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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 range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, 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!
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. 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, and Bam Bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 105th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan a meet this year once a week. We're going to smoke a cupid cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We smoke our first RG and discuss the markers long history. We share our favorite cold weather smoking setups. We discussed Cuban blending decisions on new cigars, and we opened a listener gift, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 12 year aged Abelor Scotch with Rafael Gonzalez Corona's Delon's dance and Hermosa's number four tonight from [00:01:00] Cuba is the Rafael Gonzalez Corona's day.
Lonsdale's. It's a 48 ring gauge cigar by five inches and boys, this cigar is neither a Corona or a Lonsdale and it is ugly as hell. Wow. I think it's ruggedly handsome. How's this called a Corona or a Lonsdale? Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't get it. It's a, you know, it's a Corona extra. I guess that's where the Corona piece of it comes from.
But Corona's to Lonsdale's makes no sense to me. I don't understand. Just call it a Hermosa. Can I, can I Commercials number four or a booster. What is so ugly about the cigar other than the band? I'm, can I give a ugly Please Go ahead. I, I, I hope we have enough time for this. Yeah, we do. This is easily the ugliest Cuban cigar I have ever had in my hand.
That's what I'm saying there. Every single seam is visible, every vein is visible. The roll is, this is very tightly packed. I'm already worried about the draw. And this label has got to be the cheap, I feel like on my computer, on an inkjet printer, I can probably make something nicer than [00:02:00] this. You know, I thought this is a Sancho Panza band for a second.
That's exactly what I thought. It's very similar. It has more veins than on my leg. It looks like varicose veins on this one. And that ain't good. What about the hair? We leave it, we leave it. Oh boy. It's ruggedly handsome. I think, I think everything about this, everything about this cigar is, um, not impressing me visually.
You know, which, when you're paying for a cigar, I think when you're paying for a cigar, you want it to... How much are these? About 20 bucks. Oh, that's... 18, 20 bucks. That's not cheap. There is nothing Cuban under 20 bucks. That's true. Nothing. It's nice on the nose. The foot smells great. It does smell good. And I like the wrapper.
Let's cut this thing, boys. See, we're getting on the cold draw. And the wrapper.
I'm hopeful. I'm a little nervous because it does seem heavy. In the [00:03:00] hand. Oh, the cold draw is very nice. I get a lot of fruit here. A little bit of resistance for me on the cold draw. Me too. Pretty nice, though. Once you light it, it will open up. I hope so. Dry fruit. Mm hmm. Touch of cocoa. Touch of cocoa, touch of cedar.
Which we've had on many other cigars. But it's very nice. All right, boys, let's light this thing, the Rafael Gonzalez. Dare I say citrus on the, on the draw? Yeah, that's where I get the dry fruit. Slight, slight citrus. Maybe, maybe. You were just, you just didn't want to say that word. I won't ever say it again.
So we're lighting the Rafael Gonzalez Corona's the Lonsdale's again. It's a hermosus number four, pretty popular size in Cuban cigars, 40 ring gauge by five inches. Other cigars in this size, of course, are the, uh, El Rey Del Mundo, Schwa Supreme. On the light. This is so good. What, what year is this? First [00:04:00] edition, April, 2023.
Wow. I don't know why, just the first straw of this tasted like it has some age at least. It's actually delicious at the moment. This is about six months old. Very good. Yeah, this is nice on the light.
That's really good. Yeah. It does have that kind of um, Like just a little mustiness, like with an aged cigar. There is. I mean, dare I say, it reminds me of the Turquino's very, very faintly. Just a little bit. The only thing I do like, these, these, These have a pretty dark wrapper. They do. Almost a Maduro. Yeah.
Unusual for a Cuban. I would say it's more like Monty esque. That's true. It does have a little bit of a Monty twang. Yeah. I can see that. Right? I like that. I can see that. So some of the other, uh, Hermosos No. 4s in the catalog are obviously the, probably our favorite one is the El Rey [00:05:00] del Mundo, Schwa Supreme.
Hoyo de Monterrey had an Anahatos, the Hermosos No. 4. And then also the St. Louis Ray Regios, uh, that we did. Sometime in 2022 with Dan Sashini. That's a Hermosos and finally in regular production is the Vegas Robbenia Famosos, which is another cigar that we have to do, but pretty popular size in the line.
I like it so far. I do too. I'm shocked. Good flavor. I, I actually, I really like the flavor notes. Yeah, it's really good. You don't expect this from an ugly cigar. You don't expect this from a Rafael Gonzalez. I mean, this is, this is the first Rafael Gonzalez we've done on the pod. Has anyone in the room ever had?
Any of their cigars? Yes, you have to. So we'll get into a little bit of their history in a minute. Not in this ring gauge. I've had a smaller, like a Panatella. Oh, yeah. I bet that's it. But that's like, you know, very, it's like a super aged box. It was cheap. It was like 200 bucks. These cigars [00:06:00] used to be very cheap.
This whole brand was a very inexpensive budget brand for Habanos. And I think it still is. I mean, they don't really give the brand much attention. It just recently got a complete overhaul of the bands, uh, and the boxes. And these are new. Yeah, these are new. This is as of 2022. Yeah. I mean, there's no way that the old bands looked worse than this.
They, I'm sure they were better. They were lighter in color. Uh, the, I think, well, the, see the oval on this is a little different than before what I remember. It's a little lighter Brown color. Yeah. They've, they just changed the band to shinier Brown. Now it used to be like a more matte. Uh, Kind of, uh, dull brown.
I go back to
the Coaba episode. We did the Salamone. All of us sat there and we were saying that we actually enjoyed that cigar, but it's just like the presentation, like the, the bands are not particularly nice that Coaba has. The boxes aren't [00:07:00] really that great, but we thought it was a great cigar. You just kind of would hope that these brands that kind of get pushed aside or ignored for the, the big global brands that they would invest just a little bit more.
I mean, the fact that they just rebranded this, essentially, I mean, they obviously had the money. This is what they did. It's like they could, this could look so much more elegant and it's actually smoking really well, which is why it's disappointing to me. It should just be presented better. Well, you know, red and yellow in a band, it's expensive.
One color prints a lot cheaper. You know, Hershey color Brown. Yeah, that's what it is. Budget. It's interesting with the cigars, you know, talking about a Brie brand. It's almost like they're, they're going across the catalog. We've seen it with Upman. We've seen it with Vegas Robania. They took a Don Alejandro Robania's image off the box.
I think what they're trying to do is make the images on the physical boxes. So that they can accommodate the [00:08:00] overload of health stickers from around the world. So, you know, these health stickers, they're almost, you know, a lot of times, if you look at the back of a box, you'll see it's been stamped with a box code two or three times, and that's just them hedging.
When those stickers are put on by the, you know, various government agencies and import that you're still going to be able to see the box code or the brand or the mark or whatever, you know, the Vitola, whatever it is. So that's, I think that was the impetus for rebranding Raphael Gonzalez was no more than just trying to accommodate for those health stickers because some of the, I got a box last week, a cigar we didn't do yet the entire back.
Is a dead fetus. Oh, God. The entire thing. I can't even see the box code. The entire back of the ten count box is, is a, is a... Can you tell us... It's a great warning. All of us men that have, you know, can carry babies. Great warning. What, uh, can you tell us the origin of the country it came from? I don't know, actually.
It'd be interesting to know. Mexico's really bad. They [00:09:00] are. I'll have to look at the box. When we smoke that cigar, I'll, I'll, I'll... They put the black lung on the back box. Oh, it's so bad. It's so bad. The irony that, like, Mexico is focusing on labeling on cigar boxes. Meanwhile, they've got, like, drugs pouring in left and right to other countries.
Yeah, people are hanging off of bridges every day. Yep. So, boys, what are you getting on this cigar, flavor note wise? Are you getting cocoa? Yeah. I'm, this is like chocolate milk. Cocoa, coffee, dry fruit. That's why it reminded me of the Monty No. 3. Kind of with the similar milk chocolate, cocoa notes, a little bit of dried fruit.
Yeah. Getting all three of those. Yeah. The finish on mine, and I'm not sure if it's a product of my tighter draw or just where I'm at in it, but... I'm gonna guess. Is it slightly mineral? It's minerally and like muted. Like, to me, mine right now is abrupt and not in a pleasant way. I don't mind it. So maybe it's just my cigar.
It might be because I'm not getting that. I'm not getting [00:10:00] that either. I'm getting a, I am getting a short finish, a little mineral, but I don't, an earth notes, which I don't mind. Yeah. I'm getting a little bit of, uh, at the end, I was going to say that it's surprising because I was going to say earthiness and saltiness a little bit, but it's, yeah, mineral, minerality would explain that.
Like that's a better word. The retrohale is absolutely delicious. Yeah. That's definitely my favorite part of the cigar right now. It, it's, it's floral. It, it kind of, uh, singes your nose in an interesting way. In a good way. Like it almost, like, that kind of feeling where you're like ready to sneeze. Yeah.
You know, it kind of, it's just kind of tingling the senses in your nose in a nice way. Um. As it's just searing and burning all the nose hair you have. Put that on the back of the box. In a good way. No, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's kind of just, it's, you know, riling the senses. I hear you.
Is that you telling me to stop talking [00:11:00] now? By the way, this marker was the marker that came out with the first ever Lonsdale. Yeah. Is that true? Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's a merit. It's been around since 1930. Give us a little history on this, man. Yeah. So, uh, introduced around 1928, 1930, like Rooster said, named after its founder, which is one of the few brands, uh, that's actually named after its founder.
Rafael Gonzalez. Obviously there's, you know, other brands like Jose L. Piedra and some of the other, the other markers, um, upman upman, of course, have remnants of their founder's name, but most of them aren't by 1936. It was owned by the Ray del Mundo company. So technically this brand is a sister. Marker to El Rey Del Mundo, which is interesting because we always find that that's another Habanos brand that's kind of ignored, you know, and it's not celebrated like it should be.
