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The lizards pair the Arturo Fuente Hemingway in Signature with Johnny Walker Black Label blended scotch. The guys discuss Johnny Walker's recent evolution, Senator forces a blended scotch taste-off and Poobah shares his passion for pushcart hot dogs.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Wizard podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda, and bam.
Bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 39th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us 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 discussed the recent evolution of our scotch pairing. Senator force's a blended scotch taste off, and Pubah shares his passion for push card hotdogs, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair Johnny Walker Black label Scotch with our Toro Fuentes Hemingway in signature.
A very popular [00:01:00] Fuente on the pod tonight. Voice the Hemingway series in signature. A very cool figero. So both ends, uh, of the cigar are closed. Obviously one will open, one will cut and the other will open as we light it. But, um, fig Rato is a very cool cigar. You don't see a lot of these around anymore. No.
And these are very, very popular. Yeah. The Hemingway line from Arturo Fuente Oh yeah. Uh, has a Cameroon wrapper and then everything else about it is Dominican.
**Poobah:** And these come in with a, uh,
**Gizmo:** Maduro wrapper as well. They do. That's a special Maduro release. They release around the holidays, kind of like the Sharks and the Anejo stuff.
Mm-hmm. . Um, but this is the regular production you can find everywhere. Yeah. People love these. Love them. They love them. Yeah. They go through these. I they're sold out a lot, but they're pretty popular, pretty, you know, pretty easy to find the brick and mortar that I got these from. Um, he said that this is easily their bestseller.
[00:02:00] Wow. Best line. And, uh, the bestseller in that line is this signature. So, wow. It's a beautiful cigar. The short story's also very, uh, yes. Popular as well. The short story was my first ever cigar. Cigar. Really? We didn't know that. I did not know that. Yeah. Just
**Pagoda:** turn to become a very long story. .
**Poobah:** Back in, back in 1977, , we went to go see Jaws
Then I had my first cigar .
**Bam Bam:** The short story. The short
**Poobah:** story. Hooper
**Bam Bam:** drives the boat. hoop
**Gizmo:** up. All right boys, let's cut this thing. The Arturo Fuente Hemingway signature. Which hand? Which hand do you cut? Yeah. . It's, uh, since the
**Pagoda:** closing
**Gizmo:** both ends, it's 47 ring gauge. by six
**Poobah:** inches. You're not gonna get much in the cold draw due to the
**Gizmo:** No true little closed foot.
**Poobah:** Closed foot. So I'm just gonna go ahead and light mine. I'm right behind you. [00:03:00]
**Gizmo:** The draw is wide open though. Yeah. Yeah. It's wide open, honestly. Try it. Yep, yep. Yeah, it tastes very good
**Senator:** for me. The cold draws nutty.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, nutty. Little dried fruit, but very pleasant. Oh, wow. It's nice on the light, man. I'm gonna light this thing.
Boys hot
**Poobah:** poopa on the light.
**Gizmo:** It's nice. Kind of the same technique that I would use to light a, uh, padron 80th. Just getting that little nub going and hopefully it opens up nicely. Yeah, just like the padron 80th . Oh, just, I didn't
**Poobah:** mean that. Just like
**Gizmo:** it. I didn't mean that. .
**Bam Bam:** I think you're over lighting it there.
Gizmo the password is, Nipple.
**Poobah:** How fucked up was that? Because it's like a little nipple little It is little nipple. Nipple. Yeah. Remember that movie though? The cable guy? [00:04:00] Remember that?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The
**Bam Bam:** password is nipple nipple. Senator. I kind of like it. Why? Why are you telling me? Oh, I'm just sharing a story with you. . . It's
**Senator:** like I didn't make it, I didn't bring these, but I I do agree.
Uh, it it's actually very pleasant
**Gizmo:** on the light. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. I ran outta lighter juice. I had a borrow of senators. You don't need to light it so much. Just the end. Just the
**Poobah:** end. Take it. You're like mowing it. Don't knock yourself already. You're mulling it. . Look at him. This is all angry now.
This is where the soft comes . This where it's so true. This is so, it's so true. So one of gizmo's alternate. Egos nicknames. Like his alter ego is, we call him Johnny Ocean cuz he's fucking salty. .
**Rooster:** He's gonna
**Poobah:** come at you with a hatches. Yeah. Like, he's like, he's like, you're criticizing me now. And like he, his bur is, you know, he furrows
**Gizmo:** his brow.
Well I listen, the light job wasn't that crazy. I mean, come on. I [00:05:00] bet. Jesus Christ. It's a closed foot, so
**Rooster:** it's just gonna open
**Poobah:** up.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. This is really nice on the light. Very, it is. Flavor's. Very pleasant. I mean,
**Senator:** medium, this is gonna sound weird, but it, it, it tastes aged on the
**Gizmo:** light. Yeah, I bet. I didn't look at the cello.
It does come in cellophane. Let me see if there's any yellow on it. A pre embargo. Fuentes
Let check the yellow solo here. Slight tint. Yeah, there's a little tint on it. I mean it's certainly not, um, these aren't brand new for sure, but, But if, do we
**Senator:** know? I, it's like on the light, it's like a little creamy to me. And no
**Gizmo:** rough
**Bam Bam:** edges at all. Yeah, none a little. It's a little sweet for me. Yeah. A bit.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Are for 10 bucks, guys. This is very pleasant. Is this aged at all? Not that I'm aware of. I bought
**Bam Bam:** it on, in, in the factory. I bought it. No tobacco's not aged at all.
**Gizmo:** Really? Not that. There're, I don't think there's any specific age statement on these cigars. Okay. But they're usually age couple of years.
Yeah, a couple before they roll it. So [00:06:00]
**Pagoda:** it reminds me of that, uh, Monteres are, you know, 35, was it?
**Gizmo:** Um, oh, the number two with the bo with the lineage. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** The one we did, I think we, we reviewed it before. I
**Bam Bam:** like this a lot better than that.
**Gizmo:** You're talking the new world? Yeah, the new world, yeah. Oh,
**Senator:** this doesn't remind me of that at all.
No, that, that was like a petron like Yeah. This is really, this is nutty and sweet. I'm not getting as much. This is
**Gizmo:** great. Zero. Zero bite at all. I really like the aroma coming off the smoke. Yeah, it's nice. It's very pleasant for 10 bucks. I mean, I love the shape too. You know, 47 ring gauge. It's kind of perfect.
It's, it's like a Corona with a closed foot. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** it's promising. Now this is a great cigar to han the guests. I agree now so
**Gizmo:** far it's very good. Yeah. This is a great guest. Humidor cigar. Affordable for 10 bucks.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, it's affordable and it's a good
**Gizmo:** quality stick. And I have a, in my guessing I have a, a bunch of bestsellers and they're always a hit because they're not intimidating.[00:07:00]
You know, the bestseller is what, three, four inches long. What is the bestseller, short story, or excuse me, short, short story. Excuse me. I'm sorry. The bestseller actually. The bestseller. The best sellers a half inch longer than the short story. Yep. Very. That's an actual cigar. Yeah. So, oh, the Hemingway line.
There's a bunch. So this is the signature, they have the short story, they have the best seller. Um, so these are all just viola names? Exactly. Viola in the Hemingway line of Fuze. Yeah. Oh, um, yeah, I don't know the line though. Everything is obviously named after Ernest Hemingway, who was a big cigar smoker.
Um, But yeah, there's, there's quite a few of them actually. Yeah, I know a lot of people
**Pagoda:** who smoke this.
**Senator:** I mean, if this finishes the way this started, this would be great for anyone at any sort of introductory level of cigar smoking. I think they would absolutely
**Poobah:** appreciate this. Yeah. Tastes great right now.
Oh it does. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it's very, very, very pleasant. It's promising
**Bam Bam:** right now. Yeah, [00:08:00] yeah, yeah. We'll see how it ends.
**Poobah:** Absolutely.
**Bam Bam:** Tiny bit rustic finish on the wrapper, but beautifully made.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Lots of smoke. Yeah. It's better than the Opus X we reviewed. That's true.
**Bam Bam:** for a quarter of the price.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. A quarter. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Which is lunacy, but I mean, off the light it's even better. Absolutely. It tastes closer to a shark than
**Senator:** I agree. That's a good point's. More Don Carlos, like Very good point
**Gizmo:** than Opus like. I think the Cameroon rapper's doing that. True. Yeah. Maybe that's it. So here's some of the cigars in this line.
I'm, I'm not gonna say it's all of 'em because I think there's just a bunch, but, uh, so the best seller is four and a half inches by 55 ring gauge. The signature that we're smoking now is six inches by 47 ring gauge. The short stories four by 49, uh, and the classic is seven inches by 48 ring gauge. Oh. And they also have the work of art, [00:09:00] which is 4.88 by 60.
Ring gauge is the work and a masterpiece. Oh, yeah. Nine inches by 52. There's a bunch, man. What's
**Poobah:** the work of art again? What's the
**Gizmo:** size? The work of art is 60 ring gauge by a little under five inches. So it's a short little fatty. Oh, that's, that's a big one, yeah. Mm-hmm. . But the, uh, the best seller in the short story are very, very close.
Like they're, it's easy to confuse the two. Are they similar size? They're like
**Bam Bam:** a half inch apart. Uh, so the short, the best sellers
**Gizmo:** a bit longer. The best sellers, uh, yeah, the best sellers a little bit longer.
**Poobah:** They must. So these are all within the Heming Hemingway lines. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I've never heard similar blend.
