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The lizards discuss the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Torpedo in Natural paired with Balvenie's 12 Year Doublewood and answer a listener question about non-alcoholic drink pairing and cigar cutter choices.
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 a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, 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 17th 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 aficionado's 2021 cigar the year tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
Senator will tell us about balcony, we'll discuss tequila, and we'll answer a listener's Instagram message about non-alcoholic pairings, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 12 year age B double wood scotch with the Pedron 1964 anniversary torpedo in natural.
All right, boys, we are [00:01:00] back to Padron, one of our favorite cigar brands in the world. And tonight we are doing the 2021 Cigar the year according to Cigar Siona, the Padron 1964 anniversary series in Torpedo Natural. So we've done, uh, we did the exclusive o Maduro, we've obviously talked about, uh, a lot of padron on the podcast over the last 20 or so episodes that we've done.
And, um, we decided to do this one obviously, cuz it's number one cigar of the year, a natural, uh, who has had this
**Poobah:** cigar? I, we've,
**Gizmo:** I've had it. I know you and I have, I don't know if anybody else has it. Not a, not a natural.
**Bam Bam:** Not a natural. Not a natural. Maduro
**Gizmo:** Maduro, yeah. Yep. Yeah, it's a, uh, it's a six inch by 52 ring gauge cigar box, press torpedo, and obviously with Pedro Perfect construction.
I'm curious what to see this, uh, what this thing tastes like.
**Senator:** I've just gotta say the anticipation is killing me because this will only be the [00:02:00] second natural patron drone I've ever had. Really? Yeah. Oh, really? Same here. The first one, gizmo gave me that. That Corona. Yeah. The Corona. Yeah. This'll
**Bam Bam:** be the second.
Same here. Yeah. I'm a host. Yeah, of course. Gotta say something. I mean, the tip is razor sharp. It's incredible. It's so beautifully made. I mean, look at this thing. I can imp someone with
**Gizmo:** this. Yeah. It's a weapon. Look at it. . You're good at that.
**Bam Bam:** Don't get stuck in a room alone with me. I, I carry
**Pagoda:** it with me all the time.
**Gizmo:** That's . All right, let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on a cold draw.
Very excited about this. Mm. Wide open door.
**Poobah:** Mm, yeah. Our usual. It's sweet.
It doesn't taste like an EXI on the cadra at all. Well,
**Gizmo:** it's very different than cool, but very good
**Bam Bam:** point. It's it's very sweet. Yeah. Unlike the exi.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. The exi, I feel like is more of a dark chocolate. And this is more of like a milk
**Poobah:** chocolate. This, yeah. Yeah. This is really [00:03:00] cool. I don't know why I'm tasting grape, but
**Gizmo:** yeah.
Very different than the ex of that, the, A
**Bam Bam:** little dried fruit.
**Gizmo:** Dried fruit, yeah. All right. Let's light this thing. The Patron Drone 1964 anniversary series, torpedo in Natural, again, cigar aficionados Cigar of the Year for 2021, which as bam noted before we came on air, is the fourth time that, uh, Padron has been named the number one cigar the year, and they were actually the first, the
**Bam Bam:** very first number one rated cigar
**Gizmo:** on ca.
Yeah. And that was in 2004, which is pretty cool. So we'll see how this thing does.
**Rooster:** What's the box? State
**Senator:** 1964.
**Gizmo:** So I love the cigar Maduro. I think a lot of us do. I know [00:04:00] Senator has those as well, so I'm very interested to see what it's like in natural. A lot of people like these in natural. Jorge Patron himself, his favorite cigar is a natural cigar that they make, and Grindr said he, he, he loves these too.
So am I crazy
**Bam Bam:** by calling this a bit of a flavor bomb right off the bat? Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. Oh yeah. And it's, it's different than the other patron drones.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. They sell a lot of these cigars, man. They sell a lot of
**Rooster:** them. Like Senator said, it's like milk
**Gizmo:** chocolate. Right. It's ridiculous. It's definitely not like earthy like I'm used to in Patron. No, not at all. In the Maduro.
**Senator:** Yeah. I mean there's, there's a lot of flavor, but it's definitely lighter in flavor than the Maduro.
Yeah. Yeah. Very
**Gizmo:** pleasant. Very. So with all patron drones, this is a Nicaraguan pirro. Uh, according to them, there's always rumors that the rappers Mexican, um, but rapper binder and filler are Nicaraguan. Hmm. And these come in 20 count boxes, right. Senator? Not 20 fives. [00:05:00] I think they're twenties. I think so, yeah.
Because some of the other cigars come in 20 fives, but these come in twenties. So what kind of notes are you getting? I'm definitely getting like a nuttiness. I
**Bam Bam:** give it a 10
**Gizmo:** a little chocolatey, little nutty.
**Bam Bam:** The white chocolate's accurate. Yeah. But I have to say there is a little dry fruit and a bit of a floral twang. I'm getting. It's weird. Yeah, it's loving. It's really nice
**Senator:** though. Yeah. The nuttiness is definitely there. And a and interestingly, a, a saltiness almost like you would get out of some Cubans.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. The milder, um, flavor profile of this is weaning that it, it leans more towards what you're talking about. Um. I remember, I remember specifically where I smoked this and when I smoked it, um, when Gizmo was so kind to give me one of these, you get, I smoked it on my, on my deck and it was over the summer.
I smoked it alone. [00:06:00] Um, and it was at, I just remember being like, wow, this was really a really, really good cigar, um, summer day, you know, just, I think I drank tequila. I was drinking like Don Julian. Nice. Um, and maybe that's something we talk about just a. . Maybe we do. Uh, we haven't done a tequila yet. A tequila.
Maybe we do a tequila.
**Gizmo:** We need to, I was thinking we, we've only done one rum too. I think we need
**Poobah:** to. Yeah. And yet, you know, um, just yesterday was National Tequila de or National Margarita, margarita. Oh, okay. Um, I found myself in a, uh, in an episode of New Shower
**Gizmo:** in an
**Poobah:** episode of Norco. Yeah. In, in some insane, uh, local Mexican restaurant, which was just complete lunacy, um, drums.
Did you send
**Gizmo:** a picture [00:07:00] that there was a wedding
**Poobah:** happening? Oh yeah. There was like weddings. There was a wedding. There was, there were drums going. Uh, there's, there's a full on mariachi, live mariachi bands,
**Gizmo:** but that's a normal day there. I mean, that, that was a Tuesday. It's crazy.
**Poobah:** That is no right. He's rooster's not wrong.
It's a normal day there at this, at this particular establishment. Um, and, uh, I was thinking, it's so funny, we, uh, The mariachi band is so pro professional. I mean, they're mariachi people. The first of all, there's dancing, there's singing, there's multiple entertainment people everywhere. Uh, but the mariachi band in particular, I go, dude, it'd be so funny if we just stalked people with this mariachi band.
Where basically was like, like, like if, if Senator was like walking out from Starbucks, getting his coffee and like, we just rented this mariachi band for like a week, and this like, everywhere he goes, it's like, and just like [00:08:00] everywhere he goes, you, you just, this mariachi band just shows up. Like he's out.
He is. He's out at like a nice restaurant and then all of a sudden you just send them in and the mariachi band just starts playing. I just think it would be
**Gizmo:** fucking hilarious. I think we should do it. Fucking stalk people. I think I
**Senator:** just figured out. I think I just figured out. Poop's birthday gift. Yes.
**Gizmo:** That's right. Wherever
**Poobah:** I go. .
**Gizmo:** I saw Jackass last night. It's kind of like a ski from jackass. Oh yeah. You know, just. Yeah. Stupid shit.
**Poobah:** So good. But I had tequila with this cigar. I just remember it because it was a memorable smoke. Um, and it paired really well. So maybe that's something we, we, we look at. Maybe we do Don Julian.
Yeah. I mean
**Senator:** that's good favorite of both of us. I brought that over Gizmo's place the other time. Yep. Ba and I got into some of it.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I took that glass down. It pairs really well with the Nicaraguan cigar. I've any cigar really? Yeah.
**Senator:** Um, but ironically, you bring up a good point because I actually think it would pair much better with this natural padron than it actually would a Maduro because, you [00:09:00] know, tequila, it, it, it's light.
Right? It's not super heavy. Like a, a scotch.
**Poobah:** A single malt doesn't carry smoke. It doesn't. Right. It's like,
**Senator:** So this wouldn't overpower it. It would, it would be a nice compliment.
**Bam Bam:** I find that Don Julio's a bit sweet too. Oh yeah. Oh sure. Beautiful.
**Poobah:** This particular state. Agave. Yeah. Yeah, it's agave. And you know what I like about Don Julio?
Um, and we'll get back. I, I'm sorry, I, I, we'll get back to the cigar, but the, uh, uh, what I like about Don Julio is that there's really not that kind of added sugar that you find in a lot of these. So, like, Classica, you know, Classica and Classica is really good. I mean, I'm not gonna say it's not really good.
It's candy, but it's almost too sweet for me. I feel like there's like too much sugar in that tequila. Where Don like, Don Julio, 40, 19 42 or the, or the . Um, , which I think is a much better value, which is a different conversation we don't have to get into. I think we've even [00:10:00] talked about it before. But, um, there's some really nice tequilas out there that aren't these new tequilas with so much added sugar that are really solid spirits that, and there's so many of them to explore.
And maybe that's something we start to talk about.
**Gizmo:** I think we should, cuz we're always talking about what scotch is to get. So I think that that's a
**Senator:** great idea. I've also gotta say the tequila market is exploding. It was so funny. I was in, uh, a liquor store today and, and you guys know what I'm talking about?
