it was also flame retardant! Several brands of cigars were hyped up and basically destroyed because when they hit the market they wouldn’t burn. Tasted great, but you had to relight them ten or fifteen times. I think the lighter fuel industry had a stake in the development of the hybrid. After a while, the tobacco processors figured out how to handle this new leaf in the pre-industry processing, and now it burns right, and tastes great too. So Steve used it on this cigar. It started out on the mellow side for me, although some mentioned it was spicy. I did get a distinct cinnamon flavor on one draw about an inch in, but that was a one and done. For the fourth time, I’m working with a compromised palate here! Considering this was a cigar fresh from the box, which had been in unknown humidification conditions, it burned well, and drew perfectly. This is made in the same factory as my beloved Umbagog (and Mi Querida), by the way. The later half of the cigar was a build up in body, and strength, although I never found it to be more than medium strength. My second proviso is that I was smoking this very slowly too, as I was socializing. Overall, I really liked the cigar and look forward to smoking it on a healthy palate. I know Steve wouldn’t put his name on a cigar he wasn’t 100% satisfied with, especially if it was for something as important as a company’s 80th anniversary. It’s always great to see Steve, Cindy and Dave when they are around. 

 

That’s all for today. Once it clears up, I guess I’ll get back to trying to see if my palate is still out of whack. I suppose as long as my sinuses are still goofy, my tasters will still be off. Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

   

 

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by | June 9, 2019 · 10:44 am

The La Sirena Aniversario Especial and a Few Other Cigars

Once again it was a week with a lot of news stories. I expect the next three will be the same as we come up to the IPCPR show. I will not be going once again this year. As much as I hate to miss two shows in a row, and it’s the first time since 2008 that I have,  it just doesn’t make sense this year. Last year it was the lack of a job, this year it’s the presence of a job and the timing of the show plays into it a little bit. You’ll have to rely on the excellent coverage that many of my great friends in the cigar media present. As much news as there is that comes out, I am selective about what I post here. I think that personnel changes and international releases are less interesting to my readers so I skip over those and try to hand pick the news I think is of interest. There are enough other outlets that post every piece of cigar industry minutia that I don’t feel the need to duplicate. Anyway, I did smoke a few notable cigars this week, so let’s get on to those.

 

The most notable cigar I smoked this week was a special new release from my good friends at La Sirena Cigars. I’ve been a big fan and supporter of La Sirena since first meeting Arielle in 2011 when she was still with Miami Cigar and Company and she just had the La Sirena line being made at My Father Cigars. I’ve followed the brand, and the top shelf of my humidor shows it, as there can be found some La Sirenas from La Zona as well as a few from My Father still (some Tridents and Dubloons), Merlions (a few Sealions, this line is made at La Aurora), Oceanos (Quesada), and some of the yummy La Sirena LTs (I might smoke one this morning yet! these are made at Plasencia). La Sirena has been an a supporter of this site too for several years, I think we enjoy a symbiotic relationship. If you search through the site you’ll find a few interviews with Arielle and Mariah which, it should surprise nobody, are among the most viewed videos on my YouTube channel. All this leads up to the 10th anniversary of the La Sirena brand, and the opportunity Arielle and Mariah’s father, Danny Ditkowich, provided me with to try his creation to celebrate the milestone. In the La Sirena tradition of using different factories to make all their various brands, Danny went to the Turrent family in Mexico for the Aniversario Edicion. When I lit this up, having no information on the blend, I had a flashback to my early days of smoking premium cigars, when I started out with Te Amo Maduros. Not to say it tasted that way, but I could tell there was some Mexican tobacco, and I was pretty confident it had a San Andrés wrapper. I happened to notice that Danny was the guest on the latest CigarSnob podcast, which was quite fortunate, because he talked about this cigar and confirmed my suspicions. It seems the wrapper is a 10 year old San Andrés leaf, with a Mexican Criollo binder, and Brazilian Mata Fina, Mexican, Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. This is made by the Turrents at their factory in Mexico. The flavor of this was unique, although there was a hint of sourdough that I find in the regular La Sirena line that I find amusing. Loads of earth and espresso were the main flavors, and it was quite a good smoke.  I have no idea how these will be distributed, heck, I’m not even sure how widely the La Sirena line is distributed now days. I understand this is a pricey cigar, and it’s 5 ¾” x 54, so it’s not a super-long smoke (although I smoked it for nearly two hours), but it’s really delicious if you’re tolerant of strong flavors and Mexican tobacco.

 

I had to reign myself in there, when there’s a cigar line I’m interested in and excited about I get wordy. I did smoke some other cigars this week, of course. I had an afternoon cigar on my day off Thursday while reading a book called “Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons” by Kris Newby, which sheds an interesting light on Lyme disease (which I have). I chose a mild cigar, which was a Serpentino by Pendrey Guillen Cigars. This is a Connecticut Shade (ironically, Lyme is named after a town in that state)/Candela barber pole cigar that was a nice, mild to medium smoke with a great burn for a barber pole wrapped cigar. Pendrey Guillen makes some neat patterned cigars in Honduras, many with a camo theme, but they are good cigars beyond the gimmicky aspect, and I don’t know that they are terribly expensive.

