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Recorded at the Ten86 Cigar Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the lizards pair the Quai d’Orsay No. 54 with Schneider Weisse beer. The guys discuss QD’s place in the Habanos S.A. catalog, Senator and Grinder talk about the most challenging beer to brew, and they do a deep dive on modern American beer culture.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda and Grindr, and our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some beer, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 50th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cupid cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We discuss Cutie's Place in the Bonos SA catalog. Senator and Grinder talk about the most challenging beer to brew.
And we do a deep dive on modern American beer culture, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair Schneider Viza with the K dors. Say number 54. A Cuban re robusto tonight [00:01:00] on the pod from K Doce. The number 54, which is a 54 ring gauge by five and three eighths inches cigar.
Our second QD on the pod. We did the Coronas Claro quite some time ago, I guess, right? Probably episode 15, 20, something like that. I don't remember. Got a great rating. We love that cigar. Uh, so it was time to revisit this line. Um, they have three cigars in regular production, which is the Coronas Claro, the number 50, which is a 50 ring gauge, Petit re robusto, and this number 54, uh, Rubo.
So great cigars. Um, let's cut this thing, boy. So we're getting on the, uh, the, the Cole John the wrapper. Yeah. Nice, nice dark wrapper on this. Yeah. So these are from, uh, the Parus factory Tua, December 20. Good code, good box date on the cutie number 54.
**Pagoda:** Good looking .
**Gizmo:** Hmm. Immaculate draw. [00:02:00] What are you guys getting?
Hmm. Shortbread. Same
**Senator:** cold draws actually really tasty. It
**Gizmo:** is. Mm-hmm. Some dried fruit. A little bit. I feel like this is a very different cigar from the Corona Claro. And we could talk about, you know, I think that kind of stands a little bit outside this one. And this one I think is very different than the, uh, the number 50 as well.
Um, all three in the line. They don't share a ton of DNA from me anyway,
**Poobah:** but cold jars, very, uh, dessert flavor, like to me, yeah, a little vanilla.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's like this thing, the K se number 54. Again, it's a 54 ring gauge with buso by five and three eight inches. So a very exciting night tonight.
This is, uh, first off, this is num, uh, episode number 50. , which I think is a cool milestone. Oh, so this is the 50th [00:03:00] episode that we've recorded, um, coming up on our one year anniversary in a few weeks. And the other thing that's cool is this is the first time that we are recording outside of Senator's Lounge.
We are at our clubhouse. We always talk about 10 86, uh, cigar, retailer and Lounge. Amazing 24 7 lounge members only key card access. Just I think everything we've been dreaming of for years. Uh, and it finally popped up in our backyard. It's built for lizards. It's built for lizards. So check it out. 10 86 Cigars Hawthorne, New Jersey, the official Lizard clubhouse.
We're so happy to be here, so thankful to the owner, John, for having. It's really a great place. We spend a lot of time here very, as you know,
**Poobah:** very friendly environment, um, very, uh, very, very nice, uh, proprietor here. And, and it's a nice, very, very nice business.
**Gizmo:** Community driven. Absolutely. [00:04:00] Absolutely. And there's a golf simulator, golf simulator, and a poker room.
Free espresso, free espresso, free water, and like
**Senator:** 15 TVs. . Yeah, it's perfect
**Gizmo:** for sports. Yeah, it's, it's really a dream lounge. And, and our will be the best thing is that, you know, 24 7 access. That's 24 7 key card access. You wanna come here at 3:00 AM after you get off a plane at Newark? Yeah. And they're actually open
**Rooster:** on Sundays.
Yeah. Go
**Gizmo:** figure . And,
**Rooster:** and they don't close at five 30 on Saturdays, so that's a plus.
**Gizmo:** Plus I'd like
**Senator:** to report some shots fired in Hawthorne, New Jersey.
**Gizmo:** So what are you guys getting on this thing? I think this is, uh, off to a delicious start here on the light.
It's much different
**Rooster:** than the cutie 50,
**Gizmo:** right? I think so too. It's got more,
**Rooster:** uh, more filler, more, yeah, more filler, more, more flavor.
**Gizmo:** I think this is, is is a little more mild. It's a little morey. I think the, the fifties a little more earthy [00:05:00] generally.
**Senator:** I think the, the surprising thing, this was probably my introduction to QD and a credit Grindr because it was at his place that I had the first one of these, and my impression of QD was always that they're milder smokes, that they're kind of made for like the French market and were just supposed to be a milder Cuban.
Um, and I remember when Grindr gave me this, I was really shocked how much flavor was in this cigar. And I think, you know, you said, what are you getting right off the bat? And for me it's like a dance between spice and some sweeter kind of dessert like flavors, which I really like. Um, so it, it opened my eyes to this brand in a way that, um, I wasn't before.
And I think the Corona's Claros came after that. Love that cigar. So there's, they're, they're shockingly very flavorful
**Gizmo:** sticks. Yeah. And what's interesting too, ha, Bono's listing this as a value brand, I, you know, these cigars, I [00:06:00] think is, is Corona's Claro for me as a, as a Corona stands alone. . Um, it's, it's a phenomenal cigar.
So it's just interesting that Havanas doesn't, um, have more cigars in the wine like we've talked about on other episodes. Diplomatic, you know, there's other o other markets,
**Poobah:** but, but do they list, I don't think they listed as a value brand more as a portfolio brand. Maybe it is portfolio. Maybe you're, you know what I'm saying?
It's not a value brand like Quinteros
**Gizmo:** or something. Yeah, no, this is not mean. It's
**Poobah:** not quinteros, um, uh, like Kuaba or, or something. This is a luxurious cigar. Yes. It's made for the, a certain, I, a certain smoker with a certain pallet, uh, the, the, the European market primarily. But, um,
**Gizmo:** you know what's interesting?
Yeah, you're correct, but what's in the, guess what brands they call value brands? Cuz you didn't name a single. Jose, Jose LaPierre,
**Poobah:** uh, El El Damo? Nope. San Louis Ray?
**Gizmo:** Nope. Value Brands is listed by [00:07:00] Havanas Boulevard. Punch Ramon and Trinidad. What? Wow. Well, I don't know what they mean by that. I mean, it's insane.
It's insane. Trinidad. No, they
**Pagoda:** mean Trinidad Premium
**Gizmo:** probably. But you are correct, you are correct. Placing, actually this is placed alongside Koba, El Ray Del Muno, Fonseca, Juan Lopez, uh, Gloria Cabana. No way. Yeah.
**Poobah:** This is listed along Portfolio brand. Yeah. It's not a global, global, global brand cuz they just don't make as many of them and they're not, not, it's not Hoyo Parus.
**Gizmo:** But how, how is Adad a value brand? Wells certainly isn't, don't think that's like $800 box of 12 cigars. . I think, I think that's value. I mean,
**Senator:** that's , that's, I don't think
**Grinder:** we know their definition
**Gizmo:** of value. Yeah, I guess. I don't
**Poobah:** think they do either. They may need, that's from Cuban cigar website. It's probably needs to be updated or something.
And by the way, when are our books coming?
**Gizmo:** November. I actually just got an update this week that they're on track. They're on time. So we will have them before the holidays. Can you remind the listener what the book is [00:08:00] because it's so cool? Yes, it's, uh, okay. So we love and reference anytime that we do a Cuban episode.
Uh, few of us are, at least a few of us are sitting here on our phone with Cuban website, uh, cuban cigar website.com. So it's cuban cigar website.com Open on our phones. Uh, and it's just the Gospel of Cuban cigar information. Um, everything you need, we want to know about sizes, marks, uh, vital to is every packaging.
How to find fakes. Et cetera. And the curator of the site is a guy named Alexander Groom, and he's putting out a, a really nice hardcover deluxe presentation, uh, book called El Hao Moderna, uh, which you can still pre-order on the website and it'll be available, but, uh, highly recommend you check it out. And we've all ordered one and it comes in November and I'm really excited about it.
And you got two, right? Um, I got hard. I think I did actually. Did you get hardcover?
**Rooster:** Hardcover and
**Gizmo:** the soft cover? No, I actually, I think I got like a, a [00:09:00] limited edit one, and then I got one that I'm actually gonna kind of, I'll probably keep
**Poobah:** remember. Do you remember what we ordered?
**Gizmo:** I do. I know exactly what we ordered.
I mean, the
**Poobah:** color, if I got the color, I can't remember if I order red, blue, blue. I think I got red. I'll
**Rooster:** tell you. I got, I know I got red. I got
**Pagoda:** red. When's the audio
**Gizmo:** version
**Grinder:** coming out? I hope I got, I hope I got red. I also got red. Not, not the limited edition
**Poobah:** one. Not the limited edition. One red though. I hope I got red.
It more than torch blue. I dunno. Somebody ordered
**Gizmo:** blue.
**Rooster:** I remember a couple
**Gizmo:** of guys ordered blue. Here we go. Senator had the red edition, bam. Bam had a collector's edition like me and a red edition. Puba had a blue, Grindr had a blue, and Wooster had a blue. What?
**Grinder:** Wait, wait, wait. Whoa, whoa. What? Wait. Blues.
The limited edition
**Gizmo:** one. The limited edition one, I believe is the blue one. I'm not sure
**Grinder:** actually. Then, then, then you mistook my order young
**Gizmo:** man. No I didn't. This is why I'm just leave it be. The book
**Poobah:** is the main
**Gizmo:** thing. . I'm busting his ball. I know, but now I'm bummed out thinking I got you the wrong one. . [00:10:00] I don't think I did.
