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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica 5. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Poobah, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, and Bam Bam, a full house of lizards.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some bourbon, and Talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 158th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan a visit here once a week. We're going to smoke a New World cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you a formal lizard rating.
I recap my recent trip to the Dominican Republic with La Aurora. We smoke our first 60 ring gauge cigar, and we discuss our favorite music for cigar smoking, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back and enjoy.
Light up a cigar and enjoy, as we pair Woodford Reserve Double Oaked with the Rocky Patel Sixty Sixty.
A gordo tonight on the pod from Nicaragua. [00:01:00] It's the Rocky Patel 60, and it's a 60 ring gauge cigar, boys, by 6 inches long, and let's start with thoughts and prayers for Rooster, who is here very much against his will tonight.
**Rooster:** I can't even say Rocky Patel, I just keep calling it RP.
**Gizmo:** This thing, boys, in our hand is Large and in charge, and I'm a little terrified.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, and um, very ornate,
**Chef RIcky:** to say the least. I agree. You know what this reminds me of? Back in the day you get those bazooka gums, and there was always a comic strip on there. I feel like underneath this wrapper, there's gonna be a comic strip or something. This cigar
**Bam Bam:** is about five and a half inches long.
The wrapper is five, the band is five inches.
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I mean, it's all band.
**Senator:** You can see about half an inch of the cigar.
**Gizmo:** It has a large band that covers the bottom half of the cigar, which says the word 60 on it, and then the number 60 at the bottom, and a picture of some tobacco leaves, and then a very ornate Rocky [00:02:00] Patel band at the top.
So, I guess before we cut this, let's take that bottom band off, and then, uh
**Pagoda:** Listen.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, there's, there's three bands on this thing.
**Gizmo:** Oh, there's three? I thought it was two.
**Senator:** Wow.
**Pagoda:** I think we all set for a pleasant surprise.
**Senator:** I mean, I gotta say, as I'm taking some of the It, it, it, it broke.
**Pagoda:** Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** it took some of my wrap around.
It took some
**Poobah:** of the wrap right at it. Okay, I just pulled it off and it pulled a big hole right there.
**Gizmo:** Oh, I got a chunk out of mine too. Same here. Look at that.
**Poobah:** The corner. Look at that.
**Gizmo:** Not
**Senator:** great. Not a good, uh. Oh yeah, same actually on mine. Yeah, the glue,
**Chef RIcky:** too much glue. No bueno. You do all of that to protect the cigar and then destroy it as you remove it.
Ridiculous.
**Senator:** This is, this is lunacy. It's a shame that this is happening because, And when you take the giant band off the foot band, it's actually a really nice looking wrapper. Mine has got perfectly invisible seams, no veins. Oh, well, yeah. The quality of the wrapper is beautiful. That's what I'm saying.
Like, I wish that there wasn't this giant band on it in the first place. One, we [00:03:00] wouldn't have tears in our wrappers, and two, it's actually a nice looking wrapper that's on this cigar. Why must they hide it?
**Gizmo:** I think if it was just the main RP band on this big cigar, that would have been fine. More than necessary.
I think this would have been perfect. I agree. Just this single band. Are your wrappers like my, I mean, this is pristine. It looks great.
**Rooster:** It almost looks like a Padron cigar. Yeah, almost. It looks
**Poobah:** really nice. Mine looks great. Except for the quarter inch tear that happened when I took the, look at that. This
**Bam Bam:** is pretty bad.
Yeah. Spit will not save that.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's cut this thing. We'll see. We're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. This is the biggest cigar we've done on the podcast tonight. Sixty ring gauge. Did we talk about how much these are? These cigars we got for a little under 16 bucks.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. Which I was happy about.
**Gizmo:** I sense
**Bam Bam:** value. Uh, the cold draw is really nice. Very fruity.
**Gizmo:** Wow. [00:04:00] I'm surprised. It has a lot more character on the cold draw than I expected.
**Bam Bam:** Dare I say it's wet fruit.
**Chef RIcky:** Tasty wet fruit.
**Gizmo:** It almost has like a banana mango thing.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. I'm getting that. You're getting that? Yeah, I'm getting a lot of mango. Wow. A little spot on.
**Gizmo:** And it's wide open. It's a nice row. The draw's really nice. Oh, it's
**Bam Bam:** wide open.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, boy.
**Gizmo:** Let's light this thing. Let's see how it does tonight.
The Iraqi Patel 60. So I brought in the commercial blower for this one.
**Bam Bam:** Your
**Gizmo:** creme brulee torch?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Literally ring
**Gizmo:** gauge by, I mean, six inches long. Good
**Bam Bam:** luck with your dainty Cuban cigar lighters. There
**Chef RIcky:** has a very heavy rectangular box press as it does,
**Gizmo:** which makes the 60 ring gauge feel a little smaller in the hand. Yeah.
**Senator:** Thank God this is box press. If this were not, this would be ridiculous to smoke.
**Bam Bam:** Since I used the, uh, steel welder over there, I'm beating you guys to the first puff. [00:05:00] It's not bad.
You're off and running. Really not that bad. Mmm.
**Poobah:** Right? That's how these things go, man. We'll see. I gotta say the first puff is
**Senator:** very nice.
**Poobah:** Very pleasant.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know what it is, though? The draw is so wide open. Do you think
**Gizmo:** it's
**Bam Bam:** too
**Gizmo:** wide open? It is. I'm, I'm feeling that, For me, With how wide open this is, it's gonna, It's gonna heat up quick.
**Bam Bam:** It'll heat up quick. You're gonna get some, uh, ammonia going there. I'm, I hope not.
**Senator:** I don't know. I'll just say, I'm actually glad the draw is wide open because at this ring gauge, I do not want to be fighting the scar at all. It like has to be a breeze. You mean you don't want to smoke
**Bam Bam:** it for two and a half hours?
No.
**Pagoda:** Let it burn. Oh, the smoke out. Look at
**Poobah:** this. This room is going to be full of smoke. Yeah, I know. I called, uh, I called Giz before we came over. I said, are we really doing a Rocky Patel tonight? He said, he said, no, no, no, yeah. I thought we were joking. And, um, And, and, and I said, [00:06:00] what is it like a reboost though?
And he goes, no, I go, what is it a reboost the lecture? He goes, no, I go, is it a Gorda? He goes, yes.
**Pagoda:** So we're going to do one. Might as well go for the large one. And
**Gizmo:** you know, this cigar specifically, this Vitola of this line, and I'll go through the others in a minute, this one, one, the. It was number two, cigar of the Year in Cigar Fido in 2022. Oh really? This was the year, if you remember that the H Up man number two from Cuba won.
Uh, yeah, that's right. It was the, you know, la, the latest Cuban cigar that won in cigar the year. Great. If they're in the same number two,
**Poobah:** well, if they're in the same company, it's gotta better do pretty well. He's deadly serious about that statement. I'll just say it's not bad on the light. This is the whole conversation revisited.
Let's see what happens halfway through. Retro hells. Very nice.
**Rooster:** I mean, I expected the [00:07:00] cigar to be very heavy. It's not at all. It's medium. It's medium. It's mostly, I'm just getting like a fruit note so far. Yeah.
**Chef RIcky:** Chef, what are you getting on the retro? I'm getting some fruit and nut. I'm getting some little toasted nuts there.
Me too. It's really nice. It's actually, I do wish the head was a little tapered because I feel like it helps concentrate the cigars a little, uh, flavor a little bit. It's too wide open for me. Yeah. When the drawer's this wide open, it kind of Everything comes and goes really fast.
**Gizmo:** This is one of those cigars I wonder, based on the ring gauge, if it would have made sense, obviously hindsight's 20 20, to do a punch or some sort of, you know, cut on the cigar that didn't put a 60 ring gauge slice across the, you know, the top of the cigar.
Great point, great point. So that's something to think about as we get into the The last third of the cigar, if it's heating up, you know. That's a
**Bam Bam:** very good point, you know, I never ever do a punch. And it probably would make sense for a larger ring gain cigar just to try it.
**Gizmo:** Especially one that you know is gonna be this wide open.
Now that we know. a, I'd argue this is like a wind [00:08:00] tunnel. Or like a V. Yeah. Or a V. Or a V cut. A V would work too.
**Senator:** I think Rooster loves this Marca so much, we should have him light a second one with a punch.
**Gizmo:** Ha ha ha. I have one right here. If you want to, I think Booba needs another
**Pagoda:** one. And I think he can smoke them both simultaneously.
Give
**Gizmo:** me 48 hours. This is off to a nice start guys. It is. We'll see how it goes here. So this cigar, like I said, comes from Nicaragua. The wrapper is San Andres from Mexico. The binder and the filler are both Nicaraguan. The tobacco in the cigar is aged six to seven years. And then after the cigars were rolled, it was.
Rested another two years. Well, just like the ALR.
**Pagoda:** The ALR was rested two years after it was rolled.
**Gizmo:** I don't know if the tobacco was that aged in it. So is this
**Bam Bam:** also age limited and rare? I doubt it.
**Senator:** I just think, sorry, I mean, hearing you say that it's really stupid that on the band [00:09:00] all they highlight is The two years.
It just says aged for two years. I know. So you would think that the tobacco was only aged for two years. Why they wouldn't lead with the six years plus, I mean, it
**Gizmo:** makes no sense. This is crazy. As I was researching for this episode tonight, I found a video of Rocky Patel actually talking about the construction and blend and everything about this cigar.
And that's where I learned that the tobacco was aged six to seven years prior to rolling. then rested for two after rolling, but otherwise you would not have known they didn't market that at all. To Senator's point. Like, why not say this is eight years age tobacco or nine years age? Are they,
**Poobah:** are they saying that they're, were they implying that they were aging it in polonaise?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I would, I would think it was aged. You know, the leaves were aged in bales for six to seven years. Then they bought or procured that tobacco. Obviously, I think they procured that Mexican San Andres from someone else. Uh, they had their own Nicaraguan tobacco for the binder and the filler. So I'm guessing maybe it's just not rock solid that it's six to seven years on everything.
So the [00:10:00] only thing that they could concretely say was that they were rested for two years after rolling. So that, that, that's my assumption.
**Bam Bam:** I'm surprised how smooth. The retro hell is. Yeah. There's no bite at all. It is leaving a little bit of a dry finish for me. Um, not a bad thing, but it's almost
**Gizmo:** absent of spice.
It's odd.
**Bam Bam:** It really is. I mean, I'm not complaining
**Senator:** about that. No, I'm
**Gizmo:** just saying through the retro, normally on a Nicaraguan cigar and retro, you're going to get, you're going to get spicy. That's
**Senator:** one thing though. I mean, my experience with Rockies has been very limited. I've probably Smoked maybe at most five ever in my life.
What I do recall though, even ones with like really dark rappers, and I don't remember, I feel like it was a Maroon band. Yeah, I've had that one. It's a little guy, right? Uh, no, it's like a Robusto, like a regular size. Yeah. I was at, um, uh, Is that the Phoenician in, uh, Scottsdale? They've got a big golf course in the hotel.
Arizona, Phoenician. [00:11:00] All right. It's very famous. I'm pretty sure it's got to be that. But they're, uh, like golf clubs sold cigars. And I was out of cigars on this trip. And it was like very limited, the, the selection. So I ended up trying this, uh, Rocky. Dark wrapper, just like this. And I just distinctly remember how insanely smooth the cigar was.
And I feel like that's what they're known for. Like, even if it's Nicaraguan, more aggressive tobacco, like their style is just like a really smooth delivery.
**Bam Bam:** You know, look, if a, if a market can pull off a consistent smoothness in their cigars, that's not a bad thing. It's a pretty good, that's a pretty good, well, it
**Poobah:** creates Rocky Patel's a really good marketer.
Sure. And he's really good at commercializing, um, his, his brand and that makes the cigar approachable. And yeah, to, to, to, you know, to, to a mass market. So,
**Pagoda:** but he'd also been very successful at it, right? Because, you know, I, I offer [00:12:00] so many cigars to people. If they don't like it, they know it immediately. You know, if somebody is still pursuing them, there's something he's doing right now.
Oh,
**Poobah:** he's doing a lot of things right. I, from a, from a business perspective, he crushes it. Absolutely. I
**Rooster:** mean, he sells a lot of cigars. He makes cigars for the masses. Oh yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** And I have a lot of respect for that. A lot of respect for that.
**Rooster:** I mean, just the way he started out his whole journey. He's a, he's a lawyer apparently.
Right. Well, that's how it started out. And then he kind of gave that up and he went, I mean, he bought Indian tobacco, that was the company. And then he called it Rocky Patel later. And he literally went like door to door selling, uh, his brand.
**Poobah:** I mean, you cannot deny his. Entrepreneurial grind, you can't deny, um, his success, his success.
And, um, Hey, look, if I could duplicate that myself from a business perspective, I would do it all [00:13:00] day long. Yeah. He put in a lot of hard work, a lot of hard work. So, you know, He's selling a lot of cigars and, um, you know, he, there's a market for this kind of stuff.
**Rooster:** It's just that none of Rocky Patel cigars that I've ever smoked have really blown me away.
You know, it's never been like, Oh, I got to go get like a box of this, or I got to get a fiver off the cigar. I mean, not that I've had every single cigar that he's ever put out, but some of his better stuff, it's, I don't know. It just doesn't make me go after this mark. It's not a memorable. Because
**Poobah:** when they're, when they're doing these blends, you're not the segment they're targeting.
**Rooster:** Yeah, I guess
**Poobah:** you're not the segment that I like.
**Rooster:** I like a Nicaraguan cigar. I mean, I like a fuller cigar, but this cigar right now, it doesn't, it, it doesn't make me feel like it's a Nicaraguan. Tobacco is what I'm smoking. [00:14:00] It's kind of more like a blend of a Honduran and Nicaraguan, not like a full on Nicaraguan cigar, which is not, it's not giving me that spice.
It's not giving me that, you know, that fullness That you get out of Nicaraguan tobacco. It's so far. It's like a lot of fruit is what I'm getting I'm sure maybe it's gonna change a little bit But I gotta say
**Gizmo:** for all those reasons, I'm actually really enjoying the cigar Yeah, I agree. It's very
**Senator:** pleasant.
Yeah. Very pleasant. I also wanna be clear. Absolutely. I don't think it's fair in any way for us to suggest that like there's one way to produce a Nicaraguan cigar. I mean, we've smoked countless Nicaraguan cigars in this podcast where we're like, I would never guess this is Nicaraguan Tobacco. Mm-Hmm.
That's right. And I think that's a huge merit. Because to tame the beast that is Nicaraguan tobacco and make it deliver an experience, that's not the obvious, like punch you in your face, tons of flavor, tons of cocoa, like all that and do something different is hard. And I tend to really give [00:15:00] credit to brands that are able to do it.
And to Gizmo's point, I mean, yes, this is, I agree with Rooster, this is not like the traditional Nicaraguan. But I really like the flavors that I'm getting out of this cigar. And the blend, the blend's working.
**Poobah:** Because the binder's not Nicaraguan. Correct. It is. Oh, it is. Yes. Always the wrapper. The wrapper is San
**Gizmo:** Andres, Mexican wrapper.
I mean, that
**Rooster:** does give it the little sweetness. It kind of rounds the flavors out. But I think if, if the tobacco is six to seven years aged, that should be marketed. I mean, that should be talked about. And if that is true. You know, and the fact that it's aged like another two years after it's rolled.
That's a huge merit.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. It's a little odd that Rocky Patel of all people isn't marketing that on this deck.
**Poobah:** Well, you may not be able to make, totally make the claim.
**Chef RIcky:** Exactly.
**Gizmo:** Which I respect him not marketing it, if that's the case. Sorry.
**Senator:** Can we all witness Bam is making dessert right now? The creme brulee is coming along really nicely.
**Bam Bam:** Can't wait to serve it. [00:16:00]
**Gizmo:** So there are four total sizes in the line. The 60 line from Rocky Patel. There's a Robusto, which is 50 by five and a half. Uh, Toro 52 by six and a half, the 60 we have in our hands, which is 60 by six as we know, and a Bala, which is an interesting Vitola, which is 58 ring gauge at the foot, 50 ring gauge at the head by five and three quarters inches long, very odd size.
The first three on the line were launched in 2021 and the Bala, the one I just talked about was launched in 2023. So this cigar, which I'm assuming. It has been made clear throughout the years since this came out and Cigar Aficionado celebrating it as number two in 2022. This cigar was launched to celebrate Rocky Patel's 60th birthday.
