I haven’t had a cigar in ages. One of my joys at night is to sit outside of my condo, using one of the nifty folding chairs I got from Harris Teeter with a table on the side, smoking a cigar, sipping a drink of some sort, and reading a book by the light of the street lights and house light. That might sound dark but it’s actually rather well lit outside.
Unfortunately, one of the chairs broke at the party last weekend and both are still over at that house, the house light is out, and it’s been crappy weather.
Last night was milder than I expected and I was bored, so I said, you know what, I’m going to figure out a way to do this. I grabbed the two metal folding bistro chairs we have in our kitchen to hold my “ash tray” (a plastic bowl of water) and drinks, grabbed my copy of Imbibe!, poured myself a couple of drinks, and grabbed a cigar I haven’t tried before.
The cigar was a Rocky Patel Edge. I picked it up for a good price at Georgetown Tobacco over at Tyson’s Corner Center. I was actually impressed with all their prices; it’d been a while since I’d been there, but it was remarkably cheaper than the Total Tobacco near my office in Rosslyn and seemed cheaper than Old Virginia over in 7 Corners.
The cigar was lighter than the RP Vintage 1990s that I’d smoked a lot of in recent times but was still an enjoyable smoke. As I typically do in situations like this, I did smoke it a bit fast, so it was a little hot by the end, but I greatly enjoyed it.
To go along with it I made two drinks: first, a Pimm’s and Sprite Zero – a combination that worked REALLY well, I thought, and another notch in my continuing quest to figure out which diet lemon-lime soda goes best with Pimm’s (I also have some Sierra Mist Free) – as well as a double sized Winter’s Touch. Instead of shaking it, which I had an aversion to doing last night for some bizarre reason, I made it in the glass with plenty of ice and stirred it. It came out well, especially after I let the ice melt a bit and dilute it down. I probably could’ve added a bit more simple syrup, too.
But that definitely hit the spot last night. I hadn’t done that in a long time. Imbibe! is a great read, too – I haven’t finished it yet, but once I do I’ll make sure to do a Runo Knows… on it.
