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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!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabric of Five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey travel, food work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. Name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And I plan to smoke a cigar, drink some whiskey, talk about life, and, of course, have some laughs. So take this as your two hundred and twenty first official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plenty of news here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Nicaraguan cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We discuss unpleasant flavor notes in cigars.
Gizmo:We share a reflective listener email, and we make our first ever change to the formal rating process all among a variety of other things for the next two and a half hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, enjoy as we pair 12 years age yellow spot Irish whiskey with the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso. A Bellicoso from Nicaragua on the pod tonight, boys. It's the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso, and it's a 52 ring age cigar by six and one eighths inches long. And, boys, we have a cigar tonight that's a debut from our friend Rafael Nadal.
Gizmo:Can you believe it?
Rooster:Would any of you pick this cigar up and you see that it's a new world Trinidad?
Bam Bam:Well, if it's made by Rafael Nadal, then probably yes, just to try it.
Pagoda:Yeah, but it, you know-
Bam Bam:I would say yes because he's making it.
Pagoda:Adding to that, it looks like agent room.
Bam Bam:If you
Pagoda:put an orange band over here, you would not have noticed.
Bam Bam:Exactly right. Yeah. This looks identical to the Quadro.
Senator:I mean, historically, no, but this is now the only Trinidad we can afford. So, maybe yes now.
Gizmo:That's a good point. That's correct. Well, I I just wish that they would come up with a different name, like the Monte Cristo, the Trinidad, the Partagas, the stuff they've taken from the the old Cuban markets. It's just market confusion. Yeah.
Gizmo:You know? And of course, this is obviously nothing like and we haven't even smoked it. I guarantee it's nothing like any of the Cuban Trinidad's we've ever had.
Bam Bam:Well, let's see if it's unlike any of the other aging women's that we've had.
Gizmo:Let's do that. Let's cut this thing, boys. See what we're getting in the cold draw and the wrapper.
Rooster:It's a good looking cigar.
Bam Bam:It's handsome.
Gizmo:Really nice cigar.
Senator:I'm sorry. Even forget the cold draw. Just smelling the foot of the cigar and the wrapper, it smells great.
Gizmo:It smells really premium.
Bam Bam:Senator, the cold draw is full on berry.
Senator:That's what you get on the foot too.
Bam Bam:Right, Chef?
Chef Ricky:The foot, I am not at
Gizmo:the cold draw yet because I can't get over
Chef Ricky:this foot that smells like It's chocolate covered
Bam Bam:like raspberry, blueberry, blackberry. It's incredible.
Gizmo:Very forward cold draw. Do have to tell,
Pagoda:say something, because I don't know whether Rooster picked it up, but this weekend he was talking about the cold draws. And he said, when you take a cold draw and you, you know, inhale it through your nose, not inhale
Rooster:it, meaning. Retrohaler.
Pagoda:Retrohaler. You can really feel the berry. And I just tried it. It is completely berry.
Rooster:I wouldn't lie to you,
Pagoda:dude. No, it's interesting. I've never done that before.
Bam Bam:They must be breaking the laws of physics by doing that somehow. Because I
Senator:think Yeah, I feel like retrohaling a cold draw with no smoke. A scent. Yeah,
Pagoda:no, try it.
Gizmo:No, you can. Yeah,
Senator:let's try it guys. Try it.
Gizmo:It's aroma inception. Hate to
Chef Ricky:say it.
Bam Bam:Listen, it's impossible. Okay. A a scent requires a vehicle for it to pass through a passage, which is the smoke. Without the smoke
Pagoda:No. It's air. Moving anywhere.
Gizmo:It's
Pagoda:air. It's air. Right? I can't hear to your mouth
Senator:and Don't forget. Oxygen oxidizes, ma'am.
Rooster:Correct. We have actually talked about this on the pod. We have. Guys retrohale on a cold
Bam Bam:roll. I can't retrohale
Senator:at I think Rooster's
Gizmo:calling someone old boy. Don't know if know. I don't
Pagoda:know whether retrohale may be the right word, but you take the air through your mouth and exhale it It's through your called
Chef Ricky:a retrohale. That's a retrohale. Try it.
Gizmo:And, again, it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by six and one eights inches long.
Bam Bam:Rooster, you give me a lighter without any fluid in it.
Gizmo:Where the hell did my
Pagoda:lighter go?
Rooster:There's plenty of
Gizmo:fluid, What
Rooster:are talking about?
Bam Bam:It's coming out.
Rooster:You lost your DuPont? No.
Senator:We confiscated as part of the class action giz.
Bam Bam:So it's rare to experience your cold draw on Let's a traditional see if we get that berry in the actual smoke.
Gizmo:I'm using a creme brulee lighter tonight. Sometimes lounge owners, man, it makes no sense the decisions they make.
Pagoda:They seem to be the most popular lighters in every lounge.
Bam Bam:I'm I'm I am getting berry and chocolate.
Senator:Same here. I'm sorry.
Chef Ricky:This is Chocolate covered blueberry.
Senator:Delicious on the light.
Rooster:And pepper. Little bit. Getting any pepper?
Gizmo:Not yet. Little bit, but that could
Chef Ricky:just be from the light.
Bam Bam:Could be from the old boy. I
Gizmo:don't think we've missed an episode in the last forty weeks where he hasn't said old boy in the first five minutes to you.
Bam Bam:I'm trying
Gizmo:to Even when you're not here,
Rooster:it still happens. It's true. He's calling himself an old boy when I'm not here.
Gizmo:Really nice flavor on the light.
Bam Bam:This is very good.
Senator:I'm shocked.
Bam Bam:How much is this cigar?
Gizmo:$10.
Chef Ricky:Wow.
Bam Bam:Yowza. That's a great deal. So I am getting a touch of white pepper now. Just a touch on the retrohale.
Chef Ricky:Hey, Rooster. How much do think, Bam? You got
Rooster:a photo box of these? 2,700.
Bam Bam:Well, it's got the right name.
Chef Ricky:That's why I asked.
Gizmo:I'm shocked at the complexity of the smoke on the light. This does not feel like a $10 cigar. No. Not at all. At all.
Gizmo:I mean, it looks great, feels great, and the flavor is lights out. Think truly full
Bam Bam:flavored, full bodied for me.
Rooster:For me, the spice is kind of over like, it's covering up the other notes. That's become the dominant note right now for me. I'm not getting the berries being overpowered for me.
Senator:I think yours has to be a little heated. I would like leave that for a little bit because I Mine is full on berries.
Gizmo:Very little pepper. Same.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's more secondary, the pepper, and it's very slight.
Chef Ricky:I'm gonna purge this for a little bit because I'm having the same experience as Rooster.
Gizmo:You what I'm kind of relating this to on my palate are those you'll know this. I'm looking at you, rooster. At Costco, they sell these That's berries in what
Chef Ricky:I've been saying.
Gizmo:In bulk? What are those things called?
Senator:Can you believe a chocolate covered blueberry? Don't know what's that. It's only at Costco. You can't find them anywhere else.
Gizmo:Chocolate colored pomegranates. It's not a blueberry.
Chef Ricky:They do have blueberries too.
Gizmo:Oh, I'm talking about the pomegranate one.
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Senator:Apparently, you can't find this covered in chocolate at any other store.
Gizmo:You can get a lot of them at Costco.
Rooster:Yeah.
Gizmo:So that
Chef Ricky:The pomegranate's a little bit more acidic than
Bam Bam:the Yeah. Is not pomegranate. Yeah. I don't see that either.
Senator:I think blueberry was spot on, like chef said.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Rooster:The blueberry pie. Nonetheless, it's delicious.
Bam Bam:It is. If you smoke through this quickly, and I know a lot of people that do, this will back right up into you. Think you'll get a lot
Gizmo:of them.
Chef Ricky:Have you
Rooster:tried red royhelling?
Bam Bam:Yeah, It's still quite Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's pretty powerful though.
Chef Ricky:You know, I've seen these quite a bit in brick and mortars and never once did I ever think of picking one up, but had I known that Nadal was the blender behind it,
Rooster:Correct. I would've considered
Bam Bam:That's right.
Gizmo:So the original Espiritu line debuted in 2019, and this is now the third, of course, the series number three. This came out in 2023, and it comes in five Vitola. So we have the number three Robusto, which is 50 by five, the number three Toro, 54 by six, the Magnum, 60 by six, the Gordo, the number three Panatella, 40 by seven and a half. That's an interesting size for this blend. And finally, the one we have in our hand tonight, the Belly Cosa, 52 by six and an eighth.
Gizmo:All come boxes of 20 ranging anywhere from $11 MSRP to close to 13 MSRP, which this one is. So I would think in most brick and mortar, you're gonna find this, like we said, somewhere between 10 15 to 17, depending on your tax situation.
Senator:Nice. So, Olin, I have a question. So this line is the Espiritu. This series number three Is the third. The third what?
Senator:Like, they changed the blend
Gizmo:Yes, three so they have three different blends in the Aspiritu line. The series number one, series number two, and we have the series number three in our hands.
Senator:Right. And that means the first and second one are discontinued, and you can only now purchase the three, or they actually kept each blend, and there's three different blends on the market. That's very odd. You never see this. That's why I'm asking.
Senator:This is like a strange
Gizmo:It's three different blends as part of a series. I believe all three are still available. Interesting. So wasn't
Rooster:this the it was in the top five, right, of 2025?
Gizmo:Yes, the reason why we went. The reason why we did this one is and we actually earmarked this as we reviewed the cigar aficionado top 25. I think Senator actually said, hey, we should try that. But yeah, it was in. I think it was in the top 10.
Gizmo:Real? Or No. It was the cigar fishinata.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:This is a really off to a nice start here. Great start. So let's talk about the Blend Boys. It has a Mexican San Andres wrapper and undisclosed Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The cigars are made at Tabakara AJ Fernandez cigars.
Gizmo:Of course, AJ Fernandez and Rafael Nadal, our friend, came up with this blend together.
Senator:I mean, the wild thing I'm just gonna say because I'm sure other people have to be thinking it. If there were no bands on this and you had this blind, my first guess would be Padron. It's rich, deep flavor that you get out of this cigar.
Rooster:Kinda like the number 44.
Senator:My only But yet smooth in its delivery like a Padron.
Bam Bam:I would dispute that with only one point. I don't ever get this type of a berry on any Padron.
Senator:No. I don't either. But I would think it's some new cigar that they put Maybe.
Pagoda:Yeah.
Senator:Just because all the other notes are like very Pedron esque Very Pedron esque. Smooth this is for a Nicaraguan cigar.
Bam Bam:What I'd like to see is I'd like to get a box of these and sit on them for a year. I think there's great aging potential for cigars that are this full bodied. Like Padron's, they age beautifully. I think this could age very nicely.
Gizmo:So what's interesting about this, boys, and I was going to point this out to you, is if you take the cellophane that we have and you wrap it around your finger Uh-huh. Look at how dark that is. So the retail shop that we got these from, small batch, these must have been available for
Bam Bam:a while.
Gizmo:Are they Interesting. Either that or they're coming from AJ Fernandez with a little bit of rest on them to smooth them out. But if you look at the Cello, it's brown.
Bam Bam:His boxes aren't dated, are they?
Gizmo:No. Okay.
Rooster:It could also be the San Andres wrapper, like the color coming off the I
Gizmo:don't know, man. To get solo like that, it takes some time.
Bam Bam:You mean the color spray that they have?
Senator:Yeah. Because think of how many cigars have that wrapper. And even the construction is the other thing. I'm sorry, going back to if you had this blind, the draw is flawless. The cigar looks beautiful.
Bam Bam:The burn is excellent. I mean, I this is an extremely well made cigar, like everything he makes.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I'm starting to think the spice is a character that's supposed to be present in this cigar, because it's been it's not as aggressive as it was early on. Now it's being presented to me as like a licorice of some kind. Wow. There's a depth happening here that it's now transitioning from that berry.
Chef Ricky:It's still sweet. There's still some berry there in the back, but I'm getting this pleasant spice that is something more than just a black or
Gizmo:a white I do agree with you. I do think that this fruit note is fading a little bit, but not in a bad way. Very pleasant, very smooth.
Bam Bam:You know, on the retro, I could see licorice as a pretty legitimate statement. Not on the traditional draw, the traditional draw is still for me, very chocolatey, almost light cocoa and a strain of berry.
Pagoda:Yeah. Yeah. For me, it also leaves a little bit of the chocolate lingering taste in the back.
Bam Bam:Very long finish. Long finish.
Chef Ricky:There's a lot happening here.
Bam Bam:For $10?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. A lot happening here.
Gizmo:You know what's funny about the feeling I get when I send the smoke through my nose? It's reminiscent of other cigars that when I do that, it burns a little bit in the back of my throat, but it's not happening here. It's like any other cigar that has felt like that and tasted like that as it goes through the retro, I often feel it in my throat, but I'm not tasting that here, which is a very good thing. Because sometimes you get that throat burn on stuff that's a little bit stronger. Yeah.
Gizmo:And not the case on this one. Yeah. So like I said, these come in boxes of 20. I wanted to show you guys the boxes.
Chef Ricky:So Beautiful. Wow.
Gizmo:The boxes of these are actually inspired. The whole series
Bam Bam:Quite nice.
Gizmo:Is inspired by nineteen sixties Havana.
Chef Ricky:Those reminds me of a Robert Graham
Rooster:shirt
Chef Ricky:or something Yeah. Like
Gizmo:Very bright and colorful. And if you look at the bands on the cigar we have, I know it's a little darker in here, Kinda matches the box. Matches the box. It's kinda bright and loud, a lot of color.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Pretty cool.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Beautiful.
Gizmo:What's funny though is when I saw Trinidad in the humidor, anytime I've seen it in the humidor, even here at ten eighty six, I've always kinda Yeah. You know, waved it off or shunned it.
Bam Bam:You've seen these here?
Gizmo:Yeah. He does have these here.
Bam Bam:Are you serious?
Gizmo:Yeah. Wow. He doesn't have this specific Vitola, which I got from Small Batch.
Bam Bam:Interesting.
Gizmo:But he does have them here.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Chef Ricky:Nice. Yeah, I see these all the time.
Bam Bam:Honestly, this is the first time I'm seeing this cigar.
Senator:Same in person. I mean, I've just seen it online or Yeah. You know, mentioned, but not in person.
Pagoda:This is excellent. Look at the construction. It's
Gizmo:So the other thing that sets this line apart for Trinidad is that this line, the Espiritu line, this series is the first to be made in Nicaragua. All of the other Trinidad cigars from Altadis are made in The Dominican Republic, and they are designed kind of to imitate what you would get out of the Cuban flavor profile. So again, going back to my earlier comment about it being confusing and almost intentionally confusing, I think, sometimes. I think if you were to walk into a lounge and tell a lot of smokers that you're smoking in Trinidad, they would assume they don't have any idea of the origin, the history, etcetera. They just know that Trinidad's a Trinidad.
Gizmo:But I think that does a disservice to both sides of the aisle. But man, this one's standing out tonight.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But you've got many other markers that are doing the same thing, right? Romeo? Monte Cristo. Monte Cristo.
Gizmo:Is it Cohiba?
Rooster:Cohiba? Do you think there's a benefit in naming this brand the Trinidad as opposed to Of course. Something
Gizmo:Because, yeah, the name has recognition worldwide. But for me, it's
Rooster:the other way around.
Gizmo:I agree. I would
Rooster:not pick it up because it's called the Trinidad. That's for because it
Gizmo:seems like an imitation.
Senator:Yeah. That's for us, but I think for a novice cigar smoker, seeing Cohiba I mean, I've encountered I'm sure everyone at some point has met someone who's super early in their cigar journey,
Bam Bam:very green. Oh, yeah.
Senator:And they see Cohiba, they're like, oh, are Cohibas? Are these great? They get all excited. They just don't know better. So I think like for marketing, same thing, Monte Cristo, like a very recognizable name.
Senator:I think those are the people that are gonna gravitate toward those brands, not really understanding the difference between New World and Cuban. But like you're saying, of course, for us, it doesn't do anything. But I do think for the large majority of cigar smokers, are probably much less informed, it it it definitely has to help.
Pagoda:I was at a lounge. I just met a prospect. He was smoking Monarchresses, but they were not originals. He picked it up off some cigar shop in Florida, and he was really, really enjoying it, and it was definitely like non Cuban. Was a new world.
Pagoda:But yeah, mean, I think people are drawn to the names just either way. But some of them smoke really well, apparently. Is amazing. They enjoy it.
Gizmo:Listen, it's amazing how many people in the cigar community, and I'm gonna say people who smoke cigars, right? I think we consider ourselves, our listeners, cigar smokers, right? People who smoke cigars. It's amazing how many people have no idea that there's an embargo for sixty some odd years, have no idea that Cuban products are illegal. And that's where I think these brands playing on it, Altadis and others playing on the names of those Cuban, it works for them.
Rooster:But this person who was smoking that Monte Cristo, did he think he was smoking a Cuban?
Gizmo:Yes. Ah. So that's
Rooster:exactly it.
Pagoda:It's a name that draws them to it.
Gizmo:Right. Yeah. Wow. And he has no idea
Pagoda:that No idea. Wow. But they enjoy it. That's the irony of putting it, meaning they must be good. I haven't tried it, so I couldn't even say.
Pagoda:But the name has definitely a lot of impact in terms of people's selection of cigars.
Bam Bam:Well, know, some of those new world versions, if you want to call it that, are actually very well made. Yeah, for sure. Can't say that they're poorly made cigars. I've had a ton of white label Monte Cristos. I knew they weren't Cuban early on, but I I kind of enjoyed them.
Bam Bam:They're very smooth, very creamy. This is, of course, second year into smoking, which is a long time ago. But
Senator:No. I used to have that as a morning smoke.
Bam Bam:Were questions. Yeah.
Senator:I think to your point, we care about the quality of the cigar. I really don't care the name. I mean, we've done some we we found some obscure cigars with weird brands and names, and that hasn't deterred us as long as the tobacco is you know, the blend is excellent.
Bam Bam:Who would have thought that we'd smoke a Warped and love it?
