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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabric of Five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Brewster, Senator, Pagoda, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some rum, talk about life, and, of course, have some laughs. So take this as your two hundred and fifty fourth official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to be just here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Nicaraguan cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We return to Padrone and try the sister to one of our favorites.
Gizmo:We discuss European cigar distribution nightmares, and I tasked the panel with naming the three Cuban cigars they'd save, revive, or kill all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink. Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair Privateer Navy Yard True American rum with the Padrone nineteen sixty four Anniversary Exclusivo in Natural. A Nicaraguan Robusto on the pod tonight, boys, and we are back to Padrone. We have the Padrone nineteen sixty four Anniversary Exclusivo in Natural.
Gizmo:Mhmm. And, boys, I know it's been two weeks since we've been here. We we're off for two weeks, and it seems like we've come back to a much smaller room here where the Lizards record. What the hell is going on in here?
Bam Bam:We have an elephant colored couch with a gray deaf gray with the marble tones.
Gizmo:I I don't know what's going on.
Chef Ricky:It's nice. The furniture gave birth. We came back to double.
Senator:Seems like the owner here is a big feng shui guy. All the furniture changes every few months.
Rooster:I don't know if you could spell feng shui.
Pagoda:There there were the big garage here in Ridgewood last week. No, no.
Bam Bam:The town wide garage Yeah. There.
Pagoda:I'll tell you, I'm sure he picked it up from
Bam Bam:the I think it's out
Gizmo:of his basement. Whatever it is, it feels like we are sitting on top of each other.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's ridiculous.
Gizmo:Like that, just that one adjustment of one couch, it might be it might get a little weird here tonight. And
Chef Ricky:this We'll see. Extra coffee
Gizmo:There's another coffee table.
Bam Bam:Yeah. We're That's awful.
Gizmo:It's like it's like a showroom for, like, the goodwill.
Rooster:We have six tables in the room right now.
Gizmo:I like
Pagoda:that coffee
Gizmo:table. Six guys, six six tables. So, boys, we are gonna try to snap the streak tonight of mediocrity as we have been on a run of some pretty terrible cigars the last three weeks. I know you guys bought a couple five packs, but the rest of us did not. Correct.
Gizmo:And so tonight, obviously, going back to a stalwart for us in Padrone.
Bam Bam:Correct. Again.
Gizmo:We're changing it up a little bit with the natural
Rooster:Mhmm.
Gizmo:In the Exclusivo.
Rooster:Why is there a red dot on the back?
Gizmo:Yeah. Know. That's the retailer we got it from.
Chef Ricky:Does he
Rooster:a red dot. Why does he put a
Chef Ricky:red dot?
Senator:The last time you've been in the Humidor here?
Gizmo:Yeah. Why don't you ask the guy who put the couch right there? Two questions now.
Rooster:He puts a red dot? Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Well, that means you're not buying enough inventory, boy.
Rooster:Well I buy boxes, not singles.
Bam Bam:Giddy of hope.
Chef Ricky:No, I got a box of Estecevos a few months back, and I had the same thing with these red dots. Not sure what's going on with it.
Gizmo:Who knows?
Pagoda:But you know, we are among the natural, so I do hope it's not mediocre.
Gizmo:Well, we had a good experience. We'll talk about that in a minute, but I'm very hopeful.
Bam Bam:This is gonna be fantastic.
Rooster:Were you not at the PCA? I was. So everybody else loved it.
Gizmo:And he smoked one too when he loved it.
Senator:This was late morning when he's five rums deep at that point,
Gizmo:so Correct. He was tanky. It's a
Senator:little foggy probably.
Pagoda:No. No. I think think He
Gizmo:rolls his
Pagoda:eyes. I think everybody is extremely excited when at the PCA, so you know, you're in a different mindset. Got
Chef Ricky:it. I heard you were most excited.
Gizmo:Correct.
Pagoda:Well, I don't know what night you told me.
Gizmo:All right, boys, let's cut this thing, See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. Tonight's cut, of course, brought to you by our new friends at Drew State, the rebirth of cigars. Correct. Cold draw is fantastic. Not surprising.
Gizmo:Not surprising at all. Mine has a perfect amount of resistance, just what I like in an Exclusivo.
Senator:I get milk chocolate on the cold draw.
Gizmo:And a little fruit.
Bam Bam:A touch of leather maybe in coffee in addition to that chocolate for me.
Chef Ricky:It gives great fruit quality. I'm definitely getting some bright fruit here.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Like a berry.
Gizmo:Like a blueberry or something. Boysenberry. What was it? What was that thing called? Goose and berry?
Bam Bam:Boysenberry. Gooseberry.
Chef Ricky:Gooseberry. Oh, doodleberry? I thought we were back on cereal. No. We're just gonna say Frank
Senator:in there. Frankenberry.
Bam Bam:Dingleberry.
Chef Ricky:Covering all the berries tonight. Ling lingonberry.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's do it. Let's light this thing. The Padrone 1964 anniversary Exclusivo in natural. And, again, it's a box pressed 50 ring gauge cigar by five and a half inches long.
Chef Ricky:How's your guys', wrappers wrappers looking? Looks great. I have, like, a Snickers vein on my on the side of mine here for those who eat Snickers bars.
Pagoda:A little
Chef Ricky:weird. There's
Gizmo:always a vein down the middle of a Snickers. Yeah. Okay.
Chef Ricky:I'm trying to refrain
Gizmo:from I know my veins.
Pagoda:Arterial. Are we gonna be smoking two of these? Or
Bam Bam:Yeah. I could go through this quick because this is so damn good.
Gizmo:So boys, again, cutting the light tonight brought to us by our new friends at Drew Estate. Check out their thirtieth anniversary celebration rewards program, de30rewards.com. Sign up. Do what you do. Smoke.
Gizmo:Put your receipts in, and you win some really cool swag. There's actually an ashtray that I really want to win, there's like a flying pig cigar holder. Really, really well designed. I think you'd Really? Yeah.
Gizmo:You'd be impressed with it. So check that out, folks. De30rewards.com.
Chef Ricky:We'll check it out right now.
Pagoda:Am I eligible for these or
Bam Bam:no?
Gizmo:No. You are not eligible. I'm gonna have them put that on the website in the
Bam Bam:Your face
Chef Ricky:with Him an x through
Senator:flag off an ATV.
Chef Ricky:You're right. Put an x.
Bam Bam:I have a picture of him that he looks like Edie Amin. Put his hand up
Chef Ricky:with this.
Gizmo:This is great on the light.
Bam Bam:You know, I don't know why I don't smoke more of these. It's so foolish.
Senator:This is so delicious. I agree.
Bam Bam:I mean, really, what are we doing?
Senator:Like, we just talk about cigars that we smoke to set up an Exclusivo in Maduro, like an aging room concerto, like something that's more milk chocolate than dark chocolate, something that leans sweeter than earthy. And this is honestly like that perfect cigar. Mean, you could smoke this natural Imagine then go right to the Maduro.
Bam Bam:I'm getting goosebumps with that thought. I'm gonna try that. Great. Great.
Gizmo:Honestly, I'm kind of upset with myself that I didn't bring a Maduro with me tonight because we were smoking this. Packed other stuff thinking I would kinda
Senator:I I actually did, but I bought I brought the Diplomatico.
Bam Bam:I was gonna go and
Senator:collect that after this.
Bam Bam:Yeah. This is really quite good.
Gizmo:This is nice on the light. Mhmm. This is only the second Exclusivo in Natural that I've had to the one at PCA. I've never had one before, that PCA one.
Bam Bam:Me too.
Gizmo:Now, I've had other of course, we've had other nineteen sixty four and other Padrone in Natural. We've reviewed a couple on the podcast, but not this specific. I would argue this is the classic Mhmm. Headliner Vitola of the nineteen sixty four anniversary.
Rooster:Not every Padrone in Natural, I like. This one is really good.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. It is. I'm getting a good amount of roasted nuts here. You know what
Bam Bam:it is for me? It's like a very mild Senator, you mentioned milk chocolate, but it's a mild milk chocolate, almost like a mild cocoa. Hot cocoa, but
Pagoda:it's a
Bam Bam:little milk in it. It is ridiculously good and accurate to that.
Senator:I could smoke this in the morning with a coffee. Oh, yeah. The versatility is huge on this thing.
Gizmo:Because I think that sometimes I think I I know it not to be true, but I think I've just kinda burned it into my brain. And others think that when you think Padrone, you're thinking a little bit more of an oomph for that Nicaraguan kinda thing to it. But this were this would work perfect, like you're saying, in the morning with a cup of coffee. After lunch? There's really no oomph to this at all.
Pagoda:Beginning of this year. Unless ask the one who has a ninetieth with a cup of coffee.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I mean this Would work? Absolutely. Love that.
Rooster:Oh, yeah. I'm just curious how many Padron like, do they make equal amounts of natural and Maduros? I don't think they sell. They sell way more Maduros I than
Gizmo:don't know if that's the right assumption. There are a lot of people that smoke natural. I mean, George Padrone prefers natural in a lot of the cigars. So I think that, you know, for us in this room with the way we smoke, you know, I think so. But I bet there's a lot of folks out there who are reaching for natural.
Gizmo:I mean, think about it this way. When they put out the fifty years, the hammer, the original release, you could not buy one or the other. You were getting half and half. And then if you refilled it, you could get whichever one you wanted, but they didn't allow you to pick one or the other. So I would think that it's maybe it's pretty close.
Gizmo:I mean, we can ask George sometime, you know, what the case is. So as we know, boys, we've talked about it many times as we've discussed Padrone, specifically this line. This line was released in 1994 celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Padrone cigars, and there are 16 Vitolas in the line. I'm gonna run through them right now for you. The a, of course, is a long one.
Gizmo:50 ring gauge same as this by eight and a quarter. So imagine another three inches on this. The Diplomatico, the senator just mentioned, 50 by seven. It's a Churchill box press. Their Pyramiddy, 52 down to 42 by six and seven eighths inches.
Gizmo:I enjoy that cigar quite a bit. The Monarcha, 46 by six and a half. The Superior, 42 by six and a half. Is that the one that comes in a tubo superior?
Chef Ricky:I presume so. The presidor that comes in
Gizmo:a tubo. And Soberanos. And the Soberanos. Forgive me. It's Soberanos.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:Right. So there's also the number four, sixty by six and a half, the torpedo, which we've done in natural 52 by six, Imperial 54 by six, the Corona 42 by six, the Presidente 50 by six, Bellicoso 52 by five, the Toro 56 by five, which is a TAA exclusive, only found at TAA shops. The Soberano we just mentioned comes in a very cool square tubo, 52 by five. The Principe, the little one, forty six by four and a half, and the Hermoso, 56 by four. So the Soberano and the Presidente Mhmm.
Gizmo:Both come in tubos. Correct.
Senator:So the funny thing Rooster mentioned not liking some of the 64 line in Natural. The one I remember we did, we reviewed the Torpedo in Natural, which was one of the like top five cigars of the year by CA, whatever year that was.
Bam Bam:Another great cigar.
Senator:That cigar was very good, but like I didn't love it. I I wouldn't say I would like seek it, but this is different. This is to me smokes way better than that. So I I do agree. I feel like there's a good amount of variation in kind of the flavor profile and the experience Vitola by Vitola in in this line.
Gizmo:I think this blend really works in the natural.
Bam Bam:Of course.
Gizmo:You know? Excellent. Like you're saying, I mean, I I really think that right now where this is and, of course, with the experience we had at PCA, it kinda stands right there with the Maduro. It's just a little different.
Senator:Yep. You know? I just feel like an idiot. Like, all this time chasing like these, like, a satisfying, milder, medium cigar to start the day with all this. And it's like, why I overlooked Padron for that slot just because we mostly smoked the Maduro?
Senator:I really am kicking myself.
Bam Bam:This could be the aging room killer.
Senator:I mean, I wouldn't go that far. But
Gizmo:I think that's different than this. And I think it
Senator:This is lighter to me than the aging room concerto. So, like It is. I would start with this, then have
Bam Bam:the concerto, then the Exclusivo Maduro. I like that, but I'm gonna try this followed by the Maduro Exclusivo one night. That sounds fabulous to me.
Gizmo:So each of these 16 Vitolas that I named come in both natural and in Maduro. And the price on this cigar with our code at smallbatchcigar.com boys is just around $16. Okay. So they have gone up in price a little bit. I mean, I remember in COVID times, remember those deals we were getting like crazy deals on boxes, you know, under $300, $250.
Gizmo:I mean, it was pretty amazing.
Bam Bam:Chasing availability online.
Gizmo:Yeah. They were hard to find for a minute. They were they were definitely out of stock in a lot of places. So so because we've talked so much about Padrone, I wanted to pull up some cool stuff about the 1964 anniversary line that I don't think we've discussed or we may not even be familiar with. So I'm gonna share a couple of those with you now.
Gizmo:Of course, this whole line is aged four years. And what I love that Padrone distinguishes themselves with on that is the tobacco is aged four years before it's rolled. So as soon as the cigar is rolled, Padrone is ready to ship that out and put it on the shelves. They don't really have dry, you know, dry aging rooms. They don't have, you know, big humidors full of stuff.
Gizmo:Even when Rooster and I visited Miami, there wasn't that much stuff in their their cooler. You know? It was going right out the door as soon as it was boxed because it's already aged before they make them. George Padrone was asked about the box press causing a change in flavor, and he said that he believed that was a myth. Chorus Padrone kind of led the way with box pressed cigars in the nineties.
Gizmo:They were big on that, and a lot of folks have followed them. But it wasn't for flavor. It was for packaging and making the boxes look really, really neat. This is wild. I did not know this.
Gizmo:So the original 1964 anniversary exclusivos were not all rolled in Nicaragua. 30% of total Padrone production in the early days, probably up until about '99, 2,000, 30% was made in Honduras. So some of the early Padrons were made in Honduras. Who knew Honduran pioneers? Pretty wild.
Gizmo:The original nineteen sixty four anniversary production was, like, crazy small. In 1997, Padrone made only a 150,000 of these cigars. In 1998, they made 300,000. So that was less than 10% of what they were making at the time. And finally, I like this one.
Gizmo:The little Principe, which is the little one that, you know, it's kinda like a not a half Corona, but it's like a petite Corona, I guess.
Bam Bam:Yep. Excellent cigar.
Gizmo:It exists because they needed somewhere to use their smaller wrapper leaves. So they came up with that cigar and that vitola to use wrapper leaves from lower on the plant that were smaller. So it would work for that vitola. So pretty cool stuff. I mean, Padrone knows what they're doing.
Gizmo:They've been doing it a long time, and I would think that a cigar smoker from 1994 who first picked one of these up probably is still enjoying the Padrone Exclusivo because they're just consistent cigars. And what I'll ask you with that comment is, have any of you noticed any sort of change up and down quality, flavor, any discrepancies since you started smoking Padrone? And that's a serious question.
Bam Bam:I can't say that I noticed a thing.
Rooster:I think it's the most consistent brand ever.
Senator:Ever. I agree.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Rooster:Yeah.
Bam Bam:It's a perfect cigar.
Gizmo:I think for me, I I would say I can count on my left hand how many Padrone cigars that did
Senator:not perform well. How many fingers do you have on your right hand?
Pagoda:Well, listen.
Gizmo:Well, I'm back listen. As you
Bam Bam:know, I'm backwards today with this whole
Gizmo:this whole new setup. So I'm looking at my left the left. I'm looking at my
Bam Bam:left live in Guam.
Gizmo:So, yeah, I would say under five cigars in my lifetime of smoking Padrones in the, what, seven years that we've been smoking these.
Rooster:What of an issue did you have?
Gizmo:Just a burn issue or some sort of flavor thing that didn't work out. I mean, it's so few.
Bam Bam:I've noticed a few of you guys have some serious problems. I noticed one guy pull out an entire stem.
Gizmo:That was me.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And bet that's happened to Idiav and a few other guys. I don't think I've had. Yeah. Me too.
Bam Bam:I haven't ever had
Chef Ricky:a problem with any Padrone ever. Same.
Pagoda:Really? Me neither.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I mean, that was crazy to see.
Rooster:I have never had a draw issue on any Padrone ever.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Rooster:Maybe the flavor might be off, like, you know, on one of the boxes.
Pagoda:Seems really mild sometimes. That's the only thing.
Chef Ricky:Not that it makes it any better or not, but was it like a thousand series Padrone that he did that on?
Gizmo:No, was an Exclusivo. Wow. Yeah. I still have the picture somewhere.
Pagoda:Yeah. It's rare though. It is very rare. Especially for the amount we used to smell. Look at the construction of this.
Pagoda:I'm surprised this has been kept so well at this humidor. Yeah. This is smoking.
Gizmo:Well, it's been out of this humidor for two weeks. Oh, really? Oh, sorry. And I dry boxed it as well. Alright, boys.
Gizmo:Let's go to some news now. We talked about this last week. You know, I love this whole story with Habanos and Cigars and all that stuff. Friend of the program, of course. So we discussed last week that Fifth Avenue, the German distributor of Cuban cigars, was their banking was halted by the banks over there because of the sanction issues going on with Chenji being a shareholder in all these companies.
Gizmo:And I said at the end of that discussion that I had heard that they were going to be filing for insolvency effectively like a bankruptcy, trying to continue operations while they work out how to get him out. And it was confirmed that that happened, and they are not able to do any sort of transacting. The crazy thing about this is who knows how long this is gonna take? Like, for these distributors that are tied up in this banking issue, like, Hunters and Franco had a six month head start on this, and I think they got through it with The UK regulators. But all of these European, UK, Asian now, all of them are having serious banking and transactional issues, not only paying Habanos for product to get it in, but also transacting with their retail network to move cigars throughout the country.
Gizmo:So right now, there's a serious issue for the future of Cuban cigars because let's say this takes a year, eighteen months, two years, without any cash flow, these distributors are not gonna be able to survive. And then you're gonna have a collapse of the entire distribution network happening with Habanos. So what's, you know, what's cool is finews.com, which is a financial news website, of course, did a whole article about the sanctions, and it was kind of very complementary to what I've talked about with Half Wheel that Charlie has done before. And it's an article called sanctions the endgame for Cuba's cigars. The tagline is US and EU sanctions against a China born billionaire are dismantling the global distribution network for Cuban cigars.
Gizmo:Several companies in the empire are in liquidation, which is really bad. They're liquidating the companies or insolvency. In Switzerland, none of it has had consequences so far. So Switzerland is even behind where some of these European countries are. Why I'm gonna point to this, I'm not gonna read through this whole thing.
Gizmo:We've talked about a lot of this stuff already. But in the middle of this article, there's kind of a flowchart. And what's interesting in this flowchart is it is the first time graphically that they've laid out exactly what Chenji owns down to the distributors, which we've not known before. He owns distributors? Well, don't don't forget, Ben.
Gizmo:We've talked about this. Habanos forced their way into distributorships. Remember we talked maybe eighteen months ago that Habanos was telling their distributors, if you do not give us 50% of the business, you will not be allocated product.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Gizmo:So a lot of them acquiesced.
