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The lizards discuss the E.P. Carrillo Pledge Prequel (Cigar Aficionado's 2020 Cigar of the Year) and Kirkland's 12 Year Aged Blended Scotch.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's Alicia and Lifestyle Podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda and Grindr.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink sub scotch, talk about life, and of course have some laughs. So take this as your fifth official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke cigar efficient auto's 2020 cigar the year tonight.
Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating. We'll also chat about a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair Kirkland. Yes, you heard right? Costco's Kirkland Brand 12 year age Scotch with ep. Curios Pledge in prequel.
Okay, so we have the, uh, [00:01:00] Supposed 2020 cigar of the year according to Cigar Aficionado, the EP Carillo Pledge prequel, which is a re robusto and box press, a five by 50 dark wrapper. What are you guys getting on the uh, on
**Grinder:** the scent here? It's hard to tell cuz it, there's so many
**Gizmo:** wrappers on it.
**Grinder:** The wrapper is, can we take the wrappers off at this point?
I'm getting a little taken barnyard. There is a, there is a foot wrapper that we're a ribbon rather. The, the foot
**Gizmo:** ribbon is secured by scotch tape. It is. I fight it every time. Ooh.
**Poobah:** Actually, yeah. The presentation of this is, um, is questionable at best. The, the, the amount of bands on
**Grinder:** here. Actually, this is nice.
**Gizmo:** It has a really nice aroma material. It does. It really, it does.
**Poobah:** But this, this foot band is, I'm still fighting the foot possible to get off. You just
**Grinder:** slide it. It's just
**Gizmo:** No, I don't, it's just like a [00:02:00] Oh,
**Poobah:** I got it. So if you grab it with your, there's a piece of tape on it. No, but if you grab it with your fingernail and just pull it forward, it can slide off.
But it's completely and totally
**Gizmo:** unnecessary. This is the kind of content we're becoming known for. This is, this is like a condom.
**Grinder:** You just slide
**Poobah:** it off. Come on. This is like insanity. Can we, can we edit that please? I can't have my mother hear that . I'm leaving it in just cause of that. Please don't. Please don't.
she
**Grinder:** already heard there are gastic expressions. She's like,
**Gizmo:** what is, what is, what is grind? So is that what happened? ,
**Poobah:** but I don't think, I don't think a band like this. I don't think you need a foot band. Then the mid band, the, the, the, the, the Perez Carillo band and then, and then the additional band that
**Gizmo:** also says Perez Carillo.
**Poobah:** That also says, says Perez Carillo. Is it Carillo? Carillo? Yeah. Who, whatever. I don't think you need
**Gizmo:** all these bands. Like this fabric to me is like, this is what I would think you get at like, Michael's, like you go to Michael's and you get, it's horrible. Like a, a band roll of yellow [00:03:00] gold
**Grinder:** Fab. For those of you who don't know what Michael's is, it's a teacher's and artist supply store.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Okay. So I finally have the band off. You guys ready to cut it? Yeah, I'm taking, let's cut it. So this is again, a, a five by 50 Robusto box Press the 2020 cigar of the year according to cigar aficionado. Uh, very reasonably priced. So we decided to do this before the end of the year to, um, to not only do something that was reasonably priced and popular, but also very affordable.
Um, this cigar comes in, you can find it generally anywhere between 11 and 13, 14 bucks, depending on the, uh, the taxes in your local market.
**Grinder:** So the cold draw, I'm getting very,
it's like musty.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. That's why
**Senator:** I, I said barnyard. I feel like you, you get.
**Gizmo:** I feel like, uh, this may be stupid to say, but I feel like I'm getting a little raisin on the [00:04:00] draw. No,
**Senator:** I can see
**Gizmo:** that. Yeah. It's not a note I've ever called out before, but I'm definitely getting a little raisin. I mean, to your point, there's a little bit of sweetness.
The draw is ver my draw is perfect. It
**Grinder:** is a perfect draw. Same. Perfect. Yeah. Perfect. This is
**Gizmo:** great. All right, so let's light it up, boys. Very, very good Construction. The EP Carillo Pledge prequel.
And after we light it, I'll go through the, uh, makeup of the cigar.
So these have been in my humidor now probably for about eight months. I got these at the early part of the year. Uh, I know that we started smoking these, we had these when they were hyped up at the end of last year or beginning of this year.
**Grinder:** So I've had the, I've
**Senator:** had the Toro.
**Gizmo:** Hmm.
**Pagoda:** Well, they call it the sojo.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, the sojo.
**Grinder:** I don't know. First draw. [00:05:00] Unpleasant. Yeah. The, the, the actual, the, the retro is very harsh. The retro hell is, is better.
**Gizmo:** The first draw on this for me was very harsh. Yeah, I agree.
**Grinder:** Yeah. A little rough. It's a, it's a, it's a full-bodied, full-bodied little or boosto.
**Senator:** I agree. Uh, mine wasn't that harsh. I I, I just, you get some pepper on the finish,
**Grinder:** but this pepper enough to a terrible draw too. Yeah. It was an easy
**Pagoda:** draw. I just like, I think to my throat
**Gizmo:** pretty quick.
Mm-hmm. . So, uh, this is a Havana Connecticut wrapper, an Ecuadorian binder and Nicaraguan filler, and it's made in the Dominican Republic.
and they say it's a medium full cigar. It's full. I would say it for me, it, well, at least it's starting full. Yeah. Leans more [00:06:00] full. But we'll see how it ends up. I'm, I'm
**Senator:** just getting oak and pepper.
**Grinder:** I'm getting a little caram
**Senator:** black or Petco. Not,
**Grinder:** not, not
**Gizmo:** at the stage. You went to cut today. I'll be honest. I googled that word after the last episode.
I Googled that word. You can,
**Grinder:** you can, you can can, so what is Petco? It's a thing. I'm not fucking crazy.
**Poobah:** Yeah, I'm sure it is. Just no one knows what the fuck you're talking about. .
**Grinder:** You know what it is. You just didn't have a, you didn't have a name for it. That's true. Am I wrong?
**Poobah:** But what is it? There has to be some more kind of common description of that taste than those guess.
Guess pull that up. Lexicon.
**Gizmo:** Let's pull a Petro Corre lexicon
**Poobah:** or vocabulary? Vocabulary, whatever. Whatever you want to call it.
**Gizmo:** Petco a pleasant smell. The frequently a accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm dry weather.
**Poobah:** Oh, so like a damp kind of
**Gizmo:** smells like rain. Earthy. [00:07:00]
**Grinder:** Yeah, earthy. It's summer.
**Gizmo:** So what, why petro? It's Petra P It's actually Petre, it's Greek. It's spelled P T P E T R I. Relating to rocks.
**Rooster:** Nothing to do with petroleum.
**Grinder:** No. Well, petroleum is from rocks. Icor is actually a thing. I don't know what Icor is.
**Pagoda:** I think the CIGA tastes much better.
**Poobah:** Well, the light was a little bit rough, but it's, it's better now. It's, it's better now. Yeah. Um,
**Gizmo:** you know what I find about these? I mean, it's, it's interesting I guess, you know, we spoke about Padron a couple episodes ago, the Theo in Box Express, but I find that these, to me, they're not a very pretty cigar.
Like if you, if you were to take these bands off, it's not a very impressive looking cigar.
**Grinder:** It's
**Gizmo:** bumpy. Yeah. It's like, it's a bumpy, it's bumpy. The rapper's not, um, the cap to me is very exposed and clear. I don't know, it's just like it though. It's like
**Poobah:** that's a sing. I think it's a, is it single cap like [00:08:00] patron drones are, I can't tell.
No, it's not.
