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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast, presented by Fabrica 5. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Puba, Pagoda, Sheffrick.
Grindr and Bam Bam, a full house of lizards. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some whiskey, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 171st 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 new world cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it.
and give you our formal lizard rating. We read a listener email on prostate cancer, and we discuss the importance of screening. Chef Ricky gives an update on his new tower, and we discuss accessories for smoking in the car, 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 Red Breast L'Estau Edition Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey with the Arturo Fuente Don Carlos, The Man.[00:01:00]
A very mysterious Robusto tonight. From the Dominican Republic, it's the Arturo Fuente, Don Carlos, the man, and it's a 50 ring gauge cigar by five and one quarter inches long. And boys, they don't tell us what's in this. No. The rapper, the binder and the filler are all unnamed. It's a nice looking
**Poobah:** cigar though.
It looks great. Beautiful rapper. So it could be. Dominican, it could be Nicaraguan, it could be You have
**Bam Bam:** to think it's gotta be Dominican.
**Gizmo:** It could be anything. I think most of it's Dominican. I would imagine.
**Rooster:** Isn't it based on the Don Carlos line? It is.
**Gizmo:** It's based on the regular Don Carlos line. The band is certainly different, but it does say Don Carlos.
And this actually is celebrating
**Rooster:** Don Carlos. The rapper is much lighter than the Don Carlos cigar. That's true. Yeah. Just grown in the, the Chateau Fuente.
**Bam Bam:** Mm hmm. It's
**Rooster:** a handsome cigar though, Brewster. Yeah, it's nice. Smells
**Bam Bam:** good. Nicely
**Chef Ricky:** made.
**Gizmo:** I gotta say, [00:02:00] the aroma on the wrapper is incredible.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, it's good.
It's so different. It's very unique. A little sweet and lactic. Strong. Especially on the foot. It's a little box pressed, isn't it? Yeah, it seems like it
**Gizmo:** came out of a pretty Which I don't mind. pressed box here,
**Poobah:** but Semi, uh, I don't mind a semi box press. I thought
**Pagoda:** the shape was not correct. No, no,
**Poobah:** it's like a semi box press.
I don't mind that.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper here. I come in tonight a little nervous, boys. Another Fuente on the pod. We do love Don Carlos, there's no question about that. That's true. No question about that. We love this line. But we have had some rough experiences in both Opus and Hemingway hasn't performed
**Bam Bam:** very well here.
No, but if you take the cold draw, very Barry forward.
**Gizmo:** Mmm.
**Bam Bam:** Barry forward on the cold draw,
**Gizmo:** right? Barry and Cedar. I'm getting a lot of Cedar here. A lot of Cedar. Yeah, I'm not getting the cedar as much as I'm getting, like, a
**Bam Bam:** raspberry.
**Gizmo:** [00:03:00] Yep, I got the same. I'm getting, like, a mustiness, too, which is nice. So, has anyone in this room had this?
I have had it, but I've had a different release. I've had this as well. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** I feel like we smoked this with Lizard Henry,
**Gizmo:** you know? We did, yes. To honor his dad. Henryto. Lizard Henryto, uh, has this cigar for us. Each year brings a bunch of cigars the club. And we, we smoked them, uh, in celebration of his death.
It's a nice tradition. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** That he's got going.
**Gizmo:** Well, I'm, I'm optimistic at this point with the, uh, with the cold draw here, boys. All right, let's light this thing. The Don Carlos from Arturo Fuente. It's called the Man. 50 ring gauge Robusto by five and one quarter inches long. And as we said, we do not know the filler, the binder, nor the wrapper of this cigar.
All are kept, kept under wraps. Assuming most of it is coming from Chateau. De La Fuente in the Dominican Republic. The [00:04:00] cigars are rolled there. Do you know how much this cigar is? This cigar was 32.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that is quite the price.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, so when these first came out in 2018,
**Bam Bam:** Wow, 32.
**Gizmo:** They were 14.
**Bam Bam:** It's
**Gizmo:** nice
**Bam Bam:** on the light.
Same as I remembered it to be.
**Gizmo:** That's very nice. Mm hmm. There's, you know, it's funny, we talk about the, the difference between the cold draw and then after you light it. There's no berry there for me. I'm not getting a lot of cedar. Yeah. It's musty, earthy tobacco right now. Woody. Very Woody.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm still getting a little bit of a berry thing happening.
Some kind of sweetness. Chef, what do you think?
**Chef Ricky:** I am getting a little berry on, you know, on the cold draw. I was, I was curious to get this, uh, out there. It's a rooster and Pagoda. On the cold draw, I was getting something that was reminiscent of Fenugreek.
**Rooster:** Did you feel that at all? I got, I got something I couldn't [00:05:00] really pinpoint.
I thought it was like minty, but it wasn't. Yeah,
**Chef Ricky:** I guess this is like the combination of like berry wood and which is all gone now that the cigar is lit. Um, and now. Yeah. Well, I'm getting some sweetness, but not that. Yeah. Sort of, uh, that berry note, that sweet note that comes through when you smell fenugreek.
**Rooster:** When you say fenugreek, kind of like Sambuca ish. Methi, methi. Like ananas flavor.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. The seeds, you know, the yellow seeds. It's a very hard flavor for me to describe. I just know. No, no. He's got it. He's got it. It goes, it goes really well with lobster or shellfish for me in particular and butter.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, it has a buttery
**Chef Ricky:** thing, but it does have very rich.
Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I try not like right out, like directly after the light. I try not to editorialize too much because.
**Bam Bam:** Like we all did
**Poobah:** for 170 episodes. I know, but I'm learning now. But in other words, [00:06:00] like in, in three minutes, it's going to change. In four minutes, it's going to change because none of us are using soft flames.
And I did, did you, I don't know. I just think at the light, like right at the light, the minute after you light it. And I'm, I'm not sure how accurate you can be,
**Pagoda:** but sometimes you get a pleasant feeling on the light. Sometimes you get a hard feeling. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I'm happy with it right now.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, me too.
**Gizmo:** A lot of smoke output.
**Pagoda:** Look at the room. Yeah, the smoke.
**Poobah:** I mean, the combustion on this thing is good. Conditioning is good in the cigar. Yes, it is.
**Gizmo:** I've had it about two months in my tower. They were very wet when I got them. There's no question about that. Oh, they're not now. They're not now. I got them from a retailer in Philadelphia at Holtz, uh, at Fuente mania.
I went down there with lizard Henry, actually
**Bam Bam:** Walnut street.
**Gizmo:** No, we went to the one on towns and they have two. Okay. Uh, Walnut is like in the city. One's kind of outside center. It's a great spot. Um, really nice location.
**Poobah:** Oh yeah. And it's PA so, [00:07:00] you know, you feel good. I'm in
**Bam Bam:** Eagle's
**Poobah:** country.
**Bam Bam:** Guns and fireworks and anything else you want.
Exactly. Crappy booze.
**Poobah:** Greased light poles. Horse feces. Anything you want.
**Rooster:** You know, I kind of wish you hadn't mentioned the price. 32? That
**Grinder:** is really steep. I don't think this is worth 32.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Well, we'll see. I mean, even sharks, how much are, how much are you guys paying for Don Carlos Eye of the Sharks right now? Well, don't ask me. They're not even available.
**Bam Bam:** How much, Bob, when I, when I've seen it.
Don't ask me that question because you're going to get very upset.
**Gizmo:** How much did you pay for your last box of Don Carlos aisle Double retail.
**Bam Bam:** So I walked into this place in Brooklyn. Hole in the wall cigar shop. I'm not going to tell you where it is. I'm not going to tell you the name. Oh, thank you. Okay. I sat, I sit down and thank
**Poobah:** you.
Considering all the connections that you have now are not because
**Bam Bam:** of
**Poobah:** anyone, but alright. You know what, [00:08:00] except
**Bam Bam:** y'all, everyone else but you. Okay. If y'all meet me in Brooklyn, then I'll take you there. We'll go as a group. Oh, we'll buy him out. All right. So tell us your story. This guy has some incredible, he's got an incredible collection of aged, aged cigars.
So, oh, I walked in, you know, I had a cigar. I met a broker friend of mine. You know, I'm trying to generate business who sit down and have a cigar and I would go into the humidor. It's not well organized. But you look up, it's got seven boxes of Davidoff signature ones that he's had since they came out. He had four boxes of the Don Carlos shark.
Wow.
**Rooster:** What are you doing for lunch tomorrow? All the old
**Bam Bam:** opus that you want, like really old opus that he's had forever. I said, okay, I like those sharks up there. What do you want per box? He says, I don't know. Let me take them down. I'll show you. I walked out and I paid 400 a box.
**Gizmo:** What? What?
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Yeah. And he said, look, this is a good deal for you.
I said, yes, but I will be back and I'll bring friends. He said, no problem. 800 sold.
**Poobah:** You're not bringing any of us clearly. When are
**Bam Bam:** [00:09:00] you guys going to make your way into Brooklyn? That's what I'd like for 400
**Poobah:** for a box of sharks. I'll meet you there tomorrow. I'll be, I'll be in fucking Brooklyn tomorrow.
Let's go. All right. So I'll Venmo you the fucking 400 and you can get me a
**Bam Bam:** box. How far out of the way is it for you? You know, the thing is, I don't think he'll let me take another box out at that price. I have no idea.
**Rooster:** Well, you know what? He has
**Bam Bam:** two more. One or two more sitting up there. I
**Rooster:** would like to meet you there.
Let's go take a look what else he's got. He's got a lot because I would be into like some old, like the original release Opus. I'm not
**Bam Bam:** sure how old they are, but he says he's had boxes there for six, seven years. It's sitting on the shelf.
**Poobah:** Um, I mean, do I start the accountability hour? Restart, reboot it like 2.
0 right now. You've been on
**Bam Bam:** hiatus. Everyone else knows about this. No, no, no,
**Poobah:** no, no. I haven't been on, I've been working. What else knows about it? I didn't know there was
**Gizmo:** a standing offered from the man. No pun intended. To have, to have some friends brought in.
**Bam Bam:** I can bring you over.
**Gizmo:** Let's go. You know, that wasn't put on the table, Puba.
I'm just gonna say it. Let's go.
**Bam Bam:** I'm putting it on a [00:10:00] table right now. Four boxes of sharks. Two, two. I got two. He's got two more. He's got one or two more. You
**Poobah:** got two. Good for you. You should have bought the other fucking two. What are you, a lunatic? That was enough. That was enough. You can't even find them right now.
It would be irresponsible.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I know, but I should have texted the group. I'm not dropping 1, 200 right on the spot.
**Poobah:** That's because somebody is looking at your credit card. He clearly wasn't implementing the one shark a person. Fucking
**Rooster:** post. Yeah. You ain't wrong. Okay. You would have just bought them all.
Maybe. Yeah. I'll be curious to see what else he's got.
**Gizmo:** Well, let us know
**Rooster:** how your lunch date goes tomorrow, boys.
**Bam Bam:** We look forward to hearing. What's today? Monday. I'll be in Brooklyn tomorrow.
**Rooster:** Wednesday or Thursday. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** Maybe Thursday today. Tomorrow and Thursday. I'd like a box. .
**Rooster:** You have to meet him in Brooklyn.
You're
**Bam Bam:** not nice, so you're not getting a box. Oh, I won't forget that. . Oh, [00:11:00]
**Gizmo:** when's your birthday?
**Grinder:** Correct.
**Gizmo:** So we'll revisit this a little in a little bit here, boys. Uh, so what are you guys thinking on the man on the light here?
**Grinder:** I think it's good. Spicy, musty right up my alley. It's not as strong. It's kind of a little weak.
**Gizmo:** It's definitely more mild than I expected. I was hoping for a fully medium experience tonight and I'm not getting that right
**Bam Bam:** now. How do you compare it to the one you had before?
**Gizmo:** The one I had before was definitely an older cigar. I felt like it was a little bit more robust and the flavors were a little bit more, you know, pronounced.
Yeah. I feel right now that everything's kind of getting lost in the It's a pretty mild cigar right now.
**Poobah:** For me, there's a couple rough edges, just a little bit here and there. Um, there's nothing that's really that distinct that's popping out for me at the moment. But, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's good.
The construction, the burn line is really nice. It's perfect. It's not like nothing's jumping out at the moment. I got, I think I gotta spend more [00:12:00] time with it.
**Chef Ricky:** You know, what's jumping out for me is just the, the amount of smoke that's coming out of this cigar, especially after you draw on it, it just keeps, you know, blowing smoke out on its own.
The combustion is insane.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. That's a merit. Yeah. When a cigar smokes itself. That's pretty incredible. Oh yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** And here, there is no air flow in here. You know, we have nothing on it's, you know, you take a draw and then all of a sudden you just see this thing.
**Poobah:** Yeah. The combustion, the construction, the bill, the build, all of that is there.
That's for sure. And
**Gizmo:** you didn't need a V cut Pagoda. How about that? I know I
**Poobah:** was,
**Pagoda:** I was about to pass a comment earlier. No double V cut? Oh my Lord, I'm dissing myself. Double V cut.
**Rooster:** There's no like distinct flavor notes, you know, you just get cedar. Mustiness. That's about it. Like you said. Some spice. A little woody.