Bam Bam:Wow.
Gizmo:What's interesting is we thought that a few of them got away with not having to acquiesce to Habanos, including Hunters and Franco, The UK distributor, and PCC who distributes out of Hong Kong. And this article shows that both of them acquiesced, and Chenji is a shareholder in both Hunters and Franco and in Pacific Cigar Company, PCC. So these guys are all in trouble from a sanctions standpoint and a banking standpoint, and they're unable to do business. So it's unbelievable how this all works out and how much of a hand this guy got on the cigar industry so quickly. I guess cash talks and certainly influence and power talks when you're the manufacturer controlling these these distributorships.
Gizmo:But it is amazing to me that none of these distributors really hedge their business. Like, they were fully and only in business, in bed Mhmm. With Cuba, with Habanos. So now that all of this is happening, they don't have other relationships. They don't have non Cuban cigar relationships.
Gizmo:They have solely been in this Cuban cigar game. I find this whole thing fascinating. And the fact that Chen G is a shareholder in Hunters and Franco and PCC, that blew a lot of folks mind who had no idea industry wise. I've talked to a lot of different folks over the last couple weeks. It's mind blowing that he got himself into Hunters and Franco who's been around for over a hundred years.
Bam Bam:Well, it's his money that got him in.
Gizmo:Or the power saying we're not gonna allocate to you. Right. Pretty amazing. So I would suggest you guys check out finews.com, finews.com. Check out this graph and check out the holding companies.
Gizmo:I mean, they even go through the profit and loss like Fifth Avenue. I found this fascinating from business standpoint. You guys will appreciate this. They did $63,000,000 of revenue in 2024 and the operating result net income was 20,000,000 and their profit was 14,000,000. Their net income was 31% of their gross.
Gizmo:That is a massive and impressive number. So they're clearly running a lean machine Yeah. Over there. I think they may be the only ones that can survive an extended period of not being able to do business. But just wild stuff here.
Gizmo:Hunters and Franco, you know, he owns 50% of that business now. 100 year old business.
Pagoda:By the way, that's a distribution business.
Gizmo:That's for The UK. Were
Bam Bam:they struggling? Were they did they need a cash infusion?
Gizmo:No. It was literally Habano saying, we want a bigger piece of the pie. If you don't give us 50%, we're not gonna allocate cigars to you. And everybody thought that Hunters and Franco got away got, you know, got away clean Yeah. Without having to do that because they've been around for a hundred years.
Gizmo:So what do you think, Pagoda? What do you think
Pagoda:Let's buy it. Let's move in.
Senator:That's where my man was going.
Gizmo:From a banking relationship standpoint, I know that this is European and stuff. I mean, how long does a process like this, how long could a process like this take, you think?
Pagoda:It's got nothing to, it's all regulations and it depends on people and what they want to do. But having said that, you know, it's also, like it's really interesting because even in The US, what I find is that in a lot of the places, tobacco industry, just generally, it's not prohibited, but it's definitely, you know, they monitor any kind of activity going on. You know, it's considered one of those industries which are just monitored a bit heavily. But having said that, I think there's an opportunity for someone who has money to go and move in. Especially the Chinese.
Pagoda:They could spin it off, you know? So what they could do is from the distribution to get rid of the ownership, spin it off or you know, run the ops under a different name. Obviously it's not that it'll be that easy, but you have to still go through the government and just say, hey listen, maybe we move into the New for a period of time.
Gizmo:That's what I think they need
Pagoda:to do. Yeah, they probably have the
Gizmo:infrastructure in place. Yeah, but they don't have the relationships. You know, they don't have the manufacturers' relationships to go and get that allocation from New World cigars. Haven't even started that process.
Pagoda:But that should be easy.
Senator:Hope. That shouldn't be that hard.
Gizmo:I'd hope. So we'll see what happens here. Again, I find this incredibly fascinating. So I recommend everybody check this out. It's a really, really deep dive.
Gizmo:It's a massive article on everything we've been talking about in real deep detail at FI News.
Rooster:But you know, the bottom line is Habanos is not getting paid then. Habanos is not getting any funds to sell, you know, boxes. I mean, they're they're either stuck with the boxes that they have or they're not. I'm sure the production is down and they're not moving boxes. They're not shipping.
Gizmo:Money is a major issue for Habanos because even if you're in an area where that was the whole reason why this guy got involved. And even if you're in an area where there aren't necessarily sanctions, the problem is the transfer networks because of the sanctions. A lot of stuff runs through China or Europe or The US, because of those sanctions, you can't even send the money through those wire services. I don't know what those things are called, Pagoda, but
Pagoda:No. But you know what? It tells me that there's a ship out there with a lot of cigars.
Gizmo:We need to find it.
Pagoda:Out of a canal. Let's go.
Rooster:It's in the Strait Of
Gizmo:Hormuz. Yeah. So while we're on Cuba, boys, wanna share this one with you, see what you think of this. Habanos has unveiled the Trinidad Vigia Reserva Cosecha 2022, which is the first Reserva in Trinidad's history.
Bam Bam:That they can't make.
Gizmo:So of course, they say that these are cigars that the tobacco is either aged to the point that they are coming up on five years old or they were rolled back then. The initial production is 5,000 numbered boxes of 20 cigars, And then they are also going to be releasing a container, a little box of the three three cigars in it like a gift box, you know? And the price on that I'm hearing is just around $700 for three cigars. So if you know the Vigia, that is a it's a Vigia. It's a little cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. 54 ring gauge by what? Probably four and a half inches, four and a half. Yeah. So you're talking over $200 for a little diminutive cigar with
Bam Bam:a rip off
Gizmo:With a Gran Reserva. Are we gonna do a Excuse me, a Reserva Cosecha.
Senator:Are we gonna do a short smoke special with that?
Bam Bam:$200 $250
Gizmo:short smoke special. We should Unbelievable. So this, like I said, is the first Reserva for Trinidad representing the debut of Trinidad all those years ago. Of course, publicly, Trinidad wasn't acknowledged until 1998, but, apparently, Fidel was using that very secretly all the way back into the sixties. It's a
Rooster:bad choice. Why would you do that with the Esmeralda? That's a much more fitting cigar
Gizmo:Yeah. Than the Vigia. The global unveiling took place on September 19 at the Petite Palais of the Fairmont Montreux Palace in Montreux, Switzerland during a Habanos event organized in collaboration with Intertabac. So what's interesting is we just discussed in Switzerland, sanctions and problems have not come down yet. So I wonder if that is in the future for Intertabac having these banking issues and moving money around.
Gizmo:So really interesting If you want a fancy four inch cigar, there's the
Pagoda:So who comes out of the pricing?
Gizmo:Vigia. Habanos. Chengji. Chengji from prison. Habanos sets the global market now.
Pagoda:So it's just random?
Rooster:No, the Reserva Cosechas are up there. That's one of the highest priced Habano cigars. It's not just the Reserva, it's Grand Reserva than the Cosecha. Am I right?
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Pagoda:Impressive. And what
Bam Bam:does the Cosecha designation give you as a cigar smoker?
Gizmo:An extra band? Fancy box?
Bam Bam:Alright.
Gizmo:Clout?
Bam Bam:Well, know,
Gizmo:Trinidad. Put on your fancy shoes.
Bam Bam:Have good resale value.
Gizmo:Yeah. They do. Yeah. They're they're selling a lot of them. That's probably why they did the Vigia because it's not selling.
Gizmo:So they probably put the extra band on it and said, let's ship these out as
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Gizmo:As Reserva's. Alright, boys. We're at the half hour mark now. You know what time it is. Let's go to our pairing.
Gizmo:Alright. So we have an interesting one tonight. A listener sent us very kindly, and we'll talk about him a little later, a rum, an American rum called the Privateer Navy Yard True American Rum. Cheers, boys.
Pagoda:Cheers.
Gizmo:Cheers. Good to see you all. Nice to be back after two weeks. Yeah. Although our furniture's been rearranged.
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Bam Bam:And I'm barely getting a glimpse of my gizmo. Just right around a corner, can see it.
Gizmo:I'm sorry.
Pagoda:We can get a mirror right behind Ricky.
Bam Bam:My favorite know, thing at
Chef Ricky:an angle.
Bam Bam:My favorite thing about this drink is the aroma.
Pagoda:Yeah. The aroma. I agree.
Bam Bam:And that's about it right now. And maybe the finish.
Chef Ricky:The aroma's great. There's something really unique on the finish. I don't know. I kinda wanna say honeysuckle, but that feels like a cop out.
Senator:It's something I get caramel on the finish.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Yeah. But it it feels a little bit more floral, like elderflower or something like that.
Bam Bam:Like an infused honey of something.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. It's it's very I don't I don't dislike it.
Bam Bam:It's there, very which I can see why the caramel can kinda play into that. I think it's a hybrid of the two. Yeah. Finish is nice. The aroma's nice.
Bam Bam:Just hot. Palate is tough, dude.
Gizmo:It's hot. Very peppery.
Pagoda:It gets, yeah, it gets like really warm very quick.
Senator:It's a 110 proof.
Gizmo:It's a 110 proof.
Bam Bam:Not capturing anything on the palate because of that heat.
Senator:So I'll just be honest, I'll say this. I had three sips neat. I cheated. I started a little early.
Gizmo:Is that the first time you've done that?
Senator:No. No. And it won't be the last.
Bam Bam:Oh, I get yelled at, but it's okay for him?
Gizmo:Correct. Well, he's our somm.
Chef Ricky:That's right.
Pagoda:He's our
Gizmo:song. Exactly.
Senator:And again, like, there's some interesting flavor there, but it's it's just too aggressive. I put some water and it's helped a lot.
Pagoda:Ice would be great.
Senator:Still some heat, but it's helped.
Bam Bam:I'll say it.
Pagoda:Ice would be great.
Senator:Just say it. I don't know that this cold would be great. That's why the water isn't that cold. It was like
Gizmo:So do you recommend everybody put a little splash?
Senator:For me, that's what I needed to be able to enjoy this. It's up to you.
Gizmo:Can somebody send me a cup of water that I could just
Bam Bam:put little Has it improved it for you?
Senator:It has. Really?
Bam Bam:Alright. We're to try it.
Gizmo:Can I put just a little drop?
Bam Bam:Can I put my peri in there?
Senator:Just don't share mine because I'm getting over sinus infection.
Gizmo:Oh so is he.
Bam Bam:Oh great.
Gizmo:Alright well. I'm gonna ride with him. I'm gonna ride it out.
Pagoda:No no no. Listen. How about getting some ice? Maybe we just wanna kill.
Gizmo:No. No.
Pagoda:You know, it'll work really well.
Gizmo:You can get up and get it.
Pagoda:Yeah. I will.
Gizmo:Do you really want to?
Pagoda:If it's gonna improve the drink, your next half hour is gonna be better.
Gizmo:Alright. Go ahead.
Senator:I I think when you do it, though, bring the thing of water because I think they should
Gizmo:start with water. Think Actually, should I just go get it because I'm over here?
Pagoda:Yeah. I think that'd be great
Bam Bam:because you haven't done enough.
Gizmo:It's alright.
Pagoda:Listen. This is family.
Chef Ricky:I like it because it's interesting. It's very different.
Senator:It's just intense.
Gizmo:Yeah. It is.
Pagoda:I I don't know. Like, I feel it gets really, like, like, when it goes you know, when it's like when you get the deep caramel, it feels very dark chocolatey to me.
Chef Ricky:I I know what what it is. It's molasses. That that yeah. Yeah. You ever, like, take the lid off a jar of molasses and you smell it, and it's, like, this funky kind of over caramel.
Chef Ricky:I wonder if this rum is made from molasses versus like whatever other bases of sugar they
Rooster:use. Sugarcane.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Sugarcane or
Pagoda:Typically, most rum are made from sugarcane.
Bam Bam:Well, I'm actually kinda growing on me. Yeah. Gotta keep sipping it.
Senator:Yeah. Chef, you hit the nail on the head because on the bottle, it says distilled from 100% US grade a molasses. Oh. There you go. Fuck.
Senator:That's what we're getting.
Gizmo:There you go. You're actually a chef?
Rooster:He was reading the bottle before.
Chef Ricky:No. I never got to see it. Yeah. So that makes me feel better about the flavor profile because now I feel like, you know, that comes through, that there's some authenticity to that, you know, that that's what they're going for. So I feel better about it.
Bam Bam:How do you like it overall though?
Pagoda:What
Chef Ricky:Again, for me, it's interesting and it's very different. It this this is a bottle that sort of it makes you think. Right? This isn't you know, it's not the Abuelo seven or, like, the rum that we're just gonna kinda take back and have a easygoing night, you know? And this is definitely, like, something you bring to the rum equivalent of a book club.
Pagoda:No. Really? It really does make you think, why the hell are you having it?
Gizmo:Yeah. Jeez. Honestly, I think I think it's a nice I think it's a nice change up, you know, because we've been drinking that kind of lower proof stuff for a while. You try to power through, man.
Pagoda:Fucking love it.
Chef Ricky:He's been on fire the last few weeks, man. Shit.
Gizmo:I actually think it's a nice change of pace, and I think it's working really well with the cigar.
Bam Bam:Did you put a drop in?
Gizmo:I put a
Rooster:little
Gizmo:You did? Sploosh Just a tiny bit.
Bam Bam:Can I have that?
Gizmo:Yes, you can.
Pagoda:Thank you. So how the chains become a little more lively or fruitier?
Senator:I mean, the person that also would probably like this, if anyone who likes a high proof bourbon or Whiskey. Whiskey, like, drinks like a whiskey more than it does a rum.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. You're not wrong about that.
Gizmo:And I think that's their claim to fame too. I did see a lot of people talking about that. You know, this might be a good entry point for a bourbon drinker who likes that, you know, mid fifties bourbon to get into rum.
Chef Ricky:Well, I guess it kinda makes sense that it's molasses and not sugarcane. I mean, outside of Puerto Rico, there's no sugarcane growing in The US, right, or on the Mainland.
Bam Bam:Chef, did you put a little bit of water in yours? I didn't. I'm not going to. Honestly, it did improve it. I'm capturing a bit more floral, and I don't know if I'm capturing molasses, but a little sweet prune and honey.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's a nice salty finish for me.
Gizmo:It's actually quite
Pagoda:It makes it a little brighter.
Bam Bam:Did you try with water?
Chef Ricky:But that's your pedestrian palette, Bam. I called all those notes out much earlier.
Pagoda:Loving this. Loving this.
Rooster:So, you
Bam Bam:know, as Giz likes to say, I
Gizmo:guess I'll go fuck myself. I do love that you've
Chef Ricky:adopted that. Love you, Ben.
Rooster:I'm very happy you adopted that.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Senator:I was gonna say I I do appreciate on the back of the bottle, it says transparency statement distilled from 100% US grade a molasses, matured in new American oak, single cask. It has the number of the cask it came from. Age, not less than four years. Additives, none. And then it says on here, ingredients, best practices, never sweetened, never filtered.
Senator:So I will give them credit like this is clearly a clean spirit.
Chef Ricky:Does does it say where it's from? From Massachusetts. It says Massachusetts.
Gizmo:That's the craziest part. Ipswich, Massachusetts. Founded by a guy named Andrew Cabot, began shipping in 2011.
Chef Ricky:I'm liking it more and more, man.
Gizmo:Cabot family has ties to eighteenth century New England rum production and maritime trade. So that's where that Navy Yard thing comes from. It's a nod to, you know, New England maritime. Privateer produces age and bottles all of its rum in Massachusetts exclusively. And as senator just said, Navy Yard contains no added sugar, artificial coloring, or artificial flavors.
Chef Ricky:That's impressive because that's a very deep, beautiful color on that. So, of course, because it's single barrel, the proof varies a
Gizmo:little bit from barrel to barrel. It's aged in a 53 gallon new American oak, as you just said, senator, and it's a minimum of four years aged. Fermentation is interesting. Lasts approximately six days. The temperature is around 74 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gizmo:Wash reaches approximately 8% ABV. Most fermentable sugar is consumed during the first two days, but they let it go for four more to develop more aroma and flavor compounds. The distillation is done in a pot still, and then the 8% ABV wash becomes low wines of roughly 35% ABV. Then they do a second distillation using an eight plate column still. This all sounds very complicated.
Chef Ricky:I love all the information.
Gizmo:The combination is designed to refine the spirit while retaining more character than a highly efficient continuous column process. The spirit enters the barrel at approximately 55% ABV, as we talked about. Privateer has said that this lower entry proof produces slower oak extraction and helps reduce astringency.
Pagoda:Low entry proof?
Gizmo:Yes. Low entry proof. So it's not going in at 60 or 70% into the barrel. Some Navy Yard barrels leave the warehouse at a higher proof than the original 110 proof barrel entry strength. This can occur when water evaporates faster than alcohol during the aging process.
Gizmo:Massachusetts climate conditions can therefore increase ABV in some of their barrels. So where they're at in Ipswich I don't know. You know, you're a Massachusetts guy, senator. Do you know where Ipswich is?
Senator:I surely have not.
Rooster:I spent four years like I was crazy.
Gizmo:So the they have warm, humid summers, of course, like we all do here in the Northeast and cold winters. Seasonal temperature swings move spirit into and out of the barrel wood. Privateer associates some of its rum with saline and mineral characteristics.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Gizmo:The saline description is a sensory observation from the producer, not proof that coastal air directly makes the rum taste salty. The head distiller is a woman named Maggie Campbell. She became their head distiller in 2012. She previously worked at Germaine Robin, the California brandy producer. Did I pronounce that correctly?
Gizmo:Her production approach emphasizes controlled fermentation, precise distillation cuts, barrel selection, careful proof management, and her techniques are influenced by brandy and cognac production.
Pagoda:Oh, this makes me like it better. Whoo. Please.
Gizmo:So some of the official tasting descriptors, cinnamon, clove, salted caramel, cigar box, I found that one interesting. Nutmeg, dried apricot, dried fig, vanilla bean, toasted coconut, caramel, honey, and toffee. Yep.
Chef Ricky:I I would I would replace cigar box with cedar.
Gizmo:Well, think
Bam Bam:nutmeg is pretty
Gizmo:right on. Yeah. That makes sense.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Good callouts.
Gizmo:So a pretty cool story there. And like I said, this was sent in by a listener, and we're gonna talk about him a little later in the program. So we really appreciate listeners sending us spirits. And this one, I I thought might be an interesting pairing for the cigar. And with that, boys, we've come to the end of the first third here on the Padrone nineteen sixty four Anniversary Exclusivo in Natural paired with this Privateer Navy Yard single barrel cask strength American rum.
Gizmo:What's everybody thinking of the cigar?
Pagoda:Well, you may have come to the first third. I'm at the first 50%.
Gizmo:You're in the second half?
Bam Bam:Yeah. We're blowing through this.
Senator:Oh, I'm well into the second half.
Gizmo:How's the cigar for
Bam Bam:you? It's delicious.
Pagoda:It is delicious.
Rooster:It's picked up in strength a little bit for me.
Bam Bam:A little body.