So in 2021, these cigars came out in that honor and boys, we have a birthday in the room tonight. Did you know that? No. Really? It is the podcast's third birthday [00:17:00] this week.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. Look at that. How about it? Time has flown by. So the
**Gizmo:** listeners will remember on episode 150, we did a whole hullabaloo, you know, it's, we didn't want to do it again nine episodes later, eight episodes later, but congratulations to us boys.
**Bam Bam:** Congratulations to us. Three
**Senator:** years. Champagne. Where's the Sabre? I don't see the Sabre. Yeah, what the fuck is this? You could give me a heads up on this.
**Poobah:** There's no sheet cake, nothing. All you brought us is a Rocky Patel. I brought us a Rocky Patel.
**Bam Bam:** No sheet cakes.
**Gizmo:** So that's pretty cool. We are now entering into our fourth year. Incredible. Of podcast, uh, production here with the Lounge Lizards. So, shout out to all the listeners out there, it's very cool that we've now hit three years officially this week.
That's awesome. So boys, this cigar is pretty damn good. It's good. I can't complain. I gotta give it credit.
**Senator:** And the construction's great. I mean, even burn. [00:18:00] Except for where the, uh, wrapper was torn.
**Rooster:** The wrapper was ripped off. Yeah. I had a little bit of a burn issue, but hopefully it's corrected itself.
**Gizmo:** I'm getting a bit of saltiness right now in the front of my tongue, which is very pleasant.
Hold on,
**Bam Bam:** I gotta hear
**Gizmo:** from
**Bam Bam:** Pagoda. What do you think of this cigar? God damn it.
**Pagoda:** It's, it's actually, you know what, I'm pleasantly surprised. I mean, you are the Patel man in
**Bam Bam:** the room.
**Pagoda:** Let's go. Well, my last name is Patel. No, I'm just kidding. No, it's not. No, um, no, really enjoying it. I mean, this, I, you know, as soon as I picked up the cigar, I thought, oh, this is going to be one of the stronger ones, you know, uh, but it's more like between mild and medium.
It's very deceiving. It is very deceiving. I love the construction, the smoke out, but I've, it was a razor sharp burn, but, but, um, yeah, no, it's been, it's been good. I'm also getting a little bit of saltiness and a little bit now. Um, I dunno, I, maybe I just get it sometimes when it's smoked and it's [00:19:00] got a little bit of the dark chocolate bitterness, um, you know, which has moved away from, uh, a little bit of the fruity So I get that dark
**Bam Bam:** chocolate on a finish
**Pagoda:** for me.
Yeah. No,
**Rooster:** no marmalade. No, no marmalade
**Pagoda:** yet. Yeah. No, it's been fantastic so far. No complaints.
**Senator:** I also have to say the box press on this, it does not feel like a 60 ring gauge cigar, which is very helpful. Yes.
**Gizmo:** If this was a normal Parejo cigar, you know, round, right. This would be too much in the, you know, as far as your mouth feel, it would be way too much.
I think it's also very loosely, but to me, that's
**Poobah:** a merit because you're like It's going to smoke faster. It's a long investment and you don't want a tight draw on a cigar. That's this big. I
**Rooster:** mean, I'm just saying if you hold it, like it's, it's feels light.
**Bam Bam:** Correct. Correct. And honestly, the color of the ash, it's kind of [00:20:00] not bright white, but it's almost there and it's, it looks like a very high quality, you know, well made cigar.
That's a merit. I mean,
**Poobah:** It's his 60th birthday cigar. He had to have put some thought into it. The guy isn't, the guy is not a moron. That's okay. Of course he's, he's the opposite. He's the opposite of that. He's a brilliant guy. Brilliant. He's a brilliant guy. Like I said before, a great entrepreneur. And I just don't think he's going to, it would shock me if for his birthday cigar, he put out something that isn't, you know, isn't great.
So easy to smoke.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** It is an easy smoke.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Almost too easy.
**Bam Bam:** But nice though. And a very nice enjoyable.
**Rooster:** Is this one of his like the higher priced cigars? 16 bucks.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I think so. This is one of his more recent high end lines. Is that right? It is in regular production though. I mean, he does have higher, higher end cigars that are in the forties and fifties, I think, but.
Oh, he does. Yeah. Yeah. But I think those are limited.
**Bam Bam:** I think the ALR is more expensive than this. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. But. [00:21:00] Has anyone in this room had an ALR that wasn't completely and totally offensive? Well, let's let, let's ask Pagoda. I mean, every LAR I've ever had was
**Pagoda:** hard to smoke. Agreed. Yeah, I really liked it.
And you all know it.
**Gizmo:** To Poobah's point here on Rocky Patel, his business and the ALR that we just talked about. This is the second Rocky Patel we've done on the pod on episode 104. We did the ALR second edition Robusto. We'll talk about the rating later, but we also talked quite extensively about Rocky's history, his business acumen, how he got to where he is.
And also. Something I want to highlight again that we highlighted in that episode 55 episodes ago is what an advocate he is for the industry and what a leader he is with with the industry associations who are, you know, putting up the fight against government regulation and these crazy things that are happening in municipalities, states [00:22:00] and federally in the United States.
And he is like the top guy. When we were at PCA, we mentioned this on the PCA episode, you know, he was at every single meeting on the floor. He was one of the leaders in those meetings. Sure. So he's, he's definitely really, really important to the cigar industry. It's, it's something I like to highlight again, you know?
**Poobah:** Well, yeah, because he had, they have broad distribution. He has a, it's, it's a Matt kind of a mass appeal line, like his catalog. It's for the masses and this isn't a knock, but you know, if Rocky Patel is the, I don't know, the Coca Cola of cigars and maybe, I don't know, Davidoff is Dr. Brown's or something. I, I, I, you know, of soda.
Do you know what I'm saying? Where it's way better. Like there's nothing better than like a, like a Dr. Brown's black cherry soda. Um, it's as good as it [00:23:00] gets. It's Uh, every
**Gizmo:** listener
**Poobah:** right now is Googling
**Gizmo:** Dr. Burns. Cause I have no idea what it is. I have no idea what it is. Oh, you know what it is? It's what
**Poobah:** they serve in kosher delis with the, with the, with the, it's the best black cherry soda you'll ever have.
It's right
**Chef RIcky:** up there with Stewart's and some of those more. Oh,
**Rooster:** like Boylan's. Boylan's
**Poobah:** is there too. He's, he, you know, so. He's got such broad distribution and such a big audience and it's got mass appeal, so he's got to get out
**Gizmo:** there. My perception is that he's kind of like the, the guy running the charge, like every time there's a judgment or some sort of FDA thing.
The PCA always includes a quote from Rocky Patel almost more than anyone else.
**Senator:** There's, it's not the perception, it's the reality. I mean, he's on the Hill all the time meeting with members of Congress about tobacco related legislation. I think his background as a lawyer, you know, for whatever reason, like.
I didn't think of that. That probably helps a lot. Of course. Just lended itself to [00:24:00] him being like a really effective voice on behalf of the industry. So like PCA for years, I mean, I always said. See, you know, Joshua brisky, whenever he's on the Hill, the CEO at PCA, and he was their head federal lobbyist for a very long time.
I mean, he's always, you know, him and Rocky lighting up on the balcony of the speaker's office at the Capitol. And uh, like he's just a fixture there. Like I, I'd be shocked. If by just the number of members of Congress that probably know Rocky on a first name basis, just how often that he's there talking about industry issues and trying to push back against some of the bullshit regulation that comes, uh, comes up.
Yeah. So cheers to Rocky for that. Cause it's awesome.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** So I want to shout out Rob Isla, because we had, we've had a conversation a few times in the last, you know, six months or so about how many cigars manufacturers around the world are making. And he recently put up a thread where he kind of threw it out to the, to the members [00:25:00] on FOH.
To, to guess the order of manufacturers by volume. And I was very surprised by the results. And I think talking about Rocky Patel, and I think some of the assumptions we have about the size of his business, and we've talked about it in the past. I'm curious if any of us are in the ballpark. So for the top eight worldwide manufacturers of cigars, where do you think Rocky Patel?
Lens in top eight top six six. Okay. No, I would say four. Okay
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, I would say
**Gizmo:** top four for anybody else. No top four
top five. Okay Rooster.
**Rooster:** Yeah. What's the top five?
**Gizmo:** All right. So I'm going to go, I'm going to count backwards. Eight to number one. Again, shout out to Rob for throwing this up. Cause this is great information. Number eight on the list is Padron who puts out about between three and a half and 5 million cigars a year.
Rocky Patel is number seven at 20 million cigars a year. [00:26:00] Arturo Fuente, number six, 30 million. Placencia number five, 35 million.
**Chef RIcky:** That's
**Gizmo:** Oliva number four, 40 million. Davidoff, between 40 and 50 million cigars a year. Habanos S. A., 45 to 55 million cigars a year currently. Well, is that accurate? Do we know if that's accurate?
Well, yeah, I think that's an accurate number, down quite a bit from, uh, from about five, six years ago. Does anybody have an idea who the number one cigar manufacturer in the world by volume on this list? Monte Cristo? True Estates. True Estates. 70. Plus million cigars a year.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. Over a million cigars
**Gizmo:** a week.
**Chef RIcky:** And they have a lot of machine, machine made.
**Senator:** Unbelievable. Hang on. So they're, they're one. Who was two? Two was Habanos. Got it.
**Gizmo:** Now,
**Senator:** Habanos,
**Gizmo:** and Davidoff are the top
**Bam Bam:** three. At Davidoff prices to be ranked that high
**Senator:** in volume. Keep in mind, that's gotta obviously include [00:27:00] Camacho and Avvo. Ah, that's true. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Right. Some of the
**Gizmo:** conglomerates, some of the conglomerates were not in this list. So you're not talking Swisher. You're not talking STG. Some of the like really, really big ones that are kind of holding companies for massive companies. General cigar is not in here. So there are some folks that are not on this list that are probably eclipsing these numbers.
Right. Like I would think Monte
**Poobah:** Cristo would
**Gizmo:** be Huge, but I think the reason why I like this list is this is a list of eight That is kind of in our wheelhouse here on the podcast
**Bam Bam:** and we said Rockies at 20 million Yeah, Rockies are on 20 million a year not bad for a guy to start a door to door pretty amazing.
Listen to that
**Poobah:** It's a great success story.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, I gotta say the smoke in this room is insane.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it's intense So boys, let's talk about our pairing We have the Woodford double [00:28:00] oaked bourbon tonight on the podcast. This is the second Woodford we've done. And we are all, I believe, drinking it neat to start, is that correct?
Correct. Cheers, boys. To three years. To three years. We are now in our fourth year officially. Cheers, boys. Isn't that wild? Cheers. Poobah, cheers. Gentlemen.
**Pagoda:** Cheers, folks.
**Gizmo:** Oh, that's really nice. Very nice. That is a real surprise. How robust it is. I'm not surprised. I'm surprised by this flavor profile. It's interesting.
There's like a cherry in it.
**Bam Bam:** Um, a little almond type thing for me.
**Poobah:** Orange.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, a touch of orange rind maybe.
**Senator:** Orange and there's this note. You get this on McAllen 12 Sherry. Faint, like dark chocolate on the finish. I get faint cocoa.
**Gizmo:** Yes, that is there. That's unusual. That's
**Poobah:** a really nice bourbon. It's a great bourbon.[00:29:00]
You hit one of those Giardelli squares with this. It's great.
**Chef RIcky:** It
**Poobah:** brings
**Chef RIcky:** all of those sweet sounding notes to the table without being overly sweet.
**Poobah:** Agreed. Very well balanced. Very well balanced. Yeah. It's sweet in the front of the palate and then dry in the back.
**Bam Bam:** How are you feeling about the pairing with this particular cigar?
Doesn't overpower it. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I like it a lot. I think it's very appropriate. Yeah? Yeah. Okay.
**Senator:** The reason I like it is I think, you know, there's some sweet notes you get in the cigar, but then the finish is a little dry. And I like that. I think the bourbon it's sweeter than the cigar, but not overly sweet. And I think it's helping kind of balance out some of the dryness in the cigar.
So I, I really liked the pairing. Okay.
**Gizmo:** And I like that we're not tasting a lot of wood in the bourbon. And I think that when I'm sipping the bourbon and having the cigar with it, it's, it's making that, those fruit notes pronounced, the salt notes pronounced, and [00:30:00] everything's kind of working really well together.
Do
**Bam Bam:** we know if this is finished in sherry casks?
**Senator:** No, I would doubt that. No, it's bourbon. Double oak, right?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Double oak, okay.
**Chef RIcky:** See, I kind of disagree. I feel I feel like the reason it dries out despite starting sweet with the cherry and then whatnot, I think the, the chocolate that comes around, that's, that's a result of the oak.
Oh, you think it's because
**Gizmo:** of the oak?
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Um, and I, I think. It kind of, I feel like you're leaning this way, Ben, but I think it kind of overpowers the cigar a little bit. It doesn't really compliment it.
**Bam Bam:** Just
**Chef RIcky:** the touch. To me, it does just a touch overpower the touch. And I think if we did a punch cut versus a straight cut, it would probably hold up a little bit better to the spirit.
It's pleasant. You know, I'm not going to reject
**Bam Bam:** the pairing, right? Yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** But what's happening Exactly. But if this was So this, this bourbon paired with the exquisito
**Bam Bam:** home run home run [00:31:00] in more of a, more, more, more of
**Poobah:** a balanced pairing. Yeah. Agreed. Um, because what's happening here, I'm about, I don't know, halfway through, um, the cigar.
Not halfway, but .
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. His thoughts. I kind of feel like I'm almost there. I'm getting there. I mean, getting there smoking a little bit fast.
**Poobah:** It's not changing much for me. It's basically the same, the same way it started, which,
**Chef RIcky:** and waiting for it to pick up in strength a little bit. Yeah. And
**Poobah:** I'm waiting for some pepper or I'm waiting for some more body.
Yeah, yeah. Um, or waiting for some more strength and, um, for a Nicaraguan blend. Uh, I'm not getting that, which is fine. It would hold up better with this. I agree. I
**Senator:** think you guys are viewing it from a strength perspective of like the strength of the cigar and the strength of the bourbon. And I don't disagree there.
The, the bourbon's got a bit more strength than the cigar. I think my [00:32:00] initial reaction was more of like the flavor profile. I feel like the flavor notes in the cigar and the flavor notes in the bourbon worked well together. They do work well. And I don't
**Chef RIcky:** disagree with that for me. It's less strength. It's more if the cigar had a little bit more body, this reminds you.
Yeah, yeah,
**Poobah:** yeah, yeah. This reminds me. No joke. Blind. If this wasn't the shape that it was in, it would. It feels like a thousand series Padron to me. That's not a bad comparison. I, I, I, I mean, I find it's like approachable a
**Gizmo:** little bit more harsh. Yeah.
**Chef RIcky:** There's a little bit more, I'll find it.
**Senator:** Not the 2000.
Yeah. But I, I think where poop is going is like the flavor. Is not as heavy or robust as like the 64, 26 line. It's a milder delivery of that amount of flavor. There's some harshness cause it's not ages long, but the body of the smoke [00:33:00] is toned down from the 64 I think that it's more similar to the body of this.
Oh
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Good call
**Poobah:** out. Like I kind of wouldn't, if I smoked this blind, okay. It's 16. Okay. Look, look, look, look. Let's put it in perspective to it's 1650 or whatever it is. It's a 16 cigar for a massive cigar.
**Bam Bam:** And
**Poobah:** it's a big cigar. So it's actually
**Gizmo:** a budget cigar. I'm, I'm assuming I'm not certain of this.
I'm assuming the Robusto is coming in around 11 or 12 bucks, right? It's
**Poobah:** so it's, it's, it's, it's actually like with all the, with all the pomp and circumstance with the labels and the, the marketing behind it. It's really just a budget cigar that, I don't know, you could sit around your pool with outdoors and kind of just smoke casually.
And if you, if you ditched it two thirds of the way through, who cares? It's 16 bucks. Would you smoke this on [00:34:00] a,
**Bam Bam:** on a golf course?
**Rooster:** I think you would. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
**Poobah:** Call it a couple of airstrikes. Uh, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I could put it down, jump in the pool. Grab a, another drink or whatever. Who cares playing golf, maybe while playing golf, but let's go to the pool.
Like I'd be Wayne. It's pretty good for the price. Like, I'd be way more, I'd be like agitated if this was 40 bucks. Oh, I agree with you on that.
**Bam Bam:** Right, for sure. I don't think we would have done it. I would have threw this at Gizmo if it was 40 bucks. Lit.
