Vitola: Toro Toro- 6” x 52 ring gauge
- MSRP $8.45
- Purchased at Maxamar/Small Batch
Background
Around the time of the 2016 IPCPR show, it appeared we were going to get a full-fledges “War of the Broadleaves” between Steve Saka (Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust) and Nick Melillo (Foundation Cigars). I reviewed “top line” cigars from them both, preferring Steve’s Mi Querida to Nick’s Tabernacle…though not by a huge amount…then I reviewed Nick’s Charter Oak Maduro and waited for a chance to hit Steve’s Umbagog. It took almost a year, but I finally got that chance.
The basic premise behind Umbagog is that with all the leaf Dunbarton has to buy for a steady supply of Mi Querida, there is a certain amount of it that isn’t up to Steve’s standards, but he wants to use it somewhere rather than absorb the cost of the wasted leaf into Mi Querida’s price tag. He describes the cigar thusly:
“’Oom-BA-gog’” is a perfect cigar for my time spent in the great outdoors. Named after my favorite fishing lake, it is robust and durable, designed to endure the rigors of outside activity with its thick broadleaf capa and easy burning liga. This is a cigar that doesn’t pretend to be special or seek to elicit the ‘oohs or aahs’ of the cigar snobs. It is an honest, hardworking cigar that is meant to be smoked, chewed upon and lit however many times you wish. For me, it is the perfect cigar for mowing the yard, hiking, four wheelin’ and of course, fishing!” (quote taken from Cigar-Coop’s review)
This liga has Nicaraguan filler and binder leaves underneath its Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper. I bought a couple of them when I was out in California, saving one for this review. Steve won the “high-end” part of the War of the Broadleaves…let’s see how he fairs in the “budget battle.”
Prelight
The “honest, hardworking cigar” ethic is taken seriously with the packaging. Umbagog comes in a paper 10-pack adorned with just a tobacco plant diagram. Remove the cigars from the pack and they are cellophane-wrapped without the barcode stickers that are on the rest of DTT’s lines. The band is plain paper flood-coated in olive green ink with white reverse-out name and trim.
Looking at the wrapper itself, I couldn’t see any obvious reason it was demoted to the Umbagog line. It looked intact with no blemishes. The dark chocolate brown color had some darker mottling, but just about every other Connecticut Broadleaf-wrapped cigar (including Mi Querida) shares that characteristic. The wrapper was oily and almost velvety feeling under my fingertips, with just slightly raised veins. It had an earthy aroma to it with maybe a touch of freshly-ground coffee. The foot had notes of earth, cedar and cocoa powder.
I clipped the Umbagog with my regular Xikar Xi cutter and got a great draw that tasted of cocoa powder, earth and wood.
Flavor
Firing up the Umbagog, it started up with a solid earthy flavor, backed up with cocoa and cedar, along its the slightest peppery twinge on the palate. The retrohale had a stronger cocoa and dark-chocolate note to it, along with a heavier influx of black pepper. The cigar got sweeter as the first third burned along so that dark chocolate was the primary flavor, backed up by earth and an increasing pepper spice.
The second third continued with semisweet chocolate notes, enhanced by a chewy nuttiness, earth and cedar, along with the red pepper backing it all up.
Earthier notes came back to the fore in the last third, with the sweeter flavors playing a supporting role and pepper keeping a solid burn underneath.
Construction
I had a great draw, very even burn line and ash that held on for up to an inch at one point.
Value
Here’s where my basic problem with this cigar starts…$8.50 isn’t really much of a “bargain cigar.” When I first looked into Umbagog, the price difference was even less than the $2 differential it is right now (Mi Querida Ancho Largo currently has an MSRP of $10.45).
Conclusions
Umbagog is a very good cigar on its own and definitely something I would smoke again. But, I still like Mi Querida better. If the price difference were more than $2–or if it were more definitively “different” from Mi Querida–I would feel a little more inclined to give it a stronger recommendation, but as it is, I struggle to find a reason to buy it for myself. For comparison’s sake–and to bring it back into perspective of the “War of the Broadleaves” nonsense I was trying to stoke before, Tabernacle sells for about $10 – $14 (depending on size) while Charter Oak Maduro is $5 to $7…there’s a massive amount of price difference AND the flavor profile is huge. While I’m going to choose Charter Oak for a cheaper “everyday” cigar and Tabernacle for a higher-end “treat,” with the smaller differential in price and flavor profile of the Dunbarton blends, I’m just always going to pick Mi Querida.
12/4/17: I made some changes to the verbiage and explanation of my decision based on some additional pricing information and clarification from Steve Saka. In the end, though, it didn’t change the score I gave.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 9/10
