PCA 2021: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust

Even with a reduced number of booths, there are still at least a few “must visit” companies for PCA 2021. Near the top of that list for most people attending the show would most likely be Steve Saka’s Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, especially after he dropped a bombshell earlier this week with details about what he called “the most controversial cigar released in 2021.”

Yes, the smoking Sasquatch statue made it to PCA 2021 and was front and center welcoming people as they walked into the booth. Speaking of the booth, it was essentially the same layout as 2019, which means that there was product on shelves on both sides, tables in the middle for sales and brand owner Steve Saka sitting in a chair at the far end. I was Saka’s first media appointment of the show, but the booth was already hopping by the time I showed up and stayed that way the entire time I was there.

Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 448

The fifth release in Dunbarton’s Mi Querida Triqui Traca line is the shortest vitola so far, although it features the same ring gauge as the Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 648.

• Wrapper: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua

• Mi Querida Triqui Traca No. 448 (4 x 48) — $8.95 (Box of 20, $179)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: September 2021

Sin Compromiso Paladin de Saka

While the newest addition to Dunbarton’s Sin Compromiso brand uses virtually the same blend as the rest of the cigars in the line, Saka has added an unspecified amount of Pennsylvania ligero in the filler and ages them for a year after being rolled. The resulting blend is “a touch more robust” than the regular Sin Compromiso and the cigar features a regular box press instead of the softer press found on the other Sin Compromiso cigars.

• Wrapper: Mexico (San Andrés Negro “Cultivo Tonto”)
• Binder: Ecuador (Habano)
• Filler: Nicaragua & U.S.A. (Pennsylvania)

• Sin Compromiso Paladin de Saka — $29.75 (Box of 13, $386.75)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: November 2021

StillWell Star

Finally, the details about this release have been made public, and those looking for controversy should be very happy. Put simply, StillWell Star is “the world’s first luxury pipe tobacco cigar”, a hybrid creation blending traditional cigar tobacco leaves and pipe tobaccos. The aforementioned pipe tobaccos were blended by Jeremy Reeves, head blender of the famed pipe tobacco maker Cornell & Diehl, who is himself is a cigar smoker.

Each of the four cigars in the line is the same size and uses the same wrapper and binder, but the filler blends of each incorporate very different combinations of pipe tobaccos, making each a unique experience. Interestingly, while Cornell & Diehl is the supplier of the pipe tobacco for the StillWell Star line, the company is not receiving any additional royalties from the sale of the cigars.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Grade A Habano Oscuro-High Priming)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés Negro Cultivo Tronto)
• Filler: Various

• StillWell Star Aromatic No. 1 (6 x 52) — $15.30 (Box of 13, $198.89) — Includes Black Cavendish, Golden Virginia and Burly pipe tobaccos as well as Nicaraguan leaves in the filler.
• StillWell Star English No. 27 (6 x 52) — $15.30 (Box of 13, $198.89) — Includes Burly and Turkish pipe tobaccos as well as a “generous portion” of Cypriot Latakia pressed cake and Nicaraguan leaves in the filler.
• StillWell Star Bayou No. 32 (6 x 52) — $15.30 (Box of 13, $198.89) — Includes Bright, Red Virginia and St. James  Parish Perique pipe tobaccos as well as Nicaraguan leaves in the filler.
• StillWell Star Navy No. 1056 (6 x 52) — $15.30 (Box of 13, $198.89) — Includes stoved Red and Golden Virginias, a “touch of “Naval Rations,” Orientals and Latakia pipe tobaccos blended with dark air-cured black cigar leaves in the filler.

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: November 2021

Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.