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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Puba, Senator, Pagoda, and Bam Bam and our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course have some laughs.
So take this as your 114th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan a meet us here once a week. We are going to smoke a New World cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We revisit Oliva in a different line. We discuss cigar aficionados, top 25 cigars from 2023, and Pagoda and Senator recap their trip to Panama, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes.
So sit back, get your favorite drink. Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair 14 year age going more in G Kinta, Ruben, single malt Scotch with the Aliva Siri V Milano Maduro in Figueroa. Nicaraguan Figueroa tonight on the [00:01:00] pod from Aliva. It's another entry from their Siri V line. This one is the Milano in Maduro.
It's a 52 ring gauge cigar by six and a half inches long. And this comes at a recommendation of one of our listeners. Edioff. Lizard Edioff. And, you know, we're doing this because episode 99, that Lancero performed so well. I think we got a 9. 7. I think we've all been really excited to try some more Oliva.
So here we are tonight. This is a handsome cigar. It's a beautiful cigar, and I would almost argue this is not even a box press. It's almost like a It's unusual. Rectangular pressed. It's a, it's a, it's a Gran Reserva. Gran Reserva, it says, yes. Limitada. Gran Reserva Limitada. Beautiful toothy wrapper.
Fortunately, these are not Two hundred and fifty dollars like the Cuban Gran Reserva when it taught us. Alright boys, let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. This cigar was named Cigar of the Year, actually, by Cigar Aficionado in [00:02:00] 2014. Ten years ago now. Is this the third
**Rooster:** Oliva V that we're doing?
It
**Gizmo:** is. This is the first in the Melanio series. But we've done the Churchill on episode 37. And we did the Lancero on episode 99. So this is the third one from Oliva.
**Senator:** The funny thing about this for me, I've only had in the Milano line, the Robusto. Me too. And the Robusto, I feel like the construction is a little more rustic looking.
I wouldn't call it all that handsome a cigar, but this looks beautiful.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You know, what's interesting about this too is that the foot is, it's not as closed as the Padron 80 years Maduro that we love, but the draw on just that first cut is totally different than the Figurado from Padron. It's wide, wide open.
And when you cut that 80th from Padron, It's, it's a little tight for the first three to five minutes. A bit, but this is quite open, yeah. Yeah, this is quite
**Pagoda:** open. You know, uh, it's funny you say that because we had the 80th, uh, yesterday. And, uh, it was, so I, the door was tight for all three [00:03:00] of us. And, uh, I was wondering what was driving it.
I thought it was a humidity that might have really compressed it, but it did open up after, you know, uh, I guess a couple of minutes.
**Gizmo:** I think that's part of their design in that cigar. As you
**Bam Bam:** burn through that foot, it does open up.
**Gizmo:** It does the 80th. Yeah. And I think this is gonna, you know, even for how open it is on this cold draw Mm, I think it's gonna open even more.
What kind of, uh, flavor notes you getting on the cold jar? Cedar. I'm getting a little dried fruit, but I touch to that. Yeah. It's not a terribly flavorful Dr. Uh. Cold draw for me. Mm-Hmm. . I got a little
**Rooster:** mint. I don't know why. , maybe that
**Gizmo:** was the mouthwash I had. . ,
**Pagoda:** well did, that's cigar mouthwash about the
**Poobah:** other day.
Fresh in, in the words of farmer Ted. Fresh, fresh breath is a priority in my life. , doesn't anyone know that mine. 16 candles. Remember when, uh, I love that movie when, uh, Anthony Michael Hall, he is in the, he's in the car and he climbs over on Tamale ring wall. 'cause she, he. [00:04:00] You know, he's trying to give her a kiss for, for, for his birthday.
She's like, what is that? He's like, it's certs. It's not, he pulls the
**Gizmo:** certs out. I remember
**Poobah:** certs. He pulls the certs out. He puts it, he goes, fresh breath is a priority in my life.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's light this thing. You leave a Siri V Figueroa in the Milani series. This is a Maduro. Again, it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by six and a half inches long.
**Bam Bam:** Do we know how much the
cigar
**Gizmo:** costs? Yeah, this is right around 18, 19 bucks now. Really? I think you can get it a little less than that on the internet.
Um, but I think retail, I mean, when it launched 10 years ago, it was 15 bucks. So
**Poobah:** interesting. We'll say, you know, my wife bought me these Colibri things. Oh yeah. You have a heavy duty car. I have, I have like these like heavy duty accessories now it's the lighter. So heavy in the cutter is so heavy that I could kill somebody with [00:05:00] this.
It's absolutely a weapon. It's a weapon, but I will say the lighter has been performed. Performing better than the cutter. Like it definitely holds a shitload of fuel and it's not terrible.
**Rooster:** Is that a Calibri or is that a
**Poobah:** DuPont? It looks, it's, it's like a knockoff almost of an extreme of a DuPont. Doesn't it?
I
**Senator:** love roosters judging it because it's not a DuPont. Yeah, correct.
**Gizmo:** He's a big DuPont guy. This guy,
**Poobah:** but I mean, it's like a pretty good, it's not bad.
**Gizmo:** It's got a serious
**Poobah:** flame. It's got a serious flame
**Gizmo:** and holds a lot of fuel. It's kind of like a single flame almost, like, but a wide single flame or something.
It's really nice. Yeah, cool. So what are you guys getting on the, uh, the initial light here? This is really delicious. Nice and smooth. Smooth Nicaraguan tobacco. The retrohale's delicious. Mmm. I get Oh, it is, Bam. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** so you're getting a lot of dried fruit on the retrohale. Yep.
**Gizmo:** And it's Just a touch of spice.
And some cocoa.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. For me.
**Senator:** I [00:06:00] get some fig. Um, yeah.
**Gizmo:** And we've been calling that out a lot on Nicaraguan cigars. I think we also called it out on the Oliva V Lancero, but on the light, I think it, I think that had a little bit more spice to it.
**Poobah:** Yeah, I agree. I, I, I haven't had too many, as much as this mark, this brand mark or whatever you want to call it.
Has because of certain people I know who smoke it, which is a horrible thing to associate, but it's it's a good It I I don't really have bad ones. No, you don't it's true. Yeah I've never smoked in a leave a be a V and been like this is this is
**Gizmo:** shit Mm hmm. The only one I actively dislike actually is I haven't had a lot of It's the Milano line at the Robusto.
I had that years ago, and I remember actively disliking it. I got a, I think it was like when I was first getting into cigars, really, and I bought a Tanner on Cigars International or one of those, and it just wasn't great. This is a totally different beast from what I remember. [00:07:00] This is nice, actually. I
**Senator:** agree.
On the Milano Robusto, I just remember it was Fairly smooth, but there's a ton of barnyard in that cigar. And it's just so weird that this is from the same line and I don't get that at all. I'm even getting like raisin now. This is just um, more R Speed, I feel like, in terms of flavor. The
**Rooster:** regular Oliva V is much better, I think, compared to the Milano line.
But this is unlike, this feels a lot like a Padron 88. It does, yes. I agree. In your hand, it's almost like if the band, even the band, the colors are like very similar. It's
**Poobah:** true. Burgundy and gold. So is the Milani, wait, explain something. So is the Milano Maduro, what was the line you spoke of that you didn't like?
**Rooster:** It's the Milano. He's saying it's so the Robusto in Milano, like Senator said earlier, we weren't fans of that, but the regular Oliva V, like the Churchill and other sizes, [00:08:00] like we did, we did the Churchill on the pod,
**Poobah:** which was okay. Right. No, no, no. I thought you said the non, almost like there was a different something
**Gizmo:** different.
No,
**Rooster:** it is the millennial line. This is just a different of a tola in the millennial. Oh, I see. So which we I think so far it's performing great and it's sure it's better than the other. I mean, I haven't had a lot of millennial, but they weren't memorable to really go out and You know source
**Gizmo:** more. No, this is good.
I love this this really pressed down rectangular shape of this I think it feels really good in the hand. Yeah, I'm kind of holding it with all five fingers, you know, like It, it, it just feels really good. You have small hands.
**Senator:** We've established that from Gizmo cigar
**Gizmo:** fans. Correct.
**Rooster:** Is there any
**Gizmo:** Cuban cigar that's box pressed like this?
No. No. They don't box press, do they? Not
**Senator:** intentionally.
**Gizmo:** I wonder why
**Poobah:** that is. Well, you get [00:09:00] semi. It's just not their style. In a dress box, I
**Bam Bam:** guess, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, but not on purpose. No.
**Poobah:** No, like, like, like, uh, not Bananahato Semi. This
**Gizmo:** is true. Um.
**Senator:** I think it's just like a, a, a choice, I mean, of the brands or even the region.
I mean, if you think of Davidoff, they only make one box press cigar and it's a Nicaraguan. That's right. Which a lot of Nicaraguans are box press. So I think it's like. A very Nicaraguan thing to like, I just had before we started recording, I lit up a Nicaraguan pyro from another brand that maybe we'll do at some point.
And that was boxpress. And I think it's a big Nicaraguan thing.
**Rooster:** You know, another thing I learned the other day, like I always wonder about Cuban tobacco does not need a lot of age. Right. We all agree with that. Like, even when we go to the factories, the production manager, Danilo, has always mentioned like, you know, this is age, like tobacco's age about a month, you know, 40 days, 50 days, and that's about it.
That's common. But Nicaraguan tobacco [00:10:00] usually needs a lot of age. Why
**Gizmo:** is that? Oh,
**Senator:** I, I think for sure it's the strength. Sure.
**Rooster:** It's, well, the strength also, which comes from the soil. The soil and the climate. The Cuban soil is very neutral. The pH on Cuban soil is right around seven, but Nicaraguan soil, being that it's volcanic, it's very acidic, so it needs a lot more time for fermentation because being that it's acidic and it's stronger and it just needs more time.
**Gizmo:** Wow. I like it. You're
**Bam Bam:** getting, you're getting very chemistry on this . Yeah. Well, damn, damn homeboy
**Gizmo:** can Rooster. This was a YouTube video, , of course.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is just by virtue
**Rooster:** of, but it makes
**Poobah:** sense, right? Mm-Hmm. , I mean, the fact of matter is, is that Nicaragua tobacco is, it's just a different animal.
**Pagoda:** I'm really enjoying the draw. The draw is fantastic. I actually, it's,
**Gizmo:** uh, you, we [00:11:00] just have to kiss
**Pagoda:** it. Yeah, it's. Yeah, that's exactly it. It may be too open,
**Bam Bam:** just a touch because you can go through this one really
**Gizmo:** quick. Yeah, if you're pulling too hard on this, I think it might bite you a little bit. I agree with you.
It's true. You're going to take this cigar, which probably should last you an hour, 20, hour 30 at least. And you're going to go through it in 55 minutes.
**Senator:** It's worth nursing this one. So one thing with this, I intentionally did not take a lot off the end because I could tell that this would probably have a very open draw since the foot wasn't so closed.
We're on a Padrone 80. That has a much sharper point at the foot. I'll take off a little bit more because I need just some better airflow. So I think for anybody who smokes this or really any Figurado that has a more open foot, you probably just need to take less off to just create a little bit more resistance.
So the draw is not too open. That's always good practice
**Bam Bam:** too, because you could, you could always take more off as you're going through it.
**Gizmo:** I'm
**Rooster:** a bit surprised at the
**Gizmo:** price point of the cigar. Me too. It's on the higher end of it is. Yeah. Melanio, Melanio, for some reason, they price higher than even their [00:12:00] Siri V.
