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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Wizards podcast presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam, and our plans to smoke a cigar, drink some bourbon, talk about life, and, of course, have some laps.
Gizmo:So take this as your two hundred and twelfth official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. We're be just here once a week. We're gonna smoke a New World cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We discuss Fuente finding new Cameroon tobacco. We answer listener emails on meetups and samplers, and we share our favorite breakfast cigars, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours.
Gizmo:So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, enjoy as we pair Larson a small batch 92 Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey with the Warped La Colmena black honey 2023. Abella Coso on the pod tonight from Miami boys.
Bam Bam:Very nice.
Gizmo:This cigar is the Warped La Colmena black honey, and it's a 48 ring gauge cigar by five inches long. And, Bam, you're worried that this isn't gonna last much more than a half hour.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:Because this is a little smaller than I, for some reason, was perceiving in my mind when I saw 48 by five. Because if you think about it, every Robusto we smoke is 50 by five Yes. Effectively.
Bam Bam:It's an Diameter. It's an issue.
Gizmo:Plus plus minus. But dropping two degrees on the Mhmm. Ring gauge does make it feel a little smaller in
Bam Bam:the hand. Yeah. It does. But it's a nice looking cigar. It is.
Bam Bam:Very I love the band. The band is very cool. Clean, crisp, simple, beautiful,
Gizmo:clear design. It kinda has we talked about this with the Cabo Iguan. It kind of has
Bam Bam:this Yeah. Simple Beautiful thing.
Gizmo:Very simple kind of almost calling back to Cuba type simple band on it. This is nice though. It's cool. Alright, boys. Let's cut this thing.
Gizmo:See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. So this is the third warped on the pod tonight. I'm pretty, looking forward to it because, warped just like Tatawahi needs some redemption.
Bam Bam:Barely took the tip-off and the draw is wide open.
Gizmo:Mine's a little tight. I should take a little more off.
Chef Ricky:No, wide open on this side.
Bam Bam:Nice cold Now
Gizmo:my cold draw is great.
Bam Bam:What are you getting, chef?
Chef Ricky:A little barnyard hay. It's a little bit dry. I'm not getting much sweetness.
Gizmo:I'm getting some fig. Yeah.
Bam Bam:I think it's fig all. Right on the money.
Gizmo:And honestly, there is that Bam always calls out that carbohydrate. Does Here take
Bam Bam:we go.
Gizmo:That fig Newton that fig Newton thing.
Senator:What did it take? Two minutes this time?
Bam Bam:Not even. I'm not pleased.
Gizmo:No. But seriously, I think it's there. I
Bam Bam:think the fig is a great call.
Senator:Yeah. Fig is the dominant note for me.
Chef Ricky:I might need to to open up my palate here. Something's off.
Bam Bam:Oh, this is gonna be good.
Gizmo:Let's do it, boys. Let's light this thing. The warped La Colmena black honey, a 2023 release. We'll talk about that in a second. Again, it's a 48 ring gauge bellicoso by five inches long.
Bam Bam:It
Gizmo:was rolled in Miami, and the factory name chef is?
Chef Ricky:El titan de branze. The bronze titan. Titan bronze. No. You you just said the bronze tit.
Chef Ricky:Well,
Bam Bam:that's also a BAM approved anatomy feature. He did that on purpose. Bronze tit. This is actually very nice.
Gizmo:Nice open.
Bam Bam:What do you think, rooster?
Gizmo:Rooster's come in, let's just say, with a little bit of an asterisk on his review tonight because he does not like this cigar.
Bam Bam:Oh, you've you've had this?
Gizmo:He has a box of these.
Rooster:I have a box of this.
Bam Bam:Oh, okay.
Rooster:Couple of years old. It's the same release.
Gizmo:Yeah, they only release these every six years.
Bam Bam:Interesting.
Rooster:So I had one when I first got the box, and I just did not like it. Waited like another maybe four months or six months. Not a huge difference. I just haven't tried it since. But I don't know.
Rooster:Maybe it was a bad box. Who knows? We'll see.
Chef Ricky:Initially, I'm getting a lot of pepper, spice and incense.
Senator:Just pepper. Get spice and I don't love it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. On the retro, I'm getting a good deal of pepper.
Gizmo:And on the the burn line, it's almost like flaring my nose hairs a little bit.
Bam Bam:Yeah. My nose is running now.
Gizmo:Yeah. Not good. Well, it might open senators up. He has a sinus infection going on.
Bam Bam:Correct. I just got over a sinus infection. This may give me one.
Pagoda:Put the smoke up, but it's nuts.
Gizmo:It's crazy.
Bam Bam:Is. Pugoda, this is right up your power alley.
Gizmo:Yeah. I think it tastes good on the white. I'm happy with mine.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's okay. Right?
Gizmo:See where it goes. So let's talk about the makeup of this cigar boys. The wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro. The binder is Ecuadorian, and the filler is from The Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. This cigar comes from two of the company's other lines.
Gizmo:Of course, the La Colmena, which this cigar is tied to that, and the El Oso, which is a cigar we did, which rated very poorly quite some time ago, the grand papa, the tenth anniversary edition of the El Oso. So the wrapper comes from the El Oso, while the internal blend comes from the La Comena Unico Especial with dual Ecuadorian binders and fillers from Nicaragua and The Dominican Republic. Great job, guys. Thank you. Great job.
Bam Bam:And how much are these?
Gizmo:So that's a problem too. $22.
Bam Bam:Excuse me?
Pagoda:Yeah. For this little thing? Alright. Wow. Twenty two hours.
Gizmo:So when they honestly, when they came in
Bam Bam:I'm shocked.
Gizmo:I was a little shocked when they came in.
Bam Bam:I'm shocked
Chef Ricky:right now. It's almost like Giz said there's there's been too many tens on the pod.
Gizmo:We've we've been doing too well.
Senator:There's nothing this could do
Bam Bam:to earn a 10 after that.
Gizmo:Yeah. Let's get a pepper bomb
Chef Ricky:mellicoso for $22 and see what happens.
Rooster:See how
Gizmo:the boys handle it.
Senator:And it's a small cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's very diminutive. Like I said though, if I said this was 48 by five, my eyes don't align with what my brain was thinking this is gonna be. And it certainly feels small in the hand.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:And for $22 I was kind of That's shocking. Expecting a little bit more.
Pagoda:If it feels small in your hand, you could imagine I was so bad. No. I'm just kidding.
Bam Bam:Alright. Alright. Alright. Alright. It a 10 count box, Right?
Gizmo:That's correct.
Rooster:10
Bam Bam:count. Not nice pagoda. Not nice at all. I'm sorry. He does have a way of magnifying his whatever he's holding in his photographs.
Rooster:Listen, I'm bad
Bam Bam:at To
Rooster:out scale his hands I'm bad at taking iPhone photos with cigars. Yeah. A it's a camera angle.
Gizmo:It's not gonna be For some reason, that's what I'm good at. Oh, it's the hands.
Bam Bam:Wanna come over here? Well, let's get it ready.
Gizmo:And what happened?
Bam Bam:It's the same size hand. Correct. I'll get him.
Chef Ricky:I don't believe it.
Pagoda:Rooster to the defense as well. This great.
Rooster:We need him.
Bam Bam:No problem.
Pagoda:And his hand
Gizmo:there. And my hands. We need his hands. You do need the hands.
Pagoda:Have you seen the Seinfeld episode with George where he ensures his hands?
Gizmo:Yes. He's a hand model.
Bam Bam:Of course. I'll remind him of that. Now Giddens walking around with mittens all over. They're in
Gizmo:a bubble? Yeah. The La Colmena Black Honey debuted in January 2015 as a very limited edition cigar with only 13 stores carrying 60 bundles of 10 cigars produced. That release went on to finish number 12 in Half Wheel's top 25 cigars of 2015. So Half Wheel loves these cigars, of course.
Gizmo:The second release of 2017 went to many more stores with 67 retailers carrying it. Production numbers were not disclosed. And six years later, 2023, the cigar was available to all warped retailers. So this one is widely was widely available, and most listeners should be able to find it. And, course, you could find it at Small Batch Cigar, which is where I picked them up.
Gizmo:Mhmm. The expectation here is that they're gonna be released every six years, so this won't be released again probably until 2029.
Pagoda:I think that's a great idea for now. Yes. Thank God.
Rooster:So the name is Black Honey, but I'm not getting any honey sweetness.
Bam Bam:Not at all.
Pagoda:No. It's just
Rooster:it's just black pepper.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I agreed.
Senator:So I don't know. I'll say this. I was just getting black pepper initially. I just stopped smoking this for a while and let the temperature come down. And once I did that, now I get, like, some faint sweetness and a little honey on the finish, but it's not nearly as much as I would have wanted or expected.
Senator:Like, the pepper is still the star of the show. Would have expected it to be the opposite, like Mhmm. More sweet with a little spice in the background, and to me, it's very imbalanced.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Let's hope that develops further into a sweeter experience.
Gizmo:So this cigar, when it first came out in 2015, was actually a rolling mistake. Somebody rolled
Bam Bam:the cigar. You're really selling this cigar well tonight. Oh,
Gizmo:shit. They loved
Senator:it. Can tell.
Gizmo:They loved it so much.
Bam Bam:A mistake. It's $22. Feels like in a hand. I expected more.
Pagoda:It's a 10. For
Gizmo:the comedy value it is right now. Oh my god.
Rooster:You're right ready to rate?
Bam Bam:Love it.
Gizmo:I just got a little blast of sweetness, actually.
Bam Bam:Are you sure? I did.
Gizmo:I just hope it doesn't come up as honey because you know how I feel about honey.
Chef Ricky:Oh, yeah. Higgins, is that 22 inclusive of the lizard 15?
Gizmo:It is not. That price is the standard issue retail price. So So of course, if you use our code loser 15, you get 15% off. I'm sorry, guys, this is not a bad cigar.
Bam Bam:No. Mean It's
Pagoda:so bad. It's so bad.
Bam Bam:It's just starting out, but I love this Vitola. I think it's a great shape.
Rooster:The pass pepper just went down, actually. I'm not
Bam Bam:gonna Yeah. I don't know. I just hope it turns out to be a decent cigar.
Senator:I don't like the size. I'm just gonna say, I
Gizmo:mean I agree. Think it's too small.
Senator:I love a bellicoso, but this is if it's gonna be a short bellicoso, it ought to be like the Davodoff bellicoso, that little white Churchill logo.
Bam Bam:Which is a little shorter than this.
Senator:Yeah. That'd be significantly shorter, and that's like a nice thirty minute smoke. Sure. Or this should look like a full size bellicoso, like you know, a bellicose sphenos or anything that It's
Bam Bam:kind of an in between size. I don't know.
Senator:I don't mind it. I just never find myself saying, I wish I had something smaller than a traditional sized bellicose. For that thirty nine minute short one. Yeah. It's like, I want a short smoke or I want a normal sized smoke.
Senator:I never am really looking for something in the middle of that.
Bam Bam:It is in the middle of that.
Gizmo:That's true.
Rooster:I don't know. Why do they release this every six years? What is special about the tobaccos?
Gizmo:Yeah. I don't think it's anything other than just a line that they just wanna keep scarce. Yeah.
Senator:Do they say why they came up with a name for this?
Gizmo:All I've seen here is a quote from Kyle Gellis. It says, black honey is not your normal warped offering, and to experience one our most sought after cigar is something we we truly and it's something truly special. The flavor profile from this Vitola is unlike anything you've had previously. So that's what Kyle Gallis, who owns Warp Cigar says. And on small batch cigar, the notes that they provide here are cream, pepper, cedar, herbal tea, cocoa, nougat, and caramel.
Pagoda:And I'm getting none of that.
Chef Ricky:Herbal herbal tea and pepper is all I'm getting. But herbal tea almost like in bad bag tea, you know, where it's kind of dry.
Senator:Gizz is getting herbal.
Gizmo:Isn't that a creature of some
Bam Bam:kind? Herbal!
Pagoda:But we'll have to go to Richard for that.
Gizmo:And they say that the intensity is medium plus.
Bam Bam:I have to say the aroma is actually very good. It's the best thing of the cigar that I'm getting right
Rooster:Construction is good.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I guess so. The aroma
Gizmo:is actually just got hit with sweetness, man. I'm taking it slow like senator just said because I'm talking. Yeah. I'm finding this to be very, very good right now. Alright.
Gizmo:I'm a pull back for a minute. Slow down a second. Yeah. It's turning. It's really turning nicely for me.
Gizmo:Give it a moment. So, boys, we have a lot to get through tonight. Ton of stuff. So we're gonna start with this one. And I think this might be the most important one given that we are in New Jersey.
Gizmo:A bill was introduced to increase New Jersey's cigar tax to 50%. The current rate is 30%, so it'd be an increase of 20% in the tax on the wholesale price. Senator Joe Vitale, who's from Woodbridge, has introduced this bill which would modify the state's tax rate for other tobacco products including cigars. Currently, a cigar is charged the state excise tax of 30% of its wholesale price, typically half of the MSRP. This means, of course, with a cigar that's $10, the MSRP is $5.
Gizmo:So then there's going to be tax on that. So a $9.5 cigar likely retails for $10.93 before the state's 6.625 percent sales tax is added at the register. So you're taxed on the wholesale, the retailer is paying a tax and then of course you're paying a sales tax here in the state. The tax would then increase to $2.38 effectively, meaning the price would then be $11.88 on that cigar before sales tax. So what's unfortunate about this is, of course, now we're in New Jersey talking about tax rates, and this would take us
Bam Bam:It's at our doorstep now.
Gizmo:Exactly. And this would take us from being, I think, the thirteenth highest tobacco tax state in the country to the seventh.
Bam Bam:So we need to get senator Vitale in this room.
Gizmo:That is what I wanna do.
Bam Bam:To have a conversation.
Gizmo:I was thinking we send our senator.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:After that senator.