Actually. No, I, no. Blue is the limited edition one, so it is So maybe that's why I trust Hoba. Uh, Puba, grinder and Rooster all got blue. What you just said. I got
**Poobah:** red. See? You got red?
No,
**Gizmo:** I thought you said I got red. I got red For
**Senator:** sure. I had a strong preference. You just said you got blue.
**Gizmo:** This
**Poobah:** Senator, you got blue?
No, he
**Gizmo:** started
**Senator:** off saying,
**Gizmo:** Senator got red, Senator Red. Bam. Bam. Red Grindr. Yours is kuba. Yours are blue. Yours is not limited. No, the red one is, so what's the difference? What
**Rooster:** makes it limited
**Gizmo:** me?
**Senator:** Look at both of them. You'll understand why
**Poobah:** I said I want red and I hope I got red before I realized I got blue.
Yes.
**Gizmo:** God damn you. What do you think about the cigar? ? Let's keep going about what color books we ordered. Oh, that's funny.
**Grinder:** One of the things that's interesting to me is that this is supposedly for the European market. Yeah. You don't see European smoking 54 ring gauge cigars.
**Senator:** It's true. Sure.
**Gizmo:** That's true.[00:11:00]
What's that all about? I, you know, I'll be honest, I, I don't .
**Poobah:** Yeah. But this isn't the only cigar they make. I certainly don't love a 64 Ren. Maybe, maybe it's a crossover, you know, attempt,
**Rooster:** you know, it's a hybrid. It
doesn't
**Gizmo:** feel like a 54 though. It's a, uh, there. I just ho honestly, I, this cigars delicious.
Don't get me wrong. I don't love 54 ring gauge cigars. Uh, anything really over 52. I just like this in my hand. It's delicious. Now I'm not talking about flavor. I just don't love the size of the cigar. I
**Poobah:** can see that. I mean, I don't, it doesn't bother me. Yeah. Um, as long as it, as long as the taste is there, you know, like got like a connoisseur.
Yeah. And I also like an E too. And those are larger ring gauges and, um,
**Gizmo:** delicious cigars. Just, I just, I wish. A thin ring edge. Say if I could have the same flavor profile, be profile the same, if they could have the same flavor profile and be smaller, I would take that. [00:12:00] But obviously that's not the way that the world is trending as far as, but you know what?
**Rooster:** Smoking the bigger the ring gauge, the cooler the
**Gizmo:** smoke too. That's true. You know, so, yeah, that's right. And you look cool too. But because I ordered the blue book, I guess
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, like, I don't, I don't reach for this ring gauge like all the time. Yeah. Um, but, but I think that it's got its place.
**Senator:** Yeah. I, I think when Puba says it has its place, I think every ring gauge kind of has its place.
and for me, the only 54 ring gauge sticks I smoke the QD 54, the, and the ZI too. That's pretty much it. And I reach for those when I, like with a larger ring aid stick like this, the smoke output is usually really robust. And so when I know I just really kind of wanna immerse myself in a cigar with a lot of combustion, that's when I reach for a 54 ring gauge.
Um, but it was funny, rooster said earlier that this stick in particular, he said it doesn't feel like a [00:13:00] 54 ring gauge. And I actually tend to agree. I, I can't explain why I feel this way, but a lot of the time when we've reviewed like a new World 54 ring gauge, it's felt like a massive cigar and not all that enjoyable, even in the hand and as you're smoking it.
But this cigar for some reason, it just fits well in my hand and I You're pretty comfortable. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's actually a good size, you know,
**Gizmo:** I think
**Rooster:** because like you mentioned, , you smoke the E two. The E two is a little
**Gizmo:** longer. Yeah, right. That's true. So maybe reason, maybe it's a we thing. Yeah. The lens.
It's a good point.
**Poobah:** No, it's, it is. It's significantly longer.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. So this is, this is a Rob
**Rooster:** Robusto. Yep. Yeah. A big Rob Robusto. I mean, Robusto is a, typically like a 50
**Gizmo:** range. 50 gauge, yeah. 52. Yeah. Can we
**Grinder:** talk
**Senator:** about that for a second? I am really thrown off by, it was funny, Grindr said we had a robo. I said, there's no way this is a Ribo, it's a 54 ring gauge, but it technically is a rubo.
So it's clearly only measured by the length of it. But that kind of bothers me. I just feel like when I think of a 54 ring gauge, I think of a Toro, right? Yeah. [00:14:00] Right. Which is this ring gauge, but just longer. So I, I almost wish there were more parameters around calling things to a robusto like May, maybe to compare this to a D four or a RAs is crazy
**Gizmo:** to me.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Well, yeah. And there's also like the herm. Size. Right Size, which is slightly smaller than your standard Rob Robusto. And I mean, on any day most people are thinking that Hermosa is, is a Rob Robusto, which is to me is closer to what a Rob Robusto probably should be than what this is. But anyway, this is, this
**Gizmo:** is like a Rob Robusto Gordo.
Yeah. Seriously.
**Poobah:** Oh yeah, that's kind. Right. Yeah. I think you're
**Pagoda:** right. On the different teams, it'll be just half an inch. Yep. Between a rub, Robusto and a Toro. Yeah. So if you get a 54 by six, it's a Toro.
**Poobah:** Yeah,
**Grinder:** true. Are you guys getting fruity?
**Poobah:** I'm getting a little fruity. I like the cigar. I mean, it's, it's, it's on the mild side and it's.
Sometimes that's really, it's got
**Rooster:** some spice.
**Pagoda:** It does. I I'm not getting any spice at all.
**Grinder:** Really? Not yet. I get, I get it on the finish. [00:15:00]
**Poobah:** That's good. Yeah. I get more of a baking spice than like a, than like a
**Gizmo:** spicy spice maybe.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Not, not, not pepper,
**Pagoda:** not pepper. Not pepper.
**Gizmo:** Not pepper.
**Rooster:** All right. Like a milk meg.
Yeah, like a nutmeg type
spice.
**Gizmo:** I do find this to be a very pleasant smoke. I think it's the flavor's com more complex than a lot of more mild, uh, like the, the Romeo wide Churchill, I think was a good example of a cigar that was so mild and to me was just so blah.
**Poobah:** Well, the finishes longer in the cigar.
Absolutely. You know, the wide Churchill, the finish was just, it, you know, it, it, there's some body to this. I, I would argue there's more body to this than the, than than the wide Churchill. Um, and I think that's what gives it just a lot more character. I'd also argue that the construction on this is pretty,
Yeah. This is fantastic. Spectacular. It's pretty spectacular too. Yeah.
**Senator:** I mean, that's one thing I will give qds credit for. I, I feel like I haven't seen a poorly constructed qd. I mean, they, they charge a premium. [00:16:00] Honestly. That's also one of the things that initially deterred me from this brand. I thought they were mild cigars.
They're priced higher than most other, I mean, they're more than parus. They're, they're even more than some of the like, standard production monds. I was really confused by that. But the construction is, is always just really sharp. Um, I do love their bands actually. I think they're really well done. Yeah.
Love the
**Gizmo:** band. They're really nice. Love the bands. So ba it's
**Grinder:** a value stake. It's a handsome, it's a
**Poobah:** handsome, no, they bands are great and, and the more I, the more I smoke these, the more I kind of, um, Fall in love with them and appreciate them a little bit more. Particularly that cor Corona Claro. And that's just a super duper cigar.
Yeah. But young, you know, it previewed really, really well as a young cigar. Absolutely. That's cigar. Like I have a handful of 'em. I'm gonna grab some more at some point, but I'm not gonna, that cigars so good young that I'm not gonna smoke do, do you know what I mean? I'm gonna, I think that's cigar in four years will be a killer.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be a astonish.
**Rooster:** That's the best, that's the best cigar made by qd. No doubt. [00:17:00] I mean, I only make three cigars. They do make a
**Gizmo:** lot of regional. Yeah, it is funny. Havanas does use qd. Actually I did for an upcoming episode of the pod. I got us, uh uh, I got us some Santa Doris. Oh, nice. The l cd h, which is a, I guess it's a Corona.
I guess I can look here. But, um, I've heard great
**Senator:** things about this Santa. Me too. I've never. . Great. Thanks. I mean, the centor, it, it's, it's
**Gizmo:** wonderful. . Yeah. I can't imagine why you're saying that , which, that's a six and a half by 48, so they look great. I actually got them today, so looking forward to doing that down the road.
You know, what's cool about the cigar is, um, so first off, I, I just, I, I like to tell folks about the packaging. So this comes in a, uh, semi boy nature box of 10 cigars also, uh, in 25, um, very similar to like a part D four type setup. Uh, so this cigar was released only five years ago in 2017. So in 20 16, 20 17, uh, ha Bonos did a full rebranding of k dors se, which is why [00:18:00] arguably they have one of the most modern, best looking, most advanced presentation in the band, uh, out of all Havanas because they're kind of one of the more, uh, recent updates that they've done.
It's, it's.
**Grinder:** It's modern, but it looks, it looks classic still. It does. It still looks iconic. Like a classic, you know? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I don't get the, but it
**Rooster:** wasn't just the packaging or the label. They canceled. I think they completely redid
**Gizmo:** the whole, it was a full revenge, the whole blend and everything else. Yeah, they canceled.
Um, like the list of cigars that they cut between 2015 and 2017 is pretty extensive. You wanna know my
**Senator:** favorite part of their band? What's that? This is one of the only Cuban bands easy to get off that you can actually peel off without tearing the rapper, the cigars. It's true.
