Cigar Hunt: Blackbird Superb
I've been holding out on this one.
I picked up the Blackbird Superb Habana in Tennessee last year, on my drive home from CLINK Festival in Chicago, one of those cigars you buy on instinct and then guard like a secret. I got home and immediately ordered a box. This month, for Bourbon Heritage Month, I'm finally opening it up to the table. (And yes, catch us at CLINK again this year on September 20.)
Here's the honest twist. September is Bourbon Heritage Month, and our 6-Year Cask Strength Bourbon is the pour I'd normally hand you to taste that lineage. It's a beautiful match for this cigar — all dessert, if you want it. But the Superb pulled me somewhere I didn't expect: straight to our 10-Year Wheated Whiskey, and a barbecue plate. Let me walk you through why.
Two makers who own what they build
The Blackbird Superb comes out of Jonas Santana's own house — he owns and operates the Blackbird Dominicana factory in the Dominican Republic, and the Superb was his blenders' bid to stand apart from the rest of their flock. It's a 5x54 robusto under an Ecuadorian habano wrapper, medium in strength, with the binder and filler kept close to the chest. I respect a maker who builds his own thing from the ground up. It's the same reason New Dawn exists: grain to glass, made with care, nothing borrowed and nothing to hide. Two makers, one table.
First third: cocoa, pepper, and a thick ribbon of smoke
The first draw is cocoa powder and black pepper riding a thick, rich smoke — the kind that coats rather than drifts. This is where you learn what the cigar is going to do with your whiskey.
Pour the 6-Year cask strength bourbon alongside it and the pepper softens into candied oranges and pecans — dessert territory, warm and generous. But bring in the 10-Year wheated and something more grown-up happens: butter cookies and a thick, Kansas City-style barbecue sauce. That's the moment I knew this wasn't going to be a sit-still-and-sip evening.
Second third: brisket, and the case for eating while you smoke
By the middle third, the Superb Habana is doing something rare for me. Cigars remind me of food all the time, but it's rare that I actually want to eat while I smoke. This one makes me want a barbecue plate in one hand and a pour of the 10-Year in the other. Brisket, this cigar, and the wheated whiskey would be a trifecta of perfection.
Swing back to the 6-Year and you're in all-dessert again — candied oranges, pistachios, chocolate. Both pours are right. But the 10-Year is the one reaching for the smoke and the fat and the char, and holding all of it together.
Final third: richer, smokier, meatier
The finish deepens into a richer, smokier, meatier flavor and the 10-Year rises right up to meet it. With the 6-Year you get browned butter and caramel to close on a sweeter note. With the wheated whiskey, you get the whole savory arc completed. This is a favorite everyday smoke for me — the price, the size, the flavor all land. It's a delicious flavor journey from light to strike, and always a delight.
Why the wheated, and not the bourbon
Even in Bourbon Heritage Month — even with the 6-Year being a genuinely great match — the 10-Year just complements this smoke on another level. Where the bourbon leans into dessert, the wheated whiskey has the softer, more sophisticated, more complex frame to carry the cigar's savory turn. Wheat rounds the edges; age adds depth; and the Superb Habana's cocoa-and-char backbone finally has a partner built for a barbecue table instead of a dessert cart.
That's the whole thesis of New Dawn: additive-free, full-flavored whiskey, sourced from small distillers we're aligned with, chosen by a supertaster's palate and a scientist's patience. I came to this work through my grandfather's Southern kitchen and a PhD in ecology and I'll challenge, quietly, anyone's idea of who gets to be a connoisseur. The palate decides. Not the label.
Pour it yourself
If you want the nirvana version: the Blackbird Superb, a barbecue plate, and a pour of the 10-Year Wheated Whiskey ($99.99). Prefer the dessert route? Reach for the 6-Year Cask Strength Bourbon ($79.99) and let the cigar go sweet.
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Must be 21+. Please enjoy responsibly.
