For many smokers, the best way to thoroughly enjoy a fine premium cigar is to pair it with a beer or spirit. For what seems like eons, most cigar connoisseurs would pair their cigars with Scotch, Rum, or cognac, with little thought given to that frosty mug of brew. With the overwhelming popularity of craft-style beers, the marriage between cigars and beer has become commonplace. So, for this month’s Perfect Pairings we decided to focus our attention on Stout.
The almost black, the smoky color of stout is the result of the use of roasted barley. This potent ingredient frequently offers notes of chocolate, licorice, dark fruit, vanilla, and espresso, depending on your style of stout. With this in mind, we carefully chose five popular premium cigars with similar flavor profiles to compliment the taste of a fine premium stout.
High Water Brewing Campfire Stout & Montecristo Crafted by AJ Fernandez Robusto
High Water Campfire Stout is brewed by High Water Brewing in Lodi, CA. it was made to evoke fond memories of wilderness and camping adventures with rich nuances of chocolate and graham crackers topped with a hint of marshmallow.
An equally celebrated and top-selling flavor profile can be found in the Montecristo Crafted by AJ Fernandez Robusto. A succulent oily and dark Ecuadorian Sumatra Oscuro wrapper embraces a superb recipe of aged Honduran and Dominican long-fillers, held together by a zesty Mexican binder.
Notes of dark chocolate, black pepper, earth, and black cherry, match up wonderfully with the bold chocolaty malt taste of Campfire Stout. The dark flavors of both the beer and cigar offer a welcoming and refined pairing that’s nothing short of scrumptious.
New Holland Brewing Dragon's Milk & Kentucky Fire Cured Midnight Rambler
New Holland Brewing Dragon's Milk hails from a small brewery in Holland Michigan. Its full-bodied, dense, and nearly black color is derived from highly roasted grains balanced by a rich malt character intermingled with deep vanilla tones and nuances of oak and chocolate.
Kentucky Fire Cured Midnight Rambler is an enormously popular premium cigar produced by Drew Estate. A lustrous San Andrés wrapper leaf is placed over a well-aged core of premium Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. A profile of roasted hickory, oak, and sweet Kentucky burley tobacco, tantalizes the palate with a bold, creamy finish.
The dense, luxurious combo of Midnight Rambler and Dragon’s Milk provides a perfect after-dinner cigar-and-stout marriage that will have you craving a second serving of both.
Founders Brewing Breakfast Stout &Baccarat Barber Pole Limited Edition Rothschild
Founders Brewing Breakfast Stout is a cigar and coffee lover’s dream. The dark, foamy, and highly satisfying small-batch stout furnishes an abundance of flaked oats, chocolate, and two types of coffee. The infusion of nitrogen transforms it into a creamy and decadent sipper for contemplative mornings or nights out on the town.
Baccarat Barber Pole Limited Edition Rothschild has won over tons of smokers with its two gorgeous contrasting wrappers. The cigar features a dark and oily Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper expertly intertwined with a lighter Connecticut Shade leaf made to resemble a barber pole. The dual two-toned leaves play host to a Mexican binder and aged long filler tobacco from Honduras.
Core flavors of leather, cocoa, and roasted nuts, meld seamlessly with chocolate and some pepper notes from the Maduro leaf, and a creamy tobacco sweetness from the lighter wrapper. A cigar and stout pairing this good will make any hour a happy one.
AleSmith Brewing Speedway Stout & Oracle Salomon
AleSmith Brewing Speedway Stout features a mouthwatering trio of Mexican dark chocolate, sea salt, and Mexican coffee, that gives the beer delectable notes of cocoa and dark fruit, backed by a subtle touch of cinnamon and earth. The coal-black appearance that pours into a frothy white head has become a hallmark of this modern-day classic stout.
Oracle Salomon is a drop-dead gorgeous, hard-to-roll, old-world Figurado shape that adds yet another layer of flavor and complexity to the overall smoking experience. These luxurious cigars are produced by the famed Plasencia family using their extensive collection of Nicaraguan tobaccos that includes binder and long-fillers from Estelí, Ometepe, Jalapa, and Condega, covered by a rich, deep brown Cuban-seed Habano wrapper.
Notes of coffee, cinnamon, leather, and signature Nicaraguan spice are delivered in a smooth medium bodied fashion. Expand your palate with a decadent cigar-and-stout pairing that is creamy, scrumptious, and complex.
Goose Island Bourbon County & Davidoff Winston Churchill The Late Hour Robusto
In 1992, former Goose Island brewmaster Gregory Hall wanted to brew something truly unique for the brewpub’s 1,000th batch, so he created the world’s first bourbon barrel-aged beer called, Bourbon County Stout. This groundbreaking recipe features freshly emptied bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and the Buffalo Trace distilleries. This unique Stout pours a dark brown color and provides scrumptious flavors of vanilla, dark chocolate, toffee, molasses, almond, and dried fruit.
Davidoff Winston Churchill The Late Hour Robusto is a sophisticated premium cigar that embodies the luxury lifestyle. This magnificent blend is composed of a beautiful, Habano seed Ecuadorian wrapper, followed by a zesty Mexican binder and Nicaraguan long filler tobacco aged in the finest single malt whisky casks.
Rich, complex notes of spice leather, and chocolate are rounded out with a mouthwatering caramel sweetness imparted by the fragrant casks. Had Sir Winston been around today, he would have spent his Late Hours enjoying this bourbon-laced cigar and stout pairing while solving the problems of the world.
