Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The lizards pair Arturo Fuente's Don Carlos Eye of the Shark with 12 year aged Aberlour Scotch. Senator dives into Fuente brand history and the guys discuss storing your cigars in a locker and the TV show Yellowstone.
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!
**Gizmo:** [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, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda, Grindr, and bam bam, a full house of lizards.
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 12th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
Senator will give us some history on Fuente. We discuss storing your cigars in a locker, as well as our love of the television show, Yellowstone all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair our Torah. Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the shark with 12 year aged Avalo Scotch.
A lizard [00:01:00] delicacy tonight, the Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the Shark, which is, I mean, you'll never, you won't find another cigar that looks like this. It's a, uh, ra robusto that at the top is a Bella Coso rounded and then goes into a box, press all the way to the foot. I mean, just an unbelievable presentation of course, comes in a great box from, from Fuente, as they always do, but just a beautiful, beautiful cigar.
And these are very hard to find and damn do we love 'em. Mm-hmm. ,
**Poobah:** do we love 'em? Yeah. It's really a box press torpedo because it's, it's a, it just goes straight down.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's amazing. It's really, it's gotta be difficult to roll, right? I mean, it's gotta be difficult to put this together, how, how they do this.
Yeah. So, alright, let's cut it. See what we got on the cold draw and the wrapper. So the, uh, the Don Carlos line has been around for quite some time, 1976. This shape in the Don Carlos line was not [00:02:00] released until 2017, and in that year, uh, was rated in 97 in Cigar Aficionado and was the number one cigar of the year.
So, um, this is definitely a, a well regarded and loved cigar. That's, uh, 2017, right? Yeah, 2017 when I first came out, first year it came out, it was number one big fan of the cigar. I mean, it's, it's
**Poobah:** so good. It's it's a cookie. Yeah, it's a crack dude. Is this a, is this a Graham cracker? Graham cracker, yeah. I was
**Gizmo:** about to say that cookie.
It's the most dessert, like stick I've ever had. The shark. Just an unbelievable cigar.
**Poobah:** This is, yeah. The cold draw is just, it's different .
**Grinder:** It's built different,
**Poobah:** it's built different. It's, it's, it's, it's wild.
**Gizmo:** My draw is absolutely perfect by the. Same. Same.
**Grinder:** How's your cut
**Senator:** giz? Great. Cut. Come on. Oh yeah, we gotta make sure.
Alrighty. It still looks like a beso at the top. Well done
**Gizmo:** Gizz. Bunch of ball busters in the lizards here. All right, [00:03:00] boys, let's like this thing. The Don Carlos eye of the shark from Arturo Fuente. So this has been sitting for a while, right?
**Senator:** Yeah. So in my, so as the supplier, I, I opened a fresh box for the lizards.
I supplied this for tonight. Thank you, Senator. This has been sitting a year at least, at least at probably over a year in my humidor. So there is already heavy age on this cigar, but it's also got some extra ages sitting in my humidor for, uh, a good period of time.
**Gizmo:** All right, let's light this thing up.
It's a beautiful ramboo, five and three quarters by 52 ring gauge.
**Senator:** Just the first draw. I'm sorry. The aroma I'm getting unbelievable. These wallets being lit is like I'm in some sort of like a pastry shop or like baking factory. This is unbelievable. So good. .
**Gizmo:** Whenever we get Carlito Fuente on the pod, we just gotta do this one again.
**Grinder:** I mean, yes. [00:04:00] We just, we gotta where
**Bam Bam:** you he what's
**Gizmo:** just doing? We need a back door. We need a backdoor source for this
**Grinder:** cigar. Drew. He's drew a dating, an infusing graham cracker cookie into the, the shark. Wow. He's feeding the shark graham
**Gizmo:** cooker. The light on these is so special every single time.
**Poobah:** So I, I like to wait.
I don't even mess. I don't even mess around. I take time with the
**Gizmo:** light. Yeah. I would like to give this a rating of 10 . Yeah. Can we give, can we give, can we
**Grinder:** jump, jump to the rating ? I know what I'm gonna give it already 10. It is
**Gizmo:** on the open. Yeah. These are very, very hard to find. Why is that? I think it's because they've gotta be so hard to supply, supply and
**Senator:** demand
Oh, it's not even that. I mean, look, right, they're just so hard to, to roll. I mean, let's, let's take demand completely out of the equation. There are only three cigars that are made in this shark size that someone coined years ago. So the Don Carlos Shark, the Opus Shark, and the [00:05:00] Artur Fuente Anejo shark.
Those are the only three made in this size to roll a cigar that looks as outrageous as this does with this beso at the end, like his said, and it just flares out and gets larger, and then his box press at the end. I mean, this is not easy to do. And you know, Fuente is very guarded about exactly what's in this cigar as they've, they clearly there's some magic here.
And the wrapper is an, is an African Cameroon wrapper, the. tobacco inside is all from the Dominican, but they don't say much else beyond that. What they do, say the, the tobacco is heavily aged, I'd have to guess five, seven years. Uh, but beyond that, we don't know a whole lot more. And, um, I think because of clearly the aging required and what they put into this and how hard this must be to roll, they don't produce a ton of these cigars.
So you add into it, of course, the demand, and that just exacerbates the problem. But [00:06:00] yeah, I mean, I
**Grinder:** It's talent, just talent like this, this whole thi this whole cigar is talent. Yeah. The way they age it, the, obviously the leaves, whoever fucking rolls this thing, you know, the, the band on it, the presentation of the box, the flavor is obviously out of this world.
It's, it's
**Gizmo:** really something special.
So
**Rooster:** tobaccos that are in this, I mean, they're aged tobaccos and I think they're grown in the Chateau Fuente, their own very special farm that they grow, you know, a lot of the, uh, maybe the opus blends and the shark.
**Gizmo:** That's right.
**Grinder:** Boxes. I didn't know. I didn't know it was, so there's DC Opus X and the other one.
What was the other one? Yeah, ne So they all come in the shark. Viola, yeah. Yeah. I've never, we should, have you ever had the, any of the others? I've had, I've had all of them. Yeah, I have. So how would you compare?
I
**Senator:** have two. So I mean, the, the reason I was happy to provide this tonight, th this I think is the best of any of the sharks that are made.
I've had the opus shark, which is also an outstanding smoke. There's some [00:07:00] debate, I think even among the lizards. For me, my personal preference is the Don Carlo shark over the opus shark. I know there are some guys that feel differently. Um, and the in Aho shark, it is a really, really dark wrapper. Yeah.
It's straight sugar and molasses and just a
**Bam Bam:** really intense, it's a full body smoke, full body smoke, full flavor. Really intense.
**Senator:** Yeah. And so for this size, this is a big cigar. It, it's just a little too much for me to, to appreciate fully. It's not a bad cigar, but any stretch, I won't criticize it, but it's just, it's a lot for something this big.
And, uh, for me, the Don Carlo shark is just what checks every box. Yeah. And, and why I love this cigar, because I
**Grinder:** love, I love everything that Opus X has . I've never had a bad one, so I'm curious to if eventually to do like a, you know, a dual between the Opus X, the
**Gizmo:** opus shark. I mean, if
**Rooster:** you have had a, like a really old opus, like when they first came out, [00:08:00] they were very different than the current ones.
Really the opus now it's got a set for a while, at least a few years. If you had an opus when the first came out m that was like good, maybe like 12, 15 years ago when they. . I mean, those offices, they were phenomenal. And we had the pleasure to have a double, I think it was a double Corona, a double rob Robusto, double robo.
