Mi Querida SakaKhan

You may or may not know Steve Saka. If you don’t know him, allow us to introduce him. Up until 2013, he was gaining legions of fans with Drew Estate when he decided to retire. But in 2015 he started Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and he was back making delicious top-shelf cigars, including the top rated and hugely popular Sobremesa which we featured last year. Meaning ‘my mistress’ in Spanish, Mi Querida is the second release from Saka and we think it’s a perfectly fitting name coming from a man who makes no secret of his love affair with tobacco. The Mi Querida hails from Estelí, Nicaragua and features both long-fillers and a binder from Nicaragua with a seamless, dark, toothy, and oily Connecticut wrapper. Medium to full in body, this smoke starts with notes of chocolate and sweetness evolving into complex notes of coffee, pepper, and warm earthiness as you continue down to the nub. Rolled to near perfection, pair it with a black coffee.

The Nicaraguan cigar industry originated when Cuban cigar makers escaped the revolution and re-established their livelihood in Nicaragua with Cuban-seed tobacco. Blessed with dark, rich soil, their new home was ideal for tobacco cultivation and Nicaragua quickly became known for cigars that rivaled Cuban quality. Unfortunately, revolution and war came to Nicaragua in the 1980s and devastated the industry, but it’s rebounded dramatically and is once again producing tobacco considered by many to be the finest in the world.

The Esteli Valley is in many ways the heart of Nicaraguan production and is known for its very powerful and spicy tobacco. The Jalapa Valley produces arguably the finest tobacco in the country: somewhat sweeter and less intense than Esteli, but extremely complex. The tobacco of the Condega Valley is often described as a blend of the other two regions.