A highly-anticipated cigar from Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust is finally arriving at stores.

It’s called Paladin de Saka; it’s the newest cigar from Steve Saka and the latest that is described as what happens when his company uses the best of the best materials. That lineage starts with Sin Compromiso, a cigar whose name translates to without compromise. The idea behind that brand is that it uses a blend that Saka says is made without concern for price or other constraints.

Paladin de Saka is a further refinement of that concept, in that Saka says this cigar uses the best of the materials that are selected for Sin Compromiso, i.e. taking the cream of the somewhat literal crops. Paladin de Saka is a 7 x 50 Churchill that mostly uses the same tobacco varietals as Sin Compromiso: a Mexican San Andrés negro “cultivo tonto” wrapper over an Ecuadorian hybrid habano binder and fillers from Nicaragua. The one difference between this and Sin Compromiso is that Paladin de Saka uses Pennsylvania ligero in the filler. One other difference is that Paladin de Saka uses a regular box press instead of the soft press found on Sin Compromiso.

“Cultivo Tonto” refers to a unique growing method, inspired by how farmers in Japan grow certain fruit. Farmers remove the plant’s lower leaves so that the maximum amount of nutrients can be sent to the upper leaves. Because of this, the yields of these plants are lower and the price for the tobacco is much higher.

Saka previously described the cigar as “a touch more robust” than the regular Sin Compromiso.

The MSRP is set at $29.75 per cigar and it is sold in boxes of 13.

Update — The headline contained a typo, the name of the cigar is Paladin not Palada.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.