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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!
Ep #192: H. Upmann No. 2 (w/ Cascahuín Tahona Blanco, Core Flavor Notes for Core Cuban Marcas, Lizard Five-Pack for New Cuban Smokers, Punch Nectarés Launch, Bam in Turks and Caicos, Tahona vs. Steel for Tequila & Freezer Protocol for Tobacco Beetles)
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Gizmo: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast, presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Senator Chef Ricky Grindr, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laugh. So take this as your 192nd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet this here once a week. We're gonna smoke Cupid Cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you one formal lizard rating.
We answer a listener email on what flavor notes to expect from the core Cuban Marcus. We put together a five pack for the new Cuban smoker, and Bam details his trip to Turks and Caicos, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar and joy as we pair Cascahuín Tahona Tequila blanco with the H Upmann.
Number two, a Cuban [00:01:00] pyramid on the pod tonight. A classic boys from Cuba. It's the H up and number two and it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by six and one eight inches long. And boys, we pivoted to this cigar thinking that we were gonna have a completely full house tonight. Uba. Correct. And pagoda were supposed to be here.
Correct. And they had to do other stuff for family or whatever reasons they don't know how to prioritize. Correct. That's, yeah. But a guest from Bahrain does take a priority over, I mean especially the Crown Prince. Crown Prince. I mean, I guess he didn't remember was coming until this morning from across the world.
Bam Bam: Oh yeah. So we are back to the H ahman number two and H ahman. This is a mark that we've reviewed quite a few times on the pod. And this cigar we reviewed quite some time ago, but we did the Lud 14 version, which is a very old and very sought after. And that's BU's surname. Exactly right. That's why I was thinking let's do menti.
Gizmo: So we did that on episode [00:02:00] 40. So today we are doing a cigar that's kind of fresh BRM, November 23. So this cigar is about a year and a half old. And uh, obviously this cigar won cigar, aficionado cigar the year a couple years ago. So we'll see if it's stands up to that and to the web 14 that we did and to our standards.
'cause we all love the cigar. Exactly right. Let's cut this thing boys. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper wide open draw. I'm hoping, thank goodness. Mm. Mine's perfect. Yeah. I'm surprised. Yeah. Sometimes these fight. Mm-hmm. You know, we've said in the past that these d they need, they need to sit.
Bam Bam: Right. So we're taking a bit of a risk here We are. But I think the fact that we've been talking about regular production, Cuban cigar is smoking. Well, and also the fact that this specific cigar, one cigar the year, two years ago, or three years ago. Three. Yeah. Uh, [00:03:00] I mean, that's good. Good reason to smoke this cigar today.
Gizmo: Yeah. It'll be a good experiment. Whatcha you guys getting on the cold? Draw this cedar salt. Cedar and salt for me. Faint cedar. Faint salt. Yeah. Yeah. Cedar Earth, little salt Airflow's. Good. Got a little like maybe 10% resistance, so, perfect. That's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. I've got nine, but it'll do. All right, boys, let's light this thing, the H up.
And number two, again, it's a Cuban pyramid. 52 reengage by six and one eight inches long. This is the second up and two we're doing on the pod tonight. Again, the first one we did on episode 40 was quite aged at the, at that time it was eight years age, and if we were smoking that tonight, it would've been about 11 years aged.
And this one is only a year and a half old and it's from a different factory. Lob obviously was the upend factory way back when. [00:04:00] This factory, BRM, is the La Corona factory. So not only are we smoking a newer cigar, fresher, but it's out of a different factory, so Correct. See how it stands up. Another factory, nonetheless.
Chef Ricky: You think the box code is the reason why UBA can maybe. Probably. Oh, the aroma's great. I'm not done toasting, but it smells great. She's there. It's okay on the way. I'm not thrilled. I'll be honest. I'm not thrilled. I'm gonna let it settle. Mine is good. Mine's great. Yeah. Yeah. Mine's okay. I'm liking what mine is doing.
Rooster: Yeah. It's, it's uh, it's a little bit of a haste to judge a cigar on. True. Like, you know, I mean, it's still hot and a let it little settle. Well, if you purge, which I love doing now, kind of eliminate that heat and that risk. But usually on this, I smoked one when I was away. It was exquisite. What a year? Oh, I don't know.
Bam Bam: 2019 maybe. [00:05:00] Um, it was sweeter than this. The aroma is really nice. Correct. It's actually a little bitter for me. Just a touch Earth Notes are very strong. It's very mineral. There's a lot of minerality for me right now. I'm getting, I'm getting like floral. You're lucky something. This is fantastic. You're lucky.
Gizmo: I'm getting a little coffee, a little salt. It's a little bitter, like you said. Yeah. Maybe espresso not there yet. Salty for sure, which is good. I'm getting some light coffee and nuttiness. Little earth, but nothing bitter, nothing unpleasant. Hmm. Right now I'm getting the identical notes. Jeff just said, and I've got no complaints.
Senator: I need the older version of this now you want me to pull out a lu, correct. Or BRE 19 please. So this is a Cuban classic, the number two as it is, and most of the Cuban mark is the number two is often one of the standout cigars in the line. H Up [00:06:00] man, obviously is a a marker that we've loved on this podcast, and we've smoked quite a few of them.
Gizmo: We'll go through those ratings later. Here's the problem, boys, and we've talked about this on pretty much every episode we've done the redux on. When we smoked this cigar in 2022, it was $12 and 20 cents, $305 a box. That doesn't seem real. It's almost like a fabricated number. $12 for an oven and two. Yeah.
And today, this cigar to replace the cigar we have in our hands right now is $37 and 20 cents a box price of somewhere between 900 and a thousand dollars. Per box, depending on where you find him. It just reminds me of, uh, my kid, when he wants me, he ask for my input on things from my past, from my childhood.
Chef Ricky: And he says, dad, how was this in the olden days? And in terms of Cuban cigars? Olden days is about five years ago. It's true. It's again, the olden days, [00:07:00] these cigars were $12. Very true. Do you say, I don't know, ask Rooster.
Rooster: So look, I mean, you'd pay almost $40 for a typical Davi off. Yeah. Right. Is this as good as a davi off those juries out out Right now for me it is. But yeah. But yeah, right now for me it's not, it is for me. I'm not getting that experience that you guys are getting. So I think at $11 for a Cuban cigar, a pyramid of this size, a steel, a marker, you know, as highly.
Uh, celebrated, respected, celebrated as an h Oman, $11, it was undervalued. Of course. I agree with that. Definitely. Right. Yeah. So maybe if it's not 40, at least 25, $30, that's a fair price. That'd be fine. Yeah. I think if the re bustos were hovering somewhere around 18 to 20 mm-hmm. And the cigars like this, a bigger ring gauge, a Toro or a pyramid like this, maybe [00:08:00] 25, 30, I would probably not complain as much.
Gizmo: You're right. But, but also, you know, when the boxes are going for a thousand dollars, the 25 sticks in a box, Haos has to come out with a lot of 10 count boxes. Mm-hmm. Which will make them more palatable for most people to buy boxes. Another good point, right? Yeah. And what's interesting about that rooster, nice segue, is this cigar only comes in dress boxes of 25.
There is no other configuration. It doesn't have a two buck configuration, it doesn't have a 10 count box configuration. There is no other way to get the atman number two other than to buy a dress box of 25 cigars. I mean, for a new smoker, it's a lot of money for somebody to spend a thousand dollars on a box.
Rooster: But I think a 10 count box is more, you know, feasible. Sure. Forget a new smoker for anybody to spend a thousand bucks on a box of cigars. That's true. Well, that's, that's not cheap. Especially a new, uh, smoker. Yeah. Whatcha getting [00:09:00] giz, you're about a quarter of an inch in. It's okay so far. Me too. It's not the best of, I'm not getting what I would expect in the baking, the baking flavors.
Gizmo: It sounds like Senator and, uh, grind are getting that little spice there. I I, I'm missing a little bit of that baking spice. I, I'm missing even sometimes there's a touch of leather in up man, and I'm not getting that right now. This is divergent from my expectation of what the up man number two has. I think.
I think there's a sweet note that kind of marries everything or puts it all together. And that's traditionally, yeah. Yeah. There is no baking spice, which you get a quite a, quite a bit off. What are you getting? I'm just getting cedar and a little bit of that. Uh, okay. I don't know if it's pepper or some kind of a bitter spice in the, you know, I was, I'm getting that.
Rooster: I'm, I'm right there with you. It's, it's a little earthy and the Yeah, same. Yeah. And the rest of the room. That's unfortunate. I'm, I'm getting baking spice and cream. Wow. I'm getting sweet. And so what are we doing? Yeah, I'm getting sleep here. I'm not getting any, any, this, this. No sweetness. Can I go home?
This is a, [00:10:00] this is a top righted cigar for me right now. I'm getting what? Absolutely. Zero pepper, zero sp like, you know, bad spice. I'm getting Great. Did you pull these out of the same box? Mm-hmm. I, I'll just say I'm glad Chef mentioned the thing that's honestly the most surprising to me. There's an odd bit of creaminess to this that I don't normally associate with an up and two.
Senator: Um, I don't consider it a particularly creamy smoke, even with a decent amount of age that I'm getting right now, which I really like. So that's kind of been a nice addition for me. The baking spice. It's faint for me when I draw the cigar, but at the burn line you can actually smell more baking spice.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm. Oh dude. So the aroma is actually fabulous. The burn line is great. Yeah. What is going on? Smoke it reverse. Put the lid in in your mouth.
It's not nice. Oh, the aroma's ex. It's excellent. Maybe she's getting, gonna take a minute. Just I'm, I'm getting my aroma's. [00:11:00] Got a little fruit in it and a little bit of honey. Yeah. Yeah. Weird. Yep. The sweetness that we are talking about is coming through on the aroma for us on this side of the room. On the right side of the room.
Correct. Which is not the right side tonight apparently. Yeah, I'm definitely disappointed right now. Yeah, that's too bad. I'm not happy. I will say the combustion's great. Right? Construction. Construction is spot on. It's very good. You guys are bringing the vibe down. I'm sorry. This is great. You wanna switch?
Hear about an hour ago? I feel like I'm having dessert. Oh, like that's how good for you. The cigars working out. I'm happy for you. There's a, there's half the room is thrilled and the other half of the room is jealous. Correct. Envious of the thrilled half of the room. The best thing is that it bisects the room perfectly.
It's true. Yeah. So one thing I'm noticing is the amount of cut on the cigars you guys took off more than I did. Maybe that's the culprit. Is it V concentrating at the top? Possibly. I have a V on mine. I actually recut it. I had cut a little bit. I mean this is, yeah, I'm close to where you are. I might take a little bit more off.
Rooster: A little bit [00:12:00] more off, right? Yeah. I might need a little bit more. Yeah, I'm doing that now. Are you having an issue with the drawing? No. It's beautifully drawing. So how's that gonna change? I don't know. Let's talk morph. No, it just, he might not be getting enough airflow. Could be. I just did a second cut on mine.
Gizmo: Let's see how it does. Wow, those scissors are razor sharp because I heard nothing come from your side and the ash didn't fall off. Shit. Mm-hmm. I have about an three quarters of an inch of ash here and it did not fall off when I cut. That was a lot more smoke then. I've been getting great combustion. I just don't like that we're, you know, 12, 13 minutes in here and we're still deciding if the cigar is happening or not.
You know? And half the room is having a great time. Correct. Yeah, I was gonna say, you guys are deciding. Can someone lie and say they like it? Stop ruining it for Grindr. All right, boys. In the meantime, let's talk about a little news. I think we mentioned this cigar quite a few weeks ago, but we have to congratulate our new friend, Rob Fox, who was here.
With [00:13:00] Rob Ala and Hamlet Perretti a few weeks ago. Rob is the managing director of Ampersand and, and is the chairman of JJ Fox. Wow. Out of Dublin. And of course they have some famous shops in London and they were very excited to announce the Punch Nectars, which is a number 50 exclusive for Ireland. And it is a 50 ring gauge cigar by six and one quarter inches long.
Comes at a price of about $75 a cigar. And I love this quote from Robbie. He says, it's a 50 count box. Yes. It's very expensive. Not bad. I love this quote from Robbie. He says, of all the projects that I've been involved in, this is the one I am most proud of as we've been able to bring back Nectars and to launch Ireland's first regional edition at the same time.
So the first regional for Ireland and the Nectars, this Vitola was famous in, I guess it was in the fifties, sixties, seventies. They were made for JJ Fox discontinued. And I, you know, they're [00:14:00] bringing back that vitola for this regional. So they're very, very proud of that. And, uh, congratulations to Rob on that.
And what's crazy is one of our lounge me members, lizard, Dustin and a friend actually flew to Ireland and attended Wow. The launch of this cigar. Dustin's a traveler. He is, he globe trotts. He's also hardcore when it comes to Cuban cigars. It's true. Yeah. Now he hasn't been smoking for very long, but he has quite the collection that he's building.
Bam Bam: Very impressive. And he said Rob took very, very good care of them and they had a great time. The hospitality was amazing. That's awesome. They loved the cigars, so, so kudos to Rob and congratulations to JJ Fox on the launch of the punch. Nick Tous, number 50, the new regional edition for Ireland. So here's another one, boys.
Gizmo: This one I didn't really love to see and it's not a huge impact right now, but it could be telling of what's to come in the future. American Airlines has announced that they are suspending several flights [00:15:00] from Miami into Cuba. So beginning last month, they announced that the routes for flights to Conway Holgan, Matanzas, Veradero and Santa Clara would be discontinued.
So it looks like they were, are only gonna be flying into Havana and Santiago de Cuba. Now, what does this mean? Of course you don't love to see flights getting cut to Cuba, but to me it's starting to look like these airlines are starting to make their exit from Cuba. We saw United Airlines pull some flights, we saw JetBlue stop entirely.
We saw American now cutting back. It seems like things are really slowing down. Of course, tourism, you know, people visiting the, the travel issues that have come up here in the United States politically over the last few months. It seems like a very challenging time, you know, to go to Cuba. Of course what's going on in Cuba is not great either.
Chef Ricky: Yes. Maybe they see that Cuba just doesn't have the infrastructure to, you [00:16:00] know, keep up with the level of tourism that's, uh, happening over there and they don't wanna risk it. Well, the tourism is way down. You know, the tourism is a pittance of what it was pre COVID in in the past and even what it was a few years ago.