I'm just surprised to hear that because I feel like the markers are a world [00:12:00] apart. I mean, none of the flavor notes you get in this you get in any El Rey Del Mundo. This is like, I think Rooster's comparison of this to like Monty is spot on. I don't view this at all in the El Rey Del Mundo. The only thing I capture in this that I get in that Schwa Supreme are the fruit, the dry fruit.
That's true. Those two parallel. And I'm sorry, as we were talking about the labels, the bands before, El Rey del Mundo has some beautiful bands. They do. So this, boys, is the, you know, I'm looking at Cuban Cigar website, by the way, that's the former band. So it's really not that much of a difference from the current one.
I mean, it's just... Incredible branding, uh, going on there. Really, they took a big risk. Very imaginative. From light brown to dark brown. Look at the bottom of your cigar, how dark it is. It's almost black. Yeah. You see that? I get a marbling of that, but I see some of it. On the wrapper? Yeah, here, right here on the foot.
Oh, yeah, you're right. I've never seen that. It's always like gray. Although pagodas is bright white, bright white. Oh, yeah, this is interesting. This is fake. No wonder it's tasting good. [00:13:00] So, uh, production, you know, this was a, uh, global. High end luxury brand for about 30, 35 years ceased production in the early 1960s, not specific as to why resumed five years later in 1965.
And then, like I said, produced alongside El Rey del Mundo resumed its status as a luxury brand. Uh, for Tabacuba and today it's classified by Habanos in their other category of portfolio brands, which is kind of the lowest level. And it only has a few regular productions cigars remaining and none of them are terribly exciting.
How many? Um, right now they have four. Regular production cigars. They have a Panatella extra, which is 37 ring gauge by five. So short Panatella, they have a petite Corona's 42 by five and an eighth. They have the Perla's which are 40 ring gauge by four. And they have this newest release, which is the Corona stay [00:14:00] Lonsdale's 48 ring gauge by five inch Hermosa Hermosa's number four.
So these come in a pretty plain. Very similar to D4, semi boy nature box of 10 cigars. And that's the only format they come in. I happen to love that format. Yeah, I think they're great. I just love that they're not stuffed in a dress box. Yeah, room to breathe. And they were announced in 2021 and came out this year.
So this is the first production run of these cigars. It was early 23. The way it's tasting now, I'd get a box of these. At that price? Yeah, we'll see how it performs. Mine is burning. A lot of combustion coming off mine. Let's say that. I'm loving the combustion off this. But it's burning very slowly. Shot line as well.
We're 15 minutes in, it's packed. Very densely packed. I agree, but in a good way. In a good way. Very good way. I'm happy with it because, you know, when you're smoking a cigar of this size, often my eye says, I wish there was [00:15:00] more there. So if this gives us, you know, hour, hour 15, hour 30, I'll be very happy with that.
Yeah, and you know, honestly, the aroma at the burn line, that's a pretty good test for me personally, because if it smells bitter, It's probably not that great of a cigar and it won't finish well. This is really pleasant, honestly. So Raphael Gonzalez has had a lot of discontinued cigars. Uh, most of them were discontinued in the mid 2000s, 2006, 2008, 2010.
They had a lot of them. Like Rooster said, they had a very popular Lonsdale's discontinued in 2006. They have a really interesting size that I saw that I wanted to mention. It was called the Slenderella. Slim Panatella, 28 ring gauge by almost 7 inches long. 28 by 6 and 7 eighths. Like a pencil. Yeah.
Exactly. Just a wrapper. Not fun to smoke. And then of course, you know, this is a brand that's used, uh, [00:16:00] quite a bit for regional editions. You know, recently there's three of them that have been produced. One for, uh, Alamania, uh, Asia Pacific and the Baltics. You know, you don't really hear much about this, about this market, but if you can get a cigar that's fairly easy to get, knock on wood, I don't want to say that too prematurely, but for a reasonable price.
You know, I'm really enjoying the cigar guys. Me too. The finish has improved for me. It's, it's not as muted as it was. So I think maybe I got through that section that was messed up. I mean, it's a young cigar. So I, I have to give it a little bit of, you know, breathing room. You tell me, Connoisseur Corner, is this smoking like a young cigar?
Because I don't think so. It's really not. No. I mean, I think it's smoking like at least it's got two to three years of age on it. Exactly. Yeah. I agree with you. I think the ash is so excellent. I can see every layer. Dude, it's sharp. It's sharp. Yeah. Very sharp. [00:17:00] I feel like I'm getting hints of other Cuban Robustos.
You know, this isn't a Robusto, but I feel like I'm getting hints of Ras, touch of D4, like a touch of Monty. Yeah. I feel like I'm getting a little bit of everything. A schwa. You know, that, I think the citrus is there, the schwa. It's a, it's a, it is surprisingly complex for its age. Yeah. Imagine with five years of age in your tower.
Yeah. Mine's not burning perfect, but you can touch it up. Yeah, I did touch it up again a little bit. I'll give you permission. Remember oxygen oxidizes. Yes, it does. Your oxidization is unbalanced right now. Okay. By the way, the listeners love oxygen oxidizes. Yes, I saw the Instagram post. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
We got a lot of memes sent our way. We had Bam Bam, the cartoon [00:18:00] Bam Bam with the stick, with the, with the bubble oxygen oxidizes, merchandise requests. That's your fault, Pagoda.
It's okay. I take it as love. It's all love. Oh, yeah, it all is. So boys, there's some other new Habanos releases that I wanted to talk about. Um, we'll start with a new regional. From Puerto Aranjaga. This one's interesting. It's a Spanish regional. It's called a Leonis. Uh, the reason why I bring it up on the podcast, two reasons.
Number one, it's a Lonsdale 42 by six and one 10th inches, 100, 155 millimeters, which Lonsdale we love. I've seen. So I follow CA on LinkedIn. So I get their feeds and their updates. That looks like a beautiful, beautiful cigar. They do make a Monte Carlo, which is a. That's a Lancero. I think it's a little smaller than Lancero.
Is it? Yeah. But the the reason why I also bring this [00:19:00] up is for a regional edition The pricing is set at 20 bucks a cigar. So I want to get a box of those So finally it seems that Habanos is putting out a new regional tranquilo Tranquilo with a bit of a reasonable pricing strategy 20 bucks a stick.
That's incredible You're not finding that in anything they're doing, but that's the MSRP. By the time it gets out, we get it. It's going to be more 38 bucks with the Chinese premium. So that's also going to come in a 10 count box. Uh, similar to this, the semi point nature box with the little clasp on it.
And then the other one boys, uh, we did the Hoyo de Monterey epicure. Number one, a couple of episodes ago. Can you call us men? Men, uh, was not great. What pronouns would you like him to use monsieur? A boileur.
Nice tee up there. So this one's interesting. Hoyle de Monterey is coming out with the [00:20:00] Epicure No. 3, which is a petite bellicoso. Fifty four ring gauge by four and seven eighths inches, which is a very interesting size. Yeah, it's like the mag 54 with, uh, with the pyramid top. Yeah, with the bellicose top on it.
Wow. So they're going to release that. That'll, uh, that'll retail apparently for about 21, 22 bucks a cigar. I'm sure it'll be plug. And, and, uh, So that'll be the eighth cigar in the epicure line from Hoyo, the one, two, three, the Especial, the deluxe, the double epicure, which I've never had. Uh, uh, an edition, uh, limitata from 2013 called the Grand Epicure, the Reserva Cosecha Epicure number two from 2012.
So I didn't realize even when we were recording and how many cigars until you see it in a list like that actually have the epicure name on it. And I don't know, I really don't celebrate that Marco that. Any of those Vitolas that we've had, we've [00:21:00] done the Epicure number one and two on the podcast. Habano, Habano does.
Yes, they do. Oh, yeah. They keep coming out with new stuff. So do you guys still have any Oyo Epi 1s, 2s in your collection? Yeah. You do, right? Epi 2s. Okay. I've got a box of Epi 1s. I have a few Epi 2s. Yeah. And I don't reach for them. I don't think about them, I don't look at them, I just kind of let them sit there.
Sometimes when my father in law comes over he really loves that cigar, so we'll smoke them together and it's very good. But as far as a Cuban Robusto goes, it's just never inserting itself into my rotation. Yeah, you know, yeah. Is everyone cigar like burning? Perfect. It's beautiful. Yeah. Mine's burning pretty good.
Yeah, really? Well, I'm a really sharp line Yeah, these have been in my tower probably for six or eight weeks really that long. Yeah, I am doing I got them pretty early [00:22:00] But they're definitely starting to pop up, which is good. The one thing I wanted to mention, the combustion like makes you feel you're smoking the new world.
It does. It does have that. When I, when I took my last puff, it was like very cloudy up here. And even some of the flavor profile, I feel like this is one of those few Cubans that They're somewhat close to a lot of new worlds in flavor profile. I was thinking the Millennium Pyramid a bit. Agree. Honestly.
Agree. Just a bit. So where would you guys put the body and strength profile right now in this? I think it's pretty medium. Medium. Yeah, I would say medium. No, because Raphael is pretty well known to be a mild brand. Where are you putting it? I would say medium. I wouldn't say it's mild. No, it's actually quite delicious.
I'm loving the cigar right now. No, me too. No complaints. Yeah, like pleasantly surprised. And because it's taking so long to get through it, it's a nice session [00:23:00] cigar. You can sit after dinner, have one and go home. Yeah. Pretty satisfying. On the foot, I'm getting. Like when you, the aroma, it's getting some spice now.
I don't know if you get that. I like it. Yeah. It's nice. Yeah. Goes great with what we're drinking tonight. Yeah. Let's talk about that, boys. We're drinking 12 year aged abalor, a Speyside scotch. This was an early favorite in our gatherings. And I've never stopped hating this. I've never stopped loving this, this scotch.
