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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica 5. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 166th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Play to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke at Cuban Cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We discussed 3 new releases from Habanos.
Gizmo:Senator and Pagoda detailed their recent trip to Panama, including the food and cigar scene, and we share Cuban cigars we still consider box worthy, all among a variety of other things for the next 2 hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair Volans tequila blanco with a La Flor de Cano Elegidos. A Cuban Robusto tonight on the pod from La Flordecano. It's called the alegitos, and it's a 50 ring gauge cigar by 5 inches long. And boys, we don't say this very much, but this is the debut for Floriducano on the pod tonight.
Gizmo:We haven't been saying that very much because we've done so many of the Cuban maracas, but this is the first floridicano on the pod tonight. Wow.
Pagoda:We like floridicano, so hopefully floridicano delivers tonight.
Gizmo:Hopefully hopefully it delivers like the rum does. Yeah. No relation, but similar in name.
Bam Bam:Correct. It's a handsome cigar.
Gizmo:So when I opened the box, you know, Bam noted that the cigars look very good.
Bam Bam:I think so.
Rooster:For being very rustic, though. Yeah.
Senator:Yeah. I don't I don't know that I agree with that.
Bam Bam:They look nice. I like them.
Senator:They look rustic. Some of them were rolled, I think, carelessly, like, tobacco coming out of the foot, I noticed on one of them.
Bam Bam:Oh, boy.
Senator:On me. These all feel either wet or a little under filled, and I'm gonna be charitable to Gizmo and say under filled.
Bam Bam:Are you getting any of that?
Gizmo:So I have actually in the middle of mine, there's a pocket here of
Pagoda:Uh-oh.
Gizmo:Of of, you know, softness like sponges.
Rooster:These these are short filler cigars.
Gizmo:They're short filler cigars.
Bam Bam:I'm not getting any of that.
Senator:I mean, I felt like 3 of them in that in that box, and they felt soft or like they're under filled in certain pockets. They're hand handmade, obviously, but they are
Rooster:short filler cigars. So
Bam Bam:Nice toothiness to the wrapper. Nice brown coloring. Pretty nice.
Gizmo:And I would argue, boys, even at $21, which these cigars are now
Bam Bam:That's a lot of money.
Gizmo:You know, low twenties, it it is a budget Cuban, really, from a Robusto standpoint. It's on the lower end of of Cuban Robusto prices. So
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:We'll see how it performs tonight. But first, let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. Any do
Rooster:you have any idea what the price was, when they first came out?
Bam Bam:Prior to?
Gizmo:It's gotta be close to $10. 7, $8 maybe? Yeah. I would say so. My draw is very nice.
Bam Bam:Mhmm. Wide open.
Chef Ricky:Wide open draw. Get a little bit of dried fruit here. The cold draw seems very mild.
Rooster:You're not allowed to say those words.
Chef Ricky:No. I am Bam Bam can.
Pagoda:Oh,
Bam Bam:okay. Apparently, that's correct.
Gizmo:I'm getting a little cedar. Yeah. But not not not much else.
Bam Bam:It's pretty mild. Wide open.
Gizmo:Mhmm. Mine too.
Bam Bam:I think that's a byproduct, the short filler. They are very light. And they're very light. They're light.
Gizmo:Yeah. They don't feel very packed.
Bam Bam:Let's go for it.
Gizmo:We'll see what happens. Alright, boys. Let's light this thing. The La Flordecano Alejidos. Again, it's a 50 ring gauge Robusto by 5 inches long.
Gizmo:Its factory name is the Lirios Even though it shares an identical size to most other Cuban robustos, I'm assuming they give it a different factory name because of short filler. Most of the other Cuban robustos that we do on the pod here and we smoke are of long filler.
Bam Bam:The aroma how it does. Aroma is beautiful. Yeah. It smells good as we like.
Senator:This took longer to light than I would have expected. Mhmm.
Gizmo:So the box code on these boys is s o r, December 2020. So these just went over 4 years old. So Nice. What's cool about that too is these are the original release rolls of these cigars. This is the earliest of the box codes is in this range of late 2020.
Gizmo:They were released in early 2021.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So like many cigars, it's pretty pretty nice right off the light. Mhmm.
Gizmo:Actually, it's very pleasant.
Bam Bam:It is. It's more flavorful than I was expecting.
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:I'm getting a very nutty sweet nutty type of flavor.
Pagoda:That sounds like nutty. Yeah.
Gizmo:Like a pecan.
Bam Bam:Yeah. No. Yep. That is dead on.
Chef Ricky:Perfect call out. Yeah. None of that was in the cold draw. It's insane.
Gizmo:No. Yeah.
Senator:Yeah. And this does not taste mild on the light. No. This is like medium.
Gizmo:There's this very strong touch of sweetness there.
Bam Bam:Very good.
Senator:Yep. It's very good.
Gizmo:That's nice.
Bam Bam:Surprisingly good.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Chef Ricky:Combustion's great.
Gizmo:Wow. I'm I'm impressed on the light.
Chef Ricky:So I went with the punch on mine because of the short filler. I was afraid of getting
Senator:Oh, that's smart.
Chef Ricky:That's very smart. Some clippings in my,
Bam Bam:clippings in my Kinda sore in the corner.
Gizmo:How are you feeling about the draw with the punch? We're talking about ours all being very open as
Senator:yours So
Chef Ricky:is mine. Yeah. Super wide open. Yeah.
Gizmo:I feel like this is a cigar we're gonna have to be very diligent to smoke slowly because I think this is one that'd be very easy to
Bam Bam:Go through.
Gizmo:Rip through, and then in the last 3rd, get beaten down for it.
Rooster:When you hold the cigar, you can see the smoke coming out of the out of the head, out of the, you know, the part
Gizmo:you smoke.
Bam Bam:It's a pretty cool photo.
Pagoda:Are you smoking the wrong one again?
Rooster:That's what happens when you take the bands off.
Pagoda:Correct.
Gizmo:So these cigars come in slide lid boxes of 10. Like I said, they were announced in 2020, started being rolled in that year, and they were released in early 2021. Also, in 2023 sometime, they started putting these cigars out in aluminum tubos in the classic display box of 15 cigars, 5 cardboard packs of 3. And like I said, most of the Florida Cano cigars are short filler. A lot of the preembargo cigars from the brand, and we'll go through some of their history, were actually machine made, which were discontinued by Habanos, but, these are short filler.
Gizmo:I guess focusing on the budget end of the Habanos catalog.
Pagoda:So so what's the issue with the short filler? Is it uneven burn burn lines?
Gizmo:Well, I think it's just a matter of quality. Right? I think, you know, when you think about a quality cigar, you're thinking about longleaf
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Wholeleaf. Wholeleaf throughout the entire cigar.
Bam Bam:This is
Gizmo:is not that. So, you know, you wonder what what are they doing with the short filler? Is this scrap from some other type of cigar that
Bam Bam:they're floor. Swept up. From the bathroom.
Rooster:It's like what's left over after they make the bajikas? Correct.
Pagoda:But still $21 for so called short fillers, kinda pricey.
Bam Bam:Yes. Yeah. Agreed. Not a value play.
Rooster:But it you know, the flavor is pretty good so far.
Bam Bam:Very good. It's pleasant. No complaints. It's surprising.
Gizmo:Combustion's fantastic too. Oh, yeah. I'm pretty impressed.
Bam Bam:You know, if this continues, we we we have so many cigars in our in our towers, in our collection. It's nice to have something to change up your game from time to time, and this would definitely be a candidate for that. It's different. We don't ever smoke the cigar. Let's see.
Bam Bam:Hopefully, this turns out to be something good.
Gizmo:Here's the question for the room. Has anyone in the room smoked a floridicano cigar?
Bam Bam:Never. From Cuba?
Gizmo:Because this is my first.
Rooster:Anytime. I have. Remember, I think it was, Monte Fortuna used to have, like, a it was like a double like a La Gloria.
Senator:Yeah. Both had that. We both had that. Yeah. And they basically tasted identical.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Senator:They had 2 different bands on it. They're, like, running, like, joke was
Pagoda:it was
Senator:not joke. People really thought that it was the same thing, basically, same blend with different bands.
Bam Bam:Was it real?
Gizmo:It was a short Oh, yeah.
Rooster:Short Robusto. Kinda right? Yeah. Little shorter than a regular Robusto, but not Were
Senator:they regionals or what?
Rooster:I think it was a regional. Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. And most of the Florida Cano I see are actually have regional bands. Like, when you see them people smoking them or shared somewhere Mhmm.
Pagoda:Or on
Gizmo:a retailer,
Bam Bam:a lot
Gizmo:of the times what you're seeing is the regional bands on them, which is interesting to throw a regional cigar to a distributor that is from a brand that only makes cigars from short filler. Like, the name on this brand is not one that's celebrated inside the catalog. So it's interesting to me that they use it for, for regional releases.
Senator:So is everything they do short filler or just this cigar?
Gizmo:So they have 2 cigars in regular production. They have a petite Corona 40 by a little under 5 inches long, which is a short filler, and this Elijitos, also short filler, the Lirios factory name, and they have a few regional editions which are not short fillers. So the regional editions are actually long filler cigars. Again, wondering why they would put this band on on regionals. It doesn't make sense to me, but maybe they're trying to do a a lower budget regional for some of these regions.
Gizmo:I'm not sure.
Senator:The regional that, Rooster and I had, it was pretty good from what I remember. We liked it.
Rooster:Bad. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Anyone getting a for those that retrohale, a little peanut butter on the back end of that? Definitely. Right? Very different. Almost like a short, the punch type thing for me.
Senator:It's a good call out. Yeah. I feel like the flavor profile
Pagoda:of this
Bam Bam:as a whole is similar. Kind of like that.
Rooster:Yeah. I think on the short, the punch, you get a little bit more peanut forward. Sure. You know, the note is more prominent than this. Yeah.
Rooster:Here it's
Pagoda:here it
Chef Ricky:leans a little sweeter.
Rooster:Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a little fruitier.
Bam Bam:Yeah. This?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I think compared to the short to punch was perfect.
Bam Bam:I think it's just more nutty than any fruit. I'm not getting any fruit on this for me.
Senator:Yeah. I think this is, like, 90%, like, nut nutty flavor notes that you would expect. And I think, like, Bam mentioned that short to punch, that's another one that's, like, very nutty. It's not like
Bam Bam:I do get dried a lot of dried fruit on that short to punch, though. A lot of raisin and nut which I have which is why it's one of my favorite cigars, one of my favorite go to's.
Senator:I gotta say, this is pretty good. It is. Surprising. I'm really shocked.
Gizmo:The sweetness is really a standout for me here because I I don't feel like you know, we talk about sweetness here or there with Cuban cigars. A lot of of course, a lot of the time in Nicaraguan cigars, we talk about sweetness. But in Cubans, I mean, for this being as sweet as it is, it's it's kind of an outlier in that way. Like Yeah. That is to me the dominant note
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:In this cigar right now, which is surprising.
Bam Bam:Also, we're all smoking at a pretty nice pace. No one's rushing through it. Proud of you guys.
Gizmo:Thanks, Pam. New year to us.
Bam Bam:It's very easy to go through this thing.
Gizmo:It is. So, boys, because this is the debut of La Florida condo on the pod, let's talk a little bit about their history. The brand was founded in 18/84, which is wild. It's been around for a very long time by the brothers Tomas and Juan Cano, and it was registered as Florida Cano on behalf of their company Cano y Hermano. They were listed in trade directories at the time as a leaf tobacco warehouse ownership.
Gizmo:So the implication from all that time ago is that Rolling Cigars was actually a subsidiary, a secondary business to them. They were first a warehousing business, which is interesting, and and we'll talk about why in a second. So this cigar became very, very popular in the 19 thirties, and that's when the brothers' descendants considered that the cigar market provided them with a better opportunity for growth than warehousing. And in 1932, they created the company, Juan Cano Saenz, ISIA, and that's when they started producing, 1st class Habano cigars. And they also bought some other other brands and whatnot, and they founded a company called Carousel.
Gizmo:And what's interesting about that is I guess it's Cara Cole, really. That is the current name of the Galleza, which is the government owned business kind of, operation in Cuba. Caracol operates all of the tourism shops and tourism activities in Cuba. So for example, when you go to the Habanos Festival, it's run by Caracol. You go to the the Amigos de Partagas Festival, it's run by Caracol.
Gizmo:So that
Bam Bam:I had no idea.
Gizmo:Company has a direct line to nearly 200 years ago to this brand that we're holding in our hand tonight. So even though the the cigar is not one of the most popular markets, not really celebrated per se, their legacy lives on in one of the most important, aspects of tourism for Cuba
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:And, you know, especially with cigars, rum, and coffee Wow. In in Caracol. So I found that very interesting that that's where that that originated. It's pretty wild. So the factory of Florida Cano was taken over, of course, by the Cuban government during the revolution in 1960.
Gizmo:By the end of the 19 sixties, the Jijos de Cano production was transferred to the El Rey del Mundo factory, and that is where it remains today. So that factory code SOR, we see a lot of Schwa Supreme and other El Rey del Mundo coming out of there. This is a sister brand now. Yes. It's sister brand now to El Rey del Mundo.
Gizmo:And that's pretty much the story of, Florida Cano. 200 years summed up in about 90 seconds.
Bam Bam:It's pretty cool.
Chef Ricky:The the nut flavor is now becoming a lot more, almond, forward for me.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Chef Ricky:I'm getting some of that, like, you know, you bite into a whole almond, and you get that floral component of the almond nuts kinda creamy. That's what I'm getting here now. The nose, the burn line on this smells great. Yep. But it is burning a little fast, which I guess with short filler, severe.
Rooster:Yeah. I was afraid I would ash. You know, would fall on me, so I just asked it because it's short filler. You don't know how Mhmm. How long the ash was.
Rooster:Yeah. Let it build.
Bam Bam:It's okay. You're a nervous guy. Got it.
Senator:Yeah. But it is surprising. I mean, it's holding on really well.
Pagoda:It is. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Pagoda:Yeah.
Gizmo:Surprise. Is very good. Yeah.
Bam Bam:For a short filler cigar, it's gonna end up in my lap for sure. Give it a minute.
Chef Ricky:Did you get your, cigar, babe, I guess?
Gizmo:I did, and I'm waiting on it. It's being, embossed now. So
Senator:You should've seen him the other day.
Bam Bam:With the Gizmo face on?
Senator:Smoking a great cigar, Ed,
Chef Ricky:all over.
Gizmo:As I took a draw, it just dropped on me. It was, it was about 3 inches of ash, I think. It was just all over me.
Bam Bam:Were you smoking
Chef Ricky:Oh, was that with the padrone?
Gizmo:We were smoking the, the new padrone
Bam Bam:60 old.
Gizmo:Yeah. Senator and I. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Look at you. It was killer. With the oysters and all. Yeah.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. We went for
Pagoda:it. Yeah.
Bam Bam:I, You know, it's so cool. Man.
Gizmo:I went hard.
Rooster:You know, I I got the I got the box before you, and I wanted to wait and smoke with everyone. And you guys got You.
Bam Bam:They they preempted your your parade.
Gizmo:You're the reason Gizmo must kill this over the oils.
Bam Bam:See? Look at this. Exactly. Rooster, these guys clipped your wings.
