Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The lizards pair Joya de Nicaragua Antaño in Belicoso with 10 year aged Talisker scotch. The guys do the first formal liquor rating, discuss Cigar Aficianado’s top 25 cigars from 2021 and Grinder talks about scotch from the Isle of Skye.
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 Grindr, and bam bam, a full house of lizards.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar trick, sub scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 13th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We'll go through cigar aficionado's, top 25 cigars from last year. Grindr will tell us about scotch from the Iowa sky, and we'll do our first liquor rating 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 10 year age Taki Scotch with the Hoya de Nicaragua.
Antonio in Bella Coso. A new world, Bella Koosa [00:01:00] tonight from Hoya de Nicaragua, a six by 54. It's called the Anton. And, uh, I was just, I was reading before we came on that, uh, this cigar was released as a tribute to the power and the essence of the true Nicaraguan piro. So that is definitely leading me to believe that this is going to be quite, is robust
**Grinder:** cigar.
This, this is like the OG Nicaraguan Piro. Really? Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. So they can This is very rich. Yep.
**Grinder:** Not rich. It's like very,
**Bam Bam:** it's a full flavored, full strength cigar. Five outta five. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Yeah, yeah. Lot of spice. Let's get
**Gizmo:** ready, boys. All right, boys. Let's see what we're getting on the cold draw here on the wrapper.
Oh yeah. Cold draw's really nice. It is. It's like, uh, Little fruity little raisin. Yeah. It's dried fruit. Yeah. It's like fig. It's like a fruit cake. Yeah. Ooh. Who said
**Grinder:** fig is a good? Yeah, I [00:02:00] think fig.
**Gizmo:** It's fig like, like a fig newton fig. It's
**Poobah:** very fig. It's fig newton. It's very fig newton. It's a figgy. I think that you nailed it.
It's like a fig newton. Oh my God. Who said a fig newton gizmo? It's a fucking fig. It's a fucking spot's on. It's, it's, you know why? Because it's fruity and bready. It is. Yes.
**Senator:** This
**Poobah:** is what An opposite. Because I was getting bread and I was going, what? But I was getting fruit. It's a fucking fig Nu. It's
**Senator:** a fucking fig Newton.
Listen, his palate is no longer primitive. That was impressive.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, that was impressive. I've said it on a previous podcast. Literally. I have evolved. Yeah. Holy.
**Poobah:** Holy shit.
**Bam Bam:** A fig. Newton's
**Grinder:** a fucking fig. It is.
**Poobah:** It is. Holy
**Grinder:** shit. The fucking Catalina
**Poobah:** wine mix. Dude, you just hit a fucking .
**Gizmo:** The Catalina Wine mixer.
**Poobah:** Holy shit. It's great.
**Grinder:** Oh boy.
**Gizmo:** Shall we, let's light it up boys it up. The Nicaraguan Hoya Day, Nicaragua from, from Keebler, [00:03:00] from the Keebler elves of Nicaragua comes the Anton in Belica. You know, I, uh, uh, bam, bam got these cigars for us, and I've been holding 'em for a couple weeks, and when I was packing 'em out today, I was like, damn, this cigar is thick.
And like, it's just, it's big in the hand. I was like, man, I'm I, I got intimidated.
**Poobah:** Man's thick .
**Gizmo:** I got intimidated thick with a few Cs. I was
**Poobah:** very remind, remind you that night down in the village it does .
**Gizmo:** It's, uh, it's a little, uh, I was a little intimidated and, and hearing that this is a measure, uh, a celebration of the strength and, and essence of, uh, Nicaragua.
I'm interested to see what this thing is
**Bam Bam:** like. That's right. That's a, the cigars considered a piero, then the filler of the wrapper and the binder are all Nicaragua. and at, at this particular cigar was released roughly 15 years ago.
**Grinder:** Oh, I thought it was o only 15 years ago. Yeah,
**Poobah:** right. You gotta put some fire on this spot.
Yeah. This thing [00:04:00] raw. You gotta really light this
**Bam Bam:** spot. Yeah. The draw is very, very open on
**Gizmo:** this. Yeah. The draws really nice.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. There are 10 different violas in this. An Antonio line. 10. Mm-hmm. .
**Grinder:** So this, this, this is, this is a familiar friend for me. Puba.
**Bam Bam:** Me too, actually. Yeah. You guys smoke a lot of these in the pa again, like the Lego.
Yeah. 5, 6, 8 years ago I used to smoke a lot of these.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This, this is my first
**Grinder:** one. I've ne I've never smoked this size, but you know, I get a lot of the familiar, familiar. This is like
**Poobah:** new world, new world com combustion, like smoke chimney. I can see it already.
**Senator:** Oh. ? No. Similar to Grindr. I mean, this is one of the first cigars I ever had, actually, the, the Joy De Nicaragua or Oyo de Nicaragua, Antonio.
But I've never had it in this large of a, a ring gauge and even the length. I think I usually, it's like a rib robusto. I usually do the rub
**Grinder:** robusto. Yeah, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Right away you're getting a lot of flavor,
**Grinder:** I think, right off the bat. So you get a lot of spice, very rich.[00:05:00]
There's the, the, the thing with this, these cigars for me is the retro hale. When you do the retro hell on this, you, it tastes like a fucking chai
**Gizmo:** latte. You know? I don't think we talked about a retro hale, by the way. When you say retro hale, what do you mean by that? For the listener?
**Grinder:** A retro ha is when you, you're not inhaling the smoke, but you're expelling the smoke from that you in.
You know, you take into your mouth and you release it out of your nostrils and there's a passage away from your mouth to your nostrils, as we all know. And that. The amount of taste receptors in your nostrils is pretty significant. And doing it at such a, at such a, uh, raw or, you know, virginal state right when you re right.
When you, you know, smoke it from the cigar, there's still a lot of unique flavors in there that, that you wouldn't have otherwise scented if you just did it from like, you know, [00:06:00] Bobby and SALs sitting, smoking a cigar next to you. There's a different type of flavor and it's a different type of flavor from just, you know, tasting it on your pate, you know, just, uh, as a normal cigar.
So retro hale is not necessarily inhaling it, but you're, it's almost, it looks, it optically, it looks like you're smoking a cigarette, but you're not, you're not taking it into your lungs, you're just taking it your mouth and outta
**Gizmo:** your nose. Got it. Well, I was doing that while you were speaking. I was, it was very spicy, but not like overwhelming spice.
It was, it was nice when I push it through my nose. Doesn't make your eyes water. No. Yeah. It's got a good
**Rooster:** balance of spice and a little bit of sweetness.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** I have to say also, I, I've never smoked this, this size, and it, it's, it's very different for me.
**Senator:** I, I, I'm saying the exact same thing to myself.
Grindr. It's different.
**Grinder:** It's very different. Yeah. It's very
**Senator:** different for me. I, I feel like cuz you don't get as much of the rapper. It's a, it's a different experience. Is this Maduro rapper? What is the rapper?
**Bam Bam:** Corro? What is it? It's a Koho. Yeah. Yep.
**Gizmo:** Koho. Yeah. And like, uh, like [00:07:00] Bam said, everything is Nicaragua.
**Bam Bam:** Yep. Pure for sure. Yep. There's a sister cigar to this in the line. It's called the Grand Reserva. An Antonio. I find that Oh, that's right. You've had that. I've had that many times. That's a very good one. It's a very good one. It's a bit, um, it, it doesn't kick you like this one does. It's smoother and you get different notes in it.
Is that a robuster or It comes in other Violas. Okay. Yeah. I'm not sure how many though, in that one, they, they make 10 of these 10
**Grinder:** violas in this particular cigar, they make a viola called the grand Console. And it's like a little, it's like a. It's like a small rib robusto, and it's a little thicker. And it's actually thicker.
I think it might be thicker than this,
**Senator:** but isn isn't it a torpedo at the end? Yeah,
**Grinder:** yeah, yeah. And that is, that's, that's for me is very classic ho um, uh, JDN and Tanya. Like, that's, that's what it is for me. And this is, it's a, it's, I don't know if, I don't think the blend is different. No, I don't think so.
But it, it tastes, this is fascinating for me because I've never had this, and I smoke a [00:08:00] lot of these cigars in these lines, and all of 'em for me have a very similar profile. And this is a little
**Gizmo:** different.
**Rooster:** It was rated pretty high on, uh,
**Gizmo:** CA's ratings
**Bam Bam:** in 2016. It got a 90. Yep. And prior years between 91, I think 92.
How about
**Gizmo:** like, rating wise, like in the top five? Oh,
**Grinder:** that, I don't know. The thing I like, I like, I like the rich smoke. It's very rich
**Bam Bam:** smoke. Yeah. The room will be full of smoke here. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So the word an Antonio means yesteryear. So they're calling back to mm-hmm. . Um, I guess cigars of the seventies, as they call it, uh, that were coming outta Nicaragua.
Right.
**Grinder:** Isn't it? Isn't it a, a tribute to like the Nicaraguan
**Gizmo:** independence or something? Yeah. It, it was, it's a tribute to the cigars of Nicaragua. I don't know specifically to Nicaraguan political celebration or something, but we don't get into politics. This podcast. We have politics on the lounge, which podcast.