Gizmo:Right? Yeah.
Bam Bam:Maestro del Tampo is an excellent cigar.
Rooster:And also do a Warped and hate it, like the black black honey.
Gizmo:Yeah. And the other one, the bear.
Rooster:Oh, the El Oso. El Oso. Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to some news before we get to our pairings. Thought you guys are gonna love this one. Davidoff is releasing 11 exclusive editions for 2026. Jeez.
Gizmo:So they have announced all of the different shops and editions that they are going to be releasing cigars for this year. I guess these are some of the retailers that they appreciate. I don't know if they rotate through. I saw North Korea as one of them. North there is a North Korean cigar coming out.
Gizmo:We'll talk about in a second. So let's go through these really quick. So the Davenuve exclusive edition 2026 Bellicoso is a 52 by six. The exclusive edition 2026 Gran Toro 58 by five and a half, and the 2026 Perfecto exclusive edition 53, interesting size, by six and an eighth. They are also going to be offering by the way, they don't name the blends on any of these.
Gizmo:So, again, talking about Davidoff and ragging on Davidoff, it's all their whole thing since the Kellner's have left seems like it's a total departure.
Bam Bam:They almost have no choice. Because I don't think they have anyone steering that ship.
Gizmo:Well, clearly have some sort of management consultant or marketing consultant doing it because it's all marketing. It's all it's moved away from even disclosure of the tobacco.
Bam Bam:It's fucking awful. Pooba's working for Davidoff.
Senator:That's why he hasn't been here.
Bam Bam:Oh, marketing.
Gizmo:So this one is sounds like a regional edition, the Davodoff exclusive Adriatic. 700 boxes being available in Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro. Then they have one, the exclusive airports of USA. 300 a box is available at duty free stores at HNL, JFK, LAX, and SFO, various airports throughout the country. The exclusive for Corona Cigar Company, 1,200 boxes available in Florida at Corona Cigar, 52 by six Bellicoso.
Gizmo:The exclusive Hong Kong, 300 boxes available duty free only in Hong Kong. The exclusive Italy, 400 boxes available, 58 by five and a half grand Toro. The exclusive Japan, 500 boxes available only at duty free Japan. The Davodoff exclusive Jetta Airport, 300 box of boxes available at the flagship store for Davodoff at the Jetta Airport since 1911, apparently. The exclusive Robustos 53 Perfecto by six and an eighth, 300 boxes available at Robustos cigar bar and bistro in Michigan.
Gizmo:The Davodoff exclusive North Korea edition, 53 by six and an eighth Perfecto, 300 boxes available in North Korea in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Davodoff exclusive Vietnam, 53 by six and an eighth Perfecto, $300. And then finally, the Davodoff exclusive Via Pali, which is a club in Sweden, 300 boxes of the 53 by six and an eighth Perfecto. So it's almost like they take these three sizes that they issue as exclusive editions, throw a different band on them, and then send them to these 11 different regions or stores or whatever, and give them an exclusive.
Bam Bam:Yeah, so you know what this is akin to? This is akin to a spoiled brat in the playground, making friends with 11 kids, and then rallying those 11 kids to feel like they're special or different, and then make everybody feel bad. That's what this is. There's nothing more than
Senator:lot of trauma there for you, Gab. Is there something you want to I
Bam Bam:have done
Gizmo:it through a lot of fights. Is there an issue you want to process today?
Pagoda:That flew over my head. I'm sorry.
Gizmo:Mine too. But we're going to get there.
Bam Bam:But why would they create this exclusivity among 11 destinations for their product?
Rooster:And it's weird that, like, it's their version of a regional cigar all
Bam Bam:the The airport's a region?
Gizmo:Yeah. J. Shop in Northern
Bam Bam:New Jersey. That's a region?
Gizmo:Here's my thing though. And the reason why I went through these, right, with those three different cigar sizes being distributed across the 11 here. What's interesting is that these places are so special that they get their own band on these cigars. But they don't get their own cigar and they don't get their own blend. Have done that in the past.
Gizmo:Know they have. They do it every year. But it's just interesting to see it laid out like this. And of course, shout out to Charlie and Halfwheel, always giving us great info here on the pod and putting it in a really nice, easy way for us to share it with you listeners. So thank you, Charlie.
Gizmo:I I find it very interesting that they put three blends together and then effectively offer it, I guess, to these stores as an exclusive, and send the boxes out with different bands on.
Senator:It's also just stupid. There's what, 300 boxes you said available? If these blends were so great, there'd be way more of this made. This is such a stupid gimmick.
Bam Bam:These are leftovers in the factory. Okay. Are gonna smoke through
Senator:one box of them and never smoke them again. What's the point?
Bam Bam:You know, I'm very nervous about my Millennium Pyramids now.
Gizmo:You should be.
Bam Bam:I don't know what the future of that cigar is gonna hold.
Gizmo:I mean, listen, if you look at the late hour
Rooster:Wait, why do you say that?
Bam Bam:Because no one knows what's happening in that goddamn factory. They don't.
Gizmo:Well, you think about well, think about what we talked about with the late hour series and how we have commented. We smoked the Robusto. I believe it was the latest one we smoked. Right? How different it was Mhmm.
Gizmo:From the experiences that we've had in the past in a And negative then senator, I think, was saying that he reached for the Churchill, and it's not performing as it did in the past. So that, of course, leads me
Rooster:out a out of a new box? You bought a new box?
Senator:Or No. It was an older box, but it was newer of the older boxes we bought. So the time period
Gizmo:Newer than when we were smoking them almost every day.
Senator:So there was the time period where we were having them every day, and then toward the tail end, when we started smoking other stuff, and for whatever reason that was fading, I had bought an extra box or two thinking that I would occasionally still enjoy that cigar. When I pulled for one of those, it's not the same as when we loved that cigar and would smoke that all the time. The late hour. Yeah. It's harsh.
Senator:I don't ever remember having a late hour back then and saying that that's a harsh cigar. It was a delicious, full flavored experience, and now it's full flavored, but with a harsh delivery.
Bam Bam:I wonder if it sat for a while, if it would change. It did. It sat for years. In your tower?
Senator:Yeah. And I thought it would be better, and it's no better than I remembered the last one, which is why I stopped smoking.
Gizmo:So, honestly, I share your concern,
Chef Ricky:Ben, with the
Gizmo:future of
Rooster:the blends. But have you have you tried a new millennium out of, like, a recent batch?
Bam Bam:No. I still have a lot from
Gizmo:I think it
Rooster:was Until like four years you try something new, how do you know that Well, something has
Gizmo:I just think the trend the trend is not it's not trending in the right direction, I would say. That's correct. And when I see stuff like this, you see the year you know, obviously, the year of the horse we joked about. Going deeper on that, the lack of disclosure of blending, the lack of disclosure of tobacco, the lack of disclosure of anything that a true cigar smoker is looking for information on what they're putting in their Who's mouth and what they're paying blending? I have no idea.
Gizmo:Mean, they're not putting those names on the sheet. But Millennium is their core line. Why would the fuck around
Rooster:with that? Why would they change that?
Gizmo:It's not about they do have the tendency to It's about, like, the blend needs to be retooled every time there's new tobacco coming in. So is that person going to be able to imitate what millennium was five years ago?
Senator:That's correct. Because the tobacco, we cannot forget. The tobacco changes every single year You based on the growing
Rooster:have to find Tiramisu.
Senator:So you have to have an blender that is able to, sometimes in the shittiest of conditions and other times in the best of them, produce a consistent blend year in and year out. And I think we've seen with cigars, just like we talk about Cuban cigars having good runs, that sometimes a cigar that we maybe liked kind of falls off, and that is usually a product of either the blender hasn't been able to maintain the consistency of the blend, or the construction has gone downhill, and it severely impacts the delivery of the flavor that it should normally have. So all those things are questions.
Bam Bam:Let's take everything he just said, and let's apply it to an elevated brand like Davidoff, who've placed themselves, their industry's put them in a certain position. So we all have expectations, right? Now we don't know what's happening in house. Couple that with the comments that he just made, it's a crapshoot moving forward.
Gizmo:To me it's almost like they've put themselves as, they've tried to put themselves as kind of this Ferrari of in the new the non Cuban cigars.
Bam Bam:But they better they better put
Gizmo:up a product. But they don't tell you what the engine is in it. Right. They don't tell you about the build of the car. They don't tell you any details.
Gizmo:They just say, look at our brand new beautiful Ferrari.
Senator:That's correct.
Gizmo:And they expect the people who used to be passionate about Ferrari to buy the Ferrari and be just totally fine with
Chef Ricky:it.
Senator:I'll just say the most disturbing part for me is the lack of disclosure
Gizmo:on a blend. That's exactly my point.
Senator:To give zero information about what's in a cigar you're smoking, if you're proud of what you've put in there, there's no reason not to. But it's suspicious. There's no reason.
Bam Bam:At one time, they were very open about their blends.
Gizmo:Of course.
Bam Bam:You go online and look at their profiles. They do in store events, and they would spend hour well, an hour and a half, two hours just discussing how they grow. They're growing methods, they're watering methods, all of the blends of the leaves. And now it goes from that to nothing.
Rooster:Yeah, mean they have always had some of the world's best blenders.
Gizmo:Correct.
Rooster:Of course. Eladio Diaz.
Bam Bam:That's the problem.
Gizmo:The Kellner family, Henrik, you know Henke. Henke. Henke Kellner. So currently, we don't even know who the blender is. Exactly.
Gizmo:Once
Bam Bam:you're elevated to a certain point, you have to continue to maintain that. Otherwise, you're going to plummet very quickly.
Senator:Point is when everything all of a sudden is in a black box from the blender to what's the actual blends and what's in the cigar, like, that there's no positive thing that can be
Gizmo:carried out. Attention they're they're going for, senator, is the marketing side of it. They're putting out 11 exclusive editions at random places around the world, and they say, look at our beautiful new cigars and look at these special places they're going, but we're not gonna tell you anything about them.
Bam Bam:There's no substance.
Gizmo:There's no substance. It's all a shell of what it used to be.
Pagoda:So my question is, does it really matter? 80% of the people are not interested in the blend. They're buying a cigar, and they're smoking it.
Chef Ricky:That's
Pagoda:fine. Eightytwenty rule, right, if you're buying But
Bam Bam:we care, but hold on. It matters to those that have been smoking davidol for years and years and years.
Senator:Correct.
Pagoda:I just think, like, you know, how you were talking about the Ferrari thing. If the Ferrari drives like a Ferrari, does it really matter about the details
Bam Bam:of the know. That's the issue. We don't know how it's gonna drive.
Gizmo:But here's the thing, though. I I think there are two types of Ferrari buyers, and I'm not even a car guy. But, like, there's two types of cigar smokers. Cigar smokers are people who smoke cigars. People who buy Ferraris that are obsessed with cars, obsessed with the details.
Gizmo:They wanna pick out every little stitch of leather detail. They wanna know everything in the engine, who made it, how it was made, everything about it. And then there's people who buy the Ferrari because they have a Ferrari. Right? They like to drive Ferrari.
Gizmo:That's the same as cigar smokers.
Bam Bam:But they've been very, very good about giving you the details
Gizmo:Of course. For a very long time. The thing the the point that I'll counter for you, Pagoda, is that they should make it available because it is available. And if someone wants to dig deep enough They should have we do, that we can go on the website and learn about it and find out about it to say, oh, all these we've just put out this 11 editions, thousands of boxes of cigars. They're so special, but we're not gonna tell you what's in them.
Gizmo:Don't look behind the curtain. Don't you know, nobody gets to see the wizard.
Senator:And to Davitto's credit, in the past, like, they actually have some of the most visually compelling breakdowns of their blends. That's what I was talking about there. Exactly. The Millennium Pigon Davidoff Some of
Gizmo:the best ever.
Bam Bam:Exactly. Beautifully It's
Senator:exact leaf that's used, what flavor notes that imparts. It's like a science It's gorgeous. The way they break this down. Gorgeous.
Rooster:I think you're thinking about the when the master blend series came out, they had a they had a big circle.
Senator:For everything.
Gizmo:And they do it on every they they were doing it on every cigar. Single thing.
Bam Bam:If you go right now, you'll
Gizmo:find it. Too. Yeah. And you know what's interesting too is if you think about all if you guys have done it, obviously, I'm more of a nerd, I would think, than all you guys are as far as computers and stuff. If you look at most manufacturers' cigar websites, even Padron, who we love, a lot of websites, they're outdated by many years.
Gizmo:They don't even have the latest lines on the site. The site is not constructed well. Davidoff's always been the opposite of that. Yeah. Where they've been able to market, they've been able to put out exclusive editions, but at least they're telling you what's in them when you pay this high price for it.
Gizmo:Correct. We're smoking a $10 cigar. We know everything about it. We know why it's made, how it's made, who it's made by, when it was made, when it was released. We know everything about this $10 cigar.
Bam Bam:And he has a pretty nice website.
Gizmo:And he has a nice website.
Rooster:Yeah.
Gizmo:So interesting stuff. And one other comment I'll make on this, because I thought about it as we were talking about it. Same kind of commentary about how things are going to change. Again, going back to Carlito Fuente and the Mirepfel breakup with the Cameroon tobacco, and him putting up that weird video. I have containers of Cameroon tobacco.
Gizmo:At the end of the day, the concern that smokers have about those cigars changing are very valid because it's entirely different tobacco. Yes. It's Cameroon. It's from a different farm, a different time, a different place, a different region. Everything's different.
Gizmo:So he's going to have to go back and re blend every one of those cigars. He can't just bring that tobacco in and have it taste the same. Good luck.
Chef Ricky:So it's
Gizmo:the same thing. Good luck with that. Should be interesting what's gonna happen there
Bam Bam:too. Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to our pairing now. What?
Bam Bam:I kinda get away from my lips.
Gizmo:We have the yellow spot twelve years aged Irish whiskey. Mhmm. Cheers, boys.
Bam Bam:Cheers.
Gizmo:And by the way, we have a birthday in the room, mister Pagoda.
Bam Bam:Oh, god.
Gizmo:Hey. Happy birthday, pal.
Bam Bam:No shanks today. K?
Gizmo:I actually have a Kellner LE 80 for you.
Pagoda:Oh, thank you so much.
Gizmo:Nice. That I added the box I just got. Very excited about it.
Pagoda:Really appreciate it.
Gizmo:So cheers, boys. I'll give that to you after I have a buried
Bam Bam:in my bag. Got a Philly blonde for you today.
Gizmo:Happy birthday.
Rooster:I have a
Pagoda:I won't expect anymore.
Rooster:I have a QD for you.
Pagoda:No. Thank you.
Senator:How many days have you
Gizmo:been taking making that one?
Rooster:It's my own blend.
Pagoda:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:I'm sure. So what do you guys think of the yellow spot tonight?
Bam Bam:I think it's
Gizmo:pretty damn good.
Bam Bam:That's nice.
Gizmo:I think it's great. Yeah. You know, going back to, of course, Irish whiskey here because we we stepped away from Irish whiskey for a while. Mhmm. Excuse me.
Gizmo:I just sipped that. Had a little heat in my throat.
Bam Bam:You mean you took a gulp?
Gizmo:The writer's tears was what actually brought us back, I would say, to Irish whiskey a few weeks ago. That was a brilliant, brilliant drink. So here we are tonight with the yellow spot. And question I have, senator, because I honestly have no idea, is this a sister spirit to green spot, or do they have nothing to do with each other? No.
Gizmo:No. It is. Reviewed that, I think.
Senator:I'll give a little just context for kinda the brand and why this is named what it is and the others in the line. So the origin of the spot name, there's like green spot, red spot, blue spot. They have all these different ones. It's apparently the Dublin wine merchants Mitchell and Sons, which you'll see on the bottle. They used to mark their aging cast with paint.
Senator:Green meant ten years, yellow was twelve, blue was eight, and red was fifteen. So this being yellow spot, it's minimum twelve years age, the whiskey here. What's cool is the casks that they've aged it in. So it's American bourbon barrels, Spanish sherry barrels, and a rare Spanish Malaga wine barrel that they use, which I was not familiar with Malaga wine. But in looking it up, it's a fortified wine similar to a port, but something very unique and specific to the Malaga.
Senator:Like, apparently, it's like Andalusia. It's like in that region of Spain.
Gizmo:Andalusia bowl.
Senator:There's I think some good complexity. Can get I think a number of different notes from this. Yellow Spot was produced for a very long time, but apparently disappeared from shelves in the early nineteen sixties and wasn't brought back until 2012. So Wow. More recent that finally yellow spot has made its kind of reappearance.
Senator:In terms of flavor profile, it says it's known for a complex palate featuring notes of peach, red apple, honey, and pot still spices. In 2017, it won 99 points in the chairman's trophy at the ultimate spirits challenge. And then it's proof. It's bottled at 46%, so 92 proof higher than green spot, which is 40, which I actually think for this cigar works really well because you get a long finish on the cigar and the spirit.
Bam Bam:It does complement each other very well. There's enough body in the spirit to compete with this thing, and you need that for a cigar like this. You know, out of the list of notes, for me, the most prevalent on the nose, if you get your nose very close to the spirit and inhale slowly, I get a deep honey. It's really delicious.
Chef Ricky:I get honey and a Butterscotch. Creme brulee, like vanilla custard.
Bam Bam:Yeah, something like that. Vanilla honey.
Chef Ricky:The aroma's absolutely delicious. It's incredible. The flavor, the finish I'm not a big fan of. The finish has this tannic ginger like thing that happens.
Senator:That's true.
Chef Ricky:It feels a little disconnected.
Bam Bam:I actually like that ginger finish, it dissipates, and for me it gets buttery after you get past that. I agree. It's very good.
Gizmo:I think it's a very nice spirit. I do wonder, and I'm not gonna do it, but I do wonder if I had just a splash of water or a single chip ice cube. I wonder if it would open even more.
Bam Bam:But I have a question
Gizmo:for you.
Chef Ricky:I just want Panamanian rum every every day.
Gizmo:Pretty Not wrong. By the way, I did think about bringing that in That's all I want.
