By Greg Mays

Classified as a mild cigar from the Garcia family’s My Father line, the Connecticut label of the My Father series is flavorful nonetheless. Jose “Pepin” Garcia and his son Jaime blend the Connecticut line with an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper (the only leaves not harvested on the Garcia’s estate), with their own Nicaragua Corojo ‘99 binder, and Nicaragua Habano-Criollo filler.

The initial light of the cigar delivers warm spice to the palate, followed by dry hay notes as the heat dissipates. At times the My Father Connecticut delivers a subtle peppery cream note, but ultimately the smoking experience is mild, dry and herbal. It’s definitely an increased flavor profile from the old guard of mild cigars and certainly offers a nice stop-gap for those seeking a milder smoking experience but prefer the flavors that Nicaraguan tobacco delivers.

When paired with Casamigos Añejo Tequila, the flavors of each are compatible, but not necessarily complementary in profile.

Casamigos has some distilling techniques which lead to a unique tequila experience, primarily in the length of time their agave piñas are roasted and fermented. This leads to a more agave-forward spirit, and even in their older products like the Añejo, the agave’s flavor is center stage to the oak and wood notes you usually find in older tequila. Casamigos is using American oak barrels originally used for whiskey that they recondition to use for their tequilas.

When Casamigos Añejo is sipped neat and paired with the My Father Connecticut, the tequila is the taste leader throughout, though the two make for a lengthy pairing partnership – as you smoke and sip, the dry cool Connecticut wrapper makes your mouth water, and the Casamigos Añejo delivers with a citrus-forward (especially orange) roasted agave flavor that is never underpowered for this cigar.

With a pairing like this, I ultimately added some ice and club soda to the tequila, with a twist of orange, to enhance the complementary pairings of the two and to help quench the thirst of the cigar in general. The final half of the pairing experience and the two really began to hit a stride together. As I sipped the Casamigos, I could taste the smokier elements of their long-roasted agave; a pairing that was initially off-balance ended up quite nice, but it takes patience on the part of the smoker to wait for the flavors to settle in.