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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!
Ep #190: Montecristo No. 2 (w/ Flor de Caña 18, Are We In a Golden Age of Cigar Quality?, Update on Cuban Cigar Review Frequency, Smoking in Singapore, Bam Spills Rum & Lizard Email on Edicións Regional & Limitada)
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Gizmo: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast, presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Senator, chef Ricky, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some rum, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 190th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard Plan to meet this year, once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cuban cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you walk.
Formal lizard rating. We revisit a Cuban Classic and we discuss if we're in a golden age of cigar quality. And we share an update on the future of Cuban cigars on this podcast, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 18 year age four Dicon rum with Monte Cristo.
Number two, a Cuban classic on the pod tonight. Boys [00:01:00] from Monte Cristo is the Monte Cristo number two. It's a 52 ring gauge cigar by six and one eight inches long. And boys, I am very glad that we are going back to the Monte Cristo number two. First off, it's one of the most successful Cuban cigars of all time.
And when they're great, they are really great. And I haven't had one in quite some time. Yeah, they're, that's the key though. When they're
Rooster: good, they're good and
Gizmo: when
Rooster: they're not good, but when they're not, they're not.
Bam Bam: You know, I hear you guys say that often and a lot of you guys have had negative experiences.
I have yet to have a bad Monte two. One that I could just throw down or not be happy with, might is still young.
Senator: Yeah.
Gizmo: We haven't even cut yet. Yeah, no,
Senator: that's true. I'll just say to BA's point, I mean, for me it, it's like at their worst they're smokeable. Yeah. And at their best, they're great. Yeah. Where there are certain cigars that we've been through, like certain r and j cigars, like at their worst they're un smokable, oyo.
We've had this happen with, so mm-hmm. That's the only caveat
Bam Bam: I would add. But you [00:02:00] have to say that this is the quintessential Cuban cigar. Absolutely. Nice. No doubt about that. There's,
Rooster: there's really two brands that come to mind if you ask anybody who knows. Oh, yeah. Little bit about Cuban cigars, the Say It booster.
The first name is Cohiba. No, no, no. It is. Oh, no. As far as people
Gizmo: out,
Rooster: out outside of the,
Bam Bam: but the people that know it's Parus. Correct. And Monte Krista, correct.
Rooster: I think, yeah. I think it's Cohiba Monte Christ. I think it's cute. Cohiba. Sorry I
Senator: that rooster. That's ridiculous. Globally, you're right. Think of every person that we know that smokes Cuban cigars.
They are not gonna bring up Cohiba as one of the first three brands that they smoke a lot. And we know everybody in the world, none of us even did.
Rooster: But they know the brand though Cohiba has. Yeah, of course. Don't you think Cohiba has a bigger name than Particles does? Oh yeah, of course. That's, I'm not talking about marketing.
I mean what people spoke not I'm talking about market. I'm talking about like, if you ask somebody, we have the
Senator: marketing guy here today.
Gizmo: Oh, market marketing.
Alright boys, let's cut this thing. See we're getting [00:03:00] on the cold draw and the wrapper as we debate the marketing skills of Rooster,
Chef Ricky: rooster
Gizmo: Roosted.
Chef Ricky: Well, I'll tell you what, I'm super excited about this 'cause I feel like I've, I've missed nothing now or I'm getting there, you know, like I was on, I never missed the first 120 episodes.
It's the, uh, benefit of revisiting these cigars.
Bam Bam: Yeah, we're doing this for you. So a question on a cut. I took a very little bit off. Same here. Um, I think I need to go down a touch to that. Yeah. Because it's a slightly a tight draw for me. Just slightly. I'll tell you I did a v cut. Perfect. That's good.
Rooster: Perfect. It's pretty open for me
Senator: on any Cuban torpedo, Bella Cosa, whatever you want to call it. I always take a decent amount off because the odds that the roll is gonna be pretty tight or high and so mine it right now was drawing good, perfectly. Oh
Bam Bam: yeah. How? How you doing
Gizmo: guys? I took a very little bit off and I'm glad I did too because I feel if I took more, I would've had a little bit of a wind tunnel.
Yeah. Oh, yours is super open. Mine's pretty, pretty well open, so I'm happy at this point. I [00:04:00] may do another cut as we get into like the second, third or something, but I'm happy where it is right now.
Bam Bam: Just under a quarter of an next three, three 16th of an inch off. It was tight. Mm. I'm at just over a quarter inch and it's actually perfect.
Gizmo: Yeah. Cold draw is really nice. Getting that little salty thing,
Chef Ricky: getting some salt and faint raisin here for me.
Gizmo: So bam. Noted that inside the box when you were picking your cigar tonight. Correct. That the aroma coming off those cigars in the box was incredible. Cocoa and chocolate
Bam Bam: for
Gizmo: me.
Bam Bam: Very, very much so.
And on the wrapper now, still getting that.
Chef Ricky: And don't forget the dairy funk that you called out. That was amazing. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Kind of like a funky barnyard acidity, dairy acidic thing. Yeah. That's all there. And that's what you usually get for me in a Monte two in addition to something dry fruit.
Rooster: Can we light it?
Gizmo: Let's do that. Let's light this thing boys. The mono Cristo. Number two, the pyramid from [00:05:00] Cuba. It's a 52 reengage cigar by six and one eighths inches long and somebody's welding steel right now with their lighter. And this is the second time we're doing this cigar. So if you're not familiar with the program, this is a cigar we did all the way back on episode 28, which is 160 some odd episodes ago.
So we're revisiting these. This is a newer run. The box code on this is BRM, April 22. A little Cuban funk,
Bam Bam: a little bit of cocoa graham cracker for me. Some dry fruit maybe in particular like a banana. Wow, that's really good on the white man.
Gizmo: Delicious.
I'm actually getting like a, a little bit of unique sweetness [00:06:00] that I don't normally get on a mono Cristo. Number two. Oh, I typically get sweetness. Yeah, I usually get milk, milk, chocolate. I get like a chocolate thing. This is not chocolate. This
Bam Bam: is more fruity for me right now than chocolate. Definitely not dark.
You're right. It's more milk chocolate for sure. And I get, I'm getting like a banana, like a ever You ever had dried like banana chips? Yeah. Kind of getting that here a little bit. Like plantain, plantain, chip. No, you got banana. Banana, yeah. It's a bit sweeter but dry. Right.
Gizmo: Getting that classic twang on the front of my tongue, a little bit of saltiness.
Bam Bam: Let's chat about something for two seconds. We're doing this revisit of all the previous cigars that we've had. Are we going to revisit every single cigar that we've done in the past or are we selecting specific cigars?
Because in my opinion, this cigar is worthy of doing again. I agree. Right. And there are cigars that aren't worthy of a repeat.
Gizmo: I, I think some of the classic core regular production [00:07:00] cigars should be revisited. I agree. I mean, we're doing a cigar tonight, that is from April 22. The cigar we did on episode 28 was from the early part of 2020 during, you know, during COVID.
Sure. That's when they rolled that. So this is a run from two years later. Mm-hmm. And I've heard that the later model, oh yeah. Mono Chrystal number twos have been smoking really, really well. So. You know, as of right now mm-hmm. I'm choosing ones that I think got a lower score than we would expect them to, uh, revisiting those as well as the classic Cubans.
So, I mean, I, I bet
Rooster: 90% of the cigars that we're going to revisit that are gonna be fresh boxes of 2223 are gonna rate much higher. They're gonna be better. They're gonna be better. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they have been so far, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Everyone, I mean this, this cigar here, every single one of us, no draw issues.
Nope. And it's, you know, the flavor is spot on.
Senator: Yeah. I have no issues [00:08:00] with everything you said. The only thing on this cigar that surprised me, the wrapper is unbelievably rustic. Oh yeah. And I say this 'cause other boxes of Monte twos, I have the wrappers don't look like this. And those monte twos, I paid probably a quarter of whatever the price is right now on these.
So I'm just shocked. Like they're charging more Now this is in this like very premium category, yet the rappers, I mean, I, I, I can't remember the last I've seen these. You, you got a point. You a point. But
Rooster: just, just take a wild guess what they're going for? We were just talking about about story. We were just talking about this.
Bam Bam: This is unbelievable, Senator. Yeah. Take a wild guess. So
Gizmo: how much do you think today a box of Monte Cristo number two is transacting for on the internet?
Bam Bam: I'm not saying a word
Gizmo: now, this is from a reputable retailer. This is not on a group somewhere from a friend, whatever this is from a retailer, I mean Exactly.
It's gotta be like eight something.
Bam Bam: That's what I thought.
Senator: $950. That's ridiculous. I mean, this is what makes me even more upset, you know, like a rapper should [00:09:00] not look like this on a cigar box that's $950.
Bam Bam: Not only is he making a great point about the ruggedness of the, of the wrapper, but look at the discoloration from, seem to seem there's a darkness.
There's a lightness there. It's very patchy.
Senator: Right. And what's weird is like I have some box of Monte twos back when they were, you know, reasonably priced that like, I vividly remember the rappers are like, milk chocolate, beautiful and perine. Exactly. And with, with a sheen. I'm just shocked that at this price point, this is the best wrapper they could find for this.
Rooster: But I have to say the flavor is really good. It's delicious. I agree. I'm getting the monty notes that you kind expect. It's outrageous. You, you expect that salty, salty twang. You're getting right up, you know, mix. You gonna get front mixed with the coco. Yeah,
Bam Bam: me too.
Rooster: I mean, it's right, right from the start.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: I'm definitely getting the cocoa now.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: As it's starting to develop a few, few minutes in. It's,
Bam Bam: it's uncanny. It's because you'll get that in the middle and on the finish for me.
Gizmo: Yeah. And it's, it's almost like a more, I, I hesitate to use the word [00:10:00] lactic, but it, it tastes like for me, like hot cocoa that has more milk in it than maybe it should.
Like, it's kind of leaning that way for me right now.
Bam Bam: I mean that's the ultimate cigar experience right there. Oh, it tastes great. That's unbelievable. It tastes
Rooster: great. Yeah. I think bam called out the lactic note l funk
Senator: under nose type of thing. I said milk chocolate. I mean that. Yeah, that's true. Chocolate is.
Um, I mean, I will say that this is easily probably the most cocoa forward Cuban cigar that exists. True. I
Bam Bam: agree. How long have you had these in your tower?
Gizmo: So, I purchased these in late 22, so I think November or December 22. So these have been in my tower. Yikes. For what, two and a half years?
Bam Bam: That's some aging program there.
Gizmo: Yeah, it's good. So obviously when I purchased these, it wasn't with the intention of smoking them on the podcast. Mm-hmm. But as we're coming around on revisiting stuff, I pulled this box and I [00:11:00] thought it would be a good one tonight. And it is.
Bam Bam: I'm actually very, I'm very happy right now. I know, me too. I'm trying to contain myself.
So, you know what the silence reminds me of?
Rooster: Well, you know, I'm just thinking like, we're
Bam Bam: not, it's reminds me of dinner and how good the food is and no one's talking stuff. Everybody shuts up.
Rooster: You know, it's just, we're smoking so few Cuban cigars these days, at least I am. So to come on a pod and, and you get excited when you're doing it, doing a Cuban cigar, that's a treat.
Right.
Gizmo: And especially one that is performing as well as these are right now. Oh yeah. I mean, this is really an excellent cigar. Now the, you know, the question we're gonna ask ourselves throughout the entire night tonight, is this cigar and this experience worth $40, you know, for a box of [00:12:00] 25, almost a thousand bucks.
I mean, that's, that's challenging.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And good luck sourcing them.
Rooster: Mm-hmm. And that is a problem. But if you want a Monty two, do you really have a choice? You gotta pay, you gotta, you gotta pay that. It's like, if you want any Cuban today,
Gizmo: so these cigars come in a few different configurations. A display box of 15 cigars, so the five cardboard packs of three, a dress box of 10 cigars, certainly a little bit more price reasonable.
And then the dress box of 25 cigars, which is what we're smoking out of tonight. Again, the box code on tonight's cigar is BRM, April 22. And going back to episode 28, like I said, that box was from May of 2020. So we'll go through the ratings on that later. So, you know, Monte Cristos had an up and down experience on this podcast.
You know, we've been very, very surprised by Monte Cristo and also very disappointed at times. So not, it doesn't [00:13:00] perform as well as particle, that's for sure.
Chef Ricky: Think it's funny, you know, in the beginning I got some dried fruit. I got raisin, I got a little of, uh, this kind of ancho chili. You know, we had this discussion of how dried Mexican chilies smell a lot like dried fruit.
Now it's complete cocoa, almost smoke alike, just cocoa, a little bit of coffee, some salt, and then on a deep, on a deep draw with a good retro hill. There's a little bit of a floral note, almost perfume like. I kind of agree with all that. It's really complex. I love it.
Gizmo: This makes me want to reach for more Monte twos.
And it's frustrating that the replacement cost is as high as, as it is. It's a shame. But this is really just out of this world. Is
Chef Ricky: this always the experience? I mean, obviously there's been some, some misses, but when it's not a miss, is this the typical flavor profile of Monty two?
Gizmo: Yeah. This is what I expect when I light a Monte to on a good Monte two, this is what you would expect.
Chef Ricky: Hmm. So I like, as I said earlier, 'cause I had one, uh, maybe three years [00:14:00] ago that, you know, I got from you. Um, but I don't remember much about it at this point.
Gizmo: So are you guys smoking Monte Cristo number two at any sort of regular interval? I mean, no.
Senator: No, it's not even the price. I mean, look, we all paid way less than what they're going for right now.
So it's not like we need to have that kind of heartburn. You know? I don't think this is a cigar for anybody in this room that like, no matter what the price is, you're gonna go out and pursue. Right. We all have that cigar. I don't think anyone has ever said like, my, you know, my cigar is the money too. But because there have been varying degrees of experiences with them, like more inconsistency than a Pars D four or just other things that we more readily, uh, smoke.
I've just kind of tucked my boxes away. I don't even know where they are. I haven't looked at them in years. Um, but having this is definitely inspiring me to like pull one out and actually try one. Um, but this, like I said, like when they're the way they're supposed to be, this is exactly the experience you [00:15:00] get.
Bam Bam: I agree. I didn't, I haven't seen my boxes until prior to this recording.
