Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Ep. #188: El Rey del Mundo Choix Suprême (w/ Cascahuín Tequila Reposado)
===
Gizmo: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast, presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Pagoda, chef Ricky Grinder, and bam, bam.
That plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 188th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet this here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cuban cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard brain.
We revisit one of our favorite summer cigars. We discuss two new Habanas releases, and we continue our discussion around the frequency of Cuban cigars on the podcast, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar and enjoy. As we pair Cascahuín Tequila reposado with El Ray del Mundo, Choix Supreme.
A Hermosas number four from [00:01:00] Cuba on the pod tonight, boys. And this is a revisit. Mm-hmm. It's the El Ray del Mundo Choix Supreme. One of our favorites. Bam bam. Special bam, bam. Special. And what a treat this cigar is. And we are going back, this is another redux. We're revisiting another cigar that we did.
This is going on over three years ago now.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: And it did not rate as well as we thought it should. So we're gonna do very disappointing. We're gonna do another cigar tonight from a different run, a different box code and uh, see how it does. But this cigar boys is 48 ring gauge by five inches long. And uh, I am very excited to smoke the cigar tonight.
Me, me. So, I think this is a perfect time to do this as we're coming into summer. When I think of Cuban summer. I think Choix Supreme,
Bam Bam: I think this and most of the qds that we like qd. Yeah. Yes.
Gizmo: Coronas. Claro as well.
Bam Bam: Yeah. From K Dorsey. Yeah. But I like the Cutie 50. I happen to love the 52 and
Gizmo: [00:02:00] 54. 52 is very good.
I don't love the 50. I know you and Senator do. Oh
Bam Bam: yeah. I do love that. The 50 two's been very good, but this is fantastic. Spring and summer.
Gizmo: Yeah. It's a good one to do. And, uh, let's cut this thing boys. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. So again, for folks out there who are not familiar with the program and what we're doing, we've kind of.
Ran around the bases and we're coming back up to the plate on some of the Cuban cigars that we did early on in the pod. This one we originally did on episode 22, if you can believe it, which is a 166 weeks ago. Hmm. It's crazy
Bam Bam: running out of options
Gizmo: and, uh, we are coming back around. So we're gonna talk a little bit about that again tonight.
We did a couple weeks ago. Uh, but we have a lot to go through. So what are you guys getting on the cold draw here on this el ray de window? Definitely some cedar.
Bam Bam: Uh, as you would expect, I'm getting dried fruit. Mm.
Rooster: Yeah, there is some dried fruit, definitely. And cedar,
Chef Ricky: I'm getting lots of cedar here and [00:03:00]
Bam Bam: faint, faint cedar.
But I'm getting that, um, almost like a honeysuckle type thing happening.
Chef Ricky: I'm not there yet. I'm getting cedar and soil. I'm getting like a, a wet soil almost.
Bam Bam: Soy soil. Soy. Oh, soil. Mm-hmm. Its almost like a, uh, petro core, a ua.
Gizmo: I'm getting a lot of cedar on mine. There's a little more resistance in mine than I'd like, but I'm gonna be patient.
Mine. Same. No, Dr. Be patient. No fruit on that cold draw. Not on mine. Really
Bam Bam: Nothing for me either. I'm on a sweet side for my cold drinks. Getting a little vegetable, if anything. Yeah. I'm
Gizmo: I'm kind of more in your lane right now. It, it tastes earthy and woody to me right now. Not, not very rooster. And I forward.
Pagoda: Mine's a bit sweeter.
Gizmo: Yeah. So pa goat's there too.
Grinder: I'm on the sweeter side.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Can I change my cigars?
Gizmo: No. All right, boys, let's like this thing, we're revisiting the El Ray del Mundo Choix Supreme tonight. Again, it's a 48 ring gauge by five inch [00:04:00] Hermosas number four out of Cuba. I. The box code on this box, this run that we're doing tonight is PAT March 23.
So these are just over two years old at this point. Coming from a provincial factory in Cuba, as most El Ray del Mundo does. Certainly supreme the cigars very interesting in that it comes out in waves. So it's sometimes like the Coronas, Claro, we talked about the Parus 8, 9, 8, some of the other aficionado loving VITs and Marcus out there.
They come out. Come on here Andrew. Give it to
Bam Bam: me. Come on. This is delicious. Off the light boys. Huh?
Gizmo: It's very good. Wow. Oh yeah. Mine's great on the light. Oh my Lord. That first draw was magnificent. This is, this is delicious.
Bam Bam: I. [00:05:00] Wow. Hard to believe how poorly it did the first time.
Gizmo: Yeah. I think we had a bad run and I looked back, I couldn't find the box code on that one.
I don't know if we had singles or whatever that was in the early days of the podcast. Certainly having recorded it in March or April of 2022, I would think that
Rooster: maybe 17 20 17. I, I think it was like
Gizmo: a 17, 18, somewhere in there. So this is quite a bit later of a run on this, uh, Choixn Supreme tonight.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
And we know the recent runs re regardless of the marker, have been smoking beautifully. The seventeens
Rooster: though, hit or miss. Yeah, a little bit. I have a 2015 box and it's awesome. Yeah. Smokes fantastic.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I have 18 box and a 19 box delicious. You probably have 18 boxes. No, I wish
Gizmo: we cracked my only box tonight for this recording.
We'll divide it
Bam Bam: up later. I will not update my, uh, band has some for you. I will not update my inventory list for a reason. [00:06:00]
Gizmo: So boys, how's this working for you on the light? I am very happy right now. It's joyful. Draws great.
Grinder: The
Gizmo: aroma
Grinder: is
Bam Bam: out of this world. So the funny thing is my draw was a bit type as it's.
I lit it and gone through it. It's pretty, it's opening up nicely.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Same for me. And with that, I'm now getting some dried fruit here I am too. So I'm, I'm happy. I'm very happy about that. Mine's a little nutty, so I was getting a little FOMO for a second. Little
Gizmo: floral. I'm not getting the citrus I'm expecting at this point.
Bam Bam: I've never ever had citrus on this cigar.
Gizmo: I, I have gotten citrus on this. Not as much as the Coronas Claro from K Dorsey. Mm-hmm. But I have had citrus on this.
Chef Ricky: I could see citrus, I think with the honeysuckle I'm getting and, and I'm getting a little creamsicle action here already. Yeah. I could see how that happens.
I'm getting sweet cream. Yeah. The sweet cream was, but there's even a little bit of pepper that comes through. Yeah. There is some spice. Yep. Yep.
Gizmo: But it's very pleasant. It's extremely faint.
Chef Ricky: Little bit of dried fruit. The spice offers some sharpness [00:07:00] there. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Nicely balanced.
Chef Ricky: What year was this?
Gizmo: This is a 20, 23 bucks just over two years old.
Go ahead. What are you getting?
Pagoda: Yeah, I was getting a little bit of sweet cream kind of a flavor. Are you practicing your retro hill? Yeah, I'm, you are right. It's good. Yeah. So I think it really works with hookah for some reason. Do you? But with cigars, for some reason it's, I, I'm having a little challenge a little, but, and then when it comes out it feels a little hot, so I can't, it it takes the flavors practice.
Bam Bam: Yeah, it does. So I will say when I do the retro hale, I don't retro the entire, all the smoke of every, it's a little, I always blow some out. Yeah. Well, I, yeah, so I retro maybe the final third of what I'm taking in, in a traditional draw. Exactly. And I'm getting a lot of flavor there. I do the
Grinder: simultaneous
Bam Bam: retro, I've done that, which is great.
So that is the ultimate cigar smoking experience. Yeah. You're fully enveloped in smoke and. Flavor notes. It's incredible. If you can do it,
Chef Ricky: that is some advance retro hill.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: I don't do it often. Yeah. And, and pagoda. I think the hookah is easier 'cause the hookah you're inhaling so [00:08:00] easier. It just, yeah.
So it comes from inside. Yeah, exactly. That's correct. And this, I'm like
Pagoda: preventing it. So I'm unlocking my Yeah. With the cigar. You're trying not to inhale. Why? Why
Rooster: don't you just inhale it? Okay. See what
Pagoda: happens. See, rooster has bad intentions for you. No, no, no. But then I'll, I'll turn out like you in few years.
That's not a bad thing. Well, no it's not because you'll lift like 98 years old.
Gizmo: So, can I ask a question? So you're talking about hookah, right? I have never smoked hookah. I've actually never inhaled anything in my life. I love, if you can believe it, I love hookah. Never. I've never inhaled anything in my life.
Cigarette. Mm-hmm. I've never smoked marijuana. Okay. Bill Clinton, ever. I swear. Right Hand to God. Right hand to God. You could put me on a lie detector test. So my question for you guys who have inhaled anything in your life, especially recently, if you're talking about hookah, do you have a. Do you have a battle as far as when you then pull out a cigar to not inhale it?
Like do you have to, men like consciously think not to inhale.
Chef Ricky: It's natural. All it takes is one mistake [00:09:00] to forever remember, not to inhale your cigar. That's a good point. But I would
Gizmo: think that that would make you, you're actively thinking about it like we're smoking a cigar. You're passively thinking about you're not, it's not on your mind all the time.
Don't inhale this. Mm-hmm. As you would something else, but you have to think about it.
Grinder: I know a family friend who was a former cigarette smoker who went into cigars thinking it would be. Better. He inhales cigars like, not a problem. That's incredible. But it doesn't, doesn't blink. That's not healthy. I don't know how he does it physically.
I don't know how he
Chef Ricky: does it. So it's amazing you say that. 'cause I had a chef, actually, the chef that I opened our Philadelphia location with five years ago. And occasionally I'd invite him outside to smoke a cigar with me and we'd sit out front, light up and I'm watching this guy smoke and he's a fucking maniac.
He inhaled every single draw. And I'm like, Willie, what are you doing? He's like, oh, that's how my grandpa used to smoke. I'm like, but you're not supposed to inhale that.
Bam Bam: I don't know how you can physically do it. And
Chef Ricky: yeah, and he did it with such like vigor every [00:10:00] single time. Like, you know, he's taking it down as if he was smoking a hookah or something.
So
Bam Bam: hookah is really easy to do because the, the smoke is very light. Yeah. It's also very flavorful and it's usually cool. It's cooler. It's the
Pagoda: vapor. Yeah. And it's very flavorful. Yeah. And you know what, there are two camps in it too as well. And it taste like the people who inhale and people who don't.
That's true. How are I I inhaled. I do. I do. So yeah. So with that, when I was retro hailing, it was so easy. Yeah. Because
Bam Bam: it comes right out
Pagoda: naturally. It comes out right Naturally. So when you take it in and you're blowing out, it's just coming out both of you.
Bam Bam: And when you're taking it in, you're taking so much in.
Yeah. It's like you're literally like in your, your full lung capacity because the whole motif of like showing off with the hookah is to have the billowing smoke come outta your mouth.
Rooster: This is not a hookah podcast. No, it's our podcast. Got it. Come back.
Gizmo: Sorry. I was very, I'm very curious about it 'cause I've never done it.
But in while I would think that if you're inhaling hookah, then next time you go to. Have a cigar that your brain is gonna be [00:11:00] dismissive of for, you know, nah, not at all. Not inhaling, you know what I mean? It's such a different experience. Okay. Kyle, I was in,
Bam Bam: I was in the Middle East for a while and I watched these guys like, they're incredibly prof, like the way they smoke hookah, it's, and they'll do it all day long.
One thing after another after another. They don't fucking stop. Whoa. And they have huge ones like the, as tall as this room and the smoke that they take in so much smoke. I don't know how they're alive. Just dunno how to survive, you know? I was just gonna say, I, it's incredible. It's, I
Chef Ricky: used to get uncomfortable smoking with Willie because of the fact that he just inhaled every single puff that he took.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Grinder: It's far worse than cigarettes by the way. I noticed what Lucas, yeah.
Bam Bam: Yes. It is really far worse. It's why? Because
Grinder: it's not filtered. Well, there's so much tar. Oh yeah. It's like it's a tar bomb. Mm-hmm.
Bam Bam: And the tobacco's wet. Yeah. And there's, there is some probably like their flavorings are that are in there and not natural.
Of course. Nope. So it's, everything passes through that tobacco, are you still smoking hookah? [00:12:00] I smoked a hookah last week. Yeah.
Gizmo: Three weeks ago. I did
Grinder: Two weeks. I didn't know this about these guys. I'm glad we asked. Yeah, I haven't smoked. I, I thought that's something you don't do past the age of like 21.
Thanks, grinder.
Pagoda: Well, in Bergen County for sure. Right? No, no. I'm just, I'm just kidding. But you know, it's, uh, culturally a lot of people do it until late, late stages. Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: This cigar is fantastic.
Pagoda: It's outrageous.
Gizmo: Wow. I wish it was a little bigger. You know it. Mm-hmm. It kind of registers in your hand as a re robusto.
Yep. But being a Hermosa number four point. Yeah. You know, it's, it's a little smaller. It's a touch 48 by five. I wish it was 50. Mm-hmm. By six or something. You know. Same box, same blend,
Rooster: A little box press thing. Yeah.