**Gizmo:** It's so that's that's true.
True. That's, it's an
**Rooster:** improvement. It is huge
**Gizmo:** improvement. The band before, uh, 2017. Very, very plain. Like a, like a [00:19:00] mustard yellow. Yeah, like a subdued yellow. Yeah. Very simple, you know? Yeah. Yeah. But those, those are also kind of cool looking. I know. They're so awesome actually. . Yeah, they're really awesome.
They're mustard yellow. Um, you know, I, I do wanna ask you guys, so episode 30, I was puting around trying to figure out what episode it was, episode 30 we did the Coronas Claro. Um, I know we're only about a, what, three quarters of an inch in, but how would you compare this cigar for listeners who maybe went out and, and grabbed the Coronas sclero or had that, how would you describe the difference in this cigar?
Versus a, a Corona's cloud.
**Rooster:** Well, there's, there's one note that's missing in the QD 54, which is very present in the Corona's Claro, and that's the citrus citrus. We're not, I'm not getting any citrus out of this. Yeah. You know, you get a lot of baking spice and stuff. But the Corona's, Claro, I mean, that was like a distinct flavor note that you get out of that is citrus orange.
Like, especially, not lemon, but like orange. Yeah, more like an orange orangey, orangey citrus,
**Senator:** which I will say I, I actually like that it's [00:20:00] not present in this cigar. And I say that because those are the two qds that I smoke regularly. I have QD 50 s as well, but I don't, I don't smoke 'em as often. The Coronas claros, I pretty much exclusively reach for in warm.
It, it's such an amazing, like summer, even spring cigar, you get that citrus, you can have it with a beer, like a lighter or scotch, a tequila. It's perfect for that. What I like about the 54 is because the flavors are more baking spice and not as citrusy and bright as you get in the cutie. Uh, the Corona's sc claros, I reach for this in all year round in the winter.
I smoke these the fall. So I like that. I have, this is kind of a year round stick for me and the Corona's sc Claros always slots in when the weather is nice and you'll be kind of conducive to being outdoors. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Have you had, uh, Corona's Sclero on China? On China? He has Oh, that's right. I gave him
**Senator:** had When you had your
**Gizmo:** baby?
Yeah. Right after you had your baby that was straight in your garage. Yeah,
**Grinder:** I smoked it in the garage. It was [00:21:00] awesome. It was great. Yeah. It was, it was a treat. It was the first cigar I smoked actually. Yep. After. Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. I find that, and you guys may think that I'm crazy on this, so I'm kind of bringing it up maybe to work with you a little bit, but to me, like.
I don't know how to phrase it properly, so forgive what, forgive this, but I almost feel like the Corona's Claro, to me is as close to maybe a cohiba type of thing without the hay or barnyard. Like it's as close to that where it sits for me in flavor profile. Uh, it's almost like a poor man's cohiba as far as ho bonos goes in my eyes.
I think it's the closest thing to, to a cohiba. Whereas I think this is kind of the love child of Upk and maybe a touch of RGUs are. Is that a crazy statement? Yeah. I had a feeling. Yeah. It's a little weird's. Yeah. I'm not drawn. I don't, I
**Rooster:** don't think Cohiba is, have that citrus notes. I don't think
**Gizmo:** any
**Senator:** of the kok, [00:22:00] they also don't have Barnard.
I mean, hay was don't, hay was right. And grass. It's like a grass. Grass. That's
**Gizmo:** what I meant to say. Yeah. Grass. Yes. We'll get the party flavor though.
**Poobah:** But kojis can also have the, like a honey. Flavor to them. Um, I, you know, I, I don't know if, um, it could be a leap. I don't know. I guess I say that with peace and love, but maybe, no, but
**Gizmo:** I presented it that way.
I, I expected, no, that's why I was hesitant even
**Senator:** saying it. If I'm trying to, if I'm trying to arrive at the conclusion GIZ did, I guess there's some of it I can see in the sense that. , you get a little of this right now, but when I've had these with even a bit more age, they really get creamier over time.
Like you can tell that it's there and it just with time, will it be accentuated? When you have these with a little bit of age, they can be super creamy. Where with Cohibas, when you have them young, you're not gonna get any of that. I just, I just, but when they age, you will. . And I do think some of the like lighter, the, the like the [00:23:00] flavor profile, this is not like in your face.
Uh, like that's where I can see that being a little cohiba like. But I guess I, as I'm saying this, you were saying that the qd kros, Claro was more cohiba. Like I almost think this may be more cohiba, like
**Poobah:** interesting. I think this is more closer to like a mild upk, but Upton's got more strength. Yeah. And pow UPNs deliver more power and more
**Gizmo:** pepper.
Upton has that shortbread thing, right?
**Poobah:** They have that shortbread thing. So I mean, I can, I can pull that, I can draw conclusion and say, because this has some kind of dessert like flavors and some of those baking spices that an mond delivers that we all love. Yeah. This has a, this particular cigar has a little bit of that, but it's like with a twist, with like a, with like a fruit twist.
So like the Corona's Claris is kind of like an up and with like a twist, you know, to it where upton's delivering almost like, like they get nutty. and they, they, they get baking spices, but like with nuts where this, this cigar is like baking spices with an orange [00:24:00] to kind of, you know, maybe
**Senator:** I'm, I'm closer to there.
So I, I'm sorry, I'm out on the koji. The,
**Rooster:** the, the baking spice is the common denominator between the Elman and, uh, the K do say the QD 54. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
**Poobah:** You know, like upk and I think, I feel like Upton and Trinidad, I mean, uh, Cohiba in Trinidad maybe are closer cousins, uh, in terms of flavor profile and some of the cigars, um, they are cousins.
A I mean, they, they do sit on their own little island, um, together. .
**Senator:** The other thing I have to say about this cigar, the construction really is impressive because this has been my experience when I smoke these by myself and I'm looking at every stick in the room and everyone's got at least an inch of like white ash, perfectly, you know, holding on.
And so, um, I, I really appreciate the construction of these.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I agree. I ev every, I've never had a cutie that has a problem. You know, [00:25:00] I only have to touch up when I'm talking and it, you know, I kind of let it go out a little bit, but I'm very rarely having to touch up a scar. Yeah. You never get
**Rooster:** a plugged one either.
Yeah. The
**Poobah:** construction is good. It's a high quality smoke. Um, it's some, it leaves me wanting maybe just a little more, you know, a little more power. But like it's bo there's enough body there that it's not like the recently reviewed wide churchi. Where it just, it's like, God, like you're really leaving this.
It's not even close to that. This is heads and shoulders, I think above it, but great. Probably morning cigar, you know, for a few. If you like the smoke in the morning, maybe
**Grinder:** I, uh, I think it's a good morning cigar. It's a light, it's a light cigar that I think someone is making the analogy of summer. I think it's a perfect summer cigar.
The claros is a great summer cigar. This, I think it, this, this is, is coupled with a, a poolside morning smoke very, very adequately. [00:26:00]
**Senator:** I'll also say this though, I, I think, um, it really depends what box you get of these. And I say that because I've had some, so I mean, I just happen to pull this box outta my humidor and, you know, took a few, and I know at least, you know, some of us are smoking that, um, I've had other boxes of these.
it's actually been a spicier more full and even slightly aggressive cigar the year, the, you know, the crop, whatever the case may be. But it's not been my experience that it is always the case that this cigar, like right now for me, is actually very creamy. And I would say firmly, medium. And the baking spice is really present.
Sometimes it's been more of like a peppery spice. I've actually gotten outta this cigar and it's had more oomph to it. So it's, it's for me, been a little bit of a mixed bag.
**Gizmo:** You guys wanna try our beer? So we got a good steer pairing tonight. Yeah. It's called the Schneider Vice. How do you pronounce that?
[00:27:00] Uh,
**Grinder:** Schneider Isa. Okay. It's a, it's very, that close, very typical German vien.
**Gizmo:** So it's, I don't know anything about beer as you know. So this is a, we, what
**Grinder:** can you tell us about it? It's a heavy weep beer. It's a weep beer. Um, Very traditional Bavarian beer. They've been making it for hundreds and hundreds of years, maybe thousands of years.
Uh, Schneider Vice has been around probably since the 15 hundreds. I don't know. Um, but you know, it's very typical in Germany for, especially in the, in the southern states. It's a Bavarian beer. It's a great summer beer. And the thing is, it's called a heavy wheat beer, but it's actually very light. It's the, the taste is very light and carbonated and crisp, which is very popular in the summertime in Germany.
Um, and I thought it would pair well with the lighter cigar. Um, and there's like notes of banana and, and fruit that that kind of, I thought kind of would, would pair well on the pallet with, uh, with a cutie 54. It's funny,
**Poobah:** it does have like a, like a bit of a banana bread. [00:28:00] Thing going on. Mm-hmm. with the, a little, a little like, you know, like the, it's like the sweetness plus the baking spice
**Grinder:** type
I, I like the tank. There's like a nice tang tang of carbonation in, in the, in the beer. That's, that's very pleasant.
**Senator:** Uh, I'll just say this, I, I, I'm not a huge beer guy, but obviously I drink beer every now and then. Um, I typically categorically hate heisen, so I was really nervous about that. You this? No, no, but let wait, wait till you hear where I'm going.
You're gonna be very pleased with this. So I usually hate them. And for me it's because the banana flavor is like so prominent and dominant that I, it like, there's nothing else I can taste. It like, just takes over the whole beer. And I love how Puba said it's like a banana bread that you get out of this, like something that's been baked.