Rooster:And I'm getting, like, a little bit this one has You're getting dizzy? An odd spice to it.
Bam Bam:Are you okay,
Pagoda:old boy? Are you getting dizzy? Let me just wanna make sure.
Gizmo:I'm fine.
Rooster:I get a little bit of spice. It's like a weird spice that that you don't get in the in the Maduro line. Really?
Senator:Maybe like a little cinnamon?
Gizmo:I would say it's peppery.
Rooster:It's a baking spice, but some kind of a spice that I get. For me, the thing
Senator:that was notable is that, like, the midway point, you get a lot of salt Mhmm. With the sweetness.
Gizmo:It's really nice.
Senator:It's it's awesome. Like, when it started, it was, like, very sweet. Then it picks up it it's salty, but the sweet notes are still there.
Rooster:It's picked up in strength.
Senator:Little, not much. Don't feel
Gizmo:like I'm experiencing that, and honestly, I just took my first sip of rum and I've been talking a lot, but I'm not having that same experience. I feel like it's been pretty consistent.
Chef Ricky:Same. For me, the the the nutty notes are what just kind of persist, and I'm enjoying it. It's salted nuts.
Gizmo:Senators talked about the Exclusivo and his love of it in the past. I thought it was really well described when he said, It's a one act play, but a one act play that you're very, very happy.
Chef Ricky:Of course.
Gizmo:You said, Have nothing changed. Correct. But I think that we're at this kind of point in this one act play that there is a little bit of a pop happening now from the saltiness that's happening with the chocolate. I think the rum is obviously Yeah. Making that pop a little bit too.
Gizmo:I I just think this is a great, great cigar. Agreed. So as of this point, how would you guys, for a listener out there who doesn't have a natural in their hand, maybe they have the Maduro from listening to us talk about it almost every episode for two fifty four weeks. How would you compare this cigar at this point versus the Exclusivo from a flavor profile, what to expect, where you'd slot it, etcetera,
Rooster:at I this think the Exclusivo in Maduro gives you the dark chocolate espresso. Espresso, yeah. This gives more like a milk chocolate. It's nuttier. Like you said, salty.
Rooster:I'm getting a tiny bit of spice, which you don't get that. And the maduro is a little deeper, darker of the same flavors.
Senator:There's earthiness in
Pagoda:the exos. There's earthiness. There's the earthiness and a little spice, like slight peppery spice. I don't know. I wouldn't say peppery, but it's a different kind of spice.
Rooster:For me, it's like a very deep, dark chocolate This with espresso is more like a light coffee with milk.
Bam Bam:This is a completely different cigar, and I welcome it. I think it's a fantastic piece to have
Chef Ricky:in your night. Yeah. Exclusivo is like a mocha with bittersweet chocolate and this I'm sorry. The is like a mocha with bittersweet chocolate and this is a mocha with added milk and milk chocolate. It's much creamier, lighter.
Chef Ricky:Sweeter.
Bam Bam:There's no doubt that Exclusivo Maduro is deeper and richer.
Chef Ricky:For sure. Also sweeter. And sweeter.
Gizmo:Don't know. I don't know if I agree with that. I think this is a sweeter cicosas much. This is actually quite sweet. I think the other Exclusivo is a little bit more savory.
Senator:We're describing dark chocolate, milk chocolate, milk chocolate is much sweeter.
Gizmo:This is
Bam Bam:truly milk chocolate and that is a truly dark chocolate experience. More leather in that one too for me.
Rooster:Also the cigar leather.
Chef Ricky:I think what was was calling out in the Maduro is there's a little bit of dried fruit and that's not here. There's none of that here in the natural.
Bam Bam:I will say I haven't ever experienced dried fruit in Exclusivo.
Gizmo:There's a
Chef Ricky:little bit there. There's a little bit of raisin.
Senator:Very faint.
Bam Bam:Maybe
Chef Ricky:raisin. That's a dried fruit. Yeah. Raisin prune.
Bam Bam:You're pedestrian. You're putting yourself in my bullseye. I'm sorry.
Chef Ricky:It's this fucking sofa.
Bam Bam:Get ready. Get ready homeboy.
Senator:The the vitola though that you get a lot of that dried fruit in the Exclusivo Maduro line is what's the Lonsdale called again? Lonsdale, I think. Are you talking the
Bam Bam:Monarcha.
Gizmo:Monarcha. Monarcha. Monarcha.
Senator:One you get a lot of dried fruit in the Maduro. I would agree with that. But to your point, it's not nearly as present in the Exclusivo.
Bam Bam:No. Think it's cool that this is such a complete departure from the Exclusivo. The Maduro.
Chef Ricky:The Maduro.
Senator:Yeah. They're night and day.
Bam Bam:It's so interesting. I really love this. I love that I can have the two of them in the same night have two completely different experiences.
Rooster:Whoever said the rapper doesn't impart flavor.
Gizmo:I'm not getting involved. That's BAM's that's BAM's boy.
Senator:Kim Jong Un.
Gizmo:Kim Jong
Rooster:Un. I mean the rapper is making a huge difference in
Pagoda:the So this is a Nicaraguan bureau as well.
Senator:Everything that makes Yeah.
Pagoda:I just wanna make sure.
Senator:Good morning, Pagoda.
Pagoda:Because, you know, you typically don't see the lighter versions of the Nicaraguan.
Senator:No. Actually though, to your point, this, you know, we describe like the Cabay Guan or some other like surprise cigars as we hadn't really had Nicaraguan tobacco tamed in that to that extent. This kind of falls in that camp where if you were to have this blind, not box pressed because that would immediately your mind would think Padrone or few brands. But if this were a regular cigar blind, you would think this could be, like, Dominican. Yeah.
Pagoda:Mhmm. It doesn't feel very Yeah. It is excellent, though.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's do a little housekeeping. I a have couple questions for you. We'll do some updates, and we'll get into some listener email. First up, I wanted to share I don't even think you guys know this, that so this episode comes out on the September 29.
Gizmo:On the September 30, I will be on the Cigar Soldier Podcast. He asked me to be his first guest, and I did, like, a two hour interview with him. The hell? So for anybody out there who doesn't get enough gizmo in their life, I will be on the Cigar Soldier Podcast. I'm talking to you, senator, you rooster, you guys.
Bam Bam:Uh-huh.
Gizmo:If you wanna tune in and get a little more giz in your life Oh.
Bam Bam:Tomorrow. Can
Pagoda:can you send some clippings? Yeah. Just send some
Gizmo:You want me to clip it for you?
Pagoda:Go ahead.
Gizmo:So check that out on the Cigar Soldier Podcast. He's a he's an OG listener of ours, started his own podcast. He's been writing in. He's won Lizard of the Week a couple times. Now he has his own program.
Gizmo:It's just him on the program. So he asked me to be his first guest. So I was honored to do it.
Rooster:That comes out on the thirtieth.
Gizmo:So it'll be out tomorrow. Yeah. On the thirtieth. One more thing, boys. Running out on October 1 is the plain packaging thing in The UK.
Gizmo:So any listener out there, especially folks in Europe and The UK who want to have their voices heard as with regard to the proposed plain packaging legislation in The United Kingdom. Go to savecigars.co.uk. Let your voice be heard. Lizard Peter wrote a comment to us. He said with regard to the proposed plain packaging legislation in The UK and the consultation period.
Gizmo:So I was saying we were talking about, you know, Hunters and Franco and James J Fox and the Suhakians at Davidoff of London. You know, how come they're not more of an influence in this process? And he said that the cigar industry players such as Suhakians, H and F, etcetera, are precluded from responding to the consultation. And if they do, it will be discounted because they have a commercial interest. It's all the more important that we consumers do respond.
Gizmo:And that's from Lizard Peter. So this episode comes out on the twenty ninth in The UK. This expires on October 1. So you quite literally, from the drop of this episode, have about twenty four hours to get on savecigars.co.uk and let your voice be heard. Do not regret not making your voice be heard on that website.
Gizmo:So get over there and do it. Couple more things here. A couple updates for you guys. First up, this one's from Lizard Bonners. He is in Australia.
Gizmo:We were talking about the crazy prices of cigars in Australia. He writes, hi, Lizards. I wanted to add that on September 1, the taxes in Australia went up an additional 5% to $2,587.90 per kilogram. It goes up now every six months, he says. They're looking at slashing the taxes because of the massive underground market for tobacco.
Gizmo:So I guess there's a lot of black market sales of cigarettes and whatnot. But there is a good argument that it won't make a difference given retailers running such low margins. They will just keep the price increases coming and hope to make some profit for once. That is not great. Here's another one.
Gizmo:This one's from Lizard Bonnos. We were talking about unboxing cigars, air movement, tupper doors, etcetera. He said a couple of things for you guys. I have to disagree with the unboxing cigars and the air movement thing. I keep boxes closed in my cabinet.
Gizmo:I'm using passive humidification, crystals, and distilled water. Holding 65 to 68%. I do calibrate hygrometers. I also have some boba to the 65% stay loaded. The 69% do dry out very slowly.
Gizmo:I don't like too much air movement. So I found that interesting because I think all of us in the room here in the camp of a little air movement or a lot of air movement is good for your cigars on a regular basis. But Bonos is a representative of that contingent of Lizard Nation that disagrees with us, that folks have no problem with their stuff sitting in Tupador, pulling them out of Tupperdur with no air movement, no dry boxing, etcetera. So he said, I don't like too much air movement. Certainly no fans.
Gizmo:It's worked well for just over twenty years now. Yes. I'm an old boy. A sealed Tupperdur is actually the perfect environment to calibrate hygrometers with bovada in there. Can always additionally wrap it in cling film or saran wrap here in The US.
Gizmo:If you worry about leaks to test, I do dry box nowadays at 58%, and then he loved the Welsh pronunciations that I did. He says, please again. I thought he had
Rooster:a problem with the with some kind of a flavor from certain cigars. That wasn't him.
Gizmo:That wasn't Lizard Bonos. Here's another one. This one's from Lizard Greg. He says two notes for you guys. Lemon sorbet is an excellent mid session palette refresher or a lemon Rita's ice for our Southeast Pennsylvania friends.
Gizmo:And number two, senator needs to go on a pip for his dumb opinion of the band Rush.
Bam Bam:Oh, that's correct.
Gizmo:He was harsh on us.
Bam Bam:He was.
Gizmo:He was harsh on us. He says to be
Senator:Just so we're clear.
Bam Bam:Oh, here we go. Just so
Chef Ricky:we're clear.
Gizmo:Should I put my mic away?
Senator:Mhmm. No. No. No. I have nothing against Rush.
Senator:It's just it's Gizmo seeing the same show like a 100 times. That's the thing I just can't understand.
Gizmo:I saw it four times.
Senator:No. You way more. This year. No. No.
Senator:No.
Gizmo:In a week in a This year? Three times.
Senator:And and in your life,
Gizmo:how many times? Oh, maybe 20. Exactly.
Senator:That's that's what I'm getting at. So just so I'm clear.
Gizmo:But it's not the same issue with Russia. They constantly change the set list.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:It's different albums.
Chef Ricky:Oh, yeah.
Senator:They've come out with a whole
Chef Ricky:lot of new music lately.
Gizmo:Well, I mean, the drummer died six years ago, they haven't toured in eleven years. But before that,
Rooster:they did.
Bam Bam:Big deal.
Gizmo:It's a big deal. So Well, Lizard Greg disagrees with you disagrees with you, senator. So we talked about and I'm just blowing through some updates here because we have so much stuff to get through. We talked about cigar patents, and I think I said on the episode, the LFD chisel was one of the only cigars that had a patent. And our friend, the cigar surgeon, corrected me.
Gizmo:He said, LFT also has a patent for the Salomon press, which I didn't know. And Fuente has the BBMF, which I guess is big bad m effort. And, apparently, Oliva has a patent on the nub. So that vitola or that size cannot be made by anyone else.
Bam Bam:That's fine.
Gizmo:Welcome to the
Senator:club because you're on a pip too now.
Gizmo:Correct. I'm on a permanent pip. Another great episode, gentlemen, he says. So so that's the story, boys. Those are some updates.
Gizmo:And I wanted to share something that I did on FOH. I was listening to a radio segment, and they did one of those f Mary Kills. It was a stupid radio segment. Right? We we named three people.
Gizmo:One you wanna f, one you wanna marry, one you wanna kill. Stupid. But of course, my mind went to cigars. So I was thinking about Cuban cigars. Right?
Gizmo:And I was thinking about if you had to kill a cigar, pick a popular cigar to kill, pick one to save from the brink of extinction. So I would say on with those, I would say the Sir Winston, the La Gloria Cuban MDO four, the Partagas eight nine eight, the Schwa Supreme
Bam Bam:The MDO number two.
Gizmo:Well, that's gone. That's on my revive list. Been
Bam Bam:it's dead for dead for Correct.
Gizmo:Thirteen years. That's true. Cigar on the brink of extinction that doesn't come up that much, and finally, a cigar that you would bring back from the dead. So the reason why I bring this to you guys is it had a great response on FOH, and I wanted to see what everybody in the room said. I'll give you my three, and then I wanna go around the room and see what yours are.
Gizmo:So my initial list, I know this is gonna be controversial in this room.
Senator:Oh, yeah. Go ahead.
Gizmo:My kill was the Bolivar Bellicosos Finos.
Senator:Disgraceful. Mhmm.
Gizmo:I would be totally fine if that
Pagoda:cigar disappeared. Ridiculous. Could be
Gizmo:totally fine if that cigar disappeared and I never had enough.
Rooster:That's such a good cigar.
Gizmo:It's okay. I've never had one that knocked my socks off.
Senator:Okay. Outrageous.
Gizmo:Now, let me just say on the rules, I did say
Rooster:You didn't say p two.
Gizmo:I like the p two.
Bam Bam:I like the p two as well.
Gizmo:On the rules, I said pick a popular cigar to kill. Don't go with something that's kinda like the Hollo de Mer.
Bam Bam:So we're in Cuban in Cuban Cuba.
Gizmo:Just Cuba. Yeah. My save was the La Gloria Cubana MDO four. I think that's probably on the brink of extinction. You know, the Turquinos obviously was a cigar that they had just come out, you know, with La Gloria Cubana in Cuba.
Gizmo:But the MDO four, I don't know the last time that we saw that in any sort of decent quantity.
Rooster:So Right now, the entire catalog of Cubanos is
Bam Bam:It's true.
Gizmo:It's true.
Rooster:It's on the brink of
Gizmo:dusting chain.
Rooster:It all needs to be saved. It all needs to
Gizmo:be saved. And my revive, of course, was the Vegas Rubania Classicos
Bam Bam:Good choice. Which
Gizmo:kind of sent, I think, certainly me and us, I think, chasing that that unicorn, you know, sent us down the rabbit hole. And here we are all those years later. So I don't know who wants to start, but I would love to hear your list of a cigar you'd kill in the catalog and be okay with it, cigar you'd save if you could, and a cigar you would revive
Chef Ricky:I can go for us.
Gizmo:The dead.
Bam Bam:Go ahead. This is not easy.
Senator:Can we take these one at a time and start with kill and
Bam Bam:go around
Gizmo:get other cigars? That's a good idea.
Chef Ricky:Thank you.
Rooster:Yeah. I would kill the h Upman 50.
Gizmo:Oh, Magnum 50. That's a good one. Choice.
Bam Bam:Very good choice.
Gizmo:That cigar, by the way, was the Bam Bam Accountability Hour cigar.
Rooster:That's why.
Senator:I don't remember that. That's why.
Bam Bam:It's also a flavorless cigar. Exactly. It's awful.
Senator:I'm surprised you didn't say the fundy, so BAM can't sell anymore. Senator. I'm gonna go with the PLPC. No. Love that cigar.
Gizmo:Poor. That's that's a good one, senator.
Bam Bam:I very
Gizmo:different cigar.
Senator:Love that cigar.
Bam Bam:You don't like it either?
Senator:It's too woody. It's okay. It's too woody and earthy for me.
Gizmo:Oh, I get a lot of
Rooster:dry fruit. How much a box of the 50 cap is going for now? 1,200? Yeah. It's up there.
Rooster:Wow. Yeah. More than that. Don't think that's worth
Gizmo:it for that cigar. That's a $10 cigar at the most.
Rooster:Well, that's what it was. I mean, the 50 cap used to be around like $5.50.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Good choices.
Gizmo:Pagoda, what would be a cigar, a regular production Cuban cigar that you'd be totally okay with disappearing from the face of the earth?
Pagoda:So I'll tell you, I like your BBF thing. For me, I've never had a really good one. And the other one I was thinking about was you guys will just jump on me and kill me, would be the Lucy, because I've never had a good Lucy.
Bam Bam:Oh, that's actually good I
Gizmo:think that's a decent choice. Very good
Bam Bam:choice, very astute.
Pagoda:Yeah, because it's, the construction issues have always bothered me.
Bam Bam:Not a bad choice.
Pagoda:So as good as you are, it sucks you in into something you're really enjoying, and then you're out. Yeah. So maybe Lucy.
Gizmo:Do you think of that, Senator?
Senator:I mean, it upsets me to hear it, but I can't disagree with it in the sense that I haven't had I have a great 50 cab of Lucy's, and I most of the Lucy's I've had have been out of that cab. So I haven't really experienced many other Lucy's to have had disappointing experiences. So, I trust that's obviously been Pagoda's experience, so that's why I get where he's coming from. Yeah.
Rooster:Same here. I haven't had a good I've had really bad luck
Pagoda:with Lucy's.
Bam Bam:Interesting. Yeah.
Gizmo:I just remember the one we did in the room. I was so embarrassed. Know, we had that conversation with Rob. It was so bad. And his was terrible too, and he was Yeah.
Gizmo:Sixteen hours ahead of us, you know, in in Brisbane.
Pagoda:And that was, like, my fifth in a row, by the way. Remember? You handed me a funeral.
Gizmo:I kept I kept giving them to you to try to get you to love one, and it wasn't working out.
Rooster:You don't do that anymore.
Pagoda:Hey. Why don't we revisit that,
Chef Ricky:actually? Okay.
Pagoda:Yeah. Let's bring it back from
Gizmo:the dead. Bam, what's yours?
Bam Bam:Probably the Cudi 54.
Gizmo:That's a good one.
Bam Bam:Yeah. The fifty's great. I like the 52. 52, they're great. Yeah.
Bam Bam:The 54 is a redundant cigar to me. I did like it when it first came out, but I think as I've smoked them, there's a lot of parody to the others, and it's kind of a filler cigar that they just put in their catalog to have something in there. So I'm I'm going with the QD 54.
Gizmo:I don't mind that one. Yeah. I'm totally cool with that.
Senator:I don't like that one, but Really? I I understand where he's coming from.
Gizmo:How often are you smoking them though? I know you don't have maybe a ton of them.
Senator:No. No. I actually it's funny. Within the last few months, I found a partial box. I had some left.
Senator:That's what I have. Within the last few months, probably had like five or six of them. Really? They've been very good. I mean, they've got good age on them.
