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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!
Ep. #183: Interview with Jorge Padrón (w/ Padrón Family Reserve No. 45 Maduro & Lagavulin 16, Jorge Discusses Product Development, Quality Over Quantity and Padrón's Future & Listener Email on Lizards Current Cigar Buying and Aging Habits)
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Gizmo: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards 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 Grinder, chef Ricky, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 183rd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard plan news here. Once a week, we're gonna smoke New World cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating and share our wide ranging interview with Padrón Cigars president and industry legend Jorge Padrón, recorded live at PCA 25, where we discuss new product development, the brand's, quality over quantity, ethos, and Jorge's approach to charting the future of Padrón, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours.
So sit back. Get your favorite drink, light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair 16 years age lable and single malt scotch whiskey with the [00:01:00] Padrón family. Reserve number 45 in Maduro. A Nicaraguan Box press Toro on the pod tonight from Padrón is the Padrón family reserve number 45. The 45 years in Maduro and say 52 Bri gauge cigar by six inches long.
And boys, we have a very, very special episode ahead of us tonight. Mm-hmm. Not only do we have a fantastic interview that we did with Jorge Padrón, which ended up even better than I remembered, but we also are welcoming back for the first time in four months. I think he extended his paternity leave 'cause he just didn't wanna see us.
Correct. No, Grinder has returned. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back.
Grinder: Thank you. Welcome
Gizmo: back, Grinder. Second time Papa. Congratulations. Yes, thanks Gen. We wish you well as you, uh, left us. I think it was in January.
Grinder: Yeah. And now we're in May.
Gizmo: And you're, uh, you're back in town.
Grinder: He turned three months, uh, yesterday.
Wow.
Gizmo: Congratulations man. Yeah.
Grinder: Yeah. It's been, it's been a blessing. It's been wonderful ball of joy and, uh, happy to be back [00:02:00] here with you guys. Awesome.
Gizmo: We're happy to have you back in. This is a great celebration for you as well. Obviously, we're celebrating Padrón, but we're having one of your Yeah.
Favorite scotches tonight, so we'll get to that to No, no, no.
Senator: BA's favorite
Gizmo: Scotch. Oh, that's right. BA's favorite. He's over there grimacing. I took
Bam Bam: two sips. I don't know if I could do it.
Gizmo: Well, Grinder, one of Grinder's favorite scotches we have, and we'll get to that in a little bit. But first Boys, we have this beautiful Padrón in our hand, the 45 years Family Reserve.
Bam Bam: Put your seat belts
Gizmo: on. Yeah. I'm excited about this
Bam Bam: one. Gonna thank you for a ride. This is gonna be a good night.
Gizmo: Let's cut this thing boys. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper.
So we have to talk about, uh, it looks like there was a little abuse done on some of these cigars in the box, but the, since I've had them, um, the draw
Bam Bam: is impeccable. Hmm. Wide open. Mine's great,
Gizmo: too
Bam Bam: flawless. Always flawless.
Rooster: Do you really expect anything less? No, I don't.
Bam Bam: No. My draw is great. Have you ever had a plug Padrón ever?
Never. I've [00:03:00] never, never. Neither have I,
Gizmo: I've had slight variation in the draw still,
Bam Bam: but some Padrón, but never something that's a
Chef Ricky: problem.
Gizmo: Never have I ever
Chef Ricky: got a great dry nut nuttiness on the, on the cold draw here.
Rooster: Yeah. Like a hazelnut.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Right. Yep.
Rooster: A cashew or hazel. Mm-hmm. Something like that.
Chef Ricky: Hazelnuts. Pretty accurate. Hazel, that's
Gizmo: a perfect call out. Mm-hmm. I do love the coldron on these. I haven't had this in so long. Me too.
Bam Bam: This was a staple for me for years, but, um, you've said that. Yeah. Gravitated away from it.
Gizmo: Well, here we are tonight, boys. Let's like this thing, the Padrón Family Reserve 45 years, the number 45 in Maduro.
And again, it's a 52 ring gauge box. Press Toro by six inches long. This is the 10th Padrón we're doing on the podcast tonight.
Bam Bam: That's ridiculous.
Gizmo: Coinciding with our conversation with Jorge Padrón, which we'll talk about in a little bit and clip into the episode. [00:04:00] The cigar was cigar aficionado Cigar of the year in 2009.
Its first year of release. So we'll talk a little bit about the history as well.
Rooster: So 5% of our pod is dedicated to PO drones. Pretty much. Yeah. And
Gizmo: we're up to almost 200. So yeah. Coming up on 200,
Rooster: that's pretty, that's pretty, pretty good.
Gizmo: Yeah. Correct. We'll go through all those ratings later. It's performed very, very well's.
One of our to no one surprise.
Bam Bam: How are you finding this? Alright. F the light. Wonderful in the light for me.
Grinder: Very full. Mm-hmm. I was thinking some of this fullness would mellow out. There's still full a lot. Yeah.
Bam Bam: This, this is, this is a serious cigar. This is a serious cigar With a serious scotch too. Yeah.
We have a serious pairing tonight.
Rooster: I think the cigar does mellow out. I mean, it's, you get, you get a lot of spice up front, but after the first third, I think it does.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I'm, it's not a spice thing for me. It's the very full bodied, um, it's a heavy cigar for [00:05:00] as long as you've had this thing. It's heavy. I.
Gizmo: So let me tell folks. So I pulled the little piece of paper out of this box. We just finished this box off. I've had this since I would say early 2022. This, uh, box of number 40 fives in Maduro was boxed on November 27th, 2021. So if you count that amount of time, you know, almost four years, three and a half years plus the minimum 10 years age tobacco, that is in family reserve cigars.
Mm-hmm. This cigar is touching 14 years almost. Yeah. Of age on this tobacco since it was Yeah. Harvested.
Bam Bam: What were we doing 14 years ago?
Chef Ricky: I wasn't smoking cigars, that's for sure.
Bam Bam: I was four years into smoking cigars.
Gizmo: I hadn't started, I started in 2014, so I wasn't smoking cigars yet. Mm-hmm. I was smoking, but not this Henry Clay.
This is, uh, this is definitely a full cigar, but it's still smooth, like it's retro not hitting me
Bam Bam: hard. Have you retroed yet? No, it's, it's [00:06:00] quite good. I distinctly remember not retroing this early on when I, when I had these years ago. This is a much smoother expression, I think. It's not a, it's not a harsh retro.
Mm-hmm. Not at all. No. Which is surprising. Surprising. Yeah. Correct.
Chef Ricky: There's still some punch behind it. It's still making my nasal passages tingle a little bit there. Like it's not Yeah. It's,
Bam Bam: and the finish, yeah. For me, the finish is
Grinder: quite robust. Yeah. You know what the, the, the hazelnut on the cold draw is, is showing up on the, it's coming through on the finish.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm. Right. I'll tell you, this is an elegant smoke in your hand. It feels great. It does feel great.
Senator: I mean, I think, you know, none of us smoke a ton of toros, but a box press Toro feels awesome in the hand. That's a definitely different experience.
Gizmo: I completely agree. And I mean, if you think about how this feels in the hand actually compared to an exvivo from the 1964 series, it doesn't feel that different.
[00:07:00] No, it feels the same. You know, it's just a little bit bigger in ring gauge a little longer by about an inch it feels sharper on the corners than Exvivo does. I agree. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. A little more rectangular, which I
Gizmo: kind of like
Chef Ricky: Bigger in ring gauge, huh?
Gizmo: Yeah. This is a 52. Yeah, the is a 50.
Chef Ricky: Mm-hmm. Maybe the, the press is so aggressive that it feels a little smaller for, uh, to me,
Senator: which I like.
I I think they probably did that intentionally. Yeah. With this ring gauge. Sure.
Gizmo: So boys, let's talk about the Family Reserve series. We've done a few of these cigars. The series was originally launched by the family and was exclusively available only to the family celebrating Jose Orlando Padrón's 75th birthday in 2002, and then later in 2008, they released the number 44, commemorating the 44th anniversary of Padrón Cigars.
Then in 2009, this was the second release in the Family Reserve series, the number 45, celebrating the 45th [00:08:00] anniversary of the company. Then the family Reserve number 46, uh, in 2010, celebrating again another year of the company. And then the number 85, which is a 50 ring gauge for boto by five and a quarter inches long.
Celebrating the founder Jose Pedro's 85th birthday. The family reserve number, 50 AKA. The little hammer celebrating the company's 50th anniversary came in 2014, 54 by five rib Robusto. And then the most recent releases, the family reserve number 95, celebrating the Posthumus birthday of, uh, Jose Padrón is 95th and 2021.
And then the following year was the number 96, uh, in 2022. So, like I said, all these cigars have at least 10 years of age on the tobacco, and, uh, are definitely the most full among the Padrón line. There's no question about that. I don't think anybody would dispute that.
Rooster: The smoke output is so good on this.
Yeah. You take a puff and for literally [00:09:00] for about 45 seconds there's smoke coming out of the head.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And the aroma's fantastic. Yeah. That's where I'm getting my hazelnut note right on the foot of the cigar.
Rooster: Not on the retro hill.
Bam Bam: No. On the retro, I am getting like a deep, deep, dark chocolate, little leather, um, and maybe very slight pepper, but not anything that's offensive.
It's a very smooth retro, surprisingly,
Chef Ricky: you know, the combustion on this cigar is really intense. It's almost a lot to take in and retro. Um, yeah, spice, the spice is very present, especially on the retro hale.
Bam Bam: I would retro like every fifth or sixth draw. Mm-hmm. Not
Gizmo: everywhere. I'm doing it sparingly. Me too.
You know, when I want a little boost. Yeah. I, I wanna hit the turbo button. I'm just throwing some smoke through the nose. But otherwise
Chef Ricky: I'm put it in sports mode. I just put it in sport
Gizmo: mode for a minute. Your seat belts on back in traditional mode. I'm back in.
Grinder: What's, what's, what's the opposite of sport mode on Crocs?[00:10:00]
Crocs. Crocs. When you, when you throw, when you throw the latch back, you put it in sport mode. Oh yeah. Well, you put it in sport mode when you throw it
Gizmo: back. Uh, the other way would just be utility. Utility. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Getting chocolate deep, dark chocolate. Very dark. Very dark chocolate.
Rooster: Like close to bitter chocolate. Yeah. Right. Getting more like a, kinda like an espresso note. Like deep espresso. Yeah. Like black could be, yeah.
Gizmo: Alright boys, we have a lot to get to tonight. Before we bring in the interview with Jorge Padrón, we're gonna start with some Padrón news.
We were actually a PCA where we recorded the interview with Jorge and they were announcing the new Padrón Black 99 in both Natural and Maduro, a 60 ring gauge cigar by six and three quarters inches long, coming in boxes of 10. Retail price On those $44, I think the black range, which is a range of cigars, that is not, not box pressed, they are round and they're in cellophane.
Mm-hmm. I think those, some of [00:11:00] those might actually edge out family reserve in the strength.
Rooster: I was just gonna ask you guys that you serious, if you ever had it, and what do you, what do you think about it? Like do you think, to me, I agree with, uh, with GIZ on that. I think it's got a little bit more oomph.
Haven't had enough, I haven't got more
Senator: spice to comment. I, I'll say that I, it's close in how full it is, but
Rooster: it's smooth.
Senator: That's where I was going. Yeah, exactly. I, I feel like for some reason that, that the delivery of it is a little smoother than some of the like family reserve, Maduro, like even the one we're smoking because, you know, I don't smoke the family reserve as much.
I find this to be a very full experience. So like I've got a really mm-hmm. Want after a heavy meal, a cigar like this. But that other cigar I've had in settings where I haven't had a big meal and I have felt fine, but the torpedo that we had is also like a shorter torpedo. That's
Gizmo: the number 100.
Senator: Yeah.
Gizmo: So like, and you can only get that at the Miami store.
That's not available. I thought they changed that. No, some of the black series are available elsewhere. There's like TAA [00:12:00] releases, I think there's special stuff. But the little torpedo mm-hmm. The 100 is only available at my Miami hq. Hmm. By the way, I just accidentally retro heled. Uh, just very nice. Um, but, uh,
Senator: it was good.
I enjoyed it. It's gonna start sweating soon.
The, the new release. I'm just surprised for a cigar that fold. That's a big ring gauge. Yeah. And a long cigar. I mean, you gotta have a serious stomach.
Bam Bam: A lot of grass and hay notes on that
Senator: one. I bet
it's too bad. Bam.
Bam Bam: Won't be allowed to try it. Yeah. Bam. Is, uh, best communicated from smoking that cigar. I have to admit though, that night long ago, this is like four years ago. Yeah. The two of you, GIZ and Senator, you pulled that, that. 100 out. It's one of the most beautifully made cigars I've ever seen.
The wrapper was glistening. It was perfectly smooth. It is a beautiful cigar.
Gizmo: But you didn't like it? He's trying to buy his way back in. You see this? [00:13:00] I'm not,
Bam Bam: I'm not, but uh, I didn't really, I didn't enjoy it. It was okay? It was okay. I didn't, uh, was it too much? No. I don't know. It just, maybe my, uh, my palate was off that night.
Maybe
Gizmo: it's
Bam Bam: primitives then back then. Alright. I will
Gizmo: say I love the, the number 100. I I, okay. Keep going. I wish I'll allow it. I wish I had more of them. I, I love that cigar. I reach for it very infrequently. I, I find as it's sitting in the humidor, it's getting better and better. I probably have one or two a year.
Oh wow. You know? 'cause I only have a box left. I brought a bunch back with Rooster when we went. Yep. Actually the first time Rooster and I met Jorge. Pedro. That was cool. Was that trip? Um, I guess it was in 2021. That was before the podcast. We met Jorge in the back and, uh, we, we ended up getting some prototype.
1964 cigars from him as a gift, which was very kind. And uh, we purchased a bunch of boxes of the, uh mm-hmm. One hundreds in Maduro for the group. 'cause we had heard about it, never had it, and then came home and tried it. So that was the story there. So let's talk about another new release from Padrón Boys.
