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 range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Roosters, Senator Grinder, pagoda and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some rum, talk about life, and of course have some laughs. So take this as your 88th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a cubit cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discussed peel's history with machine made cigars. We talked smoking outside in the summer, and we debate repairing, cracked wrappers on cigars, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 15 year age barbin cord Haitian rum with the poor orga.
Go on us.
A Rab Robusto from Poor Laga [00:01:00] tonight out of Havana. It's called the Galanis. It's a 52 ring gauge cigar by four and three quarter inches. And, uh, I've never had the cigar boys, but it looks great. It does look good. And especially, you know, we talk a lot about cohi, uh, Cuban Ouo. Yeah. We smoke a lot of Cuban ouo and, well, this one I think is a little shorter.
Um, a touch. It's its own size. Actually, the factory name is also a galanis. Uh, it's not a rab robusto like some of the others. But, um, I, you know, I, you don't hear much about this. You don't see many people smoking this. They don't come up that much. This
**Bam Bam:** vital or the mark in general.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I think the one that comes up is the, uh, petite Corona.
I
**Bam Bam:** happen to love that cigar. Yeah. And I know Rooster does too. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** That's an awesome stick. And that's the only other poor orga we ever did on the podcast was the petite Corona. Yeah. Comes in a 50 cap, which is awesome. Oh yeah.
**Grinder:** What, what does, uh, poor Lang
**Gizmo:** mean? It means by, uh, Laga, which was the last name of the [00:02:00] gentleman who founded it in the 18 hundreds.
Cool. Yeah. For, uh, by Laura and Yaga. A lot of history there. Then a lot of history. I have some more, actually, we can go into it, but first boys, let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. I'm very intrigued by this cigar tonight. Um, it's pretty modestly priced. Ribo, how much are these?
You could find them anywhere between 18 and 21. That's a great deal. So it's not bad, especially in a 10 count box. I mean, obviously if you're buying RAs in a 50 cab, you don't want to be paying that kind of price for it, um, at least today. But, um, when you're buying something in a 10 count, obviously you're gonna pay a little bit more for it than you would in a 50, but,
**Bam Bam:** Um, um, the cold draw is really pleasant.
It
**Gizmo:** is a bit fruity. Yeah. It's really nice
**Bam Bam:** and a little creamy for me.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Woody. Mm-hmm. And the jaws wide open. Yeah. Draws really nice. I
**Rooster:** remember getting like a sweetness at Right, right, right on the light. From what I remember with [00:03:00] the last time I had it.
**Gizmo:** I think when I
**Pagoda:** smell the foot, I get this really light milk chocolate thing.
I don't know. It's probably every cigar smoke
**Bam Bam:** thing.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You're not wrong. I think you're
**Senator:** spot on. I
**Gizmo:** definitely get cocoa. Yeah, it's definitely there. You're not wrong. Awesome. Can't wait to smoke this. Let's do it boys. The poor Lauren Yaga Lanis. Again, it's a 52 ring gauge rib robusto by four and three quarters inches out of Havana, Cuba.
It's the second PL we've done on the pod. The other was the previously mentioned petite Corona. We did that ages ago. Think this is what, episode 90, I think that may have been episode 12, so it's quite some time ago. See how it does. Wow. I really like it on the light. Wow. Very flavorful. Wow.
**Bam Bam:** I will say my draw, it's probably, it feels it's too wide open
**Pagoda:** now.
Yeah, it is. It feels really wide open. In fact, the smoke [00:04:00] open itself, it's
**Bam Bam:** zero resistance.
**Gizmo:** It covered my whole face. The aroma coming off of it, the initial flavor, everything on the light is a slam dunk. Get, enjoy it. A sweet, you get that sweetness right on the light, but it's it, there's a fullness to it.
Yeah, that's It's a rich, very
**Rooster:** rich, rich, sweet. Full,
**Gizmo:** but creamy. Yeah. I'm
**Bam Bam:** getting spice though. Are you? Yeah. Some white pepper, maybe.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. This is really nice. Maybe like a little shortbread type thing.
Wow. I'm into it. The smoke output's awesome on this. Yeah, I, you know what's funny about the size of this? It, it, it, it makes me wonder what makes them say, Hey, like, let's, let's do a rab robusto, but let's cut half an inch off of it, or let's cut a quarter of an inch off of it. Like, I don't understand the decision to not make it a full rub.
Robusto in line with the other. [00:05:00] Those that we smoke all the time. Probably dictated by the leaves, right? Shorter. Shorter leaves. Shorter, smaller. I, I'm, I'm curious what that distinction. We become old sizes.
**Bam Bam:** Cheers to you, pagoda. We become old sizes buddy. Oh yes, you do.
**Gizmo:** The other thing that's interesting too, from a habanas decision standpoint is they only come in 10 count boxes.
There is no 25 count box, there's no 50 count box, and there's no smaller packs. It's only this wooden flip top lid, uh, 10 count box. I love the 10 count. Yeah. So these were initially released in 2020, so this line has not been out very long. The cigars we're smoking tonight are from May 22. Um, so they're about a year old.
How many cigars
**Senator:** do they have, do they make
**Gizmo:** right now in regular production? I believe that there are only three. Amazing, wow. It's the, uh, it's the, excuse me, four, four Oh, [00:06:00] Picadores and what else? Petite Caros. Uh, Montecarlo, uh, the Montecarlo, which is a, a Slim Panatella. The Picadores, which is a haos specialist release.
So it's not an L C D H, but it has a different band than these do this. It's got a red band. Yeah, it has an all red band, which it's an odd choice, but red and white, I think. Yeah. It looks like a Romeo type band. And this, the one that we're smoking now has the classic poor Laga, uh, gold band, uh, with very, very simple, uh, silver lettering on it.
Uh, and then the final, um, so we named them Goni, this one Pika, Doris Monte Carlos, and the Petite Coronas. Nice. And really the ones that I see come up the most are the Petite Corona and the Montecarlo. I
**Bam Bam:** haven't ever seen these come up anywhere.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I don't see these much at all.
**Bam Bam:** But the PC a lot. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Rightfully so. That versatility, that it's delicious. Beautiful. 50 cap presentation can't be that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This is, um, [00:07:00] this is really nice on the light. Mm. It's good. Yeah.
**Senator:** What I like about this, so I, I'm, I'm not a huge fan of the p l pc. I know Rooster and some of the other guys in the room. Bam. I think really like that cigar for me, it's a bit too woody.
That's like very characteristic I feel like of, uh, of this brand. I like that this is more balanced with some more sweetness and some other notes and even the little cocoa and things that Pagoda was mentioning before. So for me, this is more my speed.
**Bam Bam:** Who gave you your last petite Corona? I'd
**Senator:** like to know.
I mean, I've only had maybe one or two, probably Rooster.
**Bam Bam:** I think we should give
**Gizmo:** him one each. You do that. I gave
**Senator:** it to him last time.
**Gizmo:** Well, we did
**Bam Bam:** them on the pod. That's true. I get a lot of graham cracker and some, I do get dessert notes on that. I'll be
**Gizmo:** honest, I really like the cigar. I really like the petite Corona.
Yeah. I just don't like the si. I just size it. We get a lot of woodiness in that. There's definitely a cedar thing for sure. Yeah, definitely a definitely that. But it has a sweetness [00:08:00] about it. Try it again. Try
**Rooster:** it again. Because not the box has been sitting. I think we both have, I have Lgr 2019 box.
**Gizmo:** I have
**Bam Bam:** a 2019 box and a a 2020 box.
Both 50 cabs. I'll, I'll bring you one. Okay. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It'll bring the whole cab. Ooh. Yes, thanks. Yes, sir. He's got two. Two cabs,
**Senator:** one for me, 49 for Rooster.
**Bam Bam:** I'll,
**Gizmo:** I'll bring them. Yeah. So what kind of flavor notes are you getting now that we're kind of into this, into this cigar now? I'm still getting a very rich, but I would say mild, maybe touching on medium.
Experience. Yeah, it's pretty accurate. Um, it has a sweetness to it. It's still a little woody, but I, I like the flavor profile quite a bit. I,
**Grinder:** I'm, so, I'm still getting this odd, like spice, but I'm doing a lot of retro hale and it's like a, it's like a cinnamon spice. It's not like an all spice or like a baking, it's like a, you know what's
**Bam Bam:** strange?
It's not even peppery, it's cinnamon, but a little cardamon for me on the finish.
**Gizmo:** Wow. I'm not getting cardamon, I'm getting green [00:09:00] cardamon or black cardamon. What's the difference? I don't know.
**Rooster:** Huge difference.
**Gizmo:** Jesus.
**Bam Bam:** What is the difference? I'm, I'm serious.
**Gizmo:** What's the difference? I only know
**Rooster:** cardamon brown, green cardamon are very small and the black ones are much bigger and like gnarly looking.
And do
**Gizmo:** they taste? They taste, oh, that tastes totally different. Yeah. So Port Laga has quite, uh, history as a brand. It was founded in 1834, as we mentioned by Ignacio Laga, uh, in Havana. The name again, meaning by Laga, by him, uh, and. By the end of the 18 hundreds, apparently it was a very, very well known and popular premium cigar brand, like it was one of the more popular brands coming out of Havana.
And what's interesting about this brand that I wanted to talk to you guys about, because of the way the Cubans are made now, they did a complete pivot with the brand. And Poor Laga was the first brand in Havana to make machine made cigars. Really? Yeah. In 1925. [00:10:00] And it was such a, uh, uh, controversial decision to bring machines in to make cigars that the entire factory rioted and went on strike.
And would not make cigars, obviously. Yeah. Because they're bringing outta jobs. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the story
**Senator:** of I'm would've ride it with them. I mean, I'm sorry, none of us pursue machine made cigars.
**Bam Bam:** No. It's their, it was their version of ai. Yeah. But at the
**Gizmo:** time, think about that chap GBT
**Grinder:** making cigars.
I mean, think about it also, like at the time, you know, everything's being, you know, revolutionized mechanic, mechanic eyes me mechanized, I guess
**Gizmo:** in 1925.
**Grinder:** Well, you Yeah, of course. I mean, in Cuba, you, you think you're at the Well, no, I mean, I don't know. It's, it's not, that's not a backwater country at that point.
