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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 seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Roosters, Senator Pagoda, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 87th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We are gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
We spoke a brand new 4th of July release featuring American Tobacco. We discussed the Titanic submersible disaster, and we debate the best burgers and fries for the holiday, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 15 year age.
The dimple pinch blended scotch with the ep Cardillo Pledge of Allegiance 2023. A Toro tonight on the [00:01:00] pod from EP Carillo out of the Dominican Republic. It's called the Pledge of Allegiance. It's a limited edition, 2023 release and boys. I have good news. What is that? We are Patriots tonight. Yes, sir.
Happy sir. 4th of July. Oh, we sure are.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah.
Jesus.
**Gizmo:** I didn't know we were gonna play, but now I know. Are we doing this? Should we stand up?
We're gonna do the Pledge of Allegiance.
Very patriotic.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah.
**Senator:** Fuck. Fuck yeah. Yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** So it's a six by 54 Toro, and I think for the first time it's uh, this is the first cigar that we've had on the podcast that has [00:02:00] USA ingredients in it. This is a u s A wrapper on
**Bam Bam:** it. I can't, I can barely see the
**Gizmo:** cigar in the rapping. I would, that's where I was going. I mean, the foot band on this is four inches long.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You're only getting an inch of visual of the wrapper at the top.
**Senator:** Literally three quarters of this cigar is covered in bands. That's obscene.
**Gizmo:** I don't understand it. All I can see is the head of the cigar. It's obscene. What is the, what is the, I don't understand why cigar manufacturers are doing this.
No. They were trying to protect the cigar. You think so? No, they're trying to hide it.
**Senator:** This has to be the biggest foot band we've ever seen on a cigar. It's half the stick.
**Gizmo:** I just took my foot band off. It is significant. I could
**Senator:** wrap a Christmas present in this, so
**Rooster:** be careful when you take the foot
**Gizmo:** band off because it took a chunk off the wrapper. Yeah. Oh, from
**Pagoda:** the glue. Oh, really? Were you trying to pull it out or did you actually Un No, I just peeled
**Gizmo:** it.
**Bam Bam:** Peeled it. I have to say though, The aroma on the wrapper is delicious.
**Gizmo:** It smells great. It's unbelievable. Now look, look at this [00:03:00] cigar without the foot band on it. Yeah, it's, that is really elegant. It's
**Senator:** handsome. I gotta say, I'm, I, I can only speak for mine. I'm now understanding why they had the foot band.
Mine has like weird indentations. Yeah, mine does too. On the band, on the wrapper. This, this was intentional to hide a shitty rapper. I'm sorry. Oh boy.
**Gizmo:** Well, let's listen. This is the USA episode. It's July 4th. We are Patriots. There you go. We're patriots. Bam. There you go. God bless America. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah.
**Senator:** EP Carillo needs to love America a little more. Little bit
**Bam Bam:** Mors. Not their best effort, but take a
**Gizmo:** whiff of the wrapper though. It does smell great. It's so good. You know, I wanted to say something. I agree with that. Wow. This is the third EP Carillo we've done on the pod. We did the pledge prequel. We did the La Historia Senor.
Yeah. And we've done this one. The
**Bam Bam:** prequel was mediocre. Yeah, Senor was tremendous. Excellent.
**Gizmo:** Tremendous. Hopefully this is closer to the La Historia now. The thing I'll say is, The thing that's unique about pic reo is, [00:04:00] is if you took the bands off, I can tell an e prio versus any other new world cigar in that they have this odd pseudo box press that the shape of their cigars is unlike any other.
It's not a box press in that, like a pad patron, I feel is a little bit more square. Yeah, it is. Theirs is more like an oval or something that I think is very unique to them. It's imperfect.
**Senator:** I, I agree with that, but I actually really like it. I do too. I love the feel of an EP Chorio in hand. I wish that the flavor and and performance of many of their sticks were better.
But I, I really do like, it's like a very, just this very soft box press, not like a rigid hard
**Bam Bam:** box press. Sure. The oval comparison makes sense.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Yeah. But having said that, EB Carillo does a really good job with their cigars overall. Meaning overall they've had a lot of top 10 cigars,
**Gizmo:** a lot of the, a lot of number ones.
They've had, I think they've had more number ones in the last 20 years than any other manufacturer. Wow. Oh really? Oh, wow. With cigar and, yeah.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. I know a lot of my friends are [00:05:00] like the EP Carrillo, not anymore, uh, as much,
**Gizmo:** but Ep Carillo
**Bam Bam:** Carillo. Carillo
**Pagoda:** Carillo. Yeah. Um, yeah. No, so I like, I'm looking forward to smoking this one.
Yeah, yeah. I am
**Gizmo:** too. I will say smell
**Senator:** the foot. Yeah. No,
**Bam Bam:** it's awesome. The foot and the wrapper. It's
**Senator:** really, really nice.
**Gizmo:** Very frag. It's promising.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Very promising. Now, is this a
**Pagoda:** Connecticut broadleaf
**Gizmo:** wrapper? I don't know what the, what the, it just says USA Wrapper. It's not specific. I'm thinking it's Florida.
Based on the color of it. Wow. Uh, Ecuadorian Binder and usa Dominican and Nicaraguan fills. Oh my, my gosh. So the, there's two components of this that are usa So that certainly is very intentional in the blend, given that this is, uh, for the 4th of July, 1776, I think. America, let's cut this thing boys. See, we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper, which we've already talked a little bit about.
I'm very, very hopeful because, um, you know, I know Pagoda and I, we were talking about this about a week ago. The La [00:06:00] Historia Elson Adore. I started reaching for those again, and I hadn't really, since we bought those boxes after we had such a successful podcast with them. Man, no, they're smoking great. Yeah, they're, I have a box and for what, 8, 10, 12 bucks.
I, I don't even remember how much they are. They're very good. Very reasonable. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Incredible value. And they never, they never let you down. Yeah, I, I remember you
**Pagoda:** were smoking that day before yesterday or something, A couple of
**Bam Bam:** days ago. Yeah, I remember last week maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Love that cigar.
**Gizmo:** My draw is perfect.
Love it. Just a slight bit of
**Bam Bam:** resistance. I get no resistance and I kind of not, don't like that,
**Senator:** so I get no resistance, but I honestly, I kind of love it because yeah, I just think of like the last five cigars I've smoked. The overwhelming majority were Cuban plugged and I've had either like a plugged experience or just a little more resistance than I want.
So this being wide open, I'm actually very happy right now.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I'm very excited to try this tonight. Boys, what's like this thing? The ep, Carillo Pledge of Allegiance Limited edition 2023, a [00:07:00] Toro 54 ring gauge by six inches. We don't do a ton of toros on the pod. We don't reach for them. AOT here in the group.
We either goes bigger or smaller. That's right. It's kind of right in the middle, but this doesn't feel like a Toro to me. This kind of feels like a longer ribo. Just because of the box press, I think. But, uh, yeah, I'm very helpful tonight.
**Pagoda:** No, I agree with you. I, it, it's very Paj, pa Jonas. In terms of the overall shape, I dunno.
**Gizmo:** It is, it is. So, like we said, it has the dark blue, the navy blue foot band that took up about a little, you know, little under half of the cigar. And then there's two other bands on it. There's a classic ep Karao band on it. And then under that, it's a white band with Pledge of Allegiance 2023. Obviously all of this culminating, uh, coming together for the July 4th holiday this year, which actually I had a hell of a time finding the cigar in time for us to review it, uh, in time for July 4th, but finally got my [00:08:00] hand on a box of 10, reasonably priced, only 20 bucks a cigar.
So I was happy about that. And, and this is new, right? Like it just, yeah, did literally, I literally got it like three days ago. When did this come out? Last week. Oh really? Yeah. Like it just shipped.
**Bam Bam:** Rooster beautiful on a light. No. Mm-hmm. It's
**Senator:** fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta say it. It's rich and it, it, it's, it's got some really nice flavor on the light.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So far I like it.
**Bam Bam:** You're gonna laugh but on the retro hail, I got a slight lemon type of thing. Weird. Yeah, it's got in
**Gizmo:** a great way. It's got a little citrus
**Senator:** elephant. I was gonna say, look, look at bam. Trying to avoid the word cirus. I got some lemon on that.
**Bam Bam:** Lemon orangey. You were definitely trying to avoid it.
I was absolutely trying to avoid that word.
**Gizmo:** This is really nice so far. Very nice. Nice on the light. You know, it feels unlike most toros for me. It feels really good in the hand. Yeah, it's not [00:09:00] really, I mean, to me it's not a Toro. It doesn't feel like a bulky cigar. Like it feels good in the hand. The Toro
**Bam Bam:** has always been a boring
**Gizmo:** ola for
**Rooster:** some reason.
Whenever you say Torah, I just think back to like the Ddo
**Bam Bam:** Lan, millennium Toro boring cigar. That doesn't
**Gizmo:** quintessential Toro. You know,
**Pagoda:** actually I must say that I've been having the, uh, toros, uh, in uh, uh, the debit of, uh, Dominicans and they've been fantastic. Not
**Bam Bam:** the Xeno. I like senator's reaction. What's going on over there.
Wow.
**Senator:** Very flavorful. Right? I really like this cigar. It is. It's really good. I'm so surprised. I mean, look, you know the foot band, it's three quarters of it's covered in bands that just turns me off from the start. Yeah. I take it off the wrapper. I think needed some repair. Um, this is tremendous on the light.
No? Yeah, really good. I'm getting so much flavor, but it's so smooth. Very smooth. The smoke output is, the smoke output on this cigar is like a 58 ring gauge. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Standard
**Bam Bam:** is ramped up right now. I'm fired up. He's a goddamn [00:10:00] patriot. Love it. That's right. America. Fuck. Yeah. You know, I'm gonna say that the whole recording, you know, we're only an eighth of an inch in, so I'm hoping it continues.
**Rooster:** You know, right now it kind of reminds me of a
**Gizmo:** liga with some citrus. Yeah, it's true. It's like a Dominican Cy Liga. It's like a Dominican Liga where it's a little bit smoother, a little bit more timid. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's not kicking you in the face, but the smoke output kind of reminds me of the Liga. I agree.
This, this, I'm so happy right now. It's quite, this is really good. It's quite tasty. So again, this is a celebration of, uh, America. Obviously. iPic Corillo family released this, uh, you know, inspired by their journey from Cuba to America. And they say just as the family persevered through adversity and nurtured their rich history, each carefully rolled cigar embodies.
The same spirit of resilience and unwavering dedication to excellence. Um, so this comes, [00:11:00] this is on a little piece of paper inside the box if you guys see the box here. Oh, that's cool. It's a really nice, uh, varnished black and red colored box. Blue and red. A blue and red. Okay. You know, come on, ba We're papers America, uh, with, uh, with some flags on it and stuff.
I mean, you know, it seems like a very cool release and I don't think a lot of high level cigar manufacturers, certainly ones that have had the success as pagoda mentioned as EP Carillo, has have done releases specific to American holidays like this. And yeah, it, it's very cool. I must say. Good job.
Ernesto Perez. Yeah, so far, so far, yeah. This is really good so
**Bam Bam:** far. Absolutely.
**Pagoda:** Actually, you know, uh, right before, uh, coming to the pod I was just listening. I was researching this a little bit, and I came across a YouTube, uh, video with God forbid Korea Yeah. YouTube, and, uh, sound like Rooster. Yeah. And, uh, so I just, uh, played it and it was, uh, Ernesto talking about his, uh, overall objective once [00:12:00] again, you know, uh, talking about how America is, uh, uh, how he's been, he and his family have been able to live the American dream and they came out, think in the late fifties, and they're, they've been able to establish business and the kids' school and.
And, uh, so this is really a tribute to all Americans and immigrants coming to the us. Uh, so I think the overall objective of the cigar is fantastic.
**Gizmo:** I agree. And it's fun to, you know, we're sitting here, you know, coming up on the July 4th holiday. This episode's gonna come out on Yep. Actually on July four.
Yeah. Which is a Tuesday this year. When, when our episodes drop, it's nice to, you know, kind of. Celebrate that with a cigar that's intentionally blended and made. It's very cool to celebrate. Very cool. As you said, the American dream. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** America. America.
**Pagoda:** And, uh, I told you there's definitely one more thing.
I think the, uh, overall theme of that, uh, of what I got out of it was he really talked a lot about blending and how, you know, the wrapper, the binder and the fillers are extremely [00:13:00] important. And in this case, obviously using two of the American, the wrapper and, and one of the binders, um, is uh, you know, how he's contributing towards the American sentiment.