Gizmo: Oh yeah, you started digging tonight.
Bam Bam: I, I dug them out just to look at codes and dates and what they look like and smelled like. What do you got in
Senator: there, Ben?
Bam Bam: I got a good amount. I'm happy you guys. What's a good amount? Uh, I don't remember very.
That was from today. I have memory loss issues,
Rooster: sudden amnesia.
Bam Bam: It's on the old list if you really want to check.
Rooster: I'm guessing three. So that's probably about
Bam Bam: right. That's correct. The price is right now. Now what year? Um, I have two MSU 20 nineteens
Gizmo: Bargus factory.
Bam Bam: Yep. And I have 2 20 20,
Gizmo: that's four. I think they're RAT rat.
Oh, I have four boxes. Haha.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And two RAT 2020s.
Gizmo: So RAT was the factory code prior to BRM for the LA Corona factory. Oh, good. So that came outta the [00:16:00] same factory as a cigar. Yeah. Outstanding. MSU is a good code.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Senator: The other thing I've always appreciated about this cigar, this is a Cuban cigar that my experience at least has been, does it need a ton of age to be like really great when they're on?
Um, I mean, I've bought countless of these just traveling in Europe. I remember buying this at a ridiculous price in Singapore. I mean, Hong Kong more than what we're talking about. It goes for right now.
Bam Bam: You mentioned a number in Hong Kong, which blew me away. Yes. Singapore. Singapore, yeah. That was
Rooster: back when prices were actually reasonable.
This, this was
Senator: back pre COVID. Wow. And I had to pay for this cigar in Singapore, almost 60 US dollars. Wow. It was insanity. I guess
Gizmo: if you think about what the cost would've been at that time. Normally that we would've transacted for would probably have been 15 bucks
Senator: probably.
Gizmo: Right? Yeah. So imagine what that delta is now, knowing that these are going for close to 40,
Bam Bam: what do you think the pricing in Singapore seems?
It's gotta be a hundred bucks. Be over a hundred dollars. Yeah. Yeah. It has to be in triple digits. Unbelievable. [00:17:00]
Senator: Because I remember when I picked this up, I mean there were, there was countless other cigars they normally spoke that were more than 60 us.
Bam Bam: So hold on. So you didn't have cigars during your travels at that time, correct?
Senator: Correct. On you. Okay.
Bam Bam: Only
Senator: because Singapore is so intense about everything. I'm like, the last thing I need is them inspecting what's really in these things. Like I, they're crazy there, you know? Did you
Rooster: have to stand on a square on the street?
Senator: Uh, no. But I saw plenty of Asian dudes ripping cigarettes in those squares.
On those squares in 9,500 degree heat. It. They were ripping. Ripping darts. Insanity.
Bam Bam: But you know, when you travel and you don't have cigars on you, you're almost, I don't know, I'm almost willing to spend anything to have a great cigar. You have to. Yeah.
Gizmo: Especially if you have a
Senator: good place to smoke. Exactly.
You know, then it's kind of worth it. In Singapore, it's like the only place to smoke. Exactly. There's like one kind of hidden secret indoor lounge in the middle of Chinatown in Singapore. And um, that's cool. I mean, smoking indoors is strictly prohibited in Singapore, but they have this like, [00:18:00] employees only sign on this like back door.
'cause the woman when I went to buy the cigar, she was like, oh, I'll ring you up, you know, have a nice day. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm smoking them here. She's like, well Singapore law, you're not allowed to smoke indoors. I'm like, well then I'm not gonna buy the cigars. I'm not gonna smoke in a hundred degree weather.
And she in a little box outside on the street. Did you tell her, forget, did you tell her
Bam Bam: that you
Senator: were with the triads?
Bam Bam: She would've opened everything out for You'll tell, I'll tell you what, she opened that door.
Senator: It looked like some guys were part of the triads. Uh, correct. So she tells me, now that I've informed you of Singapore law, should you choose, you can follow me behind this door. And the door says, employees only.
Were like, either we're gonna find something great or we're gonna get mugged back here. And she opens the door and like it's a bunch of Asian dudes that look like they're in the triad, sitting there puffing away with a scotch. And we're like, this is perfect. Oh my. Well, tell me in
Chef Ricky: as you were approaching this door, did you see smoke?
Did you smell cigars being smoked? No. There's
Senator: not even signage for this place. I'm on Google Maps is telling me I am right in front of the place. No signage whatsoever. I finally see in tiny font, like painted [00:19:00] on a wall of some Chinese restaurant. It says like, uh, Havana Room or whatever the place, it was something like Cuban was the name.
It was in Braille
Bam Bam: and Quarter Nation.
Senator: And just in tiny writing it says that and just has like a little up arrow. So I'm like, well, how do I get up there? And then I find around the way is an elevator. This tiny little elevator. This sounds like a video game. It, it's ridiculous. Sounds. James Bond sound like a video game.
It's James Bond. So like I get in this elevator, there's, again, it's not like it says like floor two Havana room or something like that. I have no clue where I'm going. I press the button, it goes up. And when that door opens, you're like in the middle of this super luxurious cigar shop. I mean, they have vintage bottles of Macallan for sale from like 1970 worth.
Like 50 grand. I mean, wow. Crazy stuff in this place. And then $60 Monte Twos did you, uh, phone into home base?
Bam Bam: Mission money. Penny. I must have a cigar.
Gizmo: I [00:20:00] can't get over how good the cigar is right now. It's fantastic. Like it's really, I'm kind of blown away. Look at that Ash. Yours too. Yeah, my ash is really great. Very
Bam Bam: structural, bright white.
Chef Ricky: It's now really getting savory for me. Yeah, you, the smoke is becoming very full, uh, very almost creamy. And then there's this, uh,
Rooster: the saltiness is more pronounced now.
Yeah.
Chef Ricky: There's, there's this like savory cracker of flavor coming through. I can't,
Bam Bam: you know, you're not getting, you're not getting any cocoa in the aroma at all
Chef Ricky: on the ar Oh, the aroma's. Intoxicating some. I think
Bam Bam: it's cocoa mixed with that salty twang. Yeah, exactly. You know what's unfortunate as well is I have to ration my drink because I spilled it earlier.
Yeah. But this, this stuff is off the chain.
Gizmo: So before we go to our pairing, we have to lay out for the listener that we told a story recently of coming back from Havana.
Rooster: I totally forgot about that. Yeah. Thank you. So bring it up. Totally. Remind me what happened. Exactly what happened. So
Gizmo: we were going, uh, we had gone [00:21:00] through security at the Havana Airport
Rooster: Ah, that coming
Gizmo: home.
And we all decided to. Wait, was bam there for this or no? BA was there. Oh yeah, he was, he was there. Whoever
Bam Bam: took that photo was very unflattering.
Gizmo: So, so we all decide to, to go light on our carry-on bags so that we can bring some Havana Club home, some rum from the duty free store. So we, you know, uh, lizard Heto and I made it through security before bam.
We went into duty free, bought our stuff, and then bam comes strolling outta security with a big smile on his face, sees duty free. And he goes in there like a little kid on Christmas and is carrying one liter bottles of Havana Club and his arms was hugging to the register. Yeah, you were hugging like a bear hug.
I was so happy. Like a bear hug, like a kid on Christmas, by the way. That's the first time
Bam Bam: I did that. I just felt great.
Gizmo: So he went, he was walking up to the register in the duty free and one of the massive one liter bottles of Vivana Club slipped and smashed [00:22:00]
Bam Bam: everywhere as I like tried to chase it
Gizmo: and, uh, lizard Heto and I got a full, we we got a full show watching Bam.
Deal with this. Of course you had to pay for that bottle. Of
Bam Bam: course. And I didn't like the way that guy was, uh, behaving behind the desk, so he looked at me like I was six years old.
Gizmo: Well, so did we.
Bam Bam: Alright. Yeah, he's, he'd say, yeah.
Gizmo: I mean, you drop an entire bottle of club. I know. Ugh. So tonight it's terrible.
We. Sit down. We're excited to record with Armani twos and we have this wonderful rum we're gonna talk about in a second. And, uh, Senator Yeah, we, we, we have to set up the pour. Yeah. I gave very generous, very generous, generous pos
Senator: because there's only four of us drinking tonight. It's a Florida Kanye product.
The odds that it's gonna be good are high. I was so excited. I wanted everybody to enjoy, and bam is usually the first one to say, pass me the bottle. I need a refill. So I was excited. Especially no refills tonight, especially, gave him a heavy pour that was at least five ounces.
Chef Ricky: Oh yeah.
Gizmo: Just,
Chef Ricky: you know, motherfucker.[00:23:00]
Gizmo: And then, and then what happened? Bam. So you decided to put it on the table and you missed, was it?
Bam Bam: So I, you know, I kind of held my glass
Senator: up. I said, oh wait, we're not recording. Actually, he jinxed himself because he lifts his glass up and he looks at my poor, which is actually less than his. And he goes, Senator must have had a rough day.
That's true. I'm busting his balls and I drop my glass, then he drops his glass and shatters.
Bam Bam: I actually, I actually, no, it didn't shatter. Shatter. I completely, that's right. I completely missed the table. You were devastated. I was. And I got and there was a lot of good rum all over the floor. Very meager, poor.
Now I have to ration whatever I have.
Gizmo: So boys, we have the 18 years aged Flo Decon rum tonight on the pod. We have talked quite a bit about their other selections, namely the seven year, which we're all drinking copious amounts of 'cause it's so reasonably priced and it just tastes so damn good. Uh, we also did the 12 on the pot and I believe we also tasted the 20 at PCA.
So tonight we're doing the 18 years aged and uh, cheers boys. Cheers. Curious how this is going to [00:24:00] pair alongside our I have my half. Bam. Be careful with it. Two heads correct.
Wow, that's very good dude.
Bam Bam: That's awesome dude. And how much was that bottle? I, $59.
Gizmo: Oh
Bam Bam: man. Worth every dollar right now for the 18 year, the way it's drinking. Oh, it's 59
Gizmo: bucks.
Bam Bam: Very reasonable a deal.
Gizmo: And that's not on sale. That's the price.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Rooster. It's too bad you ain't drinking 'cause this is good.
Rooster: How much is the 12 year smell the floor rooster. It's a good thing. You're not
Chef Ricky: roo. Smell it from here. Crawl over here. Just your nose to the floor. I can smell it. If Rooster was drinking it wouldn't have been enough to pour you in a second glass. That's true. How much is the 1240?
Rooster: 40, I think. I think 40 ish.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And the seven is, the seven is like 26.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Wow.
Bam Bam: All very well priced.
Chef Ricky: It's amazing how you could keep the [00:25:00] product affordably priced when you're not adding additives. Yeah.
Senator: Correct. Well, there's that. And also, I mean, you look at these, the eight statements, you think like, oh my gosh, an 18 year at 60, like in the scotch world, an 18 year is like 150 to 200 a bottle.
Um, you know, the, the reason ironically, it's not even the spirit, it's the barrels that they need to age in. Like, it's very easy. I mean, rum barrels a diamond dozen. You don't need a sherry, you know, cast to finish a rum. But for a lot of single malt scotch, like there is a shortage globally of those Sherry, uh, OSA sherry cast.
So it, it takes a lot more time for them even beyond whatever the eight statement is, just to like wait to have barrels they can use and that that adds to it. And then they've gotta be able to make a, you know, a decent profit. So the, the price reflects kind of what they need for the limited quantity they can make.
It's much easier to produce this in mass quantity.
Chef Ricky: And you gotta wonder at 18 years, like what's the angel share on that, all that time sitting in barrels. I mean, I know it. Yeah. It varies from barrel to barrel based on, you know, how porous they may be. Mm-hmm. Or how often they were [00:26:00] used. But that's some, that's impressive stuff.
Gizmo: It is. She, so what do you guys think of the flavor profile on this and how does it pair with the mono Krista number two for you?
Bam Bam: Uh, before going to the pairing, I, I want to compare it to the other Florida Kano. 'cause we love this so much. Um, the seven, that's become a staple for us. It's so that is just so easy to drink.
You can, you can drink that every day. Yes. Four or five glasses a day. I'm, I'm, why do you have to out us, man? I'm right there with you. This, however, is a bit richer. It is, um, smaller sips on this one. Smaller sips, I think timed, um, consumption on this, where you're kind of just had gonna, you don't have the time.
One or two glasses maybe. I, I think this is incredibly delicious, but definitely a different experience than the seven and the 12. I'm not a, I, I don't really like the 12 much, but the seven and this are so far,
Senator: I gotta say I incredible. I recently revisited the [00:27:00] 12. I haven't had that in a while. The 12 is really good.
Yeah. Like really good. No, I'm saying that because comparing the 12 now to this, they're not far apart. Is that right? They really are not.
Bam Bam: And half the
Senator: price. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Roughly
Senator: not half, but yeah, almost $20 less.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. That's 40 bucks, right? Yeah, yeah. Something. Okay.
Senator: But I agree with this. I mean, this is a much richer, you know, expression than the seven.
It's even richer than the 12 full flavored, full bodied. Balance though. You know what I love about every Florida ka rum in their line, none of them are very sweet. Like this is of, of rums. Even like on the drier side of rums, which are usually very sweet. Um, there's a bit more heat naturally in this than the, uh, but very, the seven year, very, very little, but still very smooth.
Bam Bam: It's there, it's there, but very
Gizmo: little. I don't, I don't feel it. The heat you feel, but it doesn't burn at all, correct?
Senator: I don't say that in a bad way. Yes. No, I just mean it has more body and therefore just a [00:28:00] little more heat than the seven that is like a thinner, lighter, you know, version of this.
Bam Bam: I'm gonna be curious what the rating's gonna be compared to the seven, because the seven we love so much and I'm already starting to think about how high this is going to rate.
It's gonna be challenging. Well, the seven, I mean,
Senator: the seven was a perfect 10, I'm sure. Yeah, I know. At that price point you can't beat that round. That's correct.
Rooster: Is there anything higher than the 18?
Senator: Oh yeah, we did the 20 20, 20 23. Uh, there there's even a 30, and you'll laugh at how I know this. Guess who I saw post a photo just this week, drinking the 30 year.