Bam Bam:100%.
Senator:Oh, like this.
Gizmo:He likes that challenge. I know that. I knew he would. But seriously, I'm dead serious. We don't need to smoke cigars.
Bam Bam:I love that fucking I
Gizmo:really wanna sit down with this guy. I don't wanna bust his balls. I really wanna understand why he continues annually. This is every year he introduces this bill on the floor of the senate in New Jersey. So I I'm trying to understand.
Gizmo:I don't know if there's someone in his family that that that died of some sort of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes their entire life. If he has an aversion to cigar smoke, if he had a bad experience sometime, I don't know what it is.
Bam Bam:Or if he sees kids smoking Davidoff's on the corner. Of course.
Gizmo:The year of the horse.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:As you know.
Chef Ricky:Oh, Jesus.
Gizmo:But I seriously want to understand this, you know? And I'm really I'm gonna put it out to his office. I know Senator will help me do this. Or we can do it together. I really want to have a conversation with this guy in some way and understand and hopefully, from our perspective, make him understand who the typical premium cigar smoker is.
Gizmo:And you're looking at this room. If he were sitting with us, he's looking at a very diverse group of human beings in almost every way. In almost every category, very diverse, right? So if he were to sit with us and understand that this is the premium cigar smoker, probably not aligned with the construct he has in his mind of who that person is, Maybe there's something to be said there.
Rooster:Is this just on cigars or on tobacco in general?
Gizmo:It's some other it's I think it's outside of cigarettes. So, for example, half wheel here, shout out to half wheeler. Great. They also it will also change the snuff rate and I guess, you know, tobacco you're chewing tobacco and stuff. But cigarettes is not included in this.
Bam Bam:How strange.
Gizmo:So what do you think, senator? Can we get
Senator:the job done? I think so. I think it's worth the effort. I mean Definitely. Guys like this love to be heard.
Senator:We're willing to give this person a platform. I'd love to hear the argument.
Gizmo:And I think if we don't like what he says, we just start lighting cigars.
Bam Bam:Right in right in his presence. Correct.
Rooster:We would smoke the Liga number nine. Two
Gizmo:at a time.
Rooster:The room would be a chimney.
Bam Bam:Let him sit right in the middle.
Gizmo:So hopefully that doesn't go through, but I really wanna try to get in touch with this guy.
Bam Bam:Great idea.
Gizmo:Senator Great idea. Vitale and have a conversation. And senator Lizard. Senator Lizard. He It's gonna
Senator:be a battle royale. Correct.
Chef Ricky:Should put this thing on Netflix.
Bam Bam:A pay per view. Let's get Dana White in here. Might end up on ninety minutes.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Here's another one. I thought this was interesting, you know, given that we're talking about all of these bans of tobacco and generational tobacco bans we've been talking about and municipal bans and state tax increases in California with the UTLs. The JC Newman cigar company is has been chosen to be the official branding cigar commemorating America's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. So they have partnered with the United States Semi Quincentennial Commission to brand the cigars rolled at their El Rolle factory with the official America two fifty logo.
Gizmo:So this is the alright. You're shaking your head. Pronounce it. Go ahead.
Chef Ricky:I I don't know the spelling. Is it two l's?
Gizmo:No. L l e r o j. El.
Chef Ricky:El Roje. El Roje. Yes.
Gizmo:Roje. You say Roje even though it's o j.
Chef Ricky:J an H.
Gizmo:Always. But it's the J is after the O, not before.
Rooster:Doesn't matter. J is always an H. Like instead of Jonathan, it's Honathan.
Gizmo:So you
Bam Bam:mean to say Johnny is
Gizmo:actually horny? So they have been chosen to partner with the United States Semi Quincentennial Commission to brand cigars rolled at their factory here in The US with the official America February logo. So now this is a I think this is a United States government or kind of offshoot of that that has been put together to celebrate the 200 birthday of this country. How interesting. And now they have chosen a cigar manufacturer to make cigars.
Bam Bam:And state by state is systematically trying to shut down the cigar industry.
Gizmo:And look at what the FDA has been trying What are
Bam Bam:we doing here?
Gizmo:That Judge Maitland just knocked down.
Pagoda:We'll all be in DC smoking 2,000.
Gizmo:So the United States Semi Quincentennial Commission was established by Congress in 2016 almost ten years ago to coordinate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration. America two fifty is a nonprofit bipartisan organization that supports the commission. It's composed of 16 private citizens, four US representatives, and four US senators, each appointed by the house and senate leadership of both parties. The group is charged with leading programming and engaging Americans in the continued festivities, which includes licensing the America two fifty branding for unique American made products. So I I really find it fascinating that given everything we've been talking about, that there's gonna effectively be an official United States two hundred and fiftieth birthday cigar.
Bam Bam:That's amazing. So bipolar.
Gizmo:It it makes no sense. So the first release of this, according to Cigar Aficionado, will start shipping in December. And, of course, I think at PCA next year, this is going to be
Bam Bam:A big cigar.
Gizmo:A big Yeah. Launch. I'm sure there'll be American flags all over the JC Newman booth, the whole thing. Yep. Celebrating this because I would imagine if I'm JC Newman, this is a pretty big deal.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. You know, of course
Bam Bam:Great opportunity.
Gizmo:I think, you know, you have to be a manufacturer who's making this stuff here, not just boxing it or, you know, branding it here. So a lot of the manufacturers that we love and support would be out of the running. So of course, think they're the ones that kind of make the most sense as far as American But made
Rooster:you're not going to have American tobaccos. No. I mean, do grow some tobacco. We have smoked some cigars with American tobacco in it. Yeah, definitely the wrapper.
Bam Bam:Oh yeah,
Pagoda:the EP grew here.
Senator:Didn't we smoke an American Purell?
Gizmo:Yeah. Remember that cigar?
Bam Bam:Oh, that's right.
Gizmo:That was JC Newman.
Bam Bam:Yeah, think Was it?
Gizmo:Yeah, the American. That was like
Senator:the only American Purell we've ever heard of.
Bam Bam:We did that here in this room? Yeah. I don't remember.
Gizmo:When you came in, you said it tasted like turpentine.
Bam Bam:Well, get ready tonight.
Chef Ricky:Cigar makes me feel almost as if I brushed my teeth just before I got here.
Rooster:You know, it's it's chalky.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Very chalky. It has like this this numbing sensation you get from like espalette pepper or something like that. It's very woody. I I did get a little bit of sweetness there, like a little pop, like toasted
Gizmo:burnt
Chef Ricky:bread maybe, but
Senator:Kids, are you getting Esplett pepper?
Gizmo:I have no idea what that is.
Senator:I don't think most of
Bam Bam:us do. I have no clue either.
Gizmo:What is that, chef? Tell us.
Chef Ricky:It's a long, almost cylindrical looking pepper. Kind of looks like pine cone, but very small, very tiny. And it has it has this numbing sensation that it it creates on your palate, that kind of numbing, drying sensation that I'm getting with the cigar at the moment.
Gizmo:I had long hots at Jamie's cigar bar last week. Oh, they're delicious. They're great peppers.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:Same thing.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Correct.
Gizmo:There was a little numbing going on.
Bam Bam:Was it chalky?
Gizmo:It wasn't. I added the sausage, though. Great great move.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:So to answer the question here, we did smoke because our memories are are, I guess, a little rough here. We did smoke the JC Newman, the American in double Robusto. Wow. Around July 4, Independence Day of this year on episode 191 scored an 8.2.
Bam Bam:That's a good score.
Gizmo:Pretty damn good score.
Senator:Was that all or mostly American?
Gizmo:I think that was all American.
Senator:Interesting. That's
Gizmo:American That all American. That was the first American Pure we'd done on the pod, I remember saying.
Chef Ricky:Wow. Interesting. And Bam was here for that. I'm sure I was. No, I know I wasn't, so I'm not.
Gizmo:So they already have the tobacco. Bam was not here for that.
Chef Ricky:That's why he doesn't remember it.
Bam Bam:Where the hell was I?
Gizmo:You were in Turks and Caicos. Ah, right. Good memory.
Senator:Look at Rooster.
Bam Bam:Rooster did threw it out, by
Gizmo:the way.
Bam Bam:What are you tracking my devices at all?
Rooster:There must be
Senator:a cure for Alzheimer's.
Rooster:I'm just
Bam Bam:kidding. No. There's
Pagoda:there's no.
Bam Bam:It keeps getting worse. And he's only three years older than them. Correct. Two and a half. Exactly.
Rooster:Makes no sense.
Bam Bam:Put 200 before that.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go on to another one. This one is wild too. We're going back to our friend who is the major shareholder in Habanos S. A.
Gizmo:Chenji.
Bam Bam:Oh, he's on the run.
Gizmo:He's on the run, and now this is pretty wild. It's like we're into worlds. Hong Kong has frozen 354,000,000 in assets tied to his scam empire.
Bam Bam:Well, that's a drop in a bucket, you know.
Gizmo:Of course. But it's still not it's it's something. Mean, The United States has, what, sees 15,400,000,000.0 in Bitcoin.
Bam Bam:Oh, there you go.
Gizmo:The the folks in Hong Kong have taken 354,000,000. So the Brit Britain and The United States, for any listeners who don't remember last month, sanctioned the South Asia based multinational network called the Prince Group, which is accused of operating large scale online scam centers that use trafficked workers, forced labor, to defraud victims around the world. Chen, 38, was indicted by a United States court on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Hong Kong police said the asset freeze involved a syndicate suspected of involvement in international cross border telecommunications fraud and money laundering activities based on intelligence and information gathered from multiple sources. Frozen assets, including cash stocks and funds held by individuals and corporate entities, are believed to be crime proceeds linked to the concerned syndicate.
Gizmo:That's what the Hong Kong police said in a statement. The Hong Kong Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau was continuing with its investigations, but no arrests have been made. 18 Hong Kong companies were blacklisted by The US in connection with the Prince Group. These include two listed companies, two publicly traded companies, Kuhn Group, rooster, and Geotech Holdings. Wow.
Gizmo:So pretty wild. So, I mean, you have to be a special kind of
Bam Bam:Sure.
Gizmo:Individual to not only be wanted by
Bam Bam:He's the Chinese The West. Same Bond.
Gizmo:But to also be at the same time for the same scam wanted by the folks in Hong Kong. Which is wanted by the Chinese. Which is wanted by the Chinese. Mhmm. That's pretty wild, right?
Gizmo:Like, when have we heard of a financial fraudulent scammer, you know, murderer or something like that, drug cartel, that I understand, the crossing borders nature of it. But to be on the run for the same crime from folks in The US and Britain and the Chinese, That is a special type of
Bam Bam:operation.
Rooster:Insane operation. The only way we are actually concerned is because he's the investor in how He's the
Gizmo:guy, yes. So how does
Rooster:So what is Cuba's reaction to this?
Bam Bam:That'd be great to hear. We don't
Rooster:Can Cuba just wash their hands and say, well, listen. Because of this
Bam Bam:You're out.
Rooster:You're out. I mean, they could literally do anything they want.
Gizmo:I would say that unless I mean, I think we talked about this before. I don't know of any business provision. Maybe you guys, senator Bam, I don't know if you guys have ever done this, but are there any sort of, you know, clauses, contracts, and deal making that happen where some sort of arrest or some sort of I mean, he's obviously not convicted yet. This is all speculation, right, by all the governments involved. He's not caught.
Gizmo:This you know, this is alleged, quote unquote.
Rooster:Yeah. But we're we're talking about Cuba.
Gizmo:I'm saying but my point is is that in in deal making.
Bam Bam:He's not convicted yet.
Gizmo:How do you boot somebody out of a significant piece of your business? Effectively, either way, like it or not, you'd have to buy him out.
Bam Bam:Wow. Not if he's convicted.
Gizmo:Sure. Why not? It doesn't change the fact that he owns it.
Bam Bam:I don't know.
Senator:Does he have a formal role with Habanos SA beyond just being a major investor?
Gizmo:Not on the books. However, the Swiss have now figured out that he is a major shareholder in the Habanos SA distributor over there. And so now they're going after him because they don't like that I guess in in Switzerland, when you register a business, all of those major stakeholders need to be known. And then if there's any criminal activity, it really affects everything. So that could affect Habano's distribution in that market.
Gizmo:So then how do they restructure that without him involved? It's it's just a crazy, like
Bam Bam:Very complex.
Gizmo:Spiderweb of insanity this guy had going on.
Bam Bam:He's 38 years old.
Gizmo:Yeah. Unreal. I just I don't know what what to what they could possibly do to get him out of there, rooster. And Cuba doesn't have the resources. They need this guy.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:They need Habanos. Yeah.
Rooster:But his his assets are basically frozen now.
Bam Bam:Yeah. He's already So
Rooster:he's probably not fun not, like, putting in more money into the Habanos.
Bam Bam:But he's already put how many billions into Habanos. He's not gonna withdraw that. He can't.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's a it's a very convoluted situation. I just wonder, how could this possibly play out? I mean, does The United States or Britain or the Chinese take that stake of Habanos away from him? Among all these other businesses that we're talking about, obviously, we're focused on the Cuban cigar component.
Gizmo:Why would China take the stake away? Habanos would take his stake out
Rooster:Yeah. Of Habanos.
Chef Ricky:Correct.
Senator:I mean, it's Cuba. Cuba can do it Cuba. Takes homes and private property all the time. Yeah. Why can't they take this guy's stake
Bam Bam:in Correct.
Gizmo:They take away hotels. That's a good point. Yeah. So it would be interesting if they confiscated it. I wonder if it would require a conviction first, but I imagine this guy Cuba,
Senator:there's no conviction. That's that's
Gizmo:true. But I'm saying this guy is internationally wanted. I mean, obviously, they're still chasing him down.
Rooster:I want him in a Cuban jail cell rolling cigars.