Gizmo: Shov. That's 'cause it was shoved in this dress box. Dress box.
Bam Bam: I've never seen it in SLB or anything else.
Gizmo: No. It only comes in these, so let's talk about that actually. So it only comes [00:13:00] in dress box of 25. Cigars used to come in a slide lid box of 50 cigars discontinued in 2010. I would love that. This cigar was released well before the revolution. This brand has been around since the late 18 hundreds. Right now in El Ray Mundo, there are only three cigars in regular production, which is really, really unfortunate for how good these cigars taste and how much we enjoy 'em.
There's the Choix Supreme More smoking tonight. The Deta, which is a small panatella 30 ring gauge by three and seven eighths inches. I have a box of those little tiny, I'm gonna bring it in cigars. Yeah. How long does that last you, when you smoke? At 20 minutes?
Bam Bam: Yeah, about 20 minutes. 15, 20 minutes. It's quite good.
Gizmo: It's interesting that that's a handmade cigar and Yeah. You know, it's so small.
Bam Bam: Yeah. You know, you, you can go a half hour if you, if you take your time with it. It's a interesting cigar. Where do you slot it in? Who knows?
Gizmo: And then in 2022, they announced the La Casa del Hano [00:14:00] exclusive release, the Royal Series, which is a doles, a busto extra 50 ring gauge by six and one eighths inches long.
That cigar came out in late 2023. I have actually had one of those. Mm-hmm. It was pretty good
Bam Bam: like this.
Gizmo: It wasn't great. Okay. Yeah. The one I had wasn't great, but I, I would be willing to do that on the podcast at some point. But the problem is. Scarcity and the ability to get them and of course, bam.
Mm-hmm. The price, which I think they retail somewhere around $1,200 or a box of 20. So that's almost $60 a cigar za for that second LCDH band. I don't know. Of course there are tons and I mean tons of, tons of regionals discontinued cigars. And this brand is used quite a bit for regional and special releases throughout the world.
Various regions have received El Ray del Mundo regionals. The most famous one, it's one I actually mentioned a couple weeks [00:15:00] ago, uh, is the Tiki, which came out in 2017, or excuse me, it was announced in 2017, came out in 2019, which is the 1 0 9 shape, 50 ring gauge by seven and a quarter with the rounded head on it.
Yep. Double rib robusto. Yep. That's one of the most famous. There are some others as well. I do love that. We did another one called the Grand Marshall, which was the Balkan exclusive regional edition. We did that on the podcast. We also have done, of course, the Choix Supreme on episode 22, and we'll talk about those ratings a little later.
Yeah,
Bam Bam: you know, the first time we did this, I loved it and I love it now, and I've loved it ever since.
Gizmo: This is my second box of them ever. I had a box that I went through after we did that first podcast, and then I ordered this box, I guess probably about a year ago now, and I just haven't been reaching for them because they don't pop up.
I don't see them anywhere.
Bam Bam: No,
Gizmo: and we know it's hard to get Cuban [00:16:00] cigars right now, which we're gonna talk about a little later. Honestly, what is popping up right now? That's, it's a real problem.
Bam Bam: You know? It's, it's a, a scarcity issue is a big issue. Yeah, it's a big problem. It's a problem. So,
Gizmo: so boys, the one thing I want everybody to notice too, is that you'll see the new packaging design on the late model dress boxes here for El Ray Mundo, and they're doing this on a lot of Cuban markers because of the health stickers.
They're reducing the artwork to the central. Portion of the top of the box. Because what happens in some of these countries is they cover either side of the edges. And then another thing too that's important for the listeners to note is that they're double stamping the factory code on the bottom of the box.
And there's been a lot of question about does this mean it's fake? No,
Bam Bam: no, it makes sense 'cause it's
Gizmo: too, but they're doing it to hedge
Bam Bam: where they're gonna put those damn stickers. Exactly. They're,
Gizmo: they're hedging the health warning stickers that Correct. Countries are putting on which end up [00:17:00] being absolutely ridiculous.
I mean, remember that box of Pargo Alitos I brought in? Yeah, the outer cardboard. The entire cover was a health sticker from Mexican. Didn't
Bam Bam: they have a photograph of a guy in a black lung or something? The iron lung? They have some. He was smoking a hook. All was while he was on.
Gizmo: New packaging coming out. Much more simple packaging, which is unfortunate 'cause I kinda like the more ornate dress box in. It's true.
Bam Bam: But I kind of like that red band on the, on both ends of the box. I, I like that almost has like an
Gizmo: up
Bam Bam: and look to it.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. So, bam, you're still getting dread fruit here?
'cause I'm, I'm getting overloaded with sweet cream and
Bam Bam: yeah. So it's not fruity for me, but I think the cream is very valid. Um. You know, I, I call out tapioca a lot. Yeah, I'm getting that here again.
Chef Ricky: Yep, yep. Um, it's like a viscosity to the creaminess and then the smoke,
Bam Bam: but it's, I can't put my finger on it, but why I love the cigar so much.
I get that [00:18:00] like, very sweet coffee thing happening. I, it tastes like a weers. Do you ever have like one of those words? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Great. Sweet coffee. That reminds me of my
Rooster: grandfather.
Chef Ricky: I love those things.
Bam Bam: It's,
Rooster: this is off the charts. This, it's like a coffee with some condensed milk in it. There you go.
The Vietnamese, that'll, that'll work too.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Through vanilla undertone and, yeah. Carmel, outrageous.
Bam Bam: So this is probably a dumb question, but what are these going for right now? About 25 bucks a cigar. Oh my lord.
Chef Ricky: I was not disappointed in that price, but based on your guys' reaction, it's usually a lot less, it's a lot of, lot of money because they used
Rooster: to be like, used to be $10.
Yeah. A lot of money, right?
Gizmo: I mean, you're, you're talking 600 ish a box. 25. I mean, I just think that, you know, for this size and the length of smoke, yeah. I mean, we'll be lucky to get 90 minutes outta this tonight even if we smoke slowly. But the, the IT is
Pagoda: RA at the same size, right?
Gizmo: No. RAs
Bam Bam: is a robusto. A little bit bigger.
Much bigger than this. Yeah. Bring the [00:19:00] argument against that though is you're getting so much enjoyment from this because it's so sweet forward and easy to smoke and super freaking flavorful. Yeah. It's almost worth the money if you don't have a box just to have it.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I don't disagree.
Bam Bam: Like a D four.
If you don't have a box at D four, you're gonna pay what, $780 for that now? Something like that. Seven 50?
Gizmo: Yeah, there it's in the seven hundreds. Yeah. No
Bam Bam: way. Really's four. Yeah. Yeah. If you don't have that, you kind of gotta get it if you can find it.
Gizmo: Yeah. The pricing thing is a real challenge right now.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: I, I just, I, I, I don't know for how this feels in my hand. It doesn't feel it, it tastes great. Mm-hmm. It just doesn't feel like a $25 cigar.
Bam Bam: No. I can blast through this in 20 minutes and probably smoke another one. It's so good. But it just
Gizmo: goes great.
Rooster: Quickly. The size feels like a little bit bigger than a Corona.
Right? Exactly. Yeah.
Gizmo: Not wrong. So boys, let's talk about the size for a second. The Hermosas number four is a very, very popular size of [00:20:00] cigar in the Haos catalog. There a are a lot of other cigars of this size. I'm only gonna go through the regular production standard issue cigars, but we've done a lot of them.
We'll start with the H Up man. The connoisseur number one, the Port Laga Pico Doris number one. We did that cigar as well. The Romeo Julieta ion number four. That's a cigar we have lined up for the future. The St. Louis Ray Reggio. Mm-hmm. Which is a cigar we did with Dan from Cigar Salute quite some time ago.
That thing was very good. That was a good cigar. That was an awesome cigar. Mm-hmm. But again, very small. Yep. It felt like, did we rate that with him? Yes we did. I think we did. Yes, we did. And he rated it too. I think so, yeah,
Bam Bam: that was a great episode.
Gizmo: And the Vegas Banya FSOs, another one we did. So that, uh, those are all of the Hermosa number fours coming out of Cuba in regular production.
Right now, of course, there are a ton of Iion region. There are Ros [00:21:00] from Hoya to Monterey. There are a ton, probably 20 or 30, uh, over the last few years that have been released. So let's talk about a new release, boys. Speaking of St. Louis Ray, I thought this one was interesting. This is why I wanted to share it with you.
It's a new exclusive for Portugal. It's called the St. Louis Ray at Master. This is wild. It's the exact same size with a pigtail as the Trinidad Fund. Doris Wow. 40 ring gauge by seven and a half inches long. Of course it features the second band underneath. That's cool. The St. Louis Ray Band, and I love the presentation of the box.
Kind of reminds me of like the 8 9 8 looking Yes. Lacquer box. Beautiful that they have. I love how that looks. So what I love about this as well, it comes in 10 count boxes, I'm assuming either at a straight row of 10 or two rows of five retailing. The MSRP on this is $28. [00:22:00] I like that for the hold box
Bam Bam: and what you're holding right now costs 25 bucks.
Yeah.
Gizmo: So I don't think on the, that's a pretty good
Bam Bam: price, I'll be honest
Gizmo: with you. I, I think it's a great price for that, the size of that cigar to compare it to Agreed what a fund of doors is right now and how, and a pigtail. And there's a pigtail rooster. Mm-hmm. So there're, you know, 275, 300 bucks, uh, cigar.
Fido here says that only 10,000 boxes are being produced. So I'm assuming that on the secondary market, on, uh, you know, when you find them online, they're gonna be a little bit more than that. But hopefully not too, too crazy. Unless they have a lot of
Rooster: hype beyond. So this is the new Hano marketing. Right.
Increase the prices, lower the count, come out with 10 count boxes, make it more palatable for people to buy it. Correct. Yeah. And they'll sell a bunch. It's smart. Yeah.
Gizmo: Hmm. And then the other cigar I wanna tell everybody about again, we talked about this one. I am not at all excited about this cigar. The Monte [00:23:00] Cristo Open Slam has been released in the United Kingdom.
Bam Bam: What a name, what a freaking
Gizmo: name. 52 Ring gauge by five and three fifths inches long. It's a unique format. It's called The Ikos, and it's the fifth cigar in the Mono Cristo Open Series. And the first new size since the series debuted in 2009. These, this is crazy. So this cigar, compared to the one we just talked about, this cigar at that size, retails for $60 a piece.
Wow. Double the St. Louis Ray Regional we just talked about. So what I wanted to ask you and kind of putting these news stories up next to each other is, what is Haos thinking? Putting out a regional, the same size as the fund of doors in St. Louis Ray at an MSRP of $28.
Rooster: They're not thinking no. And then
Gizmo: putting out this ridiculous looking Wow.
[00:24:00] Monte Cristo. Open Slam. Open Slam. In a series that has been widely hated.
Bam Bam: Yes. Very criticized
Gizmo: by Cuban cigar smokers. Correct. Hated the open eagle. Open all of them. Open master. Open master. All of them.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Why put out a cigar in that line That's effectively a re robusto extra 52 by five and three fifths inches long.
It's not gonna, maybe they're going down for $60. Maybe they're going down market though. It's just not gonna happen. Right. I don't understand the thinking here. I don't get it. So. That's the latest on Cuban cigar News. There has not been a lot of news over the past few weeks out of Cuba as it relates to new releases.
Bam Bam: How are you guys feeling about this right now? Where are you guys at? This is great. I'm really enjoying, I really
Grinder: enjoying it. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm trying to savor it as best I can. 'cause it's the smaller stick and I'm finding that having the cooler draw it, it, it adds a lot to the flavor. Mm-hmm. By slowing it down your pace.
Correct. Yeah.
Rooster: There's like a [00:25:00] creamy, sweet note mixed in with like a little hint of pepper. Yeah. You mentioned that. Yeah. And the cigar is floral, it's woody, it's, you know, delicious. Everything.
Bam Bam: It's everything you want. Yeah.
Pagoda: I'm getting a slight bit of saltiness with the nuttiness. Yeah. Just gonna say I'm getting saltiness so salty.
So good. Mm-hmm. It's just left a very, uh, good, uh, little salted hazelnut
Chef Ricky: happen in there. I like it. Filbert. Oh yeah.
Gizmo: This is, uh, really enjoyable. Yeah. At this point. So po let's talk about our pairing tonight. Yeah. We have a lot to get to, but let's go to the pairing. We have the Cascahuín rep, tequila Repasado.
Mm-hmm.
Chef Ricky: This is a very mature choice. Oh my lord. The Spanish
Gizmo: lesson are paying off the French lessons. A couple weeks ago, not so much. Correct. These Spanish lessons are doing well.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. This is some real special stuff. Um, the master distiller here is Salvador Rosales Rejo. He is, uh, he came up in this distillery, which was family owned since [00:26:00] 1904.
Uh, at some point he decided to go to. College and pursue a degree in industrial engineering and a master's in tequila processing. Uh, and he took everything that he learned and decided to make the Cascahuín wind distillery more traditional, uh, so installed stone brick ovens, right? So in this, we should get some minerality from that.
