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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabric of Five. 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. Today, I'm joined by Rooster, Pagoda, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And I plan to smoke a cigar, drink some whiskey, talk about life, and, of course, have some laughs. So take this as your two hundred and twenty eighth official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan an MIGAZER once a week. We're gonna smoke a Nicaraguan cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. Pagoda and I wrap up our time at ProCigar.
Gizmo:I detail going to war with United Airlines, we answer a listener email and other cigar media we consume, all along with a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your paper tray, light up a cigar, enjoy as we pair Jack Daniel's SingleBarrel, Heritage Barrel, Toasted Barrel, Tennessee Whiskey with Foundation The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT number 142 in Lancero. Boys, you know I love to say it.
Bam Bam:I know you do.
Gizmo:Another Lancero on the pod tonight from Nicaragua.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:It's the Foundation The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT number 142 in Lancero, and it's a 40 ring gauge cigar by seven inches long. Boys, I am very happy to have this cigar back in our hands, and you are correct, Rustom.
Rooster:Very familiar.
Gizmo:We did the sister cigar to this, the other line, just the Tabernacle, not the Havana seed Mhmm. Which has kind of the yellow detail instead of the red on the band. We did that quite some time ago, and I don't remember smoking it at all.
Bam Bam:It was a very, very good session.
Gizmo:It rated pretty well, but I've not had it since, and I've not gone back to it. So I am excited to try this tonight. This came highly recommended from some listeners, and I'll shout them out, who have said, not only should we be doing more Lancero's again, obviously, I stepped off that after bringing too many in and getting chastised for it, but also specifically recommended the cigar we have in our hand tonight.
Bam Bam:I love the band. It looks really nice. I love the portrait. I love the colors.
Pagoda:I think the cigar looks beautiful.
Bam Bam:It's an elegant cigar. I mean actually the cigar itself
Gizmo:It's a little rustic.
Bam Bam:It's very rustic. It's almost like an extended Clint Eastwood cigar. Know those Have you ever seen those spaghetti westerns? That's what this is, but cut in half. The band is just gorgeous, think.
Gizmo:Maroon red. I love on the band bam because we're in a dim room. We kinda turn the lights down a little bit when we record, try to make it romantic, know?
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:But when you get a little bit of light on it from lamp or the iPad computer, I love how the gold detail on the figure there pops.
Rooster:It glistens.
Bam Bam:And it's a very faint gold, almost gold silver hybrid of a color.
Gizmo:Looks great. Alright, boys. Let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper? Correct.
Bam Bam:Wow. It's outrageous how good the cold draw is.
Gizmo:It's almost like a
Bam Bam:I could tell you exactly what it is.
Rooster:It's dried fruit.
Bam Bam:It's a chocolate covered raisin for me.
Gizmo:With a little salt though.
Pagoda:It's really weird because I get a little bit of black tea in it. Me? Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That's not far off that
Gizmo:You know what's interesting about the black tea note? I feel like I've stepped away from thinking about tea since we had that La Galera, which was so explicitly Yeah. Black tea note Mhmm. On not just the cold drop, but the whole flavor. But you're 100% right here, Pagoda.
Chef Ricky:Black tea is exactly what I get. I'm not getting much cocoa or sweet enough to call it a raisin, but I'm Really? Getting some
Gizmo:I'm getting full on raisin.
Bam Bam:I'm getting raisins, tea, a little cocoa. Maybe This is
Gizmo:quite
Chef Ricky:98% tea and 2% anise is what I'm getting in my cold draw right now.
Bam Bam:So let me ask you a question. When you cold draw, are you taking a deep breath in or is it shallow? Because you do have to really pull to get a lot of the flavor out
Chef Ricky:of it. You have to? I've taken maybe about 14 draws
Bam Bam:at this point. Hard draws or light draws?
Chef Ricky:A combination of the two.
Gizmo:I kind of like speed draw.
Bam Bam:Like, I'll So do I.
Rooster:Pull, pull, pull, pull.
Bam Bam:Yeah,
Gizmo:yeah, Don't get as much as,
Chef Ricky:you know. Almost like you're starting the cigar up, right?
Bam Bam:Exactly. Exactly.
Rooster:Try doing a retrohale.
Pagoda:Yeah, no, that's what I It's not retrohale. Here we go. What I do is I know I mentioned this, I take it in and I try and get it out through my nose. And you know in the previous session, I know you were laughing at it, but berries come so clear and distinct when But you do not in this one. In this one, it's slightly different to me.
Bam Bam:I don't know how you retrohale an aroma on We've a cold
Pagoda:processed this session. No, just try that. I'll tell you I have, I Honestly can't
Gizmo:I've had, and it doesn't hit me.
Chef Ricky:Can't do it, it's
Gizmo:not as
Bam Bam:This is a myth.
Chef Ricky:Think you You can do can do it.
Bam Bam:It's an urban legend.
Chef Ricky:It's just not as intense.
Bam Bam:Bruce is like, oh, you could do it.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's light this thing.
Bam Bam:Light your
Gizmo:candle. The foundation, the Tabernacle Havana Seed CT standing for Connecticut, of course, number one four two in Lancero. And, again, it's a 40 ring gauge cigar by seven inches long. Coming out of Nicaragua, made at the AJ Fernandez factory.
Pagoda:I'm excited to smoke this. Wow. We haven't done a Nick Milillo's for a while.
Gizmo:It's a long time.
Bam Bam:That's correct. Full, full flavored on the light, boys. Buckle up.
Chef Ricky:Holy shit.
Gizmo:Mhmm. Wow. Yeah. You weren't kidding. But not unpleasant.
Gizmo:No. There's just a lot there.
Bam Bam:It's interesting. Yeah. This is a unique cigar right now.
Gizmo:I very much like this.
Chef Ricky:It caught me off guard because the cauldron was so faint that I wasn't expecting the initial light to be That's pretty powerful.
Gizmo:Yeah. Definitely in the cocoa zone for sure.
Bam Bam:Cocoa and I'm getting cardamom
Gizmo:right
Bam Bam:now and That's that anise note that was Earthy, right? So cardamom's earthy but it's very specific. For me that's what I'm getting.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Still getting that tea, anise, and a little pepper. Alright. Yeah.
Gizmo:It's very good. Really nice.
Bam Bam:Oh, you? This is right up your power alley.
Pagoda:No. Yeah. I like it. I tried retrohaling. Damn it.
Bam Bam:It'll singe your nose hairs.
Pagoda:Yo. I'll tell you.
Chef Ricky:The cold draw is all you could retrohale.
Pagoda:Yeah. That's all
Chef Ricky:I should be doing.
Bam Bam:I think this will settle down
Chef Ricky:Sure. Yeah.
Bam Bam:After a while.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Lancero taking up that much heat on the on the toast and all that, it's gonna need a little time.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Pagoda:So, you know, the Connecticut broadleaf, it's it feels so like Maduro ish. Right?
Gizmo:So let me just be clear. It is Connecticut. It's not a broadleaf. It's a Havana seed grown in Connecticut.
Pagoda:Oh, is that what it is?
Gizmo:The other one is a broadleaf. The other one we did. But you're not far off. This is just a Havana seed grown in Connecticut. Right.
Gizmo:But it's it is shocking actually how dark both the broadleaf and this one get. Mean, some of the darkest cigars that we bring into this room
Bam Bam:There's almost a the foundation. Glistening on the wrapper in certain spots.
Gizmo:But the binder and filler
Rooster:are
Gizmo:Nicaraguan. So the binder is Mexican San Andres, and the filler is primarily Nicaraguan with some Honduran in it. And the wrapper is USA Connecticut Havana seed CT number 142. Obviously, the name of the cigar.
Chef Ricky:Quite the powerful cigar. Well, Big kick of clove right now.
Gizmo:I'm honestly not finding this to be Good amount of No. I would firmly say this
Rooster:is not that punchy.
Gizmo:I'd say it's medium with a lot of flavor.
Bam Bam:I'm going medium with a touch of full.
Gizmo:Yeah, for sure. Medium You mean,
Rooster:is it peppery? Is that why you're calling it full or
Bam Bam:like No. I happen to like a pepper note. It doesn't bother me. It's the body of it that has a lot of oomph to it, in a good way, not in a bad way. But there's a lot of heavy flavor.
Bam Bam:It's very heavy in flavor.
Chef Ricky:I agree.
Bam Bam:The smoke is velvety and I think it's actually very creamy.
Rooster:So not in strength?
Bam Bam:No, no, but in body and flavor feels very weighted, like it's got a heavy weight to it. If that makes sense. Very dark, It's a deep cigar.
Rooster:Coaster palate. I mean, it's long Totally.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, this is a note I haven't called out in quite some time, but this takes me back to like the Szechuan peppercorn note that I used to call out early on. We haven't smoked a cigar like this in a bit.
Bam Bam:He ain't wrong. No. That peppercorn clove things there.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. We've really been on the milder medium side of things. This is definitely on the other side of that.
Bam Bam:Yes, for sure.
Gizmo:But honestly, some of them have been a surprise. I think some of them I came in thinking would be a little bit more of a powerhouse than they were. Yep. But this one is honestly delivering it's complex. It's interesting.
Gizmo:It's dynamic. You've said is accurate. It's got a little bit of everything. I think this suits, you know, a smoker who likes to smoke a lot of different kind of cigars. I really do think this kind of talks to all different kinds of smokers and and preferences.
Rooster:Yeah. You know? I think a Padron smoker would definitely
Gizmo:enjoy this.
Chef Ricky:A 100%.
Bam Bam:I think you can interchange this with your final evening smoke. No problem.
Rooster:What are the sizes?
Gizmo:Great question, Rooster. So the line comes in five sizes.
Pagoda:Well done, oh, boy.
Gizmo:The Lancero we have in our hand, 40 by seven. The double the doble Corona, excuse me, 54 by seven. The Toro, 52 by six. Corona rooster, 46 by five and a half. That's a nice Oh,
Bam Bam:that's nice.
Gizmo:And, of course, the Robusto 50 by five. The four Vitolas that we do not have in our hand tonight, they were originally released in December 2018, and this cigar followed this Vitola followed in June 2019. So the Havana Seed CT number one forty two, the wrapper on this cigar is one of the rarest and most unique tobaccos in the world, says Foundations. Unlike any other leaf, this exceptional variety is renowned for its rich oil content requiring an extensive three year fermentation process to achieve its full potential. This meticulous aging enhances its complexity, unlocking a depth of flavor they say that is both rare and extraordinary.
Gizmo:So they're pretty hyped about the wrapper on this cigar. Oh, yeah. But I will say, as I've kind of floated around the Internet looking around at this stuff and and hearing about it, people really love the cigar. Mhmm. Like, really, really love the cigar.
Gizmo:So
Rooster:this line or you mean this Vitola?
Gizmo:Both. Both. But people really love the line in pretty much all the sizes, and this one was specifically recommended when I was talking about Lancero.
Bam Bam:Has Halfwheel commented on this thing? Mm-mm. Okay.
Gizmo:I think they did a couple other Vitolle. Don't think they did the The White Cereal. I don't think.
Rooster:What's the price?
Gizmo:These we got for just under $14. What? Smallbatchcigar.com.
Bam Bam:You know?
Gizmo:Use our code, I think that you can even get them a little less than that.
Bam Bam:It's a satisfying cigar. I mean that's a pretty good value I think.
Pagoda:Within my budget I like it.
Gizmo:Value man. Big budget value.
Bam Bam:Big value man.
Rooster:I would try the Robusto in this.
Gizmo:I'd love to try the Corona
Bam Bam:Corona for Corona too. Definitely.
Pagoda:All right. I'll go with the Toro. Toro is
Rooster:not a big ring gauge. It's 52, I think you mentioned.
Gizmo:The Toro's 52, not 50 I do like the 52 by six. I think that's a proper Toro.
Bam Bam:Do they have a Gordo for Pagoda?
Gizmo:They do not, unfortunately. Goddamn it. We can call Nick and see if he'll make one for him. Correct. Again, the wrapper on this is the Havana seed CT number 142.
Gizmo:The binder is San Andres Mexican and the filler is from Esteli Jalapa in Nicaragua and Hamastron in Honduras. Which is pretty cool. So, again, this is not to be confused with the other, the original, the tabernacle from foundation. They have nearly identical filler in both lines. However, this one has a little less Honduran than the other one.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Gizmo:Like I said, the line was released in late twenty eighteen. This came out in June 2019. Blended by Nick Mello, manufactured by AJ Fernandez. That's a very important distinction because I saw some folks on the Internet not saying that Nick Mello of Foundation blended this cigar. They were saying that this was an AJ Fernandez blend, which is inaccurate.
Gizmo:Nick is
Bam Bam:the blender. Is that a recent engagement?
Gizmo:No, they've been together for some time.
Bam Bam:Really? I didn't know that.
Rooster:The cigar has a beautiful ash. Yeah. It's bright white.
Bam Bam:It really is. Yeah. Probably a lot of limestone in that soil there where this stuff was grown. Give it that white finish.
Gizmo:Really like speaking of finish, I really like the finish on the smoke on the front of the tongue. I know I talk about that a lot when we record, but there's something sweet going on there that is unique, especially for a Nicaraguan. Maybe it's that Honduran influence or it's something to do with the Connecticut wrapper on this, but I really like the cigar right now.
Bam Bam:The finish is very, very long and because you're getting that high level of flavor, I think this is a great end of evening cigar and I think the price is fantastic.
Pagoda:I said for Russo it's probably a morning cigar with coffee but
Rooster:you know it's funny you say that.
Bam Bam:I could
Rooster:smoke this in the morning. Would. With a cup of coffee, Go well.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's going well with your Guinness there with
Gizmo:him, bet.
Chef Ricky:That's a great pairing.
Gizmo:Guinness Zero?
Bam Bam:Guinness Zero. Yes. For our man.
Gizmo:Alright boys. Let's go to some news now and then we'll get into our pairing in a little bit. We have a lot to get to tonight. Mhmm. So we'll get right on with it as we get into our Tabernacle Havana Seed.
Gizmo:Let's start with this one first. I was shocked to see this because I was really hoping this wasn't gonna be the case. We've talked about this as it was moving through the House of Lords in The UK. Obviously, remember we played that one of the Lords with that amazing speech? Incredible speech.
Bam Bam:We'll never forget it.
Gizmo:Well, unfortunately, it has been forgotten in the House of Lords because The United Kingdom's generational tobacco ban Unbelievable. Has moved to its final stages.
Bam Bam:What is the world coming to?
Gizmo:On Monday, March 9, the tobacco and vapes bill cleared the house of wards, meaning it now enters its final stages before becoming law. This, of course, according to half wheel, shout out Charlie over there. We love those guys, and, they do great work with this legal stuff. Makes it very easy for us to share with our listeners. The bill, which has been in the works since 2022, is landmark legislation for how tobacco and vaping products are regulated throughout The UK, headlined by the introduction of a generational ban.
Gizmo:So what we mean by generational ban for anybody out there who doesn't know what that means, it means that they set a certain date that people born after that date will never in their lives be able to purchase any tobacco product legally. It's inhumane. And they refuse so far to carve out premium handmade cigars from vape, from cigarettes, from other, you know, machine made junk you find in a gas station.
Bam Bam:I mean, this is like communist law here. What are we doing?
Gizmo:How can they do that? It's insane. And you think about the cigar as an institution as it relates to British history. Think about how many institutions
Pagoda:Churchill's turning in his grave. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Mean, Churchill, Every
Gizmo:photo that means anything of Churchill that has ever been shared anywhere, he has a cigar in his hand.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Pagoda:And he lived into the eighties.
Gizmo:Yeah. He lived a long life. And you think about all the businesses over there that have been around forever. Hunters and Franco, JJ Fox, the Davidoffs have been there forever, the Sahakians.
Bam Bam:How does the mean, the Sahakian Sahakian family Souders, know? Flex their influence and make something happen
Gizmo:to I'm go sure it's much bigger than I'm sure the influence coming in must be much bigger than whatever's going on in the cigar industry.
Bam Bam:And how was that speech not well received? It just made sense.
Rooster:What happens to these businesses?
Gizmo:I don't think that they really care. That's what it's seeming like.
Pagoda:Hey, listen.
Gizmo:Because they have definitely been protesting.
Pagoda:They all turn into weed stores.
Gizmo:Yeah, probably. Yeah. So we'll continue on here.
Pagoda:That's really good for you, by the way.
Gizmo:Since its introduction, the bill has called for banning anyone born after 2008, which those folks right now would be what? 18 years old?
Bam Bam:No. So they'd be 17?
Gizmo:That was twenty twenty six.
Pagoda:Yeah. 17, 18. 17,
Gizmo:18. From purchasing tobacco and vaping products in the entire country. Oddly, as Charlie says here, that means that some people who are currently legally able to purchase tobacco and vaping products might lose that right in the future with this bill. The minimum age to purchase tobacco in The UK is 18, though the smoking age is 16 in both England and Wales.
Pagoda:What's up with the moral police?
Bam Bam:What they're trying to do is they're trying to destroy the thought of the current and younger generations from ever getting into the cigar lifestyle. So guys like here, we can go there and buy them because
Rooster:Well, we're I don't think that
Bam Bam:So the older generation can still have access, but as Giz said, that's probably going to be phased out as well.
Rooster:Well, problem is they're bracketing everything under smoking. They're trying to prevent kids from not getting into cigarettes. It's not particularly cigars.
Bam Bam:Which is a good thing.
Rooster:Yes, yes. But you need to separate the two,
Chef Ricky:right? Correct.
Pagoda:So why don't just go to industry and tell them to improvise their product?
Chef Ricky:I think they could just start by,
Gizmo:you know It's a great question. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. Unbelievable. Because it's so unreasonable and it makes so little sense that you can't understand the difference between a cigarette and a cigar.
Gizmo:I mean, it's crazy. So I wanna read a quote here. So apparently, cigars did come up as they were as it was going through the house of lords and ultimately passed as we know. So one of the lords who serves as the conservative party's shadow minister for health and social care spoke about the potential impact on the cigar industry in the country. He said, I quote, I also pay tribute to my noble friend, Lord Lindsay, and other noble lords who have consistently and cogently made the case for specialist tobacconists throughout this process.
Gizmo:Those are the people we're talking about. These are small, responsible businesses serving adult consumers, some of whom, we didn't talk about this boys, travel specifically to London from all over the world to sample and purchase high value handcrafted cigars. And let's not forget the vaults that some of these families have in these businesses stretch the gamut of the life of modern
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Cuban cigars.
Bam Bam:They have extremely old collections.
Gizmo:It's pretty and they're really well kept. Yeah. They're really good at that. So these cigars are quite distinct and much less affordable than cigarillos and machine made cigars that form part of the mass tobacco market this bill principally targets. I hope the government will continue to bear that distinction in mind as secondary legislation is developed.
Gizmo:So there is a little hope there that even if this passes, there's gonna be a carve out, but once it passes, I mean, that's not a great thing.
Pagoda:What's really frustrating about this process is I think the Western civilizations turning more like the Eastern one where everything was very restrictive. There used to be absolute freedom when you came to these countries, and now they're going like backwards. Like I don't know what's going on.