It's, uh, apparently the, the blend is identical across
**Bam Bam:** the, can you find out, uh, this is just a curiosity. Did they introduce the bestseller recently? Because I've
**Gizmo:** never heard of it. No, I think the best seller's been around quite some time. Yeah. I think they've, you know, they introduced these, um, that little short story is, that's
**Rooster:** a good like half
**Gizmo:** an hour to 40, 45,
**Bam Bam:** 45 minutes.
It has a lot of history. I had that years and years ago. I still, I just bought a box recently just to have [00:10:00] kind of like them quick cup
**Gizmo:** of coffee in the morning. Cheaper. Cheaper than this. I
**Bam Bam:** don't know what they cost per, I don't remember what I. , I haven't got, you're talking about the
**Senator:** short story? Yeah.
Yeah. So do you, you get it in this, this wrapper?
**Bam Bam:** It, it's identical. It's same. It's the baby
**Senator:** brother of this dark. It's good to hear. Cuz I think I had
**Gizmo:** the, is it a Maduro? Yeah, the Maduro's a little harder to find, but they do make it Maduro. Yeah. I found that
**Senator:** to be a little bit harsh, but I'm liking this, the Cameroon rapper, maybe the Cameroon rappers.
**Gizmo:** So that's why normally, you know, we reach for Maduro almost exclusively on the pod. Yeah. And maybe safer Grindr is, you know, reaching for naturals in a lot of the cigars that we smoke Maduro in. But I reached for this one specifically in natural because the reviews were much better. Oh wow. And this cigar is just so popular with folks that, um, I didn't know you can get this in natural.
Yeah, this is natural. Yeah. This, yeah, they call this camera and wrapper unnatural. Wow. See that throws me off. Well the Maduro is a like a
**Rooster:** special edition. Yeah. It's not available all the time.
**Gizmo:** And then they also, they also released, I think it was two years ago, COVID [00:11:00] time-ish was the rare pink series, which was just a different.
I think it was a different blender, different wrapper, but it was the same Hemingway sizes. Yeah. I got, I heard mixed
**Bam Bam:** reviews up at
**Gizmo:** that song. Yeah. I didn't hear great things. Yeah. Up and down. But the cool thing about it, I guess, is a lot of that profit went to breast cancer awareness, so that's very cool.
Um, you know, that's a, that's a pretty cool thing. Yep.
**Poobah:** Like, this is very pleasant to, I would smoke this with coffee at a, well, at a, like a family function. Uh, you know, like you're in mixed company and, and, and, and, and someone broke, broke this out. Like, I'd be happy to smoke this with, you know, my cousins or whoever, you know, like people, you're there.
And if someone handed me the cigar, I'd be like, I'm.
**Senator:** I think for me, I mean, I, I like when Russer said with coffee, I would smoke this in the morning and the afternoon. This is just it. It's sweet. Yeah. And a really just [00:12:00] easygoing, but flavorful enough cigar. So
**Bam Bam:** with our pairing here, I get sweetness in this, in this scotch that I also get in this cigar.
I think it works well together.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So we got a classic tonight, bam. Yes, you do. Johnny Walker Black label. Yes. This is Pagodas
**Bam Bam:** favorite. You'd have this with your dad when you were like in your twenties, you know, early in life. Yeah. Classic ciga.
**Gizmo:** Uh, classic scotch. So are you guys doing this with club soda or just neat?
No, splush for me. Yeah. Not, not yet. Just on the rocks. Yeah. Are you doing alush Pagoda? I will shortly,
**Senator:** yeah. Before anyone does that though. What, what are, what are your thoughts on the
**Gizmo:** It's, it's very good. It's good. I, I don't love it. I mean, I, I, I. . It's not great. You can't hate it. I don't hate it, but I'm not, I'm never gonna wanna reach for this.
Y have you tried it? Yes.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. Am I crazy? But I'm really liking it right now.
**Poobah:** You're not crazy. It's, I mean, it's, Johnny Walker's a classic. I've had
**Gizmo:** it [00:13:00] before. Now I feel like I'm sorry. I times,
**Senator:** I really think so. I mean, guys are saying I've had it before, as have I, and I really firmly believe that this spirit has changed for the better recently.
And I say that because makes a hundred percent agree with that. Okay. I'm glad that someone is a hundred percent agree this year. And I say that because I feel like, you know, over 10 years ago when I first had Johnny Walker Black, um, it was serviceable at that time. And it it was very smoky. I remember exactly.
**Bam Bam:** Tasted more Petey Yes. Than this ever has been. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yes. And the, but it was still, it was still serviceable. And then it went through a period where, , I actively really dislike this. I would not drink it. Um, I remember, you know, sometimes you're in a hotel and you're room and they have a mini bar, and of course, like there's always Johnny Walker chais, the, the, the Scotch options are right.
Pretty limited to those two. And I remember having this, I said, oh, this is terrible. I, I will never drink this stuff again. Even on planes. I didn't want [00:14:00] it. And then in recent years, ironically when, you know, one of my trips, I was in Greece, um, they had like a fifth bottle of this and a bunch of other stuff in there, and it was all complimentary.
And, um, I had some of this on the rocks and I said to myself, this is strangely pretty good. I mean, isn't that it's easy drinking. I remember it being when in that period where I really didn't like Johnny Walker Black, I remember it being harsh. It was aggress. , you couldn't even think of having this neat and enjoying it, let alone even just with two cubes, which I think is all what we have, right?
Um, so I think it's really benefited. They've, they're doing something differently. And the other thing I'll say that used to be controversial with black label, Johnny Walker never used to put aid statements on any of their bottles. So it was black, green, gold, blue, right? But never set a red being the entry, never set an age statement.
And then finally they got pressured into doing it. And they, if you look now on every black bottle, it's minimum 12 [00:15:00] years of what's blended in there. So I think that that also pro, and that's within the last decade. Yeah, I think that that also probably has helped up the quality of at least the age of the spirit that's in that bottle.
So, um, I'm very pleasantly surprised for a budget. I used to call this undrinkable, and now I actually think this is serviceable.
**Bam Bam:** Very drinkable, pagoda. What does that bottle go for?
**Pagoda:** Uh, 25 bucks. But I do think send to his pilot's getting more refined time. ,
**Senator:** I'm saying that this
**Gizmo:** is now
**Bam Bam:** drinkable. No, it is, it's a good dissertation actually.
It makes a lot of sense because I do remember that being very Petey back in
**Gizmo:** the day. Extremely. I'll be honest, I'm surprised to hear what you're saying, what you're saying, because had someone put this in front of me and said, taste this, and then take a guess at what Senator would think of it, it would not align with what you just said.
No, I, that's
**Senator:** why I'm stunned and, but
**Gizmo:** I'm saying even what I have right here in my hand. You are, I'm surprised by that. Really? I, I, yeah. I just, I It's not aligning at all with what you,
**Senator:** I'm trying, honestly, I'm surprised. [00:16:00] This to me right now tastes very similar to Kirkland 12. I think the
**Gizmo:** Kirkland is way better than this.
Distinguished between the two. I'll try this with a little club soda. Yeah, let's do
**Bam Bam:** that. Here's the. I think when this was Petey, you needed that club soda. I don't think you need that
**Gizmo:** here. Thank you. But
**Rooster:** try, try, need it this, try the try one glass meat. I've try, try the next one with a little bit of club.
**Gizmo:** I
**Senator:** think. Kuba. Do you agree? Especially, I think this is similar to Kirkland 12. I I don't think there's
**Gizmo:** a huge distinction. I think Kirkland's definitely more complex and interesting than this.
**Poobah:** Mm-hmm. Um, I don't know, man. I, I li, I, I, well this particular glass for whatever reason tastes really good. Doesn't No thank you.
That's what I'm saying. It's strange. Does, it does. It's, hold on. I'm not just
**Bam Bam:** capitulating, admit something. We can pound this all night long.
**Poobah:** No doubt. Yeah, but you're talking to a, a man who, who,
**Bam Bam:** who found anything down? No,
**Poobah:** no, not anything. .
**Bam Bam:** Oh,
**Gizmo:** hey, here's the shank.
**Poobah:** I resent that implication. , [00:17:00] the, uh, I'm
**Gizmo:** getting a t-shirts made with I the implication.
I gotta remember that line. .
**Poobah:** No, I just, I've, Dr. I I've had a lot of Johnny Walker Black in my life. Mm-hmm. Just because, uh, it's in, it's been in my, it's been in my dad's liquor cabinet since time in Memorial. And I just, it was always in the house. It was always around. You go in, you know, it's in, it's in Plains Trains.
It's omnibus, omnibus, it's omnipresent. I mean, it's like everywhere. So, um, I, I've just drank and there was a period, we've discussed it before. There was a period of time, um, where like single malt scotch, like wasn't a thing. where it was a thing, but it wasn't like a big thing and I drank this back. Then at the advent of that, you know, I'd mix and match and before dinner I would have this.
This is blended not single mall. That's right. No, I know I'm saying bef I understand that before I'm talking, before single mall [00:18:00] scotch was like
**Senator:** popular or, or this is it
**Poobah:** all, you can get this. This was kind of what it was. So that's what you know, you I'd and so you, you, you know, as cre, as humans, as creatures of.
