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The lizards pair the Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Nicaragua No. 2 with Oban Little Bay Scotch. The guys discuss the benefit of pacing yourself while smoking as well as classic 80s and 90s TV shows.
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 Puba, Senator Pagoda, and bam.
Bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 21st official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it.
And give you our formal lizard rating. We'll discuss the benefit of pacing yourself while smoking, and our love of classic TV shows from the eighties and nineties, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair OB Little Bay with the Monte Christo 1935 anniversary.
Nicaragua in number two.
A dark box press [00:01:00] torpedo from Monte Christo, the Nicaraguan version 1935 anniversary. Number two, really, really nice looking cigar. And also, I guess we're getting to be a little trendy here, boys, the number two cigar of the year this year with, uh, cigar Fisha
**Poobah:** number two. It's this Nicaragua, it looks like it's, it's Nicaragua.
It's
**Bam Bam:** Nicaragua. It's a, it's a. .
**Poobah:** I can't, does it say that on the band? I can't. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Right under, right on the bottom of the, the circle. Right under money. Crystal. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Nicaragua series. Yeah. Like when you look at the foot mm-hmm. . It almost looks like that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's very nicely rolled. Yep. Good construction.
Yeah. Yeah. Construction's
**Poobah:** outstanding. Can't, looks beautiful. Looks can be deceiving as
**Gizmo:** we know. Absolutely. Oh, we, we know
**Senator:** that .
**Gizmo:** All right, so let's cut this thing. See what the cold draws.
So these cigars were about 19 bucks a piece. When I picked them up, [00:02:00]
**Bam Bam:** I have to say the wrapper's beautiful on this cigar.
**Gizmo:** It is
**Senator:** dark, oily, it smells beautiful. And on the cold draw, I feel like I get really like dark cocoa. A little leather.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Very uh, esque. Yeah. Oh yeah. I think chocolatey is very, uh, appropriate for the.
Like very dark chocolate. Yeah, like very dark chocolate as, uh, Grindr would say. Kakao. Mm-hmm. . That's right. . I have very high hopes for this cigar. Not only in how it looks and, uh, how it is in the cold draw here. I'm, I'm. Being number two. I'm hoping It's great. Just smell the wrapper. Yeah. I
**Senator:** really love the, so
**Bam Bam:** it's, it's funny you're saying that I'm reading the wrapper.
It's a combination of peanut shell's, sweet earth leather, barnyard hay, a bit of oak, um, and the cold draw brings flavors of creamy oak leather, earth tones, clay, wrong cigar. No, it's, it's, it's the [00:03:00] cigar. That's what I'm reading. This was just on the wrapper with a touch on of sweetness. No cold draw my pallet wrapper, rooster pipe down.
My
**Gizmo:** pal was fucked. No, I was saying to smell the rapper. That's what I'm talking about. Smell the rapper. All right, let's light this baby. The, uh, Monte Christo 1935 anniversary. Of course, the Nicaraguan version of Monte Cristo, not the Cuban. And this is a, uh, cigar that was, for the 85th anniversary of Monte Christo, and it is a box press torpedo, as we mentioned, 52 ring gauge by sixth and uh, sixth and an eighth.
You really gotta light this thing. Yeah, I'm happy you do.
**Senator:** I'm gonna be out of fluid pretty soon
**Poobah:** if you just, if you put it to your mouth and do a direct hit, like a, and just.
**Gizmo:** It fires right up. Very Nicaraguan on the, [00:04:00] uh, on the light,
kind of getting like a, a coffee thing. Little chocolate,
**Senator:** agree. Coffee, chocolate and leather. Those are like the three dominant notes I get. I'm getting
**Bam Bam:** primarily leather
**Gizmo:** right now. Yeah. Has anybody smoked a Nicaragua Monte Cristo before? Because I have not Have any of you guys had one? Not,
**Rooster:** not the Nicaragua. I've had some couple of white labels.
**Gizmo:** Yes, those are, do many.
Yeah.
**Senator:** I've had the white label
**Poobah:** too. I've had the white label, but there's a Nicaragua like that's adjacent to that, which I've had. I think it has an orange and white label, if I'm not mistaken. And I had one of those, and I remember it being pretty good. .
**Senator:** Yeah. I feel like the Nicaraguan series is relatively new for Monte Christo.
I feel like within the last few years I saw them come out with that. I haven't, this is the first one I've had up it. I think the other Nicaraguan one, it's a blue uh band. Blue ra. I've
**Gizmo:** seen those. Yeah. I don't know if that's a [00:05:00] cheaper se. I don't know if that's like an entry level. I don't know where that falls in the line.
But what I find interesting about this is obviously we smoked the 1935, uh, Linea from Cuba. Uh, obviously marked the year that Monte Crista was founded, but this, this cigar is an 85th anniversary released in 2020, uh, of the name and Cuban Monte Crista Ho Bonos did not release a cigar in celebration of their 85th year, which is pretty, pretty interesting that, that they're doing it with the, uh, the nicaraguas, well bono, but you know what I mean.
Lot of smoke output on this thing. Yeah. Draw is perfect. Very good combustion, excellent draw. Yeah. Yeah, very. Burning. Great. So far. Full flavored right off the
**Bam Bam:** bat, full flavor.
**Gizmo:** I'm pretty impressed with the cigar so far.
**Poobah:** Same. Uh, no, I was wrong. So I had smoked one of these. It's um, it was a Romeo, it was this, that was that cigar.
But Nicaraguan was a Romeo. 1875. Right. [00:06:00] 1875. Nicaraguan. Yeah. Um, .
**Gizmo:** How does, uh, how was
**Poobah:** that? Was it pretty decent? It, it was okay. I mean, my Uncle Mark gave it to me. Oh, well, it doesn't matter. Um, but it was fine. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** This definitely has the, those hints of Pedro Drone that I certainly look for when I'm, when I'm lighting up a, a, a high level Pedro.
Yeah. I,
**Senator:** I hesitate to compare many cigars to Patron, but don't do it. GI Gizz is, is, is exactly right. I, I, I'm sorry. I feel. Already just when you're holding the cigar, right, the box press, it feels like it. You start thinking pedron and the flavors, it, it's really rich. Um, and it's, it's not hitting me in the back of my throat.
It's, it's smooth in delivering it. I, I'm, so far, it's off to a good
**Gizmo:** start. So
**Poobah:** far so good. I'm getting
**Bam Bam:** a, a weird medicine-y type of, uh, I can't explain it. Put my finger on it. Minerally, maybe very mineral. Hmm. A little different
**Gizmo:** for me. I think it's interesting too that in the cigar fisha, uh, top [00:07:00] 25 this year, both number one and number two were tor uh, torpedoes.
The padron was a torpedo, which is obviously a Nicaraguan. But, uh, a natural, and this is certainly, I would call this a Maduro rapper.
**Senator:** I, I love a torpedo. I mean, I, I think most of us smoke more robos than probably any other shape. But second for me, in terms of just pre. I love a torpedo, obviously. We did the belly COSO pheno.
We've reviewed Pars P two and uh, I'm loving a box pressed, uh, torpedo as well.
**Poobah:** Yeah, I mean, so far this is pretty, it's pleasant, but it's
**Bam Bam:** powerful. It is
**Gizmo:** powerful. We, it stays with you on the front of your tongue getting some
**Rooster:** woodiness too, like it's little agreed woody notes.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's like sweetness in the front.
Yeah. A little pepper in the back. Yeah. And. . Um, so far so good. But we'll see. That can change. The cigar comes in. You know what, when, when on previous reviews and some of these newer world cigars, you know, you [00:08:00] get, but I can tell you one thing, the difference between this and one of the most more recent cigars.