Gizmo:Like, to me, if you were to be reasonable with this whole thing, right? Number one, their smoking age is 18, which is ridiculous. Ours is 21. Even make it 25.
Chef Ricky:That's a great start right
Gizmo:there. Make it 25.
Chef Ricky:You said 16 in England.
Gizmo:England and Wales.
Chef Ricky:So I mean that's little ridiculous.
Gizmo:So let the frontal cortex develop. Push it to 25 and make the age 25. Correct. Now you've probably aged out the folks who are looking for the nicotine hit, you know, for the up on a nicotine hit smoking cigarettes. Those folks at that age are looking for the calming, meditative, therapeutic and male loneliness epidemic solution product that we have in our hand tonight.
Bam Bam:That is quickly growing worldwide.
Rooster:Like what is next? They're going to ban alcohol if it's injurious to health?
Gizmo:Prohibition all over again. I think that's too big of an industry for that to happen.
Bam Bam:Yeah, but how could they ban cigars in The UK? It's crazy. It's unbelievable. Almost goes hand in hand with the 25 year old scotch they're sipping on. Come on.
Bam Bam:It just doesn't make sense.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to one more story now before we get to our pairing. Bam, you sent this out today. The Davidoff Piura Dominicana is returning for 2026. So the So not the Dominicana.
Gizmo:Not the Dominicana. That's a very important distinction. Bam and I, we were going back and forth on that today. So this is a re redo, a new offering of a cigar that came out in 2009. It was originally offered in 2009 as a limited edition Bellicoso.
Gizmo:It's returning to shelves in 2026 with three different Vitolas. You're gonna have the short Robusto 52 by four and a half, the Corona Corona Larga 44 by five and seven eighths, and the Perfecto 50 by five and a half. So unlike the Dominicana that we've talked about that we love so much Sure. That was a cigar that had a white band on it and then a secondary band that said 2014 on it. The tobacco, when it was released, was ten years aged.
Gizmo:This is completely different from the Dominicana. This is the Porro Dominicano. Interesting. This line.
Pagoda:Very creative, I must say.
Gizmo:So, of course, we have to share this because the ridiculousness at Davidoff continues. It says here, as the name implies, blend wise, the cigar is made entirely of Dominican tobacco. They've not specified what tobacco it uses, of course. They've not specified who blended the cigar. Course.
Chef Ricky:They specified one thing.
Gizmo:They don't have one thing. They specified one thing, boys. They say that there's tobacco from six different regions.
Bam Bam:They're right.
Gizmo:Aged for a combined total of 32. So we're back to the bullshit metric of combined years in tobacco age, which is something that really only Davidoff is doing in their marketing.
Bam Bam:Mean
Gizmo:No other tobacco companies talk like this.
Bam Bam:Most people should be able to see through that. I would hope. I mean, come on. It's ridiculous.
Rooster:What's the MSRP on that?
Gizmo:So the smallest one, the short Robusto MSRP is $20. The Corona Larga, 44 by five and seven eighths, $23.30, and the Perfecto is just over 25. Now let's just point out, the Perfecto, while it's unique in its shape, of course, it's only 50 by five and a half. That's a Robusto.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's interesting.
Gizmo:That's a $25 Robusto with, you know
Bam Bam:Sure, sure.
Gizmo:The Perfecto on it and Valle Coso type head.
Bam Bam:I have a group in town where I live. They're gonna order a few of these. I just chipped in in a box. I'm getting two cigars. I wanna try the short Robusto.
Bam Bam:You know, I'm gonna give Pagoda one.
Gizmo:Sure. Let's do I just think you guys should be expecting something very different than what you got out of
Bam Bam:the He's a huge Dominicana guy.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Bam Bam:I'm just curious. I want to try it and see what it's like in comparison to that line.
Gizmo:I think that's fair.
Bam Bam:We'll give it a try.
Pagoda:Hey. Looking forward to
Chef Ricky:it.
Gizmo:Yes. So these cigars are coming out in April and we'll see how they do. But, yeah, these cigars are not to be confused. Mhmm.
Rooster:Are the boxes of 20?
Gizmo:They are boxes of 12. Yes. 12. Yes. Boxes of 12.
Rooster:It's kind of odd
Bam Bam:for Davidoff to do that. Correct.
Rooster:Never seen that.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Now forgive my ignorance here. I feel like I should know the answer to this question.
Bam Bam:You should. Yes.
Rooster:You
Chef Ricky:should. Was it Dominicana? Dominicana? It was. It was.
Chef Ricky:Yes.
Gizmo:It was a Dominican as you say, working on my Spanish. Yeah. There you go. And it was a limited edition. Once they were gone, they were gone.
Bam Bam:That's such a good cigar.
Gizmo:I think Pagoda consumed about half of them of the worldwide supply, but they're gone now. That is a tough That tobacco on it is incredible. With special stuff. That was Oh yeah. A great
Pagoda:I shouldn't lie, I had one right before coming here.
Gizmo:No, you didn't.
Bam Bam:Did you?
Pagoda:Yeah, I did. Wow. Because of the conversation I saw. I couldn't read a lot of it because I was driving earlier.
Bam Bam:All right.
Pagoda:And yeah.
Bam Bam:There you go.
Gizmo:How many do you still have?
Pagoda:I don't know. It's a declining graph. Let's put it this way. So
Gizmo:alongside the black band collection that this is joining, you have the Escorio, the Nicaragua, and the Yamasa. So those are the other lines Davidoff offers with the black bands, of course, excluding the Winston Churchill. The late hour also has black bands, but that is separate from even this Mhmm. Black band. It's cool.
Gizmo:There's gonna be a yellow secondary band on this designating the Porto Dominicano name.
Chef Ricky:It's an attractive looking cigar.
Bam Bam:It is.
Rooster:It looks good.
Bam Bam:Everything they make is beautiful. We just don't know what the hell's going in each cigar. And who's making it? Correct. Now speaking of Davidoff, because we're on the subject, this past weekend I had my first Grand Cru.
Gizmo:By the way, this coming, I just want to tell you from the guy who emphatically proclaimed
Bam Bam:Oh, I've always avoided that.
Gizmo:That he out on Davidoff and he is done buying DAVIDs.
Bam Bam:I know that.
Gizmo:You said that very clearly
Chef Ricky:in That's this correct.
Bam Bam:Now I'll continue to buy the Millennium Pyramid once I run out. I have a lot of those. But the Grand Cru was
Gizmo:Which one did you smoke? The number two?
Bam Bam:The number two. And I know, Rooster, you like the number three. I'm dying to try that. I am kinda high on that cigar. I wanna dive into
Gizmo:It's Bronze the most
Rooster:creamy Davidoff
Bam Bam:that exists. Was That getting online. It was creamy.
Rooster:Creamy almond, bit a
Chef Ricky:like cashew.
Bam Bam:For me, the sweetness was a little like maple syrup and a little bit like honey. It was out and cream, outrageous.
Rooster:It's one of the best morning cigars you can have.
Bam Bam:I had that in the afternoon with a coffee. It was delicious, delicious cigar. I have
Pagoda:to do it. You know, the thing is, it now reminds me, I think, the early, when was it, there was a cigar called Special Tea. I remember that being very creamy as well.
Gizmo:Was that the sister to the SpecialR? SpecialTea was a Toro, SpecialR was the Robusto, I'm assuming? I don't remember.
Bam Bam:I had that SpecialTea a long time ago. One, I don't remember it.
Gizmo:What size was it? Was it Toro?
Pagoda:Yeah. I think a Robusto maybe.
Bam Bam:But yeah, I mean shocking good line. For me, I completely overlooked it. I wrote it off. I wasn't interested. I tried it.
Bam Bam:I'm in love.
Gizmo:I think I had one of those when Pagoda and I were in the Dominican Republic ProCigar.
Bam Bam:Grand
Gizmo:Cru? I think it was a little humid. I don't know what size it was. Little humid. Wasn't great, but I just think it was a care problem.
Rooster:Interesting. The difference between the Grand Cru's, I think the ring gauge is the same but just the length difference.
Bam Bam:How many different Grand Cru's are
Rooster:there? Number one, number two, number three. I think that's even a even a four.
Bam Bam:That's it?
Rooster:Yeah, they get shorter, higher the number short of the cigar.
Bam Bam:Interesting. Yeah. I'm gonna do a little bit of a dive.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now to go to our pairing. Mhmm. We have a debut on the pod tonight, and this is a name that we all and everyone listening to this podcast will
Bam Bam:know. Robitussin.
Gizmo:We are having some Tennessee whiskey tonight from Jack Daniels. And the name of this, and I'm being deadly serious. This is what the bottle says. This is the single barrel, heritage barrel, toasted barrel, Tennessee whiskey. Triple So generously sent to us by Lizard O.
Gizmo:So we will raise our glass to Lizard O. Boys, good to see you.
Pagoda:Cheers. Cheers.
Bam Bam:Good to
Gizmo:Cheers everybody out there in Lizard Nation. The Jack Daniel SingleBarrel Heritage Barrel Toasted Barrel tonight
Bam Bam:Alright.
Gizmo:On the pot.
Bam Bam:To good health.
Gizmo:To good health. So I wanna tell you something about this. I did something tonight for the first time with a spirit that I've never done before after I take a sip.
Rooster:Put ice.
Chef Ricky:The nose is
Pagoda:well, it is. It's it's little medicating for sure.
Chef Ricky:I do love the nose.
Bam Bam:The nose is fantastic. What are you getting on the palate? Giz? Chef?
Chef Ricky:On the palate
Gizmo:Where's the Coke?
Pagoda:Where's the Coke? JD and Coke, right?
Chef Ricky:The nose delivers a ton of butterscotch, vanilla, oak.
Bam Bam:The nose is outstanding.
Chef Ricky:And I'm hoping for that to come through on the palate, but the palate runs a lot drier. I did some, like, warming of my palate, just trying to because it feels hot. I'm trying to get accustomed to it. Mhmm. Interest.
Chef Ricky:What I was able to pull out from that, allowing it to run down the sides of my tongue, I got some citrus notes that were fun.
Bam Bam:I'm getting that too.
Chef Ricky:But I want it to deliver more vanilla or butterscotch or caramel on the flavor just to sort of balance things out a little bit, especially because the cigar is also on the darker side of things.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So the funny thing for me, I'm getting all the good stuff on the finish well after I've taken it down. On the front-
Chef Ricky:Super long finish.
Bam Bam:For me on the front, it's a little tart and not super enjoyable. The finish is actually quite good because it's lingering and I'm able to capture something from it, which is actually a little maple syrup vanilla.
Gizmo:Will say the 100%, Ben.
Chef Ricky:100% of the finish.
Gizmo:I will say, as it relates to the pairing, as it relates to pairing with the cigar, I do love what the whiskey is doing to the palate with the cigar. It is kind of opening up some different avenues. It's almost like it's kind of cleared some lanes.
Bam Bam:Can I say something? After I take a sip of that and that finish is so freaking long, you take a puff of your cigar, I get a really interesting cherry and berry from the cigar, and it kind of makes its return
Gizmo:in the smoke. It almost is as if you're smoking a different cigar when you're drinking. Well that's good. In a good way. It's like you're getting a little bit of a different experience.
Bam Bam:But does that make for a good pairing to have such an overpowering spirit?
Gizmo:I don't know if I'd say it's overpowering though.
Bam Bam:I
Gizmo:think the cigar is standing up with it. I think that when they react with each other on the palate, It's a when good they come together It's good. I it's I don't know if I'd say better, chef, because I do like where the cigar was at before we touched Totally the agreed. But I do like where it's at now. As the palate clears off, as we stop sipping so much Yeah.
Gizmo:As we get into the second, third and whatnot, we'll see how the cigar does by itself. But I love what's going on here with this. I really do like it. I don't love it, but I like it.
Bam Bam:What are you experiencing on the front?
Gizmo:Everything you were talking about. Yeah. I do wish there was more of the nose on the palate though.
Bam Bam:The nose is just so freaking
Gizmo:The nose is amazing. Right? Smells like marshmallows.
Bam Bam:It's awesome.
Gizmo:I'm also taking small sips.
Chef Ricky:You have to.
Bam Bam:What's the proof on this?
Gizmo:50. 100 proof, 50%.
Pagoda:Okay.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. You have to take small sips.
Bam Bam:I don't dare put a chip of ice with this. I'm actually afraid it'll adulterate it somehow.
Chef Ricky:Don't either, but I considered
Bam Bam:There we go.
Chef Ricky:I considered it. Let them be a first.
Bam Bam:Well, Pagoda's going all in.
Gizmo:Pagoda's going for the ice.
Chef Ricky:Welcome back, Pagoda. I love how
Gizmo:in five years we haven't figured out how to get something that's not ridiculously loud. I know. Thank you, guys.
Rooster:It's kind
Gizmo:of fun, though. Is it?
Bam Bam:Yeah. Pagoda is showing his true self right now.
Chef Ricky:ESMR. ESMR for the listener. Yeah.
Gizmo:So I wanna tell you what I did with this, and this was at the recommendation of Lizard O, who again, so graciously sent us a few bottles of whiskey to try. That's awesome. We really love him, and we're grateful to to him and all the lizards out there who share cigars and spirits with us. So at his recommendation, I actually popped the cap on this today for about six hours. I almost dry boxed our whiskey tonight like I do with our cigars.
Gizmo:You want it to And my cigars. So I wanted to let it breathe a little bit, to give it the best shot in the room that could have. Of course, I didn't put it in a decant or anything like that. You could have, though. I could have, but I just left the cap cap off and sat there on my desk.
Gizmo:You should have. I I like it. I think you guys are being a little harsh on it. Okay. I I like it.
Gizmo:I don't love it, but I like
Bam Bam:it. It's a quintessential whiskey that has bourbon esque notes. It's very bourbon like to me.
Chef Ricky:I agree, Ben.
Bam Bam:Yeah. You know, don't hate me for this, but I've had Four Roses in the past. It's lingering on in that direction a little bit, which is a pretty good bourbon.
Gizmo:We rated the the Yeah. One of the single barrel select or something like that. We rated it well.
Bam Bam:This doesn't drink like a traditional whiskey to me.
Pagoda:Can you do me a fim and put a chip of ice?
Bam Bam:You serious? Yeah. You like it?
Pagoda:I like it so much. I'm gonna take a recommendation.
Gizmo:Know what I'm gonna do? I'm not doing ice. I'm just gonna do a little sploosh of water.
Bam Bam:A sploosh of water?
Gizmo:Cold water?
Bam Bam:I want the increase in temperature, though, I think. I'm gonna do a chip or two.
Gizmo:Okay. I just put a little splash in mine.
Pagoda:Yeah. That kind of opens it up.
Bam Bam:I just destroyed my cigar.
Rooster:Chef Ricky is contemplating.
Gizmo:I am. Alright, boys. So let's talk about this expression from Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. The age on this, it says it's at least seven years. The mash bill is 80% corn, 12% malted barley, 8% rye.
Gizmo:The price on this is somewhere around $70 here in New Jersey. I've seen it elsewhere for 60 to 70. So there's a there's a little bit of range. It was originally limited release in 2018. And in 2025 last year, it became a permanent addition to the single barrel lineup from Jack Daniel's.
Bam Bam:Really?
Gizmo:So, again, I find the the naming of this to be a little odd. Single barrel, heritage barrel, toasted barrel, Tennessee whiskey, which is exactly what it's called.
Bam Bam:It's gotta go back it's gotta go back through the marketing department.
Chef Ricky:Call it the triple b. The
Gizmo:heavily toasted heritage barrels are toasted for about twenty four minutes, which is double the normal time that a barrel is toasted. Then they are lightly charred, which I guess is a high toast, low char thing that they do. And that's why they call it the toasted barrel JD. Even though it's technically aged in a toasted barrel from the start, it's not finished in toasted barrels later like many bourbons. Okay?
Gizmo:The other thing that's interesting about this is it doesn't enter the barrel at a higher proof than we're drinking it right now. It enters the barrel at a 100 proof, 50%. Most other times, this whiskey is entering the barrel at a 125 proof and then is proofed down. Of course, then more wood sugars are dissolving and a lot more barrel, I guess, is coming out. I don't know if you guys are experiencing this.
Gizmo:Like, chef, what you what do you think of what I'm saying versus, you know
Chef Ricky:So I I think the color on this spirit is beautiful, really deep amber color on it. I think that has a lot to do with the char and toast on the barrels. I am getting a lot of oak. So I think there's a big flavor transfer here for sure.
Bam Bam:I agree with that. The sugars that develop inside that charring process is definitely coming through. I have a revelation to make. Ice? Mean, Pagoda hit it on the nail here for me.
Gizmo:So how many chips did you guys put in?
Bam Bam:Not as much as him. Okay.
Gizmo:Well, I put
Pagoda:two and a half.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Handfuls.
Chef Ricky:Pagoda's pagoda's drinking whiskey on the rocks.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I put in three chips. Three little cubes. And for me, I like the temperature decrease on this, but honestly, it actually eliminated that medicinal effect for
Pagoda:me. Absolutely.
Bam Bam:So I'm actually able to experience a more balanced for me, this was really leaning heavy toward a touch of maybe a bit too sweet and maybe a bit too, for lack of a better term, flavoring. It was just way too over the top for me. I'm not accustomed to drinking this, it could be me, right? But this dissipation is actually really quite nice.
Chef Ricky:It's well, Shout out you,
Rooster:you should put some ice.
Chef Ricky:No, like a true man, I'm now on my fifth sip with no ice. All
Bam Bam:right, I took 10 sips, Mr. He Man.
Chef Ricky:How do you know? Big dog. Favorite cartoons.
Bam Bam:Me too. He Man Woman Hater Club. What cartoon was that?
Gizmo:That's the Little Rascals.
Bam Bam:Yes. Yes. Love that. So one
Gizmo:more note here, boys, before we talk about the cigar. This these barrels are aged in the upper levels of their warehouses where the temperature swings are greater. So it's almost like they put this whiskey through a little bit more abuse than the standard issue stuff, which I guess accelerates the flavor wood interactions that happen. Yep. You know?
Gizmo:Yeah. So, yeah, we'll see how this continues along, boys. But we are coming to the end of the first third now on the foundation, the Tabernacle Havana seeds CT number 142 in Lancero. What's everybody thinking?
Rooster:I think the cigar is it's it's earthy. It's it's got an earth here, and I'm also getting some cedar right now.
Gizmo:Are you?
Rooster:I'm getting some cedar, a little bit of pepper. Cedar, pepper, and earth.
Gizmo:I I was expecting more pepper on the cigar tonight. I'm not getting it, and I'm happy about it. Lot, but the soul broke. A touch of it, and I think it's the right amount. I am really happy with the cigar.
Gizmo:I'm getting a little more salt at this point. I think it has moved a little earthier like you're saying. I I really like the flavor profile of this cigar. I think it feels great in the hand. The only complaint I have right this moment is it's smoking too fast.
Bam Bam:So I'm blowing through this thing.
Gizmo:Me too.
Bam Bam:Think it's Honestly, I think it's quite delicious. A little earthiness, not a lot. Maybe a touch of pepper. I actually don't almost get any pepper. The retrohale for me has become very smooth, really quite beautiful retro.
