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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, Senator, Chef Ricky, and Bam Bam, and our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 172nd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. We plan to get us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cuban cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you a formal lizard rating. We discussed the recent Reddit drama around an online Cuban cigar retailer.
Bam tells us about his trip to DC, and we are amazed by the history of our scotch pairing, all among a variety of other things for the next two and a half hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, and enjoy. Light up a cigar and enjoy, as we pair 12 year age Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whiskey with the Montecristo Wide Edmundo.
A Cuban Robusto tonight on the pod, this time [00:01:00] from Montecristo. It's called the Wide Edmundo, and it's a 54 ring gauge cigar by 4 and 7 eighths inches long. And boys, we haven't done A Montecristo Robusto in a while, and I'm confused by this release entirely. I mean, with the Edmundo in the profile, I don't understand releasing the wide Edmundo, there's the petite Edmundo.
There's the line decisions that they're making with some of these global brands makes no sense. And then of course you have this secondary. yellow band like school bus yellow telling you what it is telling you what it is it's the whole thing's very confusing
**Senator:** to me the secondary band is awful i i have no idea why this is needed like it's a waste i get the decision on like the wide Edmundo the regular mundo the petite Edmundo it reminds me like Romeo and Julietta does the short, um, the Churchill, the short Churchill and the wide Churchill.
But there's no secondary band on it, as if you would have to figure out which one of them this is, you would know [00:02:00] immediately. Um, and it's just a cheap looking band. I don't know why they put this on here.
**Chef Ricky:** The font choice is horrible. The font
**Bam Bam:** doesn't align at all. It's like Windows 95, like, on like, These guys are big complainers, Rooster.
I mean, Times New Roman Condensed.
**Rooster:** Maybe this was rolled at the Trinidad factory. They had some of the yellow dye left over. Left over and said, you know, let's make a secondary brand. It doesn't fit. No. Doesn't quite go on the cigar like this. Very,
**Bam Bam:** um, toothy wrapper. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** my wrapper's kind of a mess, honestly.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, the color's kind of, it's not that creamy brown that you like. It's kind of got that little gray brown going. I like that. Not good looking.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** But I hope it smokes well.
**Gizmo:** I hope so too. Yeah. All right boys let's cut this thing. See we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper.
**Rooster:** Have you guys had this before?
I have not. No. Had the patina mundone but not this one. Yeah Pagoda and I had this in Cuba when we were there last year. Ah okay. It was [00:03:00] a fairly,
**Gizmo:** I forget when was this released? This came out, it was announced in 21 came out in 22. Okay, so this is a very new release. Right. So we had it in 23, I guess.
**Rooster:** Yeah, 23, 24.
I think 24,
**Bam Bam:** I guess we were getting a lot of newspaper on the cold. Absolutely
**Gizmo:** correct.
**Bam Bam:** Not that good.
**Gizmo:** Mm hmm. Cold draw is not great. Draw is wide open for me. I took just a little bit off the head. Me too.
**Bam Bam:** With your new precise cutter. Mm. Yes. Mine's scissors. All right.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. The foot smells really green to me.
Yeah. I was just trying to smell the tobacco. You don't get any of that creamy chocolatey. It's not interesting at all. Barnyard notes. Yeah. It's sort of very dry, flat.
**Senator:** The cold draw, I get creamy newspaper for what it's worth. And I'm not kidding. There's like a cream note. Take a
**Gizmo:** note. That's a new note.
It's like the Sunday comics that are in color. There's a little bit more. Ink there than
**Bam Bam:** the black
**Senator:** and
**Bam Bam:** white. So there's like a little lactic thing [00:04:00] going out with the newspaper.
**Senator:** There is, I'm sure. Just take the, there's a, there's an odd like creaminess to it.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. There's a little savoriness here. Maybe some cottage cheese going on.
**Senator:** All
**Gizmo:** right, boys, let's light this thing. The Montecristo Wide Edmundo. Again, it's a Cuban Robusto. This is going to take a while to light. 54 ring gauge by four and seven eighths inches long. It's factory name is the Duke number three, which is a unique size that, uh, this is the first time it was ever used in Cuba.
There are no other cigars, regular production, anything special at all that has ever used this size. So what is the Romeo, the Romeo white
**Rooster:** Churchill? Is that a 52?
**Gizmo:** The white Churchill, white Churchill. So 55. I believe 55 by 5 and an eighth, so a little bigger in both ways
**Senator:** than this Edmund, wide Edmund do we have.
I'm just glad hearing this is [00:05:00] the only cigar they've ever made in this exact size that we have this secondary band so we don't confuse this wide Churchill with something else. Well, you know what
**Bam Bam:** you're smoking. I mean, Jesus. What do you, what do you guys think of this thing on the light? I, I like it. I'm getting
**Rooster:** floral.
There's some, right off the bat, there's some floral notes that are coming.
**Chef Ricky:** I got a blast of intensity on my first draw. Same, but in an
**Bam Bam:** enjoyable way for me. Honestly, it's savory for me. Almost don't tomato. It's weird. A little, a little tomato, a little garlic type thing for me. It's very, very, very savory side.
**Gizmo:** I feel like BA's been spending time with him in the kitchen or something. I'm,
**Chef Ricky:** I'm feeling
**Gizmo:** you. I'm interning. I'm interning. They're locked in on tomato all of a sudden.
**Chef Ricky:** No, I get it. I got some on the cold drawer. I got some savoriness
**Rooster:** on the cold drawer. Pretty savory. I mean, you guys both called out the tomato and I was like, insane.
Well, he
**Bam Bam:** influenced, he influences me. I'm sitting a little close. For the good or for the bad.
**Senator:** I think Bam's paying for some cooking lessons or something on the [00:06:00] side. They're spending time in the kitchen. You know what's
**Bam Bam:** going on. You know what though, you're going to love my boulanaise next time.
**Rooster:** That's where I was going.
**Gizmo:** He's giving them lessons. Correct. Yeah.
**Senator:** Chefs gotta pay for this tower somehow, they'll take bent money.
**Chef Ricky:** Tower's paid for I gotta pay to fill it. Wasn't
**Gizmo:** that bad. Yeah, good luck with that. Now this is very pleasant on the light, mine is, I didn't get a blast of, of flavor per se, it's pleasant, but mine's pretty meek, i would say right now.
You didn't get tomato or garlic, no. What about parsley? No parsley. No
**Bam Bam:** savoriness at all? Seriously.
**Gizmo:** I would say it leans savory, but, uh, it's meek, right now to me, i wouldn't say it's Robust in flavor, mine anyway.
**Senator:** To their point, there is, first of all, the flavor profile in the light of this is very unique.
It's unusual. I can't think of a single Cuban cigar with these notes. And I will say, I agree in the sense that like, There's a really odd, unique mix of spices, and not like traditional when [00:07:00] we talk about spice in a cigar where it's like more of like pepper or red pepper or something like that. It's like literally like garlic and like, onion, like things you would use to season like meat.
I mean, it's just, it's
**Bam Bam:** actually there. You're all right. You need to get cut off. Turn that mic off.
**Chef Ricky:** What are you making a pizza here? Well, it goes to my original comment of how I felt it was a somewhat green in aroma. And, you know, it just kind of reminds me of, uh, again, warm spring day, walking around your backyard and you're kicking up grass.
Um, some of those muted flavor or aromas rather. And, yeah, really savory. Now it's getting a little salty here.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, salty. Any slight pepper for you guys? Just a little bit.
**Rooster:** It's unlike any other Montecristo cigar. I agree.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, because you're not getting that Montecristo, like, twang, that saltiness on the front of your tongue.
It's a different type of salty for me than what that traditional Monte twang is, or what I'd
**Bam Bam:** expect from [00:08:00] Monte. So for me, like, if I have the perfect Monte II, that is a combination of savory and sweet for me. Agreed. But more sweet than it is. Absolutely. Yeah, that's like a chocolate bomb. This is the opposite.
100%. Yeah, this is going the opposite direction. Totally. Yeah. Still kind of enjoyable, I have to say.
**Gizmo:** I'm very happy with this cigar right now. Very happy with it. So, the box code on this, boys, this is a fresh cigar. Obviously, it's only been released a couple years. The box code is EPO. February 2024. Is that a
**Bam Bam:** provincial?
**Gizmo:** It is not. It's actually the Altman factory. Nice. That's surprising. Some mother factory in Havana, EPO and, um, how much? It's nice that, uh, nice. That, uh, yeah, they came outta there. How much are these?
**Bam Bam:** How long have you had 'em? Let's just start there.
**Gizmo:** I've had them about, uh, six to eight weeks. Um, what year?
They've been in my tower. 24. Okay. So they're a year old.
**Rooster:** Okay. These were $21 in Cuba each. So each, they're, they were not $21
**Gizmo:** for us, these were $40. Wow.
**Senator:** Jesus. That's [00:09:00] gonna skew and that's truly like the going rate right now for this cigar. I mean, Jesus for a box of 10. Yeah. 400 bucks. That's secondary band man.
That'll kill you. That's expensive. Well, think
**Gizmo:** about how much it costs them to import this yellow. It's like
**Bam Bam:** that. It's like that lcdh band, man. It has like 40 bucks. Yeah, that's a 40 percent add on for that band. It is
**Gizmo:** and a 40 percent decrease in flavor. Correct? No, this is very. Interesting so far. I'm very happy with it.
Yeah, I don't love the price, you know, for a little Robusto like this. Yeah, it's true. But it's good.
**Senator:** I'm just impressed how unique, I mean, we talk about how, you know, with Cuban cigars, it's all the same tobacco, right? They're just blending it differently. The fact that I don't think a single one of us can point to another, forget Monty, Cuban cigar with this, with a similar flavor profile.
Yeah. I got to give them credit. I mean, it really stands out as unique. I mean, is it,
**Rooster:** is it possible? They grew like tomatoes and garlic in the same field and then they plant a tobacco plant. I think it's very possible. I'm telling you, [00:10:00] man,
**Chef Ricky:** garlic, chives, spring onions. I'm getting a lot of that stuff. Chive is a real thing here.
Yeah.
**Rooster:** Chives now.
**Bam Bam:** That's all in the same family.
**Gizmo:** Speaking of family, where. Would you, if, if I gave you this cigar with no band on it, as of right now, I know we're early on, but with this initial light that we're kind of gushing, confused, you know, interested in here, where would you put this? In the Habanos catalog, like what market do you think that this sits, sits in?
**Rooster:** I would think it's more Honduran. Okay. Not even Cuban.
**Gizmo:** You mean blind? Just blind. If I put the, if I took the bands off this, handed it to you and said Great question, by the way. What, what market do you think this came from? Because I have one that's sticking in my head for a very specific reason. I'm curious if you guys are feeling the same.
I mean, I'd honestly say Romeo. Romeo. Okay.
**Rooster:** I would think maybe a little Ross.
**Gizmo:** I was going to say that was what I was thinking, but I was the one for me.
**Bam Bam:** I haven't had enough [00:11:00] Romeo to judge. Honestly, I haven't.
**Senator:** I recently smoked a wide Churchill. That's the only reason it also like came to mind. Really? It was a gift.
It was pleasant. A long time ago. It was pretty good. It was not bad. It was, um, one of the gifts we got one of our early trips to Cuba. Uh, yeah. Oh yeah. Corona.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Corona. Well, we don't forget, we did review the white Churchill on the pod long ago. Yeah, that was quite some time ago. We do have to go back.
I've heard by the way, not to, you know, Go off topic here, but I did hear from Rob Isla at FOH that, uh, the current run of Romeo Churchill's is one of the best ever. So I think we're going to have to do the Romeo Churchill's and cross our fingers. And well, we need to hit that mark. Um, yeah,
**Rooster:** tell Rob to send us some boxes.
We love
**Gizmo:** you, Rob. Yeah, this is really nice. I think RAS
**Bam Bam:** is
**Gizmo:** a
**Bam Bam:** good call
**Gizmo:** out. Yeah, that's where I was going. I was going to say RAS or maybe [00:12:00] Do you think this is milder than a RAS? No, I'm just saying in the family of, in the family of Ramone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's
**Rooster:** right though. It's kind of like a RAS DNA. In the family of
**Gizmo:** Ramone.
Salty, nutty. This slots better for me in the family of Ramone than it does in the family of Montecristo. That's, that's my only point there.
**Chef Ricky:** I'm trying to remember. There was a stick we smoked where we called out some tomato savory notes, umami notes.
**Bam Bam:** I remember umami. I don't think tomato has ever been mentioned until tonight.
No, that took a hundred and 70. I'm so correct. Tomato
**Chef Ricky:** has been called out once before. No, he's right. It has. Yeah, there was a mushroom, maybe even with mushrooms in there. Yeah. This is when
**Senator:** chef had bolognese for dinner before he got here. He had my bolognese. Thick,
**Gizmo:** uncut vegetables. I can't wait to taste this bolognese.
That was more like
**Rooster:** cacciatore.
**Chef Ricky:** Correct. I wonder if, uh, if, if. What's, what mark of that was, cause there's some similar notes, uh, in flavor here. [00:13:00] I don't know if it
**Rooster:** was a, was that a Cuban
**Chef Ricky:** cigar? I feel it was. I don't know why I'm thinking it was, uh, Maybe, uh, was it La
**Rooster:** Gloria? Turquinos? No way. I don't
**Chef Ricky:** think I had that.
I, I want to say it was maybe the, the part, I guess Maduro one or three that we'd had.
**Bam Bam:** Maduro three? Maybe closer to the three. The one for me is chocolatey. Yeah. Where the threes bit earth here like this is. Yeah. That could be close. I don't think we did the one. I did the
**Chef Ricky:** one with you guys. I had that in the long three.
**Gizmo:** So boys, let's talk about some new Habanos releases. We have three to talk about tonight. Which are interesting. First, the latest and final 2024 edition limitada has arrived from Ramon Ionis. It's a large cigar, 49 ring gauge by six and three eighths inches long. It's factory name is the Nuevos. The Ramon Ionis Absolutos comes of course, in a [00:14:00] crazy, beautiful 20 count box.
And I got to say, You know, we're complaining about the look of this. Look at this awesome Ramon box. How cool is that?
**Bam Bam:** Gorgeous
**Gizmo:** box. It's a great looking cigar. Great looking cigar. Yeah. Can't see the toothiness of it. If it is. It's going to be a very expensive cigar. There's no question about that. But, um, finally that's coming out as the third and last, uh, edition limitada in 2024 following the Trinidad Cabildos we've talked about and the H Uppin Magnum Finite.
**Senator:** What is the magnum finita?
**Gizmo:** I think we talked about that on the pod. Don't make it once and never make it again. That's exactly what they're going to do. Correct. And make a lot of money on it. The H Hupman Magnum Finite, according to our friends at Half Wheel, is 53 ring gauge by five and one eighths inches long.
So it's actually pretty damn close to the cigar we have in our hand. Little, little longer and one ring gauge size [00:15:00] smaller. The Absolutos, like I just said, is 49 by 6 and 3 eighths. And the Cabildos from Trinidad is 49 by 6 and an eighth.
**Chef Ricky:** I just, I don't understand what language that is. What does Finita mean?
Is it final? Magnum final? That would be Finito, Finita. What's it? Is it? Is it fine? Is it finite? It's fine. Giz is working
**Bam Bam:** for Habanos these days. Oh, that's correct. You and Kirby. That's an edit. No, it's not. I'm leaving that in. I'm
**Gizmo:** leaving that in. All right. So they also announced that there's a new British regional edition coming very, very soon.
It's the Flor de Cano. Select us number three and boys. Good news. It's a Lonsdale, 42 ring gauge by six and a half.
**Bam Bam:** And if it's in that market, it's about 120 bucks.
**Gizmo:** It's going to be very expensive to get that cigar for sure. Really nice looking regional for the [00:16:00] UK. It's interesting to me that they choose Florida Kano for these.
That's what these regionals, I, I just don't understand it. Why not put the remote, put it on a Ramon or put it on. I, you know, I, and I know that they don't do regionals with the global brands. I know that, but Ramon's not a global brand. Bolivar is not a global brand. So some of these that, that people chase.
These marcas that we love, our listeners love, people love to smoke. I really don't think La Flor de Cano is in that conversation. And having said that, we enjoyed that, uh, El Ejido's a lot. We'd love that cigar. It's a short filler. That's what I
**Senator:** was going to say. I mean, that was even short filler. Like the idea of a marca that's putting out like short filler tobacco and has like, what's probably going to be a hundred something dollar regional.
I mean, it's just like insanity.
**Gizmo:** It makes no sense. So that is the same size as the Montecristo No. 1, of course, and some other Lonsdales in the Hibanos catalog. They're saying that this is going to [00:17:00] retail for roughly 50 some odd dollars apiece. Of course, now, on the secondary market, taxes, etc. is probably going to be closer to, you know, 75 or 100, I would assume.
So this is a Hunter's and Frankel release, of course, because they're the distributor for the, uh, for the United Kingdom. They've commissioned 125, 000 of cigars, 5, 000 boxes of 25. So that is the plan on that one. And finally, we have another one, a new St. Louis Ray. Regional edition for Germany. It's called the half brower.
It's called the St. Louis Ray belly. Coso. Of course it has a secondary band on it for Germany, and it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by five and one half inches long. And this is what I like the retail price on this one. 21 bucks.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Wow.
