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The lizards pair the Cuban El Ray del Mundo Choix Suprême with 12 year aged Dalmore scotch. Senator shares some history on Dalmore, the guys discuss Habanos S.A.'s approach to their smaller marcas and debate the reality of the Cuban cigar shortage.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda, and bam.
Bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 22nd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cuban cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
Senator, share some history on Delmore, will discuss Havana's approach to their smaller Marcos, and we'll discuss the reality of the Cuban cigar. All among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair the El Ray del Muno Schwa Supreme with 12 year aged Delmore Scotch.
A Cuban hermosas [00:01:00] tonight on the pod, the Schwa Supreme, one of two cigars that, uh, El Ray del Mundo makes. It's a, uh, 48 ring gauge by five inches. I thought this was a Robusto boys, and I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. So, uh, let's cut this thing and see what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper.
So I've never had this cigar. I know, uh, a few of the other guys in the room have Puba, certainly has Rooster, has have you, Senator? I
**Senator:** had one, but in less than optimal smoking conditions. So I didn't get to enjoy it as fully as I would. The cold
**Bam Bam:** draw is delicious on this thing. Really
**Gizmo:** can't wait for you to try that.
Yeah, I'm very excited about it. Wow. I've heard amazing things about this cigar. I
**Bam Bam:** mean, uh, I'm getting sweetness right off, right off the bat.
**Gizmo:** Mine's, I, I'm mainly getting cedar on mine. I'm getting
**Senator:** cedar, but a little sweetness like BA's talking about, and if you smell the wrapper, you can even get that sweetness.[00:02:00]
**Gizmo:** What's funny is I feel like I'm tasting cedar as if it was sitting. A cabinet box, a cedar cabinet box. It was in a cardboard. It's in a cardboard
**Bam Bam:** dress box. So who's had this in the room? Rooster.
**Gizmo:** Rooster and, and
**Senator:** Puma pba. Ah, okay. This is that time delay. . . I'm sorry. Gibo just said that. .
**Gizmo:** It's all right. Okay.
All right, boys, let's light this thing. The El Ray del Muno schwa supreme from Cuba. Again, 48 ring gauge by five inches long a, I would say revered ci. in the Ho Bonos catalog by, uh, experienced smokers. Yeah. And not terribly easy to get your hands on it. I'd
**Senator:** also say, uh, hidden secret. Yes. I mean, if I'm being honest, if we, I, I think most of us in this room, if we even just went back a few years, we would not have heard of this cigar.
It's not like a, you know, it's not a D four, it's not an, you know, an epi two. Um, which is nice cuz I, I think we're trying to share with listeners something that they probably don't [00:03:00] encounter very often. they maybe might
want
**Gizmo:** to pick up. Oh, fantastic. On the light, great draw, great smoke output, and delicious.
Wow. Wow. Definitely. So this is from a March 21 box. So these are only, these are under a year old, which I know normally I think we would kind of shutter at being under a year old on smoking a cigar. But I, I went off the recommendation of some, some folks I saw online saying, how well these are smoking young.
So I think it was worth a.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know what to say. It's so good. Yeah. Bam. Bam. Shaking his head at me with a smile on his face. This is, this is such a good cigar.
**Gizmo:** Very good on the light. I agree. Wow. Yeah. What are you guys getting? A little honey
**Bam Bam:** maybe. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Creamy. I, I dare to say a bam, bam word. A little citrusy, like a little, a little fruit.
I don't, I don't know what it is. Getting
**Rooster:** some floral, but not, I don't know about citrus. . Definitely some, you know's. Sweet. Yeah. Sweet
**Gizmo:** [00:04:00] honey. Little bit of floral. Is everybody getting good draw on this thing? Everybody can milk. Fantastic. Kuba, how's yours?
**Poobah:** I can't tell yet. I'm having a little bit of an issue
**Gizmo:** here.
Mm-hmm. I have two more with me. Just, I, I anticipated potential problems. I'll take the next one. Mm-hmm. . You wanna try a different one?
**Poobah:** Um, no, just give it a second.
**Gizmo:** Right
**Bam Bam:** before we, uh, I got a question. Yeah. What are these costs?
**Gizmo:** Oh, that's, I, you know what I should have prepared, I'm
**Rooster:** sorry. I, I think they're a bit like, well, 21, I would say like about fif between 1517 in that page.
Wow.
**Gizmo:** Right. Yeah. I
think
**Poobah:** you're about right. Tough to get
**Bam Bam:** these, or are they right at
**Gizmo:** They're not easy to get. This is a, uh, this is a. A Marco from from Cuba, and Puba can talk a little bit about this as well, but you know, it's one of their, what do you call it, A regional,
**Poobah:** well no, I'd call it a local boutique, I'd call it a portfolio brand [00:05:00] or one of their boutique brands in the Havana SA catalog.
It's like a San Louis Ray or Kuaba. Um, . Juan Lopez. Juan Lopez. Yeah. You know, boutique, boutique brand or portfolio brand that, that's not a global brand. So that they, they don't make as many cigars. The distribution isn't quite as wide. Um, so it's, it, it's supposedly, um, The, the, the brand was created in partnership with Sancho Ponza by a German businessman, a gentleman by the name of Emilio Olmsted in 1848.
They named, they named the brand Del Ray del Muno, which means King of the world in Spanish. That's a very cool name, by the way, king of the world. Um, and then around 1882, um, a. A Spanish businessman named Antonio Oone, who's not to be confused with the Antonio Oone, who's the brother of Ramon alone, who were the [00:06:00] brothers who, who founded and developed the the Ramon alone as Marco.
You
**Gizmo:** mentioned that on the RAs episode, that there were two Antonios. Yeah,
**Poobah:** it's just there. It just happened coincidentally, to have the same name. Okay. Um. Uh, so, uh, you know, they, they registered it, um, and reregistered the name after, uh, you know, after Olms Olmsted's death. Um, and then they went on to just make.
Some produced some really great cigars, um, up until the revolution. I mean, the, the, you know, there's not much there in terms that's really interesting and worth the worth discussion. Okay. Um, it, it, it's not like this brand has a storied history. , you know, like RGUs, where you have rivals and there's affairs going on and people are dying.
And . There's no espionage. There's no espionage. It's not like as, as interesting as like, let's first say let's, let's say boulevard's history or something like that. Yeah, they're up. Yeah. Orman, [00:07:00] um, um, it lost some popularity at some point. Um, uh, uh, and its status. You know, being at the forefront of some of, of Cuban cigars.
But, uh, despite that, it's still come, it's, it's kind of come back in the past 20 years or so and has really made its way to the forefront, um, with. Aficionados in the know, um, they make two standard production cigars, I believe. The Hermosa and Theas. Yep. And they also, um, when they, when they're other, uh, violas, they wanna release or, or special, um, blends, perhaps they'll do some regionals.
You know
**Gizmo:** what's interesting about that? Uh, uh, and I learned this a couple weeks ago and it's just so obvious to me. I think Senator and I were talking about this at the time. . It's interesting that you'll never see a Monte Cristo Parus, Cohiba, upk or Romeo. You'll never see any of those come out as a regional.
