This Week’s Smoke Signals 🥃💨
Welcome back to Smoke Signals, where we slow down, light up, and savour the moments that matter. This week, I’ve got two features for you: a cigar that tells a story with every draw, and a whiskey lesson in how time itself becomes an ingredient.
🔥 Featured Cigar Review: Blood Medicine
Every so often, a cigar comes along that feels less like a smoke and more like a story. Blood Medicine is one of those. Wrapped in a dark, oily San Andrés Maduro and built with Nicaraguan fillers, it strikes that balance between boldness and approachability.
From the first draw, you’re greeted with earth, cocoa, and a dash of pepper. Midway through, it mellows into a richer profile, featuring dark chocolate, espresso, and a hint of dried fruit. By the final third, the pepper makes a gentle return, tying the journey together.
Construction? Spot on. Solid ash, razor-straight burn, and a draw that lets the flavors really shine. It’s the kind of cigar that feels crafted for both the collector and the weekender — refined enough for the aficionado, forgiving enough for the curious newcomer.
👉 Read the full Blood Medicine review here.
🥃 Whiskey Wisdom: Aging Explained
When we talk about whiskey, age is more than just a number — it’s a window into character. A bottle that spent ten years in oak doesn’t just sit quietly; it transforms. The wood breathes with the seasons, expanding and contracting, pulling spirit deep into the barrel. What comes back isn’t just alcohol anymore — it’s layers of flavor shaped by time.
Younger whiskeys often bring forward notes of grain, cereal, and bright spice. They can be lively, but sometimes a bit rough around the edges. As years tick by, the rough edges round off. Oak adds warmth, with notes of vanilla, caramel, toffee, and even dried fruit. By the time you’re sipping a well-aged dram, you’re tasting the memory of every season it survived in the cask.
But older doesn’t always mean better. Too much time in the barrel can overwhelm the spirit, leaving you with something overly woody or dry. The sweet spot depends on the distillery, the climate, and the type of cask used — American oak, sherry butts, port pipes, rum barrels, even wine casks all leave their fingerprints.
For cigar lovers, this is where it gets exciting. A peppery Nicaraguan smoke pairs beautifully with the vanilla and spice of a 10-year bourbon. A rich Maduro cigar? Try it alongside a sherry-finished single malt — the dried fruit and cocoa flavors weave together in a way that feels almost orchestrated.
👉 Read the full Whiskey Aging article here.
📚 More to Explore
Here are a few other Smoke Signals favourites you might enjoy:
🥂 What does ‘Bottled-in-Bond’ mean?
🔥 How to host a whiskey-tasting at your home!
Thanks for reading — and for being part of this growing community of cigar and whiskey lovers. If you know someone who’d enjoy this, forward it along. If you’re new here, subscribe to never miss a pour or a puff.
Until next week,
Bo