**Gizmo:** No, I don't think
patrons
**Senator:** are single
**Grinder:** cap. I think it's, I like this, uh, soft box
**Senator:** press too. I can't tell. Yeah. Yeah. I'll say this. I, I like the shape of the cigar because I think we're all a little bit of a sucker for a box press since we love Patron so much. But Gizmo, to your point, I mean, it, it's a toothy wrapper.
It, it's got a rustic look to it. It, it doesn't look all that refined and I feel like they tried to dress it up by putting that foot band on and two more bands on top of that. When I first smoked this cigar, I actually thought it started off very smooth. Hmm. I was shocked how smooth. , the finish we'll talk about as we go through this.
That was a very different experience. But for some reason, as this has sat in Gizmo's, humidor, this has started out a lot more aggressive than I remember when I first had this, you
**Grinder:** know what this by, by look and by like initial few draws, this is really reminding me of the Luk. Have you ever had that? Is that the my is
**Senator:** that my father
**Grinder:** have?
Oh, by my father. Right? That fucking [00:09:00] packs a punch. This is like the first few draws of this. It really hit me. And like, even, even like the foot band, the, the, the Michael's ribbon and like the big, the big bands on this like triple band, like Michael's
**Poobah:** Ribbon, like from Michael's art story. Yeah, yeah.
**Senator:** Right.
So to to your point, I, I see the visual similarities with Lek, but that's cigar. How have, who else has had that Lek? I have not. I have not. All right. So I, I, I'll never forget this cigar because if anyone asks me what the strongest cigar I've ever had in my life is, it's that my father Lek. I'll never forget, I was at, I was a few cigars deep into an evening and I was at a, a, a cigar lounge and I saw that cigar was rated within the top five some year in cigar fish anda, and it was on their list.
So I said, sure, let me try it. I could not believe how strong that cigar I, it, it was not smokable, it was not smoke. I mean, I was just pounding scotch to try to take away some of the bite of the cigar. It, it, it was
**Grinder:** just a really interest. So, so what [00:10:00] experience, so that's, but that's an interesting concept.
We're trying cigars because of ca Right. Cigar, fish and auto and their annual ratings. And it's driving, it's driving consumer demand in some way
**Senator:** or, or at least retailers supply as well. Well,
**Grinder:** absolutely. Right. And what, so what is driving, but that, that, as a, as a consumer, I have a, whatever, you know, I'll, I'll try anything.
But what is driving the CA's evaluation of certain cigars versus not? And accordingly, they're ratings.
**Gizmo:** Right? That's a great question. You know, and, and I know that they keep their process somewhat secret, I guess, but from what, the way that they describe it, from what I've seen on Instagram and stuff from, uh, David Savona and the other guys there, is that they all, they get shipped a, a package of cigars.
They're all completely un banded. They're numbered and they just smoke 'em and review 'em. Yeah. But gimme a
**Grinder:** break. They, they, they know what they're
**Gizmo:** smoking of. And there's gotta be some advertising. We know, we know what,
**Grinder:** we know what we're [00:11:00] smoking when we Yeah. You know, and when you're, when you're in the, when you're in the biz and you're smoking, you're, you're not, you're smoking cigars all day, every day.
And you're not, you're not even smoking the full S stick. Right. You're just like, you're smoking, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna try that. You know, they know what they're smoking and they have a refined palate and they're, they, you know, there's no, there's no, I'm sure there's some, you know, sanctity in the process that they are obliged to, but the reality is they know what they're smoking.
**Gizmo:** And I'm, listen, I'm looking at the top 25 from this year. and I know that we're, you know, we're picky about what we like to smoke and, and, and our preferences, but some of these are, are questionable at best to me in the top 25 1. All right, you ready? So number two was the Fuente Fuente Opus X double Robusto respectable number three, Pedro 1964 anniversary series in Hermosa, which is a shorter, fatter version of the exi we smoked a couple weeks [00:12:00] ago.
Number five is the punch short to punch from Cuba. That's a pretty decent, that's a nice, that is a good scar. Uh, the Oliva Siri v Melanio Churchill number eight.
**Grinder:** So there's, there's a, there's a, there's a manufacturer at that always shows up in the ne in the top five. Well, um, someone's, some listener's gonna correct, correct the fuck outta me for some reason.
But they're always in that,
**Poobah:** you know, Oliva? Yeah. Mm-hmm. , they do a lot of advertising.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. There you go. Well, that's what I, you know, and some of these like, same with Fuente, same with Fuente. and I think EP Carillo too, because they, the last three cigars that they've released in regular production have all top fived in the past few years.
I think number one in 20 18, 2 years ago was in EP Carillo as well. Which one was that? Uh, the one with the orangey band. The Encore. Yeah, the
**Grinder:** encore. This, this is, it was the top five. I This is not the encore. This is, yeah. Sorry. This, this is the pleasure of the pleasure. Oh yeah. The Encore.
**Senator:** Had anyone tried the encore on that?
I did. I'll just say I'm a sucker for this. [00:13:00] I, I criticized Cigar fish ANDA's ratings every year when they come out with this, but I can't remember a year I didn't try their cigar the year mm-hmm. . Yeah. And so I, I tried that Ep, Corillo, Encore Majestic, I think it was Cigar the year in 2018. If not, it was 19.
And it's not my typical flavor profile, so I, I would, it would not be a hard recommend for. . But it was unique and interesting in that I remember a lot of tea and floral notes. It was very smooth. It was just a different style than I'm used to. So I, I don't have anything overly negative to say about that cigar because for someone that likes that flavor profile, yeah, I'm sure that's a great cigar for them.
But for me it just didn't really, you know, it
**Grinder:** didn't excite me that much, you know, for that, that, that act, that cigar. I did have that cigar and I remember sitting in a cigar lounge in, um, you know, I think I was in small town, New Jersey and having that cigar because it just came out and they had a stock of them [00:14:00] and it was before the rush, right?
Like it just came out, the ratings just came out and they just happened to have 'em in stock. And I had it and I was like, you know, I won't be able to find this in a week. Right. And I loved it. It was great. Um, I would rate that, not rate, but I would, you know, rank order this, that one higher than this one so far.
From what I recall, and this is a year, you know, a while ago,
**Pagoda:** I kind of agree with you because I really, really enjoyed this CI guy for quite some time, I think. Yeah, I was smoking a lot of those, um, even into last year. Smoked quite a, quite a few of those. Yeah. Really enjoyed
**Gizmo:** it. Um, you're talking the encore Pagoda?
Yeah, the Encore.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Um, but I wasn't having the majestic size, I was having one of the larger sizes. Um, I just really enjoyed it, you know, it was, uh, what I thought was, uh, you know, somewhere between medium and bold, and I just enjoyed
**Grinder:** the flavors. So I, I, I like, I, I like most of the, most of the stuff that Ernesto Perez blends, like when [00:15:00] he, even to this day, I have like four or five boxes of the Series R, the original Laia Club Cubana, like that's the original fat stick, like that, that big almost.
I, it may be 60 ring gauge. I don't, I'm not sure, but it's a big. , very thick ring, ring, ring gauge cigar. And like, that's what brought him to the market. Like he, he was a blender at L G C, the, the North American, not, you know, the not Cuban cigar. And he made that cigar and it was, it's a, I love that cigar. I have so many great memories of smoking that cigar, and I still do to this day.
