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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 range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. 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, and Bam Bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some bourbon, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 111th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. We plan to meet us here once a week. We're going to smoke a Cupid cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We continue our journey through the Connie line, we decide on our Christmas cigar and drink lineups, and we learn that Habanos S.
A. is loosening its counterfeit security protocols, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar and enjoy. As we pair Weller Special Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey with the H. Uppman Connoisseur B. A Robusto Extra tonight from [00:01:00] Cuba.
It's the H. Uppman Connoisseur B. It's a beautiful 54 ring gauge by five and seven eighths inches. Its factory name is the Henny Alice. And boys, this is really a great looking
**Bam Bam:** cigar. The Henny Alice is quite the sizable
**Gizmo:** cigar. It's very, this is like what you smoke with like businessmen after like an important financial dinner.
It's got weight. Yeah, it's pretty significant.
**Bam Bam:** It's very dense. And it's beautiful.
**Gizmo:** Has the second band on it. This is an LCDH, La Casa Del Habano release. And then a custom connoisseur B band with featuring The normal Upman band on it, and then a second kind of layer on the single band there, and then like I said, the second LCDH.
I love the light tone
**Bam Bam:** of the wrapper. I was just
**Rooster:** gonna say that. It looks a little lighter than the Connie. Beautiful, isn't it? You know, the other cigars, the Connie A and the Connie 1.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I agree. Alright boys, let's cut this thing. See, [00:02:00] we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. I'm very excited to have this cigar tonight, I've never had it.
This is the third in the connoisseur line that we're doing
**Bam Bam:** open, but just the grass grass is nice.
**Gizmo:** Good draw Yeah Mine has a nice slight bit of resistance which for this size and we've done some other cigars Recently of a larger size a little bit more resistance than we've been used to in Cigars from Cuba
**Poobah:** on the cold draw.
I'm not getting I'm actually getting something that's unique. It's not fruity It's a little fruity, but it's a little like
**Rooster:** a tangy fruit
**Poobah:** like a tangy fruit, but like kind of grassy, too Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I get like
**Senator:** raspberry honeys. I'm getting sweet but a little
**Gizmo:** tart. Have you ever had a guava? Of course. Yeah I got it
**Rooster:** Tangy guava note, cold raw. It's a
**Poobah:** very interesting, am I crazy? Or is this a very interesting [00:03:00] cold raw? It
**Gizmo:** is. It is. It's different. It's funny, as I keep hitting it on the cold raw, I'm also getting a little salt too on the front of my tongue.
**Poobah:** Yes. But I'm not getting like cedar or earth or anything on the cold raw.
I'm
**Gizmo:** excited about this. Interesting. Alright boys, let's light this thing. The H Upman Connoisseur B. From Cuba. Again, it's a 54 ring gauge Robusto Extra by five and seven eighths inches.
**Bam Bam:** It'll take a while for my single flame to light this guy.
**Gizmo:** We'll be here when you're ready, Bam. Okay.
Yeah, this thing requires a lot of juice.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, but, you know, because the wrapper's so delicate, you don't want to singe it.
**Gizmo:** Mmm. Beautiful on the light.[00:04:00]
Oh, I love it. That is classic Cuban tobacco flavor for me. When I think Cuban tobacco, this is exactly what I think.
**Bam Bam:** I get salt, I get, it's actually pretty sweet for me right now.
**Poobah:** Wow. Well, in the light, it's definitely different than in the cold draw. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** I'm getting that cedar now, Puba. Yeah, little leather.
Yeah, but very creamy though. Yeah. Yeah, this is a beautiful cigar in the light
**Senator:** It's even a little creamy. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I just said that
**Gizmo:** can't get anything tight draw. Really? Oh
**Bam Bam:** All right, you got a leaf.
**Gizmo:** I Have another one if you want another one Okay, see if that opens up,
**Bam Bam:** you know, this thing feels like a celebratory cigar in your hand It
**Gizmo:** does, it feels [00:05:00] very significant. It does. It does. And you know, cause it's, it, we've had cigars in similar size, you know, but it's packed a little more than it
**Bam Bam:** commands some respect.
Yeah.
**Poobah:** And I, I did a preview on my foot. Like I held your, I held the, the, the Sotelo case up and on your foot on the foot. And I think I picked a good one
**Gizmo:** on
**Senator:** the, no gout on the one you picked out. Dr.
**Bam Bam:** Scholl's was about to get
**Poobah:** involved. Well played, but you know, the ultimate footman is the bam doctor, AKA Dr.
Scholl.
**Gizmo:** So this cigar comes in a slide lid box of 25 cigars was announced in 2017 of course came out about a year and a half later. And, boys, when you get these in those slide lid boxes of 25, it's just, I think, the best presentation of Cuban cigars. Agreed. I just love a classic cedar box with [00:06:00] LGC
**Bam Bam:** box?
Let's
**Senator:** not go too far. I'm with Boor Bams going here. Yeah, those varnished A varnished box is hard to beef. Well,
**Gizmo:** the 898 is really great. Yeah. So is the
Winston.
**Senator:** That's the varnish box.
**Bam Bam:** And some of the LGC
**Poobah:** boxes are beautiful. Anything with a rib, anything with a ribbon on it. In a
**Gizmo:** bundle. This is just a
**Senator:** really refined smoke.
**Gizmo:** I want mine
**Poobah:** to just open up a little. I think it will. I think it just needs a little
**Gizmo:** bit. Yeah, these are definitely densely packed. There's no question about that. Yeah. As Rooster cuts a second one. Thank God I brought an extra with me
**Bam Bam:** tonight. Is he gonna do an old school gizmo cut? He may need
**Senator:** it.
Alright. Let Gizmo cut this one.
**Bam Bam:** So what are the stats on this guy? So
**Gizmo:** this, boys, very exciting. We're, so let me just say, before I answer that, we are, we're very blessed by a listener. Listener, uh, Lizard Sean sent us seven of these for the podcast [00:07:00] tonight. Incredible. Thank you. And they are five years old.
BRE December 18. BRE. Very nice. Isn't that cool? That's awesome. Upman factory, five years of age on them. Lizard Sean, you're the man. Yeah, I feel very lucky that we're smoking these tonight. A real special cigar. Where is he from? Uh, he lives in, uh, I think South Jersey area. Philadelphia area. Oh, cool. Yeah, he's not too far.
**Poobah:** I may need a perfect draw.
**Gizmo:** Yours is tight too? Yeah. Something These are
**Poobah:** densely packed. Something needs to be taken out of my, uh, out of the It's not problematic in a major way. It's almost like the head just needs a little bit. There's just
**Gizmo:** a little. So that goes to, you know, Cuban quality control five years ago, you know, as compared to the stuff we've been smoking from 21, 22, 23, here we have a box of cigars [00:08:00] from the Upman factory and two out of the seven that we have.
Yeah. I've needed serious attention. I actually call it three because now roosters over here pulling on his second one, he's digging for gold over there at the end. That's really, it's really unbelievable. I know we're going to have to talk to somebody when we go down there, get our money back. So this is the seventh up and we've done on the podcast tonight.
We've done two other Connie's. We did the Connie a and the Connie one. We've also done the robustos on a hot house, the Magnum 46. And the Magnum 50. So the only one in the, uh, excuse me, the Upman 2, of course. Of course. Classic Upman 2 from Lubb 14. The only cigar we haven't done in the Connoisseur line is the Connie 2.
And then the only cigar we haven't done in the Linea Magnum is the Magnum 54. So those are really the two we have to do. Uh, and then additionally the Sir Winston and the Half Corona. So, um, [00:09:00] this is the seventh. Time we've done upman and they've performed very well for us for a reason. We love the upman market.
Isn't there a 56? There's an up there's an upman 56. I think it's a special
**Rooster:** release though. It's a re release of a old 56 They used to
**Gizmo:** have yeah, I haven't had that yet.
**Bam Bam:** So my foot is about to explode.
**Poobah:** Oh boy. Something's happening with my cigar
**Gizmo:** It's
**Rooster:** cracking. Yeah, mine is yeah. Yeah, that one cracked this
**Gizmo:** one.
**Bam Bam:** I'm not changing mine. No, I know I'll smoke
**Gizmo:** through this I'm lucky. I'm having a nice experience.
**Bam Bam:** I'm lucky to, you know, I, I often don't mind when my cigar cracks like this, cause I know it's about a half inch. You'll eventually smoke through it.
And you know, we've talked about this before. A little spit goes a long way. Leaf down
**Senator:** the restraint. I just showed there. What are we
**Gizmo:** talking about here? Like I said, we've done a couple [00:10:00] other, uh, we've done several other episodes on up and I think we've covered the history of up and ad nauseum on the podcast. So. If you're interested in some of the Upman history, I'd refer you to some of the, the episodes we've done previously, namely the Kanye episode 86, the Upman 2, uh, was episode 40, and then the Robusto Anahatos was episode, uh, number 72.
Noted also is the Magnum 40, uh, the Magnum 50 episode, episode 62. That was the Bam Bam Accountability Hour. That was the one. I'll never forget that cigar.
**Senator:** Start there, listeners. Uh, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Not bad. If you haven't heard it, start there.
**Bam Bam:** Not bad advice. It's the highest rated, uh, EP, I think, so far. Yeah, it was a,
**Gizmo:** that was a big one.
Love it. Is that right?
**Bam Bam:** I think so. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Don't forget it, Rooster. You're popular.
**Senator:** Let's, let's let him take that so we can do another. I'm a
**Bam Bam:** legend. So we can do another accountability hour. You are a
**Gizmo:** legend. My own mind. So, boys, what are you getting flavor wise on this, for the ones who aren't suffering right now?
**Bam Bam:** It's going to be crazy, but I'm [00:11:00] getting a very slight, a little banana. Some graham cracker and it's really nice and salty.
**Gizmo:** I'm getting, I'm getting a lot of salt. I'm getting, like you said, I think there's some fruit there. Yeah. Definitely some twang. Mm-Hmm. and leather.
**Bam Bam:** I haven't gotten that. A coffee maybe, but not so much that I'm, that's what I may be confusing, but it could be, could be leather.
**Senator:** I haven't gotten leather. Yeah. I, BAMS notes tracked for me. Mm-Hmm. . Um, and just a lot of cream. I just keep coming back. Like, yeah. Like everything that marries is, it's a very creamy, it's
**Gizmo:** creamy.
**Rooster:** And it's got like a nutty, like a cashew. Cashew kind of. Yeah. Agree. Agree. You know, that's what I'm mistaken.
Buttery, creamy, nutty. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Little, little, uh, sweet. Good
**Bam Bam:** cigar so far.
**Senator:** I mean, the construction issues on some of these, it's a shame because just when you look at the cigar, when you look at like two gold bands on it, it just looks super elegant. And then the smoking experience, I mean, all the flavor notes, it's very complex, very refined.
It's not bold in any way. [00:12:00] Um, it's like mild medium, I would honestly say to start, but the flavors are pronounced enough that you can pick them out and appreciate them that it works well. I feel like, yep.
**Gizmo:** I think for a listener who likes a mild cigar. And one, something complex and, and really, really covering the full palette of different flavors you can get out of a Cuban cigar.
