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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Senator Pagoda, chef Ricky, and bam bam.
And I plan as to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course have some laughs. So take this as your 174th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard Plan to be this year, once a week. We're gonna smoke a cubit cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you walk.
Formal lizard rating. We discuss Anos sas, big new releases and their revenue. We share more Cuban travel advice and pagoda is amazed when he discovers the retro hail all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 14 year age.
Glenfiddich Bourbon Barrel Reserve single malt Scotch Whiskey with the Cohiba SLO six. A con [00:01:00] nazo on the pod tonight from Cuba, the very famous Cohiba Siglo six, and it's a 52 ring age cigar by five and seven eighths inches long. And boys, these cigars have over five years of age on them tonight.
Incredible. Very, very exciting. Next week is episode 175. We're doing a very special new world cigar. So tonight we are doing a special Cuban cigar. Yeah. Uh, to get us primed and you know, we love any reason for a celebration around here. We're good for it.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I'm kind of surprised that one thing though, there is, Senator mentioned it earlier, a slight variation in the tone of the wrapper from cigar to cigar.
Just a little bit. That's strange.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it happens. I mean, for this
**Bam Bam:** caliber of, of smoke.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, there is, there is a smaller range inside Cohiba for the color of the wrapper.
**Bam Bam:** Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** Um, and we do have some different colors tonight. This is from the same box code UAO Argo 19. So this is from August, 2019. Just over five years of age.
Agent can't wait. I'm
**Pagos:** assuming these are not [00:02:00] Dominicans because we just had Dominicans recently. They are not Dominicans. I'm just kidding.
**Gizmo:** That's the other reason for this episode. Tonight is last week we did the Weller by Cohiba, Dominican Cohiba is pagoda mentioned. So little redemption tonight.
Hopefully for uh oh yes. For the brand name Cohiba. Correct.
**Bam Bam:** This is the real deal.
**Gizmo:** The real deal. Baby. Let's cut this thing boys. See if we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper.
**Bam Bam:** I have a question for you guys. Yep. As we're cutting.
**Gizmo:** Is this one of the more famous cohibas? I would argue that inside regular production cohiba, this might be one of the most sought after Cohiba cigars as tight as the feet.
Look, this is wide open. Mine has a perfect bit of resistance. Outstanding. Might have
**Bam Bam:** the dimple. Mm. Look at you. Well,
**Gizmo:** this is really nice.
**Bam Bam:** I am getting a lot of dried fruit here. Mm-hmm. Uh, dried apple. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm getting grass. A little banana. Yep.
**Senator:** Some biscuit type thing. Little honey. I'm getting dried apple, cedar and honey.
And then there's a [00:03:00] little like faint spice that, that's coming through. Um, and that's about it. The draw on mine is great. Mine too. You know, I, I was a little nervous about that, but No, it's great. It's a little resistant, but the right amount. I'm, I'm, I'm stoked. Senator, what are you getting? I think I agree with chef dried apple.
I. Cedar, the grassiness you mentioned kind of that cohiba note that you get's. Definitely there. Mm-hmm. Uh, but all pleasant on the cold draw. Very pleasant. Yeah. Okay. I have to ask a que
**Bam Bam:** another question. How much was this cigar?
**Gizmo:** So these cigars today, right now, right now, fresh, brand new are just over a hundred dollars a cigar.
A hundred bucks a cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. That was a
**Gizmo:** I did not pay that for these. No, I got these about three or four years ago. Um, I think these were in the $50 range at that time. A hundred dollars, $60 range. Wow. See? Uh, it's a big boy cigar tonight, boys. All right. Let's do this. Let's light this thing. The Cohiba Siglo six outta Cuba.[00:04:00]
Again, its factory name is a con nazo, and it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by five and seven eighths inches long. It was originally released in 2002. And again, the box code on the cigars we're smoking. Tonight is UAO. August, 2019. So this is out of the Legato factory, the mother factory in Havana.
**Bam Bam:** Are you catching the aroma as you're toasting?
Oh yeah. Delicious. Honestly, it's like roasting marshmallows. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit.
**Senator:** I don't think you are. I kind of wanted to just keep
**Bam Bam:** holding the lighter to it. I'm not, and just smell the aroma. I'm almost like a toasted marshmallow. That skin that you pull off. Yep. And have that first.
Mm-hmm. That's what I'm smelling.
**Gizmo:** So while we get this thing lit, boys, pretty much everybody in the room noted as we pick these cigars up, that the feet on these cigars were [00:05:00] kind of. Scaring us as far as how packed they looked. It, it, it felt and looked like the cigar was densely packed. However,
**Bam Bam:** this fucking cigar is delicious.
**Gizmo:** This is crazy how good this is. However, the cigars seem to be, uh, performing just fine.
**Senator:** No, so much depth. So much happened in there at the end. I can't really point it. I'm, I can't pin I
**Bam Bam:** can't pin it down yet. I'm just surprised how flavorful it is right off the light.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. For a cohiba, there's something with that few years of maturation on these, because I know a lot, all of us have smoked some of the youngers sixes when we're in Cuba.
We've gotten 'em as gifts we've had on banded cigars. There's something about the, the three to five year maturation on these, these are just at five years that for some reason, around that time, it all comes together. Mm-hmm. And gives you this, and it's very close to what we experienced with the splendido on the New Year's Eve episode.
Correct.
**Bam Bam:** I don't wanna call it [00:06:00] pungent or barnyard, but I'm getting something in kind of that realm in a, in the, in a sweet way. It's being delivered in a sweet way. Maybe
**Senator:** earthy in a cream. It's like a cream creamy. It's like a dairy. Yeah. It like earth. It's
**Bam Bam:** almost like a dairy that's ready to turn and spoil.
But you kind of like that, that uh, yeah, I know exactly
**Senator:** what, yeah. Yep.
**Bam Bam:** But on the sweet side,
**Senator:** it's like, for some people they're like, is that a good thing? Mm-hmm. But yeah, there's like a, a complex beauty to, to that before it actually spoils. And I'm sorry. And the retro hill is just outrage. So this is bizarre.
I'm having a different experience and I already know partially why. When we were picking cigars, I have a lighter wrapper than a lot of you. That's true. I mean, look at like, it's like night and day. Oh, my. Look at Chef's wrapper. That looks like a Maduro. I know. And my flavor profile is very mild. Mm-hmm. So when Bam said like a lot of flavor, I, I wasn't getting that.
Wow. The flavor's very pleasant. [00:07:00] I'm getting the same notes you all are, but it's a very mild tapered down, tapered down delivery of them. So what I
**Gizmo:** will say is I don't think it's the wrapper because I'm not having as intense of an experience as they are and I have
**Senator:** Okay.
**Gizmo:** Closer to Chef Ricky's in darkness.
I almost wanna share the cigar because like Yeah. I swear I'm just like, live
**Pagos:** in this cigar. This is outta the world. It's, it's, and for him to say that, yeah. See, so
**Senator:** like three of you guys are gushing about this, like, rooster's been kind of quiet. I've been kind of quiet. It gives us maybe somewhere in between.
I, I'm not disliking anything about this experience. Mm-hmm. I'm just not like grabbed by it, like certain amazing cigars when you light them. It's funny, I I don't think these guys have had cohibas before. Yeah, you're
**Pagos:** right. We don't know what we're doing. Listen, listen. Can, can I tell you two things I do wanna say, for the first time in my life, I've tried retro hilling quite a few times.
I only get fucking a lot of heat in, in my nose. I can't, motherfucker, I can't distinguish, I can't distinguish the flavors. Oh my lord, I have no [00:08:00] idea. I have no idea what it is. For the first time when I read to hell, I got that dried apple. It was so, mm. It's amazing, right? Yeah. It was amazing. Yeah. You know that feeling where you, for the first time experience a note, which is, you know, I only talk about primary flavors for the first time you look at this experience, something which is a little more than you have ever experienced.
The young grasshoppers graduating.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Only a loved it. 175 episode. And by,
**Pagos:** by the way, the, and then it went away. And then, you know, they, these guys talked about this, uh, PanIN tea kind of flavor. For me, it's dhi, it's yogurt. Ah, yeah. It's like the sour yogurt, which you make at home. Yeah. And you get the sour feeling.
That it's so clear he's not wrong. It is. I'm like, what's going on's wrong? It's like
**Gizmo:** Pagodas coming of age right now. Oh my Lord. He's having, it's a, I need conscious this here. I need to
**Senator:** get into these training lessons. I just want everybody to notice this is what happens when you put the fucking ice down.[00:09:00]
**Pagos:** It's also true. I'll tell you, I'm very excited today. This has been great so far.
**Gizmo:** This is, um, I, I would, you know, going back again to your question ba that you asked, I've heard, you know, outside of Bahi, and we're gonna talk about Bke tonight, but outside of Bajie, as far as kind of that unicorn cigar that folks chase as far as regular production, cohiba cigars go, this is one of the most sought after mm-hmm.
In certainly the Siglo wine, but also even including the classic wine. Yeah. You know, the Robusto, the Plei do, uh, even some of the smaller ring gauge cigars, the Len Cero. Mm-hmm. So this obviously also caters to the preference of the current cigar market, which is a larger ring gauge cigar. This is the biggest ring gauge cigar in the Siglo and classic portfolio.
Mm. Only thing bigger from Cohiba in this are the bahi, you know, source. Right. So this is, um. Again, released to 2002. It's a treat.
**Pagos:** The, the only thing I do wanna mention, I think, I think my overall draw is a [00:10:00] little, you know, it's, there's a lot of resistance really. It's not that wide open. It's open, but you know, I wish it was slightly more open.
And
**Senator:** how's your draw senator? Actually, um, pretty good. Mine, mine. It's got some resistance, but not too much. It's nice. What about you guys?
**Rooster:** Yeah, the, gonna poke mine a little bit. Yeah. Okay. My draw's good. Yeah, mine too. Just a little
**Senator:** chef. My draw's perfect. Good draw. Slight just a little bit of resistance and, and I like it that way.
So.
**Bam Bam:** So like almost every other cigar, all those, all that excitement of the notes that we were getting, you usually get that on the light. And then the first quarter of an inch in, now that we're like three eighths of an inch in, it's kind of now settling in, it's becoming for me a bit more earthier. Um, still a little sweet and a little dry fruit, but not much.
It's, but still very pleasant. It's
**Rooster:** very, very complex. Cigar. Oh yeah. White. A
**Senator:** lot going on. The dominant note for me right now. I'm
**Rooster:** not getting any
**Bam Bam:** pepper at all.
**Senator:** White pepper. Very mild white pepper. Yeah. Nothing, nothing. Uh, offensive.
**Pagos:** Yeah. No pepper here yet. [00:11:00] I'm still getting a lot of cream
**Gizmo:** for sure. Yeah, I'm getting like a honey creamy thing.
Touch of white pepper through the retro. Uh, but I do agree with you. Bam. That mine feels like it kind of said, hello. I'm here. Yeah. At the beginning and now it's starting to settle in and it's explicit, ready to take us on a journey.
**Bam Bam:** So now on the retro, I'm getting almost like a toasted, like a deep toasted bread type thing on the retro hill.
With the little of that cream that you mentioned, and honey, you guys,
**Gizmo:** so this comes in a variety of different packaging options. The box that we're smoking out of is a slide lid box of 10 cigars. It also comes in a varnished slide, slide lid box of 25 cigars. And of course, the display box of 15 aluminum turbos, five cardboard packs of three.
Again, the cigar was released in 2002 and is the sixth and seemingly final cigar released in the siglo line. This is the seventh Cohiba we've done on the pod. This is [00:12:00] the third Siglo. Uh, we've also done the LANs, the Pyramids extra. We spoke the bhi K 54 with dlo. We didn't rate it and the splendid dose on the New Year's Eve episode about, uh, 10 weeks ago, which performed very, very well, so felt appropriate to go back to it.
And this, I would say, is probably one of the most requested Cuban cigars that we've had from listeners. Cool. Uh, it's, we've just, you know, I try to space out Cohiba
**Bam Bam:** on the pod, a question on the wrapper. Like if I'm, I rotate the wrapper in the light. You can kind of get like little dimples of glossiness almost like we had on that.
Um. The four year aged, um, 80th that we smoked that, uh, almost that crystallization on the wrapper. I'm getting that here. Really beautiful glistening here.
**Senator:** I have to say the, the only complaint I have, the smoke output for its size is not great. Yeah. That, that's good. Uh, there's actually no smoke in the room right now.
I agree. There's really not much. I agree that's true,
**Rooster:** [00:13:00] but the aroma is delicious. I mean, there's a lot of smoke by you. Yeah, well, I just, I just poured out, oh, no, I didn't light it. Oh. And I must say the wrapper is very like oily and, yeah. Seamless
**Bam Bam:** all, yeah. Dizzle little gloss there.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Pagos:** You know, I like this size.
It's a, it's a Toro, right? Mm-hmm. This is effectively, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Very comfortable.
**Senator:** I mean, I, I gotta say Cohiba bands are some of the most gorgeous bands. That's true on, on the market. Like when, when it, it comes down to it, they're simple, classy. Or, and classy. But, you know, just like ornate enough between all of the, you know, hologram and anti, uh, I guess, uh, counterfeit, uh, mechanisms they have on this thing.
But it looks, it looks great. They're gorgeous until they're fake. Yeah, exactly. Right. And a lot of
**Gizmo:** them are.
**Senator:** Yeah. No shit.
**Gizmo:** And that's, uh, something to tell listeners out there. If you Google these right now and you find a website [00:14:00] that's selling them for any less than 25, 20 $600 a box, unless they're on a reputable, reputable site on sale.
They're probably fake. So you wanna make sure, especially when you're investing this kind of money into a cigar and an experience as we're kind of laying out that we're having tonight, you want to make sure you're buying from a reputable
**Senator:** vendor and forget, probably fake. I mean, they're definitely fake if that's the case.
Yeah. This is the single most counterfeited mark of cigars, period. Correct. You have to be extraordinarily careful when you're buying. And the Monty too.
**Bam Bam:** Those are really, really counterfeited. Yep. Here's a question for you. So if you're in Europe and you come across an LCDH, is that price of a hundred dollars accurate?
Well, like, well that, is that what I'll be paying there?
**Gizmo:** Pretty consistent around the world. There are some places like, uh, the uk mm-hmm. That you might pay more. Spain might be a little cheaper. Mm-hmm. Uh, but generally it's been between 80. It's been pretty leveled around
**Senator:** the world. Okay. Sorry, the wrapper on Gizmo cigar for some reason.
It looks insanely [00:15:00] oily. Yeah. Yeah. We can see it like p Diddy and some baby oil, correct. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's just bam approved that
**Bam Bam:** kid be you was sitting across the room. You know
**Rooster:** why? Because he picked it first. That's correct. That's actually not true. You picked yours first. No, you did
**Senator:** you not yours.
I know what GIZ was doing before we all got here. Oh yeah. Has it been alright? You put a little patina in that cigar. That's exactly right. No wonder he requested a later start.
