Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor

Wrapper: Ecuadorian

Binder: Nicaraguan

Filler: Nicaraguan, Dom, USA

Profile: Medium+

Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust has built a reputation for creating cigars with personality, and Muestra de Saka gives him room to venture beyond the usual boundaries. Translating to “Samples of Saka,” the series serves as a home for experimental blends and vitolas, allowing Saka to explore tobaccos and ideas that might not otherwise find their way into his regular portfolio. Each release is made in extremely limited quantities and appears periodically throughout the year.

Unstolen Valor is particularly unusual because Saka didn't blend it himself. Instead, the cigar was created by the master blender at NACSA, resulting in an expression that stands apart within an already unconventional series. An Ecuadorian wrapper covers a Nicaraguan binder and a multinational filler blend using tobaccos from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and the USA.

The profile brings together black pepper and cherries, with spice, earth, and sweetness continuing to build as the cigar progresses. Saka himself may have described its personality best:

From Steve Saka: “I was trying to think of the simplest way to describe the flavor profile I get from this cigar... and honestly it reminds me of Cholula Chili Garlic pepper sauce - just the right amount of spice with a touch of earth and a tingly sweet finish. Both the spice and sweetness build, it is one of those cigars you just want to burn your fingers with...”

Unstolen Valor was awarded the #12 Cigar of the Year for 2020 by Halfwheel, adding another distinction to one of the more unique releases within the Muestra de Saka collection.