Oh, we know. Go ahead. I think on Father's Day, Rafael, Rafael Na. Correct. I, I follow everything. This guy posts,
Gizmo: Senator has like the notifications on when he post, he
Senator: gets a, like, whenever I need inspiration, like what should I drink or eat today? Mm-hmm. Like, all I need to do is look at his Instagram. He's good.
And uh, he had the 30 year of this Wow.
Rooster: I mean, that's gotta be what, like 200 plus, who knows?
Senator: I mean, RUM is much more affordable. Um, [00:29:00] probably one 50, maybe. Yeah, maybe one 50.
Bam Bam: But arguably it, it's a much more enjoyable experience than scotch for me, than in the past few years. That's my go-to now. I,
Gizmo: I mean, I, I'm with you on that.
I think the value is there. Obviously we've been to Cuba a lot, so rum is a big part of that experience, and obviously that has driven us to fall in love with rum. We've, we've also found some really great rums. And for me, the biggest of all of them, aside from taste and pairing with a cigar, which is a no brainer, is I just feel better the next day than I do drinking single malt scotch.
You know, I think we
Bam Bam: got a price update.
Senator: Oh
Bam Bam: my goodness.
Senator: The 30 year, okay, the 30 year is way more than I expected. Take a guess. 500. Keep going. What? Higher What, what?
Rooster: Seven 50. Keep going.
Bam Bam: What? What
Rooster: the f
Bam Bam: This is a [00:30:00] family show. Keep it clean. I'm only allowed to swear. 9, 9 50.
Senator: Keep going.
Bam Bam: No
Senator: way. 1200. Swear. 1200 on total wine is 1300.
The cheapest I can find. This is 1200.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Sorry. No, this is crazy. I'll tell you whatever lizard sends that they're getting Lizard of the week. Yeah.
Automatic. I'll send the masseuse to her house.
Rooster: Wow. That, uh, that's a little overpriced. I would say. That's, that's outrageous. That
Senator: is
Rooster: crazy. So they make an 18 and then a 20 you guys did, right? Mm-hmm. We haven't done it. You've done, you did the 20. We just tasted it. We tasted it on PCA show. That's in Vegas.
Pca, a show. How was that? Excellent. Compared to this.
Bam Bam: It was good. I think it had more body than this. Of course.
Chef Ricky: It's tough to say it's overpriced because you have the spirit sitting there for 30 years and lord knows what happens in that timeframe. The chef, this is 18. What could happen? No, no. I'm talking about the 30 years.
I
Rooster: know. But from seven [00:31:00] to 18 there's a, the jump is not much from 30, 30 years. I mean, that's to 30.
Chef Ricky: That exceeds like some people's lifespan in certain parts of this world. Yeah. But
Gizmo: $1,300 though is crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. Says
Senator: that it's aged in a single barrel since 1988. The bottle has a handcrafted volcanic rock bottle, uh, cap.
So it's a super small op. Ooh. Marketing.
Chef Ricky: Very good. You excited? Better man. It's gotta be a super small lot. Wow, man. And going back to angel share, I mean, there's so much waste on that product. Yeah,
Senator: I thought I had a good father's day, but I didn't have a $1,300 spirit that night. Jesus.
Bam Bam: No.
Rooster: Yeah. That's crazy.
Aging room is doing well. Yeah. But going,
Bam Bam: going back to how it pairs with this though, I think it provides beautiful balance. There's a sweetness in this that I think aligns with the cigar, but there's that, um, there's a rich, like caramel, almost vanilla on the [00:32:00] finish that really, I think compliments the smoke beautifully.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I, I think these work really well together because they deliver what they're delivering in the same manner. Right. So on the nose of this rum, you get a ton of vanilla, lots of oak. Mm-hmm. But on your palate, it doesn't really come through as such because there's no additives here. Right. I feel like a little sugar here would've elevated that vanilla and just kind of emphasized those, those, uh, those flavors.
I'm happy it's not there. This reminds me a lot of excelencia. You know, when you, I remember smelling, I actually just got a bottle a couple weeks ago. It was gifted to me by, uh, one of the distributors. Um, since I've been a lifelong fan of the product, but I. You smell that tequila and it's can all the way through.
It's sweet, it's vanilla and Mexican cinnamon. And then you drink it and it's almost like you had an Amaro on the finish. Like it's a little bitter. It's very [00:33:00] dry. This kind of ends in that same manner. And then the cigar does the same thing where it's like in the beginning you started with some dried fruit, some cocoa, then it gets kind of savory and it kind of dries up and it's not super sweet.
Mm-hmm. Um, and I, yeah, I think it works amazing.
Bam Bam: I do think this is smoother than the excelencia a touch.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I don't disagree with that. Yeah, yeah. Uh, for sure. Rum versus aga, but I
Bam Bam: think there are some similarities. I haven't had that in a while,
Chef Ricky: that that's five years versus 18 also. Yeah, that's
Bam Bam: also true.
I think the pairing is fantastic. Very enjoyable. I,
Gizmo: I was a little nervous seeing the 18 year age statement pairing this with a Cuban cigar tonight. Even the, the Mono Krista number two, which is a more medium cigar. I was like, oh, I, I hope this spirit doesn't overpower because we've had a lot of high number age statements on this podcast, and a lot of times they're pretty hot and they're full and they're rich and they kind of take over the conversation, especially with a lighter cigar.
Right. Not a Nicaraguan [00:34:00] or a heavy Dominican or something. But it's working really well with this, and I think it's credit to the lack of burn and, and the lack of feeling heat. I think the flavor is, is yeah, marrying very
Senator: nicely
Gizmo: with the, I agree.
Senator: Yeah, I just like, I this rum in particular, given that Florida Kanye is never overly sweet, like if, if we had a really sweet spirit with this, you would lose the sweetness in the cigar.
Right. You, you'd almost not realize like how much milk, chocolate mocha, whatever you want to call it, exists here, where like, because the finish is a little on the dryer side, it's perfect time. You take a draw, you're still getting the sweetness from the cigar. So like, I just feel like they, they balance each other out really well.
Totally.
Chef Ricky: And not to make this an excelencia podcast, but do you, I just learned that the allocation for, uh, for accounts in New York City, it's two bottles this year. What? So we're gonna get two bottles in four months and that's it for the rest of the year. Wow. Wow. For the entire year. Like, there was, there was [00:35:00] nothing.
So this, this guy gave me a bottle from six years ago that he, that's crazy. He had, and
Senator: I would've put my bottles on eBay.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I, I have a bottle and a half. Yeah. It might be hitting you guys up to get those back from the restaurant.
Bam Bam: Everything has a price.
Gizmo: So boys, I wanted to bring up, uh, so we had a little bit of a, uh, discussion on the lounge lizards group chat. I think it was yesterday, the day before, uh, we were smoking. H up in Magnum 46 s over the weekend. And I had posted one and then I inspired Bam with my photo for him to go reach in and try his again.
Mm-hmm. And when he posted his in the chat, I said something like, it's amazing to me how this went from a daily cigar or a cigar a couple times a week to a cigar that I'm reaching for only several times a year. Mm-hmm. Three times a year. Yeah. Three times a year. Yeah. And I got chastised pretty heavily.
Still are,
Chef Ricky: you still
Gizmo: are. For being a [00:36:00] hoarder. And there were gifs and comments and everything else. And I'm feeling that this cigar that we have in our hand right now is s standing right next to that Magnum 46, where for how delicious it is. Yeah. For the boxes that we have in our tower. How often are you guys gonna be reaching for this cigar?
Well, we know for you three times a year, maybe. That's correct.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And you know, we've talked about this, uh, I, I find myself, and I said this before, standing in front of my tower full of Cuban bandits, banded Cuban cigars, not feeling very inspired because of what they cost and. I kind of look over my boxes and I get bored and I walk over to New Worlds and some of the other farm roles that we have.
Exactly.
Chef Ricky: And in that process, no one's worried about them passing their peak, their aging peak, or I don't know.
Senator: Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, with much older stuff, they heavily aged. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just, I'll say, I know I said this, at least a few of you, I'm not sure if the whole group, those 2011 Vegas Robina Classicos.
Bam Bam: Oh yeah.
Senator: [00:37:00] UBA had very kindly given a bunch of those out at the lounge one night when Rob, Isla and Hamlet were in town, and it was excellent. They're still great, but I'm telling you, they've reached their peak. Mm-hmm. Yep. Because what we smoked that night was a viewpoint lower, lower than mm-hmm. Than what I remember that cigar to be.
So that's a cigar. If you have 'em in your tower, I'd be smoking some now because they're not getting better.
Bam Bam: You know, it's the, that's the other flip side of this argument. You have to smoke what you have. Danilo said that. In Cuba, you get your cigars, you smoke them. They're meant to be smoked. I
Senator: mean, that cigars got almost 15 years of age at this point.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not like cigars need, you know, 20 years to reach their pizza. It's true.
Rooster: They don't, it's, it's true. I mean, it's, it's a bit easier for Dlo to say that, you know, when you, when you're looking at a thousand days stack on the table every day, it's a little difficult for us, you know? No, but he's, i, I, I
Senator: really think, well, I know what he means.
Right. I know [00:38:00] what he, I really do think he's right. I agree him too. And I'm gonna stand by, I'm willing to die on this sword. And that's why I made the hoarder comment, which was a little hard for me. Well, we're all hoarding kind of No, not, not at that low three year of the cigar that he used to be in love with.
Like how it was hyperbolic.
Gizmo: I was being hyperbolic. I was, it was a
Senator: gizmo definitive state. So, lemme ask you, I
Gizmo: was saying that Haos and their pricing structure and their distaste for loyal customers and for people who enjoy their product and what they've done with pricing and pushing people out has turned me off.
Me too, to my excitement is lower.
Bam Bam: Do you not think of that cigar now as often as you used to?
Gizmo: Absolutely not. Okay. I do not, because I'm more excited about fabric of five stuff. I'm more excited about stoic. Yep. I'm more excited about, about Sure. Than I am any of these cigars that I have in my tower. So it's not the price.
It, it's the cigar.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Maybe, I mean, we've got so many great options, like can, I can get on
Senator: board with that. But like my pushback was [00:39:00] we, you know, you you said what they go for now and it's like $32 a stick. Yeah. And I'm like, most of the Davi off catalog is roughly in that range. I don't smoke that.
That's mean I don't smoke that stuff. We, we all smoke way more than three davi offs a year. That's also correct. I mean, even you guys definitely smoke more than three a year. Mm-hmm. Maybe four. And so, so my point is like every time we light a DT off, like that's about a $30 cigar that we're smoking. So I'm like, if you love a mag, 46 is $32.
Really like such a scary number that only three times. Mm-hmm. A year, you'd pull that out. I mean, I do also space a box tomorrow if I love that cigar that much.
Gizmo: I do also think that there's an element of tolerance too in smoking cigars that are fresher. Now I know the cigars that are coming out of Cuba over the last few years, this one that we have in our hands, smoking great right now.
Yeah. Recent runs. Two and a half, three years of age. Incredible. Yeah. Recent runs are great. However, some of the stuff that I have, I do feel that it hasn't hit its maturation point yet. So my tolerance for cigars [00:40:00] not performing to the level they should for the price that I paid for them or the replacement cost today is also factoring into my calculation of reaching for them.
Because I'm like, if I wait a year or two on this box that I have, it's gonna give me way more pleasure than it is today. And the way I used to smoke Mag 46 is I used to go through a box of those every month and a half.
Bam Bam: So let me ask you this, how many boxes of those do you have? And be honest. Five, five boxes.
One of them is opened, which I also
Senator: told him, and his rate's gonna take him 42 years to smoke through his back. I sixes, by the way. I love the idea that he pulled out his calculator and he started doing the math on that. So I'm like, this is Ludic said, it'll be geriatric is spoken on stage, be
Gizmo: Jesus. There was no calculator involved.
Bam Bam: What are the, so the dates on those boxes. How long have you, so I have,
Gizmo: uh, the box I'm smoking out of now is a 2018 box.
Bam Bam: Oh,
Gizmo: wow. Most of the boxes that I have are in the, are from 21.
Bam Bam: Okay. Well they're, they're kind of ready. Yeah. So they're all ready.
Gizmo: Yeah. It's just, I, [00:41:00] I And you, listen, you just made this a similar comment.
I know with the Mons, I know, I know that you guys are doing the same thing I'm doing. You're busting my balls about being a hoarder. Not really, but we're all smoking less. Look, I'll admit cigars,
Bam Bam: if you go back on our chat, there aren't many banded Cubans on that chat. It doesn't happen very often like it used to.
Senator: I mean. It doesn't happen like it used to. There's no question there, but there's still a lot of banded stuff on our chat. Yeah. And I give you to time credit, you in particular actually Iactually post a lot of banded Cubans. I do. And I love that. I'm sorry. Like, the reason I, I say this whole hoarder thing, you know, nothing is guaranteed in life.
Like I, I don't ever wanna regret like, you know, it's like the same kind of person that I'm gonna, that's exactly what Daniel
Bam Bam: said, by the way.
Senator: Totally. And it's the same mindset of someone who's like, I'm gonna squirrel away every single penny, not do a single thing. I want to my whole life until I retire.
And like, by the time they retire, they've got some kind of significant health issue that they can't travel the world like they wanted to. They can't do all these things. And it's like what they could have experienced. Mm-hmm. If they just enjoyed life. [00:42:00] Every day instead of waiting like there's this moment in time that finally you can enjoy.
So I just view cigars the same way. Like, you know, I try to enjoy reasonably, uh, cigars. I really love every year. And of course, you know, I'm not smoking them at the same rate I was when I could replace a box of D fours with a click of a button and they'd be there within a week or two and for 215 bucks for 25.
Exactly. So like, I'm not smoking at that volume, but I'll still light up way more than 3D fours in a calendar year. And I just never wanna regret being in a situation where I'm like, man, I wish I enjoyed that while I could have. Yeah. You know, it's meant to be enjoyed. Yeah, it's good point. It's also the fact that it's good point that
Rooster: some of the new worlds that we are smoking are really smoking.
Fantastic. That's what I was gonna say. It's true. You know, they're so good and they give you that satisfaction.
Bam Bam: So here's a question for all of you. Will you now begin after this? This is a great conversation. Will we begin to rotate in our banded Cubans along with the incredible new worlds that we've discovered?