Tho Those are global brands. According to Havanas, they'll never put a regional release out under those, [00:08:00] just li you know, limited additions, but never a regional specific to Mexico or Spain or whatever. So that's pretty, you know, uh, El Ray del Muno is used a lot in those circumstances. Like you said, Juan Lopez is Sancho Panza.
Of the smaller, uh, Marcus. Um, and I think that's very cool about these, that there's only two regular production cigars in this
**Poobah:** line. Yeah, yeah. There were more, of course, at one time, and, but like many of the boutique and portfolio brands within the Havana, a catalog, those fats were discontinued. Well, I wonder, wonder
**Bam Bam:** why they would discontinue them.
And I've never heard of a cigar company. We've,
**Poobah:** we've talked about it before. I mean, in the, in the, there was a big quality problem. , um, which is well known about what they, what they call the dark period, uh, which I believe ran from about 1998, I believe, until, um, around 2000. Um, and they were making too many cigars and too [00:09:00] quickly and during the cigar boom, and there was a lot of bad quality coming out.
So Havana, you know, CUPA tobacco, Havana. They, they said, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna have to focus, you know, focus back on what we do well and do, do make less violas across the catalog and, and, and, and do better with less shapes and focus a little bit more and bring the quality back. And they've brought the quality back over.
20 years. Sure. Um, cuz it was a problem for a while.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. And you know what's interesting too? You're talking about that time period from that period of like 99 ish to about 2010, they canceled. I want to say. 10, 12 other cigars in regular production that that El Ray Del Mungo made. Yeah. Oh, wow. You know, the two thousands were not a good and just
**Bam Bam:** never reintroduce
**Gizmo:** them ever again.
They're gone. They're gone. Wow. So they use this, like we said, for regionals and it's
**Poobah:** streamline. Think about it, it makes [00:10:00] sense. It's streamline's distribution for the company. You know? It's all one company. Yeah. That that's, that oversees all this production. They have to go with what, where the demand lies, folk, you know, they tried to make some decisions.
Now a lot of it's, it's unfortunate. , um, that some of these beloved shapes aren't available. And, but I guess, you know, they didn't have to make decisions. Right.
**Gizmo:** So this is, uh, so going back to the flavor on this thing about, uh, three quarters of an inch in here on mine, I, it's creamy. It's delicious.
**Bam Bam:** Delicious, delicious.
**Senator:** One word. Wow. Yeah, it's fantastic. This is outstanding. I mean, I, I'm getting. The sweetness that we were talking about that we started with honey, there's a creaminess. The smoke it, it's the velvety it. The combustion is great. You
**Gizmo:** like coats your mouth. It's like you have, it's like it has an icing on it that's coating your mouth
**Senator:** or something.
Ab absolutely. And and you also get that dried fruit. I feel like when you just, I'm blown away by [00:11:00] this cigar. Me too.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I just can't believe how good it is for being that it's so fresh. Yeah. Yeah. You know, less than a year old. It's incredible. 20 box is 20.
**Senator:** If he didn't say, yeah, March 21, this is the 21 box, I never would've guessed.
**Bam Bam:** Right. So what's also unusual, several sources I've read on this cigar, they all say the same thing. It starts off very mild according to the description that I read, and it launches into flavor and it gets very intense. I see the opposite. I'm getting really good, I'd say medium, almost full
**Poobah:** flavor right off the bat, so, so on the light I had some pr, some issues.
Yep. Where it was. iffy. It was, yeah. It didn't start off on the light for me. Spectacular. Uh, but that sometimes happens with cigars, sometimes that initial, for whatever reason, I could have lit it. I lit it with a match. Maybe I, how is it now? Um, now it's like settled in and it's, it's much, much better. In the notes that Senator is talking about, the signature kind of notes, the, the dried [00:12:00] fruit and, um, some of the, those, those sweeter notes.
coming through that are signature for the cigar. Um, this is like dessert. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's
**Poobah:** sweet. I'm just amazed. It's unbelievable. Sweet and creamy. I mean, yeah. It's fruit kind of fruity. It's, it's sweet. Fantastic. It's my, it's a medium bodied cigar. Um. , I feel
**Gizmo:** like. So by the way, I wanted to just answer Rooster's question.
I paid 3 49 for this box of 25, so these worked out to $13 and 50 cents a stick. That's a steal.
**Rooster:** Fantastic price. I've seen it for about 300.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. On some other sites. Yeah, let's just look and I think the prices are just, you know, jumping up 10 50. I urge the
**Bam Bam:** procurement managers of this group to buy and we will reimburse you.
For the record, just launch into it.
**Senator:** Gizmo and I tried recently to get tried another boxleys. We were, someone beat us too. Yeah, we tried.
**Rooster:** I'll,
**Gizmo:** I'll text you a site. 2 99. Oh, here we go. Cuban. I love, by the
**Bam Bam:** way, how Hold tells us. Hold on. I know what it is. After I bought them, I know what it is. Is it Cuban Luz?
**Rooster:** It is, isn't it? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Right on. [00:13:00] Yeah. ,
**Poobah:** yes, I caught you. And, and with, with, with, like, as they settle in and as they rest and as they, as they start to mature, more like those flavor notes. Um, Really accelerate, uh, with, with that, this cigar is really good if you put it down for a little while, like all those notes just like accelerate and become more concentrated and, um, and more complex.
So we can, this cigar is, is really their flagship cigar, um, standard production cigar, and, uh, people really like it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I can, I can certainly understand why. Uh, it's, it's a wonderful little smoke. It's worth pursuing. Yeah. I'm a believer.
**Pagoda:** I'm a believer in Cubans. Now, . It's, uh, it's taken me a while, but.
This smoke is fantastic. What,
**Gizmo:** what you say that you're a believer now That's an interesting comment cuz we've all gone through that journey right? Of, of, you know, going from new worlds cuz they're obviously accessible everywhere [00:14:00] to finding Cubans and procuring them and getting 'em smoking and what, what is kind of flicked that domino finally, for you that's like you're.
Totally bought into Cubans.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, just, uh, to summarize, I used to smoke a lot of, in fact, I still do a lot of bolder, like strong flavored cigars. And, uh, every time I would try a Cuban, I thought it was, , oftentimes very flavorless. And, you know, it just, uh, didn't hit my palate the way I would anticipate, right?
Because there's always this excitement that you're gonna be smoking a Cuban, and then when I would have it, I didn't feel the same excitement. I, you know, felt it was, you know, they were good. But I think, uh, you know, During this journey, uh, you know, with you guys, um, you know, I've tasted a lot of, uh, Cuban cigars, which I've really begun to enjoy, and I can tell you that this is, uh, once cigar I've started enjoying from the very light was, you know, the sweetness, the creaminess, and, um, really enjoying it.
This is
**Gizmo:** fantastic. Yeah. So, just so you guys know, the other 18 cigars in this [00:15:00] box are completely accounted for. I don't, I don't know what to. You're out.
**Pagoda:** Listen, we'll, we'll, we'll,
**Bam Bam:** we'll bit up, we'll
**Poobah:** bit up. , they've, they've disappeared. I would, I would disappear these into the back of your humid one. Oh oh.
**Gizmo:** That's exactly what, in a year.
**Senator:** Exactly. I know exactly how we're gonna get them. We're gonna corner, we're gonna corner the loos markets. You can't buy any more loosies. And we're gonna start trading.