It's fantastic. And we did this on episode 12, almost 100 episodes ago. Yeah. Double cask matured, finished in sherry oak casks. Like I said, comes from the Speyside region of Scotland. You know how we got on Avalor? So, at our former lounge, Big John, who we know, obviously, tragically, lost his wife recently. Um...
God bless John. One Saturday afternoon, he'd always come there, and he'd bring at least one full bottle, and just like, I mean, he's very generous, always sharing. And um, [00:24:00] obviously we love scotch and a lot of the time on a Saturday early I'd be there and so he'd you know pour something he's like oh you got to try this if you haven't had it.
I had never had abalor. And he poured me my first glass, and I loved it. And then, picked up some, and then just started passing it around, and everyone just kind of... We had it in your garage. Yeah. During our garage days. That's the first time I've ever had it. Yeah. And we recorded the podcast in his garage.
Episode 12. Yeah. Where we did this. The garage episodes. So that, you know, this, as I was doing some research about it, they, what I thought it was interesting, that I didn't even connect to, obviously, a hundred episodes ago, because I wasn't thinking this in depth about... Single malt scotch, but they put this right next to flavor profile, you know, uh, pricing where it sits in the, you know, kind of lane of scotches right next to the Balvenie Doublewood 12 in flavor and, and, and price and whatnot.
That's what all, that's what everybody compared it to on all the review sites that I've seen is, is next to the Balvenie Doublewood. Oh, really? I really like this, but I, I [00:25:00] disagree. I disagree. With that, with that. coinciding spirit. I mean, I, I guess where I see a part of where these people are coming from is this is an extremely Sherry forward Scotch.
Yeah. It's one of the sweeter ones. And Balvini always is on the sweeter end of the spectrum for Scotch. Um, so that I do think they have in common, but I think like Everything Balvenie makes, including the 12 year Doublewood, has, um, a bit more structure to it. This is like very easy drinking, delicious, and just like straight sherry.
I wouldn't call it overly complex. I agree. But it's like so satisfying, and honestly, the price point, I'm surprised to hear that. How much is this? For years. The thing that I couldn't believe, I used to buy the, the Avalor 12 year, just within the last three years for like 45, a bottle, which is an amazing price.
Um, I mean, maybe it's gone up obviously since, and they actually, it's funny, they've rebranded the bottles because it's different years ago, they looked totally different. Avalor [00:26:00] 12 now, Bam, sorry to interrupt. It's okay. The Abergore 12 now, by the way, is 50 bucks a bottle. So it's about a little bit of an increase.
That's still great because I mean, Balvenie 12 McAllen, they're all like what? 65, 70 bucks. Yeah. Well, McAllen Sherry is that's hiked in price quite a bit. 72. I'm seeing it closer to 80 now. Yeah. 79. That was 50 bucks. Yeah. The blue box is cheaper, but the black box, the Sherry, the Sherry oak cask is certainly better.
And that's the one that we drink. That's a little bit more. I would see for me, the 12 is not as sweet as this, the Caribbean cask, the 14 year, and this for me have very similar profiles. I think that's true. And actually a little bit of history on Abelard that now is also making me understand why people are making that comparison.
So, uh, Abelard was established in 1879. Uh, it's in the space side region in Scotland. And their specialty is double cask maturation, half basically in Oloroso Sherry and half in American Oak, which is just like [00:27:00] the Balvenie Doublewood. So I do see where that comparison's coming. And then since 1974, it's now owned by Pernod Ricard, who owns like everything.
I mean, they're like, Catalog is insane. They own, uh, oh, Gizmo's favorite. Uh, Chivas is owned by, uh, Pernod Ricard. I'm never going to live that down. Uh, Glenn Leavitt, they own Havana club. They actually own the brand. Wow. Outside of Cuba. I think outside of Cuba. Martel, Cognac, we've done, they own that. Uh, Perrier Jouer, the champagne brand they own.
Jefferson's, um, uh, Red Breast is actually owned by them. Green spot another one. That's a good one. That's a good one. We enjoyed that. They've got a pretty cool. Yeah catalog We keep that handy so that when we're going through the some of the reviews We can call back to you know How does some of those rated in previous episodes because we just called out quite a few of the you know Whiskies that we like so there aren't many [00:28:00] whiskey and cognac scotches that I drink without ice this one I never put ice in it.
I don't have ice in it tonight It goes down beautifully because of the sherry finish. I totally agree. Yeah, it's fantastic. See, the reason why I like to put ice in my scotch is I like my beverage to just have a little... Chill to it. lower temperature. Yeah, right.
I'm agreeing. I just like it like that. So I just put, you know, two small cubes. You know, I didn't load it up, but... It's, it's very nice. And I think that, you know, not on purpose, but I think pairing with this cigar tonight, I actually think kind of works. I think this has a sweetness about it that the cigar doesn't have.
And I think it's very complimentary. Well, I think the dry fruit complements the drink pack and, and vice versa. I would say that this cigar to me is less sweet, more earthy or minimally minerally. Yeah, that's fair. So I think that there's not this overwhelming sweetness going on for [00:29:00] me. Um, with. You know, with the, with the scotch.
I, I agree, but I don't know that I would call this earthy. I think minerally, I'm, I'm with you there. I do think like the cocoa, it's not a dark chocolate. It's like a milk chocolate. So I do get some sweet notes out of this cigar. And I think just the, the scotch helps accentuate that. Like you take a sip and then have the cigar and I think while the sweetness is muted, it like really brings it out more and I think just rounds out the flavor.
And for the listener, if you can retrohale, if you get this cigar, that's a must try. Cause you're capturing that cocoa right on the front of the retrohale. It's fantastic. I try, I just can't do it. I gotta take lessons. Yeah. The retrohaling lessons. I'll submit it. It just, it just happens like on its own.
But if I go, if I try to do it, I, you know, it won't, I want to see smoke coming out of my nostrils. It's called, that's called stage fright by the way. Stage fright. Stage fright. You got to do it without the microphones. Wow. Doing it at home without the microphone. Just give it a shot. [00:30:00] Oh. Doesn't work. I tried it once.
My sinuses don't help. Ha ha ha. Yeah. Look at Bam's ash. Yeah, it's awesome. Wow. Great cigar. So Bam Bam has about, what, an inch and a half of ash? Yeah, inch and a quarter. Inch and a quarter of ash. It looks fantastic. And to think again, think about how many cigars we've spent so much money on out of Cuba that smoke like shit and And don't have the structure that this has.
Yeah, and even cigars that have age on them. Think about that Epicure No. 1 we had a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Which had four, four years of age on it, I think. You know, it's like something that's six months old. Like, again, we go back to this, this thinking of the, the, the recent cigars that Habanos is putting out, the Turquinos, some of the other newer releases, the intentional blending to make them...
Taste better young than they have in the past, I think is really working. Like it's making that younger buying younger Cuban cigars. It's making that journey a lot easier and more palatable to me, especially when you're spending 20 bucks on a [00:31:00] cigar. How, how are they doing that? I mean, I was about tobacco.
I was about to ask. I mean, how can the blending change? Whether a cigar is going to taste fresh or age, I don't get that. Well, I think if you're, if you're putting tobacco in it that has more, you know, nicotine or more oomph or just needs more time to, you know, to age. I, I was just going to say, I mean, I feel like we're in Cuba.
I think the cigars where the youth shows right away, if there's a lot of ligero in the cigar, that needs age. Yeah, it's bitter. That's the thing. It's like too aggressive and the age mellows that out. So like you get the strength without the bite, but a cigar that's low in ligero, like I think the perfect example of this is the Turquino's.
Yeah. Yeah. We love that cigar very low, so young, and there was not much Lee Harrow at all there, which is why I think that could present so well, so young. And I think that the, I think the downside to that potentially, this is a hypothesis is that I, I have a feeling that these cigars will not age as well as cigars with.
I agree with you. More oomph to them young. I agree. So like you [00:32:00] think about pulling out an Upman 2 or a Partagus P2, those young are borderline unsmokable because they're just, they're a little bitter. They're like powerhouse, bitter, unbalanced, but with time they, they turn into these beautiful experiences.
I just don't know if with time, these are really going to. You know, have such a high peak after a certain number of years because they're so smooth right off the bat and you're getting really nice flavor, you worry that that'll dissipate over time. So I have a question. I, you know, like we experience all these different flavors within a cigar.
How do tobacco leaves get those flavors, right? Is it that when they're aging them, like, you know, for a lot of cigars, we'll Uh, taste the dried fruit or are they being infused? Are they the barrel? They spray the leaves with tobacco scent. Apricot spray. No, but, but the thing is, where's the, where's the flavor profile coming from?
I think it's [00:33:00] the easiest kind of metaphor that I can come up with is with the different varietals in the tobacco plant. And let's just focus on Cuba because there's only one plant in Cuba. There's only one real region in Cuba where they're producing these plants. There's really not much different from One farm to another, aside from care, maybe, or we've talked about that.
TLC, every market gets the same product. Cohiba gets something a little special that most other markets don't just, just the vehicle. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it's the soil, it's the soil, it's the sun, that's the environment, but you have to also understand the blenders know what every strain of leaf will provide you from the point of view of flavor.
And if you look at the plant, like you were saying, you know, the most intense flavors are at the top because they get the most sun. Right. And as, as it dissipates and it comes down the plant itself, that's where the mastery comes in. But I think my easiest metaphor, my easiest metaphor to come up with is how, how many recipes and how many varieties you can make from [00:34:00] just eggs, sugar.