**Poobah:** So, so it's, it's almost like, it's like the presentation of it makes it seem like it's going to, it's going to be this thing that's going to blow your hair back when really it's, To me, it's like a glorified thousand series padron,
**Bam Bam:** which is, am I Crazy?
Which is $6 on [00:35:00] average. Are they six still? Yeah, they're pretty cheap. They're a lot cheaper. Yeah. That's, and they're great. I mean, the Padron two thousands Delicious. Which that I would cigar define
**Senator:** as a budget price cigar. I think a cigar that's like 12, 16 bucks. It's an excessively priced cigars. I wouldn't call it a budget ci.
Correct. Okay, fair enough. That's not our daily driver
**Poobah:** for most folks. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough.
**Chef RIcky:** But you know what I'm saying? It's, it's I think what you were just saying, bang, for the buck, cigar size. You know, smoke experience.
**Gizmo:** It's a big cigar. I mean, it's a big one. I'm I'll be honest at this point, and we're coming up, I guess, at the end of the first third going in the second third.
To me at this price, I do feel that there is using pagodas where there's value here
**Bam Bam:** for
**Gizmo:** how much tobacco you're getting for the price. For how I'm feeling right now, I'm enjoying it.
**Bam Bam:** The smoke
**Poobah:** ability of it. Smoke ability has a lot of value. Yeah, it just lacks. It lacks body. It lacks complexity. It's not bad in any way.
**Bam Bam:** It's not bad. Is there a risk of it not being [00:36:00] memorable? Possibly. I just think like
**Senator:** what everybody's pointing out that I agree with, there are things that it's lacking, but what it does have and what it is delivering is enjoyable. I agree. And it's 16 bucks. I'm gonna, you know, my rating is going to reflect that.
I mean, we still have another, you know, two thirds of this cigar to go through, but. So far, I'm pleased with what it's trying to do, I'm, I'm happy with. There are things it could do that I wish it would, but for 16 bucks at this size, I mean, that's not really what it's a pleasant, pleasant smoke. I'll go out
**Bam Bam:** on a limb and say this would be a cigar that I would give to a newbie.
Yeah. It's mild, it's fairly mild. It's easy to smoke. It looks impressive, right? It's fairly intimidating looking. So when someone starts smoking this, they feel like they're having a serious experience. Do you think you
**Rooster:** would give this size to a newbie? Yeah. The way
**Bam Bam:** this is performing? Absolutely. Because it's so smooth.
**Chef RIcky:** Well, and, and to, to Gizmo's points earlier about how we're probably, I think it was Gizmo who said we're, we're not the target audience for the cigar. Poobah
**Rooster:** [00:37:00] said that.
**Chef RIcky:** Sorry, Poobah. You know, I think if you're a newbie, right, and you're out there, you're local brick and mortar, and you're, you know, chances are you're looking at like the cigar that's the most nicely packaged, right?
And you see three bands and all this pomp and circumstance, as Poobah said. Um, you know, you think it's a super serious cigar, dark band, you feel really important smoking this. You feel like you're partaking in something. That's elevated and then it doesn't put you on your ass. So it's, it's really approachable and it's, yeah,
**Poobah:** I think that's part of
**Chef RIcky:** the genius behind Rocky Patel.
**Poobah:** Thank you. Yeah. You took the words right out of my mouth. I really do think that he understands, um, his addressable market. I think he, these guys aren't dumb. He understands like that market who he can address. Thanks. And bring [00:38:00] them something at a price point, dress it up. It's brilliant. You dress it up.
It's 16 bucks. It's like not over the top. It's an approachable smoke. There's nothing offensive about it. The end user feels kind of like good about their choice. Eventually, if the person sticks with the hobby, they're going to graduate up the things that are stronger. I just think he gets the market. I think he, I think they really, the company really understands the segmentation within.
There's just
**Senator:** one thing that I disagree with that. A number of guys are saying, I keep hearing, you know, we're not the market for this cigar. I don't agree with that. I think this cigar is incredibly versatile. Like I think this whole notion, like we only smoke full body cigars. I mean, that's nonsense. We don't like, we have a rotation for a reason.
We start with a lighter cigar, like something that's medium. [00:39:00] We build in strength usually as we're in a smoking session. So like, yeah, this could be a starter. This could easily be a starter. Yeah. You know, I remember when we did the aging room Sonata and I was going back and forth with Gizmo about my 10, like I kept getting asked, you know, where would you slot that in?
Are you going to slot that over a Padron? And I'm like, I'd have that first and then the Padron. And you know, this was
**Bam Bam:** fucking hilarious, by the way, which.
**Senator:** If we would count how many, everyone here smokes of that cigar, my tennis stood up very well, but I just say like, I've been vindicated since the moment we ended that recording, but you're not wrong.
I just say that because you know, I don't think like every cigar is not competing for the same slot in our rotation. And the only time I get frustrated is like when we pigeonhole a Nicaraguan cigar into, they all must be this full body thing. And the closer the last cigar, like. They all don't. And that's the beauty of the Sonata.
And I think that's the beauty of what Rocky's done with this cigar. Like, this is an opener. I'm [00:40:00] enjoying it. I think we are also the market. And to have a cigar that, like, no, not one person in this room has said, This is offensive. I hate this. It lacks any flavor. Like, none of us are complaining wildly about this cigar.
So we are part of that market, and
**Poobah:** that's a merit. Okay. But how much is the, let me ask you a question, can I just challenge a little bit? Yeah. How much is the Aston VSG Rab Robusta?
**Bam Bam:** Uh, 12 bucks. Yeah. Yeah. Probably 10, 12 bucks. Okay.
**Poobah:** For Rab Robusta. Okay. Right. So is probably the same as this in Rab Robusto?
Correct. My argument is, is that that cigar. At that price point just delivers a lot more complexity body and is more
**Senator:** sophisticated than this. So I agree with you on body, but I don't on complexity. I actually think it's a pretty straightforward cigar. I wouldn't call the VSG a complex cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, you know, my okay, and I think it's trying to
**Senator:** deliver more body like it says, like one of the boldest cigars [00:41:00] that like, uh, was a Carlito that helped them blend that like they were going for bold, like against the Ashton grain.
And I don't think Rocky's going for bold with no, he's not.
**Gizmo:** So boys, let's talk about the bourbon for a second. The double oak from Woodford reserve. So what's cool about this is it's as, as Ricky was talking about, uniquely matured in separate charred oak barrels. And this is wild. The second barreled is deeply toasted before a light charring, which extracts additional soft, sweet oak character.
So I guess Ricky maybe knows more about this than, than the rest of us, but so they're taking a second barrel, they're toasting it and then pouring the first barrel into the second barrel and imparting that flavor.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, and what that does is it brings a more pronounced and fuller flavor, if you will, and just another level of complexity to the, to the finished spirit.
You'll see this with some, you know, some tequila manufacturers choose specific barrels or specific [00:42:00] brands because they go lighter on toast. Uh, and then some would do the opposite, but they often highlight it. And uh, yeah, a darker toast usually brings a more pronounced, complex flavor, if you will. Yeah.
And maybe sometimes even tannic. So I finish for sure. Yeah. There's a little tannic there.
**Gizmo:** Let's go through the tasting notes that Woodford provides here on this bourbon. They say the nose has rich notes of dark fruit, caramel, sharp honey, chocolate, marzipan, and toasted Oak. The taste they're saying is a mix of vanilla, dark caramel, hazelnut, apple, fruit, and spices.
And the finish is long and creamy with lingering hints of honeyed apple. That's pretty accurate.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Although I agree with your cherry flavor. Yolk all out and cherry was right on. I'm definitely getting cherries. So definitely more than apple, I would think.
**Bam Bam:** Also, don't laugh though. What's that, um, almond paste that you have in some pastries?
Marzipan. That's what it is. Yeah, they called it out. Yeah, absolutely.
**Gizmo:** So this is cool [00:43:00] too. The proof on this is 90. 4%, 45. 2 percent alcohol by volume. Isn't that wild?
**Pagoda:** Yeah. And I'm surprised I'm having it without ice. Yeah. Everyone's drinking it. It's very smooth without ice.
**Bam Bam:** Well, that's a statement right there.
**Gizmo:** So we did the, the normal standard Woodford Reserve bourbon quite some time ago. We'll go through the rating a little bit later. I'm curious what you guys think of how this stacks up to the standard issue, Woodford Reserve. And I know Poobah is a big fan of that bourbon. I'm curious what, uh, what you guys think.
**Senator:** I'll just say, I mean, I, I really like the regular. Woodford and I feel like most spirits when they have like a really popular staple, like this traditional Woodford bourbon that you can find everywhere. And then they come out with like this variation of it where they've just done something different.
This, the double Oak, um, I'm usually disappointed. And I say like, you had a great thing going, like why mess with it? This is one of the few that I think this is like [00:44:00] the perfect representation of just an elevated standard Woodford that just has more body, more flavor. Still smooth. We're all sipping it neat.
I think it's a great sipping bourbon.
**Bam Bam:** Agreed.
**Senator:** And
**Bam Bam:** honestly, with ice, this I can do in the spring or summer as well. No issues for
**Chef RIcky:** me. I think standard Woodford probably presents a little more pepper forward from what I remember. This is definitely, especially on the nose, much sweeter. So yeah, if you enjoy regular Woodford, this will not let you down.
**Senator:** Like, just quickly, there's, there's even a cognac like character about this. Like, cognac has like a really rich, intense fruitiness to it.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah.
**Senator:** And that's the first sip I took, I was like, this is like cognac meets bourbon. Yeah. I can't disagree with that.
**Poobah:** There's a little viscosity to it. Yeah.
**Chef RIcky:** Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cognac has a much longer finish. At least the ones that we've enjoyed here on the pod have, have much longer finishes than this one does. Um, but yeah, I agree with you there. Yeah, but [00:45:00] this has a
**Poobah:** longer finish than, than the, than the regular Woodford. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just comparing
**Chef RIcky:** it to the cognacs.
I find cognacs have, uh, there was one in particular that was super like wine forward, um, I can't remember. What we had. It was recently. It was since I've been on the pod. That was really good.
**Gizmo:** So what's interesting, this bottle, I would have expected it to be more pricey. It's only 56 bucks.
**Chef RIcky:** Wow. Wow. Is that
**Gizmo:** right?
Yeah. So how much is regular Woodford? Like 30? 30. So for another 25 bucks, I think that the step up here is worth it worth it. Yep.
**Poobah:** Yeah, I See this I see this around Thanksgiving. I see it around. I see it around Christmas That's a good point. Yeah, very after the timing after dinner, you know, you can have a piece of chocolate creating an old fashioned Fashion with
**Chef RIcky:** some chocolate bitters and yeah, man.
**Poobah:** Oh yeah. Now we, you make an old fashion out of this. Yeah, it would, it would elevate it, I think. Mm-Hmm. , I really do
**Chef RIcky:** Just bring out [00:46:00] that orange character a little bit. Some chocolate bitters or moley bitters. So when are you gonna make that for us? Yes, please. Pagoda. Looks like he's ready
**Pagoda:** to make them right now.
Oh, . No, no, no. I, now I'm gonna defer to, uh, Jeff Ricky. Thank you. Yes. You know,
**Chef RIcky:** it's, it's a good point. I'm gonna start stalking some, uh, some basic, uh. Mixology tools and, and mixers in my locker. I used to, you know, I used to make, I
**Poobah:** used to make more old fashions and I went through a couple of years where I used to make them more and, uh, well, we're
**Chef RIcky:** coming into that time of year.
So yeah, good old days, a good old fashioned can't be beat. That's
**Senator:** a great, yeah. Really good old fashioned, smoked old fashioned. Oh yeah. Yeah. Smoked old
**Chef RIcky:** fashions are great. Haven't had one of those. If you're going to do it smoked and just go all the way and do it with Mezco. Hmm. Oh yeah. It's a good, I like that.
Yeah. Homeboy.
**Poobah:** And, and, and you know, what else is coming in? You know, we're coming into the fall and, and, uh, like the Talisker and things like that, you know, are nice this time of year. Yeah. Appropriate time. I love the
**Gizmo:** [00:47:00] Lagavulin
**Bam Bam:** 16 this time of year.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Around the holidays, that's when I reach for it, especially when I can't have a cigar, there's something going on at the house and I want something that has a little bit of smoke to it.
**Chef RIcky:** Is this the time of year where crown royale becomes appropriate?
**Senator:** Rude but silent. What
**Pagoda:** are we talking about now? What is a crown royale? Or Chivas, I thought you were going to say Chivas.
**Poobah:** Chivas. Oh, was it Chivas? Chivas, sorry, I miscited the spirit. Chef just went into the hot tub time machine.
**Chef RIcky:** Was it, was it Chivas? Regal. That's right. Yeah. I got those bad days. Chivas 18.
**Poobah:** There's no good time for that.
**Gizmo:** So boys, I wanted to share that. I was in the Dominican Republic for the first time and I was a guest of La Aurora and I went down there for about. Six days, five, six days, uh, they invited me down and it was a [00:48:00] great, great week. And I wanted to share with you guys a little bit about it.
**Chef RIcky:** I'm so looking forward to this.
This was just before Cuba, right? This
**Gizmo:** was right before Cuba. It actually led into Cuba.
**Chef RIcky:** Beautiful.
**Gizmo:** So I actually flew from the Dominican Republic after this experience, right to Cuba. And I met Senator and Lizard Henry there first, and then the other guys came in. And then of course, as we noted. So you
**Chef RIcky:** were on this beautiful trip in DR and paradise, and then you get to Cuba and have to climb.
15 flights of steps.
**Gizmo:** That's exactly what happened. That is exactly what happened.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. Oh boy.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. That was not fun. So any listener who hasn't heard our Cuba recap episode in our, our tales of pagodas woes with a power outage, tune into the episode we put out a couple of weeks ago. So that trip. Followed the trip.
I'm about to talk about where I went to. I went to Santiago in the Dominican Republic as a guest of La Aurora, and it was fantastic. So I have to shout out La Aurora knows how to put together an event for their guests. They are incredible hosts. All the people there are super [00:49:00] into the podcast, super supportive of what we're doing and really just wanted me to come down alongside some other media folks and just experience it.
Their hospitality, their factory, their production, their story. And I, I left really, really impressed. And I think my first impression being in the Dominican Republic and starting to have these experiences in the Dominican Republic. Of course, my brain automatically, I'm starting to compare it to Cuba, right?
Cause we've been to Cuba so many times and I couldn't believe, and this is my naivety, I guess, I couldn't believe. How much more advanced the Dominican Republic is versus my perception of what it was going to be. I was telling someone I felt being in Santiago going to Tambril, the free zone where a lot of the cigar manufacturers are.
I felt like I had gone to Pennsylvania. The high, you know, highways out of the city. There were, you know, woods everywhere. I mean, it really felt like I was [00:50:00] Close to home. People speak English, you were right at home.
**Bam Bam:** There were
**Gizmo:** a lot of English speakers, yes. They didn't get playing all over the place. But it was, it was Sounds like the heart of
**Bam Bam:** Pennsylvania.
**Gizmo:** It was, uh, it was really eye opening. And I feel that, um, we have done ourselves a disservice. Here in the, in the room for not going to Dominican Republic. Well, the
**Poobah:** people love the DR and it's a, it is a destination. I know all types of different people who go to the Dominican Republic often for all different kinds of reasons, such as they
**Rooster:** have chips.
They do have chips. They
**Bam Bam:** have Doritos.
**Poobah:** Yes. That's why Poobah doesn't want to go to Cuba, by the way. Yes. Well, it's the, the infrastructure and all that stuff is, is, is, is definitely better. It's a little bit more, you know, it's, it's, it's accessible by the way. Great golf in Dominican Republic.
**Gizmo:** [00:51:00] I didn't experience any of that.
**Poobah:** Great golf. Yeah. They have amazing courses. It's great that you got the teeth of the dog down there. You've got the, you've got. You've got resorts and Jack,
**Rooster:** Jack Nicholas courses.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. You've done this. So there's a lot of luxury resorts. And if you want to go that kind of route in the DR where you're a little, you know, it's a little more of a local.
Native feel there's that too. You know, I know guys, I know a lot of NYPD guys who go down there either they're in retirement and they spend your dollar goes a long way. Um, they spend a lot, you know, they spend extended periods of time down there and just enjoy themselves.
**Gizmo:** And that's the experience I had.
It was really, really refreshing and surprising to me. And, uh, again, the hospitality was amazing.
