Initial Thoughts
If you’ve been following along this week, you’ll know that, I’m in the middle of my October Pairing/Review series. This cigar and spirit pairing combines the Tatuaje Little Monsters Frank Jr and Prichard’s Double Barrel Bourbon. Before I started drinking and smoking this pairing, I sat and I thought about what might happen between the two of them. The cigar, was rather creamy and sweet, it had a slight spice on the backend. Overall, it was medium in body. Because of that, I thought the Double Barrel bourbon would be a good choice to pair it with. The bourbon, is very flavorful, it offers quite a bit of heat and a solid vanilla flavor profile. It’s only 90 proof, so it shouldn’t overpower the cigar, but I’m curious as to what sort of flavors they will bring out in each other. On to the pairing report!
Combative Flavors
As I poured the glass of bourbon over some ice cubes, I let it set and open up. I’m hoping this will calm it down, and make it enjoyable to pair with the cigar. Right from the beginning the spice of the bourbon was the dominate flavor. When combined with the temperature from burning the cigar it amplified the spice in my mouth. I was a little worried about this, but it ended not being too overbearing, but a little more spice than I prefer with my pairings.
The vanilla from the bourbon was very dominate as well. It didn’t allow the sweetness from the cigar to really peek through. I’m glad the ‘bourbon burn’ wasn’t too strong with this pairing because that would have made it much more difficult to get through. This pairing wasn’t extremely combative like others I’ve had, but I was, hoping for a more cooperative flavor profile.
Harmonious Flavors
I know, I kind of ragged on the combative flavors first. So it might have turned you off from this pairing, but there were some good points along the way as well. During the 2nd third of this cigar, the flavor profile combined extremely well with the bourbon. I would take good sip of the bourbon, then take a nice draw on the cigar and let them both coat my tongue. Then I would rub my tongue on the roof of my mouth, to try and pull out different flavors.
At first, I noticed a strange sweet combination, it took me a while to pinpoint it. The more I sat and let it linger, I finally decided that it reminded me of Raisinets. Very odd to me, but that’s exactly what it tasted like. It was a very pleasant combination of flavors and I was enthusiastic about this part of the pairing. I felt like the cigar really hit its stride and the bourbon had opened up and they meshed well together.
Conclusion
All in all, the Frank Jr. and the Double Barrel bourbon paired OK with each other. I can’t say I was a huge fan of it, but, it wasn’t terrible either. It had some interesting flavor combinations. I was a big fan of some, and less of others. I think it took too long for the cigar to hit it’s stride, and it couldn’t match up with the spice of the bourbon. I always like to try and match sweet cigars with spicy spirits to see how they react. This one, not so great, but it’s not going to stop me from trying again.
I give this pairing a 7 out of 10. I was a huge fan of both these products by themselves, but when combined… Ehh not so great.