Bam Bam:After you get past that ginger, which is a real thing here, it does occur, but it dissipates, you don't get a salty, buttery finish that lasts for a while?
Senator:I do. I do.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah. Absolutely. That's pretty special. I don't often see that on any scotch or whiskey ever. Pretty unique, I think.
Chef Ricky:I'm just coming off of twenty one days of being a vegan. I think my Walk me back. My palate is pretty clear at this point, and I'm not getting a lot of creaminess that I would associate with the butteriness. For me, it's a bit thinner.
Bam Bam:Not the viscosity, the flavor.
Chef Ricky:No. Yeah, I'm not I'm not getting that creamy sensation that I would from butter. It's a little tannic for me. Feels a little like a dry a dry red wine almost.
Bam Bam:Oh, interesting. So this this little
Senator:tannic experience
Gizmo:for me. Okay. What is the proof on this?
Senator:40. 46.
Gizmo:46.
Pagoda:A 90 proof. 92 proof. Okay. It
Gizmo:drinks like a 46.
Pagoda:Not I surprised to hear think it's better than that, meaning I'm not feeling the heat.
Gizmo:I feel a little bit of
Chef Ricky:heat That's the in back of my pepperiness there. There's something
Gizmo:there. I do think it pairs very nicely with the cigar.
Bam Bam:Do too. Do too, and I love that occasional pepper, keeps you awake, It makes you sit to attention type of thing. Mhmm.
Senator:Irish whiskeys we've talked about, their style is they're much softer, much smoother, much lighter. This is a bolder expression for an Irish whiskey, which I like to see that it has that range, and I just think for this cigar, as much as we loved Writer's Tears, I think that would not hold up well to a cigar this full.
Gizmo:And I think we did say that.
Bam Bam:I agree with that.
Senator:But this, I think, for a cigar with this amount of flavor, do think it holds up really well.
Bam Bam:I'd like to try a Padron with this whiskey. Yeah. I'd like to try the Sonata with this possibly. Because I think there are nuances in that cigar that I think would lend really nicely to this.
Gizmo:You're talking the yellow band of Yes. Beijing Correct.
Rooster:And the
Gizmo:Concerto. Yeah. I know if I'd go concerto. Again, that has that milk chocolate thing for me.
Bam Bam:I know. Didn't The blue band
Gizmo:on foot. Yeah. I I don't know if
Senator:I That's like fuller than the Sonata.
Bam Bam:It's a full cigar. Any full cigar would be worth trying to see what it works.
Gizmo:To me, it's creamier than the Sonata though. I think I think It's funeriness cigar. I think the Sonata is closer to this cigar than the Concerto's closer to this
Bam Bam:cigar. Maybe.
Gizmo:At least in the milk chocolateiness. You know, that's why I love that cigar so much.
Rooster:I think this is a fuller experience.
Gizmo:I agree.
Bam Bam:Oh, a 100 a 100%.
Rooster:Yeah. Correct.
Gizmo:So, boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso. What's everybody thinking right now on flavor profile?
Bam Bam:I'm smoking too fast.
Chef Ricky:It's full on cocoa for me right now.
Bam Bam:Lots of Yeah,
Pagoda:it's very, I think for me it's very Asian rum remnants, like whichever. Whichever. No, like you could see by this is like a Raffaele Nodal, know, caliphate cigar.
Bam Bam:DNA, there's DNA there.
Senator:Absolutely. I mean, to Jeff's point, I'm sorry, this is like hot cocoa. It's crazy.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. It's Crazy.
Pagoda:Lot of A cocoa little
Chef Ricky:chocolate. The berries have gone. The berries have gone. I
Gizmo:will say this, and and I really don't throw this around a lot. We don't throw this around a lot. It is very Padron esque to miss.
Bam Bam:You mentioned that.
Gizmo:You mentioned that earlier. But I
Pagoda:mean Now.
Gizmo:But to get to say that on the light, I don't think is rare. To say that Now. At this point
Bam Bam:I agree with that
Gizmo:now. I think it is definitely The very forward Patron esque.
Bam Bam:Nature of this early on, it wasn't hitting it for me, but now this is I now I agree.
Senator:To be clear, you know, me saying that in a light, my point was that the DNA is similar, the expression is different. Right? Like, we don't get berry on many Padrons, but I could see someday Padron putting out a cigar that actually has some berry notes.
Gizmo:And in fact,
Senator:the one cigar they do have that has that, the Monarcha in Maduro, you get berry notes on that cigar. We've talked about this plenty of times.
Rooster:Yep.
Senator:Now at this point, like, this is much more obviously Pedrone. We're like, yes, a ton of cocoa, You think Padron. But I just mean, like, the DNA is is so similar throughout, and just right now, it happens to be that, like, the flavor profile is, like, pretty damn spot on for a lot
Gizmo:of Padron. I wanna make it clear. I wasn't disputing what you said at the beginning. I was saying it's rare for us to not only at the beginning, that's one thing, but also at this point in the cigar to compare anything here to Padron, that's very rare in this room. We don't do that very often.
Gizmo:Yeah. I mean, to say something is Padron esque in this room
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. That's very rare, especially at this point.
Bam Bam:I wanna ask Rooster a question. You were the aroma. You were really taking your time with it. I'm getting something very specific. What are you getting on it?
Gizmo:On the aroma, I mean,
Rooster:I I get I get a little bit of spice and mostly cocoa, chocolate cocoa. It's very earthy also.
Bam Bam:I don't know. For me, it's like holding a hot cup of cocoa under my nose. It's really incredible. Yeah. And it's not harsh at all.
Rooster:To me, this cigar kind of reminds me of that number 44, like pyramid.
Bam Bam:You mentioned that earlier. So I used to love that. I haven't had it in years, but that is a very good cigar. I don't remember it enough to compare it to this in any way.
Rooster:I mean, I think the blend is absolutely fantastic. And for the price point, this is a great cigar.
Pagoda:Yeah. This is a great cigar.
Bam Bam:And it's getting better and better.
Gizmo:And this is one for our listeners out there who like a stronger cigar, a Nicaraguan cigar that's smooth, this is very well priced. I think we talk a lot of cigars that we've rated recently that have done very well. We talk about them being Cubanesque or kind of in the middle, the Kellner, let's say, is kind of that Dominican in the middle profile. This is definitely a full cigar, but it is delivered so smoothly, and for $10, it's an absolute home run right now.
Bam Bam:As he's done over and over again.
Gizmo:Yeah. He can't miss in this room. At least at this point, we'll see how it finishes.
Senator:I'm just going say it. This is one of the best full bodied cigars I've had in a very long time.
Gizmo:Yeah, I agree.
Bam Bam:It's true. Have we done the Quattro, any of the Quattro in here?
Gizmo:We did. We did that very early on. It did not rate terribly well. But I think It was an eight.
Pagoda:It was an eight.
Gizmo:It was an eight, but I think it might have been a little wet. We were kind of in our early days. I definitely didn't put that through the same protocol that I did Would
Bam Bam:you consider revisiting that here?
Gizmo:Absolutely. I think we should do it in a different vitola.
Bam Bam:I would like to really get it under perfect conditions and try it out.
Gizmo:And for the listener, we're talking about the aging room that has the orange band.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:So we just mentioned the yellow and blue band. The orange one is the first one
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:That we did, I think, almost four years ago now Yeah. On the podcast here, and I think we should revisit that line for sure.
Rooster:So do you have any idea what the series one and the series two is like? What's the what's the blend like?
Gizmo:When this was originally launched, I guess, at PTA or right after that in 2019, I don't think Rafael Nadal had anything to do with it at that time. That was in AJ Fernandez release, and it was released the first one was released to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Trinidad brand. Again, the confusion of that, of course, is it's the fiftieth anniversary of the Trinidad brand in Cuba, so it's kind of odd. So that was the original that was the original release. And then I guess they did the series two, and that was the first one that Rafael and the Doll had anything to do with.
Gizmo:And then the series three came out two years after that. So it's 1921, and '23 are the releases of these. So I'm surprised there wasn't a series four in '25. So, you know, I guess there was it was intended to be a three part series, but Nadal came in in the in in number two. So let's go to another news story, boys.
Gizmo:And we've been talking about chaos going on in Cuba. And I thought this was interesting because we talked about Venezuela. We've talked about Chenji and that chaos, of course, and his influence on that. Of course, have to mention the cigar we're smoking tonight, Trinidad. This is made by Altadis.
Gizmo:They were severely affected by Chen G as we talked about a few weeks ago. So if you're interested in what we're referencing, tune in. We're not gonna recap it now, but tune in a couple weeks ago. We talked about Chen G's influence on Altadis. And again, shout out to Charlie at Half Wheel.
Gizmo:He did a huge write up. He really was the one exposing it all of how it has pretty much impacted Altadis in a very, very serious way here in The United States and globally in addition to his impact on Habano. So I would check that out. Altidis is definitely dealing with some problems because of him as well. So going back to Cuba now, this is pretty wild.
Gizmo:So we talked about Venezuela's influence on Cuba and providing the oil. Of course, Maduro, who was just captured, his entire security force was Cuban. A lot of folks in Nicaragua, doctors and other highly skilled folks are Cuban. They trade those folks for oil effectively. And now that Venezuela's out, Mexico was one of the final providers of help to Cuba as far as oil goes.
Gizmo:And Mexico has canceled their oil shipments to Cuba. So now the question is, who's gonna step up here and help Cuba? Now what? It it seems like the time the the clock is ticking. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Because if Venezuela's out and Mexico's out, and I think they have been the the really only two that have been providing serious oil. I think Africa there's a country in Africa that may be sending some oil, but I don't know if they're gonna do that with The US situation going on right now. But, geopolitically, this seems like crazy. Forgetting all that, the impact that this is gonna have on Cuba at this point, it seems like a really, really it seems like a ticking time bomb. Of course, you know, president Trump is talking about, you know, the collapse of Cuba is imminent.
Gizmo:You know? Who knows how true that is? But as far as electricity and the Cuban people, this is not good for them. And I don't know who's gonna step up to help them. It seems like the options are running out.
Gizmo:Gizmo.
Chef Ricky:It's a
Senator:great time to visit.
Bam Bam:Oh, I could see him on the ship.
Senator:Some barrels of oil.
Gizmo:I'll bring some oil.
Bam Bam:I could see him on a ship right at the stern as it docks into Havana.
Senator:And then it turns right around and goes to Gitmo. Easy runs out of a bay.
Gizmo:Wait. This is in Havana?
Pagoda:Gizagit?
Chef Ricky:See, Gizmo would share at the stern of the ship. Mhmm. The Titanic scene there.
Senator:Gizmo at Gitmo.
Gizmo:So, yeah, it's a sad situation in Cuba, man. I I feel terrible for them. The text messages I've been getting from our friends there in Cuba, it it does seem dire. I've had a lot of folks asking when we're coming back, and they're not interested in talking to us about cigars and stuff. They're, you know
Bam Bam:They're trying to survive.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's it's really a bad situation. So if you have any friends in Cuba or you have ways to help friends in Cuba, certainly try to find ways to do it because How is the power
Rooster:situation now? I mean, is it every single day they lose power for, like Every day.
Gizmo:Every day. Every day. They're losing power for six to eight hours minimum a day. That's in Havana. Elsewhere in the country, which is not as widely reported, I mean, they're losing power for days, if not a week at a time or more.
Gizmo:So the ability to get water, you know, clean clothing, food, you know, all those things, it's just really impacted. Gasoline is impossible to get. Fuel is impossible to get. The black market trade of fuel and other resources is, mean, thank God it's terrible.
Rooster:The temperature is kinda you know, it's it's a warm country. It's it's
Gizmo:a Caribbean.
Senator:You imagine if it was wet? Cold there last weekend. But not like here. No. Not like here, but I I literally was just reading.
Senator:This past weekend, people are in hoodies and scarves in Havana. I'm not kidding.
Rooster:I know. It's snow.
Senator:It's snowing in
Gizmo:the corner.
Senator:You're coming to Havana, to bring hoodies and warm weather clothing because the temperature has shockingly dropped, people will actually need warm clothes.
Pagoda:What's it at? 70? I mean, for
Rooster:them, probably. Like I said, we'll keep
Gizmo:our eye on it. We'll keep reporting on it. But, you know, I I I'm starting to lose optimism about the whole thing. You know? It doesn't seem it doesn't seem good.
Bam Bam:There are no good answers right now.
Rooster:I think Bam should have he should have held on to the fundies a little bit longer.
Gizmo:I mean, he could be he could have been over three. He's had he waited a little longer.
Bam Bam:Correct. I blame you.
Gizmo:Dude, I waited like eight months. I know. Mean, know how
Senator:quick Sabreco could change? Karma. Save it, Rooster.
Rooster:Karma. Karma is a bitch.
Gizmo:But we're laughing all the way
Bam Bam:to the bank.
Gizmo:All right, boys. Let's go to some listener email now. I have let me tell you. I have a ton of email. We'll see how much we get through tonight.
Gizmo:We'll punch some of it to next week. A lot of great stuff here coming in from listeners. I gotta shout out our listeners. The email, the comments, the commentary, the voice memos have been incredible as we've started 2026 here, so please keep it coming. We will get to them all.
Gizmo:We really, really appreciate hearing from you guys. So we're gonna start here with our friend Lizard Lake, who's an OG Lizard listener. He says, Giz, first time finishing an episode and feeling compelled to share my thoughts this week. Lizard John's email about trying more white whale cigars was great, and I'm glad he made the suggestion, although I don't agree with his take. It was definitely a question worth asking, and I bet your inbox speaks to that.
Gizmo:We've got a lot of commentary on both sides of this, but I like Lizard Lake's email. The Lizard's immediate point on availability rings true to me along with the expected cost per stick. Of course, what we just talked about with Cuba. I'm so glad we changed our cadence, by the way, to not every other week to every five weeks because even every five weeks now has become a challenge for Cuban cigars. Even if a listener has access to well sourced brick and mortars or connections online and can find some of these rare and top of the line sticks, the gang's review doesn't mean a whole lot as I'm going to go out on a whim that even a 10 out of 10 score isn't enough to push most of the audience to go and spend 200 plus dollars on a bijike.
Gizmo:My personal experience with these kinds of cigars and my experience listening to the pods reviews has been that white whale cigars at best meet your expectations and score highly. A 100 plus dollar cigar should be nothing short of perfect. More often than not, they fail to reach a peak score due to the variables like construction, smoke output, etcetera. I've had an Opus X and Cohibas that blew my socks off, and I leave those sessions very happy. But I've had an equal number of sessions where I couldn't help but think this cigar sucked and what a waste of money it was.
Gizmo:Plus time and resources of sourcing and aging just to wish I had picked up something else out of the humidor that night. The joy in seeing a $12 regular production cigar score a nine or 10 heavily outweighs a $100 cigar reaching the same score. The under promise, over deliver mentality is a big part of my job in a custom manufacturing business, BAM. Mhmm. And it carries over the same with the cigar smoking experience.
Gizmo:Hidden gems you can buy in tens or 20 fives at a time without getting a raised eyebrow from your spouse is a major perk to listening week in and week out. The Tatuahe Cabo Eguan example is perfect. I love the brand, but had no knowledge of that particular line. The pod rated it highly. And the next day, I can buy five of them to try and maybe hand one to a friend who doesn't listen each week.
Gizmo:A $50 investment that would cover eight to ten hours of smoke time plus handing one out to a buddy. It's a win win. I am in no way a major bargain chaser, and I can't understand these guys you see on Reddit that boast about their 300 stick haul from cigar bid, but the 8 to $15 stick range seems to be your sweet spot, and I look forward to hearing more episodes bringing great cigars to light. Special occasion cigars are for special occasions. Please keep it that way in the pod, and I think your rotation will more closely match that of the majority of the listeners.
Gizmo:Thanks for all you do and the guys for the weekly content. Lizard Lake.
Bam Bam:First, this notion of custom manufacturing doesn't apply to what we're holding in our hands because this is truly a handmade product. And it varies. There's variables. And there are variables in how they're stored in your tower, my tower, in his tower, everyone else's tower.
Gizmo:What about Magoda's tower?
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm sure it's extraordinary.
Chef Ricky:It's not set up.
Pagoda:I still have to set up the Gobi.
Gizmo:But listen. And the
Rooster:air tags.
Bam Bam:We're we smoke a bajique in this room because it and and it scored a 10 because it was incredible, and it was stored perfectly, and the conditions were right for us and all worked out for us. It doesn't always work for everyone.
Gizmo:And listen, I mean, we've talked about Cuban cigars though, even at those high price points like Blizzard Lakes is is saying here. I mean, sometimes you pull one of those cigars and they don't draw. They don't smoke well. It's a nightmare. I mean, there's more variability in Cuban construction out of the same box, out of the same market, etcetera, that it's a
Rooster:complete nightmare. I just I just went through that this weekend. I lit up a sir Winston. It was totally plugged. Mhmm.
Rooster:Completely plugged.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Rooster:I mean, you had to struggle with that cigar. I mean, that's like you know, it's not a cheap cigar, having to
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Rooster:Struggle with that, I mean, it's it's annoying. Mhmm. Super annoying.
Senator:I mean, I'm sorry. I I I see nothing wrong with what Lizard Lake said.
Bam Bam:Oh, I don't disagree with it.
Gizmo:I agree with him point on all of it.
Senator:Spot on. Yeah, no, I don't And the reality of a lot of these white whale cigars that we've reviewed is like, the takeaway is like, yes, they may have been great, but they're not worth it. That's just the blunt reality. Like, I'm sorry, if a bahike is going for $250, and that scores a 10, and I can have a padrone for 15 or $30, or even $75.
Gizmo:Or just $10 cigar we have in hand.
Senator:Which is also a
Gizmo:And
Senator:if those score a 10, that very clearly means
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:That a bahike is not worth $250 because you don't need to spend that crazy sum of money to have a 10 experience. So I I really appreciate his email.
Bam Bam:I agree.
Senator:I think it's spot on. And I think, like, you know, that's the dilemma for Cuban cigars. It's like, as prices have just crept up so much, and we're finding so many great options in the new world space, like, it is just not worth there's not the value in paying that. I always I've said this many times. I'm all for paying more for more.