Bam Bam:Wouldn't that be You can't A wait to smoke
Gizmo:bajique. Yeah. That'd be pretty coincidental. So pretty pretty wild story. I'm I'm keeping an eye on this Chen Xi guy.
Gizmo:I find this whole story fascinating. I find the fact that that Bitcoin seizure was the largest in The United States history of any amount at one time. Pretty crazy. So we'll see what happens, and we'll keep you updated. If if listeners out there, if you have any take on what we're talking about here, how this guy could be pushed out or how the legality of that works, I'm fascinated by this.
Gizmo:So if you have any thoughts on it or opinions or if you have some facts or knowledge, please do not hesitate to email us. We'd love to share it on the pod. So boys, it's time now to move to our pairing tonight.
Bam Bam:No. We
Gizmo:have the larceny bourbon.
Bam Bam:It's a
Gizmo:larceny. I'm gonna take a sip before I judge it.
Bam Bam:Alright. Cheers. Yeah.
Rooster:Good luck.
Gizmo:Cheers, boys.
Pagoda:Cheers, guys.
Bam Bam:I just had a sip.
Pagoda:Yeah, good
Chef Ricky:luck. Aroma's beautiful. A nice,
Bam Bam:nice on the nose.
Gizmo:Think that's a nice bourbon. Wow. I put a splash of water in mine.
Bam Bam:I didn't do anything.
Senator:Oh, you have to have it first without water. Yeah. Yeah. I had it without water, and it almost singed my esophagus.
Gizmo:Oh, I just put a little splash like a
Bam Bam:little of Chef,
Pagoda:what's a verdict on this, please?
Chef Ricky:It is a little hot. No. It is. And it's a little spicy.
Senator:Chef is saying a little.
Chef Ricky:That's a A lot little, and yeah, there's a little spice and pepper here. Tons of oak.
Bam Bam:I think it's there's so much oak in here. It's it's reminiscent of cough syrup for me. Yeah. It's very medicinal.
Pagoda:Yes. That's most bourbon, I thought.
Chef Ricky:No. No. Not
Pagoda:Not No. Okay.
Bam Bam:I a chip, actually.
Chef Ricky:I do think a couple sips will tame it a bit. And I need to self etiquette. I said espalette pepper. I meant long pepper. Sorry.
Bam Bam:Senator, can you ask me?
Gizmo:I said long hot.
Chef Ricky:And that's what made me say, holy shit. Wait. Yeah.
Gizmo:Was I right?
Bam Bam:This ain't long
Chef Ricky:It's not a long, friend. It's a long pepper. The mini pine cone looking pepper. It's called long pepper.
Gizmo:I got excited.
Chef Ricky:But espolette's an entirely different pepper.
Gizmo:So I put a very little splash of water. No ice
Bam Bam:in my half a glass of water and ice. Be honest. Not that bad.
Senator:Bucket of ice.
Gizmo:Oh, stop it. It's not that bad.
Bam Bam:Okay. So how much was this bottle?
Gizmo:$30.
Rooster:Okay. Almost almost the same price as the cigar. Yeah.
Senator:I just think the thing that I have a hard time with this, you know, most high proof bourbons I've had, they're pretty sweet. So like the sweetness at least helps counteract the heat a bit. This is more spicy than it is sweet and So it's like you have a lot of heat and a dry finish, and it's just very off putting for me. Honestly, I
Gizmo:don't mind the bourbon. I don't love it, but I don't mind it, really.
Bam Bam:Even with the ice, it's rough. It's got an unusual heavy oak finish, which is
Chef Ricky:really tannic. Very, very tannic. Very dry.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That oak is pronounced.
Gizmo:I think it's pretty good. Call me crazy.
Rooster:I guess with this cigar, it's peppery, so you kind of need something sweet to Sweeter, balance like a traditional bourbon. I guess the bourbon is very oaky and Yeah.
Senator:This is very odd. Most bourbons don't drink like this.
Bam Bam:No, they don't.
Gizmo:So the reason why I picked this up, It's to be clear wheated. It's a wheated bourbon, and what I've there I got this quadrant. I think it was from Lizard Max in Australia, one of our OG emailers. Great guy. Comments on Spotify all the time.
Gizmo:Great dude. He sent me this, like, image. It's a quadrant, okay, of different, you know, I guess it's sweet, rich, you know, it kind of like they they drop it on this quadrant of where it falls in those categories. And this section, which is the bottom right, which is sweet and rich over on the right side bottom, Weller's in there. Henry McKenna's in there.
Gizmo:This one's in there. So there's there's actually a lot of bourbons that we've done and enjoyed in that same kind of flavor profile according to these folks. That's why I reached for this because I was like, you know, we haven't done a bourbon in a minute.
Bam Bam:Pagoda. We probably should. I'm curious, Pagoda. What do you think?
Pagoda:There's so much ice in this. Same.
Gizmo:Pagoda wishes
Chef Ricky:there was tequila today.
Bam Bam:I wouldn't Yeah. Mind an alternate glass of something.
Senator:I mean, I'm sorry. That quadrant, I think, makes a lot of sense. I think we posted that on our social media at one point.
Gizmo:We did. Here it is right here.
Senator:But That's this is not correct. I'm sorry.
Gizmo:This is sitting right next to Henry McKenna right near Eagle Rare, E. H. Taylor, which we loved. Like Eagle Rare.
Bam Bam:Angel's Envy,
Gizmo:Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark, Baker's, Mictors, Russell's Reserve. So do you understand why I chose this?
Senator:Yeah, no, I get that. I'm saying I think that they made an error. Correct. This is not more sweet than it is spicy or All oaky or anything of those drink more like a traditional bourbon.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Senator:But in a refined, nice way that most of those I think we'd like.
Bam Bam:And you can drink it.
Senator:Yeah. I'm telling you, because if you hadn't put water in this,
Chef Ricky:and you tried this in its full and pure state, it is brutal. This is probably the cheapest entry though on that quadrant.
Gizmo:Well, I don't know. Even by MSRP, it's probably in the ballpark. The problem is those others trade almost only on the secondary market unless you're somehow have access to
Chef Ricky:Yeah. That's true.
Gizmo:You know, a total wine concierge or or some sort of you're you're actually in, you know, Kentucky where they make them and you can go stand in line at the factory and get something. But, you know, a lot of these have that false scarcity thing going on. But that's why I thought, like, let's try this and see what happens because it's cheap, it's easy to get, and it's supposed to be, according to this chart here, in the flavor profile of those others that we've really enjoyed.
Chef Ricky:I put a small drop of water. It opened it up a little bit, but, yeah, I mean, usually when you do that, well, I find when I do that, it just brings the sweetness down. And this was already pretty low on the sweet scale, so but it did seem to heat a bit.
Senator:I put a ton of ice at this point.
Bam Bam:Me too. I mean,
Senator:more than I've ever put in any spirit we've ever done on this And
Gizmo:for listeners out there who are bourbon purists, I've put a small splash so when you send nasty emails, please address it accordingly.
Senator:Well, I will say, if you just dump a ton of ice or water into this thing, it it like removes the sharp kinda oakiness that was there, and now you actually get some sweetness.
Gizmo:I got sweetness from my first sip because I think of the water.
Bam Bam:It's still not as sweet as you would imagine it, but That's true.
Gizmo:Correct. So boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the warped La Colmena black honey from 2023. What's everybody thinking?
Chef Ricky:I'll say with an inch of ash on this thing, it's really mellowed out, come into balance a little bit. I'm getting some dark cocoa. I'm getting a little bit of toasted carbohydrate.
Gizmo:Rooster shaking his head.
Chef Ricky:It's not it's not very sweet.
Senator:Can we put impose a tax like a dollar every time someone use that word going forward? Please.
Bam Bam:Well, I'm gonna be paying a lot of money.
Chef Ricky:So it's it's gotten a
Gizmo:little better for me. Senator?
Senator:I'm not happy with it. For some reason, I've been looking at the way most others have burned either I have a uniquely thick odd wrapper or mine is just wetter for some reason because it was tunneling at one point where the wrapper was really struggling to keep up with the burn of the filler. So I've been kind of fighting getting this to burn the way it should most of the way through, which has been frustrating. And the flavor, it it has rough edges. It's not like a refined experience.
Senator:I mean, at $22 on a New World cigar, that that should not be the experience.
Chef Ricky:That's this size.
Gizmo:Of of this size.
Senator:Yeah. It just it doesn't feel refined. I'm I'm there's a bite to every bit of this. I'm not really thrilled with it.
Rooster:To me, a bit harsh.
Pagoda:Yeah. It's harsh. It's on the back of the throat. Right.
Rooster:Yes. Mean, the black pepper is consistent. It's throughout. I mean, in the middle, you've got a little bit of sweetness, and that's kind of dissipated It's woody. It's chalky.
Rooster:It's oaky. That's about it.
Chef Ricky:It's a lot like this bourbon.
Senator:Yeah. Yeah. Both you would expect to be more sweet, or at least predominantly sweet, and neither is. Mhmm. And it's like we we would take either one to provide some sweetness right now to kind of tamp down the spice, and we can't find it.
Bam Bam:I need an anchor. I'm sinking fast. Fucking thing sucks.
Pagoda:But I'll tell you the merits. It's it's good, really good construction. Yeah.
Gizmo:Mine's mine's burning pretty well. Senator, you you commented on humidity. I've had these in the tower like six weeks or something. So they've all been together in there, you know. So I would I'm gonna point the finger at construction honestly because I've had them for quite some time.
Gizmo:I wonder if you had a different one if it would be smoking better for you.
Bam Bam:So I will say the peppers disappeared for me. I'm not getting even on the retro, it's gone for me.
Rooster:And it comes and goes.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But right now, there isn't anything I'm getting that's a discernible note that I can hang my hook on.
Rooster:Maybe like woody, oaky? Maybe.
Bam Bam:Or it's not enjoyable though, because I'm not enjoying it.
Pagoda:Yeah. I'll tell you, I've also got a slight bit of, and you know, somebody mentioned tea, you know, the black tea bitterness?
Gizmo:Yeah. Maybe.
Bam Bam:A little bit of the bitterness on the That's not always the best thing to drink.
Pagoda:No, it's not. It's not.
Bam Bam:But I've got
Pagoda:a little bit of the bitterness as Right. So you're seeking something sweet with the name honey, and it's not there at all.
Gizmo:It is weird that they named this black honey.
Senator:Yeah. That's why I asked about the name. It makes no sense.
Gizmo:Does. You know,
Bam Bam:I wish I had a Maestro del Tempo right now.
Gizmo:So by the way, who's been smoking those? Because I've heard you've been smoking them, so we're talking about
Bam Bam:They're excellent.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Finished them
Bam Bam:last week
Chef Ricky:month ago.
Bam Bam:They get better as they sit. Yeah. It's incredible.
Senator:Great aging potential. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:I think I have a box or two, and I really haven't reached for them in quite some time. Try one. I should. One. Because they've been just sitting.
Gizmo:Fantastic. You know? Probably what, two years now, three That's years since we reviewed right. That was the first warped we did on the pod. Correct.
Pagoda:85 bed.
Gizmo:We did it on episode 69. So tonight's episode two twelve, so it's quite a a long time ago.
Chef Ricky:So this is interesting. I just ashed my cigar, took a draw, and now I'm getting, like, grapefruit pith, like bitter citrus, more of that dry
Senator:Just what you were hoping for.
Pagoda:Yeah, it feels dry then.
Bam Bam:Your mic is off now.
Chef Ricky:I don't want it to come across like we're bashing the cigar.
Gizmo:It doesn't sound
Senator:like It's we're severely imbalanced. That's my frustration. I can live with a bit of spice in a cigar, but it's got to be balanced. This skews so far
Rooster:in one direction. Bothers me is that, first of all, it's a limited release. You wait six years to release the special edition. And then it's $22 a cigar, and it's a pepper bomb. That's really all it is.
Rooster:So you're not something is off right there. The blend needs work. The blend needs something to kind of balance out the pepper.
Pagoda:Like a Nicaraguan Madura wrapper, something sweeter.
Rooster:Yeah. It needs
Bam Bam:I don't
Rooster:know what it needs, but it needs something. It needs needs a different blend.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's move along here. A lot to get through, like I said. Here's one going back to government regulation and what we've been talking about, this UTL law in California. And California has issued modified rules after the PCA and CRA coalition litigated against the attorney general of California.
Gizmo:So they issued a new proposed rule seeking comments by few days before Christmas of this year, proposing several changes. So they're proposing removing the requirement to pay a variant fee for cigar boxes in addition to the registration fee for individual cigars. Then the proposal would make accommodations for multipacks containing products from different manufacturers. Finally, the proposal would remove the late registration penalty and require a response to an application within ninety days of filing on a rolling basis. So I think what they're backpedaling on here is not some of the major things that PCA and CRA were and the manufacturers were asking for, which is that this rule is kind of silly in general.
Gizmo:And certainly the biggest piece of it is they did not come down on the price of that cigar that puts you in the exempt category. So we talked about, I think it was $12 or $10 or $15 was the wholesale price of the cigars that would be exempt and up, which put, as we talked about earlier with tax, puts that retail price in the mid twenties range right before tax. So you're talking about the Davidoff's and, you know, this wouldn't wouldn't even be exempt. This is so that we're smoking tonight. So I think I guess some of this is good, but I wish that they went a little harder on this, you know?
Gizmo:So, Senator, with the way that this works with when they issue modified rules and stuff, they propose this. What does this mean in relation to what they originally put out? Obviously, they're responding to the lawsuit. Could they continue to modify this? Does it go into law?
Gizmo:Like, how does this all work?
Senator:For sure. I mean, there's usually a rule making process once any kind of legislation is passed that impacts or regulates anything in terms of how they're gonna implement that that law. So that's like usually the first bite at the apple. And then if there's a lawsuit, something like that, any executive agency can come around and say that they're gonna change kinda how they're interpreting the application of that law and adjust kind of the rulemaking around that. So definitely there be opportunities to continue to change that based on how this all shakes out.