Aside from, again, aside from the construction issues, this is a really great introduction to the flavor of Cuban tobacco. We talked
**Bam Bam:** about this on that episode that you mentioned earlier, the 50 that we reviewed, that was a great cigar for a guy or gal that does not want a strong cigar, um, a lot of
**Poobah:** similar notes.
The good connoisseurs that I've had, which have been many, um, I haven't had these types of issues. Um, actually, it's rare with Upman that you get the type of issues. I mean, like, bam, cigars exploding. My, my, [00:13:00] I have a, I have, I have a, I have a major fissure going on. So, like, it's not drawing properly, it's not combusting properly, there's something going on.
I think Gizmo's
**Bam Bam:** tower needs an atonement hour itself.
**Poobah:** Which is, uh, which is disappointing because, because I
**Bam Bam:** think. Look how insulted
**Poobah:** he gets. I love it. Well, no, I don't think it has anything to do with that. I just think it has to do with how we should rule it
**Gizmo:** out
**Bam Bam:** for the next hour. Thank you.
**Poobah:** Yeah. So that's disappointing because it's not drawing.
It's not, it's just not, there's no combustion there. We're with, with the, with the A's that we've smoked, I haven't had, I've never
**Gizmo:** had an
**Senator:** issue. I will say I do. So one of the things I noticed as soon as I touched the cigar. And it, especially after we cut it and we took a cold draw, it is very dry. Now, I know we like to keep our Cuban 62 ish, sometimes gizmo even [00:14:00] less.
It could just be a little dry that's causing, I mean, mine is starting to crack even toward the foot.
**Poobah:** There's something, it's very, when you press it, I mean, it's almost so hard that, even though I like that generally, I like a, you know, I like to, to Senator's point, there's something going on with, The construction, it's packed
**Gizmo:** very tight and it's packed my, my argument, not with the humidity thing.
Cause I just don't think it's humidity. I think it's, I think the blend is similar to sometimes to mag 46 where the blend just puts so much tobacco into that Vitola. And I think we're experiencing the same thing here. Whatever the blend decision is here, there's just too much tobacco in here and it's just not built right.
Yeah. It's not built right. I have to agree. I mean, I've never
**Bam Bam:** gotten at this type of a performance out of that mag 46 ever. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** never had I just had draw issues and that's
**Senator:** [00:15:00] true. That's true, but yeah, I mean like to gizmo's point We all commented how tightly packed this is and the fact that as you're burning this it's like the the rapper can't withstand How much tobacco is in it and it's literally bursting at the seams
**Poobah:** Yeah, yours is bursting right that yours is bursting there.
Mine's bursting here. His is his is exploding Something's wrong So even the
**Rooster:** first one as soon as I put the perfect draw in it cracked I mean my perfect draw was in like barely an
**Bam Bam:** inch. Yeah. Now your cigar now looks pristine
**Rooster:** Can't draw the second
**Bam Bam:** one. Yeah Gizmo's the winner chicken dinner
**Senator:** It's a shame because the flavor is good.
I just I wish the construction were
**Gizmo:** better I
**Rooster:** mean, I'm getting something out of it, but I'm afraid if I put the
**Gizmo:** Perfecto, it's, it's gonna crack more. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. You can just feel the weight of the cigar when you pick it up. Yeah, I think there's just too much tobacco in here.
**Bam Bam:** You know, I'm smoking through this.
I still like the cigar.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep pushing. Mine's [00:16:00] alright. I'm pushing through it. If you feel the weight, if you hold a cigar like this,
**Rooster:** kind of like, Oh, yeah. The weight is towards the
**Gizmo:** end. Do you feel that? Towards the head.
**Poobah:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it's like weighted more towards the head. Well, that's where,
**Poobah:** that's why when I put the perfect drawing, I only put it in.
Yeah. Just to kind of like pull some volume out of the head. Cause I felt that exact thing. I'm like, there's something at the head here at the cap.
**Gizmo:** Well, this is seeming like our second nightmare before Christmas, our second annual nightmare before Christmas episode. This is
**Poobah:** a shocking. Well, let's talk about the Weller.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Cause it's actually very
**Poobah:** good. Cause it's ridiculously amazing. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** This is very exciting. So we have Weller bourbon. Yep. It's a weeded bourbon. It's a
**Bam Bam:** weeded bourbon. Special reserve.
**Poobah:** It's really good. Yeah. I mean that's lovely.
**Gizmo:** Exceptionally good. That's lovely. And honestly, for my cigar that's [00:17:00] performing brilliantly.
It's pairing well, it's excellent. It's excellent. It is. It's a lighter bourbon. It's not, you know, like a rye punching you in the face
**Bam Bam:** if you put that to your nose. So P uba and I have it neat. If you put this to your nose, you get a very slight, uh, pettiness there. Hmm. It's really fantastic. Not on the, on the sip, but on the nose.
It's
**Poobah:** fantastic. It does not taste like 90 proof bourbon. No.
**Gizmo:** It's really good. It's really good. So I have a little bit of ice in mine. I know that Senator does as well. So you guys are still neat?
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. And it's
**Gizmo:** really
**Senator:** good. I like it. Yeah. This is notable for me because I've said this before. I'm not a huge bourbon drinker.
I like bourbon, but I'm, I'm by no means, um, a connoisseur of it. Recently at our lounge, uh, Lizard Henry, who we've mentioned before, He loves this and drinks this all the time and he's like you have to try it's my favorite bourbon And so he poured me some and I was just shocked I mean for me the the flavor profile like it's [00:18:00] sweet, but not aggressively sweet like some bourbons are that's just too much Which is why I think a lot of us veer more towards scotch.
That's not as a drier and a bit more balanced I think this is balanced. It's incredibly smooth. I mean like Puba said you would never guess that this is 90 proof Yeah It's a, I mean, kind of like the, the cigar and flavor profile, the cigar is refined in flavor, right? I feel like this is a really refined bourbon.
**Bam Bam:** It's a great recommend. It's got legs and it's, there's some viscosity to it. And it's quite delicious. I
**Poobah:** feel it's very, it's a very refined bourbon. And I, and I think it, that speaks to why you really don't see it. This isn't, to my knowledge, this isn't ubiquitous in liquor stores.
**Gizmo:** It's hard to get a patch.
It's hard to find this. Yeah.
**Poobah:** You know this it, because it's that good. I mean, it's not something that, uh, I don't know where you guys, where you guys were able to find it
**Gizmo:** and how much is it? I sourced it through a friend of a friend, I think it's about a hundred, was able to get a hundred dollars. Okay, isn't it?
Uh, yeah. I got, well this is a one liter [00:19:00] bottle, so I got this one liter bottle for a hundred bucks. Nice. That, by the way, I think it's a good price. That's a
good
**Poobah:** price. It was a good price. And that's that. This is very good.
**Rooster:** Would you say it's one of the, uh, one of the better bourbons that
**Gizmo:** you guys have had?
It's one
**Poobah:** of the better bourbons I've
**Gizmo:** ever had. I, the thing I like about this bourbon, just in this initial pairing experience is I think that as far as bourbon goes to pair a bourbon with a Cuban cigar. This is the kind of bourbon. This is the flavor of bourbon and the viscosity that I want with a Cuban cigar, because it's not overpowering it.
Like I think a lot of the other bourbons that we've done and likely will do. Um, a lot of times when I think bourbon, I'm thinking new world. I'm not thinking Cuban. Yeah. It's
**Poobah:** well, it's not hot. It's, it's very smooth and also you drink it straight. It's
**Gizmo:** just fine. It's delicious. May I also suggest
**Rooster:** just try taking out a little bit more tobacco from the end.
So mine just opened up and got a little better from the head. You
**Bam Bam:** mean from the head?
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I'm not messing with mine. They're just going to [00:20:00] my draws. My draw is fine. Mine is performing brilliantly.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And I'm actually getting through that exploded part of it. I should be
**Gizmo:** fine. The cigar is really good.
Yeah. I love the flavor. Good. Good flavor. I do too.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's good. It's light. It's
**Bam Bam:** very creamy. The smoke
**Gizmo:** is velvety. I think it's different than the Kanye too. I think Kanye is classic Upman, more baking spice. You know, more in the wheelhouse of what I think when I, when I think about what Upman is. More in line with Upman 2.
More in line with Half Corona. This is a little bit of a departure from that and I like it. As a departure. Yeah, it's
**Poobah:** It's lighter. Lighter for sure. It's lighter for sure than
**Gizmo:** Kanye for me. Would you say Kanye is more floral?
**Poobah:** Kanye is more floral so far. And dessert, spice, it's more, it's, yeah, and it's more complex, more baking more, more complex.
More complex. There's a lot
**Gizmo:** more going
**Rooster:** on. Guess with this. I just get that cashew, not. And then creaminess, buttery, creamy, and a little tangy, like [00:21:00] that Cuban, uh, twang or tang, whatever you
**Gizmo:** want to call it. Like sour cream a
**Poobah:** little bit? My problem is the combustion, the lack of, um, like out of a cigar, this ring gauge.
It should be a, we should be chimneys, right? The Kanye, when you light it, it blows up like an E2. It's, you know, you get a cloud of smoke and you're like, okay, I'm in the game here and this is kind of doing that thing where it's kind of chugging along and not giving me that for this kind of a ring gauge, the kind of combustion I want where I'm like, wow, I'm just getting like this.
I'm getting this viscous smoke. I'm getting like a, even it's light bodied or medium bodied, which the Kanye is, um, and an E two is actually for, you know, considering it's part of us for part of us, it's more medium bodied. Um, you're not getting the kind of. That balance where you're like, wow, this thing's blowing up for, you know, like I'm, I'm really smoking like a chimney right now.
Not getting that from [00:22:00] this.
**Gizmo:** The thing about a cigar this size is you really shouldn't have to, you know, and I think we talked about this on the E2 episode. You shouldn't have to work too hard on a cigar this size to really become a chimney. That's true. Like, I really feel like you're having to pull, you know, one and a half times, two times almost per draw to get a D and I have no construction issues to get decent amount of combustion.
And that's unfortunate because I feel like this should not be performing, you know, like this smoke wise. You
**Rooster:** know, there's, there's another thing that I was, I was kind of thinking about when I was driving home or driving here from, uh, from work. A lot of times you light a cigar on the foot. you get some notes that you don't get like later on, you just kind of get them on the foot.
That's common. They're really sweet or they're really good. And then it kind of diminishes. Yep. So I was like, why is that? Why does that happen? So this is just my theory that maybe this is the reason because the foot is exposed to [00:23:00] oxygen. And
**Gizmo:** oxygen oxidizes, as we all know. Were you waiting
**Bam Bam:** to say that again?
**Gizmo:** He set this whole
**Rooster:** thing up just to
**Gizmo:** say that. Here we go.
**Bam Bam:** Very elaborate plan you have here. You know, you're very talented.
**Rooster:** So when you open a bottle of wine, you let it air, right? Because of oxygen. So the foot is exposed to air and oxygen. So, And as the cigar ages, more of the cigar will, will get exposed to the air and oxygen.