Rooster:I wanted, like, all 8 of us in a room and have that together.
Bam Bam:Me too.
Rooster:We need to do that.
Bam Bam:We do.
Chef Ricky:Then we could
Gizmo:recreate that
Chef Ricky:picture with a fish.
Gizmo:We're gonna do that on the pod for sure. It'll be a special episode probably down the road, but, definitely gonna do that cigar. It's a high dollar cigar. You know? I mean, you're talking $75 a piece, you know, and and very few you can find on sale.
Gizmo:But, but, anyway, good
Rooster:cigar. Right?
Senator:Oh, yeah. Incredible. Incredible.
Bam Bam:Nice. Wow. Can't wait. I mean
Rooster:Don't wanna talk too much
Gizmo:about putting a cigar on this platform.
Rooster:That's gonna
Senator:be a 4 hour episode.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Wow. Oh, yeah. It was a good one. So boys, let's talk about some new regionals coming out.
Gizmo:Appropriate because one of them is a Florida Cano. There's 2 new issues coming out for the Asia Pacific territory. The first is the floridicano diademas, a Churchill size 7 inch long cigar 47 ring gauge, course known as the Julieta number 2, very much in line with the Cohiba Asplendidos we did. Same exact size as that, the Sir Winston and the Romeo y Julieta.
Bam Bam:Is it chill? Is it all short filler?
Chef Ricky:I don't think so.
Gizmo:I don't think it's short filler. It's long filler. That was a very famous cigar from Florida Cano, the Diademas, but was discontinued in the 19 nineties. And the crazy thing is guess how much that cigar is gonna be, boys? Sixty.
Gizmo:Eighty 5 a stick.
Bam Bam:Oh my lord.
Chef Ricky:Definitely not short filler.
Gizmo:Definitely not short filler on that. The second regional edition coming out just announced is the poor warrenaga lotus, a short robusto, 54 ring gauge by 5 and 3 quarter inches long, same exact Vitola as the h Upman magnum 54. And this one's pretty wild. That's for Macau. $71 a stick.
Bam Bam:What an unusual dimension for Port Laranaga. Yeah. That's gonna be interesting. Not not for that price, though.
Gizmo:Just amazing they throw that second band on in $71 a stick. So because
Rooster:it'll have the gold band and then a secondary band?
Gizmo:It does. Yes.
Bam Bam:It's gold band.
Gizmo:The it has the classic, Port Laranaga band and then an exclusive, Macau on it. And then the same thing with the new floritocano, the Diademas, the classic floritocano band. And this band, by the way, has been the same since prerevolution. They have not changed this at all since before the 19 sixties, and that's that cigar has a second Exclusivo Asia Pacifico band on it for the regionals. So 2 new regionals coming out from, Habanos.
Rooster:Prices are just going insane.
Gizmo:Absurd price. $71. I mean, for a poor Laranaga, 80 what is it? 85? The poor Laranaga is 71.
Gizmo:It's 71. The Florida Cano, Diademas is 85.
Rooster:Oh. That's insane. Wow.
Gizmo:It's absurd.
Senator:I just don't know who's gonna buy that. The obvious answer is always China, but that's not those are not markets that they care about.
Gizmo:That's true. You know, I guess I don't I don't know if that that market likes the regional bans on them. I don't know. I the whole thing is confusing to me.
Bam Bam:That's a pretty a lot of affluent pockets there that they may buy that. Who
Gizmo:knows? They may be shuffling it into duty free and hoping that people are picking it up on their way to way through the airport or something. You know?
Rooster:I think what they've done is they've made the packaging smaller, and they've increased the prices. So they'll come out with, like, 5 packs or 10 packs, you know, instead of coming like PLPC is a is a 50 cab. Mhmm. Right? And I mean, that's kinda what they're where they're going with this.
Rooster:Yeah. Smaller packages and you know? And both
Gizmo:of these at those prices come in slide lid boxes with no dressing on them, just cedar slide lid boxes.
Bam Bam:That's ridiculous. You know? I mean,
Senator:that's taking a page out of Davidoff's book.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Senator:Davidoff is famous for those little 4 packs. Like, almost everything they make, they sell in 4 packs. Yeah. You don't see that in Padron or even Oliva. I mean, many of these other brands don't do that.
Senator:Sure. And it's usually the smallest.
Gizmo:Yeah. So another one, boys, I thought this one was interesting. New h Upman number twos have been launched just for Spain and check this out. So they took, I guess, because cigar aficionado gave them cigar of the year in 2022, Tabaclar in Spain decided to hoard all of the h up and number twos from that year and repackage them and put a second band on the cigars. Of course, nothing changed about them.
Gizmo:And they got a new fancy box of 20.
Bam Bam:That's a beautiful box.
Gizmo:And they are now selling the exact same cigars
Bam Bam:For $2,000. For double the price
Gizmo:of a normal h uppin number 2 simply because that year and that's that code was named cigar of the year in 2022. So those cigars
Pagoda:How creative, I must say.
Gizmo:Yeah. Are normally about $25. I think these are gonna go for somewhere in the fifties. Jeez. And, of course, on the secondary market
Bam Bam:Much higher.
Gizmo:People wanting to collect the box and everything else, probably gonna be in the 60 to 70 range for the same exact cigar.
Bam Bam:Marketers selling for 20 5. Aftermarketing scheme.
Gizmo:It's pretty amazing.
Chef Ricky:Wow.
Gizmo:So what's everybody think about this car? I think it's pretty damn good. Agree. Impressed.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm very happy with it. Still very nutty. Still getting good peanut, walnut. Smooth.
Bam Bam:A little creamy. A bit creamy. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm. Yeah.
Gizmo:Pretty relaxed. I feel really good. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's very satisfying. $21 so far is not a bad deal right now. Yeah.
Senator:Yeah. I mean, I won't lie. When you said short filler in $21, I'm like, I mean, that's disgraceful at $21. Why would you need to put short filler tobacco in any cigar
Gizmo:at that
Senator:price point? But the flavor is very good. It it hasn't sacrificed anything in flavor.
Bam Bam:And it's smoking like a long filler cigar. Yeah. Yep. No pockets. No
Senator:I mean
Bam Bam:dead ends here.
Senator:This short filler cigar, the Ash has held on better than some long filler cigars, I assume. Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. So that that's what
Rooster:I was gonna ask the group. When you're smoking the cigar and had you not known this is a short filler cigar, could you tell that
Gizmo:this is a short filler
Senator:cigar? No. No. No way.
Bam Bam:No. No way.
Pagoda:No. I wouldn't even know what the real difference is between short filler and
Gizmo:Yeah. Not on this. You can't tell.
Bam Bam:Well, let me first check your shirt. Your shirt's clean. Yeah. That's all long filler in your mind.
Pagoda:Filler. Right.
Gizmo:So, boys, let's go to our pairing. I'm very excited to try this tequila blanco tonight. We have Volans, which is a tequila that we first tried at the tequila event at Anejo quite some time ago, and they had a nice, presentation. What was the event called? I'm,
Chef Ricky:For the love of agave.
Gizmo:For the love of agave.
Chef Ricky:Yep. We do it, every summer at Anejo Tribeca and in the wintertime at, in Anejo, Philadelphia. In fact, I think, we settled on March 12th this year.
Gizmo:So so any lizards in Philadelphia, look out for that at Anejo, Philadelphia. It's a great event. There's how many, how many vendors are there, Ricky, handing out tequila? 40, 50?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Anywhere between 30 to 50 vendors, and some vendors have multiple expressions because they represent multiple brands. So, yeah, there's quite a bit there to be had.
Senator:Yeah. Moral of the story, take an Uber.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Definitely don't definitely don't drive yourself.
Gizmo:So let's
Pagoda:try the next day off as well.
Chef Ricky:So I'm I'm super excited about this. These guys do so much right, and it's because it's, distilled by Felipe Camarena, which is the creator of g fault g 4 tequila. And as we said many times on the spot, anyone from that Camarena bloodline just really knows what the hell they're doing when it comes to distilling tequila. So while this one is not made at La Tena, which is Carlos Camarena's distillery, it's made at Barradillo, which is still a highland factory or distillery. Sorry.
Chef Ricky:Not factory. That's a horrible word because these places are far from that. But what makes them special is they're super deep well water. So this Blanco is very, you know, has lots of minerality, little brine. You should find Senator
Bam Bam:is knocking on a glass, fellas. It's a
Senator:it's an oddly heavy bottle
Bam Bam:for its
Chef Ricky:size. Yeah.
Bam Bam:It is. Yeah. There's a
Pagoda:little weight
Senator:to it.
Bam Bam:Walls are thick. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:The you know, these agaves are cooked for 3 days in in stone ovens. They're still in, copper pots. And one thing that they do here that other brands do, but these guys have gone out of their way to actually talk about it, is they remove the which is the center, you know, on some agave if you allow them to. A forms, which is a a large stalk that pops out of the center. And oftentimes, what you wanna do is remove that quixote before it blossoms fully because at that point, all of the sugars have left the agave because the energy went to creating the quixote.
Chef Ricky:But there's still a part of that quixote that is forming in the very innermost part of the agave. And sometimes if that's not removed, it creates a bitter tequila. So here, they make sure to remove that.
Bam Bam:This is the exact opposite of any of that. This is really quite delicious.
Chef Ricky:So yeah. I mean, this is this is and it it's 40 proof. They also have a high proof that I'm super curious about because I know the flavor is just gonna be punched up a little bit more on that one. But this should be a treat, and it should go amazingly well with this cigar.
Bam Bam:How much is this bottle? $50. I'm gonna get that tomorrow. It's really good. You know, on the finish, if you let a little bit sit on your tongue and then take let it go down and then take a breath, I get this salty caramel finish way at the back.
Bam Bam:It's got a long very nice long finish. Salty caramel on a blanco, very unusual.
Gizmo:Yep. I like this subtle too. It's it's
Bam Bam:It is.
Pagoda:It's not it
Gizmo:doesn't have a lot of oomph to it, which is nice.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Especially when it hits the back the backsides of your palate there. It it took gets really rich and almost fatty like with the caramel. But it's not that it's caramel forward. You know, it still is very briny, very mineral forward.
Chef Ricky:Buttery? Buttery. Yeah. It's it's but it's well rounded. It's delicious.
Senator:I think it's excellent. The finish to me isn't that long. I feel like this is so easy to drink. Very Too volume.
Gizmo:Arguably too easy.
Senator:Like, it's like water. I mean, like, it's so smooth.
Pagoda:If you
Bam Bam:were to put just a cube I know you don't like that, chef.
Pagoda:No. What? It already feels dilutive. I don't know what you're talking about.
Senator:Just a tiny cube? No. Oh, I feel the opposite.
Chef Ricky:I would say.
Bam Bam:I'm just saying from the point of view of copious consumption, I would take glass after glass.
Chef Ricky:No. I don't get it.
Senator:I I can do that without ice with this. I'd be afraid.
Bam Bam:I'm a little afraid to because Yeah.
Chef Ricky:One of the things about this tequila is that it's known for being able to go down rather easily.
Senator:It's ridiculous.
Chef Ricky:So it's I think putting ice in there, you're gonna lose some of the complexity. Yeah. Okay. Because it's already 40 this bottle says 42 proof, but they're usually still at at about 40. But, you know, it's I
Pagoda:totally agree with you, chef.
Bam Bam:Totally angry because
Pagoda:It already feels diluted. That's why I'm
Bam Bam:saying Beat the usage of ice out of him.
Pagoda:Poor guy.
Gizmo:I gotta say, I I think this is a tequila that if you have someone in your life that you smoke cigars with or even outside of cigar smoking, but this is something, like, I I think for someone who doesn't drink tequila, this is a really good starter. Like, this is a really good, hey, try this tequila. Forget about what you remember from college. Try some really high quality tequila. I think this is a great entry.
Senator:I agree.
Rooster:This is a good gateway tequila.
Bam Bam:It is a good gateway. Yeah. This A lot of the guys I drink with this is another pet peeve I have. They just take they don't enjoy it. They gulp it down.
Bam Bam:And you look at their face, and they cringe a little bit because they should have savored it and taken the time with it. If you continue to do that with this, it's for me unenjoyable. Like, it's the time that you spend with it that makes it great.
Chef Ricky:Those those are my least favorite people to drink with because I'm absolutely correct.
Bam Bam:Plastic bags and Guys, let's chugging back alcohol. Your spirits.
Pagoda:Can't let's be positive. Focus on the positive, guys.
Bam Bam:That's item number 2 on the list. Yeah. That's great.
Chef Ricky:No. Clearly, if you're drinking that way, you're just you're going after the result of what the alcohol is going. You know, you're looking for intoxication. You're you know, and sure. Do that with your vodka or do that with some crappy entry level spirit or something.
Chef Ricky:But like, not this Correct. High quality crafted stuff that is Yeah.
Rooster:But they are they drinking, like, Jose Cuervo with a lime and salt?
Bam Bam:Whatever I hand them, they gulp it down.
Rooster:Yeah. It's It is very frustrating. Matter.
Bam Bam:Yes. Like
Pagoda:I think you hang them you hand them to the wrong people.
Senator:That's true.
Bam Bam:No. You're not wrong.
Chef Ricky:No. And and
Bam Bam:look. Pecot is cracking
Rooster:himself up.
Bam Bam:I think he's drunk already. Cut him off.
Pagoda:I don't think he was ever sober. Oh, but God love you.
Gizmo:I gotta say too, and this is a call out of some listeners out there who don't love how deep of a dive we've done on agave. This if there's any tequila that I would say, if you're hesitant to trust us and trust chef Ricky, to forget about those old memories of tequila and you're not a tequila drinker, you don't like tequila, it doesn't go down smooth, this is a perfect try this one. This is a great one to try, especially smoking a nice mild cigar like this. This is excellent.
Senator:This is absurd. Yeah. You should not chug any alcohol. You could chug this and not feel like you're
Bam Bam:drinking alcohol. To say thank you. Like no. I mean, it's just it's
Gizmo:you know, pagoda said, like,
Senator:I I feel like it's already diluted. Like, it's that smooth
Bam Bam:true.
Senator:That you would think like, perfect example. If you first pour this in a glass and this sat there for 30 minutes and I came I I saw the glass there
Rooster:Looks like water.
Senator:I would think that ice melted in the glass Yeah. And that what I was drinking was a diluted version of the original product because it's that smooth and mellowed out.
Pagoda:It's like vitamin water.
Gizmo:But it's very flavorful. It is. Yeah. Like, you when you say that, you think, oh, the flavor must be weak or
Senator:or No. No. Just on the strength side.
Gizmo:Correct. Super smooth. Yeah. So I
Chef Ricky:think what we're seeing is that there's not very much heat to this current at all even though we're drinking it neat and, you know
Senator:Huge merit. Yeah.
Rooster:Huge. So how do they accomplish that?
Chef Ricky:Well, it's distilled to 42%, so it's not very hot. You know? I think, especially for us, we've kind of grown accustomed within the past few months to drinking higher proof spirits. There's not very many spirits we drank that have been 40%.
Bam Bam:I'm gonna be very enthusiastic with my rating on this one. So Just get ready.
Chef Ricky:Well, you're not the only one. I mean, even on tequila matchmaker, this gets, like, an 89 or a 90.