**Gizmo:** Little extra flavor. This is a, uh, this is a really elegant smoke. Really nice.
**Bam Bam:** I, I think I'd pay this, whatever they want. I'd pay a hundred dollars right now for how it's performing and what I'm getting.
It's a bold statement. Let's see if it continues. We don't know.
**Rooster:** Sure.
**Bam Bam:** Right.
**Rooster:** This is one cigar. Even if there was no band on it, I think you could tell this is a cohiba. I agree with that. It has that Cohiba creaminess.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** That That Cohiba DNA. Correct.
**Gizmo:** I'm fighting mine a little bit on the draw. Mm.
Unfortunately I think mine's bunched up quite a bit, but it's [00:16:00] okay. Still tastes great. Yeah. That's the most important thing for me right now is the, is the flavor correct?
**Senator:** It's only a hundred dollars cigar. You can't expect world. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** That's
**Senator:** mean. Just a complainer. I don't mean to demand so much. Just be patient Matt.
It's only a hundred bucks. That's correct. So are, have you guys, I think, bam, you touched on this earlier with a little toasted cream, but. Growing up, my, my grandma would make, you know, cafe con leche coffee with milk. She'd always heat the milk separately in a small little pot on the stove, but she always heated it to a point, uh, and then sort of let it cool so that it develops that milk skin on top.
Mm-hmm. That was one of her favorite things when drinking, uh, cafe Leche. And if you've ever had that NATA is what we call it. Sounds
**Bam Bam:** like these good two guys have had something like that. Probably,
**Rooster:** yeah. It's, 'cause it also happens on tea. 'cause the top layer cools off first be before the, you know, before the actual, that's if you have a dairy product in it.
**Senator:** Right? Yeah. Right. So, but there's just like a very distinct flavor that you get from that, that skin, that [00:17:00] milk skin. And that's what I'm getting on this. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, it's really good.
**Pagos:** Here. So in India we call it malai, by the way, the, the skin that forms on top of the milk. Mm-hmm. Like if you were to boil milk and you would've let it cool down and let it cool.
Yeah. Yeah. And then suddenly there's a cream layer formed the top. Yep. Yep. Because the
**Rooster:** milk is also, it's whole milk and full fat. Mm-hmm. It's unpasteurized.
**Pagos:** And by the way, so a lot of the food we eat is based out of that, I think, including pilla, right? Mm-hmm. And, uh, sweets.
**Gizmo:** You guys might as well be talking right now.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna go take a break. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I have to say, the ash on every cigar in a room is outstanding, bright white stacking dimes.
**Gizmo:** Great smoke.
**Bam Bam:** Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we have a lot to get to tonight. The Haos Festival just wrapped up. We have a bunch of new releases. We have a bunch of listener email as [00:18:00] well. But I wanna start with this story before we go into our pairing tonight.
Given what we were just talking about with the price of cigars on the opening day of the Haos Festival, Haos SA reported their revenue for 2024.
**Bam Bam:** Let's hear this.
**Gizmo:** $827 million. Wow. During C, that number was almost half of that. Wow. Just above 500 million.
**Bam Bam:** Wow.
**Gizmo:** So they are ever increasing, especially in the last two years, 20 23, 20 24.
They're very much creeping toward being a billion dollar company. If they would
**Bam Bam:** allocate $400 million of that to their grid and their food security, they'd probably solve all those problems. Sorry. True. Just had to be said. But you can't do it outta revenue. Right. Where's that money going?
**Gizmo:** It's a great question, really.
Obviously it's a joint venture between, [00:19:00] uh, Chinese ownership and Tabba Cuba, the Cuban producer of Cigars and Guya in Cuba. But it is, uh, pretty wild to see that kind of number and then also see the struggles that they have, uh, in Cuba to produce the product, uh, to get fuel on the ground, to take care of the crops, the people that are making it.
It's, it's a pretty wild, uh, situation there. So it's pretty, I mean, I mean profits
**Rooster:** like this, China is never getting out.
**Gizmo:** Well,
**Bam Bam:** that's a gross number, not net. Right, exactly.
**Gizmo:** Okay. So Exactly. That's not, but their margins have to be extreme. I would imagine Their margins 40, 50% labor is so cheap. Yeah, I would think even higher than that.
Say, what's the percentage? I'm saying I would think their margins are somewhere between 40 and 50%. If you factor in, oh, I think it's like distributors. I'm only him. I think it's like
**Bam Bam:** 60%. You think it's more? I think, I think, I think it's gotta be a very high margin business. Yeah. I would love to know what Padron's earnings were last year and d it off just to compare.
Yeah, it'd be interesting.
**Gizmo:** This was [00:20:00] pretty wild too. I, I don't know if this has ever been said before. I know we've talked about, uh, different exports in the past, but, uh, president Miguel Diaz Canal said, uh, that the tobacco is now the country's main export. So if you think about the main export of this massive island in the Caribbean.
400 ish million dollars, which is their, you know, which is their piece of, this is their major export. That's their biggest export. So you think about how small
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** The revenue economy is for Cuba at this point. Certainly tourism's down with all the, you know, question marks about their electricity grid, as you mentioned.
Mm-hmm. Some of the other things going on there. Um, it seems like, uh, Cuba is definitely still going to be struggling for quite some time. Yeah. You know, I thought this was cool too. They also mentioned, obviously China is, uh, one of the biggest countries, but Europe in fact is 54% of the market for Cuban cigars with [00:21:00] Haos Asia Pacific, 24%.
The America's 12% Africa and the Middle East, 10%. So obviously things are shifting around a little bit, as we discussed with Haos pinching some of the distributors and, and the ownership, uh, situations there. So allotment is going to be moving toward distribution that has significant haos ownership, all things being told they want a bigger piece of the pie.
So, interesting story. We have a lot more to talk about with Haos tonight. But, uh, I wanted to start with the revenue piece because that is definitely a big number versus where it was even five years ago when this cigar that we have in our hand was produced. It's huge, big numbers. Hmm. That's say 15% increase year over year.
23 to 24. Very elegant
**Bam Bam:** there. Chef.
**Gizmo:** I'm,
**Senator:** I'm just blown away. You got your hand? Just move your pinky up, will you?
**Rooster:** There you go. You know the aroma from the cigar that you get from the foot it's
**Bam Bam:** nice.
**Rooster:** [00:22:00] Has feels like it has more pepper than you actually get from the smoke.
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** Like it's it's stronger than than when you smoke it.
Yeah,
**Senator:** that's true. Right? Yeah, I agree with that. Yep. And, and it's funny 'cause the white pepper you get on the burn line, you don't get that. Actually wish I got more of it in the cigar 'cause it's really pleasant. It's not like at all an aggressive pepper. That's true. It's like a white pepper. Well, you, for me, the white peppers sort of disappeared a little bit and it's turned to cinnamon like a very light cinnamon for me now.
So bacon spice for you. And I'm, I'm really liking that I'm getting a saltiness like Yeah, me too. Toward the back portion of the first, third D cigar that I really like at this point.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Is it a front of the tongue type of saltiness? Like what we would traditionally call twang? Or is it somewhere else in the mouth?
**Senator:** It's, it's kind of on the back, but in the middle. Maybe it's still very the middle, but it's, it's similar to that Cuban tang. It's not
**Rooster:** on the front of the front of the tongue. It's more towards the back.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. For, for me, it reminds me of when we spoke, uh, I forget what cigar it was, but we [00:23:00] were saying we were getting some tomato notes in there.
I'm getting some of that rich. Well, you were getting it.
**Bam Bam:** I thought, I, I think I remember you saying, uh, ketchup. No, no, I definitely didn't
**Senator:** say ketchup. Right. I don't consume much ketchup, but uh,
**Bam Bam:** it's probably bloody Mary. Wow. With all the iterations we're talking about, this is really quite good.
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I am actually surprised how good this is.
Very delicious. What are we pairing
**Senator:** this with tonight?
**Gizmo:** So, because of our performance, uh, the performance of our pairing two weeks ago and how much we loved the brand, we did Glenn Fiig, the 12 year age single malt scotch. I had purchased this bottle actually prior to the bottle of 12 that we did. So tonight we're going back to Glen Ick.
We paired that scotch with a Cuban cigar. Tonight we're pairing another scotch with a Cuban cigar. Tonight we have the 14 year aged bourbon barrel reserve, Glen ick single malt scotch. Now, I don't know how this is gonna pair with a Cuban cigar. I wanted to get something that was kind of reasonable, had a [00:24:00] little more age on it.
This is a $65 bottle, but if you smell the nose of this, it's very much aligned with the flavor profile of the cigar, vanilla. So I've been sneaking steps. Oh, and how's it working for you? That's good. Right?
**Senator:** That's very good. I mean, the, the sweetness from the bourbon barrel finish is I think very, um, very aligned with the flavor notes that you get outta this cigar.
That's true. There's, um, what's the, is this 40%? This is 43%. Okay. 'cause you can, there's a little bit of heat. Little more heat a touch, yeah. Which for cigar, this refined and on, like the medium, even mild medium side. Yeah, ideally I'd have something at 40%, but the sweet notes I think really help that. It's not an aggressive heat, you just, you know, it's got a little bit of extra.
Yeah, it's somewhat complimentary, right? Yeah, yeah. Especially the finish on the scotch, the finish, it's finish is very vanilla forward. Oh [00:25:00] sure. Almost cream soda like,
**Bam Bam:** but a Havana Club seven with this would be incredible.
**Rooster:** I thought you guys might do a champagne with this.
**Gizmo:** Honestly, champagne would be outstanding with this.
We might just have to smoke this cigar again in a couple weeks and Alright. Do with champagne. All right. I think that sounds good.
**Senator:** So how do you compare the 12 to this? I think they're different. I think this is definitely sweeter than the 12. I think the 12 is more balanced. I think the 12 is definitely smoother.
I'm sure that's at 40%. So I think it depends on kind of what you're looking for. I mean, for my palette, you know, I like something drier, more balanced, so I. I'd lean more toward the regular standard 12 year, but I think for someone looking for just a little sweeter profile, yeah, I think the 14 in that barrel is a also a nice option.
I,
**Bam Bam:** I think a RAs would pair beautifully with the cigar with this, uh, spirit. Um, the Schwab for me would do great. Even the part of this, like all the letter series [00:26:00] E, the E two with this outstanding,
**Gizmo:** yeah, D four I think would go very well and D four too, because of that vanilla thing that's going on there and it's got, it's gots with the cinnamon of the D four and there's
**Bam Bam:** more body to those cigars.
Right. Agreed. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I will say I, I'm happy. I, I was a little hesitant when I saw that it, it, it was in bourbon barrels, obviously imparting the sweetness, but I was hoping that it wasn't either too much or mm-hmm. You know, it drank too hot or, or whatever. Some of those characteristics that with a Cuban cigar would not pair very well.
But what I like about this is it is thin and viscosity, like the 12 year that we did a couple weeks ago, um, maybe a little bit more viscous, but. I love how delicious this is. I agree. We're drinking it neat. Mm-hmm. With a Cuban cigar. Mm-hmm. Another versatile spirit. 65 bucks.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I think he said it very accurately.
That little bit of heat on this spirit does. It's not a perfect match with the cigar for this caliber of cigar. I think that makes sense, but that [00:27:00] heat does dissipate pretty quickly.
**Senator:** I wonder if coming into the final third of the cigar that'll maybe work itself out a little bit. Maybe it'll pick up in strength.
'cause from what I've read about the cigar, it's one of their fuller bodied cigars, which I don't feel like we're there yet, but
**Bam Bam:** pagoda,
**Senator:** whoa.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. You are on the podcast right now.
**Pagos:** No, I've been really, I've been really just enjoying the cigar or not. What do you think of the drink? Yeah. I think for, by the way, I don't know.
I was trying to compare it to the twelves experience and I, for some reason, I'm enjoying this better now and I don't know whether. You know, my memory with the 12, because you know, of the way I experienced it was very, very, very different. It's just caused some kind of, what does that
**Senator:** mean? Copious amounts?
No, I think he had he put, he put ice in the
**Pagos:** 12? I did not. No he didn't. You didn't? Nope. Oh, that would be a mistake. I thought you did, but somebody else did.
**Gizmo:** Oh, I did. Okay, so you're referencing No, no, I'm just kidding. Oh boy. No, no. [00:28:00] I'm just kidding. I forgot. Oh boy. No, but listen, I did give pagoda a little too much ice when he was trying the 12 for the first time.
'cause he wasn't with us two weeks ago. Why were you giving him any ice to try it in the first place? Because I said, you want a little ice, a couple chips? And I just put too much in there and then I ended up pour it out and tried it. Yeah. But listen, it was, what are we
**Senator:** doing? He
**Gizmo:** should try it neat first.
Correct.
**Pagos:** It was, it was a very enjoyable drink. But I, you know, and then I had, there was another gland feric we tried that day. Mm-hmm. Which initially I liked better.
**Gizmo:** It was the red. It was the red bottle of the 12 that touches an additional sherry cask. Yes, there's like three cherry cherry casks on that top.
**Bam Bam:** Maybe it's the temperature you're pursuing. A chilled, yeah. More of a chilled experience maybe. Yeah. I'm
**Pagos:** enjoying this a lot. I'm really like, I think it's coming together in the back. It's rounding up in terms of, uh, the sweetness. It's not like he is right leaving me left alone. You know, like I think with some of the, uh, scotches I have, they'll be, you know, either very sharp or very, you know, harsh towards the end and they just leave it.
I think this is still [00:29:00] running up nicely, even though it's a little more, it's, it's a bit hot for sure, like, but there's something about it that's. Uh, it's making me feel like, uh, um, you know, like when you have ny with the sherry cask and the sherry kind of rounds mm-hmm. The whole experience out. I think there's something about this, which I'm really enjoying.
**Senator:** Yeah. I, I don't like the way the spirit starts on my palette with the cigar itself, but I like the way it finishes. Yeah. I think in the beginning Exactly. It's a little multi, like malt forward orco, there's a touch of heat that kind
**Bam Bam:** of like, it's a touch of offputting for this cigar. Yeah, I agree. It's that, that kind of makes sense.
**Senator:** It gets a little tannic in the start, at the start and, but it's delicious though. Maybe Peay or something. There's not a scotch expert. Great flavor. I do like the way it finishes. It reminds, it finishes like a rum almost. Correct. Because of that finish. Yeah, that's
**Pagos:** what I was trying to get at it. That's something that's rounding it.
And, but
**Senator:** I, I do think that the start of the spirit interferes with the cigar a bit, but a champagne would've
**Pagos:** been great. I [00:30:00] think we should rerecord this episode. I
**Bam Bam:** would love to smoke another one of these cigars. Yeah,
**Pagos:** we can do it today. I'll go run and run out and get a
**Bam Bam:** champion. Right now the
**Gizmo:** stage is yours.
Where you gonna get six more, uh, COHEs signal sixes that have this kind of age on? We'll, we'll just put it on pagoda Splitwise, correct.
