Montecristo No. 1 ESL DIC 17 Smoke and drink Pairing review.

[mt1]

Bit of a weird combination, but I decided to try a Montecristo No. 1 with a caramel milkshake from Shake Shack.  I was banking on the sweetness to work well with the Montecristo.

As expected, the Montecristo started woody with some hints of coco and quickly developed into more and more coco.  For me, the Monte 1 is like a condensed Monte 2, more straight to the point, a little crisper on the flavors.  Maybe one thing I like more about the Monte 1 than the 2 is that the increase in intensity is noticeable as you smoke the cigar.  As the coco settles in, the wood goes away and you are left with intense chocolate flavors that change from slightly bitter (like a good dark chocolate or baking chocolate) to mildly sweet, and this repeats to the end.  An excellent cigar.

Now, the milkshake was a great addition in terms of complementing flavors.  It helped sweeten the whole experience (of course) but also gave me something immediate to compare how sweet or chocolatey the smoke was.  I expected it to make the smoke very bitter, but it actually brought those chocolate flavors out even more, I think because of the immediate contrast between caramel and chocolate made it easy to identify but it also helped build on it as the flavors are complementary.  The one thing I did not like was the creaminess of the milkshake lacked that cleansing "palate reset" feeling that you get from other drinks, like scotch, or even sodas.  This made the flavors a bit muddled at times.  That, and there's something weird about smoking after sipping on a thick and creamy drink...

[shrink]

Congratulations on smoking a Monte No. 1 while rocking a milkshake, You da man! 

[unclepauly25]

That’s awesome now I want a milkshake ?

[Burningman]

Rich! I would have to include some water to cut through the richness of both. Shake shack is pretty darn good. I got to try it in Vegas. Love the option of spiking your shake.