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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 seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica5. 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, Chef Ricky, Grinder, and Bam Bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 141st. Official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're going to smoke a Cupid Cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss our first ever cigar box purchases, we share the origin and unique achievements of our tequila pairing, and we answer a few listener emails, 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 Cascadas No. 7 Reposado Tequila with the Fonseca No.
1.
Our first Fonseca on the pod tonight. It's a [00:01:00] Lonsdale. It's called the Fonseca No. 1. It's a 43 ring gauge cigar by 6 38 inches long. And boys, how exciting. We brought in the only Fonseca expert we could find.
**Bam Bam:** Chef Ricky Camacho. In a 300 mile range. It's from where we are right now.
**Gizmo:** So, first, welcome Chef Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** Thanks
**Gizmo:** for having me. Glad to have you back, man.
**Chef Ricky:** Pleasure to be
**Gizmo:** here. It went so well a couple weeks ago on the Mezcal Deep Dive, a few of our boys couldn't make it, and we called in the Mariano Rivera of the Miles Wizards podcast. We should play some Metallica. I was gonna say that you put Enter Sandman.
We should've played Enter Sandman. I won't sing this time. Yeah, don't sing.
**Rooster:** I like it when he sings. Thank you.
**Gizmo:** So, Ricky, we're very happy to have you here, and, uh, I was being facetious calling you the Fonseca expert, but in reality, you're the only guy in the room who has actually had a Fonseca prior to this.
That's true. I've never had one. Neither have I.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, it was, uh, you know, it was one of those, um, things that came about [00:02:00] as a result of knowing you guys. Um, my first, uh, Kind of deep dive into the Bon Roberts website, my first Bon Roberts purchase. Um, it was something that I could, uh, you know, get into without dropping a ton of money for a Cuban, for my first Cuban.
And I was pretty stoked. And then, you know, the package came and came in this, uh, Uh, tissue paper, you know, each cigar individually wrapped in this white tissue paper.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, it'd be nice to discuss the quality of the wrapper if we could see it. Yeah. Well. Eventually. So as,
**Gizmo:** as Ricky alluded to here, all Fonsecas are wrapped in a very, very delicate tissue paper, which I read online as a Japanese tissue paper.
I don't believe that for a second, but it, it looks. It's a hundred percent Chinese. It's a Japanese
**Bam Bam:** paper made in Cuba. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's very, very thin and delicate. I actually brought it in the Sotelo case tonight as to not damage any of the tissue paper on any of our cigars. So we could have a decent discussion about it.
What's interesting, and [00:03:00] we've seen this in some new worlds. is that the band of the cigar is actually on the outside of the tissue paper. So before we're even able to cut this thing, we're gonna have to take off the band and the tissue paper. So let's do that, boys. Yeah, which is a
**Bam Bam:** traditional way of smoking a
**Rooster:** cigar.
Yeah, exactly. New World or Cuban. I don't mind that. I don't mind smoking a cigar without the
**Bam Bam:** band.
**Rooster:** I agree. I sometimes like that. You know, sometimes the bands are not that great and it's okay to take them off.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you know, like I said, that's the traditional method, right?
**Gizmo:** I kind of like this band though.
And what's cool about it, guys, if you notice when you take it off, mine's not easy to fight mine a little bit.
**Rooster:** It's a Cuban, uh, a little too much. Well,
**Gizmo:** bam, if you want to be the volunteer and smoke the tissue paper with the cigar, we can get the notes on that.
**Bam Bam:** Interesting. Use this for rolling paper. I kind of like, I do like the presentation.
I do too. Yeah. And the band is beautiful. It's very simple. I agree. It's attractive. It's a beautifully designed band. You know, what's
**Gizmo:** cool about this band unique to this one is on the one side of it. It comes to [00:04:00] a triangle.
**Bam Bam:** Sure.
**Gizmo:** So it's not a symmetrical band where, you know, the centerpiece with the logo and markings of, of Fonseca or the, That's not the highlight piece.
It actually goes out and flares to a Yep. Like a triangle on one side, which is very, very interesting.
**Bam Bam:** And I will say, as you unveil the cigar This is really a beautiful, beautiful, nice,
**Rooster:** nice size. But look at the wrapper.
**Bam Bam:** I mean, I think it's gorgeous. It's a little toothy. Nice color. I love this size. It's a great size.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, lawn stale.
**Bam Bam:** Feels
**Chef Ricky:** great in the hand.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper.
**Chef Ricky:** You guys all using B cuts? Ooh, I have a dimple.
**Gizmo:** I'm going straight cut.
**Chef Ricky:** Straight cut.
**Gizmo:** Little dimple.
**Chef Ricky:** Mmm.
**Gizmo:** Mine has a slight bit of resistance. Let me try. I also have a dimple.
A
**Chef Ricky:** little bit.
**Gizmo:** Very mild cold draw. Very mild. I'm expecting this to be a mild to maybe medium affair at most.
**Bam Bam:** It's pleasant though. I got like a faint apple in the [00:05:00] background. Mmm.
**Gizmo:** I'm getting a cedar. Here we go. Bam is on fire with
**Grinder:** the tasting notes recently out of you guys. He brought in, he brought in tea yesterday when we were smoking a cigar.
Tea was pretty prominent. That was awesome. That was an awesome
**Bam Bam:** descriptor. I think it's pretty accurate. It was.
**Rooster:** His palate is very refined. It's a very refined palate. Very refined palate. We're actually going to do a
**Gizmo:** We're going to do a
**Rooster:** palette
**Gizmo:** battle tonight. I'm burning a hole through your forehead
**Bam Bam:** right now.
Through my bald head. How's everybody's draw? It's nice. I like, I like it. Mine has a slight bit of resistance. Yeah,
**Grinder:** I mean, it's, you know, it's not open. But it's, it's fine. I've had worse. Yeah. No
**Gizmo:** kidding. All right, boys, let's light this thing. The Fonseca number one from Cuba. Again, it's a Lonsdale 43 ring gauge by six and three eighths inches long.
Factory code on this is BRT, April, 2023. So it's just over a year old. [00:06:00] And this cigar used to be very, very budget friendly. Still can get them under 20 bucks. I got them for 19 bucks.
**Bam Bam:** Really? This is very good. Off the light. Very good. Retro Hill is
**Grinder:** delicious. Yeah. Retro is strong. By strong, I mean strong performer, but flavorful.
Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. . This is great.
**Gizmo:** Well, I do like the retro hill.
**Grinder:** Yeah. It's nice. It's very nice. I'm getting just very standard Cuban, if that makes any sense. Sure.
**Chef Ricky:** Thousand percent.
**Grinder:** This is a, this seems like this would be a good first time. I mean, I don't, I haven't smoked the whole cigar yet, but off the first few, few draws.
**Chef Ricky:** I'm going to say mine were much milder than this. Not as flavorful. And, you know, I remember when I showed Brewster a picture of the purchase, uh, you know, he said, Oh, I, from what I hear, those cigars are mild. And, you know, I did find in my experience that they were really mild. This one has a lot more flavor.
If I remember correctly, those [00:07:00] were 2014, maybe. Oh,
**Gizmo:** wow. When I got them. So they had some age. Yeah. Yeah, they had
**Chef Ricky:** some age and I don't know if this was a good or bad thing, but they were even some slight green spots on some of them.
**Gizmo:** That's just a factor in the fermentation of the leaf. It, you know, it's just the way the water hits it.
It doesn't really affect the flavor. Okay. What are you getting?
**Rooster:** I don't know. It's hard to pick the notes right now, but yeah.
**Gizmo:** Getting a little floral, a little cedar.
**Bam Bam:** I'd venture out to say a little coffee for me.
**Grinder:** Not getting the coffee. I'm getting definitely the floral. Some of that Cuban twang on the lips already.
Yeah, definitely a little twang on the front of your mouth. Oh,
**Rooster:** and I love the retrohale. And the aroma. The aroma on the foot. That's really nice.
**Bam Bam:** It is. So that for me matches the retrohale. I get a little biscuit on the retrohale. It's really cool. Very good right now. And your green,
**Rooster:** green apple note on the cold raw.
Yeah, I think I got, yeah, you said green apple. Okay. Well, [00:08:00] the green apple is, has like, it's a little tart. It is. So. Yeah. It was kind of getting there.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. This is very, very pleasant on the light guys. I'm surprised how much flavor we're getting I am too. I was, honestly, I had a whiter dinner.
Anticipating the cigar tonight because I was going to do something a little like a, like a steak or something like that. Did you have
**Bam Bam:** a Caesar salad in the car? I did not. Thank you, ma'am. I did
**Gizmo:** not. I had a grilled chicken, uh, some rice and a little salad on it. Ooh. Not in the car. Nice and clean. Yeah. In the truck.
In the
**Bam Bam:** truck. That's correct. That's healthy meal. There's more room. There's more flat area there for plates.
**Grinder:** You're going to do some bench
**Gizmo:** presses after that? Exactly right. In the back of the truck. So Ricky, what flavor notes are you getting?
**Chef Ricky:** As I smoke more, I'm getting some apple. I did get the apple, the green apple.
Now your suggestion of green apple, I'm getting some tartness, something that's a little bit brighter, uh, which is where the green apples coming in somewhere for me, a ton of cedar. Uh, but I'm not getting a whole lot more than that. You know, not even on
**Bam Bam:** the retro [00:09:00] hell. Really?
**Chef Ricky:** No, the retro hail is pleasant, but the retro hail to me is just very Cuban.
**Bam Bam:** So there's a, I find the speed of the retro hale affects what you capture. I
**Gizmo:** totally agree. So
**Bam Bam:** I let it bellow out of my nose very slowly and it gives you what you don't typically get when you do a quick retro hale.
**Gizmo:** I agree. I think just a thing for me, I, I, I think when you do a slower retro, even when, if you hold the smoke in your mouth just for a few seconds prior to doing the retro, doing a, a couple seconds letting the draw go outta your nose, so over a couple seconds, it's better than fast.
This is
**Bam Bam:** very pleasant.
**Chef Ricky:** It's very, very nice. Shocking. It's very delicate. It's not, there's nothing that's for that's accurate. There's nothing rough about this. It's very balanced, very round, very soft around the edges.
**Gizmo:** I am getting a little bit and not, this is not a counter to what you're saying, getting a little bit of spice, but it's very pleasant just on the front of my tongue.
It's kind of alongside the, it's like a salt and pepper thing. It's
**Bam Bam:** just enough spice to make it interesting. Exactly. [00:10:00] Salt. Yes. Not pepper yet for me. I'm sure it'll come.
**Gizmo:** So Fonseca has been around a long time, boys, a very, very long time. But with that being said, there's not a ton of interesting stuff to talk about with Fonseca.
It was founded in 1892, registered as a company in Havana in 1907. And really there's not much more to say. It was founded by. A guy named Don Francisco Fonseca. He was a family man and his wife, Teresa Bonkus played a significant role in the business overseeing quality control. He established the brand in Havana and expanded his operations to the United States and Spain after that popular popularizing Fonseca cigars.
Internationally. He was one of the first to use cellophane wrapping for individual cigars. Obviously all of his cigars come in the tissue paper. Now, no cellophane accompanying that. But obviously Fonseca is known in the Cuban cigar world as the only one that comes, [00:11:00] you know, with tissue paper on all of the cigars, the brand is classified by Habano SSA in the other category, uh, in their portfolio.
And prior to the recent classification system, it was a multi local brand. So it was primarily used in Havana and in Europe. And like I said, I think it's very, very interesting that the band has that Tail on the left side that kind of fishtail look to it on the left side. It's very very interesting
**Bam Bam:** never on any other cigar It's
**Gizmo:** very odd.
Yeah, and like I said, there's really not much more to say about fun second it's been around a very very long time and They don't really celebrate the brand They don't celebrate the marca. It doesn't get a lot of attention and there's not a lot of cigars in the line. So we can go through those really quick.
**Bam Bam:** Do they use it for regional releases at all? Or
**Gizmo:** there's only been two and we'll talk about that in a second. So we'll go through the current production cigars. There's a Corona called the Kosakos, which is a 42 by five and three eighths inches long and in shorter than [00:12:00] this, the delicious, it's a petite Corona 40 by four and seven eighths inches.
The KDT Cadetus, which is a short Panatella, 36 by four and a half. And the fun second, number one, the Lonsdale that we have in our hand. A Casa Doris is the factory name, 43 by six and three eighths inches long. There were two discontinued cigars, discontinued. Uh, in 2002 was the Invictus, which is, was a perfecto, which is pretty wild.