**Bam Bam:** How's your, uh, draw issue?
**Gizmo:** The draw issue's. Okay. I am fighting my cigar a little bit more than you guys. I see you working it. No question. Um, I think either I'm in a patch in this cigar where the, you know, it's just off.
It's not burning as well. I'm ha I touched it up a few times. I mean, the flavor is a thousand percent there right now. I do have to knock it for construction on mine. Okay. I definitely have to knock it. Uh, unfortunately given a cigar that it costs as much as this does, uh, I'm a little frustrated with it.
**Rooster:** I just don't remember when was the last time I had a cohiba that tasted this good. Me too. The
**Gizmo:** Splendido on the New Year's Eve episode. Short memory. That, that was amazing. Ray Rua. See what a band can
**Rooster:** do. This is for me. This right now it's better than the splendid. It's delicious. Splendido was, it's delicious
**Senator:** for me.
It's not [00:31:00] really. I agree with our senator. I amm supremely frustrated with the combustion on this cigar. So this is too, like I can, there are siglo fives that have way more smoke output than this has. Yeah. Th this there are some cohiba, land seros that have more smoke output. You're not wrong. I'm very confused how a cigar at this ring gauge and I'm really enjoying the flavor profile.
Mm-hmm So it's just so frustrating. I want to be enveloped in all of that. Correct. And it's like detracting from this being like a fully sensory experience where like I'm getting some of the flavor on my palate and then it just dissipates so quickly 'cause like there's not enough smoke to really linger that I can just fully appreciate it.
**Bam Bam:** Look at the room. It's clear, it's,
**Senator:** it's kind of crazy. I mean, a plane could fly in these conditions. I mean, it's just, I dunno, these days
**Bam Bam:** it's very clear.
**Rooster:** I don't know. I'm
**Gizmo:** really enjoying this. Me, I am too. I'm very happy with the flavor. I'm, I'm with senator, so I have, I have, here's
**Bam Bam:** another question. I don't know Cohiba very well and there's inconsistency in this room right now.
Rooster and [00:32:00] I are, are in love here with the cigar.
**Rooster:** I think Chef Ricky too. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** I'm in love. So is Cohiba known as a consistent Marco like. Part of this, we know is extraordinarily consistent.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. But I think they all have their, they all have their moments, right? Yeah, that's true. I mean, you get a, you get a box color matched, who knows, you know, in this single box it could be 10 different rollers in this single box.
Mm-hmm. 'cause they're color matched. So you're not getting a consistent product from a consistent single roller, same set of hands. It's, it's a different set of hands or two sets of hands rolling these cigars that, you know, uh, everyone could be different. So I think that's what we're seeing in this room.
I don't think it has to do with the tobacco. I don't think it necessarily has to do with the wrapper, shades of wrapper. I just think it has to do simply with construction, bunching, you know, the, the choice of the, uh, tobacco is, they are bunching it. Um, you know, that's really the, what we're
**Senator:** experiencing, the role and the role, the role of the cigar.
I mean, I say this because, you know, when Rooster said this is one of the best cohibas he's had in a while, I [00:33:00] mean. I recently had a sea glow six that, you know, we were very generously gifted from one of the factories we had visited. It's young and honestly it, it was better than this. Better than this.
Yeah. I mean, I was floored how good, so much so I said to Gizmo like, I need more of these.
**Bam Bam:** And, and you know, he doesn't like Cohiba and I, and I'm not a big
**Senator:** cohiba guy. So like for me to say that those, that's high praise. And this cigar, there's so much I like about it, but it just doesn't complete the experience for me to say.
Oh my God. I have to have more of these in the way that some of these young I've recently had have really done that. Yeah. It's
**Bam Bam:** too
**Senator:** bad.
**Bam Bam:** I am loving mine and I know you are. And chef. It's just, it's delicious. It's too bad. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Only thing I would say is like we have six cigars and the variation in color is very odd to me.
I mean, these guys are experts when they put, it's a bit disturbing to when they put 10 in a box. I mean, it should really be a very [00:34:00] close color match. And this even to us, like with our lack of experience. Yeah. I mean, look at this and putting these in boxes.
**Bam Bam:** So Senator and, and chefs cigars are like night and day.
You would never outrageous. Is it a possibility to like went cis in a
**Gizmo:** box? No, I think what it is, is I think the bottom row was one color and I think the top row was another. I think you need to talk to Lio. I, I, I think the lights went on very well. Could have been the case very well. Could have been the case.
**Senator:** I tell you, if there's a time to learn how to retro hale it is with this cigar. Oh. 'cause what you're getting, there's no doubt about that. Yeah. What you're getting on the retro hale here, especially, you know, just so, so what yourself, so Senator said a moment
**Bam Bam:** ago, that whole experience of enveloping yourself in a cigar.
Mm-hmm. You do get that in the retro, where you're then taking the draw Retroing at the same time. It creates that, that cyclical experience. That's, this is where in this cigar, you're right, the retro would be an advantage for you.
**Senator:** There's just that, you know, when Pupa talks about you settle into a cigar and you know it, it becomes rhythmic and it's [00:35:00] so relaxing.
Correct. The smoke output needs to be there for that to happen. There's Yeah, I agree. And that's the part where like, you know, I'm thinking of this cigar, like if I'm lighting this after a long day mm-hmm. Like, we've all worked today and we just wanna relax. And it's like, I can't, I'm not in that rhythm because I'm not watching billows of smoke, you know, come out every time I'm taking a draw.
And I just, it feels incomplete. That matters. I, I am in that same exact place that the smoke production matters.
**Pagos:** No, it, it really does matter. Like, you know, for me, it's one of the most important things when I really consider a cigar, because good or bad, hey, at least you feel like you're smoking cigar. But something about this cigar, it's so flavorful with such distinct flavors.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Pagos:** I don't know. It's like, it's mind boggling. Yeah. Now I understand, uh, the dilemma you guys always experience this is, it's a, it's a new, new thing to me. How many episodes now are we? 2 75. Alright. 200 and, [00:36:00] hey, one step at a time. That correct Baby steps. Some of,
**Gizmo:** I I am frustrated. You know, we've been talking about it.
We're at you kind of at the end of the first third here on this COHEs of six. I am frustrated to Senator's point that I've not been able to kind of let myself go and just s smoke the cigar. Every time I draw I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking, should I touch it up? Should I puff it? You know, pull on it again, get a little more, draw The flavor is a thousand percent there, but I wish I could join you guys.
The performance in the euphoria of it,
**Bam Bam:** the performance is
**Gizmo:** because I'm not euphoric. I am frustrated because I know what this cigar canon should be and this specific one I have in my hand is not, you know, it's unfortunate. I am enjoying the pairing though. Um, Glenn Fiig remains a, uh, a home run for me. I, I agree with you though.
I think the, the heat of it at the, you know, the flavor at the beginning maybe doesn't perfectly align, but the way it finishes, I think Chef Ricky said that I'm very happy with it.
**Bam Bam:** The heat, there's that slight heat [00:37:00] that's a touch, just a very touch off pudding, but it didn't, it evaporates.
**Pagos:** I think a champagne would've been great with it and maybe even a reasonable tequila.
Think tequila would've been great.
**Gizmo:** Alright, boys, as we talked about, uh, with Haos, this is a big month for Haos. The Haos Festival just wrapped up in Havana and of course, throughout the week they announced their new releases for 2025. I'm sure most of them we will be seeing later this year or early in 2026.
That's generally how it goes on Monday night. They celebrated at the opening gala, the Romeo I Julieta 150th anniversary, and they announced the new cigar. It's called the Amanti, and it's a 53 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. Very, very similar in size to the cigar. We have just a slight bit longer and one degree, uh, larger in the ring gauge.
Its factory name is called the [00:38:00] SoBro SAEs, and it has been only used in various limited edition cigars, including a Po Ranga and a different Romeo Julieta. This cigar is going to come in a box of 20, of course. Very, uh, very ornate box as we can expect. This is interesting though. They do have a new band for this cigar, which has.
It's kind of a play on the traditional Romeo Julieta band, but in the center it says 150th for the anniversary. That's
**Bam Bam:** unusual.
**Gizmo:** There's also going to be a foot band that says Romeo Julieta and the Cigar named. Oh yeah. We love foot bands. So they're gonna have that on there as well. I mean, I hate to
**Senator:** say it, but honestly, with that foot band, it looks like a new world Romeo and Juliet does.
It does, does. That's exactly what I was gonna say. It looks really, this looks like a
**Gizmo:** Dominican or Nicaraguan. Uh, probably gonna smoke like one too. Maybe.
**Senator:** I also, another observation, uh, and I'm not sure you're gonna go through more of the releases, but that's a long cigar that beke [00:39:00] that, uh, 58 they released.
That's a long cigar, right? Yep. We're getting to that one. That's the Friday one. Wow. I just find this so funny because I remember we were talking about a few years ago when all of a sudden Hano SE was, and really a lot of the cigar manufacturers were increasing the ring gauge on cigars, but they were making them shorter.
And they were saying people have less time and they want a larger ring gauge in this experience, but delivered in a shorter amount of time. And I just find it so funny that now fast forward two or three years later and all of a sudden the world just has more time. Correct. It's completely inconsistent with what people said like Touro extras.
That's what it is. I just don't understand, I mean I vividly us having this conversation and now it's like all of a sudden we've got so much time on our hands, we want these six inch cigars. And I mean I love them, but I'm not really sure if they're following what consumers are. Well, at least the
**Rooster:** ring gauge is correct.
Yeah, correct. You know they wanted bigger sizes, right?
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** 53 rings, so they're getting six on that Romeo and 58 on the S.
**Gizmo:** So let's talk about, another one announced the [00:40:00] Trinidad Via has been announced as a La La Casa de Hano exclusive release. That's
**Bam Bam:** $180
**Gizmo:** 47 ring gauge by sixth and seven 10th inches long, almost seven inches long.
47 by almost seven. The Vitola is a new vitola. It's called, going to be called the Julieta number three. So the Julieta number two is what we know as a Churchill. This is a step bigger than that. The Julieta number three, it's going to come in boxes of 12, of course, featuring the la uh, la Casa de Hao branding.
And, uh, of course, I mean, it's going to be limited and expensive and rare. Another long cigar, another long cigar age. And that's, that's the trend of this.
**Bam Bam:** Is it an, is it age limited and rare? I don't think
**Gizmo:** so. I don't think so. All right. So this one, I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about this one.
On Wednesday, they celebrated H Up Man, and this year for the re Grand [00:41:00] Reserva Ceja, they announced the Magnum 50 from 2019. So the Grand Reserva Ceha is one of the most expensive release types out of Cuba, and I'm certain that this will be absolutely no different. Of course, the Magnum 50 is a 50 ring gauge, double re robusto by six and three tenths inches long.
It has the Grand Reserva Che second band on it, and I would assume these are gonna come, I believe, in boxes of 15 5,000 numbered boxes. I would assume that these cigars are going to probably be, sorry, three,
**Bam Bam:** four,
**Gizmo:** $500.
**Bam Bam:** There's no interest for me to smoke that cigar. I'm sure it's gonna be almost identical to the standard production 50.
Right?
**Gizmo:** Exactly. It just has the age on it. It just has five years of age.
**Rooster:** It probably took 2019 boxes and put Grand Reserva labels
**Gizmo:** on them, correct. Right. Each year, Haos SA selects one [00:42:00] regular production cigar to be part of the Reserva or Grand Reserva program, which means the cigars use age, tobacco, and are packaged of course in special boxes.
An even year means that Haos SA designates a reserva. Odd years means a grand reserva is chosen. So 2025 this year is the Grand Reserva. Last year we spoke about this in 2023. The Grand Reserva che from 2017 was the Cohiba Splendido. That cigar is really ridiculously overpriced in 2021. The part Degas series E number two, ground Reserver Ceja from 2015.
And they kind of wrote, rotate through the global brands. They did a Hoya de Monterey double Corona before that, and H Upminster Winston Romeo Julietta Wide Churchill parked the Goss, Luan Monte Crista number two. And the first ground Reserver ever was the Cohiba Siglo six, 2009. So these cigars are very, very [00:43:00] expensive and very, very rare.
**Bam Bam:** Sorry. Chef's got like a. Ology experiment going on in the corner.
**Senator:** What's, what he doing? What is
**Gizmo:** going on over
**Senator:** there?
**Gizmo:** Talk to me chef.
**Senator:** Just trying to encapsulate the, uh, burn line as much as I can and right into his nose. Yeah. As he's like, literally don't burn yourself, his head. Putting it over the ash, putting it closer and closer to his face.
This is hilarious. I think he
**Rooster:** wishes he wasn't like a one person teepee.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And ala Uba, you may wanna see a pulmonologist suit
**Senator:** or then he had an oxygen mascot just pumping this smoke in for Exactly.
**Rooster:** Correct. That's it. It is a delicious smoke, isn't it, chef? You know,
**Bam Bam:** giz everything you're, you're saying, I just wish Habanas would focus on the standard production.
Yeah. Just do what they do really, really well and just stay in that lane.
**Rooster:** But this is the way, you know, you get the most ROI. Yeah. It's marketing gimmick. Yeah, it's marketing. It's, you know, it's gimmick. It's a lot of bs.
**Senator:** Yeah. I, I'll also say this, look, I'm not gonna [00:44:00] buy, uh, probably any of these, but. I don't mind them doing this with great cigars, but like the Romeo stuff, I mean, no one is gonna be that interested in that.
It's true. The up men of all the different, the fifties, I can't believe they showed the 50, the mag 50. I mean, come on. It's like we don we don't standard production, let alone, you know, some special edition of it. So it's like, if they're gonna do that, I just wish that they would make better decisions and pick things like when Parus did that with the E two A grand reserve, like that's cool.
That's the cigar we love as standard production. I'm sure it was outstanding. Would I pay that price point? No. Mm-hmm But if someone gifted that to me, I'd sure as hell, I'm, uh, enjoy it. So I just wish they would be better in making their selections of sticks to do well. I
**Rooster:** think they've already done it with the number two and they've done it with the Sir Winston.
So, I mean, how many different models are, I would rather them do
**Senator:** it, the mag 46 than the 50. Well, also, based on how you guys are speaking of the regular production of these cigars, maybe they think they'll be able to sell them.