Yeah. A little bit of spice. But there's no, there's no like pepper. There's no, uh. There's nothing jumping out, right? Yeah. There's nothing jumping out. No rough edges though for [00:13:00] me. No. It's
**Grinder:** very, very short. You know. Yeah, that's true.
**Rooster:** That's true. It is short.
**Gizmo:** Maybe a little cocoa.
**Rooster:** You know, I
**Gizmo:** feel like I'm getting like a little bit of, um, what was that candy we called out one time that they discontinued the lifesaver that had the cream and the strawberry in it?
**Bam Bam:** You getting that?
**Gizmo:** I'm getting the aftertaste of that. The aftertaste of that, you know, there was like a chemical type of aftertaste. What were those things called? Um, cream creamers. Cream savers. Lifesaver. Cream savers. The, the raspberry or strawberry one. The red one. You still like those? There was a chemical type of aftertaste that is absolutely distinct.
I'm distinctly getting that right. Edible
**Bam Bam:** petroleum.
**Gizmo:** Hmm.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, probably biodegradable petroleum. Yeah. Jelly. Jelly.
**Poobah:** But like, it's, it's conditioned perfectly and mm-hmm . The, uh, the burn line is great. It's just not bringing them. I'm waiting it for, I'm waiting it for, to [00:14:00] show me something and it's not showing me anything that's really that distinctive.
Am I wrong? I'm gonna say, you got a retro.
**Chef Ricky:** I feel like something's gonna happen. No, you're absolutely
**Bam Bam:** right. It's very, very mild. It's un, it's, I'm not gonna say it's uninteresting because there's a little bit of a velvety ness to this that I kind of like. It's screaming you. Not creamy, maybe, but velvety.
The smoke kind of curls out nicely. It's, yeah. There are
**Gizmo:** things in here, though, that I can see popping out as we get into the, you know, the middle of the end of the cigar. Like, I'm hoping that we're, I'm hoping it's, it's prepping us for a little bit of a journey here. The short finish doesn't help. Like Grindr said, but the retro,
**Chef Ricky:** the retro
**Gizmo:** is
**Chef Ricky:** pleasant
**Gizmo:** and the smell at the
**Chef Ricky:** burn line is very good too.
You get that, that creamy mustiness that I think is the cream saver, sweetness that you're pulling
**Poobah:** on. like pine tree, like almost like minty. On the retro,
**Bam Bam:** I'm getting a tiny, just a touch of like a graham cracker thing happening, just a little bit. A cracker of some kind.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** On the retro. I'm not getting that, but.
Do you retro, Hale? The
**Grinder:** mint, [00:15:00] the minty thing I can, I can, I can use a faint taste of. When
**Pagoda:** you retroduce, uh, inhale slowly. I, every time I try it comes up like so quickly. It's like a huge. Take a normal draw.
**Bam Bam:** There you go, retro 101. You take the smoke in the mouth.
Then you close your mouth and blow through your nose. There you go. Look at you, Pagoda. You did it.
**Poobah:** I've been retrohailing since I was 14. I know. You
**Bam Bam:** and, uh, Rooster
**Poobah:** at 19 make out anything. I've started retrohailing marble lights.
**Pagoda:** Was that the first time you retroed? No, no, I've tried it a few times. I've just never really Well done.
I just don't get any It takes practice. It took quick. It's like You do have to practice. So now see
**Rooster:** if you can blow smoke out of your ears. Oh, that I can do.
**Bam Bam:** And then have the ambulance on standby. Oh,
**Poobah:** he blows smoke up people's asses all the time. So I'm sure he could get it, find a way to blow it out of his ear.
Well, that's a part
**Chef Ricky:** of my job. What do I do?
**Gizmo:** So boys, these cigars were originally launched, like I said, in [00:16:00] 2018 at a price of 14 a cigar boxes of 20 were MSRP at 280. They're one of those fancier boxes. Like you see on the Don Carlos line, very ornate, beautiful lacquer box, 20 cigars inside them. The cigar obviously is celebrating, uh, Carlito's father, Don Carlos.
He called him the man. And these cigars have been released on and off since that time, going on seven years now. And they're very, very hard to find, except at special Fuente events or online. Most of the time, when you walk into a Fuente retailer, they're not going to have these cigars. Most of the time, you'll actually find some of the Opus X stuff.
More easily than you will. Some of the Don Carlos stuff. So we talk about the Don Carlos eye of the shark, which is one of the highest rated cigars we've ever done on this podcast. We all love that cigar. Aside from that unique story, bam, just told the finding four boxes, only buying two Puba, only buying two.
All right, we'll do an
**Bam Bam:** atonement [00:17:00] offline.
**Gizmo:** But, uh, you know, that was, that's a rare, that's a rare find. Correct. You know, most of the time you're not finding this higher end stuff, even the Don Carlos stuff. And, and I argue, and I mean, we'll talk about this, the rating portion, but I wanted to throw this out to you guys with your experience with Fuente.
To me, the Don Carlos line is overall a more satisfying line to me than Opus X. Have you had the Don Carlos No.
**Bam Bam:** 2? I have. That's a delicious cigar. It's like a Bellicoso or Torpedo type of cigar, right? Underrated, very well priced, worth every dollar. I think it's like 10 bucks, 11 dollars. Fantastic smoke.
**Rooster:** Yeah, I used to smoke a lot of the Don Carlos, you know, I mean, it was, it was really, I mean, it was like a step above from the Hemingway series. It had a little, it was a little bit punchier and a little bit fuller, but over the years I thought, I don't know if the blend changed and I kind of gave up on those.
Yeah. And maybe should revisit, but evolved, I don't know if I've [00:18:00] evolved all the, uh, I will say this, I mean, the other, uh, devolved, the other
**Gizmo:** Don Carlos, the man that I've had from lizard Henry, as we said before, was certainly more flavorful and interesting to me than this cigar is right now. I had
**Bam Bam:** that with you.
That was, that was, that was a much stronger cigar. Yeah, very good.
**Poobah:** I'm searching. Up and down to try and pinpoint something that stands out in terms of the flavor profile of the cigar. And I can't pinpoint a thing except, I mean, it's, it's pretty flat to me. I'm like saying, is, is there cocoa there? Not really.
Is there cedar there? Definitely. Is there, but that's not a dynamic flavor note in a cigar for me. It's complimentary in a way or should be there. You know, I almost
**Gizmo:** find too that the short finish we're talking about, even for how short it is, the finish just in its entirety is just, there's really nothing [00:19:00] there.
It's truncated. It's so, it's so truncated. It's not, it's not even just that it's short, but even for what it gives you, there's, there's nothing piercing through. That's interesting. Right.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's weird. You guys are absolutely correct.
**Poobah:** Like an Ashton, a white label Ashton, honestly, at this point in this, the cigar.
I would say has the
**Chef Ricky:** creamier
**Poobah:** like kind of, okay, it's not the most complex cigar you're going to smoke in your life, but it has kind of a creamier, more tobacco flavored kind of profile that, okay, it's not fancy. It's not, it's not.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. In
**Poobah:** Vogue.
**Bam Bam:** You made a definitive statement. This, it's not a, this is not a complex cigar.
It is. There's no complexity at all. Right. It's performing well. And that's it. It's very one dimensional aside
**Gizmo:** from the smoke output. And I'm
**Poobah:** trying to figure out what that one dimension actually is. I'm not kidding. I wish we [00:20:00] had a video camera. It's like, it's like almost like, I'm not saying it's flavorless, but
**Bam Bam:** no, you're not wrong.
There's actually not, there's no flavor here. I mean, there's no flavor,
**Gizmo:** but it's a smokable cigar. It's very easy. Okay. So that's my argument. So it's very easy is for everything you're saying you're a hundred percent. Right. However, I'm not a Patron 2000. I'm not disliking the cigar. He
**Chef Ricky:** said an ash. I'm not disliking the cigar.
No, I'm not disliking the cigar. And the reason is the retro hair was loaded with flavor, but the minute. It leaves your nasal passages. It's done. Yeah. It's very abrupt. It's done. Yeah. It, it is. So did it. I
**Poobah:** get, I get a little piece of like, a little bit of nutmeg, maybe like a little bit of apple on the retro or something?
On retro. The only on the retro, but it's, it's there and it's gone in a heartbeat. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Immediately. Especially for the price point of 32, this should be more dynamic, right? So if this was like a 8, 10, 12 cigar,
**Bam Bam:** then why not? [00:21:00] Maybe
**Rooster:** it would be okay. If you're paying 32, you expect a lot more flavor, a lot more dynamics.
But a lot of the guys
**Pagoda:** who start off smoking cigars would love this. So I was about to go, that's exactly where I was going to go. Yeah,
**Rooster:** but somebody who's starting out might not pay 32 for a cigar. That's what's ironic about this. And these are not that easy to find. No. So if you're going to search
**Bam Bam:** difficult to find, they're very expensive.
And like Pagoda said, and I'm, I agree with him,
**Rooster:** unless you're in Brooklyn,
**Bam Bam:** unless you're in Brooklyn with Bam Bam, correct. It's, this is a beginner cigar for that price,
**Gizmo:** priced like a super premium, super flavorful, smooth, great experience.
**Poobah:** I can't remember. In recent history on the pod where a cigar had a shorter finish than this.
I mean, is it not just, you're right. Like it stops like a Porsche. Yep. You know what I mean? On a dime. On a dime. It's priced like a Porsche too. . Do you know what I mean? Like the breaks, you know, when a Porsche nine 11, you hit the, the brakes on, it stops like a cat. You know, like a, the Brembo Brembo breaks, you know, I do not, the, the, the, [00:22:00] the thing just stops in its tracks.
That's what the finish is like. It just stops. Am I wrong? No, you're not wrong. You're not wrong at all.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. Well, let's table that for a second. And before we get to our pairing, let's do a little news. We have some unfortunate news here, boys. The government is still coming for us and in Hawaii and Massachusetts, they have again, begun the discussions and have introduced generational.
tobacco bans. So Hawaii earlier this month introduced a bill that would make it illegal for anyone born after January 1st, 2005, to ever buy, possess, or even consume tobacco products.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know what to say to that, man. It's crazy. That's insane. Not
**Gizmo:** only, what's interesting is it's not only to buy or sell or to, it's, it, they go as far as to both possess And consume.
So even if you get it from your father [00:23:00] who purchased it 10 years prior, who's
**Bam Bam:** allowed to smoke,
**Gizmo:** who's allowed to smoke. If he gives that to you, you have committed a crime. If this goes through,
**Pagoda:** Oh, so you're not grandfathered in or fathered in.
**Gizmo:** No, that's not going through. That's insane. But my argument is it is going through like in London.
They think that in, in England, that this is going to, things like this are going to pass. It has passed in New Zealand might pass in Australia around the world. This is happening and it's. You know, it's starting to creep up here. I'll give you another example. The home of Sir Winston? The home of Sir Winston.
I'll give you another example. This is on the municipal level, but Newton, Massachusetts is the 13th municipality in Massachusetts to ban anyone born after 2003 from purchasing tobacco products or e cigarettes. In their entire area. It was voted 19 to four by the counselors in Newton, Massachusetts.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
So you go on this thing called the worldwide web. It's just like new invention. And then you just [00:24:00] order what you need.
**Gizmo:** But my, my point is the implication of this is it starts to eliminate the possibility for lounges for community. True. It, and, and ultimately what's going to happen is even for folks who have been in business for a long period of time, it puts an expiration on their business.
So in London, Eddie Sahakian at the Davidoff of London store is being very vocal with legislators there that, you know, they've pretty much put an end date on the life of his, you know, a hundred year old business.
**Poobah:** That's the worst place ever. They can like, And it, by the way, it already happened in New Zealand.
This has already happened. These, if that's true, I mean, what's going on over there and you can quote me and print it. I think that the censorship. On the line, what's going on that you could post something online over there. And they were arresting people for posting shit online and posting their opinions during COVID and they were going to people's houses [00:25:00] and arresting them in the UK that that's not, by the way, thank God we fought a revolutionary war.
And, um, we don't report to those assholes anymore. No, but
**Pagoda:** having said that, whatever happened in London will soon happen in New York. That's exactly my, that not, no, no. I don't look condition pricing. Don't, no, I don't agree. There'll be a governor out there who'd say, what a great idea.
**Gizmo:** The other thing too that, you know, you have to point out, like in Australia, like you can't log on to, if you're an Australian, from an Australian ip, you can't log on to, uh, friends of El Hana's form or for example, without running a VPN.
**Bam Bam:** Australia has some of the most deadliest snakes in the world
**Gizmo:** and
**Bam Bam:** spiders a lot of spiders It's a lot like you can dial just live just Adam I can't have a cigar to alleviate my stress from dodging snakes and spiders
**Grinder:** sharks. You are you are fucking sharks You are falling in Australia
**Bam Bam:** Australia Australia
**Rooster:** Spiders, bears.
Oh,
**Bam Bam:** dude, they've got black mambas and inland type pans, whatever. They [00:26:00] got
**Grinder:** kangaroos that will knock you the fuck out, man. That's true. If they want to kill you, I shouldn't say this kangaroos. I shouldn't say
**Pagoda:** this, but even the stingrays are deadly there. That's true. That's true.
**Poobah:** A dingo ate my baby. A
**Gizmo:** dingo ate my baby.
Well, anyway, I'm hoping unlike Newton, Massachusetts, that this does not pass in Hawaii. And in the state of Massachusetts, because it's just a bad trend, you know, and what it does is like I said, it eliminates the potential for great community for spaces like one, the one that we're so lucky to be sitting in right now, you know, this can't exist there, you know, and even in a lot of municipalities where you can have a cigar, it's like Canada, you know, it's, it's It's, they're not allowing places like this to be built.
