It wasn't my birthday even though the cigar had those words etched along the side of it. It was just a nice occasion to smoke a wonderful Cuban cigar and drink some nice whisky.
SINGLETON 15YO SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
This is a really well balanced whisky with no one flavour overpowering anything else. There's very feint peat amongst the floral and honey aromas, rounded out with the oak. On the palate the whisky is again well balanced.
LIGERO SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE CORONA
Ligero is a cigar club out of Beijing that I joined a few years ago. They import cigars and whole tobacco leaves from Cuba and have hired a Cuban cigar roller who makes cigars in-house. Their product is very good, lacking only the branding of the imported Cuban products. I'm being a little cheeky calling this a special edition cigar because all the cigar roller did was laser etch "Happy Birthday" on the side of the cigar for my birthday last year. I am also guessing as to what size they call the cigar but its basically slightly longer than a Churchill with a slightly wider ring gauge like a double corona. The cigar was a little tight on the draw to start with but burned well afterwards, good solid nutty and leathery flavours, no sweetness to speak of until the middle to end parts of the cigar.
The pairing was very good especially from about 2 thirds of the cigar to the end. Neither whisky nor cigar fought to take control instead sharing the spotlight with their own strengths coming to the fore. A good pairing for the warm evening outdoors listening to crooner music in an Italian restaurant.
