This morning was another cold one. Cold enough that I did not feel like working in the garage this morning when I got up. My garage isn’t heated, though I do use an electric heater when I am down there and get chilly. It also could benefit from a few things to improve insulation. Though I worked down there yesterday morning when it was a few degrees chillier, it was still quite cold out throughout the day yesterday and I had to open the garage door later in the day, which let whatever heat was in there out..
All that to say, when I got up this morning I decided to stay up in the warmth and read as opposed to work on my latest guitar build and have a cigar. So I don’t have a cigar to report upon.
I do have a cigar related topic to touch on today - the perfect pairing.
Pairings in the cigar world are quite popular. Most of the attention is on whiskey and cigars. That’s understandable, as there are a lot of similarities in both how the two are crafted and in the cohorts that are associated with them. Personally, and I said this when I was a drinker, I don’t like pairing cigars and whiskey. Or any alcohol for that matter.
I think that whiskey does not compliment cigars. I think that people love the idea and the act of having a cigar and whiskey. That’s great. However, I don’t think those people are as interested in what the cigar actually has to offer. It is near impossible to get the full experience of a cigar's profile when paired with something that is aggressive on the palate. I feel this way about many things - soda, hot drinks, cold drinks, etc. I find that something like soda or juice coats the mouth too much. I find that too hot or too cold of drinks paralyzes the palate for a bit.
For me, the perfect pairing is coffee. Coffee that is at a non-mouth burning temperature and is black, not full of cream and sugar. Even saying that, I still acknowledge that coffee can alter the profile of the cigar, and does. However, black coffee at a comfortable drinking temperature taints the palate for a far shorter period of time than most drinks. And while the palate is still compromised, there has literally never been a cigar that tastes bad with coffee.
This is all personal opinion, so you may (and probably) disagree with me. What’s your preferred pairing?
Take care,
-Trevor