This one's interesting, exclusive [00:14:00] to the tab Tobacconist of Greenwich. The Rare Fine Series has a new edition from Padrón. It's called A Hammer and a Dream. It's a new 54 reengage by six Toro very close to this using the Family Reserve Band from Padrón. And it is the first time this size has been used for a family reserve cigar.
The cigar is going to have an MSRP of $59, and the production is limited to 500 numbered boxes of 10 cigars per wrapper. So that's 500 natural, 500 Maduro for a total of 1000. Boxes and they're going to launch this at a dinner next month in Greenwich. Mm-hmm. And the ticket to the dinner will cost $750 and include seven cigars, of course, one of the Hammer and Ad Dream.
Three other rare cigars as well from Padrón a five course dinner and an open bar. Pretty cool. They also have acquired 150 bottles of a single barrel release from the Old Elk Distillery [00:15:00] for the event
Grinder: that that's, that's a nice shop. I don't know if you guys have ever gone up there and those events. I, I went to a doff event.
It was same, same kind of spiel.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm.
Grinder: They like rent out the whole block. They bring all the fancy cars. It's, it's a pretty, it's a pretty cool extravaganza. So it's a nice, it's a
Bam Bam: very nice
Rooster: shop. Lemme get this straight. The, the box is not exclusive to that shop. It's going to be available later on as a regular production.
Gizmo: No, I think this is only going to be for Tobacconists of Greenwich thousand boxes as a found sold directly 1000, 1000 boxes through them. Exclusive to them. Everything's numbered. Pretty cool. I mean, maybe if the cigar does very well and people rave about it, Jorge will put it out, you know, later as a normal Family Reserve series, uh, edition.
But as of right now, it looks like it's just for the tobacco. I'm surprised
Rooster: that Padrón
Gizmo: did that. Yeah. Yeah. Because they, that's unusual. Usually
Rooster: don't come out. I mean, they hardly come out with anything new. Mm-hmm. But for them to come out with a box and make it just for, exclusively for that shop in
Senator: this manner, it's very unusual.
Yeah. I mean, that's like [00:16:00] a Davidoff move.
Rooster: Exactly.
Senator: Correct. Yeah.
Rooster: And, uh, you know, the tobacco shop in Greenwich, that's, he's a big doff guy. Yeah.
Grinder: Yeah. He gets a lot of special releases. That's true. Yeah. But he, he, he's, he moves everything. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. He's a big deal. Great.
Rooster: He's legendary. He's got the clientele in Greenwich.
I mean, you know. Yeah,
Bam Bam: yeah, sure.
Rooster: I'm sure a lot of those boxes are like pre-sold.
Gizmo: Yeah. He ships everywhere though. He does, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we have one more news story on Padrón here, boys. It was a big Padrón week in the news. They announced that they have new distribution in Europe. Euro tab is gonna be distributing Padrón in France beginning in June.
So I guess they're making a move. I don't know if this is in line with what our listeners are gonna, uh, uh, hear this upcoming episode about Jorge thinking about what the future of international Padrón sales looks like, but it ironic looks like they're making a switch,
Senator: specifically asked about that. I didn't even know the, the whole Fran deal that they had going.
That's cool.
Gizmo: So I guess they had a distributor there previously, but now they're going to be [00:17:00] going with a new distributor called Euro tab. So hopefully that means good things for the folks in Europe be um, when it comes to Padrón cigars. Be very curious how they do that. Yeah, hopefully it doesn't eat in Swar allotment here in the States.
We were concerned about that as well. We talked to Jorge about that. All right, boys, let's go on to some other news here. I thought this was interesting, doff announcing that they're closing three stores, uh, two stores in September. Brookfield Place in New York City. Good. And Houston is closing as well.
Rooster: Oh, Houston.
Gizmo: Yeah. Uh, the company is saying it's not the one I go to for the record. Is that, is that Blend?
Senator: No, no, no. The
Gizmo: company is saying that it's opting to not renew either lease. Both stores will keep regular business hours until September. The Brookfield Place location is in lower Manhattan. The Houston store is on Westheimer Road.
Plenty of things to talk about there.
Bam Bam: Go ahead. Look, I was there a few years ago.
Rooster: I've been there a few times.
Bam Bam: It's a beautiful space. And walk in, buy a [00:18:00] cigar and sit down. It's a Brookfield one. Yeah. Yeah. Like a human being. Now I've gotta pay how much to sit down. It's like a hundred bucks just to penetrate the store.
Just to open the door and walk in. Yeah, it's a great choice of words. Put my foot in the room. Just it's a hundred dollars.
Grinder: And then I
Bam Bam: have to buy a cigar,
Grinder: penetrate that room. Just penetrate the room. It's interesting, you, you followed up the exclamation sounds penetration with with an example of a foot.
Gizmo: Exactly.
Rooster: That's true. But I agree. That's Dr. That's a bit absurd. It's a bit absurd to pay that kind of price to walk into a lounge. So
Bam Bam: no wonder they're going to
Senator: close. Is this the no fooled walking Right. The crazy, the ridiculous part of that to me is like it. A hundred is too much. But if it were to just be a cigar credit, oh, just buy a hundred dollars a cigar.
It's good for them. They're doing, they're moving product and you get to sit there. But it's in addition to having to to buy. Exactly. It wasn't like
Rooster: this. You didn't have to, all you had to do was buy a cigar there. Like I said, it wasn't
Bam Bam: like that. Like I said, it was great. It's a great place. Parking around there is awful, but sometimes you get lucky.
Right. [00:19:00] It's a shame. This is a theme with some de off lounges, by the way. Where is the Brooks? Where is that?
Rooster: It's in Brookfield Place, right across from, uh, world Trade.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Block down from Goldman. Yeah. Goldman building,
Gizmo: so I misspoke before I said they were closing. Three, actually, three stores will remain, they're only closing two stores, one in Houston, one in New York City.
The one's remaining in Manhattan, according to Cigar Aficionado is the one on Madison Avenue, which I guess is closed. And they're scheduled to reopen one on Sixth Avenue Central Park and one in Brooklyn, which is a non flagship store licensed to operate the one on Madison. That's the same kind
Grinder: of
Gizmo: shit though,
Grinder: right?
I don't know. Yes, you have. It's the same deal. I
Gizmo: don't, I I went in there, I don't think you have to pay to, I went in there two years ago and they would not let me smoke in there even though I had purchased yours. Right. Why? It was members only to smoke in there. Yeah. It
Grinder: used to be
Senator: different
Grinder: when I lived in Manhattan.
I've smoked there as, as have I, but I. I recall you having mentioned this before,
Gizmo: I was pissed because I was in the city, Mrs. Gizmo and my stepdaughter went to a Broadway [00:20:00] show. Carnegie Club was like sold out. I think it was one of those, uh, Sinatra Nights or something. Pagoda, lock it out. Goda Heaven. His birthday, it's a birthday party, his seventh birthday that year, in one year.
And uh, I went there and I bought two cigars. I didn't even ask if I could smoke. I just made an assumption, like a dumb ass apparently. And I wasn't allowed to smoke in the store. You know what though?
Grinder: It's not like they have a lot of seats. No,
Gizmo: I know that. But still there was nobody in there.
Senator: Yeah, there never is.
That's the wildest part of this to me. I don't know if things have changed anytime I've walked past that or when I have actually been in there to smoke. It's, there's been at most, like two people in that entire, the place is empty
Chef Ricky: Senator. I do know they have a. A secondary lounge in the basement that's private.
So I had a cigar in there one time with someone who smokes there regularly. Mm. And they have a private space that they, that's in the basement or the lower level that they often, uh, let members in. So the fact that they don't let you sit there now and that I.
Gizmo: This was a couple years ago. I haven't been there [00:21:00] recently.
I don't wanna speak for today. I think
Chef Ricky: for me it was
Senator: maybe five, six years ago. So yeah, mine was two or three years ago. Well, after more lenient you just pay a hundred dollars to sit there and Exactly. To
Gizmo: penetrate.
Senator: Yeah. Yeah. Just to put your foot in the door.
Gizmo: So Brookfield is closing. Brook Brookfield is closing.
And what's interesting is that was the quote unquote flagship store in New York City, which now obviously, I guess is going to pivot to Madison, to, uh, well, Madison's closed right now, so I would've guess the one on Sixth Avenue Central. Mm. Uh, is going to be the flagship at this point, because Madison Avenue's not open.
So,
Chef Ricky: yeah. And Brooklyn is in Manhattan, so that's, that's not working.
Gizmo: So it's an interesting move. I, you know, it's shots fired. It's weird to see. Yeah. All day
Grinder: long. I missed that one. But that, thats a, that's a nice lounge though. The one in
Bam Bam: Brooklyn.
Gizmo: Yeah. Bam. And I have been
Grinder: there.
Bam Bam: I, I like that spot, man. Next
Rooster: to Luger's.
Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Beautiful humidor, great selection. Lot of, lot of seating.
Rooster: And he owns a couple of lounges in Long Island, I believe. Hmm.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Also not New York City. Yeah, [00:22:00] well, whatever.
Gizmo: So boys, we have one more news story. This one, I'm curious what you guys think about this. Howell Township, New Jersey has enacted its smoking ban.
You are not allowed to smoke at all in any public place in the entire township of Howell. Nothing interesting about Howell.
Bam Bam: Nothing cool about Howell. No problem. We'll never put my foot in Howell. No
Gizmo: penetration in how, no penetration noted Penetrating Howell. No need to go to Howell even. But it's not
Rooster: a good sign.
Gizmo: That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I don't like to see it creeping Correct. From other, you know, northeastern states as we've talked about in Massachusetts. Yep. Yep. I don't like seeing it creep into municipalities in New Jersey. We're coming
Rooster: to Ridgewood very soon. Yeah. I can't wait for that war.
Senator: We're, we're gonna have lizards become mayors of all the towns in this area.
We need to start installing, not letting this happen. Mayor Lizards. Can I go to political school before I do that? Please. I've got our town covered. Don't [00:23:00] worry. We need, uh, Hawthorne. Uh, I'll be Hawthorne Mayor.
Gizmo: So here's what they say. They say this ordinance makes it unlawful to smoke or vape in parks, recreational and athletic facilities.
Any public places in other township owned properties, regardless of the substance smoked or vape, they say their enforcement is an effort to keep public parks and facilities enjoyable for all community members. As the weather warms and the days grow longer. Families and individuals with respiratory conditions such as asthma have the right to enjoy the entirety of the public outdoors and fresh air without concern.
Rooster: Yeah. While the pollen is coming down. So yeah,
Gizmo: I can't breathe when I walk outside, but ask my cigars
Bam Bam: a problem. Ask if I may. I've, I haven't ever found myself smoking in the park Maybe. Early on years ago.
Senator: I've tried here when I lived in Manhattan, so like I lived on Broadway between like Central Park and Riverside.
Yeah. And I used to love, when I first moved there, I'd light a cigar and I'd walk down Riverside and I'd, I'd be just a little bit in the park, some jerk on a, on a bike, like is riding by me and goes, [00:24:00] you can't smoke in the park. So I look up the law and uh, Bloomberg, actually Bloomberg, uh, signed a law that banned smoke in any public parks in Manhattan.
So yeah, my hack was like, I would walk right outside of Riverside and just go down and still get to enjoy my cigar. But, um, it's just annoying 'cause there's something like if you could smoke in Central Park, that's a beautiful place to have a cigar. That's true. Beautiful. I wish you
Bam Bam: could.
Senator: That's true.
Wish you
Bam Bam: could.
Chef Ricky: I used to like to go on the piers, uh, over when I'm in at the Tribeca location and I'd go out on the piers and smoke and, mm, you're not supposed to. Every once in a while I get somebody that calls attention to it. Yeah.
Grinder: The, the amount of marijuana being smoked in Central Park is ridiculous.
It's crazy in the fucking place, anywhere
Chef Ricky: in the city. You can't walk anywhere without smelling weed.
Gizmo: Alright boys, so let's go to a listener email. Now, this is going to be our lizard of the week. We're gonna get to our Jorge Padrón interview in a minute here. But I wanna do a lizard of the week and this is going to be Lizard Marcus who writes us Good afternoon lizards.
I wanna start by [00:25:00] thanking you all for the hard work that you guys put in to produce content. I started listening to the pod four months ago and have made it my goal to go back and listen to each episode on my commute. I'm on episode 35 now and have listened to all the recent ones over the past few months.
I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every episode, so thank you for helping me pass the time on my long drives. I'm a younger smoker who just got into the hobby last year. I'm only 23 years old, which I of course have found is very uncommon. My question is related to buying habits, though I would consider myself incredibly fortunate to have extra income to spend on cigars, I certainly have to limit myself.
But it is hard to not get carried away. As I grow my collection, I know that to be the truth. I am curious how the lizards buying habits have changed throughout their time in the hobby. Have there been periods when you've bought more cigars or times when you didn't buy any? How did you guys go about buying boxes to age?
If you try a cigar and really like it, are you then trying to buy a box immediately? Finally, I'm sure you [00:26:00] all have a list of cigars you're looking to purchase at any given time. Will you wait until you can find a good deal? Or is the purchasing more ad hoc if they come available? Apologies for all the questions and the long email.
Thanks for all that you do. I find incredible enjoyment and listening to you guys banter. Best lizard. Marcus, what a wonderful, great email.
Bam Bam: Wonderful
Senator: email, great email questions. This ISS really question. Great question. Yeah. Can I take one of those questions please? Because it immediately like Spark resonated with, sparked a rule that I've created for myself based on mistakes I've made in the past about buying cigars.
So his question about, you know, do you, you have a cigar if you like it, then do you buy a box? I used to years ago, if I tried one cigar and I loved it, I'd buy a box. The problem was the number of times that I did that and then was severely disappointed after smoking several of them out of a box and then feeling like I'm stuck with this box of cigars that I no longer really enjoy, and I'm like having to painfully smoke through.
