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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 range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure 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 Poobah, Senator Pagoda, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 90th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna spoke at Cuban cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
We review Qds current line. Garon joins us to celebrate BU's birthday, and we discuss what makes both vintage champagne and cigar special, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 12 year aged a knock single malt scotch with the Kai Dorse number 50.
A petite rab robusto [00:01:00] tonight from Cuba. The Kors say number 50, beautiful cigar, 50 ring gauge by four and three eighths inches. And the factory name of the cigar is the D number five gentlemen. Which for some reason, everything that we've done recently keeps coming back to Parus. Mm-hmm. Keeps coming back to Pardes.
This is an identical cigar in size to the Pardes D five, uh, which obviously they created that size for that, that, uh, cigar. Um, that's quite a nice cigar. Be beautiful cigar. Oh, yeah. Uh, Eldora. Esp. Yes, sir. Right? One of my favorites. One of your favorites. All right, let's cut this thing boys. So we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper.
Beautiful. Cigar
**Bam Bam:** draws wide open.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. Oh, it's really nice. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** so I said earlier, before we hit the record button. The first time I had the cigar was in Cuba.
**Gizmo:** Oh, that's right. Where were we? [00:02:00] Cohiba atmosphere. Cohiba
**Bam Bam:** atmosphere. Ah, mm-hmm. We, we each bought a handful and
**Senator:** we were buying, not
**Bam Bam:** smoking there. That's true. That was a tough spot to smoke that day.
It is a tough spot to smoke. No air conditioning. No air movement. It was awful. It was awful. You
**Senator:** felt like you were sitting in the hallway of a mall.
**Bam Bam:** Look in the seventies. No air Condit in the seventies when smoking was allowed. They
**Poobah:** should have called it like El Diablo. Did they have some issue
**Gizmo:** with the water?
They were out of water. They had, they were outta water. Water. And they were out of, uh, they were out of something relating to coffee. I think Milk. You wanted a Tata or something And they didn't have milk.
**Bam Bam:** Well, they haven't had milk in
**Gizmo:** a long time. No, they have.
**Rooster:** They had powder. They haded some kind of milk.
**Gizmo:** Powdered. Yeah. Yeah. What's wild is when we were there in November, goat Cohiba atmosphere was like the greatest. Oh. So that's the thing. Back in November, that was the best lounge, almost the best lounge we went to. It was ice cold. It was excellent, clean. Yeah. They were dialed in, in Novembers. The guys are insane.
**Senator:** No, no, no. On that thing's. Best day. I can't enjoy it. It's a, it just feels like you're not in a [00:03:00] lounge. It feels like you're having like a mall. Yeah. Yeah. You just sitting in the hallway of a mall and shoppers are passing by. He's not wrong. It's true's not. And that the uncomfortable couch gizmo sat on his feet, couldn't even touch the floor.
You looked like you were three feet,
**Bam Bam:** feet, feet tall. I felt like I was say that. Oh man. That is a classic photo. That is the classic.
**Gizmo:** I felt like I was in sitting there like, like Willy Wonka factory.
**Bam Bam:** You look like that toddler.
**Gizmo:** It's true. All right boys, let's like this thing, the Kai Dorse number 50. Petite ribo.
Again, it's 50 ring gauge by four and three eighths inches. I haven't had one of these in a long time. And, uh, we've done a bunch of the other Kaido says we could talk about that. Um, but really the enthusiasm on this one and why it kind of got itself inserted into the lineup was, uh, Senator smokes a lot of these in the morning with his coffee.
It's become my favorite morning smoke. That's cool. And we're about to find out why.
**Bam Bam:** You know, honestly, has anyone in this room ever [00:04:00] had a bad qd? Regardless of the vi No. The, the quality is impeccable.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. There a lot of them are made at the Parus factory. Yeah. Well, that has a lot to do with it, which is, you know, we, we, you know, we love that factory, but I just feel like the blending that they do on these, it doesn't require an overpack.
Mm. Like, I don't think I've ever had like a, like a packed tight kaido say, I just don't think I've ever experienced that across the line. That's exactly
**Senator:** right. Four. The 54. You can sometimes get that. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I was gonna
**Poobah:** just, yeah. I don't know. The 54 I've had some is my least favorite. I, I, I like the, the, uh, Coronas.
Claros and I really like this cigar.
**Bam Bam:** I like all the cuties that we've had, and I haven't had a single problem.
**Poobah:** I haven't disliked any of 'em. Yeah. Yeah, sure.
**Gizmo:** This is delicious. What are you guys getting on the light? Getting like a toffee thing. It's awesome. Yeah, it's really nice. That's a good call out. It really is.
Yeah. I think toffee is kind of a little vanilla, maybe a little vanilla. [00:05:00] It's the 54 milder, right? I think so. I think so. I don't know.
**Bam Bam:** Hub's got a blow. Torch. Jam. Yes, he does. What is
**Gizmo:** that? Keep his soda away from it. Watch your eyebrows. I'm just trying not
**Poobah:** Well, I'm just trying not to overheat the, the foot it.
Is that a new lighter? Th th This this is a rooster's lighter. Oh wow. I told you I, I arrived with no lighter and no cutter cuz I was in a rush and I foot took a nap. We're
**Gizmo:** gonna put that down
**Bam Bam:** in the ledger. Oh yeah. Pro move.
**Gizmo:** Okay, we're all set. All right. The four minute light is complete, folks. I try not to rush it. This is really nice. Honestly, I thought, I thought it was gonna be a little more mild than this on the light, and I'm very pleasantly surprised. It's delicious flavor. I would say it's firmly medium. Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's the
**Senator:** perfect amount of flavor for a morning smoke.
And even you can have in the afternoon. I don't think there's any problem with it, but for some reason I always associate with mornings.
**Poobah:** [00:06:00] Yeah. Mm-hmm. I do get well, and I like that. A cigar. Yeah. I think that if you can, if it gives you enough and you can smoke it in the morning, and this is flavor profile's, terrific.
Oh, absolutely. Um,
**Bam Bam:** it's really delicious. Very, so you called out coffee. I see vanilla, but on the front I'm getting a bit of salt, which is amazing. There's a
**Gizmo:** little twang there. Yeah, just a little bit of twang on the front of the tom. I was say, some kind of Cuban spice, but
**Poobah:** saltiness, yeah. Yeah. It's delicious.
It tastes very Cuban. I mean, it tastes like a very cu it's very Cuban tasting cigar. A hundred percent.
**Gizmo:** It, uh, it has something on the, you know, as it lingers in your mouth, after you push the draw out, the, the aftertaste. It's very, very pleasant and it's very unique to qd for me on the finish. Yeah. Um, Coronas, Claro has a little more of that citrus thing.
But it, it, yeah. All of the QD I've had aligns with that, that lingering,
**Bam Bam:** uh, well, like roosters calls it out. The dna, right. There is a pervasive DNA in these cigars. Yeah. Like the Coronas definitely citrus and cream for me. Yeah. [00:07:00]
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's, I think it's one of the, the smokes that maybe doesn't get enough, uh, maybe not enough love from enough people.
**Gizmo:** I agree. And I don't think it gets enough love from Haos.
**Senator:** I agree with that. I mean, Ben mentioned he had his first in Havana. I was in the same boat. I had heard about this for so long. I feel like for some reason it was either described to me or I had this impression that it was a kind of polarizing cigar and qds lineup.
So I never really took it that seriously to try it. And when we were there and we saw it at the, the shop, I enjoyed it so much. I woke up every morning and smoked only the cigar, the whole rest of the trip. That's true. It's great.
**Bam Bam:** Remind me again, David Ol, I'm sorry. Is this a rib robusto?
**Gizmo:** It's a petite rib robusto.
Petite rib robusto. Yeah. And the factory name again is a D number five, Siri D
**Bam Bam:** number five. Something fun abouts smoking cigars of this. Shape it. The length. It's not too long. Yeah, it's a short
**Rooster:** robusto. Yeah. That's cool. You know, it's very cool. It fits in in the morning, in the afternoon or when you just want like a shorter smoke.
Yeah, it's perfect. I don't have any of these. [00:08:00]
**Poobah:** Neither do i. I would definitely, it delivers like a, definitely need it. Yeah. It delivers a flavor that you almost want from, from something like a Hoyo or, or even, even, or even an R N J that that, that those don't deliver consistently. Mm-hmm. I agree with you. I also find that these are kind of like, um, they're pretty consistent, which very, yeah, I would say more so hoyo
than
**Rooster:** in.
Than a Romeo. I agree
**Poobah:** with that too. Well, you like what you would want out of maybe what I would call a light a more lighter bodied smoke. It's delivering just a better experience than those markers. I agree. Gen generally speaking, some Jos says we've had the conversation a million times though, right?
You're like, wow, this is terrific. But like sometimes they're, they feel like they're needles in haystacks.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The neighbor next to it in the 50 cab is, is Uns
**Poobah:** smokeable. Yeah. But these are like, they're, they're a
**Bam Bam:** much higher, much more premium. Yeah. They're a higher quality cigar. Yeah. Every, every [00:09:00] vitola.
**Gizmo:** My is excellent. It's interesting too, the, to what Poage just said that like you look at how well this cigar performs, this entire wine performs. Mm-hmm. It's like how are they not able to get the global brands like Romeo, the higher end Romeos that everybody, you know, wants to love. And same with Hoyo. I mean, the Hoyo I think has some more fans than Romeo.
Mm. I'm speaking generally, but um, I don't, this, this, this marker wipes the floor with both of them. I don't think they make as many of these, bro. They don't, you know, so they definitely don't.
**Poobah:** So I think there's just more attention That's a shame to, to the prims that go into it and everything has to be because, because with, with Hoyo it's like almost like in not to just keep comparing it, but they're not paying attention as much.
I, I don't think, I definitely don't think that these are, these are made for the European market. I think they were the French originally. Specifically the French market. Yep. So, you know, so we, the French are very cons. [00:10:00] They're very, very particular. Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** What the,
**Rooster:** what was, what was the el that we had?
**Gizmo:** Senator Doris? Yeah, the Senator Doris. That was the 2019 el. Yeah. Remember that was, that was a good, good, good state. Very good, great cigar. That was really good. Which also came out of the Particles factory. So, uh, Kai Kai Dorse was founded in 1973. Uh, it was a very specific founding. Uh, it was made for the French market, specifically the French tobacco monopoly, CTA it's called is, I guess, a firm that just monopolized tobacco there.