Salt and call it baking powder bake, you know baking soda You can make a thousand different a million different combinations of things taste different act different age different You know, and I think the same thing goes with tobacco agreed, you know I think you have very very simple ingredients and with minor variations You know, as the blenders are putting these leaves on the scale, blending them, marking down how many grams of each leaf and each blend, and where they're putting them inside the roll, those things are making significant differences in how they taste, how they age, and how they smoke.
And by the way, these cigars that we're smoking right now. They were introduced in Portugal. That's where they, yeah, first, uh, you know, released in Portugal. Wow. And the box I just read, it was 112. Oh, I want that box. I want that price. I think I paid like 200 for it. Wow. About 20 a stick. It's [00:35:00] a good stick.
Yeah. Nothing offensive about it. Yeah, it smokes good. It's kind of simple to me when you look at the ash, it tells you about the construction. It's just fantastic. It's solid. Yeah, these are definitely well constructed. I would assume that it's because you know, it's an early release. So they were really focused on this early batch of cigars coming out.
Hopefully they stay this way over the run of the cigar. But, um, 23.
That's way out in there. Yeah, which is, uh, I think it's a provincial. Yeah. I don't have my, uh, factory code document up, but I don't think it's a mother factory. This ruggedly handsome stick is tasting good. Yes, it is, man. So, boys, we're about halfway through here on the Rafael Gonzalez Coronas de Lonsdales, the Hermoso No.
4. What are you guys thinking? So far, home run. Yeah, I'm, I've, I kind of feel like mine at, at the halfway point ish here. It's, it's kind of picking up a little bit, a little, a little bit more spice. [00:36:00] I think the, it, the finish is a little less muted for me, which is good. Like it's finishing better now on the draw.
Maybe a little bit of white pepper, just a touch, but it's not offensive to me at all. There is a touch of spice there for me. Yeah, I think it's picked up in a really good way. I, I do think about halfway through it starts to pick up in strength, like you're, you're saying. And um, the flavor profile is getting, a little more complex.
Like, I think, I like the flavor profile in the first half, but I think someone said, like, simple or straightforward. I think now it's getting a little more character, which is nice. And I think, I think it's earthiness that's coming in for me. There's something about it though that for it, I don't know if it's complex to me, but I think that mustiness or whatever that we're perceiving is age or what our, you know, palate is telling us is age.
Whatever that is, is making it interesting enough, but I don't think it's a super complex cigar. No, but I think like, I'd [00:37:00] be fooled if this had no band to think it's a Monty. And Montes that I like. Yeah, I agree. Would you say, I don't know if you guys remember, we did the Monte Cristo Edmundo, which I think was a, a little bit older than this, but it wasn't, I think it was a 22.
Now at the halfway mark, it's smoking's more like an Edmundo than a Monte two, I think, and I happen to love that cigar. I do like that Edmundo. For me, for me, Monty Toos, it's the ice, I get that cocoa and the dried fruit almost all the way through that's dissipating for me. And I think what Senator said for me, it's, it's getting more earth notes and coffee.
Yeah, this, I mean, to me, this has a little bit more strength than the, uh, Edmundo, than the Edmundo. Edmundo is a, is a bit milder, but muted. The flavors are not that, uh, distinct. And I think that with, with, you know, with not much age on them. I don't think they're, [00:38:00] they perform as well as these do. And I've had some, we've had that Ed Munda that was pretty young.
I think it scored in the eights. Um, but Edmundo's with age, while much more inconsistent are really, really delicious if you get a good one, if you get a good one, and I've had a couple after the podcast that were, that were really, really, I know we have talked about this, but the petite number two, the Monty that has so much flavor.
I have never had that. I would love to try it. You never will. I know. I thought you have had it. I've never had that. Not ever. Senator will give you one. I'm coming over to Rooster's house. Too bad that I smoked through all mine already. Me too. That's okay. I'm going to camp out on your deck, Rooster. I smoked them in Cuba, all of them.
So, you guys, uh, seriously, you guys got a box of fairly, you know, fairly age, yeah, petite number two. So, 2017 is a kind of hit or miss year for me. See, Pagoda, a hit. And we, we smoked them. We bought singles of them and smoked them [00:39:00] there. Exactly. In, uh, Malia Cohiba. Malia Cohiba, that's right. And then we loved it so much we wanted to buy the box, but they wouldn't take cash.
And we thankfully found this really nice, uh, uh, guy from Spain who put it on his credit card and we paid him cash and we were able to get it. So how are those smoking versus any of the younger ones you've had? I've actually, that's the first and only, uh, Petite number two I've ever had. So I can't compare it to a young one.
Cause I have young ones and like Amani too, kind of in the past, they've been inconsistent. I gave you one when we got back. That's true. Yours were the, the, the seventeens were very good. Yeah. My young ones don't smoke as well as those. Now, my, my young Monte twos have been smoking really, really well. And we've said that many times.
Yeah. They've changed. They've definitely changed. Oh, yeah. Think about a 2017 Monte Cristo number two, how inconsistent those are. Yeah, you don't like the whole 2017 year. We know that, but the 18s, 17s and 18s are awesome. [00:40:00] 19s are very good, too. Yeah, I'll bring one for you next time. Thanks, bro. Sure. So I looked it up on our box code document.
Your kindness has come through. I looked it up on our box code document. This is from a provincial factory in Via Clara called Placetas. Uh, S U L is the box code formerly UMR. Actually, I think I have some cigars with UMR box codes, uh, which they brought in, in November 19, but. Um, yeah, I, it's definitely a provincial where this was rolled.
So what are you guys thinking about the Abelor 12? I'm loving the pairing. I was about to say the whole experience tonight's really tasty. Yeah, I'm very relaxed. It's um, I'm happy we did the Abelor again. I haven't had this in a while. What's funny, I bought this bottle. After episode 12 and I haven't opened it.
Oh, it's great. You've aged it It's abel or this is 13 year age Even even older probably it's two years now. [00:41:00] All right, folks, you can't age spirits in glass So we had a lot of listener comments about episode 99 Which, um, was the Oliva V. Lansero episode we did, specifically Senator trying to change his score, which turned into not only that, I don't remember that.
Yeah, it was a bloodbath. Neither do I. It was a bloodbath. And a Pagoda was very adamant, thankfully, uh, very, very sound in his, his opinion that the ratings can't be changed. I'm surprised you almost cut out. He did. Let him get away with that. He was siding with Senator that night. He was. He was. And we trumped on Pagoda's pushing of the decimals a year plus ago, and we, you know.
We just, you know, Giz and I, we like individual liberty, and we were just a little concerned that the group was going too far. No, no. You guys are tag team boys. Alright? I just like watching you guys yell at each other. That's what I'm in it for. So we got a lot of comments, including, um, [00:42:00] and I'm gonna pass around a gift that a Bostonian lizard sent us.
Who also said that he feels that it's time for us to draft formal wizard rules as it comes to the ratings because of Senator's, uh, dissension. I like that. I, I mean, I, I, I am the Senator. I'm all for passing laws and writing rules. Let's do it. Process and procedures. Process and procedures. I love that. I think we should.
Great idea. Alright, we're going to have to write this all in the wizard scroll. You know, and the cool thing, you add that to the website. It kind of just, you know, adds a layer of complexity to what we're doing. Yeah, that's what we need is more complexity. So it says, uh, so this Bostonian lizard sent us all gifts as he, uh, as he shared his opinion of, uh, senators, uh, dissension.
And he said, uh, this is, these gifts are from a Bostonian lizard. Keep up the good work. Nice handwritten note. And boys, we have seven fantastic. Custom t shirts from our Bostonian lizard [00:43:00] friends. How does he know what size we are? That's beautiful. Look at that. That is really beautiful. Wow. Legarto. So he made custom t shirts.
Is there a Legarto shirt? Ha ha ha ha. It's only for the internal so far. That's cool. Only for the internal lizards. But it's a cartoon lizard in green with a cigar in his mouth with the word Legarto underneath. It looks handmade. It is. Very nice. Yeah, he made them for us. That's very cool. Very nice. He's an artist.
He's an artist. Awesome. Our Bostonian friends. Seven of these for us, for UBA and Grindr as well. But it's so cool to get gifts from Lizard. Oh, it's incredible listeners, man. It's just, you know, we talked about it on episode 100. I mean, it's just, what's his name? Uh, I was told not to share it. I was asked not to share.
We know who he's, I mean, I just wanted to thank him. You don't, we don't, you do not know who it is. Oh, yeah. Well, whoever you are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Appreciate. Thanks brother. Yeah, it's so cool, man. Just in the, the PO box, just getting. You know, gifts, you know, we have a lot of cigars coming up from listeners.
That's amazing. We have a lot of spirits coming up that listeners have sent in. Gizmo's going [00:44:00] to send you a Siglo 5 in return. I will. Um, no, I, I just, I, it's really incredible how the listeners have really rallied around the podcast and wanting to share cigars they enjoy that we haven't done yet, both Cuban and non Cuban.
Like I said, we have a run of cigars coming up that are all from listeners. So. We really appreciate it. So thank you to the lizard listeners out there who are sending stuff into us because it's just, it's, it's really incredible. It's very heartfelt. I mean, that's, that's rule number one in the lizard ledger.
Cigars are meant to be shared. Exactly right. Just don't go on my tower. All right. Yes. We have the accountability hour coming up. Episode 105. This is part three. So speaking of BAM's tower and BAM's home, which I've never been to because I've never been invited. What the hell is this now? Look what the hell is going on here?
I'm just saying I've never been invited. All right. You know what I'll do. Don't feel bad. I haven't been there. Yeah. [00:45:00] That's not true. And you know it.
All right. So I've, I've never been to Bam's house and we were talking as it's, you know, it's getting colder now. Yeah. We're moving into the cold, cold months here. And we did our short smoke special. We have another one coming up in the, in the, in February probably. What do you guys do when you can't make it to the lounge or you're not able to get here for whatever reason, what is your winter smoking set up like?