Yeah. Um, they have a glass case for higher end spirits. Yeah. And when you used to go in there and look at that case, it was 90% single malt scotch. Right? Like 20, 25, 30 year age SCOs. And I couldn't believe today when I walked in, I hadn't been in there in maybe three, four months. Probably 40% of it was tequil.
I couldn't believe it. They also had, I've never seen, so obviously the, you know, the Classica Zu bottle that, you know, you're talking about pba, I've never seen they have a handle size of it there. Now in the glass case it's like 300. [00:11:00] It
**Poobah:** looks awesome. Yeah. . Yeah. The, uh, it, it is and, and, and Classica is great.
Um, uh, you know, I certainly won't refuse it. I had some last night. Uh, but, uh, to me, I, for whatever reason, I prefer my tequila. Little bit less sweet than the classic. But again, it's very interesting with, with tequila and how approachable it's become from when, let's say in 1994, when I was in college, 19 92, 3, 4, 5, where.
tequila. Tequila really wasn't around, um, these, all these tequilas and there was this huge boom. Now it's very approachable spirit that people, all kinds of people drink. Um, whether it's mixed in a margarita or just up, up on the rocks and, uh, there's but net, but what they're bringing to the market, they've added so much sugar to some of these that, um, I think that people have been, you gotta get back [00:12:00] to what some of this really good herradura is really good herradura with the horseshoe.
Oh yeah. Her's like re really, really good. Um, so we should talk about that. Maybe bring in a couple.
**Gizmo:** I know nothing about tequila, so for me it would be super, super educational for me. I know nothing about tequila. It's not a damn thing. So I I, summer approaches, it's great. Yeah. Oh yeah. As we get a little warmer, I think that'd be, uh, a, a great spirit to dive into a little bit.
So, um, uh, I gotta tell you, I'm loving this cigar. It's different than I expected. And remember even. when we ha when we last had it. It's been a while since I've had it, obviously. Yeah. Not under the microscope like this. I think I also smoked it outside. Um, I bought a couple singles, but I'm, I'm really, I'm really enjoying
**Senator:** this.
Yeah. I mean, I'm just envisioning where this would slot in for me and, and this is a great afternoon smoke,
**Gizmo:** so. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. After lunch
**Rooster:** in the afternoon Perfect. Would be great.
**Gizmo:** That's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. [00:13:00] It has like, I, I, I hesitate to say this, I really hesitate to say this, but it has like a little Cuban thing to it.
Yeah. I was
**Senator:** thinking that
**Gizmo:** earlier, saying, yeah. It, yeah. It has like, I don't wanna say Cuban twang Yeah. But it has something about it that's really reminding me Yep. Of, of, of a great Cuban cigar. Yeah. It's mellower. It is, it is Cuban seed. Yep. That's true. Made in Nicaragua, you know, grown in Nicaragua, but maybe the Maduro rapper just, you know, on the other cigars kind of overwhelms that, I don't know, but.
you know, this is, this is, it's Melo pretty wild.
**Senator:** Yeah. But I, I think to Gizmo's point, this is one of the first and maybe only new World cigars that I genuinely get Cuban esque notes from. Like, I can see it. Yeah, I can, I can taste it. Where there are so many cigars, they feel like we've reviewed some new world cigars and gizmo's giving the rundown and it says it's somehow meant to be similar to a Cuban cigar.
And I think we light it up and say, this is nothing like a Cuban . This has [00:14:00] some qualities. It's, it's like this nice hybrid of New World and Old World that I really
**Rooster:** like. You know, typically we kind of stay away from naturals in, we do in the padron line. Yeah. But once in a while I've kind of made a mistake of buying a box, like just kind of overlooking the, uh, wanted to get the, you know, get the Maduro box, but I got it national by mistake, and they
**Gizmo:** spoke great.
They don't disappoint.
**Poobah:** Yeah. You, you know, they do. And, um, I'm so, yes. So I've, um, , I've smoked many 1926 in natural. And that's a stronger yes. Um, smoke, but in natural it's different than the
**Senator:** Maduro. Did you like it? Cuz actually, so now I'm glad you said that. I, I'm incorrect. This is my third natural padron because the second I had, I bought a, a 1926, number six in natural.
And [00:15:00] I, strangely there was this harshness I got in the back of my throat from it. Now I don't love the 1926 line. Generally just the 80th and the higher end stuff they make Yeah. Is absolutely outstanding. But for the regular production, 1926, I'm not a huge fan, but this is just so smooth and Yeah. Creamy and nutty and just everything you'd want in a cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah. To me, to me, answering the question of where I would slot this in, in my rotation. This to me is if I'm like craving a Parus P two-ish cigar and I wanna smoke outside this, this would slot in perfectly. I think that's fair. Not even just in its size and shape. Shape, very fair. But I, it would kind of sit there in the rotation.
I'm not comparing it to a P two. No. But it would sit in there in my rotation. No, no, I,
**Senator:** I like you said that because I've mentioned on many episodes where you're in that spot where you go into a, a retailer and you're, or a lounge and you're trying to have a cigar and you know, at some random time. And there some are, are really strict and they will not allow you to smoke [00:16:00] anything that you didn't purchase there.
So you may be craving a Cuban, just like Gizmo said, and if you're looking for something that's gonna give you some of that flavor profile, I would absolutely pick this up in a retailer, sit there and smoke it, if I'm Fantastic
**Bam Bam:** point. Great candidate for that too. Yeah. Great candidate
**Poobah:** for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It, it's different. It's, it is different from. , which is so interesting because you're saying to yourself, well, what's the difference between the, the 1964, um, ex siva and natural and then this cigar? I don't, you know, how could it be divergent from that in any kind of meaningful way? But in my experience with both shapes, this is
**Gizmo:** better.
What I've heard though, is that they do change the blend based on the, you know, the vi in the line. So even though it's the same tobacco, there is a difference in blend. So that's why in the [00:17:00] exi I've had, uh, an exclusive o natural. I don't like it as much as I do the, the Maduro. I'm really, this is one and one a as far as ranking this with the torpedo version of this, that I'm really enjoying this.
Yeah, yeah. Because I smoke a lot of those torpedoes. I smoke a lot of them. They're great. They're sweeter. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I'd be curious where the ranking is on this guy. Yeah, we'll
**Gizmo:** see
**Poobah:** At the end of the night. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. It's, it's, I mean, it's, it's so different than, than a Maduro. Uh, but in a, in a good way.
I'm finding it
**Pagoda:** a
**Gizmo:** little mild. Yeah. Well, for your palate, I'm not surprised to hear you say that.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. But obviously great combustion manang, it's so
**Gizmo:** easy to smoke. Have you had this one in, uh, Maduro Pagoda? Uh, yes.
**Pagoda:** Um, but I don't, you know, I typically smoke exclusives. Yeah. So I just don't quite remember what the [00:18:00] overall, in terms of comparison, I won't be able to do that.
Uh, but what I'm finding is, A little bit of sweetness, but it's very mild for me for, for, for my pilot.
**Senator:** Okay. Yeah. No, it's true. I mean, I, I, I, I'm with pagoda in that and that's why I'm saying as I'm thinking about where to slot this in, like this really is an afternoon stick for me. Like, I will not reach for this after dinner.
I just won't. That's where I'm picking up an EXI Maduro, or really any Padron Maduro is gonna do it for me at that
**Gizmo:** time.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Agreed. For, for the evening. Yeah. Agreed. Yes. Yeah. Rooster made a good point though, after lunch, midday smoke is perfect for this guy.
**Poobah:** Yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Agreed. Absolutely agreed. It could, the amount of
**Rooster:** smoke that's coming out of
**Gizmo:** the other end, yeah, it's, it's, it's unbelievable, you know, from the head of the, uh,
**Rooster:** the cigar, that's a lot of smoke.
So it tells you like how open the draw is.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The flavors are unbeliev. . So we don't need to do a deep dive on Padron or the 1964 anniversary line. We did that in episode three. So if you're a listener who's turning into us for the first time or hasn't heard that, uh, episode number three, when [00:19:00] we did the ex placebo Maduro, we did a pretty deep dive on Padron.
So, uh, I'll just do a very quick couple sentences. Um, you know, Padron was obviously founded in 1964. This is from the 19, uh, 1964 anniversary series released in 1994, originally starting with thei. And then as that gained popularity being an aged cigar outta Nicaragua, brilliantly constructed, uh, very consistent, people fell in love with it.
And as time went on, they added more and more violas. And that's where, uh, violas like this torpedo came in. So, um, you know, this is a very, very popular line in the Pedro, uh, you know, catalog, the 1964. Uh, and as Senator mentioned on that episode, they actually have 32 variations. Of cigars in this line. So 16 violas in both Maduro and natural.
So there's a lot to explore and find what works for you, the listener. Uh, in, in the padron line, there's a lot there. [00:20:00]
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And a lot there. And because the, the natural and the Maduro have really distinct flavor profiles. Yeah. It makes it such an interesting line of cigars, really.
**Gizmo:** There really are 32 different f you know?
Yeah.
**Senator:** And they smoke choices differently. They do. That's the craziest part mean they do, I remember GIZ and I splitting a box of these, th this exact torpedo, but in, in Maduro. Mm-hmm. . And we were just sitting there amazed by how different the experience was from Ani in Maduro. Yeah. It's the same line. You would expect it to taste the same.
