Petit Robusto

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                                      Petit Robusto

Some time ago, a friend of mine traveled to Cuba and met up with additional local friends. They then sent me back, to celebrate our friendship, three cigar formats that I had selected in 2010 when I won the World Habano Championship. This gift had a special meaning to me, but most people would not have understood it. For this pairing I chose one of those cigars, a Petit Robusto from Hoyo de Monterrey (50 x 102mm), a small-format cigar with no more than 25 minutes of smoking time, mild in strength, ideal for those getting started in the world of cigars. To do a pairing with a cigar like this one, the cocktail would benefit from having Port, Brandy, Cognac, liqueurs or rum. At the championship final, I paired this same cigar with a Brandy from Cardenal Mendoza.

For this pairing, however, I selected Rum Brugal 1888 Limited Edition as a base to create two cocktail variants. Both cocktails are served in martini glasses and the recipes are as follows:

Cocktail #1

2 1⁄2 oz. Rum Brugal 1888

3⁄4 oz. Fernet Branca

1⁄2 oz. Coffee liqueur

1⁄2 oz. water (not carbonated)

Instructions: Pour all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake well, strain and serve in a chilled glass.

Cocktail #2

2 1⁄2 oz. Rum Brugal 1888

1 1⁄2 oz. Santa Teresa Rhum Orange Liqueur

A dash of Coffee Liqueur

Instructions: Add a dash of the Coffee Liqueur to an ice shaker filled with ice, stir well and drain the liqueur. The idea is to infuse the ice cubes with the aroma. Add the remaining ingredients, stir well and strain into a martini glass and garnish with an orange peel.

Both cocktails are easy to make once you have all ingredients. You can adjust the ingredients to fit your taste preferences. In my case, for this pairing, it took me two attempts to arrive at these recipes.

The pairing, due to the short smoking time of the cigar, is inviting and simple. Rather than dividing it in thirds, like we normally do with longer cigars, in this case you can smoke the entire cigar as a whole, since the intensity does not change much throughout the smoking session, which allows you to enjoy the ingredients in the cocktails. Both cocktails are complemented by the coffee notes, especially the Fernet Branca, which I don’t particularly care for, but in this case, it was the cocktail I finished first!

I hope you can enjoy this pairing which, despite its ease of preparation, is impressive, particularly the combination between Fernet and coffee, which has a lot of future pairing potential.

Philip IlI Barake

#GRCigarPairing