Senator:So if I'm gonna spend something as idiotic as $250 on a cigar, it needs to be the single greatest thing I've ever had in my life. I can't possibly find anything remotely as satisfying, but that's just not the case. I can actually find many different cigars that are incredibly satisfying
Gizmo:All true.
Senator:And deliver a 10 experience at a way lower price
Gizmo:than other. $750 Bijique 58? What does
Chef Ricky:that rank there? I mean,
Bam Bam:absurd. One other comment. I think
Gizmo:that rated a seven, right? In the sevens?
Bam Bam:What did he say? So now, smoking cigars that mimic the pattern of our listeners.
Gizmo:Yeah. Which is, by the way, why we changed the cadence. Well, I
Bam Bam:was about to go there. So prior, early years ago, we have an obligation to smoke through the Cuban catalog as expensive and outrageous as they are because of what we're doing here. Well, now
Senator:years ago, they were affordable. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But even recently, we're still continuing to, and as their availability dissipates, we're not gonna do that for much longer, but we had a responsibility to go through those. Now, we do smoke like our typical listener and their patterns of smoking because of availability and affordability. It took us time to get there.
Gizmo:And I think, I do think though that a lot of our listeners, even in The States here, were smoking like we did. I think it was, if you wanna call it one to one we were doing every other week or one, you know, I think it actually was aligned because the email, the commentary from our listeners was that. Now what we're seeing is these Cuban cigar smokers moving away from Cuban cigars for all the reasons that we did. So I actually feel like the pivot that we made, even though some of the emails were not happy about it, I actually do think that it aligns with a lot of our American and non American smokers. Our entire global audience, I believe, has moved very similarly to how we did as it relates to the rotation.
Gizmo:And also, we've really found a lot of gems Oh, yeah. That are not mimicking but close to what we expect from a great Cupid cigar at a significantly lower price. Sure. And what's funny saying that, of course, is we have a Trinidad in our hand from Nicaragua that's as full as a Padron family reserve that has nothing to do and not it doesn't taste anything like a Cuban Trinidad cigar. But we have found a lot of cigars, including that Tatawahe Cabo Iguany referenced.
Gizmo:You know, that has there been a more Cuban experience that we've had on this podcast? And that's a Nicaraguan cigar.
Bam Bam:For how much? $8? Correct.
Rooster:But it's not only the price factor of a Cuban cigar. It's also to be able to source them.
Gizmo:Of course.
Rooster:Nobody's shipping us. We can't get them.
Gizmo:Dude, I saw I saw a thread the other day on one of the Facebook groups. There was a listing of all the guys who sell and buy and everything else listing how much money they've lost to customs by, you know, bringing Cuban cigars in, shipping them in, and them being confiscated. Some of these guys have lost $20.30, $4,050,000 dollars cigars just in the last year to customs.
Bam Bam:Music will stop soon.
Gizmo:The music is stopping.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:And in more ways than one, of course, what we just referenced with the the oil situation. But I thought it was a great email from Wizard Lake. I completely agree with him. I do not regret for one minute changing the cadence when we did because my stress level is down significantly not having to
Bam Bam:And source we greatly appreciate that.
Pagoda:In one case, you're a visionary.
Gizmo:I don't know about that. I was reactive. I wasn't ahead of it. But, you know, I think what we did there was very good. And I agree with Lizard Lake.
Gizmo:And listen. If there's listeners out there who disagree with what we're saying or disagree with Lizard Lake, we wanna hear it. So please send us send us a note.
Rooster:Who needs Cuban cigars if you can have this experience for $10? Right? With the Trinidad name on
Gizmo:it. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:Where's this?
Pagoda:I think I'm gonna go try the Monocrystal right away.
Chef Ricky:Very different, but the Cabo Iguana, $8.
Gizmo:The Cabo Iguana actually I mean, that was a very Cuban esque profile, I thought.
Chef Ricky:Really was.
Gizmo:You know, we all did. So, boys, we're coming to the end of the second third now on the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso. What's everybody thinking right now? It's definitely become cocoa forward. There's a lot of cocoa on it.
Bam Bam:I agree.
Gizmo:This is a great, smooth Nicaraguan experience.
Bam Bam:Dare I say, it's a touch and I happen to love dark chocolate, like 70% chocolate. It's right there for me.
Rooster:It's sweeter now. There's no pepper. It's sweet. It's smooth.
Bam Bam:It's The retrohale's excellent.
Chef Ricky:It's still packing a punch, but it's delivering it very, very smoothly.
Pagoda:Mhmm. Love the way it smokes. Great smoke output. Easy to smoke.
Gizmo:I agree with you. The combustion's fantastic. Yeah. How much did you guys take off the head? I wanted to ask.
Gizmo:Because I took my first cut, it was a little tight. I took a second one, so I probably took off like a quarter of an
Bam Bam:inch. So I took the second cut as well.
Gizmo:Yeah. I had to.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But it's still pretty
Gizmo:And I feel for the listener, the reason why I'm mentioning that is I feel like if you don't take off enough, this is a cigar, this shape that kind of comes to a, not a point, but a rounded point.
Bam Bam:Yep.
Gizmo:If you don't cut off enough, you're going get a tar blast.
Bam Bam:But you'll also start taking off less. Exactly.
Gizmo:Can always take more off.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:You can't take less off.
Rooster:Correct. It's like adding salt to a dish. You can always add more, but you can't take it out. Right, chef?
Pagoda:Says the chef, absolutely.
Rooster:I mean, you still have to keep the taper on the cigar.
Gizmo:That should
Rooster:be intact. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:And in a good restaurant, you should never have
Gizmo:to add salt to a dish. True. That's why there's no damn salt shakers in good restaurants.
Chef Ricky:I'll never
Gizmo:know that. So speaking of restaurant chef, I actually had this thought as we've been talking about Blizzard Lake's email. Going back to our earlier conversation about things changing, we talked about Davidoff, we talked about Fuente, I actually think a great analogy is the restaurant world, right, where ingredients are always changing and then, like, a different chef coming into our restaurant. So can you explain the dynamic for us, for our listeners, of how things change as far as the restaurant experience, the menu, the food coming out with all of those variables changing? I think it's very much aligned with what we were just talking about before with Davidoff and Fuente.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I I think when a restaurant brings in a new chef, it's it's a it's a tough time because, you know, usually that change happens not for a good reason, but the staff makes a massive adjustment. I think leadership is huge. Flavor and all that stuff that is that that matters to the guests. It matters to the restaurant as well, but you need to execute all of that.
Chef Ricky:So to the point of, you know, you have your blender. Sorry. I'm gonna get really scatterbrained here. But
Pagoda:Welcome.
Bam Bam:Well timed, old boy. Definitely need
Gizmo:to get on these ADHD meds.
Pagoda:Please be expeditious out here. Please be expeditious.
Senator:Do you
Gizmo:want the iPad? No.
Chef Ricky:No. It's it's tough. Right? A new chef brings in a lot, brings in a new a new train of thought, brings in new flavors, brings in new techniques, hopefully. And there's a massive adjustment.
Chef Ricky:You know? It's it's you know, brings in a new temperament. But just on a on on the basis of seasonality, that is while that is a change, that's an expected change because for the most part, you know what's coming into season one. There's also certain times of of of the year, like January, everyone decides they don't want to drink or they don't want to eat certain foods or, you know, they want to lighten things up. That becomes particularly tricky because January is a cold winter month.
Chef Ricky:You usually associate hardier, richer things with that time of year. But you have to make those adjustments. Some of these things, if you don't deliver on them, they could be some big losses for you, right? Because there's nothing for certain customers to connect with if you don't make those adjustments. But there's always a time or a period where there's just a massive adjustment that needs to happen.
Chef Ricky:And it's a lot because it's not just one person that needs to make that adjustment. There's a staff, you know, and you have to change the mindset of a lot of people behind you.
Gizmo:So do you end up
Rooster:changing the menu if there's a new chef
Senator:Or does he adapt
Rooster:to the menu?
Chef Ricky:Not wholly, right? Because there's some things on that menu that just may be untouchables.
Gizmo:Millennium pyramids. Correct. There you go.
Chef Ricky:Right? And some of those things So in that regard, it's teaching the chef, Hey, this is how this needs to be done. You allow But at the same time, you allow the chef to bring some things. He may have an idea for an existing dish that might just help it stay on the menu for another ten years. So, you know, you really just have to keep an open mind and keep the two way street open.
Gizmo:So let's say there's a restaurant, let's say a New York City restaurant that's famous, you know, has a bunch of Michelin stars. I'm obviously making a parallel
Rooster:Sure.
Gizmo:To Davidoff here, right? Davidoff brings in new blenders, a new situation, and then totally stops talking about the blenders, the ingredients, what's going on here, and just keeps advertising the brand, the story, and and and the marketing offering. If that were to happen in a restaurant in New York City, what what would happen?
Chef Ricky:In a restaurant that's known for that, that that could kill that restaurant. For Davidoff
Bam Bam:For a restaurant at that level?
Gizmo:Yes. Okay. Because I'm putting Davidoff as the primo. Right? I mean Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Chef Ricky:For Davidoff, I'm guessing they're seeing a change in their demographic. I'm guessing that they're seeing a change in the person that's buying these things. Maybe there's collectors out there that are are really falling for the packaging or really falling. You know, maybe they're completionists and they want to get one box of each of these quote unquote regionals. Exclusive editions or whatever.
Chef Ricky:Airport regionals. But, you know, it's Yeah, I think if a restaurant did that, you know, if a La Bernadette all of a sudden decided to not make its focus seafood.
Gizmo:Can you imagine Eric repair leaving La Bernadine and then not telling you who the chef was?
Chef Ricky:I mean, case in point, you had 11 Madison Park who probably rather successfully decided to go vegan. And you know, ultimately they ended up changing back. You know, I'm not going to say they weren't successful in that endeavor, but Not fully though. They probably weren't as successful as they were hoping to be where they couldn't sustain it. So they had to regress and go back to
Pagoda:the target audience changed. So,
Chef Ricky:you know, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of changes to consider, you know, and with restaurants, as I'm sure with all the rollers in tobacco, you know, tobacco area, tobacco area, it could be tough. You have a lot of people to convince, you have a lot of people to lead, you have a lot of people to just, you know, make sure they're executing the vision and you have a vision to recreate. And that's not an easy task. That's hard to do. And then there's restaurants that, you know, the chef is an owner.
Chef Ricky:It's not someone that you can necessarily replace that adds another layer of complexity. There's always egos involved in all these things. But yeah, I think if a restaurant just decides to sort of abandon what made them successful in the first place, it better be for a damn good reason.
Pagoda:I think they've just hired consultants.
Gizmo:I agree. I totally agree. I think they've hired marketing consultants.
Pagoda:Get rid of the art and make it a process.
Gizmo:I completely agree.
Pagoda:There you go.
Bam Bam:Big mistake.
Chef Ricky:Make it efficient.
Senator:I'm Nothing wrong with consultants.
Gizmo:You're not a marketing consultant, though.
Bam Bam:Pay them all. I am.
Pagoda:They add a lot of value.
Gizmo:So I thought that was an apropos, you know, thought
Bam Bam:Good parallel.
Gizmo:Of like how to explain to us. I mean, you know, obviously, we're lay people as far
Bam Bam:as Yes.
Gizmo:Yes. You know, food is cigars, whatever. Obviously, you're not with Good
Bam Bam:job, bud.
Gizmo:Well done. But it's like I just to try to talk about that process Yeah. Yeah. It's not that it's not the same.
Chef Ricky:I don't think senator's a lay person either when it comes to that. I'm a just put that out there.
Bam Bam:Oh, thank you, Joe.
Pagoda:To what?
Gizmo:Wow. That's what we needed, Ben. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:I mean, he's you know, he eats caviar and potato chips as a midnight snack.
Rooster:So he's he's on with that level. Paul Roger.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to another email now. This one is from Lizard Jay. He says a very warm hello to Giz and the rest of the lizards from a lizard in training. I'm an incredibly new smoker here having had my very first cigar nearly ten months ago at the ripe old age of 29 years old.
Gizmo:By the way, I think 29 is a perfect age to start smoking.
Chef Ricky:Those are J's were in them before, yeah? Thought they were just ten years
Pagoda:too late. Oh,
Chef Ricky:I'm getting my lizard j's confused.
Bam Bam:Rooster was eight when he started smoking.
Gizmo:And he says, I have since fallen in love with the world of cigars. Most of my experience is consistent walking into my local brick and mortars and blindly picking up singles and I as I'm still developing my palate and deciphering what I do and don't enjoy. So having resources like the podcast and the ratings archive has been an incredible help in putting new and interesting cigars on my radar. So thank you for that. I had an experience the other night while smoking a charter oak Habano that raised the question I wanted to pose to the lizards.
Gizmo:About halfway through the cigar, it started to have some serious construction issues, which left me with a shocking experience. There was a solid inch of the cigar where the only note I was getting was sulfur. I didn't stop smoking it because I couldn't believe that's the flavor I was getting, and I felt like I was going insane. I ended up finishing the cigar, the flavor returned to quote unquote normal, But it was quite unpleasant to be fighting with a cigar when the only flavor I could put my finger on was rotten eggs. So I would love to hear from the group.
Gizmo:What are some of the most shocking, unpleasant, or unexpected flavor notes that you've called out on a cigar? I look forward to hearing everybody's answers, and I have to offer one more thank you for all of your hard work and providing so much information and for helping to demystify this crazy world of premium tobacco bams. My arm has been up for seven minutes.
Bam Bam:Pointing a chest.
Gizmo:I look forward to being along for the ride. Best wishes, Lizard Jay.
Bam Bam:Can we, as a group, just call out shit that he's called out?
Gizmo:No. No. No. No. No.
Gizmo:We're gonna call out shit that you've called. Fine. Carbohydrates.
Bam Bam:Okay. Ketchup?
Senator:Said some Fenugreek.
Gizmo:What was it? Fenugreek? Fenugreek? Fenugreek. Fenugreek.
Chef Ricky:Fenugreek, which is in an unpleasant flavor. Tomato is uncommon. Is not unpleasant.
Gizmo:Listen. After the age of about 12, you should stop using ketchup. I'm sorry.
Bam Bam:Agreed. Well, no. I love ketchup.
Chef Ricky:Well, ketchup has its place.
Gizmo:I don't I don't Agreed, but I love ketchup.
Chef Ricky:I don't use ketchup as a condiment, at least not bottled ketchup. You could make ketchup.
Gizmo:A lubricant? No. You
Pagoda:What? Fries with mayo?
Chef Ricky:What else is it?
Bam Bam:He's got red trails behind his car.
Chef Ricky:No. I Did
Gizmo:you guys use the Heinz? Yeah.
Senator:Hopefully his car.
Gizmo:Correct. Oh. Oh. Correct. I didn't even think of that.
Chef Ricky:I think ketchup is a key component in chili for some sweetness. I think mixing ketchup with mayonnaise and my true
Senator:You're putting ketchup in chili?
Pagoda:Honey, pass
Gizmo:the You put tomato
Chef Ricky:You put tomato paste too.
Gizmo:You put a little
Chef Ricky:ketchup in chili for What? Yeah. Instead of sugar,
Gizmo:you put a little ketchup in chili.
Senator:You don't need sugar and chili either.
Chef Ricky:I I disagree. I think I think I'm not saying you
Gizmo:need a
Rooster:lot of chefs that use ketchup in the dishes.
Chef Ricky:I'm not saying you need a lot. Right?
Gizmo:And Are these at Davittoff type restaurants?
Rooster:In all Michelin stores.
Senator:In McDonald's type restaurants.
Chef Ricky:In Puerto Rico there's a popular condiment called mayo ketchup which is a fiftyfifty mix of mayonnaise and ketchup they use that as like the dipping sauce all throughout the island and maybe other Caribbean islands. But yeah as a standalone condiment like you know, on fries or a hot dog, would never. But I prefer mayonnaise with my fries, actually.
Pagoda:So what would you put on a hot dog?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Really? Mustard. Mustard.
Gizmo:You gotta mustard and onion. With you
Rooster:on the mustard.
Gizmo:Those are also
Senator:put ketchup. No.
Gizmo:I'm out on ketchup. I'm out on ketchup. Listen. Have you met anybody who loves a hot dog?
Bam Bam:I love ketchup.
Gizmo:Have you met anybody
Rooster:who loves
Gizmo:a hot dog more than me? No. I wish I love all sizes of hot dogs. The little ones in the croissant.
Bam Bam:We're learning
Gizmo:a little we're learning a
Senator:little too much.
Gizmo:We knew about Your mind's in the gutter tonight.
Senator:All to all sizes.
Bam Bam:Hey, honey.
Senator:How many sizes is a fucking hot dog coming in the first place?
Gizmo:The mini. Does it even mean? Pigs in a blanket.
Senator:Oh, I'm sorry. Only you with the pigs in a blanket like a five
Gizmo:year old. The Costco hot dog is a mile long.
Chef Ricky:12 inches. Yeah.
Gizmo:Okay. Alright. So ridiculous. This conversation.
Pagoda:Russo, do you have anything to say to that?
Chef Ricky:I will say making your own ketchup is a game changer.
Bam Bam:Oh, boy.
Chef Ricky:Homemade ketchups Homemade ketchups are delicious. Tamarind ketchups, ketchups where you the sweet where you mix this blend of like sweet and sour, but that, you know, that sweet and sour comes from natural sources.
Bam Bam:So I'm not making fun of calling out ketchup, the ketchup itself, but calling it out as a note in a cigar, outrageous.
Chef Ricky:I've never said ketchup. Am said
Bam Bam:I wrong?
Senator:I think he's right.
Bam Bam:Ketchup.
Rooster:Yeah.
Gizmo:Go back.
Rooster:No, no.
Chef Ricky:We're gonna need to bring that up.
Gizmo:I'll pull the clip.
Chef Ricky:I was gonna say for me a note
Bam Bam:that He's I also said beet root Yeah. In a cigar.
Gizmo:Root root vegetable.
Chef Ricky:Something. Those aren't they're not sulfur.