**Gizmo:** I'll trade you loosies for
**Poobah:** these. You know, the thing with these is, you know, you can always, you know, when you see them pop.
Because they kind of pop up and then they go away. They pop up and then they go away. When they do pop up, they, they stay, they only stay around for a little while and they go down because people do really like them and they want to, people want a box in their humidor because it's a nice, again, it's a nice change of pace from the global brands that we, that, that are so beloved.
It's one of those cigars that when you're, when you're. Doing your, um, load out what I call a load out. Um, and you, and you're kind of going through your sticks and you're like, what do I, am [00:16:00] I gonna, you know, I'm gonna smoke another parus. You know, you kind of ask yourself, well, yeah, I'm gonna smoke one PARUS tonight, but then what else can I throw in the mix that's going to, that's gonna change things up?
And this is a, this is like that change up, um, that you may not smoke like every day. , but you're going to, not that you wouldn't, they're just not as available. and as ubiquitous as some other things. So, you know, you pop it in, you pop it in here and there
**Senator:** and, and I, I don't, I don't think they make nearly as many sticks, asparagus and up mint, right?
I mean, no, they just don't. That's
**Gizmo:** the thing. That's the thing.
**Poobah:** They're harder to, to come by. They're a little harder to come by. So, you know, you kind of judiciously when you load 'em out. It was, it's like one of those cigars, like, okay, I'll take one this month. I'll take one. or two and you know, and pop 'em out and depending on how many boxes, you know,
Yeah. How crazy you wanna go , which is
**Gizmo:** I think, the way that it's going right now. I think we're all gonna be chasing a couple of boxes these around. But, um, for
**Senator:** sure. Another thing I noticed as [00:17:00] soon as Gizmo handed these out, the cigar is, is rounded. you would not notice from, by looking at it, that it came out of a dress box.
And obviously I'm not a huge dress box fan. And, um, I just think they've done something well in that clearly these are not jammed and packed in that box. They gave it enough space that it looks exactly as it should, and it's smoking really well. It is. I mean, the draws fantastic. The smoke output's great.
I've, I've had no issue.
**Poobah:** Yes. So interesting observation. So to build on that a little bit, , and we talked about this before we, before we started to record, just for just momentarily. And that's, there's something about this Hermosa. There's the, there's people, mutual friends of ours who talk about this Hermosa, uh, Viva, which is not exactly a rib robusto, it's 48 ring gauge right by five inch by five inch.
There's it, [00:18:00] San St. Louis Ray makes the REOs. There's people who believe that this particular size, the construction of it for whatever, there's magic in the hermosas. Hmm. That there's some sort of magic, like, like look at everybody's burn. It's like razor sharp. Yes. It's razor sharps. Yep. It's, and the draws really good.
And when you look at the foot, like when, when I pulled, um, when GIZ came around and goes, take one, take one, take one. I grabb. and then I immediately, the first thing I look at when I grab a cigar is I look at the foot just to look at the leaves to see how it's rolled and it, the, the fault, like it was perfectly, like you could see the thing before I even cut it.
I knew the cigar was probably gonna draw well because it would just look, the foot looked so good, you know, so there's something about it. There's something about this size people hypothesize. .
**Gizmo:** Well, I think they're certainly right. And to, to Senator's point, when I was pulling this out of the dress box, sometimes when you get a box of, um, you know, uh, loosies obviously, uh, RGUs, they're a little difficult [00:19:00] to get out.
Like they're really stuffed in there, and if you take a couple out, putting them back in is a bit of a challenge. This just came right out. They were not stuffed in there. Interesting. You know? Mm-hmm. , it's.
**Poobah:** They may use like a box that they use for robos. Right. I was just,
**Gizmo:** they relabel it
**Poobah:** and they, and I think about it.
It's the same cardboard dress box, but there's just a little bit more room. Yeah, a little less. Because think about it, the, it's all one company. They're not, they're making these dress boxes probably the same way with a couple different vendors. And then they're labeling the, you know, slap a sticker on 'em.
Yeah. And then they, they, they put the artwork on them and everything, but they probably just go in a robusta box. I can't, I don't know that for a fact, but it may give 'em a little bit more room to breathe.
**Gizmo:** To breathe, breathe. Well, they're certainly, you know, they're certainly still round, which I haven't, you've seen out of a dress box.
So, all right, let's try our, uh, let's try our scotch pairing tonight, gentlemen. So this is the second delmore we've done, [00:20:00] and, uh, Senator, tell us a little about what we have in our hands.
**Senator:** So this is Delmore 12. I've, this is my first time having this after the Delmore cigar malt. Um, I think everyone said was one of the best single malts we've ever had.
Um, I figured, all right, let's. Get the full range of Delmore. So start with their 12. It's aged in ex bourbon barrels and ex cherry casks, um, which is like a lot of stuff we drink. Um, but interesting. I was looking up a little bit about the brand history. We didn't actually talk at all about Domo's history when we reviewed the, the Cigar Mall.
And it's very fascinating because they have a, a royal history. So do Moore's heritage dates backs to 1260. . It was in that year that Colin of kin tell Chief of the of Klan MacKenzi. Saved King Alexander III from a charging stag. And if you look on the bottle,
**Gizmo:** sounds like a Will Ferrell movie description on Netflix
**Senator:** [00:21:00] And so in recognition of this noble act, the king granted the Mackenzie Klan, the right to use the 12 pointed royal stag emblem on their code of arms. When the descendants of the Klan became owners of the Dalmore Distillery in 1867, the royal stag became. Iconic logo that Delmore has today. And if you look and I, I counted there's, you know, 12, the, the horns that the, the stag has there, there's 12 of 'em.
And, um, so I just thought very cool that it goes back obviously that far and, um, I think they make some very good stuff. I'm curious what guys think about this. Like I said, this is my first time
**Gizmo:** trying to, I think it's very, I think it's very tasty. Uh, very smooth. It's
**Bam Bam:** drinkable. There's a nice little flavor.
**Gizmo:** It's not, it's not like biting you in the back of the throat too much. Not, not at all.
**Poobah:** Very smooth. I, I find it a little bit kind of, um,
**Bam Bam:** dare I say medicine-y a bit? No,
**Poobah:** no, no. There's nothing [00:22:00] offensive about it. It's just a little bit, eh, it's a
**Senator:** little blah. Okay. So good. So I didn't wanna color anyone's opinion.
I mean, I'm trying this just like I'm kind of. I, I, I like the flavor notes, but the delivery of them, I think it's very flat. Flat. Like I'm a hundred percent with Puba. There. Pallets. Pallets. Very good. Like amateur. Yeah. There are, there are notes in here that actually are very similar to notes in Macallan 12.
Like there's a faint little bit of a chocolate, chocolate flavor in this, like you get on the finish after the citrus that comes in Macallan. But Macallan, I feel like just deliver. in such an elegant, robust way. Oh, where this just kind of falls flat and then all you taste is the alcohol on the finish.
And I, I, I'm, you know, there they, there was a high bar set because we've had this cigar malt before, which was. absolutely outstanding. This isn't bad, but I, I'm, I'm left wanting more.
