A couple of days later, but better than never, I bring to you another cigar and whiskey pairing. It's an unusual paring today that I am excited to share!
The Scotch
It's really unfortunate that in many instances blended Scotch gets a bad rap compared with the classic Single Malts that everyone, including myself tend to reach for. Maybe that mentality goes back a few decades when many blended scotch's were unrefined and not nearly as good as their single malt counterparts. But these days if you never try a blended malt, you truly are missing out and there is not a better maker of blends than Compass Box. Exclusively bottling blended scotch since 2000 they take single malts from all over Scotland, blending them together, sometimes aging them again and bottling them into something that in many cases is a sum far greater than its parts. What I also love about Compass Box is they are totally transparent. While you may not be able to find all the details of what's in the bottle on the bottle (many times this is because the law prohibits transparency as crazy as that sounds), if you go to their website you can find all you want to know and more. Take for example the expression I tried for today's paring, The Circle No.2, there isn't a lot of info on the bottle, but the website dedicated to it there is a ton. This is a usual expression dedicated to the color of coral, which seems pretty unique to me. This is a blend of 5 different distilleries scotch including Ardmore, Speyburn, and Glen Elgin. Naturally colored and not chil-filtered, it does have a beautiful unique color. Its ABV is 46% so this isn't a beast or a scotch, and not a lot of peat on the nose. There are flavors of pineapples, vanilla, honey, raisins. A very enjoyable dram that is smooth, and sweet without being cloying. I do enjoy this quite a bit. It holds up to the cigar well, the sweetness partnering well.
The Cigar
A few weeks back I mentioned a cigar with a Texas connection, well here is another. This cigar comes from North Texas's Ezra Zion Cigar Co. They are a direct to consumer brand with no real brick and mortar retail presence as far as I can tell. I have been smoking them off and on for a couple of years. Never the same stick as they seem to release new blends on a weekly basis. They all have fun names that are inspired by the season, Dallas, Texas, or something completely unrelated. This particular stick is the Spicy Chicken and Waffles, inspired by north Texas institution Babes Fried Chicken. The cigar is a 6.25x48 Toro size and made with Corojo leaf wrapper. It's a medium bodied cigar with notes of cinnamon, milk chocolate and maple syrup. The longer you smoke it brings some spicier notes that balance the earlier sweetness and play well with the sweetness of the Scotch. There are notes of licorice and dark chocolate in their as well. It's a decent length of smoke to lasting well over an hour as I sit and enjoy my cigar. It's well balanced, coats the mouth, blending with the sweetness of the scotch that's also swishing around. Great pairing that makes for a great evening.
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