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The lizards pair the Herrera Esteli Habano in Robusto Grande with Maker's Mark 46 Bourbon Whiskey. The lizards debate this cigar’s Cuban-inspired flavor profile, the guys share their appreciation for classic Maker’s Mark Bourbon and they discuss the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Grinder, Senator Pagoda, and bam.
Bam. And our plan is to smoker, cigar, drink, suburban talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 29th official invitation to join. And become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan of meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our
**Rooster:** formal lizard rating.
We debate this cigars Cuban inspired flavor profile. We share our
**Gizmo:** appreciation for classic Maker's Mark bourbon, and we discuss the Johnny Depp, Amber, her trial, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite. Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair makers Mark 46 with Herrera, Estelle Hao in Rub, Robusto Grande, a new world rub, Robusto Grande [00:01:00] tonight from Herrera, Estelle, a Drew estate marker on the pod.
A uh, 52 ring gauge by five and a quarter inch. I've not had one of these. Grindr, you brought these tonight. You're a big fan of this.
**Grinder:** I, I was, I haven't, I I was. , some of the other lizards in the, in the borough here, . Um, in the layer, in the layer lizard layer. I haven't had a her Estee in a long time, but when they, when they first came out in 2013, I was all about them really.
Um, because it, it, it looked at the time I was still like, You know, reflecting on visually like, oh, this is a lighter cigar. I want a lighter cigar. And I like this cigar because it was full, fuller bodied, had a lot of punch, but it looked and felt smooth. Great construction and the size is pretty optimal.
If you want to like go out on the rooftop and you know, smoke a cigar for 45 minutes, it's great. Actually, this smokes longer than. [00:02:00] Um, I,
**Gizmo:** I've always found, but I feel, I feel like it's, it's well packed, but I feel like it's dense. So my perception is that is for its size. If it's gonna be a little bit of a longer smoke, honestly, the, the
**Bam Bam:** foot looks very, very tight.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Mine, mine looks good. Like, there's certainly air pockets in the foot, but yeah, it, it definitely is well constructed. I mean, there's, it's kind of shiny, you know.
**Grinder:** Yeah. It looks, it looks nice, like the seams are pretty much invisible. A
**Bam Bam:** tad rustic, but really beautiful. Yeah. Nice and smooth.
**Grinder:** And this guy Willie, her.
Um, you know, I don't know how famous of a blender he was or is, or has been, but he was brought, he was hired by Drew a estate and Jonathan drew himself, I think, to really elevate some of the brand. And he just kind of, they just made this his own brand. Like we have a, you know, pretty well known roller coming outta Cuba.
Um, and I mean, it's still still a very good cigar. They, they make different variations. The wrapper smells great. [00:03:00] Yeah. It's a Havana wrapper. Very nice. Ecuadorian Hoban, I think I'm, is that right? That's
**Gizmo:** correct, yeah. Ecuador, uh, Ecuadorian Hoban wrapper. Uh, the binder is Hondura and the filler's. Nicaragua.
All right. So it's not, and it's made in Nicaragua. It's made in, it's
**Grinder:** not a pure, yeah. Yeah. So it's made in the, uh, drew a state factory there. Um, yeah,
**Gizmo:** I mean, let's do it. That's great. Let's cut this thing boys. See we're getting on the cold draw here. . You know, I, I find it interesting about Drew Estate and we could talk a little bit about this.
Wow. I don't know if you know more than I do, but draws
**Bam Bam:** is wide open for as densely packed as this is. It's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And I barely took off the,
**Gizmo:** uh, skin. I find it interesting that drew estate, like instead of calling this Drew Estate, you know, a cigar, like they have several markers in the Jewish state, the league, you know, the underground.
It's interesting how he's built his cigar. . It's not so much focused on him. It's these other
**Grinder:** Well, it's, it's an inverted pyramid. [00:04:00] Pyramid of marketing. Cuz you're, you're not marketing Monte Christo, the brand. You're marketing this very unique cigar. Yeah. You know?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's pretty wild. .
**Senator:** Little
**Gizmo:** out of protocol
**Bam Bam:** over here.
We're we're policing it. We're good. We're good.
**Grinder:** Carry. Pagoda was a little quick
**Gizmo:** on the trigger. . Well, the cold draw's really interesting. Well,
**Bam Bam:** it's tobacco and cedar. .
**Grinder:** I definitely get the cedar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. We've gotten some dried fruit of some sort. My mine raisin. Maybe raisin. It could be a little raisiny, a little fig.
I called that out before. Yeah, I can see that too. It's kind of a new world. Mm-hmm. Classic. Uh, new world Cold draw. I'm very interested to see how this goes, boys. Has everyone smelled
**Senator:** the wrapper of this? Yeah, it's very
**Gizmo:** fragrant. It is. It is.
**Bam Bam:** It's very fragrant.
**Grinder:** Yeah. It's nice. All I smell. and hand sanitizer.
I just fucked all
**Gizmo:** over my head. . All right, boys. Let's cite this thing. The Herrera. Estelle, [00:05:00] Este. Sure. Am I pronouncing that
**Grinder:** correctly? S what? However you pronounce the Este region in est Nicaragua.
**Gizmo:** That's how you pronou est. The Hao ra Robusto Grande.
**Grinder:** I would say Estle Estle, but I don't know these things for sure.
**Gizmo:** Again, it's uh, 52 Reengage by five and a quarter made in Nicarag. very interest to see. I know, I know. This is a very well regarded cigar,
so I'm curious how it does, and you said, uh, so this has been around, I guess, nine years now, right? So it, it came out originally in 2013. Yep. Uh,
**Grinder:** yeah. You might have to fact
**Gizmo:** check me on that. No, it's true. I, I worked at that . I nailed it. Nice looking cigar. You did nail it.
Taking me a while to get this thing lit though. Hmm. A lot of tobacco in here.
**Grinder:** Wow. Still, still very good. , you
**Bam Bam:** know? I like it. Yeah. Right off the bat. I like it. I
**Grinder:** like it too.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. [00:06:00] got a little sweetness right on the, yeah. Very, very
**Grinder:** comparable to a good, grieving to me already. Let's, let's not go too far.
**Senator:** Is that too audacious? Yeah, let's not go
**Gizmo:** too far. Did you hear the silence after you said that? I don't know. .
**Grinder:** I don't know either. I, I kind of,
**Rooster:** Like a
**Gizmo:** seay sweetness.
**Grinder:** Yeah, exactly. It's got the
**Gizmo:** twang Come on. The Nicaragua twang. Yeah, it's got a Nicaraguan tw. It's got that volcanic ash. No, it's very cool. This is very good.
Nice on the light. All right, let's write it.
My draw is perfect. I wouldn't, I don't know if I'd say wide open. There's just a touch. Yeah, mine's not wide open. A touch of resistance. But it's
**Bam Bam:** really nice. I'll say, sitting here looking at the combustion, it's substantial. Yeah. Right
**Grinder:** off the bat. Yeah. Is it Plumy?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. This is really good.
I mean, what are they? . Yeah. What kind of notes are you guys getting? I'm [00:07:00] still, it's like, it's earthy. There's a little pepper in it and a
**Bam Bam:** little cedar. Yeah. I'm getting a lot of like, uh, rooster mentioned it a little seed, uh, sweetness
**Grinder:** is there. Yeah. Getting some barnyard flavors. Some hay. Yeah,
**Senator:** hay for sure.
For me, it's like cedar pepper and hay.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. There's a little sweetness though. You can't discount that little bit, like a little like, I, I don't wanna say caramel or honey or something. Just something there. Just of the initial light. Yeah. There.