Prior to his hon release, which is fairly new, uh, they were processing their agave using roller mills, which looked like big shredders. So you take the cook, the agave, you run them through roller mills. He's now installed Hons in his, in his distillery to get the flavor to be even more traditional. Mm-hmm.
Uh, so it's just really, really exciting stuff that's happening there. He's one of the few that has bottlings that vary between 40 to 42% a BV. So we're lucky. I consider ourselves lucky 'cause we have a 42% bottling, so that should translate into a longer finish. More full body, [00:27:00] um, or fuller body and just all good things.
I really, I'm really excited for this and expect it to pair really well. I think this is gonna find, so you're gonna find some vanilla notes here that are gonna do well with the cigar.
Gizmo: Cheers.
Pagoda: Salute.
Gizmo: Cheers. Cheers boys. So I have to shout out our friend Lizard Mike, who has sent some amazing tequila. He actually sent us a Cascahuín, queen Blanco, but the TA version.
Ta
Pagoda: Yeah.
Gizmo: Which we've held off. We're gonna save that for an episode down the road. But that actually triggered the discussion around Cascahuín huen a couple weeks ago and prompted us to grab one of the, I'm glad we're doing it, lower priced entrance tonight. So BAM was able to get this. How much did you get this for?
Bam. 47 bucks. That's awesome.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Um, and honestly, I'm in love with this spirit. There's a thickness. To this, it's rich. There's, um, it's got legs for sure. I'm getting salted butter on the finish. [00:28:00] Butter free, right? Yeah. On the finish. And up front it's mine. There's minerality. Um, it's very botanical. The, the finish is so long.
It's awesome. It's so long.
Grinder: Yeah.
Bam Bam: And,
Grinder: and, and, and, yeah. Taking a draw after that. Prolongated Yeah. Or elongated finish. Mm-hmm. It, it's, it's something special. I don't know how to describe it. I'm right there with you. Yeah. And you
Bam Bam: know what it does? It enhances the salty character of the cigar. Yes. That's it.
Grinder: That's it. Right.
Bam Bam: That's crazy.
Chef Ricky: This guy does some great things. He has a a, he has a bottling with one of my other favorite distillers and David Soro. Uh, and it's a ral. Uh, s is the brand. Ancestral is the descrip, is the adjective used to, uh, just pal homage to the processes that they're using to create the tequila.
So they're using Tonas and, you know, all of the equipment that, uh, Salvador now has at the distillery. Uh, so that's [00:29:00] another bottle to look for. It's not, you know, super easy to get. Uh, Sam Bernard isn't a, uh, super commercial brand or neither is Cascahuín. I mean, the fact that we could find this now as a tree, especially at this price point, 'cause this stuff is right up there with for Yeah.
Yeah. And it's production process, and those prices are a lot higher than this. Oh yeah.
Gizmo: Can I make a crazy statement? And you can tell me if this is ridiculous. This very specifically reminds me of Elta Soro. Oh, that's a good call out. Like that's not crazy when I drink.
Bam Bam: Well, well, T Soro also uses with one diff once important difference.
I'm sorry to interrupt you. The Elta Soro isn't, it doesn't have that thickness that I get from this when I take it into my mouth. This is very thick, which is really unique and I love that. And you know, I love the ELTA that I can go through bottles of, but. It's a great call out. It's very similar. I agree with you.
Chef Ricky: I think like [00:30:00] Alta Soro, these guys also, you know, these guys are doing things right, but Alta Soro is doing, uh, for the Alro line, they're using a ta 'cause in his distillery he has multiple, uh, processing methods that he could implement. But for Alta, because there you also have tap being produced. You used to have Tetro there.
Um, and then you also have, um, well there used to be another one, but it hasn't been there for many years. But yeah, he's using to Soto, he's using stone brick oven. So we're getting a lot of that here as well. Um, and I think the other similarity is the aging process. So this is a repo, uh, they go six to eight.
Months in American Oak, so they're not going that far down. You know, they're not going that long in the oak, so that's why the color's a little lighter. It's just a sort of pale yellow.
Bam Bam: There's something interesting about the bottle. The bottle makes it a bit yellower than it actually is. Yeah. It looks
Chef Ricky: like water.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It's very, almost very clear.
Pagoda: Mm-hmm. [00:31:00]
Chef Ricky: So, yeah, that's, it's not spending very much time in the mm-hmm. In the barrels at all. Right. Some, you'll find some rebels that go a little bit. What tequila did we have recently that was a little darker?
Rooster: G four uba.
Chef Ricky: I forget which it was, but I feel like it was in the, within the last two months, it was a little darker.
The
Gizmo: LANs? No, we did some Blancos. That was, that was pure, was it? We did a
Chef Ricky: new repo. Or maybe we were just drinking it in the lounge, but, uh, that could be, that could be, yeah. We had a repo. We've done a bunch of blancos so
Gizmo: they've been clear.
Chef Ricky: We had a repo that went. Um, yeah, our smoking is like blurb. We don't know when we're smoking.
Yeah.
Bam Bam: It's
Chef Ricky: all the
Bam Bam: time.
Chef Ricky: But this is great stuff. I mean, this is great juice. This is the kind of tequila we should be buying. People should be buying in general, supporting these kinds of distilleries, these kinds of producers. This is, this is what it's about.
Gizmo: Well, I love, first and foremost, I love the flavor of this tequila.
Uh, I think it's excellent. I think my comparison to Elta Soro is a huge compliment. Mm-hmm. I agree. 'cause Tesoro is one of my favorite tequilas that [00:32:00] you've introduced us to. But I will say even beyond that, this pairs really, really well with the cigar we have in our hand tonight. I agree. I think it's pop making.
It's actually making the citrus pop a little bit for me. For you. It's making the salt pop. The sweet cream is so prominent in the cigar. Yeah. It marries very nicely with the tequila. That's true. The, you know what I love too is some of that pepper when I sip the tequila, it actually kind of mm-hmm.
Diminishes case. It actually makes it a little bit more
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Interesting how
Bam Bam: it's changing that and what Grindr said earlier is true because there's serious viscosity with, that's probably, in my opinion, what some, one of the most viscous from the point of view of thickness tequilas I've ever had. I don't remember a tequila drinking and that so heavy
Chef Ricky: that comes from the higher A BV.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It's incredible. Um, but because that lingers so long, when you take that drawn into, in, into your mouth, it's a great marriage, I think. Did you just,
Chef Ricky: I. Blow
Bam Bam: [00:33:00] smoke
Chef Ricky: into the
Grinder: cup.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I like doing that. I like doing that when it's, uh, when, especially when I'm enjoying the, enjoying the pairing. Um, it's, as I was smelling it, it reminds me of hookah.
It's kind of sweet. Right? You get that sweet cream. This is a hookah podcast Now, rooster, I know we don't do this enough, but it's kind of a cool effect. It is. It is. And and, and it's happening all over the industry. Everybody's making smoked old fashions mm-hmm. Or whatnot. Right. And they're putting those, uh, smoke lids on top of their cocktails.
Um, but yeah, it's just another way to enjoy the cigar, the retro hale, if you will. If you can't retro hail, that's one way to do it.
Pagoda: I like that. That's very true.
Gizmo: Pagoda. How's the, uh, cigar treating you right
Pagoda: now? I've been really enjoying, uh, the cigar for sure. And the tequila. Um, how's your, how's your burn on that thing?
Uh, you know, I've been trying to smoke really slow. Yeah. Uh, I think it's just, uh, bit uneven. Yeah. But bit uneven. But overall it's been tasting really good.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Pagoda: Uh, for me, I get a lot of, uh, sweet cream.
Bam Bam: You're taking your time giz.
Pagoda: Trying to,
Gizmo: I'm proud of you. I've also [00:34:00] been yapping a lot. That's true. That helps when you have a small cigar like this chef too, to try to make
Bam Bam: it last, you know, very, uh,
Gizmo: patient with your cigars.
I will say my burn line is perfect though.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Yours is better than mine, but pretty good.
Pagoda: Yeah. In terms of the tequila, I, I don't know whether you got, like when I was smelling it, I was getting a little bit of the green apple, kind of a very, you know, um, really, really enjoyable for me.
Bam Bam: I think that's pretty accurate.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I think that helps also bring out the citrus note in the cigar.
Bam Bam: Uh, grinder actually needs a refill of tequila. Wow. That's a real thing, folks. I love it.
Gizmo: He's still on baby duty, but he's back in the room.
Bam Bam: Well, for him. The baby's sleeping at Grandma's tonight. Oh.
Gizmo: Mrs. Grinder's in trouble tonight. Oh yeah, she's waiting.
Chef Ricky: Get ready for another
Pagoda: paternity.
Ryder stopped to work in you about four months off every time you have [00:35:00] a kid. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But please don't make the Mets fans, that's all. I'm trying my best. I'm Come on. I'm
Bam Bam: a, is Mrs. Grinder a Met fan? She is. I love it. Yeah. I'm so proud of her, her whole family. I love it. Nice.
Chef Ricky: Wait, who's grandma?
Uh, who's mom? Who's grandma? My, my wife's. Oh boy. Yeah. Yeah. There's no chance that baby's a Met fan already. Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: So boys, I can't believe it, but we're already coming to the end of the first third here on the old Ray Del Mundo.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Choix Supreme. Mm-hmm. And I think we all just shared our thoughts on it, but, uh, what a great opening third here.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I think someone said it earlier. As you slow down and let the cigar cool down, you get the full experience of the, of the flavor profiles
Chef Ricky: here. You have to slow down. You know, this isn't a knock to this cigar, but yesterday I smoked a Juan Lopez. Not sure if it might have been a number one or not knowing.
Was it a rib
Gizmo: robusto or a, uh, [00:36:00] corona Go ru rua
Pagoda: looking angrily at you. What do you mean? Say it was a rub. Robusto.
Gizmo: So that was the cell Alexion number two. That's the one we reviewed. Okay. We reviewed. We've done both.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah. And, um, the, it started, so it definitely needs to sit a little longer in my, in my tower.
But the final third on, or the final third on that cigar taste like this cigar is tasting now reminds, it reminded me a lot, uh, there there's a lot of similarities between the two. Yeah. Rooster's,
Bam Bam: mechanics are turning in this brain. I kind of agree. The JL one for me is one of my favorite cigars. I love
Rooster: the JL one.
You and
Bam Bam: I like that a lot. There are some similarities to this. Some there is a little bit of sweet cream in that cigar. Yeah, there's some honey in that cigar. Coffee and it started
Chef Ricky: and it started Cedar Forward for me too. The way this did there is not, this was a lot stronger on the, the cedar, but this, when it started for me, the cedar, Cedar was very dominant.
So I find the, I
Rooster: got cedar on the cold draw, but not on the, not on the light. I got
Chef Ricky: cedar in the cold draw and [00:37:00] maybe the first three draw. Overall,
Bam Bam: comparing the two cigars, I think the JL one has greater body than this. Um,
Rooster: well I think this is medium body. It's a bit fuller. Yeah. It's not you. I think it's
Bam Bam: a step up from this.
Just from, yeah. It's not a demerit at all. It's just a different cigar.
Pagoda: What I'm really enjoying about the cigar is a smoke out, but it's so easy. That's great. Yeah, it's just been fantastic. You still getting the sweetness on yours? Uh, it's become a little more salty for me. Yeah. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: I'm coming into the second third.
I'm getting a little like salty shortbread. I'm getting that too, too. Getting a sweet cream butter and then a little salt and it reminds me of a freaking perfect. There there is, there is
Gizmo: a breaded note that's
Bam Bam: coming through now. Yeah, it's awesome.
Gizmo: You know what I love about this cigar too, is it's versatility.
It's versatility in where you can smoke it and when, when, and what you could pair it with. This is great with the tequila we have tonight. So in agave you have a, it's great with a cup of coffee. It's great with a [00:38:00] espresso glass of rum, with rum. It's great with a beer. Think about that. Ath uh, athletic non-alcoholic beer.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: The summer ale. The blight blue one. I love drinking that
Bam Bam: with this. I would also have a pilsner with
Gizmo: this. A pilsner would be great with this, no doubt, really anything maybe aside from scotch or bourbon. Mm-hmm. I think pairs very, very well with the Choix Supreme. Good point.
Bam Bam: Scotch and bourbon would overwhelm
Rooster: it even.
Uh, think champagne would do well. Oh, champagne would, oh, it wonderful. Can't believe I forgot to mention that. Correct.
Chef Ricky: Think of Belgium White. That would do wonderful. A Belgium white with a cigar would be amazing. Yeah. Uh, like you said, a cup of coffee. Morning, 70 degree sunny day outside. Like tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Gizmo: I've smoked a lot of, uh, actually that box that I was talking about that I had finished prior to getting this one, I finished most of that probably on a most Saturday mornings. Really? With a cup of coffee on my deck in the summer. Nice. That was cold. Cold before, before the sun. Sun [00:39:00] came up and got real hot in the, in the backyard.