So it will kind of mellow out and you'll get those notes throughout. But if the cigar is kind of fresh, you would get those sweet notes or nice notes right in the beginning. And then it kind of wears off. Yeah. Does that make sense?
**Poobah:** Kind of does. I mean, it makes sense, except that you're aging the cigars.
Generally in a closed box,
**Rooster:** but there's some air movement, right? I mean, I mean, it's, it's slowly the air is getting,
**Senator:** but I think his point is even in the box, just as years go on, it's naturally exposed to more
**Gizmo:** [00:24:00] and more oxygen over time, right? One ends open, one ends closed, right? And I think that's the product of aging.
When we talk about a cigar that the last third, let's say it has been in the tower for a year, the last third, you get a little bit of youth a year later. You may only get that in the last. You know, a quarter of an inch or last half of an inch
**Senator:** or something. All right. So Gizmo, can you experiment for us?
Can you build into your tower like an oxygen tank supply? It's just pumping fresh oxygen. It was fresh. Oh, we want to try the cigars and see if it accelerates the or
**Gizmo:** just cut each and every cigar at the end. Yeah,
**Poobah:** but it's also as the cigar burns down. It exposes the youth of the, the, the less aged tobacco, because it's just build like all the tar and the nicotine is building up there.
And like any cigar at the end, it's going to build in strength, right? Regardless of age. And it's, it's when it starts to build there towards the end is when it really exposes its youth. [00:25:00] Um, so I don't know, I don't know how much it has to do with the oxygen.
**Gizmo:** It's just exposure to
**Rooster:** air on the, on the foot, you know, as opposed to the whole cigar.
And more so on a fresh cigar than a something that's aged like four to five years or even longer. So that's why I think more of the cigar sits the
**Gizmo:** smoother it gets. I like the theory. That's the thing that also validates what you're saying from a technical standpoint is if you take one of those, uh, Humidity meters that are, you know calibrated.
They have like two prongs. I've got one of those and you put it in the The foot of the cigar, it's going to be a, generally going to be a different humidity level than what's going to be at the head. The foot is generally going to be drier by maybe three to five percent than what you're going to find in the head.
And I just, that's just a product of one is open, one's closed. And, you know, it's just a product of acclimation.
**Senator:** Who knew how profound Bam's oxygen oxidizer statement was going to be?
**Gizmo:** It works! He's a genius.
**Bam Bam:** I'll see you [00:26:00] tomorrow.
**Poobah:** That's today.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we talked to this is the, the factory name of this cigar is called the Henny Alice. There's four, excuse me, three other cigars in the Habano's catalog that are an identical size. The Hoyo San Juan is one, the Monte Cristo Eagle and the San Cristobal Torian. Which is a cigar specifically provided for Habano specialists in LCDH.
And I'll say, I've also had a Montecristo Eagle in this size probably about two years ago. And I had real performance issues with it. That's a 54 ring gauge, yeah? It's identical to this. 54.
**Bam Bam:** And remind me, the E2
**Gizmo:** is 52? No, the E2 is 54. It's just a little bit different of a length. I'm not exactly sure what the length is on this.
Never, never
**Bam Bam:** a performance issue on the E2.
**Senator:** Ever. It's really surprising. It's
**Gizmo:** not shocking. It's
**Bam Bam:** not packed us. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. And if there's no balance to it, that could lend a lot to what's happening here.
**Senator:** It's really [00:27:00] surprising just because I've never thought that when in Cuban cigars, they've ever struggled to make a larger ring gauge.
I mean, like we're talking about the E2, the QD 54. All those larger ring gauge cigars, draw is never a problem. Mac 54, never a problem. It's just a question of how much you like or dislike the flavor. So I'm very surprised that we have the issues we are with this, and then to hear your experience with the Monty, that's just surprising.
**Gizmo:** What's disappointing to me about this is, what I'm experiencing is, is, it goes in front of a, a, construction issue. This is a blending issue. They've tried to make something in a 54 ring gauge cigar that requires too much tobacco for the size. And they should have either gone to a 56 or adjusted the blend.
This is what they decided to do. And that's why we're having the experience that we are tonight is it's just, there's too much tobacco to provide the blend that they wanted. In this ring gauge in this cigar. Look, look,
**Bam Bam:** looking around the room. I was where Senator was and I've gotten past it. It's actually performing beautifully.
Smoking great. Not a problem. [00:28:00]
**Gizmo:** I feel lucky. Mine is excellent.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, but you'll get past that phase unless that fissure continues down to the, to the head. But it's, you can recover it. Not bad. It's really not that bad at all.
**Rooster:** Yeah, it's just, you know, I mean, how much is the cigar? Like 40, about
**Gizmo:** 40,
**Rooster:** 45 bucks, probably to pay 45 for a cigar.
And then you get three plugged out of
**Gizmo:** five or six. Plus we're talking about a cigar that's got five years of age. I'm talking about a fresh one is probably 40 bucks
**Rooster:** and a great, and a great code,
**Gizmo:** you know, BRE five years old. Incredible.
**Senator:** I mean, that's what's scary, right? As soon as you said the code, I said, okay, I have, I think we have like a BRE up in twos and I've never had draw issues.
They're great cigars. And it's like, you, you can't even trust the codes anymore. I mean, right. It's the same fricking code, same year. And we're having wildly different experiences. I
**Rooster:** mean, look after Lubb, I think BRE is probably one of the better
**Gizmo:** codes. Yeah. Lubb is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would say after Lubb.[00:29:00]
That, you know, I, I always argue that, that 16, 17 was kind of a wonky period, 18, 19, 20 BRE into the, even the recent factory codes, you know, the up into one cigar of the year last year, a fresh 2022 up into one, you know, cigar of the year in cigar aficionado, you know, it's performed, you know, across Cuba, we've talked a lot about it.
I think there's been significant improvements, but. I'm curious what a fresh Connie B performs like. It's probably
**Senator:** better constructed. I mean, I just feel like construction wise, the more recent years have been pretty good. The quality control has been better.
**Bam Bam:** Well, this is, this was made in 2018 though. Yep.
**Poobah:** I mean, look how good. 18's have been great. They've been awesome. So that's, that's the whole point though. I mean, I, I have, I have boxes. I've smoked plenty of boxes. 2016 and 2017 cigars that. Fantastic. Yeah. But we have had
**Rooster:** some fantastic [00:30:00] 22 and 20 threes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Outperformed Oh, yeah. Yeah. Anything, you know, no
**Gizmo:** raw issues.
None at all. New release, first issue, cigar. Yeah. Right.
**Bam Bam:** And
**Poobah:** delicious. Right?
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm at least glad the saving grace with this cigar. I, I really like the flavorless flavor. So Good. Yeah, like I'm, I'm very, very pleased with this cigar. The construction is really the only issue
**Gizmo:** if this, if this cigar.
Performed as well as it should construction wise, we were getting the kind of combustion that we should be getting out of a cigar like this. And the exact flavor profile that this cigar is exhibiting, this could be a mid nine cigar. Yeah. It could be a mid nine cigar podcast. But it's just not,
**Poobah:** the combustion is just not there.
It's not happening. It's just, there's not enough smoke. If you
**Bam Bam:** can retrohale, for me, I get all peanut butter. Almonds and nuts. It's
**Poobah:** really, it's got the H it's got that H H up in DNA. It's just doesn't, it's just not,
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah, you're totally right. Bam. Then the retro hails magnificent, exquisite. [00:31:00] So Puba mentioned Rob Isla, our friend, uh, and proprietor who owns friends of El Habano, the forum and, you know, retailer.
And he put out a pretty interesting note a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to share with you guys, because. This one's kind of freaky deaky to me. He says I had confirmation that ultraviolet security protocols have been removed from Cuban cigars, sometimes starting May, 2023. It is not ideal. Existing bands and seals will be used.
New bands and seals will not have the security features. Your guess is as good as mine as to why it
**Rooster:** doesn't make any
**Gizmo:** sense. So you think about through the, through the, the, the run of counterfeit issues we had over the last 18 months, pretty detailed on this podcast in what, October, November last year, including with Rob.
You know, one of the determining factors, actually the significant determining [00:32:00] factor that really pointed to those boxes being fake were the UV light displaying a discrepancy on the seal on the, on the, on the box, you know, we use those. UV lights. Even now, you know, you look at some of the secondhand groups on Bond Roberts, you're required to provide a photo of the seal under UV light to prove that these boxes are authentic.
Now, Cuba tobacco and Habanos have decided to completely get rid of it. And I cannot understand it unless there's a significant cost change. For them, which them being cheap, are
**Rooster:** they, are they implementing something else? Like they talked about some kind of chip that might, uh, install in it. That would like kind of, it'd be a better deterrent.
**Gizmo:** I don't see them figuring out a way to put a chip in a cedar slide lid box. Not in Cuba. You know, maybe in the, they, they have in one of the high end, uh, Cohiba releases, but as far [00:33:00] as, you know, deterrent on I mean, I don't know if they're doing something else. I
**Rooster:** mean, why would they take this out? I
**Gizmo:** mean, this, this was working.
It
**Bam Bam:** sounds ridiculous. A lot of our online groups require guys, if they're going to sell something, to have that seal. before they post it. It's, this is, it's going to be
**Gizmo:** mostly on the wild west here. Mostly on Cohiba and stuff, right? Yeah. Well, it's on all cigars. I think on Bob Roberts, I think you're required to just put up a picture of the seal with the, the UV light showing.
I do it for every box I transact personally, but you know, the idea that Habanos doesn't give a shit that their product is so easily counterfeited. It's just odd to me, you know, as opposed to doubling down, you know, Alex Groom, who, you know, we love, who wrote El Habano Moderno, runs Cuban Cigar website. He had a brilliant idea.
I don't know if I told you guys this. He said, for 20, 000, they could implement the most fail safe, counterfeit protection in cigars, period. He said, You install a conveyor belt [00:34:00] at each factory. Once the boxes are done at the bottom of each box, you take a photo of the bottom of each box. Now, of course, they're using cedar.
So each piece of wood, it's like a fingerprint. It's unique. There's no two pieces of wood, snowflakes or fingerprints. It's true. The wood patterning is all different. Wood patterning is different. The way that they stamp the boxes. Is in unique placement. They can tie each of those photos, which how many, how much size would that be to upload those boxes?
You know, those photos to a server, you line those up with the serial code. Now you can go on a Habanos website, punching the serial code. You got a picture of the bottom of the box or what they're supposed to, what it's supposed to look like. Very easy and hard to defeat, hard to defeat and there's no, there's no cheaper way to do it.
But they're using mules
**Poobah:** in, in, in, in, in, in manual labor, like, like, like the way it was done literally 140 years ago to make these cigars. I mean, at the [00:35:00] end of the day, there's absolutely no way that kind of tech. Can be actually implemented in Cuba. They
**Gizmo:** implemented UV seals and bands. Okay. Now remove
**Poobah:** UV seals.
Those are made by a third party. That's a third party technology that the printer that implements UV tech, that UV tech to take pictures of these boxes and then, and then put an individual signature on each box, I think is ambitious to say the least. And to create some kind of individual, this is, this is not.