You know, think of that tip coming out and then having the tissue paper on top of that pretty interesting looking cigar, 45 by five and a quarter. And finally, another Corona called the Aromas 40 by five and a half inches long, discontinued in the 1980s. And then to Bam's question, this. Uh, Marca has had two regional edition cigars.
The Fonseca number four in 2010 was a Hermosos number four Corona extra 48 by five. And finally the Amateur, which was a Gordito in 2011, 50 by [00:13:00] five and a half. So this Marca has not seen any special releases, any new releases in almost 15 years.
**Bam Bam:** Amateur.
**Gizmo:** Amateur.
**Bam Bam:** You are an amateur, sir. No, I'm a gordito.
Correct.
**Chef Ricky:** I was just gonna ask if that could be my name. No, you're the gordito.
**Gizmo:** So this cigar comes in a dress box of 25 cigars in tissue. It's actually very, very similar looking to the Partagas dress boxes that you get like a super Partagas or something like that. Um, looks pretty good. Or actually the Calabras come in a very similar box to that from Partagas.
Um, and that's the story on Fonseca boys. There's really not much more to, uh, to talk about here.
**Bam Bam:** Amazing. What, this is a, this is in a provincial factory, right? But this is kid.
**Gizmo:** This came out of a provincial.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to guess that all of their cigars are out in provincial. I don't
**Gizmo:** think that they've probably have ever made a Fonseca in a mother factory.
There's no Fonseca's out of Laguito. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** No, definitely not. [00:14:00] Not like Corona. It's picking up a little bit. Yeah.
**Rooster:** The finish is a little dry for me. I agree. Yeah. I don't think it's a short finish. It's a dry finish.
**Bam Bam:** So it's abrupt.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** But not unpleasant. I don't think. No, the cigar is good.
**Rooster:** It's, it's, it's a good cigar.
I mean, I'm right now, I'm just getting like a lot of cedar, some, some wood, like a woody and some pepper. I'm that's exactly
**Grinder:** what I'm getting in more wood than pepper. This is light to me. I agree. This is like super light, almost like, honestly a little too light.
**Rooster:** It's light, but I feel like the pepper makes it, pushes it a little bit beyond mild.
**Chef Ricky:** Makes it just a little interesting.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. My palate must be desensitized because I'm not getting much, maybe a bit of pepper on the finish. For me, it's kind of on a sweeter side for me. Especially with that retrohale because I'm doing it with every [00:15:00] draw.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, so I'm getting that cedar. On the retrohale, I get like white pepper.
It's not an aggressive black pepper. It's a very mild white pepper. Um, and I get some minerality, right, that Cuban twang that we speak of, uh, but with no, uh, not much presence of salt.
**Gizmo:** So if I were to hand this cigar to you and you light it, and you're this far into it, right, a half an inch, let's say. Right.
Fifteen minutes or whatever it is. Ten minutes. About
**Bam Bam:** a half inch.
**Gizmo:** If I were to hand you the cigar and have you light it with no band on it, no tissue paper, nothing, what marker would you say that this came from in Cuba? Because I have a very specific one that I think it's kind of in line with. It's like a distant distant cousin of it, but it's very much aligning with us with a with a marker for me in In flavor profile, you're gonna stump us on this one I'm curious if you agree with me or disagree, but before I give it to you I'm curious what your guess would be.
San [00:16:00] Cristobal? I think it's kind of like a Bollie I don't think it's as rich as a Bollie. No. It'd be a Romeo The one I'm going to is punch that floral thing is pushing me to punch. I'm not saying it's as good as a punch punch or it's not punch double Corona, but in a way it's kind of flavor profile wise.
And that floral thing, which is so uniquely punch. I think this is like a distant cousin. You know, like if you said this was a regional edition Lonsdale from Punch, I think I would believe you. But I'm not getting much floral. You can,
**Bam Bam:** I, honestly I'm not, I wouldn't get it unless I'm pulling it through my nose.
That's really the only place I'm capturing anything of interest.
**Chef Ricky:** And really slowly, like you said. Yeah, that's the only
**Bam Bam:** interesting thing.
**Chef Ricky:** The finish is so short by just sort of retrograiling it very slow. You, you, you're, you're Concentrate the flavors. And that's, I think that's what we all want because it's so mild.
I
**Rooster:** kind of agree with gives on the, on the punch similarity, it's not all [00:17:00] punches. It's it's maybe one or two punches that maybe the LCDH release launch was closer to this than the punch punches.
**Grinder:** I'm not offended by the cigar at all. I think the floral The floral note is, def is is spot on for me, but it's very mu It's muted. Yeah. It's, it's like so soft. It's like
**Gizmo:** it's yelling at us from the other room, you know.
**Rooster:** But are you getting that on the retro hail or when you actually take it? Not
**Grinder:** the, it's so light when without the retro hail that I'm, I'm hardly retro hailing right now.
Yeah. Like I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm smoking it for aroma and retro and the mouth, like, I'm not getting the smoke that I, the, the flavor on the palate as much as I'd
**Rooster:** like. Yeah. I mean, for me, the best part of the cigar is the aroma. That's the aroma's. Nice out.
**Grinder:** The
**Bam Bam:** aroma is very, very good.
**Gizmo:** But like, you know, the discussion we're having here for how I would say mild it is for how it's not, there's not significantly prominent, there's not prominent notes like banging us over the head.[00:18:00]
I'm feeling in the room here that it's, it, it, and for me, it's an interesting cigar. It's a rich discussion at the very least. I'm intrigued by it at this point. Like I'm not bored. I think it's
**Grinder:** intriguing for this first. It's probably going to be intriguing for the first third and then I'm going to get pretty bored.
Well, hopefully it picks up. I need some action here. I
**Chef Ricky:** think it's going to pick up towards the end there, but the last third, you're gonna, you're going to see a pickup. That's what I experienced. And I think a part of me, when I was smoking mine, I was like, man, I wish the entire cigar was like that. Um, but yeah, it, it, it is mild.
Um, and you really got to focus those notes. Which isn't a bad thing, and I, for me, this is probably a great, like, first stick of the day, morning, or something like that. Yeah, I
**Gizmo:** think this would have to be placed at the beginning of
**Chef Ricky:** your rotation. Yeah, absolutely. This couldn't be something you end the night with.
**Gizmo:** Now here's a good question. I don't think that You talk about having this in the morning. I don't know if I would love this with a cup of coffee. Most Cuban cigars, I would say coffee is a pretty good pairing. I'm [00:19:00] not getting a coffee pairing match in my brain for this cigar. I think if you're
**Chef Ricky:** having a cup of coffee where it's maybe just coffee, no, but if you're drinking a latte where you have a good concentration of milk or, you know, some other dairy alternative, that's going to bring the bitterness down of coffee and just kind of match the mildness of this.
You know,
**Bam Bam:** one thing we haven't discussed at all is the pairing with teas. I've only done that a few times with certain cigars, I don't remember which. But I'd have a tea that has, no surprise, a fruity base of some kind. Of course. It's, I think, extremely complementary to a Cuban cigar. Even a black tea with just a little bit of cream in it, it's outstanding.
It's a delicious pairing. Must try.
**Rooster:** Mint tea.
**Bam Bam:** That would be overpowering for me. I don't know about that. Yeah. Yeah? For me it would be overpowering. What would you pair with a mint tea?
**Chef Ricky:** Earl Grey or a black tea? Earl Grey.
**Bam Bam:** Dude, I've had Earl Grey with a Ramona Lones with a drop [00:20:00] of cream in it. It is delicious.
Delicious. It's a must try. What would
**Grinder:** you, what would you pair with a mint tea, Worcester?
**Rooster:** As long as the mint tea is not like overpowered with mint, I think it would, it would pair well with anything. Well, there's mint in it. Well, mint is not a very potent spice. I mean, it's not a, it's an herb, but. Some teas are
**Bam Bam:** very strong.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Some mint teas. Fake mint is overpowering. Real mint is more subtle.
**Bam Bam:** That's true. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's true. Honestly, if you have a, like a white tea with just a small mint leaf in it, that would be outstanding.
**Rooster:** I'll try that. Spilling
**Grinder:** the tea here, guys. Love it. The, uh, ash on this is pretty rock solid, though.
**Gizmo:** And it's burning very, very consistently. Combustion is great.
**Bam Bam:** Beautiful burn.
**Gizmo:** Like, construction wise, for this being, I would argue, pretty close to the, the bottom of the, the, Food chain, as far as Cuban cigars goes, maybe next to Vigueros,
**Bam Bam:** or [00:21:00]
**Gizmo:** Quinteros. This is probably one step above those two. I'm, I'm shocked at how well this is burning and how good the construction is.
For 19. For 19. And of course, these used to be much less expensive than that. Yeah. Things have changed.
**Chef Ricky:** This is a retro every single draw. Have to. If you retro every single draw, it's fairly, it's enjoyable. I agree with you. And it's mild enough where you can, and you don't, you're not gonna, you know, get overwhelmed with it.
**Gizmo:** I agree. So boys, I want to do a quick call back here before we go into our pairing. We did a little bit of a segment a couple episodes ago on the Habanos world days, the celebration of Trinidad's 55th anniversary. We did the Trinidad Esmeraldas on that episode, and we talked about the. New limitada the edition limitada 2024 that was announced, uh, earlier this year, but it was released at Habanos world days for Trinidad and we [00:22:00] finally have a price on it boys.
So this cigar is a 49 ring gauge by six and an eighth Toro extra and guess how much? This cigar is 74. Incorrect. 83. Incorrect. 200 a cigar. What? Oh my lord. It's a special release.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah. Is it that special? Well warranted. Is it a Beheke special? For Trinidad. Oh, they're going the wrong way.
**Rooster:** Yeah, Trinidad is following the
**Gizmo:** Cohiba footsteps.
Sure, but I just wonder if the market's gonna buy it. If you look at all of the grey market sites right now, you look at all of the websites you can find that are selling legitimate Cuban cigars, they all sell it. Have consistent stock heavily Trinidad
**Bam Bam:** heavily stocked in Trinidad. They're
**Gizmo:** heavily stocked and he was they're not
**Rooster:** moving.
**Bam Bam:** They're
**Gizmo:** not moving. I mean, we knew that would happen. Yeah, but I'm just wondering [00:23:00] if this effort and we talked about this a little bit. I'm just I'm not seeing the impact of this big effort to celebrate Trinidad and kind of relaunch it as this kind of Ancillary global brand as they're trying to do they're trying to kind of put this in parallel with Cohiba and Partagas Montecristo and Romeo and A Chapman.
I just Don't see the market buying it. No, I hope they get burned. They are going to get
**Bam Bam:** stock left. They've been burned, which is why they're relaunching. Right. And making a desperate effort to, to, to put it out again.
**Grinder:** I think, I think if they were to approach this like a real business person, they would say that there's a, they probably have a portfolio and they want to make more money.
And they want another premium brand. So you make another fucking premium. That's what I would, that's, you don't take an older brand and then just, just mark up the price, which is exactly what they did. They should
**Gizmo:** have, they should have announced a new marker. Instead of trying to relaunch Trinidad, let Trinidad be what [00:24:00] it is.
Create some new Vitolas, create some new cigars, new blends, and really release something that people can jump in and feel like they're the first people in the swimming, you know, first people in the swimming pool, the first people You know, at the party, first people at the dinner, first people having this new cigar from Cuba.
I think people would probably buy that more than believing the Trinidad is in parallel with Cohiba.
**Rooster:** I, I don't think you can do that. And the reason is because Trinidad has a history. Trinidad started out with, as a diplomatic gift. You know, by Fidel Castro. So it's kind of, you know, it's framed that way.
So it, it, it has a deep, rich history. So if you introduce a new brand, you can't really get that pricing structure. You can't really market it. No,
**Gizmo:** no.
**Rooster:** So because of Cohiba and Trinidad being given as diplomatic gifts and they were kind of, you know, Fidel Castro, I mean, he. For the longest time, he said, no, you know, like it doesn't exist.
It doesn't exist. [00:25:00] Yeah. But it, and now they're
**Gizmo:** celebrating the 55th anniversary. Clearly
**Rooster:** it has existed for 55 years. So it's hard to get that, you know, that history behind a new brand. Sure. And you're not going to be able to charge those prices. No. So
**Gizmo:** it'll be interesting to see what happens here with Trinidad.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** It's unfortunate. You know, I love the Marco overall. But you can't pursue the product.