At home. What is, what do you guys do? I smoke in the garage and I mean, we, I think it was what? Two years ago that we, you and I, we both got that heater. Yeah. You and I have a very similar setup. It's the same heater. And, uh, you know, the garage is obviously it's closed from three sides. You open the door, let all the air out in the summer.
It's great. If it's raining, you can smoke there. If it's. You know, if it's too cold, too hot, you can smoke, then you can put a fan if you want. And the wintertime with the heater on, it's perfect. You three, the three out of the four lizards [00:46:00] have great garage setups. So he's pointing to Senator Rooster and Gizmo.
Rooster and Gizmo. Very nice setup. Mine will be set up this year. Nice. Like it. Yeah. So what, what Rooster and I did is we actually purchased a ceiling mounted heaters that, you know, the electrician had to come and wire in. But man, I'll tell you when the winter, when the winter happens. 15 minutes. The garage, it can be.
It could be below zero outside and I have a fan pulling air out in a window like a, like a bedroom fan pulling air out. Uh, it heats up in there so fast and keeps it so consistently warm. And you don't get those blasts of like super heat, then super cold, super heat. Like it really does a nice job. Yeah.
It's got a thermostat. And I also have a parabolic heater. If I don't want to use that, if it's just me, I just put that on and that works. That is nice. Yeah. That thing will take the hair right off your legs. And it has.
Yeah. So, um, any listener that wants to know what that is, I'll put it in the, um, the [00:47:00] episode description, the heater that Russ and I got, but that was probably one of the best investments that I've ever made in my smoking situation was getting one of those ceiling mounted heaters. I used to rock the, uh, the propane heater, where, you know, you'd have the tank outside, run the line under, and then keep the garage.
That's dangerous. No, but I'd keep the garage door cracked. I, you know, keep the tank outside. You're like building up a methane bomb in the garage. You gotta have good exhaust, and you keep the door open. But I'm glad I moved away from that. It was definitely worse. It's from his ex met lab. Heisenberg.
Heisenberg. Gisenberg. But you know where you put like a couple of comfortable chairs and you have a TV on the rover? Yeah. Gizmo's garage is ruggedly handsome. Yeah. It is. It's like the cigar. Like the cigar. Like the cigar. Yeah. Ruggedly handsome. Why do you say that, Bam? I'm interested. Well, you know, the walls aren't painted, but they're clean.
The, the slab is not painted, but it's very clean. Um, it's got the rover in a corner, a couple of [00:48:00] chairs, simple man cave. Yeah, it's, it, it works great for me, man, in the wintertime and in the summer, I actually got a, um, I got a portable air conditioning unit from Costco that has a double vent out to the window and man, same thing.
It cools so fast. It was like 250 bucks. I use it to heat now when I don't want to turn it on. And that's a floor model. It's a floor model on wheels. Yes. But you have to vent it out. You vent it to the window. I have a window. Yeah, you vent it to the window. But what's nice about it is it has cool, dry, heat, and fan.
So it has all four options. So when I, you know, like when I'm in that kind of, let's say it's 50 degrees out or 40 and I don't want to turn on the Ceiling mounted heater unit. Um, I use that and it puts off a great amount of heat and I'm very very comfortable in there. But in the summer, the air conditioning situation is great.
And Rooster's garage has a beautiful carpet. Area rug. Yeah, it's like an indoor outdoor rug. Yeah, very fancy. Nice [00:49:00] wicker furniture with pillows. Very, you know. Very Senator's
uh, uh, garage which is a hybrid of a lounge and uh, smoking room. How much fully painted that's where we first monochromatic all the way. Yeah, that's what we recorded originally. And he's got an entertainment unit on one wall. That's right. So how much are you smoking in there these days? He's not not as much.
I mean for the summer. I much prefer to I was since you had your baby. Yeah. I mean you have that's dramatically decreased my smoking at home. I just feel like, you know, when you're, when you, especially just the demands of a child, like you, you just, when you have free time, you actually want to get out.
It's like a, it's like a big deal to leave your house, you know, cause you're there so much with your child. So for me coming to the lounge, being more social while having a cigar. There's definitely been, um, an increased appreciation for that, but, um, in the summertime, I mean, I, I don't really [00:50:00] love being in a garage in the summer.
Like I, I, there's nothing better to me than like, if it's not windy, just like sitting out on the deck, just like looking at all the beautiful nature, everything's bloomed at that point. Um, so for the summer, I've definitely spent any of my home smoking time out, uh, out on the deck, uh, or the patio. But in the winter, I mean, I actually love when it's really cold and it snows and I've got to like, snow, uh, take the snowblower like to do the driveway right after almost every time I just go in the garage.
It's nice and warm, light up a cigar. It's like the perfect reward after doing something like that. Oh, you've earned it. So I do love on like a cold night sometimes just, uh, just having a cigar in there. It is great. Yeah. So what are you guys doing? Bam? What's your winter set up when you can't come to the lounge?
Do you put on a, uh, I have a side yard of gravel. It's a bed of gravel, six Adirondacks chairs and a fire pit that everyone here has complained about. Oh yes. Yes. The solo. [00:51:00] Uh, so yes. As long as you have enough solos for that many guests, it works. It's true. It's true. Four guests, four solos. So for those, for those of you out there listening, if you're buying a solo, you've got to get the Yukon.
So I have a buddy of mine that has a Yukon. It's a bigger model than the one I have. It's three and a half feet in diameter. It throws off enormous heat. It does? It does. And I've been on his patio, a friend of mine, you know, his patio in the dead of winter. It's fantastic. Fantastic. When you say dead of winter, like, what's the cutoff?
It's like 60 degrees. No, no, no. We're talking 1130 at night, cold. Really? Cold. Like how cold? Teens. Single digits. I can't believe that. It's happened. I don't know about that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. How much were you drinking? A lot. Yeah.
Well, you know, so Pagoda, what's your plan for your garage this year? You said you're going to fill it up. You know,[00:52:00]
we're sending carpenters over. Yeah. The, whatever. You know, the outdoor furniture I have, I'll just bring it in for the winter and, uh, you know, get a Rover and set everything up. I know you've sent me all details about the road, by the way, about once, once every other week, I send Pagoda, all the Rover items that he needs a TV, the, the cart, the cart.
I send him everything he needs in one, about twice a month I have now. It's a form of harassment by the way. He needs to get it together. Lizards help lizards. No, but that's what I need to do. I just need to click on it and just get it. So, uh, I think, uh, it'll be set up for this winter. But up until now I've just gone to other lizards garages and chilled.
Are we taking bets on whether this is actually going to happen? The pagoda accountability are the, the challenge is not only ordering it, but then Pagodas gotta set it up. That's right. That's the problem. , I'll take the overall ordering the under on installing it, , you know, that's what a [00:53:00] subcontractor's for.
But, but by the way, I haven't even said the humidity of the thing for, oh, come on. He doesn't even have a hydrometer. For the other levels of the tower, it needs to be an accountability hour. Oh, I bought it about a year and a half ago. He bought a Sonos Move and I'm over in his backyard. I'm like, why?
Where's the Sonos Move? He's like, it's plugged in, but I didn't set it up. I can't get it to work. I'm like, what are we doing? You're, by the way, Senator, you really helped me out that night because it did work. And what happened is, the following weekend, I had a poker game at home, and we couldn't figure it out.
Jesus! Oh, boy. Listen, a Sonos. It's called Bluetooth. Like, there's nothing easier than a Sonos speaker. Listen, I don't have the tech gene. What do I do? I'm an Indian. I don't have a tech gene. That's, that's odd. I do have to say we've been a big proponent of the Sonos move as the best outdoor speaker period.
They just came out with the Sonos move too, which of course I'm obsessed and like an idiot I ordered [00:54:00] and I would say don't need it, but it's really good. Like it's the sound quality better. Is it just longer battery? No, no. So, uh, the, the original move is, uh, just like a, a mono, like one speaker, basically this is stereo.
And they have them like kind of positioned to try to create more immersive sound. It sounds better. The like base is even stronger, which is hard to imagine. That's the hard thing in a small speaker is base. Yeah. But that's the, the, the regular move. The base is serious for that size speaker. Um, it's even more pronounced in the new one.
Honestly, the audio, I didn't think it could improve. Cause it's like, just for the form, the size of that, it's like, how much better can that really get? It's really, really good. And the battery life's 24 hours now on top of that. 24 hours on one charge? One charge. Wow. Bring it to Cuba on the next trip. It's a big speaker.
So how big is it? Is it like a foot long? Identical to the Move 1. Yeah. Okay. But honestly, it's, it's worth it. I mean, it's probably not [00:55:00] necessary, but it's worth it. Fit that in your luggage. Make it happen. But for the rest of the listeners, you know, this is the time you can buy the older version for cheaper.
Yeah, You get a hundred bucks off. And for the crazy people like me that need to buy the new one and have the old one, Sonos gives you 15 percent off anything that you upgrade. So if you say you have the one and you're upgrading to the two, they'll just take 15 percent off right there on the site. Cool.
So you gotta give them back the one. No, you keep it. Oh, you keep it. Yeah. It's just loyalty. Yeah. They're just rewarding your loyalty that you keep staying in the hamster wheel. Hence. I have like probably 15 sort of speakers. If only I'd known I would have bid lower for Senator's move. Damn. I missed out on that opportunity.
So, Pagoda, are you planning to heat your garage at all? Yeah, no, I'll, I'll, I'll get one of those, one of the ceiling mounts like we have? Yeah, and, uh, we, uh, we, we also have an electrician, uh, we know now. So, at least I know. There you go. Thank you, Rooster. It's really important. That's the one thing in my house I don't do is electrical.