This is not however it was stored. Like you can just tell there's no sponginess here. There's no weirdness. It. . It's way better. Yeah. It's, it's, it feels good. It feels like it's supposed to feel Well, I'm
**Gizmo:** happy because the retailer I got these from, uh, is definitely a place I'm gonna go back because I saw that they kept their humidor at 67 and when I was in there, I saw it after it's settled, after the door was open, it's a tighter room.
It's not a big place, so it's certainly more manageable. So I'm, I'm definitely gonna be going there again. Cool. It's high
**Senator:** praise that meets the gizmo test.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. I was surprised that when I saw 67 on, on two different, On two different, uh, uh, hydrometers. In that humidor. I was, I was pretty impressed.
Nice.
**Senator:** So the thing that surprised me about this stick, I haven't had many non Cuban Montes. I think Rooster mentioned the, [00:09:00] uh, the Monte Crystals white label, which is non Cuban. I've had that. It's like a really nice, just morning smoke. Very smooth, easy, easy smoking, creamy. Um, but I feel like the, maybe I've had one or two other Mons and they're.
they're not super flavorful and I'm just amazed. I mean, it's cool to see them make a Nicaraguan Piero where this has got like a lot of flavor, like a padron wood. And, um, I'm, I'm pleased so far.
**Gizmo:** It's really good. I mean, like I said, this is, I, it's probably the closest thing that I've ever tasted to a patron that's not a patron.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's unusual to see a mon
**Gizmo:** this flavorful. Yeah. How's, how's everyone? Excellent. Mine's perfect. Excellent. Mine's good. I saw Rooster having a, mine's a little tight. Do, do you need a perfect draw? Yeah, I think I have one. Okay.
**Pagoda:** Why don't you try the gizmo cut. I
**Gizmo:** think it might help. Yeah. Take another half an inch off
Make it a rubber booster. So this,
**Bam Bam:** this cigar comes in three other violas. [00:10:00] Okay. Uh, Churchill Toro and one called a de. .
**Gizmo:** I saw that today. It was like thin. And that's a thin toro. Yeah. More or less.
**Senator:** And all
**Gizmo:** of these are box pressed, I take it? Yes. They all were. They all were box pressed. Yes. I didn't see, they didn't have the Churchill where I bought these today.
I'm glad you didn't get that. Yeah, of course. Well I wanted to get this one cuz it was number two, but yeah, I'm getting something
**Poobah:** a little bitter. Um, me too,
**Bam Bam:** a bit.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I'm giving some bitterness. Um, I had
**Bam Bam:** that, which is not pleasant. I had that from the beginning, but it was serviceable because of, of the other nice
**Gizmo:** notes that.
I'm getting, I don't know if it's the same thing. You're getting pba, I'm getting a little bit of a tatoe vibe in, in kind of the aftertaste there. I don't know if I wanna call that bitterness. It's very fair. It's fair. It's, it, it, I wouldn't say the pleasant side of tatoe is what I'm. Getting there. Not what I would chase in that cigar that I like, but I mean, um, through
**Poobah:** the nose, it's super strong.
Yeah. I mean, like, I didn't try It'll make your, it'll make your fucking eyes blow up. I won't [00:11:00] do that. Can't do it. Nope. Oh, yeah. Whoa. . No. Yeah. It's,
**Gizmo:** it's, yeah. Yeah. That's a very strong retro hill. It's so,
**Poobah:** I, you know, if. If you blind tested me against and maybe put this up against some other, a patron of some sort. I don't, I think I could, I I could pick it out. I
**Gizmo:** mean, it's, oh yeah, you
**Bam Bam:** can definitely, it's, it's, it's a
**Gizmo:** hundred percent you would pick it out. I don't mean to say this is as good as a, a patron. I don't think this has the smoothness or the creaminess that even some of the more earthy patrons that we smoke, or stronger perrons per se, that we smoke, but.
I don't know, just some of the similar flavor notes. Yeah, that, that's
**Senator:** the thing. To Gizmo's point, I think whenever we make padron comparisons, there will never be a cigar that's truly like a padron, but padron is sort of the benchmark I feel like for a full flavored cigar that is, does not like punch you in your [00:12:00] face with nicotine.
And this has a lot of flavor. It's not punching me with nicotine, but I mean, is it as smooth and wonderful and tasty as a petron? No. So far, I, I don't hate this cigar. I, there are notes. I like the construction's been good. I like the white ash on this stick. Uh, pagoda, I'm curious. You, you really like full flavored cigars.
This has a lot of flavor. This is right down in
**Bam Bam:** your power alley. Yeah, no,
**Pagoda:** I, I'm kind of, uh, really? Yeah, in two minds. It's, it's really interesting. I know you mentioned Pedro Drone, but I initially thought, oh, , is it more like the late hour? Because, uh, as you guys know, that's one of my favorite cigars and it started over with that coffee, fish chocolatey, uh, taste, which I kind of really liked.
Um, but, uh, you know, uh, the jury is still out. Um, I just find like a lot of these, like this particular cigar thing, I might have tried it once [00:13:00] before in one of the Monte crystal lounges in New York. , um, you know, had stepped in and we were smoking over there, so you, you expected to buy a couple of cigars to just hang out there.
Um, and I remember trying it and I thought it was, uh, pretty good. I, like, I didn't know whether I would go and pick up a stick for 20 bucks, um, because there were a lot, uh, of, uh, barrel alternatives at the price.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. No doubt
**Pagoda:** about that. But, um, Yeah. Meaning at this point, you know, the jury's allowed, I think I, I do find that this is not very as good.
The construction, maybe it's not, it's like one of those aging rooms. Like, you know, like I feel like, um, They're not very dense roll. They don't feel like heavy cigars. They feel very light to kind of hold, I, I don't know how to express
**Rooster:** it. Wow. I think it's, I think it's, it's
**Bam Bam:** full. It's full. You know, the aging room comparison is very fair with this cigar.
Yeah, I was saying
**Senator:** absolutely the same to myself.
**Bam Bam:** That's a great point. Pagoda. I've had a few of those, you know, I [00:14:00] had bought a box about two years ago. I went through 'em very reminiscent.
**Senator:** It's a great, great analogy. I like the aging room comparison too. I feel like the flavor profile is, is similar. , like Pagoda mentioned, where I give this more credit than I certainly do, that aging room is, there are not as many rough edges in this as there were that aging room, that aging room.
I would, I mean, the back of my throat, every one of those cigars I smoked and I can't believe that got cigar the year, a few years ago. It was super rough around the edges. I mean, it needed to age, you know, the irony, obviously aging room and the fucking cigars are not aged , uh, but this stick doesn't give me that experience, so I, I appreciate this more than I certainly did that
**Poobah:** aging room.
Yeah, I mean, at this price point, I, I would say, and I would, I would pick up a. Excluding Patron drones taking Nicaraguan. If you're talking Nicaraguan Piros, taking Patron off the table, I'd buy a da the Davidoff Box, press Nicaraguan over this at this price point all [00:15:00] day, every day, and twice on Sunday.
**Gizmo:** 100%. Absolutely. And I think to your point about price, I mean the patron number one cigar of the year is also a torpedo. Um, is gonna give you a similar size to this, probably a similar smoke time, even if not a little longer. And that's less expensive than this cigar. How much. This was about 19 bucks with tax 20 bucks.
So about the same
**Rooster:** price as the LIR nine .
**Gizmo:** This is very satisfying.
**Bam Bam:** Actually, the LIR was a little cheaper than this really 17 and Yeah. Yeah, that's right. 1775. And that to me is a home run hitter compared to this.
