Tasting a cigar is an act of enjoyment that is usually also accompanied by a drink. There is a wide variety of drinks that go perfectly with the notes and flavours that come out of a cigar. As always, it is a matter of taste and preference, do you know how to pair your smokes?
As a general rule, mild cigars are best paired with white wines or light liqueurs. For fuller-bodied cigars, red wines or more powerful spirits are recommended to enhance the flavours of such smokes. Let’s take a look at some of the main drinks that are often paired with cigars.
Our favourite drink to pair with cigars is rum, a Dominican Republic classic. And more specifically, the one we created to go perfectly with all kinds of cigars, our E. León Jimenes 110 Aniversario rum. This is a super premium rum aged for ten years: eight in virgin American white oak barrels and two in virgin French oak casks.
It is a rum with a vibrant finish marked by sweet, spicy and floral notes that bring out the best in premium cigars. It has received numerous awards for its exquisiteness such as:
- Rum of the Year in 2022 by USA Spirits Ragins, whose panel of experts also awarded it the Gold Medal and a score of 94 points in three categories: quality, value and ambassadorship.
- Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2020.
- Awarded 97 points from the Beverage Testing Institute, whose experts considered it superlative.
So rum, and ours in particular, are a perfect match. The sweet, floral and spicy flavours of well-aged rum enhance the caramel, vanilla and cocoa notes of cigars. You can try it, for example, with some of the cigars from our La Aurora 107 line, such as the Nicaragua or the Cosecha, or La Aurora Corojo 1962, from our Original Blends line.
Coffee, a classic smoking companion
Another faithful companion of a good smoke is coffee. Aware of this, we at La Aurora have our own coffee blend: Kora. It is an Arabic seed coffee roasted and ground to perfection, made entirely in the Dominican Republic. Coffee is a good friend of strong cigars, especially if it is drunk black.
We suggest you savour our La Aurora 100 Años with a rich cup of black coffee, or the tasty and aromatic La Aurora ADN Dominicano. For a smoke accompanied by a coffee with milk or cream, we suggest a milder cigar, a Leon Jimenes Connecticut being a good choice.
There are those who love a good liqueur to drink with a cigar. For example, cognac (which is usually drunk after dinner) is a good partner for evening smokes. Whisky is also a good companion for a smoke. For this type of drink, our classic La Aurora 107 Ecuador could be an option, with its progressive smoke up to a medium-strong level, or La Aurora Original Blends Maduro 1985. There are also cocktail-type drinks, sweet or smoky, which go well even with full-bodied cigars.
Although mostly drunk with food to enhance the flavours of the meal, wine can also go hand in hand with a good smoke. For white wine lovers, a great choice is chardonnay, with its aged oak flavour, to drink with a good cigar.
Red wines are also a good accompaniment to cigars, especially for stronger cigars. And don’t forget champagne, which can also be paired with cigars on special occasions.