Bam Bam:I'm not saying they're unpleasant. I'm just saying it's very unusual to call it out for
Gizmo:a cigar.
Senator:That's question unpleasant Unpleasant. Yeah. I feel like I've not answered his question.
Gizmo:He's right.
Chef Ricky:Note that I get.
Gizmo:No. This was just an opportunity for us to ask about fenugreek and ketchup.
Bam Bam:Correct. And
Pagoda:talk about hot dogs.
Gizmo:Yeah. And hot dogs, of course. I think I
Rooster:think ammonia is is one of the notes.
Gizmo:Ammonia is a bad one.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Iodine is a note that I get in some cigars. Yep. Look at the door.
Pagoda:I don't know what iodine tastes like.
Bam Bam:I'm sorry. Neither do I.
Chef Ricky:I've I've been camping and use iodine to to purify your water at times. Right?
Senator:There's Of course.
Chef Ricky:You just know what
Senator:How many people have used iodine to purify their
Chef Ricky:own amount of people that eat potato chips and caviar at midnight. Probably more, honestly. There's there's
Senator:more of those.
Bam Bam:Well, he does that while he's camping and
Gizmo:pitching a tag. That's right. Alright. So going back to the question. What are some terrible flavor notes that you guys have gotten in cigars on podcast or not that you would call out like lizard j did here?
Senator:Easy. Iodine. Toilet paper. The Las Calaveras. It was literally like the aroma and the flavor profile.
Senator:It was like smoking and lighting toilet paper.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Or used. We've all done that.
Gizmo:That's all. Right? Alright.
Bam Bam:And we've
Gizmo:all done no. I'm saying we've all done that. As a little kid We
Bam Bam:are way off the rails.
Chef Ricky:As a little kid, you never you know, maybe you saw an ant smoking a spliff or something. You're trying to recreate that experience and you Spliff. What's that? It's a joint. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:And and you just, like, you know, roll up a piece of toilet tissue and No, you guys didn't do that when you were like
Gizmo:seven I've never smoked toilet paper.
Senator:You lit and smoked toilet That was
Rooster:like seven years old. Dipped in iodine.
Chef Ricky:In ketchup.
Gizmo:I'll give you All So I'll give you a common flavor note that I can't stand when I taste
Bam Bam:it in cigars. Honey?
Chef Ricky:Honey. Yeah. We know.
Gizmo:Honey is one. But actually, there was a cigar we smoked a couple weeks ago. I don't remember which one. There was a little bit of a honey note that was very good. Black honey?
Gizmo:The flavor note that I despise in cig there's two. I hate the flavor of licorice.
Pagoda:Licorice. I agree with that.
Gizmo:I can't stand black licorice flavor in cigar. You mentioned it earlier. I didn't get it in this cigar. Thank God. Yes.
Gizmo:Because I can't stand it. The other one is when we get a cherry note, and this often happens more in the pairing. A cherry note that is medicinal, that almost reminds me more of like a cough drop or like a Robitussin Yeah. Or I think we've talked more about that in the in the pairing, but I know we've talked about that in cigars. Those are the two for me that are common notes in cigars that I can't stand.
Senator:So I agree with both of those. The other one I'll add is, like, an aggressive barnyard note that, like, I have always made the joke, you know, like a dirty barn. Like, For me, it's gotta be a clean, faint type of barnyard.
Pagoda:You know, when we were at your place and we had that
Gizmo:My place?
Pagoda:Yeah. And the night of the
Gizmo:Oh, the famous rooster night. The famous rooster night.
Bam Bam:Was was great.
Pagoda:Know, I don't know what cigar we were smoking, but that had really strong barnyard. Like, I just remember it so well. But licorice and, yeah, a barnyard for me.
Gizmo:Licorice drives me crazy. People that love licorice I think should be studied because it is such a bad flavor note. I can't understand how anybody likes it.
Chef Ricky:I can't say I love it, but it's definitely something that I've grown to like as I've gotten older.
Gizmo:Has anybody in here ever seen a piece of black licorice and said, I want to put that in my mouth?
Rooster:No. There's actually a very common drink in Colombia, aguardiente.
Gizmo:Oh, Right? That's Licorice?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Well, I mean, do you not like I do not. Okay, so I enjoy absinthe. Green Chartreuse.
Bam Bam:I don't see absinthe as a black licorice
Chef Ricky:No, but it's very licorice. It's very licorice forward. Green Chartreuse, and those are all very licorice forward. Maybe not black licorice.
Bam Bam:Never had the green chartreuse. Another interesting note.
Gizmo:It's it's on the ledger.
Senator:It's niece. Correct.
Chef Ricky:Is. It's very rare. So in a niece
Gizmo:Even a niece too, I I I don't like any of that. And and when it comes up in the drinks, obviously we talk about that, but when it hits cigars, that's where it's like, I can't
Bam Bam:There's do a Turkish Iranian drink. It's called the Rocky, and it has a lot of black licorice.
Chef Ricky:Yes.
Bam Bam:But it has a ton of anise.
Senator:Oh, you said Rocky? Rocky. Yeah. They have it in Greece. Dude.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Rocky and Rocky Patel? I'm sorry. No. Uzo.
Chef Ricky:Sorry. Uzo. There you go. Rocky and
Bam Bam:Uzo. For me, it's undrinkable. I mean, I can't handle anise and licorice together.
Senator:That's right. We're the two Greek guys.
Gizmo:Feel that's right.
Rooster:No, anise is licorice.
Bam Bam:Yeah, yeah. It's just terrible.
Chef Ricky:I like it as an after dinner dressing. But I haven't gotten that
Gizmo:stuff It's for
Chef Ricky:digestion. It's a digestif, it works in Greece. It's like all part of the if you go to Greece, you'll learn to
Senator:lose There's varying degrees of it. Like, I hate that note. Mhmm. But if you have Rocky in Greece after dinner, like, it's faint. It's not aggressive.
Senator:Yeah? Like, I can drink it. It's really faint. It's not
Gizmo:it's probably more like fennel maybe.
Senator:I mean, I don't love fennel, but
Rooster:You know, like at the end of the Indian restaurant, like the Indian meal, they always have a little little plate
Gizmo:of fennel. Is terrible. Every time you've put that in my hand. By the way, it's like have by the way, let me lay this out.
Rooster:Have never
Gizmo:put it in your hand. You have. You said try this.
Pagoda:You could put it.
Bam Bam:You could put it in your shoes for
Gizmo:a yogurt. By the way, yes. By the way, it's it's like a community offering. There's no lid on it. It just sits in the lobby of every every Indian restaurant.
Gizmo:Can see people dirty
Bam Bam:It comes to your table, and everyone's kicking their shoes off.
Gizmo:It looks like cat litter. It does.
Chef Ricky:It's a lot more beautiful than that.
Rooster:Stop it.
Gizmo:It's like colorful cat litter.
Senator:Kiss is like, I don't wanna eat it. I just wanna put it in my towel. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Put it
Rooster:in the towel.
Gizmo:Or my shoes. About. Or the shoes. Alright, boys. Let's go to another listener email now.
Gizmo:This one is from Lizard Tyler who won Lizard of the Week a few weeks ago. He says, thank you, guys. I was beyond chuffed that my email was even read and discussed on the pod, and to be named lizard of the week was more exciting than I expected it to be. I even played you reading my email for some coworkers. I appreciated the suggestions that we'll be seeking out the Don Pippin Lancerow, And I just purchased a bundle of the Fabrica five Lonsdales, by the way.
Gizmo:That is a phenomenal cigar. Phenomenal cigar. Great move. To go with my current petite Corona Lancero and the Sovereign Sons. The Sovereign Sons, by the way, is the Mhmm.
Gizmo:Half Corona. Great finisher for the end of the night. I have been listening to the podcast weekly for the last year, and I am starting to get more and more of the inside jokes that pop up. I haven't gone back into 2024 yet, but I hope to have more time to do that soon. Congrats again to Giz for being named f o h man of the year.
Gizmo:It's truly hallowed company over there. I had a couple of thought suggestions pertaining to the recent discussion on how you guys rate your cigars. I wouldn't want you to change much of your overall philosophy as I think it brings out some nuance to the ratings and some good discussions around the ratings. But it might be fun and interesting if the lizards in the room were required to write their score down before the ratings are discussed and to turn that score over when giving the rating. That would keep the scoring system the same, but also to make sure that there is no way the other scores would be influenced by the room.
Gizmo:It could make for an interesting reveal. On the ratings for the site, this may be user error, but I can't find a way to do much sorting and searching. It might be too much of a technical undertaking, but if the ratings were more searchable or sortable, it might be easier for me to use. I apologize if this has been discussed before, if I've missed it, but while I enjoy a smoking session with friends to discuss all things going on, I spend that I I find that I spend most of my time smoking alone. When the lizards are smoking solo, what is your preferred way to enjoy that solo smoke?
Gizmo:Bam, this is for you because you don't like smoking with us. Correct. Is it reading, listening to music? I am curious how the lizards spend their solo smoking time if they ever have that. Thanks again for everything you guys do with the podcast.
Gizmo:It is evident that this is clearly a labor of love, and you deserve all the flowers that come your way for bringing this podcast to us weekly, Lizard Tyler in Pittsburgh. Great email.
Chef Ricky:So that's come up before. Remember Bob writing down ratings and submitting them after. The reality is that when you're in this room, we're seeing one another, right? And we're vibing off of each other's energy. We could tell who's enjoying their cigar and who isn't.
Chef Ricky:So I don't know that writing our ratings prior to saying them out loud is going to make a big difference if you think that we're influenced by one another because it's obvious whether or not someone is enjoying their cigar. I mean, senator would have said it 14 times by now if he wasn't.
Gizmo:Know? Correct. Usually, you know, usually
Bam Bam:Well, ratings does like to go stealth mode from time to time.
Gizmo:Also true. I mean, usually our ratings are
Rooster:not that awful. It's not like one
Chef Ricky:list or
Gizmo:what he's think gonna need. He's he's effectively saying that are we influencing each other's ratings by not making it kind of be, you know, like a not secret, but kind of a hidden hidden rating. I mean, for me, here's what I'll say. I have this iPad in front of me. Before we even start rating, I write my rating down.
Gizmo:I've never erased it. So It's hard to prove that.
Pagoda:Yeah. But honestly I hope you do it
Gizmo:after you smoke. I think everyone
Bam Bam:I think I hope I echo everyone's sentiment. I could care less what you guys rate yourselves.
Senator:I agree
Rooster:with you.
Gizmo:I agree.
Bam Bam:And I think that's how it should be. Now some peer pressure could affect certain people.
Pagoda:It's thing. It's a thing.
Gizmo:It's I will I will say, though, that I don't think, and I actually, I'll I'll add on to Lizard Tyler's email here. Has anybody in this room ever regretted seriously after we've left the room or we've put out the episode a rating that you've given? Not at Not at all. That's because you go first. There's no there's no influence.
Gizmo:I I would say when I look at that ratings guide, I don't regret a single rating I've put on there at in 220 episodes, 221 episodes.
Senator:This is such bullshit. It's unbelievable. I'm sorry. Every single person sitting in this room at one point or another, at least once
Bam Bam:I'm not gonna like this. I've done it.
Senator:Has offline said, maybe I shouldn't have given x rating. At one point, at at least one cigar. I'll let Kismo included No. No. No.
Senator:Because we've had this conversation
Bam Bam:last admit, there was one cigar. I don't remember what it was, but I remember seeing it in the lounge after we completed recording.
Senator:Every person here
Bam Bam:has a 100 with my my rating. I should have rated it down or up. Every person,
Senator:myself included. I'm not saying I'm I'm in
Gizmo:any way different from the rest a cigar that you regret
Senator:the rating of? I wish I it's
Gizmo:not I'm not trying to put you on
Senator:the scene. No. The problem is it's not gonna come to me right now, but I know, in particular, is when Giz and I were going back and forth about some cigar, I was upset with your rating, and you admitted you said, I probably shouldn't have given it that. Mhmm. And there was something that I remember that I regretted similarly.
Senator:Same. Just gonna say, I do think, as much as we wanna sit here and say, oh, nothing affects I think 98% of the time it doesn't. But who's going first? Who sets the tone?
Gizmo:I don't listen to anything Rooster says.
Senator:Is impossible Obviously, you sold that box. Correct. It is impossible that it is not at least subconsciously in the back of our minds. So all I'm gonna say is I think it is a very worthwhile suggestion just writing it down individually and revealing it as opposed to the last guy that goes has heard, you know, four or five other ratings before them. As much as they wanna say, it doesn't impact them.
Senator:Like, of course, it has to have some impact. If if they were thinking of a 10 in every single person before game is seven, I even hear sometimes people, like, almost apologize for their ratings. Everyone has done it at some
Gizmo:point in time. I give a nine and you give a nine, we still argue about it for ten minutes.
Senator:Fine because we're giving it the same rating. I'm more worried about, like, when someone is apologizing that, like, they're the only one, and they're like, oh, you know, should I? And they're they're all of a sudden vacillating between the number that I know they wanted to give, but everyone else was lower, or the opposite, everyone was higher and they were lower. So all I'm saying is I don't think it is in any way harmful or that difficult if we considered in the future just jotting down a number and then revealing and saying what
Bam Bam:we want.
Gizmo:We can try it tonight.
Pagoda:Or we can do a random, the person who goes first goes randomly. It have
Chef Ricky:change the number to who Does vaseline goes related at all of Vaseline? Pardon me?
Gizmo:Back to lubrication. He's back to lubrication.
Bam Bam:Is that a Bama approved product?
Senator:Now I'm really worried what he's doing to catch up.
Rooster:All right,
Gizmo:so how do we solve for this? Let's say right now tonight, we're about to do a rating in a little while. How would we solve for this tonight? I do think The random.
Senator:No. Don't like doing Random doesn't solve it.
Pagoda:It doesn't solve
Senator:it because the last person has still heard four or five ratings, and there's no way that that can impact that.
Gizmo:Just write it on your phones.
Senator:So I do think the only way is writing it down, and you need to stick to that score.
Gizmo:I like it.
Bam Bam:So I don't mind this, but honestly, I do I'm deadly honest with everything that I've read.
Rooster:I mean, I I only know what I'm gonna give the cigar away.
Bam Bam:So do
Senator:I right now. But I know, but how many times do we have a different cigar where we're torn between two numbers? We've all been in this situation, and then a bunch of people go, and the person says, I'm torn between these, but it was great night, and I'm gonna go for it. Now gonna round Let up
Gizmo:me ask you a question.
Senator:We individually wrote it down, who knows? It is quite possible. I'm not saying it's certain Sure. That that number might come out a little bit different
Gizmo:ask you for one person. Can a
Bam Bam:question? Let's do it tonight.
Gizmo:I wanna try it tonight. I wanna ask you a question, though. Don't you think, though, that listen. We're very good friends. I don't think if if you gave a cigar a nine and I gave it a seven, that we're gonna leave here and it's gonna be a big deal, number one.
Gizmo:I don't really give you But a
Senator:but here's
Gizmo:Hold another on, Don't you think, though, that at times and Rooster obviously doesn't benefit from this when he's here because he goes first. But at times, there are things that are said in the room that are kind of interesting to the perspective. Right? Things that each of you say I do not that I consider in my rating, but it's like, oh, I didn't think of that. You simply
Chef Ricky:forgot. Right? Like if I'm hearing someone reminisce about their
Senator:experience You and include like that reason when you rate, it just shouldn't change the score is what we're saying.
Gizmo:Okay. That's
Rooster:fair. Well, you could also write the score on your phone and
Chef Ricky:show it just to Giz. We could text our scores to you. You could read the score out loud and then come back to us to get
Gizmo:our results. Here's what we're do tonight. When we go to our ratings tonight on both the liquor and on the cigar, you guys are gonna text my phone, and I'm not gonna look at it because I don't open my phone when we're recording. It's face down right now. I have the iPad.
Gizmo:We're gonna listen to Lizard Tyler tonight because we've gotten some questions about our ratings. We're gonna try this tonight. Cool. Everybody's gonna text me their rating. I already gonna look at it.
Gizmo:I already said. I already did. No. But you know what
Pagoda:it is? I don't think it's gonna make that much of a difference.
Gizmo:I agree. You know why?
Pagoda:You're not telling why he
Chef Ricky:wants to do this as a
Gizmo:But for the validity of the ratings Sure. For the people who are not in this room
Pagoda:Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. I don't think it's actually a bad idea.
Bam Bam:It's a bad idea.
Pagoda:It's not
Senator:a bad idea. There's no cost to doing this, and it it, at a minimum, enhances the credibility. Even if it's the same number, it's just the idea that it eliminates groupthink.
Gizmo:Right?
Senator:It's actually all written down. It's impossible to be influenced by the group because no one else has shared their rating
Bam Bam:before my ratings.
Rooster:But he sent it to the group chat.
Gizmo:He did. Everybody has
Pagoda:it. Right.
Gizmo:Influence, baby. That's hilarious.
Chef Ricky:So there is one point in his email that I think as the podcast continues and we get into the hundreds of episodes, we're already at two thirty plus, right? Two twenty one. Two twenty one.
Pagoda:Yeah.
Chef Ricky:We get to episode 300, 400. It might be worth it to have a document that is searchable.
Gizmo:So here's the okay. So that's a great point. So here's the problem with website and the data. There is so much data on there. Number one, it's a pain in the ass for me to update.
Gizmo:So I get a lot of listener email gives, why is it not updated? Why is not updated? Because, like, I dread updating it because it's such a pain in the ass. It's a chart, all the ratings, everything's there. Right?
Gizmo:It's a pain. To to put that in a searchable I I don't know how to
Chef Ricky:do was just the Google Sheet and somebody because I I think the only things they would wanna
Gizmo:search or sort it That's an interesting point. What I could do
Senator:is started ironically. Remember, we used to
Gizmo:I still use that every I still use that every time be for our internal use. I use it. But maybe what I'll do that's a great question. Maybe what I'll do is this. I'll have the ratings as we have them now, and I'll put a link to an uneditable Google Sheet that then any listener, like Lizard Tyler, can go to it and sort it accordingly.