That's right. Of ours. Had, and he, you know, was generous enough to let us try them. Well,
**Gizmo:** we forced him to share them, forced him to try
**Rooster:** and they were unbelievable. Unbelievable. They were, they sat in his humidor or cabinet for like good six, seven years and they were unreal. Unreal. So, I mean, to me, like this, this is a great stick.
I mean, I prefer the opus over this. It's a slightly more complex, more balanced, little smoothed out. So, but you know, if you can ever find it, I mean they're so hard to, even this one [00:09:00] is so hard to find, but the opus forget it.
**Gizmo:** You just don't come across it
**Poobah:** that
**Bam Bam:** often. I think the Opus has a bit more flavor profile than this, but this I think is much creamier.
So,
**Grinder:** which much smoother? Which one was like the cigar of the year? The DC or this one? This one here. This one? Yeah. So, and what's funny to me is when we, when we talk about these cigars and discussing the flavors and all this other fun stuff, right? We immediately do, you know, the comparison in our minds, right?
Every cigar we have, it's like, how is this rate to the other one that I've had or a recent cigar? Cuz it we're always relying on that, on that kind of po pori of flavors that we're, that we're balancing and tasting. And I find it fascinating that we're always, no matter what taste tasting or cigar smoking session we're having, or a podcast, we're always comparing it to another, another Cuban, another, you know, Fuente or whatever.
**Gizmo:** Right. Senator, I know you know a little bit about the Fuente family and, and the [00:10:00] history here. What can you share with us the kind of color or, uh, understanding of Yeah, so it,
**Senator:** it's funny, I, I'm not a huge Fuente guy and I, I love the, I feel like we all love the family history we talked about Pedro, that's a, you know, generations of family have run that business and Fuente is actually very similar run in the same vein.
So just in, in just doing a little homework and, and just reading about, uh, the history and how they got here, I think it's very fascinating. So Fuente was established in 1912 in Tampa, Florida. At the time they were importing Cuban tobacco, but rolling the cigars there in Tampa, following a catastrophic fire in 1924.
So 12 years after the business started, uh, the brand ceased production for 22 years. Wow. They essentially didn't have the money to start from scratch. The whole factory burned to the ground. and it reemerged in 1946 on a limited local basis. And this was one of the funniest parts of this story. So Arturo Fuente, who of course founded the [00:11:00] brand when it reemerged just locally, he had his son Carlos, and his siblings roll 50 cigars a day after school
That's literally how he restarted the brand. I mean, I'm sure now there are like child labor loss probably against that, but that's how it started. So he was just selling and distributing locally in, in the area. And then in 1958, Arturo transferred the company to his son Carlos, for a dollar to essentially try to build and grow it.
And so Carlos Sr. Knew the only way at that point to really monetize and stay in business was either to go the machine route because they didn't have the labor. They couldn't afford to have all these people hand rolling these cigars. Or to go elsewhere to move the operation. And so, um, they first went to Nicaragua, later went to Honduras, and both of those didn't work out.
So in Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, [00:12:00] uh, their uprising forced the Fuentes out of Nicaragua. Then in Honduras, this fire thing becomes a theme because their factory in Honduras also burned down in that time period while they were in those two countries. The Don Carlos brand was born in 1976. Fast forward to 1980, this was sort of the last ditch effort, right?
They've struck out Nicaragua, Honduras, the factory, burns down. Carlos Sr. Mortgaged his home and cashed out his retirement to try to bring the brand back and moved it to the Dominican Republic where it still exists today. Obviously that was a very good bet. So Tabba, Clara Fuente, the big factory that's still there, where they produce, you know, most of the cigars that they make that opened its doors in 1980.
And Carlos senior's son, who was 26 years old at the time, Carlito, who now today we know obviously runs the brand. Um, he was [00:13:00] instrumental in really establishing the brand in the Dominican and growing it to what it has become today. Um, and then eventually in 1995, Carlito launched Opus X, which is another brand within Fuente, uh, uh, uh, the the Fuente brand.
And so that, this was the thing that fascinated me. I never knew this until I read this. Opus X was the first Dominican Piro cigar period ever, ever Dominican Piro. Wow. Hmm. Never knew that. Hmm. So, just a fascinating family story. If you just see, I mean, three generations of Fuentes, essentially very similar to the the patron model.
That have run, owned and operated that
**Gizmo:** business. That's pretty incredible.
**Poobah:** Well, that's an, I didn't know that. That's interesting. The first Dominican Pirro.
**Senator:** Can we get into the
**Gizmo:** flavor? I was just gonna say, I mean, what are you guys getting on this? Oh my
**Senator:** God, it's unbelievable. I have to start, I'm sorry. I, it's, you know, look, I, obviously, I love this cigar, but I haven't had one of [00:14:00] these actually.
Wow. This is sad. I know exactly the last time I had one of these. It was a year ago. So these, these have definitely been in my humidor for then. Well over a year rooster's. Exactly right. Because the last time I lit this cigar up, it was, this was May, no, no, no. May or June. We were with you way earlier. We, we were with you.
Sorry. Maybe I did light one up in between there. Yeah, we were with you. Yeah. But the time that I vividly remember it was in my lounge here with my father on Christmas Eve of last year, and that was the first time he had ever had the Don Carlos shark. And the two of us were just sitting here. . I mean, again, I've smoked a lot of these and every single time, and that's why even, I guess I had one, maybe May or June, but I've only had one then in the past, you know, year and every time it gets me, and it's the complexity of the flavors because when I'm getting right off the light, I'm getting citrus honey, like a, a sweet honey [00:15:00] creamy flavor and, um, that, that gingerbread, baking spice.
It, it's just my goodness, shortbread it, it's incredible. It's woody,
**Rooster:** right? You get like woodiness, little bit musty and you know, and definitely the citrus. It's got
**Gizmo:** some citrus. It's like, it's like a lemon meringue pie
**Bam Bam:** in a cigar. I am getting a bit of baking spice in this thing. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Now on the retro hill.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's really, it's, it's a, it's a really, it's a complex, sophisticated, very, very elegant. Smoke. You know, it's, it's something to behold. It's a, it's, this is, this is an ultra premium cigar in my opinion. That, uh, everyone I've ever smoked has just been outstanding. That they're just so good. Um,
**Grinder:** I have such a weird flavor profile that I'm getting now.
[00:16:00] You're, everyone's ears are probably perking up. Cause I have such a bizarre association with flavors. I'm getting like, sh short ribs,
I'm getting like a, I'm getting like a, my yard reaction from like a, a good, a good steak.
**Poobah:** Like, like the, the glazing of a pan. I'm serious. I don't get that
No. This has a lot of dessert flavors too. You, yeah,
**Bam Bam:** it does. Oh
**Poobah:** yeah. Not meat. It's got
**Bam Bam:** spice though. No, no meat here.
**Grinder:** Well, not meat. Not meat. Like meat for meat's sake. Like my yard meat, like charred, like good, you know, rendered
**Poobah:** beef, beef, .
**Grinder:** That's been, that's
**Poobah:** been, well, premium prime beef. , clearly Wagyu, Wagyu.
I'm, I'm, this is
**Gizmo:** to me a, a dessert like, to, to go on what senator was saying. I mean, citrus [00:17:00] baking, like, it's like, it, it's literally a, a lemon meringue pie and a cigar for me.
**Bam Bam:** It's not a, it's not a flavor bomb though. It's I think very, it's so smooth. It's smooth and elegant and you're getting those
**Grinder:** notes,
**Senator:** but I still think you get a lot
**Bam Bam:** of flavor.
Oh, you get a lot of flavor. Yeah. That's, for me, it's not a bomb flavor bomb, but I'm getting a ton of, for me, baking, no baking spice.