Gizmo: They are really, really struggling. And we talked about how they've put, you know, kind of put all their chips on tourism as far as their economy goes. You know, the sugar economy is failing. We're gonna talk about another story in a second. The tobacco industry is starting to fall, and I'm curious of what you guys think.
We'll talk about that in a minute. I just see this story about American Airlines and of course it doesn't affect us, it doesn't affect a lot of folks going to Cuba, but it just seems like it might be a tell of what's to come in the future here from these airlines. So we'll keep an eye out. Um, it would, on American tourism was a big part of the Cuban economy.
Bam Bam: Sure. It'd be interesting to know how many Europeans and other people from around the world are still going to Cuba. I'm sure it's not as much as it was. Not as much as it used to be. Not that many. Yeah. I mean, that's why I, [00:17:00] you can't blame these airlines. I mean, no. If there's an opportunity to make money, they're gonna load up as many planes as they can.
Senator: Correct. And you look at those locations, I mean, Havana right now is struggling to keep power going. Anywhere in the more rural parts of the island. I mean, they go days without power. Yeah. The provinces are dark. No one's dying to go anywhere outside of Havana. And even there is a huge issue. So, I mean, none of this is surprising as she sad.
There's a lot of lot of Canadians that go to go to Cuba. Sure. So, I mean, I'm sure nobody's going, how many people are signing up to take their family on a trip where they don't know whether they're gonna have electricity for most over the whole trip? Or like food? Nobody. Right. Nobody. It's a terrible situation.
Gizmo: Yeah. And you know, too, I, I mean, think about, uh, we heard this story, I think we talked about it, how Cuba was cracking down on folks flying in with, uh, things for their family, refrigerators and microwaves and, and different things at the airport. They're getting taxed heavily on that, making it difficult to even bring these things into the country.
So [00:18:00] it's like in every way, Cuba is making it as difficult as possible for these folks, for their people to thrive. Correct. And arguably to survive. Yeah. I can't imagine that it's gonna get better anytime soon. Seeing how the infrastructure and of the electrical grid and whatnot is not doing well at all.
So I have another one for you here in a second, boys, but how's the uh, up and two doing? Is it settling in for you? It's getting better for me. Mine's definitely getting a little better, I think. Thank God, that little, that little haircut I gave it I think improved it. Um, the aroma on the foot of the cigar is still incredible and the retro's nice.
Bam Bam: Typical draw is getting better for me. I wish, I wish it tasted more like, you know what you're getting out of the aroma, right? I agree. You're still missing, I'm still missing that baking spice that you usually get out. I'm actually starting to get that in the middle of my tongue now. So that's starting to develop and it's more like a nutmeg for me.
Yep. Right. Nice slow retro hale. We'll probably get [00:19:00] everything started. Well, rooster doesn't retro hail. He did. I do. He did once in a while. Okay. I'm just surprised. I mean, for me, the flavor right now, it's gotten sweeter and this is very reminiscent of up and twos I've had with a decent amount of age on them.
Senator: Mm-hmm. So this is the first young up and two I've ever smoked. I, I really like what I'm getting right now. Yeah, me too. Same. It's getting better for me. It's delicious. This is a top tier cigar for me. Uh, it's everything about it. It, the sweetness is, is enveloping the spice so nicely. I I do sense a little youth.
Grinder: Just a, just a tinge. Yeah. Is it, what is, what is that coming across in, uh, how is it ammonia? Is it the same? This, I mean, the typical youth in a Cuban ammonia, but a little harshness? Not, not har. It's like just a little tinge of bitterness. That's it. I wouldn't say it's harsh. I think for me, I, I agree.
Senator: There's just a bit of youth that you notice, and it's more that, like the finish is a [00:20:00] little bit abrupt, where with age it's like a, a long flavorful finish. And this is a little bit abrupt with like, maybe just a slight bit of bitterness like Grindr was saying. What about you guys? I, I mean, right now mine is a tolerable cigar.
Gizmo: Really? It does not taste like an menti to me. It's, it's not good really. It's, it's just tolerable at this point. So that's how I felt that first inch. But it does, it has improved. With that cut, I'm getting more of like, like I, like I'm getting nutmeg, a little bit of sweet creaminess for me. And the retro hale is delicious.
Bam Bam: And the aroma's. Excellent. I love the retro Hale. That's probably my favorite part of the whole thing right now. Wow. Because the nutmeg for me is on a typical draw. Also giz, are you smoking that too quickly? I think my cigar is underfilled. That's what I think is going on here. If you feel my cigar, it feels like a piece of like paper.
Gizmo: The way your wa is wa I mean, it feels like a piece of paper. Wow. [00:21:00] Hmm. It's Cuba being Cuba. Definitely some inconsistency here. I could always light another one. There are extras. Hand me another. Yeah, I would do that. Fuck this. That will be reflected in my rating, by the way. Alright. And on Splitwise,
Bam Bam: you know I can't stand that app. Me neither. I deleted it. I deleted. No, you did. I don't think I've opened it in month in like maybe half year. I haven't here. Yeah. I hate to see the number in red and my name next to it. I, I, it makes me like I just deleted my name.
Rooster: I put your name twice. Okay folks. So GIZ is cutting a new cigar twice. Yep. Make sure you take enough off with that amazing cutter that you can't even hear. It's like a James Bond cigar cutter. Well they need to make it silent 'cause you have to cut it five times. It's pretty tight. Oh boy. Oh geez. Take some more off.
Bam Bam: I mean, that's a lot dude. You're gonna, you may have to take more [00:22:00] off. Don't perfect. Draw that thing though. No, I'm not gonna perfect draw it. I'm gonna light it and we'll see what happens here. I would cut another one. Yeah, just do one more small cut. Yeah. All right. That's what I would do. Lemme just get it going here.
You might need a V cut. You like the V cut? I think this is the first time on the podcast, by the way that I've pulled out a second cigar. I think it's, you're right. And had to relight, so I apologize to the listeners right now. It's all part of the experience. That's the real reason why it's only. Box of boxes of 25.
Chef Ricky: Look, it's the reality of smoking cigars. Oh my God, that is unbelievably different. Back already, already on the light. There's sweetness there. That is totally what I expect from an two. Awesome, great. Glad to hear. Oh, thank God. Okay. We're in business. Could relax though. Yeah. Now we can enjoy our cigar. Shit, that was stressful.
There was so much negativity in the room. When one of us breaks down, the machine breaks down. Oh my. This breaks down. Let's be honest. Oh, that's so much better. I feel much better boys. Nice. [00:23:00] Thanks for bearing with me for the first 25 minutes of this. It was rough back in business. It was rough, but we love you.
Gizmo: Oh yeah, that's, that's an up and too. All right, boys, as my cigar settles in here, I saw this story. I don't know if you guys, uh, caught wind of this. I saw it on Havana Times, which is an uh, independent news source out of Cuba, and the article title is Big Tobacco Crop Loss in Pinard del Real, Cuba. From blackouts, and it says that it's estimated at over 400 hectares, which is nearly 1000 acres of tobacco.
Chef Ricky: Yikes. So they say the constant power outage is not only wear down the patients of Cubans, but also take a toll on key sectors of the country's economy. Tobacco, one of Cuba's prize export products is among the hardest hit according to official media just in the municipality of Constellation Del Sur and Bernard Del Rio.
Gizmo: 385 hectares were lost this season due to blackouts. So what it says here is, even at the start of the growing season, prospects for the [00:24:00] municipalities harvest, were not promising. Only 1500 hectares of tobacco were planted, and this figure has since dwindled due to the lack of electricity needed to operate irrigation systems.
We estimate the loss at half the contracted yield, which means 0.6 tons per hectare. As a result, we're looking at a total production of 1300 tons down from the initial plan of nearly 1800 tons. That's called pricing propaganda. I agree a hundred percent. I think the whole article's bullshit. That's gonna be, that's propaganda.
Bam Bam: 'cause I'm sorry. We've been out to the farms. We've had conversation with dlo. Mm-hmm. There is no. Electricity based irrigation system, electric that they're using. Period. I mean, that's complete nonsense. I remember seeing these pumps with pipes, but that runs on gasoline. Yeah. Hector, Hector, um, Hector.
Rooster: Hector, Luis pto. Yeah. They have a lot of pumps that pump water. I don't know if it's a full irrigation system, but they're definitely moving water with pumps requiring electricity, gasoline or something. Well, gasoline engines don't need power. Right, right. So if there's plugs or [00:25:00] whatever in there, it's creating that spark that's all contained in the unit, not electrically driven by like a plug, you know, that doesn't add up.
Senator: Yeah. Honestly, I think this is all just to create this scarcity narrative and keep justifying prices. Exactly. That's awful. So it continues here with tobacco production, clearly in distress, Haos SA has begun paying more attention to machine made cigars. Oh Christ produced at the ICT factory in Havana.
Chef Ricky: That's great. Opportunity Electric to make machines. These are not haos, nor do they have the prestige of being hand rolled by traditional cigar rollers. But the brand earned significant revenue from these small, easy to smoke and more affordable cigars, making them among the most profitable products.
Gizmo: What? In 2024 alone, machine made cigars brought in $38 million of the company's total 827 million. I'd like to know what markers are rolled by a machine. Really well. It's the little, the little guys, the little cigars? Yeah. Oh, okay. Mm-hmm. And [00:26:00] cigarettes. Okay. So you guys think it's a cop out and a surge in pricing coming like, you know, h hurricanes and whatnot have done in the past a hundred percent they're blaming electricity.
Senator: But now talking about, well, we've pivoted to something that requires electricity machines making cigars. I mean, that doesn't make any sense. That's right. So it's uh, it's definitely an interesting time in Cuba. Pretty bad marketing right there. Sounds shady.
Gizmo: Oh, so boys this up into is so much better. Ah, happy Mine's great. Classic Mine's. I'm great now. Yep. Baking spice. I'm getting leather. Awesome. It's really nice. A little nutty. Nice. Creamy. So it's more of what you would expect an up two. Mm-hmm. Nice. I'm just glad to see this because when cigar fish, Indo came out and gave this cigar the year, you know, our experience and, and what we had heard a lot of was this needs age don't even bother attempting to smoke at young.
Senator: So I, [00:27:00] you know, took the rating with a grain of salt. But honestly, all the flavor notes that you get in an aged up and two are present here. They're more refined in how they're delivered with age. There's no question about that. The fact that like the DNA is instantly there, I'm impressed. You know, I, I, I'm encouraged that I could go into an LCDH, pick up a Youngman two and actually have a satisfying experience where prior to smoking this, I would've never thought that's even possible.
Gizmo: Yeah. I was very surprised. And we talked about, uh, how surprised we were when cigar fishing auto gave the cigar the year. Because in our experience, it had required significant amount of time to mature to the point that it was a refined, you know, smoking experience. Yeah. To give it cigar the year on what they were smoking out of a fresh box.
We were kind of shocked by. We were thrilled as well. Of course it was nice to see a cubit cigar at the top. Oh yeah. But this is telling us that our, you know, that my second one, certainly my first one wasn't great, but this one is certainly [00:28:00] piggybacking on the idea that cubit cigars are smoking better younger.
Rooster: Yeah. Without the refinement that you're talking about Senator. It's not kind of buttoned up nicely. Right, right now. Well, it also supports that whole conversation about recent runs that are smoking. Well, so boys, let's go to our pairing. We have a Tequila Blanco from Costco. Hu listeners will remember that we did the Tequila Reposado a few weeks ago and we had mentioned this Tequila Blanco that we're doing tonight, which is the Tona version from Kaska.
Gizmo: And we have to shout out Lizard Mike. From California sent us this bottle. Surprised me. Had no idea it was coming. It just showed up. And, uh, so very happy to be drinking this tonight. The Casca Queen, tequila Blanco, the Hunna version. Cheers boys. Cheers. Cheers. I think it's delicious. Yeah, that's very nice.
Grinder: Buttery floral. Some [00:29:00] minerality on the finish. There's a, it's for me, it's salted butter, so I've been drinking this the entire time. The moment I sat down before recording, that's where half the bottle wet as soon as I got it, folks. I don't know why. It's funny, but this is probably how most AA meetings start.
Bam Bam: Correct? I didn't like it, but I think with that palate adjustment, I'm getting that salted butter and there's that sweet, kind of like a sweet, almost sweet butter and salty butter. Yep. Yep. I think it pairs great. I agree with this. It's like a bouquet of flowers in your mouth. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. First sip.
Chef Ricky: This is like super delicious. What I love about scoe, I mean, scoe in general is the bartend, you know, the educated bartender's favorite to key little pitch, uh, to customers. And that's because it's, it's to free, it's made by a rep, reputable distiller. Um. It's clean, [00:30:00] it's coming from, uh, the valley of Tequila El Elco, which is a lower altitude.
So it is very common to get mineral minerality in this, get earthy vegetable notes as opposed to what we would find in the highland tequilas, which they tend to be more of vanilla forward or, or a little sweeter rich. A bet. Richer as well. A little richer. Yeah. Uh, so this is a little oily, but it does finish, uh, somewhat drier.
It cleans up. I think it's gonna pair amazingly well with the floral Herby notes that we find in this cigar. Uh, but there's also some remnants of like green almond or cut grass in this tequila that I think would pair really well with what we're getting in the, so I think this is gonna be, uh, an amazing journey as we go through this cigar.
And yeah, just aona, for those that don't know, is a three ton stone wheel. And in this process, they're using that wheel to crush the agave as opposed to in some more modern methods where they use roller mills or, or shredders [00:31:00] to process that, the, the agave and, and extracted juices. So that's where you get a lot of the minerality from and some of that funk, like there's a lactic note to this tequila that's coming from the use of the tona steel.
I get that on the finish a bit. Yeah. Yeah. And we've talked about Hons because on the top of the Elta Soro, yep. Bottles is a miniature version Tahona. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Miniature little version of that. So we've talked about that, but, so you're saying that using that versus some other technology to, you know, crush the agave, how does it impart that much more?