But, um, he said this blend is something where he's trying to keep up with the EP career. Um, Overall, um, whatever the word is. Um, yeah. The
**Gizmo:** ethos. Ethos, yeah. Correct. Their flavor profile. Their ethos.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. Very well said.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. And at the same time, you know, uh, try, try and experiment a little bit. And, um, it's, it's
**Gizmo:** smoking.
Fanta, you know what I love about this from a blending standpoint, I was about to go there. I love that. There's American product in it. I love that American product was exported to the Dominican Republic and blended in the cigar and brought back. I love
**Bam Bam:** that. Has anyone here ever had a cigar with
**Gizmo:** any American?
Yeah. Davidoff dude. American product. Well, the rapper is Connecticut. Sha Connecticut. Yeah. All
**Bam Bam:** of it. Not
**Gizmo:** all of it. All of it. The whole wrap. [00:14:00] I didn't know that. Just just the wrapper, not just the wrapper filler. Okay. All right. Well, is the filler in this from the us or just the rapper? Yeah, the filler is not the binder.
Yeah. Yeah. Part of the filler. It's interesting. Yeah. It's a blend of us, Dominican and Nicaragua that we haven't had. That's the wrapper Very cool experience right now. Yeah, it is. So
**Rooster:** Ernesto Perez started La Gloria Cobana in the us you know, from, well, from Dominican Republic. He was, and
**Gizmo:** then he ran. Did
**Bam Bam:** he?
I think you're right. Yeah, probably. I think he's right. Yep. I love the La Gloria Line series R number five for me. You said that Yeah. It's worth, it's something that we should look at. We're
**Gizmo:** gonna have to do that on the pod because we've actually had some listeners email about that. Is that right?
Specifically saying that number five. Non Cuban. No, just non Cuban la Gloria Ban.
**Senator:** Oh, great. They, they also just this week came out with a new line. I saw that. It's basic. I think they're calling it like the series S. Yeah, it's, and it's got a black band underneath. Yeah. Yeah. And they're saying it's a Maduro wrapper, which what's crazy is I think the rapper on their [00:15:00] regular line is pretty dark.
Dude, it's rapper on this Maduro. It's like black, even darker. It's like Jet Black. Oh God. It's crazy. I
**Bam Bam:** don't know if I like that, but Interesting. Wow.
**Gizmo:** The flavor on this is really, it's delicious. Delicious. Really, really interesting. Delicious. It's delicious. I, I would say it's medium full, but it's not, it's not that kind of, you know, p you know, Pedro, patron Nicaraguan, let's say full, that you're getting a little bit of a kick.
I think it, I think the body is there, the flavors there, but it's not, um, it's not kicking you around. It's not, I think the finish, not a lot of spice. Sorry. Yeah, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** The finish is on the sweeter side for me.
**Senator:** I, I think it's extremely refined. I mean, what I'm just, why I'm excited about this cigar. I think many like me, we look for full flavored with a smooth delivery.
And I think the delivery on this is extremely smooth, like patron level, smooth. Yeah. And I'm getting a ton of flavor. I I this, it checks all the boxes right now. How
**Bam Bam:** much again, [00:16:00] for this? 20 bucks. 20
**Gizmo:** bucks. It is, honestly, I got it for, you know, I got it with a 15% off at cigar cigars direct. Right. So I think I got them from 180 5.
It's
**Bam Bam:** smoking like a complex cigar. It is. And I think, again, it's punching above its weight classically. I agree.
**Senator:** Yeah. If this were 25,
**Gizmo:** I think this is well worth it. Yeah, I agree. And you listen, this is gonna give us hopefully a good hour and a half hour, 15 hour and a half of, of, you know, uh, a nice experience smoking this tonight.
And I love the, and I love the size, the
**Bam Bam:** bright white ash. Yeah. And it's pretty razor sharp.
**Gizmo:** It's pretty cool. And think about it, this has only been in my tower for four days before we're smoking it cuz it just came out so. It's not like it's, uh, it's, it certainly doesn't feel very, you know, humid. You have no issues at all.
Yeah. I mean, this is the
**Senator:** thing I'm most encouraged about, and I hope I'm not saying this too early, but any cigar that comes out to commemorate an occasion Chinese New Year, right? The you're or the rat, you're the ox. All this stuff, stuff every, they'll suck. They're never good. They're not, and [00:17:00] you know, and, and you understand why, like, it, it's meant to be a limited just, you know, once a year kind of thing.
They're not gonna put, they're not investing the time and the quality of product in something that is literally gonna come out once, not be part of the standard production. So when I saw this whole 4th of July thing, I said, you know, great for the podcast, but I wasn't expecting much because I have yet to have something that is tied to a day, a holiday.
Anything like that be satisfying. Right? And this is really way exceeded my expectations.
**Gizmo:** I completely agree. Yeah. This is very, very delicious. Yeah. And I think they, I think they've, they've, you know, at least, at least in the first third here, I think they've, they've certainly, uh, checked a lot of the boxes that they, they were gunning for.
You know, I think the flavor is really great. I can
**Pagoda:** see Senator in Montego Bay on July 4th, smoking.
**Bam Bam:** And don't, don't place him regionally, but that could No, I'm just kidding.
**Senator:** That
that
**Gizmo:** is, that is where I'll be on zero. [00:18:00] Oh yeah. You'll be in
**Senator:** Jamaica, right? Yeah, every 4th of July. I've always spent in the us.
This'll be the first one. I'm actually gonna be on vacation that week. All right. Lizard
**Bam Bam:** fans, leave him alone. Don't go over there, right?
**Gizmo:** Paparazzi, stay away. No lizard. Paparazzi, please. Senor. Let's stay away from Senor.
**Pagoda:** It's tough to fly there because I think Air Jamaica no longer exists and you have to take a boat.
Just,
**Senator:** well, kidding. I'm effectively taking a boat. I'm flying united
**Bam Bam:** there.
**Gizmo:** Here we go, shank. Here we go. So I wanted to read one more thing. So this little insert that they put in the box of cigars, the last paragraph, it says, with every puff, they'll experience the heart and soul of the family's legacy. A testament to their passion for the art of cigar making unveil this exclusive limited release.
And immerse yourself in a story of triumph, a tale that echoes through the meticulous craftsmanship of the ep Chorio Pledge of Allegiance. You know, I like, thats
**Bam Bam:** I do too. And it actually is holding up to [00:19:00] that statement. It is, and it's rare that a, a maker of anything actually backs up their words with the product that they put out.
It's really amazing. This is really good. And
**Gizmo:** it's, and it's doing a job. And you know what I like too, is the Pledge of Allegiance. You think about their main line, arguably with being number one a couple years ago, is the pledge. They have another line. The Allegiance, and then they have the La Historia, you know, so Pledge of Allegiance is combining two of their more successful lines, America
**Pagoda:** to celebrate history.
I
**Bam Bam:** mean,
**Gizmo:** I said, this is great. We're gonna play a drinking game with the, the listeners. Every time Bam does that, you have to take a shot. Gotta take a shot. You gotta take a shot.
**Senator:** People are gonna die. We
**Bam Bam:** gotta be careful. Yeah. I'll be doing it often.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I'm, I'm very impressed with this cigar for, for 20 bucks so far.
And I
**Senator:** also, uh, bam and Rooster are calling this out very early, this citrus and this cigar. It's there. I,
**Gizmo:** it's not citrus, it's lemon. Sorry.
**Bam Bam:** It's lemon. It's me. All right. It's lime and [00:20:00] lemonade. I'll say it again. It's citrus.
**Senator:** Very, very seriously. When you first said that I had just maybe had a puff and it, it hadn't quite registered, but now bad with, uh, half inch in, I really get that.
Yeah. And what's shocking about it is I don't think I've ever smoked a cigar. With this dark of a wrap with origins from Nicaragua that I would, or any ingredients from Nicaragua that I would say have citrus notes. That's not common
**Bam Bam:** at all. Here's what's interesting about the cigar, and I wanna piggyback on what you just said.
There aren't many cigars like this that I would smoke in the summer months. This is a great summer candidate. Agree. I think because of what you're getting right now, this is a good cigar summer cigar. Yeah. Because it's not overwhelming. It's very smooth. There is that citrus? I think it works great.
**Senator:** Yeah.
I'm bringing this to Jamaica. Yeah. Yeah, you should. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I am. Yeah. I'm gonna buy a couple of days. Yeah, take a couple of those.
**Pagoda:** Awesome. You know, uh, the way it's smoking, I so. Obviously, [00:21:00] like I think Pedro Patron Smoke very similar to this and the aging room. I, I remember I used to smoke the Al gta, which has a little more of a resistance.
And then when, uh, somebody handed over an aging G room, the Quattro to me, I said, it's great. I like the flavors, but it's too wide open a draw for me. But, um, it's smoking very similar. And now I really enjoy the aging room Quatra every time, you know, I'm gonna try it. That's a good
**Bam Bam:** cigar. I used to like that a lot when it first came out.
This is more complex to me. No, it is more complex.
**Pagoda:** Oh yeah. But I think the overall, I. Uh, you know, when you're smoking in terms of the draw Yeah. It's a little lighter. It's very, uh, easy to the creaminess.
**Senator:** Does that Yeah, that's all true. And the other thing with comparing this to the cuatro, this is a lot smoother.
**Gizmo:** I agree. Yeah. Yeah. What we, when we did the aging room cuatro on the podcast mm-hmm. I think the, the overall thing I took away from it was, it needed more age. Agreed. You know, remember having irony of the age, the irony of the name, you know, it needed more age than it had when we'd smoked it. Yeah. You let that
**Bam Bam:** sit for a [00:22:00] year and I'm sure
**Gizmo:** it'd be great.
Yeah. And, and, and this is fresh off the line and it is, I don't know. You know, there's no age statement on this. I'm not sure how much this is age. I certainly think there's some age on this tobacco. There's no doubt
**Senator:** there has to be a few years. It would have to be right. I mean, I just say that this is smoking like a patron and the Patron 64 line, we all know has what, four years from, from age four years.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. It is impossible that this is young tobacco. This has to have at least a few years.
**Bam Bam:** It's so smooth. It must, it's complex.
**Pagoda:** And I'm sure you know why because, uh, the price point for a lot of the EP careers are much lower. They're closer 10 to 14 bucks. Yeah. Right. This would be a premium cigar.
This is a premium cigar kind thing
**Gizmo:** for them. That's right. Have you guys smoked any Toros or longer in EP Carillo? Cuz I've only think, I've only done what I think are the ribos that the Pledge Pre Quill and the Laha story El Senador are both Ribos. I think Pagoda
**Bam Bam:** probably would do, done know more than any of us.
**Pagoda:** I've done the, um, the Sojo, I, I really [00:23:00] enjoy the, uh, ep I used to, this is years ago, which I still do once in a while, is the AP career, the Encore. And the Encore has a really, I don't even know, what do you call it? It's like,
**Senator:** oh, I know what you call it. I've had it,
**Bam Bam:** yeah. It's a really big, very unique, it's like, it's like
**Pagoda:** it's, what would you call it?
It's like, It's, it's a bigger Toro. I don't know.
**Senator:** It's, oh, I thought you were talking about the flavor. Oh, the
**Pagoda:** flavor.
**Bam Bam:** Oh no. Its Woody and Creamy. That's
**Senator:** as kicking cigar. No, no. Yeah. Not the encore's light. No. Very light. Is that right?
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Yeah. It's Woody
**Senator:** Creamy, the encore. We have to review at some point. I
**Gizmo:** had a, it's the only one we haven't done from their main lines, allegiance and Encore.
Perfect. Cause
**Senator:** then that's all the reason for us to do it. But I had it. There's, um, a cigar bar I've, I've probably mentioned before, uh, in DC uh, Shelly's. Shelly's, yeah. Mm-hmm. And, um, that's like the place to smoke cigars in DC And when I was living there, one of the things I really like about Shellys, actually, I don't know that I've ever told all you guys this, and I wish other places would do this, but every year when Cigar [00:24:00] Fido puts out their top 25 list, Shelly's procures.
Every one of the top 25. And on their cigar menu, you can buy every single one of the top 25. Really. And as we all know, when that list comes out, when you go to retailers, people flock to go try and buy them. Mm-hmm. And they sell out very
**Gizmo:** quickly. Yeah. It's impossible to find, especially the top five.
**Senator:** That's the thing. So I love when I, every year I would do this, I lived in DC for six years, and when I would go there, I could always kind of work my way through the line. That's, and they wouldn't, wouldn't mark them up too aggressively. So one of the years, the encore was like number one or number two, so I had, I bought it there to try it.
And I was a little surprised. I said, oh, this is much more mild than I would normally pursue in a cigar. But the flavor was so unique and I, I, I've never had a cigar where I would describe this as being a dominant flavor note, but, Tea. Mm mm I was getting like floral and teas [00:25:00] and it was so smooth and even creamy.