**Poobah:** What is this rapper? I would smoke that. I would smoke that vegan. I'd smoke above the, above the over this.
I'm with you. I
**Senator:** just have to ask, what is this rapper? It's really, really dark. It's,
**Bam Bam:** it's, I don't think it's a Maduro. It looks
**Gizmo:** like a Maduro. It does, but I'm
**Senator:** just cur, I mean, this is one of the darkest rappers.
**Gizmo:** I don't think they, so I'll say this, I don't think they offer it in any other rapper You might be.
Right. So I think that this is it. I don't know what they're calling this, [00:16:00] but, oh yeah. No, I'm,
**Senator:** I, I have no doubt this is the only rapper. I, I'm just curious what this is made. Well, they're calling it a Connecticut broad Leaf.
**Bam Bam:** They're calling it an, it's a Nicaragua, a rapper. The binders, Nicaragua, the fillers.
So, so it's a pirro, but. , they're not coming out and naming that wrapper. Got
**Gizmo:** it. Yeah.
**Rooster:** So I, I have to say, I mean, my, my cigar was kind of,
**Gizmo:** yeah, how did surgery go? Real, really tight, but that perfect draw. Mm-hmm. , what a tool.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I mean, everybody should have
**Poobah:** one. Are you up to speed now? Yeah, definitely. There just totally
**Rooster:** opened up.
Nice. Got like a nice little chunk and, uh, love that tool really opened
**Poobah:** up. Yeah. Yeah. You know, for me, if I was smoking this, um, if like, let's say. , this was the only cigar I had for the evening or something. This was, this would be something that I would smoke. Um, everyone has a different pace. Pagodas pace is faster than mine.
Uh, BAMS pace is faster than mine. I, I'm somewhere in the middle. I'd s I would tend to smoke this [00:17:00] slow rooster's, probably a step slower than me. I'm kind of in the middle. Yeah, maybe just, I'm just slow in general. , but, but I would smoke this. I would need to smoke. Slow. There's some cigars you can, you can pick up the pace on that are more medium bodied, you know?
But this, I think I would need to just take it easy. So are you, it it's, it's, it's stru. It, it, it's, there's a lot
**Gizmo:** there. So is it too much oomph that makes you want to, you know, Take more time between each draw. Is it flavor, is it strength? What is it for? I
**Poobah:** feel like when it heat, if I let it heat up too much, it got bitter.
**Gizmo:** Got it, got it. What's interesting
**Bam Bam:** now, I mean I also, oh, sorry. Now what's interesting, I want to piggyback on what you said. Senator doesn't get you in the back of the throat though. For me, it's right up front. . Yeah. And so it makes it palatable, right? Because if you get it in the back, like the aging room, that's hard to
**Gizmo:** take.
Yeah. It starts to dry your throat on me.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I was, I was getting into it a little bit. I mean, with any cigar, if you heat it up too much, it's not gonna perform great. But there's some cigars you can kind of, you can tackle [00:18:00] it, you know, you can push it through with this. It's like if you do that with this, I was having the experience where it you that bitterness, bitterness becomes more pronounced.
Yeah.
**Senator:** I mean to, to pub's point where, where I agree. . I just feel like maybe I'm alone in this. Maybe other guys feel the same way. Any cigar that puts out a tremendous amount of flavor, which I would describe this is a lot of flavor. I would describe the League of nine. We smoked as a lot of flavor. I would describe a patron 90th as a lot of flavor, and that's, you know, I'm getting those, a similar experience of all of those cigars.
And you know, I like some of those more than I do others, but Jacob's. , all three of those sticks I just named, I smoke slower because the flavor that you get, it's just so intense. You, you just kind of need to savor it, slow it down that journey and savor it To rooster's point where for another, for other sticks that are medium full that I love, I, the flavors not so intense that I need to pause.
To appreciate it. I [00:19:00] I can digest that and I'm ready for the next puff. Yeah. And on this it's like so lingering, you don't need to draw as often. Yeah.
**Poobah:** It, it can, can conclude. It's a, it has a very long finish.
**Gizmo:** Okay. That a great way to
**Poobah:** finish. That's a very good, it has a very long finish, so it does between draws like the tastes.
So if with this cigar for the listener, I think the conclusion is if you're smoking this, it has a very long finish and, and, and, and in between draws it's gonna hang around. So if you pile it. . If you pile it on and pile it on and pile it on, it could, it, it has the potential depending on who you are, to become maybe just a little too much agree.
**Gizmo:** It is,
**Rooster:** it is a lot like the Padrone 90th. Hmm. I must say Yeah. Mean the 90th is very similar.
**Gizmo:** Flavor profile.
**Bam Bam:** This is tastier though. I'm sorry. The, the 90th. 90th. Forget what I just said. Yeah, true. The nine, it's
**Gizmo:** much
**Rooster:** tastier. True, but similar notes I'm picking up from. , uh, this might have maybe a hint, more
**Gizmo:** pepper.
**Poobah:** Agree, [00:20:00] right? The middle's like good, you know, if, if you pause between draws, and I think if you smoke the, if smoke this, that's the way that it, like, that's good for you. It become, it's becoming more enjoyable if I take a draw every 45 seconds or a. Or so and take my time with it that that next draw is much more pleasurable than if I sped it up.
**Gizmo:** And I think the thing that's benefiting what you're saying here, is it the construction? Is it? It is. It is a well-constructed cigar, so it's not gonna burn, it's not gonna go out on you. It's burning razor sharp. I think everybody's having that same experience, certainly now, rooster, after. Having done surgery, but I have, I
**Rooster:** I have a question.
So when Cigar Fido rates this as the number two cigar Yeah. Do you notice
**Gizmo:** like the prices go up? ? Oh yeah. All the retailers put the signs out. It retailers like, you know, they kind of price gouge a little bit. Sure. What's retail? Yeah. I mean, I don't know
**Rooster:** what the
**Gizmo:** [00:21:00] MSRP PS on
**Bam Bam:** this. It's just under 17 bucks.
The msrp.
**Gizmo:** It is, yeah. So I, I think for what?
**Poobah:** Jor, when Jordash gets hot at your story, you, you mark that shit up for Jor
**Bam Bam:** You're dating
**Poobah:** him now. I'm making a joke.
**Gizmo:** That's funny. I will say though, for, I mean if this cigar was a little less, Not that I would rate it different or think differently of it, I would certainly be more willing to reach for it again, in moments where I'm looking for this type of flavor. But at 19 bucks, whatever, they're gonna, whatever we're gonna call it, between 17 and 20.
I don't know if I would, because I think there's other cigars out there that will gimme something similar for
**Senator:** less that that's the thing. Because the cigars that we've talked about that have similar flavor notes, right? Rooster was explaining how the notes are really similar to the petro 90th, which I agree with.
That's like a $20 stick. You know? This [00:22:00] is 19. The League of nine was 17. They're all right around the same price point, and so I can't help, but it's gonna factor certainly into my head as I'm rating this cigar, where that stacks up against those, because I feel like they're all competing for. Occasion that you would reach for a really full flavored rich cigar.
Like one of those
**Rooster:** three. Yeah. Plus when you buy a box of the padron 90th, you know, it comes in a, in a tent pack. The box is beautiful and they come
**Poobah:** in tubes. Beautiful.
**Gizmo:** Burgundy tubes. Yeah. And it's one of the
**Rooster:** few pad drones that are not box pressed. You know, it's got a beautiful presentation. It's the only one.
The
**Senator:** only one that's not box
**Gizmo:** pressed. Yeah. This
**Poobah:** is coming around a little bit for me. I. You know, if someone gifted me this, if I would, you know, if I'm really just taking my time, I'd like it a lot more. A lot more.