Yeah, it's a nice little cigar. Yeah.
**Senator:** Cuz the sweetness to Rooster's point, like immediately on the light. I got it. And five puffs later and now it's completely gone. So,
**Grinder:** Grindr, how
**Bam Bam:** much are these
**Gizmo:** guys? I just looked it up. They're uh, they're a little under eight bucks. I was gonna say. Wow. No . Yeah. A little under eight bucks.
Wow, okay. You know, and that, and that's to me par bargain cigar. Yeah. Yeah. But it, it doesn't taste like that. No, not yet. It doesn't taste like that as of right now. Having just lit it. But did you say not yet? Not yet. Jury's still out. We'll see how it goes.[00:08:00]
So I, I just learned, by the way, I know you like that rooster. I know Drew Estate was purchased. Don't like that a lot. But they're owned by a company called Swisher International. Yeah. Swisher Suites. Swisher Suites. Swisher Sweets.
**Bam Bam:** Do they make chocolates for you? Not
**Gizmo:** for me. Not for you, okay. I'm off the chocolates, you know that.
I do.
**Grinder:** When did that happen?
**Gizmo:** 18, 19, I think four or five years ago.
**Senator:** Yeah, I think we paid Costco to stop selling those, just so you stop
**Grinder:** eating them.
**Gizmo:** So apparently I, this comes in a lot of different sizes, right? There's a lan, there's a, a Toro. There's a couple others I think. I think there, yeah. Um, have you had any others, uh, grinder or just this one? Uh, I had
**Grinder:** the lanzaro with you guys.
**Senator:** Were you there for Lanzaro night when we, I was, yeah. Yeah. That was fun.
I don't think I was there. So, uh, some of the lizard, I think it was me. Bam. Rooster and Grind. Did a Land Zero night at one of our, uh, former lounges. [00:09:00] And, uh, this was one of the land zeros that we tried that night.
**Grinder:** We tried this. Um, w it wasn't, it was a special edition. Um, her estle, first of all, . And we also tried the Oliva V in Lance.
That's right. And was there a third? Yes, there was,
**Senator:** uh, a dark one that, that's the one that won super flavorful, um, oh, I don't remember. Was it Aga? Lisa Liga? I think so. I think
**Grinder:** Soga Lance, two Jewish Estates and the Aleva. Um,
**Bam Bam:** interesting thing about this, I'm getting on the, on the initial draw it, I get the cedar and a little bit of the sweetness, but on a.
It's all barnyard and hay for me on the
**Grinder:** back end. Well, this is, this is very pleasant. Yeah. I mi I've missed this.
**Senator:** This is great. Which I have to say, knowing your palate grinder, I can already see why you really liked it. Yeah. You love the barnyard? I do.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Yeah, I do too. From time to time. Very earthy. I mean, you can, I [00:10:00] like these Havana rappers that aren't actually from Havana , um, uh, Havana Shade rappers.
I've always found them very pleasant on every cigar I've had, and I don't know how much that it actually relates to real Cuban seed or whatever, but there is a market of these Havana or Havana, like rappers that are, um, that are out there. And this is one of them that, you know, it's just tasty. It's got that reddish hue.
Mm-hmm. , you know,
**Bam Bam:** I've never, I haven't never seen any of these cigars in any shop. Are they a.
**Gizmo:** seem like they are online, but I, I don't,
**Grinder:** they sell out very quickly. Huh? Really?
**Gizmo:** So are are they as popular as Sayk?
**Grinder:** I think they are. I mean, they're very highly rated. So ca is all up in there. Yeah, CA loves the cigar.
Um, and it's, you know, when you have a good cigar by a good maker and it's well marketed and it's appreciated by third parties. [00:11:00] and it's available and the price is great. You can't, like, you're, it's gonna sell. It's gonna move. How many other
**Bam Bam:** vitos do they have? He was just commenting that. I
**Gizmo:** think I don know there's four others.
I see. I think there's five total, but that is not a fact. I'm, I'm, I'm just based on what I saw online. By the way, this is the 15 number, 15 cigar of 2021. Oh wow. Wow. Yeah. This was in our list that we went through. So this specific viola of this specific cigar was number 15 in 2021. for eight bucks. You know, it's pretty, uh, pretty cool that it,
**Bam Bam:** it does pack a punch
**Gizmo:** for $8.
Yeah. I'm trying to feel like, uh, I'm trying to, uh, from a comparison standpoint, you know, the league that we smoked, I'm kind of, I'm trying to kind of map in my mind where they would both fit
**Bam Bam:** in my mind. They're a complete opposites. They are,
**Grinder:** yeah. It's totally different. I mean, the ra, this is a Havana rapper versus that Maduro rapper.
I mean, it's just
**Gizmo:** so different. It is. And I'm just thinking like, is this something to start your day? Is this the second cigar of the day?
**Grinder:** This is it. Where swat, this [00:12:00] is a, uh, early afternoon post to lunch. Yeah. Big cigar. I don't think it's an early mor I think it's too much. I do think there's too much of, of body for it to be an early morning coffee stick.
You know, midday is gray for this. Um, yeah, it goes back to a comment you made in a previous episode about, uh, body and like, it looks like a light cigar, but it packs. .
**Senator:** Yeah. I mean, I, I, as soon as I, you handed these out, I said to myself, okay, this is probably gonna be a very mild cigar, right? And yeah, I mean, just, you know, half an inch through this.
I would not start my morning with this, but afternoon, I think, like you said, would be a perfect time for a cigar
**Grinder:** like this. That the two o'clock coffee that you need, ,
**Bam Bam:** you know, two o'clock cigar. Two o'clock cigar.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Mon the Monte.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, definitely not an evening cigar. No.
**Gizmo:** You know what it's, it's for eight bucks.
It's [00:13:00] really well constructed. Yeah. It's smooth delivery of the flavor. It's burning great smoke out, like, you know, I just don't understand some of the cigar brands selling 20, 25, $30 cigars and it doesn't deliver what this does. You know? This is pretty good so far. Absolutely. Now, I guess we'll see where it gets to in the second, third, and the last third.
This is, this is pretty damn good. Yeah. It's got some spice
**Grinder:** There. Is spice there? Yeah. I was just gonna say, I'm catching some spice right now, and I'm like, yeah, there is spice two
**Rooster:** centimeters. Taste any like
**Gizmo:** nuttiness. Yeah, there's definitely nuttiness in it. Mm-hmm. ? Yes. Like walnuts. Yeah. Pecans. I mean the, the
**Grinder:** spice is dominating.
You're dangerous. No, I just read
**Senator:** it.
**Gizmo:** You are a day . You really,
**Senator:** I was sitting here saying, I was like, I'll be honest, normally doesn't pull out this many notes. I was very impressed for a second. You, you could
**Gizmo:** have played that. You could have played us for the rest of the episode. Now, now you
have
**Grinder:** me questioning every time we actually
**Gizmo:** iactually say like, did he just read that?
Um, yeah. This is really good. No, but
**Grinder:** to [00:14:00] your point, uh, rooster, this is, this was much more barnyard. Hey, now it's like, you know, there's a little spice. On the tip of my tongue. What