Senator:Interesting.
Gizmo:So when they come back with these modified rules, is this them anticipating that they're kind of
Senator:Gonna lose. Oh.
Gizmo:Yeah. I was thinking it was like give and take, like like negotiating in a deal. So you think they're gonna lose?
Senator:No. There's no doubt. I mean, look, if they're sticking to their guns, they know that they're ironclad in at least they think they are in their ability to defend it to in its fullest. If they're in any way, you know, compromising or changing kind of their application of it, they're conceding that they know it is likely that some elements of it could be problematic. And so they're kinda getting out ahead of that by adjusting it, hoping that there can be some kind of compromise solution.
Senator:Wow.
Gizmo:See, this is why I throw it to senator. I didn't even think of that. That is fascinating. Honestly, I was thinking like, they're thinking like, oh, we gave them enough, they're gonna, you know
Bam Bam:Be negotiating.
Gizmo:We're done, and they'll be happy with it.
Senator:And that could be the case. But they're doing all that solely because they think that if it goes the full distance, that they're gonna lose out on at least those things they're already making concessions on.
Gizmo:So here's another one boys, and and we'll keep everybody updated on the PCA thing as this UTL law comes into effect early next year in California. So we will watch that and see if anything else changes and keep everybody updated.
Senator:The last thing I'll just say is keep in mind, you know, when when there's any kind of, you know, law or executive action, a lot of times there are unintended consequences that whoever has passed this or come up with this executive order, there are things that they didn't realize might be, you know, harmful in how it's applied. So it is very common. You see this like with the FDA. The FDA will like issue some new regulation, and they maybe hadn't realized that some part of it will have an unintended consequence that they don't want actually to be the case, and so they'll work with other groups who are usually opposing it to reach some kind of compromise solution. So I have no doubt that obviously the industry, the cigar industry has done a very good job of bringing to light some of the ways that this would be incredibly burdensome, and they're throwing them a carrot and saying like, okay, we'll concede on some of these things, and then see if that placates them.
Senator:And, you know, I'm not sure how far, you know, PCA or others wanna go with this, but obviously, they're they're they have a strong negotiating platform that they're already getting some concessions.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So they're keep going, I would hope. I would think.
Gizmo:Yeah. Awesome. Well, we'll keep everybody updated as we learn more about the new UTL law in California and as it goes into effect right after the New Year. So we'll see what happens with that. So here's a big one, boys.
Gizmo:We talked about this quite a few weeks ago when Arturo Fuente and Mirupfeld announced that they were ending their Cameroon relationship as and also that the Mirupfeld company was not gonna be distributing Arturo Fuente internationally anymore. So let's just put the context into place. I mean, in the cigar business, a lot of these deals are deals that have been in place for decades, generations. Carlito's father, maybe even his grandfather was doing business with the Miretfels, talking three generations there. This business is very loyalty, handshake, etcetera.
Gizmo:So when things get shaken up like this to that degree, it's pretty shocking to the industry, and this story certainly was. And of course, what the the conversation was after that story came out was what is going to happen to the Arturo Fuente cigars that are heavily reliant on that Cameroon tobacco that has been the core of those cigars and the story around the cigars and I think a lot why people love them, especially the Don Carlos line.
Rooster:A wrap. It's wrapper.
Gizmo:It's the wrapper.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. And apparently, it adds a lot because those lines are very successful. We love those cigars. You know, that that Cameroon wrapper has done very well. So I'm feeling and I'm gonna play the clip for you.
Gizmo:I'm feeling that Carlito was not happy about the conversation that was going on about Arturo Fuente not being able to provide quality cigars with Cameroon wrapper to their customers anymore. So I'm gonna start here on the Cigar Aficionado website. He sent them a video. I couldn't find this anywhere else. So I'm assuming that this was specifically made and sent to Cigar Aficionado as a press release.
Gizmo:So what it says here is Arturo Fuente has a new Cameroon tobacco supplier, and the company is poised to release a video today showing that it will have plenty of Cameroon wrapper supply for years to come. The shipment, the first of many, as they say, was just delivered to the company cigar factory in The Dominican Republic from Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, one of the world's largest tobacco growers. So in this video, Carlito is quite literally in The Dominican Republic walking through showing everybody I have Cameroon tobacco, which for a manufacturer of this level and caliber to feel the need to show folks I have a shipping container
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:Full of Cameroon tobacco. I mean, that tells me that he's pissed off, number one. You'll hear it in his voice. I'm curious what you guys think of it. But also, like, for a cigar manufacturer to come out and talk about this, it's very odd.
Gizmo:I don't ever remember
Bam Bam:It's a heavily publicized split. So I think you maybe feel the need
Rooster:to Do you know the reason why this happened?
Gizmo:They have not said the reason. So, yeah, it doesn't seem good, though, because I know that they skipped the the cigar show in Dortmund, Arturo Fuente, first time. They haven't been there in a while. The European cigar show, and it was right around the time this was so something definitely happened that wasn't good. So let me play this clip.
Gizmo:I'm gonna fast forward in the video for you here just to the point that Carlito's speaking, and I wanna get your your guys' reaction to this.
Bam Bam:Very informative. There's
Gizmo:Kidding. Oh my god.
Carlito Fuente:There's things that as an old school cigar maker, don't speak about. But there have been rumors that we didn't have tobacco short of tobacco. Let me just say something, my dear friends. I just came back from the big smoke in Las Vegas. I had the blessing to hug thousands and thousands of people, but the greatest blessing was I received the hugs and the love from each one of them.
Carlito Fuente:And there's a big concern from rumors that have been spread about us not receiving Cameroon and us not having Cameroon available for your favorite cigars. Early this week, we received an entire 40 foot container, refrigerated container of African Cameroon wrapper. My friends, we have African Cameroon wrapper for years to come. This tobacco is beautiful as it is. It just came in, which I'm looking and I'm going to the now to the humidification room the first time that they haven't prepared for me to see it, came in earlier this week.
Carlito Fuente:It's just incredible. And having the privilege to working with the biggest tobacco growing company in the world that was developed this tobacco for us and to improve it and work with us, the best cigars yet to come. And you know what? This is only for you, dad. My father, who's everything to me, for his favorite cigars, a cigar smoked every day, For the generations to come will continue to enjoy it.
Carlito Fuente:Thank you for your patience, and thank you for believing in me. This is beautiful.
Gizmo:So I honestly found okay. So this is a professionally shot video. We're not a video podcast. That video was professionally shot, multiple cameras, edited. Mhmm.
Gizmo:Like, this is not him with his you know, with somebody there shooting this on an iPhone. Like, they brought in a video crew.
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:The whole thing. I honestly thought that was a little shocking.
Bam Bam:Yeah. He's doing what he can.
Senator:It sounds necessary, Yeah.
Gizmo:He's doing what he can. Now, why do you think it's necessary? Do you think it was the noise from the consumer? I Or do you think the retailers were making the noise?
Senator:I mean, I think the retailer started the noise. There's no question. But I think clearly, when he was at Big Smoke, there must have been countless consumers that came up to him worried that there was not gonna be enough Cameroon wrapper for a lot of cigars they liked.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Senator:And he realized that like, this threatens the integrity of a lot of his cigars, that people are gonna worry. Are they is is it now different? Are they changed? Are they no longer the same? You know, we have to chase old boxes, they'll never be as good.
Senator:That's a big problem if people are worried that you can't ensure consistency in your product. So I get why he had to do it. I mean, sounds very defensive, it's clear. Right?
Gizmo:He's like
Rooster:pissed off.
Gizmo:Yeah. Like he's almost emotional at the point of like he's angry to the point of becoming emotional.
Bam Bam:Like I said, he's doing what he can to protect his brand.
Gizmo:I understand that.
Bam Bam:That's what this is.
Gizmo:But I was honestly very surprised to see that.
Bam Bam:Yeah, me too.
Gizmo:Because you've never seen, I mean, he even starts, I'm an old school Never. You know, tobacco, you know, grower and manufacturer and blender. Like, there's just stuff you don't talk about. And then he had to put that out.
Bam Bam:It's a big shakeup for him.
Senator:I mean, I think the biggest, you know, problem with that response is, like, the unanswered question still lingers of what happened? Why is he even in this situation?
Bam Bam:That's right.
Rooster:Yeah. I mean, I I just I'm not sure if this is like a price related issue with that company.
Gizmo:Who knows? Or was it more related towards distribution side? Or was the quality is there some change in his expectation of what Miretfel was delivering him in Cameroon? Was something changed, different? Was he offered less of it?
Gizmo:The price, like you said, like, who knows?
Rooster:Yeah. And apparently, I mean, this new company that's supplying him this Cameroon wrapper, he seems to like it. Seems like, you know, that it might even be better than what it was before.
Bam Bam:He needs to like it.
Rooster:But that's it. That's exactly that's the point he's getting across, that we have enough wrapper, that we have enough Cameroon wrapper for other cigars for years to come.
Senator:I'll say this, I'm skeptical that it was a quality or a quantity issue because had it been, he could have had such an effective, powerful response. I mean, I think of I'm in corporate communications, so you know, I do a lot of this stuff for a living, but I think one of
Rooster:most Senator
Senator:Inc. I think Correct. One of the most powerful things I've ever seen there was an interview with McDonald's CEO, this guy Steve Easterbrook at the time, and they this is when everyone was pressuring McDonald's on ingredients that they use, and they said, you know, why can't you use cage free eggs? And he takes the cage free eggs thing, and he goes, if McDonald's wanted to go to cage cage free eggs tomorrow, McDonald's alone, there is not enough cage free eggs in the world
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:To meet the demand for our products that have eggs in them.
Gizmo:That's quite a message.
Senator:And that's quite a message. And so like here, if it really were a quantity issue, how powerful would it be for Carlito to be able to say, there's not enough Cameroon wrapper from the Mierk Fels Oh, yeah. To meet the demand of our cigars across
Bam Bam:the world. That's a different position.
Senator:That would be very different. So I feel like if it were that, he'd have such a great message. And then he would say, we found another supplier that can meet not only our current demand, but our future demand, and that's why we've made this move. He'd look like a hero.
Chef Ricky:Of
Senator:course. The fact that he didn't say that, it it signals to me it was not that. Quality, he could have said the same thing. I think there's something else.
Bam Bam:Personality issues.
Senator:Either a personal conflict Yes. Something around pricing that, you know, he couldn't price things the way he would want or keep them where they are with whatever new deal they would have had to broker with Demirfeld. So I think it's not an ideal situation, whatever has happened behind the scenes.
Rooster:He hired the wrong company as consultants.
Gizmo:Correct. Correct. Correct news, sir.
Senator:I'll send
Chef Ricky:it to
Senator:my business card.
Bam Bam:Gotta gotta cut that check, baby.
Gizmo:You know, the other thing I'll point out too about Carlito and Jeremiah Mirepfel was that they did a pretty regular live video podcast on YouTube and Facebook. And they would go on I don't know if I think this was during COVID or after, like the years after COVID. It might have started during COVID. But they go on a couple times a month with guests and stuff, they go on and once a week kind of talk, you know, and talk about cigars and everything else. And it seemed like they were pretty chummy.
Gizmo:Obviously, that doesn't exist anymore. So, you know, playing into what you're saying there, senator, it it might be something, you know, personal or or or some sort of It
Rooster:could be distribution related. You know? Who knows?
Senator:Even I'm sorry. When he invokes his father at the end, that sounds like an apology. It's a little desperate. Like an apology to his father that he's in this situation. Not like, you should be so proud of what we're doing.
Senator:That that I took that the complete opposite way.
Gizmo:I I take that as I hesitate to use the word. Maybe you can give me a synonym for this, but it's when the message to me sounded a little desperate.
Rooster:It defensive. It came from
Gizmo:a position of weakness. But I would go yeah. I would go even further than defensive because defensive can be anger in a strong position, Rooster, in my opinion. This sounded like he was very much down in the dumps on this whatever happened.
Bam Bam:Yeah, there's desperation there.
Gizmo:There's desperation. Sure. And it's odd again to see one of the premier manufacturers of cigars in the world.
Senator:Even the way he talks about the quantity of what they just got, he said he got what? A 40 foot crate of it? I mean, what does that even mean or
Gizmo:tell us? Nobody has any idea how many cigars
Senator:there There could have been two leaves in a 40 foot crate.
Rooster:An house. Forty forty foot container.
Senator:A container. I mean Shipping container. Means absolutely nothing. Like, he should have said, you know, normally, we receive, you know, x volume of this a year. Now with our new supplier, we're receiving y, and hopefully set a number even greater than that.
Senator:Yeah. And everyone has said, oh, great. They're actually high.
Chef Ricky:Calito, if you're listening, you need the sun. Calito.
Gizmo:So what's your read on this pagoda?
Pagoda:Yeah, no, I kind of agree with all what's being discussed over here. It's tough. Like, who knows what the real story is? You know, is it from the supply side which really affected him? Or yeah.
Pagoda:I mean, I don't know. I really can't comment on this.
Rooster:It's hard to tell until they start using this new wrapper, and it comes to production, and the people who love those Cameroon wrapped cigars, if they can really tell the difference or not. I mean, if they can tell the difference, then that's not good.
Pagoda:Seems like he's being squeezed out of supply. I don't know. It seems like that. I don't know whether that's
Rooster:But as a cigar manufacturer of his caliber, his size, you need to control every single aspect of your business. So when you're relying on wrapper from another company that's also handling your distribution, things can happen, right? I mean, they can dictate more for that same product, that they know that your cigars you're reliant on that.
Chef Ricky:Even the choice of music was interesting because it's almost as if it was chosen to distract from the tone in his message because it was so desperate sounding. Know, the music was like oddly upbeat and happy, and that's not at all what the message was or how it was delivered. So it's almost like they chose that after your you know, while editing, like, we gotta cheer this up a little bit.