And I have to say it was an enjoyable cigar, not my perfect wheelhouse. I'm usually looking for something a little bolder or more firmly, medium and full. But it was well done for what it it's trying to do. That's interesting. So should we should try it.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. I think that this cigar with this wrapper on it, I think this would perform very well outdoors in the summer.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, like we said, a little bit of wind, like we said earlier. Yeah. Yeah. Even with, even with a little bit of wind, it'll certainly, you're not gonna pull a lot of cigars out. Obviously we talk about Pedro patrons or Sure. Or Davidoff maybe performing well outside. This would be a powerhouse on the golf course outdoors.
I mean, this would, this would work great. In any sort of scenario. Agreed. Exactly.
**Pagoda:** Because, you know, I was thinking about it, I said this could be a really how good to guy I've been to take to the golf course for sure. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This is a great golf course to go look at the burn on it. Excellent. I mean, I haven't look at giz giz great Ash cigar.
Great. Yeah, I, I'm, I'm coming up on two inches of [00:26:00] ash here. Yeah. And it's holding very firmly. You're adventurous. It's gonna be all over my shirt in a minute, but, you know, this is, uh, this is very nice.
**Senator:** This gives me faith. Oh yeah. I'm just such a skeptic at this point with these holiday releases. It is this, this really gives me faith that they're worth trying.
And you may just find a gem like this. So far seems to be,
**Bam Bam:** I had the year of the rabbit a few weeks ago. It was D off. Yeah. It was very mediocre. So a lot of these, like you say, the holiday releases, they're not worth pursuing. This is special to me.
**Gizmo:** You know, I like a, certainly a, a brand or a manufacturer like ep Cillo is not as big as certainly Dominican.
Like Davidoff, certainly not as big as a manufacturer like Davidoff. And, and what I hope for a brand like this is that they're limited editions are few and far between so that they can nail it like they did with this. Whereas I think Davidoff has kind of got into this thing where they're chasing their own [00:27:00] tail.
Where they have to release, you know, a certain number of limited editions. The year of the, and, and all these, you know, they even do kind of regional things. They release cigars for different, you know, uh, retailers around the world. I mean, they're making so many, their catalog is huge. It's so huge. And it's like, I appreciate Pedro Patron, or even in Perillo, like, where they're not putting out five or 10 new cigars each year.
It's controlled
**Bam Bam:** quality. Exactly.
**Gizmo:** And that matters. And I think it's a, you know, when you're diluting your product, like with Davidoff, it almost turns me off to almost anything new they release, aside from maybe the millennium lands, which we love that line. Yeah, we like that. And we love that size and the chefs and the chef and the chefs and the number one, but that's number one's nice.
The chefs are good. He's talking the lancer, the signature number one, the land. That's right. True. The thing I like about the Chef's Edition from Davidoff is they only do that every four or five years. That's not an annual thing. That's true. You know, and they collaborate with chefs, you know, who [00:28:00] have amazing palettes and they're, you know, they're working on that blend over and over to refine it.
But,
**Senator:** but to your point, it's like if you were to look at this as a batting average, EB Creo doesn't come out with a bunch of limited releases and these special holiday sticks and stuff like that. So, you know, if this holds up, like they may be batting a thousand or 500 or whatever the case may be. Davidov comes out with so many, even though they're ones we like, like the Millennium Lan, Soro, like the number one.
And like the chefs, the, the number they put out, they're batting like 200. Crazy. It's,
**Gizmo:** they're batting like 1 38, like they're high payroll playing for the Mets. It's too
**Bam Bam:** Why? Why? I was beautiful. That was beautiful.
**Senator:** Rooster. Back me up by, how about that? Met Mets boys. Enough.
**Gizmo:** Enough. With the Yankee fans commenting on the Mets.
Thank you. Oh, here we go. Thank
**Senator:** you enough. Think the, I think the world is commenting and laughing at the bets right
**Gizmo:** now. Oh, it's horrible
**Bam Bam:** man. No sports tonight. Hey, even though
**Pagoda:** I'm a Yankees fan, I took some photographs of some of your Mets [00:29:00] legends. Yes. Yes, you
**Gizmo:** did. Did you meet? Oh yeah. You met some of the legends, right?
Yeah. Ho Hojo. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. Pagoda was at some
**Pagoda:** event. Strawberry. Yeah. No, I was, I was just actually hanging out in a cigar lounge. Oh, I thought you were an event with them and No, this is Maddo in Long Island and a lot of the Mets legends, just six, seven of them just came down. That's cool. And, uh, we were able to take photographs, uh, with Strawberry, uh, hugging one of the lizards.
And, uh, it was just great. It was, uh, it was a, a fun environment. That
**Bam Bam:** was the golden age of the Mets man, what, 40
**Gizmo:** years ago? 86, man. 40 years ago. Sorry.
**Senator:** Sorry. That was the only age of the Mets. Well,
**Bam Bam:** you know, I'm a Jetson Mets fan. A golden ages have passed long ago, but still you hang on to those but
**Gizmo:** years.
This is a great cigar. Boy. So I just asked, I have a question. Two, uh, two, two inches of As just fell off. Excellent. Yeah, you're going through that cigar. I'm about the same as you. Yeah, I guess so. Did it fall on you or on the floor? Uh, some of it fell on the
**Senator:** floor. All right. Well, it's good to know it's not just at my place that you actually the floor.
I'm
**Gizmo:** glad to [00:30:00] see that, Pam, your question, the
**Bam Bam:** retro hail on this, have you tried that? It's excellent. It is. That's where I'm getting the most citrus on the retro, but on a, a traditional draw, I'm getting, I am getting earth tones. A little, a deep coffee. Yeah. It's some earth. A little bit. Yeah. And
**Senator:** coke's good to know it.
It's not just at my place. This, this has a
**Gizmo:** weird, I'm glad see that about the cigar, and I'm glad you said that because I was gonna talk about three of the components of it, but I'll go to a fourth. So the draw of the cigar, the flavor of the draw is number one, is different than the retro hail it. Number two.
It is, which is different than the aroma at the burn line. It is number three at, which is different than the aroma at the foot of the cigar. If you smell where you're drawing. There's four distinct but very complimentary. I get floral
**Bam Bam:** on the foot, it's really weird, but citrus really nice on the retro, on the traditional draw.
I'm getting earth. Earth tones and it's not like leather. Yeah. But a little bit of leather.
**Gizmo:** In a good way though. In [00:31:00] way like, like smell both ends of the cigar without drawing. They're different but very complimentary.
**Bam Bam:** That's it's amazing. And potpourri, I'm getting on the smoke pot. Perri. A little bit of potpourri.
Yeah.
**Pagoda:** Put a great smoke out. But this is fantastic. This is really
**Senator:** nice. This is one of the most complex new worlds I've had in a long time. Arguably ever. Yeah, I mean truly like these flavor notes, you guys are calling out at some point or another. I've gotten citrus, I've got coffee, cocoa, cocoa, earth. I'm just shocked.
It's
**Gizmo:** like spicy and sweet at the
**Bam Bam:** same time. Yes, absolutely. Punching above its weight class and it, the complexity is there.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This to me, at its size, Where it is right now. $20 is a really nice value for the experience you're getting and the length of it. Cuz you have so many cigars that are rab robusto, which are an inch or an inch and a half shorter than this, you know, doff, I mean, how much is a Millennium?
Rab Robusto? [00:32:00] 28 bucks, 28 30 bucks, something like that in the city. Probably 35. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you, you're looking at almost double the price of this Toro, and I'll be blunt,
**Bam Bam:** this is more complex than that cigar. A hundred percent.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. This is really delicious
**Pagoda:** guys. Please don't buy the
**Bam Bam:** cigar.
Yeah, so, so, you know, just, he's making a point. I'm just kidding. It's true because that I'd rather
**Pagoda:** butt a discount at
**Bam Bam:** some point. Yeah. No, no, no, you're not wrong because it's hard to find a cigar at this price. That's so incredible.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I hope they, I hope that they release this annually or more boxes cuz they've only released, uh, the 1,776 boxes of this.
So this will be an annual thing, I guess. I don't know. I mean, hopefully this is successful, but
**Senator:** yeah, I mean, I have to say, I'm sorry bro. I really wish this were a standard production system. Agree, a hundred percent agree. I would buy this. I don't even, at this point, I'm willing to say it. I don't care what happens in the second half, if just how great the first half [00:33:00] has been.
Yeah, I'd buy it. Just enjoy the first half as much as I
**Bam Bam:** am right now. I agree
**Gizmo:** with you. You know what, you're a real patriot over there. Senator America.
**Bam Bam:** America.
**Gizmo:** Take a drink, folks. Take a drink. So speaking of drinking, what, um, what are you guys planning to do? I know, you know, you know, obviously this will come out on July 4th for the listeners.
We're a few days ahead of that here. Uh, what are your guys, what, what, what's the plan for, uh, the July 4th holiday? What do you guys do usually?
**Bam Bam:** Well, usually we go away, but this year we're gonna stay at the homestead and relax. Barbecue a little bit, maybe chill, smoke cigars, get together with the neighbors.
**Gizmo:** Nice. Yeah. So it's like a neighborhood thing kind of. Okay. Pagoda. What are your, what's your, what are your plans this year? Town
**Pagoda:** has one of these parades where my wife is already involved in building a float and the kids. And so I'll be involved there. And then generally what happens is we all end up in, you know, all the organizers.
They have a little bit, uh, do, and it's a barbecue and we just chill. Nice. Um, [00:34:00] typically we'll have a lot of American beer like Bud, bud Light, but this year I think we'll have to go for Modelo.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. That's the rumor that, that the
**Gizmo:** number Bud Light is out. Apparently. I love
**Bam Bam:** Modelo. You know, we live in the same town.
Yeah. And the whole 4th of July float design and construction. It's a real thing. It's passionate thing. Is it like competitive? A little bit competitive with the neighborhoods? It's really, yeah, it
**Gizmo:** is. Yeah. What it is, sections of
**Bam Bam:** town, they compete, they're part, well you've got East side and West side, but you also have the schools, schools that are representing the elementary schools.
They each put out a float and it is very competitive.
**Senator:** So the irony, what I've heard, I've heard that the, the east side. Schools go all out. They do, like, they make everything we, that's true. The west side schools do nothing and they just buy shit and like, just drive it down the road.
**Bam Bam:** You hire out
**Pagoda:** and the west side schools win every time.
Wow.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know about that, but that's,
**Gizmo:** that's true. I'm assuming senator lives on the west side. Is that what he's alluded to? Ok. Got it. [00:35:00] Senator, what are your plans? Oh, yeah, you're gonna be away, right?
**Senator:** I, I am, but I, this is just notable for me because every 4th of July for my whole life, I'm, I'm always home.
I love to barbecue, so like I'll have some friends over. It's the only time during the year. I mean, I love burgers. I wish I could eat them every day. I, I would, that would not be good for me. But, um, 4th of July is like the one day I grill, like burgers, all that. Um, and I, I do make a great burger. So at some point we'll have
**Gizmo:** to do Oh, can I, can I, can you, can you explain?
Can you talk to us? I'm gonna guess
**Bam Bam:** that he's got some great p coupon nearby. No, no. The
**Senator:** key to a great burger is simplicity. Like anyone who fucks up burgers, overcomplicates it a great burger. Don't buy anything frozen. Get fresh ground beef, 80%. You gotta have fat in there. Um, do you make your own patties?
I make my own patties. You don't get them pre-made. That's another mistake. 80 20. Now
**Gizmo:** we're working. That's right. 80 20. Bam. Very civilized over here. Yes, very
**Senator:** civilized. I'm glad to hear this. You make your own patties, you've gotta have the [00:36:00] dimple in the middle. Everybody knows what I'm talking about, right?
You gotta have shove your thumb in there. Your thumb in the middle. Yeah. Yeah, because you only way it's gonna cook evenly. It rises in the middle. And so when you put the dimple, it makes sure that the whole burger is gonna cook evenly. So that middle is medium, which is what I usually cook my burger to.
I'm even fine with medium rare. But medium is as kind of, as much as I want to cook it. Um, salt and pepper. That's it. Nothing cra people throw all this crazy shit on. It's like a steak you shouldn't throw. I agree. Crazy seasoning on a steak, salt and pepper. You're good to go. Are
**Gizmo:** you going for cheese? No.
Cheese. Cheese, yes. See, I don't do, I don't do cheese. I love the cheese. The, the key is the
**Bam Bam:** bum. Oh,
**Senator:** you potato bun. Oh, potato buns. Potato bun. Martin.
**Gizmo:** Not a yes. Oh, you gotta good Martin,
**Bam Bam:** but toast on Martin. You gotta toast that on a barbecue though, right? Yeah, thing. Okay,
**Senator:** so you, that's huge. These are my people.
You guys get it. Is is listen. Listen.