So it really was just built, driven, made, and really only sold in the French market for a long period of time. There's not a lot of history. Most of the stuff that they were making after 1973 has been long discontinued. Even the Coronas Claro, there was an earlier version of the Coronas Claro, which by the way, for listeners, we did.
I don't know, ages ago on the podcast. We love that cigar. We talk about it a lot. Uh, there was an earlier version that they canceled and then they rebooted it, uh, [00:11:00] in the two thousands, 2000. Didn't they do that to the whole line? Like it's a new brand. They did a rebrand, right? New bands, new, new everything.
But that cigar did exist. It was canceled and they brought it back and that's when they came out with the, the number line 50 54. And now 52 has come out. So there's actually another entrant that I'm looking forward to doing. Oh yeah. Um, yeah, I actually had one, a listener sent me one. I didn't smoke it yet, but, um, I'm really excited about it.
How many vitals do they have now? Do we, I think they have four in regular production now. Um, I'm looking
**Rooster:** 50, 52, 54
**Gizmo:** in the Claro. Exactly. And is it El right? Well, El El was only one time. Yeah. I see. So the original, uh, Coronas, Claro, Claro, that's called, was in 1974 release, uh, it was discontinued in 1995.
There were plenty of others we don't need to go through. Now, the current line consists of the Coronas Claro. Which as we know, is a Corona, the number 54, which is a rab robusto. We did, uh, some time back, came out in [00:12:00] 2017. This cigar, the number 50 came out in 2017 as well, the petite ribo. And the number 52 was released in early 2023.
It was announced in 2021. Uh, that's a rib Robusto extra, which is a nice size. Actually, I don't, you know, the, the, the ring gauge works because of the length for me. It's a 52 ring gauge by six and an eighth. So it's a nice long cigar. So apparently kind of like the, uh, Lare, Cobana Totinos we did fresh, it's like really killing it.
So once we can get our hands on 'em, we'll do them in the next few months. I hope so.
**Senator:** The other thing I like with this little cigar is this smoke output. I agree. You got a lot of combustion outta this thing,
**Gizmo:** dude. How does this perform in the weather outside?
**Senator:** Great, so I'm glad you asked. This is one of those rare Cubans for some reason, I can't explain why that.
I think even when there's a little bit of wind outside, I remember some of the mornings in Havana there was a, a decent breeze. Sometimes I've been home here and I'm out [00:13:00] having this and it's a little bit breezy. It holds up well. I don't know why. Nice. I can't say that about most Cubans, but it somehow works cool.
**Gizmo:** It's really delicious and I think as it's kind of getting into the first third here, I'm really loving the, the, the smoke feel in the mouth. Yeah. It's a really rich smoke. Uh uh.
**Bam Bam:** It's an elegant experience. It is, I think like many other Cubans that we've had, this is, this is fantastic
**Poobah:** overall. It's got that level of refinement.
I feel like that a good Cuban cigar has when you light it, all the, those good things about Cuban tobacco are present here. It's like a little bit salty. It's a little bit sweet. It's a little bit, um, and it's got some, this actually has some baking spices in it, but it's not over the top. I think
**Gizmo:** it's Right.
It's like a brioche or something. Yeah. You get it.
**Bam Bam:** For me, I get it right in the middle of, of the, of my tongue. Not in a finish or the front. Yeah. It's kind of cool. Um,
**Gizmo:** it's, it's doy to me. I guess maybe the [00:14:00] smoke, when I say it's rich, it's almost like Doy in a way. Brioche, but the
**Poobah:** salt isn't, like, it's not super salty.
It's not super twangy. It's just Right,
**Gizmo:** right. It's like, it's almost like you have a brioche bun with a little salted butter on it. It's like that's the flavor profile of the cigar to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
**Poobah:** I'm, I'm with you on that.
**Gizmo:** Very pleasant, so interesting comment that we didn't talk about when we did the Coronas Claro, but I found, I found this interesting as I was researching QD Today.
The original Coronas, Claro Claro, which it actually had the name twice in it, Coronas, Claro Claro. The production became minimal in the late 1980s when light color rappers on cigar went, they were not in vogue anymore, as it says. Uh, they went outta style. People wanted darker rappers. And the whole thing about Kiran Sclero is that the rappers are a little lighter, so, By the 1980, by the end of the 1980s, it kind of faded in production and it was officially discontinued in 95.
Then his habits changed in, you know, the two thousands, 2000 tens. [00:15:00] They brought back the Coronas Claro, and it's one of the most, I think, for aficionados people for, for a regular production cigar. I think people really, these are not, seek that out. They're not easy to find. No, and I think, like Puba said, I think they only roll them once a year.
That's true too. I don't see a variety of box codes like you see on a D four, like you can see every month a box code on a D four. Every time you see, you know, Corona's c Claro come out, it's generally a month or two window stamped on those boxes. Well, this is a portfolio
**Poobah:** ground. Mm-hmm.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's a must have in your, in your
**Gizmo:** humidor must have.
So the price on these is about, uh, between let's say 19 and 23 bucks, depending on where you get 'em and what you get. Uh, they come in two package options. They come in the semi boy nature box of 10 cigars, which I love, and they come in the semi boyt nature box of 25 cigars, which is what, uh, we're smoking out of today.
Senator, do you know the box code on this by any chance? I should've asked you earlier? R s G, do you know what the date is?
**Senator:** May
**Gizmo:** 22. Yeah. [00:16:00] Oh, so they're young. Yeah. Okay. Excellent.
**Bam Bam:** Again, another, another Vito that smokes beautifully young. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I mean, I would've guessed 2019.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I was thinking 20 something like that.
**Senator:** Yeah. But that is the point. I mean, the thing I love with these qds, particularly the 50, for some reason young, it's very smooth. You don't really get a bunch of rough edges. So, um, I've struggled to find age boxes or I would have those as well, but, um, young, they, they still smoke pretty well. You may have
**Bam Bam:** to age them
**Senator:** yourself.
Well, I, that's the thing is just getting them honestly. Yeah. I mean, one, I don't think they make a ton of these and two, you just don't see them pop up as often. That's
**Gizmo:** true. So that Code Senator, I just looked it up while we were talking. Uh, it came out of the Baez Provincial Factory, so it wasn't outta the party's factory.
**Bam Bam:** Oh. Way, way outside of Havana. Yeah, these are outside. Oh yeah. Still very well made.
**Gizmo:** So, you know, like a lot of other portfolio brands, Haos uses Kai Dorsey a lot for regional additions. And I mean, [00:17:00] there are a mountain of them, a mountain of them. It's rare to see a limited edition on a portfolio brand that usually they reserve that for the, uh, the global brands.
But I think that. The, uh, the Santa Doris, for example, was released to celebrate, um, uh, the French market. You know, it's cuz it, this, this was built for that. What's what I found interesting too. Obviously Hong Kong, China driving a lot of habanas decision making these days. This cigar was, this market was not sold in Hong Kong until the early two thousands.
So for the first 27 years of its existence, it did never, it never appeared in Hong Kong. Primarily imported outside European.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Can we do that for more of the brands
**Gizmo:** please? Let's do that for Cohibas. I agree with that. Yeah. So what are you guys getting? This is really nice. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** It's, I think maintaining pretty consistent flavor profile for me.
I am smoking a bit faster than some of you guys.
**Gizmo:** I would, how fast do you smoke this? Generally in the morning?
**Senator:** Yeah. So [00:18:00] that's the other thing with this cigar, it does not burn super fast. I actually get a lot of, I can, I can take an hour to smoke this. Wow. Which, when you look at a petite rib booster, you're like, oh, I'll probably be done with that in 30, 40 minutes.
But it, it doesn't burn super fast.
**Bam Bam:** It's hard to stay disciplined with this cigar that tastes this good. For me personally,
**Gizmo:** something I'm working on, to me it tastes like a corona sclera
**Rooster:** without the
**Gizmo:** citrus. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree with that. It's kinda like the similar notes. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know, piggybacking on what Senator said about the combustion, I don't get half the smoke on the 54 that I get on this guy.
I love the 54, but this does give you, that's actually a good point for a large great smoke output. For,
**Senator:** yeah, sorry. It's a great point. It's about half a large ring gauge cigar, the 54, you really don't get a ton of smoke output on that. Don't get
**Bam Bam:** me wrong. I think I love that cigar more than all of you, but I.
Love this little
**Gizmo:** guy. You know, I just, I just don't know where I'd put this cigar from. Like in my habit, I, I, you know, in, in the way I smoke, [00:19:00] I'm not outside in the morning having a cigar. Usually I'm usually waited heavier in the day, later in the day. So it's like, if this was an inch longer and was like a true robusto, I think I could see it appearing more in, in the place of a Ramon, especially selected in the place of a D four, when I didn't want that profile in the place of, you know, a cohiba, Rab Robusto, whatever it may be.
But this, the specific size, it's just not slotting the same way as the other Cohiba re you know, or excuse me, Cuban two, I think it's a
**Poobah:** before dinner cigar, I think could be, you know, if you're not on a full stomach and, and, and you know you're gonna have a smoke before dinner, it would work there. Um, it would work at, you know, at lunch.
A fir or a first cigar the evening. If you were gonna, definitely, if you eat then you're, you're just kind of easing into the, that's where I put like the updo. Um, sometimes, cuz it's, it's full bodied has way more body than [00:20:00] this, but, um, and full flavor. But it's, it's a, it's, it's not a strong nicotine heavy affair,
**Bam Bam:** but the, the delivery on that's very smooth
**Gizmo:** as well.
Yeah. Uh, but the, and thankfully it's not nicotine heavy. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
**Poobah:** So, so this is, that's where I'd put it, I mean, I'd put it at kind of like, let's kick the evening off kind of cigar.