But the torpedo had a lot, it was a lot sweeter. It has more sweetness to it. Where Thei was a lot earthier. Yeah. Uh, it, it's ama, I wanna smoke every one of 'em. Uh, at some, honestly, like this, this now gives me. faith that the natural versions of all of them, I really need to try it
**Bam Bam:** actually opens up a whole new avenue, right?
It
**Senator:** does,
**Gizmo:** yeah. I'll trade on with the idiot. .
**Senator:** No, that may be the only one actually. I've smoked the natural idiot. I've smoked the [00:21:00] natural idiot. I've never had that. It is, to me it's nowhere near as stellar as the 80th in Maduro. Maybe after
**Gizmo:** lunch. . You know what this actually makes me, uh, my, I talk about my father-in-law from time to time, cuz I do smoke a lot of cigars with him, um, when I'm not with you guys.
Uh, and he loves a mild cigar, like a Cuban for him. He loves a La Florida cono ados, that's like his favorite kind of, you know, mild Cuban cigar. And I, I think he would really enjoy this. You know,
**Bam Bam:** I want to piggyback on top of that because I know a lot of guys that go for natural cigars because they're afraid of going for something that's fuller flavored for the listener out there if they're looking for a luxury brand.
And this particular hobby that we have, This is a fantastic option for that guy to upgrade their
**Gizmo:** smoking. And I think Pedro, I, I think Pedro, and maybe I'm guilty of this too, I think they have a reputation of being a strong, they do old cigar. They absolutely do. And this cigar is the exact opposite of that.
Well,
**Poobah:** I [00:22:00] wouldn't go that
**Gizmo:** far. I don't think this
**Poobah:** is strong. No, there's nicotine here. Okay, you're talking nicotine. Okay. There's definitely nicotine in this cigar. Um, now it's fine for me, but, but I think for a less, a less experienced smokers, even smoking this, this does deliver that Nicaragua mule kick, okay.
To somebody who's not, doesn't smoke as much as many cigars as we do. That's probably very fair. This is not, this isn't like, and I'll tell you why. There is some nicotine kick to this thing, but the flavor is not. unapproachable, I guess is what I'm trying
**Gizmo:** to say. Well, I'm, I guess for Nicaraguan, I, I wasn't, forgive me if I was, if I wasn't clear, I wasn't necessarily speaking on the nicotine factor no.
More so just the flavor being approachable for someone who likes a mild cigar. Yeah. Right. I think this is I, for him, I think after a steak dinner where I would go for an exi Maduro or I'd go for this, or Maduro, I'd go for an 80th or something. It'd be [00:23:00] perfect for him. This would be perfect for
**Bam Bam:** him after dinner and it'd be perfect for a lot of guys that I know.
Yeah. That have actually sat in front of me and said, I don't want a patron. And I would ask them why. And then they would say exactly what you said. They assume it's a very powerful cigar. We'll overwhelm them and they'll avoid it. This is a great candidate to really
**Gizmo:** slip in there for that. And I, I think it's bit
**Rooster:** of a misconception that Maduros are stronger.
This is
**Gizmo:** very true. That's true. We've
**Rooster:** maduros, Maduro rappers tend to be sweeter, not necessarily strength wise. This is very true. Correct. It's the blend of the cigar that makes a cigar. , it gives it strength, not the, not the rapper. That's correct. I don't think the Maduro wrapper is, uh, you know, it's, it's just sweeter.
**Gizmo:** But I think people would, you know, shop with their eyes and they see the dark, dark brown wrappers in some, that's what I mean, it's a misconception. Exactly. Yeah. Absolutely.
**Pagoda:** Strong of flavored. I would, I would say,
**Rooster:** yeah, I think it's the blend that's stronger in the, in the Maduro line, but, but the Maduro wrapper tends to be
**Gizmo:** sweeter.
**Senator:** Yeah. So try both, you know, [00:24:00] and even going back to then the other side, so a lot of guys are talking about just the flavor and then Poopoo was talking about the nicotine that you get from these sticks. And it's funny because even the different violas, you get a very different amount of nicotine. Right.
And I say that because I'm with Puba in that the torpedo in the 1964, whether it's Maduro or natural, I think definitely has more nicotine than you get from an exi. And I say that because the exi I give to friends who. Don't smoke very often and are very intimidated, especially seeing that dark cigar.
They assume that the Maduro is gonna be so strong and they're able to smoke multiple of them in a sitting and they feel great. There's not a very high nicotine content in next placebos. And I've always liked that cigar for that reason because as someone who I like to have a lot of cigars and you know, guys would joke at our former lounge of, do you only smoke X placebos?
I could have four ex placebos in a row and feel wonderful. It's like, yeah, see that's a great moment. It's like the perfect
**Bam Bam:** [00:25:00] balance. That's a great moment that you've had with a novice smoker cuz you're educating them, right? And they're elevating their game that it's a fantastic opportunity to do that with someone.
**Gizmo:** And I think if you fall in love with this, this, to me, I think Puba made the point the other night we were at our clubhouse and, and, and he was talking about, you know, stepping up from other brands of cigars into a more premium brand. Oh, just, yeah, if that's what you're looking to do, get luxury in your game.
You have, you have one of these, you're not gonna want to go back. , you know, and, and these, you know, cigar, fish and auto lists them at, at around 17, 18 bucks a stick. I don't know. Pagoda, what did you pay for these today? I think around 21. Yeah, so I paid for the, the surplus cuz you could only get four for the rest of them.
I paid 23 or 24 bucks.
**Bam Bam:** Sneak into your father-in-law's human or get rid of all those actions.
**Gizmo:** the only, put a couple of these macanudos he likes macanudos.
**Poobah:** Oh no. As I'm smoking this, the only, I guess the only thing that for me that I could knock it on is like the, the finish. It's [00:26:00] like, like in between draws.
Um, I hate to say this, it's, it's, it doesn't quite do it for me like an 80th or an exi In Maduro it, the finish just is not. The combustion's great. It tastes really good. I'm not saying it, doesn't, it just, the finish is the finish. The finish for me is a little bit, it's slightly spicy and doesn't have that, it doesn't have the sweetness that I enjoy from Maduro wrapper as much, uh, uh, on the finish in between draws.
It's just not, but
**Senator:** I'm surprised hearing that cuz honestly, I, I, I get sweetness on the finish and I'm not getting any harshness for, for me No, no, no harshness.
**Gizmo:** Okay. So no, but no harshness. So it's, it's just how it's sitting in your mouth after you draw.
**Senator:** Well, you mentioned spice. I, I, I'm not even getting that [00:27:00] so much.
If, for me, if there's an issue, you know, I, I think that the Maduro in this is more complex in flavor. That's, if there was one thing I wish it had that it's absolutely, absolutely where to me, I'm just getting salted cashew. And some milk chocolate. And that's it. That's it. Where the exi, I feel like, or, or the torpedo in, in Maduro, you're getting that earthiness, you're getting dark chocolate, you're getting coffee.
I, there's, there's so many different flavors that are coming out of that. A little spice. Yeah. For this, it's very two note to
**Bam Bam:** me. And, and, but for most of us, we pursue the Maduro in this particular brand. Right? Sure. But it, it's a, again, I'm gonna go back to the novice guy that you're, you've educated many guys, Senator.
It gives them an opportunity to really get into the, this, this higher brand, a luxury cigar. And it's, it's, for me, I It's actually a bit creamy. It is. Yeah. I get a at the finish for me, that's me. I agree with that.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. And for [00:28:00] the occasion that we've talked about that we would light this up, you. In the afternoon after lunch, you're not looking for maybe, you know, an incredibly flavorful, complex cigar.
You're looking for something that's gonna be satisfying, that's not gonna be super aggressive. And, and this does slot
**Gizmo:** right there, you know, I
**Poobah:** would slot the same. It does you, sorry. No, go ahead. Go ahead. No, it does, I guess when I'm holding it up as the cigar of the year, um, I, so I'm holding it to this different kind of standard because of the, the rating it got.
Um, by the way, it was
**Gizmo:** rated in 97, 97 points
**Poobah:** by, you know, that's, that's pretty high, right? Very high. So,
**Gizmo:** um,
**Senator:** that's as high
**Gizmo:** as the Shark 90, I think Shark was 98. I thought it was 97. Was it, maybe you're right. Maybe ep, Carillo pledge was 98. I think you're right.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah, you're correct. Cause that was the highest ever rate of the EP career.
You're correct. The shark was seven.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, I, I, it's not that high. It's not quite that high from,
**Gizmo:** from, you know, where I would slot this in, Senator. [00:29:00] is after sitting at sitting at the clubhouse, working on the computer with an espresso after having one of those incredible salads that we had this week.
Yeah, I agree. From that new spot again. I agree. Midday life changing. Yeah, the
**Senator:** salad. I mean, I'm sorry, we're gonna
**Gizmo:** have to, we're gonna have, you gotta tell the people
**Senator:** gonna have to bring it up. So, . Look, I, I think a lot of us at some point or another, like to have a salad. I, I, I eat plenty of salad. It's not easy to find a place that makes a good salad.
And when I used to live in DC there was this great place, sweet Green, if Grindr were here. , he would be wearing his Georgetown shirt and very proud cuz apparently Georgetown alums created, crowded, this, this company, . Mm-hmm . And, um, it was just a really, really, really good salad at like a super reasonable price.
It was like 10, 12 bucks a salad and they finally came out. They now have a location out here. But the problem is it's not super convenient. Uh, just when I'm in a pension, I want to quickly go pick something up. So I've been praying that they're gonna deliver and finally I get an email from them that we're delivering.
Um, and by the way, [00:30:00] I, I bought so much salad at this place. They, they went publicly iPod like, I don't know, maybe six months, 12 months ago. And, uh, I, I met the threshold to like buy in early, but , the, the reason I did not, but you
**Gizmo:** gotta buy in on stock because of you, your salad
**Senator:** consumption. Yeah. So they, they set a minimum like purchase level that, like you are, you qualify to buy in early.