Chef Ricky:And yeah. And they'll
Gizmo:So I can I'll sort both of because I do it anyway on the Google Sheet.
Chef Ricky:I like it. The only sort they would want, I'd imagine, is the rating. Right? Like, sort of best best the cigars.
Gizmo:Or or or by or by cigar or by each individual lizard. So let's say they relate to one of our palettes more than the other. They can sort according to that and go through it. So maybe that's a great idea. I'm gonna do that.
Gizmo:I'm gonna put the Google Sheet on the on the website.
Rooster:How about this? I have an idea. Why don't we let Grindr do this? Give him some homework.
Bam Bam:Correct. Spreadsheets,
Gizmo:PowerPoint. It'll be updated way less than when I update it.
Bam Bam:If it's Grindr edited, by
Gizmo:the way. No. It's not.
Chef Ricky:And then for the for the lizards that are worried about influence, they could sort it according to roosters rating since he's always the first to rate and probably the least influence. There you go.
Rooster:So I don't have to text you.
Chef Ricky:And the person that's worried about influence, they'll put Bam last. There you go. Well, BAM's
Rooster:all this at a 10, so
Senator:I'll keep quiet. I'm just saying it's a brilliant email. I'm sorry, like
Gizmo:You know what, though? We've gotten so many emails about changing the ratings.
Senator:I know,
Gizmo:but the business. I like this idea.
Senator:And I think that we are very entrenched in our belief in the scoring system. Mhmm. I'm just saying to enhance the credibility of each of our individual scores, it really doesn't hurt to just write down the number before we
Bam Bam:rate I
Gizmo:like it.
Senator:And the sortable, you know, piece with the ratings guide is is very helpful.
Gizmo:Now I wanna go to Pagoda on this because you are the sergeant at arms here. What happens what happens here? And I'm deadly serious. He is the sergeant at arms, very serious about the ratings. What happens if someone in the room says, I texted, gives a number, and I've decided to change it?
Gizmo:How does that work?
Pagoda:Along with this before before the explanation. So you're over here on purpose, didn't you say the other Or before you give a rating out, before you speak it out.
Gizmo:No. Then they've heard everyone else's But that defeats the point of the whole texting No.
Pagoda:I'm saying is before you mention any of the ratings and you've described it, while he submitted it, he can change it before
Rooster:You mean before gives his Before first
Senator:person has rated his
Gizmo:Before the for before rooster spray.
Pagoda:You verbalize it and, you know, let everybody in the podcast know.
Bam Bam:Please interpret. English
Pagoda:is my second language.
Gizmo:I'm here for duty.
Pagoda:It's it's been a tough evening today.
Gizmo:This is
Senator:what consultants are for, Ben. Correct.
Pagoda:And we bankers love consultants.
Bam Bam:No invoice for us though.
Pagoda:It's really interesting because I've thought about this often, and even recently Lythard Obey in the lounge was talking a little bit about it. It's what I find is that typically, right, let's say if nine is the number, you're always plus one or minus one about the median score. My thought with it is that I don't think we'll be I don't think at an average, the variance will be more than two points regardless.
Gizmo:I agree with you on
Pagoda:I know for five to seven people.
Chef Ricky:But I
Gizmo:think that comes down to the genius of the whole numbers that you were really And adamant that's why I'm saying, sergeant at arms, I'm busting your balls with the title. No, serious. It's very serious in that the whole number element of what we do here
Pagoda:kind of takes
Gizmo:It care solves for a lot of this.
Pagoda:It solves
Gizmo:for But for the listeners outside the room, it doesn't. Right? So let's try this and see how it goes.
Pagoda:And I'll tell you, this answers, let it obey his question, why don't you give it decimal places? Because I think when you're at 9.5, you gotta make a decision whether you go up to 10 or whether you go down to nine, depending on your experience for the nine. And that kind of averages it out between five to seven people. You won't find that much of a variance. Maybe point two or point three overall.
Gizmo:I agree. Yeah. I agree with that a 100%.
Senator:My only point is it enhances the credibility. That's all.
Pagoda:And I think it'll make it a lot more fun.
Gizmo:Yeah. I agree. Absolutely.
Senator:And let's not forget how many times several of us have debated if we can change a score once we've said it, and people have forced that we cannot. And so now the fact that it's gonna be written, set in stone, there's no debate. What the number is is what you gotta stick with.
Bam Bam:Yes. Grab the bottle, Pagoda.
Pagoda:Alright. Coming coming over to you. Alright.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now to go to our lizard of the week presented by our friends at Bond Roberts. And this one is from our friend, Lizard Randy. He says, hey, lizards. My name is Randy.
Gizmo:I love your podcast, and I look forward to listening to it every week. Your perspective on the cigar industry is beyond reproach. With so much noise from other influential sources, it's a relief to get good, honest, and informative cigar reviews from your pod. Your ratings are the first place I go when I wanna try something new, and I greatly value your opinions on such a subjective and wonderful activity. Thank you.
Gizmo:I was first introduced to Cuban cigars by a close friend some years ago. He was an incredible man who was a titanic force in my city. He would often throw large parties at his lovely home in our neighborhood, fully catered, and everything was top shelf. My wife and I would attend, and we all became fast friends. The first time he offered me a cigar, it was a Cuban.
Gizmo:And he asked me, quote, what do you like? At the time, I had only smoked one Cuban in my life, which was a Monte Cristo number two in Florence, Italy some years ago.
Senator:This is my neighbor, by the way.
Gizmo:Dog. So I replied no. No. No. Don't say that because we're getting there.
Chef Ricky:Okay.
Gizmo:So as I replied confidently, Manny too, if you have it, I was astounded when he beckoned me to follow him to another room, which was a walk in humidor fully loaded with Cubans. He handed the box so I could select one. We walked back to the party and sat down in nice chairs to enjoy ourselves. The man knew how to live. As the years went by, I soon found myself being invited over to watch the game with his closest friends or to just hang out and shoot the shit.
Gizmo:We'd order great food and help ourselves to wonderful drams of scotch all while popping in and out of the humidor to grab a all while popping in and out of the humidor to grab a Cuban. Every time was like a dream. These special times continued until he suddenly passed away from a freak accident. He died suddenly, and I never got to say goodbye. Now years later, when I light up a Cuban or any cigar for that matter, I find myself thinking of him and remembering the great times we shared and how without him, I would have never become passionate about cigars and Cuban cigars.
Gizmo:I owe him that and also partly blame him for my ever depleting bank account. He was the most generous guy I've ever met, and I try to emulate that generosity with cigars whenever I can. My question to you guys is do you have a recurring pleasant memory or a feeling when you light up a cigar? Something that takes you back even if just for a moment or two. Thank you again for all that you do.
Gizmo:I doubt there is any way for our community to properly express our gratitude to you guys, but just know you have really something special here. Best, wizard Randy.
Bam Bam:Very nice. Great email.
Gizmo:Excellent. Awesome email. And by the way, boys, before we get into answering wizard Randy's questions, he's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bon Roberts, which is awesome. So I'm so glad that wizard Randy here is gonna get a great box of cigars from our friends over there. So we really appreciate those guys.
Gizmo:And I'm gonna throw it to you guys here. Again, his question, do you have a recurring, pleasant memory, or a feeling every time you light up a cigar? Something that takes you back even if just for a moment or two. If I can start.
Bam Bam:My very first cigar was the day my son was born at home at night, and it was a Millennium Pyramid. My brother-in-law gave it to me, and I still smoke that cigar to this very day. So whenever I have that, I do think about that day. I also that's the cigar that I had just prior to moving him into college. So for me, that's a recurring theme.
Bam Bam:I love this email. It's very heartwarming.
Senator:I mean, I'll I'll go next. You know, for me, whenever I light up a cigar during a workday, I definitely think about my mentor who's become an incredible friend. You know, I was lucky to be able to light cigars in the office with him.
Gizmo:Mad Men.
Senator:Yeah. The Mad Men days when we worked together. And he's also the one who introduced me to Padron. So, you know, it's it's there's always a memory of when I'm having a Padron, especially if it's during a workday. I'm always just kind of transported to sitting in his office, the two of us enjoying a cigar, getting some work done.
Senator:So that's like the first thing that pops a memory for me.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, for me, cigars always take me back to my childhood. Know, I just when I whenever I light a cigar, I sort of relive that memory of, you know, watching my uncles who were two very hardworking men and all the, you know, they didn't have much time to themselves. But the time that they did enjoy was whenever they were able to escape. And, you know, my aunt would make my uncle bring his son and I along with him all the time because it was also a break for her. But while my cousin and I got to play and run around, they sat to smoke cigars.
Chef Ricky:So for me, it just it brings me back to a good point in my life where things were simple, things were easy. And now my family, my kids, my wife, when they see me light a cigar, they feel that same joy for me, like, oh, daddy's relaxing. So it always brings me back to that point.
Pagoda:Be expeditious. I'm sorry. That's for me. No. Yeah.
Pagoda:No. Cigars are awesome. It was my birthday this weekend. Lilith Steve asked me, this birthday, this birthday, if there's anything you wanted to do on your birthday, what will you do? And I told him, I'm doing what I wanted to do on my birthday.
Pagoda:And we were all friends and everybody in the lounge and whoever was there. And it was such a great feeling, but hanging out with everybody, smoking cigars. For me, it reminded me of the first time I had the cigar down at Sequoia's down by South Street Seaport with Little Shyad Fakhshyad, and you know, a couple of
Rooster:other things.
Gizmo:That's an inside joke that's never been explained, but is And,
Pagoda:yeah, it's, you know, they bring about an emotion in you at certain points in time in your life. I think for me, there's so many moments I reminisce. It's fantastic. That's it.
Rooster:For me, it's like the first time I had a Cuban cigar was in Mexico. And it was a ras. It was probably like it
Gizmo:was fake. Now
Bam Bam:did you interact with the conquistadors when you were there?
Gizmo:Columbus. What did they think?
Chef Ricky:It was still Texas.
Gizmo:By the way, you walked into that. You walked into that.
Bam Bam:I'm sorry, old boy. But
Rooster:that cigar, I had that ras there. And, you know, ras used to be like $78 at that. And what an experience that was. And I absolutely, whenever I smoke a ras, I kind of go back to that moment, at how special that was. And really, like every night when I light up a cigar by my fireplace, I'm grateful and thankful for each and every day that you get a chance to enjoy that cigar.
Gizmo:You know what's interesting for me? It's like, I don't have a specific memory I go to. I don't have a specific thing I go to. But every time I light a cigar, if it's in the lounge and we're busting balls, we sit down at this podcast. We have these amazing listeners who who send us I I mean, listen.
Gizmo:Tonight, I had, like, 30 emails to to pick from tonight. Right? And and that's after I've cherry picked what's come in, right, for tonight. Or at home by myself, when I can, and it's not every time, but when I can, I try to snap into kind of what you're saying, like this thing of gratitude where it's like I kind of have this moment, especially when the cigar knocks my socks off, but I try to do it as often as I can? I have this like, how lucky am I moment.
Gizmo:Like, how lucky am I that I have found this thing? I have found this group of people, this group of friends here in the room, the lizards. How lucky am I that I've found this incredible experience that I'm able to enjoy by myself with all of my friends, with the lounge guys, whatever it is. How lucky am I that we and I have this For this podcast, for our friends out there in Lizard Nation who listen to us every week and who love what we do, it's like, how lucky am I? How lucky are we that I get to enjoy this?
Gizmo:And we're talking about rolled up leaves, dried rolled up leaves that have given us so much joy, have given us so much appreciation from this audience, folks we've never met around the world. How lucky am I that my wife allows me to sit in the garage Mhmm. In my house, and smoke?
Chef Ricky:Not as lucky as Rooster, whose wife loves Well,
Gizmo:he's in a different category, He's in a different But how lucky are we, man?
Bam Bam:Very lucky.
Pagoda:And there are also, like moments, right? Like he mentioned ras. I remember the first time I smoked ras was at Deck. I smoked the eight night at Roost's Deck.
Gizmo:I remember that night.
Pagoda:And another special night was when me, you remember that at Vivek and you, we smoked down in the lounge over here, and when you handed me the Padron nineteen sixty four, the exclusive. There's so many moments I remember.
Gizmo:I heard that from Senator.
Pagoda:And you know, sometimes, you know, it's always like a chain we keep passing.
Gizmo:It's all
Rooster:about sharing too when
Pagoda:And you you do get back to the moment sometimes. It's great.
Senator:I just think a common thread in what Gizmo said really resonated. The community aspect of this is pretty special. And I say that because, you know, you read stuff in the news. It's so funny. I was reading this.
Senator:They've been talking about this for years now, but this male loneliness episode.
Bam Bam:Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, It's
Senator:huge thing. And it's funny because you know, I think for us, we're so lucky and privileged. I read that, and I'm like, what? I my I haven't stress had that response all the time. Have this amazing But it's a
Bam Bam:real thing.
Senator:But most really don't. And so when you talk about how lucky we are to do this, and not just by ourselves, that's easy, but to actually have a community, a place, a group of friends who we enjoy sharing this experience with for years. I mean, we're so incredibly fortunate, and that point really resonates with me for Agreed. That
Chef Ricky:Yeah, life insurance companies were smart. They would actually change their ways. They
Gizmo:would allow tobacco smokers
Chef Ricky:and lower our rates because yeah, we're happier, we'll live longer as a result.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's like that politician in Great Britain, that whole speech
Gizmo:that Yeah, we that I played. Remember episodes ago, yeah.
Bam Bam:That had a great impact
Gizmo:on me. And I think, you know, to your point here, Bam, and I think to all of our points, the idea that what we do here is attacked as if we're smoking cigarettes. Like Amen. It's crazy that exactly what senator just said, that we're talking about how lucky we are, community, friends, men Yeah. Being able to get together and vent about a shitty day, a shitty personal situation, whatever's going on.
Bam Bam:But it's threatened politically.
Gizmo:It is threatened. And and the fact that it is threatened is a sin to me Correct. And to us. It's crazy. And it's we are I mean, we're very very lucky.
Bam Bam:Piggybacking on this, it's a moment of luxury. An expensive item. Most kids aren't gonna go after something like this. I don't care if you can afford it or not. They're just not in that train of thought to go and sit and have a cigar.
Bam Bam:When I'm alone is when I for me, it affects me greatly, where for me, it's the that's the most luxurious experience of smoking a cigar is when I'm by myself. When I'm with the guys here in a club, it's a little different. Know, there's a lot of banter.
Gizmo:Different mentality.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And you're not sometimes I kinda drift off when the conversations take place so I can experience that. I have to do that for me. For me, that alone cigar from time to time has a big impact.
Gizmo:And I wanna ask one more question going back to Lizard Tyler's email because we didn't answer this. So when we are alone, as we're talking about Mhmm. As a part of our smoking experience, What are you guys listening to, experiencing? Are you on YouTube, watching a movie? What is your go to
Bam Bam:Honestly, as the least amount of media as possible. No music, a fireplace if I'm at the North Lounge, and if it's warm outside by myself, I'm not looking at my phone, I'm sipping my drink and smoking my cigar, and that's it.
Senator:For me, music. I mean, if I'm out on my patio, like, whatever mood I'm in, if I want, like, jazz and just to, like, relax or some Cuban jazz or whatever the case may be. Some of my favorite moments smoking alone is just like listening to great music, being there kind of in peace and solitude. That's like always done it for me.
Rooster:Well, Buena Vista Social Club.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Gizmo:That's right. That's happening.
Pagoda:I'm listening to Indian music on my deck, smoking alone, and sometimes, you know, catching up with a really close friend and just having a conversation while smoking a cigar, while he's smoking a cigar into his own deck. Like that's how, like, you know, I spend my afternoons in the summer, yeah.
Rooster:Yeah. I mean for me it's like if I'm smoking in the house, my wife is there.
Pagoda:Unbelievable. Which is if no. There's no It's incomprehensible with
Gizmo:what you're doing. Every time you send a picture, I go, how lucky is he? Correct. Forget me. How lucky is he?
Rooster:Imagine how lucky my wife is.
Gizmo:Oh, Jesus.
Pagoda:This is a husband who keeps quiet.
Rooster:I'm smoking right by the fireplace, and she's sitting on
Gizmo:the couch, and we usually
Rooster:watch a movie or a show or something of that nature, we can get into it. That's an expensive cigar. Correct. But if I'm sitting out on the deck, I would love to listen to some music, and especially Cuban music. It just sets the tone.
Rooster:On a beautiful summer night, you're smoking a great cigar, and it is just awesome.
Chef Ricky:Smoking a rooster's deck is definitely an experience.
Rooster:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, my deck or Senator's And Senator's Patios.
Bam Bam:Senator's Patios.
Pagoda:Senator's Patios, even he can go up for a couple of hours and take care of his little one, I'm fine with that.
Gizmo:You an idiot, I'm like.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Chef Ricky:Honestly, me, if I'm smoking alone, I find it hard to not do something. So I always whip out the laptop and end up doing something on there. Boring. Yeah. I'm not a fan of smoking alone, to be honest.
Gizmo:Okay.
Chef Ricky:I prefer a cigar with one other person, preferably somebody that is into a spirit that I like, you know,
Pagoda:I mean tequila, tequila,
Chef Ricky:tequila or mezcal or rums, you know, and just being able to go back and forth about what we're experiencing. And then eventually you go through on what you experienced throughout the day or the week. But I like the conversation aspect and alone, I'm just left with my own thoughts and like, oh, I gotta be doing something else. So again, that's that ADHD component.
Rooster:We kind of forgot to mention guys who smoke in the car. Like how awesome
Gizmo:that Oh, God. That's great.
Pagoda:Oh, they're out.
Gizmo:You know what's funny though? That's a great point, Rooster.
Bam Bam:I can't identify
Gizmo:with that. For me, smoking in the car, I do as much as I can, I love it? But there's so many different mindsets. When I smoke by myself, I have three or four different mindsets. Absolute solitude, some jazz music, as Senator said, some Keith Jarrett or something.
Gizmo:Sometimes there's other times where I'll throw a movie on or a TV show.
