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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
[00:00:00]
**Gizmo:** Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Puba, Senator, Pagoda, and Bam Bam and our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some cognac, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 107th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan a meet and cheer once a week. We're going to smoke a Cupid cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We review Bolivar's history and its ties to Partagus. We discuss two new Habanos releases.
And we share advice on how to avoid predatory cigar sellers. All among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink. Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair Cavacier XO with Bolivar Corona Gigantes.
A beautiful Cuban Churchill tonight on [00:01:00] the pod. It's called the Bolivar Corona Gigantes, and it's a seven inch cigar by 47 ring gauge, of course, as all Cuban Churchills are. And boys, I feel like we're celebrating tonight. I do too. It's tremendous. I mean, this is... This is
**Bam Bam:** a, oh, what a
**Poobah:** cigar this is. I'm looking at this and just, I can't wait to smoke it.
**Gizmo:** It's... I, I can't wait. They're so beautiful, and it is such a sin that they were discontinued in 2017, but we are very fortunate to have this cigar in our hands tonight.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, we haven't done many
**Gizmo:** Churchills. We haven't, you know, there aren't many Cuban Churchills anymore, so Unfortunately, but first let's cut this thing boys.
So we've got another cold draw and the wrapper. So these are 2016 Bolivar Gigantes, and I just had a little dimple totally fall out of my lap when I cut it
Slight bit of resistance for me. Me too. Definitely could taste the age. But
**Bam Bam:** graham [00:02:00] cracker and dried fruit for me.
**Gizmo:** Mm hmm cedar My, my draw's great.
**Senator:** The cold draw's like a meal. I'm getting so much flavor on this. I can't even believe.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, dried fruit for sure. Yeah. A little cedar for me. I get
**Bam Bam:** a little graham crackery thing.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Wow. Right? The cold draw is really good. It's like, it's pretty complex.
**Rooster:** We'll see my
**Gizmo:** draw is tight. How tight is tight? Feels tight. You like that? Mine has just the perfect amount of resistance. Sometimes you don't know until you light it. Yeah. Yeah, the heat will open it up. I gotta say before we light this, look at this cigar though.
I mean, great construction. The wrapper is just incredible. It's got a little bit of box press. Yeah, it's like a pseudo box press from the dress box.
**Bam Bam:** Just something about Bolivar. It's you know, it's this is special. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Oh, it's
**Gizmo:** classic. Yeah All right, boys. We have a lot to get to tonight. So let's light this thing the Bolivar Corona gigantes again It's a Churchill a Julietta number two [00:03:00] from Cuba 47 ring gauge by seven inch cigar And unfortunately, it was discontinued in 2017.
And we got sent these by our friend in Denver. A high cigar guy. Very kind of him. Sorry. This is a 2016? 2016.
**Bam Bam:** Do we know at all what these cost?
**Gizmo:** Uh, haha. That's a loaded question. Yeah, that's a loaded question. I would think right now, this exact cigar is probably somewhere between 50 and 65 bucks. Yeah.
Puba's loving the, the ring on his lighter. The bell of the SD DuPont. I'm
**Poobah:** just going to pause and use Rooster's lighter.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you know, during Christmas, angels get their wings every time that thing goes off.
So how much are these?
**Gizmo:** Do we have any idea? I would think right now at current market price for this specific cigar we have in our hand, I got to imagine it's close to 60 or 70. That'd be my guess. Not supposed to. Um, but I have not seen these come up very much, [00:04:00] man. These were, these have been gone for a while, and I think people really cherish them.
So this is, uh, definitely a special Churchill tonight. It's pretty incredible
**Bam Bam:** right off the light.
**Poobah:** It is. And the soft flame.
**Gizmo:** You love a soft flame.
**Poobah:** Rooster, am I wrong? You're not wrong. You're a soft flame kind of guy. It just, it just lights right up. It's so gentle. Sometimes you like
**Rooster:** soft, sometimes you like hard.
Yeah,
**Gizmo:** depends. Will
**Senator:** you two just get a room? I mean,
**Bam Bam:** Jesus. And go to the pharmacy before you go.
**Gizmo:** So boys, what are you getting on this, on the light? I think the flavor, just like the cold draw, very complex. Yeah. Very, very delicious on the light. I'm
**Bam Bam:** getting faint, faint dried fruit that's kind of dissipated. But that graham crackery cake type thing is still there for me. And I'm really liking it.
**Poobah:** It's got the Bolivar DNA.
Mm hmm. Um, The retrohale
**Bam Bam:** is spectacular. [00:05:00] Spectacular.
**Gizmo:** I'm getting a leathery thing about it. Yeah, I was just gonna say that. The smoke is very leathery. Yeah. It's very creamy, but, but it has that Bolivar oomph to it with a little bit of spice. Yeah, I'm not
**Bam Bam:** getting much leather. I am getting the creaminess
**Gizmo:** though, for sure.
Oh, I'm definitely getting leather. Yeah? Oh, yeah. Very leathery smoke. I don't know.
**Senator:** Are you getting just like a dusting of like cocoa, cocoa, yes, cocoa, coffee, just some, I, first of all, this is a really complex cigar because I feel like you're just getting all these flavor notes at once, like dried fruit, cream, little bit of cocoa.
I get that faint leather you mentioned. There's a lot going on here. I'm really impressed. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Very. You know, this reminds me of the, uh, the Corona's especialis.
**Gizmo:** Um,
**Rooster:** Bolivar Corona BC, kind of like that, but it's much, much
**Gizmo:** like a longer version of that cigar. Yeah. And it just feels so good in the hand. Like we say this all the time about Churchill's and [00:06:00] Lancero's and Lonsdale's, but this just feels very elegant.
We've said that we've used that word a lot on the podcast. It's very appropriate though. The definition of an elegant cigar. And
**Poobah:** this, but it's for, it's for a cigar smoker who my prediction is, is experienced. This is, I think it's going to build into something dramatic, I think. Yeah. Like something that with a little bit of um, um, I hope
**Gizmo:** so.
So
**Bam Bam:** delicious cigar, the rappers. It's handsome. It's a little toothy, a little rustic, but not over the
**Senator:** top. Yeah, I have to say, I mean, a lot of boulevards are very rustic. This is one of the nicer looking boulevards I've seen. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** it's quite nice.
**Gizmo:** The construction's
**Poobah:** real nice.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Yeah. And this is what boulevard tastes like with some age.
It's true. Yep. That's boulevard DNA with age. And
**Bam Bam:** the band is always beautiful. Gravitate to this in the, in the, in the
**Gizmo:** tower. So this is the third boulevard we've done on the [00:07:00] podcast. We did the Bela Cosa's Finos, which... I think for every Cuban cigar smoker who hears the word Bolivar, they think of the BBF.
And we also did an aged Royal Corona quite some time ago, which is a Robusto, uh, which is an excellent cigar. But, you know, I think as, as Puba said, as we're kind of hinting to, this... This, on the light, in, in this, this initial, you know, experience that we're having tonight, this is classic, delicious, aged Bolivar.
And I think, you know, we've experienced that with, with Bolivar, Belicosos Finos that have age. Yeah. I mean, this tobacco is just made to get better with time.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, and that Royal Corona was aged that we had. It was fantastic.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. That was a 2015. Very
**Poobah:** good. I find it to be... Even this early, very rich in, in, in its presentation.
**Senator:** I agree. I feel like it starts off medium, but it's full flavor, like medium and strength and full flavor.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Really
**Poobah:** rich, rich
**Bam Bam:** in flavor. I think all the [00:08:00] notes that have been called out are very accurate. Cocoa, maybe a little chocolate. I'm getting graham cracker. And some tiny bits of dried fruit.
**Rooster:** The aroma out of the foot is just delicious.
It is
**Poobah:** so
**Bam Bam:** good. So, what you're getting, that aroma is amplified in the retrohale if you can do it. It's really something special. It's something special.
**Gizmo:** The retrohale is really nice. It's delicious. Yeah, it's really full through the nose. It's over the top.
**Poobah:** It's very full and it's for this early in a vetola this size.
There's a little pepper through the nose and it's telling me that it's gonna, it's signaling to me that this is going to build. Maybe. It's going to turn into a stronger affair down the stretch potentially. Uh, we'll see.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda. I don't know, um, I also got a little bit of... I don't know either. My mind's gone crazy, but I thought I'd got a little bit of citrus.
I got a
**Bam Bam:** little ba citrus and it just left.
**Gizmo:** I thought you were gonna, we gotta stop seating you next to van. You started off on you. I was very [00:09:00] short go over there. It was very short . But when I took the thing, and I don't know, it may be my palette, I'm
**Rooster:** not sure, might not be wrong. I think it's the citrus from the Manhattan's from
**Gizmo:** Saturday.
**Bam Bam:** Still lingering. That's definitely possible. I think the
**Gizmo:** orange
**Rooster:** citrus bitters, the
**Gizmo:** orange bitters, there's some of it left
**Bam Bam:** all
**Gizmo:** over.
**Poobah:** What it has a real long finish to it, doesn't
**Gizmo:** it? Yeah. It does. It's
**Poobah:** fantastic. It makes me want to smoke it slower because the finish is so
**Gizmo:** long. I think that, that when you sit down with a cigar like this to really enjoy it though, you need to smoke it patiently.
Yeah. You need to be very diligent about not pushing too hard.
**Bam Bam:** Well, knowing how old it is and the Vitola, it commands a little respect in time. It does. And I think that's the whole part of the mystique of a cigar like this. You know, taking their time with it.
**Gizmo:** So, like I said, this is the third Bolivar we've done on the pod.
We [00:10:00] did do a little history on Bolivar, but it's been quite a few episodes now since we, we did the Royal Corona. So I'll just touch on some of the Bolivar history that we're, that we're aware of. It was founded in 1902 by Jose. Fernandez Rocha is named obviously after Simone Bolivar, the South American military figure.
Uh, his likeness is obviously on the band. Um, he's on every band and box of Bolivar cigars in 1954. Following his death, the brand was purchased by the Sapuentes family. Of course, we know the Cifuentes family because of their brand Partagas. Yes. So this Bolívar very quickly became the little brother to Partagas in the Cuban cigar world in the 1950s.
Production was moved to the Partagas factory and Partagas remains the mother factory for the brand which is why you see a lot of BBF. You see a lot of excellent Bolivar coming out of the Partagas factory. [00:11:00] Actually, I find more consistently, the boxes I get of Bolivar stuff has more Partagas factory codes on it than some of the Partagas cigars.
Sure. You know, because there's a lot of provincials making that. So, uh, Bolivar is classified by Habanos SA. In their value category of portfolio brands, uh, certainly right under the six global brands, as we know.
**Bam Bam:** Does that value category actually exist any longer with the way pricing is now? No, but
**Gizmo:** it's not, it's not a real thing.
They don't know what that word means, I guess. Uh, obviously as well, Bolivar is very popular for regional editions and also receives occasional Uh, edition limitadas and they, uh, they say that the cigars are supposed to be full strength, uh, certainly compared to other new world cigars, not so much, but on the range of Cuban cigars, I think these reach medium full more often than not agreed.
And, uh, yeah. Talking. That's Bolivar. We were talking about price.
**Rooster:** Somebody asked what, how much they're going for. I did. Yep. Yep. [00:12:00] I just looked it up and one of the searches showed up at Bond Roberts. Oh boy. 2016 Box in July of this year. I mean, it didn't even meet
**Gizmo:** the reserve box of 25. The reserve was over 2000.
Oh wow. It's almost a hundred to stick bin . Yeah. I mean it didn't, that's
**Rooster:** outrageous. And there were 34 bids
**Gizmo:** on it. So that's
**Rooster:** outrageous.
**Gizmo:** That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. So Boulevard. Has a lot of Vitolas, certainly a lot of discontinued Vitolas, over 29 discontinued Vitolas. In their current production, like we said, Bellicoso Sphinos, which is a Campanas, a Pyramid.
It's a 5 1 2 inch cigar, 52 ring gauge. The Bolivar Cubos No. 2, which is a Petit Corona. 42 ring gauge by five and an eighth, the Corona's junior petite Corona. Another one, 42 by four and three eighths. But, uh, the actual petite Corona, the Bolivar petite Corona, which is [00:13:00] 42 by five and an eighth, the Royal Corona, as we mentioned, which is a Robusto 50 by four and seven eighths inches.
And then they have a standing La Casa Del Habano release called the Libertador, which is a double Robusto. Which is 54 ring gauge by six and a half inch. And the newest addition to the line, which we could talk about in a little bit, is the Bolivar New Gold Medal. So I have some info on that, uh, which we'll get to.
But I need to know, boys, what are you guys thinking about this cigar right now? Because I am completely blown away, even as I'm talking.
**Bam Bam:** It's outstanding. There's really no other words. It's
**Gizmo:** really, really good.
**Poobah:** It's very, like I said, it's, to me, it's so full flavored. The creaminess is fantastic. There's a complexity to it.
It's, it's giving you a lot of things to think about. I like, it's, it's really in the construction, my goodness.
**Bam Bam:** Not to go off topic, but the Bolivar Petit Corona. Yep. That is a cigar that I have had [00:14:00] for many years, and I've never had a problem with it. It is, for me, It's a delicious Cuban cigar. I
**Gizmo:** agree. I think it's one of the better, uh, Yeah, it's so good.
**Bam Bam:** It's very popular.
**Poobah:** It's very popular. It's very strong,
**Bam Bam:** actually. Yeah, the flavor's strong, but I think for me, the body's medium for me. I kind of chase that profile. I like that. It's really quite delicious.
