Three Spirits and a Cigar
This format is to do a comparison-pairing between three liqueurs and one cigar. There are three aim I am looking for. The first is which of the three combinations complement each other. The second aim is which combination let the spirit stand out. And the 3rd is what combination lets the liqueur stand out and the cigar is the tag along. Sometimes, you have a cigar you really like and you just want some spirit to sip while you enjoy the cigar. Then there are other times that is reversed and you have some alcohol (be it beer, wine, or spirit) you want to enjoy, and just want a cigar to puff o as well.
Then there is the primary aim and that is to find the combination where the cigar and one of the liqueurs pair well with each other.
In this session we are match Tequila with a Gurkha Pure Evil.
The Gurkha Pure Evil has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaragua binder, and Nicaragua filler. And it is stated to be medium-full strength.
For the spirits we are doing tequila. The choice of the cigar was because the name “pure evil” seemed to match tequila. For the tequila we have a big brand Patron, a pure craft tequila LALO, and a Celebrity one Santo (made by Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar, though these guys are serious about products they create).
The Patron is friendly and easy to find. It is created in a large volume, it is unlikely to be pure Agave. The LALO and Santo are said to be pure agave (note these days tequila is very popular and agave plants take 12+ years to fully mature. To keep up with the demand, the agave plants are often harvested sooner than ten years and distillers have to had sweeteners and other things match the mature plant. This matters more to some and less to others.
In our comparison the Patron is pleasant and slightly the sweetest of the three tequilas. The LALO is the more balanced and good tequila flavor. The Santo is an 110 proof tequila and it kind of matches the LALO, but the 110 proof has some heat to it, and a stronger overall flavor.
The Gurkha Pure Evil has notes of sweet raisin and black pepper. The sweet raisin stayed the dominate flavor note, and the black pepper stayed in the back ground (but is noticeable).
Patron and Gurkha Pure Evil
With the patron the Gurkha ruled the show. The cigar was the dominate part of this pairing. Sipping Patron and a Gurkha Pure Evil, Patron is the compliment to the cigar. If you are enjoying a Gurkha cigar and fancy some tequila, the Patron is a nice choice. This would be true in general with most cigars. If you just want some tequila with your cigar, the Patron is good.
With the LALO and the Gurkha Pure Evil, this is the nicest pairing. The tequila offers enough flavor and sweetness to bring out in the cigar, and the black pepper note in the cigar bring out the agave flavor. These two match each other nicely. This is the two when you want the cigar and tequila to match each other. LALO in general seems to do that with most cigars.
With the Santo and its 110 proof, Santo is the big dog. The extra punch makes it the tequila for sipping when you also want a cigar. The Gurkha is up to the 110 proof, but it is the tag along dog in this hunt. That being said, the Santo and Gurkha is a good match. It is just the tequila here is going to dominate. And as a side note some full strength Nicaragua cigar would be able to run with this tequila. And maybe a Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich Maduro Robusto, Guy Fieri’s cigar brand.
Materials
Cigar
Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich – Maduro Robusto made in Nicaragua by Espinosa for Guy Fieri, the chef, TV personality, and business person. Guy Fieri is also the creator (along with Sammy Hagar) of Santo tequila. This cigar has an Ecuadorian wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler. It is priced around $12. Thw word is Guy wanted to create his own cigar but not call too much attention to it. He wanted the cigar to stand on its own and not be a celebrity product.
Tequila’s
One word about tequila, it is made from the Blue Agave plant. An Agave plant takes 8-12 years to mature. That is needed to get the sugars and natural sweetness when making Mezcal and Tequila. The growing popularity of tequila has put a strain on producing enough mature plants. Because of that some distillers will add fillers, coloring and sweeteners, to compensate for using agave plants not mature enough. Past rules allowed for a percentage of coloring and sweeteners and still label and sell the product as pure.
One other point. Tequila and Mezcal has had the rep of being nasty and something less than pleasant. Everyone is said to have a bad tequila story. The truth those were bad or not really tequila is some cases. But there are good tequilas and Mescals. You just have to do you home work to find them. The three I have used here are good to very good. All three are sippers.
Patron is labeled as pure. They have made efforts with governing bodies to verify if a tequila is pure. Patron is a big brand spirit that is available around the world. So if the producers have access to the amount of mature agave, is a good question.
That being said, Patron is a pleasant spirit. It is mellow and mild with a sweet pleasant flavor. I keep a bottle around for the tequila I use for mixed cocktails. If you are at a social function or beach holiday and someone wants to do a shot of tequila, reach for the Patron.