Plus I was younger at the time, so it wasn't like I was dropping huge amounts of cash on single malt scotch and having the money, um, you know, I'd go get a bottle of Johnny Walker Black and just drink it and just be, be fine with my
**Senator:** life. Now, as much as you've drank this spirit, do you agree that somehow this tastes better than
**Poobah:** somehow this somehow tastes better even than the, the bottle that I've had recently?
To be honest with you, I had a, I won a bottle in a PBA auction, and it was a 1.75 liter bottle of it. I bet it was an older bottle. No, I don't know what it was, but it wasn't as good as this. Mm. This happens to be good for whatever reason. Yeah. It wa I don't remember. I remember kind of like struggling through it, like I drank it, but gizmo's about to leave.
But you're right, it took a long time. I'm, I'm just
**Gizmo:** shocked. . [00:19:00] I'm shocked. You're shocked that we like it. It . No, I'm just shocked that you guys are praising it to the degree that you are. Yeah, I do not think it aligns at all with that. I don't know. I, I think for a $17 bottle. , you know, I'm saying, you know, uh, Kirkland, the Kirkland you get for 35 bucks, it's a 1.75.
I think that absolutely knocks this out of the park.
**Pagoda:** Mm. No, but Gu you gotta realize that this is like, you know, the Stella beer, like, you know, it's like how people drink bud. People drink Stella. I understand that. I'm not available
**Gizmo:** everywhere in the most, but that's stable. But what I'm saying though is it doesn't, that doesn't make it Oh, no, it doesn't.
**Pagoda:** You
**Senator:** don't have to. I mean, I, I'm, I'm in gizmo's boat there, where like I could care less how, you know, widely. We just, I don't care. I just don't think it's that great. For some reason recently, and I, I'm not exaggerating, I mean, recently having this in Greece, he's right and having this here, something is different.
He's right. This was never this serviceable. In my lifetime. You know what,
**Gizmo:** here's the thing though. I expect the ratings. I agree, Senator. I expect the ratings to show serviceable, [00:20:00] because that's, you'll exactly what this is. Okay. Yeah.
**Poobah:** It's serviceable.
**Senator:** Yeah. It's, I'm not saying this is a nine or a 10. No, I'm just saying that, you know, on a, on a random day that I'm just looking at poor, a, a, a scotch of any sort, or I'm at someone's house and they say they have black label, normally I would've like visually recoiled hearing that they have black label
Yeah, absolutely. And been a little frustrated that that's what they're gonna pour me. And if this bottle, if that bottle would drink like this, I would say, oh, yeah, I'm, I'm fine with that. Yeah. Like, I, I, I'll survive. This is not, if we did a
**Bam Bam:** blind taste test of this, I think it would score pretty high because of how it's tasting tonight.
But I, tonight in, here's what I'm saying.
**Gizmo:** Here's all I'm saying. I have no bias. I have no bias against this whiskey other than it's not made by Costco. No, no, no. Seriously though. Yeah. I don't have any bias against it. I don't have a bad history with it. I haven't had it a lot in my life. I just haven't.
Mm-hmm. , I just don't think it's that great. Okay. Well,
**Poobah:** That's fine, but I just can I can I, I think we need a loose, let me just like play, you know, mediator here, . [00:21:00] This, this is not a polarizing Johnny Walker. Black is not a polarizing spirit. No. It just is what it is. And, and it's, it's, it's available in every bar, in every restaurant, every hotel.
In every hotel. I understand. And everywhere near you. And, um, the brand has, has a long history. Uh, uh, you know, people drink it. Who I just, I don't know. For me, I've had so much of it in my life. Um, I don't know if that's something to be proud of or not, but, but you know, it just, here's the thing, you know, you become familiar with.
And, you know, you become, uh, I, I'm looking at pagoda right now. You know, you become familiar with something and you become like, I'm not saying I'm a huge fan of this stuff. I don't really buy it that often. If you, I get gifted or at the holidays, someone brings someone to my house, I win it in an auction.
I go to my old man's place or whatever. I'm just saying, like, for me, like, I'm good, like I'm [00:22:00] good with the scotch. Like, it, it's, it's, it's Johnny Walker Black. Like, and I'm okay. I've had great nights where I got smashed on this stuff, stumbled through the streets of New York City, went up to the Grand Devan room, had a cigar.
It's like 1999. I don't know, you know? Mm-hmm. , I'm okay. . No, but the way I look, look, I dunno, it's like, it's, it's like
**Pagoda:** I'm fine with it. The same, yeah. It's like when I go to a bar and if I'm ordering beer, I'll get est Stella. I know what I'm gonna get at any given point in time. anywhere in the world. Right.
And they are, you know, IPAs, which I like better, and they may be better tasting, but my, like something which you are familiar with, like the word you said. Yeah. It's like your old friend, you go, you just order it and you know what
**Bam Bam:** you're gonna
**Senator:** get. It's a great point. I, I'm just saying that the thing I'm surprised at Gizmo's reaction on this.
The reason I'm saying this, no exaggeration in my entire adult life, everywhere I have lived, I have never, [00:23:00] once, not even right out of college, bought myself a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. Not once, not same here. Same. Not once I have drank. So it's quite convenience. Countless times in hotel rooms or at a gathering on a train, on a plane.
That's really the only, when I have limited options and this is it, that's where I've drank it. And what is shocking to me is when I would have to drink it normally, I actually would have it with club soda because I found it to be really harsh and PD and not, and PD and not something I could even enjoy on the rocks for some reason within the last few years on the rocks, this is actually, you know, not offensive at all.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I I'm curious what that story is like, I I, I, I'm assuming you don't know why it changed or even well's,
**Rooster:** it might be when this started putting the aids,
**Gizmo:** I'm wondering if
**Senator:** better is the aid statement definitely better. Definitely helped
**Gizmo:** it. Or if they're trying to shoot for the success that Macallans of the world could be had.
It could be, yeah. And, and kind of reach into, uh, guys like [00:24:00] you and us who are purchasing single MALS scotch. Right. I also wanna
**Senator:** say this though, let's understand even with single malt scotch. , and I think I've said this when we've reviewed Macallan, and I've certainly said this on, uh, when we've reviewed OB.
You know, when you're a distillery, you're trying to make a consistent Yeah. Tasting single malt or, or a regular scotch, blended scotch every single year you produce it. That is obviously impossible to do perfectly. They're doing the best they can. Right. Whether so many different things impact what they're able to produce.
There are years where I did not enjoy Macallan 12. Right. I actively would not buy it. And I'm even talking Sherry cast,
**Bam Bam:** did you find there was years ago a bite? A bit of a bite, A huge bite. Yeah. Thank you babe. I've noticed
**Senator:** that exactly what I'm talking about. There was a bite, there was a period with Macallan 12 Sherry that there was a really aggressive bite and it was not a refined spirit worth its price point.
And I stopped buying it. Yeah. And I used to judge people that would buy Macallan because the only reason you're buying that is cuz the brand cache that it has. Yeah. [00:25:00] Now, fast forward a few years after that point, something changed and clearly the conditions must have been more favorable and they were to produce, uh, able to produce that a, a really premium spirit more consistently.
The same thing. I mentioned oen, and I think BAM. And I have had the same conversation. I was obsessed with OB 14. Yeah. It was my favorite single malt scotch. And then it went through this period for a couple years where it was harsh, it had no sweet qualities about it was just
**Bam Bam:** pd. I would say that's a, that was about three years ago for both.
Yes. Macallan and ob. Roughly three years. It was a little hard to drink.
**Senator:** Agree. Kind of weird. And I'll never forget, and I give BAM credit because BAM had picked up one time coming over to, to my place here, had picked up a bottle of OB for, I remember that night.
**Bam Bam:** We'll never forget it, bro. And we polished off that fucking bottle.
We finished the
**Senator:** whole bottle, just the two of us. I, I didn't even want to drink open for years because I was so disappointed with what had happened. It changed and all of a sudden he picks up a bottle and it was perfection. And now if you pick [00:26:00] up open 14, it's perfect. So, yeah. Yeah. All these spirits, they're trying to be as consistent as they can be, but sometimes they've got a rough year or rough few years and they can't make it the way that they would like to.
**Bam Bam:** Thank You're, you're, he's pointing to a cigar. I, I wanna say one thing. I love this conversation because we're talking about things that are average. This is an average cigar, right? Yeah. This is an average scotch, but both are smoking and drinking beautifully tonight, honestly. And I, I think, I hope the ratings reflect that, cuz there's something to be said about drinkability and smoke ability.
**Poobah:** This is a, this, well, right. The cigars is perfectly fine. Yeah. Yeah. I'm enjoying it. Absolutely. I'm totally enjoying it. It, it's, it's actually, I'd smoke it again. I mean, if it continues, I'm, we're about halfway through.
No joke. I mean, you guys know me how,
**Senator:** sorry, we were laughing. We're, we're, we're all not halfway through .
**Gizmo:** Maybe not. We're coming into the second, [00:27:00] third, baby .
**Poobah:** It's okay. Second, third, whatever it is. Well, I'm more than half. I'm trying forgetting how long it is, whatever the case may be, but if it continues like this, I'm gonna be,
**Gizmo:** yeah, I'm gonna buy some more of these.
I think if continues like this, if it
**Poobah:** continues like this, yeah. If it continues like this and you know me, I'll put a cigar, you know, I'll put a cigar down. I absolutely, we know, you know, no intention of doing that here. Yeah. Not you. No intention of doing it here. And, and it's, in terms of the scotch, I just, I just like want to temper the dialogue a little in that like, I don't, I think that you.