Chef Ricky:Real big improvement on the retrohale.
Bam Bam:Yeah, but the specific flavor profile, a little maple for me, believe it or not, and maybe a little bit cedar and walnut, like a deep, deep walnut, which may translate to your earthy note for me.
Chef Ricky:Quite good. Yeah. I don't dislike the cigar.
Gizmo:I've Sounds like you do.
Bam Bam:No. I've I've Whenever you start with that.
Gizmo:Having said that Correct.
Chef Ricky:I've really come to love the balance and the nuances of the cigars that we've had in recent times. And this is such a departure from that. It takes a little getting used to.
Gizmo:But I think this really serves a purpose, though, it's It's not on it's got a little more your attention. And I think it's complex. It's not a one act play. I mean, we're only in the second act now, but it has transitioned a little bit. I like how it's transitioned.
Bam Bam:I agree.
Gizmo:And I think for $12 $13.14 dollars this is a home run right now.
Bam Bam:It's packed with flavor. And I think you're spot on. I think it's a sophisticated, dare I say, borderline pretty elegant cigar with the strength that it has because it's doing it in a really interesting way.
Gizmo:And I think the thing, Chef, that's helping me is the
Bam Bam:retrohale. Oh, that's delicious.
Gizmo:The retrohale is lights out. That to me right now is the best part of the cigar, and I really like the draw.
Bam Bam:Are you not getting any type of a vanilla or a maple from the cigar? It's a very long finish for me, so I'm getting that at the deep, deep end, And the retro helps. Very good.
Gizmo:I really like what Nick
Rooster:did here. Getting the sweet maple note on the retro or traditional?
Gizmo:I'm getting a little on the draw and through the retro. Both.
Bam Bam:I'm getting it on the very tail end of both experiences.
Chef Ricky:But I'm wondering if that's the spirit influence.
Gizmo:Yeah, because I haven't sipped it. I haven't sipped the spirit in about three, four, five minutes. It is The cigar, that salt is hitting without the bourbon, and what we're talking about is hitting without the bourbon. I was actually reaching for it right now.
Bam Bam:I've recently had a very, very deep, deep chocolate, dark chocolate, which most people don't like, which I happen to love. There. This is right there. So that's an acquired taste, which I think this cigar kind of is, but this is much more smoother and more broader for most people. That deep, chocolate that a lot of people don't like, I'm getting that here tonight, but in a really nice, Mhmm.
Bam Bam:Beautiful finish.
Gizmo:I will say I think this cigar is perfectly it perfectly fits in to what I would say is the quintessential American palate.
Bam Bam:Mhmm. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:For Nicaraguan cigars.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:I think what this is doing, it's a lot of flavor. It's really interesting. I think it gives folks who like the Tatawajes, who like the Padrons, who like those Nicaragua cigars, almost like a Pagoda palette. Mhmm. Right?
Gizmo:I think this really speaks to that palette.
Bam Bam:I think this is definitely a step above Padron from the point of view of the body. This has a heavier body to me.
Gizmo:From the '64. Let's not put all of them there because the 26 and the Family Reserve, think, they get a little thick.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Not all of them, but the forty fifth Family Reserve, this may go back and forth as far as the body is concerned, but I think there's a great market for cigars like this. And honestly, if it keeps delivering elegantly all the way down, it's a home run.
Gizmo:I agree.
Pagoda:I think. No, that's what it does well, right? Meaning I think if you go back and you see Nick Melillo's following, there's a hardcore following for him.
Bam Bam:I want to touch on what Chef said earlier. I agree with you. A lot of our cigars that we've done in here in this room have been that mild, medium kind of a hybrid experience. This is definitely a departure. I think for me, I'm welcoming this departure because I want the variety.
Gizmo:Me
Bam Bam:too. This gives you great variety in your rotation. It's very true. You know, it's great to change it up. If you're gonna do one cigar a day or you only have time for one that day, this is a really good candidate for that.
Rooster:Yeah, this does it. Right? Yeah. Fully satisfying. And after dinner, you're just gonna do one cigar.
Rooster:I mean, this completely fulfills that.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Pagoda:It'll satisfy you. The smoke outburn, the velvety smoke, yeah, it just hits a lot of metrics.
Bam Bam:And there's a lot of great pairing options. Definitely going to stay in the bourbons and heavier bodied scotches. I don't think I'd do tequila with this.
Chef Ricky:I think maybe an anejo or an extra anejo.
Bam Bam:Mezcal maybe? Could see
Chef Ricky:a delicious full bodied red wine with this maybe.
Bam Bam:Oh a deep cabernet.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, could enjoy with that a fucking chocolate milkshake. It's kind of what I'm craving right now. Really? Wow. I'm craving a chocolate milkshake.
Rooster:And also,
Gizmo:hey, flavor is your portion of. Correct.
Rooster:Also like a heavier beer. Like
Bam Bam:a Guinness beer.
Chef Ricky:Or style of beer.
Bam Bam:Order a style. Yep. Absolutely. A Guinness would be great with that.
Gizmo:An old meal style. Ankristine.
Pagoda:Yeah. So if we were on the rooftop of Havana, we know that we'd have to order one more milkshake.
Gizmo:Correct. Correct. Correct. I am Drink your milkshake.
Pagoda:Will drink it up.
Gizmo:I watched that movie the other day. We're talking about There Will Be Blood.
Bam Bam:Yep. One of my favorite films of
Gizmo:It's all it's for me, it's definitely top five.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:I mean, I Paul am Thomas Anderson is just a genius. His new movie, One Battle After Another, by way
Bam Bam:Another good movie.
Gizmo:I'm obsessed with It's a great movie. Mrs. Gizmo and I have watched three or four times.
Bam Bam:It's pretty hilarious.
Gizmo:It's amazing. It's really amazing. I recommend anybody out there watch it. But yeah, There Will Be Blood is just the milkshake scene is crazy.
Chef Ricky:I'm gonna need like your a collection of your guys' top five movies.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We can go through them.
Chef Ricky:Mine and I don't want watching movies.
Gizmo:I do want to shout out boys, by the way, Lizard Chris who specifically recommended this cigar as we were talking about doing more Lancero's. It came up on FOH. A couple of folks were saying like, hey, you know, do some more Lancero's. Lizard Chris specifically pointed this one out. Mhmm.
Gizmo:So I really appreciate him for doing that. I want to read another comment here from him. He says, I really loved hearing Pagoda mention De La Concha in NYC. I first went there when I was 18 years old, and the guys in that shop took me under their wing and taught me so much of what I know about cigars and cigar smoking. It's pretty cool.
Bam Bam:That's true hospitality right now.
Pagoda:And, you know, for Lizard Chris, Chris, who used to work at Dela Concha, still works at Davidoff on 56th And 6th. So he's still there.
Gizmo:Cool. He continues, Eventually after leaving NYC for grad and law school, I returned and became part of the group of regulars that inhabited the tables in front of their amazing window. He says on a summer day, the view was intoxicating. Bam, that's a Bam approved activity.
Pagoda:Oh, So then we might have stood right next each other.
Bam Bam:Probably. Point. Likely.
Gizmo:By the way, just a quick aside. Pagoda and I, we're gonna talk about this in a minute. Pagoda and I are in Dominican Republic, in Santiago, at the gala dinner, right?
Pagoda:No, it was
Gizmo:Or was it the welcome dinner.
Pagoda:The welcome dinner, yeah.
Gizmo:And Pagoda runs into someone and they get to talking. And all of a sudden they're realizing that they both spent time together and know the same exact people
Bam Bam:There you go.
Gizmo:In New York City like fifteen years ago, twenty years ago, right?
Pagoda:That was early two thousand. He used work there.
Gizmo:But Pagoda is like
Bam Bam:I think he's becoming a global insider.
Gizmo:He's a global insider more than I am.
Bam Bam:Yeah, I don't know.
Gizmo:But you say I am. I think he is.
Rooster:I think he's climbing
Gizmo:up But he's sleeper global insider. Oh yeah. An SGI.
Bam Bam:Yeah, that's where the shank comes in when you don't see it. Correct.
Gizmo:But no, it was amazing. Like no fluff here. I'm not being facetious. It was awesome to watch two guys fifteen, twenty years on. Reminisce.
Gizmo:Reminisce and realize that they had the same connections, the same experiences, and then realizing they remember each other through these stories and touch I'm just standing there with Elvis from La Aurora. We're both like our minds are blown that these guys are recalling twenty years ago of like, oh my god, we were experiencing these things together. So I'm talking about it as an outsider. For you experiencing that, what was that like for you?
Pagoda:It was great. You know, it just makes it, it just reiterates one thing, right? That we're a part of a community, and this community, however small or big it is, it's tight. And there's a lot of memory in it, A lot of good experiences, good laughs, and I think, you know, everyone
Gizmo:By the way, these two together were hilarious.
Pagoda:You know, talks about the seven degrees of separation. Think the celebrity community has gotta be way, way
Gizmo:But it was cool, man, to see that happening.
Bam Bam:Nice.
Gizmo:You know, Pagoda is a sleeper.
Bam Bam:Yeah, pseudo celebrity. Celebrity
Gizmo:insider. Correct. Yeah. But it was awesome. I'm so glad you got to connect with
Pagoda:I'm so
Gizmo:glad I got to see it because it like re it reiterated, like reinforced how strong
Bam Bam:this thing is.
Gizmo:This little small thing of our you know, this thing of ours is. Oh, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.
Gizmo:Uh-oh. Jeffrey King has requested.
Chef Ricky:I didn't wanna interrupt the pod. So
Gizmo:What about No. No. No. Wait a second. Yes.
Gizmo:Did you request ice?
Chef Ricky:I need a chipotle. From
Gizmo:the ice man. There you go.
Chef Ricky:I'm tapping out.
Gizmo:We are in the twilight zone officially, boys.
Chef Ricky:Wow.
Bam Bam:Very elegant capture of ice there. Well done. I
Gizmo:can't believe this is happening.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Pagoda:I knew he would come around. This is
Gizmo:the first time.
Pagoda:I knew
Gizmo:he would come around.
Chef Ricky:This this might be the this is the first time I'm giving in. Yeah. I think I've done it in the past. You're just gonna keep it clear. This is great.
Gizmo:I'm keeping it rolling. I've I've done I might start it again.
Chef Ricky:I've done it in the past on purpose, but this is the first time I'm giving in mid sip. Wow. Why? You know, I think I'm getting older.
Pagoda:Welcome. I
Chef Ricky:think I'm just getting old. Welcome.
Gizmo:I'm why
Chef Ricky:you've gotten older. The heartburn. It's
Gizmo:I can't my chest can't take it. The heartburn. I
Chef Ricky:can't take it. Yeah. Yeah. Just a little bit. Wow.
Chef Ricky:That's wild. It's just a little bit.
Gizmo:I never thought I'd see it, honestly.
Bam Bam:He's only got a chip in there, which I respect.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. And and and honestly, I'm kinda looking forward to that drop in temperature that Ben mentioned. I think that'll help a little bit. Just kind of numb some of the, like, the the Can I
Gizmo:just say when the past, when I've said that I prefer a spirit cooler in temperature, you have chastised me for that? And you said to earlier to Bam that you were masculine A
Chef Ricky:100 times better.
Gizmo:You were He Man and all these other things.
Bam Bam:He is He Man. Look at him.
Gizmo:Yep. Be a man.
Bam Bam:He's an Adonis. Correct.
Gizmo:That's wild to see, man.
Chef Ricky:It it is it is better.
Gizmo:Alright. So let's
Pagoda:By the way, can you repeat that again, please? Just
Chef Ricky:It is better. It didn't improve. The the temperature drop helped tremendously. It actually got sweeter.
Bam Bam:Yep. Yes.
Chef Ricky:It came more in balance. Now that's with the immediate, you know, it was one cube of ice, so there shouldn't be a whole lot of dilution. Yeah. But where I sort of shy away from this is where the dilution hurts the spirit, and I don't want that to happen.
Bam Bam:Yeah. In this in this case, I think it's this Yeah. Won't happen.
Chef Ricky:If I could pull the what's remaining of the ice out right now, I'd be in a perfect spot. But I don't know if when this ice finishes, it's gonna be there. You'll be fine. You know? So that's always where my hesitation lies.
Gizmo:So I wanna continue on with Lizard Chris here, then we'll move on to some stuff about ProCigar. He says eventually after leaving NYC for granted law school, he's a I guess he's an attorney. Mhmm. He says, returned and became part of the group of regulars that inhabited the tables in front of their amazing window as we discussed. This is where I got my first cigar nickname.
Gizmo:It was first Twitch because I have seizures and then the Twitch Hudson after I did a triathlon that had me swim in that gross waterway. Wow. First smoked so many of what would be my favorite cigars and first understood at a real level, as Pagoda was saying, the camaraderie that this hobby affords us. That place was eventually sold to Davidoff and has the same physical address as the lounge I currently frequent and of which I am a member, but it's not the same place. Some of the staff are still the same and are still lovely folks.
Gizmo:Some of the patrons recall the old days, though I haven't met many who claim to despite having been there daily for years. But again, it's not the same. R I p de la concha, but long live wizard nation. Alright. So that's a great note from
Pagoda:Love it.
Gizmo:Wizard Chris. And again, thanks to him for shouting out the cigar we have in our hands tonight, the Foundation Tabernacle magazine.
Pagoda:It should be Lizard Twitch.
Gizmo:Lizard Twitch. I'm loving the cigar right now,
Bam Bam:boys. Me too.
Gizmo:It's really good. Alright. So Pagoda, let's continue. We talked two weeks ago or three weeks ago now. I don't remember what it was.
Gizmo:We talked about our first few days of ProCigar. We said we were gonna hold off till the following week. Unfortunately, you couldn't be here, so I wanted to wait. But let's talk about our final day in Santiago, Dominican Republic at the ProCigar Festival. So it was awesome.
Pagoda:Awesome.
Gizmo:It might have been the best day.
Pagoda:Yeah. Like, every day was great, but, you know, you're coming to the last day, and there's a little bit of anticipation. There's, you know, it's like bittersweet in a way that you're coming to the end of the trip, but at the same time, it was a wonderful, wonderful day.
Gizmo:So we started our day, and we had set this up early in the week. We wanted to go see Callender Cigars. We wanted to see Klaus' factory. We wanted to see this operation, spend some time with him. He was so gracious to invite us in the morning to his factory.
Gizmo:So Pagoda and I jumped in an Uber, which by the way, I don't know if we traveled 10 miles, 12 miles, whatever it was. I think the total on the Uber was about $8. I mean, down there, the the value of the dollar down there is so crazy. Yeah. So we get to Klaus' factory, we check-in, we say hello, meet his folks, and then he started to give us a tour of the factory.
Gizmo:We started, which is probably the most memorable piece of this for me, in the room where his tobacco is stored. Yeah. Where the bales of tobacco are stored. And I think Pagoda will agree with me on this. So Klaus is pulling out different types of tobacco from different bales.
Gizmo:And he's saying, well, I chose this bale for x y z reason. I chose this bale for this reason. And he's taking the bail, you know, tobacco out and putting his face fully in it. Like fully immersing Fully. His face in
Pagoda:I mean,
Gizmo:And he's saying, well, this is the reason, and then we're doing it. And I couldn't believe how little discern like, I couldn't tell the difference between one or the other. The subtlety was so it was so subtle, the differences in scent, that did Could you recall the difference? I I couldn't believe it.
Pagoda:No. It's just like the way I rate my cigars. I can't tell the subtleties. But having said that, you know, yeah, it was really interesting to see him really dive into these leaves. Like, the leaves were right on his face.
Pagoda:Yeah. Fully immersed. Fully immersed.
Gizmo:And he was walking through some things he looks for and doesn't look for, really, like talking to us about how he buys tobacco. He had a lot of tobacco in there talking about different blends and things that he's doing, and it was amazing to walk through his factory, and we know he's only started his factory a few years ago now. Obviously, he makes stoic. He makes avowed. He makes a lot of different house blends, and his business is growing.
Gizmo:There's no question about it, but it was amazing to see an operation at its earlier stages, right? He's only a few years in. It's so pro, obviously runs so well.
Pagoda:So organized.
Gizmo:And so organized. How's the facility? How
Rooster:big yeah.
Bam Bam:Exactly. What's the facility?
Gizmo:Think the facility was what, Pagoda?
Pagoda:About 7,000 square
Gizmo:feet. Yeah, something like that. Six or 7,000 square feet.
Rooster:How many rollers? So at the
Gizmo:time when we were there, I believe there were six or eight rollers there, but there were a few folks who were out that day because it was a Friday. So I think there was a Yeah. A few folks that weren't there. And then there were a few women in the sorting room, and then they stripped the, you know, they stripped the tobacco. They prepare it.
Gizmo:But man, it was such a cool operation to see where some of these cigars that we love so much come from. It was awesome.
Bam Bam:So you mentioned it's well organized, so it's gotta be nice and neat, well It
Gizmo:was like clean. You could eat off the
Bam Bam:floor. Really?
Pagoda:Yeah, And not only that, think the way he had designed the facility was excellent. I mean, you know that this is a guy who thinks through things and has a vision.
Bam Bam:Oh, sure.
Pagoda:And from, you know, where the tobacco's coming, you know, where the ramps are, all the way to where he's storing the leaves, where, you know, they're doing a little bit of the unbunching and, you know, ripping their veins off and, you know, preparing the leaves. Then you go into the next row. It felt like a really well organized operation. Yeah. Well thought out, and really, it was just really, really
Gizmo:Everything seemed deliberate.
Bam Bam:Yes. So
Pagoda:like, that's exactly how
Gizmo:I think. Everything, every single thing seemed like who designed it, we know it was class, right? And he did a lot of the physical work himself setting it up. He put some sweat equity into this thing. But it seemed like it was so well thought out because I guess he'd seen over the years the way not to do things in certain areas.
Gizmo:Like everything seemed incredibly deliberate.
Bam Bam:But you can tell from the interview when we interviewed him that he was a well organized person. Very pro, very scientific in the way he handles his business, so I'm not surprised about any of this.
Chef Ricky:Could tell from the flavor of his cigars.
Bam Bam:That's just
Chef Ricky:how he approached
Rooster:Did his you visit
Gizmo:the farms where they actually grow the tobacco from? We didn't visit any of his tobacco farms. Only farm we visited was the La Aurora Farm as we talked about, which was incredible. I mean, just seeing that tobacco was
Pagoda:And it's a family run off in a way. Although he runs most of it, you know, everyone's contributed to the facility. I think his wife had designed The all the artwork, the paintings. Beautiful. Oh, wow.
Pagoda:And it had reason. He, you know, there's an area where there are mountains with a little shack on top and very colorful. I think orange is his color of choice.
Gizmo:On the logo, everything's orange. Orange. By the way, he was drinking out of an orange Yeti cup for his coffee.
Bam Bam:Oh, know you I like
Gizmo:like the same logo. I was into that.
Bam Bam:Well, you like the orange.
Gizmo:I do. I do.
Pagoda:You know, what I really liked about it was he was talking about how in the shack his dad used to go in the mornings, and he used to have his meetings over there. So you can see that there's a lot of family influence
Bam Bam:There's history there.