**Bam Bam:** I got a question for you, so I'm about halfway through. Are you getting any uh, a hint of [00:23:00] sweetness?
Cuz I'm getting it now. Yeah, yeah. Sweetness
**Senator:** and a little cinnamon I'm getting now. Hmm.
**Bam Bam:** I'm not getting a baking spice, but I'm
**Poobah:** getting sweetness for sure. Yeah, a little bit of the like, Well, it's, it's, it's like a sweet pepper. Yeah. Cinnamon kind of spicy. It's, it's, it's not unbalanced
**Gizmo:** or it definitely made it out of the first third without me wanting to complain about it, which I'm actually kind of surprised about in a way.
But I guess we'll see what, what happens here. It's a nice, nice white ash. Yeah,
**Poobah:** yeah. Yeah. Tight. I could see how somebody would really like this. I mean, absolutely. I, I, I, this is,
**Bam Bam:** I'd like to see Puba smoke
**Poobah:** it all the.
**Rooster:** Do Pagoda is almost done with this. Really . I, I was about to say, I
**Senator:** he's star of the band.
Do, do you guys know who blended this? Uh, aj, right? Yeah. It's crazy. It's just like all roads. I feel like all new World roads lead back to AJ Fernandez's. Like Altadis had him blend this,
**Gizmo:** the
**Bam Bam:** [00:24:00] product actually has grown on their farm.
**Poobah:** Interesting. Yep. Maybe it's, it's a good tobacco. Um, there's no doubt. . It's just if it's your jam or not.
You know, it's just if this type of Nicaraguan piro is your jam and you're like really into that, I think that I could see being like really into it. I would smoke the cigar again. Uh,
**Bam Bam:** you think if you kept it in your box for a year, it, it'd smooth out and get better.
**Poobah:** You know? It's a situ, situ maybe. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. But like I could see if, like, if I was gifted to cigar in the right setting and I had scotch, a big scotch, and I had all the time in the world kind of thing, and I could smoke it at the pace that I wanna smoke it. Uh,
**Pagoda:** which just, which, which kinda where you are, which just kinda where you are.
Yeah. Very relaxed. You have a really nice couch next to you and you're smoking cigar relaxing with
**Poobah:** buddies. Yeah, that's [00:25:00] true. That's true. I mean, I guess we're not in a raw, I mean, Well, I'm not implying we, I'm not implying we're in a rush. I was just, well, if I was at, like, let's say if I was at the, if I was at the Grand Havana room, the days of old pre pandemic, you know, and you sit in that chair and you, you just, you're, you, you know, you're looking out at the, that, the, the view and you're there and you're sitting there or something and somebody, it was a business meeting and someone passed me the cigar.
You had the time, time to, I, I could totally smoke this and just be like, and not. angry about it or disappointed too much about it. I wouldn't be thrilled about it. I wouldn't be like, this is the exact thing I want, but I wouldn't be,
**Senator:** for me, these cigars, like this have one very clear place in my, I won't, I won't even say rotation because it's not something I smoke regularly, but it's got a, a clear occasion and it's if I've had like.
Substantial [00:26:00] dinner and I'm only gonna have one cigar after that. Yeah. That's when I would light up a leg, nine a padro, 90th, this cigar. Outside of that, when I'm meeting up with the lizards and we're throwing back a few SCOs and having, you know, three, four or five sticks, that's not where I would slot this in.
So that's why I wouldn't make my regular rotation. But it would have, you know, it would be for that particular
**Poobah:** occasion, that's where I was kind of going with it. Like if someone, exactly, if there was like a me, if there was, if I was meeting with someone and they said, here's the cigar and we're doing business or something, and I had the smoke that, you know, it was like, okay, and you're being, and someone gifted it to me, you would be polite and it was the one cigar we were having for the night.
Not like how we, we smoked six cigars in an evening type of thing. I would smoke the, you know, like I would. I'd be content with smoking it and move on with my life. I think it would be perfectly, it's perfectly fine after a dinner like, you know, you're going a, that'd be
**Gizmo:** perfectly fine with this. It's funny you guys talk about that cigar because [00:27:00] not, not this specific cigar, but something that we've called similar what with the 90th.
What I love about the tubo is when I went to a wedding recently, , I threw it in my pocket in the two boat. It was good all night. And that was the one cigar I was able to have for an hour at the wedding. It was perfect, you know, and, and this would be very similar to that, you know, to your point, you're stuffing your face with a lot of food.
You're having a few drinks, you know, You're outside maybe. Yeah. You got a little bit of a load
**Poobah:** on. Exactly.
**Gizmo:** You got some drinks in you. Yep. You're having a good time. You're dancing a little
**Poobah:** bit. Right. You know, you need a big, doing the mock arena to get, get you making you feel good. This similar to the, to the, uh, to the league.
Uh, it does have some nicotine now down the stretch and it gives you that little bit of a, like a nick kick where you're like, I feel kind of good. Like this is making me feel good.
**Gizmo:** Do you think if you, to go back to the speed of smoking, do you think if you smoked this too fast, you'd get the jitters a little?
Is it that kind of strength of nicotine? I, I
**Poobah:** think I haven't done that, but yeah, I'm on a full stomach. That's
**Senator:** the thing. I, I just feel like with any of these types of cigars we're talking about, if you are [00:28:00] on an empty stomach, oh yeah. You're gonna be trouble, you, you would not reach for any of
**Gizmo:** those things.
You are in trouble.
Yeah,
**Senator:** you'd be in trouble. It's not a criticism of the cigars, it's just they're really, really strong, full flavored cigars. Yeah. So you, you want to have a meal before,
**Gizmo:** so, well, that's what we always joke about, rooster smoking these crazy cigars in the morning, like a patron 90th. I mean, I don't know how he does it.
You know, I, I would never be able to do a cigar like that in the. No way. Primitive pallet.
All right, boys. Let's talk about the scotch we got tonight. Ob Little Bay single malt from the West Highland coastal malt. Um, very cool small cask. You guys said you've had this before. I've not.
**Senator:** Oh, you, you have, you just don't remember it. . Oh geez. You've had it when? Uh oh no. In my backyard around a fire pit.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. Oh,
**Poobah:** okay. Okay. Okay. This, this was popular. Um, Senator would bring this to the lounge and I had never had it before. Let me look at the outer box. Nice presentation in the box. And, um, the price point on this is pretty [00:29:00] reasonable. It's like 42 bucks. Oh yes. Oh, okay. Um, and no,
**Bam Bam:** no age statement though on that thing.
**Poobah:** No. Correct. Um, . It's very drinkable. It's, it's, it, I mean, it tastes really good for the price point, I think. You can't beat it. Um, well, unless we're talking Kirkland, , uh, and you know, so I was, I was drinking this for a while and then I kind of similar to Senator, I kind of moved the weight from it. But I, I would definitely.
If I was drinking scotch, quote unquote en masse or something on a, on a, which you would never do, which I would never do, I've never seen him . Um, . I like it. I mean,
**Gizmo:** it's very tasty. Yeah. So why did you, uh, senator, why did you decide to bring this one with this specific cigar? So I did not bring this pagoda bears.
Oh, excuse me. Pagoda. You brought it. I thought senator did. I'm sorry about that.
**Senator:** No, no, no. I had just suggested it with this cigar. Look, my role is simply to suggest pairings, but, [00:30:00] uh, these lizards have evolved very generously, uh, brought a lot of these, uh, fine spirits that we. Pair and taste with these cigars.