**Gizmo:** So now that is that's
**Bam Bam:** nice.
**Gizmo:** That is closer to [00:18:00] reality for me. That's a break.
So unfortunately there's only 6, 000 boxes of these made. You know, the other good thing too is, you know, a Bella Coso coming out from St. Louis Ray. We love the Regios. You know, there's a lot of celebrated cigars from St. Louis Ray that have been discontinued over the years. So it's nice to see them coming out with a regional.
Hopefully it does so well that at some point they put it into regular production because the more Bella Cosos, the better. Okay, I'm dying here. Can we please talk about this right
**Senator:** now? Oh, I know where you're going. This is awesome right now. It has gotten better. It's gotten sweeter. Yes. And to me, it's now the
**Bam Bam:** perfect balance between sweet and savory.
I'm actually looking right at Rooster because I want to see what he's experiencing. I want to hear.
**Rooster:** I'm getting that floral note again. Still floral. And also, it also got a little creamier.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. No sweetness at all.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Rooster:** it is.
**Bam Bam:** This is Almost that perfect, what I chase, that savory sweet experience.
It's almost there.
**Rooster:** To me, like, the savoriness has gone down a little bit. [00:19:00] Oh, sure. And the sweeter note has come. Oh, yeah. It's more prominent. Which is And it's creamy and, uh, kind of like a, like, a little nutty as well. Would you say Maybe like a cashew. Senator, I've got a question,
**Bam Bam:** because you called this out first.
Salty cashew. Is it more creamy sweet or is it like a dessert note type of sweetness or like a biscuity type thing because I'm getting kind of that
**Senator:** I know I get more of like a creamy sweet note like a sweet like a sweet cream or like some kind of a cake almost more than like a biscuit for me this is like the absolute perfect balance like if I could ask a blender to blend something for good with sweet and savory
**Bam Bam:** this is what it would it's it's fucking good and honestly I'm getting like a sweet note Pistachio type pastry thing in a retrohale for me.
Very, very good.
**Senator:** Chef,
**Chef Ricky:** I'm at a loss for words here because so, you know, it started really herbaceous as we were saying. Right. And then that's a fancy word. When [00:20:00]
**Senator:** BAM will be using
**Gizmo:** that next week.
**Senator:** Correct.
**Gizmo:** Tomatoes. What was it? Verbaceous. Very verbaceous. Herbaceous. Herbaceous. I didn't even hear what he said.
**Chef Ricky:** And neither did you.
A lot of verbs. I'm making up words. No, it started really erratious. And now again, you know, somewhere in the middle here. So as you guys were talking, I had a flavor just pop up in my mouth. I wasn't even drawing on the cigar yet. Um,
**Rooster:** umami.
**Chef Ricky:** Yes. So it was, it was becoming really umami and then it transferred into these biscuit sweet baking spice, um, notes that were coming and it for a second, it was like I was getting herb focaccia.
Right, I was getting these bready notes and slight yeasty. And then it transitions into this sweeter flavor profile that is now just mind blowing. I mean, this is a, I was worried because it's a fairly small cigar at a Robusto. We're almost, you know, done with the first third here. And, I mean, just like that, [00:21:00] it's, it's, it's transitioned into something, something sophisticated.
That completely
**Gizmo:** changed. Yeah. Yeah. I have a question for you, because I have an opinion on this. Do you think it's closer to the Monty profile now? Yes. I don't think so, yeah. I definitely think it's closer. a little bit. I feel like the twanginess is moving to the front of my mouth. I feel like I'm getting a little bit of that.
Like, it's definitely different, but I could see it's, it's, it's kind of moved into the family of mani as far as my understanding of the flavor profile. It's getting there. I
**Senator:** think the saltiness is definitely more pronounced like that. Twangy notes. I agree with you there. I mean, the fact that now it's starting to skew sweeter, which I think Monty generally does with a lot of those like chocolate notes, but I still think this is so unique that I think if I smoke this blind, even at this point, like the first thing that would pop into my head probably still wouldn't be Monty.
**Rooster:** Because you don't get that creaminess from a Monty. No, right? No, I don't think so. No, I mean, with this, you're getting that creamy, salty, nutty, which is where it differs from [00:22:00] that different profile, which is what the senator is saying right now, especially comparing to like a regular Edmundo or a petite Edmundo.
You don't, you're not getting those flavors. All those
**Bam Bam:** Edmundos are like an outlier for me. And the Monte Marga, just a little bit. They're always, they've been always a little different for me.
**Gizmo:** What's interesting is that, and that's what I was, you know, I was going to throw out that sometimes on a really good Montecristo number one, and I know we've had up and down experiences,
**Bam Bam:** but I
**Gizmo:** do get, when those are on, I do get creaminess there and that cigar stands apart from the number two and the petite number two and some of the others.
So it's like, it's almost like the number twos, the Edmundo's and the ones. The one, it's almost like they're all pretty dissimilar in a way, but they have a common DNA, like a
**Rooster:** Monte number three. You know, with, uh, with, with some age on it. He's talking 20 years of age. Of course. I mean, I get like heavy chocolate.
Monty three is a very chocolate, a lot [00:23:00] of
**Senator:** cocoa,
**Rooster:** delicious, delicious cigar.
**Senator:** I will say though, the, the creaminess right now. So I, I've had maybe just a handful of the regular Edmundo's over the years. And one, probably one of the first ones I ever had years ago, I don't know, maybe five, seven years ago. Um, It was creamy, like I'm getting in this, so that could be maybe characteristic of the regular Edmundo line, and I guess maybe the wide Edmundo line, but, um, like we're saying, I mean, it's not really that prevalent in the rest of the market, so, um, yeah, it's unique.
You know,
**Bam Bam:** also the prototypical structure on the ash, this is true Monty. They're all, for me, they all perform this way. Beautiful structure, nice bright white, strong.
**Senator:** They do, but I will say this is probably the best constructed Monty I've had in a long time. This is a great cigar. I mean, look at the ash. I had the same thing I already ash.
Look at Bam's, like, it's razor sharp. I'm trying to intentionally smoke slow tonight.
**Gizmo:** I [00:24:00] just got such intense flavor through the retrohale. It was shocking. It's amazing. And we talk about this so many times. We talk about this so often with new world cigars, how we're, we're just wanting either something to be great and to be consistent the whole way through or to take us on a journey.
With Cubans, we often say, we want the cigar to take us on a journey. It does. Sometimes it's not great. And sometimes the construction and performance is, is, is, you know, inferior this already. We're still in the first third coming to the end of that first third. It's changed like three times already for the better.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** And the, and the, 24 years old. So
**Bam Bam:** little age on the smoking, like a very complex cigar.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's go through some of the details on the cigar. Then we'll jump to our pairing. Like I said, the factory name on this is the Duke No. 3. It comes in three different types of packages. It comes in a semi buoyant nature box of [00:25:00] 25 cigars, the display box of 15 aluminum tubos, the five cardboard packs of three.
I would love to get a few of these in tubos to have. Absolutely. Would love that. And of course, what we're smoking out of tonight is the box of 10 cigars. It was announced in 2021 and was finally released in October 2022. So we're just over two years of these cigars being on the market. So I do see a lot of folks smoking these.
I've seen up and down, you know, ratings and conversation about the cigar, but so far. I'm very, very happy with this, with only having a year on it and only being in my, my tower for six weeks or so. Oh yeah. Your tower is spectacular. Oh, thank you, man.
**Senator:** I also, the smoke output on this combustion is amazing.
**Bam Bam:** It's nice.
**Gizmo:** Combustion
**Senator:** is
**Gizmo:** velvety smoke.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's move now to our pairing. We have the Glenfiddich Fiddick 12 years aged single malt scotch whiskey. I would argue [00:26:00] this is a staple for anybody who drinks standard 12 year single malt scotch. You see it everywhere. It's available everywhere.
It's just one of those kind of pillars, I would argue, of the single malt scotch industry. Cheers. To your market. Cheers, boys. Salute, boys. Glenfiddichn Fittick. So I'm drinking it neat. I don't know if the rest of you guys are. We all are, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's the way to do it on this.
**Bam Bam:** Um, I was very skeptical before we started.
**Senator:** What'd you call
**Bam Bam:** it I called it motor oil. Yeah. That's a ridiculous name. Valvoline supreme motor oil. But this is, I haven't had this in many years, so I forgot how good this was. This is, there's a little butteriness, a little honey, and it is very, very smooth and easy to drink. Shockingly, shockingly good.
I'm surprised. Chef?
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I got some very ripe fruit, a little bit of citrus, and definitely honey, some oak there.
**Senator:** Mm hmm.
**Chef Ricky:** Uh, this has. [00:27:00] I'm guessing there's this has been in Sherry or touch Sherry because I'm getting some of that It's it's really it's really approachable. I for whatever reason I also had a negative me too
**Bam Bam:** And how easy is it going down?
It's so easy. It's incredible.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah What's the proof on this?
**Gizmo:** Eighty proof. Eighty? Forty percent. Yep. Hmm. It's a Speyside whiskey, and, uh, it's matured for twelve years in Oloroso sherry and bourbon casks before it mellows out in oak marrying tuns. T U N S? That's what, uh, that's what, uh Total wine is saying,
**Senator:** no,
**Gizmo:** no, that's right.
**Senator:** I'll actually explain what that is in a little bit.
**Gizmo:** Interesting. So what I love about this boys and kind of, uh, and I want to talk about the pairing in a second, but kind of the opposite of what we're saying about the cigar and value, compare this to the other 12 year olds that we drink, how much is this bottle?
54.
**Bam Bam:** That's, that's
**Gizmo:** excellent. I mean, you compare that to McCowan, you know, you compare that to, you know, what about a Glenfiddichn Leavitt? Glenfiddichn is
**Rooster:** more comparable [00:28:00] to a. No, I think this is a much better spirit
**Gizmo:** than Glenfiddichlivet. It's much easier to drink. Price point wise. I don't know. I think Glenfiddichlivet's around the same.
Maybe a bit more. Yeah, I don't remember exactly.
**Bam Bam:** So, you know, I've been on this tequila and cognac journey for a while. I've gotten away from this particular type of spirit. The way this is drinking, this is interchangeable. with the tequilas and the and the cognacs that I've been going after because it's there's it's sweet forward.
It's really easy to drink like those other two. This is I'm going to get this bottle. I think it's it's worth having in your locker. I think this is a great
**Gizmo:** standard.
**Chef Ricky:** It's delicious. And I would arguably delicious and you're going to find it everywhere. It's exactly something I've seen everywhere. Well, that's the
**Senator:** thing.
Like it's a blessing and a curse for this brand because there's any liquor store that sells scotch. You'll always find it. And because of that, it's like so ubiquitous that I think there's like a stigma that it's just like, yeah. Or like, it's just like the common, you assume it's motor oil [00:29:00] person scotch that like, doesn't know a lot about single malts.
And I mean, I'll even admit the reason, at least I've had plenty of this is there have been countless airlines over the years, trains, Amtrak that like, This would be their, um, kind of house, uh, single malt that you could, uh, choose from. So I've drank plenty of it. You know, it's always been enjoyable enough, but because of that, you know, you also like even myself, I've always thought of this as kind of a, a step below.
And I'm certainly never took the time to dive at all into the brand history on it to know that. It's not just like this commercial mass produced brand. There's actually an amazing history to it. So, um, I think it's really just gotten, um, a bad rap. I think people don't really know enough about. Um, how amazing their contribution has been to the world of single malts as we know it.
**Gizmo:** Well, I find it fascinating not only a that this is one of the easiest to find single malt scotch is so excessively priced I can't believe a that we [00:30:00] haven't done it. We did do another Glenfiddichfiddich We did the 15 year right quite some time ago on episode 27, which is crazy. We didn't do the history So that's why senator's going to go into that in a second.
But you know, it's it's I regret ignoring Glenfiddichfiddich with how this is tasting right now. Like, I'm regretting ignoring it.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, the only knock is that it does lack a little viscosity. It's a little thin. Um, I don't
**Gizmo:** think it's But I like that. I like that with the
**Bam Bam:** Cuban cigar. It doesn't drink like an extraordinarily complex spirit, but it's so tasty, you kind of overlook those two things.
**Gizmo:** And I think the finish is so, it's performing so well. Yeah, it's a medium finish. It's a medium finish. It's not overtaking your palate, pairing with this cigar. And that's really my next question before we go into history here, is how do you think this is pairing with the Spontacrystal tonight?
**Senator:** I think it's great.
I do too. I'll just say, like, the thing I really appreciate about this, it's not overly sweet. And so, like, the fact that it's balanced out [00:31:00] by some of those other um, Leaning more savory type notes. I think like the whole sweet savory thing we're getting with the cigar. Absolutely. It pairs really well.
We're like an aggressively Sherry forward scotch would overwhelm the would overwhelm.
**Chef Ricky:** Yep. And if you really want to drive that point home, allow the spirit to run down the sides of your palate and you'll really get salty, salted butter almost. Yeah. Uh, just happened that highlights what's going on in the cigar at some points.
Very, very nice pairing. It's almost like you do this for a living, Giz.
**Gizmo:** Tell my wife that.
**Chef Ricky:** Bam's palate call outs and, or flavor call outs and your pairings, man.
**Gizmo:** So the reason why, honestly, I was expecting this to be a weak performing scotch tonight, because of my preconceived notions coming in, you know, not negative, but pessimistic, I would say.
So when I paired it with this, I saw that it was thin, It's a pretty standard 12. I, you know, we haven't been doing a lot of single malt pairings with Cubans. You [00:32:00] can see that through the bottle,
**Bam Bam:** the viscosity of it.
**Gizmo:** Well, I've, I've seen it before. I have some at home, so you know what I mean? I didn't try it, but, uh, whatever run this is on right now, it's tasting very, very good.
It's kudos to them, especially at this price point. But you know, I, I just thought let's do something that's a little more standard as a, as a pairing to a Cuban that we haven't had. You know, hopefully it'd be a home run. I love how this is tasting with this money.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, would you, so what other Cubans would you pair this with?
I would
**Gizmo:** pair this with a D4 in a heartbeat
**Senator:** from Partagas. I mean, I'm sorry, for me, I can't think of a Cuban that wouldn't pair with this. Yeah, that's a
**Bam Bam:** good point. So that's a great, that's where I kind of, where I was going. It's so mild and easy drinking. Almost any Cuban would do really well. I think a schwa in particular would do great with this.
I agree. A heavily aged RAS that's mellowed out over time would do phenomenal with this thing. Um, even a punch, the punch punch would do really, really nice here. I think I also
**Senator:** just want to say,
**Bam Bam:** I would
**Senator:** call this scotch medium bodied. I don't think it's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I don't think it's light. I just
**Gizmo:** think [00:33:00] it's just not physical.
It's the viscosity that's kind of throwing me off. That's
**Senator:** the thing. Sometimes you have. any spirit that is not very viscous and then in addition to that is very light in flavor and so you're left like so disappointed in viscosity right right i think with this what they've done really well is like yes it's lighter in viscosity but it has a lot of flavor that you're not sitting there like craving more or needing more and i think that's what makes it so versatile that like There are even new world cigars I could pair this with.
And I'm
**Bam Bam:** looking at chef. The calculus equations are kind of floating over his head, right? What are you thinking?
The Zach, Zach Galifianakis.
**Chef Ricky:** Something's going on. I'm just really playing with it in my mouth. I'm letting it hit all parts of my palate and see what flavors I pull out. Um, it's, it really is enjoyable. It's a delicious spirit. I'm, I'm shocked. I don't know. I, for whatever reason, I didn't think very highly of Glymphidic 12 myself.
Um, and you see it, you see it, you know, [00:34:00] everywhere, whether it be airplane bottles, as Senator said, on trains or while traveling. Um, it's, it's pretty much a, a Colescotch for the most part. It's a
**Rooster:** cool looking bottle. It is. It's easy to
**Chef Ricky:** grab and pour. It has that trapezoidal, uh, shape to it on the sides. I don't know, Bam, you're the architect.
Those equations, well no, I can see the equations are working. You're the architect. You're figuring it out, I can tell.
**Senator:** So Senator, what can you tell us about Glenfiddichn Fittick? Yeah, so there's a lot to their story. I mean, I'll just start with my impression has always been that Glenfiddichn Fittick is part of one of the big conglomerates, right, you would think they're owned by like Diageo or one of the big liquor holding companies.
They're one of the few Single mall distilleries that's still to this day is family owned and operated. They never sold. That's pretty amazing.
**Bam Bam:** How long have they been around?
**Senator:** Over 130 years.
**Gizmo:** So what is that? That's gotta be five or six generations. A single family?
**Senator:** Five generations [00:35:00] of this same family has run this distillery.
That's so cool. I mean, they even built it by hand. I mean, it's like insane when you read their story. The
**Gizmo:** percentage of businesses failing, I think it's after the second generation. Or third generation. It's like a dramatic fall. Wow. As businesses are handed down. I know you're going to go, you're going to launch
**Bam Bam:** into the history just from what you've said.
I'm a fan. I'm really, I'm a fan.
**Senator:** I don't know of a single others, uh, um, distiller in any category of spirit. That is the number one selling. By the way, I'll also mention Glenfiddich Fiig is the number one selling single malt scotch in the world, period. Wow. Holy. That's crazy. Crazy. Did not know that. Any other distiller in any category that can say we're number one and we're independently owned and operated, that, that's not usually the case.
Right. You think of in tequila, obviously Chef can speak to this. I mean, all the big brands they're owned by, you know, someone you think of in, uh, bourbons the same thing. Mm-hmm . I just cannot believe that these are the biggest ones to do it and they're still [00:36:00] family run and operated. That's crazy to me.
