Muestra de Saka The Bewitched

Last year, the Owl Shop Tobacconists of Worcester, Mass. celebrated its 75th anniversary with a special cigar from Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust. That cigar—which was created as an exclusive release for the store—got a sophomore release earlier this year as it’s the newest cigar to be part of Dunbarton’s Muestra de Saka Series, a loose collection of various blends and sizes.

“For those of you who know Zack (Photakis) and his shop, please know we do so with his blessing,” said Steve Saka, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust’s founder, in a press earlier this year. “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 Zack 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.”

The Muestra de Saka The Bewitched is the same cigar as the Owl Shop 75th: a 6 5/8 x 48 box-pressed parejo with an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over a Mexican San Andrés “Cultivo Tonto” negro binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the United States. Like the other Muestra de Saka cigars, it is packaged in coffins, with these having a small owl on them as a nod to the Worcester-based store.

Each cigar has an MSRP of $17.95 per cigar and is packed in boxes of seven. The first batch that was released earlier this year contained 2,500 boxes, though The Bewitched is not a limited edition and will be made as an ongoing production cigar.

• Cigar Reviewed: Muestra de Saka The Bewitched
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Fábrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: Mexico (Cultivo Tonto San Andrés Negro)
• Filler: Nicaragua & U.S.A.
• Length: 6 5/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 48
• Vitola: Toro Extra
• MSRP: $19.75 (Box of 7, $138.25)
• Release Date: June 8, 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

After removing the cigar from both a coffin and cellophane, I’m greeted by a great-looking appearance. It’s got a relatively dark brown wrapper with plenty of reds and oil. This is not a wrapper that is going to win a contest for consistent wrapper color, though I’m not sure such competition exists. The box-press on this cigar is pretty firm—not completely angular—but running my hand down the sides of the cigar reveals a number of bumps. The aroma from the wrapper has earthiness and barnyard over some smoky smells that remind me of a campfire. The foot’s aroma is medium-full—a noticeable jump from the medium intensity of the wrapper—and there are flavors of cedar, toastiness and—on one cigar—a smell that reminds me of garlic bread in the oven. Cold draws of The Bewitched have a sweet creaminess that reminds me of tamago, the Japanese fried egg dish, along with touches of cedar and some sweetness that sits on the border between watermelon rinds and floral flavors. While that sounds like it’s very sweet, it’s not that sweet and I also feel like there’s more to be had, but I can only taste a fraction of what the cigar’s cold draw has to offer.

The Muestra de Saka The Bewitched starts with a sharp cedar flavor that seems wrapped up with some toastiness along with touches of black pepper and burnt flavors, around medium-plus. It takes 10 or so minutes, but eventually I find a smoking pace that keeps the smoke production at a healthy level, though the flavor seems to randomly get sharp, almost like the cigar is getting hot. I can taste bread and almond flavors for a few seconds while the smoke is directly interacting with my palate, but then there’s pepper and sharpness that pick up. Underneath the sharpness, there’s some citrus flavors and minerals, but it really feels like the profile is being muted nearly every puff. The finish has nuttiness, sharp earthiness, saltiness and some toasty flavors—everything a bit too aggressive for my liking and seemingly muting additional nuances. Retrohales have woody flavors that remind me of the smells of some pipe tobaccos along with pistachios, liquid smoke and touches of white pepper. Fortunately, the retrohales are a lot less aggressive than the main flavors, so I end up retrohaling a lot more than normal. The finish has more nuttiness along with black pepper, herbal flavors and a dry, multi-grain bread-like flavor. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium-plus. The first cigar I smoke needs multiple touch-ups, but the other two cigars make it through the first third without any deductions for construction.

An unexpected chocolate flavor emerges midway through the cigar, which seems to show there’s more to be had here flavor-wise. Most of the time, the cigar is led by toastiness along with a lot of bourbon-like flavors—woods, pepper, sharpness and semi-sweetness. The finish has a very salty, nutty flavor, which eventually gives way to just saltiness, drowning out some of the sharper pepper flavors. Retrohales have a great woodiness over meatiness, some vanilla and, at times, some fruitiness that tastes a bit like blueberries. Once the smoke leaves my nose, there’s saltiness, woody flavors, meatiness and a bit of black pepper, though still a lot less pepper than what I taste when the smoke is in my mouth. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-full and strength is inching towards medium-full. While the burn line remains quite even, the cigar’s ability to stay lit is not great. On each cigar, The Bewitched just goes out at a random point at least once during the second half of the cigar. This is happening while I am diligently trying to take a puff about once a minute, if not a bit quicker.

The pepper and sharpness are really reduced, something I suspect is the result of the cigar going out and having to be relit, which happens multiple times on two cigars. Flavor-wise, there’s popcorn, nuttiness, creaminess and a bit of pepper. On one cigar, the finish has a mayo-like creaminess and some charred meatiness that reminds me a bit of Burger King, something I haven’t had in at least a decade. It’s not like eating a Whopper, more like what I imagine my mouth tastes like 30 minutes after eating a Whopper. I find it really difficult to pick up much from the retrohale: leather, earthiness and black pepper. There’s some black pepper and meatiness on the finish, but the relights have really impacted the flavor of the retrohale. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium-full.

Final Notes

• I really try to avoid having a cigar go out as I find that it dramatically changes the flavor of the cigar. With The Bewitched, my efforts were unsuccessful, but I think the flavor was a bit better after a relight. It seemed like the sharpness was dramatically reduced which allowed some other flavors to get through.
• Nothing about the cigars’ firmness, draws or weights suggested there were issues with how the cigars were constructed, but the ability for the cigars to stay lit was a clear issue.
• For what it’s worth, I struggled to get inch-long chunks of ash on each of the three cigars I smoked.
• The owl on the coffin reminds me of Drake’s OVO logo, though that logo has the owl’s head to the left of the body.
• The text on one of the coffins made it look like it said “Muestra DB Saka.”
• Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust advertises on halfwheel.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time averaged two hours and 15 minutes.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigar Hustler, Corona Cigar Co., Famous Smoke Shop and JR Cigar carry the Muestra de Saka The Bewitched.

Update (Aug. 8, 2022) — As noted below, an earlier version of this post listed the price as $17.95, it is $19.75 per cigar.

Correction (Oct. 28, 2022) — The original version of this article indicated that The Bewitched had a 50 ring gauge, which is what was announced in the press release about the cigar. However, the packaging and subsequent mentions of the cigar by Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust indicate it is a 48 ring gauge. This post has been updated accordingly.