**Gizmo:** So I, I would have this after lunch. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's a great spot for this same Oh
**Poobah:** yeah, yeah. After lunch, daytime smoke.
Mm-hmm. Early, you know, early evening cigar
**Gizmo:** pido. What do you think of it?
**Pagoda:** I don't know. I'm, I'm also getting, I didn't, I know none of you guys are getting a bit citrusy. I am. Um, I had hints of it, you know, this orange peel. If you take a little bit of the thing, it tastes a little bitter. It's like a bitters citrusy thing that I'm getting.
And it's interesting. It's very pleasant. It's not like, uh, um,
**Gizmo:** you know, kinda like a English marmalade, like how it's got little Yeah, it's got
**Pagoda:** some That's exactly. Look at, you know, when [00:21:00] you get that str marm when you get that strand of the English Right. It's that
**Gizmo:** I like, that's what I like a bitter marmal marm.
**Pagoda:** That that's, yeah. Wow. That's, you
**Gizmo:** know, can you
**Senator:** put your pinky out when you say that?
**Gizmo:** Rooster Pasta grape palm?
**Pagoda:** No, I, I was getting a bit, uh, you know, uh, I've been getting the flavor from the very beginning, but, I've also, I, I think, uh, little him a cigar a few times. I've touched that, so I'm hoping the better taste will, will come from there. But I think because I started off with that flavor, it's, uh, it's been very good.
**Gizmo:** I think yours is kind of burning a little bit weird. Yeah,
**Senator:** he's got a, he's got a burn
**Gizmo:** issue. Mine's not been burning. Great. I don't know if it's because I've been yapping, but I've, I've, I lit it up again. It's been pretty good. I touched it up a little bit. It's okay. I had a
**Poobah:** couple touch offs,
**Bam Bam:** I think. I see Senator and rooster's nice burn.
Honestly, from here aren't good,
**Senator:** but they're a little bit wet. Yeah, they are. So I forgot we were doing this this week. So these were actually not in my tower. They were in Tupperware. Wow. So, well, tup,
**Gizmo:** [00:22:00] I apologize. Do you know what would happen if I did that? If
**Senator:** you do, what if I did that? Well, you control what we're smoking.
I found out about this the day before, get the qd, uh, 50 of
**Bam Bam:** like, first of all, senator would shake his head for 10 minutes and not say anything. It'd be like this and then it'd be like this with the head and a hand. I just
**Senator:** had a little advanced warning. I would've dry box and we would've been dialed in.
This
**Bam Bam:** was a little spongy, but honestly, I, it still tastes
**Gizmo:** fantastic. I'm just, I'm happy as of right now. It tastes fantastic. It's not showing its use in youth in the flavor. Yeah, it's showing it in the, in the burn and obviously exactly the humidity component as well. Mm-hmm. You
**Pagoda:** know, but overall the smoke output is fantastic.
Many, yeah. Yeah. It's really good. Really. It's, it's also delicious guys. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's, it's definitely a cigar, you know? Uh, I think I'll reach out for more.
**Poobah:** Yeah. This is cigar you buy.
**Gizmo:** Oh, yeah.
**Senator:** But I'm telling you, if you haven't had this in the morning, just have a cup of coffee and light this thing, and the amount of smoke [00:23:00] and the flavor and the smooth delivery. It, it, it puts a smile on my face every morning with a great
**Bam Bam:** cup of coffee, a drop of cream. And you're in heaven for me.
**Gizmo:** I'll just do a double espresso and I'm good. Okay. I'm good. Right, rooster? Yes, sir. Maybe a little, maybe a
**Bam Bam:** little Bailey's on the side.
**Gizmo:** Maybe a little scotch. Hey. Hey, you guys wanna talk about our scotch pairing tonight? Oh yeah. Not really. Yeah. What's
**Senator:** it, what's it called? Yeah. What,
**Bam Bam:** what is it called? Eggnog
**Gizmo:** an knock.
Is that what? An knock. Try again.
**Poobah:** We've reviewed so much scotch that we're at of sco.
**Gizmo:** I mean, this is episode 90. Konk. Try it again. Need we
**Poobah:** need grind. All right, Senator. Cut to the chase. I would be, I would be very, very, how many of these fucking letters are silent? I, I would be very happy if I was [00:24:00] served this, um, in like United First Class.
God, uh, shit. Fucking first class. It's the glorified coach seat, and they had scotch and they gave this to me. I'd be very happy with it. Other than that kind of a venue, you know, on, not, maybe if you're just, it's not, it's like doers without like the, the, the crap. I agree. It's like a doers, but without like the, Underarm pit.
Are you
**Gizmo:** talking about an It's aninha. Aninha. Aninha. Shut up. That's not how it's
**Pagoda:** pronounced. I bet you've grinder his hair. That's what he would've said. No, it's it's Aninha
**Poobah:** Scotland. It's like a scotch for chick. You know what you put in this? You put like, this is old school. I, you know what this would go great with?
It actually would is like scotch and the rocks with the lemon twist. All right. You could make like a cocktail with this or something and you put a lemon twist in it like it did in the seventies. I
**Gizmo:** still don't know the name of it. [00:25:00] I'm saying
**Senator:** neither do I. It's just a knock, a knock, a knock. That's it. A knock.
A knock. Scotch and water.
**Poobah:** Jesus Christ. Very easy. Wow. If you were tove a scotch and water with a lemon twist, it would actually be
**Gizmo:** good with Yes, with I agree. Anak. All right. Let's try it. Anak. There's seven extra letters in it. Yeah. It not know why True. Cheers boys. Cheers. Salud to an knock.
**Bam Bam:** You know, honestly, it's horrible. I don't You feel
**Gizmo:** the heat? It's not horrible.
**Poobah:** It's just not gets, I don't
**Bam Bam:** mind it neat. I mean, oh wow. I, I honestly, it's, it's
**Gizmo:** okay. That is, uh, that is a low grade single malt scotch. You should try it. Neat. I mean,
**Poobah:** it's not offensive, it's just not, it's
**Gizmo:** like say's like balsa wood, I would say on my pal.
Yeah. It's bordering has no character for me. It's bordering on offensive for me.
**Senator:** Okay. I'm with pupa in that. I mean, if you look at it in the glass right, it's a very light scotch. It's not interesting. This reminds me of like a Dow Wheny 15, right? Uh, a Glen Levitt 10, uh, sorry, uh, Glen Moji 10. Any of those lighter kind of [00:26:00] summery scotches.
Uh, yeah. And then, you know, you think of blended scotches or blended whiskeys like boob was talking about. You think of doers or something like that. This also kind of looks like that, but I think pub is spot on in that, you know, it's got that very light. Flavor that a doers has, but without the like, really bad aftertaste that do has.
That's right. So like, for me, again, if like Uba said, if you're in a bind on an air in an airport or, um, you know, on a train and this, that's the only
**Bam Bam:** time you'll drink this.
**Poobah:** I mean, dude, if you're like in a hot tub and then you, and, and, and you like, if
**Bam Bam:** I'm being held hostage, if you're an hot and they give this
**Poobah:** to me, I'm, or like a pool in a solo cup and you just like, want to like something refreshing, then you're not, there's, you're like, you know, I've got this light scotch.
You want have it and like a tur Tumblr and you just, you drink it. Like, it's perfectly fine. But like, I think in every, I don't
**Gizmo:** know how much it costs, every scenario you just named, I'd rather have like a white claw. How much, how much was a bottle? I don't [00:27:00] even know. You don't remember? I think it's at four.
I think it's like five bucks. I'm not paid.
**Poobah:** It's cheap. Yeah, I know, but it's not worth 40. It's worth 20. It's worth
**Gizmo:** $29. All right. All right. It looks like a Shiva. Like a Shiva Ri. Yeah, that too. That too. That's quite the
**Poobah:** spirit. So Shiva is better. Is
**Pagoda:** this blended or It's single shingles. Single one.
**Gizmo:** Shiva is, Shivas is a better scotch than this.
A hundred percent. And this is, so this is a single Mal Highland. Scotch Shiva 12. Like it's better.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Haven't had Shiva much honestly.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You have, we had it on the pause, the black
**Bam Bam:** label.
**Gizmo:** Black. Right. I've had it once. So the notes and the color-wise, it's, it's very light as well. Mm-hmm. The notes from these folks say it's soft, very aromatic, with a hint of honey and lemon in the foreground, and the taste is sweet to start with an appetizing fruitiness and a long, smooth finish.
These people are liars. Dude, I get nothing, dude. No, that's why I'm saying I
**Poobah:** dunno about the long smooth finish. You do a scotch and so you can make like a cocktail of sorts with
**Bam Bam:** this poop is right on with this because in a nose I get nothing. I get nothing
**Poobah:** on a nose. You put a lemon twist in it and like a splash of club soda.
You're, [00:28:00] you're rocking and rolling. It's pretty good for that.
**Pagoda:** They, they mean to say you need to add lemon and honey. Is that
**Gizmo:** what It's No light. Light yet? Complex, smooth, yet challenging. I wonder if the person that wrote this ever tasted it. This is AAM that has something for everyone. I disagree. All right.
It's, it's approachable.
**Poobah:** Mm-hmm. But it doesn't really taste like a scotch whiskey to miss a
**Gizmo:** single malt Scot. No, it tastes like a blended, like where would you typically place
**Poobah:** and scotch like this? And Dow when he knocks this breakfast
**Pagoda:** towards the end of the night, you know, by the way, just for the record, drinking with
**Poobah:** whole Dow when he knocks this, this, this scotch is dick and the dirt.
And, and I'm not a huge fan of that scotch.
**Gizmo:** No, but it's way better.
**Senator:** I keep dwy, but yeah. It's better. It is better. I I will agree with that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This is not, uh, this is not pleasant though. So the
**Senator:** bizarre thing when I looked this up, och is not even the name of the distillery, it's just what they call this scotch.
I don't know why that is. So they, why
**Gizmo:** would
**Senator:** they name it that? I have no idea. The, the distillery is actually [00:29:00] called Nadu, K N O C H D H U. Is this Scotland? Uh, yeah. Yeah. Or Finland. Uh, and it's actually, it's been there for a Patterson. It's been there for almost 130 years. Wow. Wow. It opened in 1894.