And when this whole line was launched in 2012, this had a price point of 14 or 15 bucks retail, and people were kind of up in arms about it. And this is 10 years ago, obviously a 14, 15 cigar. Now, you know, it's not that crazy, right? An Exclusivo is around that price and certainly a lot less tobacco than this.
But when it was launched, people were a little. surprise that Oliva was taking that sort of a leap. You know, and that's only 10 years ago. It's very Padronesque. Oh dude. Right. I agree.
**Senator:** It is. I mean, to your point, how many times do we hear that a cigar is Padrone like, or a Padrone killer? All of that? This is probably one of the closest cigars I've had.
Nicaraguan cigars to a Padrone. It's half
**Gizmo:** the price. Yup. And so even at that, at that 1718, I mean, it you're looking at probably Low thirties, right? For a Padron 80th single in a retail shop, maybe 35.
**Poobah:** Yeah. And you know, you know, you, you see, I've seen a decent amount of cigar smokers who are [00:13:00] regular cigar smokers who have had, who have tried different things and they like these.
So that says something. I mean, you know, the economics do come into play when choosing what you're going to smoke, you know? Um, And it's different strokes for different folks. Just because the Exclusivo is maybe a better exemplification of a Nicaraguan Pura than this maybe. That doesn't mean it's accessible to everybody all the time.
Retail,
**Bam Bam:** I mean, this is just a hair cheaper than an Exclusiva, isn't it? Or
**Senator:** I think, do you mean the Patronatius, which would be the analogous? Yeah, yeah, the
**Poobah:** Patronatius. Oh, sure, that's a different story. Yeah, I don't, I don't mean an Exclusiva necessarily. Um, if I said that I misspoke, but, um, but this is a more approachable kind of cousin to that, that, that maybe, you know, That fits in somebody's wheelhouse.
I just, I just see these people like these cigars. [00:14:00] There's a market for these. They're consistent.
**Gizmo:** It's a reason for it. They stand, you know, the brand is obviously a quality brand. And I think that it's also important too. And I mean, listen, I know we're very early on to say this, but. Just from the, the draw, the way it's constructed, a little less tobacco.
This is kind of like a gateway drug for me, to the 80th, for someone who's uninitiated. Very approachable.
**Senator:** I'm glad you said that, because when Puba used the word approachable for this, that's exactly where my head is, that like, This cigar is what I would give someone who is starting to get into Nicaraguan tobacco.
Maybe sees me smoking an 80th and I'm saying this is probably going to be a little much for that person. They haven't smoked enough Nicaraguan tobacco to appreciate it. If you start them here, I feel like this has a bit less strength than the 80th does. And it's super smooth and would be a great entry point in.
And then after that they could probably enjoy an 80th.
**Gizmo:** And for me too, I smoked an 80th last night. And I had had a light meal. And it was late, and when I was smoking it down in the last third, I was like, you know, I [00:15:00] wish I ate a little more, like it was a little bit more of an oomph that I wanted at 1130 at night, and I almost wish I had this in my hand, not that it's better, but it's just, it's a step down from that powerhouse of a cigar that the 80th is, you know?
She's already disappointed. How many come in a box? I think there's 10 in a box of this. Yeah, it comes in a box of 10, nice cedar box. I'll look here.
**Senator:** The box is actually nice. I like the presentation. It is. The presentation's beautiful. It's very classic, like Padrone. They're like angles, the way they present the cigars, which I really like.
I think the
**Gizmo:** better word is fanned. It's like fanned out, you know? So, um, Good correction there, Giz. Well, I mean, we're geometry specialists on this podcast. Yes, you
**Senator:** are. Chemists and, uh, Chemists
**Bam Bam:** and geometry. What's next?
**Gizmo:** So, boys, let's talk about the makeup of the cigar. It's actually not a Nicaraguan Puro, like you might think, and I think that's one of the distinguishing factors of the Milano line.
The wrapper is Ecuadorian Sumatra. And the binder and [00:16:00] filler are from Nicaragua. So if you want to compare the lines, you know, the Siri V is a blend of Nicaraguan Habano filler tobaccos with a high concentration of Ligero. Obviously a little bit more oomph to that. And the wrapper on the Siri V is a sun grown Habano.
On the Melania, like I just said, it's Ecuadorian Sumatra. And the filler and binder are Nicaraguan. The blend on this was tweaked to be smoother than the Oliva V Line. And I think that's why they're trying to command a higher price point. Is they're delivering it as a more refined experience for the smoker.
And I think that they're putting a bit of a premium on that. I
**Poobah:** really like the Sumatra wrapper. I find it very nice. It's beautiful. Yeah, I do. I it's like that, that comes up over and over in various new world cigars and we, we like it. We tend to like that rapper because it's a, it's a Maduro, but it's not, you know, it's not, it's a, it's [00:17:00] Ecuadorian.
It's not a Nicar, it's not a Nicaraguan rapper. Um, and maybe there's something to that. I mean, um,
**Gizmo:** I'm curious how much of that actually plays into the The change in flavor from the V line, or is it a time thing that they're not like, I'm curious what the blending decision is, how much the wrapper actually affects the flavor on this.
Like I'm curious what the actual chemistry, the chemical makeup of the, that difference in flavor is. Is there a natural in this? There is a natural in the Milano. Yeah. So let's go through some of the other Vitolas in the Oliva V Milano line. The, they have a Churchill, which is the same size as the Oliva V line.
It's a, 50 ring gauge by 7 inches, of course. They have Bam's favorite, they have a double toro.
**Senator:** Look at that. The one and only double toro. It's an
**Gizmo:** actual Vittola. 60 ring gauge by 6 inches
**Senator:** long. How much did you pay them to make that after you said there was a double
**Gizmo:** toro? What'd you say that on episode 2, I think?
It was quite the investment, sir. The 52 ring gauge [00:18:00] torpedo by 6. 5 inches long. The Toro, which is 52 by six, the Robusta we mentioned earlier, 52 ring gauge by five. They have a petite Corona, which is an interesting one rooster. I'm sure would be into that 46 ring gauge by four and a half. And finally, the Figueroa we have in our hands here, which is 52 ring gauge by six and a half.
And what's interesting too about this is if you look on the internet at retailers and you look at the dimensions, I'm actually glad I went to Aliva's website, there's. Jumping numbers of what the actual ring gauge of the cigar is. So some have 52, some have 54. It's very inconsistent. Oliva says it's 52, so You gotta trust them.
They're right. There's no
**Senator:** way this
**Gizmo:** is 54. I agree, but all the retailers say it is. So a couple of the guys in the room just got back from Panama. Pagoda and Senator were just there. Panama! Doing a little secret cigar trip. Industry trip. How was it? What's the takeaways? [00:19:00] Well, are we allowed to tell? Well, the
**Bam Bam:** floor is yours.
**Pagoda:** Listen, I'm going silent now. No, it was excellent. It's, uh, Panama is one of those, uh, cities, uh, you know, which, uh, I've really, uh, come to like. Um, I, I think, uh, it's, uh, one of those cities that gives you a part of the new world experience with skyscrapers, you know, it's very Miami like, I would like to think.
right on the water. And then they have an old town as well, uh, which is, uh, also very beautiful, you know, with a lot of historical, you know, uh, at least a facade in front. Uh, and, um, what they've done is, uh, they've reconstructed things from inside and built really modern bars and restaurants and. Great food, uh, great drinks and, uh, it's just one of the cities.
It's a great destination for a short trip.
**Rooster:** So this was your second trip
**Pagoda:** to Panama? Yeah, second trip. Yeah. And, uh, you know, spend New [00:20:00] Year's there. It was, uh, excellent with a few good friends and, uh, uh, just had an excellent time. Great, great weather. Uh, great, great weather. It's uh, it was in the 80s. It does rain on and off.
Typically around 2 or 3 for whatever reason. But they're passing showers and they'll come and they'll go. Nice.
**Gizmo:** It's very tropical. Yeah. Very Florida like. Yeah. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** And, uh, you know, wherever you're standing, you could see water from whichever part of Panama you may be, uh, it's, uh, um, some of the hotels are beautiful.
It's, uh, you know, um, a step above, it feels like you're walking. Uh, in some kind of a historical district and then, you know, 10 minutes away, you're right in the middle of skyscrapers and, and, uh, yeah, Much,
**Rooster:** seems like much different than Cuba.
**Gizmo:** Very, very different. Yeah. Polar opposite.
**Rooster:** Yeah. So you fly directly into Panama.
No, uh,
**Pagoda:** switching flights. No switching flights. It's a direct flight, you know, about, uh, four hours, 40 minutes to [00:21:00] about five hours and, uh, you know, multiple flights and, Easy place, uh, to go to. Um, uh, it is a little expensive during December, but otherwise they're reasonable flights. And, um, the hotel we were staying at had a casino.
There are a lot of casinos out there. So, uh, we met a couple of people who felt that into flying to Vegas where you end up spending so much money and everything is. So much more expensive, you can come to a place like, uh, Panama and experience essentially the same kind of, uh, uh, you know, uh, like good food, uh, you know, gambling, like, it's, it's like a lot of things, Panama has a lot of things to offer.
How
**Gizmo:** are the people?
**Pagoda:** People are friendly, reasonably friendly, but you know, you come across people from all over the world, it does have, it seems like over a hundred, two hundred banks, every building has a different bank, which you've never really heard of, and there's skyscrapers with big signage, and, and so you do have a lot of international [00:22:00] community over there, um, Yeah, just overall a great vibe.
**Senator:** That's great. So, I, I mean, for me, I had no idea what to expect because this was my first time visiting. I would say Pagoda's been there twice. I was blown away. I mean, it's a weird place. And I say that because it is so westernized and like American, like you wouldn't expect. I've never been to any Latin American country where, I kid you not, there are more.
American fast food chains in Panama city. And by the way, when we keep saying Panama, we're talking about Panama city, Panama, there are more American fast food chains in Panama city than I've seen in any major city in the U S it's insane. We saw, I mean, the obvious ones, McDonald's, Burger King, subway, all that.
There's Carl's jr. There was an olive garden in the airport.
**Gizmo:** Well, that's if you want to get great Italian,
**Senator:** that's where we go. Oh, it's excellent. I couldn't believe it. Their currency is the U S dollar. Wow. You it's probably the easiest place for an American to travel in [00:23:00] Latin America and not have to feel like it's a big culture shock or they need to adjust in exchange currency or.
You know, no one, no, an extensive amount of Spanish to really get by there. You don't. So I was just very confused when I, I mean, the airport experience, I'm just looking around like, why is there an olive garden in the Panama airport? This doesn't make any sense. So comfort food. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's, it's odd.
And then you go to like downtown Panama city and like Pagoda said, I mean, there are skyscrapers everywhere. The development in that city's insane. Sane. The amount of money that's just been poured in and invested. And it's not even just standard skyscrapers. I mean, I have this one photo, you guys have to see this.
This is probably one of the coolest skyscrapers I've ever seen. And, and all of them honestly are like very intricately designed. Let me just pull this one. Are you going to show the twisted building? Yeah, you know, exactly.
**Gizmo:** Exactly.
**Poobah:** Senator. I mean, do you think the unlimited breadsticks is a catalyst for [00:24:00] economic
**Senator:** development?
Look at this building. Look how cool this
**Poobah:** looks. Oh, that's crazy. It's like a, it's like
**Gizmo:** a twist. Oh, wow. Look at that. It's like a drill. I'm curious, Bam, as an architect, that's
**Bam Bam:** quite expensive to build. Yeah. That is not a cheap building. Not at all.
**Senator:** Wow. So just the whole downtown is really cool. And I think one of the other things that I was, I was surprised and I think as a merit there, you know, you visit certain countries, like you visit Cuba, you visit Puerto Rico.