It was, uh, it was perfect in the morning. Oh yeah. And a scone. We're back to scones. Oh, dude. I'm telling you, man, a scone. This is a coffee. There is nothing
Bam Bam: like, I like a day old. S scone. We've talked about this already.
Rooster: What's your favorite flavor on a s scone? I, what
Bam Bam: do you like? I like a current scone.
Rooster: I do current.
Current. Yeah. I, I like a cranberry
Bam Bam: cranberry's. Good cran. Blueberry's, good blueberry. Lemon.
Chef Ricky: Lemon blueberries is my, yeah. Yeah. That, that's nice.
Gizmo: Probably only on the lounge, blizzards podcast. Are you gonna get passionate? Yeah. My, my wife
Rooster: actually got a s scone for, I've never had before. It was a peach tea.
I've never had that S scone.
Bam Bam: Wow. Delicious. I gotta get my wife to get us some scones. Any s scone with a great cup of coffee and a cigar. That's a great experience.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. She actually, uh. Just got written up for, for her scones by, from some coffee shop. Not, uh, you know, a public writer, but,
Pagoda: oh, so that written up is a positive written up.
Just to make sure I written up a lot of times[00:40:00]
Gizmo: he's never heard that term in a, in a positive light. No, no, no. Never. He's blushing
Pagoda: over there. He's on a pip. Oh, yeah. All the
Chef Ricky: time.
Pagoda: All the time.
Chef Ricky: So she makes scones. She does, she sells scones to a few coffee shops. Uh, I, I believe one's in Spartan and Hackett Stone, or, yeah. I
Bam Bam: wish I could just eat all those as much as I want.
Pagoda: You can. I
Bam Bam: can't. Yes, you can. No, I can't.
Pagoda: We believe
Bam Bam: you can.
Pagoda: I'm, I'm gonna start hair
Rooster: swell with hookah. I know. Oh, grape mint. Yes, you can. There's probably a
Chef Ricky: scone flavored shiha or something. Shiha shi. Yeah. Shiha. Yeah.
Gizmo: All right, boys, let's go to some lizard email now. Couple different varieties of email to talk about tonight.
This one first is from Lizard Kevin. He says, hello, lizards. I'm a longtime listener. I love the Kava discussion with cigars. On one of the most recent [00:41:00] episodes, my favorite pairing with Cuban cigars is champagne. Woo. Champagne like everything else, can be expensive with rising prices to pop every weekend for smoking.
The OSE Blanc. De Blanc has been my go-to sparkling at sometimes half the price of most entry champagnes. It has a historic history in Spanish kava and utilizes native Spanish grapes, making it not an imitator of champagne. Please consider it for a pairing in the future as I absolutely love it. Cheers.
Cool Lizard. Kevin,
Chef Ricky: I wish we could phone a friend and just got Senator's opinion on this. He's probably heard it. Yeah. Can we patch him in? Yeah. He's
Gizmo: got a full lineup of really sparkling wine coming. So this back and forth between us and the listeners has prompted a, a deep dive from Senator. We did one, uh, a couple weeks ago, two weeks ago on the San Ponza Deso episode.
Yep. And, uh, he has a couple more [00:42:00] lined up for us. Awesome. That he's been trying. That's great. So the whole intention here, for anyone who's missed it was the. Searching for lower price sparkling wines that perform at or as close to a champagne, what we expect from great champagne. Mm-hmm. You know, great brute that's coming out of the champagne region in France.
And, and we did that with a, what seemed to be a $15 bottle. Yeah. It was two weeks ago. It was outstanding. Outstanding. I
Chef Ricky: love that picture he sent of a shopping cart full of,
Gizmo: he must have had two cases in there in cleaned out the damn store. Yeah,
Pagoda: he did. He did. He wiped out. Killed it for us. Yeah.
Gizmo: So, uh, we're gonna be, uh, we're gonna continue going down the rabbit hole as it seems.
The listener base is really into us checking out more sparkling wines and champagne. So hopefully we'll find some easy to find stuff that's really good at a great price. So honestly, that's a big challenge. And it's a job during the
Pagoda: day, you know, in the summer. Oh yeah. You sit out in your backyard. Pop open a bottle of champagne.
Have [00:43:00] a nice cigar. Yeah. Maybe awar. Oh yeah. Yeah. And uh, it's a wonderful afternoon. Oh yeah.
Chef Ricky: You know what, too? It's great for the split wise too.
Rooster: So Haos must be doing something with this, with the glue on the bands. It's coming off a lot easier out. I noticed that. Yeah, that's true.
Gizmo: Maybe they listened to the podcast screaming and yelling about it. We struggle
Rooster: with these. I mean, they would take off the The rapper. The rapper. I mean half of the rapper would come off and you take these off.
Yeah, but this came off so easily. Yeah, mine came off very easily. This must be a new world. Uh, El Del Mundo Choix. It's a value
Grinder: add.
Gizmo: All right, boys, let's go to another email. Now, this one's from Lizard Siegel. He writes this a lot. It's been a while though. He says Lizards. It's been a bit since I've written.
My surgery went fine. It was four weeks ago yesterday, so if you remember, this is
Chef Ricky: Prostate.
Gizmo: Yes. Yes. Lizard. Keith was the one who prompted our discussion about. Getting tested for [00:44:00] prostate cancer getting checked out, especially if you're a man in your fifties or an African American man. Younger than that.
Mm-hmm. Talk to your gp, talk to your doctor. Find out if you are in the range of getting tested and get it done Early. Prevention helps. Lizard Siegel was the. Prompt on that discussion. We really appreciate it. He says, since surgery, I haven't really wanted to enjoy a cigar. I know, right? I'm not supposed to do much alcohol until I get semi-normal.
I have a big debate going on about that one. I did enjoy a little benchmark too much so the other day it was a little too strong on an empty stomach. Now to teach the bladder, who's the boss? Physical therapy starts tomorrow for 12 weeks. Wow. We had planned on going to France for two weeks, had my liquor purchases already planned, along with a few sticks, but the doctor doesn't want me to leave the country since we are already off for those two weeks.
We are. We might go on a four day cruise to The Bahamas, and I'm hoping I could pick a few bottles up of Havana. Seven [00:45:00] Rum.
Pagoda: There you go. That's
Gizmo: a great call. Correct. Hopefully you can find it. I've really been enjoying the podcast. There is always something to make me laugh out loud.
Bam Bam: Hold on one second.
Usually at my expense.
Gizmo: So I have a thought for you guys. I'm guessing you guys get a lot of emails. That's true. How about a podcast dedicated to listener emails between commentating on most of the emails, if not all, it would fill a whole podcast while still doing a stick in libation. I feel like we do that every episode.
Bam Bam: We kind of do, but that's not a bad idea.
Gizmo: Yeah. But I also like to cherry pick the varieties. Great. Various, you know, various stuff and yeah, go in and out. Course, what I
Chef Ricky: get from this email and some others in the past is that the, the lizard Nation is asking for an after hours. They're asking for a lounge lizard after hours, after dark, after dark pod.
Bam Bam: Yeah. We'll get canceled if we do that. An after show or something could be some lawsuits involved, possibly an after
Gizmo: show. That's an interesting one.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Hm.
Rooster: Which we could do like members only, you know, Patreon Private. There you go. There you go. [00:46:00] Oh, there you go.
Chef Ricky: Ooh. We always have an after show. We just don't record it.
Correct. That's true. We don't record it, but we always have one. Yes.
Gizmo: So I think I mentioned that the podcast Drop on Tuesdays works perfect for me. I drive Meals on Wheels on Tuesday, and I'm in the car approximately two to three hours. It's the perfect companion. Take care of lizards. I've really missed Grindr.
Hope him and his new family member are doing well. Lizard S Seagulls. That's a great email.
Grinder: Very nice. I'll see. I'll see you in November. Lizard S. There you
Gizmo: go. Always coming down to Florida. Ooh, very cool. So we appreciate the emails from all our listeners. As always. I'm loving the cigar. Yeah, even as I'm talking, I'm taking little hits.
It's so good. Makes me very happy to hear.
Chef Ricky: You know what I'm getting not on the actual. The draw or the retro hill, but just the flavor that's left in my mouth. Afterwards. I'm getting this, this faint cherry, almost like, [00:47:00] so I'm gonna say Marino cherry, but when I say that, I'm not talking about the stuff that's in formaldehyde that's like bright red.
I'm talking about the stuff that comes in a can from Italy. Mm-hmm. Or like the, you know, and, and they're super dark and cherry in color and very syrupy. And I freaking love munching on these things. We buy them for the restaurants to put in certain cocktails. They are delicious. Namely the old fashioned.
Um. But I love bunching on those things, and I'm getting that note here in this room. Really. And yeah,
Bam Bam: that is quite a strong
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Flavor there. I'm not getting that
Chef Ricky: yet. Well, it, it, it, it, it's reminiscent of the dried fruit you were getting earlier, although it's not a dried fruit. Yeah. But wet fruit, it kind of comes across as such.
I'll tell you what,
Grinder: this tequila is phenomenal dude. It's gotten like sweet dude. It's got this like creamy. I love my grinder. Sweetness. So the
Pagoda: tequila
Grinder: for
Bam Bam: that, that price. This is a true home run. Ugh.
Gizmo: I mean, that's a winner at 47
Bam Bam: bucks, man. But [00:48:00] it, it, it's so rich in flavor and it lasts, it lingers, you know, the thickness of it forces you to take very small sips.
So there's a lot of value there. And I so, so little. I'm trying big The sips stay big for you, for you. Well, you know, that's one of my pet peeves. Small gulps. Small,
Chef Ricky: small gulps, big sips, more small gulps.
Gizmo: So boys, speaking of small gulps, we're gonna talk about Cuba now. And I put this note out to a few of you guys on the chat.
It seems like not only. Is Cuba's cigar industry having challenges reaching the world and the United States specifically, and we're gonna talk about that in a little bit, as I've said, but it seems like the rum industry is also in an absolute crisis. So the Guardian put out an article talking about how [00:49:00] this year's harvest is so small, it's casting doubt, as they say on the spirit's recent resurgence, which is, which was once a bright spot in the islands economy.
So what it seems is that Cuba is likely to produce only 165,000 metric tons of sugar. This year. In the late 1980s, they were harvesting 8 million Wow. Metric tons. What a decline. So apparently the situation has been described. As a, by a guy named Michael Busante, who's the chair of Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Ma Miami says that the situation is dismal.
You have to go back to the 19th century to find numbers, this soil,
Grinder: and, and with, with such lower demand too. In back then, of course, you know? Yeah. That's, it's like, it's it, and you know,
Bam Bam: but you'd have to think the demand is high for Havana Club and all the other rums that I [00:50:00] know. I know. Especially worldwide saying Yeah.
He's saying compared to, uh,
Grinder: sure, sure.
Bam Bam: Yeah. All that time
Grinder: ago. Right. And, and it's just makes you think civilization collapse, this what's going
Gizmo: on? It seems, I don't know. It seems really bad. Uh, you know, this is gonna, I think, uh, this is gonna take over the back half of this episode, but I mean, unbelievable.
This is just the starting point of a couple things I wanna talk to you about here. But it seems to me like Cuba is in a really, really dire position right now. We've talked about in almost every facet. In every, every category. Right. And to think that not only in tobacco, not only, and I'm talking industry Yeah.
Not only in tobacco, not only in tourism, which is their number one thing at this point in, you know, the 2020s. Tourism's number one. That's down massively because of the fear of power outages. Obviously, Russian tourists who spent a lot of time there, they're, you know, they're not traveling as much given what's going on over there.
The United States, you know, the political climate here has changed a [00:51:00] lot of things for travel there
Bam Bam: with threats of travel restrictions
Gizmo: of course. And then the power outages. I mean, people around the world know that that's happening. Why would you fly to Cuba in July, August or September for your summer vacation to then sit there and not have power or the, the, the, the chance of it, even, you know, you're gonna go somewhere else.
So, seeing this happening with sugar and rum, which was invented in Cuba in the late 18 hundreds, it's. Seems like just another nail in the coffin here, and I don't know how they get out of it.
Bam Bam: You, I mean, there's a long list of issues, rights,
Gizmo: cigar, it seems like an impossibly long list of issues.
Availability with no solutions.
Bam Bam: Availability, availability of cigar inventory to distribute worldwide. Now the sugar reductions, and of course that infects your rum distribution worldwide, like you said, tourism, the political issues, availability of food, lack of power. It's almost, it's, it's, it's [00:52:00] as if they're really, they're just ready to collapse.
Rooster: It's, there is, there is no easy solution. How are they gonna get out of this? They're not, they're not, they're not gonna get out, they're not gonna get out of this. It's, it's,
Grinder: it's, the slippery slope is too perilously slippery at this point. Correct. So, because when these things happen, devaluation of the currency to ex, ex, ex egregious levels,
Gizmo: which is happening.
Yeah.
Grinder: Low, short have been happening. Shortage of natural resources, water. Food, electricity, not a ranch resource, but a generated resource nonetheless. Mm-hmm. Uh, food, as you said. Yeah. And large swaths of the economy disappearing as a result. There's nowhere to go. But now, like there's, it's it's done. Yeah.