LALO is one of the tequila’s that is pure blue agave. It is more a small batch brand. It may not be available in your area. This tequila falls into the sipping a good tequila. The place you want to enjoy the spirit, but not punish yourself. This is also a newer brand. Until recently they only produced the blano version.
Santo is made by Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar. Of all the celebrity brands, this one is more than ego. They are serious about the things they do. And they both will be the first to point out their fails. Santo as a brand is pretty good. The one I do here is different in that it is 110 proof. It is much harder to find a tequila that is more than 80 proof. Santo does make a blanco bottle that is 80 proof. I just went for the 110 proof version. I wanted to see if it stood up to a stronger cigar.
I will do a comparison of the Santo 80 and 110 proof tequilas in the near future.
Cigar Review Morning Cigar
Privada Cigar Club – Cookie (Kooke) Maduro, Connecticut, and Habono
It is of course a personal preference what cigars we each like as a morning cigar, with coffee. Some people like a stronger cigar no matter the time of day, while others want a lighter one. In that case one of these Kooke cigars from Privada will do the trick. And each of these cigars works well as a morning cigar. These three cigars has a slight sweetness (but not too much so). That helps work for me as when I have a morning cigar I like to do as the French and Italians do, and have pastry or doughnut, and coffee with one of these cigars.
For coffee I have tried each with both an Americano and a cappuccino. Both work. I did go with the Americano when I paired the cigars with doughnuts. That just seemed natural in that coffee and doughnut thing. In trying each cigar I had French Madeleine cookies (which is more cake-like than crunchy cookie), a cherry-pistachio pastry, and cake doughnut (each I made myself).
And for the record, I included a glass of orange juice. To make it a balanced breakfast. I am sticking to that claim.
The Connecticut Kooke is a classic light-medium cigar
The Connecticut Kooke to me, works as a good morning cigar paired with coffee and a pastry. A Connecticut cigar (those on the light-medium side of things) does not blowout your palette. The Connecticut Kooke is both smooth and creamy. It balances well with coffee and a pastry.
The Haburo Kooke is kind of in between the Connecticut and the Maduro. The Maduro Kooke has the same underlying sweetness and creamy of the Connecticut, but is a little more medium strength to it.
The Maduro Kooke is the strongest of the three options. It also has the sweet-creamy elements of the other two, but it is by far the fuller strength. In trying to have a balance of the cigar, coffee, and baked good, the Maduro in less a balance and more of the star of the show. If you are just having this cigar with coffee being a side player, the Maduro Kooke is the one to go with.
All three Kooke cigars from Privada are very good cigars, and well worth a try. They each work just as a cigar. You can smoke each of them as you would any cigar you like. My aim was to see which of the three cigars worked best for me as a morning cigar, and in the matching with coffee and a baked good. For me the Connecticut worked the best (though many light to medium Connecticuts will work just as nice). I just thought Cookie-Kooke made it more fun. I wanted to try them and had several PTO days and holidays off between Thanks Giving and Xmas and New years, so I made it a thing.
Small Form Cigars and Cocktails – Keeping a Mini-break in the ready
The old saying went “stop and smell the roses”. It is just enjoying life and small parts of it. Taking a just a small amount of time to be focused and in that few ticks of the clock. Life can be busy and complicated. We do not as often as we like to light up a 6X60 cigar, nor pour a few ounces of that barrel proof whiskey. The demands of life often gets in the way of such things.
An off set of the bigger cigar and stronger whiskey, is going to a smaller cigar and a 2.5 oz cocktail. A cigar the that is 4 to 4.8 inches and 38-50 ring gage. The size of cigar that takes 45 minutes or less to smoke. And the cocktail size like the old time martini size glass, that are 3 oz’s or less. This setup is enough to give you that brief time to take a break and enjoy a few minutes enjoying life.
The aim is to recharge you just a little. It is to give yourself some time without impacting too much of all the other demands you face. It is also not intended to be an everyday thing or habit. It is the mirroring the stop and smell the roses moments. Those times when normal life gives you the chance to take brief pauses.
So have on the ready a selection of small form cigars. Those cigars that are less than 5 inches in length and 38-46 rig gages. Cigars that you can smoke in 45 minutes or less. These cigar sizes tend to be flavorful. And are smoked long enough to give you a 30-45 minute chill out time.
The cigars I smoked as research (let’s call it that okay) were a Partagas Heritage 4.5X50, Rocky Dale Davis Artist series by Privada Cigar Club 4X46, German Engineered Cigars by Privada Cigar Club 4×50, Arturo Fuente Hemingway 4X48. Drew Estate Liga Privaga H99 Papa Fritas, Davidoff Signature series 2000 5X43, and MyFather Le Bijou 1922 Petit.