**Poobah:** Lemme tell you, maybe they made it off the, off of the side of Route 80 or something.
**Senator:** Now here's where it gets more offensive. We're wrong on
**Gizmo:** price. Oh boy. Oh God. I don't remember what I paid for it. It's
**Senator:** gotta be a lot. I just looked it up in a total wine. 65. Come on. It's ridiculous.
**Poobah:** Yeah, that. That's all I, by the way, you're better, by the way, Jameson is a 10 x better spirit than this. I don't mind.
Jameson. Jameson, Irish whiskey absolutely has so much more character than this scotch. Yeah. It's not even funny.
**Bam Bam:** True. It is a few pieces of ice in Jameson. You're golden,
**Poobah:** you know? Yeah. And so, you know and Jam, I like Jamison, but this is not for that money. I'm buying Red. I'm buying Green Dot.
**Senator:** [00:30:00] Green spot.
Green spot.
**Poobah:** What did I say? What did I say? Green dot. Green dot. I'm buying green spot or something like that's, that's a better whiskey than me. It's pretty like, like it's, we're talking whiskey at this price point. I can name many. I do have a
**Gizmo:** question for you guys. Red. Red breasts. Red. Breast. Red. Great.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah's a question pairing with this cigar. You don't want a spirit that overwhelms a cigar and it, it's easy to overwhelm it depending on what you're drinking. What would you
**Gizmo:** pair this with? A mimosa? Oh, mimosa would be nice. Yeah,
**Senator:** that's a good, that's true. That actually would work really
**Gizmo:** well. Yeah, that's a good idea.
I may try that
**Poobah:** somewhere. Or a glass of
**Bam Bam:** champagne. Champagne would be great. Two. Yeah. One, two, you mean tomorrow morning? But I mean,
**Poobah:** for in the shower I could drink a glass of champagne, uh, with anything. Almost. Absolutely. Yeah, I've had to touch this thing. Hey.
**Gizmo:** Hey. So speaking of champagne, Hey. Hey. We have a birthday in the house today.
Yes, we do. It's uh, BU's [00:31:00] birthday.
**Poobah:** Oh. And you bought my favorite,
**Senator:** which means Garone, uh, had to come about for this occasion. And, uh, we have a little po Roget. Oh,
**Poobah:** oh yeah. Happy birthday too. Dude, that really puts a smile on my
**Bam Bam:** face. Can we sing? Happy Birthday.
**Pagoda:** Even now. Let's sing nothing.
**Gizmo:** Let's not do that to the listeners.
All
**Poobah:** right,
wonderful. Oh,
**Gizmo:** fantastic. So happy birthday Puba. Oh, thank you. This is very exciting. Thank you, Senator. And
**Poobah:** the Saber's here. Oh, wonderful.
**Bam Bam:** Have you named the Saber yet?
**Poobah:** His
**Senator:** name is on it. Saber has my name engraved in it. Ah, okay. It's already been named El Senator from the day
**Gizmo:** it was born. Oh,
**Poobah:** oh yeah. This
**Gizmo:** is, this is very exciting.
This is cool. Oh, my
**Senator:** favorite. Now I'm actually glad that it's SP's birthday because this is gonna pair perfectly
**Gizmo:** with this. Yeah. This is, let me tell you this, this an knock Enoch, whatever this is, we're dumping it. I'm glad that we can get rid of this and go to Paul Roge because this is gonna be a significant improvement.
Agreed. [00:32:00] Oh yeah. Thank you Puba for being born. You've just saved the night.
**Senator:** Oh. I mean, Puba couldn't have teed it up better when he said champagne repair.
**Gizmo:** Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, I was coming. I, somebody, I knew somebody was gonna say champagne. I knew it was gonna come out at that moment, so this is great. Yeah. So Puba, uh, while, uh, while we're getting the champagne teed up here Yeah.
What did you do for your birthday? Anything fun? Oh, what did I
**Poobah:** do? Well, I went to this bar mitzvah with a bunch of friends. Hold
**Senator:** on. Can we, can we bar mitz? Let's stop that. Can we tee this up with a glass of uh, let's Sure, sure, sure. Alright, here we go, boys. Here we go.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, yes. Hey. Oh,
**Gizmo:** wonderful. Beautiful. Wonderful. Fantastic. Well done, Senator. We have, uh, a perfect saber, perfect saber job. Beautiful. Oh, Senator, cut the top right off. Thank you.
**Poobah:** Oh, this is fantastic. [00:33:00] This is
**Bam Bam:** quite the treat. This
**Gizmo:** is great. We should do this every week. All right, boys. All right. Uba tap's birthday.
Happy birthday. Happy birthday. We love you. Cheers. Happy birthday for Happy Birthday, beautifuls.
**Poobah:** Thank you.
**Gizmo:** Salute Puba. Ding ding. Cheers. We're too far away. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, boys. Cheer. Cheers. Love you all. Cheers. Perfect. Oh, that is delicious. See, it goes.
**Poobah:** It just, it goes great with the smoke.
**Gizmo:** So I actually have a couple gifts for ppa.
Ooh.
**Poobah:** Oh, that's not necessary. Well,
**Bam Bam:** you're Puba.
**Senator:** Oh, well,
**Gizmo:** unnecessary. The champagne's
**Poobah:** enough. Nothing crazy. Champagne's enough. Let's see what Gizmo has. Oh, look at this. Oh my goodness. What, what is this? Oh, whoa. What is that? That's a Sir Winston friend. Oh
**Bam Bam:** boy.
**Senator:** Oh boy. Did I mention I was [00:34:00] born the day after Puba?
**Gizmo:** So that is a 2014 your favorite year? No, sir Winston. That's
**Bam Bam:** a special sale. Oh,
**Gizmo:** very special. Oh man. So 2014, sir Winston. So, uh, that
**Poobah:** is a hell of a gift. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** You haven't
**Poobah:** had one of those yet, I don't think. Oh my God. I have something that's priority mail wrapped up in.
**Gizmo:** That was my, uh, that was my, uh, gift wrap.
Oh, let's see what we got.
**Poobah:** Priority mail. It feels round, it feels like there's a handle on it. It feels like it could be maybe a mug. Hey. Oh,
**Gizmo:** wait a minute.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Is that an up mug?
**Poobah:** Are you kidding me?
**Gizmo:** An up
coffee,
**Poobah:** dude. Oh, all right guys, so that's cool. Why would we describe this? What the heck? So this is amazing.
So this is a, this is a, a ceramic mug, um, a high
**Gizmo:** quality lip on it, which I was way into a high
**Poobah:** quality lip. And it's got, it's the up men, um, artwork that would, that would go inside of a, um, cardboard. [00:35:00] Um, Uh, up and box with all the metals and the crest and, um, beautiful mug and the h up and signature on here.
Oh, this is really, this is super classy. I mean, this is super nice.
**Senator:** Oh yeah. Look at the, one of the nicest cigar mugs. I
**Poobah:** see what is on the bottom. Yeah. This is wonderful. That's why I picked it up. This is wonderful. It says, do not use in a microwave oven on the
**Gizmo:** bottom. Um, I actually, I actually picked that up in Cuba.
Nice. It was the only mug with a, a cigar, uh, manufacturer name on it. Really? That I thought was worth Wow. The quality that it, it felt, feels great in a hand. I think it holds probably 10 or 12 ounces. You did not get that at the airport. No, not at the airport. No. No. That was, that's a legitimate, it's very nice.
**Poobah:** Oh, it's really a super duper. Do you guys wanna see it? Yeah, I wanna see it. Yeah. Spectacular. You guys wanna see here, here. It's [00:36:00] really handsome. I mean, cuz that's the artwork
**Gizmo:** and the detail on the artwork. Like, it's not like a cheap print. Like no, you'd get like, no, no, no. The internet somewhere. It looks very high quality.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it's really super duper.
**Gizmo:** Thank you. So I've actually been sitting on that for a while.
**Poobah:** Oh, you are a thoughtful human. Very nice. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Cheers. Thank you. Very
**Bam Bam:** nice. It's got good weight to it as
**Gizmo:** well. Yeah, it, I are knows across room. I'm, uh, I'm, I'm nutty about my, uh, coffee mugs.
Yeah. Has to be great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
**Poobah:** Oh, this is fantastic.
**Bam Bam:** And he's got this Sir Winston in the mug. What, what a great
**Gizmo:** look at that. You know, you could use this as a jar for half Coronas. That's true. You could fit about 10 in there. Put it right in the humidor. That's cool.
**Poobah:** Yeah. The artwork is really, Hmm.
This is the cool artwork with all the medal, with all the medals.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So if you got like a, like an up in two box and you open it, it's that, it's that image that you see on the inside. That's, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Wow. What a, [00:37:00] that's spectacular. It's the best birthday gift I received. Absolutely.
**Bam Bam:** No, that's a special gift.
That's very cool. That's really nice. Oh yeah.
**Senator:** Well done. Giz.
**Gizmo:** Hey, listen, Bravo. We tried to got
**Poobah:** Paul ro up a very old this, despite, you know how small and the wizard brain size is, it's thoughtful. You know what I mean? Oh God. Anthrop, anthropologically,
**Gizmo:** you know, super. We focus on the only, on the important things here in the Yes sir.
Oh, that's just fantastic. When can we escape? Hey, when can we smoke? When can we smoke? So boys we're, uh, a little beyond halfway through here of the Kai Dorsey, number 50. I think the champagne has helped the experience from a pairing standpoint tremendously, certainly. Mm-hmm. Um, but man, this is really a delicious smoke.
Yeah.
**Senator:** I think the champagne reinforces when Pubis said you could smoke [00:38:00] this before dinner. You would have champagne before dinner. Like a little tif with some, with a cigar, like, like this pair pairing is perfect. I would love to start a meal like this.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's, it's a great idea. Yeah. This is perfect. So, I wanted to ask you, knowing that we were gonna do the champagne tonight, um, do you notice a difference?
You know, we, we talk about this with Cuban cigars and we talked to Danilo about this in, uh, in March. Um, do you notice, uh, uh, Danilo, by the way, folks, is the, uh, production manager of Cohiba at Lito, um, that we're gonna have on the pod at some point. A wealth of information, really knows his stuff. Um, but my question, do you know a difference?
