The Star-Spangled Banger

With great stock comes great responsibility, and to me that responsibility falls: finding out how it tastes and what it very well might taste great with! In this particular pairing blog, we’re going to be looking at a fairly new addition to our humidor shelves, the Camacho Liberty series, and we’re going to be pairing it up with some quite robust partners.

The Cigar

Since its initial foray into the cigar world in 2002, the Camacho Liberty series has grown to achieve a cult status amongst devotees of the more visceral, front-loaded offerings that the cigar world has to offer, with collectors anticipating each year’s release with great fervour and baited breath.

Paying tribute to the foundation and legacy of the United States, the Liberty series has gone from strength to strength with every iteration. However, for the second year in a row, the brand have seen fit to peer back into their archives and revive a fan favourite vitola as a Throwback Edition - The 2012 Throwback blend utilises four different primings, aged for four years and hailing from the same farm!

The Beer

For the beer component of this pairing I had a hunch that something dark and delicious would compliment the considerably robust and warming notes of the cigar, with that on my mind, I already knew what I’d be looking to match it up with: Woodland Creatures v2, by Bristol’s Left Handed Giant (the new custodians of the Rainbow Project) and Het Uiltje, hailing from Haarlem in the Netherlands. Woodland Creatures v2 has to be hands down one of the best Milk Stouts released in the last few years, with it’s opulent infusions of Pistachio essence, Honeycomb and lashings of Lactose melding together to form a beer that is equal parts savoury, sweet and bold, with no one of its component parts treating too much on the toes of any other. A truly well balanced and refined stout in a world of (whilst we love them) obtuse and left-field pastry stouts.

The Whisky

Admittedly, whilst brainstorming the whisky for this pairing, I had chocolate on my mind and several contenders in the running, but I opted for a Jura, having always been a fan of the distillery’s wide range of offerings. Initially I hoped that we might still have some of the now-discontinued Superstition left in stock (due to its delicious chocolate notes) but instead chose to go with their new 18 year old expression, aged in American white oak ex-bourbon barrels before enjoying a finishing period in Premier Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux barrels, imparting a rich fruitiness and generous notes of chocolate chip cookies on the finish, which was exactly the flavour profile I was hoping to fill in the gaps with the beer and the cigar.

The Pairing

Armed with my stogie, beer and dram I ventured out to the most welcome embrace of a particularly bustling and lively Saturday night Cigarden, ready to tackle possibly my sweetest pairing yet. And sweet it was, but in the best possible ways; the stogie’s light chocolate notes and cedar spice being bolstered and uplifted by the sweet nuttiness of the beer, with the whisky providing a welcoming fruitiness that rounded out the proceedings perfectly. Have no doubt, this was an absolute star-spangled banger of a pairing indeed!

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