 

One last cigar, and nothing new here, actually one of my favorites, one I go to when I just want to enjoy the crap out of a cigar. This category evolves, of course, and there are several cigars in this class. in this humidor, so to speak, as it’s not a physical humidor, although I suppose I could make one humidor just for go-to cigars, are cigars such as Nica Rustica, Cro Magnon (which I don’t stock enough of), Alec Bradley Nica Puro, La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli and Coleccion Reserva, to name a few. Of course, the one I’m talking about now is the Umbagog from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust. This is probably my new favorite. I smoked a Robusto Plus this week and, honestly, is was like smoking dessert.  It was like a rich, raspberry dark chocolate cake, it was so delicious. The wrapper on this one was so pretty that Steve Saka commented on Facebook on it, lamenting the fact that Umbagogs were getting much prettier wrappers than they should and they should cost more than they do. Of course, he also announced price increases on Umbagogs recently, so, coupled with shortages of Connecticut Broadleaf, now is the time to stock up on them. Damn good cigars, and Saka always said the ugly ones tasted best. This one was pretty, I can only imagine…

 

That’s plenty for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | April 2, 2019 · 9:46 am

Podcast: Episode 13: Sunday Funday with Steve Saka

Sunday, March 31, I attended an event at Famous Smokeshop‘s Easton PA. location, where they have their retail store and the Leaf Cigar Bar. They were hosting the Sunday Funday with Steve Saka, which featured an afternoon of Jameson Irish Whiskey, three Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust cigars, and three gourmet donuts.  I managed to get Steve out of his shell for a few minutes, you know how shy he is…so I hope you enjoy listening to this episode.

 


 

This might be the first place you’re hearing about the Polpette, Steve’s mixed filler creation! I smoked it, and it was awesome at 10 days old, and will end up being one of those cigars that people trip over themselves to get ahold of, whether Steve believes it or not! I know it’s been a while between shows, hopefully now that it’s spring, I’ll have more opportunities to  record.  Until the the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | March 24, 2019 · 10:51 am

Rodriguez Cigars, a Few Favorites and a Kentucky Fire Cured Revisit

Spring is upon us finally, although we got through this winter relatively easily. I always look forward to warmer weather!  This week I enjoyed a few cigars I really love, the Umbagog Toro Toro, and the E.P. Carillo Seleccion Oscuro Especial No. 6, both 6″ x 52 parejos that’s my preferred size, and both maduros, with the former being Connecticut broadleaf and the latter being Mexican San Andrés Negro. The two cigars aren’t that similar, but both overwhelm the palate with rich flavors and have heavy espresso notes in common, with Umbagog being sweeter and the Oscuro Especial being earthier and dirtier. I love them both, and never have regrets when I light either one up. They are two cigars I could see having in a rotation (of about 20) if I were to hang up my blog hat and settle into some normal semblance of cigar consumerism. As it is, I like to enjoy one of these every now and again, they are both so good.

 

For some reason I have been wanting to revisit a Drew Estate MUWAT Kentucky Fire Cured lately, and I’m not sure why. I actually really like the Swamp Thang line extension now and then, heck, I’ll just say it, I’d smoke it more than now and then, I don’t so the novelty doesn’t wear off. I didn’t care for the KFC when I smoked a prototype at the factory in Nicaragua in 2013, it was too campfirey for me, but I’ve grown to enjoy the production version after some humidor time, and I have a handful that have been in the humidor for quite a while. So I went all in and grabbed a “Just a Friend” which is the 6″ x 52 toro, again, a size I like, and “fired” it up. I have a couple smaller vitolas, including a Flying Pig, floating around, but I figured I’d commit. It had the campfire on the pre-light, but no hint once lit, which is fine by me. I would put this cigar on the savory end of the spectrum flavor-wise, maybe leathery. It’s good, enjoyable, but I think I like the what the Candela adds to the blend in the Swamp Thang version better, it’s just a little more interesting to me. It’s not a cigar that I’d avoid, that’s for sure.

 

Last week I saw an article on Cigar Aficionados website about the formation of the Coalition of American Cigar Rollers, and one of the companies mentioned was Rodriguez Cigar Factory in Key West, Florida. I hadn’t heard of this factory until a few months ago when my neighbors who winter in Florida happened to send me a box of five of their Reserva Privada series Torpedos from a visit. I had set this little box aside in the humidor not knowing how long it had been out of proper conditions, and kinda forgot about it until this article reminded me of it, so I figured last night would be the right time to give one a try. The Reserva Privada has a four year aged Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, which is on the darker side in my opinion (I wasn’t sure it was Connecticut until looking it up actually), with Nicaraguan fillers and binder, rolled in Key West. The torpedo is a perfectly formed 6″ x 52 with a pointy head like a Perdomo torpedo and burned perfectly with an ideal draw, even though I snipped a rather small bit off the end to start. I was very impressed with this smooth, rich tasting cigar. It was elegant, with a caramel sweetness that was enjoyable. I am a bit jaded, and often go into cigars like this wondering if they will be either just another cigar, or worse, but this was a very nice smoke, and worthy of attention. It’s even priced well for a U.S. manufactured product.

 

That’s enough from me for now. It’s supposed to be nice today, and I have some things I want to get done in the yard, and I have the day off, so there are cigars to smoke too. Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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