I'm not kidding. Like I have friends in DC who got the same thing I did cuz we've, we've bought a lot of salads at this place, . But the problem was so, I was so excited. I said, oh, I'm definitely gonna invest in this. They're not profitable still. I cannot believe this. Wow. Wow. I cannot believe this. Wow.
They're not profitable. They've been around for, has to be 10 years now. Um, so I did not buy any stock, but just getting to the salad. So now they deliver and it's just so easy. You go through the app, you order the salad. I told the other lizards, some of the guys ordered salads. Gizmo was having lunch with me.
We, we both had ours. We were very satisfied. I think Puba
**Gizmo:** tried. Oh, I
**Poobah:** tried. He haded it yesterday and I ordered it today. Wow. Wow. It's a great place. It's a good salad.
**Bam Bam:** Mrs. Bam. Bam is excited. Yeah,
**Poobah:** she's excited. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, it's [00:31:00] hard to, when you go from working in, in, uh, in New York City to like being remote and all that in New York, You, you, you, it's like 1130 hits.
It's like, what, what are, you know, what am I gonna, well, I'm gonna go to Hal and Hardy, or I'm gonna go to one of these, you know, Hal and Hardy was big. Oh, always, always big. Always, you know, go down there and you get dragged for 20 bucks for the salad and the soup. But it's great. It's excellent. It really good.
So this is like similar to that, but it's like stepped up, um, and it's home delivered and they're delivering it to your
**Senator:** house, which is really cool. That's very cool. And, and when you say a step up, the other thing that's very cool. So
**Poobah:** it really, it's a work salad. It's a work salad. It, it's, it's, it's one of those salads you get really when you're working like, like it's, it's a loaded up work salad that you can eat at your desk.
You know?
**Senator:** I mean, I, I'd go even further and say it's an any time salad. But, but the thing when you said it's a step up, it's a step up in that when you go into any local sweet green, whether it's in dc, whether it's near us in the city, anywhere, They, they try to, and I think [00:32:00] this is honestly part of the problem, why they're not super profitable.
They try to source all of the ingredients locally. Ah, so it's very cool. When I would go in the Sweet Green in DC they have a whole board. They would hand write in chalk that the tomatoes were from New Jersey, the cucumbers are from Pennsylvania. This was from there. Um, and I, and I, I just think like it's a, you know, it, it's fast casual food, right?
This is not some nice sit down place that you go in, but I think it's done well. It's a step, it's a step better. Oh, certainly
**Poobah:** the salad is, listen, it's an exceptional salad. The whole quinoa thing and the quinoa fucking in there. . It's amazing with the pesto thing. Oh, the chicken pesto is awesome. Pesto salad of it.
So good. It's so good.
**Gizmo:** I ordered it, by the way, Parmesan, it's just, I ordered it. It said it was gonna be delivered in an hour. So my genius, I was like, all right, I'm still at home. I'm going to the clubhouse. We're gonna order it. I'll be there just in time. 15 minutes later, DoorDash is blowing my phone up.
Like, Where the hell are you? Yeah, the salad was done and delivered in 15 minutes here. That's cool. That's pretty [00:33:00] cool. That's very cool. Pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty cool. So, um, let's, uh, let's cleanse our pallets here with this Incredible, we always incredible scotch. We're two for two on Padron with, uh, with bny.
It's true. BNY 12 year double wood. Fantastic age scotch that we drink a lot. Yeah, I'll just say
**Poobah:** it's fantastic. It's excellent. I mean,
**Gizmo:** there's, this is one of my favorite SCOs
**Senator:** scotch. I have a very deep personal attachment to this scotch because this was the first single malt that I actually really fell in love with.
I've been drinking b uh, double woods since I was in college. I remember I had bought a number of different single malts. I tried a little of each. I was trying to, you know, figure out my pallet and this was the first thing that jumped out where I always associated scotch with Pete and smoke. And, um, when I had this, I mean, Vinny is on the complete other end of that spectrum.
They're known for being sweeter. And I just thought it was really well balanced, and I just love that all these years later. I still love it just as much as I did then.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Fantastic. Really [00:34:00] delicious.
**Gizmo:** I was
**Pagoda:** doing gold schlog as in college. . .
**Poobah:** Oh God. I was drinking doers. I I was drinking that. So disgusting.
I was drinking doers in water. Listening to Nirvana. . Pounding. Pounding. Yeager Yeager For, for
**Gizmo:** the recorder. Ice.
**Bam Bam:** Ice Cold Yeager Rumble Ice. Cold rumble. Oh fuck Rumble. Oh, for
**Senator:** the record, this was my senior year. Once I had a signing bonus from Firm , I was, I was drinking single ball .
**Gizmo:** So, uh, what do we know about b i I, I know we talked a little bit about it with the Caribbean Cask 14.
We did on episode three. Um, this is a 12 year double wood, right? So it's in two different casks.
**Senator:** Finished, yeah. So, um, half, uh, ex bourbon barrel, half ex cherry, uh, which a lot of SCOs are doing now. A lot of distillers do this, but the funny thing is, . I only really remember Alny being at the forefront of doing this.
I didn't, I never used to see single mal scotches that were half and half. It was either all Sherry, all bourbon. [00:35:00] No one really did, uh, uh, sort of split it like they do. And now I feel like it's taken off. And just in reading some of the brand history, Alvin is truly a pioneer in, in just distilling single balls.
It's, it's remarkable. And I love that we do this because I think we all have affinities to certain brands, patron, Vinny Macallan. But I love that we start to look a little more into the history of some of these brands, because from what I found, I, I feel even stronger now about the brand than I did before.
So I'll just read you a little bit of what I found. I think it's interesting, I think as most of us know, Albanese in the space side region in Scotland and Grindr, if he were here, could I'm sure give us a really, really amazing history on, on space side. Um, but it was established by William Grant in 1892.
and Vinny is still run by the original grant family, which is very cool because if you look at any of these stories, and it's even true of most Cuban cigars, there were changes of ownership, right? There are few [00:36:00] brands, whether we're talking cigars or single malt scotches, that one family has seen it all the way through in cigars.
Padron and Fuente are obviously the two, you know, big ones we think of, and in Scotch Balvin is really at the top of that. Um, and so they really pride themselves on being the most handcrafted single malt scotch. And I didn't know what that means, but when you learn some of what they do, it's, it's incredible.
There's no other distillery in Scotland that still grows its own barley. They buy elsewhere. They grow this on their property that malts the barley on a traditional malting floor, which Grindr would be able to speak to why this is amazing. Um, they have a coppersmith on hand who tends the stills. Same guy since 1959.
Wow. How old is he?
**Gizmo:** A hundred. . He's incredible. He's
**Poobah:** been, he's been working there for, I started working, working there when he was 15, 10. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. 10 years old. That's, that's, that's how it's in Scotland. He's in his fifties.
**Senator:** He's got a copper onsite where, uh, there's a copper onsite where [00:37:00] 10 Co 10, uh, Cooper's tend and repair the oak cast required in making all of their single malts.
They do everything on their premises. Where now that's very cool. Now every, most distillers Right. They outsource all of this. They're buying barrels, buying bar barrels elsewhere. They're buying, they're even the, the malt, the great, everything's coming from somewhere else. So I thought that was pretty, pretty cool.
And, um, they're Master malt Master, um, is a very famous guy, David Stewart. He started at Balvin in 1962 and still to this day. That's very cool. Creates all the liquid that's in every bottle. That's
**Gizmo:** almost like a patron drone type story. It's like guys have just been there forever. Hmm. That's.
**Senator:** And what's amazing about this guy, and so I'm not crazy.
I I really vividly remember Vinny Double Wood being the only single malt that I used to see that was split a sort of blend of, of sherry cask and, and maturing in bourbon, Cass. And it says that this guy, David Stewart, uh, is sort of the pioneer in double cast [00:38:00] maturation or finishing, which he started in the 1980s when he created the BNY double wood that we're drinking right
**Poobah:** now.
Oh yeah. It's a really, it's an impressive spirit. Yeah. Um,
so
**Gizmo:** balanced. It's complex. You know what I find when I order this out is you have to be very, very specific with whoever you're ordering with that you're getting the double wood 12. Mm-hmm. , they don't know the difference most times. So when you are ordering, make sure almost that you see the bottle, that it has the word double wood written on it because these tenders and, and, and, and servers that, that, uh, you're ordering from, oftentimes I feel like I'm.
not getting what I want until I actually
**Poobah:** see the bottle of, and it's hard to find. It is you're, look, scotch is like this. You're gonna find in cigar bars, you're gonna find in some higher, in places that have a high, a large selection of scotch, which you're gonna find mechanical Almost
**Gizmo:** everywhere.
**Senator:** Yeah.
Not right now. So I, I've, we should talk about this. I, I'm very concerned. . [00:39:00] I'm serious. Is there a shortage Grill?
**Gizmo:** Has it serious? No, no, no, no.
**Bam Bam:** let's go. I
**Gizmo:** don't mean restaurants. That's amazing. Grill has it fucking drink half a bottle of it. got plenty.
**Senator:** I mean, I mean, in liquor stores. I say this because today I, I just finally was restocking on, on a lot of scotch and for a while now, for the last.
Macallan you've been able to find. We've had to pursue the sherry cast, but we have always found a place to source it. And Vinny, all of a sudden the double wood, I mean pagoda and I, we've talked about this, we couldn't find it anywhere for like the last six months of last year. No exaggeration. All the major, major, you know, places we're talking total wine bottle.