Bam Bam:That's low.
Gizmo:Yep.
Bam Bam:So price? Yeah. It's outrageous.
Senator:I have a question, Ricky. This tripped me up because there's another tequila Volcan. Mhmm. What's the I just feel like the names are so Volans Volcan. They're very similar.
Chef Ricky:I think Volcan is more of a reference to, man, you're gonna quiz me on my Spanish. Volcano? Yeah. It's a volcano. After
Gizmo:some reason, Spanish guy over
Senator:your the meaning? Just more so, like, is that another, like, premium additive free You
Bam Bam:are taking less. Brand?
Chef Ricky:Volcan is I don't know if it's additive free, but it is a premium it is a premium tequila. They I wanna say that is owned by Hennessy. Okay. Interesting. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:Or whoever owns Hennessy. I'm not that, well versed on all of that stuff. But, yeah, I I remember doing an event with those guys, and they came hand in hand with one another.
Senator:Yeah. It tripped me up because I'm I'm going to Mexico, on the weekend, and I was looking at some menu, and it had Volcan as one of the tequilas. So when I saw we're doing this, I was like, oh, great. We're gonna review one of the tequilas. I'll know if I wanna drink it there.
Senator:And then I realized that it's actually a different
Chef Ricky:brand. Yep.
Bam Bam:Nice. Send photos.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. This this tequila was created by a couple, you know, the woman, being from Mexico. She just wanted to bring the highest quality tequila the way she thought it should be here to the States. And, obviously, she went to one of the greatest master distillers and, you know, tasted his product, and they worked they did this collaboration, and he's making her juice.
Senator:Another question, Ricky. Have you met anyone in the Camarena family?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Yeah. I've met Carlos Camarena. I've met his daughter. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:When you go to the, distillery, they're often there, and they'll give you, site tours, and you sit down, have a formal tasting at this very long dining table, on on the hacienda, and it's it's quite the experience. And they're awesome people, super intelligent. I mean, Carl's coming in as a freaking engineer. You know, like, these people are you know? So they're they're you know, they know what the hell they're doing.
Senator:I'm just glad to hear this because if not, we were gonna need to curate a lizard trip just for you to meet them because I have not heard chef Ricky speak more passionately about any individual but the camera is.
Bam Bam:Can we please go to Oaxaca
Gizmo:as a group? Yeah. We have to. I mean,
Bam Bam:that would be an intense, incredible, interesting trip.
Chef Ricky:It's it's a beautiful city, and, it's a lot more modern than I think anyone realizes, because it they're kinda seeing,
Bam Bam:What's the nearest city? Nearest larger metropolis? Waha City. Waha City? Yeah.
Bam Bam:K. Alright.
Senator:So Well, if there's electricity, it'll be easier than our Cuba trips.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That's correct.
Pagoda:Well, every time
Chef Ricky:every time I've been there, there's been electricity and you know? So and it's been a very pleasant stay. The street food's amazing. The artwork on the, you know, this the graffiti, the artwork, museums, the sightseeing.
Gizmo:I think we gotta go.
Bam Bam:I recommend p c after right after PCA, we go right down to Oaxaca. I like it. I'm all
Chef Ricky:I'd be all in on that. Just remember Oaxaca's mezcal, so we're definitely gonna be in for a a treat with I'm just just saying way. There'll be tequila there too, but if we're gonna go to Oaxaca,
Bam Bam:we're gonna go from Mexico.
Pagoda:Let's let's take bags and bags of liquid IV.
Senator:I was thinking exact
Bam Bam:same thing.
Gizmo:We need a new sponsor, liquid IV.
Senator:Let's bring an actual IV drip.
Bam Bam:Well, lizard Genarito will give us all that. He'll bring it along.
Rooster:It's funny because when Ricky said street food, I immediately thought about pooba. He would be all in. Oh, or or all out.
Bam Bam:You're being very facetious right now.
Rooster:Street food in Oaxaca?
Bam Bam:Eating snakes on the beach?
Chef Ricky:No. The street food is delicious, and it's and yeah. I mean, you get it at anywhere. At certain times of the night, people just camp out in front of their homes and stuff. Right on the street.
Rooster:Tacos, pasta?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. You'll see some more pasta tacos, but Oaxaca's known more for their, which they, you know, very large corn tortillas. They're usually about 12 inches big, and they put, like, unrefined pork lard on top, some refried beans, and then some queso oaxaca, which is basically, string cheese. It's much it tastes like mozzarella. It looks like it.
Rooster:So is it flat or is it rolled?
Chef Ricky:It's flat, but oftentimes people kinda just fold it. It's crispy, but, you know, you fold it, and it ultimately ends up looking like a quesadilla. And they'll put, you know, char you know, some grilled steak or some crumbled up chorizo and some cactus pads and, you know, a little bit of everything in there, and it's really, really good.
Gizmo:So boys, let's talk about some housekeeping. So we discussed this as a group, last week, and I think it's time to bring the listeners into the conversation. And this being our 1st Cuban cigar podcast of the year, this is our first one. We obviously did, the Davidoff last week. This is our first Cuban.
Gizmo:We have come to a point now where we are starting to run out of regular production Cuban cigars that are readily available that we have reviewed. And I think that 3 years is kind of the mark at which we need to kind of hit reset on a lot of those cigars and start to revisit some of the stuff that we reviewed early, early on. And and I believe senator had a good recommendation when we were discussing this about going back and looking at some of the cigars that didn't rate as well as we remember,
Senator:you know, them performing or that perform today. Cigars that we maybe smoke a lot of, but didn't perform as well when we rated that might be worth revisiting for that reason.
Bam Bam:Well, top of the list for me is the Schwa Supreme.
Gizmo:Schwa Supreme.
Bam Bam:That was a colossal disappointment.
Senator:Juan Lopez number 1. The RAS for me. The RAS
Bam Bam:had that rated an 8.2. Right?
Gizmo:It was it was in the eights, I believe. It
Bam Bam:was. Really? Yeah. It It should be higher, though, honestly.
Gizmo:That's There's a there's a there's a lot of the the standard The
Senator:j l one production cigars.
Bam Bam:Poor rated cigar. I don't remember what the rating was.
Gizmo:And it's almost 3 years ago.
Senator:Well, the j l one got what it deserved.
Bam Bam:No. That's
Gizmo:the j l one. Another one too. Ugh. So I know that there are a lot of regular production cigars from Habanos that we haven't done yet, and we're getting to them. But as far as the standard issue stuff that you can go on any website and get pretty regularly, a lot of those we did almost 3 years ago now.
Gizmo:And, you know, approaching different box codes and and finding new production of those cigars, I think it would be a value add, not only to our listeners, but to ourselves and our ratings to start to revisit some of those and start to pepper in some of the ones that we've done. So I think the idea here is that you're gonna start seeing some cigars you may have heard if you're an OG listener from day 1. We're gonna start bringing some of those back here and there. So I
Bam Bam:think it's a good idea to revisit the cigars that performed poorly. It's a great idea. It's gonna make for interesting conversation for sure.
Rooster:Right. And and if there's, you know, listeners who wanna recommend, like, something that we should revisit, that would be cool. Oh,
Bam Bam:that's a great idea too.
Gizmo:Yeah. Even if the rating was right and there's something different about them, or maybe they're performing worse now than when we rated them to your you know, when you taste them and we rated it a 9 something, and now they're smoking like a 7, You know, send us some comments about stuff that you're smoking that might not align with how we rated them all that time ago, and, we're gonna start to revisit those.
Senator:Yeah. I I also think it it will test our theory a little bit around the quality being better of late.
Bam Bam:Like That's right.
Senator:Most of the cigars were, what, 2020, 2021?
Gizmo:Some even earlier.
Senator:Right. And so I feel like I mean, when I was in, Panama recently, like, I lit a RAS at an LCDH that literally had, like, 3 months of age on it. That's how young the cigar was, and it was fantastic.
Bam Bam:Did you buy that there?
Pagoda:Yeah. Oh, you did?
Senator:Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Wow. And it's like, years ago, if I had a wrasse with just 2 or 3 months age, I don't recall a young wrasse being that good. So Sure.
Senator:It'll just be interesting to test whether a lot of the more recent production is more ready to smoke than maybe what we're what we've been used to in the past.
Bam Bam:Great conversation, Nym.
Gizmo:Yeah. So, again, this is an, you know, FYI to the listener out there, you see something pop up we've already done, this is why, but also a call out. Please let us know if there are, you know, our regular production Cuban cigars you'd like us to revisit in the coming months year years, because we're gonna I think every 3 years, we're gonna start recycling through those. And, you know, for me I mean, for how much we love a Particus d 4 in here, we recorded that probably. That's probably the 7th episode we ever put out was a Particus d 4.
Gizmo:So that would be deserving to me of a revisit.
Bam Bam:Of a regushing?
Gizmo:A regushing. A reloving.
Senator:I mean, if we can rate a single malt scotch 3 times,
Rooster:we ought to at least rate a d 4 3 times.
Gizmo:Because I screwed up.
Bam Bam:Three different ratings, by the way.
Chef Ricky:And I'm super excited for this because I wasn't here for much Yeah. That's true. I get to experience this, and now I get to We live through you.
Pagoda:We live through you guys.
Rooster:You get to pay for
Gizmo:the box.
Bam Bam:Right. That's also true.
Chef Ricky:Maybe now I get to kinda create these core flavor memories and be able to, you know, contribute to the conversation a little bit more.
Gizmo:And the other thing that needs to be mentioned too, and we talked about this at our end of the year episode, the with the Asplendidos, is that 60 plus percent of our listeners right now found us in the last year. So I think that, you know, for us and for those listeners and our entire audience, I think going back and revisiting some of these core cigars that come out of Habanos, it's a it's a good thing to
Rooster:do. So There's only one problem with that. We're gonna pay twice
Gizmo:as much for those.
Rooster:Yeah. That's that's gonna hurt
Gizmo:a little bit.
Pagoda:Maybe 3 times as much. True. And that
Gizmo:might impact
Bam Bam:ratings again. That's also true. Yeah.
Pagoda:That's a good point.
Bam Bam:Says the value guy.
Gizmo:So, boys, we're coming to the end of the first 3rd here on the floriticano, ellajitos. What's everybody thinking?
Bam Bam:Still delicious. I'm loving it. I think the pairing's really quite nice.
Gizmo:I actually think the salty simplicity of this I shouldn't say simplicity because it's not a simple flavor profile, but the mild flavor of the tequila
Bam Bam:There is a salty
Gizmo:The saltiness to it really pairs well with the nuttiness. Totally. And the sweetness of the cigar for me.
Bam Bam:Totally.
Pagoda:So for me, I think the cigar tasted a bit more salty and a bit more, I thought it just enhanced a little bit of those flavors within the cigar.
Senator:I'm just shocked because flavor wise, I have not one single complaint about this cigar. In my wildest dreams, I didn't think that was possible.
Bam Bam:With this marker?
Senator:With this marker. Totally, dude.
Bam Bam:I think I I don't know. I came in very pessimistic.
Senator:Me too. Yeah.
Pagoda:I mean,
Bam Bam:the flavors taste giz.
Senator:Totally in.
Bam Bam:Totally. Oh, you gotta
Pagoda:the 2 hands.
Bam Bam:You gotta do the 2 hands. Totally in.
Rooster:Wait till you guys try this.
Gizmo:I was nervous too. I'll be honest. I've had them for quite some time. They had 4 years of age on them, so I was hoping that they had matured to a point that that they would be, you know, reasonable. But these are turning out to be very delicious.
Gizmo:You know?
Bam Bam:So what drove you to buy these? Not for the pod.
Gizmo:It was for the pod. I only bought these for the pod. I've never had a a Ford
Bam Bam:Ocado before. Did you buy those?
Gizmo:Probably about 6 months. Yeah. Did
Senator:you buy these for your father-in-law ones?
Gizmo:I did, but I never tried one. I got them to frame as a gift. Gotcha. But they were younger than these. I just bought them on Ihavenas or whatever.
Gizmo:But, these these having a little age, I figured these were appropriate. You know? Because this is a cigar that anyone can go out and buy either a 5 pack on a forum or something or buy the box and let them sit for a while because it's not a huge amount of money sitting in your humidor. So Mhmm. It's worth considering aging them a little bit.
Gizmo:Yeah. You know, getting them to that at least that 3 year mark.
Bam Bam:Beautifully flavored cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. So, senator, you mentioned very briefly that, you were in Panama, and your friend to your left there, Pagoda, was also there and got home this morning. At what time, Pagoda?
Pagoda:Early in the morning.
Gizmo:Did the red eye overnight.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:So this is, you guys have gone a few times to Panama now. And, senator, I know your holiday plans changed. We talked about some other plans you had, and things changed a little bit. So you ended up in Panama, and how was it? It was incredible.
Senator:I I mean, I have to say, you know, I went for the first time last year with Pagoda, and, I'll give him credit because number 1 about Panama, nobody talks about or knows anything about Panama other than there's a canal there. I mean, you never hear people talk about, oh, I want a vacation at Panama. When Pagoda last year mentioned Panama, I'm like, this is such a bizarre place, but it sounded like a great time. So the food was awesome. People are great.
Senator:They have a nice cigar lounge. There's an LCDH. And so we had a great trip, but last time it was so last minute. I didn't really do any homework or prepare, like, structure things that I would have wanted to this time. With some more time, I definitely did homework.
Senator:And then I had just such an outstanding experience. So, both times, we kinda stayed right in the the heart of, Panama City. You've got everything you need right at your fingertips. I mean, there's hotels, casinos, restaurants, shops, lounges. I mean, everything is so accessible.
Senator:It cracks me up. You take an Uber somewhere, your average Uber price is between $3.5 anywhere you can possibly need to go. Wow. Wow. It's insane.
Gizmo:I can't go from my house to my direct neighbor's house for under $20 in an Uber.
Bam Bam:That's true.
Senator:I mean, it's just wild. Like, everything is right at your fingertips. Weather is made.
Bam Bam:City as well. Right?
Senator:Super modern. It is these Very well developed. Beautiful, giant, you know, high rise buildings. And I give them credit because, you know, we're used to cities with large buildings. We're right in the New York area.
Senator:And the architecture even of some of these buildings, like, they're not just traditional skyscrapers that are just, like, straight up. Like, they have these cool, elaborate
Bam Bam:designs. Ornate in shape.
Senator:They've done a really nice job with
Bam Bam:that city. Those are very, very expensive buildings to build.
Gizmo:Oh, I'm sure.
Bam Bam:They require a lot of structure.
Senator:But, yeah, it's just a beautiful city. The food scene, I have to say, the food in Panama is honestly some of the best food I've had anywhere in the world.
Bam Bam:Really? That's pretty freaking high praise. For you to say that
Gizmo:is pretty wild.
Senator:Crazy to say. I I I this one night, I felt like this is the first time I felt a little bit like Anthony Bourdain. I had looked into restaurants, and there's this list of, like, 50 greatest restaurants in Latin America. And, there's this one place Ricky would love this. You would I mean, this is like you'd identify, I think, with the ethos of this place.
Senator:It's someone's home that they converted to a restaurant. The restaurant inside has 4 tables and bar seating. I make a reservation for a seat at the bar. I show up to this place. It's in the middle of this super residential neighborhood.