So the conveyor belt would have to
**Bam Bam:** have, here's how it would have to work. They'd have to have a camera in the conveyor belt. So as the box passes over a screen, it snaps a shot of the box. And it goes right up into the server. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We could do it here. It
**Gizmo:** might be possible. Yeah. It, he's, he's really.
Even if it's at the distribution center, the boxes come in before they go into the master [00:36:00] crates. One system, 20, 000, 25, 000, you can implement it. And I think it'd be very easy to do. 25, 000.
**Poobah:** We're going to implement, uh, uh, we're going to make the bottom of the boxes, like individual fingerprint database.
**Rooster:** It's a one time
**Gizmo:** expense though.
**Senator:** Oh, until it breaks. You need maintenance.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Who's going to manage all that? That seems pretty technical. Maybe one
**Rooster:** day Elon Musk. It takes over Habano's essay and everything.
**Poobah:** I don't think it's a bad idea, but I mean, I don't know an execution if that's realistic.
**Gizmo:** Well, anyway, there's no security features now on Cuban cigar boxes.
Great. So it makes Providence the only remaining source of truth is where are you getting your box? Are you getting it from someone you trust? And now it kind of, for me, puts the secondary market in, in serious question. I agree. Because Providence is, is, is really. The most [00:37:00] important thing. And what bothers me about this too, is that they're just going to use the bands till they run out.
So there's going to be box codes throughout the year that half have UV seal. Implementation and some don't. So you can't say like, Oh, June, 2023, does your box have UV or not? If it has UV, is it fake? I don't know.
**Poobah:** It's a cost saving measure. I mean, by Havana, SSA, they're just, it probably costs them. They probably save 30 or 40 percent on each band.
**Gizmo:** I
**Senator:** mean, I'm sorry. I'm just going to say the word that has not been said China. I was about, I was
**Bam Bam:** going
**Senator:** to ask that question. I'm sorry. We're sitting here talking about cost savings. Prices have gone up, right? And now who's making more money that all of a sudden has invested significantly in Havana. So say China
**Bam Bam:** and now counterfeiting is
**Senator:** do as you wish, right?
I mean, there's no intellectual property protections there. Do whatever the fuck you want. I mean, it's just frustrating for us now because this impacts the product that we consume a lot of, but [00:38:00] this whole thing is extremely frustrating
**Gizmo:** to hear. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's, it's terrible because you know, what we buy and what we love is a consumable product.
You know, that once you smoke it, you need to replace it if you want to smoke more. And now. It's a question of like, am I buying something that's authentic? And now you've taken away really the only measure that was kind of undefeated. Except your palate. Okay, well, spend 1, 000 to figure that out. Buy the box, what are you going to do with it?
Yeah,
**Poobah:** true,
**Bam Bam:** true, true. This is a
**Senator:** big problem.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, this is not good. So
**Rooster:** this, this is a
**Gizmo:** done deal. This is what's happening. As of May 2023. Confirmed to Rob from, uh, somebody in Habanos or something.
**Poobah:** But, but, but I think the Senator's point, you know, China It's China. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** they don't care about intellectual property.
No, they don't. They don't care about counterfeiting. Actually, I think a significant piece of their economy is based on it. I think they're kind of
**Rooster:** promoting, uh, counterfeit.
**Senator:** Totally. You just mentioned Elon Musk and Tesla, like they have actively copied Tesla [00:39:00] cars and are happily trying to destroy the intellectual property of Tesla by just making replicas of Teslas under a different brand.
You know, I
**Bam Bam:** didn't know that. 100%. Oh yeah. I had no
**Gizmo:** idea. Is that
**Senator:** true? 100%. That's everything in China. I'm not kidding. Everything.
**Gizmo:** 100%. You can buy a Tesla on Alibaba.
**Poobah:** 100%.
**Gizmo:** It's funny, but it's not funny. I want to get back to the drink for a second. Because this Weller is really,
**Bam Bam:** really fantastic. Let me tell you something.
Christmas Eve, with this thing in your hand, it's so warming in the winter. In your little nook with your cigar, this is a fantastic spirit to have.
**Poobah:** It'll neutralize the mother in law. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You better believe it. No, no, this is,
**Poobah:** you're
**Gizmo:** just like, that is lizard behavior.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. That's lizard psychology right there.
**Poobah:** You're just like, all right, I'm not going to comment neutralized.
**Gizmo:** So [00:40:00] Senator, what do we know about Weller?
**Senator:** a little bit. It was basically, it was produced for the first time in 1849. So they have a ton of history. Um, very much like Buffalo trace who I think bought them at one point. Um, and we've done a number of their bourbons, but the bourbons named after a guy named William LaRue Weller, who is a distiller that was allegedly the first to create straight bourbon using wheat instead of rye in the mash bill, which I, again, I don't know a whole lot about bourbon, but after having this, I want to pursue wheat based.
**Gizmo:** We need to find wheat based bourbon.
**Senator:** Because this experience is so much different than like a corn based bourbon, which is very sweet. Overly sweet. Yeah. Not very complex. This is the complete opposite of that. So whatever this guy has done clearly works and I want more of it. They are currently owned by Sazerac Company, which owns a ton of different, um, distilleries.
They own Blanton's, obviously very famous. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** [00:41:00] Um. That's another one that's hard to get. Yeah. Yeah. It really is. People, people like. They go crazy for it. Sit outside the store trying to find that. Yeah. They
**Senator:** also own Eagle Rare, which we've done. We love that. A lot of bourbon drinkers love. Um, so they've got a pretty good lineup, but.
Well, I say that and then I see they also own Southern Comfort. So not, not everything they own, not everything they own
**Bam Bam:** is great. I love me some SoCo.
**Gizmo:** But, um,
**Senator:** it's distilled, it's distilled at the Buffalo Trace distillery, which is one of the most legendary distilleries. Um, it's the oldest continuing, uh, continuously operating distillery in America, over 200 years, they've been distilling there.
So, um, a lot of history and just, uh, I mean, this guy is an absolute genius with the whole wheat based bourbon, because I truly, I mean, I think someone said like, you know, it's a great bourbon. Not sure if it's like the best bourbon ever, but for my limited experience with bourbon, this is the best bourbon I've drank
**Gizmo:** period.
I love it. And I just love, again, I'm going to say it again. I really enjoy [00:42:00] how it's pairing with the cigar. Yeah. And
**Bam Bam:** I recommend trying it neat when you have it again, because it's a different experience. It really is. It's warming, a tiny bit of sweetness. It's, it's, it drinks a lot like
**Senator:** a scotch does. The other thing I love about this is just the versatility, because I just think of bourbon as, I mean, cheap bourbon is versatile for cocktails.
So like, that has versatility, but sipping bourbon is usually higher proof, very aggressive. And just not something like, even when you think of what you would pair it with, I always think of a bourbon pairing with a new world much better than a Cuban. This I would have in the winter, I would have in the summer, I'd pair with a Cuban, I'd pair with a new world.
This is like the first kind of all purpose bourbon, that sipping bourbon that I could really see myself drinking. Lizard Henry,
**Bam Bam:** good recommend. Absolutely. You've rescued yourself on this pod. Yeah,
**Poobah:** but Weller, for people who know, like at the North Lounge, um, The one, the one bartender there who's [00:43:00] since retired, he was a huge weller guy and he would bring out weller for us once in a while.
This is back in the day and he'd bring, they'd, they'd have weller up there. Um, and he'd push it. Uh, and it's really, really good and it's better than I remember and. I, I just, there's a lot of merit in the spirit. It's very smooth. I think it's a really great representation of, of what a bourbon should taste like.
It just, it's, it's, it's got like a little bit, it's complex. It's it's got caramel. It's a little bit of cinnamon. It's a little bit of spice. It's good. It's really good. It's smooth. Um, neat. It goes down really, really smoother than you think at, at, at, at, at 45%. And there's a warming quality
**Bam Bam:** to it. The
**Gizmo:** other sounds like a part of a Steve four.
**Poobah:** It sounds like a part of a Steve four.
**Senator:** The other thing that's crazy to me is a lot of these bourbons that are really [00:44:00] pursued by bourbon drinkers and aficionados. They're not expensive. The, the secondary market for them is what's expensive. Exactly. But the actual retail price, I mean, no joke, I remember asking Lizard Henry about this and he's like, it actually retails for like 30, 40.
Wow. I couldn't believe that. This does not drink like a 30, 40 spirit. This drinks like a 60, 70, some might even say
**Gizmo:** 80 spirit. And that's where I want to like shake the people at Buffalo Trace and, and, and push them on this like Pretend scarcity that they create, you know, it's frustrating, like the same thing with, uh, with Blanton's, it's the same thing with Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Eagle Rare, they create this scarcity on purpose.
I mean, they certainly could produce more if they needed to or wanted
**Senator:** to, right? These aren't limited release bottles. They're every part
**Gizmo:** of the regular portfolio. We're drinking their, their pretty basic run of the mill Weller here, which is delicious, but I'm looking at the list. There's like nine or 10 others, but it's like the
**Poobah:** boneless portfolio and Rolex.
[00:45:00] And Rolex, I mean, you know, is it, is it, is it, it's really about supplying Rolex is
**Senator:** different. No, I knew you were going to say that. I'm sorry. It is different. And I'm just going to quickly explain why Rolex watches are hand. Many of the elements of them are handmade. Like all the markers, the hour markers, they're hand applied.
It's not a machine that doesn't. So literally like you only have so many of those that you can pump out. They're building like, kind of like giga factory. This super factory essentially and hiring more to increase production, but it's not as simple as like a machine or something just sits in a frigging barrel and ages.
And then, you know, gets bottled and all that. So it is a different
**Bam Bam:** process. Might bring your value down if they bring up that volume.
**Senator:** Well, that's where,
**Gizmo:** that's where he doesn't want them to build. I
**Bam Bam:** stumped the
**Senator:** Senator. It's a legitimate point. So I. That was my first thought. I was very upset when I heard this, but they are so smart about protecting the brand.
They always want there to be a healthy level of scarcity that keeps that price point really, [00:46:00] really strong on the resale market. But the demand right now has so insanely outstripped supply. There's so much room to pump out more watches that they're still going to be able to hold the market where it is.
So
**Gizmo:** I want to talk about Weller a little bit, uh, just two things. First off, their collection is really interesting. And there's a few of these, I think we should try namely the 12 year and the single barrel that they make, which, you know, obviously like we're drinking, what's called the special reserve, which there's no age statement on it.
Uh, it's kind of the, I guess the, you know, the basic kind of entry level, uh, Weller Bourbon, but they have quite a few. They have nine or ten. So I think we should try it. I did want to read the tasting notes because I always find this interesting on these. A sweet nose with the presence of caramel, tasting notes of honey, Butterscotch and a soft woodiness all accurate.
It's smooth, delicate and calm features a smooth finish with a sweet honeysuckle flair
**Bam Bam:** very well honeysuckle. Not sure, but everything else is
**Gizmo:** accurate. That's that's a more accurate [00:47:00] tasting note that we've read on the pod for sure. I agree. And like, like we said, I just think that man, 30 or 35 bucks, like yeah, Yeah.
You know, at the store versus 75 or a hundred. Well, you paid a hundred for this. I paid a hundred for this. It's a one liter bottle. So that's not a, that's, that's not a seven 50, but I think it's a good value.
