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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's Leisure and Lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba. Senator Anne bam. Bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some non-alcoholic beer, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 69th official invitation to join us and become Egg Card Carrying Lounge Lizard Plan, meet us here once a week. We are gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating. We go through cigar journal's, top 25 Cigars of last year. We discussed the importance of reciprocity when gifting cigars and the guys revel in my Super Bowl Pain, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes.
So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and join as we pair athletic Brewings. Run Wild I p a with the Warped Myro Delam 52 0 5. Lonsdale tonight on the [00:01:00] podcast from Warped. It's called the Maestro Delpo. The size is a fifty two oh five, they call it beautiful. 42 ring gauge by six and three eighths inches cigar.
I think as all of us pulled this out of this han, I mean, it's really impressive in the hand. It's a, it's really a nice cigar. You know, we talk about this a lot. I mean, we're kind of in the middle of a Len Sarah Lonsdale kind of block in the podcast right now, somewhat accidentally. But, um, this is just really a wonderful size.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** A beautifully, it looks like it's beautifully made. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Rappers really nice. Yeah. Nice floral aroma. Yeah. Tight seas. Mm-hmm. . And, um, I love the band on it. It reminds me of like a, like an huppman type of band. Very subtle, very simple. Very cool. All right, boys, let's cut this thing. Should we get on the cold draw on the wrapper?
It's nice to see a new world Lonsdale, which there are not a ton of. So hopefully it performs well so [00:02:00] we can give it high marks. I'm, I'm
**Bam Bam:** getting dried fruit on that.
**Gizmo:** Cold draw. Cold draws. Excellent. Giving leather,
**Poobah:** nutmeg and coco. Very
**Gizmo:** good. That was the fastest callout of flavors I've ever
**Bam Bam:** expressed.
That's a complex list of callouts, like within 3.2 seconds. . That's all. That's all he
**Gizmo:** was getting. . That's that's what it's . I'm sticking to it. Yeah, that's
**Rooster:** good. It's good. So, leather, cocoa and
**Gizmo:** nut meg, not Meg. When I get dry you're getting a little bit, uh, like a, like a like a doughy thing. Like a raisiny type thing?
Yes. For me, raisiny or. Leather belt . I've never chewed on one of those. All right boys, let's light this thing. The Warped, ask them . It is episode 69, by the way,
**Bam Bam:** God
**Gizmo:** help us all. The warped Del Tiempo. Aply [00:03:00] named again. It's the 52 0 5, which is Lonsdale 42 ring gauge by six and three eighth inches. Really, really nice cigar. Uh, very reasonable price. I think they were around 10 bucks. And this
**Bam Bam:** was a listener recommend, correct? It
**Gizmo:** was a listener. Recommend, yes, which is excellent.
Always. We love listener recommendations on this. Always a cool
thing.
**Gizmo:** Wow. On the light boys. Yeah, this is good. On the light. I'm impressed. Wow,
**Bam Bam:** dude. This is legit so
**Gizmo:** far. I If it goes halfway, this good, I'll be thrilled. This is shocking for, that's really good. So I put
**Rooster:** a box of this in the cart this morning thinking if the pod goes well, I'm just gonna hit by
**Gizmo:** per procurement mask.
We're so desperate for I, I'm doing that as we speak. . I'm so desperate for, we're so desperate for, for new world lawnsdale that are reasonably priced. I mean,
**Rooster:** I'm just, I'm just looking [00:04:00] for the price point. Yeah. Anything under like, at, you know, around 10 bucks. Between eight and 10 bucks. Yeah. Yeah. And, and a your daily rotation.
So
**Gizmo:** what price did you see when you put the box in your cart? Do you remember?
**Rooster:** I think the box was 2 21 for a
**Gizmo:** box of 25. Yeah. So they're a little under 10 bucks in bulk, so Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure it'll a, b and m somewhere you're paying 12 to 14. But this is, uh, ridiculous. It really, if you took the band off and, and not from a flavor standpoint, but just how it looks and feels in the hand.
It's identical to that 8 98 that we love from RGUs. Yeah. It literally looks and, and feels exactly like that. Obviously very different in flavor. Oh, this is a Nicaraguan pirro. Get the, get
**Bam Bam:** the aroma on the smoke.
**Gizmo:** Wow. So this is a Nicaraguan Shade grown Halala Carro 99 rapper. Uh, the filler is Nicaragua Carro 99 as well, and Cyo cyo, uh, 98.
And the binders also Nicaraguan Piro, um, warped has a [00:05:00] very cool story. Uh, founded and blended by a guy named Kyle Galles. Fell in love with our Damani two when he was 18 years old and his father was a big cigar guy and, um, has created this successful, cool brand warped. So looking forward to smoking this tonight.
Great honor. The retro hell, this is a very delicious cigar
**Bam Bam:** and a nice long finish actually. Yeah.
**Senator:** It's also just so smooth, like it's been aged,
**Gizmo:** especially for Nicaraguan tobacco.
**Bam Bam:** It's like you said, you know, when you get a shape like this that's so hard to find. It's pretty special. Yeah. The
**Gizmo:** viola itself.
So what are you guys getting in flavor wise? I think pub is callouts. Were kind of on the money.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Not, Meg is pretty accurate. Little weathery, a little bit
**Gizmo:** coffee maybe. I'm a bit concerned. . Oh. Oh. Why Poop hasn't said a. No, I really like it.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Oh yeah. How can
**Bam Bam:** you not like this?
**Poobah:** I really like it.
Rooster's relief. This [00:06:00] is really good. . Yeah. You like it a lot? I mean, so far there's nothing
**Gizmo:** here that's, yeah. So I had this in my tower. I bought this probably about a month ago when we were starting to stock up on, on cigars to do for the pod. Um, and uh, it's been sent to my tower. I didn't even dry box these cuz I, I just put 'em at the higher point in my tower.
They've been sitting at like 62. Mm-hmm. for a few weeks. And I look at the burn line. I mean, it's just perfect. Yeah, it's pretty razor sharp. It's perfect. So really benefits. So far so good. Yeah. Wow. Mm.
**Bam Bam:** Forgive me,
**Gizmo:** what's the wrapper on this? It's Nicaraguan. Okay. Yeah, everything. This is a Nicaraguan piro, which in its flavor profile, especially on the light, it's surprising to say that cuz it's not giving you a, it's kind of reminding me maybe mo like of the, uh, uh, the Ashton vs.
G I get zero
**Bam Bam:** profile. There is zero harshness to this cigar. It is impeccably smooth
**Gizmo:** vsg. But on the
**Poobah:** fuller side, yeah, it's on the fuller side and it has the sharpness. Um, if you retro hail it through the [00:07:00] nose, even at this point, you know, the retro of a ni of a Nicaragua,
**Bam Bam:** the retro hale, you do get a bit of a, a pinch in a nose, but on the typical draw, excellent.
**Senator:** You think this is fuller than the Vsg?
**Gizmo:** I don't think so. I think this is, I don't think this is as full. I think this is much more smooth than, I don't mean smooth. The s the vsg is definitely fuller to me. Yeah. Haven't agree with that. Haven't had a lot of those. I've only had a couple, but
**Senator:** no, that, that smokes very petro, like the Vsg to me.
This is medium really intense. This is medium full to me. Yeah, that's full. This would be medium. Oh, you think Vsg is full? Yeah, full. It's got lot full in flavor. Non-strengths. Like a, a lot of flavor, like very
**Gizmo:** controller. I
**Rooster:** think this is giving me a little bit of
**Gizmo:** strength though.
**Poobah:** Well, it, it has that Nicaraguan Poke where the Ashton Vsg is a Dominican star.
Dominican, so there's a little bit of a difference there. But overall this is, you know, to start is, is, is a, is a pretty medium affair. Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** I like the, when I was researching the cigar, the brand story on their website, their website's very nice by the. It's [00:08:00] kind of right in line with what I like to see on a site.
I, you know, I'm a little crazy, but, um, Matra, delpo means master of time. Uh, and it was born, they, as they say from several years of scouring the depths of agon ora through their vast lineage of regions, farms, uh, and their lots to make the blend happen. And they say that you need the ma you need to master.
to create the ideal cigar. And this is living proof and I gotta say that this is aligning. So marketing, good marketing,
**Bam Bam:** yeah. Are these aged at all? Any age?
**Gizmo:** There's no age statement on them as far as I can see. Uh, there's certainly no date on the box or anything. Um, it has to be somewhat, it has to be, has to be so smooth.
The tobaccos I'm sure are aged a couple of years. I would think so, yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Because you don't taste that fresh tobacco. No.
**Gizmo:** You know, you don't get those ammonia flavors, ammonia at all time. The draw on this is that perfect amount of resistance you get. Like, you know, I think of that like when you get an 8 [00:09:00] 98 that just has a slight bit of resistance.
Yep. That is, it's just perfect. It's perfectly rolled, well constructed high marks so
**Bam Bam:** far. My temptation with a cigar like this is to smoke it very fast. Cause I'm really liking it a lot. I gotta. . In fact, I need to touch it up because of that. I have to
**Senator:** say that construction's really something because as much as I love Lonsdale, and this is true of really all of them, I find that probably half the time the draw is a little snugger than I would ideally, like if I could somehow have someone roll it the way I would prefer it to smoke.
Mm-hmm. , this is flawless. Like I wouldn't cha this if every single Lonsdale smoked like this , just from a construction standpoint, I would be so thrilled. Sure.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's really good, really good construction on
**Gizmo:** it. It's very
**Senator:** good. And for the price, which is outrageous. I mean, I, as I'm also doing what Rooster didn't, putting one in my cart, , I mean, I just found it for seven in change A Stick.
Can you guys,
**Bam Bam:** guys put one in there for me? ?
**Gizmo:** It is episode 69. Do that for Ben and do it for me. [00:10:00]
**Poobah:** I think my, my prediction is this, I, I think this, this is gonna pick up in strength. I think this is just
**Gizmo:** the beginning. I'm, my fingers are crossed that it just maintains or improves from where it is right now, and it's gonna be a very, very high value cigar
**Bam Bam:** for sure.
You know, I wouldn't mind if the strength increased, but if the smoothness continued, I think that would, at the high marks for me, as long as it remains smooth, the
**Gizmo:** aroma at the burn line is impeccable.
**Bam Bam:** Are you getting a ton of nutmeg, like Puba
**Gizmo:** said at the burn line? Perfect. Little vanilla. Yeah. So boys, we'll go to the, uh, the pairing in a minute.
Um, a couple weeks ago we did the, and we did our kind of run through of the top 25 cigars of 2022 from cigar fishing anda, and a couple listeners asked, actually two listeners asked, uh, if we had seen the top 25 list from Cigar Journal, which is we, before we came on. We were talking about a little bit, um, certainly [00:11:00] a, a really, really well respected publication, really high quality publication, but xus outside the US is very, very popular.
Hmm. Um, it's, it's really, really well done. Yeah. And Nick
**Poobah:** Hammond
**Gizmo:** is a staff writer. Yep. Nick Hammond, the author, uh, he wrote that book, what is it called? Around the World in 80 Cigars. Um, yeah, he's a contributing author there and he knows his stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I find the magazine to be really high quality.
So, um, so yeah, let's, uh, let's dig in a little bit onto the, uh, top 25 list of 22 from Cigar Journal, and then we'll take a few breaks here and drink some, uh, drink some beer, some delicious beer. Yeah. All right, so number 25, the 1502 anniversary number 10, which is, Ring gauge of 50 by six. So it's a Toro and uh, it's by AJ Fernandez.
Never heard of that cigar before. The 1502. Nope, you guys hear that? No. Number 24. Great Wall. [00:12:00] The MAO series, which is owned, uh, it's the owner is a chi uh, China tobacco siwan. Um, out of the Dominican, this one's really interesting. It's a 50 ring gauge by six and a quarter. I guess that's a Toro or a double rib robusto or something.