**Gizmo:** I mean, even that Esmeralda's we did a couple of weeks ago. I mean, that was a brilliant, brilliant cigar. It was delicious. It was delicious. And you know, I, I haven't raced out to buy another box of those because it's an expensive cigar.
**Rooster:** Right.
**Gizmo:** You know,
**Rooster:** even those are starting to come down a bit,
**Gizmo:** whether they're in the forties now, right?
**Rooster:** Yeah. I mean, somebody messaged us the other day or a couple of days back, the Esmeralda box is around, uh, five and a quarter. So, you know, it used to be this. No, 12. Box of 12. Yeah. Fondue's the only one that comes in a 24.
It used to be in the 7s. High 6s, low 7s. Yikes. [00:26:00]
**Gizmo:** Yeah, now it's, what? Low 5s? High 4s?
**Rooster:** Yeah. Yeah, low 5s.
**Gizmo:** So I think that they're probably gonna end up having to do a price correction.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Oh, speaking of, I have to do a little gizmo accountability hour.
**Bam Bam:** Okay.
**Gizmo:** So, I, You know the fans love that. We are all for that.
I realized, this is the first time this has happened, I realized that when I was doing the composite lizard score calculation in episode, that I was incorrect, that we rated on the episode, I said that it was a 9.
**Bam Bam:** 2. Which?
**Gizmo:** The Trinidad Esmeraldas on episode 139, two weeks ago, and it actually calculated out to be a 9.
1.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, Lord.
**Gizmo:** So I was, I was off a 10th of a point.
**Bam Bam:** So we need, we need someone in the room to fact check. It only took 139
**Gizmo:** episodes. What's your golf
**Bam Bam:** handicap? And I think that's Grindr's job.
**Gizmo:** So yes, I, uh, I was off a 10th of a point there, [00:27:00] boys. So if you listen to the episode, we rated it a 9. 2. If you see it on the website and moving forward, and when we've talked about it at the end of the year, when we do a recap, it'll be a 9.
1. So that was the,
**Bam Bam:** thank you for the honesty,
**Gizmo:** the honest, uh, accountability there, only because Ricky's here. If Senator was in that seat, I wouldn't have said a thing.
**Bam Bam:** All right,
**Gizmo:** boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the fun. Second, number one from Cuba. What are you guys thinking?
**Grinder:** Definitely picked up in strength over the past like 10 minutes, I'd say.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm, I'm still enjoying it. Um, it's not knocking my socks off. I agree. But the retrohale is still beautiful and it's very pleasant. And the aroma on the foot is still excellent. I
**Rooster:** mean, I, I, I don't think it has changed a lot in, with flavor wise, getting the same kind of flavor notes, like the cedar, maybe a step up in
**Bam Bam:** body.
Yeah.
**Rooster:** For me, it hasn't picked up in strength so far, but it might, I mean, I might be a little bit behind everybody else.
**Chef Ricky:** It's intensified slightly for me. [00:28:00] Um, I think I've been retrohaling so much that my, you know, my, my nose and my palate have just really become accustomed to it. You've adjusted. Yeah. So
**Gizmo:** you guys want to go into our pairing?
Yeah, man. Very appropriately and not on purpose. Actually, we have the chef. Cascadas reposado tequila with us tonight, which chef Ricky recommended to us a few weeks ago when we needed a pairing for the episode and we ended up not doing it and we were going to do it tonight and it ends up that chef Ricky is actually joining us on the episode tonight.
So correct. Very very good. I'm very and very excited to try this. But I'm also
**Bam Bam:** extremely impressed with Grinders consumption tonight.
**Gizmo:** Oh, is he having more?
**Bam Bam:** Oh, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Look at this.
**Bam Bam:** That's a shocker.
**Gizmo:** Oh, that is a really good tequila. It's delicious.
**Chef Ricky:** With the Cascades, you know, it's uh, the reason I recommended it, you told me you were looking for something to pair with a Cuban.
You know, I know Cubans have that minerality, some of the floral [00:29:00] notes, um, and you know, very reminiscent, you know, like all those flavors are in this cigar, just on a very mild spectrum. So I think the Cascadas, actually, not that it was on purpose, because I never knew what Cuban it was, but it works perfectly because Cascadas is distilled in a manner that it They produce a very clean, uh, flavor profile.
They're not going, uh, for that, you know, a ton of minerality and a ton of that funk that you find in something like a Fortaleza or in an El Tesoro. Um, but it's still a high quality tequila. And, um, some of their methods, and when you guys saw the bottle, someone mentioned, Pam, I think you did, uh, how, Uh, dark the color was for a Repo and so, you know, Repos, they could be anywhere from two months to 12 months rested in a barrel.
This one does 12 months. Oh, wow. Right. So it, it picks up a bit more of that color, uh, but the color isn't so brown. It's almost golden and it's because it's using white oak barrels. Um, [00:30:00] so. So the
**Gizmo:** color is being imparted from the barrels that it's sitting, right, obviously the aging process. A hundred percent.
Because a Blanco is a clear spirit. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** There's something botanical about this. There is. So you're gonna, for me, I get citrus, pepper, some cinnamon, uh, I get some minerality, but all like super clean. Nothing that's, that lingers for a long time. It has a short finish, similar to the cigar, which is a great thing because I think otherwise it would overpower the cigar.
**Gizmo:** And actually I'm, I'm finding that, I'm finding that the, I was going to call out pepper in the tequila, a very subtle pepper, very similar to the cigar. Yeah. There is a subtle pepper there for me. In the mouth. In the front of the mouth. And it's very complimentary.
**Bam Bam:** I agree.
**Gizmo:** It's actually, I think that, I think the tequila is actually helping the cigar a little bit.
I think it's a really appropriate pairing. I agree.
**Bam Bam:** And that slight, for me, that botanical flavor that I get in the back of my throat, I get kind of something similar, not a botanical in the cigar, but that floral, that very faint floral works beautifully with that, that combination. [00:31:00]
**Chef Ricky:** every draw after a sip of the tequila.
It's a little bit more enjoyable.
**Gizmo:** So what do we know about Cascadas? We
**Grinder:** know a little bit. I mean, this is actually a fairly, fairly recent brand. It's been around nine years. It's founded in 2015 by two brothers based in LA. Uh, the one brother, Uh, the two brothers, Colin and Chris Edwards, um, Colin was a winemaker based in Napa.
So he, he's, he like would be on farms growing wine for all different wine producers. And he and his brother, um, took a trip to Mexico and started to develop this passion for tequila. And over the course of like a year and a half, They went back and forth between Mexico and, and, and LA and gradually started crafting this vision for a tequila brand.
So they had a couple of different channels or avenues to go around, you know, they could try to work with some distributors or, or not distributors, but you know, uh, tequila makers and distillers [00:32:00] who have their own kind of vision and then slap a different brand on it. They. took their passion for it, this new passion for it, similar to us in cigars.
We just kind of get into it and go ahead first based out of connections through their visits to, to Mexico, developed, developed this friendship network around tequila, like one of their first trips to, to, to Mexico. They're the, the driver that they hired became, became like one of the key VPs in their, in their business right now.
Who's like pivotal. They're taxi driver. So I don't know, but apparently he's got strong business acumen. He was, he's pivotal in their, in their growth. Uh, and they just started creating this like network of, of people, uh, that they, that they would go to into business with. So on a, on a, on a trip to Magdalena once they, they were suggested to seek out a master distiller named Humberto and he was growing this moonshine.
The jungles of Mexico, and they went to the jungles of Mexico and this guy started giving him this, this like [00:33:00] moonshine, tequila, uh, and they fell in love with it. And they started working with this guy more. Then they hooked up with another guy named Don Chico. And this, this, of course, this like massive, of course.
I love it. Alberto and Don Chico. Alberto and Don Chico. And they, that's gonna
**Bam Bam:** be someone's name in this club right now. I gotta figure out who? Don Chico. . Yeah. They, uh, that's great.
**Grinder:** Don Chico's real name is, uh, Francisco Jimenez. You know who it is.
**Bam Bam:** And that's Henrito's alter ego, Don Chico. He's going to be Don Chico from now on.
**Grinder:** So this guy, Don Chico had a long history of, of, uh, distillation in the family growing this, uh, growing agave by hand and then making his own, his own moonshine. And they crafted this vision for this brand and, and, uh, made it up from scratch. And, uh, I was talking to. Chef Ricky the other night about this brand and just trying to unearth a little more history, you told me an interesting story about how they were one of the first CRT or [00:34:00] not CRT.
They were one of the first certified additive free tequila matchmaker.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** And as a, as a result of that CRT then came after them and like rated, um, one of their facilities because they were. They were going to the market with, uh, additive free certification and taking revenue from the CRT. Cool. So
**Gizmo:** what is the CRT?
**Chef Ricky:** The CRT is the regulatory commission in Mexico. And what they, every bottle of tequila you look at, uh, can I see that Cascada screen? I'll show you guys. So there'll always be a stamp on the bottle. Uh, there'll be a gnome and then you'll see a CRT in the box there. That's just showing that it has the CRT certifications.
Essentially what they're doing is they're making sure that The brand is following all the rules to be called a tequila legally. Uh, you know, Blue Weber, uh, you know, under a certain amount of additives, so on and so forth. Uh, but Tequila Matchmaker took it a step forward because they see that the market is now [00:35:00] very interested in additive free tequilas and additive free spirits, that they went as far as labeling or, you know, uh, creating a certification where brands can go through to prove that they're actually additive free.
Uh, now for the CRT, that creates some issues, right, because Some of their major producers, whether, you know, the more commercial brands, the don Julio's or whatnot of the world, you know, core of some of the Corvo's, some of the, a lot of the celebrity brands, a lot of the celebrity brands cost amigos. I just had to say don Julio.
Without don Julio, I'd never be on this podcast. That's true. Um,
**Gizmo:** God bless Don Julio and Don Chico.
**Chef Ricky:** Don Chico. So, wow. We put a dent in this bottle. Yeah. We're halfway through it. So. Yeah, what's happening is it's taking some notoriety away from those brands and it's affecting their sales. So the CRT feels the need to defend them.
They go, they raid the tequila matchmaker's offices. They make, you know, their life a living hell for a little bit. [00:36:00] Almost like a warning. Um, it, you know, it made some news, uh, you know, especially in the spirits world. Uh, it was great. Sort of a big deal, but uh, yeah, you know, none, none, nonetheless we should continue consuming additive free spirits, especially tequila Mascow and you know, uh, you know when it comes to bourbons and things like that I kind of wonder if there's no one nobody talks about that.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Yeah, I think that's because part of the flavor is is certainly You know, and, and, you know, imparted by the particulates in the bourbon, like from the cask and stuff, right?
**Chef Ricky:** Sure, you know, and I think that's, that's fine. I think in the tequila world, when you're talking additives, you're talking about, uh, corn syrup, vanilla.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Glycerin, you know, to add some viscosity and coloring and, and all of those things. So we're not talking about the naturally occurring things, uh, uh, that, you know, happened during aging or whatnot. But Do we know how much this bottle cost? I would, it's a hundred dollars from what I know.
I've seen it for more online. Yeah, [00:37:00] it's, it's an expensive bottle. Yeah, it's especially for Reposado.
**Bam Bam:** I've had the Añejo. I have it in my locker. It is delicious. Excellent. I'm a big fan of this brand.
**Grinder:** It's, it's um, It's very clean. Yeah. You know, and, and he's definitely, you taste that and it's smoothness, I think.
And I think it, it also speaks to one of the things that they claim in their brand history is the source of their water. So they, they, they have, uh, there's a naturally occurring spring, the Nevechi Springs in Mexico that they, they, uh, They transport from the spring directly to their facility. So they're not like taking tap water.
They're taking naturally occurring spring that's renowned in Mexico for, for it's, you know, it's purity. Uh, and they're using that and you're transporting in big vats over to the facility and using that as it sounds like a very
**Gizmo:** expensive process. Which might play into, you know, why this is a hundred dollars bottle of ano.
Yeah.
**Grinder:** So expensive, but clean, right, and
**Rooster:** delicious. Is
**Gizmo:** this also
**Rooster:** out of Halco, or are all Tequilas out [00:38:00] of Halco?
**Chef Ricky:** All tequilas are out of five different regions in Mexico. Halco being one of 'em. Yes.
**Gizmo:** Where's this out of? This
**Chef Ricky:** is Halco.
**Gizmo:** I have a question on Tequila Matchmakers. So Tequila Matchmaker really is just a website.
Product that people can go review different tequilas that they that they've had Creates a composite rating of the readers of the website, right? And I know there's other websites that do this with wine and whatnot How did tequila matchmaker get to the point that there's such an? Respected. Respected or an authority on additive free.