Usually the banana flavor I get in a heisen is just like, I just peeled a banana and there it is. Like it's not baked. It's, there's nothing about it. There's no complexity. I, this is the [00:29:00] first heis I've ever had that I would actually drink. Um, it, it's like a, a more refined version of what I feel like I've typically had.
So I, this is more my speed. This is a, this is a
**Grinder:** very typical, the German Heiss are not as banana, banana E and they're typically not filtered. So like, I don't know if you saw me pouring the glasses earlier, I was like kind of rolling the glass to get the sediment at the bottom. That is all flavor. And that flavor offsets some of the banana in the, in the, in the malt.
Um, interesting.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I, I've never heard of he of Ein. I've never had he of ein. So
**Rooster:** maybe I just Sweet beer now in German. Doesn't Haifa wisen just mean Hefa
**Grinder:** is heavy bites? And is is wheat? Wheat,
**Gizmo:** right? Like, uh, or bites,
**Grinder:** vis and white. .
**Gizmo:** So
**Rooster:** the color, I mean, looking around like the glasses, it looks darker than a
**Gizmo:** typical wheat beer.
It almost looks like a, like an iced tea. Yeah. Or an [00:30:00] apple cider. Or an apple cider or something. Yeah.
**Grinder:** I love it. It's really,
**Gizmo:** I, I love this beer. It's really good. It's pairing perfectly with the cigar, and I don't,
**Grinder:** I don't like Ha of Levins very much, uh, but this is one that I know it's got a different tang.
It's a little, it's a little crisp. It doesn't, it doesn't overwhelm me with Sometimes when you drink that beer, you feel a little heavy. This beer, I never felt
**Senator:** that way. Well, that's the other thing about this, it, it's not super carbonated. Right. This goes down really smooth. I, I would say like, it's like a, a light carbonation that's part of this, which I actually think for the cigar pairs really well, because for this qd being on the, you know, milder, creamier side, I, I think it works
**Poobah:** well.
Yeah. It's pleasant. It's like Guinness has that, that minimal carb carbonation. What's the alcohol content in this thing? You think? Five
**Grinder:** four. That's not a lot.
**Gizmo:** 5.4 actually. Nailed it. . That was awesome. Well done.
**Grinder:** I like beer . [00:31:00]
**Poobah:** You know, I lo I wish I could drink more of it. I can't because I have gout. I can't drink, I can't drink as much beer as I'd as I'd like, or I'm scared to.
Um, Guinness I can somehow get away with, but, Hmm. I, I, I enjoy beer. I just can't drink it as much as I really
**Gizmo:** like to. I drink a lot of beer during the summer, but, you know, now coming into the fall, I, you know, like this is something like, I, I generally am only gonna reach for beer outside of summertime in a situation where I'm trying to pair it with something or I'm having it with a burger or something.
Timeout.
**Senator:** Yeah. You just said you drink a lot of beer in the summer. I've actually never seen you like,
**Gizmo:** drink a beer. I've never seen you drink a beer. Yeah, like on vacation. I'm shocked by this vacation is like all I drink. Yeah. The Bud Light, it's Coors Light. I love Coors Light and cans on the beach. The Rocky Mountain High when those mountains are blue, baby
Holy Lord. I'll tell you what, so funny enough, I'm, I'm a sucker for the Blue Mountains. You
**Grinder:** know what's, you know the, [00:32:00] there's a people sh sh at least around, you know, there's where we are, New Jersey urination involved people, shit on, on like high capacity breweries that are like the mega breweries, like a Coors Miller, Coors, but you know, all those things.
Coors makes one of the best beers on the market that's mass produced and that is the Coors Banquet Beer.
**Gizmo:** I course Coors Heaven. Oh,
**Poobah:** absolutely. That Coors Banquet beer used to drink all the time.
**Grinder:** Oh my God, that's so, it's so good. Perfect. Summer, summer beer. Anytime.
**Poobah:** Any, any, anytime. I always drink Coors. I always drink
**Grinder:** Coors Heavy.
Coors
**Gizmo:** Banquet is the way the ban cos heavy is the one and
**Poobah:** the, and the, and the cos been the banquet bottle. I, you know, can I ask you a question though? I used to, but when I drank beer, I would drink
**Gizmo:** Coors. Can I just ask a quick question on the branding? Okay. It's 2022. Why, who's having banquets. I've always wondered that, like, why is it still the banquet?
I haven't been to a banquet. I can tell you why
**Grinder:** is it, why is it Budweiser? Why isn't Miller like, because that's, that's what it's always been. Yeah. It's, it's tradition. It's
**Senator:** like a heritage. I've been making that beer forever, man. But I just wanna pick up on something [00:33:00] Grindr just said before. So he said, you know, people obviously shit on the, the big breweries, right?
You know, AB InBev, Miller, Coors, all those big guys. Um, I've done work in that space and I will never forget, and I wish that the industry would tell this story more, but I'll never forget asking the head brewmaster at Miller Coors, what is the hardest brew uh, beer to make that they make? And he didn't even need to think about it.
He said, any of our light beers. And I'm sitting there saying, you're gonna tell me of all the stuff they make that Miller Coors light is the hardest thing to make. And he. . Everyone loves craft beer. And I said, I have nothing against craft beer. We incubate craft beer. You know, uh uh, blue Moon was incubated outta Miller Coors.
That was Kraft beer. You know, back years ago before there was a brewery on every street corner, it feels like. And he said, when you have those heavier craft beers, he said, it's impossible for any small brewery to ensure perfect consistency. So [00:34:00] one batch you get one week actually may be a little bit different and taste a little bit different from the next batch you get the next, uh, a month later.
You wouldn't know because it's so heavy in flavor that there's so much going on there. It'd be harder to pick that out. It's hard to mask the lighter beer. That's the thing with light beer. It's so light. He goes, if anything was slightly off in a batch of Coors Light, you would immediately know it. Yep.
And he said, go find a single small brewer that makes a light beer. It's nonexistent, the only ones who make
**Poobah:** light beers. So the consistency, so the consistency is, is, is key to satisfying the customer base. And, and it's hard to do it in light beers and
**Senator:** just keeping that flavor profile, because since the consistency so difficult, the only beers that you can get away with being inconsistent are heavier, fuller flavored beers.
Gotcha. That's why the only, the big guys are able to really make light beers. So for me, it was just like, really illuminating. I would've never guessed that. What's [00:35:00] your favorite light
**Grinder:** beer? Not, not like co. So Coors is technically not a light, it's not a light beer, right? It's Well, Coors Light. Coors
**Senator:** Light.
**Gizmo:** Coors Light. Yeah. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Iro Miller. Miller Light is my, if I'm going, if I'm going for light beer, gold tops are a way to go. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Miller Light. Miller Light. Uh. .
**Gizmo:** It always gets me.
**Grinder:** Yeah. You used, I used to do Amite.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Amster am still
**Senator:** amster's another good one.
**Grinder:** Am still's too soft for me. It's got like, it's got like 2% eight alcohol.
It's kind of, you know, it's, if you're gonna, if you're gonna drink a light beer, may as well get some, some body to it. I told my
**Pagoda:** tolerance was getting higher, but,
**Poobah:** no, I'm just kidding. I used to, when I was drinking beer and it's not 2%, when I drank a lot of beer, I would, I, I liked Heineken Light. I would drink Heineken light from time to time.
Heineken likes a good beer. Yeah. Is it, you know, you're not saying it is, uh, .
**Gizmo:** It has, if,
**Grinder:** if you're gonna go that route, may as well just get a, like a, you know, A
**Poobah:** tradit. A [00:36:00] tradit. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** See, I'm a, I'm just sucker, lemme tell you something. I'm just a sucker for a Coors Light in the aluminum can with the lid. I like the screw top on the beach.
Mm-hmm. during the summer. That's my thing. , and that's the only time I really drink so much
**Poobah:** urination. I mean, to be honest. I mean, you know, he's not, I know, I know he's not. I mean, at my age and given, you know, my physical stature and combination with my, whatever, my tolerance, I mean, no joke, dude. I mean, I could, I could drink a 12 pack of Coors Light, I feel like, operate an 18 wheeler and, you know, make a delivery to Walmart.
I mean, , it, it's, it's, this is fucking, I mean, 12 Coors Light, and then I'd just be, they're looking for drivers by the three hours. Yeah. Like, I mean, you know, uh, it just doesn't. It just makes me piss and doesn't, doesn't deliver, doesn't deliver the efficacy. I guess, by the way, for [00:37:00] the
**Gizmo:** listener, by the way, for the listener, you've been listening to Rooster Open a Can of Guinness Zero for about three minutes.
Every click is him trying to not make, I wanna join in, I wanna join the party. So the listener, hearing that, that's what you're hearing is
**Poobah:** the thing that takes a lot of Coors Light. You gotta the reality to catch a
**Grinder:** buzz. The reality is the, the calories to alcohol ratio of Miller Light, Coors Light, bud Light.
Bush light is, is the best. So you're getting more booze per for each calorie with Miller Light than you are with like, it's, it's like on par with like a mixed drink, right? The only thing that beats. is these like seltzers? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Like high noon or something. Yeah. My wife drinks. My wife drinks those. Yeah. So does mine.
I'm out on
**Senator:** seltzers. So this, this is a theme for me. This is also why I was surprised by this heisen. I don't like overly carbonated things. Oh, see, I do. So I'll give you an example we're talking about. So I'm, I'm with Grindr. He mentioned he likes Miller Light of light [00:38:00] beers. I skew Miller Light or Coors Light Miller Light when I'm looking for a little more flavor.
