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The lizards pair the Por Larrañaga Petit Corona with Tequila Fortaleza Añejo and Tapatio Excelencia Extra Añejo. The guys welcome Chef/Partner Ricky Camacho of the Añejo Restaurant Group (NYC/PHI) for part two of a deep dive on artisan Tequila. They also discuss their experiences in the restaurant industry and detail Por Larrañaga's long history.
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 Liz 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 Pba, Senator Grindr, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoker cigar tricks of tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 34th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke Cupid cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We again, welcome chef partner Ricky Camacho from the Anejo Restaurant Group for part two of our tequila Deep dive. We discuss our experiences in the restaurant industry and we detail this Havanas market's long history, 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 two artisan tequilas with the poor La Yaga, petite Corona.
A petite Corona from [00:01:00] Havanas on the pod tonight. Boys, the oldest of the havanas Marcus tonight. And, uh, we'll get into that in a little bit. But let's, uh, let's cut this thing. So we're getting on the cold draw.
**Grinder:** My favorite size.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Poor
**Ricky:** Laa. Something like that.
**Gizmo:** These are delicious little cigars.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. The cold draw is really flavorful.
Hmm.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah, that's good. I'm not getting a ton. My draw's pretty tight. I'll be
**Ricky:** honest. My draw's tight too, but I'm getting, uh, I'm getting some good
**Bam Bam:** flavors here. Mine's wide open. Getting mine is also open. A little sweetness on mine.
**Gizmo:** Mine's open. Taste like a humidor. Get that cedar.
**Ricky:** I get cedar and some ancho chili.
If you guys ever get your hands on some dried angel chilies, uh, they're kind of pruny plumbing. You get that here for sure. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** He'll get Wow. A hell of a call out. He's not wrong. He's, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Quite the refined.
**Gizmo:** Call out the voice [00:02:00] you're hearing. Uh, out there is our guest lizard. Uh, two weeks ago he was here.
We did a deep dive on tequila. He is back to, uh, join us. Smoking a great cigar tonight and we are gonna talk a little bit more about tequila. Welcome Ricky. Ricky, thanks for having me again, chef and partner at Anejo Restaurants in New York and Philadelphia. So thanks so much for joining us again, ma'am.
No,
**Ricky:** it's my pleasure being back. Uh, just happy to continue what we started a couple weeks back and, uh, hopefully there's people out there that wanna hear some
**Gizmo:** more. I'll tell you, unlike episode one, uh, that we did with you a couple weeks ago, the tequilas you brought tonight, I'm very excited about because I've had both of them.
I know that all of us in the room I think have had both of them, so, yep. I can't wait to dive in. So, all right, boys, let's like this thing, the poor Laga, I can't say that damn name. Petite Corona. A 42 ring gauge by five and an eighth stick
**Ricky:** just for the record gives, you're saying for the butt cheek , with your improper
**Gizmo:** Spanish [00:03:00] pronunciation.
That's song perfect.
**Bam Bam:** That's nice. That's exactly what I need. That's, that's pretty standard for Gizz, actually,
**Gizmo:** Now I'm gonna have that in my head when I have to record the intro for this thing, the
**Ricky:** panick. Just say it the same way.
**Senator:** Giz.
**Ricky:** Yeah. . .
**Gizmo:** God damnit. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I do love these little sticks. I haven't had one in a while. I think they're very flavorful. Retro Hill's great. Yes it is. Taste Cuban.
**Senator:** I gotta say, I love doing this because for me this is revisiting this cigar.
I've had this once and it was from Rooster and I, I liked it, but I didn't love it. But on the light this second time, maybe the second time's gonna be the charm. I'm liking what I, what I get out
**Gizmo:** of this. You know, the, the difference might be that this is from a 50 cab and the other one we, I had bought like maybe five loose sticks.
So that has [00:04:00] sometimes a lot to do with it. These are cigars that are like sitting and marinating in a 50 cab box.
**Senator:** So I mean, to your point, I mean obviously we sing the praises of 50 cabs, and when you pass these around, The aroma just off the cigar, just the wrapper. Even before I had cut it, it was so fragrant.
It was
**Bam Bam:** awesome. Yeah, right off the light. I'm getting a lot of a potpourri of dry fruit and floral. It's fantastic. What spice some, what's some saltiness there too? I'm getting
**Senator:** some spice. Yeah, I got the saltiness. Yeah, definitely salt. I even got that on the cold. Dry. My lips feel like I'm at the beach. Yes.
**Ricky:** Yeah. Little salt and nut next with me. Yeah. Very
**Gizmo:** good. I'm getting a little caramel. Yeah. Salt. I would say
**Grinder:** this is a full bo this is a
**Gizmo:** full flavor. Such a little stick to your point. Grindr, full flavor, concentrated flavors. My God. And up Petite Corona. Very
**Senator:** smooth. Yeah. The,
**Grinder:** the, I get some black pepper on the
**Gizmo:** finish Rooster.
How much are these? Um, I don't know. They're, they're not that bad. They're not eight bucks, 10 bucks. Yeah. About 10 bucks. [00:05:00] Yeah. Yeah. Maybe a little less actually. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I've never had a poor No. Ever. No good.
**Ricky:** Good job there, man. Oh, thank you. .
**Senator:** Man's. Like, that's the first time
**Gizmo:** I've heard that on the podcast.
**Bam Bam:** no one takes 32 episodes.
I disavow all of you except for Ricky .
**Gizmo:** So I gotta say, um, you know, uh, this cigar, uh, this marker has quite a bit of history about it. Um, not only was it registered in 1834, founded in 1834, it is the oldest ha Bonos Marco, which is incredible because it's not one, it's, it's certainly not one of their global brands.
It's not even one of their value. It's a portfolio brand. It's buried on the, the, it's a tertiary brand for them.
**Senator:** I'm sorry, but hearing this, first of all, I didn't know that. Yep. Second of all, Puba or I, in our retirement, need to run marketing for this brand. I agree.
**Gizmo:** Sure, sure. That's
**Poobah:** a, that's a deal. I mean, my [00:06:00] goodness.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. . The what? What a story that's gone untold. It's
**Poobah:** crazy. It's gone. It's, yeah, it's gone untold. I don't know how many Violas they have in
**Gizmo:** the, I I think only, I was just about to say two gals, uh, Monte Harlow. And this, the gals is actually, is that a regional? It's a, no, it's not a regional. Maybe it's a limited product.
I don't, I know. Don't think they put, doesn't have an extra band on it. Goana. Well, there's four cigars one's, uh, a Havanas exclusive, which is called the Pico dos. Pico Dos, yes. And then the Monte Carlo, the Petite Corona and the Gowans. So I think you're correct. I think there's three in regular production.
But I mean that even that, I mean, it's just the sand. This
**Grinder:** is wowing me right now. It's amazing. Absolutely. This is number one. This is my favorite size of cigar. Mm-hmm. number. The taste of this salt where someone mentioned the salt, like the sea. We, the sea salt is, it's, it's keeps on hitting me on the list.
It's right there, you
**Gizmo:** know, it's like the caramel and the salt's fantastic. Goes perfectly
**Bam Bam:** together. That is a perfect, perfect combination thing getting here.
**Ricky:** Absolutely. It could also be the sweat of the [00:07:00] roller, which you guys .
**Bam Bam:** Well, sweat
**Gizmo:** is salty . So, um, some other really interesting things about this market and, and this brand.
Um, what's interesting is in 1925, I guess there were some major labor problems, labor shortages, whatever. This was the first brand in the world. Obviously this is pre-revolution, so we're not talking about a communist, you know, uh, nationalism of all, uh, uh, corporations. Paga was the first factory to machine make cigars in 1925 in the world.
So they were a pretty, you know, an innovator in that space. Obviously we don't celebrate machine made cigars. We celebrate handmade cigars, but it still is a pretty large innovation in, in.
**Bam Bam:** So are these still
**Gizmo:** machine made? No, they're all, they're all handmade now, actually. Ha, bonos doesn't have any machine made, uh, cigars except, uh, ritos titas like little.
Okay. You know, the smaller cigars are still machine made. Yeah. But these cigars,
**Bam Bam:** I got some dirty looks when I asked that, but that's
**Senator:** okay. Well, I just looked at you that way [00:08:00] because I'm sitting there saying, do you think cigar, you think Rooster would ever buy a machine made ?
**Gizmo:** God forbid, asking
**Poobah:** what's Also wouldn't come in a 50 cab
I asked
**Bam Bam:** in on behalf of the listener. Okay. The,
**Grinder:** the retro harrow is so spicy. It's very good. It's really
**Gizmo:** nice. It's delicious. Very. This is a great cigar. Yeah. Uh, and the other thing I wanted to say too was at the time of na uh, nationalizing in 1960, during the, you know, the, uh, the revolution, this was the sixth largest marker that they had alongside, you know, UPK and, and others.
This was the sixth largest and certainly has fallen. I would maybe argue by the wayside as far as Havanas goes, because. It's, it's a fairly ignored marker except from people who do a deep dive. But, you know, in
**Poobah:** our group I do see them, I do see them come up and go down. It's not like they sit like, you know, they're, they're, there's fans.
They're fans of the cigar, but yeah, it's not, [00:09:00] it's not something that's
**Grinder:** so popular. I wonder how, how popular certain markers are in Cuba. Like what, what's the average Cuban
**Gizmo:** smoking farm rolls? I think they're smoking farm rolls or stuff. They're rolling themselves. Nothing from the hoban type I stuff out of the back of the factory.
Yeah. I would think they're not able to go and buy it, you know, which is a tragedy in and of itself. But I mean, think
**Poobah:** about what the average Cuban worker's income is and how much a box of these cigars. .
**Gizmo:** It's like, forget
**Senator:** about it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they always say the average roller makes a dollar a day.