Plus they've
Gizmo: lost so much of their young, young talent. Exactly. Yes. Over the last few years flight, that's also correct.
Grinder: Yeah. The flight.
Gizmo: Yeah. There so many, they've lost millions of people and, and those are the, the, the youngest and most able bodied and of course the most capable of, of helping the country turn around.
So it seems, I mean, pe people a real disaster. People don't [00:53:00]
Rooster: wanna live there. Right? Of course not mean, why, why would you live in a country that has nothing for you? So I think the only solution that makes sense is another country Ann taking over annex
Grinder: annexation. Yeah. I mean, honestly, Trump. That would be a, a lifesaving moment.
Sure. Frankly.
Gizmo: So back to the rum issue. I this quote here at the end of this article, you know, is, is really powerful. So one of the executives in the cu uh, Cuban rum industry at the end of this article had something pretty powerful to say. He said, with the supply of molasses drying up all of their work in the rum industry is threatened.
He says, quote, I think the fourth quarter of 2025 will be particularly tough. There won't be any alcohol.
Rooster: Wow. Nothing.
Gizmo: So if you think about our scarcity problems getting Cuban cigars, now adding on that worldwide. Complete failure
Bam Bam: by fourth quarter of this year. Exactly. Be known. That's [00:54:00] not possible.
Gizmo: Be alcohol from bans.
Bam Bam: They're bank, they're in production now, I would think maybe second quarter of next year, based on the sugar, uh, um, depletion that you're, that you noted earlier. That seems more realistic. How could it be fourth, fourth quarter's coming up now it's here. Maybe they know something we
Gizmo: don't
Bam Bam: hear.
Gizmo: Oh, it's gonna be BYOB
Bam Bam: to Cuba.
Yeah.
Gizmo: It doesn't seem good to us. BYOR. Bring your own route. So another thing that popped up, it looks like the United States Postal Service as of the middle of May of this year, is now going to be checking all incoming shipments into the US for any parcels that include items manufactured in China, Hong Kong, or Macau.
Hmm. So that's fine and dandy, but what has that done? It's limited the resources to push stuff through customs. Yeah. So now what's happening is that box of. Whatever you order, cigars or whatever it may be from international sources, used to maybe [00:55:00] take a few days, maximum a week to get through. Customs is now sitting at customs waiting for clearance.
2, 4, 6, 8 weeks.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Incredible. To
Gizmo: get your stuff. So now on top of all the other stuff we've talked about, add in this change in customs. Mm-hmm. And the lack of resources there. It looks like Customs and Border Patrol is going to be really, really slowing down the incoming shipments from International Source.
I'm
Bam Bam: curious if you're traveling elsewhere in the world other than Cuban, you're bringing cigars in what that looks like,
Gizmo: I think you're gonna be okay. Unless you get popped at customs. Yeah.
Bam Bam: You know? Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo: If they catch you in a lie or they wanna search your bags or something. But I, I would think most folks are not gonna have a problem.
Mm-hmm. Coming in with cubit cigars. But now the question is, is, you know, unless you're going to Europe or La Casa del Hano or something, you know, if you're going to the beach in Punana or The Bahamas or anywhere else in the Dominican, I, I mean, it's, most of that stuff is fake.
Bam Bam: Yeah, that's true.
Gizmo: Unless [00:56:00] you're going to a legitimate shop somewhere.
Correct?
Bam Bam: That's correct.
Gizmo: You find a a, a legitimate shop in Bahamas. I don't even know if there are any, it's really challenging to, to get cubit cigars right now in the us
Chef Ricky: you know, going back to the alcohol. Um, I, I wanna propose a challenge to you guys next time you go to Cuba. So my head instantly went to what are some home brews that are produced in Cuba, right?
Being from Puerto Rico, I know in Puerto Rico they have Pit Toro, which is, uh, you know, ITish Sugar Base. So this will present some challenges, but just looking it up now in Cuba, they have something similar called ao. And then there's also brew, which is a type of a home brew root beer that's fermented. So maybe next time you guys are in Cuba, seek some of this stuff out and see if you find any and what it tastes like.
That could be a fun exercise.
Gizmo: See, my fear is drinking the water, you know, not knowing if it's clean. Like that stuff scares me a little bit there.
Chef Ricky: Yeah, well, it, all, it, all it, you know, the alcohol [00:57:00] content I'm sure kills it. I know to make through that, that stuff is boiled. Ah, 'cause it's a lot of roots and stuff.
So the boiling probably kills anything that you're concerned about. Um. You gotta have it without
Pagoda: ice though. I'm sure they, I'm sure a v on this stuff is We can send Chef Rick that.
Chef Ricky: Well, I'll do it in a heartbeat. Correct. That's, that's one of my favorite things about traveling is tasting what people create, uh, in their own homes.
And, you know, necessity is the, the mother of all invention. Right. So, yeah. Well people are gonna be faced with some challenges and they're gonna try to make things happen.
Gizmo: So boys, we are coming now to the end of the second, third. We're coming into the last third on the El Ray del Mundo, Choix Supreme.
What's everybody thinking?
Bam Bam: Do you remember the room being full of smoke? The last time we smoked a cigar? Mm-hmm. Like it is tonight? Mm-hmm. The combustion. Tonight's outrageous. It's outrageous. It, it's beautiful. Is great. We are enveloped
Gizmo: and
Bam Bam: smoked tonight.
Gizmo: Yeah. As we've come into the last third on this cigar, it's heated up a little bit.
There's no question about that, but the [00:58:00] saltiness, everything's kind of pronounced. Pronounced. It's richer. I agree. I feel like it's moved from mild medium to fully medium, but there's zero and I'm really enjoying it. Zero harshness. No harshness. There's no rough edges, no rough edge at all. It's really pleasant how it's climbed through the first two thirds of the cigar.
Bam Bam: I am still getting a, a, that faint sweet cream that I had earlier. It's more balanced now. It's a bit savory too.
Chef Ricky: Yeah, I'm getting a little pepper. I'm still getting that sweet cream. It sticks around. Um, and yeah, I, I agree with you 'cause it's definitely co becoming a little bit fuller. No pepper at all for me.
No,
Rooster: the pepper, I'm not getting any pepper. I get a little
Chef Ricky: spice,
Rooster: a little
Chef Ricky: sharpness.
Rooster: It gets, it hits your nose at the end. I pepper. I just retro hale pretty easily. I didn't get anything. It's very faint. It's not. It's not overpowering. All right. You proved your case.
Chef Ricky: I've never seen Grindr get like this over scotch. No. Neither have I. Right. Or tequila. Well, [00:59:00] scotch, yes, but not tequila. I've seen some tequila and mescal. This is his third pour, by the way.
Bam Bam: That's his third fucking pour of tequila. This
Pagoda: is, this is something. Take note. Lizards. Chef, can you check how many ml this is?
I've been noticing a lot of the bottles have been moving from seven 50 ml to 700. Yeah, yeah. Have you noticed that? Yeah.
Chef Ricky: It feels like a 700. It feels, I'm not happy about that. Wow. It's like, I know it's a seven 50, but it feels like a 700. 700. Yeah.
Grinder: GIZ is itching here. He is like, what the hell?
Chef Ricky: What are you doing here?
He is
Grinder: like,
Chef Ricky: come on. I'm so not used to passing alcohol in rooster's direction, so sorry.
Bam Bam: Yeah, this is quite delicious. Pairing is perfect. It is
Chef Ricky: a perfect parent tonight. And you know what? I think the Blanco would've done just as well with this, but I think the reconcile brings a little sweetness, A little roundness.
Yeah, a little richness. Yep. That the Blanco wouldn't bring because of the, the lack of age.
Gizmo: Do you think that the Blanco Tona, the one that I was [01:00:00] saying lizard Mike sent, do you think that would've offered.
Chef Ricky: I think that would, that would've brought in a lot more minerality. And I don't, I don't get a ton of minerality in this, in this stick.
Uh, but I know there's Cubans out there that we've smoked prior that offer that. Um, so I, I don't think that it will be a bad pairing, but I think this reposado. Pairs exceptionally well with the Choix. Mm.
Gizmo: All right, boys, back to our discussion on Cuba and Cuban cigars and all things Cuba. Another one here.
This one was interesting. Rob Ila, of course, was on the podcast a few weeks ago, gave us an update on Cuban cigars. Love
Bam Bam: you, Rob.
Gizmo: He posted a thread on FOH at the end of May, and he said, it seems from retailers to distributors that the consensus over the past six to seven weeks is that Hano supply is going backwards.
Available stock sheets are getting smaller and breath thinner, particularly among the premiums. [01:01:00] It was a year ago that Cuba found a new economic bottom. This could be a direct reflection of that. You also wouldn't rule out Haos tightening of supply lines to reinforce the pricing floor maybe, but unlikely.
So he throws it out to his forum members around the world to start chiming in as to how stock is where they are. And a few folks said it's low here, it's high here, et cetera. And Alex Groom, who's the curator, the purveyor of Cubit cigar website and is an absolute cubit score expert also is. Uh, part of the team that runs Bon Roberts, he lays out the last five seasons of tobacco production and what has happened.
So, of course, 20 20, 20 21, 20 21 harvest was lost due to COVID restrictions. Of course, the pickers couldn't get to the fields. He says the 2122 season was lost for the same reasons. 2223 season was lost due to Hurricane Ian. [01:02:00] 2324 season was a little better, but was still weighed down because they hadn't rebuilt many of the curing barns that were demolished by Hurricane Ian.
So no matter how much they planted, they were limited in how much they could cure. The 24 25 harvest was a little better again, but that tobacco won't be rolled for another year or two. So it seems like. You know, retailers are seeing a decline worldwide in the supply. Uh, you know, who knows if it is actually a supply issue.
Yeah. Or if it's haos being price sensitive, you know, trying to keep their numbers up.
Chef Ricky: Maybe the pricing isn't so superficial, it's based off inventory and what, what they have, you know?
Bam Bam: Wow. I mean, the pricing increases have been so incredibly dramatic. I mean, I can't see that being the case.
Gizmo: It's just,
Chef Ricky: it sounds pretty grim.
Gizmo: It doesn't sound good. And I think, you know, we have to remember that how m much fewer cigars they're actually producing [01:03:00] compared to pre COVID versus the massive jump in revenue because of these price increases. Obviously for them, that's a better economic situation. Make less cigars, make more money.
True. But
Bam Bam: that's true.
Gizmo: The email I'm gonna get to here in a second points to exactly the problem with that is that they're pushing out the average Cuban cigar smoker,
Rooster: you know, but, but what's shocking is that the amount of money that they're making from cigars, and that's right now one of their few, you know, resources for the economy, they're not spending anything on the infrastructure for Cuban tobacco.
I mean, they're lacking the barns where the store and cure tobacco, they're not growing enough tobacco. So what's that? They don't have fuel. They don't have fuel. They don't have
Gizmo: food.
Rooster: Yeah. So, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's a dire situation. It's bad news.
Gizmo: So this email is from Lizard Steven, first [01:04:00] time writer.
He's going to be our lizard of the week this week, boys, I
Chef Ricky: figured you had a good one stored.
Gizmo: And of course, anybody out there can win Lizard of the Week. All you have to do is send us an email, a comment on Instagram, YouTube, whatever you'd like a voice memo. We love voice memos. We haven't had a voice memo in a while.
I'd love to have some listener voice memos come back, but he says, Hey, lounge lizards team. I'm a long time listener here. My name's Steven and I've really enjoyed the show over the past two years. You guys do a great job covering the cigar world. But I've now gotta vent a little bit and I figured you guys might understand.
I am beyond frustrated with how impossible it is for me to find Cuban cigars in the US these days. I know that there are import restrictions. They are what they are. Between that and the recent price hikes, it feels like Cuban cigars are becoming more of a collector's item than something you can actually enjoy.
Every time I track a Cuban cigar down, [01:05:00] even through the more creative channels, I. It's like playing roulette, high prices, questionable origin, and no guarantee I'm even getting what I paid for. And with the recent pricing strategy from Haos, the whole thing is just getting ridiculous. I get the premium branding thing, I get scarcity, but double or triple or quadruple the price for the same cigars.
It feels like they're pushing out regular Joe enthusiasts like me, in favor of limited luxury buyers or whales who care more about image than the actual smoking experience. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for continuing to spotlight great non Cuban options on the show. I've certainly learned a lot from you guys over the last two years.
I'd love to hear your thoughts sometime on whether Cuban cigars. Are still worth chasing or even smoking at this point, or if the market has moved on? I, I All the best wizard, Steven. What
Grinder: a great email. Yeah, that's a great email. Great email.
Chef Ricky: Very well timed. Yeah. You could hear the frustration [01:06:00] Oh, sure. In his tone.
Yeah.
Grinder: It made me think like a, a good comparable, it's like organic Bitcoin. It's, it's, it's very, very high priced. You can transact with it. You buy it and you hold it, and you don't do anything with it. You're just, it's a collector's item to have and to see what happens. And for the, the people that enjoy cigars.
