It’s always a fun sitting down with Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust at IPCPR. And it was a very good show for the company again this year. After some hot hair talk, we get into the new extension to Todos Las Dias, a 6 x 46 “thick lonsdale” with more of an up-front pepper hit. We also talk about why he prefers that size to the lancero vitola, which is favored by many cigar geeks.

Next we talk about the new Dunbarton “halo product” Sin Compromiso, which features experimental tobacco crops grown exclusively for Dunbarton. The concept behind the San Andres Negra wrapper leaf was inspired by luxury melon growers in Japan. The result of the process is an amplification of all the desirable elements of the San Andres Negra leaf. Because I enjoy asking unusual questions in the trade show setting, I ask Saka about his choice of box color for the Sin Compromiso recalling the industry’s historic aversion to the color green in packaging. It’s Saka, so you know he has a reason behind selecting the color.

Of course we have to touch on the situation with Nicaragua. A lot is still unknown, and Saka predicts that it could be rough going for the next six months or even longer. What that means for Dunbarton in the short term is that the factory is running about eight weeks behind, which may lead to a situation he tries to avoid- backorders. He has a lot of interesting insight into what’s happening.

Finally, we talk about the future of Muestra de Saka. Saka says the next one will be a lancero that may possibly be named the “Now Leave Me The Hell Alone” or “#NLMTHA”. I’m just going to quote Saka on this, “it’s going to be the best lancero I can make, and it’ll still suck.” He’s also looking into making a candela release in the future. That leads into a conversation about the Altemose, a blend he made for his father-in-law that he doesn’t like, but has found ages well.

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