Gizmo: Because it's porous. It's porous, it's stone, you know, it just kind of, over time it accumulates friction. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And it's being run in that same pit, in, you know, circular motion over and over and over again. And all of those, you know, the, the, the, the well water that's being used. 'cause they spray some water on the agave just to kind of facilitate the removal of the, the juices [00:32:00] from the agave so they could then put that into fermentation tanks.
Chef Ricky: What I do like about Cosco here, they, so I'm a big fan of fermenting and wooden vats 'cause you get even more funk. Uh, i, I love really funky tequilas and mescals, but here, you know, the tona is providing a lot of that minerality. So they're using stainless steel tanks for fermentation. So it kind of keeps the spirit a little cleaner.
Mm-hmm. Um, and I think that's why that finish is kind of just a clean short finish, but it doesn't rob you of flavor. So that's something fun. I think it's a kind of a, it's a good way, it's a good transition for the palate. It kind of serves as a Cali cleanser, palate cleanser as you're smoking the cigar.
So. And is that more, uh, something newer to use steel? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Usually they're pine vats or, or, yeah. Uh, they're wooden, uh, pine, wooden pine vats that are used. Uh, but it is still open air fermented, so it's natural yeast. They're not using any proprietary [00:33:00] yeast or anything like that, so it's still a very, um, natural product.
And you taste it, you know? But if you were to like, put this alongside of, for DSA where they're using wooden vats, there's even more funk than that. Oh, yeah. And yeah, so it's a little bit different. I think that this is a very aromatic tequila, like Oh yeah. On the nose. It's really, really strong. That's what NDA said.
Gizmo: Floral in a nice way. Yeah. And then when you're sipping it, it's floral, it's full, like for a Blanco it is really a full flavored tequila, and there's still some sweetness, you know, it's not like it's, it's Oh, sure. Missing the sweetness. That's where the sweet butter that BA's getting. Yeah. There's a ton.
Chef Ricky: Sweetness. Yeah. So it's, but there's a touch of salt. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Think that's what I like. I think that makes it perfect for the Cuban. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I like. It's just super well balanced. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. Like, you're getting the best of both worlds, like the sweet floral notes and then like the salty minerality, which kind of similar to the cigar we were talking about, like some earthier notes that we get, but also [00:34:00] the sweetness and the baking spice.
Senator: So I, I feel like the, the two marry together really well. Don't forget, it's very, very easy to drink. Yeah. It's not, you know, not a lots of fire. Yeah, a lot of fire going on here. So I'm curious what you guys think about this. This bottle is a hundred bucks, $99 a total wine. You just ruined it. That's too steep.
I'm sorry. Yeah. I'd have to say that. Um, but, you know, the, the, the hon wasn't something that was typical for this distillery, so it, you know, it, it was an additional investment for them. So I get it. You know, whereas, I mean, for, could be found at all kinds of ridiculous pricing now. Uh, but, you know, MSRP for Dissa is a lot more approachable in price.
Chef Ricky: But that distillery was built from the beginning with a tona, with every intention of just going the tona route. We've had other Blancos that [00:35:00] were less expensive, that were also incredible. Oh yeah. I was gonna ask the question. I mean, poop is not here, so I'll have to say it for him. Chef, how much is a bottle of G four?
Senator: G four? Uh, it's, it's around a 50 to $60 range. I mean, this is Steve. I mean, that's an excellent Blanco. This is cha-ching. Yeah. So my question for you is, what do you think, based on what we're tasting and the experience, what do you think this should be priced at? I think 65 Max. Max. Yeah. 60 five's the number.
Gizmo: That's a good number. Well, I'm loving how it's pairing with the cigar. Me too. So I'm, you know, the second ment two is, but I'll also say it is small batch. Right. This isn't their typical production, so it's a much smaller batch. So I'm sure that has something to do with it. Also, the Costco we name over the years has just demanded a higher price point because of the way they produce tequila and what they're doing and the reputation they've been able to build over the last few years.
Chef Ricky: Do you, do you serve this at Anejo? Yes. Yes. How many years have they been around? The distillery has quite a history, [00:36:00] but Kaska ween on its own, I think is a little less than 20, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Been around a while. Yeah. But the distillery much longer. Mm. And their blanco would you say, is that like the most popular expression in their line or?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Quin is like the agave purs brand, right? Like, you really want to taste the tequila and whatnot. So as we've mentioned many times on the spot, usually when that's your goal, you want the unaged, uh, just the unaged varietal just because you want to get what the agave is about the terroir, uh, volcanic soil notes and whatnot.
So, so would you say the normal Blanco from Costco he, the non Taho version, which is probably closer to, I would think, what we'd expect for a Blanco to be priced at? Yeah. You know, 'cause we did the Reposado, which was not tona, it was just in, you know, their normal run Reposado a few weeks ago. It was very good.
Gizmo: Rated quite well. Yeah, we, we loved it. What, how would you compare the normal Blanco Ricky to [00:37:00] what we're drinking tonight? I think this is bringing a lot more minerality than the Blanco does. Um, it brings some earthier kind of funky lactic tones that you wouldn't find in the typical Blanco. Uh, and that's all coming from the tone.
Rooster: It's like getting guacamole made it, um, made in a mote. You pay more for that. Yeah, no, that's a great point. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is that when they do it like tableside? No. Ah, the stone. The stone bowl in that stone and the stone and the stone mortar. So you pay more for the stone then you do, like in a wooden bowl or something If the restaurant knows what they're doing yet?
Chef Ricky: I know you do.
Senator: Good setup. Is that common on, so I, I was surprised when GIZ said that they make a non tona version of this. Is that common? I feel like I've not seen another tequila brand. Obviously. I don't know as much as you do that. Like, has two types of Blancos based on how, like the agaves Distracted, extracted. I'm [00:38:00] really surprised.
Chef Ricky: No, I think the tona, the, the Tona add-on was something that they decided to do after the fact. Uh, just, you know, as, as they were developing scoe and doing the non additive and sticking to the, to the, the, the traditional, the traditions of making tequila, I think they would just wanted to take it to the next level and bring in the ta uh, you know, further man.
Um, the tradition of making tequila. Dude, I'm sorry. This cigar is delicious. Now, taking this, taking this, uh, a draw after you sip is Oh yeah. Is fucking amazing. It is awesome. It's a perfect volley, just the way goes back and forth. You, it's funny. Initially I didn't like the spirit initially. I didn't like the cigar, but they're both like, the pallet adjustment on that was perfect.
Bam Bam: The cigar fought its way back. I kind of like that, you know, it requires patience. I think it makes for an interesting sip. It's, there's something there. I do think the minerality and the tequila, like how grindr's saying when you go back to the cigar, [00:39:00] it like amps up the salt. Absolutely. You're getting in this cigar.
Senator: That's exactly awesome way. That's right. Exactly right. I'm gonna drink a lot of this to Kim. So, just a little bit more on the distillery. It's about 104 years old, but the turning point came with Chava Chava ISS fourth generation. He's the one that started this deep dive into tradition and the, you know, paint homage to the old school methods of making tequila.
Chef Ricky: Hence why the to came in after. And now he's highlighting the use of that tona with this expression. So look, you've highlighted a lot, a lot of history here. Um, this is distinguished itself right above a typical Blanco. Are you happy with the a hundred dollars price point for a bottle? You. No chef. No, no.
Bam Bam: Even with everything that you just discussed, he wants it to be one even thing with everything. No. Well, that's what he charges. No, no. 'cause there's gotta be other blancos made with a te for cheaper, right? Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. So that's el that's yeah. That, that's my thing. It's hard to correct. It's hard, which we love [00:40:00] to justify that, but I, because it's after the fact, and again, things happening later and, you know, I, I'm not gonna pretend that I know what it takes to get, to hold into a distillery and, you know, and do ev everything after the fact, you know?
Chef Ricky: How big are these? They weigh three tons. The ones I've seen are about as tall as, as me. Mm-hmm. So they're about, you know, five, 10 to six feet tall, you know, in a circumference rather. So about five feet in diameter. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's circular. Yep. And it's grinding in a, in a pot of some kind of a still, right?
No, there's a pit. It's a circular pit. And what happens is you cook your agave, right? So three to four days in this process, cooking in a brick oven, uh, you then remove that agave, you lay it in the pit, and then the ta, I don't know how Costco wind pulls theirs, but for dsa, for instance, and many used to use donkeys and now they're using electric mules or, or mules.
And now they're using electric little mini electric tractors. Um, in Cuba they [00:41:00] use mules. Yeah. There's no power. No power. No power. Yeah. Not nice, but maybe accurate. So yeah, they just pull it around in the circular pit until the agave is mashed and they're able to extract all of those juices and wow. They then scoop that all up into the, uh, fermentation bats.
Okay. And that sits there for a couple days, uh, and then it hits the still. Nice. So interesting. So boys, you guys are well into the second, third. Now, I'm, I'm right behind you, I guess, but you're happy about 20 minutes behind you. Very happy, but you're very happy. There you go. Where are you guys at now as you transition into the second, third?
Bam Bam: Honestly, for me, the, the transition's been fantastic. It started off terrible. I'm getting, still getting my nutmeg. It's very creamy. I'm getting a little bit of honey. I think it's exquisite. Yeah. It's like if you were to get cream and honey together, just a very small amount of it. Mm-hmm. And that like hot cream and honey, but even in just the traditional draw without [00:42:00] the retro capturing a lot of that.
Chef Ricky: Mm, I do too. But I get a lot of it on the retro. Of course. Yeah. Retro's great. Yeah. I think for me in the second third, what I really like, I mentioned the first third, I felt the finish was short. A little abrupt in the second third. It's got a longer finish. It's like fuller in flavor. Um, so it's, it's coming together, which is really nice.
Senator: So I'm, I'm hoping that the final third is even better than the second. But for me, the cigar has just gotten better and better as I've smoked it. Yeah. Senator and Grindr are way ahead of us a touch grindr's loving it. I'm really happy. He's like a kid in a candy story. He's got like a big smile on his face.
Grinder: I haven't had one of these since we smoked it on the pod. Wow. Wow. That's a long And it's, that's years, man. I know. It's really, it's a disgrace actually. It's a disgrace. When you, when you're down grinder, you can have gizmos, fast cigar. He's ACEs dis. It's a little, I mean, just, just it's egregious. Enjoying it.
Now I'm just like, what doing, what the fuck have I been doing? God, [00:43:00] I mean, this is, this is why, I mean, obviously my first one, let's put that aside, but this is why this is a classic, you know, pyramid from Cuba. I mean, it just has great flavor. What I love about all the Cuban pyramids is they all stand in their own silo of flavor.
Gizmo: There's not really a lot of overlap. You know, we did the Montery number two a couple weeks ago that has that salt milk chocolate, you know, that's kind of its profile. You have the P two, which has the particles, DNA, you have this, which has that upland, DNA, the diplomatico, which we did perform very well.
Yeah. That, you know, has its own thing. Like they all stand alone. Mm-hmm. Vegas, Albania as well. The, you know, it, it, it's, it's interesting how, yeah, good. Each of them can be. They all stand alone, but it, it's really good to see that finally there's an up and two. You can smoke young because my one big knock on this cigar, as much as I love it, if you look at Amani two, um, A [00:44:00] BBF, I mean anything similarly shaped, we've all been able to smoke those young and enjoy them.
Senator: Mm-hmm. This is like the only CI cigar, not this one. That's right in this vila. That we've had to say, oh no, gotta tuck that away for years time to be able to enjoy it. So it's the one thing that's always annoyed me about this cigar. You can't just go in a shop and pick one up and smoke it and have a great experience, but it seems of recent runs that that's now possible.
So we, we had also not tried a, you know, 2023 never up and two, so not ever. No. Well, and, and what's informing Senator's comment on the way that we were thinking about up and two is Senator and I, I think you as well, bam, I don't know about you Rooster, but we bought some BRE 2018 and BRE 2019 boxes. That's correct.
Gizmo: And that was the experience that we were having. We were looking for what we had gotten or something close to that LU 14. So same factory. We weren't getting it young. Those are smoking deliciously now. Yeah, but they're great. They're worth [00:45:00] five or six years on 'em digging into it. I'm, I'm never included in those splits.
Rooster: So you have to go, you gotta upload your Splitwise app. That's why. Ah, but I think that this is proving that the more recent stuff, as we continue to say is smoking much better young. But I, I also just say that because as prices have crept up. If I'm gonna pay these silly premiums right now, I expect to be able to smoke the cigar relatively soon.
Senator: I'm not looking to drop, you know, 35 bucks on a cigar that I can't smoke for another four years, five years. That's crazy to me. Good point. So that is why, I mean, I've seen these pop up young and I've intentionally just avoided them. Dismissed them because in like the notion of paying more to have to wait that much longer.
When I can get a younger box of Amani two B, B, F, something else, then I know will be ready to smoke. That's what's held me back from this. I haven't bought a box of these since those 2018 and 2019 boxes that we had. So for me, this is like a [00:46:00] huge step because it's been a big problem. Mm-hmm. Not being able to enjoy these with a couple years age, like you can most other Cubans at this point.
Yeah. Yeah. Are any of these made in the provinces? I think they must be, but really most of the stuff I've seen doubtful is coming out of the up in factory and is coming out of La Corona. Correct. You would, that's where I've seen most of the codes, but I would assume that if there's, you know, a need for more, they're probably, you know, pushing it to a provincial of some sort.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm. So, bam. I wanna talk about your vacation. Okay. You, so you went to Turks and Caicos, correct. And you were. Sending us a ton of photos and a ton of updates about food, drinks, cigars. So give us your experience in Turks and Caicos. What was it like? You hear that pagoda a ton of photos, correct? Well, I could have done better.
Senator: I hope you listened to this episode. I could have done better, but, um, overall it was a great experience. I [00:47:00] brought Mrs. Bam Bam. Um, and the two kids tried to get Bam. Junior to smoke. It wasn't happening. It's okay. Um, he's just entering college. Just give it a little bit of time. Yeah. I think he'll come around sophomore year.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It might be a blessing. Well, for the bank book, yes. With his taste. I think overall it was my first time there. Mrs. Bam. Bam has been there twice. The last time was two years ago with my sister, her sisters. Um, they had a great time. Um, and James Harden. That's correct. Oh, that's right. Good memory, Senator.