**Gizmo:** Is this 12 years aged or the 12, yeah. Okay. So that's coincidental that the stag has 12 [00:23:00] points on his horn. Yeah. And it's 12 years aged?
Correct. Okay. Total coincidence. .
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's just okay for me, you know, the other night did, not to make comparisons, but you know, the other night we were, we, we had some of that, the abor, right? Oh, the 12th. But like, at least it punches you in the face with Sherry and you. You're like, okay, well that's, you know, that's something that, that I can, it's much more hang more hat on, more
**Bam Bam:** that's much more flavorful.
That Avalara. Yeah. Oh
**Poobah:** yeah, yeah. You're just kind of, it's really delicious. Like, you're like, okay, like if you're in the mood for that, like that definitely hits the spot and it, it's, and there's a little bit of it. It's, it's certainly a sweeter scotch. Um, Almost, you know, than, than than many that we didn't.
The thing about scotch is so interesting is that, um, in, in, of course in Grindr's absence, he could pontificate forever on this , um, uh, bless you, Grindr, , um, the, uh, but you know that, that's so interesting with scotch, maybe as opposed to bourbon, and I could get beat up for this, who knows? But there, there's such a [00:24:00] wide like.
From like Lagavulin all the way up, all the way to the other end of the spectrum, which could be, maybe call it aor, I don't know. You know where it, so Sherry definitely on that, but there's like, it's just huge spectrum of like flavor and taste and, and things, which makes I think scotch super, super interesting.
Almost like wine, you know, there's this big huge spectrum of where you can go with it. And this, this just kind of falls somewhere for me a little bit, kind of, it doesn't jump out.
**Senator:** I would if we were. So I like that you brought up the the spectrum, right. And I think we've said many times that you have obviously liable in on one end of that.
You have, I think AOR is a great example of on the complete far opposite end, that's as Sherry and sweet as possible. There's zero Pete smoke, any of that. And I think in the middle you'd have like an OB where you have some sweetness but also some peat. And if you were to just take that one half of the spectrum going from AB.[00:25:00]
To oen. I think in the middle of that would be Mac. And that's also where I would put this. And that's what's so hard for me with this scotch because the first thing I think of is Macallan, because some of the flavor notes are similar and its profile is, and then Macallan just does it so much better. And the reason I, I actually think it's very fair to compare them.
it's the exact same price as Macallan. I beat 65. Oh,
**Gizmo:** is that right? Wow. It's also 65 a bottle. Wow, okay. Yeah.
**Poobah:** I'm not paying that for this. No .
**Bam Bam:** Me
**Pagoda:** neither. Never, never. I started off, it didn't even smell very nice. And um, for some reason I feel like a sharpness in the back of my throat. Uh, you know, which reminds me of the Macallan, the blue bottle.
I don't know what he tried that. Yeah. That it's the double, somewhat similar. Yeah, it's. Yeah. Not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I mean, given that, okay, now I, that is the same ca uh, price as Macallan. There's no way I would ever go for this. Right? No way.
**Poobah:** Right. Like I would just buy, I would just stock my locker or my, my bar with.[00:26:00]
You know, if I was to go out and, and, and, which I'm gonna do soon at our, at our new clubhouse, by the way, , like, you know, but having like, but, but for real, if we're gonna talk scotch for a minute and just what I like, I would buy a bottle of towel skirt. I'd buy a bottle of oban, I'd buy a bottle on the cow, and I'd buy a bottle of Labour.
Right behind you. Do you know what I mean? Right. And balcony and And B and BNY Double wood. Yeah, double wood or Caribbean casket, whatever, depending on your budget. And that's .
**Bam Bam:** Great spectrum. Great range. And Kirkland, right behind you in
**Poobah:** Kirkland. Kirkland. 12 Kirkland. Can't
**Bam Bam:** fit that in a locker, but sold
**Gizmo:** Senators shaking his head at me.
**Poobah:** Yeah. But that covers like a nice broad range of, of Scotch, I'm sure. If Grinder was here, he would fill in the gaps here.
**Senator:** The gap he would fill in la His favorite is Laal. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. He wants to, so
**Rooster:** everything that you named are those all Sherry casts? ,
**Senator:** most of them are so, so let's go through what [00:27:00] Puba named the, the Macallan Macallan Sherry we buy, right?
Abor is Sherry. Well, actually no. You know what's crazy? I don't know how this is possible. AOR is half bourbon, half Sherry, right? Yeah. So Sherry's the biggest sherry bomb you'll ever taste, right? Right. Yeah. Vinny, the double wood, it's half bourbon, half sherry, this we're drinking is half bourbon, half sherry.
So I guess some, for whatever reason, The sherry just dominates a lot more, or they don't specify how long they've aged. Yeah. The scotch, that's a good question. Barrels, that's a good question. Yeah. So for the more Sherry forward ones, it's probably a lot more of that was aged and sherry than it was in the bourbon barrels.
It seems like all of
**Gizmo:** you guys like the sherry cast.
**Senator:** It's hard not to. I do. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm, I'm even a snob about this. I, I, I don't want a scotch that hasn't at some point touched a, an puba.
**Bam Bam:** Did you mention Cherry Barrel? Sorry? Did you mention ob? He did. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Is that, that's not in Sherry's cask?
**Senator:** It it could be partially.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna look. Could be. I
**Pagoda:** believe it is. Maybe you're right. [00:28:00] So I dunno. The BE 12 is 50% oak and 50% cherry. Yeah. The double the double. Double the double. I don't know. Maybe Oak and Sherry go better. So is
**Rooster:** it just the Macallan that's like completely, it's all.
**Poobah:** Macallan is Sherry. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. The black bottle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So see, I knew it had to be cuz I love as well, I love open. It's finished in Sherry. Cast. There you
**Poobah:** go. Finished. So, so ta. So if you were to go, just like any of
**Senator:** these, right? Yeah. It's like true. Mostly one and then they finished another,
**Poobah:** right? So if you were to go one step across that, the spectrum and go more pd.
Behind Taki. So what would be the, what would scotch, what scotch would that be? The go you mean less, less pd, less, more P lag. What would, would you jump right to Lagoon? I don't know. Or something in between. Uh, maybe there's something in between. That's, that's
**Gizmo:** a grinder question. You already said.
**Poobah:** Taki said Taki.
So if Taki's here on the PD side. So, so you go Lagavulin
**Senator:** next, you go after Open, you go ta. , then you go Laville and, and [00:29:00] then by far at the La Far end. Lare, it's
**Poobah:** the Freud. That's right. La Freud, the green bottle. Ri
**Gizmo:** Undrinkable. Yeah. It's like Gasol. That's, that's on the other end of the spectrum.
**Poobah:** I've drank, I've drank that like as a guest, that someone's home.
Like I had one night where I drank copious amounts of it and
**Senator:** like, I hope you stayed away from Fire. .
**Poobah:** Um, and after a while I remember like being like, okay, like. It's not undrinkable, it's just not my bag. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I agree with that. I had, I had some very aged laroy one time at a Christmas party at, at a family's, uh, at a family house, and it was absolutely 1000% offensive in every single way.
