Pairing Cigars & Alcohol – Monkey 47 Sloe Gin
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 used to have the Diplomatico series but Mombacho no longer exists. 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 whisky, gin, rum, vodka and liquors.
Monkey 47 Sloe Gin
A sloe gin from Black Forest gin makers Monkey 47, combining sloe berries with their excellent 47 botanical gin to create a rich and cloudy liqueur. Sloe gin is a red liqueur made with gin and sloe berries. Sloes are the fruit (drupe) of Prunus spinosa, the blackthorn plant, a relative of the plum. Sloe gin has an alcohol content between 15 and 30 percent by volume. However, the European Union has established a minimum of 25% ABV for sloe gin to be named as such. Sloe gin is technically a gin-based liqueur, but due to historical prevalence at the time of writing the EU spirit drink regulations, the colloquial name ‘sloe gin’ was included in the legal definitions and as such is the only gin-based liqueur that can legally be called gin without the liqueur suffix.
Following his childhood as the son of a diplomat in Madras and a career in the British Air Force, love draws Wing Commander Montgomery Collins to an isolated valley in the Black Forest, where he takes over the “Wild Monkey” guesthouse. Here, he becomes acquainted with the great Black Forest tradition of distilling fruit and – out of a longing for his own British passions – develops a special gin, which becomes a trademark of the “Wild Monkey” right through to the 1970s. Produced exclusively by hand using traditional distilling methods and 100% fresh plant ingredients and married with the soft water of the Black Forest. Its name says it all: exactly 47 different plant ingredients have found their way into the “Monkey 47” recipe. A recipe that is naturally a carefully guarded secret and known only to Alexander Stein and his distiller, Christoph Keller.
Neat
The Monkey 47 Sloe Gin is lighter in colour than the other Sloe Gins I tried, which are the Gordon’s Sloe Gin and the Foragers Sloe gin. This one is pale in comparison when it comes to colour. The nose has eucalyptus, berries, fresh spruce and some pepper. It’s quite medicinal on the nose. The spirit is sweet yet spicy and earthy. Ripe berries, mixed with the freshness of spruce. A nice medium to full bodied earthy or peppery cigar would be the best possible pairing in my humble opinion.
Sloe Gin & Tonic
Last time I tried a Sloe Gin & Tonic I said that Sloe Gin wasn’t the right gin for this simple cocktail, but let’s try it again. The nose shows the sweetness of the sloe berries. The sweetness of the sloe berries is in the drink, but the tonic somehow responds to the sloe gin in a way that makes the cocktail quite sour. And that sourness makes me want to pair this with an earthier cigar. A Cuban Montecristo for example.
And now for the gin tonic recipe:
2 ounces of 60ml of Monkey Shoulder Sloe gin
4 ounces or 120ml of Tonic water
Fill a Copa or Collins glass with ice. Add the gin, then the tonic and stir gently.
Sloe Gin Sour
I hope this cocktail is not too sour, as that is hard to pair with cigars, but let’s try. The nose isn’t too lemony, there is lemon but the sweetness of the sloe gin still shines through. It’s refreshing, the sweetness of the gin takes the edge off the lemon, although the cocktail is still a bit to sour to be a perfect match with a cigar. This is a cocktail I will make more often though, before or after smoking cigars. When I do have to pair it with a cigar, I will repeat what I say with every cocktail that leans too heavy on citrus for a great pairing, take a strong and earthy cigar.
And now for Sloe Gin Sour recipe:
1½ ounces or 45ml of Sloe Gin
1 ounce or 30ml of lemon juice, freshly squeezed
¾ ounce or 22½ml of simple syrup
1 egg white
Shake the gin, syrup, lemon juice and egg white vigorously in a shaker without ice to emulsify the egg. Then add ice and shake again. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
Alabama Slammer
The Alabama Slammer might be the most ’70s of all the bright and fruity 1970s cocktails. Its base blend of amaretto, sloe gin and Southern Comfort stands in total defiance of what one would expect from a staunch Southern sipper.
The nose is marzipan, almond and some orange. The cocktail is surprisingly balanced. I can taste the sweet almonds from the amaretto, the berry from the sloe gin and the citrus from the orange. The Southern Comfort adds some strength and depth to it. It’s a fantastic summer cocktail, it doesn’t feel too strong yet it packs three shots of alcohol. I can see myself sitting outside in the summer sun sipping this drink and puffing on a nice Cohiba Robusto or a Joya de Nicaragua Red Robusto, a Foreign Affair by Luciano or something similar in the medium strength region.
And now for the Alabama Slammer recipe:
1 ounce or 30ml of Southern Comfort
1 ounce or 30ml of Sloe Gin
1 ounce or 30ml of Amaretto
2 ounces or 60ml of Orange Juice, freshly squeezed
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the liquids. Shake well. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
Inspector X