Coors Light, when I just want clean, crisp. But what I like about both of those beers relative to Bud Light, bud Light for me, is just so insanely carbonated. And metal. I just don't even like the flavor of it very much. Where Miller, Coors, sorry. Miller and Coors. The carbonation level's like perfect, like this.
Heisen. Usually when I have a heisen, it's heavily, heavily carbonated, and all I'm getting is banana and it's like selzer, that level of carbonation. And I'm having this, and this is like, you know, I love Guinness. Guinness is like mildly carbonated. Yeah. I just don't like a ton of carbonation where I'm feeling so filled up by just having like, you know, one or two beers.
I, I, this is more my speed. S Seltzer
**Grinder:** is hard to drink, in my opinion. Oh, come on. Because, because it, I, he, I think he's right. I feel the same way. I just never like, Thought about it that way. It's when you, when you drink, oh, I drink, when you drink, when you drink like [00:39:00] half a can or a quarter can of seltzer, you're, you're really, you're really starting to,
**Senator:** how about
**Gizmo:** gas?
That's why gallon, that's why there's mineral
**Senator:** water, but, well that, but also, but, but because I mean, when you say that's what you drink, it's, it's not Exactly. So the reason that I, I actually love the seltzer that you drink. You always have it on ice. I do. I have never seen you open a can of seltzer or a bottle of selzer and just drink out of that.
You always have it on ice. And so I always melt and I always, I always melt it with lemon juice too. And lemon juice. Yeah. So you have lemon juice, you have the ice that melts. So it gets the carbonation to a place that's actually enjoyable. That's why I appreciate it. But people who just pop open a can of selzer and drink that without a yacht, it's just too much for me.
**Grinder:** I, I can't, dr, I can't pop open a can of beer and drink it. I have to put it in a glass and I have to release some of that carbonation cuz that's, I think you, I think Senator and I had some of this. You have when you pour a glass of beer, , you have to get some of that carbonation out. The whole thing about putting the, the beer on the side of the glass, so, so it doesn't release the carbonation is fucking bullshit because you don't want [00:40:00] all that in your belly.
Why do you want that in your belly then? You can't
**Gizmo:** drink more beer. . I'll say, uh, the one thing, uh, you know, because you poured this a few minutes before we hit record, and I feel like that actually helped open it up. Get rid of like, I feel like it's, I'm really enjoying the beer that we're having, and it may have helped, you know, it may have been helped by the fact that it sat for a minute.
**Grinder:** I also, you know, I also wasn't shy about letting it, you know, create some foam, some
**Senator:** head. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. It was funny. I mean, Grindr had taught me this because I, I feel like whenever you pour your first few beers, you, you don't want a ton of foam. That's kind of what you're told, right? You, you've pour, you've, you have a bad pour if you pour the beer and more than half the glass is full of foam.
You've, you've done something wrong. And I saw Grindr once we were out somewhere, and I remember he's like pouring it in the, they gave him like a bottle and then the glass. And I'm watching him pour this, and I'm like, holy shit. Like two thirds of this glass is foam. Like, why would you pour a beer like that?
So I'm sitting there laughing like, what, what are [00:41:00] you doing? Like, why is there so much foam there? He's like, no, that's what you want. And I started doing this after Grindr had had told me this. And, and he's right. It really does like, open up the beer and release a lot of that carbonation where it's not the feeling of when you crack a Bud Light and it's just so aggressively carbonated and almost like.
it hurts to like drink. Yeah. Um, it, it helps a lot. You want a, you
**Grinder:** want a good head on a beer and you also, because the head indicates what you know, how well the beer was made, frankly, you can, you can pour your Coors light and immediate and get, get the head whatever limited head it is, and immediately tell that that's a mass produced beer because of the head.
**Gizmo:** You
**Rooster:** always want to get a ahead in left.
**Gizmo:** That was great. I like
**Senator:** rooster's, words of wisdom.
**Gizmo:** I look, I can hear bam, bam going, go take a nap. A
**Grinder:** lot of different things. Uh, anyway, it's, uh, ahead is indicative of, you know,
**Gizmo:** you can tell I didn't know. I [00:42:00] didn't know that that was a, a, a, a symbol of a a, a well-made. Was the head, I had no idea that that was any sort of indication as to the quality
**Senator:** of it.
Well, he, he is right. It's funny because I remember the first time I was in, uh, Belgium, I was in Brussels and we did this beer tour around the city and I remember this woman was leading this and she's telling us everything you need to know about Belgian beer and exactly what Grindr said, she talked about how when you pour a Belgian beer, there's a certain amount of head that you want and expect to be in the glass.
And that it's actually like a sign of how the beer was made. All news to me at the time. I knew none of this, but, um, it's fascinating.
**Rooster:** What, what about the temperature, the beer that you guys are drinking? Is it
**Grinder:** room's right now? It's temperature. It's not, it's a little colder than room, but it's, it's not So
**Gizmo:** should
**Rooster:** it be, it's not super cold.
Should it be more like room temperature, like especially German beer?
**Grinder:** No, you don't want to Dr I would never like, I don't like drinking warm beer or room temperature [00:43:00] beer. I don't think anyone does. Um, unless you're English, you know, cuz. Cold. Warm, warm flat. Yeah. Warm flat beers is kind of what they're known for.
Um, however, when I drink like a boddington's,
**Gizmo:** right? Is that a, is that a stout?
**Grinder:** Uh, it's a cream ale.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Um, yeah, they're called it a brown nail. There's brown ale. Yeah. So typically those stout don't, it's a brown
**Grinder:** ale. It's not a brown hill. It's a, I think it's, well, we'll find out. Some, some listeners gonna tell me I'm wrong.
Um, sorry, I'm, uh,
**Pagoda:** I missed, um, mixed it up with Nuy Brown. Sorry. Newcastle Brown.
**Grinder:** Uh, I don't know what I was saying, but you know, we're talking about
**Gizmo:** the
**Rooster:** porters of stouts, or, you know, like darker beers. Should they be more consumed at
**Gizmo:** room temperature?
**Grinder:** They should.
**Poobah:** Don't consume any beer temperature, I don't know.
But Guinness Stout should be served at like 38 degrees, which is a little bit warmer than. Like what you'd wanna serve an ice [00:44:00] cold Budweiser at in the glass when you, you know, so they do, I do some Irish pubs really monitor the temperature of the Guinness.
**Grinder:** Yeah. When you have, when the, when the beer is too cold, you're not gonna get as much of a head.
Mm-hmm. When the beer is too warm, it just tastes like trash.
**Pagoda:** No, but there's bitter beer in England and, you know, um, I mean that has served warm at room temperature. Interesting. It depends. Um,
**Gizmo:** there's just, that just sounds gross to me, but, you know, I've just never had, they're very,
**Pagoda:** they're very TAs. If you don't like a lot of carbonation Yeah.
I think you'll prefer those beers.
**Grinder:** It's, he's right. There's not as much
**Gizmo:** carbonation.
**Poobah:** You'll appreciate it. And that's why Guinness has served the 38 is, is to minimize the carbonation. It will. , it will get too carbonated at a colder temperature. It needs to be served. I mean, that's what they say. So, and they let
**Pagoda:** it settle.
Right. Guinness, if you really think about it, they'll pour about half to three quarters. They'll let it settle for a bit. They get rid [00:45:00] of all the carbonation. Right. Like when it comes, it's, and then they pour the balance of
**Gizmo:** it as
**Poobah:** well. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You got a poor one.
**Gizmo:** Grindr, you'll appreciate this. Uh, I was telling Senator, actually, I saw my parents, uh, a couple weekends ago.
They had like their end of summer thing that they always do, and, uh, my dad has a kegerator, it's just a fridge, you know, with a tap on it. Mm-hmm. and he had Yanging in there. Oh. And Yanging off of that tap. Mm-hmm. . It hit, it was, oh, it, it was perfect. It you back. It was, it was like, oh, it's good. It's like, it was, it was guys, it was heaven.
**Poobah:** Beautiful. Yeah. I love kegerator. Okay. So back in my beer drinking days, uh, when I was single, I had a kegerator in the fucking. Living room next to the bar at my A bar. At a bar. That's awesome. At a, I had like a bar that fit four people and then next, right in there we had this, I had a beverage air kegerator and I'd get a quarter Kegging ling sometimes.
Uh, or you know, what, what are those cylinders [00:46:00] they have? I don't know if that's a quarter keg or if that's even an eighth. It's like a seven or eighth. Yeah. You know, I get that sometimes at the liquor store. I put that on. Um, and people love that. I mean, you know, you get a, it's amazing. Get one of those, uh, it's a little yingling ying yingling on tap.
It was fucking fantastic.
**Grinder:** Yeah. So Giz Gizmo and I are both, uh, Pennsylvania boys. Nepa nepa, NEPA Boys and Yingling to me. Here we go. It's a, it's a big, it's a big, uh, guys, we'll be back in a minute. nostalgia. Nostalgia. Nostalgia element because that's, it really is. I mean, I remember drinking yingling in the woods.
That's what you do up there. Yeah. I mean, you drink Yingling in woods. That was, that was the one when you're 18 in high school, you'd, you'd, you'd pile into your buddy's Jeep and you'd go into the woods and you'd do a fucking keg race between the juniors and the seniors. . Yeah.
**Poobah:** And you know what I love too?
What we would do, and it was so cheap. It
**Gizmo:** was ,
**Poobah:** remember. Old, like in the, be the, the, they're the tiny beard glasses. They're like, um, uh, they have [00:47:00] a narrow bottom and then they flew down at the top. Yeah, yeah. But they're small. Maybe they're eight ounce glasses. I don't know. They, they're, they're small glasses, but they were great.