At the price point for what it is. It, it, it, it, it doesn't, going back to something that someone said it doesn't compete with, with single malt, really it's not at that price point. It competes with Shiv. It's competing, it's compete with blended SCOs. Yeah, with blended SCOs and, and, and, and, and I think that, you know, for what it is, man, shit, shit.
You're getting on a plane. You just did a presentation or something and you're [00:28:00] like, dragging a fucking suitcase, man, , give me one of these in the rocks. PowerPoint nightmares hits the, it hits the, it hits the fucking spot, you know? Yeah. I mean, to your
**Senator:** point, the primary competitor for this is Shiv Shiv.
**Rooster:** So most of the guys who always, you know, who drink black label also love Chivas.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Shva always was a little bit smoother. Gizmo love than Black label, but
**Senator:** less flavorful than
**Gizmo:** Black label. Yes.
**Rooster:** Black label always had a little bit of a bite to it, and Shva didn't.
**Senator:** Sh was not just, I'm just saying flavor overall. I mean, I think most would agree this has more flavor Yeah. And body to it than Shiva does.
Yeah. Shivi is all smoother,
**Gizmo:** lighter, lighter in color. Yep. All of that. And to your point too, I mean, we, we've talked about, uh, that in the past with cigars, mainly Cuban cigars, uh, in, in mo you know, periods of inconsistency or low periods in the quality or, or, you know, production of the cigars. But same thing, you know, like you're saying about the master blender sitting there with this blended [00:29:00] scotch trying to make it taste the same each year.
It might not be exactly possible each year. And it's the same with cigars. Like
**Bam Bam:** there's, you've not, you've noted that on 2017, uh,
**Gizmo:** Cubans Yeah, I know. Yeah. And Puba, and I disagree on that, but I've just had a bad run with that, with a bunch of those boxes.
**Senator:** Let's get it started. I'll play mediator in this
**Bam Bam:** time.
Oh, oh, I retracted my statement. Sorry. I was,
**Poobah:** I was watching the Yankees. What did he say?
**Gizmo:** I just, I've said that, uh, I've had a bad run, uh, with several boxes of cigars that I got from 2017 from Cuba. . And I know you disagree with me on
**Poobah:** that. Well, I don't disagree. I just haven't had the same experience. Yeah.
But I just think that's random lock.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I've had, I've had four or five boxes of 17 cigars that just did not perform P two s mag fifties, two boxes of mag fifties and uh, box of D four s as well. Yeah. Anything that's
**Bam Bam:** artisanal and handmade, like Yeah. And I'm not, we're consuming both the alcohol and the cigar.
Yeah. You're
**Gizmo:** gonna get that. Right. And it's the same thing now. It's like the, the, the stock of cigars coming out 2021 Yeah. From Cuba are just fantastic. They're very good. [00:30:00] They're fantastic.
**Senator:** Which is why just load up when that happens. Yeah. I mean, that's the beauty of all of this. It's the same in wine, cigars, scotch.
Yep. Any of these naturally made products. Yeah. When you like buy to make the exact same thing every time. Right. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Right. And you know,
**Poobah:** with this scotch, by the way, not necessarily black label, but like, but I, I recall like really, not recently, but like. A scotch and soda is a cocktail. You put a lemon twist in it.
And I'm, I'm telling you it's not, it's like, it's like an old school. It's an old school drink, but you have a scotch and soda. I mean, you want to mix, mix it up. I wouldn't do it with this, I'd do it with Shiva. I was gonna ask you, what would you pick? I would do it with sh I've had it with Shiva and you're gonna laugh, but , I keep bringing up my dad cause my dad drinks scotch, but he, he drinks everything.
He'll drink everything from single malt to like the most pedestrian scotch. [00:31:00] And, and he like, literally he would mix up like a doers and soda, however he made it with the ice and the, and the lemon twist on it. It like, not terrible. Cuddy, I'm talking j and b like going back like in the day. That's cool. And I remember just drinking those and just being like, I've never had that before.
Lemon twists Scotch and soda. It's. You know, you're just kind of, it's a little refreshing and you can, they're not these, these, these are not men like, you know, and good fellows. He's like, yeah, gimme a cutting and soda. You know, like, like Joe Pesci, you know, back in the day that was like a drink that people had.
Um, so, uh, now scotch cocktails aren't in vogue anymore, but we're a scotch and water. Like, I, I remember just ordering like, I'll have a doers in water. I mean, it was like a doers and water, uh, uh, as a
**Gizmo:** drink, which
**Senator:** sounds [00:32:00] that was necessary for the
**Gizmo:** doers.
**Poobah:** No, I understand. But like, but it, that's an actual drink that people like would order, right.
So
**Bam Bam:** my dad would order occasionally a scotch in. The
**Poobah:** SCOs and water at tours and water. SCOs and water, when I would
**Gizmo:** remember that. Yeah. SCOs and soda. My dad
**Bam Bam:** Soda. He'd go
**Gizmo:** water and soda. My dad loves Manhattans and very specifically requires it to be Canadian Club Whiskey. Nice.
**Bam Bam:** I like this. Manhattan. I like the specificity of that.
**Poobah:** Canadian club. Canadian club.
**Gizmo:** He loves Canadian club. Yeah, that was it only comes in. It only comes in Jugs. S seven seven. There's no glass. Seven. Seven. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Seven. Seven. John Travolta, he walks into the disco. Could be a seven and seven. . .
**Bam Bam:** Is he shaking his head like
**Poobah:** that? ? He's shaking his seven. He's doing box seven.
He takes, you guys know what a Travolta slice is? No. All right. Remember Sat, you guys are too fucking young guys. I love the Bees movie. Stupid Salads. I know the movie. I love the Bees. You know I seen it. Saturday Night Fever, right? When he's walking down the street, he goes, yo, [00:33:00] gimme two slices. Ah. And he's walking.
Two, two, gimme two. Yo, gimme two. Gimme two slices. And he takes the, the, the, the. He's like got it on the paper plate and he puts one slice on top of the other. That's what, if you're walking down the street in New York City, you get two slices, put 'em on top of each other. You eat it like that. That's a Travolta slice.
I'm gonna do
**Bam Bam:** that. Two, two, gimme two. I gotta fucking
**Poobah:** do that. That's the move back when you could walk down the street in New York City and eat, not get your head chopped in that direction. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Oh man. This is pre
**Senator:** hatchet.
**Poobah:** Pre days before you got hatched in the middle of the city.
**Gizmo:** Ugh. You know, we should, we
**Rooster:** should look this up.
Black label might be the most consumed.
**Gizmo:** It
**Senator:** is. I think it is. I think in the world. Yeah. I think just even all
**Gizmo:** whiskey, that's
**Poobah:** what I'm in. That's kind of where I'm going because it's shouldn't be polarizing. It's, I mean, the
**Gizmo:** whole world
**Bam Bam:** can, it's everywhere. Yeah, it's true. It's everywhere.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's been around, you know, it's been around since 1860, is that right?
The square [00:34:00] bottle? Uh, Johnny Walker invented it in 1860, or I guess his son, actually, he died in 1857. His son invented that so that it would take up less space on the shelf. and was less prone to being smashed. So that square bottle has been around for 150
**Senator:** years. I mean, I also have to say Puba will appreciate this as a marketing guy.
I think Johnny Walker historically has had some of the best marketing of any spirit brand or company in history that they call the striding man. The guy, you know, walking, you see on all the bottles. I remember, you know, when I was young, uh, I guess, you know, 1821 and I'm starting to get into stuff like this, and, um, they had a striding man society that Johnny Walker had created.
It was like this whole thing they'd send you, like all this custom stuff. Like the, the branding was wonderful. Wow. Wonderful. In a way that, you know, I, I think Shiva obviously competes very, very well against Johnny Walker, but I don't think Shiva has that same brand cachet that Johnny [00:35:00] Walker does.
**Gizmo:** No, I think I remember, I, I'll tell you, anytime I've opened a magazine or a departures when you're on the plane or a cigar aficionado, That advertisement is always memorable.
Yeah. The Johnny Walker advertise beautiful. Yeah, it's iconic. Yeah. It's the brandings
**Poobah:** iconic is very memorable. They've, they stuck with the branding. They stuck with the icon. They st iconography. They stuck with, stuck with the topography. Generally. They stuck, they stuck to their guns and, and they spend, I mean, they, they spend, but, and back to the point you guys made before.
It is, it, it's maybe the, the most widely consumed whiskey world?
**Gizmo:** It definitely is world. It's number one by
**Bam Bam:** a lot. Can we, uh, pass the bottle? I'm ready for a second. Here we go.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So while we're doing that ba we're coming on the halfway point here. It's of the Hemingway signature. I am shocked. I am, it's very, very good.
It's changed a little bit and it's really good. Yeah. Staying good. Yeah. I'm getting a little bit of
**Rooster:** harshness on my tongue. I don't know if you get that. Like, not,
**Gizmo:** I don't harshness. Not yet. Slight. [00:36:00] I don't know what it is. Primitive building in, it's it building . Jesus.
**Bam Bam:** Never, never for the cono corner. That was a joke.
**Gizmo:** Bam. Just got cut out in the next three, four. Oh, look at he's hedging. He's, he's trying to fix it now for the listener. .
**Bam Bam:** That was a joke. ,
**Gizmo:** this is, uh, this is really pleasant for 10 bucks.
**Senator:** I am shocked. Yeah, I I really did not like that Maduro short story that I had and it really scarred me just for this entire line.