It's, it's useless. Yeah. You know, we can't, we, you can't access it. Mm-hmm. You can't smoke 'em because then you feel like a dickhead because you're burning money at the, you know, you're literally burning money. It's a tough, it's a tough situation. You're, you're depleting your, your average smokers, uh, access, so why are you even, there's no market anymore.
It's just a market for novelty.
Bam Bam: I, I, I think his final comment's right on the money, I think the market has moved on for the average Cuban smoker. There's no doubt about that. That's great though. Just, I mean, finding, sourcing cigars for the average guy or gal that's looking for a box of Cuban cigars is almost [01:07:00] impossible right now.
And it's, it's tough for us. And
Gizmo: so
Bam Bam: that's where I'm going here. And how, how long have we smoked Cuban cigars? For a very long time.
Gizmo: Yeah. You guys have been smoking longer than I have. Centuries over there with Rooster, you know, I mean, he's been smoking for almost a hundred years, correct? Eons. I've only been smoking for, I guess five, six years now.
Cuban cigars. But good luck to him sourcing another box, of course, right now in this environment, you know? So, uh, this. Reenergizes, the conversation we had on an episode that came out two weeks ago and a little inside baseball. For listeners, we are recording this episode tonight, actually before tomorrow's episode, which is the Sancho Ponza Beso episode Comes out where we first opened up this discussion of weather here on this podcast if we're going to be smoking less Cuban cigars, and I'm sure that that episode is going to prompt a lot of listener discussion, which we asked for.
But even in those two weeks since we recorded that episode, I [01:08:00] am increasingly more stressed out about sourcing Cuban cigars for this podcast. To the point even that this El Ray del Mundo box of Choix Supreme we're smoking out of tonight. I just have had it in my tower as part of my collection, like it is becoming increasingly more difficult for me to source Cuban cigars.
Now, could I call in favors? Maybe? Am I gonna do that? No, no, I'm not gonna do it.
Bam Bam: Even among this group, and we share photographs of cigars that we smoke daily, there aren't many photographs of banded Cuban cigars that I'm seeing.
Gizmo: It's true. It's, it's been quite a while. Yeah. I, I know for me, I'm smoking significantly less Cuba cigars because I know we all are.
Everyone is. Yeah. Even for a box of D fours right now, PARIC is D fours the most standard, regular production, seemingly accessible cigar on the market from Cuba. It is very difficult right now for me to find a [01:09:00] box of those and get them to my door in the next 30 to 60 days,
Bam Bam: you know? But I go back to the conversation we had with Danilo in Cuba and he said, point blank.
If you have the cigars, you smoke the cigars, enjoy them for the moment that you get them and move on. And that is,
Rooster: it's easy for him to say. It's easier
Gizmo: said, that's correct. I mean, he's smoking AP case at day, every day.
Bam Bam: It's easier said than done when you're staring at your tower and you've got, I don't know, I've got three huge tupper doors full of incredible new worlds.
I
Chef Ricky: thought he was gonna say three huge towers. No,
Bam Bam: anything's possible with them. You, you gravitate to that or you gravitate to some of the unbranded cigars that we have. And you live on those and they're all fantastic. And you're, I I'm, I'm afraid to go into my Cuban collection right now. It it's pretty
Chef Ricky: dystopian
Bam Bam: out there.
I am.
Gizmo: It is. And it horrible. It's getting pretty dystopian and here for me and us, because I take this very seriously and the idea that I can't just. Get a box of cubit cigars easily. I'm having to [01:10:00] go backward channels. I'm having to cross my fingers, buy on some group or something. I don't know the origin of that.
I trust folks, but I want real cubit cigars that we can review and talk about. And I guess the point here is that if I can't get 'em, if we can't get 'em, if a
Bam Bam: global insider can't get 'em, we got problems. We do indeed. Correct.
Chef Ricky: Well, you know, we've, we've found good substitutes, but now even some of those substitutes are getting hard to come by, like the Adino, Cameroon.
I, I still can't get a freaking box. Yeah. That's Senator's fault, right. Leave Senator for that. I've been looking and looking and looking and I can't get anything. So Fab Five. It is. That's, that's pretty much what we have until we don't and they're, they're also
Bam Bam: incredible. Yeah. We're blessed to have
Chef Ricky: them.
Yeah.
Gizmo: So I guess I, I again want to throw this out to the group, and again, we're recording this before tomorrow's episode comes out, which I'm saying tomorrow for the listener is two weeks from now, or two weeks ago, excuse me. The Sancho Ponza Beso episode, episode 180 6. We first brought up this [01:11:00] discussion and toyed with the idea of changing the rhythm, the cadence in which we bring a Cuban cigar into this room, even without listener contribution on that conversation, which will be the case when we come back in two weeks on another Cuban cigar.
I think. That we need to change the rhythm of how often we're smoking Cubans. It's just not sustainable to try to find 26 to 28 unique Cuban cigar boxes a year to sustain smoking a Cuban cigar here every other week. And for the listener to just sit there and listen to us smoke Cuban cigars that we had difficulty finding, they're not gonna be able to smoke along with us.
Pagoda: Correct.
Gizmo: I don't even wanna record like, Hey lizards, gizmo here. Here's what we have coming up. I don't even wanna record that because, and hey, I can't
Bam Bam: get
Gizmo: it.
Bam Bam: Here's a cigar I got. You can't get it. Exactly. Like
Gizmo: it doesn't feel like it's in line with the spirit of, of what we do here. It doesn't feel like the last four years of this effort, alternating weeks on Cuban.
Yeah. Non [01:12:00] Cuban. It doesn't feel like it's in the spirit of that. Sure. We're
Chef Ricky: just gonna sound like six to eight elitist that are smoking something no one else can get. But, but look,
Grinder: uh, you know, look at what we. How broaden our, like, how broaden our horizons have been because by trying all this new stuff, I think it's also a great opportunity.
It's exciting because we're forced to try new world cigars on a regular basis and we've, you know, we've been pretty good at finding really good sticks. That's true. Um,
Rooster: we've definitely gotten better at it. Oh yeah.
Grinder: Yeah. So, I mean
Rooster: that, that will continue, right? It has to, there's a lot, there's a lot more new world cigars that are coming out that are new and they're That's correct.
They have been home runs. I mean, there's so many cigars under $10 that have been an absolute hit.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Rooster: But going back to the Cuban cigar, uh, predicament, I mean, what do you do as a podcast that does, that alternates between a Cuban cigar and a new world cigar each week? So, number one, we are starting to do for last, you [01:13:00] know, I guess couple of months now we are redoing, revisiting the old, the brands that we have already done.
So we can continue to do that, but sourcing them is, is gonna be hard. So do we go back, do we, we talked about this a little bit on the last episode. That do we do once a month? Cuban and then three weeks of, uh, new World. That's right. Right. Or the other option is you wanna explore some other regionals. I mean, we're not, we not not fans of those.
And they're new, but it's also the
Gizmo: scarcity thing still exist there. Yeah, it does. They're,
Bam Bam: those are not easy to get.
Gizmo: No. And they're expensive.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: So we come on, we record an episode, smoking a 60, 70, $80 regional look, and then we tell the listener, good luck finding it.
Bam Bam: At the end of the day, we do want to emulate our audience's experience and what they can get access to.
So I'm, that's what we're talking about here. I'm,
Rooster: I'm curious to hear feedback from the listeners. That'd be great. And then we make the decision which direction to move.
Gizmo: Yeah. So this is, again, two weeks later now [01:14:00] on episode 180 8, again, we first talked about this on episode 180 6. Absolutely. If you've never sent us an email, if you listen to this podcast every week, whether or not you smoke Cuban cigars, this is a call to action.
We want to hear from you. This is not casual for us. We take this very seriously. We have a lot of fun doing it, but it's why that episode shows up every Tuesday at 5:00 AM because we really give a damn, and in this case, we want to hear from you and what you think of this, and also what the. Potential options are in your mind of what the rhythm can be moving forward.
This is an open discussion. Sure. Not just in the room, but also outside the room. Yeah. We really, really want serious input from our listenership. Yeah. We want to hear about your experiences finding cigars. We want to hear about your habit changes. Please email us on this issue. We want to hear from it, and we will come back in a couple weeks here [01:15:00] Sure.
And start making some decisions. We're coming up on episode 200 and I can't believe that we're. We've come to this point. Yeah. It's it between prices, between scarcity, between retailers not making available between custom customs issues. Is it, is
Bam Bam: it surprising though at this point? Like we know the portfolio, the havanas, the catalog's limited.
It is what it is, right? This was gonna happen eventually. Regardless of the pricing was high or not? Or available or not?
Gizmo: Well, the scarcity thing. Yeah. Being able to get in the states, that has changed dramatically. This is true in the last six months. True. I mean, being that we are in the west, but I'm gonna ask
Bam Bam: you a question.
What other markets haven't we done and what other cigars do we still need to do in Havana's? Yeah.
Gizmo: There are quite a few.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: I would say on regular production mm-hmm. Of a a decently medium to large format cigar. There's probably 10 to 15 we should probably do. Okay. Maybe a dozen. Yeah, maybe a dozen.
Okay. Now again, I like the idea of going back and revisiting cigars. Me too. We have a box [01:16:00] amount of crystal number twos that we're gonna. Be doing in the next couple weeks. Probably the next time we record, we're gonna revisit the Monte Cristo number two. The problem is, bam, is even if we go back and revisit every cigar we did from day one when we were rookies, we can't get 'em.
Bam Bam: No,
Gizmo: we can't get 'em. No.
Bam Bam: No, we can't.
Gizmo: I can't get a box of money Twos. Without calling it a favor right now.
Bam Bam: That's correct.
Gizmo: I'm pulling this outta my tower.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Yeah. And uh, we would also do that.
Gizmo: I know that, but the, the point I'm making is I don't know how to transact and get a box for review.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And I don't
Gizmo: know how to, how to accomplish finding a more recent run, but I haven't purchased.
Let me ask a question.
Bam Bam: It's, I know what you're gonna ask.
Gizmo: Lemme ask a question. When was the last time you bought a box of Cuban cigars? Bam. You're up. I don't
Bam Bam: remember. It's been a very, very long time. Okay. Pagoda long time. Uh, last November.
Gizmo: Last November. So you're in Panama seven months, eight months.
Pagoda: So you were overseas?
Yeah, I was overseas, yeah.
Gizmo: When was the [01:17:00] last time you ordered a box from the us?
Pagoda: I
Gizmo: don't
Pagoda: even
Gizmo: remember.
Pagoda: Yeah.
Gizmo: Okay. Grindr, August of 24 last year. So coming up on a year, almost, almost a year. Chef Ricky,
Chef Ricky: August 24. Wow. Yes, rooster.
Gizmo: What's the real answer? Yesterday? No, it's, what did you buy yesterday? J one one Best. Okay. From Bob Roberts? Yes. Oh, from
Rooster: vr.
Gizmo: Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. See the problem too is that's the only
Rooster: source I know that would ship to, you know? Yeah. And the box was already in us. I would never buy a box that's not in the US Sure's.
Just much easier to, uh, to get. But
Bam Bam: even the gray market where we were buying a lot of cigars from where members of a lot of groups, those groups are depleted. Dried up. Yeah. You can't get what you want from them. You kind of gotta take what you get and the prices are outrageous
Rooster: to me. When a box comes up and you look at the price, right?
We were just having the discussion today earlier, let's say a box of LGC la Gloria Ana's, Turino a box of [01:18:00] 10. It's going for like $380, let's say. Mm-hmm. So that's a $38 stick. So I look at it, I'm like, do I wanna spend almost $40 for LGC TURs? Which is a good cigar. It's a great cigar, great cigar, but. You know, the, the ROI on that, you know, I, I get much better on a new world cigar.
I can maybe have four all Dinos or four of the Olivie or so many other cigars. Like you could buy two
Gizmo: bundles of Fabrica, five Trinity rib for a little over 400 bucks. By the way, I
Bam Bam: checked this city,
Rooster: they're
Bam Bam: out again.
Gizmo: I know they're coming back early June. Yeah,
Rooster: yeah, yeah. So you have a lot more choices available at the price that you want to pay for the cigars that you really wanna smoke.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Because, you know, I mean, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's pushing us into doing deep dives into a lot of the new world markets. Like there are a lot of cigars that Steve Socca makes that we should be doing.
Rooster: Yeah. Yeah. So let me ask you another question. Like, how many Cuban cigars are you smoking per week?
Bam Bam: I've [01:19:00] sent a few photographs of my cigar of banded Cubans that I've had two to three maybe per week, where prior to. Oh, 10, 15
Rooster: every day. At least. Smoking one to two per
Bam Bam: day. Yeah. Every single day. Now, maybe two to three a week.
Rooster: Yeah. I'm smoking maybe one to two a week.
Bam Bam: Yeah, I'm in the same
Gizmo: boat.
Rooster: It's, it's one to two a week at
Gizmo: most.