It's
**Poobah:** so
**Gizmo:** different
**Rooster:** than a Cuban cigar. Yeah. Right. Yeah. The flavors are very different. Yeah.
**Senator:** The other thing is the construction of this cigar. I mean, I remember, so I, ironically, and I, I have to give Rooster credit the first time I ever had this cigar.
Rooster gave me one of these, we were at a lounge of ours and I had heard about this cigar. It's hard to find. And um, they usually pop up at, like, at, at tobacco shops and retailers, especially around the holidays is usually when Fuente will ship these out. And uh, you gotta get 'em quickly cuz everybody buys them up.
And uh, I remember just seeing the shape. It was just so outrageous to me. And this is the one of the only cigars and I can count on [00:18:00] one hand and we've all smoked hundreds if not thousands of cigars. The one of the only cigars that I've smoked all the way down to the end without ashing a single time. I have a photo from that Christmas Eve smoking here with my dad and I just, I couldn't, it's just this, I'm looking at everyone's scar, beautiful white ash to.
and it just holds on for dear life. The, the construction is just, it, it's something to marvel at. I've, I, there are only three cigars made in this shape and how it burns so evenly and so perfectly. I just am always captivated by, as I'm sitting there watching the cigar, this thing is built
**Grinder:** like a skyscraper.
It's built for, it's built for sturdy, you know, you know, draw
**Gizmo:** It is, it's very firm. It's, it's, it's packed ti uh, it's densely packed, but the draw is great. It's just constructed really well. Like you said, it's like an art form, what they're doing with the cigar. I [00:19:00] mean, even like you mentioned, but down to the band.
I mean, the Don Carlos band is like a, is like an embossed thick piece of paper. I mean, it's, it's everything that they're doing with, with the line is just a, a plus plus. I, I mean, I like
**Grinder:** the cigar in any shape though, you know? Yeah. This one especially is just the pinnacle. . Well, a
**Poobah:** lot of, the, lot of the, a lot of the don't think, but I don't think the other cigars that, from the line that I've had taste anything like this.
Agree. I mean, they do agree, but they, I totally agree with you. But, but this is completely a standout. I
**Senator:** agree. For me, I've had, uh, rooster, we've had this cigar. What, what's the other Don Carlos that comes in that black box? It's, it's an anniversary of the Don Carlos. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's the, uh, is that the 80th? It might be the mans 80th.
I think it's called The Mans Anniversary.
**Senator:** And that's a very good cigar. But to what Puba just said, I, I completely agree. It's not complex like this. There, there's no Don Carlos that I've [00:20:00] had That is, I I mean this is just one of the best cigars period.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I haven't had a new world cigar that tastes anything like this.
Right. I haven't had a cigar at all that tastes anything like what the cigar tastes like. It just, it's kind of, which makes it really cool cuz it's, it's like special all. on its own. Um, even though it has that same band, it has the, it's, it's technically part of the same line, but it's just, but it's not the same.
Well, that
**Grinder:** goes to me, that goes to like the, the, the commentary on how much a shape can influence a
**Poobah:** blend. Yeah. But is it all that we don't know? I don't think that, I don't, I'm not sure that
you
**Senator:** think it's a different blend. No, it's, it is a different, it's gotta be our turf. Fuente says it's a different blend.
Okay.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Because there's no way it's the same blend. It wouldn't, I've, I've had other cigars from the [00:21:00] line, and then they're just not, they just don't taste like this. I
**Bam Bam:** don't think they're aging fillers as long as they do for this cigar and the rest of their line.
**Senator:** And this is a, as, I mean the premier, premier Tobacco Oh yeah.
I mean, this is the best cigar Don Carlos makes. Period.
**Grinder:** It's
**Bam Bam:** one of the best cigars in the world. Agreed. Wow. We're smoking the best cigar in the world. You know what's amazing is the, you get enjoyment on both ends. The smoke output, it's quite, it's really tasty. It smells
**Grinder:** awesome. The, the, the after fantastic.
The after scent aroma is, yeah. Exceptional. Yeah,
**Poobah:** yeah, yeah.
**Rooster:** It's the best cigar out of Dominican Republic. . It's
**Gizmo:** pretty loud.
**Senator:** I mean, that, that's, I'm sorry. Like, first of all, if, if that's true, which I'm happy to have that debate cuz I, I think it's definitely top three out of the Dominican Republic. Um, that's high praise.
Is this a, I mean, Davidoff
**Rooster:** is out of, it's, I think it's top of the Dominican. That's
**Gizmo:** what I'm saying. Like that's, I mean, what, what, what else do you put in
**Rooster:** the
**Gizmo:** top? . [00:22:00]
**Senator:** I mean the Chef's Edition, we Chef's
**Gizmo:** Edition came outta there. Yeah, yeah, that's true. But is
**Poobah:** that, was that a Dominican pur though? No, neither is
**Gizmo:** this, this is either this Dominican pur,
**Poobah:** this isn't
**Gizmo:** either Captain Cameron neither
**Senator:** on
**Gizmo:** this.
Yeah. And the other, cause
**Poobah:** it's got the African it then you, this is a truly, this is like an going back to to uh, to what we were when we were talking about Liga. This is like a real blend. They're, you know, that's
**Senator:** a lot of Davidoff too. I mean that's a lot of new worlds. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's what we're talking, it's a lot of new world.
**Poobah:** I mean this is a really unique, I think it's, this is an expression, uh, kind of going back to, we talked about with the, with Liga. Um, not really to compare the, the, the T nine to, to, to this, but, uh, cuz that's not, wouldn't be even fair. But I think that, that it's an expression of creativity that is interesting.
**Gizmo:** I, I was shocked when I read that this only came [00:23:00] out five years ago. This cigar. I mean, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's, it only came out in 2017. It's, it's, and obviously then they, they poured this size to Opus and to, uh, the, in Aho, but, um, I, I, I was surprised because this is a very high praise, well regarded, and like, like Senator said, when it pops up, it goes fast.
Like the box I found, I, I found in the, in the Dominican, there were none in the States. Like it's a very, very hard cigar to find. I got mine
**Grinder:** off the back of the truck.
**Poobah:** in Secaucus .
**Senator:** The thing I love about the shape, I love a torpedo, and I love just about any box press, cigar, and the idea of being able to combine those two things.
I, I mean, man, just incredible. You
**Rooster:** know how you can tell this is not a Cuban. The band
**Gizmo:** just came right off. Yeah. Just opens up . There was, there was no
**Senator:** struggle. [00:24:00] You mean you didn't rip the wrapper while you were, uh, ? No struggle
**Gizmo:** at all. You know, we, we've talked about Patronal a lot, uh, obviously on the pod, and, and this is the first fun tape we had, first of many.
But, uh, I, I think we've talked about it before, but, uh, you know, smoking this again under the microscope of the podcast, it really makes me excited for that upcoming pairing that they're putting out this summer. Uh, honoring each other's fathers. Like, I can't wait to see what Fuente does for the, you know, uh, Jose Padron and, and, uh, Padron does for, uh, uh, Carli Del Puente's dad can't
**Bam Bam:** wait for you to procure those
**Gizmo:** for us.
No, it's definitely, I I will be all over that. Please. I promise you that. I can't wait. You
**Poobah:** know, it's, it's, um, it's not strong. It's elegant. . Um, and it's sophisticated. That's what it feels like, at least to me. Um, [00:25:00] it's, um, and I think the person who's gonna smoke it and really appreciate it is someone who is, is an afic, is somewhat of an aficionado.
