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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!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast, presented by Fabrica 5. 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, Chef Ricky, Grinder, and Bam Bam, a full house of lizards, and our plan is to smoke a cigar and have fun.
Drink some tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 152nd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're going to smoke a new world cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss the release of Padron's new 60th anniversary cigar. We return to El Tesoro in a different expression, and we answer some listener email, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, relax, and enjoy. Get your favorite drink, light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair El Tesoro Tequila Reposado with the Padron Family Reserve No.
50 in natural. A Nicaraguan Robusto on the pod tonight. [00:01:00] It's the Padron Family Reserve No. 50 in natural, and it's a 54 ring gauge cigar by 5 inches long. And boys, I have never had this Padron. Neither have I.
**Rooster:** Yes, you have.
**Gizmo:** Never have had the natural 50 year.
**Bam Bam:** Grinder handed these out when his, uh, child
**Gizmo:** was born.
Oh, yes, the, the celebration stick. I, I am a liar.
**Bam Bam:** I don't think I was there for that. So I haven't had this. You haven't gotten one? No, no, I've never had this he has three boxes of these? But he doesn't have one of yours. That's, you know what, that's true. It's a
**Gizmo:** beautiful little cigar.
**Bam Bam:** It's exquisitely made.
Wrapper is perfect.
**Gizmo:** The Family Reserve series obviously has 10 years of age on it. So I would expect that this is going to be a An exquisite experience tonight. And we
**Rooster:** don't, we don't
**Senator:** usually smoke in natural.
**Rooster:** No,
**Senator:** we don't. That's what
**Gizmo:** Maduro.
**Senator:** That's the momentous occasion. Correct. It's the first Pedro natural that we're reviewing on the podcast.
Not true.
**Gizmo:** We did the 1964 Torpedo in natural because it won Cigar of the Year a couple of years ago. That's right. Ah. What a memory. But not in the family reserve. [00:02:00] Not in family reserve. All right, boys, let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper.
**Bam Bam:** Of course, it's wide open.
**Gizmo:** It's like a thick little Robusto.
**Bam Bam:** Beautiful draw.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah, wide open. And the flavor on it is wonderful.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's almost like, am I getting like a,
**Bam Bam:** like a honey or something? I think it's like a tapioca. Very faint tapioca for me. That's a nice, that's a great call out. Very faint.
**Chef Ricky:** Look at you, Ben. Wow. Must have had bubble tea earlier this week. Laughter Uh, correct. Laughter
**Gizmo:** This cold draw, if this translates to the actual smoke tonight, it's going to be awesome.
Chef Ricky, he's already lighting the
**Senator:** cigar. Of course, that's a breach of protocol. How's the, uh, how's the
**Gizmo:** medium warm draw? [00:03:00] It's a rookie
**Bam Bam:** move. It's all right. He's in, he's in probation.
**Chef Ricky:** It's pretty, it's pretty funny. Cause you guys were all saying how, Oh, we never had a natural. Oh, we never had the cigar.
And I was going to say, well, you guys get your shit together. And now here I am. Ricky, it's not until
**Gizmo:** Giz says, let's like, I thought he said, I'm
**Chef Ricky:** sorry.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's light this thing.
The Padron family reserve number 50 in natural. Again, this is a 54 ring gauge cigar by five inches long.
**Bam Bam:** So as I'm lighting, I have a question for you guys. Have, has anyone here had the Exclusivo in natural? Yes. Yes. Yeah. I did too. I don't love it. I didn't hate it. Honestly, it was very pleasant.
**Gizmo:** It's just hard for me in that line for anything to stand up to the Exclusivo and Maduro.
Of course. So it's like, from a comparison standpoint, I just never reach for that cigar in the natural.
**Bam Bam:** And [00:04:00] isn't there a misnomer in the industry where most people assume that a Maduro cigar is stronger than a natural cigar? Absolutely. That's not necessarily true. Not at all. So when you take that particular cigar, what's the point of making it a natural?
Really?
**Gizmo:** I think it's just a preference in flavor. I mean, Jorge Padron himself prefers the family reserve
**Grinder:** in natural. Yeah. I think they make most of their cigars in both, right? I think so. I
**Gizmo:** think almost all of them. Yeah.
**Grinder:** As, uh, as Poobah would say, it's a, it's like a familiar friend.
**Gizmo:** It's really smooth and nice on the light.
**Bam Bam:** Have you retro'd yet? Again, anyone getting a faint hint of lemon?
**Poobah:** I didn't know where you're going to take that. I was waiting for dried fruit. Can you not,
**Rooster:** can you not call it lemon, please? It's specifically citrus.
**Pagoda:** Someone's like, [00:05:00] Citrus
**Bam Bam:** tapioca. On the retro. Lemon bubble tea. Just a bit of citrus. I agree,
**Gizmo:** there definitely is a little bit of something there on the retro. That's cool. I would also say it's on the front of my tongue on the normal draw too. I think there's a touch of it there.
**Bam Bam:** This is delicious.
**Senator:** No one's mentioned.
I also get a lot of nuttiness. There's even a little bit of a coffee note. Like, this is great. I, I say this 'cause I never really pursue Pedro and natural, but Correct. This is delicious on the light. Yeah, it's
**Rooster:** natural. It's, I mean, the wrapper is natural, but yet it's full. It's like,
**Bam Bam:** it's
**Rooster:** not, you
**Bam Bam:** know, meat.
It's, it's not meek and body. Right. If
**Rooster:** you had a blindfold on, you would think it's a Maduro. Yeah. Not a natural
**Chef Ricky:** agree. I, I feel like I'm having the opposite. Uh, for me, the natural is I'm not getting. That intense depth of flavor that I would feel I'd get out of a Maduro, a Pedro Maduro especially. Um, it's going to take [00:06:00] a, it might be because I just, you know, lit too early, but.
But no. We're
**Gizmo:** putting an asterisk on your reading. For the early light. He's under review. It's a demerit. That's all right.
**Bam Bam:** Once again, another rookie move. He's on a PIP. He's on a PIP. Is
**Poobah:** that a performance improvement? Well, we'll take your training wheels
**Grinder:** off next episode.
**Gizmo:** I love that you've been here for about 10 episodes and you're finally getting bullied.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, is he getting bullied? . That ain't bullying my, uh, young grasshopper.
**Poobah:** It, it'll, it'll build this cigar. Is the, the bullying or the cigar ? Both. Both?
**Rooster:** Yes.
**Bam Bam:** This is delicious.
**Poobah:** Super nice. Right? Super. So these
**Gizmo:** cigars come in boxes of 10. They range from somewhere between 300 2360 for the box. So you're looking for a [00:07:00] low to mid thirties.
Mm-Hmm. . A 30 cigar in your hand.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I like that. I mean, I like that price point for something that's consistent and dependable. And extremely well made. Doesn't, doesn't bother me. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And the one thing, and we talked about this with Opus on, on the last episode, the Fuente Fuente Opus X, uh, Viento de Mor, I think it was called, the Opus Dubai.
And we, we, we questioned, or we talked about the age of the tobacco in the cigar and how it changed. It doesn't necessarily taste, you know, like aged tobacco does, at least what we've experienced. And the one thing I will say about Padron for a cigar that's maybe a third of the price of that Opus Dubai, I know when it says that this is 10 years aged tobacco, that it's not only 10 aged tobacco, 10 years aged tobacco, but it's going to taste like mature tobacco.
And whatever Padron does. That consistency, like you're saying, you just know that it's going to be really, really [00:08:00] solid and it's going to pick up and it's going to turn into something great. That's the entire Padron story.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Poobah:** it is. And when it comes to Dominican tobacco, um, I think Davidoff on the other side of the fence, uh, with the, with what they do with Dominican tobacco is, is.
It's similar, you know, every, every blend may not be for you, but, um, whatever side of the fence you're on, I feel like within their lines, there's something for you. And in this whole Cuban price gouging or whatever you want to call it, these types of cigars for me, I'm reaching for more. Davidoffs. And we've gone a little bit deeper into the lines a little bit, and I think that that's, uh, I think that's a result of the podcast.
**Gizmo:** Are you guys getting like a, that's, that's sweet thing. It's almost like, um, [00:09:00] it's almost like, um, those, those sweet almonds that you buy. They're like sugary almonds. Jordan
**Chef Ricky:** almonds. Yeah, they're like
**Gizmo:** honey, honey roast, honey roasted almonds. That's what I'm getting. Honey roasted almonds. Um, they come in the little tin
**Bam Bam:** I'm getting maybe faints of honey still tapioca for me and senator mentioned a little coffee I'm getting a bit of espresso.
I think
**Chef Ricky:** so. I think I realized what's wrong with my palate today Have you guys all smoked a cigar prior to this? No, I did not. Okay, so usually for me, I find, and I, I always enjoy Padrones more after Cuban especially. But I find that if I start with a Padrone, initially the, the, the, the first few draws are always a little bit pepper, like they lean very peppery, uh, for me.
They lean very dark in flavor, uh, and it takes time. a little bit, you know, maybe after that first third for me to get through where I start pulling out sweeter notes. Uh, and I just realized cause it's very rare that the [00:10:00] first cigar smoke is when I get to the pod that today is the first time I didn't smoke a cigar prior to coming.
**Senator:** Yeah. You've just got to let the smoke roll down your tongue. That's it, yeah. I don't know if you see my facial expressions as I'm sitting
**Chef Ricky:** here and I'm doing all these things to try to get my palate adjusted. Because, or just take a big gulp
**Senator:** and, you know, just go for
**Poobah:** it. Well, I mean, Senator's not wrong. I just had a, uh, I know you're, you're joking, but it's, I just had an exclusivo before I came in here.
To me, this is completely, it's completely different. I mean, the delivery right now is, is mild. I would agree. I would say medium. I mean, yeah, I don't mean, yeah, yes, but compare this
**Gizmo:** to compare this to the cigar in the 1926 series. We talk about Rooster with his Maduro 90. That's a
**Bam Bam:** different story, which
**Gizmo:** has only a five years age tobacco and that blend how it, you know, knocks you on your ass.
Really? That knocks me on mine. I know Rooster has it for [00:11:00] breakfast, but I'm shocked at how smooth and and Easy. This is to smoke. Sure. But it's interesting. It's very interesting and it's complex. Exactly. You know, it's, it's a refined smoke.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I'm actually mad at myself that after having the one that grinder gave us that I didn't go try more because this is absolutely something that could enter a semi regular rotation.
No doubt about
**Bam Bam:** it.
**Senator:** I agree. I remembered being very, very pleasantly surprised and impressed when grinder handed these out. Yup. Um, but I forgot because just natural is never top of mind for me with padrone. And I think whoever said it's a refined smoke, like it's not that other padrones aren't refined, it's just the flavor delivery is so bold and so present your, there's nothing subtle about it where with this cigar, like the flavors there, but it's subtle in its delivery.
And, um, I think, you know, sometimes when you have to be a little [00:12:00] more thoughtful about what you're getting in the cigar, there's, there's something refined when you're able to pull out many notes and you really have to kind of think and appreciate each of them.
**Pagoda:** That's a very elegant way of saying it. I think we're done here, guys.
**Chef Ricky:** You must communicate for a living. Now I'm past the pepper, the slight harshness I was experiencing. It's like full on honey roasted almond. I'm getting all of that right now. It's really
**Bam Bam:** quite
**Chef Ricky:** delicious. So yeah. Yeah. Because for a minute I was sitting there like, what the hell are you guys smoking?
Because that wasn't my experience.
**Grinder:** My challenge with this scar is typically I, I run it hot because I can't stop puffing on it. And that's what's happening right now, by the way. It's just, it keeps me coming back.
**Pagoda:** Oh yeah. I experienced actually exactly what you did, a little bit of pepper in the beginning and then I still feel a little bit of harshness in the back of my throat, but it's really interesting because there's a little bit of sweetness that goes and then after a while it's a little bit harsh.
So I don't know, I just want to give it a few [00:13:00] more minutes. I'm surprised. I'm not getting any of that. I'm surprised. Any of the harshness. It might be this corner of the room. No, it's the back. Yeah, no, absolutely.
**Senator:** The only thing I'll say to that, I did. On some of the first few puffs with this cigar, like there's a little bit of spice that I was getting in the back of my throat, but I feel like once you get in at least a quarter of an inch, everything just kind of settles in and it's perfectly heated.
And for me, it's like such a sweet and, and like creamy kind of finish, velvety smoke. It's, uh, any of that, it's, it's happening.