That's cool. So, uh, a long history, uh, as I said, I mean, it's crazy. The family, uh, back in the late 1800s, it took a year and they literally built the distillery by hand, um, and then made it what it is. And I think we talked about, uh, Cardew. Um, another. We talked
**Gizmo:** about that a couple of weeks
**Senator:** ago. Right. With the Johnny Walker.
Exactly. I think they're what, the oldest, one of the oldest distillers in Scotland. Yeah. Uh, so they bought old equipment from Cardew and then used it to build their own distillery. Um, so again, they were one of the early ones. Um, I mentioned it's the, uh, largest, uh, producer of single malt scotch in the world.
They produce 21 million liters of whiskey per year.
**Chef Ricky:** Holy shit.
**Senator:** Yeah. The other thing that's wild is they are the reason that we call it single malt scotch. They were the first to bottle and market a single malt, meaning that it was all distilled, that all the [00:37:00] product and the distillation was from a single site.
That's unbelievable.
**Bam Bam:** They need to advertise on our pod. I
**Gizmo:** agree. Let's call Bobby Glenfiddichn
**Bam Bam:** Fittick and let's get him going. Honestly, I'd love to go to the facility. I'd like to see this. Yeah. Yeah. This is really cool.
**Senator:** So the crazy thing is up until the 1960s. All Scotch that people really were drinking was blended Scotch.
It wasn't until the sixties that they were the first to actually bottle and they called it, um, straight malt, uh, which then eventually became single malt. Um, and so they really were a pioneer as far as like, you know, we all love and appreciate single malts and these are the guys that are responsible and behind it.
Um, another thing that's really. Bizarre and cool about their story. They are one of the only distillers to have their own coppersmiths on site, as well as their own copperage. And so their copper pot stills, they literally make them. Their barrels, they also make their own barrels that they age in. This is like [00:38:00] Santa's workshop.
I'm all
**Bam Bam:** about this.
**Senator:** This is fantastic. It's insane. I mean, you know, with the barrel, the like copper rings that are around it, that kind of bind and hold it together. They literally make that and assemble their own barrels. The cool thing about
**Bam Bam:** copper, it's malleable. So you can kind of pound it and bend it after like you got to work it a little bit.
No heat. Um, but once you make this structure, I can't imagine how much these things cost, but to make that by hand, it's pretty amazing.
**Chef Ricky:** It's a ton of work. Yeah. Smells like copper is a Bama approved material. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** You know what I, and, and Senator, I don't mean to interrupt you here as you're going through history, but the one thing I I'm kind of tying my brain to the price here, probably in the fact that it's still family owned, like there's probably a reason that they, you know, they don't have some huge conglomerate corporate offices, big skyscrapers, too many people on the payroll, big
**Bam Bam:** expenses,
**Gizmo:** big expenses.
They're running it like a family business. Obviously it's a massive one. Yeah, they probably have a lot of people. [00:39:00] Yeah, it's exactly where I was going. It's kind of like Padrone.
**Chef Ricky:** And because they're not outsourcing any part of their process, whether it's making the barrels, making the stills or any of that, they could probably keep costs down.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Wow. So that must be why we're seeing this being sold for 54 and not like. McCallan in the black box, the Sherry O cast, which is sometimes can be found for, you know, up to upwards of 90 or more,
**Bam Bam:** you know,
**Gizmo:** or more.
**Bam Bam:** Even I'm a huge fan. This is pretty cool. I will never ever call this motor oil ever again.
I actually retract that until he forgets
**Gizmo:** this statement. No. And then in a couple of weeks we do another one.
**Bam Bam:** You know why I won't forget it. I will be, I will, I'll have a bottle in my locker within a few days.
**Rooster:** Do you think of a podcast? What? Last like 130 years, our kids are doing it. You'll still be around.
**Bam Bam:** You don't age a day. I mean, you're going to
**Chef Ricky:** be a vampire blood.
**Bam Bam:** I don't
**Chef Ricky:** understand. I tell you [00:40:00] what, chef junior will definitely sign up. He's going to
**Senator:** keep my caviar tradition alive. Oh, there's no doubt about that. Um, so just some, some other, uh, you know, things that there, uh, They're accredited with, um, they were one of the first distilleries to use the Solera method for blending whiskey, which ironically I had recently had their 15 year, which uses that Solera method.
And so, They're basically the first it, it, it kind of manifests in a few ways. So we always talk about how when there's an age statement on a single malt bottle, that's the minimum number of years there is actually, you know, Scotch in there that can be 15, even 18 years, small quantities of it. But they do blend all of those single malts basically together to make that expression or profile.
Is that what the Solera method is? So it is. And it's basically taking. So like it can be. The types of barrels that they've aged the Scotch in. So in this case, I think it's, you know, [00:41:00] part, um, Sherry part American Oak. And so the percentages of that, and they basically have the barrels and then they're pouring out into, uh, What they call a, what was the term you had mentioned?
That was funny. Ton. Yes. A ton. So they use tons to basically, yeah, they use these tons to blend all of this. And so it can be different casks that they're aging it in. It's also the different years that they've aged these things in. So you, they usually do it. The, uh, most age ones are on the bottom and it's kind of stacked up.
And so they're basically extracting like first, like it can be. So hold
**Bam Bam:** on. Are they, are there multiple casks? Yeah. That are funneling into these tons. Yes. It's like a chemistry experiment. Yes.
**Senator:** And then they're blending in the ton itself. Yeah. So like, here's even a diagram of this using different age statements.
So you can see like kind of the older barrels they have on the bottom that's going into these tons. It's awesome. And, um, it's the smallest quantity from the older stuff, but I'm
**Bam Bam:** ready to rate this thing. This is, this is [00:42:00] ridiculous. I
**Gizmo:** found something cool here to pick you back on this Senator. In this method, they have a massive oak vat that has not been emptied since 1998.
That is continuously blending older and newer whiskeys for consistency and depth. So if you think about that, since 1998, this has never been empty. They're constantly using this vat. To blend their single moms.
**Bam Bam:** So you'd have to think, like Senator said, there's strains of older spirit. Exactly.
**Chef Ricky:** Exactly.
That's incredible. So you're, you're, you're talking about almost at minimum 20 years age. Yeah. Blending, blending with their younger expressions in this time. Why, why
**Rooster:** only, only 1998? They could have gotten like, you know.
**Gizmo:** 1920 like you. Yeah. 1884. For those playing Lizard Bingo, that one just hit. Correct.
**Senator:** You're playing
**Bam Bam:** into it. I like it. Yeah.
**Senator:** You're leaning into it, dude. All right. And just the last couple of things I'll say on Glenfiddich Fiddick. Um, in [00:43:00] 2001, they released what was at that time, the oldest single malt whiskey in the world. It was from a cask that was filled back in 1937. So when Rooster was a teenager.
Correct. That was two. That was two. That was a toddler. Correct. With a cigar in your mouth. And uh, they bottled, there were 61 bottles of this that at the time had 64 years of age on it, which is insane. I can't imagine what that sold for. Oh my lord. Um, and then the last thing, I didn't really know this, you know, Scotland now is obviously a big tourist destination, there's a whole experience about going and visiting the distilleries, but in the early days, that was not at all common, unlike other regions, like wine vineyards were always like very open, wanting people to come in, taste and explore, and Scotch was kind of the opposite, and so, um, At some point in the late 60s, they became one of the first distilleries to actually open their doors to visitors.
[00:44:00] And they apparently have like a huge, you know, a tour program and visitor center and stuff like that. So they even kicked off. I think a lot of the tourism that we now know to be true about Scotland. So from top to bottom, I mean, there's just so much that is impressive about their brand history. It's outrageous.
**Gizmo:** I heard that there's a rumor. About Glenfiddichfiddich that I thought was pretty cool that apparently they use water from what's called the Robbie do Springs Which is a pristine source in the distilleries Valerie do virgins bathe in it. I Don't know you apparently want to go there and find out I do And legend says that the water flows through a hidden waterfall Inside the distilleries underground warehouse
**Rooster:** that explains it
**Gizmo:** I'm telling you, this is like Santa's workshop.
This is insane.
**Bam Bam:** And I think it's, we have to take a lizard trip out here, please.
**Gizmo:** Can we do that?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, let's do it. I'm serious.
**Gizmo:** I saw one other, I saw a couple of cool things, but, [00:45:00] uh, the Senator touched a bunch of them, but, uh, during us prohibition, which was obviously 1920 to 1933, as you know,
**Bam Bam:** absolutely.
Yeah. You were like six,
**Gizmo:** uh, Glenfiddichn Fiddick was smuggled into America in barrels labeled straight can scotch. S T R A C H A N S, Scotch, to avoid detection. So they smuggled it in during Prohibition to
**Senator:** get the single malt into the country. The craziest thing is the scale that they were doing that. So, in Prohibition, most of the distillers in Scotland basically screeched to a halt.
Some of them still kept producing. The only distiller I read that actually was increasing, not decreasing, production during Prohibition was Glenfiddichfiddich. Hey, the family business, man. They gotta eat.
**Bam Bam:** Gotta, gotta bank.
**Gizmo:** They got to eat, got to
**Bam Bam:** keep banking.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. These guys are, are pretty amazing. I love this too.
I just think this is cool. Again, going back to maybe the cost component, they, uh, the distillery runs on 100 percent renewable energy, including a [00:46:00] biogas plant fueled by whiskey production waste, like the spent grains.
**Senator:** Cool.
**Gizmo:** And they also treat all of their wastewater on site using a natural red bed reed bed filtration system.
Wow. Wow. It's pretty amazing. Very progressive. Pretty amazing. They have over 1 million casks aging in their warehouse. 1 million. Can you say, I mean, that's like an Amazon warehouse in space site.
**Bam Bam:** Get ready to drink.
**Gizmo:** Well, I, I gotta say, uh, across the board tonight, and obviously we'll get to the ratings in a while, but I am so blown away by how the Scotch is performing.
That incredible story, which I'm so glad we highlighted. And now how this cigar continues to evolve.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** We're at about the halfway point now, I guess, on the Montecristo wide at Mundo. I am absolutely loving this cigar. So
**Chef Ricky:** what are you getting right now? I'm going to, tell you what I'm getting.
Remember when I brought. my wife's cookies. You're [00:47:00] out. Okay. I'm going to, guys, I'm going to pack. It's like pagodas here. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Ignorance is a bliss. Okay. No. When I brought my wife's cookies here that she made the pecan cookies. Yes. That's. Like, the level of salt, the level of nuttiness, faint chocolate.
He's not wrong. Yeah. I'm getting all of that right now in this.
**Gizmo:** That's a perfect, uh, analogy, I would say. It's a little nutty. Nutty, chocolate. Little sweetness. Little salty. I'm
**Bam Bam:** not getting much chocolate or cocoa, but there is this strain of sweetness. That I can't really put my finger on, but it's very pleasant.
I'm
**Gizmo:** getting more of the chocolate through the retrohale. Then I am on the traditional 12 like when I retro hell, it's like a chocolate, like a milk chocolate. Yeah.
**Senator:** For me. This is what's wild is that it keeps transitioning. Like I, so I agree now with the cookie reference at this point. I actually am getting way less cream at this point than I was before.
Yeah. Like for me in the first half, like I maintain, I, I wasn't getting cookie [00:48:00] notes. I was getting cake. Like to me, the first half I was literally getting like shortbread cake. Exactly. Shortbread cookie, yellow cake of some kind. Right. Cause there was so much creaminess. Now that creaminess has subsided.
It's a bit drier and now I'm getting those cookie notes that chef is talking about. So it's a little toasty.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. I just can't believe how many transitions. That's a good note. Toasty.
**Bam Bam:** But here's what's unusual. The aroma on the foot of the cigar is very clean. There isn't much there. The retro, like you said, is there's a little cocoa and that I'm getting the most sweetness on a typical draw.
I agree. That's where I'm getting all of my sweetness. Yep.
**Gizmo:** So boys, I have to tell you about another Montecristo I had.
**Bam Bam:** So Oh yeah,
**Gizmo:** I was watching a, uh, you
**Bam Bam:** made us all jealous that night. A big
**Gizmo:** television event that happened a couple weeks ago on the tv. Mm-hmm . And great show. And I was, um, . I was, uh, the Grammys
**Rooster:** were great.
No, you know.
**Gizmo:** I was, uh, I was watching a football game, let's call it that. All
**Rooster:** right.
**Gizmo:** And, [00:49:00] uh, you know, a couple teams playing. I mean, it may have, may have been the greatest Super Bowl ever, but why, why are we doing this? I digress. Oh boy. So I smoked, uh, a Mono Cristo a, which is a nine nine inch mammoth Cuban mono Cristo from 2016.
Kendrick Lamar had an A on his chain, , he didn't, that was for me, that was for me. And
**Chef Ricky:** because did you grease it first?
**Gizmo:** That's a nice Philadelphia reference. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
**Gizmo:** Thank you,
**Bam Bam:** Chef Ricky. Correct. But, uh, Many other references we can make.
**Gizmo:** I, uh, I was blown away by how good the Montecristo A was. It was from 2016, had almost nine years of age on it.
Obviously, my Eagles were playing in the Super Bowl. So I wanted to have a great cigar for the first half. Guys, I've never seen
**Bam Bam:** Gizmo happier. Yeah, he was thrilled. Oh my goodness.
**Senator:** And something that you could potentially use as a weapon to vandalize the place. Exactly, if I wanted to take things down. You know,
**Gizmo:** as we do when the Eagles win.
That's [00:50:00] correct. Um, I gotta tell you guys, anybody out there listening, if you have an opportunity to get your hands on a Montecristo A, whether it has age or not, because I hear even the fresher batch is really performing well, that cigar was spectacular. Spec. It was a two and a half hour experience. And from first draw, very similar to what we're talking about here, that in performance of how it evolved.
I was going to
**Bam Bam:** ask you, no performance issues, no plug, nothing? Not one. That's shocking. It was
**Gizmo:** perfect. I said, you know, around the halfway point of the cigar, it was probably the best Cuban cigar I've smoked in the last few years. It was that good.
**Bam Bam:** That's quite the definitive
**Senator:** statement. It was shocking. You know, what's actually really funny that you just said that, now I'm just remembering, um.
There was a cigar aficionado video right before the Super Bowl. I'm not sure if any of you guys saw this. No. They posted on their social media and it was talking about like Super Bowl smokes and I was actually shocked to see, uh, that like the first cigar they led with was a Cuban cigar [00:51:00] and, um, not an advertiser.
And, uh, it was, I mean, he was smoking a heavily aged, uh, Montier.
**Gizmo:** Oh,
**Senator:** yeah. Wow. Oh, there you go. Same cigar. Great minds. Think alike.
**Gizmo:** Was
**Senator:** it, was it Kirby?
**Gizmo:** No, I think it was probably David Simone. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I, I, I would tell any listener what I love about that cigar. Obviously it's a real time commitment.
It's a real occasion cigar. You need to, you know, I would only smoke that in an event like that where you're going to be sitting for quite some time. It's, you know, somebody who smokes slower, like Rooster or Lizard EDI of in, in the, in. The lounge that would probably take them two days, four to five, at least a full day.
It'd be the next Superbowl. You'd like the second half. Let me put it aside. Yeah. Uh, it was really special. What I love about it and why I wanted to point this out to you guys and the listeners is they come in individual coffins. Cedar coffins, which are really nice. And the box has five of them in it. So it's five coffins in the box.
So you [00:52:00] can get the, you know, five of them for a reasonable price. It's not like you have to buy 10 or 25. Like you get a five count box, which is obviously pretty significant in size. totally worth it. I highly recommend it. Look out for the
**Bam Bam:** money. I've got some questions. So what are you paying for a recently released?
**Gizmo:** I would assume, I would assume there's somewhere around 80 bucks right now. Um, less than an Opus Dubai, less than an Opus Dubai. There's no question about that. Less than less than most of the for that cigar, et cetera. But for the experience, man, but also what you're getting,
**Bam Bam:** it's a two and a half hour cigar, two hours for some people.
80 bucks? I'd try it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, and if you get five for 400 bucks, it's totally worth it. I
**Bam Bam:** don't
**Gizmo:** ever see them come up. They have been popping up. They have been around.
**Senator:** I'm just curious because, you know, the the one concern whenever you light up a cigar with that length is getting bored with it. No. So I'm curious, did it Great question.
Either what was the flavor notes just so awesome, that blend, It stayed [00:53:00] consistent throughout and it remained enjoyable or did it transition a lot? And that's what kept her interest. I'm
**Gizmo:** curious. It w it was a combination of both. It transitioned a lot. Kind of like what we're talking about with this cigar.
It was very similar in the way it performed, not in the profile per se. There were some things that are similar, but every time it changed, it was like. Whoa, it hit you, you know, so every single iteration of it, as it progressed along for me, it just kept getting better and better and better. Now, the problem with a cigar like that, you're smoking it for so long, if you have it in your mouth a lot, you have a lot of saliva build up, you might have to do a second cut.
So I was super conscious about smoking slowly and not leaving it on my lips. For too long so that there'd be a saliva buildup because you're drawing that thing for so long I mean, and how do you're gonna get out? You're gonna have a problem. How do you compare
**Bam Bam:** it to the other Monty's?
**Gizmo:** It's very different I would say just like we talked about before like Every kind of pocket of Monty's different than the other and
**Bam Bam:** what'd you get
**Gizmo:** [00:54:00] it was it was it was creamy It was chocolatey at times.
It was salty at times. It's got to the end. It was savory Wow, there was saltiness through the whole way Little twang. It was like a journey. Sounds
**Bam Bam:** great.
**Gizmo:** It's almost like you sat down at a great restaurant, you ordered an appetizer, a salad. A nine
**Bam Bam:** course meal. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** pretty much. It pretty much took you through that type of experience.