I think so. Yeah. You know, [00:43:00] I, I'm, I'm a proponent of that. I've been a little hesitant, but I would like to start doing that more. I
Senator: love Rooster's Point because this is also why I have zero fear about smoking any of my Bandit stuff. There are new world cigars that we have found that are so damn satisfying that if I ran out of every Cuban cigar I have right now, I am not even worried.
I mean if you look at what we all smoke on a daily basis, most of it at this point is new world stuff. Yep. And I don't see anybody sitting there like, ah, this is just, okay. No, everybody's gushing about some of these cigars that they're smoking every day. I mean, we're not smoking the new worlds because we have to.
We because we want. Exactly. But they also happen to be great. And that's why I don't fear smoking through Cubans. Like if the New World stuff we were smoking were, we were like compromising quality and we're sitting there saying like, these are just decent.
Bam Bam: We'd be fighting each other. For those Cubans,
Chef Ricky: it'd be totally different.
Let the record show that after the Aldino Cameroon and all of a sudden Senator is not fearful of smoking Is [00:44:00] D fours all of a sudden? No.
Senator: Honestly, I've been pulling it out for a more direct comparison. Mm-hmm. To the Allo, Dino, Cameroon. And I'll tell you, I lit up an uh, a D four last night. I stand by that cinnamon note.
You, you stand by. That is the one thing, again, the whole cigar does not compare. That's never my, my contention. But the cinnamon note, the baking spice you get in a D four. The only other stick that I have smoked that you get something truly similar is a D four. That one I got last night. I got tons of cinnamon.
And the first thing it reminded me of was the saladino that I lit, lit up earlier that day. Wow. Interesting. That was my morning cigar.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It's interesting.
Gizmo: So boys, we are well past the first third here on the Monte Cristo number two from Cuba. What's everybody thinking right now? It's a
Bam Bam: lovely cigar.
It's great. I'm loving it. Yeah, it's, it's very, very nice. So
Gizmo: I wanna tell the listener I did take a little bit more off of the cut. Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause it was starting to get a little saliva heavy and I was starting to feel like it was, yeah, it was getting a little tarry for me. [00:45:00] Uh, I did a cut and wow, that was a great decision.
It's smoking really great now.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. So giz, I just wanna put in a formal request. I'm a little older than you, so I may go first, but unless you got a baby giz, can I go on that will for the cigars? Because I don't think there's anybody in that wants 'em.
Bam Bam: Oh no, we
Chef Ricky: don't want 'em,
Gizmo: none of us. I'll tell Mrs.
Gizmo just to, uh, thank you. Put you in charge. You could be the executor of the, uh, the tower. There you go. Executor of the Tower 14. So you can hand deliver the tower to Richmond, correct? That's correct.
Rooster: You're gonna pass my home on the way. So,
Gizmo: so going back to this discussion, uh, about hoarding versus smoking, I, I think the, you know, the key point for me as well, here is exactly what you just said, rooster and what you were talking about, Senator, in that what the Magnum 46 or the MONTECRISTO number two, or the Pargo D four.
Used to offer my palate was something incredibly unique for each of them [00:46:00] and something that I regularly chased. Now my brain is turned off to that chase because I've found it or I've found something really close in enjoyment in these new world cigars that we found. Be it the Fab five, be it the stoic, the all, whatever.
It's like I just don't get as excited to pull one of those cigars out anymore as I did.
Chef Ricky: And you know what's bonkers? Every one of those cigars you listed are all under $15 a six. That's also true. That's, yeah. And all the
Gizmo: Cubans that I listed are all touching 30 and this one's all
Bam Bam: touching 40. There's another angle for me, like, um, when I reached for the Trinity Re Robusto, and that's stoic and the Eno and um, even, you know, Sonata, the Sonata, the Concerto.
I only had one of those. I wish I could have more. And even some of the eros, the My Father Lanzaro is excellent smoking. Excellent. Right now we
Chef Ricky: really like that. Don't, uh,
Bam Bam: Pedro Don Pi, the dump Pippin ERO is [00:47:00] outrageous. Oh yeah. The, the what I am now always curious about how those are smoking and will look.
They continue to smoke. So when I reach for one, it's kind of like an experiment and it's, there's, there's joy. There's more excitement and joy. 'cause I know what I'm gonna get in every Cuban cigar in my tower. I've experienced all that. This new world category, even though we've been smoking 'em for a while, it's still, is this one gonna be as good as the last?
I don't get that feeling with my Cubans.
Rooster: You know, there's, there's a cigar that you haven't been smoking that much.
Bam Bam: Me. Oh, it's a good one. I know what you're gonna say. The schwa,
Rooster: no, the millennium. Yeah, that's true. He used to light one up like every other day. Yeah, I know that was your stick. I haven't seen, it's still my
Bam Bam: stick.
And they're the ones that I, I haven't seen one seen you light up these two guys. It's 'cause he's hoarding
Rooster: them.
Bam Bam: I am hoarding them. No, I'm not. So it's Senator Gibbs turned me onto this incredible deal that we found online. We bought a ton of those. I still have a bunch of those when I light that aged. M Millennium Pyramid, the, it's [00:48:00] incredible.
But for some reason, I'm now distracted by the Trinity. I'm the Trinity Robusto, the Stoic and the all Dinos, they're a distraction. 'cause they're so good and they're less expensive than that. Yeah. They're all under 10 bucks too. That's, yeah.
Senator: And they're new
Bam Bam: and, and it's, that's what I'm saying. It's fun and they're new.
It's like, brand new is okay. I had just had a Trinity Rubus last week. Let me try another one. Is it gonna be as good as the last one? It's kind of still fun, right?
Senator: No, it's true. I mean, it, it's like, obviously, you know, I, I, there's nothing I love more than a Pedro, but the reality is, like early on, years ago when I first met many of you, like I had probably been smoking an vo.
Oh,
Bam Bam: this is a great point. Not to interrupt you, but we don't, I don't see very many exclusives on our track either. Oh my God.
Rooster: I I smoke one. We
Senator: one every, literally every three days. You do? Yeah, I do. We still smoke a lot of them, but like, I'm using myself as an example. I used smoke one every single day.
Religious religiously. That's right. To the point that when I first met Bam, he said, do you only smoke Padron? Correct. And I was like, no, I just love Padron. Correct. [00:49:00] But if, if, as I think about it, it's like, at that time that I met you, I'd probably been smoking an VO for, you know, I didn't start, I started with shitty cigars, like all of us.
And once I had a padron is what like really built my passion for cigars. I mean, at that point maybe
Bam Bam: this was pre pandemic. Yeah. Just before the pandemic. What else were you smoking in addition to that exclusive at that time?
Senator: I mean, since we were at North Korea, that other lounge, I mean doff, uh, the late hour, the millennial.
Okay. Um. And a lot of Cubans, honestly. I mean, I I told you I was buying Cubans obviously before I knew you guys, so Yeah. Uh, that was kind of the, the rotation. It was like patron Davidov. Mm-hmm. And Cubans. Alright. Um, and that's why like the pot has been so fun. 'cause I didn't know about half. I mean, you know, even in ale of Vlan ero, I didn't really smoke much.
We had no either idea that they were good. I mean, I'm smoking way more
Rooster: exclusive oils than I've ever in the past. Yeah, you said that
Senator: weeks ago. And it's true. But I think that's maybe you weren't [00:50:00] smoking them as in as much quantity, especially early on. Especially
Rooster: the exclusive. I think I was smoking more of the heavier, well, you know, I smoked them like 70 years ago, so
Senator: he's gotta revisit those now.
But I use it as an example. 'cause like at the point that we met. I probably had been smoking exvivo for, I don't know, six, eight years, however long it had been. I mean now it's obviously a lot longer than that. We're talking over a decade. And so like my excitement, I still get excited when I have one. But like you're saying, I know exactly what I'm gonna get outta certain cigars.
I'm never gonna be surprised by what I'm getting at an exvivo. That's a great, I just discovered that's the point. Stoic through this pod, but sometimes I don't discover the all. I
Rooster: just want something sometimes correct. It just sat satisfies
Chef Ricky: you in a way. Good. You know, it's true. Right? But you want what you know you want and you know the Cevo is gonna deliver.
Totally. But we've
Senator: all had stoic, we've all had an Eno, Cameroon, we've all had a Sonata. But it's newer to us that every time you light it, you're still like, wow, this is so damn good. Yeah. Or you wanna
Bam Bam: know if it's still good, right. When, if there's any fluctuation.
Rooster: Yeah. And that's what I look for. Keep getting better, like the [00:51:00] aging room.
I mean, you smoke one after six months and it's, it's totally a different cigar. It's much smoother.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I actually want to find fluctuation in these cigars, but there aren't any, and you continue to go to them. 'cause I wanna see what the differences are for them. You let '
Rooster: em sit for a while. Yeah, no, of course, of
Bam Bam: course.
But that's what makes it fun for me, you know,
Senator: because my, my point in closing is like all the cigars that are new to us right now. Fast forward 10 years from now. Mm-hmm. And we're gonna find other new stuff. And the amount of sonatas and eno, cameroons and stoics we're smoking are gonna be way less than they're right now.
I think kids
Bam Bam: will still have all of his.
Gizmo: So let me ask you guys this, 'cause this does bring up another thought in, in my, my mind here, and obviously with Cuban cigars, the pricing and how that's changed our habits. We've had a, a discussion like this before, but I really feel like, I really feel like we're in a new golden [00:52:00] age of cigars. I feel like there are more new entrants that are delivering brilliant quality, unique taste.
I think the Cuban element has, has pushed manufacturers to think about catering to that palette. Obviously a lot of them have. So do you guys agree that we are in a new, I don't wanna call it a cigar boom, because I think that was during COVID, but I think we're in a golden age right now of quality in new cigars.
Senator: I couldn't agree more. Yeah. I mean quality across the board, but also quality in terms of like how many new brands have popped up that we actually have found great cigars from. That's true. I mean, I think of, you know, even 10 years ago, number one, there weren't nearly as many brands. Number two, any like new entrant, uh.
Didn't make anything all that great. I mean, none of us were like, particularly moved by like a little boutique brand in the way that we were by Stoic or, I mean, [00:53:00] Aldino is known, but like they're small in terms of they are like how much they produce a year. And so I, I don't recall there ever being a time where that would've been the case.
It was like, it's true. The big brands were coming out with some new stuff. Got it. And remind,
Bam Bam: remind me the, the line that cloth blend that we, we, we got our little black bags.
Gizmo: So he does stoic and he does avowed. So those
Bam Bam: avowed cigars. I, I don't think there's a, a, a more boutique cigar in the world than that line.
How many did we get in that bag? Five. Yeah. I think it was four or five plus an unbranded, which I can't wait to try. They're all very, very good and, and, and every single one is unique now. That whole journey, it's just unbelievable to discover that little boutique line. It just adds to what's, what's it called?
Aav v
Gizmo: aav. It's from the guys, it's small batch cigar. Andrew and Dave, small batch Cigar Fantastic. Are working with Kilner. So those are out, they are out production and they're, they're, yeah, they're, they're out and they're in small quantities. Yeah. They're ramping up. And, uh, we're actually gonna do one of those this summer.
Sure. We're gonna [00:54:00] review an ev v Fantastic. This summer. They're huge fans of the podcast, so
Rooster: can't wait to try them. I remember like in the past, every time I used to pick up a new, a new World cigar, most of the time I was disappointed. Because there was never really, I wasn't really that excited about it.
And then you would go back to the Doffs or the pod rounds because you knew what, you know, what you got out of that. But lately for the last, I would say maybe since we've been doing the podcast, how many different new worlds that we have done that have rated above and eight or a nine.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Rooster: And that have been very fairly priced, like under $10.
Yeah. And they've been so satisfying.
Gizmo: It's true. And I think too, you know, to go back to Cuban cigars, if you think about the newer regular production releases that have come out of Havana in the last year or two that we've smoked on the podcast, all of them have performed very well to the point that we all ran out and bought Bolivar new Gold medals after we rated that we all ran [00:55:00] out and bought Hoyo Epicure, number threes when we reviewed that.
Oh yeah. Turo, we all ran out and bought the Taos from Legia Banno when we rated that. And those are fairly reasonably priced. Not
Bam Bam: now.
Gizmo: Not now, but they're comparison point. Yeah. You know, they're fairly reasonably priced and they're ready to smoke today. So I even count the new stuff from Haos in regular production as being in this same kind of category of, we're in a pretty good time right now.
That's a great point. For new releases. That's
Senator: a great point. I think to Gizmo's point, I, I think we're in the best period of our lives Totally. In cigars, including the Cuban runs.
Rooster: But do you think if you go to Haos, is it the, uh. Is it more the blending that has maybe changed or is it the tobacco that's different?
Gizmo: I think it's three things. I think number one, I think there's less of a pressure cooker on the amount of cigars to produce. They're obviously producing a significant, significantly lower percentage of cigars versus pre pre COVID. Right? So they've raised the prices, they're. Release [00:56:00] numbers are much lower.
They're obviously making a ton of money. They don't have to make as many cigars. I think number two, that has benefited the fermentation process. I think they're allowing the tobacco to ferment longer in the barns and actually giving it the proper time it needs before it's put into, because it seems like they're
Rooster: ready to smoke when you get these boxes.
Exactly. They are, they're, you know, you don't have to age them like a year or two years. Let them sit.
Bam Bam: And you have to, and we won't ever know the answer to this, but we maybe they, maybe they tweak their blending
Rooster: possibly. So that's my question. Like, have they know that, think they've tweaked the blending or if it's just, I think the first two points
Bam Bam: that he made are right on the money and they're predictable.
The oth the only X factor is in the blend. I think. Did they make an adjustment?
Gizmo: I have an a, a a controversial statement as far as that goes. I just think in the blending decisions, I think they're using Les Lero. I think I, I
Senator: agree a hundred percent. Makes sense. I think
Gizmo: they're, I think the lero, if you consider the cigars that are heavy on lero, if you look at, uh, a Parus P two, if you look at a cohiba splendid dose, [00:57:00] if you look at, um, an H up, number two, those cigars need significant time when they come out.