**Poobah:** It's probably, in the catalog, it's probably the strongest nicotine wise in Leharo heavy Petit Coronas, maybe in the whole catalog.
Interesting.
**Gizmo:** I agree with
**Bam Bam:** that. Yeah. Quite good. Quite good.
**Gizmo:** So we mentioned that this is a Churchill, and we've talked about this before, how it's a sin, how Churchills have kind of disappeared out of the Habanos catalog. Um, I think, you know, as if you remember, we went through the Vitola by popularity, by percentage in the United States, and Churchill didn't even crack 1 percent of the demand as far as Vitola goes.
So it certainly explains why they've made the decisions they make. [00:15:00] But as of, you know, the discontinuing of this cigar in 2017, There are only three existing Cuban Churchills remaining, which is the H. Upminster Winston, of course, the Romeo and Julieta Churchill, which we can dismiss. Throw it out, throw in the
**Bam Bam:** fire.
It makes good kindling.
**Gizmo:** And finally, the Cohiba Esplendidos, which is a great cigar. Off the charts. Uh, the
**Rooster:** Ramon
**Gizmo:** Gigantes. That's a double Corona.
**Rooster:** It's a double Corona. What's the, uh, what's the size, what the size difference is and why is it called Gigantes? And so is this, and this is a Churchill and that's not
**Poobah:** because the ring gauge on this Churchill, I think is maybe a millimeter, I'm guessing, I'm guessing, I don't know the specs on it, but it feels like it's a millimeter maybe or so larger than like a Sir Winston.
**Gizmo:** I'm just guessing. This is exactly the same size as a Sir Winston. It is? Okay. I think this has a pseudo [00:16:00] box press because it's in the dress box that a Winston doesn't have. Uh, but this is a Hooli at the number two, just like that. And the, uh. And
**Poobah:** the ring gauge is, um, 47. It's 47. Okay. It's not like a 48.
**Gizmo:** What about the Ramon? The Ramon Gigantes is the same as a Particus Lusitania. I wonder why
**Rooster:** they call it the Gigantes as well.
**Poobah:** I don't know. Just because it's long,
**Rooster:** maybe. No, but this is called a Gigantis too, and
**Gizmo:** this is a Churchill. So the Lusitanias, the double Coronas are 49 by 7 and 5 eighths inches. And this is a 47.
This is 47. So it's not too much bigger, but it's bigger. Right. Yeah. So packaging wise. These cigars came again, they're discontinued in 2017, came in three different variations in their time. They were, yes, they were, they were released before 1960. Uh, initially they came out in a dress box of 25 cigars in aluminum tubes, which was discontinued in the late 1980s.
From the beginning, there was [00:17:00] a slide lid box of 50 cigars that was discontinued in 2010. Then the final seven years, it was only available in a dress box of 25. Uh, which then it was discontinued in 2017. So, these have been gone for six years now, and certainly with the trend of Churchill's not being in favor, like we mentioned, I don't see them coming back.
Can you
**Bam Bam:** imagine a 50
**Senator:** I mean, , that's gotta be the only Churchill that's in a 50 cab that came in a 50 cab.
**Gizmo:** What, what about the
**Rooster:** SLR? That's
a
**Gizmo:** double Corona. I think that's a double corona.
**Poobah:** You know, the, the tube, A tube with a, with the, with the Churchill I think is very cool. That's special. If you can find, that's how, that's how the Orange h Churchills used to come and those silver aluminum tubes.
Yep. Um, I like tubo. Yeah, they're
**Gizmo:** nice. Yeah, don't we
**Bam Bam:** all? Easy to carry around. And they're kept pristine. Protected.
**Poobah:** There's just something to them, I think, sometimes. Uh huh. Like an [00:18:00] Tubos. Oh, it's so cool. Are, are really nice. Um, sometimes I would spend a little extra money. You had to get a Tubo? On a cigar that I wanted that maybe wasn't available in a semi buoyant nature box or something, but it came in a Tubo.
Some of the part of this stuff and you just grab them in the tubos and you're like, okay, this is really good. Like some of the better, um, epi twos I've had were tubos. Yeah. Just happened to be tubos. Now I don't know why punch punch
**Gizmo:** tubos are great too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's something to it. I think the E2s, uh, as Puba mentioned in Tubes are excellent.
Um, you know, I actually, that's what I, I had. I don't, you know, I don't smoke a lot of those is kind of notorious for in this podcast, but, um, yeah, they are good and they are good in Tubos. I will give them that. So we'll talk about E2 in a second. Cause I actually have something I want to talk to you about there, but first let's start with a new release from Bolivar.
I mentioned the new gold medal, which is a really, really hyped [00:19:00] cigar. It's a return of the old. Bully gold medal, which was originally released in 2004 and comes. I'm sure you boys have seen them in with the gold foil on the cigar. Very, very popular and very, very expensive. Very, very expensive. And they were some of the most in demand discontinued cigars for quite some time.
They were originally You know, released in the 1930s and then they were discontinued in 1992 because they ran out of foil, of course, you know, Cuba being Cuba and then they were reintroduced in 2004 for a one off came out in 07 and they ran them for a few years and they were discontinued. And now they've released the Boley new gold medal, which is interesting because it's actually a different size cigar.
The original was a 42 ring gauge cigar. The new one is a 48. And what I love about it is they're coming out at an MSRP of a 10 count dress box for 300 bucks. So 30 bucks a cigar. Oh, sign me up. [00:20:00] Now on the secondary market, you're probably going to see them. You're probably going to see them for more than, you know, uh, you know, for more than 50 on the secondary market.
If you can find them at a legitimate retailer, uh, first hand, you could probably find them for three, four hundred bucks, which is cool for a box of ten. Six and a half inch by 48 ring gauge. Again, going back to Partagas, I think this is gonna be a very common theme tonight as Bolivar is a, you know, a little brother to Partagas and, and a lot of the stuff that, um, that we're gonna talk about tonight goes back to Partagas.
The Vitola is a new Vitola. The first time it's ever been used, again, 48 ring gauge by 6 1 2. It's called the Partagas 15. That's its factory name. Cool. The Partagas 15. Pretty cool. So that's coming out now. Um, and uh, I haven't had them. We were actually at the launch of it, Bam. That's right, back in November.
Yeah, we were there. No, it was at the Habanos Festival. Ah, right. Yes. Right, right, right. Um, I think it was. Or was it March? I don't remember what night it was. in March. Yeah, it was in March. Yeah. And um, They, they launched the Bowie, [00:21:00] uh, gold medal at, uh, the Leguito. Couldn't get our hands on it. Couldn't get it.
Couldn't get our hands on it. It was crazy. It was a kind of a messed up event, but it's nice to see 40, 48 ring gauge Vitolas, six and a half inch. That's kind of our size that we like. Um, that's a perfect new releases. Perfect cigar. I agree. This is a perfect cigar. It is. What do you think of Senator?
**Senator:** I think if this cigar stays like this, this is going to get an incredibly high score.
Oh yeah. I'm super, super pleased with this.
**Bam Bam:** Super bright white
**Gizmo:** ash.
**Rooster:** I'm getting more chocolate
**Bam Bam:** now. Yeah. I'm getting, for me it's a white chocolate. Not a, not a cocoa y. No, for
**Senator:** me it's milk chocolate.
**Rooster:** Yeah, not like, not like dark chocolate, not espresso. It's, it's, yeah,
**Gizmo:** like milk chocolate. I love the mustiness that I'm getting, the slight mustiness of the aged tobacco.
It's kind of, you know, rounding everything out. All the flavors that we're talking about is kind of put in this nice box with a little bow [00:22:00] of this aged tobacco, which, you know, there's nothing like aged Cuban tobacco, you know, you just, we just can't beat it. Yeah. It
**Poobah:** tastes very, which is an odd comment, maybe, maybe not, but it tastes very tobacco y.
Uh, if that makes sense, like it really tastes like aged Cuban, like aged Cuban tobacco and, and with, with a little bit of an extra, like Um, but like that oomph in the background is really just this long finish in this richness. I, I just get, it's, it's so complex. I'm not, yeah, I taste the cocoa that which is, that's present, but there's just a lot going on with the cigar and I think it's a, it's a real virtue.
Um, there's a lot happening here. It's, it's in, in, in between draws that just lingers and lingers and lingers in a, in a really nice way on the palate.
**Bam Bam:** You know, maybe it's my enthusiasm, but aren't you guys getting any dessert notes on this? [00:23:00] Because I'm getting a
**Gizmo:** lot. I'm just getting the chocolatey kind of...
**Bam Bam:** For me, it's some baking
**Senator:** spices coming through. No, I agree. Honestly, I would describe this cigar as like a dessert almost cigar. Thank
you
**Bam Bam:** very much. Yeah, I totally
**Senator:** agree. A lot of just like sweet notes and the creaminess and the cocoa and you mentioned like shortbread or cookies. I get shortbread. Yeah, it's very dessert like notes.
**Rooster:** There's one thing about... aged Cuban tobacco and Cuban tobacco in general, like you don't get a lot of spice, like you get in the New World stars, right? No, I mean, you get, you get, you get strength, you get flavor, but you don't
**Gizmo:** get spice. And I think the spice you get out of Cuban tobacco is more of the baking where the Nicaragua is like pepper.
Yeah, you know, pepper, so many pepper bombs. That we've had on this podcast, you know, the punch you in the face. And it's like, that's what makes Cuban tobacco. Great is the spice is a much more for, for my palate, a much more enjoyable spice. Right. If,
**Poobah:** but if you were to compare the flavor [00:24:00] profile of this, to say a Sir Winston, the Sir Winston just goes like that much more dialed up with the
**Gizmo:** dessert than this does.
And this
**Poobah:** is kind of, yeah. And this, this is kind of a. A great alternative to that, if you're looking for something that's a little bit dialed up with the earth, a little bit dialed up with the leather, a little bit dialed up with the cocoa, where with the Sir Winston's, I find to be a little bit more upman, like a little bit more dessert, like more dessert, like maybe than this is the dessert flavors are here and it's differentiated in that respect, in a good way.
Yeah, it is. In
**Gizmo:** a really good way. So Puba mentioned the E2, so going on another new Cuban cigar release from Habanos, the Partagas E2 Gran Reserva Cosecha has finally come out. It was [00:25:00] announced, I believe at the Habanos festival last year, maybe a year before. It's a 15 count box of cigars that have been aged since 2017, which is a year younger than the cigars we have in our hands.
And the 15 count box of Particus E2's 2017 Grand Reservoir Cosecha, 4, 575 MSRP. Holy moly. It's the most expensive Particus ever. Ever. So, you know, my question for you guys is, like, we're seeing now. Obviously, it's a Grand Reserve or Cosacha, right? But you're seeing Partagas is being priced at this, like, super, super premium like Cohiba is.
You know, and, and... I wouldn't go that far. I mean, 300 a cigar, you know, that's... That's for this one particular cigar.
But
**Senator:** my question is... Sorry, just, in fairness, their standard production stuff is way less than Cohiba's standard production
**Gizmo:** stuff. In general, yes, that's true. But what I'm wondering... Is are they testing the market by pricing [00:26:00] these comparatively to Cohiba?
I hope not. Well,
**Senator:** if they are, viva la revolution. We're going to war. I'm sorry. We're not letting them make Partagas price like Cohiba. Or we start stocking
**Gizmo:** up right now. Yeah. You know, and the question is too, aside from folks that, that buy cigars because of the high price tag and the luxury of it. Kind of flashing it like an expensive watch.
It's like, you know, how much higher can you go on a cigar? 300 for a five, six year age cigar. I mean, it's asinine. Yeah. It's crazy.
**Poobah:** I don't think some of these cigar prices are sustainable for two to too much longer. I think they have to, they're going to have to stabilize or go lower. Um, you have sustainable luxury goods that are just, that have also gone down like luxury watches since two years ago, a year and a half ago.
And these are consumable goods. They're [00:27:00] collectible. You know, it's not a, this, it's not a completely divergent market, you know? Yeah. But you're not
**Rooster:** talking about a regular production part of a C2. You're talking about a grand reserva. Made in very limited quantities. I assume, you
**Gizmo:** know, so I'm sure that there's only, uh, there's only 5, 000 boxes to your point.
That's all. That's a lot. That means there's 10, 000. I was going to say maybe like 500, 5, 000
**Rooster:** is a lot, but you know, if, if there is a buyer. Willing to pay 500 for that box, Habanos will
**Gizmo:** happily
**Bam Bam:** oblige. You know what, wait a year, you'll get them on sale.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, right. You think? So this is the third Reserva release from Partagas through the Reserva offering from Habanos.
They did a Partagas Series D number 4 Reserva. And they also did a Partagus Lusitania, Grand Reserva. That's special. So there are, there are several levels of the Reserva program, Reserva, Grand Reserva. Nice. Yeah.
**Poobah:** I mean, the counterpoint to it actually, what I just said is that like also the [00:28:00] data will tell you that luxury brands in general are, are still holding pretty strong from what I've read.
I mean, if you look at Chanel, if you look at. If you look at, uh, Hermes, if you look at some of these really high and luxury brands, so these, some of these high price tags, luxury watches, these high price tags on some of this stuff is, is actually like holding to some degree. Um, which is interesting. At least that's what I've read.
