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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica 5 . It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo: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 two hundred and seventh official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plano meets here once a week. We're gonna smoke a New World cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We announce our exciting new partnership with Small Batch Cigar.
Gizmo:We revisit the cigar industry suing California, and we discussed 25 of Habanos SA, all among variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, enjoy as we pair Lagerboy and Distillers Edition single malt scotch whiskey with La Flora Dominicana, Cameroon Cabinet number one. Alonsdale from The Dominican Republic tonight on the pod, boys. It's the La Flora Dominicana Cameroon cabinet number one, and it's a 44 ring gauge cigar by six and a half inches long. And boys, when we took this out of the cellophane tonight, when I took this out of the cellophane, this smells incredible.
Rooster:It's very fragrant.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's pretty chocolatey.
Senator:The wrapper.
Gizmo:It smells like a mature tobacco. You know, sometimes you get it out and you kinda have that kinda blasting.
Bam Bam:It also looks very mature.
Gizmo:It makes your eyes water.
Senator:This is the most cocoa forward nose I've ever smelled on an unlit cigar.
Gizmo:It smells like a chocolate bar.
Bam Bam:It's awesome. Yeah.
Gizmo:I'm really, really excited to be doing a Lonsdale tonight.
Bam Bam:It's a nice dimension, I have to say.
Gizmo:I love the feel in the hand of It's the great.
Senator:Size is great. It just, construction wise, looks very rustic.
Bam Bam:Wrapper looks a little rugged.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. See, second cigar tonight from La Fort Dominicana on the pod.
Bam Bam:Oh, wow. That cold dark is nice.
Gizmo:Great. Just a touch of resistance.
Bam Bam:Very fruity.
Gizmo:Chocolatey?
Bam Bam:Not for me. This is truly berry forward for me.
Rooster:The cocoa is on the wrapper.
Bam Bam:Not on a cold roll. Not for me.
Rooster:Not on the cold roll but the wrapper itself smells You getting berry
Bam Bam:at all?
Senator:Berry? I get like raisin.
Chef:Yeah, raisin. Get faint raisin sounds blueberry. I'm getting blueberry. I get chocolate on the wrapper if you moisten the It's a very
Bam Bam:sweet cold draw. Let's hope it smokes that way.
Chef:Not as sweet as the cigar we last had. Not that bright. What was that?
Gizmo:The stoic.
Chef:Yes. The stoic. Equanimity.
Gizmo:Yeah. Why does that feel like so long ago? Alright, boys. Let's light this thing. The La Flora Dominicana Cameroon cabinet.
Gizmo:It's the number one. And, again, it's a Lonsdale tonight on the pod. 44 ring gauge cigar by six and a half inches long. Sticking with our theme of Cameroon and some of the cigars we've been smoking, this cigar has an aged Lihero Cameroon wrapper, aged where I believe at least four years.
Rooster:What is a
Gizmo:Lihero Cameroon wrapper? What does that mean? So it's a Lihero leaf that is sized for wrapper out of the Cameroon.
Bam Bam:A little different on the light for me.
Gizmo:It's good.
Bam Bam:Definitely different, unusual, but pretty good.
Senator:It's kind of odd. I'm just getting aged tobacco. Creamy cedar for me right now. Some creamer.
Bam Bam:Yeah, it's pretty creamy.
Gizmo:I would say creamy is a great way to put it.
Bam Bam:There is cedar.
Senator:I'm not getting any berry and I'm not getting any chocolate.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:Nor any raisin.
Senator:Yeah. Which is the whole cold draw.
Bam Bam:It's good. I can't say it's bad right now.
Senator:I just got a little blast of sweetness. It might just need to cool down a little bit.
Gizmo:Oh, that's really nice actually.
Bam Bam:I like it.
Gizmo:Very well rounded.
Bam Bam:That's a good way of putting it.
Gizmo:It's creamy, it's sweet, but it seems like it's just put together very perfectly.
Bam Bam:I get a little savoriness on the finish. Yes. And it's a nice long finish.
Rooster:We don't usually smoke a lot of La Flora Dominicanes.
Gizmo:This is only the second one on the pot.
Rooster:Yeah. I know, even otherwise.
Bam Bam:Cause you grow hair on your feet when you do. These are knockout punches, these cigars.
Chef:Yeah. In general.
Rooster:That chisel, that's
Gizmo:a powerful book.
Chef:That's something else.
Senator:Is that what we did the first one or what
Gizmo:was No, did the illusion bowl.
Senator:Ah, that's right. I remember that.
Bam Bam:Yeah, that's
Senator:Lizard J has a word for that cigar.
Bam Bam:That's a docile kitten, not a bull.
Chef:That's a BBS. Big bullshit.
Gizmo:I got to say this is a I feel like it's a very complex cigar in its flavor. I think everything's very well rounded. I think there's a lot going on there.
Bam Bam:It's pretty sophisticated. Yeah. It's elegant.
Gizmo:What's the composition? So like I said, the wrapper is Lihero Cameroon aged four plus years out of the Cameroon. The binder is Dominican, and the filler is Dominican and Nicaraguan. The cigar was manufactured in The Dominican Republic and has been around since 2007. Cigars came out in 2007.
Gizmo:So this line, specifically this cigar wrapped with Cameron wrapper, was Lito Gomez's. This is one of his favorite cigars. He and his family smoke these cigars all day, every day, apparently.
Rooster:On a horse?
Gizmo:On a horse in the fields with his wife Ennis on the back. Ennis? Yes. I got to say this is different than I was expecting.
Bam Bam:I'm going take my time with it. I'm not going to rush through this thing. Just going to pace myself here. I think this needs to settle down.
Rooster:It's unlike a La Flora Dominicana. Totally different
Bam Bam:from what I was expecting. When was the last time you had a La Flora Dominicana?
Rooster:Long time.
Bam Bam:1920s?
Gizmo:I mean, I'm just thinking like I have
Rooster:the chisel. It's so different than what the chisel ever smokes. Mean, it's
Bam Bam:Wow, the chisel. What, chef?
Chef:I'm just I'm giving it time. Right now, it's You're going
Bam Bam:through it pretty quickly, will say.
Chef:The creaminess has dissipated. It's become a little bit dry. Nothing off putting just yet.
Gizmo:I think you're smoking too fast.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I touch.
Senator:Yeah. Look at everyone else.
Gizmo:You are definitely smoking too fast.
Bam Bam:You're double the depth.
Senator:Mean
Chef:three quarters of an inch versus half an inch.
Bam Bam:That's a half inch. These are quarter inch.
Gizmo:Versus quarter inch. Don't argue with the contractor.
Bam Bam:Quarter of an inch. Correct. It's what fuck are we talking about?
Chef:Alright. So we're at coming at the first end of the first third here, guys. What's everybody thinking?
Gizmo:So let's talk about the Vitolas in this line. Again, this is the number one. It's the Lonsdale 44 by six and a half. The number three is a 40 ring gauge cigar by four and three quarters. The number four is a 54 by six and one quarter, the Toro.
Gizmo:The Robusto is the number five, fifty ring gauge by five inches. There is a Torpedo, 54 ring gauge by six and a quarter. There's a Lancero 38 by seven and a half. And finally, this does come in the patented chisel shape.
Bam Bam:Does it?
Gizmo:54 ring gauge by Wow. So I guess that chisel shape is being used across all of their different lines. I'm assuming the chisel you had is not from the Cameroon cabinet line. It was probably from one of the others, I guess, one of the with the red band on it.
Bam Bam:I believe they have a patent on that too, right?
Gizmo:They do. Yeah. Yeah. That is patented. It's the only cigar that's ever been patented.
Bam Bam:Mhmm. It's a beautiful cigar. It's a nice Vitola. It's a good looking cigar.
Rooster:It's very unique.
Bam Bam:Yeah. How much was this?
Gizmo:$11 the cigar in our hands.
Bam Bam:That's a great deal because I like this right now.
Gizmo:Feel It like there's a lot of tobacco in here.
Bam Bam:Does feel pretty good density.
Senator:I'm just still thrown off this is drier than I expected.
Bam Bam:That's a good way. It is dry.
Senator:And I I don't dislike it. I'm still orienting. It's like, you know, when you have something that kind of skews in one direction that you don't pursue as often, like your just palate needs to settle in. That's what I feel like I'm trying to do right now.
Bam Bam:Don't disagree with you. I think dryness is a good word, but I don't think it's dry in a bad way. It's like drinking a dry Cabernet. There's a little bit of Right. It's pretty sophisticated
Gizmo:right now. And the dryness is, for me, is not making me wanna reach for a beverage right now. Like, I haven't touched a beverage since we we started.
Bam Bam:Well, would like a
Gizmo:Well, we'll get
Chef:there.
Gizmo:But I'm saying that it's not like it's unsmokable if you don't put some other, you know, liquid on your palate.
Bam Bam:I agree with that.
Chef:Yeah. When I said it was dry, it wasn't being negative. Just, you know, initially it started creamy. Obviously, we got chocolate and some fruit.
Bam Bam:You said it was dry. Thought he said it was dry.
Chef:I said it was dry first and everybody
Bam Bam:I'm keeping track tonight. Everybody jumped
Chef:I'm on the keeping track. Being a quarter inch.
Gizmo:Sam has a whiteboard. Correct.
Bam Bam:In my mind.
Rooster:But this cigar to me right now, it's more good than bad.
Senator:Yes, I agree with
Bam Bam:that. Can you pinpoint a specific note that you're getting? I challenge you to do that because for me, I'm not going to use the word muddled, but in general, it's somewhat sweet, somewhat savory, nice balance.
Gizmo:But I'm okay with it. I'm okay because it's not muddled. Just asking. It feels like it's married, not muddled.
Senator:The only thing to Bam's point, when I said that this tastes like vintage tobacco, mean, I vintage tobacco inherently usually is a bit creamy.
Chef:Mhmm.
Senator:But then there's like a mustiness that
Bam Bam:you
Senator:get that's Exactly. Yeah. Which you
Gizmo:get here.
Bam Bam:You're getting here.
Senator:And every heavily aged New World I've ever had tastes pretty close to what I'm getting right now. Mhmm. So I think Bam's point is a very valid one, and not that we're offended by anything we're getting.
Bam Bam:But I like this, though.
Senator:But it's just this vintage tobacco Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Creaminess, mustiness, but not distinct kinda food notes that you would typically
Chef:Yes. Call
Bam Bam:this, I like this discussion because we rarely have a cigar that has behaved this way. It's got that I love that word vintage. Yeah. We haven't had many of those. And and when you get one that's doing pretty good like this, I I I I kinda like it.
Gizmo:But I guess my point is what senator's saying about not being able to call out food notes and whatnot. Normally, would look to that as Correct. A I'm not looking at that as a problem because I actually really enjoy the flavor. That's correct.
Chef:There's one food note I'm getting here, and it's gonna sound like a hit on the cigar.
Bam Bam:Green onion.
Chef:It's not.
Senator:Anchovy. Leche. Leche.
Bam Bam:Grilled turnips. What is it?
Chef:Bran flakes. Of course. I'm getting bran flakes on this.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I will disagree with that.
Gizmo:That goes with the raisin.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Bran flakes, kind of carbohydrate But type flavor, guess,
Chef:in the sense
Gizmo:that Grilled turnip.
Chef:It's very neutral.
Bam Bam:He gets tomatoes and cigars. I mean, what are we doing?
Rooster:I'm getting jackfruit. Jackfruit.
Bam Bam:Isn't that very oniony?
Gizmo:I don't know. I I really I like it. Like this blend right now. I just I think it's
Bam Bam:That's good.
Senator:I'll just say
Gizmo:Really interesting.
Senator:Pairing wise, because this is a bit drier, the reason I pulled for a sip, our pairing is on the drier side, and I actually think, like, a cigar like this screams for something in that camp.
Bam Bam:I'm switching hands just in case.
Gizmo:Alright. You wanna go to the pairing? I had to do this. We're going to the pairing early. We're going to the pairing early tonight, boys.
Gizmo:We are back to Lagavulin. We are with the distillers edition tonight.
Bam Bam:Where's Grindr when you need them?
Gizmo:This apparently, we're hoping the note on this that we were looking at was they're saying that it delivers an extra rich raisin sweet flavors with a with a dark smokiness that intensifies as the peat grows. So this distiller's edition is double matured in Pedro Ximena's seasoned American oak casks. So we'll see how it does here, boys. Cheers.
Bam Bam:Cheers. I will say that this has tamed down on the nose.
Senator:Yeah. Substantially. Let your palate adjust kinda like when we've had this experience with mezcal. The first sip is gonna be super peaty. The second one, just give it time.
Gizmo:That first sip was fantastic.
Bam Bam:Not yet. Oh, that was great. I need a couple sips.
Senator:Yeah. I'm on my, like, third or fourth, and I'm really enjoying this.
Bam Bam:Yeah, the first one's a little rough.
Gizmo:No, I'm in. That was great.
Chef:I'm getting a really interesting olive brininess on this.
Bam Bam:Yeah, I could see that. I don't disagree with that.
Chef:Especially on the finish.
Senator:It's very interesting.
Bam Bam:The very long, long finish. And it
Gizmo:is really working well with the cigar right now for me.
Chef:Yeah, it does. It does actually work really well with the cigar. Brings some sweetness and a little balance to the cigar that was missing prior to it.
Bam Bam:Did you get any apple? Something in that family.
Gizmo:I can't believe how long the finish is on this log of one.
Senator:Long but smooth.
Gizmo:Yes, very.
Senator:That's what I like. And there's not
Gizmo:much heat going down.
Senator:Heat or anything like that.
Gizmo:Great on the nose.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Really nice on the nose.
Gizmo:On the nose, it's very fruity actually despite it being characteristically a peaty scotch.
Bam Bam:What are you getting on this? I'm having a hard time pinpointing my notes tonight.
Senator:On the scotch or
Gizmo:the cigar?
Bam Bam:Yeah, scotch. Kind of like it. I've had two sips. The first one was a little rough. I'll need maybe another one to adjust.
Gizmo:I don't think raisin's that far off. I'm not calling it raisin right now, but some sort of
Bam Bam:Yeah. Definitely not raisin.
Chef:I don't think it's far off, but raisin to me is one of those things that if you call it out, it's there.
Gizmo:Very specific.
Chef:Yeah. And here it's not
Senator:It's not faint. There.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's faint. It's good for This is a nice pairing.
Senator:That's what I'm saying.
Bam Bam:I like the pairing.
