Pairing Cigars & Alcohol – White Cocktails
Cigars and fine liquor are a natural pairing, enhancing each other’s complexity and depth. Whether it’s a rich whisky, a smooth rum, or a refined cognac, the right drink can elevate the cigar experience, and vice versa. This synergy is so profound that some cigar brands take it a step further, aging their tobacco in liquor barrels to infuse their cigars with unique flavours.
Several iconic collaborations between cigar and liquor brands have emerged from this shared passion for craftsmanship. Maker’s Mark, for example, offers cigars housed in their signature wax-sealed tubes, while Drew Estate has partnered with Pappy Van Winkle and even crafted Kahlua-flavoured cigars in the past. General Cigars has teamed up with Sazerac, resulting in creations like Fireball cigars and Weller by Cohiba, alongside partnerships with Buffalo Trace. Diesel’s Whisky Row cigars, produced in collaboration with Rabbit Hole Distilleries, are another fine example of this harmonious relationship.
Cuban cigars have also embraced this trend, with Cohiba famously collaborating with Martell Cognac. In Europe, Dominique London, a luxury retailer, has gone even further by acquiring a distillery in Wales, producing their own whisky, gin, rum, and other liquors to pair with their cigars.
Pairing cigars with liquor creates a world of possibilities for the discerning connoisseur, allowing both the cigar and the spirit to shine through their complementary flavours. This rich tradition continues to inspire new partnerships and innovations, providing endless enjoyment for enthusiasts.
White cocktails
Craving something sleek, refreshing, and effortlessly elegant? A white cocktail is the ultimate expression of sophistication in a glass. Its clean, luminous appearance signals balance and refinement—perfect for moments when subtlety speaks louder than showmanship. Whether you’re toasting a milestone, unwinding on a warm evening, or setting the tone for a classy gathering, a white cocktail brings calm confidence to the occasion.
Don’t mistake that purity for simplicity, though. From the creamy allure of a Piña Colada to the crisp bite of a White Lady, these cocktails deliver layers of flavour that surprise and delight. Their lighter profiles make them ideal companions for cigars with nuanced character—think smooth Connecticuts, mellow Habanos, or aged Dominican blends. So if you’re after a drink that feels timeless, balanced, and quietly captivating, white is your colour. Here are some white cocktails to pair with your cigars.
This is the first of a three-part series with coloured themed cocktails, Red, White and Blue, just in time for Independence Day.
White Russian
how about a White Russian? Plus coffee and cream goes well with chocolate right? Lets make the White Russian with Ybet Chocolate Vodka. On the nose there is nothing, but the flavor makes up for it. It’s a chocolate coffee milkshake, but thinner. Or a melted mudslide cocktail, which would also be great with the Marsette. It’s creamy and smooth yet you can feel the alcohol from the vodka. The chocolate is very subtle under the cream and the coffee. Coming up with a pairing for this cocktail is hard. It can’t be a creamy cigar, as the cocktail is already very creamy. A cigar with lots of coffee notes or chocolate notes would also be too much of the same, white a lot of pepper would clash. Alec Bradley’s Black Market would fit the bill, or maybe a Montecristo No.2 for the lovers of Cuban cigars.
White Russian Recipe:
2 oz of 60 ml Ybet Chocolate Vodka
2 oz or 60 ml Marsette Monsoon Coffee Liqueur
2 oz or 60 ml of heavy cream (or half-and-half)
Pour the alcohol in a mixing glass with ice and stir to combine. Then strain over ice in a highball glass. Then add the cream on top and stir gently. You can also build the cocktail straight in a highball glass if you don’t have a mixing glass.
Brandy Alexander
The Brandy Alexander was a darned popular drink during the ’70s. It’s obviously a pimped-out version of the classic—but largely forgotten—Alexander cocktail and mixes brandy instead of gin with creme de cacao and cream. One of the earliest known printed recipes for the Alexander can be found in Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 book “Recipes for Mixed Drinks.” The cocktail, according to historian Barry Popik, was likely born at Hotel Rector, New York City’s premier pre-Prohibition lobster palace. The bartender there, a certain Troy Alexander, created his eponymous concoction in order to serve a white drink at a dinner celebrating Phoebe Snow.
My heart was jumping for joy when the Marsette Peruvian Chocolate Essence showed up at my doorstep as I had been waiting for a chance to make this cocktail. I mean, I love cognac, I love dark chocolate, I love cream and after cinnamon, nutmeg is my favourite of the dark spices. I used the Dominique London Privee Cognac for this cocktail. The nose has the characteristics of the cognac, but muted, with dark chocolate shining through. There is a hint of the nutmeg. This cocktail is a boozy chocolate milk. I would not pair this with a strong or peppery cigar. A nice medium bodied Honduran grown Connecticut Shade cigar will be nice, or something with a Corojo wrapper for its nutty characteristics
And now for the Brandy Alexander recipe:
1½ ounce or 45ml of Cognac
1 ounce or 30ml of Dark Chocolate liqueur
1 ounce or 30ml of cream
garnish: grated nutmeg
Shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with some grated nutmeg
Piña Colada
If you’re like me, you’ll start humming Rupert Holmes biggest hit when someone mentions a Piña Colada. My mind automatically goes to “if you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain”. But did you know that the title of that song isn’t Piña Colada but Escape? I didn’t until I was writing this article. And it turns out that the original lyrics didn’t even have Piña Colada in it, that Holmes was expected to sing Humphrey Bogart, but changed it to the first tropical drink he could think of when he was recording the song. I made a Piña Colada with the Don Q Cristal.
On the nose I get nothing from the cocktails but everything from the garnish and that’s pineapple. That’s because of the ice in the cocktail. The cocktail requires pebbled ice, and I didn’t have that so I took some normal sized cubes, my Lewis bag and mallet. I smashed those cubes up to smaller pieces, but stopped before it turned into crushed ice. The cocktail tastes delicious with the thick creamy texture and the flavour of lime, coconut and pineapple. The rum delivers hints of banana and alcohol. This is a sweet summer drink and nothing like any other cocktail I wrote about for Cigar Inspector. You can pair this with a medium or full bodied cigar with woody, nutty, peppery or earthy notes. Anything but sweet or creamy will go well with this cocktail.
And now for the Piña Colada recipe:
2 ounces or 60ml of Don Q Cristal
1½ ounce or 45ml of Pineapple juice
1½ ounce or 45ml of Cream of Coconut (not coconut cream, that’s different)
½ ounce or 25ml of lime juice, freshly squeezed
Garnish: pineapple wedge and pineapple leaf
Add the rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice and lime juice in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 20 to 30 seconds. Strain in a hurricane glass over pebble ice and garnish with a pineapple wedge and pineapple leaf.
