Blue Smoke Spirit dreamed of Hemingway
If we’d had the chance to invite Ernest Hemingway to a Blue Smoke event, we would have shared a D8 Torro Box Pressed with him, accompanied by a rather chocolatey stout.
Stories of assemblies
He had dreamt of this house, in the shade of the plane trees, as he strolled along the jetty at Key West harbour. He gazed into the distance and recalled Cuba in 1930: its brightly coloured houses, the washing hanging from lines through the windows of the narrow alleyways, and the restaurant tables spilling out onto the terraces. And so, a few years later, after spending long, gruelling years as a war correspondent, he fulfilled his dream and moved into a house not far from Havana.
As a true hedonist, he wanted to experience every pleasure life had to offer, including his passion for cigars and his love of dark spirits. He loved to fill his lungs with the sea air during his long days out fishing, before returning to the comfort of his living room in the evening.
The story
"That evening, I was sitting in the living room, smoking a cigar, drinking whisky and water, whilst listening to Gracie Allen singing on the radio.
Wherever he happened to be, he observed a cigar ritual throughout the day. He paired his cigars with carefully selected dishes designed to complement their various aromas and strengths, and to enhance their flavours. His mornings began with a strong coffee and a ‘minuto’. He enjoyed his aperitifs with full-bodied, round cigars to prepare his palate perfectly. After his lunch, which was always accompanied by a glass of ‘house’ red wine, he would carefully select a cigar of great aromatic richness, which he loved to enjoy on the porch of his home, lulled by the stifling, enveloping heat of Cuba. In the afternoon, he favoured mild, woody cigars, which he enhanced with a square of dark chocolate and a long black coffee. He liked to accompany his typically rich, generous and spicy Cuban meals with cigars marked by earthy notes, featuring a steady burn and a good length on the palate. His favourite cigar was after the evening meal: a rich, intense torpedo, accompanied by an aged agricultural rum.
He indulged this passion for cigars to the full, pairing them with every conceivable dish, carefully selecting his rum to match the cigar he was about to smoke – or the cigar to match the rum he was about to drink. He chose his coffees and the composition of his dishes with meticulous care; he was an explorer of taste, of flavours, and of the combination of aromas. He spent his entire life indulging in hedonism and enjoying the marvellous pairings of cigars and food.
A story loosely based on the life and passions of Ernest Hemingway
References
To Have and Have Not – 8 May 1973 by Ernest Hemingway (Author), Marcel Duhamel (Translator)
*Islands Adrift* by Ernest Hemingway and Jean-René Major
L'Express: Hemingway, portrait of a tragic man
France Culture: Hemingway and the experience of limits