But, um,
**Bam Bam:** what I like about this, for me, on the, on the draw, I get a nice, there's [00:09:00] a bit of a sweetness to it on the finish. It's nice and earthy. Yeah. Which I like a lot. And a little bit of spice. Just a touch a bit. Yeah. Just enough.
**Grinder:** I'm wondering if it's because I typically smoke these little dryer. Mm-hmm.
**Senator:** So do we know this, uh, it's so funny. Sorry, I'm, I'm just doing a little bit of reading, so I'm just, I'm, I'm fascinated by this, uh, oil de nicaragua's nicaragua's oldest premium cigar
**Gizmo:** brand. Mm,
**Bam Bam:** I didn't know that. I did not know that. Og
**Gizmo:** The OG Nicaraguan
**Senator:** established in 1968. Yeah, I'm, this
**Grinder:** is like, uh, .
**Gizmo:** So just, when
**Poobah:** did you get these?
Did did you get these, have these been in your humidor or did you
**Gizmo:** These have been in my humanoid. In your humidor for about two weeks. Two weeks. And these have been at 65 since I got 'em. They've
**Grinder:** seem, they seem spongy. They're,
**Senator:** they're, I,
**Gizmo:** I feel the same way. They're they are, they are. So I don't know how wet they were when I got '
**Senator:** em, but when I, that's the thing.
Yeah. This goes back to our conversation, right. Bam. Picked these up at a retailer. Right. And we've been talking about how most of these retailers keep the humidity way too high in their humidor. That's right. And I mean, if we're [00:10:00] feeling this is a little spongy now, I can only imagine had we smoked this right out of that retailer's humidor, cuz it's probably come down a bit in gizmo's kitty litter calibrated setup.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Well, yeah. I always a jab, always a
**Poobah:** jab. Kitty, kitty litter calibrated. We're gonna tm that trademark. I feel. Only the reason why, cause I just took a draw and I feel a tunnel. I feel the wrapper. I just, I can feel it coming. I
**Gizmo:** can feel it coming. You know what's crazy too, Puba, I just wanna say, it's funny you say that.
I dry, I dry box these all day, uh, all day today, about eight o'clock in the morning. I, I dry box these. I
**Grinder:** mean, I'm, I'm, I'm like doing okay. I'm barely, I think I'm maybe, uh, I don't know what you call that's half, half, half an inch. Half an inch. Yeah. The amount of sponge I'm getting in this right now is not something that I, I, I typically see it when I have an inch left.
Yeah. Um, so for that, to me, I'm, it, it definitely tells me that it's maybe over hydrated. Yeah. Which like, and probably explains to me why, like the taste is wonky to me. Hmm. Well,
**Gizmo:** that's a challenge of buying, these are retailers, especially trying to smoke 'em same [00:11:00] day or next day. I mean, we're, we're talking about, I've had 'em in a 65 perfectly calibrated situation with my patron drones, you know, so when you dry
**Rooster:** box them, so you, you're taking the box out of your humidor and just leaving
**Gizmo:** it outside.
No, what I did is, what I do normally is I have a separate setup. The simply to, you know, in situations like this, like for new worlds specifically, where they're in a box that is way drier, ambience way, you know, way more dry humidity wise, and I leave them in there as long as I can. So these were in there before we smoked them probably about 10, 11
**Rooster:** hours today.
Is there a b in in the
**Gizmo:** box or, yeah. 62. Okay.
**Grinder:** This isn't, I mean, the burn isn't bad.
**Gizmo:** You guys, lemme ask you this guys feel like,
**Poobah:** I feel, I feel if something's gonna happen
**Bam Bam:** soon, I think you feel that because the draw is
**Poobah:** so open, right? No, I just feel like the wrapper's not about to catch up. But I could be wrong.
Let's see what happens. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Do you, what, what shape do you guys usually smoke in the cigar? I smoked. Uh, robo.
**Grinder:** Robo. Robo. Robo is like what [00:12:00] It is. Like the Antonio. The Nicaragua. Antonio is the robo. Got it. In my opinion, I like the grand console. A. , but the Rob Robusto
**Gizmo:** is, is what it, wheres at? I think it was the robo
**Rooster:** that was rated in the ca uh, ratings.
Was it? I think so. I mean, I could be wrong, but Yeah.
**Grinder:** I mean, that makes sense. It's wrench a be, it's such a good stick.
**Gizmo:** So these, uh, come in a box of 20, you can get them anywhere between 160 and 190 bucks. And then for a single, you get them somewhere around eight to 10 to 12 bucks, depending on your local market.
So, and that's specific to the Bellaco. So obviously the, some of the other sizes are gonna be a little, uh, different than
**Senator:** that. Wow. This is crazy. I'm looking at some of the Violas. They, they make this, they call it the big bowl. Yeah. They make this in a 60 ring gauge.
**Grinder:** Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. It's intense.
Yep. ,
**Gizmo:** it's for the American market. Couple, a couple years ago I bought some big
**Bam Bam:** fat attorney ,
**Poobah:** a big fat attorney by attorney . It fits though. It [00:13:00] just, it's so perfect. You know why , you know why? What a great response. You know why? Because they're a big fat attorney .
**Grinder:** I, I'll be, I mean, I've smoked a lot of these, uh, violas.
This is a little different for me. I don't, and I think it is attributed to the, probably the way it's been kept. I
**Bam Bam:** do like the grand console the best. It's so good in this line. Yeah, it's so good.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Are these pretty easy to find?
**Bam Bam:** No. No, no. Um, like a lot of these cigars online maybe. But if you're going to a shop, they don't have
**Grinder:** all the olas
**Senator:** No.
They may not have all the olas, but I'm sorry. Like, th this, my experience has been at least, that almost every retailer carries. De Nicaragua. Yeah. They may not have all the violas. Exactly. Sure. But this is like standard fair. If you're a cigar, you'll
**Bam Bam:** get one of those in the viola. Sure. Yeah. But not all the violas.
Yeah, that's what I meant.
**Gizmo:** So let's, um, because I'm, I'm kind of [00:14:00] thirsty now having this cigar. Let's talk about our scotch pairing tonight. We got Tallk when Senator pulled this out. I think Pagoda brought this right? Pago. Pago did. Thank you, sir. Uh, when Senator pulled this out, some of the guys' eyes lit up about Taki.
It seemed like a, uh, celebrated scotch in the room. It's tasty. Well, that's delightful. What, what's the, uh, year on the, uh, how, how age does Taki 10? This
**Senator:** is 10. Okay. Which I, I will go out on a lemon, say I think the best 10 year scotch is Taki 10.
**Poobah:** I'm getting like a, that age range. I'm
**Gizmo:** on your limb. I'm getting like a Pete thing.
Yeah, there's
**Bam Bam:** a little bit
**Grinder:** of that. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. Little PE and a lot of cinnamon.
**Grinder:** Yeah, I think
**Bam Bam:** cinnamon. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Good point. I like it. A, I like it. I like it a lot. Me too. So, Grindr,
**Gizmo:** Grindr, I don't know if you know, uh, about Tallk, but is this something that comes from the, some where, where some of those other PD scotch is from?
Like a Lagon, a Lare? Cuz I certainly get that kind of taste [00:15:00] profile, but, you know, is it, is it similar to that or,
**Grinder:** uh, or, um, I mean, no, I don't, I don't, I honestly, I get a little Pete, but I don't think they actually use Pete in making Teles skirt. I don't know really. I don't, I I'm not, I'll be honest, I don't know as much about the Telecar distillery as, as Hunter Doish.
Maybe as maybe you'd hope . Yeah. Um, and I'm not gonna feig, you know, knowledge on it, but, uh, I do get, I don't know if I get pe I get spice. Okay. I don't necessarily get pe I definitely get spice. You don't taste the smoke. The I get smoke, but that's not necessarily peat. I get, um, the peat level for this. Is more moderate relative to like a log of one.
It's definitely more, lot more, more moderate too. Mm-hmm. to like, uh, you know, Lare, which I don't even count because
**Senator:** that's, no, they, so Telestra does
**Grinder:** use Pete. I just looked it up. They do? Okay. Yeah, so they use Pete. I don't know how it, in all, there's
**Senator:** like the 10, the 18, all
**Grinder:** of it. So, so [00:16:00] then is Pete ? Um, and uh, I don't know much about it.
Hmm.
**Gizmo:** Sorry. It's a good Scotch .
**Poobah:** I like it. It it really, it's like if Log of lag Macallan had had a
**Senator:** baby, so, hang on. Sorry.
**Grinder:** That's a good, that's a good,
**Senator:** can I, can I maybe tee up Grindr? Do you know, I feel like you've mentioned this, it says it's one of the few distilleries to be found in the aisle of Sky. Oh yeah.
Sky.
**Grinder:** So Sky is unique because it's, it's a different island in Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, and um, it's very, it's got a, they got, they do have the bogs, um, where the Pete is so that, you know, that tracks, um, sky sky's, you know, very. , um, acclimated. You get a lot of the, the maritime flavors like, uh, salt salts.
