Aaron Loomis

 Seth Geise

Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper on the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27 is a marbled dark brown and has a couple of decently raised veins present. The seams are a bit raised while the caps are perfectly applied. There are two bands, both with a blue and gold color combination. The primary band has a star and some border artwork while the foot band denotes the line and version. The aroma from the wrapper is dead on Lagavulin 16 peated whisky. The foot brings a denser version of the same aroma. The pre-light draw isn’t very full, but it gives a heavily peated whisky note in a subtle delivery if that makes any sense.
Seth: Beautiful in appearance, the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27 sports a Colorado Maduro wrapper that has some tooth and veins scattered throughout. Veins are medium in size. Nice classic brown coloring. Slightly oily and fine grit texture. Aromas of peaty Scotch, tobacco, rich earth and minerals.

Team Cigar Review: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with slightly smoky oak and light, dry earth. At a half inch in, I begin to get a bit of peatiness. The retrohale is providing some of the nice pipe tobacco notes along with toasted oak. At an inch in, the pipe tobacco notes start showing up on the mouth draws, replacing the lone peatiness, as they are just behind the dry earth and further behind the smoky oak which is now slightly toasted. As the third comes to a close, the profile remained smoky, toasted oak up front, dry earth a bit behind with the pipe tobacco notes in the background. The retrohale maintains a fuller version of the pipe tobacco notes. The strength was slightly below medium.
Seth: The cigar opens with soft peaty Scotch flavors that are paired with sweet spices, soft earth, honey and fruit bread qualities. Long finish on the cigar, and I would classify the cigar as medium in strength and body.

Team Cigar Review: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27

Second Third

Aaron: The second third continues where the first third left off. At a half inch in, the pipe tobacco notes start fading from both the mouth draws and the retrohale. The profile is now exhibiting a slightly stale version of the smoky and toasted oak. At an inch and a half in, the fullness of the profile picks up a bit, including the pipe tobacco notes. The retrohale is now a bit muddled, with the toasted oak, dry earth and pipe tobacco notes jumbled together. As the third comes to a close, the toast level of the oak picks up as the pipe tobacco notes are barely hanging on. The strength in this third bumped up to medium.
Seth: The second third is a continuation of the first third. Not worse or better. It is identical. Medium in strength and body with flavors of peaty Scotch, honey, soft earth and sweet spices.

Team Cigar Review: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27

Final Third

Aaron: The final third begins with heavily toasted oak up front, dry earth a bit behind and very subtle pipe tobacco notes in the background. The retrohale isn’t as muddled now as each component is more defined in the grouping. At an inch in, the pipe tobacco notes are now only barely detectable on the retrohale and gone from the mouth draws. As the cigar comes to a close, the heavily toasted oak is up front with some mustiness and dry earth a bit behind. The strength remained at medium.
Seth: The final third is right in line with the first and second third. Notes of soft earth, peaty Scotch, sweet spices, honey and fruit bread notes. Medium in strength and body.

Team Cigar Review: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27

Burn

Aaron: The burn was a bit wavy at times but always self corrected. The cigar did go out twice, requiring re-lights.
Seth: Very good burn throughout.

Team Cigar Review: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27

Draw

Aaron: The draw was slightly tighter than I prefer, but didn’t cause any issues with the smoking experience.
Seth: Very nice draw from start to finish.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with slightly smoky oak and light, dry earth. Some peatiness joined in fairly quickly and then the pipe tobacco notes replaced the peatiness. The oak also gained a toasted note. The second third saw the pipe tobacco notes fade back a bit. The final third saw the pipe tobacco notes completely fade out and the toast level became pretty heavy. The Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27 started well as the peatiness and later pipe tobacco notes were enjoyable. As they waned in the next two thirds, the profile was fairly average. I’ll agree with what Seth said in the Aromatic review that the vitola of this series isn’t the best format to showcase the pipe tobacco components. It’s just too long of a smoking experience to keep the flavor/engagement component. It’s nice for a short time, but then becomes a bit mundane.
Seth: I have a feeling I will be summarizing all these Stillwell cigars the same. Too expensive and too big. They should have just created a petit corona. I don’t think pipe smokers are going to buy into these cigars, and cigar smokers are going to get too tired of the flavor profile and it will not be to their liking. Samplers of all the blends are the way to sell these cigars. They are fun to try out and see how the tobacco smokes, but too large of a cigar. Too lacking as well. The earth, honey, and peaty Scotch flavors of the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27 were fun for like 5 minutes.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.65

Cost/Point

$2.71

Scoring System

Seth Geise

SCORE

5.50

Cost/Point

$2.78

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star English No. 27