Senator:Like, I was wrestling with how dry the cigar was, like, peat is what jumped out at me would actually work really well with this.
Bam Bam:It's working great.
Chef:Now it tastes like fucking raisin bread.
Senator:The apple note you mentioned on the nose, I get on
Gizmo:The the nose is fruity to me. Yeah. But the palate is more of like a dried
Bam Bam:I wanna hear a specific anything prune
Gizmo:or fig or something like that, but I'm not gonna say raisin. I'm not getting raisin.
Bam Bam:I took a sip a moment ago, and I'm still tasting it.
Senator:It's pretty I think it's more of a I
Gizmo:think it's figgy. And I actually think that's working with the bran flakes kind of note in the cigar. It's breakfast in a pairing.
Chef:It's really interesting. There's there's some dried faint dried fruit there, but really what sticks to what sticks out to me the most is the brininess. It's really weird.
Bam Bam:I also Yeah.
Gizmo:Go ahead.
Senator:I was just gonna say the the viscosity, it's like buttery or velvety on your palate. I I it's hard to describe. You know, like savory. Yeah. But, like, some spirits, like, you you you you sip the spirit, and if it's thin, you kinda get, like, the alcohol bite, and it goes down.
Senator:With this, it kinda dances on your palate. Like, there's a really nice amount of viscosity, but what's weird is it's not like heavy viscosity.
Bam Bam:The butter light. It just I think the butter and the olive brine are right now for me spot on the money because I'm getting that saltiness. Yep. Some some creaminess on the finish, which is so freaking long, but I'm having a hard time capturing anything else other than that right now. Other than a very bright there's a brightness to it on the on the front.
Chef:It's like a tannic brine. The brine and butter
Bam Bam:is there.
Gizmo:Yeah. Which is great. I gotta say we're fifteen, sixteen minutes into this episode, and I actually find it really interesting and fascinating that we have two two, you know, entrants into the pairing tonight that are
Bam Bam:both kind of New for us.
Gizmo:Yeah. Kind of like they've come like they're alien, you know, pairing. I mean, it's like out of nowhere, we have a cigar that we can't really nail down. We have a a delicious scotch that we can't really nail down, and they're working so well together. I think they're working great.
Gizmo:It's like, is it luck? I don't know what it is, but it's working.
Bam Bam:And I'm always a little uncomfortable drinking lager wolland in general, But now as the holiday season's coming and it's getting colder, this is pretty welcomed right now. And this is actually quite good.
Senator:I'm just gonna
Bam Bam:say This expression.
Senator:I I've never had the distillers edition. Obviously, I've had plenty of the 16. Yeah. I love this. It's awesome.
Senator:I don't just
Gizmo:like First sip,
Senator:dude. I love
Gizmo:it. Awesome.
Senator:It's This is going to get a good rating.
Bam Bam:I agree. A
Senator:great rating out of
Gizmo:me.
Bam Bam:Because it's a little unusual, and it's a departure from that that other bottle you mentioned earlier.
Gizmo:So let me throw this out there. The price on this bottle is $110.
Senator:Hello. That's exactly what I would have expected.
Gizmo:Really?
Bam Bam:Yeah. How many years? Eleven? There's no There's no
Senator:Yeah, they don't put
Gizmo:They don't put a No aging data on this. Yeah, age data on this from what I can see. I'll read I'll read you some info on it. So it says that to reveal the full depth and complexity of this single malt, the master distiller hand selected a small number of casks for double maturation in Pedro Jimenez's seasoned American oak, like we said. Its accents of rich sun dried grape sweetness were chosen to complement this spectacular single malts rich complex style.
Gizmo:The Pedro Jimenez seasoned cask impart a sweetness and spice that together with the smoke set this whiskey apart. So they're still pushing raisin rich sweet
Chef:the sweetness on this.
Gizmo:Raisin rich sweetness.
Bam Bam:It does get better and better as you drink it. The price, I can kind of justify because I don't see myself drinking three or four glasses out of this in a sit. One, maybe two, so this will last me quite a long time. I think
Chef:the other thing
Bam Bam:is There's value there.
Senator:Lagavulin is a premium distiller. You think of Macallan 12 is going for, what, 80 a bottle?
Gizmo:Mean, Sherry's what, 84?
Senator:Oh, 80, $45. I mean, there's no question this is older than, I think, twelve years.
Bam Bam:Probably.
Senator:And so I would have immediately expected this to be a 100 and something.
Rooster:How much was the lack of
Senator:oil in 16? I haven't bought it in a while, and prices have gotten crazy, so I'd have to look that up.
Bam Bam:This is the kind of thing
Gizmo:I would bet it's close to 90.
Bam Bam:Let me ask you guys a question. Okay.
Senator:That's right around the last time.
Bam Bam:Actually, all of you. For me, this is kind of like pick your moment to have this spirit. It's it's great for a post holiday drink late at night in front of the fireplace, alone or with a buddy or with your son. It's really it's got that special holiday feel for me.
Gizmo:It does. I think it's a great after dinner drink.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:And I still think it checks the box as I've talked about Lagavulin in the past for me. I reach for this especially when I can't have a cigar because it does give me some smoky flavor. It's a little different, richer, obviously the really long finish. But this distiller's edition, I've never had this before, like Senator I was think this is fantastic.
Bam Bam:It's excellent.
Senator:I think for you it's a special time and place scotch, I think for a lot of people, this could be an everyday mean, you have to understand. I mean, look at some of the people right. George Padron, we obviously interviewed on the pod. He loves Lagaville.
Bam Bam:He does like that. Yeah.
Senator:It's not like he drinks that occasionally. That's like an all the time kind of scotch that he pulls.
Gizmo:Chef's back. That was one. No. That was actually three. Was that three?
Chef:No. No. That was back.
Gizmo:If you ever hear a glass hitting the microphone for the listener out there, chef is just reorienting
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:In in his space.
Bam Bam:And lizards will have to continue their moment of thought there. George Padron interview, and he loves Lagavulin.
Senator:So, yeah, all I was
Gizmo:saying, George Padron, like, obviously, for
Senator:him, that's an everyday single malt that he reaches for. I know people who Lagavulin is like I mean, Grindr is a good example. Grindr loves Lagavulin. He'll drink that three hundred sixty five days of the year. I know lots of other people like that.
Senator:And why I like Lagavulin is even if you're not as in love with peat and peaty scotch as a grinder or some others, it does it in a more balanced way than like a Laphroaig that is smack you in your face with peat. That so for someone like myself that's kind of in between, I could drink this all the time. I don't reach for it all the time, but I could. And this particular expression, I don't know what it is. I I haven't had 16 in maybe a few months to remember exactly how I'd compare the differences, but there's something about this that appeals, like, just grabs me in a way that like I could see
Gizmo:It's true.
Senator:Many occasions I would have asked.
Gizmo:I think the way this rounds out the, you know, the fact that there's peat in the scotch, there's a sweetness that rounds it out. For me, from the first sip, it didn't take a palate adjustment for me. It worked. So I just think that whatever they did with this, with those casts, the double maturation, whatever they did brought some sort of roundness to the spirit that wasn't working for me in the regular 16 usually.
Senator:I think one thing I have I've definitely pulled out as far as the difference with the regular 16, this the brininess that chef mentioned, like, this has a a saltier kind of Savoriness.
Bam Bam:Savory Like a buttery batter. Salty butter as well.
Senator:And I think of, like, certain Cuban cigars that have, like, a lot of that, like, salty twang
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Senator:That could, I think, pair perfectly with something like this.
Gizmo:Not like a Monti two.
Bam Bam:I was about to say a Monti two would be fantastic with this.
Gizmo:And I think, to your point about the difference, I wouldn't throw Lagovulin 16 together with No. Any Cuban cigar? I wouldn't either. I think it's in But it is. Way overpowering.
Gizmo:But this would work, though.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:This would work.
Senator:It's strange because, like, the sweet notes, I think, are a little bit dialed up on this compared to the 16, and the, like, savory saltiness we're getting is dialed up. And I think the peat might be dialed back a little bit in this relative to the other. At worst, they're of I
Bam Bam:think the pairing tonight's fantastic.
Gizmo:I agree. I love this.
Bam Bam:I'm very happy with this.
Senator:Chef, look at the ash.
Gizmo:Alright.
Bam Bam:He'll be wearing it.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. So let's go to some news. No. We're gonna start first with what's going on in California, which has turned into a kind of a mess for the cigar industry. So we talked about this before that the state's new unflavored tobacco list was coming into effect 01/01/2026 with a deadline of 10/09/2025 to submit the required registration fee and form for each individual cigar that is to be sold in the state.
Gizmo:They put a deadline of October 9 to guarantee that those cigars could still be on sale on January 1. So PCA, CAA, a bunch of manufacturers came out and tried to file an injunction or a, you know, a cease and desist to stop them from enforcing this October 9 deadline to give manufacturers more time to register their cigars with the state to keep them on sale come January 1. Unfortunately, a US district court judge rejected the cigar industry's request for an emergency temporary restraining order that would halt a new California law, the the UTL, that is causing major headaches for cigar companies and retailers. I'm getting this from Halfwheel, by the way. Shout out to Charlie Monado who's been on this for months.
Gizmo:And, of course, now it's become big news in the last couple weeks because PCA and CAA have finally joined the fight against this. So let me lay out again what this is. The submission includes a $300 registration fee after approval. The state then requires an additional 150 renewal fee, documentation, and a physical product sample. So every cigar that you sell, not
Bam Bam:the line. That's per Vitola.
Gizmo:Per Vitola. Right. You have to provide a physical sample and a box.
Senator:Mhmm. I want the job of whoever's receiving all
Gizmo:these samples.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So And you have to smoke them.
Gizmo:Yeah. Before January 1, the attorneys the attorney general's office in California will publish the initial unflavored tobacco list, which will be will be a list of products that are now legal to sell as of January 1. If a product is not on the list or is not a handmade cigar with a wholesale price of at least $12 it will not be legal to sell. So what's crazy is if somebody in that office over there at the attorney general said, you know, how much is a cigar normally? Oh, $24, $25.
Gizmo:Let's cut that in half. That's the wholesale limit. So I'm assuming that they thought it was a good thing to put $12 at the wholesale, but you're really factoring out cigars that are above $25 apiece Mhmm. Out of this. So pretty much every cigar that we smoke, every cigar that's for sale in California that it's not one of those premium higher end cigars is subject to this.
Gizmo:So of course, the big boys, it's not that big of a problem for a Padron or Rocky Patel, etcetera. I mean, Rocky, I mean, God only knows how many of these he had to do. But those guys, it's not the biggest problem, but it's for the smaller folks, the smaller manufacturers that are trying to sell The
Senator:ones who are subject to this, the wholesale price is under 12? If a product is not on
Gizmo:the list or is not a handmade cigar with a wholesale price of at least $12
Bam Bam:Minimum.
Gizmo:It will not be legal to sell.
Bam Bam:So if it's under 12, it's not legal
Gizmo:to sell. So you have to be on the UTL list, or it has to be a wholesale price above $12, which is effectively a retail
Senator:That's price saying of 20 under 12, they are subject to this Yes. New Exactly right. That's what I'm
Bam Bam:saying. Okay.
Gizmo:So judge Monica Ramirez Ahmadani of the US District Court for the Central District of California denied the first emergency TRO on two grounds. She believed that the attorney general is protected by the eleventh amendment and that's and that the specific argument made in the petition cannot be filed in a federal court. In her view, it needed to be filed in a superior court or in the state. So it's kind of like a procedural thing. So then, of course, they then filed for another TRO in the superior court.
Gizmo:So again, led by PCA, the Cigar Rights of America, and seven family owned cigar companies that support them. Of course, now Rocky Patel and other folks have filed lawsuits as well. So the problem is is, of course, now this deadline has passed. This October 9 deadline to have all your cigars registered in the state of California to guarantee that it would be able to be on sale for January 1. So I have two questions for you.
Gizmo:Number one, I'm curious why it took them so long to file this restraining order. This has been we've talked we Mhmm. In this podcast, just smoking cigars together as buddies
Bam Bam:Wasn't it?
Gizmo:Talked about this
Bam Bam:Ten months ago?
Gizmo:Months and months and months ago. This is not a new story. Long ago. So what I'm curious about, and maybe Senator can help with this as far as the thinking here, I don't understand why they all waited so long Mhmm. To file a TRO effectively a week or a few days before this deadline was here.
Gizmo:It makes no sense to me why they would do it like that. Wait?
Senator:Why wait? What office in California put out this rule?
Gizmo:This is the attorney general's office.
Senator:Okay. Then I have to suspect that all the big cigar trades expected that they'd be able to broker some adjustment of kind of the regulation around it and the enforcement of it that would have not necessitated a lawsuit to solve the problem. And clearly, they stuck to their guns and said, nope. This is exactly the way we're gonna do it. And then they said, we have no choice.
Senator:Because if you're any of these organizations, it costs a lot of money to sue these guys. Like, it is not cheap. I mean, any of the major cigar industry lawsuits we've talked about, I mean Millions. Millions, tens of millions. Like, it's it's a huge expense when these things get dragged out.
Senator:So I think they were hopeful that they could just lobby directly and get regulators to kinda shift how they would enforce whatever this, you know, law was.
Bam Bam:But it's a shame that they waited so long Yeah. And should have attempted that lobbying effort long ago.
Gizmo:Or should have put out statements saying, we are trying to negotiate with the attorney general's office. We'll let you know what the results are. As opposed to October or whatever it was filing an emergency TRO. I don't understand. If they knew that they weren't gonna get a deal done or maybe they weren't even having conversations,
Bam Bam:why wait so long? It'd be interesting to know which cigars you won't be able to buy in California, and what that'll do to pricing nationwide.
Senator:I was just gonna say, depending on how this goes, we should have Josh at PCA on, and we can actually ask him about this. That'd be great. This would be interesting.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Great guy.
Gizmo:The other thing I'm wondering too is I'm wondering two things. Number one, copycat states. So we've seen California kind of lead the charge on, you know, new initiatives and kind of new thinking as as it involved. Even Uber and Lyft, you know, with ten ninety nine contractors versus w two employees, it was a big thing. Other states kind of copycatted it.
Gizmo:So my concern is this being applied in other states, you know, especially states that kind of copycat what California does. That's a major concern because if three, four, five, ten states or more jump on this bandwagon requiring this silly fee to send some lawmaker a single cigar in a box with $300 in a form, I mean, the amount of work, the time, mean, what are we doing?
Bam Bam:Get the pickup truck ready, Jason. Water bag. Let's go.