**Gizmo:** kind of pepper would you say that is? Is it like a black pepper? Like a white pepper? No, it's not white.
**Bam Bam:** I'm not getting pepper white peppers.
Yeah, I think it's a lighter pepper. Yeah. I'm getting like,
**Gizmo:** what kind of spice are you calling out? I'm getting
**Grinder:** more like Christmas baking spice.
**Gizmo:** Hmm, okay. So like not
**Rooster:** Meg. Cinnamon .
**Grinder:** Did you read?
**Senator:** No Rooster? Did you read that? No. No. Those are baking spices, spice.
**Gizmo:** I know,
**Rooster:** but I'm just holiday spices.
**Senator:** Little suspicious
**Pagoda:** I think you were reading about the Rock to God. Then ,
**Bam Bam:** take rooster's phone away please.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, just a quick question. When you. Banard or hey, I don't know. For me, I got a little bit of the salty feeling, like salty taste. Sure. And is that what you kind of [00:15:00] relate it to? Yeah. What do, what do you mean by
**Grinder:** banard?
Uh, I mean, It's hard for me mean have you ever been in
**Senator:** a barn? Yeah. Where it smells like, you know, horses. I'm a city boy. Shit.
**Grinder:** So like a mean when, when I say barnyard, I'm not exactly equating it to horseshit, but I am equating it to like a mustiness. Mustiness. Musty. Musty is probably the right word. And
**Bam Bam:** hay.
There's hay there. And mustiness.
**Grinder:** Earthiness. Earthiness and
**Pagoda:** earth. Yeah. I felt a little earthiness with the saltiness. Now I. Understand
**Grinder:** what you mean by that. Yeah. Yeah. But not but, but not necessarily, you know, some people may may mean directly horseshit. I do not. No, we don't. I'm
**Bam Bam:** not getting taste of horses.
**Grinder:** Shit. Like
**Bam Bam:** the flavors of horses.
**Gizmo:** That's a lot of horse shit. , . Only the wizards call out the flavor note of horse shit.
**Senator:** Yeah. No, the reason I say like there are varying degrees of like that barnyard flavor that you would get out of a cigar because this is more my speed, like some cigars that. Like a ton of barnyard notes, which is not what my pallet [00:16:00] likes.
Like, like Grindr, that that's cigar, that avo domain you like. That's a lot of barnyard, which for me is too much. Yeah. Uh, but I understand obviously for your pallet, you like it. Like, I equate that to like more of like a true barn. Like all the smells, like horses, shit included, ,
**Grinder:** sweaty animals, ,
**Senator:** this is like the like very clean, pristine barn.
Like the course hasn't been there in a few months. The Cuban
**Gizmo:** Sweat , it's a, it's a brand new barn. But the,
**Senator:** the point that, um, that pagoda is making earlier about the saltiness in this, I get some of that too. And that goes back to, I think on the light, Grindr, you said, oh, there's a little Cuban twang in. I think there's some saltiness that is reminiscent of that.
**Pagoda:** I, I kind of agree because, you know, I was about to say, so say something, but I, I think with all the Cuban of Sards over here, I think I'd be shot .
**Grinder:** I just let it fly. I like, I bet I said something earlier that I got a lot of crickets for. I mean, forget what it was, but don't be shy. No,
**Pagoda:** I really liked it at the light, by the way, [00:17:00] because you know, like when I, when I do smoke Cuban, especially the RAs, I've got a very similar.
Burst of flavor, which I said, wow, this is, this could be really good. And then right after that, I just
**Grinder:** died out. I so much flavor from this right now. You know what,
**Gizmo:** this a
**Rooster:** littleness me off, like right on the light, a little bit like the short to
**Gizmo:** punch.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, that's, that's
**Rooster:** like that caramel sweetness.
Interesting that you get muddiness in the beginning and with, you know, with some like spice pepper now. on the retro hill, you
**Gizmo:** get a little pepper. Yeah. You know what I'm finding though, is in, in the delivery of this, I, I'm kind of feeling this kind of, has a bit of a, obviously a league of vibe a little bit and a little bit of a tae vibe.
But the thing I, that I like about this versus some of the tahe things is like, there, there's, there's an essence of that. Um, , I don't wanna call it Nicaragua. I don't know what it is, but it's, it's, it's, it, [00:18:00] there's a little bit of an oomph to it when you draw it, but it, it, it's almost delivered in this creaminess that coats your mouth and there's a little sweetness to it.
That kind of makes it way more enjoyable and pleasurable to me than a lot of the Nicaraguans that. That we've tried and I've smoked. I think you've upset
**Senator:** the right orchestra. I saw a lot of
**Gizmo:** disagreement. ? Well, I think when I said tahe, sure. Well, I mean,
**Grinder:** un I just like, I can't, I can't, I can't even my in a.
Sane mind equate this to AOI Ork all, or I
**Gizmo:** agree. Um, I think this is very Cuban
**Grinder:** esque. Yeah. I, I agree. If I have to. Okay. I agree. I think it's very
**Senator:** Cuban es It's crazy
**Grinder:** to say, but I agree mean, and, and I think maybe you're kind of right, it does have a little sharper edge than some of the Cubans we smoke.
But it does, maybe that's owing itself. It's Nicaragua origins. . It's in just such a different part of the ballpark. It's in different city compared to Liga. And uh, I'm
**Gizmo:** just saying in it, it's, I don't know. It's in the same family. I, I don't know, but there's something [00:19:00] I un I see the, the, the ties to the, the cigars.
I called out and you guys can tell me I'm wrong. That's fine. I mean, I don't wrong,
**Rooster:** I don't get the Nicaraguan flavors typically out of Nicaragua cigars in this one. Agree. I mean, this is, You know, you get, if you take the, the, the pepper notes out, this would be even be more Cuban, like a Cuban cigar. If you take the wrapper off, you tell somebody it's a Cuban stick, they would believe it's a
**Gizmo:** Cuban stick.
That,
**Grinder:** that's a fair argument. I'm getting. So you're gonna, you're, you're, this is when you're probably gonna shake your head at me. So I had a Mag 46 today. I'm getting more notes of Mag 46 in that spicy, what, what I would say spicy Cuban cigar in this than I, you know, as a comparative basis than I ever would.
like that to me is more native than anything illegal would come
**Gizmo:** out with. Okay, I see. As I taste this, I don't think, I
**Bam Bam:** would not compare this to a mag at all. Mag 46. No,
**Gizmo:** but I mean this [00:20:00] is, it's just confusing me cuz I'm trying to be analytical and, and dive into it. I can't Can you just say like,
**Senator:** put my finger on, I think you're trying to figure it out.
I'm just sitting here like honestly just shaking my head in disbelief in the sense. . This is like no other new world stick I've ever had. It's really true. I don't understand how, uh, this even tastes this complex at this price point. I'm like completely confused and baffled by this amount
**Grinder:** in a good way. I I do
**Bam Bam:** agree with that
**Gizmo:** 100%.
Are you saying, let me ask you a question. Let's say we could never, let's say our humidors were emptied tomorrow, and you could never purchase another Cuban cigar, especially a rabu. , would this be the cigar as of right this moment that you would say that is suitable to replace what I'm looking for in a,
**Bam Bam:** it may be this, it could be the shark.
**Grinder:** That's one that I happen to, but the shark has no, it doesn't have Cuban scent. A different
**Bam Bam:** price. Putting price
**Gizmo:** aside. But I'm saying like from a Robusto standpoint, let's say you could never get another [00:21:00] Cuban and your humidor is empty, they're gone. Never, they don't exist. I think if
**Grinder:** you took the wrapper off this and you said this is.
I don't know. Name your Cuban brand. You mean the band? Sorry. Yeah, thank you. The rap, the, the band and did a blind tasting. You. I think you'd be just as baffled as Senator is shaking his head right now, just be like, I don't know what this is or what to make of it because it, it, it is kind of spooky how close the, the taste
**Senator:** profiles are.
I, I'm also just shocked by this because I, I mean like almost everyone in this room of the New World stuff, we. It's mostly stuff with a darker wrapper, right? Mm-hmm. , right? So like a Maduro Padron a Yeah. Millennium Series from Davidoff, A late hour. Those are all darker wrappers
**Bam Bam:** with a specific flavor profile, right?
That comes at you.