I mean, maybe some of the newer ones don't as much, but I remember even when cigar fishing, Indo gave the H up man number two. Mm-hmm. The cigar of the year. I remember smoking that and being like, holy shit, this needs another. Yeah. The question 18 months, two years for, for this to be smoke, are there new runs of the up?
And two, I haven't seen any. Yeah. I mean, they're coming out. Yeah, yeah. They're, they're very much coming out. Yeah. But I, I think that, I don't think the blends of the existing cigars have changed. I think the cigars are using more fermented tobacco. Tobacco, so those are benefiting. But the new releases, I think they're blending less Le Haro heavy, making them easier to smoke today alongside the fermentations.
Yeah. We should revisit the P two again.
Rooster: Do do it. I agree. Make sure it's
Bam Bam: a, gives us favorites. You're gonna offend a lot of people in the room. I, I like the P two just never more
Gizmo: than an E two.
Bam Bam: Oh, the E two E. It's funny, I, the P two, I haven't
Gizmo: pulled either of those [00:58:00] cigars in so long. Not are I
Bam Bam: Unbelievable.
Gizmo: And that's what I'm, I'm saying getting back to the, bringing this discussion up and and putting a button on it here. I just think that, you guys joking about me hoarding cigars. I think we're all really in the same boat. I do. You guys just not to your extent, not to my extreme
Senator: per perhaps, but not to take one of our favorite cigars ever, which was the Mag 46 for you and say I'm only gonna smoke three because of 32 estate.
Yeah, that's my, but
Gizmo: I'm also getting what I need from that cigar in other cigars that are way less money, easier to get and Yeah. Which I'm good with that. I appreciate their story was you citing the
Senator: price is the reason. That's fair. You smoke $32 cigars, so like it's not crazy to light more than three of those.
True. That's
Bam Bam: a fair point. So my question to you guys that have towers that have the tupper door boxes where you don't know what's in there unless you essentially take everything out. Have you guys gone through your collections and exposed everything to see what you really have recently? I haven't done it in at least two years.
Same. Like I don't know what I have in tid. Doors. [00:59:00] Unless I really dig through them. It's, it's crazy. I'd like to do that as an
Chef Ricky: exercise. I need to go over to Ben before he, just to starts accepting problem,
Bam Bam: just to open up everything and see, and I, 'cause I, I found those Monte twos, I can see something through the Tupper door.
Those look like Montes. Let me open it up. There's boxes and boxes of those and there's other boxes and I'm looking like, what the, what, what, you know, you don't really know what you have until you dig through things. Maybe I'll start smoking more of those. I don't know.
Gizmo: I have a feeling you won't. That's
Senator: my hunch.
I, I'm going, I think he's already smoking. I am a lot of banded cigars. If you look at our chat, and I really love this about bam, like he, he lives like he smokes tons of banded stuff. I love when he posts a photo banded I cigar. I, I
Bam Bam: want to go through more of those and just kind of see what they're, what they taste like.
Rooster: I think it takes the Particles D four band and puts it on a trinity to boost it just for the photo. That's pagoda. Well, that Trinity has
Bam Bam: a pigtail, so it ain't gonna work. [01:00:00]
Gizmo: So boys, I gotta tell you, I keep sipping this Florida decon. 18 years aged.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Gizmo: every sip. It's getting better as it's sat here and opened up.
Bam Bam: I have another question for you guys.
Gizmo: It's even, it's even pairing better. Am I with the cigar? Am I, am I
Bam Bam: allowed to get a refill? I'm asking for permission 'cause of what happened.
Gizmo: As
Senator: long as you use two hands, Ben.
Gizmo: All right. Yeah. Two hands on the bottle and two hands on the glass.
Chef Ricky: Chef, pass the bottle please, sir.
I'm afraid to touch it. The cigar is so good. It is. Yeah. The cigar is great. The spirit's gotten a little creamy. It's rounded out still. Uh, it's, yeah. This is a fantastic pairing. Great conversation. Thank you.
Rooster: I think the cigar is a bit creamy
Gizmo: too.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Rooster: Yeah.
Gizmo: Alright boys, it's time now to go to some listener email.
I first wanna bring up from listener Lizard Max. One of our friends made this picture of Bam bam, with the Bain mask on. So it's the, who did that?
Bam Bam: Liz Lizard [01:01:00] Max. Lizard Max. You offend me.
Gizmo: So it's, you'll
Bam Bam: feel my retribution.
Gizmo: It's bam bam. From the Flintstones. Of course the, the cartoon character, he has the Bain mask on and he's holding a Sancho Ponza cosa.
'cause that was the episode that he did that on. And the cave, the. Remont Spark Remont from, uh, burgundy sparkling wine that rated very well. And uh, I just love that picture of you there, man. That's incredible. Your ba impression was a big hit with the listeners. Say it Ben. It's a triumph.
Bam Bam: It's a triumph. I
Gizmo: forgot about it.
That was my favorite part of that episode. That was the episode. And, and when you go, I love you, Rob. Alright, so let's go to another email here. This one is from Lizard Haos. Ha Bonos, he sends us an email all the time, always a great email. And, uh, he's responding to our [01:02:00] commentary on regionals and Liata from Cuba.
He says, Hey, giz and lizards, in your last episode, you were bashing on regionals and liata. I don't know how many you tried, but please let us know. There are some amazing cigars in these ranges. Of course, there's the usual Cuban curse. There's always that lack of consistency. But here's a list of some great cigars from the ranges that I've found to be great.
Of course, like everything, the current pricing just makes things ridiculous. Too impossible. But I wanted to set the record straight, some great limit and regionals. I've had that. I've gotten boxes of where I could, but a lot were really inaccessible, which makes, just makes the game annoying and a bit sad sometimes.
So some are thanks to good friends I have. So he lists out about 20 or so various regionals and Liata 2014 Bolivar. Parus 2015 Ramon Ramon Ionis, 8 9 8 Amania from Germany, you know, a bunch [01:03:00] of regionals, some LCDH stuff. San Crisal Dela Habana, H up, Royal Rib Busto. That's one that we absolutely loved. El Ray del Mundo, H up.
NOAs. There's. 15 or 20 here. So he says, and that's just some of the better ones. You'd have to be an idiot to screw up Cuban tobacco. He puts in quotes yet sometimes, often enough, they do all the best. Lizard hano. So my question for you guys, and his question for you guys is why are we bashing, uh, regionals and limitati so much?
Is it because of a lack of experience or otherwise? So what's your, uh, what's your response to that?
Senator: I mean, I definitely don't think it's a lack of experience. Um, I mean, many of us early on were pursuing plenty of these cigars. I mean, they were accessible. We didn't have a problem finding them, but they weren't good and they just weren't great.
And, you know, I think the, the thing we found, and you know, I remember GIZ and I in particular used to debate this, and I think we all now agree on this. Um, you know, I've always [01:04:00] contended that there are many more good limit than there are regionals. Mm-hmm. And so, like I completely wrote off regionals and, um, you know, rooster, I give credit.
I mean, you know, probably most of the regionals I've tried have been through Rooster. Rooster started definitely dabbling with a lot of different regionals, more than any of us, I think, for sure. Yeah. And like when you factor in, even then, the price point was much higher on those cigars. And none of them, I mean, not one regional that I've ever had.
I've said to myself like, I have to keep this in my tower and I wanna keep smoking. I need to have it again. Um, with Liata, I mean, the one Liata that I absolutely fell in love with, I brought a box for the pod, uh, the Ramon, uh, 2019. The number two. The number two. That was awesome. Excellent, awesome. And all that cigar needed was just a few more years of age.
And man, it hit his stride. So like there are great limit. I, I a hundred percent believe that. [01:05:00] Uh, but regionals I'm pretty much hard out on
Rooster: there is, there is one regional that keeps getting better and better and better. We did it very early on the Punch Man tour. Right? Punch man tour. It is really good. So that's, that's one regional that really sticks out.
Bam Bam: Good luck finding any of these regionals or limit right now. True. That's the problem. Not the tiki. You talked a lot about that there. Those are, that's a disappointing. And
Rooster: you know what else is good in the Tatas, the 2014 Bolivar, Tata, that's an exceptional cigar. It
Bam Bam: it, I think it'd be great to just go through the exercise of writing those cigars, but how are we gonna get them?
Gizmo: And, and my thing too, you and know, look at the prices. The prices are crazy.
Senator: I know they always were. That Ramon I mentioned at the time I bought them, I paid just shy of 30 bucks, maybe like $28 a stick back then. Now they're selling for like 60 plus. That's true. It's crazy.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's just, just curious.
Are any other cigars on, on his list? Uh, have they been [01:06:00] rated on prior episodes? Yeah,
Gizmo: so he did mention the Punch Man, Tua, we didn't rate it, we didn't rate that cigar, but we did smoke it. It did very, very well. Rooster will bring more for us next time. The other one that we did, we did the H up Royal Robusto, and I think that's it on his list here.
You know, the other thing for me too, and, and, and this is, you know, this weighs on me when we make decisions about what we're gonna smoke, it's also the point that we expect and hope that some of the lizard lizards out there are gonna be able to acquire the cigars that we're smoking and smoke along with us, for us to regularly smoke something that is completely
Bam Bam: unattainable,
Gizmo: unattainable for not only us to replace, but also for everyone else in, in our listenership, in our audience around the world to get these cigars.
I, I mean that factors into our decision making. There's not a lot of value for me in regularly rating something that people can't get their hands on. We're having difficulty enough with regular [01:07:00] production cigars. I mean, I
Rooster: have offered to bring couple of, some of the older boxes, but I've been shot down by giz.
Bam Bam: Oh really?
Rooster: I wish I was there for
Senator: this conversation's. The truth. It's the truth. Alright, I'm gonna learn how to edit the pod. Correct.
Uh, but the only other point I'll make on the why behind my strong feelings on regionals and adas, you know, my perspective is also if any of these cigars were that spectacular, they'd find a way to make them regular production. I mean, it's Cuban tobacco. It's not like they don't have access to it. It's some blend that they came up with.
And I, I think it, it is indicative that like most of them are a marketing play, they're not that good or they would become part of the standard portfolio for
Bam Bam: one of those markets. So it's like a scam, more or less to move product that they can't sell Traditionally.
Gizmo: I think the regionals, you know, the regionals are a celebration of a certain distributor [01:08:00] or retailer around the world.
You know, it's a celebration of, of their, you know, loyalty or history or some sort of year, you know, milestone. And they, they create a regional for them and it's available to them. Then obviously the rest of the world gets it. The liata, they put out a couple every year, every other year they end up being hit or miss.
A lot of the times they're decent. A lot of the times they're not very high dollar cigars. But, you know, to Senator's point, I think a lot of these that if they were really that incredible, they'd keep making them. And a good example is the Talisman from Cohiba, which was released in 2017 when we were at Lito.
They were still making talismans. Mm-hmm. So that's an example of something that I think there's still box codes of that coming out, or, or have been recently in the last couple of years. So I, I do agree with Senator that if it's that good, you're gonna keep finding a way to make it or put it into something else and make a regular production cigar out of it.
Makes sense. Especially with
Senator: Cohiba. Makes sense. And, and I'll also say, [01:09:00] you know, our feelings on this are not unique to Cuban cigars. I think the same extends to New World cigars. You know, one of the, I'll use Doff as an example. We've been very critical of, oh dude, that Doff comes out with like a limited edition This a special release of that.
Their
Bam Bam: annual release,
Senator: dime a dozen, I mean Chinese New Year, everything. They possibly can come out with some limited special cigar. They do. And if you look at what we smoke, 90% of what we enjoy out of Davit Off is from their standard production. That's true. It's not these special edition cigars like the Year
Bam Bam: Snake and then Dragon.
Yeah. Those all suck.
Senator: I mean, they're not great cigars. Yeah. And they're stupidly priced. They're like 50, 60 bucks a stick. 60 plus year.
Rooster: The snake is $71.
Senator: Yeah. For Len. Yeah,
Bam Bam: yeah, yeah. It's insanity. That dragon, I think was $65 or a higher.
Senator: Yeah. Or have there been occasionally some great ones. Yes. We all know we love that.
The Chef's edition we did on the pod. Um,
Bam Bam: the master blends are very good.
Senator: Some of the master blends some, yeah. I don't think all of 'em. So like, it's not that they're all [01:10:00] terrible, but. Their batting average is abysmal compared to the standard production stuff, which is much higher. Yeah.
Bam Bam: And you're not getting much for your money that you're spending there.
Exactly.
Gizmo: And then going back to accessibility once again for the listenership out there. Yeah. Batt average is folks to be
Rooster: able to get their hands on. The batting average is bit higher than Juan Sos right now. Thank you. No mes talk please.
Senator: A Mets fan taking a shot at Soto. Come
Rooster: on Rooster. What do you doing Like it?
He's coming around. He's coming around,
Gizmo: so I'm sure we will do some more regionals and liata down the road. But as far as seeing them regularly, that's not gonna be a regular part of the program here. I mean, it's just something that if we do those once or twice or three times a year. I think that's gonna be a lot.
I think
Rooster: the key there is accessibility. So if the, if the listeners can't, you know, get them, we can't even get regular production. Forget about regionals and limit autos. I mean, truly,
Senator: where is someone gonna find a Punch Man tool right now in the world? Nowhere
Gizmo: maybe on Bon Roberts every once [01:11:00] in a while.
And then you're bidding against everybody else in the world who wants one.
Senator: So, I mean, one or two listeners that can find a box are gonna get that. Nobody else, I mean, it's just impossible to source some of these
Rooster: things. Are you gonna pay probably close to 4,000 maybe? I would think so. 'cause it's cab,
Gizmo: A cab a 50 cab.
That's probably 80 bucks a cigar now. I should cash in.
Chef Ricky: I was gonna say Rooster's Tower
Senator: Rooster's 401k is his tower. It's insured
Gizmo: folks, correct. So boys, we have to revisit the conversation we've been having over the last few weeks of Cuban episodes. So we started, I believe, on the Sancho Ponza Beso episode.
We continued the conversation on the El Red Mundo Schwa Supreme episode, and here we are tonight, revisiting the Monte Krista number two. Hopefully finishing discuss this discussion at least for a little while regarding the changing, the potential changing of the cadence of how often we smoke Cuban cigars on this podcast.