Gizmo:You know what I mean? Like, it's a very odd thing that has happened here. And I don't know if it's a revenue thing, but I mean, it doesn't seem like there's that much money available. I just
Senator:don't understand the logic of tying this to the price of the cigar.
Gizmo:Right. Yeah. That's also weird. How does that matter?
Senator:I mean, if the whole premise I mean, the one thing the industry and any regulator agrees on is like, we don't want this product in the hands of children. This is a product that tastes away that doesn't appeal to children, which is why premium handmade cigars always we try to get carved out. It's not the same as something flavored a kid might actually enjoy. I don't understand how if the cigar is $25 or $10, like, kids spend crazy money on all kinds of things. Like, dollar amount is not solving the problem.
Senator:So I really don't understand even Is the logic behind
Rooster:this being done just for revenue's sake?
Gizmo:Don't know. The thing that confuses me too, and again, I'm gonna go to senator
Senator:on California this hates tobacco, that's number one.
Bam Bam:No question about
Senator:it. If California had its way, no one would be allowed to smoke, period.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Senator:I mean, I'll use San Francisco as an example. The entire city of San Francisco has one cigar lounge. One.
Bam Bam:That's crazy. For a huge city. That's insane.
Gizmo:It's a big city.
Bam Bam:It's a sprawling city.
Gizmo:So I also wonder let's say you're a retailer who has product, and and Charlie Manato also threw up this question, so I gotta give him credit on this. But what happens if you have product that you're a retailer? You purchase product of a cigar that's not ready to go legally to be on sale by January 1. What do you do with that stock?
Bam Bam:You gotta pull it off the shelf.
Gizmo:Like, if you don't have an online operation where you're shipping that stock out of California, which I would assume is still legal, as like a distributor. But how do you what do you do?
Bam Bam:I don't think you can sell that product.
Gizmo:You can't. I mean, that's
Bam Bam:100 Yeah. Percent Somebody's pulling it off and suffering the consequences.
Gizmo:So what are they gonna do? Check each and every retailer? Like, they're gonna send people out, I'm sure, to the shops.
Senator:I mean, unless they unless they make it, like
Bam Bam:That's gonna be senator's job. He's gonna have a big bag like Santa Claus going up and down
Gizmo:the street.
Bam Bam:Claus collecting all the cigars.
Gizmo:I'll take every Pedro box at half off.
Bam Bam:Senator Claus. That's got to go in that that Lego game. Whatever the hell we have. The Lego chess. We've got a Lego chess.
Gizmo:Lego chess. Whatever. You mean bingo?
Bam Bam:Bingo. Senator Claus. That's cool. I like that.
Gizmo:At least someone's excited.
Bam Bam:All right.
Chef:Gotta liven it up.
Gizmo:Come on. So here's one other thing too, is that, you know, obviously the cigar industry has done its very good job battling the FDA on the definition of what a premium handmade cigar is to the point that the federal judges like judge Mehta have ruled in favor of the tobacco industry. What I don't understand is why California is allowed to effectively have their a different definition or set of rules as it applies to defining what is or what is not in, you know, this labeling of approved tobacco or, you know, above $12 wholesale. I mean, I just don't understand why California can do this if there's a federal States can
Bam Bam:do it themselves.
Senator:They're not I guarantee in whatever they've passed, they're not attempting to redefine what a premium cigar is. They're saying, we'll accept your definition of a premium cigar, but this is how we wanna regulate them. And we're gonna set this price minimum and the other thing, and then here are all the requirements
Bam Bam:based on It's insane.
Gizmo:What's nice too for Davidoff is most of their cigars are exempt. Everything they sell is $25 a month.
Senator:And the whole opus line. And the whole opus line.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. You The only thing that may be very possible,
Senator:because it it seems implausible, like, they're gonna just leave retailers with this stock that they can't move unless they get it out of the state, it may be this takes effect on any, you know, cigar purchased and sold after the date that this is taking effect. This could be bootleg. Old stuff can move.
Bam Bam:Bootleg cigars across the country.
Gizmo:Going back to prohibition.
Bam Bam:Pickup trucks.
Gizmo:So yeah, it's a very disappointing thing. I mean, I guess we'll see what happens. But I feel bad for these manufacturers because I mean, anybody who's ever gone to the DMV or has gone and dealt with the government in some way, shape or form, I can't imagine being a cigar manufacturer and having to apply to get your product to be able to be sold through these wacky mechanisms that they've developed so quickly. I mean, it's pretty wild. The bottom line is the consumer is going to have to absorb some of this cost.
Gizmo:They're gonna pass it down. So you're gonna end up
Senator:paying more. I'm still curious about the samples. What are they doing with these?
Gizmo:I think they wanna see the product, maybe check out the labeling. Is it, you know, kind of marketed towards children? But they
Senator:could just send labels. They don't need to send the product.
Gizmo:So I'm like, what is happening with all these cigars?
Bam Bam:They're gonna incinerate all
Gizmo:of them.
Bam Bam:One big bonfire.
Gizmo:One by one sitting That's around correct.
Senator:Someone's smoking them.
Bam Bam:I'm sorry. Arnold Schwarzenegger's gonna be in his backyard smoking them. Bring them over here. Bring them over here.
Gizmo:So we will see what happens with that. Again, it's disappointing, and I I'm very curious as to why it took the industry so long to make some sort of legal battle against this. I I maybe they weren't trying to piss them off and like senators, they're kinda crossing their fingers or negotiating. But whatever it was, it did not work out in California is now being sued. So we will see what happens.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of the first third here on the La Flora Dominica, Cameroon cabinet number one in the Lagaville And Distillers edition. What's everybody thinking of the pairing right now?
Senator:I mean, pairing wise, I could not be more thrilled.
Bam Bam:I agree. I love them. I'm so happy how they complement each other.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah.
Bam Bam:I can talk about the cigar. I can talk about what I'm drinking, but I love talking about the two of them together. They're really, really a perfect match.
Gizmo:Let me ask you guys this. Do you think that each of them stand on their own without the other? Obviously, we're really raving about the Of pairing
Bam Bam:course.
Gizmo:I think they both stand on their own.
Bam Bam:I think
Gizmo:they both have a really, really great flavor profile.
Bam Bam:Because you can have a great rum with this or a deep, dark black cup of coffee and still, for me, be fully satisfied.
Gizmo:Rooster has espresso right now. Rooster, how's yours?
Rooster:The espresso is very good. Is pretty good. It's well constructed and it's well balanced and it's
Gizmo:a good cigar. Mean, it's
Bam Bam:That doesn't sound good. I'm not getting the enthusiasm.
Gizmo:Well, I'm not really getting like
Rooster:a flavor notes. It's creamy and
Bam Bam:I noted that earlier too.
Rooster:You know, a little cedar and cedar.
Bam Bam:But it's a detriment though.
Rooster:That's about
Senator:it. No, chef did first.
Bam Bam:Oh, all right. Whiteboard.
Rooster:I'm not really getting any distinct flavor notes to point out, but it's not offensive. It's a good cigar.
Bam Bam:That's nice. It's not offensive.
Chef:I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that those having the scotch with the cigar are enjoying this cigar a little bit more than Rooster who is having the cigar without the scotch. I think the pairing here is the star versus the items on their own.
Bam Bam:I don't disagree with that but I happen to love this cigar. I'm really not offended by it at all.
Gizmo:Other than cedar, a little bit of sweetness, maybe like honey or something.
Chef:It's not an offensive cigar, but it's not dynamic on its own.
Bam Bam:I kind of disagree. I love the dryness. It's not overly dry. I think there's great balance to this. There's a great savory finish.
Bam Bam:It's sweet in the front for me. It's pretty creamy. A lot of combustion.
Rooster:It's well constructed. That's good combustion. Flavor wise, like what notes?
Gizmo:I'm okay that I can't pick out the notes I because it's so
Bam Bam:am too. If there's anything, for me the sweetness, we've been doing this for a couple of weeks now, but that very faintly sweet carbohydrate is is there for me on this, but also for me a very deep, like a nice espresso I'm kind of getting.
Senator:Yeah, I also get a saltiness though on the
Bam Bam:flavor and Definitely a saltiness on the front.
Senator:Which is helping because it's balancing out the dryness. It's so salty, it's making me salivate as I'm smoking the cigar, and I just feel like that helps make it so balanced. Get some of the sweetness, I get some of the saltiness. Now granted, I'm not getting, you know, tons of fruit notes or other types of food notes, but the sweet and salty is kind of like our bread and butter usually, that's present.
Bam Bam:Here's a question for all of you guys. When you're when you're taking a a traditional draw, no retrohale, where do you position your tongue? I find if
Gizmo:In my mouth.
Bam Bam:I know. Thank you. Well done. If I lift my
Gizmo:I don't
Senator:know that we want know where Ben puts his.
Bam Bam:Wow. That's lizards after dark.
Rooster:Where do you position your tongue?
Bam Bam:Yeah. I mean, if I pull the front of my tongue up and let the smoke come into the front of my tongue, I get an intense salt and sweet.
Gizmo:I'm also getting a chocolatey thing there, Ben.
Rooster:Yeah. I think that cocoa
Gizmo:is coming. I'm getting a cocoa thing.
Bam Bam:Cocoa in the middle and toward the end for me, man.
Gizmo:I don't know. I I think That's great. The the cigar for $11. Let's point out again. We're talking about an $11 cigar.
Gizmo:For $11 right now, we're getting I I think the tobacco is well aged. I think the blend is well rounded, and it doesn't taste like any La Flora Dominicana I've had on or off pod.
Rooster:No, it's totally different.
Gizmo:Totally Yeah. And I'm admiring the sweetness that's coming from that Cameroon wrapper in this. I think it's brilliant.
Bam Bam:I think you can slot this in an evening with an aging room, with an Exclusivo.
Rooster:You smoke this in the morning with coffee.
Bam Bam:No, but I would, it stands on its own between those two cigars and cigars that are similar to it and they're so independent of each other. I think you get a great variety of experiences for me, personally.
Senator:I I think just what I like is it's not just that it's unlike anything LFD has made that we've tried. It's unique, period. There's not a single cigar from any manufacturer I would compare this to. That's correct. Exactly.
Senator:That's high praise. Give them credit for
Bam Bam:that. Which is why it'll work alongside an ExcoSivo in one night. Because it's so different.
Rooster:Tobacco in this is not age. It's the wrapper that's aged.
Gizmo:Wrapper, they don't, there's no age statement on the binder and the filler. I'm not sure. But there is specifically said that the Cameron Lee Harrow wrapper is quite aged, and I believe some sources I found said that it was four plus years Wow. On the rapper.
Bam Bam:I didn't think I'd ever smoke a La Florida Minne Caro. I didn't ever think I'd like this mark at all. I'd probably pursue this cigar. The way it's performing right now, I'm on a box. I agree.
Bam Bam:It's good.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time for some big news on the pod tonight. We have a new sponsor. I haven't gotten to use my horn in a while, but I am very excited to announce very seriously that small batch cigar has come on as an additional sponsor for the podcast through 2026.
Bam Bam:Incredible. So
Gizmo:talk about an unbelievable partnership and commitment to have from an amazing retailer like Small Batch Cigar, I couldn't be more excited.
Bam Bam:Neither can we.
Gizmo:I think if I were to write down how many small boutique cigar companies, cigar retailers in this country that have the level of customer service and the admiration of their customers that small batch has, I mean, it is a list of maybe two. Yeah. I mean, these guys are so beloved by their customers, including the ones who are in this room, we'll talk about that in a minute. But the customer service, the shipping, the quality, the way that they deliver the cigars, great packaging. There's never a mistake.
Gizmo:I never have a mistake in these orders. And you call them up and a human being picks up the phone and guess what? Every single person you talk to actually knows what they're talking about. So it's like you can call them up and it's like a direct hotline to talk to someone who knows cigars, and give them what you want, and they're gonna help you find something. I'm really really excited about this.
Bam Bam:It's incredible.
Senator:Yeah, I think for listeners, it's like, you you look at our partnership with Fabrica Five, I mean, we're very serious about needing to believe in the product or service that any sponsor this podcast offers. And I think all of us for many years, even before the podcast, have ordered from small batch cigars and always had a great experience. And I think that's why as we had, you know, conversations, this was a natural partnership for us and that they do an amazing job at, you know, not just getting orders right, getting them fast. I You order from small batch, you can have stuff in a couple days like that. It's true.
Gizmo:It's coming for us, it's coming across the country. Correct. It's coming from California.
Bam Bam:I think it's incredibly validating for what we do week in and week out. It's a huge compliment.
Gizmo:And for our listeners out there, it's a bonus for you too because we have our own discount code with small batch cigar now. You're gonna use code lizard 15 to get 15% off of your entire order.
Bam Bam:Nice. Wow.
Gizmo:Lizard 15, all one word, all caps, lizard 15 for 15% off your entire order. We're gonna do that through the end of the year as kind of a launch of this awesome new partnership. Everybody on their side and our side were really, really excited about this. Like senator said, I mean, couldn't think of a better retailer to have on our side and, you know, in our camp here as we get into 2026 on the podcast. And for the listeners out there, I'm telling you, if you've never purchased anything from small batch, order right now and you'll see that what we're saying is 100% true.
Gizmo:So would that be site wide? So it's site wide. There are some exclusions. So standard, you know, standard exclusions do apply. There are certain, you know, markers that do not allow any coupons Right.
Gizmo:To be dab it off maybe. There are yeah. So there are some certain things that aren't applied, but if you can get a discount, you can use our code and it will work.
Chef:I absolutely love the alignment of our sponsors and that they are companies of high quality and integrity, and I think it's extremely flattering to see pairing of us with them. It's amazing.
Gizmo:And how brilliant, like Senator just said, that like, you have lounge lizards with fabric of fives, lounge lizards with small batch cigar. I mean, I feel very validated, to use Bam's word, I feel very humble that these amazing folks have elected to partner with us. And like Senator said, we do. We have a lot of conversations with a lot of different companies and a lot of folks approach us. We're very lucky in that way, but we really only bring people on that we know every single lizard out there is going to have a wonderful experience buying and smoking what these folks have available.
Gizmo:So it's a perfect fit.
Rooster:It's a very generous discount. It is. Yeah, 15% is a great discount.
Bam Bam:That's fantastic. Yeah.
Senator:Two words, load up. Load up.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:So I want to share a couple more things. So Small Batch also has a brilliant cigar of the month club. And why do I say brilliant? I say that because, again, when you're on Reddit and you see the commentary on this from folks, it's always 100% positive. No one is ever complaining about the quality.