Um, you visit really any of these, uh, you visit Columbia. Like most people in Cuba are Cuban, right? That the locals who actually live there year round. Most people in Columbia are Colombian. You visit Panama and it's like this melting pot. You meet people who are locals and live there from Columbia. Panama, Venezuela, Cuba.
I mean, just all over the place. So for me, it was just very cool. Like, I feel like, you know, we're in the New York area and we're used to kind of a melting pot of a city. And, uh, to have that there was just really unique. I, I, it was so fun. Like every time we're in an Uber and you know, we're [00:25:00] talking to the cab driver, asking where he's from every time it was like a different country, you know, you get in a cab in Cuba, where are you from Cuba?
It's a very simple answer. You know what to expect. I have never
**Rooster:** met a person from Panama. Now they're right. I work with a lot of Latin American people, but. Nobody has ever
**Gizmo:** said, I'm from Panama. That's unique. I also know someone that retired, they didn't have kids, a couple that I used to work with. They retired early fifties, sold everything, and they moved to Panama City and that's where I live.
Oh my
**Senator:** gosh, I do know someone from Panama. Wild story. So when I was in college, um, this was my senior year when me and a lot of my friends had kind of checked out and we knew what we were doing after and we were kind of done with college. Um, there's this thing called the faculty club where basically it's this very nice, like, like any member club that only the faculty can dine and drink at.
So there's like a watering hole for, a watering hole for all the faculty. We somehow, a buddy of mine, kind of found his way into this place and ingratiated himself with this woman named Cynthia, who is the bartender there. And she would let [00:26:00] us as undergrads sneak in and drink there all day long. And they made amazing cocktails and everyone around us.
It was so funny. We were going there so often, like there'd be no tables in the, like, um, this garden room they had. And the staff would literally just make people move their tables, bring in tables from another room in the center of the room, and like, we'd all just sit there and drink. It was awesome. But this woman was from Panama.
The most hospitable, kind woman I have ever met in my life. And having been there, I can't say that we met a ton of Panama Nationals or Panamanians, but we did meet some. And they were incredibly nice, super kind. I feel like the, the culture, the people there is, um, Cuban esque, honestly, in terms of like the hospitality, which is really nice.
Uh, Pagoda said there's a lot of good food there. One bizarre thing that we found, for whatever reason, a cuisine that you would least expect to be good in Panama. Is great.
**Gizmo:** Can I take a guess? I know what it is. Italian,
**Bam Bam:** Olive Garden. I was going to say sushi. [00:27:00] Greek. It's
**Senator:** Italian food.
**Gizmo:** Oh, wow. That's why I mean, Olive Garden changed everything.
**Senator:** Like we went to a steakhouse and I was expecting him like, Oh, you know, they probably like fly in some great meat from Argentina or something. Steak was mediocre. It wasn't great. We go to this little Italian place right around the corner from our hotel and um, I think we were there for lunch and like got a Caesar salad, something simple, like how, how bad could they make a Caesar salad?
And, uh, which was fine. And then we just got like a little individual pizza to share. And we knew we're like, this is probably going to suck the pizza. I mean, we have a member at our lounge who makes his own pizza. And we've all been to his house. Amazing pizza. Was it that good? It's similar to his. It's like thin crust, Neapolitan style.
It was mushroom and truffle oil. I mean, it was so good. And I couldn't believe, and then what'll really blow your mind, we'll have to talk about the Cigar Lounge. So we found, no joke, The nicest cigar lounge I have [00:28:00] visited in any country in the world, period. That's unbelievable. You have traveled a lot. A lot.
I mean, Singapore, London, like every major, like, city you'd expect nice cigar lounges. I'm kind of flabbergasted. That's
**Gizmo:** a big statement. Yeah,
**Senator:** that's a huge statement. We find this place on, like, Google. We go, we get dropped off. There's like Porsches and Range Rovers parked outside. We're like, okay, there's clearly, you know, people.
This is Senator's kind
**Bam Bam:** of people.
**Gizmo:** He's a dual citizen. Oh, believe me. I would be if I could.
**Pagoda:** Hey, that's my card. Only not.
**Senator:** We walk in this place, just the seating alone, the furniture, the nicest tufted leather chairs I've seen better than the Grand Havana room. When that existed in Manhattan, any nice cigar lounge that any of us have ever been to.
Wipes the floor with it. I mean, super high quality, really comfortable seating. They've got a full bar restaurant, um, off to the side. And after the main room, it's like this private room. It has like an 80 inch TV, a pool table, [00:29:00] all these couches, everything. They were so hospitable. They let the six of us have the whole private room to ourselves.
No fee for it. There is a button on every table. When you want service, you just click the button. Somebody appears like the snap of your fingers. It's unbelievable. I need that in my
**Gizmo:** house.
**Senator:** How many times have we been at a place that has like a full service restaurant and bar for cigars, where you're waiting like 20 minutes, 30 minutes just to put in a drink order when you get there.
It's insane. Service was spectacular. And then in the back, they have this huge outdoor patio. That's like. Got these little, um, like, uh, coverings for shade, another giant 80 inch TV furniture that looks like, I mean, you know, something you'd see in Miami, like super high end this place. We, if that existed here, we would spend all we, our family would never see us.
**Gizmo:** So perfect. So when you guys went, how many guys were there in your party in that private room and how much was it? We didn't.
**Senator:** So six, we didn't pay. It was six in the room. [00:30:00] We didn't pay any extra for the room at all. And the wild thing is we spent hours there. We had drinks and food. And speaking of how crazy this whole Italian thing is there that they make good Italian food.
I made a super adventurous choice with the menu there. And I got linguine with clams just to test this ridiculous theory that Italian
**Gizmo:** food. That's risky. That's what I said. I can't believe he did that. I know. Especially after the Cuban seafood stories. Well,
**Senator:** that's different. You have to understand this was like day two or three on the trip where I knew at least the food quality in Panama.
I never had to worry. That's fair. And Pagoda's looking at me and he's like, just prepare yourself. The pasta is going to be like super mushy. It's not going to be al dente. I kid you not this dish comes out. I wish I would have photographed it at the time. I thought of it. Like most of the plate was devoured.
The pasta was perfectly al dente like a really good Italian restaurant here. The clams were incredible. It was probably top three linguine with clams I've ever had anywhere. And I'm in a cigar lounge in Panama city. Do you [00:31:00] remember what you paid for them? Like 20. Wow. Wow. So we got the bill for the six of us for drinks and a full lunch.
Everybody, we got plenty of food. And they charge a 5 cutting fee, 200.
**Gizmo:** Oh my goodness. For six people total. That's amazing. Six people
**Senator:** for hours there. That's like Cuban prices. Food, drinks, cigars. It is. It really is. It's like 30 a person.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Dude, that's crazy. You could be hanging out there all day, and the food is fantastic.
The service was great. Wow. And you know, if you close your eyes and envision a cigar lounge, that's
**Gizmo:** what it is. Wow. So is Panamanian
**Rooster:** food Kind of like what, like, what would you, what would you, I mean, like Colombian, Ecuadorian, you tell
**Senator:** me that's the funny thing while we were there. I mean, again, we were in like the nicer areas, not necessarily like the, like nicer touristy areas.
So not necessarily the most local of places. If I go back, I definitely want to spend more time pursuing a lot of the more local spots. I agree. I honestly can't tell you because none of these restaurants have any real Panamanian food on their menus. Nothing traditional.
**Pagoda:** I couldn't even tell you. [00:32:00] No, I do have to tell you, we ended up going to a place called El Pulpito or something, which is the octopus, which you kind of mentioned earlier.
Right. Oh, that was the cigar. Pulpo. Yeah. Yeah. No. So what happened is, um, you know, on the menu, there was chicken lollipops. Ha ha ha. You know, that's such an Indian thing to really think. But they were fantastic. And, uh, you know, it was like a gastropub, kind of a place. It was excellent. Great cocktails, you know, uh, good food, man.
I, I was, I was actually impressed
**Bam Bam:** with the food. What's good to hear is that you don't have to have a command of the Spanish language to get around there. And that's, that's nice. It's an advantage. It definitely
**Senator:** helps. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** Did you see any Doritos for Puba? Lots actually.
**Rooster:** Lots of
**Senator:** snacks. Lots of snacks.
Puba's safe then. So. The other thing, you can't go to Panama without seeing the Panama Canal.
**Gizmo:** Oh, man, I'm obsessed with the Panama Canal. Always been, since I was a kid. Swear to God. Really?
**Senator:** So, Pagoda got to do his first trip there. I went with another guy who it was his first time in Panama [00:33:00] too, and uh, it was awesome.
The, the wildest part of it, you just expect, you have all these massive ships that cross through that. You expect it to be huge. Huge. It's like really deep and narrow. It's so narrow, I kid you not. It's like a matter of inches on each side of the boat. It's insane.
**Bam Bam:** Now I have a question. Don't they raise and lower the elevation of the water?
Based on the size of the boat so that it can pass.
**Senator:** Yeah. That's how they do that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Truly unbelievable. That's amazing. The whole thing is just so cool. And you know, we're in the Uber ride over there. And, um, the Uber driver was showing us there was an American military base there, which we had built when we started construction of the canal.
And then part of the agreement. So America owned and operated the canal for decades. Senator
**Bam Bam:** was a project manager.
**Gizmo:** He was, you were the architect.
**Senator:** And, um, finally in 1999, the U S, uh, gave back [00:34:00] control of the canal to Panama. So now Panama gets all the economic, full economic benefit of it. Um, I couldn't believe to learn there are 10. Panamanians that work at the canal every year. Wow. I mean, that just tells the scale of the operation that that is.
That's crazy. 10, 000 employees. Um, and as we're, as we're going, we see to this day, there's still the American military base there because when we signed it over to Panama in 99. The one stipulation in the agreement is that America to this day retains the right to intervene militarily, to preserve the neutrality of the canals.
And that's why we keep the base there. No one can ever basically fuck with the canal. And then as we're going past the military base, Uber driver's telling us, he goes, and there's a college campus right next to it. We're like, what college is this? He goes, Florida state university. FSU has a campus.
**Gizmo:** That's a city.
That's got to be a ruse, right? There's no way kids are in Panama. I'm sorry, having classes at FSU. [00:35:00]
**Senator:** I would have taken classes there. I
**Poobah:** mean, when you think about it, it's an international gateway
**Gizmo:** and it's next to the Panama canal, which is, you know, well,
**Poobah:** that's what I'm, that's my point. It's an international gateway.
So that's. So much ancillary money and banking and transactions, and there's late age and all this stuff that, you know, you've got, you've got cargo, you've got freight, like hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars of freight going through the Panama canal from different countries, from all around the world, all of that.
And it's not like, I think the Senator's point, like it doesn't happen like, Hey. I'm at the Panama canal. We're just going to like cruise through the fuck through here. Hey, can I get through, you know, right? Like,
**Gizmo:** like, like my, here's my easy path.
**Poobah:** This is, this is a vessel vessel X, Y, [00:36:00] Z, you know, whatever we're, we're coming through there's, you know, They probably have to refuel things.
They have to do to get through there. Do you know how long banking? I mean, you know, so the, but all those banks and all that, it's, it's an international commerce hub, I
**Gizmo:** guess, is what I'm trying to say. Oh, for
**Senator:** sure. Do you know how long it takes to get through the canal for these ships? No, on average, 10 hours.
Wow.