No, I'll do anything else. I won't do electrical. [00:56:00] You're doing your own plumbing? What? Well, some. Minor stuff. The only thing I don't do is my electrical. But plumbing, I'm a master plumber. You put a sump pump in last week. I don't know that I'm too confident in your plumbing skills after my sink. I'm going to come over and put a new sink in your place.
One of those utility sinks. High volume. Yeah. So the heater that we're talking about for the garage has to be professionally installed by a licensed electrician. It needs to go right into the panel. It's hardwired into the panel. Yeah. And it's a comfort zone. It's called, I think ours is 10, 000 BTU. It's a ceiling mounted unit.
It's really fantastic. So that thing requires a dedicated circuit in your panel. Yes. Right. For everyone out there, if you've got a small panel. It's a few hundred dollars to upgrade an electrical panel. You're not upgrading service, just the panel, which gives you more circuits. Which is good just to, if you have an older home, to have the electrician get in there and look at it.
Absolutely. Especially if you have kids, man. It's worth the investment. Don't go there, Senator. I was gonna say, did you have your, did you have your string lights [00:57:00] hardwired? No. What happened with the string lights? This was a running joke. We were, I did, I did. We were giving, giving Baab shit about not getting an invite over to smoke at his place,
And every time we asked to come over, Baab said, I'm still waiting on the string lights to be done. . . We're like, we're like, why do we need string lights to sit there? So I, so it takes like eight minutes to set up string lights? Exactly. Well, I didn't have an outlet out there, so I converted a, um, a fog. Or a security light.
I took that off. There's power there. So I converted that to a quad outdoor switch. And I needed that to plug the lights in. You couldn't run an extension cord. No. Fuck that. That's amateur hour. You can't do that. No, no. Oh gosh. Like we would see it in the dark. That's true. So are you going to set up, uh, are you going to have any sort of indoor smoking situation for the winter?
I could, you know, I don't ever use my garage. It's a single car garage. It's perfectly sized. It has a window. That's great. Windows huge because for me, putting that exhaust, even if it's a, [00:58:00] it's mine's a bedroom fan. Yeah, you don't need anything fancy like those little like double fans and it goes in the window.
It's literally like 20 at Home Depot and it just exhausts the air out. It's amazing. Yeah. And when you open the garage, that cross air is important. Yeah. It works perfectly. And the best thing when you do it and you're exhausting the smoke out, just like when your friends are coming by or when you like, just walk down your driveway and smell the cigar.
I mean like my whole street just smells like it's amazing. This is not recommended for our listeners in Canada, by the way. No, do not do this. Cause your neighbors, is that why your neighbors moved? I do remember nights walking down his driveway in our early days. You can smell. The cigars that you guys were smoking.
It's very cool. And then when the garage door opens, that wafting of smoke, that comes like a tidal wave of smoke coming out. It's awesome. Yeah. We used to show up there for the podcast. Oh yeah. Senator. And a few of the guys maybe were there smoking prior to recording. Yeah. And you, you like, as soon as you come [00:59:00] down the driveway, it's like, it's lizard time.
It's lizard time, you know? It's awesome. So boys were in the last third here of the Rafael Gonzalez Corona still on stills. Hormosus number four. What do you mean by the last third? I'm sorry. He's got a half inch. I am, uh, I'm really, really happy with this cigar. I thought I, you know, I, I thought for the price when I saw how small they were at a hermosis number four, you know, schwa supreme from El Rey del Mundo.
That's an outlier. All right, let's take that out of the equation. But for how small this cigar is, I was a little disappointed thinking like, man, are we going to even get 45 minutes or an hour out of these cigars? Is this going to smoke is, you know, like a, like a. Up in half Corona or something does. But it's packed, you know.
But it's packed pretty densely. Dense cigar, and it, it takes, you gotta take your time with this thing. Mm hmm. It's actually still very good. Yeah, I feel like there's value here. You know, I think for a Cuban cigar smoker who doesn't want to spend [01:00:00] 20, 30 on a cigar, and is looking for something in the winter that smokes, you know, pretty reasonably, and if you need to put it down, it's not going to break your heart, but...
I have a question. This is great. Would you hand this to a novice cigar smoker? I don't know. Not for that question. Probably not. I think just because the way the cigar looks, it looks very... Rugged and rustic, so that person might like form an opinion of the cigar, but at the same price point, there's some other very good choices that I was thinking from the point of view of the way it's smoked, it smokes like a pretty, it's a pretty serious Cuban cigar.
I think, yeah, I mean, surprisingly, the appearance, I wouldn't be, I mean, a novice cigar smoker doesn't know any better. So the appearance to them, I feel like it would. look like any cigar. I mean, it's, you know, lizards like us that are very particular about the seams and all these little things and critical, right?
But the, the flavor profile is what I, I'm not sure is ideal for a novice cigar smoker. Like I think so many Cuban [01:01:00] cigars where they're. Very easy to enjoy and accessible to a novice smoker is like they're mild to medium so many of them and I do and like the flavor profile the notes. They're pretty light They're not like rich or heavy like some new worlds can be I do think I mean This is just the notes like cocoa and earth and some of these things like this They're just richer, deeper flavor notes than I think, like, a true novice cigar smoker might immediately appreciate.
I totally agree. So I would be a little bit hesitant. I, I think if we smoke this cigar early in our Cuban cigar journey, I, I think we've had to dig a little deeper tonight. To enjoy the flavor that the cigar is putting off. I think, to Senator's point, I think when I was a novice Cuban cigar smoker, I don't think this cigar would have been interesting to me at all.
Like, I think it's come through developing a palate. Of course. [01:02:00] Like we all have. Yeah. Not that we're experts, because we're not. We've just smoked a lot of Cuban cigars, and we know what we like and we don't. And I think we're finding little things in the cigar that kind of touch to... Former cigars that we've had, but it's reminiscent of a lot of different cigars, but I don't think on its own It doesn't have its own thing.
You wouldn't have appreciated it. Exactly. I agree initial early journey into the Cuban cigar, which I think is a testament to the Complexity if you want to call it that for what we're getting here tonight I just and you know again, I just don't think that a novice cigar smoker Um, or someone who doesn't smoke Cuban cigars a lot, I don't think that they would appreciate this cigar and I'm not saying that it's, it's, it's a weird kind of thing I'm trying to put together in my brain.
I don't think this cigar is above anyone. I don't think it's special. I don't think it's, uh, advanced. I just don't think it offers enough interesting flavor to capture someone who's. [01:03:00] Does that make any sense? Like I'm having difficulty kind of mapping it out. I think, you know, most cigars are an acquired taste and you have to acquire the taste over a journey of smoking various different cigars, new world and Cuban.
I think that's what this cigar requires. Someone that's smoked a bunch of cigars. For a few years and understands how to interpret it. I just think there's a lot of nuance here. There's a lot of nuance. 20, 23 box. Yeah, man. So, there's some merit to that. For 20 bucks. Yeah. And I gotta say, the Abregor 12 still, even in the home stretch here on the cigar, the Abregor 12 is really working very well.
I could use a refill. Oh, I'll pass it around. I can't touch it. Rooster, can you give it to the boys? Can't touch this. You can just wash your hands after. Can't touch this. I gotta say, ever since the cigar prank on Rooster, I love this [01:04:00] like, just still healthy level of animosity between Rooster and Pagoda.
deafening.
I've seen them. I, you know, I, I, I regret what I said about the La Gloria Cubana Turquinos when we did that episode and saying that anybody can go out and buy them because I think out of everything I've ever said or we've ever said, I've gotten more emails saying, dude, what the hell? I can't find them anywhere.
And they've been gone ever since. And I feel bad about it. So I have not had difficulty seeing or finding these, but I haven't purchased them in almost six or eight weeks now. So I don't know. And I, I don't know that again, having gotten this box when I did and looking at them, I was almost like, shit, like, where do I put these on the, the calendar for the lizards?
Like, is this going to be a good cigar tonight? You know, because this, this market [01:05:00] is not one that is celebrated by really anyone that we know now. On any of the groups. It's true. I mean, I've never heard someone say the words. I love Rafael Gonzalez. Yeah, not, not once.
But, um, the funny thing is I feel like years ago I used to see these pop up Everywhere. And I never was interested, you know, I didn't, I didn't know anything about this brand. I didn't really respect it very much so, and it was so affordable. I mean, I think Rooster said like, these were cheap years ago.
Yeah. And I honestly, I wish I would've tried this years ago because when they were so cheap, like sheer an everyday cigar, I would've thrown this in at some point. At, at that time, everything was cheap. When you can buy AD four for 12 bucks. And why would you buy a roughly Gonzalez? I know, but this you probably could have got for like seven.
Yeah, five, like seven. Yeah. See what's funny about you saying that is I actually have. Two boxes of the panatellas. They're very, very small, two boxes. I got them for a hundred bucks for 50 cigars as a, as like an add on [01:06:00] to an order at I I Havana's years ago. And they've been in the bottom of my tower ever since I've not even opened the boxes.
I'm like, I'm just going to let these roll for 10 years and maybe I'll try them down the road. Never even open them. This is making me want to do that. Like, never even smoked one of them, you know? Um, but the problem is, is I think, and they're filling the gap with this cigar, there was a hole in the line of size.
There was no kind of Robusto ish size in the line that I think I'd even be remotely interested in. Cause I'm not really a petite Corona Panatella smoker. But the Hermoso is fine. But the Hermoso, it works. You can slot this in somewhere. And I think tonight is a good example of that. But yeah, your point, I mean.
I never think about Rafael Gonzales. Ever. I love Rafael Gonzales. I love Rafael Gonzales.
That's so true. RG. So speaking of buying Cuban cigars, boys, I don't know if you guys [01:07:00] have seen this, but there's been a significant When I say significant, like double or triple the amount of seizures by United States Customs and Border Patrol of cigars coming in from overseas. Sorry, I thought you meant like medical seizures.