Senator:It's called San Francisco.
Chef Ricky:It's
Rooster:Sounds very Cuban.
Senator:I mean, honestly, there's a lot of parallels to Cuba. I'll go there next. I show up to this place. It is not at all obvious where you enter this restaurant. You're just, like, staring at someone's home.
Senator:There's, like, a a little door slightly creaked open. I, like, peek inside there. It's someone's house. I'm like, well, that's definitely not the restaurant. Then
Pagoda:there's like
Bam Bam:You might lose a kidney if you go there.
Senator:Then there's, like, a metal gate. I'm going to open it. It's locked. I'm like, okay. That's maybe not the restaurant either.
Senator:So the only thing I see is a doorbell next to the door to the home that I peeked in that's clearly where people live.
Gizmo:So I just rang the doorbell. Next thing go to answer?
Senator:Next thing I know, someone comes and opens the metal gate, and it does buzz the restaurant.
Gizmo:Wow.
Senator:And then you go through there. They have a little outdoor patio, and it's like a sliding glass door to the house that is the entrance to the restaurant. I did the chef's tasting menu there. It was 5 courses, $62. I mean Oh, wow.
Senator:What a steal. Wow. The food was unbelievable. 1st course was like this, like beef tartare. 2nd course was a tuna crudo.
Senator:There's ton the the seafood in Panama is excellent. There's every menu. Ceviches, tons of fish. The 3rd course, was this clams dish. Oh my god.
Senator:And, like, this broth with this, like, bread they wanted you to dip in the broth. Oh my god. Unreal. 4th course
Gizmo:My mouth is watering.
Bam Bam:I know. Me too.
Senator:4th course, course was like this kind of like a risotto with, squid. Oh my god. Wow. So good. At this point, I had completely tapped out.
Pagoda:Like, I
Senator:thought I was marketing the tasting menu. I'm like, I'm gonna get these tiny little portions and try everything. I won't feel too full when I leave. By the 4th course, I'm like, there's no chance I can eat dessert. Just please take it to go.
Senator:Even the dessert I took to go and but Go does a big dessert guy. He knows I'm not.
Bam Bam:Even the dessert
Senator:was fantastic. Wow. Every I've I can't remember the last time I did a tasting menu anywhere where every single course I thought was excellent. It's, like, usually, 2 of the courses are amazing and the rest are just okay.
Gizmo:Yeah. A couple are throwaways and couple are great.
Senator:Exactly. Every single thing at this restaurant. It's an open kitchen. You're watching the chefs cook. The chef when you do the tasting menu, like, the chef himself brings you the food where, you know, the waiters usually bring for anyone else who's not ordering the, the full tasting menu.
Senator:Just such the wine was great. I mean, this place was so small, so dark, candle lit, like, candles everywhere. It was a real honestly, one of the coolest dining experiences of my life, and it only cost me $62, which you would never be able to say anywhere in the United States.
Bam Bam:So, did you hold hands with Pagoda?
Senator:No. This was before Pagoda got there, actually. I I was, dining by myself. But,
Chef Ricky:I was hoping
Pagoda:he would save the dessert for me. But well, he did. So when he told me that he he got it to go, I was very excited. And then I took
Rooster:a bite. I was like, oh, this
Senator:is dessert. Even I'll finish. But, yeah, food was just outstanding. The, there's so many places to smoke. That's another thing I love with Panama.
Senator:You know, we're like ostracized in most cities. In Panama, most restaurants will let you sit there and eat and smoke in some area of their patio. There there's a lot of there's a beautiful cigar lounge there. This place, Valentino Siesto, it's members only. For your first trip or 2, they may let you in as a nonmember.
Senator:There's an LCDH there that's great in Costco Viejo, and this is where the Cuba comparisons come in.
Chef Ricky:Did you say Costco Viejo?
Senator:Yeah. Costco. We gotta go.
Bam Bam:Costco. We gotta go with you.
Rooster:Have you noticed how Costco reference is made
Chef Ricky:in every bottle? Those are your two favorite words.
Bam Bam:It's part of your business plan, Brewster.
Gizmo:Hey. I wanna ask
Rooster:you about the restaurant. Yeah. Was this typical Panamanian food, or was it Peruvian, or is there a huge Peruvian influence in
Senator:Yeah. So the thing I like about Panama I mean, there there's traditional Panamanian food, but Panama is like a melting pot.
Gizmo:That's one
Senator:of the things I really love about it. Like, when you're in when we're in Cuba, everyone's Cuban, and all the food is Cuban.
Rooster:Correct. Yep.
Senator:You're not getting anything else. When you're in Panama, you're meeting some Panamanians, but people from Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, I mean, from all over the place. So it's kind of this melting pot of cultures, and I think that that definitely shows up in the food. But for traditional Panamanian food, I mean, it's a ton of seafood. They're, like, huge on ceviches.
Senator:In Cuba, what we know as tostones that we love are patacones in Panama. It's basically the same thing, but they're just larger. They're not as small as tostones. So there's, like, a lot of things that we would be familiar with, but it's just much, I think, even more seafood heavy, honestly, than Cuba is. Like, you don't see like, octopus is big when you're in Panama.
Senator:You don't see that everywhere in Cuba. You see it some places.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:It's on every single menu in Panama. It's, like, impossible not to find it. Wow. So, I think the food is just a plus. I mean, I had I I remember the first night I got to the hotel, there's this steak house, forgetting the name.
Senator:It's with a c. But, I had asked the guy I had gotten a steak there once last year, and, honestly, it sucked. I was really disappointed. But I need a convenience. I had just flown in.
Senator:So I I was very blunt with the guy. I said, look. I've ordered a steak here before. It wasn't great. What else is good here?
Senator:And he laughed, and he goes, honestly, the seafood is better than the steak here. So he recommended this appetizer, and he goes, this is very traditional Panamanian. It was like shrimp in this kind of, like, sauce, that was very creamy, like coconut cream and some other things, like finely diced, like red onion and peppers and all this stuff. The flavor profile of this was I wanted to just drink the sauce after I, like, ate all the shrimp that was, like, chopped in here. There was patacones on the side.
Senator:You'd, like, take a little, put it on top. Mind blowing.
Gizmo:If anyone My mouth is watering. I I
Bam Bam:this is something ridiculous, this whole thing.
Pagoda:Unbelievable. I can't. It's about time you come and see the canal.
Bam Bam:I know. I need to.
Pagoda:Wasn't that one of your
Gizmo:I yes. The Hoover Dam and the Panama Canal. Big fan. The
Bam Bam:Hoover Dam.
Gizmo:Oh my god. I love the Hoover Dam.
Bam Bam:The Hoover Dam.
Gizmo:I love listen.
Bam Bam:It's a feat of engineering. Yes.
Gizmo:Man made feat of engineering. Like, the thing you could think is that you would think is totally impossible.
Bam Bam:I have a fact about the Hoover Dam.
Gizmo:What is that?
Bam Bam:There is
Gizmo:Senator, we'll get back in a moment.
Pagoda:Yeah. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Well, here's something fascinating about the Hoover Dam. So that was that concrete was poured when? In the forties?
Gizmo:No. I think in the twenties or thirties. Right? Still not cured.
Bam Bam:So, yeah, there's so there's still concrete in that entire cast that has yet to to cure. Wow. It's incredible. Because of the how thick and dense it is. Yep.
Bam Bam:Anyway, go back to the food.
Senator:No. No. So food a plus. The cigar scene, you can smoke most places. I mean, even Outdoor bars.
Senator:Exactly. There are outdoor bars with nice rooftops that let you smoke cigars. Hotels have, like, smoking areas that are beautiful outdoors. So just for any cigar smoker, I mean, it it's paradise. It's really not hard to find a good place to light up.
Senator:And even the LCDH there, you can sit inside. You can have some Cuban rum or whatever kind of rum. I'll also say Panamanian rum. Abuelo. Ironically, Abuelo is their, their local brand.
Bam Bam:Say that again? It's called Abuelo?
Pagoda:That's right.
Gizmo:Alright. We gotta review it.
Bam Bam:That's gonna be a crazy night.
Pagoda:Roosterhood, Costco, and. Oh, do I see brother?
Bam Bam:Gonna have an executive meeting with Costa. We gotta get this rum. Yeah.
Rooster:Let me work on it.
Bam Bam:Alright. I wonder
Rooster:how was the weather?
Senator:Oh, weather was great. I mean, the funny thing, it's in the Caribbean. And so, you know, you look at the weather forecast when you're going, it shows rain every day. Anyone who spent a lot of time in the Caribbean knows that doesn't mean anything. It literally, every day, it rained for no more than 5 minutes the entire day.
Bam Bam:That's crazy.
Senator:It was perfect. The weather was, like, 82. Really nice. But just to close the loop on the the rum there, you know, we drank plenty of, Abuelo, 7 year. Very similar, honestly, in flavor profile to, like, Florida Cana and Havana Club.
Bam Bam:No way.
Senator:It's a little different. There's like this I would call, like, a nuttiness to it that both of those rums don't have that, like, makes it distinct and unique, but it's smooth, easy drinking. You feel great when you have it.
Bam Bam:Do you remember what you paid for that? About $18 maybe?
Senator:Oh, the bottle of that stuff is cheap, like, $20.
Bam Bam:$20. Great.
Senator:Yeah. Nice.
Gizmo:We gotta try that.
Pagoda:Yeah?
Senator:Yeah. It's definitely pot worthy. We should review it.
Rooster:Ouelo knows best.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Chef Ricky:I wonder if that's the rum. So, which is a very popular tequila, and and I think we did it on
Gizmo:the podcast. Yeah. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:In Mexico, it's called Los Abuelos. But because of a patent here in the States, they have to change the name. So that's where La Fortaleza came from. It's named after the distillery. I wonder if that's the rum that is Interesting.
Bam Bam:Abuelos brand know knows knows no bounds. Yeah. Yeah. Global.
Pagoda:He he's willing to negotiate.
Bam Bam:Hey. We gotta cut of that.
Gizmo:So, senator, I gotta ask for the smokers out there. You talked about how great the smoking scene was. How was the stock situation at the LCDH? You show up. You don't have any cigars.
Gizmo:Like, what was that scene like?
Senator:Great question. So I was really, really surprised because you walk in any LCDH global, you don't see much. This LCDH in Panama, in Casco Viejo, they had almost every standard production from the big markets that you would expect. So, like, Partagas, I remember seeing d fours, e twos.
Pagoda:Wow. P twos.
Senator:P twos. Oh,
Pagoda:the big one.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Lucy's.
Bam Bam:There was Lucy's.
Senator:They had a whole box of Lucy's. Wow. Bolivar. They had, Belicosos Finos. They had the Petite Corona.
Bam Bam:Any QDs?
Pagoda:Punch Punch, QDs. They had Did they
Bam Bam:have QDs?
Pagoda:Yeah. They didn't have 50 twos. They had fifties. You're right. And 54 and 54 coronavirus.
Bam Bam:Corona scrub.
Rooster:They didn't have corona scrub.
Pagoda:They didn't. Yeah. Oh, really?
Senator:Dad walked in there. They didn't. They They did. Got that. Jesus, I would have bought that.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah. Wow. So tell us about the rats that you smoked.
Senator:Oh, the rats was great. So, yeah, like, Ramon, they even had the Gigantes. Like, they Really? They serious? There was serious range to this humidor.
Senator:And it's not huge, this walk in humidor, but they have all the essential stuff
Bam Bam:to cover. Getting goosebumps.
Senator:They're not ship to the US? It's possible.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Do you think
Pagoda:do you think Humana ask
Gizmo:you a question. Didn't ask? No. Do let me ask you a question. Do you think that the supply there was is it and this may seem like a dopey question given what you just laid out.
Gizmo:Is it that there aren't a lot of people going there to buy cigars, or are they just somehow well supplied by Habanos Interesting. That other areas of the world aren't? Like Yeah.
Bam Bam:It's an interesting
Gizmo:question. This place in Panama have everything.
Bam Bam:That's unusual.
Senator:I'll say this. I was in there on Christmas day, which I couldn't believe they were open Christmas day. There was there were people coming in and out the whole time, and that's a major holiday. So on a normal day, I have to imagine they do some decent business. Wow.
Senator:Somehow, they must get just some, you know, pretty good allocation. Now do I think that, like, Panama City is one of, like, the, you know, biggest, you know, global markets for LCDH? No way. So that definitely helps. I mean, the demand can only be so much in a market like that.
Senator:But it's not like they're sitting around, you know, with no customers. There are definitely people
Gizmo:Yep.
Senator:Coming in and out.
Gizmo:And my other question there is, were there non Cuban cigars in that LCDH? Because we heard question. We've heard stories around the world of LCDH stores stocking other
Bam Bam:New World brands.
Gizmo:Yeah. New World brands because of the lack of supply. Did you see any non Cubans or
Pagoda:anything there?
Gizmo:Not one. That's really amazing.
Senator:Not one.
Bam Bam:Wow. Was there a place to sit there?
Pagoda:Yeah. Yeah.
Senator:They had, like, maybe 3 seating pods with, like, chairs
Bam Bam:or, like, little sofas. It's great.
Senator:Good rum selection behind the bar. Wow.
Pagoda:I was talking to about a 7 new.
Senator:Yeah. That's exactly what I got when I was there.
Chef Ricky:They had
Senator:the selection Maestro. They even had Emanente from Cuba. Wow. Like, they had
Gizmo:this is a
Senator:serious place. Like, it was really impressive. It's small but mighty.
Bam Bam:Awesome.
Gizmo:So, Begota, you stayed, quite a bit after senator did. You actually did New Year's Eve and and New Year's Day there. What was New Year's like in, in Panama?
Pagoda:It's fantastic. It's, you know, I spent New Year's Eve in last year. So for me, it's one of the places I really enjoy going to, especially because it's so cold in the northeast. Mhmm. You know, you're hanging out in 80 degrees weather on a rooftop.
Pagoda:People are hanging out and partying. And, you know, it's relatively cheap. Like, for $100, it's an open bar scene, but food. And you can smoke cigars. And we're smoking cigars and fireworks all over the skyline and, you know, beautiful weather and really good craft.
Bam Bam:What the hell are we doing?
Chef Ricky:Food. Paradise paradise. What are we doing?
Pagoda:Good drinks. It's, it's just, you know, a really way a really great way to welcome the New Year. So And, so it's it's it's fantastic.
Bam Bam:So you you brought your buddy with you?
Pagoda:Yeah. Was that his
Bam Bam:first time there?
Pagoda:3rd. 3rd
Bam Bam:time. I was gonna ask a line of questions, but I'm sure he loves it there.
Senator:There's a clear theme here. People visit Panama and come back.
Gizmo:Yeah. I
Senator:mean, this is my second time.
Gizmo:This is
Senator:pagoda's what? Like, 4th?
Pagoda:You know, total for 3rd
Senator:or 4th. His buddy's 3rd.
Gizmo:It just it just sounds like the amount of cigar friendly options, the quality of the food and the drink, the hospitality, the services. There's obviously no electricity crisis. Yeah. There's Panama right now. The casinos.
Gizmo:There's casinos for
Pagoda:people like them. Vegas, really.
Gizmo:It's pretty amazing. Wow. And to get a tasting menu for $62 or rum for $20 a bottle.