And I put it out to the listeners, [01:12:00] we put it out to the listeners asking for commentary that everyone's thoughts on us changing it, and I can't believe the volume of emails, comments, responses we've gotten on this topic.
Bam Bam: Bring it on.
Gizmo: I'm completely blown away by our listeners and I'm very grateful for the impassioned Oh responses.
Can't wait to hear this. We have gotten from our listeners. So let's start with one here. This one is from Lizard Alex. He says, Hey, giz, longtime listener here. And it's the first time I'm emailing and I've reached out a few times on Instagram. The Cuban episodes are my favorites, and I hope you don't decide to reduce the cadence.
To me, it doesn't matter if they are harder to obtain, as the people who do want to pursue Cubans will strive to get them. Please keep up the great work. So a lot of commentary. The reason why I read that one, obviously it's the first time Alex is writing us here in email, but a lot of folks have said, even though I can't get my hands on Cubans, I [01:13:00] really enjoy your conversations around Cubans.
Obviously, they, they're saying that we enjoy Cubans, the energy in the room is up. A lot of commentary around how we react when we have a great Cuban cigar. So I was surprised to get volume of email, especially from our US listeners about telling us keep going with Cubans regularly because we enjoy those episodes.
Bam Bam: I'd like to know how they feel about the redo of Cubans that we're going into now.
Gizmo: I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on that. Oh yeah, yeah. Because a lot of folks, you know, a lot of folks are going back and listening to the original catalog. A lot of folks are finding us now, you know, so going back and revisiting those cigars, a different run of those cigars, I think there's a lot of value add there.
Senator: Oh, I, I mean, just hearing that email, I, I mean, clearly Lizard Nation will not be deterred. I mean, he's saying like, as hard as they are to get, if, if a Cuban cigar is so great, he, and I'm sure many others want to pursue that. And you know, I was a little doubtful of that before. But as I think about it, [01:14:00] you know, the number of times that I'll see on Facebook groups were part of, or even our own social media, people talk about, I'm having a child, I want like a spectacular cigar.
Any recommendations and all this stuff people are recommending extremely hard to source, but they're reaching out like, who can help me find this? So I, I do think there is some merit to, people are willing to do whatever it takes and wait however long they have to, to eventually get their hands on certain special occasion cigars, which many Cuban cigars are now falling into.
Gizmo: So here's another one from Lizard Anthony. He says, hello everyone. I have just listened. To the Sancho Ponza episode and I'm driving while smoking a poor Laga Monte Carlo. And I wanted to share my idea on Cubans. Yes, we are all aware of the situation with the price and accessibility. I follow that you would include more new world and accessible options.
But don't forget that in the [01:15:00] European Union, the EU and elsewhere in the world, the access to Cubans is growing again and some people are still open to pay 20 to 30 euros for a cigar. On my way of thinking, I would still include Cubans to a price level of 30 to $35 max Euro for your outside USA fans.
I'm a big fan. It also helps me as a five to six year hardcore collector to also explore like the Sancho Ponzi you recently did to find these cigars through your previous episodes. I have expanded my Cuban collection and I've found some new additions I haven't heard before. I'm now smoking within next two weeks.
The Sancho Ponzi you did on the episode because a collector friend that I had, had another open box to share with me now. So my suggestion would be one to two Cubans every month, and this is Lizard Anthony from Belgium. So he is in line with a lot of our outside the US listeners who are saying, guys, you could talk [01:16:00] all you want about these new world cigars.
You're finding we can't get our hands on those. Mm-hmm. So it's the question of. You know, the balancing act. Obviously we're sitting here in New Jersey, in the United States thinking about what we can get, but we have a lot of listeners in the world. What an interesting, who can't get what we can get. Yeah, no, he's right.
I know. Yeah, he's right. Sounds like it's, I'm telling you guys, this is, this exercise has, it has been so eyeopening it me, it's very interesting.
Bam Bam: But the conversations that we had with a lot of the main new world manufacturers at PCA, they are making, starting to make a push throughout the world. So that's probably going to change within what, a year?
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Year two max.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah,
Bam Bam: max. So they'll be able to get their hands on these cigars, the drones and so on. El Dino for sure.
Senator: It, it's a great point in that, I mean, think of when we're traveling anywhere outside the us. I mean, you can get your hands on most standard production Cubans. I mean, when we've been in Panama, I mean, you can, I, I'm just thinking of the last time in Panama, like what was just [01:17:00] sitting there on the shelf?
Just pick up a cigar. Ramon Iona, especially selected Parus D four. I mean all, all the standard production stuff that want a BBB F For sure, for sure. So like listeners in all these countries can get their hands on these and Sure. Is the price higher than it used to be? No question. But they're still high twenties, low thirties.
Chef Ricky: Maybe we need another European sponsor.
Gizmo: So boys, we'll get back to this discussion in a minute. We have some other stuff to talk about, but, but we are into the last third now. Oh yeah. On the Monte Cristo number two, paired with this 18 years age Florida rum, which I am blown away right now by this pairing guys,
Bam Bam: chef,
Gizmo: I
Chef Ricky: don't want it to end.
Bam Bam: It's delicious.
Honestly. The pairings exquisite.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Bam Bam: The balance is fantastic. And the, I think pagoda will be very happy with the combustion in this room tonight. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: We've had a great run on this pod with amazing cigars and great [01:18:00] pairings and, but today feels a little bit different.
Gizmo: How so?
Chef Ricky: I don't know. I feel a little more settled in today.
I feel I'm always happy to be here, but there's just something about the good for you, chef.
Gizmo: Is it? 'cause you're sitting closer to bam today. I think it's, it's all about you, chef. I'm sitting
Chef Ricky: closer to the fumes coming off the floor. Kanye 18. That's what you're getting an
Gizmo: additional experience
Chef Ricky: in your sense. Yeah, yeah. Correct.
Gizmo: How's it for you, senator?
Senator: Oh, it's great. I mean, uh, the last third of this, uh, Monty two definitely picks up a little bit in a great way.
I think, you know, probably the first third starts medium, second, third, probably also medium. And I think the last third hits medium full. Um, but it doesn't lose any of the great flavor. Um, it gets more savory in the final third, which I really like. Yes, I like that. Yeah, I like that
Gizmo: it changes
Bam Bam: into that there, but are you not getting still a hint of cocoa right now?
Oh, sure. Yeah. That, that's the [01:19:00] consistent thread. Yes, for sure. But that's what makes this so incredible. That's where you get the balance and on that aroma, I get true cocoa
Gizmo: and the, and the consistency of the twang. Yeah. And how it works so well with the sweetness and it works so well when it becomes more savory in that last third.
Correct. It it like that being a consistent balancing act mm-hmm. For both the sweet and the savory. And when you take it works really well.
Bam Bam: And when you take a sip of what we're drinking tonight and then draw of your cigar, I think this is the ultimate experience. Honestly. You wanna repeat this? Put it on repeat as often as you can, wherever you are.
Chef Ricky: I think what's really tying this all together is that acidic note we were getting when we were smelling the foot of the cigar. And that on one heat it is translating to this twang that we're getting and it's really rounding this out and serving as a bridge and so smooth to bring Yeah. Delivering it really smoothly.
Really, really, really well done. Yeah.
Gizmo: All right boys, let's continue our discussion here. We have [01:20:00] some contrary emails now to what I was just saying. This one is from Lizard Marcus. He says, hello lizards. I am uh, I am listening to your most recent episode with the conversation regarding the accessibility of Cuban tobacco, and I wanted to share my thoughts.
As I mentioned, mentioned in a previous email, I just picked up smoking cigars last year, which seems to be a bit too late to get into smoking Cubans. In listening to some of the earlier episodes, I long for the days where I could purchase a good Cuban cigar for 15 bucks. At this point in my cigar journey, I've probably smoked three to 400 cigars and not a single Cuban made the list.
They are just too expensive and hard to source. I do not feel like going through the trouble of finding a legitimate source and then purchasing a box of cigars. I have never smoked just to try them out. Not to mention you are hard pressed to find a cigar under $30 US at this point. It is just too complicated.
While I would love to try one, eventually, it's just too hard for me and it's [01:21:00] way too expensive. I have found so many new world sticks that I really enjoy. And I've just decided, I have just decided to stick to those. They're easy to buy and so much cheaper. In regards to the pod, I enjoy the New World episodes much better just because I know if you have good things to say about a cigar, I know I can go pick it up as an example.
Stoic, which is an awesome cigar, by the way. I still enjoy listening to the Cuban episodes, but just more for the conversation rather than the cigar. I just wanted to share my thoughts. Thanks for the great content as always. Lizard Marcus.
Bam Bam: That's a little sad.
Rooster: Yeah. Well, obviously he's in the US so when you get the emails, they're gonna vary.
People from the EU are gonna be half, I know, not, they won't have the issue of accessibility. I know. So they, you know, they can smoke that, but somebody who's in the US is definitely gonna differ in that opinion. Yeah.
Bam Bam: And what, what, sorry, what GIZ said earlier, how Haos is turning their back on the new Cuban cigar smoker.
This is a, a great example, a very [01:22:00] sad example of that.
Gizmo: So here's another one. I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep going back and forth on commentary. So on our Instagram, we actually put up a, uh, question for the listeners here. We got a ton of responses, which was awesome. So, uh, this one's from User Milwaukee Human or Code.
They make great, uh, human Earth, by the way. Um, check out their page. He says, absolutely. Prices and access to Cubans effectively put them way outside of my reach. And with the amount of fantastic new worlds out there, that would be a great thing to see, which would be, you know, increasing the amount of new worlds that we're doing.
Couple folks here are saying just to do one Cuban cigar a month would be great. Uh, here's one from Lizard Luke. He says, I personally smoke 80% Havanas and 20% New World. However, I started trying New World cigars three years ago and have been very impressed by the stuff coming out of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
Havana Cigars are personally my favorite, but I'll still keep listening to you guys. There's a bunch of other, you know, keep smoking Cubans, et [01:23:00] cetera. I wanted to read one here. From a listener in Bahrain. He says, hello, gents. This is lizard petro calf. He says, ING. Hello gents, a follower and listener from Bahrain.
Chef Ricky: Is that here in Jersey? It's
Gizmo: next to sea. I heard this discussion during the last podcast. I am not at all in favor of this decision. Main reason is, believe it or not, it is much more likely to find a particular Cuban cigar than a new world in this part of the world. Of course, price and availability is an issue mainly due to government tax on tobacco.
So I could keep going on and on here. Um, as far as back and forth on these responses, and I did want to open up one comment from FOH. So of course the FOH guys, when Rob put up the thread, there was a lot of commentary on FOH about this. Potential decision to reduce the amount of Cubans. You know, this is really interesting.
So, uh, user Magical Bike Bike [01:24:00] Ride wrote, you'll likely get a biased opinion on this forum. Obviously Cuban heavy, but from where I sit, I'd hate to see you guys do any less Cuban cigars than you currently do. Wills, I get that their price and availability is a challenge in the us The reverse is true in, in my part of the world.
I can't get Padron, Davidoff, Rocky, Rocky Patel, AJ Fernandez, et cetera, without substantial hassle. And when I can, it usually winds up being more expensive than an equitable Cuban. You've obviously gotta play to your listener base, but it's horses for courses re what people can access. I think if you need anecdotal info, I've revisited many of your Cuban cigar episodes, but I'm not sure if I've ever revisited a non Cuban episode.
So a lot of listeners have actually sat on FOH that they only listen to the Cuban cigar episodes. They don't even listen to the New World Cigar episodes. Well, it's so, I, it's simple. This has been highly eye-opening for me, this whole exercise.
Rooster: They can't access the new world, so why would they even listen to, to those episodes?
It makes [01:25:00] sense. Yeah. I mean, and the same is true here. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: For Cubans,
Senator: I have one takeaway from this. This validates. Exactly why we have this podcast and why we've done what we've done. Yep. Right. We are the only truly Global Cigar podcast. Correct. Because we do both new worlds and Cubans. And so I think all of these points are very well taken that for our listeners outside of the us, of course, Cubans are what they have access to.
They don't have the ability to access many new worlds, and so that's why we ought to continue to make sure that we're reviewing Cuban cigars for every other country outside the US and for our US listeners. That's why we obviously also have an equal focus on New World cigars, but I think the feedback is very helpful and I think it just validates, you know, what we've been doing.
Bam Bam: I also think, I hope George Pedro is listening. I hope Roa at Aino cigars listening. I hope. Our friends at Stoic are listening. They need to, I think, take note of this and really get [01:26:00] that push globally for their product. I think it's a must agree. You know, it's a huge opportunity out there. Oh, totally.
Chef Ricky: And I, I think something else that's important to highlight, you know, for Lizard Marcus, you know, while, while the price point is something that could make some of these cigars unattainable for some, um, you know, you do have EGM cigars where you could get single sticks, so you don't have to commit to an entire box.
Uh, for those in Europe, they have access to I havana's that, you know, oftentimes has new road cigars. That's true. Uh, very true. There are ways, a great point. There are ways to source these things that were these sticks that were smoking. Um, that's an excellent point on both sides of the pond. You know, even, even
Rooster: cigars of Haass.
Bam Bam: Yeah. COH does have of the worlds hold. I don't remember ever seeing an, uh, padron on, I have neither
Gizmo: of them have Padron's. Yeah, neither of those. Padron is definitely the, the biggest one that's of course, that's hard to find. Have, but they have
Chef Ricky: dvids. Correct. They have Doffs. They have patels. Not that we smoke Patels, but you know, I think
Rooster: Padron has a hard time filling up the, the US demand, [01:27:00] so they really don't, you know Sure.
Can't quite fill the uh, sure, sure. Outside of the US demand. But
Senator: it's just funny. I mean, hearing this, we're we're talking about, we're in this amazing period of cigars. It's hearing this feedback. You know what I hope the future is, is that these new world brands, like Bam is saying, make it into these other global markets and for the US market, I mean, how hard it is now to get a Cuban cigar.
You know, I, I hope, uh, I hope Trump gets off Greenland and like, just, just annex Cuba. I mean, it would solve this whole thing.
Bam Bam: Oh, I'd like to. Oh, I would like that. Oh, how would that be? I'm serious.