**Senator:** Right? And anything I've tried New World that has at all a lighter wrapper doesn't have a lot of flavor to me. No, it's very boring. That's why I always go for any new world. It's gotta be a darker rapper. [00:22:00] I'm just shocked how much flavor I'm getting out of this. every other new world with exactly this shade of wrapper doesn't deliver half as much flavor.
So I, I'm, I'm very surprised and impressed. What's
**Bam Bam:** cool for me right now, I'm about an inch in, so I've lost most of the barnyard for me, but I'm getting a lot of the salt that Pona mentioned earlier. Yeah. And it's, it's really quite enjoy. I'm
**Grinder:** enjoying it. It's very rare. Unless we forget though. This is not, this is not like a Connecticut Shade natural rapper.
This is still Havana rapper. It's got this reddish hue to it. It's kind of more earthy, a little more volcanic. So it's not necessarily. like that, you know, Ashton Kelp, kelp, you know, Connecticut Shade rapper.
**Senator:** Um, no, totally. But eat what's, I'll even take this further, some of the natural PE drones, right? And Petron's known for fuller flavor.
Some of those natural quadrons to me are like very, yeah. Not all that flavorful from, to. The, um, I'm getting a lot of flavor in this here. Yeah, it's
**Grinder:** interesting. It's an [00:23:00] interesting cigar smoke. The smoke output is, you
**Pagoda:** know, which one I like, you know, uh, to answer when of your question, onus is a new, the Dominica in the Davidov.
The Davidoff, yeah. You know, that's good. Little lighter wrapper. Very flavorful.
**Gizmo:** It's a great cigar. Yeah. That's, sorry, hold on. Hold on.
**Senator:** The has a dark
**Grinder:** rapper. What are
**Bam Bam:** we talking about? It does have a dark rapper. Yeah,
**Grinder:** yeah, yeah. It's all. I had such a bad experience with that cigar. Really?
**Gizmo:** Really, really? Oh, what?
What? This is becoming my new favorite. It was on
**Senator:** Easter . It was on the date the week before Easter. It was our Easter Sunday. I
**Grinder:** lit up at Dominican and then we got inundated with, with uh Oh.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry. Mafia. I finished it for you. .
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Sicilian Mafia. What? At the clubhouse. Oh, right.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Yeah.
But never again. I'm sure it's a gran cigar. Sorry. I dig.
**Bam Bam:** I think this is, this cigar is settled in brilliant. Really, really nicely. Very
**Gizmo:** nicely. I'm, I'm shocked at the smooth delivery of this, the complexity
**Bam Bam:** and what's cool is right as right on the [00:24:00] initial draw in the front of the tongue. It's sweet. Yeah.
And it gets salty as it brings their smoke through. It's
**Gizmo:** really, yeah. I don't get the sweetness anymore. That's kind of very slightly, it's diminished. Yeah. It kind of has, and I, I'm not comparing it to a RAs, but it kind of has that thing that the RAs does where it kind of coat your mouth a little. like even after you, you, you know, you, you push the air out after your draw, it kind of sticks with you.
Like you, there's an oil. Yeah, there's like an oiliness to, to the, the roof of your mouth that it sticks with you in between draws.
I think PBO would really like the cigar. ,
**Pagoda:** listen, we gotta do a blind tasting . Yeah. Blind test. And, um, just,
**Gizmo:** I'll put a RAs wrapper on it and see what he thinks. Yeah, no, I mean, and this is, this is very, very cool. I'm surprised that this is eight bucks. It's shocking, shocked, shocking. Alright, so let's try our, uh, our liquor parenting tonight, boys Makers 46.
I have no idea what the difference is between Makers 46 and regular [00:25:00] makers. Mark, I'm curious, um, how this is gonna pair with this thing. , what do we know about Maker's 46 versus the normal Maker's Mark bourbon? Yeah,
**Senator:** so it's interesting. So from what I've read, there's really only two main differences between Maker's 46 and the regular maker's mark.
The first is that the 46 is age longer, which mellows it out while adding a lot more flavor. And the second is that seared French oak staves are seeped in the bourbon towards the. Of its additional aging process, bringing out even more flavor. Other than that, it says it's the exact same mash, same barrels, same wheat, everything.
Interesting. So those are really the only two differences that I think a part, a lot more flavor is,
**Grinder:** does, does that, does that itself warrant a new branding for this bottle? ? I don't know
**Senator:** if it does. I mean, I will say though, it, it is definitely distinct from regular makers in that yeah, this is a lot more flavorful.
It's true and true to me. Tastes [00:26:00] higher alcohol. Like this is
**Grinder:** I agree. Got more, I was gonna say it, it's got a bit of r rougher edge around it. Yeah. You know, the regular makers,
**Senator:** oh, it's so easy. It's so easy to
**Gizmo:** drinkable this. This to me is not pleasant. At all. .
**Bam Bam:** I feel vindicated. I feel vindicated. There I,
**Gizmo:** there is.
I'm, I'll be
**Bam Bam:** honest, I'm
**Grinder:** not, I'm not digging it. This is not
**Bam Bam:** good.
**Grinder:** I'm not not digging it, but I'm not
**Senator:** like, so I'm glad to hear you say this. We may set
**Gizmo:** a record on the low score tonight on a liquor rating because No, I am not. This is not good. What was
**Grinder:** the scotch we did? It was just trash and we Oh, that was awful.
Ata.
**Senator:** He was
**Gizmo:** so bad. I should never forget. Oh, that was so bad. Let's see if we could beat.
Let's shoot for low. I mean, this is just not good. I'm sorry. I'm glad I'll take regular Maker's Mark any day. Thank you. So
**Senator:** I'm glad to hear you say this because I forget, I was in like some shitty bar once with, uh, a few friends and there was like nothing that I would normally drink there. So it was just like some random, you know, bourbons and I saw regular maker's Mark, and I was like, okay, I know this can't [00:27:00] disappoint me.
Like I, it's totally serviceable. I actually like regular makers. And I ordered that and one of my friends who I guess fancied himself as a bourbon aficionado, he looks at me and he goes, well, well Senator, there's Makers 46. Why don't you have the 46? And I was like, cuz I, I don't like the 46 that much. And I just, to humor him, he's like, no, no, you, you gotta try it.
I said, okay, I'll give it another shot. I find it to be very, very aggressive. I, what I like about aged spirits is usually it actually smooths out rough edges and produces a more refined product, and I find that with Makers 46, it like brings out these shocking edges that I never knew. , yeah. Could be present outta
**Gizmo:** Maker's market to me.
You said the process adds flavor. I think the process takes it away. . This is, to me, it, I, I think this is an inferior product
**Senator:** too. Mm-hmm. I agree with when they're saying adding flavor, I mean, I agree with them in the sense that like, this has a lot more body to it. Like regular makers is kind of light almost for a bourbon.