I just think it's just a major overreach and it's terribly unfortunate that this is lumped in once again with the consumption of cigarettes.
**Rooster:** So that has passed at Newton. Newton has passed, has passed it. How, I wonder how big is Newton?
**Gizmo:** I don't know, it's a suburb of, uh, [00:27:00] Boston.
**Bam Bam:** I'd be moving to New Hampshire if I were those people.
Get right out. Live free or die. Correct. With my cigar in my hand.
**Gizmo:** Let's move on to our pairing now. We have a Red Breast Irish Whiskey, a very unique offering from them. It's called the Lestal and it is a whiskey aged for somewhere between nine and 12 years. There's no definitive age statement on it, but it is finished in Oloroso sherry casks.
**Poobah:** You can smell the sherry. You can smell some caramel.
**Grinder:** You can taste the sherry. It's great on the nose. On the finish, the sherry. It is resounding.
**Poobah:** You could like finish a lobster bisque with this.
**Chef Ricky:** That's really nice.
**Poobah:** I like it.
**Chef Ricky:** I really like that. This is exactly what the cigar needs.
**Poobah:** It does
**Chef Ricky:** help
**Poobah:** the cigar.
It's funny, uh, Chef. It's funny, Chef, you say that. Maybe I gulped it. Don't fucking gulp it, man. No, I
**Bam Bam:** know. I'm just kidding. [00:28:00]
**Poobah:** Chef, it's funny you say that because, um, I, uh, Giz says, well, don't, don't touch the, don't touch the review. Pairing until we, until we get to it, but of course I cheated. Um, and I, and I refrained from commenting, but it absolutely does.
It, I thought it brought a little bit of like a, a smoky charry like flavor introduction that like probably pairs pretty well with this. It's a little bit on the, is it a little bit on the dry side for you? Little, little dry,
**Chef Ricky:** but I don't mind it. The nose itself is really sweet. And I think like the cigar, you get hit.
Uh, with some sweeter notes in the beginning and then it sort of dries out a little bit and I, I, I don't mind that.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. I got the same thing. It's like, uh, it's, it's, it's, this actually has a little bit, a little bit of an abrupt finish as well. Like it hits you with some sweetness and then it like, there's a dry [00:29:00] finish on it.
And
**Grinder:** it dries out with some tannins there. Do you, do you think the Jameson primed your palate? Oh, that's possible.
**Poobah:** I can neither confirm nor deny what you're mentioning.
**Bam Bam:** I think it influences it a little bit. I agree, just like smoking a cigar before the pot. Oh, well. Pet peeve number seven. But why is my analysis No, I think it's right.
**Grinder:** I just, I think like, if you have an Irish Like, Jameson's kind of that smooth I think Jameson is delicious. I do too. Caramel. Smooth, and you have that before, especially watered down. It just kind of mellows out the palate a little
**Gizmo:** bit. So what's the overall read right now on this special edition of Red Breast Irish Whiskey?
How do you compare it to the normal Red Breast 12, the normal Irish Whiskey?
**Bam Bam:** Well, these guys are the resident experts.
**Poobah:** Man, I think I introduced Red Breast to the group years ago. Correct. You know, I know folks in the room are familiar with it. So this though has a little bit. It just. [00:30:00] Um, it's got a little bit more bite.
It's got a little bit more like forward kind of sweetness. I don't think it's as round as the regular red breast. Like it has the regular red breast has the standard one is, has kind of more of a rounded out flavor profile, but that's not a demerit for this. I think that it's, it's a merit. Um, Uh, it's a little bit hotter, but I'm fine with it.
**Gizmo:** So the, uh, percentage of alcohol here is 46. Okay. Oh, it is. 46. So just a touch higher. I think regular Redbreast is 43, correct? No, I think it's 80 proof. Oh, it's 40. Okay. I think,
**Bam Bam:** I think it's delicious. I love it. So we're
**Gizmo:** all drinking it neat, correct? There's no ice present. Correct. For me. Uh, just like chef Ricky said, this is for me, this pairing is what the cigar needed.
Absolutely. This is, this is making the evening a little bit more interesting for me. I like it that it's coming in a little hotter than maybe I was expecting because the [00:31:00] cigar is coming in lighter than I was expecting. So it's kind of leveling out in my palate. Yes. I'm certainly still wanting more from the cigar right now, but I'm very happy with it.
It's an assist. It's like Scotty
**Poobah:** Pippen, like going, yo, what's up? You know what I'm saying? You know, like feeding. I feel like this might be
**Gizmo:** Michael Jordan and the cigar might be a Scott. Yes. Okay. Fair enough. Well, well played. Well
**Poobah:** played. Well played. Gizmo. It's a more accurate characterization, but Pippen thinks he's the man.
Yeah, it's true.
**Gizmo:** Well said, well said. Well, so, so boys, I normally like to look at the back of the box, you know, and read some of the flavor notes. I think it's interesting and sometimes funny, but I was looking up this spirit today on the internet and I found a promotional video, the red breast made for this spirit, and I wanted to share you a clip of this because I found it to be, uh, in a different kind of, uh, Tone, I would say than what I was expecting.
So let me hear, let [00:32:00] me, let me see what you your in house
**Poobah:** advertising expert to do a, I would love, I would love your read on it. Yes,
**Bam Bam:** exactly.
**Poobah:** Okay.
**Bam Bam:** Here have an Excel spreadsheet on that?
**Chef Ricky:** And a PowerPoint. And a PowerPoint. Here we go.
**Redbreast ASMR:** Long after the leaves have fallen and fields have been kissed with frost, a brave little bird provides Ireland with a dart of colour, the robin red breast.
Unlike the bird that shares its name. There is one Irish Redbreast that's shaped by sunnier lands. Introducing Redbreast Lestow edition. A remarkable Irish whisky with a superlative sherry finish inherited from Spain. Redbreast fans have always held the sherry notes of our whisky in high esteem. And when we set out to embellish that aspect of its character, we looked no further than the Bodegas Lestow of Jerez, Spain.
The perfectionism and stubborn little
**Gizmo:** acoustic guitar going on here
**Redbreast ASMR:** mirrors our own. We're very precious about our whiskey. Very precious, but in AAU [00:33:00] we have a very safe pair of hands and new their casks would do. Our whiskey proud
**Chef Ricky:** safe hands,
**Redbreast ASMR:** side by side, their chief winemaker, Manolo Lozano, and our master blender.
Billy Lighten, handpicked list's finest first fill. Raso Sherry, I
**Gizmo:** feel like Colin Farrow's trying to seduce us right now. Pot still whiskey. Is that common? Vero,
**Redbreast ASMR:** the red Breastless. It sounds like it, but I don't think so. Carries the defining single pot still Spice Sherry character and creamy mouth feel of the red breast family.
Creamy mouth feel. with an enduring sherry finish that boasts dark, dried fruit notes and Spanish oak. While sherry's influence is present in every bottle of Redbreast, in the Lestow edition, the Oloroso sherry is centre stage for nose, taste and finish. The Robin Redbreast might be a bit of a homebody.
But for Listow edition, we think this long distance relationship was well worth it.
**Gizmo:** Long distance relationship?
**Redbreast ASMR:** Discover the newest branch on the Redbreast family tree.
**Poobah:** Yeah, so I [00:34:00] would have killed the ad. Um, okay. That makes two of us. If I was, if I was the head of marketing, let's just say. But it's superlative.
Uh, somewhere which where I am, but if I was the head of marketing at, um. At red breast that would not be the strategy that I would have took
**Gizmo:** I was okay So the reason why I played that it's definitely off kilter for me.
**Poobah:** Well, it's it's well, it's just um It's borrowed interest is what I would call it. I would say I would say to the ad agency.
Um, Uh, how is that differentiating from any other ad? Um done for any other spirit, um or dating website In the country, so let's come out with, so, so either I gave you bad direction or you misinterpreted the direction that I gave you, which is what do you, as a, as a brand or, or, or as part of a portfolio, your objective is to differentiate the brand.
You need to be differentiated [00:35:00] and you need to find the open space and shoot the lane. And that's a shitty ad. It doesn't do anything. They're trying to sound like they're Jim Nance at the, uh, at the masters and it doesn't, it, it does nothing for, um, or can make any, you know, it's funny. Jim Nance does talk about the birds.
Does he?
**Gizmo:** No,
**Poobah:** he does. He does talk about the pubs. Yeah, of course he does. These sounds, they're trying to sound like Jim Nance. Like, this is like Jack Nicklaus. Like, like there's this, this is some historic like event. No, you need to cut. No. No, you need to, you need to cut to the differentiation. Why this whiskey is different than the standard line.
Cause it's Irish. Oh, wait, that doesn't
**Gizmo:** differentiate it. Exactly. Right.
**Poobah:** So like, is that the reason why it's so sad is the Sherry cast differentiating? No, you got to get out there and you got to work with your people and get a message out there. That makes that, that, that creates some excitement around this piece of their portfolio or [00:36:00] this release.
Okay. Or just don't bother because it's a waste of money and it's a waste of time.
**Rooster:** It sounded like an Irish spring ad. Yes. You know, like that soap, that Irish spring.
**Poobah:** When does Puba drop the mic? I'm just telling you, I'm an expert in this shit
**Gizmo:** and that was bad.
**Poobah:** All
**Bam Bam:** right.
**Poobah:** Period.
**Gizmo:** Hard stop. I felt like I was being seduced.
I was sitting at my computer. I'm like, I'm trying to understand about whiskey and they're talking about birds and scents and you know, seductive acoustic guitars playing. I came in with very low expectations on this. It's performing better than, uh, it's than I expected, but this is really good.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it's nice.
It is. No, by the way, the product's good, but, um, it does, the communication does not reflect the dynamics of the product. Did, did you get seduced?
**Gizmo:** I did. I got sleepy. I did. I thought you were about to say you had
**Poobah:** me at red. Maybe they tested, they tested well, and I'm just like too harsh, but.
**Chef Ricky:** Nah, that was some sleepy time ASMR.
**Gizmo:** That's how I felt [00:37:00] too. Yeah. A little ASMR action. So the price on this bottle, boys, is 80.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, man. Sold.
**Gizmo:** Got it for 80. Okay, old boy. So, I'm very happy with it right now.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's good.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. That's good.
**Gizmo:** Ad
**Bam Bam:** sucks, but the whiskey's good. Puba, did you put ice in your glass? I put one chip. One chip. Good. Nice. I
**Pagoda:** think I need a
**Bam Bam:** chip.
Wow. That's a big surprise. I did not chip.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I'm going, uh, I'm drinking this neat. I don't feel, I don't feel the need for a chip. I'm raw
**Bam Bam:** dogging it. Don't commando tonight.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the Arturo Fuente, Don Carlos, the man. What's everybody thinking now? It sucks.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know. It's
**Rooster:** got, it's, it's gotten a little better. It's not, it's not, it's just flat. I'm not, you're not, nothing has changed. Like you, you would think that by the half a point or a little more, you know, the flavor would change a little bit. You get some kind of a distinct note out of this and I'm still not getting.
Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Unfortunately for a rooster, [00:38:00] he's not drinking the red breast. Well, that's where I was getting that enhancement.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, the drink is propping up the cigar for me and it's, it's making it fairly enjoyable. You know, what's interesting though,
**Gizmo:** is to me, the drink, and we've talked about some pairings before.
Pulling out notes on cigars, right? Like, Oh, taking a sip of this is making me realize, Oh, these distinct flavors are happening. I'm, I miss this. You know, when we were first talking about it, none of that is happening here. It's just cleaning my palate to the point that I'm very satisfied, but I'm still not getting much from the cigar.
**Poobah:** I haven't, I can't put my finger on one thing.
It's almost flavorless. Like it's, it's, it's actually weird. It's odd. If, if this was unbanded and naked and it wasn't a Fuente the man, we'd be like, is, is this like a bundle from Holtz? Like, what is this thing? Yeah. Yeah. Besides the construction, besides the, if you [00:39:00] know, construction is great. And the airline is
**Chef Ricky:** beautiful.
The ash is fantastic
**Poobah:** and the build, the construction, all that, the, the combustion, all of it is, is there. Um, that's for sure. So it would, it feels premium. It just doesn't taste premium.
**Grinder:** It's it's monolithic. It's very singular. And that for me, it's, that's one spice on the retro it, that. Distinct spice taste, which I like, but that's it.
There's nothing else. There's no other nuance. There's no other additional breadth or depth to it. And that's what I'm just, you know, what are we doing with here? It's kind of,
**Gizmo:** so, you know, what's interesting is having said all this, obviously we'll get to the ratings in a little bit, but I don't think. As far as the cigar goes, I don't hate the cigar.
It's not terrible. It's, you know, the price point is going to factor in for me.
**Bam Bam:** It's a very smokable. I'm actually
**Gizmo:** enjoying our evening right now. I'm not hating it. You'll never have it again. I wish that this was giving me more. Yeah,
**Poobah:** you don't have to fight it. No, it's just all you really get is like [00:40:00] notes of white pepper.
Maybe like all I get is cedar and white pepper. Am I wrong?
**Pagoda:** I don't get the white pepper at all. Like a little
**Poobah:** bit of white pepper, like almost like a dryness. I, I, I don't know. It's like a, I get more sweet, don't cinnamon than white pepper. Cin.