Senator:They're probably at least five years. Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright. So the Cuban cigar that you would save that's on the brink of extinction. So again, I'm thinking the cigars that are in regular production, not EL's or Limitatas, cigars that we love that we just don't see come up, let's consider in good times, not 2026. But when you're out there, you know, that that Sir Winston pops up, that $8.98, that MDO four, that, you know, Schwa Supreme, What cigar would you save from the brink of extinction, rooster?
Rooster:I would say the Corona Scalaro.
Bam Bam:I was kidding. That's a good one. Yeah.
Rooster:Yeah. It just doesn't come up that often.
Pagoda:Almost never see it. Know, I had them yesterday, day before. So good. It was so good, and maybe because I was having it after a long time.
Rooster:It's a perfect summer smoke.
Pagoda:We were out on the deck, and it was just excellent.
Chef Ricky:And you had a great pairing. Were having it with two You
Senator:didn't have one at my birthday party?
Pagoda:No. Didn't. I had the other one.
Senator:Oh, you had the MAC 46? Yeah.
Rooster:I did too. Had the MAC 46.
Pagoda:Me too.
Gizmo:Senator. Maybe we
Pagoda:can revisit that as well.
Rooster:Could have a Have a
Pagoda:birthday to
Gizmo:you. Don't know it's been around here.
Pagoda:I'll sing for you.
Bam Bam:You're gonna
Senator:have to come back to me. The hard thing is something that's truly on the brink of extinction. That's what I'm having a hard time with.
Gizmo:Yeah. I think there's more than you think. Mhmm. I think there's a lot of cigars that we love and we've reviewed here that are on the brink. Because if you think about Habanos let's say they come out of this.
Gizmo:Let's say Cuba comes out of this. They figure out something with the international community. They get things going again. Habanos figures their shit out. The ramp up to, like, normalcy, they're gonna be dedicating a lot of that tobacco to the high end, high dollar limited release stuff.
Gizmo:You know? Like, is Amani four on the chopping block? You know? Like, who knows where they're gonna send this tobacco? So I think there's more on the block than than we might think.
Pagoda:It seems like the overall production.
Bam Bam:Oh, there's one that I can't I don't remember the name of it.
Gizmo:Which one?
Bam Bam:It was a it had a peanut note.
Rooster:Oh, the Short Punch.
Gizmo:There you
Bam Bam:go. Short to Short Punch. Thank you. That was one of my favorite cigars when we had access to them. Good luck finding one.
Bam Bam:Short to Punch.
Senator:Yeah. Great
Bam Bam:follow-up. Excellent cigar.
Pagoda:I know for me it would be the eight ninety eight.
Bam Bam:Well done, Brewster. Props to you. I
Chef Ricky:almost said it because I remember having it on your deck.
Bam Bam:Oh yeah, it was on the tip of your tongue.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, it about to come out.
Pagoda:Lounge, it's been a while since we've been on your deck. What's going on over that?
Chef Ricky:Come over anytime. It's overrun by animals.
Pagoda:You know, do have a lot of Hey, fucking raccoons, we can meet for ping pong on a Tuesday afternoon
Bam Bam:With your dragon tail hanging out?
Pagoda:I said Padraca's 898.
Gizmo:898.
Pagoda:Yeah. But, you know, for me, it's one of my favorite cigars, and, yeah, I wouldn't like to see it go.
Senator:I mean, then the easy one has gotta be the Schwab Supreme. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's such a unique, distinct flavor profile.
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Senator:Not just in the Cabanos catalog, but really for any cigar. I mean, we talk about the the Trinidad Robusto from Fabric of Five, how it has some Schwa Supreme like notes, and that market doesn't have much else.
Gizmo:So What do they have now? I think they have the regional, they have the demitasse, they have the Schwar Supreme. That's it. What else do they have?
Bam Bam:And the demitasse is okay. It's not great, it's okay.
Gizmo:And it's quite literally a tiny little it's almost like a cigarette. Alright. So now this one might be easier for us, but what would be the cigar you'd revive? Mine was the Vegas, Romania, Classico. I think I can I take a guess what yours is gonna be?
Rooster:I think I know what your guess is.
Gizmo:The Saint Louis Ray The Churchill. The Churchill.
Rooster:No. I was gonna say the MDO number two. Okay.
Gizmo:What would yours be, senator?
Senator:Well, since the classic o is taken
Rooster:You went to go first.
Senator:Yeah. I'm gonna say the h upman Robusto Anajados. Okay. That's one of my favorite Cuban cigars of all time. Yep.
Senator:I bought at least five boxes of that cigar at one point. That's how much I loved it. Never gonna get it again. And that's the problem. Yeah.
Senator:I mean, you remember, I gave
Gizmo:you They were twenty eleven boxes, right?
Senator:Yeah. That's crazy.
Gizmo:It's nuts. That's the same year as the classicos.
Senator:Yeah. I mean, the flavor is ridiculous. It's super nutty, and the construction I mean, I gave Giz. I gave him the first one he ever had. I'll never forget.
Senator:Smoked it at Hearth and Tap, our North Lounge. Yeah. He smoked it all the way to the nub without having to ash a single time.
Gizmo:And I wasn't being, like, delicate with it.
Senator:No. And for a Cuban cigar really delicate, but I mean, if it was a new world, it wouldn't be that revolutionary. For a Cuban cigar Doesn't happen. I there's no other cigar I've ever been able to do that with that's Cuban.
Gizmo:Amazing. Alright, boys. We're gonna come back to our revive in one moment, but we've come to the end of the second third now on the Padrone nineteen sixty four Anniversary Exclusivo in Natural and the Privateer Navy Yard American rum single barrel. What's everybody think of the cigar, the pairing, the rum? How's it working for you?
Gizmo:I hope
Rooster:this never goes extinct. Yeah. No kidding.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm. It's lovely, man. I think everything's settled in nicely right now. You know, the the rum and the cigar are pairing well together. They're playing nicely.
Chef Ricky:You know, the salinity in the rum, the nuttiness in the cigar, there's some sweetness here, but it's a dark, deep sweetness coming out of the rum. I I'm loving it.
Bam Bam:Senator and I are kind of neck and neck about an inch left. You're
Gizmo:Yeah. You guys are blowing through
Pagoda:it.
Bam Bam:You too, kind of there.
Gizmo:No. I have about
Bam Bam:The rest, two you kind of got a little bit more material. You what?
Pagoda:I've slowed down a bit.
Bam Bam:Are you getting any minerality? Just a touch of minerality right now? A little bit. Right? It's off putting for me.
Bam Bam:It's surprising. I don't like it.
Pagoda:So I'm at the point where it's nutty, salty, and sweet.
Bam Bam:Yeah, I was getting that most of the time.
Pagoda:You know, it is so good. There's nothing about I'm this on pleasantly surprised because I walked in, I wasn't very enthusiastic about this.
Chef Ricky:Same.
Pagoda:Yeah. And it's worked out. It's really like, come on. This is the second one we were smoking.
Gizmo:Dude, it's a Padrone,
Chef Ricky:but it's a I don't know. It's not something I gravitate towards.
Gizmo:The idea that natural Padrones have a stink in this room is so ludicrous and crazy to me. Like, there is no marker that is performed. We all smoke Padrones like daily. Know. But just
Senator:be clear, I I think what our experience has been, we were surprised by the 64 line in natural. I've mentioned I've had the 26 line in Natural, and I find that to be harsh, unlike the Maduro in that line. I've also had like
Chef Ricky:I also think the thousand series in Natural is harsh.
Senator:I don't know. Don't know if I've
Pagoda:had them.
Gizmo:Oh no. I've had them.
Bam Bam:Which thousand series, 2,000?
Chef Ricky:The two, the three,
Senator:Wasn't that cigar event that we went to, the charity thing Was your friend
Chef Ricky:that in Natura? That was
Senator:natural I feel like.
Gizmo:It was
Bam Bam:good. Yeah, very good.
Chef Ricky:I My experiences with Natural in the thousand series are usually a little bit rough. But the
Senator:other experience I had with Natural was like a friend from my birthday years ago bought me the the fifty year, the hammer in Natural and Maduro, and I smoked them back to back. I started with the natural, then had the Maduro, and to me, I mean, the Maduro just blew it out of the water. So like that's those experiences are what have always like shaped my perception that the natural is just for my palate inferior to the Maduro, but in this line, it's as satisfying in different ways, which is awesome. Correct?
Pagoda:But I wonder, like, if we smoke, like, I think I might have an exclusive in the locker. Like, I'd really like to see, you know, how it
Bam Bam:Can I have it?
Pagoda:How it differs. I don't know, I might. I would like
Bam Bam:I wanna know what Giz is getting in his cigar right now.
Gizmo:I'm getting the milk chocolate. I'm not getting the minerality.
Bam Bam:No minerality at think
Gizmo:he nailed it. Like chocolatey, it's sweet, it's a little nutty.
Bam Bam:Just a touch.
Chef Ricky:But we're we're also not where they are.
Gizmo:Yeah. I'm not as I'm not as far down.
Senator:I am getting some of what Bam is describing. I think when you get like really further along like close to the nub, you start getting that minerality he's talking about. Little bit.
Gizmo:I'm loving this cigar and I think the smoke output, like it is really smoky in here.
Bam Bam:It's everything
Gizmo:you expect from an exquisite.
Pagoda:Everything, you know, everything. The construction, the burn line, everything. It's just been excellent.
Chef Ricky:The snicker vein has done nothing to to the construction.
Bam Bam:Has it added to your chocolatey experience?
Chef Ricky:It hasn't taken away from it either. You know?
Rooster:I mean, I still think the Maduro is still a notch above this. Sure. Right?
Bam Bam:I I still
Rooster:prefer the notes out of the Maduro line than the Natural.
Pagoda:As as I think senator would put it, it's a familiar friend. No. That's a puba. Oh, is it puba? It's a familiar friend.
Pagoda:It is. Correct.
Gizmo:So how is the rum working for you guys at this point? I know you guys are a little further along. I just need a refill.
Pagoda:It's growing
Senator:on me.
Bam Bam:Yeah, me too. I like it. The sploosh of water is a must, however.
Gizmo:Yeah, can you send the water over, please?
Senator:What's the price point on the rum? $78. Sold. I like that. I mean, the crazy part is for that to be $78 and it's made in America.
Senator:Yeah.
Gizmo:That's shocking. It's crazy. Alright. So let's go back to our kill one, save one, bring one back as it relates to Cuban cigars. So has everyone gone as far as bringing one back?
Pagoda:No, I haven't.
Gizmo:Not yet. What was yours?
Pagoda:I didn't know many butchief. Like, I didn't smoke a lot of Cubans. Can I bring the Dominicana back?
Bam Bam:That's a
Pagoda:good one, right? You're
Gizmo:the reason they're gone. You're the reason they're gone.
Bam Bam:That's true.
Pagoda:I'd love for that to come back. I'll tell you I'd be so happy.
Senator:You should say bring back Cuban Davodoff. Cuban Davodoff, there
Gizmo:you go. There you go. Bam, what's yours? I'm not sure if this
Bam Bam:is one that's extinct, but I haven't ever had a bad experience with the Romeo Juliet Churchill. I love that cigar. The
Pagoda:White Churchill?
Gizmo:That is definitely not extinct.
Bam Bam:No, know. It should be. I know.
Chef Ricky:No, no.
Pagoda:The White Churchill wasn't bad.
Bam Bam:The White Churchill's delicious. I've had excellent experience with every single one that I've had, and you can't find them. It may as well be extinct. I can't think of a
Rooster:I think the last one we
Gizmo:did It on the Podcast was pretty
Bam Bam:was excellent.
Gizmo:Yeah. Honestly, think it was It a newer actually performed like brilliantly.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I don't know. I can't put my finger on an extinct Cuban that I want to bring back, Is
Pagoda:the Linea still around? The
Gizmo:Linea 1935, that's
Pagoda:Yeah. Still
Bam Bam:That's not very good.
Gizmo:That's a regular production, but
Rooster:it's limited. The Maltese, Maltese, Dumas.
Senator:I mean, since we're struggling with cigars, a limitada count as something to bring back?
Gizmo:No. I kind of eliminated that. Because your ammonia
Senator:on us, the 2019, the green box.
Gizmo:Oh, the green box. Yeah.
Senator:I brought those in. We rated it. I think it got a perfect 10. Like, we were blown away by it.
Gizmo:Dude, that cigar was amazing.
Bam Bam:I got a few of those left.
Rooster:And I
Gizmo:had a couple listeners that actually found them and had the same experience.
Senator:They just needed time. They were just brilliant. They were fresh in that box. Cuban and bought at the same time. They were not great, and it took a good four years, and man, they transformed.
Rooster:Yeah. We got them from Cyprus.
Gizmo:We did. We did. Those days are long gone.
Bam Bam:Remember the Ramona Lonest number three?
Gizmo:Yeah. That's a newer production line.
Bam Bam:That is really, really good still.
Gizmo:Again, it's so crazy that all of these, like we ever gonna see them come up again to the point that we could buy a box?
Bam Bam:I don't think you'll see the three again.
Gizmo:Alright. I'm gonna go through some of the responses on FOH. It was an awesome thread, some great responses there. So I wanna share some of these. So some of the kills.
Gizmo:I'm gonna go through some of the kills. Hoyo Epicure number two. Monte Cristo number four. Lizard Mike big guns who sent us the I agree with that. Tequila Uno Dos Tres said he just wants to kill all of Romeo y Julieta.
Gizmo:My man.
Bam Bam:Not the Churchill recent runs.
Gizmo:Here's another one. Ras, any quabba.
Chef Ricky:Ras. Ras.
Gizmo:I couldn't believe it was I saw a couple
Bam Bam:a couple
Gizmo:couple guys put up brass.
Bam Bam:That's a crime.
Senator:There is a crime.
Rooster:There is a had a bad experience.
Pagoda:Yeah. You know what the thing is?
Bam Bam:I haven't I haven't had bad Ramona loan specialist.
Gizmo:I was shocked that people said that. No. The club crew have gone
Rooster:through multiple cabs, of course.
Senator:Except for me, the
Pagoda:biggest cabs I've
Senator:had some mediocre ones, but not to the point that I want to kill the whole.
Pagoda:Correct.
Rooster:It had more good than bad.
Senator:Oh, way more good.
Chef Ricky:Way more.
Pagoda:By the way, to remind you, Bam, we did discuss like, barter exchange and the RAS. I'll give you some of mine, and you're gonna give me some of yours.
Bam Bam:You want to exchange RAS? Yeah. No problem.
Pagoda:Just to try it out, because remember I was saying that I
Bam Bam:I'll bring I don't know how many 50. I'll bring all my cabs over, we'll
Pagoda:see. Let's do that.
Bam Bam:How many do got?
Chef Ricky:Like half All my cabs.
Gizmo:I can't wait to see this happen. Maybe we'll have it at the steak dinner.
Chef Ricky:Uh-huh. I mean, their rules seem a little bit looser. Because he mentioned cuaba. I mean, I I could have killed a Fonseca for sure. All of Fonseca.
Chef Ricky:Know.
Gizmo:But I said no Fonseca, no Vigeras. That's what
Chef Ricky:I'm saying. Yeah. Their rules seem a little lighter.
Bam Bam:Cuaba's great, man.
Gizmo:No. But Kuwaaba's are that's not that's not in there with Fonseca. That's a legitimate brand. Correct. Alright.
Gizmo:Let's keep going here. Some more kills. Hoya de Monterrey, Rios echo, QD 50 through 54.
Bam Bam:Incorrect. Ras
Gizmo:and and this Lizards, Cigar.
Senator:Wow.
Gizmo:Another one, Ras. Come on. Partagas Millie Flor.
Bam Bam:Amateur hour.
Gizmo:This one, Lizard Deuter, the Partagas series d number four.
Bam Bam:That's true amateur hour.
Senator:That lizard is
Bam Bam:know what you're doing, buddy.
Gizmo:I knew that this would piss you
Bam Bam:guys off. Unbelievable.
Gizmo:El Prez, our man, Rabbi Alla, said kill the Monte Cristo Open the entire series.
Bam Bam:Oh, I agree with that.
Gizmo:Yeah. I've never
Senator:had any of them.
Bam Bam:They're very light. That's actually a very good call out.
Chef Ricky:Don't we
Rooster:keep that? Open Eagle.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Not interesting.
Gizmo:Here's another one. Upman Majestic. I was surprised to see that.
Rooster:We had
Gizmo:a nice experience
Bam Bam:with That's a delicious cigar.
Gizmo:Monte Cristo number four.
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Sancho Panza, QD number 50, mag 50, the one that you
Rooster:Yes, sir.
Gizmo:Yeah. Called out rooster. QD number 50 again, Trinidad, the entire line. I mean, that's crazy. Partagas p two.
Pagoda:Is that you?
Senator:I mean, no. I wouldn't go that far. But
Gizmo:I don't think you we none of us have ever been at the point where you wanna kill that cigar. No. No. It might not be a 92 cigar every day, but it's not worth killing.
Senator:Yeah. I just like it because that's a lizard who knows the e
Gizmo:twos better. Alright. Let's go now to the ones that folks on FOH were saving. I think these are good too. The Mania Speciale, the Partagas eight nine eight, the punch double corona.
Gizmo:I was surprised that that didn't come up in the room tonight because think about how often we've seen that come up in the last five years. That's true. Right? Upman's sir Winston. Partagas Salomonas.
Rooster:Mam's Mam's favorite.
Bam Bam:That's gotta go. Right in the garbage. Good call My
Senator:goodness. I have a Save cigar. The pardigas coulebra.
Gizmo:The oh. Oh. That's a good one.
Bam Bam:Yeah, man.
Pagoda:That's a shell.
Gizmo:That's a really
Senator:good one. Tragic for me if that disappeared.
Pagoda:The pardigas coulebra can be killed. That's the other one.
Bam Bam:And the salamone, it's gotta go.
Gizmo:I'm I did not even think of that's like rocking me right really nice. The Colabra. Because you know what's interesting about that? You think about the chopping block. That's gotta be a cigar that so many cigar smokers look at like we did.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:If you go back and listen to that episode, we were laughing.
Senator:That's gotta be one of the worst selling cigars. Has to be. Just because of a lack of, like, knowledge of what to do with it.
Gizmo:And when you unpeel it, it looks like a joke. What was the one where
Pagoda:somebody was having all three of them together?
Gizmo:Yeah. I've seen that happen. Yeah. Yeah. Smokes folks smoking all three.
Rooster:You know, Partagas and Madura should be saved.
Senator:That's a good one.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Hell yeah.
Pagoda:That's actually a good one.
Bam Bam:Definitely. Yeah. Good call. That's our number one that's our first cigar that
Chef Ricky:we had. Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright. A couple more here. Sancho Panza Bellicoso from El Pres, Rabbi Ella.
Chef Ricky:K.
Gizmo:I've had bad ones, and we had a good one here on the podcast.
Senator:I've had mostly bad army.
Bam Bam:The entire diplomatical line can go.
Senator:Agree. Actually
Gizmo:a good call too.
Bam Bam:That can go the whole fucking line.
Gizmo:Isn't the
Senator:whole line one cigar?