Bam Bam:It sounds awesome. Yeah. The
Senator:treats are amazing. Like, they they also their local beer, Balboa is excellent. It's like compare it to? Like, a a maltier, more flavorful Cristal. And Cristal is, like,
Gizmo:the national beer of
Bam Bam:Cuba. Cuba. Yeah.
Senator:Like, they're both lagers. This just has a bit more flavor to it, but it's, like, very smooth, very easy drink. I mean, you can and you feel great having it, like, with Cristal. It it's awesome. You go anywhere.
Senator:It's like a Balboa is $3.
Bam Bam:Wow. What the hell?
Pagoda:How much
Gizmo:is a beer in New York City, Pagoda?
Pagoda:Oh, I, I can't afford them.
Gizmo:More than this cigar. Darn this.
Pagoda:It's an average $9. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Wow.
Rooster:Why is the flight prices so expensive?
Gizmo:Because there's
Pagoda:so many people there. To, South America. So there's a lot of, flights that'll be full from here to there and
Chef Ricky:then the
Pagoda:connecting flight from there.
Senator:It's also when you book it late, like, last minute for the holiday because it's very popular there, it's much higher. Because someone I was talking to, a member of our lounge, who's been to Panama before, he's like, if you would book, like, 6 months out, it'd be half the price. But the closer you get, it they really it it gets pretty steep.
Rooster:Yeah. I wanted to go to Panama, but I ended up in Panama City, Florida for some reason.
Gizmo:Typed the wrong airport for a
Rooster:different scene.
Senator:How was the LCDH there?
Gizmo:So, boys, we're into the last third here on the floritocano Alajidos. What's everybody thinking?
Bam Bam:Delicious.
Chef Ricky:It's been delicious for
Bam Bam:us. Incredible really incredible experience with this cigar.
Gizmo:I'm shocked Shocking. I'm shocked at both the cigar and how well it's performing and how it tastes with the tequila. It's pretty amazing.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah. Where's the tequila?
Gizmo:It's right here.
Pagoda:Yeah. No. We've been looking for it. I kept no. I'm just kidding.
Chef Ricky:When you blow your smoke into the glass, which is one of my favorite things to do now, and you get the nose of the the smoke with the tequila itself I did that earlier. It's so dreamy. It is delicious.
Pagoda:What did
Senator:we do that with? We were all blowing smoke into a glass one episode and, like, laughing like school kids.
Rooster:Yeah. I don't remember. What was it?
Chef Ricky:It was,
Pagoda:I'm gonna say it
Chef Ricky:was a it was a Scotch or a cognac. It was definitely a brown, so it could have been a little too for all that.
Pagoda:But I'm I'm glad So
Gizmo:I just blew my smoke into my tequila. It was so different.
Pagoda:Oh, really? How they become mezcal? Meaning a bit smoky? I'm just kidding.
Bam Bam:No. It's actually on the nose, chef, it's very floral. I agree. When you blow the smoke into the cup, it becomes a floral aromatic, thing. Wow.
Bam Bam:It's
Gizmo:really good. So, senator, what are you thinking about the pairing right now?
Senator:I think it's a perfect pairing. I mean, this tequila is so versatile. It could work with 70% of things. Nothing aggressively full. But any medium bodied or mild cigar, I can't think of where you'd go wrong.
Senator:And with this cigar that I think is, like, medium for the most part Sure. It's, it's really nice. And I think there's something that this tequila does to, like, cleanse your palate that, like, each draw of the cigar, you're you're able to extract even more of the flavor. Yeah. I really like it.
Senator:And and this cigar, I'm shocked. I mean, all the way down, nothing harsh. The flavor has actually held through. I mean, we talked about how, like, the first 2 thirds, it's nice and flavorful, and that last third, it gets totally muddled. It overheats.
Senator:I haven't experienced that yet at all, and so I I'm very impressed.
Bam Bam:And
Gizmo:I think it's changed a little bit
Bam Bam:for a short filler cigar to be performing this way. It's absolutely shocking.
Rooster:I mean, you just can't tell it's a short filler cigar.
Pagoda:No. You can't. No.
Gizmo:You would never
Pagoda:be a
Gizmo:You would Anybody who says they could tell is full of it because Correct. There's no way you could tell.
Bam Bam:The structure of the ash is a giveaway.
Gizmo:Okay. How this has held up,
Senator:though. That's not on this. That's the thing.
Bam Bam:That's right. Yeah. That's right.
Senator:I mean, this has performed better than many long filler cigars
Gizmo:we smoked.
Chef Ricky:Totally. The structure of the ash almost looks a little bit more emulsified where I think when it's long filler, you have more stacking happening Yeah. On your ash.
Bam Bam:Right.
Chef Ricky:And then you have a little bit of, like, fraying of the edges that happens here.
Bam Bam:But not on the cigar.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. So, you know, I I don't know. I I don't I would I mean, I'd have to smoke other short filler cigars to kinda understand it more.
Pagoda:No. Maybe. But
Bam Bam:But if
Chef Ricky:if they're as good as this, I
Bam Bam:have problems with this.
Rooster:Yeah. There's not too many. No.
Gizmo:Yeah. There's not a lot. No. So, Pagoda, what are you thinking about the pairing right now?
Pagoda:I'm really enjoying this. You know, I've I'm really enjoying the tequila a lot, but I think I've just been biased towards tequila for the at least the last few tequilas we've had.
Gizmo:You're a tequila man now. No.
Pagoda:I'm a tequila man. You know?
Rooster:With or without ice.
Senator:I love that, like, the last tequila we did, Pagoda, was like, I buy a lot of tequila, but just for my friends.
Gizmo:I don't drink any
Bam Bam:of it.
Pagoda:I think this summer
Bam Bam:The tequila's have changed.
Pagoda:Yeah. This summer, I think I'm gonna drink a lot more tequila. So, but yeah. No. Really enjoying it with the cigar.
Pagoda:And, yeah, for me, I I think, like I mentioned earlier, it did bring about. I don't know what it was, but that, I did feel that it had somewhat made me experience a salty flavor profile in the cigar, but that's kinda dissipated. So I had it even back to its nuttiness and sweetness, so I'm really enjoying it.
Bam Bam:There is a saltiness to the tequila we're drinking, and I think that's a great compliment.
Gizmo:And I
Rooster:think any saltiness in the cigar.
Gizmo:I actually think of it. The back half of the cigar, my cigar started very sweet and nutty as we talked about. Mhmm. And I think at the halfway point, even now into the last 3rd, it's moved to more towards, like, a more mineral Savory. Saltiness.
Gizmo:Savory.
Bam Bam:It's pretty savory.
Gizmo:And I think it's changed, which is actually shocking.
Bam Bam:Yes. I agree. In a good way.
Gizmo:It's it's very good way. It's taken us on a little journey. It's not heated up, which I expected. Pretty savory. Smoke it slow.
Gizmo:Yeah. I'm I'm really impressed with this cigar right now.
Rooster:It's like a salted nut. Yes.
Gizmo:Yeah. Right? It went from a sweet nut to a salted nut. Correct.
Chef Ricky:I'd I'd love to do an exercise here, and, you know, I know Rooster does not drink, but there's probably no better tequila to do this with. Can you grab my glass and just take in the nose and see what you get in there? Maybe describe it.
Pagoda:Oops. Oops. That's not as glass, but I'm dumb. No. Don't drink it, rooster.
Bam Bam:Just tell it. Oh, heaven forbid.
Chef Ricky:Smells delicious. No?
Rooster:It does.
Pagoda:It does.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. This is you know, it I guess this is going back you said earlier about how some listeners haven't been happy with our deep dives and agave, and you're missing out. I mean, there's no better time than now. Like, you know, there's an amazing variety of tequilas hitting the market that are additive free, that are you know, just stay away from the celebrity stuff. And, you know, you're you're gonna find yourself falling in love with the spirit, with the new category, and you're gonna fall into this rabbit hole that we've all fallen into, and you're gonna enjoy it.
Chef Ricky:You know? This is there's no better time to get into agave than right now. I mean, the the number of agave distillates from mezcal to tequila to ricea to buccanara to sotal, They're all hitting the market now, and that's because there's a demand for it, and a lot of it is quality stuff.
Pagoda:Do you anticipate the price is going down with the supply increase? No. No. I'm just sorry. That's that's just me.
Rooster:We might have just lost George Clooney as our sponsor.
Bam Bam:You know, the only knock is it doesn't have much viscosity.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's a little thin. It's
Pagoda:a bit.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Which for me, it it doesn't affect my my love for this because I really fall in love with this thing.
Rooster:The note the nose is a little bit different than most tequilas.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. You know, it it doesn't the appearance isn't viscous, but the way it hits your palate, it hits your palate like a rich and creamy tequila.
Senator:Yeah. Because butter is better
Bam Bam:than that. Drink it that way.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Exactly. Again,
Gizmo:when you gulp
Bam Bam:it, please, ladies and gentlemen, don't gulp your booze. Let it sit in your mouth for just a second or 2. Take it down. There's you're experiencing such a variety of flavor that you're not gonna get when you just chuck it.
Gizmo:Yep. No gulping. No plastic bags. No plastic bags.
Pagoda:Lesson one over.
Chef Ricky:This isn't like, you know, people that are trying to to force themselves to like oysters, and then, you know, they they take they gulp it down and swallow it whole, and, you know, you're trying to get get it through as quick. This is something that you wanna let sit
Rooster:on your
Chef Ricky:tongue and, you know, let it run down the sides of it and and experience everything that's happening.
Pagoda:It's You mean to say be romantic with it?
Chef Ricky:A 100%. Exactly.
Gizmo:Yeah. So I have a question for senator because you mentioned something that you think this would work with about 70% of the things we smoke. I'm curious. Cuban. So I Cuban.
Senator:I think I think even there
Gizmo:are so
Senator:many new roles too.
Gizmo:Where I'm going. I think Cuban and Honduran Honduran. Check both of those boxes. Once you get into Dominican and Nicaraguan, where do you think where do you think the cutoff is for this specific blanco? What's the cutoff for you?
Gizmo:And and open up to the room after that. Like, what's the cutoff there with this tequila pairing?
Senator:So I think for Nicaraguan tobacco, like, only Padron natural
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Senator:Wrapper cigars would work with this. Like, that Padron 50th that Grindr loves, that was a very nutty, like, mild, medium ish cigar. I think that would pair perfectly with this. Any of the Maduro stuff has got too much
Rooster:Or the the Damaso.
Senator:The Damaso is a
Pagoda:good example.
Senator:I think there are a number of Davidoff cigars. I mean, certainly, all of their
Rooster:Grand Cruisers.
Senator:Well that
Bam Bam:I'll go out and say the the Millennium Pyramid.
Senator:I think that that could work.
Bam Bam:That is not a super full bodied cigar. I think that would be beautiful with this.
Chef Ricky:The white label Churchill Balicoso will go on
Pagoda:later this year.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Absolutely.
Gizmo:So are we saying the so the cutoff would be, like, in strength. You have Cuban, Honduran, and then as far as Dominican goes, kind of the profile of what a white labeled Davidoff would be
Pagoda:I think
Gizmo:and other Dominicans around that.
Bam Bam:I think any of the white label, Davidoff products, the Churchill, the Belicoso would be fantastic with this.
Senator:And another Dominican market that would go well, Don Carlos, the eye of the shard.
Pagoda:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Senator:They're regular like Belicoso. I think they would yeah. Correct. They'd all
Gizmo:go great.
Pagoda:I
Gizmo:think the Hemingway series would be great with this too from Fuente.
Senator:Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:For someone who loves to smoke a a short story or a signature
Bam Bam:You know? This is a great
Pagoda:entry to
Chef Ricky:kill if
Bam Bam:you have a sweetness to it, and the saltiness would kinda give you a nice balance and experience. I think it'd be great.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to some listener comments and email. We're gonna start with one commenting on our New Year's Eve episode with our Cohiva Asplendidos. I love this comment. This is from blizzard Shawnee bro.
Gizmo:On YouTube, he wrote, listening to this podcast is expensive. I just bought bottles of the Hein XO and the Bolivar gold medals. I'm fighting the urge now to buy a box of A Splendidos to lay down as well. Oh, boy.
Bam Bam:Let those Bolivar gold medals sit. Yeah. 6 months
Gizmo:At least. With some good humidity Yeah. And they'll they'll pour it as
Bam Bam:we have. Months, see what it's like.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. Did so, actually, Ben, let's comment on that. Yeah. So you actually purchased we finished the pod.
Gizmo:We all bought boxes of of Bolivar new gold medals.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Price was a little under $60 or whatever it was, a cigar. Yeah. You smoked one pretty close to off the truck.
Bam Bam:So I I
Gizmo:was How how different was that cigar from what we smoked on the
Bam Bam:So I didn't smoke 1.
Gizmo:Oh, you didn't?
Bam Bam:I got 2 boxes. I gave one to Pagoda, and I gave 1 to lizard j. I
Pagoda:Yeah. So the post to have with you smoke 1. Yes. I'm sorry. So from a flavor profile perspective, excellent.
Pagoda:Exactly the same thing. But I think the burn Yes. You know how we really enjoyed, the one we did in the episode?
Gizmo:Yeah. The construction. Yeah.
Pagoda:The construction, the burn, the smoke out, but I think the second half was it was really struggling. Right? The first half was still pretty good. The second half was, pretty difficult.
Bam Bam:And it started to come apart a little bit.
Pagoda:It did. It it did the you remember what the Lucy did years ago?
Gizmo:Sure.
Pagoda:Yeah. It started to, let's say, flower.
Rooster:Blow up a little bit.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That's also a product of the speed or the rate of the smoke. So you take your time, less chance of that.
Chef Ricky:I just realized, isn't that, White Label by the Colso Davidoff a short filler cigar too?
Gizmo:Very well could be.
Pagoda:I think that's very short anyway.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I think that is too. Yeah.
Bam Bam:That's true.
Chef Ricky:Churchill. I I bought a a box of those too.
Bam Bam:So The big Churchill's?
Chef Ricky:No. No. No. I've had the big Churchill's before.
Rooster:Oh, as opposed to the
Chef Ricky:small Churchill's. Bought a box of the t p handles.
Bam Bam:You know what I mean?
Senator:I will say on this cigar, when you get down the stretch, I'm regretting not having the foresight that Ricky did in using a punch. Yeah. Because, I mean, the short filler, you start to get pieces falling in, out of the cigar. Yeah. It's kinda
Bam Bam:it's kinda happening. I mean, I'm down to where most people don't usually smoke.
Gizmo:I took a very little cut. I didn't take much off, so I'm not experiencing that.
Senator:Yeah. I I took a a healthy cut. It was not a good idea.
Bam Bam:Took an old school Gizmo cut. Oh, not
Pagoda:a Gizmo.
Gizmo:Can I say thank you for saying old school? Thank you. That's old school. I appreciate that. New school.
Gizmo:You very much.
Bam Bam:Not old, but new.
Gizmo:It's a new year. Correct. This is beautiful. That's right.
Senator:He's got his scissors now.
Bam Bam:That's true. Very precise.
Pagoda:Hey. By the way, I, you know, I was at the LC DH in Panama, and we I was smoking, the punch double corona. And, Look at you. And,
Gizmo:Big dog.