**Senator:** I just can't believe this is the first bourbon that I've tried. I would drink this daily. Yeah. I agree
**Gizmo:** with you.
Agreed. So boys, we're, I guess a little bit past the halfway point here on the H Upman Connoisseur B. What are your notes right now?
**Bam Bam:** It's remaining pretty, all the fruit notes have gone away, but I'm getting earthy, some coffee, and it's still very creamy. And my cigar has completely recovered.
**Senator:** Mine too,
**Gizmo:** actually.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, good. You get, you get through that
**Gizmo:** phase. Huber, Rooster? It's definitely
**Rooster:** creamy and nutty. Yeah, nutty is accurate. I'm not, I'm not getting the, uh, A lot of like a chocolatey or coffee
**Gizmo:** note, but a little coffee
**Rooster:** I'm getting. Yeah, but I mean, it's not floral now, but [00:48:00] it's, it's, uh, I think it's a not dominant and creamy, which is nice.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I
**Senator:** agree with that. I'm a little further. I think probably most of us than Rooster cause he had to light a second one. But I think, like you said, I get the, the nuttiness creaminess. And then I think as you get further along, I think Bam mentioned earth. Like I'm getting a little more earth and some Cedar now that I wasn't getting in the first half.
And it's picked up just a bit in strength, not a lot, but it's helped because I think we like a firmly medium Cuban and this starts mild medium and I think it's getting closer to medium. We'll see where it
**Bam Bam:** ends. For those guys that like a full bodied cigar like Pagoda, that slight increase would probably be imperceptible.
'cause it's very slight. It's true, but it's there.
**Poobah:** I I, I would agree with the pickup
**Gizmo:** and strength. The tang is still there. Uh, I'm, I was just gonna say, I'm getting a lot of, I actually think Tang is a better word than twang here because it's moved from a kind of a saltiness to I want, it's like a tanginess.
Yeah. It's like, it's like a sour tang Sourish. And I'm really liking it. But in a [00:49:00] good way. I agree with you. In a very good
**Senator:** way. I say that because there are cigars I've had before and I'm struggling to remember the names of them. Where, actually, there's some Davidoff, I can't remember which one, where you get like a sour note that is not pleasant.
This is like, sour, like, like tangy fruit Maybe the
**Gizmo:** Nicaragua? Or the Yamasa? It
**Senator:** could have been, honestly, I, it was a while,
**Bam Bam:** I was thinking Grand Cru maybe, depending on the quality of it.
**Senator:** I forget. Even if you say it, it's not going to come to me.
**Gizmo:** Grand Cru is very mild. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's, it's, it's all those things. It's just not giving me the complexity for me. It just isn't there. Um, it's getting better. It's I mean, it's way better now than it was on the light, you know, well, yeah, for the first half. It's better now. Quite enjoyable. I have to say. Yeah, it is. It's just not giving me like [00:50:00] what I, what you pursue.
What I'm, what I, what I really would
**Gizmo:** pursue. The thing that's disappointing me is I, I wish that everybody in the room was having the experience. So I think that. You and I are having BAM as far as, from start to finish, maybe me the most out of everyone. Well, Cause I feel like that's gonna skew the ratings, unfortunately.
Well, from the performance issues
**Bam Bam:** early on. Of course. But that retrohale, I'm still getting peanut. The retrohale's fantastic. It's, it's unusual. Peanutty. I agree
**Gizmo:** with you. Yeah. So boys, we have Christmas coming up. And we always talk about, this is our third Christmas together on the podcast, if you believe it.
And we always talk about our Christmas plans, traditions, what we're going to be drinking and smoking. And I want to kind of go around the room. What are the cigars that you have in your tower that you're kind of eyeing up for that real awesome after Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas day? What's your Christmas plan this year as far as cigars spirits and any other kind of you [00:51:00] want to point to us?
I'm on bam. You go
**Bam Bam:** first. I don't want to jump in Go ahead. Um, I was thinking about this on the way over. I'm pulling I'm up in two and Davidoff late hour Churchill
**Gizmo:** What year up in two? What's the age on that? I've got 2019's.
**Bam Bam:** So BRE? Uh, I don't remember. They are, yeah. Those are my choices for
**Gizmo:** Christmas Eve.
And what about drink? I'm
**Bam Bam:** buying this bottle. You're gonna do Weller? Dude, like I said earlier, the warming quality of this is a great holiday drink without any ice.
**Gizmo:** I agree with you. Puba, what's your plan? You know,
**Poobah:** I love rum at Christmas. You're a Foursquare guy. Yeah. I think I would have some Foursquare.
Um. And on ice.
**Senator:** Party
**Poobah:** at Puba's. Party at Puba's.
**Bam Bam:** And you're
**Gizmo:** not leaving that night.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Get the cots out. Yeah, I'll always have, I mean, of course, I'm going to have [00:52:00] some McCallum, some champagne. Um, but if I'm going to have, if I'm going to sit back with the cigar, weather, weather providing, um. I'll pull something nice.
I mean, what are you thinking? Uh,
**Gizmo:** well, love, love 14 up
**Poobah:** in two could be above 14 up in two could be, it could be, could be a classic coast, Vegas, Romania. It could be, it could be any of those things. I just need to see who's with me and around me if it's a firm from solo or what's going on, but yeah. I mean, uh, you could have some lizards knocked on the door.
Could have
**Gizmo:** wind. Yeah, we might be over there. So get a couple ready , uh,
**Poobah:** you know, so we'll, we'll, we'll have to see. But I mean, I, I think it, it, it, it, it depends on the weather probably. Okay. You know,
**Gizmo:** Senator?
**Senator:** Yeah. So, it's funny when you asked this question, I, I actually had nothing in mind, and I think it's a product of, you said this is our third Christmas together.
Yeah. [00:53:00] I mean, we're extremely fortunate, right. I think before this podcast, I used to like plan out and think about months in advance, like certain special cigars that I was going to light up for a certain holiday. And now that we get to do this every week and you know, sometimes we have a dud and sometimes we hit a home run and we find a cigar that we are just blown away by.
Um, I feel like, you know, I'm regularly smoking cigars that I'm extremely happy with that, um, are occasion cigars sometimes, right? Cause we review them. But as guys have been saying this now too, are kind of jumping out at me. I'll start with Cuban. I'm going to do a Cuban and then a new world. Um, so the Cubans, the Vegas Urbana classic goes, that's an obvious for sure.
Like possibly gonna. Be what I light, but the other one, um, and probably the biggest surprise for me this year, and I imagine everyone that got to smoke them with me here, the, um, the Ramon Iones 2019 Limitada, the number two, um, I mean, that got a perfect 10, [00:54:00] it has transformed, it's like an entirely different cigar.
Um,
**Poobah:** and I said it previewed well, and I was the first one to get those boxes. You
**Gizmo:** were, you were, but then you
**Senator:** smoked through them and didn't wait on them. I know. And you didn't
**Gizmo:** share.
**Poobah:** No, what do you mean?
**Gizmo:** Excuse me. I shared all of them. I didn't have one. Which is why
**Poobah:** I don't have any more. Kidding.
**Bam Bam:** You know what?
I'll make a diplomatic retraction.
**Poobah:** The green racing box. Come on. I'm at the
**Senator:** same boat. I mean, luckily I bought a second box, but I shared with everybody who was here when we recorded. Um, and I think I gave one or two out. I'm not sure. I don't remember where,
**Gizmo:** but.
**Poobah:** And I did predict, I'd said they previewed great.
And I did, and I did say for the lizard record that this is going to be a great cigar one day. Now, was I irresponsible and not safe enough? Yes, but I did predict it. I did say that this is going to be a great cigar. I did say that. I'm
**Gizmo:** going to give you [00:55:00] one for Christmas. I'm going to give you one for Christmas.
**Poobah:** Well, thank you very much. But I, I did, I did predict that that previewed really, really great. And the last third of that cigar, when it was young, when it was first released, it just, it was, it was too harsh, but the first, the first two thirds of it were really fantastic. So. Um, I wish I got to, to, to smoke one in its maturity.
Uh, but unfortunately I bought not one, but two boxes of those.
**Gizmo:** You also had to, yeah,
**Poobah:** I had to blow through two. I don't know. I gave, first of all, one, I gave a lot of them away. I gave half of them away to everybody. I gave half of them away and I smoked the others. I mean, I'm just, there were only 20 cigars.
I mean, yeah, that's only 10. You got me a box. I did get you a box. Tremendous.
**Gizmo:** Did you keep them or blow through them?
**Rooster:** I, I [00:56:00] mean, they're only 10, right? So I still have like maybe
**Gizmo:** two. So, all right. So you can give Puba one. I'm all right, Senator, back to you. So what were your drinks, Senator? Uh, well, sorry,
**Senator:** just quickly, New World.
New World, we didn't get there. So, those would be the two Cuban selections, um, and I'll figure out at the time which one. And then New World, I mean, it's almost certainly going to be a Padron 80th. I mean, I'd love that cigar. Excellent. Yeah, excellent. Um, and then drinks, that's a good question. So, I mean, I'm on a cognac kick.
I mean, we're, I'm, we're on a cognac kick. So, cognac will definitely. Cognac! Cognac! Cognac! Cognac! Even the proprietor of our lounge is on a cognac
**Bam Bam:** kick. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He loves saying it.
**Senator:** So, cognac will definitely, uh, be present. And, um, I think what I might consider doing. So, the Remy 1738, obviously, we're obsessed with. Every day for us now, it's made the [00:57:00] rotation, but I, I do remember the Remy XO got an insanely high score and we loved it when we reviewed it and the holidays, that's a time for an occasion bottle.
So I probably might pick up a Remy XO, um, and have some of that. And then for a scotch, um, I think I have a little bit of Glenmorangie Signet left. That's usually like a holiday drink for me. If I have any of that left, I'll, I'll do that. And if not, um, I mean, I just might stick with an Old State, but I mean, McAllen 12, I, every, you know, every day of the year is a great drink.
So that'll probably be the scotch.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, Rooster, what's your plan?
**Senator:** Um,
**Bam Bam:** alcohol free
**Rooster:** Becks. I'll just talk about the cigars. So I'm saving one of the, uh, Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona. Nice. A
**Gizmo:** GR. Oh, the Grand Reserva. Very nice. Oh.
**Bam Bam:** Smoke that. That's a step up.
**Senator:** Yeah. All right, so we're starting at Puba's and then we're ending at Rooster's.
We're going right
**Gizmo:** to
**Poobah:** Rooster's. So, [00:58:00] so just. Damn. Set yourself up for disappointment.
**Gizmo:** I had one already and it was, it
**Rooster:** was amazing. Wow. It was awesome. Awesome. Really? And then the second cigar will be a new world. Most likely the
**Gizmo:** Davidoff Royal. Royal Robusta. That's a great
**Rooster:** choice. And then, uh, what I do at Christmas morning, I always do a pipe, a Dunhill pipe with a Christmas morning, Christmas tobacco, tobacco.