**Gizmo:** Across through the canal. That's amazing. How long
**Senator:** is it? So that's the thing, you know, when you're, we were at the Miraflores locks and. It's this lock system they created. And so there's multiple of them. So when you're at one, you look at it and we watched a full giant ship cross through it, which was amazing.
But you see it and you're like, Oh, that took what? Like 30 minutes. That's not so bad, but there's many of these that they go through. And so over time, it amounts to 10 hours to pass through the full length of the canal. That would have to be stressful for the captain. Don't you think? Well, this is actually what's crazy.
The captain doesn't have to worry about it. So they get tugged through it. [00:37:00] Oh, it was cool. We saw there like these little, um, Oh, that's tremendous. Like actual person operate. I thought it was just all with technology. It's not, I'm sure years from now it will
**Bam Bam:** be. I'm sorry, but I'd camp out there with a chair and a cigar.
I'd hang out
**Senator:** there and watch this whole thing. You couldn't a cigar because the funny thing is we're sitting there. I'm looking at my buddy and with there and we're like, Oh, we would love a cigar right now. Right. But then the funny thing is this massive oil tanker is coming through next to cross. Oh, you can't see the largest, no smoking signs I have ever seen.
I'm not kidding. I have the photos. It like spans the entire width of this boat. That's gotta be God knows how many feet. Just no smoking anywhere is the amount of oil that's on that thing.
**Gizmo:** Lizards are known to break rules. That's true.
**Poobah:** But I mean, as you go through these locks. Even in smaller canals where they have to, you have to keep going through them.
There's all kinds of people on shore who are, who are just, who have different responsibilities. I'm sure. Um, in terms of making sure, I mean, it's not a wide canal, so if you've got a [00:38:00] big ship coming through there, there's really big consequences if everybody isn't communicating. So, even in smaller locks, it becomes, It's amazing how big of a boat could get through a small lock and you go, wow.
And you have to raise the water, lower the water, raise the water, lower the water. It's nuts. I mean,
**Pagoda:** yeah, it's, you know, what's funny,
**Gizmo:** it's an
**Poobah:** engineering
**Gizmo:** miracle.
**Bam Bam:** It
**Pagoda:** is. It is. It's an
**Senator:** engineering miracle. It is. I mean, we watched show after you. After you go to the observation deck to see the canal, you then go downstairs and they have this huge IMAX theater and you watch this IMAX video on the canal that Morgan Freeman narrates.
And it's so wild. Of course. Yeah. I mean, the voice of God.
**Gizmo:** What doesn't he narrate? Exactly.
**Senator:** I love that guy. You watch this video and they talk about the origin of it. Of course, the French first tried to build the canal there and failed. And what's wild is it was some stat 10, 000 [00:39:00] Frenchmen died just trying to build that.
And they were unsuccessful. And then the U S bought the rights to it for pennies on the dollar, because they thought this is impossible. And we got very fortunate that like we had brilliant enough people to be able to figure out how to do it. Uh, the, the whole thing is just unbelievable.
**Bam Bam:** America, America,
**Poobah:** Roosevelt was a big part of it.
**Gizmo:** He was, he
**Senator:** was the president who initiated the development of the canal. Yeah. I
**Poobah:** mean, He was a real naturalist and did so many things that were just amazing. I mean, um,
**Senator:** I mean, to your point in the video, they show initially there's not much progress being made by our country and building the canal and Teddy Roosevelt is so hell bent.
We are not going to fail. This thing's going to get built. He flies him. Stealth down to Panama is at the site going up to every, you see video footage of this, going up to people and asking like, what's going on here? What's going on there? And told them whatever it takes, this has to be done. And so then I guess he's like a really competitive guy.
[00:40:00] So he thought it would be clever. You'd
**Poobah:** think he's the rough, the rough riders, the Spanish American war. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** He
**Senator:** had the project manager create a competition. They were working on opposite sides of the dam that they were building to see who could complete each side fastest. And like the production increased exponentially from there.
And it was brilliant. It like accelerated the progress.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the leave of Siri V. Melanio Maduro Figueroa. What's everybody thinking? Bam's almost done. Uh, you
**Bam Bam:** know, this is the second time I'm having this. I happen to love this cigar. It's very good. But I will say I enjoy the retrohale more than I enjoy the traditional draw.
It's good. But the retrohale, I'm capturing so many different things I don't get on a draw. Such a good cigar. Smooth, very smooth.
**Senator:** I like that it's consistent. I mean, you know, all the way through so far, the flavor profile has been the same traditional [00:41:00] Nicaraguan flavors that we like, but delivered incredibly smoothly.
Constructions held up and even as I was talking so much about Panama, you know, I had to relight my cigar and beautiful on the relight. I haven't lost any flavor. And
**Bam Bam:** what's unusual, that hint of fruit for me continues. Oh, it's
**Gizmo:** still
**Bam Bam:** there. It really is. And that's, that's a testament to this and it's unique to most Nicaraguans.
**Rooster:** Now, it's, it's very good. I mean, like I said, it's, it's very much like a Padron, you know, if you compare it to the 80th, it's, it's not like has that much body, a little bit less than that, but it delivers phenomenal. It's a great
**Gizmo:** stick.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Yeah. I was expecting a lot more like it to be very, um, you know, cocoa, you know, forward or, you know, uh, coffee, uh, flavoring and that.
It's not there at all. It's very muted for me. I do get a little bit of cocoa, but very, very muted. Um, but yeah, excellent. It's
**Gizmo:** very balanced.
**Rooster:** There's not like one [00:42:00] dominant flavor note that you get. It's, it's very
**Gizmo:** balanced throughout.
**Poobah:** I'd agree. It is very balanced. It's, it's a little bit one dimensional. I don't know if that's an, if that's a merit or a demerit in the cigar, but it's not bringing me like, it's similar to the other Milani's that I've smoked, it's kind of very straightforward in this delivery and I think that's okay.
**Bam Bam:** He's not wrong. You know, the sake of, for the sake of what it is, it's the consistency is what gives you that dimension, but it's such a, it's so good though. Because
**Poobah:** a lot of people aren't looking for that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, like some people just want, Hey, I'm going to get this. That's not a demerit here.
Yeah. Like, and it's going to give me what this is. It's, it doesn't really change up for me that much, but that's been my experience with this.
**Gizmo:** Always. I'm loving the combustion. I am so impressed with how little effort I have to put in to get a massive amount [00:43:00] of smoke out of it. I'm finding it to be really smooth, like, I'm definitely gonna, I feel like if this continues like this, like, this is gonna potentially be, this is gonna potentially be a contender.
For, you know, rotation, especially in those moments where you want something like that 80th or the feel of the 80th in your hand, but you don't want to go to that level of, of whatever, I
**Bam Bam:** probably would have never picked this cigar up. Discovering a cigar like this just adds to your repertoire. Senator, Puba, you guys are always traveling.
So when you're at a place where they don't have cigars that you like, if they have a box of these, you're gonna be very happy to smoke this. Happy to get it from someone as a gift at an event. This is a really good cigar. You would
**Gizmo:** find
**Rooster:** Olivas pretty much They're
**Gizmo:** ubiquitous, yeah. Most, most tobacco shops.
**Poobah:** That's true. Most cigar shops. The only demerit I would give to it is that the one dimension the one dimensionality of it It get, I get a little bored with it. Like I want it, I [00:44:00] want it to pick up towards the end and it's not. It might. So just kind of like. Still might. I've, in other words, in a Robusto format.
If that was to deliver like this, and it was a quick cigar, this is giving, this is just, I can find myself getting kind of a little uninterested. I would
**Rooster:** like to try this in a petite Corona.
**Gizmo:** That's what I was saying. Just like, you know, like
**Poobah:** quick, small package. Yeah. Or like a Robusto. They make a Robusto. I mean, Robusto is
**Rooster:** still like an, like an hour smoke for me.
The thing,
**Senator:** the thing that's weird to me about the Milanio line having had now this, the Robusto, and I just realized I have had the Petit Corona. I'm just telling you from, from my perspective, the flavor profile for some reason in the Robusto and the Petit Corona. are very different from the flavor profile.
This, like those cigars have a lot of barnyard. I don't get any barnyard in this, which is my jam. Like I don't get any in this. I'm not a big barnyard guy. If it's going to be in a cigar, I want it just very little subtle in the [00:45:00] background. I don't want a ton of it. And on both of those other Vitolas, I get a lot like I get on this, like.
Raisin and dried fruit. I don't get that much dried fruit from those others. I get more like cedar and just a dash of cocoa. No
**Gizmo:** horsefoot in that? You're a
**Rooster:** very urban guy. You're right.
**Poobah:** You're right. Because I've had a number of the Robustos and they're not. The blend is different. Yeah. Um, cause I have a friend who smokes the Robusta, these Robustas and he gives them to me all the time, every time I see him.
And I'm
**Gizmo:** sure you
**Senator:** feel like you're sitting in a barn as you're
**Gizmo:** puffing away on that
**Poobah:** thing. Well, it's not, but it's not like you're like, Oh my God, this is bad. You're just like, I'm not going to pursue it, but I can totally smoke this right now. It's not, it's not offensive in any way. It's just not.
**Rooster:** Great. I would love to see a cigar blended with some Cuban and Nicaraguan tobaccos
**Gizmo:** somehow.
That would be fun. We'll work on that. Nicaraguan [00:46:00] tobacco with the strength and the
**Rooster:** nuance of the Cuban
**Poobah:** tobacco. Yeah, we'll get like Arnold and Sly, we'll like fly into Cuba with some of those dudes, you know, like what was the movie with all the tough guys in it? Oh yeah, we get them, we get those guys to come covert, covert up, covert up, we fly in with like a C one 30.
We land it, then we get all these polonies, we get all these piles, we haul them onto a plane and
**Gizmo:** get out of there. I can say the state department's going to love this whole thing. I can see Gizmo with camouflage paint on his face. I already need it going through with his night vision goggles, sneaking through the factory.
**Poobah:** It's not the, it's not the war of pigs. It's like the war of polonies.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's talk about our pairing tonight. We have the Glen more NG, the Kinta Ruben, 14 years old, single malt Scotch. [00:47:00] Never heard of it. Picked it up in the. You've never had this? I've never had it. I've actually never had Glen Morgie in my life.
Oh, wow. Um, so I'm actually really excited to sip it. I haven't even tipped it so far tonight, so. Wow. Wow. Okay. Um, 14 year aged single malt. You've never had the ciip? What's that? Senator?
**Senator:** Well, I have, of course. Oh, what's the sign? I don't think he had, that's like their highest, yeah. Oh, run their high. Right.
I've had that. I've had this. I mean, it's well known.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. Delicious. So, Senator, what do we know about Glenn Morangi, especially this one, the 14 year? The funny thing is,
**Senator:** I've had a decent amount of their stuff. I've had the 10 year. Actually, I haven't had that much of their stuff. I've had the 10 year and the Cignet.
They're on complete extremes of price point. Um, and now this, but what I didn't realize, I mean, I know Glenn Morangi is a very well respected brand in Scotland, but they have 180 year histories. They've been around a long time. That's amazing. They were founded in 1843 when William Matheson acquired the Morangi Farm, was the original name, and then converted it into a distillery and named it [00:48:00] Glenmorangi.
In 2004, the distillery was bought and is now owned by LVMH, Louis Vuitton, Moet, Hennessy, who owns like everything. The distillery is in the Highlands region of Scotland. And their claim is that they have the tallest stills in all of Scotland, which is why their Scotch tends to be like lighter, more delicate and, and fruit a little more fruit forward than some other scotches.