What's it called? Kung p . Kung p chicken series. It's the Great Wall, the Mao Series. What's interesting about this, the binder of this cigar is from Indonesia. Oh boy. Did they
**Poobah:** fly it on a balloon? from Indonesia
**Bam Bam:** back in bundles. ,
**Gizmo:** right into the Dominican . Right.
**Bam Bam:** Oh wow.
**Gizmo:** That's an interesting, uh, interesting.
Note there. It's from Indonesia, the binder. All right. Number 23 from Platinum Nova Cigar, the Leo 11 Liata from Nicaragua with an Ecuador Ecuadorian binder, or excuse me, wrapper on that. Uh, 54 ring gauge by six inch. It's a big cigar. Hmm. [00:13:00] Never heard of these. Never heard of these. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. This one we've definitely heard of.
Number 22, the League of Bravada from Drew State, Unico Siri. Year of the ox. Again, another big one. 54 ring gauge by six inches
**Bam Bam:** rooster. You know that line well? Have you seen that? Yeah. No.
**Gizmo:** Well, okay. I take it back. I just have the
**Rooster:** li of number nine. I mean, that's
**Gizmo:** about it. Yeah, us too. Yeah. Okay. I just gotta pause here.
I, I think, I think Pagoda has, uh, yeah, he might know that. I think he knows a little bit more. What's wrong? This cigar is excellent. . I agree. This cigar is excellent. We're
**Bam Bam:** a half inch in and it's really performing extremely
**Gizmo:** well. It's it's getting sweet all the sudden. That's, that's why I stopped. Great.
Yeah. It has this, um, desserty type flavor, almost like a, it does like an eye of the shark type of, uh, baking spice. Baking a little bit. Not spice though. It's like baking biscuits. Yeah. Like a biscuit or tea biscuit,
**Senator:** croissant or something. I mean, to your point, giz, honestly, if this could stay like this the whole way through, this will be one of the best new world sticks I've [00:14:00] ever had.
Yeah. Yeah. This, this is very, it's crazy to say, but I really mean that one of the best new world sticks, new worlds I've ever had. If it can stay like this,
**Gizmo:** I, if it can stay like
**Poobah:** this, I'm not, I'm, I'm kind of with you. This is very, very promising start.
**Gizmo:** There's no
**Bam Bam:** doubt. Need to shout out that listener while we get a.
**Gizmo:** There's no doubt. I will, I will. The
**Poobah:** start here is just, I mean, this is
**Rooster:** pleasurable and we need more recommendations.
**Gizmo:** Oh, yeah. This is, this is why we need common, this is why we need listener recommendations, because Absolutely. We would've never reached for the cigar, simply because we're not aware of it.
Yeah. So, you know, thank you to Lizard Nation because this is, this is exactly what we're going for. If
**Senator:** this stays like this, that listener needs to officially join our tasting panel. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This is, this is
**Poobah:** excellent. And I love, I mean, not, not that it matters, but I, my, my assessment would be the same, but I love the band.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah. Too. It's very classic. They're not trying too, I'm
**Poobah:** not trying too hard. They, it's just put
**Gizmo:** a band on it. It's [00:15:00] like, uh, for the listener who, who doesn't know what it looks like, it's, um, again, I, I call back. It looks like a classic, like huppman band in a way, or RGUs with it's gold with a really deep red, very, very subtle.
Uh, it just says Maestro delpo on it. Yep. Master of time. Mm. This is really good. It's really good. . I think we're gonna be saying that hopefully all night. Hope. I hope so. Yeah. This is very satisfying. I
**Poobah:** mean, the burn line. Look at the burn. Look at the construction, dude. It's razor schlock flawless. Well, you got to give a credit for that.
**Gizmo:** Wow. All right. Sogar Journal back to it. Number 21 from JC Newman, the American Double Rub Robusto. It's called 56 ring gauge by five and a half inches. Now that is just the cigar I have no interest in. Mm-hmm. Just from a size standpoint. Mm-hmm. 56 by five and a half like Yeah. It's like a little football.
Yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I mean, so far every single one that you have named, it's have been like 52, 54, 56 ring gauge. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** [00:16:00] Yep. Well, that's what's popular. Now with that being said, from Maya Salva Cigars. Nicaraguan Piro, it's called the Kupe Landero 38 Ring Gauge by seven Inches. Another one I've never heard of. Yeah. . I haven't heard of most of these.
Yeah. Yeah. It's all
**Bam Bam:** a head
**Gizmo:** scratcher to me.
**Rooster:** I mean, except that league I haven't heard of any of,
**Poobah:** yeah. Maybe. Well, but just the marker. We know. Maybe these are new worlds that are distributed in Europe, maybe more broadly than some of the new worlds that are distributed here. I'm just hypothesizing that Cigar Journal is reviewing new, some of these new world sticks aren't as widely distributed.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Maybe very well could be in the States. Yeah, in the state. Yeah. Hmm. All right. Number 19, from Principal Cigars, the Martinique Landro, another Landero 39 ring gauge by seven and a half. Hmm. Nice to see some smaller ring gauge cigars appearing. Yeah. Ecuadorian rapper, Dominican binder and filler from Dominican and [00:17:00] Nicaraguan, uh, Nicaragua.
And here's a good question for you, rooster. It's made in the Kellner Boutique factory. Do they also make cologne? So do you think that that could be related to, uh, Hendrick? Kellner Hendrick or his son from, from formally of Davidoff? Does it say Hendrick Kellner? It doesn't. It just says Kellner Boutique Factory.
We should look into that. If that's the case, I'd be interested in trying say anything else like formally associated with Davidoff or, no, unless there's
**Rooster:** more than one kellner
**Gizmo:** who blends cigars. Yeah. Makes
**Bam Bam:** cigars. Not to interrupt, but your retro hail, if you give it a shot now, it's very smooth. No more bite at all on that.
Oh yeah. That's
**Gizmo:** excellent. It's very, very nice. So that cigar might
**Rooster:** be worth it, right? If it's got anything to do
**Gizmo:** with Kellner. Yeah. And that's a brand I've never heard of, so I'm gonna look, I'm gonna earmark that one. Um, you know, again, cuz we're kind of in a Lance er Lonsdale phase on the pod here, so Yeah,
**Poobah:** and I think the, the, I think we should review that.
One of the cald. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yes. Lawnsdale, we [00:18:00] talked about that. We have, we did. We should do the Caldwell Lawnsdale. Puba has
**Bam Bam:** those in his, uh, in his, uh, tower. Secretly
**Gizmo:** high. Yeah. You said you like them Caldwells, right? Well, I've
**Poobah:** had some mm-hmm. , I mean, um, and they're pretty good. They really are.
**Gizmo:** Should try 'em.
**Poobah:** I mean, it's been
**Gizmo:** a while, but, um, it's sagos
**Bam Bam:** It's, it's off the charts.
**Gizmo:** It's, it's, it's excellent . This is a shocker right. Now. Quick
**Senator:** thing on that, uh, that Kilner boutique factory. So the Davidoff guy, is he older? Yes. Henrick? Yes. Okay. So he apparently must have a son with the exact
**Gizmo:** same name. Yes. And he was, well, he was blending at Davidoff after the father.
They both left. Okay.
**Senator:** So this factory, it says, after 18 years of working with his father, Henrick Kellner, uh, JR opened the Kilner Boutique Factory in 2012. There you go. So it is the same family that factory that that's from.
**Gizmo:** It's good to know,
**Rooster:** because I mean, they're farmers when they,
**Gizmo:** they grow a lot of [00:19:00] tobacco.
Yeah. And, and Henrick, Kellner is responsible for so much of the Davidoff that we love.
**Bam Bam:** What's the, um, what's the vital
**Gizmo:** on that? It's Alan, uh, it's a Glen Cero. 39 by seven and a half. Maybe. Worth trying. I think it might be because of the history. What's,
**Rooster:** what's the marker? What's, what's the brand?
**Gizmo:** It's, it's called Principle.
And it's the Martinique. It's like Martini, Q U E Martin. Zero
**Bam Bam:** Martinique. Martine, can
**Gizmo:** you know, I'm trying here man. It's a
**Bam Bam:** destination. It's okay. .
**Senator:** Sorry. Did he call it Martini?
**Bam Bam:** Yes. Oh, I said Martinique. No, he said Martini.
**Gizmo:** Eek said the Dutch
**Bam Bam:** Now he's proceeding to put the Ashray in his lap. Yep. pulling up. Pagoda.
**Gizmo:** He's still trying to get over the Super Bowl. I think . Oh,
**Bam Bam:** the shake.
**Gizmo:** Oh. Let's make, I'm ignoring that comment. Yes. Move it along. All right, moving along. Number 18, grease the Pole. . . It is [00:20:00] episode 69. Uh, we did one of these recently, the La Aroma deba.
It's called the Passion Box. Pressed Torpedo. This is what's interesting about this. So it's a 54 ring gauge by six and an eighth. Nicaraguan Piro, uh, distributed and owned by, uh, Ashton. They roll it. My father, like we talked about with the, uh, the Mia Moore, we did, but what's interesting is because of the, uh, you know, in the US the Cuban brand names can be used here.
Even the ones that don't exist anymore outside the us though, they're not allowed to use the name La Aroma Deba. So they outside the US it's called Del Kariba. Wow. Wow. The whole line. Hm. Never knew that. Yeah. Interesting. Uh, interesting one. Um, nice hook cigar though. Great band on it. torpedo. All right.
Number 17. This is definitely one We could talk quite a bit about the Davidov doa. Oh, yeah. Uh, they did this one in Toro. We're Rob, we're fans of the Rub Robusto, [00:21:00] but uh, it's a 54 reengage by six inches. 17, huh? Yeah, with a pigtail on it. Hmm. I don't, the ribos don't have a pigtail, but the Toro does. I haven't had the Toro.
Yeah, I think they all do. I don't know. I don't think the Robusto have a to a pigtail. I don't think so. No, I
**Bam Bam:** don't think so. And I've never had the Toro,
**Gizmo:** I think the short Robusto does. Mm.
**Bam Bam:** Maybe. I don't know. Well
**Gizmo:** look. So we've been buying a lot of those. The uh Oh yeah. The Dominican Robusto, because you know, they're scarce.
You know, they're, it's fully stocked on those, yeah. What are they, seven years aged or something? I don't know. Rooster would know. 2014. Yeah. Eight years aged. Yeah. I'd say it's 2014 on the band. Yeah. Nice. But they're running out of 'em to the point where they don't have boxes for them anymore. Oh, we know.
Oh, that's right.
**Bam Bam:** Pagoda. Pagoda. The pagoda.
**Senator:** He smokes that cigar. He does every single day. It's amazing. And
**Gizmo:** Dave love that.
All right. Number 16 from PDR [00:22:00] Cigars. Another one we haven't heard of the a Flores Connecticut Valley Reserve Azu in Churchill. It's 50 ring gauge by seven inches. That is a big cigar. That's ridiculous. 57 by gauge? No, uh, 50 ring gauge by seven inches. Ugh. It's a long cigar. Yeah. Hmm. I'm having trouble going through this list because I'm really.
Like, I want to be drawing this cigar more often, often than I am. Yeah. This is really, really excellent. Right. Number 15, and then we'll pause here from United Cigar, the Garaffo, LA Familia Connecticut Epicure, which is a . Another one we haven't heard of. 54 Ring gauge by six inches. Uh, a combination of Nicaraguan tobacco and the rapper is Ecuadorian.
Hmm. Pretty cool looking cigar.