Gizmo:No one has ever said anything negative about the value. Everybody posts up. You know, when they get these things, they post up the shot of all the cigars, what's in the cigar of the month club. Other folks are commenting. So you can go right now and join the small batch cigar cigar of the month club.
Gizmo:They have two tiers. They have a $20 tier and they have a $50 tier. This is at smallbatchcigar.com, of course. So what you can get on these is somewhere between two to eight cigars each month. And Andrew, runs small batch cigar, handpicks a diverse range of cigars with a focus on rare, hard to find, and boutique blends that you won't just find on any shelf.
Gizmo:So the guaranteed value of this package each month is well over your subscription price. So whether you choose the $20 version, whether you choose the $50 version, you're gonna get more than you're paying for. There's a lot of value there and it's a really, really exclusive club and it's not always offered. So right now you can go and check that out. Smallbatchcigar.com.
Gizmo:Just search cigar of the month and you can join their club. And I'm telling you, if you're like us and we're every week in a process of discovery here, smoking all new cigars almost each week that a lot of them we've not had before. If you want to try some new stuff in addition to those, you can get the small batch cigar cigar of the month club. I'll tell you one more thing too. They always have free shipping, number one, and they have 5% rewards.
Gizmo:On every order, you get 5% rewards in, like, a, you know, credit on the site that you can apply as you, know, as you like on future orders. So it kind of just automatically accrues. You don't need to opt in or anything.
Senator:Yeah, mean, we're talking about a 20% discount. That's right.
Gizmo:Effectively. Yeah.
Senator:Yeah. It's crazy.
Rooster:And by the way, their packaging is impeccable. They pack things so perfect that, you know, a lot of times, you know, a lot of retailers don't do it like these guys do.
Gizmo:And one more thing I'll say about small batch too is if you are looking for something that's rare, boutique, hard to find, limited edition Let me tell you something. When you see it on a retailer's website, you know that they are beloved by manufacturers. They are respected and trusted by the manufacturers that they sell. They always have the hard to find stuff. I mean, it's unbelievable how quickly they have it, and they always have enough of it that it's not running out right away.
Gizmo:So I'm telling you folks, check out small batch cigar. You're gonna hear a lot about them in the next fourteen months and hopefully beyond, of course, but we're so excited to have small batch cigar join us on the podcast through 2026. It's incredible. I love that horn.
Bam Bam:Never get old.
Gizmo:Oh, man. So, yeah, I'm really excited, That's awesome. Well, I couldn't tell you. I know you guys always bust my balls on the chat, but when we finally locked that down and between them and Fabrica Five, man, it's like just so validating, you know, to have two great companies and two great sets of people really that are on our side and are partners with us. It's a great thing.
Bam Bam:That's awesome.
Chef:It's great alignment. I think these two sponsors just pair well with our listener base and what we believe in and what we stand for. It's really beautiful.
Gizmo:Well said, chef. I'm loving the cigar. I haven't been hitting the, you know, the alcohol as I'm talking about small batch here. I have really been enjoying the cigar without it. Yeah.
Gizmo:Same. So I'm I'm really feeling that my earlier question of do they stand alone? Do they both have legs? I think yes.
Senator:They may stand alone, but I'm ready for a refill.
Chef:Same. Yeah, no, the cigar's definitely settled in. I love the retrohale more than the traditional.
Bam Bam:Really?
Chef:I really, really do. The retrohale gives me a lot of salty, almost sunflower seed. It's creamy in the way like a good, good sunflower seed is. I love that depth that comes through with it. It's buttery, as we've mentioned early, but I'm not getting any sweetness.
Chef:But I'm okay with that because the scotch is providing some of that.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I think the nutty note on the retro is spot on. But honestly, I haven't retrohaled the cigar yet. I just did that now. At all?
Bam Bam:At all. I haven't needed to.
Gizmo:I'm almost an hour in.
Bam Bam:I haven't needed to.
Rooster:Big retrohale guy.
Bam Bam:Am a big retrohale.
Senator:But when you say I haven't needed to, explain that.
Gizmo:I just
Senator:wanna understand.
Chef:Thought I I was gonna say I just retrohaled. He walked in.
Gizmo:He just walked into the snake.
Bam Bam:No, I'm not. I'm getting a ton of flavor on the traditional draw. I am You don't say. Pretty satisfied. And there aren't, I think it's a merit to the cigar more than anything else.
Bam Bam:I don't think you need to as often with certain cigars.
Gizmo:You just broke down.
Bam Bam:Where
Senator:is judge Mayton when I needed casing?
Gizmo:Three years. Three years of fighting this battle, Bam. You just broke it Put
Senator:that on the Big O card.
Gizmo:I don't need to.
Bam Bam:No. No. No. No. Senator senator Santa's going on in
Rooster:On some cigars.
Gizmo:Correct. Senator Claus has a big smile on his face.
Bam Bam:Senator Claus, that's what it is, yeah.
Rooster:You know, the aroma is really nice too.
Bam Bam:It's awesome. It's really very aromatic. Very rich, very savory, touch of sweetness, and then nuttiness on a retro is really right there. Great cigar for $11. $11.
Gizmo:You can't beat it. No, I can't. Alright, boys. Let's go to another news story. We talked about JC Newman and their home run humidor.
Gizmo:We talked about this at PCA. And the reason why I bring this up again because Lizard Jason, who's a longtime listener of this podcast, who runs JML Modern slash Milwaukee humidor company, which he's a woodworker based out of Milwaukee, of course. He makes great humidors, and we've talked about him. He's he's like an OG listener. He's really, really supportive of the podcast, and he was chosen
Chef:following his page.
Gizmo:By JC Newman. What is his Instagram that you it's JML Modern. JML Modern. Yeah. Check him out on Instagram.
Gizmo:Jason's an awesome guy. But he was chosen by JC Newman to create the home run humidor. So it's a beautiful humidor that's shaped like a
Chef:Yep. Like home base.
Gizmo:Like home base.
Senator:Yep. Is this to honor Aaron Judge or what's
Bam Bam:the Interesting.
Gizmo:No. I think it's a JC Newman thing that the humidors have an MSRP $2,000.
Senator:There'll be one for one, Oh,
Bam Bam:I'm sure there will be. We know you miss them.
Gizmo:So this is the second time they've teamed up for a special release.
Bam Bam:They're both in
Chef:Cancun, by the way.
Gizmo:Yes, they are.
Bam Bam:Along with your manager. So
Gizmo:the humidors are shaped like home plate. The exterior wood comes from used baseball bats, including those made out of American maple, birch wood, and European beechwood. Jason Newman says that the bats were used in games, though leagues prevent Great. Leagues league rules prevent Newman from disclosing which teams and players the bats came from. So Lizard Jason cut the bats
Senator:they came from the Mets. They don't wanna disclose it for marketing purposes. They don't need bats. Yeah.
Gizmo:They want sales to be up.
Bam Bam:They play cricket over there. They don't play baseball. They don't need the bats.
Chef:Clearly, they don't want the wood to be damaged.
Gizmo:So they
Chef:were all bats from strikeouts.
Gizmo:Correct. Correct.
Bam Bam:Like I said, they changed to a crickety.
Gizmo:So each humidor comes with 30 Tampa smoker cigars, 25 of the six by 52 Toros, and five of a 52 down to a 42 ring gauge cigar by seven that's designed to look like a baseball bat. Check that out. Pretty cool. So J. C.
Gizmo:Newman has 30 cigars in there. The MSRP is $2.
Senator:Sorry. Just to be clear, the baseball bat one is just like a keepsake, or you're actually meant to smoke that thing?
Gizmo:I don't know the answer to that, but they have they only throw five in there.
Bam Bam:For you not knowing the answer to that, pretty hilarious. Makes it even more ridiculous.
Gizmo:But seriously, congratulations to Lizard Jason getting this partnership because he's been super supportive of the pod, and he makes great humidors. So check out, like Chef said, JMLmodern, all one word, on Instagram. Very cool. Lizard Jason is making some great stuff. He has beautiful humidors Yeah.
Gizmo:Out
Chef:He really goes into detail too on his site, on his page rather, just the process and step by step and just the passion that it takes to make those things possible. It's a beautiful product. They're not officially sponsored by MLB, are they?
Gizmo:No, I don't think so. I don't think they're and they're not like as I said, they're not allowed to say which teams use the bat. They're not allowed to say which players use the bat, what games. I think it's like a complete no no. Of course, I'm sure it's because MLB has that agreement with Topps and the other baseball cards and other, you know, things that they sell at, I'm sure, like a ridiculous price that they they include those things like jerseys and bats on it and stuff.
Gizmo:So I'm sure that's what's happening there. Alright, boys. Another news story. We're going to Cuba on this one. We talked about this cigar a little while ago, a couple months, I guess.
Gizmo:But the Cuban year of the snake, the new Partagas Cedros, is coming to market finally. They were announced at the Habanos Festival in February, and they're finally going to be available. These limited edition cigars come in glossy stylized boxes made with a scaly snakeskin textured exterior. The cigar itself is a 50 ring gauge cigar by five and three eighths inches. It has two bands on it, the traditional partagus band and a foot band bam of golden red with a coiled cobra.
Bam Bam:You talking to doctor Scholes right
Gizmo:now? In a golden circle. Of course, am.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Gizmo:Of course, I am. So this is the problem for this little cigar. Of course, the suggested retail price on this box of 18 is over $1,400, putting the price of each cigar at $80.
Rooster:Sounds like
Gizmo:Rolled by inmates? Probably.
Chef:Sounds like the year of the gimmick.
Gizmo:Year of the gimmick. Correct. I I don't know. You know, I I was reading FOH. Rob put up a thread about Habanos.
Gizmo:It's their twenty fifth anniversary of Habanos being Habanos, having transitioned to from the former company, and, obviously, it's gone through a couple couple of sales. And he posted up some questions to the to the forum about, you know, how do you feel about Habanos? What are some of the best things they've done? What's their legacy like? And I couldn't help but just think about how few times I personally have thought positively about Habanos over the years.
Gizmo:So I I really throw this question to you. I'm gonna throw one that Rob posed and I wanna ask you guys. What do you think of Habanos' legacy over the last twenty five years? What do you think when folks think about the first twenty five years of Habanos? What do you think their legacy is gonna be?
Gizmo:And this is not a loaded question. I'm not looking for the stuff we've only been talking about the last few weeks. There's terrible stories. But overall, what is your vision of Habanos' legacy over the last twenty five years?
Senator:I mean, for me, it's very simple. There I mean, there's a litany of things I can say, but the thing that is the most disappointing to me is that I think their legacy will largely be constricting the growth of Cuban cigars to future generations.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:That's what kills me.
Bam Bam:Through their pricing schemes.
Chef:All of
Senator:us were able to dive so deep into Cuban cigars because they were priced at or below their New World counterparts.
Bam Bam:And what was that, about six years ago?
Rooster:Yeah. Even less.
Bam Bam:Very recently, the entire Cuban cigar world has flipped its script.
Senator:There's no young person that is going be able to spend these ridiculous prices to try even half of the Habenos essay catalog, not even a quarter of
Bam Bam:That we've been able to enjoy.
Rooster:The fact that lately you
Gizmo:have been seeing so many special releases coming out with fancy boxes. And Limited edition. Which you don't need. I mean,
Rooster:how about improve on the regular production cigars?
Bam Bam:So they've tarnished and diminished their image because of that as well. They've diluted their brand by all of these ridiculous releases.
Chef:And it's tough because I know you say you don't want to really focus on what we've been speaking of recently, but in the rest It's
Gizmo:hard not to. Mean, it's
Chef:hard Rest of world, there's a saying, you're only as good as your last dish. Right? So it doesn't matter what you've done prior, but that last dish you put out, if it's shit, that's what you remembered for, you know? And lately there's been a lot of I wouldn't say the result of shit, but just, you know, between the news articles of prison labor and inconsistencies and price increasing. And it's not a lot of good coming out, unfortunately.
Chef:So I think that's what's kind of stinging, and that's what's flipping the script for the new world.
Gizmo:I just feel and maybe piggybacking piggybacking on what Senator said, it real it really feels to me how disconnected they are from so many of their customers, or maybe we should say at this point old customers. Because on top of what senator was saying about future generations, think about how many Habanos customers that have been with them well before Habanos existed, folks that were smoking in the eighties, the nineties, the February till now
Bam Bam:2020.
Gizmo:That now can't afford to purchase Cuban cigars because they've been priced out. Habanos has effectively said to them, we don't care to have your business anymore. You are not good enough for us. We're luxury. We're above you.
Gizmo:So pricing the pricing strategy, of course, I understand why they're doing it because their revenues are way up. Obviously, the production is down compared to what it was pre COVID. They had a difficult time during COVID. They're having terribly difficult times now, and their solutions to that are just beyond ridiculous. Though, it really is Tabakuba that's doing that, not Habanos if we're being very scientific here.
Gizmo:So Habanos are not the ones saying use prison labor. Tabakuba is just trying to do whatever they can to get these cigars into the hand of Habanos. So let's just separate those two. But either way, I just when I think about this question, I can't come up really with anything positive to say about Habanos. I just can't.
Gizmo:I really don't have. I think everything that they've done well, think has been an accident. Yeah. The the only thing
Senator:I will say look, I mean, there there is one positive, and I will at least give them credit for this. The the most recent standard production releases have been awesome.
Bam Bam:They have been.
Senator:The LGC Turquenos, the Ramon number three, is that right?
Gizmo:Yes, Ramon Eos number three.
Senator:The Oyo Epi three?
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:I mean, those are great cigars. Yeah. My problem is, we all hate the price increases, but the only instance in which I would be willing to accept them, I wouldn't love them, but I could accept it, is if that meant that the quality control, the production side was flawless. Well Like there's a reason that people pay a premium for a Padron over certain other New World cigars. That's right.
Senator:Because the quality is and consistency is unmatched. The fact that you can right now order, or go in a retailer and just pick up a box of Cohiba Esplendidos, or God knows what, at a crazy price point, and not be sure that every damn cigar in that box is even gonna draw properly, is a disgrace. Sure.
Gizmo:You can't even say 75 percent,
Bam Bam:Seth. That's correct.
Gizmo:Yeah. Forget a 100%.
Bam Bam:In addition to these new recent releases that are, I think, standard production, their recent runs have been incredible. Right? 2018 and onward
Gizmo:But here's my question. Very good. Is that a product of Habanos, or is that a product of Tabakuba?