Pagoda:In his facility, which is, you know, it just, the personal touch
Chef Ricky:It's beautiful. Was a
Pagoda:long way. You know, go to La Aurora, which seems, which is a pretty large It's industrial.
Bam Bam:It's industrial. Really?
Pagoda:Yeah. And this is It felt
Gizmo:homey, but it's such a massive operation that's the, you know, La Aurora is the oldest Dominican cigar factory in The Dominican Republic.
Bam Bam:Wow.
Gizmo:You know, they've been around for hundreds of years.
Bam Bam:Like,
Gizmo:It's amazing to see the La Aurora scale, which feels like home, and then to go to Klaus' facility, which also feels like home, it was nice to see both.
Bam Bam:So here's a question. So because that's the oldest facility on the island, I've only seen the Cuban factories. How do you compare the oldest facility in Doctor to what we've seen
Gizmo:in Europe? Technically, the facility has moved, and it is in a newer, you know, it's
Bam Bam:in a newer building.
Gizmo:It's a newer building, but they're the oldest rolling
Bam Bam:Got it.
Gizmo:Got it. You know, operation in the Dominican Republic. So so anyway, so we're at classes. We're walking around. We're watching people.
Gizmo:You know, he's doing some quality control, which was cool to see, rolls coming off and then him doing quality control. We saw the facility where they packed the cigars, you know, where they boxed them, cellophane, whatever it might be. And then we went into the storage room. Oh, yeah. Which I walked in there, and the first thing I said to Klaus was I was like, man, your dad has to be so proud of you.
Pagoda:That was beautiful.
Gizmo:Because we walked in there, man. It was like a photo that you see Wow. On Cigar Aficionado or something like
Bam Bam:I'm sure.
Gizmo:Really like that. I was like blown away by his storage and how many cigars he had in there that were resting Yep. You know, prior to being shipped out. It was
Bam Bam:Were you able to walk Yeah.
Gizmo:It's quite literally like it's like a big humidor.
Bam Bam:Remember we've seen that in Cuba too? Were able to meander back and forth through the bundles.
Gizmo:But you know what though? This felt more significant. It was so well organized. It looked so nice. Nice.
Gizmo:Like, he's built there is really quite incredible.
Rooster:That's Did
Gizmo:you see the cigars with labels? We saw both. We saw the cigars without and we saw cigars with. Most of the cigars that were in the resting room in storage area were banded already, ready to be packaged, but I guess they wait a certain amount of time before they And what did you see which I was told we can't really share what we saw.
Bam Bam:I'll be honest.
Gizmo:There was a little bit of everything. Let's put it I that
Bam Bam:loved to see the unbanded cigars in Cuba, and all the different vitolas. It made you look closer.
Gizmo:And we saw plenty of that.
Bam Bam:Yeah. You have to study what's there to kinda understand what the cigar is. Like, for me, the most visibly apparent marker without the band Quava. Yeah, quava. Has to be quava.
Bam Bam:No doubt about it, because those cigars Because
Rooster:of a shape.
Gizmo:Very specific. It's unique for those.
Bam Bam:Vitola is so specific. And you've got other cigars, and I remember I walked through there. There was A. Chapman in there, and there was Bolivar in that room too. So it's really cool to see that.
Bam Bam:Very neat.
Gizmo:So as we were finishing kinda walking through the facility hanging with him, it wasn't really a tour. It's kinda like we were just shadowing him being the owner of his facility, which was awesome for Pagoda and I to see. All of a sudden, we look over to, like, the welcome area, and there's Vance Taylor, like, waving at us. You know, Vance from Stoic who was in town, not for. He wasn't there for ProCigar.
Gizmo:He was there just blending with class that he had been there all week or two weeks. And like we said, we had gone to dinner with him the first night. It was awesome to see him. But so then Pagoda and I end up back in Klaus' office with Vance and Klaus, and the four of us sat there for what, four hours?
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Nice. Just talking, telling stories. I asked a thousand questions. Hopefully smoking. Of course, we were smoking.
Gizmo:Were smoking some great stuff.
Pagoda:And so much so, like, talk about how we were smoking a lot of the secco and Nice.
Gizmo:Yeah. So we we smoked some burritos.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Mentioned that.
Gizmo:You know, Klaus brought in different leaves of different kinds just rolled up quickly as porritos, and we were smoking. You know, we were talking about diff you know, what does this have? It was incredible.
Chef Ricky:We have to go next year.
Gizmo:I told you guys. I'd like
Bam Bam:to go.
Chef Ricky:I I need I need to get this under my belt.
Bam Bam:Yes, do.
Gizmo:I wanna again I'm sorry to interrupt. I wanna again thank La Aurora because That's amazing. Without them, this experience would have been void of, I think, a lot of the things that we were able to experience, so I'm gonna say it every time we talk about this, LaRoa was an incredible host for us. They were so nice to us and And really were happy that we were Lizard Elvis, Lizard John. It was a great host too.
Bam Bam:It was incredible. Awesome.
Gizmo:So yeah, we hung with Vance and Klaus. We hung for about four or five hours. And then Pagoda and I got back in an Uber. We went back to the La Aurora guys where we had lunch. Told you it Our was the best favorite lunch place.
Gizmo:We went back there.
Bam Bam:The buffet.
Gizmo:Because they were doing the same thing the next day. And he and I went, and we hung in the back of that restaurant. We had lunch again with Elvis, and we actually met the guys who make the hand rolled documentaries, the cigar documentaries that they've done different iterations of over the years, which are fantastic. We hung with those there. So Handrolled is a documentary.
Gizmo:I think it's actually, you can watch it for free on YouTube now.
Chef Ricky:Me too.
Gizmo:But it's a legitimate documentary of the tobacco industry. They've done a couple different iterations. They're working on Last year, BAM, if you remember Pagoda two, we were at PCA that premiered the Yeah. Aiadhoa family documentary. That's a hand rolled documentary.
Bam Bam:Gorgeous production.
Gizmo:Apparently, they're currently filming the Padron family for a Padron documentary.
Bam Bam:Wow.
Gizmo:Their There's it's it's really well produced.
Bam Bam:It is incredibly well produced. Beautifully done. That was an emotional production. It was awesome. It was incredible.
Gizmo:Yeah. So they're they're looking forward to that coming out and then, you know, the other stuff, you know, that they're working on.
Pagoda:They're lot fun
Gizmo:and were hilarious.
Pagoda:Hilarious cigar
Bam Bam:guys. Were they smoking?
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. We were all smoking. We hanging out all afternoon over there by the La Aurora factory.
Bam Bam:You cannot trust a man who does not smoke a cigar. Correct.
Gizmo:All right? Correct.
Bam Bam:All right.
Gizmo:So how many cigars did you guys smoke? Like that day over You know what's funny, Rooster, you asking that question? I would argue, I would say I smoked less this is crazy to say. I smoked less in The Dominican Republic than I do here. Because we were just moving and jumping around and doing so many things, different conversations.
Gizmo:Like, we were so busy that I actually feel like I probably on average smoked three to four cigars a day. Mhmm. Where
Pagoda:Maybe more. Maybe more.
Gizmo:Maybe a couple more. But I feel like when we're here or when we're in Cuba, yeah, I feel like we smoke way more than you and I did in Dominican.
Pagoda:I did smoke a bit more than you.
Gizmo:That's true. That's true. So, boys, we're coming to the end of the second third now on the foundation, the Tabernacle Havana Seed CT number 142 in Lancero and the Jack Daniel SingleBarrel, HeritageBarrel, Toasted Barrel
Bam Bam:Yeah. Right.
Gizmo:Tennessee Whiskey. What's everybody thinking right now as we get into the last third?
Bam Bam:Roosted.
Rooster:It is so nice to have this change of pace to have a fuller cigar on the pod.
Gizmo:I agree.
Rooster:And a good full cigar.
Gizmo:Good full talking cigar. About? Not a cigar that's doing it for the sake of it. Correct. That's what I would argue.
Rooster:Right. So that's really the big thing right now. I mean, we have done so many cigars that have been on the mild to medium bodied. This is definitely like a medium to fuller experience.
Bam Bam:It's a very memorable cigar.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Right. Definitely. Pagoda, I owe you an apology.
Pagoda:Yeah. It's all right. You you've to live and learn.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. But
Chef Ricky:something that comes with age, I guess. Adding that cube of ice did a few things for me. You know, I mentioned one in the chocolate shake earlier, and this is not like drinking a chilled egg cream is what this experience What
Gizmo:did you say? Chilled what? Egg cream. Egg cream.
Bam Bam:Gizmo's not like that.
Chef Ricky:So there's not actually egg in an An egg egg cream is seltzer. It's an old soda shop beverage, right? Where it's soda water, chocolate syrup, and that's it really for No what I ice cream? No ice cream.
Bam Bam:A lot of that you're getting on the nose.
Chef Ricky:But now because of the ice, I'm getting it on the palate And as it's brought out some sweeter notes in the cigar. What was walnut is now almond. Some of the earthiness has dissipated for me. That could have been the natural transition of the cigar, but I do think that the ice in this whiskey sort of help facilitate that.
Bam Bam:I know we should be chatting about the cigar, but what's compelling right now with just, for me, just the two or three chips of ice, and I had more in my glass, it's more cognac like and almost Amaretto in combination. For me, that hybrid.
Chef Ricky:Amaretto is very much like egg creamy.
Bam Bam:It's very
Pagoda:almond y for
Chef Ricky:me, right?
Bam Bam:So I'm getting hints of both of those experiences in this drink now with the ice since it's completely melted and it's a different experience, ratios have changed. It's good. It's much more, for me, more drinkable.
Chef Ricky:It's definitely taking it up a notch in the reading for me. Yeah. To influence my rating.
Gizmo:Yeah. Look at you, Mr. Rice. Easy. But Easy.
Gizmo:Wanna say Easy. Pagoda is vindicated.
Bam Bam:Fucking
Gizmo:cute. Been on this almost two years now.
Chef Ricky:But
Gizmo:Pagoda is vindicated today.
Chef Ricky:But you know what? Pagoda But Pagoda is vindicated has never reciprocated that. Right? Because
Pagoda:No. I've been I haven't put ice in most of my drink.
Chef Ricky:Exactly. But I I never got a thank you for that. I never got a thank you from him for
Bam Bam:changing that. Chef has enhanced your experience. No. You have. You have.
Bam Bam:Dare I say,
Gizmo:he's By educated by the way, you're sitting in senator's seat. That was a very senator twist on Twist. The whole
Chef Ricky:I feel the influence.
Gizmo:I'm sure you do.
Pagoda:Well, we were talking earlier. I said Chef Ricky has upgraded himself.
Chef Ricky:Prior to that ice, I didn't want a refill. I'm ready for a refill. Like I didn't think I
Gizmo:was So I gonna just got a refill. Bam, so kindly, I think for the first time stood up and poured me a glass. Usually, it's the other way around.
Bam Bam:Adjusted poor Pagoda setup over here.
Rooster:And he did.
Gizmo:And so you put some ice in my glass. I'm gonna try it exactly how you guys have had it.
Bam Bam:Two chips.
Gizmo:Two chips. I I'm looking forward to trying it. I'm gonna let it settle as we talk a little bit more about ProCigar. And
Pagoda:holy And I I do wanna say thank you, Bam.
Bam Bam:Chef, a little a little touch for you.
Gizmo:Little decorum for Oh the my god.
Rooster:Just shake that ice.
Gizmo:I just
Chef Ricky:want the listener to know that I'm using ice. No.
Gizmo:Oh, they
Chef Ricky:know. They deserve it.
Pagoda:Thank you, ma'am, and thank you, chef
Bam Bam:Alright.
Pagoda:For helping me learn, live, and grow.
Gizmo:Very well said, Pigar. Life. Alright. Alright. So we got back from the La Aurora lunch that we were just talking about, the hand rolled guys and Elvis from La Aurora.
Gizmo:We went back to the hotel. We got ready for the big gala dinner, which is the end of the week. It's the big party at the end of the week. It's at a totally different venue than we had been before.
Pagoda:Was It's like a private club.
Gizmo:Yeah. Was almost like an amphitheater in a way. There's a stage, and they had musicians as we were walking in, and we got settled. And really the highlight of this, kind of like the gala dinner at the Habanos Festival, which I was at, is the auction portion of the program. And I have to say, I have to shout out Michael Herklotz, who is the proprietor of Ferri Otago, is the auctioneer every year at ProCigar for these auctions.
Bam Bam:I hear he's great.
Gizmo:He's great. He does a brilliant job. I know. And I couldn't believe watching these auctions happen. I think he did like 20 lots all in.
Bam Bam:That's great.
Gizmo:There were some that were preannounced. There were some that were added. It was incredible to watch. So Pagoda and I found, you know, a seat with some friends. We were hanging out.
Gizmo:Watching this happen, it was really amazing. So I'm gonna go through some of the lots that sold in in So the dollar first off, the total amount raised at the auction this year was over $600,000. Nice. So to watch that happen in person By the way, this money goes to help people in the Dominican Republic who don't have a lot, either build houses, I think it's schools. It's a whole charitable thing that happens here.
Gizmo:This isn't profit that's going to these cigar companies. It was really amazing to watch. Right. So I'll give you a couple different ones that sold. The Casa Carrillo so these are humidors that are made specifically.
Gizmo:They're one off humidors made for this event. The Casa Carrillo humidor sold for $42,000. The La Aurora one sold for 44,000. The Tabernacle Havana, which is a Ho Chi Blanco, sold for 46,000. La Flor Dominicana, the president of ProCigar, is Lido Gomez, of course, from LFD sold for 51,000.
Gizmo:And the big one, of course, everybody expected Mhmm. Was the Fuente humidor
Bam Bam:Yep.
Gizmo:Which was sold for a $150,000. And guess boys
Bam Bam:Yeah. Was
Gizmo:Who bought the Fuente Humidor? We have one of his cigars in our hand that he manufactured. He didn't blend. AJ Fernandez was there. Oh, wow.
Gizmo:And he was the winner of the Fuente Humidor for a $150,000. So Cool. AJ Fernandez was there. You know, Jonathan Drew from Drew Estate was there. Those those guys are not Dominican No.
Gizmo:Cigar makers. They were there for the event, of course, I'm sure to see some friends and do some business, but it was cool to see AJ Fernandez win the Fuente Humidor for $150,000, all going to charity. It was awesome to watch.
Chef Ricky:I was gonna say, as many cigars as that guy makes
Gizmo:is probably a drop in the bucket for him. I would think so, but it was still cool to see. Absolutely. It's very cool. They were really going for it.
Gizmo:It was pretty awesome.
Pagoda:And it's fun. The auction process is obviously a lot of fun, but different groups bidding and outbidding, and it's just a fun experience.
Bam Bam:Oh yeah.
Gizmo:Did you guys raise a paddle? Pagoda did.
Pagoda:For different reasons.
Gizmo:Yeah, to me. Kidding.
Bam Bam:That's lizard after dark. Pagoda was
Chef Ricky:requesting ice. Was there a Davidoff humidor? There was, I
Bam Bam:think. Really?
Gizmo:Yeah. I'm not sure if there was.
Pagoda:There was. There was. I think it's in twenties, maybe thirties. Okay.
Bam Bam:Interesting. Cheap.
Gizmo:Yeah. I don't know, but I don't know. Alright. So the gala dinner was amazing. We had a great time.
Gizmo:We went back to our hotel. We had a cigar. And the next morning, boys, we get up and we go to the airport. And Pagoda, have to tell this story. Of course.
Pagoda:And we So this is once again, Giz and the airport experiences as always.
Bam Bam:Hold on. Did we get the deer in headlights?
Gizmo:No. No. No. I was the deer in
Bam Bam:the headlights.
Gizmo:Ah. So let me just set this up, that like Pagoda is saying, for some reason, I am the one that always has these unbelievably ridiculous experiences. And I'm so glad that Pagoda was there to witness this one because I think if I told this story and Pagoda wasn't there, you guys would think I was embellishing it. Because it was so ridiculous.
Pagoda:To be to be fair, Giz was traveling like he was actually moving countries from The Dominican to The US. I'm just kidding. Had, like, like, pieces of luggage.
Gizmo:Stop it. I have one piece of luggage and one carry on.
Rooster:Stop it.
Pagoda:No. No. I'm just kidding. Yeah. So and
Gizmo:So yeah. So the next morning, Pagoda and I get in the car that Laura Rohr sent for us. Again, thanks to those guys. So we go to the airport. I mean, well, we were we were there what?
Gizmo:Two and a half, three hours early? Yeah. We check our bag outside. We go through security. We do all that stuff.
Gizmo:We do customs, everything. We end up at the gate like two hours before our flight's taken off.
Pagoda:And we're hanging out, having a drink.
Gizmo:Yeah. So he and I sat down. There was a Presidente bar right there. We had a couple beers. Had a sandwich.
Gizmo:It was great.
Bam Bam:Very nice.
Gizmo:So the flight is scheduled to take off at 12:52 p. M.
Pagoda:And we have our friends join us.
Gizmo:And we had a couple friends that showed up that we sat with at the gala dinner earlier during the week, some friends of ours, Steve and Tim and Barrington, a couple guys. And I don't know if it was 12:20, 12:25, about a half hour before we're supposed to board the flight, you know, before we're supposed to take off. Right before boarding's supposed to start, I hear my name looking for
Bam Bam:Jorc. Exactly.
Gizmo:I hear my name over the loudspeaker in
Bam Bam:the airport. Was it George?
Gizmo:It was not George, but it was close.
Pagoda:Hooray. Hooray.
Gizmo:And I said to Pagoda, said, dude, I I think I just heard my name over the loudspeaker. And I said, I took my passport. I left my carry on and my backpack with him, which by the way has the holy computer that we're using right now. This is everything from So this I left that all with Pagoda and I go to the gate and they say, oh, yes, sir. You have to go downstairs.
Gizmo:One of your bags has been your bag has been pulled. So I go downstairs and there's a a a folding table, a classic folding table.
Rooster:Sounds familiar.
Pagoda:So he was randomly picked.
Gizmo:I was randomly picked.
Rooster:It's not random. Believe me.
Gizmo:So apparently, they pull five random bags off of every flight just to check it, make sure there's no fruits, vegetables, anything that shouldn't be in there, honey, whatever it is.
Pagoda:Right? No. The pink bag doesn't help by
Chef Ricky:the way. Well, we know you had no honey
Gizmo:in that bag. I did not have honey. Correct. I go downstairs and I'm I'm the last one who got called. And there are four folks in front of me, there's a pile of bags on a on a cart.
Gizmo:Apparently, we've been selected for a random search, right, to have our stuff checked by the Dominican security. So I'm watching the security person. And when I tell you this person is moving at the pace of a slow tortoise, okay, if you think about any listener out there, any of us have been through it, you know, you send your bag through the x-ray at TSA, they find an item, they isolate where it is in the bag, they open the bag, they find the thing done. Yeah. But this is random.
Gizmo:So what they're doing in these searches
Chef Ricky:Caribbean time.
Gizmo:Is they are quite literally on Caribbean time going through every single item in the bag to make sure everything is kosher.
Bam Bam:Checking your underwear.