**Grinder:** I get like a cinnamon in the retro and it's very sharp and then it's done.
Yes. Yeah,
**Chef Ricky:** yeah. You're not wrong. It's like, yeah. It's right at the tip of your nose on the retro hale, and then it just disappears. And
**Bam Bam:** if you're not retro hailing with this cigar, you're not gonna, you're getting, you're not getting, you're
**Gizmo:** not getting
**Chef Ricky:** anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I
**Gizmo:** agree with that. All right, boys, let's go to some listener email.
First one is a sad one, but a very important one from our friend, Lizard Siegel, who writes this a lot. He says, hi guys. Thank you for playing the voice memo. I enjoyed a 20 acre farm cigar along with some tequila Valance tequila that you guys recommended while listening to the latest podcast, episode one 69 on a serious note, I [00:41:00] know that you are younger than I am.
I'm 73. I'm going through a surgery process now for prostate cancer. Please, please, please get screening as you get older and catch potential issues before they get too bad. I'm at a 5 out of 5 for prostate cancer and will have it removed soon. Since the majority of your smokers are male, it's an important thing to pay attention to.
My prognosis is good and I am expecting a full recovery, as are my doctors, so I can go back to work soon. He works at Disney and he's looking forward to riding his motorcycle and enjoying his life. Doing a two week trip to France in June. God bless. And if you're ever in Florida, the first cigar and drink are on me.
That's incredible. At my favorite cigar bar Lizard Siegel. That's awesome.
**Poobah:** You know, we, God bless you, lizard
**Gizmo:** Siegel Recovery for sure know air tough and it, it, it hit I know Grindr and I spoke about this 'cause Grindr is, is friendly with Lizard Siegel. He met him down in Florida [00:42:00] many moons ago, but, oh, cool.
I, I, I was. Totally rocked when I got this email, you know, that one of our own is experiencing something like this and it's happening to many men around the world all the time. It's a very common thing, but it is something that I think it's important for us to bring light to because we are in the demographic.
Well,
**Poobah:** here, well, the epidemiological data as your in house doctor, um, and marketing guy, um, um, one in one in three men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. So. Once you get to a certain age, um, now whether that requires, um, a certain, uh, the level of intervention required at a certain age, given, um, whatever stage is diagnosed, that is variable, meaning, you know, if you're 75 and you have stage one, the intervention is going to be low, but the diagnostic rate is one in three.
That's the [00:43:00] last epidemiological incidents data that I, that I saw. And if there's a listener out there, correct me, but I'm pretty confident in that number. So it's going to kind of happen at some point, but it's actually the most, um, on a, on a positive tip. Um, it's actually one of, when did, to his, to, uh, listen to lizard Siegel's point, um, if diagnosed early, it is the probably most curable, um, malignancy around.
So it, you know, if you, if you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, it is not a death sentence when caught early. And I think that that's the main point of this email early, you know, um, if you go too long without a PSA test, um, you know, that's not a good thing. So it's a simple, um, uh, blood test. I believe there's a urine panel for it as well.
And, uh, it's simple. And, uh, you know, if it's a little bit high, um, you keep an eye on it. If your PSA is a little high, [00:44:00] you know, but yeah, the incidence of it is very, very high, you know, as you get older. So,
**Bam Bam:** yeah, my father died of prostate cancer or from the cancer that started in his prostate and then spread throughout his body and metastasized.
Yeah, so he was, uh, just to give you a picture of what my father was like, he was a tough old school. European guy, right off the boat, didn't believe in doctors, and because he was tough, and you know, he was a stonemason, so he had a very difficult job, tough business, never believed in going to the doctor, never went to get a checkup.
So that's, you know, he probably had cancer for many years and it just got worse and worse and worse, and he didn't know it until he started feeling the serious symptoms that come from it.
**Poobah:** Correct.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And by that time, it was just too late. That's correct. That's why the screening is, uh. Very important to go to the doctor and get annual checkups after a certain age.
Yeah, so I,
**Gizmo:** I did pull the data on that, by the way, that I want to [00:45:00] share with our listeners out there because, you know, one of the aspects of, of seeing the backend data of our podcast here is we know where our demographic lies. And, and most of our listeners are men, and a lot of our listeners are in the age range of 35 to 65.
So our listenership is right there. In, yeah. The zone here for getting screened for prostate cancer. So what the American Cancer Society is saying here, their recommendations are, the discussions about screening for prostate cancer should take place with your primary physician at age 50 for men who are at an average risk.
So that is anyone who does not have a family member who's been diagnosed with prostate cancer and are according to their. primary care doctor expected to live at least 10 more years. The conversation should be starting at age 45 for men at what they call a high risk of developing prostate cancer. This includes African American men and [00:46:00] men who have a first degree relative, a father or a brother diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early age.
They call that younger than 65. So if you have a brother, or a father younger than 65 who was diagnosed with prostate cancer or you're African American, you need to be getting checked at 45. That's correct.
**Poobah:** If you have a family history of, of cancer in oncologics, they're going to ask you that question. Um, Particularly as it relates to breast cancer.
There's, there's, you guys know all the stories about celebrities, whether it's Christina Applegate or, um, uh, Brad's pits, Brad Pitt's wife, what's her name? She had Angelina Jolie, double mastectomy. Um, these are things that do run in families and there's a genetic, big time genetic component to, um, malignancies.
So. Yeah. I mean, it's important that if you do have a family history to, uh, to get screening.
**Gizmo:** And finally, they say men at even [00:47:00] a higher risk, this is those with more than one first degree relative who has had prostate cancer at an early age. So let's say it's your father and your brother, multiple folks in the family.
You should be having this conversation at age 40 with your primary doctor.
**Bam Bam:** Wow.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So that really pulls it down 10 years.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** That you need to be having this conversation. And the earlier you catch it, as Puba said, the more likely you are to have a complete recovery and live a very, very comfortable rest of your life.
You know
**Poobah:** what they call in oncology, what they call OS, overall survival, um, prostate cancer when detected early is probably the number one malignancy that, um, That, that has the highest overall survival rate because in, in these other, in these other types of malignancies, whether it's like leukemia, like a hematologic malignancy or, or some of these other, um, [00:48:00] various types of cancers, the overall survival rate, they all call it, refer to it as OS because it's just, So the, the, the therapeutics only going to get you, what is it going to get?
It may get you three years, but that, but how do you put a price tag on three years, you know, two years, four years, um, with some of these very aggressive, um, cancers, uh, you know, you're talking really just survival rate, you know, you're talking really just how much more time am I going to get? So, um, that's the reality of it.
That's, that's. That's it. You know,
**Bam Bam:** I happen to believe, I'm going to make a joke.
**Chef Ricky:** Thank God.
**Poobah:** Sorry I went into medical mode. I think, I can't not do it. Consistent
**Bam Bam:** oil changes may reduce the incidence. I, okay. Just, just stay, [00:49:00] get a program.
**Rooster:** Is there any medical data to back up?
**Bam Bam:** This is Bam Bam's medical journal.
**Gizmo:** BBMJ.
**Bam Bam:** Correct. No, but listen, get in that bedroom and stay.
**Poobah:** Listen, I would say that there could be, there could possibly be a correlation between pagodas bewildered between what you're taught, what you're discussing. Right. Um, and well, There must be. There could be a correlation between no, not that and cancer, but that and, you know, psychological health, health and cardiovascular health.
It's a stress release. Correct. You know, that can, you could maybe draw a correlation, but you'd have to get a peer reviewed paper published. And yeah, we're publishing a
**Bam Bam:** paper next week. We're the period where it appears, we're going to,
**Grinder:** we're going to stay in euphoria as often as you can. Exactly right. I'd like to Tip of glass to Lizard Seagull.
He's been a frequent contributor to our pod. Cheers. He's a gentleman. I've met him in person. He's very kind. [00:50:00] Uh, and, you know, I also had a father who, uh, had, uh, prostate cancer, has prostate cancer. Uh, so it's very common. around and, you know, like he said, check early, check often, and stay healthy, Lizards.
Cheers, boys. To you, Lizard Seagull. And Lizard
**Gizmo:** Seagull, by the way, boys, is our first ever second time winner of Lizard of the Week. We're going to give Lizard Seagull, Lizard of the Week this week for this awesome email and prompting us to have this. Very important conversation. And I would ask them
**Poobah:** some nice cigars.
I will.
**Gizmo:** So, uh, what I would ask any of the listeners out there is this is a, you know, obviously a conversation that brings the mood down in the room, but it's an important one. So if you're in your thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, bring this conversation up with your fellow smokers, bring these, this conversation up with your fellow lizards, hold them accountable, hold yourself accountable and make sure that you're getting tested because the last thing that.
We certainly would want in this room, is anyone coming down with, [00:51:00] with an issue like this and certainly anyone out there with, with close friends and family, especially lizards out there, um, you want to help your friends, you know, well, also
**Rooster:** screened. The bottom line is also go to your primary doctor for your annual checkup.
He or she will recommend a PSA
**Bam Bam:** test.
**Rooster:** Like Puba said, blood test or a urine test will detect if the PSA levels are elevated or not. And, you know. I got mine last week. Excellent. Well done. Well done.
**Gizmo:** So congratulations to Lizard Siegel for winning Lizard of the Week. Again, under. Difficult circumstances here, but we're going to send them some, some great stuff and, uh, we really, really appreciate him writing in.
So boys, let's go to another lizard email. This one's from lizard grizzly. Hi, Giz. I wanted to ask for some suggestions for good ashtrays for in the vehicle. I'm a truck driver and I'm on the road all day long. I like to enjoy sticks while I'm driving, but I'm fine that I have nowhere to rest my stick other [00:52:00] than holding it in my hand constantly.
It's such a nasty habit to smoke in the car. Oh, yeah. You smoke in your lease Tesla. Can you recommend any ashtrays that are suitable to be in your car, truck, etc., or what solutions any of you have come up with for this situation? Thanks so much. Lizard Grizzly. I have it. I have the solution. It's taken me years.
Even for
**Pagoda:** the salad bowl. Even for
**Gizmo:** the salad bowl. For sure. So, I talk about my cutter and lighter from that company Sisuma. Right. And then my scissors, my new lighter. Sissoumon has the perfect car ashtray slash cigar holder.
**Bam Bam:** Really?
**Gizmo:** It's a rectangular aluminum tray that has a cigar slot in it. The grades down at the, on one end into like an ashtray.
So while you're smoking, you could put your cigar down like a rest. And if you hit the brakes, the cigar doesn't go flying. It goes into the bottom of it's [00:53:00] cool. It's. It's really awesome. It's heavy. It's thin. It sits in my center console. It's perfect. It has to be heavy. It has to be heavy. So
**Poobah:** the Z card, I have a Z card one and it works out fine.
**Gizmo:** So I don't have that one. So that's another
**Poobah:** good option. It's almost like a little like a, like a, a spring that shaped like a. Uh, like a V and you can kind of just rest the cigar in there. I mean, dude, you're not going to smoke like a Churchill with it and be able to manage it.
**Chef Ricky:** Okay. Yeah, no, I, I've seen Giz's suggestion and I could see that working.
My, my issue is I don't have a large enough center console. Yeah. See, I have a Silverado.
**Gizmo:** I have a Silverado 1500, so I have a big center console in the
**Poobah:** mind. Mine's a 2, 500. All right. All right, so you take it easy now. Wow. I just had the fuck around way. What's with these men? With trucks? Yeah, exactly. Easy.
Hey, we're playing to the demographics. Get the
**Grinder:** tape measure out. Small dick, small dick, big truck. They have these, um, cup holders that, [00:54:00] that go into the cup. I have one of those too. Exactly. And instead of a handle, there's this like little lip that holds the cigar and you could just pop it in there. The way that the way it's, or the way it's like structured, it retains some of the smoke and ash at the bottom.
It works pretty well. It's, you know, it's not. So I
**Gizmo:** use that one. It sits in your cup holder. It has a lid. So I actually use that one to ash and I use the C SWIM on that I'm talking about just for kind of sitting there. So if I, if I need to jump. Jump out of the truck. I'm having a cigar. I'm going to run in to pick up dinner at a restaurant and run back out.
I'll put it there. It's perfect for that. You know, even versus the little
**Poobah:** abuse, your vehicle. It's great. I love it. You abuse the crap
**Gizmo:** out. I do, man. I ride it into the ground, but I just love having a cigar in the truck. And, uh, you know, that ashtray has really solved a lot of problems for me. But like you said, If you only have a cup holder situation, that's probably the way to go is look on Amazon for the aluminum, uh, cup holder size ashtrays.
There is a little like slot for you to unfortunately vertically store your cigar, uh, I [00:55:00] guess with ash down while you go in, but the problem is then you're knocking the ash, you're screwing up the burn line, potentially creating a crack situation. It is what it is. But they have the holder on it. Yeah, there are, there are some that have the holder.
**Poobah:** Yeah, you just got to search Amazon and try and, you know, I guess it's trial and error. I have the Z car one. I'm happy with it. You know why I like it? Because you can, you can put a cigar out in it and just screw the top down and it's just, it's airtight. So like if you got to dump a cigar or whatever, or just put it on the rest that's in there, you can do that and just shut it down and then relight it later or whatever.
But I'm not sure there's an optimal, actually an optimal product that's been designed yet. I
**Chef Ricky:** think it all depends on the car, you know, the way the
**Grinder:** ventilation is key too. Yeah. You know, if you're going to smoke in the car, gives us a pretty awesome setup with the back vent.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I have a back window in my, uh, my cab that is automatic.