I mean, you gotta to really appreciate this, you gotta understand to get the kind of flavor that you're getting out of this takes a lot of effort, craftsmanship, um, and, and like master blending to really blend something like this. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's pretty artisanal.
**Grinder:** I think you need a diversified palette to, to appreciate it.
And, and you know, some, someone who has had the strong cigars, has had the medium body, has had the lighter cigars, but full flavor. Someone who can kind of go around all the different sections of someone's. Flavor profile. You
**Poobah:** know, I mean, this doesn't taste Cuban, but it's like, it's in my wheelhouse. [00:26:00] It doesn't taste Cuban.
**Grinder:** Not at all. It doesn't have, it has, to me, it has
**Poobah:** no Cuban Cuban profile qualities whatsoever. But what it does have is that kind of like medium, but full flavored delivery. That's so satisfying. Like to me, that's like the sweet spot Senator. That's your sweet spot. That's like, where it's like, it's delivering this like long, like you, you blow the smoke outta your mouth, right?
And then it's like it has this finish that just lasts and I can still taste it, right? It's like it's still on your palate and it's just hanging out. And to me that's a sophisticated, complex cigar, not something that's gonna blow my hair back. Um, full flavored. Medium powered, very sophisticated smoke. And, and
**Senator:** to your point, Puba, I mean obviously, you know, we're not ever gonna suggest that this is like a Cuban, but [00:27:00] there are certain elements of it, you know, these sort of shortbread flavors, dessert like flavors you get out of this, you know, that's the kind of thing that reminds me of things that you would get out of like an Upk Cuban.
I was
**Poobah:** just about to say that. It's exactly what, like, it reminds me of some of the qualities you get out of an aged up men two or, or like, you know, when you're just, it gives you that, that really wonderful thing that you need sometimes, which is kind of this, these baking spices, these, a little bit of citrus, a little bit of it.
It's delicious. It actually, it makes my, made the hairs in the back of my neck stand up. I'm not trying to sound like a loser. No, it's true, but it's. But it, this is a great fucking
**Grinder:** cigar. It tastes like a Lorna Dune. It's like a Lorna. If, if there was a Lorna Dune cookie
**Poobah:** cigar,
**Gizmo:** it's a great cigar. I, to me, it, it just, when I smoke the cigar, time just slows down a little bit.[00:28:00]
Like, it, it really demands your appreciation and your, your, uh, and, and your time.
**Bam Bam:** It takes time to smoke the
**Poobah:** cigar. Yeah. It's, it's, yeah. You take your time. You don't ru I don't rush it. It's great.
**Gizmo:** And you know, the s msrp on the cigar, by the way, is only $12 and 50 cents. No, it's not. Good luck. Good luck finding it.
No, I'm saying the s msrp P is, I know that's not where you're gonna find it. That's the, the s msrp on the cigar according to ca.
**Senator:** Yeah, whatever. Well, I, I, so it's funny, I was on ca they actually listed at 22. Oh,
**Gizmo:** well there you go. Um, literally
**Senator:** looking doesn't mean anything. What, what you'll find it on that's true on at any retailer for is anywhere between 18 and 25.
MSRP
**Grinder:** P for anyone in retail means nothing.
**Gizmo:** Sure. But I'm just saying that, you know, it's interesting that you know, it's not a $50 cigar, right? It's not a $60 cigar. To me, this is worth, and I hope, I hope Carlito doesn't listen to this and change the price, but this is worth [00:29:00] $50 to me, that's the kind of smoke that we have here.
This at 18 to $25 is a value smoke all day, every day.
**Senator:** I a hundred percent agree with
**Gizmo:** that. Do you guys want to get into the, uh, our pairing tonight?
**Bam Bam:** I gotta tell you the sherry notes I'm getting right off of this. This scotch is fantastic. What is the scotch? It goes beautifully with this particular cigar,
**Senator:** so, wow.
I'm happy to just tee it up a bit. I did not bring this. So I, first I want to thank Pagoda pagoda, uh, is the source of our pairing tonight, the Abor 12. Um, I did suggest this pairing, because I've had this before. I actually really like this scotch. , and I obviously love this cigar, so I wanted to do it justice by pairing something with some sweet sherry notes that I think would pair nicely.
And the Abor 12, it's paired, it, it's um, it's aged half in sherry cast and half in X bourbon barrels. And I think it is, you know, gives, uses this word a [00:30:00] lot approachable.
**Gizmo:** I stole that from Puba,
**Senator:** by the way, but, or from Puba. And I think that it's a very, very approachable single malt in the sense that one, I think it's very smooth.
Yeah, it's really nice. Two, I think it has, you know, the sherry sweetness really dominates in terms of the flavor profile and, um, I think it's really versatile. I think it just works in a lot of different ways. So I, I've, I only recently, in the last two years started to get into Abor. Um, they make a lot.
And, uh, I've been very impressed with what I've tried. So
**Grinder:** I, I don't know, I don't know much about aor, but I, and I've had, I've had it before, but I just didn't. I've done the research for it. This, this, gosh, to me is very sherry forward more so than other. I mean, we all love sherry, cast scotch. This is, you really, you really get hit with it soon when you, when you
**Poobah:** taste it that well.
That's what I said when, when, when I first taste the, before we, before we hit record. Cuz that's what I always do. . [00:31:00] I don't sneak a little taste. I always sneak a little taste. You rebel it, it gi it Giz gets mad at me and says, what are you doing tasting? No, I'm drinking it now. The uh, uh, and I said to uh, uh, uh, when Senator was grabbing, uh, uh, the package that it came in and I said, is this is sh this has gotta be Sherry Cas.
Like this is full because it's half American oak, half sherry. But you could really get, I mean, that's what I got. I was like, boom, Sherry bomb. It is
**Grinder:** the, the she, I, I'm getting sherry very more sherry pronounced on the first sip. My, my finish is definitely Okie though.
**Gizmo:** Definitely Okie. It's a really nice pairing with the cigar too.
**Poobah:** Very nice. Yeah, it's, it's terrific because it's, it's the, the sherry is sweet. Um, and it, it pairs really nice cuz this is kind of a, it's this cigar has a lot of sweetness to it. Definitely a dessert cigar.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. And I'm just watching, [00:32:00] you know, we've, we've done quite a few pods now. We've certainly smoked a lot of cigars together and the, the, uh, the rhythm that everybody is smoking with this cigar is so different than any other cigar.
We smoke every, it's almost like, uh, it's like a dance a little, you know, a little bit like, just the way you have to treat
**Poobah:** the patient. Don't, well you don't want it to end . You don't,
**Gizmo:** you don't, you don't want it to burn out and you don't want it to end.
**Poobah:** Yeah. You don't want it to end. It, it, it, it really delivers a really, a, a full experience, which is nice.
So classy and, and, um, unlike anything else. I mean, I haven't ta I, I I, I, I haven't really tasted a a, a standard Line Fuente or Don Carlos. It tastes like this. It just doesn't,
**Rooster:** it's pretty, pretty consistent so far. Right. Fluid, which is, haven't really changed that
**Poobah:** much and I don't want it to No, it's, it's fantastic.
Yes, it is.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, this is really enjoyable. It's definitely not a meal for me. I mean to say from steak to lemon meringue. Uh, but uh, so you're getting [00:33:00] meat
**Grinder:** notes as well. I'm getting a lot
**Pagoda:** of meat. I'm getting a lot of
**Bam Bam:** sweetness. , uh, you're not getting the
**Poobah:** meat sweats. Like me. I'm not kissing,
**Gizmo:** getting some lamb,
lamb, brogan,
**Rooster:** Josh Rogan.
**Pagoda:** Josh. Um, yeah, I know. It's, uh, it's fantastic. It's bloody, uh, like, um, I think everyone's mentioning it's, uh, one of the cigars. You do want to really kind of, uh, you know, we are savoring it, right? Like enjoying a, a moment by moment. It's great. Uh, good amount of, uh, like for me, I don't even get, uh, um, uh, you know, some of the citrus notes, which some people are talking about and maybe my pilot's very different.