You know, there, there, there, there could, I think there's an argument to be made that there's a market for. Limited high end luxury items, and that includes cigars. That's still kind of holding strong despite inflation.
**Gizmo:** And I just hope, again, I just hope that this is not an indication that we're going to continue to see It's ridiculous price increases, you know, on cigars that we like to smoke every day.
What sucks is
**Rooster:** that you can't buy this cigar
**Gizmo:** anymore. Yeah. No, that's also a problem. That's what's bad. Yeah. This
**Senator:** should be [00:29:00] regular production.
**Gizmo:** I agree. It's a crime. I'm going to be very sad. There should be more. There should, you know, every, every market pretty much in, uh, Cuban tobacco history and Habano's history has had a Churchill.
Yes. Particus had a Churchill. Everything had a Churchill and they're all gone. It's crazy. You know, there, and it's just, it's a terrible. You know, to take that away from, from, you know, smokers who want that Churchill experience, especially since Winston Churchill is arguably the most famous cigar smoker of all time.
Yeah. I don't even know if that is arguable, but I mean, it's like that's, it's a, it's a real sin. It's like a lot of people don't have the time anymore. We do, we clearly do. Yeah. So
**Poobah:** speaking of, yeah, I think people don't have the time. We've talked about it before. These bigger ring gauges are popular. They just, you can't deny it.
The market's there and it's an addressable
**Gizmo:** market. [00:30:00] And in the United States, Toro is commanding 60 percent of the, of the sales. Right. But there are times that you do want a Churchill. Oh yeah. Of course. I mean, you're watching a
**Rooster:** football game that's three and a half hours long. You can easily smoke a Churchill.
Instead of smoking like four cigars in one sitting, you
**Gizmo:** could easily have a Churchill. To exactly
**Senator:** your point, when we were watching the Giants game this past weekend, I lit a, uh, Padron Diplomatico, which is a Churchill. And it was perfect. You know, you're watching a football game. Yeah. You have plenty of time.
Yeah. I, I've, it, this really, it's just, um, I don't know what it's going to take to kind of reverse the tide. I mean, you look at clearly these things are very fluid. I mean, the number of Lanceros that have popped up within just the past few years, there's clearly been this renewed interest in Lanceros in the new world space, right?
We've seen tons, tons of them come out. I just hope at some point there's like. A critical mass of people that somehow it's not like Habanos to say is very good about collecting feedback clearly. But if [00:31:00] there was some way, I just, even if one new Churchill comes out, that would be great. If this got brought back, just, I mean, I don't even know that I'm halfway through this yet.
I'd buy this in a heartbeat. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And I think for me, the way I think about a Churchill and look at a Churchill, certainly. The H up in Sir Winston or the Cohiba Esplendido price aside, okay, there are certainly premium, premium cigars with age and even fresh. But when I'm thinking about celebrating something or, you know, there's, it's your birthday or an anniversary or holiday.
Like those are the cigars that come to mind first for me is just. That elegant Churchill experience. It can't be beat. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know, that late hour, Churchill. Yeah. That is a celebratory cigar, regardless of the event, regardless of the time of year.
**Senator:** It's the single most beautiful cigar in the hand for me.
A hundred percent, a hundred percent. And I wish that I could say that about others, because as much as I like that cigar, there are times that. I don't necessarily want that flavor profile, but I want a cigar that looks just like [00:32:00] that. I imagine my sacked ring gauge, the beautiful construction. It just feels perfect.
I feel like the, the late hour, is it like a millimeter
**Gizmo:** smaller? I don't know. I do think it might be a different size. Yeah. I'm not sure I can look it up. That to
**Senator:** me is like perfect. I, I, it's flawless. The specs on that, you
**Poobah:** may be right because. That's what I was thinking when I was like, is this maybe a millimeter bigger than the Sir Winston?
But it's not like I'm smoking Sir Winston's even every day.
**Rooster:** You can actually tell what's
**Gizmo:** a millimeter. By the late hour you mean? This is wild.
**Poobah:** No, I was just kind of, I can't tell really, I was just
**Gizmo:** speculating. It's actually a millimeter bigger. than this cigar. The Davidoff late hour, the Winston Churchill.
Not surprised. It doesn't, but it doesn't feel that way. It's 48 ring gauge by seven. Wow. Doesn't feel that way at all. When I smoke
**Bam Bam:** that late hour, as Puba once said, I imagine myself in a blue pinstripe suit with my [00:33:00] tie. My legs are crossed and I got my shoes on and they're polished. I got that cigar going, baby.
**Gizmo:** Nice. Very sophisticated. Oh yeah. At the other lounge? Ha ha ha ha ha.
**Senator:** Yeah. It cuts out.
**Gizmo:** That's a shamanose. Ha ha ha ha ha. Bam's been committing espionage. That's a no. So boys, let's talk about another luxury product we have in the room tonight. Another luxury beverage on the pod. A perfect Pairing, I hope, it seems.
Bro, I'm ready for a refill. That Senator brought in tonight. Senator, what do we have here?
**Senator:** Uh, we have Corvasier XO. So,
**Gizmo:** the Corvasier VSOP that we did was stellar. I remember that night very clearly. Unbelievable. So, to have this XO in our hand tonight, this is very exciting. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I find this to be more sophisticated, and it's a bit more complex.
And not as overtly sweet if that was sweet at all, but this one is a bit [00:34:00] drier if that's, you know, if that's accurate, that's how I'm experiencing it. But on the nose, that strong vanilla off the charts and it brings out the dessert notes in this cigar for me.
**Senator:** So, I gotta say, Bam is spot on on the nose when he said vanilla.
Well,
**Gizmo:** he's got his shine shoes on. I do, in my
**Bam Bam:** mind.
**Senator:** The very first thing that they say is like, you get a bouquet of vanilla on the nose. That's exactly right. It's pretty accurate,
**Gizmo:** man. Yeah, this is excellent. And I think, you know, the, the, I feel like there's an oomph to the drink, right? It, it's a, it's a potent drink on the nose, in the mouth.
And I think the cigar that We're doing tonight. This Bolivar is the perfect Cuban cigar for for the drink. I think they're matching perfectly agreed
**Senator:** Yeah, I have to say I mean the funny thing so gizmo thankfully sent me some tasting notes on this cigar and I was debating between this and another cognac and the other cognac actually [00:35:00] skews very floral citrus And I didn't really see that as prominent notes in the cigar So thankfully we have the Corbusier because a lot of the dessert notes that you get in the Corbusier Match the dessert notes you get in the cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And I think we should tell the listeners the story. Oh yeah. Of how lizard ingenuity, lizard ingenuity came into play tonight trying to open this bottle. Cuba would be proud of us. It was right. It was a full on production. It took us about a half hour. Blood was
**Bam Bam:** boiling though. So
**Gizmo:** there was a sink involved, actually, Senator
**Senator:** Gizmo was standing in front of it with me next to him again
**Gizmo:** this time.
He wasn't furious with me, though. So
**Senator:** what happened to this bottle? We procured, um, one of the members at our lounge, uh, basically inherited a liquor collection when his father passed. So he was selling some of this stuff. Um, he's not a cognac drinker. And, uh, We saw an immediate lizard opportunity in that we love reviewing cognac on the pod, so we bought [00:36:00] a few bottles.
And, knowing that this is, he's had these spirits for many years, and, uh, a lot of bottles like this, they have a quark in them, so the odds that the quark was gonna be in good shape, uh, were very low. And so of course, as soon as I try to remove the cork completely breaks in half and then the half that I'm hoping to be able to usually if you just take a wine bottle opener and screw it into the cork that's still there, you're usually able to just pull it right out.
No problem. But this cork. So old, I mean, it just disintegrated right into the bottle itself. So, uh, I was a little frustrated because, you know, you have this expensive, nice spirit and you're just looking at these pieces of cork floating around in it, not what you
**Bam Bam:** want to see. Well, usually I can make him laugh, but I was cracking jokes the entire time.
Oh, he was pissed. Not a chuckle. It's very furious.
**Senator:** And so, uh, thankfully, uh, We were able to get some of the cork out, and then someone, who had the coffee filter [00:37:00] idea? Rooster. Rooster. So Rooster said, do we have a coffee filter? And thankfully in our lounge that has coffee, uh, coffee maker, espresso, everything you can need, there's some coffee filters.
So Giz and I were literally pouring the cognac through the coffee filter into glasses, which perfectly strained out every little. Piece of cork. And now we're able to enjoy this. It's a
**Gizmo:** good move. Yeah. Filtered. Cognac is tasting good. They were used filters. Are you guys getting any hints of, hints of espresso?
Little instant Folgers.
**Bam Bam:** Do we know how. Long, our buddy had this
**Senator:** bottle. We don't, but I would guess 10 years. Yeah, at least. Right. And the crazy thing is, I mean, this is an XO cognac, which is required that all the cognac that's blended in it is a minimum of 10 years. What they say is that for an XO, the average, that's just the minimum, very little of that's actually 10 years.
The average is typically 15 to [00:38:00] 20 years for most of what's in that bottle. So you take that. Add it has for the cork to be in that shape. It's at least 10 years. He's had that bottle. That means, I mean, minimum that spirit's been sitting around for, you know, 25, 30 years.
**Gizmo:** That's incredible.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, it's a special experience tonight, man.
You know, it's not often we get to smoke a cigar like this and have a drink like this in one sitting. Personally, for me, it forces me to really slow down my smoke. And capture the aroma of the smoke coming off of this cigar and the nose on the drink together. It's a wild experience. It's really something else.
And
**Senator:** one other thing as the cigar, obviously, there's a significant premium, especially given that it's not made anymore. The cognac, Courvoisier VSOP we rated was probably the most affordable VS, not probably, definitely the most affordable VSOP we've rated. It was like 45 a bottle. Yeah. Where you look at Hennessey, that's 65 [00:39:00] just for their standard VSOP.
Remy's like 55. This XO, most of them are priced like 200, 220. And I was mistaken, uh, this actually goes for 150.
**Gizmo:** No, you said
**Senator:** 250. I, I, I thought that's the other one I was debating us doing tonight. And so the price point's actually, I think, very fair for XO Cognac.
**Gizmo:** Very competitive. That's an incredible price.
I think that's, I would absolutely buy that at 1 50, 2 50. I was like, yeah, that's an expensive bottle. One 50 for a special bottle of cognac on your shelf at home. Slam dunk. Yeah. The color is so rich dark. It's, it's a very dark amber, and I'm sure it compliments
**Rooster:** the cigar perfectly. Oh, the cigar is, it's truly does.
It's so
**Bam Bam:** complex, right? I mean, it truly does compliment the
**Senator:** cigar in every way. Can I just, can I just say for a future episode, as I was just doing some more digging on exo cognacs. I came across Hein, who we love. Mm hmm. Hein rare. Has, like, [00:40:00] a special exo cognac that they call, like, the cigar something. And it's, like, literally designed around enjoying with a cigar.
And the reviews on it were incredible. So we have gotta find this and review it at some point.
**Gizmo:** The other, the only other cigar.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know what to say. That's a must.
**Gizmo:** The only, the only cigar specific, uh, spirit that we've done on the pod, uh, the podcast is the Dalmores, the cigar malt. Right.
**Senator:** And, and I thought that was going to be a gimmick when I saw that and bought it.
**Gizmo:** It was excellent. We loved it. Yeah. And the price on that, by the way, has gone through the roof. I don't know if you've seen it at liquor stores. It's, it's probably gone up about 30, 40%. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. These, these
**Bam Bam:** products require time. It's a long sit, get that aroma, really take your time with it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, we're very lucky tonight, boys. It's very good. So another programming note, another release note. I was very happy to see this and this actually, uh, kind of leads us into another question I have for you guys. [00:41:00] So remember we did the La Gloria Cubana Turquinos that we all love so very, very much. We rated it very highly and then we threw it out to the listeners.
It's available everywhere. Go get it now. We can't get it. And then of course we found out and the listeners found out as soon as I said that. That they were gone and nobody could get them. And it seemed like it was an initial run from the part of his factory in November 22. Well, fortunate enough, a couple of weeks ago, the Turquino's have returned.
So they are back in production. They're coming out at the beginning of the, you know, they're coming out with box dates from the first quarter of 2023. And what I find interesting about this is what that
**Senator:** as soon as we release this episode they're going to be gone again Well,
**Gizmo:** possibly I think they're gonna start popping up more because of the demand But what's interesting is that they've moved production of the cigars that have come out all of them have la corona box codes I'm really not part of this Really, which I find very interesting and I wonder if those cigars are going to be the same [00:42:00] Yeah, good question or better or worse You know, and of course I'm thinking about, uh, our friend at the La Corona factory who was running the La Corona factory is no longer there now he's overseas, uh, working in the cigar industry.
So I'm, you know, it's kind of a curious time, you know, a lot of change, a lot of change and brain drain is certainly very, very real. It's a real thing there, you know, and Alex, uh, our friend at, uh, at La Corona factory top roller there is also has left Cuba and he's onto better, bigger and better things. So.
It's, it's interesting to see even the folks that we've met in our short time, how many have already, you know, started to move out. You know,
**Rooster:** I wonder if he ends up as a cigar roller,
**Gizmo:** you know, rolling
**Rooster:** somewhere here. Yeah. I mean, there's so many factories in Miami.
**Gizmo:** His
**Bam Bam:** skill is unparalleled.
**Senator:** Yeah, we could use a lizard roller.
**Gizmo:** We could. Hey, now we're talking. I'm just saying. Lizard custom blend.
**Bam Bam:** Put them on payroll. [00:43:00]
**Gizmo:** Let's giddy up. So boys, we're about halfway through here on the Bolivar Corona Gigantes. What are you thinking? It is so good.