Do you notice a difference in champagne or Paul Roge. In the vintages, maybe like you do wine or cigars, et cetera. Oh, for sure. In the vintages, like you chase certain
**Senator:** vintages of this. Yeah. But these, no, no. So these, these are non vintage. So any, any champagne that you're buying that's under a hundred dollars is non vintage.
So, ah, when you pick up that yellow label VCO, that's non vintage, when you pick up this white label, Roche, it's non vintage. And what they're doing is they, they blend it such [00:39:00] that they're trying to ensure consistency every time, every year. It never changes where they experiment and have fun or with the vintages.
So that's where, like, if you think of even the pricier vintage bottles like Dom Perignon, that obviously a lot of people chase that is spectacular. Yeah. Each vintage tastes different. Yeah. On purpose. So there is on purpose. Wow. And it's a direct function of the, the climate and growing conditions at the time at which they're harvesting those grapes that are gonna make that champagne.
And they're going for kind of a different feel each time based on what the earth has given them. Sometimes the conditions are really similar to year to year, so you'll only notice some minor differences between two years, but sometimes they're dramatically different. Like whatever. The most recent vintage of Dom Perignon, uh, it, it's apparently like a lot more.
It has like a ton more minerality than even usual. It's apparently like a very distinctive taste, um, not like some other ones. And so people chase that because they want a different experience. So that's where you kind of get to the fun of [00:40:00] champagnes, but that's when then you gotta start spending some more money.
So that's
**Gizmo:** cool. What is the price point at which that starts happening? Is it a hundred, one 50 plus one 50? So at, when you're spending $150 on a bottle of champagne, you should be studying the vintage that you're buying Yes. And kind of understand what you're getting. Right. How interest you should
**Senator:** and for the, you know, for the Premier Champagne houses.
You're almost never gonna find a bad vintage, but you will wanna chase great vintages. That that's, that's kind of the, the general rule of thumb. I'm trying to look up, uh, Paul Roge, what they're, so, they're like the kind of next step up they have the, uh, The Winston Churchill vintage bottle and you can get that a total wine for one 20, which is actually very good price.
Wow. Because a lot of the time you gotta start usually one 50, but Verge also prices a little bit less than some of the more heavily marketed VCO of the world. And if you buy six of these, you can get it for 1 0 8 a bottle, which is a
**Gizmo:** steal. So how often do you make [00:41:00] that choice versus the standard Paul Ruger?
So, I'll be
**Senator:** honest, not that often. And, and the reason is, is because the Nonvintage bottles are great for the settings that I pursue champagne the most, which is like with some, or d'oeuvres before dinner. When you want something light that's going to kind of get your taste buds ready for a meal. When you usually vintage champagnes, they're gonna be a little bit more full bodied, more similar to Boer actually, which has more body to it.
Mm-hmm. More flavor. And so the instances where I seek champagne that has. More depth and flavor are more limited than when I seek something that's gonna please everybody is gonna just start a great evening. So, um, not a ton. That's not to say they're not outstanding. They are, but I don't drink as much of it because that's not as often the setting.
I'm kind of looking to pop a bottle of
**Rooster:** champagne. So when you say a vintage, do they specify the air?
**Gizmo:** They
**Senator:** do. Okay. They do. So it's
**Gizmo:** just like wine. Exactly. So the, the other reason why I [00:42:00] teed this up, and I don't know, I don't think we discussed this on the Cuba recap episodes, but when we were talking to Delo, we asked them about blending and you know, if they're making.
Blending changes as maybe a crop changes during the year or weather or what or what have you. And he pretty emphatically said no, that the blends stay identical. Um, and it is like what we're talking about, the differences in vintage in year, which is why we experience such v varied things at times in good years and bad years of Cuban cigars.
Now, Rob Isla calls him a run. You can use the word run a vintage, whatever you wanna say, but. I think we're in a good run right now, a good vintage right now. Absolutely. You know, who knows what it's gonna be, you know, as the effects of the hurricane happen and the effects of the economic issues happen.
I'm curious what it's gonna be, but it certainly lends me to believe that, you know, certainly we're onto something when we're chasing box codes and years when we're talking about 2014 cigars. 20 [00:43:00] 14 15, 20 18, 20 19. Yeah. But also, and certainly now 20 21, 22. And when
**Bam Bam:** you see specific markers that haven't performed well and they're just all of a sudden performing well at a
**Gizmo:** certain year.
Like Monte Cristo. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Well, like the one we're smoking now, it's a 2022 box and it's smoking great. It is, yeah. If I had to guess, I mean, I
**Gizmo:** wouldn't say this is a fresh box. No, I would say it's at least a 2020. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Couple years on it. Yeah. But, you know, I think these,
**Poobah:** sorry.
No, go ahead. I think that these, these cigars that don't have a lot of aero in 'em, there's, this is not a lahara heavy, uh, blend. Very true. Uh, certainly set up. For earlier success. Mm-hmm. Um, Which is good cuz you know, I don't always want, um, an 8, 9, 8,
**Gizmo:** you know, going
**Poobah:** back to or
**Rooster:** a P two, you mentioned, uh, true changing like blends, like altering blends to
**Gizmo:** kind of fit the uh Yeah.
To accommodate the crop. Yeah.
**Rooster:** I remember Cohiba robustas tasting [00:44:00] much fuller. It's so true, dude. You know, maybe even like maybe eight, 10 years ago mm-hmm. They were. It was a
**Gizmo:** diff like, I mean, I don't wanna say, and you're saying eight to eight to 10 years ago, fresh, right? Yeah. You're not saying cigars.
Yeah. Right. So you're saying when they were fresh eight to 10 years ago, they were full, they had Boonoo. Right. Which, I mean, that's, a lot of people say that about Beke too, from Cohiba that the early Beke, yeah. There was in such a limited amount of mepo, which is the exclusive part of the Leaf that they use in only Beke in Cuba.
Um, that it wasn't limited then because people didn't know what Beke was. Certainly then the rush on Beke being the premium cigar coming out of Cuba and regular production, certainly creating a demand that supply can't meet. So I, I tend to believe that it is in addition to maybe crop changes or whatever, I just don't think that they have enough.
No, I don't think they have enough to accommodate. No, no. Of, no, they
**Bam Bam:** absolutely don't. Course they don't, you know? Yeah. And he said that. Yep. Yep. Your champagne [00:45:00] has rescued this pairing tonight. Oh, thank you dude, that's a great word for it. It has rescued the pairing. It is awesome. It's great.
**Gizmo:** It's awesome.
It's so delicious.
**Senator:** So I was trying to look up, I cuz I had sent you guys a text when I had this, but not last Christmas, the year before. Um, I was with a friend who appreciates champagne as much as I do, and I had two of the best bottles of vintage champagne I've ever had. And I pulled up the text, uh, it was a 1995 VCO Grandam, which, uh, that's their.
Vintage line and kind of like cigars. So I first had that and then it gets a little more ridiculous. Then I had an oh two bottle of Dom Perignon, which was unbelievable funny
**Gizmo:** that we weren't invited to alphabet. We never are. Did you notice that ba? Yes, I do. I don't remember being invited to that. I feel chipped.
**Senator:** Yep. But I say this because very similar to cigars, right? We buy a box at a certain price, and if you hold and age that for a very long period of time, it just climbs in value. Mm-hmm. And champagne's the exact same way. Like that 1995 vle co bottle, when that came out in 95, someone probably [00:46:00] paid 80 a hundred dollars for that in 95.
Yeah. Now if you can find a bottle, which I found a few online, it's like four something a bottle. Wow, wow, wow. The Dom Perignon oh two. I mean, I can't
**Gizmo:** imagine what that price is. Gotta be pretty steep.
**Poobah:** When I went, I visited the champagne region in France, um, long ago. Uh, also went to deja burgundy and
**Gizmo:** great mustard outta
**Poobah:** there.
And, uh, yeah, and good wine. The, um, but uh, they call it like, um, I wonder with, uh, they called it, I think it was riddling. They, they take the bottles and they, uh, they rotate. They do something where they rotate, they, they're keeping them stored at an angle with the champagne. With the champagne. And then they rotate them at a, at a cer, periodically.
Interesting. For the cork? I For the cork and ah,
**Gizmo:** for the, that's the
**Poobah:** thing. And, and so like, I wonder what
**Gizmo:** Never let the cork dry out? Yeah. [00:47:00] So
**Poobah:** it's, it's a moisture thing. So they angle them and then they, and then there's a guy who's he, he, he constantly, um, you know, turns the bottles.
**Gizmo:** Rotates them. Can you imagine that guy going home after work?
How many bottles did you rotate today, honey? Yeah. 4 billion. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Well, maybe they do it by machines now, but they actually had a person doing it. I'm just, I I would, I would guess that you would really need to probably, if you're storing, IM assuming that if you were storing a vintage, but let's say you bought a case of, uh, of Don Perignon that you would, and you were planning to keep it a long time, that you would need to do such a thing.
**Gizmo:** That's funny you were gonna say that cuz I was gonna ask it. It, it would seem to me, which is, pupa just teed this up perfectly. It would seem to me that it'd be really easy to mess up a bottle of champagne in storage. Like e maybe easier than wine or, or because of what? Like what you're just saying. No, it's true.
**Senator:** It it is because it's bubbly. It is. Yeah. So the thing that can happen. If you have to make sure the cork always stays wet and that it's stored properly, and when it doesn't, [00:48:00] the cork can constrict and actually let air in and it will go flat. So like, I actually had this happen to me once, uh, very stupidly to you.
Yeah. I forgot I had a ton of v from a while ago that I just didn't know I had, and so I hadn't rotated it at all. It had just sat. Basically sedentary for a very long period of time. And I opened one of these bottles and it was flat as can be. I cannot, like you had a
**Gizmo:** wine rack, but
**Senator:** you didn't turn them.
Exactly. Yeah. So yes, champagne storage is a lot trickier than just regular wine. You have to be extra, extra careful because it's carbonated when it loses that carbonation. That's it. It's shot. Um, I have
**Gizmo:** the same problem with my bottle of seltzer from Costco. Of course. Do you rotate them? If I don't rotate 'em?
They go flat after a year or two. Yeah, I have to, the whole thing is like 15 bucks. I have to throw it away. Do not give me the pla, the plastic capitalize that, that's right.
