Dunbarton Sobremesa Tapa Negra Corona Gorda (5.63×48)

There is a moment in every cigar that gets overlooked: the first inch, where your lips actually meet the wrapper before the smoke ever reaches your palate. Steve Saka built the entire Tapa Negra concept around making that moment count differently than the rest of the smoke. In this 5 5/8 x 48 Corona Gorda, the same Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade G2BW wrapper that gives the Sobremesa Brûlée its signature creaminess covers the body of the cigar, but the cap is finished with a Nicaraguan Sun Grown leaf instead, a leaf Saka deliberately chose for the pepper and spice it carries that the lighter Connecticut leaf does not.

The shorter, narrower 48 ring gauge of this Corona Gorda makes that contrast even more pronounced than it is in the larger Toro, since less cigar means the transition between the two wrapper segments arrives sooner and registers more distinctly. Mexican Matacapan negro binder and the same four-component Nicaraguan filler underneath keep the core profile consistent with the Brûlée family. Thirteen to a box, rolled at Joya de Nicaragua in Estelí. The smaller format here is not a lesser version of the experience. It is a more concentrated one.