Wow, Cub. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, that's true. And then people wonder why when the prices go up. True. Yeah. Wow. People wonder why there's a labor shortage, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's terrible, but it probably gets to smoke some stick that is rolling. Yeah. . Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
**Poobah:** they smoke a lot of cigars.
**Gizmo:** They just different ways probably making like 50 bucks a day.
**Senator:** roosters like, sign me up. . [00:10:00]
**Gizmo:** Oh, lordy. But yeah, so this is a, I I found that really interesting when I was doing a little research on the market that it, it had such a history to it because they certainly don't market that. They don't celebrate that certainly the way that I think they should. And with the way that this cigar is tasting right now, I mean, this is really, really a dynamic cigar, precise.
And I wonder why you talked about the pico dores before, right? That's got a red label on it. , but this one, the gals and the Montecarlo, they all have the same label. I think the red one is the Haos Golden white, uh, specialist or the Haos special for Haos stores. A lot of people like the Pido as well. I haven't had that sought after.
Yeah. Wooster, what's
**Ricky:** the age on this?
**Gizmo:** This is, uh, l g r 2019. So three years. Yeah. Not a lot of age.
**Grinder:** I, I w I, uh, that's amazing to me.
**Ricky:** Wow. I wish we could go back to two weeks ago and smoke and, and
**Gizmo:** smoke this one. Smoke this instead of this on Crist ball. . Yeah.
**Ricky:** Yeah. This is night and day, [00:11:00] but I'm sure you guys might feel that way about some of the tequilas I brought today.
So we'll see. ,
**Senator:** no, I have to say I, I'm actually really glad that we are doing this cigar with the tequilas that we are, and I say that because obviously, you know, what was so impressive to us when we met Ricky in and bringing him on was his knowledge and exposing us to all of these. Um, you know, lesser known brands that produce an outstanding product.
And this is a perfect example of a brand that's obviously not nearly as well known as Amen. The big major Cuban brands, um, and even for me, I've never bought a box of anything they make is only the second one of their cigars I've ever smoked. And the first one was good but not great. This is off to a really great start and is already making me interested in buying some of these.
Agreed. And you can really get these at a good price point. I mean, I say that because I would see these pop up at a very reasonable price and I say, oh, should I, shouldn't I? And it, it did knock my socks off enough the first time. But this is [00:12:00] changing your
**Gizmo:** two special. Yeah, you could always ask me, Senator , these will be on sale after the part edit discount, 2020 bucks a stick,
All right boys, we have Ricky here, so we know what we have to do, which is drink some tequila. Yeah.
**Senator:** Can we just dive into this Tequila? Let's get into it. It's staring at me and a cigar like this needs. Absolutely. So Ricky deserving
**Gizmo:** pairing.
**Ricky:** What's up first? Tell us about it. All right, guys. The first step we got the Fort Alyssa Onk.
This is a lowland tequila, meaning it comes from the valley of tequila in HaCo. This is cooked in brick ovens. This is, uh, extracted using a tahona, which is a large stone wheel that's rolled over the cook, agave. And, uh, as far as fermentation wood in fermentation tanks, open air fermentation, meaning there's wild yeast that goes in there, uh, and for aging.
The Asias and American white Oak ex bourbon barrels and they's stilled near proof. But, uh, they do have a still strength on the [00:13:00] market too. That's a little hotter, but a little brighter on the. .
**Gizmo:** This is delicious.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. These, my God. Yeah. I think it's safe to say that most of us in this room love this tequila.
I happen to really love this. The
**Gizmo:** nose is really interesting. It's fantastic flavor's. Very interesting. Yeah. I mean, top to bottom it is just a superb,
**Bam Bam:** and I haven't spirit, honestly, I haven't had this neat until tonight. Really? Wow. So the
**Gizmo:** first time I had it, how the hell did I let
**Bam Bam:** that happen? I don't know how you let that happen.
You're not doing your job . But at the club I had it with just a chip of ice. It really was so delicious. I happen to like it better than a Don Julio. , but neat. Now it's a different experience. Very balance. It's still
**Ricky:** very enjoyable. So Grindr, if you there, there's saltiness here in minerality that really just parallel with this grind.
I
**Grinder:** was just gonna say, a lot of minerality, it kind of tastes like hard water. . Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm serious. It's like I'm getting like a mineral water. Yeah.
**Ricky:** You, for me, I sort of, I, I, I refer to [00:14:00] that as, as soul, right? Yeah. And that comes from this process that, you know, two weeks ago we had tequilas and neither of those tequilas were made with a tona.
Those agave were processed using a screw mill. Mm-hmm. . So it's more of a shredding process and, and metallic in that sense. But here you're using that to hold it and it's really introducing a lot of minerality and saltiness, and the
**Senator:** pairing is phenomenal.
**Grinder:** Yeah, it is. Oh my God, this is working really well.
Yeah.
**Senator:** It's so well complimented. I, I also have to say, I mean, Ricky's poured for us also the reto before, and this is obviously the Anejo. Mm-hmm. , and we're talking about lesser known brands that really deserve a spotlight. and I think for Deza, cuz the RESO is fantastic. I like that. I can actually find, I have purchased some, I don't have the Anejo yet.
I need to find this, this brand is deserving of a lot of credit. It's
**Grinder:** fantastic.
**Bam Bam:** Fantastic.
**Gizmo:** How much, and it's, it's nothing to do with the restaurant La Fortza, right? No, no,
**Ricky:** absolutely not. ,
**Senator:** uh, for the listener, uh, I, I've never been, but just from every human being [00:15:00] I know that has been, there's poop's flavor.
It's basically Chucky cheese of like
**Ricky:** Mexican restaurants. I like to call it the classic re
**Bam Bam:** it's like walking into a cartoon, strip
**Gizmo:** poop's been there,
**Poobah:** videos. Well, I've been there many times. Um, but everything doesn't have to be in life to me be that serious. So when you go there, sure. It's really about just having fun.
And they have a mariachi band. And, and if you, you get an enchilada and you drink some tequila and you have
**Gizmo:** a good time. Well, tell, tell us about the guacamole, how
**Poobah:** the surf guacamole in a bus.
**Bam Bam:** What?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's like a little, it's like a car. It doesn't even taste like fresh guacamole. It's like out of a can . No, no. I swear it doesn't taste fresh. It doesn't taste
**Poobah:** well. I mean, nothing's particularly out of a bus. Good. It's, it's, I don't know. Well, you've been there many times. It's just, it's just a fun Mexican place.
It's [00:16:00] not serious. It's not,
**Gizmo:** it's good
**Senator:** for kids. Rooster used to own a Mexican restaurant, so I think he's got high bar.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, he's got a discerning Mexican cuisine. Oh, yeah.
**Poobah:** Taste. Oh yeah. The, the, the salad out of the bag and all that stuff. like fucking subways, , fucking mass producing fucking tacos. Taco Maker
**Gizmo:** I'm glad you remembered the name. That was,
**Poobah:** that was strictly for commercial pur. That was, that was for commercial purposes
**Gizmo:** only. I take it. You never ate there. No, I'm
**Poobah:** kidding. I, dude, I eat Taco Bell for
**Gizmo:** crisis. This was, I mean, I love, this was before Taco Bell is much better if I say so.
**Poobah:** Benny's burritos in the city.
I eat that. I used to eat
**Gizmo:** that stuff. I can't get over the guacamole. Served in a. There's,
**Poobah:** there's, if you go there, there's so many more things that you wouldn't be able to get up.
**Ricky:** Like quote unquote get over CHS in a little food cart or something. Yeah. Yeah. They put that on table,
**Gizmo:** everything, presentation.
**Poobah:** It's just a lot of show, and it's [00:17:00] just for lunacy
**Gizmo:** purposes. Fun. It's, yeah. People's very colorful
**Senator:** place. Yeah. The decor is outrageous. Very colorful. I mean, I've only seen photos. Oh yeah. Every inch of every wall in that restaurant has stuff on it. Yeah. It
**Bam Bam:** looks like Mexican graffiti everywhere. Yeah,
**Poobah:** it's, yeah.
It's fun. It's beau It's really cool. It's, I don't know. Well, I, I like going there. It's fun. I mean, I, it's not like I'm dining there all the time. You get a couple tacos, push 'em in. It costs, like, the bill is like push, push him in, push, push him in
**Bam Bam:** when you leave,
**Poobah:** shove him down. , hey, shove down some tacos. I mean, it's like, you go, it's like, it's like when you leave though, like if you go with like four people.
The, the, the bill, like with the liquor 80 bucks, it's, it's like $127. It's not even a lot
**Gizmo:** of money.
**Senator:** It won't happen. It sounds like a great restaurant. I always love force feeding myself. Restaurant . It
**Grinder:** sounds great. . Look at great
**Bam Bam:** look man. Look at the ash on rickey's. Different, different
**Grinder:** poor little runa.
**Senator:** I think everybody's got a, I mean, it's, it's really holding.
It is
**Gizmo:** holding,
**Bam Bam:** yeah. Well constructed cigar. Yeah. [00:18:00] The cigar is phenomenal and honestly very,
**Grinder:** very tasty. The minerality is amplifying. I think that's great. In my, in my, in my situation.
**Gizmo:** So for guys who smoke these often, I know Rooster is certainly one of them, how do these, uh, uh, how do these change with age?
Like what is the expectation? If I buy a 50 cab, I smoke, smoke 'em fairly slowly. Like do you, the ones you've had with age, are they No, I haven't really had any with like a lot of age on them. Okay. So this is the oldest that you've had? Yeah, pretty much. That's good.