Gizmo:Everything. So I'm number five in line and I'm watching this happen
Bam Bam:And what time is first this at the moment?
Chef Ricky:Do you This
Gizmo:is 12:25PM.
Bam Bam:And the plane's taking off?
Rooster:At 12:52.
Bam Bam:Yeah, not good.
Gizmo:So I'm watching this happen and I'm starting to panic because I'm doing the math and I'm like, okay, this first bag took like ten or twelve minutes to go through it. Now we're onto the second bag out of five. So I'm really starting to stress because I'm the last guy in line. Okay? So I go upstairs to the United desk because I know I'm not coming up anytime soon.
Gizmo:And I say, guys, listen. You guys called me. I'm downstairs getting security checked randomly. I need you to hold this plane. Yeah.
Gizmo:This plane cannot leave.
Bam Bam:It's unfair.
Gizmo:I am telling you right now, you know that I'm downstairs. You told me to go down. This is random. Not a specific thing. I did nothing wrong.
Gizmo:They're not gonna find anything, but they're gonna go through my bag. I need you to wait. Oh, sir. No problem. No problem.
Gizmo:No problem. Yeah.
Rooster:Were all the bags from
Gizmo:the same flight? Yeah. So they pick five off of every flight. Okay. Every flight out of that specific airport, pick off.
Pagoda:You gotta keep people employed.
Gizmo:So I'm just kidding. I go back downstairs. Now they're in you know, they're finishing up the second bag. Now they're going into the third bag. Now it's like 12:30.
Pagoda:In the meantime, what's happening over here in my end is Like, everybody so we were with a group of friends, so they all left. So I'm hanging out with the bags. I figured that Gizmo's gonna come back sometime, you know, soon enough. So that line, you know, you have these airport lines, and they're calling all these numbers, 12, 3, 4. And I'm just hanging out, chilling.
Pagoda:And in the meantime, Gizmo's going through
Gizmo:a completely different experience. So he's hanging out for me and I'm you know, they just start the third bag and I can hear over the airport, they're calling the later groups. Right? And as they're going through the third bag, I hear them call for final boarding. Oh, man.
Gizmo:So I run back upstairs now, back up to the United gate, and there's six or seven United employees. And I say, guys, I want you to all look at my face. Everybody speaks English. There's no language barrier. Everybody needs to acknowledge that we are downstairs.
Gizmo:There's three of us still down there with three bags that have been randomly selected. You guys are holding the plane. Sir, don't worry. We are holding the plane for you. We are holding this flight.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Do not worry. Six or seven folks, like, sir, stop. And I said, you know what? Can one of you come with me to watch what's going on downstairs? I just want you to see what's going on.
Gizmo:So I literally taken a United employee with me downstairs.
Bam Bam:Good move.
Gizmo:At this point, Pagoda, I guess, has to get on the plane. They call for final boarding.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So much for
Pagoda:I'm the last person who walks in.
Gizmo:He's the last person So go on the
Bam Bam:much for a no man left behind.
Gizmo:He took my carry on. He took my carry on on the plane as a courtesy, right, to help me out. So I'm downstairs. Now they finished the third bag and a guy comes in with baggage with a cart and takes the first three bags out. And I'm like, why
Bam Bam:are
Gizmo:we taking the first three bags out? We have two left. Sir, no. No. No.
Gizmo:Don't worry. They're, like, laughing at me that I'm getting stressed.
Bam Bam:Right.
Gizmo:Right? Like, why are you taking three bags out? We got two well, sir, we take this out. It's a little heavy. We'll take care of it.
Gizmo:Okay. Fine. So now we're into the fourth bag. Right? The fourth guy fourth guy finishes.
Gizmo:Now it's like 12:40. Right? Mhmm. Finish the fourth bag. This guy goes back upstairs.
Gizmo:Now they're into my bag. And now I'm I have a different security guard who's moving a little faster, and I'm, like, you know, talking in my Spanglish Mhmm. You know, trying to urge them along, like, let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
Gizmo:Vamos.
Chef Ricky:He's like Dominican puro.
Gizmo:Lamp up. Lamp
Bam Bam:it up.
Gizmo:By the way, out of the five bags, they found nothing. There was nothing Of course. Questionable in the five bags. So on my I was the last bag. So they finished my bag.
Gizmo:They take it out. I said, that bag is going on the plane. Right? That bag is going on the plane that's going to Newark, New Jersey. A 100%, sir.
Gizmo:No problem. Absolutely. We're gonna take it out right now. I go back upstairs. The boarding door is closed.
Gizmo:He is on the phone telling me, dude, they just closed the boarding door. And these seven people are looking me in the face going, sir, you can't get on the flight. We've closed boarding.
Bam Bam:What the hell? Now they had then they have three of your bags on that plane.
Gizmo:No. So my carry on was on the plane with
Bam Bam:So the carry on. So at least My he was able to
Gizmo:carry on and my backpack. So by the way, this plane leaving without me, without my carry on and my backpack is like a nightmare
Bam Bam:for me. And without your Pagoda.
Pagoda:No, he
Gizmo:And without my Pagoda.
Pagoda:I think outside he's screaming at them.
Gizmo:Oh, by the way, I okay. So let me
Chef Ricky:Finish just say
Bam Bam:it off.
Gizmo:You know the post office story I told
Bam Bam:Oh, we remember that. Okay.
Gizmo:I was on level 11 fucking losing
Pagoda:my I
Bam Bam:would've been too.
Gizmo:I was I was so I thought I was I, like, I had to talk to myself. I was like, Giz,
Bam Bam:Yorch Mhmm.
Gizmo:You're gonna get arrested if you get I to was losing my goddamn mind at the gate because these seven people lied to my face. The security people lied to my face. And he's on the plane saying, dude, they don't care. They closed the boarding door. Like, I have your stuff.
Pagoda:They came asking for your stuff with security.
Gizmo:So this is what's crazy. So now number four out of five bags and me, number five out of five bags, the two of us, they left off the plane. Mhmm. Right? So apparently, the dickhead captain of this United flight said, close the bags, get the get the, you know, machine off that loads the bags in like, we're going.
Gizmo:That was probably his his call. So now the two of us are left behind.
Bam Bam:Yeah. He had dinner plans and nowhere.
Gizmo:Yeah. Exactly. He had to leave ten minutes early.
Bam Bam:This
Gizmo:fucking asshole. So Pagoda and I are on the phone, and then I'm flipping out at these people at the gate. They won't let me through. I'm trying to break through to get on the flight. So I said, my carry ons are on that goddamn plane.
Gizmo:Like, what are you doing? My friend has my stuff. Can you believe they opened the boarding door to get my carry on off? Not what you want? Let the two of us on the plane.
Gizmo:What?
Bam Bam:I don't understand that.
Gizmo:So you could tell what happened on the plane. Obviously, I wasn't there.
Pagoda:So hold on. Were you sipping
Bam Bam:a scotch during this whole thing?
Gizmo:No. He was into a second scotch by the Correct.
Chef Ricky:It was a United flight. No way. It was United flight.
Gizmo:I'm totally with Senator. Fuck United. But go ahead.
Pagoda:Yeah. So I was sitting over there, and I'm speaking to Giz all the way through this. And what happened is I went to the flight attendant and I said, Hey, listen, there's a buddy of mine out there. We just got to make sure that we get him on time because we have all the stuff over here. And then these guys pretended to listen to me, but they were like not acknowledging what I was
Gizmo:gonna Yeah, because the captain probably made his decision. He doesn't give a shit. Whatever.
Pagoda:Then these security guards come with the flight attendant and they start looking for the bags. And at that point in time, you know, I handed over the bags to them, and that's when I was speaking to you. I said, Oh, they're taking your bags out. Wow. They took his bags Dude,
Gizmo:was losing my mind. You heard, you probably heard
Pagoda:me losing
Bam Bam:So my have to say, United owes you and missus Gizmo a first class comped ride from here to Dominican Republic anytime you want.
Gizmo:So here's what's crazy. So at a minimum Let me tell you a story. So you're not gonna believe this. So this all happens. I'm watching Pagoda take off to New Jersey.
Gizmo:Now let me just set the scene for the listeners. With the stir
Bam Bam:and scotch.
Gizmo:The reason why I'm flipping out to a high degree is this is all happening the night before we are supposed to get a two foot snowstorm
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:That's next day.
Chef Ricky:Oh, yeah. You were really looking forward to using that snow blower.
Gizmo:Mhmm. And also, if I didn't get out, I would have been stuck there till probably Tuesday or Wednesday. Mhmm. Right? Because all the flights were canceled to Newark.
Gizmo:So Pagoda got out. I got my stuff. I'm losing my mind. Then I moved into friendship mode with the people I was, you know, MF ing the whole time. And I was you know, I luckily got upgraded to first class on the flight that Pagoda left on.
Bam Bam:So That's not enough.
Gizmo:So no. No. No. I I this is before it all happened. I was first class.
Bam Bam:Oh, okay.
Gizmo:Okay. They left me they left me behind. I was a first class passenger when they So left me there was an empty seat there. So now they're telling me that the flight leaving later that night, they don't know if they have a seat, and if they have a seat, it's definitely not first class.
Bam Bam:Sure.
Gizmo:So I'm like, well, what are we doing here?
Bam Bam:I need reciprocity.
Gizmo:This is crazy.
Bam Bam:Yeah, need reciprocity.
Gizmo:And you what their answer was? This wasn't a United problem. It was a security problem. Security caused the problem, not United. So they completely washed their hands.
Bam Bam:United owns that problem.
Gizmo:They didn't care. So long story short now, as we've told this super long story, I ended up getting on the last flight out of Dominican.
Bam Bam:What time?
Gizmo:09:00.
Bam Bam:Really?
Gizmo:So I was probably
Bam Bam:You had lunch. You had
Gizmo:dinner. Seven hours. Seven hours later.
Chef Ricky:And then had six for none of it.
Gizmo:They paid for none of it. So I got on the flight. Well, they got me on the flight, you know, but I I got out, and thankfully, at the last minute, somebody in first class bailed because I told them, I said, listen. I don't care about status or anything else. I wanna be on the first on the upgrade list.
Gizmo:If somebody so much as blinks who's in the first class, I want that first class seat.
Bam Bam:And you got it.
Gizmo:And I got it.
Bam Bam:Oh, okay. That's good.
Gizmo:But by listen. By no fault other than me screaming at everybody Of course. And telling them that this is bullshit for about
Bam Bam:six hours. Of course.
Chef Ricky:Not even a meal voucher.
Bam Bam:Honestly Nothing. I would write
Gizmo:I did. I wrote United. Yeah. They gave me a $100 voucher. They said it wasn't our problem with security.
Gizmo:$100.
Bam Bam:That is complete. Yes.
Gizmo:You know,
Rooster:I I don't I don't get this. The time that it took for the security guys to go inside to get his backpack and the carry on
Gizmo:You could've let two of on. Same time. Time. Just walk in. Exactly.
Gizmo:Walk in. That was the bullshit of it.
Rooster:I mean, you had your boarding pass for that flight.
Gizmo:Here's the thing that pissed me off is is not only did seven United employees lie to me, the security folks were laughing in my face at my concern. And what I was trying to convey to them is had you given me an educated opportunity Mhmm. To make a decision, I would have left my bag behind. Send it whenever you want. Yeah.
Gizmo:It's dirty clothes, a couple fucking ashtrays, and cigars I don't care about. Yeah. Let me get on the plane and get home. Send the bag whenever you want. Sure.
Gizmo:They lied to my face and laughed at me instead of giving me the option to choose because I would have abandoned the bag. Yeah. Yeah. And if
Rooster:you're going to check those bags, you gotta make sure that that passenger gets on the flight.
Gizmo:Of course. By the way. Ample time.
Rooster:I mean, you're there, like, two and a half hour, three hours before boarding time.
Gizmo:We were there so early we had, like, two or three beers.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. That's ridiculous.
Bam Bam:I don't know. This is a question for one of our Lizard members here in the lounge, but I don't think security's mandate is to make sure you make your flight.
Gizmo:They don't give a shit.
Bam Bam:No. Their mandate is for complete safety.
Rooster:But then the flight shouldn't take off
Gizmo:without them.
Bam Bam:Correct. I don't disagree with them.
Gizmo:So here's the thing that's crazy.
Bam Bam:I don't disagree.
Gizmo:So here's the thing that's crazy, is that when this happened, when I was in Havana, so they pulled Mrs. Gizmo. We were already boarded. I remember this. Security walked on the plane at the Havana Airport, pulled Mrs.
Gizmo:Gizmo and two other passengers off Unbelievable. To examine their bags. They held the flight. Security held the flight until everything was examined. They got back on
Bam Bam:That's smart.
Gizmo:To make sure they got out of Havana.
Bam Bam:Now that's Here
Gizmo:in Dominican, they didn't give a shit.
Bam Bam:Unbelievable.
Gizmo:I couldn't believe
Bam Bam:No. It's unbelievable.
Gizmo:How bad it was trying to get out of there. So this this has happened to you like five or six months. It's fucking ridiculous. And by the way, I didn't have anything in the goddamn bag. I had some bullshit cigars.
Gizmo:I didn't care about dirty clothes.
Bam Bam:Dirty underwear. Tell
Gizmo:me that tell me that I this is a problem. You're gonna miss your flight. Leave the bag. I would have abandoned the
Bam Bam:bag. Correct.
Gizmo:Send it whenever the fuck you feel like it.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:I don't care.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And United not making good.
Gizmo:They don't give it I tried twice.
Bam Bam:They don't give a shit. That's unbelievable.
Gizmo:They wouldn't let your let the passenger board without the bag. Right? I mean, they you have to plenty of times. How many times have you you phone and your bag has isn't on the plane? You gotta wait till the know, till they bring it back.
Rooster:That's true. But they're I mean, this is a security check, so they they want you to be
Gizmo:there to answer questions about your bag. Ridiculous. Yeah. I was so mad. It it ruined the end of the trip.
Gizmo:Thankfully, I
Bam Bam:got home.
Gizmo:But, man, I felt bad for Pagoda because I'm teeing off. Oh, yeah. I'm like, give the fucking phone to the goddamn I'm I'm, like, losing my mind.
Bam Bam:Well, Pagoda was drinking by then,
Rooster:so he
Bam Bam:was fine.
Pagoda:No. It's tough because you don't know what to do.
Bam Bam:I know.
Pagoda:You're trying to speak to the flight attendant. They're pretending that they don't understand you. It it was really strange.
Rooster:So when you when you landed in Newark Airport, I hope you waited for Giz seven hours.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah.
Pagoda:Yeah. No. I did. I did because he was gonna drive me back home.
Gizmo:Yeah. That's true. My my car was parked. My truck was parked at the airport. Oh, man.
Gizmo:Unbelievable. That's amazing.
Rooster:And then you come back to two feet of snow.
Gizmo:Correct. Exactly right. Yeah. Alright, boys. We're coming into the last third now on the foundation, the Tabernacle Havana Seed, Connecticut number one four two in Lancero.
Gizmo:Mhmm. And the Jack Daniels, whatever it's called, the single barrel Triple b. Heritage barrel, toasted barrel. A lot of barrels there. Tennessee whiskey.
Gizmo:What's everybody thinking of the pairing?
Bam Bam:I wanna hear what you guys are getting in this very final third.
Gizmo:I loved it down to the end. I blew through
Bam Bam:it. You did. I did too.
Gizmo:Well, telling my United story, I was
Bam Bam:a little frustrated, so I was
Gizmo:hitting the cigar.
Chef Ricky:But
Bam Bam:chef, you're you're ahead of me, and I'm right behind you. What are you getting right now?
Pagoda:So for me, yeah, so I'm, like, right now I'm getting a little more pepper for me.
Bam Bam:Really?
Pagoda:Yeah. But it also might have been because I think I'm taking a few puffs very
Bam Bam:Quickly.
Pagoda:Quickly. So just a little bit of pepper there.
Bam Bam:Other than that?
Pagoda:Just overall, I found that I wish it was a bit sweeter, to be very honest. Really? Like I found it to be, I find that dark chocolate, like a little, really deep dark chocolate is what I'm getting. Like the bitterish dark, like how you were saying.
Bam Bam:I happen to love that, but
Pagoda:Yeah. But yeah, a little bit of earthiness, but that also dissipated a little earlier, but right now it's not as good as what I thought I would be enjoying. I wanted a little bit of sweetness.
Bam Bam:So you got it in the second, third, but you're not getting it in the first, in the last one?
Pagoda:Right here, yeah. And maybe because I took a few puffs very quickly, the pepper thing
Rooster:just Yeah. For me, the cigar is still I mean, I think it's gotten a little creamier. There's a little bit of baking spice that's coming through. That's there. That little nuttiness is
Bam Bam:still You're just past the top of the final third, it looks like.
Rooster:Yeah. Okay. Spice, there is not a lot of pepper. There's really no pepper at
Gizmo:I'm this
Bam Bam:not getting any either.
Rooster:I mean, it's still a little earthy.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Earthiness for me. Chef, what do you got? What'd you get? Yeah.
Gizmo:You and I are done, right?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I was stressing out for Giz throughout that story, but that final third was probably my favorite part of the cigar.
Gizmo:I agree, man. I blew right through it.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I smoked it rather quickly.
Gizmo:What I I it's
Chef Ricky:And it did start to back up on me at the very, very last two draws, and I took it down to, you know, where I couldn't hold it any longer between my fingernails. But prior to that, it got creamy. It was like creamy almond for me with some earth, but the earth dissipated and the creamy almond, maybe a touch of cinnamon there for me. Okay. That baking spice, I guess, if
Bam Bam:you will. Interesting.
Chef Ricky:And that that was about it. But I did enjoy it. You know, that final third was memorable. It was it was what I was seeking. I think the the the bourbon kind of settled in for me Yeah.
Chef Ricky:And pulled out some of those sweeter notes.
Gizmo:Tennessee whiskey, not bourbon, but sorry. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:It it does drink like a bourbon.
Rooster:It does.
Chef Ricky:And a little bit like a rye. Guess you did say there was a small percentage of rye there too, so that makes me
Gizmo:8%.
Chef Ricky:But yeah. Interesting. I did enjoy it. K. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:It came around for me.
Gizmo:I'm really impressed with the cigar tonight. You know, I'll talk about this in the rating, but
Bam Bam:It's a very, memorable cigar.
Gizmo:My only complaint my one complaint is it smoked too fast.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm I'm it's too quick.
Gizmo:It it it for a Lancero
Chef Ricky:timing wise? Because actually
Gizmo:For about an hour thirty five.
Chef Ricky:Is is that too short?
Gizmo:Yeah. Because I finished about twelve, fifteen minutes ago.
Bam Bam:Yeah, it's a bit short.
Gizmo:Yeah, was a little short.
Rooster:But it is a Lancero, right? And you have to smoke it a little slower.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Rooster:Because it's going to heat up on you.
Bam Bam:No doubt.
Gizmo:And that's going
Rooster:to change the flavor.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, I mean, get to that point. Guys you and Pagoda still have a full third of a cigar. BAM's a little bit further.
Bam Bam:Got a half inch left So I'm still getting that very deep, dark chocolate. I'm still getting walnut. I'm getting a little almond, more like an Amaretto than an almond. I do like it, but the minerality has ramped up for me for some reason.