**Bam Bam:** Tell us about the factory.
**Gizmo:** So, well, I'll start with this. So we landed, uh, on Tuesday night and the first thing that happened is there was a welcome dinner. So they had all of us get together. They took us to this [00:52:00] beautiful restaurant called Maru, a brand new restaurant, like brand new.
So here I'm thinking, Oh man, I'd really love to have a cigar. Like I haven't had a cigar in two days, you know, flew all day today. I really want a cigar, man. We get in this beautiful restaurant. They put us in this back room, which is maybe it looked like a boardroom out of like the movies. Right? Maybe for 30 people, they closed the doors and they said, all right, everybody, we can light up now.
And I was like, shocked. The cigar culture is so similar to Cuba. Really? You can smoke anywhere. I was shocked. Cool. And there's people out in the restaurant. Just having dinner and in our room. We were all lighting up there, you know, it was amazing The the filtration was great, but I couldn't believe this brand new restaurant.
I brand new restaurant We sat down and the food was incredible and I got to meet Guillermo who owns the company third fourth generation now very very successful in the DR And, uh, [00:53:00] the whole team there, that, that, that first dinner was really, really amazing. Got to meet everybody and, and, and get the whole week started.
**Chef RIcky:** Can you tell me about one dish you had maybe, or one item?
**Gizmo:** We had a tomahawk. We had a tomahawk steak that was one of the best. I've ever had. I split it with, uh, another member of the media who was there. That's very Dominican. Remember he's in the heart of Pennsylvania.
**Senator:** That was the next course
**Gizmo:** was venison.
That was what we had. And it was, it was brilliant. Um, I was hoping to hear my phone though.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, tostones, queso frito, salami. I will say the tostones
**Gizmo:** were very good in Dominican Republic, but they did not rival the experience I had in Cuba with the tostones. Cuba wins the tostones war for me. No offense to our Dominican listeners out there.
I hear
**Poobah:** the beaches are beautiful. Yes, they are.
**Gizmo:** You know, I went to a beach on a beach. Yeah, I went to a beach and you didn't
**Senator:** malfunction. This is unbelievable.
**Bam Bam:** How much sunscreen were you wearing?
**Gizmo:** That's the last day. [00:54:00] So the next morning we went to the factory for the first time and we met Guillermo again.
We met some of the team there, Manuel Inoa, who's the master blender. If you've ever been to like PCA, he was there. He's at every single event. He speaks great English. Of course, he speaks Spanish. So he's a great ambassador for the brand master blender of everything they do. He's completely in charge of all of that.
And, uh, he's great. So we had a wonderful welcome, uh, introduction, and then we walked through the factory. And I couldn't believe how. Robust and well built. These factories are and modern modern air conditioning everywhere. Again, comparing to Cuba, all of the workers were wearing PPE. There's hand sanitizer everywhere.
Like it really felt like a warehouse here in the United States, you know, completely the opposite of what's happening in Cuba. And again, I, I, I hesitate to keep saying that, but that's where my brain was at the entire time was comparing these experiences that I had. Like, it's, [00:55:00] it's like I went to an Amazon warehouse with La Aurora and it's like, I'm going to a destitute, you know, that's not far off run down and
**Poobah:** doing it the same way they did it a hundred years ago in Cuba.
Yeah. And they haven't changed. They can't change. Which is kind of the beauty of it, which is kind of the, that's true.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It gave me great appreciation for what's actually happening in Cuba and how resilient the Cuban people are and the fact that they're able to produce what they do with so little. It was eye opening being in the DR and seeing what they have and what they're able to do, which is brilliant.
And you know, in its own way, uh, it, it, it was eye opening as to what Cuba is able to, um. Now, isn't La Aurora
**Pagoda:** one of the oldest factories? It is the oldest factory. It is the oldest factory. The oldest. So they've kept up with the times and they've evolved. And I'm, I'm, I think that
**Gizmo:** they've moved a couple of times now they're in what's called the free zone.
Yeah. So they have these gated walls. [00:56:00] Industrial communities, quote unquote, where there's no tax duty in and out because the stuff that's being manufactured there is not for consumption inside the Dominican Republic. Interesting. So they have these free zones, which then opens up, you know, new industry to come in.
So there's a lot of sneaker manufacturers in this, in this same park, a lot of cigar manufacturers. And
**Bam Bam:** everything there manufactured by all these companies are exported. Exactly. Yeah, I see. There's nothing
**Gizmo:** to be consumed. They're doing, are they, do they do textiles? Textiles, clothing, shoes. Right. Uh, candy.
I mean, there's tons of different stuff and it's in this massive industrial park and uh, La Aurora is, is one of the cigar manufacturers there. So we then, after we toured the factory briefly, we went out to one of their farms and uh, We got in a van, went out and, and experienced the farms. And again, you see how different it is versus Cuba and what they have completely.
Like the tack, irrigation, machinery, irrigation, you know, there's, they just have everything.
**Pagoda:** So it wasn't like a [00:57:00] trip to Pinar del Río. It was not Pinar del Río. You didn't almost get ejected from the car like 10 times on the way
**Poobah:** there. No, no, no seatbelts in Cuba, folks. So the tilling isn't the tilling, the tiller isn't run by a mule.
No, no, it isn't.
**Gizmo:** So we had a nice visit at the farm and then we went back to the factory after about an hour, learned a lot about the tobacco production process, saw the seedlings, saw the plants walk through the entire process, um, and, and how they take care of their plants. We talked a lot about disease and how they're constantly checking the soil.
For disease there. I guess they have a microbiologist on staff that they're constantly checking the soil to make sure that, you know, it's not ridden with, you know, things that are gonna kill their crop, you know, and they have a lot, a lot of acreage in the Dominican Republic, of course, where they produce their tobacco.
They're one of the one of the biggest there. So we got back to the plant and then we went through the, the processes that they go through to [00:58:00] produce tobacco. It's very similar to what we saw in Cuba, fermentation, aging, the pre preparation, how they de stem. I found it interesting. They do not. We talked about the Cuba episode, you know, when they de stem those, they grind it up and they send it back out.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Or they soak it in water and they soak it as a pesticide. Exactly. And they send it
**Gizmo:** back out to the farms as pesticide. They don't do any of that in the Dominican Republic. It's not used at all. Interesting. So I found that interesting. So then we went through a Seminar by Manuel Enoa, who I was talking about is the master blender there, walked us through their process, talked about the five senses and what you experience when you're smoking a cigar.
And then we did a tasting seminar and I actually brought you a copy, a duplicate of the training kit that we used during this part of the day, which was one of my favorite things that we did, where we were given a box. with a cigar in it, a finished La Aurora cigar. That's
**Bam Bam:** a beautiful box, by the way. So you got four boxes, four [00:59:00] cigars.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, so right here there are four Puros cigars. So what was happening is, is each of the four components of the tobacco inside the finished product, we smoked each of those individual Puros. That's cool. So you tasted, What the first tobacco provides versus the second versus the third versus the fourth in the filler.
So We need
**Chef RIcky:** to isolate those flavors and see what they all bring to the finished product. And
**Gizmo:** what was amazing about it is as we went through this process, and we probably only smoked a little bit of it because it's a puro, right? So, you know, we probably smoked about a half an inch or an inch of each of these.
By the end of this, my palate and brain was so fatigued. Because the puro experience is so overwhelming, which is why the blend needs to happen of different tobaccos. It's like, you know, when Chef Ricky's making a dish at his restaurant, he's trying to find things that compliment, add, take away, you know, put a recipe together that's gonna be a pleasant smoke.
Because each of these individual [01:00:00] puros, these tobaccos themselves, cannot be smoked. No, as a puro in, in, in, I would also think
**Bam Bam:** there's a percentage of each of those cigars at different percentages that go into the final blend. Exactly. Right. And
**Gizmo:** that's the, that's the secret that they wouldn't tell us. Of course.
They don't tell us how much of each of these four. Which we don't know in Cuba either, by the way. So I can actually walk you through what each of these four are. So number one here is a Criollo 98 from Peru. This one is a Criollo 98 from. Bahia. The third one is Nicaraguan Criollo 98 and the fourth is Piloto Cubano from the Dominican Republic.
So what's interesting about these four is these first three are technically the same seed grown in three different geographical areas. And the difference. So it's, so it's Dominican seed grown in different regions. Exactly. I see. Exactly. So there's four different types of pure. Probably different
**Bam Bam:** soils, different sun exposure and water exposure.
**Gizmo:** Everything's different. Wow. [01:01:00] So these four fillers that we smoke, these puros ended up as the filler in the final blend. Of course, like I said, we don't know what the percentages are. That's the magic of it. Can I ask
**Poobah:** a stupid question just for my own education? They're not. Those aren't Dominican puros really necessarily because
**Gizmo:** no, only actually only one of them was a Dominican puro.
They're all puros. One was from Peru. One was from Bahia. One was from Nicaragua, one from Dominican Republic.
**Poobah:** So they're puros from those four different regions. They basically roll them and smoke them and then determine how they're going to blend it. Exactly.
**Gizmo:** So Manuel Enoa gets a directive from the leadership at La Aurora and says this is the kind of cigar we're looking for, this is the kind of profile, this is what it's going to be.
And he goes out and starts trying these puros to start putting together the individual ingredients of how he's going to create that blend.
**Poobah:** It's almost like with wine, like [01:02:00] they're taking grapes. Different grapes from different regions, if they were making a maritage and then deciding what the balance is going to be to make the blend.
Exactly.
**Gizmo:** So boys, I want to get back to this in a second. We're about the halfway point here on the Rocky Patel 60. What's everybody thinking right now?
**Bam Bam:** Well, it's, it's stayed incredibly consistent. Um, I don't think it's changed at all for me. It's actually becoming a bit tough to smoke right now. Really?
Yeah, because it's so wide open. Um, it's the cigars getting really, really soft. Not liking that too much. Yeah. But, uh, I can't say it's offensive, but hasn't gotten any more interesting for me.
**Senator:** Mine's not soft. I, I mean, maybe it's just if you're smoking a little fast. Could be. I think in the second half, it picks up just a little bit in strength.
A little bit. And a little spicy. Which is nice, because I think we were wanting some transition. Yeah. Um, and a little more body. And I think it's, it's [01:03:00] definitely delivering some more of that, but I do think flavor profile wise, it's pretty consistent.
**Chef RIcky:** Yes. For me, especially on the retrohale where it was so kind of clean earlier on, now I'm getting a little bit of a tickle.
Um, you know, the spices is, you know, got kicked up just a little bit
**Rooster:** of pepper coming through now on the back of your back of your tongue. It's
**Poobah:** like right at this end of the third, it's like, kicked up like 10,
**Gizmo:** 15%. How are you guys feeling with the pairing with the bourbon with this right now, based on what you were just saying?
**Senator:** I like it honestly, even more just with the pepper that picks up in it. I like the sweetness to balance out the spice. I
**Pagoda:** mean, I do need the drink now. I think it's, it's also relatively dry. So it gets a little bit of the tobacco. That's kind of where I'm at. So that's why I like when I, when I get the, when I get a sip of the drink, You know, it does level you out.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. Yeah. I think the pairing now works better than it did earlier on. Oh, for sure. For
**Poobah:** sure. [01:04:00] It was a, it's a decent affair. I mean, it's, it's, I really don't have much negative to say about it. Did it like blow my hair back? No, but
**Gizmo:** pretty good. Yeah, I think it's a pretty damn good cigar. Sixteen bucks, this size, the biggest cigar we've ever done on this podcast.
I'm surprised across the board as to how it's performing for me and how it's tasting. And I, I love it with the bourbon right now.
**Senator:** Same. I mean, to Booba's point, if we didn't smoke this and someone handed me this cigar, there's no chance I would light it up. Of course. Zero. Yeah. Having smoked this, someone handed it to me.
We almost, by the way, when I
**Gizmo:** mentioned that we were doing this on the podcast tonight, we almost didn't do it.
**Senator:** Yeah. Rooster got a Rooster almost quit. Upper respiratory infection immediately upon you announcing this was a cigar. Just, just the name gives me. No, and
**Pagoda:** you know, as soon as I drove in, I saw him walk out.
He says, I'm done. I'm leaving. That's why. Because there's a Rocky Patel in there.
**Gizmo:** I don't know. I think Rocky's changing some opinions tonight in the room. All right. So back to my trip to [01:05:00] La Aurora in the Dominican Republic. So we left the tasting seminar. I learned a lot about the process of these, these, these blenders and how they think and how they work and how they're constantly trying.
different types of tobacco and trying those Puros was really eye opening for me and again, I couldn't, I couldn't get past how fatigued I was, how fatigued my palate was after smoking the Puros. It really does show the magic in some of these cigars we love, how brilliant these
**Bam Bam:** blenders are,
**Gizmo:** blending decisions are, they're micro decisions.
It's very similar, I would think, to what, you know, Poobah said about wine or what we're talking about with bourbon or what Chef does at his restaurants.
**Chef RIcky:** Same thing, same thing with food, a hundred percent. Um, you know, especially. You know, items that are high, highly, uh, high in fat, you know, uh, super fatty proteins or just things where, you know, you're curing product and they tend to be a lean, a little salty or even overly sweet, or, you know, whatever that note is, you just kind of get tired of, of it and it's hard to wash it off and you need to kind of reset.
You have [01:06:00] access to seltzer there or?
**Gizmo:** Actually they were giving us seltzer during the, I'm glad you asked that. They were giving us seltzer during the tasting. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, uh, this is like Pupa
**Senator:** with Doritos, but Gizmo with seltzer. Like, you wouldn't survive without it.
**Gizmo:** Manuel was demanding that we sip seltzer in between each Puro.
And he had raw, freshly roasted coffee beans to clear our nose. . So the seltzer was to clear the palate and the, the freshly roasted coffee beans. Yeah. They were sniffing in between to clear our nose out.
**Poobah:** It's very interesting. I'm glad you had that experience. Yeah. 'cause it's taking you through almost, uh, the, the blender's journey of, of the decision making process.
Yeah. It sounds like a very cool experience where they. They kind of stepped you through the decision making process of how they're getting to a blend where it's almost like I gotta, we're going to take this, this, this, and [01:07:00] this, and we're going to roll them up and we're going to try them. And then where do we find the balance to make this, You know, to create an expression that is unique and that we're happy with.
And also aligns with the directive,
**Gizmo:** aligns with the directive from what leadership is wanting out of a new release for, in this case, 120th anniversary, 107th anniversary, whatever it is, you know, like it has to match. It's like cooking. I mean,
**Poobah:** like, like I'm going to taste the sauce. I'm going to take, I'm going to taste these ingredients.
And then we're going to try and find the balance to create something that, that works.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. So it's, it's really genius if what they actually did was went to the blender and say, Hey, this is the, this is the directive. This is what we're envisioning. And if this guy has the, the, the capacity, the knowledge to say, okay, I'm going to source this and this and this, and these [01:08:00] tobaccos, or if it was actually, Hey, this is what we have a lot of right now.
Make something great. Right. And you're shaking your head. No. So you're saying that wasn't the case. So what either one is genius.
**Gizmo:** So what he told me is he has a master spreadsheet. When he tastes tobacco, he details what he tastes in that tobacco. He marks the, you know, the year and the crop and all that.
And even if they have it in the warehouse for a few years, he can go back to his spreadsheet and start to. Look at what his palate provided him in the past and start to put that, put together, you know, what's going to work for this blend. And then I can't imagine how many iterations they're smoking to finally get to that last product, which is what all blenders are doing.
It's a recipe.
**Chef RIcky:** It's exactly making a recipe. This makes me super curious of like the Davidoff chef's edition process of how you get all those chefs together. Are they doing something similar? You know, how was, how did this compare to when you were on the blending panel or the tasting panel for the FOH [01:09:00] cigars?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, well, the FOH cigars, they had done most of this leg work like Manuel had done, right? They're trying all different kinds of tobacco. And then when we were getting sent something, it was a product that they were fairly happy with and they wanted feedback and then they would iterate again with that feedback and finally that the, the MoFo line came out.
So it's probably
**Chef RIcky:** something that. It's probably a very similar approach for the chef's edition. Absolutely. It's
**Senator:** the same approach for every cigar we've ever smoked. Correct. I mean, this is what blenders do. That's right. This is the job. It's trying every type of tobacco that they could possibly want to blend.
In creating that perfect blend. And he was
**Gizmo:** telling me that, that he prefers, and I think this is pretty obvious, you know, smoking in the morning, right after breakfast is when he feels his palate is sharpest. Just like Rooster.