Oh, yeah. And we found these cla So I get these glasses and I go, because we would sit next to the keg and the beer would never Yeah. Change temperature. And we'd sit next to the keg and we'd just be watching the game and go. And you'd just, you'd just tie, you could just continually top off your beer in these little cups.
Keep it fresh and these little glasses. Yep. Oh, so and
**Grinder:** wonderful. One of the, that's, that's a,
**Poobah:** you go into like a cla you go into like a different dimension. .
**Gizmo:** That's where I was the last couple weekends ago, man. It was amazing. . That's
**Grinder:** a, that's a great point because in, um, in Cologne, in co, there's a. The, the beer they drink at Cologne is distinctly from Cologne.
It's called Ksh. Now, when they serve you Ksh, it literally comes in this little small glass that you could, you could shoot it like, it's, it's [00:48:00] so small. It's probably, I don't know, eight ounces, maybe less. Six to eight ounces. Yeah. Like
**Poobah:** if this cup was like three Gus, if you Yeah. Look, look, look. Yep.
**Grinder:** Like that.
It's, and the reason, and, and they, and they, they have these, like, you know, Turkish waiters coming in with these, these big things called kran. And they're, they hold like 50 different glasses. And they don't even ask you. Like if you, if you drink it, they, they fill you another beer. They, they pop out the glass and put you a new one in.
And the glasses, the reason why is because in Cologne contrary to drinking Ha of ice, which is big and heavy, and it gets warm and it, and you know, people don't like it. And Cologne, they always want their, their beer cold and they always want it fresh, right? So the best way to do that is to have small glasses and drink it at increments.
and you know, that's just, there's, there's something to be said about that.
**Poobah:** There is, and this was done back in the day, not by any design. We stumbled upon this just on our own. Like, I got these glasses and I'm like, I remember these retro glasses, you know, like, and I'm just like, I'm gonna buy some. And [00:49:00] then we were like, we just discovered on our own, like, this is amazing.
Yeah. You can just keep filling up our clock. You're, you're a real Conner . Yeah. Yeah. But not out of any level of sophistication. We just, or, or whatever. Or knowledge. It wasn't, we
**Grinder:** just did it. I remember I was at a, a brewery in, in Cologne with my wife. I took her to Cologne for the first time and I spent a lot of time working in Cologne previously.
Um, and we're at a brewery. Um, Where were we fr the name of the brewery is Fr, it's right next to the Ner Dome. It's a very iconic brewery, and my wife is, is she, I get a glass, I get a glass of beer, I drink it in two gulps, and the guy immediately comes up, she says, what the fuck? What just happened? Like, you just like, you just got another beer.
And he's like, yeah. They, they know, they know they want to keep it fresh and they just keep pouring these beers and it's, it's literally, wow. It's, it's a different lifestyle over there. Like there's a German beer, like [00:50:00] lifestyle and it's not about getting drunk. It's like at the end of the day, you work hard, you have a beer.
Everyone has a beer at the end of the day. Dude,
**Gizmo:** that is so funny because going back briefly to my dad, so my dad is like the opposite of me. Like, he doesn't get hot, he doesn't raise his. To the point, the people that work for him call him robot. So, so he's not like you? No. No, that's what I'm saying. Very different than me.
He doesn't get off. They, they call him Robot, robot Gizmo, Sr. That's what they call him. . Okay. Robot. Robot Gizmos. And, uh, I, I remember distinctly as a kid, one of the only time that he ever got hot ever was when my, my brother and I were bothering our mom for whatever reason. That's one. The other time was when he would come home from work after a crazy day and he'd go back to his kegerator and he'd go to hit it and the keg would be kicked
And that was, that was like, that was like coming home
**Rooster:** after a hard day of work. All he's been
**Gizmo:** thinking about all day is a cold beer. He wants his [00:51:00] ling or before that it was Lowen bro from Germany. Ah, uh, he would always want his beer. And when it would be, , it would totally ruin.
**Poobah:** Well, that's a perfectly good excuse to absolutely take out any frustration that you have on your loved ones,
I mean, what the fuck? You
**Gizmo:** know, it's funny you're saying that because that's, that's the one memory that I would, that I distinctly remember of him getting upset was when. His keg would be keg. I as
**Poobah:** look as a man, you know, you come home and it's like, you know, you put, you try to tell your kids to do something, you know, you know, here's your chores list or whatever.
And then they go, do you have a chores list, ? And it's like, do you, it's like, do you go to fucking, do you go to sleep at night warm and not hungry? , that's my chore. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, like, you know, like you of course come in, the man comes home, he wants a beer, cold beer. Everybody's fed.
Their bellies are full. Yeah. The bills are scared. It's chaos in the house. A fucking [00:52:00] he, while he wants a fucking beer. I remember, I remember when
**Grinder:** my, when my, at the time, girlfriend, now, my wife, we first moved in together and I, at the end of the day, a hard day, I would have a beer or two. I wouldn't get hammered.
I'd just have a beer or two. And that's not like I'm drinking heavy beer. It's just, that's what I did. And she said, you drink, you, you're drinking a lot. Like what's going on? Are you in like, , do you have a problem? And I'm like, I'm having, I'm having a beer. Two, at the end of the day, this is what I do. And I'm not like, you know, this is, this is part of the culture where I grew up in, it's different from where you grew up in.
This is kind of what we, this is what I look forward to and I enjoy it. It makes me happy. Um, and there's something, you know, I, we hard days work. The Germans got it right. Just have a good beer.
**Gizmo:** So I wanna come back to beer in a second. We're a little over halfway. Uh, on the cutie number 54. What are you guys thinking about this thing as it comes down to the, uh, the last third here?
I'm loving it. I'm very [00:53:00] happy. Yeah. It hasn't really changed much. Hasn't
**Rooster:** changed at all. Yeah. You're getting the same flavor notes as the
**Gizmo:** beginning. Yeah. It's really delicious. Which I'm
**Senator:** happy about. I mean, for me it's just as good in the second half as it was in the first. and I just really always, I, I feel like bams sitting here holding the cigar, just staring at it,
But, um, the construction, I, it really counts for a lot. I, this stick in particular, I just, when you get a white ash on a cigar, you're always kind of drawn to it and, um, it just a per razor sharp burn. I, I love, I love a lot about the cigar.
**Gizmo:** You know, quick question or quick comment on, on construction and, and the build of these, I find that these cigars almost more consistently than RGUs themselves, cuz even D four s a lot of D four s are made in provincial, uh, factories around Cuba.
Most of the time I've found in boxes that I've seen for sale or that I've gotten, most of them are RGUs factory codes. And this is going [00:54:00] back almost since they released these. I first started seeing them with the 18 code, even though it was released in 17. You know how Cuba is? They release a 2020 liata, it comes out in 21 or 22, whatever.
Um, I always see these with RGUs codes.
**Senator:** Always. To your point, every QD box I've ever bought has been a
**Gizmo:** RGUs code and I can't say that about RGUs. It's true. Which is interesting. Yep. It's just
**Rooster:** the number of boxes of Qds that are produced as opposed to
**Gizmo:** parus a lot's. No, you're done. Totally. I mean, Sagus to be
**Rooster:** rolled in other factories.
Yeah. Right. Mean like the Corona claros is like really just rolled in one factory and it's like maybe produced like once or twice a year. I
**Senator:** think Parus needs one factory just for the parus we buy.
**Gizmo:** I mean, just for the, just for the . They need a separate, uh, factory. Just for the D Force. Yeah.
**Poobah:** It's a gr it's a soup.
It's, it's, it's a pretty, for what it [00:55:00] represents and like what it is. I, I really like it. Yeah. I, what,
**Rooster:** what's the price
**Gizmo:** point on this right now? 20. Yeah. Right now these are right hovering right above 20. , you're probably, you know, if you're buying a single on a web, you're probably in the 24, 26 range of box.
You're probably paying between 20 and 22.
**Grinder:** What did, what did we pay in December for this? These boxes?
**Gizmo:** Oh, they were significantly less like 16. Yeah. 16 bucks, 15 boxes thick.
**Poobah:** I mean, they're a little, it's a little at this point we're on that, the cigar, it's, I don't know what, what year these are, but it's a little fresh tasting down the stretch here.
That's my only criticism. I'm like, ammonia or no, not like ammonia. Just not, not developed, just fresh. Not developed. Um, no, no ammonia specifically, but that would be my only criticism. But I have no idea what year these are. I think they're
**Gizmo:** twenties. Late 20. Late 20, yeah. Parus. December 20. Yeah. Um, so going back to beer for a second.
You know, again, as somebody that's not a beer connoisseur or a beer lover [00:56:00] consumer, I do find it really interesting how, um, craft beer making has become such a big hobby. in the States. I mean, I know several folks in my small circle of friends on Facebook or people that I know that are really passionate, not just about buying craft beer, going to breweries and having a, an experience.
Even they take their kids, you know, they have kids, kids experiences at these breweries outside. So the parents could have a nice afternoon. I'm, I'm that, I'm that
**Grinder:** typical millennial that brings their, their baby to, to breweries and sits there with the, with the, with the stroller and That's awesome. Just slams beers and eats pretzels and stuff.
That's, yeah. Music and food. And she's, Anna's been to like five breweries already.
**Gizmo:** That's awesome. Yeah. So see,
**Poobah:** I think that sounds fun. I, it's awesome. You know, I don't. Um, I'm not a millennial. I, um, a mul, but, but I, I don't drink. I can't really drink as much beer as I'd really like to. Yeah. Um, but, uh, yeah, so I drink alcohol, scotch and whatever, [00:57:00] everything else.