King. King, right? They were completely sold out. You could get Macal there, not Vinny and I found a small little wine shop in a town right next to us that had the, the double wood that we were having to buy from for a while. Now it's completely flipped. Vinny is double wood is everywhere right now, which [00:40:00] is fantastic, but Macallan is nowhere.
And I say I'm concerned because the only place I could find it. Is, uh, super tellers here, and they know I hate that place. Right? . And guess how much they're charging for a
**Gizmo:** fucking bottle? Well, 70 bucks, five bucks. $85.
**Senator:** What? Oh God. Come on. That's so why I say I'm worried because they're always overpriced.
So if they're charging 85, it's always less five somewhere else. That signals to me that it's very possible. Now, Bal Macallan went up from 55 to 65 bucks last year. Yeah. Now I'm worried that it's gone up. Another 10 bucks is 75 or $80. How much,
**Gizmo:** how much is the balcony that we're drinking right now? 60.
Okay. Oh, what a deal. 60 bucks. What a deal. Oh, not a great scotch. Absolutely great scotch. So halfway through the torpedo guys, it's a little over halfway. Maybe it's the stellar cigar. It's, it's, it's
**Poobah:** fantastic. It's better for
**Gizmo:** me now than it was 10 minutes ago. I was gonna say. It's getting better as it goes.
It's a lot
**Poobah:** better than it was 10 minutes ago. I think the Bevan helps. , . [00:41:00] That's the, that's the sound hypothesis. .
**Gizmo:** So, uh, We were just talking about drinks and, and things that we like. We actually got, by the way, I have to show you guys this. We had a listener, uh, grizzly Adams tag us on Instagram. He wants to know how do we like the cut of his upk?
Uh, 1844 Nicaragua. Little v. Cut. What's the lizard? I love the V cut. You guys are into the, uh, I think he did a nice job on the cut there. What do you think? I'd love the vca. It's a beautiful cut. Very good cut. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna put this up on the, uh, nice and crisp. I'm gonna put this up on the Instagram, but also the reason why I bring this up.
And thanks to Grizzly Adams and other listeners who reach out, we'd love to hear from listeners at the end of the podcast. By the way, there's a little tag with all the, uh, information on how to get in touch with us, but he had a very good question for us, um, and he said, uh, love the pod. You guys are awesome to listen to.
Really appreciate what you guys do. What do the lizards drink with cigar besides alcohol? It's obviously a great combination, but curious as to what your other go-to beverages are. Well, uh, that we enjoy with the [00:42:00] cigar. Should we, should probably start with Rooster on this one. Yeah. Rooster, go ahead. So I, I love a cup of coffee.
Yeah. Yeah. Espresso. Well, I sometimes
**Rooster:** I do like coffee or a latte or a cappuccino and do a shot of espresso in it. Okay. Right. So in the afternoon, in the morning, great.
**Gizmo:** Pairs
**Rooster:** really well with cigars, even after dinner, after lunch anytime. I think it's a great pairing. Um, I think you can drink a lot of different, uh, I mean, I don't drink a lot, so, you know, I do a lot of non-alcoholic beers.
Yeah. There's
**Gizmo:** a lot of
**Rooster:** choices out there. You can, you can
**Gizmo:** really drink anything you want. Grinder loves a beer with a cigar. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. A lot of guys do, you know, red wine? Yeah. We've done some wine. Yeah. Cabernets or Yeah, we've done one wine. We need to do more water. Do we do need? We do. We do. Yeah.
There's a lot we need to do. I, I, obviously the guys bust my balls, but I love, uh, seltzer. Seltzer. Yeah. I love seltzer water with a little splash of lemon in it. I. Way too much of it. Champagne. Champagne. Paul Roche, . You know, I had
**Pagoda:** coke over, over the [00:43:00] vacation. We ran out of alcohol in the room and I had coke, Mexican coke, you know.
No, it was in a bottle, but it was sweet and it was so
**Senator:** good. So I have to say, I, I was, I was a little quiet cuz I'm a little embarrassed to say this cuz I'm usually very snobby about stuff when it comes to spirits and things. You would appreciate with a fine cigar? No. Can we
**Poobah:** guess, can we? No. Really? Are you But No, that can't be guys.
He's win way. Listen, listen to this. I know. I know what, I know what he has. He's not, he's not hard. He's not at all snobby.
**Gizmo:** Noche for poop. No, I
**Bam Bam:** know what he had. I gotta guess
**Senator:** what he had. No, no, no. It's not what I had. You'll see me drink this occasionally. A diet Coke. Coke. Diet Coke. Oh, with a, with a Maduro rap.
Like with a Petron. Xci. I love how it pairs, it, it like kills pains me to even
**Poobah:** save this. It's not, why would it ping you to save? It's a diet of the
**Gizmo:** CI America. It's not crazy great sake. No.
**Senator:** The diet, the diet Coke is fine. It's just, you know, with cigars I love so much. I you, you feel [00:44:00] like you wanna pair it with something special.
And a Diet Coke is, is is such an everyday thing. You don't think of that as something special. You specially select to go with that cigar. Yeah, and I, I, I gotta say it really works well. Hey dude,
**Poobah:** try a diet Dr. Pepper. Oh
**Bam Bam:** wow.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Wow. you want, you wanna, you wanna, you wanna talk, you wanna talk
**Gizmo:** about,
**Bam Bam:** it's like he's talking about white bread Sliced sliced white bread.
Sliced white
**Gizmo:** bread. You
**Poobah:** wanna, you want to talk about Awesome. I mean Sure. Diet Dr. Pepper. You know, take it one step further.
**Gizmo:** Me. Or a cream soda. Re I was gonna go there. Root beer. I was gonna say, I, I see a lot of guys drinking root beer. Wow. That's
**Bam Bam:** the sweetness of that root beer. I got it. Some are, some are.
Very good. Senator, I know where you're going. I beer. Very good. I like a root
**Gizmo:** beer. I do
**Bam Bam:** too. I it
**Senator:** Beer. It's nothing against you. It's nothing against any of these things. The reason I'm shaking my head is just, I worry with a lot of these flavored drinks that, that like masks [00:45:00] and, and dominates the flavor of the cigar.
Like you're, you're, you know, once you're tasting a ton of cherry or whatever is in there. It depends, depends on the beverage. You're not able to taste a cigar. I like with diet coke, like it, it's just very even keel. There's not like anything super dominant that is detracting too much from the cigar.
**Gizmo:** That's my only thing. You get the asper tame is pretty dominant. , I mean, you hold on. Not with the, not with the
**Poobah:** patrons . It, it depends. I mean, you know, are you pounding in the diet Coke or are you just sipping it? Yeah, sipping it. No,
**Gizmo:** you're sipping in. I used to drink, I swear to God in college I didn't have I, I didn't drink any alcohol.
Until I was outta college, which is weird. You know what, it's this,
**Senator:** this, explain however, this explains the sink,
**Bam Bam:** however, hold on. I was about to
**Gizmo:** walk outta the room. I told you guys that before , however, I used to drink a diet Coke, uh, a Twk . I'm sorry. I used to, I used to drink a case of Diet Coke a day. 12 cans a day.
Wow. Case 12
**Bam Bam:** cans a day,
**Gizmo:** I swear on it. Oof. Oh my God. We got a problem. Talk to someone. I love Diet Coke with, I love Diet Coke with lime too. Actually. [00:46:00] I
**Poobah:** mean, I, I do. So don't think there's so much to unpack with the statement that you just made. Yeah. That's for another episode. I mean, this is, I don't even
**Gizmo:** know what to, we should do a special episode on it.
**Poobah:** Coke. You didn't, you didn't have a drink in college. What did you I didn't
**Gizmo:** drink in college. Yeah. No, I don't know, man. I just, what did you do? I was so consumed with what I didn't like, uh, my extracurricular activities. How many other podcasts were you editing in college? Yeah. I actually, I, it's funny. I was, I worked at a radio station in college and it consumed my life.
I was there all the time. It's all I did. It defined my four years college. Oh, I know, I know that station. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I loved, I love that station. Yeah. Great college radio station. Oh. Uh, it was my life and, and I just was never interested in, I was so consumed by it.
**Pagoda:** What a sober life feel like .
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
Well, you know, it's like, that's, I think, and, and what I like about Grizzly posing that question to us is there are a lot of folks out there who enjoy a cigar, who are sober, who don't drink, who've either choose not to or can't and, and Sure. And have moved away from alcohol on their wives. And I think this is very productive.
I think coffee's a great choice. I think [00:47:00] seltzer a lot of guys drink seltzer. I think some of the sodas that we've named, I mean, what else are we not, I mean,
**Bam Bam:** I'm gonna go back to this espresso, like for me, espresso. A double espresso with this and a little bit of a lime. A lemon twist. Yeah. , particularly with a perron for me, really does
**Senator:** it.
Yeah. I think the only thing we haven't mentioned, and this is more for a morning cigar or an afternoon cigar, a bloody Mary, and I say that because not just by the
**Gizmo:** way, I posed the question . What non-alcoholic stuff can we drink? Senator every time is like, bloody Mary. No, no birds, champagne. Listen to where I'm going,
**Senator:** where you're going.
I see. I know where you're going. I see this because roo. We'll have a non-alcoholic Bloody Mary. Yep. And enjoy that with his cigar. As much as I'm enjoying my, well, you know, alcoholic Bloody Mary. Yeah. So I, I, I think that's another good pairing for an early in the day smoke, regardless of alcohol. You don't even have to throw vodka in there for it to be a good pairing.
Yes. So when
**Gizmo:** we do that episode in, in the coming weeks and months, hopefully we'll schedule that soon. A Sunday bloody episode. Yes. Starring Puba and his Dimitri's recipe. Yes. Uh, you know, don't shy away from it listeners [00:48:00] because. You could just not add the vodka and, uh, have a great drink. That's for sure.