I don't get it either. Yeah. But I'm definitely getting. The sweetness, the baking spices and, and the creaminess. And, and that's why I'm really enjoying it. I think, uh, yeah, I just enjoyed these steps of cigars anyway, so it's been great. Um, and, um, in terms of the whiskey, you know, this is the [00:34:00] first time I'm actually trying this.
I, you know, I know Senator suggested a couple of whiskeys and I thought I'd bring this one, uh, for this particular PO podcast. And, uh, surprisingly I've really, really enjoying it and I've gotta try and bring it into my, you know, uh, I guess, uh, collection of whiskeys that I really typically enjoy. Yeah, very.
I'm getting more of the sherry, I haven't been like, and it's the, the sweetness is persistent different than the back end, uh, which I'm really enjoying because oftentimes, When I hot whiskey, I'll get the sweetness and then a slight sharp taste in the back, uh, when I'm somewhat gulping it. Um, but in this particular case, it's, the sweetness is pretty well sustained, uh, really enjoying it.
Uh, uh, I think I'm gonna go back and meditate. So,
**Senator:** I [00:35:00] mean, the funny thing is when you're talking about the sherry and the sweetness, I, having had this before, I thought this was a hundred percent aged in sherry cast. I did not know that it was half and half until picking up the bottle and actually looking at it. So why I've always enjoyed abor. I love almost anything in Sherry.
We've talked about, you know, Macallan 12, sherry, that's a lot of our favorite, you know, everyday scotch. And, um, aor I think really delivers on the sherry front. Well,
**Gizmo:** yeah. And then
**Poobah:** even the, the packaging's red. Yeah. Yeah. So you like, you know, subliminally you're thinking. This is gonna taste like Sherry
**Gizmo:** What's the, uh, what's the price on this thing? Avalor is,
**Pagoda:** well, actually yeah, it wasn't very expensive. Um, I think, um, it was around 50 bucks, plus or minus, maybe closer to 60. I'm
**Senator:** not sure. No. Well, I I don't know what you pay. I mean, usually the s msrp p on this is usually 45 was not expensive. It's actually very affordable.
**Grinder:** S r p [00:36:00]
**Pagoda:** Yeah, it might have been 50 of taxes. Um, because I, you know, I ended up buying quite a few sculptures and it's
**Poobah:** just, this is a wonderful, this, this serves it to me. It's like an, it's, it's a wonderful after dinner drink. Um, it's not a scotch that I would pick up, um, like a Mac. like I would before dinner or anytime.
Anytime.
**Gizmo:** in the shower. In the shower.
**Poobah:** In the shower or, or with an omelet. Uh, but, um, or with a ham sandwich. Um, anytime, but, uh, Caesar salad. Caesar salad. Exactly. Caesar Saddle. We love Caesar. I got you. How much do we love Caesar salad? Come on.
**Gizmo:** All right. Let me just say, the Puba and Grindr have a side chat and I think that they, what are you talking about?
You have a side chat and we all know it .
**Poobah:** And
**Gizmo:** we're all aware of the side chat, and I feel like it's full of Caesar salads and whiskeys. And just [00:37:00] memes, . Yeah. That is what you do all day.
**Poobah:** Well, you know, but no, we talk about Caesar salad. Uh, and then we talk about, you know, other issues that maybe we all aren't aligned on
**Bam Bam:** So there's a debate.
**Poobah:** Uh, but not really. But we do love su we love the Caesar salad from, uh, from, from from, yeah. We love the Caesar salad, from the pizza oven. That
**Bam Bam:** we love that. I don't think I've been in this room and see so many long ashes on the, on
**Gizmo:** our cigars. Yeah, it's mine's almost what, two inches?
Multiple.
**Bam Bam:** Outrageous, multiple two inch. Uh, look at this.
**Gizmo:** It's crazy.
**Senator:** You try to ask this. It doesn't almost
**Bam Bam:** every stick, and I think gizmo's ahead of all of us right now. Look at that. I plan to keep it going. Senator
**Gizmo:** Senator's right behind. So I, you know, I don't know, uh, the, the cigar, I, you know, we all have the sim similar No, look at your As.
Yeah. Similar, real. So the first time that look at Senator's Ash, first time Senator gave me one of these should run for office with that Ash[00:38:00]
First time senator gave this to me. I smoked it down, uh, if you remember, and it was a no Ash thing, kind of like that Aha. We had a few weeks ago. But, um, you know, I find that theses at 65 are 65 RH humidity are, uh, just, it's, they're smoking brilliantly. Just a little. They're just a touch lower, you know?
Yeah. Smoking great.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. That, that aaha that up in aaha, uh, 2011. What a cigar. I just got a box of those yesterday. I've got a box coming. Yeah. From,
**Gizmo:** from who?
**Poobah:** From rg. Yes, sir. From your group Puba. That's right. Thanks
**Gizmo:** for, uh, it was up. Let me know. Thanks for
**Poobah:** introducing us. You're welcome. Bam, bam is
**Bam Bam:** gonna wreak havoc on that
**Poobah:** group.
**Senator:** I just, I'm sorry. Back.
**Grinder:** He's gonna, he's gonna whip his dick out and make everywhere
**Bam Bam:** quiver .
**Senator:** Just back on the construction again. I think if we went around this room and [00:39:00] asked how many times you've had a cigar that you smoked all the way down to the end without ashing a single time. We'd all say very few and far between.
And I, I'm just amazed. Again, it's been months since I've had this. I'm looking around, I mean, almost so many guys have two inch on their cigar that they haven't done, haven't, Ash haven't touched up. And it, it's just one of the only, the, the construction is so consistently outstanding. I'm always blown away by it.
**Gizmo:** Uh, uh, and I'll, I'll piggyback on that. I still can't believe. that this is an 18 to $25 cigar. I can't believe it.
**Senator:** I can't believe it. See these, if these stop being made, which I, I would shed tears over, but if they did and, and you had to pay 50, $80 to get another one of these, to have this experience again, I would absolutely do it.
I think we all would in a heartbeat. Yeah. This is something you just chase. Yeah. Yeah. [00:40:00] It's, it's a special occasion stick.
**Grinder:** Yeah. It's, I feel like I should ash it cuz just because I'm like scared it's gonna fall in my lap. Or worse. Senator's
**Senator:** just hold it. Just hold it like, bam. Yeah, just hold it. Uh, look at, bam.
That's what you I wanna do.
**Gizmo:** Can I ask
**Bam Bam:** mine once, I think Rooster's got five, six boxes of these somewhere. Oh, he
**Poobah:** definitely does. Oh yeah, he does. He he did. They searched your locker.
And they, they, they, you got popped? Yeah. Yeah. I called Mrs. Rooster. She told me no. They, uh, what's, what's it called? Uh, The narcs that, uh, North Korea. What, what, what's the North Korean leader's name? Kim Jong. Kim. Kim General. Mrs. Kim. Mrs. Mrs. Ill . She's ill. Mrs. I, she's Kim Jong's wife searched her lockers.