Gizmo:No, there's more than one.
Senator:They have more than
Bam Bam:That is such a It may as well be one cigar.
Chef Ricky:You know what I'm learning? I could have done this.
Gizmo:You definitely could have. I don't know why you sat out, but you could have.
Senator:What do they have besides that bellicoso?
Gizmo:So they have it's the Diplomaticus number two. It's a pyramid. They have the Conciatus, which is a Robusto. And then everything else of theirs has been discontinued. Of course, they've put out
Chef Ricky:Okay.
Senator:I'm sorry. They have two.
Chef Ricky:Not not one. Not one. Cancel
Gizmo:the whole line.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Alright. Some more here. The Sancho Panza non plus. What do you think about that, Rooster? Save it.
Gizmo:Partiga Salamonis. Go. Monte Cristo a. That's a good one.
Bam Bam:That's a big
Gizmo:long one. Yeah. Nine inches long. La Gloria Cuban, MDO number four, punch DC. Poor Lara Naga, Monte Carlo.
Gizmo:So that is one that people love, but I've heard that that is one of the the ones that are most prone to having construction problems. Yeah.
Pagoda:Didn't we
Bam Bam:we reviewed that.
Rooster:We did.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Did we?
Rooster:We did.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I
Bam Bam:thought it did well here.
Gizmo:I don't remember, but we did. El Rey del Mundo, Schwab Supreme, sir Winston.
Bam Bam:Oh, that's that's just Schwab. Supreme's got a stake.
Gizmo:No. They're saying save.
Bam Bam:Oh, good. Oh,
Senator:I took it the same way. Check.
Gizmo:Alright. So let's go to revive now. First one up, Saint Louis Ray double corona tied with the Bolivar Corona Gigantes. So we actually did the Corona Gigantes. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Thanks to Tuxedo Timmy.
Rooster:Also a Bolivar Coronas Especial,
Gizmo:a BCE. BCE. BCE. Yep. Revive the Partagas Lonsdale.
Gizmo:Diplomatico four, which is the same size as the Monte Cristo number four. Punch specially selected one in 50 caps. Revive Bolivar Gigantes, which is the big one. Ramon Ionis eight nine eight. I have a box of those.
Gizmo:They were discontinued a long time ago. Punch Churchill, Bolivar Coronas Extras, that's the BCE. La Jolla De Du from Hoya to Monterey. La Gloria Cuban, MDO two. Partagas Lonsdale.
Gizmo:RYJ Celestials, Finos, or the Saint Louis Ray, Siri a, Partagas Charlotte's. This one from El Pres. I've never heard of this cigar, and I've never had one. The poor Lara Naga magnum says he's down to his last eight. Anybody mentioned the Molinos?
Gizmo:No Molinos so Panza. La Essepcion Selectos Finos, Hoya de Monterey, La Hoya de Du, Bolivar Coronas Gigantes, Rafael Gonzales Coronas Gigantes, some love there for RG, s o r d c, Upman Monarch. Have have any you guys had a Monarch? Never had that cigar. Some more Hoya de Monterrey, some more MDO.
Gizmo:This one was the MDO one, which I think you've had. Is that what size is that? Is that more like a Corona? Skinny.
Bam Bam:Yeah. What year did you have that in?
Rooster:What year was the box?
Bam Bam:1927.
Gizmo:So some great responses on FOH and some great responses in the room tonight. I thought this was a good discussion. So I'd love to hear from listeners on this. So send us the cigar you would save, the cigar you would kill, and the cigar that you would revive from extinction. So send us your emails.
Gizmo:Let us know what you think. We would love to hear from you guys.
Chef Ricky:I'm surprised no one called out specific box codes.
Gizmo:That's Yeah, like the Web 14 or something like that?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Deep in the woods.
Gizmo:So Bam, before we move on, we need a Navaj update.
Bam Bam:No. What's going
Gizmo:on with your Navaj?
Bam Bam:I cleaned the device.
Gizmo:So you said you threw it out and you were going to get another one.
Bam Bam:I pulled it out of the garbage.
Senator:Bam'd it all three. Just like the couch in here.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Chef Ricky:Bam killed, saved.
Gizmo:No, I'm glad that no one that runs this place listens to the podcast.
Bam Bam:That's
Chef Ricky:true. Bam killed, saved, revived the device. I I pulled it out of the trash.
Bam Bam:That's correct. I wasn't gonna spend another $100. It's and it's great. It's great.
Gizmo:I'll tell you the Navajo for me has staved off the seasonal change sinus infections that I have every year.
Bam Bam:Big time.
Gizmo:Dude, I'm going on like a year and a half. I used to have two or three a year. I've I've got no sinus infections in like going on two years.
Bam Bam:Pagoda, you gotta buy it.
Gizmo:You gotta get one, man.
Rooster:So maybe you can do dairy now.
Gizmo:I have been doing a little more dairy, actually. Oh. Yeah. Like, my family ordered some pizza for football Sundays and stuff.
Chef Ricky:Look at you.
Gizmo:And I've been partaking, grandma pizza.
Pagoda:Yeah, can see it.
Gizmo:Some wings. Dude, there's a lot
Chef Ricky:of great pizza in New Jersey.
Pagoda:Delete. Delete. So if we can go back
Bam Bam:to the cigar for just a moment, the Padron that we're smoking, I got past that earthy note, that minerality, and it got really nutty for me.
Pagoda:Was nutty. Was
Bam Bam:deliciously savory right to the bloody end.
Gizmo:What did you have, five minutes of unpleasantness and minerality, less than that?
Bam Bam:Just a few minutes, And right at the beginning of that final third, and it really then got delicious again. But not that cocoa that we were getting early on, more of a nuttiness, a little bit of a salted nut was fantastic. So it ended well.
Rooster:Right, that chocolate note kind of dissipated.
Bam Bam:Which is fine because it did end in a nice way for me.
Gizmo:Senator, when he was talking about the minerality, you had that for a moment. What was the extension of that for
Chef Ricky:you?
Senator:Yeah, It stayed there all the way to the very end, but it got better as you got down closer to the nub. I'll still say though, I think the last inch to half inch doesn't really maintain the flavor that the rest of the cigar has.
Pagoda:Oh, definitely not.
Senator:So that's like my one Mhmm. Disappointment. Because to me, you smoke the Maduro down to the nub, and you're getting the exact same notes as you are all the way through. This, it does change at that, like, very end point.
Gizmo:Are you gonna knock it for that?
Senator:We'll see in my rating.
Gizmo:Oh, little teaser. Alright.
Pagoda:Please be patient.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now to go to some listener email. We have a ton of stuff to get to. We're gonna catch up over the next couple of weeks. First, we're gonna start off with our friend Lizard John in Cleveland.
Gizmo:The subject says a lizard doesn't wear shorts.
Chef Ricky:Correct. Wow.
Gizmo:He says, I'm sure I am not the first person to say this, but what the hell is with Bam's bizarre attire gatekeeping? Hardly bizarre. By the way, he's wearing his wife's glasses right now.
Chef Ricky:Glasses, madam. Adults. Yes.
Bam Bam:Can I help you?
Gizmo:Adults can't wear logo tees in public? No. Or sandals? No. You wear a polo when you walk your dog.
Gizmo:That's he's asking. I don't have a dog. I don't have correct.
Pagoda:He doesn't walk.
Chef Ricky:He doesn't get one to avoid getting a logo tee.
Gizmo:You only wear sandals on vacation?
Pagoda:Yes.
Gizmo:You don't go swimming during the summer?
Bam Bam:Yeah. On vacation.
Gizmo:I agree with the general premise that people dress too informally, but you have way too many rules, he says.
Bam Bam:Shorts shorts are fine as long as they're hovering just above the knee.
Rooster:Bam's got swim
Bam Bam:pants. Once they go past the
Pagoda:knee Speedos.
Chef Ricky:They're capris. I mean They're capris. A dandy suit. Culottes.
Bam Bam:What are we talking about?
Gizmo:Pedal pushers. He says, if I have to go get a bunch of bananas from the grocery store, I'm not doing a costume change. Now you've never done that or experienced that, so you wouldn't relate to that comment.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:He says, Lizard John in Cleveland. Let's go now to another one. This one is from Lizard Dan. He says, hey, Lounge Lizards. This is my second email to you.
Gizmo:Last time I asked about ideas on developing my palate. This time I thought I'd go in a completely different direction. I think I've accidentally reached the point where I'm starting to have a cigar problem, but not in the way that you think. When I got back into cigars, the plan was pretty simple. Try a heap of different cigars, work out what I enjoy, then build up some volume of the ones I wanna keep around.
Gizmo:So far, I've worked my way through things like the h Upman Magnum 46, La Aroma del Caribe Rothschild, the Perdomo lot 23, Flores E Rodriguez, Tambaril, the Davidoff signature number two, and the Monte Cristo number two with a few others being added along the way. The problem is now that I'm doing the opposite of what I intended. I bought 15 h up in Magnum 46 as two bows. Good call, senator and I. And who else was there?
Gizmo:Was that you, me, and Hen Henrito?
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Gizmo:We had a great time at the Parque Central picking through Tubos to be a regular cigar and have somehow decided they're too good to smoke regularly. So he's purchased cigars to smoke, enjoys them so so much that he's not smoking them.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:When I say this, remember the cost of cigars in Australia, which Lizard Bunners detailed for us earlier. I've done the same thing with the La Aroma Rothschild. I really enjoy them, so now I'm thinking about buying a 10 pack and eventually a box. And I can already see where this is going. I'll just buy a few then it becomes, quote, I should probably have some in reserve.
Gizmo:Then, well, I might as well buy a box. I'm starting to think the goal for me is going to be having a few reliable cigars that I can smoke without thinking twice, then a few special ones tucked away for when the occasion calls for it. And, of course, the really nice cigars will be the Tresseme Oh La La. Of the collection.
Pagoda:I'm zoning out.
Chef Ricky:That's a kill.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:I was also lucky enough to share a cigar with Lizard Gizmo on a Friends of El Habano video call a couple of months ago. That was a pretty cool experience from all the way down here in Sydney. So what he's talking about, FOH does yeah. Rob sets up, like, a Discord video chat. He moved from Zoom to Discord, which is great.
Gizmo:Every week, he does one on a different day. So if we're not recording Mhmm. We're not something else isn't going on, I try to jump on. It's a really good time
Bam Bam:Global insight.
Gizmo:With the boys. Alright. And while I'm on the subject of things I agree with, I'm completely with Lizard Bam on flip flops.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Gizmo:Going against Lizard John from Boise. Correct. He says insert correct here.
Bam Bam:I just did.
Gizmo:I know you did. They should be made illegal. Australia is basically built on flip flops, and, honestly, it's just sad. There's nothing worse than seeing someone dressed reasonably well and then looking down to find they're wearing a pair of thongs on their feet. I'm sorry.
Bam Bam:A grown man cannot wear fucking flip flops out in public unless he's on vacation. That's it. I know there isn't a single person in this room that would do that.
Gizmo:Jeff? Jeff wear flip
Chef Ricky:I flops or don't know. Yeah. No. Yeah. I don't wear flip flops anymore.
Chef Ricky:I had a flip flop Unless you're away. It's really I had a freaking flip kind flop face maybe ten years ago. Alright. Unless you're away
Senator:or unless you're at home.
Bam Bam:At home for sure.
Gizmo:Yeah. Correct. I wear them sometimes at the house, but very rarely. You wear when I'm taking out the garbage or something.
Bam Bam:So when you go to the supermarket.
Gizmo:Dude, I I never will wear them out of the No.
Bam Bam:That's where I'm at the cigar club. Really?
Pagoda:All the time. Really?
Gizmo:Good. You know what has happened here when I've walked in and seen people in flip flops. Man,
Bam Bam:I go off.
Gizmo:Senator has seen it.
Bam Bam:It's disgusting.
Gizmo:You've been witness to.
Chef Ricky:I have. It's disgusting.
Gizmo:I kinda did I tried to do I tried to do like a classy
Bam Bam:Now ladies chastising. The ladies cigar smokers out there in Lizard Nation, of course
Chef Ricky:All the time.
Pagoda:Yes. Please only wear flip flops. Yes. Oh, that's the only way you
Bam Bam:can do this. Careful. I see senators gearing up. The gears are turning right now. Correct.
Bam Bam:Doctor. Scholes will approve of the ladies wearing flip flops at all times.
Gizmo:I don't wanna see anybody's feet, even women. I'm okay with women. I don't wanna see feet
Chef Ricky:in the I don't wanna see feet
Gizmo:in a cigar lounge. I'm sorry.
Pagoda:What about the lizard who wears hot pants? Do have to say about that?
Bam Bam:You can't have you
Chef Ricky:can't have cracked heels and like unpaint its hose.
Pagoda:Yeah, you gotta go to
Chef Ricky:the flip flops.
Bam Bam:Get the pedicure done. Get it all done. It can't
Chef Ricky:be like the old Maintenance. Goomma coming in here Cigarette in her mouth and a house coat.
Gizmo:Don't talk about Lizard X like that. That's
Chef Ricky:exactly where I was going.
Gizmo:He says, Bam, keep fighting the good fight. Anyway, I thought you guys might appreciate the stupidity of buying 15 cigars specifically to make them a regular smoke only to then decide I like them too much to smoke them regularly.
Chef Ricky:Cheers, Lizard Dan. Sounds like he's been doing a lot of palate developing. Love it.
Gizmo:What do you guys think of that? So you you go out, you buy cigars, you find out you love them too much to actually smoke them. Now for him, of course, there's no no beyond what's going on in Cuba and with distributors, like, there's no limitation to getting Cubans in Australia. Right? It's legal there.
Gizmo:So what do you think about what he's saying about going out and finding a cigar you love?
Rooster:It's a price.
Gizmo:And then deciding not to thousand percent in taxes? It's ridiculous. Crazy. What what would your advice be?
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm thinking.
Pagoda:Just smoke them, buddy. Just smoke them.
Gizmo:Yeah. Alright. Let's go to one now from our friend Lizard Rod. He says, greeting, Lounge Lizards. First off, thank you for providing great content and information about all things New World and Cuban cigars, especially when paired with affordable spirits.
Gizmo:That's becoming more important every day with the way cigar prices are going. At some point, I'm going to need a second mortgage just to keep smoking my habit properly humidified. I also wouldn't have discovered Fabrica five without the pod. The Trinity Robusto has officially become my at least once a day smoke. At least once a day smoke.
Gizmo:Love to hear that. You guys are directly responsible for this particular problem I'm about to discuss. You see, I've now reached the stage of cigar smoking that I'm pretty sure every serious cigar smoker eventually reaches. No more space. Multiple Humidors, Tupperdors, Boveda bags, boxes, singles, just a few more purchases that somehow turn into another box.
Pagoda:He's not smoking enough.
Gizmo:And then comes the dreaded text from the wife, I think you have too many cigars because you have absolutely no space, followed by the passive aggressive LOL. That is a by the way, that's a dreaded text. What about the The passive aggressive LOL is
Rooster:a Somebody needs a tower.
Bam Bam:What about the threats of, I'm gonna go buy a purse now.
Gizmo:How about that? So I reached out on Instagram and shout out to Giz for recommending the elegant bar 1,500, which is we've talked about several times. Chef has that. It's the successor to the one that Senator Pagoda and Bam have and the Cigar Oasis Magna three point o. I know Chef and some of the boys have this setup.
Gizmo:So I figured if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for my rapidly expanding cigar problem. Well, it's finally here. The elegant bar is set up. The Cigar Oasis is doing its thing, and I'm patiently awaiting the seasoning and acclimation process to finish before I move the troops in. And surprisingly, my wife loves it too.
Gizmo:Yep. Love to hear that.
Chef Ricky:Dude, that was one of the greatest days of my life. It's right up there with my kids being born. I'm sorry.
Bam Bam:I'm proud of you.
Gizmo:By the way, it was a good day. Was there.
Chef Ricky:Well, it was awesome. Was
Gizmo:good day.
Chef Ricky:And you came, and you were just as excited as I was.
Gizmo:Of course I was. Incredible. Because I felt like, you know what I felt like? I felt like I was saving Private Ryan. Mhmm.
Gizmo:You know? Like, you were going into this war zone and, like, you're pulling your friend out and you're helping him.
Bam Bam:It's a beautiful tower.
Gizmo:Was it was it was a great day. It was really a great day.
Bam Bam:All three of you have great towers. Chef, Rooster, Giz, beautiful double
Pagoda:wide Fantastic.
Rooster:You guys
Chef Ricky:Mine's not double wide.
Gizmo:Yeah. His is the same size as yours. Really?
Pagoda:This is
Gizmo:the next model. Ah. Like, his has the fan in it. Looks wider. It has the sealed doors.
Bam Bam:Okay. It has the light light. Yeah.
Gizmo:And it also has a power Outlet. Plug at the bottom, which is And really surprisingly, my wife loves it too. She actually allowed me to put it in our bedroom. Wow. What?
Gizmo:That's That's That's pretty awesome. That's awesome.
Pagoda:He must be in a do they live in an apartment? Or
Gizmo:I don't know. Maybe he's just he's got strong lizard game.
Bam Bam:Wow. Yeah.
Gizmo:So now I can fall asleep staring at my beautiful new investment instead of staring at the ceiling wondering where I'm going to put the next box.
Chef Ricky:I could see it. He puts the light on. It's the nightlight in the bedroom.
Rooster:My next thing, he'd be smoking in the living room.
Pagoda:Oh, yeah. If he had the balcony out of his bedroom, that's perfect.
Chef Ricky:Oh, man. Wow. It's heaven on earth.
Pagoda:Walk out.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Heaven on earth.
Gizmo:Or as Giz so eloquently put it, this is on Instagram, I think, quote, it's an investment in your future. It even beats the S and P performance. It's a beautiful piece of furniture. It will be worth more in two years than it is today. It doesn't depreciate like everything else.
Gizmo:That's
Bam Bam:true. Mhmm.
Pagoda:Rooster knows chef Rooster.
Gizmo:I'm choosing to believe every word of that. My question for the boys is this.
Bam Bam:Hey, chef Rooster.
Pagoda:What did you get? Chef Rooster.
Gizmo:Do any of you use a smaller Humidor as an off the truck resting spot before transferring cigars into your towers or maybe as a post dry box recovery room before they're ready to smoke. I've noticed that some of my favorites like the Aladino eighty fifth and Fabrica five seem to smoke beautifully between sixty two and sixty five RH. While some of those chocolate bomb Maduros seem to come more alive closer to 69 to 72%. So I'm curious, how do you guys handle different cigars and their preferred RH levels? Do you have different RH zones, separate humidors, or do you just throw everything in the tower and let the cigars sort out their own problems?
Gizmo:At this point, I'm willing to buy a cigar humidity department if that's what it takes. Lastly, I want to officially say all caps, thank you to all the boys, small batch and stoic Vance for the box of stoic equanimity that I was fortunate enough to win. So he won
Bam Bam:I see.
Gizmo:The Instagram two fifty two hundred fiftieth episode competition for the stoic equanimity box. He says he truly appreciates it.