Uh, smoke the Siri. A and that's his, that's his original blend. And then he obviously went and did other stuff, right? He made his online and, you know, I, I actually, I even shared one of my favorite cigars. The, they made a, they made a cigar for the European market called the Cabinet. And I actually shared, I think I shared it with, uh, [00:16:00] with Senator.
That's right. It's a great cigar. It's light, it's got a lot of. It doesn't hit you in the face. It kind of, it's reminiscent of the Series R, but a little different. But it just never, it never took in the north, in the American market probably, cuz it was at the time, it was just everything was fat ring gauge.
Right. And, um, I had, I still have like 50 or 60 of those cigars in my humidor, various, various sizes. But
**Senator:** to, to Grindr's point, I, I, I vividly remember this, we were in his backyard sitting around a fire and he gave me this cigar. I had never even heard of it before. It was actually very, very good. I so good that I looked it up on my phone thinking where can I buy this?
And, uh, it's not made anymore. Yeah. So it's nice. Grindr shared it. But, um, I don't have a ton of experience with EP Carillo. I mean, I, I'm smoking this, I've had the Encore Majestic and apparently I've had that one from Grindr. But, um, that cigar was very good. The Encore Majestic, while not [00:17:00] my traditional flavor profile, I thought it had a really refined character about it.
So a respectable cigar. And this, obviously the jury's still out. We're, we're early into this one, so,
**Grinder:** but, but this is like the third, the third in this series. Right? So he released one, one year, then he had the encore, which is the second, like the encore, the second one.
**Gizmo:** The first one was Law Historia. Yeah.
Last
**Grinder:** story. Okay. Um, and it was like a, you know, you can even go, like, I remember listening to whoever does the reviews at ca on some YouTube video and him talking about the three, the three act play of not the cigar, but the actual introdu, you know, the actual release of these. And I was thinking to myself, what, you know, this is a good cigar.
I had this previously, but the previous two were actually, in my opinion, much better so far. So I have a
**Senator:** question for everyone. Has this started to smooth out for all of you? Because for me now, this is actually very smooth. Yes, it's smooth,
**Gizmo:** but I, I wouldn't say that. necessarily enjoying it thus far. [00:18:00] I'm
**Grinder:** enjoying the combustion.
It's a fucking phenomenal. The combustion com.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** It's not, I I'm not saying it's, uh, listen, I'm, this is not a bad cigar. It's not, it, it's just maybe not for me. Yeah. Um, but that doesn't mean it, it, it, it may not be for somebody else. I think if, um, it's just kind of not the kind of style of smoke that I enjoy particularly, but I'm trying to remain objective and, and, and, and take it for what
**Senator:** it is.
So, so what does that mean exactly? Yeah. When you say it's not your, so what specifically are
**Poobah:** you getting in specifically? Like, I'm getting, I feel like it's, like
it's really got an edge to it that is for my palette is not enjoyable. The, the
**Grinder:** edge is, is a little disturbing. It's not
**Gizmo:** the edge, it's the pledge.
**Poobah:** Pledge edge, right? It's the pledge edge . Well, it has like, but it's like, it's like peppery and, and [00:19:00] it's peppery in, in, in, in, and kind of just the over, I can't pinpoint what it is about it, it just doesn't taste that good.
And I, I, I know that, that's, that's, that's, I agree with that, that that's, I agree with him. I know that that's like really opaque way of ta saying it, but it's, it's not even like, it, it, it's spicy, but like, not in a good way. It,
**Grinder:** it kind of makes, I'll be honest, it's not, it's not a cigar that I'm like, oh, it's a Sunday afternoon.
It's 65 degrees. There's no wind, and I'm gonna really enjoy this on my deck. No, I'm probably, I'm, I'm, I'm a little, I'm a little s. I'm a little like, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to flex too many muscles to reach out and grab what I like about it. ,
**Poobah:** you know? Right. There's it, it's, I'm trying to de to dig deep into like, what this thing, and I don't wanna, like, I don't want to influence the group here.
I, I'm just saying, I, I can't find flavor notes in this thing that stand out [00:20:00] to me. I think it's actually, to be perfectly frank, I think it's muddled. Like, I think there's a lot of happening, but nothing particularly jumps out to me. I'm not like, oh, this is sweet, this is deep, this is earthy. It's kind of just spicy and a and slightly.
So I, listeners may jump on this for, jump on me for this, but not accurate, but like
**Pagoda:** something, yeah, I, I think it's not define. You know, like I've been trying to figure out like, what is that? Um,
**Rooster:** it's a lot of spice and it hits in the back of your throat. Your throat for
**Gizmo:** sure.
**Pagoda:** You feel that there's some
**Grinder:** pepper ish.
Yeah. But for me, that's not pleasurable. Right. So I'm curious, uh, um, gizmo, I don't, uh, MC Gizmo is there talking about what is enjoy about this. I'm sure ca has some review
**Poobah:** that says, say about it. What do think
**Gizmo:** about it before Gizmo
**Senator:** reads anything of what they say. Let's talk for a second about what they rated this cigar.
Thi this is the thing. I had the hardest time
**Gizmo:** with this, this Yeah, I agree. This is crazy. [00:21:00] This is below what they
**Senator:** mind out of a hundred points. They gave this cigar. Cigar in 98. 98, 98 a break.
**Gizmo:** What are they? Smoking?
**Grinder:** But so that, that's, that, that's when I, when I, I love, I love, we all love cigar fashionato.
The ratings. To me, when I see that score, I'm just like, really? So what are you guys smoking aside from these, these
**Gizmo:** sticks? Let me, let me say something. In their defense though, when we smoked this cigar for the first time in say, January or February, what I remember very specifically was that the first third was surprisingly different than anything I've ever had before.
There was almost I, and I think Senator, I think you and I smoked it together. There was almost a, a kind of like wine characteristic that coded your mouth that is missing for me right now. Well, but eight months later,
**Grinder:** drinking Clorox is different. That [00:22:00] doesn't mean it's good.
**Senator:** No, no. But is like, he's not saying different in a bad way.
He's saying different in a, in a, in a good way.
**Gizmo:** I, I mean, honestly, I'm saying it was different. I'm complimenting the cigar that I had when it originally came out. When I originally purchased it, I was like, okay, I get why they made this cigar the year like I understood for a moment, and then the end of the second, third and into the last third, I started to question it now, all this time later, coming to the end of the year, these guys, these guys have sat for a while in my humidor.
Um, it's certainly smoking better than it did when I originally purchased it. No doubt about that. The construction, the burn is definitely more of a highlight now than it was then. Okay, this
**Grinder:** is, let me interject. This is where I get fucking annoyed it. The, the, the wrapper and whatever they use to bind this just tore a piece of the wrapper off that annoys the fuck out of me.
**Gizmo:** Like, gimme a, I'm
**Rooster:** not there yet. You know, we have also been smoking a lot of Cuban cigars like throughout the summer and all those, most of the Cuban cigars are like medium, right? Not full, [00:23:00] full. Not a lot of spice. And this thing is like totally on the opposite spectrum, giving you a lot of spice, hitting you in the back of the throat, back of the tongue.
And we're just not, we're not used to those flavors. We haven't had this in a long time. Yeah. And we have not had anything. this spicy in a very long
**Gizmo:** time, and you're totally right. And, and
**Rooster:** so it's gotta, it's like a full, full flavored, you know, a lot of spice. And it's mostly spice. There's no sweetness, there's no citrus, there's no floral.