Like why do, why did people end up trusting them so much that now this CRT body that you're talking about out of Mexico feels so threatened by them? Aside from the money piece of it. But how did they get to the point that They're raiding their office. I mean, that seems pretty crazy. That's like Habano's raiding us for, you know, shitting on [00:39:00] them for Which could happen.
Very well could happen. I was just gonna say, you guys may not be far from it.
**Chef Ricky:** Um, but, uh, especially after, uh, you know, that Trinidad, uh, episode. Oops. But, uh, Yeah, no, so I, I, I'm trying to remember when exactly Tequila Matchmaker started, but I remember getting on board with it very early on. Uh, it was at least seven years ago, maybe more.
Uh, and it, it, it was an app. It always, you know, it started as an app. It was very small to start and there was a couple competing apps out there like Distiller and they try to do it for all spirits. But I think what Tequila Matchmaker did was they came out at the height of the tequila mezcal boom, and they were only doing agave distillates.
**Bam Bam:** It didn't also only clean.
**Chef Ricky:** No, you could find any to almost any tequila on there. So it's been on the market long enough. Um, and you know, they, they, they won't, they won't say that something is loaded with additives, but the way you use the app or the way I've come to, uh, Use the app, you [00:40:00] know, there's always two composite ratings.
One is a panel and the other is the, the individual users. I find that for the better tequilas, those two numbers align, uh, cause the panel could be bought out, right? So sometimes for some of like the commercial brands, you see the panel score would be 20 points higher than the user score, and that's because the user is educated and they, they know what they're looking for.
They know they don't want additives. They know they don't want crap and they've rated accordingly. But the panel score always tends to be, you know, 20, 25 points higher, and they're probably paid off or whatever. Um, so that's, I, I, I look for that. I look, uh, oftentimes for process. Uh, so this here, part of why, you know, we keep saying how clean it is, you know, they're using an autoclave, so you're not, you're not going to find that super long, intense minerality that you get from using a Tohono, their stone wheel.
That imparts a lot of, uh, of those, of those earthy undertones in the spirit. This is coming [00:41:00] across as a much cleaner, almost lighter spirit. Uh, and that's because they use stainless steel pot for distillation versus a copper pot still. Uh, they're using an autoclave versus a steam ovens. You know, they're using mechanical shredders versus a Tona.
So all that with the spring water, it's a clean process. It, uh, yeah. So it's slightly more efficient. But they're not selling out using diffusers and things like that, uh, which a lot of these commercial brands. So, you know, it, it, in the end it's producing a high quality product. I think the price point has a lot to do with their marketing and their bottle.
You know, I'm not saying it's not worth that much. Um, you know, it is, I personally think it's worth it. Yeah, it, it, it is very good. Um, but I wouldn't be upset if it was 20 less. Yeah, I was
**Gizmo:** 75 bucks, I think that it would be in a more appropriate price for it. But I still think it, it's drinking very, very well, even at a
**Bam Bam:** 100 bottle.
It's delicious.
**Gizmo:** The thing I saw in this, so this is the Reposado. They also have a No. 9. They have some other [00:42:00] releases.
**Chef Ricky:** And I think the Blancos are No. 1. I have no idea what the numbers mean. I couldn't find anything. Is it a,
**Gizmo:** maybe a recipe thing, or a process thing, or?
**Chef Ricky:** I, you know, at first I thought it was a batch thing, but they haven't been out that long.
Um, so I'm not quite sure. I haven't been able to find anything on it. Uh, cause when I did send you it as a recommendation, I was just trying to recollect if the, the number, the numbers meant anything, but nothing came to mind. And
**Rooster:** How much is the Anejo?
**Bam Bam:** It was about that price. Similar. Oh, same? Yeah. I bought it next door.
Not cheap.
**Gizmo:** I saw something I thought was interesting. The name, uh, Cuscanus, it refers to the Cuscanus natives who were the last indigenous people of Mexico to be conquered by the Spaniards, the Cuscanus. And the symbol on the bottle is the ancient symbol of the healing hand. So like a medicinal thing, like we talked about on the Mezcal deep dive we did about a month ago or so, six weeks ago, I don't even remember, but we talked [00:43:00] about the, how a lot of folks in Mexico view Mezcal that.
Distillate of, of, uh,
**Chef Ricky:** healing. Yeah, it's
**Gizmo:** healing power. You know, it's pretty cool.
**Grinder:** I, I didn't find that in my, in my deep dive, but I did find the, the, the numbers. So they actually correspond to proof. Ah. So I think, let me find it here. I think 7 is like 80. Nine is like, seven is 80 proof for 40 percent 40 alcohol.
Number nine is 100 proof for 50, 50 alcohol.
**Gizmo:** Cool. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** So that must be like their still strength. I will say the pairing is delicious.
**Gizmo:** I find, I find it to be very, very
**Bam Bam:** appropriate. It's a delicious pairing. And
**Gizmo:** I think what I like about this Repo, this tequila in general, is that it's not a rich, super, Cons, you know, it's not taking over your palate.
It's allowing the cigar to participate in, in what's going on there. And I think that it's very complimentary.
**Chef Ricky:** I agree. And that's why I picked it. I'd felt in general a [00:44:00] lot of, uh, tequilas, especially some of the heftier ones could just kind of overwhelm a Cuban. I think Cubans tend to be very floral and somewhat feminine in their delivery.
Um, so I thought it was important to stick with a pairing that would compliment that.
**Grinder:** Good call. Can't you just stay gender neutral? No. So,
**Gizmo:** boys, we're about halfway through the Fonseca No. 1 from Cuba. What are you guys thinking?
**Rooster:** I'm
**Gizmo:** not
**Rooster:** loving the cigar. I mean, it's good. It's a good cigar. It's good. To me, like, the finish is kind of dry.
It feels unrefined. You know, it feels like it needs, I don't know, maybe it's, it's an age thing. Maybe it's a very fresh cigar. I, I just taste like fresh tobacco.
**Bam Bam:** Really?
**Rooster:** I'm not getting a lot of distinct notes in it. I'm not getting much
**Bam Bam:** youth.
**Gizmo:** I'm not getting youth, but I do agree that I think. Unrefined is an appropriate way to describe it.
I think it's a blend thing. [00:45:00] I, I mean, oftentimes when we smoke a young cigar, we can see the future a little bit. We can taste where it's going. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You know, when that youth wears off, I'm not, I don't see aging potential. I'm not seeing aging potential here. I'm not seeing growth in the flavor profile.
I'm not seeing any really, Anything really that makes it interesting enough that I would want to purchase a box of these and put them away for five years like no, definitely not
**Bam Bam:** that
**Gizmo:** I'm not investing my, my humor or space in this. But for what we're
**Bam Bam:** getting tonight, I think it's a nice cigar. It's a nice experience.
Right. Doesn't knock your socks off. I said that earlier, but it's a nice, decent experience.
**Grinder:** I a hundred percent agree with all that commentary. I think that I used, I made a comment, it's kind of boring. You know, it's just like, yeah, it's, it's good. You know, like, like other cigars where there's just, there's glimmers of, of flavor.
Uh, I would, I think it would do well to have more, just give me some more of that. [00:46:00] Um, and I don't think it's a strength thing. I think there's just, there's not enough. There's not enough, uh, you know, spice in the recipe
**Rooster:** or flavor.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Flavor. Yeah.
**Rooster:** I mean, if I had to compare to other 20 Cuban cigars at this point,
but if you have Corona, I mean, if you go back a couple of years, I mean, you can get a lot for 20, right? You can get a D four, you get a RAS for like 15. So party's over. Yeah. Yeah. But even some of the new world stakes, I mean, you can get So many New World cigars that are under 20 that will deliver like way more than this does.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, like the Oliva V I think will knock this thing's socks off.
**Rooster:** Yeah, there's so much flavor in that.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, but it's, with all that said, I'm not, offended by this. I'm enjoying it. It's a decent experience. I [00:47:00] still really enjoy the retrohale. I will say that. That's really, really good.
**Chef Ricky:** I think it's safe. It's a safe cigar.
It's easy to smoke. It's easy to smoke. Uh, no rough edges at all for me. This is something you could almost give to anyone. And unless they're, you know, they're looking for a ton of flavor or strength, they'd enjoy it. Um,
**Rooster:** look, it's not going to make you, I mean, at least for me, it's not going to make me go out and buy a box.
It's
**Bam Bam:** not super memorable either. You
**Rooster:** know, if it comes, what does it come 20 in a box? Twenty five. Twenty five. I'm going to spend five hundred dollars on a box of Fonseca's. I'm not.
**Chef Ricky:** No.
**Rooster:** No.
**Chef Ricky:** If I was trying to, uh, get my wife into cigars, I'd, I'd, I'd get her these. I think she'd enjoy them.
**Gizmo:** From a comparison standpoint, I think body wise, I think this smokes very similar to what I've experienced with Flor de Cano.
**Bam Bam:** Very good call out. Especially
**Gizmo:** the Escogitos.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I agree, man.
**Gizmo:** Um, it, it's a very light, uh, You know, it's not offensive at all. Like Ricky said, it would, you know, [00:48:00] anybody could smoke the cigar and appreciate it. Even a beginner.
**Bam Bam:** The Escogito has a bigger ring gauge, right? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's like, it's more like a Robusto.
Yeah. But it smokes very similar in that it's, it's. I think this might be a little more interesting to me than that cigar. I
**Bam Bam:** agree.
**Gizmo:** This isn't boring per se, but I think, I think the lack of future.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** The lack of aging potential, the lack of seeing some sort of vision of where this can go or what it can be is making it kind of weaker in my eyes.
**Bam Bam:** But dude, the aroma still is really compelling. That keeps my interest, the retro hell's keeping my interest. If I didn't have either of those two, then I would be completely disinterested.
**Gizmo:** I agree. I think without the retro, I think it would be. A much more boring cigar. Agreed. But there's also lack of combustion.
Alright. Yeah. It's a very
**Grinder:** thin smoke, right? Yeah. I made that observation earlier. I didn't say anything. That's true. But it's like, it's not, we're not getting a lot of smoke in here. Mine's actually smoking pretty good. They all
**Bam Bam:** are,
**Grinder:** but it dissipates very quickly.
**Chef Ricky:** You think it has to do with the draw? [00:49:00] You think it was just a little tight and maybe part of me wonders if it was just a little bit more open if we'd be getting a bit more flavor out of it,
**Gizmo:** but with that, though, if it was more open and you're getting more combustion, it's heating up.
Yeah, now the heat is going to enhance that negative kind of flavor. The rooster pointed to, yeah, you're going to get blasted. I almost am glad that I'll sacrifice combustion. to not have a wind tunnel smoke affair that's going to burn. I can't stand that. Yeah, it's going to burn the cigar into youth and ammonia.
And yeah, disgust. Yep. You know, I just I think it's performing fairly well. Yeah,
**Grinder:** it's it's this is it's smoking slow, though, right? It is. Yeah. Yeah. I'm
**Chef Ricky:** going through a pretty good feel like everyone else is going much faster than me. So boys, I feel bad for you that you have no tequila. I mean, I know it's a choice you make, but it wouldn't make the cigar a lot more interesting.
**Gizmo:** So boys, Ricky mentioned something that I [00:50:00] thought was interesting. He said that this cigar, the Fonseca number one was his first box of cigars he ever purchased for Cuban cigars. And I don't know if we've ever talked about our first box purchases in 140 something episodes. So it, it kind of piqued our interest here.
I'm curious, what everyone's first box of Cuban cigars?
**Bam Bam:** But if you remember, we pooled our orders very early on. We did. So we all shared those Cuban boxes.
**Gizmo:** We did. So what was your first box of Cuban cigars you purchased? I think
**Bam Bam:** I bought in on a box of P2s with someone.
**Gizmo:** Partagas Series P2s. At the club. At
**Bam Bam:** the clubhouse, yeah.
And then someone got Monty 2s, and I think those, from what I remember, were the first Cubans that we experienced as a group.
**Grinder:** I think my first box was, uh, Ramon Iones. Special selection. You? So, the, the reality is, the first box that I bought, Cuban box that I bought was, was, was probably Ramon Iones. The first [00:51:00] Cuban cigar I had that was procured, not by me, but I took cigars from was, uh, uh, Bolivar.