It was horrible. Wow. Well, Now that's just my palate. I know it's amateur. No, it was horrible. No, it's not. And Grindr's gonna listen to this and he's gonna be very upset at me. . It was
**Senator:** horrible. Well, I just wanna go back to what Puba said because I, I'm not at all a Laro [00:30:00] fan. The extent of Laroy I enjoy is when I get like a really nice like bourbon mixed like cocktail.
and they'll do like a La Freud mist on the glass, and it gives it just a little smokiness. I love that. But to drink that stuff neat or straight, I'm, I'm not a fan of. But to pub's point, most of you should remember when we went to that restaurant in town, that rooster introduced us to where we love the owner.
We've had many, many good nights there. Hmm. Ski nights, bad nights. Well, all of us have had good nights except when Gizmo met the sink there. But , um, the for, for, for the rest of. , if you recall, he brought out for us when we got there, after they closed, he brought out a bottle of Laro and, and we, it was like laro 10 or 12.
And we drank
**Bam Bam:** and we drank it. We drank it and it was drinkable. It was that true? That's true.
**Senator:** No, no, no, no. Laro. I don't forget this time.
**Gizmo:** Are you talking about the Covid night? Yeah. Oh yeah. It's that night. Was Lackland. Absolutely not. It was Laro. Laro. Yeah. . Wow.
**Senator:** Yeah, because I [00:31:00] was, I, believe me, I, I remember when I was, saw the bottle, I cringed and said, oh geez, this is the best thing he's bringing out.
But,
**Bam Bam:** but we, we, he was drinkable. We took it.
**Gizmo:** I
**Rooster:** guess it's, it's, it's more for more for winter, right? Yeah. Is that when you would be, you were drinking more like a pd? Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** But I liked pub's point that he made a point, uh, recently and maybe Senator said something about this too. I don't know. But I, I certainly, uh, I've been going to the laville in a little bit more when I'm only able to have a drink and not a cigar.
Oh, that's nice. You know, whereas I think the sherry pairs, the sherry finish stuff pairs really well with the ci. I think when I can't have one, I'm, I'm reaching for lable one just to get that little. a little bit
**Senator:** of smoke. Yeah. I'll give you the example after dinner when I can't have a cigar. Yeah, exactly.
That was you said, that's when I really pull and reach for a bottle of Laga Bowlin because I get that s Smokey peat, I, I get the flavor notes of almost having a cigar with a scotch and that it serves a perfect
**Poobah:** purpose. Yeah, yeah. Agreed. Agreed.
**Pagoda:** Even urban has a little bit of like slight hint of ness.
Yeah, it does. Has anyone tried [00:32:00] Art bag? Bag. No. Supposed
**Senator:** we smoke as well. That's Peter. It's on the pedia end. Oh yeah, it's on
**Pagoda:** the Peter end. Alright. Yeah. I'll have to try it. Maybe. Maybe we need to, uh, yeah, try a couple of PD before the
**Gizmo:** winter. So, uh, we're about halfway through the Schwa Supreme right now.
Uh, I am really impressed with this cigar. Really impressed. I'm enjoying it. Yeah. I think it's really, really great. Everybody's got a great burn line, right?
**Poobah:** Everybody? Everybody burn? Okay. Mine tunneled. Mine tunneled a little and I had to correct it. Okay. I'm about to
**Bam Bam:** correct it, but it's not, I'm not complaining and,
**Pagoda:** and the ash seems to be holding well as well.
So yeah. Reasonable construction
**Senator:** flavor notes for me are very consistent, which I'm happy about because I really loved the flavor notes in the first half. Yes. And I'm getting the exact same as I keep smoking this. Yep.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it's, it's, there's a reason why it's pretty well regarded as, as.
as a cigar that, you know, it's just, it's, it's, it's tastes really good. Now, in the last third, will it present, [00:33:00] um, youth, some youth? Yeah. Prob certainly. Uh, but that'll go away in time. And it's a, it's buying a box of these is always a, is always a smart move. Agreed. Your hand. Yeah. Keep 'em for a while. Yeah.
Yeah.
**Rooster:** Have you had the Regio hub.
**Poobah:** How
**Rooster:** do you, uh, what do you think about that
**Poobah:** compared to this one? I, I like this better. Um, but the REOs is, is, is a, is a good cigar. It's a really good cigar. It's kind of, it's not that, it's not divergent from this in terms of flavor profile. It's not like a divergent, it's not like that smoke is.
Maybe you could call it a close cousin. From my recollection, I haven't smoked many of them. I've, I've, I bought a five pack of five of those. Um, and they're good. Um, [00:34:00] but I think I like this better. Um, they're really kind of nice. Yeah. I'm surprised
**Gizmo:** for how difficult these are to find that they're only 1350 a.
and I paid, I think I paid a little bit of a premium cuz I got it from a secondary source. But I mean this is, um, this is really, really, really, really nice for that price. Yeah. Yeah. They do make a lot of regionals. Yeah. They make a ton of regionals. Yeah, A lot of regionals.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Please don't contribute to the price being bid up
**Gizmo:** Well, listen, the prices are gonna go up in May again anyway. So it's just how it goes. Yeah. Haos raises their prices every. , it'll probably be between five and 8%. So even what we're seeing right now on the prices being up with supply demand issues, um, has anyone had, they're
**Senator:** only gonna go up. Sorry. Has anyone had a like heavily aged box of these?
No. I'm just curious what this 18 was what
**Poobah:** I spent. Okay. Um, of these And it, what, it's, it's, [00:35:00] you're getting the same, so like if, just picture this.
It, it, it become, it. For, for what I noticed was it was sweeter, it was more complex and just, um, not stronger, richer, just richer infl in flavor. Just the presentation of everything is just amped up. in terms of the, in terms of the, like, those flavors really just start to come through. It's just not quite as muddled.
It's just like, I'm not getting any pneumonia right now. Maybe in the last third. I'm not getting any of that. I'm not tasting a ton of youth here, but with the age, it just, it, it just pops like, like, so like, like that flavor you got on the. It just comes through. More pronounced. Yeah. Like the flavors are deeper.
They
**Bam Bam:** are deeper. Yeah. I gotta say it smokes like an older cigar. Oh yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It really does. Yeah. I don't think it's smoking terrible. It doesn't taste terrible. Terrible young. You're fucking [00:36:00] great. If GIZ go.
**Senator:** Never told us that you're on this box. I don't think at this point so far anyone would've guessed.
21. Agreed. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's impressive. Think bam, bam. Would've
**Rooster:** paid like
**Gizmo:** 500 for this one. Oh yeah. Yeah. I haven't smoke. He just might. That's not,
**Bam Bam:** you know, that's not bad
**Poobah:** guys. , this is the only 2021 cigar. This is the only 2021 Havanas I've smoked. Really
**Bam Bam:** fucking snob
See, pba. That's how you're, you're an
**Poobah:** elitist. Pba. I'm not an elitist. I just, we have a lot of cigars, dude. Yeah, yeah, you do.
**Gizmo:** And you have, I mean, you and you and Senator certainly have a lot of really nice age. , you don't forget.
**Bam Bam:** Connoisseur Corner over there. Well, none, none
**Senator:** more than Rooster .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I, I think this is really, really good.