Yeah, I forgot about that. Um, the food was exquisite. I like to go off the beaten path and go to the local places. There's a place called Mr. Grouper. That's where I had oxtail that looked really good. It was senator. It was delicious. It was like. It was just pure home cooking. It wasn't a fancy place, but um, and you have that there for sure.
And we did that. Those restaurants were also delicious. But something about those [00:48:00] places that are away from the, um, tourist traps, I guess. It was incredible. Um, it was rich, it was hardy. It stuck with you. I had three courses that night. It was fantastic. I'm glad you did that and said that because every vacation I've taken.
Senator: My favorite restaurant always ends up being some like off the beaten path place that's not flooded with tourists that you get like real local cuisine that's not fancily plated for a silly price. So those are some of the best meals. They are. And you know, I had great meals at some of the more fancier restaurants right.
Bam Bam: In where I was staying, but that was probably my best meal of the, of the vacation, honestly. But they help, they help with the transporting of the vacation, right? Yeah. Going to a local spot versus a, a fancy restaurant where That's right. You know, where especially where we're from, we can experience that anytime.
Yep. Um, and we asked the staff where we're staying, where should we go eat? Yeah. And we want a local experience. So they all seven, seven people said this place, so I'm surprised. The place was called Mr. [00:49:00] Grouper. Mr. Grouper. And you ordered the oxtail. I heard, I heard you were surprised. I heard, but honestly, when I found that on the menu, I haven't had oxtail in years and I'm, I was, I, I'm still craving it.
I would love to have it more. Um, I went right for it because I, I was just, I wanna see what it's like. I didn't have it in 15 years. It was, it was really, forgive my ignorance for one second. Is oxtail, is that a very popular Caribbean dish? Yes. Where is that found as, as part, as like the normal? Well, let's ask the bohemian in the room.
Senator: It it's huge in Jamaica. Huge. Yeah. Uh, it's big throughout the Caribbean, but I, I mean, huge in Jamaica. And the thing with oxtail, I mean my, my grandmother used to make this all the time. The quality of the meat is like the most important factor. Like if it's not properly butchered and it is overly fatty and you're not actually getting meat, I mean when you make proper oxtail, the meat just falls off the bone.
It, it's like a short rib, like it's amazing, but when it's just covered in [00:50:00] too much fat, you're losing like the actual meat and that experience. So it's not the easiest thing to find done. Well, it's true, but when you find it, it's spectacular. What I do love, there's a little bit of like the gelatinous ligaments that tie the meat to the bone.
Bam Bam: I love that. And that's something you could really only get on oxtail or it was almost, or X-rated the way I was eating this meal. Oh yeah. It was, it's essential experience. It was just, just the meal. Well, and the, and the tequila after dark, it was something else. But yeah, the way that I, you have to really work to get that.
It was. Anyway. Fantastic. It's a great dish, man. So what are the, what are the traditional sides with oxil? Is it rice and beans like we'd expect in the Caribbean or is it something else? So rice and peas in the Caribbean call it. So typically yes. So what they did there, little different. So they had rice peas, but they also added the red kidney beans mixed in with that.
So it made it more of a hardier meal. When I say peas, I don't mean peas like weed here, right? Yeah, they're more like beans. They, they refer to beans as peas there. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome, awesome. Pigeon peas are, are normally used. You [00:51:00] use kidney peas as well? Yep. And you and I ordered mixed vegetables with it.
It, it's, it's, it's so good, man. Yeah, it's be, I think it's, i, it's kind of better than short rib, you know? And I agree. Oh yeah, it tastes a little, a little different. Yeah. There's a lot more gelatin and it's not a regional, it's not, it's not just a Caribbean like, you know, it's actually, I think probably it's probably like Spanish derived, European derived that obviously maybe like it's, you know, it's found in a lot of different cultures too.
Grinder: Most of it's like tomato-based, like, um, so anyone, anyone traveling to Turks, I think they won't be disappointed in the food scene, the food scene's. Fantastic. So the, so wait a second, I'm, I'm, forgive my ignorance. Mm-hmm. It's Turks and Caicos. Correct. So are they two different islands?
Bam Bam: I'm guessing. No, no. I think it's just, I think that's just the country. There are, there's grand series there of islands that make up Turks and Caicos. There's South Caicos, some of the people we're talking about there, where a lot of Jamaicans are. Um, and what was [00:52:00] cool, it's very multicultural. So there were people from multiple is there's people from Trinidad and Tobago there, there were people from Jamaica there, from The Bahamas were there.
That's great. I mean, c the Caribbeans like that, like, it's so Yeah. Like they, they float around and they go to where they can make their money. Yeah. This, so one guy that I met, he and his four sons have a logistics company. They have a company in Turks and Caicos. They have a company in The Bahamas and a company in Jamaica, and they'll do tourism, transportation.
You're talking about like black, like limo, like black. Yeah. So Escalade level and above. And it was, and it's, but the thing is it's very reasonably priced. So you're getting in a car that's really very comfortable and I, you know, I looked at him and said, it's very impressive. He said, yeah, it took us 25 years to get the business up.
But you know, all, all my sons are in the business. I'm in the business. I'm about to retire. My sons will take over. So the food was great, but I will say the alcohol on that island is extremely expensive. Um, I made the [00:53:00] mistake of not stocking my room. Uh, big mistake. Oh man. Oh, you gotta tell how much a bottle of Havana Club.
Seven $75. Yeah. Insane. And we're buying it for what? 12 to 15 bucks. How much was, how much was the one you dropped at the Havana Airport? Havana and Smashed? That was $818. Wait, that, that, that was when was that? Forget it. So wait a, wait, wait. 12. How much is a bottle of Havana? Seven. Havana. Seven in Havana is 12 to 15.
Gizmo: Anywhere between 18. 18, 20 18. Yeah. At the airport. I think 26 ml. What, for seven 50 ml? Yeah. What they're charging that at, you know, 75, the smaller bottle was $75. Wow. My gosh. That's insane. That's ridiculous. That's great. Forget the cigars on the way back. Just bring back a suitcase of that. Yeah. You know, um, I had a Guatemalan rum zpa 23 year.
Bam Bam: It was delicious. I'm, I'm about to search for that bottle, so I bought, I bought Fantastic. It's, it's not that good, [00:54:00] man. Isn't super sweet. I actually, I don't loaded with sugar. Don't buy any. Maybe that's why I like this so much. I actually, I, I bought, dude, I was going back to the bar over and over for that man.
Grinder: I bought Senator a bottle of that for some gift. I think it was my birthday. Was it your birthday? It was the thought that counted. Yeah. But no, but to be fair, we didn't, we hadn't yet died. No, we had it at all into rum. Yeah. So I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. It just looked like a fancy bottle. And it's a nice bottle.
The, the, it's a nice bottle. The guy told me it was a good rum. You know, I didn't really QC it very much and it was, had a lot of age on it. I was like, it can't be that bad. Right. And I. It's not, it's loaded with sugar. It's loaded with sugar. I'm serious. Is it? If you look up that exact bottle. 'cause I, I don't, I think you missed his episode.
Senator: Yeah. We did a rum sugar. Yeah. We went into deep, uh, uh, chef found a, like a, a spreadsheet on Reddit that actually, uh, estimated all of the sugar content in different rums. And what we found is like most rums that [00:55:00] we like, have between like four to six grams of sugar, like residual sugar per glass. Uh, in that there's 30 grams.
So that, that ha That can't be residual. That has to be added. Added. Sorry, sorry. Added sugar. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. So I drank that. Would there, I had spent one night going back for that over and over. Um, I did, it was dessert. It's okay. It, it was very good. Um, but the rest of the week I was drinking, uh, uh, tequila ocho.
Bam Bam: Nice. Yeah. How much was that? 40 bucks a glass. Wow. Oh wow. A glass. A glass. Jesus. Can I ask you a question? H Oh, you made a big mistake. I have no idea. H is it a blanco repo? But here's the thing. Here's the thing. So I had a buddy of mine from town. He was also in Turks. We met up for a smoke two or three times.
He went to the supermarket, very smart bottled of tequila Ocho. He had a rum there in his, in his place. 'cause I visited where they were staying. I made a mistake not going to that supermarket and loading up. I'll make it even easier [00:56:00] setting up my own cocktails. When you land almost anywhere, go to the duty free that didn't do that either.
Senator: And bring stuff to your room. Yeah. Yeah. Like when I went to Mexico, this was in January. It was in Riviera May, same thing. It was like a stupid, it would've been like 40 bucks a glass that it's insane. How expensive. It's, I bought Tequila OCHO at the duty free. Yeah. It was like 40 bucks a bottle, not a glass.
Gizmo: Oh my God. And I was dialed in. It was great. That's incredible because well know Bam tries to avoid duty free shops. No, I don't. He's had a little trauma there. Well, I have had trauma, uh, and Mrs. Bam Bams on a huge tequila Barron now. Nice. So she listened to the podcast. Yeah, she bankrupted me that trip with her dress.
Bam Bam: It's. Um, so, but at least she's drinking tequila. Yes. Yeah. Clean tequila as well. Yeah. Very good. That's great. So let's talk about Seor. Yeah. So there's an LCDH in town. Uh, it's been there about six years. And that same owner, they're from India, the family that owns that location. I'm sorry. Of course. That's okay.
They were, no, they were great. They own another shop [00:57:00] that's been there for about eight years. So they started with that. Not an LCDH, but they have a very eclectic humidor. They've got pad drones, they've got Doffs there and a ton of Cubans. That's impressive. It is. How much was a Padron? Uh, 22 bucks Exclusive.
That's not bad. That's better than Manhattan. That's not bad. Yeah, that's not bad. Yeah, they didn't have the millennium, the Davidoff, millennium Pyramid, but they had the Toro. That was 24 bucks. That's good. I didn't buy that. Um, I didn't buy a single Cuban there because when I was in that shop, have you seen our LCDH store up the road?
So I didn't buy any of those there. I walked up the street, bought two boxes of cigars there, went upstairs, had a Magnum 46. I told you earlier, it was exquisite for, what was it, 28 bucks. Was that out of a box or a tubo? It was out of a box. Nice. Yeah. You bought, you bought two boxes in Turks and Kickers? I did, and I brought them home.
Yeah. What boxes? The um, Pargo D four. Oh yeah, you told me. Yep. And the Ramono on Esante. [00:58:00] Nice. Yes. The double Corona. Yeah. That rated very well. It did, and I wanted to try it and see what it's like after like a month sitting in the, in the tower. They're both in freezer protocol right now. Excellent. Why not?
Senator: Very smart. Yes. So hold on. Time out Freezer protocol. Mm-hmm. You're freezer? Yes. Not gizmos Mine. And you got a vacuum sealer? I do not. Oh, geez. Oh boy. No, I've done this before. It's fine. Let's, let's perfectly fine. Fine. GMO is gonna have an, it's perfectly fine. I've done it before. Just go to Ziploc straw on top of the straw ice cream.
Rooster: Or below it, right on top of the ice cream. Alright, hold on, hold on. Underneath the frozen oxtails. Hold on. How are, are we talking about the fridge in your kitchen? Yes. Okay. Perfectly fine. It's not, it's not. I've done it before. No, I have, I already pulled it up. He's got a separate freezer. I have a document.
Grinder: You see, he pulls up the, the chart, the cigar bele mortality. Wait, what? I lit the match and I knew this was gonna happen. What? You're such a [00:59:00] geek. The cigar beetle mortality at various temperatures. I don't know what the temperature meant. It's cold. So here's the point here. Bi. So I'm gonna go to the worst one.
Gizmo: I have five charts, one on egg, one on larva, one on pu poop. I don't wanna, ie. Ite, I regret mentioning any of this one on an adult and one on at an acclimated larva. You just walked into an accountability hour. Of course I did. What else is new? Alright, so listen, check this out. Yeah, I'm not listening. If you gotta, you gotta vacuum seal 'em number one.
'cause they'll absorb the wait. Why? Yeah, why? They'll absorb, it'll absorb the oxtail, the flavor. The flavor of other things. In your freezer, in your freezer. Anything else going on in your freezer? It's gonna absorb that even if they're in a sealed bag. What kind of bag is it? A Ziploc. Ziploc. Okay. Is it a freezer bag?
Bam Bam: Uh, yeah. Okay. All we're doing. Okay. I took it outta the box, separated the, the two cigar bundles, and I put them in their own Ziploc bags. All right. No. Good. That's pretty good. Gizmo still doesn't [01:00:00] look satisfied. It'll pass. I think it'll be fine. It's like a B minus. I've done it before. Not an issue. They won't say, see the problem here on, on the cigar beetle mortality?
Gizmo: Mm-hmm. Is that, oh, for fuck's sakes. For one CCB M do you not know for 100% mortality at let's say? Mm-hmm. Negative five degrees Celsius, 2323 degrees Fahrenheit, which is assuming the door's getting open and closed. Right. It takes 504 hours to kill that. 500 hours. Yes. I'm at 72 hours and I'm taking 'em out tomorrow.
Bam Bam: It's about six months. Yeah, I'm not doing that. Six months. You're good. Nah. Cigars are gonna taste like chicken franchise or Could be. Could be. Or vanilla ice cream or bolognese. Boaz. I don't freeze. My bolognese or the bolognese will be a little smoky, that's all. Listen, it is very important to properly freeze your cigars motherfucker.
Gizmo: Okay. So if you ever need this chart, any listeners out there who want these cigar beetle [01:01:00] mortality at various temperatures chart. I have an now what? Do you have a thermometer in your freezer? I do, actually. I have a, do you, I have a gov in my freezer that is that he, he's monitoring his freezer right now from his phone.
Senator: Does it have Bluetooth? Is it Bluetooth? T Of course, of course. He's gizmo. Why This one is Bluetooth. I'll tell you what the temperature was. Is there, hold on. Is there there frozen kitty litter in there? Did you build an extra fa into your freezer? So right now, uh, my freezer is three degrees Fahrenheit and 73.
Gizmo: That's too warm. 73%. That's way too warm. And that is my downstairs deep freezer on the highest setting. I just killed my buzz. Dude, that's impressive. Very impressive. I guess you, you never ceased to impress me. That's true. Impress amazed. Whatever word you want to use, it's a euphemism Senator. It's a euphemism.