**Gizmo:** This is episode, I don't know, 98. What episode is this is 87. You can't make a burger
**Bam Bam:** on a grill. We are your people without toast in
**Gizmo:** the bun. That's, you gotta toast the buns. It'll get
**Senator:** too soggy. You get a great [00:37:00] potato bun. You can also do brioche briosh. That's true to me.
Those are the only two buns that are acceptable for a burger. The reason I'm passionate about, I do this once a year. Again, if it wouldn't kill me, I'd eat it every day. Yeah. But I do it once a year. You have a brioche or a potato bun. You open it, put it face down on the grill, get some nice grill marks on there so it's soft, but just with a little crunch from the grill.
You put that on, you need a great quality jersey tomato or wherever you are. Just a great quality tomato. I like a nice thick tomato. Mm-hmm. Some like bib lettuce. You gotta have the
**Gizmo:** bib.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. He, there's a bit of, there's
**Gizmo:** a bit of sweetness.
**Senator:** You gotta have the bib. Yeah. Bib lettuce. And um, then from there, you know, ketchup.
Whatever else condiment wise you wanna put on there. Let's talk, hold on,
**Bam Bam:** wait. Let's talk condiments. Let's talk cheese. I wanna know what kind
**Senator:** of cheese you're going for. Cheese. So I, I like
**Bam Bam:** Cheddar, but I'll also do American Cheddar's. Awesome. Yeah. Cheddar in American. There you go. Have you ever, ever tried
**Gizmo:** putting
**Rooster:** the
**Senator:** cheese in the America?
No, I do not like this. You don't like that? Do not like this. Wait, wait, wait. You don't like what He asked if you [00:38:00] ever put the cheese inside the burger and I said, I don't like it. No
**Gizmo:** stuffed burger. Here's why. No, no, no.
**Senator:** Iron Horse. Here's why. Yeah. Yes. So Iron Horse is famous for that. True. When I was a kid growing up in this area, I've had the Iron Horse burger.
Us too. Here's my problem with it. A great burger that's cooked perfectly, you wanna bite into that and it's just like oozing juice. Yes. You wanna see a pink center? Mm-hmm. When you have cheese there, it, it usually overcook it and it ruins that experience. It's like,
**Gizmo:** and you can't even out when you inject something into the, you're never, it's never gonna be perfectly correct.
Distributed a
**Bam Bam:** little tough to cook the meat evenly when there's dairy. A hundred
**Senator:** percent. Very tough. Not even a little. And that's why like the edges now are so overcooked cuz you had to cook the center long enough for the cheese to be melty when you like bite into it. No,
**Bam Bam:** let's talk temperature of the meat.
It's gotta be rare, medium, rare. For me,
**Gizmo:** I'm a medium rare guy on the burger. Medium
**Bam Bam:** rare. Yeah. And I like when you bite into it, like you said, the juice comes out, it's red and it permeates the bun a little bit. Just a
**Gizmo:** little bit. Yeah, just a little bit. [00:39:00] It's tremendous. And I think, I think to senator's point, I think the thumbprint helps create a situation in which you have a juicy burger that's not, well, it won't lift leaking into your hands all through the bun.
Yeah. I want that. When I bite into it, I don't want my hands to be messy. So a lot of,
**Bam Bam:** a lot of burgers, depending on how big and thick they are, they'll cup in the middle. Yeah. The thumbprint keeps, keep
**Senator:** that from happening because the middle rises when's Right. It's cooking. Yeah, that's exactly
**Gizmo:** it. So you guys all make your own patties?
Yes. Yeah.
**Senator:** Have to. You do too. That's the only way to do it,
**Gizmo:** honestly. No, that's good. I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes Other times during the year, You know, if the kids want something, I'll grab it quick, quick. I love the baba burgers, you know, which are frozen. I've those, they're very of those good, but not on July 4th.
I wanna make my own, of course. And I like to make 'em a little bigger. You know what I mean? Like, like senator's saying, thank you.
**Senator:** Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. This is what also kill with burgers. It's like, don't like the thin patty.
**Gizmo:** No, none of that. None
**Senator:** of that. People are like, oh, I'm trying to make burgers for a bunch of people.
So they make these thin patties and people are needing to eat two burgers to be satisfied. You make one good size burger that's gonna [00:40:00] satisfy someone. Yep. That you cook like a steak that's gonna have a temperature about it. Yes. It's gonna be pink on the inside. Thank you. Thank you. Like that's how a proper burger should be made.
Now
**Bam Bam:** you mentioned condiments. All right.
**Gizmo:** Mine. I, I have some very strong opinions,
**Bam Bam:** sir. That's very Well, I was gonna say, it's a very personal thing for everyone that you invite. A lot of people don't like the things that you like.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I lay out a about personal, I have opinions too. I wanna hear. I lay out.
I lay out. Listen, I, I think ketchup is a little bit of a travesty, but fine if you're a ketchup person. Mustard, though, I lay out five to 10 different mustards for my guests to choose, but I have strong preferences. Strong. Can you put your pinky
**Senator:** out when you say
**Gizmo:** that? Yeah. I'm a mustard. Do you have great p coupon on the table?
That's one of them. I'm sure. I don't reach for that. I don't reach for a Colemans. Coleman's is the best mustard for a burger. I love the
**Bam Bam:** bright yellow color of Coleman's with, and I
**Gizmo:** love ketchup. It's better on sausage though. I, I like Coleman's on a burger. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you know,
**Senator:** I'm glad to hear this, that everyone it sounds like is doing well.
At [00:41:00] least everyone's doing mustard. Mustard, not,
**Bam Bam:** yeah. Everyone's doing mustard. No, no,
**Senator:** no. You're not doing ketchup. I ketchup. I'm doing ketchup. So
**Gizmo:** here's how I do it. No, no. Hold on. Stop. I throw a little bit of ketchup on mine. I don't like the people who are heavy. Kev. Heavy ketchup. No, no, no. That's tertiary to me.
That's secondary. Tertiary to me. Okay. Mustard is number one. Mustard and onions are crucial. Number. Uh, wow. Number one for me on the condiment. Mustard. Ketchup. Ketchup. This ketchup. You like McDonald's. Yeah. Well, McDonald's hot mustard is the greatest condiment that's ever been created. It really
**Bam Bam:** is. I do love
**Senator:** that.
I hate to say it, but No, no, that's fine. But the thing with ketchup, I, you sound averse to it. It's
**Gizmo:** absurd that he's averse to it. It can't be number one like ketchup. Ketchup can't be number one. Ketchup's. Absolutely. Number
**Senator:** one ketchup. That is shitty. That's like overly sweet. So good. Well, you need hin.
Yeah. Heinz is the only ketchup. Ketchup, yes. But, but this is the thing, what I actually prefer, so like, I want just like a little tartness, like a tomato hat, right. It's like sweet and a little tart. Mm-hmm. Like a tomato's. Not just perfectly sweet. Never. And so like, at this point, I think like regular Heinz is like a little too sweet uhhuh, but you get the [00:42:00] one that's like with uh uh, like no high fructose corn syrup or the shit that
**Bam Bam:** they add basically in it.
Oh yeah. What's the maker? There's a maker
**Gizmo:** that it's just like a No no. Heinz has
**Senator:** various, they have like Like a organic one basically. Or a natural one. Yeah. Where like they haven't used high fructose corn syrup. It's based on the actual fucking tomatoes that they're using to make it, that has sweetness.
Mm-hmm. And that little tartness that you want in it. So for me, that's perfectly balanced to put on a burger.
I
**Bam Bam:** love that. Here's a question. Do you, so you don't go for mustard Senator?
**Senator:** I do. You do what? Your mustard. I was worried I would be, here's a question for me. I like a spicy brown mustard with it. I, I do too.
But I haven't had Coleman's and everything I've heard. It's very much in my wheelhouse. I'm gonna
**Bam Bam:** lay out. It's a quintessential American America. That's an A quintessential American.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna lay out five mustards that I think are crucial to offer to your guests. Go ahead. Go ahead. You ready? And I have a question after.
Go ahead. You ready? Yeah. Okay. Number one, Coleman's. Yes. Yellow mustard, which only comes one size in a little glass char like this. Very small. Yep. Number two, spicy brown. [00:43:00] Spicy brown. Which one now? I prefer boar's head delicatessen. I've had that white wine. Yeah. Yeah. Spicy mustard. I've had that. Phenomenal.
Mm-hmm. You can really only get it at certain places. Incredible. Number three. I love Weber's Mustard, which I can only find at Wegman's here in, in New Jersey. Weber's Mustard, which is the closest, haven't had it, but I've heard of it. It's the closest to McDonald's hot mustard that I've ever found. I think they might make, is there spice to it?
I think they might make
**Bam Bam:** McDonald's hot. Mustards have spice.
**Gizmo:** It has a little bit of a kick, but not as much as Coleman's. I think grape P coupon you need to have on the table, and I think for the classic pedestrians that you have over your house, you have to offer frenches regular.
**Bam Bam:** Nothing wrong with yellow mustard.
There's nothing wrong with frenches. It's a
**Gizmo:** basic. Those are the five you need on the
**Senator:** table. I'm simple. I'm sorry. You need those on the table.
**Gizmo:** No, you is is out. No, the kids love pedestrians. They do pedestrian
**Bam Bam:** love. Oh yes. Nope.
**Senator:** There's no PE pedestrians allowed [00:44:00] at my home. I'm sorry.
**Gizmo:** Frenchs is out. Okay.
Pedestrians are welcome at my home. Here's another question. Can I
**Senator:** just say, sorry, we have to, this is an important component of this. Can we just say on French is, Look, if I'm at a ballgame and there's nothing else, fine. You're gonna have frenches. Mm-hmm. Pedestrian. But when you're gonna have the choice it it's like flavorless.
Like there's nothing interesting. No, no.
**Gizmo:** It's true. Kids, kids love frenches.
**Senator:** They do love frenches. Yeah. But we're not talking about kids. We're talking about lizard grown lizards.
**Bam Bam:** That's true. That's true. Not being baby. Okay. I have a question. I would add one.
**Gizmo:** Go ahead.
**Rooster:** One more condiment to that. So I do the habanero sauce that
**Gizmo:** I make, which I love.
So good. I love what you make. And mix it with little mayonnaise. Really.
**Rooster:** Really? So make a little habanero ai,
**Gizmo:** like aol. Ooh. And
**Rooster:** put that on the burger because the mayonnaise will cut the spice level of the habanero. Yeah. And the mayonnaise. It's a nice touch to a burger. But with the
**Gizmo:** habanero, it's
**Bam Bam:** like perfect.
So for the listener, rooster makes the absolute best. Best spicy concoction. Oh, it's so good. I use it on everything. [00:45:00] Use versatile put by the way. Uh, on everything. Everything from morning to night. It's on my meals. I did have
**Pagoda:** it yesterday again.
**Bam Bam:** I need another
**Gizmo:** batch batch out. I've gone through, I've gone through all three
**Bam Bam:** jars.
Yeah, no, I, I got him three jars. I thought I'm the only one in. Are you giving him the empty? I will.
**Gizmo:** Amen. Yeah, I, um, I'm obsessed with mustard and I think I have a question about that. I think Mayo now I'm not gonna, I love mayo. I'm gonna
**Bam Bam:** talk down a down. Be careful on
**Gizmo:** a burger. You like that? I'm not gonna talk down to anyone who likes mayo on a burger.
Think it takes
**Bam Bam:** away. Here's, I grew up in India. Please, I have a question. I have a question On a construction of a burger buns on both ends. Meat in the middle, cheese or no cheese? It's up to you. Do you separate the ketchup from the mustard? No, I don't think it matters. I
**Senator:** combine. I don't, I, I combine them.
Ah. And what I've discovered, so the funny thing, my wife is very big on condiments. In a way that I couldn't appreciate, but as I've tried her concoctions, there's a method to the madness. I'm very much about it, um, [00:46:00] combined for sure. I mean, my wife is crazy. She's like putting condiments on. She's like swirling and mixing them.
My too all gotta be. It's a little weird. Yeah, it is weird.
**Bam Bam:** You're like watching this. I watched my wife. It's like a chemistry experiment. That's exactly, exactly it, dude. It's literally feel and I'm like looking at her like, honey, what are you doing? Yeah.
**Senator:** And it's gotta be perfectly spread across, like all of it.
Yeah. It's like, you know, we just fucking poured on, be obsess about it. It's just in the middle big deal. I'll wait till I get to the middle to have it like. It's perfectly spread on the bun, everything. And for my wife too, it's like, well, you can't just have it on the top. You also have to have it on the bottom, or it can be somehow uneven.