Bam Bam:I don't know.
Gizmo:They're blending decisions. The folks they have doing this, did they let the tobacco age more? Is there more quality control? Is there they're making all this stuff?
Bam Bam:No. I think they've maybe improved their quality control process and blend.
Senator:No. I don't think they have enough.
Rooster:I think it's the blending too.
Bam Bam:Blending may improve.
Gizmo:Blending style has changed.
Bam Bam:No one knows.
Senator:That's the thing. I think that the blends have been awesome, the recent ones. They are actually they've done something right. But the problem is you can have the greatest blend of all time, but if half the box is not smokable because of the construction, it means nothing.
Bam Bam:Well, those recent runs have been pretty good.
Rooster:Construction has gone lately.
Senator:Consistency's improved as well. Any of us could right now go buy a this current year of any Cuban cigar, and there is no way that every single cigar in that box
Gizmo:I agree a 100%. Yeah. That's true. There's no way Unless the only thing I'll say, senator, I think as the ring gauge gets bigger, your your percentage of the box being better you know, better to smoke goes up. So I think there is a correlation.
Senator:I'd say for a robusta or smaller, it's impossible.
Gizmo:It's for a robusta or small.
Senator:Correct. Possible that every one of them is gonna smoke.
Rooster:We're all of the
Gizmo:reasons I'm out.
Bam Bam:Well, you own half the catalog. So you're good.
Gizmo:Okay. Been watching too much shark time. Yeah. It's a good show. I I just I like I said, I I can't come up with a lot of positives here, man.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:You know, I I think that they really missed the boat on what we would what we were calling kind of that COVID, that second cigar boom that happened during COVID. Obviously, we saw the imports come up here in The US. We know that a lot of folks were smoking more. We're not talking just about US consumers, but COVID was worldwide. That change was worldwide.
Gizmo:That increase in smoking was worldwide, and their choice was to restrict the product, create scarcity, and raise the prices three, four, five, ten x, and of course, focus on the luxury markets that were happening in Asia and elsewhere. So I just feel I feel disenfranchised
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:By Habanos. Obviously, they don't care about us. They don't care about me. I am not their target customer anymore. So I I mean, this is probably for, you know, for deaf ears, but it's it's it's really a a tragedy that is going on with Cupid cigars to the point now where on this podcast, put tariffs and imports and shipping restrictions apply.
Gizmo:I mean, we're smoking Cuban cigars now every five weeks. Yeah. We used to smoke 25 of them a year.
Bam Bam:I don't remember my last purchase of a Cuban product.
Gizmo:Not only that, you don't you stand in front of the
Rooster:tower and you just don't even want to pull a Cuban cigar out.
Gizmo:It's totally true.
Rooster:Because you can't replace it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I do have one with me, but I hear you.
Rooster:I knew that.
Senator:I still pull them.
Rooster:I bet it's a fundador.
Gizmo:I'm pulling them a lot less, personally. Alright, boys. Let's move on. Let's go to some listener email now. We'll first go to lizard Luigi.
Gizmo:We're gonna continue on our Cuba commentary. It says, good morning, guys. Listening to BAM acts surprised that Cuba would sink to the level of making prisoners roll cigars is ludicrous.
Bam Bam:Okay. Thanks, Luigi. Well done.
Gizmo:This is Cuba we're talking about. To think that the Cuban government has any concern for quality is laughable as we were just talking about. They have proved time and time again that their main cobweb is one and one thing only. Quantity. The government could not care less how loosely packed or how plugged your cigar is, Lizard Luigi.
Gizmo:Here's another one from Lizard Anthony. He writes us all the time. Hi, Giz. Wow. It's crazy.
Gizmo:It means that the Cuban world is really going down. And in my opinion, I think it will be within five to ten years a really different game for them. We had a club meeting with the girl responsible for tobacco political world. She's looking out for the good side of tobacco. They informed us that indeed, June 2026, the plain packaging, as we are informed here in Belgium, will be a go.
Gizmo:So that plain packaging that we talked about a few weeks ago here on the pod happening in Belgium is going to happen. So it's terrible. I mean, Australia obviously started with that. Canada, there's some other countries that are doing it now. It's spreading through Europe, and I think it's matter of dominoes falling until Is every European country going on.
Gizmo:Has plain packaging and limited SKUs. So that's, of course, what we have to point out with plain packaging is the skew availability to the consumers in those markets drops significantly because it's a workload to put those cigars in plain packaging. It comes down to the distributor at import to do that. You have to hire a team to do it. You have to hire a team to do it.
Chef:Unless everyone just decides to do it, you know, the beginning. And then just all the sexy bands and whatever makes your market unique in terms of visual and packaging is just
Senator:When you say from the beginning, so in Cuba? Yeah. Oh, there's no chance.
Gizmo:And non Cuban as well. This this applies to everybody. Yeah. And so that's really every manufacturer, every cigar, everything is going plain packaging.
Bam Bam:I'm getting depressed.
Gizmo:So the Cuban packaging as we know it, back to wizard Anthony here, will be gone. This is for Belgium to start. And she told us that Belgium will be the first country to use as a statement for the future of European changes. Same now with the terrorist ban. Remember when we're talking about the terrorists?
Senator:Can't help it. Chef is saying that if everybody just did. I'm just imagining Pooba sitting here. Look at that beautiful mouth cancer lithography. There'd be
Gizmo:no bands and logos. We'd be staring at like cancer warnings.
Bam Bam:It would
Gizmo:be so depressing.
Bam Bam:It's another form of marketing. It's marketing.
Gizmo:So on top of this with the terrorist ban, it means that from 2026, we are not allowed to smoke anymore outside of a pub or restaurant outside. Even after the Horiak company invested so much money in this over the last few years to make it all according to recent smoking rules. So he's talking about, you know, companies there have spent a lot of money, you know, changing their structure so folks could smoke outside, and now that's being banned. So you're not even allowed to smoke outside of a pub or restaurant.
Senator:Where is this?
Gizmo:This is in Belgium. Belgium. This is Belgium.
Senator:Wow. That's really
Rooster:You can't smoke outside? Outrageous. How insane is that? I mean,
Senator:we heard in in France this was happening.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's it's happening all over.
Senator:The you go to Paris.
Chef:It's like
Senator:Every single street corner has a cafe where people are ripping cigarettes.
Bam Bam:It's a cigarette capital of the world. Yes.
Gizmo:Can you imagine? They're gonna be in that little hole like the guys in Singapore. Singapore. That's right. In a little box.
Senator:In a painted box on the sidewalk.
Gizmo:Just Yeah. Pretty Ripping darts. Ripping darts.
Chef:We're all gonna be in sewers smoking cigars pretty soon.
Gizmo:Teenage mutant ninja turtles. Yeah. Hiding. He says, with our club, we will start to check for 2026 to do some offline events. I'm sure people with money and smoking cigars will do more home and private dinners with friends spending more money at home instead of at pubs or restaurants, making it again more difficult for these companies to earn money.
Gizmo:They're also saying that the next stop or topic after tobacco will be alcohol, starting with the focus on wine. What? He's hearing a lot Correct. He's hearing a lot from whoever this friend of his is on the political side, they're coming for alcohol management.
Senator:No. He's exactly right. Without getting too specific, my firm, we do a lot of work in the alcohol space. There are these ridiculous studies that have been done that are trying to like as aggressively as possible with no meaningful basis, like try and link even moderate drinking to like cancer. Like there's no question like obviously, you you drink too much, there are bad things that can happen.
Senator:There's no question there. No one disputes that. But moderate drinking, like as if this is like, you know, everyone's death knell if they have a few drinks a week, it is insane. And this is happening globally.
Bam Bam:And
Senator:the cigar space, that's why trade associations like PCA and CAA exist, to try to protect people's right to, as adults, enjoy a product of their choice. The alcohol sector is very much gonna be in the same space.
Gizmo:And think about how much more money the alcohol folks have to spend fighting this, and they're still on the defense. Did I
Senator:mention we have a lot of alcohol clients?
Gizmo:Tune in a couple weeks ago to the Rolex discussion.
Bam Bam:Oh, correct.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of the second third here on the La Fort Dominicana Cameroon cabinet number one in the Lagerville and Distillers edition. I'm enjoying this pairing, boys.
Bam Bam:Are you not getting well, let's see where you guys are at. I'm getting very deep cocoa right now.
Senator:Mhmm.
Bam Bam:And a little minerality, which I happen to love that balance.
Gizmo:I've been getting the cocoa since about the halfway point.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's really pronounced for me. Really nice.
Chef:I'm getting a lot more cocoa now. It's unique. The minerality has been present for me for a while. Think the scotch offers a lot of it, but everything's really grown on me at this point.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Chef:Yeah. This last third is really offering a lot, especially in the form of the pairing for me.
Gizmo:Now the question, Rooster, has this progressed past not being offensive for you?
Senator:Rooster. I'm coming around.
Bam Bam:Oh, boy.
Rooster:It's good cigar. It's good. I'm enjoying it. The cocoa and the cedar has been present present, I think, throughout the cigar for
Bam Bam:me. Nice balance.
Gizmo:Yeah. Alright, boys. Let's stay across the pond here. This one is from Lizard Ronnie from Sweden checking in again. He says, hey, guys.
Gizmo:It's Lizard Ronnie from Sweden again. I just wanted to say a huge thank you for choosing me as this week's lizard. A couple weeks ago, of course, he won lizard of the week. I've listened to the Davidoff chef's edition episode about three times now, and my lizard of the week moment probably around 20. You guys honestly made my day again.
Gizmo:Instead of listing my favorite cigars, I'll just say this. I'm on vacation in Turkey with my family, and I've decided to revisit your Cuban episodes while smoking the same cigars to see if I can pick up the same flavor notes that you guys did. Also, if you ever get the chance, try something from El Septimo. They've got a bunch of great blends, and every one of them is worth exploring. One quick note from the European side, access to New World cigars here is nothing like what you guys have in The States.
Gizmo:And, of course, the prices are much higher. That's why I think Cupid cigars will stay king in Europe for a long time. Keep doing what you do. You make cigar nerds like me very happy. Lizard Ronnie from Sweden.
Gizmo:Cool. We have another email here from Lizard Enrique, and this senator's gonna love this one. He says, hello, lizards. As one of your nondrinking fans, I am reaching out to give the podcast all the flowers for helping me out of a business conundrum. We had a client and the company's CEO in town for a conference and to squire them to business meetings.
Gizmo:On day two, the client suggested a download with some small bites and drinks. You have to realize in our office, we have two non drinkers and a pregnant woman. I had to turn to the best. I quickly suggested the sans sera from episode two zero three, Paul Roger and Whispering Angel. The reaction was like a record scratch noise.
Gizmo:How did I know all of this? My wife and co owner in our business rolled her eyes and chimed in, quote, it's from this podcast he listed. I
Senator:love it.
Gizmo:My wife my wife later reported that our client left the office to her to her hotel with the unfinished bottle of Paul Roger in tow. Wow. Mission accomplished.
Bam Bam:Very nice.
Gizmo:The client also asked for the name of the podcast, which I proudly sent because she wants advice on pairings. Beautiful. No word yet on whether she will start smoking cigars.
Bam Bam:Cool.
Gizmo:It also had the added benefit of showing my wife that the hours and hours I listen, but maybe not the thousands I've spent on cigars, have all been worth it. Long live the pod. Cheers, lizard Enrique.
Bam Bam:I fucking love that. That's cool.
Gizmo:I love it. Come on, senator.
Senator:I love this
Gizmo:guy. Changing lives. That's right.
Senator:That's what we do here.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:It's hard work, but somebody's gotta do it. Right? Yeah. Correct. Alright, boys.
Gizmo:Let's continue on. This one is from Lizard Julio. He says, hey, gents. I absolutely love the pod, and I wanted to throw a few suggestions your way when you have a chance. On the cigar front, I hope you guys do an episode on Dunbarton's Micarita, the blue band.
Gizmo:It's such a special blend that I'm shocked by in terms of its richness and value. From the spirit side of things, I really hope you guys could try yellow spot or green spot Chateau Montelena, which is one of my favorite bang for the buck options for Irish whiskey out there.
Bam Bam:Yeah. We did the green spot.
Gizmo:Well, the Chateau Montelena, have not done. That's true.
Senator:Oh, so they aged in a wine barrel?
Gizmo:I would think so.
Senator:So Chateau Montelena is a red wine producer in Napa. K. I had a very bad experience at their vineyard.
Bam Bam:Yeah. You gave it a thumbnail,
Senator:that's all. Very bad experience.
Gizmo:Uh-oh. If you guys are all fans of Hibiki Harmony, try Kagan, which is the blue box. It's so much cheaper, and it still hits at the same level on ice. Cheers, lizard Julio. I always love recommendations from lizards, so that's why I always share them.
Gizmo:We love hearing from lizard listeners with some recommendations. So this one is coming directly from the Dominican Republic. Obviously, senator detailed his awesome trip to the Doctor. So this one is from Lagarto Jose C from the Doctor. He says, hola, Lagartos.
Gizmo:I just finished listening to your latest episode, the one where you reviewed the Davodoff chef's edition, and senator talked about his recent trip he made to the Dominican Republic. I live here in The Doctor, and I got into cigars right after CA first came out, back in the mid nineties. Even though there's always been tobacco growing on the island, cigar smoking wasn't really part of our culture back then. There are way more cigar lovers around now, but when I started, it was a very small crowd. I just gotta say, it's amazing to me that the the cigar boom that Cigar Aficionado created in The United States, I can't believe it also, you know, helped create booms even in the Dominican Republic Yeah.
Senator:Yeah. I'm shocked.
Gizmo:Where that tobacco was being grown.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Pretty crazy. Back in those days, if we wanted good cigars, we had to buy them from stores in The US and have them shipped here. Some of us had friends who worked with the factories, but since most were under free zone rules, they couldn't sell locally. Everything had to be for export. I went all in on cigars, the lifestyle, the ritual, everything, and I loved it.
Gizmo:Then when my kids were born, life took a different direction, and I stepped away. Recently, my nephew started dating the daughter of a big name cigar maker, and that got me back into it again. That's a nice hookup. I like the move. Now I've I've gone full circle.
Gizmo:I've got a solid collection at home in Santo Domingo, plus humidors at my place in Casa De Campo and up in the mountains. These days, it's much easier to find great cigars here. There are solid distributors that carry top Dominican brands and also Nicaraguan, Honduran, and even Cuban cigars. And the Cuban ones are the real deal, he says. These suppliers work with most of the lounges, hotels, and shops around the country.