**Senator:** But I will say if you're careful and you take good care of these bottles, they can be good investments. Like I just looked up that oh two Dom [00:49:00] Perignon, someone would've bought that in oh two for probably 200 bucks.
And right now if you want that bottle grand, you're have to pay a thousand thousand bucks. That is crazy. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Well we're seeing it in our cigar stock, right?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And I think the cigar, I mean the cigar multiples even higher than that. You look at the investment, you know, you buy a box of cigars and, and let's say you buy a box of, uh, 21 or 22, sir.
Winston's, right? Like Pupa just had the amount of money you pay for them now versus what they're gonna be worth in 10, 15, 20 years if they're kept Well, I mean, it's significant. You know, I mean the people that bought those boxes, let's say that 2014 box, that's probably worth now, I don't know, 2,500 bucks when they bought that box, I think they probably paid 300.
That's an eight, you know, over eight x multiple. That's amazing. That's crazy. Yeah. You know, so it's like, I don't know. That's how I justify to my wife why I keep buying cigars. Honey.
**Bam Bam:** It's an investment. It's an investment. [00:50:00]
**Gizmo:** Not if you keep smoking. And that's what, that's exactly what, what she says that why do you keep smoking it?
And then I say the podcast and then everything's good
**Senator:** again. All right. Last thing I'll say, and vintages is a, a great gift idea cuz someone did this for me that I really appreciated. Um, When my son was born, someone had gotten me a bottle of vli co grandam, uh, the year of his birth. Oh, that's awesome.
Very cool. And had it engraved with his name. Wow. Did you get the bottle engraved? That's, that's cool. Which is a very, very
**Gizmo:** nice. That's cool. Amazing. How do you, how do you engrave a bottle? Is there service that
**Senator:** does that? Right? There is some website, yeah. Yeah's some website that does it for, Champagne. And also, uh, like spirits, if you buy like a really nice bottle of scotch.
Wow. Like, if you really want to go crazy and buy like a vintage bottle of scotch, which now you're talking to thousands for a bottle. Macallan 25 or something crazy. No, no, no, no. A vintage. There are literally Macallan bottles that are like Macallan 19.
**Gizmo:** Oh, you're,
**Poobah:** oh, I understand, dude. Like I've had, I've had a 1942 bottle of Macallan.
I had what? Wow. [00:51:00] What? Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I have pictures of it. Yeah. We weren't invited to that either. I, I had That's right. You and I were out. Yeah. I had like an ounce
**Poobah:** and a half in France. In France, in a private setting like this, like Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. How did it taste? I have a picture of the bottle.
Um, It tasted really good. Did it taste like it was an $11,000 bottle scotch or something?
**Gizmo:** No.
**Senator:** Wow, good. Tasted really good and that's problem, so I'm glad Poopa said that because there are people who like pursue and collect these things, and especially in Asia, this is huge. So like if you go, I, I remember when I was in Singapore at this cigar lounge there, you just get off this elevator and they have in glass cases these vintage bottles of Macallan that the cheapest of which is 10 grand, like goes from like 10 to like 50,000 a bottle.
They're insane over there. But the problem is like if we're, and Grindr would definitely back me up on this, you know, scotch does not. Age significantly in a bottle. So it's like, you know, you have these vintages and people are holding them for years and years and years and it's like, it, it's no better than when they [00:52:00] first got that bottle.
That's right. If the bottle was bottled in 1942, it doesn't dramatically improve. If you wait to drink it 20 years, it ages in the barrel. That's the one where it's thing with those, you have to be careful unless you know you're so impressed with how it tastes when it bottles and you hold that and wanna enjoy that over time.
That's one thing. But I, I personally don't think there's like the same level of return, um, on that as things that actually age in the bottle. Like wine, like champagne. Mm-hmm. Like cigars in the box. So that's the only thing I would flag. Right.
**Gizmo:** So speaking of age Macallan, uh, I remember seeing this a long time ago.
I don't think we've ever talked about this. The, is this pub's an next birthday gift? It is. We're, it's, we're gonna have to save up. Bams gonna have to sell a couple of boxes out of his tower. Oh sure. Um, In 2019, a bottle of whiskey smashed auction records and sold for 1.9 million, uh, [00:53:00] at, uh, at Christie's in London.
And it was a macallen fine and rare 60 year old. 1926, Jesus. Oh my. It was distilled in 1926 came from cask number 263 40. Bottles were drawn from the cask. 14 were given the a, uh, fine and rare label, and that bottle sold. For near nearly 2 million bucks. That's pretty amazing. You know, and that's another thing that the Chinese market has really Sure.
They pursue started. Yeah. I mean, just vacuuming up.
**Pagoda:** Mm-hmm. The, the unfortunate thing is nobody's gonna ever drink it. No. And by the time they get to it,
**Bam Bam:** it's gonna be all, it'll evaporate.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Not gonna, you know, they hope they know to twist it, to turn it. I hope so. Does it evaporate?
**Rooster:** I mean, you probably, do you lose some,
**Poobah:** so I just texted you the bottle.
Uh, it was 1946 actually. Wow.
**Bam Bam:** I, I, I think it will evaporate unless it's stored properly. I, I
**Senator:** don't know. Yeah. It has to be stored properly and it would have a cork in it on the top. [00:54:00] Yeah. So that's also where you wanna make sure it's always wet. Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** Is that a temperature and humidity thing, or just humidity?
Or, excuse me, just temperature both. Okay. So it's like cigars. Yes, I remember it would expands and contracts. So I'm
**Poobah:** not sure if this bottle, like when it, if they bottled, see this label was printed and then it was issued. So I'm not, what I'm trying, my point is, is that the barrel.
**Senator:** The barrel, yeah. Which on that side, and that's what I mean, I I didn't mean the bottle literally, I mean the barrel that it came from.
Yeah. Like
**Poobah:** on the top it may say 52 years age. That, that, in other words, meaning. This may have been aged in a cask longer than Bo, you know what I mean, than bottles. Totally. It didn't sit in a bottle because it did this, this
**Senator:** bottle's not from them. No, no, a hundred percent. Yeah. That, that, that's all accurate.
But the problem is people buy this and they hold it because the instances in which you're gonna drink, uh, a single malt that's been Right. You know, sitting in a barrel from nine mm-hmm. From 1946, it's very slim. Yep. And they hold it and hold it and it's like it's getting no better.
**Bam Bam:** Right. No, it does [00:55:00]
**Gizmo:** not get better in glass.
It only
**Rooster:** ages in the barrel, so. That's right. Even if it's bottled, if it's bottled 10 years after, it's gonna age in the barrels, but not like
**Gizmo:** beyond that.
**Poobah:** Right. Exactly. Right. When that was bottled, I don't know, but mm-hmm. But it, but it was fine.
**Gizmo:** What's interesting is the one that sold for 1.9 million in 2019 came out of a cask that was, um, I dunno, how do you say it poured in like when they filled the cask, I don't know how you say it, distilled, uh, in 1926, they took it out, uh, in the late eighties and this bottle that was sold for 1.9 million was in glass for since the late eighties.
Right. Oh wow. The original bottle that came out of that Cask number 2 63, sold for 6,411 in 1986 and sold for 1.9 million in 2019. I wanna say, talk about a multiple on that. Unreal. Yeah. I wanna
**Poobah:** say this bottle was around maybe [00:56:00] 10 to $15,000. You're
**Gizmo:** talking about the an we drinking tonight? No. Yeah,
**Rooster:** that's a 10 to 15 bottle.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, for real. So 10 to 15,000. So you drank an ounce of that. So that's. And that's a hell of a poor. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, oh yeah, that is an expensive
**Poobah:** pour. An expensive pour. Yeah, but that was that. But it was shared amongst many, it was shared amongst who was worth it. Amongst
**Gizmo:** many. He is. We're not, but he is.
That's right. So boys, we're coming to the end of the Kai, Kai Doe number 50. What are you guys thinking of this? I would like another one right now. I would too. Yeah. I could totally do another one, honestly. I could do another one.
**Poobah:** My only issue with it is the burn.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Well that's because that's the Tupperware, the humidity.
Yeah. Yeah, it is. But the, honestly, it's a great, great cigar. That slight salt forward. The middle. I get that. The, some of the dessert notes and some of the vanilla, and on the finish, it's a, it's a really beautiful
**Gizmo:** cigar. Did you guys write retro
**Senator:** hailed us? We did. I, I did actually, unintentionally it was great.
**Bam Bam:** Every draw. Every draw, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. Yeah. I thought it was really [00:57:00] good.
**Senator:** I just, the reason I really wanted to do this, maybe I'll just speak for myself. I have read, and I had a misconception before ever trying this. That it's a really mild cigar. And I thought because of that I wouldn't enjoy it. And I think when you smoke this, it is firmly medium.
Yeah. And it has plenty of flavor and
**Bam Bam:** body on
**Poobah:** body. Well, yeah, Grindr was always a big fan of these and he actually used to catch a little shit for it. Um, but then I think not anymore.
**Gizmo:** Not anymore. I think it's a
**Rooster:** misconception with the brand that
**Gizmo:** it's a milder cigar, the mark
**Bam Bam:** for sure.
**Gizmo:** Right. Yeah. Yeah.
**Rooster:** So I, I mean, I think after, after breakfast, after lunch, pre-dinner even.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah,
**Bam Bam:** yeah. This mark is worth diving into. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So I'm gonna take a sip of the, um, Enoch after your, before we rate this
**Bam Bam:** thing, after your amazing. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Paul Roja. Yeah. The champagne's not helping it. No. Um, are you guys ready to do the formal liquor rating on the anoc? [00:58:00] Yeah. On knock, uh, 12 year aged single mal scotch.
Bam.