**Senator:** Just like Rooster. It's funny, I think a lot of the blenders are that way because Rafael Nadal, the aging room guy who's a blender, Um, he always posts photos like when he's at work, like in an [01:10:00] intense way, it's the morning and he'll post like a photo of like 10 different cigars of different types of tobacco that like he smoked a bit of trying to come up with a new blend for some brand that he's working with.
So I think it's very similar for a lot of guys.
**Gizmo:** And I would think for a lot of these blenders, the afternoon and evenings are dedicated to trying finished product, not just of what they're making, but. Of what other manufacturers are making to kind of get a, you know, a read on what the, the industry is doing.
What's the open space. Exactly. Exactly. So I found it very, very eye opening. That whole tasting panel experience at the Segura Institute there, it was really robust and complete and I learned a whole hell of a lot. And I can't wait for you guys to experience it. It
**Chef RIcky:** seems like an educational experience we all need to go through.
It is.
**Poobah:** And it's hard because it's a crowded marketplace. When you really think about it, I mean, the cigar market, it's very, very crowded and they're dealing with kind of, they're dealing with one ingredient. You [01:11:00] know, it's not like you can take like one thing, you know, you know, when you're cooking, you can take a bunch of different ingredients and a bunch of different things that you can add on spices,
**Chef RIcky:** sauces
**Poobah:** and all these things, but you got only tobacco to deal with.
**Chef RIcky:** But to Giz's point, if this guy has a spreadsheet knowing what every tobacco is going to bring to the table, then he knows, okay, I, I need, I need to lean a little sweeter here. I need to get something a little more mineral forward. And then he probably seeks out those tobaccos on his spreadsheet. And for him,
**Gizmo:** he makes a phone call and says, bring me this from this region, this, yeah, this age period, and they deliver it to him.
And he's, he rolls a puro and smokes it. I
**Rooster:** mean, it's got to be hard to come out with a unique blend, you know, something very different from what everybody else is doing. And then Manuel, I guess that's his name,
**Gizmo:** you know,
**Rooster:** he has to know how much quantity of each kind of tobacco that you have. I mean, if you decide to go with that blend, you want to make sure you got to make sure you have enough, have [01:12:00] enough tobacco.
**Poobah:** Exactly. Yeah. I mean, it's not like you can just throw Bernie like, like a. Different slant on Bernays sauce on top of something to just make it stand out. Or I'm going to take chestnut butter and I'm going to throw it on top of a filet and it's just gonna, or whatever it is.
**Bam Bam:** Chef, chef could run to the A and P if he runs out of something.
**Poobah:** Chef, you know what I'm saying? I mean, you can, you know, you're dealing with kind of like one raw material product in a crowded market. It's gotta be tough. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So once we finished up with the tasting panel, we had another great meal at a restaurant called El Tablon, which was outside again, and another wonderful meal, but it felt very American for me in what we were all ordering.
Uh, and Elvis, who was kind of running the whole trip for us, did a lot of the ordering for us. It was a fantastic meal. And you know, the same, the
**Chef RIcky:** same thing happens for me in Mexico when I used to go on these mezcal and tequila trips and, and, you know, these brands will take you to these restaurants and [01:13:00] a couple of times I'd, I'd go to the kitchen on my way to the restroom, I'd find the kitchen and I'll go and, you know, speaking Spanish, it's, it's easy to communicate with everyone.
So I go in the kitchen, I'm like, I want what you eat. You know, and then I'll get a different plate of something and everyone's at the table, like, Hey, how'd you get that? And I spoke to the kitchen. Everybody else is like, send your frogs. That's great.
**Gizmo:** Let's go to Margaritaville next. So the next morning we went even a step further on, on the tasting journey and, and understanding how blenders work.
And we were tasked with blending our own cigar. So they allowed us to pick from three different types of wrapper, Three different types of binder and four different types of filler to create and blend our own cigars.
**Bam Bam:** And they rolled them on the spot.
**Gizmo:** We rolled
**Bam Bam:** them. You? We rolled them. You? Yes. Forget about
**Senator:** we.
You? Please tell me you brought the cigar
**Gizmo:** that you rolled. I have them with, I have them with me. I can't wait to see this. So we were given a choice of Connecticut HVA [01:14:00] and San Andres for wrapper. Binder, we had a choice between Sumatra, Ecuadorian, Corojo and Cameroon from Ecuador and the filler. We had four choices.
Uh, Ligero from Nicaragua, Ligero, uh, Corojo from Dominican. We had Olor from the Dominican and we had Seco. Uh, Olor, which was also from the Dominican. So we had to make some blending decisions. So of course we know Ligero provides strength. Secco provides burn. So you got to balance that out. So we were all doing these math equations, trying to figure out how many leaves to take, how many, you know, what our blends were going to be.
Did you have your
**Bam Bam:** calculator with you? Oh, I had my iPad. I was
**Senator:** like the guy, the guy in the hangover with all the numbers, like he's like, Gizmo
**Chef RIcky:** was on minority report, just things.
So we were
**Gizmo:** rolling Robustos. That was the plan. And we had to take, and I learned that each Robusto had five and a half leaves in them. So we had to pick, we were going to roll 10 cigars. So [01:15:00] we had to pick 55 leaves. And not only did they allow us to choose the tobacco, we then went downstairs from the cigar Institute room and.
Went to the barrels and they had the barrels lined up and we were digging through the barrels Picking the actual leaves of tobacco. We wanted that's cool for our that's our blends, which was awesome I like so what was the rapper you pick? Let's so I please can we see this
**Chef RIcky:** all pagodas in Cuba with no light gizmos fucking and Cigar heaven, indeed.
**Gizmo:** So for the, for the wrapper, I chose San Andres from Mexico. For the binder, I chose Sumatran, uh, from Ecuador. And then the filler, I did a blend of, of the three Ligero's, pretty even blend. And then I did about 30 percent of the Seco. So you
**Chef RIcky:** copy the placentia, but pretty much.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was going.
How quickly
**Pagoda:** did it burn?
**Gizmo:** So we didn't. So I haven't tried them yet. I did bring them. So what was amazing now is we choose our leaves and we go to the rolling room and this rolling room is incredible. There's music [01:16:00] playing. Air conditioning, lights, everybody's having a good time. There must've been 300 rollers on the floor.
Gizmo's requesting the Bee Gees. I was, I was putting my requests in for the music. Of course, it was, it was really impressive, really impressive. And what they did is they took each of the 10 of us or eight of us, I think. And they paired each of us with a roller and I was thinking, Oh, I'm just going to hand these leaves over and they're going to roll.
Well, they rolled one and then they said, okay, now it's your turn. So then we had to sit down and roll. Nine cigars of honor. Please pass out one of these. So, I do have a box, which I gotta, I gotta share. This is pretty amazing.
**Chef RIcky:** These things are going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger's arms. So I,
**Gizmo:** I have a La Aurora owner's choice box, which has my name engraved on it.
Very nice. That they had prepared for us. And then inside are the 10 cigars that I rolled. The 10 Robustos, which has a La Aurora, a La Aurora band, and then a second band that they had printed with our names on them.
**Bam Bam:** He did not roll that. You
**Gizmo:** did. You'll [01:17:00] see the imperfections.
**Bam Bam:** Just take the whole box. My lord.
**Gizmo:** I have to tell the listeners while you guys are passing this around, anybody can go and, and have this cigar Institute experience. That's, you know, it's a paid for experience and you really get to, you know, immerse yourself in, in how cigars are created. And I really recommend listeners check that out. And if you are going to, Santiago, if you're going to go to Tamboril, go to La Aurora and experience this.
They have a, almost like a museum curator there that knows the entire history of La Aurora. He speaks six or eight languages. I mean, this guy knows everything. Between the museum experience, the Cigar Institute, rolling our own cigars, it was really, really a brilliant experience. Brilliant week. So what do you think, Bam?
How do my cigars look? I don't know. They've been infected by his nose.
And you can see that the second band has my name printed on it. The white band.
**Bam Bam:** So there's nine cigars in here. I'd say six are rolled pretty nicely. I'm impressed. Thank you. That's impressive.
**Pagoda:** I [01:18:00] thought you were going to hand each one of us one.
**Bam Bam:** You can have one. Oh, really? There you go. I mean, honestly, I can't do that.
We need video of you rolling. I would love to. Yes. We need proof.
**Gizmo:** You know what I was very good at? I was very good. 20 to someone. Someone else rolled a 20. Oh no, Manuel was not having that. He was very, he was all eyes making sure that we were, each of us were rolling our own cigars. And what I, what I found was that I was very good at bunching the cigars in the hand.
So you take the leaves and you bunch the, The filler, and then you, you put it into the binder. I was very good at bunching, but once I got to the point of having to put the binder on them, that's where I was having difficulty. How did you get the cap on?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I would, I would, they taught us. I had somebody helping me and they were pointing it out and I had the tool.
And it was, it was crazy. So how Senator,
**Poobah:** if this can do it, see easy peasy, let's go. Well, you can see, I'm going to pass this around, but you can see where you go like better at the cap. Yeah. And then where. You struggled, but this is really [01:19:00] not bad.
**Rooster:** How long did it take you to roll one cigar?
**Gizmo:** Uh, one cigar.
Well, so there's two factors in it. So the first part was the bunching and then putting the binder on it. And then they put it into the, the press, right into the molds. And then they press them for about an hour. So we went and had lunch while they were in the press. Then we came back and put the wrapper on.
So the first part to bunch and bind those, those, those. 10 cigars that you guys are looking at took probably about, for me, probably took about 20, 25 minutes through the instruction
**Rooster:** cigar.
**Gizmo:** No total for all of them. 20 minutes took about 20, 25 minutes. And then they went into the mold and the buncher. And then we came back and then we had to put the wrappers on and I was really bad at the rapper part.
I kept ripping them. And that's, you know, that was very, very, that's the subtlety involved in making the rapper look as good as even this Rocky Patel we have in our hand tonight. Those Invisible seams. I mean, these people that make cigars, they're artists. They're craftsmen. They're artists.
**Rooster:** You really have to stretch the wrapper leaf [01:20:00] while you're rolling.
**Gizmo:** And I was trying to do that, but if you do it too much, you rip it. It rips. Because they're so thin.
**Bam Bam:** Like I said, I think most of those look okay. What
**Gizmo:** about a draw machine? I didn't see a draw machine. We didn't put those through, but they do have those tools there. Do they
**Rooster:** put their cigars through a draw machine?
Yes, they do. Yes, they
**Gizmo:** do. They have a lot of quality control there. Um, very robust quality control. I was very impressed.
**Bam Bam:** I wonder how many of those are plugged.
**Gizmo:** So what do you guys think of the look of them?
**Bam Bam:** I,
**Gizmo:** I, I'm impressed.
**Senator:** Yeah, some
**Bam Bam:** actually
**Senator:** look good and others,
**Bam Bam:** like I said, you know, it's a learning experience.
I think six out of nine are pretty good. Pretty good, right? Absolutely. Even with those stubby fingers of yours. So that was,
**Gizmo:** that was the first time, you know, I, having been to Cuba as many times as we had, as we've been, to sit down at the desk and actually roll a cigar, a bunch of cigar, roll it, wrap it, everything, uh, it was a totally new experience for me and I'm very, very grateful to La Aurora for, for letting me have that experience and I can't wait for you guys to, uh, to get down there and do it yourselves.
And I [01:21:00] just love the presentation, the name engraved on the box. Like they really took the time, very professional
**Chef RIcky:** leaves surrounding the cigar. It's beautiful.
**Poobah:** But like on like two thirds of those, the caps came out pretty good. Yeah. There were a couple that were really bad.
**Senator:** So we've got to hear about this beach day.
So that, okay, so that, so that night Gizmo at a beach, this is a sight to be seen. Adonis on a beach. So, alright, so In a black hoodie with his lily white skin.
**Gizmo:** So before, before the beach day, we'll wrap up Thursday night, we went to a place called Camp David, which is very high up on a mountain. Never heard of it.
**Senator:** It's very high, very high
**Gizmo:** up on a mountain. It was one of the best meal experiences I've ever had in my life. Very, very high end. Amazing. And I, by that time it was day three of the experience. And I really felt like truly we were a part of the family. You know, I was sitting across from Manuel. I was [01:22:00] giving him some cigars.
You know, he was giving me some cigars. I sat next to, uh, Guillermo Don Guillermo, who owns the company. Who's, you know, his family started the company in the 1800s. I mean, it was truly a really amazing experience being with these people and learning from them and becoming friends with them, you know, I still am messaging them on WhatsApp and, you know, it's really, uh, it's really the start, I think, of a nice friendship.
And like I said, I can't wait for you guys to, uh, awesome. So the next morning we were going to the beach day to Puerto Plata. We got in a van and went out there, which was about an hour and a half trip, I think. And the first thing we did is we stopped at the Museo del Embar, which is a gift shop where they have amber.
I guess there's a lot of amber in the Dominican Republic and you know, the Jurassic Park amber, they have that there. And I think Jurassic Park. In 1994, you used amber from that museum. So we stopped there. It was a cool, cool experience. And then we went to the beach and we had a rum and cigar afternoon.
And [01:23:00] what did you smoke? We smoke. I smoked a ton of stuff. I smoked some Cuban stuff, smoked some Honduran stuff, smoked some. A bunch of La Aurora stuff. I think we had six cigars that day sitting with Manuel and we were just giving each other rum and everybody was drinking. It was awesome. It was a great experience.
What
**Senator:** rum were you guys drinking?
**Gizmo:** We were drinking the Elion Jimenez. Nice. The one 10. Did you try any other
**Senator:** Elion Jimenez
**Gizmo:** rums or just, it was just the one 10. That was what we were doing that day. A more important question.
**Bam Bam:** Did you have
**Gizmo:** your shirt off?
**Senator:** I did not. I had a tank top on . I had the tank top on you guys love, please don't tell me the tie dye tie beater top.
Oh yes. Oh my lord. We need to
**Chef RIcky:** educate this young
**Senator:** man. All right, so we're, we're never invited back here. Oh no. They, we had a great time.
**Chef RIcky:** Only thing worse than lily white skin is a tie, top tie,
**Bam Bam:** tie dye wife beater.
**Poobah:** The only worst thing is a tie dye in combination with, and I had my cigar swimsuit on. Nothing
**Chef RIcky:** says Pennsylvania more
**Gizmo:** than from Tommy Bahama.
Flip flops. I was rolling, man. It was great. Cigars, swimsuit. Oh yeah. [01:24:00] Can you describe the swimsuit? It has cigars on it. It has pictures of cute. It's very busy, very touristy. We had a great time. We had a great meal there. They had these cabanas on the beach. They were like, literally like King size beds covered on the beach where you could lay out right there.
The water was amazing. I'm going to, it was such a great experience. I'm
**Chef RIcky:** going to propose that for the summer lineup. You have a, uh, lounge lizard swimsuit or swim trunks that look like the lounge lizard boxers. Oh, okay. That's that's a good idea. I like it.
**Gizmo:** I like that. You have to do it and then I'll wear those next time.
There you go. Alright, we're just not going to let Gizmo design it. So yeah, that was, uh, that was the trip in a nutshell, boys. It was eye opening. It was immersive. It was I, like I said, I really felt like we were invited into their family. It felt very genuine, uh, didn't feel put on like they were really happy to have us there.
Obviously we're [01:25:00] media, right? I understand that there's that component of it, but, um, it, it felt honest and I, I really felt like we got a complete experience and, uh, it was, it far exceeded my expectations when I was going far exceeded my expectations. So
**Senator:** how did you feel a safety wise? Obviously I feel like there's a lot of chatter about.
You know, Dominican Republic, other islands in the Caribbean about safety. I'm just curious.
**Gizmo:** So I would say that I guess because it was set up like this with people who live in the Dominican and who work in the Dominican, they were very conscious to make sure that we were Everything was set. So the hotel we were at, we were at a beautiful brand new residence in by Marriott.
Brand new hotel. Great. You know, all of the transportation was by one person in a sprinter van.
**Senator:** Can I just say when Gizmo gets to Cuba, he's describing this hotel. The thing he's more excited about than anything. He's like, I could do my own laundry at this
**Bam Bam:** hotel.
**Gizmo:** They had brand new, uh, [01:26:00] laundry machines. I was so excited that I could do my laundry and go to Cuba with fresh laundry.
Did they have Tide? I actually, they did. I did buy a Tide. Wow. I bought a Tide pod. Very impressive. What was the
**Rooster:** best cigar that you had from
**Gizmo:** La Aurora? The best cigar I had when I was there, I love the 120. We had reviewed that actually, coincidentally, when I was there, that episode came out. Um, totally unplanned, but it worked out great.
