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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!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards Podcast presented by Fabrica Five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And I plan to smoke a cigar, drink some rum, talk about life, and, of course, have some laughs. So take this as your two hundred and thirtieth official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cupid cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We discuss a tobacco tax bill I got from the state of New Jersey.
Gizmo:We review our first product from Venezuela, and we reveal pod cigars that ended up as one hit wonders, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, enjoy as we pair Santa Teresa 1796 Branda Salera with the Partagas Serie P number two. A pyramid on the pod tonight, boys, from Cuba. And we are back to Partagas. Not in the old pyramid.
Gizmo:No. Arguably, the best cigar that Partagas makes. I've said it before. Say it Wow.
Bam Bam:I'm just
Gizmo:doing that to piss senator on the floor. And it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by six and one eighths inches long. And boys, it feels like, in revisiting this tonight, it almost feels like we're a little bit back into the battle of the Pyramidis because this is, like, I think the third or fourth Cuban pyramid that we've revisited. Almost like the ones we did initially of all that run didn't perform as well as they should. I think this one included.
Bam Bam:I don't feel like it's a battle right now. I feel like there's celebration in the air.
Gizmo:Nice way to
Pagoda:put it.
Gizmo:Celebration of the pyramid.
Bam Bam:This feels it feels like we're celebrating something. This is a special celebration.
Gizmo:Every time we smoke a Cuban these days, it
Rooster:feels like a celebration.
Gizmo:It's been
Senator:so long. And this is a pre prison role.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:That's true.
Pagoda:And to quote her?
Gizmo:We think.
Bam Bam:And nicely aged. What's the stats on this thing?
Gizmo:Yeah. So the box code on this is Tua, which is the Partagans factory, June 2021. Nice. June 21. Great code.
Gizmo:So let's see how these do boys. Let's cut this thing.
Pagoda:They're just a few months into
Gizmo:yeah? See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper? Excellent draw. I'm hopeful. Always nervous with Cubans, especially these days, the prices, how little we reach for them on the pod.
Gizmo:Nice draw. Oh yeah. How resistant do you guys like your draw on a Cuban Pyramides? I took off very little. Did Thinking about doing a second cut.
Senator:Yeah, I'm doing a second cut. I don't like too much resistance.
Bam Bam:You've got more off than mine, Senator.
Senator:Mine's tight. Yeah. The foot is okay, but the head of the cigar is tightly packed.
Pagoda:It's very tightly packed. Does it feel tight? It's really hard. Really?
Gizmo:The second cut did did magic, Senator. Mine's pretty open. I cut very little. I'm happy with my drawer.
Bam Bam:You have more often than I do as well. I'm about eighth of an inch.
Rooster:No, I have less. I cut off
Senator:Second cut worked.
Gizmo:Yeah, mine did
Bam Bam:not I know my dimensions. You're a quarter of an inch.
Gizmo:What are you guys getting on the cold water? Getting a little cedar.
Bam Bam:Dry fruit. Dry fruit. Graham cracker.
Rooster:Alright.
Bam Bam:I mean we're going back to the old notes baby. It's coming back. Citrus? No citrus.
Rooster:No citrus. Maybe a little leather.
Gizmo:No. No?
Bam Bam:A touch of cedar maybe. Definitely cedar.
Gizmo:Cedar and earthy.
Bam Bam:But sweeter though. On the sweeter side for me, the cauldron.
Senator:I get a little tomato.
Bam Bam:Yep. Watch chef
Chef Ricky:in the corner. Listen. I I was gonna say it. Was gonna
Gizmo:say it. You were joking? I just made that up. I'm getting it.
Bam Bam:I'm getting it.
Pagoda:By the
Bam Bam:way, we knew you were joking except for him.
Chef Ricky:I'm getting it. Not only am I getting tomato, I'm getting
Senator:How many tomatoes did you slice today? Seven.
Gizmo:There we go. It's on his hands
Chef Ricky:and in
Gizmo:his nose.
Chef Ricky:That's great.
Gizmo:I washed
Chef Ricky:my hands. I washed my face.
Bam Bam:It's permeated your skin.
Chef Ricky:No. There's a there's
Gizmo:something about way
Chef Ricky:there's something about the way cedar spice and and and some of the I I don't know. This Cuban flavor profile on heavily aged cigars, that initial cold draw to me feels like a bloody it tastes like a Bloody Mary.
Bam Bam:So I hate I would say I don't get any cedar on this cold
Rooster:I get a lot of cedar.
Gizmo:I get plenty of I get a ton. Yeah. No. I'm
Bam Bam:I'm I guess, reacting to it differently. It doesn't come off as cedar fruit.
Chef Ricky:What I'm not getting on this is dried fruit. I'm getting a lot of spiced cedar, I'm getting baking spice.
Bam Bam:I'm getting raisin,
Rooster:a little apricot. No raisin.
Senator:I don't get much dried fruit, honestly.
Pagoda:I'm a
Senator:I'm a chef there.
Gizmo:We're coming to the end of the first third on the cold draw.
Bam Bam:Of course, you don't.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's light this thing. The Cuban Partagas Serie P number two.
Chef Ricky:Man, we're on fire today.
Gizmo:Commonly known This is a special cigar.
Chef Ricky:This needs
Pagoda:to be discussed.
Gizmo:Very famous.
Pagoda:All my friends are, like, wondering, what?
Gizmo:I'm getting, like, vine ripened tomato.
Chef Ricky:I'm telling you, it's Bloody Mary all the way. Little tomato, celery seed happened in spice for me. And that was just a cold draw.
Bam Bam:Boys, this is incredible off the line. You must admit. It's all right. What?
Rooster:No? It's very good.
Senator:I mean, it's not like an eat you on the light, but it's pretty good.
Bam Bam:This is outstanding. He's being so nice.
Pagoda:Oh, there it goes.
Gizmo:It's got more spice on it. Well, that's nice, man.
Chef Ricky:Definitely has more spice than I'm used to.
Gizmo:It's smoothed out
Bam Bam:though. Don't think it's at all.
Chef Ricky:It's not rough spice, but there's some spice present there. But it's not rough.
Gizmo:The
Rooster:aroma off the foot is you get that spice on your nose. Has a
Senator:pretty powerful funk. Yeah, I agree.
Gizmo:You know? Like but a good funk. You mean the aroma or the draw? On the draw.
Senator:The aroma is Like an aged funk. Yeah. Like you get from aged tobacco.
Gizmo:It's amazing. These coming up on five years.
Bam Bam:This is a treat, Tom.
Gizmo:This is such a treat. And it's crazy to think that a box from '21, I'm thinking about Like that number in my brain is almost when I bought them in '22 or '23, it's like, oh, that's only a year or two ago. But no, in fact, it's coming up on '5, which is crazy.
Senator:When you still had Global Entry. Mhmm.
Bam Bam:That's right. Well, you sacrificed for the group I did. For the greater cause.
Gizmo:For you guys.
Rooster:Just for you.
Gizmo:Uh-huh.
Pagoda:Do you still have a passport?
Gizmo:So far.
Pagoda:All
Gizmo:right. We'll get into a little story later.
Pagoda:Oh, so you can travel internationally apparently.
Gizmo:He has an unreal ID. This is great. Yeah. What kind of notes are you guys getting on the way here?
Bam Bam:I'm not getting as much spice as as they're getting.
Rooster:The spice is on the on the smoke, on the aroma.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Okay.
Rooster:More so than the draw.
Bam Bam:I am getting that cookie graham cracker thing, and honestly, getting more cedar on the draw, and it's a touch on this typical draw than a cold draw. I think it's a great balance.
Gizmo:You don't get any earthiness?
Senator:Mm-mm. I do. This is drier in flavor profile than some of the recent p twos I've had, and they've been very similar time period. Think, like, the last box I had was either '20 or '21, But I remember it being like having, like, a little bit of, like, a sweet cream with age, and this is, a drier, kinda earthier profile.
Bam Bam:No sweetness at all for you?
Senator:Very little.
Bam Bam:Really? Very little.
Pagoda:I'm not getting sweeteners either. Wow.
Chef Ricky:I get sweet cream on a very slow Yeah. Me too. Tail end of a of a retro.
Gizmo:Giz? I'm in total agreement. I I think the sweetness comes for me at the end of the retro really only. Everything else on the palate is as they described. I think for me that kind of funk is the is tying it all together as I often say.
Gizmo:Which I love. Earthiness, little spice, just a touch of spice, which I like. But this is definitely smoking different than my expectation coming in tonight.
Bam Bam:What were you expecting?
Gizmo:I was expecting it to be a little bit more powerful, maybe a little bit spicier.
Bam Bam:Really?
Gizmo:And honestly, you know, we we joke about e two versus p two. Mean, p two is definitely a little more rough around the edges than I would say a d four and e two, etcetera. So I am surprised at how refined this is right now versus my expectation coming in.
Bam Bam:Well, it's got five years.
Gizmo:It's true.
Bam Bam:I do miss a Cuban in this room.
Gizmo:It's been five weeks and it's funny, man. We used to I don't even remember that we used to do a Cuban every other week.
Pagoda:I know.
Gizmo:I know we did it for so long, but we're on this new cadence now.
Bam Bam:We were spoiled.
Gizmo:Yeah. And it felt like, sometimes it felt special, but a lot of the times it just felt like, oh, it's another cigar in the pod, you know? But now it feels like every time we do this, it's an event.
Pagoda:Oh yeah. Know, Lizard Danny just came back from Hong Kong and he said, what he's seen this time around, that four or five new lounges have opened up selling only Cuban cigars in Hong Kong. And he said they never used to exist. And the numbers of cigar stores are increasing, and they're selling Cubans primarily.
Gizmo:I think it's a bad business to get into right now though, given the circumstances of everything going on. I can't imagine supply is gonna be stable over the next
Chef Ricky:Correct.
Senator:Few years. And even quality, just what you're getting.
Bam Bam:I mean You don't know what you're gonna get they're
Senator:gonna be able to maintain a, you know, high standard of quality given the circumstances there.
Gizmo:So boys, every time I say this when we talk about Partagas cigars, even the e two, which was later than this, this cigar was only released in 2005. That's crazy.
Chef Ricky:It's
Gizmo:only a, you know, cigar that's been around for twenty years. Of course, the second most recent addition to the letter series. So of course, again, the letter series we say d d four, d six, d five, p two, e two, etcetera. This one comes in cedar boxes of 25, which is what we're smoking out of tonight. Comes in 10 count boxes and also, of course, comes in the aluminum tubos.
Gizmo:Five cardboard packs of three, the 15 packs. I do really like these out of a tubo. I haven't had one in a long time. Yep. But they're very nice out of a tubo, and I just love that black tubo with the, and what's cool about this one is on the actual tubo, they actually print the band on the tubo.
Bam Bam:The Partagas tubos are beautiful. They really are.
Pagoda:And they all work really well. Feels like they tend to smoke better for whatever reason.
Bam Bam:Well, they're pristine coming out of those tubes.
Rooster:It's also the cedar lining inside.
Bam Bam:And it's fairly airtight too. Lizard Phil and I were here during the day early on talking about the E2s, reminiscing about the Tubos, the Fiver Tubo pack. So cool packaging. Open that up, you get five tubes. Sexy, you can walk around with it.
Bam Bam:I miss that.
Rooster:Even the wooden box that used to come, maybe it's
Gizmo:something so what Kubo had a bunch of those, remember?
Rooster:Yeah. The five pack without the tubes.
Bam Bam:That's also cool. Yeah. Yeah. I've had a few of those. Missed those days.
Gizmo:I gotta say, man, Senator says this all the time, but Partagas can do no wrong. I mean, this is just excellent. Excellent.
Senator:I don't know. I might be the outlier. I'm not blown away.
Bam Bam:Really? You're not feeling good about him.