Bam Bam:Very
Gizmo:cool. Putting out the great content, keep educating us, and keep giving us excuses to buy cigars that we absolutely did not need. And if my wife ever asks how many cigars I have now, I'll just tell her I'm not sure. The S and P is up. The Elegant bar is appreciating, and apparently, I'm well diversified.
Gizmo:Cheers, boys. Lizard Rod.
Bam Bam:Nice email.
Gizmo:What a great email.
Chef Ricky:So great name, great email, great purchase. Love this.
Senator:And great portfolio.
Gizmo:Great book. Very diversified. Oh, yeah. So going back to his question here, do any of you use a smaller humanoid as an off the truck resting spot or maybe as a post dry box recovery room before they're ready for smoking? So we're talking about towers, right?
Gizmo:Do you guys what do you guys do with your smaller stuff either before they go in the tower or before smoking?
Rooster:Yeah, they go right in the tower. I mean, we keep Cubans on the top shelves and keep the New Worlds on the bottom. But I use a desktop Humidor to take out the weekly cigars that I'm going to smoke and put those in the Humidor. Just so it's easier to know?
Gizmo:So your dry box in the In the Humidor. Do you have a Boveda in there? What do you have in there?
Rooster:Yeah. I just keep Bovedas in there. 62.
Gizmo:Oh, you said
Senator:your dry box in your Humidor. Said your weekly cigars you're gonna smoke. I mean, don't you have plenty that's been in the tower for a while that's just ready to grab?
Bam Bam:Correct.
Rooster:They are, but sometimes the boxes are behind. It's just easier to keep them in the desktop humidor, I can just
Gizmo:Oh, it's from an organization standpoint.
Senator:I see. Because there's not trays in that. Right. That's right.
Rooster:And they don't the drawstron pull out. I see. A little easier.
Chef Ricky:I don't have my shit that put together, where I have like a dry box situation. I usually just pull out the Humidor and smoke. Yeah. And there's different zones in there. You know what?
Chef Ricky:I think as Rooster Senator said, the lower in your tower, the higher the
Gizmo:RH. Lower physically. Like, so closer to the bottom, the higher RH, and as you get closer to the top
Chef Ricky:Grammar, lower RH.
Gizmo:I want to be clear for the listener.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Senator:So for me, keep everything I'm gonna smoke in the tower just because the top two shelves have trays that slide out. So all my regular rotation stuff is in there. Might even be more than the top two. I think the top three shelves actually have that. I don't really dry box.
Senator:The only thing I do when I get something if it's super wet, I'll just leave it out in my house.
Gizmo:I do the same thing overnight. Yes.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah.
Senator:Yeah. For a day, if it's super wet, even two days, and then I'll put it in the tower just to accelerate, like, drying them out a bit, and then it'll acclimate over weeks time in the humid in the tower.
Gizmo:Pagoda. Yeah. What's what's your process?
Pagoda:I don't have a process.
Gizmo:Pagoda, we're recording a a podcast.
Pagoda:I'm sorry. I don't have a process.
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Pagoda:What about one with a low R, Richard? Just put it on top of the Humidor. That's really it. What?
Chef Ricky:You put the Humidor on top? Like, top of the fridge?
Bam Bam:We're we're gonna go over his house.
Gizmo:What's your hydrometer
Senator:what's your hydrometer reading in your tower?
Rooster:His cigar oasis is on the top shelf, brother.
Gizmo:It's outside the tower. I I don't know.
Chef Ricky:I don't
Gizmo:know. For convenience sake sake, he has it outside the tower.
Pagoda:I don't have an oasis anymore. What? No, I'm just kidding. Do
Senator:you have hydrometers in the
Pagoda:rest of the tower? I have the Gobies.
Chef Ricky:What's that?
Senator:Okay, he does have that. Alright, that's progress.
Rooster:Have you
Gizmo:changed the batteries recently?
Pagoda:No, no, there's no progress. It's actually lying in the alright.
Bam Bam:The Gobies are in the living room.
Gizmo:Wait. Are the Gobies in the tower?
Pagoda:No, they're not.
Rooster:Next to the air tags.
Pagoda:Alright. Would wait. They're next to the air tags. Dude, it's
Bam Bam:time to Hold go over
Gizmo:on. So wait a second. You've a been highly successful cigar podcast. We're coming up on five years in six weeks. You'd look surprised.
Chef Ricky:Have been
Pagoda:five years
Gizmo:or what? You have your hygrometers outside of the tower
Bam Bam:On a table.
Gizmo:On a table
Pagoda:No, no, no, no, Or
Chef Ricky:they're in
Bam Bam:a box.
Pagoda:In a white box.
Gizmo:So you've never taken them out of the box? Yeah. I remember
Pagoda:I think I bought them because you remember Bernard got them.
Gizmo:Could somebody help me, please?
Chef Ricky:No. It's not, it's not.
Pagoda:You know, all that cigars smoke really well, so no complaints.
Senator:It doesn't sound like you're rasque dew. Except for rasque.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah. I'm not doing that now.
Pagoda:Except for Russ.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Wow. That's amazing. We gotta dig into that. I think we need to do, like, an on-site.
Gizmo:Yeah. We should do a recording And here's here's here's
Senator:another question.
Chef Ricky:Next pod needs to be answered.
Senator:Here's another question. Do you have distilled water at
Bam Bam:your house?
Pagoda:Yes. Absolutely.
Rooster:I have a better question. Do you have any triple a batteries? Yes. Because there's a big shortage right now.
Bam Bam:Really? Really? What? I also I also don't think
Gizmo:That's why
Rooster:he has them in the box.
Bam Bam:I don't think there's a drop of distilled water in that entire home.
Pagoda:No. There isn't.
Bam Bam:Can I bet?
Gizmo:Yeah. Wait. Is it We're
Pagoda:gonna go now because Right now. You're not
Bam Bam:going to the store.
Gizmo:Is it in your oasis, though? Have you ever I filled your
Pagoda:just actually put it last week. Alright.
Gizmo:Good. Are there beads in there? Are
Pagoda:there Yeah. Are beads. But I wanna change the beads.
Gizmo:You gotta change them once a year.
Pagoda:I've also got the beads on the side.
Bam Bam:Oh, in the canisters?
Pagoda:Next to the gobies. No, no, the new beads, which I'm gonna replace.
Chef Ricky:You're gonna
Bam Bam:replace that.
Pagoda:Listen, I'm on top of things.
Chef Ricky:AVHD strong with this one.
Gizmo:I mean, this guy is something. I can't believe you.
Chef Ricky:And he's on vacation.
Bam Bam:I find your
Pagoda:I do have a lot of time tomorrow.
Bam Bam:I find your lack of faith disturbing.
Pagoda:You're unbelievable, man. Sure, madam. Alright.
Gizmo:Let's go to another one now. This one's from Lizard Julio. He says, hello, Lizards. Like so many out there in Lizard Nation, I manage my collection in a tupper door. So keeping up with the theme of what we've been talking about tonight.
Gizmo:I have 95 New Worlds and a handful of Cuban singles that I save for special occasions, resting around 65% RH with a few 62% Boveda packs at different levels of the box. I was surprised to hear all of you reject the idea of smoking directly out of a Tupperdur, which I do constantly. Since I don't have a sizable tower, I'm seeking your advice on how to best transition cigars from a Tupperdur to ready status for smoking. Should I let the cigar dry in the open air for the afternoon before lighting up? Perhaps pour a bottle of Don Folano down the sides to bring it back to life?
Gizmo:On a side note, would you share how often you guys open your Tupper doors to allow in air to arrange or to simply browse, or do they go dormant for years at a time like Rooster's Fundies sitting deep in Bam's collection waiting for the grand bamboozle? I think it's time for the pod to go live on location for a long overdue dinner that Rooster is owed at a vegetarian restaurant of his choosing with non alcoholic pairing included. Perhaps chef can curate this symbolic recognition of Rooster's generosity at Anejo in Tribeca. Congrats on 250 episodes and looking forward to the road to 300. Sincerely yours, wizard Julio.
Rooster:I'm all in.
Chef Ricky:I think this I like this idea. Our our first video episode.
Senator:Dinner at Anejo on Bem. I like this.
Bam Bam:Veggie no. We're gonna go to veggie heaven for
Rooster:No. We gotta we gotta please the listener.
Bam Bam:We have to go
Gizmo:live. Yes.
Chef Ricky:Alright. There's a free plug for veggie heaven.
Gizmo:Can we record in your downstairs in Tribeca?
Chef Ricky:After hours, absolutely. I think we should do it.
Bam Bam:I'm in. You have
Gizmo:to pay for everything, though. That's part of the deal. No. That's the dinner.
Senator:That's cheaper than a steak dinner.
Bam Bam:Alright. So we're gonna plan a menu.
Pagoda:Chef, this is when you can judge unhappy hour.
Senator:Yes, Chef. This this is when you fly in some Wagyu beef. No.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Three ounce? Three ounce steaks.
Pagoda:Well, listen. Listen. There's gotta be salads. Half shelf, three ounce steak. There's gotta be salads.
Gizmo:Choice. Choice. Correct.
Chef Ricky:Oh. Oh, man.
Rooster:By the way, that would
Gizmo:be fun to take all the equipment to Tribeca.
Bam Bam:Oh, it sounds Set
Rooster:up downstairs and have some food. That sounds awesome.
Pagoda:We could totally do it.
Gizmo:We should do it.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Once the kitchen's out and the dishwasher's done, because there is a bit of humming coming from those machines, but we'll I start appreciate
Gizmo:you thinking of me with the humming.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. 100%. Know
Gizmo:what You it spoke down there? Sure. Let's go.
Bam Bam:No way. Let's Why not? Really?
Gizmo:He owns the place.
Pagoda:Why not?
Bam Bam:All right.
Chef Ricky:Everybody's gone. Aired out.
Gizmo:Some of
Rooster:a new spot to Overnight.
Pagoda:That'll be fun.
Gizmo:We're driving to Manhattan every week. Yeah. Sounds Pay
Chef Ricky:congestion pricing just just
Gizmo:to record. Alright. So answering his question here, what would you guys do to allow your Tupperdur cigars to prepare for smoking? What would your process be to do that?
Senator:Put them in a proper cedar humidor. Mhmm. Whether it's a desktop humidor or a tower, and they just need to sit in there and acclimate for some cigars it could be days, but other weeks.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And it depends on how it feels. I've had cigars come out of a Tupper door that felt great. I've smoked them right out of the Tupper door. They were fine.
Bam Bam:Not all of them.
Rooster:Typically,
Bam Bam:the ones that come out of Tupper door, all my Padrones smoke beautifully out of the tupper door.
Rooster:Well, there's less air movement in the tupper door. I mean, there's no air movement. So you wanna kinda take them out. I know. And I think an investment in a less stop humidor is
Bam Bam:Makes sense.
Rooster:You know, it makes sense to have one.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:And I think it's really important to understand the ambient humidity situation where that humidor is living. So if you live in a very humid let's say you live in Florida or somewhere in, you know, The Caribbean
Chef Ricky:or super humid in the summer.
Gizmo:Yeah. Northeast in the summer. It's not gonna benefit you to take those cigars, put them in a desktop humidor that is imperfect. Correct. That has bad seals.
Gizmo:You're just gonna really humidify them. Right? So you need to understand your ambient. Like, think I what senator was saying was perfect. Like, for me, most of the time, my house is pretty dry.
Gizmo:I have dehumidifiers running and stuff. So I know what my ambient is. So when I put a cigar out for a day or two, I know that it's technically dry boxing. I don't, you know, have a formal dry boxing process.
Chef Ricky:Giz.
Gizmo:But like you said, coming off the truck, you leave it out. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because you know you're ambient. You're home.
Gizmo:50% humidity.
Rooster:Exactly. So does Pagoda because the Govee's are outside.
Gizmo:Yeah. They're in the kitchen and yeah.
Bam Bam:Exactly. So he knows what the ambient. Relative humidity is. So
Chef Ricky:speaking of gobies, many do you have? I feel like you go beyond your humidor and you of may the have one in every shelves.
Gizmo:Yeah, so I have So I have five that are Wi Fi connected. Three in the tower, one in my garage and one in my office where all my stuff lives. Garage? I also have I have four Bluetooth. I smoke a lot in my garage.
Chef Ricky:That's where he yeah.
Gizmo:That's where he smokes.
Bam Bam:It's a very porous room though. Air's coming and going.
Gizmo:But I keep it dialed in, brother. So
Senator:Sorry. So just so I understand, you have a Govee in your garage.
Gizmo:Yes.
Senator:Just to know the humidity in your garage.
Gizmo:And temperature at all times.
Senator:But you can't really control that. So what do
Gizmo:you No. I can't because I have a dehumidifier in my garage running all the time. I've seen it. It has a pump on it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:I don't even have to empty it. It goes right outside. So my garage is running at, 45, 50%. What's nice is I could tell the temperature. If I'm at dinner and it's too hot in there, I turn my air conditioner on from the restaurant.
Gizmo:By the time I get home, I'm ready to roll, baby. Let's go.
Pagoda:You're dancing all the time.
Gizmo:Welcome to the podcast, Pagoda. Just like
Pagoda:a child.
Chef Ricky:Pagoda knows the Rh of his dining table. What is
Bam Bam:Pagoda, what does Rh stand for?
Pagoda:I don't know. Rh negative. Rh negative. Negative. Rh negative.
Pagoda:Prognosis.
Gizmo:So okay. So I have five Wi Fi ones, and I also have backup Bluetooth ones at the same points of all the and I also have an additional one in my freezer, my deep freezer, to understand what the temperature is in there for beetle protocol, of But, you know, BAM would have no idea what that is.
Bam Bam:No. Regular freezer for me.
Chef Ricky:He puts it in the living We're talking eleven?
Gizmo:Probably around ten or eleven. Yeah. Wow. Bunch of WiFi, bunch of Bluetooth. Yeah.
Pagoda:I was about to Google to find out what RS stands for.
Gizmo:Are you serious?
Chef Ricky:Relative humidity.
Pagoda:Oh, there you go.
Rooster:That's what It's
Gizmo:relative. Wait. You really didn't know what
Chef Ricky:my gosh.
Gizmo:He knew. Dude, a smart guy. Years, dude.
Chef Ricky:He's a smart finance He's flipping. He's playing.
Senator:I guarantee he didn't know. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:I know. Guarantee it.
Pagoda:Alright. Final though.
Gizmo:Final question here. How often do you guys open your Tupper doors to allow air to rearrange, acclimate, etcetera? How how often are you guys going through? I'm probably three to four times a year at the most.
Senator:Yeah. It's every few months.
Pagoda:Yeah. Mhmm.
Gizmo:And I'm also monitoring those actually shit. Okay. So I have a Govee in each So tupper I'm probably closer to 15.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yowza. Yep. How many tupper doors do you have?
Gizmo:Six. Okay. Six or seven?
Bam Bam:I have seven.
Gizmo:Yeah, they're pretty jammed out.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm. Yeah, so you're probably closer to seventeen, eighteen.
Gizmo:Yeah, I think you're
Bam Bam:right. Yeah, yeah, I
Chef Ricky:have a lot. You open that Govee app, you gotta scroll for days.
Gizmo:Yeah, have a lot
Bam Bam:of stuff going on there
Gizmo:because I have light
Rooster:switches pages.
Gizmo:I have power switches. I have light. Oh, that's great.
Pagoda:So then
Chef Ricky:when you're
Bam Bam:loving your Govee app, how do you know you've I have it labeled.
Chef Ricky:You labeled.
Bam Bam:You labeled your Tupador. I'd have to know Tupador one. Number one.
Chef Ricky:Okay. Yeah.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. I have it all dialed out.
Senator:That's good.
Gizmo:You know, upper, middle, lower of Yeah. The
Chef Ricky:You get a p touch and you label your tupper doors.
Pagoda:Exactly. Alright.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. You label your goals. And so
Pagoda:when do you enjoy your cigars?
Bam Bam:When do you work?
Gizmo:Are you asking me that or Pagoda?
Chef Ricky:This is work.
Gizmo:Great question from Lizard Julio. We really appreciate him. And, boys, it's now time to go to our lizard of the week presented by our friends at Bond Roberts. And our lizard of the week this week is our friend Lizard Rhino, who's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bond Roberts. His choice of the Bond Roberts releases so far, the one zero nine, the petite one zero nine, the phenomenos, and the dahlias.
Gizmo:He'll be able to choose his 10 count box that he wants. And why is Lizard Rhino winning Lizard of the Week? Number one, he sent us this awesome bottle of rum that we really appreciate the Privateer.
Bam Bam:Very generous.
Gizmo:Had a great experience with tonight.
Chef Ricky:Thank you.
Gizmo:But even more than that, we really appreciate that. No doubt about it. But the note that he sent with it blew me away. So I wanna share that with you now. Gentlemen, I've only been listening for a little over a month, and I cannot thank you enough for all the content you have provided for my three plus hours a day in the car.
Gizmo:The Boston area does not have many lounge options. Weirdly, in my hometown of North Conway, New Hampshire, there are three within a twenty minute drive. So I find myself driving to two and a half hours north a lot to go to my favorite spot. One day when I was there, these three older tourists kept calling me a lizard as we talked about our favorite cigars.
Chef Ricky:This is awesome. Wow.
Gizmo:And when the owner of the place told them that he keeps a selection of rum just for me because that's what I prefer to drink with cigars, one of them slammed his hand down on the table and said, yep. Definitely a lizard. So I finally asked them what being a lizard means, and they told me all about your podcast.
Chef Ricky:I got goosebumps. I know. I do. I almost wanna cry.
Gizmo:I know. This is unbelievable, man.
Bam Bam:That's crazy.
Gizmo:On the way home that night, I listened to my first episode, and I have been listening almost every day since. I have tried some amazing cigars since starting to listen to you guys like avowed, stoic, and Bon Roberts. I've also tried some amazing spirits, which is a double bonus since my wife has been able to enjoy many of them too. I wanted to send you a bottle of my favorite US based additive free rum as a thank you for all of the hours of entertainment you've given me. Keep up the fantastic work, and thank you for being my smoking buddies every Tuesday morning.
Gizmo:Very nice. Lizard Rhino. And he sent an image with his signature
Bam Bam:That's cool.
Gizmo:Wizard Rhino. There you go. So how cool is it that he's sitting at a lounge talking cigars and rum?
Chef Ricky:That's awesome, man.
Gizmo:And listeners of ours, shout out to those guys. I would love to hear from them. Yeah. Their end of this experience watching someone kind of talk through cigars and rum and figuring out that they're a lizard and then explaining a pot the whole thing.
Chef Ricky:These are tourists. Right?
Gizmo:Yeah. They're not even to our reach. Not even from they're not even from town.
Pagoda:Wow.
Gizmo:And then
Chef Ricky:That's cool.
Gizmo:You know, Lizard Rhino was able to join us and become a part of Lizard Nation. So how cool was that?
Bam Bam:So Very cool.
