For ages, you had your cigar in one hand and your bourbon in the other. Then some alcoholic marketer had to go and invent Bourbon-infused cigars, so you could have the two together even more closely than ever before. The thing is – it’s turned out to be pretty great. While past experiments involving dipping a cigar directly into booze have had mixed results, the professional infusion process is a bit more refined and leads to a pretty nice flavor.
So let’s cover the basic idea: how do you make bourbon-infused cigars?
Well, the usual method to infuse a cigar with a flavor isn’t to dip or inject it. Instead, the idea is to seal away the cigar in the presence of something fragrant and flavorful. Because cigars are made from porous tobacco, the dry leaf will “soak” up these aromas. This is how best-selling cigars like Drew Estate ACIDs get their intriguing flavors, and it’s the preferred method for infusing a cigar.
In the case of bourbon-infused cigars, the method that seems to be dominating the industry is to use bourbon barrels. Once the bourbon is emptied out (after a few weekends on loan to a local fraternity), the barrel is dried and prepped for cigars. Rolled cigars are then placed into the barrel for storage, and infuse/age for as long as the manufacturer likes. This could vary a bit, but we know that infusion can take over a month in certain cases.
For the home experimenters, you can actually try infusing your own cigars by placing them into a container with a certain quantity of alcohol (not in the alcohol, but near it). There are quite a few videos only about this, so if you’re in the mood to have some fun, you can make your own brandy, rum, whiskey, or crème de banana-infused cigars. We’d love to hear how it goes!
We haven’t talked about bourbon yet, but it’s the sibling to grain whiskey that’s made primarily from corn. At this point in the industry, we’ve seen whiskey blends involving combinations of everything, but for those keeping score, that’s the basic idea of bourbon. It’s also a bona fide American liquor, so drink it with patriotic pride!
Bourbon-infused cigars come from a bunch of high-quality premium cigar makers. Examples include Drew Estate Pappy Van Winkle, Camacho Barrel Aged, Diesel Whiskey Row, and selections from Gurkha, Perdomo, and others.
Now, this can come as a surprise, but all of these bourbon-infused cigars do not have “bowl you over” alcohol flavor profiles. Some carry it as an aroma but don’t offer a ton of booze flavor when it comes to taste. This could be a plus or a minus, depending on your taste. There’s a good amount of variety in this type of cigar, so you really can’t paint the whole category with the same broad brush. Some bring a good strength of alcohol flavor, while others barely offer it at all. Test out a few, see what you think, and go from there. This is a great category to grab some single sticks to compare if you’re just starting out. But if you’re looking for something a bit different from the average daily smoke, this is without question a different kind of stogie.
Please browse our selection of bourbon-infused cigars at your leisure.