**Chef Ricky:** It's happening now, like
**Grinder:** cream soda, like from what I recall. I also believe that these are actually, you know, for pound for pound, they pack a lot of punch as far as nicotine. And I don't know the kind of tobacco that's in here necessarily, um, but I know that from what I, you know, somebody in my queue see this and say that's.
It's very smooth. It is very smooth. Yeah. Sure.
**Chef Ricky:** I think. Now, now it's a different cigar. A hundred percent.
**Senator:** I think what Grindr said, the family reserve [00:14:00] line. I think packs a punch in terms of nicotine, but this cigar, I mean, I vividly remember when you gave these out and so far with this one, what I liked is it, it never really punched me with nicotine and I feel like this is one of the tamer blends nicotine wise in the family reserve line, which I really like.
Yeah. I think that's right
**Bam Bam:** about
**Senator:** the 26th.
**Rooster:** Oh yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And yeah, exactly.
**Rooster:** I mean, I love the 85th, the family reserve, the 85th. That's probably my favorite. From
**Bam Bam:** time to time. Yeah. Not on a consistent basis. True.
**Grinder:** I love the slow retro on these. It's like creamy. It's incredible. Yeah. It's
**Bam Bam:** incredible.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I think you do need to take your time with it.
I think a little bit. If, if, if you heat it up too much, you're not going to do it justice. You got to really.
**Grinder:** It's a, it's a delicate cigar though. Like it's, it, the wrapper is very fine. It's very, you know, you can, you can see how much it, it, it envelopes the, the, the tobacco and the binder. [00:15:00] Um, it, you know, it gets stuck in there.
**Bam Bam:** The aroma on the foot is, is outstanding. It's excellent.
**Gizmo:** It's excellent. There's
**Bam Bam:** almost a sweetness to the aroma. There is.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, the, the, the retro hale, the smell at the foot, smell at the head of the cigar, and the typical draw. Yeah. All very, very complimentary. It's coming together beautifully.
**Bam Bam:** The smell
**Gizmo:** at the burn
**Bam Bam:** line is like you're in a bakery.
Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. Very slight, um, um, Baking spice, I think. Yeah. It's almost a savory aroma too.
**Chef Ricky:** It's not just sweet. It's a little savory. And I like how the,
**Gizmo:** the burn line, it's like making my nostrils flare, but in a good way, like it's like almost like awakening the senses, you know? It's really, really nice.
**Poobah:** Yeah. And I think for the, for like an intermediate smoker, I wouldn't necessarily give this to someone who's like a novice, but for like an intermediate guy, this is an, it's, it's approachable in terms of its delivery. It's not overpowering. I'm [00:16:00] not getting a ton of nicotine. Um, I'm getting like really rich.
I know the sounds generic, but tobacco flavor, there's earthy notes in here. There's sweet notes in here. And so for me, this is performing great. Like I could, I could smoke this mid day on an empty stomach almost at this point. Do you know what I mean? It's not. Honestly,
**Bam Bam:** I could do this with coffee in the morning as well.
I think you get that earthiness.
**Rooster:** Earthiness comes through most of the Padramas, so you do get that earthiness. That's
**Poobah:** right. Uh, a hundred. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, man.
**Grinder:** So pairing this with a coffee is one of my favorite mornings. Yeah. You can tell it's, it would be
**Poobah:** great. So you smoke this in the morning is what?
I smoke this all the time. I would, yeah.
**Grinder:** Oh, yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. That I, I, I think it's like an afternoon, you know, go back, you know, you watching the US Open or whatever. Addicted. I was so addicted to the open. I mean, you guys saw in the text, it was probably so annoying. Microfiche. [00:17:00] Um, but this is like a perfect cigar for me when I'm road, like I'm outside and on the patio and Yeah, you're having a cocktail.
Maybe it's not a scotch, but it's, uh, whatever, anything, anything a German client said with an espresso. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is a pretty, so far it feels versatile to me. Absolutely.
**Chef Ricky:** I'm just curious, Pagoda, did it 180 on you? Are you, are you there now? Cause I'm fully on the sweet side now.
**Pagoda:** Totally. No, I'm getting a little bit of the sweetness and like towards the back for sure.
But it's not like the pronounced sweetness which you get in a Maduro. You know, anyone, like if you have, uh, Padrones with Maduro wrappers, you get, like for me, it's very pronounced, like very distinct flavors. Out here, this is, yeah, very, uh, subtle in its own right, with a little bit of sweetness in the back.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I think the Maduro wrapper might bring a richer smoke. Yeah. Something a little bit denser or heavier perhaps.
**Senator:** I'll also just say the slower you smoke [00:18:00] this, the sweeter the flavor profile you're gonna get, and I think the more rewarding agreed dude. A hundred percent. It goes back, I said I slow down so much, slow it down, and the sweet notes are that much more pronounced.
It's just, it's burning cooler so you're able to extract because the draws so open. Also the temperature,
**Bam Bam:** keep keeping it cool. Yeah. You get that experience for sure. Back to what Pupa said earlier.
**Poobah:** Yeah. And, and like, like I've said so many times in this podcast, like when you smoke a good cigar, sometimes you take that deep breath in between draws and it, it, uh, like, like you can see yourself
**Bam Bam:** truly
**Poobah:** slowing down and relaxing with the smoke and letting the cigar take you where it needs to go.
And, and that's always
**Rooster:** a
**Poobah:** merit.
**Rooster:** Some of the family reserve lines, I think they give you an espresso note, like dark espresso. This is more like chocolate. It's not an espresso [00:19:00] bean.
**Bam Bam:** I had for earlier for me, it was like a deep coffee espresso for me, honestly. Yeah. And the finish, I'm getting a little bit of coffee.
**Poobah:** You know, but I think at the beginning, sometimes, you know, we all use the, I don't know, I'll go back to it again if this is redundant, I apologize, but I think we all use these torches. And oh boy, we all use these torches and you guys know back at the old lounge, I always use, I tried to use the matches as much as I could.
I'm not, I'm just saying like sometimes when you heat the foot of a cigar up with these torches. You're not wrong. Get them lit. Yeah. You know, you're going to get a little bit and you got to purge it. And then once the thing settles in, I think the first impression can be like, well, it's peppery or it's this or it's that.
And the other thing, like taking your time and toasting the foot, if you want to get the cigar off, like really on the right, On the right foot, no pun intended, um, toasting the foot and like [00:20:00] not, you know, I think there's something to it. You know what I mean? There's
**Bam Bam:** absolutely something to it. I think it's great advice.
It's a must. Right?
**Chef Ricky:** It's burning beautifully.
**Grinder:** That's how actually, uh, Poobah and I first met was, I was using the, the long wooden matchsticks. And I, that's just because this
**Gizmo:** makes so much, I would, I would, I would, I mean, this is all adding up. You, you were like, Oh, you're
**Grinder:** using the, the, the soft flame you're using the matches.
I respect that. And I was like, Oh, this six foot five motherfucker just said he likes me. Let's be friends.
**Poobah:** You like that? Well, you know, you're like that. Well, back at that, for some reason, back at that, Uh, at our previous lounge, I would just take the cedar. Um, I I'd make my own little cedar spills and light a cigar that way.
And you're a craftsman. Uh, I don't know. I'm not a craftsman. He just built his own scotch. He brewed his own beer. Cedar spills. He made his own cedar
**Gizmo:** [00:21:00] spills. All right, boys, let's talk about the family reserve line from Padron. They have a bunch of cigars. All of the line signifies special family anniversary dates.
So the 1926 line, some of those celebrate Jose Padron's birthdays over the years, milestone birthdays. And this line highlights different milestones in the company's history. So let's go through them real quick. They have the number 44, which is a torpedo 52 by six. They have the number 45, which is like, yes, like a.
Robusto extra 52 by six. That one cigar, aficionado cigar. The year in 2009, they have the number 46, which is 56 by five and a half. The number 85, we did that cigar. We'll talk about that rating later. That's 50 by five and a quarter. They have the number 50 that we're smoking right now, of course, which is 54 by five.
The newest entrant to the line is the number 95, which is the 60 ring gauge. By four and three quarters inches long. That's a big ring [00:22:00] gauge. So this is 54. This is 54. Yep. In the mouth. It doesn't feel like that. I think the box press helps. Yeah. It really, to me, doesn't feel that much bigger than an exclusiva from the 64 line.
So any listener out there who's looking for Padron history, this is the seventh Padron cigar we've done on the podcast. So we've covered Padron history ad nauseum on the other six episodes. So we're not going to do that tonight. Really the big notable thing that we should talk about is that 2024 is the 60th anniversary of Padron and they celebrated that as we covered quite a bit on our PCA recap episode and the 60th anniversary cigar has begun shipping boys.
We talked about this cigar a lot. It's beautiful. It's a perfecto. I love it. That's 48 ring gauge at its most slender to 56 at its thickest. So it goes up and then back down and it's six inches long. And is it, what's it 110? No, so they announced the price. And this is what I wanted to [00:23:00] talk to you guys about.
They just announced this a couple of weeks ago. They are shipping and selling for 75 a piece. So the, the, I think the greater cigar community is a little shocked by that price saying that it's another 25 bump from the hammer, the 50 year hammer, uh, which is not to be confused with the cigar we have in our hand.
It's a, it's a. Totally separate cigars celebrating 50 years of Padron. Going up another 25 on that, like, we're approaching that 100 price point for a cigar. And it is kind of a bummer that, not that Padron is a budget cigar line, by no means, but, I just don't like this creeping of these prices getting to triple digits, like, Isn't it
**Bam Bam:** more of a norm than not in the industry now?
**Gizmo:** Well, it's going that way.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, so it's heading in that direction. I was
**Gizmo:** hoping Padron would buck the trend a little bit. I agree with you.
**Grinder:** It's a luxury item now. It's not a consumer item. It's, it's changing [00:24:00] its, its whole persona, the industry. Right. I think
**Rooster:** they're kind of following in the Cuban footstep.
**Grinder:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** You know, you see what's happening with the Cuban prices, so. A colossal mistake in my opinion.
**Bam Bam:** People are running away from Cubans because of the price. I
**Senator:** don't have a problem with Padron going f For a premium price point on certain kind of special or limited releases. Like everybody's doing it.
Davidoff's been doing it for ages now. Obviously Fuente does that with the Opus line plenty. Or Monte Cristo.
**Bam Bam:** That awful cigar that they have that. Oh yeah. That's expensive. It's expensive. I forgot about that. It's
**Senator:** awful. It's crazy. But I, I think like 75 is just a bit aggressive. Like you think of even Davidoff, you know, the year of Chinese new year releases.
Yeah. We always complain that those are expensive, but those are like 50 at most 60 bucks, 75. Like there is not many cigars in that price point among new world cigars. So I just think it's a little, it's a little much, but none of us have smoked it. Who [00:25:00] knows? Maybe it's spectacular.
**Grinder:** Is it going to be like a standard production cigar?
I think
**Gizmo:** it's going to exist like the 50 year hammer does, but I think it's going to be limited in limited in where it is available. I don't know if you're going to be able to buy these in bulk at retailers online. They may only ship to brick and mortar initially. They come in these beautiful coffins, 10 coffins to a box, 750 MSRP on that box.
But it's just the thing that, that rubs me again is, and we talked about this when we discussed the Fuente Legends collaboration that Padron did and the high price on, on that box and those cigars. Now I, I know that that's a charity thing and that's a very limited release. That's. Really made for the whales out there who collect Padron and maybe even more so Arturo Fuente high end stuff.
But what I don't like is that, that a guy walking into a shop wanting to pick up the new Padron release that 75 price point, it just, it just shakes me a little bit more than Habanos does with their crazy prices or even Davidoff does sometimes, like I've always put [00:26:00] Padron in a bit of a different category pricing wise, uh, that, that their highest end cigar, I could get that price point.
Patron hammer at any retailer
**Bam Bam:** anywhere
**Gizmo:** for, for 50. And a lot of times I find it less than that. So 75 to me seems like a lot, but, you know, having
**Pagoda:** said that the David off Maduro that came out, the robustos and the retail store about 55 bucks in New York, it's 65 plus. Yeah, that's the New York tax. Yeah.
Plus New York tax. Correct. So then they're going for about 75.
**Gizmo:** Has anyone tried this at all? It's just coming out now. I have not seen any images of it at local retailers. This is certainly more attractive to me to try versus the Legends collaboration. I certainly will try this, but to, you know, I just, it, that price point is robbing me.
