Second Looks and Two Spirits to Accompany Your Cigars

With the end of the year quickly approaching, I wanted to do something different for this post. I had a couple of cigars smoked this past year that I felt were solid cigars but had enough construction and/or burn issues that degraded their scoring. As a way of wrapping up the year, I wanted to focus on two in particular that I wanted to have a second look at.

The Peacemaker by Table 36

Remember this one? I do. This one left an impression with me, and not a good one. At the end of my review on it, I said that I would let this one age a few months and re-approach it. In October, I did just that. This time around, I trimmed at least an inch off the shaggy foot before lighting the cigar. This alone helped the burn and bitterness immensely as I didn’t have to wade through, for a lack of a better word, ‘tall grass’, to get to the cigar. While I still found heavy wood flavors prominent through the majority of the cigar, I did notice a bit of sweet flavors and mild pepper right after burning through the cut down shag. While I would bump this cigar up a full point to a 7.5 out of 10, I can’t say I would recommend this as a regular buy.

Roberto P. Duran

More recently, I reviewed the Roberto P. Duran and while I enjoyed the flavors presented to me, the construction killed the scoring of it. While I wasn’t able to get ahold of the same vitola that I reviewed, I did take the time to smoke the other vitola that I had available (La Punta). I ended up having nowhere near the construction issues with this vitola that I did with the other, although I did have three or four relights with this one. The flavor profile was the same as the other size. As with The Peacemaker, I would give the La Punta vitola one point higher (8.5 out of 10) over the Tainos.

Something to Drink Perhaps…

While there are few things that can beat a fantastic cigar, sometimes it needs a good liquid companion. David has done a great job at highlighting several whiskeys (Sazerak is my favorite rye whiskey) but I’d like to highlight two distinctly different choices from each other, both of which are favorites of mine.

Easily the most drank liquor in our house is Laphroaig Cask Strength ($59.99 at my local liquor store; usually around 58.x% ABV). Described by many as a “campfire in your mouth”, this is typically not something the novice whiskey drinker starts with. Heavy peat and smoke flavors with an oily feeling in the mouth is the best way to describe this besides calling this a campfire. It took me about three months of drinking the 10 Year before I started getting into this. Cask Strength Laphroaig is very much like a full-bodied cigar – lots of flavor and strength. I love pairing Cask Strength Laphroaig with a rich maduro, either medium or full bodied. Just be sure that you have a good meal in you before you fully engage with this; this will catch up to you fast.

And for something on the lighter side, I highly recommend Zaya 12 Year Old Estate Rum ($30.00 at my local liquor store; 40% ABV). We found this by accident when we wanted to try something different a few months ago. This rum has the smoothness of a ligher single-malt scotch but rich, molasses and vanilla flavors you would expect from a higher quality rum. This pairs very well in counterbalancing a full-bodied cigar or makes a nice compliment to milder (or flavored) cigar. Not only is this cheaper than the Laphroaig, it would appeal to a broader audience because of the lighter flavors and alcohol percentage.

As always, thank you very much for reading and I look forward to the next time I can share my thoughts with you.