**Bam Bam:** There are just so many new world cigars out there. As Puba says, it's a vortex. Yeah, just a
**Gizmo:** vortex of cigars. Yeah. We could do this podcast for a thousand years, I think, and not do them
**Bam Bam:** all. Yeah. You know, and the beauty of [00:23:00] the whole Cuban line is you've got the, like you guys have said before this, the, the, you, the Bonos catalog, you know, you know what you're getting.
There's a list that's all identified. You, you know what to pursue, wor new worlds. You're like entering into deep water.
**Rooster:** But I remember like a couple of years back, the f FDA was coming down on new brands. It would take like a hundred thousand dollars to put
**Gizmo:** out a new That's true. Is that no longer the case?
**Rooster:** What is, what is happening? I mean, all these brands I haven't
**Gizmo:** even heard of all these,
**Rooster:** I don't know, coming out that's, I mean, are they spending that much to, that was supposed to be a hundred, a hundred grand for a one
**Poobah:** viola, so
**Bam Bam:** at our former club. That's true.
**Poobah:** I don't, I don't think that that's,
**Bam Bam:** it was maybe six years ago.
Maybe it pass five years ago. Yeah. It didn't pass. Every new, every new viola didn't pass every new viola. Yeah, that's, you were paying a
**Gizmo:** a hundred grand. I thought it was for
**Poobah:** per viola. That was a bill. I think that
**Gizmo:** didn't pass God True, thank God. Or it was like an FDA initiative that there's fighting there that, that would've killed
**Rooster:** every single boutique cigar.
**Gizmo:** That's, this is true. I thought, I think it would [00:24:00] kill even, even for Fuentes and Perks. Yeah. That's a, that's a high cost to bring something to market and then to potentially have it fail. I mean, that's really expensive. Really expensive.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's, it's an un It's not. Tenable. It's not tenable. I think there's a minerality to this too that's starting to develop.
You know, I haven't, uh, there's a little bit of a minerally taste. Really. It's a little salty. It, it, I, I, I like the cigar very much.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's really good. Would you say it's Cuban esque?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I'm getting, for me, uh, the fruit notes are very Cuban esque for me. I'm not getting any minerality, but I am getting a good saltiness that I love.
It's like a saltiness. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Oh, yeah. It, there's a little bit of, there's a little bit of a salt and that salty mixing that's happening. Yeah. That's really nice. It's, it's kind of balanced. Very. It's delivering some, some of those baking spices we mentioned at the beginning of the cigar. Mm-hmm. . So for me, this cigar is, um, is pretty balanced.
Mm-hmm. , it's, [00:25:00] it's delivering a pretty balanced experience, which, which I
like
**Senator:** to, to Russ's question, is this Cuban esca? I would actually say it is. Yeah. The reason I say that is if I were to smoke this blind, . I, one wouldn't guess it's a Nicaraguan. Um, and two, this has like upk dessert, like notes. Yeah.
That I would maybe be very, you know, easily fooled that this could be some form of an Oman. There's
**Bam Bam:** absolutely some of that DNA N there. Yeah.
**Poobah:** The only thing that would would be the, on the retro hell, that little bit of bite that gives it that Nicaraguan tell. But yes, on the pallet you're a hundred percent correct.
I mean, it's not, it, it, it's, it's really quite, quite nice. Yeah. It's, it's, it's to me feels full flavor, kind of medium body, but smooth, uh, I mean full flavor, medium strength, um, at this point, which is pretty nice.
**Gizmo:** I think
**Rooster:** this cigar has good
**Gizmo:** aging potential. [00:26:00] Mm.
**Rooster:** You know, if you let it sit for like a few years and go back and revisit,
**Gizmo:** and that's such a, and it's such a light investment to do it too.
Yeah. I mean, even if it doesn't work. Yeah. I mean, it is, it's, it's not expensive. Yeah. And look at the combustion, honestly. Yeah. The smoke output is, it's awesome. Brilliant.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And it's, it's going well with our beer tonight.
**Gizmo:** Well, bam, bam. You know, you and I are on the same page. Yes sir. Let's try this. I've never had this, uh, the boys have been, uh, the boys in, uh, Senator Rooster have been raving about athletic brewing company.
And Senator, you brought us an IPA tonight. Tell us about it.
**Senator:** That's right. It's the, uh, run Wild ipa while the, that's good. It drinks like a alcoholic ipa.
**Gizmo:** It's a little thinner than a classic IPA
**Bam Bam:** for me. Yes. I'm a huge ipa. So this doesn't go down like a traditional ipa. Yeah. But, but it's got some fruit notes and there's a little bit of a, um, tanginess, which you [00:27:00] get in a lot of IPAs, which I
**Gizmo:** love.
It just to me, what this tastes like, and I don't mean this offense, don't take offense to this guys who love this peach. No. It's got like a, it just tastes like a, um, tastes like a grapefruit, like, like a grapefruit brew of some kind. But it's, that's what a lot of my tastee tastes like. Oh, it's
**Poobah:** got that
**Bam Bam:** hoppy flavor.
It's hop, that's the hop flavor. Yeah. I get a lot of peach note in this thing. For me.
**Senator:** So I, I say that because I'm actually not a big IPA guy. Um, I'm wrong. Bam is, I know. Bam. Am drinks a lot of ipa. Oh, yeah. Kids, I've, I don't think I've seen you drink
**Bam Bam:** an ipa. And Grindr's a big IPA guy. He would love this.
Yeah. Is he
**Gizmo:** real? I He is.
**Poobah:** Oh yeah. Is he really? I feel like he's more of like a multi guy. Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. No. Pilsner maybe. Yeah.
**Rooster:** He drinks Wrench.
**Gizmo:** Wrench. Beer is the wrench is an ipa,
**Senator:** but that's like the one I p I would drink. It's like not super happy. Yeah, that's true. I guess not as bitter or a little sweeter. . Um, so like that I can do, that's my speed, but a lot of IPAs that are just super, super happy, I don't [00:28:00] like, and some can be really, really heavy, which I also just hate.
It's like, you know, you have one of these heavy IPAs, you feel like you just had like a giant meal. It's just too much. Okay. So I like that this is actually a little like on the lighter side, uh, because it's more sessionable as you know, beer drinkers say. Mm-hmm. , like you can put back several of these and feel great still.
Yeah. Um, very much like, you know, any of the lighter beers that we like, or Yingling where you can, you know, just drink several of them. So I like it from that standpoint. And I give athletic brew company a lot of credit because, uh, during dry January is when I had started experimenting with, uh, non-alcoholic beer, getting in into a rooster's world.
And, um, I think athletic makes like the best non-alcoholic beer. Just that they have like a range. Like they've got this golden el that's like very light, great summer beer, but still has just enough flavor. Um, I love this. I was just reading a little bit, I was so curious, like, where is this stuff even. Um, they have two, uh, brewing facilities.
One where they originally started in [00:29:00] Connecticut, um, outside of Stanford and another in San Diego. And they are the two only facilities in the world that exclusively brewed
**Gizmo:** non-alcoholic beer. Hmm. It's pretty wild. I was gonna say, I'm uh, it is an imp an impressive feat to me. Yeah. That six years ago they started a beer company that only bruised non-alcoholic beers.
I think that's fa fascinating agree because even six years ago it is a big, was very different. But it's a big
market
**Bam Bam:** now, isn't it? It
**Gizmo:** today It is. Yeah. But six years ago that's true. They took a risk years ago. They took a big risk. Yeah, there's risk now. It's true.
**Senator:** I mean, rooster was the market six years ago.
**Rooster:** I mean, at one point the only thing you could get was Odus.
**Gizmo:** Odus. Odus. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like
**Rooster:** Odus and then af since that point on every single beer manufacturer I think has smart an
**Gizmo:** alcoholic beer. That's smart. And you know the Guinness, as we did on the podcast that is, that is like, it's a perfect match to the alcoholic.
We need to give one version to Puba to [00:30:00] dry. Yeah. I'm curious, have you had that? He would love it. The non-alcoholic in, I'm sure. I'd love it. He
**Poobah:** would taste, he would. He would taste. Yeah. I know that. I mean, this beer tasted really
**Gizmo:** good. Yeah. Yeah, it's really good. Um, so this is called the Run Wild ipa. So do they give each of their beers like a cool name or They do.
That's their thing. They do. And you said that this is only 60 calories, 65
**Senator:** calories. That's that's crazy thing. That's
**Bam Bam:** nuts. Mrs. Bam. Bam. Would love that I'm drinking this because I tend to overdo it. Yeah, I do. Really. And then the morning after I feel awful. This is nice.
**Senator:** But yeah, there's sort of signature beers.
It's this, the Run Wild i p a, the upside Dawn. That Golden l I was talking about. That's lighter. Great. Summer beer. They have a free wave Hazy I p A, which I haven't tried that I think is a bit fuller than this. Um, and then they have an all out like porter. Um, I would like that. I haven't
**Gizmo:** tried that yet.
Yeah. What is a, what is a porter exactly? What is it? What kind of profile is a porter beer? It's closer to a Stout. Stout. Yeah. A stout dark beer. I
**Senator:** [00:31:00] see. Full flavor,
**Gizmo:** heavier. And then it's
**Poobah:** like a stout, but nuttier not as
**Gizmo:** bitter. Got it. And then the, well, isn't Guinness a stout is It is. It is. But all lights.
But
**Poobah:** there's, but it's a very, very light, light Guinness draft. And then there's Guinness. Guinness in the bottle,
**Senator:** which is, or Guinness Stout and draft, actually. So I guess the bottles, the real stout. The stout, yeah. And then the draft is that like
**Gizmo:** light is
**Poobah:** the letter version of it's, I guess still technically a stout, but it's not, doesn't not, it's not like drinking a, um, you know, uh, an anchor st.
An anchor stout or mm-hmm. , one of these micro brew stouts that's, uh, yeah, oatmeal stout.
**Rooster:** You know, they like anchor steam. I think they make a, they make a nice porter.
**Poobah:** Am I right? Yeah, they do. Back in the, you know, in the boom of these micro breweries, I used to drink a lot of, a lot of these. Sierra Nevada was very new in the early nineties.
[00:32:00] Um, anchor Steam was very new. Um, That oatmeal stop beer, whoever made that, that was very new. And those were, they were,
**Gizmo:** um, they were great. Um, and they all got like, bought up by the big guys. Right? All of those companies? I think so. Like Sierra Nevada definitely did. Um, dog fish. Dog fish, uh, Dogfish Head used to love
**Bam Bam:** Dogfish Head.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Grape beer. Did they get bought? Oh yeah, I think so. Okay. Then, I mean, all of them, I think they all have been purchased. Obviously Sam Adams, I guess at one point was kind of an off the beaten path, but now they're massive. Oh yeah. Well
**Poobah:** they were micro, they were, they really forged the. The whole market.
Um, and that was, you know, in the early days of, of, uh, of, uh, in the nineties, it's
**Gizmo:** early nineties, right? Yeah.
**Poobah:** That was, they made great beer. They do, they still do. I mean, I get, they probably still do. I just don't drink a lot, as much beer as I used to. Um, they've got a great
**Bam Bam:** winter ale. It's very
**Poobah:** nice. Yeah.
And we, I used to, I remember [00:33:00] picking up the variety packs. They'd do a winter pack and pick that up. I
**Gizmo:** used to like it. They probably still do that. The Sam Summer Rail and the summer. Oh, the Sam, the Summer Rails been
**Senator:** very good, man. We would get like a keg of that at my fraternity. That was like a splurge.
It was awesome.
**Bam Bam:** that was within budget .
**Poobah:** Sure. Yeah, absolutely. That, that was a, they, I, I, I mean, I don't drink enough of it now to, to editorialize on or add any commentary on how it's changed. But,
**Gizmo:** um, the more I sip this, the more I like
**Bam Bam:** it and the more I puff on this, the more I like it. ,
**Gizmo:** I'll be honest with you, it's just I'm getting a, out of the cigar, I'm getting a little bit of a buttery thing.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, and like Senator said, it is getting sweeter for me as well. Yeah. So, um, it's creamier actually for me, creamier rather than buttery.