**Rooster:** It's so smooth. It's so
**Gizmo:** complex. It's delicious. It really is delicious. This is connoisseur corner heaven tonight for Rooster.
**Poobah:** It's really performing well too. Um, sometimes Bolivar aren't the most magnificently rolled. Cigars. You know, they're not, sometimes you see some seams or some veins and you see a little bit here, the construction's really great, which is, which is impressive.
**Senator:** I agree with that. I feel like dress box.
Boulevards are tough, typically are not the best constructed and don't really perform the best. The ash doesn't hold, like you just really got to tend to the cigar. And this is like. Perfectly constructed, which surprised me
**Gizmo:** flavor
**Poobah:** profiles, very premium performance out of it in [00:44:00] terms of combustion, pristine
**Gizmo:** flavors, and I'm honestly, I'm a little surprised that we're having that experience in that we can see the pseudo box press in that these were stuffed in.
You know, a dress box of 25 cigars, you know, which are commonly undersized, but
**Poobah:** that doesn't always like, like, if you look at like an up and on a hottest, that's stuffed in a dress box, that's kind of semi box press. They always perform stellar. I don't think that that necessarily. I think it comes down to the role or, you know, if it's over packed, you know, and it comes really down to the role, or I don't think it comes down, you know, always that's definitively that binary, like if it's in a dress box, you're going to get duds.
I mean, I've gone through dress boxes of the, you know, other cigars. And
**Gizmo:** they're, they're great. I'll throw it to Senator. What do you think of a BBF in a dress box versus a, they don't perform in a slide well, that's a different story. So
**Poobah:** there you go. Well, no, but that's a difference. That's a difference. Yes, that's a different thing.
[00:45:00] But the, the construction of a, of a, of a BBF is variable anyway, even in a. Even in a cabinet out of a
**Gizmo:** cabinet.
**Senator:** I don't agree with that at all. I'm sorry. I've
**Poobah:** had some duds. I've had some duds out of cabinets. I mean, I've had some, uh,
**Senator:** here and there. So when you say duds, I'll just
**Gizmo:** say this. That haven't
**Poobah:** performed as well.
I mean,
**Gizmo:** yeah, I
**Senator:** haven't. No, no, I, I, I have had BBFs that flavor wise. I was not happy with out of a sliding lid box. Most though I've loved, but I've truly never had like a plugged BBF or a really aggressively tight draw out of a sliding lid box. I've never experienced. Maybe when
**Poobah:** I say duds, I don't mean duds.
I mean like, like they've performed okay, but like not to the level of. Construction that this is, I mean, we're all having to be Boulevards. Sometimes they perform great. I've had great BVFs and I've had some that kind of don't perform that [00:46:00] great from a quality perspective. This is, I think a level up is what I'm trying to say.
This is stellar. I agree. That's you know, it's, you know, that's all
**Gizmo:** I mean, we're
**Senator:** split hairs. To your point, this is the best constructed boulevard
**Poobah:** I've ever had. Me too. You know, that's, I mean, that's what I'm trying to say. I, I, yeah, it's, it's a very, it's smoking in a very premium way where there's even out of a cabinet, there's been some boulevards, you know, you got to touch them up here and there, but the flavor and the whole presentation and the whole, Taste and everything.
You don't give a shit. No, you don't. It's, it, it's great. You're like, these are great. Um, like they're, they're not to me as consistent as maybe like a, a, a semi point nature box of D fours, which totally tend to come in a little bit more consistent in my view, than the bolivar in, in, in, in a cabinet. It's pretty fair.
**Gizmo:** You know what I mean? No,
**Senator:** I agree. Overall fair, that's, I mean, I, I truly think like, no, I, I, I don't think anyone would consider bolivar a brand that makes the most. [00:47:00] Beautiful looking cigars. I think like for them, it's kind of the opposite. It's, we don't really give a shit what they look like, but we know they're going to taste great.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of there.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Touch ups here or there. A little thing, who cares? Like, like no issue.
**Senator:** We're like, you want a beautiful Ashina cigar. That's going to hold that. You're going to just admire and stare at like not Bolivar, like Partagas, Upman, some of the other Cohiba. But this is doing that.
It is,
**Poobah:** but this is like, but this is where you're like looking at the burn line and you're like, and you're, and it's holding its ash and it's, they're really nice.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I
**Rooster:** mean, to me, a Bolivar is for someone who's looking for a Cuban market that delivers a
**Gizmo:** little bit more.
**Rooster:** You know, it's a little bit more, it's like a little bit more like a medium full or, you know, in flavor, in flavor was not as strength wise, but that's what
**Gizmo:** it, that's what it gives you.
Well, strength wise too.
**Senator:** Yeah. I mean, some of their stuff, like the petite Corona, that, that definitely has strength to it. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Like,
**Poobah:** I think this has more [00:48:00] nicotine slightly than the Sir Winston does
**Gizmo:** just a little bit, just
**Poobah:** a little bit, you know, like not overly, like it's not a bomb. But it's just definitely, it definitely packs a little bit,
**Senator:** it's
**Gizmo:** more substantial.
It's more substantial. Yeah. I really love the flavor after you push the draw to your mouth, just how it lingers in your mouth. Fantastic. It's
**Bam Bam:** the finish. It's
**Gizmo:** incredible.
**Poobah:** Yes. And through the nose, even at this point through the nose, it's great, but it almost gives you just a little bit of a tear. Not a lot, but just don't
**Gizmo:** cry for me.
Poober is delicate guys. Very delicate.
**Poobah:** Like your eyes just well up just a little bit, but not to the
**Gizmo:** point where it's I don't get that pal. Okay, guy.
**Bam Bam:** All right, guy. Hey, guess how many
**Gizmo:** I
**Bam Bam:** was waiting. How many boxes of these do you have at home? That's zero. Oh, yeah, right. [00:49:00] I
**Poobah:** don't think so. But you see, I just pushed it through my nose and nothing happened.
So I'm with you. See, you're, you're tougher than you think. Tougher than I think , you could totally retro. Do you
**Gizmo:** guys have a lot of BF or do you have a lot of Boulevard or, for some reason I haven't really sought them out and I have more Royal Corona than I do BBF. Yeah. Senator I know has a ton of BBF.
Yeah. You know, center's a ton of several boxes. Big BBF guy have two boxes
**Bam Bam:** of the bbbs, four boxes of the petite Coronas. Yep. And. Two and a half boxes of the Royal Coronas. Oh, wow. Yeah. Look at that. No, no, I love Bolivar. Rooster's
**Gizmo:** face.
**Poobah:** So we know what the accountability are. I
**Senator:** have nothing. Just the entire Bolivar catalog.
That's
**Bam Bam:** all on my inventory list that I sent a year ago. It's all there. Hasn't
**Senator:** changed.
**Rooster:** Hold on. Every time we bring up a cigar. And I'm like, that's not true. I got like half a box. GIZ
**Gizmo:** has got a box. Yeah, right. The [00:50:00] senator has like a box and propaganda.
**Rooster:** UBA has some and then BAM goes, well, I have four boxes of this cigar
That's not true. And I have three
**Gizmo:** of this i's not true, and I have four more of this other one. That's not
**Bam Bam:** true. Honestly, I do pursue bolivar. I'd love the, I love the Marco, so I have an idea.
**Gizmo:** I've never
**Poobah:** seen you. Can I just say I've never seen you smoke a bolivar petit Corona, ever. You're on
**Bam Bam:** crack. It's not true.
I've never
**Gizmo:** seen him smoke a boulevard.
**Rooster:** I've never
**Gizmo:** seen him smoke cigars. He's
**Bam Bam:** in the other lounge all the time. I'm just a collector. I don't
**Poobah:** see the boulevard. Good for you, man.
**Gizmo:** Happy for you. I
**Senator:** will. It's occasional, I feel like. I've seen it, but it's, it's very infrequent.
**Gizmo:** I feel like I need to take a Saturday morning and go over and do my own inventory of Bam's tower.
I'm going to update
**Bam Bam:** my inventory. I think,
**Gizmo:** I think I have a better idea, but Bam, when Bam is away, we dress as immigration officers and raid the bloody tower.
**Poobah:** We all put on windbreakers.
**Gizmo:** [00:51:00] ATF agents. Duct tape, ATF. Mrs. Bam, we're here to inspect the tower. Tower.
**Bam Bam:** She'd be like, everything's confiscated. Take a look.
Take whatever you want. Yes. All confiscated.
**Poobah:** His tower is filled with all Romeos.
**Bam Bam:** How dare you? How dare you homeboy?
**Poobah:** All shit on sale from cigar terminal.
**Gizmo:** So boys, I haven't, I haven't, I don't think I've ever pulled clips before for the podcast, but I did today and I didn't share this with you, but I heard something the other day that really reminded me of some of the difficult relationships that we have in our lives. And, uh, Not among us. Well, maybe you and the rest of us, we'll get to that in a minute, but that hurt, man, you set yourself up for that.
Are you guys familiar with the, [00:52:00] over the last few weeks, the Jada Pinkett Smith has written a book. And put a book out. Is it a tell all book? It's a tell all. It's all over TV. And her, all of her,
**Poobah:** I know nothing about this, so read me
**Gizmo:** in. All of her, okay, so, you know, so she's putting out a book, it's called Worthy.
And she's done every podcast, every television show. She's all over the place. Okay. And it's like, she's on the Shit on Will Smith tour. She announced that they've been split up.
**Senator:** Sorry, sorry. She's been
**Gizmo:** for years now. But she's really on it now. Like, really has doubled down. This poor guy, I feel so bad for him.
Is that why he smacked Chris Rock? She says, I think so. I'll give you an example Equipped from the book. She said that when he said he couldn't
**Senator:** smack his wife, so he smacked Chris Rock. I think that's
**Gizmo:** happened When he said, keep your wife's name out of my mouth, uh, of your mouth, she says in her book that.
She was surprised he used the word white. Oh,
**Senator:** boy. Because they've been separated for like the last six years.
**Bam Bam:** Like acquaintance. Yeah. It's more accurate.
**Gizmo:** So she's [00:53:00] on an anti Will Smith. Like every interview is about how terrible and wild their relationship is.
**Senator:** Let's be clear. Every interview is about him.
And she's profiting off of talking about him. Nothing she's saying is about her.
**Gizmo:** And it's such an abusive relationship in my view. They're both
**Poobah:** assholes,
**Gizmo:** I think. I feel
**Senator:** like Will Smith... When you hear this, one is far more of an asshole
**Gizmo:** than the other. So I feel like Will Smith is just in this, like, relationship with a crazy narcissist.
I mean, he even showed up the other day at one of her book tour events to support the book. And it's all about, oh, it's crazy. Anyway, so, Jada Pinkett Smith is, I pulled this clip for a very specific reason. Jada Pinkett Smith goes on this podcast called The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes. And this is one of the bigger podcasts, you know, out there.
Not Joe Rogan size, but it's, it's pretty big. I mean, he's doing bigger numbers than Cigar Podcast. Almost, almost Lamb's Lizard size. Almost. Right. So he gets, you know, he gets everybody. So. He asked some questions about the relationship and, [00:54:00] you know, how Will is dealing with all of the, the relationship struggles and everything else and how she's dealing with it.
So I pulled some clips and I edited down the ums and the time for, you know, our, you know, our effort here. But I want to play this for you. He's not a
**Senator:** quitter.
**Jada:** No matter how hard it gets, it's like iron sharpens iron. He's always willing to do the hard stuff.
**Senator:** Willing to suffer.
**Jada:** He's willing to suffer. Yeah.
Right? And now. In this new, this new passage of our relationship, he's learning how to suffer differently.
**Senator:** Interesting. How does that look? It's
**Jada:** like, you know about this. It's like when you're going into the internal world. Okay? There you go. That right there. That seems scary. Right. When you've kind of... Had all of this, we've learned how to [00:55:00] maneuver the, the, the, you know, physical world.
3D world. The 3D world, right? And those rules of the 3D world don't apply to the inner world. I doubt. Right? So now, it's like. Having to readjust this concrete mindset, right? And having to learn to trust a different instinct and sit in a different place. And it's been an absolute fascinating process. I hope one day, you know, he's still in it.
I hope one day
**Senator:** we can write a book together. That would be incredible. That would be
**Jada:** incredible. And just how we've been through so much. All the boyfriends. And all the gates of relating that we've been through. And there's been many, and many to come. [00:56:00] Many
**Bam Bam:** gates.
**Senator:** What a
**Gizmo:** psychopath. So this is fucking out of her mind.
So this for me, when I'm listening to this, this is as if Habano SSA has turned into a person and is talking to us, the lizards about all of these crazy price increases and how they've treated us and how they're crazier than that way. It's just an abusive relationship like I've never heard. And the laughter, I mean.
She sounds like a maniacal, devious, sociopath. Yes.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, not good. I don't ever remember hearing Will Smith speak this
**Senator:** way about his relationship. Correct. Right? So this is the thing that bothers me about this. He stays silent. I normally don't care about any of this stuff, but this has become so insanely public, you cannot possibly get away from it, it feels like.