Senator:The thing he's gotta recognize, look, perception is reality. So Mhmm. Based on that, I think, poor response, he could use the exact same Cameroon wrappers that he's been using for ages, and because of how handles
Gizmo:say something's different.
Senator:Exactly. Yes. I guarantee that you will see forums exploding with people saying, I swear that the so and so Cameroon tastes different. I swear, even if it were identical, and that's why you really need to instill confidence, and I don't think that achieved that at all. Honestly, if
Gizmo:it did, senator, I might not bring it in and I'd just tell the story. But that was so jarring to me that it actually raised more red flags
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:To me about what's gonna happen here. Really, I think introducing new tobacco, even if it's the same region, the same country, if it's coming from Cameroon, which I think it is It's going to change. Different Finkas produce different tobacco.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Correct. You know, which is why we hear Rob Isla and Hamlet talk about specific fincas, that they grow specific tobaccos in. We talked to Klaus Kellner about this.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Gizmo:With his cigars in The Dominican talking about specific fincas. Actually, think there was one moment where we were talking about specific areas or specific plots Mhmm. Of specific Finkas. So coming from a different area, region, certainly a different farm, the tobacco's gonna be different. There is going to be a retooling of that blend to accommodate some sort of change.
Gizmo:Now what the degree of change is, who knows? Who knows? Might be better. It could be better. Exactly.
Gizmo:But, again, why not tell these stories like Senator is saying? And the way you're saying it he really needs to hire you, by way. I mean
Bam Bam:Hold on to your sharks. Exactly. If you got them.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. One left.
Bam Bam:One left. I got you, chef.
Gizmo:You know, and the thing I want to point to too, and we'll get off this topic, but we harped on Davidoff a couple weeks ago with the year of the horse and it really went into, you know, a continued frustration with our feelings on Davidoff and how cigars that we love of theirs have changed in recent times. What we expect of that cigar with that band on it that we've been smoking, it's not the same as it was. And of course, they're telling a much different story than Carlito is at this point, but I'm hoping that for them that he's able to navigate this, blend those cigars back to where everybody
Rooster:expects I to kind of wonder what percentage of the entire portfolio uses Cameroon wrapper.
Bam Bam:Yeah, it'd be good to know.
Gizmo:I gotta imagine a significant piece.
Senator:Clearly enough that he's very worried.
Rooster:Yeah. I think it's the entire Don Carlos line.
Gizmo:Every Don Carlos cigar. I think Hemingway's.
Rooster:Hemingway's too?
Gizmo:Yeah. Hemingway's. I don't know if it's the rare pink or Or Hemingway's.
Senator:How many of those Hemingway cigars they sell every year? My goodness.
Gizmo:How imagine how many they make. You're probably talking several million of the of those two lines. Of course, Opus is the highest line, but they're not making millions of Opus. That's a line developed to be scarce.
Bam Bam:Know? Don Carlos line is very good.
Gizmo:And that's a high dollar. That's a high dollar cigar for real.
Rooster:But I think you need multiple 40 foot containers.
Gizmo:I am you know, listen. I I feel bad that he's in this position. The video seemed weird, and that's why I wanted to share it. But hopefully, he's able to accomplish what he says he's able to do. So Maybe.
Gizmo:You know, give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe we'll see
Bam Bam:a a a gentler Carlito.
Pagoda:Well, I think it's about time he comes to spot and share.
Senator:Well, if he hires me, I'll book him on the pod. Correct. Correct.
Pagoda:This is his time to come
Bam Bam:on him.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. We're coming into the end of the second third now on the warped La Comena, black honey, and the larceny bourbon. Not getting I'm not getting I'm nervous on what's coming, buddy. Bourbon.
Rooster:I'm seeing the eyes here, but it's grand larceny.
Gizmo:What's everybody thinking right now?
Bam Bam:Yeah. Not not having a good
Gizmo:time with this. I'm fine with the bourbon, honestly. I've actually finished mine. Putting that splash in it was pretty good for me, I think.
Bam Bam:Interesting.
Gizmo:The cigar though is just, it's not working for me right now. Honestly, for $22, I mean, we're three you know, two thirds of the way through it at this point, which by the way, I will give a credit. It's, you know, we're an hour and a few minutes in. You know, we're just coming into the last third. I think that's a a good thing for the size of the cigar.
Gizmo:We
Rooster:have had so many sub $10 cigars that have been so good. And this is a $22 cigar that's not the distant cousin to this is incredible. Yeah. Which is around $10
Chef Ricky:Correct. Yeah, I'm. It's been a chore. It's been a chore to to smoke.
Gizmo:Is it a chore in? Are you rewriting it or it's just chore? No,
Chef Ricky:Just trying to get myself to enjoy it and just kinda I is one of the the first episodes for me in a very long time or one of the few episodes in a long time where I'm having a hard time getting into, like, a stride with this thing. You know? I it has its moments where it feels a little balanced, but then it gets kind of muted and boring. And then you get the the the spice pop, and I just don't know what it wants to be. And and that price point is just, you know, staring me in the face every time I bring it up for a draw.
Gizmo:Dollars 22.
Rooster:I'm kinda a hard time. Once I ash it and I relight it, it takes a while to
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Get it going. Yeah.
Senator:I'll say two things. One, there's no warp DNA in this for me. No. If I had this blind, I would never guess this is a warped Oh,
Gizmo:I don't think any of us would ever even
Chef Ricky:get closer.
Senator:Right. But that's the problem. Correct. It's like most cigar makers, there's some consistent DNA that you can detect they've made it.
Bam Bam:That's completely absent here. Even a microgram of that would be nice in this.
Senator:Right. The second thing for me is just, you know, I'm okay with a cigar being consistent in flavor profile all the way through, but this is a cigar that is so dry, it needs to shift and change points in the blend. Mhmm. I'm having the same experience getting to the final third as I was the first two thirds, nothing has changed at all, and to me that's just a really poor blending decision. When you have this much spice, you gotta create a journey for someone, otherwise you're gonna alienate people if you don't want a pepper bomb all the way through, and that's really all they've given us.
Bam Bam:Yeah. The pepper, like I said, disappeared for me, but it's quite sour for me.
Gizmo:Sour is a good word. That's I'm glad you said that. That is what that is a predominant note to me right now.
Bam Bam:Yeah. At this stage
Gizmo:It's almost like when
Bam Bam:you were
Gizmo:a kid and you had that candy like, what was that called, warheads? And the feeling that that left your tongue with, that's what I'm getting. Not the flavor per se, but the feeling That feel, yeah. Of that sour. That's what I'm getting on the smoke here.
Bam Bam:This is like a rancher lemon that's been sitting on a table for three days. Jesus Christ. You have no choice but to quench your palate with something, and you gotta put that in your mouth. It's like you're on
Pagoda:a desert. But there's no juice.
Bam Bam:No, no juice.
Gizmo:Vigoda, how are you feeling?
Pagoda:No, same thing. I think, you know, he said dry for me. My whole mouth's become dry, and
Bam Bam:it's just not a pleasant experience.
Pagoda:It's just very dry for me.
Gizmo:You know, we joke about that note, just, oh, I'm smoking, I taste tobacco. Like, right now, to me, it's like I'm smoking just, there's nothing to even say. Like, I don't even I don't even have a flavor note really that's Correct. Notable, interesting. Oh.
Gizmo:There's the Dyson. Oh my lord.
Bam Bam:Let me help you out.
Gizmo:Sam is currently using the Dyson on the pagoda.
Pagoda:Although it wasn't much today.
Bam Bam:I think the construction of the cigar was definitely much better than the others.
Gizmo:We need to have that on hand every episode.
Bam Bam:Oh, I just brought that forward for that purpose.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. This this whole thing needs like a Tootsie Roll in the mix to to, you know, kinda round it out, just give you some sweet fake cocoa
Gizmo:or something. Honestly, I'm at the point where I do wish there was a little honey, which I know don't like honey, but some sort of sweetness would be good.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I don't think I could finish this.
Gizmo:Really? Yeah. So you're down you're down a little further than I am, Bam.
Bam Bam:About the same as you. Suck it up, Bam. Another inch of that. I'm trying. Have a have a sip of bourbon.
Pagoda:Yeah. Okay.
Bam Bam:That's also undrinkable. The bourbon.
Gizmo:Oh, man.
Rooster:You know, you have to have episodes like this, cigars like this, bourbons like this to appreciate others.
Bam Bam:Oh, I do. But you know
Gizmo:what's funny coming in tonight, honestly? You know, we had one warped on this podcast that rated very well. We had one that was one of the worst we've ever done. The Oso. So I I came in tonight in that mindset of the Cabo Iguan.
Gizmo:Right? I was ready to be blown away, surprised. Maybe I set my expectation because like you and Ricky said earlier, Rooster, you know, we've had such a good run of cigars that I was like, maybe this is gonna be one. I saw great reviews online, and then, of course, you came in and said that you've had it and and you didn't love it, which is you know, this is the same experience that you were describing, which is unfortunate. But I was so hopeful, you know, because we love the Maestro del Tiempo so much that tonight was gonna be better, but, unfortunately, it wasn't.
Rooster:Can't be a sunny day every day.
Gizmo:Correct, Russel. Correct. Alright, boys. Let's go to some listener feedback. And this one is on our Kaba'i Gwan by Tatuahe episode on FOH, and this actually prompted a huge thread on FOH that we'll talk about in a second.
Gizmo:But we got some great commentary here, and I wanna share it with you guys. Of course, it was our fourth anniversary episode. We did Paul Roger champagne that week. Lizard Enrique said happy anniversary, lizards. NY Guido, who writes us a lot, says another fantastic episode, guys, and happy anniversary.
Gizmo:Perhaps for your fifth anniversary, you'd consider a ticketed live show with admission including one of the cigars you're smoking that week and with the proceeds going to a special charity or one of the wonderful people you've gotten to know in Cuba. I know plenty of us would love to attend and support whatever cause you all choose. What do you guys think of that? Doing a live event sometime next year around this time?
Senator:I mean, I love it.
Gizmo:Yeah. I'd love to do it. We've been talking about it. For the fifth anniversary.
Chef Ricky:There might be a new launch coming up that we could film it at.
Gizmo:Yeah. The senator lounge.
Bam Bam:Correct, though.
Gizmo:He says, Lizard Gizmo, as a fellow musician, I totally agree with your take on crickets, and I've ripped rooms apart looking for them as well. If they're outside, I'll let them live. That's their domain. I do disagree with that. But if they're in my house or garage or car, all bets are off, and I'll kill every single one that I find.
Gizmo:Anytime I see a cricket, he's cooked. I'm excited to try the cigar you smoked, but I couldn't find that vitola anywhere. So I heard that a lot from listeners. I know we experienced it that the imperialis in the Cavaiguan was hard to find. Senator, I think you found a box.
Gizmo:Rooster, think you found a box. I know a small batch was sold out. I think Lizard Henrito actually tried it in the Robusto. I saw a photo of that the other day.
Senator:No, he has a really old one from 2014 that he got
Pagoda:a Oh, long wow. Time
Gizmo:Okay. So it wasn't even something that was a new purchase.
Bam Bam:So there's few guys with different Vitolas of that cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah. So I'm I'm definitely gonna try other Vitolas, but I I wish it was more available. Hopefully, after that review, they'll start popping up on the market again. Again, because we when we hear about Tatawahe, we've never I've never heard of that cigar Yep. In the It's always about the monsters and special stuff and and their core line of cigars, but hopefully, they'll become available.
Gizmo:He says, now that you're working so close closely with small batch, is there any chance of a collaboration to put together a lounge lizard sampler of what you plan to smoke in the next month so that we can just grab that and be ready to smoke along with you? Obviously, it wouldn't work for Cubans, but I think it would be a hit with a lot of listeners. Anyway, thanks as always for the entertainment and education. Long live wizard nation. That's a great commentary.
Gizmo:Yeah. I was thinking about that. I mean, it would obviously would require us locking up what we're gonna smoke a lot sooner than we do, and I think we'd be a little it'd be a little bit more rigid in, you know, kind of calling it audible like we do in some ways. But what do you guys think of that idea?
Chef Ricky:I think it's great, and there's no better time now that we have the partnership with Small Batch. There's actually a retailer that we could probably partner up with to put that together.
Bam Bam:We've talked about that in the past.
Pagoda:I like it as well.
Senator:Oh, I'm I'm all in on the idea. I mean, you know, the small batch partnership is what makes it so much easier. We already, you know, try to give listeners a heads up as far as what we're going to be smoking on upcoming episodes so they can go procure it, but they've kinda gotta go to different sources and sites to find all this, to click purchase on one pack that has what we're gonna smoke for the next.
Gizmo:Or for it to be on a subscription, it just shows up.
Senator:That too, even better. Could make their lives so much easier. Think it's a great idea.
Gizmo:Actually, Pagoda, think you'd like that because you could just get them to show up at the house.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Pagoda:That'd be great.
Gizmo:Alright, continue on. So then it prompted a discussion started by lizard drinks, smoke, golf. He says, brilliant plan NY Guido about the small batch cigar offering the lizard sampler. He see he said, we need a small batch lizard sampler so we can smoke along with the guys. And this one is what prompted the huge discussion.
Gizmo:And I really wanna get into this with you guys because we've been talking about it a little bit, but it it set up a huge thread on FOH. He says at Lizard Gizmo, I'm on the hunt for morning smokes. Can we get everyone's favorite morning smoke on the pod? Cheers, Lizard Whalen. And then it started a full discussion on smoking in the morning and cigar choices in the morning.
Gizmo:Now why was that prompted? Of course, the Cabo Iguan. When we were smoking that cigar, we kept talking about how perfect that cigar would be for a morning cigar or first smoke of the day. So then it launched FOH into a big discussion about what they'd be smoking in the morning. So I wanted to tee that up to you guys.