Um, tequila, , g, vodka, um, uh, but I really enjoy beer, like, like with a, like a Bavarian pretzel.
**Gizmo:** Oh. There's nothing
**Poobah:** like a beer in pre. You know, a beer and a pretzel or a beer, all these different beers and to try them. I mean, it, it's, it really is a lot of fun. Cuz there was like a time in my life where I used to drink a lot of different beers, you know, back in like the nineties, um, Sierra Nevada, uh, like the I P A came out.
Yeah. And boy, that was great. And the Sierra Nevada Christmas Ale. Yeah. That's still great. Yeah. Is that still great? Yeah. Uh, they would have the, that Christmas sale and it would come out and I'd go, Ooh, I can't wait. That was so good. You know? And I would buy these six packs and, uh, I remember they were ex, they, they were like expensive, you know?
Yeah. For me at the time. And, um, They were wonderful, you know, and I loved these things. I just, um, I wish I could drink it more cuz it really is a lot of fun. I love,
**Grinder:** I love a good Christmas ale anchor. Steam makes a really good Christmas. Oh,
**Poobah:** [00:58:00] anchor steam. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm think. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.
Yeah, that's
**Gizmo:** Steam. That's from San Fran I think.
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** And they change, they change the, the logo every year. I think. Yeah, I
**Poobah:** had one of those, that's exactly what I'm thinking of. Anchor Steam. Cuz that came out right around when Sierra Nevada was coming on and wait, and Sam Adams was putting out a product at the time.
They would do these mixed things where they'd have a variety pack. I, I don't know how good Sam Adams is now, but I mean, they were really good. Like, you'd get these, you know, and it was just fun. You know, you'd just try all these different beers. It was like all these endless possibilities that's,
**Grinder:** but think about like, this is something that in America, the, like for example, the Germans are envious of the Americans and our creativity.
with beer, because we create so many different flavors. We do all this stuff. Germans don't do that because of the Rhine Heights, Gabo. They literally have a law that's been around forever that says you can only make beer with these four ingredients. Four. Like, what is it? [00:59:00] Hops, barley, water, and yeast. Yeah.
Right. That's literally the only ingredients. And then the, there's differences in how you've, you know, fermented. Is it top fermented, bottom fermented? Is it a lagr? Is it, is it a, is it a nail? Whatever. But, you know, it's just, it's, they, A lot of German beers, if you go from city to city, city, if you're in cologne, kosius is a very distinct taste.
If you're in Dusseldorf, alts beer has a very distinct taste. If you're in Bavaria has a also a distinct taste. But the very typical Pilsner German Pilsner. That's ubiquitous. Like a, like a bit burger. Like a vens, like a rotter burger. They, oh, they, they kind of taste similar and they're, and it's very, it's very standard.
It's very, you know, straight-lined. And over here we have so many different flavors. The IPA thing, um, and there's so much creativity with what they're putting in beers. Now you look at like, Allagash, the amount of flavor in an allagash white still astounds me to this [01:00:00] day. It's awesome. It's so good.
**Gizmo:** And when you say that it's just a complex, it's
**Grinder:** just complex.
Well, they put, they put in these like different spices into it. and it really comes, it really blends perfectly. All
**Senator:** kinds of stuff. I mean, you know, Allagash makes a, a Belgian style triple. They, they have that allagash kiro, it's like in, uh, like Bourbon Barrel. I mean, the innovation to your point is, is off the charts.
**Poobah:** Yeah, yeah. There's so much G there's so much almost there's that you can do with. Beer and brewing. Yeah. It's almost like the taste, the flavor profiles are like endless. So like, um, a friend of mine opened a brewery, um, over in, uh, in Westwood of, of the fi, let's give him a plug five times. Um, over in Westwood.
My friend, uh, Chris, he, he opened the, he opened up this brewery and he's doing his thing over there. And you have defiant up in Rockland County and they're, well, very well established and doing this
**Grinder:** place is great. And they're great. Yeah. That's, that's one of the places
**Poobah:** I've taken them down. what wonderful people there too.
and wonderful. The, the proprietors and [01:01:00] wonderful guy. And, and, and, and they, you know, and they have some regional distribution actually, uh, defiant. Yep. Um, so, which is really cool. And, and, uh, I really just wish I could drink more of it from time to time because I think, you know, um, it's fun. You know? It
**Grinder:** is fun.
It's fun. It's fun going, like we went, I went on a ski trip up to Vermont and one of the things that we were all keen on doing was not just skiing, but. Going to different breweries. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and there's certain beers that, like when you go to a brewery, you can only get by going to the brewery.
That's when you get really excited. Like they're still, one of the best beers I've ever had was when I went to the Allade Brewery and had what they called was like a table beer. They called it Table beer. They just made it. They're like, we are not really sure what we're doing, but we'll call it table beer.
It's very simple. It's a lager. It's, it's, it's not dark. It's not light. It's just very, it was, it was delicious. But you cannot, I don't even know, think they make it, it was just like a special run. Uh, which is really cool. Cause they get creative, they get brew masters that have different [01:02:00] batches. When we were in, uh, at Defiant, there is a, there was a beer that they blended with different spring spices, and they made it a spring.
and they don't make it anymore. They don't even know if they have the, the, the formula anymore. They're like, God, we, we made it a couple months ago. We're not really sure what the formula is. It kind of just happened. Right. and it's really good. You should try it.
**Poobah:** It's really good. That's a really, they're really nice up there.
You know, it's 20 years now they've been in business, which I can't believe. Um, nice brewery.
**Grinder:** Yeah. And they have a lot of, a lot of fun games in there, river in the, in the, in there as well. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Oh yeah. I just see, I'm telling you constantly over the, any weekend, it's either, I'm seeing like a lot of folks going to breweries, like you said, taking the kids.
They have kids' activities, music, food, et cetera. Or it's, or it's folks who are brewing in home and or just really passionate about making these beers and, and sharing 'em with their friends. I just think it's totally fun. I
**Grinder:** think it's so, it's so cool. Cool. That we're, it's totally fun. We're, we're developing our own American flavor for the j for the beer [01:03:00] garden, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's fun. You
**Gizmo:** know what, what also is
**Rooster:** really cool is like, I mean, I don't, I don't drink alcohol and. There's so many breweries now that are making non-alcoholic beers, right? Yeah. And it's amazing, like the how many different kinds of non-alcoholic beers that you can get. You can get IPAs.
You can get stouts, you can get porters. You can get loggers. I'm drinking a Guinness Zero right now. I mean, it's a delicious beer if you don't, you know, want the alcohol? Yeah. You go to total wine and they have literally have like, I would say maybe like 40 different varieties of non-alcoholic. I
**Gizmo:** thought you were gonna say 10.
I thought you were gonna say
**Rooster:** 10. I swear to they have like at least 40 different varieties.
**Senator:** Wow. This exploded. I mean, and this is all That's amazing. Recent what Rooster's talking about. I mean, you think about this year Guinness came out with Guness Zero. Yeah. You think now within just the last couple of years, Heineken zero.
They came out with no, like every major brewery now is coming out with like a
**Rooster:** remember when Only non-alcoholic beer that you could [01:04:00] buy. But that was it. Yeah. You know, now, like Coors has one. Heineken, uh, Becks. I love the Becks non-alcoholic. That's super Guinness. Klaus Holler, uh, bit Burger has
**Gizmo:** one. Does Brooklyn make?
Brooklyn, Brooklyn has like four different kinds. Wow. Wow. Yeah. That's
**Grinder:** that's a, that's a, that's a fun brewery. If you've ever been to the Brooklyn Brewery,
**Gizmo:** I've never been there. I mean, I know a guy who goes when they do special releases and almost like you used to have to do when you get concert tickets.
Like he'll go the night before and put up a tent and sleep outside to be early in line to get access to these crazy beers that they make. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty cool. Anyway, I I, I mean, I, I just find the whole beer thing, uh, especially the home brew, the, the micro brew, the, the, the regional breweries.
We're talking about the success that they're able to have, the businesses they're making, and it, it's a very community, it's, it's, it's finding a way into the culture of, you know, American drinking, which I think [01:05:00] is
**Grinder:** pretty cool. I think it's always been there. It's just, it's, we're just, people are getting more creative, you know,
**Gizmo:** people, Americans have always been, but haven't, I haven't, the states loosened, haven't, some states like really loosened the laws.
I think they've purposely loosened laws on, on making beer and distributing. I think it's a little bit easier to do that now.
**Poobah:** Ums hard. At least here in hard. It's hard. It's hard. Yeah. My, my, my buddy who just opened up the place I was talking about, uh, fi, they had to go through a lot.
**Gizmo:** There are a lot of rules, A lot
**Poobah:** ill rules in New Jersey.
Yeah, yeah. You know, you're gonna, it's, it's a lot of food. There's a lot of regulation. No, you, no, they prohibited from him from serving food. Oh, really? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. They're prohibited him from, for serving food. They're licenses for that. So they always, so it's, it was, uh, not an easy pet. It's not, I don't think opening, I think New Jersey's an outlier opening any type of business that serves food, beverages, alcohol, uh, there's just a lot of re it's, it's heavily [01:06:00] regulated.
Yeah. To a point where, and, and not necessarily by the state as much as it is by the municipality and the local governments really have, there's a lot of. Uh, inside baseball, let's just say. Got it. You know? Got it. In terms of who on the town council has a relationship with another guy who's got a bar in town and somebody else wants to open a brewery in town.