Right. It's, it doesn't
**Gizmo:** become that until the revolution.
**Bam Bam:** That's exactly
**Grinder:** right. You know, um, I can see them feeling their, the urge of populous sentiment to, you know, make everything industrial to
**Gizmo:** innovate. Yeah. [00:11:00] And who knows what kind of European American, whatever influence was coming in and saying, we can, we can do this better for you with the machines.
It's
**Grinder:** pretty, it's pretty interesting how, like, you know, The cigar industry has never been like people who, who smoke real, real cigars are not, you know, searching for ci. Machine made, you know, cigars ever.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You know, but if you think about a good portion of the, I mean, uh, John F. Kennedy smoked h Chapmans, everybody thinks he smoked H up and p Petite Coronas.
Mm-hmm. He smoked machine made cigars. Wow. Not handmade cigars. I did not say John F. Kennedy smoked Cigar Rios. No, he, no, they were, it was like a, it was like a, um, it was a machine made very close to a petite Corona. But it was not a handmade cigars. Wasn't it a
**Bam Bam:** specific bat that he
**Gizmo:** pursued? There was a specific one.
I don't know the name of it's, it's very close to Petite Corona, but it was machine made. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** I thought it was the regalia, but maybe I used
**Gizmo:** to know. Did he know? Yes. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, I didn't know
**Grinder:** that. I didn't know that they were machine
**Senator:** made. [00:12:00] Yeah. That's
**Gizmo:** interesting. I mean,
**Rooster:** he could smoke any Cuban cigar, but he chose to smoke.
That was his
**Gizmo:** odd, same story with George Burns. Yeah. George Bar. What were, what were those cigars? What was he smoking? Oh God, I don't, he remember he smoked machine made, they came in, I think in a glass tube wipe out. They
**Bam Bam:** were like 13
**Gizmo:** inches long. Okay. This
**Senator:** is making more sense though. So he, he would say he'd smoke like 10 cigars a day.
Yeah. Oh yeah. But it sounds like they're little, they're
**Bam Bam:** Churchill Small Churchills. These were
**Senator:** machine George made Churchill. No way. Come on. They were
**Bam Bam:** senator. They were big cigars.
**Grinder:** So how,
**Gizmo:** yeah. George Burns did not smoke small cigars, from what I remember. No. How do you It was an L Producto. It was an L Producto cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Any dimensions on the be is
**Grinder:** that Kennedy or Burns? Burns. But then
**Pagoda:** Churchill's in a day, you gotta go. Either you were smoking like a chimney, you were
**Rooster:** fast.
**Gizmo:** I don dunno if there were Churchills, but maybe
**Grinder:** not. He's, he's ditching them. He's
**Gizmo:** smoking like Yeah. I don't think he's smoking that thing at that point.
He's not smoking any [00:13:00] anymore, but yeah,
**Grinder:** cuz he's dead. Thank you for, for reminding us.
**Gizmo:** I don't know. I don't know what, uh, I don't know what cigar. George Bones burnt, smoked from El productive, but it wasn't machine made. And he would smoke, he would get 300 of them delivered every month. Uh, they were short filler machine made cigars. You'd smoke 10 to 15 a day, which is pretty wild. The only thing I was, and when and when it didn't show up on time, the guy would like panic and be calling the factory kind of, you know, very lizard like, like us.
Oh yeah. Yeah. No different.
**Rooster:** Well, it, it was a different time because you could smoke anywhere. Anywhere. Right. Did you
**Gizmo:** smoke at the office? You could smoke in your living room. Smoke in in the living room. Airplanes. Some still
**Bam Bam:** do. Well I know someone else that does that right now. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** I thought I'd seen George Burn, smoke it in a talk show as well.
**Gizmo:** Oh, he would go on Carson with him and everything. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, you know, back to Port Laga, which is again, pretty wild story. So they made machine, pretty much made machine, made cigars that for most of their history. [00:14:00] Um, and at the time of the revolution, they were exporting 5% of all of, uh, habana cigars that were coming.
Uh, you know, Hao cigars that were coming outta Cuba were, um, poorer and yoga, which is pretty wild. That fell to less than half a percent because they were machine made. And then when Haos came in, in 2000, they got rid of all machine made cigars in the regular production, uh, lines. Now obviously there's some, still some machine made cigarillos, et cetera, but we'll ignore those.
But, um, and that's when they canceled everything. And they only had the, I believe, the petite Corona and the Monte Carlo, um, until they introduced some of these newer cigars.
**Bam Bam:** Did we know if they had a bigger catalog?
**Gizmo:** They had a huge catalog of cigars. Oh, is that right? At one time, but only machine made. Oh, wow.
Yeah. Wow. Everything that they did, Um, pretty much everything they did was machine made. Amazing. I
**Senator:** wanna go back to the machine made thing for a second. Yeah. All of us, myself included, have a pretty negative perception of a machine made cigar. [00:15:00] But the funny thing is, I'm, I'm just reconsidering this myself for the first time.
If you think about it, our big complaints with a lot of cigars are the construction. Right? The draws too loose. The draws too tight. This cigars too packed. This cigars too loosely packed. You would think that the solution to that long term, like thinking about the future of cigars mm-hmm. Would actually be developing machines that could make this perfectly Yeah.
Like flawlessly in a way that humans just cannot ensure that level of consistency over time. So, mm-hmm. It's just dawned on me for the first time, you know, who knows what the cigar industry's gonna look like 50 years from now. But if we're really talking about wanting like perfect quality and consistency every single time, that's the, yeah.
You'd have to think that someone could make machines do this. Better than honestly, you know, humans can, I think, I
**Grinder:** think maybe back in 1920, there would probably be a marked difference between a handmade and a machine made, because the machines are not taking into [00:16:00] consideration all those nuances and the leaf that it's highly variable.
This, that, the other thing. Right? If you, I mean, I hate them. This is probably, you know, sound like a broken record here. Not at all. But generate, like if you have a machine that has some of that ai Yeah. You know, capability to like learn like, oh, this is, I have to wrap, you know, I have to wrap it differently this time.
Or something like, I don't know how, I've never seen a machine make a fucking
**Gizmo:** cigar the way I think a machine would. The way I think a machine would work in that specific scenario is saying, when a blend is provided, you need x gram of this leaf, x gram of this leaf, x gram of this leaf. Literally being able to weigh it.
Measure it, yeah. Lay it properly so that you're not having any roll problems and creating. Ultimately, potentially because of the machine that you're saying the absolute most consistent cigar out there. That's true. But the machine made cigars
**Rooster:** that were being made back then.
**Gizmo:** They were all short, short fill.
They still are short. They're still, still are making, and
**Grinder:** I think that's why, uh uh, I think that's [00:17:00] why Rooster, that, you know, it never caught on is because they have to make it with short filler.
**Senator:** Right. But that's my point there. There's gotta be probably at some point, some innovation where they figure out a way to do this with long filler at scale.
Like, I mean, honestly, I just feel like the cigar industry, as I'm thinking, is really ripe to be disrupted by something like
**Bam Bam:** this. Sure. But then again, I don't know, we talked about this 30, 40 episodes ago about the artisanal nature of a cigar and how much we love that, and the thought of it being handmade.
Does it take the romance out of a cigar if it's made out in a machine
**Gizmo:** for you? I'll tell you, if I'm paying what I'm paying for Cuban cigars right now and knowing that a hundred percent of them are gonna smoke really well. That's right. And the fact that it's not like the people that are doing this have great lives.
Yeah, that's true. Then it's not like they're paid. Well, yeah. You're not taken away white collar jobs. I wouldn't even argue that they're not even blue collar jobs. Mm. It's, it's, that's an
**Bam Bam:** interesting
**Gizmo:** discussion, honestly. I mean, it's, it's, it's an interesting thing to think about [00:18:00] that, as Senator said, the disruption possibility there.
Right?
**Senator:** Yeah. And you think about even the impact it can have on cost. I mean, you could, you could do this for, you know, in a cheaper way over the long run, probably this way. I don't know. Uh, to Bams question, would it take away some of the romanticism about cigars? For me, it would. Mm-hmm. I love when I explain to people why I'm so passionate about cigars, the, the handmade element, everything's natural, all of that.
It, it, that's what makes this special. So I would have a hard time with that. However, If I could guarantee that every box of Cubans is gonna be perfect and that the price could actually be reduced because they could dramatically, you know, save money by doing this and then pass some of it, obviously not the mo, not the bulk of it along to the consumer.
I mean, that would be a net positive.
**Gizmo:** It's true, it
**Grinder:** certainly would. And that, you know, the, the, the, the flip side of that is that part of the argument for this differentiation between premium handmade, hand rolled Cuban, [00:19:00] you know, cigars and the rest of the tobacco industry, is that they, they hearken that, that element all the time.
Yeah. You know, so it might be
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Distinguishing it from Yeah. Cigarettes and, and other gas station tobacco. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Nothing
**Grinder:** wrong with gas station tobacco, but like,
**Gizmo:** hey, be my guest. So I was looking at the list while we were talking here. Um, you know, there were quite a few, both handmade and machine made that were canceled, but the only surviving VEA in poor Laga from pre 1960 is the petite Corona, the P L P C that we did a long time ago.
Monte Carlo, like we mentioned, um, that's current release. 2002 Peco. Doris we mentioned, came out in 2014, uh, and this cigar came out in 2020. And that's it for the line as of right now. So the
**Rooster:** Monte Carlo, they're calling it a
**Gizmo:** panatella, it's a slim panatella. It's a long cigar. 33 by six and a quarter. Yeah.
Nice. Yeah, I've heard that [00:20:00] they're very inconsistent construction wise, but they're cheap lot growing issues. Gotta be tough to make that ci. Yeah, but they're, I mean that's like, well they're not machine made.
**Pagoda:** Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** it's AI baby.
**Rooster:** When you say cheap, they're like 15 bucks a steak.
**Gizmo:** Not that cheap. Yeah. Yeah. I thought they were like 200 bucks for a box of 20, 25.
No. Hmm. Not these days. So what are you guys thinking about the cigar right now? Well, it's, we're well into the beautifully made,
**Bam Bam:** the ash is strong. Yeah. Light,
**Gizmo:** medium gray. I think the flavor has kind of tailed off for me a little bit. It's not as full or it's not as rich, I should say.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. For me it's plateaued a bit, but still I'm enjoying it.
Yeah.
**Senator:** I also think it's not as sweet as when it started and I'm getting more of that woody Yeah. PL flavor that I, I don't love. I'll be honest. I don't hate it, but I just don't love it.