And the thing that's just disgraceful about this, They have kids. Yeah. Not adult children, like kids [00:57:00] and, or maybe they're barely adults now. All right. Yeah. But they're still young careers. Right. Both. And the fact that I have never once seen a headline or anything about Will Smith talking about his wife or his relationship or infidelity or being separate, all the, all the private stuff he keeps private between them.
This woman, on the other hand, comes out. First, she was like dating some young,
**Gizmo:** one of her son's friends, her son's
**Senator:** friends, like a 20 year old and talking about it on her podcast while she's married, while she has kids and now comes out with this book talking about we've been separated for this many years, but we'll never get divorced.
We're always going to stay married, like why air every bit of your personal life with the world? And embarrass your family. Yeah. And upset your kids who apparently their kids have come out and said that they feel really bad for their dad. Of [00:58:00] course. Of course. At what she's saying. I have no respect for this person whatsoever.
**Bam Bam:** I'm guessing if Will Smith had his way, he'd have a wife that was faithful to him because that's what he wants. He wants to be in a relationship. It's the reason why he doesn't... Outwardly discuss these things because he's a private guy and he wants to keep his life private asshole I know he is she but the problem is that he's not he doesn't speak out about any of this.
She's a nutjob
**Poobah:** I think everybody everybody take it easy. She's a
**Gizmo:** nutjob. I think he's in a very abusive relationship. I agree. That's what I
**Bam Bam:** yeah
**Poobah:** He's the victim of this. I agree. He's he's fucking bent Mentally. Yeah, but so is she. But
**Senator:** why? You wouldn't be with a wife like this? Go beneath the surface and ask yourself, Why is he bent?
Damage like that. Think
**Gizmo:** about where he was at.
**Poobah:** He smacked Chris Rock across the face,
**Senator:** right? Yeah, why do you think any of this stuff happened? Well,
**Poobah:** I don't know why we're making excuses
**Senator:** for we're not making excuses We're not [00:59:00] justifying his actions. I'm guessing really this is all we are. We are trying to understand why a person Stays with a woman Who is clearly an awful person.
And that is typically someone who's in an abusive relationship that wants to do everything they can to try to make it work. And it's so beaten down. They can't see that they'd be far better off just moving on. And so I do feel a little bad for a person that can't see that and just move on with their life.
Like he should run as far away from this person as he can. I
**Gizmo:** agree with that as well. I think he is so wrapped up in her bullshit and her narcissism. And, and clearly, she's one of these people, I mean, this guy is one of the top box office people of the 90s, right? Very successful, has television, movies, brands, I mean, he's a musician.
He's done it all. I mean, he's, you know, really, really successful. I feel like she latched on this guy like a, like a leech. Yeah. And totally. Tore everything of who he was apart. He, look, he
**Bam Bam:** fell in love with her. You know, when you first meet [01:00:00] someone and you have a long relationship with them, you always go back to those early moments and how you fell in love with your wife.
And then he's probably going through a lot of that, man. And he hasn't left.
**Senator:** And honestly, like the Chris Rock thing. I'm not making excuses. There's no justification for what he did whatsoever. You'll never hear me say that it was acceptable what he did. It was categorically not. And he's paying the, has paid the price for that as he should and will continue to.
All I'm saying is what causes a seemingly rational human? Like this is not a guy like his sociopath wife who goes around saying crazy stuff all the time about his family or other people. Seemingly it's been a rational, normal person. And all of a sudden. a joke directed at his wife who she doesn't even expect him to call her his wife and he says my wife like snaps and you're sitting there like what the hell is this guy doing clearly there is some built up anger and pressure that's probably directed at his wife that he can't actually take out in a productive way that's right and [01:01:00] like an idiot took it out on the guy who has no responsibility whatsoever for the problems in his marriage so i'm just saying if you get beneath the surface i think this is a very damaged person That it doesn't justify at all what he did, but he's living with a monster.
**Gizmo:** Oh, a hundred percent.
**Poobah:** I agree with everything you said it clearly. She's a monster. She is and, and, and a lunatic. And he's had plenty of time to recognize that and, and just get a divorce, like a normal human being. Agree and move on.
**Gizmo:** I just, that's all I'm saying. I just can't believe know. These are the stories that are being told on massive podcasts on the Today Show.
Like, I mean, it's just. Crazy. And
**Senator:** now it's bubbled all the way up to the lounge Lizards. I mean .
**Gizmo:** Now it's on the Lounge Lizards podcast. And dude, it's big time now, , I'm sitting here listening to this going, this is how a Bonos essay treats us. And it's
**Poobah:** also like, it's also kind of like, who really cares about these two?
They're not that relevant. Movies aren't as relevant as they used to be.
**Gizmo:** Well, he
**Senator:** was [01:02:00] prior to that. I mean, he won an Oscar
**Gizmo:** before the slap for King Richard. Just a recent movie. He's still great. He's a good actor. He's still great. I don't think he's great. I think he just won an Oscar. Poor Will Smith needs a cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, he does. He does. He needs to come on this pod. I don't have any sympathy. Share his feelings.
**Poobah:** I don't have any. I'm sorry. I don't have any sympathy. Leave your wife. You got plenty of money. Just wrap it up, dude. Walk away. That's true. That's true. I'm going to dole out sympathy for this guy for just, like, you
**Gizmo:** know.
I just, it's just shocking to me. I don't really care about the dynamics of their relationship. I just think it's shocking to hear someone talk about that like that. She's a lunatic. On a podcast. I mean, she sounds like a... Like a satanic like robot the laughs and the whispers and it's just and the guy sitting there like uh huh.
Oh, yeah Yeah, that's brilliant. The 3d world
**Rooster:** Dimensions right now. I think Tupac is turning over
**Gizmo:** in his grave. Oh, yeah She dragged him through [01:03:00] it too. Oh boy. So boys, we're coming up on the last third. I'd say a little beyond halfway here Of the Bouldy Bar Corona Gigantes.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm smoking too quickly, but still. What do you
**Gizmo:** think? It's delicious. I think this is one of the best Cuban Churchills I've ever had.
Outrageous. It's outrageous. You know, I love the Sir Winston. I love aged Esplendidos. But this is just another extension for me of a great Cuban Churchill. And it's such a sin that we can't run out and all buy boxes of these over the next year, you know? Yeah. After,
**Poobah:** after a huge meal, this
**Gizmo:** would be great.
Oh yeah. So Bam, if you believe it, it's been a year since you and I went to the Amigos de Partigas continuing on with our Partigas theme tonight.
**Bam Bam:** That's true. That was our first venture into
**Gizmo:** the old world. That was it. And. It's actually just wrapped up. So we'll do a recap on it in the future, but, um, they just announced, or they, you know, [01:04:00] they, they announced the program for the Amigos de Partagas this year, which is the celebration of the friends and family of Partagas, the LCDH, which is really the heart and soul of Partagas in Cuba.
You know, when you go to this shop, uh, it's right in central, you know, old Havana there right near the Parque Central and the Florida where Ernest Hemingway always got his, uh, got his sugar free drinks. I would say that that gala dinner that night, the final night at the Tropicana. It was very nice. That was one of the best, that was such a memorable event.
Yeah. Going to that, uh, to that dinner celebrating Partagus. At
**Bam Bam:** our table, you had Juan Moya who. I he's a gem in my life. Yeah, he's the best. Hey man, you and Havana as I tried to as I tried to pull out a new world to smoke.
**Gizmo:** I'll never forget. Bam pulls out a Padron at the table at the Amigos de Partigas in front of a Cuban national Juan Moya who owns a very successful shop in the [01:05:00] Cayman Islands called Old Havana Cigars, but One more I was not having BAM lighting up not at all a padron at that table.
**Bam Bam:** He's not a sweet man He's a wonderful guy great human being
**Gizmo:** but the thing I wanted to say about it, you know And I know we talked about it BAM some of the hit or misses, you know hits and misses about the event last year It seems like this year to the you know The joy of a lot of the the people who've been going to this festival for quite some time It seems like the people at the part of your shop the people that we met in Havana You know, all the shop staff and Rene who runs that shop are now back in charge of this event.
You know what? And not the Cuban government, which is fantastic. They're
**Bam Bam:** incredibly hardworking. That staff is just off the charts. Rene and the rest of them, they're just amazing.
**Gizmo:** So hardworking. And Senator, I would love for you to recap. I know we told this story. You know, on, on the recap episodes, quite some 50 episodes ago now, if you believe it, uh, I would love for you to tell the [01:06:00] story of, of, of meeting Renee in the part of his shop when we sat down and, uh, and what happened for that was your first time.
This was special.
**Senator:** I mean, my goodness, obviously anybody who's listened to this pod knows party is my favorite Cuban brand. So just going in the shop was like an incredible experience. You walk in there, you see a lot, Gina rolling cigars right by the retail portion. And you go in the back in the lounge and it's a pretty small lounge.
I expected a much bigger setup, but, uh, we're sitting there was not crowded. There was one other guy there, uh, who we made great friends with. Um, what was his name again? Roberto. That's right. Roberto. Roberto Padregal.
**Gizmo:** That's right.
**Bam Bam:** Renaissance man, man. He
**Senator:** is, he is. And the funny thing is, we're all sitting here amongst ourselves and this guy Roberto, is sitting across from us and I just look over and the guy's lighting his cigar by bringing his cigar up to his wrist , and his watch is a lighter.
And I just immediately turn to the rest of the guys and I go. Lizard. Lizard. I mean, [01:07:00] I've never seen anything like that. Legato. Legato. I mean, unbelievable. So, instantly, we start talking to him. I can't get over the fact that he's got a watch with a lighter built into it. And, um, as we're having a great conversation with him, Rene, who runs a shop walks in, and, uh, He greets everybody, comes up to everyone, shakes their hand.
How are you? And, uh, he says, well, can I get, can I bring some rum? And he wants to share a drink with us. And so, uh, Ray goes and, uh, uh, Renee goes and gets a bottle of a Habana club. And, uh, you have to love, they, it's very traditional in Cuba. He, like, pours some of the rum out onto the floor for, like, the Partagas founder or whoever
**Gizmo:** he is.
Yeah, people who've gone before us.
**Senator:** Exactly. And, uh, he pours a nice, generous pour for everybody, and, uh, we had such a great conversation with him. And then the best part, where, like, I literally almost got emotional, he's telling us how he's always wanted there to be a guest book at the Partagas shop, and he said he finally bought a book.
And he wants us in that room to be the very first [01:08:00] to sign the Partagus, uh, the book at the Partagus guest shop. And so I couldn't believe like Roberto signs first. I was second, third, whatever the case may be. You were second. Second. I was right behind you. The first few pages are like Roberto and the lizards.
And I mean, I was just recounting in there how, Part of this has been at like every major moment of my life. It was my wedding cigar. When my son was born, I lit one up the next day. Like, um, it was so cool to be able to just document our appreciation for that brand right there. And, uh, you know, for us, it was such an honor.
Renee was like honored to have us actually sign it. It was just such an amazing experience. I'll never forget it.
**Gizmo:** That was a great day.
**Rooster:** And it's a, it's a must visit for any listener who. You know, if you make it to Cuba, you know, you must go to that, uh,
**Gizmo:** shop. If you're a lover
**Bam Bam:** of Cuban cigars, like Mr. said, it's a must.
**Gizmo:** And the staff there, like I said, they're the heart and soul of Parthagas. I can't believe how hard they work. Yeah. And that is that is the [01:09:00] only brand global brand port for any brand. That's the only brand that has a designated LCDH in Cuba. Or anywhere, really, a designated LCDH for that brand that is the only one in the world, the Particus LCDH.
Yep. And it's awesome. It's incredible. Yeah. It's amazing.
**Rooster:** And it's accessible, right? Anybody who can go to Cuba
**Gizmo:** can go there. You can walk right in. Walk right in. Yeah. And the staff is just so, like you said, so hospitable. They work so hard. And the reason why I bring this up, obviously, first off, it's just finishing, uh, finishing last week.
So we're, you know, we're recording this prior to that. So, you know, we're not going to have a recap yet. We'll get some, but if any listeners went to this year's, uh, Amigos de Partigas, we'd love to hear about it and hear about the changes because, uh, I'm happy to hear that the staff has been put back in charge as opposed to last year.
I think there were some. Cost cutting measures and whatnot. I think they were kind of pushed aside and yeah, you think The first night BAM and I were there. I think it was a 200 and 250 dollar ticket [01:10:00] and they were serving What was it spam with pineapple? Yeah I mean on toothpicks. It was really
**Bam Bam:** something and but the the ambiance in the environment
**Gizmo:** was actually very cool Yeah, and it's all up to the stuff, you know, it's all about the staff So, you know if if you're a listener out there and you went to that event last week, please Please let us know how it went and, uh, and what you thought of it.
**Rooster:** Do you know what they're coming out with or is that kind of
**Gizmo:** kept secret? I don't think they're going to announce anything new at that event. They'll wait till February at the Habanos Festival. Um, you know, always at the gala dinner, they give out some great cigars. So last year, I believe, Bam, we got a, uh, Siglo six from Cohiba.
Yep. We got a Parus D uh, E two or AAD four. Oh. There was actually a full line of cigar cigars. There was a full line of cigars at the gala dinner, which wasn't. Yeah, there was a lanzaro in there. Yeah, there was. And that was a Laina. Who's the house roller at Parus? LCDH.
