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Recorded at the Ten86 Cigar Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the lizards pair the Ashton VSG Illusion with 15 Year Aged Singleton Scotch. The guys discuss Carlito Fuente’s involvement in VSG, Senator details Ashton’s history and they review some of their favorite '22 summer concerts. Plus: Grateful Dead, Giz hates Connecticut, Lizards Smoking in Secret
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 Solicits 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. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Grinder, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoker cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 51st official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard Plan, 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 discuss Carta Fu Puente's involvement in tonight's cigar. Senator details, Ashton's history. We review some of our favorite summer concerts and we discuss our shared love at the Grateful Dead, 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 Singleton 15 year age single malt whiskey with the Ashton Vsg in illusion.
Lonsdale [00:01:00] from Ashton tonight. The V s G line in illusion. It's Lonsdale 44 ring gauge by six and a half inches long. And it is a really nice look at cigar, guys. It's a nice cigar. Absolutely. It looks like a Maduro wrapper. It's not. It's, uh, Ecuadorian Sumatra. Um, I thought it was Maduro when I looked at it, but really nice construction on this thing.
Uh, the wrapper smells great. Yeah, it smells really good. Smells good. Yeah. I love Lonsdale as we know. I think a lot of us do. All right boys, let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper's heavily. We can, I mean, let's turn to the u
**Poobah:** UK once it's definition
**Gizmo:** what you define this heavily, sir, you, you poured yourself.
Um, a mega pint of red wine. .
**Bam Bam:** A mega pint. A mega
**Poobah:** pint.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. . You. How many mega pints do you have over there, by the way? You [00:02:00] have about four. Got four cocktails going. Poops got a lot going on. I'm drinking a
**Poobah:** mega pint.
**Senator:** I've got
**Grinder:** a sidecar of, uh, of Czech Pilsner. Just so I can temper the frustration I have with this whiskey we're gonna have.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, we'll see how it goes. Mm. I can't wait to get into that. Just on the box alone. Hmm. Getting a little, um,
**Bam Bam:** cold draws really nice. Yeah. A little raisin
**Senator:** on the cold draw. I, I went out of protocol.
I heard the lighter . I'm already lighting . I don't, I don't want to know what the cold draw tastes
**Gizmo:** like. It's actually really nice. It's nice. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Pleasant raisin. A little fruity.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. . Yep. All right. Boys getting lot other than senator getting a lot of fruit actually. Yeah, it's nice. Let's light this thing.
I'm surprised. So the Ashton v s g illusion. again, it's a Lawnsdale 44 ring gauge by six and a half inches long. Mm-hmm. , you can find these in boxes of 24. Ooh, you got 'em for about 300 bucks. [00:03:00]
**Bam Bam:** I had, I had the Toro version of this, a bigger ring gauge. I, I found it difficult to
**Grinder:** smoke lot of body in the first draw.
**Gizmo:** Ooh. Yeah. We went for the lawnsdale. I mean, obviously we love this size. We love this ring gauge. Yeah. But, uh, definitely less intimidating to me than, than, uh, the Toro. Boosto. I get the raisin you guys
**Senator:** are talking about. Yeah. I on the light.
Some
**Gizmo:** good notes.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, it's very illegal. Nine
**Gizmo:** esque. It is on the light. Definitely me. So, uh, we are proud to be recording tonight again from our Clubhouse, 10 86 Cigars in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Uh, we love it here. We love the proprietor John. Uh, it's an amazing 24 7 club. , uh, just fantastic key card access. Smoke all the cigars you want, whenever you want.
And I don't know how much more we can say about how great it is, but great, great golf simulator as well. Great golf simulator. Yep. Great crowd. Lockers. [00:04:00] Mm-hmm. clean. It's amazing. Bottles of water. Yeah. Glasses, mouthwash.
**Senator:** Everyone always forgets the like 15 TVs in the
**Gizmo:** lounge. The TVs. TVs in the lounge. Get it together.
The Sonos system and the espresso too. Coffee card.
**Poobah:** Free coffee card. Table coffee.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Amazing place again. 10 86 cigars in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Check it out. It's really an incredible place. Cigars. Come meet the lizards.
**Bam Bam:** I have a question. Anybody else getting citrus? This is kind of nutty, but I'm getting
**Poobah:** citrus on this thing.
No, no, no. You get citrus on everything. . .
**Gizmo:** Except in a lemon. I,
**Senator:** I'm kind of getting it
**Grinder:** though. Oh yeah. I'm getting it. Like lime, lime, lime less orange. There's no, there's no doubt
**Gizmo:** that it's there. I'm not getting citrus right off the bat here. I'm tilling it maybe. You mean like an orange peel? No,
**Rooster:** like an orange peel
**Gizmo:** or like said like lemon.
No, it's kind of like cell,
**Grinder:** it's more, it's more le It's more limey. Limey,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Lemon. Oh no. Okay. I, I gotta say it's not, you're losing. Really Gotta say
**Poobah:** it's pretty good. I like
**Gizmo:** this. He's not [00:05:00] wrong. I'm not getting it. You're getting that
**Senator:** toos. It's like, just, just wait. Just have a few Cause I think I'm slightly ahead of you guys and bam.
Smokes fast. So he's probably right on pace with me. Yep. Just take a few more. . It's like, uh, the rind Yes. Of some citrus fruit. Do
**Bam Bam:** not doubt. Bams palate. . It's
**Gizmo:** refined. Understand . He's not wrong. I figured after four times. Yeah. Covid. Maybe. It's, it's like a .
**Bam Bam:** That's not a lie. .
**Gizmo:** It's, I can say pleasant. It's pretty pleasant on, I'm sure.
**Senator:** I'm just shocked. I, I have to say, so I, I have such a skewed view of Ashton just because all I know them for is really light cigars. Um, I feel bad now cause after I've had a few puffs to this, I've given poop a lot of shit. The first time I met him and he said he smoked Ashton's as one of the kind of daily rotation cigars.
And I was like, who is this guy ? But this thing puts out, and I think you might have mentioned the Vsg as one of 'em. Yeah. This thing puts out actually a good amount of flavor. I'm like shocked that [00:06:00] Ashton makes a cigar that has this much flavor. Speaking about putting
**Grinder:** out the smoke on this. It's
**Gizmo:** crazy.
Yeah. Oh, I thought you're going in a different,
**Senator:** I, I, well,
**Grinder:** I was like, whoa. Yeah, I was, I was, I was, I was going there, but.
**Poobah:** Combustion's. Great. It is great. I, well, you don't look prior to, um, that this whole thing's a journey. I mean, um, with cigar smoking and I think that you graduate up to, to, to things. I certainly did.
Um, so I smoked the, the Ashton White Label, like as a, as like a young, very, very young person, you know, I mean, so, uh, but this is also a different, this was like a different time. It, uh, you know, I was a casual cigar smoker, so I had a connection to that. I always had kind of a, of a emotional connection to that cigar for my own reasons.
So I would, I, I would put it in my rotation. [00:07:00] Um, but, you know, I quickly discovered that the lack of body. Didn't do it for me anymore. Mm-hmm. , it's not something that I, that I really am able to smoke ever. Well, you, you gra you graduate.
**Grinder:** Look, the but this is,
**Gizmo:** this is, well, they're smoking really well. Yeah. The
**Bam Bam:** V is D different.
The vsg line distinguishes itself in the Ashton Marco from any other Ashton that it makes. Right. This is the bolder line that
**Gizmo:** they have.
**Rooster:** Well, I think it's about the time when a lot of the cigar manufacturers started going in towards like Nicaragua and tobacco, Uhhuh, . Yeah. More bolder. More fuller. Right.
Smokes. I think that's when the Vsg kind of came out.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And every Vsg I've ever had before was awful. Except for
**Gizmo:** this one. I really, I gotta say it feels great in the hand. I love the lawnsdale size. I celebrate a lawnsdale. Mm. Any new. Manufacturer that makes a Lawnsdale or Alan, this type of, uh, small [00:08:00] ring gauge, longer cigar, I celebrate because I, obviously they're going out of fashion.
You don't see a lot of people smoking this size. Uh, and I think that this is one of the better sizes.
**Grinder:** Cigar Vic. Cigar Vicon. It's her favorite. Viola. Thank you. There you go.
**Gizmo:** Thank you. She,
**Senator:** she's BA's favorite.
**Gizmo:** That's true. There's no doubt. Did you put the calendar up, by the
**Bam Bam:** way? Um, in a special place. Okay.
**Gizmo:** So the, uh, the Vsg on Ashton stands for Virgin Sun, grown the wine as, uh, rooster and, uh, a few of the other guys alluded to, uh, came out quite some time ago, 1999. So this is, you know, this has been out over 20 years, uh, made in the Dominican Republic. Comes in a bunch of different sizes. A Beso, a Corona, Gorda, double Corona, uh, Gordo.
This Lonsdale that we're smoking now called the illusion. , the pro perfecto, a petite corona, a rib robusto, a toro, and a torpedo. Um, and it wasn't a cheap cigar, you know, [00:09:00] 18 bucks for this, um, certainly for this size. And, uh, Ashton, uh, is not a cheap cigar, but so far it's performing pretty well. I, I'd like it so far.
Yeah, I do too. It's not the same. I do too. Yeah. I would definitely pick this up again. As of right this moment, it's delivering
**Bam Bam:** for the dollar that you're, you're
**Poobah:** spending on it. Sure. You know, the, the, I've had the torpedo before, um, and I liked it. So, um, , I don't know what else to say. So
**Gizmo:** this, um, again, they, the, the I
**Poobah:** Why Laughing?
Yeah, you're laughing and I think it's the quiet that's just making it laugh. Oh, okay. ,
**Gizmo:** um, So the, uh, so just briefly, um, so like I said, the rapper is Ecuadorian Sumatra, everything else is Dominican. And they, they have an age statement on it. So like Patron, these are aged four to five years before the release, which is a nice thing.
See? Nice. Um, and I, I saw on a couple different sites, I feel like this isn't true, but I guess it is. Apparently this is a [00:10:00] Carlito Fuente blend. The Vsg line is a brainchild of Carlito Fuente of the Fuente family.