Chef Ricky:The minerality came in for me at the very, very, very end.
Bam Bam:And it's very tart, the minerality, so that I don't like.
Gizmo:Try purging. At this point, I'll a bad bitch. Purge the quarter inch.
Rooster:You'd be
Gizmo:blowing on your fingers.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But it's very slight though. It's there, but it's very slight so I can see past it. I think overall, so far, very memorable. You know, it's pretty good.
Bam Bam:So
Gizmo:as we wrap up our ProCigar coverage and discussion, obviously finishing it with this long story about my airport experience, again, Pagoda and I have to thank La Rora.
Pagoda:La Rora has been fantastic. Wonderful news.
Gizmo:Unbelievable. And we were able to try one of their upcoming cigars, and I can't talk about what it is and what it's named. It was unbelievable. We paired it with some of that Elyon Jimenez rum. That cigar was fantastic.
Gizmo:We were so lucky to have a couple of them. I gotta tell you, La Aurora has pivoted in a different direction. Like, they have gone from a brand that we are aware of to a brand that is premium, and it started really, I think, with the 120, the
Bam Bam:one At 100 that PCA show in Vegas.
Gizmo:And then the Fuerte Sol that we did Correct. In the family series. And what's coming from that is really, really premium. So I no bullshit. Yes, they sent us the ProCigar.
Gizmo:They were very supportive. We're very thankful. At the end of the day, the cigars are really, really excellent, so I can't wait to see what's coming from LaRora.
Bam Bam:I have to say I've got a lot of respect for LaRora where maybe five years ago, seven years ago, I would never ever look at them as a luxury brand, but the way they redesign their cigar bands, their installations at PCA And dude, the flavor. At both shows. Yeah. And the the cigars themselves, everything they're doing, and their website's gorgeous if you haven't seen it, they're really pushing up into that luxury brand where prior to, I don't think they would have ever been considered at that level. So they're doing a lot of things right.
Bam Bam:It's really impressive to see a company, they've been around for a very, very long time, learn how to transition out of where they were from and elevate themselves. It's very impressive.
Pagoda:I'll tell you, the 120 we smoked there, out of the world. Don't know.
Gizmo:Dude, it was so good.
Pagoda:Yeah. You know, so I've always enjoyed the 107, I think.
Bam Bam:That's good too.
Gizmo:One hundred seven's the red band.
Bam Bam:That's correct. The
Pagoda:one hundred twenty was really, really good. Like, I was looking for boxes for them, Yeah. And I think Atlantic might have had them, like, I think they were sold out or, but I think I'm gonna get some 120s and age them and try them.
Gizmo:Well, Aurora, I think, in the last three to four years has officially pivoted into becoming
Bam Bam:A luxury brand.
Gizmo:A premium Luxury brand. Correct. Luxury brand.
Bam Bam:No
Gizmo:doubt. Whereas before, I think they were kind of the average Joe.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:Now, And I'm not saying this because they took us to to PCA. I've been I've you know, I obviously went to their factory a year and a half ago, two years ago.
Bam Bam:To D. Yeah. ProCigar.
Gizmo:ProCigar. No. No. Before ProCigar. Remember, I went to the
Bam Bam:Oh, that's right.
Gizmo:Their factory, like, a year and
Chef Ricky:a
Bam Bam:half That's correct.
Gizmo:A couple weeks ago, Pagoda and I went to ProCigar.
Bam Bam:My comments are coming from the point of view where I haven't been to ProCigar.
Gizmo:I know, but it's just about flavor.
Bam Bam:And well, no. And perception. And presentation.
Rooster:Yes.
Bam Bam:And their brand elevation has been very impressive. I can't wait to see them this coming April at PCA.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's gonna be fun.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Looking forward to
Gizmo:And the cigars they have coming are freaking great.
Bam Bam:So I can't wait for that.
Gizmo:Yeah. Alright, boys. It's time now to move into some listener email and our lizard of the week. We're gonna start with a listener email now. This one is from Lizard Marcus.
Gizmo:He says, hello, Lizards. Long time no email. I got a good chuckle listening to this week's episode when Giz gave an update on lizard of the week. So, obviously, I was telling everybody that we were catching up on lizard of the week. I had so much of a backlog to get through, and we're getting through it, and everybody's gonna get their prizes.
Gizmo:I was actually reminded that I had won lizard of the week many moons ago.
Bam Bam:Well, don't guess. I really Well done,
Gizmo:Giz. Really? Yeah. I apologize. But back on episode 189, this had totally totally fallen off my radar until Giz mentioned it this week.
Gizmo:Onto my question now. I live in New England, which has been quite cold for months on end. It's quite cold right here right now. I unfortunately do not have a lounge close to me, so I find myself on a hiatus from smoking. That's unfortunate.
Gizmo:The past few days have fortunately been warming up and have got me really craving a cigar, and I've begun thinking about what lengths I would go to to smoke a cigar. So that is my question to you all. What is the longest hiatus you've gone without having a cigar? Did you try and ease yourself back into it after that? Thanks as always for the entertainment.
Gizmo:Best, Lizard Marcus. Great question.
Bam Bam:It's a good it's a nice question. Not really applicable to us because know what's
Gizmo:funny though? It is for me.
Bam Bam:But we're surrounded by lounges and destinations to go and sit and smoke.
Gizmo:Correct. But I've also I I actually had a period over the last month, I would say, where I was kinda like bored.
Bam Bam:Not okay. With cigars. Really?
Gizmo:Yeah. It it was weird. I went about a week or ten
Chef Ricky:it. No,
Gizmo:it's true. It's true. I I just think I had been smoking so much, and I had taken about a week or ten days off when we didn't record. And, man, when I when I came back, it was like enlightenment. You took a ten days off.
Gizmo:I know. I think it was eight days. I think was eight days.
Pagoda:Guess you're out.
Bam Bam:That's think
Rooster:not was eight days.
Gizmo:That's crazy. No. But I think sometimes you need a reset. I don't think it's crazy.
Rooster:Eight days is crazy. So
Chef Ricky:Eight days is crazy.
Bam Bam:I will say I do have moments where I don't smoke every single day. So in a week, if I'm not smoking every day, I'll maybe smoke twice that week just to kinda give my palate a break. I do that from time to time. But ten days straight without a single cigar, that's
Gizmo:It was like eight days for me, and I'm glad I did it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. No. No. But dude, I I to Dude,
Gizmo:was smoking so much. I was smoking so much, man. Look at
Pagoda:the risk. That's like giving it up to Lent.
Gizmo:Dude, you smoke one cigar every day. When I sit down and
Rooster:smoke, Doesn't I smoke matter. You gotta have one every day.
Bam Bam:He ain't wrong.
Chef Ricky:No. I I look. I'm I don't smoke every day. Neither do I. I'm super busy.
Chef Ricky:If I could sneak one in the car, I will, but since I'm a little conscious of what I smell like when I walk into the restaurant.
Gizmo:Not into the house, the restaurant.
Chef Ricky:No, the house has no problem, the restaurant.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Chef Ricky:But I did go through a stretch where it was the only time I was smoking was on pod lights. Yeah. And that was for a
Gizmo:I remember you saying that.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, that was for a good month.
Bam Bam:Interesting, wow.
Chef Ricky:But, you know, even that's once a week, you know? So it's not a massive accomplishment or whatnot. But, yeah, if I was in this situation, you know, I I I could I could see how it it's tough to do it. And but you know what? That's the beauty of this hobby.
Chef Ricky:Right? Like, it's not, I need to do this. Like you don't need to do it because of the sort of quote unquote addiction that say a cigarette smoker would have to
Bam Bam:Rooster's eyebrows are furled right now.
Chef Ricky:It's more about the experience, right? And sometimes if the experience or the opportunity isn't the right one, then you don't do it because it feels like a waste of time, a waste of a great cigar.
Rooster:So let me ask you this. If you were allowed to smoke in the house by the fireplace
Chef Ricky:I smoke every day. Hell, yeah. But what percentage
Gizmo:what percentage of lizard nations
Rooster:Doesn't matter.
Gizmo:It's it's it's the smoke inside their home.
Bam Bam:Close to zero.
Rooster:It's gotta be even if you had a garage set up with a heater.
Gizmo:Which I do.
Chef Ricky:I do. I do. But sometimes I don't even want to do that. Right? Like sometimes it's so cold that I don't I don't want to
Gizmo:So it's not that you don't want to. It's because you can't.
Chef Ricky:No. I can. I can go in my You're saying too cold. Well, the cold is temporary, right? If I really had that urge, I could make the few feet trip to my garage and set up shop and smoke, but sometimes the setting
Rooster:And it requires work.
Chef Ricky:It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. I don't want to sit alone. I want to sit with you guys or I want to sit with a buddy Always. No, not all the time.
Chef Ricky:I smoke many cigars a lot.
Bam Bam:You're moving into examination hour now No.
Rooster:But Are you about
Gizmo:to put them on a pip?
Chef Ricky:Almost. No. But there there there's a beauty to smoking. Look. I smoke many cigars alone.
Chef Ricky:Right? I smoked cigar alone the other day. I watched the world baseball classic.
Bam Bam:Good. I'm relieved.
Chef Ricky:You know? But sometimes it's, you know, like for me, things have to be right. Like everything has to be right. And if it's not right, I don't want to waste a cigar, I don't want to waste my time. I don't want to, you know, I'd rather just kind of almost go to sleep.
Chef Ricky:Cause a lot of times those opportunities for me are late at night. Right? It's not the middle of the day. It's not the start of the evening. It's usually like I get home and it's like, okay, if I'm going to commit to this cigar, I'm going to be up for a few more hours.
Chef Ricky:I have to set this up. I have to break it down. Do I wanna do this right now? Is the time right? Am I in the right headspace?
Chef Ricky:Like everything has to be right.
Bam Bam:Oh, think we're gonna get some emails on this.
Gizmo:Know? Honestly, I agree with you, man. I mean,
Chef Ricky:it's If like the things are not right, then I'm just smoking for the sake of smoking and that's The how it's cigar is gonna
Rooster:put you in the right
Gizmo:answer, But hold on, I do think a reset is valuable. Yeah. I do think
Bam Bam:Yeah, no, I agree. I disagree with that.
Gizmo:Now listen, we're fortunate, unlike Lizard Marcus who doesn't have the situation we have, clearly, right?
Bam Bam:Depending on where he lives
Gizmo:like He's almost forced into a reset. Yeah. Yeah. Because of the situation.
Chef Ricky:He sounds like he's been in a situation for months. Yeah. That's long time. At his point, I'd probably pop a tent up, right, and get a heater of some kind whether he's propane or what not.
Bam Bam:A buddy of mine set up a tent on his front porch.
Rooster:I have
Bam Bam:a bar.
Chef Ricky:Buddy Ken sets up a fishing tent.
Gizmo:That's it.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. The backyard of his karate school. Sure. He has a deck out there and he'll set up a fishing tent with an electric heater and
Gizmo:he'll smoke. Honestly,
Bam Bam:from Lizard Marcus, that's the ultimate and probably only option that he has. If you don't want to drive three hours to and it's tough up there. We've all vacationed up there. I've spent a lot of time up there. The cigar culture is very scarce.
Gizmo:Yeah. You're driving- Especially in Massachusetts. There's so many like little municipalities that have banned cigars.
Bam Bam:Yeah, you're driving to get to a lounge. So get a tent, get the heater in there and puff away and relax. It's actually a great way to kind of just put that zipper up in the tent and completely unplug from the world for an hour and a half.
Pagoda:By the way, I don't know what's up with England and New England, buddy.
Bam Bam:Yeah. All the England's. Good point, Pagoda. That's correct.
Gizmo:Yeah. But you know what? The reset was really good for me because there's an element of what we do and what I do outside of here. I'm smoking cigars because I have to. So the idea that I had a little bit of a reset has been really good for me, and it's like coming back into this, it brings value to it.
Bam Bam:I feel for Lizard Marcus because he's probably gone weeks and weeks.
Gizmo:Yeah, or months. It
Chef Ricky:sounds like a long time.
Bam Bam:That's tough. You have to get creative, and I think the tent idea is ideal next winter. It's a must for him.
Chef Ricky:No, there's definitely I mean, it hasn't happened in a while, but there's been times where maybe I've gone a week or two weeks and my wife's like, Are you going to smoke a cigar? Maybe it's because She she
Gizmo:sends your edge.
Chef Ricky:She sees me a little on edge and whatnot, right?
Bam Bam:I get that from Mrs. Bam Bam quite often. She's like looking at me, I'm sitting next to her-
Chef Ricky:I think
Gizmo:you need a cigar.
Rooster:Get out of here.
Bam Bam:I'm not happy with what's on TV. I'm just staring at the floor, staring at the ceiling. And she looks at me and says, Don't you need a cigar right about now? Thank you, Lord. I'm like, And I fly out of that house like a bat out of hell.
Bam Bam:But honestly, no more than two days break for me. I haven't really had that much of a break, but I will say the day I crave the cigar the most is the day after a recording.
Gizmo:I agree with
Chef Ricky:you on that.
Bam Bam:It's crazy. I agree. So even if we're here till 2AM and we're in three cigars, four cigars, we go home, for some reason I'm working the day after and I want a cigar. And I can't have one because I gotta get things done, but that's really the day I crave a cigar the most. Strange.
Gizmo:But I think we're also lucky in what we do here is, Rooster was saying earlier, the idea that the cigar we brought in tonight was such a departure from what we've been smoking recently. It's like It's a revelation. Yeah. It's like we're lucky that we've got these different things that we're trying and different kinds of cigars and flavor profiles.
Bam Bam:And where we are, we have five or six destinations. We can go grab a chair and we're fortunate where we are.
Chef Ricky:Not many that are twenty four hours, if any.
Bam Bam:Well, don't need that though. Well,
Chef Ricky:me, I feel like I do because it's just you know
Bam Bam:Well, we have our home base. Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now to go into our lizard of the week presented by Bon Roberts. And our lizard of the week this week is Lizard Abe who's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from Bond Roberts. It's a new name. We really appreciate those guys.
Gizmo:A new name. And their support of us and our lizards of the week. And Lizard Abe sent a voice memo that I'm gonna play right now. K.
Lizard Abe:Hey, guys. I really enjoyed the podcast. I was thinking that part of the enjoyment of the hobby for a lot of people these days, especially those of us that don't have a regular group of friends to smoke with or a lounge to go to, is the online content and social media. I've enjoyed seeing what others are smoking, sharing my experiences, and the exchange of knowledge online with others. So I was just curious about which content you guys enjoy, whether it be other podcasts or YouTube channels or any other cigar related traditional or social media that you consume.
Lizard Abe:I look forward to hearing your thoughts and listening to the podcast for a long time to come. Thanks a lot.
Bam Bam:I'm so glad he wrote that in.
Gizmo:So congrats to Lizard Abe, first of all, for winning Lizard of the Week. We love voice memos. Great question. We've not been asked that before.
Bam Bam:No. So
Gizmo:what's your answer, Bam?
Bam Bam:I have a lot of scathing comments about the boys in this room regarding the consumption of cigar media. Oh. I am a firm believer of walking into this recording not knowing what I'm gonna smoke, not knowing what I'm gonna drink, and not doing any effing research about any of this information. Why? Except for you.
Gizmo:Let me ask you a question. How do I finish? This should go if I walked in here like that.
Bam Bam:Except for you, of course. Remember, wear the talent.
Pagoda:I'm the manager.
Chef Ricky:You're the manager. For Bam, ignorance is bliss. Correct. Right?
Bam Bam:It's not ignorance. What it is for me, it creates First of all,
Chef Ricky:But some of us don't have that option. Like if I bring a tequila on here, I can't That's not know what, different. Yeah, sure.
Bam Bam:That's different, but you don't need to know the cigar that you're gonna smoke.
Chef Ricky:100%.
Bam Bam:You don't have to research the cigar that you smoke.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, and I often don't.
Bam Bam:There's no need to do any of that. And this is just my personal opinion. I like walking in here unadulterated, uninfluenced. I don't wanna know what the tasting notes are. I want to discover that for myself and make my own commentary, even if it doesn't reflect what is said online about the products.
Chef Ricky:But I think his question is more of like, what do we do to continue our education outside of this podcast?
Gizmo:Like what consume do cigar wise on the internet unrelated to when
Bam Bam:None. We're You know what, my education, it comes from all of you guys.
Chef Ricky:That's exactly
Pagoda:what you
Bam Bam:And it comes from the guys in this lounge and all the other lounges I go to. I kind of like to observe and ask questions. It's a beautiful thing while we have Would I smoke most of the things that I see other people smoking? Probably not. But I ask what they're getting.
Bam Bam:What are you tasting? Like, are you getting anything from that cigar? And all of you guys, I've learned a lot from you guys. I'm hoping I taught some people here too.
Chef Ricky:100%, yeah.
Bam Bam:And that room next door where we have all of our other club members, you know, it's interesting to see what people are grabbing and smoking. Even if it's something that we smoked, I like to get their perspective because they're not here recording.
Chef Ricky:And Bem's not lying because that's one of the few that's one of the first things I had noticed about him in the beginning. You know, being a member of this lounge multiple years now, from the very beginning, even coming in here early on where, like, my knowledge was not there. Right? Like, I was learning, especially on the Cuban side. But he still, you know, and sometimes you just this guy's just trying to make conversation.
Chef Ricky:Is he, you know, but he genuinely asked that question every time. You know? There's a few things Bam ask every single night when he's with you. What are you tasting? What are you getting?
Chef Ricky:How do you like it?
Bam Bam:What do smell?
Chef Ricky:And what do you have going on tomorrow?
Gizmo:That's true. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:It's true. Those are key questions. Those are always questions that Bam asks, and he's genuinely interested in those things.
Rooster:I asked that.
Pagoda:And he logs it.
Bam Bam:That specific question about what you're doing tomorrow, it kinda gives me a sense as to what your mindset is today. Sure. Yeah. Because we're always thinking about where we have to do tomorrow. Gotta get up, I gotta shower, gotta go to the office.
Bam Bam:Not everybody, but you're you're working
Chef Ricky:for I for got a two cases to lose.
Bam Bam:There you go. Or whatever you're doing. So I don't consume, Giz, I, you're in a different position here.
Gizmo:Yeah, I'll you about mine in
Chef Ricky:a second.
Bam Bam:You're in a different ballgame. You've gotta do what you do for what we do here. But for me personally, I like to come in almost blind to what we're doing, and I try not to get my I don't listen to any cigar podcasts. I don't. I have no interest in their commentary, good for the good or for the bad.
Bam Bam:Maybe that that may not be a good thing, but I'm not sure. But for me, it's great because I know my comments are truly coming from me, and I have pride in that.
Chef Ricky:So can I ask you a question now, professionally? Are there things that you do to, that you absorb, whether it be, you know, I don't know, Architectural Digest, God forbid that's like a full power, but you know, are there things I that you
Bam Bam:don't look at AD.
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Bam Bam:I go back to my school years. You build your own philosophy of how you want to approach your practice, and you try to stay true to that. And that's always the ultimate goal. That's like the top shelf goal. It's hard to do when you have a paying client that has their own perspective as to how they want to build their You know, you kind of have to be flexible, but creatively Firm.
