West Tampa Cigars & Whiskey Pairing | Belfast Whiskey Week 2025

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 15 Jul 2025
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/25/108

Some evenings at Belfast Whiskey Week are built for discovery; others are built for pleasure, pure and unhurried. The West Tampa Tobacco Co. Cigars & Whiskey Pairing — Event 66 in the BWW2025 programme — was firmly in the second camp. On a Tuesday night in July, guests settled in at the Second Fiddle for a slow, sensory evening where fine tobacco met the uisce beatha in a pairing that felt as old as the craft itself.

Looking Back

There is something almost ceremonial about the ritual of cigar and whiskey together — the patience required, the layering of flavour, the unspoken agreement between the people in the room to simply be present. That spirit settled over the Second Fiddle from the moment guests arrived on the 22nd of July. At nine in the evening, with the city winding down outside, the room was already doing the opposite — warming up, filling with the low hum of anticipation and the first coils of cigar smoke curling toward the ceiling.

West Tampa Tobacco Co. brought real expertise to the pairing, guiding guests through the nuances of how a cigar's wrapper, binder, and filler interact with the character of a dram. It is a more technical business than it might appear at first glance — the earthiness of a maduro wrapper can amplify the dried-fruit richness of a sherried whisky, while a lighter Connecticut shade might find its complement in something with more cereal sweetness and green orchard notes. The evening moved through several such pairings, each one a small lesson in contrast and harmony.

The whiskey side of proceedings carried the distinctive fingerprint of West Midlands Distillery, who brought an English single malt perspective to the table — something genuinely uncommon on a Belfast stage. Producing their own single malt since 2017, West Midlands Distillery represents a newer chapter in the story of British whisky, and their pours held their own with confidence alongside the cigars. There is a particular pleasure in encountering a spirit that wears its provenance honestly, and these drams did exactly that. You can explore their range further on the West Midlands Distillery collection page.

It was the kind of event that rewards a certain temperament — those willing to slow down, to let the smoke and spirit do their work, to talk a little and listen a little more. For guests who had been keeping pace with the wider festival programme, it offered a welcome change of register. Those who had already caught the late-night atmosphere of The 19th Hole: Late Night BBQ & Exclusive Drams would have recognised the same instinct — that some of the best moments at Belfast Whiskey Week happen after dark, when the formality softens and the duchas of the gathering takes over.

Event 66 was not the loudest night of BWW2025, nor was it meant to be. It was, instead, one of the most quietly memorable — an evening where two ancient crafts, tobacco and whiskey, reminded everyone in the room why they have kept each other company for so long. Sláinte mhaith to all who were there, and to West Tampa Tobacco Co. for bringing that particular kind of considered conviviality to our city. If this pairing returns in a future programme, do not hesitate — and in the meantime, keep an eye on the Whiskey Map to see where the story of English whisky sits in the wider world of the dram.