Jack Bettridge

Looking for a new drink that mixes the frontier spirit with Jazz Age naughtiness and even a dash of your choice of modern enhancement? | Cigar Aficionado

The best way to show your American spirit is with the nation’s two great contributions to mixology in one glass—the cocktail and homegrown whiskey. | Cigar Aficionado

We pair 16 outstanding Bourbons with cigars to demonstrate the classic American whiskey’s affinity for fine tobacco. | Cigar Aficionado

Getting on board with posh games. | Cigar Aficionado

Mixing it up with vodka. | Cigar Aficionado

Rich Eisen has been talking sports with a hefty dose of humor for more than 20 years. | Cigar Aficionado

We tend to think that the whisky world widened as Scots and Irish men settled the New World with their stills in tow and made new quaffs from the available grains. While accurate, that chain of thought ignores another whole region of newer spirits from an even older world that is very much worth exploring: Japanese whisky. The country has a venerable 90-year history for making whisky as local entrepreneurs decided to slake the country’s taste for Scotch whisky with something of their own. Now t…

Many of us think of Tequila and memories of youthful excess with cheap liquid, downed in shots and sandwiched between lime squeezes and salt licks to deaden the taste, spring to mind. A mere glance at the DeLeón Leóna container above will belie that tawdry image. But more importantly, inside the black box with its imposing decanter and matching python-bound flask is an aged spirit redolent of ripe fruits, honey and cinnamon and tasting of toffee, dried nuts and the Sauternes barrels it was aged…

Glengoyne, the Scotch distillery that has long touted itself as “The authentic taste of malt whisky untainted by peat smoke,” can now claim to be uncorrupted by added water, artificial coloring or chill filtering as well. That’s the case at least for the Glengoyne Cask Strength, which is now reaching America along with a brace of sister whiskies that have been repackaged. | Cigar Aficionado

While the craft movement has brought us novel takes on whiskey, most have fallen into two categories. The first is the distiller who procures a still and makes their own spirit. Many distillers of this type either hasten maturation by using small casks, or make another spirit that doesn’t require lo…

Few are the whisky blenders who reveal much about the components that go into their final products. They either choose not to or can’t because the mixture changes as they chase an exact flavor while working with an ever-fluctuating mix of spirits. Crown Royal is debuting it Noble Collection by stating out front the three whisky types that go into the Cornerstone Blend. | Cigar Aficionado

When Heinrich Villiger, chairman of Villiger Söhne AG, Switzerland’s international cigar giant, took up a massive pair of ceremonial scissors amid festivities Friday night to cut a ribbon at the company’s new North American headquarters in Doral, Florida, the gesture was symbolic of more than just a new home for the division. Heinrich Villiger made his first trip to the United States in 22 years to announce a “new start” for the company’s North American unit. | Cigar Aficionado

What do you do after you’ve smoked 744 cigars, resmoked dozens of them and sampled again to whittle them down to the Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 Cigars of the Year? Well, you relax by smoking the Top Five again, this time with a libation. But not just any beverage will do in this stratospheric company. Admittedly, we splurged a bit to find partners that were worthy of pairing with these exemplary smokes. We won’t lie—it was well worth it. | Cigar Aficionado

A 200th anniversary is an enviable milestone for any company, but for Ardbeg, the Islay Scotch whisky distillery, it seems to be not only that, but a stepping-off point for an endless future. At least that’s the implication behind the title and the infinity symbol on the label of its commemorative single malt: Perpetuum. | Cigar Aficionado

I hope that the country wasn’t so swept up in the excitement surrounding Thursday’s World Nutella Day that we’ve forgotten about National Pisco Sour Day, which comes on the first Saturday of each February. It distinguishes itself among the galaxy of national tippling days in that it’s officially recognized by the government and accompanied by food fairs, music and dancing in the street-in Peru anyway. The holiday has yet to get its due here. And in Chile, which has been feuding with Peru over th…