Cigars and Tea: Pairings, from Mint Tea to Pu-erh

The cigar has its consecrated pairings, cognac, rum, peated whisky, and Morocco has always had the answer they lack: a tray, a teapot, three glasses. Tea is not a fallback for those who do not drink alcohol; for many aficionados it is the cigar’s best partner, the one that accompanies without dominating and can be drunk from the first third to the last without a trembling hand. This guide offers two journeys: Moroccan tea first, the tea of the living-room pot, then the great teas of China, pu-erh and oolongs, which a cigar reveals better than any other moment of the day.

Why tea and cigars get along

Three reasons, and they are physical before they are poetic. The tannins in tea, like those in wine, clean the palate: a sip between two draws resets the taste buds, and the next draw tastes like the first. The warmth of tea carries on the warmth of the smoke instead of cutting it, where an iced glass closes the mouth and wipes out retro-nasal tasting. And tea has no alcohol: no burn to crush delicate aromas, no fatigue over an hour-long cigar, no compromise on the drive home.

To pair, there are only two logics, as in cooking. Echo marries neighbouring registers: an earthy tea with an earthy Havana, a roasted tea with a maduro. Contrast sets a fresh, floral tea against a round cigar to lighten it. The rule that overrides both: body on body. A light tea vanishes behind a full-bodied cigar, a powerful tea crushes a mild vitola; our glossary explains what body and strength mean for a cigar, and the same vocabulary holds for tea.

Part one: Moroccan tea

Mint tea, the everyday pairing

Mint tea is every Moroccan aficionado’s first pairing, often without a thought: the tray arrives after the meal, the cigar is lit as the first glass is poured. And the pairing is good, on three conditions.

The cigar must be mild to medium. The sugar rounds off the tobacco’s bitterness, the mint refreshes a mouth the smoke dries out; with a Montecristo No. 4, a Romeo y Julieta or a Hoyo de Monterrey, the whole is perfectly obvious. With a Partagás or a Bolívar, by contrast, the mint fights the pepper and loses, and the sugar ends up cloying.

Less sugar than usual. A very sweet tea coats the palate and blurs the cigar’s nuances, exactly like a dessert before a dry wine. Ask for the first glass “barely sweetened”; it is the one that accompanies the first third, the most delicate part of the cigar, and it deserves a clean palate.

Mint in moderation. Fresh nanah mint is a gentle anaesthetic: too much of it ices the tongue and you taste nothing for five minutes. One sprig per pot is enough when a cigar is involved; keep the full bunch for the table.

The herb variations, season by season

Every region and every season adds its herb to the tea, and each changes the pairing. Winter’s wormwood (chiba), bitter and camphorous, is the only one that stands up to a full-bodied cigar: try it with a Partagás Serie D. Lemon verbena (louiza) softens and pushes towards the mildest cigars, a Davidoff or a Camacho Connecticut. Sage brings a woody note that answers cedar-driven cigars. Orange blossom, finally, is too perfumed for a fine cigar; keep it for cigarillos, whose simpler profile our guide to cigarillos explains.

Plain gunpowder: the green tea that follows full-bodied cigars

The tea in the Moroccan glass is a Chinese green tea, gunpowder, rolled into small pellets in Zhejiang and imported by Morocco since the nineteenth century; the country is by far its largest buyer in the world. Served plain, without mint or sugar, it is an entirely different tea: tannic, slightly smoky, with a frank bitterness that holds its own against cigars mint cannot follow. Plain gunpowder at 80 °C, steeped three minutes, keeps pace with a Cohiba Siglo or a Montecristo No. 2 without flagging, and it is the natural gateway to the Chinese teas of part two.

The ritual: three glasses for one cigar

Moroccan tea has one thing cognac lacks: it is served continuously. A three-glass pot matches a 45-minute robusto, one glass per third, and the pot keeps its heat for the length of the cigar. Pour from high for the froth, but wait two minutes before drinking: the scalding glass of the first pour is the enemy of the first third. The smoking lounges of the palace hotels, whose addresses our guide to cigar lounges gives, all serve mint tea in the lounge; you need only ask for it lightly sweetened.

Part two: the teas of China

Why China

Since Moroccan tea comes from China, the next step is natural: the same country produces the most complex teas in the world, and two families in particular have an affinity with the cigar that gongfu cha enthusiasts understood long ago. Gongfu cha, the Chinese art of brewing, works with a small teapot or a gaiwan, plenty of leaf, and very short, repeated infusions, ten or fifteen in a row. That is exactly the rhythm of a cigar: an infusion per draw or nearly, a tea that changes with every pour as the cigar changes with every third.

Pu-erh: earth, leather, cellar

Pu-erh is the dark tea of Yunnan, pressed into cakes and post-fermented, which is to say it ages and improves over the years, like a cigar in its humidor. It comes in two versions, and the distinction decides the pairing.