What
**Senator:** shape? What, what, what's the Vitola?
**Gizmo:** It's the Perfecto. So it. That's what I thought. I remembered. So like
**Senator:** the other thing that's just challenging with that. I mean, we love the Padrone 80th so much. Mm hmm. And that's [00:27:00] 38 bucks, 30 something dollars. So they've got to beat that cigar for me to ever pay 75 again, after trying that for the first time.
So I almost wish they would have chosen a different size and shape for that cigar, just because that's cigarism. I think almost impossible to beat and it's a fraction of the price. So there's, that's going to be hard.
**Gizmo:** Very similar to the 80 year. That you're talking about from the 1926 line. A cigar that we all, you know, love and, and It's the highest rated cigar in the pod.
One of the highest, one of the highest rated, at least New World. It got perfect tens. Yes it did. Yeah. But, like that 80th, this cigar is only being made by one pair of Rollers. Rollers. That's right. At the Padron factory. So two human beings are in charge of making every single one of these 60th anniversary cigars.
So then you have the, the, just the, the scarcity on the supply side of how many cigars can they make a day? A hundred? Fifty? It's not a
**Poobah:** lot. Not a lot. [00:28:00] And I think as a group, we believe. And the ethos of Padron in terms of, you know, the type of quality product that they put out, the consistency, the ethos of the company, their whole approach, their family business.
And if they're going to put a cigar out like this at 75 bucks, check, you know, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. Let's check it out. And, um, it is what it is where I think Davidoff commercially does some things that are a little bit more. You know, marketing aggressive for lack of a better term, you know, where there's, there's more hype in the box presentation.
There's more hype in the, the branding and the naming and the,
**Senator:** you know what I mean? And tying it to some random thing like Chinese new year, that's not. It doesn't mean anything to the brand itself and they're relevant. It's irrelevant.
**Poobah:** Yeah, yeah, yeah. Correct. There's like [00:29:00] a wholesome and kind of, um, there's an authentic nature to the Padron brand where if they're going to price a cigar at 75 bucks, I think that that family is going to probably make sure it lives up to that.
I, so I give them kind of the benefit of the doubt. And that was all set. Davidoff, you know, Davidoff does this thing with the Royal and all these, they have these in the other boxes, you mentioned the Chinese stuff. Releases, you know what I mean? The Chinese new year, the
**Gizmo:** Chinese new year stuff. Hey, did you guys try the new Davidoff Chinese stuff?
You know,
**Poobah:** it's kind of, it's a lot, there's a, there's a lot of hype and marketing and gimmicky, it's a little gimmicky and Patron doesn't engage in that. So I would give this thing the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's, maybe it's worth, you know, maybe it's worth 75 bucks. I mean, there's. You know,
**Rooster:** very, very
**Gizmo:** fair.
**Rooster:** Did they not also come out with the SD [00:30:00] DuPont, uh, so those lighters
**Gizmo:** they've pretty much done, I think three or four of the different lighters, uh, from SD DuPont are coming out now with 60th anniversary Padron branding on them and colors. So they're Brown. They have the. The outline of, of, of Cuba on them, 60 years, you know, it's a celebration of that, but I would imagine that those are going to go for a significant premium, even above what S.
T. DuPont normally sells their lighters for. And we saw those at PCA
**Bam Bam:** in Vegas when they unveiled it. When does the cigar, when can we expect it in retail stores?
**Gizmo:** It's shipping now, so I would assume, you know, probably, I would say it's going to be fairly Holiday time. Reasonable to find by, you know, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, around that time.
So boys, let's talk about our tequila pairing tonight. We are back to one of the group's favorites, El Tesoro, but this time, the Tequila Reposado. Which is the sister to the añejo that we did on the pod. That [00:31:00] we love so much. We, we, we really enjoyed it. I don't think it scored as high as it probably should have.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** But I'm curious how the, uh, the Repo's gonna do tonight.
**Bam Bam:** Again,
**Gizmo:** questioning the lizard rating.
**Chef Ricky:** It's an indictment. This stuff is amazing. Uh, always is, always has been, hopefully always will be. This is, uh, Carlos Camarena's tribute to his grandfather, Don Felipe Camarena. Uh, coming out of Gnome 1139, which has been around since 1937.
I'm not sure when exactly this was first released, but it's, it's great stuff. You know, everything's done. That's, you know, super artisanal methods. I think one of my favorite things about this tequila. Uh, or this line is that they use wood in fermentation vats. So, I'm a, you know, you guys hear me talk about wood all the time.
Um, I'm, I'm a big fan of it. You know, because it brings another level of funk and depth and, and richness to, to the final product versus using stainless steel tanks, uh, for fermentation or cement, [00:32:00] you know, uh, basins or whatnot for fermentation. So, this, this stuff is, it's, it's great. It's amazing. Uh, you know, I mean on the nose, I'm getting caramel, a little bit of citrus, uh, canela, specifically Mexican cinnamon, not like, uh, you know, baking, uh, spice cinnamon.
Uh, it's just a little vanilla. Yeah. Yeah. A little vanilla. So this is a, this is a repel that's taken pretty far. Right. After 12 months it becomes an Añejo. This has taken, it's, it averages 8 to 11 months, but oftentimes it's taken a bit later. Um, so that's why it has a
**Bam Bam:** It complements our cigar beautifully.
**Gizmo:** It's a perfect match
**Bam Bam:** for this cigar. If you take a sip and then follow it with a draw immediately, you're really capturing some delicious combinations of flavors there. Between a cigar and a drink. It's excellent. Do like
**Grinder:** a light drink and then like a, like a retro. It's excellent.
**Chef Ricky:** And even with all those sweet notes being there on the nose, on the palate, there's still a slight warmth and pepperiness to [00:33:00] the, to the spirit, which is Very slight.
It's just the agave coming through, which is great.
**Pagoda:** It's so great to have Chef Ricky here because now it's just a matter of recognizing those flavors. Get to work, Ricky. Okay, ding ding, he said that.
**Grinder:** He's taking notes.
**Gizmo:** Ha ha ha. This is a really, really wonderful pairing. Outstanding. It's the Repo with this cigar is outstanding.
**Bam Bam:** It has just enough body to keep up with the cigar. One doesn't overpower the other. I agree. And
**Senator:** I think a lot of reposados would pair well with this cigar, where I think we probably reach most often for an Anejo with a cigar, especially like a lot of the new worlds that we spoke that are a Maduro, but this cigar, we're all talking about how like refined and.
And subtle and medium, not at all full this cigar is, and it just complements it perfectly.
**Poobah:** So Ricky, do you think that the Ocho, um, Repo is, is kind of a close cousin to this in terms of flavor profile?
**Chef Ricky:** They're still made in the same distillery. So it is very close. The [00:34:00] difference is that Ocho imparts slight, uh, slightly more modern processes into the making of its tequila.
So we're, You know, if one of my favorite things about El Tesoro, just like Fortaleza, with their caps, they pay homage to different parts of the tequila industry. So the El Tesoro cap is made to mimic the Tohono that's used in the distillery to crush the agave. Now, El Tesoro is 100 percent Tohono crushed agave.
When you get into Tequila Ocho, they're actually blending a couple different methods. So they use not only some of the juice coming from the stone crushed agaves, but they're also using a roller mill. I mean, this distillery, it's great because Carlos Camarena has an engineering background. So, you know, and, and just kind of revitalizing the distillery, he found ways to somewhat modernize it without losing what makes tequila great.
Um, and he's at the perfect altitude, altitude, his soil, super rich in iron, uh, his well water is just, It's so rich in [00:35:00] iron. It's almost red in color when it comes out of the pipes. Um, it's, it's an incredible experience. But so, so yeah, so your point with You just scared Pagoda. He just dumped it out.
**Pagoda:** I've seen those red waters come out of a lot of different
**Poobah:** pipes.
The
**Pagoda:** old copper pipe.
**Poobah:** Well, the reason why I asked the question is because, um, so when I'm out, I had no idea. Thank you. That Ocho and Tesoro were made in the same distillery. They're related. And that they were related. It's just, so if I'm in, if I'm in the liquor store and I don't see Tesoro, I'll grab Ocho because I feel like it's having no idea.
I have no idea about the history you just talked about. It felt, it feels to me like the flavor profile is like a cousin. Yeah. A little bit to it. So it's interesting that they're, they are actually, you know, related.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, so I think in making Ocho Cardos is, when he was making it, uh, his goal was to make a tequila that [00:36:00] someone who had, who didn't necessarily have a palate for agave distillates, to have them be able to enjoy a tequila.
So it's a little bit cleaner in flavor. It doesn't have the sort of intense minerality that you'll find in El Tesoro. Um, So that, that, you know, he's, he's sort of wanted to highlight some of the lighter, more feminine, if you will, sweeter, uh, aspect of the tequila rather than Altesoro is sort of, you know, the homage to his grandfather.
So I
**Gizmo:** have to say that I certainly have a deeper appreciation for Tequila Ocho because of the event we went to at Añejo, uh, BAM, Pagoda, Rooster, and I went with a bunch of other folks downstairs and it was a, You know, a special pairing menu built alongside the various expressions from tequila Ocho, and I was really impressed not with all of the different expressions and the various like single farm expressions that they have single [00:37:00] barrel stuff.
Of course, the regular run of stuff that you can get in the store, but I mean, it was really, really eyeopening. They spoke a little bit. It was. Really awesome stuff. Outstanding.
**Pagoda:** OCHO does a widow Jane as well, right? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** They have a widow Jane Barrel, right? Yeah. That's the one. Mm-Hmm. . And that's a Reposado, right?
Ricky? Yeah. The widow Jane. It tastes so good.
**Chef Ricky:** The Widow Jane, uh, collaboration came about when, uh, I guess Beam Sum Tory bought, uh, ocho. So they have Widow Jane, they own
**Senator:** tequila
**Pagoda:** ocho.
**Chef Ricky:** Oh wow. I know that
**Pagoda:** Widow Jane as well. Wow, I didn't know that. Interesting. Widow Jane from Brooklyn. Right. Correct.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I will say that Widow Jane Reposado, that'll mess you up.
That the next day. That is the only spirit aside from some of the mezcals we've done. Mm-Hmm. . When I've drank too much of it. I have the worst hangover when I drink the widow Jane Reposado from Tequila Ocho. I don't know what it is, but it just takes me out for the next day. But it's one of the shi best
**Pagoda:** tasting tequilas out there
**Gizmo:** sounds like.
Did you say Shivas? I said it almost tastes like shivers. . [00:38:00] That's an old callback.
**Chef Ricky:** Actually, guys, I misspoke. Ocho is no longer made at La Otenia, which is the name of the, of the distillery. They changed in 2020 30. Oh, wow. Last year? Yeah. Just
**Pagoda:** last year.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. So I think just prior to that dinner, or just after that dinner is when it happened.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, we're coming up to the halfway point now on the Padron Family Reserve. Number 50 in natural, how's it progressing for everyone? It just keeps getting better and better. Yeah, it's,
**Bam Bam:** it's, it's actually hard to keep pace. Yeah. It's difficult to smoke this slowly because it's so good.
**Pagoda:** No, it definitely
**Bam Bam:** has got
**Pagoda:** so much better.
**Bam Bam:** It's delicious. I think,
**Pagoda:** you know, uh, Poober, you may be right. I think in the beginning, I think I might have tortured a bit too much. I did get a peppery in the harshness and as it, you know, as I continued to smoke it a little slower, um, it's been fantastic. Does this mean you're going to get a new lighter, Pagoda?
I've got like 10 new lighters. I don't know which one to work with. The space shuttle was a little much. [00:39:00]
**Rooster:** So I wonder if Padron is doing, uh, like I recently had a, got a box of exclusivos and the band as a single band instead of a dual band. So I don't know if they're doing the same thing on the family reserve line.
I think they're
**Gizmo:** starting with the 64 and potentially then the family reserve. And the 26, but all of them definitely are getting a new single band. So what Rooster's talking about for folks who don't know Padrone, they usually have two bands on them. One is the Padrone kind of logo and artwork. And then under that as a serial number band, that's kind of just sits right under that.
It's a little bit of a pain in the ass sometimes to take it off. Like Exclusivo, I sometimes have to fight it, but they're moving to a single band now. So actually Rooster got one the other day and we were joking that it was fake, But if you do get a Padron now that has a single band on it versus a double, they are moving to a single band system.