**Bam Bam:** Of course.
**Senator:** That's the whole, that's the idea with the idea that's what they're doing.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So I also think, [00:45:00] you know, to Senator's point, and we're gonna continue on the trend here, is bigger cigars in, in this Haos festival announcements this year, you know, I, I think the Mag 50 is one of the larger format cigars you can get inside the Haos catalog. Now, the Mag 54, of course is, is a larger ring gauge cigar, but it's a shorter cigar.
Mm-hmm. So for someone to pay 253, 300 $50 for that cigar, I don't think that's reasonable from, from a consumer's eye in an LCDH in a store, whatever. Of course for us, we're not gonna pay that either way for any of them. But I'm thinking for a consumer standpoint, looking at value. Thinking about the cigars that sell well being bigger ring gauge toros, stuff like this, you know, the SIG oh six we have in our hand.
So why not release? That's the trend. Release a
**Rooster:** new size and then put a Grand Reserva on
**Gizmo:** it. Well, technically the program for Grand Reserva only uses standard production. Regular production in the global brands. Yeah. So I, I mean, to everyone's point here, I mean, I, I've tried the [00:46:00] part against Linia Ground Reserva.
That's the only one I've had. Has anyone else had a ground Reserva in the room? Yeah, I've had the, um, the Hoyo, um, double Corona.
**Bam Bam:** Mm, no. Haven't had any.
**Gizmo:** How was the Hoya double Corona for you versus a normal great, let's call it Hoya double Corona. Was there any difference? Yeah, it was orgasmic. Really?
Really? It was really good. Wow. It was excellent.
**Bam Bam:** Better than it's standard product. We've heard you say orgasmic
**Gizmo:** before. It's true.
**Bam Bam:** I believe in other settings. I believe it was a a
**Senator:** me luna from Trinidad. That's true. And I don't see you pulling for that, that much anymore. Was it that much better than a static production?
Double Corona?
**Rooster:** Yes. Come on, dude. It was. It was good. Come on. It was very, I'm telling you, it was good. It was very good. All right. I mean, you could tell it had like, it had some age on that cigar. Mm-hmm. I mean, those tobaccos are definitely more aged.
**Gizmo:** I would think that if they are using aged tobacco, enrolling them for that program, I would assume they're, they're having the [00:47:00] best of the best people.
Mm-hmm. You know, put those cigars together so that we don't have an experience like, you know, we're having tonight in the room.
**Senator:** Now gives the Lucy you had mind blowing or not? Great question.
**Gizmo:** Uh, no. I, I, so I've, I've had that in comparison to other aged loosies. I would not say it, it was a standout per se versus other loosies.
Actually, the one I had did have a little bit of a construction issue.
**Bam Bam:** Hmm.
**Gizmo:** So not good. So maybe they've improved since that time. I do know that the Siglo six, again going back to the cigar, we have in our handy Siglo six first ground Reserver release. Um, all those years ago, about 15 years ago, is one of the most sought after, uh, Cuban cigar releases ever.
I know that that's a big wishlist item for folks, and that's PE one that people try to get, because I guess it was pretty legendary. Hmm. The first release.
**Senator:** So the 2003,
**Gizmo:** I think it's a 2009 release, but the, the tobacco's probably from 2004. I think it even has the old Cohiba band without the holograms and all that stuff on 'em.
So,
**Senator:** great Father's Day gift for all the, uh, wives listening, correct? [00:48:00]
**Gizmo:** Uh, honey, I'll
**Bam Bam:** take a box.
**Gizmo:** All right boys, so let's move on here. Uh, before we get to the bhi, I wanted to throw this one at you. So this year, as we know, the festival, uh, del Hano, they always have the humidor auctions, which go for bonko bucks.
You know, the cohiba one, you know, of course, goes for the most amount of money. This year, they announced a new program that the auction winners who won those auctions are going to get custom banded cigars in a program that they're calling private selection. So now people who win these humidors, now you're talking millions of dollars purchased on these humidors
**Senator:** Ooh, marketing The Hano essay has announced that's right,
**Gizmo:** that these winners will have priority access to prestigious OLAS in the the Haos portfolio.
And the press release mentions all Cohiba lines. Trinidad Monte Cristo number 1935, uh, Romeo Huta, Linea de Oral, and Pargo Linea Mara. In addition [00:49:00] to some specialties, exclusive and limited. So they'll have priority access to those. They're also going to have the option for custom banded cigars. And finally, an option to personalize a custom humidor holding up to 300 cigars.
So that is definitely for the whales of all whales, you know, purchasing crazy humidors at the festival Del Hano. But, um, I mean, you're paying, you know, you're talking last year, I think the Cohiba last year, you know, went for close to $3 million and you're talking that there's three to 500 cigars in that.
So do the math. That's
**Bam Bam:** insane.
**Gizmo:** I mean, you're talking about significant, you know, serious money. Wasn't there being spent on this, a four and
**Bam Bam:** a half million dollar humidor when you and I were at the very, very first trip? It was pretty wild.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think, I don't think, I don't know if it touched four and a half, but it was up there.
It was up there, yeah. So on a future episode, I'll get all those numbers and we'll go through all the auction items that were sold and how much they went for because it is a crazy amount of money. [00:50:00] All right, boys. And finally, the big release that we need to talk about, we talked about this in December.
Cohiba celebrated its 15th anniversary of the Boche line with the launch of the Boche 58, which is a massive legato. Number seven Vila 58 ring gauge by seven inches. Whoa, 58 Gaza by seven. So we did talk about, there was a lot of rumors about the Bahi K 59 or as we called it, the Abe coming out this year as well.
That's been delayed till next year celebrating the 60th anniversary of Cohiba. Folks were still reporting it was coming out, but we told 'em it wasn't. And boys it is not coming out for another year. But the Bahi K 58 has has launched and with that they are going to be completely updating all of the packaging and all of the bands for all of the Cohiba cigars [00:51:00] already in production.
So of course this is the fourth BHI K being released. They have the BHI K 52, the bhi K 54, the 56, and now the 58, which is. Again, pretty wild to me. 58 by seven. I can't believe it.
**Pagos:** Hey, listen, you know, the Placencia Octagon needs some competition. What?
I mean the dimensions of that cigar probably. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Guess I don't think you'll ever try it, but it's okay.
**Gizmo:** It's probably true. I will not, and, and we need to talk about that, the pricing in a second. But all of the bahi s now will come with a foot band that is going to designate which cigar it is.
So a Bahi K 52 bahi K 54, 56, 58. Like it's so
**Senator:** hard to tell the difference. Come on.
**Gizmo:** And they're also all going to have NFT technology in the box, which is an outer, uh, anti-counterfeiting measure. So I like to hear that. Yeah. I [00:52:00] don't know if that's something that's easily cracked. I'm not familiar with NFT, but I do like the idea that they're trying to get ahead of the counterfeiters.
You know, at least in the boxes, I don't think the individual cigars, there's the capability in the bands to put NFT, but I'm happy that they're gonna be updating all the boxes. That's great. Pretty soon
**Senator:** they'll be selling just NFTs. You don't even get the cigar. You just have an NFT that says you have the cigar.
Yeah. Isn't, I did have a virtual dinner tonight. Isn't,
**Bam Bam:** isn't NFTA trading platform?
**Gizmo:** I guess it's what they call a non, non fungible technology. Mm. So I, I guess from an anti anti-counterfeiting standpoint, you put your phone using the, it's so
**Senator:** not a non fungible token.
**Gizmo:** I guess that maybe that is it non fungible token?
It is a token, yeah. So I guess what happens is, is you open your phone, I don't know if there's an app or some sort of website. You put your phone near it, uh, with the, you know, the NFC technology, the Nearfield communications, and it, I guess identifies that you have an authentic box, so, oh, [00:53:00] that's pretty cool.
I think
**Senator:** that that's what you mean is NFC, not NFT.
**Gizmo:** It's called NFT according to, called n ft. That's
**Senator:** correct. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Using NFC technology blockchain. Right. I guess what, I don't know how sophisticated Haos is getting here, but again, I just, I, I don't know much about it. What I like is that they're putting in the effort to try to get ahead, ahead, uh,
**Bam Bam:** ahead
**Gizmo:** of
**Bam Bam:** counterfeit.
It sounds incredible. So is it an app that you download and you can verify your box? I think that's correct.
**Senator:** Yeah. That's the front end. I'm just saying the back end of it, no clue. It's like, it's literally all based on blockchain technology to like uniquely identify all these different things and allegedly, you know, be very secure.
Whatever
**Bam Bam:** you said just went over my head and the US customs would be to identify where it's like, how do you incorporate that coming straight to your house? Blockchain in cigar manufacturing, I mean, that's
**Senator:** just
**Gizmo:** in the boxes. That's amazing. In the
**Senator:** boxes. Wow. I do have to say though, I mean it, the counterfeits are so bad, especially when you have the real deal in your hand.
It's, it just takes a little, the tiniest bit of research to see that. But some of them, Ricky are very [00:54:00] good. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And especially in Bahi, there's a lot of bad bahi K out there. I actually had a box here at the lounge from one of our lounge members, brought a box in. It was a box of 25. Mm-hmm. In, in a cardboard dress box.
Where did he pay
**Bam Bam:** like 125 for a box? No, he got it as a gift, thankfully. But I cut
**Gizmo:** it open. I showed him the short filler, like it was obviously very, very counterfeit, but there are some real serious. Strong like counterfeiting rings out there that are doing this very, very well. So hopefully this new technology will help, you know, haos get ahead of it and get, help these retailers mm-hmm.
Be able to prove to their customers that they are purchasing a legitimate bonus.
**Pagos:** Can you just repeat the fact that you cut it open and you went through the three? I did. Please. Can you explain that today? Well, I very did similar. I,
**Gizmo:** I don't know much about what I'm looking for other than long filler versus short filler.
Short filler, yes. But I did exactly what dlo did. You did that when we were with him. I took a knife, sliced it right open, opened it up. Oh, with him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you could see, no, I did it in the lounge here, here. I wasn't here for two days ago. I was here for this. And, you know, you could see the long filler and short filler and it was very [00:55:00] unfortunate how much, uh, junk was, but, but even
**Senator:** before getting to that, the box was of course, horrible.
The graphics on the box were horrible. And, and
**Bam Bam:** our, and our beloved club member, how disappointed was he? He knew it was fake before he brought it to me. Okay. All right. Great. Yeah, that's good. I had, I
**Senator:** had a conversation with him the night prior. Okay. Okay.
**Pagos:** I like the fact that you manage expectations.
That's great.
**Senator:** No, just kidding. Yeah. Before
**Gizmo:** he sends 'em to me to cut it open.
**Senator:** Well, when, when he, when he received it, you know, he's like, Hey, check out what this guy gave me. And the guy happened to be there with him at the time. Mm. And I was like, I was like, okay. But you know, he could tell by my reaction, uh, or my lack of excitement for him that there was something up.
And I just told him I didn't know a whole lot about the relationship. So trying to get this band off of here, this is not easy.
**Bam Bam:** Look at this.
**Rooster:** 20, 20 19 blue. It's true. Sell loose. Can I show you how to do it? What the heck is going on, Ben?
**Bam Bam:** Oh, look at you. That's fake. [00:56:00]
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Pagoda just slid his off of the, uh, so the head of the cigar, the
**Bam Bam:** guys in the room that are gushing Rooster, chef Pagoda.
How are you? What? What are you getting right now?
**Pagos:** So, uh, I'll, I'll tell you, I know b before I get cut off because I'm gonna be using some Indian terms, but I, IJI just think that overall I've got a lot of, um, either the, it's like a sweet cream or like a, the yogurt, which is I. Like sour and sweet. It became sweeter in the second half and like this third has become sweeter.
But now when I retro hailed, it was like, like this sour sweet candy. I dunno which one it is. That's what I fell through in my nose. Dude, I have to say,
**Bam Bam:** I echo everything you're saying right now. I'm really, really enjoying this right now.
**Gizmo:** It is excellent. So if you, if you see me over here, my cigar has turned for the better.
Uh, my, my combustion's better. My smoke output is better. The flavors are still there, but I'm starting to get to a [00:57:00] more relaxed position with the cigar that I'm not feeling like I have to fight it or mm-hmm. That I'm anticipating having to fight it. So yeah, I'm definitely better, you know, feeling better construction wise, flavor wise.
I think the cigar is brilliant. Yeah. I think that sweet lactose thing is really
**Senator:** happening. Yeah. For me, I'm feeling like, uh, you know, you have a hot cocoa with not very much chocolate. Mm-hmm. You know, but you make sure to make it with a, with like really good whole milk. Uh, but not a lot of chocolate. It's not super intense, uh, in chocolate.
No, but I'm getting hot cocoa here. Yeah. I'm having a hard time not, not puffing on this,
**Rooster:** and I've been, I've been lucky. My combustion has been pretty good. I'm pretty happy with
**Bam Bam:** it. Yeah. Yeah. There's no cloud of smoke by you, but, okay. Yeah.
**Rooster:** But it's not bad. I mean, I, but it's producing enough. Let's see. This smoke output recently, no,
**Bam Bam:** honestly, there's no smoke output on a cigar.
It, it's there, but then it just completely just that this, this is definitely better than for as
**Senator:** creamy as the flavor is. You think the smoke would be a lot more viscous. Mm-hmm. And kinda linger a [00:58:00] bit more. Senator, how's yours right now? I feel the same. I mean, the flavor is good. It's very good. I, I just, I can't get immersed in this cigar because of the smoke output.
Makes sense. Yeah, it's unfortunate. I must say I enjoy it a lot more without the pairing. I've actually. Stop drinking. Stop drinking a bit. I'll take your drink, then pass that glass over. Yeah, please.
**Pagos:** It's gonna go by me.
**Gizmo:** So I wanna go back to the Bahi K 58 for a second and talk to you guys about two things.
Number one, we know that Bahi K cigars are priced somewhere between probably 250 a cigar to 350, 400 at the Bahi, K 56. So we must assume that from the drop of whenever these cigars are finally released, that's 58. The 58 has gotta be coming in at $500 a cigar, right? Mm-hmm. I mean, are, are we in agreement with that 5,000 bucks for a box of 10 for a fresh [00:59:00] cigar?
Unbelievable. It's crazy. I mean, that's insane. That's insane, man. I, I mean, and it's just like. It's just so unfortunate, a, that these new releases are so una unattainable.
**Bam Bam:** Correct.
**Gizmo:** For most folks out there. Number two and, and something that senator mentioned earlier in, in the ring gauge, you know, versus length thing.
