Dunbarton cigars

Steve Saka ran Drew Estate as president and later CEO from 2005 through 2013, presiding over the company's rise into one of the most influential forces in premium cigars. When he departed, he took with him a deep command of Nicaraguan tobacco, a network of growers and factory relationships built over nearly a decade, and clear opinions about what he wanted to do differently. Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust launched in 2015 as the answer — a boutique built entirely around his own blending instincts, with no outside investors and no compromises in sourcing.

The name is geographic: the company is headquartered in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, where Saka and his wife and business partner Cindy live. The "Trust" refers to the early twentieth-century bank building that houses the company's offices — a detail that signals the brand's attention to backstory. Cigars are produced in Nicaragua, where Saka's relationships with producers give him access to aged and estate leaf that boutique newcomers cannot easily source.

Sobremesa and Mi Querida launched together as the debut releases and received near-unanimous praise from critics. Sobremesa — the Spanish word for the post-meal table conversation — is a nuanced, medium-to-full Nicaraguan blend that rewards slow smoking, built to be enjoyed in exactly the unhurried way the name implies. Mi Querida ("my darling") leans darker and fuller, with San Andrés and Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper options across its various expressions. Todos Las Dias ("every day") was designed as an approachable daily smoke at a more accessible price, and Muestra de Saka functions as a limited-production experimental series — small lots of one-off blends and vitolas that reflect whatever Saka is exploring at a given moment.

Dunbarton distributes only through specialty retailers and keeps production deliberately limited.