There are countless others, so it is personal preference what you select for yourself.
The cocktail
The cocktails I focused on traditional ones that are served up (as they say). This included the Gin Martini, a Manhattan, and a Rob Roy (a Manhattan by made with a scotch whisky instead of Bourbon or Rye). I choose and suggest a served up cocktail adds a sense of indulgence. A lot of us like neat pours of whiskey with cigars, the served up cocktail is intended to be a little outside the normal habit. The whole format is to give us a break in the normal day. A served up cocktail aims to do that here.
The original martinis were serviced very cold and in these 3 oz cocktail glasses. Today retailers may even call the original martini glass minis. A good deal of the served up cocktail glasses are 6-12 ounces. In the past they would make pitchers of the drink and serve in these 3 oz glasses. In our smell the rose moment, we are having a single cocktail, so the traditional glass sizes will do.
The overall aim is to give yourself an adult time out to relax and take a short break. I am to want to do this rarely enough to give the results more impact. They are mini-vac’s and treats. Too often and the experience becomes a habit and loses the special break. But there are no hard rules here. Some may have a morning cigar and coffee or walk the dogs for 30 minutes. My favorite is a mid week cigar and martini under my garden cherry tree in the summer.
Three Whiskies and a Cigar
As a person who with cooking is good with putting flavors together, comparisons of other tastes fit my jive. Toward that end I started seeing how three different spirits and one cigar compares?
This session I picked a Colorado distillery AD Laws. AD Laws tends to receive high praise from whiskey affinatios. The brand is different than most classic whiskies, in that, their products are more complex and less sweet (maybe closer to a Four Roses and Hudson’s, less Buffalo Trace).
A key to a spirits and cigar comparison is do you want/need a spirit and cigar to balance each other, or does the cigar or whiskey need to complement the other? Sometimes you may want a whiskey to complement the cigar you are smoking, or vice versa. And other times you want the two things to fit well together.
For the comparison I choose AD Laws Four Grain Bourbons, the Farmers Select 94%, Four Grain Straight Bonded 6 years age, and Four Grain Straight Bonded 8 years age.
For the cigar I selected a Liga Privada no. 9 Double Robusto. Liga Privada is a premium brand. One of the better one. They do tend to be hard to find at times because of supply and demand. Cigars are after all handmade.
I knew what I was getting with the cigar, and I knew that AD Laws are spirits that are distinctive. Would the two things work well together?
From the start, the first factor is all three of the AD Laws bourbons are not sweet on the nose (smell). Some people like rum with cigars because rum tends to be sweet. Slipping the AD Laws bourbon with smoking the Liga is a contrast pairing than complementing one. That was my expectation going into the comparison, so now surprise. From that than is the comparison question, which bourbon paired the best (by my personal tastes of course)?
At the first stage of pouring one oz of whiskey into three glasses, AD Laws can have a strong spirits smell and there is not much sweetness, on the nose. For a comparison reason I started to sniff the whiskies and puff on the cigar. I wanted to see if the cigar flavors were buried by the whisky’s strength of flavor. At that stage the two things stood up to each other and in a pleasant way. As the whiskies sat in the glasses each mellowed a little and some of the bourbon sweetness poked through.
In the first 1/3 of the cigar the 8-year-old bonded bourbon paired with the Liga cigar the best. The 8-year-old bonded bourbon had a little more sweetness in both flavor and nose than the 6-year-old bonded, or the Farmers Select. The Farmers select tend to be thinner in this comparison than the other two bourbons, with the Liga #9 cigar. It would pair better with a mild Connecticut style cigar.
Round one winner AD Laws Four Grain Bonded 8-year-old Bourbon
Moving into the middle part of the cigar, the point most cigars shine and have the best flavors, it was again the 8-year-old bourbon that paired the best. There was still more a contrast pairing than a complement one. However, as a contrast pairing the whiskey and cigars worked nicely together. The 6-year-old bourbon was fine. The difference I think between the 6 and 8 bourbons is just the two years maturity of the spirit in the barrels. Most bourbons need at least 4 years and less than 15 to be want we want (note unlike single malt scotch, bourbons do not always improve with too much aging). The Farmers Select throughout the comparison was overpowered by the cigar. The 8-year-old bourbon and the best flavor section of the cigar just match event better.