**Senator:** That's very, very,
**Gizmo:** that's, yeah. Yeah.
That's a good sign. Mm-hmm. , because I've always heard good things about the cigar. Yeah. And the Golans as well. Yeah. The Galanis is a robusto size. , but I think this has more concentrated flavors.
**Grinder:** So me, Mexican restaurants aside though this, um, tequila. Can you find it
**Ricky:** easily? Absolutely. Uh, Fort Alyssa is getting to a point where you could now find it as a specialty tequila in your local brick and mortars.
Um, um, just a quick [00:19:00] side note. You know, at the clubhouse I always see bam bam. He's sort of, when he's enjoying a cigar, he stares. He does the shake and he just, he does the shake with the hands . He
**Grinder:** praises God. He thinks
**Ricky:** he offers thanks. A part of me wants to know what the fuck is he saying in his head?
Because he doesn't see
**Gizmo:** That is a common question that we all have. Yes.
**Ricky:** And and he nods his head, you know what it is, you know, you know what he's
**Gizmo:** thinking? He's thinking that guacamole in the bus. I can't, that's
**Ricky:** what I want right now. No, I'm saying this because this pairing has me doing that to Yeah, I noticed you were doing this.
You know, it's just like cold. You got
**Bam Bam:** the bam, bam. If I may, if I may. So I, I really do, do get lost in the, in the flavor, in the, in the notes of the, of the cigar. I just, when I capture those notes, it's, it's special to me. You don't get that in every cigar. Absolutely. Right. And, and, and when you capture a note that's delicious and unique, it just, it's just the moment in with you and your cigar and that's it.
**Gizmo:** The key, the key word is you get lost. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** In a puff of smoke. And it's just, it's so relaxing. It's [00:20:00] delicious. .
**Gizmo:** Well there, you know, to me, smoking a great cigar, uh, you know, and we've all had these moments there, there's nothing better. And, and with a great spirit like this Yeah. That when, when something clicks like that, it's, it's like, it's heavenly.
**Bam Bam:** And honestly, this pairing is a great, it's really good. It's clicking on all notes. Yeah. It's fantastic. Now, I will say unintended, and it's really
**Gizmo:** wonderful. I will say to to Fort LA's credit, every cigar I've had with this tequila that, that Ricky's been so generous to, to share with us. It works. It works.
I mean, it hits, now we're smoking, you know, uh, collectively, especially outside of the pod, when we're kind of in our regular rotation or you know, what we normally smoke, we're smoking cigars that have quite a, quite a bit of flavor. They're more full, call 'em stronger, whatever word you want to use, most of the time that, especially when we're having tequila like this with it, and it really, really matches well.
Mm-hmm. You know, with all of them. You know, the P two, the D four, the uh, up and two, you know, just cigars that I've certainly been smoking, I [00:21:00] mean, It's, it's in the patrons. It works great. But even the
**Bam Bam:** RAs with the RAs too. Yes. Yeah, the RAs with the Don Julio was
**Grinder:** fantastic.
**Senator:** Yeah. I would say this, I just think any of the spirits that we drink that have not a crazy amount of flavor to them, or like a, a really aggressive finish that have like either a dryer finish or, or just something that almost cleanses your palate.
It accentuates the cigar. That's true. Right? Like we've talked about, like you have PO Roche or some other like medium to dry champagne. Each puff of smoke is that much richer and more accentuated as you're cleansing your pallet all the way through. And I think tequila is a spirit that very much fits that build.
And I say that because if you have an extremely flavorful bour. , I wouldn't say that that accentuates the flavor that you're getting out of the cigar. In some cases it can actually dominate the flavor. Absolutely. You're getting outta the cigar.
**Gizmo:** That's, that's the perfect word, dominate. Yep.
**Senator:** Yep. And I think [00:22:00] with tequila, it, it, it, it's always, it's being that great supporting actor or actress where it's just saying, let the cigar be the show.
And it's just helping that along. I, I love a grill appear. I think it's
**Gizmo:** more so with Cuban cigars because tequila you get like, sometimes like floral notes that kind of compliment the notes out of a Cuban
**Poobah:** cigar. That's true. And, and the salt. Yeah. Um, and this, and somewhat, this forese has somewhat of a drier finish maybe reminds me of the same type of characteristics of green spot, although much different.
I'm just talking mechanically. Green spot Irish whiskey. Um, I drank a bottle. Uh, this week,
**Gizmo:** this
**Bam Bam:** morning, ,
**Senator:** uh, uh, this week in air quotes, ,
**Bam Bam:** was it in the shower or not in the shower? .
**Poobah:** Um, and it's, it's, you know, I have to tell you, it's one of my new [00:23:00] really favorite things because of some of what, um, senator's talking about.
Like, it delivers this, it has just a little bit drier of a
**Gizmo:** finish for me. Yeah. Isn't it
**Bam Bam:** more like scotch, like that particular No, it's
**Poobah:** like,
**Gizmo:** no, it's Irish whiskey different. We did it on
**Poobah:** the pot. We did, we did it on the pot. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's Irish whiskey, but it's, it's one of the really, the, it, it's, it's one of the better ones I've ever had.
Hmm. Um,
**Gizmo:** I bought a bottle after the pot. I mean, yeah. Like, it's in my rotation now. It's so very good. Is that, it's really good. So
that
**Ricky:** dryer finish with the. Minerality present that you're talking about, that is something you'll see often in artisanal lowland tequilas. Hyland tequilas tend to contain more vanilla, some of the more sweeter sort of caramel notes.
Uh, and when we get to the next tequila, you'll see some of that. But you'll see that here a lot, especially with Fort Alyssa, cuz it is a low land. Um, you'll find that saltiness and that minerality, that [00:24:00] pairs well with lighter Cubans. Like yeah, because
**Gizmo:** the
**Poobah:** finish is there, it lingers, but it's dry. Mm-hmm.
Yep, yep, yep. And, and it, and, and I think to Senator's point, it, it, it, it plays well with, with, with kind of showcasing the tobacco, um, in a really, in a really nice way.
**Senator:** So thi this is even good for us to know because, you know, if I'm trying to pair, if I'm in a store buying tequila and I want to pair that with some Cuban cigars, , I'm gonna look for lowland tequilas.
Yeah. I mean, they, they care fantastically, that flavor profile you described is exactly what I would look for. And maybe if I'm gonna smoke a new world, a padron, a davit off something and I did want tequila with that, then I'd probably look for a
**Grinder:** highland. Yep. What, what are you selling? Are you selling a lot of this in the restaurant?
**Ricky:** Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh, I would say on, on an epo, we're selling fora quite a bit. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Hey, is agave only found in Mexico?
**Ricky:** It is not. [00:25:00] But to be tequila, it has to come from one of the five states in Mexico. That,
**Gizmo:** but that's interesting. Is tequila so only made in Mexico
**Ricky:** or not can, it's only made in Mexico.
They recently, I'd say in the last five years, I've probably seen a couple agave distillates, uh, out of California or something like that. But, you know, it's kind of, but they can't, they, they cannot call it, they can't call it tequila. So what's, what do they call? It's. Agave spirit or agave. Distillate or, okay.
**Gizmo:** Uh, so just like champagne has to be champagne
**Ricky:** because it's from France, or cognac has to be from cognac, France, same, same thing. Denomination of
**Gizmo:** origin. I will say, so I, you know, two weeks ago when we did our first episode of the, the Tequila Dive with Ricky, I found those to be kind of more an out of an outlier for me from a flavor standpoint.
Like different, unique, um, you know, the second one we had, I forget what that was. It was more vanilla and sweet. The Casa, Casa Noble. Yes. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And the first one was just [00:26:00] like this flavor bomb of uniqueness, like things that I've never really tasted in a spirit. Yeah. Whereas this is, is the most, uh, it is the closest to what I'm used to drinking.
It's more closer what I'm familiar reaching for. Yeah. And not just because I've been having it with Ricky and you guys at the clubhouse, but it's closer to what I'm used to. in a spirit that I'm pairing with a
**Senator:** cigar. Yeah. I, I a hundred percent agree gizz and I think forget that it, it's similar to things I've been drinking.
It, it's just, it, it's my wheelhouse. Like th this is, that's a great way to put it. These are the flavor notes that I look for in a spirit when I'm pairing it with a cigar. Um, and so this more so than most tequilas I would pick up and would be part of my daily rotation.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. How much is
this
**Ricky:** bottle?
The AHO is about 67 or 76. That
**Gizmo:** is so damn reasonable. Yeah. For, for the flavor that you get out of this, what's
**Bam Bam:** the cost of the Don Julio that we
**Gizmo:** buy? Uh, probably about 55. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** 55. It's a step [00:27:00] up, but honestly I think it's a step up in quality as well, probably. I agree.
**Gizmo:** No doubt. For 12 more bucks, I think this
**Senator:** is, and I think that's actually a hundred percent worth it.
I think that's worth explaining a little bit further in the sense. , we obviously before, you know, meeting Ricky ,
**Bam Bam:** we were really Don Julio fans. We were
**Senator:** huge. And and I'm still a Don Julio fan, still good. I was never gonna change that. It's never gonna change that. Right. But what I'm saying is that's, that's what we knew and that was kind of the gold standard certainly for Puba and I, I mean, that was like our daily driver as far as, um, tequila went.
And it wasn't until meeting Ricky that now, I mean, I have bottles plural of Forza in my house that have made my daily rotation that I reach for. And I can see and appreciate the difference in the artisanal way that some of these tequilas are made. So for me, it's just been very educational and not just Oh, that's interesting to try, but no.
Wow, that's really good. And I, I will slot that in regularly when I'm seeking to reach rebuttal of tequila. Yep, [00:28:00] absolutely.