Gizmo:And I'm gonna start with Lizard Senator over here who's probably smoking More than morning
Bam Bam:Than any
Gizmo:than anybody. So what is your morning rotation? What cigars are you smoking in the morning? What are you loving? What has moved out in?
Gizmo:I'm curious.
Senator:So I can't give one answer. I'll I'll name a few, New World and Cuban. On the New World side, the Aladino, Connecticut in Rothschild. Now the challenge is this only comes in this sampler pack that they sell. For some reason, you can't buy boxes of this Rothschild.
Senator:It is salted, buttered toast, absolutely delicious in the morning. Carbohydrate.
Gizmo:You owe rooster a dollar.
Senator:Oh, Put some money in that box.
Bam Bam:Alright. You're gonna it soon. Where's that jar?
Senator:That cigar I love in the morning. That Cabe Guan, I mean, in a smaller Vitola, is an ideal morning cigar. I've yet to try it in other Vitolas. I have had the Churchill in the morning when I have a lengthy period of time to have a smoke. I think that's a great morning cigar.
Senator:On the The creme brulee? No. Not if I want my blood sugar level spike.
Bam Bam:Well, you put that in your fireplace. It'll give you a nice aromatic
Senator:experience Incense. In the house. And a recent FOH cigar, Fabric of Five cigar, that N nine Lonsdale.
Gizmo:Yeah. The Lonsdale, that's exactly what I was gonna say too.
Senator:It's so great. That's a delicious cigar. It's medium, but on the lighter side, there's a floral quality to it. It's nutty. It's nutty.
Senator:It's such a great I mean, you can smoke it any time, but it it's light enough yet flavorful enough that to start a day, great cigar. On the Cuban side, obviously, I'm partial to Partigus. I mean, a d four will always be there as a great morning cigar for me. But honestly, as a great budget Partigus in the morning, I really like you need to age them for a little bit, but it's worth doing it. The super Partigus.
Senator:I really love that with a cup of coffee in the morning. Those have been a staple. The QD 50, that little short cigar, that's been another morning favorite for me. So I would say those are probably my three go to New Worlds and Cuban.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I don't smoke in the morning.
Gizmo:So I've I the last in the last week, I've smoked twice in the morning. Both were in the car. One was the new Lonsdale that came out from Fabrica five that you mentioned, and the other was the Cabo Iguan. And what I love about the Cabo Iguan and the Lonsdale but let's say you're in the car, you're having a cigar in the morning on your deck or in your lap, however you smoke, and all of a sudden something comes up at work, you have to take a call, whatever. If you have to put that cigar down and you don't have the opportunity to come back to it for some reason, number one, you're not gonna be bummed out because the price isn't like the cigar tonight, $22.
Gizmo:It's a very reasonably priced cigar, both of them. But also, you can come back to it, which I did. I drove halfway smoking the Cabo Iguan. I smoked the Lonsdale the whole way through driving to Pennsylvania. I smoked half of the Cabo Iguan driving somewhere else and then I put it down for about a half hour to an hour, lit it again and drove home for the other half.
Gizmo:And it worked perfectly. So there was no like bite relighting it. Like some cigars have that thing when you relight it, it kind of gets you. Yeah. You know?
Gizmo:But it worked brilliantly.
Rooster:Nice. Yeah. I mean, the K Dorsey, the Corona Isclaro, it's a great morning smoke.
Bam Bam:Yes, delicious.
Pagoda:We talked about it just last
Bam Bam:The other day, that's correct.
Rooster:Yeah, that's a great cigar. You know, some of the Dumbarton cigars are also in the morning.
Gizmo:Which ones?
Senator:Yeah. Which?
Pagoda:Yeah. Which one? The The dessert?
Gizmo:No. The
Rooster:dessert. Forget the name.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's dessert. No. The The meat
Rooster:lovers? The Steve Saka one. Isn't that is
Gizmo:that Saint Compromiso? Isn't Steve Saka Aren't all
Bam Bam:They are. Yeah.
Gizmo:Dunbar's Yeah. I don't know.
Rooster:I guess the Cincompromiso.
Gizmo:Got it. That's a that's cigar.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It
Gizmo:is. Yeah. I like I like put draw a knife in the morning, so
Rooster:it's not
Gizmo:you know? Yeah. Rooster's not the No. Gold standard here as far as
Rooster:I mean, I I love an Exclusivo in the morning.
Pagoda:It's, you know It's a good bit to start the day for sure.
Bam Bam:Puts hair on your palms after
Gizmo:a while.
Pagoda:Exclusivo is, you know Yeah. You could smell it any day.
Gizmo:It's got a sweetness to it.
Rooster:I mean, it's
Bam Bam:Of course.
Rooster:A delicious smoke anytime of the day. Incredible cigar.
Chef Ricky:I think thinking of Mahimador, the most appropriate morning cigar I have is the Davidoff Balicoso White Label.
Pagoda:That's, yeah, that's
Senator:a good
Bam Bam:one actually. That's a good one.
Senator:Actually, you
Rooster:know, the Grand Cru number three is delicious in the moment.
Gizmo:So that's the one that came up early in the thread was the Grand Cru number three. Unfortunately, it's discontinued.
Rooster:Oh, it's not.
Gizmo:I'm seeing online here that it is back ordered in a couple places, so I'm not sure if the number three from the Grand Cru has been discontinued.
Rooster:Maybe it's harder in the European market or in Us, really. I don't know.
Gizmo:Yeah. I'm not sure. But yeah. You know, even
Rooster:the Partagas d six for a short smoke.
Bam Bam:I do love that cigar. Delicious smoke.
Gizmo:Yeah. Another one that came up, and I'm gonna go through some of these. I wanna get your your reaction to these. Another one that came up was the h Upman Connie number one. Yeah.
Gizmo:The Connie series as well as a d four, like you said, Senator.
Rooster:Also The Monte Cristo media corona.
Gizmo:Yeah. So here's some others from the thread that Rob put up. He said, for those of you who enjoy a cigar in the mornings, what are your current favorite morning cigars? Topic for this thread came from the lizard pod thread. Trinidad Reyes and Trinidad Colonialis were until recently my go to morning cigars.
Gizmo:Rob says,
Rooster:at today's
Senator:Expensive morning.
Gizmo:That's what Rob is literally saying, Rob, who gets these cigars at cost, right? He's a Cuba cigar specialist, Avano specialist. Yeah. He says, at today's prices, I can't justify these cigars as a daily.
Bam Bam:I can't justify it as a morning smoke.
Gizmo:I can't justify it, period. I don't reach for any of those cigars.
Bam Bam:In an evening, I mean, love the colonialis. I haven't reached for it in a long time, but I would have it in an evening smoke as a beginner to a sit.
Rooster:The the Redease is not crazy priced. I think it's around $18 It's not crazy.
Bam Bam:Is that right?
Gizmo:It's a small cigar.
Rooster:It's a small yeah. That that's true.
Pagoda:Yeah. The same price as a Starbucks coffee. Mean
Rooster:But, you know, I mean, a davit of Grand Cruze number three is not that cheap either.
Gizmo:It's almost $15 $16. Rob says here, hands down my current favorite. Obviously, he's a little biased, but he says his morning cigars, the Desnuto N7 Ninfas. They were blended for this role and they carry it off remarkably well. I love the Ninfas.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:Very small ring gauge. You know, a lot of applications. So I'm gonna go through some other recommendations from the FOH folks. I'm curious what you think. So NY Guido chimes in here.
Gizmo:The Ninfas is becoming one of my favorite as well as the Cortez Suave. T Bell seven says, for me, the morning ritual of a cigar with my coffee is hard to beat. He loves a Partagas p two. I'm shocked to hear that. He's he's in the rooster category there.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Or a media Luna, which I think you've
Rooster:said that you like
Gizmo:rooster. Another one, Lizard Zaka says, Bolivar super corona. I've not had that
Bam Bam:super corona. Neither have I.
Gizmo:I wonder if that's in the same category. Interesting. Senator is
Bam Bam:the super part of this.
Gizmo:Yeah. Kinda in that price I'm not sure. Just another one is desnuto info for sure from El Nino, Lizard El Nino. I love the way the desnuto lancero pairs. And here's from lizard four 2112.
Gizmo:Here's a bunch that he says. So I I wanna read these off and see what you guys think. So the Ninfa, we already went through. The Partagas Short. I think that's a pretty full Partagas cigar.
Bam Bam:It is.
Gizmo:The small club Corona from Ramon Eunice.
Bam Bam:I think we all love that cigar.
Gizmo:Great cigar. Foundation Charter Oak Habanos Petite Corona. We do have a Charter Oak coming up on the pod in the next few weeks. Rafael Gonzalez, the Perla, The Sovereign Sons from Fabrica Five, The Hupman Half Corona. I'm surprised that none of us mentioned
Bam Bam:That's a good one too.
Gizmo:That's a great one.
Bam Bam:Sure.
Gizmo:I actually took that to my stepson's wedding the other day.
Bam Bam:Had a
Gizmo:box of those. Wonderful. Alongside a box of Robusta Trinity and I also took a box of Padron number 35. Wow. Because it cold there.
Gizmo:Perfect. So I tried to take all the little smokes. Yeah. The Principe from Padron, I believe.
Chef Ricky:That's a good one.
Gizmo:The Toscano And then he canceled a couple that were that used to be on his radar and and and are no longer probably because of money. Cohiba Sigua one. That's a right great size for that. The Reyes, the Colonialis from Trinidad, Sigua 2. Monte Carlos from Port Oranaga.
Gizmo:Mhmm. I wonder if that's a construction issue. Maybe. I've heard a lot about that. And the Jose El Piedra Petite Petite Cedros, excuse me, which are hard to get.
Gizmo:Lizard cigar soldier who writes us a lot says Robusto Trinity. Other new worlds, he says, warped la Colmena, which is the line that we smoke tonight. So I wanted to mention that one. Obviously, not the black honey, but some of the other cigars there. The Aladino classic in Robusto, which is the classic.
Gizmo:We did the Lancero, the Elegante on the pod. He's saying the Robusto. The stoic in courage. The Davodoff Millennium Robusto or the Davodoff Grand crew number two For Cuban for him was h upman Mag54, Hoyo Epi Especial, or the Ramon Ionis specially selected.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Mag 54 will not be on my morning menu.
Gizmo:So another one from QDL guy said, Kai Kaidor say, the corona. The corona scleros is my favorite. I'm trying to find some other here that have not been mentioned yet. Here's one, BG318. Mani 5QD50.
Gizmo:Those two Mani five didn't come up. Do you have Mani fives?
Rooster:No. I have Mani one and and threes.
Gizmo:Got it. I've never had a Monocrystal number five. H. Upman have corona, the El Principe, the small club Corona, as well as the Reyes. So a lot of different a lot of different
Rooster:cigars here.
Gizmo:Hoyo Epi two. I just It's a good one. I just don't reach for Hoyo very much. Mhmm. I know we've been hit or miss here on the pod, but so a lot of those cigars are repeated by the other folks here on the thread, but it was a great discussion about morning smokes.
Gizmo:And I think what I wanna do is I wanna continue on with this series as as we progress here. I wanna do cigars, lunch smokes, afternoon smokes, then kind of break up the day for folks as we go. So in the next few weeks, I'll bring those up and we'll tap into those. So keep that on your mind.
Rooster:Cool. It's easier with the Cuban cigars because other than really Bolivar, this really I mean, you can smoke anything in the morning. I mean, what cigar can't you not smoke? In the Cuban in the in the Cuban line?
Bam Bam:I would have smoked a Ras in the morning. You wouldn't? I would have smoked a P2 in the morning. I wouldn't smoke a
Rooster:Ras in the morning.
Pagoda:I smoked anything.
Rooster:If you smoke a D4, why can't you smoke a Ras?
Bam Bam:I'm not
Bam Bam:sure if I would do a D4. D4 is a
Gizmo:great breakfast smoker.
Bam Bam:It's a delicious cigar. I'm sorry.
Senator:For some reason,
Gizmo:it works better
Senator:than I the
Gizmo:agree, it's so versatile. I think the cinnamon note,
Bam Bam:the classic D4 thing. If I'm gonna smoke in the morning, I'd like the shorter vitola, like the half corona's excellent. That club corona's excellent. The Davodoff Balakos,
Gizmo:those are
Bam Bam:great shaped cigars. Quick morning smoke,
Gizmo:and you're off to work. Alright, boys. We got a couple more emails and a voice memo here for you, and then we'll do our lizard of the week, and then we'll get into our ratings tonight. So this one is from lizard Aaron. He says, hey, fellas.
Gizmo:Great episode with the Tatawahe Kaba'Igwon. It's great to see some older and often overlooked blends make the podcast. Gizmo mentioned why isn't there something from Nicaragua that was more medium bodied full flavored? So obviously, we had this discussion about how could Pete Johnson have created a Nicaraguan cigar with this Connecticut wrapper that tasted as Cuban as almost anything we've had on this podcast. It was actually pretty amazing.
Gizmo:He says, if you've not explored the Tatawahe sir Winston, it has exactly what you are looking for in my experience or the Tainos Vitola, not your typical Tatawahi pepper blend. Miami made, but is Nicaraguan tobacco. He says, don't get the broadleaf version if you elect to explore. Lizard AD. And then another one here from Lizard Silviu.
Gizmo:He says, greeting lizards. One thing I love about this podcast are the recommendations. I was wondering, and this one's for senator, if I could ask for a good wine recommendation for Thanksgiving. Now, obviously, we miss Thanksgiving here, so let's talk about the holidays or just a nice celebratory big meal wine recommendation. Something to go with the turkey or another protein, anything in the 50 to 200 range.
Gizmo:Oh. So you got a nice playground there, senator, on this one. Thank you all, and thank you for sharing your knowledge. Lizard Silvio. He said to go with turkey?