Bam Bam: Well anyway, chef, I'm gonna take my cigars out tomorrow here. Rebox 'em. Let the rebought let, [01:02:00] well let them. I like to put down. Paper towel and then have the cigars on that. Let the Beatles mate Yeah. Let them leave the, let the Beatles
Rooster: spray some pesticide. Sure. Yes. Soak him the roundup. Correct. Get some, get some baby oil. Can I talk please? You know what? Kills cigar? Beetles fire? Yes. Just like that shit. Lemme just burn the cigars. That's it. Just fucking smoke that shit up and smoke it. Nah, I feel better getting 'em in there. They taste good.
Bam Bam: Come on. I'll take them out. I'll let them sit for a bit and I'll rebox 'em. They taste like oxtail uhhuh. Okay. Bam. Next time you go on vacation, I have a vacuum sealer. I'm never talking about another vacation again. You've killed it. So I I have a wait. Can, can, we can, did, did you uh, did you like go swimming?
Grinder: Did you do any aquatics? Yeah. You have a nice tan ba. Thank you. I wanted to tell you that, so you know, a lot of pool time, a lot of beach time. He looks like he [01:03:00] went to the gym over there too. No. No, he's, dude, these shirts that you're wearing right now, they are very good for you. Yeah. I'll never do You look fucking ripped, dude.
I'll never do great. Not gonna tell you to manufacture. Not gonna happen. You, I'm serious, man. Thank you. It works. Appreciate you, man. Not bad for an old man. It was a segue into getting me added that fucking freezer protocol. Thank you. Sure. Um, yeah, so beach time, pool time, uh, bam. Junior and I did jet skis.
Bam Bam: That was fun. Oh, nice. Yeah. Little activity there. That's cool. Um, I wanted to take him deep sea fishing, but that was a no go. Can you tell us how you approached Bam Junior about a smoking a stick with you? Yeah. I look at him and I give him a wink. Come on, let's go have our cigar together. Our first cigar, celebratory cigar going to college.
You're a man now. He says, uh, no dad, but I'll give you, I'll give you a rain check. That's what he says, huh? Rain check's better than rain check's. Better, better than no. Yeah. So in, in, um, what was it, sophomore year, he promised me [01:04:00] that he'll have a cigar with me. Graduation didn't happen. So I'm hoping now maybe sophomore year when he's back, well at least, you know, we'll, he won't fall to peer pressure in college.
That's a good point. That's right. I like that. He is Chef Rickey. Good point. You know, I'll say he is a dialed in kid. He doesn't buy into any of that, so I'm very happy about that. Um, it's very stoic. Good head on his shoulders type of kid. Depends on the crowd. He, uh, he, he has never, well, they're all nerds where he's going, so.
Yeah. So on the island, I just want to so clear this up. So you smoked a Magnum 46 and a Ramona alone, especially select you, and you smoked a RA out of the store. Yep. How much was the ra? The RAs was 32 bucks. That's a little pricey. And the mag was 28. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think they're both expensive. It was a lot.
And that LCDH doesn't allow outside cigars. So what, whatever you're smoking, you're buying from the shop and you brought your own cigars as well? I brought my, I brought my pouch, but I couldn't smoke 'em anywhere. No. Oh no, not in that particular shop. Did you smoke at the pool or at the [01:05:00] beach or anything like that?
Gizmo: So I was the only person on that entire property that smoked cigars. Wow. How was the staff though about you smoking in different, different places? Well, I did it at night, covertly and the outskirts of the property. So does this Marriott property have like the, like it's, is it, does it have like timeshare is like a timeshare situation.
Grinder: They don't, um, so there's the main hotel, which is exquisite, and they had two residential towers. Those are units that are for sale, but apparently they're able to, through the hotel, rent those to hotel stayers. So there's an arrangement that they have with the hotel. I guess the hotel gets a piece of the, of the revenue.
Bam Bam: Uh, we had a huge two bedroom suite. It was fantastic. And because it's a down season, I was able to get every good price. Yeah. Otherwise I wouldn't go. How, how they typically charge how long down there like it was 82, 83 during the day, every single day. And it was nice. That's perfect. Yeah. And it was 80 to 81 [01:06:00] every night.
So it didn't fluctuate much from daytime to nighttime. It was great. I love the Caribbean man. Yeah, the weather was great. The best. And June, I think is the best time to go to the Caribbean. Awesome. I think any later into the summer be a little hot. I think. I think haven't been there in a long time. Hey, spring is a great time.
I think there's not a bad time to go to the Caribbean. Truly. Yeah. I mean from the point of view of price though, it matters. 'cause if you're gonna high season Oh yeah. Any of the summer months Yeah, true. Is low season. Yes. Which is my favorite time to go. Me too. So, bam. I'm glad you had a great vacation.
Gizmo: Yeah. Welcome back. Thank you. We missed you last week. I missed you guys and uh, when we're, uh, we're, we'll talk about freezer protocol offline. How was that Sir Winston that you guys had that night? It was excellent. Well played. Look how quickly he got off that freezer coming. Thank you for the listener. We told Bam, uh, 'cause he was out last week on vacation.
We told him that we were smoking, we were gonna pivot and we were gonna do a uh, sir Winston night without him. Yeah, that was great. I mean, we didn't record it, but we definitely had one here at the lounge after. Hilarious. There's no [01:07:00] way you believe that though. No, I didn't. Yeah. Alright boys, let's go to a listener email now.
This is gonna be our lizard of the week. Of course, anybody out there can win Lizard of the Week. All you have to do is send us an email like Lizard Denny did here, uh, a comment on YouTube, Instagram, whatever it may be, and you can win. So let's start here with Lizard Denny's email. He says, Hey, lizards. I'm a long time listener.
I'm on my second run through since the beginning. It's pretty cool. The podcast is a wonderful getaway for a newer smoker such as myself. Sincerely, a very big thank you to each of you. I thought of an idea that may help new listeners break into the world of Cubans. The amount of brands can be overwhelming to someone out of the know.
It would be helpful to have at least one episode centered around an overview of each brand available, or perhaps a shorter list of the most prominent and popular ones. I'd love to have this available to 0.2 to help spread the word about your, about both your show. And Cuban [01:08:00] cigars. Some questions to get this thing going.
What reputations do each of the brands have? What is someone who's buying Amani Kristo, for example, typically expect in taste, strength, in value, consistency? Which brands, if any, would you advise skipping entirely at first? Romeo Julieta looking at you. He puts in, uh, in parentheses. If you say it, say it ba.
Bam Bam: That's correct. If you could build a five pack sampler made for the masses without knowing any taste or size preferences, what would it have? That's a great question. That's where I wanted to go. That's, that's great. Great question. So hold on to that. Think about your answer there, boys. He says, PS your last episode.
Gizmo: Ask listeners to chime in on opinions about dialing down the frequency of Cuban cigars. Obviously two weeks ago for listeners out there, we talked about we have a solution. Uh, we're gonna continue with our cadence of a Cuban every other week for now. Um, you know, obviously we were inundated. I'm gonna read some more emails later, but, uh, inundated with international emails, especially saying, Hey, all we can get is Cuban cigars.
So we're gonna try to [01:09:00] continue with our current cadence of, uh, new World and Cuban every other week. Uh, so that was the resolution there, at least for now. So we'll see how that works out. But he says, I think the choice is clear. Based on the tone set by that discussion, Cuban should be cut back, at least for now.
I'm sure many listeners would agree. We want the show to be sustainable, and understandably, that's becoming more and more of a challenge. Beyond that, though, we want it to feel sustainable for you all too. That means you've gotta love it, all of it. And if there's more love for the new worlds right now, then let's hear more about 'em.
That'll make better content anyway. Once a month for Cuban seems fine to me. It'll keep all of our wallets happy. Cheers to you all. Long live the pod lizard. Denny. Very long with the pod. Great long with the pod. Fuck yeah. Very good. I love that. Great email from Lizard Denny. I love that enthusiasm. I love that question.
Love the question as well. So let's talk about, just very briefly, let's go through the global brands. Okay? Let's go through the global bands on his first question, and then we'll talk about a five pack that [01:10:00] we'd put together. All right, so he's saying here. What is someone who's buying a Monte Crista, for example, typically expecting in taste?
So we just did a Mono Cristo number two, two weeks ago. So when you think Monte Cristo guys, what is the flavor profile that a listener should be expecting? A new smoker. Salt, salty, salty twang. Yeah. Milk chocolate. Yeah. Salty twang and milk chocolate are the two that come to me. I agree. Um, I think that's more of a traditional, typical Cuban profile that you're getting from that cigar.
Bam Bam: Yeah, barn. A little barnyard too, maybe. Yeah. I wouldn't say typical in the sense that mm-hmm. It's a classic, the whole Monte line, you get more cocoa than you get in any Cuban market, period. That's true. I agree. That's true. There's nothing like it. I do consider the Moni as a classic Cuban cigar. It is. I mean, it's one of the most successful ever.
Yeah. Yeah. But even in a good Monte four, you're still getting that chocolate. You're still getting that salt. You, you know. Oh yeah. A lot. The petite number two, obviously the smaller version of the one we did. Obviously you're getting that [01:11:00] there. You know, even the Wide Edmundo we did, which was the newest release that was good out of Cuba.
Gizmo: That was a great cigar. Yeah, we rated that a 90 point cigar. So, you know, I think Monte Cristo comes down to salty twang, milk, chocolate and cocoa. Yeah. Coco salt Coco co chocolate. Yes. And, and I would just add, you know, he mentioned New World cigars to me. The Monty Line is one of the easiest transitions for a new world smoker to get into Cuban cigars.
Senator: Given that so many new World cigars. Cocoa is like a prominent note or coffee or something in that family. Mm-hmm. Dark chocolate. Exactly. Yeah. So I feel like Monty's a very easy way to entry point into the Cuban catalog and then obviously you'll get other notes from other Marcus, but I would start someone you know there, or Yeah.
Somewhere similar. Yep. Alright, so let's go to the next one. Let's go to Parus. Mm. So when you think Parus, of course the cigars that are coming to mind are the [01:12:00] D four, of course. I'm always thinking of the Luan, the 8, 9, 8, the E two, the Parus E two. Oh yeah, the P two. Mm-hmm. Some folks like the other letter series cigars, the D five, the D six.
Bam Bam: You know, the cool thing about that mark is each cigar does kind of stand on its own. There are notes that you're getting in the E two that you won't typically get in a D four, in my opinion. And the P two differs from those two. Um, but I'm, I'm gonna let Senator talk about the D four, but for me, the E two is one of my favorite parti guess.
And I get a touch of graham cracker. I do get a very rich coffee, um, in the E two, a little a touch of leather. In that cigar. I probably get nuances of what I would typically get in a new world than in most any other Cuban cigar that I would smoke. I would say, you know, just piggybacking on your comment, like leather and, uh, cream and it's sweet cream.
Grinder: Yeah. Leather and that guy And, and cream and, [01:13:00] and some of that floral. Yeah. I think a parus that doesn't get enough mention on this pod. And for me, because we've done it recently, it sticks with me. The, the number one and the number three. Those had very rich. You're talking about the Maduro? The Maduro number one?
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Ah, that tho that had a, well the one that wasn't here for the pod, but Bam. Shared one with me. 'cause it was the very first one smoke. But that came from smoking in number three. So those are outliers in, they are outliers. I don't, I don't like in this mark of they're outliers. I remember that in a good way.
Yeah. I remember that. Having a really rich lactic note. Sure. And that was one of the, that was the first time I got that in a cigar and I've found it since throughout our smoking event. I also think the Linea Mara that we did, the Reto is also an outlier. Very good cigar. Yes. I think at the last half or the last third it kind of moved into traditional parus territory.
Gizmo: Correct. But we were, that was like salted butter popcorn. Yep. You know, as we were commenting really throughout the whole cigar. So I think that's an outlier. So yeah. Senator, what would you say as resident? Mr. Parus, you know, classic resident D four Man classic. [01:14:00] Core flavor notes from Parus. I think if you love dessert notes in a cigar, I think baking spice is prevalent in just about almost every parus cigar.
Senator: It's just dialed up in different ways, in, in different, uh, different cigars in the line, but also specific baked baking spices. Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon in a D four if you have a heavily, heavily aged D four. Yeah. Yeah. I will never forget Uba had a box of, I'm forgetting the year, but it couldn't have been any older than 2016.
It's probably even a little older than that. These aged fours that, I'm not kidding. There was so much cinnamon, whatever that like cinnamon candy, like red hot or Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it literally was like eating a cinnamon candy. Mm-hmm. It was wild to the point that you would think it wasn't even natural how they were able to do that.
Um, so that note, I just, to [01:15:00] me like parus screams baking spice, particularly cinnamon. Mm-hmm. And the D four is like the boldest expression of that, where you get so much of that note throughout. That's correct. Um, obviously you get other things in there. I think like there's some cedar, there's some like a.
I dunno if you wanna say shortbread or some kind of like a cookie. A a baked good. Yeah, exactly. For the D four in particular and a little bit in the E two. Agreed. That baked, that baked good type of a, like a snickerdoodle. I don't know. Snicker dole. It, it's like a cookie that's not sweet. And you get that dhy expression in that E two.
Bam Bam: I get that in a D four as well. And then there's just like a little bit of nuttiness as well. Like I, I always, you know, my two favorite markets tend to be parus and up men, and there's some commonalities in that. Like both have some baking spice, both have some nuttiness. I think in Parus, the baking spice is dialed up in up men, like the nuttiness is dialed up.
Senator: So, um, yeah, if you like any of those notes, I mean, Parus is a home run. Yeah. The Parus eight, [01:16:00] nine. Eight. Yeah. Oh dude, it's a classic. Oh, some aged parus. 8, 9 8. That's, that's a holy grail cigar now. Yeah, they're even floral. Yeah. You get like a floral, uh, yeah. Note out of that. Yeah. And the last thing we'd be remiss if we don't say, I mean, on the scale of kind of just body flavor, um, strength, you know, Parus leans on the f.
Medium, full side, right? No Cuban cigar is truly full, or no Cuban market at least is truly full. Um, but if you like a more flavorful smoke, that's what Parus is really known for delivering, where there are other markets that are much, much milder. So that's another thing I would just consider as your kind of figuring out the catalog, except for that Mado line, which is more of an outlier.