It's just much,
**Rooster:** much easier to take off. Yeah. You guys are
**Pagoda:** lazy bastards. Pagoda disagrees. [00:40:00] I completely disagree. Yeah. I don't mind the double.
**Grinder:** I like, I like, I like that about the Jones. I do too. Yeah.
**Senator:** I mean, keep in mind when we were at PCA, uh, George Padron talked about. The time that he went in and told his father, he wanted to change the band and he got quickly dismissed from his office.
I think you're saying
**Gizmo:** that's a very kind way to show. I think he got cursed out. Yeah. I think what the father
**Senator:** bring out the hammer
**Bam Bam:** basically. I mean, the father, I think what the father said was, how long have you been in this business? Not even that. He said,
**Senator:** he said, do you know how many of these cigars with this band?
I've sold how many millions? That's right. And he's like, I'm not changing the band. Get out of my office. Finally, you know, clearly, uh, George Padrona has been working up to this moment and it does make sense. I mean, it's gotta be easier from a manufacturing standpoint to have that one band than two of them applied every single time.
Yeah. And even for the consumer, I mean, I don't mind it, but it is more work to take two bands off than one. So I think, you know, it's probably a net positive. I [00:41:00] mean,
**Rooster:** it looks the same, it looks like it's two bands, but when you take it off, it's one band.
**Pagoda:** Doesn't it also give the year? I like, I haven't, I should, I should know this, but I don't, doesn't it also mention the year on it?
Like when it's 1964 or 26? Just the primary band, not the secondary. Correct. You have one in your hand.
**Bam Bam:** But regarding George. Oh, yeah. Let me take a look.
All right. All right. Regarding George, though, what a great guy, huh? Oh yeah. He is so approachable, great family man, really down to earth businessman. What just such a kindred spirit.
**Gizmo:** And that film he showed, and we talked about this on the PC. Very emotional. Yeah. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** outstanding.
**Gizmo:** It was like a documentary made with his father speaking years ago that they're finally releasing now.
Yeah. I don't know if it's on YouTube yet. I hope it will be soon. If it's not, because the, uh, the 60th anniversary, I think was September 8th. So it just had passed, but, uh, it was a beautiful film. Everybody was really rocked. It was, it was awesome. Awesome. [00:42:00] Yeah. Really nice. Yeah. Culturally
**Poobah:** they've done a great job and the brand, you know, the way they built the brand up feels to me very organic and not, um, you know, not manipulated.
It's not. It's very authentic. Um, when you think of Patron, Patron, I think of authenticity back to my point earlier, I made in the podcast where we're with Davidoff. You feel like maybe once in a while you're, you know, you know, you're getting worked over a little bit with the marketing. It doesn't feel
**Bam Bam:** Patron doesn't feel as corporate.
Right. No, Davidoff does
**Rooster:** family run. I mean, the whole thing feels like it's, it's,
**Bam Bam:** it's all
**Rooster:** family. The whole premise
**Bam Bam:** of a family owned business is that you get a sense of a smaller scale production. There's more meaning to it. It's meaningful. And to Poobah's point, it's not just family
**Senator:** owned, it's family operated.
Correct. There are a lot of businesses that claim family owned. Right. Right. [00:43:00] But the family doesn't play a meaningful role in actually with Padron. I mean, all you have to do is go to PCA and see they had for that unveiling of the 60th anniversary, the partnership with SD DuPont, the cigar, the entire family and every single one of them plays some role in operating that business.
And that's, you don't see that anymore.
**Bam Bam:** And
**Senator:** not
**Poobah:** at the scale that Padron does a commercial. That's right. Right. You know, because to do that and maintain the commercial success that they've had, you know, at that level, because you can guarantee six ways to Sunday that they've been approached by everybody in the business to scale it up to do transact, do, you know, make more cigars and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, cash out, sell, whatever.
And they, you know, they, they maintain their, uh, uh, their company culture. And, uh, it
**Gizmo:** comes through in the product. And, and the, and [00:44:00] the other thing too, to, to, to kind of piggyback on what you're saying, despite all of that, it's family run family owned, well, hold on. Every person in the family is either.
Working at the factory is where does George keep his desk? It's in the center of the, the, it's in the center of a big room.
**Bam Bam:** And you, you two guys saw that
**Gizmo:** first. Yeah, there's no, there's no corner office. It's awesome. He literally sits in the middle of the room where they're boxing the cigars in Miami.
Incredible. Right. It's amazing. And then his, his, his net nephews and nieces are the ones sitting with retailers at PCA doing the buys for the year. But
**Poobah:** think about how many other businesses in any category where you've got errors Where you're in, uh, you're in, um, you know, a business that's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars where the kids grow up, you know, they turn out as bums or whatever.
Sure. And, and the, well, no, I'm serious. Most businesses fail after the second generation, second gen check on our third generation. Hey kid, you're a bum. [00:45:00] Yes. Because they live, they live a life of, you know, an easy life and they end up selling or cashing out or like
**Bam Bam:** rooster does. Well, he lives in a lap, you
**Poobah:** know, or diluting the brand for whatever reason.
Right. You know, they don't, but they've stuck to their guns and that's, you know, that's the,
**Gizmo:** that's commendable and the ability to maintain consistency. It's really the biggest thing that we have eight cigars in this room that are performing brilliantly for us. And we all know that if we go out and buy a box or another cigar or we walk into a BNM somewhere else in the world and buy the same cigar, we know exactly what that cigar is going to taste like now.
And I don't know if I could say that for a ton of manufacturers.
**Senator:** I know. And I think the thing that just is so amazing about that, we know that as consumers at PCA for us to sit there. And chat with other, you know, leaders in the cigar industry that have their own brands and all [00:46:00] of them, you know, when Padron just comes up, what else do you guys smoke besides my cigars?
And of course we had mentioned Padron and every single one of them, and they're obviously competing against the drone said, no one can touch their consistency. No
**Bam Bam:** one. It's incredible. That was said several times in that show to us. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it, it, it, it's gotta be a result and I'm hypothesizing here.
But it's gotta be a result of how they treat the people, how they, you know, how they do their QA and QC and the accountability involved and the trust involved and how they compensate those rollers. They probably compensate them better. You get a corporation involved, all of a sudden, you know, you go public, whatever it is, you get part of some sort of a holdings company.
Next thing you know, your rollers are getting, you know, they're looking at comp, they're looking at this, that, the other thing. And what, when that's happening as a result of that, everything changes.
**Chef Ricky:** You know, I sit here and hearing you guys [00:47:00] speak of the history of Padrón, and I can't think, I can't help but think how similar like Daniela Distillery product and is, is to Padrón.
Like, so this is one of those episodes where there's gonna, there's actually. A lot of great follow up content between that Padrón documentary you mentioned. Carlos Camarena has a documentary on iTunes called Agave Spirit, uh, Spirit of a Nation. Uh, and Elte, the, uh, La Alteña distillery is run very similar to what you're saying, uh, with Padrón.
It's multi generational, you know, it, you know, Carlos Camarena is the grandson of Don Felipe. Carlos Camarena has his daughter, And his, uh, granddaughter now currently in the business. So these are both businesses that are, you know, it's, it's no secret why they're making great product. You know, they're keeping it tight.
They're doing the right thing. They're staying true and honest to, to the brand and the spirit that it represents. Um, so I encourage every, you know, I haven't seen this Patron documentary. I'll [00:48:00] definitely see that. But, you know, for the listener who hasn't seen that, Agave documentary. You know, there's some great follow up content.
**Senator:** Sounds like we need to broker a partnership with the two. Maybe a Padron cigar aged in an El Tesoro barrel. With a lizard band on
**Poobah:** it. We can't afford that. I'd be very curious to know how many more cigars Davidoff makes than Padron.
**Gizmo:** So I was talking to answer your question. This isn't going to be specific about Padron, but this will lend a little bit of color to the, to what you're asking here.
I asked my friend, cigar surgeon, uh, from developing pallets, who's been very, very supportive of us and helpful. He's been in the industry forever. I asked him what. The biggest cigar manufacturers were of course, it's Altidus and STG right off the bat But after that, he said that Drew Estate has the largest factory operation in Nicaragua for sure in Dominican Republic It's La Aurora.
[00:49:00] Drew Estate makes something crazy like 200 to 220, 000 cigars a day what and what he says is is that Davidoff is bigger than True Estate.
**Senator:** Oh my lord. I can't be certain how perfectly accurate these numbers are, but they're from legitimate sources, including, I mean, Cigar Aficionado, who's asked them about this.
According to Cigar Aficionado, Padrone makes about three and a half million cigars a year. Davidoff? You ready for this? Almost 50 million in 2023, they produce 48. 8 million cigars. That's also from Cigar Aficionado.
**Gizmo:** Now we're now we're now we have to count in that that that is the entire Davidoff company.
Including Camacho. So that's Camacho, Avo, that's their other. Don't forget, don't forget Rooster's
**Chef Ricky:** favorite, Zeno. Oh,
**Poobah:** but even if you cut, even if you cut that out, even if you cut that [00:50:00] out, it's still significantly more, it's still really significant.
**Gizmo:** Let's say it's a third. Let's say it's half. I mean, drew a state making 200, 000 cigars a day is that's a crazy number.
That's insane. It's crazy.
**Grinder:** They're all acid.
**Gizmo:** We're very lucky to have a cigar manufacturer in the industry like Padron because every time we go to them, I mean, I was sitting with Senator, I think yesterday we were watching football, right? Sunday football, and he had smoked a bunch of cigars, and he looks at me as he has a thousand times with an exclusivo in hand, and he goes, This is the best cigar I've had all day.
And it's like, it, every time you have that cigar, it's perfect. It never fails.
**Bam Bam:** It never fails.
**Poobah:** Well, compared to Like the highest quality, I would call the highest quality Dominican, you know, manufacturer of cigars, which would be David. I mean, they really make probably the most premium Dominican tobacco, you know, cigars around.
It's probably demo Fuente from a, [00:51:00] yeah. Or Fuente, right. Um, the, the Padrone is like boutique compared in terms of volume. They're like a boutique cigar maker by comparison.
**Chef Ricky:** And the limitations they set, um, you know, themselves with, you know, the, the radius, you know, of, of the, how many sellers you could have, what is it?
Five miles, 10 miles or something larger than that. I think it's a five mile radius on the retailers. Yes. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** That's pretty common though. Yeah. Is it? Yeah. Davidoff, I think, is even, even harsher. More strict. Yeah. Much more strict. Oh yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And in the meantime, does anyone have a fog light? I need a fog light.
Yeah. The combustion on this thing is amazing. This room is full of smoke. Yeah. And my eyes are burning. A little bit, but honestly, the combustion is very impressive. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's move into some listener email now. We have three good ones tonight. We're going to start with one from our friend Lizard Mike, who, if you remember, sent us the Uno Dos Tres [00:52:00] tequilas.
**Bam Bam:** Excellent. Excellent tequila,
**Gizmo:** and he wrote us an email and the subject was damn you people. What up giz? Hope you're doing well
**Bam Bam:** Buckle up everybody.
**Gizmo:** I don't know him personally and he doesn't know me but tell senator. He's an asshole actually Wow Actually, you're all accountability. Yeah
**Senator:** Don't want to hear this
**Gizmo:** He goes actually you're all a bunch of assholes Welcome to the club. As I mentioned the other day.
**Bam Bam:** Hey, I know I'm an asshole.
**Gizmo:** I love this email. He goes, as I mentioned the other day, I've been fanboying and listening from episode one over the last several months. At some point, your peer pressure was just too much to bear, and I was compelled to just start blindly connecting, collecting vintage bottles of bubbly.
Whenever I go
**Rooster:** to total
**Gizmo:** wine. My man. By sentence three, he's completely vindicated. Whenever I go to total wine, I grab one that catches my eye. Well this morning, my [00:53:00] wife wanted some bubbly to go with some fresh squeezed orange juice we just had gotten off our trees. He's out in California. Oh boy. In my blind pursuit of vintages, I have neglected to be sure we replenished our generic quote unquote go to assortment of Proseccas, Cavas, and other champagnes, so I grabbed a bottle of Paul Roger 2015 Vintage.
Oh boy. I figured it's as good a time as any to find out what the hell you guys are always blathering on about. All caps. What a bottle it turned our simple BLTA, which I guess is a California bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado morning into a bourgeois bourgeois brunch. And to close the circle, I decided to have a morning cigar after, which is something I never do.