Gizmo:Turkey or another protein, yeah. Okay. Go with turkey. Let's do turkey.
Senator:I mean, few options. So on the lighter side, you know, a pinot noir, Golden Eye pinot noir, which is made by Duckhorn, I've had several times on Thanksgiving. I think it's a great pinot right around probably that $50.60 dollar price point. Something with a bit more body that's a very good value. I mean, we've talked about that Robert Craig Hell Mountain Cuvee, That's
Gizmo:kind
Senator:of a Bordeaux style blend that would fit for Thanksgiving. The gurgitsch that we just did. The gurgitsch was so good. That cab, I mean, it's so It's unbelievable. Soft and It's too full.
Senator:It's very refined. You know, that at, like, $75 would definitely fall into that. So that those three would fit kind of the range of, like, on the lighter side of Pinot, a Bordeaux style blend in between, and then a Cab, a a fuller red. Any of those, I think, would be great pairings.
Gizmo:Awesome. So let's keep this in mind centered if you don't mind. As we get closer to the holidays in a couple weeks here, I would love to do this again for, you know, the classic, you know, Christmas dinner here in The US and elsewhere hitting a lot of different proteins. But I love let's keep that on the list. Some whites, some reds, some champagnes, of course, maybe something left of center.
Gizmo:And obviously, I think we should try that Bloom Rooster, the nonalcoholic champagne. Have you had that yet, senator? No. Yeah. We need to try that.
Gizmo:Yeah. I'm curious how
Bam Bam:that
Gizmo:Alright, would boys. Let's go to another one now. This one is from Lizard Rob, and he sent us a voicemail that I wanna share right now.
Bam Bam:Hey. What's going on, Lizard? This is Rob from Houston. Got Lizard of the Week a little while back for having my first shipment of Cuban cigars confiscated.
Gizmo:I feel bad about that.
Bam Bam:I wanna thank y'all for your advice on that. And I haven't gotten around to ordering any more Cuban cigars yet, but I'm thinking about having some delivered to the Doctor to my in law's house. We're going there in January, so I thought maybe that would be a good way to try some authentic Cubans and maybe even bring some back with me. Not sure about that part yet, but I did have an idea for the podcast. I thought I'd run past you.
Bam Bam:It's a Fuma pack from Aga Norcia, and it's sold by Republic of Cigars. Shop. And what it is is they send you three different Fumas and two cigars. The cigars are the Cerberus Guardian of the Leaf, and the Fumas are the Corojo 99, the Criollo 98, and the Corojo 2,012. There's a video that that you follow along with, which is excellent.
Bam Bam:It's a lot of fun to go through. I just thought it would be even better to follow along with you guys to hear your take on it as you go through it. But what you do is you start with the 99. You smoke some of that. You get the tasting notes from it, how it hits your palate.
Bam Bam:Then you smoke the Creo 98. And then same thing, you get the tasting notes. And then you combine the two together to see how they they combine and and how they affect your palate differently. Then you smoked the throughout twenty twelve, and same thing. You just combine all three together.
Bam Bam:And then you smoked a cigar, which has all three leafs in it. I'm actually smoking that cigar right now. And I think it's excellent. I think you guys would enjoy it. And I think you guys would enjoy the experience of smoking the fumas.
Bam Bam:And I think it would be funny to hear y'all try to smoke all three fumas at the same time, especially Pagoda. Thank you guys for the podcast. Thank you for the two or so hours we get every week. And thank you to Gizmo for all the research and homework he does and his commitment to to being there every week. So we appreciate it, and I look forward to hearing more podcasts.
Gizmo:I love a voice memo, guys. Love a voice memo.
Bam Bam:You love the praise.
Gizmo:Well, I I like that too. But, seriously, I love a voice memo. That's great. And, you know, that's actually something in 212 episodes we've not talked about. So shout out to Lizard Rob.
Gizmo:So what he's talking about is very similar to that La Aurora experience I had where you sit down and you smoke each individual component of the cigar and then you play with, you know, those combinations and then you smoke the final cigar and you kind of figure out how those individual tobaccos play into the blending, the final blend of the cigar. So I really want to try that, I think. I think we find a cigar that we love
Bam Bam:So try that.
Gizmo:And smoke the individual
Bam Bam:Smoke the binder.
Gizmo:Yeah. Smoke the end of it's really the filler. You know, you smoke the filler components. But it's got a
Rooster:wrapper on it.
Gizmo:Yeah. So it's actually it's just cold cigar with just No. It's a little mini cigar of just one leaf.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Gizmo:And you taste you get it it was it's a pretty intense experience, actually.
Rooster:Yeah. So the way we did it, I'm I'm not gonna name who we did it with, but it was just like we smoked the wrapper leaf separate, and then we smoked the the binder leaf separate, which was, you know, it was
Gizmo:almost all your shirts. On fire. Yeah. I'm glad I missed that one.
Pagoda:Oh,
Rooster:yeah. But if it's a full cigar with with just one kind of leaf, I mean, that's interesting to to do that. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm gonna look into that,
Gizmo:and we'll do that. So thanks to Lizard Rob for the recommendation and for the voice memo. And now, boys, it's time to go into lizard of the week presented by our friends at Bond Roberts. By the way, the James Bond music has been a huge hit.
Bam Bam:I'm sure.
Gizmo:Senator, shout out. Well done. So, of course, every lizard of the week wins now a 10 count box of cigars from Bon Roberts. Incredible. So Bon Roberts is killing it.
Gizmo:They have a lot of cigars coming out. The Phenomenos that we smoked are being boxed, ready for for sale. The dahlias, which is one of my favorite vitolas that has ever been produced in Cuba. I love a dahlias. Those are smoking brilliantly.
Gizmo:They're being boxed ready for shipment. So check out Bon Roberts. Of course, now you can get them at fabrica005.com, and we really appreciate them supporting lizard of the week and sending all of our lizards of the week a 10 count box of cigars. So this one is going to be our friend Jose from Dominican Republic. If you remember, he sent in that great email that we read a few weeks ago and he responded with some of the cigars he's been smoking, what he can get.
Gizmo:Remember we were asking what can you get, can't you get down there? I wanna share this email and then we'll go into our ratings tonight. So this one starts here. He says, wow. It was an honor to have my email mentioned on the podcast.
Gizmo:I truly feel privileged to live in a place where I can freely enjoy all my pleasures without giving it a second thought. The Dominican Republic really does have it all. Senator said this. He's been singing its praises. That's not just the tourism slogan.
Gizmo:It's mostly true. Of course, we have our challenges as a country, but it's a wonderful place to live, a great place to retire too. As long as you learn to adapt to our ways, senator, you're gonna have to adapt.
Senator:There was no adapting necessary when I was there.
Bam Bam:Smoke anywhere you want. Right at home. Do the fit in,
Gizmo:yeah. He says, Life moves a little slower here, and that's a good thing. I'll be in New York for Thanksgiving, and I'm already dreading the struggle of finding a place where I could smoke a cigar in peace. At this point, it almost feels easier to light a joint. That is very true.
Gizmo:The smell of marijuana is everywhere in the city. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I'll be staying in the West Village with family, and I'm getting a little anxious about where I'll be able to enjoy a cigar. So I'll continue on, but do you guys wanna throw out some recommendations? Of course, Carnegie Club.
Pagoda:Yeah. Yeah. Dakota's Anacostia. Soda cigars are not too far. Soho?
Pagoda:Yeah. And you could also go to Barenbuck's. It's really pricey.
Gizmo:It's really small.
Pagoda:That's around,
Bam Bam:yeah. That's closest to him.
Pagoda:Yeah. Probably closest That would be closest to him.
Gizmo:Is that in the West Village?
Pagoda:No. It's in the meat packing. At the
Bam Bam:fringe of the village. Yeah, right there.
Gizmo:Got it. Alright. So he continues on. As for what I'm smoking these days, which we asked him, I'm in the process of rebuilding my collection. I enjoy trying different cigars one by one.
Gizmo:And once I find something I really like, I stock up as do we. He says from Fuente, he loves the Don Carlos and Robusto, double Robusto, the shark as we love. The Opus x, the twenty years, and the Opus Dubai BAM. Mhmm. Shout out to BAM.
Gizmo:Woo hoo. The Casa Cuba, the Casa Fuente, the Anejo shark, the number 88, and the Rosado sun grown. He says, I recently tried the Don Carlos ninetieth anniversary, an excellent cigar with a very interesting story behind it.
Bam Bam:Better stock up on those.
Gizmo:Exactly right. Other Dominicans include Davidoff, La Aurora, Klaus Kellner, and others, aging room Sonata, Padron nineteen twenty six nineteen sixty four, Aladino, which is a great discovery thanks to the podcast, my father, the judge, Les Bijou, and Blue, Ipi Carrillo, Casa Carrillo, fifteenth anniversary, Encore and pledge. Oliva, Siri v, Siri o, and Roma Craft, Maestranza and Volstead. So I love hearing that someone in The Dominican Republic is smoking so many cigars
Bam Bam:that we recommend.
Gizmo:That he has access to and obviously has changed some of his smoking habits based on about what we're smoking here on the pod. He says, Cubans, whenever I travel to Europe or Canada, always make a point to visit a shop and pick up a few, of course, because we've always said not a lot of real Cubans in The Dominican Republic. Just stay in touch with what's out there. I'm lucky to have friends with access to inventory, but honestly, the experience is often spoiled by inconsistent quality. That said, I always keep a few Que D'Orsay on hand.
Gizmo:Their call their quality has been consistency solid. On pairings, he said, I love to cook, and I'm into both wines and spirits. I'll even call myself a bit of a mixologist. Still, when it comes to pairing with a cigar, I tend to prefer prefer a good bourbon or rum. Anything from Brugall is great, and Barcelo has a very few good ones too.
Gizmo:Bourbons include Woodford, Double Oaked, anything Old Forester, which this is a sister of tonight, Wild Turkey Rare Breed, Knob Creek nine, Glen's Creek Cafe Ole, Weller special reserve, and antique one zero seven. We love that. Old Fitzgerald seven years and Crittenden's. And like cigars, he says prices can be a little crazy. I think $75 is my top to enjoy a good one.
Gizmo:He finishes here. I usually enjoy my cigar at the end of the workday at home. I don't often drink alone. Sometimes my wife joins me with a Negroni while I have my bourbon and cigar. She doesn't mind the smoke unless I'm on my second cigar of the night.
Gizmo:Best regards, Jose C from the Doctor. Great email. Nice. Great email. So congratulations to him.
Gizmo:Again, he's gonna win a 10 count box of Von Roberts because he's our wizard of the week, and anybody out there can win lizard of the week. It's very simple. All you have to do is email us. Tell a story like Jose did. Tell us what you like, what you don't like.
Gizmo:Tell us what to smoke or drink. We appreciate hearing from everybody out there, so please, do stay in touch via email, comments, Instagram, Spotify, voice memo, whatever you choose, and you can win lizard of the week. Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of our evening tonight with the larceny bourbon and the warped La Comena, the black honey from 2023. Any final thoughts here?
Gizmo:I've I see the mood is like a plane hitting the mountain.
Bam Bam:It's not good.
Gizmo:It's the energy in this room is just on the floor
Bam Bam:right. Correct.
Gizmo:I'm trying my best over here, You're doing great. I'm actually trying to ignore you guys
Bam Bam:because I'm, like, not even trying
Gizmo:to look because I'm just trying to keep it going. But, Rooster, you're up. Alright, boys. Let's go into the formal liquor rating tonight on the Larceny Bourbon. Small batch.
Gizmo:Bam bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm unhappy with this entire pairing tonight. So if I'm gonna rate this, I'm gonna give it a six, and I think that's a little generous. You know, I had to cut half of my spirit with ice water, and it was still fairly drinkable at that point, but really, really tough to drink. I didn't like it at all.
Bam Bam:Way too spicy. Very, very heavy oak finish, which wasn't pleasant for me. Very medicinal in quality for me. So I'm at a strong six. Alright, chef.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I'm at a six with Bam. Just really uninteresting. Pairing was, you know, left a lot to be desired. I you guys all know I don't put ice or water in my spirits.
Chef Ricky:And tonight I did. And then I re upped and I did it again.
Pagoda:You had to. Really?
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I can't see you now. I
Pagoda:wish I had seen that.
Senator:No, I saw it, and that says everything about this bourbon.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I just needed it. Obviously, I want the night to progress. The cigar finished quite some time ago. Thank God.
Gizmo:We have it so bad, don't we? We have to smoke cigars and drink and talk about it.
Chef Ricky:I'm hanging off with dear life here with this larceny. So, it's a six. You know, I wouldn't, I mean, I wouldn't seek this out. I wouldn't get excited if someone pulled it out. I just, yeah, I'd avoid it for sure.
Gizmo:All right, Pagoda.
Pagoda:Yeah, six, I think, you know, I actually, I was trying to guess with bambertarian, I'd put six out of my fingers. I think six is generous for sure.
Bam Bam:I need to vacuum
Chef Ricky:your shirt, by the way.
Gizmo:Get the Dyson.
Bam Bam:It's ready. All right.
Pagoda:Yeah, for all the reasons. It's just a sex. And I think it's funny because Batman put a lot of ice in mine. You know, Just enjoy it at all. You know, you would think that today, especially with the cigar we're smoking, a reasonable bourbon would have done so much of a job in elevating the experience.
Pagoda:And I think it's like a lost opportunity for the bourbon. Feel like, wow, like this did not, you know, support the evening at all. So a six is generous, but that's the score.
Gizmo:So for me, it's a seven, honestly. I I I from the first sip, I just didn't have the experience chefs doing the six, seven thing the kids are doing. I didn't have the same, you know, horrific first sip experience you guys did. Obviously, that carried you through the whole night. I thought this was serviceable $30 bourbon that you can find anywhere.