**Ricky:** There's a time and place for everything. And a Don Julio works. Look, you're going to a party with a ton of people. You want to take a one and a half liter bottle of Don Julio for whatever, 70 bucks, 60 something bucks.
It works. You know, you don't know how people are gonna drink it. You don't know what they're gonna do. And, and it'll be less painful. Look, if I bring this bottle to a party and everybody starts pouring ice and soda into it, I'll probably lose my shit. , right? . So that's a great, you know, it's, it's, it should be respected, by the way.
It's a great
**Senator:** analogy with cigars. We need his wholesale price. Yeah. Hell yeah. It's $70 for a handle of, let's
**Ricky:** go. Cheapest
**Gizmo:** we found is a hundred. We just found our new dealer. .
**Grinder:** What, what In the, um, in the culinary world, how, how frequent do you find other cigar smokers?
**Ricky:** Not frequently. Frequently, no. Yes, no.
They, they tend to be a little older than me. Um, I'm 40 years old, but they tend to be a little older, uh, a little bit more scarred in life [00:29:00] experiences? Uh, no. My, uh, my good friend, he's actually, uh, martial artist and he owns a couple schools. Uh, that was my, my sort of my first cigar connection outside of being a kid and seeing my uncle smoke it, you know, they would say, oh, we're gonna go running around the reservoir.
And my aunt will be like, okay, cuz you guys need to lose weight. Go for it. And you know, we probably did half a spin or, you know, half a lap around the reservoir and then sat down and they would start smoking sticks and my cousin and I would go off the play.
**Grinder:** That's a great postworkout routine.
**Ricky:** Love it. . It was, it was just an excuse to go out and, and, and Amen.
You know, ause, you know, um, you know, nowadays I tell my wife I'm going to the lounge and she's like, all right, have fun. You know, she, she loves what cigars have done for me. It's given me a social life. Prior to this, it was all work and no play. And that,
**Gizmo:** that was it. That's a great story. I find, you know, what's story, you know what's interesting and, and I want to ask you about this, Ricky, because I, I know some folks in the, that are, there're chefs in the culinary space.
And the one thing [00:30:00] that I find that no matter how successful these folks are, the, the most scarce resource they have is time. You know, the culinary space is an all-consuming. Vocation and I, I use that word very specifically, not profession, vocation, because I think people that get passionate about food and, and selling food and preparing food for people, it's like you're calling mm-hmm.
And to dive in as deep as you need to, to succeed really requires a, a level of commitment that certainly I can't even fathom, you know? And, and so is it a matter of these folks just don't have that kind of free time that sitting around and smoking a couple cigars a week would require.
**Ricky:** So prior to today where I'm able to sit here with you guys on the pod and smoke a stick, the way I made time for a stick, at the time I was living in Harlem.
Right. My restaurants are located in Tribeca and House Kitchen spent most, if not all of my time, for the most part in Tribeca cuz it was a newer property. [00:31:00] Um, I would walk home, seven mile walk. Wow. I'd put down two or three sticks. Nice. And I'd do that three times a week. Love it. So the reality is you make time for things you wanna make time for in your life.
Sure. Yeah. Uh, and that was, you know, some, I would get home if I took the train or a taxi home, I'd get home and I'd, I'd be, you know, just, I'd still be at a hundred percent. I couldn't wind down, I couldn't go to sleep. I'd be up to four or five in the morning. You know, if I leave the restaurant at midnight and it takes me two and a half hours to walk home, I'm ready to go to sleep.
I take a shower, I go to bed, I'm ready for the next day. It was, so, it was, it was a way for me to wind down, to sort of meditate, to think back on what went on throughout the day, how I could do things better, what needs to be done, sort of plan my day, plan my week. Um, and you know, it's a yahoo's been in existence for 11 years.
I can say that over the last maybe three years, I've been able to find a way to create time for. . Prior to that, it was all [00:32:00] I was, I was that chef. I was, yeah, 24 7. Right. I had no time for anything. I never went to any school functions. I never did any of these things for my, with my kids. Uh, but I would say over the last three years, you know, the great thing about expanding is you start putting people into place, uh, and you train these people and, and you look for great people that could, you know, continue to represent you, the brand, the restaurant as a whole, and, you know, do their thing.
And now it's more of an, of an oversight and, and guidance and, and leadership role versus a sweating over a stove role. Uh, yeah. So, you know, it it like, like any career, it grows and you know, you just hopefully,
**Gizmo:** and I think like any entrepreneur to adjust. Anybody who looks at you goes, wow, he's such an a success.
And I love when people use the word overnight success, but they don't realize that to be in the position that you're in, it took 11 years of really hard work and a lot of struggle and well sacrifice
**Ricky:** to do it. Yeah. You know, I've been doing this for 22 years and I, there you go. I started as a server. I [00:33:00] started as a waiter.
So, yeah, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's ha you know, I thought I wanted to be an architect. I went to school for architecture. Don't
**Bam Bam:** become an architect. don't do I highly, I tell you, run away.
**Ricky:** says the
**Grinder:** architect. I was in there,
**Bam Bam:** I was in, the education is phenomenal, but the career is really tough. Yep. .
**Grinder:** Yes. I actually, I, I was a server, I was a barback, I was a bartender, and I actually loved, I loved the job.
Yep. I loved walking around all day. I was always exhausted. I was, you know, you wa it is consuming.
**Ricky:** You always had a purpose story. There was always reason. There was always something
**Grinder:** to do. And I, I'm one of those, I'm one of those persons that I need to, I need, I'm, I'm kinetic. I need to be doing shit and being a server, I, I could, I could occupy my mind talking to people, not talking to people, or just not talk, or not talking to people and just doing sh you know, doing what I need to do.
Going through the motions. And it just, you, you get into this, this mode and you just go and go and go. [00:34:00] And, um, I loved it. I loved,
**Bam Bam:** I loved that lifestyle. I, I gotta say what I admire about the restaurant business and I have dreams. The beauty of that is you make something delicious and you serve that and you get instant gratification.
Someone tells you how good it is. . I love that. There's the other, there's the other side. Something
**Ricky:** to, that's there's the other side. Mm-hmm. Where, you know, you make something delicious and it may not sell. Mm-hmm. or you make something delicious and it comes back .
**Bam Bam:** Oh, that's not
**Gizmo:** good. That's terrible. Bam. Bam does make a great bolognese
**Bam Bam:** You know, I knew it was coming. I, I actually was not expecting that to be coming in
**Gizmo:** lux sake. He was too rela. You were too relaxed. I was, you were too relaxed. I don't know what to say. All right. Let's talk. He just t his basketball. Let's talk about the cigar. . Yeah. So we're halfway through Boys in the Poor Baraga.
Petite Corona. Yeah. I
**Bam Bam:** am really delicious. Enjoy this. It's delicious. It's really,
**Ricky:** I don't think I'm halfway rooster. I think I'm having a bad draw on [00:35:00] this. Can I get a second one? Yeah. Oh,
**Gizmo:** rooster. Take take kisses. .
**Ricky:** I'll take
**Bam Bam:** it. Rooster.
**Gizmo:** I need another one. I You got it. Everybody gets a second. One out seconds.
**Grinder:** Nice. This is burning slow though. This is not, this is not for me. I'm, I'm, am I I'm not, I'm not. Halfway through. You're about
**Gizmo:** halfway through. You're about halfway through. Is that halfway? Yeah. You're about halfway. Yeah. I would say two things. I think,
**Ricky:** um, I think it's picked up what I'm saying, tequila, , .
**Gizmo:** It's, it's picked up for me for sure.
I, I'm really, really enjoying this. I am too. Yeah. I, I can't wait to try the second tequila. I mean, this is great.
**Senator:** I think that's the operative. It's picked up. Absolutely. The second half of this, the flavor is really robust. Yeah, it's right there. Amazing. How much out of this little beautiful
**Grinder:** segue, little stick.
Beautiful segue into the second tequila. Shall we? Yeah. Yeah, we
**Gizmo:** gotta do it. Let's do it. Let's, good stick. Ricky, what do we have here? Give, talk
**Ricky:** about. All right guys. Next up we have the tap Patillo ncia. This tequila is made by one of my favorite master distillers in Carlos Kareo. Beautiful
**Gizmo:** color. Is that a region in, uh, Mexico?
Tap.
**Ricky:** Tap [00:36:00] is actually the name of the, um, I wanna say it's the name of the what's,
**Gizmo:** what's the region that rhymes with, uh, sounds similar. Lesco. No . That doesn't sound similar.
**Ricky:** Um,
**Grinder:** tomatillo,
**Bam Bam:** tomatillo. I'm talking about vegetables. Brewster says to himself.
**Ricky:** See? So a fun fact about the previous Aquila we drank, uh, it's made by Guerra Mo Salza.
He is the three times removed grandson of Salza. The tequila that we, oh, no, as the sort of poor favorite. Um, and basically he want, he saw this empty distillery on his land that his grandpa used to use way back in the day. Or his great-great, great-great grandpapa, sorry, two times removed. Uh, he wanted to bring it back to life, and he did so by creating Fort Ali.
So that's, uh, and you know what the reality is in this industry? That's how a lot of this tequila's made because it's such a labor of love kind of thing. You know, it's not a, a quick money maker or anything like that. You really need that passion and that, [00:37:00] that history to make it happen. Uh, this next guy, Carlos Ka from tap.
So he makes a few different tequilas. He makes tequila Ocho, he makes the killer, he makes El Tesoro and he makes the Patillo, um, out of La Daniel Distill. Now this distillery is positioned on a place in Mexico where the soils are so rich and iron that they're red and the water taste of blood. That's unbelievable.