Bam Bam:Well, you have to creatively infuse your influence in a way where, I shouldn't probably say this out loud, but eventually the conversations are based on a method where you're getting a client to agree with what your approach is and how you want to go about doing the project by asking specific questions a certain way. It's like sales. It's also some form of marketing. Marketers do that. But you've got to get consensus by asking the right questions and asking those questions that are geared toward your end goal.
Gizmo:So for me, I mean, when Giz mentions, Okay, this is
Rooster:the cigar we're going to do today, I have not heard about that cigar. I want to know a little bit about the brand, a little bit about what
Gizmo:makeup the of the cigar is,
Rooster:what kind of a binder.
Bam Bam:Does that do for you? How does that help you?
Gizmo:It helps me informs the discussion. Yeah.
Rooster:And also-
Bam Bam:But you can hear that from him because he goes over that the moment we sit down.
Rooster:But what if he makes a mistake? Then I
Bam Bam:can correct that. That'll never happen.
Gizmo:He likes to correct that.
Bam Bam:But that never happens.
Chef Ricky:We're all looking for the wrong We want know what Greg is.
Gizmo:Correct. You are in senator's seat.
Chef Ricky:Look, we're
Gizmo:in a podcast, right? So I want to know everything about that, Marco, when I come into the pod so I can be a little bit more engaged with the brand. If
Rooster:you haven't heard anything about the brand, might
Bam Bam:to know my engagement what is on the brand builds from his educated commentary because he has to do the research.
Rooster:Yeah, but I wanna do my
Gizmo:own research.
Bam Bam:I'm counting on my manager to provide the information. No, I'm being deadly serious right now because it gives, for me, I like to come, again, I come in unadulterated, uninfluenced by anything that's on the internet. I get the information that's downloaded here during the recording, and I like the purity of that. For me, it gives me that perspective of coming in fresh as a daisy with this cigar and this drink, and it's more interesting for me. It's more exciting.
Bam Bam:It's more provocative. Like, I can have specific opinions generated based on what y'all are saying, And I would challenge everyone in this room, except for Giz, try it on one pod. Don't do a shred of research on anything we're consuming in here. Let's see what happens. Just a recommendation.
Rooster:I don't think, at least for
Gizmo:me, I'm not looking for flavor notes of that particular cigar, but I want to know
Rooster:a little bit more about the brand. Because I want to see, even what are other people smoking, right? I want to know what everybody else is smoking. What's good?
Bam Bam:Why?
Rooster:Because so we could do it on a pod maybe one day.
Bam Bam:Well, we are. Well, why leave So we're already doing it on a pod because Well, it's
Rooster:leave like it just up to Gizmo to do
Gizmo:all the research, do all the work? I mean, let's
Rooster:give him some ideas about what else to smoke.
Gizmo:Man likes when I work.
Bam Bam:So I don't think that alleviates your workload.
Gizmo:We do our research. No, it doesn't. But here's in a recommendation.
Bam Bam:I'm just being I have a business coach and whenever I start talking like this, why? Why? Every ten minute, why?
Pagoda:Sounds more like a therapist.
Bam Bam:Kind of It's
Gizmo:kind of the same thing.
Bam Bam:It's kind of the same thing. So I'm like, all right, wait a minute. Let me rethink what the hell I'm thinking here before I speak and say, I don't want another why. So I take a moment, and I have and try to make a comment that's intelligent, I get another why.
Chef Ricky:I'm like, you're right. Why the fuck am I here?
Bam Bam:Why? I'm leaving.
Pagoda:And I'm like, Simon Sinek says it.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. Know the why. Know the why. Start with why.
Bam Bam:I don't wanna know the why in this room.
Gizmo:Let me
Bam Bam:Until I start consuming. Once I hear your information, then I'm deducing, and it's for me fresh. Yeah. So I completely and it's spontane Oh, here's the other thing. It's spontaneous.
Bam Bam:Sure. There's why there is no way.
Gizmo:For you ads for you ads to the recording.
Bam Bam:For me.
Gizmo:For you.
Bam Bam:I have more fun. That's fine. And I and my my
Gizmo:But if if Rooster comes in, it's not like I think Rooster's looking for flavor note ideas.
Bam Bam:Oh, I think that comes
Gizmo:You have
Bam Bam:You have to read read All that information is there.
Gizmo:Honestly, I avoid it like the plague. Honestly.
Bam Bam:No. If you I'm not accusing anyone of anything.
Gizmo:No. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying but the listener and we're discussing this asked about what the practice is of consuming other media. Right. Quite honestly, when I'm looking, let's say, at a half wheel review of a cigar,
Lizard Abe:I
Gizmo:stop before they get to the flavor notes because I don't want to be influenced.
Bam Bam:That's just the facts.
Gizmo:So like Rooster said, I I just want to be educated about don't agree with the half wheels scores are on that cigar, and we're really like way, way off on those. It's quite divergent.
Bam Bam:Even for me, the moment I understand what a score and a rating is for a cigar, I'm already influenced just a touch. And it would come through for me personally in my recordings. I wouldn't be the same person if I knew every detail about everything I'm consuming tonight.
Gizmo:Just So I think that's one aspect of what the listener is asking. Other aspect is Just generally. Yeah, like what do
Rooster:we like to watch? Or what social media? Like, I love to watch some
Gizmo:of the YouTube documentaries about, like, you know, heart like seed to Oh, that's cool. There's a Davidoff documentary. Davidoff has a great one. Padron has a great one.
Bam Bam:So that's different.
Gizmo:Honestly, the hand rolled, we talked about those guys. They've done a great job of yourself
Rooster:about the whole production.
Bam Bam:That's different.
Rooster:Making cigars, know, from seed to production.
Gizmo:Learning about that.
Bam Bam:So that's completely different than what I'm talking about.
Gizmo:So let set up my general consumption of cigar media and also specific to what we do, right? So me specifically, what I consume is like you're saying. I like facts. I like education. I can't stand the YouTube bullshit that is happening in not just cigars, everything.
Gizmo:Right? YouTube's really going down a well of shit right now on pretty much everything. And I think cigars are no exception with that. So for me, again, I love facts. I love education.
Gizmo:I love watching what you're talking about, Rister. Old stuff, new stuff, education that is not biased. They're not trying to sell you something. They're not going for clicks. They're just trying to put out a good educational product.
Gizmo:That's number one. Number two, for me, I learned most of my new I new new concepts around cigars often from FOH. FOH to me is a forum that is curated, taken care of, moderated. It's a great discussion, and there's some really brilliant people there.
Bam Bam:That's also different. That's akin to what Rooster was saying just a moment ago. Those documentaries and what you're learning from FOH, those are truly educational. That's fucking fantastic. Absolutely.
Bam Bam:That's a different story.
Gizmo:As far as other cigar media that we kinda sit alongside, there hasn't been another podcast or regular media source that I consume on any regular basis. There are two exceptions. Number one is developing developing palettes on YouTube. I I respect those guys. I like those guys.
Gizmo:Cigar surgeon John is a friend of mine. And there's another one that I wanna shout out, which is a listener of ours who started a podcast, The Cigar Soldier, which we've, you know, we've referenced him. We've talked about some of his emails. We've shared some of his stuff over the years. He just started a podcast, audio only, The Cigar Soldier, so check him out.
Gizmo:He's he's doing a really great job, educated. Like, there's no fluff. There's no bullshit. Like, he's got no angle on it. Great dude.
Gizmo:Aside from that, I find that most of the other cigar podcasts, the other YouTube content, there's an angle. They're trying to sell something. They have a retail shop. They are trying to extract money from you. I am proud of us in four and a half years.
Gizmo:We've never asked the listener for a dime to continue doing what we do. We've never allowed outside influence on our ratings in what we do. So from a media standpoint, I don't consume a lot of kind of parallel products to what we put out each week, but there is some great stuff out there, like like Rooster was saying, documentaries, curated forums like FOH, movies. You know, there are things out there to consume. Every day, though, it's getting harder to find them because there's AI slop Mhmm.
Gizmo:And there's bullshit, and it's I mean, TikTok is useless. Instagram is useless. I mean, it's just really a marketing game.
Rooster:Mean, there's some older videos
Gizmo:on YouTube about Henke Kellner or even Clasted. Oh, there's so much.
Bam Bam:That's kinda cool.
Gizmo:The Shahiki
Bam Bam:That's very cool.
Rooster:I mean, there's so many
Gizmo:documentaries just about Cuba.
Bam Bam:So I have respect for all of that material. For sure. So that's, you
Pagoda:know, a good The question is do you consume it? I don't.
Gizmo:But I respect that though, Bam. I mean, that's your choice. But I do, I also, I wanna say
Bam Bam:And I would if I actually made the effort to find that material because that's pretty cool material.
Pagoda:Yeah, because I think his question was more related to what else are you consuming?
Bam Bam:Yeah, but I purposely don't consume, I would consume that material, but I draw the line right there. I'm a part of a podcast. There's a guy in here that sets the tone for what we're gonna smoke and we're gonna drink. I have a job to do, and my job is very specific. It's to be commenting on what I'm experiencing without any other influences.
Bam Bam:It's that simple.
Chef Ricky:That's fair.
Bam Bam:And honestly, if you approach it that way, I have more fun. I'm more spontaneous. I'm getting things that may or may not have a parallel to what's published on the internet. And I think that's what this whole journey is about. I think everyone has a different palate.
Bam Bam:Everyone has a different experience. And I think the ultimate
Rooster:Everybody's palate is different. Even if
Gizmo:you read comments about a person smoking the same cigar that we are doing on the podcast any given day, you're going to have a different experience.
Rooster:Your palate is not the same. You're going to have a totally different you're not going to get those same notes that he is.
Bam Bam:But I have a but.
Gizmo:What's
Bam Bam:People are influenced. Just like people are in this room. When we change to this new rating system, that doesn't happen any longer. Why? Because we're sending our ratings on our cell phones directly to Gizmo.
Bam Bam:We hear anybody else talk.
Gizmo:I respect that.
Bam Bam:It's kind of in the same vein. If someone's mentioning tapioca, which I get a lot in my cigars, but I don't think I've ever seen that. I don't read tasting notes. I don't want it. Just don't want it.
Bam Bam:Part of my experience here.
Gizmo:Pagoda, do you consume any other media?
Pagoda:No, I don't. Like So you like BAM? I'm told that BAM in the sense of, and the reason for me is I'm out a lot. I'm hanging out with people a lot.
Gizmo:You're not smoking
Pagoda:a lot. I generally, if I get some time, I'm watching shows I like, I'm not consuming any kind of media when it's cigar related. So I typically don't know a lot about what's really going on. Mhmm. Now there's a question to it, because I think the guys we met in Doctor kind of said, hey, listen, you know, you're a podcast.
Pagoda:You should know what's happening all the time about everything because
Gizmo:But I do.
Pagoda:You you do. And, but I don't. So for me, I don't consume any of the media.
Bam Bam:I don't agree with that.
Pagoda:Now have I researched some of the cigars before? Yeah. But 70% of the time, maybe 80% of the time, I don't even know cigars we're smoking because I just show up. I'm more like Bam. And you know, like for me, it's what I'm feeling at that point in time and what I'm experiencing.
Pagoda:And it's different. Like I wish I did, so what I learned about other cigars is sometimes buddies of mine, like a little child, he consumed a lot of media. Like he sent me information. Like when you send the information on the Davidoff Dominicana.
Bam Bam:Yeah, the debut.
Pagoda:He sent me the same thing right away. Was really interesting. But I don't know Well
Bam Bam:we know you love that line, right?
Pagoda:Yeah, yeah. So I like, I typically, I typically, yeah, I just don't have the time. And if I do have the time, I'm doing different things.
Bam Bam:But with all that said, I wanna ask Rooster. I don't actually really know where to look for a lot of this, and you Gizmo, some of that more historic, chronicled, interesting information about the history of certain cigars and brands and makers, that's really cool. And I haven't done enough of that. It's just, I mean, once
Gizmo:you find one YouTube feed you're more That I
Bam Bam:would like to know. I would love for you to send this link
Gizmo:to By the way, you didn't have the YouTube app on your phone till last week. Downloaded it. Correct. Maybe that's why.
Bam Bam:I also avoid YouTube like a plague.
Gizmo:Well, that's why.
Bam Bam:I do. Yeah. I I mean, I'm not a so I I as I said this to you before, I do deliberately avoid social media.
Gizmo:Well, listen. I'll send you some stuff.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That'd great.
Pagoda:I mean, we only have a lot
Gizmo:of You too, Rooster.
Rooster:There's a lot of garbage out there.
Gizmo:Yeah. There's a lot of slop. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Rooster:But, you learn from each other.
Gizmo:Like Giz said, you go on FOH. You can ask guys about, hey, what do
Rooster:you recommend as far as
Gizmo:documentaries on YouTube videos that are worth watching And
Rooster:and learning I mean, in life you're always learning
Pagoda:from So each
Bam Bam:those are learning opportunities, and I'm totally for that, no doubt.
Pagoda:Yeah, but we are fortunate as well. Like, you know, we all was in lounges. Like I was in Long Island, I was in a completely different lounge, and I got a lot of cigar recommendations once I found out I was in the pod, and you know, I'll send But a few over to for me, a lot of it is very conversational. Yeah. And if I remember something, I remember, but I typically don't.
Bam Bam:Those are almost really the most meaningful interactions when you're at a club outside of your home base. Those are pretty meaningful.
Gizmo:Yeah. Because you're meeting new people, you're experiencing new things.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's
Gizmo:cool. So boys, congratulations again to Lizard Abe with that great voice memo.
Bam Bam:Very good.
Gizmo:Prompted this nice discussion about cigar media, And, again, he's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bon Roberts. So thanks to them, and congratulations to him. We have come to the end of our evening boys with the Jack Daniels. Hold on for this. Single barrel, Heritage barrel, Toasted Barrel, Tennessee Whiskey, and the Foundation, The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT number 142 in Lancero.
Gizmo:Any final thoughts before we go into our ratings tonight? And don't forget to send your ratings over to me.
Bam Bam:Oh, shit. That's right.
Gizmo:Send them along. Alright, boys. It's time to move into the formal liquor rating tonight on the Jack Daniel's SingleBarrel, Heritage Barrel, Toasted Barrel, Tennessee Whiskey. I can't believe that's the name. Bam Bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:So I'm at a pretty solid eight. I think that's a fair score for this. The nose is a 10. The aroma is pretty exquisite. Butterscotch and vanilla.
Bam Bam:I kind of find it hard to pinpoint what I'm experiencing here because with ice, it drinks like a cognac and amaretto type combo. Without it, It does drink like a whiskey, but there's bourbon esque qualities to it, so it's kind of moving around.
Chef Ricky:I just want to say a very hot version of Amaretto. I don't want people to
Bam Bam:be yeah, agree with you. Yeah, yeah, That's correct. Thank you. That's correct. But I think that's also what makes it pretty interesting.
Bam Bam:Is this something I would drink again? Probably not. But I think the flavor was pretty compelling. It's also got a pretty memorable experience. So that's something I'll remember.
Bam Bam:Did we say how much this bottle was? Don't think we talked
Gizmo:In about 70, yeah, we did. It's like between 60 and 70, depending.
Bam Bam:Okay, so that's an average price. I don't think I'd ever buy this again. But with all that said, I think an 8 is a very fair score. It is delicious, I think much better with the ice than without, and I only put two or three chips in, so small little half inch cubes, and that dissipated the medicinal quality that I was getting early on in the drink. But with this particular cigar, and I think you have to pair this with a very heavy, full bodied smoke.
Bam Bam:I don't think this will do good with almost any Cuban cigar I wouldn't have it with
Chef Ricky:And I don't want to drink this alone either. I need to drink it with a cigar almost.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Definitely. That's it's gonna make it more interesting. I think it'll go pretty well with Padron's. I don't think Aladina would do great with this.
Bam Bam:I don't think Aging Room would do great with this. Agree. I don't think the warped cigar that we love, that Master Del Tempe, that will not do good with this. It's gotta be a full flavored cigar, the VSG probably by Ashton, the Padron series cigars, and this beautiful cigar that we had tonight was a great pairing with it.
Chef Ricky:A Liga.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Liga nine would be great with this particular with this spirit. So I'm at a firm eight.
Gizmo:All right, chef.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, I'm also at an eight. So I started at a seven and Pagoda saved this one. Pagoda's
Gizmo:Well, you're a big ice man now.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, Pagoda's contribution of the ice here to the spirit really brought it to the next level for me. Know, it made it You fucked
Bam Bam:up, man. You're discredited now.
Chef Ricky:Well, look,
Gizmo:know Everything's changed tonight.
Chef Ricky:Correct. I was chasing the nose on the spirit. Nose, like Bam said, is a 10. It's intoxicating, it delivers wonderful aromas that you want. You want those aromas to come through on the flavor, and it just wasn't for me.
Chef Ricky:So it made sense. Know, look, it's 100 proof spirit, 50% alcohol, bring it down a touch, the temperature coming down. You know, the cigar itself was also strong, so it just helped sort of temper the entire experience and really brought out some of the more nuanced flavors. And that's what I appreciated. And that's why it went up to an eight for me.
Chef Ricky:When that happened, I was getting more almond, somewhat Amaretto like. It did feel more like a bourbon in a sense where the maybe that rye influence was just sort of calmed down a little bit. But I really I enjoyed it with the ice. Without the ice, you know, it was a different experience. I agree with Bam's commentary that, you know, a full body cigar or fuller flavored cigar is the way to go with the spirit.
Chef Ricky:So, you know, with all that being said, it's it's an eight for me.
Gizmo:So for me, it's a nine. I actually really enjoyed this pairing tonight. I thought this was an excellent whiskey. I loved what it did without water, without ice. I loved what it did when I added water.
Bam Bam:And
Gizmo:I loved also what it did when you, you know, concocted the ice drink Yeah. Yeah. That you put together that chefs so loved.
Bam Bam:Three chips. Three chips of finger
Gizmo:I a half
Chef Ricky:really Put one chip every
Rooster:time. Okay.
Gizmo:I'll imagine three. Just one. Allegedly.
Chef Ricky:Just one.
Gizmo:I I thought It was a big cube. Thought Correct. This really worked well with the cigar we had tonight. Yeah. And I think it would work really well with most Nicaraguan cigars.
Bam Bam:Oh, definitely.
Gizmo:I really like the spirit. I'm shocked, honestly, to be saying this and to be celebrating this Jack Daniel's tonight, but I thought it was really, really good. I loved the nose, and I loved how and honestly, I loved how it changed from drinking it neat to adding a little water to adding a little lice. Like, I think for the listener out there, for the lizard out there who wants to kinda experience it his or her own way. Mhmm.
Gizmo:There's a
Rooster:lot of options
Bam Bam:here It's with this versatile from that perspective.
Gizmo:It is. And I think it pairs very well with a Nicaraguan cigar. I think it did a great job tonight. Yep. I do agree.
Gizmo:You know, I'm not gonna knock it. I don't think it would pair well with a Cuban or a Honduran.
Bam Bam:But that's okay.