I was like, what are we talking about? Jesus. This is a cigar podcast. Dr. Gizmo over here. No, I've seen a lot of folks panicking about That's scary. They're shipping their tracking numbers, getting caught up at, at, uh, customs locations as they're coming in, they're shipping them in. And I'm saying from like every retailer, I've seen it from at least four or five and it seems what's happening.
So this is a warning to listeners out there. Be careful, do a little bit more research. Obviously make sure you're purchasing authentic Cuban cigars. Number one. Okay. Number two, kind of do some research on the forums that are out there. Um, And see what, what the experience has been with various retailers, because it seems like they're red flagging certain [01:08:00] retailers.
I don't know if it's the ship from address. I don't know if they've just put a mark on, you know, certain regions or certain countries shipping certain size boxes coming in. Um, but it seems like a lot of folks are losing, you know, incoming shipments. And it also seems. This is the compounding effect of that.
Of course, the retailer starting to slow down or stop their guarantees. Really? Yeah. So there's, there's quite a few, uh, retailers now, a lot of the major ones that we shop with still guarantee shipment. So if it gets seized, you either get a reshipment or they'll give you your money back. But there's, there's quite a few now that have no guarantee anymore.
Once it leaves their facility and they give you a tracking number and it's active, it's on you to deal with customs. Wow. Which is scary, of course, given the price of Cuban cigars right now, you know, so, you know, and that also then puts me into the question for you guys. Cause I saw this come up [01:09:00] as well.
Has anyone in this room even been buying Cuban cigars? Cause I have not. I have recently bought, you know, two boxes of that one cigar that you turned us on to. Which one? Schwa Supreme. Ah. Two boxes, maybe what, three weeks ago? Okay. And then prior to that I was stocking up on things I was running low on.
All Cuban cigars. No issues. No nothing. But iHavana's, right? Yeah, it was from I have. Yeah, which I love buying from. We all do. Yeah, they're great. Never issue with them. Yeah, they're excellent. They're an excellent retailer. Um, you know, the, the, the question I have because I've been thinking about it. I, I just haven't been aside from the podcast sourcing cigars for us to smoke, you know, obviously we're, I think we're all pretty fortunate.
We have a, you know, pretty good stock of cigars from the last, you know, the COVID years buying, but I just haven't been buying. You know, I kind of browse and I look, but I'm, I'm not pulling the trigger as much as I was. Yeah, I mean, for me, yeah, same. I mean, I do browse on [01:10:00] Bon Roberts or some other sites.
Yeah. You? But I No. I thought you were on a freeze. I thought you were done with them. I thought you owned Bon Roberts. But I look for sellers that are within the U S yeah, it's smart. It's smart. Yeah. Taking the risk. You know, honestly, when I first built my collection of Cubans, all of my purchases, 90 percent of them were from domestic distributors, domestic guys that we know that have a great stock and good cigar lists.
That's really the way to go. I took the opposite approach. You did, yeah. 90 percent of mine were from sites, and then 10 percent were like harder to find things that I can only get through some private sellers in the U. S. Yeah, I've kind of moved my buying, even the stuff I'm purchasing from the podcast, I'm trying to get stuff that's domestic, even if it comes with a little bit of a premium, just knowing that it's worth it.
When I get a tracking number, I'm going to actually receive the product. Like. You know, it's just spending that kind of money and then potentially losing those cigars and having to deal with, even if there's a guarantee, having [01:11:00] to deal with it, they make you wait 30 business days, which ends, which ends up being what, 45 or 50 actual days.
You know, you're looking two months before there's even a reship. Some of these retailers take 30 days to get the box from where they are to you, depending on where they are. There's this one thing if the cigars get confiscated and you get that letter in the mail, but it's another thing if you get a box through customs and there's a blade through your box.
Yeah, which a lot of guys have been getting. Yeah. Wait a minute. Yeah, they cut the cigars. They open the box. And you actually, they continue delivery, so you're punished. Is that right? You just take like a box cutter to the cigars. Ruin the cigars, and they re tape them with Customs and Border Patrol tape, and they send them to the house.
Wow. Because I guess they're viewing that as easier than having to fill out the paperwork. You know, which they do when they have to seize something. That's a formal process, you know, through the government, they have to actually file that. I'm getting goosebumps. File it. That is scary to global entry. And it's a, it's a whole thing.
Yeah. [01:12:00] Travel. I resent the implication back to the world for me, which is the benefit of doing a Cuban one week and a new world. The next year is we've discovered so many. You know, new worlds that you don't have any of those problems that are really, really reasonable. I mean, think about, we were talking about episode 99 with that Oliva V.
Lancero. I bought a box of those. Incredible. On Atlantic, I got them with VIP for like 5. 50. That's right. That's a quarter of the price of this. It's incredible. The cigar we're smoking tonight. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's unbelievable. You know, the value you can find there. So I guess the warning out there to, to, to listeners, to people who are purchasing cigars is just add another layer.
If you don't have enough already, add another layer of curiosity. So that's it. You know, for the, for guys and gals that are getting into the whole Cuban cigar hobby, I feel for them. It's tough. Yeah. Right now. It's tough. I mean, my only advice is just if you're going to buy, buy in small quantities now. I mean, it's like so sad to think, like I was talking about a 90 percent initially when I was stocking my town.
I know came from these sites. I mean, I, [01:13:00] I would order like 10, 15 boxes in one order and it was amazing. You'd get like four or five boxes that was like, literally it's Christmas. It was an incredible feeling, a volume of cigars. It was, it was awesome. And you didn't have to worry. I mean, they were just coming through left and right now.
I mean, I've only placed. In order for Cuban cigars, maybe one order in the last six months, and it was a 2011 up and on a hot house box that just quickly popped up on. I have it. So like I obviously had to pull the trigger on that, but I ordered just that one box. Good advice. Got through perfectly. It was actually insanely fast.
I placed the order on a Monday and I had it in hand the following Monday. Wow. Seven days. That's amazing. I've never ever had that fast shipping. Yeah. If I have. I mean, it's crazy. It takes longer from California sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah. But if you're doing a box or two at a time, I think that's great advice.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's what's interesting about it, Senator, is that it seems like the United States Postal Service has actually gotten a little more [01:14:00] efficient or faster with delivery. It's just the customs piece of it. I think has also gotten quote unquote better, you know, in that they're picking more stuff off and they're finding more cigars, you know, which is just a real tragedy because there's a lot of folks out there that are losing hard earned money and these retailers now are having to increase their prices to pay for the boxes that are lost.
So even though there's a guarantee, we're all still paying for it. It's true. You know, we're effectively paying for all those lost boxes and the prices that Have gone up as much as they have. So, yeah, there was a recent article where domestic cigar purchasing has gone up. Yeah. I wonder if the Cuban, how difficult that is to get Cuban product.
It has anything to do with that. I think the Cuban prices are playing into that. Yeah. Price is a big factor. Yeah. Price is a big factor. And, and, you know, risk. With inflation too, and, and how much harder it is to get everyday items and how much less spending money, you know, people have, you know, there's less disposable income to [01:15:00] throw into an overseas, uh, retailer to get Cuban cigars, you know, you're, you're having to do that kind of, you know, unfortunate.
math equation in your head of risk versus price versus availability versus, you know, are you actually going to get these cigars in your hand and smoke them? Is the stress worth it? Nope. I'm just kidding. And that's all for today. Yeah. So that's a warning to our lizard listeners out there. Just be able to add another layer of caution on your, uh, your purchasing, even when you're purchasing for a, uh, you know, from a known.
Authentic supplier. The other, I mean, there's a huge advantage with new worlds that I feel that you can buy singles. Yeah. You can go to sites, you can try on different stuff. Yeah. And it's, it's great because you can buy a fiber, you can buy singles, you can just, you know. That's true. You can go deep. Yep.
All right, boys. So we're [01:16:00] coming to the end of our evening here with the Abelard 12 and the Rafael Gonzalez Coronas de Lonsdales. Any final thoughts here before we move into our ratings? I think overall, a very nice, well rounded experience. Great cigar. I agree. No complaints at all. What's shocking to me as an overall comment on the cigar, prior to rating it, is that the second half, for how young it is, the second half was actually quite a bit better than the first half for me, which I'm, I, you know, which is a really nice thing.
Usually it's the other way around. Certainly with something this young. Initial notes were very good. Right on the light it was really delicious. Yeah, so it, I think both were very good, just different. Yeah. The fruit notes that you get in the initial half, let's say, was fantastic. I'm about an inch away and I'm getting really beautiful deep earth notes, coffee, and it's still quite enjoyable.
No sharp ends at all. I really enjoyed the first third, and then the middle was okay, then the last third was, [01:17:00] it picked up in strength. Yeah. It was, it was good. Yeah. All right boys, so let's start with the Abogor 12. Let's do our formal liquor rating. Bam, you're up. This thing is a nine. No ice, pleasurable.
No issues at all, delicious, easy drinking. For the price, nine. Okay, Pagoda. Yeah, uh, well, this is a tough one. Uh, I'll rate it as an eight. I really like the Belvenie. And, you know, I think, uh, subconsciously I've been really trying to evaluate between the two. And, uh, you know, I kind of agree with Senator's comments that it's not, it doesn't have as much, I guess, body.
It feels a bit lighter. It feels like a little sweeter kind of a drink. It's very pleasurable without ice. Um, I myself didn't put any cubify, so it was really good and it really complemented the scar really well. So it's an eight for me. Senator. Yeah, I, I think I'm with Pagoda. I'm, I'm a solid eight. I, [01:18:00] I really like Albalor.
I think the 12 years probably, One of the best values that you can get, really, of any 12 year. Um, I mean, it's hard to find a 12 year anymore that's 50 or less. So, um, I think it definitely deserves credit there. I do really enjoy, I mean, we love anything in a Sherry cask. And this is as Sherry forward of a scotch, I think, that exists.