So cool. It's, it's, it is insane. Very cool. Uh, so maybe if we do this again, I'll bring the out the soro next time around. Uh, but he basically made it tequila for everyone. So the, the tequila is sort of like a, uh, it's three times distill it, it has a smooth finish. And then he has the Soto, which is artisanal and every, they're all artisanal, but he follows all of the old school methods.
Uh, and then we have Tapatio, which is somewhat in the center. So, you know, he has an engineering background. So he sort of, you know, used that to create his distillery. And he has all these [00:38:00] different methods of, of fermentation, of processing or grinding the agave, everything. Screw milk to a steel roller to to, and in the case of , he uses both.
Mm uh, so he's getting maximum extraction. Now, this tequila is the only extra on niho, uh, that we've tasted so far, uh, both here and in the clubhouse. Um, it is four, it spends four years in oak, and then it's rested in glass for an additional year. So like the Fuentes seka, he's letting it sit in the glasses to kind of marinate and come together, uh, and
**Bam Bam:** be itself.
I'll tell you, I get a lot of caramel in this
**Gizmo:** one. Yeah, lots. The note, by the way, I, the only note that I can really explicitly call out on the nose is cherry. When I smell this, it's like cherry. Yeah. I get, I get caramel, I
**Bam Bam:** get cherry, I get caramel in the front, and I get caramel in the finish. So now with the taste, iSolved that agree, it's, it's caramel senator
**Senator:** senator's whipping there.
I, I think so. I get the cherry on the nose like you're [00:39:00] describing. That's accurate. But then like Bam says on the finish, I get the caramel notes.
**Ricky:** It's really, are you guys familiar with Mexican cinnamon or Canella? No. Yes. I'll, I'll bring, I'll bring a, a nice piece of bark of that just so you guys could smoke.
I'll chew on it. That's,
**Bam Bam:** it's, we're familiar on the finish .
**Ricky:** I know what you're talking about. Yeah. This is, it's just amazing, right? It's an extra on niho. This bottle retails for about one 70. Wow. Um, once again, very generous. Thank you. Ricky bringing the heat baby. But, but it drinks like something that should cost much more and you know, you guys who react to the price point, but to me I'm like, that's a liter bottle and it's fucking delicious.
Yeah, it is. For $170 it's excellent. Is really spend
**Gizmo:** three is bucks. Is that typical for an extra ne cost
**Ricky:** wise? I mean, no extra NES are typically a little bit more, especially when they're age. As long as this, right? Mm-hmm. Because you could age for three years and still be an extra niho. Um,
**Gizmo:** so this is five correct.
All
**Bam Bam:** in. That's five. All in four in a barrel, [00:40:00] one in a glass, four in a barrel, one a glass. Unbelievable. So when, when you, when
**Grinder:** you're in the glass though. Yeah, that's a good, can, can you, have you ever tasted something that was everything up until putting it in the glass and before it goes in the glass to taste that versus after it's been in the glass?
Is there actually a difference? Because as I, I'm, I'm thinking to myself, what is actually happening in that bottle?
**Ricky:** A a thousand percent. I mean, there, there is a difference from opening the bottle and, and waiting a few months. It, it's, it's, you know, I, I wouldn't say that the bottle's imparting any flavor, uh, but I just think the resting process allows it to Yeah.
Come together and, and, and to, so that's fascinating to me
**Grinder:** because Yeah, it's because I, I, I, like, we all drink scotch. Scotch to me, when we have an, you know, age statement on the bottle and it's, it's in a bottle and it's not really changing from. the day that it came out, out of the barrel. Right. If you [00:41:00] can have it a 12 year old scotch that was out of the barrel and ready for distribution in 2000, and then try that same bottle, you know, 10, 12 years later, whatever, and it's gonna taste pretty much the same,
**Ricky:** it's close, but I think if you're tasting it and analyzing it, you'll find differences.
Okay. A hundred percent. Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously there's,
**Gizmo:** yeah, so
**Poobah:** I've seen, I've seen that in bourbon reviews. People are crazy about bourbon and they'll, I've seen it in bourbon reviews where they're like, I opened this bottle a year ago and I drank like a third of it. and then they revisit it and they're like, it changed.
So I've seen that like in YouTube videos randomly. So if something does happen, potentially, maybe it opens up, maybe it just needs time to, there's some sort of chemical reaction I think that some people believe takes place. Yeah. Re remember after you open the bottle,
**Bam Bam:** there is some evaporation that takes
**Ricky:** place.
You know, these are all transparent bottles. In the bourbon world, you do get [00:42:00] some sort of brown tint on the bottles that helps prevent some sort of oxidation, right? Kind of like with beers, you get a clear bottle, you get that skunky, uh, aroma and flavor profile. Now, I'm not saying that happens with tequila, but there is some sort of oxidation that happens once it's opened that just kind of allows it to open up.
Uh, look, you ask anyone on my team what my favorite tequila is, and they'll tell you a step ncia, but there's been bottles of ncia that I've opened and poured and I've said I gotta let that sit for a bit. , right? Because it's just, it's either too hot or it's not, it hasn't, you know, whatever, you know, maybe it could just be a different lot.
A lot of these bottles have the lot numbers printed on them, so, you know, agave is very spontaneous and, and, and, and it's flavor sometimes. And no matter what you do, you may not change any part of the process. But, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a very, uh, temperamental if you will, uh, harvest. So, yeah, it, it could change from one lot [00:43:00] to another.
Some lots, especially in the tequila road, are very, you know, prized. Um, you know, there was a lot 42 in Fort Alyssa. If you guys ever pick up a bottle of lot 42, don't open it. Uh, there's some rumors and, you know, speculation out there that, that was perhaps an extra on niho that was accidentally bottled in an, uh, I haven't seen a extra onk yet, so maybe, and this was years ago.
So I'm not sure if that was just sort of folklore or what, but um, yeah, so, you know, fine. And I also invite you guys on every bottle, there's always a nome, right? That Nome is essentially the, the number of the distillery. So, you know, two weeks ago when we had the, uh, the Fuentes Seka and I mentioned se Gizmo, that Donno was also made there, you know, if you find a gnome and you drink a tequila that you like from that gnome, look up the other tequilas that are made in that gnome, and you may like those as well.
**Bam Bam:** I have a question. , Ricky, can I get a job with you, , because I want to do this for a [00:44:00] living. I don't, I have no idea what I'm talking about. This, this isn't, I don't know what I'm doing.
**Gizmo:** You have to start as a
**Ricky:** dishwasher. Isn't no problem. This is, this
**Bam Bam:** is sort of a byproduct. I'm an excellent dishwasher, Ricky.
**Ricky:** I, I, I'm, yeah. You sound like my buddy with the karate school. .
**Bam Bam:** I don't wanna do what I'm doing. I wanna do this. I wanna smoke a cigar and have this beautiful caramel like te.
**Gizmo:** First you gotta work at Ppu News. Poo's News.
You gotta graduate from there.
**Poobah:** Yeah, you gotta just finish up with the Cobra Kai
**Gizmo:** thing you're doing. . That's fucking Johnny Lawrence over here. .
**Bam Bam:** What the fuck does that mean?
**Poobah:** What is that? You know, you like one and run a dojo? You're not ready. . You're not ready. .
**Bam Bam:** What are you talking about? .
**Gizmo:** Oh, so I wanna make a point.
I don't think Rick making his, I don't, I don't think Ricky's making his living from smoking cigars and drinking tequila. This should bes
**Ricky:** true. Absolutely not. This [00:45:00] is a byproduct.
**Bam Bam:** The knowledge is, the knowledge is
**Grinder:** staggering, I have to say.
**Ricky:** Very impressive. 10, 11, 10 years ago, shit, even seven years ago.
didn't know much. You know, it took us a while to find our stride as a concept. As a brand and, and start saying no. Because you know, you imagine you open a Mexican restaurant, it's pretty popular. You open a second location, everybody and their mother's walking in there trying to get you to buy their tequila.
And God forbid it's another celebrity tequila for them. It's a home run. Like, oh, if I could walk in there and say, Hey, this is such and such tequila, you know, they're gonna pick it up. But then we say no, and they're like, what the fuck you mean? No, .
**Gizmo:** So that brings me, that brings me to my, uh, question I was gonna ask you.
So let's say, um, umm, you know, a listener out there has only had those, uh, let's call it, uh, pretty mainstream tequilas or, or celebrity tequilas. Commercial tequilas. Yeah. Commercial tequilas, let's say on average, you know, searching around local brick and mortar, walking into a brick and mortar. If they were gonna buy a [00:46:00] bottle or two of tequila, pair it with a cigar.
what should they be looking for? Because a lot of these, I know that we can't find that we, we've tried four in the last two weeks, this one, uh, you know, two today and two, two weeks ago. What, what, where would you direct them if, if they were walking into a b and m to, to purchase a tequila?
**Ricky:** So if you're gonna go the Cuban route, I would say for as a way to, GOK is another good pick.
That was actually the original patrol formula before Patroon bottom. Um, and then what was, what was that one? Si. Legos. What about Don Feno? So Don Philo, I'll probably put that more in the New World category. If you're smoking New World sticks, you know that, that heavy age, uh, the heavy wood, it would pair better with
**Senator:** that.
Yeah. I mean that drinks like a, like a whiskey, is that right?
**Ricky:** Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I think if you go that route with this, it would still be delicious, but I think the cigar would sort of get flushed out. .