Gizmo: That sounds like a difficult, difficult task, but, well,
Bam Bam: we have, you know, senator in the room. That's true. That's correct.
You
Senator: should start, uh, lobbying for this. That's
Bam Bam: correct.
Senator: Change may be happening in Cuba. I read a really interesting piece and I have no idea how this got emailed to me. 'cause it's from someone I did not recognize. [01:28:00] But as soon as involved Cuba, I definitely read it and it was talking about, you know, in our last several trips in Cuba, we've noticed there's all these hotels that are being developed there.
There are allegedly golf courses. They're gonna be built in Cuba. This is all supposed to be done by 2030 as, I mean, bam does this for a living. He knows. So probably 2040. Correct. But given all of this is happening, it's like why would there be all this like, crazy investment? And what this piece, the, the, the argument they were making was that.
There is almost an expectation that when Raul Castro, who's in his nineties and who is like the last meaningful living Castro, basically on that island passes that they think that like the communist government may fall there. And that, the funny thing is all these hotels, I assume that this was all Russian money that was putting this up.
It not. Yeah, it did.
Bam Bam: And Chinese
Senator: actually [01:29:00] most of that is owned by the Cuban military essentially. Wow. Which was wild to me. And so if that's the case, that's a
Bam Bam: good thing though, Senator.
Senator: It's a very good thing. Yeah. The thinking is that like someday when Raul passes, these military guys basically will own all this development that's supposed to spur tourism there and that they will then push to privatize things in Cuba and they'll actually be able to make some serious income off of this, be able to open things up for tourism to really explode in Cuba like it used to, uh, obviously decades ago.
So I don't, you know, who knows what the future holds, but it was a really interesting perspective and how like the easiest ticket to make some of this a reality would be like the US actually, you know, seriously trying to. Get heavily involved in Cuba.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Or the second best bet. Uh, I, I [01:30:00] think what that's, first of all, I would love to read that article.
It is sounds incredible, but all of that residual income that's coming from all of these tourist properties will eventually indirectly feed the redevelopment of infrastructure. Yeah. Power, water, waste management, all those things that make will make a country better. And there isn't a country in the world that isn't desperate for that more than Cuba is.
Correct. So I think if that money comes in and they do privatize the, they have to improve the infrastructure, otherwise you can't support those properties. Yeah. This is an incredible possibility if this is the case.
Senator: Yeah. I was just fascinat, I had not heard this perspective before. I really assumed that.
That's cool. All these developments was just foreign owned foreign money. I thought like the Cuban government was just giving like so did we all this land basically to developers from China, Russia, you name it, to build and know, like I think they're leasing some of this too, I'm sure like Russian money.
Chinese money, but [01:31:00] it's owned by the Cuban military and there's like one big obstacle to that someday being privatized. And when that clears, it would create a path for that to happen. It's incredible
Bam Bam: how a single individual can be a roadblock like that. Just unbelievable.
Chef Ricky: And that type of government.
Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: We will see what happens. I'm fascinated. I think it's gonna be sooner rather than later that that's going to happen. So we'll see what the, what the result of that is. So yeah, send us that article. I wanna see. Mm, I will. All right boys, let's continue on here with some more listener commentary on this discussion.
I love this lizard. Greg put up on FOHA GIF of Michael Scott screaming No, and he said this was, hi. My initial reaction to the once a month Cuban discussion. He says, after thinking about it some more, I can understand the concerns with sourcing, but it's worth reaching out to the listeners for help, of course, which is what we've done.
I don't think it would be construed as begging, and you're not expecting all the [01:32:00] cigars to be gifted. It doesn't hurt exploring before a drastic change. Maybe every third week would be a reasonable compromise. Personally, I smoke 95% Cuban cigars, and I prefer those episodes because I relate closer to their flavor notes.
I'm not chasing a particular Cuban cigar based on a rating from any one specific source, but that's not the case for pods liquor ratings, as I've probably purchased eight to 10 bottles of what you reviewed. You're also not smoking baller cigars, ground reserve as Cohiba ELs or unobtainium, seventies, eighties, you know, Cuban doffs, et cetera, that are impossible to find.
For the most part, recent production Cuban cigars can be sourced within the US with with some patients effort, and of course, money revisiting cigars would add to the argument about occluding a box code year on qubit cigars for the rating database. There you go. Which I've heard from a lot of listeners.
That they do want us to put the box code on the website because we're revisiting cigars to [01:33:00] compare and contrast. So I've, I'm thinking about doing that. You're all well aware of variations across year, month, factory, even when in a box or even within a box, we've all ruminated about changes in blending style and our tobacco from the late teens to the newer 22, 23 20 fours, and how fresh boxes are ready to smoke right away.
Nothing like previous years. Where they needed to sit and lose ammonia. It also might be worth revisiting cigars that only had four or five lizards rating them to get a more accurate lizard composite score. So I think those are some great comments as well, adding to the question of how, how frequent we want to do Cubans, but also thinking about revisiting stuff that only a couple lizards were on four or five lizards or whatever it may be, and get the full panel or a different panel with a newer run.
So we, we do have a lot of folks on here saying that they only listened to the Cuban episodes. Like I said, uh, we did have one, uh, same lizard. Uh, Greg was laughing because he was trying to [01:34:00] find the, uh, Kav la Remont and of course the only place he could find it was in a liquor store near us, I'm assuming where lizard Senator found them originally.
I guess that is very hard to find, especially at that price point. So. Uh, I found that very comical
Bam Bam: Senator will ship right from his domain
Rooster: at a premium. Well lizard. Greg could send us the Cuban cigars and we'll send him some of the, uh, there you go.
Gizmo: So I have another one here from Lizard Alley. He writes this all the time.
He says, I'm fine with the move to more non Cubans. My love is Cuban cigars, but at this stage, I know what I like. I'm also aware of the inconsistencies within the Cuban world. A review. Review is often just a review of that particular box of cigars rather than the cigar or blend itself. I smoke non Cubans regularly.
I'm always interested to try new cigars and flavors and hear what the lizards are enjoying when they're palettes Lean towards Cuban cigars like we all do here. I welcome it. The beauty of this podcast for me lies in the discovery of new things people don't know. They [01:35:00] liked new spirits, wines, food places, cigar regions, et cetera.
We all decided one day to try a Cuban cigar. And for many of us here, that changed us forever. Maybe there are other things out there that can have the same dramatic effect.
Bam Bam: Great. Email.
Gizmo: That's a great comment. Great. Amen. Great comment. So boys, I wanted to share that for now. I think the. Discussion around this is going to be paused as we've had some help from folks out there in the retail world, uh, who are going to allow us to get Cuban cigars to review.
So at this point, based on all of this conversation, unless you guys protest this decision, we will continue our normal cadence of every other week until it is no longer suitable. No, we're not
Bam Bam: gonna like that.
Gizmo: So unless we get to a point where things are being confiscated, we can't get stuff, things change again with these [01:36:00] retailers who are helping us out, that we trust and we know, um, for now we will keep moving every other week.
We'll let, we will let you know if that changes. It very well may change in a month or two months, or by the end of the year, who knows what's gonna happen. But for now, given the commentary that we've received, given the help that we've been offered from a couple retailers, we are gonna continue with our normal cadence of every other week and we'll, we'll see how it goes.
Great. We'll see how it goes. Great. So I will read some more commentary for some listeners, uh, in a couple weeks here. We do have a lot of email and a lot of stuff that I think is really relevant. Um, so I will be continuing to share the commentary on this discussion as we move forward. So as of right now, we're gonna pencil it in that we're gonna continue every other week with a Cuban cigar and we'll see what happens.
Wow.
Rooster: It seemed like the feedback, even from a US listener. They want us to continue reviewing Cuban cigars. Yeah, that was most of the email in the commentary. Even if it wast
Bam Bam: change, if they're a redo,
Gizmo: right? Yeah, [01:37:00] yeah. Don't Change was okay. The overwhelming commentary, obviously I've read some that were saying, Hey, do what, do what you need to do.
But sure. A lot of folks are saying, continue smoking Cuban cigars, you know,
Bam Bam: and what we're smoking tonight, honestly, it's exquisite. Um, am I going to say that it was a much better experience than the first time around? Probably Rooster, you made that point, but, um, I, I happen to love this Marco, this particular vitola.
It, it is always been a staple. So the new conversation that you kind of revisit after smoking this again, after not having done it for a while and personally not smoking it, there's value there. There's definitely value for the listener and for us internally to revisit these cigars. True. Yeah.
Gizmo: All right, boys, it's time now for our Lizard of the Week.
And this one, I laughed very hard when I saw this email in response to the question of whether we should change our cadence around Cuban cigars or not. This one is from our friend on YouTube, lizard Shawnee [01:38:00] Bro, first time winner of Lizard of the Week. He says, most folks worry about getting their Cubans past customs.
I have to cross my fingers that my wife isn't the one who answers the door. When the United States Postal Service rings my doorbell, that stone face she gives me is worse than the possibility of losing global entry. And I know a lot of lizards out there are in that same boat of hoping that their wife doesn't catch all of the shipments of cigars that come to the house.
So, correct. Uh, congratulations to Lizard Shawnee, bro. He's gonna be our lizard of the week this week. Of course, anybody out there can win Lizard of the Week. All you have to do is write us a good email, a comment as Shawnee Bro did here on YouTube, which we don't go to a lot for Lizard of the Week, so I figured I'd change it up this week.
And, uh, we'll send the lizard of the Week Prize to our YouTube friend, lizard Shawnee, bro. All right. All right, boys, we are coming to the end of our evening now with Demon Crito number two from Cuba and the 18 years aged [01:39:00] Flo Decon rum. Any final thoughts here before we move into the ratings?
Chef Ricky: I can't wait for another 180 episodes to revisit this thing.
Gizmo: Yeah, this was, uh, this was a good night. It's a treat. This is a great night. All right. Bam. It's time now to do our formal liquor rating on the 18 years age Florida Kanye Rum,
Bam Bam: you're
Gizmo: up.
Bam Bam: So, um, everything I've ever had from Florida, Kanye has been exquisite. Uh, this is a much richer expression than a seven that I happen to love, and the price is still very reasonable.
This, I, you know, I've had exclusive o and the, and Davidoff Millennium Pyramid with the seven paired beautifully. Uh, I could easily see that with this particular cigar, this particular spirit, and almost any Cuban with anything that Florida Kanye makes. And for that reason, I have to give this a 10 because of how delicious it was.
Yeah, it's a richer, bolder expression, but still very easy to [01:40:00] drink. I'm gonna probably correct my previous comment saying that I'll only have two glasses of these. I can do an evening session with half a bottle alone and still feel fantastic the day before. I can't give this less than a 10. It's just been off the charts.
Delicious. Well, at the r you drop it, you need at least half a bottle. That's also, I lost a quarter of a bottle, but yeah, seriously though, this is, this is really incredibly good. And for the price, it's a 10 all
Chef Ricky: that long.
Gizmo: Alright, chef Ricky.
Chef Ricky: Yep, I'm right there with bam. Bam. Uh, this was great. Just really well developed, uh, throughout the evening.
Uh, you know, it started off with a little bit more heat. Nothing that was off putting in any way,
Bam Bam: hardly any
Chef Ricky: though. Uh, but as you went on it got even creamier and it, and it settled in and it really complimented and added to the experience with the cigar. I love the vanilla notes on the nose. I love the dry finish.
Um, you can absolutely tell that this is [01:41:00] a additive free product. It's not artificially sweetened. Anyway, uh, so just, you know, everything shined, everything came through, uh, and it was a great experience. And I love the price point. I love the accessibility. It's a 10 for me.
Gizmo: So it's also a 10 for me. I, I thought this paired brilliantly, uh, brilliantly tonight with this cigar.
I was shocked, as I said, I didn't expect it to do as well as it did with this Cuban cigar tonight, but it did not have the heat. I was expecting it had the right amount of body to pair with a Cuban cigar. And I often, you know, think about how this would do with other cigars, Dominican, Honduran, Nicaragua.
I think it would do well across the board. I really love the flavor profile. I think it is an easy drinking rum. None of us put ice in it, even though we have a bucket of ice there. It is so easy to drink. Um, so it's a, it's a perfect score for me. It's a 10
Senator: Senator Pagoda and I probably have more experience with the entire Florida Kanye line, [01:42:00] given that we spent a ton of time with, uh, your late evening sessions with bottle after bottle.
No, no, no. Not that, not that, uh, when we were at PCA I'm talking about trying every expression that they basically make outside of that 30 year, which obviously they didn't have that. Um, but I remember what pagoda and I felt when we had tried the entire line. And I have the same feeling tonight, so I'm gonna be an outlier.
Not that I disagree with, um, any of the commentary. It is an outstanding spirit having had, say that again, I'm sorry. Having had, you know, the, the seven, the 12, the 18, the 20 and the 25 there of those. I like a drier finish for a rum. The 12 year, the finish to me has like just the perfect amount of sweetness.
Like it's a little sweeter than it is drier, where I actually feel like the finish of this is a little drier than it is [01:43:00] sweet. Um, and so I'm gonna give it a nine. I still love this spirit, but why? But I would be more inclined to pick up the 12 or the 20 over this. They're sweeter than this a little bit, really in just the right way.
Bam Bam: Hmm.
Senator: Any day really. And the 20 is I'm sure a higher price point. I'm
Bam Bam: kind of surprised to hear that from you.
Senator: Yeah, no, and that's why it's shocking for me 'cause I, I always prefer a drier spirit, but again, just having had the benefit of trying God knows how many times, like the entire line when we were standing there at PCA multiple times.
Yeah. Uh, which was helpful just to like truly, you know, be able to like directly compare each, each one to other I on hey, on podcast,
Bam Bam: I need another one.
Senator: It worked out well for our friend. He got out our podcast because of that. That's true. Um, but just because I feel like the 12 and the 20 are like the perfect balance.
If I [01:44:00] could design a Florida Kanye blend where this is just a bit drier than I would prefer, that's the reason that I'm giving this, the nine. It's not something that like I'm gonna, I have to have on my bar in a way that like the 12 and the 20, I definitely feel that way about. Um, and even the seven, although that's trying to do something different obviously than a higher age statement that's got a fuller, you know, body experience.