I never understood how this was so popular, but this is so pleasant. I mean, I have, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Fuentes
**Rooster:** Fuentes does not make a good Maduro in my opinion. Yeah, that could be
**Gizmo:** it. You know? It could be. Yeah. Wow. I'm having this neat. I think you can send that back. Can I try it? Me please. It's a must try. I want to try it without ice because I, I feel like my opinion is in the minority here tonight.
This is, this is, uh, and I want to try it neat and may and maybe a new tequila. It's, it's just, You're gonna hear this [00:37:00] supplies, man, I have the bottle in my hand. Going back to what we were just talking about. What the hell? I love this bottle. The, the label,
**Senator:** the pornography. Even the shape of it. It's so iconic and classic.
**Gizmo:** You like the label goes up on a slant like that. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's neat. It's very cool. It's
**Bam Bam:** totally neat. I recommend trying it
**Senator:** neat after the after class class. Baam is not wrong. I would never ever have drank Johnny Walker Black meat. Same. It's smooth. It's not aggressive. Like I remembered it in years
**Gizmo:** past.
I'm gonna try it right now here
**Bam Bam:** Puba. And you know what I love about it? Because it's so available. I love how Poopa just poured it in his glass. He just turned it over, poured a whole bunch in. It's fucking great. Yeah. I mean there's no, you know, pretentiousness about it. He just poured in, he drank. It's.
**Gizmo:** It's totally fine. And it's much better without ice. Right? Much better. There you go. Okay. I'm glad we did that. Oh, it's much better without ice. [00:38:00] Shocking. Not far from Kirkland. That's, that was my only point now. Now I will stand by my statement. I truly believe that if we did a blind taste of Kirkland in this, I think, which I know I'm gonna, here we go.
I have a bottle of Kirk List. It's not, it's not blind
**Poobah:** though. Oh, no. We're doing the Pepsi Challenge. . Oh
**Gizmo:** no.
**Senator:** I'm gonna blind it. I'm gonna blind it.
**Bam Bam:** I love this. I love this. Very
**Poobah:** necessary. Wow. Gizmo's getting
**Bam Bam:** worked over dude. Senator's like on a prowl right now. Look at a look at, look at.
**Gizmo:** I've never seen Garone move like this.
Oh.
**Poobah:** Oh, you everyone's gonna have to do it. Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. How's it gonna be blind then? Yes. I'm the only one who's gonna know I won't participate.
**Bam Bam:** Wow.
**Gizmo:** Let's make some room. Yeah. Boys, close your eyes. Oh, we're closing eyes. Are we? . We're on the honor system, gentlemen. All right. We'll do, we could close our eyes. We could do that. I'm gonna, I'm just getting the cuffs
**Bam Bam:** out, but I'm gonna, well, I have this, I'm
**Gizmo:** good here now. No, no. This is just a, he's gonna cover the bottles.
Oh. Should we close our eyes or what? No, no. I'm gonna, you don't have to. I'm gonna pour up here.
**Senator:** [00:39:00] Oh.
**Gizmo:** Oh. See, this is senators. Very intelligent. This guy. No, look. No, look. This senator guy is very intelligent. Don't look. Don't look. No. Look. So the one on the left , the Pepsi Challenge. He's like, I scored 1550 on my s a t
I know exactly how to run this experiment.
Yeah. We need the black label for him. Okay. Stand by. I'm
**Bam Bam:** staring at the
**Gizmo:** carpet. Okay. So our first blind liquor tasting on the pod tonight inspired
**Bam Bam:** by Gizmo.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. Inspired by my Johnny Ocean.
**Poobah:** The Salt Johnny Drama. . Johnny Drama. Johnny Drama with the Salt. Like, like making Johnny Walker Black in the South. Wasn't that controversial?
**Bam Bam:** Wasn't that a great show? It's lunacy. What show was that? That Johnny Drama was on? H Bour. I love That's a great show. That's great show.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Huh? That guy Jeremy [00:40:00] PN was funny, dude. He was, yeah. He's the other dude that was so funny on that. Lloyd,
**Gizmo:** the, the main Lloyd, his assistant Lloyd is great .
**Poobah:** Funny show. Great show. It'll make television like that anymore.
**Bam Bam:** Nope. PI's wife on that show was smoking. Oh yeah. Oh gosh. Fantastic. Oh, oh, Sloan. Oh, oh, no doubt.
**Gizmo:** Is the wife's name Sloan I, Sloan? I guess so. I don't. Or wait, was that? No, no. Turtle's. Girlfriend Sloan was
**Poobah:** Sloan. Sloan Sloane, I feel like is a hot
**Gizmo:** chick's name. Yeah. Kind of hot. Sloane was the, uh, unlike Beth
**Bam Bam:** Turtle's character's wife was not
**Gizmo:** Turtle, the main characters. Smoking Sloan, Adrian Premier,
**Bam Bam:** you know, they had marriage troubles.
Those two Two. Yeah, she was
**Poobah:** beautiful. Remember Sloan from Ferris Bueller's Day off? She was a
**Bam Bam:** smoke show. Oh my God. Don't get me fucking started. I love, I love
**Poobah:** her. She's a smoke show. I don't know what, what, where she is now. My son love my son. My son loves that movie.
**Bam Bam:** My son, so they had a screening at my [00:41:00] son's high school for the entire student body.
Really? Isn't that cool? That is so great.
**Poobah:** That's kind of cool. That is so great. There's a line from the movie. He actually made me a Father's Day card and he, he did these illustrations. And by the way, on the back is he drew Judd Nelson when he walks off the field for the breakfast club with the fist in the air.
Yeah, because I indoctrinated, what'd
**Gizmo:** you say? Leave them
**Poobah:** exactly like that. Okay. Okay. I indoctrinated my son into Pub Jr. Yes. Pubah Jr. Into John Hughes movies. I I, I made him watch everything. I made him watch Ferris Buer made him watch 16 Candles. Breakfast
**Bam Bam:** Club. You know what it does man? It teaches kids that life is a lot of fun.
It just, its just breaks down the pretentiousness of life. Yeah.
**Poobah:** For me. Yeah. So I made him watch all the John Hughes movies and he loves 'em. They're awesome. And he just loves 'em, you know, he dropped dead of a Heart attack at like 51. I didn't know that. Or something. Just walking down this. Yeah, just walking down the street in New York City.
Jesus. And he [00:42:00] made all those great movies, man. He made a lot of great movies.
**Gizmo:** You know?
**Rooster:** Who else just died?
**Gizmo:** Tony Sara Gua. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. The Goose
**Poobah:** Sad New Jersey guy. Loved him. Yeah. Tom
**Gizmo:** Jersey guy, dude on the sideline. He was awesome.
**Bam Bam:** Tiffs. Yeah. You know, he's a state champion wrestler, right? Yep, yep, yep. Here we go.
Thank
**Gizmo:** you, Senator. Let's get back into it. Here we go. Okay, so Garone has given all of us two glasses of unknown spirits participant, even though I won't focus on that . Okay.
**Poobah:** Well, are these the two? Are these the two? Don't
**Gizmo:** touch them. Yes. So don't move them cuz I know which is which. So don't
**Poobah:** move them. You know, he's got a photographic memory, right?
One of 'em in one of 'em. There's not, oh, yes, there is.
**Gizmo:** This is kind of a not,
**Poobah:** I can tell by the cover which one is which anyway.
**Gizmo:** All right. All right. You'll be surprised. Here we go. Okay. Are we ready? All right. So which one are we supposed to try first? Garone tell us, uh, tell us what, give us the instructions on ours blind [00:43:00] tasting tonight. Okay, so
**Senator:** everyone try the glass that's on the right first.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. So I don't have, I have forward or backward Which one? I think
**Gizmo:** this, this one, right? Oh, hold on, uh, backward first for you back. So this one here,
**Bam Bam:** right? Okay,
**Gizmo:** very good. Okay.
**Poobah:** Which one do I try? ,
**Gizmo:** uh, the one on the right.
**Senator:** This one? No, no, no. That's the left. That's the right. There you go.
**Gizmo:** Your other right. Okay.
We ready? Yeah. Okay.
That's Kirkland. That's Kirkland all day. Kirk, too? Yep. Kirkland. All day Kirkland. A hundred percent. That's Kirkland. I knew it on the nose. Senator
**Bam Bam:** gonna go to the, that's pretty fucking good actually. You wanna go to the left now? No. Are we doing the left
**Senator:** already? Yeah, we do the left though. You gotta try both.
That's the only way to do with this.
**Bam Bam:** Oh my God. So close. Gizmo. They're so fucking
**Gizmo:** close. Giz, giz. They're pretty close, but I, dude,
**Senator:** that's, I wanted, that's
**Gizmo:** all [00:44:00] I wanted. Okay. They're pretty
**Poobah:** close. They're almost, that's all I wanted. The second one was the black.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. But I like the first one better. But you're not wrong. They're very cool.
They're very close. All I wanted
**Senator:** to prove was that they. I'm fine if you like the Kirkland more. That's,
**Bam Bam:** I love, perfectly reasonable. I love this experiment. But the Kirkland's better. I don't know about that. No, they're both good. They're both good.