Yeah. Salts, minerality. Minerality. Yeah, you're right. Um, I get a freshness. Um, and the, the I, the, I, [00:17:00] there's the thing about Sky is that they haven't been doing this. I don't think they've been doing it as long as the others, like in the Highland area. Um, as far as like major distilleries, uh, I don't know if you have the, the stats on when, when Taki was, was founded, but it's, it doesn't have the very traditional Gallic, um, you know, names like Glen, Glen Morgie or Macallan or, you know, very distinctly gathering Laal and Laal and you know, so, um, I'm sure there's some influence of like, you know, Nordic people in there that have, you know, immigrated some vi Vikings that conquered shit and, you know,
Um, but no, I, that's, that's all I got. You know, I'm not a, I'm not a, a wealth of information on Taki. It's, it's
**Senator:** good. Feel good. I just think good. The thing I like about Taki, I feel like it's the best introduction to PD scotch in that the Pete's there, it's not overwhelming. It doesn't dominate the flavor profile of it.
And I feel like the fact [00:18:00] that it seems every lizard is really pleased with this. And I think we're all on different kind of degrees of peat that we enjoy in scotch. Some really don't like a lot of Pete, some do. Um, to me, anyone who's trying to try a taste of pedia scotch, I would give them this to, to start
out,
**Poobah:** I, I haven't had it in ages because like, like I've said before on, on previous shows, I, I, I, I get a little bit stuck in my ways and this, this is a great way for me to expand my horizons.
I, I think I'm stuck in my ways. They're good ways. , uh, I get diverse, but I don't spread my wings as much. This, to me, I'm so in on ta 10, I'm so in on lable and I'm just so in on it now. It just takes a little bit of, um, just open your mind up, um, and try these things because it's, it's, it's nice to just, to have a change of pace once in a while.
And for me, this is a really wonderful change of pace, and particularly given the weather right [00:19:00] now. I, I was gonna say the cold weather. The cold weather really, ma really matches up with, there's a smokiness to this that's just great. And w for a 10 year old scotch, it's super balanced.
**Grinder:** No, you, you don't, you, it's definitely refined, you know, it
**Poobah:** really is a refined spirit.
It's very
**Gizmo:** good. I, I think too, I, I, you know, to your point about weather, I, I think this is a great cold weather scotch and it kind of makes me want to try more Petey stuff as we're in the cold months here in the Northeast, like get more into, you know, as some of the stuff that Grinder likes. It's true.
That doesn't
**Poobah:** have a rough edge on it. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Agree. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't have a rougher to your phrase. It's it's not offensive.
**Senator:** That's why I said to me, me, this is the best 10 year single ball.
**Gizmo:** It's very, very approachable. Yeah. It's really, is
**Senator:** it punches above its
**Poobah:** weight class? Way above its weight class. How much is this?
This a bottle? It's not cheap.
**Gizmo:** 65. 65. Right. So
**Poobah:** it's like Macon 12. It's in that class. I mean, call. Okay. Two year. It doesn't need the extra two years. Who cares about the age statement? It's good. It's high quality [00:20:00] spirit.
**Rooster:** So I have a question. So you know how we rate the cigars at the end of the podcast? How come we don't rate the, uh, the,
**Gizmo:** the scotch?
Ooh,
**Bam Bam:** good question. Interesting idea. That is a good
**Gizmo:** question. Very interesting. I think you should, you
**Rooster:** should rate the scratches too, the, whatever you're pairing with. Well, it
**Gizmo:** depends on how much we drink because we'll all rate it a
**Bam Bam:** 10. . But to, to your point,
**Gizmo:** I mean, we've had just to give it the, give the listener like an idea.
Yeah.
**Senator:** Can I, can I introduce a formal lizard motion? Sure. Motion to effective this episode. Begin rating all. Spirits that we taste each episode. Yeah, sure. All in favor? Yeah. All in favor.
**Gizmo:** Let's do it. Let's start it. Tonight. We could call it the formal liquor rate. Ancient.
**Poobah:** Ancient. There we go. You have to do a hand vote.
We have to do a hand vote. I got ancient
**Gizmo:** sign of a lizard. . Show the claw. Show
**Poobah:** the claw. Okay. The motion passe. Motion. Motion. Motion. Seconded. ? Yes.
**Bam Bam:** Second pass. Seconded. I gotta say though, I wish we would've come up with this idea a few weeks ago when we had some spectacular [00:21:00] scotch and cigar pairings, cuz I know we would have 10 tens across the board.
Well, we can always go back to them. We could. We could. And I, there are two cigars that I could name off the top of my head now that paired beautifully with whoever the help picked the scotch in this room. Fantastic job. Fantastic. Yeah. We've
**Gizmo:** kind of gotten lucky with the pairings. I think that some of them have been very specific and others have been kind of chance.
And I
**Bam Bam:** think if I can go back to the RAs, what did we string with the ra Ramona specially. Oh gosh. That was a perfect, perfect pairing. I don't remember Neith.
**Gizmo:** Do I? Was it the Cigar Mall Cigar? Uh, no.
**Poobah:** Nos was laal, wasn't it? Oh,
**Bam Bam:** yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was Lagals and the beauty of that, because they, the cigar and the scotch had very similar notes.
It, it was beautiful. Beautiful. I love that scotch. Oh, I do too. With that cigar. I love it. It was
**Poobah:** like a dance. It was like a magnificent dance. . I can, I can, I just, can I, , can I,
**Grinder:** can I just say the fact that we have Puba saying that he likes LOV one 16? Yeah. That's huge. Really warms my heart. Yeah. Yeah. You love that Grindr.
**Gizmo:** It really
**Poobah:** warms my heart. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** [00:22:00] I, I grind. I really like, we all love that. We all love that scotch. Now this
is
**Senator:** the beauty of what we're, what we do, right? We share things that we love. A lot of these things many of us have never had before and, and we're
**Grinder:** converts.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. It's super, super, you know, you know what I saw was interesting about this TA score two is it's, uh, it, they, it's released at 45.8%.
Very specifically 45.8 like most SCOs or whiskeys or bourbons, or, it's a flat number. It's 45.8, that's their consistent percentage of alcohol. What do you guys think of this cigar? So I'm getting
**Rooster:** a bit of a sour note at the end. Really on the finish.
**Bam Bam:** I don't get that. No, no. In fact, on the draw,
**Gizmo:** on the draw, just, just on the finish,
**Bam Bam:** oh baby, I get a hint of sweetness on the draw, the initial draw something, and
**Poobah:** I'm still at an earthy, not on
**Bam Bam:** the finish.
I'm at an earthy finish for me
here.
**Gizmo:** So I'm getting something on the tip of my tongue. I don't know if I'd call it sour,
**Senator:** but something a little tany. Yeah, the
**Gizmo:** tang. Little ang. I gotta say though, for the question, citrus, the questions [00:23:00] about, uh, humidity and like, it seems like it's burning great across the room right now.
**Senator:** Yeah, there's a lot of bright white look at rooster. Yeah, I mean, that's as white of an ashe didn't get on any cigar. Best
**Grinder:** as in the room, it's burning. Great best as in
**Gizmo:** the room. It's just, it, you know. Yeah. I don't
**Poobah:** know what it is. My, my, uh, the, the problem I thought was gonna happen didn't manifest, so I'm good.
**Bam Bam:** That's good. , you might have to smoke this
**Gizmo:** one. , .
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. We were all on eggshells, by the way, for a little while there, so thank goodness.
**Gizmo:** So we talked about, uh, cigar, fish and auto ratings of this cigar, right? It rated in the nineties several times over the years. Uh, they just put out last week, the top 25 cigars of 2021.
What a list. I'm curious. , I'm curious what the, uh, we actually haven't talked about it too, too much, uh, as a group, the lizard. So I'm, I'm interested to, Go through some of these and, and see what you guys think. I mean, do you wanna start from the top or the bottom? Um, let's start at the top. Yeah, let's start at the top.
I mean, top five is what counts, obviously. We are, uh, we are [00:24:00] Great cigar. Yeah. Pedro Drone fanboy podcast, the Patron 1964 anniversary series in torpedo. Natural, natural. Natural, though I'd like to grinder. Yes, right
**Poobah:** baby. I'd like to make, I'd like to note something for the record that this cigar in natural was spoke about.
I forget on which episode way before they, they released this as, as the number one cigar. It was on the exclusive O episode. That's right, that's right. And we talked about this cigar for the record that this in natural is a really, really, really good cigar. And I think we even raised the question, not sure why.
You know, as a group, we really like thei in Maduro and we like the 80th, that kind of flavor profile for Patron this 64 for whatever reason. This 64 series torpedo in Natural. We smoked a number of them. Uh, and uh, I bought a number of them as [00:25:00] singles, um, at our local, at our local Tobacconist. And, uh, I think it's a, it's a, it's a knock your socks off.
That's, I mean,
smoke.
