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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Wizards podcast presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey travel food work and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster, senator, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some whiskey, talk about life, and, of course, have some laughs. So take this as your two hundred and seventeenth official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Vitamin is here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Dominican cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you a formal lizard rating. We discuss the effect on Cuba from the recent news out of Venezuela.
Gizmo:We review CA's top 25 cigars of last year, and a major auction update causes drama for BAM with his Trinidad Fundadores allegedly procured by Rooster all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, enjoy as we pair writer's tears copper pot Irish whiskey with the Kellner LE 80. A Dia Dema Fina on the pod tonight, boys, from The Dominican Republic. It's the Kellner LE 80, the eightieth anniversary cigar limited edition for Hanky Kellner's eightieth birthday made by our friend, Klas Kellner boys. Klas.
Gizmo:And it's a 50 ringgau cigar by seven inches long. And boys, we have to start by saying, we've not sat together and had a cigar in like almost three weeks. Correct. It's one of the biggest gaps that we've ever had in recording. It's Taken I'm so glad we're back.
Bam Bam:It's taken a toll. It has. Oh, yeah.
Senator:It was too short.
Bam Bam:Not for me.
Gizmo:So I'm very excited that we are having this cigar tonight. There's been a lot of talk about this cigar in the industry. There's been a lot of hype about it. I know that Rooster was doing some research earlier today. I don't know if we're seeing positive or negative reviews, but I'm very, very excited about smoking this cigar tonight.
Senator:Was he using the Dewey Decimal System in the library?
Bam Bam:Oh, boy.
Gizmo:Miss you, Ben. So what do you guys think of the look of this?
Bam Bam:It's gorgeous. I mean, wrapper's beautiful. I'm not a big fan of the band, but I think that it's a beautiful looking cigar. Very handsome.
Chef Ricky:You know, the band matches the box it came in.
Bam Bam:It kind of does, yes. It's got that visual corner detail.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Yeah. Very ornate box. Looked like a nightstand.
Senator:I actually like the band. It's clean. It it looks elegant. Very unique. Everything's easy to read.
Senator:And the cigar itself, I mean, shape, it's a handsome looking cigar.
Bam Bam:It's a great
Rooster:cigar.
Bam Bam:Great looking cigar.
Rooster:And the wrapper smells amazing. Smells awesome. Smells like really I mean, it's aromatic almost.
Bam Bam:Nutty, a little sweetness. Touch of barnyard maybe for me.
Senator:Is that the Kellner family crest at the top or what is that supposed to be?
Gizmo:I believe it is and I actually believe that that appears on all avowed cigars. Does he have a jacket? Interesting.
Bam Bam:Does he have a jacket with a crest on
Gizmo:it? Probably.
Bam Bam:I would like to see.
Rooster:If I
Gizmo:would say I would. Alright, boys. Let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. Now here's a question.
Gizmo:Much are you guys taking off the top here?
Bam Bam:An eighth of an inch. Eighth of an inch. Alright. So there's still a taper after the cut.
Gizmo:Yep. Okay, good. I guess you can always do a second cut.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's pretty open still.
Gizmo:And the foot will also open up.
Bam Bam:Delicious cold draw. Very nice cold draw. Very subtle and elegant. Yeah, I don't need to light it.
Senator:This is pretty good. I'm serious.
Bam Bam:I get a little berry.
Chef Ricky:Getting an interesting fenugreek note. Get a really nice We're back boys. What
Bam Bam:is fucking fenugreek?
Gizmo:Fenugreek grass?
Chef Ricky:Fenugreek. A seed or stone. It's so hard. So hard to process. We're struggling to process.
Bam Bam:Do they grind it for breads?
Chef Ricky:It's an Indian herb. Is it an herb? I've never seen it in its fresh state. I've only seen it in either ground or in its seed form, but I just know the seed is extremely hard.
Rooster:Maybe it's not an herb. It's a seed. I've seen it ground up and you use it in a few different dishes.
Chef Ricky:Very sweet and aromatic.
Bam Bam:Fenugreek here.
Chef Ricky:It's very sweet and aromatic and it pairs beautifully with lobster and butter. Love- Lobster and butter.
Bam Bam:Where the fuck's a lobster?
Gizmo:Good question, Bem. Well, let's like this thing, boys. The Kellner 80 LE, the limited edition eightieth anniversary cigar from Klaus Kellner celebrating his father Henke's eightieth birthday. And again, it's a Dia de Mafina.
Chef Ricky:Cold, you're so good
Gizmo:on a ring of my cigar by seven inches long. I agree with you, Ricky. And it's a double tapered perfecto, so both ends of the cigar have a taper. The head of the cigar is closed like a Parejo kind of is, and the foot is kind of similar in the way that the Padron 80 here from the '26 line is open. It's the same kind of idea there.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And this will take some patience to get through that half first half inch. I don't know that the extreme tip delicious on the line.
Gizmo:Yeah. So that's good advice for the listener. If you're lighting this cigar and you're having a little bit of a draw issue, let's say, you took a little bit off the top, you really wanna wait until that crown
Bam Bam:But it started
Gizmo:past the crown.
Bam Bam:It almost opens up immediately.
Gizmo:I agree. I'm sure some of them might not, you
Senator:know, so. Think I'm confident saying all of them will be a tight draw to start. That's just with this shape. You're not going to be able to get the full smoke output right No.
Bam Bam:That's true.
Rooster:Well, it almost kind
Bam Bam:of like that.
Rooster:Almost wants to make you, like, do a second cut, and maybe you shouldn't.
Bam Bam:I wouldn't.
Gizmo:That's what I'm saying. Don't do the second cut until it goes past, you know
Senator:Yeah. You have to be patient to start with the shape no matter what stick you draw at a So
Gizmo:this is the first time that we're doing a perfecto like this out of the Dominican Republic. Obviously, we've done stuff from Cuba that's of a similar shape. We've done stuff from Nicaragua that's a similar shape. Mhmm. Pedro and eightieth.
Gizmo:Even the sixtieth is a little obviously, that's a little bit more of an a unique shape, but this is the first one, I think, out of
Bam Bam:the Dominican Republic tonight. It's hard to believe.
Gizmo:So, boys, we're gonna get into the story about this cigar. We have a lot to get to tonight, but this cigar is $57. Oh. So the box of 10 that I'm
Bam Bam:holding right here few things.
Gizmo:Yeah. Is $570 for 10 cigars.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And it's all box. It actually looks like a sock drawer in my house. All right. A fancy sock.
Senator:Yeah. That's a pretty fancy sock drawer.
Gizmo:You could you could take this home when we're done, you could put your handkerchiefs in it.
Bam Bam:Oh, you can do whatever you want with that.
Gizmo:I think that would be I mean, is pretty wild. What's going on here? Dude. It's heavy. It's heavy.
Rooster:Super heavy.
Gizmo:Probably weighs 15 pounds.
Bam Bam:I mean, You
Senator:could box kill someone if you hit someone with that thing.
Bam Bam:The box alone can be a 100 something dollars to make. Yeah. It's all lacquer finish. That's not cheap.
Gizmo:So, Bam, describe this for the listener who doesn't have the Kellner ALE.
Bam Bam:It has a mahogany drawer inserted into this faux stone sleeve that essentially makes up the entire box, but in the front and back, you see a mahogany insert. And you pull the drawer at the front, it's made of brass of some kind, right? Faux brass. And your 10 cigars are inside. They open nicely.
Bam Bam:I guess it's nicely presented. Felt bottom. That's gotta be
Gizmo:I feel like Vanna White over here.
Bam Bam:That's gotta be over $100 for that thing.
Gizmo:This has gotta be expensive. Ridiculous. Just the shipping alone to get it from wherever it was made to the factory.
Bam Bam:Hey, Klaus. Next time call me. I'll design your next box, please. And I'll fabricate it. Oh.
Bam Bam:At high volume.
Gizmo:It's pretty beautiful. It says on it, of course, limited edition. Kellner, 1933.
Rooster:There was a velvet sleeve, right, on the box?
Gizmo:There was a velvet sleeve, and it was very hard to get off. Really? I fought the velvet sleeve that was on this. It was, like, really, really snug. So that's why I didn't bring it tonight.
Gizmo:I didn't even put it back on after I opened them up. And a note to folks out there, all of these come with a 69% bovita pack in the bottom under the drawer. So if you want to, you know, pull your cigars down like we often do from that 69, 70 down to something like, you know, '65 or whatever, which is where I had these prior to us smoking, Get that bovada out of there. Correct. So we're a few minutes in now.
Gizmo:How's the cigar starting off for you guys? What do you think? I've been talking. I haven't even drawn it.
Rooster:My draw is a little still a little tight. I'm just I'm kinda Really? Contemplating doing another cut. Did I cut, like, too little?
Senator:I think Rooster took
Gizmo:a little
Bam Bam:I agree with you, Hoof.
Senator:You need to
Bam Bam:take a little more. Yeah. A little too too tight there.
Gizmo:I like the flavor.
Bam Bam:I think it's quite good.
Gizmo:It's a nice open.
Bam Bam:The retrohale's velvety and creamy, not a single edge on it.
Senator:Yeah, I'm getting a little bit of sweet and a little bit of savory, which I like. The flavor to start though, it's very subtle.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:It's like I'm getting the notes, I'm waiting for it to pick up, I'm hoping that as the burn line opens up and I'm getting more combustion that I am able to extract more
Bam Bam:of that flavor. I couldn't agree more.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. My burn line's a little slanted, so one side of the cigar has sort of passed that crown, if you will, and the flavor exploded as soon Oh, as that great.
Gizmo:Nice. Well, that's what we look for in cigars, boys, a journey. Even though I'm enjoying the taste of this right now, hoping that as we go through this, hitting that crown and getting into it, hopefully it takes us on a nice little journey here because this is a big cigar.
Chef Ricky:I really think it's going to deliver.
Bam Bam:Chef, you're getting any hints of a very subtle white pepper? Yeah. I am. Just a touch. I kind of like it.
Chef Ricky:In the beginning, yes, but it disappears as you get past the crown.
Bam Bam:I don't
Senator:mind it. If you smell the burn line, you actually get the pepper on the nose.
Chef Ricky:As you get past the burn line, the crown there, what you're going get is a ton of cream, almost milk chocolate, baking spice graham cracker. It hits you
Senator:Wow, really
Chef Ricky:sounds decadent. Sounds like dessert.
Gizmo:So of course, I think any listener out there who listened to our interview with class and also some of the other cigars that we've done and they've done very, very well in this podcast. The one thing I'm going to be looking for tonight is that total palate coverage that he talked about in the interview that we did with him at PCS, where he drew that tongue out. So I'm really excited to see what you know, if he was able to accomplish that on this cigar and and what that's Mhmm. You know, how that's gonna show itself. Sure.
Rooster:It's also very nutty. I don't know if it's a cashew or a peanut kind of thing.
Chef Ricky:It can lean towards cashew because the smoke is pretty velvety and creamy. So yeah, I think it's leaning towards cashew for sure.
Senator:I agree.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I'm even getting a little hazelnut there. Just it's really, really
Rooster:I love love the aroma. Yeah. Really dynamic.
Bam Bam:Now you're saying hazelnut. I'm getting out on a finish right now.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Chef Ricky:I think you're on the verge of opening up there once you get past that crown. It really exploded for me.
Rooster:So $57 for the cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. I mean, it goes back to the packaging stuff that we've been talking about a lot. You know? If this packaging was not presented like this for Bam's handkerchiefs Socks. How much could you pull the price down?
Gizmo:You know? Well, I think
Rooster:maybe I mean, this is a limited edition eightieth, Made in the honor of his father. Yep, Henke's birthday. Henke Kellner. So I think the cigar kind of deserves that box or an ornate box, maybe not like this heavy, but it deserves a nice packaging. So I don't know how you know, you can't put this cigar in, a regular dress box, I would think.
Bam Bam:I could see it coming down to at least 30 and change.
Gizmo:This was in the $30.37
Bam Bam:bucks.
Gizmo:30 to 40 range, I'd be very happy with that.
Bam Bam:Without that box, it's got to be a $100 box.
Rooster:Yeah. Easy.
Senator:I agree with all that. The only thing I will say, you know, look, and and kind of a similar shape. We said this about the Padron sixtieth Yep. Anniversary. Right?
Senator:That's a $75 stick, an incredible, incredibly ornate presentation, individual coffins, then the huge box. That cigar delivered, and we said was worth that price point, so I don't want to immediately, you know, judge this cigar that that's too high of a price point until we smoke it all the way through.
Chef Ricky:But Mhmm.
Senator:I'm just throwing that out there as if this first of all, to start the flavor profile is definitely complex. Yeah. I mean, we've called out over 10 notes in like the first few puffs of this cigar.
Bam Bam:And subtle and elegant. Exactly.
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Senator:Definitely refined. So, you know, the question for me will be if it picks up and and delivers that flavor in a richer way and we're incredibly satisfied, then, you know, for an anniversary kind of special occasion cigar, 59 may not be crazy.
Gizmo:And it's
Rooster:also the size of the cigar. It's a it's a big it's a seven inch, seven j what is it? $54.52? Something like that.
Gizmo:This? Yeah? 50 by seven.
Rooster:50 by seven. Mhmm. And this shape is not easy to roll. No. Right?
Rooster:So you need a very skilled So roller to make this
Gizmo:the wrapper on this cigar, boys, is Ecuadorian Habano. The binder is Dominican, and the filler is also Dominican, and there's some Yamasa in the filler. Interesting. So the other Dominican tobaccos are not disclosed. They're not specific.
Gizmo:The only thing that is very explicit is that the wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano, and there is some Yamasa in the food.
Rooster:I mean, the Kellner's have access to some amazing tobaccos. Henke Kellner has been master blender for Davidoff for decades. Mean, he was there for probably maybe even thirty, forty years. So they have a huge stockpile of tobaccos.
Gizmo:And like Koss told us on that interview, they're always buying. If you have the ability and the cash to buy tobacco, you buy tobacco. Tobacco in the barn is better than cash in the bank is Correct. Pretty much what he was
Senator:I mean, I got to say, as this is starting to open up, it's really good.
Bam Bam:I like it.
Gizmo:It's really good. I'm getting a lot of great flavor. Yeah. And I have to tip my cap. It is very balanced.
Gizmo:Even I'm just coming up on that crowning point there where it's hopefully going to open like Chef was saying, but know, I'm getting a little bit of everything.
Rooster:It's not a simple smoke. It's a very complex.
Bam Bam:Sure.
Rooster:It's got layers.
Bam Bam:So on that, I don't get the graham cracker that you're getting, but I am getting in the background like a sweet cream or a little honey type thing happening, but also what's balancing it is a little earthiness, nuttiness, and like a toast type thing happening.
Rooster:Just sourdough kind of thing?
Bam Bam:Yeah, maybe. All that for me together is what's giving me the balance.
Gizmo:No carbohydrate? That is a carbohydrate. That's close to my eyes.
Bam Bam:Don't wanna offend the ears in this room. So
Gizmo:the shape of this cigar was chosen because Hanke made a cigar for the one hundredth birthday of the of Davodoff's late founder, Zeno Davodoff, in 2006, made a cigar called the Davodoff Dia Demis Finis, which was the exact same shape as this. So that's where this specific size comes from, is that release that Henke did and it was a celebrated cigar for sure. So I think that's why Klaus chose this for his father's ad.
Senator:There's also like a Cuban esque saltiness with this salt. I
Gizmo:totally agree.
Bam Bam:Yeah, I agree.
Senator:This is delicious. I'm honestly really shocked for how still subtle the delivery of flavor is. It's like there's so many different things happening that it really stimulates your palate. This is really good.
Rooster:It's like a salted peanut kind of thing.
Bam Bam:Sure.
Rooster:Or salted cashew. Cashew salted cashew, yeah.
Bam Bam:So the other retrohalers, what are you getting?
Gizmo:It's very, very smooth. Pleasant. Complex. There is a touch of pepper, but I'm liking it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Just the touch, it's very subtle. But it's really, really easy to retrohub this cigar.
Rooster:But it's a nice balance of sweet and salty. Sure. Right?
Senator:Yep. And that's the other thing, how smooth this is. Like, we don't know how aged this tobacco is, but there's no question. This has to have some serious age
Bam Bam:like think. Yeah.
Senator:I feel like you could give this to someone who only likes the mildest of cigars, and this would be totally in their wheelhouse Mhmm. And you have, you know, guys like us who like a medium, medium full smoke, and this has enough flavor for us, but it's just the delivery. It's so clean, smooth.
Bam Bam:I think this would be a great post lunch cigar. Yeah. Start to your evening cigar.
Rooster:Yep. I'm drinking coffee with this and it actually is pairing. I'm sure it's awesome. Really nice with coffee.