**Gizmo:** That's what I
**Rooster:** remember. Like the initial light, you get a lot of sweet notes and then it kind of fades
**Bam Bam:** away. Yeah. Like many other cigars.
Yeah. [00:21:00] Yeah.
**Grinder:** It's, uh, fully mild for me.
**Gizmo:** Oh, it's definitely a mild cigar. Yeah. I agree with that. It was,
**Grinder:** it was, you know, It was dancing around potentially being medium bodied,
**Gizmo:** but Great
**Rooster:** barn
**Gizmo:** though. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** Pretty racial sharp. Unfortunately not mine. Um, I've had to light it up twice, but Mm. Seems like there's a bit of a hollow in between.
**Gizmo:** If you need another one, we have them. No, no, it's all good. I
**Senator:** did see when I was looking through the box, there was one where the center was really, really loosely packed. It's probably that.
**Gizmo:** Oh boy. Damn. Now you go inconsistency, you're talking 20 bucks a stick. Yeah. And you have underfill overfill. You don't get that on the pc.
All right, boys, let's talk about our pairing tonight. Let's, it's a rum. It's called the Barbin Court. 15 year aged Barbin Court. Wow. Reserve doma. I can't pronounce anything.
**Grinder:** [00:22:00] Jesus Laga. You go. I do, I edge
**Bam Bam:** of my seat. Waiting for your pronunciations. I do.
**Gizmo:** It's not nice. No, I love it.
**Senator:** Your, your Pennsylvania accent really?
Cubs through
**Gizmo:** gba. I love it. Oh lord. And you haven't had a sip yet? I haven't had a single sip. I'm stone cold sober. Uh, it's a Haitian rum. Right? Uh, you were the one that pointed this out, uh, to, to pick this up.
**Senator:** So, uh, BAM had a cigar event, uh, last year and it was, uh, for a charitable purpose and it was to benefit an organization in Haiti.
And so when I went to the event, there was this Barbin court rum, not this exact one. It was like the seven year, they're kind of entry level and, um, I was just curious. I saw, oh, well they make some, you know, higher year aged ones. I thought maybe it would be a bit smoother than that. So I was just curious to try it.
I've heard of it. I had never had it until, uh, the cigar event. But, um, we'll see. It was rough. Which this or the other one? The
**Gizmo:** other one. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Well, based on how this is [00:23:00] tasting, I can't imagine seven was pleasurable at all. I mean, this is a very thin basic. Yeah. Um, not great rum. No, no. Agreed. I mean, this is, this is a, for fi like to put 15 years on this.
How much, how much was that bottle? I think it was 60. Mm. 70. That's a lot of money for this. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't cheap and it's like to put 15 years on a product that tastes like this. I mean, what are we doing?
**Senator:** Yeah. And the thing that's sad is I feel like this is kind of the supposed to be the flagship brand of Haitian rum.
It's true. And it's not impressive.
**Bam Bam:** No, not at all. I feel bad for the Haitians. Yeah. It doesn't have legs. There's no viscosity at all to it.
**Gizmo:** I mean, the
**Rooster:** proximity of Haiti to Cuba, I mean, they're not that far, and Cuba makes some phenomenal Oh, dude,
**Pagoda:** rums. Even Dominican rums. Not that bad. No, no. Yeah, yeah. Al bru with a splash of Coke.
Absolutely. It's
**Bam Bam:** great. It's
**Gizmo:** very good. [00:24:00] I mean, that's, it's like, to, to put a 15 year aged rum as a mixer, like that, to me, is the only purpose of this right now. Yeah, that's true. Would be to mix it with something, because to drink this straight, it's just, it's really not great. Not pleasurable. Did you put ice?
I did a little bit. Need ice. Yeah. You need ice in this. Mm-hmm. I think without the ice, I think it would've been mm-hmm. Borderline undrinkable. Yeah. What do you think Grindr?
**Bam Bam:** Look at this expression on this face.
**Grinder:** I mean, it's, it's, I don't think it's much better from the last run we had, which, which you guys were, you know, gaga
**Gizmo:** over Which one?
The, uh, I forget the name of it. Oh, the four square. Four. Four square. That's a great rum.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It, it kicks your butt, but it's a good,
**Grinder:** there's definitely a burn. I'm getting, I still have some, Like acid reflux going on right now.
**Bam Bam:** It's like a lot going on in
**Gizmo:** my throat. Ha ha. Haitian reflux. Yeah. Haitian. Little
**Grinder:** low Haitian give back.
Rubbing
**Bam Bam:** alcohol going
**Grinder:** down. Haitian snapback. It's quite a, yeah, there's, yeah, you're right. This is like a burn.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. What's the proof on this? So this is [00:25:00] hidden 43%. 43. There you go. So they've been making this stuff since 1862. Wow. As they say, following an ancestral family tradition might need to be updated.
And a unique craftmanship passed on in the family that makes it for 160 years. It's, uh, distilled and aged in French oak barrels, uh, only French oak barrels for 15 years made from pure sugar cane juice. I'm like, are you getting any oak? I'm not getting any, no. No, I think the recipe may need to be adjusted, might be
**Bam Bam:** time for a ai,
**Gizmo:** might be time for a little lookie.
Take a little look at it. Let a computer figure it
**Bam Bam:** out.
**Senator:** Jesus. I'm sorry. You got the description of the bottle. It gets, this is wild. It says, uh, for a long, rich, and complex finish. This does not have a long finish. No, not at all. This very thin, like you said. Absolutely. [00:26:00] And then the, my favorite part is the last line says the estate reserve is best consumed neat.
Like a fine cognac. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's, it's just objectively not
**Gizmo:** for the Haitian palate.
**Bam Bam:** I'm gonna give it a senator reaction.
**Grinder:** They're a little, they're a little rougher in haitia they got they got than Haiti. They have a little more oomph behind their, uh,
**Gizmo:** yeah, this is, uh, that's something. That's really something. So the last thing I wanted to say on poor wire and yoga history, that I thought was interesting. Going back to the Petite Corona for one second. I was reading a mine Rodney's book that we always reference, uh, which came out over 20 years ago.
Rooster gave it back to you. Yes, thank you. Wow. That's rare. He's a good guy. This rooster. Look at that. Can I bored again? So, uh, he for another five years, so the one thing that Min Miran noted that he was incorrect about, [00:27:00] he said that the petite Corona is still produced from time to time in limited quantities.
So this is written 2001, uh, but very difficult to find. And he said it will be discontinued by the end of 2002. So that obviously turned out to not be correct. So he must have gotten some information from Haos that they were planning to cancel the entire line. And then they ended up wanting to keep, uh, the, the P L P C, which was the only cigar from 2000.
Two, I guess, um, until they released, uh, the Monte Carlo. I
**Senator:** am stunned that Haos would create panic that something's gonna be hard to find or discontinue. They
**Gizmo:** would never do something like that. That's not like them. That was maybe Stu their first trial was in this brand 20 years ago. Yeah. This is all they do.
You know what's interesting
**Rooster:** though? The p l pc, the Petite Corona mm-hmm. Has the same
**Gizmo:** band, right? It does, yeah. So does the Monte Carlo. Yeah. Everything does except the PKA doors. Pika, [00:28:00] yeah. Which I guess they have on there like that because of the, uh, cuz it's the Habana specialist release, which only goes to certain shops.
The other thing that's interesting is almost the entire line that is now discontinued, um, were, uh, in cellophane. Oh.
**Bam Bam:** Good thing they discontinued
**Gizmo:** it. Yeah. Wow. So I'm assuming that, I mean, I'm
**Senator:** sorry, actually, cellophane would be helpful on more Cuban cigars, you think? Because the fucking feet gets so easily damaged.
Yeah. The wrappers are so thin. Yeah. I would actually love for a lot of them to be in cellophane.
**Bam Bam:** You think that was a issue of expense? Why they eliminated the cellophane. It's gotta be. And
**Pagoda:** then some, some would have to put each cigar into a cellophane. Yeah. And you could imagine going back into the
**Bam Bam:** factories,
**Gizmo:** the labor.
Yeah. And I think the way that, I think that the way that they were probably selling them too was not in the way that we're buying them. Now think about how cigars were sold in the sixties, seventies, eighties. They were probably sold as singles. That's true. They're being thrown around. They're being put in cups.
Yeah. Pick 'em up at the store. Like, you know, maybe the [00:29:00] cellophane just helped protect it from the elements a little bit. Don't, don't forget they're putting chicken buckets. That's right. Chicken buckets. Now that's a modern uh, well they were
**Rooster:** machine rolls, so it was probably easier
**Gizmo:** Yeah. To drop 'em in there.
Plastic. Yeah. Mm, the cigars pretty decent. About halfway through it's picked up again a little bit. It's kinda like peaks and valleys right now for me. Yeah, it's a perfect description. It's decent. Yeah. Yeah. How much are these? About 20 bucks. 20. That's expensive. I mean, re Rooster was looking today, I just got a really nice draw.
Uh, rooster was looking today at D fours in a 10 count box for 26 bucks a stick. Excellent price before shipping. Yeah. Excellent. You know what? I think I was
**Bam Bam:** paying 10 bucks a stick two years ago. I've seen, I've seen Dean fours over 30 bucks on certain sets. That's crazy. It's insane. That's crazy. I, you know what?
Right now, if I was short on D fours, I'd pay that. I would pay that because that's cigars worth every dollar.
**Gizmo:** It's amazing how
**Rooster:** much prices have
**Gizmo:** gone up by, I mean, so, yeah, it's insane. It's like tripled.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. But for new worlds as well. [00:30:00] Across the board,
**Gizmo:** the entire cigar. But the drone hasn't gone from 12 to 30, you know, 36, not nearly
**Senator:** at the same rate.
That's
**Bam Bam:** true. Nearly at the same. What's the next placebo cost right now? 1515
**Gizmo:** what? Yeah, 14, 15 probably. Wow. Like 360 year box.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Hmm. So that hasn't
**Gizmo:** really changed much. They haven't gone up that much. I mean, it went from like 14 to 15. Interesting.
**Bam Bam:** What's really gone
**Pagoda:** up as a New York
**Bam Bam:** taxes. Yeah. Yeah. 70%.
**Gizmo:** It's horrible. Try to get a drink. I mean, you mentioned this on a prior episode. Uh, pagoda try to get a drink in the city. What was used to be a poor Macallan or Balty for 16 bucks is now what? 30? 30? Yeah. Doubled. Yeah. I've reduced And everything's measured. Yeah. Mm-hmm. There's no generosity anymore.