**Bam Bam:** I still have all of those cigars. So do I.
Yeah,
**Senator:** there was the Laa.
**Gizmo:** Lanzaro, yeah. Yeah. So Laina rolls at the party, Gus, LCDH, and she rolls all [01:11:00] different kind of a toll. So yeah, I have
**Rooster:** some of those, if you guys want to try them. When I was there last time, like I got there, um, early, early. Yeah. Uh, Rene actually gave me some of them. And then I ended up buying like 10.
You're
**Bam Bam:** just, you're just telling us now I
**Gizmo:** have 15 boxes. Accountability,
**Bam Bam:** accountability, big time. This is a problem. Well,
**Senator:** do
**Rooster:** you notice how I ended that sentence by saying, I'm going to hand it to you guys. That's
**Gizmo:** not what you do. My
**Bam Bam:** tower is your tower.
It's full of cheap RYJs. According to Puva. Yeah. Help yourself. I know
**Rooster:** what's in
**Gizmo:** there. So it's speaking of custom rules, this is something that. I wasn't going to bring up on the podcast. I don't think any of us would have because of the nature of it. But I actually, we actually got quite a few listener emails about this.
So I'll set it up by saying, so one of the more popular custom role [01:12:00] sellers out there, uh, LCDH customs, Amazon of customs, a guy named Ramsey announced. That, uh, that he's going to be stopping selling, uh, his custom roles. I believe his connection in Cuba or whatever happened. It kind of fell apart. He didn't detail it.
It's unfortunate. Cause a lot of people liked his cigar fine, but, um, we got a lot of listener email about another guy and we'll say, uh, we'll use a pseudonym. We'll call him Mickey Mouse. Um, if you know where I'm going with this boy now, I know, and we had some listener emails saying. Hello, lizards. I'll read one from Lizard John, who, uh, who I've been
**Senator:** emailing.
I heard this guy loves to eat at McCormick and Schmicks.
**Bam Bam:** Sounds
**Gizmo:** great. So, uh, I got, I got a specific email I want to read to you guys. Hello, lizards. I occasionally purchase Cuban cigars, both brand name and quote unquote farm rolls from a guy running a popular Facebook group who recently posted that in his opinion, Cuban cigars will all but disappear [01:13:00] from the open market within the next 18 months due primarily, of course, to recent tropical storms and Cuban government policy and mismanagement.
I'm wondering what your opinion on this is, as well as thoughts on purchasing Cuban cigars now, i. e. should we suck it up and buy now at current prices, wait and hope the market corrects itself over time or edge closer into new world cigars and leave Cubans behind for only. Special occasions. Thanks for, thanks again for an amazing podcast.
Lizard
**Bam Bam:** John, that's a great email. Great email.
**Gizmo:** Great questions. So I do have the post here from Mickey mouse who wrote, uh, I'll paraphrase. So I'm not as specific. Uh, he said that he wanted to put a reminder on his page for nine to 12 months from now to prove that he's correct, that most of the Cuban cigar sales websites and people.
We'll see selling Cubans by the middle or end of 2024 and I might be one of them. So buy now before it's all gone. Yes. It's that bad. Not worth the cost. So [01:14:00] I'll tee that up to the group here. He must
**Bam Bam:** be, he's got a mortgage payment to make. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So, you know, this goes back to our, our common thread of, you know, you got to know who you're buying from.
And certainly I think the guys in this room, the lizards. Figured out very quickly what and who Mickey Mouse was here and, uh, what you were buying, what we were buying. And I'm curious what your thoughts are on the idea that Cuban cigars are going to disappear from the market and the sellers are going to be disappearing from the market due to Cuban government mismanagement and tropical storms.
There is no way. No. I mean, this guy is so
**Bam Bam:** full of shit. Yeah. I think it's bullshit. Yeah. It's absurd. And he's using scare tactics to sell his inventory. That's what it sounds like to Mickey mouse should be in jail. I agree. A hundred percent. I agree.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, he, you know, he preys on newbies. He preys on people who are trying to get into this, you know, who kind of lacked the experience in [01:15:00] education.
Um, on the market dynamics on what's real and what isn't. And that's reflected also in, you know, in the way, in the way this person sells the cigars. I mean, full boxes aren't really
**Gizmo:** sold. Yeah. There's no code. No, never, no pictures, never a full box.
**Poobah:** Uh, there there's, you know, things are. There's some fugazi aging process.
And
**Gizmo:** that was about to go there.
**Bam Bam:** Tupperware, mysterious aging
**Gizmo:** process, proprietary
**Poobah:** dumping cigars into Cedar line Tupperware, and then nothing's color matched. It's, you know, it's, it's kind of like it's amateur hour. It's, it's, it's, you know, you're talking about, um, pond scum. Um, honestly, and I mean, and that's how, that's how people in the know, uh, describe this person.
So I don't think that that's. [01:16:00] Being
**Gizmo:** hyperbolic, I think you're being kind.
**Senator:** I'll also note that Mickey Mouse, who pretends to be so transparent and honest and trustworthy, when it's been pointed out the inaccuracies of some of the stuff he said, he's been known to ban one of our own gizmo for trying to educate.
His, uh, blind sheep as to all the bullshit that he's out there. Yeah, I got
**Gizmo:** booted. Yeah, he lashed out at you. I lost Mickey Mouse Club membership and I lost global entry. Wow. In this journey. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, it's, it, what's unfortunate to me is that Like you said, it's, it's preying on newbies, you know, who are trying to get into the cigar game.
And this guy's running like this kind of Cuban cigar cult. And he does it in a way that's, that's terribly unfortunate for these folks. And, and like Puba was saying, this [01:17:00] proprietary aging thing, not color match, no box codes, you really don't know what you're buying. Selling custom roles that are supposedly this or that.
Um, you know, and it's just unfortunate to see people spending their money there. The only reason I bring it up again is because I had, I had several listeners email us about this saying, Hey, this guy's talking about this. Is this real? Like putting, setting off panic to the point that we're getting emails about it.
You know, of course I replied to all of them with much more detailed info than, than we're able to share here. About who this guy is and what he's doing. But, you know, it's just really unfortunate that, that our listeners have this kind of experience with us, which, you know, certainly we try to be as transparent and as possible and we have nothing to sell.
And then on the other side of it, they, they're talking to this guy. Anytime
**Poobah:** you, you have a seller, I would just advise the listener. If you're joining a Cuban cigar group on social media. If you have one seller who controls that group, that's a [01:18:00] mistake big time.
**Gizmo:** Um, that's a big red flag, red flag
**Poobah:** because there's no self regulation in groups where there are groups that are self regulated, where people are held, held, where people who are selling boxes from their collection, from their humidors or even flipping, which is fine.
Um, they're held accountable. They're held accountable to the authenticity of the cigars. They're generally sold by the box. If they're not sold by the box, they're sold in fivers or whatever. These are from established legitimate sellers who have a lot to lose. If they were to, you know, pass on something that wasn't what, what they're claiming it to be.
So anytime you have one person controlling the narrative in, in a social media group and is controlling that,
**Gizmo:** that's a problem. And the thing I'll say to the question is to Puba's point, to Puba's point. The thing I'll say to the listeners is if you have any sort of inkling that [01:19:00] what you're dealing with is not above board, shoot us an email, and we'll discuss it as a group, and we'll get back to you.
We're happy to help folks avoid shysters. Yeah, the
**Rooster:** only thing I wanted to say is I've met quite a few lizards who are Excited by the prospect of getting singles, uh, the issue with, you know, trying to get Cubans, and especially if somebody's not really tried them to try and get boxes. I think he did serve a market at a certain point in time.
I think what's somewhat unfair is the fact that now he's employing gorilla tactics for marketing to try and, you know, get through his purpose. I think, and they're two different things because, you know, uh, in a way, if there were a lot more people like him, which were easily accessible and, uh, you know, at least provide that opportunity for people to try different cigars and maybe, you know, a couple of cigars at a time, I think it'd be great.
So we need more. [01:20:00] Listeners who have access to Cubans, who do want to cater to the market, at least come out. I don't know, it's just a different perspective.
**Gizmo:** It is, and the thing I'll say too is on FOH, which is certainly, I think, one of the best retailers on the planet, Friends of El Habano, in their 24 24 offering, they not only offer boxes that so many of us have gotten, even in this room, but they also order, uh, offer half boxes and quarter boxes on most of the things that they put up.
Every day. So to get five or six cigars, that's incredible, by the way. Yeah. And that's a real thing. So, you know, you're getting it from Rob. I love who's operative thing,
**Senator:** right? Exactly. You're getting photos of these boxes, correct?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You get photos from, yeah,
**Senator:** of course. Exactly. And the problem is if you're buying from a seller who refuses to show you the box that the cigars actually came out of with codes and seals and things that you can attempt to verify.
I mean, it's bullshit. You shouldn't be buying from them. That's exactly right. When you have a seller who [01:21:00] tells you that they alone are the source of real Cuban cigars, this is what this guy actually tells people. He tells you that iHavanas and these other sites that we all know to be legitimate, that many people that even privately sell cigars have purchased cigars from.
And are reselling them. Sure. Tells you that every single site, every last one of them, they're all fake, and that only he has real Cuban cigars. That tells you everything you need to know. He's full of shit.
**Bam Bam:** It goes back to what Pupa said. When there's a single person controlling this entire process, it's a huge
**Gizmo:** red flag.
**Rooster:** So I want to go back to Pagoda's point, what he said, if there is a newbie who wants to try Cuban cigars, But he doesn't want to buy full boxes. And you do end up joining a cigar group on Facebook or whatever. There are
**Senator:** also sites even you can buy
**Gizmo:** small
**Rooster:** quantities. You can also put out an ISO in search of a sampler pack or tell them what you're looking for.
And you'll get it. A lot of the guys [01:22:00] will be happily, they will sell them to you or they'll send you pictures. And you could buy a fiver. You could buy a sampler of 10 cigars. You could tell them what you're looking for. You know, I listened to the cigar on the pod. I'm curious. I want to try it, but I don't want to commit to a full box.
Is there anybody willing to sell me a fiber? And they would be happy to. You see it all the
**Gizmo:** time.
**Bam Bam:** So early on when we didn't know anything about Cuban cigars, that guy did serve a purpose. Like Pagoda said, I'm going to piggyback a little bit on what you said, getting a single or a few of each Vitola and Marca.
It was interesting as an early Cuban cigar guy.
**Gizmo:** Here's what I'll say though, Bam. And all of us in this room, you know. I never bought into that horse shit. You may not have, but. But also at the time, there wasn't a significant price squeeze. That's true. And there also wasn't a significant decline in supply.
That's true. So what, what has happened here with this specific Mickey Mouse guy? Well, he's taking advantage of the environment. Instead of adapting to it, finding other [01:23:00] businesses to get into, other ways to make money, he's, he's wrapped his, his. squirrely hands around this, this cult he's created and is preying on these people with absolute horseshit.
And what
**Bam Bam:** we learned early on is, like Senator said, if you can't see the box, you don't get a boxcode and a date. And this mystical aging process that he has, we immediately, it did turn us off very early in our cigar smoking time. So we moved away very quickly. And that's the advice to give to any new cigar guy.
It's
**Poobah:** very, it's, it's, it's totally obvious when you get, when, when people in this group are buying some fivers and things like that, none of the cigars are color matched, right? I mean, to the point where like, okay, this is a, whatever, a 2014 up then or whatever, whatever it was, and there, and there were like four different colors.
It's not now. Oh, I take [01:24:00] all the cigars and they're all the same factory code and they're on, and I dump them into a Tupper door and, and, and, and I aged them that way. It's like, it's complete lunacy. I mean, just put them in boxes and store them and then sell. Out of there.
**Gizmo:** It's just, and by the way, the idea that you're the idea that he has presented that you're aging, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're more quickly aging Cuban cigars by putting them in an airtight container, which is a Tupperware is no air in and out.
You're aging them faster in a no. air exchange environment, oxygen.
**Bam Bam:** Look, oxygen oxidizes. You got to keep the oxygen. Here's the funky thing about one little detail. He scoffed at Padron's and scoffed at Davidoff's and then eventually ended up selling those very cigars. Yeah,
**Senator:** that was, I mean, that pissed me off beyond words.
This [01:25:00] guy posted something saying that like a Cuban cigar is like a Ferrari and a Padron is like a golf
**Gizmo:** cart. Golf cart. It's
**Senator:** exactly what he said. That is immediately disqualifying for any person who smokes cigars because there's not a single cigar smoker. Whether you love Padron or you've never had Padron or you dislike Padron, I've never heard anybody say they actively dislike Padron.
That would suggest Padron is not a highly respected brand. It's interesting. And produces quality cigars. Yeah. And then the irony that this clown, as all of a sudden the Cuban supply, Mickey Mouse, as the Cuban supply gets constricted and he's running out of inventory. And what's he selling? All of a sudden is selling Padrons left and right.
They're the greatest thing ever. The guy is a con artist. Yes. And Doffs. He was. And, and Doffs as well.
**Poobah:** Yeah. No, but he doesn't sell Doffs anymore because he, oh no, he, he, he, you know, he, his relationship with Doff as a,
**Gizmo:** as he had a
**Poobah:** relationship as an authorized dealer or something authorized dealer is not, is [01:26:00] not, you know, uh, intact.
anymore. It's like he bought them from
**Bam Bam:** backyard Davidoff
**Gizmo:** store. Okay. Okay. So here's, so let, you know, moving away from Mickey mouse, the thing that I do find interesting, and I do want to answer the listeners question about is seeing that, that, uh, this, this firm LCDH customs. Which is, you know, hit or miss on, on, on a reputation.