He paired it with a 2018 Cohiba Siglo too. And wow, you guys are right. I'm sure this would pair with anything. Anything. I truly blame Senator because I'm in the middle of 2023, as far back as episodes go. And he is once again, talking about Cuba and enjoying a QD 50 every morning, [00:54:00] not to mention his responsibility for introducing the majesty of pairing champagne, specifically Paul Roger, which I had never before to your crew.
And by extension, your listeners only reason I didn't grab a QD 50, which is also a favorite of mine, was is that they're all in my aging humidor. So I went full luxe lizard and grabbed the Cohiba. It was a fantastic way to spend the rest of a Saturday morning, early afternoon, after a busy start. Thanks again, my friends and be well, brother,
**Bam Bam:** Lizard Mike.
You could have also grabbed it. Bravo, Lizard Mike. I was a little nervous he was going to add OJ to that. Yeah. He had to make
**Senator:** a mimosas. I just want to say, I've never been happier to be called an asshole in my entire life. That was beautiful. It's gotta be a good mimosa. Well, you're an asshole,
**Poobah:** but you're our asshole.
**Gizmo:** That's a great call out, by the way, I'm going to talk about what that line is. That's
**Bam Bam:** got to go on a board game.
**Gizmo:** So that line, so what he's referencing. So the Eagles, the band were, uh, um, inducted into [00:55:00] the rock and roll hall of fame. And they were talking about their manager, Irving Azoff. And Don Henley said, he may be the devil, but he's our devil.
**Senator:** I never said I'm going to save any lizard money, but I'm certainly going to make sure that they enjoy their experience. All right.
**Gizmo:** I have another one here. This one is some gizmo accountability that I'm just going to come out and say it. I don't want it to be. You know, hidden behind closed doors, full, full accountability here, boys.
Hello, Gizmo. It is that time again where I point out that the Lounge Lizard website ratings guide is depressingly out of date. The last update to the ratings page was for episode 134. Oh, shit.
**Bam Bam:** That's true.
**Gizmo:** That means it's 18 weeks behind. All a lizard can do is weep. Aside from that stern yet necessary moment of admonishment, I continue to enjoy the weekly podcast.
Please keep up the good work. Lizard taco.
**Senator:** He's not wrong. Giz, can I, can I, uh, be your defense attorney on this one? Thank you. Yes. What was his name? [00:56:00] Lizard taco. Lizard taco. Lizard taco. You're hired.
**Gizmo:** Perfect. We'll get them the login information. So, but, uh, all in all seriousness, I will, I will try to be more diligent about updating the ratings guide on the website.
Of course, I keep our internal document updated for referencing on the podcast here, but I will do a better job. Okay. And I'll make a better note to, uh, to keep that up. And it will be
**Senator:** available for premium subscribers on our website.
**Gizmo:** Just the
**Senator:** card
**Gizmo:** carrying
**Senator:** lizards. Correct. How much was that
**Gizmo:** again? The, uh, premium?
**Senator:** 19. 99 a
**Gizmo:** month. That's it. Yeah. 200 a year. It's discounted.
**Bam Bam:** That's right.
**Gizmo:** All right. And we have one final one from Lizard Kyle, who is going to be our Lizard of the Week boys. And he mentions here, he said, hello, lizards. I wanted to thank you very specifically for your recommendation on the aging room, quattro Sonata in maestro that cigar has become a daily smoke for me.
So I'll stop right there. Wow. I can't agree with this guy more. Yeah. That [00:57:00] cigar is unbelievable. And I said this to Senator the other night and he gave me some shit. So let's go some more gizmo accountability. Go ahead, Senator. So
**Senator:** I just, I have to go back to that episode because I don't hand out tens every day.
I we've done the composite, the aggregate of each of our scoring and. I've obviously have become, you know, one of the tougher critics of the group. I gave that a 10 and said, Oh, that immediately is going to crack my rotation. And everybody knows, I mean, not just me, but all of us are, at least the majority of us smoke these daily.
And when I gave it a 10, I got a little flack. Rooster and, uh, .
**Rooster:** Some others were not. Uh, I think he was just in shock. He was in shock. It's not my favorite. Ola. What can I say? I don't like Torp. Oh, I love a torpedo. I don't a torpedo. I don't, you know, it's not my favorite. Right. But I, you know, once in a while I do like it.
But I say that because some others I think give were to mind
**Senator:** though. Some, I, I think, uh, you know, [00:58:00] gizmo, uh, also was in your camp on this one. And, uh, gizmo smoked a lot of those. I think at 8 and we talk about consistency with Padrome, that's Cigar. I don't know that I've ever had a plugged one or a really poor performing one.
The consistency at eight bucks is outrageous. Yeah. And the flavor it delivers is not only just so enjoyable, it's unique. I can't compare that to another cigar. Yeah. So I'm standing very strongly by my ten. And I'm calling out Gizmo that maybe you were a little harsh on that cigar.
**Gizmo:** If Pagoda wasn't here.
I might go back and change my radio, but seeing as I can see Pagoda, he's within a few feet of me. I don't want to be attacked. He will police you. He will police me. I have to keep it as a nine, but I have purchased probably three or four boxes now of that cigar since we did that episode. I can't get enough of it.
**Bam Bam:** Well, putting that cigar aside, like all of Raphael Nadal, cigars are very consistent. They're [00:59:00] extremely well made. I think that whole marker is a, is a very good mark of quality. No doubt about it.
**Gizmo:** I will say though, and we did the, just the quattro, the orange
**Bam Bam:** band. That's
**Gizmo:** right. Earlier on the podcast, it did not perform as well.
There's something about the blend on the yellow band, the Sonata line that is just an elevation of whatever was happening in that orange band. And we've handed out, um, How many? I mean, I've had many, um, that
**Poobah:** were given to me. I don't have a box, but they're great.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. I've got the three of those boxes and the last one sat for a couple months and it got even better.
**Pagoda:** It's interesting though. A lot of people do like the quarter over the orange band as well. They just, I see that in Carnegie often. A lot of people are smoking those. The quality is great. What did we score it? I think I gave it a 10 too.
**Gizmo:** I think it's a higher mid nines maybe. I'll look it up. Is he in partnership with a large holding company like General?
I, I think he is with General. I think it's General. Yeah. And I think he does [01:00:00] blending for others. I mean, don't, don't call me on that, but I think it's Blender. Mike Cristo, a bunch of other brands. I
**Senator:** mean, he's always posting like every morning where he's trying like five different cigars and blending for a certain brand.
He does a lot. Collaborating. Is that what that is? It is.
**Bam Bam:** Cause I, I follow his posts. So the cigars that he posts, he blended. Oh yeah. Many of them. He
**Senator:** does this for Monte Cristo. A lot of the new worlds, uh, cigars,
**Bam Bam:** he works for general. So that explains a lot.
**Gizmo:** By the way, to answer grinder's question, the aging room, Quattro Nicaragua, Sonata Maestro on episode 130 scored a 9.
5. Wow. Excellent. So the two nines and three nines in the room were rooster. Bam, bam, and gizmo. So I share that admonishment
**Bam Bam:** with the two of you. A nine is an elite score, gentlemen.
**Poobah:** Well, eight bucks value for money in this
**Gizmo:** day and age. Boy, oh boy.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that's amazing.
**Gizmo:** All right. So let's keep moving on here with blizzard.
Kyle's email. His next question, he says, guys, I really love that you're having chef Ricky on so much. Can we, [01:01:00] the listeners expect to hear more of him? Yes.
**Bam Bam:** I think the answer
**Gizmo:** is yes. I think the answer has been yes.
**Chef Ricky:** I hope so.
**Gizmo:** All you have to do is not light your cigar before we light it. I mean, it's pretty simple, right?
**Bam Bam:** Total
**Grinder:** line. Will you?
**Chef Ricky:** There's a, there's a lot of shit that gets
**Grinder:** tossed around here.
**Chef Ricky:** I'm surprised. It's like that many episodes.
**Gizmo:** Well, we love having you here, man. So thank you for joining us. And the listeners have, it's been a resounding love for chef Ricky. I actually, I think he's the star of the show now, which is I'm fine with, I know we're I'm pissed.
You know, I must say he does need a lizard name. Chef. Chef is fun. Chef's awesome. Chef's good. Plus, you know, when Habanos comes looking for us, we can just point them right to his, uh, right to the restaurant. Correct.
**Senator:** I, I also have to note, he's had an impact on someone. Pagoda has been drinking this tequila neat the entire evening.
Is
**Gizmo:** it impact or is it fear? [01:02:00] Oh, good question. Well I am
**Pagoda:** sitting right next to him, but. But having said that, you know, uh, a lot of the tequilas, you know, you can do without ice. Yeah. Especially the stuff we drink.
**Gizmo:** And lizard Kyle finishes off here. He says, I always ask this of people and things that I love.
How can us listeners best support the lounge lizards podcast? Is it merge? Is it supporting fabric of five? Is it giving ratings? What is it? That's a great question. And we can certainly answer that. And Lizard Kyle, thank you for writing and congratulations on winning Lizard of the Week. We'll answer that in a second.
But first, every week we're going to give a listener out there a special package from us. Every week there is going to be a Lizard of the Week and we appreciate all of our listeners for writing in. Send us an email, send us a comment, send us an Instagram message, send us a voice memo, whatever medium you prefer.
You can send us carrier pigeon. We don't care. We just want to hear from you and we want to hear what you're thinking. So. Please do share with us. So thanks to lizard Kyle. So boys, how can [01:03:00] the listeners best support the podcast operation?
**Chef Ricky:** I'll send lizard Kyle on my Venmo. Oh, perfect. Goodness gracious.
**Poobah:** This'll be Ricky's last episode. Calm down. Calm down, Ricky. Um,
**Gizmo:** it's chef.
**Poobah:** Lizard chef.
**Gizmo:** So of course, I mean, the easy answers are, you know, if you, if you like what you're hearing, the merch site, You know, of course, go buy some merch from us. That'd be great. It's on our website. Wounds, lizards, pod. com. Of course, supporting fabric of five, using that code, using code lizard pod at the fabric of five website that you hear on the front of the episode every week, and when we talk about it, that is huge for us because it shows that.
The impact of, uh, of our conversations with you out there, the listeners on our partnership with fabric of five, it shows them that we're talking about it and you're appreciating it. So please, if you do order from them, use the code and order in bulk
**Rooster:** and also weekly listening to our podcast and. Maybe telling other people about it.
Yeah. That that's a big one.
**Senator:** That's a [01:04:00] big one. I think just if you enjoy this podcast, sharing that with your friends who smoke cigars so that they're part of lizard nation and they're in the fold. And if you like what you're hearing, certainly rate the podcast. I mean, that always helps too. That's a
**Gizmo:** big one that I was going to point out.
Senator is not a lot of folks go to Apple music and write reviews. I know when I've listened to podcasts in the past, I didn't do that because it just didn't come to mind. I play the episode. I it's over. I move on with my life. You have to go to our page and write a review. Give us five stars. If you love it.
If you don't love it, send us a shitty email. Don't give us one star, just send us the shitty email. We'll read it. Just don't, don't do the one star, but hit us with five stars. Write a comment. If you're okay with that, and then do the same on Spotify as well, if that's where you listen. So we need ratings and we need a volume of them.
So anybody out there who loves what we're doing, please, please, please. Go rate us.
**Poobah:** Yeah. And to underscore that too, you know, for the listener, we don't do this for money. We don't do this for, you know, [01:05:00] the fact that we're in a, you know, we partner with fabric or five is because we like. Those cigars legitimately, not, not like them, love them.
So smoking a lot of them and smoking a lot of them. So, you know, um, if we're making a recommendation or if we take on a sponsor or somebody like that, it's only because. It's only out of love. It's, it's, it's really, it's only out of, of true partnership and trust. So, you know, just keep that in mind because this is not something that, you know, this is not a commercial operation.
Do you know what I mean? You know, this is not something where, uh, and we're not in the cigar retail business to sell other than merch. We have nothing to sell. I mean, it's, you know, we, we do this because we really enjoy the process. And, um, so, you know, Any cigar, uh, manufacturer that we take on as a sponsor, somebody that, [01:06:00] that we know is making great cigars and we love the cigar.
We're not
**Gizmo:** going to partner with them. And I'm sure, listen, I'm sure anybody who listens to this podcast, piggybacking on what you're saying knows that we take what we do here very seriously. We have a great time doing it, but we do take it very seriously. So we're not going to partner with someone ever that's going to compromise.