**Pagoda:** My, my livers uh, started to regenerate.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's uh, it's expensive out there, man. It's expensive. I just don't go into the city much. I only go when I have to. I mean, that's, unless I [00:31:00] have to be there, I do not go into the city anymore cuz it's just too expensive to like have a night out. Sure. You know? That's why we have our club. That's why we have our club.
Beautiful. 10 86. Oh yeah. So, um, somebody mentioned, uh, cracked feet, cracked wrappers and whatnot. I know Rooster, you had mentioned this, that, um, you had a cracked wrapper and about repairing them and whatnot. What was your experience and, and what did you try to do to fix it? Yeah, I was trying to figure out
**Rooster:** why that happens.
Once in a while you'll get a cigar and either the wrapper is cracked or it's kind of peeling
**Gizmo:** back a little bit and before you
**Senator:** smoke it or once you, as you're lighting it, yeah,
**Rooster:** as you're lighting it, like you might see like a spot, like, you know, that its might peel off and then you might be, might not, you know, but then as you're smoking it, I think as it heats up, maybe the glue is kind of like, you know, like the, it's kind of like totally peeling off or it's cracked.
Um, The wrapper is, is pretty thin to begin with. [00:32:00] So after doing some research, I think apparently maybe the hum, the fluctuation and humidity also has a huge effect to it. So if the cigar is kind of dry, that will happen quite a bit. You will, your wrapper will, will crack and break. So what, what do you do when
**Gizmo:** that happens?
Unless I'm exp for me, unless I'm experiencing like an issue on the draw? No, but like,
**Rooster:** before you even light it, if there's like a wrapper that's peeling off, I mean, they have
**Gizmo:** cigar, they have cigar glue and stuff. I
**Bam Bam:** mentioned this to all of you maybe a month ago, and Senator said just, you know, raise your humidity setting.
I did that, you know, and I keep it at 68, you know, the oasis is at the bottom and it rises up to the top. And I got 64 now at the top, which is perfect for me. I did have issues because my hum, my tower overall was on the dry side and I was getting worried about it, so I cranked it up a bit. Kind of helped it.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. But once the wrapper peels, like what do you, he means once you're smoking happens, you happens smoking it, or like before you [00:33:00] light it, I,
**Bam Bam:** depending on the cigar, I would use spit. You know, I just wet my finger and I kind of, and I rub it in the same direction that the leaf is wrapped. Yeah. Then I let it sit for a bit and I smoke it really slow because I've noticed if I go through cigar really quickly and it's cigars dry, it will start to come apart.
So I slow
**Gizmo:** down. Yeah. I have, I have read that you could use a little bit of honey on it. Oh, that's a great idea. You could use even like
**Rooster:** cola, like Coca-Cola because it's got a little bit of sugary, uh, interesting sweetness to it and, uh,
**Gizmo:** syrupy. That's smart. What about tequila?
**Bam Bam:** Well, the alcohol, that's what Schwarzenegger uses.
Oh God.
**Gizmo:** Full dip. That's awful. By the way, that's a call back to episode one. Yes, it is. Is that what it is? I think so. I think it's very close to episode
**Rooster:** one, but imagine spending like 20, 30, 40 bucks for a cigar, and the cigar
**Gizmo:** and the wrapper is cracked.
**Senator:** Yeah, but it's very easy. I usually just re-roll it. Oh,
**Gizmo:** just kidding.
**Rooster:** I'll bring it to your house
**Gizmo:** next time.
**Senator:** El Setor. I just wish, can you [00:34:00] imagine if one of us actually knew how to roll a cigar? We're like, oh, the wrapper cracked. Let me just go grab another wrapper. Just re-roll
**Grinder:** the
**Bam Bam:** whole thing. You good? I'm coming over. I need my cigars re-roll.
**Grinder:** You're living in the Stone Age Senator?
I have a machine that does my Oh,
**Bam Bam:** with an AI component? Yes.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. AI analysis on the cigar if it's gonna crack or not. You know, I've had cigars crack at the foot when I've lit it. I've had cigars, crack, um, you know, in the middle section of the cigar. The only time I've ever gotten concerned or done anything about it was when I can, I feel the draw kind of explode open, where it's like, there's no way this air is coming from the foot.
It's definitely coming through that crack. But otherwise I just power through it. Cuz I'm assuming that. If the wrapper may be cracked, that doesn't necessarily mean that the binder layer is cracked or that there's so much air coming through that it's gonna be a major problem. So normally I'm just powering through.
I've never bought pectin. I've never played with any of this stuff you're talking about. No, same. I
**Bam Bam:** just go through it. Honestly. It also depends on where it's opening. If there's a seam, it's [00:35:00] a natural occurrence of where it could lift. I think any type of moisture works really well there and just slow down on a cigar.
Yeah. For me, that's
**Senator:** worked great. I think that's right. I think it's when it's when it's one of the seams that it's rolled along. Mm-hmm. You're usually okay, but when it truly cracks the fissure in the, when you're smoking, all of a sudden you just see like a straight line, just crack through. Uh, a bunch of the leaf, you can't do anything about that.
And then you're just sitting there hoping that it's gonna stay small. Yeah. And sometimes it does and you're okay, but sometimes it just expands and expands.
**Gizmo:** Usually. Usually it, it gets worse. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Honestly, if it's gonna happen, you hope for it to be at defeat because you will power beyond it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** No doubt.
**Pagoda:** I powered through it sometimes, you know, so sometimes these cigars can't look like a blooming flower, but hey, hey,
**Gizmo:** as long as you're getting draw, man, keep going. But you know, my thing to it, you know, I, I'll counter, I'll go against what you said about humidity. Like obviously I like my tower a little bit more dry.
Mm-hmm. Like, I keep my [00:36:00] Cubans at about 60 Rh, my new world's around 64, 65. And what I've found is that I, I don't have cracking issues. They've been at that humidity for quite some time.
**Bam Bam:** Hold on. Your oasis at the bottom is set
**Gizmo:** at 60? No, my oasis at the, the, the reader, the, the measurement tool is at the center of the unit.
Oh, okay. Okay. And that is set to 62. Wow. Um, so it's about 64, 65 at the bottom, and 60 at the top. Hmm. Um, but most of my Cubans are in the 60 range. Okay. And, um, they've been for quite some time, you know, even earl before I got the tower. And what I find is the opposite of what we're saying almost. I, I do not experience a lot of cracking.
I'll give you a scenario in which I do in a minute, but, um, I also find that I'm getting significantly less plugged. And draw issue cigars because I'm reducing the humidity and I'm giving that tobacco. A little bit more room to breathe, pulling some of that moisture out of there. Cuz when I get up to 65 on a Cuban, that's when I [00:37:00] start sensing in a box that even when the foot looks like it's open, it's not overpacked that I'm gonna have a, I'm gonna have a smoke issue.
I'll just say this, I
**Bam Bam:** think not every tower is made the same. Totally. Yes. So you're I totally agree. You're gonna have to play with
**Gizmo:** it. An
**Senator:** experience. It's also, it's not just the tower. It, it's not every, uh, not every home is made the same. That's true. I mean, some people, whether it's in your basement living room, wherever the tower is, it actually may run pretty humid.
Others it may run very dry. Mm-hmm. So either the oasis is constantly having to fight to increase the humidity or you have a lot more humidity and it's trying to reduce it the best that it can. So I think that also plays into it. Yeah. I mean, from what I remember is yours ran humid where your tower is, right
**Gizmo:** where it was.
Okay. Where my Remington was. Before Lizard Shawn bought it was in a really bad spot for any tower or any situation, cuz it was by a door that was constantly being opened. So the ambient in that room was always bad. The new tower is in a totally different spot that is isolated from humidity, temperature, sunlight, any sort of changes.
So [00:38:00] it really stays extremely stable. That's great. With just the oasis. Nice. So, you know, and it's getting, it's obviously warm now, so the air conditioning's running in the house, and I'm still finding the oasis needing to do a little bit of work, which is the way I want it, as opposed to having to put something in there to, to pull humidity down.
But, you know, I, I don't, I don't know, I'm just finding that my stuff is smoking really, really good. Even in the warmer weather. Mm-hmm. Smoking outside a lot more, you know, it's just the stuff is doing better for me.
**Senator:** I mean, when you take kitty litter out, it, it just tastes a little better. It
**Gizmo:** tastes better.
I like the taste of that
**Bam Bam:** silica. Yeah. That blue silica, does it put a tint on all your sticks?
**Gizmo:** No, that's the, uh, the fresh kitty or whatever it is. Right. The other question that comes up, obviously with temperature and humidity in the summertime is smoking outside. Um, I'm pretty firmly against it. I try to avoid it when I can.
I know that I'm definitely in the minority in [00:39:00] the room. I love smoking outside. I do too, honestly, on a non windy day, it's perfect.
**Senator:** What kind of definitive statement is that I'm against? Smoking. Outdoors is
**Gizmo:** definitive. Definitive. I don't love it. I mean, my God advice, my
**Senator:** God. Hold on. Have you ever been on vacation where there's is just Yes.
You're somewhere tropical. Yeah. There's no wind. There is, honestly, I've been to Cuba. Nothing with you. Right. But there's
**Gizmo:** nothing better
**Bam Bam:** than that. Yeah, it's awesome.
**Gizmo:** Come on. I, I think that the Cuban experience is, is isolated because generally at night, what we've experienced in the several times that we've gone.
Is that the temperature and humidity thing always is really kind of at the perfect, perfect spot. It dissipates at night. Yeah. The problem for us though, honestly in New Jersey, it's
**Senator:** too hum. I wouldn't use mean we were on the, where we're getting wind. Yeah. So there were a number of times where the, the conditions were not necessarily ideal for outdoor smoking, but I just mean sometimes when you're someplace outdoors, especially in a hot.
Day that then cools a bit at night and it's just still, that's perfection right there, there the smoke, when you're, [00:40:00] when you're out there and it doesn't move, it just stays and lingers and you're just staring at it in the air. There is nothing more sensory and enjoyable That's true than that smoke. It's like an indoor
**Gizmo:** outdoor room.
**Bam Bam:** So, you know, and those are memorable moments with a cigar that you, that linger in your mind. It makes an imprint. You don't forget those times.