**Senator:** So hang on. We're gonna go around and I'm just gonna say the first or the second, which did you like more?
The first
**Bam Bam:** or the second? Honestly, they're both great to me. I can't, I can't choose because they're almost
**Senator:** identical for me. Okay. So a tie for you. Yeah. All right. Put go to first or second, the second. Second. Uh, Puba first or second. Um,
**Poobah:** let me try again. .
**Senator:** I'm glad
**Gizmo:** we did this. This is great.
**Poobah:** I mean, that's clearly the Kirk one.
Okay. So, to be honest, all right. It just depends on what you want. Like the black label is more [00:45:00] Scotty, scotch. Scotch as what's his name would say Ron Burgundy. . Scotch. Scotch. Scotch. Scotty, scotch. It's more scotch. It's more. Scotty Scotch. The, the Kirkland is a little sweeter and a little bit, actually a little lighter and a little fruitier.
So that's my assessment. I mean, I like 'em both. Right.
**Gizmo:** So would you give it a tie then? I'd give it a
**Senator:** tie, my man. All right. So two ties. We have one for the second in Gizz.
**Gizmo:** I, I
**Poobah:** think
**Gizmo:** I, they're very close. I, I can't look at em.
**Bam Bam:** No, no, no. I'm, I'm,
**Gizmo:** I'm very honest. Don't think he's grappling right now. No, no. I'm being totally honest.
They're very close. You're not wrong. You're not wrong with, thank you. That they're very close. But I think there is an edge to the Kirkland. There is a touch of something, and especially on the nose. I could smell it on the nose. I knew, I, I just, I just thought, I think it's a better scotch. Wow. Okay. I think the finish, but I think that that was a, that was a very fair experiment.
Mm-hmm. That was a very fair experiment. I can't take that away. All I wanted
**Senator:** to prove, I, so I actually, if I had to, if I was forced to [00:46:00] split the tie, , I think I would give the edge to Kirkland. Yeah. But all I wanted to prove was, I think before you thought they were worlds apart. No, you're right. And I think doing this, you now see
**Gizmo:** they're really close.
That's right. So here's the thing that I will say. Can I say one thing please? Uh, this is a defense, please. The ice in the Johnny threw it completely off for me. Whereas when I had it neat as Bam recommended with the second glass, neat. The Johnny Walker was way better for me than it was with two cubes devices.
Yeah. And the
**Senator:** same thing could
**Gizmo:** happen with the Kirkland. It's quite totally, but I, I do like the Kirkland with Ice. Didn't do that tonight. But that's not the, that's not, you guys have to try the black label with
**Poobah:** the Blue Club Soda .
**Bam Bam:** Now I had that for the first time at our restaurant
**Gizmo:** tours apartment. It's gotta be done, man.
You gotta try it. It's,
**Poobah:** it's actually pretty good do with the lemon twist. That'd be cool. I
**Gizmo:** love lemon. That'd be
**Bam Bam:** cool. Big
**Pagoda:** lemon. So I did, I did, I did pour some, uh, club soda on the other one. Yeah. But I'll tell you what's really interesting [00:47:00] in. This and, you know, senator may be right about this particular black soda that'd we are drinking today.
There's something to it that it was tasting very, very good without that harshness, you know, how you would get the bite in the thing. Yeah. And I think what the club soda did was typically just brighten it up a little bit and made it like a little more f os and you know, a little if you, if you like that kind of thing, you, you kind of recognize the taste of the soda into, um, I think today the, the soda didn't do that much more for me.
And, and maybe it's also the poor, you know, typically we poor black label, you know, king size or healthy, healthy pork, healthy paws, a big, and then we throw very little soda. Yeah.
**Senator:** A big gulp of, uh, of
**Poobah:** Johnny Black. Yeah. Or his, uh uh, , uh, as Jo as Johnny Depp would say, A mega pint .
**Pagoda:** In India, we called it the patella pig.
Patella pig .
**Poobah:** I thought that was [00:48:00] funny. The Johnny Detra, he, they go, wouldn't you call that? You said you called that a mega pint of red wine. And he was like, yes,
**Gizmo:** sure, yes, sure. I had a big glass of
**Poobah:** wine. It's a, I had a big glass of
**Bam Bam:** wine. mega.
**Gizmo:** That's great. The clips are amazing. Oh, I heard that he got a deal for, uh, pirates of the Caribbean.
300 million bucks. He's coming back. Good. I'm glad.
**Bam Bam:** Is that true? Yeah, I'm, I'm glad it's a rumor. I'm glad it's, I
**Pagoda:** really want him to do Shta Ram, you know, I wish he does that.
**Poobah:** Can you believe this woman, Amber Heard is gonna lose her goddamn damn mind if she gets a contract? He got
**Gizmo:** it prior to Capric Care.
It's coming. It's coming. And she
**Poobah:** has to pay him . She's appealing the whole thing, which is
**Pagoda:** lunacy. I think she's gonna be taking a dump on the bed for the rest of her lives. .
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, talk about shitting the bed. No, you do. Literally. Literally, [00:49:00] right.
**Pagoda:** I don't wanna lay down and do it in
**Bam Bam:** every way. I'll just sit down.
**Poobah:** She should have taken her 7 million divorce. Pocketed it, not lied about pledging it to whoever and just moved on with her goddamn damn
life.
**Pagoda:** I know. And moved on to a different actor. I'm gonna say she
**Gizmo:** never wrote that article. That would never would've happened. So what are you guys thinking about the, uh, Hemingway signature right now?
Impressed. I'm pretty impressed. I am really shocked. Yeah. Yeah. It's really good. Real good scar. Really? Gold Knight
**Senator:** has been shocking for
**Gizmo:** me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You talk,
**Senator:** go ahead. I just, I mean, I would've been as bullish as you earlier about like, Kirkland is the only serviceable budget scotch for me prior to having this, and I'm not sure what's going on.
But right now, if someone had, you know, a, a bottle of black label, I would drink it. Where before I just would've categorically turned it down. Right. And this cigar, I also would've, car categorically said No thanks. Yeah. And I would smoke this again. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** absolutely.
**Bam Bam:** Sure. A hundred percent. [00:50:00] Ah,
**Poobah:** purchase worthy.
Absolutely. Speaking of things underrated, I, uh, or underappreciated over the weekend. Um, and speaking about New York City, the push cart hotdog. . So , so I, I, I'd also, so, dude, he's so
**Gizmo:** passionate about this doesn't even tee it up. He just,
**Poobah:** yeah. No talking, fell. If we wanna talk about things somewhat, I love it.
If we're gonna talk about some top topics that are somewhat, I don't know. We're in heat
**Gizmo:** every of summer,
**Senator:** every day stuff, I give him an a, an A for the transition. Oh, it's fa No, I'm
**Gizmo:** not. I'm, I love the trans. I love it. Honestly,
**Bam Bam:** I'm passionate about hotdog, so, go ahead. I
**Poobah:** got plenty say so. So I love a grilled hot dog.
and we're, you know, we're from the northeast here and particularly New Jersey. You, I mean, hotdogs are a thing here. Hot dogs are we got, we got, we have good hot dogs. The Texas wiener, the deep fried hotdog, I mean the
**Senator:** hotdog eating contest happens not far
**Poobah:** from us. That's right. That's correct. They've heard Coney Island.
So hot dogs are, are a thing. I mean [00:51:00] the New York City hot dog. Anyway, so over the weekend it was super hot, I guess on Saturday and um, I was like, you know, the thought of standing in front of a grill and I got a buddy of mine, a fraternity brother of mine who's always like, dude, Grilled hotdog suck. I I boil my hotdogs.
Just hear me out. Just hear me out. Just hear me out. See everybody's shaking their head. Just hear me out. Disavow, . Just hear me out. So there's something, uh, it's overlooked. I'm not saying for every time there's certain hotdogs that do great in the grill. Like a thunks in the white package. Yeah. That are beef and pork.
Yeah. Which is one of the greatest hotdogs you'll ever eat. Absolutely. In the, in the casing. That hotdog is meant to be grilled. Period. Okay. It should only be cooked in the grill. Nice. Snap to it. It's got a nice snap to it. They're a little bit thicker in there are beef and pork met plant. I'm getting hungry.
Now. In the supermarket section, if [00:52:00] you get, they have what they call thurman's push cart dogs. Mm-hmm. . These are all beef hot dogs and they're kind of thinner. A little thinner. Yep. Right. You boil. So my kids don't really, aren't really that into grilled hotdogs because of the, you know, they're kids. I boiled some hotdogs and they put the sub bread, onions on it with the, with just mustard, those sub bread onions out of the thing on just like a bun.
You, you, you know, like you steam the bun a little bit and you're like, I have to tell you, it's fucking awesome. It's so gentle. Like, it just goes down like a TikTok. It's so good, . It's just, it's just like, it's so gentle on the body. You just, you just fucking love it. Gobble it right down. That's true. And, and, and just very fucking true.
Just some of the, so bread, onions on there with the, with the, with the, with the, with the mustard. Yeah. It's
**Bam Bam:** gotta be brown. It can be brown mustard or the ultra yellow mustard, or just the
**Poobah:** French is yellow mustard. Yeah. I'm, I'm telling you, it sounds so [00:53:00] basic, but, but boiling a hot dog, the bo like, like, and, and then you put 'em on the burner and they can sit there for half an hour or so.
People can go in and get, you know, basically what they call a dirty water dog in New York City. I have to tell you, they're pretty good. You shouldn't overlook it. I'm not saying that the, it's the best thing to do all the time, but from time to time they hit the spot like no other dog. Now is it as good as a deep fried dog from Rutz Hut or from Hot Grill or from Johnny and Hand?