Yeah. He's still a bachelor. . Yeah. Yeah. The great leader's wife. She does all the dirty work. , she, she searched her locker. She's the one that she found five boxes of sharks. [00:41:00] Sorry. That's still there are, are they really? Of course we don't keep that shit in there. I do too. It's like 70, it's like 78 degrees relative humidity in those lockers.
I know. The cigars probably have like
**Gizmo:** mold all
**Rooster:** over them. Well, that's, that's probably Mine's not burning as well as yours. .
**Gizmo:** That's Look at it. Look at it. That's
**Poobah:** what I was saying. Oh my God. It's boating. That's what I was saying. Your cigar isn't even burning. Oh, see that I, I didn't even see that. Should have taken one from senators.
You should have taken, should have North Korea. I'll take it all. It's 87 degrees like
**Gizmo:** sabotage. Start now. Start now. . You know,
**Grinder:** they like swamp. It's swampland
**Poobah:** over there, man. It is, it is. They, you know what they're, they're taking like a VIX humidifier and like blasting it into your locker because you didn't buy the boxes there.
I want to like blasting it in there. .
**Senator:** I want to make this sabotage your cigars. I want to pick up on that because lunacy, I think this is actually important for listeners that either are members of cigar lounges or are going to join [00:42:00] a cigar lounge. Obviously a locker comes with being a lounge member just about anywhere.
and something every listener should do is make sure just stick a little hydrometer in that locker and understand what that cigar shop owner or lounge owner keeps those lockers at. And if the humidity is higher than 70%, you need to absolutely not store anything in there. And if it's gonna be 68 70, then that's fine for new World cigars.
But do not put Cubans in there.
**Poobah:** Yeah, yeah, exactly. You're right. A hundred percent Senator. If if you, if if you in cellophane in a box, you could probably, you can get away with that. Um, the seven, this was in the box. Cellophane in a box. Yeah. But,
**Senator:** but it's at like 75 there, which is the problem. Look, look at
**Poobah:** how that sakara is burning.
It's burning. It's burning.
**Gizmo:** Look at the difference. It's also been in there, it's been in there for a [00:43:00] year, right? Or more over, over a year. So unless you wanna, and through that time, I mean, cellophane is porous. I mean, the humidity, the humidity affects it. I mean, the
**Poobah:** senator's point, like I'm not storing any premium cigars in an environment that I can't monitor the environment.
Period. And, and, and most of the time at these, at these, these cigar lounges, they're not maintaining. It's impossible for them to maintain a consistent homeostasis within these environments. Whether it's temperature, temperature to relative humidity, fancy words. It's, it's, it's not gonna happen. It's just not gonna happen.
So if you, if there's no reason why, uh, invest in storage, you're better off in a stable tupper door with the bda, then you are. in, in, in the, the variable conditions that exist at, at even some of the best cigar lounges. And we've know what these cigar lounges are. I mean, high end places that cost a lot of money and they're [00:44:00] not doing a great job, um, with it.
Uh, maybe some do, uh, uh, you know, I don't want to generalize too much, but be careful and monitor what's going on inside that locker. Or you could, you're gonna have cigars that burn like crap. And in particular, you gotta be careful with Cuban scars because if, if the, if the humidity gets really above even 60, 60, 67, 68, you, you start approaching 70, you can get cigar beetles.
uh, in a heartbeat, um, that hatch and, uh, that can, that can ruin a box of cigars even spread to other lockers. So you just, you, you, the lo you, you can't do it. You really can't store Cubans in particular in some of these lockers. You can't do it. And
**Gizmo:** this goes back to, to what we were saying about just the retail environment in general.
I think a lot of times when we buy a cigar, like Bam bought some cigars that we're gonna review in the coming weeks. Like we [00:45:00] take them home from that retailer because we can't trust that those retailers are keeping them well and we store them in our own environment so that when we review them on the pod and we give you a rating that they're coming from a, a, a consistent situation, humidity
**Poobah:** wise, the right, the reason why retailers store, its, they, they propose, they pro, they say 70, 70, 70.
It's because that's the, that's the ratio that they can actually manage the environment. Like a huge JR cigar that easily where people coming in and out, there's air conditioning, there's humidity. They can only really keep it, they can't really keep the relative humidity down that low with people coming in.
So they just say the happy medium in a retail environment's gonna be 70 70. So they kind of promote that. But when really it's not the ideal storage conditions for cigars. Absolutely. In my opinion. Absolutely. I agree. They're doing that [00:46:00] for practical purposes. Um, and then people, the average, a lot of average cigar smokers just walk out with their cigars and they may not smoke them, put them in a bad environment, and they don't want 'em to dry out immediately.
So it, you know, they're, they're hedging and they're saying, I can't keep this environment like this. It's just not realistic to keep it in anything else. But 70
**Grinder:** 70, the, the flavor difference is be between cigars that are maintained below 70 and those that are not, is actually very noticeable. like you, you know, it's probably more so with Cubans.
Like Cuban cigars are meant to have a little dryness, in my opinion. Yeah. The having a, if you have a cigar that's maintained at 71, whatever it is, 70, 71, and then you have one at 68, you know, on the, on the less humid side you know, no difference. Aside from that, that's the only control that you change.
You're definitely gonna notice a big difference, in my opinion, for flavor, for flavor profile. [00:47:00] Now you want to have some humidity. It's not, it can't be bone dry, but in my experience, it's, it's better to air on the dryer side than the, than the
**Senator:** more moist side. It, it really is. And you know what, what's sad is it's not even just retailers.
I, I feel like just the saga industry did everyone a disservice by it probably being very easy and convenient to say you want your humidor at 70% humidity and 70 degrees. Right? Same number. , how hard can that be to forget? And I remember when I first started smoking cigars years ago, I would worry if my humidor got below 70 when I first started smoking cigars.
That's how you're taught. You're told 70 and 70 are the numbers that you want. And as you smoke more cigars and you start experimenting with this and you learn from other lizards that have come before us, you realize that that's actually not in instruc, it's not very helpful. You want your cigars to be, if they're Cuban 62 to [00:48:00] 65, if they're non Cuban, 62 to at, I mean, I would say 68, I guess some people would say 70, but you absolutely categorically never want to hit a seven on that humidity reading.
And it's just disappointing to me that still, I feel like if you were to Google right now what you should keep your cigars at, and you just looked at a major retailer's website, that's what it would tell you. , and I think we all know as any lizard or, or you know, real intense cigar smoker knows you want to be below that.
Yeah, you do.
**Poobah:** And, and, and look, it's hard to keep a, a, a really large humidor. Like if you go into a big JR Cigar and it's a, they've got, I mean, shit, it's, that's a 3000, 4,004 square thou 4,000 square foot place. They're not keeping the temperature any lower than 70. Okay. They're just not, um, and they're not g they're not gonna be able to control it in there with people coming in and [00:49:00] out and everything else, and people in there.
So they just, that's just, it's too hard to manage. So that's what they manage it at.
**Pagoda:** Does the outside temperature make a difference? Let's say it's the summer or the
**Gizmo:** winter? Of course. I think so. Yeah. Humidity goes up in the summer. Yeah. Yeah. But I think these
**Grinder:** are, these, these are, these, these are good humidor, cabinet tower or otherwise, or desktop.
is taking the, the draw is that, it, it it, to use your word homeostasis. You're maintaining a, a certain environment and that's good, but it is still semi organic. It's still porous. It's still gonna consume the environment around it in some way. And, and in wintertime it's drier and colder and times it's hotter and warmer and more humid.