Uh, Bolivar, maybe it was a, maybe it was a Romeo. Uh, but they were both Churchills, so it was one of those two. Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean it was, uh, my dad, my dad would get boxes of cigars that he would, he wasn't a smoker, but he would give them out to like business associates and stuff. And he would give me one every once in a while and send, you know.
We'd be on the golf course and I'd have it and it'd be wonderful. But I never actually bought a cigar when I was that young or a box. We're 12. Yeah. But I smoked when it was
**Bam Bam:** eight back in the
**Gizmo:** tasting panel.
**Bam Bam:** Correct. Back in the eight, nine, 1892 back
**Gizmo:** in
**Bam Bam:** the colonial period of India. God be back then. He made his own glasses.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Rooster, what was your first
**Rooster:** box of Cuban cigars? I can't, I can't think for, you know, that far back. It's quite a while. [00:52:00] 150 years. I don't remember what I had yesterday. I really don't know. I don't remember. I mean, that's going back a while. Maybe it, maybe a box of D4 and could be Ras. I mean, I love Ras.
D4's existed back then? I think they started with D1, D2, and finally got D4's.
**Grinder:** I think that the reality, like we, when we started buying Cuban cigars in bulk, Partagus was really, Partagus and Ras were, were the two. Yeah, there were two Stiefos, and Monte's, Monte's. We were, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The two series auntie is
**Rooster:** less for me.
I mean, I think it was more into Deforce and ra.
**Grinder:** Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** me too.
**Gizmo:** So my first box of Cubans was, I purchased two boxes at the same time. Let
**Bam Bam:** me fucking guess. Agus 8, 9, 8. No, no aged, no, no, no. That was before I
**Gizmo:** mag. So Mag, uh, no it wasn't Mag 46, either. My first box of Cuban cigars that I purchased was be, uh, was on a [00:53:00] recommendation from someone at that lounge.
was a Romeo and Juliet, the Churchill box that I ended up smoking a few of and selling. And the other box that I got in that same order was my first. I think I remember that. Yeah. It was a bit of a shit show. Yes. And then the other box I got in that same order. Was a box of Parus D fours. Mm.
**Bam Bam:** Cool.
**Gizmo:** Which was fantastic.
Of course, I smoked through those so fast and then, you know, because we were getting D fours for, what, eight bucks, dude. It was, it was 10 bucks. It was
**Bam Bam:** like the wild west of, I mean, it was insane. Cuban cigars us
**Rooster:** You, your first Cuban cigar was in 2022 . What are we talking about am doing? That's not true. We had 70 years on us.
When was it? When, when was your first Cuban experience? My first
**Gizmo:** Cuban cigar was, uh, right before Covid. Okay. 21. 2019. Covid was 2020. I know it's been a long time for you.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly. That's kind of when I started getting into the Cuban journey as well. That's and, and you must
**Rooster:** have had a Cuban cigar before then?
I did,
**Bam Bam:** yeah. But I wouldn't remember.
**Rooster:** I gave you a behi
**Bam Bam:** at the
**Rooster:** lounge [00:54:00]
**Bam Bam:** before that. Oh. You know, dude, what was your first cigar? That was my first Cuban, that was his first Cuban cigar. I think that was my first Cuban cigar ever. Because that was, that's crazy. Prior to our group orders that we wrote. Right.
That was way back when dude that it was just you and I
**Rooster:** yeah
**Bam Bam:** you I didn't know what the hell I was getting I'm looking at the cigar. It was delicious. It was incredible.
**Rooster:** That was like from the first batch of but he gives when the first came out Oh my lord, that's right. You
**Chef Ricky:** leave it up to Bam Bam to have his first fucking Cuban be a baby and not
**Gizmo:** remember it
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, because I guess shit on I'm sure
**Gizmo:** But seriously, do you guys remember when we were purchasing boxes of D4s for 215, 220 for a box of 25?
I thought nothing
**Bam Bam:** of it, man. I
**Gizmo:** mean, we thought those were expensive at the time. To the point where we were splitting them up. And now, I mean, I wish we had loaded up our way. You
**Grinder:** know, I really, I never talked to you guys about this, but I really regret. Those days, not diving as deep as, as the rest of [00:55:00] you.
Well, who
**Rooster:** knew? Well, like, I,
**Grinder:** I just. But you had a lot.
**Rooster:** You had a lot. I
**Grinder:** had, I had a lot. I mean, I still have, I still have some, like, boxes of cigars from that period. This guy's got a double armoire of
**Bam Bam:** cigars, and he had it back then. And I had it back then. But it was all New World. I know. Yeah.
**Grinder:** And, and I didn't, I didn't just, I didn't go gung ho during that time.
You were spraying your cigars
**Bam Bam:** with mist? The whole nine yards, man,
like a gardener, I'm going to
**Grinder:** come back, I'm going to come back to that. I was, I was, I was mending. I was, I was, I was just minding my, my, my, my inventory. Um, but I, I do regret not having, you know, just the, the volume that, that you guys got during that time for a fraction of the price of what it is now, because I, I would want to do that now.
Yeah. But like, It's so cost prohibitive for me.
**Gizmo:** Well, and if you think about the journey that we've gone on in this podcast, that the listeners have [00:56:00] been, have been alongside us with, right? You think about where we started going on, what, three years ago, just in the podcast when we started, how many Cuban cigars we were smoking?
Cause how affordable they were. They were. Yeah. That was, that
**Grinder:** was the linchpin. We were like, we were like, why, why would we buy a Davidoff or even Padron was like at a higher price. Why would we buy them? When, when we found this new love that was just blowing everything out of the water. It was. And it was so cheap.
And, and then I just never, you know, it was an interesting time for me too. I And you think about now,
**Gizmo:** you think about now, yeah, you had a baby. I
**Grinder:** wasn't smoking. I literally wasn't smoking a lot of cigars. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Yeah. So,
**Gizmo:** but you think about now how price does impact our reaching for those Cuban cigars, even for me, even reaching for D fours and other Cuban Robustos at 20 something dollars each now as a replacement cost, right?
Or purchasing a box and reaching for them. I just reach for them less. And I think that we all
**Bam Bam:** do. We're fortunate. We have some unbanded Cubans. [00:57:00]
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And our New World packages. Yeah. And that's what we're going for. And,
**Gizmo:** and, and obviously the podcast has been very helpful finding a lot of New Worlds that have jumped in the rotation in a wonderful way.
And those are priced very similarly to what we're talking about with the Cuban cigars.
**Grinder:** And let's not forget about our, our, uh, our sponsors, Fabrica5, wonderful Cuban like, you know, as, as Giz has, has said before, closest thing to, to Cuban tobacco that we've found. Yep. Love you, Rob. Um, so, you know. There's so many other, I think the pod for us has really opened our eyes to all the other New World stuff that we haven't had the luxury, literally the luxury to, to, to, to get.
And now we're just, you know, there's so much flavor out there. Senator always talks about like, there's so many cigar brands that he just, that we, not he, but we all as a collection would have just cashed shade on. Of
**Gizmo:** course.
**Grinder:** And now it's just like, yeah, sure. Let's try it and smoke it and see what it's like.
And, and we're at a state where our pallets so much, so much more stacked in experience that, that we can parse out good from bad pretty quickly. And
**Gizmo:** [00:58:00] you know, what's interesting too, you bringing up Fabrica 5, you know, it's almost like, thank you, Habanos.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Right. In the room and looking at what Fabrica 5 has done is all of what we're talking about.
**Bam Bam:** Dare I say that? Fabrica 5
**Gizmo:** existing because of, correct, because of Habanos pricing out so many of their consumers. So many of those, those consumers who were interested in buying 10, 15, even 20 cigars, they've been priced out of Habanos.
**Bam Bam:** I'm, I'm not ashamed to say that I've been somewhat priced out. I'm no longer buying four or five, six boxes of Cuban cigars like I did four years ago.
No, you
**Rooster:** just buy one box. That's 2, 000.
**Bam Bam:** Oh,
**Rooster:** are you talking about the Opus Dubai?
**Gizmo:** Dare I say.
**Bam Bam:** Dare you not, please.
**Gizmo:** No, but it, it really is an interesting thing that it's almost like, I'm thankful that Habanos did that because obviously the podcast, we have to do 26 new worlds, 26 Cubans a year, right? We release an episode [00:59:00] each week.
You look at Fabrica 5, our sponsor, making amazing Honduran cigars that like you just referenced, I think are as close to Cuban cigars as anything I've tasted in the new world. They are. I
**Chef Ricky:** couldn't agree more.
**Gizmo:** And you know, Chef Ricky loves them as well. And it's like, you know, And, you know, we're going to review some coming up in the next few weeks.
You keep saying that. I know.
**Bam Bam:** Like when
**Gizmo:** we need those one on nines, Rob, let's go.
**Bam Bam:** No giz.
**Gizmo:** No, they're not out yet. They're coming. They're coming. We're going to review them, but I'm
**Rooster:** going straight to Rob. We're very middleman. We're very,
**Gizmo:** very fortunate. I would say that Hibana's did what they did because it even opened up our eyes, even, you know, even more, of course, I would say,
**Chef Ricky:** you know, as I sit here and I hear you guys complain about, you know, being priced out of, uh, your Cuban purchases, I like to think I represent the listener, uh, in this, I came into the Cuban world when I heard you guys, uh, and this was, uh, It's two years ago, right?
[01:00:00] It's been two years? Two and a half. Two and a half. Yeah. Two and a half years. Uh, so I came into an already somewhat high market. Um. That's true. And, and that's how I ended up with Fonseca as being my first box because they were priced at a, you know, at a, at a decent point where I was like, Oh, well I could go for it and see what it's about and get my feet wet on the Bon Roberts website.
Can't say I blew through them because like this cigar also, even then I found it very mild.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Um. And I had you guys blessing me with sticks here and there, and they were all better than whatever I had. Sure. You know, I also
**Grinder:** think like, there's There's so much more to work with in New World. Sure.
Right? Like, Cubans, Cubans puro, right? That's what it is. And Cuban cigars are very distinct, Cuban tobacco is very distinct, and there's that Cuban familiarity. Of course there's variation. Of course we all have different flavor profiles and stuff, and the brands, of course, have their own. We use, we reference DNA, Partagas DNA, you know, A.
Chapman DNA, [01:01:00] whatever. But like, when you're working with a binder from Honduras. a rapper from Ecuador, uh, you know, whatever, Costa Rica, you know, all over the place, Sumatra, all, all different kinds of tobacco, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Mexican, you, you get so much different terroir, like flavor profiles that you can play with.
And I think there's a lot more room for creativity in the blending. And if you have some savvy blenders that know tobacco and they can get their hands on that kind of, that kind of inventory, there's some magic that can happen, you know, and, and it's, and it's, it's, it's that stuff on the margin that's not talked about that.
These P that some of these blenders are just, you know, making some really great sticks with.
**Gizmo:** And the other thing too, is the point, you know, the barrier to entry for new world cigars, if we, as we've talked about in the past is certainly here in the United States, we can't go and buy a single. Or a five pack of Cuban cigars easily.
You have to find a [01:02:00] group that's trustworthy, that has legitimate things. And
**Bam Bam:** even
**Gizmo:** there. You're scouring and it's still tough. Yeah. You have to commit to a box. So if you want a fiver, you have to go in with four or five friends and split it up. Whereas the new world, you can listen to An episode or talk to a friend and, you know, you hear about a cigar you want to buy, you can go out and buy one or two or three or five, try them out and then commit to the box, you know, so that the barrier to entry is so, so much less, you know, obviously in the price of the cigars, it's so much
**Grinder:** more fun to like you get to, you know, It's like a kid in a candy shop.
You get to pick your own adventure, you know, with that way, as opposed to, you know, you have to know what you want when you're buying Cuban cigars. You have to have a lot of counsel to make some of the investment. Then at least in the United States, you have to have it shipped here and all this, you know, all these extraneous efforts.
There's a bit more risk there. Yep. Yeah. So buried in a real thing.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Forgive me. I don't know if this has ever happened, but do you guys think there'll ever be a day where You know, you will find Cuban tobacco blended with some [01:03:00] other tobacco.