Gizmo:Shout out to him. Thanks to Lizard Rhino for that great note. Thanks to those guys who introduced Lizard Rhino to the podcast. And, of course, thanks to Lizard Rhino for sending us I
Chef Ricky:think that deserves
Gizmo:a bottle of I
Chef Ricky:agree.
Gizmo:So thanks again to our friend Lizard Rhino with that awesome email. Of course, sending him this sending us this bottle of rum. We really appreciate it, and he's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bon Roberts. Boys, I didn't get through as many emails that I as I had hoped. We'll do some more next week catching up, but we have come to the end of our evening with the Padrone nineteen sixty four Anniversary Exclusivo in Natural and the Privateer Navy Yard, American rum.
Gizmo:Any final thoughts before we move to our ratings? I know you guys have already sent your ratings over. I did not look at them, but I'm really interested to see how both of these are gonna go. I honestly have I have no idea if this cigar is gonna land in the eights or if this is gonna be close to a 10. I honestly have no idea.
Bam Bam:For me, it's both the cigar and the spirit took a few twists and turns. Some for the good, some for the bad. It's an interesting night. Not really for the bad. I shouldn't say that.
Chef Ricky:No. I appreciated the journey
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Chef Ricky:Very much.
Gizmo:I'm with you, and I think that the rum actually worked really well with the cigar.
Chef Ricky:Think the rum was delicious.
Gizmo:Like, you were talking about that saltiness in the middle there. I think it really made that pop. I think it was a really nice combo tonight.
Chef Ricky:Because you're such a professional. I think it's amazing how no matter how high of a proof of a spirit we're drinking, you never seem to get even a little bit tipsy.
Gizmo:Well, I'm only on my, this is my second glass.
Chef Ricky:I just started my third, but, well, you're a little ahead of me.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now to go to the former liquor rating tonight on the Privateer Navy Yard True American Rum. Bam bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So I'll admit, Lizard Rhino, I hated this rum initially. Turpentine.
Senator:Yeah. That's every spirit. Don't be offended, Lizard.
Bam Bam:Not true. Not true. This was a little tough to drink. You know, The sploosh of water really changed the perspective of this drink. It made it more supple.
Bam Bam:It was easier to drink, of course. It brought out a lot of the notes that I wasn't getting initially, but I kept refreshing that pour with a little bit of water with the additional rum. And as I finished that glass, and I'm on my third glass now, I haven't used any water since, and it's grown on me. It's actually quite delicious. You've gotta get past that point of entry, though.
Bam Bam:That point of entry is really, really rough. I'm at a I was toying between a eight and a nine, but I'm at a pretty firm nine because of the flavor that I'm getting. And once you get past that barrier, this is a delicious rum that I think you can have with virtually any cigar, primarily New World and, I think, Cuban. Yeah. But on my third glass, I'm getting really good hints of honey, and I think that caramel that you called out center, that's pretty apparent.
Chef Ricky:Salted caramel.
Senator:Salted caramel. The finish is
Bam Bam:a buttery, salty caramel finish, And on the front of the palate for me was honey as I'm getting through my third glass. But, again, initially, it could be a 10 if they were to do something with that initial heat, but I think a nine is a very fair score. Delicious experience.
Gizmo:All right, chef. Oh.
Chef Ricky:Lizard rhino. I've only known two rhinos in my life, and they were both really, really cool people. And I tell you what, this rum is really, really cool. This is
Gizmo:Everybody in the room looking around.
Bam Bam:I'm looking at the wall. Ceiling.
Gizmo:I have a I have a calendar that I can't say.
Chef Ricky:This rum is right up my alley. Like, there's enough nerd in this room to get you This room starts a conversation. This isn't the room you're gonna grab if, you know, you're having, like, your sort of smooth night in the lounge and you just kind of want to sit back and not really think a whole lot. This is the realm when you want a little excitement. This is the realm when you want something a little bit different.
Chef Ricky:And it came into this podcast perfectly. You know, it was it was a recommendation. It wasn't something we stumbled upon. I love it. I love the fact that you get those molasses notes.
Chef Ricky:I love that it's they're so transparent about all the information they provide that to me that just shows the passion that they have in making this product. And that is a beautiful thing to me. Yes, it's hot for me. He usually means a bit more flavor. And I feel like for you know, I just what I did was I drank most of my water and I left a little drip there and I added some rum to my water cup because I didn't want to dilute the
Pagoda:my rum.
Bam Bam:So you're drinking rum out of plastic?
Chef Ricky:It's only for the sake of experiencing the drop of water in the rum. I didn't want to damage my glass
Senator:of rum. You may as well have flip
Chef Ricky:flops on right now.
Gizmo:I was going to say the same thing.
Pagoda:So those plastic notes, meaning they
Chef Ricky:were Well, I drank it so fast, the plastic had no chance.
Bam Bam:No PCBs?
Chef Ricky:No PCBs. Not in this launch. North Korea, yes, not here. But no, I get it. The water did bring the heat down, but then for me, it got a bit too sweet.
Chef Ricky:I feel like I lost the complexity of the room when I added the water. So, you know, 110, I look, I've I've drank a ton of 110 proof tequilas. Pagoda, you had one on your deck a couple days ago, the Tapatio one ten.
Pagoda:So,
Chef Ricky:you know, this is like right up my alley. I really enjoyed it. I thought it paired well with the cigar. This is an awesome bottle to kind of have and introduce people to and have a great rum story to tell.
Pagoda:So what's the rating?
Chef Ricky:10. I thought I said that. Sorry. Wow.
Pagoda:Pagoda's? I'm at a seven. Oh. A seven? Wow.
Pagoda:Yes. And you know what? Sorry about this Lizard
Gizmo:We're gonna start the expulsion procedure. I
Bam Bam:really mean You're in a pip, dude.
Pagoda:Is crazy.
Gizmo:That's an all timer.
Pagoda:No. I really appreciate Lizard Rhino, you know, at least suggesting what he really has.
Gizmo:Lizard Rhino, Pagoda hates you.
Pagoda:No. I, you know, I did want to move it up to an eight verse seven. But I to be very candid. When it, you know, it comes to rum. I've been drinking a lot of rum recently.
Pagoda:And for me, there are multiple factors why, firstly, I'm not a very high proof drinker. So that additive becomes, you know, difficult for me. I didn't really
Bam Bam:Didn't you have a 110 proof money? Yeah. You know, I took
Chef Ricky:a deal once in on this thing.
Pagoda:Yeah, no. I had the Macallan one ten as well, like the 12 there.
Gizmo:That was on the morning. Correct.
Chef Ricky:It was daylight.
Pagoda:But but you know, the thing is this was really a bit too bit too hot for me right from the very beginning. I wasn't getting any flavors. And I, like everybody else, instead of adding water, I added some ice. It didn't make it a little bit vibrant, of course, you know, a little bit, I thought, you know, livelier notes came out like a little I felt, you know, it becomes pleasant with a little bit of fruitiness as well, I think. But my thought is, you know, it's an $80 rum.
Pagoda:I have rums for $25, which give me a lot more satisfaction. I don't see myself buying it. Don't see myself getting on the deck with it in the afternoon. I don't see myself having it late at night. And you know, for $80 there's a lot of optionality.
Pagoda:So leaving that aside, even, you know, then when I added ice, you know, I wasn't able to get a reasonably consistent flavor throughout. So, you know, you you have to really balance this out. Now you could do it by adding a little bit of water and just maintaining it. But, you know, my thought is if you're if for the people who really like it, it'd be great. And I think, you you know, the scores reflect people's palates and their preferences.
Pagoda:For me, unfortunately, you know, this is a seven. But I really appreciate you taking the time to send it over to us and, you know
Gizmo:Don't believe a word he says.
Bam Bam:Don't don't couch it now.
Gizmo:Honestly, all kidding aside, I'm shocked at the seven.
Pagoda:Yeah, I'll never buy it. I'll never buy it. Will you? Who would?
Rooster:I'll buy this.
Bam Bam:So, I'll say it. I will respect some of the reasoning that you noted. Some of it. Yeah. It kind of weaved in and out like the spirit did tonight.
Pagoda:Yeah.
Chef Ricky:I'd buy this, but I wouldn't share it with everyone because not everyone could appreciate it.
Gizmo:Also, I'll tell you what I think and why I think this is a 10.
Pagoda:This is the most expensive, one of the most expensive rums we've
Chef Ricky:had. Mean, square wipes the
Gizmo:floor with it for sure. And that's, you know, good bringing that up because I think this is a nice Cost wise. Cost wise. Correct. I think this is a nice in between point between Foursquare and the other stuff we drink.
Gizmo:I think that this is an accessible, higher proofed, molasses driven rum that's unique, pairs well with the cigars that we smoke. I think that this would do well with a lot of the cigars we smoke. A little bit higher proof, a little bit more heat, excessively priced, and doesn't get into that crazy heat of the Foursquare. You know, Foursquare we've talked about, I mean, that thing knocks you around a lot of the time. I mean, it's it's pushing 60%.
Gizmo:It may even clip 60%. For me tonight, this is a perfect rum. I loved it from the first sip, from the first nose. Everything about it was great for me. Honestly, I couldn't disagree with you more, man.
Pagoda:No, but I'd rather have three bottles of Abuelo on any given day.
Gizmo:I understand that. I love Abuelo. I love No.
Pagoda:I'm just saying, in terms of relative comparison, you're comparing with Foursquare. I'm comparing with things I like.
Gizmo:I'm comparing this with a proof rum.
Pagoda:So like
Gizmo:proof rum.
Pagoda:No, so I have to be honest with what I'm going to be doing, right? Like, the flavor does not fit with me. It's really hot for me. You know, I'm adding ice, and it didn't still gel with me. I thought it overpowered the cigar for me as well.
Pagoda:You know, there was, like, I didn't find a lot to really compliment it and, you know, at least go on the high side. And I think it's also a matter of preferences, right? There are people who love bourbons. I'm not a big, you know, high proof bourbon guy either. It's not like it's a new story.
Pagoda:That's always existed So with considering the price point, considering the fact that I'll go and buy it, would I recommend it? You know, if somebody, you know, has more of a palette like mine, you know, they can decide for themselves. You know, if somebody has more of a palette, clothe, you know, bands, he can also, you know, choose to buy the you know, it's it's dependent on who's listening and who they're following.
Gizmo:Totally. All I'm saying is that I think this rum pairs very well with the cigar we had tonight
Senator:I agree.
Gizmo:With cigars in general. I think it's unique. I love the story. I love that it's American. I love the price given that it's American.
Gizmo:All things considered for what this is and the experience it gave me tonight, it's a 10. Senator.
Senator:So I'm at a strong nine. I started not too far from where Bam was on the first sip. It really it's intense. It's powerful. You know, there's some higher proof spirits that you take a sip and you say, I wouldn't even realize that this is a high proof spirit.
Senator:This is not in that camp. And so that immediately is where a 10 couldn't couldn't fit in my book. But the flavor is excellent. It's robust, it's rich, it's satisfying, it's got a long finish, it's the type of spirit that even absent a cigar, like just after a great meal, like it's a perfect after dinner drink, I think even the time of year, you know, like fall, winter Yeah.
Gizmo:We're coming into the perfect time of
Chef Ricky:year for
Senator:Yeah. A this fits this time and and occasion for sure. As far as the cigar, I thought the flavor paired very well with this cigar. Mhmm. I do think that the heat overpowered how smooth and mild the delivery of this cigar was.
Senator:I would have wanted a smoother spirit with that cigar. Even after the water? Even after the
Bam Bam:water. Really?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Oh, it is.
Gizmo:Now the
Senator:water helped a lot. Oh, it did. But I still with this cigar, I mean, this Padrone was so smooth, so easygoing. Correct.
Gizmo:No rough edges.
Senator:Zero. I just would have wanted like a softer, smoother spirit to have But with all that's to say, it's not just for me that the flavor was good. It was unique and differentiated. The fact that like, this is probably the most whiskey like rum I've ever had, I think they deserve credit for that and the fact that they've done it in a purely natural way. There was nothing artificial or added to this to try to, you know, mimic certain flavors or mask certain imperfections.
Senator:So I think the price point for being made, you know, in The US, that that's a fair price. I mean, I can imagine their labor costs alone to produce and manufacture all this.
Bam Bam:And they're a complex process.
Senator:For sure. So I'm at a nine. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a high proof spirit. And I think for anyone who's even curious about trying to find higher proof spirits that they might enjoy, I think this is one where I'm not a high proof spirit guy, but I really enjoyed it, especially with just some water to tame the heat. And you get bang for your buck in the sense that, you know, because this is a high proof spirit, I'm adding water.
Senator:Yeah. You know, I'm not gonna plow through a bottle of this in a week. Like, this is gonna sit on my shelf for some serious time. So I do think you get some value there. So for all those reasons, I'm at a strong nine.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The former liquor rating tonight on the Privateer Navy Yard, True American Rum is a 9.0. Alright. Great score. I think this is a great score, it's a good score.
Gizmo:Honestly.
Bam Bam:I would like to chat about the use of water and ice. Just seriously, I'm not busting chops.
Pagoda:Yeah. No. No. Fair enough.
Bam Bam:For this experience, room temperature water, I don't do that very often. I should.
Gizmo:This was cool though. Brought cool water in. Cold water.
Senator:It's cool, but it's not ice cold. That's the difference.
Bam Bam:I think the decrease in temperature may have played a role in your seven. Because the room temperature, just the adding of the touch of water, which I, again, I don't often do, which I'm going to start for higher proof spirits, it kind of opened it's new for me, so it opened a whole different palate experience.
Pagoda:No, but they typically say you're gonna drop a few drops of water.
Bam Bam:Sure, which I'm gonna actually do
Chef Ricky:more often.
Pagoda:Which really opened it up.
Senator:I'll say this, obviously we know Chef is a purist about this, so I'm
Bam Bam:trying Oh, is. To I'm not personally respected. Go ahead.
Senator:Go But all I'm gonna say is as someone who I think comes down somewhere in the middle on this, right, I'm not a purist to the extent chef is even though I respect it a ton, and I'm not in Pagoda's camp in that I don't think ice is perfect for almost everything.
Pagoda:Yeah.
Senator:The reason being so like when you have a spirit that is relatively smooth to start, I don't think there's that much of a problem adding ice because the spirit's already smooth. What the ice actually may do is make it a little sharper and give it a little bit more of even a bite that that like cold temperature it like Correct. Chef will explain this better than I can, but like it it it kind of like constricts the the flavors, and it doesn't really allow it to open up as much as it could.
Bam Bam:As much as it would with water.
Senator:Correct.
Chef Ricky:Room temperature. Room
Senator:But I think sometimes you just like something a little cold, a little cool on your palate, so we all put ice in plenty of single malts. There are certain spirits
Gizmo:I put it in rum just because I want it to be cooler.
Senator:Totally. Exactly. I think the thing is with high proof spirits, because they're already so aggressive, the ice can actually make that experience, I think, even worse for you. Can make
Bam Bam:you Which more
Pagoda:is possible, and I think which is probably what's happened.
Senator:You know I will say this though, in defense of Pagoda's score, because we have a similar rum palette, I very much am not surprised by Pagoda's score. I I know he would never pick this up. I know at $80, we can get so many other rums at $20.25 bucks.
Bam Bam:But for what this is tonight.
Senator:I know, but I'm just still saying
Gizmo:like, wait a minute. We know that. Alright. It's okay.
Chef Ricky:That's really a recommend.
Senator:And the thing for me, I also wanna be good.
Chef Ricky:Sinner's right. I'm just kidding.
Gizmo:I mean, I respect the score.
Senator:This is really
Bam Bam:from my commentary and how I'm going to start approaching spirits that are at a higher proof. I'm going to do this more with a room temperature water just to touch because for me, it actually saved my experience tonight, and it extended it. So I didn't add any additional water, and I kept adding just a little bit of the rum in that already diluted solution. Then I went to all rum without any water, of course no ice. My palate fully adjusted.
Bam Bam:I think it saved the experience. Think if people do that more often, just take the time and use that approach, I think you're gonna save an experience that you may not like. Let's And turn it to say, something very positive.
Pagoda:Proof spirits have a lot more flavor to them, right, true.
Chef Ricky:Without it out. And that's all I want people to know.
Pagoda:No, no, everybody knows it. All friends who smoke Actually, you know, the guy who I was hanging out with on Monday, you know, when I was He's really into very high proof spirits. And it's all about flavor, right? So the way they drink, you know, he has just very little, and that's it. Meaning we also tend to like, I, I tend to drink a little bit more.
Pagoda:I can have floracardia.
Gizmo:Know? Like, no.
Pagoda:I I I like to go back.
Bam Bam:You don't say it.
Pagoda:I like to go back. You know? So floracardia, I can have five. Burlo, I can have five. You That's the know?
Pagoda:It's different. I like to continue drinking while I'm smoking, whereas with him, he'll have just one sip, and then he'll smoke for half hour and then have another sip. Yeah. You're one So he's really enjoying the flavor, right? So I think it's a different perspective when you approach the spirit.
Pagoda:And I think, you know, for me, I'm not in that camp, so I typically will say what I experience, and then you go through the cost factor, and then you think about whether or not you can buy it. So if I'm not gonna buy it and I'm not gonna keep it on my shelf, and I don't like it, it's very difficult for me to come out and recommend it. That's really it.
Chef Ricky:No. And you're 100% correct. Yeah. You know, this is a tough rum to sit, and, know, you have one of those three, four, five cigar nights. This isn't something you wanna sip on it because
Bam Bam:you're gonna gonna I disagree with that.
Pagoda:I could
Bam Bam:drink this the rest of
Chef Ricky:the night. I agree.
Gizmo:I'm on
Chef Ricky:my third glass.
Senator:But this I will say is unique in that way because Foursquare for me
Gizmo:Oh, you're done. Forget it
Senator:at all. That's definite. That's
Bam Bam:that's correct.
Senator:I'm sorry.
Bam Bam:100% correct.
Senator:I have one or two glasses, and I I feel unwell.
Bam Bam:You can we can steal your wallet at
Gizmo:that point. I mean, honestly, like, don't record When we recorded with Robin Hamlet drinking the Foursquare
Bam Bam:Dude.
Gizmo:I purposely did not even finish my first glass because I'm like, I gotta get, like, to the end of this recording. Like, I gotta get there. I can't sip this thing like that because you you be cooked.
Senator:And I don't know, you know, why that is exactly. Maybe it's even higher proof than this is.
Gizmo:It is. I think so.
Senator:But this for a high proof spirit, I feel great. Honestly, the heat gives it away, but absent that, I feel right now the exact same as if I was having a 40% spirit. Yeah. And that's very rare for me with high proof stuff. So I give them credit for some reason.
Senator:This, like, just agrees with me.
Bam Bam:Good experience tonight with this, honestly. I like the polarizing effect that it had.
Pagoda:No. No.
Gizmo:So, Pagoda, why exactly do you hate Lizard Rhino?
Pagoda:I don't. I was a big fan of spearman rhinos. So you
Gizmo:know? I
Pagoda:love it.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now for our former lizard rating tonight on the Padrone nineteen sixty four Anniversary Exclusivo in Natural. Roost, you're up.