Bam Bam: Like I said earlier, those are to me, pushed that full fuller agree. Yeah. So boys, we'll take a break here very briefly. We're coming into the last third on the H up in number two. [01:17:00] How quickly you caught up? I caught up. I'm loving this cigar right now. Me too. It's fantastic. Yep. It's exactly what I expect.
Gizmo: I'm not getting that harshness or youth, which I'm happy about. I'm curious. Grindr Senator, are you guys getting that anymore? No. No. It's, it's, it's kind of, it's kind of like transformed into this herbaceous, like it's a rich daily time. Rich, rich experience. Beautiful. Call out. It's not bitter, it's beautiful.
Grinder: Call out. It's, it's got this herbaceous, it's like a kind of anise. Yeah. Yeah. Little a nice call. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of, whatcha, whatcha you guys cooking together? What's going on here? But, but like that the bitterness kind of, it's, it's transformed into an aous like flavor and it's fucking awesome. Yeah, I agree.
Senator: The final third has gotten more savory. Exactly like Grindr's saying. Yeah. And you know, the second third I mentioned the finish was longer. I wasn't getting that like abrupt, slightly bitter note that signified youth in the first third and in the final third. [01:18:00] Despite it picking up even a little bit in strength.
You don't really detect youth. Um, I, this is an awesome cigar. Yeah. I can't believe this just has a few years of age. It's true, it's true to me. So I, when you just laid down that herbaceous sort of, you know, bay Leaf note. I was thinking this the entire way. One of my favorite things to do when making mashed potatoes or anything that requires cream is dropping a bay leaf into that cream.
Chef Ricky: And I love the aroma and the flavor that the bay leaf gives to the cream. Mm-hmm. And that's exactly what the cigar has transformed into right now. It's floral, slightly herbaceous. There's a slight anise undertone there. I love the way it developed. I love the way it's pairing with the tequila that's also delivering some great veal creamy notes.
You still get, you're not getting any of that sweet cream still. I am, I am. I'm too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. But that, that's the key. You know, every, every bit of commentary chef had slight this like that. There's balance still. That's what's like amazing, like as a cigar has picked up in [01:19:00] strength, it heats up naturally when you're getting closer to the end.
Senator: Everything has stayed in balance. 'cause like if that bay leaf note or the herbaceous notes we're talking about got way too pronounced bitter. Exactly. And so a, a real credit. I mean, this is perfectly done. Yeah. For me, the bitter bitterness, whatever I was getting was slightly bitter. Was initially like in the first third.
Rooster: Yeah. You were still out of the entire room after GIZ re-lit or lit a new cigar. I think you were still in that phase where you were. Teetering. I'm not liking this. Yeah. I, I would say after, after the first third. Mm-hmm. It, it, it did change a bit. I started getting that, that sweetness, the sweet note. And, uh, hang on, I'm dry dirt.
Bam Bam: I, hold on guys. I gotta welt some steel. I'm sorry. This is episode 192, by the way. I and Grindr put his lighter right into the microphone to get lit it on fire. I need to get a new pop filter for that. It's [01:20:00] not, it's, it's been a minute since I've had this much tequila. This, this shorted episode. Holy cow.
Gizmo: Sorry. So h up getting back to Lizard Denny's question. Mm. What would be the classic H up? And we obviously talked about a lot of those things in our, kind of moving into the last third here on this cigar. What would H up man's. Classic flavor profile be across the line. I mean, number one is baking spice.
Baking spice. Yeah. Baking spice, nuttiness nut, nutty leather. Little leather. Leather little. Honestly, I, I do think that walnut almond nuttiness. Yeah, almond I think is, almond Almond is a very traditional note in Mond, but also it's balanced with a little bit of baking spice. Not as much as the particles line, just the touch.
Bam Bam: And there is that ness happening in some of the, it's like a sourdough bread. Yeah, it's like a sourdough toast. Yeah. Exactly. Now for me in particular, the Mag 4 54 is where I experienced that the most. Yeah. Where I think the Mag 46, if you get a really, really good one and they're not consistent, [01:21:00] that's where I think you're getting all of the things that we just discussed in beautiful balance and more cocoa in Meg 46.
I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Now, if you're talking half Corona, you're getting a little more citrus in that than you would in in number two. Um, I've never gotten that before in, in the half Corona, but the half Corona is one of the most exquisite little cigars that you're ever gonna have. I think the half Corona is like the little brother to the H up and number two that we have in our hand.
Gizmo: I think that cigar in its little profile. Yeah. Kind of nails classic up man. For me, e even for how, you know, Dimi of it, it is like, it's, it's such a great little cigar. I'm glad Chef mentioned that. I think it's a classic, that's a classic cigar that you have to have in your tower. Yes. And I think like that profile is like nuttiness, baking spice and a little cream.
Correct. And for me, that is like. The ultimate dessert cigar, like the end of the night. You've kind of gone through your, your sit. It's a perfect way to end the night and it's like your last 25, 30 minutes. Yeah. I don't know if there's anything better than that. I agree. Than an H Chapman Half [01:22:00] Corona.
Correct. Alright boys, let's move on to the next one. Romeo Julieta. Uh, pass day away. I don't even, so I'm honest. I don't even know. Yeah. Is there not even one? So we've done, uh, we've done a couple of their cigars. We actually have the Churchill, which is one of the most famous cubit cigars ever coming up in a few weeks that we're gonna review, which I'm actually looking forward to.
'cause Rob Isla says that they're smoking great right now. So I'm really, really excited. Is that, is that episode 200? No, no. It'll probably be episode 1 94 or 1 9 6. Yeah, please don't do that for a milestone. Love you, Rob.
So I, thanks Rob Romeo Julieta has a huge catalog. They, you know, we did the Wide Churchill. Folks love the Short Churchill. Obviously the Churchill, we talked about the exhibition number four. I mean, when I think of Romeo Julietta, the decent ones that I've had, I've not had really amazing experiences with them.
I know Rooster, you really love [01:23:00] the, is it the wide, the wide Churchill? The wide Churchill. I, I also like the wide Chicho a lot. Yeah. I mean, how would you describe the flavor notes? Get distinct cherry note cherry, which you really don't get out of. And wood. Yeah. Wow. You don't really get that out of any cigar.
Rooster: Yeah. The, the cherry thing is accurate. I, I vividly remember. Dark cherry. The first good RNA Churchill I had, Grindr actually gave me, and this is back when we were in my garage lounge. I smoked that. I got cherry all the way through it, and I, it, it, there's no other cigar. I got that level of a cherry note and I was so impressed by it.
Senator: I bought a box and then was sorely disappointed. But that No, no. It's, it's nothing to do with you. I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Like that's the, you know, that's the story of r and j. Like, dude, there's some times I remember, I remember one night we were out to dinner, it was outside, the weather was perfect.
Bam Bam: Center the lights up. Our Romeo and Juliet, I think it was a Churchill, two puffs in, I think he practically threw [01:24:00] it across the table. Dude was like, what the fuck is going on with this guy's cigar? I snapped one in half. I've never done this cigar. Yeah. It's the only cigar I've ever done it with. I don't have enough experience.
Senator: I had so many draw issues with that box I bought. Yeah. The flavor was so muddled. It was horrible. I, I think, I think r and j is also subject to like, they have a bad rep. Like, they, like they at, at least among cigar smokers. Right? Well, people love them, but Well, yeah, but like novice cigar smokers love 'em.
Grinder: Correct. And the, the, the, the folks that smoke a lot of Cuban cigars, they kind of look down on them. E even us. Right? Really like here we are kind of lambasting them. Right. But they do have shining. Qualities. Like they, they, it's still a Cuban premier cigar. I mean, it's a historic brand. Yeah. I mean, it, it's, they like the wide Churchill.
Yeah. It's, it's awesome. I'm hoping, I'm hoping that when we smoke those Churchills on a recent run, I'm hoping and praying that we can [01:25:00] talk about RNJ the way that we're talking about these other recent run of cigars, that somehow and some way they've improved to a level that they're really even good.
Gizmo: You know, even if we don't get to great, even if they're good and we can do like a soft recommend, I'd be happy with that. It just doesn't track that like their quality is, is worse than the rest of Cuba. Like, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense to me. Well, it does and it doesn't. I mean, the part of it that it does to me.
Senator: You know, it's so popular globally. They must pump out. God knows how many cigars. I mean Yeah. You know, we don't buy them anymore, but, you know, we're a sliver of the, you know, cigar smoking market. Like, there's a lot more novice and intermediate smokers, if you wanna call them that, that reach for r and j because the flavor profile is very approachable.
Mm-hmm. You know, I think that's how they became kind of as big of a brand as they are. There's nothing strong that they make it, it's like most things are mild at absolute most medium. And so anybody can really pick one of those [01:26:00] cigars up and be okay straight. I Wait, when was the last time ever that you saw Arm, I mean the last time on, on a Facebook group that we belong to, or, you know, there's so many of them.
Rooster: I haven't ever If you saw an RYJ No, it's not long time. You, you, you almost never see it. No, you don't. It's true. It's, it's, it's the cigar that. Hey, I got like, when, when Sal down the street gets a box of Cubans, he like pops open a a, a box of like Romeo and Julietta Churchills. Like that's, you know, it's, it's not, I mean they used to be good back in the day.
Only you I would know. Yeah. Those silver, the silver tube 1942 Back, back. The shoe guy at my club back when the, back when the Spanish were still on Cuba. So I would say to answer another one of Lizard Denny's questions, I think Rome, Juliet, the, for a novice at beginner smoker, I would put that marker aside.
Gizmo: I would [01:27:00] not chase that marker when you start smoking Cuban cigars. Because at least in our experience so far, it has been quite disappointing. Um, as a, as a general comment on, on Romeo Julietta. Well if not, when you start, when do you ever, you know, I mean, shouldn't a crappy one be in the beginning and then you work your way up or at these prices?
Chef Ricky. That's why this podcast is valuable. Yeah. I'm hoping that we're saving folks a lot of money. Correct? Yeah. Wait till you get reviews. Get foot wise for that Orange J Churchill. That's correct. Was it 60 bucks a stick? I don't know what it was. I'm pretty sure that's the number you told me. And I decided I'm gonna be conveniently absent that day.
Senator: Oh, come on. Crazy. They're 42. Hmm. So another one, boys Hoya to Monterey. Oh. So we've had up and down experiences with Monte Bread, polarizing marker. Perfect. Perfect. To cover right after r and j. Yeah. I, I like, I, I like them so much more than you guys. Uh, I get so much like toasted bread and biscuit and if you get a good one, then the toasted bread, [01:28:00] I think with like a sweet butter that does come through in some of those cigars.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. You know, no grinder's notes, grinder's notes are spot on. No, they are. I mean, a great epi two. You gotta get a good one though, is exactly like that. Yeah. And BA's point is also well taken in that, and why I said, you know, it's a perfect follow up to rj. They're wildly inconsistent.
Senator: Absolutely. Is our problem with oil. And especially if you're only getting toasted bread, I might as well go to the supermarket and get, get That's that all you get. That's all I, and here we are saving you money. Again, I think on the, I mean, epi ones I feel are very earthy. I think, I think wood is a, a note that I throw through the entire line.
Gizmo: Yeah. Cedar. But I, I would say this to me, the epi one is a huge outlier in the epi two. Better. The oil line. Yeah. Oil is more sweet and desserty. It's not an earthy line. That's correct. Across the, the board. Yes. That one cigar is So, I, I would, if you, if you're pursuing dessert notes in a Cuban cigar, I would just totally toss aside the epi one, the epi two tons of dessert notes [01:29:00] when they're good.
Senator: Epi three, the epi L that I know Grindr used to smoke a lot of. Yeah. The epi three. However, the new epicure number three is a delicious cigar, which by the way is a box that a bunch of us ran out and purchased after we reviewed it. We did. Yeah. That including senator Yeah. Have reviewed very well. I mean, I get a, I do get a lot of bacon spice in that and like a biscuity type of, uh, note in that.
Bam Bam: I, I just think that like, at least for me, there's, there's a lot of nostalgia. 'cause that's how I got into Cuban cigars. And I remember smoking an epi. To underneath the Eiffel Tower with my friend, mentor Boss, whatever you wanna call him, in, in Paris. And it was amazing. But like, what was her name?
Grinder: Ron?
I Laron. Laron.[01:30:00]
Uh, but I, I, no, I think there's a lot of like, really good, like base level notes that a lot of cigar smokers would enjoy, you know? Oh my back hurts. Don't you love tequila? It's great, dude. I'm on my third glass right now. The ratings are gonna be good. This never happens. Alright, boys, we have one final global brand to talk about, of course is the most famous brand in the world for cigars, not just Cupid.
Gizmo: Cigars. Cigars. Oh boy. In general, K Doce, eh? No. Cohiba. No, of course. So what if you were to put a couple flavor notes on Cohiba. What flavor notes would you put down? Grass, hay, honey barnyard. We've had some really good cohiba on this podcast We have. Let's not, let's not dismiss that. No, definitely. You know, and, and putting price aside, we'll talk about that in a second, but flavor profile wise, you know, I think it's grass, hay.
Well, I honestly, I get a lot of graham cracker in the graham cracker. That's a good one. In a very good cohiba. A ton of graham cracker. And just going back [01:31:00] to the epi one and epi two, I've had incredible cigars on the epi one and two, and a lot of duds. And with cohiba, you know, because it's so god damn expensive.
Bam Bam: I personally don't feel like it's worth pursuing that Marco, and they both need age. They both need age. Yeah, I know about both Cohiba, Cohiba for sure. Epi, epi epi two needed age. I don't know. No, no, no, no. I don twos. No, no, no. I thought Epi twos needed age. I agree with you. The greatest epi two I've ever had in my life.
Senator: Ironically, I smoked it on your deck Rooster. It was from my A box that I bought that had at most two years on it. It was mind blowing. I've never been able to replicate it. That's the problem with oil. That's the problem with oil. Yeah. But man, young, great. Yeah. Like 2019. Yeah, just like a couple years. One of, one of, one of the tasting notes that I found in Cohiba that I haven't really found in the other markers [01:32:00] is like a, like a vanilla honey.