So if anybody out there has the opportunity to get some of those, I would highly recommend it. Mine was a 2016, heavily aged, of course. So I'm sure with time, they improve, but You're a global insider. You can get those. Anybody can get them on bonroberts. com. But, um, You know, going back to this, why did Mundo we have in our hand right now?
I just can't believe that in this short little smoke that was rolled a year ago, that we're having this experience right now. It's crazy to me.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Senator:** I
**Gizmo:** have one complaint.
**Senator:** So yeah, long enough. Bingo. It should be longer. I mean, it's
**Rooster:** burning rather fast. It is, isn't it? It's
**Senator:** burning fast, but also it's so damn enjoyable.
Like this, this, this, this. [00:55:00] how much time I know I have left in this. There needs to be more. This is too good. It's a great point.
**Bam Bam:** It's hard not to continue to draw on this thing. And I think Chef's way ahead of all of us.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. My ash is getting a little wonky here. No, it's fine. It's still holding up though.
Looks good. Yeah, it is. But it's fraying a little bit at the edges. It's not as clean as the first half of the cigar. So damn picky. Very picky about his ash over here. Maybe it's because I sped up a little bit. That's what I'm thinking. I'm enjoying it so much. I might've sped up a little bit and it's getting a little, But no, I mean, the flavor is still where it's been.
**Rooster:** I'm just shocked like how fresh the cigar is and how it's performing and the flavor notes that you're getting out of this. There are no rough
**Bam Bam:** edges for a young cigar. It's shocking.
**Chef Ricky:** No, for me, the biggest blast was the first draw I took. That woke me up a little bit. Yeah, a bit. But it's been amazing. Nice journey.
It's been an amazing journey.
**Gizmo:** How many times at this point, and we're coming into the last [00:56:00] third here, I guess. How many times at this point would you say that this cigar changed? Transitioned? Like, hard transitions. I think maybe three or four.
**Bam Bam:** About four, yeah, three, four. I'm in three transitions here for me.
**Gizmo:** Like, it's changed a lot. Yeah, it's nice. From that first, first draw.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I'd say a solid three. Senator. I'm definitely expecting a four.
**Senator:** Yeah, I think, Three, and I think I'm entering what will
**Bam Bam:** be the fourth. I, I kind of agree with that. It's, it's becoming earthy and a little savory, but there's still, there's still a hint of sweetness that keeps it intriguing.
**Senator:** So then I, I'll definitely say this is the fourth because that's what I was starting to pick up. More savory than sweet were the first, the last, uh, the last three were more sweet than savory.
**Bam Bam:** And you're kind of, you and I are kind of at the same point, just past the first band. You're ahead of us, chef.
Okay.
**Rooster:** I think that toasty note that you called out, chef, that was spot on. Yeah. And I'm still getting that note. Very toasty. Mm. Toasty. Mr. [00:57:00]
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, it's like a toasty brown butter. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Very herbaceous.
**Chef Ricky:** No,
**Gizmo:** the, the, the,
**Chef Ricky:** the edges. I like
**Gizmo:** verbaceous people.
**Bam Bam:** Better
**Chef Ricky:** a
**Bam Bam:** lot of
**Chef Ricky:** verbs in this to go, right? It's like the, the edges of a pancake or the edges of a cookie, you know, just that, like the burned edges.
Yeah. It just gets a little bit more caramelized in the rest of the product.
**Gizmo:** So, boys, Bam Bam was telling us that he visited, uh, Washington, D. C. Are we talking about this? Yeah, we are. We, family, uh, you took the family down there, right?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, so we just took a trip down, had a couple things to take care of, and, uh, I said, look, Daddy needs some time.
I said, it's Daddy time now. You saying that sentence in here is weird?
**Senator:** Yeah, it's a little weird. Just like the third person.
**Bam Bam:** Daddy needs some time. So we went over to Shelly's Backroom Tavern, is it called? Yeah. And honestly, this is my hideout. Dude. I love this spot. It's what was [00:58:00] my first time there. I'm hoping to go back many, many times.
Senator, you and grinder, you got to organize a lizard trip down to DC. You guys would love it. You walk in and there are four distinct areas where you can sit. You've got, there's a big dining room to the right. When you walk in, that was empty. Um, and to the left, there are three areas. There's an area near the front window, which is where we sat.
Yep. There's. really cool area where couches and coffee tables. I wanted to sit there, but it wasn't, there wasn't enough room and it was packed. That area is full. And then at the bar, there's a wall there and there are, I didn't go over there, but it looked like there were three or four high tops. Yeah, exactly.
Yep. And that was pretty crowded and bar seating too. And the bar was beautiful. It's very old, had little old world, kind of old school interiors, kind of design feel darker woods. Very masculine, beautiful space. And I had a cheeseburger there. It was off the charts. It was, it was delicious.
**Senator:** [00:59:00] That's like what they do.
Like simple stuff. Did you go for lunch or something? The kids, they wanted cheeseburgers and I'm thinking to myself, you know, I haven't had a cheeseburger
**Bam Bam:** in a long
**Senator:** time. So I had a cheeseburger. All their like sandwiches, burgers. They're very popular. Like they even have a Cuban sandwich there that I was so skeptical.
I'm like, there's no way it's actually pretty good. I'm. And the
**Bam Bam:** staff, so I had a little bit of an issue walking in. But thankfully that we kind of got past that. And um, they sat us, because you know, the kids were underage, but they weren't smoking, they weren't drinking. Um, and the, the head staff manager walked over and she said, That's your son, this is your, you're good, you can come in.
Against the other staff members who wouldn't actually let me take another step into the place they can be militant They were very very fucking militant and I was like, I was actually my blood my face was getting red We took a we took a 25 minute car ride over. I was so fucking excited I can't I couldn't wait that cuz you had
**Gizmo:** gone several days without any [01:00:00] daddy time Oh,
**Bam Bam:** I was jonesing like I couldn't sleep.
I lost sleep. I needed a cigar. So I was very upset And then she walked over. She did the right thing and let us through. It was fantastic.
**Rooster:** How was the clientele?
**Bam Bam:** Well,
**Rooster:** uh, Everybody dressed in suits. They're very
**Bam Bam:** professional. There were a few guys at the couch and coffee table area. They were dressed more casually, but they were, you know, you can tell that they were more sophisticated and interesting people to have conversations with.
Behind us were two gentlemen that were having a cigar and a meal. Um, it's a, it's a great spot. I just realized
**Senator:** there's one more seating area that you wouldn't have seen because you went in winter. They have an outdoor patio in the back. No. So right when you walk in, in the front, they actually, they put tables and chairs out there.
They're even in the summer. There's umbrellas. And, um, it's very comfortable. I've actually sat out there on like a really nice summer night and had a cigar. And you're just like right there looking out on the street. So that
**Bam Bam:** streetscape there is beautiful. Yeah. The promenade, I can imagine [01:01:00] when the cherry blossoms are out, when the season's there, it's packed.
I can imagine that. Beautiful. How
**Gizmo:** was the ventilation? I've heard, I've heard hit or miss about Shelly's Ventilatio No, honestly it was excellent. But was it cause the place wasn't very packed? So here's the thing, I mean,
**Senator:** I'm the only one who's been there a lot, yeah, go ahead. So, at the time BAM was there, no question it's great.
Like when it's not crowded or Moderately crowded. It's fine. But when that place is packed, there's nowhere I smoke that I come home, reeking of cigar, like when I'm at Shelly's and it is so bad. I'm not even kidding. I thank goodness. Uh, there's a lizard at my firm, uh, who, uh, lives in Houston. Uh, who taught me this, the
**Bam Bam:** Cincinnati Bengals fan.
**Senator:** That's right. And I had to do this and he wears that jacket all the time. Oh yeah. And I mean, my clothes, I mean, I'm not exaggerating. I mean, we're all cigar smokers. We're used to our clothes, reeking of cigar smoke. It is another level. Like you will never experience in your [01:02:00] life and his trick, you leave your clothes in your bathroom, in your hotel, you run the shower on hot, you close the door, just that steam, steam it out.
Yeah. It works for like 20
**Gizmo:** minutes in like. No kidding. It is a game
**Senator:** changer
**Gizmo:** because if you think about it, if you're on, you're there for business, like Senator goes a lot. He goes to D. C. A lot, right? So obviously his name is Senator and he has an office there. So like, if you're wearing your sport coat, it's not easy to get that dry clean.
Obviously you're bringing a ton of shirts and stuff. So if you go out after dinner or something, obviously you're wearing your sport coat that that's a challenge. If you smell like cigars and it's disgusting, you know, and you're going to a meeting the next day and you have your only sport coat, you know, that can be a little challenging.
So that's a good, uh, that's a good trick for the lizards out there. The shower steam
**Bam Bam:** method. Not to change the subject, but I've always thought about, you know, business meetings and having a cigar and wearing your sport coat. I'm a. Wanting to always dry clean my sport coat. So that's a great little technique.[01:03:00]
**Senator:** Yeah. Now, I mean, I will say I would never go there wearing something that you intend to need for a meeting the next day. Fair point. Because even with it, so like, I bring separate clothes just for Shelly's when I'm in DC. I'm not kidding about this. But the funny thing is like, even in doing that, listen, chef, we have to accommodate the cigar.
Okay. But the wild thing is like, even with me doing that, bringing separate clothes where like, I shouldn't care really how, you know, smoky the clothes smell. It is so intense, even in my luggage or God forbid, if it were a blazer and I like hung it over my luggage and brought it on the plane. I mean, it just reeks.
So I still have to use the shower method. Just so I can then put them in a bag, get them in my, uh, suitcase without, like, the entire, every content, all the contents of my suitcase. Makes sense. Reeking like cigar smoke, so. When it's packed, you just know what you're signing up for, but it's the only show in town.
It's an awesome place. Their [01:04:00] hours are fantastic. During the week, they're open Oh two in the morning. Really? You'll never get thrown out of there early. Anything like that's a great spot.
**Bam Bam:** I'd like to sit in that center. Bullpen area where the couches and coffee tables are. That looks really cool. Now is
**Rooster:** DC a smoke friendly city?
Would you say it's not definitely not many spots to have a cigar,
**Senator:** not many spots. There's that there's a newer place that open. It's smaller than Shelly's not too far from where I used to live in DC. That's by like the convention center a little further downtown that I've heard some good things about. I haven't been there yet.
Yeah. Um, so that at least has helped. There's now an alternative. Um, the other place that was a really nice alternative that actually a guy I used to know who is the manager at Shelly's for years, he left and started his own cigar lounge with some business partners. Uh, this place called Civil Pagoda actually used to go here.
He knows what I'm talking about. Oh, wow. [01:05:00] A beautiful spot. Like if you walked in one of the nicer cigar lounges you'll ever visit. Thank you. Problem was it was so far from downtown DC that like, no one wants to trek up there. Were you in Virginia at that point? I mean, you were in Maryland and it's, it's, uh, you know, normally it wouldn't matter, but it's like, you know, after work, everyone's downtown.
Like you just want somewhere convenient to go smoke and your hotel is likely in that area too. So. civil eventually closed down. I mean, they couldn't sustain that business being up there. Uh, so now it's really, Oh, sorry. And the, and the third option that currently exists is Casa de Montecristo, which is on 18th and M.
Um, that's a good spot. It's in the West end. It's small drinks are great. That bartender has a heavy pour. Nice. I like that. They've got a good happy hour too. Oh, we need to do a cigar and
**Bam Bam:** crawl in D. C. And don't forget
**Gizmo:** who's also down in the area is Paul Garmirian. That's right. Who we told his pretty fascinating story when we reviewed that cigar a couple weeks ago.
That's true. And he's [01:06:00] in, uh, McLean?
**Senator:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** McLean. McLean, Virginia? Virginia,
**Senator:** that's right.
**Gizmo:** So how far is that from D. C.? Uh, 30 minutes. Yeah, so that's worth a trip as well. Could pull some strings. Yeah. Go down with the Senator, see what he, see what the Senator's really up to down there. Correct.
**Rooster:** I mean, how about outdoor smoking?
You think that's frowned upon or? Oh,
**Senator:** I know it's frowned upon. Um, I've had some bad experiences with this at hotels. Um, oh, very bad experiences. Wow. Um, I, I won't name the property. I was at a Marriott property and I love Marriott. This is not a reflection of Marriott. This was horrible hotel staff. And I asked, I sat inside.
They had an outdoor like patio area in front of the hotel. That like people could get drinks from the lobby bar and like they were coming out, sitting at the tables, having a drink, that's cool. And it was dead. And I said, is it okay if I smoke a cigar out there? I honestly was expecting them to say no, but I said, you know, I'll just ask and see.
And to my surprise, the person was like, absolutely. But just sit at one of the tables far from the [01:07:00] door so that no smoke blows toward the main entrance. I said, okay, great. I got a Manhattan at the bar. I sat down, ironically, when this happened, I sent you guys a photo of, I was having a Padrone Exclusivo and my Manhattan and in the back of the photo is like a clear, no smoking sign.
And as I'm, uh, maybe a quarter of the way into my Exclusivo, some other hotel staffer comes out super aggressive, very nasty. And it's like, you can't smoke that. Get put that out right now. Get out of here. The guy's yelling at me. And I go, I go, I go, take it easy. Did you tell him like who you're
**Rooster:** speaking to?
**Senator:** Well, we did go there. I do have the highest variance status. You know, I know who you are. And uh, I said to the guy, I said, take it easy. I said, I would never light a cigar out here without asking. I said, I asked the woman who was right at your front desk who told me not only could I smoke out of here, she told me to choose this table that was away from the door.
I don't care [01:08:00] what anybody said, I'm telling you, I said, the tone I'm getting after I asked your colleague and they told me to sit out here. So it was a very unfortunate exchange. I sent quite the note to Marriott about this. I'd love to see that. Oh, me too. Would you love this? I'd love to read that. And I want to use that note.
Yes. And so I guess I have no doubt that guy is not working there anymore after that. Well, you know why it's just like, if you're going to say that, all you have to do is say it politely. I, there's no reason to start yelling at a customer. I'm following what your colleague told me to do. It's not like I took it upon myself to just light up anywhere I please.
So, um, the answer is, yeah, that's also why it's ridiculous. There was no one sitting near me. No one complained. Nothing. I mean, this guy was just a total asshole. So, uh, DC is not, uh, smoke friendly. Uh, however, another Marriott property
**Gizmo:** in DC. However, by the way, for the listener out there, Senator has redefined the term strongly worded email.
It's, it's, it's [01:09:00] incomprehensible level. Without profanity, without profanity, I mean, this guy can tear someone down in such a way, without cursing. When I have bills
**Bam Bam:** due, I use templates, those templates, okay?
**Senator:** But my last little secret I'll say, there's another Marriott property in D. C. that thankfully, uh, when I, uh, our office moved further downtown, uh, I became friendly with.
and there is an amazing patio off of, uh, one of their nicer rooms. I'll just call it. Um, it's their presidential suite. Nice. And, uh, I mean, this patio is like literally bigger than our entire cigar lounge. It's huge. That's ridiculous. When
**Gizmo:** Senator comes, they kick out whoever is, Correct. In that presidential suite.
That's exactly right. That's his room. Correct. Correct.
**Senator:** And the patio is permanently locked because it's a liability. You know, they're worried about people jumping off buildings, all that stuff. So they, for years, haven't been able to use it. But when I'm in town, we have a little agreement. I'm [01:10:00] telling you, he has a key.
Take that key right out. He definitely does.
**Gizmo:** It's a
**Senator:** good spot.
**Bam Bam:** So I think overall, I don't know DC enough, but I was it's so intriguing.
**Senator:** Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. The last call out, because this place deserves a shout out. So when you were asking about outdoor smoking rooster, there is one other place that you can smoke outdoors, Casca's Rum Bar.
It's a Cuban restaurant. It sounds
**Bam Bam:** awesome.
**Senator:** I like that. Cuban restaurant and rum bar. Really cool. Like you, if we do a trip, we'll just go there. Like Cuban, like murals painted on the wall. Wow. It looks very divey when you go in. And then in the back, they have this like. It's technically outdoors, but they have like glass overhead in case it rains and then just some areas where it's, uh, open so the smoke can go up and you can smoke and eat there.
That's cool. Oh, I like that. That's
**Gizmo:** cool. I'm shocked they can get away with that.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Uh, honest and Shelly's honest, their spirit menu. Oh, it's extensive. It's extensive. I had a double la flor de [01:11:00] caño 12 year. It was outstanding. Small chip. Excellent. Awesome. I was really pleased to see that on the menu.
**Gizmo:** You know, it just, it's crazy to me that Shelly's is one of the only places and then you have this, you know, you know, the commentary you made about the, when it's packed in there, how, you know, egregious the cigar smoke is on your coat. Like, I can't believe they haven't figured out a way. To modernize or improve their, their air flow in there to make it not be like that.
**Senator:** I think the biggest, I got
**Gizmo:** to imagine that's a turnoff for some smokers going home and their wives are teeing off on them.
**Senator:** It is it. Oh, I've been there. It is
**Gizmo:** another strongly worded email, correct? That I was on the receiving end of, not the center.
**Senator:** Um, but I just, I just think, I mean, they have really sizable smoke eaters in there.
I don't know if you can see them. They're like, built into the ceiling. I was enamored by the place. I didn't look up. Yeah, they're, they're huge. Like, I mean, they've definitely tried, but I think it's not that there's low ceilings in there, but they're [01:12:00] not particularly high for like the volume of people that come in there.