The taste buds, the palate, our influence on what we're telling you. We're not going to send you to go buy cigars that we ourselves are not appreciating. So, you know, that's, that's a very serious thing for us when we take on a partner. And that's why we have Fabrica 5 and hopefully we'll continue to for a long time.
But, you know, that's, that's, that's a big thing. That's really the bread and butter of how we view our partnerships is we have to love what they're doing and appreciate what they're doing. And
**Rooster:** also in support of the podcast, you know, we love listening from, from the listeners. So keep sending us these emails, keep giving us feedback on the podcast because we love to listen.
**Bam Bam:** That's Liam Neeson right there. Yeah. Talking.
**Gizmo:** So [01:07:00] thanks to Lizard Kyle for asking those great questions. We appreciate it. We appreciate all of our listeners. All right, boys, we're coming into the final third here. Um, the Padron family reserve number 50 in natural. What's everybody thinking?
**Senator:** Can I just make an observation?
You mean the final edge? We're, we're coming into the final third. Grinder is coming into his second cigar. Oh, you got another one? Oh my God. My man. Same
**Gizmo:** one. Wow.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** And you, you're generally a slow smoker. This is my, one of my favorite cigars, Jens. I can't help it. Oh, awesome. I
**Poobah:** flew through mine too. I mean, I threw, uh, I, I ripped right through.
Yes, he did. It was fantastic.
**Chef Ricky:** I'd love to sort of do an exercise with you guys. If you could all just pick up your glass. Take a substantial pour into your mouth. Don't swallow yet. Just bring it into your mouth. Tilt your head back. Let it roll around the glass. The lower well of your jaw, if you will, and just, and you, you feel the [01:08:00] heat completely dissipate and you'll, you'll get all of this, just all of the flavor of the spirit itself just really come through, especially once the heat dissipates when there's not much there.
But, and I just moved my tongue around at the bottom part of my mouth, almost as like, you know, a kid in a swimming pool. It does
**Bam Bam:** change the experience. Yeah. Yeah. It's, wow. For me, it pulls out more of a floral that I wasn't getting earlier. Citrus, there's
**Chef Ricky:** even a little anise here.
**Bam Bam:** Anise for sure. Anise I see, yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, like it's Jeez, man. And you know, we often talk about the G4s, the Tapatios, the Ochos, El Tesoro. All the same bloodline. G4 is made by Felipe Camarena, nephew to Carlos. Tapatio, Ocho, uh, El Tesoro, all at one point, and I say at one point because Ocho's no longer made at La Atena, but we're all made by Carlos Camarena.[01:09:00]
I mean, like this family knows what the fuck they're doing, you know, and it's no, I mean, it's no coincidence. Yeah, it's no coincidence.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's a super, it's a super tequila. Um, and I, I reach for the Repo more than the Añejo sometimes.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, no, I think if, if you're, if when you get to a point where you're starting to really love and appreciate agave, you start leaning less on age and, you know, you, you want somewhat there because it does, you know, especially for cigars, it brings a little something, uh, but you don't want to lose the agave.
with the old trade expressions. So going into Añejos that are now passing 12 months in wood or extra Añejos that passed three years in wood, um, you know, you start losing Agave, those Agave notes. Now La Etena is their genius in how they approach things and that even in their extra Añejos or their [01:10:00] super aged product, you still get Agave, you know, that Tapatio Excelencia, Agave is not missing in that at all.
**Poobah:** Right. Right. I had the El Tesoro extra in it on Yeho. I think I put it out in the text group. It comes in that blue bottle. Um, and I had that, uh, with the cigar on Saturday. Fantastic. I mean, really, really, really good. It almost leans more towards, um, more towards a scotch than it does towards a tequila.
It's fantastic. In terms of versatility, this, you know, the, the, the, the repo is really, is it special? The X ring edge? Certainly. Um, but this particular tequila to me has almost like, it's got like that salty minerality with the sweetness. There's a, like a, there's a lot going on [01:11:00] and, and with, with a cigar, it almost has this like cleansing effect, but also, you know, There's a long, very long finish to the tequila, which I appreciate very much.
And I think it paired up really, really, really well, uh, tonight with this Padron,
**Gizmo:** um, I have to say when coming in tonight, it just having the 50 year family reserve in, in our hands, I would assume that the most of the room. Would've thought that on and Ajo would do better with this cigar with the age and what we've known.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, of course. Of family
**Gizmo:** reserve and what we've learned tonight based on past
**Bam Bam:** experience.
**Gizmo:** Based on past experience. What we've learned tonight is this specific cigar. Maybe it's the natural blend, maybe it's whatever's working with this cigar. Mm-Hmm. . The Reposado was a perfect pairing tonight. Yes.
**Poobah:** Because I think that, I think it has something to do with the natural wrapper. Agreed. Yeah. Uh uh, um, matching up with kind of the. Uh, I'm not going to say [01:12:00] it's a lighter experience where that extra in Yeho would have over and overpowered, uh, uh, the cigar, um, too much. And this really paired
**Gizmo:** beautifully.
Yeah. Great great pairing great tequila. All right boys. I have one more thing for you here before we move into the ratings portion of our program I saw this on reddit and I thought you guys might get a kick out of it Seeing as to where I'm assuming you're gonna know we fall. It's two charts One is the top 15 most attractive hobbies to women and then the other is the top 15 Least attractive hobbies to win.
Are we going? Are we really going here? Yes, we are. So I'll just go through the top 15 most attractive, most
**Bam Bam:** attractive,
**Gizmo:** most attractive hobbies to women in men. You ready? Here we go. Reading, knowing a foreign language, playing an instrument, cooking chef.
**Chef Ricky:** So far, I could check [01:13:00] all of
**Gizmo:** those woodworking.
Painting, writing, gardening, again chef. Zero. Swimming, he just talked about being in the swimming pool and drinking the swimming water. Swimming. Photography, astronomy, ping pong. What was the last one? Ping pong. Ping pong. Finally! So gardening, swimming, photography, astronomy, hiking, Archery, blacksmithing and traveling.
Okay. What was the top 15? What about making money?
**Bam Bam:** That's a good one. Number one. Number one.
**Gizmo:** All right. So now what we're going to do is we're going to go backwards on the top 15 least attractive. I got to guess. I have
**Bam Bam:** just one question. Is there manscaping on that list? No. Okay. No, it's men's keeping a hobby for me.
It is
**Senator:** a hobby for bed, bed, bed
**Pagoda:** with a survey done.
**Gizmo:** All right. So this is the bottom 15, uh, attractive hobbies for women. Let me guess. Men,
**Chef Ricky:** cigars, video games. [01:14:00] Oh,
**Gizmo:** video games is definitely on there. All right, here we go. 15 is comic books, cosplay, which I guess is costume play, dressing up as different costumes, debating, drinking, check magic, the gathering anime, wearing makeup, crypto, and coming in at number seven cigars.
**Chef Ricky:** No way. Yeah, that's not the one for me. Yeah. You know,
**Gizmo:** number seven was cigars and beating out cigars or, you know, Losing two cigars. I guess the worst, the worst, the remaining are clubbing, smoking marijuana, collecting Funko, which I guess is those, uh, those, uh, collectible things with the big heads. You ever see those like Funko pop things?
**Chef Ricky:** No idea.
**Gizmo:** Arguing online.
**Chef Ricky:** I only have 25. Number
**Gizmo:** three was porn. Number. Check.
That's a BAM approved activity. [01:15:00] Correct. That was not pooba.
**Pagoda:** That's a load of checks over here. Correct.
**Gizmo:** Number 2 was gambling and number 1, I don't know what this one is, Manosphere.
**Pagoda:** What is that? That's manscaping, I think. It could be.
**Gizmo:** I will say I was a little bummed out to see cigars listed. It's a crime.
In the top 15 least attractive hobbies to women.
**Pagoda:** This is embarrassing because I've at least got six or seven least attractive. Only two. Only two. I wish ping pong happened to be one.
**Chef Ricky:** I'm representing both of those sides easily, you know. Um, yeah. I don't, I disagree with women not liking, you know, I, I think a certain woman doesn't like the smell of cigars or cigars as a hobby.
I think a woman that's good for the man appreciates that, you know, this is a time where she knows number one, where her man is. Number two, that he's [01:16:00] relaxing and he's at peace, you know, and a lot of us have, you know, we all have very like high, you know, careers that stress us out and, and, you know, so anytime that we get to do something like this, I mean, a woman that's good for you is going to love this for you.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, I mean, this is finally when we talk. Yeah, yeah. When we hang out for an hour, hour and a half, and if a woman gets your attention for that hour, hey.
**Rooster:** I'm
**Chef Ricky:** going to
**Poobah:** make a motion that this is too
**Gizmo:** complicated to unpack. Agreed. Well, I saw cigars in there and I was a little bummed out to see that. That's a bummer.
Yeah. You know, I mean, I, cause I think all of us have, you know, women in our lives that are supportive of our hobby here. So, you know, it's, uh, it's interesting to see.
**Poobah:** Yeah. If you're five, if you're five, six, fat, you And bald and, you know, you mean like George, you know, in driving Aston Martin and driving Aston Martin.
They don't care about any of these facts. [01:17:00] Okay. I mean, like, you know, it's give me a break. Come on. Am I wrong? Yeah. I mean, this is insane. I mean, come on. They, you know, they, they'll put aside all that for certain shit. So that's that boys safety, security, and shelter.
**Gizmo:** Hey, at least we know what new hobbies we should be picking up.
**Poobah:** Oh yeah. Anime, . Blacksmithing.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** blacksmithing
**Poobah:** working. I mean, blacksmithing made the list. They mean
**Chef Ricky:** blacksmith is pretty badass. Blacksmithing. As a chef, I, it's pretty badass.
**Poobah:** It is pretty badass. If you told me you were a blacksmith, I'd say that's kind of fucking weird. But whatever. I mean, it's definitely more odd than smoking cigars.
I think the
**Pagoda:** subway was on a coal mining town.
**Poobah:** You making swords in your basement with a, with a, with a leather apron on or a chef
**Chef Ricky:** knife
**Poobah:** or a chef. [01:18:00] Oh, yeah, I think chef for blacksmith seal.
**Chef Ricky:** I mean, how much time do these people have steel, fire and hammer? What else do you need to be a sexy man? A cigar, a cigar.
Exactly.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's move into our ratings tonight. We're going to start with the formal liquor rating on the El Tesoro tequila reposado. Bam Bam, you're up. I'm
**Bam Bam:** gonna give this a,
**Gizmo:** a, mm. Oh, ooh. I sense some hesitancy.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm between a nine and a ten. I think this drank extraordinarily well tonight.
Delicious, complex for what it was, paired beautifully with the cigar. How much is this bottle? About 68 bucks. 68 to 75.
**Poobah:** It's 73 plus, plus tax. I mean,
**Bam Bam:** I'm going to give this a 10 because of its versatility and it's just how delicious it was. 10. Alright, Grindr. I'm giving it a 9. I
**Grinder:** also, you know, found it very versatile.
Um, very smooth. And I'm getting, I'm getting the tequila bug here, guys. And it's, uh, Ooh, that's rare. It's great. You've been
**Gizmo:** saying a lot [01:19:00] that you're not a tequila guy. I think that's changed. I have said, I have. You've become very, you know, you've become
**Bam Bam:** very attractive the last ten
**Chef Ricky:** minutes. Laughter
**Bam Bam:** Chill out,
**Chef Ricky:** man.
**Grinder:** You scare me sometimes, right?
**Chef Ricky:** Is it the Eston Martin
**Poobah:** clearly hits the cigar in my head. That's a manosphere. Well, it's between the manscaping and the commentary. Correct? It's exciting. Black.
**Grinder:** I blacksmithing. I thought it's nothing . I thought it, it thought it paired wonderfully with my favorite cigar and, um.
I'm, I'm just very happy with it. And this is the sole experience. So it's a nine for me. Uh, as far as why it's not a 10, I think 10 is a, 10 is a really high bar and I just need to drink more tequila frankly. So that's fair. Have another glass. I did. This is my second glass. Chef Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** I have a ton of respect, uh, for this distillery, for the people behind it, the family behind it, uh, their [01:20:00] consistency.
And I. I have a hard time thinking of a better REPL. Um, I could think of others that are in line with this, but thinking of something better is tough. Um, I think the, the, the flavor delivery is amazing. I think it's a great non additive, uh, so even gateway tequila, sure, it's a little pricey. Um, but I think this is a great introduction or a great way to get somebody like a Grindr.