The funny story though, behind Little Bay, how I think this infiltrated this group, it was not me that found it. I, I, I'll admit, I, I don't, I don't really ever pick up a scotch that doesn't have an aid statement, so I'll just admit I had a bias against this when I saw it, when it came out, and I said, this is just probably, you know, ob, they've got all this.
Extra shit they need to get rid of. So they just bottled it. Didn't put an age statement and put it at a really affordable price point. And the way I first tried this, and then I think a number of us who were at the lounge that, uh, that day, someone at a cigar lounge of us brought a bottle of this. and swore it was really good and I was very skeptical as I was Kirkland.
And that also, that little tasting happened at the lounge first, and they put it head to head in a blind tasting against open 14, which we all know and love.
**Gizmo:** Yes, we do. And we did that on the pod.
**Senator:** Yes, we did. Yeah. And I couldn't [00:31:00] believe blind, almost every guy picked this over. Open 14. And I was just floored.
Now, what's strange about this, and maybe I'm crazy, I have this weird suspicion when they first came out with this, I picked this blind over 14. I was very impressed. I was buying it a lot. We were, you know, in the early pandemic days, sitting outside around a fire pit. And the world was a strange place. Not that it's not still a strange place.
And we were drinking a lot of this stuff and everyone really liked it. And then for some reason, It seemed, I noticed the price started going up on this. They had sucked a lot of customers in and I, I feel it does not taste the same as it did when it first was released. I think now it has more of a bite to it.
I remember it being a lot smoother, so I fell out of love sweeter with this. A little sweeter. I agree with that as well. Yeah. And so [00:32:00] I fell out of love with this because I feel I could be, this could be my mind playing tricks on me. I don't think it's the same composition as when they first came out with it, and then they need to produce it in a lot greater quantity once they sucked everyone in.
When this first was released, it was 40 bucks a bottle. Now it's closer to 50.
**Poobah:** Ah-huh. . I didn't notice that. Same thing. Um, but I may like it better than the, the scotch we had on one of the previous episodes that's kind of adjacent to this. Maybe it's more expensive, but maybe the Glen Mory, uh oh. Glen Rami 10, Glen, Glen Morange.
Sorry, I'm drink 10. Just taste better than the, that I would drink this. Over that, that I agree
**Senator:** with. Nice with. I know Grindr loves the Glen Ranchi 10. I really am not a huge fan of that scotch. Uh, I'm with you Puba. I would definitely drink this over the Glen Ranchi 10. Yeah. This, this is more
**Bam Bam:** [00:33:00] flavorful.
**Gizmo:** Agree,
**Poobah:** clear. I'm not a scotch expert, so I mispronounce that, but I mean, I like this better. Uh, for me personally, if I had to just buy a bottle of it, I would, I, I, I would like it better. It just doesn't, uh, Uh, it, it's just, it's smoother to me. It's a little bit sweeter, which is okay for me. Uh,
**Senator:** yeah. The only thing if you have this neat, it's got a bite ah, with ice.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** We, we all have ice. A few cubes in there. Yeah. Uh,
**Senator:** but I took an early sip before any of the ice melted just to see if it's still in. It's got a bite. Mm-hmm. Uhhuh, . But the flavor is great. I mean, to your point, it's got like that sweet kind of sherry like flavor that we. , like, I like the flavor profile of it.
**Poobah:** Yeah. There's no peat whatsoever, right? Yeah. It's not parti, it's not smokey. Um, you know what's
**Gizmo:** cool is the word oban? OEN is gaelic for little bay, so that's what oban means. Oh, interesting. So they call it the oban little bay. Um. because that's the Gaelic meaning of the word. [00:34:00]
**Bam Bam:** That's pretty cool. You're the master of
**Gizmo:** useless information.
I am. It's on the back of the box. So you're like the cliff. You're like the, you're like, I'm just trying to keep up with grinders. Not
**Poobah:** here. Cliff Cleveland. .
**Bam Bam:** Exactly. Pu, exactly. .
**Poobah:** All you need is a male carrier uniform, . And who's coach in the group? I'd like to know. , Ernie Pan. tooSo.
**Gizmo:** This is pretty cool. I'm, again, I'm reading a little bit about this. I know Grindr would be, Do a full dissertation on oen, and I'm envious of him with that. But what's cool about this is they say that, um, obviously OEN has been around since 1970, uh, 1794, which we've talked about on the previous pod. But they said that they, uh, that they, they distill this in their, uh, small stills, which need to be rested between batches.
And what that does, uh, is it gives more copper contact. to the scotch to create their rich flavors, which I think is pretty cool.
**Senator:** Yeah. Which we were talking about with Grindr. In fact, when Grindr was really [00:35:00] breaking down the, the high stills versus the low stills, he was saying how the high stills, there's less particulates and the low stills, there's more, and I think it imparts a bit more body, the, the low stills to the scotch where the Glen Ramey tenure, which he said comes from high stills, like it's very light.
I mean, you look at the color, even the glass, it's like, yeah, like a tequila almost. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Very good Scotch going back. Thank you,
**Poobah:** pagoda. Thank you Pagoda. Going back, going back to cheers by the way, so I have, I, I was gonna put this, we have a group text . I was gonna put this out on the group text, so I've been watching Cheers.
On Hulu. Now , I must say I'm, I'm a, I'm a little bit older than some in the room. Um, so maybe you got May. Then a couple of the guys, um, the young ones over here. The young, uh, yeah, the Youngs . Uh, but, uh, I've been watching She, cuz it's comforting to me. Very comforting. So there's, so there's certain shows that.
From your childhood? Absolutely. Cheers is one. Nash is one. Yep. That's another one that's, that's [00:36:00] really kind of comforting to watch like when you're going to sleep. I love Lucy. Perfect timing for that. It's perfect timing for that, right? They didn't
**Gizmo:** hear me. No. So I said I love Lucy. Yeah, I love Lucy.
That's more Rooster's timeframe. .
**Poobah:** Yeah. I,
**Gizmo:** we watched a lot of Iowa. I was more into Sanford. I did. I did
**Bam Bam:** Sanford. And so, Lucy, San
**Poobah:** San. Oh yeah, you
**Bam Bam:** big
**Poobah:** dummy you. Um, but, uh, So I was, I was gonna mention this in the text, Kirsti Alley back in the day, boy
**Bam Bam:** oh boy. I had many hardons over her.
**Poobah:** Wow. . Is she a good looking woman?
She was, yeah. I mean, she was, bam was looking woman. So the, I'm reminiscing right now. Yeah, man. I'm telling you. Just revisit starting with season six. Can
**Gizmo:** you reminisce when you're a lone band? Oh, cheers.
**Poobah:** things could get dangerous when band gets excited. Uh, but, but, but I gotta tell you, she was a beautiful woman.
And when and when you go back, so Shelly [00:37:00] Long on cheers was r like, to me, was so annoying as a character with her whole character was annoying to me. But the minute it switched to switches to to, to Kirsty Alley as Rebecca. , the show for me gets better, like exponentially better. Mm-hmm. and, uh, cuz she's, she's a smoke show.
She is, she's a And Shelly Long to me there's nothing that's attractive about her, including her personality, her affect, the whole thing. I never understood it, but the minute that show switches to, to, to Rebecca, how, and Sam sells the bar. and to that corporation, . Right? Remember all these guys? Yeah.
Remember it was dramatic. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was, it was, it's dramatic. And, and she has the crush on the owner of the parent, uh, company. Right. And, uh, anyway, but I was gonna, I was sending, I mean, when you look at Kirsty Alley, she's, she's a lunatic sci Scientologist back in the day. But back in the day, smoke show.
Such a smoke show. Man, you know what,
**Gizmo:** Sam had a [00:38:00] thing for. Yeah. Oh yeah,
**Bam Bam:** of course. There was some chemistry retreat. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Big time. There was. There was, but but that's a funny show.
**Gizmo:** What, what years was, uh, cheers on the air? Late eighties.
**Poobah:** Eighties. 11 seasons
**Gizmo:** probably. Okay. Yeah. Late eighties. So like mid eighties to early nineties, correct.
Kinda thing. After three's
**Poobah:** company. Yeah. You'd have to wiki it. I mean, it was on I think 11 seasons long. Before. Before. Well, the writing is so good. It's So this
**Gizmo:** is a, this is Seinfeld before Seinfeld as far as popular culture and stuff. Oh yeah. Oh
**Poobah:** yeah. This is
**Gizmo:** one of the friends, the four friends.
**Poobah:** Yeah. For Seinfeld.
It really puts like the modern sitcom, maybe like you could argue like early.
**Gizmo:** Early eighties. Can I ask a question? Did you, yeah. Mid mid eighties. Mid eighties. Did we get the, the lounge lizard's name from Cheers? Wasn't there a, didn't you send us a clip where the lounge, somebody said something in the show about a lounge?
Oh, that was a
**Poobah:** one-liner from Cheers that I sent you guys, but that's not where we got it from. Oh, okay. God. I think it originated with, I would walk into the lounge and say, what's [00:39:00] up, lounge lizard. Got it.
**Gizmo:** Okay. All right. How good was.
**Poobah:** Oh, the one
**Bam Bam:** Love Norm. Who
**Gizmo:** doesn't love Norm? Oh, what's funny, I don't know anything about the show and I know Norm.
I know Ted Danson
**Poobah:** And Norm. That's, so it went from 82 to 93. Wow. Which is, which is a long good run. Long, long run. Yep. Long run. I'll have to watch it. Well, yeah. And then Woody, Woody Harrelson Yeah. Comes onto the show after coach dies. Yep. So it's like Wood. The Woody Harrelson and, and Kirsti Alley years are really.
They were.
**Bam Bam:** I love coach though. I loved him.
**Gizmo:** Oh, he was great. Was the entire show set in the bar? Was there anything outside the bar? Yeah, we go outside
**Poobah:** the bar, but it was mainly in the bar. It's mostly bar. Mostly in the
**Gizmo:** bar. Ed Frazier and Lilith Frazier. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . This is very funny, Senator. This is one of those shows you watch on.
I wanted to bend Lilith over.
**Bam Bam:** You know, in real
**Gizmo:** about her. Always back to bast stick, you know, always back to
**Poobah:** bas stick. No, but in real life, no. Listen to this. In real life, in real life. Like they, [00:40:00] they, no, they trust her down in, in the cast. Um, the cast that is, what is her name in real life, um, she was
**Bam Bam:** the ultimate.
Ah, that you wanted
to
**Poobah:** bb New worth,
**Bam Bam:** un prude, un prude and unpluck, you want to call it that. Christ
**Poobah:** Undress, Dr. Lilith Sternen played by, by Beatres Bibe New Worth, um, in real life. She's an attractive woman. Yes. Uh, they, they dumped her. You know, they, they made her into a real stiff librarian. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Senator, this is one of those shows you watch on.
and it has the black bars on the side. Oh yeah. . No, it doesn't. Black
**Bam Bam:** bars. . In
**Gizmo:** fairness,
**Senator:** we, we, we grew up with shows with black bars up. I
**Gizmo:** know. I'm kidding. Yes. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm
**Senator:** kidding. I'm like watching like during the pandemic, like er with my wife. They're black bars on the side of that
**Bam Bam:** er I love er, great show.
**Poobah:** That's what I was wanting to bring this up. So like the, [00:41:00] I love some of these classic television shows. You know, ER
**Gizmo:** was great. Star was awesome. The cast was phenomenal. Hilarious. Juliana Marise, Noah Wiley, George Clo Clooney, Eric LaSalle, dude. Yep. What a great show. What a great show. Awesome show. Wonderful show.
And now these shows that they put out like Chicago Fire and like Texas. Emergence Grey
**Senator:** Anatomy,
**Poobah:** fuck all of these horrible shows. The writing, the writing back then in some of these shows, this cuz the sitcom was so, was so big, it was such a revenue generator for N B C on Thursday nights. It was like Thursday nights primetime.
I mean, you only had so many things on television. I mean, people looked forward to these episodes. Like the last episode of Friends, the Writing on Friends was good. We
**Bam Bam:** had no internet. Yeah, right. None of that existed. And the writing was very wit. . Um, and it wasn't sharp as a knife. It was like a dull butter knife.
It was really
**Senator:** pleasurable. Bam. Help me understand. How did you survive without Siri? [00:42:00] I don't fucking know .
**Bam Bam:** I, looking back, I don't know, maybe I can't.
**Gizmo:** A blonde on, uh, three's company. Oh, so, so, which, which one? So,
**Poobah:** wow. Oh, Suzanne, Suzanne.
**Bam Bam:** Summers. Summers. What a smoke show. Oh my God.
**Poobah:** That was
**Bam Bam:** softcore porn back then.
You know. I had many hardons over that show too. ?
**Poobah:** Yes. Hey, listen, we can go all the way back to the Brady Bunch of Marsha for that shit. Marsha. A
**Bam Bam:** few of the members wasn't born then, by the way. Marsha took a turn. A a wrong turn in life though,
didn't
**Poobah:** she? She did. No, she did porn. No, no, no. She did porn. No, not Marsha, you're thinking, you're thinking of, uh, porn of the younger ones, Cindy.
Cindy did porn. Yeah. . Cindy does porn. I gotta look that up. Stop it. . Oh, she did, she did like a sex taper. So I gotta look
**Gizmo:** that up. Senator's WiFi's gonna be getting pinged .
**Poobah:** No, she did. No, she went bad. No, no, no. But, but that's, isn't it? Uh, no, she was Marsha's life turned out totally fine. Really? Okay. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** You know what?
You're, to go back to, uh, television revenue really quick. I find it interesting. [00:43:00] You know, judge Judy had the biggest show on television for years, was making 40, 50 million a year. Her fucking salary was 14 million a year. More than that. No, she was making like 40. She left. Put a bullet in my head please.
She left. Regular television to go to Amazon because she wasn't making enough money. Let me tell you something. Go ahead. So I got a confession to me. I love it. I love it. . I,
**Poobah:** I ha I am and have been for years. Don't make me walk outta here. A hundred percent addicted to Judge
**Gizmo:** Judy. It's the best show. . No
**Poobah:** way.
Yes, it's great. And you know, This is funny. I can't believe you brought up Judge Judy because Judge Judy, there's a thing , they, I've watched so many Judge Judy episodes over the years because it's like, it's like mindless. It's so mindless that sometimes you just want that.
**Gizmo:** It's like relaxing, mindless
**Poobah:** it, like relaxing, mindless.
You like that. So sometimes I'll, I'll , I'll almost like read the paper and have like Judge Judy on in the background. There are some, [00:44:00] some smoking hot kind of less fortunate women. , oh God. That appear on Judge Judy. That's true. And you want to know what you, you know what it's interesting to do. Just try this exercise out and it may seem sick.
Whatever. Call me a sicko. Go on Facebook and then search the girl's name just to skit additional photos of what they look like in real life. And sometimes you find out fascinating shit. Oh my God. So like if you see, cuz they'll be, they'll be like, You know, this is Anne Marie Luciano. She's suing her boyfriend Mario for, for back rent.
You know, and you're like, oh my God, look at this. How did someone look at this chick? She's so hot. And then you, you, you, you look it up on Facebook and you're like, ah, this is what she really looks like, . It's like you're putting your name out till like literally 10 million people watch that show. Oh yeah.
What
**Gizmo:** about Dr. Ruth? Remember that? Oh yeah. She died recently. You take the
**Poobah:** penis and you [00:45:00] and you copped the testicle .
**Gizmo:** I forgot about that woman. Oh yeah.
**Poobah:** You could find the Gs spot. . Very important. Is she
**Gizmo:** still alive? I think she died. I think she died. Okay. I think she died a couple years ago.
**Poobah:** She had a radio show.
Yeah, she did. On seven. On uh, seven 70.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Long time. Yeah. Can I just say though, the only thing that I thought was so strange, so when Judge Judy moved this show to. She didn't take the fucking bailiff. She
**Gizmo:** didn't even call him bird. Oh, you know how
**Poobah:** much, you know how much Bird makes? Bird makes made a million dollars a year.
Wow. That's great. Goodness. It's the greatest job. That's the greatest job. She didn't even call America. He was good. She didn't even call him. I don't know
**Gizmo:** why she didn't bring him over million dollars a year. My mom. That's true. I went home this past weekend, I think you guys know, and I, I went to see my mom and she's like, oh my God, I can't watch Judge Judy.
And I said, all right. , let me see what I could do to help you. I know you know that she moved to Amazon, or Im DB Pro or something. Amazon. So I set up the Prime and she's watching. She goes, well, where's Bert? [00:46:00] And I'm like, first off, it's not Bert. It's Bert Bet . His name is Petri Hawkins Bird. She's like, well, where's Bert?
And I was like, well, judge Judy didn't call her and she hired a legal assistant and she hired somebody to sit there and type for some reason on the show, but she never called Bird again. Yeah.
**Senator:** It's funny that you mentioned how much he made Puba. I started reading about this cuz I, for whatever reason, I was just really shy.
I just, it's like iconic, like you just expect her and him like in the frame. And there was an interview with him where he said apparently they did not have the budget to pay him what he was making. And his frustration was he was willing to take a pay cut. And he said that Judge Judy just assumed he wouldn't do that.
And so he was just pissed that she didn't even ask or. That that was, that was kind of the,
**Poobah:** the source of Yeah. I mean it's, oh, there was some, there wasn't a little bit of a bu parting of ways. Yeah. Yeah. What, but she can cross-examine somebody. I mean, boy oh boy. She has some great one-liners, man. She, she is, [00:47:00] It means she will interrogate the crap.
Addison. Addison. Yeah. Over 250 bucks.
**Gizmo:** Over 250 bucks. That takes, she's making, she's making 40 million a year. She's grilling a guy over 300 bucks.
**Poobah:** No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's a yes, yes or no. Yes or no. No. No. Does
**Gizmo:** it say stupid on my forehead? Yes. Does it say Yeah. On my forehead? Yeah. My forehead. That's another one.
I was born at night, but it wasn't last night. She was. She's great. All right, so boys, back to the, uh, Monty Christo 1935 anniversary. Nicaragua coming down to the end here. I think we're all past getting close to the last third, if not well into it. Pagoda, um, , what do you guys think right now? ?
**Pagoda:** Yeah, I, I thought it, it got a bit spicy towards the end, a little more peppery.
Um, but, um, yeah,
**Senator:** kind of enjoy. . I agree with that. It's definitely spicier for me in the last third, and it's even picked up more in strength, which is hard to believe. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I I don't hate it. I don't either. No. I expected it to get rough. I
**Bam Bam:** asked, [00:48:00] I thought it would get worse. Yeah. But it's actually, it's, it's, it's okay.
You know, I, I don't hate it. It's
**Gizmo:** held its own for sure.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, dude, if strong, Nicaraguan Purs are your jam, and that's what you, then, that's what you like, like to rock to this thing, you'll like
**Bam Bam:** the ci. It takes a while to settle in with you. Right. And once it's in, it's,
**Gizmo:** well, I think Puba made the best point about, uh, uh, the, the rhythm of smoking.
Uh, this is a cigar that needs to be smoked slowly to
**Bam Bam:** really be enjoyed. It's a pretty good lesson actually. It is. Even for me, I smoke a little too. I, I do smoke quickly. This needs some time in between
**Poobah:** draws. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Super long finish on this thing. Mm-hmm. , which is, you know, which is a test, you know, which you could say is a virtue, uh, in this, in this cigar.
And, and, and why, um, when they're, they're looking at these and rating these, uh, these cigars. That that's, that's a virtue. Yeah. It may not be for everyone, but, um, but it certainly could be looked upon [00:49:00] as, as something very, very positive. I, I, I, I. , like I was just talking a lot obviously, um, and hadn't drawn on the cigar.
And now I'm, and I'm in the last 30 minute, I'm Dr. It, it stayed lit. Yeah. And I took another draw. Probably two minutes went by, two and a half minutes went by. I picked it up. I didn't have to relight it and I got a really nice draw off of it. So I think, uh, with the cigar, this, this powerful that packs this much of a, of, of.
of a full experience, you know? Yeah. Starting to feel that's the way to go on the back of your throat a little bit. Right.
**Bam Bam:** A touch.
**Gizmo:** Maybe a touch. It's not hitting me too hard in the back of the throat. No. Which I'm thankful for because I think if it was, it'd be drying my throat out and I wouldn't be enjoying as much.
I agree, agree. Um, but yeah, it's, it's definitely held up and I think that, like we talked about, even still, the burn is razor sharp. I certainly haven't touched mine up. I don't know if anybody else has. Um, it's burning. Well,
**Senator:** yeah. I mean, rooster's usually a fairly, uh, very slow smoker. He, he's further along than I am on this.
You just want to
**Gizmo:** [00:50:00] keep up with your boys. , . So for the scotch, um, I, I thought this was a really good pairing tonight. I, I really enjoyed it. That's right. We have to rate this sco We have to, we have to do a formal liquor rating for Yes, we do. Forgot about that. Yes, we do. Yeah. I, I think this is a pretty nice scotch.
I don't know if I'd buy it again, but, but I think it's pretty
**Poobah:** good. Oh, I would buy this. Yeah, I bought, I have bought it like some somewhat recently, just grabbed it, you know, doing Grip Plain, grabbed that bottle in the liquor store, kind of. Yeah. Thing I was doing that today, you know, you grab a couple expensive bottles of scotch or something, you may want to just grab this because you know, you just, if you're drinking and a little doing a little volume, you may not.
Just grab $85 bottle of scotch and drink that all the time. But this is totally kind of half the
**Senator:** price. Always need an everyday, everyday scotch. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Giz. Should we do it? Yeah. Well I was just looking to see if there was a proof statement on the, uh, box here, but there isn't. I'm curious what [00:51:00] the proof is on this.
I'm guessing it's close to 40. Yeah. 45, but um, it's not 45. Yeah. So let's do it. Bam. Bam, you're up.
**Bam Bam:** I'm given the scotch is seven,
**Gizmo:** seven. All right. Pagoda
**Pagoda:** kind of concur. Seven seven's a good score for this.
**Senator:** Okay. I'm in the exact same boat. I'll give it a seven.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna give it a six, seven. Okay. I'll give the pole and spring
**Poobah:** bottle at eight.
**Bam Bam:** across five scores. What's the average? How does this
**Rooster:** compare
**Poobah:** to the. I like it. I like it better than the Kirkland.
**Gizmo:** I think I would slot this, I, I think in this same spot I, that I think the Kirkland kind of fits in the same spot for me. I would pick the Kirkland over this, the
**Bam Bam:** Kirkland's smoother than this.
It does, this has a little
**Gizmo:** bit of a bite list. Yeah. I think what I, where I would put this, I, I would definitely like the Kirkland. So what's the, uh, what's the formal liquor rating there? Center
**Senator:** formal rating is a [00:52:00] 6.8.
**Gizmo:** 6.8. Very nice.
**Senator:** Which is, Modest
**Gizmo:** recommend, modest recommend. I'm surprised again that this cigar didn't get harsh toward the end here.
Yeah, me too. Yeah, I I'm very surprised. Pleasantly surprised. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely expected it to, to fade a little bit, uh, in my enjoyment, but it hasn't. It's a powerful smoke. Yeah, it
**Senator:** is. I mean, actually another cigar, we didn't mention that this is a bit similar to, particularly in the last third, the Pedro
Black
**Gizmo:** label.
Oh, yeah. But I feel like the black label, I don't know. It has. It's like dessert in a way. To me that's true. It has like a dessert kind of vibe to me. Not as much spice as this. Yeah, it's like chocolate
**Poobah:** cake, like all patron drones have that. Yeah. I wouldn't know.
**Bam Bam:** I'm not allowed to have that
**Gizmo:** cigar. You're cut out on the cigar
I can't wait to have Jorge Jorge patron on and tell 'em that story . I can't wait.
**Pagoda:** But, but it's, uh, you know what's interesting is that we've been comparing this with some really high end premium cigars. That's.
**Gizmo:** It's
true.
**Senator:** It's not easy to make a full flavored cigar like this that [00:53:00] is not so aggressive that you're getting that feeling.
We are all saying we don't want in the back of your throat as you're smoking it. So you know, no matter what we rate this, I will give this cigar credit that. They've done a, they've done a pretty good job of delivering a lot of flavor in
**Gizmo:** a cigar. Yeah.
**Rooster:** So do you think the cigar does better in the American market than the European market?
Absolutely. Question.
**Gizmo:** They're made for the American market. In the European market. They wouldn't even know what to do with the cigar. No.
**Bam Bam:** They throw it in the fire in a fireplace. I mean, you can't buy a Petron
**Gizmo:** in Europe, right? Yeah. They're not, it's like a foreign
**Senator:** Nicaraguan. Piro is like a foreign concept
**Gizmo:** outside of the us.
They're not smoking. So you guys, you guys mentioned AJ Fernandez. I have a question about that. Does he blend all of. , uh, uh, I guess the Cuban named New World Cigars for Al Alto. Uh, Altus. Altus is, is that, is he their guy for that? I know obviously he has his own line, but mm-hmm. , how does that work? Cuz he did the Ramon onus right.
**Senator:** Yeah. The, the non Cuban Ramon iis by AJ Fernandez.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Which at some [00:54:00] point we're gonna do, uh,
**Poobah:** he does a, he does a shitload of collaborations though. Yeah. A lot. He collaborates with Caldwell. He collaborates with all kinds of, so is
**Gizmo:** he like a consultant or something that he gets hired to, to kind of blend these things?
Or, I'm curious how that works. Pretty much. It's interesting. Yeah. I
**Poobah:** mean, he's,
**Gizmo:** I need to get into that kind of consultant. Yeah, you do. Great. That's a great business. .
**Bam Bam:** I think it would, it would have to take a master to
**Poobah:** do what he does, right? Albe in for all the focus studies. . ,
**Gizmo:** focus groups.
**Poobah:** Yeah. He, he's a world class guy.
**Gizmo:** All right. You guys ready to give it the, uh, formal lizard rating? I think so. On the Monte Cristo 1935 Rooster, you're up. Yeah, I think
**Poobah:** I'm, I'm gonna go with a seven. Oh, me too. I'm in the same boat. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Seven. Yep. All right. I'm also gonna give it a seven.
**Senator:** Oh, so far, all around seven here. Yeah. Strong
**Bam Bam:** seven.
Absolute seven. Yeah. Strong. Seven. Exactly
**Poobah:** what I was thinking. Strong. Seven. Maybe even a seven. If I had to give a decimal, I give it a seven, [00:55:00] five. For, there's virtue in this. It's, it's gotta, there's merit to this. If this, if it's not your thing, it may not be your thing, but if it is your. This is, this is, you'll like it.
You know, I
**Senator:** think this goes back to, I, I, I'm pretty sure I mentioned this on another episode. You know, when you're at a, a cigar lounge and you have to buy a cigar there, right? They don't lie to bring in outside sticks. We can't bring in what we normally smoke, and you need to find something that's gonna satisfy and not be a huge disappointment.
This is a cigar, if I saw that, and I'm probably gonna stay there and have one or two. I, I would pick this up, it
**Poobah:** would work. I mean, I agree a hundred percent. I would pick it up. I would, if it was given to me, I'd smoke it, um, in the social setting. Uh, or if, if, yeah, I agree. So is this seven a good recommend?
Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I would say so. Would recommend, yeah. And you know what's interesting about what you just said about, uh, availability, I think you're gonna find this over the, any of the other cigars we mentioned, any of the patron drones, even the legal, we obviously talked about the [00:56:00] scarcity of that. Right now, I think a cigar who's deliver, that's deliver.
what a smoker would be looking for in this cigar. A strong Nicaraguan, full flavor. I think you're gonna be able to find this a lot more places than you are. Some of those other cigars, you know, and obviously the Monte Krystal Lounge, all those places are gonna have these, uh, you know, uh, more readily available than, than, than some of those
**Poobah:** others.
Yep. Yep. If you can't find the patron, if you can't find the Davidoff Nicaragua, I would highly recommend over this a patron. But if you can't find those, um, This is this, this is a pretty decent substitute. Yeah, I like it. You know, and that's pretty geese. That's pretty, that's pretty good company. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I think so.
I, I'll be honest, we've talked about this before, that the benefit of this podcast for the guys in this room, obviously I hope the listeners are getting a lot of value out of, uh, out of our experience here. But for me, obviously trying cigars that I would never reach for normally just because of my Bullhead.
you know, tunnel vision, nature. [00:57:00] Um, we're trying stuff that, that I would have never purchased, and I think that's very eye-opening for me that I would slot this in somewhere. I would never, a year ago have said to you guys, Hey, let's try the Monte Crystals 1935, uh, Nicaraguan. I just wouldn't have done it.
You know, I, I think that's really a benefit of, for me, what we're doing. in the room here, you know, a hundred percent agree. Yeah.
**Poobah:** The burn, the combustion all very good. The construction was very good. Yeah. Clearly a high quality cigar. It is a high quality cigar. Yeah. And you think
**Senator:** about the price point, you know, you get a lot of bang for your buck in the sense that th this, this leaves you just with so much flavor and so satisfied when you're craving a cigar that you feel like that's money well spent.
I mean, I, I could have this and not have another cigar for the rest of the night and I, I'll feel very satisfied where. That many cigars you would say that about? Yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** I, I like it's that, it's the similar feeling that I got with the Liga, where like you feel, even though the flavor profile for me, like isn't right in my wheelhouse, totally.[00:58:00]
Um, the long finish is what doesn't. Yeah. But no, but I feel good. Like it's that good feeling that you have when you smoke a strong cigar, like kind of picks you up a little bit, but in a good way. Definitely delivered.
**Gizmo:** All right boys. The Monte Christo, 1935 Ann. Number two, Nicaraguan a flat seven from the lizards tonight.
A good recommend. A very good recommend. Yes, absolutely. No doubt. And the open was great too. Pagoda. Thank you very much. And, uh, we'll see you guys next week. Keep smoking. 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 pod. 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 [00:59:00] week.