Cigar & Rum Pairing
An old coworker had been trying to get a hold of me, so that we could catch up. Nowadays I spend more time in Punta Arenas than in Santiago, thanks to my new job. So, in order to coordinate the meeting, we almost had to line up the stars, which thankfully happened the last day of the month!
I headed home during the hottest time of the day, so we postponed the cigar a bit, waiting for the terrace to get a bit cooler. We did, however, start drinking the rum on the rocks right away. I reached for a bottle of Santa Teresa 1796, a rum that is among my top 10, not only because of its Solera aging, which improves year after year, but also because it brings me so many pleasant memories. Our conversation was so enjoyable that we almost finished the whole bottle before even lighting up the cigars!
We reserved the remaining of the rum to drink straight with our cigars. For this occasion I selected the Magnum R Rosado Sungrown, Robusto (52 x 127mm), smooth and aromatic, with Equatorian wrapper and Dominican Republic tobacco leaves that had been aged approximately 10 years.
While paired with the straight rum, the medium intensity of the cigar remained even during the first two thirds of smoking, maintaining its smoothness and aromatic character. Creamy notes emerged during the second third and intensified during the remaining of the cigar. A spicy note also appeared towards the end, which loudly begged for a sip of rum.
While on the surface this may look like a simple pairing, it addresses the core of all pairings: neither the cigar nor the rum are as important as the atmosphere and the friends with whom the pairing is being conducted. The salient personality traits of both the cigar and the rum are only the guidelines in this process.
I hope that, for your next pairing, you will be able to keep in mind which are the most important things you want to contrast, each participant will then make sense of the pairing based on their own views. So pay attention to the types of tobacco leaves, their geographical origins and how long they have been aged. As you smoke more cigars, even days apart, you’ll analyze those differences and will be planning your pairings. This is the ultimate goal of these articles, to provide you with a framework for your own analysis.
And the best part of this pairing was that we finished the cigars just as we drank the last drops of rum from the bottle. There was no better way to conclude the pairing and the reunion.
Cheers!
Philip Ili Barake
#GRCigarPairing