And I think that really makes it hard where like the smoke doesn't, isn't able to, you know, get as far away from you as. In a space with just higher ceilings. Sure. That it lingers and it really gets on your ground. And any,
**Rooster:** any place, you know, I it's a lounge and a restaurant you could, you could eat and smoke there.
That's, that's a huge plus. Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. That's
**Bam Bam:** great. Very cool spot.
**Gizmo:** Well, I'm glad you had a great trip in. I did. Thank you.
**Bam Bam:** Thank you. That's awesome.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys. It's kind of crazy to say this, but we are at an hour, 15 ish in this episode and I literally just put down my mono Cristo wide mundo 'cause my fingers were burning and I think everybody's in that place.
Yeah. And, uh, I am definitely going to light another cigar. I hear senators lighting his right now, which, you know,
**Bam Bam:** well, he's welding steel right now.
**Gizmo:** And then our 15. I mean, we are, we are all about the lizard people out there. The lizard listeners, correct? This was a
**Rooster:** quick smoke. [01:13:00]
**Gizmo:** I can't believe for that price.
And for the size of it, the 54 that we didn't even get an hour and a half
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Out of that cigar and we, I was trying to smoke slowly. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Brewster said it earlier. It did feel loosely packed.
**Rooster:** Yeah, I
**Senator:** thought so. A bit.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Senator:** The biggest crime is, I mean, it's a great cigar. The flavor was awesome. It's just there needs to be more cigar there to have That's true.
A more complete experience for that price. So, because I wanted
**Gizmo:** so much more of it, I'm waiting a second. I'm having another Montecristo white Edmundo. I want to go around the room really quick before we continue on. Well,
**Bam Bam:** only
**Gizmo:** the
**Bam Bam:** global insider can let another one of those. Hey,
**Gizmo:** I offered. Did I not? Yes, you did.
The music business must be very good. Oh, yeah. It's a lot better than a restaurant. Well, you know, you are talking to Professor Gizmo now. Okay. Professor salaries are nothing. That's true. All right. So let's go around the room. What is everybody lighting? Bam Bam, what did you like? CGLO
**Bam Bam:** 5. Hmm. Very nice.
**Gizmo:** It doesn't want to smoke a 40 [01:14:00] cigar.
So he's going to smoke an 80. All right. Chef Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** Davidoff, Pelicosa, White Label. Senator. What about you? Fabrica
**Gizmo:** 5 Trinity Robusto. Oh, very nice. Good choice. I brought one of those tonight. I'm going to have that, uh, in the lounge after we, uh, we record. We love you, Rob.
**Senator:** When Rob sends us cigars, just note, Senator lit the fabric of five.
Correct. Look what the rest of these guys are smoking.
**Bam Bam:** That thing's time stamped. I got a white owl, a white plastic white
**Gizmo:** owl, plastic tip. What are you spoken? You have a, uh, an exclusive in Maduro from very nice. So this is the first time I think all of us have done this on an episode. Cause we didn't really get too much time out of that Montecristo wide Edmundo.
We still have a lot to talk about. So this is a first. This is a first. It is.
**Senator:** It is usually just poop. It does this when he puts down a cigar halfway through
**Gizmo:** after the first inch.
**Rooster:** That's almost every week.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's go to some listener email. First, we're going to start with our friend lizard [01:15:00] lake always writes us a great email.
He says, Hey, Giz, as always, thanks for all the work you and the boys put into providing so much content and consistent entertainment. I love the lizard's attention to detail and the inner lizard heckling. Surrounding cigar lighters, methods of lighting, cutters, style of cut, et cetera. And I realized I have never heard a description on the spirit side of the show regarding the type of glassware you're using or that you like to use.
It's a weekly occurrence to hear banter over a single chip of ice in a lizard's glass, but never a mention as to the type of glass you prefer. Glassware is a huge category and while it doesn't always impact the experience, There are specific types for specific spirits. I bet chef has some professional input with his background, but I'd love to hear eat on each episode.
What type of glass the lizards are using when bouncing from whiskeys to tequilas, to cognacs and beyond. Let's call it stemware. Wow. Let's
**Bam Bam:** senators. Spidey senses are tingling [01:16:00] right now. Personally,
**Gizmo:** I only stick to a few varieties due to storage space on the bar. The Glenfiddichcairn when sipping nicer bourbons and scotches neat, a double old fashioned dorset crystal for anything on the rocks and a small bell snifter for cognac.
With the pod being strictly audio, the descriptions would be a great asset in painting the mental picture as well as providing some personality to each lizard and how they like to enjoy the spirit of the week. Thank you. Lizard Lake. Great email.
**Bam Bam:** Very good email. And a great question that we've
**Gizmo:** never gotten before.
**Rooster:** Great question. First of all, we're, we're in a lounge setting. So you're kind of limited to the glasses that are available in the lounge. So tell
**Senator:** us what
**Rooster:** you drink your spirits out of. Yeah, good question.
**Bam Bam:** Great commentary, Brewster.
**Gizmo:** Very
**Rooster:** insightful with all your experience. I have an espresso cup, which is, you know, and a bottle of Poland spray.
**Senator:** All [01:17:00] right. Am I wrong?
**Chef Ricky:** Let's move on to two roosters point. We're limited here at the lounge to old fashioned glasses, or in some way, even call these double old fashioned glasses or wine glasses personally, when I'm drinking. highly aromatic, uh, and even higher proof spirits. I prefer a bell glass, something that's reminiscent to a wine glass, uh, especially when drinking agave distillates that are higher proof with people that don't often drink them.
Because it allows the spirit to, to aerate a little bit and get rid of some of that ethanol. And they could focus a little bit more on the aroma rather than the, the smell of the alcohol. Um, but yeah. But outside of that, if I'm drinking a 40, you know, a 40 proof, uh, tequila or, or even mescal, maybe, uh, I do like using little, uh, sherry glasses for that, uh, just cause they have tighter, tighter openings and a little bit more focused on the [01:18:00] nose.
Um, but yeah, I, that's, that's usually, uh, we don't have those here, but yeah, I usually go back and forth between the wine glasses or, you know, the, these old fashioned glasses that we have available to us.
**Senator:** Yeah, I mean, I, I think very simply, I mean, first I'll give our lounge some credit there. There are choices of stemware here that you don't actually see at many cigar lounges.
I mean, there's low ball glasses, high ball glasses, there's martini glasses, there's wine glasses, espresso cups, coffee cups. Like I have to give the tall beer.
**Bam Bam:** Glasses, uh, highball. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, well, I'm not, I'm not that sophisticated now, know that , herbaceous, very,
**Gizmo:** very vivacious,
**Senator:** So I do really love that there are options here. That was honestly one of the things when I first walked into this lounge, I immediately noted like stemware options, huge. Huge plus in merit. Um, I mean, for me, you know, any low [01:19:00] ball glass that basically is, you know, short and wide enough that you can get the aroma of the spirit does the trick for me.
Like if I'm not going to be overly picky about it, I think like that's the key thing. Like I don't, I understand the appeal of Glenfiddichn Karen glasses. I don't love them. In that it's harder to, I think, fully appreciate the aroma and have, like, as complete an experience, because, you know, You can't get your nose in there.
Exactly. The, the opening, the, the neck of it is so small and narrow, so I just prefer something that is wider so that you can get a more, kind of, complete, like, fully sensory experience. So, um, you know, for me it's that. I mean, The other thing I'll say, I really do love a great snifter glass. Um, and I say this because I forget where I was and, you know, it's like these little random details you remember, but some bar, some lounge, uh, had brought me whatever spirit I ordered in a really beautiful snifter glass.
Like I wanted to [01:20:00] take this glass home and I started like shopping for snifter glasses and I think because Cognac. Say it, Pam. Cognac. I think because Cognac. You know, isn't as popular as bourbon or scotch or some other spirits. Um, Stemware 4, which is snifter glass, was traditionally what cognac was served in.
I feel like it has become de pri uh, de prioritized over time. I must have ordered maybe five different snifter glasses, and I returned all of them. They all sucked. Really? They were either too small and thin, they were either too thick and chunky, I mean it's hard to find for some reason like a really perfect beautiful snifter glass, but ideally, you know, Chef was talking about like something, you know, curved and circular where like it's easy to swirl the spirit in the way you would wine in a wine glass.
Like you're
**Bam Bam:** holding a woman's breast.
**Senator:** Yes.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely. Right?
**Chef Ricky:** [01:21:00] Absolutely correct. Yeah. Perfect.
**Gizmo:** Okay, you are one of one, my friend, one of one,
**Bam Bam:** one
**Gizmo:** of one.
**Bam Bam:** You're
**Gizmo:** thinking it, I'll be honest. I wasn't thinking that one that time. I'll
**Senator:** be honest. Um, so for me, I mean, that's
**Gizmo:** ideal. There's going to be some strongly worded emails after that one.
All right. Sorry, Senator. Go ahead.
**Senator:** So for me, that's a ideal in many ways, but it's just, you don't come by them as often. So anything where you can really just get the aroma of the spirit and have a complete experience is good in my book.
**Gizmo:** I think one day when we have, you know, the lizard studio where we record and the equipment set up 24 seven, and we have our own stock of stuff, I think at that point we probably will invest in different stemware.
I mean, for wine, I mean, think about, I'll, Honestly, I I'm, I would argue that for wine, that's probably where you're the most strict per se between [01:22:00] champagne, white wine, red wine, et cetera, correct. Strict on, on your stemware and your choices. But I would think obviously we're limited here. We're, you know, we're not going to roll in here with a Pelican case with stemware in it for the evening.
I mean, that's just unreasonable, but. You know, I think one day we probably will have a decent collection of different stuff to try different things. But I will point to, like you said, with tequila, when we drink tequila in the room, we are using a wine glass as opposed to the, you know, the, the high ball glass, you know, Lowball, highball, lowball, whatever it is.
Depends on how it hangs. Ha ha ha ha
**Senator:** ha ha ha ha! Jesus! We're gonna have to put a coronal
**Gizmo:** advisory sticker on this episode. Correct. But, you know, that, I would say is probably the only time that we kind of changed the glassware. We have wine. We obviously drink wine glasses. But tequila in the lounge here, we're also using wine glasses.
I look
**Chef Ricky:** forward to that. I look forward to just like even making cocktails on the pop. [01:23:00] Oh yeah. You know, going neat spirits all the time. Having glassware available to us and maybe a little ice machine within our, you know, cause right now the lounges are an entire set. Pagoda just perked up when you said ice machine.
He's going to be
**Gizmo:** very excited to hear you say that.
**Chef Ricky:** Very excited. Yes, for cocktails, ice is okay, depending on the cocktail.
**Rooster:** And what about those, uh, mezcal little gourds that you gave us? Yeah, the jícaras. Those
**Chef Ricky:** are
**Rooster:** cool. Those are also great. Can you say
**Gizmo:** that again, Bam? What was that, a jícara? It's a jícara.
**Chef Ricky:** Which you guys all have right there. They're those half moons. Mm hmm. You know, hollowed out gourd shells. My son loves to drink out of that. Oh yeah. Morning milk. It's on my bar card. He like literally
**Senator:** picks it
**Chef Ricky:** up all the time. Yeah, there's that. There's the copitas. Also, they use votive, uh, votive candle holders as well.
Um, in, in, in Oaxaca to drink mezcal out of, uh, they usually have little crosses on the bottom. So as you're taking the last bits of your, of your sip, you see the cross and, you know, there's like symbolism. Praise the Lord. [01:24:00] Amen. And, uh,
**Senator:** we need that. So rooster could drink with us. That's exactly what we need.
**Bam Bam:** That's the
**Gizmo:** only thing he can drink.
But I love the question because, you know, we, it's important. The only time we've ever talked about stemware is when Senator was specific about champagne or white wine or red wine. That's really the only time we've kind of visited this. And I know For the bourbon purists out there, the scotch purists out there, the tequila purists like you, that's very important to aficionados of those spirits, you know, and it's something that, you know, someday we'll do, but obviously we're limited here.
**Rooster:** And it's probably the worst thing to drink like a nice wine or champagne or scotch in a plastic tumbler. Yeah, or just
**Senator:** like a shitty glass. I mean, you know, there are some of these restaurants now, and this really upsets me, that, like, serve wine in, like, what is basically a really short lowball glass.
Really? And it's like, would you want [01:25:00] to drink wine out of an old fashioned glass? I mean, it's just ridiculous to me. With my limited
**Bam Bam:** experience and knowledge of glassware, I would reject that drink. Right. It's awful. It's
**Senator:** like, you know, trendy hipster bullshit. I mean, come on. Nobody wants to drink out of that.
You think
**Gizmo:** they're doing that so people don't spill it? Is that ideally what they're trying to do? I'm sure. So that they have less broken, less clean up, less broken stuff. Yeah. Easier in the dishwasher. You, you would probably know that for the restaurant. I won't
**Senator:** lie. You know, I obviously, you know, I did a bunch of work on my backyard in the past year.
And, you know, as I'm thinking about like glassware out there, like, of course the glasses, I would want like my guests drinking out of like the propensity for those to break. Like they're going to be thinner. They're going to be more fragile, more delicate. Yeah. It's like, I can't have broken glass all over my patio.
So it's like you, you have to sometimes make some sacrifices and I can definitely understand the restaurant business. And I'm sure chef can speak to this. Like you have to strike a balance between what you'd ideally like to serve things in and what's more practical. You could technically get,
**Gizmo:** you could technically get a guy that just operates a shop vac that you have at your party.
Yes. And [01:26:00] anytime he's called gizmo. And he got me. Anytime somebody breaks something, he runs over with the shop vac and just cleans it up. But the flip side of what Senator Yeah, and a heavy bank account. That's true. Replace it all.
**Bam Bam:** That's true. Honestly, the flip side of what Senator just said, I would be much more conscientious of my drink if I had a very delicate piece of stemware that it's served in.
Um, I'd really protect it and watch it, make sure it's safe.
**Senator:** To your guys credit, when we had the famous caviar night at my house, obviously only proper stemware was used then. My champagne coupes are super thin, very fragile, but they're my favorite piece of stemware I own bar none. And not one lizard broke one of those glasses.
It was very impressive. Now
**Bam Bam:** we were heavily drinking that night.
**Senator:** That's right. And can't
**Rooster:** say, can't say that about the sink.
**Gizmo:** No, you know, I knew it was coming. As soon as I heard him say the famous caviar, I knew the sink comment was coming. Oh, rooster. [01:27:00] Well done, my friend. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** But I think you respect what you're drinking when it's in a proper stemware.
**Gizmo:** You should.
**Senator:** It just elevates it. I mean, you can put like even, I think I mentioned this on one episode, like I remember when my son was born and, um, you know, I was like, you're like full time parent all the time. Cause you've got, I mean, your kids up nonstop with a newborn and I'm sitting there like, well, I can't really drink spirits like I normally would.
So like I had turned to beer during that period. I needed something just low proof, but I just wanted a light buzz. And I had bought these like really nice Pilsner glasses and it's like, you know, you can pour a coarse light, you can pour a yingling in one of these beautiful glasses and it just elevates the experience so much.
You don't need it to be a fancy spirit. Well,
**Bam Bam:** I heard, I heard the newborn had stemware for the formula to elevate that experience.
**Senator:** We did go through a lot of stemware to find the right
**Gizmo:** bottle. That's
**Senator:** for sure. [01:28:00]
**Gizmo:** Well, that's a great question from lizard Lake. We always appreciate hearing from you. And a great question about stemware.
And, and, and if we do, I'll make a mental note. If we are using a unique piece of stemware for whatever spirit we're rating in the future, we'll definitely note that. And like I said, if we get to the point where we actually have a bunch of different kinds of stemware for different pairings, then we'll certainly detail that.
I think
**Rooster:** sometimes we forget it's an audio podcast. It's true. You know, from the listener's point of view.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So boys. We have probably gotten, unfortunately, more email on the next topic than we have ever gotten on any topic ever. Maybe aside from the bam, bam accountability hour.
**Bam Bam:** All right.
**Gizmo:** That's it's probably neck and neck right now.
Uh, but very seriously, uh, there was a expose we'll call it on fake Cohiba Sigla threes that were received by a customer of [01:29:00] one of our favorite vendors, I Havana's that. Definitely are fake Cohiba Ciglo 3s. Um, popular echo 4882 on Reddit posted a thread showing some cigars he had received from iHavana's of course.
Reddit, you know, can sometimes go either way. Very dramatic, very. Quick to judge, et cetera, but there was a lot of detail here and, and the moderating team over there did a nice job compiling all the details live. A lot of definitive statements, a lot of definitive statements. Just like Gizmo finds himself.
**Bam Bam:** Very nice. He's a definitive kind of guy,
**Gizmo:** but, uh, I, I have been resistant to bring this in even a couple of weeks ago when this was all happening, because I didn't want to cast judgment. Now let's, let's color this with an old story. Obviously. A couple of years ago, we did an expose with Dan from cigar salute.
We had them on the podcast about the Monte Fortuna counterfeiting ring that was happening. I don't even think they knew about it, but they were [01:30:00] purchasing and selling a gray market counterfeit. Cohiba's years ago. Uh, I ended up buying a box of those reboosters myself, ended up on, I posted on Reddit, sharing the story, obviously the podcast, et cetera.