Now it's just a heavy spice
**Gizmo:** that you get to your point about the back of your throat. That's, I think the p the part of this I'm enjoying the least is how it feels sitting in the back of my throat after I draw it.
**Senator:** I agree. The delivery is not particularly smooth, which I think is what makes it not that enjoyable for a lot of us.
And I think Puba had a really nice way of explaining the flavors are, are muddled in that there's not, I've, I've [00:24:00] still not one of us has picked out a really dominant flavor outside of pepper and spice. I mean, that's really all you're getting. You're not getting some vanilla or earth or cocoa there, there's, there's none of that.
It's all just. Hidden behind this bomb of spice and pepper. And, and that's kind of disappointing
**Rooster:** there. There needs to be another, something to balance out the spice. You know, I don't think it's a balanced smoke, it's just kind of dominant in spice. I
**Pagoda:** remember smoking this sojo, I guess. Uh, and, um, you know, this is once again, I think earlier during the year and I, I remember a rooster, I was speaking to you about it, and I said, the first, third or half was awesome.
And then I just couldn't hack it. Right. Something just the flavor profile had changed, and I remember, and then after that, you know, I, I think, uh, I got around tens of in a box or something. I think it was a box of 10, uh, or a pack of 10, I'm not sure. [00:25:00] But thereafter I finished those. I, I just wasn't able to reorder them.
Uh, but, you know, um, um, this is obviously a, a different size, so I haven't felt that dramatic change. Yet. So, um, let's see what it brings.
**Gizmo:** So here's what, uh, cigar Fish Anda said. It's a delicious smoke that delivers flavor in bold, zesty parcels of spicy oak licorice, black cherry and black pepper baking spices sing like a holiday chorus.
And when you think you've tasted all the cigar has to offer a warm, familiar note of baked apple settles across the palette. That performance alone is what sent the cigar straight to the top of the list. However, when you look at this as part of a larger body of the work, you see that the Perez Carillo trilogy nearly hit the trifecta as now as two out of the three of these were named Cigar the Year, and the other one, uh, was I guess number three or number four, uh, a couple years ago.[00:26:00]
**Grinder:** Yeah, I mean, the thing, the thing for me about this is that the two, the, the other cigars that I love about ep Carillo that I spoke about, it's so f so different from this. And almost part of me is almost saying like, CA is like, this guy is a fucking legend, which he is. His family's a they're great, you know, his daughter's running the business.
They're, they're, they make phenomenal cigars, great construction. They're, they're great, right? And they're almost like, this is the thing that's disturbing me is that I feel like they're just kind of, Hey, let me give you, I'm gonna give you the gold star for being an awesome, you know, awesome manufacturer and like this, because it's so different from what I love about EP Carillo tho those cigars I was describing.
Even like, even the different, the Maduro, the natural, all in the series are, and even when he left, you know, they, they kept that blend and those other EP Carillo, EP Carillo that came out when he started his online, they're very different from this. And I'm just like, you know, maybe they're, it's like, okay, you've been in the business [00:27:00] forever.
We're trying to praise you for being one of the stalwarts. You know? And that maybe that's, that's just part of the business. I'm not, I'm not in the
**Poobah:** business. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's a fair point. . Um, I can only speak for what I'm for, for what I'm experiencing right now. And to me it's, it's linear, generic, and aggressive would be the two, the three things that, that, that, that, and, and I don't mean aggressive, like super aggressive, but it's a, it's, this is the cigar that, um, if, if that's your thing.
Um, I don't, the sweetness that cigar FAA speaks of, I'm, if, if I was experiencing it, I, I, I, I would, um, I'd mention it, but I, I don't really get that. Or caramel or some of these other notes or baking spices. I mean, well, I got, I'm not getting any of that.
**Grinder:** I got the, I got the cardamone when I [00:28:00] first, I think I mentioned that I did get some of that when I first was into
**Poobah:** it.
Maybe in the beginning a little. . Uh, but, you know, but, but, but that doesn't take away from the merits of what this is, if that's what you like. I mean, like, I think there's a lot of people who probably love the cigar. Um, you know, feel free to beat me up. Um, I think you're right though, but, you know, maybe there are people who like this.
Yeah. But,
**Senator:** so I want to go back to something Grindr said because I think there, there is, there's a pattern with EP Corillo in that, my impression of that brand and Grindr knows that brand far better than I do, is that what they do really well are medium cigars. They're not known for full flavor bombs that you would get out of some other brands.
I mean, this is probably the strongest, if not one of the strongest cigars they make. Is that, is that accurate? Yeah,
**Grinder:** well, yeah. I mean, well the, the, I think, I think the, when he was at L G [00:29:00] C. , and I don't know who owns l who was owning Lgc at the time. He made that, that line of cigar, right. The ciar, that that cigar was certainly medium, almost mild in, in some way, and it was very sweet and nutty and beautiful.
**Senator:** But that's what I'm getting at. I I just feel like they, because clearly and cigar pallets are, are skewing, at least in the new world, in, in the us they're skewing fuller in flavor. And I, I feel like EP Corillo tried to capture that by producing this cigar. And I just think when you compare this to other cigars that are full flavor, new world cigars, they deliver that flavor in a much smoother, in a much more refined way, in a much more complex way than this cigar does.
Uh, to me, I just, I, I, I feel like this is a bit out of their element that they, they don't really understand how to blend a cigar like this to deliver that amount of flavor in a smooth way where you can pick out these flavor notes, I mean, to hear Gizmo [00:30:00] name all these notes that cigar aficionado's getting out of this cigar where, I agree, I think all of us in this room are saying that's lost by just spice and oak and not much more.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** It's just, there's not, I'm not getting much more out of that, but maybe somebody else could, somebody else clearly did, or it's just a bunch of bullshit, which is possible. I mean, but I don't think so. I mean, I think that the, look, I think people want to, I think the folks at ca aren't com probably aren't completely, you know, off the rocker are just making shit up.
But, but you know, the, these are people in the cigar business who are in the business of generating revenue for the book. Um, we all know what ad revenue, uh, means . So, and I'm not saying that's the main driver, but, um, who knows? I, I, I, I'm, you know, [00:31:00] how many ti you know, how many times can you give a patron or give, give some of the legendary Cuban cigars a award awards each year in a book?
I mean, you, it's can't do it point. So if we were sitting around and we ran the book, we, we'd give it a patron every year. Well, well, no, I mean, you wouldn't be able to, you wouldn't be able to do that. Your advertisers would go bye-bye. You know, you wouldn't be able to do that. You'd need to spread the love around.
And, and, and it's the same thing, whether it's industry award shows. If you just give the same awards to the same companies every year, you know, and no one else gets the taste, a piece of the pie. You can't sell any additional tables to the event. And people say, you know, and they gotta spread it around. So I get that.
Uh, you know, you gotta spread it around this cigar. I just don't really understand. I don't understand the appeal, but I do understand how somebody could like it. I mean, it's not like it's offensive, but it's certainly not approachable. [00:32:00] It's not an easy cigar to approach. Like it's, this is not an approachable smoke for e even the casual person.
I think
**Pagoda:** this would be a great outdoor cigar. Really. Like if you are into strong, stronger cigars, I, because the construction's great, the draw is great, the combustion is great. It is, you know, if you feel like you want smoke cigar on CI's, great point, course, slightly windy day. If it holds up, I haven't tried this to be very honest, but if it holds up and the combustion's great, you know, uh, I would rather smoke this outside,
**Grinder:** to be honest.
So there, there's a, like, there's one thing I do, I do like about the cigar, the second hand aroma. I'm gonna trademark that. Secondhand aroma. TM is really, I like, I like that. I like when I'm, when I hold it to my, to my nose and I'm not inhaling, not inhaling, but I'm, I'm, when I'm not puffing on it and tasting it, it's, it's very pleasant.