**Senator:** Interesting fact. Ashton is somehow
**Gizmo:** connected to the fu. I don't know if they paid him to do this.
I don't know what happened, but Carto Fuente, yeah. Uh, collaborated on this line and he blended it and it's had a lot of success. The reason I say
**Senator:** there's a lot
**Grinder:** of incest in the, in the industry. Yeah. You know, yeah. I don't mean that in a
**Senator:** pejorative term, but No, I, sorry, I just, I'm gonna fix it on this for a second.
Cuz I think this is like very notable and, and odd. I mean, usually when there's a collaboration, it's one thing if you're like AJ Fernandez and you just work across a bunch of brands like. And do this for a living. That's one thing. Carlito Fuente is like not a guy who just, you know, across brands helps blend cigars.
That's not his thing. He has a cigar empire in one of the most recognizable and successful, uh, new world brands that has ever existed. Um, so I'm just really amazing even usually when there's a collaboration. If you think about Carlito and the Padron's collaborating. [00:11:00] Yep. It's a limited release cigar. It's not high dollar endures forever.
The fact that this is part of their, the Ashton standard line that has existed since the nineties and will, you know, conceivably exist forever. I am shocked to hear that. Yeah.
**Rooster:** So you know how I was talking about Holtz connection
**Gizmo:** with Ashton? Yeah. If you
**Rooster:** look up who owns Holtz, it's the Levin family, Robert Levin
**Gizmo:** and his.
Uh, south. And they own Ash. And they own Ash. They and they own Holtz. There you go.
**Senator:** He owns Interesting. There you go. Interesting.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Vertical integration. But you know what, maybe that's a play for Fuente saying, Hey, if I get in with this family as a cigar manufacturer, maybe as a retail Yeah. Paran.
Distributor. Distributor, exactly. I'm getting premium, you know, Primo. Yeah. Uh, distro, primo pricing. And especially you're talking about, you're talking about what, 20, almost 25 years ago. 20, 20 something years ago. You know, Fuente [00:12:00] wasn't what he was in 1999, what he is now. So maybe that was a good opportunity for him.
I'm speculating, obviously, but I know, do you know
**Poobah:** where this, do you know where the rappers the rapper was grown on? The Rapper has grown on the Ava, on the Liva family. Oh, the, on the Ava Family Estate. Wow. Wow. Hmm.
**Gizmo:** There you go. Yeah. This is an interesting way more interesting cigar than I was Very unusual ever expected.
What a, what a story. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. Very interesting story. We've had a lot of folks ask us, ask us about Ashton. Um, obviously given our previous experiences, we didn't reach for it, but the Vsg was one that we all agreed on reaching for, and this is really performing well. So it,
**Poobah:** it delivers kind of like a, like some body with some balance and there's not a whole lot of bitterness here or like anything unpleasant at all.
At all, at all. Very smooth
**Gizmo:** cigar, super smooth, very smooth. You know, I think the four to five years of age really helps this cigar kind of balance out. I think this fresh would be a little
**Senator:** different, which I give Ashton credit. I mean, their whole line is meant to be [00:13:00] like smooth, like creamy smokes. . Um, and the fact that they've done mild and the fact that they've done, they've done a darker cigar with some more flavor that still I think is consistent with the brand in a very smooth delivery, um, is impressive.
I also just wanna talk about the construction of this cigar, impeccable, invisible seams. I, that was the first thing I noticed. Just when you take this out of the, the, the, the cellophane, I mean Wow. Very beautifully constructed. Yeah. And the burn. Perfect. I've got a, the burn is perfectly even burn. I'm looking at everyone's cigar.
White ash. Yeah. It, it's really
**Poobah:** well made. Yeah. And it's way upgraded from like a Ente Hemingway. Yeah. Or something like that. Do you know what I mean? This is a more luxurious smoke. It feels more luxurious. The smoke. It's smoother. It's the delivery on the pallet is a lot. It doesn't have any, some of those rough edges.
Zero bite. Yeah. And, and, but it's delivering a full-bodied experience, which I think is, is notable.
**Bam Bam:** And it [00:14:00] has a, it has a very nice long finish. It does. And it's a, there's a fruitiness there.
**Senator:** I agree with that. And the other thing, the combustion out of a smaller ring gauge lonsdale, like this is really good.
**Gizmo:** It's really nice On the retro hail, by the way. Oh yeah. Really smooth on the retro. Mm-hmm. . See some little
**Poobah:** spicy maybe, maybe PBAs not totally nuts. No,
**Senator:** I, this honestly young PBA annuity was doing . I was excited about this just to get into your younger cigar mind of why this was in your rotation and now I'm seeing it.
This is actually an enjoyable
**Poobah:** cigar. Yeah. And, and where it would fit, where, where the white label one would fit would be like if, where an ahman would fit. Today for me, like a lighter cigar. It was a familiar brand to me. So it was because this was like popular in, at like 1999. You had the Griffiths or whatever the, you know, the, the, there what the internet wasn't like a thing where you could research stuff.
[00:15:00] You would just go into a retailer and you know, you roll the break some stuff. Yeah. You roll the dice. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it was harder to get information, so you would just,
**Senator:** I don't know. Yeah. I mean it's a brand that's just been like around for so long and, and really been such a namesake. I say that because I remember my dad many years ago would smoke Ashton's and I would, I didn't know anything at the time about them.
And then when I started smoking cigars, they said, these are so mild, why would someone like this? But to your point, like when there wasn't much to choose from, this was a real household name.
**Poobah:** Agreed. And, and, and, and there was a lot of shit cigars. So there was a lot. Back then in the late nineties, there was the, the, like in the quote unquote cigar boom, there were a lot of cigars out there that were just like bad, like bitter, bad unapproachable, but you'd smoke an Ashton and you'd say, okay, well I'm actually having an enjoyable experience [00:16:00] here, so I'm gonna kind of just stick with this.
And at the time I didn't have a lot of. You know, so it, I wasn't gonna start just spending money on things that were, that I didn't enjoy. You know what I mean? The, the, there were so much there, there were bad cigars around. I'm not, I mean, well, it makes,
**Bam Bam:** I mean, it makes sense because, you know, we talked about the fact that the Ashton line was a great beginner line, right?
A lot of younger guys are getting into cigars. Particular line and it made sense. It was cheaper, but I think smooth,
**Poobah:** easy to smoke. No, but it's always been kind of a little bit of a luxury brand. It's not
**Senator:** That's what I was gonna say. That's exactly I was going And the country club cigar, the, the thing that's like fascinating to me about Ashton, I, I, I guess I have to give them some credit.
I mean, it was never like one of the cheaper brands that you would buy, like you paid more for an Ashton because it was smoother. It, it checked these boxes that the limited selection that was available at that time didn't. Um, and I'm, I'm now being able to understand some of that with seeing how [00:17:00] smooth this cigar is.
If I were to imagine a time where there was not a lot to choose from and. , a lot of these other cigars were harsher and maybe too young and not as refined. I mean, sure. I probably would've picked one of these up too. So it, it's just, it's making sense of, when I think back to like my childhood and my dad picking up Ashton and I, I, one, once I get older, I couldn't understand it.
And now it's starting to, the dots are getting connected for me. Yeah. And
**Poobah:** some of the Nat Sherman stuff, when I had an opportunity, the only way to get it was to stop by Nat Sherman. So you, you, I would sometimes smoke those, but I wouldn't even really know. Really what I was getting, I would defer to the tobacco list, to whoever was there.
Um, and then also to, uh, Grindr's Point, Ashton, totally a country club cigar. Like if you would go to any club at, back in the nineties, you would see this in the shoe attendants, humidor, like along some, alongside some fake Cubans, and [00:18:00] Mac, UTO, and Mac. And Exactly, yeah, exactly. Lot. A lot of Mac Canuto. Yeah, exactly.
A lot of Mac. And I didn't love the Macanudos, so I mean, you know, it was, it was, it was popular. It was popular. Like you pulled this, uh, ash out. You weren't looked upon in, in like, oh, that's what are you do like there just wasn. . I never saw Patron Drone really back then. Mm-hmm. , you know, really around mm-hmm.
Yeah. Well,
**Gizmo:** I mean the, the 1964 line was only five. It was only the thousand thousand series. Series was five years old right when these came out. But Ash Ashtons were
**Rooster:** always, I'm sorry, uh, Ashtons were always priced a little bit higher than the Fuentes, so I think that that's why it was kind of, you know, considered like a higher end
**Gizmo:** smoke.
Absolutely.
**Senator:** This is, it all just makes me appreciate how much. we have today. Yeah. I mean the amount of choice and brands and And information. Information, absolutely. Even these little boutique brands that just pop [00:19:00] up. I'm just so grateful. Honestly, I'm just listening to all this. It's so funny. You're sitting there like, oh yeah.
You know, people used to smoke Ashton and like Macondo were there and then fake Cubans. And I'm thinking back to when I was really young and it's like, oh yeah, what was my dad smoking? Ashton Mac Uto. And like that was it. Like we're talking like the nineties. I mean, it's like crazy to think so I'm just so grateful for everything we have now
**Poobah:** because Yeah.
And not Sherman in the Northeast, people would smoke that, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's another one. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta
**Bam Bam:** be honest. What, you know, getting to the spirit that we're drinking. Yeah. You know, prior to taking a few drags on this, on this vsg, I was skeptical about that. But as you get into the cigar, pear is pretty good.
It's, it's,
**Gizmo:** so let's talk about our, uh, 15 year aged Yeah. Singleton space side, single malt whiskey. Scotland, uh, and very loudly on the box. Grinder's. Favorite . Yeah, . Can't wait to talk about the stone. Wish we had a camera in here. , [00:20:00] uh, very loudly pronounced in their marketing. On the box. On the bottle. Fruity.
Decadence. I mean, .
**Grinder:** So I've never had a singleton. I liked Okay. First. Um, it's okay. I mean, I haven't had this one. Um, it's just li it's a little bit light and it doesn't really do much for me. Yeah, it's
**Bam Bam:** not incredible, but it's drinkable. It's not
**Gizmo:** terrible. I, I gotta sound, I don't love it. It's, it's just, What?
It's not great
**Grinder:** where you it. I
**Gizmo:** hate it, . It's, you're not, you're not into fruity ness. Ah, there's no
**Senator:** fruit. I mean, we're, we're, it's just, it's kind of bland. This is the problem I have first all not the, the nose of this to me is like some kind of like surface cleaner. God. I mean, the after tape,
**Grinder:** the, the finish is fucking awful.
**Senator:** The, the nose is really bad. I'm going back to my beer. The, the taste, uh, it's not the worst [00:21:00] thing I've ever had. I'm not gonna go that far, but I just
**Grinder:** think it's not, it's a bowmore, but it's, it's close to, it's close
**Senator:** behind. All you get is just like alcohol and a little bit of sweetness, single's maybe trying to mass some of the.