**Gizmo:** I, I have to go back to again, I just find the whole, um, business model of a company just brewing non-alcoholic beer. I find that so bold at the time. I find it fascinating.
Like they clearly saw what [00:34:00] the potential was, and that's a big risk. Yeah. They knew
**Poobah:** there was a mar, well, maybe, maybe not, right? They, they, they viewed, they knew there was a market. Um, everything's a risk in business, but sure they knew there was a market there clearly. And um, I'm not sure if you guys
**Bam Bam:** remember they shot the lien five years ago.
There was a commercial, I think it was Miller. I don't, I'm not sure which major maker they had guys and girls at the gym and then they'd end up at the bar and they're drinking this non-alcoholic beer that Miller made and they're kind of making it, it's a healthy beer type of a thing. Yeah, this kind of, I think, falls in that line cuz it's cuz of the name maybe.
Oh, it's Miller, Miller Light. Is it Miller Light? Yeah, I think so. I've never tried it, but uh, it's a
**Poobah:** thing. I think what's his, I think, you know, one of the things that's kind
**Gizmo:** of
**Senator:** spoiler alert that has alcohol, it
is .
**Poobah:** Yeah, no, I'm not Miller Light. I think that one of the things that's interesting about this, which this honestly is maybe the.
Maybe the second or third non-alcoholic beer. I [00:35:00] mean, I've ever tried because , because rooster's not, it's not something that interests me. But, but, but, um, you know, because you can drink it in the car, , you can, you could, you could drink it in the car. Um, but I think it's interesting in that it, it delivers a flavor.
There's flavor
**Rooster:** here. Somebody, somebody who doesn't drink beer, and you get the same taste. So it's kind of like you're drinking beer with the guys. So you feel
**Gizmo:** like, you know, you're not left out. You're not missing out, not left. Yeah. You're not missing out. You're not, that's what,
**Poobah:** yeah. I mean, what I'm trying to say is that, that like,
**Gizmo:** you,
**Poobah:** you're having a beer and it's, it tastes like beer.
I, I, I think some of the previous non-alcoholic beers really didn't deliver on that. I agree. And they're agree. They're kind of delivering this, this, this thing where it's like, okay, well I can actually order this, have it. I, I, I'm not into alcohol or I'm driving, whatever your reason personal reasons are for not wanting alcohol in your [00:36:00] beer.
**Gizmo:** And you like the taste.
**Poobah:** Yeah. And it tastes good. So I think that's pretty cool in that it actually tastes like a beer. I mean, it tastes like a legitimate beer. And, and I think it delivers that. It gets close to it. I mean, it's not, you know, you can tell, you can kind of tell there's no alcohol in there.
Sure. If you really were, it's definitely lighter than a traditional, there's no bite to it, really. But it's delicious.
**Gizmo:** I mean, I like this. It tastes really, really good. It has the crispiness, like the ref, like with a burger. I'd be very satisfied with this because that's why, for me, when I reach for a beer with a burger, it's not because I want the alcohol.
I want that crispy compliment. Right. That refreshing compliment to the fatty, you know, burger you're eating or whatever it may be.
**Bam Bam:** But from the point of view of lifestyle, I've found, whenever I have a burger and a true beer, I feel totally bloated. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Too much.
**Bam Bam:** This after a beer. You feel great. Feel per,
**Senator:** I mean, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And you could take three of these down. Not a problem.
**Rooster:** Yeah. [00:37:00] Another great non-alcoholic beer is a Brooklyn, larger
**Gizmo:** Brooklyn. Oh yeah. It's a blue
**Rooster:** can. Yeah. It's, I think it's called extra hot. Like maybe just hoppy. Mm. Uh, delicious. They make a
**Gizmo:** few different ones. They do? Yeah. Yeah. This is really good. Senator lager,
**Bam Bam:** Senator gave me one that was a yellow can.
It's the only other athletic brewing company beer that I had. That's
**Senator:** the summer one I was talking.
**Bam Bam:** Initially it's very lemony, which I love. But initially it was hard to drink, but after four or five sips, it was delicious. Yeah. Really super
**Gizmo:** refreshing. I just, I like the idea too, like, you know, we're here on a Monday night, we record on Monday nights.
Mm-hmm. , I liked it. We're gonna have this. And it's like, I could drink three or four of these, feel really good. And like you said, bam, wake up in the morning, like Totally, yeah. Ready to
**Senator:** go. That's what I love. I mean, this was the first year during the Super Bowl. Normally, especially, I didn't really start drinking beer until I had a child, like before that.
As I think a lot of us here, I, I was not a beer drinker, but, um, during the Super Bowl, that was always like the one day of, [00:38:00] of the year, regardless. I was always, I would always drink beer. You know, it's a long game. You put back several beers, you don't always feel great the next morning. No, I drank these, the whole Super Bowl and I felt wonderful in the morning.
Nice. It was great. I still got the same flavor, taste, enjoyment, and
**Gizmo:** I woke up feeling wonderful. I'm all
**Bam Bam:** in. I'm all in on this.
**Gizmo:** So boys, before we get back to cigar journal, this cigar we're about what? End of the second, third coming into the, or excuse me, end of the, the first third. Coming into the second.
Third, maybe around halfway ish, um, is getting better for me. This is
**Bam Bam:** excellent. You can't say that this is not a great cigar. It's a
**Gizmo:** great cigar. Yeah. It's
**Senator:** a, it's smoking like a premium cigar. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. This is not smoking like some value budget stick where you have like several little complaints, but some things that, you know, check the boxes and you say, okay, on balances is okay.
It's hitting everything I wanted to. The
**Gizmo:** flavors that [00:39:00] this cigar delivers,
**Rooster:** you can't say it's like an under $10 stick. No. You know,
**Gizmo:** this, this is delivering $25. It's a great recommend. Great
**Poobah:** recommend. It really is. It's, it's uh, it's very good. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's very, very good and I'm just so happy. It's a lawnsdale.
**Senator:** Yeah. Same.
**Gizmo:** So happy about
**Bam Bam:** and, and a new world. Cause it's available. Yep.
**Gizmo:** All right boys, let's get back to the cigar journal. Top 25 of 2022 were to number 14, the second appearance from Drew Estate on the list. I've heard about this one. We actually had a couple listeners mention this, uh, not the specific viola, but the 20 acre farm.
Have you guys heard about this? Nope. Um, so it's a, this specific cigar, it's the Toro. It's 52 ring gauge by six inches released in 2021. But apparently this is harvested from a specific section of Drew, a estate, a 20 acre farm. Mm-hmm. That the tobacco only comes from there. It's some sort of more premium, [00:40:00] I guess I maybe it's like the, the, the little brother to the legal line as far as quality.
Mm-hmm. Um, but people seem to be really loving this, the 20 acre farm. It's a, uh, Ecuadorian wrapper, Honduras binder and Nicaraguan filler made at, uh, drew Estates. So maybe we should try it. Yeah. Number 13, the Placencia Ceia 1 49 Santa Fe . .
**Bam Bam:** What do they have a photograph of? The cigar? They do. What is the or
**Gizmo:** rapper?
Orange. It's an orange, black and white. Okay. I've had that cigar. Okay. So how was it? How was it? I had
**Bam Bam:** it in the, in a, they make lonsdale. It's a very small ring. I'll be honest with you. It was quite, it was very good. It was delicious actually. Really?
**Senator:** Yeah. We should give, if we're gonna give, it was a little placencia, a shake after our Alma Forte experience.
But let, it needs to then be
**Bam Bam:** that, let me say something about Placencia. So I go to another club not far from here. It's a Placencia destination, but he's got a ton of other cigars and his humanoids [00:41:00] like improved dramatically. I think Placencia has also changed since the last time we had that huge Alma Futa on your deck.
Brewster, they've changed their branding. The cigars look different. I think they've upgraded their game. I'm guessing it's a guess. I would hope so, yeah. .
**Poobah:** Well, for the com, for the company sake. It is. I agree.
**Bam Bam:** You could only go up from, it's so freaking popular that that whole line is so popular right
**Gizmo:** now. So guys, can you tell me how you really feel, please?
Yeah, I know.
**Poobah:** Well, I mean that particular cigar. The octagonal,
**Gizmo:** the, I didn't have
**Senator:** Octa. I didn't have the octagonal. None of us have, we had the, uh, that alma fuerte, that monster. It was a monster, kind of like a salamon, but longer never, never ending.
**Rooster:** It
**Poobah:** took two hours. It was
**Gizmo:** four hours. . It was, uh, it was
**Poobah:** a dumpster fire.
**Gizmo:** We should
**Bam Bam:** try,
**Gizmo:** we should try one of those. We should try this one. Let's
**Senator:** try the launch down though, because in all seriousness, I can't believe how many times now I encountered, let's say, a new [00:42:00] member at our lounge or someone I meet at somewhere smoking a cigar. And so many people love placeI. They're so popular.
It's, it's, it's, it's, I have a bad impression because that one bad experience with that stick. Yeah. We have to try something else on.
**Gizmo:** Well, do you ask them like, which one have you
**Senator:** had, or which, which is your I, I did dangerously and pagoda was next to me when
**Gizmo:** this happened. Boy. Oh, he doesn't, he doesn't hold bad.
You.
**Senator:** The guy took out the octagonal one and he handed it to Pagoda. and I, the, we're both trying so hard not to just completely lose it. I don't wanna offend the guy, like smoke something against him. Wait a minute. It's literally that cigar that Pago he described. Uh, yeah, he did. And not pagoda the, the the guy gave it him.
Yeah. Pagoda just put it away like, oh, thank you. You know, go to Exact said, very polite. Thank
**Gizmo:** you, sir. Thank you. Cheers. ,
**Bam Bam:** cheers. And did he say, oh my Lord, my Lord.
**Gizmo:** Oh my Lord. Oh my Lord. So that, uh, the, so the Placencia CJA 1 49 Santa Fe that they did was a [00:43:00] 60 ring gauge. Oh, forget about it, by four and seven eights. I, I would never even touch that. It's unstoppable. I like the Lawnsdale idea. Yeah. I like the, you know, I'll, I'll pick up, given what we're doing right now, I'll pick up a few.
Maybe we do that. Yeah. Um, so yeah, that's, uh, Honduran Pirro actually, which is really, really interesting. Uh, so yeah, we'll have to try it. You know, we do have some listeners that have emailed, like, Hey, you guys need to try Poncia, and then, you know, they'll say, I, we, I know how you feel about the alma fuerte, but you gotta try some of their stuff.
So, I, I think we need to do it. We'll do it. All right. Another one I haven't heard of, uh, number 12, uh, is the villager North America. Hearted that it's called the EXI USA 2021 Review Show. How dare they take that name? Seriously? . There needs to be a lot. It's funny, it's a bo it's a box press too. I'm gonna get the
**Bam Bam:** ball.
**Gizmo:** Oh Jesus. It's a box press, so that's a 52 ring gauge by five. So it's very close in. Uh, size two Senator's exi. Yes, sir.
**Senator:** I'm gonna get my JD just to represent [00:44:00] Petron and Sue
**Bam Bam:** this, is it senators? Is it senators or roosters? Oh, here we go. Oh,
**Gizmo:** bam. I
**Bam Bam:** like it. You know, I mean, he was smoking in 1940 for fuck's sake.
I . 1940 wasn't
**Gizmo:** born then. ,
**Bam Bam:** you're a vampire man. You've been around forever. . . Jesus.
**Senator:** Wow. Bad. Bam. With the shake today.
**Bam Bam:** I'm impressed.
**Gizmo:** That's a compliment. That's a shake. But Ru what Rooster does is he'll keep that in the back. Oh, I know .
**Bam Bam:** He's like a fucking computer. He won't forget that. And he will
**Gizmo:** find you. He will hunt you down.
Find you Justin. Trust your weight. . So that one is a, uh, Ecuadorian rapper and, uh, the biller, uh, binder and filler are both from, uh, Dominican Republic Pub. I interrupted you. I'm sorry.
