Afternoon Cocktails and a Cigar

Sunday afternoon cocktails, and a cigar, on the deck are a pleasure we look forward to on many weekends during the warmer weather. It's a great time to talk, reminisce about the week past, plan for the week to come, and also just sit and relax. This past weekend was warm and humid, so we looked for a refreshing summer-suitable libation. What resulted was a bit of an experiment using a recipe found online. Some Sparking Ice Mango Orange carbonated water, Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon, bitters, and an orange peel made a refreshing concoction. The Four Roses is one of my favorite bourbons for cocktails. Of course, I always have suitable single "rocks" of ice at the ready. I initially used a few splashes of orange bitters in the drink. While not bad, the drink seemed somewhat flat in flavor. When I made a second round, I switched to Angostura Bitters. A bit of bitterness to balance the sweet of the sparkling water was just the touch needed. We added some veggies, humus, and tzatziki to the table and we were all set!

For my accompanying cigar, I grabbed an Eiroa The First Twenty Years Colorado. The 6 x 54 soft box pressed stick has an Honduran Colorado wrapper, and Honduran binder and fillers. This particular example was in poor shape. The cap was loose for about half the circumference. I used some PerfectRepair to glue it back in place, which led to a short delay in lighting while the pectin dried. Once I removed the tissue paper foot band, I saw a few cracks in the last quarter of the cigar, which I also touched up. Sadly when the band was removed a bit later, I also need to glue the wrapper back in place as it seemed only the band was holding it in place. I did purchase this cigar from an online "warehouse" seller, something I do infrequently, and I suspect mishandling as the culprit behind the damages. I have another in my humidor, which appears to be in better shape, at least judging by the portion of the cigar visible.

Initial repairs completed it was time to finally light up and enjoy. Initial flavors reminded me of a lightly toasted sweet bread. There's a bit of cinnamon spice in there as well. The flavor profile was pretty consistent for the entirety of the smoke. The latter half did pick up just a hint of pepper. 

It was sunny for most of our afternoon, despite being serenaded by the rumble of thunder far off in the distance. About the time we began discussing going inside for dinner, the rain sprinkles appeared but did not devleoped into heavier rain until much later in the evening.

Cheers!