Aromas and pairings
What you find in a cigar, and what you can serve alongside it.
Notes 12
Bois
The cedar of a cigar box just opened. Dry, straight, with a memory of a freshly sharpened pencil.
Cacao
Dark chocolate minus the sugar — the round bitterness of the bean, not of the bar.
Cafe
The bottom of a forgotten cup: roasted, slightly burnt, frankly bitter. A morning note.
Cuir
The back of an old club armchair. Animal, warm, lightly waxed.
Douceur
Not sugar — a roundness. Cream, almond, everything that rounds off a blend's edges.
Epices
What stings without hurting: the pepper that scratches at the back of the throat, the cinnamon that warms the tongue.
Fleur
A discreet scent, never heady. Think lime blossom rather than rose.
Foin
A barn at the height of summer. Dried grass, warm straw, and that faint toastiness that goes with it.
Force
Not a taste but a weight: what the cigar weighs in the mouth, and how long it stays there after the last draw.
Fruits
Dried fruit rather than fresh: fig, apricot, almond. Concentrated sugar, never juicy.
Fumee
Wood that has just gone out. Dry, faintly acrid, a memory of a morning hearth.
Terre
The humus of undergrowth after rain. Nothing dirty about it: this is the smell of living soil, the one that rises when you lift a fallen leaf.
Pairings 8
Biere
A dark ale or a stout: the roasted grain meets the tobacco, and the bubbles clean the palate between sips.
Cacao
Dark chocolate reveals the hidden sweetness of dark cigars. Let it melt — do not bite it.
Cafe
The safest pairing, and the oldest: coffee's bitterness revives the tobacco's instead of masking it.
Fruits
A few dried fruits between draws: they refresh without washing away the taste, which a juicy fruit would do.
Patisserie
A lightly sweetened pastry, for pale morning cigars: the butter rounds off the tobacco's dryness.
Spiritueux
A spirit has no sugar to round off the edges: it meets the cigar on equal ground. Aged rum extends the smoke, grappa cuts through it.
The
For the morning, or for mild leaves: tea rinses the mouth between draws instead of competing with them.
Vin
The most delicate of all. A tannic red fights the cigar; a fortified wine accompanies it — port, madeira, malvasia.