My favorite cigar I smoked the entire time I was there was the La Aurora Family Reserve, Fernando Leon in Corona Gorda. Which was a cigar that, uh, Guillermo gave me at that dinner at, uh, Camp David. And it was amazing. I definitely want to do that on the podcast.
**Rooster:** Dominican cigar?
**Gizmo:** I'm not sure what the blend is on it.
Is that the one
**Pagoda:** which comes in those big tubes?
**Gizmo:** No, this comes in a white box. Oh, okay. Really nice presentation. Um, but yeah, that was, that was a really, really good cigar. I actually got a couple of those to smoke at home. So
**Rooster:** we [01:27:00] should maybe do that on the pot. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** that's definitely what I want to do in the future.
For sure. For sure. So I just want to shout out a few people that were amazing on this trip. The CEO, Don Guillermo Leon, of course, was just so gracious and hospitable and amazing to all of us the entire week. The sales and marketing director. Eater bid us Zaldivar. I can't pronounce it. Forgive me. The master blender, Manueli Noah, as I mentioned before, and then the team from the Americas, some folks we met at PCA CEO, Ed McKenna, John Gaglio, Amanda Davis, and Elvis Batista and a special shout out to Elvis Batista, because he put the whole thing together for us.
And those guys are big fans of the podcast and what we're doing. So, um, it was really, really nice to. You know, invite me to come and, and to support what we're doing here by inviting me and educating me, which of course then educates our audience. So, uh, it was a really, really great experience. So
**Rooster:** how many other guys were there with you?
**Gizmo:** There was about six other people there, uh, from other media. [01:28:00] So yeah, it was, uh, it was a great week. We had a great time and, uh, I'm, I would do it again in a heartbeat. You know, take us with you next time. I will next time we all go. So boys, we're into the last third now on the Rocky Patel 60. What thoughts do you guys have?
**Bam Bam:** I'm enjoying it. So, early I was complaining at the beginning of the second third, a little bit, but it has really, I'm down to an inch now. It's actually, it's very, very good. It's finished nice and strong for me, yeah.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, I took it down to the very end. I've been done for about 15 minutes. I think that, you know, something that I tend to forget, and had I remembered, I don't smoke this size cigar often, but a punch would have definitely been the way to go.
Or a V cut over a straight cut, because with a straight cut, when you're this wide, and you get to the very end, the cigar just kind of starts to fall apart. Um, so it's hard to take it down as far as, you know, it deserves to go. [01:29:00] So I probably put my cigar down a little bit earlier than I wanted to, but I was enjoying it nonetheless.
Uh, but yeah, if it were a tighter cut or a tapered cut of some kind, it would have had a little bit more structure and integrity to survive.
**Rooster:** Yeah. When the cigar is like this loosely packed, you end up kind of smoking it too fast. Yeah. Right. And I kind of, it kind of alters the taste a little bit, but overall it's a very pleasant.
I did enjoy that, that
**Chef RIcky:** slight pickup in spice. Yeah. At the end. Yeah.
**Rooster:** The last third is actually very, very good. Yeah. No
**Bam Bam:** complaints. It was actually very savory for me and a little earthy.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. In a very pleasant way.
**Gizmo:** So boys, let's go now to some listener emails. Time to do our lizard of the week. This week's winner is Lizard Lake.
And he writes, Giz, the recent story about the Lizards trip to see the Buena Vista Social Orchestra was great. Y'all are a diverse group, but all come [01:30:00] together over shared interests in the music, much like you do over cigars, spirits, travel, and others. I've heard the group cover food pairings, spirits obviously, favorite locations to smoke, etc.
I think hearing what the lizards like to listen to, or the artists and genres that they're into at the moment would be a fun piece. I don't have access to a lounge, so I spend most of my time smoking cigars on the back deck, and music pairing plays a big part in my experience. Any recommendations on outdoor speakers or setups are always great too.
As always, thanks to you and the lizards for delivering excellent content with three small kids at home. My cigar time is very limited and listening to the pod quote scratches the itch when I go too long without a cigar, it's the next best thing to the real deal and your consistent output of quality reviews and camaraderie is a real treat.
Thanks. Lizard Lake. Isn't that awesome? That's a great,
**Poobah:** that's a great email. And when it comes to music, um, When, just for my [01:31:00] personal taste, when I, when I'm by myself and I smoke a cigar or when I'm working and I need, and I want to focus on something, I listened to Coltrane, I listened to John Coltrane and I don't know if anyone, I don't know if you've ever discussed Coltrane in this room or jazz.
But like, oh, we have over PowerPoint slides, . Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely use it. We still have to have it happen. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** We don't know who won that. Was there ever a competition? No. No, yet. Yeah, Grindr
**Gizmo:** and Pupa still need to do that, but yeah. So what, what Senator's referencing is Uba likes to listen to Coltrane while he's devising his PowerPoint slides for work I do as well as cigars.
I do.
**Poobah:** You know why? Because, um, well, there's some songs with lyrics, but most of it. It doesn't have, um, lyrics and, um, it, it, it gives you the, it sets a mood Coltrane's a legend. And I [01:32:00] just, um, I like that. I like Miles Davis as well. So I like jazz. I think if you're sitting in your, in, you want to focus on something, but you don't want to be focusing on some kind of narrative, like some lyrical narrative, but you just want to mood set for me, jazz works.
So
**Gizmo:** I'm with you on that. My go to is a guy named Keith Jarrett, who's a solo jazz improvisational pianist, uh, went out in front of live Aussie audiences, starting in the seventies and created some really seminal records, just him sitting down at a piano, playing improvised music in front of a live audience.
And, uh, his record, the Koln concert from, I think it was 1975 is probably my favorite piece of music ever created. Like Desert Island, it's the only record I would be happy to listen to on a Desert Island. Um, his music, his solo jazz stuff is, is very much, I would say, in line with what you [01:33:00] get from Coltrane, I get from Jarrett.
It's, it's just brilliant, brilliant stuff. I encourage any listener who's into listening to music when they smoke. Keith Jarrett's one of my favorites. And I know that Senator's dad is a Keith Jarrett appreciator as well. So. Is that right? Yeah. Correct. He's a huge
**Senator:** jazz fan. Huge.
**Gizmo:** And if you want something that's a little bit more upbeat, of course, we listen to it a lot here at The Lounge, but Steely Dan.
Yeah. And the stuff that they created, their discography is always good for Yeah, exactly. Social smoking. It's very good. So I
**Bam Bam:** piggyback on a lot of your soundtracks. So between Senator and Gizmo's Cuban soundtrack, that's kind of hard to beat with a cigar and a drink in your hand. There is
**Senator:** no Gizmo Cuban soundtrack.
Well,
**Bam Bam:** I'd like to give him some credit.
**Rooster:** Well, we love listening to the Buena Vista soundtrack. Of course.
**Bam Bam:** And just that whole line of Cuban music that Senator's got on his phone. It's awesome. Cuban jazz is the best. Yeah. Absolutely. You're
**Senator:** smoking a cigar. You cannot beat it. It's like you feel whether you've been to Cuba or you haven't, you feel [01:34:00] transported there.
And you know, whether you've been there or not, the cigar culture is so strong there that nothing puts me in that headspace. It's
**Bam Bam:** nostalgic for us, right? For sure. Now, when I play espionage and I go to the Dominican club down the road, there's always Dominican music playing. It's very subtle. It's jazz like.
That I also happen to very, very enjoyable.
**Chef RIcky:** For me, I, I, I tend to have issues with, uh, relaxing, you know, having multiple restaurants and and um, uh, there's some overseeing different properties, I always feel like there's something to do and there's always something I could catch up on or something I could get ahead on.
So very rarely am I just sitting down listening to music and smoking a cigar. I'm, I've often find myself at my laptop or on a call or listening to a podcast that somehow is going to improve me, whether it be on this podcast or Or something, you know, personal in life or whatnot. [01:35:00] The lounge lizards intro music.
Yeah. Don't forget. Especially the original. Uh, but, uh, yeah, no, I, I can't say I listen to music and smoke cigars often, but when I do listen to music, I enjoy jazz, but I prefer more percussion. So there's a, a percussionist named Giovanni Hidalgo. This guy's legendary, super fast hands. He's great on congas, great on.
every percussion instrument, but he focuses primarily on the conga. Um, I love Eddie Pamieri, if we're going to talk about piano. Uh, he's a legend, uh, some classic salsa, Buena Vista Social Club's always great. But then other than that, it's usually like The Roots or Tribe Called Quest or some kind of like lo fi hip hop, something that's just going to kind of calm me, but I don't do that with cigars.
I, you know, that's, it's that I do that if, you know, I can't smoke a cigar, I need to focus a little bit more and I'm working and, you know, I may have that [01:36:00] plane. Uh, but when I'm smoking cigars, I'm usually listening to a podcast or an audio book or something like that.
**Poobah:** And you know what I also would recommend too, when we talk, when you talk about music and I don't know what people's taste is in the room because we don't talk about it that much.
Um, Like, Sinatra's great. Yeah. Yeah, Sinatra's fun. Tony
**Chef RIcky:** Bennett, Sinatra.
**Poobah:** You know, sometimes, you know, sometimes when you have a celebratory cigar, you know, and you're feeling in that positive way, um, not so introspective, uh, I find Sinatra to be great. Um, especially the live stuff,
**Chef RIcky:** I had to give Sinatra a break after the Yankees lost to the Dodgers in the world series.
So it's kind of, kind of pissed off that they played New York, New York by the Dodgers was celebrating on our field, but maybe
**Poobah:** it's a New York thing, but, but, uh, but, but I like, I like Sinatra too. When I'm in a celebratory mood,
**Rooster:** did Garrett Cole get to for a [01:37:00] space yet?
**Gizmo:** So boys, another question that Lake asked, lizard Lake asked about outdoor speakers.
for listening when you smoke outside. What are some of the recommendations in the room here? I think that I could probably call them out. I know number one is definitely going to be the Sonos, correct?
**Senator:** The Sonos move hands down. There's like a smaller version of it. Don't even bother. The Roam is garbage.
The Sonos move. Produces better sound than any outdoor portable speaker that you can find.
**Gizmo:** I will say the speaker that we take to Cuba with us, the, the small Bluetooth, it's the Bose, Bose Soundlink.
**Senator:** Uh, Soundflex. Soundflex. That's pretty good.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's 149 bucks or something. It's good, it's not great.
**Senator:** Yeah, it's good.
Because it's really compact, it's easy to travel with. So for like its size, it's probably one of the best options, but the sound is nothing to write home about. It does project well in an open area. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I just lacks the depth of like a Sonos, [01:38:00] move is like, it's heavy, it's big, it's hard to travel with.
**Rooster:** It's not that portable. I
**Chef RIcky:** have kids. My wife uses my speaker. Occasionally the speaker travels with me sometimes. So I just have like a JBL waterproof, uh, So substantial speaker, um, you know, not super expensive, you know, not as expensive as a Sonos, but you know, I guess the job done and if it breaks or someone loses it or, you know, whatever happens, it's it.
**Rooster:** I think headphones are also great. If you're listening solo and you know, bother anyone, you just, especially
**Gizmo:** noise canceling. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Actually Sonos just came out with noise canceling headphones. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Competing with the apple. Uh,
**Rooster:** yeah, they look very similar airpods
**Gizmo:** max.
**Rooster:** Yeah
**Gizmo:** One thing I will say about the sonos is i've found is that the sonos works really good when you're at home And you're near your wi fi network, but when you need to move to bluetooth the sonos can be a little bit more challenging So That's why I know when we traveled to Cuba, I actually brought a Sonos Rome and a [01:39:00] Bose SoundFlex.
And the SoundFlex is a thousand times easier to navigate the Bluetooth when you're away from home. So if you're going to be traveling out of the house with it, that would probably be the recommendation or maybe that JBL you're talking about. And the second, maybe
**Chef RIcky:** the JBL is probably, you know, we use Sonos a lot in the businesses and there are times where they get impaired and they're just a pain in the ass to get back, you know, up and running and they're somewhat temperamental.
And I get really upset because I know how much more expensive they are than some of the other options out there. And when they're working, they're fantastic. You mean networking
**Poobah:** them like. Getting them to talk to each other.
**Chef RIcky:** Even in, you know, in Playa's case, we only have one Sonos speaker, but there was a point there where it just lost connection often and they
**Gizmo:** put out a new app earlier this year and they totally screwed up their entire ecosystem.
It's like a internet disaster. If you Google Sonos new app, you'll read about it. It's, it was really bad, but it seems like it's fixed now. Yeah. Pagoda, Pagoda fixed it. Poor Pagoda. Poor Pagoda. Who's not a. [01:40:00] What would you say, technically, uh, proficient?
**Pagoda:** Hey, but I do think the Sonos move, I, I know, Senator had to come and fix it up for me there.
And the Roam, I just couldn't even get it working. So I gave it a guess. I brought it to
**Gizmo:** Cuba and fixed it. But it is a pain in the ass.
**Pagoda:** So no, I do have the Bose for traveling and a Sonos move for my deck and it works really well.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, I think in a fixed environment, great. But like I said, with my kids and my wife and, you know, if we travel to Greece or whatever, we bring a speaker just in case.
Just, there's nothing better than just a quick Bluetooth connection. You're up and running and that's it. Yeah, I
**Poobah:** feel like JBL is very easy to connect.
**Senator:** Yeah. Oh, actually, sorry, there is one more. It's not cheap. This is more Sonos price level, but Bang Olufsen makes this. It's like a, um, It's this big rectangular box.
It's not the most portable same with the Sonos move, but the sound, this thing puts out when you said Greece, that's what made [01:41:00] me think of it. When I was in Crete, um, in my room, in the hotel, they had this banging Olsen portable speaker and we put it out by our pool, ridiculous sound for this little box.
Really? It's really good.
**Gizmo:** Good base response. I'm assuming like, honestly,
**Senator:** as good, if not better than the Sonos
**Gizmo:** move. Wow. That's a good one. Another one put on the list.
**Poobah:** I've got a Marshall. Um, Uh, that I got as a gift and it's like this big, it's like a rectangle. It puts out so much sound. It's fantastic. I mean it's fantastic.
I could put it up on my pool area. But it's, but it's not that portable. I mean it's a box like this. Almost looks like a mini guitar amp or something. Yeah, it's like a guitar amp almost. Yeah, it's like a tiny little guitar amp. But it's a Bluetooth speaker. Um. Very good.
**Gizmo:** Awesome. So thanks again to lizard lake for sending us this email.
He's going to win a little gift package from us and anyone out there who listens can just send us an email, send us a voice [01:42:00] memo, a YouTube comment, Instagram comment, whatever you choose, you can win lizard of the week. We're going to choose a lizard every week to win that. We've been doing that for some time now, and we'd love to hear from our listeners.
So please keep it up, continue writing us and, uh, and tell us what you think. All right, boys, so one more segment before we move into our ratings. I want to go back to a segment we introduced about a month or two ago, I guess, a day in lizard life. And we really enjoyed it the first time around. And there were two guys that I want to point to because we've had some really amazing evenings at Senators New York.
Back. I don't even want to call it a deck or patio. I mean, it's like extension of the extension state. It's the state extension. Correct. At Senator's house, which isn't even complete. And it could be if he told me it was done, I would believe him. So this segment was introduced by a listener a couple a couple months ago, a day in lizard life going through just one of the lizards rotation of cigars top to bottom what they smoked in a sit.
And I would [01:43:00] love to have Bam and Poobah tell us because you guys had some pretty serious cigars. You know, sitting on Senator's estate over there that ended at like 4 a. m. I know that was a late night. That was a late night. Age before beauty. So Poobah, you're up. Oh, even though I'm older.
**Poobah:** I don't know if you're older.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What did I have? I had a D4. Which I brought. Particus D4 from Cuba. I had a, yeah, I had a Particus D4. I brought, Uh, Maduro, Davidoff, Maduro, and Robusto and Robusto, I'll fill in the
**Gizmo:** gaps.
**Poobah:** Then, then I smoked an Anahatos, uh, 11. A Chapman Anahatos from Cuba. Yes. And H and H Chapman. These come out when you visit my place.
Yes. Yes. Well, I'm generous too. When you guys come. Yes, of course. No one's saying always. Um, and then I had another. [01:44:00] Yeah. Two Davidoff Maduro's. Two Davidoff Maduro's.
**Senator:** Oh, that's right. Cause he brought another one. I had, I had brought out a bunch of sticks for guys that Poobah was like, Oh, I'll take another one of those.