Bam Bam:Price is high though.
Rooster:You know what? It's bit of lot
Gizmo:of flavor right now, man. I don't know. I'm starting to walk that back already. Don't know. I'm pushing it.
Gizmo:I'm okay in the forties right now.
Bam Bam:Alright. Alright. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Your your meter's going up.
Bam Bam:Insulation. Correct.
Rooster:I mean, look, this is gonna be at least a two, two and a half hour smoke. For me.
Bam Bam:For some of us.
Rooster:So $57 for a two hour smoke. Yeah. If it delivers like this throughout.
Bam Bam:Does this cigar remind you of anything?
Rooster:Did you ever have the Davidoff, the DiaDema?
Bam Bam:No. I've heard of it, I've never
Gizmo:had it. Wasn't that part of
Senator:or do they just have that shape with the Nicaragua line?
Rooster:No. It was a separate limited production. I thought it was an LE. Was just called the DA. It also came in a 10 count box.
Bam Bam:Is there anything that's reminiscent in your mind? I think it's It's pretty unique.
Senator:I agree.
Rooster:It's a bit Davidoff esque. Maybe.
Senator:This is better than Davidoff I've had recently.
Rooster:It kind of reminds me of the Master Blend series of Davodoff. Like one of those
Senator:That's an interesting question.
Gizmo:I don't
Rooster:know which one exactly. Maybe like the number 11 or 13 was God.
Bam Bam:The aroma right now, like tapioca. What the hell is going on here?
Chef Ricky:Tapioca pudding.
Bam Bam:It's incredibly sweet.
Gizmo:Wow. This is pretty unbelievable.
Bam Bam:That's unbelievable. Honestly,
Gizmo:I'm really impressed at this point.
Chef Ricky:Did you just pass the crowning point? No, you're a little past. Yeah. Fantastic. Isn't it incredible the way it just kind of explodes?
Senator:It's crazy. The thing I like, mine is actually smoking very slowly.
Bam Bam:Me too.
Senator:Which is great. I'm getting a lot out of this.
Chef Ricky:I think I'm smoking mine fast because I'm excited and it's been three weeks. You
Rooster:know what would be a cool idea? They should have refills for these boxes. You buy the box once and have refills at
Bam Bam:a cheaper price. I agree. Is a substantial box worthy of that idea.
Rooster:Lower the price and just offer refills like Padron does. I'm sorry, it's a
Senator:crime if there's really only 2,000 of these and they're not going to produce more. This is really good.
Gizmo:This is a really good cigar.
Senator:When Bam asked, What does this remind us of? I think we always give a cigar a lot of credit that is not directly comparable to something else we've had. Like, this thing is so unique and so satisfying. I mean, it makes me sad to think that there'll be a point at which I won't be able to have this again.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I can't believe the aroma right now. It's a little maple syrupy now, still kind of like a tapioca thing too for me. Wow.
Rooster:You know, for price, I'm thinking back to the limited release, the year off, Davidoff's that come out every year, right? The Chinese zodiac signs. This is better than all of them in the last ten years, probably. Right? And all of them have been priced around this or if not more.
Bam Bam:If there was a cigar in that whole series that I would have again is that one probably. That's the only one that I find to be decent. Which one? The dragon. The Churchill.
Rooster:I hope you had the
Bam Bam:I don't think we did that here.
Gizmo:We did not. No. We've not done a Europe.
Bam Bam:I had one.
Rooster:Isn't the and one?
Bam Bam:The The Churchill.
Rooster:Yeah. Isn't the end exposed?
Bam Bam:I don't think so.
Gizmo:You know, since we're talking year of the let's play the music while we're doing this.
Senator:Oh, please. No.
Chef Ricky:Please. No. Jesus. Oh, boy.
Gizmo:It is the year of the horse now. I mean, we are officially in 2026. So Alright. Pretty exciting stuff.
Rooster:I can't listen to this music.
Gizmo:Alright. So do you wanna get into some news, boys? Yeah. Alright. Let's go through the list that everybody pretends not to care about, but, of course, everybody cares about.
Gizmo:Cigar Aficionado, of course, announced their top 25 cigars of the year. We talked on our New Year's Eve episode about the Padron sixtieth anniversary in Maduro being named the cigar of the year, but we didn't talk about any of the other 24 that have been announced in the top 25. So I wanted to go through the top 25 with you guys, and we'll pause along the way to do our spirits. So don't get nervous about that. But let's get started here with, the top 25 cigars for 2025 from Cigar Aficionado.
Gizmo:And coming in at number 25, nice start here, the Aladino eighty fifth Anniversario Reserva in Toro.
Bam Bam:Oh, okay.
Gizmo:So that's a cigar that we're all smoking in Robusto. Correct. I have not had it in Toro. Think did you have it in Toro?
Senator:I did. It was from a retailer's humidor, so it was definitely wet.
Bam Bam:That's tough. Yeah.
Senator:I definitely didn't like it as much as the Robusto, but, you know, I'm handicapping that just because I know it was too high in humidity.
Gizmo:Of course, it's a Honduran Puro, 52 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. We are gonna be doing the Robusto coming up pretty soon, I think maybe in February. Nice. So I'm looking forward to that. But that is, Justo Aeros.
Gizmo:Mark on the top 25, he's number 25 this year with the eighty fifth. Number 24, boys, is a cigar that we did smoke on this podcast. Did quite well. We actually smoked at a PCA this year, the La Aurora family creed series Fuerte Sol Mhmm. In Robusto, if you remember that.
Gizmo:50 ring gauge cigar by five inches long. Wrapper's Mexican. Binder is Nicaraguan. The filler is Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Pennsylvania broadleaf from good old USA. And we graded that cigar pretty well.
Gizmo:I think it was high eights. It was like an 88 or something like that. It was a good cigar. Number 23, the La Aroma de Cuba in Robusto. Nothing special here from La Aroma.
Gizmo:That's a pretty standard line.
Bam Bam:Yep.
Gizmo:54 ring gauge cigar by five and one quarter inches long. Wrapper is USA Connecticut broadleaf. Binder and filler are both Nicaraguan. And that was a brand you used to smoke. Right, senator, in your early days?
Senator:Yeah. I used to smoke the MIAMOUR.
Gizmo:That's right. And that's the one we did on the podcast. Yeah. Got it.
Chef Ricky:How did it do?
Gizmo:Not bad. It was okay.
Senator:Think probably, like, 70 something points.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Number 22 is the Olmec Maduro Grande from Nick Mello's Foundation Cigar Company. Mexican wrapper binder and filler are both Nicaraguan. It's a 60 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. Big boy.
Gizmo:Coming out of Tabaclera, AJ Fernandez.
Bam Bam:The other cigars in that line are pretty good.
Gizmo:Not too bad. Number 21. Actually, did an Olmec here.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. We did. Correct.
Bam Bam:Right? Did pretty well.
Gizmo:It's funny. I'm trying to jog my memory on some of these things. I forget them.
Chef Ricky:It wasn't that one, obviously. No.
Gizmo:So coming up next at number 21 is Justo's brother Christian Airoa, the CLE Maduro 50 by five. Of course, 50 ring gauge cigar by five inches long. Mexican wrapper, Honduran binder, and the filler is Colombian and Honduran, obviously coming out of a Honduran factory. So what's unique about CLE or comparing CLE to JRE or Aladino is that Aladino is pretty much making Honduran puros. That's what they're known for, and that's what they do.
Gizmo:C. L. E, his brother, he does incorporate a lot of other tobaccos from a lot of other regions.
Bam Bam:Do we know if they're made in the same factory? They are not. Okay.
Gizmo:His is made at Topiclera CLE, like his own factory in Honduras. And number 20, boys, the one off interesting brand made by Agonor Salif, which we smoked in Aganorsa Leaf a couple weeks ago. It's a Nicaraguan Purell. You have a buzzer?
Bam Bam:I do. Let me do it again. Keep that handy. No good.
Gizmo:Keep that handy. So apparently cigar fishing on, I've not heard of this one off black Toro 52 ring gauge by six. It says that it was a cult cigar. Of the early two thousand tens. I guess it disappeared for a while.
Gizmo:And then one off was purchased and restored by Dion Quiolito of Illusion Cigars. Obviously, we've smoked Illusion before, and the one off is back. So it came in at number 20 this year on Cigar Aficionado's top 25.
Bam Bam:Sounds generous.
Gizmo:So we're gonna pause right there, boys, and let's go to our pairing now.
Bam Bam:Oh, thank you.
Gizmo:It's time to try the writer's tears, the copper pot still Irish whiskey. It's a blended whiskey coming in at 80 proof, 40%. And this is specifically
Bam Bam:I love that.
Gizmo:Demanded, I would argue, by senator.
Bam Bam:I love that aroma.
Gizmo:Sipping this. I've not I'm not even
Bam Bam:sniffy yet. Not their vibe, the aroma's delicious.
Gizmo:Oh, it smells great. Hashtag. Smells like a little bit like candy in a way. Yeah. Cheers.
Gizmo:Cheers, boys. Cheers. Good to see you. Good to be back.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:Oh. Back in the rhythm.
Bam Bam:Oh, you better believe it.
Gizmo:That's very nice, senator. So this is finished in bourbon barrels, charred bourbon barrels.
Bam Bam:Wow. I get a little honey.
Rooster:Mhmm.
Bam Bam:Lots of A touch of vanilla.
Chef Ricky:Yep.
Bam Bam:Dare I say a little butterscotch.
Gizmo:I think you're right. Very smooth going down. Have no ice, no water in our glass.
Senator:It's insanely smooth.
Bam Bam:It's very smooth.
Chef Ricky:There still is a peppery bite, which I guess is expected with Irish whiskey.
Bam Bam:I don't I mind like this. I can have this in the summer or the winter.
Senator:I feel the exact same.
Gizmo:Very versatile. So senator, where did you come across this?
Senator:Whistler, believe it or not, in Canada. Really? Yeah. Just randomly came across it, and someone had recommended it and tried it. And my first sip, I just like immediately perked up, and I couldn't believe how smooth it was.
Senator:Neat. And, you know, the flavors, the the dessert notes, but, you know, like chef said, there's like a little bit of like a kinda spiciness on the finish, but just faint. It's not overpowering or even trying to be as much as the sweet notes that you get.
Bam Bam:Oh, I can do copious amounts of this.
Senator:That's the thing.
Gizmo:It's so drinkable. I feel like it's gonna bite me though if I do that because of the bourbon finish. No, Believe it's me. The hangover.
Bam Bam:Oh daddy needs that tonight. Okay. Okay? Oh boy. Oh yeah.
Bam Bam:Well I can, so look, I'm a big proponent of taking small sips and letting it curl in your mouth and take this can go right down and go for another one.
Senator:No. I'm just telling you, I I I was liberal in my pores of this, and I felt great in
Bam Bam:the What is that?
Gizmo:Oh my god. That's the guy. That's the guy. That's how you taste it.
Chef Ricky:Ben wasn't here for that one.
Senator:That was the
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm not liking that. So What's
Senator:the brand with the
Gizmo:stag? It's a Dalmore. Dalmore. That's the master distiller of the Dalmore.
Chef Ricky:So interesting how in the beginning, it on the front part of your palate, it feels almost airy and hollow, and then it just takes over and the spice kicks in and then the flavor and the sweetness rounds out. I love the way that happens.
Bam Bam:The pairing is
Gizmo:The pairing is brilliant. I gotta I gotta
Bam Bam:Delicious, dude.
Gizmo:I'm glad that I grabbed this, like, coming back. First one back this year that we're recording. This is a perfect start.
Senator:It needs to be with, like, at most a medium cigar Mhmm. Ideally a Cuban cigar, and this cigar smokes like a Cuban cigar in body. Yeah. It's perfect.
Bam Bam:Take a drink, let it settle, then take a drag of your cigar. Fantastic experience, man.
Chef Ricky:Really pulls out the nuttiness of the cigar. Really, really well done.
Bam Bam:It actually, for me, makes the cigar a bit sweeter. I get a little bit of the sweeter expression in the cigar. Wow. The salt is popping.
Gizmo:Yeah. That's what's popping.
Bam Bam:Post
Gizmo:loading. Yes. The drink for me. Agreed. More than anything,
Bam Bam:salt and sweet for
Senator:me.
Gizmo:It is really Very good. Well noted.
Chef Ricky:Salty nuts for me.
Rooster:Can we call it the
Gizmo:Dominican twang? Take it easy over there.
Rooster:Is it like the Dominican twang?
Gizmo:Yeah. You know what? It's not a twang though for me. It's just a presence of salt. Like, I'm not it's not like I wouldn't call it
Senator:But I would say it's a little twangy. That's that's all I'm gonna say.
Gizmo:I think it's a little bit I I
Chef Ricky:know what you mean because Wow. It's a little saltier than that. I think for the twang, there's usually some minerality that's there's some funk. That's in there.
Gizmo:Exactly. Like, twang to me is a salty funk. This is no funk. This is just straightforward. It's like he just sprinkled like this the, you know, salt bay over the steak.
Gizmo:You know?
Senator:Me, so much salt that it's only I only get that much salt in certain Cuban cigars. That's that's the only place my head is.
Bam Bam:Can you tell me how much that bottle was?
Gizmo:$43.
Bam Bam:Fantastic. It's a steal.
Gizmo:Great price.
Bam Bam:Where'd you get it?
Gizmo:Total wine?
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm in.
Gizmo:Total wine?
Bam Bam:I'm all in.
Rooster:Cheaper than the cigar.
Senator:Yeah? Yeah. That's true.
Rooster:For a whole bottle.
Senator:And the crazy thing is like, you know, we've done other Irish whiskeys. We've done, you know, Green Spot. Yeah. We've done Red Breast. To me, this is the
Bam Bam:smoothest Hands down the
Senator:Irish whiskey I've ever had.
Bam Bam:I promise,
Gizmo:with a long cigar like this, you can go through a lot of this whiskey.
Rooster:And we need that. The red breast is more, right? Yeah. It's hot.
Senator:That's like 65 probably for the twelve year. Yeah.
Bam Bam:This blows it out of the water.
Gizmo:This is really good. Yeah. I feel like, you know, Red Breast, I feel like if you're having a I mean, it's versatile. But if you're having a Nicaraguan cigar or something stronger, you know, a Padron Family Reserve, you know, something like that in that zone, I feel like Red Breast is a better fit for that kind of cigar. I think this kinda caters to, like Senator was saying, like the medium Virtually.
Gizmo:Down.
Bam Bam:Virtually only any Cuban cigar, virtually.
Gizmo:This is a great whiskey for Cuban cigars. Correct.
Senator:That's what I was saying because we have a hard time, I feel like, with whiskey pairings for Cuban cigars, because a lot can either be higher proof or things that will overpower the cigar. The first sip I took of this, I'm like, all I'm thinking about is how this would be amazing with cigar right
Chef Ricky:now.
Bam Bam:It's funny you say that. Know, I've gotten so far off of scotches and whiskeys, I've stayed in tequilas and rums probably because of that reason, but not realizing it. So I think that's correct.
Gizmo:This is a great pairing. This is a home run right
Bam Bam:now.
Gizmo:A home run.
Senator:I'm just shocked that this is not more talked about.
Chef Ricky:They have a lot of limited edition bottlings that we could explore in the future as well. Some different cask finishes.
Rooster:Look at chef's ash. Is there a vacuum handy?
Bam Bam:Pagoda's vacuums in the closet.
Gizmo:So I was curious about the name of this, why they named it writer's tears. And it says that they draw inspiration from the golden era of Irish literature and whiskey.
Bam Bam:The agonizing work of the writer.
Gizmo:The idea being correct. The idea being that great writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland paired creativity with copper pot distilled spirits. The name evokes that romantic image of creative souls and their drams.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:So, I mean, you know, obviously, Ireland had its struggles as Yeah. You know, well documented. So I'm I'm sure it's referencing that. So writer's tears tonight. Pretty good.
Gizmo:Yeah. Very good.
Bam Bam:Dying to use my buzzer again.
Gizmo:Let's go back to Bam's got an alright. So for the listener, Bam's got a phone. And what is it? An iPhone pro pro max. Right?
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:And it's the entire center of the screen is a big red button
Bam Bam:You can't miss it.
Gizmo:To buzz out any of the cigars he doesn't like in the top 25 here. Mhmm. So let's keep going on Cigar Aficionados top 25. We are down now to number 19. We're gonna like this one, boys.
Chef Ricky:Get it ready, Ben. Correct.
Gizmo:The Cuban Sancho Panza Bellicoso. Nice. 52 cigar by five and one half inches long. Of course, it's a Cuban Puro. We really enjoyed that cigar on these months.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah.