**Grinder:** It's a knock your socks off. Sarah. Marvin Shakeen actually listens to our podcast. That's probably, he probably heard
**Poobah:** us. He probably did. That's probably what happened. Yeah. Yeah. Good old Mark.
**Bam Bam:** But that's what did it, that
**Poobah:** did it. That did it. No, but I, but I mean, uh, it's a goods, I mean, it, it, I I wouldn't, I'm saying it's number
**Gizmo:** one I'm, I'm totally comfortable with, with that cigar number one, I think that's a, a very appropriate, it's been a few years now since Pedro, before you move on,
**Bam Bam:** how many of you had, how many natural pre drones have you, you have?
**Grinder:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I've had a bunch.
**Senator:** I, I, so what's crazy, I've only had two life. I've only had,
**Bam Bam:** I've only had one, and I enjoyed it, Senator. I did enjoy it. Well,
**Senator:** one was the 1926. Number six. It was rated like in the top three on cigar fish. Now it's the only reason I tried it cuz I've never had any natural patron drone before that.
And I said, let me give this a whirl. And I really did not enjoy it. Now Gizmo gave me and some [00:26:00] other lizards, a 1964. It was a thin ringing. Corona Corona. Yeah. In natural. That's, that's the one was actually really delicious. And that's
**Grinder:** the one
**Bam Bam:** I had.
**Grinder:** Yeah, very,
**Gizmo:** very. That was so good. Very good. And I have, you know what's funny?
We talk about aging new world cigars, that cigar, for some reason I found a box from, it was a 2012 box of patrons. I don't know why, but it just, everybody that I've given that cigar to loves it and I love it. It's just a wonderful, wonderful shape. And uh, in that, you know, how do you know it was 2012?
Because there's a little piece of paper in every box of patrons you have to find it. It's kind of hidden. Uh, there's a little white piece of paper that tells you the date that it was
**Senator:** boxed. Well, it's cool because that piece of paper. it, it has the date that is stamped on this little white piece of paper and handwritten in pen is the person who actually boxed that cigars and rolled it.
**Grinder:** Cool. There's
**Bam Bam:** two. There's two. That's
**Grinder:** so cool. That's so cool. I, I, I, so I just, I just did a, uh, a quick rundown of the cigars in this top 25, [00:27:00] I've only, I've only smoked five of them. What's number two? Number two, Monte Christo, nine Monte Cristo, 1935 anniversary. Nicaragua number two. That's the white label?
No, it's white.
**Senator:** Totally different anniversary. It's a gold and black limited thing they came out with. I see. Okay. Which we, we actually may want to try at some point. I'm just
**Gizmo:** curious. I've seen, you know, when this list came out, I saw, uh, a bunch of guys in the forums that Ahman, uh, Reddit and whatnot said that they really liked that cigar.
**Senator:** Um, and it's a Nicaraguan, which we like Nicaraguan cigar,
**Gizmo:** so Yeah, I've actually had never had a, a non Cuban Monte Cristo. I've had, yeah. So.
**Grinder:** I, I smoke the white label Churchill. Yeah, the white label is decent. Yeah, it is. It's, it's a great morning smoke. Yeah, it's mild. It's a very good morning smoke. It's a mild cigar.
It is mild, yeah. But it's a really, it's very aromatic. It's very easy to smoke in the morning and it's good combustion for, for the, the boxes that I have, the Churchills, they, they actually smoke very quickly. They don't smoke, like, it's not like an hour long
**Gizmo:** smoke.
**Rooster:** So [00:28:00] have you heard of this, the cloud
**Grinder:** hopper?
No, that was, that was a number 11 unique thing for me.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I've never heard of that. What's number three? Grinder
**Gizmo:** number three. Oh, go ahead, grinder. I'm sorry.
**Bam Bam:** No, you got it. Or Gizmo.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Number three is the Saint Cristobal Quinte Churchill. Never heard of that. I've heard of St. Cri Abel, but that one is new to me.
Number four is near and dear to our heart. Part of us series number part series D, number four. That was our New
**Senator:** Year's
**Gizmo:** cigar. Yep. Yep. Great ci. . Um, it's nice to see. I'm sorry. It's nice to see a Cuban in the top five. Absolutely. I know. You know, they're obviously not spending a lot of advertising dollars with, uh, cigar.
Fisha Hobans doesn't do a lot of that, but, uh, it's nice to see a
**Grinder:** Cuban in the top, I think. I think it's a subtle nod to the fact that like, yeah, you guys aren't paying us, but we
**Gizmo:** appreciate you. And I mean, it, it, it adds an, a level of legitimacy. I mean,
**Poobah:** well, and, and what they're, and what they're saying here, which is kind of like a backhanded compliment.
In, in, in here, in, in, in the writeup for the, for the D four, the RGUs alphabet series started, [00:29:00] blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, whatever the reason, this is the backhanded compliment. Whatever the reason this perennial crowd pleaser maintained high quality this year, whatever the reason
**Gizmo:** rising above, say
**Poobah:** it again.
Whatever that, whatever that reason is, you know, , uh, uh, you know, rising above other Cuban cigars for its ability to consistently deliver a flavorful smoking experience, such a dick, despite its Dicks high production numbers, it's like, fuck off. Yeah. , you know, for whatever the reason You mean for the reason, the fact that Cubans been making cigars since time in memorial.
Fuck off.
**Gizmo:** It's also the number one cub selling Cuban cigar
**Poobah:** in the world. In the world. So, so, you know, I mean, whatever the reason it couldn't be, you know, it's fantastic.
**Gizmo:** Couldn't
**Senator:** be a, a history of excellence outta part history in Cub in Cuba. I mean,
**Poobah:** year, year after whatever the reason Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know, year after year
**Grinder:** perfection.
Yeah. I, I, I fucking hate these guys, man. I, the fact that they.
**Senator:** Come on. [00:30:00] Marvs a friend.
**Gizmo:** Is he, he's a listener. He put a, did he put that Torp piano? Oh, he's
**Bam Bam:** a listener. Sorry. Marv . Alright. Number onward Gizmo. onward.
**Gizmo:** This one, I don't know. I think this is a Fuente. The Casa Cuba. Doble cuatro. Oof the Casa Cuba. I feel like that's a, a Fuente budget line.
This sounds
**Bam Bam:** awful.
**Gizmo:** I think. Yeah. It's an Arturo Fuente early era cigar. Uh, back when it, a family was producing cigars with Cuba tobacco on their back porch in Tampa. This is in memory of the late Carlos Fuente Sr. Which obviously a few of their wines are. So
**Bam Bam:** they made all the cigars in the backyard,
**Gizmo:** I guess all No, they did.
**Senator:** If you were, if you remember, um, I think it was the Shark episode. Uh, maybe we didn't get too much in the history of, of Fuente, but it's, it's very crazy because when. Factor, if you wanna even call it that. It was very small, had burned down. Carlos Sr. Had the kids rolling. Oh yeah. Cigars every day. It was like 56 a day, [00:31:00] 206 a day, something like that.
But like that's exactly what they were doing like in their backyard. You
**Gizmo:** mentioned that. Yep. Number six is the elusion. Crudo, or buso.
**Grinder:** That's so. Horrible
**Bam Bam:** cigar.
**Grinder:** That's, that's a Nicaragua, is it
**Bam Bam:** horrible Lu I've
**Gizmo:** had it. Lu Lucian
**Bam Bam:** are
**Grinder:** not bad. I've always had very, very good experiences with them.
**Bam Bam:** I had it once at our former club and
**Gizmo:** it was okay.
They're big tattoo ik, like,
**Senator:** so I have to say this. We need to review that only because I've never had one. Yeah, I'd like to, and to hear Rooster even call it decent, that means it's smokeable.
**Grinder:** So I wanna, it's very, and I like Thence. Ellucian makes, it's
**Rooster:** like a lawn stale sizes. The one I had, and it was, it was good.
I've never had a bad one. I mean, it didn't make me like buy a whole
**Gizmo:** box of those. But I think it's
**Bam Bam:** worth, maybe I'm thinking about the worth. A pod, the bowl that Elu is there. Elucion bowl.
**Gizmo:** There's, they make a few different ones. That's, that's,
**Poobah:** that's the Andalusia, uc, . Oh,
**Grinder:** strike that from the recording. . So, [00:32:00] so, so, and, and, and OSA is a, is the, is a, is a, is a region of Spain.
Okay.
**Bam Bam:** Yes, I know that. And do you I do. Okay. . That's not true. . And they're,
**Grinder:** they're known for bullfighting. What are you talking about? And Lalo DOA was started by a Spaniard who lives in Dominican Republican. He named the cigar after the end delusion bull. Hmm.
**Bam Bam:** Not, they're tough to find. Not a good cigar. It's not a good cigar.
All right, well, we'll try it.
**Gizmo:** We'll, we'll try
**Grinder:** a very
**Senator:** interesting shape. Do you doubt, rooster?
**Gizmo:** No. The,
**Bam Bam:** that's a different cigar. I made a mistake. My mistake. Understood. Understood. The Adalian bowl's an
**Gizmo:** awful stick. All right, so number seven.
**Grinder:** It was number one. Ca How can you
**Bam Bam:** I carry you. I can't wait to try it again.
They, they're the, they're the, I can't, let's try it again. Let's, let's try it.