The stills are crazy. They're 26 feet tall and 17 feet wide that they distill this in. And fun fact, the giraffe has long been a symbol of the distillery because their stills are the same height as the average adult giraffe. Wow. 26 feet. That's pretty cool. That is cool. And like, they're even serious about it.
They're, they like started this whole giraffe preservation project and they do a lot of good work on that. Um, Glenmorangie uses a bunch of different cask types to age their scotches. And this story actually fascinated me. So all of their products for any of the different lines, [00:49:00] the 10, 12, you name it.
They start by first being matured in white oak casks that are manufactured from trees growing in Glenn Moranji's own forest that they own in the Ozark mountains of Missouri in the U S are you serious?
**Bam Bam:** Crazy.
**Senator:** That's amazing. Then it gets better. So the new casts are left to air for two years before they lease them to two distillers that use them, Jack Daniels and Heaven Hill, for them to mature their bourbon in for four years.
After they're done maturing the bourbon for four years, then they give them back to Glemerangi, who uses them to mature their scotch in those barrels. So their original tenure. is made exclusively in those ex bourbon casks. All the higher expressions, the 12 and beyond, they're initially in those ex bourbon barrels, and then they finish them, um, in different casks that are either, uh, previously used for wine, port, or sherry.
Interesting. So they're big on finishing for all their higher, uh, [00:50:00] age expressions. Uh, the scotch that they make is entirely, all the ingredients they use are from the plot of land that the distillery's on, which is cool. That's pretty cool. They have their own spring where all the water they use comes from that
**Gizmo:** spring.
This is a grower's scotch.
**Senator:** It pretty much is. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Gizmo has learned. Shouting back to uh, Vilmar and C, the grower's champagne we did. I am very impressed.
**Bam Bam:** Huh? I'm getting intimidated by you. Ha ha ha. And your knowledge. Ha ha ha.
**Senator:** And then just finally on their bottling, so they have their own bottling plant in Scotland that not only bottles Glenmorangie, but also bottles all of Ardberg, another Scotch.
It's a
**Gizmo:** pretty cool history. We haven't done Ardberg. We have to do, we should do one of them. It's an extraordinary history, actually.
**Poobah:** Yeah, that's, wow. That's a rough one.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, Ardberg.
**Gizmo:** Oh, Ardberg. Yeah. You know,
**Poobah:** I have some. I'll bring it. It's undrinkable.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Perfect. Um. Can't wait.
**Senator:** Is it peaty? Yeah. Super P. Oh,
**Gizmo:** okay.
So I was really confused [00:51:00] by the name Quinta Ruben. Oh, I left this out. Yeah. And I found what it is. So explain that and then I'll give you a little. So Ruben, uh, is a Gaelic word is derived from a Gaelic word, meaning Ruby and Quinta is what they call in a state in Portugal where they grow the grape for port.
So Quinta Ruben is Ruby. Grape for port.
**Senator:** So, the funny thing is, and I imagine a lot of Scottish folks probably hate that this happened, when LVMH bought Glenmorangie, they, they first of all, they redesigned the bottles to these like curvaceous bottles, which I actually think the bottles look really nice.
Yeah, it's very nice. When you see the Glen Ranchie Cignet bottle, I'm not kidding. It is the single nicest looking bottle of scotch I've ever seen.
**Gizmo:** I love the shape. It's almost, um, it's like a, it's like a curvy woman. It's like a curvy woman. Yes. Bam Bam approved. So that was going to give this
**Senator:** a 10. That was the first thing they did.
They changed the bottles and LVMH. I mean, this [00:52:00] is Louis Vuitton and every major high end alcohol. They know obviously how to, how to brand and market these products. So that was step one. And then step two, their aged expressions used to be like anyone else, just the 12 year, the 14. They added these fancy names, the Kinta Ruben or whatever it's called.
Uh, there's the LaSanta. There's every one of them now has this like fancier name that I think they thought would just make it a little more marketable, make it sound higher end. A lot of these names are frankly very divorced from Scotland. So I think a lot of Scottish folks were probably pissed. This is a Scottish product.
Why are you, you know, giving all this credit to Portugal or some of these other countries? And we even see some French influence there, which it's a French company. So, um, I think that part was a little controversial, but they, uh, nonetheless have preserved. I think a lot of their history, which is great. Do we know how much is bottleless?
Yeah. So most places like Total Wine that anyone in the US probably has one somewhere near them. It's 65.
**Bam Bam:** For a 14 year aged expression, that's quite a good price. [00:53:00]
**Senator:** It is, and I think they do a lot of volumes, so they can be pretty competitively priced. I
**Bam Bam:** get a lot of orange peel in this. I'm curious to say.
Citrus. Not citrus. You know, you gotta cut his mic.
**Rooster:** Orange peel is not citrus? Oxygen doesn't oxidize? What's going
**Gizmo:** on here?
**Bam Bam:** Hey, that was last year.
A hint, just
**Senator:** a
**Gizmo:** hint. All right, go ahead. So I love reading, I always love reading the flavor notes that, that the pairings come with because they're always so, you know, verbose and kind of over the top. So they say here that Dr. Bill, who's their director of whiskey creation, Dr. Bill was born with a taste for adventure and with the single malt he sought to create a whiskey as unpredictable as his travels.
Quinta Ruben is a whiskey journey into the wild, a dark and delectable forest. Where the wind whistles with gusts of peppermint and dark swirls of chocolate can happen at any moment. I feel like I'm reading Willy Wonka. In our giraffe high stills, as [00:54:00] Senator was mentioning, it begins soft and fruity, then gets darker and deeper as we let it age for 14 years in bourbon casks and port casks from Portugal.
The finished whiskey is a thicket of voluptuous flavor combinations. Walnut and black pepper, mandarin, orange, bam, bam. There you go. And melted marshmallow. You missed that one.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. Oh, dark chocolate. I'll make sure
**Gizmo:** I look for it next time. Dark chocolate bar and peppermint. Like stepping into a chocolatey minty orange unknown.
The journey is as delicious as the destination. Very dramatic. So has anyone
**Bam Bam:** had this without ice tonight?
**Gizmo:** I have not. I had a little ice in it. So I
**Bam Bam:** had this neat, it, for a 14 year aged spirit, it's a little tough to drink without ice. With the ice, it's pretty
**Senator:** enjoyable. I agree with that. I took a couple sips without ice and It's tough.
It was, it had a bite. Yeah. But with ice, it opens up, I think, really nicely.
**Gizmo:** It
**Poobah:** does. [00:55:00] It's interesting. It's different than, it's It has a different flavor profile than anything that I've had in a long time. Agreed. I'm not sure how much I like it, but I don't hate it. There's nothing offensive about it. It's just, I actually think as.
Kind of ostentatious as description is it? It's not that inaccurate. I mean, I agree.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, you know The only thing I'm not getting is the peppermint and peppery. Oh, I'm getting a little of that I'm not getting I get a little bit of mint. No marshmallow. I get a little
**Poobah:** bit of the mint I don't get all that citrus.
It's a little bit like confused and maybe that's because I just like a sherry forward scotch and That's kind of what I'm into. Or on the other hand, like a talisker where it's a more balanced, um, uh, you know, PD scotch, you know, where it just says, it says what it is. It's I don't know what this [00:56:00] is.
**Senator:** No, I think it's fair.
I mean, the funny thing is having only had the 10 year and the signet and I'll just scrap the 10 year because it's a very basic standard fair scotch. There's no complexity there, but the signet. You know, when Puba said, I feel like I've not really had something like this. There's not necessarily something to compare this to.
It's just different and hard to kind of figure out or make sense of. The Cygnet, I have never had a scotch that remotely tastes like Glenmorangie's Cygnet. It is literally like drinking espresso. It is just, when you open that bottle and smell it, it's straight espresso. Yeah, really? I've never had a scotch like it.
And what I'm realizing, even in drinking this, like this amalgamation of flavors. It's pretty distinct. Like, I don't think any of us would compare this to, you know, this is similar to some other brand. And what I'll give them credit for. I mean, I like it. I'm not in love with it. They have really done a [00:57:00] clever job of creating very distinct differentiated products in a way that I think there's so many other scotches I have where.
I'll have a 12 year of something and I'll say, well, this is similar to another 12 year, but it's not as good. And I just prefer that other one. For me, this is just like this flavor profile, which is fairly complex and unique is unlike anything else. And I like it, but don't love it, but I would never, it's not competing with anything because it's really carved out something for itself, which is pretty
**Poobah:** cool.
It reminds me of when we reviewed. Little rest was so much more elevated than this in terms of its refinement and delivery and uniqueness that it. That the little rest was, it was an elevated American scotch experience, not American, single malt American. Sorry. Thank you. American single malt experience that you didn't really have a spirit [00:58:00] like that, but it was so much more refined than
**Senator:** this.
I agree, but it's a good comparison in that, that that's a brand that also carves out something very unique and different, unique
**Poobah:** and different. You know, it's like, this is definitely unique and different. The little rest was unique and different, but so much more elevated. I'm not trying to do an a B rating.
Uh, I'm just saying this is a little bit out of left field for me. I've never really tasted a scotch that's got a flavor profile like this. I don't love it. It's interesting. I could see how somebody could, um, so. You know, whether it's a matter or not, who knows? I think that it's differentiating, which in when it comes to single malt scotch, that's tough to
**Bam Bam:** do.
It really is. I think it's a big time merit that it can differentiate
**Gizmo:** itself. Yeah. I also saw that it's 92 proof. It's 46%. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. So it's a little higher proof than a lot of the scotch, which [00:59:00] explains why the ice is needed. That does, you know, when I saw that, I was surprised because I only had a few chips of ice, but it doesn't drink hotter to me then, then with the ice anyway, then, then a lot of the, the single months that we drink, but yeah, it's, it's a little bit higher.
Oh
**Senator:** yeah. No, I mean, I'm just surprised because There are some higher proof scotches that with ice still have much more of a bite than this does. I mean, with ice, this is super smooth. It's very smooth.
**Bam Bam:** And it's enjoyable. I'm not going to turn it away
**Gizmo:** if someone offers a glass to me. And I think it actually is pairing quite nicely with this, I would say medium, full, medium, medium, full cigar we're smoking tonight.
So when I saw online, I was kind of researching this as I was, you know, you know, prepping for the episode. I saw that other scotch and whiskey drinkers, when they talk about Glenmore and G, they Point to this one as being the best of the lower end core line, like the four or five that they make that are pretty standard and available, not the signet that we discussed earlier, which I think is a whole nother ballgame, but [01:00:00] they said that this is their favorite.
So that's why I grabbed this one today, you know, so boys. What are you guys thinking about the cigar right now? But we're about halfway through
**Rooster:** here. I think I kind of agree with Puba on this one. It's starting to get a little boring. Yeah. It's getting, it's like the same. I mean, I think I would enjoy this cigar in a shorter format.
Like the, the last third to me, it's, it, it, it is kind of becoming boring. It's like too, too repetitive. Okay. I'm looking for more strength. I'm not getting that.
**Bam Bam:** Well, if you get to where I am, I'm a bit further ahead. It does start to pick up a
**Senator:** little bit. I will say though, in terms of the flavor profile, I, I think I'm in agreement with Puba and Rooster in that, um, you know, I think the challenge that this cigar has is they've done such a good job of making this so smooth and so approachable.