Litany of imperfections and the, I I just, there's nothing that stands out to me in this. All right. Just waited having a
**Gizmo:** hard time. I've been giving it five .
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, I took two sips and, and, and, and I just went back to the, the double wood. Just,
**Senator:** just everybody smelled the nose and tell me, this doesn't smell like a disect, like something you would like spray on your
**Gizmo:** kitchen.
Can I thought clean it. Shit. Wow. How much was this? That's what the nose said. That's the thing. That's what was intriguing to me about it, obviously, cuz I knew this kind of conversation would happen. It was under 50 bucks for a 15 year aged single mal. But you guys have had some, maybe there's a reason decent SCOs not was, was it not were they, were they tried it 50
**Rooster:** like Japanese.
Uh, some Tories doesn't, it's
**Gizmo:** not
**Grinder:** supposed to fit. Were they trying to push, were they trying to like move it? Was it discounted? It
**Gizmo:** was, it was only like 10 bucks off, I think. [00:22:00] Yeah, that's
**Senator:** the, that's the retail, that's what most retailers have it at.
**Gizmo:** Was there a BOGO offer? The other thing too is I've see, I've seen a lot of marketing for this specific.
Single malt like recently, which is why I reached for it when I was there. I, I've seen it in, uh, magazine advertisements. I may have even seen like it on a airplane or a, or or some sort of, I've seen it a few times, which when I saw it at the store at that price, I was like, we should try it cuz it's 15 year age.
**Grinder:** I can't even, I can't imagine any self-respecting whiskey drinker who actually knows what the fuck they're talking about to actually drink this and finish it.
**Gizmo:** Sorry. It's gross. No, I mean, it's not good it's not terrible, but it's not great. I
**Senator:** just gotta say though, after taking a few sips of this scotch, I'll put in quotes, um, and neglecting the cigar and then taking a draw of the cigar.
Wow. Yeah. Like the flavor outta this cigar in comparison to this horrible pairing . It's, it's just like accentuate it. Maybe, maybe that's what I was referring to earlier. It, [00:23:00] it really makes you appreciate, like, honestly, I, I'm liking this cigar even more, just contrasting it against something that I'm not enjoying and then taking a puff of this.
I'm saying, wow, there's so much more to find in this cigar than there is in
**Poobah:** this. I'm smoking the cigar too fast cuz I like
**Gizmo:** it so much. It's really good. Yeah.
**Grinder:** The build, the, there's so much, the, the plume of smoke coming outta this thing is impressive. Considering the, the ring gauge on
**Poobah:** this. There's no rough edges around this thing.
There's no tar. Not at all. There's no bullshit. This is better than, than not that it's saying much than the Opus X. It is. Oh.
**Bam Bam:** He's absolutely,
**Poobah:** there's no doubt about it. What's the Opus X The one that we smoked? You've gotta be specific about 8
**Gizmo:** 88, uh, castles. No, it's like ex there's a bunch of X's in it.
Exception
**Poobah:** or whatever that one was. That was a also, it was Lansdale, but it was a torp. It had a, it had a, I'll tell you right now, a torpedo tip. The,
**Grinder:** the retro hail. Have you retro
**Gizmo:** held yet? Yeah, I did. It's really nice. It's, it's good. It's
**Poobah:** very good. A bright white ash. It was a perf
**Gizmo:** fucked up. The Opus X [00:24:00] was a perfection.
8 80, 18. This is like
**Grinder:** mocha raisin retro hale. Exactly.
**Bam Bam:** Lot of raisin fucking great.
**Senator:** Exactly. Grindr. I just have to, to grinder's point about the combustion outta this cigar, I actually think of any lonsdale I've ever. That this has the most combustion. And I love that. Totally agree. I love that because a lot of times when you have a smaller ring gauge cigar right?
You naturally get less smoke. The, the combustion's less. It's just simple the way it's constructed. So I wanna, I wanna, I love how much you get it.
**Poobah:** You're right. And I'll tell you why. And I just had one of the best cigars before this podcast ever fucking made in the world. Okay. . The, the Vegas REIA 2011 Classic.
Oh yeah. Classic coast. The Lawnsdale goat format. Mm-hmm. , now the goat. Now that cigar is fucking amazing. Now that the, I'm not comparing these two except for one thing that that cigar, that Cuban is L light. This is tightly packed and it's drawing. Great. Yeah. The construction. So I think to Senator's point, what [00:25:00] you're getting out of this, , that's, that's, that's a standout com feature is that it's packed, but it draws great.
So it's giving you this smoke output where the classico, the flavor profile is world class. It doesn't even compare to this. But what I'm saying is, is that you're getting that output just from Lonsdale to Lonsdale. I'm just comparing it. It's a little more loosely packed. That cigar, this cigar is packed with tobacco.
It's tightly rolled. So you're getting this, you're getting plumes of like blue smoke that come out of this thing.
**Senator:** And, and the reason it's important to me, I just, we've talked about this on other episodes, but I pull for a larger rain gauge cigar. when I want to just immerse myself in smoke and really just appreciate the aroma and the flavor that comes out of it, which is usually after a long day.
I'm just stunned that out of Lonsdale, I'm getting so much smoke output. I don't need a larger ring aid cigar to achieve that. Yeah. This does delivers that. It's interesting. It's
**Bam Bam:** extremely satisfying. I'm
**Gizmo:** really, it's very legal [00:26:00] alike. Yeah. That I
**Poobah:** said that earlier. Yeah. But minus some of the aggressive qualities
**Gizmo:** of a Lego, it doesn't bite as much as a Lego.
Right.
**Bam Bam:** I didn't find a single bite on that Lego, by the way, for me. Not
**Gizmo:** at all. I've smoked quite a few of the, uh, I smoked quite a few of the cor viva's. Oh, okay. Um, which I think we did. I don't remember which one we did, but we did the
**Rooster:** nine I think. Right.
**Gizmo:** We did the Lega nine League nine. I don't remember the size.
I believe it was a Toro. It was a Toro, I think. Yeah. I've been smoking the Coronas. Okay. Um, it has a little bit more of a, an edge to it. A little bit more aggressive than this to pub's point. This is smooth. This is really nice and smooth. I'm, I'm. Very intrigued right now by the story. Pleasantly surprised, honestly.
Honestly. I'm very intrigued. And now here's a question I have for you guys. So this comes in a 24 count box. I'm curious if the, I don't want to call it a box press. It's a soft Yeah, it's like, is it, is it on purpose or is it a product of being stuffed too tightly stuffed in the box, like in these 24 count box?
I don't know, but I love it. I love [00:27:00] it. . It's so nice in
**Senator:** the hand. We've said this before, I mean, I, I'm a sucker for boxers, senator's getting passionate right now. A a lot of us, I think about
**Gizmo:** an Ashton. Let's, let's note that
**Senator:** is it, it's stunning. I, I'm just sitting here looking at this, saying to myself, there is never a time in my life that I thought that I would even give out to a guest, let alone enjoy myself.
But just someone comes by casual cigar smoker, and I would hand them an aston that that would never, ever happen. I have never bought. , any Ashtons. It's not in my humidor period. I would give this to someone and I think that if you're a novice cigar smoker, even with the flavor this has, it's so smooth that you would love this.
And I think even someone like us who is a very experienced cigar smoker, there's so much flavor here to enjoy. Yep.
**Grinder:** The retro hail again, I'm sorry. The retro is fantastic.
**Poobah:** It's so good. It's uh, it delivers.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, he does. Really does. Yeah. He delivers. Can I say something really fast? I wish Pagoda was here for this episode [00:28:00] because I think he'd like this.
I think he would be for by, yeah. Yeah. I'm actually glad we have an extra Yeah. So that he can try this right in his car because he, this is right. In his, in his power. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Cuz he likes it has some of those qualities of liga. But I have to be honest in my, just my personal opinion, there's, this is has a, it feels more elegant to me.
It feels a little bit more refined. Yeah. Because it's giving you this full body experience. But the vi it's the viola, uh, it's not because I've had this enlarger ring Gauges. Mm. I've, okay. I've secretly liked this .
**Senator:** Oh, I know. And I judged you for it, but I
**Gizmo:** will
**Poobah:** no longer, okay. So I've secret, we can see the look in your eyes.
I'm secretly like this. I actually have some of these, um, in a separate humidor that I keep, and I kind of like them. So not, not the, not the spring, not the size, but I like the cigar. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** [00:29:00] So I, I just,
**Senator:** to your point, when you compare this, the Liga nine, like I get where you're coming from, bam. That this is very flavorful and that's a very flavorful cigar.
And so there's some similarities there. But to pub's point, when I light a li. . I light that with the intention that I'm not gonna smoke that many cigars that night. Mm-hmm. , because that delivers so much true flavor. True. Yep. Yeah. In such an intense way. Yeah. I don't need that many cigars to be satisfied.
Right. There's more
**Poobah:** nicotine in it. It's more powerful. That too.
**Gizmo:** There's no doubt that's a nicotine. That's a good call. But my, my point, there's so there
**Senator:** to be said about that. My point here is that this to me more, uh, smokes more like a padron in the sense that does, not that I'm comparing them or the flavor profile, but Yeah, he's right.
Yeah, he's right. I can smoke, you know, several patrons in a sitting. Yeah. And not feel like I have too much of a nicotine buzz or like the flavor was silver powering. I could smoke several of those where I could have four cigars and then an xci and feel wonderful with this cigar. That, [00:30:00] that's the same thing I would say.
Yeah. But I wouldn't say that about Ali nine. I probably have two cigar. and I'm good. Yeah. This slots in, in a lot of places. Yeah. The cool thing
**Bam Bam:** about this, you can slot this in, in a cigar session with your Cubans and have a wonderful experience. Absolutely, Jen.
**Grinder:** Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I'm coming to the second third and it's, it's
**Gizmo:** getting better.
You're definitely ahead of me a little bit. It's getting better. Puba is too.
**Senator:** Oh, I think we're all in the second third. You're in the second third. You think so? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. It's getting, it's getting so much better. God. Yeah. It's definitely, it's, it's really, really solid. I, I'm shocked by this right
**Senator:** now. I'm stunned.
I feel so bad. I, I first just have to apologize to pba. Like, I, I, we, we've all, I, I'm apologizing. I'll just say it on behalf. I think we've all shit on Poo at one point or another for smoking Ashtons, because we view them as very mild flavorless cigars. This is really enjoyable.
Well,
**Gizmo:** the regular
**Rooster:** Ashtons are mild.
**Gizmo:** They are. I
**Senator:** mean, well, that's why I just assumed that the Vsg would be trying to be more flavorful, but not, but it really is.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** This is a good, [00:31:00] this is a really, really
**Gizmo:** good cigar. I'm getting like so
**Grinder:** much chocolatey
**Gizmo:** right now. I'm getting something
**Rooster:** on the tip of my
**Gizmo:** tongue. Me too. But it's not bad, right?
No. There's a, there's something there. It's a tingle, but, but you know when you get that spicy, you get that from like a strong Nicaraguan that like it hits your, the tip of your tongue and it bites you. This is doing it, but there's
**Senator:** no bite. You both just said really important things. Rooster said a salty, spicy note that he gets on the tongue.
That's exactly what I get upfront. Yeah, and Gizmo said it. It's reminiscent of something. Nicaraguan. And why that's important for me when I first lit this cigar, Had you not told me that this is Dominican. Yeah, I actually would've guessed that this is Nicaraguan tobacco. Absolutely. And that's a really good thing because Nicaraguan tobacco is really flavorful tobacco.
That's why we love a lot of Nicaraguan Piros. That's why we love Petron, and this delivers that. For this not to be Nicaraguan still, honestly is stunning to me. [00:32:00] Halfway through this, I'd still say it's Nicaraguan. It's got so much flavor. I'm, I'm really
**Poobah:** amazing. Yeah. So, so, so this is come, so I'm glad everyone's saying this.
I haven't had one of these in a, in a, in a little bit. Um, so, you know, when you get that sensory reaction with, that we've talked about in the podcast before where you're like, okay, you get that from the, I feel like you get that from the cigar where you're kind of relaxed about it, you're settled in with it, and it tastes pretty good.
It's pretty satisfying. Like, like you're not fighting with it. There's no battle. Yeah. You're not wanting, like, you're not saying, what else is this gonna give me? It's kind of delivering like a pretty sod experience. Yeah. For 18 bucks. Well,
**Gizmo:** I, the way I think about it is like after a long day, you know, you're looking for that cigar to like check the box or like, it's like putting the last piece of the [00:33:00] jigsaw and the jigsaw puzzle and it's just like you have that aha moment.
This is delivering something that I'm shocked that it's able to deliver for me in that after a long day we sit down, we get together, we have a cigar. I'm shocked that an Ashton Right. Is doing that for us. Right.
**Grinder:** I'm not shocked. I'm not shocked because this is a very well acclaimed cigar,
**Gizmo:** but there's a, there's a lot of well acclaimed cigars that
**Senator:** are tons that don't do, that don't deliver.
This has been well claimed for 20 years. So
**Gizmo:** is Opus X? Yeah. Yeah. and we trash that cigar because it hard because there's lots of iterations of that though. I know, but I'm saying, I'm saying for an $18, Ashton, this to me, is performing at a davidoff type level right now
**Senator:** for me. Yeah. I just think, I mean, you know, to, I, I'm with Gizmo here in the sense that if you were to take a cigar smoker that says, I like full flavored cigars.
I smoke padron, I smoke Davi off, I smoke, uh, Liga. Yeah. Right. You would never, in your [00:34:00] wildest dreams recommend that they try an Ashton B s G e. Never. I, I really believe that. Never. He's right. And the fact that now, after having smoked this, I would give this to someone who loves that a level of flavor and say, you're gonna also like this cigar.
Yeah. It's mind blowing
**Poobah:** to me. The, the, the, the, the finish It's is fantastic. Goes on. Yeah. And on and on. It lingers. Yep. It lingers and it's pretty, and it's really pleasant. It's Daisy like,
**Gizmo:** And to say that, but sorry to interrupt you, Dan, sorry. Yep. But to say that about a sun-grown cigar, because I've had a lot of cigars that are labeled as sun-grown, especially the underground from Drew Estate Legal, that's cigar is lackluster at best.
It really is. What is, what is sun grown that, I guess it's it's leaves that have no coverage. Yeah. Think so. Some. That's right. Some cigars have, like that's, that's typically the full sun, the rapper, full sun. I think it's, these are full sun. Yeah.
**Senator:** Mo [00:35:00] most cigars have basically cheesecloth that they put over the plants to give it a balance of sun.
Not too much sun, because the sun darkens leaves. And so like a darker wrapper like this, a Maduro, or this is not a Maduro, but a Maduro is like more exposed to the sun to really darken those leaves. Right. So that, that's essentially what a sun grown is.
**Bam Bam:** What's cool about this cigar? You know, we all love the Excluse and the other quadrons.
This is a great opportunity to change up your lineup Whenev, when you want something just a little bit different. I won't ever put this above a patron, but it could in a, in, in a particular evening. If I want something a little different, plug
**Gizmo:** this right in. Yeah. I think we would all reach for this. You know, it, to me, I've been doing that with the League of Nine, uh, cor viva, where I'm, you know, I want a new world.
Okay. I've had a, a Cuban. To start by night. I want to have another cigar. I don't know if I really feel like having Ani or Diplomatico or a Patron Point tonight or a great, it's a great, great point. I've been reaching for League of Nine. Yeah. Variety. Yeah. And now I would, I'm gonna [00:36:00] absolutely a hundred percent go into this humidor when we're done with this podcast and get some more of these cigars.
Hundred percent.
**Rooster:** Whenever you send us a, whenever you send us a picture, it's all always a
**Gizmo:** pagus. Lucy . That's all I see. That's all I see. I think I
**Senator:** do have a lot of, I think what I've learned here, there's a lot of secretive cigar smoke. Oh yeah. There is. Because pub has said he has these, we've never,
**Gizmo:** that's way more secretive than me.
Well, I know a handful. I,
**Senator:** that's a form of either way. In all the years we've known Puba, he's never once sent us a photo of an Ashton secretive. No,
**Poobah:** no, no, no, no. Secretive enterprise. Okay. That's, I just, I'm not singling
**Senator:** you out. I'm also saying with Gizmo, you know, he said sometimes he'll slot in aga. I've never seen him send a photo of a liga.
**Gizmo:** That's
**Rooster:** true too. When was the last
**Gizmo:** time you saw Puba send a picture? That's true. That's very true. I was just gonna say that very also, I don't think that I did announce on the chat, I did announce on the chat that I purchased two boxes of Lea nine Coronavirus. I did say that two. Wow. I purchased two. They were very, they were very reasonable.
Never saw that. [00:37:00] Nope. No. Search
**Senator:** the chat. How many you, you,
**Grinder:** how many freaking cigars do you have
**Gizmo:** right now? I don't wanna talk about it. Yeah, it's absurd. You're, you are, you are. By the way, I got my fifth cab of loosies, by the way. Wow. I have a theory. Cigar whore . I have a theory. What's your theory?
**Senator:** I think in a few years, gizmo is gonna be a cigar retailer gonna have its own shop.
I think clearly there must be a market opportunity. Oh boy. There must be a market opportunity in, uh, in Butler, New Jersey. And, and Gizmo is gonna be leading a retail
**Gizmo:** operation. I very well May, oh boy. . Mandel. Okay. Okay. .
**Senator:** Another one bite. I think we have sticks. I think we have two chairs that prove us . Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** Oh my God. It's cuz he had the leg up, that's why. Uh, no I don't. No, but this is absolutely, you know, going
**Poobah:** back to our point , by the way, if this chair collapses, if I have two chair collapses.
**Bam Bam:** You're dying. I'm done.
**Poobah:** Oh God. And I've, I'm, oh God. , [00:38:00]
**Senator:** I'll see you at 9:00 AM for a run, .
**Gizmo:** Oh. Uh, this cigar I'm absolutely gonna slot in.
Yeah. Unless it finishes in the last half here. Mm-hmm. . Unless it finishes very poorly, which I don't see happening. Um, this is gonna slot in cuz I just love Landero man. I love Lonsdale. I do, I just love Do they make a lanzaro? No, I'm sorry. It's Lonsdale. But yeah, I mean, they don't make
**Poobah:** Glen like down the stretch, the thing that's in one flaw Us, there's no touchups two.
So it's performing in, it's almost performing in like a davidoff. Fashion. So you've got a luxury kind of construction and delivery on it, and there's just no rough edges down the stretch. But it's still delivering like that, like a very full bodied, but, but not delivering so much strength that it's knocking you around.
There's no tar. It's, but the body took, it's got great balance. The balance, the balance in the body. Yeah. There's, there's a little bit of sweetness. There's all, there's a lot of things going [00:39:00] on. This is a relatively complex cigar and I'm, I'm not pumping it up because I have a few of them. It's not like I've, I, I'm go to these all the time, but I used to smoke these a lot more.
Um, Until, you know, there was a scarlet letter put on me , whatever the fuck. But, but anyway, uh,
**Gizmo:** that's true. The scarlet, the A for Ashton. Yeah.
**Poobah:** But I'm glad you guys like it because it, it, it's, it's been around for 20 years for a reason. Now you can come
**Bam Bam:** out of the closet .
**Poobah:** It's true. Is that, Hey, hey, hey Ben.
Let's not talk about coming out of the closet.
you gonna tee yourself up like a papaya? I got, I got a question
**Gizmo:** on this. Like, look in the mirror. Huh?
**Rooster:** Did Carlito Fuente only collaborated on. Is it the entire line of e
**Gizmo:** sg or, yeah, it's the v sg line. Yeah. This is really good. Mm. It's really good. I'm just
**Senator:** the thing that's [00:40:00] killing me. I'm just sitting here saying, I'm already thinking about and I can't wait to smoke another one of these.
