Cinnamon | Nutmeg | Tobacco | Leather | Brown sugar | Dried fruit | Grape

Caramel | Vanilla | Stewed apples | Dried fruit | Rich oak

Leather | Baking spices | Brown sugar | Spicy cinnamon | Dark toffee | Light dry oak tannins

The quest to create the perfect bourbon to pair with a cigar continues. Though an official classification doesn’t exist to be labeled a “Cigar Batch," the intent is to deliver a whiskey that is meant to be paired with a cigar. That can take many forms, but many cigar batch releases, just like Seelbach’s Humidor Blend Cigar Batch, are blended whiskeys that utilize multiple barrel finishes.  

Cigar Batch bourbons can often try to be overly forceful with their flavors, which doesn’t always make them the best sipping bourbons or well-blended on their own, or they can be overly subtle, causing their nuances to get lost when paired with a cigar. Seelbach’s Humidor Blend Cigar Batch falls in the middle and leans more towards being a better sipping bourbon.

A lot of this has to do with the whiskey’s cigar-related flavors of leather, baking spices, tobacco, cinnamon, brown sugar, and oak. They all work exceedingly well together, but do cigar smokers want more of those flavors or something to cut through those flavors that are already present in many cigars? That’s why Seelbach’s Humidor Blend Cigar Batch works so well as a sipping bourbon because it will remind you of a cigar but without any overpowering smoky notes.

It also drinks far lower than its proof, which is a double-edged sword. It tastes slightly restrained despite its 118.6 proof. It’s quite flavorful, but not as forceful as you might want it to be if you expect it to cut through the overpowering flavor of many cigars. Despite this, it allows the complexity of the blend to be highlighted. Blending is definitely one thing that Seelbach’s excels at, and that fact might be overshadowed when paired with a stogie.

Cigar Batch bourbons have a lot of mouths to feed, so to speak, and depending on how you plan to drink them, they can change your level of enjoyment. Seelbach’s Humidor Blend Cigar Batch is a well-blended finished bourbon that may not always pair perfectly with a cigar, but will make for an enjoyable and flavorful pour.