Grinder: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh yeah. And a coro for sure. For me that robusto for sure is the coro honey cream vanilla that in aged coro. Aged That has to be age. Yeah. A young coro. Honestly, it's bitter. Dude has no sweet notes. It's weird. It's like all of that forms with age. Yeah. I, I have at our north lounge will, uh, we call it, uh, UBA gave me a coro there.
Senator: It was so grassy and vegetal. Mm-hmm. And bitter. Both of us didn't enjoy any of it. Now, if that sat for another five, seven years, I'm sure dramatically different seven years. But that's the crazy part, that you have to park that for that long just to have a great experience. That's crazy when your kid goes to college.
Correct. Even the fact that you're calling two years little age is, it's, it's mind blowing. It is. It is the level of, but I wonder how the fresh Cohibas are now. Yeah. I mean, I, I've heard they're smoking better. I've heard co rows are smoking better, the recent runs. Mm-hmm. But again, pointing to the [01:33:00] value in these things for a new Cuban smoker.
Gizmo: Yeah. Chasing Cohiba is a real, that's a real outlay of cash. I don't think it's gonna happen for a new Cuban smoker. So to me, uh, not just, not, not because of flavor, but because of price and, and, and the accessibility. I'd also put that aside as a new Cuban smoker, and I would go to some of the other global brands that we pointed out, because Cohiba, they can be amazing, but it's a, it's a serious outlay of cash for that.
Yeah. But it's also hard for, I mean, the listener is in the US Correct? I believe so. So it would be hard for a listener in the US to go buy singles of these cigars. It's impossible. Unless you are in some other countries, you can't pick up singles to try out. Mm-hmm. Even if they could, I mean, spending, what, a hundred dollars to get a Cobra?
I mean, it's probably more than that. I think it's like 80 bucks right now. But I mean, a Cohiba pyramid extra is probably 120. And a Splendid Dough is probably a hundred, 110. The Eros probably like 95 land. No LAN's, like 110. Oh, that's outrageous. 2,500 a box. I would also say to this guy to not sleep on KR say, I'm gonna call, I'm [01:34:00] gonna say it again.
Grinder: Oh, no doubt. I it. So as a new Cuban smoker, I, I wish I got into K say first, because that is such a good segue into, into Cubans. 'cause it's got that light, like dry grass, also a little vanilla soft. It's creamy soft cream. It's velvety creamy cedar. Yeah. And it's, it's like sublime. Yeah. QD 50 especially is excellent.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Corona Clark, of course. And the new 52 is great. 52. Awesome. That's also good. So boys, before we get into our ratings, we had one final question from Lizard Denny. What would be the five pack sampler that we would put together for the masses? I love this question. What would be the five pack sampler of Cuban cigars that we would put to put together for the masses?
Gizmo: So let's throw the obvious one out. Parus D four has to be in that sampler, of course. No doubt about it. Correct. No doubt. So the D four is number grinder's disagreeing a bit? No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm, I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about [01:35:00] this size of, of the, of the selection in this size. Mm. What do you go with, right.
Grinder: That's like, that's the, I mean, there's so many of these, these torpedoes that are really awesome. I think I would go Monte too. Yeah. Above this. I think so just for a new smoker. I think that that salt, so is this that chocolate? Hold on. Is this a five pack for a new smoker? Yeah, a five pack sampler for, so D four and then in torpedo we do, I would do Monte two.
Bam Bam: I think I would do two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would, I might include a Juan Lopez, number one J. L one and I would, I'd like that cigar BBB FI think it's a delicious cigar. BBFB, B-F-B-B-F for sure. Honestly, I think I would do it like, hmm, the 46, the mag 46, how many of those, there's not that many Cubans in that size.
I don't know if I would include that in a five pack. Really? I love that cigar, but above that, I, for me, honestly, Ramona alone especially sold, I think [01:36:00] I was gonna say RAs I think for sure has to be in there. Alright, so the ones we all agree on so far, D four Monte two, Andras. Correct. B, BF. I'm a little iffy on, you know, I'm all aware on that.
Gizmo: Maybe a Royal Corona. No, not over the Boulevard. I think if we're gonna do a boulevard, I think the Boulevard Corona is a great small stick. The Royal Corona or the petite Corona. Are you talking about petite Corona? I wouldn't go there. Really? Those could be strong. Yeah. Yeah. So I had, especially young, so I've got older Royal Coronas that had two on vacation.
Bam Bam: They were incredible. But they're five plus years old. That's the thing. The world, they're, they're old world with age is awesome. It's delicious. Is not that great. Young bbs are very good. Yeah. So is the majority wanting to put the B, B, F in our sampler? No, I wouldn't put that in there. Honestly, I wouldn't.
So I like the three so far, right? The Monte two, D four and RAs. The D four and the ra. We have two more. I think for me the question is what five brands need to be represented there and we need to pick the best of them. That's, that's great. Guess we agree on, we know the D [01:37:00] four. We gotta do an up man. Well that, yeah, that's, we need to put an up man.
Senator: So we need to put an up man and, and I would argue a bolivar, but bolivar is an important marker. I would do the number two. Which number two? So two Torpedoes Hoffman. Number two. Number two. Yeah. We can do two Torp. That or Or a Mag 46. Mag 46. I used to, you know, I used to spoke a lot of those that talked that cigar a couple ago.
Gizmo: That's like we've kind of slept on the Mag 46 for like years now and I But young though, I still have, yeah. Oh yeah. I have a box from 20. From 20. So that's five years of age. Man, that's, forget that it's, but remember the turbos that we bought in Cuba, those were young and they were delicious. Those were like 23.
Senator: They were delicious. They were excellent. Some of the best Mag 46 I've ever had. Yeah. Can I throw one out that I think, forget the Marco on this. I think this is, might be one that we can agree on for one of those last two slots. If you have to say, forget the Marco. No, but I'm saying the Marco, it's not one that people know about or celebrate, but I think the Schwa Supreme from El Ray del Mundo.
Gizmo: Well, I was [01:38:00] gonna say that. Say classic. But it's an a bit of an outlier that most people, but that's a classic, that's a classic unique flavor profile in that. And you know how much I love that cigar. I do too. I think that that cigar is appreciated by experienced smokers for the nuance and flavor that that delivers.
Senator: I'm not sure that a novice smoker would have this same level of appreciation. Yeah, I wasn't even gonna mention it, but that is one of my favorite Cuban cigars. But it does, we know it's a little different. It's an outlier. It takes, I'm ignoring you. Uh, I don't know if I would mention that one. All right, so we have two more to pick.
Gizmo: Two. My Cuban cigar. Cigar, we have to pick it up. We've all to pick it up. We've all set it up and it has to be there. Correct. Up 46, I would vote the 46. I'm going, my favorite Cuban and it happens to be an up man was the Sir Winston. But I mean that was thousand 14. Not for a beginner. Now, I mean, what is that going in for now?
Senator: Giz? Probably, no, probably a hundred hundred plus. We can't put that. So the spin in the fact that this is a sampler for a [01:39:00] beginner, I think re eliminates the Sir Winston. It could eliminate the up and two, although I'm put, I'm pressed to include that in this vote. I vote Mag 46 Rooster. Mag 46. Yeah. Mag 46 for me.
Only because we already have, I brought it up. He brought it up. That's four. Yeah. All right. So Mag 46, let's get that in there. That's fine. Alright, we have one more. We right now we're between Bolivar K Dorsey are probably the two that I'm thinking of. Maybe Cohiba two two. No, a price point 52. A price point.
Gizmo: Okay. 52. Mm. Coronas Claro could be in there as well. Hard to get. I'd vote. BBF Or Coronas. Claro. I would go if Coronas Claro y. Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. I say the, the Coronas Claro. 'cause that's gonna give you a slight citrus note too. Yeah. I I'm there too. That gives you a little difference. So here's our five pack sampler as prompted by Lizard Denny, our lizard of the week, our five pack sampler for a novice new Cuban cigar smoker.
The Partica Series D number four. The Montecristo number [01:40:00] two we reviewed two weeks ago. The Ramon Ionis specially selected the H Up man, Magnum 46 and the K Dorse Corona Claro. Nice. Those are the five. Very nice. I'm, I'm excited to see Mag 46 in there because we don't, we haven't smoked a lot, like as a group.
Grinder: I used to, now I smoke three a year. Gives, gives me only three a year. Yeah. I, I I smoke a Mag 46 and, and and you, you, you like turned me on to, to Mag 46. Yeah. That was his cigar man. Just turned his back on all of them. Correct. So boys, we have a ton of other email. We're not gonna get to those tonight.
Gizmo: We'll save them for two weeks from now. We have a lot of commentary on our Cuban cadence of how often we're smoking some ideas from listeners, some really great emails. We're gonna hold on those because we are at the end of our evening tonight with the Kaska Hu Te Hona Tequila blanco. Yeah. And the H up man.
Number two. Any final thoughts here before we move into the ratings portion of our program? All right, let's do the formal Liquoring boys on the Casca, queen Tona, tequila blanco. Bam. You're up. [01:41:00] Yeah. I just took a sip and I'm continuing to get both the sweet butter, salted butter, maybe a touch of brininess and minerality, but it's very faint.
Bam Bam: And you mentioned chef, that lactose quality to it that I get on the very tail of the finish, so I'm putting price aside. I'm gonna give this a nine. I think it was delicious. Easy to drink after my palate adjusted. Um, I think it's, it'll pair with almost any Cuban cigar. Beautifully. Nine. All right, Grindr.
Gizmo: Uh, I'm giving it a, uh, 11. I'm on your three glasses. Yeah. I, I, I'm, I think I'm also at a nine. I think we've had other tequilas that taste, you know, on par with this, that are more accessible. Um, honestly, though, the, the pairing was really out of this world for me. Yeah. And that's really where my ratings, like based in, because it was such a delicious pairing with the stick.
Grinder: Yeah. It was like the [01:42:00] way, it, just, the way it, it pre-staged the palette for that draw on this cigar was sublime. It was absolutely. Everything was perfect. So when I think about the butter notes, when I think about the, the, the sweetness, but the balance of the minerality, and then you overlay that on top of the, the total balance of the cigar, it was really a great experience.
Ta you know, pairing aside, if I just, you know, sat this, sat down with this by myself without a cigar, I'd still, I'd still give it a nine. Sounds like a 10.
Bam Bam: You loved it. You drank like three glasses. I know. All right. Chef Ricky have another. So I, I would be at a 10 for this, but with the price point, it's gonna be a nine for me. Um, but I love the way this started. I love what Java does with, with Costco, what he's doing with Kaska Wing and [01:43:00] introducing the tona here, the minerality, it brings the lactic notes, but my favorite part of the cigar, and Bam, touched on it, was, I'm sorry, on the spirit.
Chef Ricky: Was how it paired with the cigar in the final third, especially where those herbaceous, uh, anise undertones came through and they married perfectly with the vegetables min, uh, mineral qualities of the tequila. And it was just a sublime pairing for me. It was great. Very well done. Um, this is a nine all the way, so I'm also at a nine.
Gizmo: I, I have to say I really loved the flavor of this. I love how it paired. I think for it being a blanco I think it was a very rich experience. I think it actually stood up very nicely to the flavor profile of this up and two tonight. The thing I have to knock it for, just like Chef Ricky said, is the price at a hundred bucks for this bottle that is really difficult to run out and, and put in your, in your, in your bar cabinet.
I mean, it's just, it's not something that I'm [01:44:00] gonna chase. I'm very grateful to lizard Mike, our buddy out in California for sending this in tonight. We got to have taste this great tequila, but for a hundred bucks there is definitely a value problem here for me. But I love the nose on it. I love the aroma.
I love the full flavor of this Blanco. I thought it was very interesting. Uh, but for me it's a nine senator. Well, this is no fun. I'm, I'm also a nine. Um, we all agree on this one. Forget the pairing because we all agree the pairing is perfect. What I especially appreciate is I actually think this is very versatile.
Senator: I could see drinking this with a lot of different Cuban cigars. Yeah. Even a number of new world cigars. There's a viscosity to this. It's so easy drinking, yet it's like so flavorful. It's so full and like what it's still able to deliver, um, the perfect balance between like sweet and savory with those salty notes.
Um, the minerality we've talked about. Bam. You used a word to describe this. I'm trying to remember, but it made me think of like, I could drink this [01:45:00] eating an oyster brine. The brineness that's, yeah, the brininess. But it's a touch of it though. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. A touch. It's, it's just the right amount where like I've had some tequilas where like the brineness is like much more intense and almost a too much for me.
Mm-hmm. This is perfect. Um, the only thing, like everybody said, I mean, a hundred dollars is a steep price for a Blanco. Um, would I drink this again? Absolutely. Um, but man, I hope over time, you know, Jeff mentioned that it seems at least the Hunna is kind of, you know, a new addition for them. Hopefully over time they find a way to bring this down because I feel like so many more people would appreciate and enjoy this more regularly if this could be priced at Yeah.
You know, 60 something in line with a lot of other Blancos, but outstanding what they've done. I agreed. All right, boys. That's an easy one. It put the formal liquor rating tonight on the Costco Queen Teon Tequila Blanco at a 9.0. Let's compare that to the Reposado. We did four weeks ago. In episode 188 scored a [01:46:00] perfect 10.0.
Gizmo: So Costco huen on this podcast is performing quite well. Oh yeah. Yeah. You know, and for the listener out there, obviously our flavor notes and whatnot, the value you can make your own decisions. Both of them are great entrance into the tequila portfolio. So I wasn't there when we did the Reposado. This is obviously already a pretty steep price point.
Senator: What's the Reposado price at? It's right around 55 bucks. Wow, okay. Wow. So that's much cheaper. Wow. And there's no to, don't use the, there's no tona in that one. That's their standard issue. Reposado, I have a question for chef. Could a manufacturer like this that this small batch in this bottle ever scale up?
Bam Bam: Could they scale up? They can. Especially Costco, Wayne, with the popularity and, and, and for this particular expression, they could scale this up in volume. I think Damn private equity can scale anything up. That's true. Get your checkbook ready, Senator. Yeah. I I'm not sure what's holding them back. Um, you know, maybe it's a trial run.