I also, me too. I put [00:56:00] yours is a little bigger though. I know. Check. So I also put rain guards on my front two windows. So. Like outside rain guards. So what I do when I smoke in my car, because of the rain guards, not only do they help prevent moisture coming in when it's raining, but it also kind of controls the airflow.
So I'll crack my windows just above the end of the, the rain guards. So the wind is controlled. The smoke goes right out. Um, it's not blown around cause it's kind of, you know, there's some sort of physics there. And it goes right out the back. Or if I'm by myself, I'll just crack those two windows. And what's great too, is if you have a car with leather seats, not cloth, if you have cloth, you should get some charcoal or something because the cloth is going to absorb the, uh, aroma.
If you have leather seats, like I know Puba does in his big 2, 500 big leather guy, of course, um, if you leave those cracked at night, like I'll leave them cracked, just. You know, above the, the rain guards, even if it's pouring rain, no [00:57:00] moisture's coming in and it's airing out all night while I'm sleeping.
So I'll come out the next morning and even my wife will say, did you smoke in here yesterday? Oh yeah. I had two cigars. It doesn't even smell like it because the leather's not absorbing. So, you know, that's, that's another positive too, for folks out
**Poobah:** there. Unless, unless you drive your Mercedes S 500. And leave the sunroof open after smoking a cigar.
And then it rains in the middle of the summer and all your electrical fucking goes out, which happened to me a few years ago.
**Grinder:** But that was a good thing. Cause that's what precipitated you getting the truck.
**Poobah:** Well, yeah, it got me, it got, got me the F one 50 and then I got into the Chevy, but so that's two cars ago, but yeah.
That's a
**Pagoda:** Florida
**Poobah:** influence. Well, I mean, dude, I was like, I was like, Oh, he's very right. So I'm like, I'm like, I got the sunroof. I'm like, I'm like, this is great. You know, like I got the sunroof open. Oh, it's all clear. And then I go in and it pours [00:58:00] rain overnight and I got to turn the, I turn the Mercedes on.
And it's like a gut, it's like, it's like, it's like 4th of July and the cluster on the, on the dashboard, like a wing ding, zing, zam. I'm going every lights on every lights on. I got, I went to the, I went to the, the Mercedes repair place that I go to. Cause I don't go to the dealer at the time, you know, so I go over there.
And, uh, he shuts off all the lights. He goes, he goes, don't turn it off. Just drive to the dealership right now and turn it in because I can't guarantee the codes won't come back. So I drive it over there, man. And I shut that thing off. And I didn't even lock it. So this is years ago, but I did the deal on the, and I traded it.
I got like fucking a hundred thousand dollar car. I got like, you know, 10 grand for it. Right. So, so, but, but it was also, but it was also like eight years old. So, I mean, you [00:59:00] know, and had like 80, 000 miles on it at that point. If you're looking for
**Pagoda:** a customer, we have Puba over here. So, so anyway,
**Poobah:** so the guy goes, I'm good.
The guy goes, he goes, all right, I'm going to just. Uh, give me, you got the key five. I'm like, yeah. He's like, how many you got? I'm like one. He's like, rolls his eyes. I give him the one key five. He goes out. I left it open. He drives it around the parking lot a couple of times, brings it back in. He's like, he goes, he goes, okay.
Car seems fine. I'm like. All right, cool. I'm like, what do you offer me? He's like 10, 000. I'm like, I'll take it. Knowing that the electrical work to repair this fucking thing is 10 grand. I said, I go, that's it, man. I just pulled into the, he goes, take this thing and pull into the nearest car dealership you can find and dump it.
Correct. Cause you're done. So don't leave your sunroof open when smoking in your car,
**Bam Bam:** because it could rain. You should post to Zykar holder and your holder. I will. I'll put it
**Gizmo:** up on the, uh, on the [01:00:00] Instagram. Yeah, that's good. All right, boys, let's go. In your
**Bam Bam:** trucks,
**Pagoda:** though.
**Gizmo:** In the truck. You want to see it in the truck?
No,
**Pagoda:** of course.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, let's go to another listener email. This one's from Lizard Luigi, who writes us a lot as well. Says, Hey guys, I was smoking this cigar today and I thought it would be a great smoke for you guys to do on the show. And he sent us a picture of the Altezas, Altezas. Realis 1871.
What's interesting about this brand is that it was created by the great grandson of the man who bought the original Partagas factory in Cuba over a hundred years ago. I know Senator with his love for the D4 and the rest of you would find this fascinating. The D4 was actually the inspiration for this cigar.
It is very Cuban esque in nature. So please give these a shot. If you can, you will not be disappointed. This family has over 150 years in the cigar industry and their longevity and passion is clearly represented in this creation. Lizard Luigi. I love getting recommendations like that. That's very cool.
Didn't [01:01:00] they
**Pagoda:** smoke an Altidus or what? No, it's called
**Gizmo:** an Al, Al Tezas, Altoids. Alta, I've never brought that in.
**Bam Bam:** Has anyone ever heard of that, mark? No, I haven't. I think it's new.
**Gizmo:** It's a debut. It's brand new. Oh, I see, I see. Yeah. So we'll try that. It's a pretty, yeah, we should try it. And, and again, here's the, here's the influence of cool history listeners writing us.
Yeah. This is what drives us to go grab, go grab a new cigar, because that's a great story. Oh, yeah. And, and hearing a listener saying that, that he or she smoked it, you know, and it's a positive experience. I, I love. Getting recommendations. So I love sharing that. So thank you to, uh, Lizard Luigi. Does he mention the price?
He doesn't mention the price, but I would assume it's, it's not going to be too pricey. Probably in the 15 range. Probably double the value of what we're smoking now. Let's go to another one, boys. This one's a little harsh from our friend Lizard Shani bro. Oh, he said, guys, I smoked a, my father, the judge early on in my cigar journey because of cigar aficionados [01:02:00] recommendation.
And I absolutely hated it at that point in time. I almost gave up smoking because I kept trying one bad cigar after another, all recommended by CA. Luckily for me, there were a few other smokes in that order that had me scratching my chin in a good way. So I stuck with the hobby. Funny enough, he mentions the Arturo Fuente and Don Carlos and Padron's were some of his first loves.
I bought a bunch of other cigars in that same order. And years later, they're still sitting on the bottom of my humidor because I can't even hand them. To somebody with a clear conscious, I'm not trashing the whole, my father line because they have a few winners, but come on, nobody can objectively claim the, my father, the judge was the best cigar in the market in this or any year past or present those guys at cigar aficionado have zero credibility and they should be held accountable for their bullshit.
There are probably thousands of people who will go on to test the waters with cigars in the coming months who will light up the MF judge because of [01:03:00] this ranking and simply give up on the whole thing because they're a terrible representation of our entire beloved hobby. This is a great email. Great email.
Yeah, this is
**Poobah:** a great
**Chef Ricky:** email. It's so on point. They're doing a disservice to our hobby. It's, it's
**Poobah:** a great email because it's actually something that until this listener wrote in that I didn't think about much that, um, if you're new to the hobby, you're looking at CA and you're saying, well, they're the authority.
They're the biggest publication around and their reviews. If they're saying this is a 98 point cigar, and then you go into that cigar and you real, and it's really far from that. It has, it could have like a counter effect where you're actually turning people up, like to his point, I went through their list and I'm going down this list and I'm, they're, they're saying this stuff is good to the point where the guy almost gives up the hobby.
Um, go [01:04:00] to other resources and follow your, actually follow your own palette, follow your own way.
**Bam Bam:** Smoke what. You like, but you need to experiment to know what you like over time. But to cut right to the chase, go to our website. Exactly right. That is the most comprehensive resource. You're not going to find a better resource online than our rating guide.
And this is why I'm not saying that because I'm part of the podcast. I refer to it. I go back to it. This is why
**Gizmo:** we put. And I put so much time into that ratings guidance. Why we put it on the website is because we wanted to provide a transparent guide, not only to how we rate it as a collective, but how we individually rate cigars.
So if you track with someone's palate on this panel and you trust that person or that palate, you can follow along with every single. Rating they've given in the, in three plus years of being on this podcast and you can see how cigars are trending and [01:05:00] a good example. And I mentioned this on this, my father, the judge episode that we did a few weeks ago.
It's like, you know, to Shawnee bro's point here, I said this too, you know, a couple of weeks ago, like. The idea that this cigar is going to be in every single shop with a sign next to it that says, this is the number one cigar of the year for the next year. This is going to represent our entire industry as the best that we can offer is a real unfortunate situation because it is anything but that, as we experienced a couple of weeks ago when we rated it very
**Bam Bam:** poorly.
It's awful and you're wasting a lot of money pursuing cigars that you're not going to ever smoke again. But you go to, like, our resource that you have, you'll look at the ratings, why not look at it? You'll save thousands of dollars over the course of a year, avoid the low rated cigars, go to the higher rated cigars, see if you can find them and try them.
**Gizmo:** Exactly. And if you do pick one up, you can put that episode on [01:06:00] and smoke along with us. Correct. And tell us if we're crazy. Write us an email and say, guys, I smoked a cigar along with you and you guys were wrong for XYZ reason. We love. This kind of feedback. Tell us what you're thinking. And at
**Bam Bam:** this point, everyone should know that we have no interest in any of these cigars from the point of view of business.
There's no vested interest other than the love of the cigar.
**Rooster:** But you know, I mean. Or the hate of the cigar. There could be somebody out there that likes the judge, right? I don't know. That's fine. Who? I don't know, there might be some, I mean, they sell a lot of cigars. No, my
**Gizmo:** father has some winners, as Shawnee bro said.
There's no question. We're going to do one that I've earmarked here. The, the hundred años that apparently is a stellar cigar, like totally polar opposite of that. My father, we did a few weeks ago. I think they make some great cigars. We did that number four, Lancero. They performed very well. That was a good cigar.
I
**Bam Bam:** still love that cigar. I like that cigar. I had it last week.
**Gizmo:** Yes. I just think that that specific cigar being chosen to represent what we do is just really unfortunate. All right, boys, we're coming into the [01:07:00] last third here on the Arturo Fuente. Don Carlos, the man. What's everybody thinking? I have my eyes are burning.
**Bam Bam:** It's the combustion, but we're all kind of at the, I think poop is behind most of us at this point. Your glasses are foggy. Can you see me? Head into your eyes. Are you not? I don't think I'm that behind. No, no, you're true. Are you not getting any, I'm getting a good amount of sweetness right now.
**Gizmo:** I think in this, as it's, it's hit the last third here, it's definitely gotten better.
The problem is the first two thirds are awful. We're pretty boring.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. You're right. It's not all full smokable, but very boring. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Like I think the cigar is pleasant. I've enjoyed it. I've not thought I want to put this down. I don't know if anybody's had that thought. I've not had a, I want to put this down thought like we've had another cigar.
So there is merit here. I don't know if it's just not developed. Does it need more time? Does it need, you know, does it need a tweak in the blend? Did we just end up with a batch? That's just not great. Maybe it needs more time because
**Rooster:** you guys have had [01:08:00] something. You know, a little bit more age on it. So, yeah, but it's not,
**Poobah:** but, but, but I would, I would push back on that just a little bit respectfully in that it didn't have, so like there's cigars that we've had many, many times that you say.
We've all said, this is like, this isn't right now, but it's previewing very, very, very well. Meaning like you can tell, like maybe there's some rough edges on it, but you can tell from the flavor profile that it's got a future. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like we, we talk
**Gizmo:** about that a lot here.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah.
So this didn't have like those preview elements where I'm like, Ooh, like, okay, there's some rough edges on it. Like it could you, with time I could see this being
**Rooster:** X. I agree. But a couple of guys in the room have had the cigar with some age on it. It's a different experience. Yeah. I would argue
**Gizmo:** if we smoked that cigar in [01:09:00] the pod with the age.
Sure. We'd be in the high to mid nines, but I will say what does cigar. Yeah. That's a little bit
**Poobah:** of a leap.
**Gizmo:** No, I I'm telling you, bam, bam. It was a cigar. It was at least a
**Bam Bam:** solid eight. That's the cigar that
**Poobah:** was, it's not previewing that well for me, but.
**Gizmo:** I think this might just be another iteration of it. It might be a, a newer iteration of the blend, maybe Different blend.
Yeah, it might be different tobacco. We dunno what the blend is. Making up the blend. We don't know what the blend is. And every time they iterate, of course they're having to make changes. Mm-hmm . And tweaks to it to try to match what it was before. It's not a regular production cigar, so it's coming out in spurts, you know, it's, it, you know, unfortunately.
I have a
**Bam Bam:** question. It is what it is. So what are you getting right now? Right now it's better than it was before. It's better, isn't it? Sure. Absolutely. I'm getting shortbread. I was going to say a little baking like a little bready. It's bready, shortbread, little buttery sweetness, just a little bit.
**Gizmo:** But I wish there was a little more.
**Bam Bam:** If this was the whole experience, it would have been great.
**Gizmo:** And I wish there was a little bit more of it in [01:10:00] the last third here. I wish it was touching closer to like, I still would argue this is a mild cigar. Of course. If I wanted a bready
**Rooster:** note, I would get a 3 croissant than a 32. Yeah. Thank you. I have a question.
**Gizmo:** So Puba, you're a guy when you don't like a cigar, very straightforward. You're
**Bam Bam:** a guy. You're ready
**Gizmo:** to put it down. I still see the cigar in your hand. I don't think I've seen you put it down as we've been chatting. So that's the question I have here is, and I'm thinking about like, am I loving this cigar?