Gizmo:So if you find Cubans here, they're legit. I do have to disagree on that.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Gizmo:There are a lot of fake Cuban cigars in the Doctor, so be very, very
Chef:careful. Yeah. Especially on the beaches. Exactly.
Gizmo:Of course, I would only buy the Cubans directly from these people, but why would I want Cubans? It's not worth the investment. Each cigar is an investment with the prices they go for. Smoking cigars in the Dominican Republic, like senator said, is no problem at all. You could smoke pretty much anywhere except inside restaurants.
Gizmo:Most hotels in Santo Domingo and Santiago have terraces or cigar lounges, completely the opposite of what we just talked about with Belgium. You can actually smoke on a terrace. And all the resorts around the island let you enjoy your cigar freely. It's total freedom.
Bam Bam:You're talking.
Gizmo:Travel a lot, and honestly, it's disappointing how hard it is to smoke a cigar in many countries now. I was just in Spain visiting one of my daughters, and when I lit up a cigar walking through the streets of Barcelona, my other daughter's boyfriend, he's American, he got all nervous. I told him Spain's actually pretty relaxed about smoking. As for safety, you can move around the Doctor freely. Just avoid sketchy areas, and you'll be fine.
Gizmo:The economy's been growing steadily for years. Tourism is booming, and the Dominicans are naturally friendly and welcoming. People go out of their way to make sure you have a good time. I've been diving deep back into the cigar world, and I love the content you guys put out. I'm also big into bourbon, same as back in the nineties.
Gizmo:I still have to get it shipped from The US since bourbon isn't a big thing here yet. That was also surprising to read Yeah. That bourbon has not hit the Doctor in a in a big way yet. I guess there's still an opportunity there for bourbon manufacturers. If you ever make it down, check out the Pro Cigar Festival in February.
Gizmo:I will be there. It's the biggest cigar event here. Arturo Fuente also does La Gran Fumada every year in Santo Domingo, and you get to smoke their best stuff and go home with an exclusive collector's box. Fuente loves boxes, man. Big fancy lacquer boxes.
Gizmo:The Fuente cigar club in Santo Domingo always has hard to find cigars and just open lounges in Cap Cana and Santiago too. Shops like Cabinet and Cigar Country, we've heard of them. I think senator and I have actually purchased from Cigar Country, have top selections from all around the world, so you can find pretty much anything you mention on the podcast. If you ever visit, like senator said, Santo Domingo has amazing restaurants, bars, hotels, history plus the freedom to smoke. Santiago has all the factories and plantations, and the people there really know their tobacco.
Gizmo:The resort areas are full of friendly folks, good lounges, and world class beaches. And if you golf, you'll love it here. Jack Nicklaus' course in Cap Cana, Pete Dye's legendary teeth of the dog in Casa De Campo plus five other Pete Dye courses, and the Fazio And PB Dye courses in Punta Cana. There's more than 50 golf courses on the island, which you noted, senator. I was surprised to hear Keep up the great work, Lagartos.
Gizmo:I'm writing this while enjoying one of your favorites, a Padron Exclusivo. Saludos Alright. Lagarto Jose c from the Doctor.
Bam Bam:Cool.
Gizmo:What a great email. I love
Bam Bam:this good email.
Gizmo:That's an OG lizard right there.
Chef:Correct. Oh, yeah.
Bam Bam:I'd like to know what else he's smoking.
Gizmo:It's a good question. Yeah. Let us know
Bam Bam:If he replies
Gizmo:Let us know, Jose, what other cigars are you smoking on the regular? I'm really curious, you know, what your palate is enjoying down there and also what you're pairing with it. I would assume it's a lot of rum. That'd be my assumption. Oh, for sure.
Gizmo:But I'm curious what what you're pairing. And and, you know, for all the folks that we read from outside The United States, we love hearing from listeners outside of The United States. So if you are one of those listeners, please send us an email because it kinda colors our understanding of of how people are consuming cigars and spirits, and also this podcast outside of The United States. So we'd love to hear from you.
Senator:I just wanna say I I really love that email. And the funny thing is when you think of the big tobacco growing regions, right, Cuba, Doctor, Nicaragua, Honduras, and you think of like all the things that you would want in a place that you can actually spend a very significant amount of time while enjoying cigars freely. You know, you want somewhere that's safe. We obviously know, you know, Nicaragua does not fit that bill. You know, Honduras is is a challenge.
Senator:So you're kinda left with Cuba and Doctor. You want reliable electricity. Cuba's out on that right now. Well, don't forget Panama. They're not they're not tobacco.
Bam Bam:No. Correct. Yeah. A lot of freedom there.
Senator:Oh, totally. Totally. I just mean like of the tobacco
Gizmo:Plus Panama has the canal. Let's not forget the Oh, yes. Canal.
Senator:That's right.
Gizmo:Just wanna note that. But when
Senator:you just think of all the things that you would want, right? Beaches, cigars, great food
Bam Bam:Bikinis. Safe Bikinis. Yeah. Whatever. All
Gizmo:these things. Bikinis.
Senator:It's just, you know, Doctor checks every single box in a way that I hadn't really fully appreciated until I actually went and visited. We love Cuba so much, but we know there are things that Cuba can never provide just because of that failure of a government that they have. There are bare essentials that don't function in that entire country. In Doctor, you can have it all. I am legitimately Doctor is a potential retirement place even for me, and my wife is on board even with this.
Bam Bam:Listen to this.
Senator:That's the level of praise that I truly think Doctor deserves.
Bam Bam:Very high praise.
Senator:So I just say that for listeners that are considering travels to some of the big tobacco growing regions, like, Doctor is just spectacular.
Gizmo:Sounds great. I can't wait to go. I am going to the Pro Cigar Festival in February, so I cannot wait to be back in the Doctor. Loved my first time there in Santiago.
Senator:I just can't wait for the pictures of Giz at the white party.
Bam Bam:Oh, with this Well, he can't wait Tie dye to
Chef:With his white He
Gizmo:can't wait for a hoodie. I don't know what does Under Armour make a white
Bam Bam:I may tag along with you.
Gizmo:You should. Yeah. It'll be fun. Alright, boys. We have one more email before we get to our ratings tonight.
Gizmo:This one is gonna be our lizard of the week. Of course, any lizard out there can win lizard of the week, and we had so many candidates tonight. Some great emails. We really appreciate it. Please keep writing us.
Gizmo:I promise you will win lizard of the week as anybody can win it. All you have to do is send us an email like these folks did, a voice memo. I have a great voice memo, by the way, I've been talking about. I'm gonna save it for next week. A Spotify comment, an Instagram comment, a YouTube YouTube comment, whatever you choose, get in touch.
Gizmo:You can send a pigeon to Bam's house.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:And you can win lizard of the week. This one is
Senator:from has dried fruit with it.
Bam Bam:That's correct. In its
Gizmo:mouth. This one is from Lizard Chris. He says, hey, lizards. First, I have to say thank you for such a wonderful podcast. I started listening this spring, and I've already made it through your entire catalog of episodes.
Gizmo:Suffice to say, I'm a huge fan. That's crazy, and I love it. My wife, though, is less of a fan. We're gonna change that right now. Mhmm.
Gizmo:Since she noticed the correlation between when I started listening and when I started receiving multiple shipments per month of Cuban and New World cigars, all from trusted sources, of course. Even my young son loves you guys, and he stands in front of my teller yelling yummy gars at least once a day. And he included a photo. This is why I mean, I'm you know, we're suckers for for kids. There's a picture of his son.
Bam Bam:So cool.
Gizmo:In front
Bam Bam:of his humidor. Beautiful photo.
Gizmo:Pretty cool. So I'm hoping you can help me with something though. I store my Cubans in an electric tower set to 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 62% relative humidity. I always let them rest thirty plus days after they arrive, but lately they've had no flavor. I don't mean muted flavors.
Gizmo:I mean, basically no flavor at all. I've tried to dry box them, which works sometimes and not others. What am I doing wrong?
Chef:Does he have COVID? Should
Gizmo:I was thinking that. Should my setup be closer to 65 for storage? Should I dry box even longer than I have been? Usually a day or so at 60. I know the cigars are genuine because I only use the merchants you list yourselves as trusted, But this is really starting to worry me.
Gizmo:I have 40 boxes of Cubans, which I'm happy to share if I run into any of you at Carnegie Club. Well, Pagoda lives there,
Bam Bam:so you'll
Gizmo:definitely Or run into if I make it down to Hawthorne one of these days, we put it on our list of places to look at houses.
Bam Bam:Oh, wow.
Gizmo:Though not entirely because what seems like a great lounge situation. Very good lounge. I really appreciate any advice you can give. I'm even happy to send you guys a few from my tower or meet one of you at Carnegie with a few sticks of toast so you can taste them and tell me if it's all in my head. Thanks so much, wizard Chris.
Gizmo:Neat.
Rooster:That's very odd.
Bam Bam:That's a challenging situation. So
Gizmo:my first thought is that his tower is not calibrated properly, and he's running it way under what he thinks is 62
Bam Bam:Yeah, he may not know where he really is.
Gizmo:Yeah, it might be a calibration issue, which is very difficult to do with those things because you effectively need to buy a Govi, calibrate that to the 75% Bovie pack.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Make sure you do that right. You made get four. You
Chef:made get four.
Gizmo:Well, yeah, for each section. Correct. Come on. Yeah.
Bam Bam:That's a must.
Gizmo:The one you're gonna read
Senator:would have never cut you.
Gizmo:Well, it's a four pack. Might as well use them all. But, yeah, I would think it's a calibration issue, or there's some sort of situation going on with your palate that you're not able to taste stuff. But it seems to me that you may be drying them out too much. Can you
Chef:see any specifics from zooming in on the photo there? No.
Gizmo:I think It's a nice collection.
Rooster:I'll If tell you feel the cigar and if it feels kind of dry and brittle, the cigar should have some give. Right? It shouldn't be spongy, but it should kind of bounce back. So that's a telltale sign that it's well handled.
Gizmo:And if
Bam Bam:it's super dry, you're losing essential oils in
Rooster:the You're going hear
Gizmo:it. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah, you're gonna lose flavor.
Gizmo:That's the problem is if you're drying it out too much for long periods of time, you're pulling the oils out of it. Correct. Now don't panic. If you're a listener or Lizard Chris here hearing this, like, don't panic. Like, you can definitely rehab these cigars.
Gizmo:It's not been that long, but it's definitely time to make sure your stuff is calibrated. I'm also in the camp that if you're in a climate situation in which it's either sometimes hot, sometimes cold or vice versa, And that thing is constantly heating or cooling and it's on and the temperature component of these units can be very troubling because they use air conditioning to cool it, then it gets too cool, and then they use heat to heat it up. And it gets into this hell cycle of trying to keep this tower within a few degrees temperature wise, and it just cooks your cigars back and forth. It's just constantly changing it. So it can be very, very challenging Mhmm.
Gizmo:With the units that have refrigeration and heat in them. So my recommendation first is to calibrate. Second would be to maybe disable that piece of it and only allow it to humidify. If it's a
Rooster:pallet issue, you could maybe even not smoke for a few days and then and then try smoking one or even unplugging the unit. Yeah. Unplugging in the summertime, you don't really need to. You know, the temperature shouldn't be an issue.
Gizmo:Yeah. Right? Especially if it's in your house at 70 degrees. It sounds like he's definitely at room temperature. Yeah.
Gizmo:Going down to 65, 65 really is not going to change much. I would stay at 70 because it's easier to maintain, you know, versus your temperature of your home. But, I mean, what I would do is if you have a cigar you love that's a New World cigar that you can go to the store and buy, go buy one at the store. So if it's a Padron Exclusivo, it's a if it's a Fabrica five, if it's a Davidoff, if it's a whatever it may be, you have one in your tower, it's not smoking well, the box is, you know, is flavorless, go to the retailer, buy one, give it a week of dry box, and see if you have flavor in that. That's a good tell too.
Gizmo:Yeah. You know, compare apples to apples.
Senator:And if you have no flavor on any of them, get Paxlovid.
Gizmo:Yeah. There's definitely some sort of Oh,
Bam Bam:I agree.
Gizmo:Issue with the with the palate.
Bam Bam:What kind of
Gizmo:second is left?
Bam Bam:So he's having an issue with his new worlds as well as as his Yeah. Everything. Yeah. That's that's that's a problem.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Hopefully, Liz or Chris will be able to figure this out. Of course, I'm gonna I'll email with him. I'll help him, you know, get this sorted and hopefully this this all helps him. But, you know, if there's any other listeners out there who are having the same issue or or who've had the same issue, please write in because we'd love to share that with with lizards around the world.
Senator:I just can't wait in a few weeks when he writes it again, and he's Gizmo's gonna have him with, like, four gobies in there.
Rooster:No. Gizmo's gonna show up at his house.
Bam Bam:Yeah. He'll be on premises.
Rooster:We're sending our chief technician. Correct. He's gonna bring kitty litter and
Gizmo:the whole nine yards.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:It doesn't sound like he has a dryness problem, Rooster. I will not be bringing kitty
Bam Bam:litter. That's right.
Gizmo:So, yeah, we'll get this sorted out and see what's going on with your tower. But, thank you for writing in, and thanks everyone for writing in. And congratulations to Lizard Chris here on winning lizard of the week. We have some really exciting lizard of the week stuff coming up courtesy of Fabrica five. So stay tuned as we get to the later part of this year and into 2026.
Gizmo:They are joining us as well through the end of 2026, so we have a very packed year of of great content and partnerships and giveaways coming, so stay tuned for that. So boys, we are coming to the end of our evening now with the La Flora Dominicana, Cameroon cabinet number one and the Lagavulin distillers edition. What's everybody thinking on the pairing or the individual entrants before we get to the ratings tonight?
Senator:So good. Both are delicious.
Bam Bam:They're incredible together.
Rooster:Box worthy.
Gizmo:Oh, box worthy.
Senator:How roosters now come around.
Gizmo:Look at that. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Look at them. Chef's like flipping caps over here. Yeah.
Gizmo:I don't know what he's doing. Alright, boys. It's time now to move into the formal liquorating tonight on the Lagavulin distillers edition. Bam Bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:For me, this is an easy 10.
Senator:Thank you, Bam. Well done. Oh my god. I was worried no one else would do it.
Bam Bam:You will know. Honestly Bam, you're my hero tonight. Bro.
Chef:Shit.
Bam Bam:Just tonight. Well, just for this bottle of Lager one because I haven't really liked any previous bottles that we've ever tried.