**Senator:** So you're not recommending
**Ricky:** [00:47:00] corns ? Absolutely not. Absolutely. Unless you go to a, unless you go to a
**Gizmo:** Oh, oh.
Poop's eyes just went up. That was a
**Bam Bam:** nice, nice hot shank to the underbelly. , sorry. Poop.
**Poobah:** Okay. I get a phone call from Gizmo. He's in Florida. He goes, what's a tequila that I can buy at a liquor store that I can mix up in a frozen
**Gizmo:** margarita for the bride? Her Blanco.
**Poobah:** Okay. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Herradura Blanco. Yeah. Listen, you're going, can I make a, he didn't mention that one.
You
**Poobah:** Well, I, because I never, because her, I like Herradura actually. I like the her. Yeah. I, I love
**Ricky:** her. Do look, if, if you're going to a party with people you've never met and you'll probably never meet again, take the salsa. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, it's a, you know, put in, you're gonna see them again. You're gonna put in a blender.
You're probably gonna buy the margarita mix and not use fresh limes,
**Senator:** whatever. So, Ricky, I have a question, uh, about. Um, Herradura for me. So [00:48:00] a, a lot of people love Herradura. I'm in the strange minority of people that doesn't love herradura, and it's because of a particular note that I get that I just don't love.
I almost equate it to like the cohiba of tequila. , like Cohiba has like those, like especially some of the younger Cohibas, like really grassy notes. Mm-hmm. and in Herra Dura, I get like a grassy vegetable.
**Bam Bam:** It's almost minty minty tea for me. Little of that I get mint. Yeah. It's
**Grinder:** unusual for
**Senator:** me. It's very vegetable.
It, it's like it lawn clippings that like just came out of a lawnmower and I really don't. All right. I'm glad I got
**Bam Bam:** credit. No, no. Well, I don't, you grind, you're excited. I don't agree with
**Grinder:** you, but I love the analogy. Okay.
**Senator:** And, and I say you're wrong, but I like it . I, I say that because I, I've not just had the like, simple herraduras, but I, I've had they make an extra Aho Yeah. Super grandma. That's like a expensive bottle. Super grandmama. Yeah. And, uh, body of mine had brought it over. I actually sent you [00:49:00] guys a photo once, so it was on my deck with, uh, a friend of mine drinking this and even that.
It was good, but it's just, it, it's not that there was anything wrong with it, just for my palate that like vegetable. Note that I think is very prominent in that mm-hmm. I don't personally love very much. So I'm just wondering it, where is that made or what, what produces that unique characteristic? In the same way, I would say the Cohiba flavor profile is very unique, completely outside of most of the other Cuban Marcus.
I'm just
**Ricky:** curious. Yeah, I, I would say that has everything to do with the age at which they're plucking the AGAs. Ah, right. So, so they're younger, so they're, they're, they're somewhat younger. Uh, you know, the supers definitely, they're, they're higher end offering and herradura, I would say this, the, her, uh, of all the herraduras, the re's, my favorite, uh, I think it's a great, you know, party, you know, salsa replacement by far.
and [00:50:00] you know, it's also something you can get a massive bottle of, you know, to satisfy many people. That's good to hear.
**Senator:** Cuz I've, that's the only one I haven't tried is the reto
**Ricky:** that they made. So I'm gonna try that. Yeah. For me, the repo offers a little bit of both worlds and then it flushes out enough of that grassiness but brings in enough oak wear.
Cuz sometimes even in the yahu, the oak, it tastes sort of green, if that makes sense. The wood could say sort, sort of green. Um, so yeah, I've, I've, it has everything to do with the age at which they're plucking those agave. Okay. So
**Senator:** it's not something just with my palate that's a sign of absolutely not agave that necessarily shouldn't taste like that.
If it were matured
**Ricky:** more, yeah, it would lose more. And, and that's their flavor profile. That's what they're going for. Okay. So yeah. You're, you're not wrong in,
**Grinder:** in, I, I just, I have such a,
**Senator:** by the way, Grindr, I'm not wrong. .
**Bam Bam:** It's, by the way, by the way, Grindr, senator's always right. .
**Grinder:** I, I have, I have such a, I have such a, a warm place in my heart for Herra Dora.
I worked as, as do I, I worked, as do I, I worked with a, [00:51:00] a, uh, for almost a year or two straight year, little over a year straight with a, uh, a berry distributor. I was flying down to Mexico all the time. I was going to lesco, you know, the whole, they have a lot of berries in that area. So I've, you know, had to spend, spend a lot of time.
I was working with a lot of Mexicans, and these are farmers, right? They're, they're growing, they're on the land. They're, you know, doing what we're talking, they're people of the land and they're also very operational and, and stuff. But we, we would go out and we would the, they would, they would say to the, to, to the gringo, you know, have some herraduras, prima, and that's what we would always drink.
**Ricky:** And, and, and that, but, but that is their top of the line, you know, like they, they weren't giving you hairdo, a Blanco hair. Those suprema is delicious. Yeah, but that's their, that, that's their, yeah. That, that's the, that's the top of line. I just have, I have so
**Grinder:** many fond memories of that, and it's just, it.
Taste aside. For me
**Senator:** it was, you know, but what you were drinking is not what I was talking about.
**Ricky:** [00:52:00] Exactly. Yeah. No, and it's, it's that experience that you witnessed that got me to fall in love with, I can't just say tequila, but agaves in general. When you go to Oaxaca, it's magnified because, oh my god. Yeah.
You know, mescal is essentially oaxacans moonshine. So you're walking into their home and you're seeing, you know, like, Hey, can I taste your juice? And, you know, for a lot of, a lot of these brands, how it starts, they taste their juice and they're, okay, I wanna bottle it. You keep
**Grinder:** you. Two weeks ago you were talking about juice.
We didn't address it. And we're talking about juice again. How, what is the, the juice is before
**Ricky:** it's, no, the juice is just a liquid that it's up in the bottle. Okay. I just, you know, it's just some
**Grinder:** juice. I love that. I'm gonna call it
**Senator:** juice. Now they're, they're kind of juicing it from the agave, right, man.
Yeah. Yeah.
**Ricky:** That like the grinding process. And look, in mescal they go, even a hyper artisanal, they go as far as clubbing the shit out of the mescal. Wow. They use a club and being. Yeah. You know, they're not using any mechanical product. I'm gonna be on YouTube tonight
**Gizmo:** watching People Club Aga .
**Ricky:** If, if this were a video podcast, it'd be awesome footage to [00:53:00] show, because it really is, you see people work that hard.
Yeah. You know, for something that when you come to the States, people treat it as a shot and it's painful. Yeah. You know, it's painful to witness. So you want, I, I want this to happen. Like, I want you guys to be like, tequila's worthy of an amazing cigar. That's pretty cool. Tequila's worthy of a neat pour without ice tequila's worthy of my dollars.
You know? And, and, and I want people on this podcast listening to feel the same way, because they should. It's a special spirit.
**Gizmo:** That, that's what this has been. I mean, for us, I mean, obviously, you know, the, the main reason that we invited, you know, you to be here, not only because we enjoy your company and you're very knowledgeable on this, but because it's so eye-opening, the, the artisanal.
Aspect of tequila that I had no idea exist. There's just so much unknown about it. It's so unknown. Yeah. And I, I wish that there were stories being told like this because there's so much marketing around vodka and there's so much marketing around burb and, and, and, and other whiskeys. Like, I don't [00:54:00] understand why it took such a deep dive for us.
Well, because I
**Poobah:** think that, I think like I, I think I mentioned this a couple weeks ago. It's a confusing category. There's a lot of brains and. And, and how they're made is clearly different. The, whether it's the starting material in the agave, the age of the agave, or, and, and also the process, the end-to-end process, how it, sometimes it's a, you know, depending on what it is, sometimes it's age in a barrel, sometimes it's agent, they're, so, there's variability in the process and also in the starting material.
And it's tough to parse through. And then when you, when you, which is why this is so helpful, because when you go out there and you're trying to gauge, you can't really gauge it by price. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Price is not a, you know, so
**Poobah:** sometimes, sometimes, not all the time. You can, you can navigate a [00:55:00] little bit by price.
Now, now I'm not saying a bottle of silver oak is, is necessarily worth the money or a, or a bottle of Jordan is necessarily worth that price. But, but with wine sometimes, When you get above a certain price point, I'm not saying you can't lose, but there's a baseline level of like, of quality. Of quality.
Yeah. Where with tequila, it, I feel like there's additives and things that are put into these quote unquote kind of, kind of fashionable tequilas and fancy bottles that are released by celebrities that it's a little bit wild west dish. Yes, it is. And, and that's why I feel like it's a little bit harder to kind of navigate through.
**Gizmo:** Maybe it,
**Ricky:** it can get gimmicky, but Yeah. I would say the other thing is right, think about the spirits that are traditionally paired with cigars. They're probably all aged, right. And I'm, I'm pretty scotch ignorant. You know, I rely on you guys for my scotch knowledge, which I've been [00:56:00] building since listening this to the podcast.
Uh, but when it comes to tequila, your first introduction, and for many still, there only is a blanco tequila. or that goat shit , you know, so it's, you know, there's no aging to mask a crappy flavor profile, you know? Right. When you get, you could drink a ton of bourbons that'll be passable because of the age, you know, the aging, the, the time spent in wood.
But, you know, otherwise you're just drinking corn, liquor or moonshine. And at that point, you know, that juice is shit before it hits wood. But with tequila, it's, it's, you know, there's, because they, they're forthcoming about the aging process and you, you're able to drink it along different, uh, tears. You know, you start with a blanco repo on Niho, extra on you.
Uh, but then even within the age, it's sort of ambiguous because, you know, an extra onne could be whatever, it could be two years and [00:57:00] however many days before it hits three
**Grinder:** or, I I, it, it sounds like there's this, there's these, there's these blocks of, of rigor around what. what defines certain kinds of, of tequila.
Absolutely. But within those blocks, there's a lot of variety.