**Grinder:** Number seven is, or sorry, number six. Number seven is near and dear to our heart. Who's our heart?
**Senator:** Yeah. Who's our
**Gizmo:** heart? What? Everyone. Can you read it out loud? Ava? Siri. V Melanio. Maduro in Churchill. That's always up there, right?
Yeah. They, they always,
**Grinder:** man. That's because they spend the most [00:33:00] cash. Look, .
**Senator:** The only thing I'm gonna say slightly in their defense, , and I wanna say this because I think this is how we should approach this list. Do you know how many people that listen to this podcast that have asked me? I just got a text the other day.
No exaggeration. This is someone who, and I love, we're gonna coin this term, this, this is a coworker of mine who said he's a, a lit a lizard in training, right? He's trying to learn, he's enjoying the pod. And he send, sends me a text. He said, he's in New Orleans and he's at a cigar shop and he's trying to figure out what to buy.
And he said, he's very, he's like, I've already scolded the retailer because there are no patron drones sold there. So he's a lizard. He knows
**Poobah:** what to look
**Senator:** for ver and he knows how to scold. Yes, they have no David off. And he says, what do I buy? And I think a list like this that's so heavily dominated with new world cigars, it's trying to find when you're in that pinch and you don't have any cigars and you gotta walk in a retailer and buy something, I mean, you know, BAM has done this, right?
Like you'll walk in a [00:34:00] spot. Yeah, you're in the middle of a workday. You just want a cigar and you gotta buy what they have. . And so it's finding something that's smokable. And what I will say about Oliva is like in Oliva V, if you're in a pinch in a shop, you're not gonna light up an Oliva V and say, this is the worst thing I've ever had.
I can't smoke it. It's not gonna knock your socks off. It's not gonna be amazing. It's not of,
**Poobah:** it's not offensive
**Gizmo:** cigar. It's a
**Grinder:** serviceable stick. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, I really, I, I don't really have many bad experiences smoking Oliva. Um, I love the Oliva v Beso, like the short bellaco. I think that was, I think that was Cigar of the year for our esteemed, uh, uh, friends at ca a while ago.
But, you know, to their, to their credit, I think it's a very good cigar. I have one in my, in my humidor here that I'll smoke after the pod, and they, the melanio, the Rub Robusto Melanio, the Softbox press is a very, It's a, it's a very good cigar. And you know, I think we'd be remiss if we were to just dash it to the side and say, I agree,
**Poobah:** trash agree.
We have,
**Gizmo:** we [00:35:00] have to try a lot of these. I mean,
**Poobah:** no, no, I, I, I agree with the, the, your, your assessment up at, up at my hunting club. A lot of these guys smoke these, these, these Aviva vs. Different sizes, different shapes. And they, they, I'm given these all the time and I've got other friends outside of this group who smoke these.
So then I'm, they're shared with me and I gotta tell you, I've smoked them and I, I'm never like, . Oh fuck. Like this is just fucking, this is shit. I have, I, you know, I'm talking, I'm smoking it and guess what? It's perfectly fine. Yeah, it's perfectly fine. They're good everyday sticks. Yeah, we, I it's, it's a pretty good smoke.
I mean, we agree in the box. No, I think we all agree with that
**Gizmo:** and I'd like to, I'd like to see what this, think pretty good smoke. I'd like to see what those are like under the microscope of the pod here, where we're sitting there smoking them. I've smoked, uh, a few of the melans. I didn't love them. They weren't under the microscope.
They're very similar to the experience that Puba just said, but I'd like to
**Grinder:** do them, I think, I think the non melanio are better.
**Gizmo:** Really? Yeah.
**Poobah:** Okay. [00:36:00] I personally, I don't even know the difference between MELANIO and
**Bam Bam:** the, but they're fuller. They're, if they're non melanio, they're fuller flavored. That's correct.
**Gizmo:** Got it. Okay. All right, boys. Number eight, Cohiba Siglo. Six Cuban . That's a roo. That's a rooster favorite, right? That's sig? No, I like the Siglo four. Okay. Because that's like a 46 ring gauge.
**Bam Bam:** Sieg GLO six. If you can get a non counterfeit one. Yeah, sure.
**Gizmo:** So the SIG six is a, uh, 52 ring gauge, uh, nearly six inches long.
Number nine. Number nine, skip. Buckle up. Skip, skip, skip, skip. Buckle up for number nine. Skip. Skip. Number nine is booster's favorite. Oh, yeah. He has a separate humidor full of these. The Rocky Patel Grand Reserve Rub. Buso . A 10. A 10. A 10. Pagoda, please.
**Poobah:** Let's keep
**Gizmo:** going. Begin. All right, number 10, art Tur Fuente.
Hey, a
**Poobah:** lot of people like these,
**Gizmo:** uh, rare pinks. The rare pinks. I've seen a lot about them. The vi, uh, vintage 1960s series, uh, it's a, it's, I guess what they are is they're the same shape, the same Vito as as the Hemingway series. They're just [00:37:00] wrapped with a different wrapper. I think a Cameroon, I'm not a hundred percent.
The happy ending is the size in this one. What I love about this cigar, and hopefully sometime we'll have Carlito on to talk about it. Uh, I haven't had one, but I doubt, doubt it. . What, what I like about this is that, uh, what I like about this is that the, oh, I, I guess there's a portion of the proceeds that go to breast cancer.
Research and awareness on this cigar. I think it was made for his daughter or his That's nice. Niece or something. So I, I, I'm full in support of the rare pinks, uh, being successful because I think that's a great, uh, great. Cause that, uh, great cause Carlito has done there. Uh, has anybody had a rare pink No.
You haven't had No, no Hemingways or fine cigars as well. You can't, you can't hate on a Hemingway. Uh, number 11, cloud Hopper, number 53. Never heard of it. Don't know anything about it. Looks like this is a, a boutique brand next. Mm-hmm. . Yep. We'll have to try one of those. Number 12, Luciano the Dreamer.
Another one I haven't heard of next. Have you guys heard of that one? No. No. No. Okay. Number [00:38:00] 13, we know Tae Reserva. K 2 22. Has anyone had that? Nope. It's a brown label it looks like with a reserva on it. I would happily try it. Yeah, we should try it. We should try tattoo.
**Grinder:** I've never had a, I've never enjoyed a taa.
**Gizmo:** Wow. There's a few tattoos I like.
**Bam Bam:** I've liked tattoos.
**Gizmo:** I like, I mean, you have never had the uh, petite Kado.
**Grinder:** I've liked that. Petite Kado. The black label Tais is very nice. I don't know what I rated it, but it wasn't something that, or the conjure. I'd go back to black label. Can we talk about why is the black label very nice?
Always in the fucking top 25? Yeah.
**Senator:** The only recent. It's only recent and I don't know why, but it's recent. They got cigar the year the other
**Bam Bam:** ago. Yeah, last year I think,
**Gizmo:** wasn't it? It was that last
**Poobah:** year. Is that aj? Two years ago?
**Gizmo:** It was AJ Fernandez years ago. Two years ago. No, three. 2020. Was it 3 20 19?
**Senator:** It is.
It is AJ Fe. Oh it is. Oh, you're right. You're right. He's a big guy. I mean, you know. No, he is. But the funny thing is, so when that was Cigar of the Year, a number of us, when we were at a lounge of ours, we bought it. Yeah. And tried it. Yeah. And the [00:39:00] irony of that cigar being called the aging. The flavor. It's very full flavor.
Full flavor. Which is great. Full flavor. Yeah. But holy shit, there were so many rough edges. A harsh cigar. It's not age. Yeah. It needs to age. It's like, what, what do you, you're calling yourself aging room. Just age the fucking cigar for a few years, before you release it. I think
**Poobah:** it's
**Bam Bam:** very accurate.
**Grinder:** So very accurate.
Number 15.
**Poobah:** I love this play. I actually like it too. Fucking love this. We've talked, we talked about the cigar this week. What is it? You've had it? Oh yeah, I've had it.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. It's so good. It's the Herrera, Estella Hao Rub, Robusto Grande by Drew Estate.
**Grinder:** I, I, I think this guy does a lot of good shit. And, um, you know, Willie, you know, he's, he's got a, he's got a, he's, this was, I think this was his first cigar that for Drew.
For, for Drew? Well, yeah, for Drew. Mm-hmm. that he, that they marketed and put it on the, you know, the Herrera s. and I've been smoking it since, since he introduced it. I've always enjoyed it. It really hits all the flavor [00:40:00] profiles.
**Gizmo:** I like. How would you compare it? How would you compare it to the li? Oh, very different.
It's a lighter, much lighter. It's much
**Senator:** lighter. It's not, it's it's incomparable. Look. It's incomparable.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Look at, just look at the cigar. Yeah. I mean, it's light.
