Powstanie SBC 26 Begins Shipping With Just 10,000 Cigars Produced

Powstanie Cigars has started shipping its newest Small Batch Collection release, and this one comes with a particularly personal connection to the brand.

The Powstanie SBC 26 is now heading to authorized retailers across the United States. The limited-edition cigar is described by the company as Gregg Szczepankiewicz’s passion project, built around an unusually diverse tobacco recipe spanning Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

Production is limited to 500 boxes of 20 cigars, putting total production at just 10,000 cigars.

For Powstanie fans, that alone should make this one worth watching.

A Five-Country Blend

The first thing most smokers will notice about the SBC 26 is the wrapper.

Powstanie uses a barber-pole combination of Ecuadorian Sumatra-seed and Mexican San Andrés tobacco, giving the cigar a dramatically striped appearance that immediately separates it from the company’s core offerings.

Underneath is a Brazilian Mata Fina binder.

The filler gets even more involved.

Powstanie selected Dominican Piloto Mejorado ligero alongside three Nicaraguan tobaccos: Condega, Estelí viso and Pueblo Nuevo ligero from the 2021 crop.

That makes the SBC 26 a blend touching five different tobacco-growing countries before it ever reaches the smoker.

The cigars are being produced at Fábrica de Tabacos NicaSueño S.A. in Nicaragua, the factory responsible for manufacturing the Powstanie portfolio.

Gregg Szczepankiewicz’s Passion Project

Powstanie’s Small Batch Collection has traditionally given the company some room to experiment, but the SBC 26 appears to be especially connected to co-founder Gregg Szczepankiewicz.

Mike Palmer, Powstanie’s National Sales Manager, described the cigar as Brother Gregg’s passion project and said considerable attention went into both tobacco selection and balancing the final blend.

That distinction matters.

Small-batch releases can sometimes become an excuse to simply produce something different. Powstanie’s description of SBC 26 suggests the intent here was more deliberate: build a cigar around tobaccos Gregg specifically wanted to work with and give the blend the time necessary to come together.

Now smokers get to decide whether that work paid off.

And Then There Is the Halfwheel Challenge

Powstanie co-founder Mike Szczepankiewicz also managed to inject a little personality into the announcement.

While praising the work his brother put into SBC 26, Mike singled out halfwheel co-founder Charlie Minato with a playful warning about his eventual review of the cigar.

The message, essentially: this one had better beat an 81.

It is exactly the kind of inside-baseball cigar-industry humor that Powstanie has never been particularly shy about embracing.

Whether Charlie agrees remains to be seen.

Powstanie SBC 26 Blend

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra-seed and Mexican San Andrés
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Dominican Piloto Mejorado ligero; Nicaraguan Condega, Estelí viso and Pueblo Nuevo ligero
Size: 5 1/2 x 46
MSRP: $18 per cigar
Packaging: 20-count boxes
Box MSRP: $360
Production: 500 boxes
Total Production: 10,000 cigars

Why It Matters

There are a few things that make SBC 26 particularly interesting.

First is the barber-pole wrapper. Combining Ecuadorian Sumatra-seed and Mexican San Andrés gives Powstanie more than visual contrast; it introduces two wrapper tobaccos with very different characteristics into the same cigar.

Then there is the filler.

Dominican Piloto Mejorado ligero combined with multiple Nicaraguan growing regions gives the blend plenty of potential complexity on paper, particularly with ligero coming from both the Dominican Republic and Pueblo Nuevo.

But perhaps the bigger story is the scale.

At only 10,000 cigars, SBC 26 is genuinely limited. Once those 500 boxes move through Powstanie’s retailer network, there isn’t much inventory to go around.

For collectors and longtime Powstanie smokers, that is probably enough reason not to wait too long.

Now Shipping

The Powstanie SBC 26 is shipping now to authorized Powstanie retailers throughout the United States.

At $18 per cigar, this clearly sits above the casual impulse-buy range, but the unusual blend, limited production and personal connection to Gregg Szczepankiewicz make SBC 26 one of Powstanie’s more interesting releases of the year.

And eventually, of course, there is another question to answer.

Does Charlie give it better than an 81?

We will be watching too.