**Bam Bam:** Bam. You're up. I'm not, I'm gonna be as harsh as I think you guys will be. I'm kind of in pub's camp. It's pretty, it's serviceable. I mean it's,
I'm between a six and a seven. I'm gonna go seven. Okay. Seven. Wow. Yeah, I'm gonna go seven. I mean, I can drink it. It's drinkable.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda. What do you think of the scotch
**Pagoda:** I'd go for? Uh, I think a six is a fast goal for this. That's fine. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** Senator.
**Senator:** So I will say when you put a, a good amount of ice in this, you do get a lot of honey notes in it, which are actually really nice.
And I think ba mentioned maybe even before we hit record, that there's something about this. That kind of reminds you of that, um, s suntry that we did the Japanese. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Whiskey. That's right. Now the advantage to s Suntry, it's the exact same light kind. Color. It's very color.
It's very
**Gizmo:** similar in color. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes,
**Senator:** totally. The other thing is the flavor [00:59:00] profile I actually think is similar. That's got like a lot of honey. Mm-hmm. Little bit of oak, um, which is similar to this, but the price point is kind of the killer because that century is 30 bucks a bottle. It's steel. Like if you need than half something to mix, it's the best value you can probably get for any kind of light mixed, uh, scotch or or whiskey.
This at 65, that's kind of what kills it for me. So, very true.
**Bam Bam:** I gotta be, I'll be honest, it's very true.
**Senator:** I'm debating between a five and a six. I'm, I'm gonna give it a six because. You know, if, if the options were so limited, would I drink it? Sure. Is it something I'll ever pursue? Absolutely not. So I'm gonna give it the edge of a six in that there, there is an instance in which I, I would drink it.
Mm-hmm. If I had no other options, that's
**Gizmo:** fine. So for me, um, it started and finish the same, this just does not agree with my palette at all. Um, I definitely had some ice in it, you know, [01:00:00] I, I just don't think it works for me. You're a robust guy. Yeah. And, uh, at 65?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, at 65. I mean, that's where a five or a six or a seven rating at $65.
It's on the lower end of that. I just don't think the value is there at all. Mm-hmm. I certainly don't think the flavor is there. Um, and it's just, it's just not working. So it's a five for me, for sure. Wow. Uba. All right. The bevan's
**Pagoda:** 59 bucks.
**Gizmo:** Exactly. Yeah. No,
**Poobah:** no, I was just about to say that's true. Bevan's $59 and I mean, it's not even, they're not even in the same league.
Um, so I, because of all the, all the, all the things that were mentioned, I'll give it a six because it's, it's not, There's nothing offensive about it. Right. There's nothing offensive about it except the price and,
**Gizmo:** and the flavor.
**Poobah:** Well, no, I [01:01:00] disagree. It, it's the lack of it. Yeah. Where I was by design. Mm-hmm.
Again, I guess that's by design, so maybe for someone who prefers this style, um, right on the money, there must be, there must be an audience for it. You know, I'd have to give it a six because if it was present, you know, look, if someone, if I was a guest in someone's home and they poured this for me, I wouldn't be like, oh my God, I have to drink this.
Like, I'm miserable. It's not gonna make me miserable, but it's not gonna make me like, It's not giving me an experience that I would pursue it, but it's, it's not a doers. It's not, it's not something, it's, it's a higher end than that. So that's it.
**Gizmo:** Now I'm more, see I disagree with you cuz I would go full Larry David, if somebody served me this.
Oh boy,
**Senator:** boy. But this is the thing to understand. So I get, I get for your, for your palette, I get that the same way for my palette. This isn't what I would normally pursue, but the class that this is in, and it's good that we're doing this in the summertime [01:02:00] because this is really the only occasion that you would drink.
A hundred percent correct.
**Gizmo:** Aco. Like imagine put imagine siping this around a fire.
**Senator:** Well, right, exactly. You would not have this in the, to fall of winter, there's no doubt. But the point being for summer warmer weather, when you want a lighter scotch, that's when you're gonna reach for things like Glen Raney 10, DW 12, DW 15 or 15.
Yeah. This, um, Suntry, SRY, all of those different things, you know. Works. The finish is not offensive on it. No. When you have it with some ice and on a what? It's hot
**Bam Bam:** day's for what it is. It works. Yeah. It's not, the
**Poobah:** price is the only thing that's offensive and that's exactly right. That's the only thing offensive about it.
Is it my, is it my jam? No. Will it ever be No. But like if I was kicking back on somebody's deck and they were like, you want a scotch and the rocks and they poured this for me, I'd, I'd gulp it down. And
**Bam Bam:** personally, no. For me, for me that that's worth a seven. That experience for me is worth is a seven. No.
That's how I see it. Someone poured it for
**Poobah:** me. I'd fine. I'm never [01:03:00] buying it.
**Gizmo:** Of course.
**Bam Bam:** Neither am I. Me, neither am I. And the
**Senator:** only thing I would say, the other utility this probably has is if you think about someone who's just trying to get into the world of scotch, you always wanna start them with that's, that's the other one I didn't mention.
Glen Levitt. 12 is another great light summer scotch. Yeah. Entry. Entry levels Scot. Yeah, totally. And it's like, this is the kind of thing that would allow. A novice to get into the world of scotch and not be aggressive with too much flavor or a ton of pea. Yeah. It kind of starts them out with something mellower sweeter on the rocks as a gateway.
**Poobah:** Awesome. Yeah, you could, I see this as being used in like a, some sort of a high end scotch cocktail or something. Yeah. You could mix it. That works too with something, I don't know what you would make in a scotch cocktail, but some sort of, Fancy Scotch cocktail that's got like a piece of rosemary in it or something.
Do you know what I mean?
**Bam Bam:** Like rosewater rosewater,
**Poobah:** you know, like, you're like
**Bam Bam:** rumper. This is a special, uh, what is the
**Gizmo:** [01:04:00] composite score? The Composite Lizard score Boys is a flat 6.0
**Bam Bam:** Fair score. That's a, a very fair score. I'm glad I gave it a seven because you mutts downgrading this dance. It's, it's okay.
**Gizmo:** I was, I was looking at some of the others that you guys had mentioned.
Uh, the Sunter, Toki Japanese whiskey got an 8.0. Uh, and so did the Glen live at 12? Did we
**Bam Bam:** rate the down when he,
**Poobah:** those, those are significantly better
**Bam Bam:** than this. They are better. Yeah, they are. Did we ever do the dwin? 12, 15, uh, 15 year.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, we did. We did. I don't know. I don't know. That was a
**Senator:** really low score.
Yeah, if did It was not good. I, I I
**Gizmo:** hate that. Yeah, I know. Yeah. It was not good.
**Senator:** Okay. I just want to be clear, just quickly on like, this is kind of explaining why I don't think that this is all that terrible. Dal Winnie for, they don't have a 12. They sell, they start at 15, 15 years in a barrel, you would think would impart somewhat significant flavor.
It's not gonna be Macallan. They're trying to have a a, a lighter [01:05:00] bodied scotch. That's what they're going for. But at 15 years, like you would think, even this or Glen Glenlivet 12, if you have Glen Levitt 15, it's a very different experience. Yeah. There's complexity there. I can't believe how little flavor is in a 15 year scotch.
And the thing that pisses me off the most that they don't make a 12 and they start at 15, is the price point on that is it's expensive. It's not cheap. Yeah. It's like 80,
**Poobah:** $90 a bottle. It's, and I think it's distributed by Diageo along with the other, like some of the others, the Highland ones. Um, I remember drinking it 25 years ago.
Um, And even being like, this is actually my dad who's kind of, who likes, who likes Macallan. He's like, oh, you should try this Downy. It's like kind of nice. And I remember I tried it and just being like, okay, yeah, it's kind of nice. But I, I remember the first time I had it and I just, it was light, it was just a lighter scotch and he was like, this is good.
You know? And he, [01:06:00] and he would keep back then years and years ago, he would keep it, uh, in his house from time to time and he liked it, but you know, to each his own. Um, I
**Senator:** also don't like the aftertaste, kind of the finish that dow when he has, where this, I don't think the finishes of, I haven't had it's miner
**Bam Bam:** so long.
The finish is minerally and a little unusual. Yeah. I
**Poobah:** haven't had it in such a long time. It's hard for me to even remember what it's like. Is it
**Rooster:** Albany that has that? Box with the,
**Gizmo:** the deer head on it?
**Senator:** No,
**Gizmo:** that's, uh, that's Dalmore. Delmore. Oh, by the way, Dal one, he 15. I just looked, we, it got a 7.7. Ah, wow. Uh, the other one that edged this out a little bit, which is interesting.
Speaking of Dalmore, uh, we love the cigar malt. Uh, we that's got Yes. Did that. We love that. But the Dalmore 12 edged this out. Just a little bit of 6.2.
**Senator:** Totally different style though. That's a, that's not meant to compete with a light
**Bam Bam:** scotch like this. I'll go out on a limb and say, I'd rather have this than a Dell one 15.
I agree. Yeah. And if we gave that a seven, one, whatever it was, that's a crime.
**Senator:** Yeah. That's generous. It's a crime. Yeah. [01:07:00] I don't know. Especially at the price point. Yeah. It's absurd.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, we're coming to the end of the Kai Dorsey number 50. You guys ready to do the formal lizard rating on this thing?
All right, rooster, you're up. So this
**Rooster:** car was, it was, it was a little wet. It was, you know, if it, if it was dry boxed. I think this. Would be a nine. So for this cigarette, I'm gonna rate it for what
**Gizmo:** this is. Sure. Having it today, I'm gonna give it an eight. Okay. Puba? Yeah. I
**Poobah:** think in opt, if it was optimal, it would be.
A nine. It was, it was too damned towards the end to enjoy it as much as, but it's, yeah, I, I mean, I think it's a fair score. I almost don't want to give it that because I think it's better than that. I, I think for what it represents and what it could be in the future, and given the fact that this did have some, it was a little bit wet that impacted the performance.
I mean, I, I, I'm okay with rounding up to a nine for the scar because [01:08:00] Okay. I think it represents something that's unique. I think it represents, uh, the size, the, the, the flavor profile. You can see what's there. It just, not all of it. Was able to present itself today. Mm-hmm. Cause of those factors. So I'll give
**Gizmo:** it a nine.
So I'm not gonna factor in humidity to my rating. Neither am I. I'm gonna go out and say it right now. Yeah. I, I just, I, you know, I think that the cigar was really delicious. Um, I think where I'm gonna put it is in an eight, I think it's a, a higher eight. I don't think it reaches a nine. I think a Coronas Claro is, uh, you know, in between a nine and a 10 all day every day.