You know, it's funny, I was, we were talking about supply and demand, and I know that there's dispute about this, especially when it comes from a retailer. But, um, you know, just with, you know, uh, firing up the market and driving sales. But I saw it. I always referenced Rob Iola with Friends of a Bonos. He did an update the other day on, [00:37:00] um, supply with a Bonos and, and worldwide shortage.
and what, what he said from calling around to some of his friends worldwide, not just in, you know, he's obviously in Australia, but talking to P C C and h and F with some other folks, I guess he said right now that he thinks there's about an 80 million cigar worldwide shortage, uh, to, to completely get everybody back to where they were two years ago.
And Havanas apparently is making somewhere around 6 million cigars a month. So his anticipation is that the shortage is gonna last quite some time. Is that hype? Is that, you know, who knows what it is? I mean, he seems to be pretty straightforward the way I read it, but, you know, it seems like kubo, you know, uh, Cuba's definitely behind.
That's
**Pagoda:** 80 million in, in dollar value, or 80 million counts
**Gizmo:** count. Yeah. Yeah. 80 million sticks.
**Poobah:** Who, who, who knows what the truth
**Senator:** is? Yeah, can, can, I'm sorry. I'm always skeptical of this because I know that's why, that's why
**Gizmo:** I
**Senator:** prefaced it with that. I, I just call bullshit at this point on all of it [00:38:00] because when the pandemic hit, we heard the same thing.
Then the first year in the, into the pandemic, the same thing the second year, w we have all found what we're looking for. It may not be easy every time, but it's out. I mean, stuff that shouldn't have, have no business popping up. I mean, somehow I was able to get a box of eight RGUs, eight 90 eights recently.
I, this stuff is, it's coming out well,
**Poobah:** and when Think about back, think about back, you're right. I tend to agree with you now, is the shortage real? Yeah, there's a shortage. It's the DEG degree of how, how acute that shortage actually is. , but you couldn't find 8 98 s two years ago to save your f your your, your fucking life.
You couldn't find a fucking box of loosies. Yeah. It, they were very difficult to find. Like, that's true. Like, you go back a couple years ago, it was like, they just, they were very, and then all of a sudden they just, they, they started the pop. So who knows Sir Winston's were like, and then they just appear like, you know, so these things [00:39:00] appear out of nowhere.
You don't, there's no real rhyme or reason and I don't think even, I would, I would dare to say I, I don't even think the people in the know know exactly when they may know earlier, but exactly when some of these things are gonna actually come into the
**Gizmo:** distribution channel. The one thing I want to say that he made clear that I should have said is that there is no shortage.
at all of cured tobacco of good tobacco available. It's just a, I think it's a, the labor. The labor issue. Yeah. And I think what, to go back to what Puba said about the black period, they're trying to avoid bringing inexperienced rollers in and then putting out bad product again. So they're trying to not compensate for the lack of supply with inexperienced rollers who are gonna produce cigar.
You know,
**Bam Bam:** now does that have smokable, does that have to do with the
**Gizmo:** pandemic at all? And I would think there's a, a combo of that. There's obviously economic stuff. A lot of people have left Cuba for other areas. It's, I'm sure there's a, a, a [00:40:00] variety of factors. You know, the great resignation. Yeah. But also the prices are starting to creep up.
Oh, it's not even, yeah, I mean, they're 20, 25% above what they were. A box of D four s guys a year ago was 2 25. Now they're on sale. They're two. That's true. You know, so, I mean, mag 46 s are, you know, 3 25 now. Yeah. You know, you used to get a Magnum 46 for the same price as a box of D four s or even a little less, you know, so I They're never gonna go down.
We know that. Well, you know,
**Poobah:** and Right. And, and, and everything. It, it, it, it relates back to, Any, anything that's being distributed on a boat, anything that's being distributed in a plane, you know, we're just looking at, they're just higher costs that are just gonna get passed down to the consumer no matter what.
I mean, I don't even think it's. . It's a, it, yeah. It's just the, it's, it's a combination of factors that I think are just making everything more expensive these days, particularly stuff that [00:41:00] I think about how far Yeah. Around the world for, for a box of Cuban cigars needs to travel from Cuba to and travel Duke go basically around the world to get to the United States of America.
And
**Gizmo:** that's probably the, the fourth or fifth point, because it goes from Cuba to the regional distributor to a. To potentially
**Poobah:** a gray market out the back door of a retailer to a gray market To us. To us, right? Yeah. So the, you know, all those standard pro, we've discussed it before, a lot of those standard production sticks get moved out the back so they can get allocation for regionals and liata.
Yeah. Which there's a huge market for. Um, they want that allocation. They want to have their humidors filled with things. You have to re, you know, we have to keep in mind that over in Europe, You know, a d smoking, a D four is like smoking whatever, like a Monte Christo fucking a Dominican Monte Cristo outta Jr.
Cigars here. Yeah. It's not that big of a, it's not. You know, so to the, in the [00:42:00] European market, so they want, when they want a, a special cigar, they want, so, you know, they're, they're gonna go for a regional, there's, they're gonna go for iata, they're gonna go and then you bring Cohiba into the mix. They want allocation for the cohiba special stuff.
They gotta move a lot of their regular production cigars to get allocation for that. At least that's my understanding. So, yeah. You know, it is
**Senator:** what it is. It's so true. And it just, I, I'm laughing to myself as you say, that. It's comical when you're in Europe. I mean, I've been in London where you can literally just walk up to a little newsstand and I've bought a D four.
I mean, how, how, just imagine in the US being able to go up to a tiny little newsstand in Manhattan and just buy a D four.
**Bam Bam:** And it's incredible. We're getting Philly blunts at the news stand. , that's exactly,
**Poobah:** yeah. Yeah. Like Monte Crio, you know, they're moving the Monte Crio, you know, stuff. Some, some of it.
Yeah. Uh, like the two or whatever, you know, they're, they're moving that. , they're keeping the really, whatever the, the pre premium, the factory, factory, the, the [00:43:00] master cases that are really the choice ones, stay in those retailers and then whatever, they move out the back that maybe isn't the big, you know, they move out.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** The back door. So, pagoda, you were on holiday recently for quite some time. I know you went to a, a cigar store too. What was the stock like in, in Mexico? Um,
**Pagoda:** the, the stock was alright. Uh, the problem. Some of them just didn't look original. You know, they were, some of them were in boxes. Um, but the funny thing was right out the store was a no smoking sign.
Yeah. And, um, I dunno what's happening. I think, uh, we are definitely becoming pariah as a community. .
**Gizmo:** Well it's, I mean, uh, rooster has talked about that in Canada, right? Going to Canada and going even into an L C D H A A licensed to Bono. I mean, that's, uh, that's
**Rooster:** Toronto, right? Yeah. So Toronto laws are like one of the worst.
I mean, you can't even smoke a cigar inside an L C D H Wow. You know, inside, or even like right outside, you can't, you have to be like [00:44:00] 150 feet away from the store. That's insane.
**Gizmo:** That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy.
**Poobah:** That's, that's tough stuff. They, they, they're having some, they're having some problems up there with Liberty, , in general and enjoy and, and, and, you know, enjoy and, and, and who, you know.
If you ever, I'm, I'm sure that you guys in your, in your circle of acquaintance have had the pleasure of meeting Canadians who are, who are some of the best people you'll ever meet. Um, and I just, it's tough to see what's going on up there. Uh, Marshall Law, all these things that are happening who, um, Who wants that?