And it's gonna, it's, you're gonna have to cal, you know another word we use a lot, you're gonna have to calibrate accordingly.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, what are they gonna run big dehumidifiers and humidifiers? No, they're not. They're not. They're just, it's not gonna happen. So 70 70 is manageable for a big [00:50:00] retailer and it's, uh, let's
**Grinder:** be honest, it's room temperature.
**Poobah:** Right. But
**Gizmo:** temperature's not the problem. It's humidity. Humidity's the problem. Yeah. 70 is the perfect temperature. 68 to 72 temperature really isn't the problem. If you're managing your humidity, if your humidity's under 70, 65, 62 for Cubans, you're gonna be fine. It's, you know, like, like you said, it's just not manageable in that, that size square footage.
It's just not, but at home guys, I mean, every time you open your, your, your, even like you said, you know, it's keeping it stable, but every time you open it to grab stick, it's, it's transferring that whatever's inside it with the ambient outside of it, and it's really affecting it. So, for me, when I opened my tower in the summer, it's, you know, it, it, it, it affects it pretty quickly.
Winter it's a little bit better because it's lower and then it adjusts back up with the bulb
**Grinder:** and Yeah. The delta isn't as wa as exactly.
**Gizmo:** Summer summer's
**Bam Bam:** a little tougher. Here is the question for you guys. When you were at the Pedron facility, [00:51:00] you said they kept their cigars at 56 degrees. There was the reason
**Rooster:** for that.
Why is that They're not holding it for that long. It comes and goes. So the reason why they keep it that. , it's literally coming off of the plane in like massive boxes. Hot, hot, right? So they kind of keep it cool and it goes right into, you know, they sort it out and, and box 'em and out it goes. I mean, they have a huge, uh, issue with supply and demand right now.
I mean, they, they can't supply the demand.
**Poobah:** So what does
**Bam Bam:** the cold give them? The colder
**Gizmo:** temperature, dehumidification and lower temperature coming off that plane coming from Nicaragua, where obviously it's warmer and more humid, but you know, they're putting it right into boxes and then it's getting sent back out.
I mean, listen, cigars aren't generally new worlds Cigars aren't as delicate as Cubans, right? So, right. You know, as long as before you smoke it, you've given it a period of time to acclimate to whatever you want it to be. Okay. Yeah. They're shipping it right out.
**Poobah:** Yeah, of course. Cold is not gonna really hurt a cigar.
I mean, a [00:52:00] lot of guys, they, they, they, they flex quick fluctuations in temperature can quick ones, but a lot of people. And it's somewhat advisable, uh, freeze their, their boxes of Cubans when they Absolutely. Wow. To kill, to kill
**Gizmo:** cigar. Beetles. Yeah. Especially farm rolls.
**Poobah:** Are you kidding? Meles is not kidding you.
I've never heard of that. But it's
**Gizmo:** regular practice. It's fascinating. Haos does that. Haos does that. I had, I had no idea.
**Senator:** Best practice is if you have any concern wow. That you have cigar beetles. What anything will tell you to do is to freeze everything, every cigar in that humidor for, I forget the period of time.
You can look
**Gizmo:** this up. Two weeks, I think it's, yeah. Two weeks. Two weeks. You
**Senator:** should do it. It will kill, it will kill any beetles. And then you can return them to your humid. and you'll be fine. So, no, that, that's just best practice.
**Gizmo:** So, very interesting fact, about 15 years ago, ha Bonos started. [00:53:00] So there was a beetle problem in the nineties and early two thousands and ha, bonos actually started freezing.
Everything that leaves the island from Cuba is frozen before it, it reaches Oh wow. Distributor. Uh, but I guess specific more specifically to today, that's less of a problem now with Cubans, unless you're getting farm rolls or custom rolls, like we mentioned those. If I was ordering a farm roll from a a, a random guy on the island somewhere, , I would absolutely be freezing those when they came in.
Some people,
**Poobah:** you know, some people do still do it once. It hap once, it happens once, once you get some, a cigar beetle or two in your humidor. Yeah, that's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. And there are people out there on our groups and other places who always do it because once it happens, it happens. I, I'm getting
**Bam Bam:** a slight erection on this over here.
What I'm seeing what with the look at these two guys with our ashes. With their ashes. Incredible. It's incredible. So
**Senator:** I, I, look, I couldn't have scripted this better because I love this cigar and this is, uh, [00:54:00] the only cigar I've smoked two of these all the way down without ashing and like clockwork. I can't even believe.
I'm almost at the end. I mean everyone can see my myself. Grinder's right there can see this. Grinder's right there, grinder's there. I'm there. Gi is there now. I haven't literally yet. Just, just look at this. Yeah. Almost down to the edge. Hasn't been ash a single time and yet again a Don Carlos shark. I will have smoked without ashing a single time.
Yeah. I've got inches of ash. It's sturdy. It's st. It's just, it's, it's a sight to be seen. I'm, I'm there with you skyscraper. Don't like a skyr skyscraper When Grindr said a skyscraper, I, I feel like it's the perfect analogy. That's exactly, it's just something to marvel.
**Pagoda:** Oh, I think now you can enter the Rocky Patel competition.
**Senator:** That's right. No, I probably forgot about that. The problem. No, no, no. So this is the problem. So I'm, I'm probably smoking this faster than most guys in the room. The problem is you have to smoke it the longest. The slowest. That's why I said rooster. We need to enter into that. [00:55:00] Okay. With, with a
**Grinder:** Don Carlos
**Senator:** shark.
Well, you're gonna have to smoke a rocky, which he, he'll, he'll tap out in two seconds. There is, is no fucking way. .
**Gizmo:** Are you fucking kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? . So what are you guys getting? We're coming into the last third year. What are you guys getting on this cigar right now? I mean, this greatness.
Just getting, just greatness is kidding. . What a flavor note. Greatness. Love that. Greatness. What are you guys getting? I'm still getting that sweetness. Yeah, it's
**Bam Bam:** a continuation of the same notes. It's not changing. It hasn't changed. Yeah. No, that's,
**Senator:** that's what I love. I again, is the consistency guy. The flavors are consistent.
I just feel like as you go along with this cigar, they, they pick up a little bit in, in strength in that they're a little bit bolder than when they start. And um, it's still spectacular.
**Rooster:** Yeah. A little bit more enhanced flavors from the beginning.
**Gizmo:** No, there goes the ash, uh, oh. Perfect. Grinder. Just had an emergency
**Poobah:** [00:56:00] that, that's exactly what it is, rooster.
It's just enhanced from what it was from the, at the top. It's just a great progression. It's linear, but in a really good way.
**Gizmo:** And you know, as senator we talked about, uh, on previous pods, it's a one act play. , but it's just the best one. Act, play you can find. It's, act, it's the one act that I want. Yeah. Just like,
**Poobah:** yeah. Agreed.
**Gizmo:** Fantastic Smoke, by the way, I wanted to say one thing. I'm obsessed and thanks to you guys, I'm obsessed with this show, Yellowstone . I know. I mean, there's a bunch of guys in the group who are watching this right now. I have watched three seasons in about a week, . Um, I am absolutely obsessed with this show.
Great show. It's outstanding. It's up there with Sopranos Breaking Bad Ozark, that type of show for [00:57:00] me. I cannot get enough of it.
Well,
**Poobah:** yeah, it's, it's, it's the open west.
**Gizmo:** It's Costner. Costner's. So good. It's Costner, it's unbelievable. It's,
**Senator:** it's, by the way, the woman who plays Beth Dun Beth. Is that so good?
I've never seen act in anything. I don't even know her name. She's an outstanding actress. She's incredible. Outstanding. I actress. Outstanding.