**Pagoda:** I'm sure if grind over here, he would agree that beer would go well with as well. Oh, sure. Yeah. He loves beer like I used to. Really? We used to drink a lot of bottons. Um, very, very good. Uh, pairing, at
**Gizmo:** least. Uh, I've seen Puba. I've seen Puba when we've been out. He'll order, uh, uh, yanging, or not a, excuse me, the Guinness.
Guinness. Guinness. Oh, Guinness. We
**Bam Bam:** all haves grape pairing. Well,
**Poobah:** we've all consumed copious amounts of Guinness. I think all
**Gizmo:** of We have, we have. And, and Guinness now, by the way, has, has a nitrous infused can of Yes, they do. Non-alcoholic. Yep. Uh, of beer. Yeah. Which I think is very cool. Guinness. Really? Yeah.
Guinness has alcoholic. Yeah. Guinness has a non-alcoholic, it's, it's a pretty popular thing, a Heineken. , uh, Guinness, all, all the baker brands team Guinness has
**Poobah:** one. I'll say something about Guinness. Someone who's, who's really, I've had quite a bit of experience with the,
**Gizmo:** with, with, with, with the brand.
don't be too hard on yourself. , [00:49:00] he resents the implication. ,
**Poobah:** uh, I don't resent, I embrace the implication. , , uh, but, but Guinness. Um, so, so let's say you're not a, a, a big drinker, but you're, um, there is a misconception almost like with the Maduro wrapper that, that, that you see this big black cup of beer that comes out to you, that serve Guinness is actually, it's not high in alcohol content.
And it's a, and it's not high in carbonation. Um, and low in calories. Yeah. And, and low in calories. And, and y y you're, it's actually, it's a misconception that this is some big, it's, guess it's Guinness Draft now. Just be when you're for the listener. If, if, if you're gonna take a recommendation and try Guinness, just make sure that you get Guinness Draft And
**Bam Bam:** it has to be ice cold.
**Poobah:** Ice cold. No,
**Senator:** no, no, no. For me. No, no. That's not how they do it in Ireland.
**Poobah:** That's not, is that right? You drink it? No, no. No. Temperature. No. No. Really? No. It's [00:50:00] not room temperature. I stand correctly. You're wrong on that too. Let the Irish let the Irish go. Oh, on that too. , you're wrong on that. . It'ss. Not room temperature,
No, but it's not served, it's not served as cold as, as what you would want. Okay. It's, it's, it's served at, it's at a mo at a lower, at, at a higher temperature than regular beer. Mm. It's just, I don't know exactly what that temperature is, but it's not ice cold. Okay. Definitely not ice cold, but colder than a normal beer.
But cold, but no warmer than a normal beer. Oh, warmer. Not, okay. Not colder. As cold as you'd want. Like a Budweiser. I see. Or something like that. I see. Ice cold. You don't want it. But my point, the point, the larger point is, is that Guinness is not a heavy beer. Guinness is actually, it's a full bodied beer, but it's, it's low in alcohol content, low in carbonation and pairs quite nicely with the cigar as we all have drank dozens and dozens of pints of, of Guinness at one of the lounges that we, yes, we have want to.
Yeah, and it's, it's really nice with the cigar. And what we [00:51:00] generally do, uh, being in that kind of environment is we'll pair, uh, I know we're now, we're getting into alcohol, but, uh, uh, uh, an Irish whiskey as a sidecar with the , with the Guinness is very nice. But that not what's standing. If you don't want to go that far, you can have a pin of Guinness that'll last you for a long time if you take your time with it.
Uh, and it, it can, it's very, very nice. It's delicious. I would delicious. But if you're in the liquor store, do not buy the bottles of Guinness Stout. Uh, those, that's a different beer than Guinness Draft. So, so the Guinness Stout is, you'll see it says extra stout on there, and that, that's more towards a, um, what you'd call, it's a very stout beer, and it's more bitter, um, where it drinks like a porter.
Yeah. Yeah. It, it really does. Yeah. It drinks more closer to a porter. It's an extra stat. So just buy the cans that have the little carbonation thing. They [00:52:00] go p and you just, and they're, that's really a nice thing.
**Rooster:** And the ideal temperature for Guinness? I just looked it up. It's 42.8 thick. Ah, oh wow. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Right around 50 rooster. Uh, speaking of non-alcoholic beer, what are your top two or three that you really enjoy?
**Rooster:** So, one of my favorite brands is Klaus Holler. It's like a lager. And the other happier type beards that I like is by Brooklyn Lager. Okay. That make an extra happy, uh, Brooklyn Lager. Delicious.
Ur der. Uh, I'm not, I'm not a huge fan of Heineken, but I love Becks. Okay. Becks makes one of the best non-alcoholic beers, but I can't wait to try the Guinness. Yeah. Cuz I love a, you know, I love a heavy, like a stout, you know, I mean, it is a
**Gizmo:** stout. So,
**Senator:** and, and on Guinness, why, why does it pair so well? Cuz the notes you get outta that, it's like coffee, chocolate, chocolate.
It's perfectly, it's fantastic
**Poobah:** historically. And the body of it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got body. Yeah. [00:53:00] You know,
**Pagoda:** talking about temperature in, in the UK you can actually go to a bar and get extra, extra cold Guinness, which is a very special tap, and they'll serve it to you extra cold. Oh,
**Poobah:** they will. If you like that.
**Gizmo:** If you like that. Yeah. All right, boys, do you want to, uh, you wanna rate the, uh, the BNY double wood? I feel like I know what this is gonna be. Oh, you know what it's gonna be. Yeah, absolutely. Let's rate the absolutely bny double wood 12 and bam,
**Bam Bam:** you're up. I'm at a nine with this guy.
**Gizmo:** It's a 10 for me. Very nice.
Well done. Very nice. All right. I am, you know, I wish Grindr was here cause I'm really curious what he would rate this up. I'm curious where this stacks for him. Good question. Why is Grinder not here today? Oh, that's a good question. A great question. He had a, uh, very exciting, positive, wonderful life event happen.
Yes, yes, yes. So you can, uh, baby Lizard. Baby Lizard is here. We're very happy for him. Beautiful baby girl. Yeah. And, uh, he's very happy and everybody's good. And the baby. We can't wait to have him back. So congratulations. Grind.
**Senator:** Yes, sir. Yes. He's already teaching her, uh, the [00:54:00] difference between a madeon and a natural rapper.
**Gizmo:** Yes. He will use this as a, it'll put her right to
**Senator:** sleep and, and her bedtime stories are all about the history of Scotland.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Perfect.
**Poobah:** He's like different heights of stuff. Once, once upon a time in space side . There was some, there was a master of Bun .
**Gizmo:** Dave, Dave Stewart . He's been working there since 1959.
**Senator:** uh, alright. Right. Vinny rating I'm at. So
**Gizmo:** wait, so bam Bam was a nine to go to a 10. Senator.
**Senator:** I'm at a nine. A nine. A nine.
**Gizmo:** I'm right there with you. A nine all day.
**Poobah:** Well done. Yeah. I'm, I'm at, I'm at a nine. I'm at a nine
**Gizmo:** Rooster. Same nine. All right. Very nice. So little bit above a nine.
**Bam Bam:** Outstanding Recommend.
**Gizmo:** 9.2. Fantastic. Beautiful. Fantastic. Strong recommend on the B balcony. 12 double whip. I could have gone higher in
**Bam Bam:** decimals. Yes. Easily. Yeah. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** The balcony 12 is like, uh, an exclusive for me. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** [00:55:00] Like it's my go-to. It's a familiar friend, familiar
**Pagoda:** friend Caribbean. Always, always have it at home and yeah.
Uh, love
**Poobah:** it. It's, it's really good.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. They make great, great stuff. Really. Super. So we're coming into the last third here, boys. What are you guys thinking about the, uh, Padron Torpedo in natural? So,
**Senator:** one thing I'm noticing with this, I think I described it on the cold draw and in the first third as as getting a lot of milk chocolate, I feel like now toward the last third, It's more of a semi sweet
**Bam Bam:** chocolate.
Yeah. Yeah. That's accurate. I agree. I'm still getting that sweetness, which I love. It's fantastic. A little
**Poobah:** bit of spice too. A bit. Yeah, a little bit. You're right.
**Bam Bam:** Great balance. Which makes
**Gizmo:** it, it's definitely, it's definitely more complex. It makes,
**Bam Bam:** I was about to say that. It makes it a complex cigar when you have those two worlds coming together.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Fantastic. There's a lot going on here.
**Senator:** It's picked up in that, you know, pagoda said it was really mild to start, and I think that's fair. It was mild to start. Yeah. I think now it's firmly mediums. Yeah. Oh, second.
**Rooster:** Second. Half of the stick has picked up in strength. Yes. And all the flavors from the begin, from [00:56:00] the, you know, and the start of the cigar have kind of concentrated notes the same.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. True. Fantastic. Do you guys think, oh,
**Poobah:** sorry, go ahead. Sorry. There's nicotine in, so like you start to get, I've said this before, like when you have a a, a stick that, and some of the Cuban smokes that we have aren't really that high in nicotine. Nope. The patron is, It's, I think, delivers a little bit more the Nicaragua tobacco.
Yeah. This like, it, this, I, you start to feel that like, well you've said it before. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel good. Yeah. Yeah. Like you're getting that like, I feel really good. Yeah. Like it's makes you feel it's, and you can feel that kind of pep, you're getting that little bit of kick and that's really nice.
