Pairing Method

Well this is a little late to the Liga Privada pairing party, but I had the pairing, then I went out of town for the holidays. So this post is my first one back after an awesome holiday break. I hope you all had a great Christmas and are ready to have a great 2014! So for this pairing I put together the Liga Privada UF-13 Paired with Sazerac Rye. I stuck with the hybrid pairing method that I talk about in my eBook. I knew I wanted to smoke this Liga Privada UF-13 but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to pair it with. So I thought to myself, why not try this Sazerac Rye that I had recently reviewed? It seems like a great idea doesn’t it? So that’s how I came about this pairing, the hybrid method, 60% of the time, it works every time!

First Third

Experience

When I went to light this Liga Privada UF-13 it was kind of shocking what happened. I haven’t had this happen in a long time. I took three matches to the foot and tried to light it, and the cigar somewhat took aflame, but not as quickly as I had hoped. So, then I brought out the torch lighter to get it going. Then all of sudden a giant flame shot out of the foot of the barrel as soon as I took a puff. It’s like a gas was built up and caught the flame and just took off. I was really surprised. It scorched the wrapper and it also scared the hell out of me. Once I got passed the explosion of the cigar I began taking a sip of the Sazerac Rye. To make sure I could still taste. Luckily it didn’t do much damage to the cigar other than scorching the wrapper a bit. So now that I survived that episode, let’s see how these two flavors interacted!

Flavors

I think it’s going to be really hard to top the last pairing of the Liga 9 & the W.L. Weller however, this pairing is off to an incredible start. It starts out with a nice spice. A strong maple syrup and bacon flavor with a hint of Tabasco. It’s like the perfect breakfast combination! The sweetness from the Sazerac Rye is outstanding and it puts out the fire from the spice on the Liga Privada UF-13. Initially the retrohale was burning my nose, but then the rye comes to the rescue!

Second Third

Experience

This Liga Privada UF-13 is smoking so incredibly well after that initial flame burst! I really hate sitting it down and letting it rest. I want to just keep puffing on it. It’s burning nice & cool and even. Can’t ask for more than that. I finally threw out the ice cube that was chilling the “Baby Saz”. When it’s chilled and slightly cut the flavors really opened up; at least more so than when I reviewed it. I’m loving this pairing right now. It’s very enjoyable. Minus the fire that I’m breathing out of my nose. Other than it’s completely enjoyable.

Flavors

There aren’t a ton of different flavors coming out during this 2nd third. It’s a solid continuation of the initial flavors. The spice has definitely kicked it up a notch or 4. For some reason I don’t remember this sort of intense spice coming from the UF-13 during my initial review, but this one has a ton in it! So that’s kind of exciting. I wasn’t able to pick out specific flavors like I did in the first third though which is a bit disappointing. It’s just a good solid combination of spice and sweetness.

Final Third

Experience

A great continuation of perfect burn lines and solid rye. It’s really hard to beat this pairing. The cigar is still powering through and incredibly enjoyable. I haven’t had a single draw issue the entire smoke and I’ve been puffing on it harder than usual. Probably because it’s cold outside and I’m trying to get through final third. Either way the cigar is keeping up. The Sazerac Rye is still holding strong, I’m not powering through it as quickly though. Mainly because I want to have that flavor at the end of the pairing. So I’m trying to keep some of it in the glass, but it’s hard not to drink it all.

Flavors

Again, I don’t have any specific flavors for the final third of this pairing. The spice is still there from the Liga Privada UF-13. In fact in my notes it even says “retro hale feels like fire dripping down my throat, and I kind of like it”. So that sounds like it’s a good thing right? The combination of sweet and spice in this pairing is fantastic. It’s not perfectly balanced but it has a nice ebb and flow. I go from my mouth & nose being on fire from the cigar to the sweet relief of the rye. So I mean let’s be honest that’s what we all want to experience, I know I do!

Conclusion

I really enjoyed pairing this Liga Privada UF-13 paired with the Sazerac Rye. To me it had a great combination of sweet and spice. Albeit, at times the spice was very dominating. I was happy to experience how the rye put out the fire over and over again. The first third was definitely my favorite of this pairing. The UF-13 had not hit it’s high spice content yet and made for a very palatable pairing. However, through the 2nd and final thirds the spice was so dominant it made it hard to concentrate on the rye flavors. That happens occasionally though, you typically have one product that is more dominant or the ‘star’ of the pairing and that’s what happened here. I definitely enjoyed this pairing, and I’m sure there is room for improvement. However, this cigar is always going to have it’s spice and you just have to be able tolerate that and find something that compliments it well. I think the rye did that perfectly.