**Rooster:** Truly. Yeah. And the other thing about Cuba, if you're talking about Cuba, is that you can smoke anywhere inside. Well, yeah. At any, most restaurants it
**Gizmo:** does spoil
**Rooster:** You smoke inside, inside.
I mean, that's, you can't do
**Gizmo:** that anywhere. Yeah. How, how,
**Grinder:** I mean, I, I, I fell in love with cigars, smoking them outside, being part of the outside, you know, being around the golf course, people smoking cigars outside. Don't you have any of that
**Gizmo:** sense? I enjoy, well, no, if I'm, my definitive statement is Senator calls.
It is really what I'm smoking by myself, I find in New Jersey. In our area. There's very few times of the year when you're consistently getting the perfect situation, [00:41:00] especially to smoke Cuban cigars. Listen, I can go outside on a windy day in, in, in a humid day and smoke a patron's gonna be great. It's just, you know, when you're specifically talking Cubans Yeah, especially something you've invested a lot of money in.
Well, it depends on the cigar. That's where I'm not
**Bam Bam:** gonna go outside. I guess it depends a bit on the cigar, but the outdoor experience is really
**Senator:** unbeatable. I just think I'm gonna challenge you this summer. I think that the hotter it gets in the summer here in this area, the nights tend to be very still true.
When it's cooler, there's wind all that. When it's moderately warm. But when it gets hot, like August weather and it's 95 degrees by the nighttime and it's like 70, yeah. It's usually just so still and serene and perfect cigar smoking.
**Bam Bam:** The humidity's still there a bit, but it doesn't, that really depends on the cigar, I think and But in a good way.
**Senator:** Yeah, a new world. That's what keeps the smoke lingering there. It's true.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's amazing. It actually makes a, it kind of gives you that perfume [00:42:00] around you. It's kind of cool.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I mean,
**Rooster:** ideally if you could have a room that's kind of enclosed on three sides, And just open on one side so you don't get that wind.
But yet you are kind of like outdoor, indoor outdoor
**Gizmo:** room. That's ideals. But see that's what I have. That's what I do in my garage. Yeah, I do. You do the same. The same thing. Yeah. So would you say you're sitting indoors or outdoors? Indoor as your challenge? Indoor outdoor room. But
**Senator:** it's not the same as sitting.
I will say it's not, it's cause I have the same set of, it's not the same as sitting fully outdoors. Right. Yeah. There's just something about being completely immersed in like nature. Yeah. And just something very scenic than like sitting in any room with walls on three sides and one's open. It just, it doesn't have the same feel.
But
**Rooster:** usually at night it does. The wind does die down. Sure. And, and it does get perfect. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** And you know, we've had really good days. If you go back to the last few weeks, there've been so many days you could be sitting out. Mm-hmm. No one reasonably cool.
**Grinder:** Fantastic.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. The thing that I will say too is that when it's, when I think about [00:43:00] memories of us smoking together, Outside.
Like that's when it's different. Those are the best memories, honestly, are special moments. But I'm, what I'm saying is when I smoke by myself, that's a different, I'm putting a different mindset on than when I'm with the group of guys. And like when we sit outside to smoke, if there's a fire going, if there's not, if it's warm enough, if it's not.
As long as the bugs are good and the wind is good, yeah. Um, we're so into it. Well, you
**Bam Bam:** gotta keep an eye on the conditions. But you know, there are moments when I've been alone, I contemplate and it with my cigar alone, those are also very memorable moments with the right cigar. You know, I remember the up and two, I smoked last summer.
My kids and the wife were out. I was home alone. I made myself dinner. I went outside, sat in my chair, lit the fire. It was warm out, but it was nine 30 no wind. It was incredible. They
**Gizmo:** didn't call us. Yeah, that's a good point there. Rooster still haven't been to his house. You
**Bam Bam:** noticed that that was, that was a solitary bam, bam.
Moment.
**Gizmo:** The other thing too [00:44:00] is that, you know, when I travel, sometimes I travel to Florida when it is warm, because it's just the time of the year that we have to go, uh, to see the family. But man, it's difficult to smoke down there. It's Oh, it's too huge. It's difficult to smoke in the humidity. Oh yeah. I mean, even pad patrons and stuff, it's just like you don't have enough butane on you.
Like for listeners out there, I'm curious how you deal with that. Like, you know, who live in very humid places all the time. Um, it's gotta be incredibly challenging. Yeah. I mean, especially your light, a cigar that costs as much as these do, it's like, makes hard,
**Bam Bam:** I've, I've had Cubans in a humid, a humid, uh, evening that would just go out.
Yeah. You know, continuously relaying. That's tough.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. And that's not even considering when, but
that's
**Pagoda:** when you do your new worlds. Yeah, well, they go out too,
**Bam Bam:** depending on the humidity.
**Gizmo:** So I had a relight when I was talking. I had to really relight the cigar. Uh, we're about halfway through, a little beyond halfway. What do you guys think of the cigar right now? [00:45:00]
**Bam Bam:** Uh, it's,
**Gizmo:** uh, serviceable.
**Rooster:** It was good in the beginning. Yeah. That it kind of faded off. Mm-hmm. And the last, I guess, I don't know, one, like a little past half of wine, it's picked up a little bit, but it's not quite the same flavor that we were getting in the beginning.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I'm not getting, for
**Bam Bam:** me, any increase in flavor or strength profile? It's staying fairly consistent. Same here. Yeah. Flavors are a little muted, but it's not awful, but it's not spectacular. So
**Grinder:** I think, I think the cigar, it, it certainly plateaued, but then it, then it took a precipitous hop off the end there.
And, uh, I don't think it's bad at all. I think it's just, it's like a whisper. It's like very light. And I like light lighter cigars, but there's not, there's not that flavor there that, you know, when you, when you first lit it, It was phenomenal. That flavor was
**Gizmo:** so intense. Yeah, it's like the, it's like when we lit it, the flavor was standing right here and in every draw it takes two steps [00:46:00] towards the door and now it's in the parking lot.
So just like, so think about yelling at us. Why does that happen?
**Rooster:** It's the same leaf right from the, from the top to the bottom. How does that leaf in the beginning taste a certain way and towards the end it tastes like the taste kind of dies
**Gizmo:** down. What's the blend? It's the blending decisions. It's how much of the ratio they're putting where in the journey.
So clearly where whatever they did at the light or whatever that ratio was at the light, we obviously are wishing that it continued a little longer or throughout, or I, I argue held that moment for later in the cigar than at the beginning. You know, we need to be on the
**Rooster:** haos tasting panel. I agree. And give them some feedback on how they can improve the blend of, I thought
**Gizmo:** you were.
I'm sure with our very kind opinions over the years that, uh, they'd love the house. Oh yeah.
**Pagoda:** What about the shape of the leaf?
**Gizmo:** No, I'm just kidding. But I would think it's bland. I would think it's construction. Obviously we're having inconsistent [00:47:00] construction issues right now. You know? Pagoda, is yours any better?
No. It's pretty
**Pagoda:** flat. Yeah. In fact, now, actually the last straw was so bad. It
**Rooster:** was just
**Gizmo:** smoke. Oof. How's your sender? I'm kind
**Senator:** of where Rooster was on this. It started good. I liked the first several puffs. The middle just went completely flat for me, and then the last third has actually picked up in some more enjoyable flavor, but nothing quite like the first quarter was.
So, I mean, overall I'm not, I'm not thrilled with it. I don't hate it. I, I'm gonna smoke it probably to the end, but, I, I want more.
**Pagoda:** The one thing, what is consistent about this is the smokeout button. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Combustion's. Good. One thing. That's great, right? The having the room is smokey. Great combustion.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The combustion's not bad at all. But I will
**Senator:** say this, just the flavor profile [00:48:00] really reminds me of the P L P C. And I'm not saying it's a bad cigar, but just for my palette and the flavor profile, I like, I just don't think poor la Naga is a brand. I, I really like the flavor profile of, I
**Bam Bam:** have to differ on that though.
For me, I get a completely different experience with that guy. I gotta bring, I'm gonna bring a 50 cab in. We'll do it again. I feel it's much more flavorful than this guy. No doubt.
**Gizmo:** I, I agree with you. I think that the Plpc performs better for sure, and there's definitely more flavor there. Yeah, it's delicious, but I think it's very, it's the profile of the flavor.
It's very similar to this. Yeah. My issue, this is like the cousin of the plc.
**Senator:** That's the thing. My issue is not that, this doesn't have a, my, my biggest complaint is not that this is mild or doesn't have enough flavor. That's all true. But my bigger problem with it is the flavor. I am getting the notes, the profile.
It's, it's so heavily Woody Andy, in addition to those other things. And I just really like that to be very far in the background in any cigar that I love the profile of. [00:49:00] And it's just too forward in a lot of these poor
**Bam Bam:** Lana that I completely agree with, with this cigar that we're smoking tonight. The
**Gizmo:** only thing I would say is
**Rooster:** with the, with the uh, petite Corona, you get the flavors that you got in the beginning of the galanis and that kind of continues Yeah.
**Gizmo:** More throughout. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And I do get more dessert note and that Yeah. All the way through, you know, the
**Pagoda:** pairing is not helping at all. That's true. That's the other thing, right? Like I think we had something more fuller bodied, you know, a little more viscous. Yep. A bit more of the sherry, the sweeter. I agree with that.
I think it might've really helped the cigar.
**Gizmo:** The bastards, these Cuban and Haitian bastards
**Rooster:** go back to making machine made.
**Gizmo:** I mean, you know, think about how much were each, you know, let's say each of us spent on this experience tonight, right? You're looking at a $20 cigar and let's say a a fifth of the bottle. You're, you're looking at let's say 1215 bucks for the, for [00:50:00] the pairing.
That's not cheap. I mean, that's a $40 experience for that hour 15 that we're gonna get out of this. Is that even in line remotely with the, the, the taste experience that we're having? No,
**Rooster:** you make that in a month
**Gizmo:** in Cuba. Yeah. Yeah,
**Pagoda:** that's true. But this interaction is priceless.
**Gizmo:** It's the friendship pagoda.
It's the friendship. It's time well spent.