Yes. It is really nice. You start to feel really nice, like, like just after the middle. Yeah. And you start to get from the last 30, you're like, Ooh, I'm feeling pretty good. Honestly.
**Bam Bam:** It's, it's velvety still for me. It's very ve it is for me too. I'm still smoke is
**Gizmo:** velvety. Yeah. I'm still getting that, that salty thing too, uh, that we were talking about earlier.[00:57:00]
I guess the question I have based on the, what you guys just said, Puba and bam, bam as well. I'm curious at this point, do you guys. That this is not good for someone who likes, uh, um, our more mild or medium cigar at this point in the cigar. Yeah, good question. Has it gotten to the point where someone who you've turned onto this because of their flavor preferences, bam, bam, the people you were talking about?
Yeah. My father-in-law, I'm smoking it now. I don't know if at this point he'd be kind of like, good question. You may put it down. Yeah. Yeah.
**Senator:** It's a great question. I, I think just what I've observed now smoking this and other patron drones in this line, I do worry that the second half of this, for someone who truly likes a mild cigar, that this is maybe now a bit more than they would want, and what I think is probably the, where they'd be better served in the 1964 line is something in a smaller ring age.
Because that Corona that you gave me gives very smooth all the way through. That was mild, [00:58:00] mild, medium, maybe at best at any point. It never got as. Much flavor as this is now delivering in the last third. So I'm not convinced that this is ideal for someone who truly just likes a very mild cigar, but for anyone who firmly loves a medium stick, anyone who's a Cuban cigar smoker, I, I mean this is right in their wheelhouse.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Yeah. I wonder, you know what, uh, the other viola that that scored really well, I think it was last year when the EP Choreo won, uh, I think it was top five, the Hermosa in Maduro, which is the short fat one that Padron makes. I'm curious what that is like in a natural. I may try it just to see if it may be a good fit for my father-in-law, but
**Senator:** I'd wanna try that natural because I had the Maduro and you know how much we all love drone?
I didn't love that. Yeah. It's harsh. Bingo.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's harsh. Bingo. Yeah. And it's a bigger ring gauge too. What is it? A 50 maybe? Yeah, 52. It's a fat cigar. Yeah, it's pretty
**Poobah:** fat. Yeah. And they deliver like different levels of power. Yep. You know, there's certain patron drones. We've discussed it [00:59:00] before, like the 1926.
There's certain 26 in the smokes, in the 26 line. What is it, the number three? Number two is
**Gizmo:** the bella, like the, the, I guess it's a Bella Koosa. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Boy, is that a strong cigar boy? Oh boy.
**Gizmo:** I honestly, I honestly find the smoke. It, I mean, it's so strong. I find that for me, my palate and, and we've gone over it many times.
I, I think in Pedro, I think the family reserve is more, uh, accessible to me than even the 26th line, except for the 80th anniversary and the strongest cigar they make. But I still think it's very smooth. The 90th Maduro in the Tubo, the red tubo, um, I think safe for those two. I think that line is less approachable to me than even the family reserves, which is less of which one is less approach.
uh, the 26th line Safe for those two that I named? Yeah. I think family reserve is more important. Well, the family reserve, I,
**Senator:** I would just say safe for the 90th. The 80th I think is very accessible. Oh,
**Gizmo:** absolutely. But, but I'm saying the 90th and the 80th for me, I'll go to those all day long. [01:00:00] I don't go to any other 20 above the 26th line, except, you know, the other one I'm ex uh, I'm excluding.
What about the 50th? Is the number 35? Yeah, that's a good que way PBA 50th. 50th is, that's a, there's two 50th. Hold on. Yeah, that's a great question. There's, there's a 50 year, which is the, uh, it's not a line, it's its own Right. Uh, celebration. And then there's a 50th or 50 year, I think, or 50th, inside the family reserve line.
There's no 50th in the 26th. Oh, okay. It's, I think he's right's all its own. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** That's Family reserve. Well, clearly the Family Reserve is, is more refined. Yeah. It's absolutely full flavor,
**Gizmo:** but it's refined and it's, there's, so those sticks. I feel every one of those family reserve sticks I've had in Maduro, there's such a sweetness about them.
Even though they're strong, they're strong full cigars. Oh yeah, yeah. They're, they're smooth and sweet. I, I, I've never had the experience that p uh, that Puba just mentioned
**Poobah:** in the Twentie. I have, I have some 50th that were gifted to me. Um, four or five of them. Uh, I haven't smoked them yet. They're 50th.
**Gizmo:** Maduro Maduro, yeah. Yeah. So those, [01:01:00] those are what, 45, $50 cigars the best cigar Padrone makes. Yeah, it's a great cigar. Which me, which one? Which the 50 year anniversary to come 50 year 50. It's the big white.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, it's fantastic.
**Senator:** Humidor. It's beautiful. Yeah. Thank God they're Maduro. So I've had both the natural and Maduro and I, I think this is also what has really colored my perception of Padron's natural cigars, that 50 year.
The Maduro is absolutely outstanding. The natural I really did not enjoy. I, I smoked both back to back. I started with the natural, then I had the Maduro, it was on my birthday actually at our former lounge. And I, the natural just, it's not even close to how good the
**Gizmo:** Maduro is. Yeah.
**Poobah:** I haven't had one
**Gizmo:** yet.
I've got like five of them. They're great. Dude. You don't need, you don't need to wait. Great. Great steak. Yeah. You don't need to wait. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. They're very good cigars. Yeah. You know what's funny though is if you, I haven't, I mean, none of us have, but you can only buy that cigar in a 50 count. It's like [01:02:00] $2,500 or $3,000.
It's it's crazy human, gorgeous box. And what's crazy is like 5,000. Is it five? Oh, it's ridiculous. Oh. The refills, I guess, are less, but you're right. It's crazy money. But what's wild about it is you can't just order mad. Or just order natural. If you buy that, you have to get 25 of each. So
**Senator:** that's the thing that paints me.
That's the reason I've never bought a box of those.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's crazy. I didn't know that. It's crazy. I, I smoke those very infrequently, but, um, they're very, very good. They are excellent.
**Poobah:** Very good. Excellent. Have yet to have one. I'll come over and take one. .
**Gizmo:** They're, they're very well worth it.
**Pagoda:** So just to put it out there, you know, I know, um, somewhat off topic, but with these torpedoes, would you do a V cut or would you do a straight cut?
That's a
**Senator:** great question. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
**Gizmo:** Thank, by the way. Thank you. Grizzly. Adam, you don't need to Yes, please don't do
**Senator:** a question here. No, no. This is really important. I look, I'm not a big VCU guy, but I respect it. I [01:03:00] understand it's utility. I have used it sometimes, but this is an important point in this room.
How many would use a VCU on a torpedo Zero. Never. Is there anyone? Never. I would not. Cause I've seen guys do it, so I'm just curious if there's anything and I, I
**Gizmo:** typically
**Poobah:** on a torpedo. Okay, everybody calm down. ,
**Gizmo:** take a boomer telling us to calm down. I love this.
**Poobah:** Everybody take a deep breath. Um, so there's a school of thought that the, uh, you can use a VCU on a, on a torpedo and that you take enough volume out of the, out of the end of the cap, that you can get a good draw, but yet you can have that kind of pointed delivery to the pallet that, that it delivers.
There's like a specific reason why. They're dis they're rolled that way. It's because of the way it lands in, like, and when, when you just cut so much off of a [01:04:00] torpedo, you know, it kind of defeats the whole purpose of the shape. He's absolutely right. Yeah. So, so, so the, the school of thought is if you use a v cut on a torpedo, that can take enough volume out of the cap where, but you're still getting the, this delivery.
Now do I do that on torpedoes, um, on a consistent basis? No, I don't, I, I, I try to take as little off as I can where I can get a good draw, and then if I need to take a little bit more off. I, you know, you can do it. I, I, I do it. Yeah. Uh, where I find the, the, the vcu, which I'm a fan of, um, and Collibra makes really the best money for value VCU bingo.
That's out there. Great vcu. Um, it's really a great vcu and it's heavy. It's Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. It's a really good, uh, accessory. Where I find that actually very useful was, is, is, is with, uh, believe it or not, with petite Coronas. Oh, okay. And I'll tell you why. So with a petite [01:05:00] Corona Cuban petite Corona, like sometimes you can get Amani Crystal four or something, right?
That's like where the, where it's been rolled. And that triple cap, sometimes at the end, if you straight cut it and you just take the cap off, uh, in the normal fashion, sometimes the draw is too tight. It's just because of the ring gauge of the cigar. But if you, if you, if you throw a V cut on there, It takes enough volume out of the cap where there's a lot of tobacco bunched up.
You can get a, it can really help improve the draw on sometimes on a smaller gauge cigar like that, I've had success with that and even in a rub robusto where I've actually just clipped the cap off. , you know, and, and on, on a Cuban rib, robust stone. I'm like, maybe the draw's not good. Instead of running a perfect draw through, I've reset it with a vcu.
Oh, wow. And you takes the volume out of the cap and you're actually, you're like, [01:06:00] okay, now maintains this fucking thing is perfectly open. You know what, it maintains
**Gizmo:** the integrity of the, that repositions the
**Bam Bam:** whole argument for me. It makes it, it's really a legitimate argument. But that's after a flat cup.
You want to test
**Poobah:** it first? Is that right? Well, I, I, I think that it's just
**Senator:** personal. He's not talking about, he's not talking about a torpedo right now. He's talking about a petite
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And any cigar. So you're trying a flat cup
**Poobah:** first to see if you've got No, I don't think that that's like, it's not that binary.
Okay. I think it's just personal preference. I'm just saying like, like a V cut can really do a really wonderful job of taking volume out of the cap that where there may be tobacco bunched up in. . Um, and instead of running a perfect draw through sometimes a V cut's like the perfect solution. Um, and I found with the same box of that, that has tight, that has a bunch of tobacco rolled up, like Amani Crystals four or a BVA petite Corona where I've been like, ah, the draw's not been great on these.