**Poobah:** It's, it's, it's, I've, I actually, I actually secretly kind of enjoy these. It's your .
**Gizmo:** Serious. This. Whoa. Hold on. So I have a couple of these,
**Poobah:** a lot of 'em.
New world. I have about a half dozen of these in, uh, uh, that I smoke, that I, I bought years ago. But I, I like 'em. I, I don't mind them. They're
**Bam Bam:** not contaminating your tower. Look at this.
**Grinder:** I'm, I'm a huge fan of, I
**Gizmo:** don't mind this. We have to do that. It's funny. Grindr and I were talking about this. Haven't you guys this week smoke these before?
I've never had one, no. So
**Senator:** the only one I've tried, and a number of the lizards in this room were with me for this. We did a landero night once at a cigar lounge of ours. and I've only tried this inland zero. Mm-hmm. , this did not score that high that night. It didn't, it lacked flavor [00:41:00] in the way that some of the others were.
A lot bolder, a lot more suited to our palate. But I haven't had, like, I would love to try it in a different vitola, a bigger ring age and get more and see what it's all about. I have like
**Poobah:** a handful of Coronas. I think they make a
**Senator:** Corona so tasty. Looking at the cigar. Can I just comment, look at Rooster's Ash.
Look at his, look at Bams a This is, there's two inches
**Poobah:** of ash. Well, yeah, I don't see, I'm paranoid because I get yelled at when I got my ash go
**Gizmo:** too far and it falls. Senator gets a little crazy. Only you get yelled at. So I end up, so I end up bashing mine.
**Poobah:** So I could have held on,
**Gizmo:** but yeah. What are you guys thinking about the, uh, the, an Antonio by Hoya right now?
Halfway through
**Bam Bam:** the, I gotta tell you, the combustion is fantastic. Yeah. And the construction's very nice. Right? The ash doesn't want to come.
**Gizmo:** It's okay. Yeah, it's good, but it's not great. It's, I, for me, I'm not getting a ton of flavor.
**Senator:** That's the thing. So, you know, it's funny, I, I'm smoking this and I'm saying for such a full flavored cigar, it's actually very smooth.
I was expecting like maybe a bite in the back of my throat [00:42:00] or it packing too much of a punch. None of that's there, which is good. Yeah. But I'm not, it's like the flavor is muddled. It's not memorable. Everything is just melded together in a way that I cannot pick out distinct flavor notes in this cigar, which is
**Poobah:** disappointing.
Yeah. It's just not memorable for me. I'm, I'm just,
**Gizmo:** yeah, the scotch is way better right now for me than the cigar . Yeah. Not memorable. All right, so number 16, going back to the ca west, uh, speaking of Hoya de Nicaragua, the Hoya Silver Rubo number 16 this year, which, uh, I guess is a, uh, just a, you know, a robusto 50 ring gauge by five inches.
All right, so, uh, this is one I guess we're gonna do up, uh, in, in a few weeks. My father, the judge. Oh yeah. Uh, the grand rib Robusto got number 17 this year. I like that cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** I like it. I like it like once every five
**Bam Bam:** years it packs a punch. Yeah, well get ready for it in a couple weeks. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It packs a
**Senator:** punch.
A lot of people smoke it. I've never had one. That's why I'm [00:43:00] actually interested. We're gonna do it on the pod, but I, many, many people, a lot of guys pick
**Grinder:** that up and smoked that. They do.
**Bam Bam:** That's true. Poop. The poop is
**Grinder:** choking. Poop. Poop. Just vomited. Poop
**Senator:** is foaming at the mouth. . Somebody call an ambulance
It,
**Grinder:** it, it has a time and place. It's something
**Bam Bam:** that you can't, it's a fuller flavor than a, a cigar.
**Grinder:** You're holding smoke regularly. You can't fucking smoke that thing regularly,
**Gizmo:** dude. It's
intimidating.
**Poobah:** I've better, I mean, if you lose listeners over this fucking whatever, you want to hate me, fine. , I've literally been gifted this.
The garden, like, thank you so much and thrown it out the window in my.
**Bam Bam:** Fucking driving down the highway. You know what I love
**Gizmo:** about this though? I, I can't wait for the wait. I can't wait for that.
**Poobah:** Did you, did you drop it? Did you drop it like fourth period French. I dropped it like second period. Second period.
French second.
**Bam Bam:** Sorry. I like that. Re stop this thing. I like this
**Poobah:** reaction right out the fucking
**Bam Bam:** window because we, you know, we had the league. It was surprising to everyone. Yeah. That could also be a surprising surprise. I don't think so. You just never know.
**Grinder:** It sucks. It's not something you wanna smoke [00:44:00] that often.
**Gizmo:** Well, that'll be an interesting
**Poobah:** pod. Yes. Right. And now you've got Ramona Malone's. Gigante. Yeah. Another Cuban, which,
**Gizmo:** which is a good cigar. So that's the second Cuban
**Bam Bam:** on the list. I, I have a question about that. I'm, I'm considering buying a box or two of those cuz they look amazing. Has anyone had that?
Haven't you bought enough?
**Poobah:** No. ? Yeah, I've had singles of it. At least coming from Ru Is it good? It's like of Ramona
**Bam Bam:** Real and just really big. Yeah, it's almost
**Gizmo:** eight inches. So Ru
**Senator:** Roosters had them. He, he gave me one look, I've only had one, so I, I can't Sample size is way too small to say be the reason I'm saying this is the flavor was exactly like Poopa said.
It's Ramon iis. The flavor was good. The construction was the problem for me. Really? I had issues smoking it. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Damn. Okay.
**Gizmo:** All right. Number nineteens, uh, San Louis, Ray Kois Toro. That is a, uh, Hondura cigar. Don't know. I don't know that one. Much better. Cuban. Yeah. Number 20, LA Flore, DOA Arab Bender Chisel, uh, which is a Dominican Republic cigar.[00:45:00]
Chis. It's
**Grinder:** not chisel, chisel. Chisel.
**Gizmo:** What the chisel whatcha you talking about? Listen, I'm speaking Spanish. Chisel,
**Poobah:** chisel.
**Senator:** Just keep your pinky out when you say that.
**Poobah:** Giz chisel, take, take your glasses off and put your fucking monocle on and stop fanning air. I think we should just
**Gizmo:** the chisel boys.
**Poobah:** Giselle, we gotta redo that.
We gotta
**Gizmo:** do that one. This list is a joke. Let's just, it's starting to fall apart. Falling apart. Number 21, the Padilla 88 anniversary. Rob Robusto. Do we care about
**Grinder:** like anything past this? Let's
**Gizmo:** yell but we share the rest. I've had 24. And let's hear the rest. Should hear the rest. Please hear the rest. Okay.
Uh, number 23. We have Ashton Heritage. Pure skipped 22. I did, oh, sorry. Ram. Ram. We gotta do that. Which one?
**Senator:** It's, I wanna do this because it's a new world, but the story is interesting on this. I So Cigar Fisha posted, they do a cigar the week. and I saw this come up and I sent it to giz and I want us to review this cigar.
The, the only reason I say that is because apparently [00:46:00] AJ Fernandez's father, his favorite cigar was Ram Remote Cuban Ramon Ionis. And so he made a non Cuban Ramon iis. He's the blender there to kind of honor his father and his love of Cuban Ramona ies. So I am just wildly curious what this new world take from a very esteemed, you know, a guy like AJ Fernandez who obviously has made tons of cigars.
Yeah. What this tastes like. So I'd like to review
**Gizmo:** it. Let, we
**Rooster:** should do it, do the Ramona IES Cuban, the Club Coronas, and maybe this one, the Club Corona. Is a
**Gizmo:** fantastic smoke. Oh yeah. I think it's better than the ra. Really?
**Poobah:** Wow. Can I say I, I've, I've, I've had smoked those a long time. I, I don't have a box at the moment cause I smoked through the last box I had and you can't, they're a little bit hard to find right now.
Uh, actually I very good smoke. Yeah. Some very, very good. You, uh, bam. You love them. Remember, I've given you [00:47:00] mo, I gave you a bunch
**Bam Bam:** of those. You've given me three of those. Every single one was fantastic. Really? It's all flavor that's worthy of a pot. It's all fucking flavor and totally worthy of a pot. It's, they're fantastic.
A
**Gizmo:** hundred percent. They're f worthy of i ideal world and an old world. Let the ledger
**Senator:** reflect. I'm very upset that bam got three. These. I have not gotten one. I got zero. No, he had one.
**Poobah:** Zero. I'll give you one. Senator. You had
**Bam Bam:** one at one of our watering holes.
**Poobah:** You know what, you know why? Probably because it's a, it's a diminutive in.
It's smaller than a petite Creek and you're intimidating hulking guy. Guy. I mean, . Well, I never, well, no,
**Bam Bam:** it doesn't go .
**Poobah:** I never thought like it's, I've really always liked it and I've always had 'em around, but I never thought it, to me it's, to be honest with you, I mean it's not, some people ruminate over them.
It's a small cigar. It's a great it. It fits in it, it's, I need to get another box. Um, uh, but my point is like, if I'm going out and I'm gonna barbecue some steaks, [00:48:00] I take that cigar out with me. Um, if I'm going to have a cigar at the end of the night and you don't have a bit of a time, it's i'll, I'll have it with me.