**Gizmo:** I mean, I honestly, it could already be happening and we just don't know about it.
I mean, certainly if you think about the amount of yield of Cuban tobacco coming off the Island, it's less than it's ever been. It's very minimal by a significant amount. So for Habanos to reach the production capability that they think that they can get to. Compare that to the yield that's coming off, which is 40, 50 percent less than it was even five years ago, not investing in, in infrastructure, not investing in farming, not investing in, you know, in that whole process.
There is a significant disconnect there in the supply chain where I don't know if they're going to be able to double or triple their yield on produced cigars without. But if investing in the tobacco, if I'm a bonus,
**Grinder:** I, it's, it's a lot more profitable to grow and then ship, then grow, manufacture, assemble, and then ship.
So if I'm a bonus, well, it's cause you're moving more [01:04:00] volume. Well, it's also just literally it's, it's, it's cheaper to do that. It's a shorter, shorter time span. And so it's not even time span. It's like you, you plant the seed, you tend it and then you pick it and you get it out there.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** As opposed to like having to have the people on hand running factories, that whole thing, getting, you know, moving it out the door.
That's a, that's costs a lot of money on the supply chain. If I'm a bonos, I'm thinking, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to dilute the brand, but if I need money at a higher margin and I have scarcity to people, scarcity of water. Scarcity of everything on that island. I would be hard pressed to not find some channel to get that into the market.
And let's talk about the reason why one of the reasons why there might be a low inventory, and this is all hypothetical is because they're moving some of that leaf out of the country. And not putting it in many rolled cigars on the island.
**Chef Ricky:** Can that channel be China?
**Grinder:** Well,
**Gizmo:** no. I don't, I don't know. Well, that's, [01:05:00] that's where I was gonna go.
So now, think about this. Habanos is a, Habanos S. A. is a joint venture owned by the Cuban government and Chinese investors. That's right. So now, let's look at the business arm of Habanos S. A. Which is primarily run by the Chinese. If you're the business arm, the investors in Habanos, looking at the lack of investment.
In the tobacco fields in Cuba, the farmers, et cetera, as we know, flat out that they have said that their primary investment vehicle to grow economy on that island is tourism. Okay. Tobacco is probably fourth, fifth, sixth on the list. They're not going to invest in sugarcane. They're not going to invest in tobacco.
Right. We know that they've said this. So if I'm the Chinese arm of this business. Looking to reap rewards of my investment. Don't you think that bringing some tobacco in
**Bam Bam:** From China.
**Gizmo:** No, not from China, just anywhere. As a, you know, from anywhere in the world, to augment this struggling That would healed.
**Grinder:** I think, I think It makes a [01:06:00] lot of sense.
I think that would make total sense. From the point of view
**Bam Bam:** of business. Yeah. Yeah. But the, but the brand itself and the, the, the Cuban product itself, you're going to, you're going to destroy what you're going to change. Absolutely.
**Grinder:** Absolutely. But, but, but both, both of these scenarios, one where they're growing and shipping and one where they're bringing in yield from various other sources is all below, below board.
Right. Nobody knows, like, so, you know, and it's all like, we're just making this up frankly. So, um, You know, I think both scenarios could be true.
**Rooster:** But why not invest in the infrastructure and increase the yield? It's also the fact that I think Chinese are in it for the short term. They're not planning to be there forever.
Exactly. Right? So they want to make their money, cash out, and leave.
**Gizmo:** And I think that, I think that they're, you know, and we've seen this as we've learned about the distribution changes with Cuban cigars around the world and their
**Bam Bam:** desperate need to control those distribution and these
**Gizmo:** 250 year old relationships going to waste because the Chinese want [01:07:00] to maximize the profits of these cigars that probably cost eight, nine, 10 cents to manufacture in Cuba.
You're selling for 200 to bring some tobacco into Cuba, raise the yield. I'm not. Convinced that the, those investors would really care if the flavor profile changed a little bit, or if there's tobacco in there below board, like you're saying grinder, that isn't Cuban, like, we're just a very real hypothetical.
We're entering
**Bam Bam:** deep
**Grinder:** waters and I think we're talking about, we're talking about the Cuban government. We're talking about the Chinese government that are controlling this. There are many cases of other industries, other commodities that, that were that any standard that has been arbitrated by any kind of Western government has just completely been.
Ignore it. I don't like
**Chef Ricky:** any of this.
**Grinder:** I don't either,
**Gizmo:** but I think it's a very real possibility.
**Chef Ricky:** Well, you know, I can't help but notice how in the past few, you know, months or, you know, maybe year and a half, I've heard more and more about how you guys, you know, talking about how younger Cubans are smoking better.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Right. [01:08:00] And prior to that. Almost any Cuban you bought. I mean, even my first Cuban, I was always, you know, from you guys always told, you know, let them sit two years, let them, you know,
**Bam Bam:** um, and that was pre pre 2018. But from 2018 to 2022 23, they're smoking beautifully. So not every market, but a lot of
**Chef Ricky:** them.
Well, I'm saying this to go further down the rabbit hole. Maybe that blending is already happening.
**Gizmo:** It very well could be. It's been it's been say that out loud. It's been thrown around, you know, again, and this is all hypothetical for the listener out there. Yeah. But I think that there just is a major disconnect in what we're seeing on the yield, what the goals are here and what the reality of Cuban tobacco is, which is just like sugarcane.
We talked about that a few episodes ago. The rum industry in Cuba is failing. The sugar is failing because of the lack of investment in the infrastructure and tobacco is right behind that. So I think that everything that we're saying is a very, very real possibility for the future. And I think it's going to continue to be a hypothesis because it's obviously never going to come out in any press release or anything like that.
It's, [01:09:00] it's a real challenge.
**Chef Ricky:** It's possible. Listen, as a chef, I've seen tons of documentaries on everything from garlic to honey, to truffles, all being. you know, bootlegged for lack of a better term by the Chinese. And, uh, you know, now they have their hands in Cuban tobacco. So are we just all going to assume that that's not a possibility?
**Bam Bam:** It's an
**Chef Ricky:** absolute possibility, you know? And now I see why you guys all have aliases. And I'm the only one here with that's traceable. You're Don Chico. I prefer Gordito.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we're into the last third here on the fun. Second, number one from Cuba. It's picking up for me in a nice way. I'm actually really
**Bam Bam:** enjoying it right now.
Yeah, no, I like it. I think it is getting
**Chef Ricky:** better and better. I'm getting some banana here, and I don't know if it's the influence of the tequila, but I'm getting some ripe banana now. Don't laugh, but I'm getting a little bit of maple. Yeah. Yeah. The touch of maple. Yeah. Honestly. I, I think these are all influences from the tequila for [01:10:00] sure.
Maybe. Yeah. I'm not.
**Grinder:** I don't, I'm not either. I'm not getting any banana or maple. I, I, I picked up in strength at the beginning of the second third. It was just, it was, it was indiscernible. It wasn't that discernible. And um, it's, it's not changed coming into the last third.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we just discussed the.
First Cuban cigar purchases, and I'm curious. I just want to go around the room because again, I don't think we've talked about this What were some what was your first New World box purchase not cigar? Okay, buying a complete box of New World cigars. I'm curious. What can I go first? Of course? Arturo
**Rooster:** Fuente short story.
**Gizmo:** Ah, the Hemingway series. That's a good one. That's a good one I'm afraid Senator and Pooh bar in here. So you're good.
**Rooster:** I'm more worried about rooster here. My Garcia Vega. Does it begin with an R? It does. Oh my [01:11:00] God. Oh boy. Go ahead. Grindr.
**Grinder:** My first box was Rocky Patel Royale. Hmm. Rocky Patel Royale. And I still enjoy that cigar.
**Gizmo:** What
**Grinder:** about you, Bam?
**Bam Bam:** Davidoff Millennium Pyramid.
**Gizmo:** Oh, yes. We actually had, we did know that. Yeah, so that was
**Bam Bam:** my first single cigar, and then I went out and bought a box. So for
**Rooster:** Cuban, it was the Bajique. And for New World, it's the Davidoff Millennium. I know, it's, uh And he smokes a Bajique. Opus Dubai on a regular basis.
Correct.
**Bam Bam:** All
**Rooster:** correct. Tuxedo Timmy, Rare Art Now. Ricky, what about you?
**Chef Ricky:** My first box purchase was Padron 3000s. That's not bad. That's solid. That was my first. Um, and, yeah. Yeah, it was, uh, it was memorable. Uh, I do like the 2000s better. Yeah. Uh, thanks to Ben. But, yeah, my first box purchase was the Progeril 3000.
**Gizmo:** So my [01:12:00] first, so I had smoked about six years before I purchased the box cigars. I, I just would go Dabble. My, yeah, my, my, my habit was when I wanted a cigar, I would go to the local brick and mortar shop and buy a cigar, two or three, because what I was concerned about was storage. I didn't have a, an understanding first of how to keep a cigar.
I didn't have a situ, you know, a human or a Tupperware. I didn't have anything. So I would go and buy a bag of a couple of cigars and that's what I would smoke. And it wasn't until I joined our, our former lounge where I met you guys. And when I had. That first Padron Exclusivo that Senator gave me starting to understand the process and how things work, keeping cigars humidified properly, et cetera.
My first box purchase was then at that lounge was a box of Padron Exclusivo. I think I
**Bam Bam:** remember that as well.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So that was, that was the first time I had ever owned a box in it. You know, there's something about having your first box of cigars. Because obviously that came before the Cubans, but when you're holding a box [01:13:00] of 25 cigars perfectly laid out.
All the bands are in order. You have the ribbons helping you get the cigars, the initial cigars out. There was, there was a euphoric feeling there. Like, all right, I'm, I'm, I'm in to something new now. I've really gone head first into something. And obviously now, you know, five years later, whatever it is, it's been, uh, didn't you go back
**Bam Bam:** downstairs and return all the cigars you bought after that?
I
**Gizmo:** joined the lounge. I spent my credit. Cause you got a credit when you joined this lounge of a couple hundred bucks. He had to spend in their humidor every month, went down. I bought a bunch of singles on their recommendations, came upstairs, met Senator immediately for the first time, gave me an exclusivo and I went back downstairs and I bought a box of exclusivo because I got rid of all the junk.
I has been spoken. When you guys
**Rooster:** bought a box of cigars, how did you keep it in a Tupperware? Or did you have a,
**Gizmo:** I kept it, I kept it in the, the, my locker at that lounge? That's, that was my first storage point.
**Grinder:** I kept mine in a, in a Tupperware humidor. [01:14:00] And then, um, I actually, uh, Cigar International holds these events.
So I was beginning to also go head first and into cigars. And this was like 2000, maybe 15 or 16. And CI hosts these events called Cigar Fest and you, you go, and I went solo. I've gone twice, I went solo the first time, um, which is a weird experience to go to these events solo, by the way. Having gone to, um, PCA with a group of you guys, it's just, it's a completely different world.
And, um, they give out Was that here in Jersey? Uh, no, it's in Pennsylvania. Okay. They give out, uh, depending on the ticket you buy, a whole bunch of swag and a whole bunch of cigars. And they, and usually there's a, like a box humidor. Uh, so then I started, I got two of those and then I bought a real nice humidor, like a desktop humidor, uh, and then I just started buying a whole bunch of more cigars and I accumulated these like, like we had in my apartment in Ridgewood, I had this, [01:15:00] uh, third bedroom and, uh, It was just stacked and my wife, my fiance at the time, just said, this is not, this is a healthy.
Am I marrying a degenerate? Yeah. What am
**Bam Bam:** I marrying? Yeah, exactly. So you dove head first. So that, so that I don't
**Grinder:** again, even deeper with that, with that broad, Uh, cabinet humidor. Oh, yeah. That, that armoire. That armoire that we had to bring up the steps in our, in our apartment. Oh my gosh. And then, oh my God, it was, it was a craziness time, but.
**Chef Ricky:** I had a shitty desktop, uh, humidor with a glass lid from Amazon. and I was way too impatient. Um, I actually bought the box of cigars before I had the humidor. And now I'm doing my research on seasoning this thing and I'm like, wow, this is going to take two weeks. I gave it about three days and I can never control the humidity on it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The seals on those are very, very tough. Glass top. Yep. The seals are very imperfect. Of course, just the seal in the opening the lid and then you have [01:16:00] another You know, uh, imperfect seal with the glass, which, you know, they never do a great job.
**Bam Bam:** I'll tell you, like, I, similar to you, I bought my desktop at a cigar event.
It's a glass top. I still have it. And I keep my pyramid extras in there. And it is perfect. Really? Well, you got lucky. It's a shocker. That thing has got to be at least 18 years old. Wow. And it's keeping my Cubans beautiful.