Senator:Yeah. And that was a surprise because if I remember correctly, when we did that, that was like a pretty recent run of that. Didn't have that much age. Yep. And I remember ones I
Gizmo:had I did that on purpose. Mhmm.
Senator:I'm glad because ones I've had in the past they were good.
Rooster:They were muted.
Bam Bam:They were slat.
Senator:They weren't great. There was nothing memorable about it. But that one we did, I remember being really impressed. It was
Gizmo:memorable. Graham Crackery. Bam, it's so ready. Number 18. From Nicaragua, the Aleva Siri V Milano.
Gizmo:Mentoroni in Robusto. You
Rooster:know, that cigar always makes the list.
Bam Bam:I know. It's an okay cigar. I mean, it's
Chef Ricky:It's a basic, basic cigar.
Rooster:When was the last time the top 25 did not include the Milani?
Chef Ricky:You're probably right.
Gizmo:It's true.
Rooster:It's always
Chef Ricky:there. And it's always in the middle. Like, that should be nowhere near the middle.
Bam Bam:Yeah. No good.
Gizmo:Alright. Number 17. The I can I'm just anticipating the bugger. Hold on. The Viage 15 plus two and a half anniversary silver from Nicki Mardi.
Bam Bam:Second one was an accident. What is that cigar?
Senator:Can you imagine if we let BAM control the soundboard every week?
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:You should've been flying all
Bam Bam:over the place.
Gizmo:It'd be him and the soundboard. That's it. So this is a Nicaraguan puro, and it's the 15 plus two and a half anniversary. So I guess the seventeen and a half year cigar from Viage. It's an it's an interesting thing of, of course, produced by Aginor Salif.
Bam Bam:K.
Chef Ricky:Is that Davidoff math?
Gizmo:So this is it could be. This is a Nicaraguan Purell. The wrapper is Nicaraguan Creoleo. Alright. Number 16, the Gellis family cigars in Saunter, which is a 48 ring gauge cigar by five and one quarter inches long coming out of the Dominican Republic, Ecuadorian wrapper, Ecuadorian binder, and filler from I'm I'm losing it, dude, from The Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.
Chef Ricky:Hold on, Bam. Did you get that buzzer in anticipation of this?
Bam Bam:No. So we had at my sister's family board game night, and I was in control of whoever got a wrong answer got this. And I kept the app.
Gizmo:Number 15. Bam Bam, put your buzzer down. The Davidoff Millennium series in Pyramidis. Oh. My ring gauge cigar by six and one eights inches long.
Gizmo:Fantastic. Wrapper is Ecuadorian binder and filler are from The Dominican Republic. What do you think the MSRP on this cigar is right now,
Bam Bam:Bem? I'm thinking $37.
Gizmo:$36.30. Very nice.
Bam Bam:Yep. Yep.
Senator:That that Bem knows, but not
Gizmo:not the price of milk. Right? Not a gallon of
Bam Bam:I thought milk was $20.
Rooster:You're Spot on on the cigar.
Gizmo:That's the
Bam Bam:only thing that matters.
Gizmo:All right. Number 14 now. Keep that buzzer down, Bam. The aging room Quattro Nicaragua Concerto.
Bam Bam:Oh, yes.
Gizmo:This one in impromptu. 52 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. And I guess this is I don't know if it's a that's the Perfecto, I believe. Double tapered.
Bam Bam:Is that right?
Gizmo:I believe so. Yes. Nicaraguan puro, of course, from our friend Rafael Nadal, and it's made at the AJ Fernandez factory in Nicaragua. That makes me wanna try that.
Senator:I mean, we love a Perfecto, and the fact that he has both the Concerto and the Sonata, I'm pretty sure, come in a Perfecto.
Gizmo:I think those wines are actually the same as far as the sizes that are offered in the nation.
Bam Bam:What about Pagoda's Gordo?
Senator:That's right.
Gizmo:That he accidentally ordered. Right? Yeah. I mean,
Rooster:you think Cigar Aficionado does the entire lineup? I mean, the entire all the sizes and then chooses
Gizmo:Oh, no way. There's no time in there. How do
Rooster:you how do you get that size?
Chef Ricky:I I think they get sent the cigar for consideration.
Bam Bam:They're not smoking the cigars. It's a marketing company.
Chef Ricky:I would think Yeah.
Gizmo:We're gonna talk about that a
Bam Bam:little bit.
Senator:I do bet though that the manufacturers are telling them what Vitola they recommend smoking it in. Because I'm pretty sure even we talked to Nadal, and we were talking about the Sonata, that he really likes that in the torpedo that we like.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think too, I think for Cigar Aficionado, they have to pick a diverse kinds of cigars in, you know, not only origin, but also in shape for their magazine every other month. So you're going to have to pick sizes from lines. Everything can't be a Robusto or
Rooster:a Toro. You're choosing the best off to create that top 25 list. So what makes more sense is the manufacturer actually sending in their best It's off gotta be.
Bam Bam:It's gotta be.
Senator:And it would be natural that it's gonna somewhat evenly distribute. You think about we all have preferences as far as Vitola, but there are so many cigars that we will only smoke in a certain Vitola Sure. And they're very different. It's like the Aladino classic Elegante, we only smoke that Lancero. The aging room, we smoke in Torpedo.
Senator:You know, so many other cigars, we're gonna smoke in Robusto, so it's just gonna work itself out, feel like. Or even Toro, the New Dawn. We don't even like Toros typically. But that cigar is amazing in that Vitola.
Gizmo:We have another one coming up, the six twenty nine.
Bam Bam:Really? Nice.
Gizmo:Yeah. From Avowed. Also made, folks, by
Bam Bam:Klaus Keller. Our man.
Gizmo:So this cigar, the aging room Quattro Nicaragua in Concerto. So for the folks out there, this is the one with the blue band on it. Mhmm. The names of these lines are a little confusing. The orange is just the Quattro Nicaragua.
Gizmo:The yellow band Sonata. Is the Sonata. The blue band is the Concerto. And then some of those actually share vitolas that are named some of the other things.
Bam Bam:So it's
Gizmo:very confusing. This is the blue band in impromptu is the one we're talking about here. The one we smoke is the blue band in Torpedo. Torpedo, the Sonata. Mhmm.
Gizmo:So the wrapper on this one is a hybrid leaf of Creoleo 98 tobacco. So that's pretty cool. Great cigar line from our friend Rafael Nadal. So glad to see that in there. Number 13 from The Dominican Republic, the La Flor Dominicana, thirty years in chisel, 58 ring gauge cigar by six and one half inches long.
Gizmo:The wrapper is are you okay over there?
Bam Bam:The app is malfunctioning. Gotta reboot it. Reboot it.
Chef Ricky:He doesn't wanna give off the wrong impression.
Gizmo:Correct.
Bam Bam:He got overused. Because honestly, I don't mind that chisel. I haven't had it in ages. I know, Rooster, you've had it. I I kinda liked it back in the day.
Bam Bam:I wouldn't mind giving it another try. No buzzer for that one.
Gizmo:Wrapper on this is Ecuadorian. Binder and filler are both from The Dominican Republic. Pretty cool. The thirty years chisel. Next up, number 12, the Macanuto emissary France in Churchill.
Gizmo:Nothing
Bam Bam:Macanuto will ever get in this room.
Gizmo:48 ring gauge cigar by seven inches long coming out of Honduras. It has an Ecuadorian wrapper. The binder is Connecticut broadly from The USA, and the filler is from four countries, Brazil, Dominican Republic, France, and The USA. France? Yeah.
Gizmo:That's why they called it the France Churchill.
Bam Bam:Unbelievable. I mean, that's got to be the
Senator:first cigar we've talked about that has a French filler.
Gizmo:Yeah. Southwestern That's true.
Bam Bam:Don't think I've ever heard that before. That's insane. Yeah.
Gizmo:All right. Number 11. Liga Privada t 52 in Corona Viva, 46 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. I think that's one we reviewed, isn't it? Remember you guys yelled at me because I brought the Corona Viva in?
Gizmo:No. We definitely did something I thought it a
Rooster:size. Size.
Gizmo:I don't I'm not sure. We definitely did a Corona Viva of some sort.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Nicaraguan cigar. The wrapper is Connecticut Habano from The USA. Mhmm. Binder is Brazil, and the filler is from Honduras and Nicaragua.
Bam Bam:I don't think it did well in the room, though.
Gizmo:I don't think it did, and I think I got yelled at for the Vitola being wrong. So I remember that.
Bam Bam:I'm not buzzing it because it's a pretty light, loved cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's a good cigar. Alright, boys. We'll get to the top 10 in a second, but first, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the Kellner LE 80, the eightieth anniversary limited edition. What's everybody thinking?
Senator:It's a it's a 10 right now.
Rooster:I'm sorry.
Senator:It's brilliant. It's brilliant. This is such a spectacular blend. The balance is perfect. Yep.
Senator:The complexity's there. Each flavor note is clear and distinct. The construction has been great. I mean, I've asked only once since I've been smoking this. I have not one thing I can possibly complain about right
Bam Bam:now with
Rooster:this cigar. The aroma is unbelievable.
Bam Bam:So it's changed for me, the aroma. Now I'm getting a very
Rooster:subtle cocoa. There's no pepper now.
Bam Bam:And it's hard to put this down. I'm hitting it one after another after another. It's so good.
Rooster:It's creamy. It's sweet. It's got cocoa. I mean, it's absolutely delicious. Delicious blend.
Bam Bam:The aroma's off the charts.
Chef Ricky:Creamy, coffee, nutty, cedar. That's everything that I'm getting on this cigar all at the same time, but all very separate and all together still.
Rooster:And I think it's the Yamasa tobacco that adds that little bit of oomph, that gives it that little strength. I don't get the No, strength no, no, it's not strong, but it's got, like in It
Bam Bam:has body.
Rooster:Like in the Behike, they put the Medio Tiempo. That's what the Yamasa is doing to this
Gizmo:You're probably right. Giving it a little x factor, that what you're saying?
Rooster:I think so.
Bam Bam:On the retro?
Senator:Master Blender Rooster.
Bam Bam:Correct. Oh boy.
Gizmo:Miss you, man. You
Bam Bam:said that. Salted butter on the retro, just to touch on the Yeah, finish for
Gizmo:salt in the retro.
Bam Bam:Can't Can you believe call that out? That often. This is very unusual. I don't
Gizmo:know if I've ever said that.
Bam Bam:No, No.
Rooster:Would you say Irish butter? Maybe.
Gizmo:This is fantastic. Wow. And the pairing is just killer as well.
Bam Bam:Oh,
Gizmo:yeah. It's doing great. Alright, boys. It's time now to do the top 10 cigars from Cigar Aficionado for 2025. And now we're coming in with number 10 here, a cigar from Nicaragua, the Ferri Otago Timeless Supreme six fifty.
Gizmo:Bam is shaking his head.
Bam Bam:Come on, man.
Chef Ricky:Come on. About to spit up his whiskey.
Gizmo:Timeless. 51 games ago. Timeless.
Bam Bam:You're talking about timeless? 50
Gizmo:ring gauge cigar by six inches long. Nicaraguan puro. I gotta say I gotta give it to Michael Herklotz. I mean, he is everywhere on social media.
Bam Bam:This is true.
Gizmo:He is everywhere. I mean, he's kind of he kind of reminds me, and this is a serious compliment.
Bam Bam:Kenny.
Gizmo:He no. He reminds me of what Rocky Patel the stories of what Rocky Patel was doing he was and going everywhere to get his cigars in shops and make people know it. And it seems like it's working for him.
Bam Bam:So at PCA at the past two shows, he's had a very, very busy booth. And it's a small booth, but people have rotated in and
Senator:out of there. Not the first show.
Bam Bam:I don't know, I think so.
Gizmo:Not the first show. Not first show.
Bam Bam:Second Yeah, show, was really busy.
Gizmo:I gotta give him credit. Yeah, of We're busting balls. We I haven't done any Otago here, So if any listeners out there have a recommendation on Ferre Otego, cigar you like, the cigar you're smoking Have you guys done any? Have you
Rooster:had any of the cigars?
Bam Bam:What do think? I think it's pretty flat and uninteresting. And I know you have.
Rooster:Agree.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's uninteresting.
Rooster:Unless he's got something I will
Bam Bam:say there are very well made cigars. The ash is beautiful.
Rooster:And construction being pretty good.
Bam Bam:Yeah, excellent construction, but that's it.
Chef Ricky:It's pretty marbled.
Senator:Doesn't he have Davinoff manufacturing this stuff?
Gizmo:No, it's made by Placencia. Okay.
Senator:Or then Davodoff is distributing for him.
Gizmo:Yeah. He yeah. Davodoff is his distributor. So a Davodoff dealer, when they get their stuff, they see Davodoff, they see Camacho, they see Avvo, and they see Ferriotega.
Bam Bam:Wow. Got
Gizmo:it. Alright, boys. Let's move on now. Number nine, the Fuente Fuente, of course, the entrant here from Arturo Fuente. The Fuente Fuente Opus X Angel Share Reserva de Chateau, the Churchill 48 reengaged cigar by seven inches long.
Gizmo:I don't know. I had this cigar two weeks ago, and I snapped it in half, and I threw it in the ashtray. I was so angry. And this was a cigar that was sent to me as a gift by a retailer that I had done some business with. I didn't ask for the cigar, he just sent it as like a bodyguard.
Gizmo:And the cigar was so bad, he said it was on He had it for about seven years. I had it in my tower for about six months, and I split it in half. Was so angry at this cigar. That's gotta be over
Bam Bam:$40.
Rooster:How much is this Gotta be over $40.
Gizmo:The MSRP is $25.
Senator:Yeah, it's not crazy. I've had that. So when we were at our former lounge in North Korea, I had bought that there, and didn't enjoy it. It was just like a really Boring. Uninspiring cigar.
Senator:I didn't really know what you should take away from it. But what's weird is there are people that like it. I mean, lizard Henrito likes that cigar. Henrito loves it. Henrito.
Gizmo:So I mean, the story of Fuente Fuente Opus X has been told a thousand times. It's not had success on this podcast. And like I said, I have not snapped a cigar in half in a very long time.
Senator:Yeah. Giz, you were telling this story the other night at the lounge I heard.
Gizmo:Yeah. Let's move on.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. I was teeing off on Fuente a little bit. Alright. Another one from Cuba here at number eight. The Diplomaticos Hanios Exclusivo for Phoenicia.
Gizmo:52 ring gauge cigar by five and one half inches long. I don't know why that's still funny, but every time you do it, it's hilarious.
Rooster:The buzzer on there?
Gizmo:Very appropriate.
Rooster:Why? You've For
Gizmo:a diplomat, no. He doesn't like regional editions.
Bam Bam:No, don't. Neither do you.
Senator:That's a He's not wrong if it's a regional. There's no way it's great.
Bam Bam:It can't be. It's not bad. And that marca itself is a little suspect compared to the other Cuba markers.
Gizmo:Yeah, don't know why that, you know, the number two from them has not performed well. It did not rate well here anything from Mataco I've ever had.
Bam Bam:That's a beautiful cigar.
Gizmo:I've not loved.
Bam Bam:Neither have I.
Gizmo:It's certainly a weird don't
Rooster:think we have done like, a fresh box of the Diplo. We have not. We probably should. Yeah. I think that would be a good Great idea.
Rooster:To see.
Gizmo:All right. Number seven now. This one's a weird one. The the name on this one. Nasser the goat by AJ Fernandez in Toro.
Gizmo:52 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. And there's quite literally, Bam, a picture of a goat on the band.
Bam Bam:Even better. Oh, lord.
Gizmo:Rapper is Mexican. The binder and filler are Nicaraguan. This cigar started as a retailer exclusive for Nassar Cigar Lounge outside of the capital in Haiti. Word got out about this cigar, then AJ Foneta started offering the goat to The US market. And this year, it comes in at number seven.
Gizmo:Wow. MSRP on that is $16. Generous ranking. Number six, of course, everybody has to get their representation here. The Rocky Patel Emerald in Robusto.
Bam Bam:What do you think, rooster?
Gizmo:50 ring gauge cigar by five and one half inches long.
Rooster:I won't even I won't even put that in the top 500. Coming out
Gizmo:of Nicaragua, the rapper is Ecuadorian. The binder is Mexican in Nicaraguan. The filler is Honduran in Nicaraguan.
Rooster:That's another one. Like, Rocky Patel, you gotta have a Rocky Patel in the top Sure. 25. Top 10, I would say. Every time.
Bam Bam:Every time. That's unreal.
Senator:But it's funny because it's only with CA. Yeah. If you look at the other publications every year, his stuff is never high up. Interesting. Just don't tells you where he spends his marketing money.
Gizmo:Correct. I just don't understand why you know, there's a couple major manufacturers out there that we have we don't have success with. Right? I don't understand for how big he is, for how much tobacco he buys, how many employees he has, that we can't find something.
Bam Bam:And how well distributed he is.
Gizmo:Yeah. He's one of the top because of the reasons we were just talking about with Ferri Otago.
Bam Bam:It's incredible.
Gizmo:I I don't understand it, but, you know, good for him. Number six this year on the top 25. And now, boys, we are into the top five for Cigar Aficionados. Top 25 list for 2025. This one is another one blended by Rafael Nadal, the Trinidad Espiritu series number three in Bellicoso.
Gizmo:52 ring gauge cigar by six and one eights inches long. Coming out of Nicaragua, wrapper's Mexican. The binder and filler are Nicaraguan. And I would have expected you to hit that buzzer No.
Senator:Except Not for him.
Gizmo:Rafael Nadal's So name is on I am optimistic about that.
Bam Bam:Correct. Everything he makes has been exquisite so far.
Senator:For that reason alone, we have to try it. Correct.
Gizmo:I do dislike, and we've talked about this a thousand times, I dislike the use of the Cuban marcus outside of Cuba. Like, it's confusing. They don't taste anything similar. They don't look similar. It's very, very odd.
Gizmo:So that's my only complaint there. But I'm totally totally willing to to try that one.
Rooster:And what what size is that?
Gizmo:Asperi two. It is a 52 ring gauge belly coso by six and one eighths inches long.
Bam Bam:Nice.
Gizmo:Like a Toro kind of with a belly belly top on.
Bam Bam:Oh, I'd like to try that.
Senator:Yeah.
Gizmo:And we should bring that in. All right. Now, number four. This one's one that I had not heard of. The Cuesta Ray Centrofino sun grown pyramid number nine.
Bam Bam:Wow.
Gizmo:52 ring gauge cigar by six and one quarter inches long coming out of the Fuente factory in The Dominican Republic. Apparently, this brand was once the official cigar of the king of Spain. Is that right? So now JC Newman JC Newman is using that brand name to put a
Senator:cigar Big fan
Bam Bam:of the
Senator:king of Spain. Correct.
Gizmo:Ecuadorian wrapper and the binder and filler are both from The Dominican Republic. The name references the Sumatra seed wrapper from Ecuador. Sungrown, of course, referring to the tobacco grown out in the open sunlight. Centrofino is the middle of the tobacco plant from where the tobacco was called. Too high on the stock and the tobacco is too dark, too low, and the leaf is too light.
Gizmo:JC Newman likens that Centrofino of the plant to a center cut of beef tenderloin. Now number three. Coming up on number one here, boys. Number three, the Tatuahe black in petite Lancero. That's an interesting size.
Gizmo:38 ring gauge by six. Long cigar, very thin cigar.
Bam Bam:I know where you're going. I wouldn't mind trying it.
Senator:Yeah, think we have to try it.
Gizmo:Would be happy to.
Senator:I've had the Tetou Ay Black Label in, I don't Robusto or a Corona, And it was like the first third was good and the rest was not.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:Who knows? Maybe in a Lancero, it Interesting.
Bam Bam:No buzzer on that one.
Gizmo:Nicaraguan Purell coming out of the My Father Cigars factory. We actually have a my father cigar coming up next week, boys. And, this one is from Pete Johnson. 38 ring gauge again by six. K.
Gizmo:Interesting size to see it. Number three this year on the list. Number two now, the runner-up from Cuba, the Cohiba Ambar, 53 ring gauge cigar by five and one quarter inches long, rooster No. Has a pigtail.
Bam Bam:I'm giving it a buzzer. Have you had that?
Senator:He had it. I had it. You've had
Gizmo:that? He had it last week.
Senator:I had it on Two
Gizmo:weeks ago.
Senator:Christmas day. It's very good, it's very good. You know I'm not like a huge Cohiba guy. No. It's very good.
Bam Bam:So that's high praise.
Senator:It's young, so there there's are, kinda peaks and valleys with that cigar where you're like, wow. This is great. And then you're like, ah, it's starting to show some youth. Wow. This is great.
Senator:It's starting to show youth. So it just needs time. I have no doubt that if that sits for a few years, it'll be an excellent, excellent cigar. But even young, like, it was very good. It was very satisfying.
Senator:Wow.
Gizmo:What's the MSRP on that? $75. Actually, it's probably closer to 90, I would think. It's a regular production Cohiba cigar. I guess it's kind of like I don't know if I would call it a Robusto Extra at 53 by five and a quarter.
Gizmo:I mean, it's only three factors of the ring gauge bigger than
Rooster:And you're saying you gotta wait a few years to smoke it.
Senator:Yeah. But that's all Cohiba, honestly. I mean, at least most Cohiba. Like, a Coro, you're never gonna wanna smoke young.
Gizmo:But that it only it only was released last year, or excuse me, in 2024.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Did you have that in Cuba?
Senator:No. I I literally, I smoked it here, right here in this lunch. Wow.
Gizmo:He got it from Lizard Phil.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Ah, okay. Well, Lizard Phil may be getting this. And,
Gizmo:of course, boys, we talked about this on our New Year's Eve episode. The Padron's sixtieth anniversary in Maduro is the cigar of the year Nice. From Cigar Aficionado. And, honestly, it's one of the one of the ones on our list. It was a perfect cigar for us this year.
Gizmo:All of us have been smoking them as celebratory cigars here and there. What a brilliant cigar.
Bam Bam:Agreed.
Senator:The only one on that list created with a three d printer.
Gizmo:That's true. Yeah. Which George talked about in his interview with us. So let's talk overall about the top 25 cigars. And and again, I'd like to I I hope there's a mathematician listening to this episode right now because I would like to know what the mathematical possibility is that out of the hundreds of cigars that they review each year, how there are absolutely no duplicates in the top 25.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Based on what they say is how they rate these cigars and how they review these cigars. Right? How is it that there are no repeats in the top 25? How is it that no manufacturer has ever gone back to back on top cigar of the year? It's a good question.
Gizmo:Again, it shows that it's up for grabs. I mean, this is it's an advertising play. I mean, we all know that. But again, how is there not two Padrons in here? How is there not two Davidoff's
Bam Bam:in here? Correct.
Gizmo:I mean, some of these manufacturers, they they make great cigars. How are there not two of them in here? Even the Fuente stuff, they love Fuente. Yeah. How are there not two of those?
Gizmo:Yeah. Is there any logic here that I'm missing that doesn't that doesn't make sense?
Bam Bam:No. It doesn't add up.
Gizmo:The mathematical probability has to be close to beyond zero with a thousand zeros on the end of it.
Senator:Only thing I'm glad to see is that that Padron sixtieth was so clearly spectacular and leaps and bounds above
Rooster:Mhmm.
Senator:Any release this year
Rooster:Yep.
Senator:That even they had no choice but to give that cigar of year. Because how many times are we sitting here talking about cigar aficionado, cigar of the year is the the pledge, you know? Again, there are some EP Criollo cigars that we actually really like.
Gizmo:Love.
Senator:Yeah. But the pledge is not the best of what they've ever put out, and for that cigar to get like almost a flaw, like a 99 or 98 something crazy, you can't buy that.
Rooster:They gave they gave to my father Yeah. One of the best. The judge. The judge.
Gizmo:I mean That was the worst cigar we smoked
Senator:last year.
Bam Bam:We gave that a 4.3 if I'm not mistaken. Correct. That was terrible.
Senator:It's like thing that's surprising actually since we just mentioned my father, the the blue. Oh, Honduran. Where
Chef Ricky:is it?
Senator:That was a great cigar.
Gizmo:Great cigar.
Bam Bam:That is a That's
Gizmo:a brand new release. And actually, was looking at Halfwheel. They're doing like a listener poll that'll end by the time this episode comes out next week. But that's one of the six that the listeners have kind of whittled it down to. My Father Blue is in there.
Bam Bam:That blue is incredible. It is, for me, borderline dessert like. So much cocoa. It's incredible. Off the charts.
Gizmo:So congratulations to everybody who made it into the top 25 here. That's a good thing for all these cigar manufacturers because this gets a lot of eyes each year. But we'll see whose turn it is next year to get number one. This one right here.
Bam Bam:Oh, dude.
Rooster:This could easily make the list.
Bam Bam:It's spectacular and I'm smoking it pretty quickly. Well, maybe not as quick as Chef but honestly it's fantastic.
Gizmo:It's really, really good.
Bam Bam:It's not hot. It doesn't heat up. The draw has been exquisite. The flavor profile is fantastic.
Gizmo:The smell with the burn wine
Bam Bam:is intoxicating. I know it is.
Gizmo:Everything about this cigar right now is just perfect.
Bam Bam:I
Gizmo:really was hesitant about the size and shape and the construction of it. These are hard cigars to And
Chef Ricky:the price.
Gizmo:And the price, of course. Letting us down just based on the expectation you have coming in with this crazy box here. But why would you
Rooster:think that the construction would not be good?
Gizmo:Because I'm just saying a family
Rooster:that has such rich heritage and experience of rolling cigars and making cigars for Davidoff.
Gizmo:Mean These cigars are hard cigars to make. That's all I'm saying.
Senator:They are, but I just want to say, I am never afraid to pick up a Perfecto or this shape. It almost doesn't matter who's putting it out, it's hard to roll, they have their top people rolling those cigars. I say that because in my entire life, I've never picked up a Perfecto or any similar type shape and had like a construction issue. Now the only people that would say they have a construction issue, you don't know, you have to be patient with that first quarter of an inch or something, then of course you're gonna think you're having an issue. But once it opens up Mhmm.
Senator:I've never had a plugged cigar of this type.
Bam Bam:I don't think I have either. Ever. You have to assume the very best is rolling this, right?
Gizmo:That's what you'd hope, yeah. But again, it sets itself up on it puts itself on such a high pedestal. Mhmm. With the presentation, the price, the shape, everything about it being for, you know, his father's birthday. I mean, it's just high expectations coming in tonight, and it's certainly delivering.
Bam Bam:But honestly, though, coming from someone like him who's a scientist and he approaches this very intellectually, I don't know. You have to kind of have some confidence in him and who he is.
Gizmo:I have confidence. I'm just I know that. Saying that it's put on a pedestal with all those factors.
Senator:Yeah. Sorry. I don't know why I just thought of this. Is there not a Cuban perfecto? Well, the cuaba.
Bam Bam:That's right. The only one
Chef Ricky:I of
Senator:that, is there any other?
Gizmo:No. That's the only one that's like a double tape.
Bam Bam:I can't think of any other, Senator.
Senator:What a travesty.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. We talked about that on the Quabba episode that that hasn't appeared aside from in some like special form, but that's Quabba. That's what they have is the
Senator:I mean, I'm sorry.
Gizmo:Perfect All
Senator:the marketing gimmickry that Habanos SA puts out, you'd think if any of the big flagship marcas came out with a new release that was a perfecto or shaped like it, that would be a huge deal. Yeah. And I just say that because when you think of those types of cigars that we've smoked, they've done really well. Like the Padron eightieth, we love. The Padron sixtieth, we agree, cigar of the year.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Senator.
Senator:The cigar we're smoking right now, this is gonna score extremely high. Sure.
Chef Ricky:Honestly It's very difficult to teach prisoners how to roll.
Gizmo:Oh, Jesus.
Bam Bam:Can I get my buzzer out?
Gizmo:So what do you guys think of the list overall going through it? I mean, it's obviously purposefully very diverse. No repeats. Very, very all over the place on on origins of cigars. Of course, it it it just doesn't align with the mathematical probability of what cigars actually perform well.
Gizmo:Like, that's like us saying that our top five cigars have to be, you know, one's Dominican, one's Honduran, one's Cuban, one. It doesn't make sense.
Bam Bam:I I am happy that there's a
Rooster:There's a few.
Bam Bam:That decent number that we like and that we wanna try. So that's, I think, is positive.
Chef Ricky:I think lower on the list were a lot of the cigars that we've had on the pod that did well. Correct. So to me that's almost like the real part of the list and everything else is what you pay for.
Senator:Well and cigar the
Chef Ricky:markets pay for.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Cigar. Yes. And cigar.
Gizmo:This is the first time our experience with a lot of these, I'm going to say lines because the vitolas, it's the first time that a lot of them have actually done well in the pod. Like, it's the first first year. That's true. And, you know, I guess this is now our fourth fourth time doing this. Kind of the first time it's really aligned with how we felt about a lot of the cigars.
Senator:That's where I was gonna go. I I think this is actually like the most They're listening. Believable type of list. Like, I think they they have to realize at this point, like, everybody knows the bullshit that they pull every year, and I think we've obviously been very vocal and critical about it.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:There's no doubt others have as well.
Gizmo:Oh,
Senator:yeah. And I I almost feel like this year, they knew they had to put some work in to put some serious cigars
Gizmo:in.
Bam Bam:Oh, they had to actually smoke the cigars.
Senator:I mean, boohoo.
Gizmo:There's a lot of cigars to review.
Bam Bam:That's
Gizmo:true. I mean, you think every every issue they're probably putting what? 60 cigars that they've reviewed in there? You know, that's a lot. Yeah.
Gizmo:That's 360 cigars in a six issue year.
Senator:You know? Imagine what that would be like.
Gizmo:Well, I'm just saying that, again, mathematically, it's improbable that the list lays down like this. Right. It doesn't make sense. Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of the second, third now on the Kellner LE 80, the eightieth anniversary limited edition cigar for Hinky Kellner's birthday, and the writer's tears copper pot still Irish whiskey.
Gizmo:What's everybody thinking on the pairing right now?
Bam Bam:I think it's a exquisite delicious pairing. I mean, from top to bottom. Mhmm. Mhmm. I am getting Mhmm.
Bam Bam:On my cigar, it's very well balanced. Salted butter Yeah. And some kind of like a maple y sweet thing happening for me on the cigar. With the sip of this whiskey, it's just really bringing incredible balance. I'm totally blown away.
Gizmo:I agree with you. I I think this pairing is just perfect.
Bam Bam:I don't like that sound bite.
Gizmo:It's perfect.
Senator:The irony of Bev saying that is that you're the first person that I thought of when I heard that.
Bam Bam:I kinda do that. Because he
Senator:literally he lights a cigar. He just sits there and he's like
Bam Bam:I know. I know.
Gizmo:I just I I can't get over how smooth and easy to drink this this Irish whiskey is. I know, you know, the bourbon purists out there give a shit for complaining about high ABV, high proof spirits. I love seeing a 40% come in here, pair brilliantly with a cigar.
Rooster:Is that a 40%?
Gizmo:This is a 40. Yeah. It's staying in its lane. You know, it's not trying to overdo it. You know, obviously, we're here first for the cigar.
Gizmo:It's just really a great sidekick to this cigar tonight.
Bam Bam:Honestly, there's a buttery creaminess with a hint of vanilla and butterscotch for me in this spirit. How often do you get that? For $40, whatever this I thing
Chef Ricky:have a slight complaint.
Senator:Oh, shit. Know it's not hot enough for him. I need
Bam Bam:know. What the fuck am I doing? No, I'm buzzing. Oh my god.
Chef Ricky:It's got nothing to do with the heat. I think the spice level's great. I think the heat awareness is there. Parts of it, the way it delivers a sweetness feels a little empty for me. Right?
Chef Ricky:And I mentioned that earlier. So I I dove a little bit deeper into it. Right? So in the in the Did
Senator:you do this in the bathroom?
Chef Ricky:In this No. No. I I did this while, you know, Giz was going through the bullshit list there of cigars. So in Irish whiskey or Scotch was there's chill filtration. Right?
Chef Ricky:And this is where they remove a lot of the impurities and the cloudiness from the spirit. This same brand has other bottlings where they do not do the chilled filtration, and those present a little bit more viscous and rounder and fuller in the way it delivers that sweetness. And so I'm not knocking this at this. You know, it's a slight complaint that I am noticing. I compare it to drinking a full sugar soda, right?
Chef Ricky:Like say Mexican Coke.
Senator:Thank you. See it.
Chef Ricky:Haritos. The same it's the same feeling on the palate, right? You drink a Mexican Coke or you drink a Diet Coke. You could tell that one has a sort of like empty sweetness to it. This this gives me that same feeling.
Chef Ricky:Wow. On having a medium bodied cigar.
Gizmo:Don't want
Chef Ricky:the No, full no, no. I'm just I'm just this isn't
Rooster:just That's talking about what he's saying.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Chef Ricky:I'm just talking about the Irish whiskey.
Bam Bam:And he wishes it was a Mexican.
Senator:I can't, well, he's the only one who wishes it was
Gizmo:a Mexican. I think this is a perfect pairing for a cigar. Wait to
Chef Ricky:do this again, and I can't wait to try some of the other expressions that aren't chill filtered.
