Friday Smokes and Drinks

It's hard to believe it's Tuesday, and I'm just getting around to reminiscing about last Friday. It was a busy but fun weekend, spent visiting family and traveling without a laptop.

I "put a lid" on the week early Friday afternoon to enjoy a before dinner cigar in the waning warmth of a moderately warm November day. The weekend kicked off with a Rocky Patel Grand Reserve. The Grand Reserve was first released in 2018 for distribution in Europe. It proved to very popular, and was just released to the U.S. in the summer 2020. The blend for the cigar is undisclosed, the only details being the tobaccos were aged for two years before being rolled at the factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

This 5½ x 50 Robusto is a light, milk chocolate in color and exhibits an even burn all the way through. The flavor profile was that of creamy coffee and nuts. The cigar has a sweet note as well. When I first smoked the cigar this summer, I found it quite smooth and mild. This time, I detected a hint of cedar spice and would definitely rate it as medium bodied. The beverage accompaniment was a warm chai latte.

After a break for dinner, I returned to the porch to continue the welcome period of rest and relaxation. The sun having set, it was necessary to crank up the propane heater and pour something with a little more "warmth." Colleen has been doing some pre-holiday baking that involves rum as an ingredient. Seeing the bottles on the counter this week put me in the mood for a taste so I grabbed the bottle of Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum. I find this to be an easy sipper, with notes of brown sugar and clove. There's a sweet vanilla and oaky aspect to the profile as well. 

The cigar for the evening, was the Oliva Serie V Maduro Especial. The 6 x 54 Torpedo features a dark San Andrés wrapper. The binder and fillers are from Nicaragua. The Serie V Maduro is a full bodied smoke featuring rich, creamy chocolate with cedar and nuttiness in the finish. The ligero leaf added to the filler gives it a bit of strength. The cigar burned beautifully, producing about a 90 minute smoke

The rum and cigar worked decently well together. The milder rum flavors may have been slightly underwhelmed by the full bodied cigar, but overall the flavor profiles were a good match. The fact that I smoked the cigar down until it was literally burning my fingers is testimony to that. But all good things must eventually come to end. It was the same with the bottle of Don Q which must now be replaced.