Bam Bam: Well, what Grindr said earlier is rings true. Like we've discovered such a great run on all these new world categories. You know, we gave the Aino Cameroon a 10 in the entire room. That's an incredible cigar. You can't get it now. It's outta stock. But there are cigars like that, that we've discovered that we're all gonna now pursue and stay with.
I don't
Grinder: think I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm less than, I'm less than one. You know, I'm probably one a month, probably less than that, honestly. 'cause I know I bought that in August. I still have a couple of, with your
Rooster: double white tower.
Grinder: No,
Rooster: I mean, you,
Grinder: yeah, I, I, I mean, I, first of all, I'm not smoke as smoking as many cigars as I used to.
That's true. [01:20:00] And second of all, I also am smoking a lot of new world cigars and I'm, I'm listening. I. I'm part of this conversation. I know what's going on. I don't wanna smoke them.
Rooster: Yeah.
Grinder: Yeah. Like to what? To what BA was saying. I see the, I see them there and I'm like, you know, do, do I, you know, the scarcity kind of scares you and you don't want to,
Bam Bam: it's an, it's an unusual thing that happens.
Like, I'm, I stand in front of my tower, I'm un inspired. I am too. Honestly, there's an inspiration issue. Like, I'm looking at my Cuban, I, I, I, I really don't want it. Alright. It's very unusual.
Pagoda: Alright. I'm taking it.
Gizmo: No, I, I, what I would say bam, is that I stand there and I look at this stuff and I get frustrated.
I do too. That the marketing arm of, of the, you know, of the company that, that sold us those cigars, that they don't care if we smoke those cigars or not. They don't. And I know that Rob Ila, George Padron mm-hmm. Stoa. Mm-hmm. Klaus Ner, Vance [01:21:00] Taylor interviews we have coming up, people we've talked to, Lizette Carrillo, Steve, Steve Saka.
Carlito. Yeah. These people Care. Foundation cigars. These people care. Mcm what we think about their cigars. Correct. And they hope and want. Us to smoke them. The fact that we have a manufacturer who supplies 50% of what we smoke on our podcast, probably five to 10% of what each of us actually smoke today.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: The fact that that manufacturer doesn't give a shit
Bam Bam: correct,
Gizmo: whether or not we smoke their cigars, it's a problem whether or not we talk about them, whether or not we review and get passionate and excited as we do that makes me stand in front of my tower and go, you know what? I'm gonna reach for something else.
Exactly. And that's a problem. I can't believe we're at this point, I dunno what to say. I can't believe we're here. No, I mean, really think about how things have changed. I wanna go back.
Bam Bam: Five years ago, man, I, I was [01:22:00] reaching for all of my Cubans, enjoying it, bringing it to, bringing it to the club, showing them off a little bit and then putting it in my mouth and smoking it.
Can't do that anymore.
Rooster: Can't So what? I mean, what are you gonna do with all that? I don't know. Inventory. You might as well smoke 'em and replace them with new worlds.
Gizmo: Yeah,
Rooster: I guess
Gizmo: I just, I just have a problem supporting, you know, we talk about this with, listen, we had such a great conversation with Rob Iowa, but here's the thing.
Every time I smoke a Fabrica five cigar, forget that they're our sponsor. Every time I smoke one of those cigars, number one, they're great. Number two, I know that the guy who made those is really excited that we're smoking 'em.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Same with George Padron.
Bam Bam: When they were here at the club, they watched every puff that we took of course took of their cigars.
They give a shit. Yeah. And they wanted commentary.
Gizmo: It's incredible. I just can't believe after all this time and in such a short period of time we are at this point.
Pagoda: Yeah, correct. But you know, on being an optimist, endurance cigars have of course, [01:23:00] course really coming at it. Course. But
Gizmo: that's the problem here, pagoda, is that we dedicate half of this podcast to haos.
Half of this podcast are Haos cigars. And that's recently, it's such a wild change in how unavailable they've become. It's really, you know, it was a slowdown because of supply issues. It was actually because of the pricing. It actually made it a little easier to get 'em because there was a little bit more of a supply.
But now with these retailers becoming unavailable to us here in the us the customs issues, the pricing, when you add it all up, it's very, it's a very fast change.
Bam Bam: Yeah. The other night I had a a, a Trinidad Fund of Doors. I sent you guys a photograph
Rooster: from my box,
Bam Bam: maybe
Gizmo: that, that Absolutely.
Rooster: It's from your box,
Gizmo: by the way.
Bam Bam: It was incredible. It was delicious. I hope you enjoyed committing espionage it. Yes. It was delicious. And I know, I know that I'll never get another box of those again. Never. I just know it. Yeah. It's not gonna happen. [01:24:00] You know,
Chef Ricky: well, with everything you guys are saying, I ran out of creative ways to hold this cigar.
I had to put it down because I was burning my fingers. I was burning my nails. I'm there right there with you. I, I'm, you know, I never thought I'd be a tweezer chef, but here I was, uh, wishing for it at a tweezer. This is,
Bam Bam: this is delicious. Right down to the very end. It is great finish. Outstanding
Gizmo: and that's what frustrates me even more.
Correct is everything we just said. And then we have a cigar tonight. That was f fantastic. Will we ever find
Bam Bam: it on the box of Choix Supremes?
Gizmo: I don't know what to tell you. I know. Before we get to the end of our evening here, I want to call out to listeners one more time. I'm asking you if you have or have not sent us an email if you have or have not commented on the things that we post online.
Please share your thoughts on this discussion. We want to hear from you whether or not you smoke Cuban cigars or not. We want to hear from every single listener of this podcast. Please shoot us an email. Uh, we really, really want your input.
Bam Bam: I don't think we have a choice our. Trajectory is gonna be modified now it's going to [01:25:00] change because of how the Cuban market has changed.
We're following in lockstep with their, their practice and their unavailability of their product. And it's, it's inevitable
Gizmo: and it's unfortunate. Well, it is what it's, I I think
Grinder: there's also, like we talked about macro factors at play that we can't, albano can't even control too. Correct.
Gizmo: Alright boys, we are coming to the end of our evening tonight with the El Ray del Mundo, Choix Supreme, and the Kaska Tequila Reposado.
What's everybody thinking before we raid it? I'm angry now.
Bam Bam: It's over. Very satisfied tonight with this experience 'cause it was so rich and delicious, but Oh, everything was great. I'm a little, yeah, it's a little bit of a great cloud now. This conversation. Oh, thank. It's very unfortunate. It is. It is. Sorry.
The cigar. The cigar was great. The cigar
Gizmo: was great. And, and we can't, I said we're all, we're all pros at this point.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Episode 188. All right. We're all pros. Let
Bam Bam: me get rid up.
Gizmo: We're gonna put it aside. Everything we just discussed, we're gonna rate tonight's cigar for what it [01:26:00] was. For what it is. Yeah. But first we're gonna start with our formal liquor rating.
All right. On the Kaska tequila reposado, bam. Bam. You're up.
Bam Bam: This
Gizmo: is
Bam Bam: a clear 10.
Gizmo: Wow.
Bam Bam: No doubt about it. The that thickness, how it coats your mouth, salt, buttery, finish the botanical, almost salty minerality that you get in the front. Extremely balanced. Viscosity's delicious. It's just a 10 for me. It's a great experience.
Grinder: 10.
Gizmo: All right, grinder,
Grinder: 10 for me. The minerality in the beginning was, was excellent. The long finish was, I thought, paired nicely with the finish of the cigar. Not nicely. It's like such an understatement. It was perfect. It was perfect. Um, and as I found with all of these. Tequilas. The more you drink, the sweeter it gets.
Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Well said. Yeah. And, um, it just got better and better. And the cigar, I, [01:27:00] it kind of, the, it, it was like, like an inverse curve. How many pores for you? Three. Three pores? Yeah. It's like an inverse curve with the, the cigar was getting stronger and the tequila got sweeter. Sweeter for sure.
And it was, it was just had this perfect equilibrium, so 10 for me. Um, and you know, you, it's a little foreshadowing on the cigar in the cigar rating as well. Hmm.
Gizmo: All right. Chef Ricky,
Chef Ricky: I'm so happy to see this spirit get a 10. Um, I'm right there in lockstep with you guys giving it a 10 as well. This guy's been flying under the radar for some time.
I'd say over the last year and a half, SCO wind's really come to light and the product that he is making is really shining. And at 48 bucks a bottle, this is a steel, um, delivers a fantastic experience. And you know, I'm realizing now that as I drink it to grander point, how the tequila's getting sweeter.
This is where I'm getting my cherry note from. Um, and it's just been, you know, the 42% a BV is spot on, the aging time is spot on at six to [01:28:00] eight months. Uh, and just the fact that they're doing everything right and he's still striving to get things even better with the introduction of a taul night and his, and excuse me, in his distillery, I think that's great.
I think what he is doing is fantastic and I'm glad that, uh, we're, we're highlighting it here and that it's available for everyone to go out there and get, uh, uh, at a reasonable price point.
Gizmo: So for me, it's also a 10 no brainer. I, I mean, my initial comparison to Elta Soro was a huge compliment from me to this tequila.
I loved it. I loved how it paired with this cigar. I, I just think that it was so complex. It was so well, well rounded. It was so easy to drink. What other Cubans would you rate? Would you
Bam Bam: pair this
Gizmo: with? Uh, I don't, I have
Bam Bam: three to mind right now. I
Gizmo: don't know if there's any bam that I wouldn't pair this with.
Bam Bam: Yeah, that's true.
Gizmo: That's true. That at this point, I, I think the, the one we referenced earlier, the Kate Dorsey, Coronas Claro, yeah. Would be [01:29:00] brilliant. With this Cutie 50, would the standing with this, the cutie 50 would actually go very, very well with this. It would
Bam Bam: also. I think the E two partis, E two is a great call out, would be a great, great pairing with this because in that cigar there is a hint of sweet cream that I get occasionally it comes and goes.
It's fleeting in that cigar, I
Gizmo: think. But
Bam Bam: it would be great with this
Gizmo: particular, I think one that we did recently on the podcast, which has been polarizing with our listeners, is the part line Maestro Rito, the one that we were saying tasted like buttered popcorn. Correct? Yes. I think that, oh, yeah. Paired with this.
Oh yeah. Tequila would be, yes. Brilliant.
Bam Bam: That's a great call out. Yeah,
Gizmo: because it's not super briny, you know what I mean? Yeah. There's of sometimes, sometimes we talk about brininess with tequila and it's not here.
Chef Ricky: That's a great point. And that's something I haven't mentioned. Cascahuín, we uses all Hyland agaves, right?
So when you use Hyland Agaves, you tend to get sweeter notes and, and a sweeter for their profile. Whereas with Fort Esta, for instance, they're using lowland. Agaves. So there you get a lot more [01:30:00] minerality and blindness. So that's a great call out. Uh, it's very accurate.
Rooster: Maybe the stoic would do well. Oh
Grinder: yeah.
I mean there's a bunch of new worlds that would be great with this cigar actually. You know, I've been smoking the sin come from me, so from like a while. It's like last year. Yeah. Yeah. From
Gizmo: aka
Grinder: that dunbarton that would go well with this. I think that could, there's with's, good minerality.
Gizmo: I think the fabric of five, uh, Trinity Ruba would be great.
Percent. And to
Chef Ricky: your point, the Aino camera. All camera hundred percent. Again, yes. The all.
Gizmo: Ero the classic Correct? Correct. Would go great.
Chef Ricky: I, I mean I think what we're saying here is this thing could go with any cigar pretty damn. I, I would keep
Gizmo: it, to me, I would keep this probably Cuban, Honduran, Dominican.
Yeah. I don't know if I'd go Nicaragua Drone medium
Chef Ricky: full flavor profile could be a question. Yeah. But I guess, I guess medium. Yeah,
Gizmo: I guess Saka is Nicaraguan, so maybe I just contradicted myself. Maybe. So be it. Alright. Pagoda your ratings.
Pagoda: It's 10, 10 wins. Man, this was fantastic. Uh, you know, the way I look at it is, uh, I think, uh, between [01:31:00] bams and grinders, you know, overall analysis, I think I really kind of agreed to both of them because this tequila did get a lot more sweeter.
Mm-hmm. I think as time progressed, which I really, really enjoyed, and, um, from a bams perspective, the texture, I think I really like slight, you know, a little bit of viscosity mm-hmm. In the tequila, and I think. I might have knocked down a few tequilas because I found them a little too thin. I don't know.
Not tonight served me. Not tonight, but this has been perfect. Yeah. And I think this is like one of those tequilas and you know, it's supposed to be the summer of tequila for me. I haven't even started, but I think I'll, the summer of tequila, I'll definitely go and pick a couple of bottles of these and just have it.
And you know, I can see drinking this during the day. Oh yeah. With a nice, you know, Cuban cigar at work making a PowerPoint. Correct. Hey, hey, hey. Forgot it doesn't make PowerPoint. No, it doesn't. No PowerPoint for me. Please. So, boys, the [01:32:00] formal liquor
Gizmo: rating tonight on the Cascahuín Tequila Reposado is a perfect 10.0.