Oh, the same concoction. Yes. And I gotta say it does work. Mm, it
**Bam Bam:** does work. So what I do is I put the ketchup on top and I like the mustard on bottom for me. Interesting.
**Gizmo:** So, so I do, I do everything.
**Bam Bam:** You know why? So when I take a bite, it's in your mouth as you're chewing, it combines. For me, it's more interesting.
It separates it. Yeah. But I get the hint of each independently and as I combine it, as I, you know, chew and swallow. It's
**Senator:** for me, interesting. I would [00:47:00] just offer a suggestion. I'll try it. Try combined on the top. I haven't never done that. I think when it's combined, something magical happens. It's even better.
**Pagoda:** Serious. And Barry serious, Sam, we know you're not gonna have just
**Bam Bam:** one. You're have a three. That's true. You could do a couple, bro. Bro, he's not wrong. I can sit and have five, six hamburgers. Easy. No problem. Listen, mid. Been into the Italian. It's a problem ordered three. It's a problem, but it's no
**Gizmo:** problem.
Bam, ba bam. No
**Bam Bam:** problem. It's crazy. It's no problem. Dude's. 4th of July.
**Gizmo:** I like, I like America. I
**Rooster:** like the combination of mayo and ketchup. I do too. More than, yes. Ketchup and
**Bam Bam:** mustard. So Mrs. Bam. Bam is a huge proponent of mayo and so
**Senator:** is my wife.
**Bam Bam:** Oh God. And my wife too. I have to admit, I admire their level of detail.
Yeah. Like you mentioned, Mrs. Senator. Yeah. It's uncanny because sh, Mrs. Babit does the same thing and I'm just sitting there watching it. I kind of admire it. But it's also a little crazy. Yeah,
**Senator:** no, literally, I laugh. Like she'll, she'll just stand there and I'll, I'll be, I'll like see it, and then I'll [00:48:00] leave the room and I'll come back and I'm like, you're still just spreading a condiment on, like something you're eating.
She's like, well, it has to be. Even like, what? But it's a method to it. It it tastes great.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's endearing. It's, it is. It's
**Gizmo:** cool to see that. All right. Next question.
**Rooster:** What is your best cut of french fries? Like what shape
**Gizmo:** do you like
**Senator:** with a burger with? Easy.
**Bam Bam:** Easy. I like the steak fries. I love steak cut fries because they're thicker for me.
I like do too. For me personally, I like the thicker
**Gizmo:** fry. Senator, the way for the listener, senator, his, his head just flew off his body in
**Bam Bam:** complete
**Senator:** disapproval. Again, I have strong opinions cuz these are things that I, I try to limit myself in terms of how much I ate them. So these are like a few times a year for me.
So I've gotta really enjoy them when I have
**Gizmo:** them. Please share your strong opinion. This is new for us. Oh yeah.
**Bam Bam:** No, I've never heard a strong opinion from Senator.
**Gizmo:** This is new. This is, you're opening up. I'm very appreciative Shoestring period. They get too crispy. I like 'em thin and I like rough edges. Is anyone in a dispute
**Senator:** that McDonald's has the best fries?
The best,
**Gizmo:** best fries in the [00:49:00] world? McDonald's? I
**Bam Bam:** don't disagree. Doubt. Then, I'm sorry. Wendy's.
**Gizmo:** Wendy, you can't you. You can't. Wendy. Oh dude. Wendy's and five guys. Five girls has the best fries. Wendy's
**Bam Bam:** is so satisfying. It's like eating. Just, it's a fresh potatoes slice. They
**Gizmo:** changed. Changed the recipe. It's got some No, I love
**Senator:** McDonald's too.
No, I know love. But look, I said the McDonald's and everybody said French fry. Oh, amazing. And then even if you're a
**Bam Bam:** salad. All right, I'm with you, bro. I'm with you. Yeah. Time not
**Gizmo:** sounds like an actual
**Senator:** potato. Listen time. Not if you're going to say the McDonald's makes great fries. Even if you're gonna say Wendy's, then you're acknowledging that shoestring is a great
**Gizmo:** fucking way to go McDonald's.
So
**Pagoda:** now is it ketchup with fries or is it mayo with fries,
**Gizmo:** Mayo, ketchup may with fries, ketchup like mayo and ketchup.
**Bam Bam:** So I don't eat fries a lot for the same reasons you do for health purposes. But when I want to go for something like a heavy carb meal and I want to have a treat, honestly, Wendy's fries is so freaking satisfying or thick.
They're not greasy. They're, they're crumbly on the ends. It's awesome. You're
**Senator:** gonna say they're better than McDonald's.
**Bam Bam:** It's not possible. What? So McDonald's are really crispy and small. I can eat like three pounds of [00:50:00] Wendy, of Wendy Fries
**Senator:** are better
**Gizmo:** than McDonald's fries.
**Bam Bam:** I, I do think
**Gizmo:** so. I'd love to hear what the listeners think, but please.
McDonald's. McDonald's wipes the floor. Wanna hear what the listeners think. And by the way, can we just all agree that Burger King is trash? Yes. Okay, thank you. I love the Whopper. No, stop
**Senator:** it. Oh, the, the charbroil thing. And come on. He works. I'll give them now here's What
**Gizmo:** about the five guys? Fries. Hold on.
Do you guys not
**Senator:** like, listen, so time out, timeout. I'm with Rooster. I'm with Rooster. Good. Second. Best fries are five
**Gizmo:** guys for They're good. They're good. They use the peanut oil to fry. Yeah, it's very, they
**Bam Bam:** do double. You know, it's nice. It's nice. Yeah. So regarding the Whopper, I'm sorry, I gotta talk about the Whopper.
I get it. With no cheese, no mayo. And I get three of 'em at a time. I thought you no bum Jesus. No. No. I eat the buns. These are the full-sized WPPs,
**Senator:** like
**Bam Bam:** little mini, like your robbers. This is when I'm like off the rails and I don't care what I'm eating that day.
**Gizmo:** You sound like an American America. Fuck.
Yeah. Very,
**Bam Bam:** very patriotic. Yeah. I love the whopper, so I gotta
**Pagoda:** tell you, I, you know, but I was very young and I'd just come, uh, to the [00:51:00] us. I did work at Roy Ro, Roy Rogers.
**Bam Bam:** Oh. Put in three days. I used to love that place. I worked another place. I worked, I worked there in high school, put in a day, but when I worked berries, short cakes.
Yeah. And those roast beef sandwiches, those weird roast beef, they were weird. But they're really good.
**Gizmo:** The lizards are off the rails. Boys talking about food. All right,
**Bam Bam:** let it, let's let it go.
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Fuck yeah. America. Fuck.
I'll leave it there. McDonald's. Fuck yeah. Did they say that? Yeah, they did. I missed that, so I got another one to add to it. Ipi Carillo, pledge of Allegiance. This cigar is great.
**Bam Bam:** It's It's tremendous. Is it not? It's tremendous. Yes.
**Gizmo:** We're a little over halfway through. Yeah. I'm just lovely. Totally in love with the cigar.
Even as we're discussing this, like obviously you can sense the enthusiasm of the room for the listener, like. All five of us are really, really enjoying this cigar. You know, I mean, this [00:52:00] is, I'm actually, I think I'm gonna have one of these on the 4th of July. I think so. Like, this is a great cigar. We do have to cover the drink.
We haven't
**Bam Bam:** even touched the drink yet, we haven't even talked about yet. We're enjoying the cigar so much. The drink has been completely, Senator holds up the glass.
**Gizmo:** Hello. We're 50 minutes in. All right. Before we get to the drink, we gotta talk about our pairing tonight. What do you guys think of the cigar?
I, I am just blown away by this. Yeah. So I think
**Bam Bam:** the complexity that we experienced or in the first half just continues. It's very consistent, which I love. And it's just, I, again, I'm getting the citrus and it's, it's not, it's not relenting. It's picked up
**Gizmo:** in strength a little bit. Uh, tiny bit, but in a good way, though.
In a very, in a very good way. And it's very, not much just a, it's still the smooth delivery. Still smooth, very smooth,
**Bam Bam:** complex way. Yeah. Yeah. Have it picked
**Pagoda:** up in strength? I don't feel it.
**Bam Bam:** Just a touch.
**Pagoda:** No, no. I'm just kidding. I, I'm really enjoying it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's really good. All right, so let's talk about our pairing tonight.
We're a little late, but, uh, let's talk about this. Yes, sir.
**Senator:** Senator, this, this was a, a listener recommendation
**Bam Bam:** Lizard. Lizard [00:53:00] ov That's
**Senator:** right. Recommended this, one of our, one of our friends, uh, who's a listener, one of dear friends, a member of our lounge. Oh, yeah. Uh, we saw him drinking this once in the lounge, and we were not familiar with it, or I certainly wasn't.
**Bam Bam:** Well, we kinda laughed at it when he put the bottle on the
**Senator:** table. We, we did. And I laughed when I took the bottle out of the box because it's literally covered in a fish net that you can, you, you were here. This is the, the fish that gets Yeah, you're playing a banjo. It's ridiculous. It's very erotic. It is.
I'm not sure why that was necessary. I think the glass bottle would've been just fine by itself, but it is the dimple pinch. 15 year. 15 year. And it's a blend. Yeah, a blend. Blended scot. A blended, uh, yeah, blended scotch. Yeah. I, I like
**Bam Bam:** the bottle. It looks nice. I have to say it's, it's actually quite delicious and very smooth.
Oh, that's pretty
**Gizmo:** damn good. It's very good. Yeah. That's 15 year aged. Yeah, blended. Now, if you told blended, it's a blended scot, it's a blend. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you told me this was 12 or or 10, I think it's closer to that. It [00:54:00] doesn't taste like a 15 to me. Certainly the viscosity's not there, but it's, it's delicious.
How much is this?
**Senator:** It's very accessible.
**Gizmo:** Really 40 bucks, 40 bucks, 39 99 for 15 year age. That's what bad.
**Bam Bam:** So yeah, look, the more you age a scotch, it does get smoother. And this is quite smooth. Yeah. The viscosity's not
**Gizmo:** there. You're right. It's definitely not there. It's very thin
**Bam Bam:** to me. But, but the flavor, it's really quite delicious.
Well, that's why mean surprisingly delicious.
**Senator:** Yeah. So the thing we've, we've procured a, a bunch of different spirits that we intend to review on the pod. And um, I was just going through trying to figure out what to pair with this. And the only reason I had picked this, not because I have any affinity for the dimple pinch Yeah.
Or I've even drank it very
**Gizmo:** much. It was the fish nets. Clearly.
**Senator:** Clearly. But the thing about it, it's smooth, very drinkable and at an accessible price point. And when I think of 4th of July, 4th of July is not a holiday where I'm breaking out. No, you're not. Uh, like 15 years single malt. Totally. Or an [00:55:00] 18 years single malt.
It's we're, we are being Americans, we are consuming in volume America,
**Bam Bam:** Modelo, I'm sorry. Never apologize.
**Senator:** And so because it's something you're gonna consume in volume, I'm like, you know, what's something that's not too heavy, not too structured as a spirit that I would, you would be able to drink in volume.
Not at a crazy price point that you would not want to, you know, procure 10 bottles and put out on the table. I'm
**Bam Bam:** checking off the boxes as you're talking. Yeah.
**Senator:** And so the price point, it's not too full. Right. And something that's smooth, it's just gonna keep going down easy. And this fits
**Bam Bam:** that bill. Yeah.
So Lizard OV said that he had, you know, with this, with his father for many years, and it's kind of endearing for him. We all laughed at the bottle because of the presentation. Honestly, the bottle's actually quite beautiful. The way it's structured. It is the fish. That's hilarious. It's a unique bottle.
It's very unique. I don't think scot think I've seen anything like that. Yeah, no, it's true. But it drinks and that's the
**Senator:** di dimple. There's a [00:56:00] dimple on each side,
on
**Bam Bam:** all three sides, right? It's a three faceted bottle. It's actually drinking very, very
**Senator:** nicely. It is. So the complaints, the funny thing is, on this box, they have a little bit about their history.
Th this sounds incredibly legitimate. I, I can't verify any of this, but, um, it says that John Hagen company has its origins in Scotland's first. In Scotland's first distilling family, which has over 350 years of experience in distilling scotch whiskeys, which is crazy. I can only take that. That's three 50 years.
Three 50 years. That's nuts. And it says they've been awarded a bunch of gold medals and, and different awards for their blended scotches. And it says that John Hagen company distilled the first dimple whiskey in 1890. Wow. Wow. Three years later introduced the unique and recognizable dimple bottle that we were talking about.