Gizmo:This
Bam Bam:is really unique. It's very special. I think I would love to try this with an Exclusivo. I would love to try this with the aging room Concerto. Definitely the Trinity Robusto.
Bam Bam:There are so many cigars I want to try this with. I'm very curious. I'm sure they're all going to pair beautifully, but it's so well balanced. That smoke it's just enough smokiness. It's just enough sweetness.
Bam Bam:It it works really, really well. Regardless of the price, for me, that's not a factor here because this is so special and different. It's worthy of a 10.
Gizmo:Alright, chef.
Chef:You know what? BAM's helped convince me a little bit.
Bam Bam:No peer pressure.
Gizmo:No peer pressure. Do not allow them
Senator:go to that here. Let
Gizmo:me phone him.
Chef:No. You know, it's not peer pressure, but I I don't think this comes at this shouldn't surprise anyone that listens to this pod regularly. Scotch usually scores a little bit lower for me. Initially, smelling the spirit, I got a lot of iodine or peat for some.
Bam Bam:It dissipated quickly though.
Chef:But it did dissipate, but it was always present, but it became more subtle and and a part of the spirit for me. Whereas in the very beginning, especially on the nose, it was all I was pulling out. I was excited for the spirit because of the sherry, the touch of sherry there. I thought it was going to present a little bit sweeter. So
Bam Bam:this isn't this isn't sweet enough for you?
Chef:No. Early on. Okay. I was getting brine. I was getting olives.
Chef:I I wasn't getting a whole lot of
Bam Bam:But I happen to love that. That's a factor for me. Yes. That continues all the way through. Yes.
Bam Bam:And that salty butteriness that you mentioned.
Chef:Now that's where the pairing factors in for me is that with the cigar, I was able to pull out notes of of of maybe what the box calls out as raisin. I think the box kind of over pitched or overhyped those those raisin notes. I don't think that is a primary flavor here in the scotch. I think what I think the savory notes, the brine, the olive, the butteriness, the saltiness, those stood out further than the raisin or the fig that were mentioned on the box. But even with that aside, it is a very complex and unique spirit, and it's not just relying on the pea or the scotch characters to deliver that, which is what I love about this.
Bam Bam:That's a great statement.
Chef:And I think Lagavulin, you know, from my limited Scotch knowledge, it is a Pete forward Scotch, maybe not Laphroaig forward, but it is more of one of the Pete forward Scotches, but here it's delivered in a very sophisticated, masculine and almost pro way, if you will. I love the way it delivers it. I love I love the way it grew on me. It took time. You know, I had to I had two two additional helpings.
Chef:So three in total. And, you know, I think as I sat here and I sipped this neat, I started to just really enjoy this. And I imagine this is maybe what like some of your mezcal experiences are. So as I'm sitting here and I'm kind of was ready to bash it early on, I was like, you know what, let me give this time. Maybe I'm just I haven't had a lot of scotch this year in general.
Chef:It's just I I think my palate's really shifted away from it, and this has helped me kind of buy back into it. So for that, I'm giving it a nine.
Senator:Oh, I thought you're
Gizmo:giving What it a the all that? Jesus. I'm honestly shocked.
Bam Bam:I know. Me too.
Senator:He started with, oh, the peer pressure.
Chef:I was I was at an I was at an eight. That was an eloquent review. That's
Senator:Goodness.
Bam Bam:I was expecting a 10 there.
Chef:Oh my god.
Gizmo:That was shocking.
Bam Bam:That's okay.
Gizmo:I'll be honest. Alright.
Bam Bam:I was completely shocked. Pagoda would be happy.
Gizmo:So boys, I'm at a 10. I've been at a 10 since the first sip. I was the first one on this with my love. Everybody else hold on. Slow down.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Bam Bam:I wrote it down on a whiteboard. Yes. You
Senator:got credit for it.
Gizmo:Hello. You were behind me. Let's play the tape. I was on the first sip.
Bam Bam:Play the video tape.
Senator:I've been singing its praises the entire way through.
Gizmo:I think this is a perfect cigar companion for any cigar that has Nicaraguan tobacco in it.
Senator:Sorry. Actually, we're both wrong. Chef was first singing his praises.
Bam Bam:It's on a whiteboard.
Gizmo:And for that reason,
Bam Bam:it's a nine.
Chef:What's the Michael Wolf quote? Let's go to a videotape. Here we go.
Gizmo:I I think anything that has Nicaraguan tobacco, even just a little bit like the Trinity Robusto, as you said, Bam Exclusivo. Exclusivo, which is a Nicaraguan puro, or this one which has some Dominican and has some Nicaraguan, has Cameroon. I think anything that has the word Nicaraguan in it, I think this scotch is a perfect companion for any of those cigars. I think from the first sip, was brilliant. I fell in love immediately, which I've never had that experience with anything peaty, be it Lagavulin, be it Lefroy, whatever it was.
Gizmo:I really, really love this. I think that extra maturation in those casks was very very helpful. As someone who was called a primitive palate, I think it was because of Lagevulin, correct?
Senator:It was. Grindr called you right out.
Gizmo:This is the perfect amount of peat for a cigar smoker.
Senator:You you called langavulin when you first had it gasoline, and Grindr almost strangled you across the room. Correct.
Gizmo:It's true. But you know what? I'll say this. I'm thankful for this podcast and our friendship and our in this group because it has forced growth. And and if you think about that tasting that and it it tasting to me like gasoline and ripping it apart and the ball busting and everything else, to come now and have the first sip hit me like it did, my palate is so different than it was all those years ago, and it's only because of what we do together and we sit here and do it each week.
Gizmo:It's forced growth. So I'm just I'm very grateful for that, and I love this.
Bam Bam:Why do call this That's a new word. Yeah. Do force call growth.
Rooster:Maybe it's natural growth.
Chef:I think you
Bam Bam:have toilet paper words, don't you? You gotta roll the toilet paper with vocabulary words
Chef:on it.
Gizmo:What? Force growth? Yeah. I just made that up. What I'm saying by forced is I don't think any of us would be reaching for
Bam Bam:this cat multiplier.
Gizmo:No. Not forced. Forced with a d. Like, we are forced each week to try new things. We're not forced.
Gizmo:Okay. It's voluntary.
Rooster:Are we forced?
Chef:Roosters like, I'm not drinking.
Bam Bam:This is disintegrating quickly.
Gizmo:But listen. By the nature of what we do, we're trying new things each week. I think what that has done is it has created growth that probably without this, it would not have happened.
Bam Bam:There you go.
Gizmo:That's all I'm saying.
Bam Bam:Great. That's for
Gizmo:force growth.
Bam Bam:For you.
Gizmo:For me. I know. I know. So I will say that finish on this is so long. It's so huge.
Gizmo:Every sip lasts longer than maybe almost every other scotch that we have. I I think it's brilliant. It has a Claes Kellner level of palette coverage. Oh, yeah. You know, the full tongue coverage, the the entire palette is enriched by this.
Gizmo:Rooster doesn't like my Scotch. Rooster doesn't like my commentary, but this was a brilliant Scotch tonight. I'm very happy with it. Kellner is now the master blender ad. Correct.
Gizmo:Like it. It's it sounds forced. I'm making connections. I'm making connections.
Senator:Bam, did
Gizmo:it make sense to you?
Bam Bam:It did after your explanation.
Rooster:Sounds forced.
Bam Bam:Correct. Well done.
Gizmo:Senator, go ahead.
Senator:Alright. So first, when we roll the tape
Chef:Hold on. Did he give a rating?
Senator:10. He did. Yeah. Okay. He did.
Senator:So first, we roll the tape. I started us into the pairing because I was drinking it before anybody's saying we should this is like a perfect pairing.
Gizmo:Should talk
Bam Bam:about it. It.
Gizmo:That's
Senator:true. So that's the tape, first of all. I'll pull
Gizmo:the tape.
Chef:Alright. Number
Gizmo:yeah. You you do that and get back to the game. Number two By way, if I'm right, you'll hear it. If if I'm not, you'll never Oh, never something gay. Never hear it.
Gizmo:I guess it was like, alright.
Senator:I guess we'll go to the pairing early. This is Pete at its finest.
Gizmo:Mhmm. I agree.
Senator:This is a 10. It is absolute perfection.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Senator:I have always been a fan of laggable in 16. This is even better. It's deserving of the price point. Totally better. It is perfectly balanced.
Senator:And the funny thing is we were talking about the resin note that they call out. This takes you on a journey, and this is exactly where and I I love the mezcal analogy. You have to submit and let it take you on the ride. Mhmm. And I say that because
Gizmo:Sounds like you're forced. Go ahead.
Bam Bam:I'm sorry. You're Be wrong. You're not. You choose You got You got a point.
Gizmo:And I'm saying that you
Senator:need to choose to take the ride, not fight it. And so Yeah.
Chef:There was no forcing you
Bam Bam:when got that
Chef:that honey note
Gizmo:on that was horrible. Have to
Senator:choose to allow yourself to go on that ride on the journey. And in this case, when you smell the nose, you get a lot of peat, and for anyone who's not a fan of a peaty scotch, it's very off putting at first. Even for me when I smell this on the nose, it's been months since I've had laggabal, and I was like, oh, there's a lot of peat on this. Mhmm. You have the first sip, and it is definitely peat forward, but you get some of the sweet notes.
Senator:You have several sips of this, and then it starts being like even parts peat and sweet. Yeah. And then the more you drink of this, it gets even sweeter.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Chef:Mhmm. And
Senator:that's where I actually start to get the raisin notes, and that's like your palate is adjusting all the way through.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:Where like its reference point before when you first start this is like the last several spirits you've had, which are gonna drink a lot sweeter than this does initially.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:Once your palate settles in, you're able to extract those true sweet notes that are there that you just really need to be able to
Bam Bam:It's really to find. It's wonderful. We're so a few of us are on our second pour. By the end of my first pour is when I started to experience everything you're talking about right now. A little bit of raisin, the fig started to come through, but on the second pour, it's delightful right off the bat.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:The more
Rooster:you drink, the better you
Bam Bam:feel. It is so good.
Senator:It's awesome. And it's like, you know, every cigar that Bam mentioned, I I couldn't agree more. This would pair fantastically with. And like I said, there are even cumin cigars that I would be very
Bam Bam:I wanna talk about that. Excited just for a moment.
Senator:To drink this with because there's also this salty brininess that you get in this scotch Yeah. That I think works really well with that salty briny note that you get in some Cuban cigars. So to me, the the utility of this spans both New World and Cuban. I think it's pretty versatile.
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Senator:It's not something that I would just pull for in like cold weather. So there there's so much that I I love about this scotch. This is as strong of a 10 as I've given on a scotch ever. I love it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's so interesting.
Gizmo:Awesome. So the former liquor rating tonight, boys, on the Lagavulin distillers edition is a 9.8. Excellent. So Bam, let's talk about cigars pairing with this scotch. Cubans in particular.
Gizmo:Okay.
Bam Bam:I I I can see myself smoking a Romano Alona especially slightly.
Gizmo:I agree.
Senator:Bingo. That's exactly think what
Gizmo:I was thinking. Bolivar I think would go great. Anything in the Bolivar line I think would go great with I
Senator:agree.
Bam Bam:I think a a younger, just enough aged Bolivar Royal Corona
Gizmo:Oh, that'd be great.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That has just enough of that strength to keep up with it. Yep. Something that's heavily aged for that particular marker, I don't think will work well. I agree.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:I think a p two would be great I
Bam Bam:was gonna say that, but I would do the Maduro one with this guy.
Rooster:A Monty? Monty.
Bam Bam:Monty two? I don't know yet. No?
Gizmo:That's so soft. Yeah. Salty. The salty slantiness for sure. If the sweetness wasn't present in this, I'd say no way.
Gizmo:But I think that this works with the brininess of this. Yeah. With a cigar that we've pretty much said for us defines Cuban twang in the Sure, money
Bam Bam:sure.
Gizmo:I think it'd be a great pairing.
Chef:Agreed. I think that would be a heavy hitter. Yeah. Yeah? That mother of one and this Scotch together.
Bam Bam:And the Monty two they're saying, which I'd love to try.
Senator:There's so much versatility in this.
Bam Bam:It's awesome.
Senator:It's awesome.
Gizmo:Exciting. Excellent Scotch. Correct. So by the way, looked up while you guys were rating and we were chatting about the age statement lacking on this box. So at one point, the distiller's edition was essentially the 16 year old finished in the Sherry casks that we the American Oak casks that we talked about tonight.
Gizmo:It was often labeled by vintage and bottling year. And around 2022, Diageo dropped the age statement info and moved to a non age statement release. You know? So I'm assuming it's somewhere around 16, but maybe whatever they're blending in to make this taste the way they want is So not 16 they've just removed it entirely. But whatever they're doing over there with this, I think it's an absolute home run.
Gizmo:Definitely. Absolutely. So let's compare that to the other Lagavulin we've done on the pod. So we've actually done the Lagavulin sixteen three times. So on episode don't ask me why.
Gizmo:On episode nine, we did not rate it. On episode 81, we've rated it an 8.8. And on episode 183, because we are goddamn consistent, we also rated it an 8.8.
Bam Bam:Unreal. Wow. Very
Gizmo:nice. Wow. This is 10 points above what we've rated the Log of One sixteen twice now on the pod at a 9.8 versus an 8.8. Well deserved. Alright, boys.
Gizmo:It's time now to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the Little Floor Dominicana, Cameroon cabinet number one, Rooster Europe. So I'm going to use the new lizard code, Lizard15,
Rooster:and to get a box of these. I think this is definitely a box worthy cigar. The cigar is really well constructed. I love the Cameroon wrapper on it. You can taste the age on it.
Rooster:Even the tobacco, I think it feels like it has some age on it. The mustiness, the cedar, the cocoa note that comes through, I really enjoyed it. I think the last third, it actually did pick up a little bit. And that probably was, I think, the best part of the cigar. The beginning was also not bad.
Rooster:But the wrapper initially, before we did the cut, it was fragrant. The cigar is also really well balanced, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So it's definitely a box worthy purchase. So I'm gonna give it a nine. Alright, senator.
Senator:So I'm also at a nine. I've thoroughly enjoyed this cigar. What I really appreciate is kinda like the way I describe the spirit, this took me on a little bit of a journey. I feel like the early part of this, you got, like, some cream, some mustiness, some cedar. Then in the second third, I got, like, some saltiness and it got even more savory.