Well, we'll talk about those ratings, right? Yeah. We'll, you know, we'll talk about that. Um, but this cigar is an eight for me. I think. I, I think for how often, even for how much I enjoyed it, how, how often I'd reach for it, the size, um, it, all of that factors in for me. I'm not factoring humidity. This is an eight for me.
Um, really good cigar, but it's an eight Senator.[01:09:00]
**Senator:** Gotta think about this. I, I'm, I'm between an eight and a nine, but I, I know where I'm gonna land on this cigar. I'm gonna give this an eight. So here's the thing. Even taking out humidity or any of the performance around that. The flavor of this cigar with a year of age. I mean, number one, I, I still can't believe even with this being wet, I didn't get any rough edges.
It's so good. Which is absurd because honestly, almost any Cuban cigar with that, you smoke wet with not that much age. You're gonna get some rough edges. So I don't know how, but I never got that. So that's a testament to this cigar. That's
**Bam Bam:** all part of my commentary coming right up.
**Senator:** But
**Bam Bam:** that means ready to go to war.
What the fuck?
**Senator:** The thing I will say, however, when we were in Havana, the ones I got of these singles and I smoked, had a few years of age. I wanna say it was maybe like a 20 box. It was a, yeah, they were three years old. Yes. Yeah. And I will say that with that, the three years, that was a nine. And so at taking [01:10:00] humidity completely out of this equation at where this is with a year of age, it's an eight, which any cigar, that's an eight.
I would smoke. Again, I obviously enjoy this many mornings and so, um, I think it's a testament that with just a year of age, even this cigars already an eight. And when Puba talks about the potential it has, I know the potential exists because having it with just three years, that would put it at a nine.
And I've never had any older than that. And I'd be curious what that experience is like. So for me, a 2020. One, what was that, 2020
**Gizmo:** I think it was.
**Senator:** No, no, this box A 22. So a 2022 box of these I think is an eight. And I would definitely recommend Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. This is gonna be really tough. I don't think I'll be very well liked, but I think I've been debating between a seven and eight.
Um. The problem with my cigar was I had to really touch it up quite a few times and it was somewhat funneling in between, and then it just, you know, it did somehow catch up to its burn and it did get restored towards the end. Uh, having said that, very, [01:11:00] very pleasant to smoke. I will definitely pursue it, um, at least for a morning cigar.
And I, I'll tell you, I remember the morning when we were on the, was it the terrace? And we were just hanging out in the morning for breakfast and me Oh yeah. In Havana. Oh yeah. That was a great, that was a, I really enjoyed the cigar then, so I know that I can rate it a bit higher, but to be fair to the process and the way I score every time, uh, I'll have to give it a seven.
Okay.
**Gizmo:** So the composite lizard score, wait, I didn't fucking
**Bam Bam:** score a damn thing. You did that on purpose, did you? Yes, I did. You know, my blood is boiling now.
**Poobah:** That's why I did it. Pam's about to give it an 11.
**Bam Bam:** I'm gonna have an aneurysm right now. All right. Let me take a step back. I listened to everything that all of you said, and Senator, you hit it on the head for a cigar.
That was so that that had a high amount of moisture in it. Even so it had no rough edges. That's a testament to the mark and the performance of it and the [01:12:00] quality of it. That cigar is a nine. It's a nine, and it would, it could potentially be a 10. Like that cigar that we had in Cuba, that could be a 10.
Quite easily a 10. I'm going nine all day long.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Thank you. Bam. All right, so the composite, the
**Bam Bam:** composite lizard score. Don, you ever do that to me again? Alright. My heart sank it to my stomach
**Poobah:** and thank you. Bam. All right.
**Gizmo:** Thank you. Bam. So boys, the composite lizard score on the Kor say number 50 is an 8.2.
All right. And I think that's a fair score. Yeah, that's for just a year of age is a great story. I mean, come on. All right, so let's talk about some of our other Kai. Uh, ratings on the podcast. The first one we ever did was, of course, the Coronas Claro, which we love to death. Got a 9.4, which performed brilliantly.
It did, yeah. The Kai Dorse QD 54, which is the sister to this. [01:13:00] It got a 7.8 and the K Doe Sid Doris El from 2019. Got a 9.0. Wow. Yeah, so I think an, I think an 8.2 is really
**Senator:** fair. I think it works. It's fair cuz I'm sorry. It does, I do prefer this to the QD
**Gizmo:** 54. I do too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fair. Same. And I think it's, but I don't think it's that far off.
It's a sister. But I agree. I think that, you know those four points, seven, eight to an eight two, I think that's the right score. I think Thero is the best of the marker. Oh yeah. Which one? The Claro. Correct. Totally agree. Then that's
**Senator:** 54. And I have to ask giz, uh, am I vindicated for the con for context for listeners?
Yeah. We need context. Gizmo has said he really has no interest, doesn't like the QD 50. Doesn't understand why I like it so much. Do you now see why
**Gizmo:** I like it so much? I understand why you like it so much. Yes, but I, I understand it in the context of the application in which you use it. Yes. And I never see you pull this [01:14:00] out of the lounge.
It's only when you're having, you know, so I understand your application and why you love it. It's just not a cigar that I'm gonna stock in my humidor because it doesn't work in my, in my
**Senator:** rotation. This, the other thing I'll say, why I emphasize a morning, this is such a great morning cigar, the fact that it's a petite rib robusto.
Mm-hmm. I don't necessarily always want a full rib robusto in the morning. Some mornings I do and I have more time, but other mornings I don't have as much time and I want something smaller. I don't want something as small as an up and half Corona or, uh, Monty Meia Corona. Right. Those are little cigars.
Mm-hmm. This is the perfect size for me for the morning, and it has just the right amount of flavor. The combustion's great. So when I talk about that application, it just checks every single box for the morning, the afternoon in a way that many other cigars just can't. It's true.
**Bam Bam:** It computes, right? It fits a plugin.
If fits
**Gizmo:** right in. I
**Rooster:** mean, do you guys not smoke in the morning ever? Like even on
**Gizmo:** the weekends? I would love the weekend smoke in the morning. What? I smoke in the morning. Morning. Find time. I, I love Alan Soro in the morning. [01:15:00] That's my ola in the morning. Cuz when I sit down and have a cigar, that's weird. I don't have 30 or 45 minutes.
That's weird. Iro in the morning I do, I don't have 30 or 4 45 minutes. I usually, if I'm, if I have time, I'm gonna have more than that. You know, I'm gonna have an hour
**Poobah:** 15. I smoke man. Sarah's a lot slower than you. Um, but, uh, I, yeah. How that's a commitment for a morning cigar.
**Gizmo:** It's, yeah, I'm ready
**Senator:** to commit.
I mean, in the morning it's like I have a whole day ahead of me. I have a whole bunch of shit I have to get done. Mm-hmm. So I ideally just want something 30 to an hour and that's it. I need to move on. I, I don't have
**Gizmo:** two hours. Sounds. It sounds like you have commitment issues. Senators is, that's something we need to dig into.
Oh boy. He's
**Senator:** got a nine month old. In fairness, I think. Every one of us agrees except you. So what, what
**Gizmo:** are you doing with your life? Here we go. Here comes another lizard poll. Oh, he's got, he's gotta rotate the champagne bottle. That's right. That's right. That's two hours
**Senator:** a day. Seriously? Who in the morning wants to spend an hour and a half with his, their first cigar?
Like, that's meant to be quick. If I had a choice. Get your shit [01:16:00] done. Yeah. If, yeah, exactly. Well, if we had a choice, but in the reality of our life, I mean, we all
**Gizmo:** That's true. Well, my point is that I'm very rarely having a cigar before, you know, before dinner. Yeah. You don't even smoke many morning cigars. I don't.
Yeah. This, and again, that factors into how often this is gonna appear. Well, I mean, this commentary then makes sense. Yeah. It's just, it just doesn't happen. You know, it's like for the one
**Senator:** morning, uh, every several weeks, it's like, sure you have a lanzaro. There you go. But if you smoked every morning in the summer months, like many of us do.
Mm-hmm. I mean, root stories, post photos, I, anytime it's warm out every day.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Well, first day do is you're not, you're not going for a QD 50. You got a part, this, uh, God knows what, or
**Gizmo:** I know drone 90th D six, D six, or even listen, even in the same size of D five. For Parus. Oh, the D D six over the D five.
Me.
**Senator:** Thank you. For me.
**Bam Bam:** For everyone real? Yes. Well, I don't know. I like the D five
**Gizmo:** more than the D six. No,
**Bam Bam:** that's what we're saying. But I do, I like the D five. I can't
**Gizmo:** say I hate it. Yeah, no, no, I
**Rooster:** never said that, but I'm saying I'll take a D six
**Gizmo:** over a
**Poobah:** D five. Okay. Got to me. D six is the Are fantastic. I'm [01:17:00] sure they are
**Gizmo:** great cigars.
They're very good. Can't wait to try 'em. All right, boys. Well, what a fantastic night. First off, happy birthday Puba. Oh, thank you. Always nice to celebrate a lizard birthday on the pod. Yes. Thank you. And selfishly, because we get to have Paul er and we get to watch Senator throw a. A cork across the room with his saber, which is fantastic.
Gotta mapped the floor now. Gotta mapped the floor. So for the, what is this shitty scotch we had called och. Och. It's not a knock for the och. 12 year aged single malt scotch. It was a 6.0 and for the CAE number 50 it was an 8.2.
**Senator:** Don't worry gizmo, we can sabor a bottle of Enoch for your birthday.
**Poobah:** Throw the smoke the cigar, throw the scotch on the lake.
**Gizmo:** Exactly. I'm gonna stay home that day. All right, boys. Great night. Happy Birthday Pupa. We'll see you all next week. Keep smoking. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings [01:18:00] archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's Lounge lizards p o d.com.
Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello lounge lizards pod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll uh, we'll see you next week.