This, this has a lot more body to it, but it's [00:28:00] just too aggressive for
**Grinder:** me. It tastes like a shitty four roses.
**Gizmo:** It's not good. I, it's not great. And I'll tell you every time I sip it and then I take a draw of the cigar. Mm-hmm. the cigar, like relieves my pain of the, of the bourbon. Yeah. Maybe I really hate this Bourn.
Maybe don't drink it. I'm thinking about it. Okay. I'm thinking about it.
**Bam Bam:** A glass of Woodford would be nice with this.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. I mean
**Grinder:** this is, I think, I think there might be some Woodford at the bottom in the room somewhere. Is it underneath your chair?
**Bam Bam:** Are you hiding it?
**Gizmo:** This, um, I'll tell you, versus the.
You know, normally we look to how the pairing is helping the cigar, vice versa. Not tonight, but that's okay. No, the, you know what? This pairing is making me enjoy the cigar even more. , not because of the, not because of the bourbon. Right? I am out on Maker's 46. I'm out. I'm out. Tell us how you really feel vehemently out.
I'm gonna walk outta here. You did Vow. I'm gonna walk outta
**Grinder:** here. I don't, I don't, uh, I don't hate it. Um, I don't hate it, [00:29:00] but, . I don't know if I've ever had it before I got this bottle. Really? So I was like, oh, 46, let's do it. Let's try it. And then we tried it previously, like someone busted it out at a previous podcast and it was just kind of like, meh.
You know, meh. Yeah. It's a lot of
**Gizmo:** uh, it's very math. I think that's even kind. I really
**Bam Bam:** like this cigar cigars
**Gizmo:** great. I. I think I would definitely pick this up. I would too. Yeah. And we're only what, coming up on halfway through, but I'm, I'm really enjoying it. I think the first third of the cigar was better than it's now.
I'm in the middle.
**Senator:** Honestly. I agree. I feel like the flavors, I think it's kind of fizzled off mud. Like it's not as distinctive as
**Grinder:** when started. I'm struggling with it.
**Bam Bam:** I feel, I feel opposite. I'm in the middle right now and I'm, I'm really enjoying it. It's very smooth and I
**Gizmo:** do wish smooth and creamy. I do wish where we're at right now was the beginning.
I wish the thirds were flipped. Like I wish it kind of built into, as [00:30:00] opposed to fading, because I agree with you. Uh, rooster. I think it started better than it is now, and had it done the opposite, I think we would be even enjoying it more.
**Bam Bam:** More. Let's
**Gizmo:** point, let's see what the last third looks like. Yeah, we'll see.
But on the other hand, then PBA would just put it out. Yeah, he wouldn't be, he wouldn't have smoked it. No.
**Grinder:** Well, this is why, you know, sometimes we. certain cigars for certain scenarios when certain un un
**Pagoda:** for certain people. Shank. Is that what it is? Shank.
**Grinder:** Alright, I get it. It's not a
**Gizmo:** shank, it's just a statement of fact.
All
**Grinder:** alright? You probably wouldn't
**Gizmo:** want to be here for it. So guys, I gotta tell you about a book. So we talked about El Havana Moderno, uh, in the past, which is a companion piece to the cigar website that we all referenced for Cuban cigars, which is, uh, cuban cigar website.com, which has all the possible info you could ever want about a Cuban cigar.
But there's another book that's coming out. I feel like we're in the golden age of books about cigars right now. There's another book coming out. It's called The Cigar [00:31:00] From Soil to Soul. Comes in Two volumes, really, really nicely done. . It's by a guy named, uh, Didier Hova. Um, and it's coming out right now.
You can buy it, um, you can Google it, just google the cigar from Soil to Soul book. And it's a cool reference book of the entire process of from the moment the seed is picked and planted all the way through the role. Um, a really, really nice, um, I guess, reference book of, uh, appreciating ci. and what cigars are to people.
It's more of a philosophical discussion of cigar smoking as opposed to an analytical or scientific, you know, this is what it is, and this is the size and this is the viola and the marker. This is more of a, uh, I guess a discussion or a piece about, um, the experience of it, the experience of having cigars.
Nice. So I picked up a copy of this, but I'm, I'm really, really into it because, um, 300 pages, a hundred illustrations, [00:32:00] six artists, , you know, it, it says that the author takes the standpoint of a technical expert and enthusiast and a humanist to depict the life of a cigar from the first tobacco seed to the last moment of tasting.
So I, I'm really, really excited to get this book. I just ordered a copy myself. Um, but it's, the presentation's really nice. It looks great, and it kind of covers everything. So if you're a cigar enthusiast out there, I love, I love a coffee table book about a cigar. I love. , go ahead.
**Senator:** Sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Just had a revelation on the cigar.
Yeah, so that Maker's 46 like completely singed my taste buds to the point that I feel like I couldn't taste a cigar anymore. ,
**Grinder:** did
**Senator:** you drink some water? And now it's finally worn off and I've taken a few more puffs to this. Now I'm getting back the flavor that I had early on so I can see why BAM is. He's enjoying this in the middle.
This is a lot better. I think this the, the 46
**Grinder:** BN really fucked my p Yeah. How long have we been here? [00:33:00] Interesting thing. Cause this is not burning
**Gizmo:** about a half hour. Yeah. About that. It's definitely, you know, to, to our point as we started, it's, to me it's burning slower than I expected. For sure. Yeah, it's packed.
Yeah. Yeah. It is. It, but the guitar is good. Wait to it. But the draw is good. Oh yeah.
**Grinder:** I cut off. Bam. What
**Bam Bam:** were you saying? It's all good. All right, . I was actually gonna just piggyback on what you said, rooster. The body of this really ba began bold and it, and it dissipated in strength, but the flavor for me is, it's still
**Gizmo:** quite tasty. All right, so getting back to this book that I'm excited about for a second, it comes in 11 volume, uh, excuse me, 11 chapters across two volumes, very.
Why are you guys giving me shit about this? Get on with the fucking book. I'm obsessed with this book. Get over it, . It's very exciting. I'm, I'm, I'm enjoying this cigar. Jesus. It's very, doesn't have an audio
**Pagoda:** version.
**Gizmo:** All right. Fuck you guys. I'm gonna enjoy my book and when I get it, are you gonna walk out? I might, I might [00:34:00] walk out. I'll just leave the, leave it running. Are you gonna buy a signed. Uh, well, no, I, I ordered the, uh, the, uh, the really nice versions. I'm looking When is our book coming,
**Bam Bam:** by the way? Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I like my book.
Uh, it comes in oc Elano. Moderno comes in like October, November. Oh my gosh. Yeah. All right. So
**Grinder:** yeah, this cigar is great, by the way. .
**Gizmo:** Tough crowd in this room, boys. What else are you reading?
**Senator:** Gizmo .
**Gizmo:** Every week I'm gonna do a book of the week from Gizmo ,
**Grinder:** the lives of. Eastern Orthodox Saints,
**Bam Bam:** a memoir, .
**Gizmo:** That's funny.
I'm not a big, listen, I'm not a big book guy, but when something comes out about cigars, I celebrate it. You're a big book
**Grinder:** guy. Yeah. Don't you're, you're, you're, you're always paling books
**Gizmo:** for us. No, I just, I love a coffee table book. I love a coffee table book, which
**Senator:** you don't read. No one reads coffee table.
No, I have a, a cigar one on my coffee table. It looks great. The author has like this [00:35:00] ridiculous name. It's like Barnaby Conrad III . I'm not even kidding. That's literally the author's name and it's like an illustrated like history of cigars. Like it looks great on the coffee table. I've
**Gizmo:** never read the thing Decor.
I'm gonna consume every page of the It's decor. You're gonna consume it. I am. I'm gonna, I'm gonna really, and then I'm gonna give you a full book report. I like
**Pagoda:** Kramer's Coffee
**Bam Bam:** Bug. . Yeah, me too. I think Barnaby's gonna be my new nickname. Barnaby. It's like that. Bam. Bam. Barnaby . It works.