Senator:And there were some sweet notes early on, but it was faint kind of in the background. And the last third is when the cocoa really like popped. That's correct. And so for me, it was like
Chef:Almost like a three
Senator:act Yeah. Which is really great. The construction was awesome. You don't need to touch this cigar up. It it really burned beautifully.
Senator:Sophisticated smoke. Great smoke output for, you know, Lonsdale.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah.
Senator:There's so much to like, and and the big thing, you know, when I get excited about a cigar, it's differentiated. There's so many cigars where you say, like, oh, this is interesting, and it reminds me of this cigar or that cigar. This doesn't remind me of anything I've ever had. They've done such an awesome job carving out something really unique, something memorable, something I would definitely pursue in smoke again. And I think there's it's clear there's gotta be some decently aged tobacco in this.
Senator:There's no rough edges whatsoever throughout the entirety of this smoke.
Gizmo:Keep it down to the nub. For
Bam Bam:sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Senator:For sure. And what I like about it is, you know, we talk about LFD as like this brand that, you know, we're worried some of their cigars may be a little bit too aggressive. This is cigar that I think for the overwhelming majority of cigar smokers at different points and stages in their journey, people who prefer a fuller cigar, a medium cigar, a mild medium cigar. I think there's kinda something to find that's enjoyable in this for almost everybody.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Senator:And that deserves a ton of credit. It's not easy to blend a cigar that like could appeal to such a broad spectrum of cigar smokers. So for all those reasons, I'm at a really strong nine. You know, what precluded for a 10 for me, I wanted that cocoa note that got more dominant in the final third to be more present all the way through. I wanted a little more sweetness in the first third when I was describing this as a pretty dry cigar, but nonetheless, it's still a nine.
Senator:I really enjoyed that journey, and I'm already excited about the next time I smoke one of these.
Gizmo:Oh, hell yeah. So for me, it's also a nine. I think, you know, we talked very early in the cigar. You know, we were trying to find specific notes of flavor, specific callouts, specific references to food, whatever we wanna say.
Bam Bam:But that didn't bother you.
Gizmo:Despite the lack of being able to do that, I think the cigar blend was married. And you used the word, it's not muddled. It's almost like everything was married together, not muddled.
Bam Bam:Correct. Correct.
Gizmo:I don't know if that's a product of the blend. Mhmm. If that's a product of this aged tobacco making it really easy to smoke despite whatever blend decisions were made. But whatever has happened here ended up being a really, really good cigar. Great construction.
Gizmo:Great combustion. Yeah. And for $11 in a Lonsdale, I mean, you can't really beat it.
Senator:This punch is above its weight class. Absolutely. You wouldn't guess blind this is $11.
Gizmo:Exactly. Would think this is a $15.16 dollar cigar. Same. That's pinpoint where I it.
Bam Bam:Easy to slot in all of our rotations.
Rooster:And the tobacco, I think the cigar is really well packed.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:It's very dense.
Bam Bam:Not really packed.
Rooster:The draw is exceptional.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:So of course, given our prior experiences, given the fact that they sell a double Hijaro, and they're kind of known for oomph, La Flor de Vinicana. When I think La Flor de Vinicana, I think of oomph, I think of spice, I think of like, you know, a little bit of a punch when when the cigar opens. This tonight was not what I expected from LFD. You know, I don't like that spicy punchy thing generally. So this aged Cameroon, this vintage tobacco they included in this, and I'm assuming it also carried through, like senator said, through into the the binder and the filler because there was no roughness.
Gizmo:There was no youth. There was nothing there saying
Senator:like Yep.
Gizmo:This cigar wasn't ready for prime time, as Bam likes to say. Mhmm. It's a big win. I I think this is a home run of a cigar. Why did I not give it the 10?
Gizmo:I think it's because while it intrigued me tonight, I'm having difficulty thinking about running out and buying a box immediately and putting it into my rotation tomorrow. I think this is a cigar that I'll reach for maybe once or twice a month at best. The value is there, certainly. I'm gonna try another one. We'll see how it goes.
Gizmo:Great blend. Great performance tonight. But for me, it's a nine. Chef?
Rooster:I would smoke this weekly.
Chef:Yeah. I'm I'm right there with you, rooster.
Senator:Should I say it? Permanent palate?
Bam Bam:I didn't say it this time. I'm observing,
Gizmo:but he was thinking it.
Rooster:Now it's
Chef:that would
Bam Bam:I'm I'm just saying No.
Gizmo:You're guilty now. You're guilty now. Because
Senator:of him?
Rooster:You're guilty now because he said that.
Gizmo:I don't know. That sounds forced.
Bam Bam:It is forced. Unbelievable. My guilt is forced.
Gizmo:Your guilt is Yeah. Okay. Default. It is. Alright, chef.
Rooster:You're
Chef:up. I'm excited. Default. I'm I'm excited for this cigar. I'm excited because as Rooster noted, with the lizard 15 discount, we're talking about less than $10 per stick for this cigar.
Chef:Yeah. And at $11 a stick, it was punching way above his weight class. At less than $10 a stick, I mean, is a home run. I could absolutely see this, you know, in my rotation more than once a week, because of just even purely on combustion construction. This cigar felt amazing in the hand.
Chef:It had great weight. Never had to touch it up. I never had to relight it. I slowed down after everyone jumped on me for smoking too No. And it got even better.
Chef:Know, to start, I was just getting kind of creamy cedar. But that final third, I think as others noted, is when it really picked up for me in cocoa and some more sweetness and the pairing just really, really, really did phenomenal tonight.
Rooster:So sounds like a 10.
Chef:It's not a 10 because I would have loved more sweetness coming from the cigar itself. And I think a lot of you guys agree with that statement, but
Bam Bam:I do not.
Chef:You don't? Okay. No. Well, you're only one of the five of us here.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Chef:You know, I I'm still gonna give it a nine.
Senator:Don't forget your place,
Gizmo:Bev. Yeah.
Bam Bam:I'm last in line.
Rooster:There's a reason for that.
Chef:Last
Bam Bam:Save the best for last.
Chef:But I know this is a very strong line for me. It was a great cigar. It is a great departure from what I think many will would expect from La Flora Dominicana. You know, I left the Andalusian bowl aside. The cigar was really, really well balanced.
Chef:Not super punchy, not super spicy. And, it felt amazing. It was fun to smoke, and it paired really well with this Lagavole.
Gizmo:Alright, Bam. I'm at a 10.
Bam Bam:Wow. I like I respect it. Yeah. I do too. I'm impressed.
Bam Bam:I'm impressed with the cigar and how it built into that final third of cocoa. I liked what I was getting in the first two thirds. It it was a buildup of sweetness. Yeah. We couldn't put our thumb on what it was, but it was beautifully balanced.
Bam Bam:You mentioned Senator, you mentioned that slight dryness that it had that it had. I happened I think
Chef:that I mentioned that first.
Bam Bam:You did? Okay. Whatever the fuck. I think that it gave it a little bit of We're gonna have
Gizmo:to roll that tape
Bam Bam:again I'll
Gizmo:pull that tape too, man.
Bam Bam:I don't care. It gave it a sophistication. To me, it was a very sophisticated cigar right off the bat, and I love how unique it was. I love what they're doing with this. I hope they do more of this type of cigar and get away from what they've been doing historically because most of that line that they make, for me, is unsmokable.
Chef:Yeah. Yep.
Bam Bam:And I would there is a cigar that I would kinda in parallel compare this to in the final third, and it's the Concerto by Aging Room. The the cocoa forward in that Concerto, you're getting that right off the bat. Right? All the way through. To me, this smoked like a a more
Gizmo:It's complex refined.
Bam Bam:It was a more complex experience because it built into the cocoa. So I'm looking at it just from a different perspective for me. That's why I'm giving it a 10. Because I I went down to a quarter of an inch burning my finger. I would love a box of these.
Bam Bam:This is something I would smoke weekly, without a doubt. And I would I'm I'm I can't wait to have it between the Exclusivo and the Concerto and see what that's like.
Rooster:I wanna go back to Giza's comment about that you would only smoke this maybe once a month.
Gizmo:Yeah. Once or twice a month. Why is that? Because I don't think for me it's breaking into my rotation. I I have a pretty pretty good idea of when I'm I'm smoking something, like, where it would enter.
Gizmo:I think this would be like a one off if I'm if I have a night where I'm only smoking one cigar. This isn't gonna enter my rotation. Like Bam just said, I would not put this between a concerto and an exclusive like Bam said. This was something that for me is gonna replace one of those two. It's not in addition to.
Bam Bam:Oh, I think it's in addition to for sure, not replacing any of those cigars.
Senator:I'm sorry. I thought we had all agreed that this is unlike any other cigar we've had.
Gizmo:Yeah. It is, but what I'm saying is despite where it fits as far as its profile, its flavor, its strength, etcetera.
Chef:It's not giving you what you want at any
Gizmo:Yeah. It's not replacing something like in my rotation regularly.
Bam Bam:I don't think we ever said it would He's replace not
Senator:saying it replaces. He'd put it in between cruises. Correct.
Bam Bam:It's complimentary cigar, in my opinion, to those two
Gizmo:particular cigars. There's only so many cigars you can smoke in a night band. Yeah, but you know, So if I have-
Bam Bam:As you noted earlier, the forced,
Gizmo:what did you say? Forced growth,
Senator:forced growth. We've- Giz needs that right now.
Bam Bam:Correct, we've discovered cigars on this podcast that we would have said, well, I'm not gonna put that in my rotation, but now we're going
Senator:He's through worried about in one night smoking a concerto in exosivo with
Gizmo:this cigar. No. I'm just saying my regular rotation right
Bam Bam:How now interesting of an evening that would be from the Is
Gizmo:an Alexasino of some sort? I think. A fabrica five of some sort. Yeah. An aging room.
Gizmo:A padrone. And if I'm going for something at the end, probably a Davodoff Bellicoso as a dessert. I'm not smoking most nights more than four or five cigars.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Gizmo:Okay? So if I were to say that this is gonna replace any of those in that stack of five
Bam Bam:You have to eliminate the word replace.
Gizmo:Okay. Instead of?
Bam Bam:No. It'll be in addition to.
Gizmo:Okay. So I'm gonna smoke six cigars now.
Bam Bam:No. You're not gonna smoke six cigars.
Senator:Are are there not nights where
Gizmo:There's rotations you two need.
Rooster:Cigars. So would you not if let's say you're right. Just having two cigars.
Gizmo:If I was having two cigars Yeah.
Rooster:So you could start with this and end with No.
Senator:I would use that example. Just just quickly, there are times where I'm smoking in the afternoon, whether it's at home or I come here in the afternoon.
Chef:Mhmm.
Senator:And let's say I'll have a fabric of five Trini Robusto, an Aladino, something like that. I'm not building up to yet, like, the medium full cigars I like to close with. Correct. Then I there's a football game on, I come back at night, and if I'm gonna have three cigars in that evening to watch a football game, why not make it like BAM saying, an aging room, this, and an ex c
Gizmo:If I was in that situation, I would do that. More often. No. Probably once or twice a month, I'm in that situation. When am I in a situation where I'm having something in the afternoon, stopping, and then going back for an evening smoke?
Senator:You don't you you send photos. You're smoking some cigar in your car. It's either an Aladino, a Fabrica five, a Cuban, and then you come here at night and we watch some kind of sports. Why not have those three?
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm I'm bewildered by the resistance a little bit.
Gizmo:No resistance. I'm just saying. I don't Sounds pretty resistant. Resistant. I'm just telling you that I just don't I'm not I'm not What
Senator:am I supposed to do? Smoke six? Poor you.
Chef:And for the listener, you are witnessing forced
Gizmo:growth. Correct. Exactly. I mean, one once a month is not acceptable. Once or twice a month?
Gizmo:Totally agree. I think that's where I find the cigar. That's where I find the cigar. Alright.
Senator:We haven't achieved growth. We're gonna force it still.
Gizmo:Alright. We'll try again next week. Okay?
Bam Bam:That's great.
Gizmo:Boys, the formal lizard rating tonight on the La Flora Dominicana Cameroon cabinet number one is a 9.4. Wow. What a great rating.
Bam Bam:Great score.
Gizmo:Let's compare that to the only other LFD we've done on the pod, the Andalusian bull we did on episode 120. Can you believe it's been that long ago?
Bam Bam:Did not do too well.
Gizmo:6.8. Correct. Yeah. It wasn't good. 26 delta on those two.
Gizmo:What a great cigar tonight, 90 four. Excellent.
Senator:Thing down to the nub. I just relit this at I'll let Bam. How how
Bam Bam:much is left? That's five eighths of an inch. Five eighths of an inch.
Senator:And it's
Gizmo:still The human ruler. Correct.
Senator:It's still so smooth and delicious.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It is. It's so good, dude.
Rooster:Definitely in a weekly rotation. Easily. Easily.
Gizmo:Every other week, I would say.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. So tonight on the podcast
Senator:We've made some progress.
Gizmo:The Lagavulin that's twice a month. But every other week's twice a month. Forced.
Rooster:It's not even
Senator:forced. You said you said once or twice. Now you're at twice.
Rooster:That's right.
Gizmo:The La Lagovailoan distillers edition tonight on the pod. Don't discount your progress, giz. La Lagovailoa de Florida Dominicanac Cameroon cabinet number one scored a 9.4. Of course, boys, we have to thank our sponsors, Fabrica five. They make amazing Honduran cigars.
Gizmo:Of course, we've mentioned them several times tonight. They have great Vitolas rolling out. The Bon Roberts cigars are now available on their website, fabrica005.com. Go check them out. Buy some of their cigars.
Gizmo:They have great samplers, five packs, 25 count, 50 count bundles. You can get a 50 count cabinet
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Of the Bon Roberts Linea d number one, the the one zero nine. You can't beat it. So check that out. Fabrica005.com. And, of course, we also have to thank our new sponsor, Small Batch Cigar.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:How exciting is this? We're so excited to have them on board. What a great partnership. What a great company. What a great retailer.
Gizmo:And for any lizard out there, use code lizard 15 to get 15% off any order. Of course, like we said, some exclusions do apply. So check out their site, and they will note that. And you get 5% back on every order, so it's an amazing deal for sure. And we have to thank Lizard Chris, our lizard of the week this week.
Gizmo:We love hearing from all of our lizards, of course. So continue writing us. Continue commenting. We'd love to hear from you. Alright, boys.
Gizmo:What a great night tonight. We'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com.
Gizmo:That's loungelizardsp0d.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, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod.
Gizmo:We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.