Um, you interested in tequila and, and, and just curious about it and deliver it. Oftentimes you'll give someone a spirit, uh, you know, and no matter what you suggest or, or, or what influence you think you have, they may, they may just not align. And that's never been the case with me when I drink El DeSoto with others.
Um, um, you know, I'd even argue and say, sometimes I run into people that can't get into a Tequila Ocho. You know, and, and I understand, uh, but that's never happened with, with, uh, with me, uh, to me [01:21:00] with El Tissoto. Um, so I'm going to give this a 10, uh, for me, this is a quality spirit. It's continued to be over the years.
They always deliver. It's a favorite. Um, I love it.
**Pagoda:** All right, Pagoda. Uh, I'll give it a 10. It's um, not because I'm sitting next to Chef, the lizard chef. I didn't have it without ice, didn't need ice at all. Wow. I, you know, um, in terms of the overall experience, um, It was just the right amount of heat, not very hot at all, just the right amount.
It gave me, you know, a lot of the sweetness in the beginning, like as soon as I would take the sip, and then towards the end you would get a little bit of, you know, the rest of the tequila tasting, the agave feel was in the back of my palate. Um, I was so happy today because when I was smelling, uh, the tequila, I was getting a little bit of anise and I was tasting a little bit of it and when the chef said it, I said, all right, I think I've arrived.
**Gizmo:** [01:22:00] But having said that, uh,
**Pagoda:** this tequila is a 10 for me.
**Gizmo:** All right, Senator.
**Senator:** I hate this because I'm going to be the outlier. I'm going to give it a nine. That's a great score. Excellent score. That's a great score. I gave it a nine. You're not an outlier. Well, you said you need to drink more tequila.
**Grinder:** He's
**Senator:** handicapping me.
You're a fucking amateur. He's handicapping my review. If you were a little more declarative, I would have, uh, I would have counted you as a
**Grinder:** crew.
**Senator:** Wow. Um, But I say that because I think you're a tequila guy at this point. You don't have to count your score. Yeah. Listen, you
**Chef Ricky:** came to for the love of agave. You were baptized.
Yeah. I meant
**Grinder:** to, I meant to demonstrate my maturation over the course of the past few months. That's why. Oh, for sure. No, no, no.
**Senator:** So I think for me, it's complex. It's smooth. It's delicious. I would definitely drink this again. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who loves tequila, um, especially a reposado.
The [01:23:00] only reason for me, I didn't give it the 10, I And I'm spoiled by trying all of this stuff with chef Ricky. There are some Blancos and I'm struggling to remember repos, but I, I came to this. I loved an Yeho. I really love reposado and I've, you know, Blanco for me, it's like a, it's always been considered a mixing tequila.
I'd never gotten excited to just sip a Blanco. And now I've had some Blancos that just have this creamy finish that I feel like I could drink half a bottle and like not even blink an eye. And that's the only thing, if I could adjust something about it, I would love a creamier finish on a Reposado like this that would easily make it a 10 that I feel like I could just sit and have 10 glasses and not think twice or feel bad in the So that's just a note that I'm chasing in, in something like this, that I wouldn't find it in an Anejo, but I would want to find maybe in a Repo and certainly in certain, uh, some Blancos that I've had [01:24:00] nonetheless, outstanding spirit.
And I love Altus or, I mean, I have only tried before this, the Anejo when we reviewed that, I scored that really high. I'm sure a nine or a 10, I have it at home. I've drank it, uh, you know, ever since. This is another bottle that will certainly get added to the collections. I agree.
**Poobah:** Question. Would you characterize the G4 Blanco?
**Senator:** That's something creamy. I would. And the funny thing, what was the Blanco? Oh, that was, um, Uno Dos Tres, that Blanco. That was the best Blanco I've ever had by far. And then I had that G4 Blanco when we were at, uh, Chef Ricky's event, uh, For the Love of Agave, and it was amazing. Super creamy. I mean, I just, as soon as you You appreciate the flavors and you just sit there and say, like, it's like champagne.
When you have a great champagne, you feel like there's no limit to how much of it you can consume and just enjoy and not feel bad about imbibing. And, um, that's the only note that now [01:25:00] I'm really chasing in some like lighter, um, Blanco and Reposado style tequilas.
**Poobah:** And you know what's interesting about G four, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I believe it's 84 proof.
So interesting. Higher. Yeah, it's a, it's a higher proof tequila than this tequila, and you never know it, you know, and you'd never know it. So
**Chef Ricky:** you, you know, Senator, that's a super advanced palate you have there. Don't tell him that, please stop.
**Gizmo:** I just, I started feeling balanced. And then all of a sudden,
**Rooster:** he just became a bigger asshole.
I forgot about that email. Our asshole.
**Chef Ricky:** Well, no, I say that because, I, I didn't knock the score for it, but yes, it's not super rich or buttery and it's not buttery viscous. It definitely lacks that. Um, but for me, I didn't [01:26:00] score it negatively for that, um, just because, again, maybe I'm fanboying a little bit behind the distillery, uh, but I know it's a quality product and, and this is just.
You know what they're, what they were aiming for, you know, and I'll say that I'm glad
**Senator:** to, I'm, I'm glad to hear you say that because, you know, as much as I think I'm deep in champagne or cognac or certain spirits, like I've learned everything I know about tequila and mezcal from you. So have we. And so, you know, I don't come to this spirit with like, I have a ton of personal knowledge about this.
So I appreciate hearing that. And the other thing is, you know, had I scored this prior to having that G4 Blanco or that Uno Dos Tres Blanco, I probably would have given this a 10 because I wouldn't have known that. I really love pursue that grainy finish with it.
**Poobah:** And so
**Senator:** now that I have that kind of, you know, reference point, I'm chasing that in Blanco's and Reposado's, and that's the only reason for this singular thing that I [01:27:00] could find that I would want in this experience, but other than that.
Perfect.
**Pagoda:** You know, you mentioned something really, um, it's really profound in a way, because it depends on your experience and the number of tequila you've tried. So you're really comparing it to the, your experiences with the amount. And so for me, um, I know that, you know, you say creamy, but I think I've had tequila with a little bit of the buttery taste and I know those are fantastic for sure.
But this is great. Yeah. It's also
**Senator:** everyone's individual palette. I mean, it's a note that now I chase, but that doesn't mean every tequila drinker is pursuing that same experience. And so for my palate. Yeah, that's where I land. No, that's great. It's
**Poobah:** also splitting hairs to a certain degree. Yeah. Really splitting hairs here because if you take the Fortaleza.
Oh
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
**Poobah:** Uh, Repo is incredible. Yeah. Like that has,
**Bam Bam:** there is a creamy finish on that. There is, but it doesn't have the, it
**Chef Ricky:** doesn't have the, the sweetness. No, it's more botanical. Yeah. It's more because it's a lowland tequila. So it's missing some of that [01:28:00] vanilla, some of that caramel cinnamon, those cinnamon notes that you're getting.
This is a highland tequila. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if we ever had a point caught segment, you know, but you're splitting hairs
**Poobah:** between, you know, it's very, very difficult. Yeah. Yes. It's
**Senator:** one of the least attractive qualities. We're arguing and splitting hairs over a nine to 10.
**Gizmo:** We're drinking.
We're smoking cigars. We're, we're hitting a bunch of the negatives.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Manscaping.
**Gizmo:** Blacksmithing. So for me, it's a nine as well. I echo a lot of what Senator said, maybe not to the degree that he said it. You're a fan boy. Just the intensity. No, I just think of, I think of Don Folano. I think of Siete Leguas.
Um, I think of Fortaleza. Siete Leguas is a great call out. It's a great, it's, that's a great, great reposado. One of my favorites. Some of the ones that we've had on the podcast and others that we've had, At the Anejo event a few weeks ago in the lounge off of pod. I do think overall are better Reposado [01:29:00] expressions for me.
I will say I said it several times tonight. I think the pairing between this Padron and this El Tessor Reposado is a 10. But this tequila for me is a nine. It just doesn't hit that perfect level for me that some of those others do. Still an elite score, guys. It's an elite score, and I'm very happy with it, but that's why I'm not at a ten.
Sure, sure. It was excellent, and it paired brilliantly with the cigar, but it's a nine. Poobah. Um,
**Poobah:** well, I brought the bottle, so I, and I drink it a lot. I, a lot, and I love it. And it's a 10 for me. I think it's very versatile. I find it to be particularly with cigars. Um, if you pair it with the strong, stronger cigar, it'll, it'll cleanse your palate if you pair it with a mild cigar, um, it'll help enhance the cigar.
It can, yes, exactly. It can help kind of enhance some of those, that minerality, some of the notes you're looking for. Um, I think it, it's a 10. It's a really good [01:30:00] representation of, of a really versatile cocktail or drink. It's just, it's just a great spirit and I really enjoyed. So for me as a repo, it's what I reach for, you know, 90 percent of the time.
Uh, like I said, if I can't. If it's not there, and I'm at the liquor store, I'll, you know, I'll grab Ocho, or maybe Fortaleza, but,
**Chef Ricky:** um, Give Cita de Aguas Repo, Sean. That's also usually readily available, and it's, it's delicious. We did that one on the pot, it was very good.
**Poobah:** I like the, I love the tequila, and for me it's a 10.
**Gizmo:** So somebody mentioned splitting hairs, I think it was Poobah said it a few times. That's exactly what we did on this score tonight, and we leaned on the, the positive side of it. The formal liquor rating on the El Tesoro. Tequila Reposado is a 9. 6. Wow. Wow. Excellent. Excellent score. We were debating between 9 and 10s across the room.
And it was just edged out by the tens a little bit. So 9. 6. All right, [01:31:00] boys, it's time to move now into the formal lizard rating on the Padron family reserve. Number 50 in natural rooster. You're up
**Rooster:** a really good cigar. Really enjoyed this. So I love the family reserve line throughout 85th is probably my, so my favorite, I don't have a lot of experience smoking like a national rapper in the Padron line, but this is a really good cigar.
I love the size. I love the shape. It's for me. It's a little step down from the 50 year hammer and also from the Padron 80th just a tad. So because of that, I'm going to give this a it's a strong nine for me.
**Poobah:** Okay, Poobah. Um, I really enjoyed this cigar for I lean a little bit towards more Dominican tobacco, Cuban tobacco, you know, I'm not the hugest Nicaraguan fan.
I don't go that deep with it. Um, except for the 1964 Exclusivo and some other things. But this, [01:32:00] uh, for me is right in my wheelhouse. I really thought the natural wrapper in combination with this blend was fantastic. And, um, it was, uh, you know, a medium to medium, I guess at the end it built to, you know, medium, bold, I guess, medium, medium, medium plus, um, you know what I mean?
And I, I just, no, but I loved it. I feel like, but it's also going back to the tequila. It's, it feels versatile to me. It feels like a cigar that I could pick up and smoke in a lot of different spots. And. To me, that's a merit in the cigar. I'm giving it, I'm giving it a 10. Yeah. You know, I'm not surprised by that, you know, if for me, for my palate, I really, really enjoyed it.
Um, really enjoyed it. It has that Nicaraguan, um, power. Uh, but it delivered it in a way that was sophisticated [01:33:00] and, you know, good for me from, you know, from my palate. So I'm giving it a 10.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a 10. I think this is certainly the best family reserve cigar I've had from Padron. I've had others. I love the 45th.
I love the 85th, but this edged all of those out. We did the 85th on the pod. We'll talk about that. But I really, really love the cigar and I can see where it will fit into a semi regular rotation for me. If it's twice a month, if it's once a month, whenever it might end up being for that low thirties, mid thirties price point for the experience it gave us, I think I touched it up maybe once cause I was talking a lot, but I didn't see a lot of touching up throughout the room.
It smoked brilliantly right out of the humidor here at 10 86. I am really, really impressed with it. It's a 10. It's a 10. It's a 10. It's a really great Padron senator.
**Senator:** Uh, so I, this is the one Padron natural that [01:34:00] has blown me away in the sense that I would absolutely smoke this again. And I remember when Grindr gave the first one, um, after, um, the, the birth of, uh, his daughter.