**Gizmo:** The bbb. Oh man. .
**Grinder:** Has anyone
**Bam Bam:** had to touch up their cigar all?
No. I did.
**Gizmo:** No, it's burning a little weird. No. Mine's burning. Great.
**Bam Bam:** Mine mine's, yeah. It's not razor sharp, but it's burning nicely.
**Grinder:** I had, I had to touch up a little bit, but Not at all. It's fine. No, I, I find I touch up
**Senator:** a lot of cigars. It's, it's Cuba being Cuba. .
**Grinder:** Exactly. [00:36:00]
**Bam Bam:** in
**Gizmo:** Newark. .
**Grinder:** Just Newark being Newark.
What can
**Gizmo:** I say? . Yeah. I, I, I find this to be a very, very pleasant cigar and it's doing way better without the Maker's 46.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, the cigars got merit, you know, there's for eight bucks, dude. Yeah. I mean, come on. It's a lot
**Gizmo:** of merit. Awesome. I think Puba would really like the cigar. Yeah. I think this is right in his wheelhouse.
Yep.
**Grinder:** Yeah. For, for, you know, jokes aside, I think it would be a good
**Gizmo:** one. A hundred percent try Absolut.
Do
**Grinder:** you think Puba listens to the podcast that he's not on? I think he
**Bam Bam:** refuses to listen to the ones he is not on . So like we
**Gizmo:** could talk, we could talk about him openly.
Well, if he is listening, we wish he was here.
So, um, not to [00:37:00] dive into a big sports thing, but uh, the NBA playoffs have been amazing. Mark Packer. I'm not a big basketball guy. Senator is, rooster is. But did you see John Moran? Yeah. Amazing. It's been an amazing performance. He's a spectacle. The whole team. Unreal. Yeah, it's been a really fun to watch. Oh man.
And baseball's back too, which is nice. I have a love hate re relationship with baseball. I know some of the guys in the room are big baseball guys, don't we all I am not. Baseball for me is just, when it's on and it's in the background, I'm into it, but I don't like seek. watching baseball. I know. Seven. I
**Senator:** think you generally have a very short attention span with sports.
This is true because you're an Eagles fan and I'm like, we're sitting here and the Eagles are like fighting to get in the playoffs. They're about to make it, and you're sitting there completely disinterested. I'm like,
**Gizmo:** because I know
**Grinder:** it's gonna, he's about to make the playoffs.
**Pagoda:** He confirm it's not a baseball team.
I mean,
**Grinder:** you have a, you have a divided house. I mean, here we go again with the whole New York Sport. You're a Dodgers fan, dude.
**Gizmo:** Oh
**Senator:** boy. You're a Dodgers fan, dude. You can't
**Grinder:** just keep on back to the [00:38:00] Dodger fan diatribe. Give me a break. Ding, ding, ding, .
**Gizmo:** I mean, you're like, that's all you. That's your only excuse.
You wanna guys have an Eagles Yankees fan. You're a Dodgers Eagle. , it's the same thing. Is it?
**Senator:** Yes. Why is it not? All this tells me is Pennsylvania's one fucked up place, . That's all I got out of this. How does that happen?
**Bam Bam:** I don't know. You know, I think baseball is a, it's what's interesting are the matchups, you know, so when the Mets play the Phillies, there's nothing like being on the couch.
I'm alone watching that game. It's, it's great. It's so relaxing when the Yankees play at Tampa. When the Yankees play Boston. Those are awesome series. Yeah. The matchups are what I think make baseball. Yeah. The division stuff. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Yeah, yeah. Well there's such a great feeling when fall comes around that too.
And you know, fall baseball, playoff baseball, dude, it's exciting. So yeah, let's not
**Gizmo:** get to fall. Let's enjoy us. Let's enjoy the nice weather. Let's enjoy spring and summers. Nice weather. It's
**Grinder:** fucking
**Senator:** 40 degrees. [00:39:00] I
**Gizmo:** know. Now it is. You
**Rooster:** know, next week it's
**Gizmo:** gonna be, by the way, I was, we, we have mentioned this several times on the.
And I'm saying it again because we need to do it. And this is a message for Pubah who's listening, we need to do a Bloody Mary Sunday. Oh, we've been talking about that. We've been talking about this. We have done it several times without Sal it on the pod. We need to do a bloody Sunday. Let's get it going.
We gotta do it giddy up because I am so in, I got the wife in on bloody Sundays now. What do you mean you've,
**Grinder:** you've indoctrinated
**Gizmo:** to the demetris. She's so in on the Dmitri and the the Sacramento tomatoes. Oh yeah. Amazing. We gotta do it. It's a game changer. We gotta
**Grinder:** do it. Just think of how much we're influencers now.
Mm-hmm. . Are we officially influencers
**Gizmo:** maybe to each other. We,
**Grinder:** when we get , we're not getting paid for it. So , I don't think so. When we get the merch, that's
**Gizmo:** when we, we gotta shake our asses a little more to make some money on that. Well, that's why you're here. Yeah. That's why Bam. Bams here. Yeah. . [00:40:00]
**Bam Bam:** I was waiting for that and I.
**Gizmo:** So this is starting to burn a little bit faster for me. Now, I don't know about you guys, but what, what do you guys think about the cigar right now? I'm still liking it. Yeah. Yeah. Very consistent flavor profile. It is, yeah. What do you think Rooster? I was really
**Rooster:** enjoying the first third after that. It kind of fizzled off for
**Gizmo:** me.
Yeah. And you know what's interesting about what you said about makers? He's, you know, he's not having any makers, you know, . Yeah. I
**Rooster:** mean, it's, it's good. I mean, it's a great value. I mean, for eight bucks, the amount of flavor that you get out of an $8 stick, I mean, it's, yeah, yeah,
**Gizmo:** yeah. That's
**Bam Bam:** good. What other seven, $8 cigars do we love?
And there are
**Gizmo:** a few. Oh, like Papas, Fritos. Spectacular. That small little, uh, it's Jewish estate. Let's not forget.
**Senator:** Um, Casa the ep cre, the El Centor.
**Gizmo:** El el Centor. That is, that was a great cigar. Excellent. That's under 10 bucks. It was
**Bam Bam:** fantastic. You know how hard that is to [00:41:00] get now. So I go to local clubs, they've had it and they run out very quickly.
That is a coveted cigar now. Really? I think it's
**Gizmo:** cuz of the lizards. It's very a small, uh, taa. That petite, petite casados is actually, that's for five bucks. That's phenomenal steak. . Can any of you guys, I mean, Grindr is smoking the cigar, obviously, you know, he loves it. I don't know if you've smoked it in a while, but you like it.
Can any of you guys see this slotting into any sort of a regular rotation for you? As of right this moment? Nope. No. I don't know. Um,
too spoiled. I'm
**Grinder:** surprised. We are
**Gizmo:** spoiled. We're spoiled, but also said, no, we're spoiled. But also where it fits against Cubans, if you're gonna make that comparison. I'm gonna pick any Cuban rib robusto, almost any of them over this in my rotation. And they're similar priced. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's a once
**Grinder:** in a while kind of stuff.
I think it, I think it has a place for like, [00:42:00] you know, a box a year and you do it, you know, maybe once every couple weeks or something like that.