That because it doesn't change a whole lot and the flavors are there, but all very [01:01:00] kind of subtly playing together, you're left wanting more or something more interesting. So it's easy to get bored because of that. Where if this were punched up a bit more, you know, you might not be as bored as I think we are late in the game with this cigar.
Or
**Rooster:** if it was a shorter format, like the first third of the cigar up to the halfway point, I think it was very enjoyable. But now it's like, kind of like I'm looking for something more and I'm
**Gizmo:** not getting it, but it's still consistent. Oh, it is, right? It's, it's, it's all of it. I mean, it's all the same, but it continues to carry through,
**Poobah:** it continues to carry, but you're looking for more, but it's a little bit of demerit maybe in the cigar.
Okay. At this point. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Giz, what are you thinking? I actually am really enjoying it. I, for what it is. Uh, I'm loving the smoke output. I love how it feels in the hand. I think as Senator has called out on previous episodes, I think the fact that it's one dimensional isn't a problem for me. In, in, where I would kind of place this in a rotation or, or, or where I would choose to smoke it.
You know, I, I'm, I'm enjoying
**Bam Bam:** it. [01:02:00] If it's one dimensional, if that dimension is enjoyable, I can't say that. I won't smoke the cigar again. I just can't say it. Yeah. But I understand what they're
**Gizmo:** saying. I'm fine with what they're saying, but for me, this is a
**Bam Bam:** cigar that's working for me. I totally agree. Yeah, I get what they're
**Pagoda:** saying.
Initially, it was very reminiscent of the 80th, where the draw was excellent. Yeah. You know, like Giz said, you would kiss on it and it would just blow really well. Um. As, uh, time has progressed, I've found that my draw has become a little bit more, uh, resistant, which I don't mind, don't get me wrong. Uh, the cigar itself has become extremely soft, and I'm not sure what's driving that.
Mine
**Gizmo:** is wide open, by the way. I agree. Mine too. I agree. Maybe take another little cut, you know, as you're getting down.
**Pagoda:** And, um, yeah, and even in terms of the flavor profile, I think I'd be, I think from the very beginning I felt that some of the flavors were a bit muted. I'm seeking something more.
**Gizmo:** Got it.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it lacks a level of sophistication. You know, at first, in the first [01:03:00] third, I'm with it. The second half of the cigar, you're just kind of like, eh.
**Gizmo:** Well, here's my question. Let me ask you a question. You said the word sophistication. When I'm picking up the cigar, when I look at the cigar, when I think about Oliva, I'm not thinking about sophistication, and I'm not expecting sophistication from this cigar.
I am 100 percent lockstep with you. I'm expecting value, and I'm expecting a good quality constructed cigar, and a good smoke output, good combustion. That's what I'm expecting. So, I understand the format may be would kind of lead you to think, especially next to a Padrone 80th, sophistication, that's sophistication all day.
I don't think this was designed to be that. But
**Senator:** for what it is. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody's making, for me, very valid points in the sense that I don't disagree with anything Giz said there, but I also don't disagree with Puba in the sense that because this cigar is a larger format, it just, to satisfy someone, even if it's meant to be a value, It's just going to [01:04:00] need a bit more to hold your attention all the way through.
That's fair. And I think that's why, like, we keep talking about, like, you know, Rooster's suggestion of this being in a shorter format, like that would keep all of our attention. I think what everyone here said, the first third, everyone, Puba himself said, the first third, I was there with it. It was the second half that it lost me.
If this were shorter, we would all be there. But because of the size of it. Even though it's meant to be a value, it just is going to need more to hold your attention all the way
**Rooster:** through. And by the way, only smoke
**Gizmo:** sophisticated cigars. I know. You're a connoisseur. Connoisseur corner. So like I said, boys, this cigar was named Cigar of the Year 10 years ago now by Cigar Aficionado.
Number one got a huge rating from them and now it's time to do our Favorite thing that we do each year which is go through and that's I'm being very sarcastic Go through the cigar aficionado top 25 cigars of 2023 so I'm curious how many of these we've actually heard of because the [01:05:00] first one here at number 25 is the West Tampa Red Robusto, which is, uh, I guess an alumnus of general cigar, a guy named Rick Rodriguez left and started his own company last year, West Tampa tobacco in 2022, and that is listed as number 25 on the list.
A never heard of a 50 by five Robusto. Nicaraguan, only available in Tampa, West, West Tampa. Number 24 is the Padilla Miami eight and 11 Churchill. So I like seeing a Churchill on there. Of course, 48 ring gauge by seven same makeup. Almost as this filler and binder Nicaraguan rapper, Ecuadorian Sumatra. And, uh, they make them in the United States, which is pretty cool.
That's number 24. Number 23. We did this one on the podcast. First Cuban on the list. The Rafael Gonzalez Corona de Lonsdale. Oh, yeah. Which was a 48 ring gauge cigar by 5 inches. We did that on [01:06:00] episode 105 and we gave it a flat 8. 0. They gave it a 93. So 13 points higher than us. First Cuban on the list. So that's cool.
Here we go on a pronunciation. Number 22 on the list is the Ozgener. Ozgener family cigars, the Bosphorus B52, 52 ring inch cigar by 5 inches. Similar makeup, Nicaraguan filler, binder, Ecuadorian Nicaragua, and the wrapper is Ecuadorian. Uh, this guy is Tim Osgener who ran, uh, CAO for quite some time. So that's his, uh, his new brand.
He just founded this one. I'm surprised to see. So high up on the list. Number 21, the low floor Dominicana doubly Harrow Lansero. I think we, Oh,
**Pagoda:** wow. So
**Bam Bam:** we've never done that, but I've had that cigar. That is
**Gizmo:** quite, it's a punch in the face. It's very strong. I mean, in the name, Double the Harrow it's going to be a strength bomb.
I used to like it back in the day. [01:07:00] You're talking about the chisel. The
**Bam Bam:** chisel. But I've had this as well. The chisel is also, that'll put hair on your feet.
**Gizmo:** That's a 38 ring cage by seven and a half inch. Lancero from the Dominican Republic. Number 20, we did a version of this cigar, the Olmec Claro Corona Gorda.
I believe we did the Robusto. That's right. This is a 48 ring gauge cigar by 5 12 inches from Nicaragua. We talked a lot about that cigar. It performed pretty well. Number 19, the Foreign Affair by Luciano Cigars in Corona. 42 ring gauge by a little under 6 inches, Nicaraguan. Never heard of that. Have you guys heard of that?
No. Luciano?
**Senator:** No. Uh, didn't, didn't they have that here? No, you're talking diesel
**Bam Bam:** now. No, no,
**Senator:** no, no, no, no, no, no. I met a guy here. I'm telling you. I was here with you that day. Represents that brand. Yeah. Who had handed me one of their cigars. I'm telling you, we have at least heard of it. And your senator loved it.
No, [01:08:00]
**Poobah:** he liked it as much as the acid.
**Gizmo:** Number 18, the Tatuaje, the first entry from Tatuaje on the list, Miami Havana Cazadores, which obviously borrows name from that cigar. We love from Tatuaje. We've done on the podcast. That's a great 43 ring gauge cigar by six and three eighths inches. Of course, it's, uh, made in the U S by Tatuaje filler binder, Nicaraguan rapper, Ecuadorian, just like this cigar we have in our hands right now.
Number 17 is the. Nicaraguan Monte Cristo, 1935 anniversary, Edicion Diamante Grande, which is a big, that's a lot of words, 60 by 6, 60 by 6, all Nicaraguan, certainly nothing close to the Monte Cristo, uh, from Cuba, 60 by six, 60 by six. The world's trending the wrong way, boys. This is a cigar we have coming up on the podcast, actually.
Number 16, the [01:09:00] second Cuban entry, the Cohiba Pyramides Extra. Awesome. Which is a 54 ring gauge cigar by six and a quarter inch. I can't wait to, uh, record that episode. We have that coming up. What ranking is that? What number did it get? That is Number 16. That's a crime. And we have that cigar coming up next week.
Actually,
**Bam Bam:** that's a crime. That should be much higher on that list.
**Gizmo:** It's a crime. We're going to smoke that next week. So that'll be great. Um, I've heard very good things about that cigar. This is a, this is a great one. I'm happy to see this on the list boys. This might be a lizard influence. Number 15, the Ashton VSG illusion.
There you go. There we go. They gave it a 94, 44 ring gauge by six and a half inches long. So we did that on episode 51, we gave it an 8. 8. That's a great cigar. Great cigar, we love that cigar. They gave it a 94, that's a Dominican Republic. This one is Caldwell Cigars, number 14. Caldwell Cigars, Long Live the Queen, Ace of Hearts.
We did not love the Caldwell Cigar, we did. Very different [01:10:00] one, a different line than this. Did we do The Queen is Dead? We did The Queen is Dead, Long Live, or The Queen's Sword. The King is Dead. No, we did. The queen is down. Yeah, we did the queen sort. They, they have a
**Rooster:** lot. They have a so many
**Poobah:** different, uh, they did and they lost a lot of stuff to
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
They had a fire, right? That's right. So this is a 52 ring gauge by six inch, uh, Dominican Republic cigar with a bunch of different types of tobacco in the blend. Cameroon wrapper, Indonesian binder. And the filler is Dominican and Nicaragua. That's number 14. Number 13, my father Le Biju, 1922. 100 años, limited edition Corona Especial.
That is a mouthful. That's a lot of words. Hashtag marketing. 44 ring gauge cigar by six and a quarter inches long. They also gave that a 94. It's just amazing. That's crazy. They're given cigars this high in the list, 94s. It doesn't make any sense to me. Number 12. Another one that's a Nicaraguan [01:11:00] version of the Cuban cigars we love.
Trinidad Espiritu series, number one, Bellicoso, 52 ring gauge by 6 1 8. Fully Nicaraguan by, uh, A. J. Fernandez and Altadis.
**Senator:** I'm just curious, has anyone had a New World Trinidad? No.
**Bam Bam:** And will, and never
**Gizmo:** will. No, I probably, that's not something I'm looking forward to. So we have the third Cuban on the list. This is an interesting one because it's a really expensive cigar.
It's the Romeo y Julieta Linea d'Oro Hidalgos, the 57 ring gauge by four and seven eighths inch entry from that line. That's very similar to the Monte Cristo 1935 line from Cuba, the Linea 1935, the upcoming Partagas Maestro. Which has three cigars. This is very similar. Um, offering three cigars in a very expensive, I think they're 70, 80 bucks a piece.
Oof. And that's a 57 by under 5 inch. Very expensive cigar.
**Senator:** I think they misplaced a [01:12:00] decimal point
**Gizmo:** on what the value of that cigar should be. And they gave that cigar Uh, 94 as well. Yeah, there were three in that
**Rooster:** lineup, I think. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Hidalgo, they usually do three in that special minis and something
**Rooster:** else.
**Poobah:** I'd love to see something fantastic from, from r and j. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It'd be nice. I think we all feel the same.
**Poobah:** They need it. I I, I, I, I would love to, I would love to hear, you know, here anecdotally, uh, through the forums we're in that somebody really liked this, this cigar, and it, it. And that it honored r and j's DNA.
And you know, like I've said in the past, those Churchills in the tubes were great in the nineties. They really were. The, the, the, the late nineties, they were actually, they were wonderful. I just don't know what happened. I, I can't find thenar if, if a listener out there has a, has an RNJ. [01:13:00] That they think is fantastic.
