Pairing Cigars & Alcohol – Beefeater 24
Cigars and alcohol. Two luxury products that go hand in hand, and sometimes even meet on business level. Aging tobacco in whisky, rum, or cognac barrels is a practice several brands do to achieve extra flavour to the wrapper for certain lines.
The famous bourbon brand Maker’s Mark has their own cigar, sold in tubes with the signature wax coating. Drew Estate works with Pappy van Winkle and used to make Kahlua cigars. Mombacho had the Diplomatico series. General Cigars works with Sazerac, which resulted in Fireball cigars, Weller by Cohiba and collaborations with Buffalo Trace. And there is the Diesel Whisky Row, a collaboration with Rabbit Hole Distilleries. Fratello Cigars also sells craft beer.
Most famous are probably the Cuban collaboration between Martell Cognac and Cohiba. Dominique London, the European retailer with more than 20 shops in the UK, Belgium, Switzerland and the Canary Islands takes it one step further. They bought a distillery in Wales and produce gin, rum, vodka and liquors, and bottle whiskies.
Beefeater 24
Although Beefeater was born in 1876, this Beefeater 24 is a quite young gin, only released in 2008. Like its revered sister Beefeater Dry, Beefeater 24 is made in the heart of London at the Kennington distillery a ball throw away from the famous Oval cricketing ground.
Like Dry too it’s made by the time honoured steeping method. Here the copper pot stills at the Distillery are charged with neutral grain spirit, then the botanicals are carefully measured in and the mixture left to soak for 24 hours. From this process and the fact that London buzzes 24/7, Beefeater 24 takes its name.
Neat
The nose is very ‘gin’. Juniper forward with liquorice root and citrus. The gin tastes warm, with some spices and a nice amount of citrus before the juniper kicks in. The finish is long, vegetal with a slightly dry effect. This is a great gin for a nice cigar with a Habano wrapper, medium in body, slightly woody flavour profile.
Gin & Tonic
The nose still has juniper but it’s muted due to the ice and the tonic water. The bitterness from tonic enhances the citrus in the gin & tonic. Very refreshing and a great gin & tonic for a medium to medium full bodied cigar. Almost any wrapper will do although I think that a Connecticut Broadleaf cigar might be a tad too sweet.
And now for the gin tonic recipe:
2 ounces of 60ml of gin
4 ounces or 120ml of Tonic water
Fill a highball or Collins glass with ice. Add the gin, then the tonic and stir gently.
The Ellison
This cocktail is supposed to be made with Hendricks Gin because Hendricks is known to work well with cucumber, but being rebellious as I am, I’m making it with Beefeater 24. The Ellison is a very close play on the Eastside cocktail the only discernible difference really is the addition of Angostura bitters.
The nose has, of course, mint but also the cucumber and the angostura bitters shine through on a base of juniper. The simply syrup counters the lime juice, making it sweet and sour while the cucumber mellows everything out. It all works well with the juniper and botanicals of the gin. The Angostura bitters add depth. I was afraid this would be to citrus forward to pair well with a cigar but I was wrong. This is a great summer cocktail with a mild to medium cigar. Something creamy with woody flavours would work best in my humble opinion.
And now for the Ellison recipe:
1½ ounces or 45ml of Gin
¾ ounce or 22 ml of Lime Juice, freshly squeezed
½ ounce or 15ml of Simple Syrup
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
6 slices of cucumber
4 to 5 mint leaves
Add the spirits, mint leaves and three cucumber slices in a cocktail shaker and muddle lightly. Add ice and shake well for 10 seconds. Double strain into a coupe of cocktail glass and garnish with the remaining three slices of cucumber.
Inspector X