Fine. We're not commenting on that. Cause I, I don't think any of us have ever purchased from there, but you know, him stopping because as he says, unfortunately we've recently lost the connection, uh, that allowed us to provide you with exceptional cigars out of Cuba that you've come to enjoy. Now that is something that I find to be very serious in that, you know, I don't know if it's just getting more difficult to get product out of the country.
Given the situation with, you know, with Cuba and the government, is it something where you're having difficulty getting it into the United States, which we've certainly waxed on so many different podcasts about how difficult it is now to fly through Miami, Fort Lauderdale, the changes in airlines, [01:27:00] jet blue dropping, you can't fly anywhere except through Houston or Miami now to, to Havana.
So I do wonder seriously. If the access to unbanded Cuban cigars is going to start to dwindle simply because of the, the different pressure mechanisms that have been put on by various governments, you know, you
**Rooster:** know, what's funny though, is that Ramsey announcing that he's getting out of the business and.
Mickey Mouse doing it at the same time, is it possible he was buying
**Gizmo:** Ramsey customs and labeling? I think he saw Ramsey's email and then decided to prey on it like he does every time there's a hurricane. Every time there's a, you know, that makes more sense. That's what he did. That's exactly what he did.
That's exactly what he did. He saw the email. And, and just said, you know what? This is an opportunity for me to move some product. And, and like Bam said, make a mortgage payment. So, but some of his
**Rooster:** customs that he was selling, they were not Cubans. They're not actually Nicaraguans or Honduran, whatever else he was selling.[01:28:00]
**Gizmo:** Fine. Yeah. So
**Poobah:** there's nothing wrong with doing that. As long as you're transparent about it, go for it. I mean, This is all, this is a sham.
**Bam Bam:** One thing I want to get back to that, that one of the other questions that he had, does it make sense to, to go all in now and start buying, I would recommend buying the Standard production staple cigars that you can find, D4s, Ramona, Lone Especially Select.
Get those, they're expensive, but who knows if the prices are ever going to come down. But if you want them, get them. I'm buying when I have a need, or my inventory is low on a particular cigar, I'm getting it. Yeah, I'm gonna buy it
**Gizmo:** and I think the thing that's really important to note is that aside from maybe and this is what I emailed lizard John about, you know, when we were going back and forth, I said to him, I said, aside from a potential correction with maybe Trinidad, which we've waxed on that.
It's way overpriced. You're gonna stay away from that. But, [01:29:00] but aside from that, I don't see Cuban cigar price is going down now, and I think that everybody in this room would agree, you know, maybe as supply, you know, corrects itself. Maybe there'll be some deals. Maybe there'll be some more sales. I don't think the prices are going back down as certainly to where they were when we were when we were, you know, buying heavy, you know, it's a shame COVID pre COVID like I don't think that's going to happen.
It's a shame.
**Poobah:** It's a luxury good and I think it's tracking along with other luxury goods. Um, for now,
**Rooster:** I mean, just today I have had a special on upman 46.
**Gizmo:** Guess what? The price is a Magnum 46. Yeah. The Mac 46. I'm going to say 515 little, little more.
**Rooster:** It was 575. Okay. Which is not so crazy. It's not so out of line.
Not too long ago. That box
**Gizmo:** was probably around seven. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's come down to 575, which is not, I mean, now we were buying that box at [01:30:00] 2020 for 275.
**Bam Bam:** We were, but we're not going to ever
**Gizmo:** see that again. We're never going to see that again. So to answer the listener's question to BAM's point, if you have the liquid available to make those purchases, I don't think it's ever going to be a bad time now versus later to purchase the cigars you want.
I think prices are
**Bam Bam:** going down. Especially in the 500 to 600 range for a box of 25. Right. Get it.
**Rooster:** Just get it now. Most of the staples, if you can get them around the 20 range. I think currently that's a fair price for
**Gizmo:** a Cuban cigar. It could be a D4,
**Rooster:** a MAC 46,
**Gizmo:** QD 50, box of QD 50,
**Rooster:** 10 count, it's about 205, 210.
The QD
**Gizmo:** 54s
**Bam Bam:** are like in the mid fives now, from what I've seen. That's
**Gizmo:** a great cigar
**Rooster:** to have. And Habano's is coming out with a lot of smaller packaging, a lot of 10 count boxes, which I think... To the point where somebody wants a smaller, a lot of, doesn't wanna commit to a box of 25. Yeah. Go for [01:31:00] a 10
**Bam Bam:** count dude.
A 10 count of D four. There's no more prettier thing than that. I love
**Gizmo:** that little box. I do too. Yeah, I agree. Listeners go for it. Yeah.
**Rooster:** More and more. I mean, they're coming out with 10 count boxes. Yeah. Which is,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Which is more accessible. The thing I think we all agree on is prices are not gonna go down in any real meaningful way.
So if you need cigars and you have the the liquid to purchase them. And you find a price that you think is reasonable and a good source and a good source. That's really important. And also listen, email us, email us, and we'll tell you, you know, this is a great deal or not. So be it. Um, we're happy to help, but you know, don't wait to buy, buy,
**Poobah:** buy, buy a five, buy a five pack of tubos.
Yeah. You know.
**Rooster:** Or email. Bam. He'll send you a sampler.
**Senator:** only if you're in high school.
**Bam Bam:** That's right. . Hey, lizard. Hollis is doing very well, .
**Rooster:** The idea is that you should buy things you like at any given point in time. [01:32:00] Yeah. If the prices go down, you buy more. Exactly. And you cost average it out
**Poobah:** every, what everyone's doing across the, the, the, the groups that we belong to.
People are smoking, um, more new worlds and a little bit less Cuban, um, and slotting in some different new world cigars just based on the prices and the accessibility. And that's, I think that's
**Gizmo:** good probably. And listen, look at us, look at us, look at how many new, more new worlds we're smoking today than we were smoking two and a half years ago.
That's exactly right. Like Senator sent a picture the other day, smoking an Oliva V Lancero, which we. Rated so highly on the pod. We're all smoking that thing. Tremendous. It's a 5. 50
**Senator:** cigar. I cannot believe it's literally cracked my daily rotation. Yeah. Yeah. That's how good that Lancer is.
**Poobah:** Yeah. So you know, you slot that in with, you get some value, you know, that's playing it smart.
And, and, [01:33:00] and, and I think that. A lot of cigar smokers, Cuban cigar smokers are saying, um, a lot of people and leaders in our group and things like that are just saying, I'm just, I'm smoking less Cubans. I'm mixing in some different things. And that's, you know what? It's probably a good thing. I mean, back when the prices were lower, it was almost like you were getting away with murder.
We
**Bam Bam:** were. Well, it feels like that now.
**Gizmo:** We were. Well, no, but you felt like
**Senator:** that then. At the time. Yes. Because people would always, for, for those of us who were smoking Cubans before some others, When folks would ask like, Oh, you know, how much are you paying for these Cuban cigars? Like, aren't they expensive, hard to get?
And I'm like, no, they're cheaper than every new world cigar that we sell. I mean,
**Gizmo:** it's unbelievable. 10 bucks for a D4. Yeah, that's
**Senator:** what it was. It felt like we're at the time of a drone. We're spending 15, a Davao for spending 20 plus. It was cheaper than anything we were smoking in the world. Right,
**Poobah:** so, so, you know, it was easy to, like, build a collection, and it was [01:34:00] easy to just scoop up stuff.
Looking back. Um, looking back on it, you know, you were kind of getting away with something. It's like a covert operation. No, forget it.
**Gizmo:** It's the new world. It was. It was. We were loading up. For
**Senator:** BAM, it still is a covert operation.
**Bam Bam:** Well, I'm not getting those deals anymore.
**Gizmo:** Clearly. Clearly. Alright, boys, so before we rate these, uh, our pairing tonight...
The Kavasi XO and the, uh, Bolivar Corona Gigantes. I want to do two quick housekeeping things. I want to let the listeners know. Number one, that the podcast is now on Pandora, which, uh, which is fantastic. It's awesome. I don't know if you guys are Pandora guys, but I love to put a Pandora on and not make a selection of what I'm listening to and it just plays.
Yeah. That
**Bam Bam:** logo is cool too. I like the logo.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So we're now on Pandora. And the other thing I wanted to listeners too is that, uh, I updated the factory code document. That's true. The factory code. PDF. Yeah. So that is out
**Bam Bam:** now. So by the way, version [01:35:00] 1.3, that has been a very handy tool. It is. Yeah. So when I'm with guys that aren't Cuban aficionados and they bring out a box, Hey, bam, does this, is this a legitimate box?
I call, I texted you one la one late evening. What do you think of this? Send me that chart. I looked it up and I found it. Boom. It's a legitimate box.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, you're good to go. It's on our website. It is. Well, you know, well, it's easier to text me. I
**Bam Bam:** got kids on speed dial. I just press a button.
**Senator:** Siri presses
**Poobah:** the button for the listener.
Referring to the sheet is a smart thing to do because if, because if you've got a factory code that doesn't align to the date, that's an obvious tell if everything else looks like it's often the serial number. And the, the, the transit seal and everything else could all be right. And he could check out, but if on the bottom and oftentimes in the bottom of that box, You could, if that date doesn't align with the factory code, you're
**Gizmo:** out.
It's [01:36:00] fake. It's it's fake. Yeah. I mean, for me, the, the way that, that I've looked at it with some of the folks that I kind of referenced and, and talked to before we put that code list out, you know, it's a starting point. It's, it's understanding trends. It's understanding runs, you know, if you, if you, especially for the provincial factories, knowing that you like a certain factory code and then tracking that into the future or into the past.
You know, that, that's a valuable tool, you know, to be able to track with that. So for me, it's not a reference for counterfeiting. It's a reference for tracking forward and backward on, on what you like and don't like. Um, and I think that is the feedback I've gotten most from the community is. You know, it is, is people being able to track the provincial factories like that run of
**Bam Bam:** money twos that we love.
Absolutely. Right.
**Senator:** And guess what's not on there. Disney world is not a factory or a factory code.
**Gizmo:** Period. What? But yeah, box codes are just, you know, that's just one of the 10 different things you can use to tell, but you know, use it to track [01:37:00] stuff you like and don't like. If you see a box of Bahicas with a lot of Corona
**Rooster:** factory
**Gizmo:** code.
You got a problem. Don't buy. I'll tell you the people who are doing very good beheke counterfeits. They've got all the box codes. Yeah. You know, they're not using my sheet. They've
**Poobah:** got them all. You mean like, you mean like the box behekes that, uh, CA put up on their website? That
**Gizmo:** was, no, it wasn't beheke.
**Poobah:** That was 55. Or those were 50,
**Gizmo:** whatever they were. Which ended up being legitimate, but that's a whole different story. Did they?
**Poobah:** I didn't get the follow up memo.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, you ready to do the ratings tonight? We'll start with the Cavasier XO Cognac. Cognac. Cognac. Excellent. Delicious. Excellent Cognac.
Delicious. Alright Bam, you're up.
**Bam Bam:** That's, how much is that bottle? 150. I'm, I'm gonna give it a 10. You know, for me it's, it didn't start off incredible, it was delicious. On the first sip, for me, it just got better and better, like a lot of spirits that we've had, as you go into the [01:38:00] evening, for me, it just got, it just, the flavor, I, I discovered more notes in it, and it paired with the cigar so well, from my experience, tonight, it's a 10.
**Gizmo:** Alright, Pagoda,
**Rooster:** I'll go with a 9. I, I think, uh, I really enjoyed, uh, I think the one we had, the VSOP, and I think the value provided by VSOP really was incredible. Um, I didn't feel that this gave me that much of an oomph over so many different cognacs we have, and hence the 9 year.
**Gizmo:** Senator. Yeah, I'm,
**Senator:** I'm actually in a very similar place as Pagoda.
Um, I, I was debating a nine and a ten just because the price point is really spectacular for an exo cognac, so you definitely deserve some credit for that. But, um, the thing that's bumped it down to a nine for me, I've enjoyed this. I would definitely drink it again. I'm just a little [01:39:00] surprised the flavor is not As complex as I would have expected for an XO.
It's very kind of monotone one or two notes for me. I like those notes. They're good, but I was expecting a little bit more. So solid nine, like I said, I would drink it again, but it precludes it from getting a 10 for me. I
**Bam Bam:** like the bit of dryness that I got on the finish that I didn't get any other cognac.
That's a little different.
**Gizmo:** Puba.
**Poobah:** Yeah. In total agreement with that commentary. Um, really good. Um, yeah, a little bit monotone. So your rating?
**Bam Bam:** Oh, sorry. Yeah, we
**Poobah:** need that. Oh, it's a nine. It's a nine for me. It was really good. Sorry. My
**Gizmo:** apologies. So I'm also at a nine. I, I don't think it cracked a ten for me. Um, I think it was a low nine.
You know, I'm, I, I thought it was a very good spirit. I actually thought it paired perfectly with the cigar tonight. Um, I, you know, at, at a [01:40:00] $250 bottle, which I came in thinking it was Mm-Hmm. , I don't know if it would've been a nine at 150, I think it's a nine. Um, but I, I'm very comfortable with that score.
It doesn't crack a 10 for me. Okay. It's a nine for sure. So the formal Liquoring boys is a 9.2. Okay. The sier very fair. Pretty score. So I think that's a great score for
**Bam Bam:** this. Oh yeah. Absolutely. The vanilla on the nose did it for me. Well, yeah, I really
**Rooster:** liked that in the beginning. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right. So you guys ready to do the formal lizard rating on the Bolivar Corona Gigantes tonight?