Bam Bam:While you're driving?
Gizmo:No. Not while I'm driving. What? In in the garage. Right?
Gizmo:I took a trip by the car. No. I'm getting there. So in in the garage by myself, you know, I'm either listening to jazz, complete solitude quiet. Right?
Gizmo:Or I put a TV show on, a movie, whatever it may be. Or sometimes, like chef saying, I'm doing some work. I'm on the phone, whatever. I have, like, three different modes in the garage. In the car, it's, like, always one.
Gizmo:Like, I'm I'm I'm always, like, chilling, like, trying to relax, having a cigar, focusing on driving, doing whatever I'm doing, running around. That's a whole different mode. And then when we get here, this is a different mode for me. It's a little more analytical, a little more under the microscope, focused on what we're doing here. Obviously, a lot of prep and stuff.
Gizmo:Then we get into the lounge. That's a whole different mode. So I have, like, eight different modes of smoking cigars Yeah. I'm between all of these different things that, like, all of them have their place, all of them are different, and all of them are important to me. And again, I go back to how lucky are we?
Chef Ricky:Do have a favorite?
Gizmo:No. I don't have a favorite.
Chef Ricky:My favorite is smoking with one other person.
Gizmo:One other person. Well, what about us?
Chef Ricky:No. I love this. I mean,
Gizmo:do this every week. Unbelievable. Can you believe this?
Pagoda:Oh, you, Chef. And I will never
Senator:be honestly alone together. A good question. That's a really good question.
Bam Bam:It is a good question. Nice, buddy.
Senator:I just say that because
Gizmo:He's one to talk.
Chef Ricky:Right?
Senator:I just say that because for me, I mean, I love time at the lounge, but when I'm on my patio and I have, like, you guys Yeah.
Gizmo:A couple guys.
Senator:My friends over, like, for me, those are my, like, favorite nights.
Gizmo:But it's also, like, when you come to the lounge, you don't know who's gonna be here. Right? That's the thing. So it's like, when it's just us, like, when we go over there tonight, it's probably just gonna be us, and we're not gonna have the mics and the recording stops. We're not and we're just having fun busting balls, whatever.
Gizmo:But sometimes you come in, there's like this smorgasbord of people, and sometimes it's a little overwhelming. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know?
Rooster:Like Absolutely. Somebody's wife shows up.
Gizmo:By the way, he's referencing I think a week or two ago, he talked about a crazy story that happened at the lounge. So if you haven't heard it, go listen to a senator detailed his experience with that. It was pretty wild. But so, again, congratulations to Lizard Randy, our lizard of the week. Great email from him prompting this great conversation.
Gizmo:And, of course, piggybacking on that, Lizard Tyler, who won Lizard of the Week a couple weeks ago with his great questions about how we spoke. So we really appreciate those guys. So, boys, we're coming to the end of our evening now with the yellow spot twelve years aged Irish whiskey and the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso. Any final thoughts here before we move into the ratings portion of our program?
Bam Bam:Pretty delicious evening, honestly.
Chef Ricky:I'm very surprised at how this cigar mellowed out in the final third.
Gizmo:It was a very smooth final third. Yeah. Very impressive, honestly. How much is this bottle? I think it was you said it was a
Senator:$100. A bottle. Yeah.
Rooster:When we got it?
Gizmo:That's an expensive 12.
Pagoda:Yeah. Hey. Hey. What are we rating? Said you minus one.
Pagoda:No.
Gizmo:Kidding. You guys all sent your ratings, right, for both the cigar and the spirit. So we are locked in.
Bam Bam:We're locked in.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now to move into the formal liquor rating tonight on the yellow spot. Twelve years aged, Irish whiskey, Bam Bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:I'm at a firm nine.
Rooster:Okay.
Bam Bam:Honestly, I love the vanilla honey note on the aroma. Very aromatic. And honestly, with a very long buttery finish. Chef, I think you're right. There's a ginger barrier that you gotta get past, but once you get past that, for me, that salted buttery finish is very unique.
Bam Bam:I'm at a nine.
Gizmo:All right, chef.
Chef Ricky:Oh, wow. Okay. This is great. I forgot I was second. So I'm at an eight.
Chef Ricky:So I think I've fallen out of love with scotch. I was never really
Gizmo:quite This isn't scotch.
Chef Ricky:Sorry, Scotch. Whiskey. Yes. You're absolutely right. Sorry.
Chef Ricky:That's an edit. No, it's not. Big
Gizmo:agave Correct.
Chef Ricky:I'm not that in love with whiskey or Irish whiskey in particular. So I'll tell you what I was doing here with this whiskey in the beginning that was giving me that really tonic note and I figured it out. There's something about the spirit where I try to approach it in the beginning the way I do my agave spirits or any spirit that I'd taken for the first time where I let it linger on my palate and sort of let it swim around my mouth. When that was happening, the finish was really tannic and bitter and peppery. Not doing that, just taking the sip and taking it through without allowing it to sort of linger in my mouth.
Chef Ricky:I was getting that buttery finish without that ginger, tannic forward ending there. So that experience was a lot more pleasant than my first go around. I don't like that I had to change the way I approach the spirit because to me, a great spirit allows you to do that.
Bam Bam:Allows you to do what?
Gizmo:Be specific.
Chef Ricky:Allows you let that swim on your palate rather than just sort of swallow.
Bam Bam:Don't you do that with everything you drink?
Chef Ricky:I do, and that's why when I was doing it with this, I was getting that in the beginning. When I stopped allowing it to sort of linger on my palate, I was getting that buttery finish without that tannic ginger
Gizmo:Really?
Chef Ricky:Sort of Wow. And it got a lot more pleasant, but I didn't like that I had to change the way
Bam Bam:I How unusual. Okay.
Chef Ricky:So that's why I gave it an eight. And the price point is a
Gizmo:little ridiculous in my opinion.
Pagoda:All right, Pagoda. Yeah, for me it was a 9. And what I really liked about it, firstly, it's 46 ABV, 92 proof. I can't believe that I'm having a 92 proof whiskey without ice, and there's no harshness. Well, I can't believe it either.
Pagoda:No. I finished it without ice. And maybe I think with an ice, it would be probably slightly better. But overall, I think really, really good experience for me for an Irish whiskey because, you know, we've had the red breast and we've had a couple of other Irish whiskeys. I don't think I've really felt this way about an Irish whiskey.
Pagoda:I really enjoyed it. It was definitely very aromatic. You know, I kept smelling it for quite a bit. For me, I like, I found a bit of sweetness in the end, a really long finish, which kind of really complemented the cigar. I thought it was a cocoa sweetness, which I don't know whether people ever people experience it here today, but vanilla, cocoa, sweet.
Pagoda:It was very, pleasant in the end. For me, what I like is if you if a drink leaves my palate in a pleasant way, it's it's just something I really enjoy. And, you know, I I rated it without the price, and I still think it's a nine. It deserves a nine, and I really enjoyed it.
Gizmo:So for me, it's also a nine. I think this is an excellent Irish whiskey. I love that we talked about the writer's tears we did a few weeks ago. That rated a 10. This one, I think, pairs perfectly with a stronger cigar.
Gizmo:We talked about that. The writer's tears, I think, can work for a lot of the, you know, Cuban, Honduran, Dominican cigars. I think this one touches Dominican and Nicaraguan as far as far as where it fits. I love the profile. I love the flavor of this.
Gizmo:To your point, the fact that this is 92 proof, 46 ABV, no ice, no water, the the heat actually worked perfectly with the with the with the cigar tonight, which is why we're here. Right? This pairs with the cigar, not the other way around. I think this is a really nice pairing for cigars. I don't love the price on this.
Gizmo:Despite that, I'm still at a nine. I think it's a really, really nice spirit. It's really, really smooth despite a little bit of heat, which I think actually adds to it. Very, very good, so for me it's a nine.
Chef Ricky:In good spirits, heat always adds. It should always add.
Gizmo:Agree. Senator.
Senator:I'm glad we did this individually.
Gizmo:I'm at a six.
Senator:I'm at no. I'm with chef. I'm at an eight. Okay. For me, the biggest problem is the price.
Senator:I I really enjoyed the flavor profile. I can't say it's tremendously memorable. Like, I can stomach a $100 price point on a spirit that just keeps me wanting to come back for more. Would I drink this again? Absolutely.
Senator:Would I serve this to someone? Certainly. But a $100 a bottle, like, there are many single malt scotches that are more affordable than this at a 12 age statement, the exact same as this has, that I find to be more enjoyable and more memorable that I think are a nine or a 10. So that's why for me this is an eight. Again, a ton of merit to what this has done as an Irish whiskey.
Senator:I said this before, you know, one of the things I really appreciate is it showed me that there is more range in Irish whiskey and that this can be a fuller expression, it can have a long finish, it can stand alongside a full cigar like we had, but is this gonna be the first thing that I pick up for a full cigar? It's not. There are other single malts that I would, or even other types of spirits that I
Gizmo:would reach for before it. Panamanian rum. Correct.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Senator:So I just think it's mispriced. That's really my one complaint that if if this were $60.65 bucks a bottle, it would be a 9 for me, but at a $100, that's a whole other class. I mean, there are, you know, fourteen year single malts at that price point, or frankly even lower than that. I mean, Balvini Caribbean cask at fourteen years, you can get for, like, 85 a bottle. So I just that's my only I hope over time that they find a way to reduce the price on this, that's my one red flag.
Pagoda:I think they will, because considering the demand for liquor nowadays.
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Pagoda:I think I've, you know
Gizmo:It's gotta come down, right?
Pagoda:You know the Caribbean cask 14, Belverny, I saw it priced at $64
Gizmo:Insane.
Pagoda:Fourteen years. Wow.
Bam Bam:Give me the address.
Gizmo:Glad everybody stopped drinking because that's good for us. Wow.
Pagoda:Yeah. I think the prices will come down, but you know, I think I I'd already sent you the rating without the price in this particular case, but I kind of agreed between the eight and nine. And, you know, that's the thought process behind that we are within, you know, one degree of variance. Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The former liquor rating tonight on the yellow spot, twelve years aged Irish whiskey is an 8.6. That's a pretty good night. That's a good score for this. I think it's a perfect score
Pagoda:for this.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. And and I don't think my score would have been any different if
Bam Bam:I wanna comment on one thing that chef said and what senator said, just very briefly. So I'm all out on whiskeys, scotches, and bourbons.
Gizmo:As far as consuming
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:What are smoking? That's correct.
Bam Bam:But when something gets into the room that actually merits some respect, like this requires a little bit of respect.
Gizmo:It's
Bam Bam:a little unusual because I happen to like that ginger barrier and getting into that buttery finish, and that was a long, for me
Pagoda:Very long finish.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And that was a little unique. Mhmm. I didn't actually factor my price into this. So I would definitely drink this again.
Bam Bam:Actually, I will probably buy this. Like the writer's tears, that warranted a lot of fucking respect.
Gizmo:But I think both of those actually sit next to each other at the bar Well depending on what you're reaching for.
Pagoda:One is for lighter cigars.
Gizmo:Exactly. Yeah. It depends on One is for lighter cigars. One is for more full cigars.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. And once and also the writer's tier is a lot more affordable than this.
Rooster:Way much much more affordable.
Bam Bam:Yeah, much more affordable. But also a completely different profile. It was a bit milder.
Gizmo:And there's no age statement on that.
Bam Bam:Both were very sophisticated. So I think, I don't know, I'm kind of, I try not to factor price in, especially when something is so respectable, but I understand your point regarding price because you kinda have to factor that in. It does take it, like you said, into a different class, and it should be a different experience, but this experience is pretty unique.
Pagoda:Yeah. I think this
Bam Bam:is a tough one to kind of pinpoint.
Chef Ricky:The ginger didn't bother me so much. It was more the tannic notes that were throwing me off. I didn't get those.
Bam Bam:Your comment of not being a scotch or a whiskey guy, it kinda hit me a little bit because neither am I, but I do love when a great bottle gets into the room.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. And I think it was a great bottle. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think an
Bam Bam:8% It's a great score.
Pagoda:Yeah. You know, on the other hand, you know, I can see how the rating will fluctuate because the price because we are very price conscious as well in terms of the ratings. Obin's gone down to 74. So when you consider, when Obin's
Gizmo:By the way, I love how dialed he is on the prices
Bam Bam:He's a value
Gizmo:guy. At any current moment. He knows Balvini price, Oben price, McCallan price. Valid. He knows it all.
Pagoda:No. So and then it makes it very difficult. Right? Because if you think about it and you compare them, and I think all those rated between nine and nine point five, I think, you know, from that perspective, I think I think eight's a fair score, and so is nine. Know?
Gizmo:Eight six tonight, I think, is actually that's a great score.
Pagoda:Yeah. Eight six, I think really encapsulates what it should be.
Chef Ricky:I don't know how much more proof lizard nation needs. Correct.
Gizmo:All right, boys. It's time now to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the Trinidad.
Chef Ricky:Forgot roosters rating on the formal liquor.
Gizmo:It's Spirit II series number three. A
Bam Bam:10. It's a zero.
Gizmo:In Belicoso,
Rooster:Rooster, you're up. So this cigar kinda teaches you a lesson how not to judge a book by its cover.
Gizmo:A 100%.
Pagoda:I would have never philosophical, I must say. Not yet.
Rooster:I I mean, I would have never picked up this cigar if I saw this at a lounge. I don't Ever.
Gizmo:I doubt if any
Rooster:one of us would have
Chef Ricky:Now I look forward
Pagoda:to none of us.
Rooster:The cigar.
Gizmo:I mean,
Rooster:had you had you not known that who it's blended by, I don't I mean, I wouldn't pick it up.
Gizmo:I would have no idea what this cigar is.
Bam Bam:I don't agree.
Rooster:Don't And I typically would stay away from a new world Cohiba or a new world Monte Cristo you
Gizmo:know, whatever it is.
Pagoda:But it's Trinidad, buddy.
Gizmo:It's Trinidad. Whatever it is. That's my point.
Bam Bam:I know.
Pagoda:I love it.
Gizmo:Can't imagine. There's gonna a new There's gonna be
Pagoda:a new world. QD is coming up.
Senator:New world QD. I have one for you.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. That's the Xenos.
Bam Bam:Oh my god.
Gizmo:So that
Senator:went from bad pissing mouth down pagoda. Amazing.
Bam Bam:We're being attacked.
Pagoda:I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Russel.
Rooster:I mean, this cigar was an amazing experience tonight. This cigar is absolutely in my sweet spot. I love a fuller cigar. This cigar, I think, was a three act play. I it started off with a chocolate covered blueberry and a little bit of spice.
Rooster:And in the middle, you got this cocoa note. And towards the end, it got like a sweet cocoa, really mellow, like Chef said. I mean, it a beautifully blended cigar, I must say. And for this price point, I mean, it's how do they do this? I mean, it's unreal.
Rooster:And how good the cigar is at a $10 I mean, this is absolutely a great experience tonight. So I'm giving this a 10.
Gizmo:Awesome. Senator.
Senator:I I have nothing to disagree with that Rooster just said. I'm at a strong 10. It's exactly a three act play like he said. For me, the first third, you got the berry note. The second third was straight cocoa like hot chocolate.
Senator:And the final third, that cocoa carried through, but I actually got some earthiness. Yes. And I feel like this cigar got more and more Got better. As I smoked it.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Pagoda:I totally
Gizmo:I literally just wrote down Padron esque right before you said
Senator:that. That's correct. It's it's just remarkable. Like, at that price point, it's shocking. I'm still, like, even as I'm saying it, I mean, sure, I wrote down my 10 obviously well in advance of this.
Senator:I'm blown away. How smooth the delivery of that much flavor was is a huge merit. The construction was flawless all the way. I had I mean, I've smoked this down to the nub You
Bam Bam:got three quarters of an inch there.
Senator:Burn line was perfect.
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Bam Bam:All the way down.
Senator:Ash held on. It wasn't flaky. The combustion was excellent.
Bam Bam:The goat is clean. His lap is clean.
Senator:Well, the the sofa's not. It's not
Gizmo:as clean. We're gonna need a vacuum, but
Rooster:He just switched what?
Gizmo:I'm gonna throw the new cigar with.
Bam Bam:You need a meal, Pagoda.
Pagoda:Mean, just in
Senator:every category, in every class, like, it delivers. It's a beautiful cigar even just looking at it. I mean, relatively invisible seams, even the artwork, like, the bands, like, for a Trinidad, like, every single way, I have not one thing I can possibly complain about this cigar. I think any cigar smoker who loves a full flavored experience, this is gonna deliver for them. And and I think, you know, someone who wants to try a fuller flavored cigar and, you know, maybe is a little hesitant, worrying that it's gonna kick them around or have a bite, like, this does this in as accessible a way as a full bodied cigar can.
Senator:So I think that this is this is a gateway for someone who likes medium full to kinda press the envelope a bit and try a truly full cigar. I would definitely smoke this again. And this is one of those sticks that, you know, when you only have time for one cigar in an evening and you just want a really full flavored experience, like, this is exactly when I would reach for this cigar. I'll definitely smoke it again. Rafael Nadal, absolutely brilliant as a blender.
Senator:I mean, it's it's crazy to think how many cigars now we've tried that he's behind and how spectacular the experience has been. So I'm glad we did this. I will give Cigar Aficionados some credit. Finally.
Gizmo:Was number five this year, by
Chef Ricky:the way.
Gizmo:Really? Number five. I looked it
Bam Bam:up. Fantastic.
Senator:All those reasons, a strong 10, there's not a single flaw with
Bam Bam:this cigar.
Pagoda:Well, just before you give your rating, guys, the sergeant of arms has to say something.
Rooster:Go ahead.
Pagoda:What about your rating? Who do you text
Gizmo:it to?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Have a system.
Bam Bam:How are we gonna hold
Gizmo:you Yeah. How do we hold you accountable? So I write my rating. This has been for hundreds of episodes.
Senator:I don't like this. I want Very good question, Ricardo. I want Gizmo to text me his rating, and we'll text him our rating.
Rooster:Okay. He should text your rating to the group.
Pagoda:Yes.