Senator:I'm not feeling bad about it, but here's my problem. What I love about Partagas, there's always, like, a really defined lead note in the cigar. Right? So, like, the d four, like, you get that cinnamon, like, it's always kind of front and center. The e two for me, like, especially with some age, like, there's like a nice, like, sweet creaminess about that cigar.
Senator:The star of the the like, lead note of this is just, like, aged tobacco, like that funk that Giz was talking about, and I'm not getting, like, a more clearly defined flavor beyond the aged tobacco Mhmm. As like the star of the show, and I'm just surprised. That's like not normally my experience. So I'm I'm enjoying it. Like, it's not it's not bad.
Senator:It's there's nothing offensive, but I'm not like I'm not being grabbed by a note that I would like typically chase that I'm really getting prominently in this cigar yet. Interesting.
Gizmo:I feel like for me, if I were to describe the funk, it's almost like a funky, like it has a little bread y thing
Bam Bam:to it. I was gonna say that.
Gizmo:Like a little bit of a funky bread. What do you call the bread that's, like sourdough. Sourdough, yeah. Almost like a sourdough type of
Bam Bam:But if you can imagine a little bit of salty butter, and maybe a drizzle of something just a touch sweet, that's kind of what I'm getting.
Senator:See, that's what I wish. I get the But sourdough it's very faint though. But it either needs more saltiness, like salted buttered bread, or honey or like something like sweet with that bready note, but I'm just getting like that sourdough. That's that's kind of it. It needs something with it.
Bam Bam:Could have been your prepod smoke adulterating your palate
Chef Ricky:a bit.
Pagoda:I'm definitely getting
Gizmo:some sweetness here already on me. I
Senator:think you've been guilty of that many times Never.
Bam Bam:Old boy. Once. I think once. That's sweet. Prepod smoke?
Bam Bam:Never.
Senator:This This is the same guy who says, I never have an afternoon cigar.
Gizmo:Oh, you remember all those photos you said in the afternoons? Oh, right.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Well yesterday, yes.
Senator:Yeah, exactly.
Bam Bam:I have to tell you, I was in the lounge yesterday afternoon. Here at the club? Yeah. I had a Padron Exclusivo. I had the Rothschild Aladino, the little one in here.
Bam Bam:They were both fucking delicious, and I do miss the afternoon smoke. It's been a while for me. That is it's a special moment. It's a great break during the day. It feels great.
Gizmo:I certainly have not been smoking as much. Afternoon? Yeah. It's definitely fallen off. Even car smoking, I've just been so busy.
Gizmo:I don't have a time to stop. Even driving, I'm not in the car for that long. I kind of miss it. I had a great lunch today. I wish I could have had a cigar right after.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah. Chef, how are you feeling about the cigar?
Chef Ricky:I'm perplexed by what Senator is finding in his.
Bam Bam:Concerned for him. Are you happy with yours or unhappy with yours?
Chef Ricky:I'm happy with mine, but I almost feel bad talking about it because of the experience he's having.
Senator:No, no. Mean, maybe you've got a better cigar than I do.
Bam Bam:Maybe you should leave then.
Gizmo:Mine is I
Chef Ricky:mean, this is Senator's, you know, I mean, it's not the cigar,
Senator:but No. No. It's This is not one
Bam Bam:of my favorite parties. It's not even close to his cigar.
Chef Ricky:I know. I know. But it's it's your marker. You know what I mean? So it's just
Bam Bam:What are you getting?
Pagoda:I'm curious.
Chef Ricky:Getting hazelnut cream. That's pretty. Yeah, so I'm getting some of that sweetness that's coming through now. I'm the the pepper's still there.
Senator:I would die to be getting hazelnut
Gizmo:right now.
Chef Ricky:That's why I don't I almost don't wanna say it because I feel bad saying that.
Senator:Because now I'm actually happy that you're getting it because, like, I'm worried that we're all having my experience. I'm glad that that's not the case.
Chef Ricky:Right now I'm getting cappuccino, hazelnut.
Senator:I was going
Rooster:to say there's some coffee notes that
Gizmo:are coming through now. Like, I don't know if it's coffee I espresso or
Bam Bam:would say for me, I'm getting that cappuccino thing on the aroma. And if I have to say any nut, it'd be a cashew, not hazelnut, because hazelnut's so specific.
Chef Ricky:I'm getting a very specific hazelnut. Wow. Yeah. And that goes back to the note that I called out earlier, that saying just on that very slow retrohale at the tail end, that sweetness that's coming through. It's the hazelnut.
Chef Ricky:It's hazelnut. It's it's creamy. The smoke's almost chewy. But there's still spice. There's still a little leather there.
Chef Ricky:Like Rooster mentioned earlier, there's still a little touch of cedar. Like, neither of these notes are dominating the the overall flavor of the cigar. They're all kind of just peeking in.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:Alright. So I think I've now caught up to where you are on the cigar, and now I'm getting, like, very distinct cappuccino. Yeah. And it's way creamier now than it was before. This is more in line with what I remember in the past year, the few p twos I've had smoking like around this time period.
Senator:So right now, if this holds and continues to develop, now I'm happy.
Chef Ricky:But you see, even as he was saying that, a little smile
Gizmo:Yeah.
Chef Ricky:That you're He he lightened up a little bit, then that that's why
Senator:I don't wanna give a part against a bad rating. I mean,
Chef Ricky:I'm sitting right next to you, so it affects me.
Bam Bam:Well, you have shit on this cigar.
Senator:Only in relation to the e two. Alright. And we put a listener poll out there, and we all voted in here.
Bam Bam:I remember.
Senator:It was resounding. That's true.
Rooster:But this cigar right now, it is pretty delicious.
Bam Bam:It's delicious, dude.
Gizmo:I have one complaint about it, and it's a genuine complaint. I think the finish is shorter than I'd like it to be.
Senator:That's true. It kinda
Gizmo:just falls off a cliff a
Pagoda:little bit. I totally agree. You're absolutely right.
Gizmo:And I think for this cigar and the price of this cigar, I think you should get a little more out of every draw.
Chef Ricky:So now do you think that comes with the age? I'm just thinking, right, over time cigars sit, right, they're sitting at that sort of 62% sweet spot, sensual oils sort of disappear, you know? They're not disappearing at
Gizmo:that humidity.
Chef Ricky:Changing. Disappears the wrong word, but you know, it's changing. So do you think that maybe with a little less aid, some of that finishes?
Rooster:I think the opposite is
Gizmo:true. I honestly think I often find cigars that aren't great and then over time they turn into, know, the ones that you see that have legs. If there's little harshness or something, it rounds it out. I mean, I have some of the, you know, most aged cigars that we've smoked, I think often have been the most, you know, the creamiest and have the longest finish. And honestly, create those moments of like, Oh my God, what is happening?
Chef Ricky:But are those cigars that start creamy?
Senator:All No, the no. I think
Gizmo:a lot
Senator:of the time they don't start creamy at all. Especially when they get creamy.
Gizmo:Specifically Cubans for sure. But I mean, so this cigar is a $37 cigar today.
Senator:Yeah. Jesus.
Gizmo:You know, when we were buying it originally, I think we were probably paying between 12 and 15 at the most. Wow. Right?
Senator:12 at the most
Gizmo:back Yeah, the early days, yeah.
Pagoda:Well, maybe that's why I had two boxes of those. Was wondering. Do you still have them? Very few of them left.
Gizmo:Yeah, so this is a $37 cigar now. A $40 cigar.
Bam Bam:I think we agree. The finish is short, but still very enjoyable.
Pagoda:You know what's really interesting is in this, you know, you mentioned the finish is short. For me, when I started off, it felt very dry. And then about half an inch in, you remember how Klas was talking about it has to touch certain parts of your tongue and then I want the saliva to trigger? It's really started triggering my saliva. So it became a lot more better.
Pagoda:But I don't think, I wish the finish was a bit longer. Like I'm getting like buttery salty thing, which I think you had mentioned way before. But I'm getting like the popcorn butter kind of sauce.
Bam Bam:Just a touch.
Pagoda:It's, I wish I was getting a little bit sweetness somewhere along the line, but
Chef Ricky:Oh, I just got a note that I don't even want to call out because
Pagoda:I know we
Gizmo:got Oh, you said it already. I want to hear Wasabi?
Chef Ricky:I just got licorice.
Gizmo:Licorice.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I just got a touch of licorice. I don't want you guys get
Bam Bam:it because
Chef Ricky:I know yeah. I know you guys hate it.
Gizmo:I can't stand it.
Senator:I don't get any licorice. No.
Pagoda:Yeah. I get those in, like, new worlds typically.
Gizmo:Where are you getting the the licorice? Retro. On the retro. I'm not. Let me try it out.
Gizmo:This is off to an interesting start.
Chef Ricky:And now it just got super nutty. This cigar is all over the place. I love it.
Bam Bam:Don't know if I like the word interesting. I think good and it's actually getting better and better. It's improving.
Gizmo:I think I mean interesting like for the complaint of the short finish, I do think it's peaking my interest. Like every draw, it's kind of like Chef's saying. Sure. It's giving you a little bit something different. So let's see where
Bam Bam:we're in.
Gizmo:It's building. Yeah. All right, boys. Let's go to some news. First up, I have to talk about this one because we were blown away by this cigar and I've been smoking them since and every cigar that I've had since identical to the ones we smoked on the podcast performed brilliantly.
Gizmo:Yes. The Prodomo legacy The Perdomo legacy Nicaraguan song grown in Epicure. We did that a couple weeks ago. You know, I'm sure people saw that episode come up and expected what we expected, and it was quite quite the opposite and the experience was amazing. So I wanted to share this cause I think this is something for us to look forward to at PCA.
Gizmo:Perdomo has announced that they are going to be releasing the Legacy Father and Son at PCA twenty twenty six. So this is also offered in three rapper choices like the legacy brand is. So, of course, the legacy brand was developed by Nick Perdomo the third, as we talked about for his father, Nick Nick Perdomo junior. We all know that Nick as the face and founder of Perdomo as his sixtieth birthday gift. So with the legacy father and son, the father made one blend, the son made another and the pair of them developed the third blend together.
Gizmo:So I think that's a pretty cool concept. So the blends are based around the hybrid seed tobacco that we talked about. The Habano seed with the Cameroon seed, that hybrid that they age for a long period of time. So it's going to be in these cool shaped cigars that I'm gonna show you right here. It's a Figurado and it's a 48 which then goes to 60 which then goes to 52 by six.
Gizmo:So it's a pretty cool cigar. I think the mouth feel on that's gonna be like a 48.
Chef Ricky:That's some fucking
Gizmo:cigars. Pretty interesting.
Bam Bam:Can't wait to try those.
Gizmo:So it's the follow-up to the legacy that we love. The MSRP on this is going to be $15. Nice. So we will be seeing this at PCA. So the hybrid seed as we talked about is going to be the binder.
Gizmo:That's very similar to the last one. And then the shade grown version uses it as a wrapper just like the one that we spoke, the Legacy. So it's kind of following in the footsteps there. So pretty cool. So we should look for that at PCA this year cause Perdomo definitely did well.
Gizmo:Got another one here for you boys. Avo is also going to be celebrating at PCA twenty twenty six. It's the you're not excited, ma'am? It's the founder of Avo Uvezian's one hundredth birthday. It's they're marking the birth of the founder, Avo, his one hundredth birthday this year, so they're gonna be celebrating that with a bunch of cigars.
Gizmo:So I'm sure we're gonna see quite a few releases at the PCA.
Bam Bam:Have every PCA I've been to, I don't even know where their booth is.
Gizmo:It's like the Davitov booth.
Bam Bam:They're invisible to me.
Gizmo:I just don't It's like, you know, when you go to BMW and then they have, like, the mini area where they sell the mini? Uh-huh. That's Avo.