I was shocked. But I quickly forgot just because I'm such a, you know, we're creatures of habit. I'm just used to always pulling for a Maduro. So I'm really glad we did this again, because this is something I would go out and buy. And I will actually stock in my humidor. I'm at a strong nine. I would recommend this to, Anyone in the sense that I think it's so versatile, like even not a novice cigar smoker in the truest sense, like, you know, they've only had a few cigars ever, but someone who just occasionally has a cigar, but can appreciate his cigar.
Doesn't smoke as often as we do. I think would really love this cigar just as much as someone who's an experienced cigar smoker like all of us in the room. Um, I thought it was complex. I thought it was very refined, [01:35:00] really smooth in the delivery of every flavor that you got out of the stick. I think for me, again, my palate, I'm always going to be partial to Maduro.
And when I pull for a Padron, I am looking for a bit more. And so that's the only reason I didn't give it a 10. But nonetheless, this has some real utility for me in like the afternoon. And you know, it's rare. I pull for a Padron in the morning and this would absolutely be a candidate with
**Bam Bam:** a coffee.
**Poobah:** It had a little bit of sophistication, a little bit of refinement to it that I appreciated.
**Senator:** And when you want a Padrone, but maybe don't want the experience that usually I'm going for, which is a really full experience, this is perfect for it. Oh, yeah, it is very refined.
**Gizmo:** Okay, Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Uh, for me, it's a nine. I, you know, it started off as an eight, really, and, and maybe it's got to do with the way I lit up the cigar.
Um, I found a, you know, a bit of, it was a bit peppery in the beginning and then a bit harsh for me, uh, in the back of my throat, but it developed into [01:36:00] something, you know, I really started enjoying. Um, what was, so by the way, this cigar, fantastic. That's like a razor sharp burn line, beautiful smoke, very easy smoke.
You know, I use that term when it's just, you put it in your mouth and you're able to get the smoke right away and huge smoke out. But I remember Bam, I think, mentioning that it was getting foggy out here. It was pretty smoky out here. For a feel of a cigar, I think it's fantastic. I think, uh, for me, Uh, while the flavors did come in a bit, you know, the coffee got a bit sweeter as well.
And, uh, uh, but it was in my own right, you know, a little muted. I tend to lean towards Maduro's in any case. And if I were to go to, you know, a store and pick one up, I'm more likely to lean for the 50th anniversary Maduro, uh, uh, than the natural line. It's a nine for me.
**Senator:** You know, Pagoda mentioned the, the razor sharp burn.
I lately have been getting very frustrated with some of the cigars that [01:37:00] we've done on the pod. And even I've just tried or had where there's just ash falling all over you. And I'm looking at everybody and I mean, everyone's clothes is clean. Even Pagoda, and it just, you know, you shouldn't have to say that, but sadly you do, and it's a merit to the construction.
**Chef Ricky:** Well, that's Padron.
**Pagoda:** That's Padron. Fantastic.
**Chef Ricky:** All right, Chef Ricky. Yeah, for me. Um, so this was somewhat This was maybe my Ulta Soda Repo for the night, in that, you know, it's gonna be a 9 for me, but I think maybe had it, and it had, I'm not even going to discount the score, or take away from the score because of my user error, I'll chalk, you know, my first quarter, half inch, even, of my cigar to my own fault.
Uh, But I can't help but wonder if it were a Maduro rapper, if it'd be just a little bit more [01:38:00] rich, a little bit more of a creamy, creamy, viscous smoke. So I, I, you know, I have to go back and I don't know if there's a box of Maduro's in there. I might grab it, but I need to see if the Maduro, uh, rapper is gonna edge out the 10 for me, uh, cause this was a nine and it was perfect.
It was, you know, it smoked well after I got over my own error there. And, um, It, it, you know, it started a little harsh and bitter as Pagoda described, but then it kind of worked into this sweet almondy baking spice, uh, situation happening. And it was really pleasant and, you know, I wasn't even hitting the tequila very hard.
It wasn't about the tequila influence or anything like that, just that the cigar developed, but especially for, for, for Padron, in my experience, Uh, I felt like it was a little bit lighter than what I probably wanted or would expect, but it's a great cigar, super versatile. I could see myself smoking it in the morning with a cup of [01:39:00] coffee.
That was a fantastic cigar. I really did enjoy it. Um, but yeah, I'm curious, uh, uh, what the Maduro would, would taste like.
**Gizmo:** All right. Grindr.
**Grinder:** Yeah, for, for me, it's obviously a 10. This is one of my favorite cigars, so I'm slightly biased there. The
**Senator:** first one you smoked or the second one?
**Grinder:** Yeah, I'm on my second cigar.
Uh, same cigar, same box. One of the things I love about this cigar is that, um, there's, A lot of simplicity to this cigar. Uh, but it's, it's, it has this duality where it's simple, it's simple, but it has so much character. And, the character I see in this, you know, you have to treat it gently. You have to, you have to smoke it gently, you have to smoke it And I'll be honest, I've never, I've smoked a lot of boxes of these.
I've never had those taste profiles that you guys have mentioned that you, you found harsh. So that was a bit surprising to me. The thing that I love about is you, you, you, you kind of work your way into it. And it's, it's a lot about it's this [01:40:00] cigar to me has its own persona that I appreciate. And, um, the, the balance of strength.
And just raw tobacco. I know someone, someone said that earlier, but it, it, it, to me, that tobacco flavor, it, it can't, it doesn't compare to other cigars that I've had and it, the way they've aged this and you can taste the age and you can't discount that there's, this is a very refined cigar with a lot of age, but there's, there is a little absence of nuance.
But for guys like that are scoring it on the higher, on the 10 side, we have a bit of a milder profile, maybe of our palate, right? We're not as harsh. So I think that comes into the, into the, into the evaluation and it comes into how you're, how you appreciate it. And, um, I mean, I, I could smoke this morning, afternoon and night and still get a kick out of it.
So, uh, and, and it's, it's. I wouldn't say it's an everyday cigar for me because it's, it's, it's a small stick and you have to, you have to sit down and appreciate it. And [01:41:00] you, and some of those moments in life or in your day are not as frequent. And it's, you know, 36 bucks for a small stick, right? That you're, you're not getting a lot of tobacco for 36 bucks.
For 36 bucks, uh, which, which again, forces you to really take your time with the cigar. And having said that I was the one that probably burned it down the fastest. And with the second one. That he's almost finished with. Correct. But nonetheless, this is still a razor sharp burned. I don't have any, you know, odd torpedo on the, on the cherry.
That's that is indicative of a, of a fast smoke. Um, so I, you know, I love the cigar. And I, and I loved hearing you guys appreciate it too. Um, and uh, yeah, it's a 10.
**Gizmo:** All right, bam, bam.
**Bam Bam:** You know, I echo everyone's comments here. I'm not by any means a mild cigar smoker, but I really appreciate this cigar. I thought it was elegant from beginning to end.
I didn't get any bitterness. I thought it was delicious. I thought it was velvety and creamy. I'm giving this a 10. This, I [01:42:00] love the versatility of this. I said earlier, I can have this with a coffee and a cigar in the morning. I can have it after lunch. I think it's an exquisite cigar and very unusual for us to love something like this, which is really strange.
Yeah,
**Poobah:** I thought, I thought it was a, a, a, a nice expression of padron. Yes. That I think that we didn't, that, you know, that we haven't kind of ventured into. So for me, you know, I thought that was interesting.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. That puts the formal lizard rating on the Padron family reserve number 50 in natural at a 9.5.
Wow. I mean, that is a perfect score for this cigar, this experie tonight. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I just wanted to say about with padrones I I think I've definitely come to know, and even early on in my cigar journey, it was always like, oh, if you smoke a padrone, then you could get, you know, you're ready for a full bodied smoke.
You know, you're ready for, uh, you know, something stronger. Um, and I think everyone's kind of said what Even those that gave it a 10, the surprise [01:43:00] in the cigar was it was it's, it's somewhat delicate and refined delivery, right? And it's not to say that an exclusivo doesn't do that also, but it just does it in a somewhat stronger manner.
Um, so for me, that's why, you know, I, and, and, and again, I don't think it's a blend thing. Maybe just going to a Maduro rapper would sort of But what's interesting is It's a meta preference
**Grinder:** at the end of the day. I think my, of course it is, but I think my reaction to it is It's almost like the fact that it's a Padron is also a demerit, which is like the way, just the way it was, the way I understood it.
And that, to me, that was, that was, that was just interesting.
**Poobah:** Yeah. On its two feet, it stands. Yeah. At a 9. 5, I would say so. That's an excellent rating. Well, you know, I mean, on its two feet it stands. Sorry, we didn't all give a test. I
**Grinder:** think, I think, I think my commentary is, is, is violently misunderstood because it's not, it's violent.
**Rooster:** It's not
**Grinder:** violent. I've seen some more strict violence from you, [01:44:00] Senator, so you can't talk. That's also true.
**Senator:** not, not, uh, not on a nine versus a 10 on, uh, on a Fed. That's mild.
**Grinder:** I'm not, I'm not knocking the nine. I'm, I'm, I'm saying we should appreciate it for what it is. Not be, not, not have the influence. I'm knocking it for what It's not.
Totally not knock it for what? It's not exactly. I gotcha.
**Rooster:** Well, it's also, I mean, there's, there's other pod drones that we have done on the pod. That we have given a 10. I mean, it's to, you know, every single flavor profile, it's different, right? So a lot of us who have given it nines, like you said, like a little bit of a fuller, uh, profile from a, from a Padrao.
It's
**Bam Bam:** true. But the merit for this particular cigar is it's so, the subtlety is compelling. Right. Because it keeps your attention.
**Senator:** What Rooster's saying very simply, right? For Rooster, we know his flavor profile. He wants a. Full bodied experience out of a new world cigar. That's what I think about a Padron is.
And that's, that's why he pulls for a Padron. He's not looking for a Padron for a mild [01:45:00] experience. And so, you know, none of us think that what rooster is going to give a Padron is going to be the same as what grinder would, or any, or Poobah would like, we all have different, you know, strength profiles that we're looking for.
And I think everyone acknowledges that fact in this room.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. So let's do some quick comparing. We'll start with the El Tesoro tequila reposado. Which scored a 9.6 tonight. We mentioned some of these others, so let's go through them quickly. The fourth alado on episode 44 scored an 8.3. The cascais number seveno tequila on episode 1 41, scored an 8.8.
The ate leg, wasdo tequila on episode 96. That's great. Scored an 8.7. On episode 127, the Don Filano Reposado scored a 9. 0. And finally, the sister to this, the Añejo El Tesoro Tequila scored an 8. 0. Yowza. That seems low
**Bam Bam:** to me. That's surprising, and I think it's low as well.
**Gizmo:** And that was on episode 58, which we gave that an 8.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that's low. [01:46:00]
**Gizmo:** So this at a 9. 6 certainly stands alone at the top of the list as far as reposado tequilas on this podcast. Let's also compare to the other Padrones tonight, the family reserve number 50 natural again scored a 9. 5. So let's go to Padrone. We've done six others. To date on the podcast.
First up was the Padron 1964 Exclusivo Maduro edged this out just by a point at a 9. 6 on episode 17. The only other natural from Padron we did on the podcast, which won cigar of the year from cigar aficionado a couple of years ago, the 1964 torpedo in natural scored an 8. 7 on episode 25. We did the entry level Padron.
The 2000 scored a 7. 5. The hammer. The 50 years Maduro again, not to be confused with this 50 year scored a 9. 9. The Padron 80th anniversary Maduro scored a 10. 0 on episode 53. And finally, the [01:47:00] only other family reserve we've done from Padron, the number 85 in Maduro on episode 85. No coincidence there scored a nine.
Point
**Pagoda:** two. This is a very high scoring stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It all works out in the end. It
**Bam Bam:** all works out. It really does.
**Gizmo:** So boys, what a great night tonight and what an excellent pairing from both the tequila and the cigar. Again, let's go through them one more time. The El Tesoro Tequila Reposado scored a 9.
6 and the Padron Family Reserve number 50 in natural. Scored a 9. 5. Of course, we want to thank all of our listeners out there for writing into the podcast and sharing their thoughts with us Congratulations to Lizard Kyle on winning lizard of the week. Thanks to Fabrica5 for supporting the podcast They're great.
Go support them. Go buy some of their cigars and use our code. Of course. We really appreciate them And, uh, we'll see everybody next week.
**Poobah:** Keep smoking.
**Gizmo:** Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website. LoungeLizardsPod. [01:48:00] com That's LoungeLizards P O D dot com.
Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking. Email us hello at lounge lizards pod. com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pot. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.