So that to me was a little bit of a different story. Number one, because it was very true. It was over an extended period of time. We waited months to talk about it. So I wanted to wait. Until it was absolutely necessary to comment on this because I didn't and still don't want to cast judgment, not having all of the information or the facts and obviously no one in this room has been impacted like we were during the money.
Fortuna thing. So there's a little bit of a different story here. However, it's hard to ignore. The conversation about it and also the volume of email that we got on this specific topic, asking us to comment. So, I will start with an email, and this is going to be our Lizard of the Week, boys, to Lizard Alistair, who was the first one to send this over and make us, uh, make us aware of [01:31:00] this, obviously led the, you know, he was the first out of many.
Who, uh, asked us to comment. I'm going to read his email and then we'll get into this a little bit. He says, hi guys, I just downloaded the latest episode, but I haven't had a chance to listen. Judging by the episode description, you've not covered this. I have Anna's Reddit story yet, as it's probably too near to the editing deadline.
I also don't know if you follow Reddit that much, you have previously ordered and recommended I have Anna's. And with this story in mind, do you question them being a trusted vendor? Going forward. Will you be reviewing ordering from them and will you be doing anything to verify the legitimacy of any product you've got from them?
I've also be interested to know what Rob Isla thinks if he has, if he's able to say anything in public and how it would affect bond Roberts with people selling fake product from places like I have an, as if that's the case. And others. And is he able to publicly say what bond Roberts will do to make sure they have no fakes.
Keep up the great work. Kind regards, [01:32:00] lizard. Alistair. So I will address one thing very quickly here, uh, with Rob, Bon Roberts, FOH, et cetera. Um, Rob certainly, I don't think is, is going to be presenting a comment on this. This is not, uh, you know, something that's in his purview. He keeps a very tight, uh, forum and operation running there with friends of El Habano.
He's a direct. Retailer for Habano cigars. He is not a gray market vendor. I don't think he's going to get into the mud here. And then on the bond Roberts thing, there are constant upload submissions to bond Roberts with fake cigars. Bond Roberts has arguably the best. Counterfeiting detecting team on the planet led by there's chief technology officer, Alexander groom.
Alexander groom is the proprietor and run and he runs Cuban cigar website. com. The greatest resource for Cuban cigars that has ever been on the internet and also wrote the book El Habano Moderno. This guy is the preeminent. [01:33:00] Cuban cigar expert in the world and is constantly picking off fakes that are submitted to bond roberts So this is not new unique novel for bond roberts.
This is something they deal with every day They reject quite an amount of submissions that come up there So I have never and will never be worried about bond roberts being impacted by this because they are impacted By far worse counterfeiting situations, far greater, far more successful, far better.
Whatever word you want to use, they see it all. They know what they're doing. So no question about Bond Roberts. So let me just put that out there. So now we go back to this I Havana story. I guess what happened was. They were running a promo on Siglo threes, and it was like a, you get 50 Siglo for threes or something for, you know, a good price.
It looked really good. And this guy, uh, this gentleman on Reddit ordered some, opened them and posted a picture. And I sent it to you guys, shared the threads with you, obviously fake bands on [01:34:00] these. So, you know, of course on Reddit, like we said, everybody rushes to judgment. It's quick to do that, you know, but you have to consider how, you know, I have Anna's is purchasing, curating their operation, and also the history that they've had as being, I would argue the preeminent gray market site on the planet, certainly for us as well.
So, you know, I don't know what you guys think, but my read on this situation is a, I have Anna's was not intentionally selling and shipping fake. Cohiba Ciglo 3s, they're a gray market vendor, they're purchasing from many different sources, they're shipping from several different warehouses. My read on this is they got screwed.
By a vendor who may, they may not even know that they had fake Cohiba, Sigla threes in, in the supply chain. So that's my read on it, but obviously looking at the cigars, looking at the bands, the bands. I mean, it's very, the bands [01:35:00] are
**Bam Bam:** disturbing that image that you sent to the rest of us. That's. Very obvious.
**Rooster:** I mean, is I have Anna's, are they actually opening every single box before of the ship. Well, you have, can they possibly do that? You have the option.
**Bam Bam:** So when you purchase, you have the option to have it inspected. And this guy did choose to have it inspected. Right.
**Gizmo:** So that's the question here is how did iHavana is being told to open the box for inspection by this customer?
How did they miss it? So,
**Senator:** well, hold on. Sorry. Maybe my understanding of that is different. I thought when you're selecting that option, it's not to, Verify the authenticity. I mean, presumably that happens, you know, before that you would hope, right? Like it seemed of course then everyone would need to choose that, right?
So like, yes, that was never to me. That's true. Anything to do with authenticity whatsoever. It's for quality and damage. The notion of like whatever person Is paid to look at that box. They are not [01:36:00] inspecting for authenticity. That has all happened prior. Yes to that. You would hope exactly. So I don't think that person should be upset of likewise.
I hit inspect the box and the person didn't detect it was counterfeit. I don't think that's that person's job. Good point. I think they're inspecting the box to see if there's mold, if they're foot damage, foot damage, if there's any, any. Horrible problem that you would only know by opening the box and looking in it as opposed to just trusting that whoever shipped it to you got it to you safely and in great condition to then, uh, you know, sell that to someone else.
So I think that's really what that's set up for. So I don't think It's at all really about authenticity for that option. Good point.
**Gizmo:** 100 percent right. So, you know, this gentleman, I guess, emailed iHavana's. Let me just set up to, he's been a customer of theirs for five years. As we all have been. You know, so, but I'm saying this specific, it's not like his first order from them.
Right, right. It doesn't seem like there's an ulterior motive to try to bring iHavana's down. Like, I don't think that there was intention on either ends at this point [01:37:00] of creating. Chaos right inside the Cuban cigar community. And unfortunately, when he posted this, the response from I Havana's was, was not great.
You know, they didn't have a Senator crafting the right email. It was a little harsh. I effect, you know, effectively they refunded all his money, banned him as a customer. And came on Reddit pretty accusatory, which I was disappointed to see, uh, that, that they approached it like that. I understand why. You know, they're being called out on a huge platform of Cuban cigar smokers.
Obviously could be very derogatory to the business, of course. So they were pretty, pretty harsh about it. You know, um, unlike the situation we had with Monte Fortuna years ago, we waited months, we were back and forth with them. They did not provide good resolution. Like the vendor on that side, not only sold and was operating with fake Cuban cigars, but also.
Their response was, was pretty terrible. [01:38:00] Do we have the response from IHMS? I do. Yes. I'd love to
**Bam Bam:** hear it. Me too.
**Gizmo:** So here's what Tyler from iHavana said, he said moderators, you may email me and he put his email address to verify this is our official response. We have sold over 1, 300 five pack boxes of the Cigula 3s on special this month, including to many people on Reddit.
We would ask any customer who has ordered them to post a picture of their cigars. We are certain that none of you will find anything like this. When this accusation was made on another vendor many other customers on reddit were able to corroborate the story and show their proof of counterfeit cigars He's obviously referencing money fortuna We would like to ask other trusted members of this community to go through and post pictures of the stock We sent you If cigars of this quality were being provided by us at the volume of cigars, we sell, we are certain other members of the forum would have noticed by now, this is not even a passable fake, which would have been much more concerning while there may have been some third party tamper with the cigar state side.
So he's saying once they're received here in the U [01:39:00] S there's absolutely no chance that this is the product that left our warehouse. So he's accusing this. Customer of either replacing those cigars, you know, making up a story to get refunds, like there's an accusatory tone here. He says, many of you have orders with us currently in the mail.
We would request that you videotape the opening of your parcels and post it online so the community can see that the cigars We are supplying for those suggesting it, anything to do with a quote unquote Slovakian vendor. We simply use Slovakian post services. Now there's no where her warehousing or vendor changed there.
When our warehouse opens today, we'll be posting a video of our Sigla three stock, including closeup of all the bands. If a moderator would like to reach out to me, we would be happy to share another bit of information privately that we would not rather share publicly, which I'm assuming was something to do with this customer.
We are not going to comment publicly on this, but happy to speak further to the moderators in order to avoid the charge back. The customer will be fully [01:40:00] refunded and his account with us. Terminated. So what's interesting about that response is that same customer had only gotten a portion of his order.
So he then followed Tyler's instructions, videotaped the opening of the same order that had arrived at a different time, because you know, they're coming from different warehouses videotaped the entire opening and it was the same cigar inside. So he followed the instructions posted on Reddit and it was very clearly counterfeit cigars.
So. You know, I don't love this response from I have my only question
**Senator:** before we beat up on their response. Have any other customers posted a video opening that have had
**Gizmo:** fakes? There's one other person on Reddit who did post an opening and the cigars were legit.
**Senator:** Okay, really? This is my point. So if there are other people who bought the [01:41:00] same special.
And they're opening their packages, posting a video of this entire process. And they're real. I have, uh, how, how can I believe that there's some person uniquely got fakes, but the rest were real. It just doesn't check out now. But now if there were a bunch of other people, even a few other people who posted videos and they're fake like this guys, well then obviously there is a problem with some supplier that they got those cigars from and they are counterfeit.
Yeah. But. If there's only one person, it's just hard for me to immediately say, well, this guy got fake cigars from my heaven. How can I possibly conclude that? And
**Gizmo:** that's, and that's, uh, I'll be honest. That was my hesitation to bring this in early in this story is I didn't want to come on our audience that we have and, and start.
Throwing stones, like even now I I'm just reporting something that is getting a lot of tension on the internet. I for me by a
**Bam Bam:** single individual.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And it's it. But for me, this has not changed personally. My perception of I have [01:42:00] also in the fact that they admit That they're clearly fake. They refunded the customer.
Obviously they have a disagreement. They even said they're not
**Senator:** even a passable fake. It's not even passable. Yeah. You know, it's different where like, I think with Montefortuna at first, like they were saying they were real. They were saying they're real. You don't know what you're talking
**Gizmo:** about.
**Senator:** They were outwardly lying about a counterfeit product.
The fact that I have is saying immediately. These are fake. There's not even a chance someone would think they're real. I just find it hard to imagine that one, they wouldn't have caught that. And two, that there's only one case of this out of over a thousand people that place these orders.
**Gizmo:** All in all, it's an unfortunate situation.
I do have to give the poster, the benefit of the doubt. Brian did confirm that his order history was legitimate. He had been a customer for a long time. I, like I said, I don't think there's an ulterior motive here. Yeah. So what would be the motive? Yeah, that's exactly someone to go through. Exactly. So that's, that's the difficulty here.
I do like that they admit they refunded everything fine. If anybody else has it, Terminating his account.
**Senator:** [01:43:00] That's,
**Gizmo:** that's
**Senator:** egregious. The only thing I mean, I'm not sure it's egregious. And the only reason I'm going to say this. My experience with I have has been their customer service is excellent. Same. I mean, excellent.
Yeah. I mean, like as simple as stupid, a request is like you place an order, you realize that you incorrectly entered, like part of the address wrong or something really simple and you'll email them and literally within hours, get a response. No problem. We'll fix it. And they take care of it. You have a question about something they have in stock.
They're willing to answer it. That's true. Your cigar box gets snagged by customs. Guess what? They guarantee the shipping. They're going to send you another one at no cost to you. I've never, ever had a problem with their customer experience. And the reason I can imagine for them, it's probably extremely frustrating and why they probably banned this person.
And I'm not saying this is a bad, you know, individual, but. I think maybe the way they handled it is not ideal in the sense that if your, I have [01:44:00] their policies, like come to us, if you have a problem. And I think, and I think before they got a chance to really investigate it and respond to this individual, this person went and created hysteria online.
That can be severely, this whole business is about credibility. And this is the kind of thing that completely undermines it. So, I mean, if you're them, you're sitting there saying like, this person can harm our business in such a terrible way. We're not trying to do anything bad here. We're admitting this is a bullshit box of cigars, but that it didn't come from us.
And if there are anyone else who has gotten something like this, please post it. I think for them, it's, you should have given us an opportunity to address it before you made this a hysterical issue. I agree. It's a great point.
**Bam Bam:** From the point of view of their business, they're looking forward. And that reaction is honestly, if I think about it that way.
**Gizmo:** It makes sense. And it's so easy for folks on Reddit because there's anonymity. Obviously we operate with anonymity, but we take what we do here very [01:45:00] seriously. Just like, you know, you know, I think I have dozen and why we trust them as a vendor, you know, for it to be blown up, like, like senators saying on a public forum like this, creating hysteria and, you know, could be like you just said, very damaging to their business longterm.
I'm sure money Fortuna is still reeling from what happened on, on Reddit a few years ago, rightfully. Rightfully, but there were multiple individuals and it was their response was
**Bam Bam:** single individual like in this case
**Gizmo:** and and what we did I did and the other folks who had found it We really gave Monty Fortuna the opportunity to fix this before it was blown up Months before we ever talked about it on this podcast and they refused to do so that was different It took
**Senator:** a passive approach.
Exactly. Yeah, they told him they're real They didn't want to refund his money right off the bat. I mean Monty Fortuna's response was different Disgraceful. Yes. But that's, that's what, that's not what has happened here with I have. So I just, again, I, you know, I can only go based on my experience. I've ordered from them for a very long time.
I have never [01:46:00] received a questionable box. And even if a fake was so good, we've smoked more of some of the stuff that we order than most people on this planet, we would know immediately if something was off and if I had an ounce of concern about the legitimacy of their product, I'd stop ordering from them and I wouldn't be talking about them here.
That's right. So given my experience, then you multiply that. We have six, seven other lizards who have had the same good experience. You have one individual who's had this event occur and no one else is out there saying that they've had the same experience. It's just hard for me. And I do get where they're coming from, from a business standpoint, like they're here providing a service and at a higher level than really anybody else.
You look now, most of these gray market dealers don't guarantee shipping. Your box gets snagged. You're screwed. You drop 3, 000 on cigars. And they're taking tough luck, not our problem. And the fact that I have still as difficult as [01:47:00] things have become, they stand behind, stand behind that. I mean, that's more than generous.
And look, they didn't push
**Gizmo:** back. They didn't push back on, on this customer saying they were fake. I mean, they refunded the entire order before he had even received the rest that he then videotaped, right. He got a full refund on this. So like you're saying the customer service component of this, where they're saying, hands up, we don't know what the hell happened.
This is not good. Here's your money back. That's different than what we've seen with other vendors in the past.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I think if this customer would have taken a different approach and approach that I have,
**Rooster:** that's the point.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And I have for me personally is a big part of my cigar life. I buy, like Senator said, we all buy from the, we've been buying them from, from them for years.
They literally stand behind every single purchase and we
**Gizmo:** trust them. That's the biggest component of this. I still will purchase from I have Anna's. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** of
**Gizmo:** course. I am not changing my buying habits because I do trust them.
**Bam Bam:** And honestly, the commentary in this room actually solidifies my [01:48:00] confidence with I have a hundred percent.
**Rooster:** I think the main point is. You know, had he just approached iHavanas. Yeah, as we said,
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
**Rooster:** They had corrected it, and they always correct the issue.
**Bam Bam:** They do.
**Rooster:** And instead of blowing it up on Reddit, you know, it would have been a different story. And the thing
**Senator:** that's annoying, so like, I did read this when it happened, because this came up through something else I saw.
Someone posted this. Big Reddit guy. And no, no, that's my point. It was not on reddit. It was like a facebook. You're a big reddit guy. And um, uh, someone had posted this. So like I clicked the reddit link and this guy who has this issue, um, he had said that he reached out to, I have But was waiting for their response.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Senator:** So I think I have just wanted him to wait for them to investigate and respond. Why not? And before they responded, he immediately went to Reddit posting and creating this hysteria. And I think that's where like, it's a two way street. Like they're sitting there saying, we don't have to provide this service to any customer.
Like it's a frigging privilege to be able to get these cigars. [01:49:00] At the, the prices with guaranteed shipping and authenticity and the service. And so if I'm in their shoes, like I get it, I wouldn't sell this guy's cigars. I mean, I get, I get
**Gizmo:** it too. And, and, you know, at the end of the day, I think what we're saying here is obviously in this thing of ours, the, the counterfeiting component of this is it's there, it's there, it's real, you know, I wonder, especially on Cohiba and I wonder, you know, if this.
Was shipped to this guy. He did open a box on video. If this was shipped from them, you know, did one of their vendors screw up that they get these, they're a gray market vendor. They're not getting them directly from Habanos. They're getting them from other people. That's gray market. That's the definition of it.
It's also like,
**Senator:** I'm sorry. You know, I'm not trying to,
**Bam Bam:** are you sure?
**Senator:** No, I mean, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to go in on this guy too hard. It's just like, The notion that someone posts a video opening a box and I, we can all be [01:50:00] certain that that's the exact way the package arrived. Like, I mean, it's not hard to open a package, put something in it, seal it again, and then post a video opening it.
Like it's the first time. I mean, I can't be certain
**Gizmo:** what I'll say, what I'll say though. Senator, in the interest of what we do here, I'm giving both sides of this, the benefit of the doubt. I just, for me, both of them,
**Rooster:** but there will be other boxes that are fakes that come up. You would, that's
**Senator:** what I'm saying now, where I will 100 percent back this individual who wrote on Reddit is if there are other people who have a similar problem, clearly they got some fakes from a supplier and didn't catch it.
Yep. And that's a problem. Yeah. But absent other people, I mean, Jesus, it's really hard for me to understand like how I can possibly conclude that that's the case. Correct. Yeah, I'm in agreement.