Make the recommendation. I'm happy to try it, but I have yet to smoke something as of late. The white Churchill
**Rooster:** is
**Gizmo:** decent. It was okay. It's okay. It's okay. Listen, if
**Poobah:** it's okay, I've had it many times.
**Senator:** I have a box. Something great from that brand.
**Gizmo:** When
**Rooster:** we go to Cuba next, we will be speaking to the orange a blender.
**Gizmo:** See what we can do,
**Poobah:** but it's like the shop, right? Of. Of, of, it's like talking to ShopRite, like, I want, I want the ShopRite, like, like, you know, uh, you want the sheet cake, right? ShopRite brand, ShopRite brand. They're like, you know, the private label brand. It's like some kind of weird private label. I would
**Gizmo:** say it's more like stop and shop
**Senator:** too many mutations in the RNJ DNA and none of them.
**Gizmo:** They're great. That's the problem. Like if we found a cigar that poop is talking about, [01:14:00] that would be the comeback story of the year had a great Romeo experience. I think we would be dancing around in the room. If we were able to find some
**Poobah:** kind of like private label Cuban, that means nothing.
**Gizmo:** And, and unfortunately it's one of the biggest in the world.
I don't understand why. I don't understand why either. So boys, we're into the top 10. Number 10, El Pulpo, Bellicoso Grande, a 58 ring gauge cigar by five and three quarters inches, filler and binder Nicaraguan wrapper. Is Mexican from AJ Fernandez. Weren't you smoking one of those cigars? It's a, it's a full cigar.
Yeah. Like a rooster cigar. I wonder why they call it the pulpo.
**Rooster:** I know. Pulpo is the octopus. I don't get it. Maybe it has a lot of legs. It transforms. A lot
**Gizmo:** of structure. A lot of body. structure. A lot of structure and color. A lot of different notes.
**Bam Bam:** What?
**Poobah:** Plucking.
**Gizmo:** Number nine, another Nicaraguan, La Aroma de Cuba Miamor, the Bellicoso.
We did [01:15:00] another cigar from that line. I think we did the Robusto. We did. Uh, 54 ring gauge cigar by five and a half inches. Nicaraguan, like I said, filler and binder. And wrapper is Mexican. Number eight. The Miamor won
**Senator:** Cigar of the Year once. Did. Oh, I did
**Gizmo:** not know that. Number eight is a cigar that you get when you buy those, uh, five pack.
Trial things from any of the big retailers, the Alec Bradley Prensado. Not a good intro. Torpedo, not a great intro. They gave the cigar a 95 this year. That's insane. 52 ring gauge by 6 18 inches. Honduran, uh, wrapper and filler. Uh, also in the filler is Nicaraguan tobacco and the binder is also Nicaraguan.
95 on that. I'm surprised. Maybe we need to try it. That's a high rating. Number 8. Number 7. We're going to be doing this one on an upcoming episode as well. The Drew Estate Blackened Cigars. That's the Metallica cigar. James Hetfield did that with Drew Estate. The M81 in Corona. It's a 43 ring gauge [01:16:00] cigar by 5 inches.
Um, mainly it's, it's manufactured in Nicaragua, a lot of USA tobacco in this. So that might be pretty cool. Cause we've had some good experiences with USA tobacco, um, rapper, Mexican binder, USA and Connecticut, broadleaf filler, Nicaraguan and, uh, USA, Pennsylvania. That sounds good actually. So we have that coming up, uh, on episode.
I don't know what episode number it's going to be, but I think it's going to be in middle of February. 43 ring gauge. Yeah. By five it's Corona. Nice. Pretty cool. You gotta pair that with the blackened whiskey. And I do have that. We're going to do a full Metallica episode in the middle of February. And I will be singing.
Oh
**Poobah:** yeah. I will be singing. That actually sounds interesting.
**Senator:** Get ready. You're gonna sing? Oh,
**Gizmo:** verbatim. Excellent. Another Cuban cigar on the list. Surprised to see this one so high. Based on the other guys in the room, I'm, I'm very happy with it. Number six, the Partagas Series P number two. Nice. 52 ring gauge by six and an [01:17:00] eighth, of course, all Cuban tobacco.
They give that a 95. And now boys, we are in to the top five. Of course, all the brands that we would expect to be here are here. Number five, EP Carrillo, Allegiance in Confidant. 52 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. Classic EP Carrillo makeup, Ecuadorian wrapper, filler and binder are Nicaraguan. Like the cigar we have in our hand tonight.
Number four. Rooster's favorite, the Rocky Patel ALR, age limited and rare, second edition Toro. We did the Robusto fairly recently on the pod, got a 6. 6, 52 ring gauge cigar, by six and a half inches long. Made in Nicaragua, Philanthropinder, or Nicaraguan, rapper is Mexican. How could that
**Bam Bam:** be ranked
**Gizmo:** fourth? I mean, it's just We can talk about that after we're done with the list.
**Pagoda:** Sorry, it is a sophisticated palate.
**Bam Bam:** Wow, I
**Poobah:** felt a little sick there. [01:18:00]
**Gizmo:** Number three is the sister cigar to the one we have in our hands tonight, the Oliva Ciri V. Melanio in Toro. 52 ring gauge cigar by six inches long, identical makeup to this, except this one we have in our hand is the Maduro. Number two is a brand that we're very familiar with here, boys.
The Padron Siri 1926 number 48 in Maduro. This is an odd size, 60 ring gauge by five and a half. That's strange. Nicaraguan Puro, of course, I think that's a newer release. It is very American.
**Poobah:** It is newer. Yeah, very fat lawyer
**Bam Bam:** behind the oak mahogany. Am I wrong?
**Poobah:** I mean, no, it's 60 ring gauge. I
**Gizmo:** mean, yeah, that cigar came out seven years ago and number one, as we mentioned on an episode recently from Arturo Fuente, the Fuente Fuente Opus X Reserva de Chateau.
It's a Churchill 48 ring gauge cigar by seven inches. Fully Dominican, of [01:19:00] course, as all Fuentes are.
**Poobah:** Well, I would, I would give a golf clap to the fact that a Churchill took the number one rating. It's a
**Gizmo:** good thing. And they rated that, uh, 97. That was their highest cigar of the year. So, you know, when you look at the list, we've, we've beat this into the ground, so I'm not looking to do that again, but it is just interesting how After a year of smoking cigars, there's not two Padrones, there's not two Fuentes, there's not two Ipicurios.
It's You know what's shocking? 25 unique cigars. I don't think there was a single Davidoff. That's not a single Davidoff. Also, not that we're in love with it, but I saw some people very upset that Plasencia didn't make the list. Because there's a lot of Plasencia fans out there. There are. And, you know, they were very upset.
No Placentia and no Davidoff. So it's like, I, I really question the validity Of course. You know? Of course. And I think it's, it comes down to this process they have of going through all the cigars that they [01:20:00] smoked through the year again. They review them again, supposedly blind, whatever. But why not just take.
The top 25 cigars that you reviewed in the year, throw those on the list. Why? Because it doesn't align with serving 25 unique brands like they did here. What
**Pagoda:** were the lowest rating for the number 25 cigar?
**Gizmo:** I believe it was a 94.
**Pagoda:** Oh, so there you go. Oh, that's insanity. It is. How do you get 25? Excuse me, 93.
I'm sorry. So how do you, how do you fit 25 cigars? I think
**Poobah:** it's interesting. I think it's very telling that there isn't a Davidoff on that list. None of us are like huge Davidoff, like fan boys because it's Davidoff, but I mean, it is Davidoff and they make a, they really do make, I think we've all kind of come around to that.
To that brand and kind of where we pushed it off a little bit, but they have explored it more explored different sizes in blend within blends, where we thought maybe you may not have liked the [01:21:00] blend, but you tried a different size and then you're like, Oh, yeah, like in this size. This does really work for me.
**Bam Bam:** Um, overall, it's an impeccable marker not to have a cigar. I
**Rooster:** mean, Davidoff is such a big brand. At least one of their
**Gizmo:** cigars deserves to be in the top 20. And
**Bam Bam:** only one Padron, one Padron on the entire
**Gizmo:** list. It has to be. What's interesting to this point is that, you know, aside from a couple of the Cubans are brand new.
Like the Padrone is, was released seven years ago. The Fuente obviously has been out a long time. Like these are not newer releases from these brands. Like they've done in the past where they, you know, kind of promote a newer release from, from a manufacturer. So it doesn't make sense that a Davidoff.
Doesn't make
**Senator:** the layer. I mean, the ALR, which is a dog shit cigar, has been in the top 25 before.
**Gizmo:** That's true. That's not the first time. No, he's right.
**Poobah:** It's, it's, it's wild. I mean, they put out such, they put it, they put out [01:22:00] such quality, whether you, Whether it's your price point or whether you like it or not, you can't deny, you can't deny Davidoff in what it delivers.
Now, it may not be for everybody. I don't like everything in their, in their catalog, but boy, oh boy, they've got a lot of good cigars in their catalog.
**Senator:** There's one problem that they have. I mean, I get the magazine, like all or most of us do. If you think of when you're flipping through those pages, there's no dabbing off ads, no
**Gizmo:** dabbing off ads, no dabbing off ads, there you go.
There's no dabbing off ads,
**Rooster:** you know? And it's all, and Rocky Patel, one of his cigars ends up in the top five. I think if you go back to the last, I don't know, maybe 10 years, there's always a Rocky
**Gizmo:** Patel and like, his cigar, his cigar was the runner up last year to the Cuban, so then he was able to say.
That his was the number one cigar that was available in the United States for an entire year. Right. And he still made the top five. It equates to ad spend. Yeah, [01:23:00] it really does. I just wish, here's what I would say. I wish that they would be a little bit more honest about the process. Like the assumption that the consumer who's reading that magazine, who's smoking these cigars is stupid enough to believe that the chips are going to fall like this makes no sense at all.
And I wish that they would just. Be honest
**Poobah:** about it. I think it's an opportunity for an alternative cigar publication. Right. At some point. Or
**Gizmo:** podcast, maybe. Yeah. The
**Bam Bam:** lizard
**Poobah:** magazine. I mean, there's shit in the top 25 cigars there. You're telling me there isn't one Davidoff blend or Vitola that makes it in there.
Bull shit,
**Gizmo:** bullshit. They should be buying more.
**Poobah:** And I mean, I, I'm not trying to be vulgar here. I'm just saying, I'm calling BS.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, you're right. The craziest thing to me, aside from Davidoff not appearing or Placentia is that it's 25 unique brands that somehow magically it just falls into place perfectly yet.
They're smoking [01:24:00] them blind and it's like, come on, just stop it. Stop it. But anyway, boys, that is the cigar aficionado. Top 25 list from 2023. Thank you. And there we have it. Somewhat frustrating. As per usual. As per usual. So boys, we're into the last third here of the Oliva Series V Milanio Maduro Figurado.
What are you guys thinking?
**Bam Bam:** I like the cigar. I can't say that I don't like
**Senator:** it. I do too. Yeah. So I have to say, I really got bored with it the last third. And what's strange about this is I had one of these prior and I don't remember feeling this way. The first one I had, I felt like, The first one I had, I felt like it actually built up as I smoked it.
And ended in a much better place than the last third. It's just dull. It's not. Interesting enough.