Round two winner AD Laws Four Grain Bonded 8-year-old Bourbon
The Last 3rd of the Cigar
Moving into the last 3rd of the cigar, most cigars when you smoke them into this part of the cigar, the cigar will be concentrated, strong taste and often pepper and strong coffee notes. With the Liga the flavors were more balanced throughout the whole cigar. The stronger smoke, pepper, and coffee were hints to the flavor in the last 3rd of the cigar. This will be the case with most cigars and what you are drinking (other than Cuban or Espresso coffees).
By the last 3rd of the cigar the Farmers Select was just buried. The 6-year-old would be nice if you wanted to slip some bourbon while the cigar is the star of the show. Though a traditional bourbon under $30 would be a good choice for that case. It was again the AD Laws 8-year-old bourbon that worked the best for me pairing with the Liga. The AD Laws 8-year-old bourbon took the lead from start to finish and never looked back.
The winner of round three and the comparison AD Laws 8-year-old bonded bourbon
Side notes
Going back to if you want a contrast or complement pairing, the cigars I may suggest if you want a whiskey with the Liga would be a Johnny Walker Green scotch, a Wild Turkey 101 or Buffalo Trace bourbon. If you want a cigar to balance with the AD Laws, maybe a Punch or Camacho or like full strength cigar. In the future I plan on repeating the AD Laws with Liga pairing but with the Rye selection of Laws.
References and notes
The Art of Things – Travel Cigars and More
Carnival Breeze
Just as is with Cigar smoking on dry land, smoking cigars on a cruise ship is also difficult. There are an array of difficulties, problems, and issues. However, smoking cigars on a cruise ship (in this case the Carnival Breeze), is very possible. This article will try and provide the how’s and what to dos.
Smoking policy – Where can I smoke?
There are strict smoking policies where you can smoke cigars. There are two places on the Carnival Breeze that we are permitted to smoke a cigar, smoking cigars are permitted on deck 5 port side (right) outside the nightclub and deck 11 starboard side (left). The most common location I encounter other cigars smokes was on deck 11. The smoking section on deck 11 runs from the backend of the deck to about mid ship, just before the Lido deck beach pool.
The best spot overall in the deck 11 section shown in the picture. This location provides a little shelter from the wind. The backend of the deck 11 smoking section offers more comfortable seating but is subject to more wind.
Wind – Cigars in a wind tunnel
Wind is an issue on a cruise ship in general, and this includes Carnival Breeze. It is a ship sailing on the ocean, so wind is kind of expected. The wind causes two issues. The first is lighting a cigar without a torch lighter can be a birch to do. And the issue with a torch lighter on a cruise ship is getting one there. Airlines and TSA do not permit torch lights to be transported on a plane neither as a carry-on or checked bag. The ship shops do not sell torch lighters either. More on torch lighter under gear and solutions.
The second issue with wind and cigars on a cruise ship is the wind does cause the cigar to burn faster and hotter. This seems to affect the flavor of the cigar. I carried some favorite cigars on my cruise, and they tasted different to me. Maybe a minor issue but I wanted to note.
Bring Cigars or Buy on the Carnival Breeze?
There is a humidor in the ship shops. They have a nice tall cabinet. The section is not great, and they do not seem to put too much effort into caring for the cigars. It seems enough to have cigars to sell to people on the cruise who see cigars and decided to buy one since they are on vacation. They do sell cigar cutters and do sell bic style lighters (but on my cruise those were quickly sold out.
The best option is to bring your own cigars. See more in gear and solutions.
Gear and Solutions
The cigar lighter situation. I tried bringing a soft flame butane lighter. That lighter type is permitted to be in your checked bag on an airline. However, the brand/model I tried to use had trouble lighting in the wind and was unusable. The best option sailing on Carnival Breeze out of Galveston Texas is to visit a local Houston cigar shop before driving/riding to the Carnival Pier.
I tried to use the soft flame lighter I purchased and did not learn of my mistake until I tried to cigar a cigar. I had to bum lights from other cigar smokers. I did end up buying a torch lighter in a Cozumel cigar shops, as well as several Cuban cigars.
Bush International Airport
On John F Kennedy Blvd there is Casa de Montecristo Cigar Lounge 15655 JFK Blvd Houston TX 281-741-5992. This shop and road are close to IAH and airport hotels. There you can buy a torch lighter, cigars, and other related products.
William P Hobby Airport
I could not find a cigar shop very close to Hobby. The best option seems to be The Smoke Ring Cigars One 17066 Highway 3 Park Plaza Webster TX. I list this one because the most likely road takes to get to Galveston Carnival Pier is Route 45 Gulf highway and this shop is just off this road.
Galveston
In Galveston there is Carlos Cabeza Cigar Shop 318 27th St Galveston 409-682-8573.