**Poobah:** She's the power. She's delivering power and intensity. Is that the
**Gizmo:** blonde? Is that the blonde? That's the blonde, the, the dog. She's also quite
**Poobah:** hot. She is also quite hot.
She's hot. She is. And, and Rip, uh, her, her husband. Oh, rip, rip is awesome. Is Rip is just like, he's awesome. That guy is just, he's like, oh man, that guy
**Senator:** I, I went to, it's so funny. I went to dinner with, uh, my wife and I went to dinner with another couple, well, literally just a couple days ago. And, uh, Yellowstone came up and uh, you know, the husband's talking about it.
I love Yellowstone. I'm saying the same thing. And he's like, I will fully admit I have a man crush on rip. He's [00:58:00] like, what a great fucking character. And
**Poobah:** I can't, I can't disagree with it. I mean, the guys, you know, he's. Out there doing everything for, for the ranch. Um, totally loyal, uh, because he like epitomizes somebody that you like, want on your team.
You know, you, you, you know, from a business perspective, he's
**Senator:** so loyal to your point, my, my favorite rip line in Yellowstone, he's explaining to, and I won't spoil this cuz maybe G isn't quite there yet. So I'm only at the top of season three. Yeah. So I won't, I won't set any context so it won't spoil anything.
But RIP says a line to this person who needs some guidance and he says, the key to success is to understand that in life you deserve nothing and stuck with me in such an important way. We don't deserve anything that we have. We operate every day trying to earn what we have. Nothing's [00:59:00] owed to any of us.
Nothing. It's constantly earned. I mean, our friendship says lizard. We don't, we don't take that for granted. They're not deserved. They're earned. We cultivate these and it be taken away and it can be taken away. And that it just, it, I think it's such an important line that just resonated with me far beyond.
Watching an entertaining show I just think is really instructive and
**Gizmo:** lots of those pearls in there. There
**Poobah:** are, it's a great lesson for kids. There's lots of those pearls. Great lesson for kids in, in, in that show. Um, as much as there's violence and conflict and, and other things. But, uh, but the show is great in, in the production of it also.
Yeah. Uh, 1883. Is that a, is that a spinoff? Just the prequel. Yeah. Is is outstanding. I gotta watch that. I haven't seen that. I mean, it's Faith Hill and, and Tim
**Gizmo:** McGraw. Well, don't,
**Senator:** don't forget Roosters Iselle
**Gizmo:** Isabel. Don't forget Rooster's favorite Isabelle Abel. Which
**Poobah:** is slightly creepy that you're so [01:00:00] obsessed with giving your age and hers, but whatever the um, uh, you can have Faith Hill.
Yeah. Oh, I'll take Faith Hill. Are you out of your mo?
**Bam Bam:** Are you fucking kidding me? .
**Poobah:** Faith Hill is a woman. She is from top to bottom. The bottom every, she's outstanding.
**Gizmo:** There's something about the show though, and maybe it's the Beth character, the writing, I don't know what it is, but it's like, it's succession meets Sopranos meets the wild West.
I mean, it's just checks every
**Poobah:** box. Well, it's got everything that you, it's got everything know Western. Yes. It's, it's, it's man's conflict. With himself, his it's man's conflict with the world and the idea of what the world should be. It's all those
**Senator:** things. I've always described this to friends as I think exactly like Puba said, there are those great Western elements to it.
And I'm, I'm not a guy that enjoys westerns, that's just not really my genre. And I think G and I have that in common. We were talking about that definitely. But it's a [01:01:00] Western meets succession, meets house of cards because with succession you have the family dynamic of who's gonna take control after the father.
And with House of Cards, the political element throughout the entirety of the show, right, is ever present.
**Rooster:** Right. I mean it's all all about land preservation. You wanna keep, the family wants to keep the land. and,
**Senator:** and keep control of being able to keep the lead
**Rooster:** parties, parties outside, want to take, you know, take over.
**Poobah:** Right? And the landscape, the, the visual landscape and the aesthetic landscape. Landscape, it's very beautiful. Steve is beautiful, but it's also just as dynamic as like the landscape of New York and the dynamics that happen in secession. It's like that's a landscape, that's a dynamic, interesting landscape of New York City.
And then you go to the other polar extreme and it's this dynamic landscape of, of the West and, and it's very, very well done. There are few shows like this out there. It's [01:02:00] very
**Gizmo:** rare that I, it's very rare that I binge a show. Like I, I am binging this. I'm 1000% obsessed with the show and I, it's the number one show in America.
I recommend it to everyone. And I thank you guys for, uh, turning me. So, what do you guys think? I mean, we are coming to the end of the ffl r the, the formal blizzard rating. The Ffl R We're coming to the end of the, uh, don car, eye of the shark here. I still haven't AED senator still hasn't ashed bam, bam.
Still hasn't ashed. I, I mean, I Grinder has ash on. He ash all over himself. Ash on myself. I could still see it on his g I'm waiting. I'm waiting. He's waiting. Like he's giving me
**Poobah:** the eye like, Hey, dude, , I need to go. I need to stand
**Bam Bam:** up, walk outside and, and
**Grinder:** de
**Bam Bam:** ash myself.
**Poobah:** Ash all over himself like he does every night,
**Bam Bam:** Oh.
**Gizmo:** Or every morning we just got shales. Or every
**Bam Bam:** night. Yeah. I'm
**Poobah:** gonna, I'm gonna give you the pagoda stick today. . We [01:03:00] gotta, we gotta rate
**Gizmo:** the stick. We gotta rate the stick. I mean, I gotta give it to your rooster. Go.
**Rooster:** All right. So this is gonna be an aggregate rating from
**Gizmo:** all the sharks that I've had. It's a 10.
**Poobah:** It's a 10 for me. It's a 10. It's a 10 for me too. 10. It's
**Gizmo:** a 10. It's, it's a 10 for me. Not even close. It's a 10. I just
**Senator:** have to say this episode means a lot to me cuz I love this cigar so much and I was fully prepared and I can't believe, again, I haven't ash him all the way down to the end. I was gonna give this a 10.
I thought I would be the only lizard in this room that gave it a 10. This warms my heart, like words can't describe.
**Grinder:** The ratings are not
**Poobah:** done yet. Oh. May not be strong enough for him. No, he's
**Grinder:** a, he's a, a strong
**Pagoda:** nine.
**Poobah:** See? All right. Strong enough
**Bam Bam:** for him.
**Grinder:** That's okay. All right. I'm a 10 10. That's a 10.1 10 , or sorry, 9.13
He,
**Bam Bam:** he wasn't kidding again.
**Gizmo:** 9.3. He wasn't kidding. No, it's, it's a
**Senator:** 9.8. It's a 9.9. Wow.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Wow, [01:04:00] wow, wow. It's only
**Gizmo:** one nine, so that is, that is not even close. It's not even close. That's the highest rating that we've ever Wow. Given on this podcast so far. Yeah. All right. Not even close. I need to dx myself.
You know? , please, please email us if you need any boxes. Can I watch ? Yeah. . I mean, guys. Ooh. Yeah. What, what a, uh, what a special, special cigar. Yeah. Senator, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, pagoda. Thank you for the scotch. Uh, I mean, I mean, that says it all. A 9.9 voice. Arturo Fuente, Don Carlos, I of the shark.
And uh, yeah, go out. If you can find these cigars, find them, smoke them, enjoy them, appreciate them. And uh, we'll see you guys next week. Keep smoking. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge Lizards pod, p o d, that's lounge lizards pod [01:05:00] gmail.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.