So Outstanding. Um, you know, the one note I, I don't think we mentioned, but there's a nuttiness about this and I get Walnut Yeah. When you drink this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, which is, that's attributed a lot to the finish. I agree. How the finish is
Chef Ricky: dry. Yeah, for sure. Dryer. Yeah, I agree.
Senator: And like, Walnut is honestly like one of my least favorite nuts, you know?
So, you know, again, just. Personal preference. We're getting specific boys big. No, we are, I mean, you asked why, so I'm trying to like, no, it's dissect it as best I can. It's great. Um, that's the only reason that I, I give it that nine, but that takes nothing away from, it's obviously an outstanding spirit and if [01:45:00] you like a dryer rum, like this is absolutely a bottle that you ought to pick up and stock and put your humidor.
Um, but like I said, I just for rum in particular like that is naturally a sweet spirit. I just like a little bit sweeter of a finish than I get with this. And the Monty helps it because the Monty is so sweet. The cocoa note you get all the way through. Well that's where the balance comes in for this particular pairing for sure.
Yeah. But if I were smoking some, like a cigar that is, you know, woodier or earthier that is not as sweet as this cigar, I think like this finish would be even more pronounced, uh, kind of how dry it finishes and so. The versatility for me is not as great as some of their other age, uh, statement expressions and that that's why I'm at a a nine.
But again, I would definitely drink it again. It's a great spirit. That's a great score.
Gizmo: Alright boys. So the form Liquoring tonight on the Florida Kanye 18 years age rum is a 9.8. Yeah, good score. So let's compare that to the other Florida KA rum we've done on the [01:46:00] podcast. On episode 126, we drank, we did not rate the Florida KAA 20.
So if you want to hear that one, go back to that PCA episode. Episode 1 26. On episode 1 35, we did the 12 years aged, scored a 9.7 on episode 1 45. We did the seven years aged. The $26 bottle scored a 9.8. And this one's gonna blow everybody's mind, including my own, because we forgot that we rated the 18 years age Florida KA rum.
What? On episode 177. What? Yes, we did 13 episodes ago. We reviewed the 18 years aged. We all forgot. And guess what? We rated it. 9.8. 9.8. Same score. Wow. Swear to God. I just looked it
Bam Bam: up. You know what folks? This shit don't lie.
Gizmo: Validity. What? That is the validity of the ratings. So what, I don't remember that
Rooster: senator's rating for that one.
Gizmo: I don't know. The individual ratings on liquor to had to be that. Had to be same there, but it must have been the same. Anyway, it's the same exact rating as we did 13 weeks ago. I
Bam Bam: totally forgot that we had that spirit. I [01:47:00] don't remember that. So the crazy thing
Gizmo: is, so you know why is we did it with the stoic.
So the stoic took that. So this is a, this is a good
Senator: reminder. We do have to update our ratings on the website because GIZ had reached out to me about a pairing for this. So I had actually recommended these two bottles, and I searched on our website on the ratings to see if we did either of these and it did not come up, which means these hadn't been updated.
I didn't them up there yet. Oh my
Bam Bam: Lord. That's crazy.
Gizmo: Same rating, boys. Hey, that's great. The lizard rating doesn't lie. Correct. All right. And now it's time to do the formal lizard rating tonight on the Monte Cristo number two from Cuba. The Redux Rooster, Europe up. Don't fuck it up.
Rooster: Jesus. I feel there's a huge redemption, at least for me with this Monte two.
I don't usually reach for a lot with a, for a lot of Monte twos because I haven't had a stellar experience with a Monte twos. I don't
Bam Bam: ever remember any photo. You ever having the cigar in your head? Yeah, I mean, I've had it, I
Senator: just don't, I feel like the Monte four is like roosters. Like that's
Rooster: [01:48:00] true. Monte in that small, that, uh, media.
Oh, the media. Corona Media Corona. Yeah. That's DI mean that's a delicious small smoke. But this Monte two was absolutely delicious. I mean, the construction was flawless. Uh, throughout, you get that salty twang, which is the Monte two is absolutely known for that. And the milk chocolate node and the coconut node, it just lasted throughout.
I did have to recut the cigar because there was that tar built up, and even at the end it got a little tar heavy. So, but the, but the flavor and everything was spot on. It was, you know, it had a sweet note. It had the milk chocolate, the cocoa, the salty twk, delicious smoke and absolutely no issues, you know, in the room with the Monte two.
So for that reason, I'm at a solid nine.
Senator: All right, Senator, so hang on. I'm just curious. So why not attend?
Rooster: I think just the fact that I had to recut it. That's the recent once. And, and also the, also, you know, the, the tar built up, it happened a [01:49:00] couple of times, really, the last third I was mostly getting the tar had really built up.
Maybe it's nicotine heavy or maybe it's the, it's the, the pyramid shape maybe has something to do with that. Wow. So for that reason, it's super matter. Nine.
Senator: All right. So I'm gonna start with, this is a very important lesson for the listener. I love and smoke a lot of besos pyramids, torpedoes. I love that.
Ola, you need to take a good amount off, particularly on any Cuban that is that shape or vila. Um, because again, most Cuban cigars are, most Cuban cigars are rolled, packed tighter than new world cigars. So I do think had you from the start taken off more, you would've not had that experience. Um, and again, the only reason I'm not is 'cause I've just smoked so many in this fat that like I always [01:50:00] now take a healthy amount off.
Um, but for that reason, I had not a single problem with my cigar. And I'm at a 10. Um, I've always loved, uh, Monty two, I mean so much. So I spend $60 on one in Singapore. Um, when they're great. They are really great. I think for I
Rooster: was, I was, I was bit afraid that the draw would be too open if I cut too much on that pyramid.
No. 'cause
Senator: honestly, you know, when you're cutting off a good amount, you're trying to get it, like, I mean, if you look at mine, like that's probably close to like a lonsdale, like the ola, the, the, the ring gauge on that. Um, and sometimes, you know, you may even take, you know, enough off, it almost looks like a reto at the end.
But in either scenario. You're not bigger than the cigar. Right? Like it's still Right. Still tapered at the end. Exactly. So you're
Gizmo: authorizing the GIZ cut slash the pagoda coat because ma? No, no. I think so. That sounds like an authorization. Alright. Not
Senator: quite. Someone's
Gizmo: not [01:51:00] listening
Senator: because the operative point take notes giz.
Yes. The operative point here is you should never equal the ring gauge of the actual rest of the cigar. That's true. That's what you don't want to do. So if it is smaller than the rest of the cigar, you've done your job correctly. Yeah. You, if it looks the exact same as the rest of the cigar, you have definitely done a against, you wanna some of a taper.
Bam Bam: You have to keep the For sure. Yeah. You gotta respect the integrity of the shape. Right. For sure.
Rooster: I mean you can always recut more. You just can't, you know, once you make that mistake of cutting too much Correct.
Senator: You're done. So, and and the last thing I'll say, just in terms of the flavor, why I love this cigar.
There is nothing else like it. We've gotten cocoa and plenty of new world cigars. You know, not as many Cuban cigars. It's still so distinctive, right? It's like if you, you know, have like a salted like chocolate bar, you have the like twang and the cocoa, and it marries in a way that no other cigar, all these different [01:52:00] cigars we've tried and smoked is able to replicate.
And that's why Amani two will always hold a special place for me. What
Bam Bam: you said, the salted chocolate bar, that is a hundred percent on the money for this particular cigar. Salted milk chocolate. Salted milk. Chocolate bar.
Chef Ricky: No doubt. Yeah, I think there's a note there too, which I'll touch on, on my, on my rating, but,
Gizmo: so for me, this cigar stands alone.
I, I think to Senator's point, the Monte Cristo number two stands firmly by itself that nothing comes close. And to me it makes a ton of sense why it is a Cuban legend, just like a Parus D four. It has something that no other cigar in the Cuban profile has, which is that unique, creamy, chocolatey thing with the touch of salt that then moves to a savory.
Flavor in the, in the last half or the last third. But it stays balanced with the sweetheart, but it stays so balanced. Uh, it's, it's such a, when it's done well mm-hmm. It is such a brilliant [01:53:00] cigar. The price is incredibly disappointing at almost $40. Now, that is, that is a rub for me. Um, replacement value, finding a box, almost a thousand dollars for 25 cigars is lunacy, but I can't knock it based on price, because by itself standing alone, it is a brilliant, brilliant blend and a brilliant cigar.
Finally, I'll say on this, this cigar is designed for every smoker. This cigar is designed for a brand new smoker who just started yesterday. It's designed for a smoker who's been smoking for their entire life. It offers something so unique and interesting, and I think. The brilliance of it is that it is pretty simple.
Not that it's not complex, but it's simple. It's easy to grasp and it's easy to enjoy. So for that reason, it's a 10. This was a fantastic mono Krystal. Number two, I'm really impressed with this run. I am gonna dive back into this box. I don't know when, [01:54:00] maybe in four or five months, but I will have some more.
We know twice more in the next 12 months,
Bam Bam: so you're not gonna monta number two, you're not gonna ding it for your second cup.
Gizmo: I am not gonna ding it for my second cup because I took very little off.
Bam Bam: Well done. Very little off.
Gizmo: Very little off. Correct on Rooster, not on me. That's correct. All right, chef.
Chef Ricky: Hey, ta taking, uh, what I remember from the, the Nilo episode where, uh, his favorite cut was the V cut.
Mm. Um, that's what you did tonight? Yeah. I made it a point to bring my VCU today and, um, I think, uh, I had a really, really great experience as a result. Um, I was able to maintain the taper and just the original shape of the torpedo. Uh, but at the same time, I opened it up enough to really gather all the flavor and, and not have a massive wind tunnel or any buildup of tar.
Uh, so, you know, starting, you know, on the nose, just getting those sweet [01:55:00] cocoa notes on the foot of the cigar and then lighting it and getting some dried fruit that then transitioned into some cocoa and milk chocolate. But I think the note that really held it all together throughout the entire experience was almond and almond for me here was what really creamed it out and made that, that smoke, uh, just kind of textured and it held the bed, the, the balance of the salt and the cocoa in place and all the way down to the nub.
I was getting this almond note, and it was, it was a phenomenal experience. It never got harsh and never got, uh, you know, overwhelmingly strong or anything like that. It was a full medium throughout, picked up a little bit towards the final third. Uh, and I, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot, and the pairing was phenomenal.
So for me, this was a 10.
Bam Bam: All right. Excellent. Bam. Yeah, I, I was at a 10 from the get go. It stayed 10 all the way down. Um, I think I can't comment any more than anyone everyone else has on the flavor notes. 'cause the cocoa was [01:56:00] there, the saltiness was there. Just on the experience. The combustion was fantastic.
That wasn't mentioned, but the room was full of smoke. Um, you mentioned the construction. The ash for me was bright white and it was structural and it was stacking dimes. I know GIZ isn't like that, but it was, it held on and, um, what a great cigar. What a classic. It's a classic Cuban cigar. So I I can't rate it.
Anything less than a 10 tonight.
Gizmo: All right, boys. The formal lizard rating tonight on the Mono Cristo number two from Cuba is another 9.8
Bam Bam: Damn homeboy.
Gizmo: Almost a perfect score tonight.
Bam Bam: Delicious night for the
Gizmo: mono Cristo. Number two. So let's compare that to the last time we smoked the mono Cristo number two on this podcast.
On episode 28. Can I guess,
Bam Bam: can we guess, go ahead. I think that thing got like an eight two or an eight four the last time. Okay. Yeah, I would say eight four, something like that. 8, 5,
Chef Ricky: 8, 4. The
Gizmo: answer's eight four boys. Wow. All right, so this scored 14 points [01:57:00] higher. Unbelievable. With a two years newer box.
Bam Bam: And it goes to your argument with the recent runs.
Exactly right. It
Senator: also goes to GIZ isn't using kid litter anymore?
Bam Bam: That's true.
Senator: That's a huge No more ne,
Bam Bam: no more neon blue pellets in the the tower.
Gizmo: Oh, it never ends. Let's compare this to the other Monte Cristos we've done on the podcast. On episode four, we did the 1935 Linear, the Malus got an 8.9. On episode 46.
The Mono Cristo number one scored a 6.3. That was weak.
Bam Bam: We have to, we have to revisit that. Yeah,
Gizmo: I agree. I think
Bam Bam: we should. I
Gizmo: just haven't seen
Bam Bam: new boxes of
Gizmo: that coming
Bam Bam: up. No, that's true. I mean, I have one, I think someone else has one. We should try it again because they are smoking very good.
Rooster: And the Monti three is delicious.
Bam Bam: You love that? Yeah, I love
Rooster: that. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: On episode 66, the Aion Liata talking about ELs, the Remos from 2019 scored a 9.0 on episode 80. The Monte Cristo Edmundo scored an 8.0 on episode 127. The [01:58:00] Especiali number two scored an 8.3, and the newest release from Mono Cristo in regular production that we did On episode 172, the wide Ed Mundo scored a 9.0.
This one at a 9.8 tonight is the best Monte Crista we've ever done on the pod from Cuba.
Bam Bam: Absolutely, for sure. Yummy.
Gizmo: Alright, boys, a great night tonight. An awesome discussion on hoarding cigars and then of course on our cadence of smoking Cuban cigars and how often we're gonna do that. We'll keep it the same for a little while.
And on both the Florida Kanye 18 years aged rum and the Montecristo number two from Cuba, both scored a 9.8. Bain, take us home with a, we love you Monte.
Senator: Monte
Bam Bam: Cristo, we love you. You are unforgettable.
Gizmo: We have to thank all of our lizard listeners out there, [01:59:00] especially in the last few weeks writing us on this question of changing the cadence of qubit cigars.
The impassioned volume of, of emails and comments has been fantastic and very enlightening, so we really appreciate that. Congratulations to Lizard Shawnee bro on YouTube for winning Lizard of the Week. Like I said, anybody out there can win Lizard of the Week. I have to do is send us an email, a comment, or whatever you choose, and you can win.
Of course, we have to thank our sponsor, Fabrica five. They make great cigars. The new Bond, Roberts 1 0 9 is out now from Fabrica five. It's a great cigar. We reviewed that with Robin Hamlet, so check that out. And boys. We'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com.
That's lounge lizards PO d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us [02:00:00] hello@loungelizardspod.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.