Bam Bam:Much like the cigar, it's invisible to me.
Gizmo:Well, there's
Rooster:there's no minis at the BMW dealer.
Gizmo:Don't they sell b m don't they sell minis?
Senator:It's a separate Not at the dealer.
Gizmo:No. I don't know.
Bam Bam:You You understand that analogy a little bit.
Gizmo:I mean No. Not really. He's a BMW guy now.
Bam Bam:So So it's over his head.
Senator:Clearly, Gizmo's not
Gizmo:I am not at all. Another one here. This one out of Cuba. Found this one interesting. The Juan Lopez Cigar Lifestyle Cubana has been released.
Gizmo:It's a new regional edition exclusive to Cuba, which kinda makes no sense A to new world that's exclusive to Cuba? Juan Lopez. So it's a
Senator:52 A regional exclusive to Cuba. Oh, because all this year.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Because every Cuban's gonna have this cigar because they can afford it.
Gizmo:52 ring gauge cigar by five and three tenths inches I
Senator:still can't get this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
Gizmo:Not the first time.
Senator:Every cigar is a Cuban regional that is
Gizmo:released in Cuba. Why would they put a ban that says Cuba on it? I mean,
Senator:this is a Cuban regional we're smoking then. This is insane.
Gizmo:What is happening
Pagoda:with the Vemos? They understand it either. They can't be shipped out anymore. You know? What?
Pagoda:Yeah. Because they're just staying in they're staying domestic. They're staying domestic.
Bam Bam:It's like all this terrible.
Gizmo:All the funny.
Pagoda:All the all the seaborne vessels are being, like, smashed. Big bombs.
Gizmo:So this is the fourth time the vitola's been used all in regional editions out of Cuba, and I guess this is, I think, the second. There's another one. There's another Cuban exclusive. Yeah. So it's it's interesting.
Bam Bam:I mean I don't know what that means.
Chef Ricky:So weird.
Gizmo:I guess the idea was that it was supposed to be released around the Habanos Festival,
Rooster:and
Gizmo:then I'm sure if they had it ready to go, they probably would have been trying to get folks at the festival to be buying the cigar. But it's it is odd in
Bam Bam:The one that they canceled.
Senator:Are there photos? So, like, it literally has a secondary band that says Cuba?
Gizmo:Yeah. Exclusivo Cuba. Oh my goodness. I've never seen that before. Exclusivo Cuba.
Gizmo:Crazy. So no pricing has been announced yet, of course. Mhmm. But it's it's interesting that they would do that in 2026. I don't know why that's the case.
Gizmo:Here's another one. I thought given the stuff we've talked about as far as Cuba goes, I found this very interesting. So apparently, one of the guys from the website Drop Site, which is a news organization, sat down with the deputy foreign minister of Cuba, Carlos Fernandez de Coccio. Apparently, the Cuban government has prepared to offer a lump sum compensation payment to The United States Of America to distribute to Americans who lost their property during the revolution. This getting more than joking.
Senator:Outrageous by the minute.
Gizmo:Here's a, you know, a screenshot of the video that this guy is sitting with the deputy foreign minister who said that the Cuban government is prepared to discuss offering a, quote, lump sum compensation to the Americans and American firms that saw property nationalized after the nineteen fifty nine revolution. The lump sum agreement, meaning the Cubans would pay The US that fee, then would then would be handled by The US to distribute that money. And they're saying it would be part of a broader, quote, holistic deal that would address the sanctions, of course, the blockade, and also allow for an amount of American investment in Cuba that had previously been forbidden. So imagine at this point in I time can't wait to park my money there. I can't wait.
Gizmo:That might be the riskiest investment on the planet. Correct. I I don't know as it stands right now today how these are the solutions they're coming up with. Where is the supposed money that they're going cut a check to The United States for? Right.
Gizmo:Why not fix the grid? Not put some money in the infrastructure?
Bam Bam:The regime would need to break off a few billion dollars.
Gizmo:I think it's more than that, Bam.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Well
Gizmo:Think about the current market value of all the All the businesses
Bam Bam:and properties?
Gizmo:Be. Think about that over time.
Bam Bam:Yeah, since the 50s.
Chef Ricky:In Cuban states,
Gizmo:they probably all went backwards. Not gonna happen. That's true. Certainly.
Bam Bam:They're gonna
Senator:pay them in Cuban pesos. Yeah.
Gizmo:You're gonna get a truckload and it's worth $6 So I found that fascinating that that is one of the ideas that they're coming up with. So apparently, 6,000 American individuals and businesses have filed claims for nationalized property according to the United States government. With interest, apparently, the certified claims, and those are the only ones that have come in, are estimate estimated to total approximately $9,000,000,000. So I think that's quite a low number compared to if this actually were to happen, how many claimants there would be. So, Bam, get your money ready.
Gizmo:It's time to invest in Cuba, buddy.
Chef Ricky:Correct. So what do you think the chances are of the embargo being lifted And us being able to get Cuban cigars? It's a
Gizmo:long way to go. I mean, if the if the I would say if the embargo is lifted, the idea that Cuban cigars are even in the conversation, I I don't even know how you would deal with that because you're gonna have let's say that happens. Right? The the embargo's lifted. Now all of a sudden, you've got two Partagas lines.
Gizmo:You've got two Cohibas, two Monte Cristos, two h Upmans, two Romeo y Julietas, two everything Cuban Mhmm. Is gonna have a second line. So how do you how do you make that work? I mean, they're fighting. Since the embargo happened, they've been fighting since seventies or eighties over the trademarks in The United States when the product's been illegal.
Gizmo:Habanos or, you know, the Cuban government and The United States firms that now claim to own those trademarks. So if all of a sudden the embargo's lifted, that's gonna just I would think, but why couldn't you continue as a Cuban Partagas?
Bam Bam:You can. I would I don't think
Pagoda:I do. That
Rooster:I'm sorry.
Senator:I don't I'm I'm not at all concerned about how that would work. I mean, the bands look totally different. I think it'd be very clear what's Cuban and non Cuban.
Gizmo:I'm saying, but all the all the manufacturers that have put a lot of money into this country to to put their distribution channels together, marketing over the years, building brands, all of a sudden, you're just gonna allow the Cuban to sit next to it on the shelf. I don't think they're gonna go for that.
Chef Ricky:No. They're
Senator:all gonna assume. Think it's
Gizmo:be driven by demand. They ripped it
Senator:off the Cubans in the first place. That that's just a fact.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And I think what Rooster said, it's gotta be driven by demand.
Rooster:So there are gonna be It's what the consumer wants.
Bam Bam:Yeah. We'll have a a Cuban one day.
Gizmo:Like, you wouldn't want to see a Partagas p two at our last conference. Of course, I'd like to see it. Yeah. We would
Senator:all No. I I don't know. I view this very differently. I'm not at all concerned about that piece. I don't think that Cuba is able to produce enough cigars to fill shelves in The United States.
Senator:No. Like, if the embargo is lifted, as far as I'm concerned, all that means is that we're able to go down to Cuba and leave there and bring in cigars. Mhmm. I don't think that there's gonna be, in any recent time, a day where we walk in an American cigar shop, and they've got Cuban boxes stocked on the shelves. Cuba just doesn't have the production capacity right now to do it.
Senator:They can't fill the the retailers in Europe and Asia.
Gizmo:And that was before this
Bam Bam:That's true.
Gizmo:Electricity problem, before the Chengdu problem. I mean, it's We're years from a
Senator:day where you would see a new world Monte Cristo box and a Cuban Monte Cristo box. I don't see
Gizmo:that either. I mean, you would have to spend a lot of money It's growing
Bam Bam:not just that, it's you have to grow the whole economy for every industry to be healthy there. That's gonna take years, as he said.
Chef Ricky:I also don't think we'll ever see them side by side. I think there'll be LCDHs here in The States that would probably sell them exclusively.
Bam Bam:That's an interesting That's a great thought.
Chef Ricky:That's one way to
Bam Bam:mitigate that situation.
Gizmo:Smart. The ten eighty six LCDH?
Chef Ricky:No different than how bad it
Bam Bam:all Hey, Johnny. Pass me a d four.
Gizmo:That'll be $700. Correct. That's probably what they would be. Mean, the prices are gonna be obscene with that additional demand.
Bam Bam:We don't know what's gonna happen politically, how this is gonna change the country. It's all remains to be seen.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's all a big guess. Yep. Alright, boys. Let's go to our pairing.
Gizmo:We have a unique Venezuelan rum tonight. First, I think spirit from Venezuela on the podcast.
Senator:Yeah. So Santa Teresa. Reason.
Gizmo:$17.96 rum. Cheers. Cheers, boys.
Chef Ricky:Cheers. Cheers.
Gizmo:Salud. You said for good reason. That scares me.
Senator:I say for good reason because a lot of Venezuelan rums have a ton of added sugar. Like Diplomatico's from Venezuela.
Bam Bam:Right? Mhmm.
Senator:Interesting. Got an insane amount
Gizmo:of sugar. So I did look on the fat rum pirate website. This has the
Bam Bam:Pagoda needs a sploosh.
Gizmo:Least amount of additives that they list on the site between zero and five Mhmm. Grams, I guess, per per liter. Yeah. And how is it? It's good.
Gizmo:It's good. Everybody's kinda quiet.
Senator:I think it's good.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I like it.
Gizmo:I like it. Ban is
Senator:gonna start with turpentine. Let's hear it.
Gizmo:I know it's coming.
Pagoda:No. No. No. It's not at all.
Bam Bam:It's easy to drink.
Pagoda:Yeah. Very.
Bam Bam:Just enough a touch of heat, which I really like. It doesn't drink like a rum to me.
Gizmo:I'm getting, like, almost no
Bam Bam:heat. But regardless of that, Abuelo seven, all the rums that we've had, there was always a touch of sweetness there. Yeah. A little honey or something, maple.
Chef Ricky:Are you not getting any sweetness?
Gizmo:No. What?
Bam Bam:I'm not getting any
Pagoda:of that.
Gizmo:You're not getting sweetness.
Bam Bam:Really? And I'm usually very sensitive to that.
Chef Ricky:Oh, I'm getting vanilla, pecan, and What?
Gizmo:Yeah. Same. Absolutely.
Senator:Oatmeal sugarcane.
Gizmo:That nap you took earlier really prejudiced. Somebody
Rooster:tainted my drink.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I'm getting vanilla pecan and oak. That's what I'm getting here. Like, pretty straightforward.
Senator:He had a pre pod joint.
Bam Bam:I probably should have. No vanilla. No butterscotch. What? Well, I'm disappointed right now.
Gizmo:Just pecan?
Bam Bam:Hopefully no. I hope it grows.
Chef Ricky:You have COVID?
Senator:No. What are you getting if you're not getting all these sweet notes?
Bam Bam:Touch of heat. I don't want to say it. It's like alcohol. What? Yeah.
Bam Bam:It's so weird.
Gizmo:Can I
Rooster:smell to your glass?
Senator:Honestly, how do you smell it?
Pagoda:It's even more vanilla.
Senator:The nose is so sweet.
Pagoda:It's so weird. I think the nose is sweeter
Bam Bam:than I'm being deadly honest. I'm not really
Gizmo:I'm getting very deadly nervous
Bam Bam:about you
Pagoda:right now.
Bam Bam:I'm not getting anything.
Gizmo:Well, I'm gonna talk about the process here while you settle in on your rum over there. Mhmm. So Santa Teresa seventeen ninety six is the first triple aged rum with blends that are aged up to thirty five years using their unique Solara process. So Solara, if you remember, we talked about that on a spirit we did recently, the Solara method. And apparently, every bottle of Santa Teresa nine seventeen ninety six has some of the very first mother rum running through it from this distillery.
Gizmo:Wow.
Chef Ricky:I love when that's done.