Like, uh, o over at, uh, our other lounge. The North
**Bam Bam:** North lounge. North north End of evening
**Poobah:** cigar. Yeah. End of evening cigar. It's a nice, it's really good.
**Bam Bam:** The
**Gizmo:** flavor, the flavors. Amazing flavor. Imagine the RAs but the flavors are more concentrated. Yeah. Oh, and that's small. It's sweet steak. And it's sweet.
**Bam Bam:** It is sweet. A lot of floral, a lot of fruit. It's, it's dry fruit's. Fantastic. Yeah, it's really
**Gizmo:** good. I'm interested to see, uh, how AJ Fernandez did with, uh, Ramon on, uh, on that. Let's get those. We gotta do that. Let's get those. Okay. Number 23, the Ashton Heritage Piro Soul Churchill. I don't know anything about mild Avoid all Ashtons.
Very mild. Yeah. Like every Ashton has ever been. Well, E ESGs a little bit. Yeah. You know what? My father-in-law loves an Ashton man. Yeah. So yeah,
**Grinder:** I mean I, there were, there were some lizards who used to smoke. I like, I like, I like the Ash Ashton original,
**Gizmo:** the Churchill. It's [00:49:00] amazing how far they have gone.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's amazing how far you've come. Considering
**Gizmo:** you didn't smoke age people. I smoked where you met me.
**Poobah:** You dunno.
**Bam Bam:** That's
**Gizmo:** a fucking indictment right there. I smoked a RAs in 1991, right? Oh geez.
**Bam Bam:** Andi in 1940.
**Poobah:** In Gibralter. At Woodstock. At
**Gizmo:** Woodstock. in Mexico. Oh man. All right, what's next? Okay, number 24 is, uh, favorite brand of cigar, fish and auto. Obviously the ep, Carillo la Historia, E three. Pagoda. Have you had that cigar?
No,
**Grinder:** I have had it once, I think.
**Gizmo:** Um, but I prefer the encore in the ep. Gus got it.
**Poobah:** I had that cigar. I think with, uh, one of your, one of your Be better friends. Yeah. Very nice gentleman. Correct. And, and we had it, this, that, this cigar? No, it wasn't this, it wasn't this. [00:50:00] It was a different one. It was the Encore.
It was the Encore, yes.
**Gizmo:** Got it. Oh, we did a pot on that. We did, yeah. On the pledge. Yeah, we did it on the pledge. No, the encore is
**Senator:** different. It is this, yeah. Right. Encore is very
**Gizmo:** floral. Uh, and number 25, rounding out the top 25 here for 2021. The Alec and Bradley Kin. Kintsugi Kintsugi. Corona Gorda.
**Senator:** Okay. The rapper is, oh, sorry.
The band is almost as long as the cigar.
**Grinder:** It's huge. . What's ridiculous?
**Gizmo:** That is ridiculous. They're very proud of that name that
**Grinder:** I can't pronounce. Wait, why is it Alec and Bradley? Isn't it just Alec Bradley,
**Gizmo:** Alec and, no, it's Alec and Bradley. It's uh, something about, I think it's the son's. Of Alec Bradley that makes Oh, yeah,
**Senator:** it's true.
The Ruben Brothers Sons of Alec Bradley, founder Alec, I'm not gonna go there. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** so that's the top 25. So I, I, uh, I guess overall, I mean, I, I wasn't surprised by what they put out, but certainly So there were, there were what, two
**Rooster:** Cubans Of two Cubans? Yeah, that one was a part D four and a Ramon [00:51:00] Gigante.
**Gizmo:** Gigante. Yeah, that's
**Rooster:** it. Yep. Right. Ridiculous. And oh, there was a Koji number six.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, three. So three Three total. Yeah. The top 25. That's absurd. And some of these are very respectable cigars, and obviously a lot of 'em we haven't had, so we have to have them. So if there's any listeners out there who, like any of these cigars, who'd love any of these cigars, certainly send us an email.
Um, tell us what you smoke and tell us what you like. Maybe we'll get to try in the next. You, you know what's
**Rooster:** shocking about this list? That's not a single davidoff.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, that's true. No, it's absurd. That's
**Bam Bam:** true. Yeah. But you, you know, you know, I'm, I'm wondering whether there, you have to actually apply to be rated.
I don't know. No.
**Gizmo:** Like, it's one of those things. It's blind. Certainly Havanas isn't applying you, you have to
**Grinder:** pay for, it's a blind test ad space. You have to take full page. We should really reach
**Gizmo:** out. Dave does Dave.
**Rooster:** But if Cuban
**Senator:** does advertise, yeah, they advertise. And if Cuban RGUs is getting in the top five and we know they're not advertising, right.
The garfish, I mean, Davidoff should be in the mix. Yeah. No,
**Grinder:** just
**Gizmo:** apply to be considered.
**Poobah:** That's all I'm saying. The, the, the, the guys who are raid [00:52:00] this stuff know exactly what they're smoking examples, these guys. So when you talk about professional whatever, they know what they're, they know what's going on.
Everybody knows what time it is with this. Everyone knows the deal with
**Gizmo:** this. All right, so, uh, going off our, uh, our vote earlier, it's time to do our first ever in however many podcasts we're in here. Our first, uh, formal liquor rating.
**Grinder:** Shall we do the, shall we do the ffl R before the, I
**Gizmo:** wanna, I wanna do the liquor first.
I wanna do the liquor first. So, uh, we're gonna start with bam bam, on the liquor . Bam. What are you given the tile reversing in the order? Yeah. What are you given the tall group? 10.
**Bam Bam:** Uh, this is, this is not easy. I do love this. It's beautiful. It's delicious.
**Gizmo:** Can you ash
**Senator:** that? No. Yeah. Can
**Gizmo:** you please ? Yeah. Bams Rolling with about three and a half for my floor's sake.
It's down in
**Grinder:** the band.
**Bam Bam:** Let's see how long it, it takes to flick one.
**Gizmo:** There you go. First flick. All right. So what's your, when you saw that
**Poobah:** bend? It was, it was
**Gizmo:** done. It's over. It was time.
**Poobah:** Tyron's disease. . [00:53:00]
**Bam Bam:** No problem
**Gizmo:** here. All right. Bam. Bam. Watch rating. Why Do you know what that is? . There's commercials about you.
It's commercials.
**Poobah:** It's carrots. Without getting into too much detail, you know, I play a doctor on tv. Yes, we do. End it there. .
**Gizmo:** All right. Bam. Bam. Your former liquor rating, what is it on a Tais are 10.
I don't know, . All right.
**Grinder:** I guess we're gonna start with
**Poobah:** Rooster. ok, rooster. Alright, hold on. Hold, wait. . Wow. I'm shocked. , considering, considering Pam Bam has to ask for the senator's address every week before he comes to the podcast. . Shocking that he's, he has no clue what to say, so probably ba is so frustrating right now.
Okay. He, he
**Grinder:** hasn't had
**Bam Bam:** it under a shower otherwise. ,
**Poobah:** take a shower, dude. Report back in.
**Bam Bam:** I'll go. Uh, okay. I'll rate this now.
I don't wanna offend the room.
**Poobah:** You can do [00:54:00] it, bro. Can, can we get the Jeopardy music? ?
**Bam Bam:** Fuck you. Don't do that. Give us a number, ma.
**Gizmo:** Give us a number. Uh, eight. Okay. Grindr,
**Grinder:** um,
**Bam Bam:** Poopa is cueing the music
**Grinder:** now for, for me. Um, this scotch is, is good. It's, it's probably a, a, I'm gonna say a seven. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda? Eight.
Okay.
**Bam Bam:** Actually, I like it, Senator. I
**Grinder:** like it. Eight.
**Gizmo:** I'm also gonna give it an eight. Puba.
**Poobah:** I'm gonna give it.
**Gizmo:** Here comes the season. Desist. . .
**Poobah:** No, no, no. I'm gonna give it a four. What?
**Gizmo:** Whoa. The ker. They said he elected.
**Poobah:** Oh, oh, oh. The ker . How many, oh, hold on.
**Bam Bam:** Hold [00:55:00] on,
**Poobah:** hold on. Don't say a fucking word. How many addresses have you asked for? ? Oh my god. I chalked that up to the early nineties. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** that's called, you know, that's, that's Payback baby.
**Grinder:** That is payback . That's
**Poobah:** Chuck that up to the early nineties. What were you doing? All the, oh, thes that fucked up. Don't ask, don't aled your brain that much. Don't ask. Shut the fuck up. . No, keep it going. Oh, the, oh, the tile skirt to me. An eight. Yeah. Ten eight. Yeah. Yes, same eight.
**Gizmo:** All right. The former liquor rating on the TK 10 is a 7.9, so that's a strong recommended solid group.
Yeah. Solid.
**Grinder:** Recommend. Let's round up. Yep. Strong
re
**Senator:** Now I'm curious Grinder, did you give it a seven? I did. You did what? Knocked it
**Grinder:** down a few pegs for you. Uh, that's a good question. It was, it's a good scotch to me. On a recent podcast we had a Agler Angie 10, and to me that's an eight or a nine, maybe an eight.
