Cold Beer and an old favorite, a 2000 Punch RS12

Since I have reported on these cigars so many times, and they never fail to disappoint, I will spare you the back story, except to say I once had ten boxes or so of the Punch Royal Selection No.12 and now I have about 38 cigars left.  So smoking one is no small occurrence anymore.  I always hope to enjoy them, and am rarely if ever let down by it's rich yet simple character, and it's excellent, crisp flavor and unique sweet and tangy character.  I poured a very strange beer that I got in a sale at Peabody Beer and Wine in Boone, NC.  It's BREWDOG "TOKYO"...  I like good beer.  I do not drink much of it, because I do not like drinks that tend to bloat me out, and I am 1/50th the drinker I was in my younger and wilder days.  So it's like Zino said, drink fewer and better beer, er, paraphrased as to be relevant here.  The smoke as you see here, is packaged without a band, in a neat bundle of 25 in a sliding lid cedar cabinet.

Now, In another era, this beer would be a joke.  Today it is just another crazy way to make a beer and a buck.  The bottle states that it is an Intergalactic, fantastic oak aged-stout brewed with Cranberries and Jasmine.  
Are you serious?
Jasmine?


On the one hand, the beer is different.  But on the other, I am not a fan of weird.  I will tolerate Abita Purple Haze, but only when someone else is buying.


But the cigar?  That's another matter.  These cigars are perfect.  This is a 2000 vintage smoke, perfectly created, oily, perfect dark-tan color and fragrant in the hand.  The smoke lights very slowly and burns slow and even.  The taste is elegant and starkly clean.  Pure, sweet and smooth smoke with light, sweet, peppery notes, and a core of raisins and wine and honey and licorice.  The licorice I think is the beer.  It has a strong licorice taste.  It is THICK and fruity and funky.  Not terrible at all.  Some would call it great.  For me it serves a purpose.

This is a complementary pairing in a way, but I do not particularly enjoy it.  It starts with the beer I guess;  I do not mind a stout, in fact I enjoy it, but this is not something I like in a stout.  Make no mistake, there are people that would LOVE this beer.  In a stout, I  like tobacco and chocolate notes with raisins at the OUTSIDE of the fruit range, I guess.  This beer is a flamboyant gay man in a biker bar.  The cigar smokes very slowly at a time when I want it to go a little quicker.  I am enjoying the outside air and the birds and breeze, but a nap is calling me.   I only ended up smoking about half of the cigar.  

It was a waste to a degree, but these old cigars have tended to start off with a bang and then slowly lose their character after halfway.  They are WELL-AGED indeed, but likely would be better had they been in a cave for 15 years and not in a warehouse for perhaps half of their lives.  I can STILL give this cigar a high score, though, based solely on the first half flourish.   I score this one a 90.