Pagoda:And no. No. And and little child had done the cut. He had done exactly a kiss cut. So I was afraid to send a photograph.
Pagoda:An old school kid. An old school kid. Old school kid. Old school kid. Old school kid.
Pagoda:I said, oh, my lord, before
Bam Bam:Hold on. Did you get that there? Yeah. Really? No.
Pagoda:It was really
Senator:I told you their stock
Pagoda:is That's crazy.
Bam Bam:I'm just so hard to find that cigar.
Gizmo:I'm I'm impressed. Wow. Alright, boys. Another comment from Lizard Annie. He said people are absolutely not buying at these prices, Giz.
Gizmo:Watch in a couple years how these price hikes affect Habanos SA. That's why they're introducing the crazy age series because they know they have so many left over now, so they will hold on to some regular production boxes and charge even more. Habanos is going to have a problem on their hands. Europe is already turning to new world cigars. Cohiba, sure, you can charge a premium, but d fours and other cigars like that, come on.
Gizmo:I think he's on the money.
Bam Bam:Well, we've talked about this. Agree. Nausea many times.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. That aging program, that new one from them has gotten a lot of comments. So
Bam Bam:He's on the
Senator:money, but look. I'm sorry. Like, there are so many parallels to this. Like, I'm not a cigarette smoker, but this is a perfect example. I mean, the price of cigarettes as they've tried to regulate them out of existence, they're insane now.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:I mean, what's a pack of cigarettes? 12, $15 here? Nobody, I'm sure, that smokes cigarettes wants to pay whatever crazy prices they are now, but, like, people still do it. And, like, with cigars, I mean, the only part that Habanos SA has right is it is almost limitless within reason. What people who love certain maracas and certain cigars are gonna be willing to pay to replicate that experience.
Senator:It's not like if a d four was $40, it's not like I'm gonna sit there and say, for the rest of my existence, I'm not gonna buy or smoke another d four.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:I mean, it's impossible. Of course, I'm gonna wanna have that experience again. Yeah. And that's the part that, like, they know they have us
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:In in some way.
Bam Bam:It's like we've said, if you've got a deficiency in your collection, you need something, you're gonna get it.
Gizmo:But here's the thing. I I mean, the comparison to cigarette smokers. I mean, I I feel bad for people who smoke cigarettes in that they're just chemically addictive. Right? So you could wanna quit them.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Gizmo:And it's such a battle to do that. So they have them by the balls because of the That's true. The chemical nature of the addiction in in in their stomach.
Senator:As different as we think.
Gizmo:I was trying, senator. I was trying.
Bam Bam:We are a room full of degenerates. I
Gizmo:was trying. Yeah. But what
Rooster:what about the new smoker? Yeah. You know, who's who's just getting into the Cuban
Bam Bam:We've also talked about that
Senator:many, many times. Yeah.
Gizmo:That's very easy. Shortsighted.
Rooster:Would he or she spend $40 on a d 4? No.
Senator:Because you don't know what you don't know. If you've never had that amazing experience with a d 4, you look at $40 and say, there's no chance I'm gonna spend that. You're gonna buy a new rolled cigar for $10. That's also gonna be very satisfying.
Pagoda:You can't buy them loose. No. Right. That's the other thing. Right?
Pagoda:So you need somebody to buy a box and
Rooster:Unless you're traveling and you can pick single sub and Yeah.
Pagoda:But then then you're limiting the exposure regardless.
Bam Bam:But piggybacking what Senator just said, it takes time to get into all these markers and understand them. And as you start to learn about them and actually taste them, it takes a lot of time to get into them. So a new Cuban cigar guy or gal, they're gonna take recommendations, and maybe they'll get a box to your point, Bruce.
Gizmo:And the and the problem too is if recent history have has taught us anything, we're going to see across regular production in Habanos a 10 to 15% increase in price every single year. So what that would mean, and does that mean that what we're paying for d fours today at 25 to 30 a stick, is it going to be 50% more in 5 years? I mean, that's not an unlikely scenario at this point.
Bam Bam:It's unbelievable. Because
Gizmo:that's how it's trending.
Senator:I don't think that that that rate Well, we hope. Is sustainable. I mean, I say that because, like, they're they've tried to, like, make up for the past and course correct of them realizing, oh, well, we can kind of classify this as a luxury product. And so Oh, they've tried. Price increases have been aggressive to catch up to that.
Senator:Mhmm. They're firmly there. Sure. There's a little bit more that they can go, but they will hit a point at which, like, you can't keep going 15% every single year. I mean, you will price out most of the market.
Rooster:I think they already priced that up
Gizmo:to 10 years. You know,
Rooster:they they were, like, multiple pricing
Bam Bam:pieces in any Can we actually count on Cuba for reality to check-in and to have an understanding of what you just said?
Senator:No. When money's not coming in, that will be the reality. Hope so. That that's all I'm saying. I would hope
Bam Bam:so.
Gizmo:Yeah. With stuff sitting on the shelves.
Bam Bam:Like the all the that entire line of Trinidad aren't selling.
Senator:Well, that's the thing. And and I'm sorry. Even beyond Trinidad, we've commented how in the past calendar year, you look at the stock on a gray market site like Ihavenis. There is most of what you would look for available on that site. Yep.
Senator:In years ago, we used to immediately message each other. Box of d four is up on Ihab, and it'd be gone in 10 minutes flat. True. Now box of d fours on Ihab, and 2 weeks later
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:I can go and still find that box sitting there.
Gizmo:Well, I'll get a listener email saying, hey. I see this box of h up in number 2, Montecristo number 2, Partick is d 4. What do you think about the what I what I'm sensing from our listenership is that instead of pulling the trigger kind of in that instant gratification, I see a box, I want it like we used to do, there's a lot of mulling over which box do I wanna purchase versus another box or 2. So there is this pricing kind of Well, that that discretion now that's happening.
Bam Bam:The availability of inventory.
Gizmo:Of course.
Bam Bam:Right.
Gizmo:Because people don't have as much money to spend Correct. As Habanos is commanding for these for these boxes. I mean, because everything that we're buying is more than double than what we were paying 5 years ago.
Senator:And that's the thing. Like and that's where Habanos says they will have to be careful. Right? Like, they've been clever to increase the price such that they don't need to sell as much to make as much. Right?
Senator:Like, that's the the strategy. Makes perfect sense. However, if they go too far, they will be selling so much less that even with the higher price, they'll actually be bringing in less revenue. So there is a limit to all of this, and I hope for their sake and for us as the consumer that they find it before it gets to a point where too many say no way, and they're hurting and we're hurting.
Gizmo:And they're gonna start not
Bam Bam:to be not to beat the dead horse, but that interview that we had with Steve Saka, it we covered all these points, and it opens just opens the door for all the new world makers. Right?
Pagoda:And their quality is just improving with with all these endurance. Absolutely. Of course.
Gizmo:And, good, plug there, Bam. If you wanna hear Steve Sacca's interview, check out the best of 2024.
Bam Bam:Excellent, excellent podcast, gentlemen and ladies. You have to take a listen.
Gizmo:It was a good one. Yeah. Alright, boys. Let's go to a listener email. This one's from lizard Devon.
Gizmo:He says, Feliz Navidad, my guys. This is Devon from San Francisco, and I'm catching up on this year's episodes. I love the episode with the Trinidad Esmeralda with Rouenard Blanc de Blanc pairing, and I'm quickly developing a champagne addiction. Senator, we just talked about addiction. Fault.
Gizmo:This is your fault. Accountability. Guilty.
Bam Bam:Accountability. That's a good one.
Gizmo:One thing about the episode is when Gizmo mentions the cigar aficionado interview with Fidel Castro refusing to admit the existence of Trinidad Cigars. This is a common narrative with the recent emergence of Trinidad as a highly marketed brand. I feel like a lot of people missed the most important and fascinating part of that interview. When asked about Trinidad, Fidel says he never gave them out as diplomatic gifts, but he does say that he supported the idea of the Trinidad brand, which I think is a patent lie. Trinidad, much like Cohiba, is a post revolution brand with the origins being in Cuba.
Gizmo:This is very interesting here from Blizzard Devon. Fidel says that he told Cuba Tobacco years ago after the revolution to get rid of the brands that do not have Cuban origins. Brands like Romeo y Julieta, Dutch, Upman, Partagas No. No. Are brands belonging to the capitalists and imperialists and are not Cuban born brands.
Gizmo:Fidel stated that they should replace the brands with names like Subone, Guajiro, Taino, or Tropicana, brand names that are of Cuban origin. I found this to be a shocking opinion by Fidel and a huge part of that interview that stuck out to me. Now I don't wanna live in a world where there's no Cuban partagus brand or there's no Cuban punch brand, So I found his opinion shocking, but something that I don't agree with. I thought the lizards might find this interesting as well. Yeah.
Senator:I'd like to see Lizard
Bam Bam:def I'd like to see a Tropicana d four.
Senator:With a glass of OJANZ.
Bam Bam:With a rainbow band on it.
Gizmo:That is an interesting tidbit from that, interview, but That's a
Bam Bam:great email.
Gizmo:Cigar Aficionado did not re reprint that part of it. We, teed off on the party did, but, apparently, that was, one of the original ones. And now, boys, for our lizard of the week. This is for lizard Mike. He says, hey, lizards.
Gizmo:I've been a cigar smoker for many years, and at the beginning of this year, I jumped head first into the Cuban world. What are some of your favorite regular production cigars that you'd still consider box worthy even after we just discussed the heavy price increases? I love the podcast and I look forward to it every Tuesday. PS, thank you for exposing me to Paul Roger Champagne. Again, another addiction senator, accountability.
Gizmo:It has opened my mind to champagne, and it will be in my rotation moving forward. Cheers, lizards. Wishing you all the best in the new year. Lizard.
Bam Bam:Mike. Very nice email.
Senator:Paul Roger nation is going strong, and our fearless leader, sir Winston Churchill, is very proud right now.
Pagoda:What's gonna be, buddy?
Gizmo:We might have to do a senator champagne podcast at this point.
Bam Bam:There'll be an episode where there'll be a a a little bit of caviar and some kind of a cracker, and he'll be, like, ashing his d four on it and taking that in.
Chef Ricky:Potato chip. Potato chip.
Bam Bam:You're right.
Pagoda:Any price hikes and I think senator need to be a little contained.
Bam Bam:I agree. But getting to the question
Senator:Any price hikes, I wanna cut a freaking Paul Roger sales at this point.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah. But getting back to his question, what's boxworthy?
Gizmo:Boxworthy regular production Cuban cigars right now, boys.
Bam Bam:What what haven't we talked about? Right.
Gizmo:Yeah. There's there's a lot of good ones. I mean, let's just say this. Let's go around the room, and I want is if someone says a box, the next person can't say it. We'll go in reverse order, so we'll start with Bam.
Gizmo:Name a box today, regular production cubit cigar that you think and and for for lizard Mike here and the other listeners who are buying a box, something that can be smoked pretty close to coming off the truck. Regular production.
Bam Bam:That's a good that's so I'd I'm immediately thinking about an e 2. Partigas E2. Partigas E2. But they're not always that great right off the truck. They've gotta sit for a little bit, but I'll I'll go E2 or Schwab Supreme.
Gizmo:Okay. Pagoda. Russ. Ramon Iona, specially selected. And, of course, we like them in the 50 cab, the slide lid
Bam Bam:box. Absolutely.
Senator:I will say this. When I was in Panama and I got harassed at that LCDH
Bam Bam:Dress box?
Senator:It was a dress box with only 2 or 3 months of age, and it was delicious. Shit. Delicious. Wow.
Bam Bam:That's shocking.
Gizmo:Alright. Chef Ricky, what's yours?
Chef Ricky:Each up and half corona.
Gizmo:Each up and half corona. That's a good one.
Pagoda:Oh, they've become very overpriced. $275 a box.
Bam Bam:Value, guy. Me too.
Pagoda:That that's like I'll have to have 1 a year for the next 25 years.
Senator:We'll get you some more short filler tobacco.
Gizmo:Senator, what's a box worthy box for you?
Senator:Easy. D 4.
Gizmo:Alright. Aside from the d 4, that's an obvious one.
Pagoda:I was about to say d 4, but I thought, alright. I'll leave it for the senator.
Gizmo:Yeah. That's too easy. That's too easy.
Bam Bam:It is easy. I'm gonna go
Gizmo:Bolivar Belicosos Finos. Really? I disagree with that one. We know
Bam Bam:you would. We know you'd just have to go off a
Gizmo:lot, Gizmo. No.
Bam Bam:That's not a surprise.
Gizmo:You know why, though? Because I think those off the truck, I think they need 3 years. I think they need 3 years arguably more than we
Bam Bam:know that they need some time.
Senator:Say this. Our experience with recent Cuban tobacco has been really, really good. I mean, that RAS story I just told, there's no way a few years ago, I would have bought, I would have bought a RAS out of a dress box with 2 months of age and said it was good. That was never
Bam Bam:the case. True.
Senator:I think it's worth I actually I think they had bellicose sphenos. I had some omni. It's why I didn't buy it. But next time I see one young in a retailer Give
Bam Bam:it a try.
Senator:I'm gonna buy it and try it because I I think we may be pleasantly surprised. Everything is just you know, we've talked about how they're maybe taming down Leslie Harrow. Like Mhmm. Things are more ready to smoke now than they've ever been out of Cuba, and I think that would be a perfect candidate since that tends to be a more flavorful cigar.
Gizmo:Alright. So I'm gonna I'm gonna lean price higher because we've kinda gone Oh,
Bam Bam:we know where you're going. No way. We know where you're gonna go.
Senator:Alright. Have the listeners spend a $150 on a Cojiba. Go for it.
Bam Bam:Exactly right.
Gizmo:Half that. But if you want something premium that's smoking really good young, the Cohiba Sigal of 5 right now, if you can get your hands on a box Yeah.
Bam Bam:They are It's a Cohiba.
Gizmo:I knew it. They are really effing.
Bam Bam:They're awesome.
Gizmo:They are so good. They are. So that is on the higher end of what we've heard so far. But as far as regular production goes
Bam Bam:You're a high end guy.
Gizmo:Those cigars are just brilliant. Brilliant cigars. Plastic bags? Correct. Alright.
Gizmo:Hold on. No. Hold on.
Bam Bam:Do you have your case
Pagoda:with you?
Gizmo:Alright. Senator, you and I were here a couple nights last week.
Bam Bam:Don't tell me he brought in the plastic bag. Yeah. Of course. Alright. See, that's that's what I'm talking about.
Gizmo:And and, senator, can you tell Bam what you witnessed from your friend Gizier?
Bam Bam:From your friend Gizier. I don't know.
Senator:What did I witness?
Gizmo:I didn't bring my plastic bag. I had my soda on.
Bam Bam:Well done.
Gizmo:And you said I'll I will note this for Bam.
Pagoda:You can buy this soda.
Bam Bam:With the blue? Well done. You know, from you, especially, I don't expect you to walk into a proper cigar lounge with a plastic bag.
Senator:But he does it all the time. I know.
Bam Bam:I just don't expect it. I wrap my hopes up every time.
Gizmo:I like my cigar bags. Alright. I like my cigar bags.
Pagoda:Who's next?
Gizmo:Can I name my favorite? Well, we're getting to you.