You know, I'm wondering with what we've talked about with wrapper shortage in the past, the bahi shortage period. Mm-hmm. There's not a lot of bahi K on the open market a a lot of the time. I'm wondering how even accessible these are gonna be to Yeah. The average Cuban cigar smoker, even if they have the money and want, wanna smoke it mm-hmm.
And buy it.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Gonna have to assume that they're selling it to specific shops that are selling that particular cigar. To certain clients
**Rooster:** and also have to release that information. How many boxes would they be putting out?
**Gizmo:** No, they haven't. They don't talk about as far as regular production, 'cause this will be regular production.
There is no limited amount of boxes. This is going to be a new regular production cigar for Haos. [01:00:00] So it's going to be ongoing, but I just can't see. A flooding of the market here with Bahi K 58. I think these are going to be very rare from the jump, you know, just like some of these other cigars that we're talking about here coming into, you know, being released in the next year.
So of course for the folks out there who don't know much about Bahi k Bahi K was launched in 2010. So again, this is the 15th anniversary of it here in 2025. Noted of course for using me Tepo leaves, which have never been used in Cuban cigars prior to 2010 that Bahi gave 52, 54, 56 were the first ones to use it.
Me Tepo leaves occur on fewer than 10% of plants. The leaves are found at the highest part of the plant above Li Harrow, and they receive additional sunlight and therefore are stronger. So they use that in the bahi can, and it kind of gives you a little bit of a bite to the cigar. Mm-hmm. Unique flavor that you don't get in a lot of the others, including.
SLO six that we have in our hands. So [01:01:00] they're definitely unique cigars, but unfortunately I don't see us ever No. Reviewing one of those cigars on this podcast for a multitude of reasons. Primarily due to the price. Correct.
**Rooster:** I would take the Siglo six experience over a baki any day.
**Bam Bam:** So, dude, I'm honestly loving it.
That good. I'm really loving this cigar right now. It's awesome. It, I have no complaints.
**Gizmo:** My envy is very high. The flavor's good, but I'm very envious. It's ridiculous. I know Senator is too.
**Senator:** I'm sorry. I mean, I would take a behi K 54 over this any day.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's too bad. Yeah. Well, it just goes to show the inconsistency here,
**Senator:** and again, this goes to my, you know, historic, my longstanding frustration with Cohiba.
This just should not be the case at a hundred something dollars stick at this fucking price point. Correct. It's outrageous also that we can't all have the same experience. Correct.
**Gizmo:** Correct. Let's add in the fact that these have five years of age. These have had plenty of time. Mm-hmm. To mature, settle. Dry out if they're too, like what all the conditions that, that, that [01:02:00] time, you know, brings with a cigar.
Unfortunately, for Senator and I specifically tonight, yeah. You know, it didn't deliver in a, uh. Yeah. In a great way for
**Pagos:** us, you know? But that's really interesting because now it also tells us one more thing that you can age it to God for five years and they may not age exactly the same way. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, absolutely.
**Rooster:** But can you imagine paying like $500 for a 58 and having this experience? No. With, with, with two,
**Bam Bam:** no.
**Rooster:** Two cigars are duds. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Whoever's buying, that's posing. And for status
**Gizmo:** for the listener out there. Next week we're gonna be doing a new world cigar that's, uh, very expensive. The Padron 60th anniversary in Maduro for our 175th episode.
Between that cigar and this cigar boys, there are no accidents. You total them up. A hundred bucks for this one. 75 for that one. What do we get?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** episode 1 75. There you go. Totaling them together. So trying to, uh, be creative with it, but, uh, unfortunately, you know, this week and next week, [01:03:00] smoking two cigars that are, you know, pushing.
The average price of the cigars that we love and smoke. Mm-hmm. You know, into the stratosphere. And I, I don't think there's any stopping it at this point. Yeah.
**Senator:** I just saw an article, there's like record credit card debt in history right now, and we're gonna be just fucking all this up. I mean, people are gonna be going out and buying this cigar and next to the drone 60th.
I mean, the prices have gotten outta control. Yeah. It's really sad.
**Bam Bam:** Not a cheap, it's really sad. Not a cheap habit,
**Gizmo:** but thankfully, you know, uh, not to get too introspective, but, you know, thankfully because of this podcast for us in the room and hopefully our listenership out there, we have found a lot of brilliant cigars that are priced even sub $10.
You know, that all, Dino, I thought you
**Senator:** were gonna say endorsements. You know,
**Gizmo:** the, the, uh, the fabric of five stuff, the mofo stuff. I mean, we're talking, you know, real value in those cigars at sub 10, at a 10th of the price of the cigar. We, our, we have in our hand.
**Bam Bam:** Robusto Trinity. I know you've been talking about it for two weeks.
I still think about that fucking cigar. Yeah, it's, it's really [01:04:00] very, it's unforgettable how good that is. I agree with you. Ah,
**Gizmo:** alright boys, it's time now. As we, uh, we enter into the last third here on the Cohiba SLA six. It's time to move into some listener email. We have a bunch of good emails tonight.
We're going to start with Lizard Josh. He writes, Mr. Gizmo. It would seem as though you may be the guys to talk to about my pending Cuba trip. I will be there before until a bit after the Habanas Festival this year, so he's still there now. I started asking around for tips about what to do on a solid handful of people brought you guys up.
At first, I had picked the brains of people of how to get tickets to the events, mainly the gala dinners, et cetera. But after everybody said that China was snatching up all the tickets, I started asking my contacts here. I have a few buddies at Aching, the Humidor folks, and they pointed me in the direction of a tour guide with government relations, et cetera.
Seems like they acquired as many tickets as they could with the goal of selling them all off. For a mean profit, it seems if I'm willing to pay the [01:05:00] premium, I can score a pair for me and the misses. Cuba is a first and it will be my 81st country visited. Wow. 81 countries. Wow. Well traveled. I'm pretty impressed.
Lizard Josh. I have zero concern about travel warnings or potential electric grid collapses. I've been to countries with much worse. Not to bu overburden you guys with info about myself. Just a bit of context. We had a, a baby a hundred days ago and we'll be dropping her off with my mom in Utah so we can get a taste of freedom.
Although we'll be going from China to Cuba. Maybe I haven't picked the right spots.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. He's adventurous. All
**Gizmo:** right, so first up. He asks about picking up cigars. I don't care if Fund Doris and Siglo of all the ATS have bands in boxes, a few members have introduced me to some locals. There seems to be a complete tear down the middle of people who I've talked to so far as to whether it's possible these sticks that are unbranded are real.
If so, should I buy and smoke them even if they are real? And how do I know you'll, you don't know. [01:06:00]
**Bam Bam:** Well, unfortunately, your source is your first thought.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's all about your source and whether you trust them. And then of course, you know, if you do trust them, I would say flavor is paramount. So if you're enjoying the flavor of them, um, all the power to you.
But unfortunately there is no way to tell, especially in Cuba, if you're getting legitimate cigars. Yeah. 'cause everybody has a cousin that works at the factory. You're not buying anything
**Bam Bam:** on the street. I mean, that's, that's rule
**Gizmo:** number one.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And I mean, you can go to Miami and find. 300 people, probably within a two square mile radius that say they have connections to a family me member who works at a factory in Cohiba.
So I, I would, uh, take, I would take all of those opinions with a grain of salt. Now let me ask you guys this. We've been to Cuba many, many times. We've talked about this before. But do you remember being in Cuba and getting your hands on any custom rolls that weren't from a factory that we were gifted while you were in Cuba?
And either having smoked them or enjoyed them? [01:07:00] Because I don't ever remember even accepting a cigar from anyone that I did not see at the factory. Correct. And was handed, you know, you know, to me at that point. Definitely not. No.
**Rooster:** Well, we did have a, I had a cigar that was rolled by Laina at the Pargo shop.
Yep. Which is a custom
**Senator:** roll.
**Rooster:** Which is a custom roll, but that you could
**Senator:** verify. I mean, you watched her roll it, right? That's true. Yeah. Right. The other was good. Good. It was
**Rooster:** okay. It wasn't, it wasn't great, but it was Okay. And the other cigar we had at Hector, Luis, uh, STO farm that was also farm roll. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. It was okay. It was okay.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. He said, what's your take on the best of the best? Are there legit? Out the side door of the factory or do locals just prey on people's giddiness? I would say that mm-hmm. The latter of the two is what you're seeing and, and hearing, especially in central Havana. Um, unless you're at the factory.
And also I would be cautious there because if you're purchasing, if, if you're so lucky to go to a factory in Cuba and [01:08:00] an employee's kind of coming up to you trying to get a backdoor deal going, I don't know if I would take that risk and purchase them and then get caught on the way out Yeah. And, and have an issue and potentially be banned.
Sure. Like, it's not worth it. I just think it's worth it. No. I just don't think it's worth tainting. And that will happen. Your cohiba, exper, you know Cuban, it will happen. Uh, experience. Mm-hmm. Okay. So he asks Now about factories. Of course, alleg GTO is a bucket list item, but most people on the ground here and on the the FOH forum have hinted.
It's basically impossible to get in there. I'll book a factory visit with the festival and hope with that, uh, and the likely Bahi K launch that Ella GTO will be the spot we visit. Any others that you think are must sees? Oh, LA Corona. La Corona. I think you have to go visit if you have the opportunity.
You guys went to the up in factory. Yeah, I felt that the Atman factory was kind of like a touristy Oh, yeah. Walkthrough. It didn't FI didn't feel immersed in it. Would you agree, Senator?
**Senator:** I, I agree. I honestly, I'd skip it. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** you know what? So I didn't miss anything then. Well,
**Senator:** that's what we're saying [01:09:00] to make you feel
**Bam Bam:** better.
You did. You know, I didn't tr I didn't believe a fucking word that you said that day
**Gizmo:** we were messing with Bam, because were, you
**Bam Bam:** didn't make it for that.
**Rooster:** And, uh, bam. I would say it was better than Lido.
**Bam Bam:** You're cut off.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I mean, uh, for us, I mean, uh, I, I would say El Lito and La Corona, la Corona or the two factories, that if you're able to get a tour, even if it's not a personal tour, uh, if you're in a group festival group, you know, tour group, whatever, it's still worth going through, of course. Mm-hmm. If you're able to get a private tour.
Some personal attention. That's, um, definitely the way to do it. But yeah, we got, listen, we got very lucky, very, you know, we've gotten very lucky with our relationships there. Well, you're a global insider, as you know, Ben. I do know that, but, uh, no, seriously though, we did get lucky and our relationships are a product of that.
And, and again, we don't go there with our hands out hoping to take cigars. You know, never, never. And I'm not knocking lizard Josh for these questions, but a lot of folks do go to these factories with their hands out, [01:10:00] trying to walk out of there with as many cigars as possible. And it's just not the way to do it, you know, especially if you want to go back.
All right. He goes on now to plantations. I figured going solo would offer more freedom than going with a Haos crew. I've heard great things about he Hector Luis pto and the Robia Farm. I will probably do both and do a horse tour in Vinales. Any recommendations there? I. We had a great time, uh, when we went out to Pinard del Rio Als.
Uh, I would recommend listening to our episode on that, uh, from our Cuba recap. The last time we went, we did go to Hector Luis's farm. We talked about some restaurants we went to, et cetera. So I would do that. We didn't do any horse tours or anything like that, although I would love to see this group. I would love riding horses.
Love to see GIZ on a horse.
**Senator:** I'd love to see a horse that's fed well enough in, uh, that's also true in Cuba for bam. I mean, oh yeah. I'm
**Bam Bam:** breaking
**Senator:** it back when I get on that horse. He's formidable.
**Bam Bam:** Well, look at the AI image,[01:11:00]
by the way. I, I have big prom with
**Gizmo:** that.
**Bam Bam:** I know you do, but it's funny. Correct.
**Gizmo:** All right. And then, uh. Finally, he talks about bringing back the hall. We get this question a lot. The feedback is such a mixed bag, and I know it's a game of massive various variants and chants.
**Bam Bam:** Well, pagodas got a lot of advice on that.
I know we're gonna get to pagoda in a second,
**Gizmo:** but we're flying through Miami with me en route to Toronto and my wife back to Utah. The takeaway that I've had so far is don't bring what you can't afford to lose. It changes so regularly and probably comes down to the dudes on site behind the counters attitude that day.
But do you know of any recent relevant trips and your take on the likelihood of your cigars getting snagged? Pagoda, you wanna start?
**Pagos:** Listen, just be calm. No deer in headlights of this. Can you just say, see? CC
**Senator:** Pagoda 10. 10 pagodas. [01:12:00] Like if you're Indian, don't bring anything back. Exactly right. Please don't.
If you, if
**Gizmo:** your heart rate is through the roof going through an airport, don't carry cigars. Okay. So there's two uh, wait, is
**Rooster:** he, is he going through Miami?
**Gizmo:** He's going through Miami. So global entry,
**Pagos:** because he is travel 81 countries. He should be fine.
**Gizmo:** But there's two elements to this that, uh, he didn't actually ask about.
That is very important to note. And we did note this, I would argue. Getting out of Havana on the Cuban side of this transaction is actually more difficult at this point with volume of cigars than is coming through Miami. I'm more concerned. I am more concerned about going through Miami, especially with stuff that you've not purchased at La Casado Habana.
If you go to he Hector Louise PTOs farm, you know, legitimately purchased cigars from him in any quantity over 25, and you come through that Havana Airport, you were risking losing everything,
**Bam Bam:** even with a facta.
**Gizmo:** There is no FACTA from Hector Louis. He doesn't give you a receipt. Nothing.
**Bam Bam:** Oh,
**Gizmo:** you only get fact toto from a legitimate haos uh, dealer.
La [01:13:00] Casa Banno in Cuba. Interesting. And having a receipt effectively.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Uh, so anything else is at risk. So my concern for Lizard Josh here is getting out of Havana. And now your next step is then of course, if you do get out of Havana, coming through Miami and experience what, what Pagoda has.
So, so
**Pagos:** my only advice is, Hey, listen, think about your betting on a, a game, which, which is if you lose it, you lose it all. If you, when you win it all, it's like a black and white trade in a way. The Russian
**Rooster:** roulette
**Pagos:** listen to, you know, the way I would approach it to say, I'm willing to lose a grand, you can buy cigars for a grand and see where, where it takes you go to card games.
No, but that, that's really it. And at the end of the day, if you do get caught, they're gonna try and treat you like a criminal. Remember, you're you citizen and you should be fine. They can't do much
**Senator:** great advice. What if, what if you, uh, request a wheelchair? I. You think that lack, that makes security a little bit more [01:14:00] lax or probably the opposite?