Gizmo:You know, or even a light Dominican. But I think for what we had tonight, for what the cigar was tonight, for what the spirit paired with that cigar
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Gizmo:It was very, very good. I really enjoyed it. It's a nine for me.
Bam Bam:I have to say before you go, Pagoda, the finish is really extraordinary. And honestly Such a long finish, For me, the finish has gotten better and better. Right now, it's really delicious. Like, took a sip ten minutes ago. I'm still experiencing the notes.
Bam Bam:It's a pretty extraordinary experience. I wouldn't go so
Gizmo:far When you say extraordinary, that doesn't align with an eight, dude.
Bam Bam:But here, but
Chef Ricky:Now we know why BAM doesn't do research.
Bam Bam:No. It's a influenced. That's only one part of the full Correct. That's only one part of the full experience. The finish is just a
Gizmo:very I tail end
Bam Bam:it, So components of this are very highly performed, but there are other components for me just personally that weren't what I like. But right now, the finish I'm getting, dude, it's pretty Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. All right, Pagoda.
Pagoda:For me, it's a nine. It was between an eight and a nine, and I think the reason I opted to a nine for a couple of reasons. One of them is I felt that it really, for me, really enhanced a cigar.
Gizmo:I agree.
Pagoda:The long finish really helped. By the way, it's like one of those things like, you know, I'll drink, as everybody knows, whether it's whiskey, whether it's bourbon, whether it's rum, with ice. So I typically go for ice in any case. So I don't think for me with a factor of with or without ice, it was more so that what were they experiencing in terms of just having the spirit. Very very it's delicious.
Pagoda:You know, you put in a few chips suffice, long finish. It kept me kept me drawing to it. The you know, typically, I really don't like, you know, the high proofs, but like whether it's a bourbon, whether it's, in this case, it's a whiskey, at a 100, you know, typically I'm not really fond of these at all because I feel a little pressure on my chest. This, after putting ice, I didn't have that.
Chef Ricky:I agree. I feel like you should be a fan of those because you put so much ice in your stuff.
Gizmo:No. But I No. Coming from an ice guy, you should be criticizing
Bam Bam:That's correct. You should know.
Pagoda:Yeah. So I like
Gizmo:That's unfounded. I'm an ice guy. Unfounded.
Chef Ricky:This This
Pagoda:is the ice guy. And you know what? It leaves such a pleasant flavor in the whole Oh, man,
Bam Bam:that's incredible.
Pagoda:With a very long finish.
Bam Bam:It really is incredible.
Pagoda:You know, what else you want in a spirit, you know? Yeah. It's got a lot of different flavors. It's, you know, sweet. Just I really enjoyed it.
Pagoda:The reason I might have knocked at a point might have been in bikis. When I had a knead, obviously it was a bit too much for me. Mhmm. I think it gets a little aggressive. I did feel it's really interesting.
Pagoda:Two things. One of them, you know, to reiterate what Bam said was when I had a need, I did feel like a robot or something. Maybe because
Gizmo:he A said
Pagoda:it was a bit taught in the beginning in the front of Yeah. The is. It is. It is influence, right? Because everything like, the power of suggestion goes a long way But in any having said that, I really enjoyed it.
Pagoda:Will I go to it? I don't know. But if it's there, I'll put in a few chips of ice, and I'm gonna enjoy that evening. It's a nine for me.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The former liquor rating tonight on the Jack Daniel's SingleBarrel, HeritageBarrel, Toasted Barrel, Tennessee Whiskey is an 8.5.
Bam Bam:Very good.
Chef Ricky:Almost have to knock at a point for a
Gizmo:The names, like, really annoy me. True. I actually looked up like, am I reading this wrong? Like, that is exactly what it says. That's exactly what it is.
Chef Ricky:You know, was a similar spirit that we did that had like a ridiculous
Gizmo:I don't remember. Yeah. Was like I had to repeat everything. It's so silly.
Bam Bam:This reminds me of a Christmas Eve spirit.
Chef Ricky:Yes. It's
Pagoda:so More of a winter drink.
Bam Bam:Yeah. This is, I'm just saying. I disagree with
Rooster:you, man.
Bam Bam:My finish that I'm getting, and I'm still getting that long flavor that I'm I had drank this thing and I finished my glass ten minutes ago. It's very Christmassy. It's very holiday season type of a drink.
Chef Ricky:I'm not a big eggnog guy, but this is some eggnog would be No.
Bam Bam:I'm not gonna say eggnog. I'm not gonna go that far.
Gizmo:What was it, egg cream? What were you saying?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Egg cream is different.
Bam Bam:It's a little bit
Chef Ricky:more different.
Bam Bam:It's not a cream for me, but this would be great, like, very late Christmas Eve drink, nightcap.
Chef Ricky:Yep. With a with a with a liquor out with cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Alright, boys. It's time now to move into the formal.
Gizmo:This is reading tonight on the foundation, the Tabernacle Havana Seed CT number 142 in Lancero, Rooster, Europe. Very good cigar tonight. It was a very nice, as we mentioned earlier, nice change in pace to go to a fuller cigar like this. The cigar was definitely full, but not in strength.
Rooster:And I think more so in flavor and body, it was full. I really enjoyed the cigar. I mean, think it's a great blend. For some reason, I think it's the San Andres is it the binder? Binder.
Rooster:Yeah, binder that's in the cigar that gives it that little bit of that sweetness, that kind of envelops your velvety mouthfeel and the long finish of the cigar.
Gizmo:The cigar started out I mean,
Rooster:first of all, the construction on the cigar is exceptional. For a Lancero, the ash even holds on. It was a beautiful white ash. The cigar started off with a little bit of pepper, it had some sweetness, the earthiness was throughout. I think the cigar was almost like it's almost a three act play.
Rooster:Think it kind
Gizmo:I of
Bam Bam:firmly believe that.
Rooster:Yeah, it really changed throughout. It started with, you know, it was earthy, there was some cedar, there was that bitter chocolate note also that you got towards the, I think more on the last third of the cigar. It had some baking spice to it. Overall, it was a fantastic cigar. I mean, I would really love to try some other Vitolas in this cigar.
Bam Bam:Me too.
Gizmo:Would you want to go bigger in ring gauge or smaller?
Rooster:I think about a Robusto. Corona and a Robusto are the two sizes that I would want to try for this blend. And we'll see how those compare to the Lancero. But it's a wonderful cigar. Great experience, great night.
Rooster:And so I'm at a solid nine on this. All right, Pagoda.
Pagoda:So I think I'm gonna disappoint a lot of you guys over here because I was between an eight and a nine, and I ended up going for an eight on this.
Gizmo:I'm I'm honestly, I'm shocked
Pagoda:by that. Everybody.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Me
Pagoda:too. I'm shocked.
Gizmo:And Like, if if I lit the cigar Pagoda and I wasn't drink
Rooster:like, smoking Pagoda tonight house.
Gizmo:I'm thinking this is a Pagoda cigar.
Bam Bam:Big time.
Pagoda:Yeah. But, you know, I was thinking about it because I used to love Tabernacles. And in fact, the guy we met, we talked about the Tabernacle that And used to smoke
Gizmo:they did like the launch event when
Pagoda:you were
Gizmo:there. Right?
Pagoda:Yeah. So and love Nick Melillo cigars from El Gucuente to, you know, all of them. I've tried a lot of them. The couple of things. One of them, I think, so today, why, you know, I rated it as an eight is I was seeking a little more sweetness in this.
Pagoda:And and I think it was just I tried looking for like, you know how when you're smoking a cigar, you know what to expect. I was feeling like, I think I might have mentioned it, that it had that little Maduro kind of a feel. I was seeking, you know, like with a little bit of the earthiness, little more sweetness would have really added to the cigar. I think it would have enhanced the cigar for me. The thing what I felt was, like, I remember like an inch into it, I felt a little bit of pepper at that point in time, which was excellent.
Pagoda:You know, typically pepper can go one way or the other, but it was just the right amount. I think it was refreshing once again. I think because we have been smoking a lot more of the mild to medium, you know, very Honduran flavored cigars. So it was refreshing. But as it progressed, you know, I it did get a bit earthy for me.
Pagoda:You know, obviously, like I typically just talk about the dominant flavors. Did feel that extreme dark chocolate, which I really enjoy, by the way. And I seek it in some cigars, and I really enjoy the flavor profile. But with that bit of sweetness would have really, really enhanced the cigar for me. There was a time I think the cigar was very easy smoking, so I might have buffed it a few times.
Pagoda:It didn't give me and maybe because it's a Lancero, it became too hot and peppery for me, but that was my fault. Right? I think it changed the way I experienced the cigar after that. Even in the last third, I did get a little bit of the nuttiness and it changed, which became a little more pleasant in the last third for sure.
Rooster:Sounds like a mime.
Pagoda:No, but it's like I kept seeking a little more sweetness, you know, and that's really it. You know, an eight for me today.
Gizmo:So for me it's
Pagoda:And I also, by the way, I also felt, I think the drink really enhanced the cigar a lot more for me. Interesting. Without it, like I felt that I think the sweetness I was getting was from the pairing. And I think the pairing, they worked really well together, but the cigar on its own lacked that little extra sweetness for me.
Bam Bam:Oh boy. Wow.
Gizmo:So for me, it's a nine. I thought the cigar was dynamic. I thought it was interesting. I thought it was complex. I love the journey it took us on.
Gizmo:Yeah. In the first third, we talked about extensively. Mhmm. Into the second third, which it went a little more earthy into the last third. I I really think this is a dynamic cigar.
Gizmo:I loved it. It was interesting, complex. I love the flavor. I I think from the the moment we lit it, I was blown away by the flavor. I think it was a little bit richer than I thought it would be, but it was a little bit less strong than I thought it would be.
Bam Bam:Less body.
Gizmo:Yeah. It it was a little less, you know, oomph than I thought it would
Bam Bam:be You said that earlier in
Gizmo:your smoking. And I'm happy about that. I thought it was excellent. I think the value was there at $12.13, $14. Think this is a home run for what we experienced tonight.
Gizmo:I think that that's a great value. I would definitely smoke it again. I would probably get a five pack, maybe a tenner Mhmm. Just to have it in the humidor. Why didn't I give it a 10 given my rating here?
Gizmo:I think it smoked way too fast. Yeah. I mean, I was done. I'm almost on a I'm on an aging room concerto.
Bam Bam:You're almost done with that.
Gizmo:I'm almost done with this in this recording tonight. I was probably done with, like, an hour fifteen. Yeah. Hour twenty at the most on this Lancero tonight. That's fast.
Gizmo:Yeah. So for me, that's a that's a value issue there. That's a problem, so I'm gonna knock it for that. But with everything said, it's a nine for me. Alright.
Chef Ricky:Chef. I don't know what it is about tonight. Maybe it's the fucking ice. But Pagoda and I I feel like we're kind of
Gizmo:lining up tonight. You're the ice boy.
Bam Bam:Because you're on the same couch.
Gizmo:The ice couch.
Chef Ricky:No, there's something to be said about look, when this cigar started, I I noted the Szechuan peppercorn, that sort of tingly pepper forward, touch that the cigar had. It caught me off guard. Look, I came into this. I know Tabernacle tends to present fuller body, fuller flavored cigars in general. Like that's, you know, and maybe this cigar is not in my wheelhouse.
Chef Ricky:Right? Maybe I've I've come to truly appreciate the the roundness and and the the the creaminess of what we've been smoking lately. And this was such a departure from that, that it did catch me off guard. But I do think that the spirit, when the ice was added, brought this cigar closer to something that I I started to enjoy. And that final third, at least for a 100 proof Tennessee whiskey, yes.
Chef Ricky:I'll I'll support one cube of ice. But, you know, so for that, you know, I I can't sure. It smoked rather quickly. I've been sitting without a cigar for the better part of thirty or forty minutes at this point. For me, because of that, the cigar was an eight.
Chef Ricky:You know, I ultimately I think if it delivered slightly sweeter notes earlier on or maybe longer throughout the experience for me, I would have enjoyed it a little bit more. It got a little earthy. It got minerally at the very, very end, almost not even worth mentioning because it was the very tail end literally between my fingertips. But that final third of the cigar was what I enjoyed the most, and that's when it kind of creamed out and it started giving me almond forward flavor notes and less of the sort of dark chocolate espresso, earth, cedar that was happening, which are also enjoyable notes, but they were kind of drying. Right.
Chef Ricky:And so I kind of, You know, sometimes we have cigars and we give them high ratings and then we have them again and they're not as great. And I wonder, is it that the pairing didn't align? Right. Like if we had this cigar without this whiskey or any spirit, would it do the same? So, you know, I can't give it a nine for that reason.
Chef Ricky:But I think it is a good score for this cigar.
Pagoda:It's a very good score. I it's a really good cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. All right, Bam.
Bam Bam:So you're up. All
Gizmo:right. No influence.
Bam Bam:I was taking a nap.
Gizmo:Welcome back.
Bam Bam:Thank you for that.
Chef Ricky:This guy.
Bam Bam:So I'm at a very strong nine. I really enjoyed this cigar. I think it's an extremely memorable cigar. I'm not going to forget this. I agree with you, Giz.
Bam Bam:I would get a 10 pack of this.
Gizmo:Yeah. Not a box. I just need five or 10.
Chef Ricky:I gave it an eight, and I get a five pack for sure, because it's fair fair to have in
Bam Bam:the humidor It's a milder. For my It's a completely different experience. Rooster, you hit it on the head. It's different than what we've smoked in this room for quite a while, and that's a merit here, and I think that's gonna leave a lasting impact and probably affect, hopefully future cigar selections, right? Because the variety's great, and it opens up palates that have some interest outside in the world that's listening to us.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I love the raisin I was getting. Love I've
Chef Ricky:got none of that.
Gizmo:Yep. Well, I got a bunch of raisins.
Bam Bam:I happen to love walnut, and that's a polarizing nut in this room, but I love walnut and the dark chocolate. I have fun snack on walnut and dark chocolate together.
Pagoda:Me too.
Bam Bam:I do love that combination. It's really incredible. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it.
Pagoda:And if you get a banana bread with walnut and chocolate,
Bam Bam:That's fantastic as well. I like to have a coffee with that, so I was getting deep, deep coffee, very deep, dark chocolate, which again, I know a lot of people don't like that. And then toward the tail end, it got more molasses type, which I really love. And the walnut and dark chocolate continued. So it was really interesting three act play.
Chef Ricky:Subtle, for sure. A lot of sweet notes in near cigar.
Bam Bam:But it wasn't overtly sweet. It was very subtle. Dark chocolate's extremely subtle. As you get darker and darker-
Gizmo:very balanced. I'm sorry.
Bam Bam:It was very balanced. What balanced it for me was the walnut and cedar that Rooster and Chef mentioned earlier. And I'm not a big fan of cedar. I really don't like that in my cigars.
Gizmo:It wasn't overpowering with
Bam Bam:the cedar, but It there were was just enough. It
Rooster:was more earthy than cedar.
Bam Bam:Yeah, yeah, but that's correct. The earthiness and cedar kind of went back and forth. The reason why it's not a 10 for me, I did get a good amount of minerality that was very, very tart in my final inch of my cigar. Am I nitpicking? Yes.
Bam Bam:Because most people drop their cigar at that point. I tend to go a little beyond that. But overall, very memorable cigar and worth buying. No doubt about it.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The formal lizard reading tonight on the foundation, the Tabernacle Havana seed CT number 142 in Lancero is an 8.6. Nice score. Let's compare that to the other three foundation cigars we've done on the podcast. On episode 43, we did the Tabernacle in Robusto 8.7.
Gizmo:On episode 106, the Olmeclaro in Robusto eight point zero.
Bam Bam:Interesting.
Gizmo:And finally, on episode 122, The Tabernacle, the sister to this, in the same vitola, the Lancero scored an 8.7. Interesting. Which,
Bam Bam:I'll be honest How interesting is that?
Gizmo:I think this cigar is better. This is better.
Bam Bam:That one.
Gizmo:Yeah. So the rating is wrong.
Pagoda:You know, I think I prefer the other one. I on Really? That I think I might have rated it at
Chef Ricky:a high, and I wasn't.
Bam Bam:That was quite a long time ago. Yeah. I mean,
Gizmo:it's almost like over two years now.
Bam Bam:It's a percentage point
Gizmo:very down. Close.
Bam Bam:Very close.
Rooster:It's point seven to 8.6.
Bam Bam:But this is a much more memorable experience.
Gizmo:I agree. Don't remember smoking that one.
Bam Bam:No. I remember smoking it, but I don't remember what I was getting from it. This is I won't forget this for a very long time because it's so unique.
Rooster:I mean, I remember the band is very memorable.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:So. Alright, boys. One more time. Let's review the Jack Daniel single barrel, heritage barrel, toasted barrel.
Rooster:You love saying that.
Gizmo:Tennessee whiskey, I do not rooster, scored an 8.5 in the foundation. The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT number 1 40 2. Lancero scored an 8.6. Pagoda and I and the crew here have to thank again La Aurora Correct. For the hospitality with us
Pagoda:at ProCigar. Wonderful, wonderful host.
Gizmo:2026. It was unbelievable. We're very grateful to them. We have to congratulate Lizard Abe, our lizard of the week. Great email.
Gizmo:Great voice memo tonight.
Bam Bam:Great voice memo. Sorry.
Gizmo:And Bon Roberts, of course, for supporting us and our Lizards of the Week each week, winning a 10 count box of cigars from them. We have to thank Lizard O who sent us this whiskey tonight. Very
Pagoda:generous. Thank you.
Chef Ricky:Thank you very Lizard O.
Gizmo:We're very grateful to him.
Bam Bam:Generated a great discussion.
Gizmo:Absolutely. And he's an OG listener and an OG lizard. We really appreciate him. We have to thank Small Batch Cigar Boys. We have gotten so many cigars from them.
Gizmo:All of us have ordered from them. I just placed an order the other day for some cigars coming up. Our Lounge Lizards 98 plus sampler is up there. Use our code lizard 15 for 15% off your entire order. Shipping is always free.
Bam Bam:It's gonna sell out quick.
Gizmo:Tap in. You're gonna miss out if you don't because those cigars are running out. So check out the Lounge Lizards 98 plus sampler. Of course, boys, our presenting sponsor, Fabrica five. Been with us so long.
Gizmo:We love their cigars. We really appreciate those guys. Use our code lizard pod for 10% off your entire order. I was talking to someone earlier today. They were saying, hey.
Gizmo:I've had the Trinidad Robusto. What other cigars should I get? I recommended the Lonsdale, the Ninfa Yep. The Churchill. There's so many great cigars there, so check them out.
Gizmo:You don't know what to get, email us or just order the sampler. Correct. It's all right there. And boys, what a great night tonight. Excellent.
Gizmo:Awesome. Awesome cigar. I'll I'll say awesome cigar. Yeah. Amazing pairing.
Gizmo:I'm really impressed.
Bam Bam:Well done, gentlemen.
Pagoda:And a wonderful night.
Chef Ricky:Always always a good night.
Gizmo:Absolutely. And we'll see everybody next week.
Pagoda:And check Riffy Tried Ice.
Gizmo:Correct. 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.
Gizmo:Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.