Period. And so I really love that. The only reason for me it's not a 9 or a 10, it just doesn't have complexity. So like, you know, I do appreciate in everything really Balvini makes, especially what McAllen makes you get multi, I think you get at least three to five like flavor notes as you're enjoying it.
This, I think you get like two, maybe three. Um, and so for me, this slots in as like every day, um, at the lounge, watching a football game, I'm going to have several drinks. Maybe not just one happily reach for this. If I'm going to have one drink and I want something with some complexity, that's going to [01:19:00] really leave an impression that I might pull from a calendar, Balvini.
So, um, it's definitely has a place. It always has. I have several bottles of this at home. I, I stocked them certainly here at the lounge every now and then. So, um, an eight and a, and still a strong recommend. Yeah. So for me, it's a nine and I'll tell you why everything that he just said actually pushes me to a nine.
Me too. In that. For me, I like that it, it doesn't have as much body. And I think for me, it pairs really well with Cuban cigars. Like I think about some of the more, let's say, medium Cuban cigars that I smoke on a regular basis. I think this I'm actually kind of mad at myself that I haven't even thought about this Scotch in almost a hundred episodes, almost two years.
I purchased this bottle after that, and it's been sitting on my shelf since. And I'm kind of irritated with myself that for a 50 Scotch. For how well it pairs with Cuban cigars like it, it does give you that sweetness. It is very sherry forward it, it doesn't have as much oomph to it. And [01:20:00] I think for me there's merit in that.
There's huge merit and it doesn't overwhelm the Cuban profile. And it's perfect for any Cuban cigar that you want to have with it. Now with an exi. Probably not. You want that Belvini 12 or even the 14 year Caribbean cask. Yeah, and you know, I think about that, uh, the Padrone, uh, 50, 50th anniversary you did on episode 100.
Like, I think this scotch would be a little weak compared to that cigar, right? Or an 80th. We always talk about the Padrone 80th. I had one of those last night. This is, I'm reaching for McCallan there. But with the Cuban profile specifically, This scotch is perfectly in line with that smoking experience. I do see the 8 rating because the versatility is limited in that way.
I agree. And so it's like, that's like, I flip what Senator said. I agree. Like it works for me at a 9. So the formal liquor rating, boys, is an 8. 5. Nice rating. Perfectly fair. And I do think the Cuban cigar Point about how well it pairs is a really good one. I do [01:21:00] agree with that. Yep. All right So let's move on to the formal lizard rating of the Rafael Gonzalez Corona Stallone stales rooster.
You're up Yeah So I'm kind of trying to compare like this cigar with some of the other new stuff that we have had lately And the LGC Turquino's kind of comes to mind. I mentioned, I mentioned that earlier. Yeah. And the same similar price point, I think. Right. There were around 20. That was 25. I think. Uh, I think there was a little more than that.
There's certainly more tobacco in it. No doubt. Yeah. I think it was more, I think it was, I think for a box of 10 of those, 240, I think it was like 240, 250, I mean, that to me was. A better cigar than this one, but although I did enjoy this in the, in the beginning and then the middle was kind of muted for me and then the last third kind of picked up in strength, I don't know if I would like run and go and buy a box of this.
I'm not sure. So for that reason, I'm kind of between a seven and an eight. I'm [01:22:00] gonna, uh, all right, forget I made that face. I'm gonna give it an, I'll, I'll give it an eight. There you go. Bam. Pushed it. All right. Senator, do you want to change it? Uh, no, I wouldn't
know. For me, it's a solid eight. I, um, there, there was not a single point. Really in the cigar that I was unhappy or disappointed in any way. I, I, I'm shocked. I'm, I'm just honestly surprised. I never thought in my wildest dreams that a Raphael Gonzales cigar, I would score an eight and actually say I enjoyed.
And I really did. I think the flavor profile is good. I like some of the New World esque notes, um, and the Monty esque notes that you get throughout this cigar. The only thing I will say is for as much. As much as there are rich flavors in this that I like, none are [01:23:00] overly pronounced at any point where I'm like, I have to have another one of these.
Like I'm not pursuing it in the same way that certain cigars, like really leave an impression with a particular note that is so pronounced that I really love. So I'm not, I would not buy a box of these, but if someone gave me one of these, would I smoke one again? Absolutely. If I had a, you know, if I was somewhere traveling and.
Another country and I could get a single what I smoke one. Sure. So for me, it's a solid eight So I'm in the same boat, you know eight all day I think the question I have the question I have, you know, if I'm gonna go between a seven and an eight is First off value, right? So I think the values here. So that pushes it to an eight.
I'm kind of Hesitant with how this is gonna age like we talked about. I just don't see this Improving to some sort of lofty It doesn't have lofty potential for me. [01:24:00] It's hard to know that. I'm just not sensing it. You know, Puba always uses that word preview. Like this doesn't preview in a way to me, like the Turquinos I think is a cigar that for how excellent it was when we smoked it young, it really, I think previewed really, really well.
So, you know, it's, it's, it's an eight for me. I did toy with a seven, but because of value, because of availability and because of its freshness and how young it is, I think eight is the right number. Pagoda, uh, yeah, so, uh, the cigar was, uh, really, really nice and very pleasant, meaning I, you know, I always, uh, seek this really pleasant flavor which is left in my, you know, in my mouth, and it definitely delivered from that perspective.
Um, You know, while smoking the cigar, I was thinking, what are you going to, like, I continue to rate the cigar as I'm smoking, whether it's seven, eight, nine, you know, what I'm feeling with this cigar, I think I kind of fell eight continuously, like it's one of the cigars, which is not [01:25:00] really deviate much from where I started.
Um, having said that, you know, I do understand it may be value for some, but I think for 20 bucks, you have a lot of optionality, meaning there's so many other options available for 20 bucks a stick. You know, I would rather do a Dominicana over this, right? For 20 bucks a stick. Like, so it just, I think if it was 15, maybe it'd be a different story.
But for me, is the value really, considering it's a Cuban, maybe there's value, but is there value in comparing it to the overall, you know, the cigar inventory? Um, You know, it made me think. But having said that, very pleasant. I think anybody who gets a stick of this is going to enjoy it. Uh, you know, I did enjoy portions of it.
Love the construction, love the smoke output. Excellent. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Bam, you're welcome. No, it's like, it's like you did [01:26:00] this.
Hey, I gave my, uh, give a peace of mind. You're a polite guy. Bam. You know, I liked the cigar from the beginning. Yeah, initially I was between an eight and a nine, right? To the halfway point, and you mentioned it did plateau, not in a bad way, but it kind of, I'm not going to use the word muddled, but it leveled off.
But then, I happen to like how some cigars, not all, they ramp up in flavor and a little pepper. This did it in a way where, for me, it was a little velvety, and it wasn't offensive at all. I can't go to nine, but I think it is a solid eight. It's a solid eight for that reason. So there you go. Don't need to do the math on that boys.
Formal lizard rating is an 8. 0. Honestly, you know, I would, I would buy a box of these just to have, because I'd like a variety from time to time. So let's look at some of the other ratings that compare to both the cigar we did tonight and the, uh, and the scotch. First in the hormosis number [01:27:00] four category, I of course want to look at the El Rey Del Mundo Schwa Supreme.
Actually did not perform well. Episode 22, 7. 8. No, that's a mistake. New box. Yeah, it must've been a, it must've been a weak, weak box there because the ones I've had since then. Have been much better. Can you call out who rated what that on that cigar? Is that too much work? I can. I know I gave it, I think an eight or a nine.
Everybody gave it an eight except rooster seven. He gave it a seven. I think the Reggio's I remember to be much better. Yeah, that was a 2015 box. I think, have you had any schwa since? Yeah, but I, again, there's, you know, they have some age on them, so they're awesome. So this St. Louis Ray Regios that Rooster just mentioned on episode 52, got an 8.
8. That was a great cigar. That was a great cigar. I actually went out and got some because of that. Wasn't that older? Uh, it had a little age on it for sure. Yeah. So Senator, when we were going [01:28:00] through the history of Aberlour, you were mentioning some of the other Sister brands that we've actually recorded on the podcast.
You want to call some of those out, and I'll, uh, I'll throw out the ratings? Yeah, so, um, they own, uh, Chivas. We'll start there. You that one. We'll start there. That's a 9 for gifts. A 9. Uh, that, we rated that... We rated that a 7. 8. Chivas Regal, 18. Terrible. They also own Glen Levitt. Okay, Glenlivet, we did two, we did the Glenlivet 12, which got an 8, and the Glenlivet 18, which I remember being excellent, a 9.
3. Delicious, delicious spirit. Uh, Martell. Martell, the VSOP Cognac got an 8. 4. Cognac. Uh, Greenspot. Green spot that got a 7.8 that didn't perform as well as I remember. You know why is we did that with the Opus X perfection. 8, 8, 8. So maybe that's why. Yeah. [01:29:00] That's a tough night to, we may need to, we may need to re revisit the, uh, the green spot.
We, we were getting notes of tar that night. , . Did we rate, uh, red breast? We did not. No. Okay. They own red breasts. We're gonna have to do that. We did that very early on. We have to do a rating on that. And I think those are the main ones that we've done at least so far. So at an 8. 5 it performed very well tonight.
Yeah. All right, boys, an excellent night. So an 8. 5 for the Aberlour 12 single mulled scotch and a flat 8. 0. Bam is still smoking that cigar. I like it. He's got the roach clip. I can't say that I hate the cigar. It's a pretty good cigar. And the Rafael Gonzalez Corona Stellansdales ended up at a flat 8. 0.
An excellent night boys, and uh, we'll see everybody next week.
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards, pod. com. That's [01:30:00] lounge lizards, P O D. com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello at lounge lizards pod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.