Yeah, I would say probably the opposite. Yeah. So I, I just have a, a very simple rule. I've never once had a problem. I've brought cigars every single time, uh, to and from this guy never gets pinched. Exactly. It's true. He looks cu There's, there's a very, I mean, that's not gonna help in this situation, especially in Miami.
Yeah. But, uh, the, the one rule, if you, I don't know how much this guy's looking to bring back. I, if you are just appreciate what you can get and just bring back no more than 50 sticks. Mm-hmm. You will never have a problem. I mean, I've gotten randomly selected for like the extra screening at the, uh, airport in Havana, and I always have in my briefcase a Ziploc bag with 50 sticks in it.
Forget having a factor, any of that. I, I rarely ever that most of them you brought with you to Havana. Exactly. That's also true. Most of I brought with me, but plenty of them are gifts we get when we're there from friends, stuff like that. Mm-hmm. And I've had them through the extra screening process. Take the bag out, look at all [01:15:00] 50 cigars in there.
Just put it to the side. Look through my bag, put it all back in nicely for me and tell me to be on my way. Now, if I had 200 cigars in there, there's no question that there would be a problem, but 50 sticks. I mean, they're looking for big fish. They're looking for people that are really, you know, are going crossing the line, guys with ashtrays
**Bam Bam:** me.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** They took on my, uh, hotel. S That's true.
**Bam Bam:** I That was a heartbreaking trip for you. Yeah, I couldn't believe that.
**Gizmo:** I thought I was gonna lose cigars. I never thought I would lose ashtrays. I was
**Bam Bam:** very upset for you. Crazy. It was awful.
**Gizmo:** So, yeah. To, to senator's point, I think if you're reasonable and you're smart about it and you're not, uh, you know, bring, trying to bring too much back, you'll get through both no problem.
But to Pagodas point, and even to what Lizard Josh here says, just don't bring back more than you can afford to lose, lose, it's binary on both sides. It, it's exactly that. It is binary. Um, I would just, um, I would just go for the experience and just be very conservative. Yeah. As you travel
**Bam Bam:** what Senator said earlier.
Makes sense. Just have a moderate amount [01:16:00] and feel good about it, and you'll be comfortable. As you go through.
**Gizmo:** Exactly. Right. And now if you do purchase legitimate cigars at La Casa de Haos, you wanna make sure you, you demand a facto. Mm-hmm. This is at the partica shop, any of the hotels, et cetera, that only helps you through the Havana side.
That has no bearing on what happens on the Miami side. So if you purchase legitimate cigars, obviously they're going to be, uh, much more expensive than if you're at fa, you know, happen to find a legitimate source, getting un banded, cigars, custom rolls, whatever. Uh, but you have a better chance getting through Havana.
Miami is, remains a crapshoot,
**Senator:** but in his case, he's returning to Toronto.
**Gizmo:** No, he's coming through Miami first, then to Toronto.
**Senator:** Oh, he is? I missed that.
**Gizmo:** He should do it the other way around. Oh, good
**Senator:** luck getting
**Gizmo:** through Canada.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And if he lives in Toronto, that's a whole other beast. Yeah. I mean, what's he smoking in his closet?
They're, they're not, uh, I mean, you can't smoke outside on your own property.
**Senator:** What are we doing up there? There can't even
**Rooster:** smoke in your property.
**Senator:** Correct. Customs can be intense in Canada. That, that's also, honestly, I'd be [01:17:00] more concerned about that getting caught. In Canada than I even would Miami. Mm.
**Gizmo:** And they'll just, they, they just charge, charge you tax on it.
I mean, you'll pay a crazy VAT on in Canada for bringing those, and they'll let you bring 'em, but you may drop four or five times the actual value of the cigars in. You know, vat if you're caught at the border. So only, only thing is, sorry, that's you. He,
**Rooster:** if he's bringing back like some custom rolls, he's not paying an arm and a leg for those.
Exactly. So if those get taken away, you don't feel so bad. That's true. But if he's gonna bring like boxes of Cohibas and such, cigars is paying lot more money and that gets taken away in Miami. It's heartbreaking. I mean that's, yeah, that's tough. I mean, if he's lucky,
**Senator:** Canada will be a 51st state by the time he goes and that, right.
You won't have to worry about the vet. Correct. Current
**Bam Bam:** politics,
**Senator:** baby.
**Gizmo:** All right boys, let's move on to our next email. Thanks to Lizard Josh, by the way, that was a great email. He said excuse the long message, but any helper, reccos are greatly appreciated. Cheers, lizard. Josh, let's move on now to, uh, an email from Lizard Taco [01:18:00] and he writes, send your gizmo.
I'm a few episode behind. So, um, apologies. Uh, apologies if this has already been proposed. However, I just listened to the episode where you stated that the podcast would start to revisit regular production Cuban cigars because the group had already gone through much of the regular catalog. I think this is an awesome idea.
In addition, I would propose that the lizards also start reviewing the quote unquote, cheap and cheerful Cuban cigars that don't get much love from the CC community. Two bows, Millie Floors from Romeo Julieta, petite Coronas, et cetera. With the price increases over the past two years, these sticks are no longer cheap and likely represent what listeners are actually able to afford for daily smoking.
These sticks have been historically been considered delos and no self-respecting reviewer would risk sowing their reputation by de Class A. So by pronouncing it like that in my day class A, yes, thank you, Senator. How did he say it? De class Delau. Oh boy. Without class. [01:19:00] Without class, I am without class. We know this, however times that's not true.
However, thanks Pam. However, times have changed and listeners wanna know, are any of these sticks good? Even if they're not fantastic. Which ones are the best experience for the money? What is the difference between the five parus petite Coronas? Anyway, I recognize that the lizards hold themselves to a high standard and would likely bulk at such a suggestion, but I think this would be valuable for listeners.
So I would encourage the group to think of how this could be approached. Best lizard taco sauce. Hmm. So I would say that, uh, taco sauce, sauce taco sauce taco,
**Senator:** not taco, but taco sauce, he's a,
**Gizmo:** he's a big listener, a huge fan of the show, so I appreciate him writing him, uh, writing in. So what I would say is a couple things.
Number one, we have started to dive into the budget Cubans. We did a Ros Yeah, we did. Where you have a Quintero coming up, uh, you know, we're, we're starting to dive into that stuff. Yeah. We've done kba, which have gone up in price a little bit, unfortunately, but yeah, not much
**Bam Bam:** of a budget on that any longer.
**Rooster:** Yeah, [01:20:00] we did the Raphael de Gonzalez.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. Yep. I like that cigar.
**Gizmo:** The Raphael Gonzalez. Coronas de Lonsdale is the one you're thinking of? That's right. That's right. Which is a newer, uh, newer release, but is a, a budget cigar. You know, the thing about the, the small petite Coronas is often we're only gonna be slotting those in, in a short smoke special because we're gonna get 45 minutes, maybe an hour at the most out of them.
Uh, so as far as the program goes, we try to, you know, uh, do a, a larger format cigar, but certainly we have no hesitation. It's not that we think we're better than these cigars or that they're too cheap for our program. That's not how we think. We're just thinking about the format of the cigars. You know, we have had some, uh, requests for some of these, so we will visit some of these smaller format, more budget cigars.
Um, certainly they are very much in line with the program and we love telling listeners about cheap cigars that are good. I mean, I, I think I enjoy that almost more than anything that we do is, is being able to tell someone this cigar is cheap and really, really good,
**Bam Bam:** but we're experiencing that more in the New World catalog.
Absolutely. Sure.
**Senator:** I just, I, I [01:21:00] feel like I. We get questions like this a lot, especially since the prices have obviously gotten crazy with, uh, with Cuban cigars. I would just challenge this listener and, and anybody when there's this conversation. I think what frustrates me is people are trying to force this notion that like, well, any Cuban tobacco has gotta be superior or better in some way.
It almost sounds like implied than New World Tobacco. So like, I should smoke a ROS over any new world cigar. And it's like the answer to this question. You want a good budget cigar? Buy a new world cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Senator:** I mean, it's like you don't need to force it in trying to pretend you're enjoying some of these Ros or Quintero or some of these other brands that, you know, I'm sure some of what they make is, is good.
I think some people age them and they get better. Mm-hmm. I think young, most of these are not gonna knock anybody's socks off where we've reviewed six, seven, $8 new world cigars that. Young or a lot of these brands actually age their tobacco. Mm-hmm. Unlike in [01:22:00] Cuba are excellent
**Bam Bam:** and they're much better than anything that VA Garris is
**Rooster:** making.
Right. You smoke a Padron 2000, that's gonna gonna blow any of those cis Thank you.
**Senator:** Right. You smoke in Aino, ero, you smoke anything in fabric of five, like all that stuff is gonna be better than a Ros, a Quin, any of these like super budget, you know, Cuban brands. Correct. So I would just challenge this listener and really any, to not limit yourself to budget Cuban brands, you're gonna find much better value actually.
And yeah. Performance in the New World space in that first point. We're having a
**Rooster:** tough time with the Sea Glo six tonight. So can you imagine on those budget cigars? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I will say we did, uh, recently, I don't know if Lizard Taco, uh, heard this episode, but we did do probably the most budget, uh, Cuban Robusto.
We did the La Florida Kano ETOs, if you remember, which was that, uh, short filler cigar. I think we gave it a nine.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah. That story. And that's
**Gizmo:** probably, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the more budget, uh, [01:23:00] Robusto out there from Cuba. Mm-hmm. So in and very much in line with what Senator said, I think that a lot of the lower end Cuban stuff is not smoking as well as some of the new world stuff, and especially in Honduras, if we really wanna smoke, you know, focus there.
Oh yeah. Fabrica five Eino stuff. The Honduran stuff is smoking very, very close to Cuban cigars. It's not identical. It doesn't always, you know, ring your bell, but. If you're looking for something that's budget, I think Honduras is the way to go. Yeah.
**Pagos:** Listen to talk how you're challenged.
**Gizmo:** Please
**Pagos:** don't you try it.
Give feedback. Bar Kee, take his glass away.
**Gizmo:** You just gave him a refund.
**Bam Bam:** I did.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, it's time now to go to our lizard of the week. This one is a listener who writes in all the time. I actually thought we had given him Lizard of the Week at some point we hadn't. I looked back and I feel terrible about it, but Lizard John from Boise, who writes us pretty much every single week with a great question, is going to be [01:24:00] our lizard of the week this week.
Long overdue. But, uh, another great question from him, and this actually, uh, you know, piggybacks on what Lizard Taco was just talking about. He says, hi, giz. I love that you guys are revisiting some poorly performing sticks from the pods past. And it got me thinking in a similar vein, would some of your higher performing Cuban sticks have scored as well with updated pricing factoring in value, of course.
Mm-hmm. Which we talk about a lot. For example, the Parus series, P number two, two scored an 8.7 back on episode 36. Would it fa as well? I. As it is now at 30 plus dollars per stick,
**Pagos:** I think GIZ would definitely rate it a 10. Again, he might go higher with the price increase.
**Bam Bam:** Gizz FLA should applies to the score too.
Boys, I'm blown away. Right. The P two
**Pagos:** E two,
**Gizmo:** by the way, I think Lizard John knew what he was doing by choosing the P two [01:25:00] as the example here, but, um, you know, what I would say to lizard John, is I think that what we've learned about recent production from Cuba, uh, even given the price is I, I think that the current run of Cuban cigars is performing so, so well that, you know, like even Senator just said about a cohiba signal of six smoking fresh.
He enjoyed that more than the cigar he had tonight. Yeah, that's with five years of age, right? That's crazy. So what I'm wondering is if you factor in value, but you also factor in a newer run like we did with the Juan Peal, Alexio number one. It might be kind of, it might level out. Yeah. So I think value, certainly playing in, but newer runs, um, smoking very, very well.
So I, I, that would be my opinion on it. What do you guys think?
**Rooster:** I mean, every, every single cigar that we have tried that's fresh a couple of years and it, it has smoked really well. So it's worth doing that. Yeah. It's a great experiment. Yeah.
**Pagos:** No, but you know, it's like how Rob said it's runs, right? So I think the recent runs have been so [01:26:00] great that it's been fantastic.
I, I think in, in terms of Cubans and even like, and if you were to just listen, even a lot of my experiences have just been phenomenal with Cubans in the recent runs. They're just fantastic.
**Senator:** Yeah. And I, and I, I vote for anything that's gonna help me develop my Cuban palate, so, yeah, for sure.
**Gizmo:** Okay, so I, I mean, the listenership, by the way, has overwhelmingly voted that they really love this idea of us going back.
Yeah, that's cool. And revisiting cigars. We did three years ago, three plus years ago. So we're gonna keep that up. We gotta do the schwa. We gotta do the Schwa Supreme. We have the punch punch coming up nice among some others. So, uh, yeah, we will definitely continue to do that. Uh, he finishes, he said that he was listening to the Arturo Fuente, the man episode, and it got me thinking, when do you guys give up on a bad cigar?
And by that I mean not because of construction issue, but because of the flavor or lack thereof. We all [01:27:00] know that a stick can evolve as it burns so bad, can turn into good, but sometimes bad just stays bad. I'd be interested to know when you guys decide to pull the plug light. Some, some
**Rooster:** lizards give it up sooner than others.
**Pagos:** Poop was here. Correct. And then he would be able to answer this really well.
**Gizmo:** This is true. Pull the plug and light up a replacement smoke. Cheers. Lizard John from Boise. Yeah, that's a, that's a great question.
**Senator:** Yeah, it's all about the level of boredom, so I think your attention span has a lot to do with it.
Like some people are willing to go a little bit longer with it, but I think across the room we could all kind of agree when mm-hmm. You know, when, when, when, when a few guys are putting their cigars down? It's, it's, it's rare. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** So the other night I had a Monte 2, 20 18. It, the first half was surprisingly unenjoyable.
It wasn't good at all, but I didn't wanna throw it down. It's expensive. I love that Marco and that particular vitola. So I continued to smoke it and honestly, the second half got it. Just got better and better and better. It's a good question. [01:28:00] Sometimes you just gotta have some patience with the cigar. You know, so like, but fear on smoke with
**Pagos:** hope.
**Bam Bam:** Smoke with, I mean, if,
**Rooster:** if you're on the pod though, that's if we're recording an episode Yeah. And the cigar is not, it's not enjoyable or boring. I think we, we do, we still smoke through it. We have a responsibility to finish. If the cigar smokeable, we go through it,
**Gizmo:** you should finish it, right? Yeah, we do. I think I, I, that's where I was gonna go.
I think in the room here under the microscope. Mm-hmm. My tolerance is higher for a cigar that's not performing well of, because of course, what we do. But when I'm in the lounge, as soon as I, I mean, if I get a hint that a cigar is not gonna be trending in the right direction, I'll skip it and go on to the next one.