**Gizmo:** So how long did yours last? Did you move away from that pretty quickly? Yeah, I
**Bam Bam:** threw it away maybe two months
**Chef Ricky:** later.
Uh, and I just went to Tupper Door. I kept
**Bam Bam:** kind of playing with it.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. No, I was, I was getting frustrated because I just, you know, it's one of those things you start watching and it's kind of like watching water boil. And it just never, you know, you never get to the temperature you're trying to get to and it's frustrating and I go deeper down and I'm like, oh, now I have to buy caulk and, and, you know, insulate my glass and do all this, and this.
**Rooster:** Cement.
**Chef Ricky:** Yes.
**Rooster:** A
**Grinder:** mister.
**Bam Bam:** But prior to that, prior to that humidor, I was in Ziploc bags for a while. [01:17:00]
**Grinder:** Yeah. They work. They do. I need to come, I need to circle back to this. So I get a lot of slack for, for spritzing my cigars. I no longer do that by the way. He's a big spritzer. I, there was a time when my, when my armoire, as you, you've aptly dubbed it, got a little dried out and I would spray the side of the seat that was lined with cedar and I would spray this, the line of the cedar.
And, and to, to kind of accelerate the process, I would goot a couple spritz on each level, just in the air above it, not directly, just to apply some, some, some moisture into the air or in the, in the.
**Bam Bam:** So that it's gently descends onto the cigars. Is that what you're implying? Well, it's dissipated. I
**Grinder:** have three, three little spritzes on each level.
It's not like I'm dousing it, but you know, it adds a little humidity in there. And then by the time everything kind of gets calibrated, it, it. It evens out. I never had a wet cigar. But, you know. Listen, you're talking to
**Chef Ricky:** the guy that ran cigars underwater. That's
**Grinder:** true. That's true. Well, [01:18:00] that's a
**Chef Ricky:** thing. And it's worked.
It's worked. So I do miss my plants. I'm a plant that, uh, that's kind of how I calm down. You know, being a chef and having multiple properties, it gets stressful. And one of the things, aside from cigars, that helps sort of cool me off. Gardening? Not gardening. Because they're not outdoors, they're indoor plants.
Do you spritz them? I do spritz them. Yeah, I have a spray bottle, I spritz them. You guys should get together on spritzing technique.
**Grinder:** I need to learn your ways. Your ways. Do you
**Chef Ricky:** whisper sweet things? I caress the leaves. Shit, I even clean the leaves. Wow. My wife got me these special tongs with felt tips. So I could like wipe the leaves clean.
And I tell you, my, my plants look great and it, and it just helps, it helps grow on me. I, you know, make sure my kids get into it. Sounds very disturbing, old boy. Ah, I don't think it's disturbing at all. I think, I think, I think there's something,
**Grinder:** there's a humanist element to that. Yeah. I think humans are meant to, to, [01:19:00] to grow.
Nurture. Yeah, nurture. Horticulture. It
**Chef Ricky:** keeps you in check, you know, you, you get home and, and you start seeing your plants drooping and you're like, shit, I haven't watered these things in a week, I'm sorry. You start apologizing in your plan, and then you give them what they need. And the next day they're, they're back up and peppy and, you know, it's like, Oh, okay, okay.
That worked. Yeah. It's a, it gives you something to just ground yourself.
**Gizmo:** So boys, let's go into some listener email. We have a couple that I wanted to talk about tonight. This one's from lizard Devon. He says, Hey lizards. I'm loving the FOH collaboration. I remember hearing you all speak about the Monte Cristo Open Eagle review, but I can't seem to find that episode.
I was interested to see what you all thought of that cigar. So the reason why I wanted to bring this up is I've actually had a couple of listeners ask about this is on one of those early, you know, uh, on one of those, Hey, lizards, gizmo here thing, where I announced the cigars that are coming up. I did have the Monte Cristo open Eagle in there a couple of times
**Bam Bam:** and
**Gizmo:** we've just had to punt it off because of other [01:20:00] cigars that have come up.
So we do have the open Eagle coming up for Monte Cristo, We just haven't done it yet. So any glister out there looking for it, it just hasn't happened yet. So stay tuned and uh, we will definitely be getting to it's good. Catch it. Another one comes in from Lizard Michael. He says, I love the podcast. I've been binging episodes on my com commute for the past month.
I have a question for you guys. Where can I find one of those sweet H up and half Corona tins? Love that. Vitola. And I have the boxes. But the tin is so cool. The half Corona is up there for one of my favorites, especially this time of year when Florida is hotter than all hell. So that's a really good question because we've talked about this a few times about that H up in half Corona.
We obviously reviewed that recently on a short smoke special. The tins don't come up. The tins have not been coming up that much. And, you know, we talked earlier about the early days of buying cigars and how easy it was to find cigars and buy cigars and get them, but now it's That was one of those cigars we [01:21:00] never had a problem getting.
And now you can really only find them in the 25 count boxes. They're not coming up as much in the tens. And I'm sure it's just a supply issue, but we've mentioned the packaging. That's true.
**Bam Bam:** We've mentioned this before, though, the dress box have Coronas. They do still smoke delicious. Yeah, honestly, they're still great.
**Gizmo:** That's one of the ones. And we talk about the difference between a slide lid box. Let's say in the bellicose Finos, you can get those in a slide lid box. You can get them in a dress box. We obviously prefer them in a slide lid box, but I think the half Corona. Because they're not like stuffed in that dress box.
I think they're smoking as well as they are in the tins. I agree. Now, the, the thing about the tens is it's just a really awesome package. I mean, you can carry them around. There's five in there. You take it to a wedding,
**Bam Bam:** stack them up in your friends, stack
**Gizmo:** them in the tower. They look good.
**Bam Bam:** Yep.
**Gizmo:** So I would, you know, for lizard Michael out there and any other listener, looking for those tens is, Certainly, I would not hesitate from purchasing boxes, dress boxes of H Up and Half Coronas.
But, you [01:22:00] know, keep your eye out for tins. You know, we used to find a lot of those on iHavanas. A year
**Bam Bam:** and a half ago, they were everywhere. Yeah, we were
**Gizmo:** able to get them quite a bit. And I'm sure they'll come back, but They just haven't been around that much.
**Chef Ricky:** I used to get the tins and they were phenomenal.
But yeah, to your point, the dress box, uh, or was it the slide? The box that I got for my birthday last year has to be only coming to dress box, dress box. Yeah. So those are small, just as great. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I actually have, uh, my most recent purchases of Half Coronas, I have a couple dress boxes. I haven't found tins in probably a year, year and a half, like you said, Pam.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I still have six tins, and most of them are full. Two are kind of, uh, I dug into, but dress boxes I go to first.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we have one more listener email that I wanted to get to. This one comes from Lizard Ashley. He says, good morning, lizards. I'm currently listening to the latest pod. I've got to say, I'm so glad you guys are trying more cognacs.
It's my go to drink. And the history of the drink simply fascinates me. Can I [01:23:00] recommend trying frappin cognac? Their history dates back to 1270. Wow. So that's pretty
**Bam Bam:** cool. So we actually do need another cognac. So that, we should try that if we can find it, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Frappin, F A R P I N, cognac. Dates back to 1270.
I personally haven't tried it, as I'm unable to find it at the moment in Canada, of course. I feel bad for our Canadian listeners, it's tough to find stuff. But I'd love to recommend some more if you'd like. Uh, lizard Ashley sent me a picture of him and, and Ben, his friend Ben, saying that he's celebrating his recent marriage.
They got married two weeks ago. Boy. Nice.
**Bam Bam:** Congratulations. So
**Gizmo:** congratulations to Lizard Ashley. They said celebrating that they were listening to the podcast and they decided to grab some Paul Roget. There you go. Of course. No better way to celebrate. And he concludes saying, gotta say, you guys are fantastic.
We both listen to your pod and thanks so much for the recommendations. Wish you guys did the pod more than once a week. Bam.
**Bam Bam:** Good luck with that. We can barely get a full court. [01:24:00]
**Grinder:** We're we're working on like, we're working on bootstraps and shoelaces right now. We have, we have four, four of the, of the prescribed lizards in the room, and a guest appearance right now.
So, we should ask Lizard Ashley, uh, which, which, uh, which frappin we should, we should buy. There's an XO that we can get, and there's a Cognac Cigar Perfect as well. Oh, that sounds interesting. Wow.
**Gizmo:** I think either of those. I would say VSOP, XO, or that cigar one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll try those. So there's quite a lineup.
So congratulations to lizard Ashley on your marriage and thanks so much for the support. And of course, all of the listeners who write in each week, please keep it up. We love voice memos too. Absolutely. The voice memos have been a lot of fun. Bam. Your opinion doesn't count on that matter. All right, boys.
So we're coming to the end of our evening here with the Cascadas reposado tequila and the Cuban fun. Second, number one, any final thoughts before we go into our ratings?
**Grinder:** I think, I think I think the cigar for me really opened up [01:25:00] the draw opened up a lot and the smoke output is really like
**Rooster:** the last third.
Yeah. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Last third. So I've got maybe an inch and a half left here. And are you enjoying it more? No. What did Pagoda say a couple of weeks ago? It's smokeable. It's not that I'm not enjoying it. It's just, you know, it's just a little more smoke. It just, it just opened up. There's more
**Gizmo:** combustion now.
That's all. I will say I'm glad that we did this Reposado tonight, not an Añejo, not a different type of spirit, a bourbon, a cognac, a scotch, that would have been overpowering. Overwhelming, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** If we were rating pairings, I'd give the pairing together a 9. I agree with that. Because I enjoy what I'm getting together here.
Yeah, I agree. It's a good experience.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, it's time to move into the formal liquor rating now. The Cascadas, Reposado Tequila, and Tequila. Bam Bam, you're up.
**Bam Bam:** So, I've got the Añejo. I love that bottle. [01:26:00] Um, I love this tonight. Regardless of the price, I'm at a nine. Um, I think it's delicious with a chip of ice without, and it pairs beautifully with this particular cigar.
I love the botanical nature of this, the cleansing nature. And this cigar and other cigars kind of in this line, when you take a sip and you take a draw, It's an exquisite combination. So I'm at a nine.
**Grinder:** Grinder. I, I'm actually also at a nine. I think this is an excellent tequila. You've had multiple glasses, which is rare to see.
And you know what? I'm like, I'm not, I don't know what the proof is on this one, but it's 80 proof, 40%. Right. Right. Yeah. I'm not getting, uh, you know, I don't feel like I'm getting tipsy really. It's just so it's like, it's delicious. It's clean. Um, uh, it's, it's not super juicy. Uh, which is, which is fine. Uh, I think for this pairing it worked great.
Um, I think I'm also really enamored by the, the story of these guys that just, you know, they just like, they found their way in tequila, uh, [01:27:00] and decided to make a living off it and invest all this power, all the, all this energy into starting it from scratch, essentially. They, they built a network around it and I thought that was fascinating.
Um, but as far as the, the drink itself, I love that it's, the, the finish is long for me. And because the finish is long, I can, I can pace the cigar and get a lot out of this, out of the cigar, this pairing that we have, because that finish is so long and I still have that, those, those like notes on, on the palate.
Uh, and I, I, I too am, am, have remorse that, that Rooster is not imbibing tonight because I think it would really help with the cigar. Um, but I'm, I'm a nine. I think it's a great, I think it's a great, uh, tequila.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a nine. I, I think, It was a very, very good Reposado. I think that alongside some of the other cigars that we smoke, I think it might be a little meek in body for me.
Uh, even, even alongside some of the Cubans we do, I think that it might be overpowered. I think [01:28:00] that this is a, you know, if you want to call it a medium tequila for me on the palate. Um, I think some of the others that we've done would perform better. And I'm just talking Reposados, not even Añejos. Yeah. Um, but I thought for what this was, I thought it was an appropriate pairing for a Cuban cigar.
Uh, for this Cuban cigar, especially, and, uh, I, I thought it was very, very good, really great flavor and very clean. I, I really enjoyed that.
**Grinder:** I think for those, for those listeners that may, maybe have, maybe put off by tequila and, and that strength, agave. Uh, agave flavor. This would be a great, this would great be a great option for them because it's, it's crisp and it's not too overpowering.
You know, it's, it's, it's clean. I think we, we can, we can put a bold on or underline on that expression. Clean. Definitely.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So for me it's a nine Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I love what you guys are saying. Um, I agree with Bam. The pairing for me tonight is a nine hundred percent. On the tequila though, I'm gonna give it an, you know, we can't do decimals.
