One company that was not a cigar company we visited at the 2025 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show was Abbina Craft Sipping Soda. Abbina (Italian for “to match” or “to combine”) Craft Sipping Soda was created by Charlie Albanetti, who sought a more interesting non-alcoholic beverage pairing for cigars than other commercially available sodas. The company emphasizes that Abbina’s unique flavors, including earthy notes reminiscent of beet and leathery undertones infused with saffron and patchouli, are intended to both create new flavor combinations with those typically found in cigars and to highlight otherwise undetectable flavors in cigars. Abbina sodas are crafted in small batches with complex flavors, specifically designed for slow sipping.
The four sodas in the lineup (along with the Abbina’s descriptions of the flavor notes) are:
- Candlewood: Notes of cherry, amaretto, earth, and oak moss
- Tower 44: Notes of saffron, grapefruit, patchouli, and rose
- Vinnie: Noes of all spice, ginger, molasses, and herbs
- Royale: Notes of coffee, chocolate, nuts, and vanilla
On Let’s Get Pairing Episode 40, we paired all four sodas with Chazz Palminteri’s A Bronx Tale cigar.
Interview with Charlie Albanetti, Abbina Craft Sipping Soda
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Product Reports
Photo Credits: Cigar Coop
May 28, 2025 @ 7:49 pm
Did any of the Coalition sample any of these? The Candlewood sounds promising.
May 29, 2025 @ 12:25 am
See the article above. We did a whole show on it.