Oh, that's cool. Wow. Dunhill nine, six, five. Look at
**Gizmo:** you. We should do that, a
**Bam Bam:** true connoisseur,
**Gizmo:** a true connoisseur. Enjoy that light of fire, sit by the fireplace and smoke a pipe.
**Poobah:** So you, so, so let me ask you something. I like it. Two things. The pipe is intriguing. Uh, but first, the Royal. Right. Which I've had many of.
Um. I like the Robusto. Yeah. I've had many, because that's the most ubiquitous, ubiquitous one. Um, you like that cigar?
**Gizmo:** Uh, [00:59:00] I do on certain
**Rooster:** occasions.
**Gizmo:** Yes, I do. Can we
**Bam Bam:** dim the lights, please?
**Poobah:** No, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying it's controversial in any way. I'm just asking.
**Gizmo:** It's a beautiful
**Rooster:** cigar. It's got such sheen.
I mean, the
**Gizmo:** wrapper is perfect. Yeah. And,
**Rooster:** uh, it's, you know, it's, it's not. I mean, you have it once in a while. I mean, if, I'll be lucky if I smoke maybe two in the, the whole year.
**Gizmo:** Two or three maybe. How much are those? They're expensive. They're expensive. Um, I was able
**Rooster:** to get a box at a very reasonable price.
I think I paid like five 50 for a box. 55.
**Gizmo:** 55. A cigar? No. Yeah. Now they're like 10.
**Rooster:** Very reasonable. They're about 900.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Haven't I paid like half? Did it have the UV barcode on it though? ?
**Gizmo:** No. Doff canceled that in May. Oh, they did? Yeah. It had a chip. Oh, got it. So, yeah, that's what I would do. Okay. So I've got a whole list of what I will do on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day.
I've got it all mapped out. You're gonna be a chimney that day. I'm pretty like, I'm pretty excited. Wow. I'm pretty excited. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Alright, here's what [01:00:00] I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do A Vegas Ribena class goes from 2011, because I smoke those very infrequently. Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve.
I'm gonna do a Ramon Iones 898 from 2002.
**Senator:** Time out. How did you pull this together without asking us? You won't light a cigar at the lounge without asking us. Hey guys, what should I smoke? I mean, I'm sitting here like in disbelief that you yourself have made these decisions.
**Gizmo:** He
**Rooster:** called me this morning. I did, I called him.
I went over the list.
**Gizmo:** By the way, you owe me an invoice for the call. So also in, in between the two days, I don't know how this is going to all play out with these five cigars. So Ramon eight, nine, eight from Oh two Vegas for many classic goes from 11. Right now, my favorite cigar I have in my entire humidor.
Is the Cohiba Esplendido from 2014. Wow. That box has just blown me away. That's ridiculous. And then for New Worlds, uh, I'm gonna do a Padron 80th on one of the two nights. And then probably on Christmas evening, the evening of Christmas, I'll probably do a Padron 50 [01:01:00] year. Oh, the hammer.
**Senator:** Oh, you're really, you're really gonna slum it and have a Padron with me on Christmas.
Look at
**Gizmo:** you. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah, that was a, that's a great lineup. And then as far as drinks go, I have four kind of in mind. Of course, Balty 12. And you'll see, and you'll see your family win. I'm not gonna see them
**Poobah:** in between, in between the 12 hours of
**Gizmo:** smoking cigar, . The family's overrated. Yeah, they're always,
**Poobah:** there's gonna be in thermals and a
**Gizmo:** with In the garage. In the garage, in the garage. So I have the Balvenie 12, McAllen 12, of course, the Mount gay XO. As far as a rum goes, that's really, that was awesome. Been a revelation for me.
It really was. And it does serve for me where four square I'd normally slot, but four square just puts me. Yeah, it puts me to sleep because it's
**Senator:** so strong. Puts you right into the sink. I lo .
**Gizmo:** It's Crispus. Come on boys. Yeah, man. Uh, so the Mount Gay xo and then as, as you [01:02:00] said, the other was the Remy xo? The the, the cognac, yeah, the coc that Remy XO was, what about your favorite.
**Bam Bam:** That'll be when Mrs. Gizmo's yelling at him from behind. He puts his earmuffs on slowly, takes a sip of that,
**Gizmo:** the noise canceling earmuffs. You're like, I
**Poobah:** have to do payroll.
**Gizmo:** So speaking of, uh, just a couple of housekeeping things, we have the best of 2023 coming up this weekend, which is a full, uh, very long episode of best of clips from 2023.
Some of our favorite moments, some of your favorite moments. And then also our new year's episode is going to come out on January 2nd. Our normal Tuesday release will be our new year's episode. Um, so look out for that in the next couple of weeks. So boys, we're into the last third here on the H upman connoisseur B.
What are you thinking? Well, it's
**Bam Bam:** re exploded. The band was actually keeping it together, [01:03:00] so it's, it's come apart. The flavors are still
**Gizmo:** great. How about the rest of you guys?
**Rooster:** Yeah, still, I mean, it's, the flavor hasn't changed that much. It has picked up in strength, I think, like how, what Senator said. It's still creamy and you do get a little bit of cedar in that tank.
And, you know, it's, I mean, there was flavors there. The construction, obviously, we've had issues with construction. But other than that, I mean, it's, it's
**Gizmo:** done well. Yeah. So mine, mine construction wise is, is starting to come be, be a little weird. I think, I think some of the glue came off when I took the band off.
I think it ripped the wrapper a little bit. Um, but the flavor wise, it's starting to fall off for me a little bit here. The wrapper is really thin. It's so thin. I can see it here. So for a cigar, that's like
**Rooster:** a 54 ring gauge and. That tightly
**Gizmo:** packed. It should be sturdier. The wrapper
**Rooster:** is weak for the cigar.
Agreed. And
**Gizmo:** that's why it
**Bam Bam:** rips. Okay, Senator just took a sip. Neat. I want to hear what your reaction
**Senator:** is. [01:04:00] Two thoughts. I want to start with the cigar just to pick up where we left off. Go ahead. Gizmo said it was going here and I'm having the same experience. Again, I think I'm a little ahead of Rooster. And I, I suspect you're going to get the same unfortunate reality.
The flavor does fizzle out a bit in like the final quarter or third. So I am disappointed. I mean, if this were young, I might expect that to be the case, but this is not. So I'm a little surprised. Yeah. Um, so that's where I am. I'm just now getting more like tobacco notes and not some of the defined flavor notes that we've been calling out.
Um, but trying to Weller neat. It's smooth, neat. It's really enjoyable. And I, I agree. Like you've been saying, like around the holidays. Yeah. It's warming. Yeah. This is great.
**Bam Bam:** Caramel and vanilla
**Poobah:** and honeysuckle a little bit. I would echo Senator's comments. I mean, it's all, it's, it's, it's all that the overall, it didn't perform particularly well.
It had a Chapman [01:05:00] DNA, which I, which you, everyone knows I'm a huge fan of big fan of, um, But just really didn't deliver for me on a lot of levels. So, you know, the cigar, unfortunately, was a bit of a disappointment. I'm not, I'm not going to prop it up, um, and say that this was a great experience. It wasn't.
Um, it was, it's okay. Uh, the H Upman half Corona that I smoked before I walked in this room from 2015. Way better way better cigar. And, um, what can I say? I mean, uh, it's just from a combustion perspective, flavor perspective. It just didn't. It just didn't really deliver for me. Got it.
**Bam Bam:** I've put mine down.
Yeah, you're done. Yeah, it's like an inch and a half away. It's unusual for me, but Not much there. Well,
**Senator:** that settles it. There's only [01:06:00] one Marka that can do no wrong. Partagus.
**Poobah:** Well, no, I mean, I don't know. There we
**Bam Bam:** go.
**Gizmo:** I'm just saying, you've probably heard
**Senator:** me say it before. We did the Culebra and I thought that was going to suck.
And I was sitting there saying, I can't believe it. Partagus
**Gizmo:** can do no wrong.
**Poobah:** There's a couple of Markas there, but yeah, you're not
**Gizmo:** wrong. All right, boys, let's do some listener email. I have two I want to read to you tonight. First is from our friend Lizard Peter in Nottingham, England. How cool is that?
Very cool. Nottingham, Nottingham. Wow. Across the pond. It says, hi lizards. I'm looking to visit Cuba in January for a week to 10 days. I'll be flying from London and he'll be traveling on his own. He said, apart from wanting to see all the Cuba and Havana have to offer, my priority is to visit a cigar factory and a tobacco farm if I can to see the growing and fermenting processes, etc.
After that, I'd like to experience the music you guys talked about, maybe do some fishing, and a day on the beach snorkeling. [01:07:00] I've seen a couple of specialist Cuba tour operators. But wondered if you guys have any thoughts on that or have any recommendations in relation to a factory and farm visit, I was very interested to hear on your podcast about the shortages in Cuba of essential items and how much these are appreciated when you bring them.
It had not occurred to me before, but I will definitely be seeing what I can take with us. Was there any particular point of contact in Havana to whom these can be given for distribution? So there's another good question for you guys. I only took up cigar smoking about 18 months ago, having given up cigarettes after 40 years.
And on average, I only smoke almost exclusively Cuban, maybe one cigar a week, so not that many. And he notes that the prices that we quote here are often half of what he has to pay, of course, because of UK taxes. I'm working my way through all your podcasts and thoroughly enjoying them. I won't go on any longer, but as a keen wine, champagne, and whiskey drinker, your pairing notes are very much appreciated as of course, are also the tangential conversations and [01:08:00] banter.
Very best wishes, Peter from Nottingham England.
**Bam Bam:** What an incredible email. Isn't that great? That is
**Gizmo:** an incredible email. I saw that and I was like, I have to read this. Wow. Wow. All right. So let's go through a couple of the things, um, that he asked about. First, of course, was visiting cigar factories and tobacco farms.
So
**Rooster:** then, does he want ascending order of the factories or
**Gizmo:** the descending order? Just, just hit him with the list. So
**Rooster:** I would, you know, on an, on an ascending order, I would do the, uh, do the Romeo factory. I agree. He can easily get into that. That's You know, it's, uh, I mean, it's decent. It's, it's well organized and very accessible, I must say.
Um, and then the second one could do the La Corona. That's the biggest factory in Cuba, in Havana. That's right. And if he's lucky to get into Cohiba. Yeah. El Ligito. El
**Gizmo:** Ligito. Yeah. I mean, that would be the crown, the
**Rooster:** highlight, crown jewel, highlight of the trip and definitely visit, uh, Vinales, that's the cigar growing region [01:09:00] and visit some,
**Gizmo:** uh, farms there.
Yeah. And Pinar del Rio. Pinar del Rio. I heard, I've actually spoken to some folks who've been in Cuba recently, that apparently Ligito has gotten extra difficult to get into, even when you've been promised. Uh, tours and visits and whatnot, they're really clamping down over there. So if I'm the, you know, any listener that's going, I would, like you said, focus first on Romeo, second on La Corona.
Those, I think between those two, you're going to get a real deep dive in the process and you'll get to see what's happening,
**Bam Bam:** especially La Corona. It's so substantial, so many rooms and experiences
**Gizmo:** to have there. And most definitely
**Rooster:** go to the LCDH shop. The part of your shop and go to some of the, uh, lounges that we have talked about in detail and the Cuba episodes.