Bam Bam:Okay. I
Gizmo:was like, I thought you forgot you. Skip me. Okay. Abuela, go ahead.
Bam Bam:What's available in Costco? What's available in Costco? Saint Rooster. LGC, baby.
Rooster:Oh, yeah. LGC is a good choice.
Pagoda:Is it right? Can I make a guess? Can I make a guess?
Rooster:No. I was gonna say punch
Gizmo:punch double corona. That's awesome.
Rooster:Actually, the double corona. Oh. Punch double corona. Punch punch needs age.
Pagoda:But the double corona?
Gizmo:Punch punch
Rooster:double corona that we add Oh.
Pagoda:Those in Cuba, those pretty excellent.
Rooster:Those fresh were very good.
Bam Bam:Go ahead. What are you gonna say?
Senator:Jesus. We missed another obvious one. A Monty too.
Gizmo:I was gonna say Monty too, but I find that they need about 2 years.
Bam Bam:Not the new ones.
Gizmo:Yeah. See, I haven't had any, like, 20 20 t's
Bam Bam:to current are pretty fucking good.
Rooster:Yeah. But the other 2 Montys, the, the Petite Monty 2 and the Media Corona.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. The little ones.
Senator:Oh, another one. Jesus. Upman, Mag 46.
Bam Bam:Did Ricky 46 is over. Did Ricky pick?
Gizmo:He did. Okay. You just weren't listening. Corona.
Bam Bam:I wasn't.
Gizmo:He did the half corona.
Bam Bam:Got it.
Senator:He was too distracted by the plastic bag.
Bam Bam:H uppman Mag
Gizmo:46 actually, it might be one of the better ones that we've said so far that's kinda not the Particus d four classic that we talk about a lot. The Mag 46 is one that delivers a lot of flavor. If you bring those down in humidity just a little bit, just a little bit of age, they're really, really good.
Bam Bam:They're great.
Senator:Yeah.
Gizmo:That's a good one.
Bam Bam:Good, good one.
Rooster:The Boulevard gold medal was fantastic.
Gizmo:The new gold medal. The LG C Touchy Kinos.
Bam Bam:But not off the truck, though.
Rooster:Yeah. Well, he didn't the listener didn't say budget, did he? He did not.
Bam Bam:But he did say off the truck. Those are not that great early, I think. You gotta
Gizmo:I have to I have to say, we talk about the new gold medal. We have to talk about some of the new production out of Cuba that we reviewed last year, and I recommend any listener check them out if they have in the episodes on the Liguria Cubana Turquinhos.
Bam Bam:Uh-huh.
Gizmo:The Pollo de Monterrey Epicure number 3. 3.
Pagoda:Oh, the number 3 was really
Gizmo:That those 2, I think, are standouts alongside the Bolivar new gold medal as
Chef Ricky:far as And
Senator:the Ramon number 3.
Gizmo:And the Ramon Ionis number 3. Correct? Oh, yeah. Great too.
Bam Bam:Oh, I forgot about that.
Senator:I I that is seared in my memory recently because at that LCDH in Panama, I saw a box They have those 2. And there was the problem. There was one left, and it was very damaged. Like, clearly Do you know it's so unusual to see to just see that shop.
Rooster:Inventory in a shop.
Bam Bam:That's insane. Wow.
Senator:It's a great spot.
Bam Bam:They must
Gizmo:have some hookups at Habanos or something to get that kind of supply. So congratulations again to lizard Mike, our lizard of the week. He's gonna win a package from us. We're gonna send him some stuff. And any listener out there, as you know, can win lizard of the week.
Gizmo:All you have to do is send us an email, a voice memo, a YouTube comment, even mention us on Reddit. We'll find it. We're happy to hear from all of our listeners, so please keep it up. And, boys, we're coming to the end of our evening now with the Volans tequila blanco and the La Florida Cano, Elajidos. Any final thoughts now before we move into the ratings?
Chef Ricky:Delicious. Absolutely delicious.
Bam Bam:Great pairing.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Great pairing. Cigar was phenomenal. Tequila's freaking a banger all around. Mhmm.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Just super delicious stuff.
Gizmo:I am, I am shocked at how well
Bam Bam:So are we.
Gizmo:Yeah. The cigar performed tonight Mhmm. And how good this tequila is at its price point and then how well they paired together, I I'm really blown away tonight.
Bam Bam:How often do you think about this, Marco, really?
Senator:Never.
Gizmo:Never. Right. I would have never smoked it had it not been for the podcast.
Bam Bam:Seriously. It's so unusual. Yeah. Great surprise.
Gizmo:Alright. Now it's time to move into the formal liquor rating on the Volans tequila blanco. Bam Bam Europe.
Bam Bam:So I'm at a firm 10. Wow. For a $50 bottle that's buttery and salty and on the finish, that caramel sweetness that I get. Now we've had some incredible tequilas and mezcals in this room. Thank you, chef.
Bam Bam:But this for this price, I can drink this all night long, feel great. And, honestly, I think we've all mentioned it. It it'll pair beautifully with almost every single Cuban that you wanna smoke and a lot of new worlds. I it's hard not to give us a 10 for me. It's a 10.
Gizmo:Alright. Chef Ricky.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. This is a 10, if not an 11. You know, this tequila hits every note. It's very full in flavor, not hot at all. So everything that it delivers is flavor.
Chef Ricky:That's what makes it so easy drinking and so fun to drink. You know, the brine you get here, the minerality, the caramel you get on the finish, the butteriness on the body. You know, don't don't let the viscosity of the liquid itself fool you. It delivers something that is really complex and full in flavor.
Bam Bam:So it's funny. I don't often look do you really look for viscosity in a tequila?
Chef Ricky:Not necessarily.
Pagoda:I do. But we've had some
Chef Ricky:so. We've had some that have been
Bam Bam:That's it's true. It's true.
Chef Ricky:And I think in general, because of the spirits that we do sip on the pod, you know, they tend to be somewhat viscous, and it's something we enjoy. And, you know, viscosity in the body usually translates to a rich flavor that helps carry the flavor of the cigar that you're smoking, and that's what we genuinely have great experiences with. So this happens to do all of that without that That's true. Thick mouthfeel.
Gizmo:Yeah. And I think this is one of the rare ones that the viscosity wasn't there, but it didn't impact flavor
Bam Bam:at all.
Gizmo:Impact performance. And it's so extremely warm. Happy with how thin the spirit is versus how it tastes. It's Yeah. It's it's it's quite an anomaly, I think, as far as the spirits that we drink.
Bam Bam:I'm gonna take some before it runs out.
Chef Ricky:And this this makes me really look forward to trying the high proof, to trying the reposado, the anejos. You know? And, again, I mean, Felipe Camarena. And when you guys see any any tequila made by our Camarena, just jump on it and taste it and and get to it, you know, because it's gonna be something worth drinking.
Gizmo:Alright. Pagoda.
Pagoda:Yeah. I'm debating, yeah, between a 9 and 10. Give me give me a second. I I think the only thing what I would have wanted more would be a slightly longer finish on the back of my palette. I think it does leave a good flavor profile towards the front.
Pagoda:But yeah. No. It's a 10. It's very easy to drink. Don't need ice at all.
Pagoda:It's, it's so easy to drink. Very, very flavorful. You know? I I think from, the minerality to the sweetness in the back, which comes but the only thing I think which I might have sought for is a bit like that. It would linger a bit more in the back.
Pagoda:I think in some of the tequila, they've had that. But having said that, considering the price point, considering the flavor profile, considering what is delivered today, I think it's a 10.
Bam Bam:Just don't cope it down and you're good.
Pagoda:Oh, my lord. Bam, 101.
Gizmo:So for me, it's also a 10. I I'm blown away by this tequila tonight. I think how easy it is to drink, how well it paired with this cigar, for how mild medium this cigar was, and then also how, like, we detailed how much of the range of the cigars we smoke, how well it would pair. And then it makes me wonder, how does the reposado taste? How does
Bam Bam:the
Gizmo:anejo taste with some of the more full cigars we smoke? I I just think it's a home run. The flavor was excellent. I love the saltiness, the buttery, the creaminess, the little caramel that Bam mentioned. I thought it was an a plus.
Gizmo:And I think too, for a new tequila drinker, I'm so happy this is the first tequila we've done in 2025. For anyone out there who has thought we're crazy for going so deep into agave, mezcal, tequila, for thinking we're crazy for loving this spirit so much to pair with the cigar. I mean, this is the one, if any, to start with and to understand what we're saying. This tequila is awesome. It's a 10 all day.
Gizmo:Senator.
Senator:No disagreement with the room. It's a 10. It is incredibly versatile, and I love that with a blanco because, you know, for the range of cigars that we smoke, a blanco is not what we most often would pull or reach for. Absolutely correct. And the fact that at the first sip, I immediately thought 70% of the cigars that I smoke I could probably pair this with is a huge testament to, what they've done with this tequila.
Senator:I think the flavor is unbelievably balanced. It's not just smooth, but it's like all the flavor notes that have been called out. There's not one that is so dominant and overtakes the rest. It's, like, just very harmonious, like, what they've created in this. And for me, that just makes it incredibly satisfying.
Senator:I I I've thoroughly enjoyed every single sip. I would recommend this. I think, you know, Giz mentioned earlier and I agree with, it it is something it's very much a gateway tequila where for someone who is inexperienced with tequila and only knows the mass produced stuff, this would be a great way to get them in. And as experienced a tequila drinker as even chef Ricky, you know, can appreciate this. So that kind of range and the price point at $50 is unbelievably fair for the experience this delivers.
Senator:I mean, it it's it's unreal. So I'm glad we tried this because when I land in Mexico, I'm definitely going to the duty free in the airport, buying
Bam Bam:a bottle
Senator:of this to have for
Bam Bam:you. Love it there.
Pagoda:Make sure you don't get the volcano.
Bam Bam:He'll be the senator will be sipping on us in bed, drinking a bottle.
Senator:In the shower.
Bam Bam:The senator will be bottle piece.
Gizmo:So, boys, the formal liquor rating tonight on the Volans, tequila blanco is a 10.0. Wow. What a home run. Wow. What a home run.
Bam Bam:It's great.
Gizmo:I I wanted to ask a question.
Bam Bam:Who recommended this? This was
Gizmo:one we had at the, at at the for the love of the agave event, and I've been just kinda earmarking just different stuff we've tried and,
Bam Bam:you
Gizmo:know, I knew that the cigar would be mild to medium, so I I sent Ricky 2 tequilas tonight.
Bam Bam:Look at you.
Gizmo:Valens and Mihenta. Big earmark guy.
Bam Bam:Oh, big earmark.
Gizmo:Yeah. I'm an earmark earmark guy.
Bam Bam:Are you a post it guy?
Gizmo:Big post it guy. Alright. Big Post it guy. So I I did wanna ask before we move into the other rating here. What do you think if you were the Volans people, what price point would you put on this Oh.
Gizmo:Blanco? Forget let let's say nobody's answering questions. Nobody's listening to this.
Pagoda:Let's not ask you this.
Gizmo:What what price point would you put on this if you're the Volans people with how this performs?
Bam Bam:What's a gallon of milk cost?
Gizmo:The van price is right on tequila. Yeah. I think Don't
Bam Bam:ask me.
Gizmo:I think if this was 65 or 70, I'd feel exactly the same about it.
Senator:I agree. 65 for me is the, like, highest
Rooster:Sure.
Senator:That I I I think 65 would be fair.
Pagoda:Yeah. My lord has to ask for us about inflation. I know. You know what? You're out.
Gizmo:Ricky, what do you think the the the fair price would be on this?
Chef Ricky:I think, you know, it's definitely deserving of a slightly higher price. 65 maybe being maxed just because it's a blanco. It's not super limited in its production.
Pagoda:Or Hey.
Bam Bam:Hey. Hey. Chefs like he's pissed off at your brainer up again. I love that expression.
Pagoda:That was my point. Anyone supporting higher price points, then what's going on with this podcast? Come on, listeners. Are you gonna support me or what?
Bam Bam:By the way, the short filler is showing it's, sprinkling over here.
Gizmo:So you're at 65. Bam, where are you at on this?
Bam Bam:I think that's a great price.
Gizmo:Yeah. I I think if this That
Bam Bam:and under.
Gizmo:I I if this was 65, I wouldn't change my rating at
Bam Bam:all. Yeah. But I think the versatility comment, senator, is right on. I would do this all year round.
Pagoda:Yeah.
Bam Bam:I can see this in the summer, spring, fall, winter, anytime. Really tremendous. It's tremendous.
Gizmo:It's I I I think the point of all this is that there's real value in how this spirit drinks at $50.
Bam Bam:And we're missing 2 lizzards tonight. I would love to get their impression. I think they would enjoy this.
Pagoda:Kuba would love this.
Bam Bam:I think so too.
Chef Ricky:Fact that it's made with the g sword like g four.
Rooster:Oh, g four.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:It's a g four fanatic.
Bam Bam:But I know Grindr is not a tequila guy, but I think he would enjoy this. I mean
Gizmo:I agree.
Pagoda:Let me
Chef Ricky:tell you. Giz had me drinking tequila at 9:30 this morning.
Gizmo:Hey. We got excuse me.
Bam Bam:Because it's work.
Chef Ricky:Because I have a bottle of mijenta at home. So when he sends me the text message, hey. What do you think? Should we do that? And I'm and you know what?
Chef Ricky:I haven't had for a while, so I'm like, oh, I have some in my cabinet here. Let me try some. And I was like, yeah. This would be good. And, you know, but, you know, I I don't have Alans, and I'd need to get a couple bottles
Pagoda:out of
Bam Bam:better believe it.
Chef Ricky:That was a It was a
Gizmo:good choice.
Chef Ricky:I've never had tequila so early in the morning outside of Mexico.
Pagoda:So the chef this morning is saying, guess, you had me at tequila. No. Quite a part
Bam Bam:of your rookie responsibilities now. You gotta you gotta drink at all hours of the day. He's gonna call you at 2 AM in bed. You better take you gotta have samples around you. By the
Gizmo:way, you're welcome.
Bam Bam:7. Thank you.
Rooster:Lizard pledge. I love it.
Gizmo:Correct. Alright, boys. It's time now to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the La Flor de Cano, Elijitos. Rooster, you're up.
Rooster:So who I would have never thought that La Flor de Cano I mean, it's gonna get a high rating across this room. When you think of La Flor de Cano, I mean, I was like, it's gonna
Gizmo:you know, I I had a number
Rooster:in my head, like, it's gonna get I might be a 6, a 7.
Bam Bam:Before walking in.
Gizmo:Yeah. Before walking in.
Rooster:Then you read about the cigar, it's a short filler cigar. I'm like, how good really can it be? But the cigar was great. I mean, the construction the fact that you cannot tell that this is a short filler cigar, that's a merit in itself. The flavor profile, I mean, on the just on the cut, on the cold, cold draw, you got some dried fruit, which kinda dissipated after a while, but you get that salty nuttiness, note going, and then you get this creaminess out of the cigar, sweet flavors out of the cigar.
Rooster:And from the beginning to the end, it was a fantastic smoke. It was a great smoke. It's not a you know, I would say more like a morning, afternoon kind of smoke. It's not a it's not a full flavor. It's it's it's like a mild medium at the most.