Chef Ricky: Maybe it's, um, you know, they just don't, they don't want to, [01:47:00] um, veer off of their, the, the path that's done well for them, um, so far. You know, I'm not sure. Uh, but I think they can, obviously it's, it's, it's a less efficient process. Mm-hmm. So, you know, there is a cost factor there. And I think that's a, that's, we're seeing that a little bit.
And how many of these large hon do does a typical maker have? If they're only doing Tona? Um, they may have. More than one, maybe two. But it's not like you're gonna run into a distillery where there's Yeah. Multiple. Right, right, right. To running, running simultaneously. Toho, stop showing off your Spanish grinder.
Grinder: He's a little bit drunk. That was Latin. He's drunk right now. All right, here we go. As you, can you imagine how many he gave you? Gave me so many eye rolls tonight because of my outlandish stupid comments. Just thinking about the edits. When GIZ says, when G says, here we go. That's a, that's a cue. Shut the fuck up.
Bam Bam: Or just the, just the shake of the head and the eye roll. [01:48:00] I'm just, it's intimidating. There we go. It's just be grateful. It's not a video pod. Correct. Oh my God. All right, boys, it's time to do the formal lizard rating tonight on the H up in number two from Cuba. Rooster, you're up. I'm at a nine on this right off the bat.
Rooster: Right off the bat, because the, the first third of this cigar, I didn't really enjoy it. I was getting that bitter note and it was kind of odd. But as the cigar progressed after about the, about the third, uh, the cigar changed. You know, the, the sweet note that I was looking for, the baking spice came through once in a while.
I was able to retro hale to, and, and that, that was delicious. The aroma was absolutely brilliant. I mean, the cigar, the aroma was awesome. So, and the construction. Was fantastic. The smoke output, all of that was great. I mean, and for a fresh cigar from this box of this was 2023, correct? Yeah. Late 23.
November [01:49:00] 23, late 23. And how good it is. So for all those reasons, I'm at a nine. I can't really give it a 10 because the love 14 was a 10. That's true. So, and this cigar, you know, if you put it away for a few years, it's gonna balance out at the, it's gonna smooth out the rough edges and it's gonna be, it's gonna be a 10.
So I'm at a nine. Alright, Senator. Strong nine for me. Um, I enjoyed this cigar, uh, all the way through. I have now like this renewed hope that, you know, the up man two is a cigar that can be part of a more regular Cuban rotation that, you know, you smoke through a box, you can actually replace it and, you know, enjoy it, you know, hopefully with just a year or two of age, which is an awesome thing and should be the case for any cigar at the price point that this and every Cuban is going for.
Senator: At this point, the construction was flawless all the way through. Um, the only reason I can't give it the 10, you know, we all know with more age what this cigar can be, and it's all of these flavors just [01:50:00] married together in a bit more of a refined and elegant way. Um, there's more creaminess when this cigar gets more age, but, um, this definitely makes me think about getting a young box and, and tucking it away and not having to feel like I'm gonna need to wait five, seven years to enjoy it.
So, um, strong nine. I, I'm thrilled we did this again. So for me it's an eight. I'm sure that doesn't surprise you guys. The fact that I have a cigar there, that's one quarter smoked down. Are you waiting Fus one on the second one? I'm rating my experience tonight, I would've given this cigar a nine, but I'm taking a point off for the fact that this ended up being a $75 night for me because that cigar was terrible.
Bam Bam: I don't disagree with you. So the cigar I had don't was good. But overall, I mean, I don't think that's an unreasonable way to raise. There's some, there some skepticism in the room, I can tell, but I don't disagree with that. So I I really enjoy that. But at the end of the day though, Cuba is being Cuba so that you gotta always factor that.
Gizmo: Correct. But I I, I find that this night ending up being decent [01:51:00] at two cigars, $75 is pretty crazy. Mm. I think that's ridiculous for what the cigar was tonight. My second one, it was very, very good. I echo what Rooster and Senator said. It ended up right where I wanted it to be, but it wasn't quite as good as the cigars that we have, even the second one, five to seven years age.
Even the second one, it was excellent, but it, I I have to compare it to my other experiences. Had you, had you not had that first cigar, would you have rated it right? It would've been a nine. So like you're just tossing it up to chance. Well, he did get that negative experience with the first stick. So I mean, for the experience that I had in the room tonight, I mean it, you have to count that.
Grinder: Yeah. I mean, if I continued smoking that cigar, I probably would've given it a six or a five. And that goes into the overall like Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Like the, so I love, can we phone a friend? Can we get pagoda on the phone? I'm not changing my rating. Well, here's the thing. People in this room have dinged their cigar because they had to light it a few times or touch it up with a flame.
Bam Bam: You know, I mean, I guess it's part of the whole [01:52:00] experience. It's, it doesn't, it's eight or a nine. It doesn't, yeah. But the average of a six and a nine is a 7.5. So you're at a seven. You're fucking rounding up 7.5. We don't do decimals. That's an eight. Got it. Yes. Thank you for that point. Thanks G seven. So anyway, I, I really love h up in number twos.
Gizmo: I was disappointed in the first one. The second one was very good. This is the youngest H up in number two. I've smoked and I'm really wondering, and, and to senator's point, I'm wondering if this box of November 23 cigars actually is going to smoke better. Then the BRE 18 or 19 that we tried young. And I'm wondering how that at five years, 'cause I haven't had one in a while, I'm gonna compare that to this experience tonight.
And of course, comparing both of those to the heavenly experience we had on episode 40 with the Love 14. I mean, you know, we do have some goalposts, you know, to work within here. I I think you're gonna be very happy with the BRE 19. I hope so. That's what I had last week. I thought it was exquisite. I hope [01:53:00] so.
Bam Bam: Yeah. So listen, I love the H up in number two. I had a little bit of a rough experience tonight. Thankfully it ended up okay, but for me it's an eight Chef Ricky. This is a 10 for me. Oh, I wasn't here. I like it. I wasn't here on episode 40 for the Lu 14. I've heard a lot about it, but, uh, this, it was all right.
Chef Ricky: Don't worry. You didn't miss much. You didn't miss this started amazing. Uh, it finished amazing. I'm, it's all the way down to the nub. I'm, I don't know, maybe I chew this thing to finish it off. I don't really wanna put it down yet, but it gave us two hours. It gave us everything. It gave me everything. It had, you know, from nutty almond notes to sweet cream, to some minerality, to a little touch of leather, to some spice.
I mean, everything was here in the way. A pair with the tequila was just phenomenal. So. I enjoyed this night. I enjoyed the, you know, you guys put a damper on it in the [01:54:00] beginning with all the complaining. We didn't put a damper on it. I didn't roll the cigar. You totally put a damper on it. We didn't roll the cigar.
Somebody said it. You totally put a damper on. We didn't get the bay leaf note. That's, yeah. Or the vegetal. Vegetal or herbal, what was that word? Her herba. Herba. But it delivered all of that Sounds outrageous. You know, to Senator's point earlier, the way that was all delivered was done beautifully and balanced and, you know, nothing ever overpowered, you know, no flavor, no ever overpowered another, it was all done in a very beautiful, delicate way.
And I mean, that's, you know, for a cigar with not much age, this is perfect. You can't ask about anything more. And you said it was 40, it's like 37, 38 bucks. Yeah. Touching 40. It'll be 40 by the end of the year. Yeah. Mere bag of shells for you. Two, two hours. 40 bucks. Great experience. 10 all day. Oh, wow. All right.
Grinder. As he as Grindr takes his 40th of tequila. We already rated the fourth class, by the way. We already rated the tequila. [01:55:00] I, it's a 10. I I think. Um, it started off wonderful. It the middle was wonderful in the end. It was wonderful. That's wonderful. It's very wonderful. When I think of like, there was a little almond, I didn't mention this earlier.
Grinder: I'm glad you brought it up. The creaminess was subtle. And the spice was still there. Everything was a, just a little stu. Even, even the bitterness of like the, the youth on the cigar was very subtle. I think when I'm looking at this cigar, I'm thinking, I've never smoked one of these and said like, every, every time I've smoked the cigar, it's been wonderful.
It's been truly wonderful, like the best, truly wonderful, truly, truly, truly the best cigar. And I, yeah, it was a great cigar for, for me tonight, Bruce, the herbaceous note was still, was, was a real thing. Um, may Leaf sounds like a Fergie song. Who, okay. What? Just take your word for it. All right. Who, whoever the fuck [01:56:00] Fergie is.
And I think, um, I love Fergie. The creaminess was there. The, the baking spice was there, the construction was good. I did have to touch it up once, which was a little frustrating, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna knock it for that. I, when I look at this cigar, I'm thinking as like, not just tonight, but the totality of it.
The few times that I have had it, it's been wonderful. The best. And, uh, not nice. No, I, I, no, but seriously, like, it has everything that a Cuban has that like, the typical like spice, but also like the, there's a little barnyard, there's a little almond, there's a little, uh, vanilla, and that smoothness rounds out in the, on the finish, and then it goes into woodiness and it just round, it just, everything was was, was truly wonderful.
Wonderful. So, um, yeah, it's a total 10. Obviously. It's a 10. I have, like, I'm, I'm thinking back, I was there for the Love 14, right? I'm trying to like, uh, yeah, I think I [01:57:00] was, that was a long time ago. It was, I'm gonna say episode 40. I mean, if you're, if you're unsure, maybe you weren't correct. That was a life changing cigar.
Senator: Yeah, that's true. Grindr was not there. Yeah. I don't know if I was there. I can only imagine how. Wonderful. It would be if I were there. So, um, yeah, it's a, it's a 10. It's a 10. It's a 10. I want to, I wanna get some more. You can have the one right there. I'll send you that one. And I'm mad. And I'm mad. I have not, um, really gone outta my way to get some of these.
Grinder: Yeah, it's outrageous actually. All right. Bam, bam. Um, so the first inch was awful for me. And it, it was, and I noted that earlier. I didn't like it. It wasn't good at all. I thought we were done bringing down the room. Well, but it did evolve and it became a wonderful, wonderful cigar. It really, it did, um, you know, o overall a wonderful experience.
Rooster: But here's the thing, like did you say I wasn't overall, so I didn't, I didn't notice, yell it, [01:58:00] man. I didn't take note of the aroma. Senator mentioned it, and the moment I brought the foot of the cigar in my nose, it was heavenly. It was heavenly. Um, honestly, I think this thing recovered beautifully. It, it came back into where it should be.
Bam Bam: So I'm, I'm at a firm nine, a very, very firm. Nine. Nice. Yeah. And for all the reasons that all you guys said earlier, except for giz. Alright, boys. The formal lizard rating tonight on the H up in number two is a 9.2. Wow. Wow. Nice. Great score. How you guys feeling about that score tonight? Love It is, its very good.
Gizmo: It's a good score. I think it's a fair score. I agree. What was ca rating? I think they gave it a 97 or something. I think that eight you gave it was pretty harsh, but I think my cigar actually was a 92 point cigar, the second one. So I think that's a very first score for that. So we, we did too. Let's compare that to the other H UP mens.
We've done on the podcast a run through these real quick episode six. We did the H up and Magnum 46 scored an 8.1. On episode [01:59:00] 62, the H up in Magnum 50 scored a 7.6. On episode 72, the rib robusto ROS scored a 9.6 that was high. On episode 86, the connoisseur A scored a 9.2, Connie A 96, the Connie won, scored an 8.6.
On episode 111, the connoisseur B scored a 7.2. On episode 125, the connoisseur two scored a flat 9.0. On episode 135, the half Corona scored a 9.7 great score. Great cigar. Yeah. Yep. On episode 153, the Royal Robusto, LCDH scored a 9.2, and on episode 170, the Magnum 54 scored a 7.9. And finally, boys, of course, on episode 40, the LU 14 H up in number two scored a 9.8.
Nice. So, I mean, listen, how, hold on. How did that not get a 10 when we did that? Who gave that a nine? Yeah. Right. Pagoda. Ah. Ah, he's out. [02:00:00] That's, everybody gave it a 10. Pagoda gave it a nine. That's right. You know there are two ratings. I'm surprised the con, the 46? Well, no, the 46. Six is 46 point was low. No.
Bam Bam: Yeah, yeah. That's a nine. We'll have to revisit that. Yeah, we gotta do that too. The Connie two, getting a nine. That's a little surprising. That was a good cigar. It was a good cigar. The connoisseur B was very disappointing. It scored a 72. Yeah, I mean that, that just wasn't a great cigar. The other three, so we did the four Connie, just for the listeners out there, we did all four in the connoisseur series from H up men, and the B was the weakest and the A was the strongest.
Yeah. Love that Kanye. And I'm surprised how we need to revisit the mag 40 54 and the 46. Yeah. Yeah. Both of those should revisit, actually all three magnums. The 46, the 50, and the 54 all scored pretty poor. 1, 7, 6 and seven nine. If the, if the the four, if the mag 46 is making its way into our sampler, our five pack sampler, we should smoke it again.
Grinder: It should not be an, it should be a little higher, [02:01:00] I think. I think that cigar we reviewed on episode six, I don't think it was conditioned well. Mm-hmm. I don't, whatever it was, it was a bad run. I'm not sure. We definitely need to revisit that. There's not enough Katie later. And I do think the 50 fours rated way too low.
Bam Bam: That's seven nine. Yeah. We should do that again. Yeah. All right. No doubt. We'll cue that up, boys for a future episode. And what a great night, guys. Excellent. Yeah, and great night. The Costco, we hunna Tequila Blanco scored a 9.0 and the H up man. Number two, scored a 9.2. Of course. Congratulations again to Lizard Denny our lizard of the week.
Gizmo: We really appreciate his email. Obviously prompting that great discussion. Like I said, we'll get to all the other emails that we didn't get to tonight. We'll get to that in two weeks. We really appreciate everybody, uh, writing into us. We always love hearing from you, so keep it up. And we have to thank our sponsor, Fabrica five.
They make great cigars. You gotta try them. And the new bond, Roberts 1 0 9 is available on cop h cigars.com. So go there and get yourself some [02:02:00] Bond. Roberts 1 0 9. We smoke those with Rob and Hamlet a few weeks ago in studio. Yep. So they are now available. So check those out and the entire line of Fabrica five is back in stock.
So check those out and go pick up some and of course, use our code and boys a great night. We'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website. Lounge Lizards pod.com. That's Lounge lizards, PO d.com.
Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.