Cigar & Rum Pairing
Sweet Caramel
As the end of each month approaches, among the myriad of things that I must do, one of the most important ones is the pairing for the magazine. Sometimes I start planning it weeks ahead, other times the pairing relies on my ability to obtain a specific rum via a friend or a client. In some instances, however, the end of the month arrives and I still don’t have a plan. Unfortunately, this is the case right now. I had a couple of rums in mind, but nothing very clear and, of course, the actual rum selection dictates the type of cocktail I would prepare with it. Finally I opted for the Bristol Classic Rum Port Morant, a 1999 Demerara Rum, bottled in the UK in 2014. This Port Morant has a special aromatic character, with a medium-high complexity and high-ester alcohol, very reminiscent of pot still rum. The finish is elegant with well-incorporated notes of caramel and toffee, extracted from the White American oak barrels. Ideally you’d consume this rum on the rocks or maybe with a splash of water.
Taking into account my rum selection, it was very clear to me that one of the cocktail options would be a personal favorite: the Rum Old Fashioned. It is a simple cocktail that highlights and balances the rum’s character with sweetness. But I must clarify something first: this cocktail works best with un-sweetened rums so, if you cannot find this exact rum, replace it with one that is exceedingly sweet.
Rum Old Fashion with Cigar
The preparation is very simple:
3 oz. Port Morant Demerara Rum 1999
1 oz. Simple Syrup (made with Brown Sugar)
A dash of Angostura Bitters
Orange Peel for garnish
The preparation is directly in the Rocks glass, starting with the syrup, then the rum and ending with the bitters. Otherwise, if you want to refresh the rum, add the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice, stir it around a few times and strain into the Rocks glass with the orange garnish. In both cases, finish the cocktail by adding large ice cubes.
For the cigar, I selected one from CAO Cigars, from the Session line, it is 6 x 49 Ring, with tobacco from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua inside and a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, grown in full sun in the River valley. In this case, the wrapper is Maduro, very dark and attractive. As I was cutting the pigtail, which I had previously wetted in my mouth, I perceived a sweet sensation on my lips, something a bit unnatural but not at all unpleasant, even less so when I imagined the pairing with a cocktail having a similar taste profile.
CAO Session Cigar
With the cigar in one hand and the Rum Old Fashioned in the other, I could not avoid noticing the dominant toffee and caramel notes in the cocktail, while the first third of the cigar was smooth and silky, letting the sweetness take center stage.
The cigar is very true to its composition, the intensity doesn’t go above the medium level and the sweetness of the wrapper, although still present, starts to slowly diminish during the second third. The Rum Old Fashioned, meanwhile, has a more marked decrease in sweetness, but the alcohol character remains, so it is important for you to replace with a similar one, if you don’t have the exact one, a pot still or higher than normal congener level will be ideal.
This cigar may come across as intimidating to some, due to its dark color, given the impression of a full body (high intensity), but the truth is that it goes very well with aggressive rums, as well as, rums with a natural sweetness from being aged in fortified wine casks.
As I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to use the same ingredients, you can replace any of them, as long as you use products with similar profiles, paying special attention to the sweetness, duration of the rum’s finish in the palate, etc.
I hope that you can reproduce this pairing too and that you can personalize it to your liking.
Cheers!
Philip Ili Barake
#GRCigarPairing