Not really, but am I wanting to put it down? No, no. So for someone who very, Harshly, we'll put something down. If you hate it.
**Poobah:** Yes.
**Gizmo:** Why haven't you put it down given everything you've said
**Poobah:** because I don't hate it that much. There you go. There's a level of hate. There's no, there's levels of hate. I do not hate it that much.
Well, one, because I haven't, I haven't had to touch it up one [01:11:00] time. Yeah, it hasn't really good. The construction is really good. It's, it's, it's definitely a premium constructed Constructed cigar. The build is fantastic. Like I said before, um, the flavor is an offensive. It's just, it's, it just lacks like it lacks like a lot of dynamics.
It lacks a lot. There's a lot lacking here, but it's also at the same time. It's not offensive either. And then like, when you got in the lab, we're getting them at the end of the smoke. It's, it's definitely like exponentially better now than it was. The first two thirds, um, but again, just not, it's not something I would ever really smoke again.
If someone gave it to me, would I smoke it? Yes. On an island alone, but on an island alone, well, that, that guy would have spent 32 bucks with Brooke [01:12:00] Shields. And a tree loft or some shit. If Brooke Shields was
**Grinder:** there, the cigar would disappear. I enjoyed it. I don't, I'm ignoring them, by the way, grinder lock in.
You
**Poobah:** enjoyed it.
**Grinder:** I enjoyed it. I don't think, I don't think it's a cigar I would buy at 32 at 32. I think I like that spice. On the retrohale. That's something I, I look for, and it's fairly common, uh, in some of the cigars we have. So it's, there's nothing that stands out as like, Hey, this is really a great cigar, but I like what it, what it delivered.
And it, I agree with your last comment. You would like more, not just throughout the entire cigar, but like that flavor that did get amplified. Give us even more of it. Yeah. Um, the bready and the sweetness, I think you were spot on. On the earth, you're. Pro your palate is pretty locked in right now on the end.
Yeah. And the last inch.
**Rooster:** Yep. And the last six months.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Huh? So, so I was [01:13:00] saying about your pal ever since six months, ever since she's joined, is that right?
**Bam Bam:** But is that right? And it's just six months. Is that
**Poobah:** right? You're right on the bready thing. But like, how great is that? Like, it's only OK. There's not much more confident now.
You're right.
**Grinder:** That's what I'm saying. It's it's not an exceptional. It's not exceptional. Come on, Chef Rookie, we want to hear from you. It's something I enjoy, but it's not exceptional.
**Chef Ricky:** I'm totally bored with the cigar at this point. I thought you were going to fall
**Grinder:** asleep, Chef. Yeah, no. There were a couple times where I was like, see you later.
After the
**Chef Ricky:** ASMR? Yeah, no, this cigar has me very bored. You know, what keeps me going at it is the combustion. It is interesting to smoke because of that. But outside of the combustion, there's just nothing there. Uh, for me, and you know, it's an entertaining cigar to smoke because of the great smoke output, the great burn line, but flavor wise and like what's happening, I've lost track of where I am in the smoke with, with it.
From the beginning we lost track.
**Poobah:** We never really got on, even [01:14:00] on a track to get off. Well, in the,
**Chef Ricky:** in the beginning, the retro hill was somewhat enjoyable. Now I'm just not, even the retro hills falling flat for me. So I think this
**Grinder:** would be a good cigar to give. Like as, you know, some, someone who wants to venture into a little more spice for 32 bucks, because it's so 32 bucks.
I'm not giving that shit to anybody, including the price, including the price
**Poobah:** for, for, for, for this price. Yeah. I think, I think it's
**Grinder:** not, it's not an, it's not an overpowering, like we said, it's kind of not even medium. Yeah. So you can get that delivery without. Some of their own,
**Gizmo:** let me ask you this. It's more expensive than a default piggybacking on what you're saying, though, piggyback on what you're saying about that grinder.
What kind of cigar smoker would you give this to? Like, to me, this is a cigar that I would one
**Poobah:** who doesn't know any better. I would give it to me.
**Gizmo:** I think, no, I think someone who likes a very mild cigar, who wants a premium experience, who hasn't maybe had a lot of experience with Padrone, Davidoff, high premium Fuente [01:15:00] that performs well.
I think this might be a cigar for them. Yeah. However, I think that's a pretty limited
**Bam Bam:** group of people.
**Gizmo:** I mean, my father in law, I think probably would have enjoyed this cigar because the smoke outputs there, combustion there, it's mild. It's smooth. He probably would like the bready thing. There's, you know, it's very smooth and easy to smoke.
It's a great father in law cigar. Exactly. I would agree. I don't know. Give it to my father in law. I would give it to my father in law. Yeah, I think this is a good one. We'll call it the father in law cigar. It is. He's, by the way, in my life, he's the man,
**Pagoda:** you better hope that he doesn't judge you. I don't,
**Poobah:** I don't have, I don't anticipate any extras.
I'm going to be having in the future to give away. So it's not going to be a problem, right? I don't, I don't, I don't
**Grinder:** envision that either, but the hypothetical question I'm answering, who would you give it to? Whom would you give it to? That's who I would give it to.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, before we go to our ratings, we have one more email.
This is from lizard Enrique. He writes us all the time. Always a great email from him. He says, hello, lizards. As a recent but frequent [01:16:00] listener, I wanted to share with you that a recent big anniversary was missed. January 17th, 2025 marked the two year anniversary of the Bam Bam Accountability Hour.
Fucking do it when Bam finally filled his tower and the lizards were shocked at his vast, vast stock in the face of years and years of saying he didn't have a lot of access to Cuban cigars. I didn't say that. Now he's added to the new world. I never said that. He just added two new boxes.
**Chef Ricky:** This
**Gizmo:** episode became known the world over as the night the line was crossed.
**Bam Bam:** Pooba just got that the night the line
**Gizmo:** was crossed
**Bam Bam:** delayed reaction
**Gizmo:** and was a true testament to the lizards ability to hold their own To account
**Grinder:** I'll tell you what as the guy who coined the Bam Bam accountability hour I love the kind of legs this story has two years on and I'm Still getting that retainer, but no, you're not
**Rooster:** the [01:17:00] Bobby Bonilla contract.
**Gizmo:** Every year.
**Rooster:** It's a big payday grinder
**Gizmo:** did correct. Since then, 2025 has seen Bam drop citrus and dried fruit as his calling card. And he isn't true. And he has instead transformed himself into the Emily post of lizards discussing his do's and don'ts of lizard adequate. Oh, yes. Including number one, no plastic bags in the lounge.
Thank
**Bam Bam:** you.
**Gizmo:** Go number two, no keeping cigars at the cigar shop. Correct. Number three. No eating, drinking, or smoking before recording the podcast. Yes. And number four, no gulping spirits. Correct. No
**Bam Bam:** gulping. A
**Gizmo:** hundred
**Bam Bam:** percent.
**Gizmo:** Correct. I mean, lizard Enrique is on your side. What about,
**Poobah:** what about, what about, what about a heavy breathing?
Cause there's a guilty party in here and that, and I know Gizmo.
**Bam Bam:** Darth Vader's in the room. We know who Vader is. It's not Gizmo. Who is Vader? It's not [01:18:00] Gizmo.
**Grinder:** Who's Vader?
**Gizmo:** Pagoda likes to exhale right into the mic. It's very dramatic. He also gulps. He continues to mark this anniversary,
**Pagoda:** although I thought in the beginning of the podcast today, somebody else was breathing very heavily.
Oh, I don't know who that is.
**Poobah:** Was that me? To mark this anniversary
**Gizmo:** and BAM's newfound love of decorum and update on whether BAM has increased his generosity to his fellow, fellow lizards. Would be greatly appreciated, even if that generosity does not extend to tuxedo. Timmy,
**Bam Bam:** that's not nice. I love tuxedo.
Timmy
**Gizmo:** lizard. Enrique, can you say that again? No. Yeah, we'll clip it for him.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So I will say on behalf of Bam Bam here, I will account for the fact that not only has Bam's procurement improved, obviously. His flavor profile, his palate is immense, as we know. And we, he thinks we're joking with him. He thinks we're [01:19:00] joking with him, but we're not.
I mean, chef Ricky can attest. I mean, I mean, how has BAM come along here with chef Ricky?
**Chef Ricky:** It's, it's incredible. I don't, I'd like to think I inspired you did, but, uh, yeah, no, I mean, your, your call outs have been spot on and all right. I feel like I've taken a back seat ever since and generosity
**Gizmo:** and BAM's generosity.
I will say for the listeners out there, you know, this is an is no, you are incredibly generous, but I've always
**Poobah:** been, you're, you're just, you're getting, you're just hasn't been noticed. You're getting vindicated right now. Go with it. I'm going with it.
**Gizmo:** I want to share that. Uh, yeah, all is well in, uh, in the world of the lizards.
And
**Bam Bam:** by the way, yes, I haven't had the dry fruit come to me. It's not that I'm avoiding it, I just haven't had it. It's true. A lot of the cigars
**Gizmo:** You're saying your palate is honest? Yes.
**Bam Bam:** It has evolved. It's evolved. If I get a dried fruit, I'm gonna call it out.
**Chef Ricky:** I miss the dried fruit, quite frankly. Yeah. I haven't gotten any dried fruit.
What about wet
**Bam Bam:** fruit? Wet fruit, that's another story. [01:20:00]
**Gizmo:** So Bam Bam, congratulations to you and us. Alright. By the way, honestly, uh, dead serious. I can't believe it's been two years since that episode. It's crazy. That is That was
**Poobah:** the most legendary episode of all time. If
**Gizmo:** you told me that was six months ago, I would have believed you.
Time is flying. It's crazy that it's been two years.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. It's been at least three years since Bam gave me my first ST Dupont. So, oh yeah, that's right. There you go. Yeah. I, I've always,
**Bam Bam:** well before the accountability hour, by the way, two hour, two years in our new,
**Grinder:** uh, joint as well.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. We've been here for two and a half years actually, and we haven't beaten the crap out of each other either.
It's amazing. We're all still here. Well, almost .
**Gizmo:** Three, three years. Three years. Yeah. Pretty amazing. Boys. We need to talk about Chef Rickey's Tower. That's where I was going next. Oh dude. That's where I was going next. So chef Ricky called me in a panic, uh, late last week saying, Giz, you're not going to believe it.
My tower is being delivered [01:21:00] today. They told me it wasn't being delivered today. And then I just got a call from the trucking company. This is being delivered. And, uh, we made it happen.
**Chef Ricky:** Giz was there within 30 minutes. Crowbar. And, and in record time, he had me, I had an 11 o'clock meeting, I think he showed up at my place, maybe 954 around there.
He was just arriving as the truck was pulling off and the guy, the driver was so gracious, helped me get it down, uh, my first few steps because my, my house is below grade. So. It was, you know, it lined up perfectly. Giz helped me carry it in, had me up and running within 40 minutes. Cigar wastes is installed.
Nice. Every, you know, the freaking humidor leveled, the tower leveled, everything, everything. And I'm happy to say that, uh, not even a week later, I already have it, uh. With my cigars in it,
**Rooster:** just like Bam, [01:22:00] seasoned, well prepared piece of meat. Hey,
**Chef Ricky:** seasoned, uh, calibrated six or seven hygrometers with a pretty intense protocol.
The Gizmo protocol is very
**Poobah:** intense. I have, you know, I gotta tell you, it's, it's, it's my, my thing sits just, that's. 62.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you're, you're a perfect location. Just
**Poobah:** constantly, because it's in my basement. I have
**Bam Bam:** questions for Chef and Giz. Go ahead. So, how did you season it? Salt and pepper. Correct. So,
**Gizmo:** what we did was, Because he had the Oasis right there.
Mm hmm. It was ready to go. We set up the Oasis with, uh, with the Distilled water. We didn't calibrate the oasis. We just turned it on and let that distilled water, let that cedar soak up the distilled water. So we didn't spritz or wipe down. I told him it was going to take a little while to calibrate his govies anyway, the hygrometers.
And how long,
**Bam Bam:** how long did the um, oasis sit
**Gizmo:** running? Probably, probably about five [01:23:00] days. Yeah, that's good.
**Chef Ricky:** That's great. Also keep in mind that it has a built in fan. So that fan was on throughout the process. That's great. It helps speed things. So his
**Gizmo:** tower, your elegant bar, by the way, your elegant bar. com, this tower he bought is awesome.
Um, what's great is not only does it have a built in light that is built into the actual wood, it's so smart with a button, the second button. Is a, an internal fan system that takes, uh, humidity and an air from the bottom and distributes it all the way up to the top of the tower. So that's going to be very helpful for him.
You know, when he wants to distribute air and humidity in there, it moves some air around that pushes a button. It's done. I couldn't
**Bam Bam:** believe how gorgeous. It's a beautiful, beautiful. I love looking at it. Beautiful.
**Gizmo:** Just cool downstairs in the basement. It's a really elegant piece of furniture. Like it adds value to the room.
