Pairing a fine cigar with a well chosen drink can result in wonderful sensory experience.

The right drink can effectively draw out, heighten or alter specific nuances and notes of a particular cigar – and vice versa – often making a delightful compliment and companion to each other.

Conversely, choosing a drink that does not properly compliment your cigar can lead to a less than desirable experience.

In this piece, we’ll discuss the 5 most popular drinks to pair with a cigar and identify the specific styles that are most likely to create an ultimate pairing.

What’s more, we’ll even identify specific brands – and even go as far as pinpointing specific releases that are more conducive to becoming a match made in heaven with your next cigar.

How do we know what works, you ask? Because we’ve test driven these combinations ourselves.

Tough work, I know.

So grab yourself a cigar, keep the bar cart (or better yet, the coffee machine) within reach, and read on.

Coffee undoubtedly tops our list as the most popular drink to pair with a cigar. There are many reasons for this.

Firstly, coffee does not contain alcohol (unless you’ve spiked it with something like Bailey’s or a rum liqueur, of course). This means that unlike alcohol, it is perfectly normal (and socially acceptable) to drink coffee throughout the livelong day.

As a result, it is much easier to time it to coincide with the smoking of a cigar.

Cigars and coffee both deliver a highly pleasurable olfactory sensory experience. Simply put, they both smell and taste great, and when enjoyed together, it’s double the pleasure.

Coffee and cigars also exhibit numerous overlapping flavor and aroma notes such as chocolate, licorice, earth, caramel, bread, nuts, vanilla, and so on. Plus, many cigars produce notes of coffee, and many coffees produce notes of tobacco, hence why pairing them makes perfect sense.

‘Cigar Vixen’ Delicia Silva loves pairing her coffee with a cigar: “I try to match the overall body of the coffee to the body of the cigar, similar to how we often pair spirits and cigars. Think of your coffee and cigar as the perfect relationship; you never want one to overpower the other, but rather to have both bring out the best characteristics in the each other and create an ideal balance.”

Delicia so loves her coffee and cigars that she created her own line of coffee called Tazas. Each brew is selected by Silva herself with the intention of being enjoyed with a cigar.

Furthermore, coffee beans are cultivated in many of the same regions where tobacco is also cultivated, like Nicaragua or Cuba for example. This area near the equator is often referred ‘The Bean Belt’.

A light roast coffee is ideally suited for cigars that are more on the milder side. A medium-bodied cigar with light notes of nuts, coffee and spice coffee will likely jive well with a medium-roast nutty coffee. Stronger cigars which boast darker wrappers (like a Maduro or Oscuro) often have lots of chocolate, leather, pepper and spice work well with a strong, full-bodied dark roast or a maybe even a Turkish-style coffee.

Our personal favorite cigar and coffee pairing is the Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 and the Tazas El Jefe Espresso Blend. A medium-bodied dark roast coffee with a medium-bodied cigar that leans more toward the milder side.

Similar to coffee, exquisite rums originate in the same points of origin that also cultivate tobacco. Cuba has its Havana Club and Santiago. Dominican Republic is known for Brugal and Barcelo. In Nicaragua, it’s primarily Flor De Cana.

You get the idea.

When enjoying a cigar while sipping rum either neat or on the rocks, the rule is this: darker is better. Certainly you could enjoy a light, white variety of rum mixed as a cocktail or with cola (see: Cuba Libre) alongside a cigar, but when having rum on its own, aged, dark varieties seem to stand up to the strength of a cigar – regardless of whether the cigar be mild or robust in body.

Like other spirits and drinks, a fine rum can effectively draw out, heighten or alter specific nuances and notes of a particular cigar – and vice versa – often making a delightful compliment and companion to each other.

Caution: when choosing a rum, be sure to seek one that hasn’t been dosed with excessive sugar prior to bottling.

Our favorite rum to pair with a cigar is the Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros with a Cuban Trinidad Vigia. A well-balanced, flavorful sipping rum with a cigar that is lush with earthy truffle notes, oakiness and a warm nutty finish.

Similar to the fermentation process of aging the tobacco used in cigars, whiskey undergoes its own aging processes in wooden casks to blossom into a full maturation of exquisite taste.

Depending on its body, various whiskeys pair exceptionally well with different cigars. Light- to medium-bodied cigars pair very well with Speyside and some Lowland scotch whiskies, Canadian, most Irish whiskeys, bourbons, and rye. Full-bodied cigars generally match well with the peatier Islay and Highland single malts, as well as some overproof Kentucky bourbons.

When describing the ‘notes’ of various whiskeys, words like oaky, spicy, smoky (to mention a few) often spring to mind. Unsurprisingly, the same can also be said when describing notes found in many cigars.

This is one reason why they pair so well and are both often enjoyed together in a slow, relaxed manner.

Our favorite whiskey/cigar duo is the Joseph Magnus Bourbon and the E.P. Carrillo La Historia E-III. The Magnus exhibits rich, deep flavors with notes of orange citrus, dried dark fruits, and vanilla. The Historia E-III delivers a bold, flavorful blend, redolent of coffee, wood and earth, even a touch of briny olive.

A cigar with cognac is possibly the height of luxury. Great for a special occasion – or simply just because.

Similar to the distinction drawn between champagne and sparkling wine, cognac is simply a brandy named after the town of Cognac in France. For this reason, cognac and brandy are practically interchangeable when it comes to pairing them with a cigar.

One of history’s most famous cigar smokers, Sir Winston Churchill, used to love pairing his Cuban Romeo e Julieta with cognac on the daily.

When it comes to selecting a cognac or brandy, the rule of thumb is the older the better. The age classifications in cognac are as follows: VS (aged 2+ years), VSOP (aged 4+ years), XO (aged 10+ years), XXO (Aged 14+ years) and H’ors d’age (aged between 30 and 100 years!).

Like wine, cognac imparts a nice sweetness that balances out perfectly with a cigar.

Our favorite cigar and cognac pairing is the Arturo Fuente Anejo and the Hine XO Cigar Reserve Cognac. A deep, rich and spicy Reserve Cognac with a palate that is round and long with flavors of honey and walnut. Rich maduro wrapper leaves aged in cognac barrels make the Anejo cigar the perfect accompaniment.

Considering their surprising similarities, there is something inherently natural about pairing a fine cigar with an exquisite wine.

Much like the tobacco that goes into a cigar, wine goes through its own fermentation process of aging to bring it into a mild, medium or full body character at completion. It is not distilled like the spirits on this list, and retains much of its terroir (french word meaning “sense of place”) like a cigar does.

Depending on factors like its aging process and its alcohol content, you can decide which cigar to pair with which wine. When you get it right, it’s a match made in heaven.

Much like spirits, we encourage you to lean more towards darker red varieties like malbec or cabernet sauvignon, as they typically stand up to the strength of a cigar that may overpower a lighter white varietal like, say, a pino grigio or a sauvignon blanc. Amongst the dessert wines available, it is widely recognized that port pairs very well with a fine cigar.

Our favorite cigar paired with a wine combo is the full-bodied La Flor Dominicana Ligero Natural with the Beringer Bros. Bourbon Barrel Aged Chardonnay. The Beringer showcases a bouquet of ripe apricot, vanilla bean, and buttered toast. The LFD Ligero Natural is a strong cigar with a spicy, earthy, and sweet profile.

Above all, the best drink and cigar combination is simply the one that brings you pleasure, no matter what that may be. Period.

Notable mentions to pair with a cigar also include Reposado or Anejo tequila, cocktails such as a Manhattan or a Boulevardier, and stout beer.

Hopefully this list will assist you in your quest to find your latest perfect pairing.