**Gizmo:** I am too. And, and like I said, this doesn't for me at this point today, uh, when we're recording this episode, it does not change my trust in iHavana.
I'm
**Bam Bam:** [01:51:00] placing an order tomorrow,
**Gizmo:** you know, I, I, and, and we're not sponsored by them. We have no vested interest. I want to make that very clear. No interest at all. There's no, we've never received anything from them. Never a free cigar, nothing, no discounts, nothing. There is no financial, uh, interest in this room in what I have.
And it's just a great source for us. And we'd say the same thing if this happened with cigar terminal or other sites that we've ordered from any other gray market with also true. Exactly right. So I just want to make that clear. And why we waited so long was to just see how this played out. But the volume of emails, I got tagged on Reddit a few times asking for a response to this.
You know, I didn't feel comfortable until it got to a point where it was kind of settled. I didn't want to jump in the middle of this and add to the listenership that, uh, it's an unfortunate, very unfortunate. Uh, cause personally for me, I, I don't have a trust issue at this point. I think we're all kind of in agreement here.
It's an unfortunate thing. I hate that this guy opened a box and got, you know, fake [01:52:00] Cohibas, but, uh, I am happy that I have made it right. So I think at this point, I'm going to put this to bed unless something else comes up in the future, we'll bring it up. But, uh, for, for now. We'll see what, how this plays out, but, uh, you know, I'm happy that I have made it right for him.
And, of course, any other customer that experiences this, if you ordered Ciglo 3s from them, check them. You know, check out this thread on Reddit, the couple threads that this guy posted on Reddit and, uh, reach out to I Have and, uh, and get your situation corrected if that's the case.
**Senator:** And for the listener, if this guy wasn't refunded, I'd be saying the complete opposite.
**Gizmo:** Exactly. That's also
**Senator:** true. Exactly right. It's the way they handled it. That's why, like, I, I, I They did the right thing. Exactly. I mean, what can you complain about? If you really received, supposedly, this fake box, and they refunded you, then you've lost nothing. There's nothing to be upset about.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, the more I think about it, because of the damaging potential of his actions, I kind of like the way they handled it.
Yeah. And terminating his, his opportunity to buy there.
**Chef Ricky:** I see nothing wrong with their response. [01:53:00] Agreed. Yeah. Yeah. You know, just having encountered something similar with a buddy of mine who has been ordering from a vendor of his for 15 years. Swiss Cuban Cigars. SwissCubanCigars. com. Clear fakes. You know.
I'm sure. Their entire operation is fake, by the way. And when he They sell
**Gizmo:** fake. Romeo, like Millie Flores, like they're right out of Patterson for crying out loud. And so they make them in house like the Glenfiddich Fiddick's
**Chef Ricky:** Bob's backyard cigars. In contrast to how I have handled their situation, when he contacted them, they assured them that they were real.
Yeah. And clearly they were not right. So, yeah, I mean, to Senator's point, they, they absolutely had. What was the time frame of
**Rooster:** this? When did this happen?
**Gizmo:** This probably happened, I would say, probably early February. Something like that. Early Feb. Yeah. So a couple of weeks ago, so that's that for now, boys, if any listeners out there have any comments on this, you know, certainly let us know [01:54:00] any response, if you agree with us, disagree with us, we'd love to hear it.
And like I said, for now, our position on this remains as it always was. Uh, and until we hear anything further that changes that, we will certainly bring that, uh, on the podcast here and share with you, but for now, um, I am not concerned about, I have. Authenticity at this point. So boys, I normally say we're coming to the end of our cigar or end of our evening.
We finished our cigar about 40 minutes ago. We're all into a second cigar as we're talking about. I haven't going through some email, but it is time to move into the ratings portion of our program tonight. We're going to start first with the 12 years age single malt scotch from Glenfiddichn Fiddick. Bam, bam.
You're up before we
**Senator:** rate. Can you remind me? The cost again on this bottle,
**Gizmo:** 54. Thank you. 54
**Bam Bam:** on the Glenfiddich Fidic 12. Thank you for reinforcing what I'm about to say. I, you're welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I was, um, I'm blown away at how [01:55:00] drinkable this is. I can, and I will slot this right in between my tequila and my cognac journey and my army neck journey.
It's so drinkable, smooth. It's not the most complex scotch. But honestly, for me, it's the most drinkable scotch that I've ever had. I'm giving it a 10. Excellent. At that price and experience, again, it's not, it's not, the viscosity is a little meek. It's not very complex, but it's delicious. And it delivers on what you really want.
For me, it's the drinkability. And Senator said it earlier, there is not a single Cuban cigar that you wouldn't pair this with. This is a 10. Love it, Ben.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. All right, Chef Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I'm, I'm in lockstep with bam. You know, the, the viscosity is, is a little on the lighter side, but I think that, and that's kind of what makes it some, uh, more drinkable than other scotches.
Uh, you know, it packs of, it packs tons of flavor. I'm smoking it with my divid off White label, uh, [01:56:00] by La CSO here, and it's, I'm about to
**Bam Bam:** drink your drink, by the way. It's paired. I'm out . Okay. Senator,
**Chef Ricky:** don't
**Bam Bam:** let
**Chef Ricky:** him grab that. We need
**Bam Bam:** another bottle. It's
**Chef Ricky:** pairing beautifully with this cigar. The 54 price point, it's great.
It's an amazing bottle. Just have it in your bar. And have it available. And, you know, it's an approachable flavor profile where you could share it with anyone. Uh, you know, it's not super peaty. It's not off putting in any way. It's an attractive bottle to have on your back bar. And the story, there's stories there for days.
The brand history. Oh, that was so impressive. The processes, everything. I mean, there's so much to talk about with this brand. It really was a surprise and I'm happy to give it a 10.
**Gizmo:** So I'm with both of you guys. I love the spirit, how it drinks. I love the viscosity. I think this is a spirit you could consume quite a bit of and wake up the next morning feeling great.
**Bam Bam:** That's exactly what I was thinking. I love the story. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I love the history. I love the family run business. I think what they've done is brilliant. I love the [01:57:00] price. 54. They are competing with spirits at 12 years age that tastes like this. They're competing with spirits that are sometimes 20, 30, 40, 50 dollars more than this.
But how about the versatility of this? It's exactly, that's exactly what's going next.
**Bam Bam:** Any time of the year, if it's hot out, I'll put a little bit of ice in it. It becomes this fruity, light, Chilled experience. And in the winter, uh, you know, it's honestly, it doesn't have that kick that you want in those cold months.
But if I'm in a club and I'm pulling this out of the locker, I'm drinking half a bottle.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Yeah. And, and with any cigar Cuban or new world, I think that this would stand up next to almost any cigar. I mean, maybe not on the fuller end of Nicaraguans. I think it might kind of fall off there, but for Cuban, I would argue this is one of the better single malt scotches to pair with a Cuban cigar.
If you're a Cuban cigar smoker, you like scotch. This is the one to do. I love the accessibility of this. I like the [01:58:00] idea of having this in the locker, bringing it out in the lounge and, and offering it to anybody sitting next to you, whether they're a close friend or a new acquaintance, nobody is going to be afraid to pour scotch You know, some of this at that price point where you might be a little concerned if you're reaching for something that's, you know, reaching triple digits.
So, uh, across the board, I think this has been a home run. I'm so glad Senator went through the history on this. I am loving this brand. I'm falling in love with this brand and I can't wait to try more. So for me, it is a very. Very strong 10. Awesome, awesome spirit. Anybody out there, this is a great gateway scotch.
If you've not, you know, jumped into scotch yet, as, as, uh, you know, as a pairing for cigars, this is a great one to start with. Yeah.
**Senator:** For sure. Senator. I don't think I've ever debated a score On a scotch more than this one. I could tell you were grimacing earlier.
**Rooster:** He was [01:59:00] like having deep thoughts. I saw that
**Gizmo:** the hand was on the chin.
It's
**Rooster:** like, what is wrong with these guys? The calculus
**Chef Ricky:** equations were getting
**Rooster:** a
**Chef Ricky:** 10. He's typing the email as we speak. Dear lizards.
**Rooster:** He's at a nine.
**Senator:** I mean, in full disclosure, I've been debating between a nine and a ten and I'm usually very decisive when it comes to a spirit and, uh, the group, uh, this is one of the rare moments I've been taking it, everything that's been said, and I, I pressure.
Well, no, I, you, you, you all don't get a lot of peer pressure influence. Exactly. You, you all have been actually very, very persuasive. Um, and I think one thing sticks out that I'm going to do it. I'm going to give it a 10. There you go. I'm going to give it a 10. Go. What is that one? Yeah, I'd like to know what that is.
The defining thing for me with this, this is The most [02:00:00] satisfying lighter bodied Scotch I have ever had. Yeah, it's totally agree. I agree. I rail on lighter bodied Scotches. This is where like Grindr and I, this is the one area with Scotch that, you know, we diverge where Grindr likes a lot of the lighter bodied Scotches.
He loves Glenfiddichranji 10. Yeah, I don't. He'll drink Dow 2015. I hate it. They're just a lot of lighter bodied Scotches. I really don't appreciate. And this is the only one that. Is still so flavorful. And so versatile that it keeps your attention at its price point. You know, I can't not give it a 10. And I think why I was having such a hard time with this is like, I think of other 12 year single malls, I think of McAllen 12, I think the double wood, like staples that.
are more complex than this. Yes. Are richer and fuller. But where I was able to give this the 10, this is not trying to be that. Yep. This is a different style of Scotch. Exactly. It's not trying to be [02:01:00] McAllen or Belvedere. It stands on its own. Exactly. And so. The fact that it has carved out its own unique time and place and things you would pair this with, it deserves a world of credit.
And I think, you know, again, the, the fact that clearly there is care put into their products, the fact that they haven't sold to some big conglomerate to just get a big payday and say, you know, you guys deal with the rest of it, uh, they deserve a lot of credit because most have. So for all those reasons.
Uh, and Gizmo said this, and I fully agree, it's a fantastic gateway scotch. Yes, that's true. I mean, I was sitting here as I was debating this, saying, if this was the first single malt I ever had years ago, I would have been drinking so much more single malt scotch than I was at an early age when I had first tried a single malt.
So for all those reasons, it's a 10.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Well, [02:02:00] boys, that's an easy one. Correct. On the Magical unicorn waterfall family owned Glenfiddichn Fiddick 12 tonight on the podcast. Motor oil, motor oil is bam. So when he walked in, I
**Bam Bam:** retracted about preconceived notions. I know I completely retract that statement.
**Gizmo:** The Glenfiddichn Fiddick 12 on the podcast tonight has a formal liquor rating.
of a 10. 0. What a win tonight on the pairing. And let's compare that. We did one other Glenfiddichn Fittick. We did the 15 on episode 27 eons ago, scored a 7. 7. So I wonder if that's something we should revisit or if it was a different run or if that's just not, I don't want to go back there ever.
**Senator:** Here's the wild thing.
I just had the Glenfiddichn, uh, the Glenfiddichn Fittick 15. a few days ago.
**Gizmo:** Really?
**Senator:** I would drink this over that.
**Gizmo:** Right? No kidding. Do you think the 77, the 7. 7 is an accurate score for the 15? It's
**Senator:** not far off. Okay. I'd probably give it an eight. Wow. Okay. So [02:03:00] it's, it's honestly probably pretty accurate. And I say that, you know, what's funny is it's, um, it's definitely a little darker in color.
It has a little bit more body, it's not as smooth and I, I just think the, the, the flavors don't marry as well as they do in the 12 year expression. And you know, we've said this about a certain other brands in the, the Scott space, the notion that like, you know, the, the more age it has, the better it must be.
We've all said dollar for dollar, McAllen, we would drink McAllen 12 correct. Over. Any of their higher age expressions all agree with this thing. Totally. So it's like, you know, for any listener that just, you know, assumes and believe me, I think all of us did at one point that, well, the 15 must be better than the 12 and the 18 must be better than the 15.
Look at the
**Gizmo:** Don
**Senator:** Filano 20. What a joke. Correct. Exactly. It's not always the case. And I think this is a poster child of, I would any day of the [02:04:00] week, rather stock their 12 year in my bar than I would the 15. That's awesome. What
**Gizmo:** a great pairing tonight. Oh yeah. Awesome. And now it's time to move into the formal lizard rating tonight.
On the Montecristo wide Edmundo. I'm finishing my second one as we speak right now. We've gone through a lot on the podcast tonight. Rooster. So you're going to score it twice. I might.
**Rooster:** Okay. Um, I mean, what a, what a great cigar out of all the Montecristo Edmundo series. I think this is the best rendition of.
That cigar, that marker, you know, that DNA, it's very different than most Montecristos. It started off like really savory and salty and, uh, but it really transitioned into cigar that really transitioned multiple times, which is a huge merit for a cigar. It was almost like the first third, the, you know, the halfway point.
And then the last third were completely different [02:05:00] cigars. The notes that we got like creamy and salty and nutty. And, uh, Like a bready note, don't
**Senator:** forget the
**Rooster:** tomato, the tomato, please mention the tomato chives. It was, uh, it was an amazing, amazing,
**Chef Ricky:** um,
**Rooster:** having said that, I mean, that's not a note.
**Chef Ricky:** I mean, if you combine the garlic chives and tomato, we're not far off until Ricky says,
**Bam Bam:** I'll see you in the kitchen tomorrow for your lesson.
**Rooster:** Correct. I mean, at a, at a 40 price point though, I feel that the cigar was short. It, you kind of, you know, you wanted more, like a more length out of it. You wanted at least, at least an hour of smoke. It was maybe a little bit less than an hour. It was like an hour 15, hour 15. It was like 75 minutes. I think we were kind of smoking it a little bit on the slower side.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** Um, for the price for the price. Exactly. When I, you know, when we, when I had it for like 21, I, I think that's [02:06:00] that cigar would score a 10. Um, so the cigar was a bit loosely packed as well. So it went rather quick. So for all of those reasons, I'm at a nine. Wow. Okay. Because the, the flavor notes were.
We're amazing. Yeah. And the box is so fresh. This is a, this is a 24th, just, you know, barely a year on it. Less than a year.
**Bam Bam:** Nine, huh?
**Rooster:** Okay. And, uh, so I'm at a nine. Yeah.
**Senator:** Okay. Senator. Yeah. So I, I couldn't agree more with Rooster. I'm also at a nine. I was blown away by this cigar in the sense that, you know, I've had the petite and Mundo.
I've had the regular Mundo. I don't love either cigar. So I wasn't particularly, you know, excited or expecting a whole lot out of this experience. This, to me, is light years ahead of both of those cigars, just like Rooster was saying. Um, it's incredibly complex. I mean, honestly, it's one of the more complex Cuban cigars I've had in a long time.
Yeah. I can't remember [02:07:00] That many Cuban cigars where we have all pulled out as many distinct flavor notes as we got in this cigar, where we've all talked about it, transitioning not once, twice, three times, even four times. For me, it was almost four.
**Bam Bam:** I'll talk about that for me.
**Senator:** It was firmly for, and actually I'm glad you said that.
Cause I'll, I'll, I'll explain a little more from my perspective. I think the, the first quarter of this cigar was. more savory than it was sweet. Sure. I think the second quarter got a lot sweeter. The third quarter even sweeter. And then the last quarter went back to being more savory than sweet
**Bam Bam:** and a bit earthy.
**Senator:** Yes.
**Bam Bam:** And
**Senator:** that was an amazing experience for me. I mean, you don't have that happen very often in a Cuban. In any cigar,
**Rooster:** four, almost four acts. We went from a salad to a dessert. We went through the whole marinara in the
**Gizmo:** middle of [02:08:00] the whole meal. It's like the chef brought out a couple of samples in the middle, you know, just to try some things.
**Senator:** Um, so, you know, complex is, is something that will always stick with me from this cigar. It definitely qualifies as that the construction was very good. And I was a little surprised because. When we all held the cigar at first, it's not a particularly handsome looking cigar. I mean, the wrapper was veiny and toothy, like it The color was muted.
Yeah. Gray and brown. It's not an attractive looking cigar. No. The secondary band makes it even look silly. Yet, You light that cigar up, it burned perfectly for me. I didn't have any issues with construction. Yeah, same. The smoke output was great. Yeah, we were chimneys in there. We were. For sure. The only reason I'm at a nine like Rooster is, 40 is a steep price point for a cigar at that size.
And if that's the case, I mean, Every Cuban Robusto that I regularly smoke, I get a longer smoking experience than I did that [02:09:00] cigar. True. And any Cuban Robusto right now is, we're talking between 25 and like 30. So I don't know how I can possibly give a 40 cigar That can't even give me as lengthy of a smoking experience as a Robusto at a significantly lower price point.
That's what precludes it from the 10. But, um, it's definitely a strong recommend. I think anyone that loves Monty will love this cigar. I think anyone that. Hasn't loved the regular Mundo or the Petite Mundo ought to try this cigar. It's dramatically different. And, um, it's a really unique stick that has carved out just such a cool mix of flavor notes that I can't say I've experienced.
It's a great blend in the Cuban catalog. Yes. Very well. So for all those reasons, uh, it's a nine, but a very strong recommend. I think anyone. That loves Cuban cigars ought to try it.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a nine. Um, I'll start with the negatives. Uh, the price is ridiculous. You know, [02:10:00] we just talked about, uh, a new edition limitata or regional earlier in the episode.