Gizmo:They first filled the Solara casks in 1992 and they have never been emptied.
Bam Bam:That's interesting.
Gizmo:So here's the triple aging process according to their website. They have a traditional aging, which is three types of alcohol, light, heavy, and pot still, are all aged separately from between four and thirty five years with their complex flavors and aromas. The Maestros Ronaireos, as they call them, carefully blend them to create the spirit. The light, they're saying here's some of the notes you should be getting, Bam. Wood, vanilla, clove, and other spices.
Gizmo:Clove. From the heavy, you should be getting apple, pear, banana, fermented fresh fruits, and honey. What? And then from the pot still, this all gets mashed together.
Chef Ricky:Honey and banana.
Gizmo:I'm dark chocolate, tobacco, and what they say, rum seller.
Chef Ricky:Good dark chocolate.
Bam Bam:For me, clove and deep dark chocolate maybe I'm getting. And that's those are pretty tannic type of experiences. This is not what I should be getting. I'm disappointed. I was really looking forward to
Gizmo:I'm really surprised.
Senator:Yeah, I'm totally confused.
Pagoda:How about me, too? Got a chip of ice. No. I'll tell you, it might resolve everything.
Bam Bam:No, no, no.
Chef Ricky:I'm actually enjoying it because it's sweet without being syrupy. Right? Like, there's
Gizmo:not the
Chef Ricky:body, it's pretty balanced. Flavors are pretty balanced. There's some of that clove that's coming through in a like peppery sense blended with that oak and vanilla. Got banana's definitely there for me.
Bam Bam:I think I should go home.
Senator:Good night, Bem. Shit.
Bam Bam:I may abstain from voting on the spirit tonight. Wow. It's that bad. I can't
Gizmo:get any anything you just described. To. You know what? I think it's usually with you. It takes no.
Gizmo:No. Wait. It takes you about four to five sips to get there. I'm on the screen. Initially, you don't you don't like you don't like the pairing.
Senator:Point, there's never been a spirit that BAM has been the first one
Gizmo:to say, oh, this is great right
Senator:from the start. No. No.
Bam Bam:It's true.
Gizmo:On the cigar, yes. But on the spirit,
Bam Bam:That's 100 true.
Chef Ricky:You did say you you didn't have any prior to Giz saying we're doing the
Gizmo:Nobody did.
Bam Bam:I've never had this.
Senator:No. No. Usually, try some early, he's saying you're like five sips behind where you normally started.
Bam Bam:Maybe we should
Gizmo:start making you try it before we record so we don't have this happen.
Senator:Oh. A day before.
Gizmo:A day before.
Chef Ricky:Usually, you're taking a sip before we hit record. That's true. Yeah. So maybe you're just warming up.
Gizmo:So let's talk about their Solara method because it's unique. So it consists of a system of four rows of hog shade barrels filled with rum, which cascade down one barrel to another from top to bottom until it reaches the ground. The result is a smooth and balanced rum since the Solara works as a delicate refining process that achieves something like a cotton shirt going through a journey that transforms it into a silk shirt. Rooster, what do you feel about that? You can't get silk out of cotton.
Gizmo:What about Egyptian cotton?
Rooster:Doesn't matter. Silk comes from
Gizmo:a worm. I didn't even know there were different types of cotton. I I seriously, he was talking about the other Turkish cotton, Egyptian cotton.
Bam Bam:What stitch count do you typically go for?
Gizmo:Thread count. Thread. Okay. This magic, they say, happens because the barrels in the Solaire are only half emptied and replenished with half of the barrel right above. Therefore, in each bottle, there's always a portion of that first blend created for its launch, the original from 1992, which ensures the consistency of the flavor over time.
Gizmo:Then it's aged a third time in large vats made of French limousine oak, which are never emptied, achieving its distinctive smoothness and balance. So as I say that, we are drinking a $37 spirit tonight.
Bam Bam:Nice. Wow. Very well priced.
Gizmo:So I think the price is pretty cool and pretty good for what we have in our
Pagoda:hands.
Bam Bam:And where'd you get this?
Gizmo:Total wine.
Bam Bam:Alright. Readily available.
Chef Ricky:Same as
Rooster:the price of a cigar. Mhmm.
Gizmo:Correct. You know, I realize that. It is the same exact price as the cigar.
Rooster:For one cigar. Yeah. So
Gizmo:some more on this distillery because I thought it was cool. It was founded February ago Wow. Which is pretty wild. The Hacienda Santa Teresa was founded in the Aragua Valleys of Venezuela. I looked at the shaft.
Gizmo:Aragua or Aragua?
Chef Ricky:Aragua. Aragua. Aragua.
Gizmo:Okay. In 1796 where it still stands to this day. It was first founded as a plantation growing coffee, cacao, and sugarcane. Of course, that is the raw material used for the rum that we have. They say their hacienda is more than a home.
Gizmo:It has withstood wars, revolutions, and invasions. Throughout their history, several events have allowed them to face adversities and rise to the challenge. That is the key element of the Santa Teresa mindset and continues to motivate them to produce the world's best rums, they say, all all while making a positive impact on their community. Now the reason why I read that is because I thought this was pretty cool. So I was looking at their website, and they have something called Project Alcatraz.
Gizmo:So in 2003, a group of gang members broke into the hacienda we just heard about and ambushed a security guard. The criminals were given two options, the choice to transform their lives and become an active force of the Santa Teresa family or deal with the consequences of their actions at the hands of the law. The men, of course, accepted the former. So project Alcatraz now is a program led by their foundation, the Santa Teresa Foundation, that recruits criminal gangs, rehabilitates them, and then reinserts them into society. Wow.
Gizmo:Combining vocational training, the formation of values, psychological support, and the sport of rugby. They are, know, reformed and and put back into society. Through rugby, they'd say they learn the values of respect, discipline, teamwork, sportsmanship, and humility. So, apparently, to this day, Project Alcatraz has recruited 11 gangs with more than 200 former members, and the project has programs that run across 35 Venezuelan prisons.
Chef Ricky:This makes sense. This That's is incredible. The The gang that ran rampant here in The States, was in that Trinidad Agua? Yes. Yeah.
Gizmo:Of course. MS thirteen? Is that MS thirteen?
Chef Ricky:No. It's a
Gizmo:different one. We're doing gang guy.
Rooster:We're doing like prison prison smokes and gang
Gizmo:spirits. Exactly
Senator:right. Alright.
Pagoda:We we contribute
Gizmo:to society. There is a method to the madness. There are no accidents. It's a good pairing.
Bam Bam:You're a penologist.
Pagoda:You're a what? I need a definition on that one.
Gizmo:Yeah what is
Bam Bam:a I heard it in a movie.
Pagoda:What penologist? What is
Chef Ricky:a penologist? Big penis guy? Study
Bam Bam:of prisons I guess. I don't know. Senator, look it up.
Pagoda:Penal adjuster.
Gizmo:You might wanna do that in a private browser, Senator. No. No.
Bam Bam:No. So I'm gonna I'm gonna find I'll tell you where I I got that word from.
Rooster:Penal system.
Bam Bam:So one of my favorite movies, De Niro and Pacino in Heat. Heat. Good Fantastic movie. So they were at the diner chatting. Pacino was kind of talking to De Niro and said, you looking to go back?
Bam Bam:And then De Niro looks back, are you looking to be a pedologist about prison and so on.
Gizmo:You know what's interesting about that? That was the first time
Bam Bam:They worked
Gizmo:those guys were on screen together.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Of course, were in movies together, but Yeah. Yeah. Not on screen.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:Pretty cool.
Bam Bam:Yeah. They were in The Godfather.
Gizmo:Yes. But never together. Godfather II.
Bam Bam:Never together.
Senator:Yeah. I gotta give Bam credit. He's spot on. Told a paper word. A penologist is his specialist.
Senator:I mean, Grindr may as well be in the room right now.
Pagoda:Correct. No, you know what it is? I think Chef Ricky made him feel really different last week. You remember with his encyclopedic I don't know.
Senator:I mean, it's truly perfect. It says, a specialist who studies, develops, and implements methods for punishing crime, managing prisons, and rehabilitating offenders.
Pagoda:There you go.
Gizmo:Wow. That's exactly what they're doing there.
Bam Bam:That's toilet paper word number one.
Pagoda:Very impressive.
Chef Ricky:Penologist. It's like the root word there is pen.
Pagoda:There you go. What's mister enzymatic? Enzymatic. Are you
Gizmo:gonna talk That that was. That was it. Enzymatic. Mhmm. So they've reintegrated two sixteen young men from these gangs back into society.
Gizmo:They are they have presence in 21 male and 14 female penitentiary centers with 71% of Venezuelan prisons embracing the discipline and values of rugby. I guess that's a big thing in Venezuela, the values of rugby at the prisons. These they also established the first female penitentiary rugby team in the world, and they have 10 international awards for their work. And they were senator, studied as a case study at Harvard University. Interesting.
Senator:Very cool.
Gizmo:So I would check that out if you're interested in this. I think that's a pretty cool story. I don't think we've ever talked
Bam Bam:Very cool.
Gizmo:So deeply about a cool, unique, like, charity component. Yeah. And and honestly, it's more than charity. It's like they're they're helping folks
Rooster:They're reforming them.
Bam Bam:Change
Gizmo:their know, reform and change their lives. I think that's pretty cool. So this $37 rum we're drinking tonight is is doing good work.
Pagoda:I just wonder who to play rugby with.
Gizmo:It's a good question.
Pagoda:It's like The Replacement. Right? Was that the movie for football?
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:So, boys, we're coming to the end of the first third now on the Partagas series p number two from Cuba. What's everybody thinking at this point? Senator, I can see the hesitation brewing.
Bam Bam:Really?
Senator:Yeah. I'm I'm I'm actually a bit disappointed.
Bam Bam:We're having this diametric opposite experience tonight.
Chef Ricky:Can I
Gizmo:tell you something, senator? I am in complete agreement with you. Okay. You too? Yes.
Gizmo:I am not happy with the cigar right now.
Senator:My my frustration is that the finish really is a problem.
Bam Bam:It's abrupt.
Gizmo:I would argue at this point, it's a little bitter.
Senator:Yeah. Yeah. It is way too abrupt. I mean, I just keep going to the rum to just have some kind of lingering, enjoyable flavor on my palate because the cigar is not delivering it. And what's just odd is there's like an inconsistency where it's like every few puffs, I'm getting some really great notes, like the nuttiness, the creaminess, the cappuccino, coffee notes, all that.
Senator:And then other draws, I'm getting, like, that drier, earthier flavor profile, and I'm not enjoying that. And so it's like every time I don't know what I'm gonna get from each draw, and that's not the experience I want really in any cigar. So I'm I'm very confused right now. This is easily the most confusing p two I've ever had.
Pagoda:So e two has won the battle.
Gizmo:I know. Seriously, I I I completely agree. I mean, I haven't had a p two in a long time. Mhmm. I was really looking forward this to this tonight.
Gizmo:I was looking forward to maybe a little triumph in that argument that has been four years running at this point, five years running. But this is a very disappointing cigar. Right now for me, it's taken a really weird turn and I don't like it.
Bam Bam:I think Rooster feels the opposite maybe.
Gizmo:Yeah. Actually, I I mean, I'm I'm kinda enjoying the cigar.
Bam Bam:So am I.
Gizmo:And I'm willing to offer you the $20.19 price for this box.
Rooster:For the rest of the box.
Gizmo:You can pay the
Bam Bam:2,030
Gizmo:You don't like
Chef Ricky:it? Do you
Pagoda:have the protein bed?
Chef Ricky:Just for the record, the $20.30 price is gonna be 2,700 a box.
Gizmo:That's exactly right.
Bam Bam:Chef, what are you getting?