Rooster:So this cigar was a bit of an eye opener for me. I I have not smoked I think I probably speak for most of us that haven't smoked many natural Padrone cigars. And I think it's a bit of a mistake. I think we should or at least I would definitely look into smoking some more natural Padron cigars. It's amazing how much a wrapper has changed this blend.
Rooster:It almost feels like it's a different blend. The Exclusivo in Maduro gives you that dark chocolate espresso notes that are missing in this, and you get more of like a milk chocolate note. And it's odd that if it's just the wrapper causing this, I mean, how many other cigars would be so different than the Maduro line that it's worth exploring? Having said that, I mean, I'm at a solid nine on this cigar. This cigar, I'm also thinking about where does it fit in my rotation.
Rooster:I think this, like Senator pointed out, in the morning with a cup of coffee, I think this would be a fantastic smoke. And actually, I just lit up a Maduro I receiver right after this just to compare the still kind of prefer the Maduro a little bit over the natural, but the natural, it's very smooth. It's a delicious smoke. Only thing I didn't like was almost to the very end, there was a little bit of an unpleasant note, but it was brief. It was so brief that it's really not even worth taking any points off of it.
Rooster:The cigar, the construction is phenomenal. The smoke output, I mean, we can just this room is just absolutely filled with smoke. Are we going
Gizmo:to blame the cigar or the couch? It might be the new couch. It's the couch. It's new layout. Definitely the couch.
Rooster:But the cigar is absolutely delicious. I think it's a I think definitely I'm gonna buy a box of these. So I'm at a solid nine. Alright. Senator.
Senator:So I agree with Rooster. I'm at a strong nine. I was debating between a nine and a 10 for most of the cigar. And what did it for me is I was one of the first to finish the cigar and I lit up a 1964 Diplomatico in Maduro, the Churchill.
Bam Bam:Excellent cigar.
Senator:And I'm gonna definitively say for my palate, man, I will always love the Maduro more than I will the natural. And the funny thing is, like, the natural was so good, I was sitting there, like, confused in my own head thinking maybe they're just as good. But I'm telling you, man, when you light this cigar and with this rum that we did, the Maduro is perfect. So it's even better. Like, I'm getting molasses notes in the cigar in this Diplomatico that pair perfectly with that spirit.
Senator:So for me, I will definitely buy a box. This is a cigar that now finally I have something more interesting for a morning cigar with some more flavor, but super smooth. I think, you know, it gives you mentioned my commentary about the Maduro being a one act play, but the one act that you never want to end. This cigar actually, I think, is kind of almost a two act play. For me, the first half of the cigar is like primarily sweet.
Senator:Like milk chocolate is very very prominent, a lot of dessert notes, and then midway through all the way up until almost the end, it gets like super salty in a really good way. I kept thinking of like a like sea salt on a chocolate chip cookie. Like, that's the like flavor I was getting out of the cigar, which is delicious and great in the morning, great in the afternoon. The thing as far as the versatility, you know, while the Exclusivo is like an afternoon evening cigar, I wouldn't necessarily reach for it in the morning. This to me is like a morning afternoon early evening, but I'm not like, after a after a big meal, I would not pull for this in natural.
Senator:Toward the end of a night, I wouldn't necessarily pull for this cigar. So it's versatile, but it does have limitations in the same way that the Exclusivo is not a morning cigar. So for all well, for for most of us, sorry. Rooster is the exception. He's looking at you
Chef Ricky:like you pussy.
Rooster:But, you know, having said that, like, when you smoke a Maduro after the natural, it's almost like you're smoking a different cigar. Yeah. Totally different.
Senator:And for me, that's why the Exclusivo in Maduro is as strong of a 10 as I've ever given on this podcast. But the natural is definitely a nine. And I think like Rooster said, been eye opening that I think all of us will probably be now trying a lot more of the natural stuff out
Bam Bam:of the drone. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:So for me, it's a 10. I mean, the cigar tonight was perfect. There's no question about it. I didn't waver from that. Every puff was fantastic.
Gizmo:I am so glad we were able to repeat our PCA experience. We sat at the table at PCA in this massive ballroom watching a movie about Padrone, And we were handed these cigars, and we lit them having no idea what would happen. And we're all looking at each other going, oh my god, dude. Yeah. This is a natural exquisite.
Gizmo:Why are we not smoking these? And to come under the microscope tonight in the room, you know, as we do, to repeat that, I I would argue to even, you know, step upon that, you know, a step up, this cigar was perfect for me. You know, Fuente has this line, only Fuente is Fuente. I think it's only Padron is Padron. And and tonight, we experienced that.
Gizmo:I think this is a cigar like you guys have already said. I'm absolutely gonna get a box of this. This is not a cigar I'm gonna smoke every day. This is a cigar I'm gonna smoke maybe once a week, two or three times a month, whatever it may be, because it's gonna slot differently than the Maduro's going to. But goddamn, this is a good cigar.
Gizmo:The milk chocolate smoke, it was delicious. It was just it was rich. It was interesting. It was salty. It was it was a wonderful experience the whole way through.
Gizmo:Only Padron is Padron.
Rooster:Would you smoke this in the morning?
Gizmo:Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Honestly, I think I and wanna go to this after we rate senators, so I'm gonna tee this up. But to me, all the stuff that I reach for in the morning, if it's a Connecticut, if it's a little lighter Honduran, something like that, like, I'm almost mad at myself that I'm doing that as opposed to reaching for this.
Gizmo:So I wanna talk about that after the rating, but that's where my mentality is is absolutely this can be that morning cigar for an experienced smoker, I'd say, who's familiar with Padrone. This is a milk chocolate bomb. It would pair perfect with your with your coffee in the morning.
Senator:And the only other thing I just wanna say is I think I've mentioned the Exclusivo Maduro I've given to many friends as their first cigar, and they've fallen in love with it.
Gizmo:Two in this room, by
Chef Ricky:the way.
Bam Bam:Correct. For sure.
Senator:But this in natural, like especially for someone who has never smoked a cigar before, it's even smoother and more easygoing than the Maduro. Like, this to me is the perfect first cigar, the perfect introduction to premium handmade cigars. I can't think of any type of smoker that wouldn't be able to handle this cigar. Where we talk about some other Padrones that are obviously much fuller, you're not gonna give a first time smoker a family reserve. That's an intense cigar.
Senator:This to me is the perfect start for someone's journey.
Bam Bam:Getting into the Padrone market.
Senator:And cigars generally. That's also true. Yeah.
Gizmo:All right, Pagoda.
Pagoda:It's six.
Chef Ricky:It's a four. No.
Pagoda:It's a 10 for me. I did come in very apprehensive. You know, it's not something we reach for. I've never bought a box of it. I've actually never bought a natural.
Pagoda:And Padrone, meaning natural cigar, like natural wrapper. We know. Padroma. It's been one of those evenings, all right. No, but you know- It's
Chef Ricky:the high proof.
Pagoda:But you know what it is? It's, you know, when a cigar pleasantly surprises you, I think there's something to be said about that. From the very beginning, I think even the cold draw was a little berry ish, fruity, and then you moved into the cigar, you light it up, and then you know with the Padrone, they're so easy to smoke, and they light up so well. The combustion is fantastic. You know the airflow through the cigar is, you know it's not like any other, it's like one of those markers where you know there's, it's an experience just smoking the stick.
Pagoda:And then, so it maintains that. The combustion is fantastic. The burn line's excellent. And then the flavor was, you know, milk chocolate. And you know, it got nuttier for me to, you know, on the second half.
Pagoda:I did not get any of the minerality. So for me it's a 10, meaning it just went Also, I smoked it last to the half inch. And everything about the cigar was just fantastic, from the smoke output all the way, you know, through the flavor profile. It's something I wanted another stick, you know? It's like, I remember there were days when we used to smoke the exclusive world, we would have two in a row, you know?
Pagoda:So it just brought me back to the same place where I could easily smoke two in a row. Yeah. Meaning, for me, I would definitely smoke in the morning, you know, afternoon, early evening. You know? I I really, really enjoyed it.
Pagoda:It's definitely something, I think I'm gonna get a box of these right away. So, you know, when you're ready to buy a box, you're excited about it, everything about it is pleasant. And I think for me it was a saving grace this evening, so it's a 10 for me.
Rooster:I ordered six boxes, by
Pagoda:the way. Oh, did it? All
Gizmo:right, Jeff.
Chef Ricky:Saving grace. Jeez wheeze. Some tough words He
Gizmo:hates lizard rhino. We've been saying
Chef Ricky:So this is definitely worth a fiver. Oh, come on. What? I'm joking. I'm joking.
Chef Ricky:No. This cigar for me was a nine. For the coffee nerds out there, I would say this is the Padrone Natural, Exclusivo, and the Exclusivo in Natural is similar to what a flat white would be to a cortado. So a flat white has about double the amount of milk. Just bear with me here a little.
Bam Bam:He's a chef.
Chef Ricky:Let You me know, some foam, not a whole lot. Right? The foam's usually a little bit tighter than say like a cappuccino, which has like a little bit of a looser foam. We're going off on a D. And then we have the Cortado.
Chef Ricky:Correct. Then we have
Pagoda:I read this coffee of the 10.
Chef Ricky:And then we have the Cortado. The Cortado, you know, there's a lot more emphasis and focus on the espresso. For me, the Padrone in Natural, the Esclusivo in Natural versus the Esclusivo in Maduro, that's exactly what that is. They present similarly, but one gives you a more intense, grounded, earthy, darker flavor than the other. I like them both, but the Maduro edges the Natura off for me just a little bit.
Chef Ricky:So with that being said, the natural is annoying. Hey,
Rooster:Bam. Go ahead.
Bam Bam:I don't know what to say.
Rooster:What do you like, Cortado?
Pagoda:Don't know
Gizmo:if I
Bam Bam:want Dance and adventure, man.
Gizmo:Do you want chef's music for your rating?
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:Alright. Here we go.
Pagoda:He just likes a film.
Gizmo:Oh my god.
Bam Bam:There you go. I love it. Very complex.
Chef Ricky:I'm sorry. Just trying to find something that people could relate to here.
Rooster:It's a good comparison.
Pagoda:Correct. Are
Bam Bam:you gonna keep that playing? Yeah.
Chef Ricky:I had to do it. By
Pagoda:the way, you had rooster when you said cortado. Wow.
Chef Ricky:I love a cortado.
Bam Bam:I'm going to keep this very simple. Initially on the cigar, I was at a 10, right down to the beginning of that final third. Got a little minerality there. It was surprising to me how much earthiness I was getting. It kinda threw me off a little bit.
Bam Bam:I'm at a I'm a four.
Pagoda:I can't do it with this. I can't.
Gizmo:Come on, Bam. I'm at a pretty strong nine.
Bam Bam:I love the cigar. I can't give it a 10. The Exclusivo is a perfect cigar. We all gave that a 10. Again, I wanted to give this a 10.
Bam Bam:I was playing beat as Senator said and a few I think a few of other others, it's I was between a nine and a 10, but that touch of minerality threw me off a touch. But I will say it's a completely different cigar than the Exclusivo and so complimentary.
Senator:This is the Exclusivo.
Gizmo:Yeah. Maduro.
Bam Bam:And I'm saying Alright, let me start over.
Chef Ricky:Start the music. Mike. Mike.
Bam Bam:You know, you're fucking up your own editing, right? You're now the cause of your extra work.
Chef Ricky:I'm at
Bam Bam:a I'm at a strong nine. Love this cigar. I will buy boxes of this. Nine.
Gizmo:Very nice, Bam. Alright. The formal lizard rating tonight, boys, on the Padrone 1964 anniversary Exclusivo in Natural is a 9.3.
Senator:Okay. Great score.
Gizmo:Alright. So what do you guys think of that rating? Let's start there. It's perfect. Perfect.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah.
Pagoda:Yeah. Think exclusive will a bit lower. Right?
Gizmo:No. The Maduro. This is the Exclusivo.
Bam Bam:Maduro got a perfect 10. No.
Gizmo:The Maduro did not get a perfect 10.
Bam Bam:We're gonna
Rooster:go through a nine. We're gonna
Gizmo:go through that rating in a minute. But I think, to me, I think a 93 on this is a little low tonight.
Bam Bam:Nine five would
Gizmo:be good. I think nine five would have been perfect.
Senator:We're gonna have an accountability moment for Pagoda. Seven? Are you gonna sit here and tell me that you're gonna smoke more of the Exclusivo in Natural than you are Maduro? That that's better?
Pagoda:No. No. No. Add into that. I think
Senator:But I think who's the one that didn't give the Maduro a 10?
Pagoda:I think it was me. I think in the beginning.
Gizmo:Oh, it's No. You gave it a 10.
Pagoda:I gave it a 10.
Gizmo:Yeah. Rooster gave it a nine. Woah. Shit. Oh, shit.
Gizmo:Grinder gave it a nine. Wow.
Senator:Grinder, not surprised because he prefers Padrona Natural. Rooster,
Rooster:this is That was early on.
Pagoda:No. No. But
Chef Ricky:you've been
Gizmo:smoking since the twenties.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Pagoda:Centuries. Yeah. The only reason is
Senator:And allegedly more Exclusivos than me.
Gizmo:Not a big Padrone guy.
Pagoda:Now I am.
Gizmo:Alright. So I wanted to go to this before we go to the other comparisons. What do you think about this replacing those Connecticut's you reach for on a Saturday morning with your coffee or something lighter or a light Honduran? Like, where where does that lie for you tonight after this?
Senator:So it's still it doesn't wholesale replace them for me because there are moments where I actually want, like, a super mild cigar early in the morning, but for most occasions in the morning, this definitely now
Bam Bam:takes the slot. I mean,
Rooster:there's times that you want more flavor, and this is the cigar that would do it.
Bam Bam:Makes sense.
Pagoda:It's just not in my budget to have to have it monthly.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's compare this to the other Padrones we've done on the podcast. We're gonna start we're gonna go bottom up on the ratings. So starting on episode 25, the Padrone 2,000 in Maduro scored a 7.5. Seems low.
Gizmo:Yeah. On episode 17, the nineteen sixty four anniversary torpedo in Natural, the sister to this, an 8.7.
Bam Bam:K.
Gizmo:Then on episode 202, the nineteen sixty four Anniversary Torpedo in Maduro scored a nine. Then on episode 161, the 1920 '6 Siri, number 35, the little one on a short smoke special Maduro scored a 9.0. On episode 85, family reserve, number 85 Maduro scored a 9.2. Then on episode 183, the number 45 Maduro in family reserve scored a 9.3. On episode 152, another natural, the family reserve number 50 scored a 9.5.
Gizmo:On episode three, the sister to this, the nineteen sixty four anniversary Exclusivo in Maduro scored a 9.6. So three points
Chef Ricky:Wow.
Gizmo:Higher than this two hundred and fifty one weeks ago.
Chef Ricky:It's almost like we know what we're doing here. Allegedly. I love those ratings.
Gizmo:On episode 100, the fifty years, the hammer in Maduro scored a 9.9, and now we're into the tens. On episode 53, the eightieth anniversary in Maduro scored a perfect 10. And finally, on episode 175, the sixtieth in Maduro also scored a perfect 10.
Chef Ricky:So
Gizmo:what do you think of this stacking alongside the number 45 in Maduro just under the Family Reserve number 50 in natural tonight at the 9.3. What do you
Senator:think of this? I think it's perfect.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's a touch low.
Gizmo:I think I think it should be a 95.
Bam Bam:I agree.
Gizmo:If I could have my
Bam Bam:way I totally agree.
Gizmo:I think tonight would have been a 95. Yeah.
Pagoda:Stop thinking.
Bam Bam:And that Eskisevo should be a 10.
Gizmo:A 10. You can blame rooster. He's right here.
Bam Bam:All day long 10.
Gizmo:We should do it over. Do it again. Alright, boys. What a great night tonight. Of course, we have to congratulate our lizard of the week, Lizard Rhino, who sent us this fantastic bottle of rum and that great note.
Gizmo:Thanks to him. Of course, thanks to all of the lizards who contribute to the show. Please keep sending your emails, your voice memos, your comments on Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, whatever you choose, your DMs, all of it. We love to hear from you, and we wanna hear from you. And, of course, thanks to Bon Roberts for sponsoring our lizards of the week each week, sending them a 10 count box of cigars.
Gizmo:Check them out at fabrica005.com. Use our code lizard pod for 10% off. And boys, the exclusive retail partner of the Lounge Lizards podcast, smallbatchcigar.com. I ordered a bunch of cigars for what we have coming up in the next couple months today. So easy.
Gizmo:I know they're gonna be here in two days. I've spent so much money at small batch over the last few months. I mean, there's no better shopping experience online than small batch. I love it. Thanks, guys.
Bam Bam:I guess I'll fuck myself. Lizard 15.
Gizmo:You all stare at me like
Bam Bam:shaking my head.
Gizmo:They can't hear the head
Pagoda:shake. Right?
Gizmo:Use our code Lizard 15 for 15% off your entire order. 5% back in rewards. Free shipping all the time. Curated experiences, samplers, everything. Check out smallbatchcigar.com.
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Gizmo:De30rewards.com. And finally, boys, our presenting sponsor, our friends at Fabrica five. I can't wait to have a Fabrica five after a recording tonight. Gonna have the Lonsdale, which has been blowing my mind. Fabrica005.com.
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Chef Ricky:Nice.
Gizmo:What a great night, boys.
Pagoda:Very good night. Excellent.
Gizmo:You guys seem so excited to get out of here I
Senator:will say the graduation music was appropriate. And I say that because we should congratulate ourselves for graduating to the natural line of Padrang.
Gizmo:It is it is a serious thing, honestly. Yeah. Honestly, I think it's a little sinful that we have been dismissive Correct. Of Padron and Natural.
Pagoda:No. But, you know, think, you know, how Steve Socker said it, you know, you go, you smoke to the max potential, then you keep coming down to milder cigars. Like, it's happened to me, and I think, you know I think it's happened to
Gizmo:all of us.
Pagoda:I think our palates change.
Chef Ricky:It's happened to Pagoda too with rums.
Pagoda:Well, rum is gonna go lower after that experience.
Gizmo:And, boys, like I said earlier, if you're not sick of me, check me out tomorrow on the Cigar Soldier Podcast. Bam, I know you're excited to hear another two hours of me, so tune in. Correct. Boys, what a great night tonight. One more time on the Privateer Navy, our true American rum, we had a 9.0.
Gizmo:On the Padrone nineteen sixty four Anniversary Exclusivo in Natural, we had a 9.3. What a great night, boys. Bam is hanging over his mic.
Chef Ricky:I've I've never seen Bam mics.
Gizmo:Is unbelievable. What is going on over here?
Bam Bam:I'm tired. The smoke's killing me.
Chef Ricky:I don't know.
Gizmo:A lot
Pagoda:of rum tonight. It was was definitely the rum.
Rooster:It's a lot
Gizmo:of work in here. Alright, boys. A great night, and, we'll see everybody next week.
Pagoda:I'll have another pour.
Gizmo:Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
Gizmo:If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.