Yeah.
**Senator:** Well, I would just echo on the lounge. I mean, definitely hit the part of your shop, just sit in the lounge, have a cigar, especially this guy's traveling by himself. You will meet so many people traveling solo from all over the world. You'll have a great conversation and enjoy a smoke there. When you say the Romeo factory, do you mean the up in [01:10:00] factory?
**Rooster:** The Romeo.
**Gizmo:** That's sort of the, yeah, it was the up in fact, it was the Romeo shop. It's the Romeo shop. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, uh, what I wanted to share with him, I asked some folks, uh, kind of in advance of this to kind of share with the listeners and, and him, cause we haven't been to Panar del Rio yet.
That's on our agenda for the next time we go. But I wanted to share some, uh, farms that were recommended to me. Some folks who go all the time. Uh, fir first is, uh, HLP Hector Luis PTOs Farm. Hoyo Deo, and then also to go see Pao, who's a, you know, big time roller down there. He's right next to the old Robia farm.
Uh, and what my, my friend here said, uh, if you wanna get a lesson in the whole start to finish tobacco pre procurement process, Hector Luis Pieto is the place to go. Just give him a call and a heads up to him prior to coming. You can find his information or you can email. And, uh, we'll hook you up with that.
Hoyo de Mena is phenomenal due to the material that has grown there and the multi generational [01:11:00] lineage, uh, which has been left there for, for so many years. Uh, but unfortunately they, they took quite a beating, uh, in the last batch of hurricanes. So that's, uh, that's those, those recommendations. And then the other thing he asked about.
Is bringing stuff to Cuba. We detailed quite a bit what we brought to Cuba and and where to get rid of them. Um, you know, finding what your kind of niche is. If you want to bring toys for kids or crayons or coloring books, sports supplies, sports supplies, you can find people in Cuba. And like Senator said, just being there, you're going to meet these folks.
You can ask folks at the part of his shop. Hey, I have, you know, some coloring books and crayons or whatever you're going to bring. Yeah. You could talk to folks there and they'll point you in the right direction. School supplies are a big thing. Yeah. And
**Bam Bam:** what's interesting, the schools are housed in structures that are all within residential areas.
You can't tell it's a school unless you see kids playing in the backyard or in the playground. So you just walk around, you'll see a school. You'll find them. You can ask a local. Yeah, that's true. A little guide you to a school. Yeah. [01:12:00] And the guys and gals at the particle shop, they're very helpful. All right.
Very
**Senator:** helpful. Donde esta
**Bam Bam:** la escuela? Si, senor.
**Gizmo:** It's all you need. And then the only thing that I would say too is I, I certainly, I don't know if I would spend money, um, even forgetting the experiences that we had and the access that we had. I don't know if I would spend money on a Cuban tour operator and paying someone to go to different places.
You know, like, like rooster said, I think just with some basic conversations of people you meet at the part of your shop and, and, and around those areas, the people in the tobacco community will help you, you know, find your way in. And then, you know, going out to the farms, you contact the farm owner, like we said, you pay a driver 150 bucks to go out there and you'll have a great experience.
So yeah, that's the way I would go. It's more than
**Rooster:** a day trip. It's you really can't
**Gizmo:** do that overnight. Yeah. You need to overnight. Oh, yeah. If you go to Pinar del Rio, you need to do an overnight. And,
**Rooster:** you know, he's, he's also, he should really take some Spanish lessons. I mean, that would come in very handy.
**Senator:** Yeah. Get Gizmo can give them, [01:13:00]
**Gizmo:** you know, I knew I was going to take heat. As soon as you said that, I didn't know how he, but I knew it was coming. He smoking teach
**Poobah:** you. Total
**Gizmo:** be in
**Poobah:** total.
**Gizmo:** So the other, uh,
**Poobah:** he smoked. We have
**Gizmo:** a gizmo. So the other email I wanted to share was from our friend lizard, Sean, who was so kind to send us these five year aged, uh, connoisseur bees that we're smoking tonight, uh, very kind of him.
And he sent us a great note after he was listening to our episode 100, our celebration of, of nearly two years on the podcast here. I've really come, and this is what Sean said, he says, I've really come to realize how you guys, the lizards, have impacted not just my smoking habits, but my life. Puba talking about the regular boxes or staples that everyone has to have in their collection.
Like Upman 2, Rass, Half Corona, D4, and others. And yeah, now I have everyone he mentioned in my collection. A tower. [01:14:00] I would have never considered a tower until I listened to you guys. Listening to the pod has taken my cigar, smoking, and appreciation to the next level. And a lounge. Never would I have thought to join a lounge and start experiencing all the things you guys do as a group.
And now I have that in my community. Cool. A heartfelt thank you to each of you. I feel like I have a group of friends that I've never met but that we get to spend time together every single week. Another
**Bam Bam:** incredible email.
**Poobah:** That's an incredible email. And, and I, you know, I feel terrible that the cigar wasn't the greatest and the generosity, um, Lizard, Sean, I mean, thank you so much for sending these.
It's really, the gesture is what it's all about. And, uh, you know, we're thankful for sending these cigars in. I mean, honestly, we love you, man. And the, the cigars were really, um. And the gesture was really [01:15:00] just, just beyond, beyond words. So thank you.
**Gizmo:** Very much in the Christmas spirit. Yes, sir. And I just love, I just love getting an email or a note like that.
It's so heartfelt. Absolutely. It's like that, it completely encompasses why we do this every week. Well, that if
**Bam Bam:** it's changed his life. Right. And when we, look, I frequented cigar lounges very infrequently when I first started, but when I joined our lounge that we're no longer at, I met all of you there. My life is different now in a much better way.
So that's a great, great
**Gizmo:** merit. I totally agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. All right, boys, we're coming to the end of our evening here. I think it's time to start our ratings, starting first with our liquor pairing, the Weller Special Reserve.
**Senator:** Yes. Wow. Bam is really inspecting
**Gizmo:** the Weller. Bam has, is doing a full spin on that.
I love this
**Bam Bam:** shit. It's amazing. I love it. Yeah. Lizard Henry is a home run. Thank you. I am at a firm nine. Wow. Firm nine. Excellent. [01:16:00] Yeah. And I'm, you know, piggybacking on Senator's note about versatility. I really saw this as a winter, late fall type of a drink, but I can, I can definitely do this with ice in the summer and it'll be delicious.
So nine for me. And I know, look, let me just say further, there are other spirits that we have access to, right? They're more expensive. They're the staples in our lives, but this is for what this is tonight and how it's drinking to nine all day for me. All
**Gizmo:** right. Senator. I
**Senator:** was hoping I was not next, because I'm debating between two numbers.
Uh oh. Um, it, it's really, really spectacular. I'm just super impressed with this. So I'm, believe it or not, debating between a nine or a ten. I was. I
**Bam Bam:** was too. I was too. That's excellent. Yeah, I was
**Senator:** too. And, and. You can always go back. No, you can't. How many hours do we have left?
**Gizmo:** Pagoda's not here. You might be able to get away with it.
That's true.
**Senator:** That's true. Um. I'm feeling [01:17:00] generous. I am going to round up and go. It's, it's truly a reflection of everything that we consider when we rate a spirit or a cigar. The price point is absurd for what this delivers. It's true. Absurd. Honestly, if this, if you told me this were an 80 bottle, I'd still give this a nine.
I truly would. I think it drinks like a 90, 80 spirit. Um, but I'm going to give it a 10 because it's very reasonably priced. It is complex. We called out multiple flavor notes. It's balanced, right? Like there are sweet notes here, but you also get a little bit of the oak and things that just make sure that it's not, um, so dominant in one note like most corn based bourbons that I can appreciate in a cocktail, but that I don't enjoy to sip regularly like I would something like this.
The versatility of this Is a huge merit and that's also what pushes it up to a 10 for me. [01:18:00] And um, how smooth this is at something that is not some 10, 12 year, 8, there's no 8 statement on this. I mean this is smoother than honestly a lot of 12 year scotches that we drink. Yup, that's true. That are much more expensive.
So for all those reasons, this is the only bourbon that I have ever had that I could see myself drinking regularly. Wow, that's a 10.
**Gizmo:** That is crazy. Puba.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I wish I went first. Uh, yeah, I give it a 10. I, I, I'm in alignment with a lot of the commentary that, that, that Senator put forward. Oh, thanks.
**Bam Bam:** Why another snub? Well, you gave it a denied,
**Gizmo:** you gave it a denied hashtag.
**Poobah:** I'm insecure. . I have no idea what you mean. Um, uh, no. I'm in alignment with a lot of the commentary and, and your [01:19:00] commentary. I, I, I think that Okay. Thank you, . Well, you didn't, lemme finish. Um, uh. No, but I, I, I, I, I give this actually a 10 with, with, with conviction.
Um, I think, I think based on the price point, based on, uh, from the first sip all the way till now, it's been fantastic. I put a little bit of ice in it. I had it neat. It was great. It just tastes fantastic. I mean, what, what can you say? It's a 90 proof bourbon. It doesn't drink like that at all. It's got caramel.
It's got vanilla. It's got, it's complex. It's got cinnamon. It's really, really nice. It's a really good spirit. And I think it's why, I think it's why bourbon fans really love Weller. I think that, you know, folks who love bourbon love Weller. And clearly for good reason, [01:20:00] and you can't just walk into a liquor store and buy this for, and, and it like sells in the secondary market.
You have to like find it. Um, you can't, you can buy it at retail, I guess, in some places, but it's a little bit hard to get. It's not ubiquitous. And I think that's for a good reason. And that's why I give it a 10.
**Senator:** And just one quick thing I would add, I mean, The other reason for me, I'm comfortable with the 10 like Puba said, you'll, you'll be really hard pressed to find this at retail.
But the fact that it basically usually goes for double retail, I would pay 75. I would pay 70
**Gizmo:** for this. Yeah. I wish they'd make more of it and just raise the price. And And put, create, you know, eliminate the scarcity, raise the price, eliminate the secondary market, put it on the shelf, and I'll pay 65 for it.
True. Adds to the
**Poobah:** mystique, it is what
**Gizmo:** it is. So I came in tonight, boys. Just listen, just on the one glass I had from Henry in the Lounge two weeks ago, I immediately [01:21:00] ordered this through his friend and I had it the next day. That's Lizard Henry. Lizard Henry. And I was so into it, so I came in tonight.
Absolutely. Even before I walked in enjoying this so much then between a 9 and a 10. I'm also at a 10, and I'm shocked. I thought I was going to be the only one. I was prepared for a fight tonight. Um, the reason why I pushed it to a 10 for sure is not because of Bam's commentary. We're going to ignore him, but because of mainly what Senator Ampouba said.
No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. The reason why it pushed to a 10 for me is the way that it paired tonight with a Cuban cigar. That's where I was unsure of how it was going to play because I had it with A New World when I originally had it. So the way that it paired tonight with, I would argue, a medium Mild.
Yeah, mild medium Cuban cigar through and through. I just, it really paired nicely with that and it also is so versatile. That I had it with the Padron and it was very complimentary to the Padron. It's so
**Poobah:** versatile. It would hold up to the [01:22:00] strongest of the strongest and the mildest of the mildest. It's, it's that versatile.