But I agree [00:33:00] with that. But, but, but when I taste it and I actually smoke it, it's, you know, it's, it's a lot for me. And, and
**Gizmo:** I think to, to Bogota's point too, I think about being an outdoor cigar, you know, an outdoor cigar with a thick wrapper on it, you know, thi for 10 bucks, thi this is certainly gonna perform very well in, you know, as Puba described about thei, that tornado scenario.
I think this would perform very well. And what I'm finding too is even when I take a little bit of a draw on it, I'm getting a ton of smoke. Yeah. There's certainly no lack of, of chiming. Oh, the combustion really good.
**Poobah:** Combustion good. No doubt about it. Combustion real good. And actually, I, it's funny, I just got to the middle and now I'm actually, this is like the most.
Pleasurable part of the cigar. Now it actually is doing something that's changing and now I'm actually enjoying it way more. Am I wrong?
**Senator:** Not at all. I was just gonna go there. So the second half when you get to the middle, you start to get sweetness
**Poobah:** out of the cigar. Yeah. Now I'm starting to pick something up that's better, I think, I think
**Gizmo:** has flipped since the first time we smoked [00:34:00] it.
**Grinder:** You know? It's true. What I'm, what I'm, what I'm finding is that, can we talk about what we're
**Gizmo:** pairing with this? Because I, before, before we get to that though, I, I need to know, as our resident, full-bodied cigar smoker, I'm curious what rooster thinks of this so far as a, you know, a guy who smokes a patron 90th for breakfast?
So, I mean,
it
**Rooster:** did start with a lot of spice and, but halfway through I was getting a lot of spice also, but, , it has changed to a little bit of sweetness. Sweetness. And I was just gonna mention of like, maybe ca you know, you really have to smoke the whole cigar to, to really find out, you know, what they're talking about.
Maybe they don't tell you whether those notes came in the beginning, in the middle, or kind of to the end. So the cigar now has gotten a little smoother and gotten a little sweeter and the spice has gone down or diminished a little bit. I agree.
**Senator:** I'm, I'm actually enjoying the middle and, and, and I wasn't the first half.
So the jury's still
**Gizmo:** out.
**Rooster:** So do you [00:35:00] recommend cutting the flick? The just smoke half
**Gizmo:** of it. Cut the f cut the first half off. Cut the first half off. I'll
**Senator:** just let Gizmo cut my cigar.
**Grinder:** I think we all,
**Gizmo:** it's never gonna end. It's funny. And
**Poobah:** you'll get Old Spice right as I was literally four minutes, three, four minutes after I gave that kind of three point play.
Linear aggressive it. This is now. it, it changed a little, I mean, it literally changed just a bit now where I'm actually like, okay, well if this first half had more notes in it like this, see? So it's changing. And maybe, maybe that's a testament to, to, uh, some of the complexity that's in the cigar that maybe we haven't appreciated fully yet.
I, I, I, I, it's, it's, it's better now than it was 15 minutes ago.
**Gizmo:** All right, so let's talk about our pairing tonight. We've, we've switched gears a little bit as far as what we've [00:36:00] been doing in, in past podcasts and we've kind of gone the other end of the spectrum and we are sipping a 12 year aged Kirkland blend from Rooster's favorite place in the entire world, Costco.
**Poobah:** Well, I mean, this sounds like lunine. It sounds insane. Okay. And I, and, and maybe for the listener, or maybe it doesn't, I, I, I don't know. But, um, gizmo brought the scotch to the lounge. Um, a couple of times. He was, uh, he was subsequently ridiculed and then, uh, said, well, why don't you try it assholes before you ridicule me about my Costco scotch?
I gotta tell you this, it's a blended scotch. It's what's the price tag on it? 34
**Gizmo:** 99 for a 1.75 liter. Right. So
**Poobah:** you're saying this has to be absolute shit. You say to yourself, this has to be. Garbage, [00:37:00] like, tastes like doers or something. It doesn't . I mean, it doesn't, you
**Gizmo:** just offended a lot of listeners .
**Poobah:** No, I mean, I, I, Hey look, I, I, I'll drink doers with the twist.
**Gizmo:** We just lost half the
**Poobah:** audience there. No, no, no, no. I'll drink doers with the A twist. I grew up on that stuff. Um, certainly poaching it from my dad's liquor cabinet, um, who was a doer's drinker. He drank j and b, drank Cuddy, um, you know, back in the eighties. I, I, I would, I would poach that stuff all the time and, and, and into my early twenties I would drink that.
But this is not that, this is not anything. , those kind of, I guess, I don't know what you would characterize them, but like doers or Cuddy or like a, like a budget JB or a budget, kind of a budget blend, I guess A budget. Blended scotch. Yeah, this scotch is really super drinkable and I don't really understand exactly what's behind it.
Maybe you guys do, I've tried to Google it a couple of times, but [00:38:00] money for value, it's, it's really, it outpaces the, the dollar value, the quality of this big time. It's super drinkable. I
**Gizmo:** mean, it's effectively 17 bucks a bottle, you know, compared to another seven 50, uh, you know, uh, bottle of scotch. I mean, it's 17 bucks a bottle and, and the flavor that it delivers at that price is unmatched, unbeatable.
It's incredible to me. I'm blown away by it. So
**Senator:** I, I'll, I'll say this as a scotch snob and I'm, I'm happy to have that label. , I, I, we, I was sitting in, in my lounge here, and Rooster came by, I think Bam, bam was there. And Rooster says, Senator, you have to try this Kirkland, 12 year scotch that Gizmo brought to lounge the other day.
I wasn't there when you guys sampled it. And I said, immediately to Rooster, I said, you couldn't pay me to drink a Costco scotch. I'm sorry. That's just not gonna happen there. There's no way [00:39:00] that Costco can make a scotch that I'm gonna enjoy. And so the next time Rooster came by, he brings this giant, what, what feels like a 50 pound bottle of scotch from Costco.
And he pours some for me in Bam. And he's like, just try it. Both of us. Bam. And I looked at each other completely stunned. One, how smooth this was for a $17, a bottle of Scotch, and two, the flavor that it delivered. In a really nice, refined, not at all aggressive way. So I, I'll just say for anyone out there who is very particular about their scotch, my favorite everyday scotch is Macallan 12.
I think most of the guys in this room are, are in the same boat there, dollar for dollar. There is no better everyday scotch that I've tried than this. So I, I thank Gizmo for going out on a lemon
**Poobah:** and purchasing this. Absolutely. It's super [00:40:00] approachable. But, but let's be clear, like it is not a single malt scotch.
It is not, this does not have the com n it doesn't have, it's, I would characterize it as really drinkable, really pleasant and really approachable and leave it at that, it, it doesn't deliver this kind of like complexity that you're gonna get from a single malt scotch, but it just, it tastes really good and it's really smooth and it's really drinkable.
**Grinder:** So the first thing I would say about this scotch is that one, with this cigar, it actually pairs very nicely. It pairs very well because it's, it's very, the, the scotch is very smooth. It has this hint of sweetness. It's not offensive. It's very to, to poop his point. It's very drinkable and it really balance, for me, it balances off, I don't want to use this word cuz it's not completely apt.