**Poobah:** And then I can't remember what the fourth one I had. What did I have? The fourth one? I can't remember. It was very helpful for the show. I mean, well, well. That I prompted two hours ago. By the way, it was a long night guys. I mean, uh,
**Bam Bam:** In fairness, I, I, Took a photograph of my list. I, I couldn't remember it. You photographed it.
I, well, I sent you guys the list 'cause I was so proud of it and I took a photo. Sure. One. So bam bam. Run us through yours. So I started off with a, a custom bench roll outta la la Corona, rolled by one of our dear friends in Cuba. Yes. You and I got these, our very, very, was it two and a half years now? Yes.
Two years ago on. So these cigars were awful the first year. I didn't even look at them. I have them in a separate [01:45:00] desktop and I don't even go near it. They're all smoking incredibly delicious right now. They're just unbelievable. So I had that as a starter. Um, then the short to punch, punch short to punch from Kiva, punch short to punch.
Then I had the Padron Soberano, which honestly, I love Padrons and
**Gizmo:** Tubos.
**Poobah:** I'm sorry. I had, I had a Padron.
**Bam Bam:** I have an exclusive, but that's right. Thank you for bringing it back. You got it. You got it. That Soberano is very subtle. It's great. Underrated. I think in this group, it was confusing by the end. Garcon, we need some espresso right over here.
Well, no, I mean, guys, we
**Poobah:** were there till four in the morning.
**Bam Bam:** I mean, that's true to epic night, by the way. Epic. Um, then I had the late hour Robusto by by Davidoff. That was delicious. haven't had one of those in a long
**Gizmo:** time. We have that coming up, uh, before the end of the year, I think.
**Bam Bam:** Yep. And then Senator gave me a D4, which was outstanding.
Beautiful, delicious smoke. Then the, uh, Trinity Robusto. Oh, [01:46:00] by FOH.
**Senator:** He had never had that cigar. So I was like, man, you have to. So I gave him one of those. I can't stop smoking that cigar. For the
**Bam Bam:** listener, these people, People in this room, they keep me from these cigars. They just don't let me have it. They don't
**Pagoda:** put go to back me up on this lizard.
I didn't know, but knowing you, you probably have a box somewhere.
**Senator:** I've never had one before. I had to buy it. He goes home. He's got 40 of them. I wish this
**Poobah:** is being
**Bam Bam:** hyperbolic, hyperbolic as usual. So that cigar, honestly, wow. Off the charts. Shockingly good. Mm. That Trinity Robusto. Excellent. Good lineups, boys. Yeah. Very nice. And we
**Gizmo:** had a great, I mean, it seems like the, uh, the first of many.
Yeah. The
**Poobah:** patio is like I said, in the text, the patio is great, but it's, it is evil.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It was a late night. The Havana club was
**Chef RIcky:** flowing. How long before you think you're going to get a complaint? Oh no. My neighbors, [01:47:00] they're, they're on, they're on the payroll. I love
**Senator:** me. My neighbor, even next door, he like popped over the day.
He's like, wow, it's looking really good. He's like, I'm going to be coming over. Right. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I'll invite you. We'll have a fire. So they all want an invitation.
**Bam Bam:** And we're not allowed. Can hand him a Rocky Patel.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Chef RIcky:** Bring him a 60. It'll work. Yeah. All
**Gizmo:** right, boys. So that's a day in lizard life.
We're going to continue to do that every once in a while, go through a day of, uh, cigar rotations of a lizard or two or three and boys, it's time to move into the ratings now tonight. First on the Woodford double oaked bourbon
**Bam Bam:** Bam
**Gizmo:** Bam, you're up.
**Bam Bam:** So, uh, I'm surprised at how delicious this was. I'm not a bourbon drinker.
I'm, I'm just not, but, um, this was rich. Senator, you mentioned it, there's some similarities to Cognac here, which I really loved. The moment I put a chip of ice in it though, I [01:48:00] have to say, I didn't like it as much. I really enjoyed the richness. The purity of it without ice. It was good with ice, but without outstanding 50 bucks or so a bottle.
Um, again, I'm not a bourbon guy, but I'm giving, going to give this an eight. Yeah. Delicious for me. Use it to my ears. Chef Ricky.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, I'm, I'm at an eight. Uh, I never put ice in it. Um, I did enjoy it very much. I enjoyed, uh, the oakiness, the cherry notes, uh, which are oftentimes I think almond sometimes can't, especially when comparing, uh, the flavors and extract form, they could be confused with cherry.
Um, they're very complimentary of one another. Uh, so yeah, I think the almond cherry notes there, the oaky notes, the vanilla. Uh, you know, I, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. It didn't drink anywhere near as hot as one would think, uh, with, with the proof that it had. Uh, yeah, and [01:49:00] I, I think as a neat pour, this time of year, it's a great bourbon to drink.
Price point's really accessible to Nate for me.
**Gizmo:** Okay, Pagoda?
**Pagoda:** Uh, uh, nine for me, for, uh, definitely. Um, I'm not a bourbon drinker as most people now, and uh, I generally will get Woodford Reserve, just a typical, the one you get for around 30 bucks, but I, uh, tend to make cocktails out of it, either Manhattans or Old Fashions, and, but this is one I thought I could, you could easily sip it, and a testament to that would be that I did not even put a chip of ice right till the end, and with a chip of ice, I think, Uh, for me what it does is it just cools down the drink a little bit and if you're drinking reasonably quick It's you know, it doesn't dilute it enough.
So it's it's pretty good. So I really enjoyed it I like the cherry flavors and a bit of uh, The dark chocolate I got in the back towards the end and I think it's somewhat complement Complimented the cigar in the second half for sure. Um, for [01:50:00] me, it's a nine and I think I'll go and buy it and just have it for people who want to come and sip a bourbon.
It's fantastic.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. I would totally buy this over the regular. Yeah, definitely. And I've been looking
**Pagoda:** for bourbons because, you know, we talk about the Weller and they're about a hundred bucks and this is essentially half the price. Yeah. And, uh, you know, for sometimes if you do want to try a bourbon, if somebody wants to come in, it's for me typically, you know, bourbons are typically like they're slightly high proof.
So I tend to shy away from them anyway, but this was very smooth in delivery. So it didn't even feel like it was like, I think about what 90 proof I think in this. And, um, yeah, meaning I, I really enjoyed it. It's a nine for me.
**Senator:** All right, Senator. Um, In the exact same camp as Pagoda. It's a strong nine. Um, for a bourbon to pair with cigars, I think this is definitely one of the best [01:51:00] in terms of its versatility.
I mean, as soon as I took a sip, I thought of countless, someone called out, imagine this with a Padron Exclusivo. It's perfect. That was me there. So many new world cigars Well done, . You're a genius. You're a genius. Check mark. Could somebody get a gold star out and ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. . Uh, there's so many new world cigars that I feel like this bourbon would pair great with.
I think. Like Pagoda was saying, I mean, you would not immediately realize this is a 90 proof bourbon. It's smooth yet so flavorful. I mean, there is not one point at which you're saying like, this lacks flavor or I need more. Neat. I think it's perfect. Chip Advice didn't bother me. I actually think like, if it were a Warmer day.
And I just wanted something, you know, a little cooler, both in terms of like strength and body, or also just temperature. I think ice works great with it. I think at its price point, [01:52:00] it's perfect to sit, but also like this in a cocktail would be killer. It's so damn flavorful. Um, I think it's the perfect, like, next step for the regular Woodford that we all know.
They're bourbon, so, um, it's a definite recommend. I would serve this to someone at my house, I would drink it again, um, and I'm really glad we tried it.
**Pagoda:** And I'll tell you, the viscosity was also just perfect.
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Pagoda:** You know, it wasn't, you know. It wasn't syrupy, but it
**Poobah:** wasn't thin. Yeah. That's right.
**Pagoda:** There was something very nice about this.
Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It had like a medium viscosity about it. It just had a little bit of that, which was great. Yeah. And it had that mouth feel I enjoyed it. It just, it's, it has that Woodford DNA, but it just brings more complexity in terms of, I got vanilla. I got orange, I got cinnamon, it's just elevated a little bit more wood, but not too much and just better than the standard [01:53:00] Woodford Reserve.
I mean, it's just, it's just, it's just elevated. I mean, this in an old fashioned
**Bam Bam:** would be, would just elevate. It would be spectacular. Yeah. I think. In an old fashioned.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah, for me, it probably would have got a nine if it was just a little bit more buttery. Um, it, it, it just was just a little bit short. And I think that's why it would go great in an old fashion because the addition of that sugar cube, uh, in an old fashion, it would just kind of round everything out and make it a little bit more, uh, rich.
**Poobah:** Yeah, I mean, I think for the My hypothesis is, is, is for the bourbon like aficionado. This probably doesn't rank, you know, as high as, I don't know, like some of these Wellers and Weller, EH Taylor. I mean, so many of these. Yeah. Like, like, like they're really looking for the heart of the You know, the heart of the barrel and the, the, the higher proof kind [01:54:00] of, um, experience with bourbon.
I mean, but for, for me as kind of a casual bourbon drinker, it hits, it hits every note. It hit every note for me and, and going into Thanksgiving and going into Christmas, really nice. Yeah. Very appropriate. So you're saying
**Chef RIcky:** it's a 10.
**Poobah:** No, I'm saying it's a nine.
**Chef RIcky:** Ah, okay.
**Poobah:** Drum roll. I'm saying it's a nine.
That's what we were waiting for. The rating. Nah,
**Chef RIcky:** that was a great rate. Sorry, sorry. No, I
**Poobah:** mean, it's a, it's a nine for me. I'm not a bourbon aficionado, but, uh, but for me right now, it's a nine.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a nine, you know, I almost echo everything that Senator said and Pagoda said, I think the one thing that, that neither of them noted was that that cherry thing that happened for me that I think worked really well with the cigar.
There was a fruitiness about this bourbon that was unique to it. So my orange note didn't, didn't hit with you? No.[01:55:00]
**Pagoda:** Yeah, for me, there
**Poobah:** was no gold star back. So for me, it was more cherry forward. I thought this can't, you've clearly discounted all of my comments. No, not at all. I would never do
**Chef RIcky:** that. I don't think anyone got Apple though. Right? They, they, they, I didn't get any Apple. Yeah. I
**Gizmo:** know, but I, I really thought that this was a perfect cigar bourbon.
I almost wish that the title of it was Woodford reserve cigar bourbon. I think for most new world cigars, I think this would perform very well, especially higher strength, Nicaraguan cigars. This is the perfect pairing for that. And at 56, I think it's a really value buy in the bourbon space. Timeout
**Senator:** one question.
Who was the listener that sent this? Lizard Kyle. A plus a plus good. And I say that not because, you know, I think there are many listeners that can send tons of [01:56:00] fantastic bourbons, but what we're all saying is that this pairs really well with cigars and that's what we have a hard time sometimes finding because a really high proof bourbon may overpower what we're smoking.
This didn't at all.
**Chef RIcky:** Yeah. And he has no idea what cigar we're going to smoke with. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Like with an exclusive out this thing's this is the home run.
**Senator:** Yeah. I also, this is gonna sound very weird, I think a number of us who are not bourbon drinkers in that we drink it often, we drink it, but just not too much.
There are a number of bourbons that many of us don't feel great the next day when we consume in quantity. For whatever reason, Woodford is like this, one of the few bourbons that I never feel that bad the next day. Like
**Bam Bam:** it's a good point
**Senator:** when I make the, the paper, plain cocktail I've talked about. Mm-Hmm.
which we will do on an episode. I love using Woodford in that, and I've never. I don't feel bad drinking it. And even just this, like I've drank a decent amount of it and I just feel good. You know, I think
**Chef RIcky:** it has to do with sugar content.
**Bam Bam:** Maybe. I have a similar experience [01:57:00] with Widow Jane 10. That's a very clean, easy drinking, delicious bourbon.
I don't have it often. But if I have copious amounts of it, I don't feel that bad the next day. Right. Yeah. But some bourbons, oh, I'm not getting up early that next day.
**Gizmo:** So boys, the formal liquor rating tonight on the Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. Is an 8. 7.
**Bam Bam:** What are we checking other bourbons to compare to that?
Well, we're going to compare curious.
**Gizmo:** We're going to compare that to the Woodford Reserve bourbon that we did on episode 25, which was a long time ago, which scored an 8. 4. So this did edge out standard issue, Woodford Reserve. And again, at that 56 price point, I think it's great. And we have to shout out again, very clearly.
Lizard Kyle. Thank you. An awesome listener out there who sent us this. We're actually going to talk about lizard Kyle in a couple of weeks. He sent us something else, which I think all of us are really looking forward to. Uh, so shout out to lizard Kyle. Thank you for the support. And thank you for sending [01:58:00] us this awesome bourbon tonight.
It performed very well. And again, a few of us have said it. It was a perfect pairing, I think, for cigars. All right, boys, it's time now to move into the formal Lizard rating tonight on the Rocky Patel 60 and I gotta say, I
**Bam Bam:** have been
**Gizmo:** waiting for this rating segment since I ordered these cigars a few months ago, and I have never been so excited to say, Rooster, you're up.
**Pagoda:** Hey, just before Rooster goes, I want to say, whatever Rooster says, just add a point or two, please. Anyway, there we go.
**Rooster:** I think we're going to be pleasantly surprised. I think so too. I mean, I, I really did not know what to expect from this cigar. So I kept an open mind. I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna, there's no judgment.
Just gonna smoke the cigar. You? No. Um, I mean, it was, it's a big cigar. It's a 60 ring gauge, but it didn't really feel that big. I think it was a little bit loosely packed. So it burned a little fast. [01:59:00]
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** But, uh, the flavor, I mean, for a Nicaraguan cigar, it was the mildest Nicaraguan cigar that I think I've ever had.
Um, the cigar, I mean, it felt light, but, you know, the draw was so wide open that somebody did mention maybe we should have done like a punch or a V cut on it. Maybe that would have been better. But overall, the experience was very, and surprisingly, very pleasant. Uh, Good, good cigar. I think it's a great for somebody who's starting out for a newbie.
It's a good recommend for, uh, for that person. Um, it was overall a very pleasant cigar and actually it did pick up in strength towards the end and actually enjoyed the last third, the most out of, uh, out of the, you know, the, the whole, I think it was a really good cigar. I mean, I'm very surprised. Uh, I don't have much experience with, uh, Rocky Patel cigars, to be honest.
And, uh, thank you for being honest, [02:00:00] but, uh, so I'm going to give it a generous eight. All right. Wow.
**Poobah:** Poobah. I thought the first two thirds of the cigar were. Slightly boring, but not unpleasant. It was, um, never unpleasant. There was no unpleasant moment in the entire smoke to, to roosters point. It did pick up in the last third, which was really, I think gives it a lot of merit.
So I'm going to go with an eight. Yeah, I'm going to go with an eight. It was for, for the, given the price point at 16 bucks, I think it's okay. It w it, you know, it was. I didn't, I didn't get a pepper blast. I didn't get like tar blasts, weird stuff. Do you know what I mean? Where you're like unpleasantness. I smoked it down to the end.
And it was a big [02:01:00] cigar. What was it a Gorda, right? I mean, this is a, it's a big investment in time. Would I go buy it? Probably not. What if it was given to me, would I smoke it and happily smoke it? Sure. So for me, it's an eight. I think it's got some merit. Um, it was, it didn't taste to your point. It didn't taste highly Nicaraguan.
To me, it was just, it was kind of a medium bodied affair. I
**Rooster:** mean, you usually do not get a fruit note out of a Nicaraguan blend. And this was kind of unusual. Yeah. I
**Senator:** mean, look at the
**Poobah:** pledge of allegiance, CP Korea. Yeah. Yeah. It's so like, if it was rare, if I smoked a blind, I would have been confused. I'm not going to lie.
If I smoked a blind with no band on it. I'm not sure if I could have told, if I could have distinguished the [02:02:00] difference between whether it was a Nicaraguan or a Dominican cigar. Honestly, like it was the, it was that kind of medium bodied. So I think there's a little bit of merit in that and whatever he was trying to achieve, it was, it's approachable.
The price point isn't. Ridiculous. So for me, it's an eight.
**Senator:** All right,
**Poobah:** Senator.
**Senator:** So I think I agree with most of the commentary, but I'm at a seven. I think the delivery of flavor was excellent in the sense that it was smooth all the way through. There was not a single rough edge. It was versatile, approachable deserves a world of credit for that.