Uh, but I would say it's very strong. Dakota's not here, we could break the rules. [01:29:00] I would say a very strong eight. Um, and just for me, generally speaking, I like a little bit more minerality on what I call soul in tequila, uh, just a little bit more complexity. Um, and there's a time and place for everything.
I think something slightly more complex while still would have complimented the cigar. Well, I think this, like this tequila, does the job for the stick. But on its own, I think because of the price point, I just kind of want a little bit more from it. Um, I want you to
**Bam Bam:** try the Añejo tonight after recording.
All right. I think you should all take a taste. I think it's, it's, it's excellent.
**Chef Ricky:** If I were to guess, I think the Añejo is probably going to be a little bit more buttery, a little bit longer lasting on the finish.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely. A little creamier. It's a bit richer as well. Yeah, exactly.
**Chef Ricky:** So, you know, it's, it's not a, it's not a bad, you know, it's, it's a strong recommend, obviously I recommended it.
Uh, I do like the tequila. I think it's an easy drink. It's a perfect gateway [01:30:00] tequila to grinders point. Yeah, I agree with that. If, you know, if you're trying to get someone into tequila, but not like hit them over the head with agave and all of those, or the history or all of that behind tequila, this is a great entry point.
Uh, it gets you started. And, you know, if you find yourself liking, uh, some of those sweeter tequilas on the market that are loaded with additives and just, you know, inauthentic in their process and their delivery. And a
**Bam Bam:** headache the morning after. Yeah. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** This delivers some of that. the, you know, the, the, the, the, the positives of that without the negatives.
Um, so I think they do a great job and, you know, obviously knowing about distillation and seeing the steps they take, I know why the tequila tastes the way it does. So I know that they're getting to that point in a very honest manner. Uh, and I respect that. And, uh, you know, I think it's, it's a, it's a delicious spirit.
Um, Look, an eight's a strong,
**Bam Bam:** it's a, it's a, that's a recommend. Eight is a good recommend. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a good score.
**Gizmo:** Alright, boys, that [01:31:00] puts the formal liquor rating on the Casani episode of tequila at an 8.8.
**Bam Bam:** Nice score. That's perfect.
**Gizmo:** So boys, let's compare that to some of the other episodes we've done on the podcast.
We've done four others on episode 24. Ricky's favorite, we did the Don Julio Reposado , which got an 8.6. The what
**Bam Bam:** episode is that number? 4
**Gizmo:** 24. 24.
**Bam Bam:** Geez.
**Grinder:** How
**Gizmo:** the hell did that get an 8. 6? Hey, we were green, man. We were green.
**Chef Ricky:** Did you guys ever review that? You didn't review that again, right? No, we never did it again, no.
**Gizmo:** On episode 44, the Fortaleza Reposado Tequila got an 8. 3. On episode 98, the Tequila Ocho Reposado Widow Jane Barrel Got a flat 8. 0 and finally the Don Filano Reposado on episode 127. We actually did this with the Monte Cristo, the Specialis No. 2, got a flat 9. 0. So this, uh, this scored very well actually compared to other Repos that we've done on the pod.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm glad we're kind of discovering because the [01:32:00] tequilas in general, I've moved away from bourbons and whiskeys. For the past few months and I've been doing a deep dive in tequilas and uh, Cognacs. And I've been staying in that lane for a long time now and I'm really just enjoying it.
**Chef Ricky:** And I think tequila does a really good job in delivering what bourbon does without hitting you over the head with sweetness.
Yeah, agreed. You know, and, and, and it makes it, uh, A more enjoyable drink, especially throughout the evening, you know, if you're having a multiple stick session. Um, yeah, I think it's great. And this tequila is super easy to drink, you know.
**Grinder:** Do
**Chef Ricky:** you carry this in your restaurants? Yes. Yeah. Of course.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, it's time now to do the formal lizard rating on the Cuban Fonseca No.
1. Rooster, you're up.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I mean, I, I, I didn't really love the cigar. It was okay. Uh, it lacked, it lacked combustion. Uh, there wasn't a lot of flavor notes in it. I just got cedar, a little bit of wood and, you know, not a [01:33:00] whole lot. And to me, it was kind of, What I expected from the cigar, I didn't think the Fonseca would blow me away and it did not.
It's kind of gimmicky also with that, you know, with the tissue paper, the tissue paper and the band on the outside. Do you need that? I don't know, you know, but we don't need it, but we don't need it. And, you know, I mean, it's okay. It didn't, it didn't really do much for me. I thought the finish was also very dry, which I, which I don't really like.
So for me, it's a six.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm at a six as well. Um, the retrohale was really enjoyable for the first two thirds, the final third, I was getting this weird and I kind of wanted to bring it up because I think earlier in the, in the pod we were talking about. Minty, I was starting to get minty notes in that final third and it could have just been because I was trying, I was smoking a bit more aggressively, trying to get more flavor, trying to get [01:34:00] more oomph out of the cigar.
And it started kind of getting spicy, but not in a peppery way. So somewhat medicinal, um, could have been the tequila maybe doing something there too. I'm not sure, but the tequila doesn't have that flavor profile. So I doubt it. Uh, but yeah, for me it was a six, um, it's, it. It is pretty, uh, boring, honestly.
The tequila made it a lot more interesting or bearable. Uh, but without the tequila, yeah, it's, it's, yeah, you kind of question why you're committing an hour and a half to smoking it. Wow. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Alright. So I'll say for me, I, I, I actually anticipated coming in at a five or six before we lit the cigar. Just hearing about it, knowing, you know, very little about Fonseca.
Just hearing it was kind of a throwaway Cuban cigar. I'll be honest, it performed fairly well for me tonight. I think it's a seven for me. I think there's a couple positives. I think number one, I think that this is a gateway Cuban cigar. [01:35:00] Very, you know, very much a parallel what we were saying about the tequila.
Someone that maybe hasn't had tequila, tried tequila. I think that this cigar would be for someone that maybe hasn't had a Cuban cigar before. Hasn't had a cigar. I think this is a very, Easy entry point, low barrier to entry, as we referenced earlier into Cuban cigars. I think it's a very, very, uh, non offensive entry into Cuban tobacco.
And I think that this is a cigar that if you wanted to tell someone, Hey, I'm giving you a Cuban cigar, cause that's an exciting thing to say when you're smoking with someone, this might be a good one. This might be a good one to have in the guest humidor to have five or 10 of them just to have them there.
And you know, you want to smoke something else that you're used to. You want to give your guests a Cuban cigar. They haven't had one before. I think this is a very, very easy one to give them. I thought it smoked well. And I think, you know, I always think about my father in law when we smoke mild medium cigars, I think very, very similar to that Florida Kano we talked about, he would love this cigar.
He would love this cigar. And for 19, 18, maybe [01:36:00] that's a cigar that I'm very happy to have a few on hand just to give out to guests. So with all that being said, with my experience tonight, I thought it performed better than I expected. It's a seven for me grinder.
**Grinder:** I, uh, we, you guys mentioned expectations and Rooster had, you know, the comment about it performed as, as, as what he expected.
I, I think I had the same expectations. Um, there were hints of, of flavor profiles that I really enjoyed, but at the end of the day, it, you know, it wasn't really a compelling cigar for me to want to grab this ever again. Frankly, there's so, there's, there's sevens, in the world that would, that I would rather reach for, you know, there's, there's AIDS that I'd rather reach for.
And this is, this is a six for me guys. So, you know, when I think about Cuban cigars, um, I'm, I'm looking for floral. I'm looking for, for some of those baking spices. I'm looking for something that I, that I want to say, Hey, this is distinctly a Cuban [01:37:00] cigar. This doesn't knock my socks off enough to say, I'd want to grab this again as a Cuban cigar.
So for me, it's a six. Um, it's not terrible. I really just don't care for it.
**Bam Bam:** Fair enough. Bam
**Gizmo:** Bam.
**Bam Bam:** So look, I enjoyed the retrohale the entire way from beginning to end. I got a little biscuit and toward the end I mentioned maple. That's a real thing for me. And the burn line, the aroma on a burn line was fantastic.
It was delicious. It was, you know, it kept my interest enough to at least finish the cigar. I think a seven is a fair score here. I think six is a little bit harsh. I agree. But. I, I do echo the sentiments of the room. I won't ever pursue this cigar again. Um, because there are a lot of other cigars that I'd like, but I think this did pretty well tonight.
Seven.
**Gizmo:** Okay, that puts the formal lizard rating on the Cuban Fonseca number one. At a 6.40
**Bam Bam:** that's low. So
**Gizmo:** I think 64 is a little low on this. I agree. I agree with you. Ba I mean, I respect the rest of the room, but 68
**Bam Bam:** would be, I think fair. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** [01:38:00] 68 or 72
**Rooster:** maybe. Think,
**Gizmo:** think. I
**Rooster:** think the pairing helped
**Bam Bam:** the, the pairing was delicious.
The cigar for you guys. Yeah, it did. So maybe
**Rooster:** that kind of took away the dry finish I was getting, but I have to be
**Bam Bam:** honest though, the, so the pairing doesn't help the retro hell. It doesn't help the aroma on the, on the burn line. I agree. Those were really unique. Yeah,
**Rooster:** but when you take a sip of tequila and then you smoke the cigar, it kind of maybe I'll be honest though, when I lit the cigar It certainly does.
It
**Gizmo:** does. When I lit the cigar for the first 20 minutes before I had even tried the tequila, I was sipping my seltzer. I've been at a seven, honestly, since I lit the cigar. Same here. So for me The tequila did not push it to an eight. I agree. And it did not take the six to a seven for me. I agree. When I lit the cigar, I think it was a
**Rooster:** seven.
It's like the first initial light, I mean, it was good. So after that, that kind of, you know, it was diminished. Yeah,
**Chef Ricky:** I think what happened was it started as a seven, probably for all of us, but I think we just kind of got to a point where it was like, okay, it's enough. You know, it was, it was, you were getting a little bored and I, I quite honestly felt bad for you rooster because you didn't have to kill him, you [01:39:00] know, just sort of watching.
You could have brought
**Gizmo:** some non alcoholics on us, but great job, Ricky. Yeah. He also doesn't,
**Bam Bam:** he doesn't retro hell out of it, by the way. I that's another topic
**Grinder:** I've been trying. I've been trying my man. I love that. I think the comment about. The, like the first centimeter was really great.
**Gizmo:** The first three draws.
**Bam Bam:** You're too tough on this cigar.
**Grinder:** No, man. I think, I think about us might put it in that other category reason. Like it's just kind of like,
**Rooster:** I mean, get rid of the toilet paper from the fucking
**Chef Ricky:** it's more like. You know, gift wrap tissue paper. Yeah. It's Indian toilet paper though. Indian's don't use toilet
**Gizmo:** paper.
Oh
**Chef Ricky:** Jesus.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, so I think that we can call this the gateway pairing. I think we would all agree that both of these in our pairing tonight would be Good gateway entries to both tequila and Cuban cigars. I think that, you know, despite the 6. [01:40:00] 4 on the fun second, number one, I think this is a great beginner cigar for someone entering the Cuban cigar market.
And I think that you were very, very wise to pick this up as your first Cuban purchase, Ricky. I think that was, I think that was smart. So let me go through this again. Boys, the formal liquor rating on the Cascadas Reposado Tequila. Was an 8. 8. And on the fun second number one from Cuba, we had a 6. 4. So of course we have to shout out Chef Ricky Camacho, our guest tonight, our friend.
Thank you so much for coming in.
**Chef Ricky:** Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, chef. Gordito. Gordito. So you got to go see
**Gizmo:** Gordito. Gordito. On Yeho Restaurants. He looks like a gordito. He has two in New York City in Hell's Kitchen and Tribeca. He has one in Philadelphia and try playa taqueria. In Montclair, New Jersey, which is where you can actually find Gordito most days.
Correct? Yeah. Is in Playa, Taqueria. That's awesome. For Habanos, if they want to raid our offices, it's a Playa, Taqueria. That's correct. In Montclair, New Jersey. That's exactly right. Hey, thanks so much for joining us, man. Thanks for [01:41:00] having me. And of course, thanks to the listeners out there who always write in.
Thanks to Fabrica5. For supporting the podcast. We really, really appreciate it. Love you, Rob. And we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod. com. That's loungelizardspod. com.
Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello at loungelizardspod. com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.