**Bam Bam:** What does Mrs. Chef think about this? She loves it. Nice. She loves it. And I'm
**Chef Ricky:** happy and uh, you know, she loves that I have a place to grow into my hobby now. And, um, last question. Where in the house is it located? It's in [01:24:00] my basement. My basement's finished. So it's,
**Bam Bam:** uh, So it's insulated the whole nine yards, right?
It's kind of
**Gizmo:** got a man cave vibe down there. So it's really a perfect setup. And he's got like a, like a, a wet bar there, like a sink and everything. So he can host, he can make drinks. You know, there's a TV down there. It's like perfectly dialed in. You know, if you had,
**Bam Bam:** so how close, here's another question.
So how close is that sink and countertop to the tower? Is it right next to it? It is. So that's key. I find myself fumbling with cigars cause I don't have a countertop near the tower. I like to lay out my cigars, get the case. That's my next project. It may take five years, but that's good. Can you keep us updated weekly, please?
**Gizmo:** So the, you know, the, the nice thing was, uh, Chef Ricky already had the, uh, Boveda 75%. Calibration pack on the way. So I walked him through, he ordered the Govis that are wifi. So you can control them and view them from anywhere. Unlike the Bluetooth, you need to be on premises to get connected to those. The [01:25:00] wifi is really important.
So I explained to him, you know, the 75 in the bag. The Ziploc. Yep. And you put them equidistant, the Govi's equidistant to the, you showed me how to do the, uh, to the 75%. And, and for the listener out there, you don't want to use a 65, 69, 72 percent Boveda because it's too close to the ambient room humidity in a lot of, you know, homes.
So you want to, Push the Govee to have to get to 75 so you can do a proper calibration. That's why we use 75 and not a normal Boveda
**Bam Bam:** or close to it. At least. Yeah.
**Poobah:** I mean, I don't like to just, um, I'll have to toroize a little bit. I don't like the Govees. Not a huge fan. Um, if you want an alternative to having Covey and wifi and all the stuff hooked up, if you've got a pretty stable situation, the caliber fives are pre calibrated, so those [01:26:00] are spot on dead on.
And that's a Dr. Joe, um, recommendation from many, many, many, many years ago, but those hydrometers, I mean, they're cheap. They're like 20 bucks, 22 now, 23 and those are, that's as good of a hydrometer as you're going to get because they're pre calibrated and they just, now, if you want to watch the humidor all the time, if you're in, if it's an, it's an environment that's variable, if you travel And, and it's a variable thing, well then, you know, consider it.
But I mean, I'm a
**Gizmo:** psycho, so I want, I want my, yeah, well,
**Poobah:** I mean my, but, but, but my numbers never changed. Yours
**Gizmo:** is in homeostasis. Now, the other thing I wanna say for your situation that is different than Chef Ricky's, the reason why your tower is so stable, because it's a Remington, is because it's been running for as long as it has and it's airtight and it's completely full, and it's air tight and it's airtight.
Correct. So having a completely full tower with all those [01:27:00] cigars in there, you. create a better and more possible environment for homeostasis than chef Ricky, who is just starting the journey of filling his tower. Correct. So when he has cigars in there and there's a serious fluctuation, there's more variability, there's more variability than yours is going to be because yours is packed full of, of properly humidified cigars.
Right. You know what I love, what
**Chef Ricky:** I love about my Govee system too, is that so prior to getting these wifi hygrometers. Um, I had some Bluetooth ones only, but now because of the Wi Fi gateway, I could monitor those Bluetooth. They connect to the Wi Fi gateway. There you go. So now my, what were just Bluetooth hygrometers initially, I could now use them as Wi Fi hygrometers to see them.
I
**Poobah:** just struggled just as an alternative. I struggled very much with the Govis. Like I. Bought a bunch of them, whatever it was, three or four to put in, you know, different levels of the tower where you went wrong
**Chef Ricky:** was you didn't call Gizmo.
**Poobah:** Um, yeah, but at the time Gizmo wasn't as [01:28:00] educated as he is now. I go to zero to a hundred or at about zero to a hundred at full throttle.
I mean, the guy could be like a layman on something and then spend three days. And he's an expert than 72 hours. But, um, that not withstanding, I always went with the caliber. Uh, the caliber fives, because I, they're just dependable. They're just, so if you're not into the wifi thing, if you're not into it, they are very, very spot on accurate.
So you'll, I would see, you know, now I only keep one cause I'm not crazy about it. I only keep one in the middle. So I used to have four, you know, like a crazy person, like on each shelf, but like it's 62 in there. I got a question. All the time,
**Bam Bam:** every day of the week. Quick question for you. Booba. So you buy the cat.
What's it called? Caliber caliber, caliber, caliber five. You buy it and you put it right in your tower. No calibration needed.
**Poobah:** No calibration. Really [01:29:00] zero. That's why they call it the caliber.
**Bam Bam:** No shit.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. There's no calibration. There's none of that. It's a
**Gizmo:** little, uh, it's a little rectangular device.
It's black with a, with a screen. All right. Very good. Very, very, very,
**Poobah:** very good product. Um, it's accurate and it's, it presents no issues. Um, and all you gotta do, it's like a. You know, little flat camera battery, you need to replace whatever it is once every year and a half or something. You know what I mean?
It's not a bad option. Yeah, it's, it's very good. It's affordable and it's dependable. So if you have a desktop, I'd recommend that for a desktop all day long with some Boveda. Whatever you got, whatever's going to work for you, depending on where you live. But in the winter time, all I do with my Remington is just put, you know, I put 60, you know, whatever it is, 60, uh, 60 to 65, 60 twos or 65s in there.
And I let the big ones, I put a few in. And it just, it sits and it just works and it just never moves. So I think once you get to that [01:30:00] homeostasis point, uh, with the tower, you got enough cigars in there. Everything's conditioned. Um, it's really easy to keep things stable. It's very, when you have a full tower, a
**Gizmo:** full tower is a stable town
**Rooster:** that we've said that a thousand times is
**Bam Bam:** a happy tower.
**Rooster:** Exactly. Right. And if you want some like baking notes and stuff, have your wife put some like platter of cookies. Oh, there you go.
**Chef Ricky:** There you go. Open the door whenever she's baking.
**Gizmo:** So, seriously, Chef Ricky, congratulations. Another lizard with a tower, ready to go. Welcome to the tower. Now you gotta fill it.
Yeah. Tower life has begun.
**Chef Ricky:** And it came with a free year of cigar aficionados, so now I have a free year of kindling. Yeah, exactly. Well said.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, we're coming to the end of our evening tonight. First with the Red Breast L'Estau edition, Irish Whiskey, and the Arturo Fuente, Don Carlos, the man.
What's everybody thinking as we come to the end of our pairing here
**Bam Bam:** before we get into our ratings? Bit of a rollercoaster on a [01:31:00] cigar. I think I've said what I wanted to say. For sure. Let's rate it.
**Gizmo:** All right, let's move into the formal liquor rating first on the Red Breast L'Estau edition, Irish Whiskey.
Bam Bam, you're up.
**Bam Bam:** All right. I enjoy the flavor. You know, um, for me, it drank like a mild bourbon, a little bit of heat, and it was sweet. Not something that I, that I pursue. Um, I like the Red breast that Puba introduces to that's for me. It's like, as you said, it's a standard red breast 12. It's delicious.
It's it's, it's rounded that, like you said, there's more of a caramel. Yeah. It seemed a bit, that seems to me a bit more of an interesting ride and I can. Take that down, multiple glasses, and love it. This is very pointed, it's very specific. Not technically, like, really my taste, but it was delicious. For all those reasons, I'm in a solid 8.
**Gizmo:** Okay.
**Bam Bam:** Grindr. Good experience.
**Grinder:** I'm at a 7. [01:32:00] Um, I don't like hot whiskey. This is a little too hot for me. The sherry didn't really round it out as much as I'd like. Did you gulp it? I didn't gulp it. I took a nice sip. Um, yeah, it was just, it was a little hot. It wasn't What I, I didn't think the pairing was, I think the pairing was good.
I don't think it was as euphoric on bringing the cigar up to the level as, uh, as some others, uh, viewed it. I think the, yeah, it was just kind of, just kind of boring. It's a fine spirit. And red breast, as we, as we know and love, I look at the red breast as, you know, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. That I would, I think that would pair wonderfully with this.
I think it would have rounded out, uh, nicely. There's a little more sweetness. There's a little more caramel. Um, I think that sweetness would have balanced out what we saw towards the last third of this cigar. So that duality, I think it's, it's a little lower. I do feel differently though that,
**Bam Bam:** that the standard red [01:33:00] breast is a little less sweet for me.
Yeah. It's, it's a bit more. A complex. I don't like a little drier, which I love. I don't
**Grinder:** like sherry with Irish.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, no, you're right. I don't think,
**Grinder:** I don't think sherry goes well with Irish. I'm just going to say it. So like Irish is meant to be crisp, clean, highly distilled. Yeah. This is, this is a little polluted.
Yeah. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah.
**Grinder:** So
**Chef Ricky:** yeah, that's my take on that.
**Gizmo:** All right. Chef Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I agree with Grindr a hundred percent at the seven. Um, I, I felt that I enjoyed the nose a whole lot. I was really excited, uh, going to drink it and, you know, and then you drink it and the sweet notes of the sherry are there, but it comes to an erupt stopped.
Uh, you know, it's not very round. It's not very creamy and the towards the end, you know, Puva. Pointed out like this charred note. Um, you know, for me, it was like char, very tannic, almost bitter like, and maybe that was the higher alcohol content. I had the regular red [01:34:00] breast, maybe once or twice, uh, but not, you know, not under any type of analysis.
I was just drinking it in the lounge next door. Um, so yeah, I, you know, I, I think it's, it's a decent Irish whiskey. I wouldn't buy it again, especially at 80 a bottle. Um, but yeah, it was, it was drinkable. I forgot about that. Another demerit. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right, Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. It's a seven for me as well. I think when I started off, I know Bam made a comment on whether I gulped it or not, because I did feel a lot of the heat, uh, right, right away.
And uh, with whiskeys and, you know, typically I just don't like higher proof whiskeys or bourbons just typically. So having said that, what I also found was. Yeah, it was like a short to a medium finish, which dissipated. It didn't leave, you know, the coating on, you know, sometimes some really good whiskeys can leave a good coating on your palate and, you know, you really enjoy it.
This did [01:35:00] not, especially with the pairing in terms of the cigar itself was very, you know, short in terms of its finish. And so it didn't really, I don't think it complimented it that well. I would have rather had some kind of, Um, uh, like a pairing, which had a slightly longer finish with a little smoother, you know, um, maybe with a slightly lower proof, I think that might have gone better, perhaps.
Yeah. And, uh, yeah, so it's a seven for me considering the price point, you know, like I love the Belvenie for like. Well, 60 bucks. And there's so many other whiskeys, which are available below the price point of 80 bucks. That's true. So that also adds to the rating.
**Gizmo:** So for me, it's also a seven. I completely agree with the sevens in the room.
I thought it was a good spirit. I definitely, at the price point, the story, the loving red breast. Oh, that commercial. The commercial, of course, I totally expected this to be a 10 after the commercial I heard earlier. It's [01:36:00] superlative. I was expecting more from the spirit. I thought that the red breast that we love so much, especially when we go to our North lounge, that's really what we drink up there is red breast 12 or green dot.
Yeah, I was expecting the Sherry cask to really enhance this and to actually move it kind of closer to a profile that we as cigar smokers expect from a whiskey, you know, most of the time when we introduce Sherry. To our palate with a cigar. It's a plus. And I think here, unfortunately it took away from what I expect from Redbreast and the other experiences I've had with Redbreast and that was unfortunate.
And of course at an 80 price point factoring in value, I just don't think this is something I'm going to be reaching for again. But it wasn't a bad spirit. It wasn't a bad pairing. And compared to the cigar, this did elevate my night. It didn't elevate the cigar. As I said earlier, it didn't bring more out of the cigar, [01:37:00] but it made the night a little bit more enjoyable and interesting to me because I thought it was interesting, but it wasn't great.
So for
**Poobah:** me, it's a seven Puba. I agree. I mean, when it comes to Irish whiskeys, I mean, green dot yellow dot blue dot. Um, red, you know, red breast 12. Um, those are, you know, at an 80 price point, I mean, you can even go down the road of saying, you know, for me, it was, it was, it was higher proof and it didn't deliver in the flare and kind of like the body category or the viscosity category that it would have liked.
Um, so, you know, it was a seven for me, but, uh, for context, like there's like at that price point, you could get, you could, you can, you can order like. Uh, a bespoke locally made spirit from 10 mile river farm in Dutchess County. Like we, like I brought on here, I brought in 10 mile road, 10 mile whiskey. [01:38:00] I, I think I brought also brought into a bottle of, uh, whiskey from the, uh, Taconic distillery.
There's some actually American made, like, which are like scotch style whiskeys. That are at that price point that are so much exponentially more complex and they're made just up the road, um, than, than what this is. And, um, I think that's worth exploring. I, I, I think I'd love to explore some of those. We should rate one of those, man.
Yeah, we really should. I think we may have had one on, but maybe we didn't rate it. Maybe it was 10 mile early on. Um, I don't know if it was early on, but maybe we, I don't know. I can't remember. Maybe it was a celebration episode. I don't recall, but, um, they're like American style scotches, um, or you know what I mean?
They're not defined, uh, as a scotch, but they, they drink like a hybrid. Um, there's things like that to me that are way more interesting, like just [01:39:00] exponentially more interesting at, maybe it's 7 more or something, you know what I mean? But, um, this wasn't that interesting to me. Uh, it had some rough edges on it.