**Bam Bam:** Sure.
**Gizmo:** I like that. That's fair. I like that. You know what I could see this working is if you're outside and you kind of want that Cuban. But you're smoking outside.
Well,
**Bam Bam:** Grindr made a great point, I think on the golf course right after lunch midday. I think this is a perfect cigar for that mo for that
**Gizmo:** moment. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to try this outside cuz I'm not gonna smoke many Cubans outside, so this may be a, a good fit for that. That spot.
**Bam Bam:** Well, I happen to think perfect cigar weather is coming.
It is. Mid-spring is really spectacular when there's no breeze. It's, it's how can you.
**Grinder:** You know, I just love those summer nights, woken cigars on the deck. It's the best. I can't wait. Watching below deck on the deck.
**Senator:** So I'm gonna have an unpopular opinion on this because I feel like there are some lizards that really like this cigar. I am amazed, as I've said at like the complexity of different flavor notes, I'm getting out of the cigar, but if I'm being honest, [00:43:00] there's not a flavor note that's. Drawing me or exciting me about this cigar.
Um, I, I don't love barnyard in cigar, so I know that's like turning me off. Again, this is just my palette, what I like. So to your question of like, would I slot this in my rotation? Definitely not my rotation, and I'm not even sure anywhere, honestly.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to me it's like if I want to have a Cuban outside, it's a little.
I would grab one of these, but I, I, even, even a box a year sounds like a lot to me.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I'm in agreement, but I can't say that I don't like it. No, it's fine. I like the cigar. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Well, the flavors are kind
**Rooster:** of muddled now. You know? It's not, it's not that distinct notes that you were getting in the first
**Gizmo:** third.
**Pagoda:** True. Must cigars burning all in different, yeah. It's not the most pleasant experience for me, so
**Bam Bam:** I will say the spice is ramping up for me. I'm a little further along than most. . I'm getting some. You and I are about the same. Yeah. I'm getting some pretty good pepper now. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. [00:44:00] I'm still enjoying it.
Yeah. I got a question for you guys have, have, have you have any of been watching any of the clips or the actual footage of the Johnny Depp trial with Amber Heard? I refuse. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I mean, crazy. It is unbelievable just from the dynamic of what, what actually happened and what's going.
Amber Herd's legal team is just so amateur, it's comical.
**Grinder:** Um, so I, maybe I missed, can you, what's going on? Fill us
**Gizmo:** in. So long story short, Amber heard accused pretty publicly of, uh, accused Johnny Depp of domestically assaulting her, you know, domestic violence. and she went on a pretty public, uh, rampage about it and wrote an op-ed, I believe in the Washington Post.
I believe that's where it was posted. And he has sued her for a [00:45:00] hundred million bucks for defamation because it cost him, I thought it was like 50 million. I thought it was a hundred. If even if it's 50, whatever. It's, it's crazy numbers. But he is suing her because, because of the, uh, the circumstance of, of being accused by a former female.
of domestic violence, you know, just in, in the accusations. Lost several franchises work. He's been canceled. Yeah. Several franchises of work. I mean, he, Disney wants nothing to do with him. He got kicked out of the Harry Potter thing. Um, anyway, so he's suing her for defamation. So this is a trial that's being held in Fairfax, Virginia.
And I think that's because that's where the Washington Post is actually published. Uh, that. , you know, he's suing her for that, that defamation. But the trial is, um, unlike anything maybe from a public, uh, public standpoint, like an OJ type of trial or, uh, the woman in Florida who was accused of, uh, acquitted of, of killing her child.
[00:46:00] I forget what her name is, but I mean, it's aired. Every minute of it is aired. Every second of it is aired live on television, and her legal team is so, , it's comical. Like the clips that are coming out on the internet are wild, wild. I mean, to the point that they had a forensic psychologist on who purchased, who purchases muffins for her office every day.
This is what she does, and I guess the legal team dialed in that one day she was running late and had her. Purchased the muffins for the office, for the muffins to the trial. This, the, this is a muffin. They had a whole day on muffins in this trial, and the her legal team was so adamant that this woman's husband, this forensic psychologist's husband was purchasing the muffins for Amber heard therefore coloring the validity of her testimony.
I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy. This whole thing is crazy. Check out the clips. So who, who's.
**Grinder:** Who's the [00:47:00] amateur? The Amber. Amber
**Gizmo:** heard amber herd's legal team is amateur. It's crazy. Yeah. Amateur bullshit. It's crazy. I just, the
**Senator:** crazy thing to me, I, I haven't followed this closely at all, but just like the little snippets that I've seen here and there and other people talking about it, this is the most fucked up marriage I've ever heard of.
Yeah, it's
**Grinder:** terrible. I mean, it's like awful. The amount of Coke that guys does is hilarious. Did you see the
**Senator:** Coke? The Coke? Forget that. Did you see that? Supposedly his. Took a shit. Yes. On their bed.
On
**Gizmo:** the bed, yeah. And left it there for him. Yeah. And then blamed it on the dogs. Yeah. What? Wow. Yeah. It's crazy.
Psycho. Is that It's like a movie.
**Bam Bam:** Are they actually about that at the tri? They did. They went through the whole thing? Yeah. Oh man. It's psycho shit, man. That's actually good
**Gizmo:** entertainment.
**Grinder:** I think there's a photo of it even. Yeah, there is a of the, of
**Senator:** the pile of shit. Yeah. He took a photo of the shit that she left on the bed.
**Rooster:** She also threw a bottle of vodka at him
**Gizmo:** and severed his finger. And severed his finger. Yeah. Right. Yep. Wow. . So it it, it's an interesting, um, it's an [00:48:00] interesting, um, I guess given the time of the Me Too movement, which so much of that was valid and, and accurate, but you know, what's unfortunate in this situation is this woman playing on that to accuse someone inaccurately a domestic violence, given the cultural circumstance of domestic violence.
And Me Too, Johnny Depp being. Seemingly, I'm not on the jury, but seemingly inaccurately and unfortunately, um, it, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy. This, this whole
**Grinder:** trial. So, you know what's funny though? Johnny Depp is never gonna restore his reputation no matter what the outcome of this is. And that's what that's like.
That's the whole shittiness of the, you know, the reverse.
**Bam Bam:** Me too. That's how powerful an accusation can be.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. And it's unfortunate because, you know, I've seen, uh, takes from other women who have said to that, you know, uh, she's in, in [00:49:00] invalidating a lot of, you know, valid claims, accurate claims of, of women who have actually been abused.
Sure. As opposed to women who are actually the abusers. Yeah. Which seems to be the case. Again, I'm not on the jury, she's like a fucking terrible person. Yeah. She's a psycho. She's psycho. That's my opinion. But she's got
psycho,
**Grinder:** someone, someone said, Clinical psychologist was, was commenting on this and something I was listening to and he was like, honestly, this person, Amber Heard has all the makings of multiple personality, you know,
**Gizmo:** disorder.
Yeah. And, and forensic psychologist did say that.
**Senator:** Yeah. She's not even a good liar. I mean, did you see like one of the smoking guns in her testimony? This is like one of the biggest things in this case. She was talking, I guess they were telling, asking her to like prove that she was like physically harmed by him.
You would presumably have some bruises, something like. . She's like, oh, well I had bruises on my face, but I used to wear this specific concealer to hide it all. And she named the exact concealer that she claimed she wore every day, and the attorney [00:50:00] held it up, and the company that makes that concealer said that they didn't even start making that concealer until years after she's claiming she was being abused.