Rooster, you're up.
**Rooster:** Um, so this is the best Churchill, Cuban Churchill that I've had. Wow.
**Gizmo:** I mean, this Churchill is excellent. That's a statement.
**Rooster:** I mean, as a Churchill, there's some double Coronas maybe out there that are, you know, maybe edge this one out, but the flavor side of this, You know, the leather, the cocoa, all of that, like makes you want to, makes you kind of want Habanos to, you know, [01:41:00] reintroduce this, uh, Churchill.
I mean, it's a fantastic smoke. I'm
**Gizmo:** going to give it a 10, 10. Nice Puba.
**Poobah:** Um, I really enjoyed the cigar. It was rich. Um, it was. I thought very full flavored. Um, maybe not quite as versatile, uh, as a Sir Winston would be for me. Um, if we're talking about Churchill's, I don't think it edges out the Sir Winston, um, uh, you know, for me, uh, so I'm giving it a solid nine.
I thought it was the construction was flawless. Everything, the combustion was great. The build was great. Um, a really wonderful cigar. So I would buy these if they were available to buy. And [01:42:00] have them and smoke, smoke them on special, special occasions. So it's a nine for me.
**Senator:** Senator. This is surprisingly tough for me in that I never imagined that I would be having to debate between a nine or a 10 on this cigar because a 10 I give out very sparingly.
And I'm a little bit frustrated because I had pretty much convinced myself that I was shockingly going to give this a 10. The only thing I'm having a hard time with. So the entire way I've been sitting here saying to myself, I can't find Anything wrong with this cigar? Like, I cannot give it anything other than a 10 because there's not one thing wrong.
The only thing I'm frustrated about, and I'm just curious if others have had this, I, I can't nub this cigar. When I got down to, like, just the very end, it started to get a little bit harsh and, and just not enjoyable. I mean, you're all the way down. Are you getting the same delicious
**Gizmo:** flavor all the way to the half an inch?
It was very good for me.
**Poobah:** I'm with you on that. [01:43:00] Like just the end, it didn't go all the way for me. We're with the Sir Winston. It goes all the way and yes, I'm with you there. And
**Senator:** you've seen me on some of the recent episodes we've done. I mean, like shockingly affordable cigars and I've, I've taken it down.
I really have. And I just really, and I, I'm frustrated because I was fully, I had told myself, it's okay to give this cigar a 10, it's earned it. But the end that, it just doesn't leave me with that same experience. Hold on, hold on. How
**Bam Bam:** far, how far did you get down? I'll show
**Gizmo:** you. So you got about an inch.
**Bam Bam:** Uh, that's pretty good for Senator.
Yeah, it's about an inch.
**Gizmo:** We
**Rooster:** have talked about this in the past. Sometimes when you get towards the end or about even the halfway point or a couple of times, purge. Purge the cigar. That gets rid of a lot of the nicotine. That gets built up and especially when it's a Churchill. You're smoking it all the way down and it's, you're going to have
**Gizmo:** to have a little bit of that.
So purging
**Rooster:** does help a little bit and I, yeah, I'm smoking it pretty much way down. [01:44:00]
**Gizmo:** No, it's
**Senator:** fair. So, I can't ignore it. So, I, I, this pains me. I really, I wanted to give this a ten. No, I know, but the whole way through I've been
**Bam Bam:** doing this.
**Senator:** No,
**Gizmo:** let's, let's come back to him.
**Senator:** No, I, I, I know exactly where I stand.
I'm just, I'm bummed out because I really, really wanted to give this a 10. I was fully prepared to do it, but I can't ignore down the stretch that experience I had. So I have to give it a nine, but this was, I think like Rooster said, this is easily one of the best Churchill's. Yeah. I have ever had.
Absolutely.
**Bam Bam:** It's an elite score.
**Senator:** And, and like the cognac that I would agree with Gizmo, that was a low nine for me. This is like a high nine in the sense that the complexity of flavor all the way through was so enjoyable. And there are notes that I love. And I think most, if not all of us in this room really pursuing a cigar.
So, um, I'm really sad that they don't make this again anymore, because I would [01:45:00] definitely. I'd buy a box after having this. I wish they
**Rooster:** made this in a double Churchill.
**Gizmo:** It'd take
**Senator:** Rooster four days to smoke that.
**Bam Bam:** A double Toro would be nice.
**Gizmo:** So I'm at a nine. Okay. You're at a nine. So I'm absolutely at a 10 on this cigar.
I took it down to one half an inch. I actually found that the last third, even as I was getting closer to. Kind of burning my fingers. Me too. It was getting better. Me too. And better and better. There wasn't a moment for me of harshness, nicotine, weirdness, any rough edges. It was so smooth. And the way it built the whole way through, it really, I felt, took us on a journey tonight.
Yeah. And, you know, like I said, I wish I should, I should have nubbed it actually. And really took it down to about a quarter of an inch, but it was, this was absolutely a perfect, go ahead.
**Senator:** I was going to say, it's good you didn't, you might have given it a nine.
**Gizmo:** This was a perfect Cuban [01:46:00] Churchill for me tonight.
And the fact that it's only seven years aged, which I think I'm going to also add on to. But no, but I'm saying if you, you smoke a Cohiba Esplendido. Or you smoke a, a Sir Winston from H Shutman. Yeah. You know, uh, for me, getting into the tens on those, you, you're really looking at eight to 10 years of age.
Yeah. Those are incredibly elite cigars. Very rare. The fact that these have seven years of age and I'm feeling as strong as I do. Mm-Hmm. , I, I, it's a, it's a 10 for me all day. Yeah, absolutely. Pagoda.
**Rooster:** Yeah, this is a tough one for me as well. Between a nine and a ten, um, I'll give it a nine. And the reason is probably my palate, I think in the beginning, I just could not really get the flavors, um, that I was seeking.
I did get a bit of, you know, a little bit of the cocoa, a little bit of the creaminess, but for some reason I got a little bit of, and I didn't want to mention it, but a little bit of saltiness. Which I kind of like the Cuban [01:47:00] esque But I I really began to enjoy the cigar after like an inch and a half like maybe two Two inches like three quarters of the cigar and and look at me.
I'm now close to the nub I considering that considering the price point but having said that great burn Um, great combustion, something I really, really enjoyed. And, you know, it did take us through the journey. I also think that when I was having the cognac, um, it felt it enhanced the cigar. You know, sometimes I prefer a cigar like, there's certain cigars you don't need that enhancement.
I felt that the cognac was really helping the cigar every time I had a sip of cognac and did that. So I think it's a nine for me. But very, very elite score. And, uh, Yeah, that's where I'm at. All right,
**Bam Bam:** Bam. Yeah, I think the whole experience tonight was just luxurious and delicious. That, like you said earlier, I mentioned this way early in the recording, that, that, that, this, this cognac really complemented the cigar [01:48:00] beautifully.
And the vanilla and the dessert notes in this cigar. The problem with the cigar, it's what, 40, 50, 60, 70 a stick, and you can't get them, so they're just unavailable. For what the cigar is, it's a 10. For its lack of availability, we'll never ever see it again, it's a 9.
What are we doing?
**Poobah:** Bam
**Gizmo:** a matics. Bam a matics.
**Rooster:** No, it's Bam a lytics.
**Bam Bam:** Sorry. That's only for football. All right. Uh, I will, that means what I'll go with a 9. 5. All right. It's a 10.
**Senator:** How much cognac have you had? I
**Gizmo:** want more.
**Bam Bam:** Actually, you know what? I'll give it a 9. 5. I'm eyeing your drink. There's a lot in there.
I
**Gizmo:** gotta give you some credit because you were just getting some shit about Bamalytic. Bam math. Yeah. The formal lizard rating. 9. 5 is [01:49:00] a
**Bam Bam:** 9. 5. It's perfect.
**Senator:** It's perfect. Our man Bam. He knows he should drink cognac during the
**Bam Bam:** work. I'm about, I'm about to drop the mic. All right.
**Gizmo:** I
**Poobah:** actually think nine, I actually think 9.
5 is like kind of a perfect
**Gizmo:** 95. It's a 95. You're welcome by the
**Bam Bam:** way.
**Gizmo:** All right. So briefly let's just look at, uh, so the, the Carvasier XO. Cognac tonight, uh, got a 9. 2. It's our third XO we've done on the pod. The Hennessy XO got a, a flat 9. And the Remy Martin XO, if you remember, was... 9. 8? Unbelievable. Yeah.
Flat 10. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was incredible. It was outstanding. Yeah, it was outstanding. Yeah, yeah. So this is just above the, uh, the Hennessy, and certainly well below... Uh, the Remy at a, at a flat
**Senator:** 10, which is where it should be, which I think actually sums up how we feel about the big cognac brands. I think Remy has scored the best.
We love the 1738. Clearly,
**Gizmo:** we love [01:50:00] the 1738 9. 3 XO 10 VSOP 8.
**Bam Bam:** 4, you know, because of. I'm sorry, because of how often we drink the 1738, that score's low in hindsight, looking back, because I can drink that every single
**Senator:** day. Oh, I agree. I I actually do the versatility A 10
**Bam Bam:** right now. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. , that's a
**Gizmo:** 10.
It is. Hey, we don't correct
**Senator:** scores, but no, we don't. No, and it all tracks though because the XO is what is deserving of the 10. That's like a perfect, perfect spirit. And then you factor in, I think like cor basier clearly. Now we enjoy second most to that. I know. Several guys here have bottles of the Corvacea, uh, B.
S. O. P. in their locker. That's a staple. It's a staple. Um, and then I think third would be Hennessy. Also good, but rounds out the
**Bam Bam:** top three. Yes,
**Rooster:** sir. For 45 bucks, you
**Gizmo:** can't complain. Dude, it's incredible. This was our first Cuban Churchill on the podcast tonight. So we, we do have to do the Sir Winston. We have to do the Cohiba Esplendido.
We're probably not going to do the Romeo Churchill. Um, please no. [01:51:00]
**Bam Bam:** That's a very, very popular cigar. Just saying, although we
**Rooster:** did do the white Churchill and we did the white Churchill. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Right.
**Rooster:** Didn't you see a photograph recently with a Schwarzenegger among the
**Gizmo:** white church? Yeah, he was, he did a podcast recently with Rob Lowe and they were smoking wide Churchill's on the pod.
**Senator:** He was giving him a lot of shit. Yeah. I'm sorry. If you watch him smoke a cigar and that he clearly does not, he's not a wizard. Yeah. He looks too effeminate. It looks like he doesn't even know how to hold a thing. And then Schwarzenegger starts ripping him because he said after he got divorced with, uh, from Maria Shriver, he says he totally abandoned him.
Yeah. He's like, you, you never call me. Never reach out to me. And he said, so I know whose side you're on. And Rob Lowe looks very uncomfortable. Like he's right. And he couldn't deny it.
**Gizmo:** Did
**Rooster:** we get any other recommendations from any of the listeners about new
**Gizmo:** worlds or we've got a ton coming up, right?
Great question. We've got a ton coming up. We have a ton of listener Cubans coming up. Awesome. We have a ton of listener. New world's coming up. So cool. And [01:52:00] tune into at the beginning of the episode, when I kind of list what's coming, you know, those are a lot of those coming up are our listener records. So if you're a listener out there and you're.
You're, you're, you're into a specific cigar that we have not rated yet. Please shoot us an email and let us know what you're smoking and what you want us to review. We're happy to do it. We need the recommendations.
**Rooster:** By the way, I was in Carnegie the other day and Again? Had an event.
**Gizmo:** And uh, Shocking.
**Rooster:** Aging room has come up with a new cigar.
Oh boy. And I really, really enjoyed it. And you wouldn't believe it, Bam. I don't know what's up with this citrusy thing, but that, I could distinctly feel lemon flavor. Yeah. It was, it's
**Gizmo:** distinctive. I'm telling you, we have to reseat Pagoda because he's sitting too close. He
**Senator:** was pounding
**Bam Bam:** Manhattan. By
**Rooster:** the way, that night I was doing a lot of, a lot of drinking as well.
But
**Bam Bam:** I
**Rooster:** do think that's another one for the, for the pod. I think we will enjoy it. I, [01:53:00] I thought it was somewhat reminiscent of the pledge of allegiance at that point in time, but The Pledge of Allegiance has a lot more, greater complexity because of the cocoa, the chocolate, the coffee, along with that little lemony thing.
This did not have that. This was a little milder, but it was a very interesting cigar. I really enjoyed it at that point in time. The aging room. There's just, okay. Yeah. They've just come. I don't know which one it was.
**Poobah:** We'll just go through the, we'll just go through the whole line of agents. Test them all until we find out which blend is the one that you recommend.
Which one has citrus?
**Gizmo:** No
**Bam Bam:** granular detail needed.
**Rooster:** Puba will be away for the next
**Bam Bam:** six
**Poobah:** months. It's not
**Bam Bam:** totally untrue.
**Rooster:** We say that one new world at
**Bam Bam:** a time, buddy, one
**Gizmo:** new world at a time. All right, boys, a great night tonight. The Cavasier [01:54:00] XO with a 9. 2 and the unfortunately discontinued Bolivar Corona Chagantis, 9.
5. Excellent. Excellent night. Excellent pairing. Great conversation, boys. And 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, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello at lounge lizards, pod. 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.