The short, the, the, the, the finish was short. So for me, it's a seven.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, the formal Lustau edition. Irish whiskey is a 7. 2.
**Bam Bam:** Okay.
**Gizmo:** So let's compare that to the red breast 12, which we've actually had twice on the pod. We did it first on episode seven. We did not rate it. And then we revisited it again on episode 132.
We gave it a 9. 0. Because it's an excellent spirit. There you go. I mean, Red Breast 12 is such a great pairing for cigars. Sure. And is a great, great whiskey. All right, boys. It's time now to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the Arturo Fuente. Don Carlos, the man. Rooster, you're up.
**Rooster:** So the couple of positives on the cigar.
The cigar was a chimney. [01:40:00] I mean, the smoke output was obscene, crazy amount of smoke. Um, the construction was flawless. I mean, I tried to even ash it and it, the ash wouldn't even fall off. So that's a merit for the cigar. Uh, having said that, I mean, for the price point, what it delivered, it's just off. 32 a stick.
I would, uh, not pursue this cigar. The cigar to me was very flat, very dry, uh, very short finish. Uh, the flavors were really muted, uh, got mostly cedar and a little bit of, uh, like a woody note and that's about it. I mean, I, I want to get a lot more flavor out of a cigar that's demanding this price. So for that reason, um, I'm at a six.
**Poobah:** Puba. I actually, um, have nothing to say. Um, [01:41:00] I think that's the first, I have nothing to say except that roosters, uh, commentary is a hundred percent spot on and I give it a six as well. I have nothing additional to add in terms of color. That's he nailed it.
**Gizmo:** So for me, I, I think a six is a little too harsh on this cigar.
I think that I've given cigars that performed, uh, you know, close to this or worse than this, especially from a construction and smoke output and, and experience, I've, I've given those sixes and fives. I think the cigar is a seven. Now, the reason why is there wasn't a single moment where I wanted to put the cigar down.
And I think that price factoring in certainly as an issue here, but overall, number one, I can see someone really enjoying the cigar. It wasn't for my palate. It didn't give us enough, but no one in this room put that cigar down. And I certainly didn't. I thought it was a decent. To fair representation of what Don Carlos can be.
We [01:42:00] know how good Don Carlos can be. Uh, certainly it, it touches 10 as we'll talk about in a little bit. But, uh, for me, the cigar was a seven. I wish it was better. It wasn't great, but it was not a bad cigar. The
**Rooster:** only reason I didn't put it down because we paid 32 for it. And it's going to be on Splitwise tomorrow morning.
Correct. Get your money's worth.
**Gizmo:** All right, Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, this is definitely been between a six and seven throughout for me. I, the thing is, let's put it in three bullet points, right? The price, of course, the really short finish and lack of flavor, the positives, really good construction and really good smoke output.
Um, I think, uh, you know, if you're smoking something with no real flavor, uh, for a price point of 32 bucks, I think it becomes difficult to really recommend it. So that's why I'm at a six.
**Poobah:** I agree. I would have rather have touched it up five, six, seven times and had it taste good. [01:43:00] That's a fair point.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
All right. Chef Ricky. Yeah, I'm on the rooster train. I'm gonna take, uh, I'm gonna take the six here. I just felt bored with the cigar And yeah, I don't I have nothing to add to it other than that, you know flavor There wasn't much happening there outside of the retro ale. That was somewhat fun, but the combustion was phenomenal I that did hold my interest a little bit, which is why I kept smoking it Um, because with a little bit of flavor, it would have been a substantially better cigar.
**Grinder:** All right.
**Gizmo:** Grinder.
**Grinder:** As mentioned before, I think the flavor of that spice on the retro was enjoyable for me. I like that in a lot of cigars. I do see it in a lot of cigars though. And I think, um, you know, I could get that at a more reasonable price. Having, you know, said all the experience was good. Um, I just think it was a little monotone.
It didn't deliver as much nuance as I'd like. [01:44:00] Um, it didn't really change much until. The end when it was burning my fingers and you know, I think for me it's a seven I would knock it down to a six based off the price, you know value price paradigm there
**Bam Bam:** So you're at a so I'm not
**Grinder:** I'm at a seven, but I'm not gonna mark I'm not gonna I'm not gonna throw it into the fire to six tonight.
I think it was a good experience I echo a lot of gives a sentiment on You know, I didn't want to put it down. I enjoyed it. I probably smoked it fastest than anyone in the room. Um, because I did, I do like those, those flavors. I just want more of it. And yeah, it's a little frustrating. That price is, it should be half of the price.
I agree. It should be 16 bucks. It should be 16 bucks. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Even that feels a little high. That doesn't feel high.
**Grinder:** For
**Gizmo:** the performance though, I mean, you gotta give it, you gotta give it merit for that. Of course. All right, Bam Bam.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, and on that note, you know, I, I felt it was very smokable from the beginning.
I said that all the way through. I loved that [01:45:00] final third, like honestly, that final inch and a half was actually quite good. I thought it was very flavorful, but the first, the first two thirds were so boring and everyone's commentaries right on the money, but it's a great. It's a well made cigar. The wrapper's beautiful.
It's, it's, it's, you know, there's some merit for the right person out there, but I'm at a six.
**Gizmo:** Okay. All right, boys, that puts the formal lizard rating tonight on the Arturo Fuente. Don Carlos, the man. At a 6. 3, I think that's a perfect score for that cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I'm totally happy with that. Okay. I don't think it deserved a six.
Maybe it deserved closer to a seven, but I'm happy at a 6. 3. I think that's appropriate for the, uh, for the experience we had tonight. And let's compare that boys to the other Arturo Fuente cigars. We've done, they haven't rated well, historically. We're going to start with the only one that really did.
That's a
**Bam Bam:** home
**Gizmo:** run. On episode 12 was Don Carlos, the eye of the shark scored a 9. 9. That is the one. Spectacular [01:46:00] cigar. Then we went on episode 31 to the Opus X Perfection 888 scored a 6. 6. A little better than this. Now, if you remember that cigar, we didn't love the performance of that. Oh, I remember that cigar because I bought those cigars.
But there were, there was a lot more flavor there. There was a lot more flavor there.
**Bam Bam:** That was a, if I may. That was a 57. I mean, outrageous for that experience. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. On episode 39, the Hemingway series in Signature scored a 7. 2. Then on episode 55, the short story from that same line scored a 7. 0. Then on episode 116, we did the rare pink in signature.
The same size as the Hemingway. A few episodes before at a 6. 4 on episode 135, the sungrown Magnum RV told a 44 scored a 6. 9. And finally on episode 150, the Opus X Biento de Mor, the famous Opus Dubai scored an 8. 0. [01:47:00]
**Poobah:** Enough, um, actually, because it's actually, you know, this is actually like a trend that's, that's like becoming almost quantitative.
I mean, it's, it's qualitative, but like, you know, we'd love to have Fuente as a sponsor, but. Do their cigars suck? I mean, let's ask the honest question. Let's ask the honest question. The majority of the catalog is not that great. I mean, is that fair to
**Pagoda:** say? The Hemingway series
**Poobah:** is when they're starting off.
But they're not But even three years ago, they're not good four years ago, they weren't good. I've never grabbed the Fuente besides the shark and been like, wow.
**Gizmo:** And you compare that to the performance of, you know, you talk about other premium markers, Padrone, Davidoff, which have performed, I [01:48:00] mean, across the board performed 20 to 30 points higher than this on average.
That's significant. It's significant. And, and then you look at the price of these comparative to the Davidoffs. Arguably a lot higher than the Padrones a lot of the time. I mean, that's a, that's a significant value issue for me.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, like, like when I took, if you took all of the cigars that scored a six, a Padrone 1000 series crushes it.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. For significantly less in price. An Exclusivo crushes all of these. Well, yeah, but his point is the
**Bam Bam:** Padrones, That is a delicious cigar. We rated that higher. Yeah, we did. It's an 8 cigar, probably. 6.
**Poobah:** 6. Yeah. And it's a better cigar, quite frankly. And I just, you know, um, there's plenty of cigars. There's Ashton's.
There's The not to go back there, but I mean, that are just better. I mean, well, the
**Gizmo:** data is not trending in the right direction here for Fuente [01:49:00] on the pod. That is for sure.
**Chef Ricky:** And it's
**Gizmo:** unfortunate because I keep reaching for these. I thought this tonight, I was totally expecting this cigar to be in the nines tonight when I walked in here, I honestly was like, we're going to have a slam dunk cigar tonight because we loved on Carlos and it just did not perform there.
It's unfortunate, but
**Poobah:** everyone's experience with Opus X with everybody. It's a view. There's underwhelming, they're under, they're underwhelming. They under deliver and you know what, like, I just think that the brand is so strong, but if you go into the Davidoff catalog, um, I'm sorry, the worst of the worst of Davidoff is not even close to the worst of the worst of Fuente.
Do you know what I mean? Like when it comes to, when it comes to quality, you go into that Davidoff category, you may get a mild cigar. You make it something that you're like, you know, I would have wanted more from that. But there was, there's always kind of something to it that you're like, that was pretty good.[01:50:00]
Like, I don't dislike this. Like it brought me something like, it's very rare that you smoke a Davidoff and you're kind of like, it brings you nothing. You're like, Oh, maybe for the price, like I won't get it again. I would definitely not mind smoking it again. This, I have no desire to smoke it again. Yeah.
So I just feel like,
**Gizmo:** and a lot of those other cigars I just listed, other ratings. I mean, it's the same camp. Correct? It's an elevated brand. Do you think it's an
**Poobah:** elevated brand patron and davidov live on a different level?
**Rooster:** Do you think? Maybe it's our pre uh, flavor profile that doesn't quite match the, I don't think so.
The Fuente line, is it, I don't
**Grinder:** think there's any creative blending like that's, I think it comes down to what. The product they're delivering, they probably have very, um, very, you know, uncreative ways of finding new blends and curating them and keeping them, preserving them over time. And
**Gizmo:** I think they're, they're leaning so heavily on the branding and the marketing and, and the scarcity, the false [01:51:00] scarcity they create.
With, with the Opus releases and the special releases and Fuente mania and all these other things, and it's like, don't forget, at the end of the day you light these cigars and they don't give you a euphoric experience that aligns No. With what they're selling. And how many
**Bam Bam:** hundreds and hundreds of cigars do they have in their catalog?
Like hundreds ton. You know, rooster, they're diluted, right?
**Poobah:** Like Rooster Rooster's a big David off fan. I, I, I'm a really big D I'm a big, big, big David off fan. And okay, the prices, sometimes you just. You're like, fuck off. Like, you know what I mean? From time to time, you know, you're just, it gets a little frustrating here and there.
I really have never had a, like a bad one. Do you know what I mean? Where do you kind of walk away from it? Where you're like, you may walk away from it going, um, maybe I won't buy that again. But it wasn't worth the money that I spent in the cigar, like, meaning like I could see how somebody could like this.[01:52:00]
Maybe it's not my power alley. I'm just saying like, even with Padrone, with Padrone, there are certain cigars within the portfolio that are just too strong for me. Do you know what I mean? But like, they have tons of merit. Like I can, yeah. Okay. As long as I'm in the right spot with a full stomach, like I could get through a one of these stronger Nicaraguans, the 90th or something like that and get through it, even though it's not in my power alley, it's still, it's still a fantastic cigar here.
You're dealing with a brand though, that puts it kind of, I think in its own mind up there with Davidoff and Padron. And I just don't think the brand actually lives up to that. To the,
**Rooster:** the other two. I mean, the, the Ddo Chef's edition was only three or $4 more than this cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** Can you imagine? And that's, and that's and the size of that cigar.
That's a, that's a Churchill. That's a Churchill. Yep. That's a Churchill. And it came in a [01:53:00] beautiful, in an ashtray. Ashtray with a, I think, I think
**Grinder:** like back to be just being creative with the blend. Yeah. When's the last time that they actually. Came out with a really intriguing cigar that, that, that, that they could relate to, Hey, we spent a lot of time with different blends.
We tried this, we try that doesn't come out in the marketing. Yeah. The only thing that comes out is scarcity. Yeah. Or some they spend money on the
**Rooster:** packaging and marketing and
**Grinder:** the band, the bands are beautiful. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it's unfortunate boys, but that's the story here tonight. So let's wrap this up one more time on the red breast Lestow edition, Irish whiskey.
We had a 7. 2 and unfortunately on the tour of Fuente, Don Carlos, the man, we had a six point. Three very unfortunate tonight boys. Sorry, man. Sorry to the man We want to congratulate again our friend lizard seagull who unfortunately like we said has gone through some stuff He has won lizard of the week.
We're gonna send him a great package We really [01:54:00] appreciate him writing in and prompting us to talk about the scare of prostate cancer and you know Pushing everyone to get that screening. It's really really important. So Tell yourself and tell your friends to take that very seriously. Of course, we want to thank all of our listeners for writing in.
We had some great emails tonight. And thank you so much for that. Thanks to our sponsor, Fabrica 5. They are great partners to us. They are huge supporters of us. Go out, try some of their cigars, Fabrica005. com and use our code, of course. And, uh, boys, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive. At our brand new website, lounge lizards pod. com that's lounge lizards p o d. com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments questions, if you want to reach out, say hello.
Tell us what you're smoking. Email us Hello at lounge lizards pod. com. You can also find us on instagram at [01:55:00] lounge lizards pod We really appreciate your time and we'll uh, we'll see you next week