I'm just gonna cut it with a V cut and I've cut it with a V cut and then I'm like, ah, wow. This whole thing has just opened up. Cuz there was [01:07:00] a bunch of tobacco rolled up. There was just, it was just tight there.
**Gizmo:** Got it. Interesting. That's a great point. It is a very good point.
**Rooster:** Unless the cigar is tight in
**Gizmo:** the middle.
Yeah. Then you're in trouble. Yeah. Then that's a definition. Then you need surgery with the
**Poobah:** perfect drop. Yeah. You only need surgery. Um, anyway. I've found that to be, I think there's utility for it. I think there's merit in it. It's a matter of, you know, some people don't like it because they wanna, they want to put their tongue to the tip of the cigar.
And I generally use a straight cut. But the V cut does have utility. Well, totally.
**Gizmo:** I, I have a couple of these natural, the, what We're smoking right now. I have a couple left. I'm, I'm gonna try a v cut on it and I'll report back. I see. Cause I, I think that's a great
**Senator:** argument. Well, I guess here here's another question though.
Aron that is not a torpedo. Right. Without need round today, you don't need, yeah, you don't need to. Would you ever? No. No. Would you ever use a V cut on a drone? No. No. Can I say that? Because Right. That's cigar uniquely, you want to take off as little as humanly possible off, so, yeah,
**Poobah:** that's right. They're not triple capped.
Yeah, they're single as [01:08:00] well. They're single capped and the, and the way that they're role, they're so, the construction's so flawless that the draw is always perfect. You really don't, A VCU is really, unless you like that mouth field, there's no reason to use it. So I've got a
**Bam Bam:** question. So then he's coming from the point of view of experience.
He knows his cigars, he knows what may not draw as well as another cigar. Now, from the point of view of the listener who may not have that knowledge that he has, , would you advise that person to go right for a V cut or start with a flat and then try it? I
**Poobah:** think you start with a flat cut, right? And then if, if you find it's not dry, well great.
You can say, you know what, maybe there's volume in the cap. And I'm just going, you know what's cool? It's
**Gizmo:** a great argument. A fantastic, you know what's cool too? If, if, if there's somebody out there looking for an accessory, Colibri actually makes a, uh, a double cut. They make, it's a, it's a unit that has a straight cut in it and a V cut on the other side, the same size as the one that we use.
It's very, very cool and it's not that expensive.
**Poobah:** By the way. You know what else I've done with the vcu? I've, you, you butterfly it. Oh, you do it twice. So you do it Poof. Yeah. And poof like that. [01:09:00] And I've done that on, on cigars and it's, it's a thing that people do. You do it once. Oh, I've
**Senator:** seen it. I Believe me, if you go on Instagram, I've seen plenty of it.
I won't lie. I hate it every time I see it.
**Poobah:** Well, you can hate it. I mean, I'm, I'm not saying if you're gonna draw Senator, I'm right there with you. I'm just doing it to get a draw
**Senator:** the cigar. I just feel like at that point you're just taking a fucking cleaver to the cigar. Like it's just, I, I I don't,
**Poobah:** okay, that's fine.
I mean, uh, listen, do you see me rolling around with a V cut in my pocket all the time? No. Thank God. . No, but, but is it, is it useful? It has
**Senator:** utility now. I, there, there I am with you. Absolutely has utility. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. All right boys, we're coming to the end here of the Padron Torpedo 1964 anniversary in Natural.
Are you guys ready to give it the formal lizard rating? Let's do it. Yep. What were we gonna say? Pagoda?
**Pagoda:** Oh no, I, I was just about to say the second half has been fantastic. Yeah. I think, you know, like, uh, I found it really mild in the beginning, and I [01:10:00] think I've been really enjoying the second half. All right, cool.
I, I haven't got hints of spiciness and it's just been great.
**Gizmo:** Well, so I guess that, uh, that a adds to my question of a smoker who doesn't like a, a a, a strong cigar, which obviously pagoda is not that person. Um, yeah, I would not be, this may be the, yeah, this would not be the cigar for them. So, rooster, let's do the, let's do, let's do the rating.
**Rooster:** Yeah. So to me, I'm, I'm gonna give it a nine.
**Poobah:** Wow. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think, um, in the middle, there was a point where I felt like for just a few minutes that it was kind of like flat for me, where I was like, and I'm not sure where this is gonna go, but it finished up so strong in the second half.
Um, there was just a, a small part where I was like, I don't know where this thing's gonna go. Right now. I, I, I, I think I gotta give it a nine. I gotta give it a nine. I think it's that good. I think it's that good.
**Gizmo:** I, I am 100% with you. I think a [01:11:00] nine is a perfect score for this. Uh, I'm curious to see where it ends up, but I'm also in a nine.
Here we go.
**Senator:** This, this pains me. Oh, I know. I feel like I have to apologize in advance. I gotta leave. I'm leaving because I, this is my favorite brand period. Um, and this is, this is not a bad score, but it pains me that I'm gonna be slightly lower than the other lizards. I'm gonna give it an eight. I'll explain why later
**Pagoda:** pagoda.
Yeah, me too. I think I was hovering around a seven because it was too mild for me in the very beginning for my PowerLight. Um, obviously, uh, not to take anything away from the cigar, but, uh, I would give it a eight. Okay. I'm
**Bam Bam:** at, I'm, I'm at a nine all day with this. Okay. And you know, early on we talked about the complexity of the cigar, sweetness and the spicy and how it came together beautifully.
Um, nine all day.
**Senator:** Composite lizard score 8.7.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Fantastic score. I think that's a very fair score for this. I think a 97 that that ca gave it is way, way too high. I think it should be over a, [01:12:00] uh, a 90 a nine for me, but I think an 8.7 is
**Poobah:** very fair. Yeah. Like for me it was a 90 point cigar. Like, you know, I'd give it if I was doing round numbers.
Yeah. I would give it 90. Got it. Uh, I, I, I, I think that it's definitely a nine point cigar, uh, yep. For me, um, I particularly the way that where, how it performed in the home stretch for me was really impressive. Very, very, I
**Bam Bam:** gotta hear senators. Yeah. I gotta
**Gizmo:** hear this.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. So I, for me, you know, my rating comes down to my, my palate and my preference.
There was nothing about this cigar that I'm willing to say, I think universally is problematic about this cigar, cuz that's not the case at all. For me, having had the Maduro version of this torpedo. , the torpedo in Maduro, I would give a nine. And this I give an eight because I, I, I'm a little confused by the cigar in that the first half was so mild where I sat there and I said, well, I would have this in the afternoon, [01:13:00] and I couldn't have this after dinner.
And then the second half I said, well, I actually could have this after dinner. So I, I'm, I'm just struggling with where I slotted in and because of that, it, it, it, it, it just doesn't translate well enough for me to say like, this is exactly the profile I'm looking for in a cigar that I know exactly where I'm gonna slot it in.
Where with that torpedo in Maduro. I know. Any evening, any day of the week. That's the perfect cigar. That's a nine every day for me. And, and this is an eight, just because the first half is too mild for what I normally smoke. That's why I said I would have to only have it in the afternoon, and then I'd have to wait for halfway through the cigar for it to be what I would normally wanna smoke.
So I'm just very conflicted. That's why I'm an eight. It's a, it's a paradox. So
**Gizmo:** what about a perfect, it's a vortex.
**Poobah:** He's a paradox called a vortex.
**Gizmo:** So, Senator,
**Rooster:** how about a perfect lunch with sweet green
**Gizmo:** salad? . Ooh, diet Coke and the cigar. There you go. Yeah, no, the problem
**Senator:** is it's an, for the first half, it's an, I have to stop smokey at halfway and then have the other half after [01:14:00] dinner.
That's the problem. ,
**Gizmo:** maybe a small steak from Capital Grill. ,
**Poobah:** I, uh,
**Gizmo:** I, I, uh, I'm very impressed with this. I am, so, I didn't know what this was gonna end up with tonight. I think an 8.7 is a very, a fair score. A very fair score. And I think it's a very strong recommend from, from us. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.
**Senator:** And the, the, the biggest takeaway from me from this is, I'm absolutely gonna try more. Patron
**Bam Bam:** and natural. Yeah. I was gonna ask you if you had more of these, could you f could you really see it slotting into your rotation?
**Senator:** Well, I, my problem as, as, like I said, the torpedo, I have a hard time slotting in, I want to try other violas.
Okay. In natural in the 64 line. And I think some of those, like the Corona that gives, gave me Corona's good that slots in abs perfectly for the afternoon all the way through. That was an afternoon smoke. What's nice
**Gizmo:** about that too is it's a 45 minute. It's great. You're in and
**Bam Bam:** out and we never, none of us have got that cigar.
Except for you.
**Senator:** Yeah. No, no. He gave it out to a few. I think Rooster had it with me there.
**Gizmo:** I had it. Yeah. You were avoiding me like the plague. No, I wasn't . It tastes like [01:15:00] pandemic. Bam. He was outta here. What? It tastes like a fundi. . All right, boys. And 8.7 for the Pedro 1964. Great story anniversary, torpedo and natural.
Very good guys. Uh, pagoda. Thanks for the, uh, thanks for the cigars. Thank you Pagoda Rooster. Uh, Senator. Thanks for the sco. Thank you guys and uh, awesome guys. We'll see you next week. Thanks bud. 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, lizards pod gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next [01:16:00] week.