Great people. And, and even going
**Gizmo:** back to our lizard hobby, I mean, uh, a cigar up there, if you buy a, uh, RGUs D four up there, they literally put an additional, like very plain, and it's just general tobacco laws. They'll put a very plain label over the Cuban issued label because they. [00:45:00] They're afraid that the look of the label is going to attract people to smoke premium cigars more.
And they have ridiculous ti. It's crazy too. It's like it's antis cigar.
**Poobah:** It's, it is. And then you get stuff outta Eastern Europe that has, I have boxes, a couple boxes where you've got somebody's. Face with like, uh, some sort of malignancy eating away at their entire mouth, you know, and, and you know, outta Eastern Europe.
You go, what the fuck? Fuck,
**Bam Bam:** by the way,
**Pagoda:** that's all duty free all over Asia. .
**Poobah:** They have these weird
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, weird. It's crazy
**Gizmo:** images. It's crazy. It's strange. All right, boys, let's, um, let's rate the scotch pairing the Delmore 12. I think it's time to rate it. Is everybody ready to do that? Yep. Take another sip and give it a go.
Bam. Bam. You're always up first on the, uh, liquor rating.
**Bam Bam:** I think I'm at a six.
**Pagoda:** Okay. I think six is
**Gizmo:** good. Okay. I'm also at a six. I'm gonna give it a seven. I, I, I, I don't
**Bam Bam:** hate it. [00:46:00] Yeah. I It
**Gizmo:** could easily be a seven. Yeah. I'm drinkable. I'm, I'm gonna go seven on it. I'm gonna go seven on it.
**Poobah:** It fell flat for me. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I'm gonna go with a six. It was flat for me. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I think same six.
6.2. 6.2 on the DELMORE 12. Now, I, we should have looked, but I don't remember. We didn't rate the, uh, delmore. That's, that's before we did the, uh, formal liquid
**Senator:** rating. I mean, if we had to rate that, that would've been an eight or a nine. If we go nine, nine, oh, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm at a nine. I'd give it a 10.
Okay. Really,
**Bam Bam:** I'm at a nine. and I think everyone would hear would be nine tens. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I'd give it a nine or 10. That's fair. Yeah. I'm in that range. That was really super duper. How much was that? Do we remember?
**Senator:** Oh, it's almost 200 a bottle I paid. It's expensive. Wow. . Wow. And and the reason, again, the reason I'm a 10 on that, it's one of the most complex SCOs I've ever had.
I mean, if you go back to that episode, pub and I are having this great commentary about, It, 5% of it's aged in a Cabernet wine barrel. And [00:47:00] you can, you can taste it. Yeah. Cuba get
**Bam Bam:** the like wine. You pick that up right away. That's amazing. Very good point. And looking back at it, that's very accurate.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
Yeah, it was.
**Senator:** And neat. We, we stopped, we were, many of us were drinking that. Neat. We had a few glasses and, and it was so smooth because it has,
**Poobah:** that tells the whole
**Bam Bam:** story, you know? Yeah. And because it has that cabernet note, it's very shower.
**Poobah:** Wine in the shower.
**Gizmo:** So we're, uh, we're coming into the last third here of the Schwa Supreme.
What do you guys, it's picking up a little bit for me for sure.
**Senator:** In strength. I agree. Yeah. I would say it started medium, then got medium full and now is closer
**Gizmo:** to full. Yeah, I agree. I
**Bam Bam:** still enjoy it. I'm enjoying it too. Yeah. Yeah. Not getting any amm. even. I'm, I'm down to
**Senator:** about an inch. No, actually I'm glad you said it.
Yeah, I am stunned. Surprising. I'm really down to the end and I haven't picked up any ammonia or mm-hmm. , anything that indicates that this is [00:48:00] only a 2021
**Poobah:** stick. Uh, I hate to agree with you on that, but you're right cuz, uh, let's, let's
**Gizmo:** be clear. I mean, when I told Puba that I had, uh, acquired this box of Schwa Supreme and they were 20.
He was a little hesitant about smoking 'em because they were young and I'd only had 'em a couple weeks. But fortunately, uh, they're working out okay.
**Poobah:** I mean, does it taste like an age cigar? No. Sure. Certainly not. But is it like presenting? I think that what it indicates, um, here is that this, this, that this will be very, very, very good.
A couple years Very good. In a couple years. Yeah. Two, three years, four years. This is gonna be out. This is gonna be Knock your socks. .
**Senator:** Um, it is, and I, you know, I think the nice thing about this stick, we've talked about this before, it's nice that there are some Cubans that don't require a ton of age to actually be really enjoyable.
And there are some that require that. And, you know, you just gotta tuck those away and not touch 'em for years. But this is one of those that you can get [00:49:00] young pull out and you can still enjoy them. That's right. It'll only get
**Gizmo:** better, like Putin said. You know, the one thing that I, I didn't even think about because we, we did talk about, is the 2021 D four s.
Remember, we all got a bunch of really young D four s. I feel like you, you blew through a lot of
**Bam Bam:** them down though. I did. I bought that package with you.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. We and, and we all have the same, I haven't touched, I have, I
**Bam Bam:** have a few left. They're still very good. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I've heard everybody say that. Uh, D four s and P two s from Parus are smoking great.
20 ones. Absolutely. Across the board, which is surprising. I mean, I bought a box and it's number four in my, you know, I've, I'm lucky I have a bunch of boxes of. Touch. I would love a box. Would you have one of those 20 ones? I do. Yeah. What about the 2020 twos? Well, you're up fir. You're up first. You have to
**Senator:** find the first.
Yeah, you have 'em all. Tell us, Ben .
**Poobah:** Yeah, this doesn't have it. Also, I don't feel like this is like the Herro heavy. It's not one of these la Haro heavy cigars, so it's a definitely a medium bodied ci. Which is gonna just [00:50:00] lend itself to, um, smoking it earlier, you know? Okay. It just doesn't, I don't, I don't know about you guys, but I don't taste that kind of, that donkey kick No.
That you'd get. Um, but the, but I think maybe what it lacks in strength is the virtue and what it delivers in flavor. .
**Gizmo:** Um, I think that's well said. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. I think that's very well said. Yeah, because, you know, I, I was anticipating getting down to the last third here and it, it kind of, getting that ammonia a little bit of a bite and it's, it's not doing that.
The only thing that I'm noticing as I think is maybe I've hit it a little too hard, drawn a little too fast, the heat that it's heating up a little bit on me, but I think that's my fault, not the fault of the, uh, of the cigar. Yeah.
**Senator:** I'm surprised cuz I've smoked this pretty quickly. I'm, I'm right down to the end and I, I haven't had that happen.