**Grinder:** So what
**Pagoda:** about the, uh, outdoor place? I know you were at
**Rooster:** outdoor.
**Gizmo:** Yeah,
**Rooster:** we were at the, at the one hotel in, uh, Brooklyn. Mm. The Dumbo area. Yep. They have a
**Gizmo:** rooftop. I've been there. There's
**Rooster:** a restaurant and a bar and stuff. Yeah. Really nice spot. I mean, the view is phenomenal from there.
Sure. Uh, drinks are
**Gizmo:** pricey. Yeah. Yeah. So how much was the, so was it like a party or did you guys just go No, no, we just
**Rooster:** kind of went there. Um, yeah, we just happened to be in that area. We just wanted to walk around and, uh, you know, decided to go [00:51:00] to a rooftop area before dinner drinks were like 28, 30 bucks.
That's
**Gizmo:** crazy, man. Yeah. That's nice. I had
**Rooster:** a Heineken zero, I think it was, uh, 12 or $14 and they had gratuity and taxes
**Gizmo:** right on it. That's right. You know, so it, it was, that was a little pricey. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** Can you imagine buying something with no alcohol?
**Grinder:** 20 bucks dollars for a beer flavored
**Gizmo:** flavored soda pop.
And then, and then mandatory gratuity. You can't even make the gratuity choice dude. Fuck Brooklyn, man. It's the same in Manhattan too. It's It's everywhere. It's everywhere. I mean, I'm tired, dude. You go to like self checkout now they're asking for tips. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it was like 50 bucks
**Rooster:** to park, $75 for like three drinks.
One of them was non-alcoholic drink. Mm-hmm. You know, you have two rounds that's like a $200, like within the
**Gizmo:** hour. Sure.
**Bam Bam:** I love, I love Brooklyn. I have an office there. I've been there for a long time. [00:52:00] Parking is a bit easier than Manhattan. So if you do have a little patience, you will find a spot You've been around.
The one you will find.
**Senator:** Yeah. You've gotta go. Go. You wanna find a garage for a good price? Anywhere in New York. Go on Icon parking.com. Yes. Create an account. You automatically get a discount on every reservation you make just by having a free account. And I'm telling you, I have never paid more, even in the most high demand times imaginable.
More than 30 bucks to park for an entire 90 I city. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Used Park was.
**Bam Bam:** That's incredible. That's an incredible rate.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. That's a good price. It is. I use, I use, I actually check Icon and I check Park Whiz. When I go into the city, like for a concert or something, I'm always checking. I, I tried Park Whiz last
**Rooster:** night and the closest one was 50 bucks.
Wow. Yeah. So we ended up just rallying
**Gizmo:** it for 40. It was a little cheaper. It's nuts. So the closest one was, you
**Rooster:** know, that was 25, you had to walk like 15. 15 minutes. Yep.
**Pagoda:** You're take over Uber then. Yeah. [00:53:00] 40. What's this world coming to?
**Senator:** It's like 40 for valet is good. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. So the ones in Dumbo, right. Um, if you block, you could, there's parking four or five blocks in Brooklyn Heights if you're willing to walk.
If it's a beautiful night, I would highly recommend that you can find parking there. Bit challenging. You gotta cruise around.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. We went, yeah, we
**Rooster:** were in Bushwick, we went to Williamsburg. Yeah. Uh, great pizza we had in Williamsburg. Oh yeah. You
**Grinder:** can always find something around Cadman Plaza there.
**Gizmo:** Always.
Yeah, always. It was, it was really crowded last night. There were tons of people. Yeah. It was a great night. You know, you got
**Rooster:** the, uh, you got Grimaldi's Pizza right there, right around the corner. Yeah. And Juliana's is right next
**Bam Bam:** door. Yeah. And it's a new ice cream shop with a big across. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. That's a cool spot.
Oh, there, there must have about a hundred people in line there. That's insane. Can I, all right, let's talk about that for a second. I, I don't understand. Some people are obsessed with standing in line. Like, it's like fomo, like fear of missing out. Like I have a, I have [00:54:00] a, a, a friend and his wife when they are in the city or somewhere, like they say they're traveling and they see a line for food or an experience, they sometimes won't even investigate what they're getting in line for.
They're just that into being in line and like having this new experience with this new food. Like to me, I can't, when I see a line, I, I turn the other way. Yeah. I don't care what it is with all these, these are your friends. Well, let's call 'em
**Senator:** acquaintances. I'm sorry. Anybody I knew that wants to do this, they're out.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, they're they're out. They're out. It's horrible. It's ridiculous. Yeah. People love standing in line, man. Yeah. I've, I've never that stand, stand Imagine stand a line for bagels or pizza or something. No. Like, can you imagine standing in a line for I, well, people
**Senator:** standing in line for Grimaldi's. I would not do that.
Oh, yeah. Oh, bagels. It gets really bad. So when I lived on the, uh, upper West Side, I was right by, there's a very famous spot, if you look at like Best Bagels in New York called No Absolute Bagels. Mm-hmm. Uh, it's on like a hundred seventh and Broadway. The line at this place, I'm not [00:55:00] exaggerating. It could be on a Saturday morning, like four blocks long.
It's so stupid. Yeah. But luckily I live so close. I would just look down to see how long the line was and I would just wait for like the opportune tie and I'd just go in and there'd be like five people ahead of me was perfect. That's
**Bam Bam:** called the Senator's Advantage. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Have you had pizza at
**Rooster:** Industry Pizza
**Gizmo:** in Williamsburg?
I have. I know
**Bam Bam:** where that is. Yeah. But I have
**Gizmo:** not gone in there. No. Again, the same thing. There must have been like 20, 25
**Bam Bam:** people online. Yeah. With all my time in Brooklyn, Manhattan. I don't understand why people would wait online. There's great food everywhere. Yeah. Everywhere.
**Gizmo:** True. Yeah. Never catch me standing in line, man.
We know that now. So in the last third here on this cigar, I have had actually some much better draws. Like I've had some real nice bursts of flavor in the last third. Yeah. It's not bad. That are surprising me that we're not there. Mm-hmm. In the second, third at all.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Second, third was
**Senator:** flat. Yeah. We're having a similar experience.
Yeah. Cause for me, the, the final third has definitely picked up in some [00:56:00] positive ways. Mm-hmm. That second, third was just a total blood. Agreed.
**Gizmo:** What's interesting too is, I mean, we're about an hour in now. I really don't feel like I've smoked this fast. It hasn't heated up. It's only a year old. Um, like I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm not moving through this as quickly as I thought I was going to when I saw the size of the cigar, which makes me, made me question like, why the hell put out a ribo that's four and three quarters inches?
Why not push it a little further? Like, gimme that extra 10, 15, 20 minutes. If I so want it, like I don't understand that decision. Yeah. Strange. You know, especially you look at the other rebo, you know, Cuban BUAs that this is competing against, I guess. Well maybe
**Grinder:** that's why, you know, competing against the D four and
**Gizmo:** others.
Yeah. I guess,
**Bam Bam:** right. This does not compete against the D four. No,
**Grinder:** but not at all. It's d differentiating it, like it's probably, you know,
**Senator:** I don't know. The only thing I will give it against all REOs, this has the best smoke output of [00:57:00] any Cuban re robusto I've ever smoked. Totally. It was, this room at many times has been filled with smoke.
Yeah. Uncomfortably. So like just, I, I can't believe us Rab Robusto is able to do this. It's true.
**Grinder:** That's all. It's very open, right? You can get a lot of, we get a
**Gizmo:** lot of hair intake. Yeah. The drawer is open. So we had a, a listener email us. Um, I wanted to share this with you guys cuz he had a good question here.
Lizard Justin said. Hey, I just listened to the Parus series E number two episode. It was such a good episode. You guys are killing it. You keep getting better and better. As time goes on, I'll have all the subjects and approach you guys continue to take. It's right up my alley and I really look forward to every Tuesday morning on my way to work.
That's an awesome email. And, uh, he said, he said, we're coming into warmer months. I know you guys have talked about this before, but what are some of your favorite summer cigars to smoke? Um, and preferably stuff that's easy to find, both Cuban and non Cuban. So I, I [00:58:00] could, I could, I'd like to go around the room.
I know we've mentioned some of these before, but mm-hmm. For listeners who haven't heard it, what are some of your favorite warm weather smokes and let's, let's maybe say smoking outside. It's a little warm. Let's, let's put that in the context. What are some of the, what are some of the cigars you go to? Id Coronas.
Claro. Yeah. Cuts a good, that's good one, but they're kind of hard to get. Yeah, that's not a, I would
**Rooster:** say for a new world, I like the Davidoff, like the Grand Crew series. Like something
**Gizmo:** on the milder side. Yeah. That in the morning afternoons. We should do that on that. Start the pod. Yeah. Never had that. Yeah.
Me neither. Yeah, those are good. Are we talking New World or Cuban? Let's start
**Bam Bam:** with Cuban. I love the QD series 50
**Gizmo:** 54 even. I feel like Coronas Claros have actually been coming up quite a bit more. I've seen them a few times on o h. Yeah. I think QD
**Senator:** generally has. Mm-hmm. I mean, for me it's the QD 50 in the morning and the Coronas Claros in the afternoon.
That's good call.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. We have the QD 50 coming up on the podcast, by the way. Can't wait to do that. Um, I think it's next month. I don't know when it is. [00:59:00] Can't wait a few weeks next month. It's coming up soon. Yeah. I left
**Rooster:** the Juan Lopez, number one. Number two in the morning,
**Gizmo:** afternoon jail one is awesome.
It's awesome. That's the Corona, right? The jail one's? The Corona Jail two's. The Ribo jail one is
**Rooster:** kinda like the Up on 46.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And jail two Theo. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** While I can smoke anything. Let's not forget the ra, meaning I think, uh, flavorful. It's excellent.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Short The
**Rooster:** punch. A punch punch.
**Grinder:** I think a lot of the general production Cubans for me are great summer cigars.
Um, it's funny when you, when you ask that question, one cigar popped into my head, and that's the, uh, uh, new World Lgc Siri. R mm. Yeah. Um, that like very thick cigar. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Um, R number five or seven? Uh, four.
**Gizmo:** Okay. I, so that's the little Gloria Cobana, but not the Cuban version. Not the Cuban version. Siri r
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
Quite the robust
**Grinder:** cigar though. It's, it's a big cigar. It's known for being kind. [01:00:00] It's, but it's very, it's very sweet. It's got like a very sweet profile and it, it produces a lot of smoke. It's very easy to smoke. Uh, so in that hot weather, it just kind of fits the bill. I And, and another, another one that you guys are all gonna laugh at, I'm sure.