**Poobah:** No, no, I was listening in Tely. . I have nothing to
**Gizmo:** say. So this one, um, I think we did this on the podcast actually, number 11, the AVO Synchro CBE in Torah.
Wasn't that [00:45:00] the blind? We did, no, no. What was the blind we did on episode like nine or something? A good question. R Y J. No, no, it was a That was a Romeo. It was an avo. It avo. It was avo. Synchro. Cbe. It was exactly, did that cigar? Cigar. It was an R yj. It was a episode seven. What did we rate
**Bam Bam:** that cigar? 6.4 can, yeah, that was bad
**Gizmo:** meeting again.
And I think it was that ex exact size. I don't remember exact. It was a 52 by six. I think that's it. The AVO sin Ray Kariba. Yeah. I'm sorry. Did do an avo. Yeah, we did that with the mini.
**Bam Bam:** That's ranked 17th is much better than,
**Gizmo:** I would say that this, this list is
**Bam Bam:** skewed. Sorry. Unfortunately, that
**Senator:** cigar is horrible.
It is because we did that blind and I also had someone gift to me. Shit, that's cigar, ones that I will never accept another cigar from. And I don't even think we speak anymore at this point. Ah, that's how bad that cigar was. Okay. Orange shit.
**Rooster:** Orange man.
**Senator:** Orange man. You know who I'm talking about? That gifted me that
**Gizmo:** shit.
I, no, I had no idea. So let me ask you a [00:46:00] question. When, when someone gives you something that bad, how does it, does it affect your opinion of the person? No. So here,
**Senator:** here's what I will say. Here's what I say, Senator. A d opinion. I'll state my, my position is this is not gonna be good. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Not
**Poobah:** of the person, but of their
**Gizmo:** judgment.
Right.
**Senator:** Of the person. Those are, no, see, I'm with poon. Can I, can I just let him submit? Go ahead. Case 90% of the time, no, it just says nothing about the person. I agree 90% of the time. . Just bad judgment. Most of the time someone just doesn't know what to pick up. I've had people give me some of the most ridiculous shit you wouldn't even believe , but they mean well.
The problem is this person. . I was very generous too, as we all are to guests, particularly at my lounge, and we would spend lots of time there and this person wanted to thank me for my hospitality. And so after, you know, they would consume a lot of scotch cigars, all that at my place. [00:47:00] They brought me a bottle of scotch that I think anyone who spent any time with me knows I only like the Macallan 12, Sherry cask, not the double cask.
We've talked about this on the pod. We all have that preference, of course, where they. The double cast, not the sherry cast. They've been at my place a thousand times. They've drank bottle after bottle of the sherry cast. Just get the sherry. But does this,
**Gizmo:** that was person even know they do.
**Senator:** Oh, they know. Oh, this person knew.
They knew, he, they know who I'm talking about. So that was strike one, strike two. Then they say, I'm giving all these cigars. I've given this person sharks all kinds of stuff. And this person, oh, you know, I, I got these the other day. They're, they're pretty good. You should try one. And I know nothing about this cigar, and it's one of the worst cigars I've ever smoked.
Now again, this person I've given. Plenty of patron drones too. They know I'm a patron fan. Dave Itdo a shark. Even if Fuente would've been fine, it's not hard to figure out what new worlds I smoke. There's no like secret code here. You can't buy them somewhere. So I just don't know why. If you're gonna get me [00:48:00] an avo, you get me this shit cigar that we gave.
What? Like a six, 6.464? Yeah. I mean, I have to hold it against the person at that
**Bam Bam:** point. . I have to. You're doing that because of the person ?
**Senator:** No, no, no. I just look, when you make an effort and the other person doesn't, I mean, that's not a good thing. I think now when someone makes the effort and just doesn't know what they're doing,
**Gizmo:** that's different.
I think reciprocation, I think equitable reciprocation. It's not like when, when you give something I, I know for us, like let's just talk about our group. When, when, when I give something to some, someone in this group, there's no expectation of return, right? Mm-hmm. , right? But. . If you guys were to give me something and give me that look in the eye, like, Hey, I'm really proud to be giving you this.
Excited to give it to you. Yeah, it should be equitable in quality or experience porn, not money, I don't care about that. But the performance and experience that you're handing someone, that hour and a half you're gonna hopefully improve of in their life. It should be a good experience.
**Bam Bam:** It does take [00:49:00] knowledge and experience of smoking cigars and knowing what you're, what you're buying
**Senator:** to do that it does.
But that person smokes. Davidoff Pedro, all the brands I name, you know what, they don't give me any of those.
**Gizmo:** This is true. You know what? That's that's
**Poobah:** true. And it's, and it's also like how ceremonial are you being about it, . Exactly. You know, if you're just kind of like, Hey,
**Bam Bam:** well Senator's very ceremonial.
Well, no, he's talking
**Poobah:** about the other people know that I'm not talking about the presentation of it. You know? Or in general, like if you're kind of like, Hey, have this, that's one thing. Or like, oh, try this, try this, or whatever. Or like, you know, You're at a party and you bring a bottle and they were at a sherry cask and you picked out and you're just like, drop it on their somebody's bar.
I don't think you can get offended at that. Yeah. Or if somebody needs a cigar and that's what you got and you're like here, then you toss it at 'em. Mm-hmm. But if you're making, like, if there's any ceremonial kind of.
**Senator:** Overture or something. Thank you for all your
**Gizmo:** hospitality. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Something like that is right.
Then it makes, then you're kinda [00:50:00] should try a little harder. You should. You should try a little harder. I mean, if you're gonna make a fucking ceremony about it. Yeah. And if it's, you know what I mean? If it's like, like, you know, if it's just casual who get, you know, if it's
**Gizmo:** a, but if it's a guilt driven, like I, I'm thankful for something you did or tha you know, thank you.
I haven't done enough to say thank you. I mean you should deliver something that's sure of decent quality and as we're experiencing tonight, it doesn't mean that it costs a lot. No, this is a
**Senator:** very high quality. It's the thing, I mean, we've reviewed some sticks, like some of these land arrows we recently done.
Roosters handed me this stick. It's like $7 and I'm sitting there saying, wow, this is a great cigar. I hand uh, um, I. Jesus Christ Gizmo. I had Gizmo the same baby,
**Gizmo:** episode 69. Just so you know. . I had
**Senator:** gizmo the same cigar and you were like, wow, this is a pretty good smoke. Like you don't have to spend a lot of money to make someone happy with a cigar.
No, that's true. But don't hand them an avo, synchro, whatever
**Gizmo:** that thing's called . It's uh, do this number. Avo
**Rooster:** faa iata.
**Bam Bam:** I gotta fo forgot about it. .
**Gizmo:** Holy
**Senator:** forgot rooster. Nailed it. That's what it was. The avo [00:51:00] fugato. Ah, is that really what it's called? Yeah. It also has an orange band. That's why I got mixed up.
Uhhuh
**Gizmo:** I thought you guys were being facetious. So yeah, that's number 11. The Avo, synchro, cbe, Toro. Uh, and now we are breaking into the top 10 here. Some of these choices, you know, maybe these guys are choosing these violas because they're short smokes or so. There's a lot of big ring gauge cigars, man, that are short.
This is the Oliva Siri v Melania limited edition 2160 ring gauge by four inches. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** I've seen that cigar, whatever. That's a like, whatever. That's like a nub. It's crazy.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's a, it's too much. I don't under, so here's my thing, I don't understand sand. I'm gonna have a cigar today and sitting down and smoking a 60 reengaged cigar by four inches.
**Bam Bam:** I have a question though for all of you. This is an international rating, correct?
**Gizmo:** Uh, yeah. It's an international publications
**Bam Bam:** international magazine. National, wasn't it? This group that said, The larger [00:52:00] violas, the ring gauges are more of an American thing, and the rest of the world's really smoking smaller ring gauges.
**Gizmo:** No, I think the American market drove, I see the trend. I think the rest of the, they're catching the world is picking up on it. I see. I see. Got it. But I think that, you know, Americans smoke a lot of cigars.
**Senator:** Yeah. Well, I, I thought that, but one of you guys are saying that apparently the Asian market's driving this now.
Mm. Well, Asians
**Gizmo:** love Asian market loves like big Cohibas. They wanna look like a
**Bam Bam:** baller while they're sitting
**Gizmo:** in smoking.
**Rooster:** Jack, not, not so much in Europe. I would say more. I agree. You know,
**Gizmo:** in China, huh? You know, so. Yeah.
But
**Poobah:** they sell e twos in Europe. They sell Kanye in Europe. They sell, they sell 52 ring gauge cigars there a lot.
And a lot of them. You know, so, but 60, I think anything above really 54 50.
**Gizmo:** I mean, agree. Boy. Oh boy. Even 54 for me, I'm not, I just don't love that. Anything bigger than an E two, it's, it's too much. It's a bit much. E two is right [00:53:00] where it should, it's
**Poobah:** 52, right. So yeah. Anything bigger than the, it's too much than
**Gizmo:** that really is E 2 52 or 54 4.
Yeah. E two
**Bam Bam:** s 54. Now that Melanio also sells like hotcakes, by the way. Gizmo at the other lounge in, does it it like hotcake cakes?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. That's a popular, oh, Ava. You know, it's very popular. Yeah, it is. Um, okay, number nine. The, uh, we just did this a couple weeks ago. We did, we did one of his cigars. AJ Fernandez Enclave, Connecticut Figu.
Nice. Look at cigar. It's a, uh, 52 ring gauge by six and a half Ecuadorian wrapper. And the binder and filler are from Nicaragua. That's a popular cigar. The one note that they said is interesting is this, they said that the smoke of this is buttery and it has the sweetness of cotton candy on the pallet.
Never called that note out before on a cigar. . Curious if that's accurate. I don't know that I've ever
**Senator:** wanted to call that note out
**Gizmo:** on a cigar . So number eight is the [00:54:00] floor Selva collection adversarial number 20 in Toro from Maya Selva Cigars. I think that's another one from them on the list. So 52 ring gauge by six inch Honduran Piro.
Hmm. I'll take a
**Poobah:** taste. There you
**Bam Bam:** go There. Yeah. We're turning them. We're
**Poobah:** senators going buck wild on the, on the non-alcoholic
**Gizmo:** beer? It is very good. I kind of want another one, but um, I dunno if you have any more. Oh yeah. Okay. So, uh, what's interesting about this next one is, given that it's an international public publication, I'm surprised that cigar fish anda had three Cuban cigars on the list.
obviously primarily American, uh, magazine. And this one only had one Cuban cigar on the list, which is the Ramon iis 40 Carat Regional. It's called the PI's Bajo, obviously a Cuban Piro 50 ring gauge by seven in a quarter. This is a big cigar. I've never heard of it. It almost looks like a, [00:55:00] I think it's a 1 0 9 actually.
Oh, it has that shape of the 1 0 9. We have those from our Cuban trip. And I think that we saw these being rolled in La Corona.
**Bam Bam:** We each have a, a stack of them at home. Yeah. A stack five. Yeah. Well, it's a five. Five, yeah. . I thought I had 10. Well, okay.
**Gizmo:** You might, I might, I have to get some more. I just, so yeah, the only, uh, the only Cub I, I grabbed it and ran.