I'll drop it. Drop it. Yeah. Okay. And I think, Senator, you would do the same, correct? I think
**Senator:** so. I think that's exactly right. I mean, on the pod, I definitely, even if I'm frustrated with a cigar, try to stick it out to find some merit at some point in the cigar. I think for me, if I get to the final third and it is still not taking a turn in any way for the, uh, for the better, [01:29:00] then there's no question I'm gonna put the cigar down.
Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** Boys we're coming to the end of our evening tonight with the 14 years aged Glenn Fiig. Single malt scotch and bourbon barrels and the Cohiba Siglo six. What are the thoughts on the pairing now before we move into our ratings? I
**Bam Bam:** want to hear from Chef.
**Senator:** I love it. I do too. Yeah, absolutely. I, I love it.
I think it picked, it even picked up in strength a little bit and a touch. Yeah. And during all of the readings of the email, I was looking up, and I feel like the smoke, the combustion has picked up a little bit for maybe those in the room that are still smoking. Um, I mean, the roos has been fairly consistent.
His cigar is just pumping out smoke. But yeah, it,
**Bam Bam:** it's still delicious for me. Yeah. I like, I've
**Senator:** got about three
**Bam Bam:** quarters of an inch left. Yeah.
**Senator:** So I have a question first on the spirit. I don't think we discussed this. What is the price point of this bottle?
**Gizmo:** 65 bucks.
**Senator:** Okay.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So it's only 10 more dollars than the 12.
Than the 12 for two more years of age. So if you consider how some things trend in other areas of single malt scotches, that's [01:30:00] actually not a bad, you know, price delta there. 10 bucks. Gotcha. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** I think the 12 is probably a better overall match for a Cuban cigar over, and I think
**Gizmo:** cigars in general,
**Bam Bam:** I think it's a much more enjoyable spirit for me.
Mm. I don't know. With a Padron exclusive, this would actually be quite nice together. This
**Senator:** with a higher proof. You know, may pair better with some fuller new world cigars. Correct. In a way that, I mean, that other 12 year that is as smooth Oh yeah. And easygoing as it gets. Yeah. So sometimes you need something more substantial for a heavier cigar.
Mm-hmm. So I, I do agree that there, there are instances where this would be a better period. I agree with that. Yeah. I think this with a DT off black label Churchill will be amazing. Or the late hour. Late hour. The late hour, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, with this cigar, with a blue pin dry soup on
**Bam Bam:** maybe Okay.
**Senator:** During
**Bam Bam:** the holidays,
**Senator:** that's only when he is showing up at my garage. Please don't talk about
on the cigar though. I will say the, the very, uh, end of it, I didn't enjoy really. Um. [01:31:00] I, I lost a lot of the flavor notes. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure if it was the role, what the case was. I wasn't getting much. It just was like toasted tobacco. That's crazy. I'm just sad. I mean, I'm thinking of like a six or $7 cigar.
I was literally smoking last night that I smoked until my fingers burned and the flavor was amazing and I've got a hundred dollars cigar and I can't ha even do that. I mean, it's just crazy to me. I can't wait for the rating
**Bam Bam:** tonight.
**Gizmo:** It's gonna be all over the place. It seems like it. Oh yeah. All right, boys, so let's start first with our formal liquor rating tonight on the 14 years age, Glen Fiig Bourbon Barrel, single malt Scotch.
Mm-hmm. Bam. Bam. You're up.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I think for everything we just discussed, I'd put this at an eight. Pretty, I, I don't know how versatile it is, but with what Senator said earlier, and I mentioned thei more, the fuller body, new worlds I think would be great with this, this spirit. Um, there's some sweetness there.
It's, it's [01:32:00] got a bit more of a robust experience than the 12, but the 12 is so smooth. I think an eight is a fair score. All right.
**Gizmo:** Chef Ricky.
**Senator:** Yeah, I think it's a, it's a very drinkable scotch. It's delicious. But I think as far as the pairing goes, it's a seven for me. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, I, I think it overtook the cigar just a little bit.
I think the cigar was elegant, performed well, delivered, lots of flavor. Uh, but I think it clashed a, a lot throughout the way for me,
**Gizmo:** pagoda,
**Pagos:** I think it's a nine for me. I really enjoyed it. Wow. I, I think it za for, for me, I really enjoyed the flavor profile. Two things in the beginning. You, you're right.
Like when we took in the sip, it was, I. Slightly different and there's a bit of harshness to it. There's a bit of ness, but there was something which kind of rounded it out for me and made me really enjoy it. And when I let it linger in my mouth a bit, really enjoy the flavor profile. And it's a nine for me.
**Gizmo:** Okay. So it's an eight for me. I, I think this is a step down. [01:33:00] Uh, for me, uh, of my enjoyment of the Glen Fit 12 we did two weeks ago. I think it's a pretty serious step down, and I'm not just commenting on how it pairs with this Cuban cigar tonight, or even other cigars. I just don't think it's as enjoyable of a spirit for me.
There were some weird flavored things. The more I drank it, I actually enjoyed it less. Yeah. And I was wishing for more of the Glenn Fiig 12, this 14. I don't know if it's the bourbon kind of flavor imparted in it. Uh, but I, I just was really wishing that we had the 12 again, that we did two weeks ago. So, um, I I was a little disappointed tonight on this 14.
That's a
**Bam Bam:** nice rating though.
**Gizmo:** It is. It it's not a bad spirit. Yeah. But I, I wish it was as good or better than my experience with the 12.
**Senator:** It's funny, it left me wanting a bourbon at the end of it. Like I kind of wanted bourbon.
**Bam Bam:** But for those of you that are the experts in spirits, as it ages longer, doesn't it get smoother?
It's supposed to be smoother.
**Senator:** No, but it depends on, well, I'll comment on this in my rating, but I don't, I don't, I don't like how this is being framed, [01:34:00] so I have a very different way of looking at this. All right, go ahead. So you're next. Senator, you're up. No, I, I just roast us. I mean, the, the thing I don't like about this is they're, they're not competing with each other.
The every, all this commentary, the 12 year versus this 14 year. They're all part of the same brand. They're trying to do different things. They're not trying to do the same thing. If they were, they wouldn't make both. I agree with that. And so because of that, like this is intentionally higher proof. It's not because it's 14 years, it should be smoother.
They age this, uh, they finished this in a bourbon barrel, trying to give a little fuller experience. Mm-hmm. I mean, we commented on how light that 12 year is correct. Some even thought too light. Correct. I forget who was there for that recording, but I do remember someone really didn't love that part of it.
**Bam Bam:** Mm-hmm.
**Senator:** This is definitely not that. This is got a lot more body, got a little bit of bite. Um, but I actually think it's like a pleasant bite. It, it was never like, really? Yeah, I agree with that. Off-put, like I knew it was there, [01:35:00] which alerted me and then I thought I was not gonna like it. And I said, you know what, it actually still finishes nicely.
Like there's a, mm-hmm. There's a pleasant aftertaste. Like it doesn't, you know, sin your esophagus. It's like so intense. It's nothing like that. I think it's like just a perfect kind of step up or punch up. And I just think that like, this is designed if you're to pair it with a cigar, ideally for a fuller cigar, I think it still was fine with a cigar like this.
I don't, I, for me, it didn't take away from the cigar. It just definitely didn't add anything to the cigar. Um, so I'm at an eight. I, I think, um, you know, there's, there's total merit to this expression in their line. Um, and, uh, I think there are many, you know, uh, listeners and, and scotch or even bourbon people like this.
I think I would like this. Like this.
**Pagos:** Yeah. Yeah. Like in terms of a single malt and what I typically experience single malt is slightly different from this. I think this is, if you're a bourbon drinker, I think you're more likely to enjoy this. [01:36:00]
**Senator:** I agree. But the thing I really like about this is the, the single malt scotch DNA is still there.
Is that, yeah. If you, if you really like focus on the spirit, there's the hint of pettiness there. Yeah. Like very touched some of the traditional Scotland notes mm-hmm. With like this kind of new world bourbon, uh, profile that's also added in there. Correct. So I actually think they've done a really nice job.
Like, again, it's not the perfect pairing for this cigar. But if you were to say, you know, I want something that's traditional Scotland, but kind of introduces some of the new bourbon, new World bourbon notes and packs a little more punch than like our standard 12. Mm-hmm. Like they do this, has done a good job of that.
**Bam Bam:** I gotta piggyback on this for just a second. I think your drinking style affects how you experience the spirit. If you were to gulp this down, you'd probably think it was a little overwhelming, maybe too hot if you were aggressively drinking it. Small sips. It makes a difference in your experience.
**Gizmo:** Listen, our listeners know that that's on your list of pet [01:37:00] peeves.
That's number four, no gulping. Correct.
**Pagos:** Listen, I've learned a lot along the way, so I let it linger for I, I will
**Gizmo:** say though, I, I wanna make a quick comment on my eight, and you and I scored at the same Senator. Me too. My thing with this is I probably would not be purchasing this again or buying it as it pairs with a cigar.
Yeah. Cuban or otherwise. It just, there was something about the flavor that just didn't really keep my interest per se. Wasn't a bad spirit, but certainly was not my favorite single malt. Certainly not my favorite from Glen. I gotta
**Bam Bam:** say I love the finish on this though. Is it? I do. Yeah, this,
**Gizmo:** there's that,
**Bam Bam:** there's that.
It just, the after taste is pleasant. It's ma, there's a maple and vanilla there. It's really nice. It's a bourbon finish. Yeah, it's a bourbon finish. Yeah.
**Senator:** And the last thing I'll say, all of us drank this neat. I think we sometimes forget because we have veered off the scotch train a lot over the past year.
Yes. We have that. You know, there are countless single malts. In fact, the overwhelming majority of single malts. [01:38:00] They're serious spirits. Sure. They are not for the faint of heart. No. They are not light easygoing, you know, spirits. And most of us with a lot of them drink them with ice because Yeah. We just wanna tone them down a little bit.
I mean, I think of like Macallan 15, I could never drink that meat. It drinks really hot. Yeah. We don't like that. Exactly. Yeah. And so like the fact that, you know, this is a 14 year and. Finished in a bourbon barrel is trying to give you a little more oomph and strength, and yet we all still were able to drink it.
Neat. Even with a Cuban cigar, there's merit in that. There's many single malt I would not drink neat like this. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** So I would probably pagoda, you're not gonna like this, but I would edge this out above the BNY because of the finish. I don't get this kind of a finish on the belvin E 12, double wood. I just don't, I love that, that vanilla, that that is a definitive state.
It is. I, I wasn't going that far. I, I know, but every, you're talking and I'm thinking like, what other [01:39:00] scotch do I like better than this? Honestly, I'm, I really enjoyed this for the experience of it.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda. He attacked you on the balcony. Bny
**Bam Bam:** not really an attack. No comment. Pagoda looked shocked.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys.
So the formal liquoring tonight in the 14 years age, Glen ick single malt scotch and bourbon barrels. There's an 8.0. This is the third Glen Fiig we've done on the pod. Let's compare that to the, that's
**Senator:** a good score. Two others. That's a good score. That's a good score. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Glen Fiig 15 on episode 27, scored a 7.7 and two weeks ago on episode 1 72, the Glen Fiig 12 year age standard bottle scored a 10.0 perfect score.
Dude,
**Bam Bam:** that's, that's,
**Gizmo:** and I want to note for any listener who didn't listen to the episode two weeks ago, Senator brought in some amazing history. They all, we all learn so much about Glenn Fiig amazing story. Uh, so if you haven't, uh, heard that episode, you wanna hear some of Glenn Fitch's history Tune into episode 1 72 for a deep dive on all things Glen Fiig.
And now boys, it's [01:40:00] time to move into our formal lizard rating tonight. Here we go. Cohiba. Let's go. We siglo. Six Rooster. You're up.
**Bam Bam:** Polarizing Stick tonight. Oh yeah.
**Rooster:** So this Cohiba Cilo six was a great experience for me. I mean, this was one of the, the best cohibas I've had in a long time. The Lindo was, was very good.
But I think this, for me, it edged the Lindo. I had zero issues on the draw or the combustion. I got lucky. There were two cigars in this room that did not perform well and I feel kind of bad for that. Uh, but this cigar had everything. I mean, I mean, if you take the band off, you could easily tell this is a cohiba.
If you've had a cohiba before this Cohiba Sigel six was fantastic. I mean, it was right from the beginning to the end. The notes that we were getting, the creaminess, the woody flavor, I mean, it just had the cohiba DNA, there was sweetness for some of us there was sweetness and, uh, even that
**Bam Bam:** sweet cream.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Delicious. Yeah, absolutely A [01:41:00] delicious smoke. And, um, for that reason, I'm at a 10.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. At a hundred dollars. At a hundred bucks. All right. Let the, let the ratings continue.
**Gizmo:** I mean, it was, it
**Rooster:** was really a good smile. Here we go.
**Gizmo:** And now for the counterpoint, Senator.
Hey, this is why. Listen, I wanna say, guys, all, I'm turning my mic off now. This, this is why we do this. Of course, this is why we do this because of his enthusiasm here and Senator smoking the same cigar from the same date. Well, I'm curious how the counter, I mean,
**Rooster:** mean I wish Senator was smoking exactly the same cigar that I was smoking.
I do me too. Have that same experience. I do, because I'm telling you, I mean, that cigar from the beginning to the end was fantastic.
**Senator:** Yeah. Alright, Senator. Go. Now believe me, I, I wish I had the same experience. Um, I mean, for me, a a a 10 was never, uh, even in question, uh, even from the light, uh, for me, just with the cigar I got and the [01:42:00] experience I had.
I've been debating between an eight and a nine the whole way through. And that's still pretty high. Yeah, it is. That's a good score. A good score because the flavor profile is excellent. There's a lot that I like about this cigar. The sad thing is I really thought for most of it that I was gonna round up to a nine and the way I feel after smoking it, I can't.
I'm at an eight.
**Bam Bam:** Mm-hmm.
**Senator:** Um, I am, I am not satisfied. I, I. There's countless cigars at a fraction of the price point that I would even rate a nine that I could smoke, and I would feel so much more satisfied than I am now. And like tonight's not even a night where I can stay and have a cigar after this. And it's like I'm craving just a complete experience to end my night.
Mm-hmm. And this just wasn't that. And so for me, it came down to, I mean, the smoke output was frustrating all the way through the room
**Bam Bam:** is still clear, by the way.
**Senator:** Totally clear. Yeah. I mean it's, we don't even need the return error or anything.
**Bam Bam:** It's honestly, it's unusual for the room to be, I mean, just
**Rooster:** because of the combustion.
I mean, that's a point off. Absolutely.
