One year ago, if you would have asked me if I would like a cup of coffee to go with my cigar, chances are I would have said “no thank you” without giving it any thought. I used to dislike coffee and simply enjoyed my cigars with tea instead.
My first experiences with coffee were at home where my parents kept Folgers or Maxwell House on hand. The places that I worked did the very same thing. Every time I tried to drink a cup of Folgers or Maxwell House, I struggled to get it down. It always tasted dirty, and cream and sugar only seemed to make it worse.
It was at this point that I wrote off coffee for the most part. A few years later I got into the fine world of cigars. Some of the things I read early on were stories of people having their cigars with a morning cup of coffee. This sounded like an odd pairing to me simply because I didn’t care for the beverage, but I wanted to try it anyway. I headed over to the JR Cigars website and ordered up some Montecristo and Mayorga coffee to try with my cigars.
The coffee and cigar pairing was a success, although the coffee didn’t taste leaps and bounds better than I was hoping for. For the next couple of months I slowly gravitated to tea instead. The reasoning was simple, I could go to the grocery store and spend a couple of dollars on a box of tea bags that I enjoyed while not having to wait for them to arrive in the mail.
The tea and cigars combination was excellent, I enjoyed trying to new teas with new cigars. I even went as far as mail ordering loose leaf tea to brew. While I enjoyed the taste, preparing the loose leaf tea was a little more involved than I cared for and I was quickly back to bagged tea.
At some point after settling into exclusively tea with cigars, I heard Bob McDuffy talk very highly of Black Dog Coffee on Dog Watch Cigar Radio. My interest was piqued and I decided to order up a half pound and try it out. Several roasts were available and I had no idea where to start. I sent Brian Bircher from Black Dog an email asking for his recommendation based on my past experiences.
The email I received back from Brian was very friendly and full of advice. I ordered a half pound of two roasts and eagerly awaited my product delivery. When it arrived, I immediately ground up some beans and got a pot brewing. As the coffee was brewing, I dug around my Coolidor looking for the first thing to grab my attention.
It was so long ago that I really have no idea what cigar I may have paired with that coffee, but I enjoyed it tremendously. Ever since then I look forward to my Saturday and Sunday ritual of having a cup of coffee and a cigar.
If your reading this article and are wondering where to get started, your in luck. Back in March I spoke with Brian Bircher and asked if he would be interested in writing a coffee and cigars article for the fine folks of Stogie Review. He agreed and put together an article entitled Coffee and Cigars: Science or Serendipity.
Tell us what your cigar and coffee paring was this morning.
Your on the money with this one! I used to hate coffee simply because it tasted like crap. That’s due to the fact that we’d drink the instant kind. Blah!! After getting married in 1999, the wife and I were given an espresso machine. That began my quest into the vast world of coffee. I no longer used the drip method and I currently use 3 different methods of making my coffee. I purchased a Sanseo single serve coffee machine that uses coffee pods, I quickly learned that the pods that you buy at the supermarket both suck and are expensive. I had to find an alternative way of using this machine. I ended up finding on Ebay, coffee pods that are refillable. I can now buy my own coffee and use that instead of the pods you buy in the store. It’s a perfect cup of coffee everytime. My second method is a stovetop espresso pot. Makes a good strong cup of coffee, great for those mornings where I can’t motivate myself to do anything. My third method is the French Press method. The wife and I went to a coffee house and ordered a full pot of French Roast and I was floored at how good it was. Later that night, I stopped over at Target and bought one.
Thats funny,
Realy the only time I have coffee with my cigars is on the weekends.
I have this one type of coffee that I never stray from… Its Sumatran, I picked it up from the local farmers market. I chose it, because I really enjoy Sumatran wrappers, so I thought the coffee would be too. It has a natural sweetness, and a chocolatey nutty flavor (similar characteristics I enjoy in cigars). I’m by no means a purist, I like cream and sugar, but this coffee doesn’t need as much sugar as “regular” coffees for me.
I typically pair it with a Connecticut of some sort. My favorite pairing is a Perdomo Lot 23, its got more punch to keep up with the coffee, and isn’t overpowered by the brew. But I can enjoy pretty much any Connecticut with my weekend coffee.
While it wasn’t a morning cigar and coffee pairing, I do enjoy a nice cup of coffee around 1 PM to perk things up. The other day I enjoyed a freshly brewed cup of Folgers Brazilian Sunrise w/ a Partagas Black. It was a great combination, as the coffee flavor accentuated the rich taste of the cigar and vice versa.
The Flor de Oliva with coffee is a pretty good choice, too. It has a bit of a sweet finish, which is wonderful when you pair it with a coffee with milk.
I have always enjoyed a CAO Mx2 with a cup of espresso. They compliment one another perfectly!
I rotate between two: the corona-sized El Rey De Los Habanos and the petite-corona-sized Rocky Patel Vintage 1992. They are both potent, short smokes that stand up well to the dark roasts I drink. I have learned not to pair a bigger cigar with coffee, otherwise the coffee runs out (or gets cold) long before the cigar stops burning.
Oddly I have found balancing between the strength of the cigar and coffee works well. Mild cigar = strong coffee and vice versa. Cigars and coffee are a great combination.
I get up early on the weekends to make sure I get my morning cigar in before my boys wake up.
This morning was Papa Nicholas’ (a local Chicago company) Columbian coffee with a La Differencia Cubana torpedo. One of my favorite coffees and one of my favorite morning cigars.
I have found that an R&J reserva real or gurkha park ave go quite well with my late morning coffee. My coffee preference is a good Sumatran blend brewed with a French Press. Thanks for the link to the article. Exactly what I was looking for!
I cheerfully agree with JimScar and top jimmy that La
Differencia Cubana and Gurkha Park Avenue both go well with a
coffee in the morning. Another one that is surprising, since it is
a cheap little cigar, is the Magellan Dominican corona. It is mild
tasting, and is small so it lasts about as long as a big cup of
coffee. On the weekend you might want to add a little Bailey’s
Irish Creme to the coffee 🙂 Thanks for this great
article.