Did you try it? Not yet. Yeah. I'm letting all my stuff, all the stuff that I brought back May, maybe about 30 cigars, but I haven't, it's got shit, single one of them. Yeah. All right. Number six, the law, Aurora. Preferr dose. Yeah. Or . Have you had that? ORs age 20, 20 54. Ring gauge isn't a perfect perfecto. No, this is a, uh, this is a, on both hands.
Nope, it's a parejo. Uh, pretty normal looking Toro. 54 by six. Pretty big cigar.
**Senator:** Sorry guys. I had to just look up the last cigar. You said we [00:56:00] gotta work in your Spanish
**Bam Bam:** before chemo. Oh, boy. ,
**Gizmo:** what'd I say? Just
**Senator:** please say it again. The Ramon. The Ramon.
**Gizmo:** The 40 40, Kara, is that wrong? No, keep going. Ion the, the regional edition.
Psh, ,
**Senator:** what is it? There's the io over the eye. It's sis sis .
**Gizmo:** Well, how come, how come I'm reading the list?
**Bam Bam:** uh, you're so lovable. This is a setup. .
**Poobah:** Just, just have senator order for you.
**Gizmo:** I may have to when you're there. All right, so before we get into the top five here, boys, we're coming into the last third of the Warped Maestro Delpo 52 0 5. I can't believe how good this is. Yeah, yeah. I can't believe it. If it finishes like this and it's se it's seeming pretty good, I will definitely be buying a box
**Bam Bam:** of these things.
I will say the strength for me has not picked [00:57:00] up. It's been exceptionally consistent. I'm not complaining
**Gizmo:** about this. No, not at all. Yeah, it hasn't picked up. No, it has.
**Bam Bam:** So it's a, a good candidate to take all the way down so far,
**Gizmo:** really, really enjoyable. It's,
**Poobah:** it's really, it's a good cigar. I'm, I'm enjoying it.
I'm by kind of wanting a little bit more creamy thing going on. It's got a floral thing going on now.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. , do you want more creamy because it was hinting it
**Poobah:** with, with Yeah. Like wake quick if that's your jam. But I'm not complaining.
**Gizmo:** I'm not complaining about it at all.
**Senator:** The thing that's surprising for me, this is, and I don't really, I don't know how many new world cigars I've ever said this about, but this is kind of a multi, multi act play.
Like, I think we talked about where it started then a bunch of us said, it's starting to get sweeter. And for a period of time I was getting tons of like dessert notes. And now it's getting more toward that, like leather, [00:58:00] earthy, earthy, earthy, um, Also a profile that I enjoy. There's a journey
**Gizmo:** esk towards the end.
Little
**Senator:** bit. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Not minerally at all though.
**Gizmo:** It's a little
**Poobah:** fal. It gets a little fal for me too. I agree. Puba
**Gizmo:** in some
**Rooster:** ways get more coffee notes, like espresso notes towards the
**Gizmo:** end. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Maybe there's a little that bitter, which isn't a bit, not as a bad thing, not as a negative chocolate, but darker chocolate, bitter chocolate kind of thing.
I was, I think I was hoping for like a little more cri, but it's, it's good. I mean, I can't complain. It's, it's, it's
**Gizmo:** good. I feel like I'm getting a bit more ooph now in the last third here. Are you? I'm getting a little more, I feel like I'm getting a little bit more, yeah. Um, it's very, very satisfying. It's a little peppery.
**Poobah:** It's subtle though. Yeah. Starting to introduce itself. There's like a little pepper. It's
**Bam Bam:** a little subtle though
**Poobah:** for me, but like, not crazy. No, but it's just like introducing itself [00:59:00] down the stretch here, which is good. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Excellent. I, I like
**Rooster:** that when a cigar kind of changes
**Gizmo:** a little bit, you know? Yeah, yeah.
And so many of these cigars, a little white pepper,
**Poobah:** maybe a little white peppery fin thing going on. It's
**Gizmo:** good. So many of these disappointing new world cigars, as we've talked about a thousand times. Oh, there are so many. Start. Great. You know, the first inch, first half an inch is excellent and then it.
Stops. How? How fast are you guys
**Bam Bam:** smoking? I am going pretty quick. I think Gizmo and I are about the same end. Holy
**Rooster:** Christ. Me, me and you are exactly, almost at
**Senator:** the same point. You guys smoke. I, I'm, there's so much flavor in this and it's actually complex. I'm very, very com
**Gizmo:** No, no. I'm ready to light up another one.
The finish
**Senator:** is so strong. I'm with you. Satisfying that. Like I don't need to draws often with this.
**Bam Bam:** I'm just loving it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I'm really enjoying, yeah,
**Poobah:** I'm enjoying it too. I'm kind of smoking it fast. Yeah, I want
**Gizmo:** more. Did you guys enjoy the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago? Extremely
**Senator:** competitive. Outstanding game.
Great. Very good game. Great game. Outstanding game.
**Poobah:** The second half was [01:00:00] really good. It
**Senator:** was, yeah. When the Eagles lost their lead, it was really something.
**Gizmo:** Can we, can we
**Bam Bam:** get into this cuz there's a lot to talk
**Gizmo:** about. Let's do the five. Let's finish the five here. Let's do that. Let's, and then I'll give you the guys the indulgence of
**Bam Bam:** busting my ball because I'm on, look, I'm gonna be very friendly to the Eagles because Let's go.
Go ahead.
**Gizmo:** All right. Top five Cigar Journal 2022. The number five, VEA Nicaragua Grando. I
**Bam Bam:** just, oh boy. That may as well been made in Patterson for crying out loud . I mean, where are these cigars coming from? There's too many options out there.
**Gizmo:** Patterson. It's a 56 ring gauge by five and three eights. Another big one, man.
A a lot of these new introduction cigars are just huge. Uh, Nicaraguan Pirro, uh, made in the Dominican Republic, which is weird, but yeah. Vena Nicaragua. All right, number four, first one from Perdomo. We haven't done a [01:01:00] Perdomo on the pod. We have not. I think we have to do that. The in men. So 70 Sun Grown Churchill Boys get ready.
It's a 70, 70 ring gauge by 70 inches. Oh, brother, where
**Bam Bam:** does it end? This is a disgrace. That's a
**Gizmo:** disgrace.
**Poobah:** I'm, I'm I'll, I'll be con conspicuously absent for that
**Gizmo:** review. Yeah. 70 by seven. That is, that's a sin. Oh yeah. That's like that, uh, the baseball bat. 80 by eight. Yeah. It's just horrible. So that's a Nicaraguan Piro that will never make an appearance on the podcast, I promise you that.
and following that up at number three, which was number two on cigar fish ANDA's List this year is Rooster's favorite, the 60 by Rocky Patel. There ya go. Which is just a little bit smaller. 60 ring gauge by six inches. Oh, I mean, yeah. Uh, Mexican rapper on that one. And the [01:02:00] binder and filler are Nicaragua.
**Senator:** Hmm. I mean, I will say, just cuz I'm tired of hearing about this cigar, if we're gonna do a rocky, we have to just do that. The 60 . Oh, that's 60 ring gauge. The 60 fuck it's
**Gizmo:** called the 60. It's 60. Did they make that in any other? Nothing. It's that, I don't think so. Did they make it 20 ? The
**Poobah:** non-alcoholic beard,
**Gizmo:** the center head
Yeah. It says 60 by six. Just Wow. Okay. We're coming to the end here. Number two. Wait, the Rocky was what? Number three? Number three. It was number two. That, so that was the one that was number two on the, uh, cigar, fish and auto list this year.
**Senator:** That's what I'm saying. It's just crazy to me on two separate lists that somehow this is, unless they're marketing also through Cigar
**Gizmo:** Journal.
I thought you said cigar journalists. Good. number two is the first appearance from Davidoff on the list. The Winston Churchill LE 2022. No second appearance, which is, you're correct. Right? Sorry about that. It's Dominican. [01:03:00] Was there, uh, this is a, uh, it's a little, uh, perfect. Perfecto. What's it called? It's called the Winston Churchill Limited Edition.
20 22 61 Ring Gauge. It's a Davidoff, yeah. Yeah. 61 by five and seven eight inches at the center. It's 61. Yeah. Yeah. But with the, obviously with the Pro Perfecto, you know, it, it feels like, uh, the mouth feels a little bit better. I would try it. Yeah, I would definitely try that one. It's like a football, because it's a David off.
We'll try it. Yeah. Okay, boys, number one. Any guesses? Nope. What's the brand we haven't heard from yet? Pedro Drone Drone. Pedro Drone may yet go. The, another big one. The Family Reserve number 95 in Natural 60 Ring gauge by four and three. That's, that's the new one. That's the new line's. The new
**Bam Bam:** one? Yeah, that's the new one.
People are raving about that line of cigar. Yeah. Raving.
**Gizmo:** I had it. I had that. You allowed did, was it? Yeah. It was very good. You like that? I mean, I don't like the size, but it's, it was, it's a good steak
you know, I'd be interested in trying it [01:04:00] cuz it's petro, but I just, I don't know if I'm gonna, I I, I just don't know if I could do a 60. There's just so many other interesting things that they have. So they have other ring gauges in that new line? Well, that's not a new line, it's just family reserve 90. If 95th, it's, it's number 95.
It's only in that size. That size. See the only one. Oh, see, okay. It's a, it's a very,
**Rooster:** it's, it's not a hot smoke. It's a very cool smoke, you know? Mm-hmm. Bigger, the ring age, the cooler, the
**Gizmo:** smoke, because there's more air in there, I guess. Right? Yeah. But it,
**Rooster:** it's just very uncomfortable to smoke that cigar.
Mm-hmm. that anything over a 54 is, uh,
**Gizmo:** it's a jawbreaker's overkill. Did you, uh, did you smoke the Maduro or the natural, uh, Maduro? Yeah. This one, they put number one as the natural on a strange list. Yeah. So that's, that's it. Um, we've done both of the, uh, the big lists that people are referencing. Not a lot of winners, I would say for us or me on either of those lists.
**Bam Bam:** The two DDoS, I think we should, well, we, the Dominican is in our line, but that perfecto.
**Gizmo:** We should try. Yeah, we could try the perfecto. I would be curious. That's to try that.
**Rooster:** Hendrick Kelner, uh,
**Gizmo:** [01:05:00] collab. Yeah. Yes. The principle. Yes. Yeah, the principle. Yeah. We'll try that and we'll try the other one in, uh, in, uh, the wso.
That was a Lenaro, right? Uh, yes. Lenaro. Yeah. It was a 38 or 39. And we'll also try the, uh, I'll pick those up. The, uh, Placencia? Yes. In the Lawnsdale? Yes. Yeah. Cool. So you guys mentioned the Super Bowl. Uh, it was not fun. Not a good time. I know that. It was a lot of fun. Come on.
**Bam Bam:** Kidding. One of the best Super Bowls in a long
**Gizmo:** time.
It really was. It was close. It was a close game. Yeah.
**Rooster:** I mean, they went from the Flying Eagles to the crying Eagles .
**Gizmo:** You know, just like that, the, the, the pleasure that the Giants fans have gotten out of the Eagles losing is nauseating to me. the text. All right. It's nauseating. I
**Bam Bam:** draw No, no pleasure from this.
Let's,
**Gizmo:** let's
**Senator:** be very thank you. He's not a Giants fan. He's not, not in our division. I'm not. That's right. But let's just be. I could have cared less about that outcome in the sense that even if the Eagles won, that's only their second Super Bowl. The Giants have four. You guys got a ways to go to catch up to the Giants
I'm deadly serious. So like for me, [01:06:00] this is punishment. It's
**Gizmo:** they've only won one Super Bowl ever.
**Senator:** That's right. That's my point. Yeah. That's why honestly when the Eagles played Brady and beat him, I was rooting for the Eagles just because I can live with Oh fine, let them get one super. I would hope the Eagles can get one.