Exactly. That's why it gets a 10.
**Gizmo:** Yes. Nice. And the other thing I'll say too, the rise that we had in addition to the corn bourbon, like Senator said, they just don't work for me and they're certainly not as versatile as these do. They're delicious spirits. I think nine times out of 10, we're going to pair those with a new world exclusively, even moving forward.
But this is one that I could have in my tower, you know, in my, in my collection and pull it out anytime regardless of the cigar, any cigar that it's well
**Poobah:** established. Bourbon drinkers love a Weller. They love it.
**Senator:** Yeah. And, and even on that, I mean, it's, it's been so shocking to me. Like Puba said, every bourbon drinker pursues Weller and I never really understood it because they also pursue Blantons and some of these other bourbons and I've had Blantons.
I've had many of these other things that they pursue, but none has really grabbed me in the way that this has. This is much better than I finally can get why this is so,
**Bam Bam:** I apologize, but this is better than Blantons. Sorry. I
**Poobah:** agree. Yes, it is. No, no, no. It does [01:23:00] grab you in a different way. It does. I agree.
It's outstanding. It's a great, great, great spirit. And our rating
**Gizmo:** is so the formal liquor rating boys on the weather special reserve is a 9. 8. Can't beat that. If anyone thought we don't like bourbon. Sorry.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that's an elite score.
**Gizmo:** That is beyond elite. That is the best
**Poobah:** bourbon that we've done. Wait till we dive deeper into weather.
There won't be much higher to go. I
**Gizmo:** can't wait. All right, boys. It's time to do the formal lizard rating now on the H Uppman Connoisseur B. Rooster, you're up. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Uh, so first of all, I just want to say a big thank you to Lizard Sean for providing these, uh, cigars. Unfortunately, I mean, there were some draw issues, which is no fault of Sean's.
I mean, it's just Habanos being Habanos and, uh, it is what it is. Uh, but overall, the flavor was very good. I mean, the, it was, it had the H. Oppmann DNA. It had, uh, You know, it was nutty and creamy and buttery.
**Gizmo:** Um, so overall [01:24:00] a good experience,
**Rooster:** but we kind of have to rate the cigar at the experience that we had tonight for this particular cigar, right?
So maybe another time we would not have to draw issues. I might score a little bit higher. So for this particular cigar and for tonight's experience, it's a seven for me.
**Poobah:** Puba. Again, thanks. I'd like to echo, uh, Brewster's sentiment. Thank you, Lizard Sean, for sending these cigars in very generous. I'm in alignment with rooster.
It's a seven. Um, it could have easily, I think easily without the construction and the combustion issues, I think it could have edged up to probably a composite score in the high, high, high eights. Um, but unfortunately just due to. Due to the construction issues and the draw shoes, I can't give it more than a seven.
But, but, um, again, the, the, the up [01:25:00] in DNA was there, the potential of the cigar was there, but to no fault of anyone's except the people who rolled this, it just, um, it, it just didn't work out. My rating's a seven and thank you again, Lizard Sean.
**Gizmo:** Senator.
**Senator:** So, I'm in the exact same place as both the lizards before me.
I'm at a seven and I say it, it's kind of sad because this cigar, like Puba said, easily, I mean, on the, on the light. Actually, when I first lit this, I did not start with construction issues. I thought I was one of the lucky ones like gizmo and on the light, I was sitting there saying to myself, the first number that popped in my head.
I said, this is probably, I'm going to give it a nine. I was really, really, really impressed with the flavors. at the start. And I say that as like it was not, didn't have as much body as I would normally pursue in a cigar, but the flavor notes were interesting enough that this could get a really, really high score.
It's a shame, obviously, you know, Lizard Shawn is not a roller. [01:26:00] The roller has packed way too much tobacco in this cigar. And that is what has harmed the experience. It's not even the blend. It's, it's the roller of these that has kind of ruined some of this cigar for us. Um, that being said, that impacted construction, like Pupu was saying throughout, which at this ring gauge is disappointing.
You expect this to be a chimney cigar. That's as soon as we, we held this in our hand and looked at it, the, all I was thinking about, like, this is the cigar. That after a long day or a really great day that you pull out of your humidor and light, and I was super excited for that. And again, the roller is what obviously did not let that become a reality.
As far as the flavor notes, the first half for me was better than the second half. If this could have held that all the way through, but just picked up in strength, this would have gotten an eight. Um, it did not where the final third, I mean, I was mostly just getting tobacco with very faint notes of anything that I was able to get in the first half.
So, um, I give it a seven, but [01:27:00] if I ever came across a single in another year, another code, you would try it. Maybe that is rolled better. I would try it because like there, there's something to it. There's something there. We all would. It just, um, wasn't all brought together to bring out its best, but, um, You know, for folks who like the Connie line, I definitely think it's worth trying.
And I appreciate Lizardshawn sending them because I think for us, it's been fun. We all started with the Connie A on, on Puba's recommendation and have been very happy with it. And, um, it's nice to see kind of what the, the full range of the line has
**Gizmo:** to offer. So I agree with everything that's been said so far.
The only thing that I experienced was a better constructed cigar that I think most people in the room. So, you know, the last third for me, it fell off. So that was disappointing. I think the other thing that factors into my rating tonight is the lack of combustion. Like you said, I don't pull out 54 ring gauge cigars, certainly ones that are close to six inches long.
I just don't smoke cigars like that [01:28:00] very often. So when I do, I expect to be a chimney, you know, to quote Senator so often. I expect there to be a lot of smoke output. I expect the draw to be flawless. I shouldn't have to fight it at all. You want it to light up like you need to. It needs to just go and just be effortless.
Right. And unfortunately, for how much I enjoyed the first two thirds of flavor tonight, It was not effortless. There was quite a bit of effort. There was work there. Yeah. We had to work to, to move through the cigar. And I just don't think that a Robusto extra of any design should, we should have to work that hard for.
So for me, it's an eight simply because I didn't have construction issues. If that last third was better and the combustion was better, it absolutely would have been a nine. Unfortunately, I think the cigar could, with age, five, seven years of age and properly constructed, I think it could even maybe beat what, what Puba just said.
I think it could be in the low nines or mid nines if it was performing the way it was designed to. But unfortunately, we didn't have the experience tonight. So my [01:29:00] rating's an eight. Bam. You
**Bam Bam:** would, you'd probably have to explore other years to see if the cigars are constructed differently than the one we had tonight.
It started off as a nine. It was delicious. But as I went through the cigar, it started to fall apart. I went to an eight. I wasn't upset about the delamination because it recovered impressively in the middle. I was really impressed by that. But that last inch and a half had absolutely no flavor. I'm at a seven.
**Rooster:** Yeah, I mean, I must say that H. Uppman is a premium market. So to have this kind of draw issues on an Uppman cigar is not acceptable to me. True,
**Bam Bam:** and it's a completely different cigar than the Kanye, which is a
**Rooster:** positive, it's a good thing. I'm just saying the H. Uppman market in general, the whole thing, you know.
It's a premium market, you're paying 45 for a cigar. This should not happen. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So the roller gets a four . That's his rating at
**Bam Bam:** four. It's
**Gizmo:** generous. I'd say a two. That's
**Senator:** a general. General. I'd give him [01:30:00] a zero.
**Bam Bam:** at $40. It should have performed a lot
**Gizmo:** better. Yeah. So boys, the composite lizard rating on the H up and connoisseur B is a 7.2.
So let's go through the six other ups we've done on the podcast will go in ascending order. So, like I said, tonight was a 7. 2. The Magnum 50 on episode 62 got a 7. 6. The Magnum 46 on episode six, long time ago, got an 8. 1. Then we had the Connie one pretty recently on episode 96 at an 8. 6. The Connie A, one of Puba's favorites on episode 86, got a 9.
2. The Robustos Anahatos, which is a real special cigar, uh, box date, uh, 2011 on those from episode 72, got a 9. 6. And the up in two, of course, on episode 40 from Love 14, notorious [01:31:00] factory code for brilliant cigars. Yeah. Was one of our highest rated Cubans ever at a 9. 8. Oh, yeah. Stellar cigar. So, you know, at a 7.
2 tonight, it's certainly on the bottom end. Unfortunately, it is. Yeah. And without the construction issues, I think it would have been agreed in the middle of the pack or, you know, closer to, I think we would all be closer to eights
**Bam Bam:** on that.
**Senator:** I'm just the thing that's encouraging about it for me. The blend is not bad.
The blend is good. We liked a lot of the flavor notes that we got. It's the construction that really screwed it up where we just couldn't get that carried all the way through the cigar. Right. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I almost
**Rooster:** guarantee a fresh. Cigar, even a 22, 23, it could be
**Gizmo:** very good, much better. Well, so that's something that maybe in the next year or two, I think we revisit the, the Connie B just because of this experience tonight, because how many cigars have we had that, you know, construction's fine, everything else.
And we try them and it's like, Oh my God, this is going to be torture. Unfortunately, the flavor, like it didn't preview per [01:32:00] se, but you know, that the DNA is right. The blend is right. It's just the construction really affected.
**Poobah:** I think, yeah. It's rare that you get a, and I smoke a lot of up and it's rare that you really get flukes from them, especially with that box code where you get cigars that aren't smoking well, I mean, it's just, it's rare.
So maybe it's, I, I, my hypothesis. Is that it's an outlier and that this cigar where it should be constructed the way it should be rolled the way it should be is much, much better.
**Senator:** I'd also be curious for listeners that have had this cigar different years, different codes, what their experience has been.
I'd love for them to write us. Send an email. Because then I want to pursue if a listener says like they've had a 22 box that was actually great. I would pursue, I would try this again. I just, the potential's there for something really enjoyable. So, um, [01:33:00] I hope we revisit
**Poobah:** it. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. Me too. I mean, the Connie B is something that you hear a lot of like chatter about where people are hyping it.
Like, you know, like, oh, I'm smoking a Kanye B, they're, they're smoking a Kanye. Yeah. If, you know, or an up two or, or, or an up in two or, uh, you know, or even a connoisseur, one or two, you know, I mean, they, they're, they're, they're talking about them. You don't hear about the be a lot. Maybe there's a reason for that.
I don't know.
**Gizmo:** We'll find out. We'll find out. So boys, a good night tonight. Very, very awesome of Lizard Sean to send these cigars to us. Fantastic. You know, we've talked about, you know, we have so many cigars coming up. We've done so many recently. Listeners send in cigars. It's really, really kind. It's a special experience
**Bam Bam:** whenever a listener sends a cigar in.
Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** It really is. We're very, very thankful. So boys, tonight on the podcast, the Weller Bourbon Special Reserve. We got a 9.8 and the H up man, connoisseur B [01:34:00] ended up unfortunately at a 7.2. So we have one more in the connoisseur line to do the connoisseur two. So that'll be coming up in the first quarter of next year.
And of course, boys, Merry Christmas to you all. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Have a great holiday. Oh, ho ho. And we'll see everybody next week, keep smoking. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website. Lounge lizards pod. com.
That's lounge lizards. P O D. com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello. At loungelizardspod. com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod.
We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.
[01:35:00]