Chef Ricky:So I said what Senator said a little bit earlier, how there was a lot of different things peeking through on the flavor profile of the cigar, but he's having a not so great time with it. That's not my experience. I then get in some of those drier moments.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Chef Ricky:But there's enough there in some of the other draws that are kind of peaking my interest.
Bam Bam:So I'm happy with it. I'm liking I'm getting a nice toasty experience
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Bam Bam:With cashew. That cashew that I noted earlier is consistent.
Chef Ricky:It's still I'm still getting some cappuccinos, some hazelnut.
Pagoda:I'm envious.
Chef Ricky:Some cedar, some spice, and then I get like this earth sort of leather happens quickly. Yeah. Not getting that. That dissipates. That's the dryer note for me.
Chef Ricky:Like when I get the drawer where I get some of the dryness, that's where it's happening.
Rooster:My only issue is the burn line. It's not as sharp.
Gizmo:The ash is a little bit flaky for me. Have to touch
Pagoda:it up a few times.
Senator:Several times I've had to touch it up.
Bam Bam:I haven't done it yet.
Chef Ricky:Mine started to get a little wonky but then it self corrected. So I'm okay. I'm okay.
Bam Bam:I'm pretty happy with the smoke and I will say I am starting to get a touch of caramel in this rum. I
Gizmo:am. See, I knew you would come to serve.
Bam Bam:I mean, have to be honest.
Chef Ricky:About the nose?
Pagoda:The five glasses later.
Bam Bam:Yeah, the nose is incredible.
Gizmo:Delicious. I just can't believe it's not translating for you on the palate. This is so, it's so to me-
Bam Bam:I'm coming around to it. The caramel is very faint and it's really nice. For me, the two prevalent notes for me is the caramel and dark chocolate. Dark chocolate's dominant, caramel is a little bit submissive, but it's
Senator:Uh-huh.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It's coming. Think it's coming.
Chef Ricky:Dark chocolate
Bam Bam:I'll need another glass.
Chef Ricky:On the finish, for sure. On the finish.
Pagoda:And vanilla, I got a little. No, don't get it.
Bam Bam:I wish I got vanilla.
Gizmo:I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm gonna say it.
Bam Bam:Don't drop that cigar.
Gizmo:I would rather have that Perdomo that we smoked than this cigar right now. Wow. I mean that emphatically.
Pagoda:And I haven't tried that yet, Bill.
Gizmo:Emphatically, I would rather the Perdomo than this cigar.
Bam Bam:It's so weird. And then now, the more I drink it, the more I like it.
Gizmo:Still on
Chef Ricky:the rum?
Pagoda:A longer finish.
Bam Bam:No, I'm on the rum because I was so shocked how much I hated it. This is every spirit. Not true? Almost. But this is, it's coming.
Bam Bam:I can feel it coming. That caramel's very prevalent for me.
Senator:Yeah, in 2029 you'll be right there with us.
Gizmo:I'll need a third glass.
Pagoda:Bam, this is Well,
Bam Bam:I definitely need a second glass.
Pagoda:You know, I like this about the cigar. Oh, the caramel.
Bam Bam:Well, I was in, you know Yeah. In shock about the spirit.
Gizmo:So, boys, I thought this was cool. William Shatner celebrated his 90
Bam Bam:love Captain Kirk.
Gizmo:And by the way, the photos, I mean, the dude looks like he's 60. Yeah. That's a 95 year old man.
Bam Bam:Yeah. With a smoke in his hand.
Gizmo:So he put up an Instagram post celebrating his 90 birthday with some out of space
Rooster:for a while.
Gizmo:Yeah. That probably helped.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:He says at 95, I'm still smoking.
Bam Bam:What's he smoking in there? Can you tell?
Gizmo:You know what? I can't tell.
Senator:It's hard. I I
Gizmo:don't think there's even a band on it.
Senator:Saw this when it when it came out.
Pagoda:It's it's a Rocky Patel.
Gizmo:Could be. Don't say that. He says, At 95, I'm still smoking. I've learned two things. Never waste a good cigar, and never trust anyone who says you should act your age.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:That's pretty cool. That's fucking correct. But I love seeing that on Instagram.
Bam Bam:I would love to interview him.
Gizmo:Well, he's 95, Pam. I don't see that happening.
Bam Bam:You know? Well, you're an industry insider. You can probably make that happen. Alright.
Senator:I just love when I saw that photo. There was a show he did Boston Legal. Bingo. I know. But GODA, my man.
Pagoda:What great job. It came into my mind when the person stood
Gizmo:down. Exactly. The end of every episode. It was just smoke on the roof. Exactly.
Gizmo:There
Senator:was a show Boston Legal.
Pagoda:It was
Senator:a spin off of The Practice, which is my favorite legal show of all time. Dylan McDermott was Oh, like the yeah. Love in the nineties.
Gizmo:More than Suits. You're a big Suits
Pagoda:guy.
Senator:Oh, it was way better
Bam Bam:than Suits.
Pagoda:Oh, Practice
Gizmo:was the And you name the other attorney who he used
Rooster:to smoke with.
Senator:Of course, Alan Shore. It's James Bader.
Gizmo:Yeah. That's right. Of course.
Senator:I mean, I can tell you his name in the
Gizmo:show and his actual actor name.
Senator:Of course, Rooster. Duh. Sorry. I just like, these are two of my favorite shows ever, But it was a legal drama. There was a spin off of the practice.
Senator:James Fader was in the practice at the end, and then he and William Shatner led this new series. And at the end of most episodes, the two of them would go up to the rooftop of this building in Downtown Boston, and they'd light up a cigar, and he would just sit there and he'd just go, Denny Crane. That was
Chef Ricky:his name, like, in the show.
Bam Bam:That's cool.
Senator:So as soon as I saw that photo, like, it immediately reminded me of just him sitting on that roof having a cigar.
Gizmo:And was there a band on the cigar when he smoked? Do you remember when he was smoking?
Senator:They never had bands, I think.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Don't ever remember a show that ever had a cigar in it. That's pretty cool.
Gizmo:I mean, the sopranos?
Senator:Bam, what are we talking about?
Bam Bam:So many. Yeah. You're right.
Gizmo:I mean, every episode Tony Soprano had cigar. Intro, he's literally dribbling smoke out of the car as he's driving down the
Bam Bam:dirt bike. That's true. Columbo.
Gizmo:Can I say
Bam Bam:Columbo had a cigar?
Gizmo:Can I make him can I make a
Senator:motion? A delay.
Gizmo:Can I make a can I yeah? He's always on a time delay. Can I make a motion?
Chef Ricky:I'm I'm just pressing an old boy joke.
Gizmo:Bam is the new king Uh-huh. Of the definitive statement. I'd like to hand that crown to Bam.
Bam Bam:You're giving it to me
Senator:from you? May be off the hook now.
Gizmo:I have to. Alright.
Pagoda:I'll take it.
Gizmo:I really am not happy with this cigar.
Chef Ricky:Pagoda, you said, yeah, you agree?
Pagoda:Totally. I'm not.
Gizmo:Brewster, we made that deal earlier yesterday. Can buy
Chef Ricky:it just overall.
Pagoda:What's
Gizmo:that? Can buy You the
Pagoda:a little better, for me it's just a very short dry finish. I think I mentioned it, you know, what I was getting right when it started, I thought when the, you know, the saliva got triggered, I said, all right, now this is when it transitions, but then it went back to the dry state and it's just been, and then touching up the cigar a few times.
Bam Bam:You're not But like
Pagoda:you know, at the same time, the flavor profile, it's still pretty good, meaning like it's not bad, it's And very dry and the rum is really helping, by the way.
Gizmo:The rum is the rum is it's not even helping. It's the only thing.
Pagoda:It's the star of the show for sure. Yeah.
Senator:The thing for me, it's not even frustrating as much as it is sad because there are draws that I'm getting Me too. Flavor that I enjoy It's every third. Expect. Exactly.
Gizmo:Yeah.
Senator:So it's like it could be great. Like, it's there, but then it just disappears every few draws, I don't know why that is. This is Cuba being Cuba.
Rooster:Yeah. You know, it's odd because the factory code of this box is
Bam Bam:It's outstanding.
Pagoda:We sold
Rooster:so So many Tua boxes. The Ras, the Ras. But as
Pagoda:you know, Tua is very unreliable.
Gizmo:Short finish.
Bam Bam:Didn't he get traded?
Gizmo:Short finish.
Pagoda:Short finish. Yeah.
Senator:Our cigar has CTE. Jeez.
Chef Ricky:I did say before we hit record that life is like a box of Cuban cigars. You never know what you're
Bam Bam:gonna It's true. It's always
Gizmo:been But here's the thing that is additionally frustrating though, is that think about, you know, I cracked this box tonight. Right? I bought this box probably either at the '21, early twenty two. It has now sat in my tower for going on three and a half, four years almost since it was boxed. And this is the experience.
Gizmo:You got a couple guys in the room who love it and a couple guys in the rooms who hate it, and Pagoda's kind of in the middle. And I think to have a $40 cigar sitting in your tower, taking up that real estate
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:After five years to present this experience tonight, I think is unacceptable.
Bam Bam:But it's it's not uncommon for almost every box of Cuban cigars.
Gizmo:Almost. It throws into
Pagoda:find this.
Bam Bam:I said almost.
Pagoda:Almost. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Almost. So
Gizmo:It throws into, I think I I think it throws under the microscope the idea that we have really come to, I think, forced into it, but now really have embraced that, you know, there are a lot of great non Cuban experiences out there that are superior.
Senator:Mhmm. That
Gizmo:are insistent and reliable.
Bam Bam:Yeah, correct.
Gizmo:Like think about it, we haven't had a cigar in this podcast in five weeks. Five weeks. Yeah. We reach for this tonight. It is an expensive celebratory cigar.
Gizmo:Partagas, we love Partagas. I just don't think this is acceptable.
Bam Bam:Yeah. You know, remember the conversation with Steve Saga at PCA? We talked about this very topic, how inconsistent they are. You do get a box. You don't know how many are gonna smoke great, how many are gonna be awful.
Bam Bam:It's part of what you're buying into.
Chef Ricky:Unfortunately. Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. I wanna talk about something that happened to your friend Gizmo here that I thought was pretty crazy. I sent a photo of this on the chat. So I went to our PO box as I do a couple times a week to go pick up, you know, stuff that has come in.
Senator:Dried fruit that's been sent for BAM.
Gizmo:Exactly. Oh, I would love a platter. Come on, tell me what wants sent one if you remember. It it
Senator:was a good platter.
Gizmo:The fruit is just It killed it on So I got a letter. I actually kind of panicked a little when I saw it because I was really confused, and then I saw the name on it. I got a letter from the state of New Jersey Department of the Treasury.
Bam Bam:This only happens to you.
Gizmo:Division of taxation. Unbelievable. And it was addressed to Lizards Gimzo. Lizards Gimzo. Everything was spelled wrong.
Gizmo:And it is from the audit services branch of the state of New Jersey Department of the Treasury Division of Taxation. It was sent by a woman named Lois who is the cigarette and tobacco products tax person. Who is our listener of the week. She's gonna win a 10 count box of Von Robert cigars. So it says here I'll read this to you.
Gizmo:It says, dear taxpayer, your purchase of tobacco products has been reported to the New Jersey division of taxation by the supplier. These items are subject to the tobacco products tax as well as sales and use tax. So then she lists the various statute that levy you know, which statute levels the 30% tax, which statute levels the sales tax. And it says the New Jersey division of taxation has determined that you are liable for the following tax amount based on the purchase listed below. So it lists a purchase date of October 2024
Pagoda:Wow.
Gizmo:Which is like a year and a half ago. It says description tobacco. That's all it says. The value is a $111.50. Right?
Gizmo:So let me start with one thing. I have never I I looked at my email. I looked at the date. I looked at every possible scenario. I've never purchased anything for a $111.50 ever, and I certainly did not purchase any tobacco at that that value.