Shou (ripe) has undergone an accelerated fermentation: it gives a brown, thick liquor with no astringency at all, with notes of damp earth, leather, forest floor and cocoa. That is, word for word, the register of the earthy Havanas, and the echo is striking with a Partagás, a Bolívar, a Ramón Allones or any maduro; with a mild cigar it is too heavy. Brew it with water just off the boil (95-100 °C), ten to twenty seconds per pour.

Young sheng (raw) is the opposite: green, lively, fruity, frankly astringent. It suits a mild, fresh cigar, a Connecticut or an entry-level Havana, which it wakes up; with a full-bodied cigar, the astringency turns metallic. Aged sheng of fifteen years or more rounds out, gains leather and honey, and becomes one of the great pairings for aged cigars; it is also a rare tea, and the price follows.

A word for the preservation-minded: pu-erh ages under the same conditions as a cigar, around 60-70% relative humidity, away from odours and swings. Our guide to choosing a humidor explains that balance, but never store cakes and cigars together: the cedar would perfume the tea, and the tobacco would contaminate it.

Oolongs: from floral to roasted

Oolong is the semi-oxidised tea of southern China, and the word covers a whole range, from the most floral green to the most toasted brown. That range overlaps almost exactly with that of cigars, which makes it the most versatile family for pairing.

• Tie Guan Yin (Anxi, Fujian), lightly oxidised, orchid and fresh butter: the ideal contrast for mild, light-wrapper cigars, Davidoff, Connecticut, Cohiba Siglo I. Brew at 85-90 °C.
• Dan Cong from the Phoenix mountains (Guangdong), honey, peach, orange blossom with a fine bitterness: the pairing for medium, fruity cigars, a Romeo y Julieta Churchills or a Montecristo Edmundo.
• Rock oolongs from the Wuyi mountains (Fujian), Da Hong Pao, Shui Xian, Rou Gui: heavily roasted, mineral, with notes of cinnamon, toast and warm stone. This is the king pairing of part two: with a medium to full-bodied cigar, a Cohiba Robustos, a Partagás Serie D No. 4, a Camacho Corojo, the roast of the tea and that of the tobacco answer each other without either giving way. Water at 95 °C, short infusions.

Red teas and the smoked one

China’s black teas, which the Chinese call red, complete the picture. A Dian Hong from Yunnan, malty and cocoa-like, or a finer Keemun, play the role of cognac: round, warm, without astringency, good with almost anything. Lapsang Souchong, dried over pine smoke, is the most “cigar” tea there is, and that is precisely the risk: smoke on smoke, there is no relief left. Keep it for a powerful maduro, or drink it after the cigar, never during.

The pairing table

The cigar	Moroccan tea	Chinese tea
Mild, light wrapper (Davidoff, Connecticut, Siglo I)	Lightly sweetened mint tea, verbena	Tie Guan Yin, young sheng
Medium, round (Montecristo No. 4, Romeo y Julieta, Hoyo)	Classic mint tea	Dan Cong, Dian Hong
Medium to full (Cohiba Robustos, Montecristo No. 2)	Plain gunpowder, wormwood tea	Wuyi oolong, Da Hong Pao
Full, earthy (Partagás, Bolívar, Ramón Allones)	Plain gunpowder	Ripe pu-erh
Maduro	Plain gunpowder	Ripe pu-erh, Lapsang Souchong
Aged cigar	Plain gunpowder, barely steeped	Aged sheng

The table is a starting point, not a law: tasting is built by trial, one variable at a time. Keep the same cigar and change the tea, then the reverse.

The five mistakes of the tea-cigar pairing

1. Boiling tea. A glass at 90 °C with the first draw numbs the tongue for ten minutes, and the first third goes unnoticed. Wait for warm.
2. Too much sugar. It coats the palate and blurs the cigar; a sweet tea suits a mild cigar, never a complex vitola.
3. Too much mint. One sprig per pot when a cigar is lit; the full bunch stays for the table.
4. Scented teas. Jasmine, bergamot, red fruits: the added perfume covers everything, the cigar first. Stick to plain teas.
5. Tea instead of water. Tea is a pairing, not hydration: keep a glass of still water alongside, it is what reveals the aromas between two sips of tea.

Where to find these teas in Morocco

Mint tea and gunpowder are everywhere, in every grocer’s, under the national brands everyone knows: a good “plain” gunpowder only asks that you buy the superior grade, with tight, glossy pellets. Chinese teas are rarer but, unlike cigars, they are imported and ordered freely: tea houses and delicatessens in Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech, Asian grocers for honest pu-erh cakes, and the major tea houses that deliver to Morocco for Wuyi oolongs. The budget is reasonable: 100 g of a good oolong or ripe pu-erh, between 150 and 400 DH, make around thirty sessions, the price of one or two fine vitolas from our brands available in Morocco.

The equipment fits in one hand: a gaiwan or a small teapot, a kettle with adjustable temperature, and a low cup that lets the tea cool quickly. It is the only cigar accessory that is neither a cutter nor a lighter, and one of the most pleasant to give.