Huge mistake. My rule, [00:27:00] I've now self-imposed to this day. I smoke two cigars before I'm willing to buy any box because I feel like you can always get this like fluke where one is really great, then you have another and you have a dramatically different experience. So for me, if I have two at different time periods and they're both good, then I'm willing to buy the box.
I
Grinder: have thousand percent agree. I've been in the same boat. So yes, usually historically I've had a cigar and I wouldn't rushed to buy a box, and I've oftentimes been in those like I. Think about it this way, we prize consistency. That's a merit to a cigar. Consistency matters, but it also means sometimes you get just a really good cigar in a lousy box.
You know, it can go, it can go either way. And, uh, you gotta like kind of just test the waters a little bit before you're, you, you know, you're willing to put some serious dos up for a special cigar, for example.
Bam Bam: May I cite the fund? Doris?
Senator: Some of us still like that. Cigar ba
Grinder: Well,
Bam Bam: I'm, I have one now,
Grinder: but [00:28:00] I think, I think the other element to that, yeah, I mean, I, at least I personally, when I buy cigars, I kind of buy in waves, you know? Sure. I buy a, I buy a bunch, I'll stock up. I'm in the zone. I'm, I'm in a cigar buying mood and I'll, for like a month or so, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll buy a bunch of boxes and then I'll have my, my inventory and then I'll pause, smoke, enjoy, deplete the inventory and then restock.
Rooster: I think for me it's. It's twofold. You have the Cuban cigars and you have the New World cigars. The New World cigars. The prices have not. Gone up like the Haos have, right?
Gizmo: Mm-hmm.
Rooster: So when the haos were cheaper than New World, when you can get D fours for like two 50, you know, in that range. Two 60
Bam Bam: part is D four for a box part less.
Yeah. Yeah. Used you get 'em for two 20. Two 20. So I wish
Rooster: we had stocked up more than we actually did. Oh yeah. Oh
Gizmo: yeah.
Rooster: At this point it's hard to swallow that pill, right? It's hard to pay [00:29:00] $660 for a box of D fours when you could add 'em for like that price. So yeah, if you love a D four, yes you will spend that because you don't have a choice.
But I feel like I personally, I mean I'm buying more New World cigars because, and smoking less Cubans kind of saving them a little bit, you know, because I don't wanna have to replace them with a much expensive box
Senator: on the price conversation though. My, one of another learning I've had, I used to buy in waves like Grinder's talking about, but in a more regimented way I am like, I'm gonna stock up now, like deplete some, then I'm gonna stock up some more.
And there wasn't really anything other than just like my supply level dictating that. I grew to regret that. Because I mean, the reality is sure, new world prices hasn't, haven't gone up as much, nearly as much as Cuban cigars, but they have increased. We used to talk about certain boxes that we would get at like a crazy steep discount that now are like a hundred more than we used to pay a box.[00:30:00]
And I, I look at it and I'm like, oh man, had I just stocked up more when my thought process then was like deplete some supply, then like, you know, restock, I should have just loaded up knowing that certain sticks I love so much, I'm gonna smoke those probably forever. And I actually would've saved a whole lot more money had I done that.
So for me now. When I see a good price on a box that I know I really love, it doesn't matter if I already have 10 of them. Correct. I'm still adding and just loading up, load up, up. Because you'll never regret it. The price will go up. That correct? May I cite
Bam Bam: the Sonata?
Grinder: Yeah. Yeah. The aging room. I, I think, I think, I think to Senator's point, I think it's, I think it's valuable.
You know, I've, I buy in waves to his point. Having a safety stock and maintaining that is, is, is can be valuable, but when you see a deal and you know the price and you, you just find this retailer like, we do it all the time. Right. When, when somebody finds some, some random retailer, it's coming
Gizmo: up in a couple weeks.
Memorial day's coming, that's always a big cigar buy weekend for us.
Grinder: Yeah. And you [00:31:00] just, we we share codes around. We see this deal. We, you send the link and, and you got it. You got a bite.
Bam Bam: I remember a time, oh boy, on one of the sites that we buy from, one guy went, Hey, these are available. We would all rush and buy the whole fucking inventory.
That was hilarious.
Senator: Oh, it's hysterical. I'll never forget once we were at Grinder's place and, uh, some, ironically, a Padrón Box, uh, popped up on a site that was sold out for a period of time, and the guy who actually found that it popped up told all of us. Grinder gets on the website and orders it, and then the guy who told us is trying to order goes.
Now it's saying it's sold out. And Grinder just kinda looks like the Simpsons like, like going back into the bush and it's like, uh, I got one. He got the last one. Lesson
Gizmo: learned. Always buy first. Correct. Before you tell, you have to buy your own before you tell. Yeah,
Bam Bam: that's correct.
Gizmo: I mean, I think, I think that is pretty much in line with how my buying habits have gone.
I mean, certainly as we fell in love with, you know, Cuban [00:32:00] cigars, we loaded up our towers, the prices were reasonable. You could find deals. They were easier to get into the country. They weren't being picked off like they are. And the other thing too now, uh, for New World cigars, I mean, we've found so many new world cigars that are filling these flavor desires.
We have that Cubans have. Given us before that. Now we're finding in a lot of other non Cuban cigars and you know, as we set our lineups, I'm seeing all of us smoking less Cuban cigars period. But do you think
Rooster: it's because the Cuban prices went up so much that
Gizmo: it made us look for those, or, well, I think it's a combo of two things.
I think number one, I think, you know, the podcast exercise that we do every week trying 50 some odd new cigars a year, we've really found some new gems
Bam Bam: that's a no brainer. And at a
Gizmo: great price that you can get the next day from Atlantic. Mm-hmm. Or in a few days from small batch or Neptune or wherever else you're ordering from, it's like it's a no brainer versus the suffering to get a cubit cigar.
Some of them suck, some of them don't. You have to dry 'em out. Yeah. [00:33:00] You can't get 'em in the country. The prices are three or four times what they were. Mm-hmm. It's like the math doesn't work anymore.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And look. I'm gonna say without the pod, most of us wouldn't have discovered the incredible new worlds that we're smoking.
That's a fact. Mm-hmm. And a lot of the Cubans too. Yeah. Because it would take a long journey for all of us to go through all the, the plethora of new, new worlds that are available. It'd be impossible.
Grinder: I mean, I, I just follow, I just follow the lead from you guys now. Like, I, I, same, I, I, I hear your counsel, like, I know the taste.
I know you guys have good taste, and if you guys say, this is a good cigar, I'm gonna, I'm gonna smoke it and buy it, you know?
Gizmo: Yeah. And I, I think all of us, you know, are smoking, regular production, great Cuban and non Cuban cigars. Obviously the non Cubans, most of them that we smoke, you can get pretty quickly unless they're sold out, you know, for a certain reason, if they're limited or whatever.
But it's been a lot easier, I think, to enjoy new world cigars, not suffer a, uh, acquiring them. And the consistency is through the roof. Yeah. On non cubit [00:34:00]
Senator: cigars. I think bams point's a really good one about the pod being really the catalyst for that. I mean. I say that because even if Cuban prices didn't increase by virtue of us doing this pod correct and having to try a different new world every week, we would be finding these cigars falling in love with many of them like we have and buying them.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Even if Cuban uh, cigars were the same price. I mean, yeah. I'm just as excited about any of the new worlds. We've given a nine or a 10, and so I'm grateful that we have this exercise because without it, we're all creatures of habit. Correct. I mean, we stay in our lanes exactly. Half the time we do some of these new world cigars.
They're from a brand I've never heard of. Mm-hmm. I come in admittedly skeptical, I'm not familiar with it, and we light it and we're like, wow. Shocking. This is really great. Had it not been for this, there's no chance that we're just gonna pick up a random brand that just came out for the first time three months ago.
I mean, stoic is a great example of this. Yeah. And try the cigar. That just doesn't happen often, so I really think. Us having to be, being forced to really [00:35:00] try and get out of our comfort zone is the driving force. Yeah, agreed.
Gizmo: So I think about the only question that we haven't answered here from Lizard Marcus, is how do we go about buying boxes to age?
And I think as far as new world cigars go, I think, you know, we had a great experience with the Padrón 80th and Maduro that you had sat in your tower for several years and how those developed four years. Obviously, you know, when you get them fresh, obviously they have five to 10 like this one in our hand, years in, in the age on, in, in that tobacco before you even, you know, before it even ships to you.
Mm-hmm. But, you know, for us, I think buying boxes to age is, it's changing a little bit. A we've had great experience with newer production cupid cigars. We're smoking a lot more New World cigars. I don't see anyone in this room running out to buy boxes no. To age. I think our habits have changed a little bit here.
Senator: I, I'll say this, I, I have a, this is probably my third rule of thumb that I've learned over time. For me, with aging, I go to extremes. So like if I [00:36:00] try something and I really dislike it, I'm gonna age it because that's the only hope of maybe fixing that cigar. I'll then try it a year or two years later. I would say 80% of the time the cigar is dramatically better and I'm grateful I did it 20%.
It's not, and I say, okay, it's a done, I'm done with this. The other extreme is a cigar that I am obsessed with, that I absolutely love. I buy that in such quantity that I am aging. Some of that it,
Gizmo: it's, it's its own aging program by virtue of what? Just to see what
Senator: will happen. And the Patron Nath was the perfect example.
I had no clue what to expect. Adding four years of age to the five it already has. It was life changing. I mean, that was one of the best cigars we've done in this pod. That was an experiment. I'm always willing to do that with a cigar that I know I love so much. Anything in the middle that's like smoking really good right now, but isn't like one of my favorite cigars of all time for me, I'd rather just smoke it.
Right now I'm not, if I'm not that thrilled about it early, I'm probably not gonna be ecstatic about it later if it got more [00:37:00] age. So that's just been my rule of thumb. It's like if the cigar sucks or it's one of the greatest things I've ever had, those are the cigars that I age.
Rooster: And I think if the listener is actually looking to buy some aged cigars, there's really only one site that I know of offhand, which is Bond Roberts.
Yeah. That I think, I don't think you can post a box with less than three years or five years of age. No,
Gizmo: they changed that a little bit. The rules have come down, I guess, 'cause of the supply stuff. So I think you can post fresh boxes. But you know, the, the key thing about ordering cubit cigars on Bon Roberts is if you're in the United States just trying to earmark boxes that are already in the states to limit the risk of customs.
But if you're
Rooster: willing to pay the price and you're willing to look for a specific year, that's one option for you that you can find some boxes with some, you know, decent amount of age on it. Are, are
Grinder: there Bond Roberts. Purveyors that make it a business to, to shop, age and, and sell on, on the site?
Gizmo: I would think so.
There kinda like an Etsy. I mean, you can kind of look at, uh, how many [00:38:00] ratings folks have and you can see the, the high volume sellers on there that are certainly flipping. Mm-hmm. You know, or have an old collection that're they're trying to move at these new prices. So that's certainly a very real thing.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Bam is one of 'em. No. So thanks to, uh, lizard Marcus, I have hope. With that, thanks to Lizard Marcus. He's our lizard of the week, and of course we give away a lizard of the week every week. Anybody out there can win. All you have to do is send us a great email like Marcus did an Instagram comment, YouTube comment.
We love hearing from listeners and, uh, we really appreciate that. So we're gonna send him a little care package and, uh, like I said, you can win if you, uh, get in touch with us and, uh, tell us what you're smoking. Tell us what you think of the pod. Tell us what you think about BA's accountability hour.
Those always win. Nope. And, uh, we love to hear not necessary. So boys, it's time to move into our pairing now. This is the second time we're doing the 16 years age log, single malt scotch. We did it for the first time on episode nine, if you believe it. And we didn't r [00:39:00] spirits back then, so we're revisiting this and we're doing this of course, as, uh, after the interview was done, we are actually talking with Jorge Padrón and he was telling us some of his, his favorite scotches and laville and was on the list.
So we decided to go back into the archive and pull this one again. So, cheers, boys. Cheers. Gentlemen. Welcome back, grinder.
Grinder: Solid.
Gizmo: Good to have you back, man. Thanks guys.
Grinder: And what a wonderful welcome back. This is, you know, this is my favorite scotch
Gizmo: and a great cigar too.
Grinder: Oh.
Gizmo: I haven't had this in a long time.
Bam Bam: Very good. Yeah. So I will say the first two or three sips, I, I, it was a cringing effect that I had. Oh. And it made my stomach turn a little bit. Wow. But no, but now the finish, it tastes like nectar once you get it. So I've, that's exactly right. I've been sipping it this entire time. Small sips. It's actually quite delicious.
It's so good.
Senator: Once, once your palate adjusts, this is a perfect example of when like chef talks about, like with mezcal or something that has maybe a, a note that, you know, we're not as accustomed to drinking or experiencing. A [00:40:00] lot of your palate has to really adjust. Correct. It's like, even for me, I like liable and I almost always have a bottle list on my bar at home.
But even the first sip, it's like, you know, you get a ton of that peat. Mm-hmm. You're kind of overwhelmed. You take the second sip, it starts to settle in, and then the third and fourth you can start to pick up the sweet notes that actually exist in there, that balance out with the pettiness. And it works beautifully with the cigar tonight.
Gizmo: That's why I wanted to go with this outrageous, actually, not just because we talked to Jorge specifically about Lagavulin, but how I thought it would pair with this very full family reserve cigar from Padrón. It's very unusual, you know, on the cigar I'm getting now some raisin, a little molasses along with the cocoa and coffee and leather, there's, it smelled out for me a bit.
Bam Bam: It's really the cigars delicious right
Rooster: now. Yeah. I'm getting like a, almost like a cherry.
Bam Bam: Yeah, a little bit. But I get that after a black cherry or so, I get the black cherry after I take a sip of this lag of ole and take a draw and just let that marinate a bit. It's, yeah, and I think the
Rooster: spice has kind of subsided it.
I agree [00:41:00] quite a bit. Absolutely.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Yeah. Really, really good.
Chef Ricky: I attribute the, the, the, the mellowing out of the cigar, if you will, to the lag of ole 'cause. Initially I felt the cigar, um, to be quite raspy. Uh, you know, and, and kind of, uh, I disagree tingly and, um, I do disagree. I think the cigar, I love a
Rooster: little raspiness.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Just not in my women mostly.
I think the cigars meow out beautifully on its own. Yeah. It's really, yeah. Something else. Yeah. I'll just
Senator: say I don't, I don't think it's lable. I mean, rooster was saying he's not drinking it and he's feeling like it's mellowed out. For me, what I've noticed with this cigar, you have to smoke it slowly. Yes.
And the cooler it burns. Mm-hmm. The more it mellows out. Yes. So like when you light the cigar, that's as hot as can be. Right. I was getting a ton of pepper. Yep. I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of flavor I was getting. I had to slow down 'cause I, I was just overwhelmed by the [00:42:00] experience and the cooler.
It started to burn. Mm-hmm. It just got smoother and richer. But not in like a overwhelming sense. Yeah. I, I think you just have to take your time with this
Bam Bam: and they wanna talk about an aging program. I think this is a great candidate to put away for four or five years. I don't ever remember the cigar being as smooth, as elegant, as delicious.
That as it is right now.
Gizmo: Yeah. This is even better than I remember. I haven't had one in quite some time. Yeah. Yeah. A family reserve 45. But, uh, I am really, really happy where this is at, at, at, coming at the end of the first third here. I, I just. It's so full, but it's so smooth. Mm-hmm. I'm relaxed. It's elegant, and my favorite piece of this cigar right now is how effortless it is.
It's a cigar that I'm not having to sit here as we have this nice conversation. I'm not having to sit here and think about the cigar. I'm not thinking about my lighter, I'm not thinking about the draw. It's a huge merit. It's, it's a massive merit, and especially in a cigar that you're paying between 28 and $31 a cigar for.
Mm-hmm. Which is what this retail is [00:43:00] for today. You know, at that price point, it should be a premium experience, and it's delivering that tonight,
Bam Bam: but fresh, it's known for a punch. So for what we're getting tonight, it's a great experience.
Gizmo: There's
Rooster: even a sweetness that's coming through. Now
Bam Bam: I'm getting, like I said, I'm getting raisin.
Yeah. A bit of molasses and raisin. I see.
Senator: Rooster's Cherry note I thought was crazy at first. It's there. I'm getting it. It's there.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate how creamy it's become at this point. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Gizmo: So boys, it's time now to move into the first half. We're gonna split this interview into two parts.
We're gonna come back at the end of the second third, but now that we're at the end of the first third, we're gonna go to our conversation with Jorge Padrón that we recorded at PCA 2025 in New Orleans just a few weeks ago. And I gotta say, I know we talked about this on the PCA recap episode, but it was such a pleasure sitting down with Jorge.
It was such a great conversation. I can't wait for the listeners to hear this. The best
Senator: part, I mean, it was our first. Interview we did the trade show floor opened Saturday at 10:00 AM We were able to come in early as media, [00:44:00] and when we're talking to Jorge about when we wanna record, he's like, right now, let's do it right now.
Let's do it right
Bam Bam: now. Now. So we just meandered into a space, by the way, I think it was just a strolling in Yeah. This wasn't scheduled. We didn't have like an agenda planned of
Gizmo: what to talk about. It was funny. It, it's, it just flowed great. And it was a wonderful conversation. So we're going to, like I said, we're gonna come back at the end of the second third and talk a little more about the cigar and the spirit.
But now let's go to the first part of our interview with Jorge Padrón, the president and industry legend from Padrón Cigars.
All right. Live from PCA 2025. We are here with a very, very, very, that's three very, that's special guest, our number one requested guest on the podcast from listeners, Mr. Jorge Padrón from Padrón Cigars. First, thank you so much for having us and for joining us on the podcast today.
Jorge Padrón: Thank you guys. It's a pleasure to be here.
Um, you know, for Padrón Cigars, we haven't had the ability to do this in a while, but we're here and we're gonna get it done.
Gizmo: I'm looking forward to it. I think we scheduled this appointment about three and a half [00:45:00] years ago. Oh, that's correct. Yeah. That's my bad, that's my
Jorge Padrón: bad. I, I dropped the ball with that.
Gizmo: It's already worth the wait. So we, uh, first thing we talked about when we saw you is how much we enjoyed the 60th anniversary cigar. We did that cigar in Maduro. Uh, we loved it. We rated it a 10. Of course. It was fantastic. Can you talk to us a little bit, you were telling us about the production of that cigar, how difficult it is to roll, uh, how important it is to you, uh, for quality and consistency.
Can you tell us a little
Jorge Padrón: bit about that process? I mean, the 60th, like every other cigar that we've ever produced is just part of a, there's a process to developing these blends. Um, the 60th was. Obviously a little bit more complicated because of the shape of the cigar. You know, for us, we had never produced a cigar that's shaped like a perfecto.
I mean, we have the, the 80th, but this cigar is a little bit more complicated even than the 80th. So with that in mind, we took a lot of, um, you know, attention to detail, a lot of time to develop. Number one, the blend, but even more important than the blend is figuring out who is gonna [00:46:00] make the cigar.
Because we need to make sure that whoever was gonna make that cigar was gonna make it consistently, uh, good and excellent. How it, how it needs to be. So, I mean, the whole process took us about two years to put together Wow. From the time that we started working on the blend to the time that we worked with different rollers or bunchers in the, in the factory.
Um, so it was a process. It was a process. But you know, through process of elimination, you start to figure out, okay, certain bunchers. Have certain skill sets that are good for this type of cigar. And we ended up choosing one person to make it. And that's the person that's there now. And we're very happy with the way that it's turned out.
And I think he, he produces, uh, very consistently. And uh, the blend is obviously there on spot on point as well, which is a big part of the whole thing. But, you know, you can have a great blend, but if you don't have a great construction then mm-hmm. It's only half the battle. So
Bam Bam: he's clearly a master. I asked this earlier, how long did it take for him to tool up and [00:47:00] get to where he's at now?
Jorge Padrón: Well, he's an experienced roller buncher, so it takes time, I mean, with any cigar to, to, to master it, right. A cigar like this takes a little bit more time. Uh, fortunately the person that was making that cigar, that ma is making that cigar was also someone that produced filos. So there are similarities, you know, between torpedoes and, and, uh, belly CSOs.
So if you have a skill set that is good for that, then you, most gen more, more than likely you'll be able to make the 60th as well. But there's a difference between being able to make it and being able to make it consistently, consistently excellent. And that's really the key.
Senator: I mean, I, I think when the 60th came out, I was so excited to see a perfecto.
I remember we chatted last year a little bit about this with the 80th that, um, your dad maybe wasn't as big of a fan of, uh, of rolling up perfecto and, and you guys kind of took a leap and what a huge success that was. And I think with this cigar, you talk about the patience that it requires from a [00:48:00] production standpoint, but even from a smoking uh, standpoint, as a consumer, that aggressive taper at the foot of the cigar.
You've gotta give it time to open up, and then you just get that explosion of flavor. And I feel like that journey is so fun for the smokers. So I'm, I'm just curious, you know, how much of that goes into the thought process behind taking people on that journey as they're having a cigar like that?
Jorge Padrón: Well, I mean, obviously that's all part of the development, right?
Um, we started off working on this project with a, um, damn, what do you call these machines that, uh, produce like the molds, the, um, like the 3D printer. A 3D printer. We bought a 3D printer. Wow. Wow. Just to design this cigar. Interesting. Just to make the mold for that cigar. Just to make the No, well first we had to figure out kind of the shape.
So we made it, we didn't have the molds yet, so we made, we bought a 3D printer to shape the cigar and we started tinkering with different sizes. Like we started off with like, um. You know, a 44 to [00:49:00] a 58 or you know, like different, different uh, dimensions until we got to a couple that we liked, right? In terms of thickness and length.
And then based on those, we made some molds, like sample molds. And then from those sample molds we made sample cigars. And then based on that we started kind of honing in on the si the eventual size. So how long was that process that, well, I imagine the design process, that whole thing. Imagine it, it takes months.
It takes months, of course. Well at first you gotta learn how to use a 3D printer. Of course, course you gotta learn how to use a printer. Of course. Luckily, luckily we have someone in the family that's very good with that type of stuff. Jeff, my nephew Jeff, he sounds like a youngster. Yeah. Yeah. But because I can't do any, I can't, I can't either.
These are the
Bam Bam: technology guys over here. Alright.
Jorge Padrón: I didn't even know the name of this damn machine. How's that? But I told him, I go, Jeff, why don't we get one of those machines that like kind of, you can, we can make play with some sizes just to figure it out to see what, and we bought it and um. I mean, of course it's just, it's part of the process.
It's [00:50:00] part of the, I mean, that's what I love about this business, the family component, working together, you know, to develop these things and everybody plays a role in the eventual development of the product. You know, we all got a chance to taste different cigars made by different rollers of different dimensions and, um.
At the end of the day, I'm the one that has to make the final call. But it's nice to have other people that I have input and, um, and at the same time it's, it's also great to have great people working for you and with you. Yep. That understand what the mission of our company is all about and that, uh, don't cut corners.
And, you know, it really is impossible to do this unless you have great people working with you.
Pagoda: And it's interesting that the whole cigar evolved over the process. It wasn't, Hey, this is what we're gonna be doing. Let's try and achieve it. It seemed like it was an evolution to come to this. Yeah. You can't,
Jorge Padrón: you can't, to develop a cigar like that.
You kind of have to have an idea of what you wanna do, but you're not sure [00:51:00] how it's gonna get done.
Pagoda: Mm-hmm.
Jorge Padrón: In terms of putting everything together.
Pagoda: Sure.
Jorge Padrón: Like, you know, you wanna make it perfecto. I knew that, but I didn't know what dimensions that mean. We could have, it could have been a lot of different dimensions.
Sure. It could have been, there were countless options there, how the shape was gonna be, all that. But once you start making some cigars, you immediately start to see, okay, you know, this cigar doesn't work with this blend. 'cause it's too narrow. Sure. The tobaccos that you're gonna use inside or heavier, it burns hot.
It doesn't burn hot. You know, so there's a lot of factors that are not necessarily connected to the development of the sizing, but more so to how the size works with the tobacco that you're gonna use. So I'll, I'll give you an example. So when we, I. Introduced a 35. The 35 originated from a situation that I had with a Principe.
So I, [00:52:00] we had the Principe and we were, we didn't have the 35 at the time. And then the Principe, I got back from a trip from Nicaragua and I went to dinner with my wife and I lit up the Principe as I left my house before dinner. And, uh, when I got to the restaurant, I had, like, my wife doesn't let me do that.
Yeah. Can you, can you teach us please? So I'm like. I'm doing market research as I'm smoking, as I'm driving. But, so I'm, I'm smoking the cigar and I get to the restaurant. I've only smoked about half of it, you know, I'm like, shit, I gotta throw away the cigar. Now. I can't, I can't walk in there with this cigar.
Sure. So I drop it, you know, I mean, I have no other choice. So I, that stayed in my head. I'm like, damn, you know, we need a, a cigar that is smaller and like, we love that little cigar. We do. Yeah. That is a chocolate bomb. Yeah. Fantastic. So, so then on my next trip to Nicaragua, a few weeks later, I got back the first, I had already been like, man, my mind was going a thousand miles an hour.
And I said to go, listen, make me a principate, but cut it to, instead of the [00:53:00] four and whatever the dimension, cut it, cut it to four inches. The first one we did was like, three and three quarters, four inches. You go, let's try that. It's all right. And I said, okay, let's put more, let's make it heavier. I want it to be more full body.
Right. So then we made. A Principe four inches with the 26 blend. Mm. Wow. And it was like, man, this thing burning hot. It, it just changed the cigar completely. It was like, we can't, I can't put this out like this. So then we, we increased the ring gauge. We got a new mold, and we made it 48 instead of 46. And that made all the difference in the world.
Yeah. And it worked. That's how those things develop. Right. Because you're fortunately we're, I'm a cigar smoker. I know what I, I, I know what a great cigar should taste like. So, uh, you know, it's just a matter of tasting it and saying, okay, this works, or it doesn't. And, and that's pretty, it's pretty simple when it, if you, you know, if you boil it down to those terms where you're not trying to reinvent the wheel, [00:54:00] you're just trying to determine if the cigar tastes good or it doesn't.
Mm-hmm. And then you can get into other things, you know, complexity, all that stuff. But, but the bottom line is, is that the cigar just did not work. The, the blend did not work in that ring gauge. We had to make it. A bigger ring gauge in order to get the flavor that we wanted. So, so the, it's the same thing with the 60th, right?
The 60th is the same exact situation. It's just a matter of trial and error.
Bam Bam: That cigar requires patience. Honestly, when I first smoked it, I've been smoking cigars for a very long time. That initial half inch. I'm thinking to myself, oh my Lord, what am I gonna do here? It's not, I can't get it to burn the air flow's tight.
But then as you said earlier, once you get past that, it just explodes in flavor.
Jorge Padrón: Yeah. Well, it's important that, and you guys had asked earlier, and now I'll answer your question, but, uh, I completely got off track with that. But, but the bottom line is, is that if you look at the shape of that cigar, the nipple that end, that you light is very [00:55:00] tight.
I mean, it, it, it, it, it narrows down to a very small circumference. It's about an eighth of an inch. Yeah. It's very, very small. So it's very, it's impossible. The, like that cigar at that moment, like the first maybe half inch of that cigar will be a little tight to draw. But once you pass that initial half inch or whatever, three, three eighths of an inch, that, that will change.
The ci the cigar will just open up and it'll flow like it needs to flow. Sure. So if some people cut it, and that's really a personal preference, like how they'd handle that. You know,
Senator: I, I personally love it because it forces you from the light to be patient and take your time with that cigar. That's right.
Yeah. And that's a forces you gonna sit. Exactly. That's rights. A CI that delivers so much flavor, takes you on a journey, transitions a bit. You wanna be patient with it so that you get to experience that. Yeah. If you're too quick with it, you start overheating the cigar, you lose that flavor. Yeah. And
Jorge Padrón: if you start, uh, like if you, if you light it.
If you [00:56:00] cut it and you light it, it burns the leaf on the, on the outer edge. So if you light it how it's, instead of cutting it from the get go, it just seems like it burns like nicer. Yeah. You don't have to touch it up, but just it sets the whole cigar up Yeah.
Gizmo: For a two hour journey of just
Senator: excellence.
Yeah. So we were talking a little bit about ring gauges, and I know, uh, at the trade show here you've got a, a new release, a larger ring gauge, I think a 60. Is that right?
Jorge Padrón: Yeah. We have a new, a new release in the, uh, Padrón black line. Uh, so it's a 60 ring by six and three quarters. It's a big cigar, so yeah.
So like, like, like most of the black series, uh, this is a round cigar. It's not box pressed. It's um, it's cellophane and it comes in a box of 10. Hmm. So, I mean, expect big, big flavor from that cigar. Right. I mean, that's a heavy. You know, well-rounded complex cigar.
Senator: I'm always curious what goes into the decision to cellophane a cigar or not cellophane a cigar.
I know some of the thousand series has done that. I know this one obviously has. [00:57:00] What's the thought process? I'm curious.
Jorge Padrón: The, the cellophane just helps the cigar from not shifting when it's in the box. So when the cigars are round, the cellophane helps to keep it in place. Interesting. On the, will they rotate in the box through delivery?
Yeah. Yeah. Ah, you just try to, so they stay So appearance wise, you know, it also protects the cigar a little bit. When the cigars are boxed pressed, there's less movement. They stay put. Right. You know, on the Padrón series, all the Padrón series have a little bit of squareness to them. Mm-hmm. They're not completely round.
We love that. Yeah. We love that about this. It's, it's less pressing than, than the less box press than the anniversary in 20 sixes and family reserves, but still have a little bit. Gotcha. So this one has nothing. It's just round 100%. Like the 90th. Also, I think Padrón, I think what you do is very unique in, in one specific way.
Gizmo: There's a lot of, a lot of different ways, but one specific way in that every single one of your lines from the Padrón series all the way up to the 60th, the 35 to 60 fours, everything, everything. When you pull it out of the [00:58:00] box, every single cigar, you know that it's going to burn great, it's going to taste great.
Even in your value line, the Padrón series, you deliver excellent quality to the point that a lot of smokers actually prefer the Padrón series over the 64, the 35. So from an, you know, from an intention standpoint, what you guys do, the way you construct things, I think it's unique in a way to Padrón in that even your value series, the lower cost cigars still deliver incredible value.
It's true for every smoker. How do you achieve that consistency?
Bam Bam: Well, the first thing is that, and that's a big question, probably a really big answer, but a lot of other markers that we smoke, you do have some nuances from cigar to cigar and line to line and quality issues. Not in his cigars.
Senator: No. It
Bam Bam: probably doesn't hurt that his
Senator: desk is in the center of the floor of the factory.
Exactly. That's also true.
Jorge Padrón: Well, I mean, the first, the first thing you have to take into account is that all of our cigars say put drone on them. So there's a certain level of pride that goes into what we do. A certain [00:59:00] level. No, a ton of pride. I mean, it's all about that, right? It's all about respect and it's all about respecting the name.
And, um, you know, for us, that's really what's driven our company, right? And fortunately we have, we're well respected, we've earned that, and we don't take that lightly. And, um, and that goes from consumers. I have many colleagues, uh, manufacturers that. We have great relationships with, and I think there's a certain level of respect within the industry, not just for Padrón, but even for other brands that we have, because we all understand that we're all trying to produce the best product possible.
Hmm. So in terms of, uh, that's an important thing to take into account. When you, when you're thinking about the different lines of cigars that we make, that even though it's not priced as high as some of the other ones, we still, it's still a Padrón. And uh, we still have a responsibility to make sure that that cigar is what people expect it to be.
And uh, and it's been 61 years since we started this thing, so we're not [01:00:00] gonna fuck this up. Yeah. At this point, you know,
Pagoda: it's interesting because, you know, we would, we had the discussion earlier with somebody else and, you know, going to market with one branding like Padrón, you have to maintain the same level of quality for every cigar.
You have to go through the thought process and maintain the consistency and the quality because they are brands out there, which are using a lot of different type of, you know, marketing, uh, markers. Well, I was gonna say, yeah. And then we're not a marketing company. Yeah. Right. We're a cigar. No, fair enough.
Jorge Padrón: Manufacturer cigars. And years ago I was on a panel, I was just starting off and I was on a panel with some big manufacturers who. Who have a tendency to launch new products all the time. And new brands. And new brands. And I, I'm like the opposite of that. Yeah. We've never launched a new brand, like, well, we did domicile, but Domicile's still part of Thero Line and there's a, there's a thought process of how that brand integrates into what we're doing now.
Sure. And to add value to what we are, to who we are. So there's no point in [01:01:00] introducing a new line of cigars for us Un unless it adds value to the overall brand. Right. That's the number one thing. Sure. Um, you know, as far as the consistency, um, we're a vertically integrated company. Mm-hmm. Right? So we control every single part of our operation from.
The seed that we select choose to use for our farms. Uh, we grow on our farms. So there's a lot of control right. In how we do things and how, uh, things are executed throughout the whole process from the beginning mm-hmm. To the end. Yeah. That gives us a tremendous amount of, uh, flexibility. It, um, it allows us to maintain certain standards that we have set internally that, uh, might not be possible if we were doing it a different way.
So, you know, there's a lot of things Sure. That go into, you know, when you open up a box of cigars and you, and you pick up, up a drone. Yeah. There's a lot of [01:02:00] reasons why hopefully that cigar is as excellent as you expect it to be. Yeah. And there's not one specific thing, and I've said it before. The greatest asset that we have is our people.
We have tremendous people working with us that have been with us for years, 40, 50. You know, we have employees that have been with us for 50 years. That's incredible. That's amazing. That's amazing. And we have multiple generations of family members that are working right now with us. I mean, on the,
Senator: on the multiple generations.
I think the best example of this, you were telling us with the 60th, the roller, his mother was one of your original rollers.
Jorge Padrón: Yes. Uh, the roller, well, that's just one example, but Yes. Uh, his mother was one of my dad's original four employees. Wow. Wow. Incredible. So, I mean, listen, it's so that
Bam Bam: lineage is probably the, the primary reason in how you're creating consistency.
'cause you train someone, they're with you for 40, 50 years. They have the system in place, they know what to what you're expecting. I. That's gotta be the [01:03:00] primary ingredient I'm asking. Well, and they're
Jorge Padrón: taken care of. It's, it's, of course, it's part of, it's part of it. A big part of it. New cars into all the driveways, you know, it's, it's a big, it's a big part of it.
There's, there's, uh, there's also, obviously you can underestimate the importance of the, of, of having control, like from a, from a business perspective. Mm-hmm. Strategically sure. Of how you're gonna do things so that you're not trying to extend yourself, overextend yourself. And how to not fall into the pitfalls that maybe other companies may fall in, in, in many different industries where they establish some success and they feel that they can scale that success to higher levels and then it doesn't work.
That's a great point. Yep. And that's, um, I think they try to do too much. They try to do too much. And you gotta know, like, I know enough to know that this shit ain't easy. Mm-hmm. And you know, you just can't like, ramp up. Production. Right. You know, quickly. It has to go slowly. You [01:04:00] have to really be very methodical of how you do it.
And, and you know, we're not, we make one brand, we make paon. Yeah. Have we been asked to make brands for other people? Absolutely. But is that something that I would like to get into at this moment? No, I can't, you know? Mm-hmm. Because I don't, I, I have enough things going on with my own Sure. Patron brand to not, and I don't, and I've been asked before, but I've been very honest with people.
I said, listen, I can't, I don't wanna end up, I, I appreciate my friends in this business, and I don't, if I commit to something, I wanna make sure that I'm gonna be able to come through a hundred percent. And right now I can't, I can't commit to something that, that I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to deliver.
And I'd rather just pass on that. Sure. And just keep doing my own thing. You know, in the future, who knows? But you know, right now, that's not something that I would be able to do.
Pagoda: The one thing I can assure you, and we've introduced Padrón to a lot of people. In fact, I was introduced to Padrón by this [01:05:00] group as well.
And, uh, the one thing I can assure you that your consistency is just way outta the world. It's off the charts. When you think of a consistency, we think of Paone.
Gizmo: Alright, we will go back to the second half of our Jorge Padrón interview live from PCA in a few minutes. But first boys, we have come now to the end of the second, third on the Padróne Family Reserve number 45 in Maduro. How's everybody feeling?
Chef Ricky: Really good.
Gizmo: I'm loving this cigar. It's delicious.
Chef Ricky: I'm not, the hazelnut has now transferred to a toasted hazelnut for me.
It's really creamy, delicious, delicate. I. Sometimes Padrón cigars and Nicaraguan cigars, but specifically Padrón kind of gets knocked for not being too complex. And I find in, in this cigar, this is very complex. It's so complex. So when I read reviews of it online and it talks about how linear it is and how it, you know, it's, it's not a complex cigar, I just completely disagree.[01:06:00]
Gizmo: This is a full flavor, full strength, excellent. Premium cigar. It
Senator: has
Gizmo: to
Senator: be due to the age
Bam Bam: of this thing.
Senator: Yeah. It's gotta be, I don't even think just that, I mean, half these reviews, when they say stuff like that with New World cigars, I feel like they're smoking it at too high of a humidity. And I think this is exactly the cigar where like, if you smoke this too quickly and it overheats, you're not gonna get the complexity of flavor that's in the cigar.
Correct?
Chef Ricky: No. To your point, it has, it, it's gotten better and it's because it's cooled off. Yeah. Yeah. So
Gizmo: how's everybody feeling about the lag of Owen's 16 years age pairing with this?
Bam Bam: Uh, I, I love it. I'm shocked that I'm saying it. Yeah. But I think it's, it's a fantastic pairing. Oh
Gizmo: yeah.
Bam Bam: Wow. I said that earlier.
No doubt.
Gizmo: I think it's a perfect scotch for the cigar. I agree. Agree. I agree. I think they are kind of in parallel, in oomph in, there's a little smokiness of course, in this peay scotch, and I think it really compliments the sweetness of the cigar, the complexity, the spiciness mm-hmm. [01:07:00] In some of those draws.
Yeah. And man, the retro hail after you take a, I know, a swig of the scotch is like heavenly.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Gizmo: heavenly. So boys, let's talk about the. Jorge Padrón interview. So we got into a lot of topics. I mean, like I said, it was kind of off the cuff. We didn't really lay out a lineup of things to talk about. It was kind of a spur of the moment.
Let's do it right now. And we ended up hitting so many awesome topics. Of course, starting off with the development of the 60th anniversary, crazy size, crazy shaped cigar that they purchased a 3D printer for, which was hilarious. Yeah. And uh, then he talked about the development of the number 35 in the 1926 series, which came out of him
Bam Bam: as he was driving to dinner.
Gizmo: Yeah, going to dinner. He was a prince.
Rooster: Yeah. In the car. Exactly. But he wanted something a little smaller, but they came out with a prototype, but it wasn't the right, the blend was good, but the, the ring gauge was smaller.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Rooster: And they went a little bit bigger on the ring gauge [01:08:00] and uh, had a home run with that.
Yeah, it's a great story. That's a delicious smoke too. Sure. 1935. Oh, great cigar. Great short
Senator: smoke. I was just thrilled to hear him talk about the intent behind it, because. I feel like we've all talked about what we love with that cigar, even though it's a little short smoke, you feel like. In your hand, you're smoking like a regular rib, boosto it.
It feels substantial. And that's my complaint with a lot of short smokes. Like when something is too small of a ring gauge and it's short to begin with, it feels so diminutive in your hand. You almost don't feel like it's a cigar. Feels like you're holding a cigarette sometimes and it
Rooster: burns hotter when smaller.
The ring gauge, the hotter the cigar, right? Yeah.
Bam Bam: But that little cigar will last you a good 40 minutes. Easy. Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo: And the flavor's so good. It's outrageous. Oh yeah. That's one of my favorite, actually, out of the 1926 probably.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Only bested by the 80th.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Agreed.
Gizmo: You know, I think the number 35 is a great short smoke,
Bam Bam: great end of evening smoke.
Yeah.
Gizmo: Yeah. And we did that one on one of the short spoke specials. Yes. Quite some time ago. So we'll talk about that rating in a little bit. Great car smoke. [01:09:00]
Bam Bam: You would know.
Gizmo: So before we jump back in, boys, let's talk a little bit about Laville and history. They have a pretty amazing history. Before they were a legal distillery, the site was used for illicit distilling.
Like much of is a distilling whiskey without paying tax was common on the island where remote geography and tight-knit communities made enforcement difficult. There were up to 10 illicit stills operating in the Lagavulin Bay area by the late 18th century. In 1816, a guy named John Johnston officially founded Lagavulin as a legal distillery.
And in the next year, Archibald Campbell established another nearby distillery. And those two operations were combined officially under the lag name setting the stage for the distillery. We know today the most transformative figure in lag v's history was a guy named Peter Mackey, who took control of the distillery in the late 19th century.
He was an ambitious and eccentric. Whiskey entrepreneur famously described as one third genius, one third mega [01:10:00] megalomaniac and one third eccentric. He created the Whitehorse blended whiskey brand with Lagavulin as its key malt component. Whitehorse became one of the more famous scotch blends of the earliest 20th century cementing log villain's importance in the blending world.
After Mackey's death in 1924, Lagavulin changed hands a bunch of times. It became part of the Distillers Company limited DCL, which later evolved into United Distillers, and now it is known as Diageo. By the mid 20th century, Lagavulin was mostly used in blends and was not widely bottled as a single malt.
However, a handful of official bottlings existed under the White Horse label, and now they are rare collectibles. In 1988, United Distillers launched the classic malts of Scotland campaign aimed at promoting single malts to a global audience. Lag of Owen was chosen as the Isla representative and the 16-year-old became its flagship expression.
Of course, it remains the [01:11:00] flagship today. So that's that on Lavo Boys. I love that history. The illicit distilling coming into being one of the standard single malt scotches out of Scotland. And now boys, it is time to go back into our Jorge Padrón interview, the second half, and we will come back to you at the end of the final third
Jorge Padrón: being in business, right? Like the, the greatest gift that we can get is loyalty of our customers. Mm-hmm. Right? That's kind of like what drives, right? Yeah. In any business, like what do, what does everybody fight for? They fight for. Loyal customers. I mean, that's really like the name of the game. If you're able to establish that, then you're winning.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Jorge Padrón: It doesn't matter how many cigars you make, it just, what's important is that people respect what you do and they appreciate what you do and, and, which is what I've told my family. I go, don't worry about the numbers, man. You know, don't worry about, don't worry about all the shit that's happening.
Just [01:12:00] focus on making a quality product. The rest will take care of itself. Mm-hmm. Yeah. If, is there a possibility that things and at any given time can go up or down? Yes. Sure. But you're, you have to be confident that what you're doing is the best you can and that it's a great product because there's always gonna be consumers that are gonna be able to distinguish between good and bad.
Yeah, absolutely. And what you want is for people to say, okay. I want a great cigar, I'm gonna smoke a Padrón. And that's kind of what's allowed us to, you know, to, to stay in the, in this position for 60 years. Mm-hmm. Right. That we're not, we're not a company that's looking at the numbers per se, but more on the quality.
Quality. And my dad was very, very clear in a statement that he made to me in 1994, and he actually engraved a plaque with it. That I thought was ridiculous to bring that, but it, 'cause it didn't make sense to me in, in, in Spanish. It sounds a lot better than it does in English, but it makes it, it translates fine, but it doesn't sound the same.
It says [01:13:00] quality and not quantity. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. In Spanish it has a lot more. A lot more, yeah. In English it sounds like. Okay. It's kind of like, it makes sense, but I'm like, dad, that, that just doesn't sound, I know it sounds great in Spanish, but it doesn't sound that great in English. But we still use it and I still use it all the time because that's great.
You know, it's, it's part of who we are.
Senator: Uh, I'd love to talk a little bit about Nicaragua. I think you mentioned you've already been there six times or more this year. We're only here in April a couple years ago. I know you guys acquired, uh, another farm out there. Um, what, where do you see that fitting in, in kinda the future in terms of production and, you know, your ability to continue to, to grow and, and scale?
You know, how much product you're able to
Jorge Padrón: provide. I mean, the, the most important thing that we have as a company is our raw material. You know, if you don't have raw material, you're dead in the water. So it was an important acquisition for us to give us flexibility. It doesn't necessarily mean that it was purchased with the [01:14:00] intention of, you know, blowing this thing up and making, you know, whatever, you know, increasing production by 30%.
That wasn't the, the, the reason for buying that farm was more strategic in the sense of like, I. Just to have a, you know, options. Right? It gives us the ability to, to make a lot of important decisions and to not be feeling that you're, that you're limited in any way. It allows us to decide one year, okay, we need more tobacco, let's plant every farm we have.
Mm-hmm. And do it. Or if we find one year, okay, we, we have enough raw material, let's let a couple of the farms rest and we fo you know, so it just kind of, it's kind of like, I dunno how to That's great. Very smart. It's kind like, it's like insurance. Yeah, it is. Exactly. It is. And you know, I, I didn't buy that farm necessarily for me.
I bought it for my family for the future because, you know, Nicaragua, we, we obviously [01:15:00] we were one, the first, one of the first companies in Nicaragua. And, um, we've always known, my dad was very, very clear from day one. Of what Nicaragua was in terms of tobacco? There was no, I mean, he, he was there before anyone else.
Mm-hmm. And I think if you speak to a lot of the people in Nicaragua, they will tell you that Baron was the one that, you know, really pushed and, uh, created an, I mean, I, I don't want to say that we take credit a hundred percent for that, but, but definitely we were a big part of that process and, you know, people understanding the type of quality tobacco that there is in Nicaragua and how it could be blended.
He was a pioneer and he was, he had the vision, he had the foresight to, to recognize that when a lot of people didn't, I'll never forget my first trade show in 1993. Um, so my dad was obviously from Cuba. He was born on a tobacco [01:16:00] farm. My dad knew everything about tobacco. He was a farmer. He also was a cigar smoker.
Okay. And when he was, when he came to the US there were a lot of Cubans coming to Miami immigrating. And, uh, he immediately realized that there was gonna be a, a, a need for great cigars because the Cubans that were coming at the, in those days were big, big cigar smokers. I mean, they smoke cigars unlike even people today.
They, I mean, I, I witnessed that firsthand. Sure. They started when they were toddlers. Yeah. And, and, and the volume, they were volume smokers. Oh yeah. These people smoke cigars and they, they were demanding. They, they weren't like, sounds familiar.
Pagoda: We all may have Cuban jeans out here.
Jorge Padrón: Yeah. In their case it was quality and quantity.
Exactly. It's not like they're smoking shit. They know what shit, that's how mantra. They're not smoking shit. Right. They're, they're smoking great cigars. So he, he said, you know what, [01:17:00] there's a need here for this and I'm gonna. I want, you know, that's, that's what I wanna do. And that's how Padrón was started.
Right. So this, this happened in 1964. By the time I came around 1990, uh, you know, the company was already 27 years old and we were, you know, selling all of our cigars in Miami. And we were selling, at the time, the sales had dropped a bit because of things that had happened in Nicaragua and the embargo.
But in 1985, my dad reached a number of 6 million cigars a year sold in Miami. Wow. Wow. Just in one area. Wow. Just in one. Wow. Wow. Okay. So, you know, it just gives you an idea of the amount of consumption by these Cubans that were there. That's incredible. Yeah. And it, nothing outside of Miami, I mean maybe like 5%, you know?
Wow. Very little. Wow. Or less than five. For me it was like an indication, like saying, damn, these guys who know who have been smoking cigars their entire [01:18:00] lives. Have smoked poone, they could have smoked other cigars. Sure. But they smoked poone. Sure, yeah. Why do they smoke Patron drone? Because it's a great damn cigar.
Mm. It didn't matter that it wasn't available nationally, but for them, like that's like really the trial by fire, right? Like if those guys, if the Cuban community accepts what you're making, that means you're doing something right. That's true. So that was kind of what led me to get into the business and say, shit, we've got a great fucking brand.
Yeah. I mean this, this is unbelievable. We haven't even, my dad hasn't even touched any market outside of here, except for a few customers that we had. So I went to my first trade show in 93, and the number one comment that I got from retailers at in, in that trade show was that our cigars were too strong.
Okay. At that time was different than now. Now people's pallets have ER have developed and there's a lot more information and people are willing to try a lot of new things and it's changed. But in those days. What was primarily sold in the US were very light [01:19:00] cigars. Mm-hmm. You know, Connecticut shade, you know, green Candela wrappers.
I'm not saying there weren't so smokers for heavier cigars, but the majority, the vast majority were lighter cigars. Mm. So we're at the trade show when everybody's telling me the cigars too strong and they, they don't have customers for it. I'm like, shit, this is crazy. I mean, these people don't know how to smoke cigars.
I'm thinking to myself, right, that's true. But I told my dad, I got back to Miami. I was like, dad, you know, we, we, we had a, a lot of people tell us that the cigar was too strong and that, that we would, we should make something milder. My dad turns to me and says, or Jorge, you know what? Be calm, be patient.
This will change. People will smoke stronger cigars. It, it's gonna happen naturally. Wow. Because you can't, those cigars don't, those cigars don't taste like anything. And our cigars taste like they should taste. So we're like, he was so confident he was ahead of the game. He's like, I know that what I'm doing is what I need to do.
Don't, don't fuck with me here. Don't, don't try to invent for me to change what I'm doing. I've already sold 60 million cigars since I [01:20:00] started this company. I, I know what I'm doing. And, and basically he just told me, just calm down. And you know what? He was a hundred percent right. Wow. Just little by little.
You know, people started tasting the cigar, people's pallets developed. And look where we are now. You now nicaragua's the number one exporter of premium cigars. And um, you know, obviously, you know, the Padrón brand has, you know, taken off, you know, to levels that are amazing. Um, but, but also the consumers have changed as well.
Sure. And not changed in the sense of there was always great cigar smokers, always, but the types of products that are being consumed, that has changed and that has changed drastically since I started. Hmm. So you,
Senator: you mentioned Nicaragua being the top exporter. How concerned are you about tariffs? I know PCA, this has been a big focus, this issue.
I'm just curious, you know, conversations you've had with other manufacturers, even in Nicaragua who would all be impacted by this. [01:21:00] How much that's gonna, uh, you know, factor into your calculus?
Jorge Padrón: Listen, uh, the tariffs are. Another notch in our belt, man, you know, this company has withstood. I can't even tell you how many things we've gone through.
This is just another thing, man. We'll figure it out. You know, we can't go crazy. Um, time will tell how it plays out. Mm-hmm. We'll do whatever we have to do to, to preserve the integrity of the company, to preserve the integrity of the brand, to preserve our customers. So it's not that complicated, you know, once you know where you want to go, you just gotta get it done.
Yeah. And, uh, honestly, I haven't lost sleep over the tariffs. I mean, is it concern yet? Does it concern, yes. Obviously you, right. Sure. You can't disregard the, the fact that they're there and that they can affect, but those are problems like anyone has in any business, and you just gotta face it and figure out how the best way to solve it is.
Mm-hmm. But you know, there's like [01:22:00] that, there's been countless things that have happened right in the cigar industry, and we always kind of figure out a way to get through it. So, you know, that's, I imagine it also
Senator: helps the range that you have in the line at so many different price points to make that a little easier for the consumer if that does become impact.
Yeah,
Jorge Padrón: we've been through many different situations. Uh, obviously covid, you know, you, I mean, damn, you can go down the list of things. Yeah. The, you know, s chip in the, in 2007, uh, you know, you had the recession of the, you know, 2009, you know, eight. Mm-hmm. Through 10. Those were critical times. And uh, again, as long as there's people out there that understand quality and, and we continue to produce quality products, we'll be fine.
Bam Bam: Regarding, regarding sales, we know you have great distribution here nationally. I. Do you sell your products worldwide?
Jorge Padrón: I mean, we sell in a lot of different countries. Uh, we, we certainly have not tapped into the international sales. Mm-hmm. As, as, [01:23:00] as deeply as I feel we could. Is that an objective? I mean, it's definitely an objective, but you know, it also has to come, you have to take it into consideration with our production.
Sure. You know, as it is, it's complicated to fulfill the That's true sales, the demands of the US market alone. Sure. And I've always tried to preserve, you know, I don't wanna, I don't wanna sacrifice what we've done here. Uh, it goes back to
Bam Bam: not wanting to do too much.
Jorge Padrón: Yeah. Yeah. And you gotta, you know, you, you work so hard to build things.
You don't want to make a decision that could hurt anything you've done. Mm-hmm. Getting to a certain point. Yeah. And, um, you know, in order for us to, to penetrate the international markets, I would have to take away product from the US market. Sure. And I'm not, no, we don't want that. No, I'm not sure. Yeah.
Well said. We don't, yeah. I'm not sure I wanna do that right now. You know, so
Senator: I will say though, as an aspiration, I, I do hope to see a day where I [01:24:00] see more Padrón labels in other international markets. Yes. And I say that because the price of Cuban cigars has increased and accelerated at such a ridiculous rate.
Mm-hmm. Where you used to be able to buy a $10 cigar and they're paying $40 for that same cigar. And I think it's driven a lot more demand for new world cigars and New World Tobacco. And I think there's such an opportunity in the future for people in other countries Oh yeah. To be able to have that first Padrón experience like we've been so fortunate to have in the US market.
So I do hope for others that Correct. That becomes part of the picture. Yeah. We rely on the Padrón brand. Tremendously because of the cost of Cuban cigars and accessibility and,
Jorge Padrón: and consistency. Correct. Correct. We gotta be patient, you know, I'm very confident in our product. I think we can compete at any, in any market.
Okay. I am not in the least bit concerned about that. Mm-hmm. It's just a matter of execution from, from a distribution standpoint as well as from a production standpoint. Right. And that, that takes time. We [01:25:00] were, we've worked very hard, you know, since I started selling at these trade shows in the last, you know, so what, what was it?
93. So it's been a shit ton of years. Uh, building relationships with customers and, um, you know, there's only so much I can do now. Maybe that's something that the next generation can focus on, you know, developing that business. So there's always, you just gotta, you can't lose your focus, you know what I mean?
For sure. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta make sure that. When you decide to go in those di in that direction, you need to make sure that you can, you can deliver, well close a circle, you know, not leave anything open.
Senator: We'll help with the international distribution. I feel like when we go, when we go to Havana, that we'll bring Padrón.
Oh yeah. We hand them out. Vice versa. The factory people, people in Havana, that's
Jorge Padrón: true. That know about cigars, know patron, patron drone and they respect us. Oh yeah. That's correct. That's correct. I don't think there's any question about that. Definitely. So, I mean, I think it's hard to [01:26:00] ignore a product like ours in the sense of that people understand that we're, we're very serious about what we do.
Gizmo: Yep.
Jorge Padrón: I'm not saying everything's a hundred percent perfect, but you know, we definitely try to and strive for that perfection. Yeah. Every time. And
Bam Bam: but also the accessibility and affordability across your portfolio. We were talking about this earlier, you know, I'm gonna go back to the Padro 2000 'cause we reviewed that.
We love that cigar. We gave that over an eight rating. Extraordinarily affordable. So reliable and delicious. It's a Padrón. Yeah, it's got Padrón on it, man. There, there you go. Correct, correct.
Gizmo: So we know that your vision is not scale, your vision is family focus, consistency. So with that being said, what, what do the next few years look like for Padrón?
What, what does the, what does the next generation looking like? What, what are you setting up over the next
Jorge Padrón: few years? I mean, there's a, there's so many things that we can do and you know, right now we're in that process where we're, we're trying to figure some things out. I, I take a lot of time in deciding things sometimes, [01:27:00] especially when it comes to things like this that are, that could greatly affect the trajectory of the company.
So, you know, um, I like to think about things very carefully because I. The decisions that I make could greatly impact the future. So there's no rush. You know what I mean? Sure. If we're gonna make a, if we're gonna take a step, believe me, I have thought that thing through it's exhaustion and it's involved a few 3D printer.
My buddies tell me that I have to go through my flogging stage, which to make any decision is at least 30 days of Flo self flogging like mental, like mental ping pong. Like, okay, this, and this could happen and this could happen and this could happen. So maybe I overthink things sometimes, but, you know, that's just my personality.
It makes sense, makes sense. And my sense, my wife tells me at all the time, man, you all were always worried. I'm like, I don't know. It's just the way I'm wired, you know? So I always told my dad, don't worry, I'm never gonna fuck it up. And I, and, and that stays with me. Yeah. Like I say it jokingly, 'cause you know, [01:28:00] obviously I know I would never do that, but it's a big responsibility.
Yeah. It, it is a big responsibility. And, uh, it's not, there's a lot of factors that go into that responsibility. Sure. It's not just running the company, but it's also setting a good example for the family. Mm-hmm. And kind of, um, not teaching them, but showing them that decisions that affect the company have to be delivered very, you know, patiently.
You can't just rush to any decision because it could affect all of them and it could affect all the work that's been done in the past, so there's no rush. You know, everybody's gotta just take a step back. Mm-hmm.
Pagoda: Think it through. Enjoy the moment. Like a good cigar. Yeah. Yeah. Take your time.
Jorge Padrón: Take your time.
Smoke a few cigar. A few hundred cigars. Do some flogging. Yeah, do some flogging. Now I just, uh, a, a good friend of mine. His son is a photographer and he went to Africa and he took some pictures of these lions. So [01:29:00] I bought a picture of one of the pho, you know, he's a great photographer, so I bought one of his photography and it's of a lion and I'm gonna put it in front of my desk at the office.
'cause I always joke with my buddies that I feel like a lion is chasing me. So now I'm like, I'm gonna be looking at that fucking line all the time. You're not gonna fucking catch me, buddy.
Bam Bam: I love it.
Gizmo: I guess the next step here is the milestone line that's gonna start celebrating your birthdays. Your,
Jorge Padrón: oh yeah.
I would never do that. Uh, you know, that's funny. 'cause I'm not, that's not, that's not something that I would probably do. And somebody has asked, asked me about that recently. I'm like, look, you know, I'm happy where I'm at. Uh, I know what I've brought to the table. Here I am. I'm very honored that, uh, and I feel really, really good about what I've done and what I've contributed here.
And those people that are in the industry know what I've done. I don't need. I don't need anybody to tell me what I've done. I know what I've done, and I know that I've been a part of [01:30:00] incredible product development, uh, that, that, that I think is at the pinnacle of what products like ours should be. And I'm, I'm honored to be a part of that.
I'm honored that my dad was around as long as he was to, to show us, I'm honored to be a part of this family, that they all pushing in the same direction. And those things are, are things that, um, that that's what makes me happy. Right. I. To put a cigar with my name on it and all that shit. I mean, I don't need to do that.
I mean, I've, if they, if if I die one day and they wanna come outta a cigar, that's great. Them do it after you're gone. But like my dad, you know, my dad, I have a lot of cigars in his honor. Yeah. Everything is in his honor. I still do things in his honor. Um, but my dad never asked me to do those things, you know what I mean?
He never once said to me, Hey, why don't you launch the 1926 series in honor of my 75th birthday? I didn't. I was the one that went to him. I'm like, listen, we [01:31:00] need to do this. This is, we need a cigar that is heavier because the market is going in this direction. Yeah. So I developed the 1926, obviously with his approval.
Right. But. It's not like he came to me and said, why don't you call it the 1926? It's my birthday. No, that bullshit. My dad wasn't into that crap. You know? Yeah. And I'm not either, you know? Yeah. But I know, you know, so we'll push your son when we see it. Correct. Maybe, maybe we'll tell him to do it. Maybe after I die.
That don't happen. I don't need to see it. For me, it's, I, I know what I've done.
Gizmo: Well, we really appreciate you sitting down with us. It's been a real honor speaking with you. We love Padrón cigars. We love what you do. We love your legacy, the family story. We tell it every time we smoke one of your cigars.
Oh yeah. I remember the first time one of the other guys who's not with us, rooster and I, we came to Miami. Alfonso brought us in the back. We met you and I couldn't believe that your desk is sat right in the middle of the, of the room where all the cigars are packed in the boxes, and I was totally blown away.
There's no C-suite, there's no big glass, you know? [01:32:00] Don't, you know, nobody gets to see the wizard. I was, did you see
Bam Bam: the lion? I, I the
Jorge Padrón: lion? Not yet. I actually, I actually have an office and I've never, in 20 years, 21 years that we've been in that office, I don't think I've, I've spent more than I, I just never used that office.
I never, never used it. I've never, I like to be in the middle of the
Gizmo: That's great. You know? Yeah. And every time we smoke a cigar, I think we can ex we experience that. Absolutely. That's a great experience. That,
Jorge Padrón: that's, that's an honor for me.
Gizmo: That's, that's what makes me happy. Yeah. Well, we really appreciate your time and, and thank you so much.
And, uh, thank you guys. We look forward to, uh, seeing you next time. Alright, thanks you. Thanks, Jorge. Thank you very much. Thanks, Jorge.
All right. Again, a very special thanks to Jorge Padrón for taking the time to sit down with us at PCA Boys. What an awesome interview that was. Yeah, it was incredible. I can't wait to do it again in Miami next time. Maybe Nicaragua. We talked to Jorge about that, but, uh, really a, a ton of insight he really opened up.
Yeah. He seemed very, very comfortable [01:33:00] in the conversation with us. I, I was really, really happy with, uh, and very honest, I must say, very honest,
Bam Bam: you know, before we had a chance to sit down with him, I was kind of in awe of him. Right. But he's like one of the guys at the table. A great conversation, very comfortable, like you said.
Um, I could have a beer with him and a cigar anytime.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I love his approachability, his humility, but his confidence behind all of it, of course. Just the way, the way he delivered everything and yeah, just, you could tell he's, he's proud of the brand. He's proud of the legacy he's creating that his dad created, and it's passed on to him.
He's
Senator: also so humble.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Senator: I, I think the thing that's most impressive to me about him, like the word discipline comes to mind when I think of Jorge Padrón. You know, you talk to anybody in business, anybody that has a, you know, successful business like his, and the first thing they wanna talk about is these grand plans.
They have to expand and grow and all of these things. He's gotta be one of the few guys that sits there and says, we have an unbelievable thing. My job is [01:34:00] not to mess that up. And when and as we're growing, we're doing it super intentionally and carefully so that we never compromise the quality and the consistency.
And I think that's really impressive. 'cause you know, we talk about so many new world brands that. Maybe at one point we liked made some good stuff and as they've grown, things have changed. And I think he's very aware of that and wants to make sure that that's never the case with Pedro Drone. So a world of respect.
'cause it's easy to trade on a great brand and just keep on growing and expanding and sacrificing quality, cutting corners here and there to make more money. And he has no interest in any of that? That's correct. I think
Rooster: his father instilled that into, it's like ingrained in the family that, you know, he even mentions it, uh, quality over quantity.
Mm-hmm.
Bam Bam: Yeah, his father's definitely the kind of guy was the kind of guy that if I'm doing something right, I'm not gonna change it. All the recommendations that Jorge had as he was coming up in the business, let's change the, the band design on the thousand series. Let's do this, let's do [01:35:00] that. His father was like, you know, we're doing it right, right.
We can keep it the way it is.
Rooster: And how many times he's being approached to roll cigars and blend cigars for other other companies. And he is like, I barely have time to, you know, concentrate on my own brand, that I'm not gonna do that because I'm not gonna go like a half-assed way of doing some other brand.
Mm-hmm.
Senator: And unlike most in the industry that consider themselves marketers, like you can tell, and he, even in the interview, there's an aversion to that word marketing. I mean, they're one of the only brands that has no sales reps. That's
Bam Bam: right.
Senator: You don't see a ton of Padrón related marketing. And I think, um, it's refreshing to see someone so focused on the product more than just the marketing, the brand, and the result speaks for itself.
Yeah.
Gizmo: It's like, do less but do it. Right. And how much of it is so rooted in the family? Correct. The people who were working there, most of them are family members. His kids the name, he's so passionate and proud of the name. And even when we asked him like, Hey, you know, kind of [01:36:00] jokingly like, Hey, when's the Jorge Padrón celebratory line coming out?
He is like, forget that. Let them do that when I'm dead. I know what I've done. And I loved how he said that. I know what I've done and what I've contributed here. And he is very proud of that. Yeah. Rightfully, you know, so, uh, I again, what a great conversation. I'm so glad we got to sit down with him. And, uh, I hope, uh, our lizard listeners have enjoyed our conversation with Jorge Padrón.
So, boys, we're coming to the end of our evening now with the 16 years age Laville and single Malt Scotch and the Padrón family reserve number 45 in Maduro. What's everybody thinking? It's so good, so smooth, so complex,
Rooster: delicious.
Grinder: There's, there's no harshness in this last third. It's, it's, it's surprising, isn't it?
It's, yeah. Well it's, it is a patron drone that black cherry is more resounding. Yeah, resounding rather. Yeah. It's definitely there. It's, it's, and I just did a retro and it was just so crisp,
Bam Bam: you know, I don't remember it being so smooth. So toward the end of this cigar [01:37:00] years ago when I smoked this, so this is a unique experience for me tonight.
Grinder: Yeah.
Bam Bam: The age has done it well. I think Somo
Gizmo: and I think the pairing, again, going back to the Lagavulin, I've enjoyed every single sip. That's your second glass of this, of this log one tonight. I didn't know you were counting
Bam Bam: back. Oh, I am,
Gizmo: but I, I, I just think it's a perfect pairing for a family reserve cigar.
I don't know. Now, and here's my question for the room before we get into our ratings. Is this a, uh, is this a scotch that you would pair with. Honduran cigars, Dominican cigars, Cuban cigars, or even some of the lighter Nicaraguan cigars. Are you reaching for this outside of cigars that perform like this?
Bam Bam: I don't think I'd smoke a Cuban cigar with this.
That's me personally.
Gizmo: Maybe the late hour.
Bam Bam: Uh, that's a new world. Yeah. New world. Yeah. And that's a stronger
Grinder: Dominican. I I think there's enough sweetness on the finish after you've, you've had an, had a few, a
Bam Bam: pallet adjustment.
Grinder: Yeah, yeah, yeah. A few, a few swigs of it. Maybe. There's, there's a lot of flavor in [01:38:00] there.
A lot of caramel. It's true. Uh, that really comes to, you know, it's, it's got that sweet, like viscosity. Uh, I think it, I think it could, you know, I think it, there were, I, I think it would
Bam Bam: be a good test. For a Cuban, there are probably three Cuban cigars that I may have with this. Definitely the
Rooster: Ramon,
Bam Bam: uh, the Ramon Alon specially selected, and the also the, um, the Parus number one.
The Maduro. The Maduro. You, I don't have that with this. I'll
Grinder: tell you what though. I've, I've drunk enough of this scotch with lots of cigars. Oh, we know. Like, you know, uh, I'm, I'm, and I've never had a bad glass or pairing with it. So there
Rooster: is a Romeo cigar. I think it's the white Churchill that you do get a black cherry note on that.
I wonder if this Yeah. Would be complimentary. I think this would overpower that cigar personally. I, I do too. I agree.
Bam Bam: I would also do the
Senator: E two with this thing. Possibly the part of your C too. Yes. Yeah. I also think any Cuban that has a bit of earthiness in it with like the peat that you get in the scotch would pair really well true.
Like, um. [01:39:00] Poor Laga, I feel like has like an earthy note in it. What's the other one you like? That there's the number one and the number two? Uh, Juan Lopez. I feel like some of those a little, little bit of an earthy note. Oh, that's a good,
Bam Bam: the JL one I would do with this. Not the two, but did one.
Gizmo: Yeah. So what about Hondura cigars, Dominican cigars and lighter Nicaragua cigars?
What are those kind of fall in line with pairing with the log balloon?
Senator: I'll say on Dominican cigars, I think most Dominican cigars would actually pair well with this.
Chef Ricky: I think the aging room, the Quatro Exce would go well with this, with this scotch. It smokes somewhat like a Padrón. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. So I think that would do well.
I think the partis Maduro number one is a great call off for this. I agree.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I would not do the um, Sonata with this cigar. No. I disagree. I think the sonata
Senator: for sure, there's an earthiness in the sonata.
Gizmo: There's a little spice in that aging room sonata for me that I think would do very well with this.
Really? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think
Senator: that, to me, the only cigars, I would not necessarily pair with this, anything mild and anything that is like overly sweet and creamy, I'm not sure [01:40:00] would pair well with this. Like that's where you would actually want like a sweeter single malt than you would something that's got more pea True.
But anything else I feel like would pair great. Yeah. Like the
Rooster: dunbarton creme brulee would not do well. Oh hell no. No, definitely not.
Bam Bam: Definitely not. You wanna balance it, right? Right.
Gizmo: So I just put my cigar down. My fingers were absolutely burning. I'm actually still feeling it on. This is a delicious, my middle finger here.
Cigar tonight. What a great cigar tonight. Yeah. So boys, it's time now to move into the formal liquor rating tonight on this 16 years aged laville and single malt scotch.
Bam Bam: Bam. Bam, you're up. So I have definitively, I've hated this, this scotch, but tonight I haven't had this in years. I gotta give it an eight.
I, I think after the fourth or fifth sip, and I've been taking very small measured sips throughout this, this, this night. And it got, like Grinder said, the vanilla came out, creaminess came out. It was quite a nice experience. Eight.
Gizmo: All right. Chef Ricky.
Chef Ricky: Yeah, I'm right there at an eight with them. I don't have a lot [01:41:00] of experience with this.
I do look forward to diving deeper into scotch and p or scotch is like this one. Uh, initially I think it was a little bit much for me, the, the first two sips, if you will, uh, took some adjusting. And then, um, around the third and fourth sip I started getting, you know, I had noticed the viscosity of the spirit.
It was great. Uh, and I started getting some of those sweeter creamier notes in the scotch. Am I crazy
Bam Bam: by saying that the, for me, the edness dissipated? I haven't really noticed it. Yeah. After a while,
Chef Ricky: after the first couple sips it, you know, the, for me it's the first couple sips on the finish. It was a little, yeah.
It
Bam Bam: became a lovely, lovely drink.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Gizmo: All right. Grinder, your first rating back after four months? I'm at 10. Obviously I'm a
Grinder: 10. Obviously I'm a 10. This is my favorite. Skew high tonight. It's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna go well with anything I smoke. Full stop. Nothing else to say.
Rooster: Even the last ca. Yeah.
Gizmo: So for me it's a nine.
I really enjoyed this scotch tonight. I wish I had this in my bar. I just don't like, I, I was envious when Senator said that [01:42:00] I just hadn't been reaching for this. I hadn't been drinking it. I hadn't been pairing it, but I really enjoyed it. I, I think this is a big turnaround.
Senator: Big turnaround. Oh, you did call this years ago gasoline.
Gasoline, correct? Yes. To which Grinder responded. You have a primitive pallet. Well, that's where it all started. And Bo Low. Have the
Gizmo: tables have turned? Yes, they have.
Bam Bam: He's evolved. He wears button shirts. Now
Gizmo: I, accountability hour. I, I really enjoyed this. I thought it was a perfect pairing for this cigar tonight.
A perfect compliment for the evening. I can't wait to, uh, have more of it. I will definitely be buying a bottle for my bar, but definitely a nine. I'm very happy with it tonight.
Senator: Senator. I'm also at a nine. I've always enjoyed lag, and I think for me, you know, of the scotches that are more pea forward, this to me has always been like the gold standard.
Gizmo: Mm.
Senator: It's not, it's, it's very present, you know, it's there. Oh yeah. But it's balanced in a way that you still get some of the sweet notes that I think just make it a complex spirit. Um, you know, [01:43:00] for someone who can't handle any peat, I understand why this would be, you know, hard for them to drink. I always use lable and as the example of when I can't smoke a cigar and I want something smoky, I reach for lable and, you know, Thanksgiving if I like, am itching to hopefully slip out for a cigar and I can't quite yet.
Perfect after dinner drink for me is the bottle of this. So, um, I just think there's a lot of utility. I think we all talked about so many different cigars that this would pair well with. Mm-hmm. So it's definitely versatile. Um, it's a, it's a strong nine. I mean, for me it's definitely seasonal though I think I disagree with that.
I could drink, bring around summer. I disagree. I could drink this year round. I don't think, you know that, I don't know the, the merit that I give, this is like for how flavorful it is. It doesn't feel heavy.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm.
Senator: You know, it's not like, you know, some even sweeter scotches that you have that. Have 20 years of age, they're really full and intense.
Um, and some even can be [01:44:00] a, a little high in terms of the alcohol content. I don't think this is super hot. Um, I don't find it to be heavy. So, uh, the only reason that for me, you know, this or, or really probably any peat forward scotch won't be a 10, is I don't ever seek like an aggressive amount of Pete.
So for me, I think like I kind of have a ceiling at a nine where like my ideal perfect 10 scotch is gonna have a bit less Pete than this has. Like a ker maybe, for sure. Yeah. But for what it is trying to do, to me, there's really nothing better. Mm.
Gizmo: All right. Boys that puts the formal liquoring tonight on the log in 16 years age.
Single malt scotch at an 8.8. Nice score. Great rating.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Gizmo: great rating. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, we did drink this on the podcast on episode nine. We did not review it, so this is technically the first lable and entry in the formal liquoring guide. And uh, it definitely makes me want to explore some of the other lable and options that are out there.
Senator: Well, yeah, I was gonna say, we, we, we [01:45:00] definitely need to do the 11 year that they came out with. I was very shocked because, I mean, for as long as I can remember, I, I knew nothing other than lable in 16. I, I don't know that they've even made very much else. And now they've started with these lower age statements and I'm just curious how much of a departure, you know, it is from what we're used to.
So, uh, I would love, at some point we've gotta do 'em. There might even be an eight year. They've got like more, there's an eight. Yeah.
Gizmo: I saw today when I picked up this bottle. They have Distillers edition as well, so I'm sure that is a little bit, uh,
Bam Bam: that's the mechanics, uh, edition for the carburetor cleaner.
Holy moly. I can't imagine.
Gizmo: All right boys, it's time now to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the Padrón Family Reserve number 45 in Maduro Rooster, Europe. So
Rooster: I have always loved the family reserve line. One of my favorite family reserve cigars is the 85th. I really like that this cigar is delicious.
It started off [01:46:00] a little bit of a pepper, but, you know, but that subsided very quickly. The cigar gave me, you know, it was a, there was some cedar, there was creaminess, there was deep, dark espresso. Note. We got that black cherry sweetness, uh, about halfway, halfway down. Um, delicious smoke. Um, I'm gonna give it a nine.
It's a solid nine. I kind of keep going back to like, would I have this over an exclusive OI think this will have its moments, but I think I, I reach for the exclusive a lot more, but in the family reserve line, my favorite is still the 85th, so that's a 10 for me. This is just a step below that, but with this much age on this cigar, almost 15 years, I mean, it's between a nine and a 10, but I'm, I'm at, I'm at a solid nine.
Senator: All right, Senator, has anyone had this in natural? I've not, no. I'm very curious. The reason I say that, so I. As obsessed as I am with Padrón, I think everybody knows the family [01:47:00] reserve line. I smoke the least of, and because I'm normally a Maduro smoker, I find the Maduros in the Family Reserve line to be just super full, and I smoke a lot of cigars in a sitting.
So for me, you know, I mean, after having one of these I, I'd be fine without even another cigar, like mm-hmm. That's how full the experience is. And I'll give Grinder credit on this because. I never smoke natural in Padrón. I know Jorge Padrón prefers natural, uh, but Grinder, that family reserve that we did that, he likes it.
Natural. That was excellent. The F
Rooster: 50.
Senator: Yeah. 50th. The little hammer. The little hammer. Mm-hmm. That was excellent. Yeah. And I think for me, um, on this cigar, I'm at a nine. It is very complex. It's a delicious cigar. It is still just a little more than I would typically reach for if I'm gonna smoke a number of cigars in a sitting, which is almost every time.
And that's why I mentioned natural, because it's [01:48:00] like the one line where. Yeah, in the 64 line, you know, we all smoke. I think for the most part, Maduro, it's never overpowering. It's so smooth in the delivery of flavor. The 80th out of the 26th line seems so smooth in the delivery. And I, I almost think that in the family reserve line, you know, maybe my preference is actually natural, having that cigar that, that grinder likes.
There's another family reserve cigar that, uh, Jorge Padrón's is, hi, uh, his favorite. Which one is
Bam Bam: that?
Senator: Uh, I think
Bam Bam: he likes the 85th in natural.
Senator: 85th or 45th. Yeah, it might be this one. In natural, maybe. So like, I would like to try more of the family reserve line and natural 'cause. I think it'd be more my speed in terms of the body that I typically reach for.
But I take nothing away from this cigar. The experience, you know, from start to finish has been excellent. Um, and I think for anyone who loves a full-bodied cigar, I mean, you would be unbelievably satisfied with this smoke. So for me, a strong nine.
Gizmo: So I'm gonna be the outlier here so far, and I'm [01:49:00] gonna go with a 10 on this cigar.
I am shocked at how much I enjoyed the cigar tonight. I couldn't agree more. It was complex, it was creamy, it was satisfying. It was delicious. The retro hail was spectacular. Uh uh, I think at. 28 to $31 a cigar with 10 years age tobacco in it. I actually think there's a value there. You know, as we talk about that conversation, we had that lizard Marcus prompted earlier about buying boxes, aging stuff.
I mean, you compare this to some of the cigars that are coming out of Cuba, standard production, robust, those are in that same price range. These have 10 years of age prior to even being boxed. I just, I just think it was excellent. And, and the, the number one word that I said tonight for me is that it was effortless.
This was a cigar I didn't have to think about, worry about. I didn't reach for my lighter one time in the entire time we smoked a cigar. It was perfect. You kissed it and it put off a plume of fantastic smoke. And like I said, the retro hail was [01:50:00] just excellent. So I'm going with a 10 grinder.
Grinder: I'm at a nine, so I've had a 45 many times before and it's always been a little too strong.
I think tonight, um, the aging helped a lot for me. It was still a little too much. I like to retro almost every, every puff. It's nothing I can do in this. I can't, I still can't do it with, with the aging. And, um, you know, I, that doesn't take any of the merit away from the cigars. Still tremendous smoke, very smooth, tons of flavor construction, as always impeccable.
Uh, and the experience was wonderful. Uh, I think it's a nine is a solid score for me. And, and as you guys alluded to, uh, you know, I do, I do swim in the more natural lane than, than the Maduro Lane, especially with the family reserve. So that's quite the score for him. Yeah. Let me ask
Rooster: you a question about the natural.
Since you smoke a lot of natural pot rounds, do you find the wrapper to be a little bit thinner?
Grinder: I do. A little
Rooster: bit more fragile I do. For Than the mad wrap, right? [01:51:00] Absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
Grinder: But that, but I think that's expected. That's true. In every cigar. Yeah. Right.
Rooster: But how does it, I mean, the flavor wise, is it a little bit, I mean, you find it less, with less oomph, less strength.
Yeah. It's awful. I think
Grinder: I, I, I don't know if it's a nicotine thing or if, or if it's just the, the type of tobacco in it or something to do with the aging. I'm not sure. Um, but I do, I do feel it's a little harsher. It's a little more pepper. And as I mentioned it, for me, when I do a retro, it's prohibitive.
Rooster: Right. In the
Gizmo: Maduro,
Rooster: you're saying?
Grinder: Yeah, yeah,
Rooster: yeah. I'd be curious to smoke this in a natural for sure. But,
Grinder: but, but not in like the 64 line. Like I could retro the 64. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Maduro all day. Mm-hmm.
Chef Ricky: All right. Chef Ricky. Yeah, this cigar was, was delicious. Um, you know, to start, it was a little peppery for me.
You know, it, it, the retro was a little tough. Uh, but coming into the second third where you started getting some sweeter notes, some of [01:52:00] the hazelnut, the toasted anut, the black cherry, the cream, and the, the sort of darker coffee, dark chocolate notes started dissipating. That's where I really started to enjoy it, especially as it pair with the lag of o Uh, so for me it was a nine.
I really enjoyed the cigar. It wasn't effortless smoke. I don't think there was a touchup or relight anywhere in the room. Uh, and it gave us a solid two hours of smoke time. Uh, so yeah, I think great value there. Delicious flavor, complex smoke, fun to hold in the hand, and really, really a gentleman cigar.
Bam Bam: Bam. Bam. I'm at a 10. I'm in lockstep with you. You know, I had box and box of these when I was first starting out and I discovered the exclusive. I never really went back to the cigar, but I think we're learning that Pones have excellent aging potential, and I think this experience tonight was just so unique.
No harshness at all, and I've got three quarters of an inch of this thing left. It's just delicious. From beginning to end. I'm at 10.
Gizmo: All right, boys. That puts [01:53:00] the formal lizard rating tonight on the Padrón Family Reserve number 45 in Maduro at a 9.3. Excellent score. I think that's a perfect score for the cigars.
Fantastic in the experience we had tonight. Let's compare that to the other nine Pedros we've done on the podcast. We'll start at the very beginning. We did the 1964 Invo Maduro. On episode three, scored a 9.6. We did the 1964 torpedo in natural, which scored, which won Cigar of the year from cigar Aficionado.
On episode 17, scored an 8.7. We did the Padrón series. The number 2000 in Maduro on episode 25, scored a 7.5. Then we did our one year anniversary episode, the 1926 series, 80 years in Maduro. On episode 53, scored a perfect 10. Then on episode 100, we did the Padrón 50 years Maduro, the big hammer scored a 9.9.
Then we went into some family reserve. We did the number 85 in Maduro in episode 85, no [01:54:00] coincidence, scored a 9.2. Then the number 50 in natural, the little hammer on episode 152 scored a 9.5 on episode 161, the 1926 series, number 35 in Maduro, who we just heard Jorge talk about the development of that cigar scored a 9.0.
And then finally on episode 175, the most recent one we did, the 60th anniversary. In Maduro, which scored a perfect 10, which is the other cigar that Jorge talked about in the interview. Unbelievable. So I would say that, uh, Padrón's doing very well on the podcast.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And elsewhere
Gizmo: as far as performance goes, uh, it's been an excellent Marco and brand for us to smoke.
It's the highest rated
Rooster: Marco for us.
Gizmo: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So boys, what a great night tonight. What a great interview with Jorge. We have to thank Jorge Padrón again for coming on the pod and sitting down with us for almost an hour. It was a great conversation. We have to congratulate Lizard Marcus with his [01:55:00] awesome email.
He won Lizard of the Week. As we mentioned, anybody out there can win Lizard of the Week. All you have to do is send us an email or a comment. Whatever you choose, you can win. Of course, we have to thank our sponsor, our partner, Fabrica five, to help us make this all possible. And boys. We'll see everybody next week.
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's Lounge lizards, PO d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
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