It's actually a beautiful bottle. It is. [00:57:00] And it says that to the present day. John Hagen Company continues to distill and blend. Dimple whiskeys, which is pretty remarkable. That's a really long history. Yeah. I'm,
**Bam Bam:** I'm, I'm really surprised Lizard Lizard ov. It's a
**Gizmo:** great recommend, I think, for being a blend, which we drink a lot of single mos on the pod.
That's true. We don't drink a lot of blends. We're a little snobby though. We are snobby Yeah. Because of Senator. But let's not you, you know That's true. You knows. Let's, it's a holiday. Bam. Be nice. Look,
**Senator:** GIZ You're right. Let's, let's think about the, um, the blended whiskeys We've done the Shivas Regal 18. Oh,
**Gizmo:** hey.
How did, how
**Bam Bam:** did that go? Giz? You know what, I think you, you repainted rooster's car one night and his by sink on that crap and you sink
**Gizmo:** No, I mean, we don't drink a lot of blended scotch, right? No. Um, and, and, and this is for 15 year age, I mean, for the price. That's, it's really, really nice. Yeah. And the presentation's great.
It's true. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's, it's really
**Gizmo:** very nice and, and I think, and I think it's pairing great with the
**Bam Bam:** cigar [00:58:00] and not a chip of ice in any glass tonight. Yeah. Not a chip, chip of ice five. It's really drinking
**Senator:** Very good. Which is notable because, you know, we think of even, you know, blended scotches are smoother because they can blend to masks, certain imperfections and impurities that are in some of the, um, the whiskey that they're blending in that.
But I don't think there are many blended whiskeys that we drink. Neat.
**Gizmo:** No, I don't think there's many scotches we drink. Neat. That's also true. Yeah, that's true. True single malts. No.
**Senator:** Like even Shiva 18, I don't think we were, you know, sipping that neat. For the most part. I think we had like, at least a chip of ice just to open it up a bit.
This doesn't really
**Bam Bam:** need anything. Even the Macallan 12, we've got a chip or
**Pagoda:** two in there. My, my black label need a splosh.
**Bam Bam:** The VE soda. Yeah. Venie. We're doing a chip or two at least. Yeah, chip or two for sure. Yeah. This is a unique scotch.
**Gizmo:** This is really good. It's for, what you say was 45 bucks. 40 40, 49, 99, dude.
Wow. Great value. That's pretty
**Bam Bam:** damn [00:59:00] good. Great value so far. An incredible
**Gizmo:** pairing. Yeah, I'm, I'm really happy with this. And, and to your point, Senator, it's like, you know, a 4th of July, a holiday like this. You're not going crazy at Christmas or New Year's, you might go a little outside the box a little bit.
Oh yeah. You might reach for a deeper, you might little reach a little deeper in the humid ore you might reach, reach a little deeper in your, in your, your, in your bar. Your, your liquor collection. That's right. You know, because of that kinda holiday. July 4th is a very, it's, it's
**Bam Bam:** informal. It's casual, it's relaxed.
Exactly. And, but you're, and what you're consuming, it's very affordable stuff. Right. But it's very high quality. Both the cigar and obs spirit tonight are extremely affordable, but very, very high
**Gizmo:** quality. Yeah. Great experience. I think both of them are punching well above to years. Your phrase well above their wake cost.
Big time. Big time. Are you drinking this in the
**Rooster:** afternoon? I would.
**Gizmo:** Or would you do beer on Tuesday? I would be drinking this in the afternoon. You
**Bam Bam:** know what, honestly, this is, this is an early afternoon start and I'm taking it right to, right to the night. Right, right to bed. [01:00:00]
**Gizmo:** Taking the bottle
**Bam Bam:** with you. I could do that.
Nice. Mrs. Bam. Bam. Won't like it, but I'll do it. Yeah. This is good. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** I think July the fourth will be a beer
**Gizmo:** day for me. You're a beer guy. I, you know, and what's funny, for July actually when, when the citrus note came up in the cigar, I was thinking like, this is definitely a cigar that would pair very well with a nice beer.
The cigar. The cigar. Oh, I agree with you. Yeah. I think on July 4th, this with, oh agree this, this with a beer. I think it would do very, very well.
**Bam Bam:** You know, pagoda mentioned the Modelo. Yeah. I think this would taste delicious with a Modelo.
**Gizmo:** I love a Coors Light. I think this would taste great with a Coors Light.
It's not. I'm very simple on it. Not so
**Senator:** dissimilar. No. The only thing I will say, I mean both of those beers, this cigar is, needs full flavored and complex and Yeah, like Rooster just said, it's gonna need more. I mean, those
are
**Gizmo:** more like a spout or a porter could be.
**Bam Bam:** Or an ipa. I think. An IPA or
**Senator:** ipa. Cause the citrus note in this would work well with an ipa.
I
**Gizmo:** agree. Agree. I agree with that. IPA would go well.
**Bam Bam:** I think we're doing the, [01:01:00] uh, pinch all day.
**Senator:** Yeah. Oh yeah. But I also, I don't view 4th of July for me. Uh, it's not mutually exclusive. I mean, it's,
**Gizmo:** that's both Well, yeah, yeah. Hit it all, hit it hard. You know, it's like
**Senator:** you hit it early in the, you know, it's, it's America.
**Gizmo:** All right. You're killing our listeners now. If they're playing the drinking
**Bam Bam:** game, they're probably all passed that. They're dead.
**Gizmo:** We're doing this for ourselves now. This is true.
**Bam Bam:** Well, pagoda just took a
**Gizmo:** sip. There's nobody, nobody listening. It's just the five of us. All the listeners have tuned out because they're sleeping.
I'm
**Bam Bam:** still very happy. I've definitely taken a sip every time you've said America, and that's why I love you
**Gizmo:** so boys. Not that, you know, listen, we don't need to do a recap of it, but I was very intrigued and kind of obsessed with this whole Titanic submersible thing. Yeah. Uh, what a tragedy. I mean,
**Senator:** Can we have Pupa report live from the seat of the,
**Gizmo:** from Nova Scotia?[01:02:00]
Yeah. No, it's like you, you, I mean, to, to this whole thing going down the way that it did. I mean, it's, it's an unbelievable story, but you know what?
**Rooster:** When this thing happened right around the same time, there was a, was there a ship or some kind of a boat
**Gizmo:** out of Greece that Oh, with the migrants sized Yes, true.
With 700 migrants. 700
**Rooster:** migrants. Unbelievable. That got very little
**Gizmo:** coverage. Yeah. As opposed to to this, this, the fridge is tourists, which is a little bothersome. Agreed. Agreed. It's
**Senator:** more than a little bothersome. You know what's sad? I didn't even know that until you just said that. Yeah, it's true. That's a problem.
Yeah. And
**Gizmo:** a bunch
**Senator:** of 'em died. 700 people as opposed to, and a bunch of them died, and five rich people getting a submarine like idiots going down to the Titanic.
**Bam Bam:** Right. Well, you know, there was a kid on that, on that submarine. That's, that's awful. Just such a
**Gizmo:** tragic situation. You know, he was the, the 19 year old kid that bands mentioned.
God, you know, what he was looking forward to at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean by the [01:03:00] Titanic? No, he wanted to solve his Rubik's cube. Oh. See, in the submersible on this, the floor. That was what he was looking forward to. Like, oh, it's awful. It's, it's absolutely terrible. Just an awful story all around.
And I heard, you know, James Cameron was the, you know, the director of the Titanic and he's been, you know, he's a C Explorer as well, aside from being a director. He is, been to the Titanic 33 times and he's done tons of other dives. I think three or four times the depth. The depth of the Titanic. Um, three to four times the depth.
Yeah. One of the trenches that he visited is like three or four times the depth. That's crazy. Imagine the pressure at that desk's. True. I mean, true. This thing is what, two and a half miles? Yeah. So the pressure at the Titanic, I heard it described at as, uh, a building the size of the Empire State Building it's lead.
Completely made of lead. Yeah. That weighing on you. Wow. That's how much the pressure is. So that's incredible. That's why when, you know the submersible, they had this guy Stockton, Stockton Rush, I [01:04:00] believe his name is, uh, you know, they had a submersible that was made of three or four different types of material.
You know, the hull was made of carbon fiber. The port was made of plexiglass. That's, and there was a titanium component, so it's like, and that's a
**Bam Bam:** problem by the way. It is. So the combination of materials, what happens with mixed materials, they all react to temperature in a different way. And pressure.
Yeah. So I'm a nerd about this kind of thing. So we specify things for buildings when we build them based on how they react to temperature changes. And because there's a different coefficient of movement, each material moves and expands and contracts in a different way. You've gotta pair things that work together.
But when you're compare, when you're combining titanium and plexiglass and carbon fiber, You're, I think, looking for a problem.
**Gizmo:** It's a problem. And to do it repeatedly. Yeah. You know, you know, to keep sending that thing down at that pressure.
**Bam Bam:** A traditional submarine, the HU is six inch thick steel. It's all the same, [01:05:00] it's all consistent material.
There's no port holes. No, there isn't for a reason because of that amount of pressure per square foot on the face of this, of
**Gizmo:** the submarine. So why would the build the submersible
**Rooster:** to go to that, that depth? I
**Gizmo:** don't, I don't think, and not make it into like a thick steel like that. My personal
**Bam Bam:** opinion, it probably wasn't built to as per spec, per specification to go to that
**Gizmo:** specific depth.
But that's what it was made for. To do that. You're gonna, you're pro, but there's no regulation.
**Bam Bam:** No, there is no, no, no, there is. On every marine vessel there is specific regulation and speci and specifications and, You're gonna see litigation I that goes against every engineer that was involved in that vessel creation.
**Senator:** Well, yeah, because it's awful. The, the bottom line in all of this, I mean, what BA's saying there is definitely accurate because there are a number of people that have gone on record saying they were involved with the development of that, the testing. They had issues that said there were issues. Exactly.
Yeah. That warned this is going to be a
**Gizmo:** problem. Yeah. There were issues with [01:06:00] communication. There were issues and they were ignored. Yeah. They
**Bam Bam:** were, there were like two or three testing agencies nationwide that are responsible for marine vessels. It's like the building code for building buildings. There's like one major code nationwide and each city adopts its own version of it.
I mean, what, but, but for marine vessels, cuz you're getting into something, you're actually taking your life into your own hands and those specifications have to be deadly accurate. Deadly accurate. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** What I
**Rooster:** didn't realize that the Titanic is only like. I
**Gizmo:** don't know, a hundred
**Bam Bam:** Nova Scotia or something.
Right?
**Gizmo:** No. Close to Cape Cod. Dude. It spread up the coast 70 miles from Lake Cape. Cape. Not that that far out, but the trench is
**Rooster:** deep there. But, but back when the Titanic sank, which was around what? 1910? 1912. 1912. It hit an iceberg.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah. Oh, there's, there's no icebergs there now. Yeah. Climate change, right?
No, but what happened was when that all happened in April 14th, 1912, when the Titanic sank, you know, James Cameron drew an interesting comparison to the two failures here, [01:07:00] right? In that the, the captain of Titanic was warned of this iceberg field, and he sailed full steam ahead into an iceberg, you know, into waters full of iceberg, with no moonlight, no communication, no vision, and sank the Titanic.
And the same thing with this Stockton Rush, the CEO of this company, he was warned over and over. And James Cameron said something along the lines of, the irony is not lost on me. That both of these things failed because the captain of these ships refused to acknowledge the warnings that were sent to them.
Right. For the failures that were about to happen. And what's interesting too, despite regulation, there has been no loss of life in any submersible ever. Mm-hmm. Ever of that submarines? No. Anybody who's, no, it's submersible, not sub. That's different than a submarine. Yeah. Submarine's. Different [01:08:00] submersible.
Someone just diving for the thrill of it. There's been no loss of life because there's been such an advancement of technology. Yeah. And here we are with five Lives Lost. Yeah. It's just because, you know, safety was dismissed. That's right. For 250,000 a seat. It's crazy, dude. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. But you know, it's like, you know, pagoda and I were talking before we came on, it's like, These rich folks.
It's like this, this, wanting to find that next frontier. You know, having all this money in the world and not being satisfied. Well, well,
**Senator:** this is what kills me, like, you know, wanting to find this next frontier. I don't have as much of a problem with it, you know, like the whole Elon El Elon space. Uh, but, and, and even think of, I mean, Elon, I give way more credit too, but like Bezos, you know, going into space Oh, yeah.
And bringing all these celebrities and stuff like that. Like William Shatner, there's, yeah. Um, did Mike Strahan go on that? No,
**Bam Bam:** I thought I heard that he might, [01:09:00] I don't think he, I feel like he did. Maybe not. I don't
**Senator:** know. I think he did. But either way, you know, it's like. Space Exploration. Exploration. I get there are obviously tremendous risks.
