For one of his new lines, Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust challenged himself to make an exceptional cigar from the most difficult priming of Florida Sun Grown tobacco, a varietal that he has admitted he hasn’t been much of a fan of, regardless of where it is grown. He seems to have produced a cigar that met the challenge, as this week he  announced that the FSG Black Angus is slated for release in 2023.

Specific details about the cigar are still be worked out, as in a Facebook post, Saka said that things like cost and packaging haven’t been addressed yet, as he thought such an undertaking “might finally be a Rubicon I couldn’t cross.” After working through 40 blend iterations, Saka presented the final blend to Jeff Borysiewicz of Corona Cigar Co. and Florida Sun Grown tobacco earlier this week. Borysiewicz gave the blend his approval and the project got the green light to move forward for release at some point next year.

All that has been said about the blend is that it uses the top corona leaves of the plants, “the ligero of the ligero” as Saka called it, noting that it is “the most robust…sticky and thick, bursting with oil and FSG flavor.” His goal was to build a blend around those leaves that would not only be luxurious, but would maintain the integrity of the tobacco’s inherently twangy nature.

“In short, I wanted to make a cigar that FSG fans would love, while also one that would blow the minds of FSG deniers like myself,” Sake wrote. “And selfishly, I wanted to go toe-to-toe with all the fantastic, legendary companies with whom he (Borysiewicz) has worked and prove I could make not just a substantial addition to the FSG family, but one worthy of possibly being regarded as the best.”

Saka added that the project will be an extremely limited one due to the limited amount of what he called “FSG King Corona” leaf, and noted that the final cigar “will not be for the wallet shy.”

Overall Score

Avatar photo

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for MLB.com, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.