**Senator:** Absolutely. Totally, totally. And that's why, so I, I agree with everything that Puba said. Just one thing I would add, I, I think every form of alcohol goes through a sort of life cycle. And I think what's really exciting is kind of the moment that tequila's in, because if you think about just truly everything, right?
Vodka had its heyday and obviously it's still, you know, popular now. But now there are so many other brands that have popped up that are not just the core brands of vodka that, you know, 20, 30 years ago you would've been able to buy in a liquor store. Rum went through the exact same thing. You know, we're talking about whiskey and obviously we love scotch.
We, we are all, we've all discussed how, you know, 20 years ago the number of scotches that you would find in a liquor store, you could count in your hands. Yep. You couldn't get all the stuff that we have [00:58:00] now. Yep. And it took conversations and people growing in appreciation for it, and folks being able to market those other smaller brands that really proliferated that whole category.
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And I think for tequila, you know, I'll even use wine as an example, right? Years ago people thought Rose was the most disgusting thing possible. I mean, women that love sweet wine would buy Rose. You could buy like three roses in a liquor store. You look at now you have celebrities that have invested and own, uh, a brands that produce Rose.
I think it was Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. They have um, uh, uh, mial, right? They're Holt Rose had the huge comeback, the huge comeback. Now there's a dime a dozen. He could buy a zillion different. and it just takes intentional conversations and creating consumer demand where then you see the proliferation of all these other brands.
And I think for tequila you have the core brands and that has slowly grown over time to now there's so many more things available. And I think as consumers like us get exposed to some of these smaller [00:59:00] brands. You know, I'd venture to say in 10 years for Deza will hopefully be as ubiquitous as Don Julio.
Yeah, you would hope. You would hope. Hope. This is amazing. And I think this is such an important time for tequila as this
**Grinder:** year. Yeah, you would hope so.
**Bam Bam:** Now there's a drawback to the celebrity tequilas. A lot of the groups that I have cigars with in spirits with, they won't ever gravitate toward a tequila because some of them feel like they're gimmicky and they don't know enough.
And I think these conversations that we're having right now tonight, I think shed a lot of. On the quality and the seriousness of what tequila could be and is.
**Grinder:** But people don't
**Ricky:** know. But this is why the celebrity tequila is great, because it's bringing light
**Bam Bam:** a spotlight. It's bringing light.
**Grinder:** It's bringing light to
**Ricky:** it.
That's my point, right? Is that category. And it's making very good point. You know, they'll, you know, so look, if you come to my restaurant, we don't have casamigos. So what do you normally drink? You know, before the question was, what bourbon do you drink? And then we'll go from there. Now it's, what's Aquila?
Do you drink? Yeah. Eh, 60% of the time you're gonna get casamigos. Occasionally you'll get the person who's maybe had this experience [01:00:00] or something similar, and they'll throw out a , they'll throw out ak, you know, they'll throw out a don't fallo, they'll throw out a or whatever. Um, and then it becomes a little bit easier.
But we take that as an opportunity to say, okay, well, you like that? Try this. You know? And, and now getting, it
**Bam Bam:** gets people to getting back to the whole cigar conversation. You know, when you, you've got a group of people that aren't cigar smokers. That don't know cigars. Yeah. You know, they get into the cigars that they're, they're kind of misguided.
They don't know what to smoke. , you kind of steer them toward the brands and the markets that really make sense for them to start off on so that they become cigar lovers over time. Absolutely. It's the same thing, but,
**Gizmo:** and we've all gone through that journey where you start with, you know, what we call, what we've at.
I'm still
**Bam Bam:** learning. I, I learned from you every day. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Looking at every day. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I, the interesting thing I wanna mention about tequila that I think is different than, than whiskey or, you know, bourbon, scotch, those things. Whiskey, let's call it, is the amount of time. And we spoke about this a couple weeks ago, and not to dive into it again, but it is fascinating to me how [01:01:00] long that agave takes to mature to the point that it's ready to be harvested and is at the point that it can be harvested.
That is such an investment of time that really makes this spirit special. And, and, and I think that that is something that, you know, versus corn or rye or wheat, you know, it's really. , it's really a difference maker. It
**Ricky:** requires planning and, and, you know, every decade or so we experienced a shortage. Listen, last summer, I couldn't get the if I paid someone for it, because there just wasn't any out there.
The minute it came back, it's like, okay, let's get six cases, you know? And maybe two cases came to me. Yeah. But you know, it happens and, and it should happen. It's, it's and it's, it's, it's, thank you. It's natural. Yeah. Uh, you know, when it doesn't happen, it's like, whoa, whoa. What's going on? How are you able to make an extra on Niho as your first spirit to market?
**Grinder:** Which is, it's, it's so, it's so, it's so, it's so awesome what you guys are doing at, on your hill because you have such a fantastic selection [01:02:00] of tequila and you have such depth in your understanding of it, and you're at the right time and right place where tequila has this, this. , but you're not gimmicky like the, like the like, like the, like the, we, we were celebrity of creating.
You're, you're, you're here saying, look at how fascinating this is. Look at how wonderful it is. And the other point I wanted to make is don't forget that part of this, I think from a macro perspective might be related to NAFTA and the free trade that we have right now. Like we can, we have the ability to import, export, you know, some of these fantastic, you know, spirits or, or products across borders.
And, you know, it's a, it's a point for, for globalization that we weren't at 20 years ago even, you know, we were talking about globalization and Milton Friedman and, you know, um, you know, all the, not Milton Friedman, I'm sorry. We were talking about, uh, Winston
**Gizmo:** Churchill[01:03:00]
**Bam Bam:** What?
**Poobah:** That was the Davidoff episode? Yes. ,
**Senator:** um, drink Mor tequila. .
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** Who, who's the guy that wrote
**Grinder:** World Is Not Flat? I forget this part. That was Friedman. Yeah. Friedman. Yep. Milton though? No. Oh, I don't remember his first name. His name is now Milton. Anyway, Howard, I, no. Yeah, yeah. Maybe. Anyway, so I don't know.
I, I also, Carl, I also Is Carl. No, no. Okay. . I think we're at a time where we have, you know, we're, we're seeing the, we're, we're reaping the rewards of, of, you know, let's, we have this fantastic trade partner to the south of us. We all love Mexico, and we're, we're realizing some fantastic gains on that. And, and now that now everyone's getting so much popular opinion, Thomas Friedman, Thomas Friedman.
Thank
**Poobah:** you. There you go. No Freeman Tom Friedman from the New York Thomas .
**Bam Bam:** Come on.
**Ricky:** No, and and to your point, I try. No, but seriously, you know when, when you're booking that vacation to Pa del Carmen [01:04:00] or, or Cancun or whatever, instead go to Oaxaca, go to HaCo, set up the distillery tours. There's so many, you know.
You know what
**Grinder:** friends? One of my favorite places in Mexico, Guadalajara, a hundred percent. One of the best places in Mexico
**Ricky:** is Guara. When you go to Oaxaca, it will blow your mind.
**Grinder:** Oh my God.
**Bam Bam:** How far is that from Cancun? ?
**Gizmo:** No idea. Never been to Cancun Close. It's close to Mexico City, isn't it? Uh,
**Ricky:** it's, well, it's about three hours.
Yeah, it's
**Gizmo:** another three hour. I'm just one spring break.
**Bam Bam:** You're fucking right. Oh, God. So I want to just get back, I want to get back to the cigar for just a moment. I'm down to the final inch. I'm very impressed.
**Gizmo:** Yes. Yeah, this is, uh,
**Bam Bam:** been a wonderful perform. Porta is really very impressive.
**Ricky:** I've made it to the final inch despite the tight drawer rooster. So I need that second stick to figure out if this is a you you got it.
**Bam Bam:** Pass him around. I like, I like how bam.
**Gizmo:** Conveniently move to another time. Nice segue, ma'am. It's called Smooth Segue. [01:05:00] This, um, this cigar has been a really nice performer for sure. And, and for a petite corona and the price, I mean, it really delivers great flavor. Can't, can't wait for the
**Bam Bam:** rating. Great flavor.
**Ricky:** Yeah. I guess you're saying that, is that the second one or the first one? This
**Gizmo:** is the first one. I, I, I did a little perfect draw. Covered. I'm nice.
**Senator:** Yeah. I just, the thing that impresses me about this cigar, it, it's enjoyable all the way through. I think clearly everybody's enjoying this smoke. I'm just amazed at how much flavor this puts out in the second half that I think we've said this about just a few cigars we've had where even after dinner, If I could just have a quick smoke, this would satisfy me as much as the cigar double the size of this.
Absolutely. Which says a lot about
**Gizmo:** this thing. It does, it does. And I will say too, it it, it burned very slowly for me. I mean, we're, you know, we're a little over an hour in, I mean it percent, it's, it, it for the size, for the shape. Yeah. It's, it's a great value. Smoke. It delivered the whole way and it burned slowly.
It wasn't a 40 minute or so. Right. Really, really nice. So, alright [01:06:00] boys, you guys ready to do the, uh, formal lizza rating on this thing? Yes. Yes, sir. All righty. Rooster, you're up? Yeah, I'm gonna give it a nine. All righty, Puba.
**Poobah:** Um, it's definitely not a nine for me. Um, I really, really enjoyed the cigar. Um, it was a little bit of a two act play, um, for me.
I, I, I, you know, it started out a little bit more on the mild side and then it built in strength and it ha it had great body, it had great combustion. So for me, I'm gonna give the cigar, uh, An eight.
**Gizmo:** I'm in the same place as you, I think for what it is. Absolutely perform well. It didn't knock my socks off.
I don't know where I'd slotted in a regular rotation. I'm an eight all day.