A log of olin's like a, like a [00:56:00] nine or a 10. Macallans like a nine. I'm just ranking rack and stacking what I like and love. Yeah. And that's, that's where it falls for me. Wow. Fair. Very
**Gizmo:** interesting. I I think that 7.9 is very fair for this. Yeah, I
**Senator:** know. I'm surprised to hear that. And it's interesting cuz our pallets differ there where for me, I mean I don't love lighter SCOs.
That's why I said like that Glen Ramji 10, that's only for, the only time I'd reach for that is on a really hot day where a full flavored scotch is just not what you want to drink when it's 95 degrees out. And so I, I'd I reach for that then. But for 90% of the time I want more flavor and this has more flavor.
So, you know, a Glen Ranche 10 for me would be like a six or a seven. This, this is more what my palate craves. Mm-hmm. So that's why I gave it an eight. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** same. I really enjoyed it. That's the first time I've had it. Um, uh, you know, similar to what Grindr said, I can, thinking about what else I like in my mind, that's why I kinda landed where I did.
But yeah, very nice, very nice. Uh, scotch,
**Grinder:** I, I like it a lot. It's just not something I wanna [00:57:00] grab if I want. Pete, I'm gonna go log
**Bam Bam:** on. Yeah. You know, no, what I like about this is it's a little sweet in the beginning and finishes with the p pettiness and the flavor kind of lingers and I kind of like it. So
**Gizmo:** definitely innate for me.
I think, you know, I think it, it pairs very well with the cigar too. I think it matches up nicely with a, with a good cigar and, uh,
**Senator:** it puts out more flavor than this cigar is.
**Gizmo:** Definitely. So let's, speaking of cigars and flavor, uh, coming to the end of the, uh, Hoyo de Nicaragua, an Antonio in Beso, let's do the formal lizard rating on the, on the Hoya here.
Uh, rooster, let's start with you.
**Rooster:** So I'm looking at the ash rate right now. And I see
**Gizmo:** Puba stick. . He gave it up after half an inch. . No, that's not true. That's not true. Is that true? Half. So I can imagine
**Rooster:** what the rating's gonna be, but I, I, I mean, to me it's, it's not complex. It's like there's not a lot of flavor in it.
It sorted off. Okay. Yeah, it was decent, like in the beginning, like maybe the first
**Gizmo:** half inch. [00:58:00]
**Rooster:** So to me, I don't know, it's a six. Okay. Don't give it
**Gizmo:** a six. It's
**Poobah:** a four. I thought it was horrible. Fucking throw it out the window. It's a bad, it's that just, there's absolutely, it had almost zero redeeming qualities for me.
Um, I'm giving it a four. I if I, I mean four. That's four. That's just terrible. Bad meat in a camp. Bad meat in a camp. for me.
**Gizmo:** for me. I'm right between these two guys. I think the first third was, was decent. I think the rest of of it has been, uh, mediocre at best. I'm right in the middle. I'm going to five.
**Senator:** All right. So again, I'm right here with you, gizmo. I'm, I'm a five. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Yeah. I've been
**Gizmo:** between a five and six. I think it started off really well, I think,
**Grinder:** uh, and then it just lost flavor. I think. I felt I was just smoking a stick
**Bam Bam:** and so maybe
**Grinder:** a five, five. It does, it doesn't tickle your heart. Not at all.
Doesn't take away. Okay. Grinder, what do you got? Uh, this is [00:59:00] very challenging for me because I love these cigars. Um, the, the Ho de Nicaragua. I love a lot of the pets, but this is, this. I'm upset. I'm frankly upset cuz it was underwhelming. Disappointing. I'm giving it a four for you. That's low. Yeah, that's, well, that's shit for you.
Yeah. Yeah. It's our shit.
**Poobah:** It's for you. Cigar . Jesus. Sorry. Baba. Sorry. What? You got
**Bam Bam:** terrible. So I'm, I I, sorry. Can I please?
**Grinder:** The fact that it felt spongy after like, Half an inch was very disappointing. And the, the amount of moist moisture affects the taste so much. And the taste was just lost the typical taste that I love and enjoy about this cigar.
And this line of cigars was completely gone. And I was struggling to find it. I was str and I think I mentioned it, you can probably recall from the podcast when we were discussing it, it was just so, it was for me, it was, it was a little upsetting. It, I, [01:00:00] I, I'm upset. I'm visibly upset. You are.
**Bam Bam:** I'm visibly upset.
Bam. Bam. What do you got? I think muddled, uh, flavor profile is a very accurate statement for this. Um, I think four is low. Five. I think five and six is very fair. I'm gonna go, I I'll go six on this cigar. Six
**Poobah:** ju just a quick question. So would you smoke it again ever? Um,
**Bam Bam:** what, what, no, I take that back, you know, if I had it, if it was conditioned a little better than this cigar Yeah.
Someone handed it to me, I probably would have it. Let me ask you this,
**Grinder:** though. I wouldn't reject it. I wouldn't reject it to, to BA's point, I think if it were conditioned better, yeah. It's gotta be
**Bam Bam:** conditional a bit better than this.
**Gizmo:** Let me, so the composite lizard score is a flat five, uh, which is clearly a pass for us.
Yeah. Not a recommend. Not a recommend. The thing that I'll say about the, uh, you know, about the conditions, obviously I've only had it for a few weeks in my humidor. Um, what I'm surprised about is, despite what we're saying about the sponginess and the potential humidity problems, uh, I'm surprised how Well, you know, uh, it, it was razor sharp [01:01:00] the whole time.
Ah, it burned the whole time. Combustion was okay. Not really. I didn't touch it once.
**Grinder:** Not really. I mean, mine's kind of wonky. Yeah. The, the, the wrappers falling apart.
**Senator:** Mine was okay. I mean, I'll say this, just looking around the room. I mean, rooster cigar, it looked stunning. It did. I mean, it was just two inches of white ash, black flavor.
That's the thing
**Rooster:** I've had. Hoag and this one. Mm-hmm. , same here.
**Gizmo:** That was, you know, they were, they were same. Not bad. Same
**Bam Bam:** here. They were Condit. No, I agree. They
**Senator:** were conditioned a little bit bad. The distinction I'm drawing here is different size too. Yeah. The distinction I'm drawing here. What I'm saying is I think the construction, at least for most in this room, looked very good.
Yes. The flavor was severely lacking. Lack,
**Grinder:** that's the discipline. I, I think my score was heavily indexed to emotion. Maybe because I'm, this is a cigar line that I smoke a lot and this is just probably the worst I've ever smoked of the cigar. So, so you,
**Senator:** you gave it a force without emotion, what would you have given it?
**Grinder:** No, I said heavily indexed with emotion because Okay. Because like, cuz it's something I love. Yeah. I know. I love this [01:02:00] cigar and it was not good. Right. You know, and so I'm like, I'm like, I'm, I'm mad .
**Bam Bam:** Right. But for the listeners out there, I would recommend the grand console. That Viola, that's a great cigar.
Yeah. So I think that that's, it's a good stick. That's
**Gizmo:** something maybe in a few, a few months or something, we come back to the cigar and it's in a different viola and they didn't choose, you sourced these right, man? I did. Yeah. They, they didn't have the grand
**Bam Bam:** console. No. They only had this all, maybe
**Poobah:** there's a reason.
Yeah, maybe there's some sort of a reason. It's kind of like you don't understand why the Davidoff, millennial and Toro really doesn't smoke well and why you'd never buy it. Right. It's kind of like maybe the shape and the, the, the way the blend sets up, uh, you know, just doesn't set up Right. Excellent point.
Don't know. That's a good point. It's an excellent,
**Bam Bam:** it's kind of like, that's why I recommend, maybe the
**Grinder:** ratios are just a little too different, you know? I don't
**Bam Bam:** know. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. It's not an offensive cigar in a different shape like that Grand console is very nice.
**Poobah:** This was offensive to me. I know, I know.
Highly offensive. Yes. Yes. Like [01:03:00] I would, I, if someone gifted me the cigar, you'd throw it at them. No, I wouldn't make it through. And I'd put it down. I'd say I'm very sorry. Uh, but I'm not going to finish the cigar that you gave me. I just, I'm, I don't, I'm not enjoying it. And I would say that to the fucking president of the United States,
You gave me the cigar. Be I'm not into it. I got some other, some other stuff. I'm just gonna move on. Hey, Joe, keep that cigar. I mean, honestly, it's that to me it was that bad. Like not good at all. I think that, I think that be there almost your redeeming
**Gizmo:** qualities. I don't even think it's close. I think that's the lowest cigar certainly we've ever given it as a group.
And Yep. You know, I, maybe we'll revisit this with another vitola down the road, but, uh, Unlike a flat five for a, uh, for the Hoyo, uh, Hoya de Nicaragua, an Antonio in Beso. And uh, yeah. Thanks guys. 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 a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge lizards [01:04:00] pod, p o d, that's lounge lizards pod gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.