100 Year Old Cigar

100 Year Old Cigar by Maks Pazuniak

Here’s a toast to the vintage Cigar Box, a perfect place to hide things. I chose a smoky cigar themed cocktail that was created by well known bartender and spirits personality Maks Pazuniak. Maks and his friend Kirk Estopinal published a slim cocktail book called Beta Cocktails years ago which is somewhat of a cult underground classic. Naturally I have featured many drinks from those pages.

rolling a cigar

Pazuniak’s smoky cigar drink, on the other hand, is featured in Brooklyn Bartender: A Modern Guide to Cocktails and Spirits, edited by Carey Jones, 2016, published the same year that his signature Bushwick bar Jupiter Disco opened. The cocktail is sort of like a Boulevardier, that classic combination of whiskey, vermouth, and amaro, except with a hefty base of aged rum rather than whiskey. The drink is meant to evoke the experience of a fine old cigar, and it certainly has a complex and smoky presence. I’m not sure it’s any healthier than an actual cigar, but at least your upholstery won’t smell so bad. Cheers!

a smoking good pair

100 Year Old Cigar by Maks Pazuniak

1 ½ oz aged rum

½ oz Cynar

½ oz Benedictine

¼ oz peaty scotch

1 dash Angostura bitters

Absinthe rinse

Stir the ingredients together with ice and strain into the prepared glass. No official garnish.

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