And um, but I was tired of seeing Brady win, so I was actually very happy to see Philly win.
**Bam Bam:** And Nick Foltz was the quarterback in that victory.
**Senator:** Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So there's none of, for me, it's not like, oh, I need to see the Eagles lose all the time. I feel that way about the Cowboys, that that's where like we all feel that, agree on that.
We all feel that way. Um, the reason you were getting shit is. You will conveniently forget, but I will remind you of the times throughout this entire season that you have rubbed in our face how well the Eagles were playing. Yep. You're sitting in the lounge with us watching a Giants game go to overtime saying, oh, is the game still going?
My game's over. We won. How's your game going? I mean, you can't dish it out and then not take it. I someone take it
**Gizmo:** there. I could take it, however, I can definitely take it. I [01:07:00] just, it's just the, the volume. Not so much from you guys, just the volume from all the Giants fans, the pleasure that they got. It's almost like their Super Bowl, the first Super Bowl.
Who this day, who are you communicating? My other friends. All these other, I have a lot of, to you, I have a lot of Giants. Friends. Friends. A lot of, a lot of friends of mine Giants fans. Well, yeah. No
**Poobah:** one's gonna, okay. There's a, there's a little bit of, you know,
**Gizmo:** Rationale behind us. I get the rationale. It's just irritating.
It's,
**Poobah:** it's, the rationale is, is that the fan base is maybe since. The Oakman Raiders of the seventies and eighties, the most despicable fan base. an unlikeable fan base. They are unlikeable ever in the history of, of sports and football and in
**Bam Bam:** professional sports
**Poobah:** ever. Yeah. Yeah. These, these are, these are people who have, who have.
Assaulted, they lit a child on [01:08:00] fire. for one, they lit a child, small child, they lit a small child on fire. Is that true? Yes. I'd
**Gizmo:** like to see the
**Poobah:** source on that. Yeah. Yeah. They lit. They've, they've beaten, uh, people put them in the hospital. I think they may have even have killed people. , there's been murders.
Did they deserve it? , um, right. I mean, so there's arson involved, um, assault, uh, all of those vandalism. The only thing, I mean, you don't see Giants fans going out and vandalizing and lighting cars on fire and like destroying their own city. This is lunacy because
**Gizmo:** Rutherford, there's nothing going on in Rutherford.
That's why I
**Senator:** have news for you. The ticker tape Parade. When the Giants win their Super Bowls, again, four of them happens in New York City and had four, and there's no looting rioting, any of that. Everybody's happy, everybody, every, and they call
**Gizmo:** it the land of the brotherly love,
**Senator:** and there's no love in that city.
They literally destroy. So the only thing you should be happy about is Philly still stands as [01:09:00] a city because they lost that game. ,
**Poobah:** this has nothing to do with. , like the, the franchise itself for like, I mean, listen, did I take pleasure in watching Lawrence Taylor destroy Dewar Jaworski, like, and beat the shit out of him on a daily basis?
No. . I loved it. . Are you kidding? That was fantastic. But, but, but like, I mean, we beat the shit outta you guys for years and, and the fan base is just not, not lately, though. Not, no, not lately. I'm talking about the buddy.
**Bam Bam:** The worst. The Buddy Ryan, buddy Ryan. Years. Oh
**Poobah:** yeah. Um, uh, but, but it's a despicable group of human beings.
Oh boy. That are, that, that, that root for the student that be, look at the behavior. It's newsworthy . I mean, this isn't like debatable. It's like they grease the
**Gizmo:** poles. Listen, a little adrenaline never hurt anybody. Oh, . I guess
**Senator:** say that to the police horses that they kick the shit outta.
**Gizmo:** All right. Now you [01:10:00] know I'm a big animal guy.
Yeah. I'm not into that. I've sent you the articles. They kick the
**Poobah:** shit out. All animals, people, children, they light things on fire. They also eat horse manure. It's
**Gizmo:** disgusting. Which goes on also the path. That's why. That's the reason
**Senator:** why. The other thing, the other thing why I think anyone that was just an observer, uh, it was so notable to watch the Eagles lose that game is I don't think anybody debates and Vegas agrees with what I'm saying here on paper.
The Eagles have had this entire year the best team on paper, in football period. Absolutely. I'll never take that away from them. Absolutely. They've built an outstanding team. They were favored by Vegas to win that game. So to see them lose in the underdog win, I think in any Super Bowl, the same reason everyone was a Giants fan, the two times they beat Brady.
Yep. There's always that underdog story, and I think that was
**Gizmo:** and was the call bullshit?
**Poobah:** No, no.
**Bam Bam:** When you see the other views, it's, it's legit. It was legit.
**Gizmo:** It was legit. Oh no, I, I was never, I was never angry at the whole time. Initially. Initially I
**Bam Bam:** thought it was a BS call, but then you see the other [01:11:00] views
**Gizmo:** that did not, he actually said it himself.
Yeah, I know, I, I saw that. I saw
**Poobah:** that. But was it a little chippy on That's the borderline of Chippy, not a first hold call. All game. Like maybe you can debate that back and forth. Is that something that I would be bitter about if I was a giant, you know, as a giant fan? Like what could you, was the ball catchable?
Definitely not. Was it a little chippy maybe? Was it technically a hold?
**Gizmo:** Definitely if the second half was more competitive, but like if the second half was more competitive and the Eagles showed up in the second half and that. Actually determined the end of the game fine. But it did. That wasn't the case.
I mean, the punt return, just so many things. So many, and by the way,
**Poobah:** and the E and the Eagles. The Eagles go like their ability to control the line of scrimmage, particularly on offense and every
**Senator:** force downs when they can go forward,
**Poobah:** everything and going forward, everything had possession of the football for so long.
They did. They never should have lost the game. That's
**Gizmo:** true. They ran. They should have blew
**Poobah:** them out. [01:12:00] Honestly. They ran double the amount of plays in the entire game. Then the chiefs did double
**Bam Bam:** the two big amount, big issues. Two big issues were special teams issues. They missed that field goal and that long punt return was like literally a knife.
In the stomach for Philadelphia
**Gizmo:** Also, also,
**Rooster:** the way the Eagles got to the Super Bowl. Right. Who'd they beat? They beat the 49ers third swing quarterback. Yeah. To get there. Yeah. They beat the Giants where Danny Daniel
**Gizmo:** Jones was singing. But
**Bam Bam:** don't discount that. Remember San Francisco won nine in a row with that kid?
Nine. Nine. No. That
**Gizmo:** kid got
**Senator:** not hurt. Not with Per,
**Gizmo:** they played the fourth
**Bam Bam:** string quarterback. They've to play four quarter. That's true. That's right. They literally had to play the fourth string quarterback. This is true. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. They went through quarterbacks
**Rooster:** and then on top of, and then on top of that, Philadelphia lost, what'd they lose?
This here? They lost the MLS Cup . Oh boy. They lost the World Series
**Gizmo:** and the Super Bowl . They're certainly not gonna win the basketball gizmo to move on. . What? Listen, we just, we just, it was miserable . It was miserable. It [01:13:00] was not. Let me just, You guys haven't experienced this in quite some time. I mean, you, the last two Super Bowls that the Giants were in, you won.
It really sucks losing the Super Bowl, man. You know what? It's
**Senator:** funny you mentioned that actually, because when you, when you go back and look it up, the, the, the thing why we don't really understand this feeling very much. We've made five Super Bowls and we've won four outta the five. All right, well, you know
**Bam Bam:** what?
You can also screw yourself. You, I must must say, I, I don't even know what it feels like to be in a Super Bowl, .
**Gizmo:** Okay? You might never find that.
**Bam Bam:** I won't ever, maybe my son
**Senator:** will see it for the, for the listener. Bam. Is uh, unfortunately a Jets fan. That's right. .
**Gizmo:** I mean, I must
**Rooster:** say that the Eagles are the team to beat
**Gizmo:** in the nfc.
That's true. Yeah. In all the football, Brady, most of the team is gonna be intact. They are, yeah. They're gonna lose some, the O line is a little bit older. They might, you know, Kelsey's gonna retire, I think, but their
**Bam Bam:** offensive line this year is elite.
**Senator:** It's the best O line in the league. Yeah. That's why I can't feel bad for them.
They had every resource you could ever want. To win a Super Bowl. And if you don't do it, I mean you and
**Rooster:** Jalen, Jalen
**Gizmo:** Hertz can't throw more [01:14:00] than 50 yards. By the way that last, that hail
**Rooster:** Mary was, oh my God. All his guys are like in the end zone and he couldn't in
**Gizmo:** his short . Okay. Alright. We lost Ross. He can run.
He can run. All right. It'ss, nauseating. We lost the Super Bowl. I'm glad you guys, I'm so happy for you. Losers, , fucking giants. Losers. I'm
**Senator:** so far. Anger. Anger during it was what made it all the board general. I was ting off. You were lashing out like we've never seen before. . .
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. Well, thank you for that guys.
Yep. No giz. Oh, by the way, gizmo, thank you by the way, for being second
Uh, by the way, I wanted to say this cuz I've heard a lot of people talking about it. I thought that the broadcast team was excellent. Berkhart Olson. Olson was great. I thought they called a really, really good game. Yeah, I I thought it was Isn't Olsen
**Rooster:** getting
**Gizmo:** replaced by Brady? Yes. I don't know if they gonna do.
That's, it's a rumor. Well, BR Brady's now coming on in fall of 24. So he's got another season on the sideline. Mm-hmm. . And I think they're, I, here's my guess, my guess is Jimmy Johnson [01:15:00] retires after one more year and they put him in the Jimmy Jimmy Johnson's seat on the, uh, the pre-game show. That's what I got.
And I also
**Bam Bam:** don't think he's going to be very good Tom
**Gizmo:** Brady. I don't
**Senator:** either. He doesn't have much personality for tv. No, I
**Gizmo:** agreed. His podcast is, I think Jro will be good. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. That's cool. He's joined the Fox baseball. That's
gonna
**Gizmo:** be cool. I find that interesting. Really good. I find that interesting that he's willing to sit next to
**Senator:** Arod
The thing is, the timing's not coincidental. So they, they buried the hatchet with the the documentary, right? That's the thing. Yeah. Jeter's wife got involved and wanted them to just finally let bygone speak bygones, and now they are on speaking. Jesus. I,
**Poobah:** I think he'll be tremendous. He's, I agree. He's, he's, he's been dealing with the media and a, been a, been a PR machine single-handedly on his own for so long.
I think he'll be fantastic
**Senator:** at it. Yeah. I also love, like, Jeter is just super honest and direct. I mean, he doesn't like pull punches at all. So I feel like in that kind of role, he's just gonna say what he really wants to and feels He's
**Poobah:** a great communicator. He always been, he's always, he, he's measured, [01:16:00] but he's direct.
He like picks his spots. The dude's, the
**Gizmo:** dude's a ninja. And plus with, uh, with uh, uh, Ortiz there too. Big Poppy. I think that's a cool dynamic. Yeah. Between him and Arod and, uh, and, and Poppy. Well that's the,
**Senator:** that's a joke Jeter made. He said something like, you know, Poppy's always showing off those rings next to Arod.
Someone's gotta add a little balance to that. with more rings than Arad's got his one. .
**Gizmo:** That's right. . Oh, man. Well, thank you boys for that. Thanks for the, the kind reminder. Uh, we'll see anytime next year. Hopefully we can do
**Poobah:** it again next year. Listen, just save all the fireworks and explosives in your trunk for next year.
**Gizmo:** I spent a lot of money on those things. Yeah, just keep your crowbar
**Senator:** in there and
**Gizmo:** everything else you're doing. Baseball bats. Yeah. M eighties and shit. . Oh, man. All right boys. Well, we're coming to the end here of the Warped Maestro Delpo 52 0 5. What kind of, how's it treating you in the last third? Very nicely.
