You don’t need alcohol to find a great match

We’ve shared some great ideas for finding the best food and alcoholic drinks to match with cigars, so we’d be remiss not to tell you about some of the wonderful, yet lesser-known, soft drink pairings out there. 
 

Just like any pairing, it’s all about successful flavor combinations. With the complex, subtle flavors of a toasty cigar, your best bet is going to be something that can complement the taste, without overpowering it. So that’s a big no to fruit juices or lemonade, where their vibrancy and acidity would drown a good cigar. Likewise, water is an obvious bad companion as its lack of taste offers little in the way of enhancement. 
 

Instead, you’re looking for drinks with light, yet complex flavors. Or at the very least, a constant, mellow taste to accompany the tobacco. 
 

Chocolate and cigars go well together, so naturally a dark hot chocolate drink does too, just go easy on the sugar. Tea and coffee, with their toasty, complex earthy tones, make excellent pairings, though are best served black. With their dark, caramel textures, Coke, Pepsi or Dr Pepper also make surprisingly good companions, but in small doses. 
 

For more interesting flavor combinations, try drinks that have distinctive, yet subtle tastes, like ginger ale, root beer or elderflower cordial, being careful to choose the low sugar versions where possible. Get the balance right and you’ll be surprised the difference a carefully chosen soft drink can make.