Pairing Cigars & Alcohol – Angostura
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. 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.
Angostura
The brand was founded around 1830 in the Venezuelan town of Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar) by a German doctor, Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, Surgeon-General in Simon Bolivar’s army in Venezuela. Around 1820, he had tried to find a medicine to improve appetite and digestive well-being of the soldiers. This product is now known as Angostura bitters. In 1876 the company moved to Trinidad. For close to a hundred year, Angostura is also distilling rum in Trinidad.
Angostura Rum 1824 12 Years Old. Angostura 1824 is a blend of the finest mature rums, hand-picked by the Master Blender from selected casks. These rums are aged in charred American oak bourbon barrels for a minimum of twelve years and then skilfully hand blended and re-casked. Upon the rum’s optimum maturity it is hand-drawn, filtered and bottled. It comes in at 40% ABV.
Neat
In my trusted Glencairn glass, I get quite some ethanol in the nose. The aroma is what you’d expect from an aged rum. Sweetness like dark toffee and thick molasses. But also some fruity, caramelised bananas. I also smell some coffee and tobacco. The rum itself is sweet and spicy. Not overly sweet but a nice sweetness on a base of oak and vanilla. The mouthfeel is almost creamy. This rum reminds me a bit of creme brûlée with a nice caramel crust. The warm baking spices make this rum very interesting and the whole combination of flavours is very pleasant. I would pair this with a nice creamy medium bodied Connecticut Shade cigar or a nutty Corojo wrapper such as Aganorsa Supreme Leaf.
1824 Old Fashioned
One of the greatest classics for those with a little bit of a sweet tooth is the Old Fashioned cocktail traditionally made with bourbon, sugar, and bitters. But this version uses Angostura 1824 Rum instead.
On the nose there is a lot of orange. Both from the zest as well as from the marmalade. Sweetness and orange, with some toffee and molasses. Sweet and fruity, plenty of orange notes which is the mildest citrus I recall in cocktails and therefore perfect to pair with cigars. The oak and vanilla from the rum pair well with the orange flavours and make this a very easy to drink concoction. There is a complexity that reminds me of dark chocolate without exactly tasting like dark chocolate, if you know what I mean. I would pair this with a nice Maduro or Broadleaf wrapper as long as the cigar has a peppery profile. Or a Habano with that profile.
And now for the 1824 Old Fashioned recipe:
2 ounces or 60ml of Angostura 1824
2 dashes of Angostura Orange Bitters
1 tablespoon of orange marmalade
Add all of the ingredients into a mixing glass. Stir to allow the orange marmalade to infuse with the rum. Strain into a rocks glass over an ice sphere. Garnish with orange zest and dark cherry.
Rum Strawberry Basil Smash
I found this recipe on the YouTube channel of Anders Erickson in a video where he made four different smashes with four different spirits. It is a riff on the Gin Basil Smash.
The nose is mild, strawberry with a bit of basil and sweetness. I taste strawberry and lemon. The strawberry is the dominant flavour but with added sourness from the lemon. The Demerara syrup does try to balance it out together with the sweetness of the rum. The Basil flavour is very faint. It is a very refreshing summer cocktail but I’m unsure whether this is a good cocktail to pair with cigars. Something stronger might work, like a Liga Privada or Pappy van Winkle from Drew Estate or a stronger Hiram & Solomon cigar.
And now for the Rum Strawberry Basil Smash recipe
2 ounces or 60ml of rum
½ lemon, cut to chunks
2 strawberries, cut to chunks
½ ounce or 15ml of rich demerara syrup
8 basil leaves
Add the lemon, strawberry and the syrup in a cocktail shaker and muddle. Then add the basil leaves and the rum. Add ice and shake. Double strain in a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with some basil and a strawberry fan.
Inspector X