Rooster:So I'm I'm gonna give it a
Gizmo:give it a 9. Alright. Excellent. Senator.
Senator:I'm with Rooster. I'm at a 9. I I I am really just shocked by the this entire experience. I think the construction you know, it's funny. I heard I commented looking at the box that they didn't seem wrapped or rolled with much care, yet the performance construction wise was excellent.
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Senator:I mean, like, everyone commented, you wouldn't have known this is a short filler cigar
Rooster:You can't tell. Even burn.
Bam Bam:Good structure on the ash. Good structure on the ash.
Senator:I mean, open draw, but not like crazy where the cigar was heating up and I was losing flavor. Like, it performed really well. The flavor, there were a lot of Upman like notes for me in this cigar. And Upman is obviously a mark I love. Had you asked me blind what this was, none of us know Flora Dicana Dicana very well well.
Senator:We wouldn't have never guessed that. I would have probably said Upman if I had to guess. That's shocking that a budget market is capable of producing anything in that realm of flavor and smooth delivery where not even at the end did I get any harsh stringency, anything like that. So for all those reasons, I think the flavor's excellent. The only reason I'm a 9 and not a 10 is, you know, given what this cigar delivers, which is a really tasty flavorful experience, Not overly complex.
Senator:I mean, I I don't think there were a ton of flavor notes to call out in this. At the price point, I mean, 20 something dollar even $20, that's not cheap. No. $21. We talk about budget sticks.
Senator:Those are usually 10 or under. Even premium cigars are like, a Petrone Exosivo is 14, $15. Is $7 more
Rooster:than Exosivo. Yeah.
Bam Bam:It's So, like Think about that.
Senator:That's what precludes it. Like, if this cigar were priced at, like, $12, yeah, I'd probably give it a 10. So, like, that for me is the biggest factor why I couldn't give it a 10, but it's definitely deserving an of a 9 because by every other measure, performance, construction, flavor, it checks all those boxes. It's just priced a little high for what it delivers for me to give it a 10. So firmly at a 9, and I think almost any Cuban cigar smoker, if not any, would enjoy this cigar, which I never imagined I'd say before lighting it.
Bam Bam:For this marca Yeah. That we never ever think about.
Gizmo:It's crazy.
Rooster:And I think 4 years of age definitely helped.
Bam Bam:Oh, I I agree. Yep.
Senator:For sure.
Gizmo:Yeah. So I'm also at a 9. I I thought the cigar was really, really great. You know, I I love the sweet, nutty open and how it moved to kind of a salty, nutty thing, a savory profile. I thought it was I I I thought it was actually shocking how it didn't heat up in the last 3rd.
Gizmo:It didn't get harsh. It didn't bite you. I didn't have any of the tobacco remnants that were affecting senator as he smoked, and I think some of the other guys. I I was really happy with it. The performance was really good.
Gizmo:It wasn't perfect, and then I had to touch it up 3 or 4 times throughout the smoke. I do think the price is a little high.
Senator:You had to touch it up or relight it?
Gizmo:I had to relight it once, and I had to touch it up 3 or 4 times.
Bam Bam:He does
Gizmo:I was talking a lot, though.
Pagoda:You do talk
Bam Bam:a lot. I mean, that's your job. Yeah. I didn't have to touch it up at all. You, senator?
Senator:I I had to relight, but not touch up.
Gizmo:Okay.
Senator:As in, like, it was burning evenly.
Bam Bam:I didn't
Senator:need to touch anything up.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Senator:But there were times that with some conversation and it being short filler tobacco Yeah. I needed to relight.
Rooster:Same. I had to relight a couple of times. You talk
Bam Bam:too much, Rister. I know.
Gizmo:You guys don't let me talk.
Senator:Babs, why didn't you say that for a while?
Bam Bam:Which is the exact opposite, obviously.
Gizmo:So I I thought the cigar was excellent. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't you know, as I compare it to other Cuban Robustos, maybe it isn't fair given that this is short filler. Maybe it isn't fair given this is kind of a a a volume brand from Habanos compared to some of the other global brands. Is it fair to compare this to a d 4 or Ramon A1, especially selected, Cohiba Robusto, whatever it may be?
Gizmo:Probably not. It was a really good cigar. It was not perfect. Mhmm. It does not deserve a 10, but I am very, very happy at a strong 9 on this.
Gizmo:Pagoda.
Pagoda:Yeah. For me, it's an 8. I I think I agree with a lot of the commentary out here. Like, what I did find is the flavor profile was fantastic. I really enjoyed it in the beginning.
Pagoda:But once again, you know, I don't think it did a lot. It did transition once from, you know, the sweetness to the bit of the saltiness, especially after having the first couple of sips of tequila. I think I might have mentioned it earlier as well.
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Pagoda:Having said that, I had to not only touch it up a few times, but also relight it. But that may be a consequence of the short filler. I'm not sure whether that's what drives it because I've never really gone and bought a cigar thinking whether it's a long filler or a short filler per se. So, you know, in the absence of that information, I think touching up the cigar quite a few times in the end, it's really just, I think, flowered for me a bit. Just overall not quite a cigar left.
Bam Bam:Flowering right now. It's a beautiful brown rose.
Pagoda:And and then and then paying, you know, $21. I you know, I always think that, you know, I was at the LCDH, in Panama just, you know, a couple of days ago up until, like, this morning, really. And when I would go into LCDH, you know, you go and you look at cigars. And a lot of the cigars, even in the Cuban, you know, like, regular cigars, which we know for as regular production, they're available between the prices of $20.30. And so considering that, you know, would I pay $21?
Pagoda:Would this name draw me to it? No. But it was a very, very good cigar, and I think for that, it's an 8.
Gizmo:Alright. Chef Ricky.
Chef Ricky:Well, I'm gonna be at a very firm 9 here. I almost wanted to give it a 10 just because Begode gave it an 8. But
Bam Bam:You know what? I was thinking the same thing.
Chef Ricky:If it wasn't because I had to relight a couple times and a few touch ups here and there, I probably would have done it. But I just in good conscious, I feel like I couldn't do it because of that. There were some moments where I was talking, you know, especially about the tequila itself, so that that led to a relight. But, you know, there were times that, you know, the burn line got a little bit wonky. It didn't get too out of hand, but, you know, just a quick touch up, fixed it.
Chef Ricky:But that aside, I mean, the flavor from beginning to end, you know, the the the the various amount of of of nuts from pecan, almond, to peanuts that we got in there, the sweetness, the cedar start, You know, I'm no wood expert, but maybe some sandalwood or something along those lines.
Gizmo:He sounds like a wood expert. Yes.
Rooster:True does.
Bam Bam:He sounds like an expert on the many things.
Pagoda:Sandalwood. Sandalwood. Alright. Alright. I'm not saying a word.
Pagoda:I think you should give it a 10, buddy.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Chef Ricky:I'll give it a 10. No. No. You know, it was a very enjoyable cigar, and, you know, while $21 is a high, high price point for a budget stick, I think it's it's a good approachable price in the Cuban market. Mhmm.
Chef Ricky:So it's a good entry level cigar. We have a great entry level tequila. I think this is, like, a night worth repeating or seeking out. You know, if you could recreate this night at home, this is probably the best two products to do it with.
Pagoda:So Just a quick question. On the short fill of cigars, now that we've smoked it, at least in my case, this would not be recommended smoking outside then. Right? Because they would
Chef Ricky:On a windy day, I would say no.
Pagoda:No. Right? Not at all. Yeah.
Rooster:But it's a good cigar for a first time cigar smoker
Gizmo:Oh, yeah.
Rooster:That wants to get into a Cuban markup. Cuban cigars, you know, I mean, this is a good price point. It's, it's a mild to mild cigar.
Bam Bam:This an entry level cigar, though?
Gizmo:Yes. Yeah? I would so.
Bam Bam:Are you looking at it from the point of view of the markup? It's not celebrated, or is it just the
Senator:I think
Chef Ricky:just the Cuban catalog. No.
Gizmo:I I think from the catalog perspective, from Robustos, etcetera, I think Yeah. Okay. Accessibility on the flavor of this, I think anybody could enjoy this cigar.
Bam Bam:I agree. I think the most sophisticated Cuban cigar smoker would appreciate this. This. I agree. If it was kept properly and it's aged for 4 years, it's I don't necessarily agree with that.
Senator:Just quickly going back to the question about smoking this outside, I actually think this is an exception to the rule of short fillered cigars.
Bam Bam:I agree.
Senator:I I again, the performance of this was shocking. It's
Bam Bam:shocking, the whole thing.
Senator:Most short filler cigars are falling apart as you're smoking them, basically, the ash. Correct. You would never wanna smoke that outdoors. This cigar, we all said we wouldn't even know it's a short filler cigar.
Gizmo:It's true.
Senator:I actually think this would be fine outdoors. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Alright, Bam. Your rating. I'm very unhappy with your rating, Pagoda.
Pagoda:That's fine. It's only you.
Bam Bam:Oh, no. I don't think it is. I think there's
Rooster:I I
Bam Bam:I think the cigar is worthy of of 9 point o and above. I don't wanna rate something just to get the average up.
Chef Ricky:Well, ma'am, if anybody could do it,
Bam Bam:it's you. Fucking tempted. Yeah. Because you
Chef Ricky:had no burn issues.
Bam Bam:Well, because I'm the comic corner of the room. No. No. No.
Chef Ricky:You had no burn issues. You had no
Bam Bam:real life.
Senator:He'd give it a 10, you baby.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It was per no. I know. I know. That's the thing.
Bam Bam:It's not worthy of a 10, but it should be a 9 overall in the room.
Chef Ricky:I agree.
Bam Bam:It's disappointing that you gave it an 8.
Pagoda:Hey. Listen. Different people have different opinions.
Bam Bam:I know. I know.
Rooster:I'm gonna defend
Pagoda:I'm not paying I'm not paying $21
Bam Bam:I hear you.
Pagoda:In the LCDH. They're they're like, the cigars are cigars are $23, $10,000,000.
Senator:Can I give a quick example?
Bam Bam:I know with you.
Senator:Here's my singular defense of Pagoda on this. When I was in Panama, I bought a rasp at an LCDH
Pagoda:For 21.
Senator:Ironically, $21 exactly. There you go. Wow. And so to Pagoda's point, for
Gizmo:a rasp to be $21, look at Gizmo's face.
Bam Bam:You look like my uncle. For the listener, Gizmo's looking at me shaking his head on an angle like this, looking at me. That sounds amazing. From that
Pagoda:perspective, I
Senator:have to you know, for me, price factored in Unrachelors, it's
Pagoda:a great dividend. What? 8? 8 point something? So, you know, my thought is, hey.
Pagoda:I hear you. Yeah. I think we've become very liberal in terms of scoring.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's true.
Pagoda:We gotta draw a bell curve.
Rooster:So
Pagoda:It's gonna be weighted towards 8 and 10ths. For
Bam Bam:for the experience tonight is I'm at a firm 9.
Rooster:Alright.
Bam Bam:It was Alright. Honestly, it was shockingly I can't comment on what everyone else said. I echo what everyone else said in the room. I'm just surprised at how good this cigar was from beginning to end. It was just so satisfying.
Bam Bam:The performance was perfect. Not an issue at all. I didn't touch it up at all. I don't talk that much. So I was just smoking my cigar.
Bam Bam:It was delicious. 9. I think our
Rooster:expectations were very low to start off.
Senator:We all Yeah.
Rooster:I walked in late didn't know what to expect.
Bam Bam:Happy about this this choice for tonight, but, honestly, this was really a home run.
Gizmo:So, boy, the former lizard rating tonight on La Flor de Cano Elijitos is an 8.8. Okay.
Rooster:Way higher
Gizmo:than I ever thought this was scored tonight walking in even with 4 years of age.
Bam Bam:Tonight score. Tonight.
Gizmo:I have a question for you guys. What do you think this cigar would perform at or would have rated with a year or 2 of age versus the 4 we smoked today?
Senator:I mean, we wouldn't know that, but, we know the DNA now of this cigar. And so, you know, I would imagine that this would still probably, at worst, get a 7 Yeah. And likely get an 8.
Bam Bam:An 8. Probably an 8.
Gizmo:I think so.
Senator:I mean, the cigar in 4 years, it doesn't go from, like clearly, this was a great cigar if almost everyone in the room gave it a 9. Yeah. It doesn't go from that. It just started Almost almost everyone gave it a 9. It doesn't start at a 6 or a 5 to get to that 9 in that period of time.
Senator:So, like, it would have to be, you know, a a pretty decent, if not, you know, moderately satisfying service.
Rooster:And the way the new cigars are coming out and they're smoking so good, maybe this you know?
Pagoda:So so quick so quick question. Right? A box of brass of the LCD 8 was about $500 over that plus tax, which would put in a 5.75. So it's about $20 a cigar, and, you know, if you pay cash, you might get it a bit cheaper. This is around the same price.
Pagoda:How many of you would be buying boxes for this?
Rooster:It's gonna get taken by customs anywhere. What do
Pagoda:you think? Well, from here, I'm not
Bam Bam:here, sir. Correct. The word 0.
Pagoda:No, but leave. By the
Bam Bam:way, for the listener, if you're ever in customs line with Pagoda, stay 20 people behind.
Pagoda:By by the way, I do have to tell you another story. So Oh. Oh. Oh, no. So me me me and the other child, we're walking, and we're coming to, you know, these, so the way it works in Panama, you have a security check.
Pagoda:You go through immigration, and then you have a security check right at the gate as well. So you have to go through an additional security check at the gate. And over there, they randomly pick people, and Chad was telling me he said, oh, they're gonna pick me. Nope. They picked me.
Pagoda:Of course. And by the way, there was nobody else who had a random check except for me. Oh, no. I think, what's going on over here? You gotta you know
Bam Bam:what you gotta do? You gotta dim your eyes a little bit. When you're, like, wide eyed
Gizmo:And you gotta bring your blood pressure down. Problem. They can have scanners that can read the temperature of your head.
Bam Bam:Could do that before you go
Pagoda:in. I'm a nervous flyer.
Gizmo:So how many cigars did you give them this type? Oh, no.
Pagoda:Hey. Listen. Will not disclose any information Alright. On a public podcast.
Rooster:The box over ass is gone.
Gizmo:It's gone. So, boys, I gotta say, given both of these ratings with both the Volans and La Flordecano from Cuba, I think this is a great start to our Cuban cigar journey of 2025 in that we've said with both of these, with the cigar and the pairing, how great these are for people coming in new entrants into both Cuban cigars and tequila and also for the experienced consumers of both. Yeah. I mean Agreed. What a shocking experience tonight on the pod.
Bam Bam:Very surprising.
Gizmo:I mean, I I could have never expected either of these ratings from from from the pairing. I'm I'm really impressed.
Bam Bam:Delicious overall.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. One more time. The Volans tequila blanco scored a 10.0, and the La Flor de Cano from Cuba, the Elijitos, scored an 8.8. Shocking. Both of those were debuts on the pod tonight.
Gizmo:We, of course, have to thank our sponsor, Fabrica 5. They're a great partner to us. Congratulations again to Lizard Mike, our lizard of the week. He's gonna win some stuff from us. And, we'll see everybody next week.
Gizmo:Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
Gizmo:If you have any comments, questions, do you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram atloungelizardspod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.