Well, well, that's gonna create competition for the guy his who's his, who they're friends with, and, you know, and you've got one road and only so many liquor licenses and so only so many, you know, the whole way the liquor license is, it's a whole separate conversion on New Jersey. It's crazy in New Jersey.
It's crazy the whole way you, you know, with the fact that you can own a liquor license and it's, you buy it for $650,000 and then you sell the license. Like the license is a thing. It's an asset. An asset. This is complete bullshit. It's ridiculous. Nobody else operates this way. You know, you go and open up a bar in [01:07:00] restaurant in uh, uh, Florida, you apply for it as long as it's zoned for it or whatever.
You pay your five, $10,000, $15,000 and that's, you get your license. , this is insanity. Yeah. They have licenses for just serving package goods. They have licenses for serving over the bar and package goods. They have licenses and then you hold these licenses and they hold them, like, you know, people buy them and then actually just sit on them.
So for up the road here, um, uh, right in, uh, uh, Wycoff, New Jersey, you've had the, you had the Wycoff Bar and Grill. Guess what that license was bought. That piece of property right in the center of Wycoff there across from the I place has been sitting there for 10 years empty. Wow. Because there's, someone just bought the liquor license, they sit on it and that's it.
And so there's no liquor license. They're, they're not issuing anymore in the town, cuz the town only wants so many bars and that's it. And they sit on it and it's [01:08:00] like, it's an investment. Like you're sitting on a piece of real estate, but it's a piece of paper. Crazy. This is like, you know, so that's, to me, this is lunacy, but that's the state of New Jersey.
It's, it's, it's, it's a little bit crazy. Absolutely. And it makes it very hard for people. It makes it very hard for restaurateurs to open up a restaurant and make money because you gotta make money on the alcohol, the margin. And so you got all these B Y O B. You know what I mean? Yep. And there's only so many rest good restaurants that you can go to and order a cocktail, because guess what?
Not everybody wants to go to a restaurant and bring a bottle. They wanna, they want to get a cocktail served to them. And, uh, it makes it difficult for New Jersey business
**Gizmo:** owners. It really Entrepreneurs. Yeah, it does. Yes. That's my, that's
**Poobah:** my Ted talk on this thing. But, but I'm sorry, but I
**Gizmo:** No, it's true. I mean, it's, it's ridiculous
**Rooster:** how they do it.
Yeah. Some, some New Jersey restaurants are actually allowing you to. I think wine that's produced
**Gizmo:** in In New Jersey. New Jersey, yeah. [01:09:00] So you can have sang. Senator Loves Wine produced in New Jersey. don't. Big Tom's River Wine Garden.
**Senator:** Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. The middle of grapes that should be banned. .
**Poobah:** What you saying?
The soil here isn't
**Grinder:** wise . It's too, too much infested
**Senator:** with, uh, the swamp and the New Jersey. Turnpike's not conducive to growing grapes. .
**Rooster:** We do grow
**Poobah:** Pine, pine, pine, Barrons. We are the garden state and we do grow tomatoes and corn. That's outstanding.
**Gizmo:** Oh, delicious. That's true. Delicious Jersey tomatoes. All right, boys.
Uh, we're coming to the end here to the cigar, but first let's, um, let's give this, let me pronounce it right. Schneider Vicea Vi. That's good. Am I doing all right? Sure. Let's do the, uh, formal liquor rating on this thing. You guys ready to do that? Right. Puba, you're up.
**Poobah:** I'm up. Okay. Um, I don't have anything to really compare it to cause I'm not a huge beer guy.
Uh, and I don't drink a lot of this German beer. [01:10:00] I mean, I like, I liked it a lot. I mean, I guess I'll just, I'll give it an eight or something. I mean, , it's kind of just shooting in the dark. I don't have much to compare it to. Just shit in the dark. I'm just shooting in the dark. I mean, uh, I haven't had one of, what, it's one of these Wheat Libro vs.
Libras,
**Gizmo:** whatever it's called. Is that a astrological beer? I, I don't
**Poobah:** know, but I mean, it tasted real good. . I, you know, I had half a glass. Yeah. I don't know. I, I, I really like it. I just can't drink enough of it to really appreciate it. But to me, I don't know,
**Gizmo:** an eight. You're crazy.
**Senator:** What a ridiculous rating.
Yeah. Is it a ridiculous rating? It's totally ridiculous. I mean, you wanna hear my rating? Yes. It's an eight . Oh,
**Gizmo:** Hana. What do you got? What's a nine for me? All right.
**Grinder:** Uh, it's an, it's an eight for me as well.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna give it an eight as well. Composite lizard score, boys is an 8.2. Hey, can I rate my, uh, Guinness?
Yeah. 10 Guinness. Zero. . Zero is a zero. Zero. It's a [01:11:00] 0.0. All right, boys, we're coming to the end of the QD number 54. What are you guys thinking as we come to the end of this thing before we rate it?
**Grinder:** Still strong, not strong in flavor, but it's,
**Gizmo:** it's performing strongly. Yeah. I am tasting, I, I do agree with poop a little bit.
I'm tasting a little bit of the youth now, getting a little bit of a blast of youth.
**Senator:** So I'll say this, I get the exact same, but given how easygoing this cigar is all the way through, I actually like that it shows a little bit of youth at the end because it starts to pick up a little bit in a way that I'm, I'm waiting for the whole cigar, so I actually don't mind it, even though I know obviously it will benefit from age.
Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it, it, it has picked up in strength a little bit. It has. It has a little bit, yeah. Yeah. I would say it's medium full now.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It, it, it's picked up in strengthened that kind of way. A fresher cigar picks up in strength. Right. Uh, but not in an unpleasant way. It's just there.
**Rooster:** Nothing, nothing, nothing bad.
Like you don't taste any ammonia or anything like that,
**Gizmo:** but no. Yeah. You guys ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating on this [01:12:00] thing? Sure. Let's do it. All right, rooster, you're up. So for me it's, um, okay. It's an eight. Okay. Yes, same here. All
**Senator:** right. This is easy. Also. An eight. All right. Pagoda
**Gizmo:** seven for me.
Okay. I'm an eight. Eight. I am also an eight. So boys, the composite lizard score, this is 7.8. Yeah,
**Poobah:** not enough strength for pagoda. He's always gonna knock it down a point if it doesn't have he want. And also after him playing golf today, he wants a knick in his, in his turk. No, no. He needs a lift. And it didn't give it to him clearly, so he knocks it down A
**Gizmo:** peg.
Kidding. He was very up.
**Pagoda:** You know what it is, is that there's so many Cuban cigars I've, and as you know, like I've really just got into Cuban cigars within the year. Um, . What I find is there's so many other Cuban cigars where it starts over the Cuban twang. There's something, um, which is very pleasant [01:13:00] about it.
When it begins. This is really good, don't get me wrong. I, I just thought it was very monotone, uh, throughout, and yeah, it did pick up a little bit on strength. Um, and, you know, for me it didn't really get me very excited. And I think eight is a very, very strong score. I think, I think seven's just right
**Poobah:** from my perspective.
Yeah, it's, you bring up an interesting point now when you put it on your, on your mouth, it doesn't give you that salt. Mm-hmm. That's salty minerally, uh, uh, a presentation that a RGS would give you or a boulevard would give you or you
**Pagoda:** so pleasant. Those, those are so pleasant. And even in those, we've rated so many and I've rated so many as eight.
Um, so you know, for me, like an need that extra oomph. So you,
**Rooster:** knowOr loves the 8 98, by the way. I love eight, nine. He does .
**Gizmo:** We all do you know there's a Davidoff 8 98. I did not know that. Something in current production. Something new. There's a punch. 8 98 Too new. Something new. Oh no,
**Grinder:** sorry. It's, it's just the box.
It's it's just [01:14:00] the, I'm sorry. It's, uh,
**Gizmo:** Ashton. Ashton, yeah. It's Oh, by the way, nine in that case. Case. Nevermind. Ash. Ash. Well,
**Poobah:** right, but it's eight on top the nine. And.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. By the way, one of the guys from our forSo world smoking Ashtons today, and yeah, he presents, he intends on presenting it to Senator soon.
**Senator:** Who the hell was this?
**Pagoda:** He just, he just got a box of
**Rooster:** Ashton. He owns a couple of restaurants in the city. Oh boy.
**Gizmo:** Let us know. Boy, Senator. Let us know how it's,
**Pagoda:** and I did say, said Senator's gonna love it because that's one of his favorite No, you know, .
**Poobah:** If it's the Vsg,
**Rooster:** no, it's not the Vsg. I told him that. I said, VSG is the only decent we're
**Gizmo:** gonna do the, uh, we're gonna do the vsg soon.
One of the Alpha
**Senator:** smoke. I think I'm gonna be donating a boxes cigars to a charity auction pretty soon. .
**Gizmo:** We're gonna do a vsg soon for Mashine. We'll see how that is, but, all right, boys. Uh, great night. Good, good. Deep dive on beer. That certainly, I'm, I'm, I learned a lot tonight. Uh, an [01:15:00] 8.2 on the Schneider Vicea and, uh, sorry, I can't pronounce that, but Schneider Weiss, I'll get it right by the time I record the intro.
And a 7.8. On the QD number 54, uh, great night. Again, thanks to, uh, the proprietor, John 10 86 cigars in Hawthorne, our clubhouse. We love it. Um, if you're in the area, support it, uh, and tell him that the lizard sent you. And, uh, awesome guys. We'll see you next week. Keep smoking. Thanks so much for joining us tonight.
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We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next [01:16:00] week.