Gizmo:But what if you look at your phones? I'm not looking at my phone
Senator:before It does have to be a group. At a minimum, it just me
Gizmo:or the group. One of you. Okay.
Bam Bam:Well, aren't you checking our scores to make sure that
Gizmo:No. I didn't look at I only opened my calculator on my phone. Mhmm. I did not look
Senator:at your said me because I
Gizmo:don't think And I wrote it down before we even started recording.
Senator:I said me because I don't think there'll be a single listener that is in any way suspicious that my rating changes based on what anybody's gonna say in this room. Mhmm.
Gizmo:I think Bam, you know, my guy who we sold the box of fundies successfully, this is my teammate. Correct. I'll send it to Bam.
Chef Ricky:That's exactly why you shouldn't send it Bam.
Senator:But that could influence his rating.
Pagoda:It will definitely influence his rating, by
Gizmo:the way.
Bam Bam:That could influence his rating. I already sent him my rating.
Senator:He I know, but I'm worried that if you sent his first, that that could influence. And then
Bam Bam:I'm gonna change mine now? No. No.
Senator:I would say before the fact.
Chef Ricky:Alright. So you could send your rating to the group after we all send our our ratings to you.
Senator:Perfect. Then he's seen all
Gizmo:of No. Haven't seen them because it doesn't Okay. As long it
Rooster:my lock takes screen here.
Gizmo:Okay. So for me, it's a 10. Okay? And Rooster said that he loves a full cigar. I don't love a full cigar.
Gizmo:I don't reach for a full cigar. I don't reach for Padron Family Reserve. Mhmm. But this cigar tonight was a complete full experience. It was brilliant.
Gizmo:Okay? It was chocolatey. It was spicy. It was smooth. It was complex.
Gizmo:It delivered everything I want out of a full experience without any of the bite, without any of the heat, without any of the punishment that often comes with full Nicaraguan flavor. So I really, really loved it. You don't like the Padron Hammer, the fiftieth? I don't think that's a terribly full cigar.
Senator:Think full cigar.
Gizmo:I think Family Reserve is way more full than the Hammer. Way more that's a full cigar.
Bam Bam:Yeah. They're both full.
Gizmo:No. I I think Family Reserve is more in line with this cigar that we had tonight.
Bam Bam:I don't think he's 100%.
Gizmo:What about the black flavor?
Senator:Full cigar.
Bam Bam:How about full. Yep. They're both full. No doubt, but they are a little different.
Gizmo:I think this cigar and the reason why I'm giving it a 10, it has a place in the rotation.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:It has a unique place in the rotation. I don't think that I would put this in place of a an aging room concerto that I love. I don't think I would put this in place of a Padron exclusive that I love. I think it would come after both of those two Mhmm. In its own unique place that, honestly, I don't know if I have another cigar that I would put there other than a short finisher at the end of the evening.
Gizmo:So I think this is a cigar that kind of has its unique place. I think it's a very, very interesting Nicaraguan blend that Rafael Nadal has done here that I don't know if it's gonna replace anything. It might actually add on to my rotation depending on my mood or how I'm feeling. Another reason why I'm giving it a 10 is I'm gonna buy a box of this when we leave here tonight. At $10 a cigar, this is unbeatable at at for what it offers at this price point, at this flavor profile, at this smoothness.
Gizmo:I mean, it's unbelievable. And as as senator said, it's. It is very Pedron esque. And honestly, I think I like it a little more than family reserve at at such a lower price point. I I will reach for this over family reserve That's a good argument.
Gizmo:Nine times out of 10.
Bam Bam:How about the exquisite respect that.
Gizmo:The exquisite would sit before this for me
Senator:in a row. Because that's medium full.
Gizmo:That's not not replace an exquisite for me. Let's say I'm coming out of a a a big steak dinner that I had with the wife. A nine nails concert. Nine Inch Nails concert and a big steak dinner. For the fourteenth day.
Gizmo:By the way, I'm going in three weeks to see Nine
Rooster:Nails. Months.
Chef Ricky:His At
Gizmo:Prudential at Prudential in Newark, I'm gonna go see Nine Inch Nails.
Rooster:That's cool.
Gizmo:On Valentine's Day with with missus Gizmo. But, seriously, if I'm coming out of a steak dinner Happy Valentine's Day to you. Correct. I wanna have one cigar. I wanna have one cigar.
Gizmo:I want a full cigar. I'm gonna reach for this over family reserve. I'm sorry. A 100%.
Bam Bam:No need to apologize.
Gizmo:I can't believe I'm saying this. Shout out to Rafael Nadal. This cigar is an absolute home run. I'm blown away. I can't believe it.
Senator:I just have to say, I already love this new ratings regime. Yeah. Because Gizmo has given it a 10 for all the right reasons. By the working.
Rooster:This is
Gizmo:week one. Let's see it let's see a couple weeks. Pagoda.
Pagoda:I think this is my new rotation. To start off, maybe a Trinity Rubisto Fabric five. I go into either the Sonata next, the Concerto, and I'm gonna end my night with a Trinidad and then a Bellicoso. That's really it. So I think
Gizmo:There you go.
Pagoda:This has made it into the rotation. It's a 10. I think I probably were the first one to send it right away as we discuss it. This is very enjoyable. Love the price point.
Pagoda:You can smoke it indoors, outdoors, summer evening.
Rooster:On the golf course.
Pagoda:On the golf course.
Gizmo:There's no season Yes. Attached to Yeah. It works
Pagoda:It's a all the great point.
Bam Bam:That's
Rooster:true. I
Pagoda:agree. This, for $10? Oh, please. I think this is a home run. Fantastic.
Pagoda:It's a 10.
Gizmo:I agree. I wanna add one more thing that I don't think any of us have touched on. Its performance tonight was brilliant.
Chef Ricky:Brilliant. Of course.
Gizmo:The amount of touch ups in the room was so low. I think I did once when I was reading some long emails, but I didn't see the lighters coming out tonight.
Bam Bam:I didn't touch it up at all.
Pagoda:I
Gizmo:didn't Honestly, know for a $10 cigar Correct. That's a
Bam Bam:huge merit. The combustion was fantastic.
Pagoda:Huge merit. And I wanna give you an example between, at least I know, between Bab and I, definitely Senator, the amount we smoked was
Gizmo:Yeah, I was less less than than the bam.
Senator:To the nub. Yeah, to the nub.
Gizmo:About half an inch,
Bam Bam:almost a quarter of inch. Correct.
Gizmo:All right, chef. Fantastic.
Pagoda:The tonic nature.
Bam Bam:Remember Oh, boy.
Pagoda:Of this cigar.
Bam Bam:You've you've already set your rating. You can't change it. Uh-oh.
Senator:This is why I like this new regime. Wizard Tyler was right.
Rooster:The green ketchup.
Chef Ricky:No. I mean, my rating wouldn't have changed, but I'm gonna go ahead and apologize. Why? Because I'm a nine.
Pagoda:Nine's good. There's no reason within lunch. I
Chef Ricky:know. Know. I apologize.
Gizmo:I know
Chef Ricky:a nine is good.
Senator:Did I not bring up this example that we apologize for ratings after people have heard errors?
Gizmo:I'm less happy with you. I'm more upset with you for validating him.
Chef Ricky:See? Well no.
Senator:This is why this new regime works.
Gizmo:I'm a New regime.
Chef Ricky:Apologizing to Rafael Nadal. Alright. Look. You're a genius. This cigar is delicious.
Chef Ricky:I'm not a a a full Are you
Gizmo:talking to senator or Rafael Nadal? I'm not. Okay.
Chef Ricky:Well, they're kinda one and the same at this point.
Pagoda:Correct. Putting the caviar on the show.
Senator:And who appreciates No, caviar
Chef Ricky:for me so I had a bit of a flaky ash, which was a turn off for me. So far, seems like I was the only one in the room with that experience.
Senator:Sounds like
Pagoda:you Hey, look
Bam Bam:at me.
Chef Ricky:Perhaps. Perhaps. But coming into this, I wasn't sort of the full the the the full cigar smoker. Right? I I I that's not my wheelhouse.
Chef Ricky:But as I was getting into that cigar, I was really enjoying it. I was like, wow. Okay. And then what happens? That final third comes in, and it really mellowed out.
Chef Ricky:And that's not what I'm used to. I expected it to pick up or to at least maintain that pace. And it mellowed out for me and I wanted more of that punch that I was getting earlier on.
Pagoda:For me By the way,
Bam Bam:a nine's a pretty elite score.
Chef Ricky:Mean, that the wrong? No. It's a great score. Will a box of this. I love the price point.
Chef Ricky:I love the band. I love the box art. But, yeah, I wanted that strength to continue through. I wanted to finish with that because now
Gizmo:Was it too smooth for you?
Chef Ricky:It was.
Senator:For me, the last third was the boldest part. Did you smoke it in batches?
Gizmo:No. Honestly, he was saying before we even talked about ratings that the last third was like
Chef Ricky:It lightened up
Gizmo:for It lightened big and it was smooth.
Senator:Not for me.
Pagoda:Good but earthy.
Senator:Yeah, was earthy
Bam Bam:at this have a whole commentary on the final third,
Chef Ricky:but The go final third for me was not at all, know, the cocoa really dissipated. Obviously the barrier was long gone, which is okay because it developed into the cocoa. But at the final third, the cocoa really dissipated and it just really became a smooth experience and I wanted the strength to kind of persist. It didn't. So that's why I went from a 10 to a nine for me.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Chef Ricky:But it was still a great cigar. It was still an amazing experience. It was a surprise experience considering that this was a new world variant of a Cuban cigar. Obviously nothing like a Trinidad, but still delicious, very good, amazing price, and amazing blend.
Rooster:Alright, Bam.
Bam Bam:So I thought this cigar was exquisite. I agree with what everyone has said here. I actually appreciate that beyond that berry note in the first third, it did become very, very Pedron esque, as we've all discussed, and that was very a shock. It was a little surprising. What did disappoint me in this cigar is that is that bloody final end, that final inch, and I took it down to just under a half inch.
Bam Bam:And I like to do that with almost every cigar I smoke, especially the ones that I love, that I know are gonna be great at that point.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Bam Bam:For me, it wasn't great at that point.
Rooster:Complete opposite for me.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But for
Senator:the same I enjoyed every pot.
Bam Bam:No. Every
Senator:pot. I am shocked.
Bam Bam:At this point for me, it became very heavily minerally. Elite pellets.
Pagoda:A little too
Senator:Elite palates.
Bam Bam:A little too earthy at that Carbohydrate palates.
Senator:Yes. What I call it.
Bam Bam:Ketchup palates. At that point, it just shifted for me, and it wasn't enjoyable. Got Really? Yeah. It it kinda backed up on me a little bit.
Bam Bam:So why
Rooster:would you smoke it to the nub?
Bam Bam:To test it out. To really see
Gizmo:what it's like.
Chef Ricky:Is because this isn't cigar fixinato.
Gizmo:That the suffering that we do here, Brewster.
Bam Bam:It's truly not suffering.
Gizmo:We smoke
Bam Bam:it to the I experience every cigar, not the cigars that I know
Pagoda:that They are take on the pain for the
Bam Bam:radiance No, correct. Like
Gizmo:But did it not get very smooth?
Bam Bam:So the beginning, first half of that final third was fantastic, creamy smooth. But as I entered that half inch realm and I continued to take it down, for me, it wasn't pleasant. I got a little ammonia, very heavily minerally.
Rooster:Like, to the very end.
Gizmo:To the Woah. Almost to the very end.
Pagoda:Maybe that's like
Bam Bam:past that point. I am unapologetically giving this a nine, which I happen to think is an incredible score for what this was.
Pagoda:It's great thought score.
Bam Bam:Everything from It's that point and above an elite score,
Rooster:as you would say.
Bam Bam:It's an elite score, but everything from that point and above was a 10. But the moment I get into that last portion, which is what leaves my final memory, my final thoughts of the cigar.
Rooster:So for the 50¢ worth of cigar, you're
Gizmo:not looking at it. Can I ask you a question about not looking at it from that perspective? Honestly.
Bam Bam:But I'm at a strong nine.
Gizmo:Would you buy a box of these? Yeah. Will you buy a box
Bam Bam:of I will buy. You know what I love about the cigar?
Gizmo:You could put it down in the last third, No, who I Because it's 10 think you've all mentioned the versatility of it,
Bam Bam:but also Senator mentioned how it's a great gateway cigar. I'd love to hand this out at the next cigar event, and I think everyone would love it. I think they'd really enjoy it. It's unusual. It's a little different.
Bam Bam:It's so well priced. I think this would be a great entertainment cigar if you're entertaining a big group of people.
Gizmo:A perfect Let know
Rooster:how to
Gizmo:be there.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Yeah. When is that?
Bam Bam:I don't know, but
Chef Ricky:It's been a few years.
Bam Bam:It's a while. It's been a
Senator:It's been a while.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The former lizard rating tonight on the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso is a 9.7. What a great rating. I mean, listen.
Bam Bam:You can't expect this to be the absolute absolute perfect perfect score.
Gizmo:Honestly, I did not expect this to be perfect, but I think a 97 is actually That's a fucking excellent score. I do think
Senator:it's it's perfect. And I'm just gonna say, Lizard Tyler? Lizard Tyler.
Bam Bam:Oh, he did the The slurs' commentary was
Senator:so brilliant. We need to continue this in perpetuity. Alright. I guarantee that if we did not write these scores individually, at least one would have also been a 10. And I'm not saying that it's an indictment on any individual.
Gizmo:It sounds like an indictment.
Senator:No. Don't don't go. I'm taking
Gizmo:it
Senator:personally. Only two guys.
Gizmo:There's only two guys. Taking it personally. There there are
Bam Bam:people that acquiesce, and I understand. So I understand that. But
Senator:He's pointing the figure at
Gizmo:the fucking chest. By the way, there's only two. He just pointed the figure at one. Correct. I don't maybe you'll hear a little bit.
Senator:I truly this is not for me, this is not about either of them individually. I just know that and again, if it were a different two, that if a bunch of people had gone before and made such a strong case for why it deserved a 10 Listen. We're passionate people, so least one, that groupthink would have somehow infiltrated to the point of it would have been, you know Lifely. Those reasons are so compelling. I'm gonna round up to the 10.
Senator:Mhmm. And the fact that that couldn't happen here, I think is really helpful. Yeah. And even when I don't agree with someone else's rating, I would rather every persons be dead honest and unadulterated by what anyone else has said. Untainted.
Senator:So I really love the suggestion. We should keep doing this forever. Yeah. And what a great listener
Bam Bam:you have. And it's fun.
Chef Ricky:I agree, but I'm not admitting to any guilt here because I just had to I just had to look at the definition of acquiesce. Oh.
Senator:You, man. Vasylate acquiesce. That is
Gizmo:a $5 word, by
Rooster:the way.
Senator:Grindr would be so proud of us.
Pagoda:How'd you spell it,
Gizmo:by the way, when you looked it up? Correctly. Siri. Not correctly.
Pagoda:No, but you know, coming to the point, right, I think the variance at an average is gonna be within 10 points to 10%. If you take it over five people, you're not having that much of a margin.
Gizmo:But you know what though, listener though
Pagoda:But it's gonna make it more entertaining.
Gizmo:Matters. The listener though, knowing that we're doing this new process, I do like it. So cheers to Lizard Tyler.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:By the way, we've read maybe ten, fifteen emails about changing the ratings. Lizard Tyler has actually, in the episode
Bam Bam:Hit the nail on the mark.
Gizmo:Yep. Changed the rating So we are going to continue doing this. So cheers to him. And, of course, boys, cheers to Lizard Randy, our lizard of the week, who's gonna win a 10 count box of Bon Robert cigars with his awesome sentimental email. We have to thank Bon Roberts.
Gizmo:They're great. Of course, BAM benefited greatly from the Bon Roberts auction platform. Correct. He he's a big appreciator of that. Rooster has deleted his account there.
Bam Bam:Sorry about that, I
Chef Ricky:don't As we know. Which is unfortunate because Rooster was
Bam Bam:For whole world.
Gizmo:He was a big buyer over there.
Pagoda:Hey, Lizard Gays, not to be very frustrating and annoying, to Lizard Randy, what happened to the whole walk in humidor and the cigars in there?
Gizmo:That's a
Chef Ricky:great question. A
Gizmo:great question.
Pagoda:We left it
Rooster:here. It's been
Gizmo:some time. Lizard Randy, what happened to the cigars of your friend who had an untimely passing? I'm actually honestly, this is a big question. We should talk about this next week because I've actually heard of some situations on FOH where a member died.
Bam Bam:And
Gizmo:the spouse of this member reached out to FOH to rob to deal with the cigars. This person had no idea how to deal with
Bam Bam:Oh, that's great though.
Gizmo:The inventory. Should I sell it? Should I trade it? Like, what should I do to either cash it out or just get rid of it in general if they're not worried about money? So it's actually a really good question because it's happening every day.
Gizmo:I mean, are cigar smokers every day who No. It's true.
Pagoda:If you need any trust in estate planning And
Senator:people will pillage who have no business taking
Gizmo:those cigars.
Senator:I'll share this another episode.
Gizmo:Let's talk about this next week. I'm gonna earmark this. Let's talk about this next week. So, Lizard Randy, please reach out. I'm I'm curious what happened with your friend's cigars.
Gizmo:And, again, boys, we have to thank Bon Roberts for sponsoring Glizzard of the week. They're so great to us. We really appreciate that. And, of course, FabricAfib, boys. Use our code lizard pod.
Gizmo:Get 10% off the entire store. So many great cigars there. They have been amazing to us. And, of course, small batch cigars.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Yeah. You know, we get so many cigars. We got this cigar tonight from small batch. Yep. Use our code lizard 15 for 15% off your entire order.
Gizmo:And, boys, one more time, let's go through the ratings. The yellow spot, 12 years aged, Irish whiskey scored an 8.6 tonight, and the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso was a 9.7. Both were debuts on the pod tonight, and both did quite well, boys. Mhmm. And a great night.
Gizmo:We'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.com.
Gizmo:Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at loungelizards pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.