**Senator:** For sure. [01:43:00] I agree for sure that, that immediately is why I started at a nine. And if the flavor, it would've just held all the way through. Yeah, I could have landed at the nine. The problem for me was, um, I mean, number one, for whatever reason, the, the flavor throughout.
Seemed milder than the experience that some of you had.
**Bam Bam:** Mm-hmm.
**Senator:** I mean, I remember on the light hearing, wow, the intense flavor that I'm surprised I'm getting from this jeba. That was not my experience. It was shocking. Mine was mild. Yeah. I mean, the first third was firmly mild. I, not even medium. I. The middle got to medium.
The end finished medium, but the final quarter of it, I was just getting hot tobacco. I, I was not getting That's not good. No, that is not good. I mean, I, I was hoping because I enjoyed the flavor that at least I'd be able to smoke it all the way down to my fingers burned. Even though I wouldn't get much smoke output, I'd still enjoy the flavor.
And the flavor was just so unenjoyable at that point I had to put it down. So for that reason, that's where I went from the nine [01:44:00] to the eight, and now I'm left with just this, you want more frustrated, you know, state of wanting so much more. Mm-hmm. That I didn't get outta this cigar. And at a hundred dollars price point, no one should ever be saying those things about a hundred dollars cigar.
They shouldn't be saying that about a 30 or $40 cigar. That's so, amen. It's so true. Well, and so for those I,
**Gizmo:** I'm at an eight. So I'm also at an eight. I completely, I'm completely in lockstep with Senator. Uh,
**Bam Bam:** can I just interrupt? Do you guys feel it's an eight? Is generous right now or that fair? No, because I wouldn't give this a
**Senator:** seven.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, no,
**Gizmo:** I, I think the flavor was there. Yeah. Um, at some points. But for me, the, the experience and, uh, maybe I'm summing up with Senator, just said that the experience feels very incomplete. Uh, especially for a hundred dollars price point. You know, this cigar shouldn't be making me work. It shouldn't be so inconsistent.
It should, it the cigar at a hundred dollars for the. The Marco in Cohiba, the premier brand outta Cuba, five years of age on it. [01:45:00] It should not make me work. It should be working for me. It should have put me in a euphoric state like that. Uh, the Splendido from 2019, same box code ish, I mean a couple months apart, that delivered on that New Year's Eve episode in ways that this didn't even come close.
So that's number one. The flavor was there. The combustion of Senator Ju said wasn't. The construction wasn't. I had a perfect draw. You, you probably saw me touch it up six or seven times. I saw
**Bam Bam:** you perfect. Draw it at least twice. I
**Gizmo:** mean, I, I shouldn't be fighting at five years age. It should be perfect. It should be a chimney at this ring gauge.
Agreed. I'm not expecting a Lan cyro from Cohiba to provide the combustion output that I do with cigar like this. And the Cohiba ro as senator pointed out earlier, oh, oh yeah. Blows this away. Combustion wise from the point. Yeah, that's
**Bam Bam:** true.
**Gizmo:** Blows it away. So I, I, I just, I couldn't believe it. The first two thirds were okay for me.
Actually, the light and the final third were the best part. Finally, in that last third, I did get some combustion. The flavor evened out. I was able to put my lighter [01:46:00] away and kind of settle into it. But unfortunately, between all of the talking the con combustion for me tonight on this cigar, it just did not deliver what it should.
And finally, you have to note here again, this is a triple digit cigar. $100 at a minimum fresh with five years of age on Bon Roberts. This is even worth more than that. This might touch 125 or $150 with this kind of age on it. So with all of those things said. I argue maybe bam, now I'm thinking about it.
Maybe it is a generous eight because I know what the cigar should do and I think the flavor was there. I did really enjoy some of the flavor. Yeah. For both of you, did shirts have
**Bam Bam:** to fight it for both of your experiences? Maybe that eight is generous. Yeah, just a touch. Could be.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Maybe I, uh, I'm just, I'm disappointed.
I'm a little bummed out that, that we all didn't have the same experience sound. Yeah. Pagoda. Life.
**Bam Bam:** That's it. That's his rating. Drop the mic to go to
**Pagos:** life is life like a box of chocolates. [01:47:00] You don't know which one you're gonna get. This is true in this case tonight. Fortunately for me, I ended up with a really good piece of chocolate.
I didn't know you. You know what's really interesting is, uh, I, I will say the good and the bad, uh, the bad first. You know, I do agree that the smoke output for the first half of the cigar was very mild. It's not something I really enjoy because I think, you know, a good construction and good smoke output is a minimum.
A cigar should provide. Hey, you are smoking something, you wanna be able to enjoy it with a really good smoke output. And so I do agree that the smoke output was kind of freaking, it just wasn't there. Uh, having said that. The flavors. I'm an amateur, uh, you know, not at this point called retro hail hundred
**Gizmo:** 75 episode retro.
You're not an retro. You stop that already. You know what mean? I'll
**Pagos:** tell you the dried apple, when these guys said, oh my Lord, I experienced it. [01:48:00] In fact, it felt like a candy dried apple. Mm. I don't know. It was so good. And then, you know, it was good. It was really, really good. It was so good, man. Was finger
**Senator:** licking good?
**Pagos:** It was finger licking good. It was just, it was fantastic Then, you know, developed into this, you know, yogurty thing, which I wanted to speak to. Obviously Rooster out there and say, Hey, listen, remind me of the sweet luie and then the salty luie, like it was a, you know, like, is that an dish? And now
**Senator:** we get it.
Thank you for sharing Salty Lassie. Oh, it salty, it was like
**Pagos:** there was this sweet cream yogurt, tea, sweetness. You know, it's so distinct. You know, when there're cigars, which give a person like me, you know, who typically only discusses primary flavors, for me to be able to edge out and experience something which was totally off the charts.[01:49:00]
Now I understand how these guys feel every time they smoke a cigar. Wow. It was fantastic.
**Gizmo:** I'm very happy for you. It really, I really am. That's cool. I
**Pagos:** really enjoyed the smoking experience today. I smoked it to the nub. Um. On a typical day, I would rate this a nine. But because of these new enhanced experiences that I experienced tonight for this particular cigar, don't forget only today a hundred dollars
**Senator:** pagoda.
**Pagos:** I know. Value, man. I'll tell you, big value guy. I think
**Gizmo:** value, once he gets the retro hill, value seems to be going out the door. No, no. It's bonus season.
**Pagos:** Alright, so I let one slide, let let him finish. I let, I let this one slide, I'm gonna give it a 10. Yeah, baby, let's go.
**Gizmo:** Wow. Very nice. Wow. I'll be honest. I'm, I'm genuine in saying I'm happy you had that experience.
I did. I I'm happy that you had that retro hill experience. That's because that is, that's cool. And we've talked about this for the listeners. If you can, if you can capture the ability to retro hale it takes that cigar to another level.
**Bam Bam:** But, and the [01:50:00] thing is, you don't have to retro hale if you're not used to retro ling and you're just doing it.
If you capture one or two in your sit. It, it and everyone does that. I don't care if you are a standard retro hill guy or not, or a girl, you'll capture a retro once in a while and it does help agreed once in a while. Alright, chef Ricky.
**Senator:** You know, this takes me back to my time in culinary school. Uh, here we go.
Had instructor Chef Meg and um, you know, early on, you know, whenever you'd have practicals, which were just exams and you'd cook for the instructor and then she would come and taste your food and just be hypercritical about it. And I remember with her in particular, it was always just, I. Something was missing a little bit of, so a little bit of this.
And I, and I got so frustrated that at one point I told her, you know, sometimes I wish I could just pull out your tongue and put it in my mouth and taste it and, and taste what you're tasting. And she looks at it could be a bam approved activity. I was
**Bam Bam:** going where? [01:51:00] Going here with this? Yeah. Chef, I see you in a different
**Senator:** light right now.
The tug wall.
**Bam Bam:** Jesus.
**Senator:** Well, you, you see, it's funny you say that because I didn't even connect it to, and she looks at me dead serious and she goes, Ricky, don't ever see that to me again unless you mean it. And so I was just completely taken aback and I was just like, what the fuck is she? I'm like, oh my God.
She totally took that the wrong way. But anyway, pagoda, you had that experience today. You were able to take BA's tongue. Put it in your mouth. Um,
**Gizmo:** hold on. Is that still a Bama approved activity? No, we're
**Bam Bam:** in
**Pagos:** left field right now. Yeah. I dunno what Chad Rickey is talking about here. Oh, it's
**Rooster:** good. Oh,
**Senator:** you
**Rooster:** may
**Senator:** have to cut him off.
Yeah. Oh boy. So
**Rooster:** good. Yeah, so
**Senator:** good. So yeah, I'm, I'm just happy you had that experience. Um, but yeah, for me too, this cigar was No, no. Tell us more [01:52:00] about color.
What are we doing? Forget the rating. Just keep going. It was 22 years ago. That's all I remember. Uh, but yeah, you know, I, I, you know, from the very beginning of the cigar, the flavor was, was just there. It was, it was, it was pronounced, it was dynamic. It was very present. It definitely mellowed in, you know, by the second, third, it kind of settled in a little bit and the things kind of smoothed out.
And I, I love how we all found this nostalgic, and to me, this, this is always a sign of a good cigar is when we're able to pull flavor memories, especially ones that bring us back to our, our childhood or whatever, nostalgia. You know, I pointed out the NATA with the, with the milk skin. And, uh, you know, pagoda pointed out the lasi, which for those who don't know, is a yogurt based drink.
**Gizmo:** Let's not forget culinary schools. Correct. Tongues. Tongues.
**Senator:** Uh, so I, I really enjoyed the cigar. Uh, the a hundred dollars price point is, [01:53:00] is a bit steep. Uh, the lack of combustion sucked. Uh, so yeah, for, with that and, and also I, I just kind of, for me, the pairing really got in the way at times, uh, and just kind of pulled away, uh, from what I was enjoying about the cigar.
So I had to slow down, uh, on the drink a bit just to kind of continue during the cigar,
**Bam Bam:** but on a cigar.
**Senator:** But on the cigar, so, you know, with the, we're
**Bam Bam:** rating the cigar.
**Senator:** Yeah, yeah. But, you know, uh, you know, so I'm, I'm at a nine, which I think is a great score for this. Uh, and I enjoyed the cigar price point's.
A little steep combustion was, you know, subpar. Uh, outside of that, you know, uh, the cigar was beautiful. Mm-hmm. Uh, it was a very handsome cigar, so, uh, I was happy with it.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know. All right. Bam. I think if you, senator in gis, you mentioned it earlier because the combustion wasn't there, it knocks the point right off.
I'm also at a nine. I can't go on a a to a 10 with this cigar, but the flavor for me, honestly, from beginning to end was [01:54:00] exquisite. It, everything that we've talked about, that sweet cream, a little bit of honey, um, biscuity for me, it w it really continued all the way through, right down to a half inch to my fingers were really, really hot.
It's just, it's unfortunate and I wish the two of you guys had that same experience because it was really quite a delicious experience. So I'm at a nine. All right boys. It was delicious
**Senator:** and I, I think it's no coincidence that the only 10 in the room had no combustion issues. There were two
**Bam Bam:** tens. Pagoda had a ten two.
Yeah. But hold on. So we've mentioned this earlier, the room is still very, very clear. Yeah. There's no smoke bellowing in the room. Yeah. There's an issue of combustion here.
**Rooster:** I felt like your cigar did have better combustion than the rest of the case. It
**Bam Bam:** had great combustion, but it dissipated very quickly.
So it's like what Senator Angu said earlier, like when you're sitting and having a cigar, you want that smoke around your head kind of floating over you. I. For me it's a stress reliever. Like I love that experience and I didn't get that tonight.
**Gizmo:** [01:55:00] Alright boys, that puts the formal lizard rating tonight on the Cohiba SLA six at a 9.0.
**Pagos:** Yeah, that's good. That's a great score for the, that's a nice score for this because I think if we were to really factor the price in combustion, I think that's a very, very fast score. And I will
**Gizmo:** say if Senator and I had we at a little at sevens a little bit better experience and actually were at nines, we would've resulted in the same score.
Yeah. So I do think that the formal blizzard rating does tell all truths and unfortunately Senator and I had a weaker experience. But overall I do think it's a fair score for most of what was experienced in this future. I don't want
**Bam Bam:** speak for the two of you, but I almost in the back of my mind think you probably could have been at a seven easily.
Mm-hmm. That's fair. Can you stop that? Alright. It's true game. I'm saying
**Gizmo:** stick. Alright boys, let's compare that toim to the other Cohi cigars we've done on the podcast. We did these Siglo two scored an 8.0, the Land Zero. Scored a 9.6. The pyramid is extra 9.4. We did the Bahi K 54 with dlo. We did not rate that cigar.
[01:56:00] We'll have to revisit that at some point. Hmm. The cohiba Siglo five, the sister cigar to this scored a 9.2, so it's edged it out by two points there. And finally, on our New Year's Eve episode, uh, just 10 weeks ago, the Cohiba Plei dose scored a 10.0, a perfect score on that one. Look for as hard as we are on this marker.
They're doing incredibly well in this room. Absolutely. Wow. And we have some more to do boys. But guys, what a great night, great conversation. Unfortunately for both, uh, Senator and I, the cigar did not perform as well as it should have. But I'm glad you guys had a great experience. I really am. So first we have to thank all of our listeners for writing in especially our Lizard of the Week Lizard, John from Boise, long overdue for him on Lizard of the Week, but we appreciate him and all of our other lizard listeners out there for writing in.
Of course, we have to thank our sponsor, Fabrica five, to make great cigars. Go try them, use our code, pick up some of their stuff. And as Senator was pointing out earlier, get a really great experience for a significantly lower price than this [01:57:00] $100 cigar
**Bam Bam:** we had tonight. You have to try the Robusto, the Trinity Robusto.
That is a must. It's a must. You cannot live your life as a cigar smoker without trying that, that cigar.
**Senator:** You don't say bam.
**Bam Bam:** I'm telling you, Senator gave me my first one ever. I know. And you gave me my second one, G. Yeah, you're welcome. And here's the thing, what's unusual? They were both incredibly consistent.
Excellent cigar. You mean you don't have to spend a hundred dollars for a consistent cigar or how much was that cigar?
**Gizmo:** $8. Eight bucks, dude, come on. Pretty amazing. Alright, boys, one more time again on the 14 year age Bourbon Barrel Reserve from Glenfiddich. Single mal Scotch scored an 8.0 and the Cohiba Siglo six from Cuba scored a 9.0.
Guys, great night and we'll uh, 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 lounge lizards PO d.com. [01:58:00] 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 hello@loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pot. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.