PCA 2023: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust

In some ways, the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust company that showed up at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show is the same as last year: the same booth layout, the same furniture, even the same Sasquatch statue to greet people as they walk into the booth. However, it only takes a small amount of digging before the real changes reveal themselves.

I had an appointment with Dunbarton founder Steve Saka scheduled to start immediately after the show floor officially opened. Unfortunately, I was running a bit late after a live interview, so when I actually arrived at the booth, I was far from the first non-Dunbarton employee present. In fact, there were more than 15 people already in the booth when I arrived, and the number only increased in the half hour I was there.

As for Dunbarton’s changes, they have seven new cigars—and a cutter! This represents the highest number of new releases Dunbarton has presented at any show since the company debuted. Saka told me that the total number of cigars Dunbarton will produce this year should land right around the two million mark, an increase from the around 400,000 cigars produced in 2022. This is due to the number of retailers who want to carry Dunbarton cigars. According to Saka, the company had a more than 50 percent increase in appointment requests this year, compared to last.

Oh, and the aforementioned Sasquatch statue? It is painted gold this year.

Polpetta

This former event-exclusive cigar is now offered as a regular production item, though it is still made at the Nicaragua American Cigars S.A. (NACSA) factory in Nicaragua. The Polpetta is a mixed filler cigar, meaning that it uses a whole-leaf wrapper, the same as the other premium cigars we write about, but uses mixed filler: a combination of the longfiller leaves found in a premium cigar and the smaller cuts of tobacco more commonly found in less expensive cigars. In this case, the filler incorporates the cuts from three of the company’s other cigar lines into its filler, specifically Mi Querida, Mi Querida Triqui Traca, and Umbagog.

• Wrapper: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés)
• Filler: Nicaragua

• Polpetta (4 x 48) — $7.30 (Box of 25, $182.50)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: August 2023

Sobremesa Brûlée Blue Unicorn

Sobremesa is one of two new additions to Dunbarton’s Unicorn vitola to debut at this year’s show. It is a 6 1/4 x 60 diadema that was first released in the company’s Muestra de Saka line.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Connecticut)
• Binder: Mexico (Matacapan Negro de Temporal)
• Filler: Nicaragua (Condega C-SG, Pueblo Nuevo Criollo, La Joya Estelí C-98 & ASP Estelí Hybrid Ligero)

• Sobremesa Brûlée Blue Unicorn (6 1/4 x 60) — $100 (Box of 10, $1,000)

Production: 200 Boxes of 10 Cigars (2,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: August 2023

Mi Querida Black Unicorn

Like the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue Unicorn above, the Mi Querida Black Unicorn is packaged in individual coffins, albeit coffins painted black, instead of light blue.

• Wrapper: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés Negro)
• Filler: Dominican Republic, Honduras & Nicaragua

• Mi Querida Black Unicorn (6 1/4 x 60) — $100 (Box of 10, $1,000)

Production: 200 Boxes of 10 Cigars (2,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: August 2023

Mi Querida Black PapaSaka

This is the second new size for the Mi Querida Black line at this year’s show, the first being the Mi Querida Black Unicorn above. That means the Mi Querida Black line now includes three different releases, after the SakaKhan was released in August 2022.

• Wrapper: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés Negro)
• Filler: Dominican Republic, Honduras & Nicaragua

• Mi Querida Black PapaSaka (5 5/8 x 48) — $15.95 (Box of 10, $159.50)

Production: 3,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (35,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: August 2023

Red Meat Lovers Club 

This line debuted in 2019 as an exclusive for Smoke Inn in South Florida, but has now been made into a national release, with two new vitolas named Filet Mignon and Porterhouse. The Beef Stick is the only round cigar in the line, as the other three vitolas are box-pressed.

• Wrapper: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés Negro)
• Filler: Nicaragua & U.S.A. (Pennsylvania)

• Red Meat Lovers Club Beef Stick (6 x 48) — $15.45 (Box of 10, $154.50)
• Red Meat Lovers Club Filet Mignon (5 x 54) — $14.95 (Box of 10, $149.50)
• Red Meat Lovers Club Ribeye (6 x 52) — $15.45 (Box of 10, $154.50)
• Red Meat Lovers Club Porterhouse (6 x 60) — $16.45 (Box of 10, $164.50)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: July 2023

StillWell Star Limited Edition Holiday Y2023

As is the case with past incarnations, the newest addition to Dunbarton’s StillWell Star line is a “luxury pipe tobacco puro” that combines traditional cigar tobacco with a custom blend of pipe tobacco. This version has a new filler blend made up of Cavendish burley, Golden Virginia and Red Virginia pipe tobaccos sourced from Cornell & Diehl.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Connecticut-seed)
• Binder: Mexico (Cultivo Tonto San Andrés Negro)
• Filler: U.S.A. (Cavendish burley, Golden Virginia & Red Virginia)

• StillWell Star Limited Edition Holiday Y2023 (6 x 52) — $15.95 (Box of 13, $207.40)

Production: 3,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (35,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: August 2023

Muestra de Saka Krakatoa

The seventh release in Dunbarton’s Muestra de Saka line, Krakatoa was originally shown off at the 2023 TPE Show in February. Each cigar comes with a spiral colita on the cigar’s head that is designed to look like a volcano, which is fitting since the cigar is named for Krakatau, a volcano in Indonesia regarded as having had the second-most deadly eruption in history, killing approximately 60,000 people in 1883.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano Grade A1)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua (Broadleaf, Criollo & Corojo)

• Muestra de Saka Krakatoa (6 x 48) — $20.75 (Box of 7, $145.26)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: November 2023

Guillotina de Saka

Saka developed this cutter with Luigi Lucente, product development engineer at CigarMedics Inc. The cigar cutter has a number of unique features, including the fact that the 420 stainless steel blade is designed to be easily replaceable by consumers, without having to use any special tools. In addition, the Guillotina de Saka has a different-sized opening on each side of the case. One side is designed to cut cigars up to 48 ring gauge; the other is designed for cigars of 50 ring gauge or thicker.

According to Saka, there are still no plans to sell the cutter on a commercial basis. Instead, cutters from the initial production will be used as contest prizes and as “thank you” gifts to select Dunbarton accounts.

Update (Nov. 20, 2023) — The original version of this article indicated that the Stillwell Star Limited Edition Holiday Y2023 used an Ecuadorian habano wrapper, it is an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper.