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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes 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 presented by Fabrica 5. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder, and Bam Bam, a full house of lizards, and our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some tequila, and Talk about life and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 157th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan a meet us here once a week. We're going to smoke Cuban cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating. We discuss yet another limited Cohiba release. We share cigar recommendations for a new Cuban smoker and a listener takes rooster to task all among a variety of other things for the next two hours.
So sit back and enjoy. Get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair Cienfuegos Tequila Blanco with the Quai d’Orsay No. 52. A Robusto Extra on the pod tonight from [00:01:00] Cuba. It's the Quai d’Orsay number 52 and it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by six and one eighth inches long and boys I put my nose in the box and I know that a few of you did Oh, yes, when we were taking these cigars out, it smelled like aromatic pipe tobacco.
I mean heavenly Right? Smells incredible. And these cigars look fantastic. They do. Very well constructed.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, every cutie I've ever had is a beaut, was a beautifully constructed cigar. Great quality.
**Gizmo:** I've definitely seen varying wrapper quality in the fifties. I've seen, I've seen some a little more rustic, dark light, kind of like D4s, like they run the road.
Huge variation in the fifties. Huge. Color, color. Corona's Claro, though, no. No. But 50, yes. 54, pretty consistent. But still, the quality of the construction is impeccable. Alright, boys, let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. You, you sure I could cut, though? Yes, go ahead, Ricky.
Okay. Now's the time. [00:02:00] Appreciate it. I
**Grinder:** just got my, uh, this cutter with the back.
**Gizmo:** Mmm. I love the cutter with the back. I love the cutter
**Grinder:** with the back. Yeah? Prevents the gizmo cut.
**Senator:** It is the worst thing anyone's ever produced. It's the worst. Although that thing almost took off Gizmo's, uh, finger the other night.
**Gizmo:** No, that wasn't the one with the back. That's, that's why I had the problem. He
**Senator:** was bleeding out at the lounge.
**Bam Bam:** We almost had to call a medic.
**Gizmo:** Oh, that's
**Bam Bam:** right. I put my hand
**Gizmo:** in my pocket. We need to
**Bam Bam:** discuss that, actually, because that's, uh, Please, Ben, explain to the listener where he kept his cutter. So, you, you, he kept his cutter in his pocket.
**Gizmo:** Let's, let's, let's just say this was after we recorded last week and I had packed up all my stuff and put it in my pockets.
**Bam Bam:** It's actually a big problem, Senator. I'm glad I totally forgot about this. No, it's, I think it's awful. It's an awful habit to keep your cutters anywhere other than your proper case.
And if you don't have a case Everyone must buy an adult cigar case. That's a must. I'm sorry, but
**Rooster:** [00:03:00] even if it's in your pocket, you can't, I mean, how could you?
**Bam Bam:** You should
**Rooster:** never keep a cutter in your pocket. Well, that's the other weird thing. If
**Senator:** it's in your pocket, it should be closed. I don't know what happened.
I reached in my
**Gizmo:** pocket to get my phone, and I put the My ring finger on my left hand right into the blade of the cigar cutter and my finger would not stop bleeding.
**Bam Bam:** Dude, I was upset for you. It was killing me. But also simultaneously, it was a colossal disappointment to see you do that.
**Gizmo:** I failed you, Bam.
I'm sorry. No,
**Bam Bam:** no, I was upset for you and I hated what you did. I know
**Senator:** it wasn't good. So yeah, even Gizmo cuts his own finger.
**Grinder:** Correct. It's true. Bam Bam had feelings of a father to a son for in this scenario. Yes.
**Gizmo:** Thank you, Papa.
**Grinder:** It's like, you feel sorry, but you're mad.
**Pagoda:** Can we get out to pressing matters?
Let's do it. But what gutter was that? Because the quality seems to be pretty high. No,
**Gizmo:** it was a
**Pagoda:** plastic cutter.
**Rooster:** [00:04:00] Your
**Bam Bam:** timing is right on tonight, bro. For the third time, say it. On to more pressing matters. This is a beautiful cigar. I mean, it's wide open the draw and I'm getting a lot of banana.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's bananas.
A great call.
**Bam Bam:** I think it's there for me.
**Gizmo:** Mm. Little biscuit peeled or unpeeled biscuit and banana.
**Pagoda:** There's a green or yellow.
**Gizmo:** Actually, I feel like this was like a ripe banana. Like it's, this is Oh, yeah. Mushy. Yeah. Like a, it's like a sugary,
**Senator:** it's like a, like a Caribbean banana or a South American banana
That's a good question.
**Rooster:** Mushy bananas go in the garbage. Well, you make banana bread or banana bread. Did you ever have. Banana
**Grinder:** cream pudding with like Nella wafers. Oh yeah. Magnolia.
**Rooster:** Magnolia. Banana pudding. It's good stuff. Rooster, next
**Bam Bam:** time you serve me banana pudding, make sure it's warm.
**Chef Ricky:** Warm. For the record, that's some of the most overrated banana pudding.
No, but I
**Pagoda:** do have to tell you that Bam disappointed me because I ended up getting two banana puddings from Magnolia for [00:05:00] him. And he didn't show up. So I ended up eating both of them. Oh, that sounds terrible.
**Bam Bam:** So this is a little bit of a thing. Where were we supposed to meet? here in the lounge. And you're, that's right.
You put up dessert for both of us. Yes. Yes. Wow. You really wanted to. So this is
**Rooster:** the second or third time this has happened. He might,
**Pagoda:** he might've seen the blue car and driven away.
My tires were spinning.
**Gizmo:** Oh, Pagoda's there. I'm leaving.
All right, boys, let's light this thing. The Quai d’Orsay number 52 from Cuba. Again, it's a 52 ring gauge Robusto extra. By six and one eighths inches long. Feels like a Toro. It does. It's big.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. When we were talking about, uh, the other day in terms of certain ring gauges, how they seem to different, like this 52 seems bigger than what I would think a 52 would be.
**Gizmo:** You know what? I think the ones that we've been talking about, Pagoda have been the new world ones that have a [00:06:00] box press, even if it's a slight one. And I feel like they feel less significant in your hand, even than this 52 does in a traditional, uh, box press. Rounded shape.
**Bam Bam:** I have to say the aroma as I'm toasting is delicious.
It's really something
**Senator:** full on chimney mode. Yeah I'll tell you this. Combustion's great. This thing takes quite the toast.
**Bam Bam:** I'm not there yet boys
**Gizmo:** Mine lit pretty easily. Mine did too. Oh, yeah, that's off to a good start.
**Bam Bam:** You know, you know when the room's quiet, it's good Yeah, it's very nice. This is this is delicious The banana still comes through.
Yeah, yeah And the biscuit is there.
**Gizmo:** I find this, and we'll talk about this in a minute, for being a recent release, again, it's another, it feels very refined. Did you? Even on the light.
**Bam Bam:** But aren't all QDs refined and creamy and smooth? I find them to be.
**Gizmo:** I think for me, I think the [00:07:00] 50 I know is a favorite in this room.
I don't love that cigar. You also don't
**Bam Bam:** like the 54.
**Gizmo:** And I really don't like the 54 much either. The real, the one that I love. I wonder why. It's flavor profile. That's not the ring. It's a jawbreaker for him. But the, uh, I mean the Corona's Claro is a brilliant cigar, but I think, I think that flavor is divergent from the.
The 50 series, the 50, 52, 54. So we'll see if that's the case tonight, but
**Bam Bam:** wow,
**Gizmo:** this
**Bam Bam:** is good. It's
**Gizmo:** good. It's really,
**Rooster:** this is a good cigar.
**Bam Bam:** I love the
**Gizmo:** 54.
**Bam Bam:** I love the 50.
**Gizmo:** So the factory name on this cigar boys, it's called the Lancis and it's a new, uh, Vitola unique to this cigar. There are no other Habano cigars in this exact size.
The box code on this is S E R November 23. So it's just coming up on a year of age. That's a provincial
**Bam Bam:** factory.
**Gizmo:** See these cigars come in boxes of 25 and they also come in a semi buoyant nature box of 10 cigars. [00:08:00] That's what we're smoking out of tonight. And this 10 count box was 340, so each of these cigars is 34.
**Rooster:** I don't think that's bad for what you're getting here. In line with the Partagas E2. Go ahead, Senator. I see something. I was going to say, they
**Senator:** can't be a 10 for them.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know, but it's not a bad price for the Vitola. I mean, it's a substantial cigar.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, the Little Hammer was about 34 or 36 a stick.
Yeah, from Padron. Maybe half the size, yeah. I
**Rooster:** mean, size wise, it's like an E2. Uh, E2's 54. E2 is 54, this is 52, but the length wise, It's a little shorter. It feels, feels similar. Yeah. And the price, the price too.
**Bam Bam:** No, no, this is longer than the E2. Yes, that's what I said. This E2's shorter. Than this, I think so.
Yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** I think it's 54 by six and something. Or even five and three quarters. Mm hmm. So this cigar was announced in 2021. It was released in early 2023. And like I said, this box code is [00:09:00] from November, 2023, and this is certainly the newest release from Quai d’Orsay. And, you know, we've talked about this before we see.
Regional editions, limitadas, LCDH is constantly happening. Obviously the age stuff, the age programs now. It is nice, again, to have a cigar in our hand that is a regular production cigar that most everyone out there can find, which is great.
**Senator:** I just have to say, this cigar in your hand, I love this size. I do too.
I agree. You know, I feel like Puba always talks about like certain cigars you just put in your hand and he envisions himself in a blue pinstripe suit. Like we, we've got the full commentary on this, but this cigar, I really feel like fits in that category where after like an amazing day, you want to light up a really nice looking cigar.
That's substantial in your hand, but not too substantial. It just feels great. And I don't know, for some reason, it feels like it should be celebrating [00:10:00] something. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I agree. I mean, and I think the flavor profile as we're getting into the start here. It's just really complex and interesting. It's got banana, if we were calling it that.
It's got some biscuit. It's got a hint of citrus, Bam. I'm getting a little bit of that there. I was gonna say it for him, just so
**Chef Ricky:** you guys didn't give him shit.
**Bam Bam:** We still will.
**Chef Ricky:** A little cedar. Maybe it's some cedar.
**Bam Bam:** That's called
**Pagoda:** vicarious abuse, Chef. Break out the champagne. We're ready.
**Chef Ricky:** No, it right off the bat, this cigar just delivered so much.
I mean, it's incredible. What do you think, Rander? I
**Grinder:** think it's, I'm trying, I'm just comparing it to other QDs. It's, it's a lot, it's a more flavor, a little more oomph than like, the, the, a lot of the others in the, in the, And the Marco firmly medium. Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, that was the, my first impression was like, again, you know, it was just, it was a lot more flavor [00:11:00] than I was expecting because they, you know, cuties kind of start off a little weak at first, you know?
Yeah. They're mild and then, and they build. And this one is off to a wonderful start.
**Senator:** Smell the burn line. You get like baking spice.
**Gizmo:** Almost like sugary baking spice. Almost like a sweet cream type of thing. Yes. Yes. It's, it's, I'm not getting that like a baking spice on an H Upman sometimes. You get a little bit too much spice in a way off the burn line.
This is like sweet.
**Bam Bam:** Have you retro'd yet? I have it's fantastic. So I kind of get that similar sweet cream on the, on the retro. The aroma is fantastic.
**Rooster:** To me, it almost feels like a larger version of the Corona's Claro with little less citrus. I was going to say the citrus is way more prominent. Yeah.
Correct.
**Gizmo:** And I wouldn't say the Corona's Claro has like a, biscuity baking vibe to it. I say that's straight like summer citrus for me. You know, like a [00:12:00] summer afternoon when I think of that cigar, I think of a summer afternoon with a beer or a nice light drink. Like a creamsicle. There's a little cream there.
**Grinder:** This is like an orange creamsicle.
**Senator:** Yeah. That's the thing, like there's a creaminess about like the mouthfeel, the smoke that you get in this cigar, where I feel like the Corona's Claro is just, um, it's like a brighter, cleaner delivery. It's not as creamy as the cigar. Right.
**Rooster:** Although I can, I can fit this in, in the summertime after breakfast.
Sure. You know, for sure.
**Grinder:** Yeah, with breakfast. Yeah. I want to smoke this in front of a fireplace.
**Bam Bam:** Like a big hearth. Hearth. Yeah, I'm not getting fireplace with this thing. I'm getting my very first cigar in a long evening of cigars. This would be the start of an evening for me.
**Gizmo:** Just like it's doing right now, to piggyback on what you're saying, I think this is a tone setter cigar.
Oh yeah. This is a cigar when you sit down. This sets the tone for the rest of your evening. Very well said. Or on the
**Pagoda:** terrace in Cuba with a cup of coffee. The start of the [00:13:00] day at nine 30 in the morning,
**Gizmo:** how are we cooking? So boys, as we know, there's not many cigars in regular production in Cade Dorsey.
We'll go through them right now. The Corona's Claro, as we're talking about now is a Corona 42 ring gauge by five and five eighths inches long. We reviewed that one. The number 50. Is a D five number five, same size as the Partagas D five, number five, petite Robusto 50 by four and three eighths inches long.
The number 54 is an Edmundo Grueso. It's a Robusto 54 ring gauge by five and three eighths inches. And finally rounding out the line is the Especial Dorce, which is a Robusto extra 53 ring gauge by six. That's a 2024 release celebrating the 50th anniversary. 50th anniversary of Quai d’Orsay has a special band with 50 on it, the whole thing, and those have not been released yet.
However, there were five count boxes. Semi boy luxury Boyd nature boxes at the Havana festival this year for sale, but they have not hit the retail chain yet. Is that an [00:14:00] LCD H release? No, no, it's just a special release celebrating the 50th anniversary. I don't know if it's going to be limited or not. It looks like a cigar that might be regular rotation, but it's not a limitada.
It's not a regional, not an LCDH. That's a good thing. Yeah. It has a chance of being good. And that rounds out the regular production line. Out of those three, we've done the Corona's Claro, the QD54, the number 50 on the pod. We'll go through those ratings later. And of course we have in our hand, the number 52 and this boys is delicious.
Getting a, it's, it's
**Grinder:** picking up in flavor and like a, the spice is transforming to like a mulling spice, like a. Like clove, like, it's very faint though. Just on the finish,
**Bam Bam:** I find the retro hell to be actually on the sweeter side.
**Chef Ricky:** You guys are doing so great there, I don't, there's no need for me anymore.
Hahaha, jeez. You've trained us well. Correct. This is,
**Grinder:** this is kind of complex. I agree.
**Chef Ricky:** Super.
**Grinder:** Yeah. [00:15:00] It's got, it's got the orange creamsicle. It's got the banana and cookies. It's got Yep. Citrus. Citrus. It does, it's
**Bam Bam:** got baking spices. It commands a little respect regarding the pace of smoke. You don't want to go through it too fast.
Right? The ring gauge and so on.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I think it demands you to smoke it. Yeah, slowly. But I think the draw is, is The flavor is, is lingering. Like I'm not feeling like I need to rush to the next straw. Like it's sticking around. That's a merit. It is.
**Pagoda:** I love it. Like when you smoke a Cuban and you get those really pleasant flavors and it just envelopes your mouth and say that it's excellent.
**Gizmo:** So boys, as we get into the first third here, let's talk about another New release from Habanos. This is the Cohiba Vistosos. Same size as the Esmeralda from Trinidad. Was just announced at the TFWA World Exhibition and Conference in Cannes, France. And it is a cigar designed exclusively for duty free and travel [00:16:00] retail.
So it's another special release Cohiba that you know is probably going to be In the triple digits only available at duty free and and other sites not going to be a regular production cigar that you can find at every store again a beautiful cigar and for our friend rooster over here guess what it has on it
**Rooster:** Oh, we know what it is.
A pigtail.
**Gizmo:** So our friend Rooster's going to run out and buy it. It's exactly the same size as the Trinidad Esmeraldas, which is a cigar we loved on this podcast. So, curious how that's going to smoke. Love the pigtail. It's going to be a very, very expensive cigar, of course. The Cohiba Vistosos.
**Bam Bam:** I just don't understand the addition of a cigar in that dimension, commanding that price.
In a catalog that most people can't afford. Who's going to buy that cigar?
**Gizmo:** People walking through duty free. Yeah, but it's diminutive.
**Rooster:** It's people who buy Cohiba. Yeah. Or the, or the ones who buy Opus Dubai.[00:17:00]
I will not be buying that Cohiba.
**Bam Bam:** Am I
**Rooster:** wrong?
**Bam Bam:** You're not wrong. Yes, you're not wrong. You are right now.
**Gizmo:** I mean, here's my question for you guys. Knowing what we feel about the Esmeralda's that size coming out of, uh, Habano's, seeing that in a Cohiba, let's say it's a hundred bucks. Let's just make an assumption it's going to be around that price.
Is that something you guys are even remotely interested in trying?
**Bam Bam:** Oh, I think you know my answer. All
**Gizmo:** jokes aside.
**Rooster:** Well, if I mean, it's one thing if the cigar is hyped up. But what if the cigar is really amazing? So maybe on a special occasion, you might splurge to try it out. But you know, you want to you want to I mean, you want to know that it's it's going to be a home run, that it's going to be really good.
It's going to be something really special. Maybe
**Senator:** it does have the pigtail and they've already got advocate hook, line, and sinker.
**Rooster:** That's what got me going. I
**Gizmo:** mean, if you compare it to the Cohiba 55th, which is [00:18:00] another recent release, obviously way more expensive than a hundred bucks. I think those are going for anywhere between 300 and 500 a cigar.
I mean, it's crazy how much they're going for. So that's a smaller cigar. I think in length, a little bit fatter in dimension is a 55 ring gauge, but you know, comparatively, I guess, You know, this is probably going to be about a third of the price of that, but still at a hundred bucks. I just, there's so many other cigars you can get multiples of for that dollar amount that it just doesn't make sense to me.
Why even release something like this? But I guess they have to support. What's the packaging? 10?
**Bam Bam:** Strange.
**Gizmo:** I think it's coming in a pack of 10. Yeah, uh, like a travel humidor of 10 cigars. Yeah. It's a nice presentation, but So that's going to be more than 100. Yeah, it'll probably be at least 1, 200, 1, 500, I would say.
Wow. At least.
**Rooster:** Probably more. Yeah. I would think it's more. Especially if it's a travel humidor. Oh, it's going to be more.
**Chef Ricky:** I tell you, after I'm done drawing on this cigar and I [00:19:00] exhale and do my retrohale, I am left with this lingering flavor of, of, of like a blondie. Right? Like a Some kind of creamy, not heavy chocolate, brownie, but a blondie, usually made with like brown butter and white chocolate.
I mean, it's, I can't believe the flavor that this cigar is delivering. I think that's pretty spot
**Bam Bam:** on. Sheesh. That finish is pretty lingering and it's there.
**Gizmo:** Would you guys say that this cigar is divergent from the 52 and 54 right now? Because I feel like it is.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I feel like I, especially the, the number 50.
Which I know a Senator loves in the morning. I think Grinder likes those and so do you. I love
**Bam Bam:** the 50. I think this is closer to a 50 than any other QD. I think that's fair. Yeah, it's closer to a 50. Cause you get still some fruit in that 50 and cocoa or a little, very light coffee cream type thing. I think it's
**Rooster:** 50 with some more oomph.
I
**Bam Bam:** think it's 50, it's more sophisticated than the 50 I think. Yeah. [00:20:00]
**Gizmo:** I think the 50 is a little more linear than this. I, I think this has a little bit more going on. If I remember the last time I smoked a 50, which might have been when we reviewed it, I was left wanting more. And I think our ratings reflected that.
Like, it wasn't a cigar that I don't
**Bam Bam:** know.
**Gizmo:** That delivered
**Bam Bam:** I get a lot of satisfaction on that 50. I really do.
**Senator:** No, I like the 50 too, but I I do agree with Giz that that is a more linear cigar than this. I think this is more complex than the QD50, but I will say, going back to something Rooster mentioned, it didn't register for me immediately, but the citrus is actually picked up for me as I'm smoking this.
And now like this really aggressively feels like a hybrid between a Corona's Claro that's fair. But that's where like, The QD50 and the QD54, there is nothing about them that remind me of a Corona Sclero. Because there's no citrus. No, that's true. So like, to me, this isn't that much like a 54 because like, there's that heavy [00:21:00] Corona Sclero citrus influence here.
So it's kind of in its own camp to me. It's like this weird hybrid. But I love it. I think the flavor is great. Yeah, it's delicious.
**Gizmo:** The thing I'm loving so far, and we know that this is the test as we get into the last third, but in the first third here, I'm loving that for a cigar that's a recent release, boxed less than a year ago, that I'm not tasting any hint of youth.
**Bam Bam:** Not a drop.
**Gizmo:** Not a drop. You know, sometimes you'll get those rough edges on Habano cigars. You can taste the youth. You know, we talk about previewing when even a cigar is giving us a little bit of those rough edges. We can see the Where it's going to go. But I think as this stands right now, it's very refined, very smooth delivery on all of those flavor notes we're talking about.
Like, it's like packaged up with a bow on it, just ready to be smoked today.
**Senator:** I agree. It's so creamy that if you told me this had a few years of age on it, I would believe you. I don't think the QD50, the 54, or the Cronus Claro, young, You do taste some youth. The flavor is so delicious that [00:22:00] you're easily able to overlook it, but you know it's young when it's a young cigar.
Uh, you would never guess smoking this blind.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. The other thing we have to compliment too on this cigar, and I think the ring gauge, you know, is what's providing this for us, but we have seven cigars lit out of the same box in this room, and everyone's having a very similar positive experience. But look at
**Bam Bam:** all the ash lengths here, and everything's really structural and retaining its shape.
It's a lot of good quality there.
**Gizmo:** Seven for seven out of a box of Habano cigars in this room is, that's a merit. Absolutely. That's a merit.
**Senator:** And on the construction, I mean, I really think this is one of the nicest looking Cuban cigars I've seen in a long time.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. But I think all the cuties are just beautiful and elegant.
That subtle brown. I know you noted some color variations in the 50. I didn't really notice. I've got to look at that. But they're all beautiful cigars.
**Chef Ricky:** Can't wait to see
**Bam Bam:** what the pairing is going to
**Chef Ricky:** be.
**Gizmo:** Let's talk about our pairing tonight. We're going back to a tequila that we reviewed [00:23:00] quite a few episodes ago.
We did the sister to this, the Reposado. This is the Siete Leguas Oro. In Blanco tonight on the pod. We went with the Blanco, obviously, assuming for a Cade Dorsey cigar that it was going to be more mild medium. A lot of flavor here, but I think that's accurate.
**Grinder:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And I'm curious how this is going to pair, boys.
**Grinder:** Right off the bat, I have some I mean, I took a swig. Did you guys take a swig, or did you just Oh, yeah. Getting, like, berry. Are you getting, like, this light watermelon
**Bam Bam:** berry kind of Yeah. The rind of a watermelon I'm getting. Yeah. That's what I'm, that's what I get, the rind.
**Chef Ricky:** It's just, just picking it up and holding it, you know, about eight inches from my nose as I'm about to bring it up to my face to take a swig.
Immediately, I know this is going to pair amazingly well with this stick. Yeah. Just because the aroma of the burn line. With the aroma coming off the nose here on the tequila. It's it's
**Grinder:** this is dangerous. This is like punch
**Bam Bam:** Well, I don't know about a gob a punch It's [00:24:00] good though. Anyone getting a bit of a like a salty buttery creamy thing on the front.
Yeah, I think a thousand percent It's
**Senator:** very creamy this Blanco which
**Bam Bam:** with this cigar. Yeah, perfect. It is. This is a perfect pairing right now And that watermelon rind I get on the finish if you let it sit in your mouth for a bit
**Chef Ricky:** Siete Lenguas is the perfect combination of minerality, citrus, and just the right amount of fresh fruit to kind of bring it all together.
**Rooster:** Wet fruit?
**Chef Ricky:** Wet fruit.
**Rooster:** Watermelon rind. Do you eat the rind?
**Gizmo:** Well, sometimes you accidentally do, right? You get a piece of, uh, correct. Yes. And you just go a little further than
**Senator:** the red into the white. I have to say, normally that would be a BS flavor. Nope. But Bam has spot on on this. It truly tastes like it's there.
**Chef Ricky:** Oftentimes you could, uh, people pick a watermelon, right? That you
**Bam Bam:** could also call it cucumber. Exactly. That's another, it's a nice, uh,
**Chef Ricky:** clean.
**Bam Bam:** That's yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** And because [00:25:00] of that, this makes a great cucumber jalapeno margarita. If you use this tequila, come to the restaurant some day.
**Bam Bam:** I can't wait. I can't wait.
**Pagoda:** Why don't we bring the margarita here? Even better.
**Gizmo:** Now you're thinking. Yeah, we can. Now we cooking. This is a really great tequila for this cigar. Excellent pairing. Excellent pairing. And we talk about this a lot where, you know, the tequila's got its complexity. It's balanced, it's smooth, it's interesting.
Cigar's doing the same, and one isn't pushing the other out of the way. So, I feel like we've got a little lucky on that again tonight. Especially with a cigar that could have been more mild, I feel, than this is, you know?
**Senator:** I also have to say, with this Siete Leguas, we did the Repo before, right? We did the Repo, yep.
That was a very good tequila. I remember enjoying it. And I always lean more toward a Repo or an Añejo. I like what the Agent of Bourbon Barrel does. But I have to say, this Blanco for me is better than the Repo. I agree. I'm [00:26:00] so happy with this. Like, I would reach for this any day over that Repo. And that was a very good Repo we had.
Do
**Bam Bam:** you think this is the best Blanco you've had? No, I haven't had many, I know, but no, but it is definitely in the top five for me. This is an excellent Blanco. I'm not a fan of Blanco, but I really do love this. I mean, that
**Senator:** Uno Dos Tres Blanco we did. Oh, that was absolutely ridiculous. That was the greatest Blanco I've had.
That G4 we had at, um, that's right at the event at Anejo. That was excellent. This would be right up there in that top three, top five, like right behind those two. A hundred percent. Yeah. For me, this is top five. Easy as
**Grinder:** a new tequila guy, eh? Eh, there you go. Eh, I'd say, I would say I, the Blancos that you've brought to the pod and we've tasted on the pod have been.
Like I, to what Senator was saying, I was, I kind of thought that I was on Yeho guy cause it was like, I was really like the whiskey and it was, I got the sense that the aging brought some smoothness to it. [00:27:00] The Blancos we've been tasting have blown my, my mind. Like so creamy, so silky smooth, so much flavor, not, not like the negative experiences I had when I was like much younger drinking tequila shots.
**Chef Ricky:** So just to further cement. All of you guys progress this was Gizmo's period.
**Pagoda:** A long way from Don Julio. Oh, that's
**Gizmo:** true. So I have a question for the group here and and it pairs back to something that we talked about with cigars and and specifically we reference Steve Sokka's comments a lot about a new smoker or someone getting into the journey runs straight to the brick wall of strength and flavor and oomph and starts working their way back.
And what I'm wondering for the group here is, are we in the midst of having that same experience with tequila, meaning we were reaching for agave. We were looking for the [00:28:00] barrel influence flavors,
**Rooster:** a
**Gizmo:** little more oomph, a little, little stand up a little stronger. To the cigars we were smoking, New World or Habanos.
Are we just backing off now, like, in, in preference? Like, I, I guess really the question I'm asking is if we drank this Blanco on episode 40, or right around when, when Ricky came in, we were pretty new to pairing tequila with Cigars. Would we have felt this way about this tequila?
**Chef Ricky:** I, I would say no. Um, I, and, and that's everyone, right?
There's reasons why, although I'm against tequilas like Clausia Azul, you know, which are loaded with additives, but it's a beautiful bottle and it tastes like Dr. Pepper. Um, you know, though, that's a gateway tequila. That's a tequila that, you know, I don't know if I could list it. I don't know if I could actually do that.
But you know, I mean, I [00:29:00] think that Style is important. I think it's important for everybody to learn how to be a good roller. So, but the, um, the other thing that I really am focused on is or I think is the marketing angle, because that's something that I really struggle with. And I think going, you know, maybe like the, the larger label I go with, but with the larger sales and, and the higher sales, Bye.
Full flavor, full strength. On accident, because they don't know any better, right? They maybe go for that darker cigar. It looks a little bit more attractive. It's shinier. It looks more complex. But what we're doing is actually the reverse. I think usually aged tequilas taste a whole lot like agave. A lot of the ones I bring on or have brought on do, because they're quality tequilas made by quality makers.
But we're actually getting closer to you know, tequila in its original state because we're enjoying Blancos, right? So we're, we're, we're, we're kind of coming back from the wood and for many wood [00:30:00] softens the, you know, those, those notes, those, those flavors and aromas that people are intimidated by because of the shitty memories they have from college and, you know, hangovers and just drinking crappy tequila.
And, you know, I mean, to this day I encounter people, Oh, I can't do tequila, just the smell of it, you know, whatever. But once you get past that, and that's usually what something super age helps with. Um, You start developing more of a palette for an interest. And then you find brands you enjoy and makers you love and you want to start.
Tasting, you know, what they're, what, you know, what they see the tequila to, to what they want the end product to be like. Uh, cause I think they all age out of, you know, create, creating revenue, creating another SKU. But I think for many of them, the baby is the Blanco, right? Because that's the truest form or the expression of the agave they're dealing, they're dealing with.
**Senator:** I, I think it also has to be said that none of us reach. for a clear spirit [00:31:00] with a cigar on a regular basis.
**Bam Bam:** That is
**Senator:** absolutely correct. And so there's definitely a bias just in our heads. Visually, yeah. We're not programmed to reach for or pursue a clear spirit to pair with a cigar. None of us pair vodka or gin or other clear spirits regularly with cigars.
So I do think for a while, until Ricky had educated us more about tequila, I would have sat there and said, why on earth would I ever have a Blanco with a cigar? That just doesn't make sense. I want like a richer, darker spirit to pair with it. So I think that's got to play a role for sure.
**Gizmo:** I'll also piggybacking on what you're saying, adding another sense to that.
You're, you're talking about the eyes for me, the, the taste of. What I expect of what I'm pairing my cigar with does have that barrel influence to it. There is that component that with Añejo works. It's different than scotch or bourbon or other things that we drink. But I think that now, obviously, learning what this spirit is, obviously, [00:32:00] What Senator just mentioned about what your eyes are going toward.
I think it's just backing off of what you expect the pairing to be influenced by or other flavors that are imparted in it from these exterior factors, you know?
**Senator:** And I also think it's even what you expect the flavor profile to deliver because, you You know what, what I have found, I love, I think I said this on the uno, dos, tres episode when we reviewed that Blanco, I was stunned by how creamy that's, that was, I don't think any of us associate like a clear spirit with delivering a creamy experience.
I think of, you know, clear spirit, I think of vodka, like that is like a palate cleanser. It's just like super bright, clean. You're, there's nothing creamy about spirits like that. And it's been a shock to find, and I think with a creamy cigar, Blanco tequilas can deliver that. And I hadn't known that until trying a lot of the stuff that Ricky's brought on.
So, I think even the flavor profile, we don't associate a clear spirit with being able to [00:33:00] deliver a creamy, kind of, full,
**Grinder:** rich experience. Senator, I think it begs the question, in question to the group, what do you think would pair Like, how would we pair vodka or gin, like gin, in any
**Bam Bam:** I'd have to be mixed in something.
I mean, I couldn't drink it with a cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's not possible. I mean, I've had martinis with cigars, but it's not a pair. It's not something that So you're pairing Still mixed. Olive juice. Still mixed. No, I do it with a twist. I don't do any olive juice. There's vermouth. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Yeah. I can
**Chef Ricky:** kind of
**Grinder:** see gin.
Maybe with like the, the juniper, the floral. Gin's
**Chef Ricky:** going to be super complex because there's a lot of different floral aromatics there. I wouldn't smoke
**Bam Bam:** many, many cigars with that. Maybe just a few. I think a citrus forward cigar
**Senator:** might work with a Cuban. I don't think we'd be allowed to record an episode with gin.
This room would be going
**Bam Bam:** crazy. Shit would get real. I want to just comment on your, on your note earlier. I don't think there's a parallel [00:34:00] Um, in the pursuit of strong cigars when you first start. Pick up the habit to this strong spirits. I think it's a little different. There's so many variations in the, in the drink that you can, that you can, you know, pursue.
**Gizmo:** I guess I'm just trying to reconcile what I'm sensing in this room over a serious period of time. I mean, Ricky first came on and joined us, I think on episode 42, right? We're recording episode 155 right now. So we're talking, Over two years ago, two and a half years ago, he first came on and really kind of threw us into this, you know, artisan type of agave distillates, right?
We were drinking Don Julio. And yeah, with ice is Pagoda. I don't
**Grinder:** think we were drinking a lot of tequila until, until more fairly recently. We were pounding Don Julio. Like some of us were, I mean, Giz who's buying
**Chef Ricky:** gallons of Don Julio 1942. I don't know what you're talking about.
**Senator:** I bought a lot. But that's what I'm saying.
Even before that, when Gizmo was the, [00:35:00] I will not drink tequila, like Puba and I would usually have Don Julio on Yeho together, um, and enjoyed that. And then I literally had to force Gizmo to take a sip of Don Julio. He kept telling him, I'm not trying it. I don't like tequila. And I'm like, just take one sip.
And so Ricky's point about the gateway, that's what it took. He dropped,
**Pagoda:** he dropped the Belvenue 12. I remember. You were, you were drinking the Belvenue 12 that day. Put it down for the tequila. He put it down for the tequila.
**Gizmo:** It's just an interesting for me. It's an interesting observation to see this group You know falling in love with with great tequilas, right that we're talking about focusing most heavily at the beginning on Anejos now backing off to repos and now we've done a few Blanca's that we've that we're falling in love with It's just it's an interesting journey that we're going on now with tequila that we went on with the Cigars, and I'm glad that the listener is able to kind of see us going through this because it's really like a learning process, like, in the flesh here.
**Bam Bam:** What I find more interesting [00:36:00] is the discovery of how incredible the clean tequilas are. And when you go back to having that Don Julio, like we did that one night, honestly, it was like drinking gasoline. It's different. It was terrible. You evolve.
**Pagoda:** Uh, Chef Ricky, question for you. So when you, when you smell tequilas, right?
Like, and you say, oh, that's a tequila smell. Is that agave, really? pronounced? Because it's not in this at all. It's usually
**Chef Ricky:** agave, though I think the tequila that most people associate that flavor or that aroma with, unfortunately, is Jose Cuervo Gold, because that's what everyone drank in college, right?
Don't say it out loud again, please. But the difference there is that it's, you know, that's, that's very little agave, less than 50 percent of that, of what's in that bottle is actually agave distillate. Over, over 49 percent of it is additives. So I think what you're getting on that [00:37:00] nose that kind of makes people want to Earl all the time is caramel, flavoring glycerin, like all these things just kind of, and I think all those additives kind of exaggerate the aroma or highlight the negatives of the aroma, if you will.
Um, and it just, it's a, it creates a super unpleasant experience. I mean, you know, I'm sure at some point everyone in this room, you know, just.
**Pagoda:** No, no, there's, by the way, what's really interesting is memories and smell. They go together. Yeah. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. And Pagoda. I thought you were going to bring up the night that You guys, uh, had me drink Don Julio, just for a shit ton of years.
**Pagoda:** We
**Chef Ricky:** have it
**Pagoda:** on video. We do. And you did ask for ice. Wow.
**Grinder:** Cause it tastes like shit. It does. Like when you guys take a swig of this tequila and then immediately You know, take a, take a puff of the cigar. What are you
**Bam Bam:** getting? Honestly, I'm getting a, a really strong, uh, pronounced rind and sweetness [00:38:00] simultaneously for me.
What that, that consecutive hit is just such a great sequence.
**Gizmo:** It's a perfect marriage, I think, of the creaminess, the floral, the citrus, the fruit. It's, it's all coming together. And I just like how they're, I said it before, but they're not competing for the same, you know, space. They're, they've got their own thing and it's working really well together.
**Chef Ricky:** You know what's also super interesting is just kind of, um, blowing the smoke from your cigar into the glass as you bring it up and those two aromas come together. It's pretty, it's pretty fun. I smoke tequila. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. We do smoke those fashions at the restaurant. I'll tell you what guys do it.
Come on. I'm shaking my head. Honestly, do you do
**Gizmo:** a
**Chef Ricky:** K door? Say a revelation guys
**Gizmo:** at the restaurant
**Chef Ricky:** when, when the embargo gets, Oh, this is very cool. I'm sorry. This is awesome. Look at this.
**Grinder:** Look how beautiful that's kind of take a little sniff. It looks great. It's amazing. It looks [00:39:00] great. Oh my god, the aroma is
**Senator:** intoxicating.
It's like, uh, butterscotch.
**Grinder:** I want to make this a candle. Can we make this
**Senator:** a
**Grinder:** candle, kids? Oh my god. We can do it.
**Senator:** Car freshener. This is unbelievable. Good idea. It smells like butterscotch. It does. In the glass when you pour the smoke
**Gizmo:** in there.
**Senator:** I'm going to start doing this with cocktail. Like, forget getting a proper smoker to make, like, a smoke cocktail.
I'm just going to blow cigar smoke in my glass. Like, it works. I'm not
**Bam Bam:** kidding.
**Senator:** Hey, barkeep, give
**Bam Bam:** me some matches.
**Chef Ricky:** It's like Jamie's is the perfect place
**Grinder:** to do it. This is the, this is the next evolution of the, the wedding of the cigar. And now we're blowing, we're smoking our tequilas. It's all kind of merging.
**Chef Ricky:** Telling you. Yeah. Listen, don't be surprised if at the next tequila dinner, we're, uh, we're using, uh, You know, some beautiful cigar in our, in our smoking gun, or. He'll have 10
**Bam Bam:** guys in the kitchen with cigars blowing into the food.
**Pagoda:** And that'd be one
**Grinder:** expensive tequila for sure. And then New York City, uh, uh, like, you know, regulation.
The health inspector will be like, what the
**Bam Bam:** fuck [00:40:00] are you
**Senator:** doing? You
**Bam Bam:** can't smoke
**Senator:** in here. Gasp. Tableside cigar smoke. That's right. We'll tell them we're with Mayor Adams and they'll be on the payroll. Oh, yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** You're good, boys.
**Gizmo:** So, boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the Quai d’Orsay number 52.
What's everybody thinking right now?
**Chef Ricky:** So much fun. This is such a fun smoke and bringing it together with the tequila is, it's just, it's a really amazing experience. I mean, this cigar has so much flavor on so many different levels. I was not expecting this.
**Rooster:** Um, yeah. Only, only downside if there is any, the, the ash is a little flaky.
**Chef Ricky:** It's starting now. It's starting now. For me, the first third, I had a great ash. It looks like it's starting to form again, but.
**Bam Bam:** Not having that experience yet. I
**Senator:** had that a little, but luckily with this, it's been minimal. So it hasn't really annoyed me like some cigars I've mentioned before, but. It's there.
All you have to do is take a scan of the room. I don't, everybody has to look at this at Gizmo's ready to rate the [00:41:00] cigar. I was going to say, so I
**Gizmo:** am, I am blowing through this faster than I normally do. I'm normally not the one who smokes fast in the room. It's normally grinder when he's excited and bam, bam, always.
But, but for me, I'm, I'm really just loving every single moment of this. It's excellent. I might have to lay the second one. Yeah, it's excellent. Hard to stop. All right, boys, let's go to a listener email. This one comes from Lizard Ryan. He says, hi, lizards. I love the pod. There's not a lot of enjoyable cigar related content.
So bravo to you all. One thought slash suggestion. You are all so persuasive in arguing for and against the products you review. He says, in quotes, he puts, uh, I'm looking at you, Senator, that I fear it drives high correlation in your ratings. Sure, folks will deviate slightly, but rarely more than a point or two.
I wonder if you've had an independent blind rating prior to the show where possible and compared at the end, the [00:42:00] joint rating versus the blind rating, what we would learn.
**Grinder:** Wow.
**Gizmo:** Anyway, keep up the good work. You have my listening ear, Lizard Ryan.
**Grinder:** I, I mean, I don't, I don't, I, As, as Pooble would say, I resent the implication, but it would be a good thought experiment, you know?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Senator:** it would. But I'll just say this. I, I don't think it would yield anything that much different. And I go back to a recent episode where. We had a listener write us asking about our, like, recent or daily rotations. And I think it was pretty clear and, and probably a little surprising. We went around the room and all of us at least named one, two, even three, some of us four, of the same cigars that we're pulling for and smoking every day.
So, I think it just shows, like, we have similar yet different palates. Um, We know a good cigar and a bad cigar. And so I, I think that's why we don't see wild variations. But I think what's fun and you know, how we rate with whole numbers [00:43:00] is we're very passionate. If one of us feels a cigar is an eight and the other feels it's a nine and you know, that's where our personal preferences really come through.
**Chef Ricky:** I think if there's one downside to not having a decimal system is the, is that sometimes the rating could get skewed a little bit in that we're going to blame you know, there are times that, you know. I think a cigar would get a 7. 6, but when you're at that level, you have to give it an 8, because a 7 is too low.
Calculations for giz are way too complex when you get decimals in there.
**Gizmo:** Ricky's out. Here's, here's the thing I'll say generally about this email. It was nice knowing you guys. As Ricky makes his way out of the room. No, um, I think the thing that I, I feel in the room, you know, ball busting aside, The conversation, as intense as it gets sometimes about ratings, or anything else we discuss, I personally, and I would hope that everybody in the room individually, feels complete [00:44:00] freedom to rate the cigar or the spirit that we're pairing it with as it's, as it's happening in the room.
Like, we don't leave here and give each other shit for a rating one way or the other. You know, and, and we do have, I think, I think it's a little unfair that say that it's only one or two points because we have had some swings, some real swings in the ratings based on maybe somebody got a worse cigar than someone else, or someone had a great experience and it didn't hit someone else's palate the same way.
So I don't, if, if a cigar is a three or a five or a six or a 10, I have no hesitancy to throw that out there as my rating because I stand by every rating I've ever given on this podcast. Like I don't regret any rating I've ever given in a hundred some odd episodes. So I would also
**Senator:** just add, I think most cigars are not that polarizing.
It's only some cigars that like skew so far in one direction in terms of flavor profile. That yeah, it's going to alienate people. Either you love that [00:45:00] profile or you hate it. Like I think of certain like peppery cigars. Like some people love a peppery cigar. I'm not one of them. I know that for someone, a really peppery cigar can be a nine.
I'm probably going to give it a six, maybe even a five. So like, I think, you know, we talk about our different palates, like grinder and rooster, like they're sitting to my right, their flavor profile is very different in terms of what they pursue. So like, if we reviewed a Padron 90th, there's no chance that grinder is going to be within two points, even probably of a rooster who like loves a, in your face, really full bodied stick.
It's a 10. And there you go, I
**Grinder:** mean, to echo Senator sentiment, I also think, you know, we smoke a lot of cigars and we smoke a lot of cigars together. And one of the things that I've noticed is as you get, as you, as you, you know, surround yourself with other cigar smokers. And you go to PCA and you meet all of these people in the industry.
We're all smoking the same stuff for a reason, [00:46:00] probably. Because it's all really good. And, and I think the more cigars you, you taste, and the more you're smoking, especially around people, you, you kind of all You know, merge because that taste profile, we can, you can discern good from bad and there's slight nuances, but they're very minor.
Like they're not, you know, significant swings as, as it might suggest. And you know, I think it's an interesting observation. It might be a little unfair.
**Pagoda:** But, you know, I think we also have the benefit that we are smoking together a lot of the times, even during the week. Um, and so what typically I think happens is when we're smoking a cigar and we're discussing the flavor profile, we seek it out, right?
And then you begin to enjoy it, right? So from that perspective, if you're listening to the pod while smoking the same cigar, you're more likely to find those flavor notes which are being discussed at an average of Then you otherwise might or you might not pay attention to [00:47:00] and so it's really interesting that I think in its own right the power of suggestion has a way of really also beginning to not only understand but also enjoy cigars in a particular manner and But you know if you were to really look at some of us we are typically within maybe two points of all our ratings
**Gizmo:** It's varied a few times.
I think really the point that Senator and Grinder made, Senator maybe, was that I think the thing that we vary most on is probably strength. Not necessarily, like we all know when we taste a good cigar or when we don't taste a good cigar. I think what skews is either a, a strength preference, or if someone is super sensitive to the price of that cigar.
I've also noticed when price factors in, um, You know that of course that's, that might change someone's rating in this room, but you know, to do what he suggests here, which is interesting to do an independent blind rating prior to the show, which I'm assuming he's [00:48:00] saying that we each smoke a cigar independently wherever we smoke.
And the thing that I like about what we do together in the room for getting the potential influence that we have on each other, which I just don't think exists from a rating standpoint is that When we're all sitting in the same room, all of the conditions surrounding us are the same. So if I'm at home in my garage, and Pagoda's on his deck, and Senator's in his garage, and Bam's at his lounge, and Rooster, and, and, and, and, uh, and Grinder, and Ricky smoke in their car, That's 7 different completely changed ambient situations that you're smoking a cigar in.
And
**Grinder:** we're smoking the same box when we're pulled from the same box. That's true. When we, when we meet here as well, right? So that's another qualifier that we should distinguish is like, it's the, you know, those are, those are significant factors in the construction of the cigar. Our, you know, if the roller was off or on [00:49:00] that day, and how they bundled them, all those things matter.
**Gizmo:** And by the way, let's point out that in a Habanos box of cigars, of 10 cigars because their color matched, That might mean that it was rolled by 10 different people. That's right. It's not the same roller. No. It's not the same pair of rollers. It could be 10 different people have rolled these cigars that we have in this box tonight.
So, you know. But box code matters, for sure. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Yeah,
**Senator:** but I do, Grinder makes a really good point because I can think of cigars that we've reviewed where I've independently had this cigar and I hated it, and then we did it on the pod. Yeah. And I loved it, and I realized it was just a bad box.
**Bam Bam:** I think that's happened to all of us at one time or another. For sure.
**Senator:** Yeah. And that's where, like, if it's a good box, like, sure, our ratings aren't gonna diverge all that much, but trust me, if, you know, half the room had one from the box that I first had that sucked, and half the room didn't, If any of this is true then there'll be a huge variation, but no, I do think that that plays a role.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. And let's face it, I, you know, we all spent a lot of time around one another. And even early on when I [00:50:00] first met you guys and I was, and I was bringing tequila in mescals and things around for everyone to try. There are certain, you know, Going back to the first tequila pod where I brought four different bottles and and one we didn't really touch on But now years later you show me a picture of this bottle, right?
And I'm like, yeah, I remember when I I think so when I'm bringing spirits on I understand your palates, right? And it's not so much that, Oh, these guys like sweet things, right? You guys like quality, right? And the bottom line is that a quality producer is going to make a quality product, right? There's not a whole lot of tolerance in this group for crap, right?
So I'm not going to say, Hey guys, let's, uh, let's try the Xeno and tell me what you think. Right. Pagoda. So look at the disgruntled.
So I'm always cognizant of what I'm bringing on, what people are going to gravitate towards and, and, [00:51:00] and, you know, I even gave you guys fair warning when giving you that bottle, I was able to appreciate it because of where I was in my journey and understanding what went into it. But at the end of the day, it was so early in your guys's journey and it was a very hot spirit and it's very, you know, to your point earlier, if you would never go for a clear spirit with a cigar, it's tough to get, you know, that's not a gateway tequila.
That's, that's an advanced tequila. Um, so I think generally speaking, you know, Giz, you do a great job in sourcing what we're smoking. Um, you know, we're not on here smoking Rocky Patels and then we have one coming up. Actually, it might be next week. Um, yeah, so I
**Rooster:** just, yeah. Yeah, but you, you mentioned the word a quality product.
The quality product doesn't necessarily equate to, uh, you know, the price point. I mean we have smoked many a sub 10 cigar that have rated very high [00:52:00] and we have scored very, you know, expensive cigars that have gotten very low ratings. We had a 30 Blanco a couple weeks ago that we all loved
**Chef Ricky:** on the pod.
And I think, I
**Grinder:** think that, you know, That it's that, that example is, is very telling though, because if, if, if we're all looking at a 13 cigar and saying, this is actually phenomenal, it's probably fucking phenomenal. Right. And, and we're all kind of in, you know, forget 13
**Senator:** bucks of 8
**Grinder:** cigars. Yeah, sure. And we all have different dollars.
Different preferences, but they're, but they're, you know, they're marginal from one, from one another.
**Gizmo:** And I think the other thing to point out to uh, Lizard Ryan here is we did do a blind cigar very early on. We did. I think it was episode nine. Yeah. We took the bands off. It was not great. It was a grinder special.
But, same thing, with or without the band on it, I mean, the, the ratings were not divergent. It's not like we're influenced by the band or the maker. I mean, my, one of my favorite things is when we get a high priced cigar, [00:53:00] And it doesn't perform well and we eviscerate it. We've now saved the listeners money.
Don't go out and buy this. It's not a good cigar or the opposite of that. When we find a low dollar cigar, like, you know, the guys are talking about here and we rate it very highly. It's like, now we've found the value that a listener can go out and purchase that cigar and smoke it like we do every day. I, I don't know.
It's, it's like I feel very confident, I guess is what I'm saying in our process and, and in the, the, the dynamic of the group here that I know that if, if BAM rates this cigar a six tonight and I rate it a nine or a 10 or whatever it's going to be, That it's actually in himself. It's accurate and we can yell at him, but he's going to stand by his radio, you know, and I feel like that about everybody in the room.
So that's, uh, that's our thought there. And, uh, thank you, uh, to lizard Ryan for reaching out.
**Grinder:** We, we, we bust our, each other's balls on so many different levels. Ratings is the least of the, like, you don't say there's no [00:54:00] one shy in this room.
**Rooster:** All
**Gizmo:** right, boys. Another lizard email here. This one is from lizard Garifo.
If you remember, he wrote us. Earlier in the year and he was talking about smoking his cigars in the garage And remember he wrote I tried it for the first time But his wife was less than thrilled with the lingering smell the next day, etc And he was looking for tips or tricks. We wrote it all out and we gave him our advice and uh Lizard Garifo replied to us this week, and he wrote, Oh boy, he got divorced.
Ah, you remember? First off rooster, I have to say, quote, get a new wife. You might want to tread carefully with that advice. If I followed your suggestion, I think I'd be smoking alone in the doghouse. But hey, I appreciate the creativity. On a more practical note, I solved the cigar smell issue with a 14 inch wall mounted shutter exhaust fan that automatically handles temperature and humidity.
That's pretty cool. That's cool. It runs on a [00:55:00] timer, and now the garage smells fresh the next day. No new wife is needed. And here's the best part. Now my wife is smoking cigars with me. No way. Wow. That
**Bam Bam:** is, wow. Wow. Rooster,
**Rooster:** what do you have to say to yourself? So I saved his marriage. Yeah. And he gets to smoke in his garage.
**Pagoda:** You can send him the invoice for the therapy session. Oh
**Rooster:** man.
**Gizmo:** He says, even my 19 year old son has joined in. So instead of losing a wife, I gained some smoking buddies. It's a win all around. I'm very sorry to say it, Rooster. That's incredible. That's incredible. I
**Bam Bam:** love
**Gizmo:** it. He's got his own lounge. I'm envious of him.
He's got his own lounge members on his lounge. I mean, how many
**Rooster:** of you would want your wives to smoke a cigar?
That is not what I was
**Senator:** expecting him to say. That's true. How could you say such a thing? Horrible. You're such a [00:56:00] man. That's the stuff our dreams are made of.
**Rooster:** I mean,
**Senator:** the
**Rooster:** cigar, I mean, cigar is like, Well, he was born in the thirties. I mean, it's no surprise. Old school. When you're smoking a cigar, you kind of want to be with your friends or by yourself.
I mean, it's if you, if your wife smokes with you, it's fine. That's a bonus. It's a bit of a, for my
**Senator:** wife listening, my wife's my friend.
**Rooster:** I'll have a separate tower for my wife.
**Senator:** I would love
**Rooster:** to see her reach it into your tower. All the flavored smokes, vanilla, plastic tips, Zinos. Hey, can I have this
**Bam Bam:** Vegas Robania, please?
**Rooster:** Classical. You won't like it, honey. And a
**Gizmo:** sophisticated lizard Garifo finishes. By the way, I've been loving the podcast reviews of all the great tequilas, many of which I have been enjoying for years. Thanks for the laughs and the awesome content. Cheers. Lizard Garifo, another great email from him. Yeah, that's awesome.
[00:57:00] I mean, you know, we talked about that and, and he achieved it. I don't know how he found a fan that deals with temperature and humidity as well. That's pretty cool. But you know, you just need to put an exhaust situation in. I did that in my garage and I don't have any problem. You know, my wife will come in and chat with me and she doesn't complain about her hair or anything else like we would in other situations.
So it works out quite well. So, um, Um, that's a, that's a good move for him and, uh, seems like it's working out well in the household.
**Grinder:** Do we know where Lizard Garifo is from?
**Gizmo:** I don't know that. I don't know that. It's always cool to see you there.
**Senator:** Clearly
**Gizmo:** not
**Senator:** Canada. Not Canada.
**Chef Ricky:** I'll say one of my favorite cigars that I've smoked, uh, maybe in the last three years.
That was sitting on the porch. I went to smoke a cigar. My wife's like, can I sit with you? And I'm like, sure. Come on. She sat next to me. She opened her laptop. We started watching something on Netflix. Just look at Rooster's face. Those eyebrows. Go on, Rooster. Go on. Rooster, I know you [00:58:00] put on this tough macho facade here.
But, you know, when I, I remember smoking a cigar with you. And your wife sat out on the deck with us. Oh, I don't mind if she sits there. She's
**Rooster:** not smoking a cigar. You're right. You're right. I don't mind if she sits
**Grinder:** there. You know, to echo your sentiment, I've had some really great cigars with my wife, you know, hanging out on a deck and just, you know, relaxing.
I, you know, it's nice. Yeah. And
**Chef Ricky:** she wasn't smoking. But she didn't mind that I was smoking next to her. And, you know, we were both under a blanket cause it was pretty chilly. Ricky, my wife allows
**Rooster:** me to smoke inside the house once in a while. That's, that's pretty amazing. That's an
**Bam Bam:** achievement. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I've actually achieved, I've achieved not the same level as, as what Rooster's talking about, but sometimes when the wife and I are on a road trip.
She'll let me smoke in the car without, she's with me. Yeah. And, and it's like the greatest thing. She's like, are you going to light a cigar? And I'm like, what? Dude, you're like, Oh, please go ahead. She's in tears. The entire drive. Yeah.
**Rooster:** But guess my windows are closed. [00:59:00]
**Gizmo:** I cracked my
**Rooster:** windows. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** You're a
**Bam Bam:** step away from the living room.
I know. I think
**Rooster:** I'm getting close, man. Yeah. Your living room is the truck. Pickup
**Grinder:** truck. That, that truck is. Really something special the way you got that ventilated smoking in there. It's really great.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's like my heaven on wheels. Yeah that truck It's like my mobile lounge
**Grinder:** and it doesn't smell Every time I get it never smells like
**Gizmo:** I think I think the thing that that makes a difference when you smoke in your car If it's going to linger or not is if you have leather seats or cloth seats.
If you have cloth, it's going to permeate and it's going to really take over the car. If you have leather and, and whether, you know, other details. Yeah, but you're going to be missing out
**Grinder:** on the key here. You have that back window. I do. That provides the cross. You have the cross event and it pre creates this like tunnel vortex from the side windows to the back.
And it's like constant, constant circulation. It's great.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. We're coming into the last third here on the Quai [01:00:00] d’Orsay number 52.
**Bam Bam:** What's everybody thinking? It's gotten better and better, I think. Um, I'm getting a really deep graham cracker, but it's, there's a pungent nature to it, which is really, for me, it's got a savory and sweetness.
There is, right?
**Grinder:** There's a weird, it's, it's, it's like oomphed into functionally. For me,
**Bam Bam:** that savory sweet is what defines the Cuban twang for me. That's what I, how I define it. And I'm getting it in this cigar.
**Rooster:** It's a good medium bodied cutie. Slightly pungent, right?
**Bam Bam:** Which is unique to Uh, you don't get that in every Cuban cigar.
You don't. No, you
**Grinder:** sure don't. Right? It's like, it's not, it doesn't align with your, your idea of QD too. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Is anybody tasting any youth? Because I'm not.
**Grinder:** No. No.
**Gizmo:** I'm really like waiting for someone to say, Hey, I'm getting that kind of youth thing.
**Grinder:** It kind of has an agey. Like, there's little agey.
**Gizmo:** Like Senator said, if you were to tell us that this was a few years old, Sure.
I'd believe you.
**Chef Ricky:** Yep. I mean, at 34 bucks a stick, I feel like this is a bargain for what it's [01:01:00] delivering and what it's doing. And for the size of it. Yeah. Yeah. For the size, for the flavor,
**Gizmo:** for the body, the strength. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And this feels like one of those cigars that like you could light this on Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year's or something.
Well, that's what I was saying. It's like, it
**Grinder:** works. I get like, I, it's, it's very.
**Bam Bam:** Both you and Senator said, this is, this feels like a kind of a celebratory cigar. And I think it has to do with the shape and the size.
**Gizmo:** And the flavor.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And the flavor. I think it's pretty spot on. But, but
**Grinder:** it's, it's like, it's very eclectic.
It's got like a summery fruity vibe and then it's got this woody like spicy. Kind of like, like I mentioned before, these like mulling spices that kind of hit you in your palate of every, it's, it's crazy. It's wild.
**Chef Ricky:** This is Thanksgiving dinner in a cigar. I mean, I'm thinking about, you know, you Brian a turkey and you use those, those, you use citrus, you use some bacon spice in there, maybe gravy, uh, you know, stuffing gravy, like, [01:02:00] no, I'm serious.
I'm serious. I am not serious.
**Grinder:** And, and, and there's like the cranberry sauce with the little twang. Cranberry
**Chef Ricky:** citrusy. Yeah. I don't, I don't know that gravy is bringing you a whole lot, but you know, I mean, I'm just saying, when I brine my turkey, I use citrus, I use spices, I use a little, you know, whatever.
I'm picking up
**Grinder:** what you're putting down despite the peanut gallery on the gravy, the gravy gallery.
**Senator:** But I think to the point about the flavor profile, how it kind of shifts and changes, I think it makes this cigar incredibly versatile. Cause the first half, it almost, you feel like it's a summer cigar. And then the second half, you feel like it's a fall or winter, winter cigar.
So I feel like because it has both, you could like this and enjoy it anytime. That's true.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. No, there's definitely enough body and strength here to hold up in the winter time and
**Grinder:** the aroma from the foot is just like, if you let it kind of rise up and just,
**Pagoda:** I've been really enjoying it as well. I, you know, I [01:03:00] think after having a sip of tequila with the cigar, I know you, you guys were talking about the watermelon.
For me, it was like the orange peel. Sometimes you get the bitterness of the orange peel. I was getting a little bit of that in a very, very, very good way. But I think that's a flavor that I kind of recognize and I'm used to an orange marmalade. Oh yeah. Marmalade. Yeah. The bitterness of the slide. Yeah.
It's very good. It's excellent.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's go to our final listener email tonight. This one's from lizard Oscar and he's going to be our lizard of the week. And he writes, Hey lounge lizards. I'm really enjoying your podcast and I try to tune in every week on my days off and during the weekends.
I've been partaking in the cigar hobby for about a year now. And I know you all have been savoring cigars for much longer than I have. Recently, I've started collecting and appreciating Cuban cigars. I'd love to hear some insights on them. Can you guys recommend some general release Cubans that are not limitadas or regionals and are [01:04:00] reasonably priced?
I'm also looking for one celebratory smoke
**Bam Bam:** reasonably priced, priced around 50 or less
**Gizmo:** and another for everyday enjoyment. Best value for the money smoke, ideally under 20. That's going to be tough. Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated. So far. I've tried the Juan Lopez, number two, the Vegas Rabinia Famosos and the San Cristobal Princey pay.
I've also bought the Hoyo Epicure number three based on your podcast review. And I have, I have some H up in half Corona's. The Juan Lopez number two has been my favorite so far, but I haven't tried many other Cubans. What are some of the pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when getting into the world of Cuban cigars besides steering clear of Cuba?
Of counterfeit products. So that's a big,
**Grinder:** there's a lot of questions. That's a well packaged
**Gizmo:** question. So let's start
**Senator:** with this. Yeah. I'll, I'll break them down. We're giving this listener listener of the week. We have to do all this work. It's like five questions in one, but we have,
**Bam Bam:** honestly, we've answered all these questions in the past.
This is like the dating game. Yeah, it [01:05:00] is, but it's okay.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, so he says, can you recommend some general re release Cubans that are not limitati or regionals under 20 bucks? Reasonably priced under 20. I think that's gonna be tough.
**Rooster:** Yeah, under 20 is gonna be different. How about make it under 30?
And I would try the one Lopez. Number one.
**Bam Bam:** You'll like try that. You will like that better than the number two.
**Rooster:** Yeah, I would try the, the Monte Crito media. Corona, I think it is that the media Corona The little one. The little one, yeah. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. That's a good small stake. Mm-Hmm. . Uh, the Partigas D6 is also, and the D4, well the D4 is, it's under 30, it's like 24 bucks.
The regular
**Grinder:** production cigars that we mentioned before on a previous, in our more recent podcast. You know, those kind of regular rotation cigars are, you know, that's, there's ample, you know, opportunity for, for pickings. Schwa Supreme. The Rass. Rass. Ramona, known as Specially Selected. Any, any of those Robustos.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Any of the Cuban Robustos that are not [01:06:00] Cohiba, that are regular production. Um, you should
**Bam Bam:** find those for under 30 bucks. You can
**Gizmo:** get them under 30. Under 20, you're going to be forced, you know, the one I'm thinking of that we rated fairly well is the Rapha, uh, Raphael Gonzalez, Corona's the Lonsdale.
That was good. That was a good cigar.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** The Hoyo Epi three, unfortunately, is priced a little higher than he's. Asking for here, but he already purchased that, but that's a great recommendation. La Gloria Turquino's. The Turquino's was the other one I was going to say. I think that's 28 ish. Yes,
**Bam Bam:** that's right.
**Gizmo:** But that's a great cigar. What's
**Chef Ricky:** the budget cigar that Bam likes? I haven't had it. I don't know. Yeah, it's a budget Cuban. It was a torpedo, I think. I don't think the others love it as much as you did. Does it start with a Q or ros?
**Gizmo:** No, they don't have ros. They don't have, uh, torpedoes. Oh yeah,
**Bam Bam:** the ros. That was awesome.
No, no. The Opus Dubai. Yeah. I'm trying to think
**Grinder:** of what you're [01:07:00] talking about. I think any of the, you know. Any of the good Coronas, like, because it, you know, it's, it's correlated to the amount of tobacco too, right? I
**Rooster:** think maybe the, uh, Bolivar Royal Coronas. That's a great one. That's a good one. That's an excellent
**Grinder:** one.
That's exactly what I was thinking. The
**Gizmo:** other one I'm thinking of too would be the punch short to punch. Yes. Yeah. Which I think is probably in the 20 to punch punch you can get, you can get that under,
**Bam Bam:** under 30 bucks. That short to punch though, you're gonna, it's impossible to find that. Yeah. That does not come up anymore.
**Senator:** Also for budget friendly, actually under 20, like a Super Parus or any of those other, like smaller part smaller, uh, Parus. Mm-Hmm. . I mean, this is bigger than the short, this is like double the size basically for under 20. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, I, for me, they just a good mornings to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I smoke
**Grinder:** a lot of those in the wintertime 'cause I do a lot of outdoor smoking.
You do? I And like that is. That's like, that's a lifesaver when you're like, fingers are, are freezing, like, correct.
**Pagoda:** No, but he could just go up for the Fabrica 5. Of course. Those are really good to get the Cuban kind of flavor [01:08:00] profile. That's right.
**Gizmo:** As far as budget. Budget, yeah. Cuban taste, Cuban tasting cigars, Fabrica 5 is definitely a, yeah.
a great option. You know, the other one I'm thinking of too, the sister to this, the Corona's Calero, though they don't come up very often, they're in that 20 range, 22. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** but they don't, you know, you don't see
**Gizmo:** them a lot, but when they do, you know, that, that's a cigar that, that would be in the chef has an epiphany.
**Chef Ricky:** It was the co op. I remember you enjoying was a co op, uh, the Venus. Yes. Nice cigar.
**Gizmo:** That's a petite perfecto.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** We have not reviewed that. We've only done one co op, but we have another one coming up soon. The thing
**Bam Bam:** is, if you're pursuing a certain price point in Cubans, you're going to get a very small diminutive vetola.
You may not get the satisfaction that you want, just spend a little bit more money and pursue the D4s and the RASs. That's right, yeah. That's a fair point. Schwa. You're gonna, you're gonna get much more satisfaction. There's
**Gizmo:** one other that we haven't mentioned. I'm surprised, especially Rooster hasn't mentioned it.
Hold on, let's
**Bam Bam:** try to guess
**Gizmo:** this. One of Rooster's favorites. Oh, he said the punch punch. Nope. The poor Lauren [01:09:00] Yaga.
**Bam Bam:** Ah, the petite Corona. That's an outstanding cigar. That is definitely a delicious sub $20 cigar that for sure. In regular production. Is it really? Yes. I think it's just over 20 bucks. Mm-Hmm.
Really? No, it's less. That's a little petite Corona. Yeah, it's definitely under 20. That's delicious. You
**Rooster:** can get a 50 cab for in the mid seventies. No, that's a definite buy. If you find it, that's a great price. 14 bucks. Yeah.
**Grinder:** I, I think his, I think his other question, what would you use as a celebrate, celebratory cigar?
You know, we're coming up on the holidays. What do you guys think? 50 or less. Nothing for, oh, 50 and less.
**Gizmo:** He's looking around 50 for a celebratory cigar. So what we're smoking
**Chef Ricky:** right now. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Yeah, for sure. I agree. I can't, I can't not think of like celebrating without Davidoff in my opinion. I don't disagree.
And, and, and for me, that's like, that is, Like, I always smoke more DDoS around, you know, November, December during the holidays and, and then I stick to it during those months.
**Rooster:** Well, even the padron's, like the padron 80th or the padron, [01:10:00] the 50 year, a hundred percent, you know. Yeah. They were hammer, we were
**Grinder:** talking earlier at the 7 0 2.
I have so many memories celebrating with 7 0 2. That was like my special, special cigar. And, and of course, you know, the other, the, the little hammer, you know, can't Right
**Gizmo:** on Cuban cigars around that $50 price point. There's a couple that I want to throw out there and I've seen one. Specifically, coming down in price a little bit, you can get Cohiba Robustos for right around 50 bucks right now at some retailers online.
That is a great celebratory cigar. I love that thing. I'm sorry,
**Senator:** I completely disagree. Really? Reason I say that, I think that the Cohiba Robusto Young is not at all worth smoking. I think that cigar needs several years of age. With age, they're excellent. But I've had Young Coros. I did not enjoy them at all.
See, Bam
**Gizmo:** and I had a Co Ro when we were in Cuba. It was good. That was fresh and it was amazing. Really? It was so good. Yes, recently. Very [01:11:00] good. The other one I think of too is the Partagas E2. Oh, for sure. That's, that's a celebratory chimney cigar. A hundred percent. The Partagas E2, you got to get some of those.
That
**Bam Bam:** flavor profile is unmatched. Glad to hear gizmos say that. Yeah, me too.
**Gizmo:** I knew you were going to say that. The other one, I think too, that we reviewed recently that you can get around 50. I would think as a single, a little less in, in the box would be the punch double Corona. That's a big cigar. We all love that cigar.
**Rooster:** It's a good
**Gizmo:** cigar. That is a, when I think of celebrating, you know, having some time around the holidays. Great, great cigar for the holidays. That's a great cigar. How much
**Grinder:** is a Belcosos Finos? Belcosos
**Gizmo:** Finos is in the 30s I think. Now, low 30s probably.
**Bam Bam:** No, that Punch Double Corona is a home run.
**Grinder:** You know, it's a great, I think, you know, any of those, like Steve Saka, like blended cigar.
I like those, I like those Dunbarton cigars. Those are great. Non, I mean, [01:12:00] obviously non Cuban, but they're fairly, you know, fairly well disc, you know, priced and you can get them cheap and. The quality is impeccable. The quality is amazing. Mm hmm.
**Gizmo:** The other thing too, I'll say to Lizard Oscar here, answering this question of cigars is If we haven't named them, I think the best place to go is look at the ratings guide on our website.
Go down and look at the Cuban cigars that we've rated, say, Eight five or above or eight or above even and and see what we've listed there and see if you can find them online because there's a lot there from Habanos that that have rated well a lot haven't so you can you can save yourself some money not buying those but I would
**Rooster:** I would try the part of this Calabria Oh, that's a good one.
That's a delicious cigar. Very affordable. Sometimes you can find them with some age on them. And they're very
**Bam Bam:** affordable. They would be very good. But be careful of your sourcing.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And he mentioned that. So I want to get into his last question here. What are some of the pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when getting into the world of Cuban cigars besides [01:13:00] steering clear of the of counterfeit products and I think the one that, that I would say is make sure you love something before you buy it in significant quantities.
You know, don't go out and buy a ton of stuff before you make sure that you love it.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. When we started our Cuban journey, we shared boxes, right? So we would purchase the box and share it, or we'd buy singles from certain guys that had them. It's a great way to get in.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Without a huge financial commitment.
And then you learn about them.
**Gizmo:** And also, I mean, paying a little bit more for smaller quantity singles, three, three packs, five packs from some retailers. You're going to pay a little bit more for those cigars, because often shipping is included, but you can, um, you know, you can get great cigars, you know, at a fair price and not have to buy, you know, 25 of them.
Are there any other perils that you guys have on your minds or things to look out for?
**Grinder:** You know, be, uh, judicious and just, you know, looking at reviews as well. Like, [01:14:00] I think there's, I think there's a lot of really bad reviews on the internet of cigars. So when you, when you do that, the shopping, make sure you, it's a credible source and you've, you've, you've kind of, You kind of aligned your taste with that reviewer's palate before because, you know, some, a lot of, a lot of these reviews, they just kind of phone it in, like they don't, they don't give a really thorough kind of understanding of the, of the flavoring and not the flavoring, but the flavor profile.
So just be,
**Senator:** has this listener said this or do they understand this? I mean, my big thing would be to like. Not pursue regionals and limitadas. Yeah. He was saying, he's not focusing at all on
**Bam Bam:** limitadas or regionals. Yep.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. I would just throw in there. First of all, you're incredibly fortunate and lucky to have discovered the pod.
Within your first year of, of coming into this hobby. I don't know that anyone that has, is, there's not many that fortunate. Consider yourself lucky. [01:15:00] We weren't fortunate when we started. Yeah, no, I, I, you know, you're going to save a ton of money. Uh, you're going to learn a whole lot. And there's not a whole lot out there, you know, a lot of times, you know, I see you guys a lot and I miss you when we're not recording, you know, and I'm just like, man, what the hell else is there to listen to?
What else can I read? What else could I listen to to further educate myself on what we're doing here? And I downloaded this real shitty audio book where they hired someone who barely knows how to read to read the book. Just the way the person was pronouncing words was bothering me, but it was so remedial, like the stuff he was covering, the brands he was highlighting, it was horrible.
I don't even want to say what book it was. Uh, I got it, I had like a free credit on Audible and I used it. Um, but aside from being fortunate that you're now. You know, you've discovered this pod now and you're early on in your journey. Just make sure that you have the proper conditions to keep those [01:16:00] cigars.
Because as you know, they're not cheap. Um, and, you know, they're, if you're not storing them well, if you're not keeping them properly humidified, they're just not going to smoke the same. Uh, and sometimes it might take some cat litter. Sometimes it might take, you know, I was just telling Senator
**Grinder:** before the podcast, I need to do some work on my, on my cabin.
Spritzing. It takes some work. You know, if you weren't going to say it, actually, actually, I think I would do well for some spritzing because it's the, the humidity is too low right now. Oh, it's dropping. Yeah, it is.
**Senator:** I have one big peril. When you find a Cuban cigar that you like, stock. I say that because the prices only go up.
I think every single person sitting here at one point, or not one point, many points, have regretted not buying more of things that we like, and then the price just continues to climb and climb, and so, It's [01:17:00] easy to sit there and say, based on whatever your storage, um, you know, capacity is, well, I don't need 50 of this cigar, right?
I don't need 75. These are cigars. It's like wine. They're not going to go bad anytime soon. You can hold them for years and they're going to get even better. So my biggest advice to someone pursuing Cuban cigars, when you find the things you like, Load up as much as you can.
**Gizmo:** And I think, you know, tuning into this podcast, kind of combining what Senator has said and Chef Ricky here, you know, you gotta really dive into the mechanics of not only buying and finding the cigars, but also storing them and making sure that when you get your stuff in off the truck, don't smoke them.
Most of the time they're coming in and they need to come down in humidity. Understand what that process looks like. Rooster doesn't agree. What the hell are you talking about? You're ordering stuff off Bon Roberts that's 10 years old. I mean, you know, you're not ordering [01:18:00] fresh cigars. You know, like when this box of QD52 came in for us on the pod, I got it about three months ago.
Ah, okay. I immediately put it in my tower to start pulling down the humidity, try to put them in a position that they're ready to smoke. You have to do that. If you're smoking these cigars at 70, you know, relative humidity and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, they're not going to smoke as well as new world cigars do in that same exact condition.
That's just not how Cuban cigars work. So unlike new world cigars, where you can be a little bit more loosey goosey on running your humidor. With Cuban cigars and especially after investing the money that we're talking about here in them, you really need to be on it. You need to be diligent about keeping your collection properly humidified, or you're going to really have trouble.
You know,
**Rooster:** and also do explore new world cigars. I mean, you don't have to stick to just Cuban cigars.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** I mean, there's so many good new world cigars that are under 10 that are phenomenal. I mean, look at the reviews on our [01:19:00] podcast. Yeah. Yup.
**Chef Ricky:** Yup, this is a great time to stock up on Fabrica 5 stuff, on the Bon Roberts cigars that I just released.
I mean, you're going to get a lot of the similar notes without that price point.
**Bam Bam:** The Warp Maestro Del Tempio. Oh yeah. Excellent cigar.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Actually, I need a box of that. Aging Room. I just got another box of the Aging Room. The Sonatas are outstanding. The Ashton B. S. G. 's. Yeah, the Oliva V. Lancero. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** You know, a lot of great cigars out there, boys. I just smoked one of those before the pod. Yeah, delicious. So, boys, we just refilled our glasses with the Siete Leguas Blanco because it has been an excellent pairing tonight. How's the second pour going?
**Pagoda:** I can tell you one thing. Don't put ice in this.
**Gizmo:** Did you put ice in yours?
I just put one cube because
**Pagoda:** Then it was getting warm out here. I think the AC had shut off or something. It just happened like that. It did. And I was like really getting warm and um. Doesn't help
**Chef Ricky:** that you're sitting on that leather sofa either.
**Pagoda:** And uh, I put a cube of ice and [01:20:00] oh no, I think it was much, much, much better without it.
**Gizmo:** It's coming around. Yeah, I was gonna say you're coming around.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, for some of the stuff, like the Blanco stuff, of course.
**Gizmo:** Listen to this guy. I have no comment. So we've talked about Seattle Leg was obviously we did the reposado on a previous episode, but I found a cool clip from their website, which is titled our essence that I wanted to share with the group and our listeners says tequila.
Seattle Leg was is a red soil agave. Our people and our roots in 1952. Ignacio Gonzalez Vargas, founder of Casa Siete Leguas, began producing tequila using artisanal production processes. He named his tequila in honor of General Francisco Villa's horse, El Siete Leguas. A legwa. Or league in Spanish is 8. 1 miles and seven leagues is the distance between many towns in Mexico.
General Villa's horse was given this name because it ran that distance fearlessly from one town to [01:21:00] another, always persevering, never straying while carrying the general into battle. So I thought that was a pretty cool, that's cool little anecdote about Siete Leguas.
**Chef Ricky:** These guys are, they're one of the oldest distilleries in Mexico.
And, I think you might've heard me say it before. I'm not sure I found the pot or just in the lounge. Uh, Siete Leguas, they were the original producers of Patron. So Patron was looking for someone to make their juice or looking for a juice. And they came across a Siete Leguas product and the original batches of Patron were actual Siete Leguas.
Eventually they got their own distillery, moved on. Processes changed for them here or there. Um, and Siete de Aguas continue producing their quality juice. Yeah. If you want to know what Patron used to taste like, it was this. Um, and this is in my opinion, much better than Patron now. Uh, but yeah, it's, uh, you know, these guys do things right.
They're using a stone brick ovens, uh, [01:22:00] nicely ripened agave. You know, probably averaging somewhere between five and seven years, uh, screw mill in Tohono, they ferment with fibers and without, so they blend it. Um, and they use stainless steel tanks for fermentation. So there are some depth here, but not like a super amount of depth as you probably find in the uno, dos, y tres blanco, cause that's fermented in wooden fermentation vats.
But yeah, it's, it's, it's great stuff. Uh, you know, I. One of the notes that I love in Siete Leguas is brine. There's a good amount of brine in this here, which I think just really kind of goes well with what we're smoking. It's part of the reason why it pairs so well. What's the
**Gizmo:** price? This was 47. 99, 48.
**Bam Bam:** Not bad.
Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it's
**Bam Bam:** very fair. Yeah. You know, like the cigar, it's getting better and better.
**Gizmo:** I agree. The second pour for me is even better than the first. Yeah. You know, my palate's adjusted. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But even just freshly poured, it's, it's just fantastic. It's a delicious pairing. You know what's [01:23:00] funny,
**Senator:** Ricky, mentioning the brininess.
in this. I, one it's very pronounced in a good way. This is one tequila that would actually pair really well with oysters.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah. Because of the brine.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of high quality blancos that would for sure. Um, and this is definitely like the highlight of this blanco is that that brine, that briny quality.
**Grinder:** I want oysters right now.
**Senator:** And there's a creaminess about it that like with a West coast oyster that's got creaminess, Oh my
**Chef Ricky:** God.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah. It's a great tequila little salty buttery thing happening
**Chef Ricky:** along a few years ago One of my chefs actually took this tequila and made a jelly with cucumber And then we diced that up and we put that on top of one of the oysters and it was explained to Gizmo what that is Yeah, what's a jelly?
I was gonna say I have no idea what that
**Gizmo:** is if you don't mind
**Chef Ricky:** Definitely not a fillet you jellify a liquid using gelatin. Oh, so it's [01:24:00] it's a Or, yeah, think of it of, uh, like jello, right? And, you know, jello is often sweet, but in the culinary world, we play around with, uh, those flavors and how they're delivered by using gelatin to create gelées.
Um, and, you know, they're not usually as, um, like some jellos could be very firm. I think a good quality gelée has like a nice smooth, um, texture. and sort of a pliable quality to it, but it's still sort of stable enough to hold its own when you dice it up. Interesting. It holds its form. So it's just another way to deliver a flavor and to infuse, you know, um, another way we infuse, you know, uh, one of our most popular cocktails is called a Kukui.
At Ran and we infuse, uh, with cucumber rinds so it turns green. And then you know that along with some lime, with some agave, uh, chili salt rim that we make in house. [01:25:00] And it's one of the most, it's a super refreshing. Sounds amazing.
**Grinder:** Anybody who, who's in the New York, you know, ever stop by anyhow, had some of those cocktails at the, at the tequila tasting.
Mm-Hmm. . What you guys are doing at the bar is amazing. Thank you, thank you.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. If you go there enough, you get to know the bartenders and say hello to Raul for us. And, uh, he'll, he'll take care of you.
**Grinder:** He made a mean margarita.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I learned a lot tonight. Me too. What was, what was, what you just explained called?
El Cucuy. Jelay. Jelay. Jelay. Jelay. Jelay.
**Pagoda:** Jelay. Jelay. Jalebi.
**Gizmo:** A jale and kukui.
**Rooster:** Ever had a jalebi?
**Pagoda:** Yeah, jalebi is great.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, we're coming to the end of our evening now. It's time to move into the ratings portion of our program. Any final thoughts on the Seattle Leguas Blanco? And the Quai d’Orsay number 52 before we move in.
**Pagoda:** Don't put ice.
**Gizmo:** I have found that the pairing has been way better than I expected coming in.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, it's a unique pairing. The flavor profile of [01:26:00] both the cigar and what we're drinking. There's a, it's, it stands alone.
**Rooster:** This cigar is up there with the Corona Sclaro, I think. Ah, yeah, I agree. It's really good.
**Bam Bam:** You know, at the very end, I'm like an inch away, there's no bitterness at all.
It's gotten beautifully savory with just a hint of sweetness. There was no harshness. I took it all the way down. I'm taking this all the way down. It's just, I can't wait. It was smooth throughout. Outstanding cigar.
**Pagoda:** It smoked a bit faster than I thought it would.
**Senator:** I agree with that. Yeah, that's a really good point.
That's my only singular complaint. It smokes too quick.
**Gizmo:** It did because of the size you look at that and you'd think, okay, maybe there's like, this is just a two hour cigar. Is this an hour 45 and it's just not the case. So we're about 90 minutes in.
**Rooster:** Loosely packed. Yeah. Maybe. Hence the flaky ash a little bit.
That's probably the only downside. I mean, at least for me, it was a little flaky. I haven't gotten any. But the last third has actually, the construction has gotten actually better. Mm hmm. So, which is a merit.
**Pagoda:** You're, you're, you're halfway there. It's not your [01:27:00] last third.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. Let's move into the formal liqueur rating now on the Siete Leguas in Blanco.
Bam Bam, you're up.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm just going to say this a flat out 10 for me tonight. The salty, buttery, creamy nature of this with that a little bit of brininess, but that almost cucumber botanical quality. It is an outstanding tequila. Outstanding. So, ah,
**Grinder:** I'm also at a 10. The, the, the, the wild, this difference between smoking the cigar and getting that flavor profile amplified, elevated, whatever, you know, word you want to, you know, trendy phrase you want to use there.
It really made a difference. And after the cigar, I just was smoking, I was just drinking it neat. And I didn't have that lingering, you know, cigar taste. And it was like, it was a little. different, you know, but it was just as great. I was very surprised with how [01:28:00] sweet it was and, and smooth. And, you know, like I said, it, it makes me love this category even more.
The, the, just the incredible balance. I think that, um, the minerality was there, but also that balance of sweetness was really something special. It's a 10.
**Chef Ricky:** All right, Chef Ricky. I'm between a nine and a 10 and I'll, I gave,
I gave the UNO a 10 and I think the UNO just edges this out slightly. Um, now again, a nine isn't a bad score. It's an elite score. Fucking great score. Sure. Yeah. It's a great score. So thank you guys for not making me feel guilty for that. So I'm going to give this a nine. It's an amazing Blanco. It's an excellent Blanco.
Uh, but I, I can't give it a 10 because I remember my score for the Uno and I think the Uno edges this out slightly. It's a little bit creamier. It has some sweeter notes. This is, this one leans a little [01:29:00] briny, which isn't a bad thing. Um, but yeah, I think, uh, it's, it's a nine and for, I think for Blancos to get anything above an eight on this pod is an amazing thing.
And it shows a development in our palette and our patterns. Yeah. It's a nine for me. All right,
**Pagoda:** Pagoda. It's a nine for me. I am really impressed, uh, with tequilas, and thank you, Chef Ricky, again, uh, for introducing me to these, uh, really fantastic tequilas. And in terms of, um, just overall the experience from when I just, you know, the aroma when I smelt it in the beginning, but none of that, you know, what I would call the tequila smell or, you know, not, It's completely absent, which is great.
And the flavor was great. I think, uh, I made a mistake by putting a cube of ice in the second round of pours. Um, did not, you know, like, I think I had the Ocho Blanca, which was a little more [01:30:00] buttery and creamy if I remember. And I think I enjoyed that a little more. I, otherwise this, you know, I was debating between a nine and 10 throughout.
So it's been fantastic. It's been a fantastic experience for me as well. Uh, a nine for me.
**Gizmo:** So it's a nine for me. I thought this was a really excellent Blanco. However, it it's edged out by the UNO Stosi Trace. The UNO from them is a better Blanco. I think for me, leaning towards a 10 from a nine, it's just because how great the pairing was.
I want to lean heavier, but the spirit for what it is and, and how it stacks up against other tequila I've had. It's not a 10. It's a nine. And, uh, that's where I'm at.
**Bam Bam:** I can't wait for the rating to end because I have so much to fucking talk about. I'm upset. I mean, forget about the ratings. I just want to talk about the concept of rating.
Please proceed. I gotta use the bathroom. [01:31:00]
**Chef Ricky:** All right, Senator.
**Senator:** Uh, I'm very disappointed with some of the lizards in this room. This is the first time I, I am in strong disagreement with Chef Ricky. Because he's looking
**Chef Ricky:** at me the entire time.
**Senator:** This is my, so the Uno Dos Tres, the Blanco, how much is that a bottle roughly? Wasn't it like 60 something? It is more expensive. It's more expensive than this. I think maybe 10
**Gizmo:** to 15 bucks more. Yeah,
**Senator:** I think it's 60 something a bottle. This is, what'd you say? 48 bucks? 48 bucks. 48. So I think the price point, it's a tremendous value for what it delivers.
I think what's frustrating me is this notion of like, well, if I gave this one Blanco a 10, I can't give another Blanco a 10. Oh, thank you, because that's where I'm going. If it's not just exactly as satisfying. Now, I agree with that approach when two Blancos are trying to be and do the same thing. I don't think this is trying to do the same thing that that Uno Dos Tres.
Fuck it
**Chef Ricky:** guys, I'm a 10. No,
**Pagoda:** [01:32:00] no. Pagoda, tell him. You cannot change who
**Rooster:** you are.
**Pagoda:** I'm the Sergeant of Arms
**Rooster:** over here. The Sergeant of Arms. The Sergeant of Arms. He may be an asshole, but he's our asshole.
**Senator:** Um, but very seriously, I, you know, when I do take that approach, it's when I feel that a spirit is trying to compete for the same shelf space that another is.
And then I view them head to head and I can't give one a 10 if I think the other is inferior. I truly think that these are trying to do different things. And I think for what this is trying to do, this is as good as it gets. The briny notes that I get out of this, I have never sat here. And as much as I, I agree that Uno Dos Tres for me is as good as a Blanco gets, but when I had that, I didn't say to myself, Oh, I would pair that with oysters this.
I would like that brininess. You don't get there. This is trying to be something different. And so for what I think this is trying to do, I think it's a 10. I think it's achieved it. I would definitely buy [01:33:00] this. I'm so glad we reviewed it. And, uh, I hope in our ratings that we will not be fearful to give two of the same type of spirit.
A nine or a ten or whatever the rating may be.
**Gizmo:** I resent the implication. Let me just say first. That's
**Senator:** also directed at Gizmo. The formal liquor rating tonight
**Gizmo:** on the Ciete Leguas in Blanco. Is a 9. 5.
**Senator:** That's a great
**Bam Bam:** score. That's a great connection. But what are we? What are we complaining about? I'm complaining about the fact that we can't get away from rating what we're drinking for with the experience that we're having in the room at the moment.
I try not to compare anything that I've had in the past. I resent the implication. I try not only from Senator,
**Gizmo:** but also from Bam Bam
**Bam Bam:** in that it's not you. It's everybody. I try not to go back in the past to compare what I've had. And to what I'm drinking now, I'm trying to rate what I'm drinking right now.
So the listener can get an understanding as to how good it is right in the moment.
**Gizmo:** My point is this, but
**Bam Bam:** they can go back in a rate chart and look at it. I
**Chef Ricky:** think it's easier for you to do that, Ben, because you've recorded 155 episodes. This is maybe [01:34:00] number 12 for me or 14 or something. I'm not, it's
**Bam Bam:** not you.
So a
**Chef Ricky:** lot of it, a lot of it is still fresh for me in my memory, in my head. And, and I've had all these things before. Um, You know, let there be a day that we do a tequila that I haven't had. That's going to be pretty tough, but, um, it's so elite, but no, no, but tequila insider. No, no, no. But it's pretty old school.
Like it's been out on the market for years. It's one of the first tequilas we've ever had. It's a tequila. I've been drinking it for a long time. It's a tequila. I forgotten about picked up again, maybe three or four times at this point, 13 years in, into my tequila journey, my agave journey. Um, So yeah, I, you know, yeah, could it, could it get it, could it receive a 10 a hundred percent, but I just, I think I, I, I've had a lot of different tequilas.
I have a lot of different flavor memories and yeah, I don't, I don't think a nine is, you know, and just for the record, unlike tequila matchmaker, this, this rates at about an 88.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. [01:35:00] Wow.
**Chef Ricky:** So.
**Gizmo:** Well, let me just say on my rating here, because I want to make something very clear. My comparison point mentioning Uno from Uno Dos Trace.
I feel that Uno is a more diverse Blanco pairing for cigars than this is. We got very lucky tonight. I think this was a brilliant tequila. I thought it paired perfectly with this cigar. Do I think that this cigar would pair very well with most New World cigars or most Cuban cigars? I don't think so.
However, the Uno from Uno Dos Tres would pair with this. Many more cigars, I think, than this one. This one aligned perfectly in its profile versus the cigar profile. The pairing tonight was a 10. There's no question about it. Second, Senator mentioned something about shelf space. I do have a limited amount of shelf space at home, right?
But that's just a
**Chef Ricky:** matter of you buying more shelves. It's not because you have limited space. Agreed. But at the end of the day, I find this [01:36:00] room for
**Gizmo:** cigars. I went, no, it's not the case for me. I went out your liquor interpreter. I went out after that episode that we did the Unasos trace, the one and the three.
I purchased three bottles of the uno and three bottles of the trace because for me that pairing that that tequila with cigars, I can see it working across a wide variety of cigars. I might buy a bottle of this. However, my choice, my, my attempt to pick this up is going to be much more limited. It's not as diverse.
It's not as complex. It's not as interesting. And I agree with you that it's doing different things, but it doesn't ring my bell to the point of a 10 and that's why it was a nine for me.
**Senator:** All right. So I'm just going to jump in. I think your first argument was very good and I'm, I'm a hundred percent, you know, with you and I think that's fair.
Um, the second piece though on, on shelf space, you know, this goes back to, we did a cognac recently, I think it was the Remy ter set and I probably gave that maybe a 10 and that [01:37:00] was a, a cognac that I, you know, it's not something I'm going to pick up often. It's something that I need to pick up often. It's so full body.
It's all of these things. And I hate these comparisons of like, if, if only, if I'm going to buy this in quantity and have it all the time, it can get a 10. It's not trying to be something that's an everyday drink. It's not trying to be something that you need to consume, you know, by the gallon. And so I just think like what I hope we're doing is rating it for what it is.
It's trying to be and what it's trying to do. And when I look at it through that lens, I always say to myself, like, have they achieved it? And if they have just how well did they do it? And so like, I'm in agreement with you. Why I said your first argument resonated with me. I, the uno, dos, tres, like, yes, I'm in agreement.
I 100 percent agree with Giz. It's way more versatile. I see utility in that tequila with so many more cigars than I do this, but this isn't trying to be the [01:38:00] every Blanco. It has a lane. And I think for what it tried to do,
**Gizmo:** you can't do it better than that. That's, that's my only, I think it's fair. I just, uh, my point is that when I rate a spirit.
It's how it's going to rate with cigars. And, and the wide variety of cigars that I have in my, but here's what, sorry, the last quick thing, just
**Grinder:** use cigars. Even as an example, you even said the pairing was a 10. The pairing was a 10 was a pairing. Yeah. So you're saying how it rates with cigars. That's the definition of the pairing, but I'm even saying
**Senator:** like, there are some cigars that surely you have in your tower.
And, and many of us do. That are amazing cigars that we might rate a 10 that we don't buy in tremendous quantity. We don't even smoke that often. Like you talk about shell space. You're like, well, this gets knocked because you'd maybe buy one bottle of the other. You'd buy three. How many times do we have cigars in our humidor where we only smoke one of them a year?
But it's a 10.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Like to me, it shouldn't be about how often I'm going to consume it for it to be able to get the 10. For me, it's like, [01:39:00] am I going to crave it in the moment it's intended for? Yeah. So for the cigar, like that I only pull once a year, In that spot, there is nothing better than it. That's a 10.
**Bam Bam:** There's, so, because this has its own lane, there's a specialness to it. If you want that particular taste and that flavor profile, with a particular, what, three or four cigars maybe? That's a special experience when you find something that's unique like that. And you can sit down and enjoy it and not ever taste anything like that again.
**Rooster:** It's, it should also be rated on the experience of tonight. That's how feel No, no. Fair enough. But you know what it is, is
**Pagoda:** that, I think we discussed this the last time, you know, for a 10, you know how you were probably were getting, uh, really excited about the tequila from the very beginning and it was a 10 for you throughout.
For me, it wasn't that experience. Right. So I'm not gonna rate it a 10. But that's, you had a,
**Chef Ricky:** that's 'cause you added an ice. No, that was
**Pagoda:** the second one. But you know, the, the thing with their
**Senator:** excitement starts. So
**Pagoda:** firstly, I like, I'm not even a tequila drinker. I've like, I think I bought like [01:40:00] 10 bottles of tequila.
I don't reach out for it anyway. I think it's only when certain lizards come, you know, it's for them. And you know, when I've enjoyed certain tequilas with, I think I've rated some certain tequilas 10 and in the mezcal, like the ones that are better with ice. No, like even, you know, the Netta, I remember that, that was a 10, right?
You know it's a 10. It's
**Chef Ricky:** in general, you've been doing really well. Well,
**Pagoda:** so my thought with it is, you get this feeling where, wow, this is fantastic. I want more of it. Forget the price point. I'm really enjoying it. I feel this is great. I want more of it. And there's a certain excitement when you're heading towards a 10, like that's what matters to me.
Like when I'm rating a 10. And by the way, nine's a very elite score. Can I just, can I just say one
**Senator:** more thing? Just very quick. I was not actually, I have no issue with your score. It was the reasoning behind those two. I'd
**Chef Ricky:** love to say, go ahead. I'd love to say two things. First of all, We're all [01:41:00] nine five.
We're all saying we're all saying get your ass out there and buy this fucking bottle of tequila. That's right. All right. Number one. That's what we're all saying right now with our scores. I forgot my second point. Here we go. My point is, my
**Gizmo:** point is we're arguing about a 9. 5 formal liquor rating tonight.
And I will say to lizard Ryan, who asked about us, uh, Influencing each other and persuading each other. This is what you get
**Rooster:** when we have
**Gizmo:** diverse ratings, only a point off. This is the intensity. Imagine if we were four points off tonight, there might be blood, there might be blood in the water if that was the case, but the former liquor rating again, on the, on the Seattle leg West Blanco tonight, boys is a 9.
5. I want to compare that to the sister expression, the reposado tequila. Scored an 8. 7 on episode 96, so this scored 8 points higher than
**Chef Ricky:** that. I'd also like to say, I'd, I'd, [01:42:00] I'd love, and this is something I came into the room with today. Uh, cause I was pretty excited we were doing tequila, but I'd love the listener to take note.
The energy in the room when we're, when we're drinking a agave distillate versus not. It's pretty fucking amazing. It's great. It, I think the only
**Grinder:** thing that matches it is champagne. Let's be honest. . That's right. The, the, the salubrious nature of the room when there's champagne. is unmatched. So salubrious.
Is that a word?
**Pagoda:** What was your major in
**Bam Bam:** college? English
**Senator:** is my second language. Writer's going to publish a lizard vocabulary, political philosophy. We all need it.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's move now into the formal lizard rating on the Quai d’Orsay. Number 52 Rooster, you're up. Uh, so
**Rooster:** this marker is usually not my favorite.
**Bam Bam:** Be careful
**Rooster:** rooster, but . But the, you know, I love the Coronas collateral. Out of all the K Kdo say, you know, [01:43:00] uh, lineup. I don't really care for the 50 or the 54. I don't really reach for them. But this 52, it's a fantastic smoke. This is, I mean, this is like a Coronas Clara, like, you know, with some more oomph.
Uh, it has great citrus note and, uh, which we love. Uh, so I'm going to give the cigar a nine. The construction was phenomenal. I did have a little bit of a flakiness of an issue, which kind of corrected itself in the, uh, probably in the second half, so I'm at a solid nine. Senator.
**Senator:** So I'm also with Rooster at a solid nine.
I'll start with the construction was excellent. It's just a beautiful looking cigar. Like I will always remember. What this cigar looks like in your hand in a way that 90 percent of cigars, I wouldn't say that. And that's a huge merit. And it's pretty cool. This is the first cigar they've put out of this exact, uh, these exact dimensions.
I think the flavor profile clearly had something for everybody in this room, really [01:44:00] enjoyable. I liked that the first half, um, was more on the sweet side. The second half got more savory. Um, I think there's a lot of versatility in this cigar. Um, I think The only reason for me, I didn't give it the 10 there.
You know, we say this sometimes with a cigar, you're just left wanting a little bit more. And I had that feeling in the end of if there was just something more pronounced or defined that would have me saying, I need another, after smoking this, it would get the 10. What I'd be really curious to see is with age, what happens with this cigar.
And so do I think it has the potential to maybe hit a 10? I do. I will. I would love to pursue some of these. And, um, let them sit in the humidor and see, uh, how they are in a
**Gizmo:** few years. So I'm in lockstep with Senator. I echo everything you just said. I, I, I have thought about, you know, we talked about how there wasn't much youth or any youth really in what we were tasting, but I'm also left wanting a little more, especially in the last third.
And I wonder how that's going to develop over [01:45:00] time. You know, it's not a 10 now. It very well could be in a few years, but it's a nine for sure. I love the cigar. I love how it felt in the hand. The other thing I'll knock it for too, is I'm a little disappointed in how short of a smoke it was. I even, I was smoking it slowly, but it, it versus how it looked and how it felt.
It should have smoked a little longer. I should have been able to get. Another 15, 20, 25 minutes out of it. And I did it. So, you know, that was a little disappointing as well, but I'm definitely going to reach for this again. I might go buy another 10 count box. I probably won't buy a 25 count box, but it was a really, really good cigar, so it's a nine.
**Senator:** Pagoda. Can I also just quickly say, on pairings, this cigar with champagne. Oh, this would be great. Like, when I get these, I absolutely can't wait to have this with a glass of champagne. Oh yeah.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, I, I think for me, now this is a 10, because I think, for me, when I started smoking this, Shocker. I really, I really enjoyed the [01:46:00] flavor profile.
I talked about champagne at least two or three times in the beginning. I, you know, it got me that excitement and I like that, uh, you know, like that orange, citrusy, marmalady thing, which I talk about. And for me, I like, I think the smoke output was great. The construction was great. I did not touch it up once.
It was beautiful construction. It was a pretty, you know, Reasonable cigar for me. It did smoke a bit quick, but I also think that when I enjoy cigars, I often tend to smoke them a bit quicker anyway, and I think it's a 10.
**Bam Bam:** That's, uh, quite a rating for someone that loves a bold, full flavored cigar. That's, that's And,
**Pagoda:** and, you know, I don't go for cuties at all.
I think I, you know, the only the Corona Clara's in the morning and you just switch the, and you know, the other thing was, I was expecting it to be much milder, but it was. You know, it was, I think, a reasonably medium cigar. It kept your attention the entire time. I'll
**Gizmo:** be honest, coming in tonight, I was [01:47:00] like, Pagoda might be at a 7 8.
**Pagoda:** And I think I'll definitely reach out for the cigar because for 34 with that size, I think I'm in.
**Chef Ricky:** Alright, Chef Ricky. Jesus, the anxiety that builds being the last one to rate the cigarette. You're not the last one. There's two more guys. It fucking feels like it.
**Grinder:** It's just the anxiety
**Chef Ricky:** building.
**Grinder:** Vamos, chef.
**Rooster:** Try going first next time.
**Grinder:** That's pressure. That is pressure, actually.
**Chef Ricky:** First of all, what the fuck is wrong with you guys? This cigar, right? So maybe this goes back to my original point about experience, right? So where you're willing to give the Blanco a 10 and I give it a nine, right? It's all about like, how much of this stuff have we all drank?
I definitely don't have the history with Cuban cigars that you guys all have. Uh, but I have my fair amount of history with a Corona Esclado. Um, I think this cigar edges that out. In every way, it delivers a lot more flavor, a lot more depth. It's a [01:48:00] lot more, for me, of an interesting cigar. Um, you know, it pairs well with oysters.
I could see it pairing well with caviar. I could see it pairing well with a Blanco tequila, with a Repo tequila. Ricky, stop going after my heart. Stop trying to win him over. I just want you to know what it feels like. Uh, but no, this, this was an amazing cigar for me. It's a 10, you know, I, I touched it up once, but it was a little quick kiss with the flame, the, the ash, the ash got a little flaky for a little bit there, uh, but not, it didn't, you know, it rebuilt itself.
Um, it delivered. From the very beginning, from the initial light, the, the amount of, I don't mean what, there was strength there, but it was delivered so elegantly and, and so well done that I, I mean, I loved the cigar. I loved the way it felt in my hand. And I think we all got 90 minutes or close to it. So it's not like this thing smoked in half [01:49:00] hour or 45 minutes.
That's also true. You know, I, I mean, I, the, you know, we, we're really enjoying each other's company. So we're probably going to put out a two hour pot tonight, but you know, that cigar lasted a good amount of the pot. And, um, yeah, uh, for me, it's attended, it was a great cigar. It had amazing flavor, um, any time of day, any time of night, wherever you put it into your rotation, I think it fits, um, and it delivers a whole lot.
And, you know, I think on the Cuban front, from my experience with Cubans, you know, uh, the. The, the Maduro number three aside or Maduro number one aside, it delivered a lot of strength, a lot of flavor, a lot of complexity, um, in a very refined and elegant manner.
**Pagoda:** For a Cuban cigar, right? And I think the finish was long, it was a bit creamy and, you know, it enveloped your mouth with a very pleasant flavor, like for me as well.
But you're not, you're not comparing it to
**Bam Bam:** Maduro one though.
**Chef Ricky:** No, no, no, no. I'm not. I'm not. But I, I, I gave that cigar. Well, that would be a fucking problem. You're in Senator's good graces
**Gizmo:** and Bam Bam's [01:50:00] bad grace. No, he's just, he's just corrected himself. It was so clarified, I should say. I
**Chef Ricky:** gave the Maduro three, uh, ten.
Yeah. Right. On this pod, Maduro one, I wasn't here for, but you gave me one. And that was just as good. Got it. Got it. So, yeah, I'm just this delivered a lot, you know, especially with my experience with QDs. Again, they always run mild for me. They're not as complex. They deliver a, a delicious flavor, but this was just miles beyond whatever I expected.
Awesome. Grinder. It's a 10. It's a 10.
**Bam Bam:** He's the QD brand ambassador. I love, I love QD. I
**Grinder:** have, you know, ever since I first smoked a QD, I've been in love with this brand. I love everything about it. I think the, um, the fascinating thing for me in the cigar is, is, you know, it had that. It had the orange creamsicle, it had the baking spice, it had the banana cream pie, it had all those different flavors.
And then it kind of, it gradually beefed up the [01:51:00] volume and it never got harsh. It was super, super smooth. It stuck to, to what the, that this mark is known for. And it was delicious. And you know, obviously I'm going to give it a 10.
**Bam Bam:** All right. Bam Bam. Yeah. Yeah. So. The banana note initially was so unique, I didn't get much citrus, maybe very faintly for just a few minutes and it disappeared, but as that banana, as you get through it, it got savory and that Cuban twang for me where the savory and sweet kind of combined and it just creates such a unique Cuban smoking experience.
I'm at a 10. Again, for a cigar that's a year old, that smokes like an aged cigar, and yeah, it does leave you wanting more, but in this case, I feel that's kind of a merit for where I would put it in my rotation. It's going to start my cigar session for a night. I finish that cigar, it sets the table, I'm ready for another cigar, probably a Cuban, um, yeah.
I think it's a 10.
**Grinder:** [01:52:00] There's a lot to be said about getting off to a good start. Yeah, and if it
**Bam Bam:** leaves you wanting more, that's sometimes a demerit. I agree with a lot of what was said about that, but when it does finish the way it does, that, for this cigar, it's a merit. Remember what Steve
**Gizmo:** Saka said about the merit of a great cigar, It makes you want to ask, do I have another one with me so I can have a second?
That's a great point. So that's a fair point. Great point.
**Rooster:** This might be the highest rated fresh cigar. Dude, it's a year
**Gizmo:** old. Damn well could be. For it to perform the way it is, it's
**Bam Bam:** incredible. So
**Gizmo:** boys, the formal lizard rating tonight on the Quai d’Orsay, number 52, is a 9. 6.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
**Gizmo:** It's definitely the highest rated.
Yeah. It does feel
**Bam Bam:** like it's punching above its rating right now, but it's still, I think it's, it's well deserved.
**Gizmo:** Both the Turquinhos and the Rafael Gonzalez Coronas de Lanzales were in the eights. This at a 9. 6 absolutely is the bre the best. New cigar from Habano's in regular production that we have smoked on this podcast and let's [01:53:00] compare that to the other k dorsays We've done on the pod.
We'll go backwards on episode 90 We did the k dorsay number 50 scored an 8. 2 on episode 50 That's low the k dorsay number 54 scored a 7. 8 and finally on episode 30. All of those by the way are even numbers It's weird 90 50 30 and 155 tonight the k dorsay corona sclera on episode 30 Scored a 9. 4. So this did edge the Corona's Claro.
Wow. What do you guys think about that? This edging out the Corona's Claro? Interesting. You think that's accurate?
**Senator:** Yes, I do. Yeah. I
**Rooster:** think just, just the size of the cigar and how elegant it feels in your hand. And it's a longer smoke. Corona's Claro kind of, you know, after you're done, you kind of, kind of want it, like you wished it was a bigger cigar.
Yeah, it's diminutive. But if it wasn't a
**Chef Ricky:** good cigar, the size and the length wouldn't matter, right? You want to get rid of it. The Corona's Claro, Senator said
**Bam Bam:** it earlier, this one leaves you wanting more. If you have that one Corona's Claro, [01:54:00] it's so satisfying. If you have it in the morning and afternoon, you could be, you could be done.
It's so satisfying.
**Rooster:** I feel like there's a time and a place for a Corona's Claro. It's not a winter cigar. It's a more of a summer cigar. Afternoon smoke.
**Bam Bam:** You think this is a
**Rooster:** winter cigar? This is more versatile. This is more diverse. Yeah, yeah. This is exactly what I was talking about. You can have
**Senator:** this any time of year.
I completely agree with Rooster. That's a cigar I only pull for at certain times of the year. Okay. That's fair. And I also think with that cigar, like, There's not a creaminess about it. There's not like as refined a character about that cigar. Like it's a pretty simple, straightforward delivery of some really great flavors that we like.
And this, I think is just like a much more elevated way of delivering a lot of flavors we like.
**Pagoda:** To Ricky, what do you think about the rating system now? I'm just saying.
**Chef Ricky:** What did you call it, the Grand Marshal? What are you? Sergeant at Arms. He's the Sergeant at Arms. It always works out. It always [01:55:00] works out.
It does. You know, we could sit here and argue a 9 over a 10 all day. Uh, obviously there's different things that work into that. You know, whether it's our experience, whether it's our palette for the night, whether it's, you know, The pairing and how we're receiving it, whether it's price point. Um, but I think, you know, I think at 34, that cigar delivered a whole lot.
I think at, you know, 38 to 42 bucks, this Blanco delivers a whole lot. Um, I, it was a quality pairing. It was a fantastic night.
**Rooster:** You know, I kind of wish Puba was here tonight because I think Puba would give this a very high cigar and he would have loved the pairing and he loved it. I would have
**Chef Ricky:** loved this.
Yeah. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** Let's re record another one with Booba. Yes.
**Gizmo:** I'll order another box. Please.
**Pagoda:** We'll do it without the band this time. Ah, perfect.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, a great night tonight. Let's go through our ratings one more time. The Ciete Leguas Tequila Blanco scored a 9. 5. The Que Dorce No. 52 scored a 9. 6. [01:56:00] We want to congratulate Lizard Oscar for winning Lizard of the Week.
Any lizard out there, any listener can win Lizard of the Week. All you have to do is send us a great email, voice memo, and Instagram comment, YouTube comment, whatever you choose. You can send us a carrier pigeon to Ricky's restaurant and we will choose you. If you send us a great email, someone's going to win every week.
You're going to win some stuff from us. Of course, thanks to our sponsor Fabrica5 and boys, this was a great night.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** a great night. Really great
**Bam Bam:** pairing. Delicious, delicious evening.
**Gizmo:** I think we got very lucky, not only in how the cigar performed at its youth, but also how the pairing went with the tequila.
It was really, really good. Yeah. And, uh, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod. com. That's loungelizardspod. com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, [01:57:00] If you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod. com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.