That's 20 at a starting price. Obviously, this is where this started on the gray market, you know, finding it in states. 40. You know, so that's terribly unfortunate. It should be half the price. And I think that value double
**Rooster:** banded,
**Gizmo:** double banded and double priced. Uh, you know, unfortunately coming in with that price, it's hard to, to reach perfection on the score because value has to play in here.
Uh, obviously a Senator just said it was under filled, even holding the cigars. Even when I got them. After I rested them, you know, a little moisture coming out. These cigars were definitely, they're definitely under filled their light. Obviously that's a component of the blend here, but you know, it's smoked very short.
We got about an hour 15 out of it. Thankfully we had a lot to talk about tonight. We all lit another cigar. We wanted to get through some of this stuff, so we ended up doing a lot more. But if we were just doing [02:11:00] this episode based on the length of the smoke, this would have been an hour, 20 hour, 25 minutes episode.
All in, which is
**Senator:** crazy. And just quickly, I mean, imagine we were not sitting here recording, having a lengthy conversation while smoking this. We would have been done in 45 minutes. Oh, absolutely.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely right. Absolutely right. If you're a listener
**Senator:** just sitting there by yourself, enjoying a cigar, you'd be done with that in 40, 45 minutes.
Can I also say, That
**Gizmo:** La Forte Cano Elegidos short fill Robusto smoked way longer than this 54 ring gauge 40 Montecristo.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** That had short filler in it.
**Bam Bam:** There's a question. We got way more out of that question of value. They're
**Gizmo:** major, major value problem. And I think we just talked about gateway on, on the Glenfiddich Fiddick 12.
This could, Could in an ideal world at the right price could be a perfect gateway cigar for someone I Imagine this being your first Cuban cigar and and that flavor how it hits [02:12:00] you it could be magical, but you're not gonna hand someone a 40 Cuban Robusto as their first cigar, but I would also just on price I
**Bam Bam:** would argue that a little bit as a gateway cigar because it's a very complex experience.
Yeah, you'd have to explain You What you're going through to that person that's smoking, but I think it's a very, yeah, they're going to miss
**Senator:** the tomato notes.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And a
**Chef Ricky:** garlic and a fucking onion, man. Well, not just that. Well, that's taking
**Gizmo:** you years to get there.
**Chef Ricky:** I think the other side of that is that it could really spoil them, right?
Because this is an exceptional cigar and the way it delivers everything that it did, but I
**Gizmo:** think that's a good thing because you're always chasing that.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I remember when
**Gizmo:** Rooster gave me my first Vegas Rubenia Classico and and that was one of my earliest Cuban cigars I still chase that Euphoria, that's what makes this so special is when we have these euphoric moments with a great cigar That's what you chase
**Chef Ricky:** But I think as a gateway, it's a little unreasonable.
You're also not to get to expect that out of every You can't compare that cigar with what we're smoked [02:13:00] tonight.
**Gizmo:** No, I'm just making the point that as far as being an early Cuban cigar experience, something memorable like that, you're always wanting to chase that. And it really sets the tone. The bar for, for having a great experience.
So that's, that's what I'm thinking there as far as wrong.
**Chef Ricky:** And I think the point I'm making is I don't want to share these cigars. Not at 40 bucks. That good. And they're 40 bucks a piece.
**Gizmo:** So on flavor, I mean, the flavor was unreal. What a complex, interesting cigar. It took us on such a journey, even in that 75 short minutes of for, for the cigar.
I mean, it really, really took us somewhere. It's like it, it took us to a, uh, a remote Island that was like heaven.
**Senator:** You know,
**Gizmo:** it was a really, really good cigar and I'm, I'm, I'm really bummed. I can't. Can't give it a 10.
**Chef Ricky:** Correct. An island we don't, we didn't wanna leave, which is why we live another survivor.
Exactly. Right. Like, yeah,
**Senator:** at $40 and with the flavor notes, they ought to make this an Italian regional . The Bonne Edition. The Bon Bolognese
**Gizmo:** [02:14:00] Bologne edition. And finally, uh, and we could talk about this after the ratings here. I don't wanna wax on this, but I would like to talk about it again. Again, again, boys, we have another.
New Cuban, regular production release in the last few years that young with very little age on it. Very little rest delivered a really amazing experience. And I think that can't be overlooked. We've talked about that on the Turquino's from LaGuardia Cubana, Ramon Iones, number three, some others, the other Monte's other recent releases.
This is only a few years, you know, in regular production. That can't be overlooked. Cuba is doing something right. Producing new regular production cigars that can be smoked right away. That is huge. Unfortunately, going back to my negatives, I have to stick at a nine. I can't go on a 10 here. I would love to, but the value is just not there.
So unfortunately that's the case, but I'm very happy [02:15:00] with a nine. I wish I could have given it a 10, but it's just not the night tonight with that price point. Chef Ricky.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, look, this is a nine with an asterisk, right? Like, there's no doubt that Barry Bonds is an amazing fucking hitter, right? And there's also no doubt that he hit really far home runs because of steroids.
Exactly right. This cigar is We're taking a journey. This cigar
**Gizmo:** Took a left turn there.
**Chef Ricky:** This cigar delivered on every single hit. every single level. I mean, a solid four acts for me. You know, if it were a tasting menu at a restaurant, it'd be a bargain. You're talking four courses at 40 bucks. I mean, that's what the cigar delivered.
Um, you know, the, the final, the, the, the fourth act for me was earth and walnut just delivered beautifully. It was a little less sweet, but there was still some sweetness present, but it wasn't as. Dominant as it was in, in the second and third act, but I really did enjoy the cigar. But yes, at [02:16:00] 40 bucks for what would have essentially been a 40, 45 minute smoke.
It's a, it's a little tough to, to give a 10 to, uh, but outside of that, I mean, this cigar was, was beautiful. It was amazing the way it delivered everything. It wasn't very attractive, you know, looking at it before the light, you know, the wrapper, you know, aside from it being loosely packed, of course, being a Cuban, the wrapper super thin.
Um, you know, so all of the, all of that, I think contributed to how quickly it smoked. Uh, but the, the flavors were just phenomenal. And it was really fun to smoke that cigar with you guys and just kind of volley what we were all getting. Um, and I think that really like just highlighted and illustrated really well for the listener.
What. How special that cigar was. So, in this case, I don't think the 9 is, you know, sure, you know, maybe 10, 15 bucks less, it probably would've got that 10. But this is not a 9 with an asterisk for me.
**Senator:** So where did the steroids and the asterisk come in?
**Chef Ricky:** Ha ha.
**Gizmo:** Well, he took a left turn. He wanted to give it a 10, it's a 9.
[02:17:00] It's a 9 plus. But Chef, the 40 for a whole meal is not bad,
**Rooster:** right?
**Chef Ricky:** That's not bad! No. They're serving you that meal at a loss. For sure.
**Bam Bam:** All right. All right. Ba Yeah. Um, I'm at a nine. Yeah, I've, I was debating between a eight and a nine, honestly, but because of the price. Eight. Oh, okay. We could tell
**Rooster:** price because your initial response when I said a nine, you were like, wow.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I was a little, I, I, I kind of was a little surprised. Thought that meant he was gonna go 10. I, I thought so, too. Swear. I thought so too. I know. Unbridled too. I'm trying to rein it down a little bit. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Neil Bam. Not enough tomato. No,
**Bam Bam:** no, but it was a yellow. So this was truly a three act play, but it touched, as I mentioned earlier, into that fourth act, which really, for me, gave me that complex experience.
As I entered that fourth zone of the cigar, that about inch and a half from the bottom, that earthy minerality started to come through. And that was really, really enjoyable because it helped [02:18:00] balance all the sweetness that we got in that. Second and third act and the first act was very savory, right? So I am at a nine I'm gonna give this a nine But that price is as you've all mentioned is a very egregious And I would probably not give this to a novice Because I think it's just too complex for them to understand the nuances of the cigar.
**Chef Ricky:** It's almost unfair
**Bam Bam:** a little bit There are many other cigars in the Cuban market that I would probably give them Before I give them this but this was a unique very unique experience tonight I don't think I've ever had this and I think that's the consensus in the room.
**Senator:** I actually agree on that I mean price point aside that I also wouldn't give this to a novice.
No and the analogy I would use it's like Would I give a Padron 80th to a novice? Hell no And, and the reason for that is like, there's more complexity in that, that requires a more experienced smoker to appreciate in the way that an exclusivo for a novice, like you'd be more readily able to pick out those notes,
**Chef Ricky:** but that's also due to strength, right?
But I'm saying, let's, [02:19:00] let's pretend that we're
**Senator:** equal strength. Yeah. It's just the flavors. I get what you're in this, if we gave this to a novice, I mean, we must have called out 20 plus flavor notes. Correct. A novice would be lucky to pick up more than three. You wouldn't be able to pick them up. And they would miss that experience.
Yeah. So like, I think something else in the Monty line would be more accessible for them to appreciate. Agreed. A Monty 2, a Monty 3, and then eventually graduate. You would almost
**Bam Bam:** have to convince them of all of the, the experience that you're getting in this cigar because they just can't capture it. Yeah.
Unless they've been smoking for a very long time.
**Chef Ricky:** And sometimes that could be fun and sometimes it could also mess up your own experience.
**Senator:** Sure. If you're
**Chef Ricky:** smoking with someone like that.
**Senator:** Yeah. Well, and there's, I mean, you know, think about when we were all novice smokers, like, I mean, we encountered this at the lounge.
I mean, the number of people, you'll sit next to someone and they're like, How do you pick out all these notes? Like, they're frustrated. They want to get those. And the answer is you got to smoke a lot of cigars to be able to eventually be able to discern them. And take lessons with Ricky. That's also true.
And like I said,
**Bam Bam:** I'll be in the kitchen
**Gizmo:** tomorrow morning,
**Bam Bam:** but
**Chef Ricky:** I'll be in [02:20:00] Tribeca tomorrow. But going back to what Senator
**Bam Bam:** just said, it becomes a difficult experience for them to understand what you're going through. Sure. Like, Exclusivo though, we'll take that as a great example that I would hand. To almost anyone.
And I can, you can go through that whole explanation. It's very straightforward, but it's very linear. Yeah. It's delicious, but it's delicious, but it's also such a high quality cigar. They're going to get it right off the bat.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Well said boys. All right. The formal lizard rating tonight on the Montecristo wide Edmundo.
Is a 9. 0. So let's compare that to the other six Montecristos we've done on the podcast from Cuba. You'll note, if you do look at our ratings guide, there is a seventh that Montecristo is a new world Montecristo, not from Cuba. So you have to ignore. That one. That one's from Nicaragua. Let's start with episode four.
We did the Linea 1935. The Maestra scored an 8.9.
**Bam Bam:** Remember that episode, dude? Oh yeah. That was a lot of fun. On
**Gizmo:** episode 28, [02:21:00] the Monte Krysta number two, one of the Cuban standards, I would say, scored an 8.4. On episode 46, the Monte Krysta number one scored a 6.3. Very weak on that one. On episode 66, the mono Krysta supremists.
Tada from 2019 scored a 9. 0 on episode 80. The other Robusto from Montecristo, the Edmundo scored an 8. 0. And finally on episode 127, the Especialist number two scored an 8. 3. So this is up there tied as the best Montecristo we did. We have done on the podcast with the supremos. This year limitada. From 2019.
Does it
**Chef Ricky:** really? So what a great, what a
**Gizmo:** great cigar. Oh yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Can I make a suggestion for, uh, the lizard database? Yes, 2. 0 or 3. 0. Maybe for the cigars, we add, we start adding in flavor notes. Now that we've developed our palates to a point where tomato and garlic. Sounds like
**Senator:** more work for me. Chives. Well, it is more work for you.
No, it sounds [02:22:00] like, sounds like the listener ought to listen to the episodes. Oh, that's also true. Correct. There's a lot there. I'm
**Chef Ricky:** not saying you break it down. By Lizard, but maybe it's just, you know, one cell that's dedicated to a couple notes. Cause maybe there's people that gravitate to a certain notes.
Dried fruit.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Well, that's the first hundred episodes. So I have a question for you boys. Uh, I did bring up during my rating, the You know, prevalence, the improvement of new Cuban regular production cigars. How do you think this one stacks? And just very quickly, how do you think this stacks versus some of the others?
Obviously, this is a significantly higher price point than a lot of the other stuff we talked about. La Gloria Cubana Turquinos. It's up there. Ramon Iones number three. I mean, this is arguably one of the better ones,
**Senator:** I
**Gizmo:** would say.
**Senator:** I think it's right up there at the top. The reason I say that is when I think of a lot of the newer, uh, Standard production stuff we've tried that we've scored really high.
The flavors have been delicious. [02:23:00] We've detected no youth, despite its youth. And that's why it scored high. But I don't recall any of them being as insanely complex as this is. So that's why I would put this right up at the top. This
**Gizmo:** one stands alone, I think, in complexity and the journey. So,
**Chef Ricky:** agreed. Do you think age will help the Cigar?
**Gizmo:** I do. I think this one has legs. I think, I think that there is an opportunity here. I think there's so much going on that I can't even imagine, even with a little bit of age, a couple of years.
**Bam Bam:** But do you really need to age something that's smoking so well?
**Gizmo:** I don't think you need to, but I do think the Cigar has legs.
So, if you buy a box of 25 of these, you're You smoke a couple, you smoke them slow. You put them aside. I think any listener out there, this is a great aging program cigar just to see how it does. I'm
**Senator:** going to take a slightly different approach. So I don't disagree that this can get better with age and that this has aging [02:24:00] potential.
But this goes back to, and I think, you know, Danilo, we had this conversation with in Cuba. A cigar like this is delivering everything we could possibly want it to deliver. So, like, in smoking this cigar, if you notice all of our commentary, not one of us complained about anything other than the price point.
It was perfect otherwise. I'm
**Bam Bam:** rolling out the red carper for you right now. And given
**Senator:** that, like, I'd smoke them all. All right. Correct. Like I, there's nothing I'm left wanting. You know, age sometimes can produce a creaminess in a cigar that's not there. This cigar was creamy for at least half of it. I mean, there's so many things that usually require age.
Kudos to
**Rooster:** the blending decisions of all the new lines that are coming out. That's the regular production stuff, regular production stuff. I mean, they're doing some fantastic blending right now. Now
**Chef Ricky:** in aging, this is their risk that we lose one or two of those acts because they become a total, that's a real potential.
He's
**Senator:** [02:25:00] scared about losing the tomato.
**Gizmo:** That's a real potential. I mean, again, I'm curious to where it would, you know, how it would go or where it would go. But, um,
**Rooster:** Ricky, the, uh, I think the tomato would become into a sun ripened, sun dried tomato,
**Bam Bam:** which by the way, it's not, That's an acquired taste for some people.
**Chef Ricky:** Puba will crush that cigar with a Bloody Mary. That's all I'm saying. There you go. It's true.
**Bam Bam:** I think he would like the cigar. You know, that's
**Rooster:** a great pairing idea. It
**Gizmo:** is.
**Chef Ricky:** A Bloody Mary with a
**Gizmo:** cigar. Great, great idea. Great Saturday morning breakfast. Yeah. Brunch cigar.
**Chef Ricky:** And it's light enough where you could have it early in the day.
Satisfying enough where you could have it later at night. Do you have
**Bam Bam:** a wedge of bacon in that? Plant based. Okay.
**Rooster:** There you go. A soy ball on the side. No balls, low balls, high balls, no balls
**Chef Ricky:** on this episode.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, obviously what a great night tonight. I mean, the cigar and the pairing, the scotch, both were [02:26:00] brilliant.
I am blown away by both tonight. I, I totally, my expectation, we were, you know, the real potential for us to come in here and hate both of them. I
**Bam Bam:** thought this was going to be Valvoline tonight. I know you did. I am shocked. I know you did.
**Gizmo:** What a great night, boys. Let's go through it one more time. The Glenfiddich Fiddick, 12 years age, single malt scotch scored a perfect 10.
0 and the Montecristo wide Edmundo from Cuba scored a 9. 0.
**Bam Bam:** You know, we're going to fight over that eighth of scotch that's in that bottle tonight.
**Gizmo:** I'm going to win.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, yeah. You haven't seen my wrestling prowess.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. What a great night. And again, we have to point out here for the listener, you know, when we have a great cigar and a great pairing, the mood just lifts in this room.
Like The charts, I'd be totally comfortable recording for another hour. Exactly.
**Rooster:** I was just going to say, we should just record another episode, right? You
**Gizmo:** got to make a bathroom run though. What are you talking about? Gizmo, light a third. I will. I'll light another one. I
**Chef Ricky:** think it has something to do with the Eagles winning the super bowl too.
That's true. That
**Gizmo:** didn't suck. [02:27:00] All right. So we have to thank all of our listeners, of course, for writing us. Thanks. So many of you asking about. The Reddit issue, sending us emails all the time. We really appreciate hearing from everybody. Thanks to lizard Lake for that great email about stemware. And of course our lizard of the week, lizard Alistair for, uh, cluing us into the, I have Vanna's issue, uh, a couple of weeks ago.
So thanks for that. And of course we have to thank our sponsor fabric of five. How's your cigar going there, Senator? Loving it. My fingers burned twice tonight. There you go. Yeah. Another great cigar. I'm going to have one as soon as we stop recording. And, uh, yes, we have to thank them. Go purchase some of their cigars, of course, use our code.
And, uh, guys, what a great night. What a great night. Looking forward to next week and, uh, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards, pod. com. That's lounge lizards, p o d. com.
Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. [02:28:00] 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 pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.