We've all seen, you know, these spaceships huge, literally just explode. Not only that though, um, but there's, there's a purpose to me. Yeah. Like, you know, certainly, hopefully nothing we'll have to worry about in our lifetime, but yeah, sure. There may be a day where we need to find other inhabitable places and Right.
I get why they're doing that. But taking a submersible to the Titanic, something that is just sitting at the bottom of an ocean, that is not going to advance anything useful for us. Nope. I am just, what is the point?
**Bam Bam:** There's no point Senator.
**Senator:** What is the point? And then you look at like, they invited all these people, like I'm just sitting there, some guy who's apparently has the most YouTube, Mr.
Beast Yes. Has the most YouTube views or followers or whatever metric. And they invited him. And this kid at least [01:10:00] was smart enough to say no and didn't go right. And I'm like, You invited some guy who has the most YouTube views or followers for no purpose on a mission that is meant to achieve nothing, right?
Yep. Other than to just say, we went down to the Titanic that's sitting there. I just why?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Why it's not useful. No. You know,
**Pagoda:** but it's interesting because the human race, right? You have early adopters and obviously you have people who are exploring new frontier. There's always, like if you were to draw a bell curve, there's always a portion of them who are always willing to do that.
Maybe that's what made them very successful
**Bam Bam:** in their own business. Well, there's a portion of them that are willing to take the risk and push the envelope.
**Pagoda:** Envelope and, and you know, so
**Senator:** which is good when there's a purpose. That's exactly, you're right. But
**Bam Bam:** there's stupid when there's not. Yeah. So enough.
There has to be scientific achievement there and enlightenment and information in that, in that exploration. Like,
**Senator:** I fault nobody for space exploration. Like even as silly, like obviously everybody criticized Bezos and all the other, you know, billionaires and rich people that went on [01:11:00] this thing, and like, I get the criticism, but I also like there's some credence to what they're doing and that.
Maybe someday. Mm-hmm. It will be useful to know that we can get to these places. Right. And maybe we will need to get to these places. But I'm sorry, there is no one that will ever convince me that we need to go to visit the Titanic. Mm-hmm. There is no benefit in doing so other than saying I visited the Titanic.
Right,
**Gizmo:** right, right. I agree. They, they were
**Rooster:** going to collect some samples, I think, apparently from, uh, down
**Gizmo:** there for what? It was. Part of
**Senator:** this. For what we know. The fucking Titanics down there. For what,
**Gizmo:** I mean, what are we
**Bam Bam:** trying to discover at this point? Don't, we don't know what's on Mars, so that's interesting and curious.
We don't really know what's on the moon. Right. So those, those explorations are worth
**Gizmo:** it. Can I ask a question? All right. Let's say, let, let's put safety aside and money aside. Would you rather go to the bottom of the ocean or to space? Staying right here. No, but let's, let's Me too. Let's say it. No, but let's say it's totally good question.
Like totally [01:12:00] guaranteed safe. There's no problem. There's no chance of loss. I'd go to space. I would go to space.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. So there's a biological component to the fossil, the ocean. There are species down there that are probably, that haven't been cataloged. They don't know what's down there. So there's a biological interest.
I'm not sure how that advances
**Senator:** humanity. Is there really? Do we really not know what's at the depths of the oceans? I feel
**Gizmo:** like they say that we don't. There are a lot of species that we have. They say they don't know.
**Bam Bam:** But to your point, to senator's point, it doesn't advance us. Space exploration does advance our humanity and our ability to venture into new worlds.
Yeah, and that makes sense. Yeah. But the risks right now, like the radiation exposure in space, unless that vessel is built a certain way with lead shields, you're fucked. You are fucked. Yeah. Unless it's built properly, just like exploring the deep oceans. There's safety protocols you gotta follow.
**Gizmo:** You know, it, I look at like this, this whole Titanic th this whole loss of this vessel.[01:13:00]
It, it, it's an interesting, you know, uh, commentary. I, I think, you know, to what Rooster was saying about the media coverage, like the amount of money that was spent on the potential recovery of this, to then learn that there is a secret network of the United States or NATO has to detect sound from under the, you know, under, you know, deep in the ocean.
Mm-hmm. To, you know, maybe see if there's, you know, uh, submarines or whatever it may be, traveling that at the point of impact, apparently this thing was lost on Sunday. Mm-hmm. And they knew it. They heard it to send out all these ships. I guess just for the media exercise, I think like we're trying, I think that's exactly what it was.
And they knew. They just couldn't get a, a non-human inhabited vessel there. Yeah. Fast enough to search the bottom to find the wreckage. And they spent four or five days creating hope. Right. Do we
**Bam Bam:** [01:14:00] creating hope? Did they recover the vessel?
**Gizmo:** No. They, they found they're finding pieces. They found pieces of it.
I mean, it apparently, it, the implosion is so fast. Sure. At that pressure, it,
**Bam Bam:** it actually crumples with
**Gizmo:** enough pressure like a tin can, like a tin can. And it, it happens so fast that it's even faster than your brain can even unreal recognize that something has happened. It's that fast. It's like half the time that your brain can sense pain.
So certainly it was painless for them, which is wonderful. That's good, yeah. To hear, but that's a good thing. Yeah. It's also like, we knew this on Sunday, yet we sent. 10, 10, you know, countries worth of uh, uh, isn't that called Vessels out there to
**Bam Bam:** find, isn't, isn't that called damage control? Right. They've gotta go out and show us and put a show of force and make an effort.
I mean, they
**Senator:** don't have to. I, I don't know. You know, they, they did because these are really wealthy people that are down there. Exactly. They feel like they, they have to do that. Yeah. And that's what's sad. Like Rooster tells the story about
**Gizmo:** what's going on. Where's the extraction for the 700 people that you know?
And nobody gives shit. Shit. [01:15:00] Nobody cares about nobody. It's awful because they were poor immigrants who, nobody cares about it. Nobody gives, gives shit. That's a
**Senator:** problem. And again, for me, I would feel much worse if. There were no warning signs. This has been tested rigorously and there was every reason to believe this would be perfectly safe and perfectly routine.
But when you are warned there are people on record at the time at which all of this was tested saying There are problems and you should not do
**Gizmo:** this. It's just a matter of time. Yeah. There was a guy who
**Senator:** was interview for that to be there. It's just hard for me to be as sympathetic. Mm-hmm. And it, it is even more infuriating that there was a young minor down there.
Yeah. Yeah. That some idiot adult said, this is okay and you should come with us on this stupid, terrible expedition. Like it's so irresponsible. Absolutely infuriating. Absolutely. Where like, say whatever you want about Bezos and all these other people have gone to space. Like clearly they tested the shit out of it [01:16:00] that mm-hmm.
There was not an issue. I give them credit for that and I doubt that Jeff Bezos would've gotten on a rocket ship. Yeah. If people told him. If anyone told him that there is a high likelihood this is gonna be problematic and not work. Yeah. I don't think he wants to end his life. That's not his goal. Right.
Yeah. So, you know, it's just so hard for me that the warning signs were there and they were ignored and then this horrible thing happens. That's what kills me about this. That's what I have a hard time being as sympathetic as I would if it's tested. And we have every reason to believe this is gonna be business as usual.
Right.
**Gizmo:** And that's not what happened here. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean there was a
**Rooster:** guy who was interviewed who's been on that vessel, apparently gone down to the Titanic six times. Wow. And he said each time there was some issue, there's a problem, whether it was communication or it was, you know, something with the vessel.
He said that those were signs, like,
**Gizmo:** you know. Yeah. Apparently they got stuck at one point and all of the passengers had to rock the vessel loose by shifting their weight from left to right in [01:17:00] the vessel to get loose. Oh. So the other thing that's wild about what happened with this implosion is that apparently they knew there was something wrong and that the communication happened that they were trying to come up, you know, they released whatever, uh, mechanisms they had to come back to surface, and they were in the process of coming back to surface when it imploded.
So either they heard. Some noises or some sort of trigger Well, you're
**Bam Bam:** gonna start hearing like a crackling noise. Exactly. And stress, like not stress fractures, but the sound of that. That's got it. It must have been horrifying.
**Gizmo:** It just must been terrifying. And then in a, in a moment that we can't even comprehend.
Yeah. Yeah. It just happened. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, we were talking about using, uh, mustard and ketchup on hamburger fucking submersible. Welcome to the Lounge Lizard Podcast listeners. We cover
**Bam Bam:** it all,
**Gizmo:** [01:18:00] much rather have the mustard conversation. Yeah, yeah. No, it's just, you know, it's something, it's just, it's just so crazy and it's a big story, you know, that, you know, it's a tragedy almost. You know what, over a hundred years later, there's another wreckage down there. Yeah, I know.
**Senator:** Yep. And sadly, a hundred years from now, there'll be some other idiots that try to go down just to see it.
That
**Gizmo:** that's what Yeah. Just to see the second. Right. I mean,
**Rooster:** even if they had found the vessel,
**Gizmo:** How were they gonna bring it up? They can't. No. Even if they found them and they were alive, they couldn't bring it up. Up. Yeah. They couldn't bring it up. There's no mechanism to do it. No, not yet. You know, it's crazy.
All right, boys, we're coming to the end here of our pairing tonight. The EP Carillo, the Combustion Pledge of Allegiance.
**Bam Bam:** The combustion on this cigar, that room is full of smoke.
**Gizmo:** Great. Insane. It's such an excellent cigar, excellent cigar. And the, and, and, and the scotch. The blended scotch is excellent. It's actually a
**Bam Bam:** delicious pairing
**Gizmo:** tonight.
I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very good. So what are you guys, what are you guys getting in the last [01:19:00] third here of the uh, pledge of Allegiance?
**Senator:** For me, the last third, here's where it has picked up in strength. I think time Richard was mentioning this was, was starting to happen and I think it's firmly full now.
Absolutely. The final, thirdly, absolutely. Yeah. But it's still delivering all that flavor in a smooth Yeah. Enjoyable way. So I'm, I'm very happy with it. It's not
**Bam Bam:** hard to, to continue to smoke this, where a lot of new worlds, some of them, let's say, when you get down to an inch, which is where I am, and a lot of us are hard to continue, right.
But this is, this is still
**Gizmo:** delivering beautifully. And I think off the truck, I mean, I've only had this for a few days, four days. I've only had this for a few days. Like to think that it hasn't acclimated to my tower. Generally, I think all of us, when we get new world cigars, we're trying to reduce the humidity a little bit.
Always it's performed great smoke, great burn, great everything about it. Has, it's almost like it's been in my tower for six,
**Bam Bam:** six months. So it's interesting, you know, whenever we get new worlds and we bring 'em home,
**Senator:** can we, sorry, can we not, go ahead. Say New worlds. It's any cigar. We do the same. [01:20:00]
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. We're always pursuing the reduction of humidity.
Right? That's the always the goal initially. Absolutely. For every new cigar that you
**Gizmo:** have, it's the US Rapper
**Bam Bam:** America.
I think I'm out of a drink. Take a sip. Voice
**Gizmo:** pagoda needs more
**Bam Bam:** to, uh, honestly, that's worth a refill. It's worth a refill. That's
**Gizmo:** really good. It's very good. Yeah. Credit to Eddie off.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Lizard
**Gizmo:** e doff coming through. Absolutely. So are you guys ready to do the formal liquor rating on the dimple pinch? 15 year aged blended scotch?
Yeah. All right. Bam. It's called Dimple pinch. Dimple Pinch. All right. Bam. You're up. I like the name
**Bam Bam:** I for the price and how it's, it's drinking. I have been, Tossing between a nine and a 10. Wow. Really? I mean, wow. Uh, you have to look, you have
**Gizmo:** to get this. I didn't think that's where you were tossing, but Okay.
**Bam Bam:** I mean, it has a lot of merit. It's actually [01:21:00] very tasty. It's, it's very smooth. It's very drinkable. It's easy to drink. And for how much? 40, 40 bucks. If I can give it a 9.5. Nah, that's an eight is too low. Rooster. I'll go, I'll go nine on this guy. Nine.
**Gizmo:** All right. Yeah. Pagoda. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** I've been in between an eight and a nine.
And I'll go nine today. My man.
**Bam Bam:** For e, d, F? Yeah. Lizard. E D F,
**Gizmo:** Senator.
**Senator:** So I'm gonna give it an eight, and I think that's a great score. It's a good score. Um, the reason for me, it's an eight, the, the merits that have earned it in eight. It's really smooth, very drinkable. Is just enough flavor. Um, I get no aftertaste that you get a lot of these more accessible price point whiskeys.
Generally it's pretty clean. You'll say like, oh, there's great flavor here, and then you're just left with this kind of metallic aftertaste. Like, I think of like doers. Yeah. You know, doers super accessible. I get this metallic aftertaste. [01:22:00] It's just not enjoyable. You don't get that here, which is a huge credit to this.