Gizmo:So it levies a she levied a 30% tax on me for that, which is $33.45 fine. And then also levied the sales tax of six and some odd percent here by the state of New Jersey. So effectively, she's saying that she wants me to send a check for $43 and $5 Not a killer amount of money.
Bam Bam:But still ridiculous.
Pagoda:But where is it to a PO box of midnight?
Gizmo:There is yeah. No, it's a legit thing. I actually called the office. It's legit. She actually called me back.
Gizmo:I missed the call, so we didn't connect because I wanna understand what it is. So I go through my email. And by the way, I know for all the non US listeners out there, this is a comical amount of money, 43. I mean, folks are getting taxed thousands of dollars on, you know, tobacco coming in in Canada and Australia
Pagoda:and Most of Cigar. Exactly.
Gizmo:So the tobacco tax, the consumption taxes, etcetera, are crazy around the world. That's not the money is not the issue here for me. The the crazy thing is that I don't know anyone in the cigar community that has gotten a letter like this. Certainly in our circles, nobody's ever gotten a letter like this. Like you said, I can't believe that I'm the one getting.
Senator:Yeah. Oh, there's only one Lizardo Gimzo.
Gizmo:Lizardo Gimzo. So I looked and I was looking at my email of past purchase history. And I'm not gonna name the retailer because I talked to the retailer. They were very confused. They're very nice.
Gizmo:But I placed one order on that date. And I found a retailer that I purchased from in the Midwest Of The United States. Again, I'm not gonna name them. And I purchased a bunch of cigars for the podcast. And the total purchase price of the order was $237.40.
Gizmo:That's the only order I placed that entire week that aligns with this date.
Bam Bam:But that should include tax.
Gizmo:So they didn't charge tax on it apparently. Fine. But what's weird about it is I'm assuming that the letter she sent me is for the wholesale value of the cigars, a $111.50, which she did not designate. But here's the weird thing.
Chef Ricky:Mean, they
Pagoda:make more than a 100%. Just just in quick math.
Gizmo:A 100%. And she is levying the 30% tobacco tax that I guess the retailer usually pays, and then forwards on to the customer in whatever way, and the sales tax.
Bam Bam:Why wouldn't the retailer charge you the tax?
Gizmo:Yeah, but it's from a different state, so every state has a different tobacco tax. Regardless, I'll pay the tax. Especially after Amazon has become very popular, all the states have gone out and said, if you ship something to our state, you have to charge the appropriate amount of sales tax and remit that to us.
Rooster:Sales tax, yes, but not tobacco tax.
Gizmo:Well, I'm getting charged for both, man. Right. I know.
Rooster:But the tobacco tax in that particular state might be zero. Like in PA or Florida, I don't think there is tobacco tax. But in New Jersey, there
Gizmo:So is you're saying that every box of cigars that went through Pennsylvania that is shipped to me, I am supposed to pay a 30% tax on it. According to That doesn't make sense. According to this letter. I think the sales tax is appropriate.
Rooster:Sales tax does make sense, but, yeah, I don't know. Am I crazy, senator?
Senator:No. I don't think so.
Gizmo:Like, I'm effectively being charged 36.625% of my It's 30% tobacco tax of New Jersey, and 6.625% is the sales tax. I understand what it is, but why is New Jersey entitled to what a retailer would pay for receiving cigars from a distributor, 30%? That retailer may have paid that in their state. It's irrelevant to the state of New Jersey. Shouldn't have the sales tax that should be rendered.
Gizmo:Shouldn't have to
Rooster:pay the tobacco tax.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:Like, it's weird that they're levying that on the end user. Very. And they're effectively saying that they're effectively disclosing to me the wholesale price of the cigar.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Kiss.
Gizmo:I don't know. This might have something Gim.
Bam Bam:Gim. Gim.
Gizmo:Lizard Gim. This might have something to do with the boxes of Fundies that you sold to them. So Oh, you made a call? Yeah. Oh, you made a call?
Gizmo:That's a lot of is sense. A big believer
Senator:in karma. By the way And taxes.
Bam Bam:I wanna make you a deal.
Gizmo:Oh, here we go.
Bam Bam:You buy that box of p twos, I'll give you two fundies for it. What? Because that's what they're worth.
Gizmo:Not nice.
Bam Bam:I know.
Gizmo:So I put this up on FOH. Nobody there had received something like this. I've never heard of it. So I'm gonna try to get to the bottom of it and and verify that this You is the right actually contacted her? Yeah.
Gizmo:So I'm curious. Me back. And how about this? The the envelope that had the New Jersey state of you know, New Jersey State Department of Taxation or whatever, handwritten on it her name, like, so it ends up at her desk when it's sent back. Like, it the whole thing is pretty wild, but it is not a scam.
Gizmo:Interesting. That is verified.
Chef Ricky:It's not a cartel? No. Alright. Your accountant couldn't kind of cross reference anything?
Gizmo:I'm not paying my account. You're gonna
Senator:pay an accountant for a 30¢
Gizmo:I mean, it's cost me $1,000 to investigate a $43 tax bill. It's the principal. Just to ask them a question? Well, you know, they're like lawyers now. But I thought this was weird.
Chef Ricky:We have a couple here in the club. You should probably ask one of them.
Pagoda:Even he'll charge a thousand bucks.
Chef Ricky:Let's give him a p two.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go into some listener email now. This one is from our friend Lizard Tyler who writes us a lot. He says, hey, Lizards. I was very happy that you guys reviewed the blue Placentia as it has been something I've been interested in trying.
Gizmo:Your review has led me to the conclusion to keep my Placentia dollars specifically in the Alma del Fuego Flama, which I guess is the Panatella. He says that has been the only Placentia cigar that I have found to be worth the price. I agree with the experience the other other lizards have had with the other lines. There is nothing great about the Campo or any version of the Fuerte. Thank you guys for taking one for the team.
Gizmo:I was enjoying the recap of your time at ProCigar, and I do look forward to the episodes following PCA. This led me to a question. How would you describe the differences in the events? And for those who are are industry outsiders, what type of business is occurring at PCA? I know that only people in the industry can attend.
Gizmo:So like he's saying, we've said this before, it's not a consumer event. It's for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers and media. But I am curious as to the inner workings of that event and how it impacts what cigars I can find both online and my local brick and mortars. As always, I appreciate the insight everyone provides. Thanks, Lizard Tyler from Pittsburgh.
Gizmo:Okay. Great question. Yeah. So I guess we'll start Pagoda. We could talk about the differences.
Gizmo:I mean, ProCigar is a consumer event. So that is more like a big party and celebration of tobacco, would you say?
Pagoda:You'll pay up and head out there, and you'll have a wonderful time.
Gizmo:Exactly right. You know, there's certainly business being done, but I think it's more about getting together with, you know, the stakeholders in the tobacco industry in The Dominican Republic and having a big celebration each year, reconnecting and talking about how great And
Pagoda:you're also learning, and
Rooster:learning Touring about the farms and such. You don't
Gizmo:do that at PCA. No, of course. Well, everything's That's a great show.
Pagoda:So this is where you go and learn a lot about how, you know, from the seed all the way to where it's manufactured, rolled, and packaged, you learn the whole life cycle of the cigars. And then obviously it's a wonderful time. Most of the people live in a couple of hotels. So, you know, everybody's mingling after the events and before the events and during, you know, it's just a really good way to interact with the community, the larger community. We met people from Canada, meaning Toronto.
Pagoda:We hung up with them for quite some time. And you know, you just meet really interesting people but similar interests and varied backgrounds. It's a lot of fun and a lot of parties, a lot of drinking. If you like drinking and smoking cigars, think you should head out there for sure.
Gizmo:Yeah, ProCigar is the way to go. So PCA in contrast, that is a show for work. You know, there's obviously celebrations after the show. Everybody's smoking cigars. Everybody's happy to see each other.
Gizmo:But quite literally, the whole intention of PCA is for, really for retailers to see their reps and the manufacturers that they do business with or want to do business with.
Bam Bam:And buy.
Gizmo:And to see the new products. They are buying And make their purchases for the year.
Pagoda:Yeah, think of the PC at the trade show where all, you know, the suppliers come in, and all retailers go in to purchase cigars. In fact, a lot of people, a lot of retailers will place large orders with whichever cigar is being showcased over there.
Senator:I mean, huge. You know, we've talked to people there who say, I mean, manufacturers, the overwhelming majority of their orders for the entire year
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:Take place at PCA. Yeah. Like, they
Gizmo:know what the next twelve months look like at the end of the PCA trial.
Senator:Just after a few days there.
Rooster:Correct. Correct.
Gizmo:So you know, a lot of manufacturers offer deals and whatnot to try to incentivize larger purchase orders, larger commitments to tobacco, etcetera. And I think a lot of them are kind of getting a preview for cigars they've announced but maybe haven't you know, released or packaged yet to kind of get an idea of demand.
Senator:That's the other thing that's cool about PCA. I mean, you know, that's the big stage for all the new releases for that year. And you see at all these booths, you know, these retailers are coming, they're usually handing out samples of those new releases, so those retailers can try them and assess whether they think that's something that their kind of core consumer would want to purchase from their shop, and then they're gonna place orders based on that. So Yeah. I think it's really helpful, you know, and for us as media to be there to actually try a lot of these cigars and talk about them and, you know, kinda give people a sneak peek at what they can expect from a lot of the new cool that's coming out from the industry.
Bam Bam:I also found it interesting to hear the conversations between retailers and the manufacturers. And in particular, Vance at Stoic. He is so knowledgeable about what he does. He loves what he does. The way he presented all of his products to us was incredible, but then hearing him talk to other buyers while we were kind of mingling in his area was impressive.
Bam Bam:And you hear that at some of the other booths, some of the larger, bigger manufacturers, honestly, my opinion, you get those conversations.
Gizmo:Yeah, it's a little more sterile.
Bam Bam:Correct. The smaller guys are more interesting, they're more boutique.
Chef Ricky:More passionate.
Bam Bam:Yeah, and you really get a lot of information from them. Like you said, they're super passionate about their products.
Senator:And I think the other thing
Gizmo:with PCA that's cool is you really get
Senator:a sense for beyond just the sale of tobacco and cigars, the headwinds or challenges from a regulatory standpoint, from so many other different standpoints that the industry is facing Mhmm. And how, like, collectively they unite to try to really Wow. Address them and and fight where they need to. And, you know, at the end of piece at the end of the trade show every year, you know, Josh and the PCA team, they do like a whole advocacy presentation on Mhmm. Kinda the regulatory landscape, and you know, you have all the heads of big manufacturers from George Padron to Ernesto Perez Carrillo to Rocky Patel.
Senator:All those guys are there front and center Oh, yeah. Intently listening
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Senator:And talking about the strategy that the industry has to really differentiate premium cigars from other forms of tobacco that, you know, should be regulated differently than
Bam Bam:they are. Think at Vegas is when I really first experienced that. I think we all did. The biggest figures in the industry were all standing to attention. And I I'm looking right at Rooster because he has yet to join us on this trip.
Bam Bam:But I think the rest of you guys that haven't gone to PCA, it is to see I was just blown away by that experience. It was quiet. Reps from PCA were talking, and then there was some discussion with George and a few of the other people. It was just, it kind of blew me away. It was really, really impressive to see how professional the manufacturers were, how articulate they were about their concerns.
Bam Bam:It was really cool.
Gizmo:And let's not forget, they're not just represented by PCA. Those guys are the funding, you know, manufacturers of PCA. They are really not they're stakeholders in a multitude of ways. Yeah. In PCA, I mean, a lot of them are funding and are going with PCA to lobby like they're they're they're working very intently and intensely with with the organization to to further the, you know, mission of of the premium handmade cigar industry.
