Cigar and Rum Pairing
Exclusive
A few days ago I had an unexpected visit from a great friend and Cigar Sommelier, one of the few Chileans who work with Habanos, his name is Felipe Rojas and he’s traveled the same path I have, making frequent trips to Cuba and finally winning the first place in the Habanosommelier competition in 2017. It was great to have a second Chilean win this prestigious event (I first did it in 2010), Felipe is a great person, very passionate and always knew that there were no barriers able to stop him from reaching the top. Today he is the director of a Cigar House at a Hyatt hotel in Qatar, certainly an excellent start to a long professional career. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him since the beginning of his journey, proud to have shared so many long conversations and cigars in different places.
Felipe had to make an emergency trip to Chile and, without hesitation, arranged to visit me at Red Frog Bar. He also brought me a gift, but not just any cigar, it was an Habano Edición Regional del Medio Oriente (Middle East Regional Edition). What exactly is a Regional Edition? Typically it is a cigar that can only be found in the geographical region it is named after, because it was made for the Habanos SA importer in that part of the world. Every now and then these cigars are also sold in other markets, due to their popularity. Normally Habanos SA releases these editions under brand names that are not their most popular or classic (such as Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, etc.). Lastly, the cigar’s format is also new for the selected brand, in other words it usually is not part of the brand’s vitolario (cigar lineup). In this case, Felipe’s present to me was a Duke from Saint Luis Rey (54 x 140mm).
Saint Luis Rey
It was, without a doubt, a tremendous gift that any cigar smoker or connoisseur would appreciate. I decided to immortalize this gift by incorporating it into February’s pairing.Saint Luis Rey is a brand that has been enjoyed for years by smokers who appreciate full-bodied cigars, similar to Partagas and Bolivar. In other words, it is not a brand for cigar beginners, as it includes quite aggressive tobacco leaves from the regions of Vuelta Abajo and Semi Vuelta from Pinar del Río.
Now that we have selected our cigar, with its imposing strength, I believe we’ll need at least two rums served neat (no ice), to pair with the cigar as we transition from the first to the second third.
To start with, I selected a rum with sweeter notes than normal, I opted for Abuelo XV, finished in Oloroso Sherry casks. The idea is to balance the early stages of smoking with the sweet notes, preparing the palate as the tobacco intensity increases. If you don’t have this rum, you can try replacing it with Zacapa 23, Zafra 21 or an old Botran. The idea is to use the rum’s sweetness to offset the increasing intensity from the cigar.
Abuelo XV
The plan for the second rum was something dryer than the first one, something with an intensity to match that of the cigar as we approach the mid-point of the smoking session. For this reason I selected a Demerara Port Morant from 1999, bottled in 2014 by Bristol Spirits Limited.
As I light up the cigar, the first thing I notice is the ring size, slightly larger than the classic Robusto and Pyramid, I’m referring here to a 54 ring size, which gives the cigar an interesting draw.
The pairing works just as planned, Ron Abuelo rounds off the cigar notes with its character, making it perfect for smoking the first third of the cigar. Having said this, the cigar’s expected richness comes through nonetheless. As I approach the second third of the cigar, I change over to the Port Morant, with its longer finish and higher complexity, full of caramel and leather notes that are at times stronger than the cigar. This results in a well-balanced pairing that is hard to achieve. For example, I could have selected a 10 year old rum aged in French oak, which would be closer to the tobacco’s profile, but the finish would be completely different, with more dry fruit notes that would play differently with the intensity from the cigar.
I hope you can approximate this pairing as much as possible. If you are ever able to get a Regional Edition cigar, with a full-body, it would be a great idea to try a pairing with two, even three rums with increasingly high complexities, so they can keep up with the evolving cigar-smoking experience. At the end, the most important thing is to create unforgettable memories, such as this one, forged from a simple cigar and a special friendship.
Philip Ili Barake
#GRCigarPairing