Oh, Hirums Hirums. Or is it that? No, I mean, uh, no, I'm not saying that, that Rutz Hut makes maybe the best hotdog in New Jersey. I'm just saying boiling a hotdog with the right type of dog, like a push cart style dog, a sore, uh, you know, you, you. It's pretty good. Yeah. So for the listener out there, if it's really hot out and you want a hot, you want to whip up something quick for the kids.
Boiling a [00:54:00] hotdog is underrated. It is. It's
**Senator:** all I'm saying. Quick, quick question as, as not the hotdog connoisseur of the lizards. , yeah. A, a push cart hotdog. New York is obviously well known for, right, right. Diamond Dustin could find him on every street corner. , you mentioned Rots, HUD and Hot Grill and some of the others that have, it's like a deep fried hotdog, right?
A ripper. They call them Texas wieners somewhere. Yes, that's true. So is that, is that really popular in tech? Like do in Texas, do they deep fry these? No,
**Gizmo:** I don't,
**Poobah:** don't think, I don't think, I doubt they started here. I think it has to do with, no, I just think it has to do with the fact that they put, wouldn't you say I want one all the way with chili and they put chili, chili, mustard Chili and the mustard.
And the onions on top. Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. And that's, that's a EY special right there. That's a Johnny. Well, yeah, it's like Johnny and Haji sauce. Oh yeah. So like hot grill. That's right. The hot grill, the chili sauce. So I think it comes from the chili. They call it Texas wieners cuz it's, there's chili. I see.
They're chili dogs,
**Bam Bam:** you know. Now Gizmo loves the
**Gizmo:** Costco dog. I love the Costco dog. Aren't [00:55:00] those boiled? They, I think they are. Yeah. They're, they're a dollar 50 for a hot dog and it like a, they rotate on a thing. I don't think they're boiled. I don't know. I, I'm not, I thought they were boiled. I'm not sure.
Think they're, yeah. On that's Rotes. I don't know. All I know, here's what I know, they're near the golf 50,
**Bam Bam:** they're near
**Gizmo:** the golf balls. They're like a 7-Eleven . They're like 18 inches long. The bun is amazing and it comes with a soda for a buck 50. That's great. What's the ring gauge ? Probably a 60. Probably a 60.
Nice. I love Fat Dog. You know what other brand I like? They're a fat dog. Ooh. They're like 60, but they're big. They're big. Who
**Bam Bam:** can move? Fat dog? No, they're not that fat. They, his face was just
**Gizmo:** cringing. It's not, it's not cringe. Like a subres. Subres. You know what other brand? I like pba. I'm curious what your, your opinion is.
Yeah. What do you think of the deeds and Watson?
**Poobah:** Well, those are
**Gizmo:** really good. Yeah. Fantastic. Those gotta be in a grill though. That's a great, yeah. You can't boil
**Poobah:** those. Gotta grill those. Those are a grilled, those, those are a pork and beef boil. What about, what about Nathan's love? Nathan's? Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Love Nathan's hotdog on on the flat top. [00:56:00] Now
**Bam Bam:** at home you're lazy. Have you ever pan fried a hotdog? Sure, I have. Sure. So my son and I,
**Poobah:** when a wife, and that's like how, kind of how Nathan's does it, they do it on flattop. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know when a wife's out and there's hotdogs hot, unlike. Bam, Jr. Let's go. We're gonna have some hot dogs.
We fry up a couple hotdog, sit there at the
**Poobah:** table. Have that. Lemme tell you. Pah Jr. He, he, he, he, I get a can of Hormel Chili. He'll destroy that on top of a dog. I've
**Bam Bam:** never tried that. That's a great idea. I'm not a chili guy. I love chili on dogs. No beans. No beans. No, no, no. Chili on dogs. Great. Love
**Gizmo:** it. I'm, I'm a mustard and onion only.
I like that too. Remember a chain called Callahans? Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** of course. Oh yeah. Yeah. They opened
**Gizmo:** the one up green and yellow. Yeah. Yeah. There used to be one on
**Poobah:** Route 46, right? Yeah. They made a good hot dog back in the day. They made a good hot tar. But anyway, the boiled dog, I think the push cart style dog is underrated.
Mm-hmm. . It's gentle and it's good. Can I ask you a
**Gizmo:** question? Yeah. Practical question. Yeah. When you open pub's news, are you [00:57:00] gonna have hotdogs there? You've mentioned lottery. Sure. Tobacco, newspapers. Newspapers, gyros. Acid
**Poobah:** acid cigars. No. Yeah, no, no. Chiros. That's a lot of prep. You gotta, that's a lot of work.
That's a lot of, that's a lot of work. I mean, you gotta make this. Can I
**Gizmo:** walk in there? Can I walk in there at nine in the morning and get a Gizzy dog? Yeah.
**Poobah:** All right. Good. Yeah, I buy one of those
**Gizmo:** Gizzy, that's another name for a hot dog. A gizzy. I buy the rib. Where do they say that? I can't say that. That's a term.
Ah, Gizzy Gzz. Has anyone else heard? Am I the only one? This never heard
**Poobah:** Pennsylvania thing? I've never heard from out in
**Bam Bam:** the sticks. Giz. An GIZ was an outsider.
**Gizmo:** It's a
**Poobah:** teenager in my home. Yeah. Um, sure. Put 'em on the rollers. Why not all
**Gizmo:** revenue? Good. I can picture
**Rooster:** Senator with some
**Gizmo:** caviar on the dog. I was
**Bam Bam:** about to say that.
**Senator:** Paul Ro, if anything is, is so someone who's, um, uh, a socialite in, in New York, in LA and, uh, who's taste in caviar. I, I gen I generally respect. Is obsessed with [00:58:00] the Costco
**Gizmo:** hotdog. This, whoever this person is, is
**Senator:** a genius. Genius. When Gizmo said this, I mean, you know, primitive palate. I, I take it, I take it as far as I can.
I love
**Gizmo:** how sometimes it's refined. It, it's, and then sometimes it goes back to primitive. Well, when was it? Only
**Bam Bam:** when, only when it's convenient. , he eats .
**Poobah:** The guy eats salad in his car. .
**Gizmo:** I
**Senator:** do. I take, but when I saw this, I said, there's some real, there, there's something about
**Gizmo:** this Costco hot dog. Lemme tell you something.
The, the Costco stock price went down when it was rumored, rumored that they were gonna raise the price of the Costco hotdog combo and the c e o had to come out, watch an issue, a press release saying that's true. We are never going to raise that price. To the point that the founder of Costco, when he hired the new c e o, when he stepped down, he said, I will fire you.
Yeah. If you ever raise the price. Of the Costco hunter that
**Bam Bam:** creates nostalgia with the brand. That's
**Gizmo:** everything. Yeah. You
**Senator:** understand that must be a good Hunter Rooster orchestrated all of this. I [00:59:00] knows the largest Costco shareholder, .
**Bam Bam:** I think he is. He very well. Maybe we, I think we think he owns part of it.
Actually. ,
**Poobah:** he probably does share. Last shareholder meeting, he initiated a proxy
**Gizmo:** fighter ,
**Bam Bam:** forcing the price of hotdog to go up. Succession. Roy style. You're not a killer. You gotta be a killer. . It
**Poobah:** is Summer and hotdogs aren't America. They are baseball. They remind me of the ball. They're like the ball field, the boiled dog.
They're good. They're so gentle, they're awesome. They're gentle, they're awesome. Just try it.
**Gizmo:** They're fantastic. And for all you vegan
**Rooster:** fans out
**Gizmo:** there, try the Beyond Sausage.
**Bam Bam:** That's good actually. Fantastic. I admit that's pretty good. Pba. You gotta give it a shot there. Go and well
**Poobah:** that's the reason Population.
Why? Well, we're,
**Bam Bam:** I dunno. ,
**Poobah:** I mean Okay. But. Eh, be democratic with your choices. That's all I'm saying. Alright. I mean, I'm not judging,
**Gizmo:** but I mean, we'll have to do a blind test off . Well, I want to [01:00:00] try
**Bam Bam:** that soy ball for Thanksgiving. Oh, that big round ball. Jesus. Alright. B,
**Gizmo:** Turkey. The Turkey. Yeah. Yeah. All right, boys.
Are you guys ready to do the formal liquor rating on the Johnny Walker Black? Yep. Yep. All right. Bam, you're
**Bam Bam:** up. Let's do this. I think my, my rating will be a little controversial. I'm gonna give it an eight because it's so drinkable and I'm enjoying it. There's a little sweetness there it goes. Great. With the cigar, I'm giving it an eight.
Okay. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** I just have to go to nine because of bams. An eight. It's a nine for me.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. Wow.
**Gizmo:** We'll talk later, Senator. We'll talk Senator. Later.
**Senator:** Senator. All right. I have to balance this out a little bit. . I'm very pleasantly surprised. If this were two years ago, this could not possibly earn higher than a five for me.
I'm gonna give it a seven.
**Gizmo:** Okay. I'm also gonna give it a seven. Okay. That's kind of where I've been. I was at a six with ice cubes with Neat. Absolutely. [01:01:00] Seven.