Um, but I'll take the punches. And it is actually an Ashton, a very traditional Ashton, like,
**Senator:** whew, I tell you're gonna say the album.
**Gizmo:** I was waiting for that idea. Yeah, it's sitting right next to him. It keeps creeping closer to center. I think it's gonna bite him. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** they should have named that. He's scared.
**Gizmo:** He's scared. All of a sudden he's gonna be conspicuously absent when we do that cigar in the next couple months. Guess do you get any emails
**Rooster:** that are kind of not so nice?
**Gizmo:** Honestly no. So you don't bring them up? No, I I good though. Go smokers buddy. Cigar smokers. No, I, if we got negative emails, I would read them.
I would like to hear them. Any, any, any feedback? Are you calling for the listeners to write us bad emails? Not one hate mail. [01:01:00] Please come criticize us please. The only ones that get, the only person that gets bad email is bam. When he did, wasn't sharing his stock list. Of course. But that's over now.
**Bam Bam:** That's right.
I still get notes through our, one of our groups. Not bad. They're funny still kind of.
**Gizmo:** Well, I mean we love all kind of feedback, but it's generally been Sam has been so abused. Yeah, well he's, listen, look at up. We find he is now accountability hour. That's
**Bam Bam:** right. I've got one inch thick skin.
**Gizmo:** But I mean, I mean the listeners have been, you know, we've had constructive emails saying, Hey, I wish you guys would do more of this or that, or Hey, don't do so much of this, or, you know, but it's never been, there's never been like a really negative tone, which is nice.
I mean, it's always been very positive. So Yeah. You know.
**Bam Bam:** Senator, what are you going for in the summer? I think you mentioned earlier. Yeah, the cutie. Yeah. 50 Cutty 50 in the morning. I
**Gizmo:** wanna hear everyone else. So mine is, um, rest. Oh yeah, okay. Mine for sure. The, the two that I've been smoking outside, um, especially with a cup of coffee.
And I like my lemon seltzer. That's kind of my combo. Um, [01:02:00] is, uh, punch. Punch. We'll have a punch punch. And the El Ray del Mundo, schwa schwa supreme. That is a stunning, that's a good one. That's a good one. That's a stunning
**Grinder:** for me, man. So, but do, do, are they, why are they, are they holding up? Are they particularly like summer cigars?
Are they holding up particularly
**Gizmo:** well? Summer they hold up. When, for me, when there's no wind, both of those cigars perform beautifully. Outside or inside, but outside, uh, if I'm out with the dogs in the backyard and I have 45 minutes or an hour, that's what I'll go for. Mm-hmm. Um, if I have like a bigger lunch or something and I want.
Kind of a 45 minute or an hour long smoke. I'll reach for like a Monte four. Mm-hmm. Which is that same size that Hermosa. Um, I'll reach for a Monte four or I'll push into a D four or something like that. You know, it's a good cigar,
**Grinder:** which probably doesn't get enough credit. The Desso is actually not a bad, the Pedro Patron
**Gizmo:** Desso.
Yeah. It's not
**Grinder:** a bad
**Senator:** cigar. Mm. Yeah. I've never had it. I'd be
**Gizmo:** curious to try it. That's not bad. Yeah, same. Yeah, we should do that on the pod. We have a couple pad patrons. [01:03:00] We just did a Padrone, the 85th, but we have another Padrone coming up and then mm-hmm. We'll put that in a queue maybe for later this year.
And you know, I love
**Bam Bam:** the Sorano. Yeah. I do like that cigar. That's a good cigar. Yeah. Not for the summer, but
**Senator:** Great. So I have to ask, is your, your coffee and seltzer? Yep. Mm-hmm. Do you, do you ever mix them?
**Gizmo:** No. Mix them?
**Senator:** Is that a thing? That's a thing. I know this sounds crazy. So my wife had sent me this the other day.
Are you kidding? No, just listen to this. Apparently the drink of the summer, this summer, and she sent me, it was like a food and wine magazine article is, An espresso and tonic. Oh God. Which to me is a really bizarre combination, but apparently it's like a crazy thing. They're even putting it on menus now at restaurants.
Why would someone want
**Grinder:** coffee? This is what happens with the slippery slope. Once you let these 22 year old bar bartenders make cocktails out of espressos, you're gonna get
**Gizmo:** the fucking bubbly tonic. Yes. Yeah. That's the next thing. Yeah. That's
**Grinder:** horrible. That's the next thing they can put in their [01:04:00] Stanley Cup.
Like gimme something else. Dunno.
**Senator:** And then the other thing that's even crazier, so as I was reading this article, it was talking about these other recent crazies, like these strange drink combinations and I started cracking up because it made me think the other day I had sent these guys a photo. I was having like an iced coffee and a cigar and GIZ thought it was orange juice.
Mm-hmm. Which in his defense with, okay, lemme
**Gizmo:** just say he's not, hold on. It looked orange. I am. I am defending you. I'm saying this is two photos in a row. Yes. There's something about your way, you're making your coffee. It has an orange hue to it. No, no, it's the sun. I'm
**Senator:** telling you, it's the sun. The top of it with the ice makes it look orange.
The bottom looks like coffee. It's the top. Um, but I was laughing because I'm reading this article. It was talking about how there was some other craze where people were com mixing orange juice and coffee or espresso. That can't be good. How that just can't be good. How that could possibly
**Gizmo:** taste good as beyond it.
The, the acidity of the two combining the
**Senator:** article claims that the coffee helps cut the acidity in. Reflux
**Grinder:** man makes acid reflux right in the face. [01:05:00] That's what all that is
**Bam Bam:** for me. That's terrible. I will say one thing about the coffee and seltzer thing. Have you guys ever had a Manhattan special? What's that?
It's a bottled coffee drink. It's, it does have some effervescence in it. It's sweet. I've had that a few times. It is really delicious. But it's like drinking a coke, but it's a coffee. I could see it working, but I think we should let Senator be the mixologist.
**Senator:** I make it. I'm not gonna be the one to try it.
What of
**Gizmo:** you needs to do? Listen, two of my, the two things I drink at the same time are my Americano. I make and my seltzer with lemon, but I'm not mixing them together. Yeah, there you go. It's not the same at the same time. No, it's not. I'm not double fisting where it's in the same You do think you do to
**Bam Bam:** palette that looks good.
Look at what you're doing. I like that. Do you like that?
**Grinder:** Stop that. Are you one of these pers like I have a terrible trait where I have at any given time, at least 15 different glasses of shit
**Gizmo:** around the house. No, I, I've, I police myself and I make sure that, um, he used to do his own dishes, please. Yeah, [01:06:00] exactly.
But I make sure that when, when I get a new drink, I take the other one up. So I only have two at any given time. I
**Grinder:** got, I got the water, I got the coffee. I got everything going on at the same
**Gizmo:** time. Yeah. See, I don't do that. You're a sampler. See, I'm also afraid to, of
**Grinder:** knocking it over, like my equipment, I have HD and I just can't like, make your mind focus on Yeah, that's probably more what the, what the track is.
I'm just
**Gizmo:** afraid of knocking, like drinks over on my equipment, my computer and stuff. Not
**Bam Bam:** to jump back onto the cigar though. I'm, I'm down to about a half inch. Yeah, me too. The end of it is really, it's pretty good. It's
**Gizmo:** pretty damn good. But yeah, I don't know if it saved itself. Has it saved itself? I don't know.
I don't know yet. I don't know.
**Senator:** I mean, bams fingers have gotta be burnt. Look, even you're, how are you guys
**Gizmo:** smoking this down? Cause it's not hot.
**Bam Bam:** It's not hot. I don't
**Senator:** hate it right now. I just don't enjoy that. I don't the flavor enough to smoke it down that
**Grinder:** far. It's just ashtray at that point.
**Gizmo:** No, I think it's, I, but I'm actually, I, you guys know, I don't really go down this far on cigars usually, and I'm not trying too hard on it.
I, I'm actually enjoying it
**Senator:** right now. The ash also on [01:07:00] gizmo, cigars like black, black. Listen, I mean, look at the difference.
**Grinder:** I probably touched it up a lot recently.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I don't know. But it's not a hot cigar. How
**Rooster:** it's not No, it's, it's, it's, I mean, it's pretty tasty. Yeah. You don't get like any
**Gizmo:** nicotine or anything like that.
Yeah. No sharp edges. No, no. So before we jump into our ratings, are there any other cigars that are good summer cigars to, for Blizzard, Justin and, and the other listeners out there?
**Grinder:** Um, I, I think any, um, I do think larger ring gauge cigars hold up better in the humidity, so Churchills toros, um, and I, you know, I think for a summertime when it, when it, when the heat is either oppressive or at least somewhat discomforting or, you know, uncomfortable to use that better word, I, I'd say, you know, a mild to medium cigar, lighter cigar Connecticut shade, uh, with a bigger ring gauge, you're probably gonna be okay.
**Gizmo:** And if I'm, you know, to piggyback on that general statement, [01:08:00] if I'm sensing wind as we've talked about so much, I generally am not reaching for a Cuban, I'm gonna go with the Dominican or a, uh, or a Nicaragua. Just one more like
**Grinder:** what we were talking about, like not wanting to smoke outside. Anytime it's summer and it's not raining, I'm gonna, you know, I love to smoke outside.
You know, anytime you get to smoke a cigar outside, enjoy it. It's gonna be great. There are, there are definitely optimal times where you don't want your environment to ruin the pleasure of smoking that cigar. And, you know, sometimes that's, uh, when you have that $40 cigar, you're not gonna wanna burn it too, uh, too aggressively down without some enjoyment in the space.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And then I think the other one, that's a great one, especially in the afternoon. I just love pulling out an exci all time of the day. I'm always pulling out a Padron Exci any day.
**Pagoda:** Anytime.
**Bam Bam:** Any day. Anytime. It's a staple.
**Gizmo:** It's good. Anytime. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Oh, you know the other one I missed that I reached for, when I'm looking for something that has a little bit more oomph from Cuba.
I mentioned the Monty Crystal number four, the Tiga Short. [01:09:00] Oh, you know, that's, oh, yeah. I love the part short in the afternoon because it's just that it's a perfect, like half hour, 40 minute break. Yep. You know, in your day and you get back to it. I've heard PPA likes that cigar.