Yeah. Like I'm, I'm gonna buy this. Yep. Yeah. Never in my wildest dreams, I think, I'd say. Very cool. Yeah. We're
**Gizmo:** gonna buy it right here. John. John's got a couple more than a couple boxes, isn't there? Yeah, they're, yeah. I'm, I'm so happy that we did this at, uh, how the clubhouse tonight. I'm
**Poobah:** just gonna say for the record, Senator, how many things have I turned you onto where you went?
Okay. The rover.
**Gizmo:** That's fair. It goes
**Poobah:** both ways. I think it does. I'm just trying to pump myself up. You know, he pumps themself up. Dimitri,
**Grinder:** Dimitri
**Senator:** Demetrice to Meri. Actually, just on Dmitri alone, Puba deserves like some sort of award. We need to like make a plaque or something like that.
**Gizmo:** By the way, can I quickly say, uh, I had a listener email us asking us when we were gonna do the Bloody Mary episode that, uh, we keep promising.
Yeah, yeah. Just saying we should, we should do
**Grinder:** it for football season. That sounds like like a Saturday morning. Sunday morning, sorry. No. College football. Yes.
**Bam Bam:** Nfl. Yes. College, college. College. College.
**Grinder:** Football [00:41:00] season grinders. Got it. Get in there. Make it happen. Watch some great college football. Do some bloodies.
Make it happen. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right. Well do love it. Sure. Love
**Poobah:** doing it. For sure. I wanna know how, how senator's gonna get over the brand stigma to buy some of these .
**Bam Bam:** Oh, I think it's done. And it, your
**Grinder:** soul. Oh, look, I think you're, I think you're projecting right
**Senator:** now. Yeah. He's, yeah. I was gonna say, I thank you.
Because honestly, for me, the brand doesn't matter. I, it's not a, I'm not big on bra. I've talked about a thousand things where you can buy this like, fancy thing and there's something more accessible that's actually way better in quality. Um, for me it's just the, the, the brand stigma has been that Ashton is just a really mild cigar, which is just not something I ever seek out or pursue.
Yeah. And the fact that they can produce something this flavorful, this is completely. changed my worldview on that.
**Gizmo:** Can, can I say too, I, I mean it, it's, it's, you know, judging a book by its cover, but I've never found Ashton's story or their branding or their boxes or [00:42:00] their labels or really anything about them to be compelling, to make me want to dig and ask more.
It's never been something where I've said, all right, let me learn a little bit about this. It's always something I've just brushed off whenever I've seen it. Like, oh, there's an Ashton. Like, I've never thought highly of it.
**Poobah:** Right. But, but, but going back to me being slightly older, mm-hmm. , um, this, this, this is a lux, this was presented in the luxury brand in the late nineties as a luxury brand and established itself as such.
So, you know, in my mind it's a completely different perception.
**Gizmo:** They sell a lot of cigars. They do. You're not wrong. All hot. Yeah, but the v
**Rooster:** the Vs G line has always been known for a little bit more flavor. Right. Full bodied
**Gizmo:** smoke. We
**Poobah:** said that earlier.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It distinguishes itself from all the other, so
**Gizmo:** here's my question though.
Oh no, there's
**Poobah:** another one though. But there's more. But yeah, there's, there's
**Rooster:** the [00:43:00] heritage, there's, yeah, there's the heritage
**Gizmo:** isn't soul, I think. Souls. O l Yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's others that are higher. I've got a question though. I mean, this is, do the people, do the people who reach for the Ashton White Label would I typically know as the brand or the, the, the, the band on the cigars, that white label?
Do those folks, do those seem consumers reach for this cigar? I don't think cigar. I would think not. No, no, no, no. No, sir. So there's, to me, like an opportunity. Ashton to, to present this brand differently, to cigar smokers who smoke patrons or da.
**Senator:** They do. Can we talk about the, the brand history a little bit?
Do that. I actually don't. Let's do that. Think that we've done that enough. We have, and I don't even think we're accurate. So I want to correct the record here. Cause I'm on Ashton's website. So this is from the source. Um, we've talked about how they started in the eighties. Um, all of their handmade cigars are from the tobacco era, Fuente factory in the Dominican Republic.
All of them. I did not know [00:44:00] that. Wow. All rolled at the Fuente factory, which says a lot to the quality of the cigars. I mean, if there's one thing will give Fuente credit for Right. The, the qualities always, always. Still. Um, the other thing that's fascinating, so the, the company started, and this goes to Rooster's point about Holtz being.
um, it's a Pennsylvania born brand. Yes. So I know two of the lizards are very happy to hear this. Um, that's really where shout out, that's where it started. Represent. Uh, it started in Philly, like going back to before the brand itself was formed in the fifties and sixties. The guy Robert Levin, who founded Ashton, um, worked in his father's cigar shop, Holt Cigar Company in Philly, which now is massive obviously, but at the time huge reach, a
**Grinder:** lot, lot of quality coming out of the city of brotherly love,
**Gizmo:** quantity.
We
**Senator:** we're not sure about quality . Oh boy. . And then the fascinating thing, it says, so you know, Ashton debut in 1985. It says shortly thereafter he partnered with the Fuente family to produce the [00:45:00] brand. There you go. Not just the Vsg. Oh wow. So yeah, it says the brand. Wow. Which is remarkable. I never knew any of this.
Um, and it says Carlos Fuente Sr. And his son Carlito, had been making premium cigars on their own and really helped them grow and build the Ashton brand. I assume obviously there was a financial reason for doing this, but it, it's, it's really fascinating. I I never knew that.
**Gizmo:** I wonder if Holtz really helped.
I, I gotta think that they helped him with, you know, uh, Fuente with the distribution and stuff, you know. Well, Robert,
**Rooster:** Robert Levin owns Ashton then.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. He's the founder, right? Right. He does.
**Senator:** And it says today, Ashton is a father and son operation headed by Robert Levin. The father and his son sat Levin.
Satia Levin. Um, it, it's, it's a really remarkable story. I don't know why I just always viewed Ashton as like a very corporate brand, so I just kind of assumed that it was acquired by some giant and run by that. But that doesn't seem to be the case. They deserve a lot of credit, I think. So
**Gizmo:** again, I'm gonna go back to my [00:46:00] prior point.
I think that they could use. a different approach in their marketing. I agree. To reach cigar smokers like us.
**Senator:** I think the heritage story needs to be told, like this is I agree. Like the American dream story, right? Like these are guys, they, they're, they weren't from Cuba. Like you read of so many cigar brands, right?
Like the Fuente, the PE, drones, all of them started in like Cuba or Miami via Cuba and built these empires. This is a guy who loved premium cigars, worked in a retail shop in Philly Yeah. And started a cigar brand. That's
**Gizmo:** incredible. Yeah. To have the success they've had. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Amazing. Well, it's, they're, they're popular.
I mean, you, you all, all they were, this was a go-to, this was a really go-to label back in the day. Yeah. And, and, uh, and people still love these. And this is a premium cigar at 18 bucks. Yeah, it is. It's
**Gizmo:** not cheap. Oh yeah. Certainly not, but it's performing right where it should, and I would say it's punching out of its weight [00:47:00] class.
If I were to, if you were to tell me this was 25 or 28 bucks, I'd still be as satisfied as I am right now. Yeah. It wouldn't be with the performance for the value,
**Grinder:** this is
**Gizmo:** also a slow burn. It is. It's, it's performing very,
**Poobah:** very well. It's the combustion's great. The build is great. The flavor. I, I mean, it's a pretty, yeah, pretty.
**Gizmo:** I'm
**Senator:** also gonna say for the size, this is the best new world Lonsdale I've had, period. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** absolutely. Close. Not even close. Totally agree. Mm-hmm. and I wish more new worlds were made in this size. Not many. Yeah. Great band. Yeah. Nice band on it too. Yeah. So I, I gotta tell you guys, I've been very excited to talk about it.
I hope bam, bam is too. Um, and I hope you, the rest of you guys are too, if you've experienced it. But I've, I, I had a wonderful summer of concerts this year, year. Phenomenal summer of concerts. Uh, so bam, bam. And I went to, uh, see Dead and Company at [00:48:00] City Field. You were all
**Grinder:** missed. I still, I still resent that, by the way.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You were all missed.
**Gizmo:** Fantastic. It was, we, we did it on a whim. We were sitting here at the clubhouse, we purchased the tickets. We, I said, bam. Bam. Do you want to go? We went on game time. We purchased the tickets. No fucking hesitation. It was unbelievable. We had Delta Suite seats, which was, well,
**Bam Bam:** there was all Delta Club.
Yeah. And there was a whole build up to the evening before that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And gave it to that. And we went to Peter Luger's. We had a steak. Mm-hmm. , we shared a steak. We did the, uh, Lady in the Tramp. We crossed our arms. I was gonna ask, did you guys feed each other? We did. We fed each other. I don't remember that.
We took some pictures, and uh, and then we went to the Davidoff Lounge next door to Peter Lugers in Brooklyn. That was awesome. Had a great cigar. And then we went up. Dude, it was a great day, dude. It was fantastic. And the, the band, I know Puba is a big Grateful Dead guy. Uh, but John Mayer and that band, it was a really special night.
Yeah. It was really awesome. Yep.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that I, in fact, I would take my wife to that concert. It was such a, I would too. Had such a great night. Yeah. Such
**Poobah:** a great, it was amazing. And that's, that makes me really, it as a, as a, [00:49:00] as a, I consider myself a, you're a true dead guy. A true dead, true, true deadhead. I, I, I saw, uh, between Jerry Garcia Band and the Grateful Dead.
60 plus shows. Um, you've kept all the Stubbs I heard. Um, many of them. Yeah. Yeah. Um, some were lost due to, um, being disoriented ,
**Bam Bam:** uh, is that, is that
**Poobah:** what we're calling it? ? Yeah. But, uh, but anyway, but I mean, it makes me very, very happy that, that, you know, that you guys were able to, to see Bob Weir, to see, um, John Meer do, you know, do a relatively good job in terms of, you know, he was, he was superb.
He was. He, he Tru was.
**Gizmo:** Well, he, he is. He's, but you know, here's the thing though, PBA as a, as a deadhead to the level you are, and listen, admittedly, I used to you and I used to argue about the dead because I just didn't get it. But what I'll say is that John Mayer was the bridge, honestly Yes. For me to get it.
Yeah. [00:50:00] And he's not trying to be Jerry Garcia. No. Um, but man, the job he's doing, I think is really spectacular and he's gonna shepherd that music long after the other three members, other four members that are still alive are, are gonna be there. But weir's energy level,
**Bam Bam:** he was great. He was like a young kid on that stage.
Yeah, he's incredible. And
**Gizmo:** he's in the seventies. It's unbelievable. He's fit as fucked
**Grinder:** though.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** He is so fit.
**Bam Bam:** Yep. He didn't stop at all. He was just
**Poobah:** amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So they do a good job. I've seen Denton company many, many, many, many times. Um, uh, they do a look. It's, I, I think it's wonderful that, that John Mayers continued to, um, You know, honor Jerry, um, in, in a, in a pretty respectful way.
He's an outstanding guitar player. Um, uh, you know, he's obviously, he's not Jerry Garcia, of course not. Uh, but not even [00:51:00] close. Um, and the band, the way they play now is, is not even close to the, it's totally, it's not even, not even close to the, to, to the type of energy level. So how, what it was, how would you describe that difference though?
It's a, it's a, it's temp. No, I, no, no, no. It's so much more . It's
**Bam Bam:** don't get him started. It's so
**Poobah:** much more,
**Grinder:** you're, you're accolade, it's, you're accolade for John Mayer is, is, is not notably
**Poobah:** measured. Yes. Yeah, it is. In every, any deadhead, anybody who's been to see the Grateful Dead. Live and knows the band and has listened to the, to the live shows as extensively as I have and been to them.
There's the, you know, it's not, it's, he does a good job, but he's one, he didn't write the songs. Two, um, he, he, he, he does a great job, don't get me wrong. He does a great job, like continuing to carry on, uh, and, and kind of [00:52:00] represent Garcia in a, in a, in a reputable way Also, Phil Lesh isn't playing with them.
And you don't, and you don't have, you don't have Bill or Mickey playing along with them either. So it's the energy, the whole energy of the thing and the whole, well, Billy and Mickey are there, and the, and the, the whole Right. But they're not, it's not the same. I know it's not. So
**Gizmo:** they're not trying to
**Poobah:** beat them.
No, but, but, but all, all I can tell you is that when you seeing the Grateful Dead Live back then is just different than seeing the Grateful Dead today with their dead and company today with John Mayer. So I, I think it's great. All I'm saying is I think it's great that you guys have, have discovered the music.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a huge catalog and I think that, that there's so much to learn. There's so much to listen to and there's so much to, to absorb because the music [00:53:00] spans genres and influences across decades and decades and decades. And I think that, you know, you're at the, just, you know, the very beginning of going into Yeah.
The catalog and, and, and, and the, the various iterations of the band, which is compelling. So I think that,
**Gizmo:** Can I say though that what I will say and, and I'm not defending, I'm, I'm agreeing with you. The bridge that I crossed with John Mayer introducing me to the music has sent me down this rabbit hole that now I have my d different favorite years of their of the Grateful Dead's live performances.
My favorite performances in those years. Like I've become absolutely obsessed with it. Yeah. Like
**Poobah:** it's unbelievable. Should, you should check out like 77,
**Gizmo:** 77, 72.
**Poobah:** Um, the, the some of that stuff is, is phenomenal. I mean, so like there's a whole thing with, with that and the co and then it's a whole conversation.
Yeah. I mean, you Yeah, [00:54:00] we could, that we could go down. It's a deep dive. But, but I'm really happy that, that, that, that, that people have discovered that continuing
**Gizmo:** the traditions of and on a whim, bam, bam. And I, on a whim, bam, bam. And I had a phenomenal day. Yeah. And I've Categor agars. Yeah. And, and good mo good food.
**Bam Bam:** Getting to the music for two seconds. As a novice, as a dead, dead and company novice as a grateful dead novice, I have to say the way the musicianship was superb. Yeah. And the experience was fantastic. The quality of the music and the live experience was, I was actually very surprised. And the one thing I'll say, I was surprised.
Thank you. And you, they
**Gizmo:** paid great homage. I think they did. And I, I'll agree with everything. What I loved about. The experience, and I'm sure this is similar to what you experienced. I've never been to a concert where you're in, we're in a baseball stadium and everyone around you, it's like they're your friend dude.
It's a fucking party. And, and, and to the point that bam, bam, we go and buy merch . Okay? We leave our seats. Oh, we call him [00:55:00] by mer story. Bam. Bam. We come back to our seats. We just bought a bunch of merch and all that. We're really excited. We're having a great time. We can have a drink and bam, bam realizes he forgot his cell phone at the merch
**Bam Bam:** table.
I left my phone on the
**Gizmo:** table. On the table. Three stories down. Yeah. So we run back down on the merch table. It's typical and the typical the phone, . Thank you Rooster. The phone is sitting right where he left. It's still. I, that would never happen at almost any other concert. I was so grateful. What, what everybody, what a crap tripping.
**Rooster:** They're on
**Gizmo:** mushrooms, . It was, they were happy. It was a happy that they were happy. It was a great crowd. No, it was, it was a great crowd. So that's
**Bam Bam:** what's so cool about
**Gizmo:** it. The environment was so friendly. It was so positive. It was awesome. It is
**Poobah:** very positive. Yeah. Um, and it is. And, and, and I think that, uh, hey, my son went to camp.
He came back from camp, um, and uh, uh, he, he comes back and he says, he goes, he goes, have you heard the, he goes, have you heard the song Terrapin [00:56:00] Station? ? And I said, have I heard the song Terrapin Station? I'll play it for you. It's very sweet right now. Have you heard, you know, oh, have you, have you heard estimated profit?
Have you, you know, have, oh, that's cool. Have you heard Alabama getaway? That's so cool, dude. And all this stuff. And I'm like, absolutely. So it takes somebody that's awesome. You know, there's always that one person in your life, whether a catalyst. that turns kind of turns you onto the dead and they go and, and it's not, probably not your parent because the music's been playing in my house since he was a baby.
Yeah. But it's because my wife's a deadhead. So y you know, and it's like, it took a camp counselor . Right. You know, when he was at Sleepaway camp, the, and he comes back and now he's buying tie dyes. He's, he, he's blasting the Grateful Dead from his room. The studio albums not the live stuff. Yeah, yeah. And he, and he's blasting it from his room and he is just playing.
You know,
Prophet on the Burning [00:57:00] Short can say Playing estimated. He's playing all this stuff. And I'm go, he's playing Terrapin Station and Lady with a fan. And I'm like, and
**Senator:** little as you know, he is doing mushrooms, ,
**Poobah:** and little, he's doing mushroom. That's so, it's funny, I wrote my guitar teacher, who's an expert in, in the Grateful Dead, um, this guy Seth Fleischman and I and I, who I've been taking lessons with for years and years and years and years for guitar, because he's in, he's the greatest of all time.
And he goes, , I go, I go, my son came back from Camp , he's going to the high school and came back from camp and he kid doesn't stop playing the Grateful Dead. He goes, you know, you know he's doing drugs now. He
**Gizmo:** I gotta say that person, that person that, that intrigued me to the dead was you And I had a pretty.
I would say discussion, bordering an argument about it. I was very anti You too know and, and I, I realized, I'm like, man, I, I've had a long history with music in the industry and stuff and, uh, I, I, I remember sitting, I, I was like, I don't understand [00:58:00] why I can't get this. I've always wanted to love the band and I never got it.
You and I have so much in common cigars and, and we have great conversations. We've spent a lot of time together, obviously, and we like a lot of the same music and we like a lot of the same music. I never got. , but the bridge to that was John Mayer. But the catalyst was that really intense discussion that you and I had about it.
So I'm thankful for that and, and because of it, bam, bam. And I, on a whim had a really great time. I had to go back. I think That's awesome. Anytime. Yeah. I'd love to do a lizard event. Yeah. And go, especially the way we had it, private bathrooms and all those stuff, the whole nine
**Poobah:** yards. Fantastic. I think that's awesome.
I mean, the pregame that you guys did is unconventional ,
**Gizmo:** Lugar's the garden sake. That's not in the, uh, that's not in the dead lag
**Bam Bam:** at Lugers at there was a table was of, uh,
**Poobah:** Deadheads. Young Deadheads. Yeah. Yeah. There's always a catalyst. There really is. It comes to, yeah, there's always someone, it's such
**Gizmo:** a great experience.
There's
**Poobah:** always someone who says then, and then when you, you, you get it, you go to the, you, you know, when you go to a show and you really get to feel, [00:59:00] um, how electric it can be. Um, and by the way, they played poorly sometimes. They, they sure there were, there were shows that, that, but boy, when, when, when they were on.
Um, it, it, it, there was nothing. There was really nothing like it. Mm-hmm. . So I'm really glad you guys, you know, had, yeah, we had a great
night.
**Gizmo:** Fantastic. Fantastic. It's really great. Absolutely. A great night. And, and you flew out straight from there, right? Yeah, he did. I did. I
**Poobah:** flew out the next morning. I would recommend one thing, you know, if you appreciate John Maer and you appreciate how he honors Jerry Garcia, I would highly, highly recommend that you, you, you watch the Farthe Well, yeah.
Show where? Trey Anastasio. Of Phish. Of Phish, yeah. Okay. By the way, blows John Mair out of the water beyond for Farthe. Well, in Chicago, Chicago, Trey is, is, and I'm not a huge fish fan, [01:00:00] but I like them. But what he did when they, the whole band got back together, including Phil, and they, and they played that farthe well show whenever it was, five, six years ago in, in Chicago, 20 15, 7 years, was it seven years ago?
Yeah. That show with Trey doing it and how he and his, his guitar tone, I highly recommend you watch it.
**Gizmo:** The other, the other thing, outstanding. The other thing for listeners outstanding, you know, who maybe aren't familiar with it or kind of toying with it, the Amazon Prime series. , uh, that is not only Features the Dead, but is produced by The Dead called Long Strange Trip.
Oh yeah. Is a wonderful documentary that I recommend anybody watch. It's one of the best music documents I've ever seen of all time.
**Poobah:** And also, uh, check out the other one on Netflix, the other one with Bob Weir. Yep. And he gives his perspective. Um, and that gets into, uh, you know, the , uh, uh, the Mary Pranksters and, and, and, and, and [01:01:00] Cassidy and, and all that stuff.
And, and, and the, and the acid test. It's very interesting. Yeah. I
**Rooster:** just love the name Long
**Gizmo:** Strange Trip. Yep. . So we are from one of their all into that. Yeah, that's great. It's your past life
**Grinder:** there rooster. That, that, that, so there's, there's some great footage of, of Jerry playing the banjo in that just like, you know, just jamming, like he was such a talented banjo
**Gizmo:** player.
that's where he started . So
**Grinder:** cool. To just like, amazing. See him play this
**Poobah:** bluegrass. Yeah. Palo Alto. Yeah. Banjo. Banjo player in the first, the, the olden in the way is the, is the bluegrass band that, that, uh, that, you know, Jerry led. So you
**Gizmo:** went to a lot of
**Rooster:** other
**Gizmo:** concerts too? I mean, I did. He did. I did. Oh, well the other highlight, steely Dan.
Steely Dan. I went to Paul McCartney. I went to Rage Against the Machine. Wow. Oh, you, but the little rage I did at Madison's Square was rage. Were you, were you killing in the name of I was . I always do as you know him. And how was Mc? How was McCartney? McCartney was great. Uh, it was more a [01:02:00] nostalgia trip for me than a great concert, you know, I was glad to be there.
Um, if he wasn't 80. , I'm feeling kind of, you know, close to the end of his touring days. Uh, you know, I don't know if I would be running out to go see it, kind of like Billy Joel or Elton John, but it was amazing. But the guy shots fired. No, it's not. No, it's not bad. No, no, no. It's not bad. It just wasn't, from a performance standpoint, it wasn't one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
But it's Paul McCartney in front of you in MetLife Stadium where the Giants and Jets play. Cool. Um, it was phenomenal. That's cool. The, the concert that stood out above all of that I've seen this summer, uh, alongside the Dead and Company show was Barry Manilow. Mm mm I went to Providence, Rhode Island with the bride.
She's a huge Barry fan. And let me tell you something, Barry Manilow at 80 years old or 78 or whatever, he. I couldn't believe how great that show was. That's crazy. It was unbelievable. This guy. Yeah. I believe
**Poobah:** it. I, I, I, Barry
**Gizmo:** Manilow was great. Yeah. When he played, uh, you know, weekend in New [01:03:00] England and Mandy, I lost my mind when he played Mandy.
That was the one. Did you cry? Uh, no, but I was, I was close. You were there. Okay. I was close. I love it. You know what made me cry about the Barry Manilow show driving through Connecticut? Oh, yeah, we heard about that. . Oh, oh boy. Lemme tell you something. Not a good cry. No, no, no, no. Lemme tell you something.
Connecticut is top three. No offense to the listeners out there. Sorry. To the international listeners who don't know what we're talking about, Connecticut is a top three worst state in the entire United States world. It is tough to drive. Horrible. Yeah. Tough to drive through. When I tell you, har, every moment of being in Connecticut, I can't stand
The whole, the whole state should be paved. They're so proud of their trees. Whoa. And their, and their wild, like the whole state should be paved. It should be a 16 lane highway. I hate Connecticut.
**Senator:** But you have to be, but you have to have to be more specific. What happen? Justification. Cause driving through Connecticut.
Hang on, hang on, hang on. Just help me understand this cuz my only experience driving through Connecticut is to drive up to Massachusetts and you take like the [01:04:00] Merit Parkway and Merit Parkway, 95 there. Tons of trees. There's a few lanes you're zipping through. There's no cops. It's great. I there's no zip drive.
So what, what is the
**Gizmo:** problem? He got a ticket. No, I didn't get any tickets. No. The traffic and the, the, the potholes, the traffic, the traffic pattern. Design of it. There are two lanes on both sides. It's horrendous. I have some, it's a
**Poobah:** sin. I have some, I have some great memories, man from in Connecticut.
Connecticut's horrible, Fairfield. I spent a lot of time in Fairfield in my 20, in my early twenties. Uh, man, I wish, I wish, I wish I could get into the, I'm more, but, but boy oh boy. I mean, Fairfield Beach.
**Gizmo:** Fairfield Beach Road. Listen, pave the whole state, pave it. The whole thing should be paved, should be off highway, the places that we want to go.
Cuz we do not wanna be in Connecticut. I think you're being a little unfair. I'm not gonna lie. Every time I've ever been Connecticut, it's painful traffic. That's my entire experience with No, they
**Poobah:** don't, they don't Also don't sell alcohol on Sundays. Liquor you liquor stores, which is [01:05:00] odd. But other than that, I, I've had some good times in Connecticut.
**Grinder:** I, I lived in Stanford for like a year. They had an awesome like summer concert series every Friday. Sorry. Yeah. Every Friday alive at five. It was awesome.
**Gizmo:** Martha Stewart
**Poobah:** lives there. Come on. What's us ? Yo man. Fairfield. Fairfield
**Gizmo:** Beach.
**Senator:** She, she really lives at
**Gizmo:** Snoop Dog's house's. So nice sound. She lives with Snoop Dog.
We should, we sweet. We need to get the asphalt pave the whole state. It should be a, it should be a highway. The whole state should be a highway. Okay. Take. I agree to disagree. Take it.
**Rooster:** Going back to the concerts. My wife and my daughter went to see
**Gizmo:** Coldplay. I heard it's amazing at MetLife. Yeah. My wife was there as well.
Yes, I heard it was very good. They loved the con. I mean it was, it was a great show. Great. Chris
**Poobah:** Martin, lots of neon. Bruce
**Gizmo:** walked out. Yeah. Yeah. Bruce was there. Yeah. Bruce also came out at the, uh, yes, he did. Paul McCartney show. That's right. Yeah. Uh, so did John Bonjovi. Yeah. Well,
**Poobah:** Springsteen, Springsteen puts on the great show That was
**Gizmo:** Springs, by the way.
Springsteen came out and sang two songs with Paul. He had Bonjovi came out, and he only [01:06:00] allowed Bonjovi to sing Happy Birthday. . He sent Bonjovi off. I don't, I I thought that was a little odd. Springsteen.
**Poobah:** Springsteen in East Rutherford. Forget it. Yeah. I've seen
**Grinder:** this so many times. I've never been as emotional as I have been at a concert than seeing the boss.
Really? And at, at, it was at MetLife. I had shitty seats, but it was like you, I grew, I grew up listening to the boss, like you, if you live in the Northeast, you listen to all lot of, especially Jersey, especially I, I'm from Pennsylvania. I know. And it was, you know, I grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen, all of his albums throughout my entire childhood.
And then I go to see Bruce Springsteen when I'm 22 years old. When I finally moved to Manhattan. And I go trek out to New Jersey, and it was such a
**Gizmo:** wonderful experience. Yeah.
**Poobah:** It's the same, you get the same kind of like a cultural, um, connection. It's a similar, I I feel like Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel was another one.
Yeah. You, you know, you feel like, like when you [01:07:00] listen to New York State of Mind or, um, or any of the greats piano, so many great songs. Piano Men pianos, piano. Well, piano Man. Um, uh, scenes. Yeah. Yeah. Like my aunt, you know, um, , my wife,
**Grinder:** my wife got me birthdate for my birthday. She got me Billy Joel tickets at M S G.
Yeah. And that was a concert literal. I cried through the entire thing. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Wow. I've never cried through a concert. . I'm envious. Billy Joel.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Good lord. I just cried through Billy fucking Billy
**Gizmo:** Joel concert. Yeah. Emotional grinder. Emotional
**Bam Bam:** grinder. Oh yeah.
**Poobah:** I am an emotional grinder ,
**Gizmo:** by the way. Um, speaking of a, uh, long, strange trip.
This cigar, this cigar, I'm down to the end has been, I I'm in the last third here. Yeah. Right with you. It, it's, it's a long, pleasant trip. What an amazing cigar. This has been still delicious. I've really enjoyed every draw. The
**Senator:** thing that surprised me most, I expected the [01:08:00] flavor to dial down as I smoked this further.
Mm-hmm. , and it's dialed up. Yep. Yeah. The last third is even more flavor.
**Gizmo:** It's really good. It's still smooth though. It's still smooth. Yes. Still smooth. Very
**Poobah:** impressive. Smoking it down to the end. Yeah. Look, anybody who
**Rooster:** smokes a padrone and loves a padrone would love this. Sure. I agree. Agree. Anybody who likes a full flavored steak.
Sure. Yeah. This is
**Gizmo:** right in their wheeler. Absolutely. If you took
**Senator:** the band off this and we did this blind, there's not one of us that would've ever in our wildest dreams said, this is an Ashton way. No one or
**Gizmo:** a Dominican. Right. I would've guessed this was either AGA or a patron drone. Agree. If it was band list, I would've guessed it was one of those two.
And it's a Dominican. Yeah. Yeah,
**Poobah:** yeah. Yeah. It tastes great. Lot of depth of flavor. It delivered.
**Gizmo:** It delivered. I'm really interested to see where this rates when we get to the end here. Oh yeah. But yeah, very, very, very good. Um, but yeah, uh, a wonderful summer of concerts. It's nice to see you live music back.
Yep. You know, for [01:09:00] sure. It's, it's good to be out and about. Fuck Covid doing stuff. Fuck. I'm just so glad it's, uh, coming, hopefully coming to an end
**Poobah:** here. I mean, speaking of the end, I mean, I'm, everyone here is smoking the cigar right down to the end, to the end. Yes, sir.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, sometimes it's like when we're smoking a cigar in the pod, it's like coming to the last third.
We're not really enjoying it. Let's get outta here. I I, I hope this doesn't end. Yeah. It's really, really good. Very interesting. Right? Yeah.
**Grinder:** I'm gonna want to listen to some
**Gizmo:** dead after this, by the way, . And I hope the listeners do too. It's, uh, a wonderful journey. Are you guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on this?
**Grinder:** Can we just, can we just go, go around the horn? What's your favorite dead song?
**Gizmo:** That's hard. That's really hard. I would say I, I'm a big fan of, um, lost writer right now saying of circumstance, kind of back to back. Um, yeah. I love saying Steven. I love [01:10:00] Althea. Of course. Bum Big. That
**Grinder:** opening. It's amazing. Is that what he's
**Gizmo:** doing right now?
Mm-hmm. So good. Althea is Althea Al Althea Maybe. Althea. Althea. I love
**Bam Bam:** Alba. But you're gonna make Grinder cry. Be careful. No, no, no.
**Grinder:** cuz that's not my, that's my not my favorite dead song. Oh,
**Poobah:** okay.
**Gizmo:** What is your favorite? I'm wearing a dark star shirt, by the way.
**Grinder:** I I know, I know. I I chastised you for it. Yeah.
While you're at it, you des you, you look. I'm not, I'm
**Gizmo:** glowing. You are glowing.
**Senator:** While you're at it, can you say your favorite Billy Joel song? So he starts crying . Yeah. Please. Scenes.
**Poobah:** I love, I love the Sad, I love Jerry. Yeah. And Jerry wrote, you know, most of, most of the material, the Garcia Hunter, you know, hunt Bobby Lyric, Bob Bobby Hunter wrote Jerry's lyrics.
Yep. And um, Uh, so, you know, I like the Garcia Hunter stuff, [01:11:00] um, more. I, I, I like things something like Morning Dew. Yep. Oh God. Morning Dew
**Grinder:** at the
**Gizmo:** European tour concert. Can I throw another Jerry song out that I'm obsessed with right now? Sure. They love each other. Oh, it's great. I'm obsessed with that song.
They Love You. Amazing song. And that, can I say, you know, going Back to Dead and Company and John Mayer, that is a song that he really shines on. Yeah. Is they love each other. You guys might like
**Grinder:** laugh at this one, but My favorite Dead song, Lon Rose,
**Gizmo:** that's not a, that's a great song. Yeah. I also love Ripple.
Oh, ripple. Oh, there's some really amazing emotional Jerry versions of Ripple that really blow me away.
**Grinder:** It's, it, that's, that's a sad, that's kind of like a melancholic
**Gizmo:** tune. It is. It's great Encore, but it's definitely low. Yeah. Low energy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Senator's. Senator's so confused right now. . And then, and then, no, I,
**Senator:** I was ready for the formal liquor rating.
I, I was ready to shit all over this singleton.
**Gizmo:** I could see. I could see him. [01:12:00] Absolutely.
**Poobah:** He's tuned up. Ready for it. All right. Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's do the, uh, formal liquor rating on this thing. Bam. Bam. You're up Singleton 15.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. So, you know, I can't finish the drink, but not, I have been able to take very tiny sips just to keep the palate wet.
Um, but I do get the whiff of medicine and a little weird thing happening on the nose. I'm disinfectant.
**Grinder:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it's a five. Okay. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Grinder. I'm giving this one notch up from a bow bowmore, which is a one I'm giving this a two. Wow. Wow. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Senator. I thought
**Senator:** I was gonna be harsh. Wow. Three.
**Gizmo:** Yeah,
**Poobah:** it's a three for me.
Oh, boy.
**Gizmo:** Okay. I'm gonna give it a five. I didn't think it was awesome. Undrinkable. Yeah. Wow. This is, this is gonna be a new, a new record here on a 15. You're aged 1.8. It's a 3.6. Oh my goodness. For the singleton 15. Goodness. You guys didn't enjoy the, uh, fruity, decadence, , . Can, can I just, I'm sorry. Yeah,
**Senator:** read the bottle.
Go ahead. This [01:13:00] bottle is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen of any spirit . It says it looks like a flask, first
**Gizmo:** of all. It does. It does. It does. It's the same shape as a flask.
**Senator:** It says the singleton single malt scotch whiskey, fruity decadence, 15 years old, and then it's comical because usually on the back you would get like, maybe flavor notes are a little description, but right on the front of the bottle it says Vibrantly, fruity honeyed and subtly spiced.
Distilled and matured and bottled in Scotland. I think. Anyone in Scotland would be embarrassed that I think they bottled that in Newark, their name
**Gizmo:** on it. . That's where it's bottled. Oh, wow. 3.6. That's a new low. The, the,
**Poobah:** the, the, the, uh,
**Grinder:** landfill
**Poobah:** leach kind of getting into
**Gizmo:** the water there. Exactly. Jesus. All right, boys, let's get something.
Uh, let's get to something better here. Oh, yeah. The, let's get to the formal lizard rating on our Ashton Vsg illusion. Giddy up Lonsdale. Giddy up
**Poobah:** rooster. What do you got? I see Senator touching up [01:14:00] his nub. . Oh, yeah. That's, he's working on it. That's what she said. I'm working on it.
**Gizmo:** Woo. What he got, rooster. I am,
**Rooster:** I am very pleasantly glad that we revisited.
that I, you know, we all revisited the stick. I mean, I've had it in the past, but I wasn't never really blown away by Yeah. The Ashton line. Yeah. Never really cared for the white label. I always went for like, the grand crew series of the Davidoff, but this V S G especially this Vila Yeah, it's fantastic. Oh yeah.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. I mean, it's great. I mean, great, great steak. I'm gonna give this a nine. Excellent.
**Gizmo:** Yep. Puba
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, I, I can't believe it either, but I, I've had, I, I, you know, I'll give it a nine. I'm gonna buy, I, to me, I'm gonna buy it. Uh, I'm gonna revisit it, particularly in this format. So nine
**Gizmo:** for me, it's also a nine for me all day. Great. Cigar. Yeah. [01:15:00] Senator. I
**Senator:** still can't believe this . I'm in the exact same ca like I, I'm just, I think you're stunned.
I'm shocked. I'm mildly embarrassed. Like I, I, I can't. . I just don't understand why Ashton doesn't do more of this. Yeah, I agree. I just agree. See that? Because if they're aligned as a whole, if, if everything they did was known as being so flavorful, but smooth, they, they could be, you know, a, a, a competitor to Padron.
I wish that were the case, but this cigar, this line, no doubt about, it's a nine. Mm-hmm. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Grinder. It's an eight for me. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** This is a nine for me. I had this years and years ago. Never gave it a second. I think they're not marketing this correctly. They're not. I agree with that. They're not getting this word out.
I agree with that. They just, they're just not doing a good job. They're not
**Gizmo:** talking to ci cigar smokers like this. They're not, they are not. They're not. And I have to say,
**Rooster:** I mean, the vsg is their best series that they make. I agree. You know? I agree. I mean, it's the heritage. I don't know if you guys have ever had the heritage.
[01:16:00] Uh, it's a much milder smoke, but it's kind of like in between the v sg and, uh, the regular Ashton. And they also make an sg
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I think it's the estate Sun grown.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Which I don't know. It, it, I don't remember it being so great. Mm-hmm. . It's a, it's a pricier stick, but this v sg is
**Poobah:** phenomenal. Yeah. But who knows?
Maybe we,
**Gizmo:** maybe we should, yeah. We should review it. We'll review it in the future. Yeah, absolutely. I'm, I'm, I'm shocked by this guys, but the composite lizard score on this cigar is an 8.8. Holy smart. Wow. I can't believe it. It's crazy
**Bam Bam:** hard recommend, I mean, it's strong. Recommended
**Gizmo:** Great. For the listeners to hear this.
**Rooster:** Yeah, I'm, I'm curious why Grindr gave
**Gizmo:** it an eight. Yeah, really. That is a good question.
**Grinder:** I mean, I have a. I have a handicap for cigars. So
**Rooster:** So you're comparing it to, well, like other
**Gizmo:** nines? Um,
**Grinder:** yeah, I think so. I, I, I think my, when I think of a [01:17:00] nine, for me, nine and 10 are, are close, but nine for me
**Gizmo:** is, is very, very high.
What's,
**Rooster:** what's a nine new world stick for you?
**Gizmo:** New world, yeah.
**Grinder:** Probably the sh I mean, what did I rate the shark? A
**Gizmo:** 10? Probably the shark. All of us gave it a tens. I don't if I've, I don't know if I've given a new world that the nine, I don't think I have the drone. You liked, you really liked the, the torpedo in 1964.
You may have given that a 10 actually. You love that cigar?
**Bam Bam:** Uh, I think the League of nine ranked right close to this guy. Yeah, if
**Grinder:** I remember correct. I think it was the, I, so I, I love the chocolatey notes. I love. The Retro Herald was fantastic. I love the, it just got better and better as I progressed. Um, but you guys know, my palate is not as strong as yours.
I like a more mellow, lighter cigar, so I'm immediately not as inclined to favorite it, but I loved it. It's great for me and Nate. It's awesome.
**Senator:** I
**Gizmo:** a bad score. I, if you're score, if
**Grinder:** you were to look at my, if [01:18:00] you're looking at my bucket of, of scores of all the cigars, I'd probably the a, the aggregate at, well, the average would, would probably be on the lower end for all of you.
Um, so
**Gizmo:** I don't know. I, I, what I, what I have to say about it is, compared to other cigars that we've smoked, new World as far as nines go, or tens, it's right there with it. It, it really performed well. Yeah. And I have to say, I mean, talk about handicap, I love Lonsdale. Mm-hmm. , I just love the shape. Feels great in the hand.
Yep. Great construction. I mean a plus all day.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Very, very good. I do think the viola has a lot to do with the performance
**Gizmo:** of the cigar. I agree. I don't, I don't think same blend, same taste. I don't know if I would've enjoyed it as much in a rub robusto and net toro as I did. You won't. Like Toro say,
**Senator:** in fairness, we shouldn't make assumptions because Puba is the, it's, I think the only one here who has, he's the Ash Ashton guy helped a lot of these.
He's the Ashton guy in the room. He's the Ashton guy. He said that he,
**Gizmo:** he's not the Ashton guy. He is, [01:19:00] he's, he's the Ashton guy in the room. Your new new
**Bam Bam:** nickname
**Gizmo:** is Ashton .
**Poobah:** Not the Ashton guy, but I've had the cigar before and I've liked it very
**Senator:** much and he said in other violas it was just as smooth and satisfying.
So we shouldn't
**Gizmo:** assume. Well, I'm just saying, I just love how this feels in the head. Oh, totally.
**Poobah:** You know, versus even, look, it's been around for 20 years for a reason. They're selling it and they haven't changed the blends, so, You know, it is what it
**Gizmo:** is. Yeah. All right, boys. A 3.6 on the singleton, 15 year aged fruity decadence.
**Poobah:** You can, you can strip the, the, the pain off your deck with that shit
**Gizmo:** and, and 8.8 for the awesome Ashton b s g illusion. Lonsdale a fantastic cigar tonight, guys. Fantastic, great conversation and, uh, we'll see you all next week. Keep Popp. 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 [01:20:00] Lounge lizards pod, p o d, that's a 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.