What a surprise. A $47 bottle. What a true,
Bam Bam: it's a true surprise.
Chef Ricky: 70 50. I'm not surprised. I, I know this spirit. I'm. Shocked and, and amazed that you guys all agree with what's in the bottle. Uh, I'm not surprised. I'm, I'm blown away by this.
Gizmo: Yeah. Excellent. And again, we have to shout out lizard Mike. We didn't drink his bottle tonight.
We're gonna do that on an upcoming episode. I think we're gonna revisit a bunch of Cosco he tequila on this pod after this performance tonight. No. So thanks to him for ringing that bell and, uh, bringing this name up and, uh, bam. Thanks for grabbing this bottle tonight. Sure,
Pagoda: sure. And it does not need a chip of ice.
Not a chip. No. Well said.
Chef Ricky: Even at the 42%. No, no ice necessary. No, no. It's, it was fantastic. That's
Grinder: another thing we didn't really talk about. You don't taste that, that fire at all? Oh, no, all none.
Gizmo: Yeah. It's so smooth, so easy to drink. Alright boys, it's time now to move into the formal lizard reading tonight on [01:33:00] the El Ray del Mundo Choix Supreme Redux.
Rooster, you're up. Delicious.
Rooster: Delicious smoke. Be careful. I just wish the cigar was a bit longer. Yes. You know, it leaves you like craving a bit more. Yeah. Of that cigar. That's a merit. It's a delicious smoke. I mean that creamy. That's, that sweet cream lasted from the beginning to the end with a little hint of pepper.
It was a little floral. Uh, I didn't quite get the salty note that some of you guys got. Mm-hmm. But it was sweetened creamy throughout that caramel note that you get throughout. Um, it, it, it is a delicious smoke. Um, very, very balanced, very, it's a, it's a medium bodied smoke. Mm-hmm. Uh, it's not mild. Maybe it starts off a bit mild, but then it kind of moves on to like a medium smoke.
I mean, keeping all of that, uh, in mind and, and, uh, the experience, I think it's a, it's a solid [01:34:00] nine for me.
Pagoda: Good score. All right. Pagoda. I said 10. 10 vent, so it's a 10 for me. I, you know, the thing is, you know, um, as opposed to rooster, I did get a little bit of the saltiness and for me it was like a sweet, salty, creamy, you know, uh, stick.
Yeah. Which was from the beginning to the end, which I really, really enjoyed. It left a very pleasant, uh, you know, flavor profile in my palette, you know, uh, and when you were having the tequila, it complimented it really well. It was just fantastic. And I think love the smoke output, even though it was a short cigar, it was Cuban for me, you know?
Um. You know, these things really matter. Like I really want feel I'm smoking a cigar with a good smoke output, tasting good. Leaving a pleasant flavor in your mouth. And it's just one of those, which kind of summarize it all. So it's a 10. So look, I gotta interrupt. So for
Bam Bam: a guy, Coda does a smoke. Very many of these.
Yeah. And he just described the perfectly balanced cigar. Yeah. What we're all chasing. [01:35:00] I think that's a great score.
Pagoda: No, it is. It is. Yeah. Very balanced. Yeah. Sweet and salty. Very, very good.
Gizmo: So for me it was not perfect. Okay. It's a nine for me. It was not a perfect 10 great score. Uh, I, I would say it started for me, I had a little bit of a draw issue.
I know my construction was good, combustion was good. I definitely fought the draw a few times. I was having to squeeze it quite a bit as, as we were going on to try to open it back up, which I do think impacted the flavor of the cigar I had tonight. Of course, at $25, this hermosas, number four, that's a little bit of a value challenge for me.
Yeah. I'm gonna knock it. I'm not gonna knock it too much for that. The biggest thing for me is it was not as great as I was expecting it to be. Hmm. I think as far as regular production, Cuban cigars, I have always put this cigar on a pedestal, and it didn't hit that for me tonight. I, I think this is some of the best, you know, what I've had in the past, it's been some of the best of Cuban tobacco, and it wasn't.
Amazing tonight, but it's [01:36:00] higher
Bam Bam: of a rating tonight than you rated originally.
Gizmo: Definitely it compared to the one we did on the podcast. Definitely compared to the box that I finished prior to this. Yeah. Which is not what we did on the pod. It's a step down.
Bam Bam: Listen, it goes back. It's a step down. It goes back to what we've talked about, what Rob talked about.
Current runs are incredible right now.
Gizmo: Yeah, this is definitely a better cigar than what we reviewed in the past. Yeah, I love the sweet cream. I love the saltiness. I love how it married with our pairing tonight. I enjoyed the experience. I do think for the value it smokes way too quickly. To rooster's point, if I wish it gave us another 15 minutes, half hour, you know, like maybe a, a rib robusto, rib robusto extra would do.
Bam Bam: I personally find that as a merit when you guys are talking about I want more of this incredible cigar. That's, that's a great, that's a great compliment.
Grinder: Yeah.
Bam Bam: I don't knock, I don't knock it. Not a dude, not for that.
Grinder: I rated it for what it is. It's the small, short. And a nine is a great score. It's a great score.
Would say
Bam Bam: score, correct? Score that ba, that's an elite
Grinder: score.
Gizmo: So for me it's a nine and I'm very happy with that. It was not the perfect [01:37:00] Choix for me. So this cigar tonight is a nine. Chef Ricky.
Chef Ricky: Yeah, for me, I, I'd say, alright, so I came into this somewhat unexcited just based off of the, the first rating on the pod.
I don't know how a hundred somewhat episodes ago. Um, but I, I, you know, I. Always hear Bam, talking about how great the cigar is, how it's one of his favorite sticks. Um, and that kept the excitement up for me and it lived up to it. Uh, you know, I think the sweet cream, the, the, the slight fruit that was there, the hazelnut, the little bit of salt, slight floral and minerality, though not very forward, but it was still present at times.
Um, I enjoyed it very much. My least favorite thing about the cigar was the cold draw and maybe the first, the first three draws where it was just really cedar forward. Uh, it got some of that wet soil note. Um, and aside from that, you know, the combustion was phenomenal. [01:38:00] Uh, but I, you know, there was a couple touchups here.
The ash maybe wasn't some of the most, uh. Sturdy ash that I've had in a cigar. Uh, but it was still a really phenomenal smoke. It, its contribution to the pairing was great. The way it ma it married with this is, it wa it was a amazing experience. So with all that said, I'm giving it a nine. You know, I did knock it for it's cold draw for the, you know, obviously it's availability, price point, you know, you guys said was a little high I guess when in putting it into perspective, 25 bucks a stick for the size of stick that it was.
Sure. I agree with that. Uh, but I still think it was a great cigar. I think if you could get it, it's worth getting.
Grinder: All right. Grinder. It's a 10 for me. I, my cigar smoked perfectly Razor, razor sharp, edge, uh, no, no draw issues. Um, I, you know, I, I took my time with it. I think that helped a lot. The flavor was.
I mentioned a lot of the [01:39:00] flavor profile. I liken it to, there's this, I don't know, maybe you're familiar with this chef. Uh, it's like a, it's called a butter bar, and it's like a caramel, uh, like bar. You mentioned wethers earlier. And it's a wether, it's a wethers product that's right on the money. It's worth's original.
Yeah. And this is a butter bar version. It's just, it's like very rich caramel, um, with some like crumb on the top. And it reminded me a lot of that. Um, the smoke was outrageous in here. Yeah. The
Bam Bam: combustion
Grinder: gray. And like I said, the pairing was really exceptional. The way, um, that it balanced out with the, the minerality and then the sweetness and the, and this like transposed slope Yeah.
As it were. Uh, I really loved it. So it's a total 10, a 10 10, uh, along with pagoda for me. Awesome.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Bam. Yeah. I'm also at a 10. It's not because this is one of my favorite cigars because of the way it performed tonight. You know, I looked at everyone's ash. Mine was dark gray, not very attractive. Gizmos was bright white.
[01:40:00] I think roosters was bright white and it was some variation in that, and that's a construction issue. Was my burn raised or sharp? No, but it was almost perfect. I don't ding a cigar if I'm getting so much incredible flavor. Like that sweet cream, that sweet coffee, right? That worth's, I think for me is like right on the money.
Uh, it's, it's hard to find another, it's cigar in the world, honestly, that gives you all of what you get from this cigar in that personally, in that
Grinder: size, in that size too. Personally, that's me. That's me
Bam Bam: saying that. Not you, me. We know. Yeah. I feel it's that, that creaminess, that balance, that little bit of salt.
I. It's a pretty unique cigar.
Chef Ricky: You know, in hearing you guys describe all this, especially the butter bar, it, it reminded me what I was getting and it's, it's not something I eat often, and maybe some, some listeners are familiar with it. Mm-hmm. It's called an Alpha Jre cookie. So it's a, say that again? Alpha Jre.
Alpha Jre. It's, uh, it's two shortbread [01:41:00] cookies. Sandwiching, uh, Duc cche filling sounds. Sounds good. Can you bring in that box in please? Uh, so yeah, Relu, uh, but that cookie encapsulates what the cigar tastes with. Yeah. I,
Bam Bam: I, I don't disagree. I think all this is an incredible merit for the cigar. I'm at a 10.
Gizmo: Boys that puts the formal lit rating tonight on the El Ray del Mundo, Choix Supreme added 9.5.
Bam Bam: Wow.
Gizmo: Wow. That's a perfect score for this. That's a great, I'm
Bam Bam: very
Chef Ricky: happy about this. Great. That's a perfect, great score's. A perfect score for the great, it redeemed itself in time for, for us not to be able to get any.
Bam Bam: It did, but I also, I have to, well said. I have to go back to the tequila though. That tequila, because of its viscosity, pagoda, it will carry many of the cigars that you smoke because it's so, it's delicious. There's that thickness and richness to it. I, I think even an average cigar, it'll elevate an average cigar experience.
I think it'll help disagree. It does. [01:42:00] It infuses that flavor. Um, it coats your mouth. And I think when you take a draw of even an average cigar, I think it just, it's in, there's an enhancement there. That 10 on this tequila is very, very accurate, just for that quality. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: I can't wait to see everyone.
That's insane sending pictures of their SCOE bottles.
Gizmo: I hope they do. Yeah. Alright, boys. Let's compare our cigar tonight to the other two. We've smoked from El Ray del Mundo on the pod. Of course, on episode 22, we smoked this same exact cigar from an earlier run. The Choix Supreme scored a seven point.
Eight. You know how mad I was after that episode? I know you were. I was not happy. Almost a 20 point increase. Can you do me a favor? In three years,
Bam Bam: what did each of us rate it? Can you do it? Can you dive into that? I don't wanna do this. I want to know what you fuckers rated this year. I wasn't on the pod
Chef Ricky: yet.
I'm in the clear.
Gizmo: Here we go. So Rooster rated it a seven. Jesus. Seven [01:43:00] giz, Senator and pagoda. Six all rated it an eight. Okay.
Bam Bam: All right. That's not bad.
Gizmo: And bam, bam. Also rated it an eight. Did I? So. Rooster was the outlier at a seven. It sucked you, motherfucker. It sucked.
Bam Bam: You rated it an eight. I did. I don't want to hear it.
No, that's, that's, this is a dramatic statement. I think almost 20 points higher. This whole discussion about runs and how incredible they are currently compared to previous runs. It's so accurate. It changes a lot. You really learn from smoking cigars over time. How runs really factor into your experience?
It's incredible.
Rooster: You know, one of the best cigars that Elway Mundo used to make is the Tainos you ever had that, that's in a is regional as well, right? No, it's not a regional. Oh, it's, it was a regular production production that, uh, discontinued in 2006. Well, you, I heard he had it like
Chef Ricky: 1946. Rooster Smokes, all the discontinued cigars.
Gizmo: Delicious smoke.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Nice.
Gizmo: So the other one we did on the podcast Boys was the [01:44:00] Iion Region Ally mentioned for the Balkans. It's called the Grand Marshall on episode 101. Scored an 8.8 mm. So this one tonight at a 9.5 is a great score. Incredible for El Ray Del Mundo. Yeah, on the pod. Very happy. So boys, one more time.
Let's review the Cascahuín Tequila Repasado scored a perfect 10.0 in the El Ray del Mundo. Choix Supreme, scored a 9.5 tonight on the pod. We have to thank Lizard Steven, our lizard of the week. He's gonna win. Nice little gift package from us for that Great email. Of course. Thanks to all of our lizards for writing in tonight and for writing in every week.
We love hearing from everybody. And again, this week right now. When you hit stop on this recording, go to your email and tell us what you think, please, about our discussion regarding Cuban cigar reviews on this podcast. It is very, very important to us. And finally, boys, we have to thank our sponsor, Fabrica five.
They're great partners to us. We really appreciate them. Try some of their [01:45:00] cigars. Go to their website, use our code. We, and they really appreciate it. And boys, a great night tonight an an excellent pairing. A perfect pairing I'd say. And, uh, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's lounge lizards, PO 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 wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking.
Email us hello@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.