**Bam Bam:** So sorry. If you're not slotting it in the regular rotation and you're giving it such a high, that's a pretty high score. That's an elite score. It
**Gizmo:** is because it's a great cigar. When would you smoke this? I would smoke this [01:07:00] probably at the beginning of my day if I only have 40 an hour, you know, somewhere in there.
But is
**Bam Bam:** it a once a week cigar?
**Gizmo:** This is probably a once a month cigar for me. So
**Bam Bam:** I've, I've gotta ask, uh, we'll finish our ratings, but I'm curious. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah. We'll dive into it. Yeah. Senator,
**Senator:** I, I think for me, I'm, I'm also at an eight and not that there was any glaring deficiency in this cigar whatsoever.
I think it starts medium, I think it ends medium full. Um, I think the thing kind of to gizmo's point of where I would slot this in, I, I, I wrestle with it in the sense that I, I just got finished saying how this cigar puts out enough flavor to even satisfy me after a meal. Um, but after a meal, I'm not gonna pick up a petite Corona.
Exactly. Right. I'm gonna pick up something bigger than this. Yep. So the places where I would pick up a smaller cigar, for me, again, this is just my personal preference, are it's usually gonna be a [01:08:00] cigar that I'm gonna have. Maybe I have a quick window in the afternoon or a quick window here and there, and I'm not gonna necessarily be looking for a flavor bomb at that point.
So it's a virtue just how much flavor this little cigar puts in. But I do struggle with where I would slot in something with this much flavor at this small of a size in this format. So that, that's kind of
**Ricky:** where I'm at. All right. Ricky, you're up. Yeah. I'd say I'd, I'd give this an eight and um, had it been a little larger, , I might give it a nine, but if, for me, this is probably the cigar I would slot in on a car ride if it was larger.
Tried into the city. Mm-hmm. , sorry. Yep. Yeah, if there was just more of it, uh, but if it was larger,
**Bam Bam:** it may not taste the
**Ricky:** same, of course. So assuming that the flavor's the same and it was larger, I'd give it a nine. Uh, right now it's an eight, and for me, I'd slot this in on a car ride to work 45 minutes or a car ride back home, you know, 45 minutes, an hour, whatever, depending on traffic.
Perfect stick. [01:09:00]
**Gizmo:** Um, you know, it's a great price point. Yeah, it
**Ricky:** is. Yeah. Considering the price point
**Gizmo:** to get this kind of flavor out of, absolutely. Out of this price point of a stick. I mean, you're talking like maybe eight, $8 for a stick.
**Ricky:** So it, the one from two weeks ago, roi is that, that was a, that was about four to 14.
Yeah. So this blows that away. Mm, sure. Yeah. By, yeah. Sure.
**Gizmo:** Grinder, you're up.
**Grinder:** Um, I mean, without any predilection of when I, you know, where I'm gonna fucking slot the cigar. I think it's a fantastic cigar. Um, and, um, f I love, I love the size. This is one of my favorite size of cigars, and I found it to be a tremendous amount of flavor.
The burn was fantastic and it was long. It's to, to your point earlier, it's, it took a while to smoke it, and it might be small, but it is mighty. And, um, I mean, how long did we take us to smoke the cigar? I don't, it took a little over an hour. A little over an [01:10:00] hour, yeah. So it's awesome. It's not like a, it's not like a, I mean, I've smoked.
I've smoked, uh, uh, Toros in an hour. And, you know, uh, for me this is, this is a nine. It's, it's, it's definitely a nine. And, um, it's, it's something that I would consider, uh, going to the, uh, to the rooster. the rooster, uh, retail shop to, to consume .
**Gizmo:** It'll be open in about 10 minutes. , $20
**Bam Bam:** a stick. Yep. I'll be, I'll be first online.
Bam. Bam. Yeah. I'm at a nine with this cigar. I, I, I think everything you've, that all of you have said are, are very accurate, but the, the flavor and the punch that you get from this in the shape, it's, it's
**Gizmo:** a home run. I mean, think about it. We smoked a pyramid on the last pod and we smoked it in about an hour.
This was a petite corona, and we, it still took an hour.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. It, it was fantastic. This is something I would slot in at least weekly for me. Yeah. This, this, absolutely. No doubt about it. Yeah,
**Poobah:** no doubt. Yeah. It's very [01:11:00] good. It, for me, it lacked some of the like, , it just lacked a little bit of complexity and it lacked a little, just a little.
When I say a little bit, I'm talking, it's marginal, a little bit of complexity, and it lacked a little bit of that kind of like balance of dessert flavor with spice. Like that play that makes it complex, that makes it just a little bit more complex. So it, it, it, it's really good. It's a mean, it's a really good petite corona.
This, this, it's don't, don't, I don't want to, um, mislead anybody or I'm trying to be accurate, but it just didn't have that kind of like sweet, really sweet and salty or like, it just, the, the balance, the complexity wasn't there for me. Um, but the performance of it, uh, was great. It smoked great and I enjoyed it.
I just, for, that's why it didn't like really push it over the
**Gizmo:** edge. No, absolutely. By the way, the, uh, composite lizard score boys. Was an 8.4. [01:12:00] That's very, very good. And I think that's a great score. That's, that's a very, that's got good aging potential. Yeah. Absolute recommend. Yeah. Yeah. Now, my point about this is, is, is certainly if I were to purchase this outside of the Rooster retail store, , uh, I, I don't know if I'd buy a 50 cab of this.
Oh. Which is probably, I
**Bam Bam:** would buy a 50 cab tomorrow morning at this price point. Good.
**Ricky:** Absolutely. Yeah, I would. Good.
**Gizmo:** I just don't know if I would, would you, Senator?
**Senator:** No, I guess I'm with you in the sense that I, I, I, this is complicated because I should buy a 50 cab because I would smoke this again. Yeah. And I have no doubt that a 50 cab is gonna smoke better than a dress box because the first one, Russ, of course, gave me a while back, was out of a dress box.
I actually didn't love it. And this I think, is a really, really good cigar. A great cigar. Um, but I think why you're struggling with that the same way I am is, you know, I buy a 50 cab of things that I know I'm gonna smoke a lot of. and I, I'm, I'm not convinced that I'll smoke this very often [01:13:00] to Warren a 50 cab, even though that makes the most sense of, of anything I should use.
Right,
**Gizmo:** right. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's like where you jump on a 50 cabin at a pargo shorts. Like
**Gizmo:** Exactly. Or Ra, like
**Poobah:** white. Yeah, like white on rice or ra you know, you're like, oh, Pargo shorts, I'm gonna buy that done. Yeah. Because it kind of delivers something that's really
**Gizmo:** you, you know? Yeah. I don't know. I, I would buy this over Parus shorts.
Oof. I would disagree with that. 50. And the thing about parus shorts, I
**Poobah:** don't know guys, those out punch their weight class all, let,
**Gizmo:** let me just say this
**Senator:** before, before we get into debate about this and we absolutely should. I'm not surprised hearing this, right? Like, if I were to curate a cigar, a, a little cigar for Rooster, and the choice were this or a pargo short, I know this is what his palate would like more.
The same way that if I did this for Puba, I know he'd appreciate a short more. And I think that's what's great about this. Like we all bring different pallets. That's true to this. So I'm in the short camp. I think it's no secret at this point that RGUs is right in my sweet spot, but I, I am not at all surprised for rooster's palate.
Yeah. If I had a [01:14:00] 50 cab of this and a, and a 50 cab of shorts and he was looking for a last smoke of the night, I'd pull out this cigar first go for. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** But at the end of the day, we gave it an elite score. That's an elite rating. It's a very strong recommended.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. You, you know what else is really good in this size is the Ramona Yo Club.
Oh,
**Poobah:** club. Club. Yeah. The, the, the, uh, the small Club Corona
**Gizmo:** Boys Club, Coronas,
**Bam Bam:** Cuba turned me onto that cigar. . I would chase that cigar all day, every day, every week. We gotta do it. Fantastic. Fantastic. We
**Gizmo:** gotta do that on Wonderful Smoke. Oh, they're hard to find right
**Senator:** now. Yeah. No, they're actually easy to find right now.
They're on I Havis. They've sat for three weeks straight. No one's buying them. What? Wow. Go there right now. Yeah. Really? I need you to buy those. I had one that I liked. You buy I wasn't
**Gizmo:** crazy about since I haven't bought Junior Ben, why'd you buy 'em? I need you to buy those. I need you to buy those
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Well, haven't seen you boys. Another great pod and Ricky, uh, just want to thank you for coming for a second week with us. [01:15:00] Ricky is the, uh, chef and partner in Anejo, an Yahoo. I can't say it. That was
**Ricky:** perfect. That was it. That was it. In,
**Gizmo:** uh, in both New York and Philadelphia. So check out the restaurants.
Did we, did we come up with the rookie's lizard name? Not. Uh, oh. You're putting the pressure on
**Ricky:** pba?
**Grinder:** What's, what's, what's, what's the name? What's the name? What's the name of the, the agave after it's chopped up and it's a little ball.
**Ricky:** Pinya.
**Grinder:** Pinya. That's your name? No, I
**Bam Bam:** don't know. I think he's the technician.
Technician. I like technician.
**Grinder:** I like that. I like technician. A little
**Bam Bam:** long though. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Let it marinate. Well, listen, when we have Ricky on again, we'll, uh, we'll see if, if Poopa has come up with the, uh, organic nickname for, but, uh, and 8.4 boys for the poor Guga Petite Corona. Great cigar. Great tequilas.
Thank you again, Ricky. Thank you Rick. Appreciate having, thank you so much, Ricky. Thank you Ricky. Thank you. And uh, we'll see you boys next week. Keep smart. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and [01:16:00] 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 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 week.