**Gizmo:** PBA is a little bit behind us, but not far
**Poobah:** though, you know? Yeah. And it's got that typical, like, you know, you look at the ash and it's just that, [00:51:00] it's that white and black kind of, you know, typical Cuban look and feel. It's, uh, it's a very pleasurable smoke, you know, personal, I think worth
**Gizmo:** pursuing. Yeah, and I think that, you know, this is making me want to try the regio that you guys mentioned.
The San Louisie Reyes for sure. In this size. Um, well, if PBA likes this one better. I don't
**Bam Bam:** want
**Poobah:** that one. Well, no, it's very good. The REOs stop. . It's all personal preference. I'm just saying, if I had to choose, I think I, I think I like the cigar better, but I need to smoke more. Both probably. I think, I think Regier
**Gizmo:** has more floral, floral notes, you know, I love
**Rooster:** that.
But it's not like, you know, it's, it's lighter than this. , right? P Yeah. I don't, I don't think it's, it's got this, this kind of strength. Yeah. Unless, you know, maybe I had, was a little bit older and this
**Poobah:** was younger. That's what I had. I bought a five pack that was, had some age on it, but who [00:52:00] knows? I mean, I haven't smoked enough, enough of either.
Um, I just always, each time I smoked this I said, oh, you know, I really like it. I just really walked away with a really.
**Bam Bam:** Experience. What's a little different for me, for this cigar, as I pull the smoke in, I'm down to, to the last inch I, and if you pull a lot of smoke in and let it curl in your mouth a bit like you said, Senator, it does coat your mouth nicely.
I'm still getting a bit of a sweet tone there, which I really love. Yeah. It's
**Poobah:** unique. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It, it is really a unique mm-hmm. , um, it's, It's medium tomo. It's medium to me. From the point of medium?
**Senator:** Yeah, medium. Medium. I don't think there's a single point. I would call this mild.
**Poobah:** It's just like, maybe not mild, but medium.
Yeah. It's got medium. It's not medium, it's medium and then it's, I think
**Senator:** it starts medium and then ends medium full
**Bam Bam:** even. Yeah. And from this point of view of strength, I agree, but flavor from the point of view of the flavor profile, I think it's medium full from the point of view of flavor. Yeah. A hundred
**Gizmo:** percent.
Yeah. But do, do you guys think when you guys [00:53:00] first lit this cigar, the, the flavors that were there,
**Bam Bam:** Like, like Senator said, it was a, a flavor bomb. Right, right off the
**Gizmo:** bat. So the
**Rooster:** last third, I'm not quite getting that same flavor notes that I was
**Gizmo:** getting in the beginning. This is true,
**Bam Bam:** but it's still quite nice.
It's,
**Gizmo:** it's
**Senator:** different. It's, it's, yeah. So I, I agree with you rooster, in that when you get down to the very, very end, it's not nearly as sweet as it starts or even as it grows as you get to the middle. Um, it picks up a bit in strength and. I don't know that it's pepper, it, it's just, there's, there's, it's different.
It's unique. I'm
**Bam Bam:** getting like pubic said, and there's a little bit of a difference in this stick. I like it.
**Poobah:** Yep. Yep. A good cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You guys ready to rate this thing? Give it the formal lizard rating? Yep. Let's do it. All right. Rooster, you're up.
**Rooster:** Um, so yeah, I'm gonna give it
**Gizmo:** a seven. Okay. Puba?
**Poobah:** Yeah. I'm not gonna be that tough on it because I think it, I think it's an eight all day.[00:54:00]
I, I, I'm, I, I, I think that this is a really, a really solid Cuban cigar that should be in if you, if you like Cuban cigars, if you like. I think it should be in every humidor. Um, I like it. I'll give it an eight. I
**Gizmo:** totally agree. I think that, you know, at, at the price point, obviously it's a little scarce, but if you can get your hands on some of these, I think any Cuban cigar smoker will enjoy them.
I'm absolutely at, at an eight as
**Senator:** well. I'm also exactly at. I
**Pagoda:** think I started off as a nine because it was very, very good. I really enjoyed it For the first half, I, I think a, a strong eight.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Bam.
**Bam Bam:** Bam. Yeah. I think eight is a perfect score. Perfect for this stick. No doubt. Yeah, it's a really good cigar.
I'd go a nine to compensate for Rooster score, but I'm sticking in it. .
**Rooster:** I think to me it started out like really great, but I'm not like too crazy about it. Like the
**Bam Bam:** last Is it muddled for you?
**Gizmo:** Little muddled,
**Rooster:** muddled. [00:55:00] Like too much, like I like the sweetness like that I was getting in the beginning. I wish I was getting that all the way to, all the way through the cigar.
but, uh, not towards the end.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, I think you gotta give it, I think with age. Yeah. But's what I'm saying. You gotta just recognize the potential. Yeah. Has a lot of potential. And, and, and, and for me it's
**Rooster:** an eight, but I'm not rating it on the potential factor. I'm rating
**Gizmo:** the cigar as a, as now, as of as now.
**Poobah:** Well, I, I guess if I had to do that, it's smoking like a seven now, but it's an eight. Really. I mean, the, the cigar, I've smoked these before. Just with a few years. You're, you're right there. The last third is, it's an eight for me. Okay. I mean, uh, I think that it has marriot. It's a good, it's a good, good cigar.
I mean, it's popular
**Senator:** for a reason. I, I'll say this, I, I think it's smoking like an eight now, and with age it can be a nine easily, because if that last third is like the first two thirds, then I would probably give this a nine, right? The only complaint I have, and this may be, I have to see how this develops [00:56:00] with age to know if I could give it a nine.
I don't like cigar and this is just my pallet. I'm, there's nothing wrong with cigars that are. I don't like cigars with a ton of cedar, like too much cedar. And, and what I noticed with this cigar is as soon as you, you immediately get the sweetness from it and some of that dried fruit, and then it's just a lot of cedar after that.
And I don't love that. And I, I just compare it to like a D four where on the finish, on a D four, I don't get just a ton of cedar like that. Like spice and cinnamon. Like cinnamon, like that's what I get on the finish of a D four. It just finishes with just straight cedar. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, a cigar that smokes like a ton of cedar is a lot of Romeo and Julietta Cub.
It's not my, it's not what my pallet enjoys, but I know and understand why plenty of guys do. So that's why, just for me, for my score, that's what could, that's what would ever potentially make it hard for it to be a nine. But if this changes with age, and maybe I'm getting more of that sweetness [00:57:00] even on the finish or more of that dried fruit on the finish and not just cedar at the end.
That, that's really what it would come
**Gizmo:** down to for
**Poobah:** me. I, I, I would, I would. Uh, yeah. And I think that, that if you, if we try these again down the road Yeah. Um, that, that, that, you're gonna be very, very pleasantly surprised at what, how the cigar presents itself in terms of what, what you're looking for. A lot of potential with what's our
**Gizmo:** score?
7.8. 7.8. Pretty good. All right. So recommend. I think that's a very fair score in its youth right now. I think that's a very fair score. And to pub's point, I think in a year or two, I. Definitely try these again and, and, and see what they, uh, absolutely. See what they taste like. I
**Bam Bam:** think for the listener, it's definitely worth pursuing.
Absolutely. Because
**Poobah:** rappers i'll going after rappers will get all nice and oily and you look at this box in a year or two and you're gonna be like, Ooh, these have changed. Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** So a strong recommend. Uh, not strong. I guess. A I recommend, I recommend, yes, we'll call it up. It's a recommend. Yeah, re doubt.
I recommend no doubt, on the El Ray del Muno, [00:58:00] schwa, Supreme, and, uh, thanks guys. We'll, uh, we'll see you next week. Keep smoking. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us at rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us lounge lizards.
P o d. That's lounge lizards pod gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.