f rench c offee

The past few days have been rough, a combination of bar-related issues and the cold temperatures. i t became very difficult to do the pairing as i had planned it, so i ended up having to improvise a bit, but i was very impressed with the result, nonetheless.

l ongtime readers of this column know by now that one of the simple pairings i like to offer for people to replicate at home, is one with a r um e spresso m artini. For this occasion, i ’ll make one but with a French r hum and i ’ll use a bit of Cointreau also, to reinforce the play with words.

The recipe for the French Coffee is as follows.

french coffee i ngredients:

• 2 oz. r hum i sautier 10 ans d ’âge from r eunión

• 1.5 oz. Coffee l iqueur

• 1 oz. e spresso Coffee

• 1 oz. Cointreau

Directions: i know that, for some, it may be difficult to buy this exact rhum, but it can be replaced with another Agricole r hum, around 7 years old, as long as it does not have a very intense oak or sweet character. Also, some people will oppose the idea of buying a bottle of Cointreau just to make this pairing, i suggest making a simple syrup flavored with orange oil, which you can easily obtain by squeezing the orange peel over the syrup. i hope you can enjoy this pairing. i n my case, due to the size of the cigar, i was able to make two of these cocktails during the hour-long smoking time.

The cocktail’s preparation is very simple: pre-chill a m artini glass. Add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker, add ice and stir for about 10 seconds, enough for all ingredients to combine well. s train into the m artini glass, making sure no ice ends up in the glass.

For the cigar, i selected a Churchill (7 x 50) m ontecristo from the d ominican r epublic, Platinum series, s election i i t is a cigar with a wrapper from s an Andrés and the filler is a combination from d ominican r epublic, Peru and n icaragua. Based on this composition, the cigar should have a medium-high intensity/body, let’s see if this is the case.

As i light up the cigar, the draw seems appropriate, the intensity is on the medium range, more than likely because this is the first third of the cigar.

The cocktail, on the other hand, is coming across marvelously, the orange touch makes it the ideal cocktail for a pairing with a cigar that is not very aggressive, otherwise the flavors would fight with each other on the palate, pulling in different directions, something that would not be enjoyable.

Cheers!

Philip i li Barake # gr CigarPairing