Wow.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Wow. After the marriage ended, after the marriage ended, wow. Ended. Yeah, she's, she's alive. Amateur
**Grinder:** bullshit. Like, it's crazy. So that, so that defense, that I guess not defense attorney. Yeah. I guess he's a defense. He should be doing his homework and be like, okay, if we're gonna, if we're, if some credibility is vested
**Bam Bam:** in this fucking lotion that you're putting on your face,
**Grinder:** maybe we should do a deep dive as to, you know, the
**Senator:** validity.
Or maybe you shouldn't say the name of the thing that you're putting on your face. You just said
**Gizmo:** put some stuff on my, not even the name Senator, she was the, the attorney was holding. , like this is the one. And then the company set out came out and said, yeah, we didn't release that until after their marriage ended.
I mean, it's crazy. That's insane. It's crazy. It's crazy. Does she have that kind of money though? I don't know. I mean, it certainly seems like the legal team she hired. It doesn't seem like there's much there, so No, I
**Senator:** think he's making a point. She does not have [00:51:00] that money that he's suing her for. Yeah. Yeah.
It's
**Gizmo:** crazy. Well, anyway, back to our, uh, cigar and bourbon. I guess let's talk about the bourbon. I mean, yeah. Are you guys ready to do a formal liquor rating on this thing? Sure. Oof. Like, I don't even know what to give it normally I, I, I know, I know. Kind of a range. I have no idea where I'm gonna land. Here.
I, I gotta figure this
**Bam Bam:** out. I mean, it's okay. I'm, I'm, I'm gonna give it a six. I'm not gonna disrespect Makers. Mark. I'll give it a six. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda. Six. Six. Senator? Five. Five. I am all day without. Totally fine with giving this thing a four . It is one of the worst liquors I've ever done. Five. Five. All right.
The formal liquor rating on Makers 46 is a 5.2. Okay. A absolute not recommend. No. Yeah. hard pass. We do not recommend that. That bourbon.[00:52:00]
Yeah, that that is just couldn't be more disapp. Terrible. If, if I, I will never have that again. I will never buy it. I will never taste it. I will never take it from a friend. I'm done. We got it . Unbelievable. So you don't like it? No, I don't. . I'm trying to make a point. It's horrible.
**Senator:** So maybe once you try it again, ,
**Grinder:** maybe in a blind test.
**Gizmo:** I've not at age for a while. Age. Unbelievable. All right, boys, we're coming to the last third here of the, uh, Herrera Elli in, uh, rub Robusta Grande. What's everybody feeling about the last third? Well, it's still very good for me. Yeah, I think, I think it's pretty consistent to where it was. I think the first third was certainly better.
Yeah, I agree. Uh, but I, I don't hate it. No, I think this is a very, for eight bucks for what it is, [00:53:00] you know, I don't know where I'd slot it in my rotation, but. It's a very fine cigar. Yeah.
**Senator:** I'll be honest. I, I just got bored of it. That's my take.
**Grinder:** Okay. I think it's a knock around cigar, you know, it's a good, it's not, it's not so bad.
It's a good knock around. Yeah. That's, that's a good way of putting it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Pagoda, what do you think of it? Oh,
**Pagoda:** um, just didn't enjoy it. I, it's one of the very few cigars I've just not been excited about. Meaning I've, I've had six cigars, which I haven't liked, but I've kind of finished them. This, I just couldn't do
**Grinder:** it.
Yeah. There was one other cigar you couldn't finish. Was it recall from my memory,
**Gizmo:** which one was it? The Hoya maybe Began, began with a p. Placencia. . Oh yeah. Oh yeah. But,
**Pagoda:** but that, but I think we, we gotta definitely do a, do an episode of podcast and that for sure. Count
**Grinder:** me out. We're
**Gizmo:** gonna have to rate one at
**Bam Bam:** some point.
We are, yeah. They're popular. Which
**Grinder:** can we, can we do an informal
**Gizmo:** lizard rating? Oh no, this has to be formal. It has to be [00:54:00] formal. Yeah. All right. Unfortunately, Oh man. Are we ready? I'm ready, rooster. Go ahead. All right,
**Rooster:** so the first third was pretty good on that stake. I mean, keeping like the price point out of, you know, not even talking about the price point.
The first third, I mean, it was promising. I thought the cigar started out great. I like the sweet notes on it. Uh, had some spice. It was good. After that, I mean, it, it just didn't do it for me, so I'm gonna give it a six.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Grinder
**Grinder:** won. I'm giving it a seven.
**Gizmo:** Seven. I am also gonna give it a seven.
**Senator:** I'm at a six.
I didn't even finish it.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda five. Whoa, bam, bam. Oh, I'm
**Bam Bam:** hovering between a six and a. One more
**Grinder:** puff. Hold on. What was so bad about it? Pagoda? Because I was surprised by yourself.
**Pagoda:** I don't know. I, I really enjoyed, like, I think, uh, similar to Russa, I [00:55:00] enjoyed the beginning. I think it seemed very promising. I liked a little bit of, uh, the saltiness, the earthiness.
Um, and then it just, for my cigar, there was not a lot of smoke output. After the first third or even the first quarter, it seemed, um, you know, it was, uh, I had to touch it. , um, just did not smoke well. And then it's one of the very few cigars that have actually just not completed the last third. So yeah.
Meaning it just, maybe it was just this particular stick. Um, maybe I'll try it again. Uh, but it's not one of those cigars. I'll go and purchase by any means. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah. The burn wasn't good. Yeah. And had a couple of cracks, like as, as I was smoking. The
**Gizmo:** wrapper likes cracked. Correct. A couple of spots. No, I didn't get any of that.
I didn't experience that. Mine, mine was fine the whole
**Bam Bam:** way. So I'm gonna, I'll give it a seven. Seven. Yeah. Cuz I, I did like it really, I'm at a point now where it's extra spicy and tough to finish, but
**Gizmo:** not a bad [00:56:00] cigar. So the composite lizard score on the cigar, is it 6.3?
**Bam Bam:** Okay. Pretty,
**Gizmo:** I think that's fair.
Yeah, I think that's kind of in the, kind of right in the zone of where it, where it should fall.
**Bam Bam:** Knock around
**Gizmo:** cigar, like Grinder said. Yeah. For eight bucks. I mean, that's totally fair. Yeah. So what would we call that? Would you call that a, uh, soft recommend? Would you call it a neutral? would call it? We didn't, we didn't love it.
We didn't hate it. Yeah. I would say, I would say try it.
**Grinder:** Recommend, yeah. Eight bucks doesn't mean it's like the best ever. It just, yeah. Give it a try. ,
**Gizmo:** you know, and, and for somebody who has a, a pallet similar to grinders, this might fall right in their wheelhouse for, you know, an eight under $10 cigar. I mean, it was number, what, what did I say?
Number 15 last year. 16 Wow. In cigar fisha. So that's ridiculous. That is surprising to me. It's ridiculous. Yeah. That's surprising to me, for sure. So, all right boys, A six point .
**Bam Bam:** Wow.
**Gizmo:** You're running outta gas. I'm running outta gas. I [00:57:00] mean, the makers in this. I don't think we've ever had a pod that everything was under a.
Six and under, excuse me. Yeah, 6.3 and under. But, uh, yeah, so a 6.3 for the Herrera Elli in ver Robusto Grande. And, uh, we'll see you guys next week. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. 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 lounge lizards.
P o d. That's lounge lizards pod gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.