The offensiveness of some of the harsh, you know, notes that I get in this cigar now. So the, [00:41:00] so Alexander Murray is, is the brand that actually blends this scotch, right? The fascinating thing is this guy, I don't even know if he's Scottish or who, Alexander Murray is not the name of the guy. Some, some, it's some other company.
It's, it's founded by some, it's a company. But he, the brand is Alexander Mary. I don't know, do we know who, what, who founded Alexander Mary? I don't. This the, the, the brand is based, I think it's based in California. I just know Andy Maray. So I think it's based in . I think it's based in California. And the guy wins.
It's like a boot, like a boutique, you know, blender that he, he brings in. Um, you know, he brings the, the scotch industry is so complex because they have so many of these, of these blended, the blended scotch industry is like, there's so many distillers in Scotland. We talked about this on a previous episode.
He brings in all these different SCOs. And the reality is, it, it kind of does have, you know, I, I'll maybe, um, [00:42:00] the antithesis of what you just said, I do get a, it's like a, it's like a better version of a doers , in my opinion. Like I and I, and I, I drank doers when I was in college. Absolutely. And when I, when I was like, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna drink bush light or pictures of s of it Yeah.
S of it. I, I, and I, and I love, and I love drinking it. I was, I was like, really cool. I'm like, oh, I'm sophisticated now. I'm just like, you were like an idiot. But. I like it. It's reminiscent to that in a way, but it's so much better and it's so drinkable, so
**Senator:** much better than the doers. Yeah. I wanna say, I'm sorry, just to do this Scotch justice, it's leaps and bounds better than doers.
Yeah. Percent clear. Thousand percent. When you're, when you're flying, you know, American Airlines for years, I'm an American flyer. They, they always had doers and, and I, I, I never enjoyed it. I just didn't, and you can even compare this to, you know, people who drink Johnny Walker Black. Like that's a serviceable, you know, blended scotch.
It's, it's nothing great, but like, it's drinkable. This is leaps and bounds to me. Better than Johnny Black than Shiva than, yeah. Absolutely. Well, uh, doers, I would drink [00:43:00] this over any of those blended SCOs any day of the week. Yeah. This has a fuller flavor profile. It's, it's more balanced. It's smooth. I mean, all blended SCOs are smooth because they're blended.
That's what they're going for. But this just delivers more flavor in a smooth way that I think those others are not capable. Yeah, I,
**Grinder:** I wouldn't describe this as full flavor in by any means, but Johnny
**Gizmo:** Walker Black is
**Senator:** relative to those other SCOs. I'm sorry. Doers is practically,
**Poobah:** yeah, dos is shit. Walker Water.
But Johnny Lurker Black is, is not, I would not characterize, well see. Maybe I'm ba see I have an attachment to that brand. It got me. Me too. I have an attachment to Johnny Walker Black. I drank a lot of Johnny Walker Black with my dad. I drank a lot of it on fucking airplanes and like, I don't know. I've drank a lot of that in my life.
Would you drink that over.
**Pagoda:** any day with alush of soda .
**Senator:** So, so, alright, Puba, help me understand splush, your, your thermo, which we should [00:44:00] talk about your thermos, which we should talk
**Grinder:** about. We cannot, we
**Gizmo:** cannot. Where do you put this on the boat?
**Senator:** Why, why, why not fill your thermos with Johnny Black?
**Poobah:** Why this is good on the boat.
Um, but
**Grinder:** fill the boat, the boat Part of me thinks
**Pagoda:** this is better without club soda. I have, I have an opinion with Johnny Black. I think I preferred with a splu of soda for some reason. Can we first
**Gizmo:** trying a
**Grinder:** couple things. One you tried with, let's define what Alush is. No. And then two, I'm curious to hear your commentary on why you know it's different.
Because I think I have a pretty strong opinion
**Poobah:** about white. Well, it's Woody, it's woodier. Johnny Walker Black is, is a woodier scotch than this. And it's, it's, it's definitely has a lot more body than this is. It is like, would I pour Johnny Walker Black? I can drink this straight with no ice. This Kirkland Scotch.
I agree with that and it's very, very smooth. Would I, would I just drink Johnny Walker Black not over ice? Probably not. But like it delivers a different, [00:45:00] um, the, the, it delivers a little bit more of a woody full-bodied taste that tastes just like Johnny Walker. Yeah. I mean, I don't know,
**Gizmo:** but is that the nostalgia talking?
Is that the history
**Poobah:** Talking it, it could totally be that, but it's that, but I can only, I can just be honest about how I feel about it. Sure. I mean, like, I've, I, I've had a lot of like deals, talks things over Johnny Walker Black in the day that like make me feel like I don't, yeah. I, I can't condemn that, that spirit or like sh shit on it and just say this Kirkland Scotch.
I just love it more. I, I, I can't say that, but I, but I think it has merits this. I, I, I don't know. So for me it could be the nostalgia talking for
**Grinder:** me. The, and I'm glad you said that, but for me, the, like I did, I do get some of those like subtle vanilla doers ish. But I think why [00:46:00] we like this scotch is because I do get that a little bit of sherry and I don't think, I don't know if it's got sh maybe it does, but I get a little Sherry, I, I agree with you.
And, and I feel like it, there's like some, that's why we like Mac 12 Sherry, right? Yep. And I get, it's got just enough Sherry to me to make me coming
**Senator:** back, make me come back. I agree. You know what I mean? I agree. It's poor man's Macallan. Like that's the beauty I think of this scotch. You know, for most of us, our favorite everyday scotch is Macallan 12.
This is a substitute for that. When you don't wanna spend 65 bucks a bottle and you wanna spend 17 and just sit at home and pour yourself a glass of it's scotch while we grab
**Poobah:** as much
**Senator:** of it as we can. Right. And I'm, and I'm not shitting on Johnny Black. I'm just saying I think that any scotch that we like, we can sip neat and enjoy as much, or almost as much as with a cube in that.
and Johnny Black. I can't enjoy meat. I can drink with some, you know, a few cubes. And the fact that this scotch at this price point, I can sip [00:47:00] this need or any way and, and it always delivers. And I can't believe, again, the fact that I'm defending a Kirkland Scotch is the guy who is the most opposed to drinking this.
When a number of you presented this as apparently a good scotch, I, I just think dollar for dollar,
**Gizmo:** it's very hard to be, it's a, it's a fair argument and I agree. I think that what's interesting about this to me is, is number one, I found this on a cigar forum. That's where I've, I, I found this recommendation for the scotch was on a cigar forum.
Guys were saying how well this worked with cigars and I think that we have been. Proven, you know, it's, it's certainly proven itself in, in our time together. I mean, how much of this have we had? I mean, when I go to, uh, Costco and buy this stuff, I, I look like a crazy person cuz I'm rolling out of there with 12 of these Magnum bottles and a hotdog
I, that's what I leave the store with. I leave with two full cases of this, of this scotch and a hotdog . That's what I
**Senator:** walk out. I do feel we need to disclose for the listener that Rooster and Gizmo are likely [00:48:00] shareholders in Costco .
**Gizmo:** Well, I think, I think Rooster spends a lot more money in Costco than I do.
I literally only buy scotch and hotdogs there. That's it.
**Grinder:** I don't do, we know, we buy, don't the hot dogs. Do we know the, the hotdog blender? I do want
**Pagoda:** to talk about the exotic dog. It's the same guy by the way, . No, I do, I do wanna talk because I grew up with that and I think at the end of the day, me too.