**Gizmo:** Maybe it's something to do with the Giz's, uh, tower.
**Bam Bam:** [01:25:00] You know, he loves when you say that.
**Senator:** I mean, Pagoda's cigar was a little spongy, so. The,
**Pagoda:** the one thing I do have to say that if you do cut a little more, the draw doesn't improve.
Of course, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Which is classic. Fantastic. I'm just kidding. Any of those that come down to that, that high point, you know, any, I do that with the Davidoff Millennium. Same. I do it with the Padron 80. Any of those, you just take a little more off. It opens right up. Yep. Like Senator said, start
**Bam Bam:** with small clips and just go your way.
Go through it as you need
**Gizmo:** to. All right, boys. It's time to move into our rating portion of the episode tonight. We'll start with the Glenmore and G Kinta Rubin, 14 years aged, single malt scotch. Bam Bam, you're up. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** I'm at a seven on this. You know, I, I, I can't say that I hated it. Neat. It's for me, difficult to drink, but with ice, it got better and better as I drank it.
And honestly, when I finished my glass and I put my nose to the glass, the aroma is quite delicious. But overall. the drinkability of it, I'm [01:26:00] giving it a seven. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** I think I'll be at an eight. Um, I thought, uh, I was actually thinking about, uh, the Glenmorangie, I think the 10 I might've had, which seemed very, very light and fruity, if I remember very clearly.
Uh, I think from that, uh, In comparison, this is so much more my speed, um, getting somewhere, like I couldn't figure out what I really enjoyed about it, but I think it left a longer finish than I expected, and it did make my palate a little more chocolatey. I don't know whether it was a combination of the cigar with this, um, there was some sweetness to it, which I really enjoyed, uh, very pleasant overall, uh, I think medium viscosity, um, I really liked it, so it's a, it's an eight for me.
**Gizmo:** Senator.
**Senator:** So, I, I think I'm in the same place as Bam on this. I'm at a seven. I, I will say, I do [01:27:00] think it actually, it paired pretty well with the cigar. I think the flavor profile, so that, that was good. But, the challenge is, I wouldn't, I will not pursue this and you know, the only utility for me in trying this is that if I was at an airport lounge or somewhere and what I normally drink wasn't available, if you were in prison
**Bam Bam:** or joking, that's a joke or
**Senator:** in prison and the Scott
**Gizmo:** selection was limited when we come back with those Cuban piles of tobacco to make our, uh, make our cigars with Arnold,
**Senator:** but it's just, you know, if I'm in a place where what I normally pursue is not available and I saw a bottle of this, I would drink it and I'd be satisfied enough, but is it good enough for me to actually go out and pursue a bottle after having this?
It's not, and um, I think it either needed to be smoothed out, like maybe the proof's just a little too high for what this spirit's trying to do. Or if you're going to be at this proof, I need even more flavor then with that. So [01:28:00] that's where I net out of the seven.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a seven. I was kind of wavering between a six and a seven.
I landed a seven. I thought it was pretty damn good. But for me, I think the word is sophistication. And Puba talked about that with the cigar. the expectation of sophistication. When I see a 14 year age on a box or on a bottle, I'm expecting a superior experience. Absolutely. And I think that's a fair expectation to have, you know, the presentation's amazing.
It's aged 14 years. It has all the right makeup to be a great spirit, and it's just not, and this is certainly something I will not be buying again. Right. So it's a 7 for me all day. Mild recommend. Mild recommend.
**Poobah:** Puba? I'm gonna give it a 6 because it just didn't really deliver anything particularly Notable at all for me.
I mean, it really didn't, it just, it's, it was a little bit [01:29:00] confusing, not defined for me, there were, there were these notes in there that I don't particularly pursue in a scotch. I wouldn't pursue it again. And I'm not saying it's, I think your point is well taken. It's a 14 year old age statement on a, what, a 70, 70 bottles, 65, 65 bottle of scotch.
I'd enjoy, I would enjoy a glass of Jameson over this much more. If you said a desert Island. You can have this or you could have a glass of Jameson Irish whiskey. I would choose the Jameson Irish whiskey all day long if I had to drink it for the rest of my life. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm just, so for me, it doesn't hold up to what the price point, the age statement, and you know, kind of what it's presenting itself as.
So, um, I'm comfortable with the six. So boys, that puts the
**Gizmo:** formal lizard rating at the Glenmorangie [01:30:00] Quinta Ruben, 14 years. 7.0. Alright. Right. Mild recommend. Mild recommend, which is accurate. You can get so much, so much better stuff. Mm-Hmm. at 12, 12 years, even 10 years even. Oh, yeah. You know, at, at a similar price point that's gonna knock the doors off, just like you said, the doors off.
Go buy a bottle of Jameson for 25, 30 bucks, whatever it is, and buy a bottle of green spot. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Go buy a bottle of green spot. Yeah. Or red breast. It's gonna, it's so much more sophisticated to me, much more refined spirit than this. I agree. I agree. Am I nuts?
**Gizmo:** No, you're, you're right. All right, boys, now it's time for the formal lizard rating on the Oliva Ciri V Milanio in Figueroa Maduro.
Brewster, you're up. You
**Rooster:** know, on the start, on the light, this cigar was phenomenal. I mean, thinking back to the commentary, I was kind of comparing this to an 80th and a lot of us were, I mean, it started off like, like very Padrone esque, but the last third kind of smoked more like an ALR. And so for that reason, um, [01:31:00] the beginning was maybe a nine and the last third was like a seven.
So I'm, I'm, I'm at a seven.
**Poobah:** Puba. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm at a seven as well. I it's, it's approachable. It's smokable. Put me around, uh, in a social situation and it's gifted to me. You can smoke the whole thing from end to end, from whistle to whistle and. There's nothing offensive about it, so I'm not going to give it a six, but there's nothing exciting about it.
So I'm not going to give it an eight.
**Gizmo:** So I actually, I'm going to give it an eight. I am very happy with the cigar. It's certainly not a nine or a 10. I didn't expect it to be, I don't think it was built that way. I think this is a cigar when you want that kind of figurado in your hand, you don't want to go as far as a Padron or something more full, you kind of want to.[01:32:00]
It's a pedestrian, Nicaraguan, great combustion experience. Maybe on a less full stomach, you know, you're in the car driving, you're not paying attention, whatever it is, a social situation. Like Puba said, you're eating a salad while driving. Yeah. Your hands are 70 miles an hour. Your hands are full. You know, it is what it
**Poobah:** is.
You're paying a toll, eating a salad. Smoking a cigar. It's
**Rooster:** perfect because that's not good. I'm not paying attention while I'm driving. This is
**Gizmo:** true. I pay attention. Oh boy. All right. We are
**Senator:** intervention
**Bam Bam:** rooster dad.
**Gizmo:** I'm very happy with an eight. Uh, you know, I wish, I wish it got to a nine. It just wasn't there from the start.
I, I, I thought it was always going to be an eight from the beginning. I wish it actually ramped up and got there, but it didn't. So I'm very happy at an eight Senator.
**Senator:** Yeah, so I'm disappointed just because when we started smoking this, I for sure was at an eight or a nine and I was just waiting to see how this finished to decide which score I was going to give it.
But the second half really fell off big [01:33:00] time for me and I think Puba's commentary is very aligned with mine in that there was nothing offensive for me in the entirety of the cigar. Like he said, would I smoke it if someone gave it to me? Or, you know, example that we always use if I'm in a cigar shop that I have to buy and they don't have what I normally smoke, would I pick this up and be moderately satisfied?
Sure. But it's at a seven just because I'm not going to pursue it. And I'm just a little bit also. confused and surprised because the first one I had and I don't know if it was just maybe I, maybe it was my fourth cigar and I thought it was better than it was, but I just remembered enjoying this more.
You were very enthusiastic at that time. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm just, I'm, I'm bummed. It could have been a great cigar. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. For me, it's a seven. Um, I found that the flavors were slightly muted for my, uh, preference per se. And, uh, in terms of, uh, overall, uh, the way, uh, the cigar smoked [01:34:00] now, uh, I did cut. So listeners, if ever you're having a draw problem, please cut a little deeper.
It really did pick up in terms of the draw, even towards the end after having made the second cut. Um, but overall, just, uh, the experience was somewhat flat, uh, seven for me.
**Gizmo:** All right, Bam Bam.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, you know, I can't add to what you've all said because it's all very accurate, but I, I happen, what I like about the cigar, that if I am at a party, like it's like you've all said it, there's utility in the cigar.
It's a pretty well made cigar, beautiful combustion. I have been between a seven and an eight. I'm going to round up and be enthusiastic about the cigar. I did enjoy it the first time. I've only had this twice. I liked it this time and I took it all the way down to a half inch. I didn't find any issues with it.
I found that it finished actually pretty good for me.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I mean, any cigar that you can compare to a Padrone 80th, that's a huge merit. It is. So it started off like that and I'm like, Oh, I'm going to order a box of these for sure. [01:35:00] But by the halfway point, I'm like, I don't, I don't think I'm going to do that.
**Gizmo:** What's a
**Bam Bam:** merit for me that it. The smoothness continued right down to the half inch and that's
**Gizmo:** a merit.
**Rooster:** But beyond the halfway point, it kind of got boring. I think those flavors kind of
**Gizmo:** diminished. It got very, it didn't diminish for me.
**Bam Bam:** The consistency continued and it's one dimensional.
**Poobah:** I think the word is very boring toward, for me personally, it got really like flat and, and, and like this 80th notion.
Yeah. The first, like maybe third or the 80th, you could compare to this, but like the, the, like the middle third of the 80th is like exponentially better than the middle third of this. It's not even in the same class. I don't think you can compare it. It's just not.
**Senator:** And I just want to make a distinction.
You know, I think many of us have said that the cigar is consistent all the way through, which I agree with, but the problem is for [01:36:00] me in the second half. Sure. The flavor profile of what I'm getting is consistent. Nothing new or different is happening throughout this cigar, but the flavor is getting muted for me in the second half.
Right. So the same profile, but I'm not getting as much of it as I was in that first third. And that's where I started to get bored, where I wanted to pick up as I'm smoking. And I don't want it to fizzle out. And that's what left me
**Poobah:** wanting the middle third. But the middle third of the 80th is, is amazing.
It's divine. Yeah. Like, like it, it, it, this doesn't even come close. It kind of just, it got to the second half for me. Or the middle third for me, and it was, it
**Rooster:** died. Yeah, I mean, any cigar that's blended should start off and then it should build as you get closer to the end, the cigar should build, it should not get muted, the flavors should stay the notes.
You know, even if they don't change, it's they should build
**Gizmo:** upon that. So the formal is a rating boys is a 7. [01:37:00] 3. So I got to say, you know, I want to talk what what Senator was talking about. The first one he had. I want to point to that because I do think that the exercise we do here. Is a little bit of an under a microscope, right?
I had a very similar experience to Senator. I was thinking that this was going to be high eights, low nines when I had one in the lounge. And I think when you're in the lounge, you're in that social situation. You're talking, you're drinking, you're having a good time. You're distracted. You're distracted.
When we come under the microscope here. It really reveals itself. Like, we're really dialed in on these things. And that's where it almost ends up in a 15 point swing or 17 point swing of where I thought it would be. And I think there's a lot of value in that. A hundred percent agree. You know, but it's still a cigar that I think has utility here and there.
Look, it's a mild recommend cigar. Yeah. So boys a great night tonight. Pairings could have been a little better. The Glenn Moranji Quinta Ruben, 14 years, got a 7. 0. It's funny using a Spanish accent [01:38:00] when you're talking about a single malt scotch. And the Oliva Siri V Milano Figurado in Maduro ended up at a 7.
3. Which was certainly a little disappointing I think for everybody in the room. And like we said, where it started. It could have been a lot better. Correct. All right, guys. Great conversation. We'll see everybody next week. Keep smoking. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards, pod.
com. That's lounge lizards. P O D. com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking. Email us. Hello at lounge lizards, pod. com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pot.
We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.[01:39:00]