Beer, Motorcycles and Cigars — Beer, Bikes and Butts

I have never experienced such a perfect convergence of cigar smoke, beer, music and weather. Allow me to set the scene.

It’s a gorgeous Friday evening in Southern California. The kids are off somewhere with the wife, and I exit my convertible in the garage and grab a beer from my beer fridge as I head into the house. I thought I wanted something light, but I haven’t restocked lately so I have only a collection of stouts. I choose the Out of Bounds Stout by the Avery Brewing Company for no reason other than it has a cool label (see photo). From the humidor I grab a God of Fire Robusto by Don Carlos. For reasons explained below, I am now embarrassed to admit that I was unaware of this particular cigar. It was given to me to review by a representative of Prometheus, a company that sells lighters and ash trays, among other things. Thanks Danny. It’s good to be a revered cigar reviewer.

I grab the brew, cigar and laptop and head out to the Lido deck. I turn on the laptop, sign onto Slacker.com radio and don my bluetooth headphones. Whether the bluetooth headphones will link is always a hit and miss proposition for some reason, but they come on just as I take my first taste of the Out of Bounds stout, and I am greeted with Damn it Rose by Don Henley, off the Inside Job album.

The perfect convergence begins.

Out of Bounds Stout

The Out of Bounds stout was outstanding. It poured very dark with a huge head of tan foam. The foam still coated the glass after the beer was gone. The nose was of roasted coffee. The taste consisted of chocolate, coffee and malt. The mouthfeel was one of the creamiest I have experienced, and the aftertaste had just a hint of sweetness. I think I have discovered my new, favorite stout, earning this great beer a 9.6 on the Morris Scale.

God of Fire Robusto by Don Carlos

If you haven’t experienced Slacker.com yet, open another browser tab right now and go there post haste. You create a free “radio station” based on your musical preferences, and as you listen you can mark songs as favorites and forever ban any you don’t like. The station becomes more personalized the more you listen to it. There are other such services, like Pandora and Yahoo’s Launchcast, but none measure up to Slacker. If you chose to buy a Slacker mp3 player, your stations are wirelessly uploaded. During this perfect convergence, not a single clinker played. Damn It Rose was followed by The Boy’s Gone (Jason Mraz), Bigger Than My Body (John Mayer), Sometimes in Winter (Blood, Sweat & Tears), Eye In The Sky (Alan Parsons) and In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel).  A great soundtrack for the flavors of the cigar and beer.  I offer the list in case you want to create a playlist called, “Music to Smoke Cigars By.”

But back to the cigar. A little background from the maker’s website: “The God of Fire cigars were first introduced in November 2004 in limited edition humidors produced by Prometheus. Since then, they have been sold through an exclusive group of authorized God of Fire dealers. Carlos Fuente, Sr. and his son, Carlito Fuente, have blended the God of Fire cigars. God of Fire by Don Carlos uses the Ecuadorian wrapper whereas God of Fire by Carlito, Cameroon.”

The overall construction was flawless; the wrapper with very small veins running through. A scent of spice and leather. Tremendous and complex spice and pepper taste, growing from medium to strong. I could not identify individual components of the complex taste, but it was great! The burn was consistent to the end, and this is one cigar that I definitely smoked to the end.

I didn’t research the God of Fire until I had experienced it, and only then did I learn that these are relatively high-priced sticks.  After smoking one I can understand why, but I’m glad I went in with no preconceived notions.  My research also revealed almost universal accolades for this great cigar, matching my own.  A solid 9.5 rating.

Life is good.

Posted on June 20th, 2009 by Aaron Morris
Filed under: Beer, Cigars, Reviews