Gizmo:I mean, it's it's it it is really like you you both have said. It's really fascinating to It is. Kind of the switch flip from sales mode
Bam Bam:Oh, big time.
Gizmo:To like, let's all get together. We're not competitors right now. Let's all get together. And it was for you to
Bam Bam:see them all standing next to each other in one little area. It was just really
Gizmo:And I you know what I love too is is a couple of the guys like George was handing cigars around. A couple of the guys were handing cigars to each other. So Rocky's standing there smoking a Padron. George is standing there smoking Epi Carrillo.
Senator:The other thing that I'll say that's cool, and this is kinda teasing a preview of PCA this year, and and Josh has talked a little bit about some of kinda what will be different this year. You know, the other thing is you you kinda get a sense from PCA of, you know, where the industry's heading. And
Gizmo:one of the
Senator:most fascinating things to me, I've recently learned about kinda what this year will look like at PCA in New Orleans. The focus obviously has always been so retail centric. And Josh, PCA's CEO, he spent a ton of time in the past year in Dubai of all places. I've never been to Dubai.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Senator:But Dubai, apparently, like every single nice hotel there has at least one, if not some of them, multiple cigar lounges within them. It's like a dime a dozen. That's awesome. Which is crazy. You don't see that anywhere else in the world.
Senator:Anywhere. You can go to Hong Kong, Singapore, London, doesn't matter. Like, every single nice hotel has one of these spots. And I think what Josh has realized, a lot of people in the industry are are finally starting to come to appreciate, is like, you know, for this industry to continue to grow and thrive, it's no longer just about a retail operation.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:People are looking for a lounge experience, something that is beyond just the point of sale of the cigar. Correct. Where can I enjoy this product and have and build the community that we try to do here? And Josh made a fascinating point about how if you look at other luxury goods and products, they all have like a formal certification that you can earn. Like if you want to, you know, be a wine sommelier, like there's a very formal process you can go through to become certified as a somm at different levels.
Senator:There's so many other things that are like this. Cigars is like the only luxury product that has not formalized any sort of like continuing education where you can be certified as, like, a cigarsom in a meaningful way. And I know his goal for the future of the industry, and PCA is trying to now drive this, and this is gonna be very much a focus at at PCA this year, is the hospitality aspect around cigars. And so apparently, there's gonna be even some dedicated programming to, like, help retailers learn and understand how to create that kind of hospitality experience so that they can grow their revenue, they can grow the industry, and I think that's super fascinating.
Gizmo:And also to stop doing a lot of the stuff we've talked about on this podcast with regard hospitality or the lack thereof.
Bam Bam:I think our former lounge can learn
Gizmo:a lot. I hope they attend. I hope there's a North Korea delegate at every one of those meetings.
Bam Bam:So I've been to The Middle East. I've been to a bunch of the countries. I've smoked in every hotel that I stayed at in the lobby. So most of the countries, they all have their own smoking areas, and they it's part of the culture. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Bam Bam:Those are the countries I've been to. Every single hotel, you can smoke a cigarette. There are pipes that are smoked, and tons of cigars are smoked, and there is access to Cuban product there. I haven't seen much New World there. Maybe some data I'm
Gizmo:sure it's more prevalent now than
Bam Bam:it was. Yeah, maybe. That was fifteen, twenty,
Gizmo:fifteen years ago.
Bam Bam:That was a long time ago, yeah. Just think
Senator:it's so wise, because you know, us selfishly as consumers, of course we want a hospitality experience, but when you really think about what's gonna drive the future growth of the industry, it's the people who live in places where all they have access to is a retailer.
Gizmo:Yep, a B and M, a small B and M.
Senator:Right. And then it's wintertime, and they're like, okay, great, I can buy these cigars, but where am I supposed to smoke them? They can in their home, they don't want to stand out in, you know, 30 degree weather smoking them outside, and so if more retailers were to move into also the lounge business and create a hospitality experience, they would sell so many more cigars. Like, that's what's gonna propel exponential growth in the industry, and I think it's really cool that this is the first time I think PCA has the the leadership or the vision to really drive and understand that that's the future, and that's why I think it was so cool Josh talking about his experience in Dubai, imagine that Dubai wasn't just an outlier. Imagine that all these retailers here like built more of those experiences, that it would be not just if you live, you know, on the coast near a big city that sure has a number of cigar lounges that you can become a member of
Gizmo:Mhmm.
Senator:Or regularly go to smoke at, but for most people, they don't have that, and that's I think what they're really trying to foster.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I assure you, the regulations that we're coming across here will never I'm not gonna ever say never, but nothing like that will ever happen in The Middle East. There's just so much more freedom when it comes to smoking a cigar there.
Senator:Totally. But if you already are a cigar retailer who presumably has, let's say, five chairs in your shop that people can sit in and smoke in, there's no reason that if you were to expand your space
Gizmo:Yeah, the tenant next door moves out. Right. And now there's an open
Senator:You could opportunity put more seats and build your own and I think that that whole concept, and even that business model is so foreign, as we've learned in North Korea that we've talked about, to a lot of retailers who for decades have been used to just focusing on how do I move product off the shelf, not how do I keep people here to smoke them and enjoy them, and therefore have them consume even more
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Senator:And wanna buy more from me. So I think it's like a mindset shift for a lot of these people who have been in the industry for so long as a retailer, and who have never really done that, to learn what it takes to do that, and how beneficial that can be to their business.
Bam Bam:Oh yeah, incredible.
Gizmo:And you know what I like about this too is I think that a lot of the industry has felt that they need to move into the influencer space. Not doing what we do, but just being on YouTube or TikTok or whatever, trying to be personalities.
Bam Bam:That's happening.
Gizmo:And I think that this is a nice opportunity for a real tangible way for them to authentically grow their business. Know, because I think a lot of the cigar media quote unquote that you see on the internet is kind of put on for the purposes of growing the businesses that we're talking about. And I think that this being a different avenue to grow the business, to create long term relationships in your community that are going to drive cigar smokers to be in your shop multiple times a week, buying new cigars, trying new things, smoking more. And then you create friendships and community. Sure.
Gizmo:Here's a perfect example. Lizard Obey. He joined the lounge, what, six months ago, eight months ago, something like that? Mhmm. He was away for a month and he just had gotten back.
Gizmo:And he literally said today, you know, it was weird. He's like, I missed being at the lounge. I missed the guys here. Like, it's it's amazing. Like, I have this new group of friends that I actually wished I could have been here spending time with.
Gizmo:That's what it's all about.
Bam Bam:Right.
Gizmo:Because that guy is gonna buy way more cigars than the random golfer who picks up a cigar here and there or the random guy who walks into the shop. He's buying cigars.
Chef Ricky:Correct. A 100%.
Gizmo:And if you don't make him feel welcome or taken care of or cared for, whatever word you wanna use, you're not gonna create that community. You can even do it with five chairs, like Senator just said. You can. You can do it with five chairs.
Bam Bam:Yeah. There is some capital investment some retailers may have to make that could be tough for some retailers. It'd be incredible, this is fantasy land conversation now, if manufacturers got involved in that just a little bit.
Gizmo:I think with the right business, I think a lot of the manufacturers would put their name on a lounge.
Bam Bam:Branding, brand day
Gizmo:lounge. Have. We see that. Fensche does it, Davodoff does it. Does it.
Gizmo:Well Davodoff I think is a little bit different of a model.
Bam Bam:I think
Gizmo:you have to buy into that model. Yeah yeah yeah you do. I would think it's very exclusive, but I think a lot these other manufacturers would be proud to provide some furniture
Bam Bam:or provide
Gizmo:some free cigars to kind
Rooster:of limit the exposure. Yeah, Montecristo Lounge.
Bam Bam:That's true.
Gizmo:That's true.
Chef Ricky:I don't know if there's any regulation in the cigar space, but I know for
Gizmo:instance- No, there's none.
Chef Ricky:No, I'm saying in regards to building this. In the liquor space, there's a ton. There's a lot that liquor companies can't legally do.
Gizmo:As far as advertising
Chef Ricky:marketing Yeah, twenty five years ago it was fair game. You could do whatever you want and a lot of these liquor companies would sponsor prizes for your staff to encourage them to sell things. Now that's all been sort of squashed. So I don't know if something like that exists in the cigar space that maybe limits them, but sure. I mean, some swag, some things, some, you know, some branding for the stores, for the lounges.
Senator:Yeah. Mean, it's a it's a great point in the sense that, you know, if you think of the the kind of merch that's available for most of the manufacturers, you know, it's ashtrays, it's lighters, it's cutters, it's it's stuff that's very retail kind of centric. But if you look at a number of cigar lounges that we've all been in, like, the only brand I've ever seen with a big fat logo on a beautiful, comfortable leather seat is Monte Cristo. Yep. Like our North Lounge, those are Monte Cristo branded chairs.
Bam Bam:Are they?
Senator:Oh, yeah.
Chef Ricky:I didn't see that.
Senator:Oh, yeah.
Bam Bam:Those are the that's the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in,
Gizmo:by the way.
Senator:And I've seen those in many other they're not. But I've seen them in many other cigar lounges. But I say that, like, chef Jeff's point, like, sparks a thought. You know, if there were more manufacturers that were also basically creating, like, lounge kind of, you know, products that you know, how amazing would it be to walk in a lounge and, like, to see the Padron logo, you know, embossed on a beautiful tufted leather chair? Like, that'd be incredible.
Senator:And I'm sure, you know, there'd obviously be a good, you know, wholesale price for retailer to buy a shit ton of those and fill up a lounge with them. Like, that'd be awesome.
Gizmo:And imagine how many years the quality of the chair up at the North Lounge. That logo is gonna sit on that chair
Bam Bam:That is
Gizmo:if the business is thriving or succeeding. Yeah. Twenty years? Yeah. Those chairs?
Pagoda:Just a touch
Gizmo:of I mean, think about the tail on that investment.
Bam Bam:True, but a touch of reality, that investment's big. That's an expensive chair.
Gizmo:There's no question about it, Ben,
Senator:but it is But you also have to understand, when a retailer does that, they build lockers and they sell memberships that they're getting annual guaranteed recurring revenue from that is so predictable in a way that it's not as easy to predict, you know, based on a lot of different circumstances what's gonna happen and move out of that humidor.
Bam Bam:So Yep.
Senator:There's ways for them to do this where, you know, they're not necessarily having to outlay like a crazy amount of cash in a risky way. It's like if you're gonna sell 40 lockers and memberships a year, you know, you could be sitting on 40 to $80,000, and it's not going to cost you that to furnish the place. Sure.
Gizmo:And let's also think about too, like we're all business owners, and I'm going to you Pagoda, because you work with a lot of business owners in what you do. There is nothing more crucial in business than consistent cash flow. No, cash is oxygen.
Pagoda:And reoccurring. And reoccurring revenues. And it's all profit. Yes. Know, to get the same amount of profit, they'd have to sell something You more
Gizmo:have to sell effectively double the value of the cigar plus 30% maybe net the I
Senator:would argue that it is harder to successfully move product out of a retail shop consistently year after year than it is to build a lounge and continue to collect that recurring revenue. That's audience. Well said. That's the thing. So it's like, you know, for most of these retailers, they've actually done the harder part of the equation.
Senator:Yeah. They're just not equipped with the skill set or knowledge or know how to actually add on this additional component that is far easier to run and maintain
Bam Bam:That's true.
Senator:Than what they've already been doing.
Gizmo:And listen, the retailer can also, like, on top of we see this all the time where you have a membership thing, then you have a required spend. Mhmm. You know, a lot of these retailers are doing Cigar of the Month Club. You can require that to be involved in it. Now you have recurring revenue on product moving.
Gizmo:You have the recurring revenue on the membership. Plus a lot of these lounges maybe in some of these states are able to serve alcohol. Now you have recurring revenue on the alcohol sales and other components of the experience. I mean, it's good for cash flow.
