AVO 787 & Monk’s Café

Top Shelf Experience
Cigar = $16.00 (in Michigan) Monk’s Café = $4.00 a bottle

The Cigar
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut leaf
Filler: Piloto Cubano, San Vicente, and Olor – not your average fillers
Size: 6 x 54 toro
My Strength Rating: 4?

Boy, oh, boy when I took that cello wrap off this cigar the cedar smell was beautiful. I think I smelled the cigar for five minutes before I cut it and lit it. This has to be the best smelling cigar I have ever had (before lighting the cigar). The cedar taste is right there of coarse but, the front and center taste to me is the mossy-earthy taste. This cigar is not for your average cigar smoker. They won’t know what they are experiencing. Puff it slowly and experience the flavors. It is like I can taste the minerals from the soil the plants were grown in. There is an oregano or even lighter, maybe a marjoram, herbal note. This cigar has a wonderful unique taste to it and I am loving every puff. Throw in a touch of soft white pepper with a mild rye toasty note and you have an excellent cigar that will go with your salad. The texture is silky-satiny smooth and the aftertaste is very brief.

The Ale
Monk’s Café Sour Red Ale

5.5% abv
11.2 oz bottle (comes in a 4 pack)
Van Steenberge Brewery (I seem to like their beers)
Belgium
My Strength Rating: 4

This is an Oud Bruin style, meaning they take a mixture of young beer and old beer and blend them together and in this case they also age it in oak.

Let’s start with the finish – I think it has a clean and refreshing aftertaste. Not clean as in pilsner clean (void in taste). Think of mouthwash clean! You get a mouthful of mouthwash and swish it around and then after you spit out the mouthwash your mouth feels refreshed but still retains some of the mouthwash taste. Well, you get a mouthful of this mild sour ale and yes swish it around to get the full taste of this delicious sour ale. After you have swallowed the ale you are left with a refreshing mouthfeel. Also, think of a Champagne aftertaste – clean and tingly.

Get a big mouthful of foam – uhmm good. Taste that cherry-oaky taste within that foam – very good. While drinking this ale (3 bottle review over three different days) I really enjoy the balance of the mild sweet-sour style. I also have grown to like its complexities. Flavors of: green apple for a little tartness, green grapes for a little freshness, dark cherry for sweetness, with a slight oak background, and a cola like effervescence that just seems to explode when it’s in your mouth. This is delicious! Damn! Another new favorite in the makings.

Here is something I did not expect. Sour beer on a hot day? No way, right! Yes, this is very good on a hot day indeed. It is 91 degrees out with the humidity around 90+% and this Sour Ale is refreshing.

The Pairing

I am so glad I found my last AVO to pair up with this cigar – well, I have to admit I was not sure at first. I thought that maybe the complexities of these to super fine products may be too much and just collide and be too overwhelming. But, something inside me said, ‘do it.’

The Monk’s Café has a nice oaky background and I was thinking maybe an oaky flavored cigar would be the fit. Then, I thought, it might be too much. I am glad I went with this stick.

This is TOP SHELF madness – Oh, how delicious this is after a big diner!

The wonderful sweet and tart cherry, tart green apple, fresh green grapes, and oaky flavors seem to just flow together with the cigars mossy-earthy, sweet cedar, herbal profile in a fine dining experience that I cannot believe.