Yeah. I think it's a [01:17:00] brilliant cigar. Zero compliance. I'm absolutely buying a box. Yeah. Before I even pack up tonight, I'm buying a box. I am absolutely
**Bam Bam:** piggybacking on one of your orders. , it's like his credit card doesn't work or something. this guy. My Venmo works great. .
**Gizmo:** So, uh, you guys ready to do Yeah.
Let it go rooster. Let it
**Bam Bam:** go. .
**Gizmo:** You guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on the athletic brewery? I p a run. Wild. Yeah. Very impressive Drink. All right. Bam. Bam,
**Bam Bam:** you're up. You guys may think I'm crazy, but because I can drink five of these and feel fantastic after I have to give it a nine mm-hmm.
because of the flavor I'm getting now, that's a big score. You know? How do you compare this to the high scores that we gave that bottle of Remi 1738? It, you can't compare it, but for what it is right now, this is a nine for me.
**Gizmo:** Senator
**Senator:** Pam. I don't think you're crazy at all. I'm, I'm in the exact same spot.
Delicious. I mean, I have long criticized non-alcoholic beer as being [01:18:00] flavorless, and it was a joke for years. Exactly. A joke being nothing like the real thing. And this was one of the first and, and, and few that I've had that. , um, I think has a permanent place in my fridge when, um, you know, I think Giz said this once about kind of the Guinness zero of like in an afternoon where he's not looking for a buzz, but he is just craving the taste of a beer this slots in so many times in that place.
Mm-hmm. and every time I'm satisfied. And I actually like that it's not super full and heavy. Yes. That it doesn't, I don't feel shitty after having it alcohol aside. So for me it's a strong nine.
**Gizmo:** So I totally agree. I, I'll piggyback on that because where I'm thinking about this is like at lunch, have a chicken salad or something.
I think this is perfect for that, especially when you wanna get back to your workday. Like, I am all in on this. Yep. Just think about this. You could, you could
**Rooster:** have this in your car while you're eating your salad.
**Gizmo:** That's exactly where I was going. That's it. That's
**Bam Bam:** brilliant. Driving down the highway doing 70
**Gizmo:** That's right. I'm gonna do it. Uh, I'm also at a nine. I when you said, I thought you were gonna go 10 when [01:19:00] you started kind of hedging it a little bit, but I'm also at a nine for sure. That's been my score since, uh, since I tasted it. I think it's excellent. Also,
**Bam Bam:** just a quick note, when I, when my wives, when my wives, when my wife, wow.
Oh,
**Gizmo:** well let's dig into that. Boys ?
**Bam Bam:** No. When she has her girlfriends over and, you know, a few of them like beer, but they'll have one. Mm-hmm. , they can have a few of these and feel great. Yep. It's true. That's, it's pretty versatile that way.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. Puba,
**Poobah:** I, I, I really haven't had many, I mean, this is maybe my second or third in my life.
Um, so I don't have much to compare it to. I mean, I'll give it a nine just because it tasted like beer, pure pressure. . I, I, I mean, I just don't. I don't have much to compare it to really. Yeah, I get it. I mean, it's Which
**Gizmo:** you don't
**Senator:** need. I mean, I feel like if you're saying it tastes like beer, that's what they're going for.
**Gizmo:** It taste and it tastes like good beer. Yeah. It's one of, it's one
**Rooster:** of the better ones
**Gizmo:** out [01:20:00] there too. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It tastes good. So, I mean, as far as non-alcoholic beers go, not compared to regular beer. I mean, I would, it's the best one I've ever had. Yeah. But I've only had a couple
**Gizmo:** Rooster.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm same.
I'm, I'm at a nine.
**Gizmo:** Awesome. Yeah. So the form of Liquor Rating Boys is a flat 9.0. Highly recommended. So, let me ask you, we didn't talk about this. How much was, how many were in there? 12 or six.
**Senator:** So the, the, the six pack is usually about 12 bucks. The 12 pack, you save a couple bucks, it goes for 20, uh, I, so the funny thing I see, I see the
**Gizmo:** reaction.
The lizard math is the, the gears are turning
**Senator:** right now. The funny thing is, the first time I went and bought this, when it was, look at his face,
**Poobah:** no smiling. I'm just trying to understand. Well, that's the
thing.
**Senator:** I had the lizard math that you probably did. Look, when I went in the liquor store in January, first time I bought this stuff, I'm sitting there like, oh, it's [01:21:00] non-alcoholic.
It's probably less than real beer. And I'm sitting like, how the fuck do they charge the exact same price? But someone said to me, which obviously makes sense, the process is identical. Yeah. So that's where they have to Oh,
**Rooster:** I see. Yeah. Plus it costs more to take the alcohol
**Gizmo:** out. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** now you're really making it, you're really making the gears turn.
Now .
**Poobah:** Look, once the alcohol ever ends, , I don't know if they take
**Gizmo:** it out. . Well that was, that's a very, very good beer. And I think a 9.0 is a perfect score for it. I'm definitely gonna be picking some of that out. Me too. It's definitely
**Rooster:** worth like getting into a, if, if you like non-alcoholic beers. There's a lot of non-alcoholic good beers out
**Gizmo:** there.
Well, I mean this is what the fourth, third or fourth we've done on the podcast. Yeah. So I mean, I, I think this is a great thing to keep doing because we have a lot of listeners out there, you know, in in Lizard Nation who've emailed saying that they really have appreciated the fact that we've done some non-alcoholic pairings cuz a not everybody drinks and not everybody can drink when they have a cigar for whatever reason.
So, um, [01:22:00] you know, it's a good, it's a good, uh, good avenue for folks to pair with cuz it's really working with this great cigar. Oh, it is. I mean, it is, this is a, uh, This has been an excellent cigar tonight. I can't wait to see where this rates who, which listener recommend this came from. Nick.
**Bam Bam:** Nick Lizard.
Nick. Nick, you're the man. Yeah. Great. Recommend,
**Gizmo:** excellent. Recommend. Wait. This lounge Nick? Yeah. Really? Yep. Our home lounge. Cool. Home lounge. Nick, lizard. Nick, are you serious?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Wow. Nicky Boy came through. Yeah, Liz redeemed himself. Henry's Henry's in the closet. His,
**Gizmo:** his friend
**Rooster:** recommended the
**Gizmo:** Las Chaves.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** So Henry, we're gonna put in a closet. Nick comes forward. There you go. .
**Gizmo:** So you guys ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating on the Warped Maestro Delpo? All right, rooster, you're up. Um, this is gonna be a hard one. Yeah, it's tough
**Rooster:** because, you know, we, I gave the number, the my father number four and nine.
**Gizmo:** And this to me, me, this is . [01:23:00]
**Bam Bam:** Uh, oh. The gears are restarting again, by the way. Over there, .
**Gizmo:** So
**Rooster:** this cigar, I think has more flavor than the my father, number four. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna
**Gizmo:** give it a 10. Wow. Wow. For the price? Yeah, for the price value. We've got a factory. The experience. Yeah. Yeah. Puba
**Poobah:** loved it. I thought it was a great cigar.
**Senator:** Um, can you, can we comment Puba was the first to finish this. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I thought it was really, really good. I really, really liked it. It's not a nine, but it's a solid eight. If I could decimal it up, I would still a great score. Yeah. But it's a really, yeah. I mean, I really liked it. Yeah. I, I it like, um, I have nothing negative to say about it actually.
I mean, I really just, I really, really enjoyed it. It's a solid aid for me.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Really liked it.
**Senator:** For me, it's a solid nine. Mm-hmm. , I will buy a box of this. I would [01:24:00] smoke this. Again, I, I love almost everything about this cigar. The only reason that it didn't crack 10 for me is, um, some of the creamier, sweeter notes that I was getting in the first half. And even some of the second half don't exist in the final third.
The final third is still enjoyable. I think it picks up in strength, more leather, earthy notes. Um, but I loved some of those creamy, sweeter notes that if that could have stayed toward the very end, this would be a 10. And I'd smoke this all the time, but I'm still gonna smoke this regularly. Yeah. Its a solid
**Rooster:** night.
I kind of, I'm kind of enjoying the. The last third of the cigar because I like those spicy pepper notes that I'm
**Poobah:** getting from this. Yeah, that came through in the end,
**Gizmo:** right? Yeah, it definitely changed. Changed,
**Poobah:** yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's very good. Yeah, so I'm also at a nine for sure. . Um, you know, my father, I think I gave that a nine as well.
If we were, if we were to have decimals to, [01:25:00] to rooster's point, like a, my father to me is like a 91. This performed like a 93 or a 94 for me. 95. I would say maybe, yeah. I, I'm really, really happy with this. Mm-hmm. , and I think value plays into where, where I'm gonna slot this and I just, as you know, I just love the feel of Lonsdale in the hand.
You know, this is, we're really, really satisfy. And I think it could fit almost anywhere. This could fit after dinner, this could fit after lunch. This could fit in the morning with a cup of coffee. Like it really can fit anywhere in the rotation for me. Yeah, I, I'm very, very happy with this scar and I'm definitely buying a box.
It's a nine for me all day
**Bam Bam:** long. Yep, yep, yep. I can't see this going below a nine, so I'm at a nine. Yeah. And I got a hint of pepper at the end. Not a lot for me, it, it takes a lot for me to feel that strong, a strong cigar. This was a kind of a heavy creaminess that continued all the way through to the half fi that I'm holding here.
**Gizmo:** So
**Poobah:** for me, I, I liked, I liked the, the, the, the, the first half of the cigar in the middle. [01:26:00] The last third wasn't quite as enjoyable for me. Maybe that's, that's what took it down. I mean, if I had to rate it, I probably would've given it like an, you know, to me it's like an 80. Maybe an 87 point cigar for me. I like it.
I mean, like I would buy a box of these, I would smoke 'em. I think that the construction, the burn, everything was really, really good. Yeah. Um, really nice, nice smoke. Yeah. Really
**Gizmo:** nice. I'm very, very happy with this. Yeah. Well, boys, an excellent pairing tonight. Both are a non-alcoholic beer from Athletic and the Warped Maestro Delpo 52 0 5 in lawns.
Both got a 9.0 tonight, which is an excellent pairing night. It's, it
**Bam Bam:** was, the experience
**Gizmo:** was delicious all around. Yeah. And I think that this beer actually really stood up to properly, to the flavor profile of the cigar and the strength profile. I thought it was [01:27:00] really, really a nice pairing, especially for our Monday night.
That's awesome. Yeah. You know what a
**Rooster:** big thank you to Nick for recommending this. Great recommend. Yeah. Great. Really good cigar. And now I know why he recommended this, and Henry recommended the Las Galas . Henry's
**Gizmo:** a Eagles fan. And Nick is a Giants fan. Oh, oh boy. Oh, here we go. Mr. Is correct. Unbelievable.
Wow.
**Poobah:** Great cigar. And I, and for the listener, I, I, I may have given it an eight, but I I, I was the first one to finish it. I, I loved it. I mean, I really did. Um, it just didn't hit every note from me down at the end. That's all. I mean,
**Gizmo:** but it's not a knock. And this plays into, again, this plays into, we talked about it as we started.
But we should kind of, you know, round it out. And this plays into us again, finding another budget. New world stick in a size we love that performed way better than it should have at eight or 10 bucks a cigar.
**Rooster:** And any cigar that you smoke on the pod and you end up buying a whole box
**Gizmo:** of that cigar, [01:28:00] it's worthy.
It says a lot, you know, it says a lot. A lot. Says a lot. Yeah. So, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That's a high recommend. Absolutely. All right, boys, a 9.0 for both of them tonight. Great night, great conversation, and we'll see y'all next week. Cry eagles crying , keep smoking. 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 o d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
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