Wine & spirits · Drinks advice

Whisky and cigar

A good cigar lasts an hour, and so does a good dram. Here is which whisky from our shelf stands up next to which cigar, and why. Forty-five combinations, chosen by us.

To the cigar compassBack to the recommendations

Why it works

Two things that take time

Smoke and whisky speak the same language: wood, sweet, pepper, smoke. It goes wrong as soon as one of the two speaks louder. A mild cigar next to an Islay malt is a waste of the cigar, and a light Speyside tastes of nothing next to a full-bodied Nicaraguan. So choose first on weight and only then on flavour.

Two aids. The sweetness from a sherry or bourbon cask takes the sharpness off a spicy wrapper. And water: above 46 percent the alcohol bites, and then the smoke falls flat. A few drops in the glass set that right.

A cigar becomes fuller towards the end. If you pour two glasses, save the heaviest whisky for the last third.

Open wooden box with a row of cigars

The cigar compass

Which whisky goes with your cigar

Choose the colour of the wrapper and the whisky that suits you. The compass searches our 45 combinations. The wrapper is the outer leaf of the cigar; the colour is often shown on the band or the box.

Wrapper
Whisky
Time

From our list

Smoke on smoke

Peat adds to the tobacco. A medium-colored cigar has enough strength to stand beside it.

    One generous glass, at room temperature, in a tulip glass.

    The wrapper

    From light to dark

    Of our 45 combinations, 11 go with a light wrapper, 30 with a medium wrapper and 4 with a dark wrapper.

    LeafWhat you tasteFrom our shelf
    Shade-grown wrapper (Connecticut)Wood, cream, nut. Little pepper.Lowland, Speyside, Irish whiskey
    ColoradoLightly sweet, a little spice.Malt in a bourbon cask
    Habano, CorojoPepper, cedar, leather.Sherry cask, coastal malt, Islay
    MaduroCocoa, coffee, raisin.Bourbon, rye, heavy sherry
    OscuroAlmost black, earthy and full.Islay at cask strength, with water

    The size

    Length is time

    The ring gauge is the thickness in 64ths of an inch. The thicker it is, the cooler and fuller the smoke. The times are a guideline.

    SizeSizeTime and glass
    Petit corona± 110 mm, ring gauge 4220 to 30 min, one small glass
    Corona± 140 mm, ring 4230 to 45 min, one glass
    Robusto± 125 mm, ring 5045 to 60 min, one generous glass
    Belicoso± 140 mm, ring 52, pointed head45 to 60 min, one generous glass
    Toro± 152 mm, ring 52about one hour, two small glasses
    Churchill± 178 mm, ring 47an hour and a half, two glasses

    Close to home

    Deventer smoked along

    Around 1900, some seven hundred people in Deventer worked in tobacco. Between 1850 and 1950 the city had well over a hundred cigar factories and small workshops, with brands such as Generaal Van Heutz and Indische Kiekjes. The cigar factory De Arend was located on the Brink in Deventer from 1900, at number 51. ’t Bockje is also on a Brink, at number 2, but in Bathmen.

    The last two factories, Horst & Maas and Bijdendijk & Ten Hove, closed in 1952 and 1953. What remained are the street names: Tabakswal, Tabaksstraat and Tabaksdwarsstraat.

    A little further downstream, in Kampen, cigars have been made since 1832. That is where the Dutch cigar comes from as many people know it: dry, short and with a Sumatra wrapper. It does not need a humidified box and goes well alongside a light, dry malt.

    Sources: Stichting Oud Deventer, nieuwsbrief 39 (2019); Stichting Industrieel Erfgoed Deventer.

    Factory building at Tabakswal 32 in Deventer
    Tabakswal 32 in Deventer, where the Langkat cigar factory used to be. Photo: JanB46, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Black-and-white photo of a Dutch cigar factory with long rows of workshops
    A Dutch cigar factory in the first half of the twentieth century. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
    Wooden tobacco barn with drying leaves
    Photo: Henk Monster, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

    Without cigar

    Smoke in the glass

    If you are looking for the smell of a cigar room, you will find it in the bottle too. In 39 tasting notes from our shelf there are tobacco, leather, cedar or even the cigar itself. And 715 whiskies have peat.

    The 39 bottlesAll tallied whisky

    Combining

    All 45 recommendations

    We supply the whisky, not the cigar; the combination works as soon as you choose both at equal strength. Smoke next to smoke adds up: a peated malt holds its own next to heavy tobacco, while a mild cigar disappears beside it. Sweetness from a sherry cask absorbs the pepper from the wrapper, so that both come out softer. A high alcohol percentage makes the mouth sharp and the smoke flat afterwards; a few drops of water put that right.

    Back to Drinks advice from ’t Bockje

    NIX18 · Verkoop van alcohol onder de 18 jaar is verboden.

    Per bottle

    A personal recommendation with every bottle of whisky

    The page of every bottle of whisky from the shop has a recommendation of its own: something with the meal or with drinks, a cheese and something for afterwards, with the shopping list and the preparation. For whisky also a cigar for after dinner.

    All bottles of whisky with a recommendation