Gizmo:I think the flavor was fine. It didn't hit me as negatively as it did you guys. Did I think it was a great bourbon? No. But I think 7 is a very fair score for the bourbon tonight, especially at this price.
Gizmo:And I mean, senator's looking at me like he has lasers in his eyes, but I thought it was a totally serviceable bourbon. I would drink this again. I'm gonna look for another pour after we finish here tonight. I really didn't mind it. It wasn't amazing, but it was fine.
Bam Bam:I'm very surprised.
Gizmo:Am really, Actually, if you pass it around, I'm dead serious. Senator. He's so irritated with me right now. Oh my goodness.
Senator:Well, I'm with everyone else. It's a six. It's definitely a six. I mean, you know, look, we say with any pairing, we rate it for how it pairs with a cigar, and I just can't really see or appreciate the merit of many cigars this would be a good pairing with. You would need a very sweet cigar for this to pair just because it's so dry.
Bam Bam:Creme brulee. Creme brulee.
Gizmo:Can you throw one out honestly that you think would work if you if you're saying a sweet cigar? I know you don't love the bourbon in and of itself. Creme brulee. But aside from the brulee, what what do you think might work as far as a sweet cigar?
Senator:I don't know there's many cigars sweet enough, honestly. It's really few and far between. A creme brulee. Mean, maybe that. There's not many really sweet cigars.
Senator:Ironically, on the sake train, you know, maybe the the regular Sobremesa as well. Mhmm. And it's got a, you know, darker wrapper. I don't know if it's a Maduro or Connecticut Broadleaf, but there's sweetness and chocolate there that maybe are enough to hold up to this.
Bam Bam:But Mhmm.
Senator:You know, you're like forcing pairings with this kind of bourbon. Like, there there's not many natural pairings. I I found it, like this cigar, to just be very imbalanced. Well, why don't we
Bam Bam:ask the guy that really liked it what he would pair it with?
Senator:Yeah. Mister I'll have another pour?
Gizmo:I am having another pour, and I think it's totally disgusting.
Bam Bam:What cigar
Senator:are you gonna pair that with? Might
Pagoda:as well have another cigar.
Bam Bam:There you go. No.
Gizmo:I would probably Honestly, I think this would do really well with a Padron '19 64 Torpedo in Maduro. Think that is a sweet cigar that I think would do very well with this. Nicaraguan would kind of give it a little oomph. Obviously, that cigar doesn't dry your mouth out. Exclusivo, maybe.
Gizmo:Exclusivo, I think, is a little more earthy. Certainly, it does have its moments, but a little more earthy than this. I'm trying to think what else I
Bam Bam:would It's actually not a bad recommendation, I guess.
Gizmo:Honestly, I might do the Millennium Pyramid from from Davidoff. What? A good Millennium Pyramid, I
Bam Bam:think, Yeah. Would do well with I do. I don't think I would.
Gizmo:Well, that's where we're at, boys. And the former liquor rating tonight is on the on the larceny. Small batch bourbon. Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey.
Bam Bam:That was cold. Is a 6.2.
Chef Ricky:Take us out of our Missouri.
Gizmo:Everybody wants to get out of here. So let's get moving. Alright, boys. It's time now for the formal lizard rating tonight on the warped La Colmena Black Honey from 2023. Rooster Europe.
Rooster:So the cigar was mostly black and there was no honey. The cigar, I mean, I actually had burn issues with that cigar. The It quite first inch was good. You ash it, I had a hard time relighting it. The cigar was basically, for me, a pepper bomb, really woody, oaky, chalky.
Rooster:It lacked sweetness. I thought the blending decision was It needed something else. It needed some kind of a sweeter note to balance It needed honey, yes. Needed something to balance out the pepper that was throughout. It was present throughout.
Rooster:So I put out the cigar like a you know, onethree of the cigar, had to put it out.
Gizmo:So I'm at a five. Alright. Senator.
Bam Bam:It wasn't herbal for you?
Rooster:I can't get
Gizmo:a break in
Bam Bam:this room. Do
Rooster:you know how many things I have
Gizmo:to read every day in in in when we're here?
Bam Bam:I do that. Would that be Big herb guy.
Pagoda:Would that be spelled j e r b a l?
Bam Bam:Well done. Don't leave me hanging.
Gizmo:Yes, Hanukkah. Oh.
Senator:For me, this cigar was thoroughly exhausting in every way.
Gizmo:You look like you just ran a marathon.
Senator:I am so mentally frustrated with this cigar from the number of times I had to relight it, some tunneling problems. It's a pepper bomb. It's too dry. It's imbalanced. It's $22.
Senator:It's 22 doll I mean
Chef Ricky:Makes no sense.
Senator:There there is no merit to this cigar for me, for any type of smoker. You know? Even if I were to just take my own preferences out and say, okay, someone who likes a pepper bomb, well, guess what? The construction wasn't great. Even if you like a pepper bomb, there's no complexity about this blend whatsoever.
Senator:It is just one note that dominates all the way through. It doesn't take you on a journey. It's a four for me. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It got a four because I was able to smoke it till the last third, but I would never pick this cigar up again, and I really don't see who else ought to.
Senator:Yeah.
Gizmo:I'm surprised there with Senator. I'm also at a four. I think there was a moment in that first third where I was like, okay, maybe there's a possibility that this thing could turn around and turn into something. Especially when I was reading, I had two or three draws where I got like a like a honey or sweet burst. I I had hope, and wow, did it disappoint.
Gizmo:Just like senator saying, I didn't even have the construction issues. I didn't have the relight issues.
Bam Bam:No. Neither did I.
Gizmo:But at the end of the day, it's a bad cigar. Yeah, correct. It's not a serviceable cigar like I'm saying about this bourbon. It is an inherently bad cigar. The blend is off.
Gizmo:Everything about the cigar is wrong, And I hate to be so harsh about it, but I think it's important. This is why we smoke the entire cigar even when we hate it. And to Senator's point, I cannot think we always talk about, I didn't like the cigar, but I can think of someone who can or a type of smoker who can.
Bam Bam:No.
Gizmo:This cigar had no merit
Bam Bam:For anyone.
Gizmo:That if you love pepper bombs, if you love Tatawaje punching you in the face, if you want you love a Rocky Patel, okay, I can't think of a single type of cigar smoker that will like this cigar. No. Except if you like to smoke smoke.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And have a chalky finish.
Gizmo:Have chalky, no flavor smoke. If that's what you're into, this cigar is perfect for you, but I don't think those are the type of cigar smokers that we're talking to right now. Certainly, those are not the cigar smokers that I'm talking to in this room. So for me, it is a very, very weak four. I toyed with the idea of giving it a three, but really, senator, like like like I said, I didn't have the construction issues you did, but this was a really, really Yeah.
Gizmo:Bad cigar time. Yeah. Pagoda.
Pagoda:You know what? I'll give it a five only for one reason, because I'm gonna talk about a few of the merits of the cigar.
Bam Bam:That's The
Pagoda:one I got, it was an open draw, really good construction, really good smoke output, the burn line was fantastic. That's it. And you know, considering that, you know, it's still not a recommend. I would not buy it. For $22, I think I should give it a four.
Pagoda:But you know, the construction was like, some people, like, you know, I've come to this point where I know different people like completely different things than me. But you're right, it's very difficult to find out even my group of friends, and who would I recommend it to. It's very, very difficult.
Gizmo:Shyb.
Rooster:He can have the rest of the box.
Bam Bam:Correct. Chime. No, nobody's
Pagoda:For gonna free.
Chef Ricky:Someone you don't like.
Senator:I wouldn't wish this cigar on my worst enemy, I'm sorry.
Pagoda:Yeah. But, yeah, a five, just because of the construction. I'll give it a bit more.
Gizmo:Alright, Chef.
Chef Ricky:You know, at first, was like, I'm just gonna say, I'll give it a five because you know what? There's nothing I could take away from it. There's nothing I can add based on all of the commentary in this room. And then it hit me. Holy shit.
Chef Ricky:I have to wait six years
Pagoda:for
Chef Ricky:this thing to come out. And you can't get it right in six years. You can't make the necessary adjustments at a $22 price point to make this cigar worthwhile. Mhmm. It's a four.
Chef Ricky:So I'm at a four.
Gizmo:Yeah. Alright, Bam.
Bam Bam:Yeah, look, anything under a seven is just not a recommend. So at this point, we fear a five or a four. It's awful.
Gizmo:It's just where are you gonna rank in our worst of
Bam Bam:the I guess so.
Gizmo:New Year's Eve episode.
Bam Bam:If I had a stressful day and I sit down and light this cigar, this would increase my stress.
Chef Ricky:Who was that? Michael Douglas in Falling? What was that movie?
Bam Bam:I don't remember.
Chef Ricky:It was one of the Douglas guys.
Bam Bam:Maybe. Kirk?
Rooster:Kirk? No. Spartacus?
Senator:You know the movie
Chef Ricky:Falling? The guy who's having a bad day, he has a suitcase. Oh,
Bam Bam:know that movie.
Chef Ricky:He's going through he's beating up gang members and shit,
Bam Bam:and then, oh
Chef Ricky:my, this is such a classic
Bam Bam:movie. But put that aside. Would add to my stress. It wouldn't take me away for an hour like I would hope having a cigar that I loved. So is it a four?
Bam Bam:Is it a five? It's definitely there. I'm gonna rank
Senator:A three.
Bam Bam:I'm gonna give it the reality that it deserves. It does deserve a three or a four. Give it a four, I guess. Go along with the room. But it's terrible, terrible cigar.
Bam Bam:Could easily be a three.
Rooster:Or a two.
Bam Bam:Or a zero. Honestly, you can give it a zero. And it's just a zero recommend. It's not good in any fucking way. It doesn't burn well.
Bam Bam:It doesn't taste good. Doesn't it's just not a good cigar. I'm at a zero.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The formal lizard rating tonight on the warped La Comena black honey from 2023 is a very poor 4.3. Now I have two questions for the room. First, my question is and I'm asking this of myself as well. I'm including myself in this.
Gizmo:If the cigar was priced at $8 for the guys who gave it fours, if the cigar was $6.08, dollars 10, let's say, would it have bumped up to a 5?
Bam Bam:No, because for me it wouldn't have. I'm sorry.
Gizmo:Okay, that's why I'm asking.
Bam Bam:Senator? Just me. It wouldn't have.
Rooster:Because we have smoked so many other delicious, it's
Bam Bam:a dollar cigar. It's awful.
Rooster:That it would not make a difference to me. It would still be a 5 or a 4
Senator:or Absolutely not for me. Correct. I mean, if anything, the fact that this was $22 I was generous with the 4.
Rooster:It's actually a waste of one
Gizmo:Honestly, that's why I'm asking.
Bam Bam:That's what I'm saying. You were
Gizmo:being It's a
Rooster:waste of time
Bam Bam:to smoke. It will stress
Rooster:you out. Time is too bad.
Bam Bam:I'm actually starting to get angry now. Me
Pagoda:too. If could have
Senator:the greatest day of all time, this would ruin it.
Gizmo:Dude, I came in here honestly, I came in here high as a kite off of my stepson getting married yesterday. Had such a great day, great weekend with the family. Was so Beautiful excited to come finally have a cigar after a couple days of not being able to smoke because it was so cold outside. This has totally like, it's like it popped the balloon Yeah. Not good.
Gizmo:Now, obviously hanging with you guys is great, it's just like, wish we could have had like more of a celebratory night, but it is what it is. Pagoda, would it have changed for you with the price? I know you're very price sensitive, so you're a value guy.
Pagoda:No, not You know, the way I did, I'll tell you
Bam Bam:being very honest in terms of this rating.
Pagoda:I said, you know, my construction was actually flawless. It was really good.
Bam Bam:The way Please hold.
Pagoda:I think my nipples are being sucked at.
Bam Bam:Life. Yeah,
Pagoda:no, I, you know, so I think in terms of, you know, I just took the consensus of where the floor was and added a little bit just for construction. Because I know most of the other guys didn't even have good construction. So
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's compare that to the other two warped cigars we've done on the podcast on episode 69. We love the cigar. The Maestro del Tiempo fifty two zero five scored a nine point zero. Excellent cigar.
Gizmo:And you're not gonna believe it. On episode 156, the El Oso tenth anniversary grand papa also scored a 4.3. This is the first Wow. Marker on this podcast to score the exact same score under five, a 4.3 for two of the three cigars that we've smoked. I am very, very disappointed in this performance tonight.
Gizmo:Mhmm. And I'll be honest, I actually held these cigars longer than I certainly thought I needed to just to hedge any sort of construction humidity, know, kind of delta components there. I can't believe that it played out like this. Yeah.
Senator:Never again. Never again.
Gizmo:All right, boys. It was a great night despite fine. The Despite the pairing.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:I think we had a great conversation. I'm happy that we got together and did it. On the bourbon, the Larceny small batch Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey scored a 6.2 tonight, and the warped La Colmena, the black honey from 2023 scored a very, very poor, maybe worst of the year, 4.3. So we'll definitely be talking about that in a few weeks on our New Year's Eve recap episode of the year. Of course, we have to thank our sponsors, boys.
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Gizmo:And boys, Fabrica five. The absolute opposite of this experience we had tonight on the cigar, instead of bringing you down, it brings you up. And like senator was saying earlier in the episode, I mean, the Lonsdale from Fabrica five is excellent. I know all of you guys in the room have had them. I'm smoking a ton of them.
Gizmo:So an absolute great cigar. So we really appreciate Fabrica five for being a sponsor of this podcast. Support them. Support us. Support small batch cigar.
Gizmo:You support us. It's really that easy. Fabrica005.com. Use our code lizard pod for 10% off your entire order. And, boys, despite the pairing, it was good to see everybody.
Senator:Hopefully, we'll see you next week.
Bam Bam:Let's hurry up. We need another cigar.
Rooster:We'll see
Gizmo:everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.com.
Gizmo:Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, do you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.