Oh, you know, I think a lot of the H
**Rooster:** up and like the Connie's,
**Gizmo:** you know, the uh,
**Bam Bam:** four, I think the whole Connie line are great
**Gizmo:** for warmer months. Yeah. Yeah. I think a Mag 46 too. I love, uh, when I have like a spicy lunch, like a spicy salad or something, I'll do a mag 46 spicy salad. Spicy salad. Spicy salad.
Spicy
**Bam Bam:** salad while you're driving 70 miles an hour.
**Gizmo:** What do you put hot sauce on it. And he's, he's eating
**Grinder:** at the same time. By the way,
**Pagoda:** salt and pepper don't qualify
**Gizmo:** for spicy. No, I get it from the, I get it from the Spanish joint. They make a great salad. The sono, you've had it. Senators had the sono salad.
Hmm? Where was this from? Uh, Chanos.
**Senator:** Oh. Oh, I remember this. I remember this. It's not spicy.
**Grinder:** Oh yeah.
**Bam Bam:** For him
**Gizmo:** to say it's [01:10:00] not spicy.
**Bam Bam:** It's really, it's gotta be mild. It says a lot
**Grinder:** spicy. It doesn't eat spice. Spicy salad, baby.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. You guys ready to do the formal liquor rating on the Barbon court?
Haitian rum? 15 years? Yep. Four.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. All right. So I, I will go
**Gizmo:** with a five. Five for Bam. Grinder.
**Grinder:** I don't know. I didn't even two. I should try again. I guess I, I've taken one sip. Yep. Still shitty.
**Pagoda:** Don't buy it. I'm, I'll give it a, I'll
**Grinder:** give it a, I'll give it a four since you gave it a five.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. And I don't think I could, you love to contradict me.
I
**Grinder:** don't think, like, I think I, I, I would hate this more than you. I think you're right. Like apriori before I, like you're, I would, well, you're a connoisseur. You would rank this higher. I'm a
**Bam Bam:** gorilla. Pagoda,
**Gizmo:** I don't know, four senator.
**Senator:** So I just poured some neat, because I started with ice. [01:11:00] It, it's really not, it's not bad.
It's rough. Yeah. Um, I'll give it a five.
**Gizmo:** That's where I'm at too. It's a five for sure. It's a very disappointing 15 year aged rum from Barbin Court in Haiti. It's a 4.6 boys. Wow. That is a absolute Do not recommend. Is that an atl? It's, it's an ATL for sure on rum. Oh boy. It's definitely an all time world.
The only thing we have to give them
**Senator:** credit. Clearly there are no additives in here because they've done nothing to mask these imperfections in this spirit.
**Bam Bam:** Maybe it needs some additive. Yeah, a little simple syrup maybe. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Simple syrup and vanilla. Yeah. Espresso and seltzer. I'm looking. That is absolutely, I think the, the lowest score, is it really from we've ever done?
**Grinder:** Well, lowest course. I mean, it's gotta be lowest everything ever. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** no, we've had some pretty rough, we've had some pretty rough sprint. Yeah. We had something
**Senator:** with a dragon. I had to break on the floor that, that had to be worse than this. Oh, that's right. True. The
**Gizmo:** ornamental Well, alright, let's not forget boys.
The, the [01:12:00] fruity decadence of Singleton 15 also. That's another 15. That was a 3.6. A full wow point. 10 points lower than
**Bam Bam:** this. You can use that to kill insects. Really? That's the re all it's good
**Gizmo:** for the re in Japanese whiskey that the senator just mentioned with the, the gold plastic dragon that he smashed on the floor was a 3.8.
Wow. Um, and that's, I mean, Yamato Japanese whiskey was a 4.8. So this is definitely in the range of some of the worst stuff we've ever done. Maker's Mark 46 was a 5.2,
**Grinder:** which I, well I was surprised there with that one because I was, expect, expect, I was expecting it to be good. Yeah, that was, it's regular makers
**Senator:** is great.
It's
**Grinder:** far, it's far better.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's, uh, that's it. A 4.6 boys. On the barman court. Huh? 15. And now it's time to rate our ribo tonight. The poor Lauren Yaga Galanis. You guys ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating on this? Right? Mr. You're up. All right. I'm at a seven. Seven. [01:13:00] Okay. Senator. This is tough.
**Senator:** Um, I'm between a six and a seven. I wouldn't smoke it again. So, sorry, I'm gonna just talk a little out
**Gizmo:** loud cause I'm trying to No, please do, because I'm, I, I'm still, I, I still don't know, like a lot of time when we do this, I can kind of guess where everybody's gonna be. Mm-hmm. I have no idea where anyone's gonna land here.
So I'm curious your thought process.
**Senator:** Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't smoke it again. The combustion outstanding. Honestly, I wish there were other Cuban bu stoves that put out this level of smoke. Cause I love, I love that in a cigar. Um, the construction was not great. I mean, I looked at the, all of them almost in that 10 count box, and each one was either underfilled or overfilled.
The flavor profile even at its best, is not in my sweet spot. Um, and the second third of it, I mean, if I didn't have to try to finish this for this pod and the [01:14:00] second third, I just would've ditched it. I mean, it was totally flat. I got nothing. So, um, I've very much talked myself into now it's a six.
**Gizmo:** Mm Wow.
Okay. Um, I thought that this is definitely one of the weaker Cuban ribos that I've had. Um, it had few and far between moments of, of decency, I think is that, that's the perfect word. And, um, it didn't reach above that. So I'm actually gonna go lower than you guys. This is a five for me. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Pagoda
**Pagoda:** a five for me as well.
Uh, I, I think in my case it was just probably the wrong, uh, stick in hand as well. I, having said that, um, Enjoyed it in the first third. I kept trying to seek what's great, what's gonna be great in the last third, because a lot of people did feel it'd come back. Uh, it didn't, not for me, it was just smoke, um, and, you know, smoke out output, you know, I'll give it a [01:15:00] five.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. Okay. How far, how far did you get? Did you get down to the Yeah. You're about,
**Gizmo:** okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Grinder.
**Grinder:** What do you think mine is since you've, you've proffered that, uh, that position that you could determine can, I guess?
**Senator:** Yeah. Well, I thought he said he, he has no idea what it is. I know, but he's usually can tell he's then,
**Gizmo:** so I'm curious.
Yeah, usually I could tell I, I don't know today cuz I think that it's been such a mediocre experience with these little bursts of decency. Um, so I, I think you're, you're probably gonna be either a four or a five. I think you're at a six.
**Grinder:** I'm a, I'm a six, so I, I, I didn't think it was that bad. Like, I'm looking around.
I, I, I didn't like, I've, we've smoked some shitty cigars that have not scored as bad as this. Um, I thought it was a very pleasurable cigar. I thought it was, you know, it definitely fell a little flat, but for me that's a, you know, I like a lighter cigar. The beginning was phenomenal. The burn was great. The end, I think it, it fell, like I said earlier, it just kind of hit, it hit me a little too.[01:16:00]
Quickly, you know, the, the end there. And it, and it was not something I was expecting and I didn't, I didn't even finish all the way down to the nub. Mm-hmm. But it was, I, I just, you know, kind of benchmarking it against other cigars. We've smoked on this pod, similar cigars and similar rank cigars. It's just, I can't, I can't give myself, you know, I a a five seems too egregious.
So a six that feels about
**Gizmo:** right. Okay. Bam, bam. Yeah. You
**Bam Bam:** know, I think the end did save it for me. I took it down to a half inch. I found. Pleasure in the beginning and at the very, very end. So I have to go a seven, I can't go six. And I think five is a little, a little rough, but the end
**Gizmo:** brought it back. So the formal wizard rating Boys on the Powar and Yoga Kiwanis is a flat 6.00 wow.
Which I actually think is a perfect score for the performance tonight. Yeah, yeah. Makes sense. So, you know, if I'm looking at some of the other cigars,
**Bam Bam:** well what did we rate the, the petite Corona in this Marco.
**Gizmo:** So that definitely performed better than [01:17:00] this poor Orga petite Corona got an 8.4. There you go.
Which is almost 25 points higher than this one. Yeah. You know, so the other one that I rated a five, we've had some other stinkers, but you know, this to me performed it had the up and downs of that San Cristobal de la Punta. This was better than El Punta? I don't, I don't think so. Oh, I see. For me, it was right in that same zone.
It could be,
**Senator:** oh, I'm sorry. In fairness, this is definitely better than that La Punta. Right? That thing was borderline uns smokeable. It was, I could at least smoke to roughly
**Bam Bam:** the end. Yeah. This had character, like I said at the beginning
**Gizmo:** and the end. So Senator, I gave the La Punta a five. You gave it a six.
Okay. So I gave it the same, same score. So that's what I did too. Mm-hmm. So that's why I'm, you know, and I didn't look at this prior to smoking the cigar. Sure. So I didn't cheat. Mm-hmm. Um,
**Grinder:** I wonder, we have the data for all this stuff, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Would, who, who, whose average is closest to the
**Gizmo:** average of the group?
Great question. So the Cuban average, Um, I'll [01:18:00] just run through 'em all. Uh, rooster is an 8.2, pupa, eight one Gizmo, 8.4. Senator, eight one Pagoda. Eight two grinder eight four bam bam. Eight five. So Senator and Puba, Senator Puba, rooster and pagoda are eight one or eight two. And and what's the Cuban average?
Uh, Cuban average is an 8.3. Okay. So there you go. It's interesting. Yeah. So I, you know, unfortunately I just, you know, you gotta compare this to the other co uh, Cuban Robusto and it's just, it's not in the same class, even on the weaker end of them that we've had, you know, what is the weakest Cuban rub Robusto that we would call out?
Probably the Epi two at times. Yeah. Is maybe the most inconsistent. Yeah. But it can be very good. Yeah, it can be. You know, I mean, we rated that pretty well, so it could be really plugged as well. Yeah, it can, but I, you know, I think the flavor profile on adage, it just wipes the floor with this, but. Anyway.
Interesting. Uh, interesting to look at the data. [01:19:00] And, uh, that's it for tonight, boys. So a 4.6 on the Barbon Court, 15 year aged Haitian rum and a flat 6.0 for the poor Warga Galanis. Mediocre night. Mediocre. What are you trying to say? Bam. I don't know. It was just the company. Yeah, it was the cigar and the pairing were great.
The company was mediocre companies at 10 boys. All right everybody. We'll see you 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 p 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.[01:20:00]