**Poobah:** It's a seven. It's a seven. It's a seven. It's a seven for me. It's a seven.
**Gizmo:** All right boys. The former liquor rating on Johnny Walker Black is a 7.6.
Respectable. That's a good Per score. Per score. Respectable. 75 all
**Bam Bam:** day. There's something to be said about, it was fine. That was very, very drinkable. Scotch or whiskey, I should say. Very drinkable. It is for 35 bucks. Ah, there's so many factors that are in its
**Senator:** favor. I agree. And anything over a seven, I would drink or smoke again.
Yeah. And um, it's a good recommend it, it's deserving of that. I'm shocked. It's, the
**Gizmo:** only thing for me is it gets a little dangerous, like drinking it meat, which is certainly how I prefer it tonight. Oh, it goes down. That's just, yeah, I mean, that's just dangerous. It
**Senator:** just goes, we know, we know how dangerous that's gonna be for you.
**Gizmo:** there's no shit in the room. This shit is 18 . I guess I teed myself up for that. Yes. All right, boys, we're coming to the end here of the Arturo Fuente Hemingway signature. [01:02:00] Figero, what are your closing thoughts before we, uh, vote on this thing?
**Rooster:** I enjoy it the first third of that stick, but towards the ende.
Got a little ho for me to tell you
**Gizmo:** the truth. Really?
**Bam Bam:** No. Yeah, I am, I am not getting any harshness at
**Gizmo:** all.
**Senator:** Yeah. Mine's not harsh. Are you done? How, how, just how much you, I'm wondering if you smoked this faster than Yeah, he blew through it. Well, he's where? Wow, you're you. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Well, I'm
**Bam Bam:** kind of usually less.
I'm kind of where he is. You're a little a ahead of me, but not, not single. Behind. Behind. Yeah. No harshness for me at all.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. Unusual. A little bit of harshness.
**Rooster:** I mean, I said it earlier, like on the, kind of like the, hmm, tip of the tongue I was getting, it was getting, I don't know, maybe I did smoke it a little too fast, but the first third was, uh, really good on the light.
It was phenomenal. Phenomenal. Um, so you
**Gizmo:** want me to rate it ? Yeah. Any other thoughts? Pagoda, what do you think of it before we read it? Yeah, you,
**Pagoda:** you, it's somewhat unraveled. Maybe because I did the gift card, I'm not sure. But[01:03:00]
**Bam Bam:** wow. Fucking rich shame
**Pagoda:** man. Hey, what the, the hell no. Just, uh, overall, I, I did really enjoy the first half actually, even all the way up, I think. And then felt like for, for, for a moment there, I felt like I wasn't getting a lot of flavors anymore. And I don't know why that was. Maybe we were drinking a lot scotch suddenly.
But, um, yeah, overall a, a very pleasant experience.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. All right. Pbo, what did you think before we write
**Poobah:** this? Yeah, it was, it was a pleasurable cigar for me. I, um, down the stretch, not so much, but, but good for me. It was very, it was good. I
**Senator:** was pleasantly
**Gizmo:** surprised.
**Poobah:** It was small. I mean, I'm not saying it was bit, yeah, it wasn't bad.
It wasn't
**Gizmo:** bad. Wasn't great. I'll be honest.
**Poobah:** I'll be honest. But it wasn't bad at all. I mean, I'd
**Gizmo:** smoke it again. Kiss? Yep. Go. Let's go. No, no. I wanna hear what you're gonna say. Oh, no, I'm, I'm just saying that, uh, honestly, coming in here tonight, knowing we were gonna do this, cigar did not expect, uh, we said this [01:04:00] previously about another new world.
Oh, the Ava v Churchill. I didn't expect to enjoy it to this degree. Now you're down to about an inch. Yeah. How you still enjoying it? Like I'm not, I'm not gonna put this down yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing
**Senator:** that surprised me most, even we talked, we've talked about a guest humidor on many episodes prior to tonight.
I never would stock this in a guest humidor. Yeah. I know that. So many people say this popular cigar, all that. , I will not hand this out at my house. That's not gonna happen having this tonight. Yeah. I, I would give this to Yep. Other people who say, you know, I have an occasional cigar. I'm not a big cigar smoker.
I think they would love this cigar. I agree. And,
**Bam Bam:** and you would smoke it with them. I would. It's, and I, I wouldn't have a
**Senator:** problem
**Bam Bam:** with it.
**Gizmo:** Pleasurable. Yeah. Yeah.
**Rooster:** I mean, this cigar kind of makes me want to go back to the short story again. Like, just to try
**Gizmo:** that, I'll bring the box in to see, uh, we'll have, yeah.
Just to compare. Yeah. So,
**Rooster:** uh, let's do it. I'm gonna give
**Gizmo:** it a
**Poobah:** seven. Okay. Yeah. I'm, I'm in the same boat. It's a seven
**Gizmo:** for me. I'm in the same boat as well. Seven right here. This is easy.
**Senator:** [01:05:00] Another seven. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Seven. Sure.
**Bam Bam:** I'm, I'm going eight. I, I think there's a merit to a very smokable cigar that you can take down to the end for a new.
**Gizmo:** Eight. Okay. Sorry. Remind me the price point of this again.
**Bam Bam:** 10. 10 bucks. 10. 10 bucks. 10. Senator. Geez. I mean, there's a lot
**Gizmo:** of factors in its favor. Good, good value.
**Poobah:** There's a lot of factors in 45, 2 40.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You can change your rating. We haven't scored it yet.
**Senator:** No, I know. No, I think it's still a seven. Okay.
Because the, the, the challenge with this, if I were to give this an eight, which is what I'm obviously calculating in my head, you're comparing eight. An eight would be No, no, don't compare. No, no, it's not comparing . I mean, that's a factor of it. There's no question. But the point is, this would be an eight if I liked a, if I preferred a medium solidly medium cigar with not too much flavor.
And so for my pallet, I know I, I would want a little bit even more out of this. That's what would get it. An eight. Like I think we've had, you know, the El Centor from EP [01:06:00] Carillo or the, the
**Gizmo:** aging room. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Aging room. Both. Sport
**Senator:** hire. Yeah. Pocho, Buso. Those would get an eight from me. So. The reason I'm, I'm just having a hard time with this, is for, I think a lot of people, this would be an A but for my palate,
**Gizmo:** I've gotta give it.
I mean, I mean, to me, this cigar started out great, but the last
**Rooster:** third got a little flat
**Gizmo:** for me.
**Senator:** I'm just surprised cuz I
**Gizmo:** flavors the same flavor. I
**Bam Bam:** I am, I'm enjoying it. I am enjoying it. The, the consistency
**Gizmo:** was all the way through. Yeah. I'm not having the experience that that rooster had. Yeah. What's that?
I mean, what's interesting to me, I find that these budget cigars, the reason why I gave this a seven is this just doesn't, it just doesn't tickle my fancy like a Nicaragua budget. It's still a seven is a, is a good recognize. No, it's totally, I'm not knocking it. The reason why I didn't give it an eight or a nine is I think I just preferred the Nicaraguan flavor profile like that we got in the aging room.
Sure. Or we got in the EP car. Um, I just think I kind of, I want that more than I do this, but for [01:07:00] what this is, it was perfectly fine. What's our agree
**Senator:** and that that's really just, you know, that represents our palette. Yep. Where, why I was going back and forth is I think for someone who doesn't want as, as robust as cigar, as a Nicaraguan Yep.
They would really love this and probably give this an eight. And that's why
**Bam Bam:** I love So their versatility of it, the cost of it, the consist consistency of it, there's a lot
**Gizmo:** going for it. It,
**Rooster:** it belongs in a, in a, I'm sorry. Um, it, it does belong in
**Gizmo:** a guest human order. Agreed. I thought I agreed. Yeah. By the
**Poobah:** way, status at the price point, what would, can you expect it to go be beyond seven or eight?
No. No. So I mean,
**Gizmo:** yes you can. Yeah. The Nicaraguans were, that we're talking about, the El
**Bam Bam:** Centor was much higher. Higher. That was, that's
**Senator:** exactly right. Casas,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Eight to $10 a year. I mean, the petite casados looked top high. That was very high. So,
**Poobah:** yeah. Know I didn't rate that cigar very high. Right. So Yeah, he didn't, we know that because I, I didn't like that
**Gizmo:** cigars.
So maybe because of the size. .
**Poobah:** So I just didn't like the cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Giz my, what's our composite rating? It's a
**Gizmo:** [01:08:00] 7.2. Okay. Yeah. Decent. That's still a soft recommend. Yeah. Yeah. Decent recommend. Absolutely. And I think it's very fair for this. All things considered. Agree. Agreed. Absolutely. Yeah.
**Poobah:** It is a good smoke. I mean, this is a good, this is a good cigar and I'd smoke it again.
Yeah. It's, I think, solid
**Gizmo:** recommend.
**Senator:** That's the things I take away from this cigar that I really appreciated. It was never harsh all the way through for me, not once, which I was worried about given my prior experience with the Maduro version of this. And I really liked this nutty flavor that I got all the way through.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So pleasant.
**Rooster:** Oh, yeah. Yeah. The Cameroon, uh, rapper really works on this.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It had some of that little Arturo Fuente kind of,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Dna.
**Bam Bam:** It, it was a bit sweet all the way through too. Yes. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yes. It's the, it's the rapper, I gotta say. Awesome. We said it earlier, I think you said, I think you said it.
Way better than that. $42 Opus. We smoked way
**Poobah:** better . I mean, hands
**Gizmo:** down, quarter of the price.
**Poobah:** Unbelievable. Yeah. Unbeliev, way better. That was, that thing was terrible.
**Gizmo:** [01:09:00] It was a stinker. Yep. All right, boys, A 7.2 for the Arturo Fuente Hemingway in signature. And, uh, awesome. We'll see you guys next week. Keep smoking.
Thank, thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. 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 Lounge lizards pod, p o d, that's lounge lizards pod gmail.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.