The Sobremesa Brûlée Blue is 6 1/4 x 46 tweaked version of the Sobremesa Brûlée, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust’s Connecticut Shade offering. If you have followed the career of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust owner Steve Saka, you will know that with most of his core lines, he has also released alternative, “tweaked” versions of those blends in a special size. When Sobremesa Brûlée was released, it was intended to be a mild classical style Connecticut Shade cigar that was intended to be just like “your grandfather’s Connecticut Shade” cigar. According to Saka, the blend for the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue has more in the way of richness and depth. Today we take a closer look at the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue.

Grom his time at Drew Estate, one of the best examples of Saka creating a bolder version of a blend is the Undercrown Corona ¡Viva! (which was based on the original Undercrown blend). Since forming Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Saka has done this for four of his regular production lines, with a fifth one planned for late this year. Below is a list of these releases (with the baseline in parentheses).

• 2016: Sobremesa Poco Mas Intensa (Sobremesa)
  • Short Churchill
  • Elegante En Cedro
• 2018: Todos Las Dias Thick Lonsdale Mas Fuerte (Todos Las Dias)
• 2018-2020: Mi Querida Triqui Traca (Mi Querida)
  • Firecracker
  • No 648
  • No 552
  • No 652
  • No 764
• 2020: Sobremesa Brûlée Blue (Sobremesa Brûlée)
• TBD: Sin Compromiso Paladin de Saka (Sin Compromiso)

Today, we’ll turn our attention to the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue and see what this particular cigar brings to the table.

SPECIFICATIONS

Blend and Origin

The Sobremesa Brûlée is not the Sobremesa blend that just has a wrapper replacement. At the time the cigar was announced, Saka explains how the Brûlée was derived from the original Sobremesa blend: “The Brûlée is a variation of the core Sobremesa liga in which the Pennsylvania Seedleaf ligero has been removed, the Condega Seco has been increased and the wrapper is replaced with a top shelf grade of BW Ecuador Connecticut Shade leaf.”

The Brûlée Blue is a tweaked blend, but it still uses the same tobaccos found in the original Sobremesa Brûlée. As with all of the Sobremesa branded cigars in the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust portfolio, production is handled at the Joya de Nicaragua factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

Wrapper: Ecuador Connecticut Shade G2BW
Binder: San Andreas Negro
Filler: Nicaraguan
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Factory: Fábrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua, S.A

Vitolas Offered

Currently the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue is offered in one size – a  6 1/4 x 46 parejo. The cigar is presented in 13-count boxes. This is an ongoing, but more limited production for Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust.

Appearance

The Sobremesa Brûlée Blue’s Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper had a golden brown color. This was a wrapper that had some oil on it but also had a silky complexion. Despite visible wrapper seams and some visible veins, the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue’s wrapper had a relatively smooth surface. The cap is finished with a spiral pigtail.

The Sobremesa Brûlée uses a similar banding scheme to that of the other offerings in the Sobremesa line. It features two bands. The primary band is gold and baby blue (the blue replaces the brown color found on the regular production Sobremesa offerings) and features a large gold crown on the front. The remainder of the band has gold adornments and trim on it.

The secondary band sits on the footer.  The band is baby blue with gold trim. Sitting on the blue background is the text “Sobremesa” in a cursive-styled font.

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw

One note on this spiral pigtail, on two of the three samples smoked, the pigtail came off while sliding the cigar out of the cellophane. In the end, I usually place a straight cut anyway to remove the cap, so this didn’t really result in any adverse effects during the cigar experience.

Once the cap was removed, it was on to the pre-light draw. I know there is an ongoing controversy about sweetened caps on the Sobremesa Brûlée line. With the Brûlée Blue, I will just say that this was a very sweet cap. The sweetness had a touch of artificial quality to it. I was still able to derive some cream and cedar notes. One thing that I will say is that while the cap was sweet, it didn’t leave a residual sweetness on the tongue like some of the STFU! sample cigars did. I consider this a satisfactory pre-light draw experience. At this point, it was time to remove the footer band of the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue, toast up the cigar and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Tasting Notes

The Sobremesa Brûlée Blue started out with notes of butter, sweet cream, nut, and black pepper. Early on, the sweet cream and butter notes moved into the forefront. These were balanced out by the nut and black pepper notes in the background. On the retro-hale, there was an additional layer of black pepper along with some cedar.

As the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue moved into the second third, sweet cream and butter notes remained in the forefront. Some cedar notes emerged on the tongue and began to increase in intensity. By the midway point, the cedar notes joined the butter and sweet cream notes in the forefront.

The last third saw the butter, sweet cream, and cedar notes remain in the forefront. The black pepper notes had increased in intensity but didn’t cross the threshold out of the background There also were some residual nut flavors in the background. This is the way the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue came to a close. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn

The Sobremesa Brûlée Blue gets high scores for its burn. This was a cigar that needed little in the way of touch-ups in order to maintain a straight bun and straight burn path. The ash was relatively firm and had a charcoal gray color. As for the burn rate and burn temperature, both were ideal.

Draw

The draw also scored nicely on the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue. It had a touch of resistance which I have stated repeatedly is ideal in my book. At the same time, this was a low-maintenance cigar to derive flavor from.

Strength and Body

Overall the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue was a bolder cigar than the original Sobremesa Brûlée. The oriiginal Sobremesa Brûlée Blue delivered a medium strength, medium-bodied cigar experience from start to finish. There was not much variance in the intensity levels of the strength and body. During the smoking experience, the body had a slight advantage.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

While I thought the original Sobremesa Brûlée was a satisfactory cigar, whatever tweaks Saka made for the Sobremesa Brûlée Blue really came through with flying colors. The flavors were definitely on the richer side, and it emphasizes some of the creaminess that many look for on a Connecticut Shade color cigar. With some spice and sweetness in the mix, this makes Sobremesa Brûlée a winner. I also think the 46 ring gauge was the sweet spot for this particular blend. This is a cigar I could recommend to any cigar enthusiast. It’s a cigar I would buy and smoke again. If you can find one, this cigar deserves box-worthy consideration. At 91 points, this cigar exceeds to Cigar Coop Standard of Excellence profile.

Summary

Key Flavors: Sweetened Cream, Coffee, Bread, Pepper, Butterscotch, Wood
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium Minus
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Very Good

Rating

Value: Box Worthy Consideration
Score: 91

References

News: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust to Add Two New Sizes for Sobremesa Brûlée in 2020
Price: $14.95
Source: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
Brand Reference: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop