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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 seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure 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 Roost Poobah, Senator Pagoda, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 89th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge, lizard plan meters here. Once a week, we are gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard raining.
We discuss the unique presentation of this cigar. We dive into the Viking history of our scotch pairing. We talk a little Yellowstone drama, and we answer a listener email about smoking while eating all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink. Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair 12 year aged Highland Park Scotch with the twa.
Hey, Tuxtla, Lomo Dedo. A ribo extra tonight [00:01:00] from twa. Hey, out of Nicaragua, it's the Tuxtla. Is that the cor uh, correct pronunciation here? Yes. It at me. It's, it's
**Poobah:** tux. It's a knockoff electric cigar. It's not a
**Gizmo:** Tesla, it's a Tla Tula. Tla tla. Really? So I said it right. Really? Look at me. All right. It's a 52 ring gauge cigar by five and one eight
**Poobah:** inches.
Lithium ion battery included.
**Rooster:** Just
**Gizmo:** put it on auto drive. Uh, it's, this is not a, not a piro. Correct. It's called the Lomo de Dedo. Uh, it is not a piro, what is it called? Gizmo Loma Dedo. Sarah the second time, uh, rapper is a Mexican Santa Andre's rapper, and the, uh, binder and filler are Nicaraguan. It was made in Nicaraguan, uh, Nicaragua by Pete Johnson, tahe.
And, uh, let's cut this thing boys. See, we're getting on the cold draw, [00:02:00] by the way, before we cut. Let's not forget. Automatic ate from Rooster. Pigtail. There's a pigtail, unbelievable. And a foot guy loves a pigtail and a closed foot. That is interesting.
**Bam Bam:** I will say it's, it's a good looking cigar. The foot is extraordinarily rustic.
Yeah. Which
**Gizmo:** is quite cool. I'll tell you, I don't love a closed foot. I, I, to me that's weird. It degrades, it degrades my experience going into the cigar. It just looks cheap to me. But the draw is very, very good. Yeah. It's wide open. I don't know why my eye, let, my eye kind of dictate that, that that sentiment.
I will
**Senator:** say though, it, the petite has adores from tahe that we like has a closed foot. It does. And I actually think because that wrapper is so flavorful, it enhances the experience. Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** It's
**Rooster:** uncircumcised.
**Bam Bam:** That's a when way of looking at it,
**Poobah:** the cold. It's, it's an an, it's an ant eater.
**Bam Bam:** I will say though, the, the cold draw, if you haven't tried it, it's really quite
**Gizmo:** good.
Yeah. Did you say
**Poobah:** it's an ant eater? An an eater. An an eater. It's like that guy when you're at the golf club and, [00:03:00] and, and, uh, and everybody's walking around and, and they're all circumcised and all of a sudden that one guy walks out and you're like, yo, we got a Annie over here.
**Bam Bam:** Ladies and gentlemen. Jesus.
Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you.
**Gizmo:** Turn the podcast off.
All right boys, let's like this thing, the Tais. Hey, Loma de Certo from Nicaragua. Again, it's a Ribo extra. With a closed foot. What's
**Bam Bam:** funky is as you light the foot, it lifts a bit from the heat. Yeah. It's kind of
**Gizmo:** weird. It's kind of odd. 52 ring gauge by five and an eight inches
**Bam Bam:** for the listener. I mean, I was getting a lot of really nice fruit notes on the cold draw.
It was very
**Gizmo:** nice. I wasn't getting too much. Mm-hmm. You know you're not a sophisticated guy.
**Bam Bam:** Ouch.
**Gizmo:** That hurt. All right.
**Bam Bam:** I'm sorry. It's hard to light this
**Gizmo:** thing.
**Senator:** It is. Yeah. My gut is
**Gizmo:** taking forever. Anybody have an extra butane? [00:04:00]
**Poobah:** I'm getting past the foreskin here. Yeah, you are
**Bam Bam:** gotta burn a hole in
**Gizmo:** my pants.
**Senator:** Wow. A lot of flavor.
**Bam Bam:** Jesus. Yeah. This is gonna be a shit kicker cigar.
**Gizmo:** Wow. Holy moly. Yeah, I
**Bam Bam:** haven't even gotten here yet. Don't ruin
**Gizmo:** experience. Wow. That's a lot of flavor. This
**Poobah:** is like back in the ranch.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. This is raw hide right here.
**Gizmo:** I think I'm seriously out of butane.
I'm not joking. I somehow have burned all of my butane. Once the,
**Rooster:** once the end lights, it goes right.
**Gizmo:** The ta Hey, Loma Toto. I think, I think if we,
**Poobah:** if we ride around the ridge and get, come on there flank and wrestle up
**Bam Bam:** some squirrels to
Jimmy
**Poobah:** Barbecue. Jimmy, you gotta, we're gonna go down, we're gonna go down the gully and, and we'll [00:05:00] come in on the rot flank and then tip over some cow later. You, you stay back and then, then we'll shoot 'em
**Gizmo:** up.
You hold them. I'll shoot them. Can I get some mesquite please? Oh gosh. My God. Smoke output is, they stole our horses. I mean, the room
**Poobah:** can't let him get away with that.
**Gizmo:** Oh God. What are you guys getting on the light? I. Oh, a lot of smoke. A lot of smoke, a lot of flavor. Wow. Full flavored, full
**Bam Bam:** flavor for sure.
This is a post dinner cigar, without
**Gizmo:** a doubt about it. Yeah,
**Rooster:** it's the initial ta. You get a lot of
**Gizmo:** spice in the beginning. You do.
**Bam Bam:** It's not, you know, it's pretty flavorful in a pretty good way if you're into a deep, deep, deep flavored cigar
**Gizmo:** and look at the wrapper. I mean, it's so dark and oily. Very chocolatey.
Yeah. Are you getting a little bit toothy? Are
**Senator:** [00:06:00] you getting like super dark chocolate? Like Exactly. Yes. Bitter. Bitter
**Gizmo:** chocolate. Chocolate. Yeah. Not almost like you, you almost like you ate the, the little chips that are for baking only. Yeah. Yes. It's like you ate them raw. Yeah. It's got that kind of bitterness to it.
This is, man, I read
**Rooster:** up a couple of reviews and every single person said, milk chocolate. No, I'm not getting milk chocolate. I'm getting like dark. I'm, I'm not even spice and chocolate
**Gizmo:** like spicy.
**Bam Bam:** It's early. It could settle into a milk chocolate. Who
**Senator:** knows? I'm not even getting normal dark chocolate. He's right though though.
This is like 99% dark, like baking chocolate. Super dark, bitter chocolate. Bitter c ch.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah, yeah. Which I don't love if I'm being honest. No.
**Bam Bam:** I think if you smoke this a little too quickly, it's gonna really, yeah.
**Gizmo:** This is gonna knock your, it's back up on you. Yeah.
**Rooster:** It's initially, it's, it's like
**Senator:** that, man, this is a lot for a cigar.
Wow.
**Bam Bam:** Mm-hmm.
**Pagoda:** The smokeout looks like a liga.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. No. This puts liga to shame as far as a flavor profile is concerned. I mean, the strength of it. O
**Gizmo:** Yep. The liga was sophisticated. This has a lot [00:07:00] of
**Senator:** oomph. Yeah. This just punches you right outta the gate. Right? Right
**Bam Bam:** in the
**Poobah:** face. It's gonna knock you around.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I gotta get off the ranch.
**Poobah:** Yep. A man cigar.
**Gizmo:** So this is called the sto, which in Spanish translates to pork loin. I guess this is the, We're smoking a pork.
**Poobah:** This talk to the creative department. Somebody like, you know, call in, you know, calling the staff for a little
**Bam Bam:** be a tough episode. Many. It's gonna be a tough one.
It's
**Gizmo:** gonna be little
**Poobah:** like, Hey guys, I got a little bit of a disconnect here. Just wanna, just wanna raise an issue. All right, so number one. Um, Tux, but it's, it doesn't roll off the tongue. It's not memorable. And nobody knows what it, what it, what it means. Um,
**Gizmo:** I need them to make it easy for me to pronounce.
Yes. I, I don't do well with this. That's
**Poobah:** [00:08:00] true. And whose idea was it to call it a pork coin? Can you raise your, your hand? By the way, is that, is that you, Mike? Mike, pack your shit. You're out. All right. Thanks for coming, but it's just, it's over
**Gizmo:** between us. Okay. I'd also like to know whose idea it was to wrap it in butcher paper.
Mm-hmm. It's pork line. So the And
**Poobah:** who and who's the asshole? Who, who, who decided to pack up premium cigars and butcher paper. Was that, oh, Mike, that was you.
**Bam Bam:** That's a good thing you're
**Poobah:** going Continue leaving. Yeah. Yeah. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. No severance. Okay.
**Gizmo:** So this is, uh, so this was announced at P C A 2022 apparently, and just came out, uh, this year.
It comes in a bundle of 25 cigars wrapped in the golden white Tux band with no tahe name on it. There's a little [00:09:00] logo on it, but uh, and it comes wrapped in butcher paper. Did you say golden white? Green? Green. Green and white. Green and white. Excuse me. Did I say gold and white? Yes you did. I'm sorry. Green and white.
Okay. Uh, tahe tuxtla label and, uh, yeah, comes in a 25 cigar bundle. And the irony is not lost on, lost on me, that the person who brought this to us is the vegan in the room brought, brought the pork tenderloin cigar. That's right. Is that odd to you guys or Very odd. You're changing. You asked
**Senator:** me, Bruce is
**Gizmo:** changing.
Well, it's been a while since we've done a ta wahe. We've done, this is our third, we did the, uh, petite casados, which we adore. That's, that's a little one. Mm-hmm. I would certainly say out of all the tatai I've ever had in my life, that's the one that really speaks to me
**Bam Bam:** the way it comes, the presentation of that box.
It's awesome. Yeah. A 50 beautiful little foot cigars, like a little football, A 50 cab. Yeah.
**Senator:** Fantastic. All that's missing is butcher paper. Yeah. Who ever said something like that? It's, it's
**Gizmo:** unbelievable. Mike. Mike did. [00:10:00] That's right. He's out. Mike, Mike's out. Yeah. Pubi just fired Mike. This was like a
**Rooster:** double
**Gizmo:** espresso morning.
Yeah. Oh, this
**Bam Bam:** is, I don't know now what this is. You don't need coffee with this. This is b beyond
**Gizmo:** an espresso. Oh yeah.
**Poobah:** You could, you could, uh, this is give, there's probably enough nicotine in here that after you smoke this and, and have the double espresso, you could paint your deck and
**Bam Bam:** strip it. We don't wanna talk about the deck,
**Poobah:** you know, forget about hiring a contractor.
Cause we'd be outta the gate. Yep. You're all in. I'll,
**Gizmo:** I'll be honest with you guys, um, uh, I'm, I'm having, I'm having a difficult time calling out flavor notes. It's just so strong. Like, I'm trying to think of, it's very strong. I'm trying to think of notes to give the listener as to what I'm tasting here.
And I, I'm having difficulty discerning. Are you retro? What's here? Are, are you trying
**Poobah:** to retro Hell, I have two. So are you saying it's slightly muddled?
**Gizmo:** I think that's a good way to put it. For me,
**Senator:** there's two notes. It's that like [00:11:00] bitter ultra, ultra dark chocolate and earth.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's very earthy. There's a mineral thing on the front of my tongue.
Yep. Which is odd. And the finish
**Bam Bam:** is where I get that deep dark chocolate. Correct. And it, but on the retro hail though, there is a little, if you do that with the cigar like this, which most people won't do, but I do it, there's a little bit of sweetness in a retro hat. Just
**Gizmo:** a little bit. All right, I'll do that.
So again, this is the, this is third
**Poobah:** dude. I mean, my eyes are gonna fall outta my head with the retro hat. I'm a tough guy. I just did it. You're not, you know, you're not some tough, I'm gonna cry.
**Gizmo:** So this is the third taua here. We've done, like I said, the Petite Cas and we did the Regis broadleaf Reserva quite a while back.
So this is the third one we've done first from the Tuxtla line. Um, and they have quite a few of them actually. Yeah. We'll, we'll see how
**Rooster:** this goes because typically what happens with the taai in my experience, Like the last third kind of fizzles, you know? True. There's a lot of flavor in the beginning and in the middle of the cigar.
[00:12:00] And then the last third that's not
**Poobah:** there. Well, they only put the MSG in the middle. It's like Chinese food. You know? We're gonna have like freaking nightmares after smoking this thing. You're gonna be one of those, one of those nights where you, you eat a lot of Chinese food and you're like, you're like, you're like hanging on a cliff and you just barely holding on for dear life.
I don't, and then you'd, Dr. Then you'd start to minute, you start to drop, you wake up and you go.
**Rooster:** Did they still put MSG in Chinese for? Yes,
**Gizmo:** I'm sure they do. I thought it's outlawed. Is it illegal? Yeah. I didn't know that I He's right. True. It's flavor and hanser.
**Poobah:** There's no way it's outlawed. Yeah. And
**Pagoda:** World.
World. Definitely New York City. Definitely New York City. And probably 20 years ago,
**Poobah:** I don't think MSGs outlawed.
**Gizmo:** Maybe you have to ask for it. Mono
**Rooster:** sodium, what is it? Glu? I, they're in gluts.
**Poobah:** Glutamate. Glutamate.
**Gizmo:** SG is out. This is a very interesting start to the cigar tonight, boys. [00:13:00] Nice white ash. Yeah. Let's say, yeah, yeah.
Burning fine. Great out, great smoke, great combustion. But the flavors just, you know, I just, I don't know, I can't pinpoint it right now. Should we just rate it? Yeah, let's just rate it now. So, yeah, like I said, this was, uh, this was released quite some time ago, um, uh, last year, and it just came out, uh, just actually came into the market this year.
Um, uh, the Tuxtla series had three other cigars, the Avion, the Tahe seventh, and the Tahe, T one 10, all with various incarnations. This, uh, tahe Loma Dedo is the follow up to the original pork tenderloin, which was simply called the Tahe Pork Tenderloin. In 2010, and I guess they put the Spanish on it to make it a little bit more elegant.
Uh, in 2023.
**Pagoda:** I remember liking the T one 10, I think. Guess you had
**Gizmo:** got me onto that. Yeah. That's a good cigar. Yeah, it's, it doesn't kick you around like this. No, not at
**Bam Bam:** all. I [00:14:00] mean, well get, uh, pagoda. This is kind of up your power alley, isn't it? Kind of. It is,
**Pagoda:** yeah. But I'm not getting a lot of like flavor.
It's
**Rooster:** like, no, to me, I'm getting this. It's already
**Gizmo:** changing. It is, it is the strength. I'm not getting that spice, like
**Bam Bam:** the, the strength is still, the body's still full. No doubt. I agree
**Gizmo:** with that. I mean, I'm not that pepper, that spice, I'm not getting No, it's a bit smoother.
**Senator:** Once the wrapper burned off on kind of the end, it it, which was honestly just too aggressive, uh, too much of a start burst of flavor.
I agree. It has settled in, but I still, I just wish that this was sweeter or creamier or just something that's not as bitter and
**Gizmo:** I'm just getting dry. There is not
**Rooster:** a single creamy ta No,
**Gizmo:** this is just, doesn't
**Bam Bam:** exist. This is like a pack of cattle right. Running after you chasing you around the barnyard.
Right.
**Gizmo:** Ron? He said the word barnyard. Here we go. Horse
**Bam Bam:** foot. Horse foot. [00:15:00] No. Moose foot.
**Poobah:** Well, yeah, it's, it's, it's a little bit like the paddock at Belmont. Are
**Bam Bam:** there any ratings on the cigar online?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I've seen a, I've seen a, a variety from sevens to mid nines. Wow. You know, it's, that's how it always is.
Yeah. I mean, you know, to each his own, teach his own. Yeah. I mean, when advertising comes into play mm-hmm. You know, in these sites, it's just, I don't know. I mean, if
**Rooster:** you like a fuller bodied cigar with a decent amount
**Gizmo:** of spice, this is it. This, I mean, if you like black pepper and bitter cocoa, if that's like your jam, this is the cigar for you.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I would totally eat that.
Um, It's calming down a little.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's chilling out. I just don't, you know, we talk about this with the blending decisions, right? I don't understand wanting to kick you in the face like that at the beginning of the [00:16:00] cigar as opposed to blend it in a way that gives you a pleasant, open, gives you what you want, maybe in the pepper or whatever it is, and then builds to something that if you so choose to stick with it all the way to that last third, or nub it at the end, that's when it starts kicking you around.
I don't understand. Opening with the kick and then it, you know, fallen off a cliff. I don't get it.
**Rooster:** They kind of go the other way. Yeah. You know, they kind of like
**Gizmo:** blast you up. They blast front. I don't get that move. Why not give you something that really entices you at the beginning? Build on it. Build on it.
And if you wanna stick, stick into the last third that, that's where you should feel this and not the other way around. Yeah. I mean, I wish
**Rooster:** they would make the taai, the petite caa dores the same blend
**Gizmo:** in this size, larger format. I
**Poobah:** agree. This may be, that would be delicious. Yeah, you're probably right. Um, this may be for the, the, the one cigar a day guy, like who's gonna have one cigar?
I'm just hypothesizing. I don't know. But maybe it's for [00:17:00] that guy who's just gonna have that one.
**Rooster:** There's a lot, lot of people
**Poobah:** like that. That's true. Cigars just one cigar,
**Gizmo:** you know, and they're gonna have one cigar. We have one among us.
**Rooster:** Sometimes. Sometimes,
**Bam Bam:** yes. It takes 'em three hours to smoke a cigar.
**Poobah:** But you want one big, strong cigar.
Huh? What's the price point?
**Gizmo:** Good question. About 10 bucks a stick. A little more. You're looking at right now on, right now on two 70. Two 70, you see? Yeah. You're looking at what, 12 bucks? 10, 10, 12 bucks. Let me do the pretty reasonable. So right now on Fox Cigar it's two 70. Is it available? Yeah, sure. It's a lot of places don't have, so this is actually a limited addition Towa, so if you're into it, um, you better jump on it cause they're not gonna be around long.
So it's 11 bucks a stick at Fox right. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, they are
**Bam Bam:** in stock. Tahe does not make their own cigars. Is that correct?
**Rooster:** They're paid
**Gizmo:** by Jamie [00:18:00] Garcia. Jamie Garcia. So,
**Rooster:** but he has input in,
**Gizmo:** you know, what he wants. I was gonna ask what flavor
**Bam Bam:** profile they wants ask. So who determines
**Gizmo:** the blend?
Pete Johnson. Okay.
**Rooster:** Well he, he, yeah, I mean, he tells '
**Gizmo:** em what he's looking for
**Bam Bam:** and then they blend for him and they do tests, I guess, and
**Gizmo:** Okay.
**Rooster:** And they make so many different cigars
**Gizmo:** and limited releases. Many Halloween. Halloween cigars. Many
**Poobah:** very, I was going just about, thank you. I'm glad you said that because I was about to, to go there cuz, and you, you know, more about some of these new world sticks than I do, but it seems like they're constantly just, it's almost like they're throwing spaghetti at the wall, I feel like, at times.
And just seeing what sticks. There's this one, they're throwing pork, pork loin. This happens to be pork loin at the wall. But, but, but they're, and, and, and, and it's like, if it catch, it's like they have some tobacco, they blend it and they, maybe they, they're doing the best job. They came. I don't know how much of it is kind of like, Like they're, they're, [00:19:00] they're running a commercial operation and they're, they're, they're making blends and they have some tobacco and they're, they're trying to maybe, I don't know if it's force it or if it's real because how many bespoke kind of like cigars that you think are gonna, like the Ashton V S G, let's, let's talk about that.
Yeah. Where that's a blend that's been around and it was a collaboration between the Levin family and Fuente. And Fuente. So, so, okay. So this collaboration happens and that's a blend. Love it, hate it, don't like it, whatever. We happen to like the, the Lonsdale. Um, but that's a blend that's been around for a long time.
Just as a company. Wouldn't you want to. Go for, and I see this with a lot of new world producers go for make, trying to make a consistent product and put it out and, and have it be durable. There's a lot of these cigars I feel like that come out and it's more like hype [00:20:00] marketing. They call it limited, but there's nothing really limited about it.
And they put it out there and a bunch of people try it. I, I, you know, I think some of that's going on. Yeah, it
**Senator:** is. I agree with you. But across all cigars, it's true. Cuban new world, it doesn't matter. I mean, for me, the best brands. Doesn't matter what country we're talking about are brands that really invest in developing great standard production lines that have staying power, that are relatively consistent year in and year out.
And I have a harder time with the brands that just put out a ton of these. Limited edition. Limited release, yeah. Limited that regional, this like, There's not as much excitement for me in those, right? Like, first of all, if they're limited, then supposedly if they're, as they claim limited, then you should only be able to smoke those for That's right.
A small period of time. Yeah. And they're not something that you can enjoy, you know, forever and really develop some kind of love or affinity for that brand. So, um, I, I feel the exact same way. I mean, I hate when brands make too much,
**Poobah:** but [00:21:00] here's, but Davidoff does a great job with the chefs. They do great jobs for some, some, but a lot.
Or some, some, but a lot, a lot, a decent amount are shit.
**Gizmo:** Every year of, I was gonna say, Chinese, Chinese New Year all suck. They all suck, right?
**Bam Bam:** But that's, that's one cigar a year. I differ in the Dal opinion. Most of their cigars are extraordinarily well made. Now they're not all amazing because it's, they don't fit our profile.
But you can't say that they're lower grade cigars because they put out a lot. Everything they put out is pretty well made, you have to say.
**Gizmo:** Well, I don't know
**Poobah:** what, what you mean. Well made, well construction. Oh, yeah. But, but you know, you wanna, so yeah, we're not talking about
**Gizmo:** construction. We're talking about
**Poobah:** flavor.
But here's the thing. We're talking about flavor new, but these, this, this, they seem to knock it out of the park with, they do with the, with construction, with the new world. A lot of them. Well, I think the construction is pretty good. Well, that's my point. This is well construction. That's, that's true.
That's even, this is well, construc. No, you're not wrong. You're wrong. You tend to knock it out of the park with that, that like, they're pretty good. Like the, the [00:22:00] quality of the burn and cons construction in these new worlds is good. It's, that's not the issue. It's the blending.
**Bam Bam:** That's, I wanna piggyback on what Pupa said earlier.
What's also perplexing to me. I hang out with a lot of other cigar groups and these guys. I'm very critical of how they, of what they smoke and how many different markers they pursue, and they're just all about trying every single cigar that comes out, regardless of who makes it, of the quality of the mar.
You know, I'm very critical and I'm, you know, I say it to them, look, you're pursuing, you're just trying every cigar under the sun. I guess there's some merit to that. Find. The right four or five and stick with it.
**Gizmo:** Is that
**Rooster:** because maybe they don't have access to Cuban cigars?
**Bam Bam:** They do have access to Cuban cigars, but they're just not enlightened.
**Senator:** I guess I, I don't know. You don't need access to Cuban cigars to have a rotation of great. Maybe they're
**Bam Bam:** looking for, but Senator just said hit the nail on the head. That's exactly, that's exactly what I've said to them over and over and over. And of course I'm looked at like, who are you?
**Gizmo:** You're [00:23:00] bam bam.
**Bam Bam:** Well, I'm not gonna say that, but you can't, you can't smoke
**Poobah:** every me carry stick. Yeah. A big one club. I wear leopard skin toga.
**Bam Bam:** But serious, this is a really good serious point. There's just way too many cigars that are being put out there and people are buying them because why? They wanna smoke a cigar,
**Gizmo:** but it's also
**Rooster:** very reasonable, right?
I mean, this is an $11 cigar, so if you pick this up, it's true. Yeah. You like it, you don't
**Gizmo:** like,
**Poobah:** okay. Yeah. And a lot of that's true. And I think that these proba, I don't, these may not because they come in this butcher paper,
**Gizmo:** but, uh, you could buy these a deli, by the way. God, you order pastrami sandwich.
This is an add-on. This is an add-on, yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** A tux. You're like, I'll have a half sour, uh, a half sour pickle coleslaw and a pork loin.
**Bam Bam:** A tux please.
**Poobah:** A tux, tux pork. Yes. And a potato pancake. The um, [00:24:00] But I don't know. I, I, I feel like a lot of these, a lot of people, there's so many millions of, of cigar smokers Yeah.
Who just go into JR. Cigar, they read about something, they grab two of these. Yeah. They grab two of the, whether it's this one, I don't know if the, they break these up in the singles or not because of the butcher paper gimmick, but you get my point. Mm-hmm. You just get a smaller piece of butcher paper.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, they, they go in and they, they, you know, you grab singles and they're, they're, a lot of people aren't, there are a lot of people who just don't buy boxes. Sure, that's true. True. They buy, they go in, they buy a pouch of cigars and they have a bunch of singles in their desktop, and that's fine.
Yeah. So, you know, the commitment isn't as big. So that, I think they're able to move these
**Gizmo:** maybe, and, and he has a, a significant brand loyalty. I mean, for 20 years he's really built a wonderful brand, Senator. I, I will
**Senator:** say, so, I, I wholeheartedly agree with the criticism of all the random crap that gets put out there.
Right. That's clearly meant to market. I will say though, as I'm smoking more of this, [00:25:00] even though this is a limited edition release, whatever they want to call it, I do see a market for this cigar. Like I get why they made this. There are so many of these limited edition cigars where it's like meant for someone like me and I smoke and I'm like, this is just a subpar version of mm-hmm.
A thousand other smokes like it that I would far prefer for. So this is starting to get a little bit sweeter. Yes, it is, thankfully and is smoother. I really, it was too bitter to start. So I do understand now for me, this flavor profile should be part of their standard production for the guy that, or, or girl who likes this.
I mean, it's now. Like a semi-sweet chocolate. Yeah. So, which is more my
**Gizmo:** speed. We're an inch in, by the way. Yeah. And it's finally settled down something that I'm willing to Yeah, it's settled down a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dig into a little
**Senator:** bit. Yeah. It's not super aggressive. The earth notes that were like super dominant now are just kind of in the background at just the right speed for my palette.[00:26:00]
So as I'm spoken to this, I'm sitting there saying like, yeah, th there, there are merits to this cigar that I can envision the type of person who would like this. Yeah. But the thing that is a little odd to me, I mean, there's nothing particularly unique about it that screams limited addition or release.
This seems like something that ought to be part of a standard portfolio.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Other than the strength of it, that's what stands out really.
**Gizmo:** Even the strength has kind of
**Senator:** gone down. It has, it's dictate a
**Gizmo:** bit. Yeah. It has. Thankfully
**Poobah:** it has. Yeah. It's a little one dimensional. Agreed. Yeah. You know, it's a little one dimensional, but I do, I
**Rooster:** do like the San Andres rapper though.
I like cigars with San
**Gizmo:** Andreas rapper. Yeah. Yeah. We've had success with them on the podcast. Yeah. A lot. Mm-hmm. And I'm praying to God that, that it, you know, now that we're an inch in and we're kind of having the experience that started to detail that, this is settling in fairly decently for me right now.
Yep. Same. Where if it's stuck with the way it started, I would've had a hard time spending an hour, hour 15 with this today. Put it down. Yeah. It's just, it's, you know, definitely it's at the point [00:27:00] now where I'm like, I'm hopeful now. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I
**Rooster:** mean, also, don't forget the binder and the filler is Nicaraguan.
That's right. So that's what's giving it the strength, the oomph. I mean, maybe go with the Nicaraguan binder and the Ecuadorian filler Yeah. You know, to, to kind
**Gizmo:** of balance that out. Yeah. That, uh, LA Historia. Yeah. LA from ep Carillo. Good point. Pagoda. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm also noticing now cuz I'm always sniffing the burn line.
Even the burn line now and inch in is, it's good. That's good. Way better than it was when we started. Yep. It's just, I don't know, burn line has been pretty
**Rooster:** good
**Gizmo:** from radar shock. No, I just mean the, the aroma there's, at the burn line,
**Poobah:** there's a very like, um, I, it gets back to that chocolatey, bitter thing that's just still there.
It's not bitter like, like a tar blasts bitter, but it's, it's, there is a bitter note in here and maybe that, maybe that's, maybe it would go good with a brand or a [00:28:00] cognac or, or something better.
**Bam Bam:** Well, since you're mentioning or something sweeter, I think the spirit we're drinking is kind of holding up to it.
It's got, there's some viscosity in this one in what we're drinking here. I think.
**Gizmo:** Let's talk about it. Yeah. The Highland Park, 12 year aged.
**Bam Bam:** I'm having it eat. Yeah. No ice for me.
**Gizmo:** So it's a 12 year age single malt scotch. I had a little ice in mine.
Pretty damn good. Not bad. Yeah, it's not bad. That's
**Bam Bam:** not bad. Even neat. It is. There's a, there is some bite. Neat. But it's on the, it's forward and once it goes down the finish is actually okay. You know,
**Gizmo:** I actually, I took a sip of it. Neat. Very small sip when we started it, it, it had a lot of body to it. It had a little bit of a bite.
It supports the cigar though. It does, but I like it with the ice. Yeah. And I haven't touched it since we started recording. So it's been sitting with the ice now for what, 25 minutes? Yeah. UBA needs a
**Poobah:** refill. I'm gonna have a little need just to
**Senator:** try it. Oh Jesus. I'm sorry, what I just [00:29:00] discovered. Apparently we've stumbled upon a perfect pairing.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, we, oh, is that right? I
**Senator:** just was looking at some quick history on Highland Park, and the first thing I read, the Highland Park Distillery was founded by Magnus Unsen A butcher.
**Gizmo:** Are you kidding? You're joking, right? Stop.
**Bam Bam:** Oh my God. Joking. Can't make this up. That's awesome. Can't make this
**Gizmo:** up. I love it.
**Poobah:** Wow.
I can't make it up. It's, it's Viking Honor.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna cut that out and just let everybody think that we're geniuses. All right.
No, I think it, it does taste good. Yeah. Yeah. How do you think the spirit would go with a pork coin
**Bam Bam:** voice? I want BU's opinion on that. He's having it neat like
**Poobah:** I am. Well, what do you think? I think for something that's 84 proof. Mm-hmm. Um, It's a little higher proof. Uh, it's actually, you know, yeah. I, I can drink the scotch.
It's, it's, it's, it's, it's not bad. No, it's not bad. Little bite in the front. Right. What's the deal with it? Yeah. What's the price? [00:30:00] How much does it cost, where's it made?
**Gizmo:** So, uh, so I have a little bit of the history. Senator can hit up the price. Um, so this is an interesting story actually. I was reading before we got here today, knowing we were gonna do this, um, and this is pretty cool.
It was founded, as they say, in either 1798 or 1826, depending on which story you go by. So, uh, its location is in Orkney in Scotland, northernmost Distillery in Scotland. And it was began distilling at the site back in the late 18th century. But it in 1798, but it wasn't until 1826 that a license was granted for lawful operation.
So it operated for nearly 30 years illegally. Makes sense. Which is pretty cool. Yeah. Uh, and what they say here, I also like this part of it, there were outlaws and Yeah, they were outlaws. But this is one of the few distilleries to still carry on the tradition of floor malting, which is a labor intensive process where the barley is spread out across the [00:31:00] floor and is regularly hand turned for even germination before being killed with orkney peat, uh, a famous peat apparently, uh, saturated by salt spray.
Um, wow. And, uh, yeah. So they use a very, very, very old process to. Make this, uh, to make the single mo scotch age primarily in sherry casks, which is not abnormal. Um, that's where you need the color. And they've won, they've won a lot of awards and I gotta say this, 12, it's pretty good. It's pretty damn good.
When you say
**Senator:** they've won a lot of awards, I like a lot, like a lot of awards. I'm really shocked. So ju just some of these just quick accolades. Uh, Highland Park's, 25 year whiskey was the first spirit ever to receive a perfect a hundred point score at the Ultimate Spirits Challenge. That's crazy. Wow. In 20 18, 2 of its special distillery releases the light and the dark.
Were each awarded a double gold medal in the San Francisco Wines, uh, world Spirits Competition, which actually is [00:32:00] respected. Like anything that wins an award there is usually pretty good. And, uh, the thing I'm, I'm really shocked by, in 2018, Highland Park ranked second behind Sister Distillery, the Macallan in whiskey auction sales.
Really? Which is crazy. They're second to Macallan, second to Macallan auction sales
**Poobah:** to drink it straight. Yeah, I'm having a stray. Have it neat. Have to do that. Yeah. It it, it is, it is, it is. Surprisingly for something that's 85 proof. Mm-hmm. It's actually, I will, there it's there's some caramel in there.
Yeah. It's, uh,
**Bam Bam:** it's a, it's definitely a man's strength. This is, this is not for the lighthearted. No,
**Poobah:** but it's not, but it's not like some kind of crazy high proof bourbon. It's not. He's right. He's right. It, it, this is actually it. The, it's kind of smooth and rich. It's a little viscous. It's, it's actually, is there a little heat?
Yeah, but it's not, it's not to the point where, you know, you're like, I have to put ice in this right
**Bam Bam:** now. This is true. And I would love to have this in the winter, [00:33:00] kind of around the holidays. It, it's a warming type of a spirit.
**Poobah:** It, it's not, it's, it's pretty
**Gizmo:** good. I agree. Do you guys, do you guys think that neat, that it actually pairs better with the cigar than it does with ice?
Yes, I think so. I haven't
**Bam Bam:** had it with ice. What
**Gizmo:** they om for the cigar. It has to,
**Senator:** has to. Interesting. And tippo poo's point. I, it's actually enjoyable. Neat.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Totally
**Poobah:** enjoyable. Yeah, like upfront, there's like the, there's, there's a sweet smoothness to it, and then on the finish it's, it's not as hot as you would think it would be.
Um. Mm-hmm. What would you compare it to?
**Rooster:** Like, what does it taste like?
**Poobah:** It doesn't have like as long of a finish as, let's say, Macallan 12, but it's pretty good.
**Gizmo:** You guys always
**Rooster:** compare the spirit. It goes
**Gizmo:** back to the Macallan 12. That's the
**Bam Bam:** baseline for us. Yeah. Yeah. Always has been.
**Poobah:** I, it doesn't have those like pronounced, like really it's, I I think it's not, [00:34:00] it's not, not complex.
It's, no, it's double negative, but it's, it's, I think bel there's some, something's
**Bam Bam:** going on there. Belvin is a bit more complex. I think There's more flavor, different type of flavor. Well, it's sweeter. It is, yeah. Sweeter. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** This is wild. So I think that's a little more cherry forward, I think balcony. Yeah, it is.
**Bam Bam:** Even though these were, these are Asian sherry cast, you don't really get that
**Poobah:** profile. There's a little bit, there's, there's cherry. I get a little cherry, I get a little, uh, I get a little citrus
**Gizmo:** to use. Bams, A little's,
**Poobah:** a little ci, little citrus there. There's a little bit of like a,
**Bam Bam:** I banned the use of that word.
It's got the patent though. I do. I'll send
**Poobah:** you my invoice. Like if there's a little caramel, there's a little cherry. It's actually, it's, it's, I'm glad that I, I had it neat. I had a little ice in there before you can taste it, and it's, it's actually quite good.
**Gizmo:** I agree. I'm, I'm, I'm very happy with this. I'm glad.
Very, I, I, I would cer certainly pick [00:35:00] this up. Do,
**Pagoda:** do they have a 17 year or something? I. Uh,
**Gizmo:** no. Right. All right. I don't think 17.
**Bam Bam:** I think they have an 18. How much was this bottle? We never discussed it. I think it was
**Gizmo:** 60 bucks. 60 bucks? Okay. No, it's less. So we're gonna get to prices. Oh, wow. Oops. Great deal. I thought it was 60.
**Senator:** Um, one of the thing, I think POA said, like, where is this made? We know Scotland generally, but something also I'm surprised to read it says that Highland Park is the northern northernmost distillery in the world located on the Orkney Islands off the northern northeastern coast of Scotland, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea.
Never
**Gizmo:** any of this. I'm sure
**Poobah:** grinder's been there. No doubt in my mind. He's,
**Gizmo:** he's there now. That's why he's
**Poobah:** not here. He has some kind of story where he is like, so actually, uh, he's done reconnaissance. I met, I met the great, great, great. Great-grandson of, of the butcher, like I can see saying of the orkneys.
And, and, and I actually witnessed them, uh, four malting, four malting, [00:36:00] uh, you know, using ancient Viking shovels
**Gizmo:** that were,
**Poobah:** and Viking rakes that, that are, that are from the 16th century,
**Bam Bam:** his grinder's details. Awesome. That's awesome. By the way,
**Gizmo:** poop's nailing it, by the way. Yeah,
**Poobah:** he is. And, and, and what, what, what makes it so special is, is, is, is is the material that they used to forge these rakes mm-hmm.
Were forged in a very special way, the ex and no one else
**Bam Bam:** has these rake by the ex-wives of the Vikings, the ex-wives. Yes. Their anger and frustration went into the creation of these things.
**Poobah:** Yes, yes. So
**Senator:** on the price point, the price point's actually very good. It's a total wine. 55.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Wow. Wow. There you go.
Are,
**Pagoda:** are you guys, uh, did you guys get any pe pettiness on this?
**Bam Bam:** No, Pete, for me, I
**Gizmo:** didn't get any. Oh, I get some. Just a touch, a touch a little bit. I haven't got that very, a little bit, not a ton, but a little bit. [00:37:00]
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's, it's, it's pretty balanced actually.
**Senator:** Very, it is. And I, I would
**Gizmo:** even say a little bit complex.
I like it, man.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's
**Gizmo:** actually, I would, I would be very comfortable serving this to any guest at my home. I've, I, I like, I'm definitely interested in, in grabbing a bottle of this. I, I, I, I'm gonna have it, it's not
**Poobah:** blowing my hair back cause I like don't have an affinity to the brand. So I think that I'm biased.
You don't like Viking, but if this was, if this was, I'm down with Viking stuff. I think, I don't
**Gizmo:** know if I was, say, I dunno if I'm
**Poobah:** stick it back like, well, maybe not. I mean, Vikings, they.
**Gizmo:** The Viking funeral. Viking was very cool. The Vikings, you know the Viking funeral? You know what they do on, were they winners boat?
They send them out on the boat and then they fire a lit arrow. Arrow. Yeah. And they set the boat on
**Poobah:** fire. Right. But like the Vikings were like winners, but they turned into like real losers somehow.
**Gizmo:** Well, Minnesota, the football team, they don't do too well.
**Poobah:** [00:38:00] Like they were really tough. Like they should have done more, right?
Yeah. And then, but they kind of like, they looted and plundered, they kind of did a lot of looting and stuff. Right. They kind of like nomads. Sounds like
**Bam Bam:** my former life. Maybe Jesus
**Gizmo:** are very formidable.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. All right. I take it, um, I don't know if I would serve this to every guest that I have at the house. This is more for an experienced
**Gizmo:** scotch drinker. I think if, if I'm sitting around a fire with some, some, some folks who like scotch, I'd be very happy pulling this up. No problem.
Yeah. Over a lot of the other 12 years that we've done. Yeah. I think this is really delicious. Yeah, agreed.
**Poobah:** I'm running the Lincoln Tunnel right now. I just paid a toll. I'm on the helix. I just got off the helix and now I got a tunnel. For those of you who aren't from New York, there's a helix that runs into the Lincoln Tunnel.
Yeah. It's called a gauntlet. Gotta run that gauntlet. Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** Did you guys hear that they're [00:39:00] announcing, uh, surge pricing for Midtown Manhattan? Yes. I've been talking congestion pricing. Congestion pricing. No, it's, nobody wants to go anymore. It's not talked about. It's done. It's happening. It's happened now.
Yeah, it's happening next May. Yeah. Great. It's gonna be, uh, if you go into Midtown during, during high time, there's gonna be an, an additional surcharge you're gonna hit on your easy pest. So Yeah. So for you to get from New Jersey in a car into Midtown Manhattan, before you park, you're looking at about 30, 35 bucks.
Before you park. Yeah,
**Poobah:** that's during rush. Hour. Hour, yeah. And then, and then like once you get out of the car and like walk down the street, you know, you just have to have your head in a swivel. You need like a chiropractor after because someone's just gonna like, you know, no hit you in the head with an axe.
Come on. Really? You think I'm kidding? Uh, yeah. You go stand on the edge by the yellow pump post pandemic by the yellow. By the yellow. Bumps in the subway post pandemic. Yes. Your back turned post. Yes. You're doing that right now? Uh, no. Do you understand what your back turns? I don't ever do that to the [00:40:00] subway
**Gizmo:** track.
He doesn't take the subway. He pays congestion pricing. Come on. Well,
**Bam Bam:** I don't either actually. Don't people,
**Poobah:** people can't even take the subway anymore. I've never dude.
**Bam Bam:** So is a past. So I've thought about this. You know, I traversed, dude,
**Poobah:** Rick Baras got his head kicked in.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, he did. Oh boy. Yeah. What
**Bam Bam:** were you gonna say, babe?
No, I saw, I traversed Manhattan to get to Brooklyn twice a week. To look at sites and things like that. I try to go after rush hour, so I'll avoid that text, I think. And you gotta get outta Manhattan before rush hour as well. Of course. So I try to, I try to hit that middle sweet spot
**Gizmo:** in and out.
**Rooster:** But you probably go and take the FDR
**Gizmo:** and go all the
**Bam Bam:** way down.
You know, honestly, I followed a map. It takes me to the less. Yeah. Suicidal route. Aaa,
**Poobah:** I follow a map.
**Bam Bam:** I do. It takes me less the the least traveled
**Poobah:** route. What do you stop at the gas station. Get your AAA discount. Unfold it. I follow a
**Bam Bam:** map. My A A R P card will get me there.
**Poobah:** You use a [00:41:00] highlighter? No,
**Bam Bam:** man.
Highlighter. What are we talking about?
**Poobah:** Cause, cause I use a map,
**Bam Bam:** I map in my apple. Uh, my apple map
**Poobah:** takes me to, I need to go. No, I understand. She said I use a map. Just thinking, I'm thinking of my dad, like driving up to
**Gizmo:** Lake George. Like he said, a bath puts it out on the
**Bam Bam:** table. All right. I call my son over, get the highlight.
Let's go. I gotta Matt, my dad.
**Gizmo:** That's a lot of highlighter baby. Yeah, it
**Poobah:** iss Clark Griswold style.
**Bam Bam:** Hey, bam, bam. Dad, what are we doing? We gotta map out the, the route
**Gizmo:** today. Hey, get in here. Get your highlighter. So boys, we're uh, about halfway through here on the twa. Hey, Tuxtla, LMO. Deto. What do you guys think of it? Not hating it. I'm not hating it like I was at the beginning. Right? I'm not hating it. I'm not liking it.
I'm not loving it, but I not liking it. That's all right. I can find things I like about it. Right now I'm surprised by
**Senator:** it's pagoda. I feel like this same would be more your speed. Same. I know. I, [00:42:00]
**Pagoda:** it's like I'm seeking, I'm seeking something and I, wow. I'm just not
**Bam Bam:** getting it. I feel like it's all right there.
It's everything there. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Little ayahuasca. You'd be right into the sea. Seek
**Bam Bam:** it right out. Did you say something?
There's the shank. I just heard a mumble mumble.
**Pagoda:** Must have grumble.
**Gizmo:** I mean, I'm, I'm
**Rooster:** kind of
**Gizmo:** liking it right now. Yeah. I'm kind of like smokeable. Yeah. You know what the, the, the thing that that's off for me right now is the, is the, is the aftertaste what's lingering in my mouth after I push the, the smoke out for me,
**Bam Bam:** that finish is minerally.
Yeah. I don't, I'm not loving it. I'm not hating it, honestly. It's just, uh, it's the right, it's okay.
**Gizmo:** What do you think of it, Senator?
**Senator:** I don't love the finish and, and what it's doing is forcing me to smoke more of the cigar. Yeah, me too. Because I actually like the front, the [00:43:00] front house. Yes. How's nice. It first hits your palate as now it's gotten a little sweeter.
I'm like, oh, those are notes that I enjoy. Mm-hmm. But then when it, the finish, it gets kind of a little bit bitter and then I'm just going to just draw again because I want to get rid of that. So, so you're chain smoking tonight? Pretty
**Poobah:** much. If much. If you're married, David, it's kind of like, eh,
**Bam Bam:** eh, eh, I don't know.
I think what we said earlier that if there's, there's a guy or girl out there that likes this type of a profile, I think this is, Right
**Poobah:** up there at, but it's hard to even define what this profile is.
**Bam Bam:** Well, yeah. It's molasses. There's molasses. I think the, that's where the sweetness comes
**Senator:** in for me is molasses.
To me, it's, it's just like a, a dark, bitter, semi-sweet cocoa and a lot of earth. Mm-hmm. If those are your notes, that's your jam, then you'd probably like this.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think it's
**Rooster:** somebody who enjoys a liga with, which I think
**Gizmo:** is a better cigar than It's better. Yeah. This what might, might kinda in the same
**Poobah:** world.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a little in the same world. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And less expensive and more available. I bet. Right.
**Gizmo:** The only thing I will give this, well, it's limited, so That's true. This is true.
**Senator:** The only thing I will give this cigar a lot of credit for is the construction I actually think [00:44:00] is really good. Oh, it's excellent.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I mean it's, it's burned outputs.
**Senator:** Awesome. Even all the way through the draw is not wide open, but not part of touch resistance resistant. It's the exact right amount. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And the wrapper actually looks very nice in the
**Gizmo:** cigar. Yes. Which we've experienced on almost every Mexican San Andres wrapper we've had.
Very true. It's true. It looks great. It's very dark, oily, but, I'd be curious, like let
**Rooster:** this sit for like a year and see what
**Gizmo:** happens. You know?
**Poobah:** Could be, it's interesting with cigars because it's, it is, you like have to commit time to it. Yeah. It's not just something like, oh, I'll have a taste of that and it's okay for, you have to, it's
**Gizmo:** like
**Senator:** cigar donado reviews, two pups in this is a 97
**Poobah:** point cigar.
Right. I mean, like, to, to sit with this ever again for me. Like it's never happened. Yeah. This
**Rooster:** is never happened. It's
**Poobah:** not, it's not your flavor profile. I can't. You know, but you know [00:45:00] what? My life, my, I don't have enough time for to talk. You're too delicate
**Gizmo:** for this. Prove
**Bam Bam:** I said that earlier. No,
**Poobah:** no, but I, I, I think I, but, but, but something like, not that you could even compare to the two, but like a P two or an 8, 9, 8 or so.
A stronger Oh, totally different. Totally different. But No, but, or you were in Nicaragua or like a, or like a Pedro 90th? No, like a Liga oga. You know, I can, I'll enjoy Oli. Sure.
**Bam Bam:** Or the papas fritas that they make as well. Oh, that's,
**Senator:** think's got a secret stash we never
**Gizmo:** told us about does, by the way. I thinks that's Agar.
I think the Li Agar the one thing about the Liga for how much infant could have mm-hmm. There is an added. You know, it has the spice, it has the cocoa, it has the oomph, but there's a little sweetness in that you're getting So
**Bam Bam:** rooster, when we smoked that, you hit it on
**Gizmo:** the head, you could raisin fruit raisin, rai dried fruit.
You could try fruit. It's forward. Yeah. It's very, and that's, that's what this needs, it needs that it [00:46:00] exactly, exactly where I was going, balance
**Rooster:** off that spice and that bitter
**Bam Bam:** chocolate. So for me it's less bitter chocolate, but if you've had like raw molasses, there's a tartness to it. There's a little bit of a sourness to it.
And then, and on the finish, I like molasses. So there's, there is some very slight chocolate notes that you get in that I'm kind, this is like a molasses cigar
**Poobah:** for me. It's not that rich and it's not that rich for me. No, maybe not.
**Senator:** And it's not that sweet. Molasses is sweet. Not
**Bam Bam:** all of it. There's other, there are different grades of molasses.
Yeah. Look at this.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's true. He's a molasses m kinda sewer over here. He's a molasses.
**Bam Bam:** So love, I love jams and jellies and m Gord Mar. I love
**Gizmo:** marbles. He's a big marmalade guy in English or an American marmalade. Oh, that's a huge difference. Oh my god, you
**Senator:** got
**Bam Bam:** me there. I knew
**Gizmo:** I'd get him going. What the hell?
Orange marmalade. That's
**Rooster:** English has a little bit of bitter because they use some rind in it. Yes. The rind.
**Bam Bam:** And you actually see
**Gizmo:** the rind in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And
**Rooster:** that marmalade with a little bit of butter on like a piece of toast.
**Gizmo:** It's heavens [00:47:00] excellent heaven. It's not like very sweet like we get here.
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So
**Poobah:** yeah, that's gotta be the English Indian connection.
**Rooster:** It is. Yeah, the British,
**Pagoda:** basically, we've been colonized for 200 years.
**Gizmo:** So I wanted to answer, uh, pagodas question on the other offerings from Highland Park. They have a lot, um, they have a 10, they have the 12 that we're drinking tonight.
They have a 15 and 18, a 21, and it goes up from there. They have a 25, A 30, they have a 40 and a 50. Oh my gosh. So, I mean, the
**Senator:** most famous model they make is they're 18. Yep. So, I knew when I, I remember when I was first getting into scotch, like you, for some reason, it's just like everybody says you have to have Highland Park 18, and when you even look on their site about their 18, it's, they've won more awards for their 18 year than anything else they make.
The price point is, is actually very reasonable. It's, uh, 150 a bottle for their 18 year. And I say that because it's like Macallan 15 goes for a hundred. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** What's Macallan? 18 2 20 18. Yeah. [00:48:00]
**Bam Bam:** So kids, what that means is he started, uh, drinking, uh, $150 bottles of scotch. This kid, yeah.
**Gizmo:** It was very sophisticated.
Quite a nice start. Senator's, very sophisticated. Oh yeah. You know, no. So the
**Senator:** funny thing was actually years ago when I started drinking scotch, the 12 year bottle, I think this was to try to market the 18. Not kidding. You'd buy the 12 year bottle. And it would come with a little airplane size bottle of the 18 to taste.
Really? Wow. I swear to you. That's brilliant, actually. Cool. That's a, that's how, so No, I wasn't paying 150 when I was in college for an 18 year scotch, but I got the little airplane bottle. I was like, oh, look at this. I'm having this 18 year. Nice. Um, I will say at the time, I mean, I didn't know anything about scotch, so I didn't really like it, but, Having this now, I would like to try their 18.
Cool.
**Gizmo:** Yeah,
**Pagoda:** no, the reason I asked was also because I think a friend of mine, uh, she comes to the lounge, by the way. She had given me the Highland Park 18 on my 40th birthday. I, I remember enjoying [00:49:00] it, but I never really pursued it. You know this, but I don't remember like the flavors from years ago. But it's the, the brand name just stuck around.
**Gizmo:** Well, thi I'll be honest, this makes me want to try the 18 because Me too. Me too. Not only from what we're experiencing tonight with the 12, but also it's hearing the awards, hearing the accolades, and hearing what people think of it. Like, I wanna try it. I definitely think we should put that in the rotation.
**Bam Bam:** And remind me, remind me again what the 12 cost, what was that cost? 5 55. $55. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Great deal. This is a great price point. It is, it is. Yeah. So I'm also looking, I'm on their site by the way, as I'm looking, you know, answering Pagodas question about what else they offer, man, they're, they're branding their, their, the design on their bottles.
It's very, very unique and cool, you know, a lot of the scotch that comes out of, uh, you know, outta Scotland. Very simple, you know, and, and they're understated. Yeah, very understated from the point of view. Brand identity, all very viking driven marketing, which is obviously tying to their, their roots, but it's very, very [00:50:00] cool.
Yeah. Very cool brand. We should get the 50 year, that'd be an interesting one. Oh sure.
**Bam Bam:** Rooster expense that
**Gizmo:** I'm Pub eight was joking. Pub 80th birthday. Yeah. We were talking earlier about people reaching for these cigars or buying singles and whatnot, and it's like, it makes me think as we're sitting here and I'm, you know, I had the experience I did in the first third and now into the second third, like, I'm kind of enjoying it.
It's like, you know, had it not been for a night like this where we're doing a podcast, you never would've had this cigar. Were all sitting together. Yeah. I don't even know. Yes, I would never have had the cigar. Never. No. But I would've also, if we're not recording, I would've probably given up in the first third because I just, interesting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And now it's like, I'm glad I did it because of the, this exercise that we're doing. Right. Yeah. It's a bit of a journey. Yeah. It's like, I'm very happy with it. I just wish the blending decision was a little different. Yeah. I,
**Poobah:** I've had, [00:51:00] kind of had enough at this point, I'm kind of down to the last, maybe the last third of it.
I'm kind of to the point where it's funny, it seems
**Rooster:** like I'm, I'm the one who's spoken the fastest.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, you're fast. I'm right there
**Bam Bam:** with you. I'm kind of,
**Poobah:** and, uh, pagoda, you know, I've had kind of enough. Hmm. Not that it's, you know, you're not offended by it. No. Nah. But it's enough already. Okay. That's fair.
You know, for me,
**Gizmo:** so I got a good question for you guys from a listener, Liz Lizard Bill, who's emailed us a few times. We've talked about Bill before. Um, he spends his time in Mexico in the us. Um, He was talking about, he loved our Cuban segments and whatnot. Had, he's had a Cuban trip on his bucket list for a long time.
Loved the, uh, the episodes. We did the recap episodes of our trip to Cuba, and he said a few episodes back, you guys mentioned a new law in Mexico that you cannot smoke in public. Mm-hmm. Which is something we talked about quite a few times. So he said, I live here in Mexico and I haven't seen or heard anything about this.
So possibly it's being enforced in only the tourist destination. So we talked about [00:52:00] this that we had heard that they were putting up, you know, uh, uh, quite literal tarps in, in, in, in storefronts, in storefronts and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that they've relaxed it a little bit, which is nice. And obviously hearing that from a resident as well.
That's good news. Um, so I hope that's the case. But so he said, More importantly, I have a question for you guys. Do you ever eat and smoke while dining? Yes. I've eaten at two different higher end steakhouses here in Mexico where they allow you to eat and smoke. I really enjoy it. It's a really, it's a super different experience.
Back in my days of youth, everyone smoked everywhere, so I'm curious what you guys think. Keep the pod going. I absolutely love it. Lizard Bill. We would love to
**Rooster:** do that more, but it's just not possible. I mean, none of the restaurants here allow you to. I would an exception
**Bam Bam:** would say North Lounge. Yeah, I was about to go there.
Very few. Every experience that I've had in an north lounge with a meal and a lit cigar, I'll take a few bites, take a sip of my whatever. I'm drinking a few puffs on a cigar. It is
**Gizmo:** heavenly, by the way. We keep saying [00:53:00] North Lounge. Let's tell the listener, especially one that's in the tri-state area, we're talking about Target, hearth and Tap.
Hearth and Tap. Yeah. Okay. In Montvale, New Jersey, that's Montvale, New Jersey Hearth and Tap in Montvale, New Jersey place is amazing. Excellent. Destination place is absolutely amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We love it. Uh, the proprietor there is fantastic. Yeah. He's a friend of Puma's and ours. Um, but man, not only the smoking experience and, and the alcohol experience mm-hmm.
But the food, yes. The trifecta, the service, it's just, it's a real destination for someone who wants great food, great spirits, and wants to smoke. I mean, it's really a special place. Exactly. You can't do that many places. No. It's very
**Bam Bam:** cozy,
**Gizmo:** so comfortable. Yeah. It's a great place. Yeah. But, you know, to, to talk about Bill's question, I know I'm certainly someone that, you know, when we were talking, we would joke about the Wonder Truck, you know, showing up and delivering a Bobby Flay steak here.
Mm-hmm. I miss. Sitting down here at our lounge. At our club Yep. With, uh, you know, a steak from the Wonder Truck and smoking Amani too, or a [00:54:00] Petron while I'm eating. It does enhance it for me with a glass of red wine. Like I really love that trifecta. And I'm curious, like I, we haven't talked about it much.
We, you know, we obviously experienced that at the North Lounge, but do you guys miss that? Do you guys like that? Like what's your experience with food smoking alcoholic? What do you like about it?
**Poobah:** I, I, I kind of like it sometimes. It's kinda, I guess it depends on the food. I'm kind of not as into like, I don't want to eat like a short rib over whatever, or a steak and really smoke a cigar at the same time.
But like, I can see myself in a more of a setting where it's a cocktail hour setting. Like I'll eat a lamb chop, uh, or something on a tray and be smoking and then, and then maybe have a little bit of the, I I, I just. For me, eating like a full on main course in smoking. No, but like snacking for sure. Mm.
Interesting. On certain things. That's, that's where I'm [00:55:00] at. I feel
**Senator:** a little bit differently. I think for me, if I'm eating a heavier meal, I actually really like having a cigar with it. And I say that because if I'm having something lighter, like let's say I'm having like a light piece of fish or something like that, I'm not really craving having a cigar at that exact moment.
I'll, I'm. I would rather wait till after I've had that meal to light up. But a heavier meal, like a steak, a short rib, um, a pork tenderloin, a pork tenderloin. Um, the, the meal is so substantial that like, it just holds up so well, and I'm gonna also, because the meal's heavy, I'm gonna eat it a bit slower.
That's something lighter, right? It's, it slows you down. It's like It does. Cause this slows you down. I like, you know, have a few pieces of steak, have a few puffs with a cigar, go back to the steak. Yeah, there's some kind of ritual there that I really like.
**Bam Bam:** Dude. He's singing my song. I agree. I love the extension of time during a meal.
While you're smoking. Yes. It's just something special about
**Gizmo:** it. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And I, I feel very similarly, which I like because you know, [00:56:00] pub's perspective is the opposite of mine because Yeah. I, I'm, when I'm, when I want smoke and have a a, a really good meal, I want something really rich and heavy.
Mm-hmm. And I want a nice pairing with it, like I said, and you wanna, and you wanna take your time off and I wanna take my time. That's it. And it's like when I have that filet or a nice piece of meat, nice side, a glass of red wine and a mono Cristo number two or something like that. Oh yeah. Man, that is heaven to me.
It is, it is. And it's also, it's with a group like this sitting with the lizards and it's also while I'm Oh, alone, sitting by myself. Oh yeah. I've that many times. I love it.
**Senator:** Yeah, sure. Just some of the most exciting meals to me are when you, you are somehow able to do that. Because where we live, obviously there are not many places that you can smoke a cigar and eat at the same time.
Yeah. But I think of like, when I'm traveling, you know, we obviously, we went to Cuba and when we were, were in Havana, you know, we remember the restaurants where we were able to light up there was air conditioned indoors and it was incredible.
**Gizmo:** That's, that's Nirvana. What did you say about weight? That's [00:57:00] Nirvana.
Wait, what? Remember what he said by the way? Oh boy. He goes, I remember this, this in, uh, one of the recap episodes from Cuba. We were, we did this whole recap of all the restaurants, right. And I think it was episode one or something of, of the recap. And we're talking about Al Carbon, which is one of the great Oh yeah.
Which is an excellent restaurant. Oh my gosh. So we do this whole thing about all the food we ate and everything. And at the end of it, Senator goes and, you know, I just pulled out a cigar. And all of a sudden an ashtray just magically appeared. That's true. That's true. And he goes, this is what dreams are made of.
I mean, it's amazing. I mean, it's amazing. It's, I mean, it's just incredible. And it's like those, like you said, it's like, you know, just like with the cigar, like we talked about on a previous episode, it's like every cigar you smoke, good, bad, or indifferent. There's a memory attached to it, like the, the you're, you know, it's always that time spent.
It's true. And it's like when you add a great meal to it with friends or without, like we're [00:58:00] saying Yeah. I mean, it, it's, it's really an enhanced experience. It's spectacular, you know, there's just nothing.
**Senator:** I think that's why we love, you know, we have, there's, there's a great steakhouse and the rest is place Sophia's in, in Englewood, New Jersey where you can smoke cigars on their patio while you're having a steak.
And that's very unique. I mean, 99% of the steakhouses around here, you can't do that. That's true. They don't even have an outdoor section that you could smoke and eat at the same time. And if they did,
**Gizmo:** they don't want you to smoke. Now
**Bam Bam:** there is Jamie's in Clifton, that's
**Gizmo:** another point. That's a great place too.
Jamie's in
**Bam Bam:** Clifton. I've been there a bunch of times. You know, it's a limited menu. Everything they make is pretty good. But again, you get a steak, you're there for two hours having a meal and a cigar and a few glasses of wine. It's just,
**Gizmo:** Yeah. What about you, Cuba? Oh, the
**Rooster:** Cuba. I mean, I remember like Al Carbon, not only that, you could smoke, eat, drink.
There was also live music. Oh, that's right. Music. Which was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And then going to Tropicana at the show, that's another place. I mean, it's kind of Oh, that's great. Kind of like outdoors by your
**Gizmo:** Well, it's all [00:59:00] outdoors. Yeah. Yeah.
**Rooster:** It's outdoors, but it was like a canopy of trees. You're watching this show, cigar in Your Hand have Food Cigar in your hand.
Oh yeah. You're watching The Amazing show. I mean,
**Gizmo:** it was, that was a great time. So do you ever, in, in the States here, by yourself at home, are you ever having dinner and having a cigar? Is, is that ever happening or is that Not really,
**Rooster:** I kind of enjoy a cigar more after dinner.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Yeah. Okay.
**Senator:** I think that's more of a function.
And tell me if you agree or disagree, but for me it's more a function of when I'm having a meal at home by myself, Mrs. Senator or with Mrs. Senator or whoever. It, it, the, the meal itself, the only meals that are lengthy are when I'm having like, guests over and that's not an appropriate time, you know, usually Right.
Many guests don't smoke cigars, so I'm not gonna light up then. So those are like the lengthier meals where I actually would like a cigar with dinner. But for most normal meals, they're, they're shorter meals. So I'm not really like craving, lengthening that having a cigar. I wanna kind [01:00:00] of have the meal and then get to like, dessert, which for many of us is a cigar.
Yep. Um, it's really the longer meals that make me want to smoke along with
**Rooster:** it. Yeah. I mean, typically I can see myself, you know, at a, at a restaurant more so at home. Mm-hmm. Because at home I'm kind of eating inside, not outside. So, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Also the setting and who you're with is important when we're the lizards and we're, you know, we're together.
It's, it's just a fantastic experience.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Cuz everybody's on the same page. Oh
**Senator:** yeah. The only Exactly right. The only thing I will say where I am with uba, um, It's not all lengthy meals because I would say if I'm at a restaurant that is like very high end and, and kind of has like a really elaborate presentation and maybe a tasting menu, something like that, I'm just wanna be all in on the food.
I'm not that, I would not want a cigar in those situations. For me it's like lengthier meals with things that are very straightforward, like a steak. I mean, there's only so many ways to make a steak. Mm. And so I'm not. Overly concentrated on that steak. I wanna have, you know, some of it, [01:01:00] enjoy the cigar and kind of create an experience that is something that is very simple, but something more complex.
I just wanna be all in on the food. So that, that's where I would agree with. That's a good
**Gizmo:** perspective. I would be all
**Rooster:** in if 11 Madison Park had a cigar pairing menu.
**Gizmo:** Is that the vegan restaurant? Well,
**Senator:** yes. That's when it went downhill. Went vegan.
**Bam Bam:** I thought it was outta business. It still
**Senator:** has three.
I
**Gizmo:** thought they were done,
**Bam Bam:** done, done.
No, it's just
**Gizmo:** Madison Park. There's still three Michelin star restaurants. Oh, it's very nice. How about you? Overall,
**Pagoda:** it's all about freedom, right? And the option, uh, to smoke, right? If you're in a place where you have the freedom to pick up or light up a cigar and just chill and hang out and you know food's coming in, it's great.
Meaning it's up to you whether you wanna smoke or not smoke. I think what's happened now is it's become very restrictive and I think that's what's really killing the vibe. But having said that, [01:02:00] yeah, meaning I really enjoyed, in fact, you know, I always think about, uh, El Carbon. Yeah. Like it's one of the places that stands out to me for that experience when we were lighting up cigars and obviously the service was impeccable and it was just a great, great night.
Yeah.
**Poobah:** I think in that type of a situation, I'd be more open to it. It's just generally speaking, like, I don't know, like it depends on the food. I think that's a good point too. It a good point. Like a salty kind of steak. Pears a little bit. Well, I'm just thinking about where I eat. Like if I was eating, let's say, Like at Vaca, like eating like Greek food or something.
Like I don't think that the. The garlic and the oregano and the whatever, do you know what I mean? And the TKI is gonna go with a cigar very well, but yeah. Piece of meat, you know what I'm saying? Sure. Or like, agree in a cocktail party atmosphere where you're, you're smoke smoking a [01:03:00] cigar, like let's say outside at a wedding, uh, or something, and the lamb chops come around or you, that works.
You have an oyster that works. You, yeah. You know, and you have a glass of champagne, you know what I mean? That's, you're kind of like, To me that that kind of works in some situations, like Italian food. Like I can't picture myself like smoking a cigar and like eating dim sum. Do, do, you know, do, do, do, do you know what I mean?
Like, he's not wrong. He's not wrong. Di like dim sum, you know, I'm like, I'm like, like bring more, bring, you know, bring more dumplings. Like I think I Cobas one
**Gizmo:** would do
**Rooster:** very
**Gizmo:** well. Put some Oh yeah. You know,
**Poobah:** and then some, um, you know what I mean? I do know what you mean. It does depend on he's not wrong. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** What's, what's the, uh, what's the lounge in New York? Is it Cafe McDo? Is it Macon or Mon Monte Cristo Club. Macondo Club. Club. Macondo. Right. They have a full menu there, full dinner, menu, steak, everything. Yeah. So I've actually had a steak there. Well, I've had a cigar with some red wine. Me [01:04:00] too, which has been really good.
Mm-hmm. And that's one of the few places in the city that
**Senator:** has menu. It's, it's cuz like the menu's menu, Carnegie's a very limited kind of just like small bites. It's not like a full Yeah. Full meal. And, you know, even merchants, merchants now actually, it, it, it, it skews now a little more, um, full meal. Mm-hmm.
Um, so you, you could actually, like, they have a steak you can get there and things like that, which is ideal. But, uh, a lot of the places, I mean, uh, grand Havana
**Rooster:** Room was a great place. Yeah. Well, yeah,
**Gizmo:** you could, yeah, I've
**Bam Bam:** had many, I've had many meals there with cigars. Yeah. That's a different experience.
**Poobah:** That's Yeah. When the food, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But, but like, I'm not doing, I'm not doing like, you know, the pork carnitas tacos and like a cigar. Yeah. It's weird, like the guacamole, you know, and your hands are dirty. Yeah. It's not, I'm not doing that, you know?
**Bam Bam:** I had a buffalo chop at the Grand Havana restaurant.
It was incredible.
**Gizmo:** A what? A buffalo chop it was. What does
**Senator:** that
mean?
**Bam Bam:** It was a big piece of buffalo. I. [01:05:00] What medium, medium meter barrel. Did you, did you, they had
**Poobah:** buffalo on that. Did they bring you back into the kitchen and use your club?
**Gizmo:** It was, it was probably, was it buffalo or bison? Baba. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** bison. It was bison.
Yes. I'm sorry,
**Senator:** bison. Okay. That makes a lot more sense. I have like a buffalo challenge.
**Gizmo:** Forgive me. Bison it. Who by the way, is over here gesturing, like a little am Bam. Killing it
**Poobah:** with his like, like a little, like a little caveman. And then, and then he does like a, like, like a viking. Like a
**Bam Bam:** viking, like a vik.
I like tenderizing my meat. Well, like, like, well,
**Poobah:** yeah, like he, he goes back with his little, in his little outfit. Bam, bam. His little leopard toga. Little leopard toga. Then he does like a, an ancient etching. Like how we, how we, how we beat the animal on like the wall. He
**Gizmo:** draws like a little picture. Like a picture.
Yeah. You
**Poobah:** could also be, you would in the side of a cave.
**Bam Bam:** I love you Puba. I love you. Ppa.
**Gizmo:** Even,
**Rooster:** uh,
**Gizmo:** venison. Yeah, I've had that, but not with a cigar. You know what, actually I will say, uh, I love elk meat, elk tenderloin. Oh yeah, it's [01:06:00] phenomenal. I be, it is good. It's excellent. And with a cigar, oh my gosh.
Where'd you have that? At my house. I believe
**Senator:** it. I told you the most surprising thing when I was in, uh, Charleston, South Carolina, phenomenal Food City. I went to this
**Gizmo:** restaurant, which is surprising by the way. I don't mean to interrupt, but to hear Charleston, South Carolina. Incredible food city. It has been for decades, but it doesn't, it doesn't ring that bell in my head.
It, it is
**Senator:** literally top five food city in
**Gizmo:** America. Wow. Good. But it's, but it's been like that for 30 years. Yeah. Wow.
**Senator:** Wow. Yeah. Out gotta go there. Some of the best chefs are there. It's, I've quite unbelievable. We gotta do
**Gizmo:** a lizard trip to South Carolina.
**Senator:** Oh, please. Could we do that? But I went to this restaurant and they had all these just great entrees on the menu.
I couldn't make a decision. And I asked the waiter, I said, you know what, what are you famous for here? What would you recommend ordering? And the guy says to me, the chef's preparation of antelope is some of the best in the country, if not the world. And I'm like, antelope, I don't know that this is something I'm gonna enjoy.
But I'm like, screw it when in Charleston. So I order this antelope. It is not game. Tastes not game at all. [01:07:00] Lay mignon. It was unbelievable. If I could get it here, I'd order it again tomorrow. Wow. One of
**Gizmo:** my favorite meals. I'll give you a site where you can get antelope, but it's the same with elk meat.
**Bam Bam:** Can you prepare it the way you had it?
Go to Senator's House. Who's gonna hack it up?
**Rooster:** He belongs to a Facebook
**Gizmo:** group,
**Bam Bam:** by the way. It comes with the head
**Gizmo:** antelope exchange. Listen, uh, what's inter, what's interesting about antelope and, and elk meat? What, for me, what I like about it is sometimes, you know, when you have a big piece of red meat, a big piece of beef, or even bison, whatever it is, it kind of sits in your stomach.
It, it, it kind of like, takes a while. What I like about antelope or elk is it, it doesn't sit in your stomach the same way beef does. Mm. But it gives you the same. Flavor profile. It's, it's almost like a little bit of a lighter
**Senator:** red meat. This is meat. You know, this is gonna, this is bizarre. I'm gonna even say this, but GIZ is actually a [01:08:00] hundred percent accurate.
Why is that so bizarre?
**Gizmo:** It's not bizarre.
**Bam Bam:** Why is that bizarre? You're good. You're good, dude. What the hell
**Gizmo:** Palette. This is is bullshit. It's just
**Senator:** bizarre to think about. Cause you think of these, you think of these other types of meat. You think they're like really gamey and actually probably gonna be heavier than like normal beef.
They're lighter. But the thing that's funny, I remember, you know, I have a young son and as he's going through these like puree and salads and so he is trying, you know, chicken and salmon and beef and all this stuff. And I see this one like company that we use. No, no, no. But they, they have, they have bison.
Oh really? And I thought it was so odd and I look at it and it says, now, now you're talking, it says six months plus. And I'm like, what? Six month old is eating bison? This seems so weird. So I google this cuz I'm so weirded out by it. I want to
**Gizmo:** change that diaper.
**Bam Bam:** No,
**Senator:** to gizmo's point, that diaper's gonna be better than changing the beef diaper.
I'm serious. That's a hundred percent. So when you look it up, bison and these other types of, of gay [01:09:00] meat are easier to digest. Interesting. Interesting than regular beef is. And I gave this bison, my son, he loved it. It was like bison with like kombucha, squash and this other stuff pureed. Loved it and yeah, it's way easier for like babies to be able to digest than regular
**Gizmo:** beef.
Is that because of the less fat content? Maybe? It's certainly leaner, but I, it's also, I don't know if it's the way that they, I don't know if it's the way that they're raised. I don't know. You know, obviously the American beef market is Yeah. You know, who knows? But, you know, I, I mean, a lot of that stuff that you get imported or whatever, I mean mm-hmm.
Mean, it's like,
**Bam Bam:** you know. Yeah. Bison is
**Gizmo:** quite tasty. It's pretty lean. It's very good. I don't know. Every time I've had elk meat, for sure, I love it. With a sweet potato. A couple of jalapenos on the, on the Traeger. Nice. Amazing. Some long hots over. Yeah. You guys gotta come over. All right. Yeah. When, whenever you want.
Bam. All right. You know you have my number. All right, so we're coming to the last third here, boys of the tla. Luck. What's the name? Hold on. [01:10:00] You
**Poobah:** right. You got it right. Bi bison meat is non-allergenic. Making it easier to digest with by people with a red meat intolerance. There you go. It's also raised naturally as possible.
No growth hormone steroids. Yep. Drug residues and inside bison meat.
**Gizmo:** Awesome. Certainly you can't say that about a lot of the beef we get. No, for sure. That's true. So unless you're getting the crazy expensive stuff, but Yep. Only from the Dutton Ranch. Does that even exist anymore? Does the Dutton Ranch even exist?
Like where is Yellowstone Costner's? What happened? There were like five episodes, right? What happened? It's like half a season. This dude, Taylor. Taylor. She and blew it up. Yeah, Taylor Sheridan blew it up. Costner wants to go do a movie. He left, only wants to do two weeks and we don't have a finale. What's he doing?
Water World
**Poobah:** part two. Oh boy. What is this? That's an awesome movie. No, I just don't think that I, I think that, uh, you like, like by
**Gizmo:** the way, for listeners, we're talking about the show, Yellowstone.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Well, like I said in the text, [01:11:00] Because when we were talking about this Tela, Kevin Costner, okay, is Hollywood royalty Gold?
Yeah. Period. Hard stop. He's Kevin Costner. Okay. Field of Dreams, you name it. No way out. I mean, you go all the way back to that. My bodyguard. My bodyguard, he's royalty. The guy's royalty. He's so this guy Taylor, she Sheridan is a late bloomer who took on too much work. And like they said, I think in the article that we saw that with this God complex and he wants to argue with, uh, uh, and not respect Kevin Costner, you know, Oscar Award, a freaking Oscar award-winning actor, um, and producer.
And, uh, this guy's gonna fight with him and make problems like the thing for me. You think you
**Senator:** are The thing for me, I don't even care if Kevin Costner or anybody is Hollywood royalty, any of that. To me, it's [01:12:00] just who's right. If you watch the, the season, the most recent season of Yellowstone, totally.
There's no way that you can sit there and say that this is at all consistent with how this show started, what this show's about. No. What we wanna see as viewers. It's like he's taken Sharon's, taken this in this weird direction that doesn't fit why we all love this show to begin with. And I think that's what Costner's sitting there like, what the fuck am I doing in this show?
This is not what I signed up for. Right.
**Gizmo:** I'm with him a hundred percent. And effectively he's saying I won't come back until I see how his character ends. Yeah. Which I respect, you know? And it's like, but the, what bothers me is that Paramount can't get these guys or get Sheridan, let's say, to see the point of like, listen, We gotta come to, we gotta come to a head here and end this thing.
And they have him doing six other shows.
**Poobah:** Well, the, the, I think the, what I read was part of the challenge is that Taylor Sheridan is so, he has a certain set of [01:13:00] skills beyond the writing and of certain business sense that he's, that he has integrated into this whole thing. Meaning he owns the horses, the four sixes.
Yeah. He owns these, all this, he owns the whole, the horses. He owns so much of the stuff. He's been able to, somehow he's part of that. You know, all the training, all the stuff the, the, the, the equipment, the saddles, the bridals, all this stuff. He owns all this crap. Mm-hmm. And he rents it back to the production, including land, the training, cuz with the horsemanship and everything.
I think even down to, to some of the props. Other props. So like, I don't know if they can do the show like they do the show without, without him. Without, yeah. Even if they got a new writer or something or were able to part ways with them because there's, he's got too much,
**Gizmo:** the hooks listen, owns much into [01:14:00] the production.
He owns Paramount at this point. He has 18 83, 19 23, this show. None of them were moving. Seemed to be moving forward. He's got like six shows right now,
**Poobah:** but I don't see any of them moving forward. Mm-hmm. Including 18 83, 19 23. I don't see any of these mention these shows. No mention of Of those shows.
Mention of when they're coming out. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So I don't know when these shows are coming out and they stopped them like midway
**Gizmo:** through and now there's a writer strike. Now there's a writer strike. Now there's writer. There is no writing happening. Isn't the
**Rooster:** Sylvester Stallone show also by Yeah, by him.
That's his too. Tulsa King.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. Tulsa.
**Poobah:** Tulsa King. And that's not Jeremy Brown. I don't think that's gonna continue though. According King to what? I've Kingston.
**Gizmo:** Oh, that's Kingston. Kingston. That's his too. I believe that's
**Poobah:** his too. That's a good show too. I mean, the guy can write, there's no doubt about it.
It's just, I don't know what the hell, Yellowstone had so much potential and
**Senator:** you know, it was weird show now it's like a bad political drama. I'm like, why did they do it? Mm-hmm. And I like political shows, but it, it's [01:15:00] like, this doesn't make any
**Gizmo:** sense. It's not interesting. It's a weird, it's a weird move that's happened here.
And it's like, clearly the writing staff is way overextended and it's just, it seems lazy to me the way I see it, and then compounded with how Costner feels. It's like, okay, this is falling apart very, very quickly. And I'm, I'm concerned that like all these years that we've invested in watching this show, Are gonna now be wasted on this bullshit that it's gonna end up being a, a, a big nothing.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it could be. It's unfortunate because I think like with the Sopranos, with with secession, they said we are gonna, there was a conscious decision, you know, made by those British producers on secession to just. To take it to a certain point and, and, and, and end it. Yep. There was a conscious decision made by David Chase and, and the writers I'll, one more ons.
Breaking bad and breaking bad. Yeah. [01:16:00] They made a conscious decision to just, to, to make a decision to end it. Um, and, and same with Seinfeld. They offered Jerry Seinfeld, uh, 150 million, and Jerry Seinfeld said, I could have got more Yep. To do one more season of Seinfeld. He goes, but I didn't want to do it that way.
Not Diz. I didn't want Diz. It, it was, we were at a point where it was at a peak and that's, and you, that's where you want to go out. He could have got 200, probably 200 million Absolutely. For one more season. Yeah. They offered him a hundred and I heard literally he goes, Howard Stern was like, do, he goes, you could, could a hundred got 150.
And Jerry goes more, I could have gotten more, but, but, but what's the point? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** If
**Poobah:** you're gonna dilute the rest of the show, he goes Cause what's the point
**Senator:** of doing that? Yeah. And the thing that, it's like any writer ought to know any series, doesn't matter how good it's ever been at any point is defined by how it ends.
Right. Game of Thrones was one of the most [01:17:00] successful shows in history. That's, that last season was horrible last season. Completely disqualifies it from ever being considered one of the greatest series of Of the writing. Of all time writing. Yes. And that's why like, you look at the opposite of that, a show like Success Succession that ended this year.
Oh wow. That I think is one of the greatest finales on television ever. Agreed. And that's why that show can always be in the conversation among great shows because they ended it well. That's, they ended
**Poobah:** it well. It's like when you, when you, every single time I was at this bar mitzvah over the weekend every time and they play, journey comes on and you hear, don't stop believing.
What do you think of Sopranos? You think of the last scene of the Sopranos. Yep. It's the first thing that comes in your mind. You're like, and it like it now. It's a song that like defines New Jersey. Yeah. You're like, who would've thought like, like that song comes on and all you think of is all those memories of watching The Sopranos, the diner.
**Gizmo:** The diner, diner, di and the diner. Yep. And he puts it on the jukebox.
**Bam Bam:** Yep. Yep. And he order, he orders something for the table.
**Poobah:** Perfect,
**Gizmo:** perfect
**Senator:** ending. And it's [01:18:00] like how tenuous it is. Like the, you talk about the Sopranos, as amazing as every season of that show was, I don't think it had a single bad season.
It only got better and better if they fucked up the ending to that show, we would not be talking about The Sopranos as one of the greatest shows of all time. Yeah. Like it's defined by how it, you have to close strong,
**Poobah:** you have to close strong. So I don't know what they're gonna do with this, this yellow, so the, the last season was, so there were, there were times where it was just all cinematic.
There was nothing going on. It was almost like there, there was no writing. It was just, People riding horses around for episode, the Nature Show episode after every episode. Like the National Geographic special, when is some, is something gonna happen at some point? Because the, the season prior, I mean, and I dig that stuff, like I still watch it cause I'm like, wow.
Like this is just majestic. I still, because I'm into that and I'm into the outdoors, but I'm, but I'm like, is something actually gonna take place at some point? Because I don't know what's going [01:19:00] on with this
**Gizmo:** season is
**Senator:** dialogue. Please. Can we ask that same question about the cigar? Because I'm waiting for something different or interesting to happen, but I haven't had that happen.
**Gizmo:** Oh boy. I, I think that's a good segue. We call that a segue boys, and it's very good indeed.
So, with what Senator just said, what do you guys think of the, uh, UXO right now? Well, it's, it's not
**Bam Bam:** ending
**Gizmo:** that bad. I thought the last third was mediocre. Yeah. Typical
**Rooster:** tattoo. I, yeah. Dna. It just ends mediocre. Yeah. Yeah. The last
**Gizmo:** third. Yeah. It kind of fizzled for me. Smoothed out. Yeah. In the middle. Yeah.
The second, third was really good. Yep. But the last third was, eh, mediocre. All right. It's not, it's not the worst cigar I've had. No, it's not. Yeah. No, no, no. That's true. True. So are you guys ready to do the formal liquor rating Yes. On the Highland Park? 12 year? Yep. Yep, yep. All right. Bam. Bam. You're up. I'm gonna go with a seven.
Seven, yeah. Okay. I enjoy pagoda.
**Bam Bam:** I [01:20:00] think
**Pagoda:** I liked it more than I thought I would. It's definitely an eight for me.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Senator.
**Senator:** I'm between a seven and an eight. The price point is great. 55 bucks a bottle. I can't argue with that. There's in, there's a surprising versatility to this scotch in that. I first had it with ice, then I poured some neat, and when I had it neat, I said, oh, I could very much see drinking this during the, the fall, the winter.
But with ice, it brings out some sweeter notes and smooths it out even more. And I could see drinking that during this summer. So, um, I mean that, that, it definitely deserves credit for that. I usually associate spirits generally with like a very defined moment in time. There are not many, I would say are incredibly versatile.
Um, the flavor profile is the only thing. I mean, I love a [01:21:00] sherry forward scotch, so that precludes it from a nine or a 10. And now the question is still this, this seven or eight, I'm gonna round up and give it an eight because I would drink it again. I do think it actually has some complexity. I mean, we've reviewed stuff like Avalor very well, and AOR is as straightforward in textbook of just a sherry bomb and nothing else.
It's very sherry forward. Yeah. And so this definitely has a lot more complexity than that. I, I have to round up to an
**Gizmo:** eight. Hmm. So for everything you just said, I'm also at an eight. I really enjoyed it. I mean, I'm definitely gonna buy a bottle of this. Really? At 55 bucks, huh? Yeah, I, I really dug it. So ate for me.
Puba.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I'll give it an eight. I'd order it, I'd have it. For all. I'm not gonna, yeah, I mean I think all the commentary is accurate. I'm
**Bam Bam:** glad I gave it a seven because I don't think an eight even for this is probably just a touch high.
**Gizmo:** Yeahs, why a seven? I'm very curious. That's an interesting, yeah. Where did it falter to, to get a seven?
Yeah. Well I don't,
**Bam Bam:** I don't think it's a [01:22:00] step down from an eight. I don't think it faltered my, the burn. There's a little bit of a burn for me on the front and a finish. Other than that, there wasn't anything wrong with it.
**Senator:** Hmm. I think a lot of scotches that we drink have more of a burn than
**Gizmo:** this. I like it.
Seven.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know. I think it's a
**Gizmo:** fair score. So the form of liquor rating boys on the Highland Park 12 is a 7.8 fair? I think so. I think it's a little Whoa. I think it's a little, whoa. Yeah. I think it deserves
**Senator:** an, I'm really surprised. Bam. I differ from, I feel like because the brand is not as well known that you, you're,
**Bam Bam:** you're, maybe I've
**Senator:** never heard of this, so I will say, say that.
Well, that's why I will say that if we slap Macallan on a
**Poobah:** I thought it No, no, no, no, no. I really thought it had a level of complexity that was quite pleasant. You know, it
**Bam Bam:** was tasty. I had no ice in my drink from the beginning. I had it neat from the beginning to the end. I enjoyed it. It was, it was pretty
**Senator:** good.
Right. But if it said, untuck it on it, what would you agree?
**Bam Bam:** Now you know, I love untuck.
**Gizmo:** It would've been a nine. Yeah. With a bison steak, maybe [01:23:00]
**Bam Bam:** 7.8. Good score. Good
**Gizmo:** score. All right, boys, are you ready to do the formal lizard rating on the. TWA Takwa. Can't wait for this. Loma de Certo. Put your tuxedo on.
Right.
**Rooster:** So I'm between a six and a seven
**Gizmo:** on this one. Really
**Rooster:** old four. Wow. Yeah, but I'm gonna round it off to a seven. Okay. I'll be curious to see what happens to the cigar in about a year. Mm. See
**Gizmo:** if it mellows
**Rooster:** off a little bit. Cuz the initial, like the initial light, I didn't like that. But like the next, like the half a point was
**Gizmo:** really good.
Yeah. All right. Seven Puba.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm lower than that. I'm gonna give it a five, which is not a recommend. Uh, I, to me a seven would be a recommend. Yep. I'm, I'm not recommending it. I don't think it, it had. Really, I mean, I'm gonna smoke oli instead of smoking. I, I, I can't invest the time, the kind of [01:24:00] time it requires.
It just didn't have the, the, the level of, a level of complexity for me to, to ever smoke one again. Now, saying that it wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. But this is, but I can't, I can't recommend it. So that's,
**Rooster:** that's I think certain, some people would like it. Yeah, I think so. It, it would hit
**Bam Bam:** certain. Yeah, we, we talked about that.
And there's definitely a market for this cigar,
**Gizmo:** but
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. Some, some people, we got people in this lounge who smoke factory seconds and they tell 'em, they say that the greatest premium, premium seconds, that the greatest fucking thing since sliced bread, and I gotta try one. I mean, there's, to each his own.
I'm just saying that this, we'll do it on the pod, you know. Am I wrong? No, you're
**Bam Bam:** not
**Gizmo:** wrong. Not at all. All right. So for me it's a six. Uh, so I would say it started at a five second. Third was a seven. Last third was a sixth. So it, it, it's kind of averaging outta the [01:25:00] sixth for me. Um, I wish it was better. I wish there was more there, but unfortunately there just wasn't, just wasn't there.
**Poobah:** Senator? I spoke aome thousand series
**Gizmo:** all day, every day. I agree with that. I agree. Yeah. Senator.
**Senator:** So I'm in the same place as giz. I'm, I'm at a six right between, um, uh, rooster and, uh, Puba. I think for me, when Puba said there was nothing that was bad or overtly offensive about it, but there was nothing that was particularly good about it, that's my sentiment.
Um, I think what's challenging is, I mean, number one, I would never smoke it again. I wouldn't pursue it or buy it, but even as I think about the person who would like this cigar, the thing I have a hard time with is I, I feel like there are countless others, similarly priced cigars, maybe a little bit more, that would be far more satisfying for someone who's looking for a very full flavored cigar.
Whether it's a liga, whether it's an Ashton Vsg, whether it's almost any Padrone. [01:26:00] I mean, I feel like there's just so many other cigars that this would be competing against, that this falls in last place, really, when you compare them. So, For someone who does like this flavor profile, I think there's better stuff out there for them, but the price point is very accessible.
I think you said it's what, 10, 12 bucks a stick? Yep. It's like a open box, you know, in a pinch, if you're in a cigar lounge and they don't have any of the countless other ones that I think many of us would recommend over it. Yeah, sure. It's not gonna ruin your day or be all that offensive, but it's nothing I would say is worth pursuing.
**Gizmo:** All right. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, I've been debating between a six and a seven. I think I'll go with a seven. There are a few things I really liked about the cigar, which was, I thought the construction was great. The, the burn was really sharp. The smoke output was great. You know, reasonably within my flavor profile, I, I just felt, uh, [01:27:00] it was missing something.
Um, a seven for me.
**Senator:** Can I flag one more thing I forgot to mention? Mm-hmm, sure. So you mentioned the smoke output. The smoke output was good, but one thing that actually surprises me when I think about this, for as much flavor and as much body as this cigar is supposed to have, to me, this smoke just felt thin.
Like when you draw a liga, it's this rich, velvety, velvety smoke. It's velvety. Yeah, yeah. And with this cigar, like you get an intensity of flavor, but the actual smoke, it's not as vis, it's very thin. It's not viscous, it doesn't have that same body. It's not intoxicating in the way that a liga or a pad patron is.
So that's another reason for me that I, I just, another mark for me that I just, I couldn't really. Appreciate,
**Bam Bam:** you know, with what we drank with this cigar. For me, I'm gonna give it a seven because for me the overall experience in combination with the Highland Park 12 and this [01:28:00] cigar, it actually paired pretty nicely together for me.
The overall between the two is seven, so I'll give the cigar a seven. I mean, for me, I think that's a fair rating when it averages out or to be under that, which I think is also very
**Gizmo:** fair. Yeah. Yeah. So the formal lizard rating boys is a 6.3. Yeah. Well, that's kind of low. But I think it's appropriate. Yeah.
I think it's appropriate for the experience we have, you know, especially how it opened. I mean, if it opened better, I think it would've gotten closer to seven. It's true, it's true. But I see, I think for the experience we had tonight, it's
**Rooster:** fair between a six and a seven, that's, that's where we are all at.
Yeah. Yeah. You know? Makes sense. Makes
**Pagoda:** sense. Yeah. It's a weak commend.
**Poobah:** It, it's,
**Gizmo:** it's, it's really not even, none of it recommend. It's an
**Poobah:** eighth grade basketball version of Oli. You know what's true? I'm saying
**Gizmo:** he's correct. So just for comparison
**Poobah:** sake, c y oligo.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. What's the Cy Ball? What was the, uh, league
**Gizmo:** nine Liga Prova number nine was, that's a ninth, 8.40, okay.
The Tiwahe Petit Casados was an [01:29:00] 8.0. And the other twa Hey, we did was the broadleaf Regio Reserva, which was a 7.0. Wow. So definitely scored higher. Was Puba on
**Rooster:** the episode for the petite Casados?
**Gizmo:** Yes, I think it was. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely was. Did you like that? Liked it. Yeah, I liked that. You like that?
He was, he gave it a seven. So he gave this a five. He gave that a seven, right. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Cause that's, I wish they made that in
**Gizmo:** a bigger sentence. Yeah. I don't know why they format a great cigar. That's true. It's an excellent cigar. I just, you know, I want to have a, I, you know, I, I appreciate Pete Johnson. I appreciate the branding.
Mm-hmm. I appreciate the effort. Right. I want to have a tahe that's in the nines, like, why can't I get a tahe for me? That's, or any of us that's in the nines. Mm-hmm. Because they're not that great, bro. Yeah, I know. I know that's the black label. That's the thing I have black label is we haven't done on the pod.
No,
**Bam Bam:** I've [01:30:00] had many of those. I don't love that cigar. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Again, I don't think it's
**Bam Bam:** a nine. No, it's not. But it, it's like every other tattoo. Hey, that one particularly ends badly. Not bad, but that's not dissipates nature dramatically. That's the problem with, but the first two thirds
**Gizmo:** are pretty good. I'm just dying to have a ta Hey, in the nines.
I just want to do it, but it's just not there. Why? No, I agree. Because they're known
**Senator:** for like a, they're more robust flavor profile, which should be something that we would appreciate, but it doesn't deliver that consistently all the way through. Mm-hmm. And even the notes that we get in some of their better ones or not.
Full and complete in the way that we would hope. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. Great night. So the Highland Park 12 year was a 7.8, and the twa, Hey, UXA Loma Deto. Ribo Extra was 6.3. The pork coin. The pork wine. Got a 6.3 tonight. All right.
**Bam Bam:** I
**Gizmo:** love a good pork line. All right, boys. Great night. We'll see you all next week.
Keep smoking. Hope you enjoyed this [01:31:00] 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 p d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll uh, we'll see you next week.