Senator:I agree, but those will probably pair better with cigar with more body Sure, than yeah.
Chef Ricky:On the pairing, it's great.
Bam Bam:The pairing's phenomenal. I'm just curious about this chilled filtering. How many spirit makers use this process? Is it a common one?
Chef Ricky:Oh, I
Senator:have tons of spirits.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, okay. Think in this
Senator:Almost price every vodka is chill filtered. Some tequila is probably like those, what, Cristalino tequilas are
Bam Bam:chill filtered. But since we're not drinking any of those types of spirits, we're drinking a whiskey, are whiskeys traditionally chilled filtered?
Gizmo:Irish whiskey.
Bam Bam:Are they? Okay. Especially in
Chef Ricky:this price point.
Gizmo:Got it, got
Bam Bam:got it.
Chef Ricky:And some of, from what I read, some of those that are not in this, or most that are not in this price point are not.
Bam Bam:Well, it's an interesting take.
Gizmo:I mean, I completely disagree with you.
Chef Ricky:Yes. That's fine. You don't like honey.
Gizmo:That's true, but this is working great. I agree. For me. I'm very happy with the spirits I couldn't agree with Honestly it's the best Irish whiskey I've ever had. Same.
Gizmo:As it relates certainly to I pairing with agree. Just
Chef Ricky:I'm I'm saying Based on this experience, I'm looking forward to trying the others.
Gizmo:Okay. Got it. So boys, let's go to a listener email now. This one comes from Lizard Enrique, our friend who writes us a lot. He says, hello there, Lizards.
Gizmo:Not since JR Ewing was shot on the hit CBS primetime soap opera Dallas has there been such a dramatic, all caps, audience cliffhanger as the lizard audience wondering the fate of the Trinidad Fundadores that Bam Bam was attempting to sell. Oh.
Bam Bam:What? Successful endeavor I'm hearing.
Chef Ricky:Get that buzzer, Ben.
Gizmo:What is the latest update? Cheers, Lizard Enrique. And then we got another one from Lizard Chris who said, dear Giz, I was perusing Bon Roberts this morning as I often do on a Sunday, and imagine my surprise when I see a lovely box of twenty twenty one Trinidad Fundadores being sold by someone named, quote, bam bam bam. I immediately took the screenshot below and just had to send it to you given the extensive conversation you guys have had on what
Bam Bam:Calm down, senator. Calm down.
Gizmo:To be this very box.
Senator:My head is on a swivel right now.
Bam Bam:No sudden movements. No sudden movements.
Gizmo:Oh, boy. Oh. If this isn't the same BAM and the one we all know and love, then my apologies. But if it is, I'm happy to have relit this match and to prompt another accountability hour for our listening enjoyment. I hope you all had a great holiday, and I wish you a happy 2026.
Gizmo:And as always, long live wizard nation.
Bam Bam:What the fuck is that? Is that like a
Gizmo:So
Bam Bam:backup plumbing plan?
Senator:Sounds like some accountability is about to take place.
Gizmo:So I gotta say, I waited a long time to put the box up.
Bam Bam:I know you didn't.
Gizmo:Why? A long time.
Bam Bam:It's okay.
Gizmo:Why? Because the holiday series, the holiday auctions that Bon Roberts does are very successful. Okay?
Bam Bam:Are you about to make an announcement?
Gizmo:BAM's Fundies have sold.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:They have sold.
Bam Bam:My man.
Rooster:I fucking bought them.
Gizmo:So I put them up for a sixteen day auction. Amassing 46 bids.
Chef Ricky:Wow.
Gizmo:The end of the bidding topped at $1,915.
Bam Bam:Holy smokes.
Gizmo:Almost $2,000.
Rooster:The cassette Offered off 12
Gizmo:on them. Crazy boys. Head in hand. What's crazy is twelve hours before the auction was supposed to end, someone hit the buy it now button that I set for $2,750.
Bam Bam:Oh, shit. You're joking. Right?
Gizmo:Bringing BAM's profit on this box to over 2,100 US dollars.
Bam Bam:That's incredible.
Gizmo:Incredible. I congratulate you. I am I congratulate Discussion. I I congratulate
Bam Bam:Team. And thank you. You're very welcome. Correct. Correct.
Bam Bam:Justice.
Rooster:This is officially my last
Gizmo:part. I
Rooster:fucking quit.
Gizmo:I am so proud.
Senator:I'm going on strike with in support of RoosterWeek.
Rooster:Am so proud. Thank you, senator.
Gizmo:God. Somebody's on my side. So I had it for a long time, Bam.
Bam Bam:That's to the strike.
Senator:No. That's to your cell.
Gizmo:This is ridiculous. So You sold your box, my friend. So I alright. So let me tell you how I
Senator:said call it his box. Let's call it
Gizmo:Rooster's box. Rooster did not buy this box. I know he refuses to believe bought the box. No. You bought the 2018 box that he didn't sell.
Gizmo:This is a 21 box that he did that he bought with that.
Senator:Okay. Has this box shipped yet? Today, it's shipped.
Gizmo:Okay. It's out the door.
Senator:Bam, you need to send a photo of the box code and date of Rooster's box if you still have it.
Gizmo:No problem.
Chef Ricky:Alright. I
Gizmo:got it. So let me tell you how I set this up. So I did wait a long time.
Senator:Because then we can exonerate BAM. Alright. But without that Alright. It's very suspect.
Rooster:I'll do it tonight. Before before the next spot.
Bam Bam:Tonight. Tonight.
Gizmo:So this is how I set it up, Bam.
Senator:So what year was this box?
Gizmo:This was a '21. Okay. '21. So 2018 will go for, like,
Senator:four hours. He's gonna put the $20.18 up tonight for $4.
Gizmo:No. That's dug into deep. So Bon Roberts around the holidays does a serious auction. So they shut down like the transacting and stuff. It's just the auction site is running.
Gizmo:So you can't like, you know, put new stuff up and, you know, do anything like that. It's just the auctions run for sixteen days. So I saw that, and I I knew it was coming. I I was like, you know what? I'm gonna wait for that.
Gizmo:Let the box sit for a long time. And I couldn't believe it. It did so well. That's a It was on the front page of Bon Roberts for over a week. Unbelievable.
Gizmo:Because it was the number three or four highest. I guess they sort the featured listings by activity bids are happening on the item with 46 bid. This was like the, you know, third or fourth highest on the site at the time. I mean, there was a Davidoff box from the nineteen eighties above it. I mean, it was some real real heavy hitters, and this Fundadores box was right up there.
Gizmo:Unbelievable. And I was sitting there. It was sat at $1,915 up until about twelve hours before the auction was supposed to end. And last night I got a actually, in the morning I woke up to it. I got an email saying that the box had been purchased via Buy It Now.
Gizmo:So I put the price on the Buy It Now. I looked at history of the Funda Doors selling on Bon Roberts, and I just added, you know, a certain percentage to it and set that as like That was Gizmo's vig. You know?
Bam Bam:Yeah. Correct.
Gizmo:If it's, you know, gonna sell buy it now. If somebody wants it that bad, that's the price they're gonna pay. So $27.50, Bam, that's your box young is
Bam Bam:box to sell for such a high number. What's the highest sold fundy that we know of? That one. Probably.
Rooster:At You will find out. At 28.
Gizmo:At that age. At that age, that is definitely the highest that is sold on Bon Roberts so far. But listen, they don't they don't come up that much. I mean, even if you look upon Roberts history, which I did, there's not that many boxes that have transacted since 2020 on the site. What country
Senator:is this buyer from? Interesting.
Gizmo:Shipped to just a few states south of us.
Bam Bam:No shit. US buyer. Fantastic.
Chef Ricky:I wonder if he's the listener.
Bam Bam:Well, you know what we're going do? What's that? We'll do a lizard steak night.
Gizmo:Oh. I'm fucking vegetarian. Alright.
Senator:I'm no longer on
Gizmo:strike. Oh, that's hilarious.
Bam Bam:They have portobello steak for
Gizmo:you. And
Rooster:so is chef for this month.
Bam Bam:Is he? Oh, we'll wait till next month then.
Gizmo:I can't I can't believe he thinks you sold his box, and you set up a steak dinner with that money.
Rooster:That's hilarious. Well, congratulations, Ben. That's yeah.
Bam Bam:Thank you, old boy.
Gizmo:Welcome back.
Bam Bam:Thank you.
Gizmo:What a way to start the year.
Bam Bam:Oh, Lord. That's hilarious.
Gizmo:But, man, that is a huge profit. The hammer the hammer price on that with the 15% that buyer paid, it's like $3,200 Wow. You know, we
Senator:Sounds like he got a steal.
Gizmo:We we covered shipping, but I mean, it was beautiful box. That's amazing.
Chef Ricky:You should have signed that box.
Rooster:I should have signed them.
Bam Bam:Both of
Rooster:you should have signed
Gizmo:that box.
Rooster:Why should he sign
Bam Bam:the box?
Chef Ricky:I should sign the box. Oh, lord.
Gizmo:So, Rooster, seriously, how are you feeling about all this? All jokes. Is it obvious? You really wanna fucking know how I feel? Yeah.
Gizmo:No. Well, this is
Rooster:not my box, apparently. That's what he's saying. I don't even remember what year the box was that I sold to.
Gizmo:Well, that's good, man. I gotta up. I gotta look
Bam Bam:A lot of time. A lot of time over there.
Rooster:The closest But I do have a record of the one I sold when I bought. So It's
Bam Bam:a 2018 box that you sold.
Gizmo:So what's funny too is, you know, Wizard Chris here saw the box sitting up there and tied the name Bam Bam Bam, the username to Right. What's funny is I had that username before I even knew you.
Bam Bam:That's right. That's funny.
Gizmo:I had used that It's unusual, right, Senator? See It's the latest totally crazy.
Senator:I've had
Rooster:Oh, wow.
Gizmo:That's I've had that nickname on the Internet for quite some time. Yeah. Like ten years.
Rooster:Something is fishy.
Senator:Yeah. This this was making sense now
Rooster:and sounds very fishy.
Bam Bam:Little clandestine operation
Rooster:happening here.
Senator:Oh, yeah. I just happen to have the same name that another person uses on this podcast.
Bam Bam:Let me call miss
Gizmo:I've had it forever.
Bam Bam:You know what? Let me call him his money pity in here.
Gizmo:So I'm pretty pumped for you, man. That's a huge profit on that box. What are you gonna do with it other than take us out for stakes? Stakes. Not rooster.
Senator:Oh, we we can imagine. Not rooster.
Bam Bam:I have no idea.
Gizmo:Oh, that was awesome. I mean, it'll take good care of his car.
Senator:Yeah. Probably needs an oil change,
Bam Bam:some new tires. That's correct.
Gizmo:Correct. Brakes. Brakes. After tonight,
Chef Ricky:you need a new brake line.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah. Maybe a paint job when he leaves.
Gizmo:Great news. This cigar is amazing. And this spirit, chef, you're dead wrong. I'm sorry. It's amazing, dude.
Chef Ricky:I didn't knock it. I just But you set it up
Senator:as a knock. You said if I had one complaint. There's nothing to complain about.
Chef Ricky:It's not perfect for me. It's not horrible. It's it's great, but it's not perfect.
Gizmo:You said it tastes like
Senator:my cigar. It's a perfect say that.
Chef Ricky:Oh god, Ben. I know how you feel.
Gizmo:Do you? That's correct.
Bam Bam:Oh, you're just scratching the surface, my friend.
Gizmo:But look at the prophet it's put you into today.
Senator:That's true.
Gizmo:By the way, how about the timing that it literally ended this morning? And I was like a kid on Christmas No. Coming to this episode. Can't believe I got as far into it as I did tonight.
Bam Bam:Mentioning it.
Gizmo:Without mentioning it. But because I by the way, just for everybody in here and the listeners, I did not tell Bam that his box sold, and I did not tell him that it was sold at that price.
Bam Bam:I had no idea.
Gizmo:He was learning that at the same time everybody was.
Rooster:I cannot even imagine. You had. I wish you hadn't
Chef Ricky:told nothing told me about it. Bam would have called out. Oh, yeah. Fear of this.
Gizmo:Correct. Yeah. Bam wouldn't have been here. Nope. So speaking of crazy stories, boys, we have to talk about it because it does relate
Rooster:what Can I can I just ask
Gizmo:him another question? I swear.
Rooster:Are you gonna sell the twenty eighteen box that I gave you?
Bam Bam:So I've I've smoked a good deal of those cigars out of that box.
Senator:That's not answering his question.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But how can I
Gizmo:You can sell partials?
Bam Bam:I can. I I
Gizmo:I saw a box up there yesterday with four cigars.
Bam Bam:Honestly, I
Gizmo:want I'm
Senator:pretty sure a yes or a no would suffice here.
Bam Bam:So I still have I have
Rooster:You're still just a simple
Bam Bam:No. I I wanna keep those. I wanna smoke those for quite a while. Get them. Smoke.
Bam Bam:I do wanna keep this.
Rooster:He's gonna sell it.
Gizmo:We'll put it up next week. Yeah. We'll put it up.
Bam Bam:Got it.
Gizmo:So, boys, another crazy story. Like I said here, we have to talk about this because it's big news right now, and it's certainly relative to what we do here with cigars. We'll get into that in a second. But, obviously, huge news happening around the world. In Venezuela, The United States captured the leader of that country, Nicolas Maduro, the dictator as he's been called, a bunch of other names.
Gizmo:But what's wild about this is that Venezuela has been Cuba's crutch for a very long time. Economic crutch as far as getting oil in and then allowing Cuba to use some of that oil, sell most of that oil, and get hard currency into their country to keep the economy moving forward. Now with Venezuela cut off like this, which they are, we have taken control of those oil reserves, and it's like the biggest oil reserve in the world. Mhmm. 300,000,000,000 barrels or something, million barrels.
Gizmo:Don't even know. But what's wild about this is now that the the focus is turning to Cuba. Mhmm. And I pulled some clips here that I wanna share with you guys tonight because I think it's really interesting. I I think we've talked a lot about the Cuban people and our, you know, absolute sadness for them of what they've been going through.
Gizmo:And it seems that now there's a clock ticking in one way or another that there is going to be a period of of, I don't know if you want to call it unrest or even more suffering. I mean, once the power goes out there again island wide, I don't know if that country is going be able to turn it back on. I mean, they are really really struggling already, and I think that, you know, there's definitely some bad times coming. And and unfortunately, the innocent people of Cuba are the ones who are going to suffer for it, you know. What are your thoughts on the Cuban piece of this as it relates to timeline, as it relates to the things I'm talking about with energy and food and water, obviously, being reliant on that?
Gizmo:Any thoughts on that stuff so far? And then we'll get into the cigar component in a little bit.
Senator:I'll just say, what's there to say? Cuba's like the cat with nine lives, right? Throughout our entire lifetimes, you know how many times we've heard, this is it for Cuba, the Castro regime, the government can't possibly find a way to sustain this any longer, and somehow, some socialist communist country always finds a way to bail them out. Sweeps in. So, you know, I'm not really of the mind where I'm sitting here like, oh, this is it.
Senator:It's all over. Like, we've we've heard and seen this too many times for me to believe that this is truly the end of the road for Cuba. When you have countries like China that could easily, easily resolve that for them, at least in the immediate term, and a country like Russia that would like to when the question is, you know, how much capacity they have to actually be helpful there. So None. I I I you know, I think myself, like everyone here, we feel for the Cuban people because it's not good for them, even if, you know, this may be better for the world, but it's it's just a tough situation.
Senator:I just feel like, you know, this is this perpetual, endless cycle that I'm not convinced will end anytime soon. Sure. And as much as, you know, there's rhetoric from, you know, Rubio and other media.
Gizmo:Pulled a Rubio clip, and I pulled a Lindsey Graham Trump Yeah. Mean, as Both much talking about I wanna play that. Yeah. Nice. Because it's it's pretty interesting.
Senator:As much as there's rhetoric around this, like, you know, it's good for both governments to have a a boogeyman, and Sure. I'm not sitting here possibly believing that, like, oh, yes, you know, boom, you know, overnight Rubio or or anyone really in the United States government wants to just fix Cuba, or even thinks that's possible for us to be the ones to do that. Like, we're just gonna waltz into Venezuela, take over their government, everything's just gonna be fixed. It's it's not that simple. So I'm just a realist.
Senator:I I don't see an immediate drastic change, but that takes nothing away from it. Obviously, this is continues to get even more difficult, the situation for the people in Cuba.
Gizmo:Yeah. So let me play these two clips for you guys, and then we'll discuss this. Obviously, this being the rhetoric that the senator's talking about. I mean, it's it seems pretty serious coming from the folks that we're gonna hear this from. First coming from senator Lindsey Graham and our president Trump specific on Cuba.
Bam Bam:All while roosters researching the funding.
Bam Bam:Just wait for Cuba. Cuba is a communist dictatorship that's killed priests and nuns. They've preyed on their own people. Their days are numbered. We're gonna wake up one day, I hope in '26, in our backyard we're gonna have allies in these countries doing business with America, not narco terrorist dictators killing Americans.
Bam Bam:This is a big frigging day. And everybody in the world is thinking differently than they were just a few days ago because of what you did.
Senator:Cuba is ready to fall. You know? Cuba looks like it's ready to fall. I don't know how they if they're gonna hold out. But Cuba now has no income.
Senator:They got all of their income from
Gizmo:It's crazy hearing them talk like this.
Senator:The Venezuelan oil. They're not getting any of
Gizmo:it. They're fighting for it.
Senator:And Cuba literally is ready
Rooster:to fall.
Senator:And you have a lot of great Cuban Americans that are gonna be very
Gizmo:happy about this. Alright. Now let's go to Marco Rubio a couple days ago on Meet the Press Sunday morning. Very last question he was asked at the end of the interview that I thought was really telling.
Senator:Is the Cuban government, the Trump administration's next target, mister secretary? Very quickly.
Chef Ricky:Well, the Cuban government is a is a huge problem. Yeah. The the the the Cuban government is a huge problem for
Rooster:some of
Chef Ricky:in Cuba. But I don't think people fully appreciate I think they're in a lot of trouble. Yes. I'm not gonna talk talk to you about what our future steps are gonna be and our policies are gonna be right now in this regard, but I don't think it's any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro. His entire, like, internal security force, his internal security apparatus is entirely controlled by Cubans.
Chef Ricky:One of the untold stories here is how, in essence, you talk about colonization because I think you said Dulce Rodriguez mentioned that, the ones who have sort of colonized, at least inside the regime, are Cubans. It was Cubans that guarded Maduro. He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards. In terms of their internal intelligence, who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors, those are all Cubans.
Bam Bam:Pretty wild. Interesting. Yeah. Didn't know that.
Gizmo:It's like the nondenial denial. You know? But like senator saying, it's all rhetoric.
Senator:It's a bullshit no answer.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah.
Senator:And it's a no answer because I'm sorry. With Maduro, I mean, the rhetoric was very clear. Either he does these things or yes, we're going to go in. There was no secret that The United States was willing to do what it just did. They said that.
Senator:It's been going on for couple say that with Cuba.
Bam Bam:Yep. No.
Senator:Yep. And because it is politically expedient for guys like Rubio in Florida, and other legislators in markets that have significant Cuban voters, to have this boogeyman and to say that I'm talking tough and fighting tough against that regime. And once that's gone, that loses an election issue that's very helpful for those people. Oh. On Venezuela, the same doesn't exist.
Bam Bam:Very interesting.
Gizmo:So the only reason we discussed this is because, again, we're not a political show. Right? Our interest is in Cuba, the Cuban people. We talk about the situation going on there because a lot of the people who love Cuban cigars like we do do not talk about that. In fact, I think there's a lot of kind of whitewashing of the situation there on YouTube and from other people who who love Cupid cigars.
Gizmo:And I think it's important to talk about Kirby Allison. The reality of of what's going on there, which is, you know, which is sad that that that a lot of folks aren't talking about it. So as it relates to what we do here, smoking Cuban cigars, which is already difficult, you know, getting those cigars in The United States at this point with the tariffs, everything else, you know, difficulty getting them through customs, what do you guys see as potential impacts here short term, long term as far as tobacco goes in Cuba? As far as cigars go in Cuba? I mean
Bam Bam:How can they prioritize the making of cigars when their country is collapsing around
Gizmo:them? Mhmm.
Bam Bam:Right?
Senator:Sure. They they can because it's it's like they're a whole economy at this point.
Gizmo:It's true.
Bam Bam:But
Senator:I mean, that's why they have literal prison labor rolling cigars. That's true. They know they need
Bam Bam:find a a wall soon.
Senator:Again, I just feel like we've heard for decades
Bam Bam:I know.
Senator:That this wall is right there.
Bam Bam:Yep. This is it. I know.
Senator:And there's always a way, and I'm sorry. I just think, like, the people that that government is in bed with have some pretty damn deep pockets. Sure. Now has has their patience warned? You know, do they want to keep you know, China's obviously how how much longer do we need to keep propping up this failed experiment in Cuba?
Senator:Mhmm. But at the same time, now what you have The United States doing in Venezuela, I honestly think if you're China or Russia, it adds to the reasons why it would be geopolitically smart for them To be there. To prop up Cuba. So I don't you know, I
Bam Bam:I And for all we know, could be happening without us knowing, without anyone knowing. That's a possibility.
Gizmo:It's it's just wild. You know? I I think I was talking to somebody about this. I don't know if it was one of you guys in the lounge the other day, but to think about us going to Cuba four years ago in November, Bam
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Where where it was then and the challenges that it faced then
Bam Bam:Ten
Gizmo:to and four years later
Bam Bam:How much time it was?
Rooster:How
Gizmo:aggressively worse it's gotten in that short period
Rooster:of time. Single year it has deteriorated. Yeah. And so so quick.
Gizmo:And every time you think it can't get worse, that it that it won't be more suffering for those people.
Rooster:Yeah. But where where does Cuba get its oil now?
Gizmo:40% of it and 50% of it is from Venezuela. There's a small supply from Mexico, but I don't know what the other makeup of it is. But I mean, The United States is definitely going to be trying to eliminate as much of that as possible. They really want to squeeze these guys.
Rooster:Yeah. So what happens to their power grid? I mean, how do they, you know, how do they generate power
Bam Bam:without They can't.
Gizmo:They And we've seen island wide blackouts that have stretched for days and, I mean, weeks in some areas of the country that, you know, at this point, that happening again, of course, seems like a major reality. But the repairing of it, getting things back online seems very unlikely, right? Correct. I mean
Rooster:Have you spoken to anybody in Cuba just like since this happened?
Gizmo:Yeah. I've spoken to a few folks there. You know, the opinions are definitely not feeling they're not feeling good. They are not optimistic. You know, a lot of the words that I've gotten kind of said, you know, something needs to happen.
Gizmo:I don't know if it will, but something needs to change.
Rooster:I mean, I know the Cuban people would like nothing better than The US to take over Cuba. Right?
Gizmo:Don't know if that's I
Senator:would not go that far. Absolutely not.
Gizmo:I don't think that's true. I don't think they want to be viewed as a colony. I think what they want is somebody internally to do it, but that's just a very difficult prospect They
Rooster:want given the things to get better.
Senator:Yeah. That's the complexity these
Rooster:They're proud people. Without The US's help, I mean, how does that happen now? I mean, which other
Gizmo:They haven't had our help since 1962.
Rooster:Gonna step up?
Gizmo:You know? That's the question.
Senator:I'm just saying, any Cuban national, and I'm talking like cab drivers, people I've had conversations with about this, you know, the funny thing is, for all the complaints about their lives in Cuba, they categorically reject the idea that The United States should come in and take over. That that is that is not that's another starter. They do not want that. They have tremendous pride in their country, its traditions, its history, all of that. They want to govern themselves.
Senator:Obviously, you know, the current situation doesn't feel like they're represented by their own people. I mean, what the Castro family has done and what the rest of the Cuban people have are obviously ocean apart. And what I've even heard is and I'm thinking of a particular conversation I had where someone said, what would be ideal is a blend of socialism and capitalism. And the reality is that that is not possible. You have one or you have the other.
Senator:You cannot have both. And so what they want is so idealistic, or what many there want is so idealistic, it cannot happen. And so you either have a failed experiment that's happening, it's been played out now for decades of socialism there that has not worked and not served the people well, or you will fundamentally need to change things. But the irony is, like, that wholesale change is not what most Cuban people there are looking for.
Gizmo:Let's not forget though that, you know, when Raul Castro opened up the ability to do small, you know, small business, did bring in some elements of capitalism to the country. I don't know if it was ten, fifteen years ago around that Obama time. That is also a failed experiment because at every turn they've then, you know, tightened the wrench on the folks that they gave that freedom to and are pulling it back. So I completely agree with everything you just said. I think it's a really, really bad situation in every single regard.
Gizmo:And with that, I would advise anybody out there who is, you know, looking to go to as a kind of a tourist or even going in support of the Cuba people to give things away. I mean, it's a very difficult situation right, you know, there right now. If you've not been there before, I would certainly say do not go. And if you have been there, just really, really think about your plan and what you're doing and and make sure you have everything because once you get there, you can't just run to the store down the street and buy something you need. It's a you know, you come with everything you need and you leave with everything that you need.
Gizmo:So we'll keep our eye on this. It's a really unfortunate situation. Of course, as it relates to cigars and the Cupid people will keep you updated as we're keeping each other updated on the chat and and whatnot. It's a it's a really, really wild situation. And, of course, next week, we're not gonna get to it today, but next week, we're gonna talk about that Chen G guy again.
Gizmo:He's got another whole story that's pretty incredible. We got a lot of stuff to go over, so we'll do that next week. So did you have an update on something?
Senator:I think Rooster has an update.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm gonna feel like Chen Ji in a moment.
Gizmo:While we're discussing all this, I saw I saw Rooster getting very I'll let
Rooster:you read that. So I Yeah.
Senator:Just read
Gizmo:a Okay.
Senator:Just read a giz out loud, please.
Bam Bam:Did I not pay good cash for that box? I
Senator:don't understand. Boy.
Bam Bam:It's Was it free? Did he give it to me? I don't understand. I steal the box.
Gizmo:Okay. So Rooster just handed me his phone.
Rooster:It's Jeff, that buzzer away, sir.
Gizmo:It's a Facebook message
Bam Bam:Uh-huh.
Gizmo:From someone who said, hi. Do you have Fundies? If you could also send me a list, much appreciated.
Rooster:That was from me, Dore.
Senator:Was from Rooster.
Gizmo:Oh, that was that was me asking him.
Rooster:Oh. Okay.
Senator:And this is a seller, and I recognize that name.
Gizmo:And he said I got this backwards. Can I set that up again?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Alright.
Gizmo:No. You can do whatever you want. It's your pod. Go ahead. So alright.
Gizmo:Hold on. So Rooster is saying, hi. Do you have Fundies? And if you could also send me your list, it'd be much appreciated. So this is obviously a seller of Cupid cigars that Rooster is
Bam Bam:familiar with. Something we've all done.
Gizmo:And this person replied, hey. I have a twenty twenty one box date of Fundies. Very delicious. $570 shipped.
Rooster:Wow. And I bought it.
Bam Bam:It's quite a profit margin there.
Gizmo:So are those gonna
Senator:be gone off the sale?
Chef Ricky:2018.
Gizmo:I don't remember that. So when is this from?
Rooster:I bought a box from him. That's a 2018 box. 2021. 2021.
Gizmo:So this is the box. Them? You sold the BAM?
Rooster:Yeah. Yes.
Senator:Alright. I I don't remember that. Rooster's box. Okay.
Gizmo:So you're saying that he sold your box. You're standing by that?
Rooster:I was sending this message to somebody else and telling, who was also selling a box of 2018, telling him that That's
Gizmo:'21, it says.
Rooster:Yeah, but there was another box that I bought. I bought a 2018 and a 2021 and, you know, a couple of boxes.
Bam Bam:Don't we live in an open free economy here? This is about Cuba.
Gizmo:So are you feeling that he sold your box? Does that change things
Rooster:for you? I know that all along he's sold my box.
Gizmo:And how do
Rooster:you feel about it? I feel great.
Gizmo:How do you think I feel?
Senator:Mean, Giz, I'm sorry. You've procured plenty of things for plenty of people.
Gizmo:Uh-huh. I procured
Senator:Hang on. I'm just gonna set this up for you.
Gizmo:Okay.
Senator:If you procured a box for someone at 500 and something dollars because
Rooster:$5.70.
Senator:$5.70. What? Because you assume that
Bam Bam:person What does profit margin matter?
Senator:Can I finish this How does it matter?
Bam Bam:Can I finish my economy?
Senator:It doesn't matter the profit margin. If it was a dollar, I'm saying the same thing.
Bam Bam:Chef, where do I live? Like
Chef Ricky:Could I could I just set this up for Venezuela.
Senator:Can I please just set this up for Giz? Then you can say it for your wife. So Giz is someone who's procured plenty of cigars for plenty of people. Correct. If someone told you they wanted a box of cigars, if you're procuring it for them, assume that's because they love it and they wanna smoke it.
Senator:Is that fair?
Bam Bam:Yes.
Senator:Yes. Alright. You procure it at $5.70 a box, and that person just holds on to that box and then goes and flips it and sells it for $2,700, how would you feel?
Rooster:It's not by himself. Genius. Sell it for him.
Gizmo:Well, feel like we made great team.
Senator:Of who sells it. Did we know? How would you feel?
Gizmo:We made a good team on Correct. Correct.
Senator:I I
Gizmo:asked you. Good execution.
Senator:Thank you. I mean Giz, I ask you to procure me a box for $5.70. Yeah. Senator? I just hold it and flip it for 2,700.
Senator:How do you feel about that?
Gizmo:Well, honestly, I believe that is what happened here because BAM did get this box through me. I I believe that is what happened.
Bam Bam:Hold on.
Senator:Can we
Rooster:take this
Senator:situation out? I'm just asking you in a hypothetical scenario.
Gizmo:With the hypothetical here's what happened. I procured the box for him. Yeah. I just showed you the text. He procured it.
Gizmo:Don't 20 No. I got him that box of 20 ones. Really believe that. I know that we're on
Rooster:20 21 box.
Gizmo:Yeah. 202021. I I know that we're not on the same page here, but it's a 100
Senator:boxes of fundies does he have? How is this even possible?
Bam Bam:I have I think I have I gotta look. I had three boxes, I think.
Chef Ricky:Still?
Gizmo:Yeah. Do You have three remaining?
Bam Bam:I have no. I think I have one and a half remaining. Just over one and a half.
Gizmo:Got it. I believe. So my feeling and to answer your question, wait I honestly would have
Rooster:no Hold on a second. So the two boxes that you have. Right?
Bam Bam:So I mean,
Gizmo:it's a
Bam Bam:year and
Rooster:a half. Yeah. So they Hold on. So is the other box a 2018,
Gizmo:and the other one
Rooster:might be 2021?
Bam Bam:I don't know. I have to look.
Senator:I'm sorry. Time out. You'd have no problem, Giz, if you procured a box for me for $5.70, and I didn't smoke it and I just held it, and then I flipped it for $2,700. None of that would rub you the
Gizmo:wrong way. Honestly, it wouldn't. Like, let's say I got you a box of something that we're not that you're falling out
Senator:of love. Losing global entry for procuring shit for people,
Gizmo:and you're Well, because that's annoying. It's
Bam Bam:These not money topics aren't interrelated. I wasn't ever planning on selling the Fundies. What turned me off about the Fundidorus is we haven't really been smoking them. I haven't smoked them
Senator:for So a sell them out
Gizmo:to rooster.
Rooster:Wouldn't I wouldn't have bought
Bam Bam:We're not gonna do that.
Gizmo:I mean, Jesus Christ. So you really believe this was your box, because I was convinced it wasn't. I showed you
Bam Bam:Do you have two? Do you have 27?
Gizmo:I already shipped it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Oh, forget it. No.
Gizmo:I have 570.
Bam Bam:They're yours at $2,200.
Rooster:I'll I'll remember that.
Bam Bam:This is so hilarious. I don't even think this is accurate. I don't know what's going on here.
Gizmo:I really wouldn't have a problem with that, senator.
Rooster:So do you
Gizmo:alright. I'll turn the question on
Senator:you. Know whose box was whose. So I'm not that's why I'm giving you a hypothetical.
Gizmo:I have no clue up in the
Senator:air. No. But the the hypothetical stands. It's just the point. If we take this situation out of it I personally would something for 5 something for someone because you thought so you're putting in this effort to go get someone something because you think they love it and they wanna smoke it
Chef Ricky:Hold on.
Gizmo:And they
Bam Bam:just just called me. We all partook in this. No.
Gizmo:This was a different one.
Bam Bam:In the in the senator's lounge years ago, we all partook in this.
Senator:Yes. I procured a box. Procured a box. Procured a box. We all had like sixteen, seventeen, 18,
Bam Bam:I'm a bunch of them.
Senator:Guess what? I didn't flip any of the stuff that people I
Bam Bam:had a lot. I just had
Gizmo:more Let than I me throw a-
Rooster:I should just have the first right of refusal.
Senator:That's all I'm saying.
Gizmo:Here's my thing. Incorrect. If I got you that box that I lost global entry on, the RAS 50 cap of Ramon Iona,
Rooster:especially We
Bam Bam:all we all participated.
Gizmo:Everybody got that box
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:On on my behalf. I just shepherded it for you. I didn't buy it at a cheaper price, sell it to you like I what? You took that 50 cap. Let's say you were smoking through some other rasse.
Gizmo:You said, you know what? This cigar is not for me anymore, which is really what happened here. I agree. Would not be offended if you said, Giz, I'm I'm listing this on
Bam Bam:An honest
Gizmo:Roberts without offering me first refusal. So I know what's happened.
Bam Bam:Just taking that to the next step, we all were kind of down on the fundodorus and I had those boxes and I didn't want them. I didn't want the box.
Chef Ricky:But so why
Rooster:not sell it back to Why
Senator:not offer it back to
Bam Bam:the person who got it?
Rooster:No. Why? So you did do it for the money.
Bam Bam:I No.
Gizmo:There's three year gap in here.
Bam Bam:Not at all.
Gizmo:There's a three year gap in here.
Bam Bam:No. No. No.
Gizmo:I'm not buying that. You want I just showed you
Rooster:the proof that I had a 2020
Senator:selling this box for years.
Gizmo:Maybe. I have
Rooster:not sold any other fundies
Bam Bam:for I've wanting to get rid of it, but not sell it. I mean, just I don't know.
Senator:Wasn't it When was the first episode we talked about him selling this?
Gizmo:By it's in '20 It's '20 in the military. Five.
Bam Bam:I totally categorically disagree.
Rooster:Take his phone away, please.
Bam Bam:I love this fucking thing.
Gizmo:This, Mike. I honestly I honestly Put
Bam Bam:it in a buzzer down there.
Gizmo:Every I'm serious, senator. In every hypothetical, if I sold you a box of cigars let's say I sold you a box of p twos. Right? I love p twos. You don't.
Gizmo:Let's say you smoked some other p twos. You're like, god. I really don't want any more of these. And you just threw it on BR. I swear to you, I would not be upset about it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Why would no. The wouldn't train
Gizmo:was
Bam Bam:actually have been point
Senator:is if there was a significant profit to be made on it, I would feel like I'm not the one that deserves that profit. I didn't procure it. So I'd come to you and say like, hey, do you wanna buy these back at cost? And if you said no, well then, okay, great. I'll go make a big
Bam Bam:profit This is on the first and last time I'll ever sell a box.
Rooster:You're so right, senator.
Senator:He's so I just would feel guilty. Like, if I didn't put in the hard work and yet all of a sudden I have, like, $2 I've made, I'd feel pretty bad that, like, my buddy actually spent all the time.
Chef Ricky:Well, here's
Senator:took the risk to get it.
Rooster:I'm gonna take gonna
Gizmo:and I'm gonna take everybody out for a
Bam Bam:steak You're gonna have a steak dinner. My nanny.
Senator:Still can't
Rooster:believe that.
Gizmo:Order steaks. With that. He's gonna have some mushrooms. I'm gonna order two steaks and feed it to the dogs.
Bam Bam:Portobello steak.
Rooster:I'm gonna feed it to the
Gizmo:fucking dogs. Two rib eyes. Porterhouse. Porterhouse. Porterhouse.
Gizmo:The most expensive Kobe steak there is.
Bam Bam:That's the whole profit margin here, man.
Gizmo:You're killing the wholesale.
Bam Bam:Oh, jeez.
Gizmo:I don't know. I I really I swear to I don't subscribe to that. Would not be upset at all. Guilty. Because I've procured so many boxes for so many people.
Gizmo:Okay? I really have. I have procured And nobody has sold
Rooster:them on BR. You don't
Gizmo:know that. I don't know that.
Senator:We do know that.
Gizmo:If I found out that someone sold
Bam Bam:one of
Gizmo:those that boxes
Senator:lounge that you've procured stuff for, you know are not selling that and flipping it. I okay.
Bam Bam:Well, I'm not selling my wrap.
Senator:You see them smoking every day. You know they're not.
Rooster:So how are you going to make it up to me?
Bam Bam:Portobello
Gizmo:steak. There is no portobello mushroom for $2,700. Let's ask chef. Chef, is there?
Bam Bam:Oh, with black truffle. There you go.
Gizmo:There you go.
Bam Bam:Oh, Jesus.
Gizmo:Alright. Fuck it. Let's move on.
Bam Bam:Okay. About 30 grams sure?
Chef Ricky:About 30 grams of blood sugar.
Gizmo:Until next time. Are you sure? Until next time. Okay.
Senator:Poor rooster.
Gizmo:Oh, Lord. My stomach hurts.
Senator:That was great, dude.
Gizmo:From from laughing. And again, congratulations on the huge sale.
Bam Bam:Thank you. Thank you much.
Rooster:It's a shock. Your stomach hurts,
Bam Bam:I'm honestly shocked.
Rooster:My heart is sinking.
Gizmo:I'll give
Bam Bam:you a big hug later. I'll take you out in the shed.
Gizmo:All right, boys. We didn't get to any listener email here except for that one related to BAM's sale on Von at all. But we do have to Share to the prophet. My brain just stopped. We do have to name a lizard of the week.
Gizmo:Correct. This week, it's going to be lizard late. Let's give it to
Rooster:Bam Bam.
Gizmo:You wanna be a of the week?
Bam Bam:Give give it to the 10 count box. Give it
Chef Ricky:to the buyer of the Fundies.
Gizmo:There you go.
Rooster:I actually Let's give him more.
Gizmo:I did send the buyer of the Fundies two very nice bodyguards on Bam's behalf. Oh, wow.
Bam Bam:Very Yeah.
Gizmo:I sent him
Bam Bam:a Send me your invoice too.
Gizmo:$20.16
Senator:Well, that's how we know that's how we know Bam wasn't managing It's gonna be about $2,700.
Gizmo:I'll send you a fucking invoice. Bam would have kept one
Senator:of the sticks in the in the box.
Bam Bam:What's a bodyguard?
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now for our lizard of the week presented by Bond Roberts. And, of course, all of our lizards of the week win a 10 count box of Bond Roberts cigars so generously provided by them. You never know what you're gonna get. You can get the big one zero nine, the petite one zero nine, get the Dahlias.
Gizmo:The Fundies. And tonight's lizard of the week, boys, is our friend Lizard Lake, and he sent us an email. And he says, hey, guys. First, I'd like to send a belated happy fourth to you and the guys. Crazy how time flies.
Gizmo:When you were first putting the podcast in a mutual Discord server, one of my kids was an infant, not even a year old. Mhmm. In that span of time from episode one to now, this kid is about to start his fourth season of t ball. He rides a bike and is learning to read and write. That's pretty cool.
Gizmo:Wow. Second, have to thank you all for reviewing and sharing the word on a Certica wine, senator. While my dad and I share a lot of interests like music, art, fine cocktails, etcetera, he is not a cigar guy. Every now and then, I mention the pod to him, but not a lot of crossover outside of the spirits. He's a big wine guy, and he loves to travel.
Gizmo:So his collection at home is fairly diverse. I mentioned the Certico to him, and he lit up. He found a bottle he had and brought it back from Santorini last year. We ended up looking at photos from his trip and talking about all things wine and grease for the rest of the evening. Without the pod diving into interesting varietals like this wine, he and I would not have had that great unexpected time together.
Gizmo:That's cool. He suggested y'all try a Sardinian wine soon. The primary purpose of reaching out today is an idea. It's probably not original or the first time that someone suggested it for a future episode format. The past blind review episodes have been highlights in the catalog for me, and I feel like it's time for another.
Gizmo:My proposal is to take things up a notch and either do one long format or two short smoked cigars, completely blind sessions where the lizards keep everything from the flavor notes, hunches on country of origin, markup blend, and final rating to themselves for an epic reveal and roasting at the end. I know each lizard has a fairly refined palate, but I can't help but feel there's a little influence from one lizard to the other about these critical aspects of a review. This plan certainly could use some tweaking, but the blind quote review and reveal would be awesome. Lastly, I channeled my innard lizard the other night during a brief warm spell in the weather. Maybe it's been a lack of time due to typically smoke not typically smoking late at night.
Gizmo:Maybe it's been a lack of time due to typically smoking late at night after the kids go down. Or maybe it was a weaker constitution for nicotine in the past, but I finally broke the seal and had a back to back cigar session.
Bam Bam:Wow.
Gizmo:Wow. That's a lizard, boys.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Not to fluff your sponsor, Fabrica five, but the Corte Suave Pyramid was so damn good I rammed inside and grabbed another. Perfect, medium bodied, velvety, and creamy smoke with no harshness, even in the final third, and I couldn't resist. Don't review it sooner. I'm worried they'll sell out of it. The weather was perfect.
Gizmo:Plenty of firewood for the pit and couldn't find a reason not to go on that journey. Again, my wife sits outside with me most times, and the surprise look on her face when I lit number two was absolutely priceless. I feel like I've leveled up in my lizard game, and I plan on making more two plus cigar sessions. Thanks again for all the work you and the guys put in to deliver great content like clockwork each week. PS, carbohydrate is the new dried fruit.
Gizmo:I'm making a bumper sticker.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Lizard Lake. Great email from him.
Bam Bam:Very nice.
Gizmo:So senator, how are you feeling on the compliments on the Assertica?
Senator:I love that. I mean, again, you know, for me, I've heard about Greek wine. The first time I went out to Greece, was curious and skeptical, and their wine for white wine is just I mean, even there's some red varietals are are awesome there. So to hear that a listener was able to have a connection with their father just based on a varietal of wine is that's what this is about.
Bam Bam:It's an amazing It's incredible.
Gizmo:I love that. What do you think about the recommendation for Sardinian wine?
Senator:I think it's actually a great one. I'm pretty sure I have to look back, see if I took a photo of this. I think someone brought me a bottle of a sardinian white that was actually very good, and if I'm remembering correctly, I'm definitely on board with trying something like that on the pod.
Gizmo:Awesome. I love hearing about the Corte Du Suave success too.
Chef Ricky:What's that one?
Bam Bam:There's a flame on your cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. Oh, I just
Senator:relit More my than relit. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:I love hearing about the love for the Corte Du Suave. I mean, it's so foreign to us guys to hear, you know, someone saying smoking two cigars back to back is is like a foreign thing,
Senator:you know? Is that like the fabric of five pyramid?
Gizmo:No. That's a new one that Hamlet blended that just came out, I would say no more than four or five months ago. What the fuck? Segue. Gotta try it.
Chef Ricky:I don't even
Rooster:know that I've had it. Yeah.
Senator:Cool. Awesome. Because the regular Pyramid I recently had, and it was very good.
Gizmo:Mhmm. Very good. I've been smoking a lot of the Trinity Robusto again.
Bam Bam:Looking at your facial expressions.
Chef Ricky:Bam, and rooster. Bam, rooster.
Senator:The showdown. Correct.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. So like I said, not a lot of listener email tonight. We had a lot of stuff to get to. We're gonna do a lot of stuff next week. I have a whole list of things to get to.
Gizmo:But for now, boys, we're coming to the end of our evening with the Kellner eightieth anniversary limited edition and the writer's tears, copper pot still Irish whiskey. Any thoughts before we move into the ratings tonight?
Bam Bam:Spectacular night. Tears of joy. Tears of joy.
Gizmo:I completely agree.
Rooster:I'm I'm honestly And a little bit of heartache.
Bam Bam:I'll make it up to you, bro.
Gizmo:I'm honestly shocked at how well these performed. Both of them, I'm totally blown away. I mean, listen, when you make a recommendation, do I believe it? Yes. Do I expect it to, in the room under the microscope No.
Gizmo:Perform like this with No. A Not always. I mean, you weren't even smoking when you had this. That's true. You I took
Senator:one sip and the first thing that popped into my head, we have to do it on the pod. I was shocked.
Bam Bam:So I'd love to dive into this maker, see what else they make.
Gizmo:Yeah. That's what chef was
Bam Bam:saying too.
Gizmo:Yeah. Alright, boys. It's time now to move into the formal liquorating tonight on the writer's tears. Copper pot still, Irish whiskey, bam bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:I'm at a firm 10. There we go. You know, honestly, I'm not a fan of whiskey in general, but this was so easy to drink. Truly delicious from beginning to end. A lot of honey, butterscotch I was getting.
Bam Bam:And, honestly, as I continued to drink this, I was getting, in combination with the cigar, a very light salted butter on the finish, which is so unique, exquisite experience. I'm hard firm 10.
Rooster:Great price.
Bam Bam:And a great price.
Gizmo:Yeah, $43 is crazy.
Bam Bam:Honestly, it's such a unique experience. It's worth every dollar, I feel it's probably underpriced.
Gizmo:Alright. Chef just got another pour. It's up his nose.
Bam Bam:It's up in his nose.
Gizmo:He's retrohaling it. Chef, you're up.
Senator:Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and then it comes up.
Chef Ricky:Now I'm gonna say this about the writer's tears, Copperpot still Mexican Coke.
Gizmo:Expression here. Mexican Coke.
Bam Bam:This is gonna be interesting. No peer pressure.
Chef Ricky:There's a little bit.
Bam Bam:No. Don't.
Chef Ricky:No. No. There's a little bit.
Gizmo:Don't.
Chef Ricky:But it's not it's not a 100% peer pressure. This is the best Irish whiskey I've ever had,
Gizmo:period. Love to hear it.
Chef Ricky:Okay. Now it's probably the fourth Irish whiskey I've also had, so I'm not, you know, too educated on it.
Senator:No. That's a good sample. There's not that many, honestly. That's true.
Chef Ricky:But I am very excited to try what else these guys make. So I'm between a nine and a 10. I don't think what I express is a knock. I just think it was something to look forward to with what else these guys make, especially, you know, this is a very approachable spirit, very well priced, very easy to get considering it's at total wine. So I think all those things are positives for this and it is absolutely worth trying.
Chef Ricky:It paired amazingly well with the cigar. It didn't overwhelm the cigar and everything it delivered, it delivered well. It delivered it in layers just like the cigar delivered what it did. So I'm going to stick with my 10.
Gizmo:There we go. Wow.
Chef Ricky:I'm sticking with my 10.
Bam Bam:Quite the course correction for you.
Chef Ricky:Start the music, the
Gizmo:triumphant music. Done,
Bam Bam:done. Mexican Coke and all.
Chef Ricky:No. It was just something I look forward to, right, for the This music is great. Makes me nervous.
Bam Bam:Yeah. You gotta get
Gizmo:How do you think I felt with Rooster sitting there laying out, Bam selling his Spundies for $27.50?
Chef Ricky:Knowing that it was the same box, I I know it felt
Bam Bam:really weird. I know. Get the Vision Quest soundtrack on here.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah.
Chef Ricky:No. But this is a 10. Listen. It it drank beautifully. BAM's correct.
Chef Ricky:Everything that this thing delivered from the toffee, vanilla, butterscotch notes, it was well done. Well done, rooster. Sorry. Senator, you you hit it out the ballpark again. Thank you.
Gizmo:Well done. Yeah. So for me, it's also a 10. I mean, the music says it all. This was absolutely brilliant.
Gizmo:Yeah. Brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. Standing on its own, it's a perfect blended whiskey.
Gizmo:It's perfect. The touch of bourbon shocks me as to how much I enjoyed it. Yeah. It's not harsh. It it it doesn't burn going down.
Gizmo:It's so smooth. It's just perfect. Now when you, know, when you pair it with a cigar I mean, it is really one of the best whiskeys we've had as far as pairings go.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:There's no question about it. Now you talk about the price of $43 Yeah. It's a 10. It's a 10. Yeah.
Gizmo:It is absolutely perfect. I'm completely blown away. Senator, I'm so glad you found this because obviously none of us, I think, have ever heard of this.
Bam Bam:So you know, the interesting I
Gizmo:mean, crazy. Sorry. No, it's okay.
Rooster:Go What
Bam Bam:I love about this, I can, you know, I've steered away from scotches and whiskeys in general. I'm happy to say now that I can keep that in my locker and on a weekly basis alternate it between my tequilas and my rums because they're all very there's a mannered pace to certain spirits that you can drink in copious amounts, and this is right along, I think, in lockstep with that concept. And I love what this does.
Gizmo:Yeah. I completely agree. I mean, you know, like Senator was saying, this is really great for a medium full and under, I would say, cigar. I don't think full is a great pairing for this, but it covers so many of the cigars that we're smoking. Of course.
Gizmo:It covers Cubanos. It covers Honduras. Honduras. Line.
Senator:All the fabric of five Aladino. Everything.
Gizmo:And then and then Dominican as well.
Bam Bam:Can imagine what that
Gizmo:All the Kellner stuff.
Bam Bam:Just imagine what that $1.00 9 is gonna go
Chef Ricky:like
Bam Bam:this.
Chef Ricky:Oh my
Bam Bam:god. Oh, forget it.
Gizmo:Brilliant. I I'm I'm completely blown away. I have been from the first sniff and the first sip. Mhmm. It's it's really, really a perfect whiskey for me and for what we do here.
Gizmo:It's a very, very strong 10. Very strong 10. Yeah. And for us, I know this is our second episode of the year, but for us recording our first episode of the year here, what a great start
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:To 2026. Senator. Agreed.
Senator:I'm easily a 10. I guess like Gizmo said, for me, I first had this just to have a drink at the end of a long day, and it wasn't under the same microscope that we obviously put everything under here. To have this here and be so focused on every little thing that this is delivering, it's light yet so satisfying. It's complex. It's so refined for a 40 something dollar spirit.
Senator:I mean, there's not many spirits at that price point, especially something that's a whiskey.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:40 something bucks that you would say is this refined. It drinks so It's criminal to put ice in this.
Gizmo:I can't believe no one in the room Totally agree. Touched it with water and ice. Of course, always talk about But Pagoda's not here.
Bam Bam:I'm not
Senator:sure. I think even Pagoda Yeah. We would have
Bam Bam:got this ice out of here if you did With
Senator:no chance Pagoda, would be like probably the only whiskey that he would not dare put ice in.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:It's that perfect, and how they've been able to do that at that price point, and we like Irish whiskey, we've done a number. Obviously, we would go to our North lounge, we'd always get red breast, it's a great Irish whiskey. We've had green spot, there's yellow spot, blue spot, there's a whole range there. This is really, really hard to beat. And why I fell in love with this immediately is because for something that is a lighter whiskey, you know, I've always I've been searching for in the single malt category, and Grindr, you know, really loves like a lighter single malt scotch.
Bam Bam:And so
Senator:would love this. He'd be obsessed with this.
Bam Bam:I agree.
Senator:And it's like for most lighter single malt scotches, they're not complex at all. They're very monotone. And many of them, even despite being light in body, they have a bite, you actually want a little water or ice. The fact that this doesn't need any of that, and yet has more complexity than most lighter, like ten year single malts that we've done on the pod, I don't know how they've done it, it's such a credit. Now a lot of blended Irish whiskeys, their that style is meant to be smoother.
Senator:Like, I would compare Irish whiskey to like Cuban style rum. Mhmm. Right? Like, some rums will really punch you in the face like a four square rums from a lot of different parts of The Caribbean. Cuban style rum is really light and smooth and easygoing, and I just think that this captures that, but with whiskey in such a spectacular way.
Senator:You know, like Bam said, as far as the rotation's concerned, this is something I would absolutely keep in my lock
Bam Bam:Off at the the charts.
Senator:I would drink often and regularly. Yeah. And I remember having this, I felt great in the morning. Like when I have a Cuban rum, or Florida Cana, a Nicaraguan rum, I felt awesome. And so the utility and the versatility of this is is off the charts.
Senator:Like Chef mentioned, there's so many other expressions that they have aged in different barrels. I can't wait to try them. It's as strong of a 10 as I've given in a long time for a spirit.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's good stuff, man.
Gizmo:I'm with you on that. And boys, the formal liquor rating tonight on the writer's tiers copper pot still blended Irish whiskey is a perfect 10. What a start to the year.
Bam Bam:I can't wait to get on pairings.
Gizmo:Can't wait. And now, boys, it's time to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the Kellner LE 80, the eightieth anniversary limited edition cigar from Klaus Kellner. Rooster, you're up.
Rooster:Yeah. So you know what's funny? Ironically, the box of the Kellner cigar that we're smoking tonight is also $570 which is exactly what I paid for the funnies. So, Ben, if I sold you this box, you could wait five years and make $2,100 on this.
Bam Bam:Well done, reduced data.
Rooster:Since it's a limited release of only 2,000 boxes.
Gizmo:So, you know. But you know
Bam Bam:what you're gonna get now, right?
Chef Ricky:And a steak
Bam Bam:dinner. Portobello steak.
Rooster:I mean, this cigar is absolutely fantastic. What a smoke. It is so balanced, so complex. The flavors, I mean, is so well constructed. It's packed with a lot of tobacco.
Rooster:We've been smoking this for over two hours now, and we're still not done with this. So I know the price point is what it is, but this is a celebratory cigar. This is not something you're going to smoke every day.
Gizmo:I don't know. Smoke with your new profit.
Senator:Plenty of
Rooster:seltzer. At this guy.
Senator:Oh, I don't know. I might just light a $6 cigar up every hour.
Bam Bam:I'm a tycoon now.
Gizmo:Man of industry.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Rooster:So, I mean, this cigar, I mean, it's creamy. It's nutty. It's got that salty twang. It's everything that you look for in a cigar. And the way it absolutely delivers the aroma on the burn line, I mean, it's a great smoke.
Rooster:Well done. I mean, definitely kudos to Klas Kellner. It's a great cigar. I think everybody should if you get a chance, please try it. You will not be disappointed.
Rooster:So I'm at a solid 10 on this. Great job. Very nice.
Gizmo:All right, Senator.
Senator:I'm in the exact same camp. I'm at a 10. Klaus deserves a world of credit, and his father must be so damn proud. I mean
Gizmo:Imagine having this cigar made for your birthday, sir.
Senator:Yeah. Incredible. I mean, this is the kind of thing that would bring someone to tears. Like, to make and honor someone and to deliver in the way that this has, I mean, talk about a journey. The cigar early on started, like, mild medium, then got medium, and I'll throw Gizmo a bone here and say like, it ends like medium plus.
Gizmo:Oh. You're a new senator. I like it.
Senator:It's it's so delicious, and it's like, it was so creamy and sweet and savory to start, and then midway through, and and Bam had called this out, the cocoa all of a sudden just appears out of nowhere and immediately wakes you up. And we talked about the cashew note that was there early. By the end of this, you get more walnut. It picks up its strength. It's like a Yeah.
Senator:Definitely a richer nuttiness that you get. The construction all the way through was great. Know, like Rooster said, I'm definitely I mean, I'm probably one of the faster smokers, and the fact that Rooster and I were keeping pace the entire way through this cigar is just so packed with tobacco. It's like you're getting value as a result of that. You know, the price point is obviously high.
Senator:We all said it when we first lit this cigar, but this is gonna be at least a two hour experience.
Gizmo:It has been tonight.
Senator:And just the complexity, the perfect balance all the way through. I mean, you talk about a perfect blend, Klas nailed it. There's no other way to frame it. I'll definitely smoke another one of these. I'm just I'm shocked.
Senator:And the fact that none of us sat here really at any point said, oh, you know, this reminds me of x cigar.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I asked that question earlier. You can't pinpoint anything here.
Senator:For me, that's always a huge merit. When a cigar we've smoked so many different types of cigars. Most cigars, you can compare to something else. There are few, and and those are usually tens here, where you sit there and say to yourself, I can't really compare this to anything else. This blend has carved out such a unique place for itself, and that's what this has done.
Senator:And even the versatility, we were, you know, talking about the the pairing and the the whiskey and how, you know, Ben mentioned earlier, you can have this in the summer, you can have it in the winter. This cigar, you know, you wanna say because it's so smooth and it's lighter, oh, you know, maybe this is just for the afternoon, but you can absolutely enjoy this at any point really in the evening.
Chef Ricky:A spring evening outside with this thing? Amazing. Couple hours.
Senator:Yeah. Amazing.
Gizmo:After a steak celebratory steak dinner,
Bam Bam:or portobello steak.
Senator:And it's like the fact that the final third actually picks up. Now the first third, I would have been worried to have this toward the end of a night, but the fact that the last third really does pick up, you can have this at any point. There's versatility here, so for all those reasons, it's a strong 10, and I'm just gonna say this because it needs to be said, when we met with Klas and we interviewed him, I'm pretty sure I had asked him if he had any plans Yes. To start his own
Bam Bam:I remember that.
Senator:And to his credit, he's a humble guy despite how brilliant he is. And he said, you know, that's something I I haven't, you know, thought enough about. Obviously, I've considered it, and he wasn't sure. And all I'm doing is I just wanna implore that he believes in himself and starts his own line because this right here is proof that he could really, really do something special.
Gizmo:Correct. I completely agree with everything that's been said. This cigar was perfect tonight.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Gizmo:I'm completely blown away with the experience, with the flavor. It's a 10 for me. Let's start with the shape. I loved pulling this cigar out of the box. I thought the interesting Dia Dema Finis shape of it was very, very cool, unique.
Gizmo:You're not seeing a lot of these certainly in that length, you know, a double tapered perfecto. I I thought that was great. Great construction the whole way through. Mhmm. Even for all the talking I was doing, it didn't fight me at all.
Gizmo:Re lit very easily. There was no harshness ever. There was no problem ever. It was perfect. It was sweet.
Gizmo:It was a little spicy. It was salty. And it had that x factor that you look for in these perfect cigars. That thing that Rabbi Ella talked about chasing. The next time you smoke a cigar or smoke that cigar, you're chasing that thing.
Gizmo:This had it. And again, we talked twang or not. I mean, that salty experience that was here tonight is something that really, really rings my bell.
Bam Bam:Salted butter.
Gizmo:It it is just it reminds me of
Senator:that the
Gizmo:Partagas Linea Maestra Rito that we did. We talked, like pop you know, movie theater popcorn butter. And it wasn't that buttery as buttery as that was. It was pronounced. It was a saltier, you know, kinda nutty, but it still had sweetness.
Gizmo:It was just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. And I think, as I offered at the beginning of the episode, I think Klaus did achieve full palate coverage here, which is his thing and what he goes for. It was you know, every aspect of the palate was, you know, singing and dancing. The whole way through, even when it was a little lighter, working its way up through the cigar to medium plus, the senator said. We talked about the price being high.
Gizmo:We talked about the price of this packaging and how that would factor in. Unfortunately, that makes this a celebratory cigar. This is not a daily driver, of course. This is not a weekly driver. This is for BAM.
Gizmo:Well, for BAM now, of course. No. You know, this is a celebratory cigar. And and with that in mind and with everything said and with this experience tonight, it was perfect. It's a 10 for me.
Senator:Chef? Just a quick question. Yep. There's no Honduran tobacco in this?
Rooster:No. I don't think they're disclosed. It is all Dominican tobacco.
Gizmo:It's and Ecuadorian Cubano wrapper, there is no hero.
Senator:I just wanna add, that's honestly the most shocking
Bam Bam:part It's of incredible, actually, yeah.
Senator:Because non Cuban cigars that we've done, that we've described as having a really serious amount of saltiness and a buttery quality about it, has usually had Honduran tobacco. How he was able to do this was only Dominican tobacco. I've never had a Dominican puro Yep. Deliver an experience like this.
Bam Bam:He's the mad scientist. The guy knows what he's doing.
Gizmo:He does. Yeah. Excellent. Alright, chef.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. While Klas is able to get done when he's blending cigars, it's truly an art and it's a cigar smokers dream to be able to smoke this, get this type of experience, You know, from the very beginning, know, Ben pointed out the barnyard on the cigar, on the wrapper and coming into the final third, I'm, you know, I'm doing this fingernail hold here because I have nothing left to hold onto, but I'm not ready to let go. It's a pretty sturdy wrapper, so now I'm getting to a point where I'm getting that funk actually
Bam Bam:on the retro. A touch.
Chef Ricky:And it's it's developed. It's delivering an entirely new flavor that wasn't being given to me until now. Even at this point of the cigar, I'm still getting new, new experience and I'm still getting introduced to new flavors. So I mean this is just masterfully done. It's you know at was it 46, 47 a stick?
Chef Ricky:57 a stick. Yes, that's right. That's good math. 57 a stick. I think it's well worth it.
Chef Ricky:You know, over two hours smoking, delivering on so many levels. Packaging is handsome. I have no complaints about the cigar. Class counter delivers again. And boy, did we need this?
Gizmo:After all. We did. We've had a couple of stinkers. The U. Was good, but some stinkers there.
Chef Ricky:So it's a 10 for me.
Rooster:Even at the nub, I mean, it's not harsh.
Chef Ricky:It's not.
Bam Bam:It's It's awesome at the nub.
Chef Ricky:No. And it's still delivering new flavors.
Gizmo:Alright, Bam.
Bam Bam:So it's, I think, very rare to encounter a new world cigar, as you said, Senator, that's primarily Dominican based tobacco that performs like this at this price that gets a 10 resounded in this room, and I'm at a 10. Yeah. It's a celebratory cigar because of the price, but honestly, you buy 10 of those, I could have that throughout the year on a fairly consistent basis, one a month. And resell them. Yeah, maybe.
Bam Bam:But I would personally invest, I'd buy two boxes right off the bat to
Gizmo:have Just keep them.
Bam Bam:Just not keep them, but honestly, they're pretty good at probably right out of the box with a month or two in your Maybe
Rooster:gift me one.
Bam Bam:I'll give you one. But I would have this more often than a holiday or a celebratory event because it's so good. I'm as you all are, I'm just completely blown away. Is Klas, you've done a masterful job here.
Chef Ricky:This is that cigar you pull when you know you need a banger. Yeah. Definitely. I was hoping for it tonight, Ricky,
Gizmo:But like you were
Bam Bam:the journey that this takes you on, that senator hit it on the head, the walnut on the end is I love walnut. It's it's one of my favorite nuts, and I get it's a really pronounced experience, but there's still a little sliver of sweetness that balances it. It's hard to put my finger on what that is. Doesn't dry you up. Yes.
Bam Bam:No.
Senator:It's not too dry. No. Exactly. So there
Bam Bam:was zero dryness throughout this entire smoke, and that's very rare.
Gizmo:So for me, it's worth every dollar, and I would smoke this as often as I can. So I'm at a clear 10. Alright, boys. That was easy. The Kellner LE eighty, eightieth anniversary limited edition celebrating Hinky Kellner's eightieth birthday is a perfect 10.
Gizmo:And you know what? I'm very sad that Pagoda's not here because boys Ten ten wins.
Bam Bam:Correct. Is ten ten wins. Cross Bronx is backed up all the way to Jerome Avenue. The station you know, the people you trust. Ten ten wins.
Bam Bam:You'll give us twenty two minutes. We'll give
Senator:you I remember every snow day as
Chef Ricky:a kid listening to
Gizmo:Waiting for them to say the school's name. Yeah.
Rooster:Correct.
Gizmo:Wow. What a brilliant pairing tonight, Paul. I can't believe it. You know, Klaus Kellner has knocked it out of the park on this podcast with the stoic stuff that he manufactures, the avowed stuff that he makes at his factory. And then tonight with this Kellner cigar, like Senator was saying, I hope that there are many, many more to come in large quantity because this is a special cigar, and it is a treat for any type of cigar smoker out there.
Gizmo:This is a treat.
Bam Bam:And it seems like the way he operates, he can release a cigar, a line of cigars, that's unique from everything that he does prior to. So he's always, I think, trying to do something different and unique with each line of cigars, and I'm hoping that's the case.
Rooster:I would love for him to offer refills.
Senator:It's a
Gizmo:great deal.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:Brilliant idea.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Alright, boys. What a great night tonight. Incredible. What a great kickoff to our recording in 2026.
Gizmo:We have a big year ahead. I can't wait to share that with all our listeners and with you guys. And, one more time on the ratings, the writer's tears copper pot still Irish whiskey, the blended, and the Kellner LE 80, both with a perfect 10 on the pod tonight. Awesome. Of course, we have to thank our sponsors, boys, Fabrica five and Bon Roberts.
Gizmo:Incredible partners to us. Bon Roberts, of course, for sponsoring lizard of the week, sending those 10 count boxes out. We really, really And And Bam. Sponsor. He
Chef Ricky:has already
Bam Bam:them. I'm ready.
Gizmo:And, of course, our friends at Small Badge Cigar, use our code over there, lizard 15, to get 15% off your entire order. Some exclusions do apply. You can get this Kellner cigar at Small Batch. So go to smallbatchcigar.com and get the Kellner LE 80 immediately. Yeah.
Senator:Get them fast because they're gonna sell out
Gizmo:immediately. Now. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant night tonight, guys. Just can't believe it. And congratulations to you again, Bam
Bam Bam:Thank you.
Gizmo:On the incredible And
Bam Bam:thank you.
Gizmo:And profit thank you.
Bam Bam:Well done.
Gizmo:We make a great team.
Senator:We're very sorry.
Gizmo:We should go through your tower and see what else could be Sure. Earmarked.
Rooster:Okay. Let's
Senator:I talk take no joy in rooster's pain.
Rooster:Thank you, senator. And thank you, lizard Enrique.
Gizmo:Yes. Alright, boys. A great night tonight, and we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us.
Gizmo:You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod.com.
Gizmo:You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.