What I feel is, um, you know, whether it's a cigar or scotch, um, They can mean different things to different people. For me, uh, Johnny Black was one of the first SCOs I had. I used to share it with my dad. Um, loved it. A lot of my friends drink it. It was our go to scotch. Um, I love it, man. Go to, you can, you can gimme Johnny Black today and I'll drink it without hesitation.
Um, and I really do like it with a little bit of club soda. I typically don't drink it need. Um, but having said that, I think the Kirkland [00:49:00] Scotch you can drink without club soda and I think you can just put a cup ice because there is that Sherry, the sweetness. I do agree with that, but I don't know whether it's better than the Johnny Black.
Uh, you know, it's, once again, it, um, is all about what you feel. Uh, when you're drinking it and when you're smoking cigars and, yeah. I, I just, it's all about you and
**Poobah:** your individual taste. It, it really is that I have just too many memories of just walking up to a bar and sitting down and just ordering a Johnny Walker Black or sharing one with my dad that I can't just, I can't, you know, it, it's this nostalgic
**Rooster:** for me, but there's no other blended scotch that, that you can get
**Gizmo:** this value from.
No, it's incredible for the price point. It's fantastic. It's unbeatable. And think, think about if you're reaching for a mc, you know, you have a couple choices. It's a, it's a random night of the week. You want some scotch. You're talking a 41 to 45 to maybe even $50 if you're in Florida. [00:50:00] Swing on that same bottle of scotch.
Right. I mean, the value in 40 to six, 50 to $60 of a swing at a price of scotch. To me, I, I, I, I only
**Poobah:** drink journal, only Walker Black on an airplane. Yeah. That's the only place I drink. It is on a plane. I, you know, I, I get it. Like I've moved on this though. I, you know, dollar for dollar you regret, by the way, if it was more, if it was like significantly more expensive than what it is, I may not feel the same way about this Kirkland.
But, but dollar for, for, for value. Well that's Costco.
**Gizmo:** Costco does that. It's ridiculous. Costco Costco's
**Rooster:** pricing is that way. I mean, they make 15, 20% maybe profit on, on a bottle like that. But if this bottle was on, you know, on a regular shelf somewhere else, this would
**Gizmo:** be like triple the
**Senator:** price. I just wanna say two things.
The, the first, I don't think that we need to just exclusively compare this to Johnny Walker Black. No, we [00:51:00] don't. I don't think this is a battle of Johnny Walker versus this scotch. No. So I just wanna say that. And the second thing is, I'm sorry and this is the purest in me and the scotch snob in me. If you need to mix a scotch with soda, it's not a great scotch in agree, my opinion.
And so will I drink when I don't want just straight scotch and I just want something mellowed out? Will I order a Johnny Black and Soda? Yes. Because I don't want an aggressive drink. I want just sip something very slowly and, and, and not really imbibe too heavily, but for a good scotch, am I ever gonna dare put anything carbonated?
Yeah. In that? Absolutely
**Grinder:** not. First of all, I've never, I've never had I've first point of contention, you're missing out. You still haven't defined pl. Second point of contention, sploosh swoosh,
**Poobah:** sploosh pl, . Sorry. I heard Sploosh never dos and soda with the lemon twist sorority
**Pagoda:** slip. So Brenda, I [00:52:00] don't think you go to, uh, bars and drink because if you were to go to a bar and drink, And you would order it with a bartender.
You would say, Hey, can I get a splash of club soda or apl, which is just a very little
**Grinder:** yes. With a shitty scotch. Okay, so first of all, okay, shitty. Alright, tell me that. Point, point, 0.1 is resolved. Point two. I've never had Johnny Walker Black 0.3. I've
**Poobah:** never had a scotch with any kind of SPL or splash
**Grinder:** or any, whatever you wanna call it, of car of of soda water in it.
Never.
**Senator:** So, to to Grindr's point, I just wanna quickly go around the room. I want you to tell me one time that you have ordered a Macallan 12 with carbon. Carbon, single molds soda in it. That's a single, I'm
**Grinder:** gonna just go,
**Pagoda:** I'm just gonna go single. Mold puba, single mold, single malts. You wouldn't put soda.
Yeah. The
**Senator:** rest of the world club, you're so out. Surprised. You would never def defile that single, that is a soda. Water, water. The same way that if you are doing that, it's because the scotch is not that great to enjoy on its own and it's [00:53:00] enhanced by the. Putting some water to take that bite away that it has.
And that's what I give this credit for, is that I don't, none of us have to do that to enjoy this, where to enjoy Johnny Black. I do have to do that. But
**Gizmo:** if it's an Indian thing, it's thing.
**Pagoda:** Think there at least a billion people drinking that. In fact, should, should more Johnny, more Johnny Walker Black all globally.
To
**Senator:** be clear, I I'm saying you, you should do that with Johnny Walker, black or red, because it's not as enjoyable on its own. I, I, I agree with that. If it's 19, I'm saying, great SCOs. You don't
**Poobah:** have to do that. But, but Senator, you're slightly younger if it's 1987 Okay. And you just put some white rain hair, moose in your hair, , and you, and, and, and you're, and you're listening and you're listening to El de Barge
Okay? And you're listening to El de Barge and getting ready to go to a party. And you, and, and there's doers there, and you do, and you put a [00:54:00] splash of club soda and a lemon twist in it. You're rocking and partying like it's fucking 1999. I'm, what my point is, is like, you know, there was a time in, there was a time in my life where, you know, you're putting a hair gel in, you're going out, you're, you, you know, you're going out to a club, Joey Harrison Surf Club in, down the Jersey Shore, and it's fucking 87 degrees out and you got a bum equipment sweatshirt on and you're, and you're, and you're like, gimme a doers and soda with the lemon twist.
And you're talking to some girl named Kristen with, you know, hair that's three inches higher. Hairspray. And she's from Clifton, New Jersey like, That's like a different drink. You're like just drinking. Totally. So, so, so like, and you're also
**Rooster:** slushing some
**Poobah:** dk hon before Yeah. And you Exactly. You've got Kar Noran, that's another, it's another Indian.
Another Indian Santa. You've got, [00:55:00] you've got white rain, moose in your hair. Chorus, chorus. And you're drinking a doers and soda with the lemon twist. This is a, this is a, I don't know about the
**Gizmo:** lemon twist. And to be clear, no
**Senator:** one's taking that away from, from you or, or that, what I'm just saying is if you're at this age enjoying a cigar at home by yourself, hard negative, you're, you're not reaching for that.
Still
**Poobah:** hard negative. That's all I'm saying. You're not reaching for that still.
**Gizmo:** All right, so we're coming down to the final moments of the EP pledge here. What are you guys getting in this last third? It's
**Grinder:** mellowed. It's mellowed. It's much better. Yeah. I mean, What the combustion. The combustion is really phenomenal.
I'll be
**Poobah:** honest. It's like I recommend
**Rooster:** like cutting off the first third of the cigar and smoke the rest .
**Gizmo:** That's, that's fair. With alush of club soda and the scotch.
**Grinder:** I think that so good. You're good. Let me, let me get a, I'm going get apl, I mean a sploosh of that. I, I, I'm still, I'm still struggling with the, the piece of rapper that was torn off by the, um, you know, the whatever kind of ring they have on this, the over [00:56:00] banding.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Um, I will say the band, the fi the, the, the band that's closest to the, the head of the cigar is, it's a very thick, like very thick band. Like I, I don't know if I've ever had a cigar that had such a thick piece of paper on it for that band. It's, you haven't had enough opus? I haven't had a lot of opus, that's correct.