Mm-hmm. The only reasons for me, it's not a nine or a 10. Um, there's no complexity. It's very, very straightforward. True. It's a little thin. It's 10. Um, it could be, it could have more structure to it. Um, but other than that, you know, it's a, it's a very enjoyable scotch. I would, if someone poured this for me at a 4th of July barbecue, I'd have no complaint.
It's a firm eight and,
**Bam Bam:** and no harshness. And no harshness. Honestly, an eight and above, like an eights, and it's a very, very good above course. Very good. Yeah. I recommend, oh yeah, high recommend.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at an eight for pretty much exactly the same reasons. The only reason it's not a nine for me, it doesn't intrigue me enough to go out and buy it.
Yeah. And drink more of it. I, I don't know if it's the flavor profile, but the viscosity's not there. I gotta interrupt
**Bam Bam:** you. Go ahead. When you have a group of people that you want to entertain, this is a great. It's like [01:23:00] the Glenlivet, the versatility of that where you can serve it to a big group. This is also kind of in that category.
**Senator:** Dude. Well it's funny you say that because when AV had brought this to the lounge, dude, that was a
**Bam Bam:** hilarious thing.
**Senator:** This apparently comes in like a 1.75 handle. Oh god. Wow. He had
**Bam Bam:** a handle of this. He was pour. He did. Right. So to your point about when you're in a group,
**Senator:** you can buy this in a giant bottle and serve two group.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. The versatility is there for
**Gizmo:** this guy. I just don't think that this is ever gonna pop up in my brain when I'm shopping for spirits. No, it's true. It, it's a delicious spirit, but it's just not something I'm gonna go for. I think. So that's
**Bam Bam:** why it's an name for me. Yeah. I think for the listener it's a must try.
It's a great for like an everyday thing or if you've got a big group.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. And you know, having said that, none of us have reached for a cube eyes for a blended scotch. It's crazy's. True. That's true. Yeah. So, because
**Bam Bam:** typically, you know, like that's a great fucking point. And honestly when you have a big, I'm sorry.
Yeah, when you, again, I'm always going to that big group thing with scotches like this, it's so affordable. [01:24:00] Everyone will be satisfied. They'll get a rich, rich tasting spirit. It's, it's got some merits, man.
**Gizmo:** So the formal liquor rating boys is an 8.5. Nice. It's great. I think that's a great score. Very perfect.
Let's look at some of the other fifteens we've done. I know some of them. Very score. I mean, I think it's on the higher end. Well,
**Bam Bam:** hold on. This is the only blend that we've ever done, by the way. True. But
**Gizmo:** it's still, look, we've
**Senator:** done black
**Pagoda:** label.
**Senator:** We've done black label. Oh, that's true. That stuff was black.
Yeah, yeah,
**Gizmo:** yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, as far as 15 year age, I'm gonna skip over just the blended. The blended stuff. The Glen Fit 15 was a 7.7. The doers 15 was a 7.6. The Macallan 15 was a 6.5 mean. Wow. Wow, wow. I mean, this really did well. And of course boys. The fruity decadence.
**Bam Bam:** Oh God. Don't even bring that up.
I
**Gizmo:** just, I just love saying fruity decadence. That's a 16 year old Scot though of the single 10 15 was a 3.6. Jesus. Oh my God. So this scored 50 points [01:25:00] above almost.
**Pagoda:** So what did, what did Black Label score? It's gotta be eight, 8.2 or eight. That was fairly
**Gizmo:** good. We should, so Johnny Walker Black was a seven.
Six Johnny Walker. Double Black was an 8.0. All right. This scored
**Senator:** above all of these? Yes. This is the highest blended whiskey we've done. Blended Scott. You know what,
**Bam Bam:** it's got Merit. Yeah, it makes sense. Good
**Gizmo:** score Should do blue label. Unfortunately, the Kirk goes the Kirkland 12 blend. We didn't rate. Why from Costco?
Oh, that I like that
**Senator:** spirit. Yeah. We, we also try it again. However, I did break that out when we did the, uh Oh yeah, you did
**Gizmo:** the comparison. That's right.
**Senator:** The Johnny Walker boy. The Johnny Walker comparisons. True. Yeah. Cause I was saying it was somehow that Johnny Walker that day was drinking identically to Kirkland.
That's true. And some didn't believe me, and I broke it out. No, no, no. And I think
**Gizmo:** everybody agreed. That's you. True. You proved that's right. Yeah. You did all wrong actually. Yeah. It was the Senator's garage. This giz no wrong. Yeah. It was just me. Bam. Thanks for making him say that.
**Pagoda:** Maybe Costco was buying.
**Bam Bam:** Uh, I'm glad someone else. Black label. [01:26:00]
**Gizmo:** It's true. Pagoda. I'm ignoring you. Bam. All right. All right, boys, you're you ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating? Yeah. On the EP Carillo? Mm-hmm. Pledge of Allegiance 2023. Very good study. I'm excited for this rating. Me too. I can't, I don't even, dude, I, I have no comprehensions.
Ridiculous. I can't wait. Go. All right, rooster, you're up. Uh, it's a nine. All right. Yeah, Senator.
**Bam Bam:** It's between a nine and 10%. He's, he's punching,
**Gizmo:** he's, by the way, he's punching his feet. It's between
**Bam Bam:** a nine and a 10 and enough, it's $20 cigar and complex. Delicious. They're all the way down, you know, you love it.
All right, go ahead. It was so good. I'm not influencing Go.
**Senator:** I hate that I'm second cuz I'm, I'm still thinking about this and it's crazily enough. It's between a nine
**Gizmo:** and a 10. I
**Bam Bam:** agree. Yeah. It's between
**Pagoda:** nine and 10. Let me go for you.
**Bam Bam:** 10.
**Senator:** I hurry up. Can't, I'm getting late. Not gonna do this. I, I can't believe I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna give it a 10. Wow. Dude, [01:27:00] it's a raise. The reason, look, you know, I've said this before, when you can't find something wrong with a cigar, with a spirit, with whatever we're rating, you know, it's, it's very hard to deduct points.
Yeah. The construction was excellent. The flavor was robust, smooth. Delicious all the way through. The final third was just as good
**Bam Bam:** as the first third. I can't stop shaking my head. Yes, it's true. I
**Senator:** can't, I can't say this fizzled out at any point. No. Yeah. Um, and the, the biggest thing why I will give it a 10, I got flavor notes in this that I have not gotten another cigars new world like this.
That's right. I can't say like, oh, you know, this is just like something else. And I, I could kind of interchange them. I can't, I've never gotten citrus, citrus all the way through. Thank you. Thank you. With like cocoa and earth and coffee and some of these other more traditional Nicaraguan. I thought I was,
**Bam Bam:** I thought I was crazy mentioning lemon, but the,
**Senator:** it's [01:28:00] there.
I thought you were, I was like, what?
**Gizmo:** What? There's no way. I still think you are, but not because of that. It's a
**Bam Bam:** real thing. You and I'll have an offline conversation
**Senator:** and, and the last thing why I rounded up and I, I just, e p Carillo deserves credit. I have such a negative impression of these holiday releases of any brand, any cigar, doesn't matter, and I think that this is the only brand that I've tried so far that has put out a holiday release that is extraordinarily satisfying, and I think they deserve a lot of credit for it.
So I'm gonna round up and give it a
**Gizmo:** 10. There you go. Very nice. So I'm not at a 10. I'm at a nine. Um, I was never at a 10. I think it's a really delicious cigar. I loved everything about it. The last third, it got a little bit, I I got a couple blasts of tar. It's, it's true.
**Bam Bam:** Tar a little. I got a tiny bit, but you, I gotta touch a tar.
No, no. But you get beyond it though. If you continue through it, it actually, you [01:29:00] work through that. It, it didn't kick me around. And you don't get that in a
**Gizmo:** lot of cigars. It didn't kick me around too much. Maybe I was smoking it too fast. Maybe that has
**Senator:** to be it cuz I, it's the speed of when you get tar. I mean truly we, we all know it.
You just have to touch the end and you look at your finger when you have that residue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got tar. That's right. So it has to be the speed. That's right. It could have been, I don't have any, I'm like shocked. I'm nothing.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I thought it was a very good cigar. It just didn't reach the best of the best I've ever had.
However, this cigar for what it is for its value. Absolutely. I'm very comfortable with you giving it a 10 or anyone else. Uh, for me it's a nine, but it performed great. Pagoda and
**Bam Bam:** an elite score, it's easy. It's, it's a 10.
**Pagoda:** Wow. And the combustion was great. You know, uh, it's a cigar I'm definitely gonna have, and
**Gizmo:** my humidor.
Yeah. Run out and buy 'em. Bam, bam. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I am gonna go with a 10. Oh wow. The cost of this and honestly the combination of, of notes, the citrus in particular [01:30:00] on the, on the, on the retro hail, you're getting some fruit, cocoa it. I don't get this in a lot of new world cigars of this caliber for 20 bucks.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
I was kind of, I will pursue the cigar.
**Rooster:** I was trying to think like what other $20 cigar that I've had that I liked edged out this one. And I was thinking of the Dominican by Davidoff. Well,
**Gizmo:** yeah, that,
**Bam Bam:** that's, no, that's excellent. So that's exactly the same price point. What was that? Rated giz? No, no, that's 20 bucks.
Might I might've even given
**Gizmo:** 0.292.
**Bam Bam:** This is gonna rate higher than that. It is.
**Senator:** I I will just say, look, I'm sorry. I love the Dominican, but this is more complex. I think that's, this is way more
**Gizmo:** complex.
**Rooster:** Hundred percent. I, I like the flavor profile of Dominican. I
**Gizmo:** know that's fair over this. That's just me.
Yeah. So the formal lizard rating boys is a 9.6. Yeah. That's incredible. Incredible. That's an incredible score. Dude, I ca, I can't believe. This cigar scored a 9.6. It's in it. It's a very impressive
**Senator:** cigar. I'll be honest, well-deserved. When you [01:31:00] got this, I thought this was gonna get a six. Me too. It's a holiday.
One time release. I'm like, there's no way they put any serious effort into this. Yeah, man. Clearly they did. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And the other reason
**Rooster:** why I kind of took off a point was when I, when I peeled that foot band, it took a chunk
**Gizmo:** of The rapper. Of the rapper. Yeah. I shouldn't, you know. Well, next
**Bam Bam:** time you use a hairdryer and kind of melt Oh,
**Gizmo:** okay.
**Senator:** You, you've gotta have steady hands, Mr.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, you do. Yeah, you're too, you're too rough, dude.
**Gizmo:** Take it. What is a Tranquilo? Tranquilo
**Bam Bam:** Qui qui.
**Gizmo:** All right. So, uh, let's, let's talk about briefly some other ep Curios we've done, we did the EP curio Pledge Pre Quon episode five, which is crazy to say that this is episode 87, it feels like yesterday. Tremendous. We got an, uh, 6.5, and the other one we did that we all went out and bought boxes of was the Epca La Historia El Senor, which got an 8.8.
So this. [01:32:00] Wiped the, this wipes the floor with so many cigars that we've done as far as new world goes. But also, but even Cuban though. Yeah. I mean Cuban too, but also just iPic Carillo. This is, this is far and away the best that we've had. It's quite a
**Bam Bam:** statement for
**Senator:** iPic Carillo. Yeah. I, I firmly after having this cigar, I have nothing but respect for their, what they do and, and that brand America
**Bam Bam:** and our great nations.
That's it.
**Pagoda:** The immigrant story, the American Dream. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** that's
**Gizmo:** right. Yeah. It l Oh yeah. Listen, we, uh, we are not forgiving with our ratings and, and, and how we feel about cigars and, and spirits that we rate here. And to have an evening with an 8.5 for the dimple pinch, 15 year age blended scotch and a 9.6.
Yeah. 9.6. It's it for a limited edition region. Uh, like release from e p Cillo. I mean, that's crazy. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I think Senator said it earlier. It's surprising how Well both. [01:33:00] Elements performed tonight. Unbelievable. Really incredible.
**Gizmo:** If I, I could have never, it's shocking. I could have never imagined when I got this box that we would've rated this in 96.
Yeah, dude,
**Bam Bam:** it's crazy. Never, you know,
**Pagoda:** a part of me thinks that maybe the cigar enhanced the drink today. Very
**Bam Bam:** well. Could have been. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It was a perfect pairing. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** delicious. Perfect pair. It leaves a coating in your mouth. I'm like experiencing it still. It's great. It's great.
**Gizmo:** All right, well, happy 4th of July to our listeners out there, America, thanks for joining us and gentlemen, we are Patriots with those two ratings tonight.
Yeah, look at us. All right. Great night. Great pairing. We'll see you all next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's lounge lizards P O d.com. 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, [01:34:00] say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.