The smoke output was also excellent. I mean, the room filled with smoke, brilliant decision. To make this box pressed at 60 ring gauge, it made it feel like a 55 ring gauge. Even, [02:03:00] um, my, my frustrations are one, you know, normally it should, it shouldn't matter that there's three bands on this, but the reason it does is.
I, so I had a small tear from the first giant band, which is the foot band, which was meaningless. The second band actually produced a pretty sizable tear in the wrapper. And when I got to that, as I was smoking, it then caused the cigar wrapper to start to crack. And then really made like the last third, it was falling apart a little bit, which messed up the experience.
And so I just, you know, what was surprising is when you take those bands off, it's actually got a beautiful wrapper. It's a nicely constructed cigar. There's no reason to hide the cigar behind these wrappers. So I would hope if Rocky learns anything from this, it's just, please take off two of these three bands.
It does not need it. And it, my experience would have been better without it. Cause [02:04:00] I wouldn't have been fighting to keep it. Keep the wrapper intact in the last third of the cigar, which I was, and that really detracted from my experience in terms of the flavor. Um, I like the notes all the way through. I think the last third picked up nicely in strength.
I think the last third is where if I was doing this blind, I would have absolutely known it's a Nicaraguan cigar. I think like that's when it failed itself to be Nicaraguan tobacco. The first two thirds. Hard to tell. Um, but you know, given that it's not a particularly complex cigar, I think in the last third, the strength, it was more like heat and strength.
And some of the notes that I was getting in the first two thirds, but they didn't feel as defined as they were. In the first two. So I didn't love the last third. I liked that it picked up in strength, but I didn't love the flavor I was getting. Um, all that being said, great cigar for someone who wants to transition from, you know, a milder cigar to [02:05:00] something with some more flavor that's Nicaraguan or Dominican like versatile enough that an experienced smoker like all of us.
You know, didn't have a bad experience with it. So for all those reasons, I'm at a soft recommended a seven for me. And eight is a firmer recommend. I'm not sure that I'm there, but, um, this gives me hope for Rocky. I have to, you know, give credit where credit's due. This was overall an enjoyable experience and it's definitely challenged.
I think all of our, you know, preconceived notions as far as what we would get or experience with a Rocky cigar.
**Rooster:** And being that the cigar is in a cellophane, you don't need the extra two bands. It's already protected. I think you show off the beautiful cigar. Exactly right. Because the wrapper is so beautiful that you don't, you're kind of hiding the wrapper.
Correct.
**Senator:** Agreed.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a seven. And, and with that being said, I'm very pleasantly surprised by this cigar. I did toy with an eight. As I was [02:06:00] coming out of that first third, I know I was talking more than the rest of you guys today, talking about the Dominican Republic trip. I was smoking a little slower, so I didn't.
I didn't sense the negative transitions in the ways that some of you guys have described so far. Like I think just smoking it slower, kind of slowed down the heat, slowed down the intensity, and it didn't pick up in that last third for me in the same way I think it did for you. I think it was fairly pleasant throughout.
Um, why did I knock it? I think that It's smoked fast for me. I was expecting this to be a two hour, two hour, 15, two hour, 30, you know, uh, cigar and it kind of landed in the hour 40 range. And I was talking a lot, right? But I thought that was a merit. I don't want that. I didn't want that much of it. I just felt it's smoked faster than it should have for its size.
Like I feel like the Robusto should smoke for an hour 30 or hour 40. So if the Gordo smokes that long, I would imagine that the [02:07:00] Robusto you're going to blow through in about an hour. I'm
**Bam Bam:** kind of thankful that it did smoke as fast as it did. Sure. And that's what pubescent, just a little bit.
**Senator:** You're both right in the sense that like in an absolute sense, obviously Gizmo's right that a Gordo should smoke longer.
It should. But Poobah's point, I also agree with, and what Bam is saying that like, for this particular cigar and the fairly linear experience that you're getting from it, like if this smoked as long as it should, we probably would have gotten annoyed with it at some point where like, it smoked to kind of right pace where you left satisfied and not frustrated.
**Poobah:** Correct. 100%. Like it was giving off enough smoke where you're just like, okay, there's combustion here. Tremendous combustion. I'll deal with it. But if I had to deal with it, like much longer. It would have annoyed me. So
**Gizmo:** I, I think for what the cigar is and what it was trying to be, I think a seven is a very fair score.
I think if I smoked the Robusto, I would assume it probably trend a little higher than that. Maybe a little more concentrated, not [02:08:00] so much of a wind tunnel. We talked about that punch versus V cut versus straight cut thing. I think. Having a smaller face on the head of the cigar that you're drawing from would have helped this entire conversation.
Yeah. Obviously, we didn't, we didn't know that. And of course, the 60 ring gauge cigar, it's just too damn big. Mm hmm. But it smoked
**Bam Bam:** quick enough for it not to be a factor. It
**Gizmo:** did, but I just didn't like the mouthfeel of it. The box press did help. But you don't like the jawbreaker. It's, it's, it's a little too big.
So, so for me, it's a seven. I, I got to give credit to Rocky. Says the
**Senator:** guy, I have to say, who that night at my place on my patio. What did he have? His first cigar. Oh. Oh, was a big 56 ring gauge. It's like the size of my forearm. Yeah, but
**Gizmo:** that was a cigar I pulled out. And I said this there that that was a cigar I pulled out for that event.
A very rare type of experience for me. I'm not sitting down in a lounge pulling that out. Same with this, but if anybody asked me what I thought of this cigar, or I think of Rocky Patel, now this has changed my view a little bit. I think that there, you know, it does make me want to [02:09:00] try some more stuff and hopefully find something that I love.
I like this cigar. I want to find something that Rocky makes that I love, and I just haven't found that yet. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, so, um, I'm at an 8, and uh, it was interesting because I went through 7 and 8. I, for me, I think I enjoyed the first third. The second third for me, I really did not enjoy. I thought it became very dry for me, with a very short finish.
And, um, but then suddenly, it's really weird, but I did get like, like burnt color. Coffee blast for a bit there. I was getting a bit of the dark chocolate towards the end. Um, you know, in certain parts of smoke, but I think the last third, it became a little spicy. Uh, you know, it wasn't overwhelming at all.
It was just the right amount of spice. Um, it got a little stronger. I, you know, it started getting into my wheelhouse. So I think that really, uh, you know, nudged it up from a seven to an eight. Uh, for me, it was an eight, uh, by the way, great construction. Great smoke output for somebody wanting to try it.
You know, [02:10:00] you're spending 15, 16 bucks for a cigar. Um, you know, uh, not a bad way to spend an evening really.
**Senator:** So I have to ask Pagoda, would you rather smoke this or the ALR?
**Pagoda:** Correct. Great question. You know, I haven't smoked the ALR for a very, very, very long time. I thought you had it last
**Senator:** week. You smoked enough of them to remember some of it.
I mean, so I
**Pagoda:** know, so I can tell you that I used to really enjoy the ALR and, um, you know, it's, It's tough because, uh, you know, my palate has evolved over the years, but, um, I think I, I do want to give ALR another shot again, just to see, because I think I've come back to, you know, more of, you know, like, uh, uh, a medium to strong kind of palate because in between had gone way far right to, you know, very strong cigars.
Rooster's very disappointed.
**Senator:** What can we say? He's a big rocky guy. He can't choose between them.
**Pagoda:** I No, yeah, I mean, it's not, by the way, we don't go and buy boxes of, uh, Rocky, to be very honest. Don't say we, this is a you. [02:11:00] Does anyone else? Because I don't. I don't. But you know what it is, is that there are some Rocky Patel that I've tried, I think of the 20th, the 15th, the decade.
There's a couple I've tried, but just one or two cigars. But they're no good. Yeah. No good. I've had all of those. They're not good. No, but you know, you know what it is, is, uh, If you were to go to any lounge and you were to meet people who are trying different cigars, and even with me, when I started off, you know, you're trying every type of cigar there is.
And, um, there was, uh, Like there's no hesitation in me saying that I've tried a lot of Rocky Patel's as well But that was so much earlier on in my cigar smoking profile that Recently, I think the last time I really had A. L. R. was maybe in the pod and then before that it's about three years ago So it's not that I really
**Senator:** [02:12:00] We banned that after you joined the party.
No,
**Pagoda:** I, I also think that in the cigar journey, I was introduced to a lot more better cigars. And, you know, fortunately I've been able to try so many other cigars that I've been able to really see what I really enjoy comparatively. And, you know, when you begin to realize there's so many really good cigars out there, and then you enjoy them better, you, you know, your, and your flavor profile keeps evolving because You know, I've seen from mild, medium grow.
I used to, I used to not like Maduro's. Then all these guys know I'm really into Maduro's only, uh, typically. Then I went very far right to the very strong cigars back in the middle. I think just, it's a journey. It's, and you don't know where, which part of the journey you're going to be because your flavor profile keeps evolving.
You know, you get introduced to different cigars, something. You know, if you're having a pleasant evening and you're having an enjoyable evening, you may enjoy the cigar more. It's it's there's so many factors, I think, that contribute to enjoying the [02:13:00] cigar. Uh, for me, um, you know, uh, this was a pleasant experience.
Um, and so it's an eight for me.
**Senator:** All right. Very diplomatic. You didn't answer my question, but very diplomatic. I like how he
**Poobah:** did like a tap dance around it. It sounds like a politician. By the way, election day is tomorrow. It's like parliament. You know, he is dancing around the subject . I mean, I mean, I, I mean, you can buy an Aston VSG for how much?
16 bucks.
**Senator:** Here we go. Here we go again, we go this, we
**Rooster:** talked about it, a 10 cigar. I enjoy that too, about this cigar. I mean this, this cigar, to me, I think it was better than the a LR. Me too. I think so. Too. Way better. No question.
**Poobah:** There's no doubt about it. The ALR sucks.
**Pagoda:** I used to enjoy it. And, uh, I used to really enjoy it when I used to smoke.
And all
**Gizmo:** right, Chef Ricky, you're up.
**Chef RIcky:** I've always been at a seven. And when Rooster said an eight, I said, shit, I'm in trouble. [02:14:00] Um, but I was happy to hear some other sevens around the room. Primarily, you know, the reason being it, it delivered. everything it did in a very non offensive way. Um, but it just wasn't enough of what I wanted.
Uh, you know, I, I, I got some dried fruit, um, but it was really mild until that final third. And then the final third, I couldn't really take it as far as I wanted it. you know, because of my cut or because of the ring gauge or because of the third rapper on it, the third band. So yeah, you know, it's a seven.
I, I think it's interesting and I'm happy to hear that, you know, we've given it a decent score, uh, considering that it's a Rocky Patel. And I think what I do like about the cigar is oftentimes I, well, not often, but there are times where I find myself smoking with people, whether they're family members or, or acquaintance who aren't.
Uh, cigar smokers, like we are, and you pull out your Cuban, or you [02:15:00] pull out your exclusivo, or you pull out your, your banger, or your go to cigar, and you kind of don't want to make them feel less than by giving them something that you don't really enjoy. And you know, this cigar, it's, it's very ornate. You know, it's very, uh, you know, it's a large ring gauge.
So in giving this cigar to someone who's never had a cigar before, or who's had very few, they'll feel special smoking it, and they don't feel left out, and you don't feel guilty for not. Smoking the same exact one. You won't hate it. Yeah. And, and, you know, it's going to deliver something and it'll deliver it in a pleasant manner where it's not going to, you know, put them on their butt or, or just kind of turn them off and it'll just, it'll do just enough where it'll peak their interest and get them to say, okay, well, what's next after this?
Is there something that's a little bit more flavorful? It's like, you know, it's not even about strength, but just a flavor that it delivered. There was a little strength. Yeah. It was, it was not a nicotine bomb. Very mild cigar. And it's not what I was expecting based on the color of the wrapper, the [02:16:00] presentation.
Um, but with all that being said, I think it was a strong seven, uh, soft recommend good to have for company, a good introductory cigar for people. Um, and yeah, I feel good with my seven.
**Bam Bam:** Alright, Bam Bam. So, Chef, you echoed a lot of what I said earlier in the recording. I think it's a great cigar for someone that's just starting their journey, to coin a phrase from Pagoda in a Corner.
Uh, it was smooth, it was fairly creamy, the combustion was excellent. Was it memorable for me? No. For anyone in this room, probably not, but like Poobah said earlier, I think the way he made this cigar is, is made for a certain sector of cigar smoker. And I think he hit it on the, the nail on the, on the head.
It's made for a certain group of people. And I think it, it, it, it works well. It's very well made. Am I ever going to have this again? No, I probably won't remember it tomorrow, but for that group of [02:17:00] people that are just getting into this, I think it's a great cigar for them. So I think an eight is a nice score.
No unpleasantness at all. I think we said that as well. Very nice cigar.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. That puts the formal lizard rating tonight on the Rocky Patel 60 at a 7. 6. Okay. Which is a much better score than I was expecting for the cigar tonight. It worked out, right? What did CA give it? It was number two. I'm sure it was mid nineties way too high.
Number two of the year. It must've
**Bam Bam:** been a 96, 97. They take a puff and they throw it down and they get a rating.
**Gizmo:** So let's compare that to the ALR we talked about during the ratings. The second edition Robusto from Rocky Patel we did on episode 104.
**Bam Bam:** Dum da dum dum.
**Gizmo:** That cigar scored a 6. 6. Ho
**Bam Bam:** ho ho ho
**Gizmo:** ho. So this was a full 10 points higher than the ALR Robusto.
Wow. Again, I'm very, very surprised at how this cigar performed tonight and how everyone enjoyed it. Yeah. The fact that Rooster gave it an eight. Correct. Is huge. Shocking. Correct. I mean, just [02:18:00] shocking. How are you feeling? By the way,
**Pagoda:** Rooster's already regretting it. I think he is. Rooster gave it an eight too.
He's just disappointed
**Rooster:** that he gave it an eight almost. That's true. I'm more shocked that Poobah gave it an eight. Yeah. You know what I get in short, I'll be
**Poobah:** very brief here. Not verbose. I gave it an eight because it, it was smokeable. It wasn't so highly packed that like it smoked, like what you would think.
I mean, I got through it relatively quickly. It wasn't offensive. It didn't bother me. Was it that exciting? No, but. If it was at 16 bucks, and by the way, I think everyone's smoking to the now we did everybody. So at 16, it's an eight at 28 or 32. Sure. I'm giving it a seven. I think a mid seven
**Rooster:** score is just perfect.
It's just seven six is perfect for the cigar overall. We're perfect.
**Chef RIcky:** I, I'd still think at [02:19:00] 16 bucks, it's a little expensive considering I'm smoking an now. Right. And it's a little bit cheaper than, it's a much better experience, technically, a lot more tobacco, I guess, than a godo. The size, you know, it's a double re boosto
**Rooster:** effectively.
I say take the two off and cut it down by a dollar.
**Pagoda:** The other thing is, Ricky, like, uh, an exclusive is 21 bucks if you go in the city and buy it. Just add an average. Even over here, 18 to 20. So it's like, based on retail pricing, 16. 50 is saying, you know, if you get them discounted, it's probably much cheaper.
And Rocky Patel has, like, these multiple discounts. Oh, yeah. I'm sure you can get 10 bucks. It's very aggressive.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. A great night tonight. Let's review our scores one more time. The Woodford reserve double oaked bourbon scored an 8. 7. The Rocky Patel 60 scored a 7. 6 overall for me, a very surprising evening with this cigar and the bourbon too.
I mean, it was just, it was excellent. Obviously reflected in 8. 7. We have a bunch of people to thank first. Let's thank lizard Kyle [02:20:00] who was very kind to send us the Woodford reserve. That was awesome. We really appreciate when listeners do that. So thank you to lizard Kyle. Congratulations. And thank you to lizard Lake who won lizard of the week with that great question about music and outdoor speakers.
I would personally, and on behalf of all of us like to thank the law Aurora team for having me and allowing me to experience that and share that with everyone here. It was a great week down there in the Dominican Republic. And I can't wait to go back with all of you. It was awesome. And, uh, a plus and, um, I'm, I'm really, really grateful.
Thanks of course, to our sponsor fabric of five, great partner, great guys, and we love having them. And finally, thanks to lizard nation for three years. This week, incredible of the lounge lizards podcast and supporting us. And, uh, congratulations to all of us that we still, we don't, we don't hate each other yet.
Isn't this nice.
**Bam Bam:** So
**Gizmo:** a great night tonight, boys. Great chat. And we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find [02:21:00] our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards, pod. com. That's lounge lizards, P O D dot com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
If you have any comments, questions, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking. Email us. Hello at lounge lizards pod. com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.