But, uh, yeah, it's, it's really nice. And I guess for the listener, the thing that, the success that I've had with that, when I, when I noted, you know, I Grinder had that problem ripping it off, just wait till it heats up a little bit. Wait till it gets a little closer and. And rip them off in succession. So hopefully you don't rip the wrapper up.
But, um, are you guys ready to give it the, uh, our, our formal lizard rating? Let's do it. I think so. Let's do it. Rooster. What do you got on the, uh, the pledge?
**Rooster:** I think I'm gonna go with a seven. I think seven
**Gizmo:** is fair.
**Poobah:** Puba, I, uh, I, I concur. I'll go with a seven.
**Gizmo:** I am gonna go with a six.
**Senator:** I'm gonna go with a
**Grinder:** seven, [00:57:00]
**Pagoda:** I think for, uh, the construction, the draw, the combustion, definitely a seven.
**Grinder:** I'm a five.
**Rooster:** Wow. You like it the most. Our,
**Gizmo:** our
**Senator:** official lizard score puts this at a 6.5
**Gizmo:** mm. I would call that a, uh, a soft pass. .
**Senator:** A soft pass. Or a modest recommend. Modest
**Grinder:** recommend maybe. I mean, I, I would never smoke this cigar again unless I have to. Yeah. Um, it's, it's smokable anything less than a five it, that's so
**Poobah:** much better in the second
**Gizmo:** half.
It did it though. I definitely think it did to me, to me, just in my throat.
**Grinder:** Uh, it did, but it's not, not enough for me to like, I'm gonna buy the cigar and fucking smoke the shit out of it. No,
**Poobah:** I, I'm, I have to tell you, I'm very glad that I did this and I, and I'd like to explain why. Cuz I will drop a cigar into the ashtray, like second period French, right off the fucking schedule.
I will, I I will, I [00:58:00] will, I will ditch it. Cuz, cuz it's, it's too much of my time. My time is not worth. Agreed. I would've ditched, I would not have hung in with the cigar if we were out the lounge and not doing this review. I would've ditched the cigar maybe a third of the way through and said, fuck this. I would've,
**Gizmo:** I've seen him do.
He, he's,
**Grinder:** he's done it with some brilliant, good. I've seen him, we got some really nice
**Gizmo:** cigars.
**Pagoda:** I've, I've seen a lot of lizards do a lot of dumping into the ashtray.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I would've said, fuck this, and I would've dumped it. And I, you know what? I'm kind of glad that, that I stuck with it because I can see the merits of the cigar, which is why I gave it a seven down the stretch.
It, it, it, the first half was actually, I would call it not pleasurable, but the second half really showed some of its, maybe there's potential, maybe it needs more age.
**Grinder:** I don't know. See, that's where, that's where I'm just like, but if I, if, if we have to wait half of a cigar to really, to, to when it's actually pleasurable, [00:59:00] to your point, why, why, why
**Poobah:** are we doing this?
I mean, it's so much better right now than it was at the be than the first half or the first
**Gizmo:** 60%. So
**Senator:** thi this goes back to something we discussed on an earlier episode where, We're talking about, do we, do we want a cigar to be consistent all the way through? Do we want a three act play? And there are merits on both sides, and I, I feel that way for sure.
But if this cigar were consistent all the way through like that second half, I think we all would've given this a much higher rating. And I think what's disappointing is that the way they blended this cigar, they were not able to achieve those flavors all the way through. And, and that, that's what's disappointing about this.
But what I will say for, you know, who may this appeal to, if you love full, really aggressive, intense cigars and you're gonna love this cigar, but let me ask you
this
**Grinder:** senator who's, who's actually smoking, do you see people like pulling this out and.
**Gizmo:** You [01:00:00] know, I do, I do see it on the forums. People, I, you know, and again, I'm not gonna discount the listener's, uh, palette, but I don't know if it's hype or if it's actual enjoyment of the cigar.
Are people just celebrating that? It's number one. But I see a lot of guys smoking the cigar. And, and I'll also
**Senator:** say, I, I, I'm not surprised by that because there are, there are smokers out there who love the le ju that we were talking about, and that's a cigar that's way too strong for my palate, but clearly for some others, that works.
So if you love that cigar, you're, you're easily gonna love this, that, that's the only point I'm making. For me, I like a medium, full, full cigar. This is a full plus where I, I just can't
**Poobah:** enjoy the, the, the thing that's interesting is that it's so much better right now. Down the stretch. Yes. Than it was.
Which is unusual cuz so often you light a light a havanas and you're like, and it, and it'll start really great and then you're like the last third, you're like, Ooh, maybe this needs some time to round out, needs a little more age or [01:01:00] something. And you can start to get some of these like rough edges that are actually not appealing.
I think it's more appealing now, like, I'm enjoying this now. I would've dropped it and yeah, I would have dropped this thing at this point in the cigar and just said, screw it, I'm still smoking it. Yeah. So that's interesting.
**Grinder:** But, and, and, and I think it speaks like net net for me, a cigar that starts really strong.
Not strong flavor but strong cuz you like it, but you know, but then needs some rounding out. Net net is better than a cigar that is not, not great and then really inspires in the second half. And you know, maybe that's just because, because we're human beings and we we're, we're kind of subjective and we make our opinions quickly.
It's the reason why first impressions actually count. You know,
**Gizmo:** I think
**Rooster:** a lot of TAA smokers would
**Gizmo:** maybe go for this. Ah, yeah. That's a think sos similar. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point, Mr. That's a good point.
**Rooster:** Yeah, I think, I [01:02:00] mean, I, I mean, I do, I used to smoke some tattoo eyes. One of my favorite, uh, tattoo eyes is maybe the, uh, petite casados that might be a, you know, worthy of, uh, future podcasts maybe.
But, uh, so yeah, I mean, tattoo eyes very similar. You know, a lot of spice and a lot of the sticks. So maybe those guys who, who love tattoo eyes might want to give this a shot
**Gizmo:** and, and
**Senator:** to this cigars. Uh, the only TAA I like is the one you mentioned, rooster, the Petite Casados, but the other TAA Hays. I've had the black label, the, um, SSOs, they came out with Kaju Kaju T one.
I'm really not a fan of any of those. Yeah, they, I'm actually, I would smoke this over any of those that I just named. So I agree with you. I think a Taua smoker would like this and I, I even would say would probably prefer this. Prefer
**Gizmo:** this, right?
**Poobah:** Yeah, I think that's fair.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys fair a 6.5 for the EP Carillo Pledge Prequel [01:03:00] and, uh, try it.
Delicious Scotch Judge for yourself and listen for 10 bucks. I can't, I can't tell the listener not to listen, you know, not to try the cigar. I think for 10, 11 bucks, it's definitely worth it. I wouldn't buy a box without trying it, but, Purchasing a single at that price. It's certainly worth it given that it was rated
**Poobah:** number one.
Try a single, you may like it. It surprised me in the second half. I'm glad I stuck with it.
**Rooster:** Yeah, don't go with grinders five because I think it's, it's a place to,
**Senator:** I'm a, I'm a heart grader. He, he's lashing out. I'm a heart
**Pagoda:** gr grinders. Still try to figure out what SPLU says. So .
**Gizmo:** Alright. All right boys, A 6.5 and, uh, we'll see you next week.
Thanks, marker. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello. Tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge lizards pod, p o d, that's a lounge, blizzards pod gmail.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. [01:04:00] We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.