Let's get to know Senor Saka. When you're not working on cigars, what else are you up to?
Barely anything. Seriously, since about August of 2014 I have been dedicating almost every waking hour to tobacco, cigars, and nurturing our small family business Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust. Given the incredible level of competition and the topsy-turvy regulatory environment, there has never been a time in the handmade cigar business as challenging. It requires a tireless amount of work to have any reasonable hope of success. My hope is that if I keep working as hard it will eventually afford me the opportunity to relax a touch in the future.
How'd you get your start in the cigar business?
I was an uber-geek cigar consumer back in the late eighties. By the mid-90s I was spending in excess of $50K a year on cigars and cigar related travels so, to help offset this cost, a friend and I started a website called CigarNexus.com – now defunct, but if you use the Internet’s “way back time machine” you can found the site’s archives.
Essentially, I was the first cigar blogger, but at a time when there were no others, even the term “blogger” hadn’t been coined yet. This then led to my becoming an Executive Consultant to JR Cigar, which was an amazing experience for me as it allowed me to work closely with its owner Lew Rothman, who is often regarded as the most brilliant business man to ever be in our industry. From there, I went on to become a partner and the President of Drew Estate. During my 8-year tenure we developed not only fantastic cigars, but grew to become the third largest handmade Cigar Company in the US. And today, I am doing this… I always say I have arguably the worse career trajectory in the industry, give me a couple of years and I will be sweeping up trimmings off the factory floor.
There really was no master plan; just a series of small events and constant work with a simple mindset of always creating the best has been the catalyst for me.
What does an average day in your life look like?
There is no average day. Some days I am in Mexico inspecting an experimental crop of hybridized San Andreas Negro capa, other days I am in Nicaragua bouncing between the Joya de Nicaraga and Nicaraguan American Cigars factories reviewing production, some days I am computer bound in my office preparing my annual tobacco schedules, monthly production plans and a myriad of other boring, but necessary tasks. Sprinkle in visiting accounts and attending events nationwide and there never seems to be a typical day. The only thing that is consistent is I am perpetually behind on everything.
What sort of challenges do you face running your cigar empire from New Hampshire?
Empire?!?! Setting that wee bit of exaggeration aside, I will be the first to admit it makes little to no sense operating a handmade cigar business from the Great State of New Hampshire. Yes, it is a gorgeous state full of earnest, hardworking people who embrace the “Live Free or Die” mentality and I will readily admit I love being a Granite Stater.
However, given I am in a business that requires endless travel to Central and South America plus travel across the US for tradeshows, events, etc., being located in the far northeast corner of the country makes little sense from an efficiency point of view. Ultimately, none of that matters as my wife was crystal clear with me that if I wished to start another company it had to be done from NH soil. So here I am with snow shovel in hand.
If your regular production cigars were entrees, which type of food would they be?
This is a really odd (aka dumb) question… what am I supposed to say to this? Hmmm, okay if I had to compare handcrafting cigars to an entrée I think I would go with Boeuf Bourguignon. It is the quintessential French classic that appears humbly as a beef stew, but is exceptionally difficult to master. Famed chef Julia Child’s recipe contains over 17 ingredients and took many hours of careful attention to prepare correctly. And when done right, any notion of it just being beef stew disappears with that first spoonful.
Same is true of cigars, it is relatively easy to make a good cigar, but to craft an exceptional cigar that rewards the palate with flavor, lushness and an experience is a much more daunting task. I know it is common for everyone to state there “are so many great cigars in the market,” but this is simply not true. There are a multitude of “beef stew” offerings, but very few “Boeuff Bourguignon” ligas.
Looking ahead, what do you see as a developing trend in the industry?
These are just a few of the trends I see:
- Continued consolidation and buy outs
- More cookie cutter cigars branded more and more intricately
- A continued shift from the traditional brick and mortar retailer in the Social Club and Cigar Bar models with increasing expansion of the Internet segment
- A transition from the legacy mainstream brands into the more innovative ones
- A better educated consumer becoming more prevalent
- Continued growth amongst women and minority consumers
- Expansion of Nicaraguan handmades Internationally with the potential to supplant Habanos S.A.’s dominance
From seed to shelf, what does 'without compromise' really mean?
“Sin Compromiso” is the guiding mantra of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust. For us, it represents doing everything with absolute integrity from the selection of each leaf to the meticulous hand crafting of each vitola. The cigars bearing our name represent a promise to our customers that no expense or time has been spared in our utmost efforts to offer the absolute finest handmade puros bar none.
As a company, we cannot compete on price nor do we have the wherewithal to compete in the arena of marketing or distribution with the big companies. However, we can create and produce exceptional ligas and cigars that are arguably some of the finest ever crafted. So my entire focus is always on the cigars themselves regardless of the cost or effort required to make them of unparalleled quality, consistency and flavor.
When you leave one of your many events, what do you want people to remember about you?
I always wonder what people think when they first meet me at an event. I certainly do not look or act like the typical cigar maker, rather I am a giant-sized, red neck guy who is certainly not the “rico suave” type and who is well known for how brutally plain spoken I can be. Not exactly the image consumers conjure up or to whom the media gravitates toward to satisfy their preconceived notions of who is a master cigar maker.
My saving grace is that I have genuinely become an expert at my chosen craft through decades of study and work. So when afforded the opportunity to talk about tobacco, cigars or the industry, I think I can overcome these preconceived notions. I love to share my passion and educate others, so for me the best events are those where consumers and retailers bombard me with questions. I hope that people, after meeting me, walk with away with a sense that I am authentic, extremely knowledgeable, and understand my never-ending desire to earn their respect one cigar at a time.
Which cigar was made with less compromises, Sin Compromiso or the Unicorn? How do they compare and contrast from the intent to the production to the experience?
Neither really, in fact that is true of all our brands. No less attention to detail or work is put into any of them. I love each of my children, but each is different and each has its own place and provides its own unique smoking experience. The price delta between the various brands is directly related to their cost to manufacture consistently, but is in no way indicative of their quality as a cigar. Think about it in food terms: a dish containing lobster and black truffles is going to be far costlier to make than one comprised of beef and shallots, but that doesn’t mean the beef dish is a lesser experience.
There are two outliers in our portfolio, the Muestra de Saka Unicorn and the Umbagog.
Umbagog is a much more straightforward, simplified blending of Mi Querida utilizing the less aesthetically pleasing broadleaf wrappers. It is a very solid cigar and I would argue the best value at the price point, but it is not as precise as our other cigars. Umbagog production allows us to maintain the extremely high material standards for Mi Querida without us having to raise its price about $3 a cigar.
The Unicorn is a totally different animal. It is the rarest of the rare, a cigar that was intentionally crafted utilizing the most absurd and wholly unnecessary standards and practices with the most carefully curated aged tobaccos possible. It is an act of taking cigar making out the realm of artisan production and making it an expression of pure art. It is a thing of beauty and an amazing smoking experience for the true connoisseur, however I cannot claim it is “seven times better” than my other ligas. Unicorns are not meant to be just smoked, but experienced.
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