Pagoda:Yeah, the only issue is that the bottleneck is licensing. Like New York is not handing out any more license for lounges. In fact, there are less than 11 lounges now. And over Oh, there's only three or four. Only three or four of them are, like if you think about it, there's Carnegie MacNudo, Soho Cigars, Cigar Bar and Books.
Pagoda:There are like very few of them which you know and the rest are small shops which will have the five or six plastic chairs, which you could sit. But they're not. That's true, but they're still around 10 or 11. Yeah. And so there's so much of an opportunity for them to able to handle a lot more of the licenses.
Pagoda:And you know what, we were talking about this in Carnegie yesterday. You know, everybody comes inside the lounge. You're not bothering anybody. So if people are not entering the lounge, they're not exposed to that smoke, they have nothing to do with cigars, so like I don't even understand what the problem is.
Gizmo:It's just the stink that's on tobacco. I don't know, there is
Rooster:no Rocky Patel chair that would make me buy a Rocky Patel cigar.
Chef Ricky:I'm so I was going to say the issue in the liquor space, and I think why a lot of the legislation is the way it is now, that a lot of the brands that actually have the marketing dollars to spend aren't necessarily the better brands.
Pagoda:And
Chef Ricky:that's not the case in cigar the cigar realm. So again, don't know if these things exist, if they're put in place and maybe that's why we don't see it as much, but be interesting to understand why it's not happening.
Gizmo:Listen, I think in a majority of the states, this is a very plausible solution for retailers. Yeah. You know, and I think there's a lot of, you know, even boutique sized brands that would love to get a lounge or two or three, especially close to maybe where the owner of the cigar brand lives or something where now it feels like a little bit of a sandbox for this person. They can actually serve it. The Kellner Lounge.
Gizmo:The Stoic Lounge, you know, out west. I mean Correct.
Chef Ricky:The Lounge Lizards Lounge.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Don't tease me.
Senator:I'm saying it doesn't even need to come from the brands. I mean, my point is simply, there are many retailers, especially like in the Middle Of America where, you know, the size of these retail shops is way larger than these, like, you know, tiny little, you know, boutique shops you would see in a major city because just the real estate is so damn expensive. Yeah. Pennsylvania. Totally.
Senator:Like, have this space. It's just they don't use it for a lounge purpose. Like, even near us, like in Paramus, you know, that JR Cigar Casa Monte Cristo, like, that place years ago had a massive walk in humidor that they still do, and then kinda like this seating area that they, like, kinda sort of made a lounge, and then they finally realized once this whole Casa de Monte Cristo brand was formed, that they ought to professionalize that a bit more and
Bam Bam:create more of a
Senator:lounge experience.
Chef Ricky:They did.
Senator:They built a bar in there. They didn't have to buy any additional real estate. Nope. They had the space. They just weren't using it for that purpose.
Bam Bam:Sure.
Senator:And I think it's getting a lot of retailers who have this space already to even realize if they just repurpose so much of this wasted space that's not the humidor for a lounge type experience, they would exponentially increase their rent.
Bam Bam:That's actually a great If
Rooster:you the space, it's ideal.
Bam Bam:Of course.
Pagoda:Many
Bam Bam:do. So they pivoted very well in their two locations. That location west of us is fantastic. They pivoted here in Paramus beautifully, think. There's a lot to be said there.
Gizmo:Is JR a very interesting or Tobacco Clarity or whatever, you know, those company Altidas, they have a lot of money. There's no question about that. They can do it at scale. Certainly, they have a lot of business, a lot of volume. But like we're saying, this applies to really any retail shop that you can if they're allowed to smoke in there, you can do this.
Senator:Yeah. I'll use an example. So like there's a spot in LA, and I know LA is weird to use as an example because you would imagine LA that every place is like this expensive ritzy kind of cigar shop experience. You know, when I was in LA, there's this spot in Beverly Hills. It's a Cuban who owns this.
Senator:This guy fled Cuba. I mean, he's got the traditional story we're all familiar with. Incredible guy. Had such a fantastic conversation with him. And he's got a retail shop that there are, you know, some chairs and seating.
Senator:And so I went, I bought some cigars, I sat down, had a great experience, spent a lot of time chatting with the owner, and you know, trading stories about Cuba, and learning about his life, and you know, our travels there, but it's not it's not designed to be a lounge. It is during retail hours, you can come there, you can buy a cigar, you can sit there, you can smoke it. Now if he just threw a few locks some lockers in there, and said, you, members, can stay later Yep. And had to buy out of his humidor, I mean, he's exponentially increasing his revenue. True.
Senator:But that's not his mindset. He's a retailer. He's been there for decades, and so it's getting that's what I mean when I say like
Gizmo:It's like micro transactions versus
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Recurring Exactly. Larger transactions.
Senator:And they don't need more space to do it. It's just they're not using the space in the way they could be for a lot of retailers.
Gizmo:Listen. You also eliminate seasonality. You know? Like, it's it's just a win win win.
Rooster:I mean, although in LA, though, the weather is more favorable.
Gizmo:Sure. Out there. Yeah. Out there out there is certainly the case. Also true.
Gizmo:So, boys, we've come to the end of the second third here on the Partagas series p number two. Have we? And the Santa Teresa seventeen ninety six. Bam is almost done with his cigar.
Bam Bam:Almost done.
Pagoda:What's everybody thinking? I'm struggling.
Gizmo:Yeah. Mine's not great.
Bam Bam:I don't know.
Gizmo:I've been enjoying this conversation way more than this I
Bam Bam:think this cigar's, for me, very, very good. It's delicious. I think it's just gotten better and better and better.
Gizmo:I've enjoyed it too. There's only two cons for the cigar. The one
Rooster:is the burn line is not great.
Chef Ricky:I've been hearing a lot of lighters going off.
Rooster:Not over here. The finish is on the drier side. And
Pagoda:for me, it's become a little
Gizmo:peppery now.
Chef Ricky:I'm coming close to the final inch here on the cigar and yeah, I've lost all sweetness. Lost that cappuccino, I lost that sort of vanilla that was coming through and some of the sweeter notes, and it's all spice and cedar right now.
Bam Bam:Is it easy to smoke?
Chef Ricky:It is easy to smoke. I think the conversations helped
Bam Bam:for sure.
Gizmo:I agree.
Chef Ricky:But I tell you what, the cigar is good for the rum because I'm on my second pour and I'm ready for a third.
Gizmo:You mean the rum? The rum is making you drink? Yes. It's driving you to drink. It's like the lounge with the retail shop.
Chef Ricky:You know, the finish is so short, you know, like Senator said earlier, it just kind of makes you reach for the rum more and more to kind of extend what's happening. And because I lost all sweetness and I lost some of those finer notes and I'm just getting what I feel I shouldn't be getting on a five year old cigar at this point. Cuban especially. That's kind of what's overtaking the experience right now for me.
Senator:I'll say this. For me, the start of the second, third was when I was frustrated, and more of my draws were disappointing than were satisfying. Toward the end of the second third, I'm getting more satisfying draws than I am disappointing ones.
Gizmo:So,
Senator:you know, there's there's more that I'm liking, but it is still frustrating that I can't consistently take a puff of this cigar, and each one is enjoyable.
Bam Bam:Could that be because it's concentrating a little bit more now that you're getting some more positive?
Senator:I think so, and I think it's picked up a little bit in strength in a way that the finish is a little bit longer, which is helping, but it's just not a consistent experience all the way through, and that will be reflected in my rating, but it will also be reflected that there are many moments in this cigar that I do enjoy. I just wish they could have delivered that all the way through like most of the cigars that we smoke on this podcast.
Pagoda:Yeah. No. It's I totally concur. Meaning, it's it's there are moments where, yeah, meaning you get some really good puffs. Overall, just the overall experience, you know how like coming to the cigar, you know it's a p two.
Pagoda:We've had some really good sticks of p twos. You know, you're trying to, in your mind, you know, somewhat, you're doing a comparative analysis, and this just does not compare, especially the stick I'm smoking today.
Chef Ricky:It's like the cigar has ears. Just as I shed on it a little bit, it's starting to deliver a little bit more now.
Pagoda:Right, it's suddenly giving you the It's so
Chef Ricky:teeter totter.
Gizmo:I'm not even having that experience. Mine's all totter. There's no teeter. Wow. It's not great.
Gizmo:I feel like the box price is dropping as we continue.
Pagoda:Well, 12 bed, 12
Senator:bed. When
Chef Ricky:we started, he wasn't willing to sell the box
Gizmo:and then he said at I some should have said yes so you can have it.
Chef Ricky:Well, you did say, he's like, hey,
Rooster:you want the box? Know? I'm still a buyer.
Gizmo:I'll give you two Fundies for it. Even those Fundies. But going back
Chef Ricky:to this rum, it's really enjoyable. I'm just now seeing actually the tube that it came packaged in.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's pretty cool.
Chef Ricky:And it's pretty cool. It is.
Senator:It's very on the shelf.
Chef Ricky:Sophisticated
Gizmo:looks It over looks like a scotch.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Yeah. It looks good. For $37, this is a steal.
Gizmo:I was shocked actually for the price because the photo on Total Wine was of the bottle. I was surprised when
Chef Ricky:Yeah. At $37, I don't even think it would come in that tube.
Pagoda:Yeah. The same price of the stick. That's really interesting.
Rooster:It's wild.
Senator:Yeah.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to another email now. This one is from our friend Lizard Randy in California. He says, hey, Lizards. Thanks again for sending the box of Bon Robert cigars.
Gizmo:He won Lizard of the Week a couple weeks ago. He got them. He said they smelled amazing right out of the box, and I can't wait to try them after they've had some time to rest. Very smart. I'd give them at least thirty days down when they come in.
Gizmo:He says, my question today has to do with unwanted smell unwanted smells in new cigars, specifically from the boxes. I've recently been picking up a few different boxes you guys have recommended, including the Aladino eighty fifth anniversary, beautiful cigar in that great yellow box, and the Aladino Corojo Reserva limited edition number four, which I've always loved as well. I prefer to keep my cigars out of the cellophane, and I store them in their original cedar boxes for better aging potential. However, I've noticed with these Aladino boxes that they seem to use a fair amount of paint, lacquer, or stain on some of their box components, and it introduces a pretty strong chemical smell. Because of that, I've been airing out the boxes and have been trying a few different methods to remove the odor.
Gizmo:I can get close, but not all the way there, and I end up having to move these cigars into Tupper doors and store them loose instead. So my question is, have you guys experienced this issue with cigar boxes, especially newer releases like the Aladino eighty fifth? It seems there might be some odor quality control concerns with the boxes themselves, which is a shame because the cigars are such beautiful examples of Honduran tobacco at its finest. If you've run into this, I'd love to hear what you do to fix or mitigate the smells, or if the better move is to just leave them in the Cellophane and skip the box aging altogether. Thanks a bunch, and keep up the great work, wizard Randy.
Bam Bam:I think it's user error
Gizmo:to remove the Cellophane. Well, yeah. Mean, the Cellophane, I don't think is making much of a difference. Correct. I mean, the air flows through, but I I do think those Aladino 80 fifths, they do have an interesting smell.
Gizmo:When you open them, it's pretty powerful. I don't think it translates to the smoke, thankfully. No. Yeah. Those boxes have a lacquer, pretty pretty strong lacquer smell on them.
Senator:I almost all lacquer boxes have that scent about them, but I'll speak to the Aladina one specifically, and I'm definitely confident saying I've smoked through more of those boxes than anybody in this room, all of them sit in the box.
Gizmo:In the cellophane.
Senator:The cellophane. Correct.
Gizmo:So as they come.
Senator:As they come.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:Now, you know, I'll keep, let's say, you know, a box or two basically untouched. I'll take a box and I'll remove all the cigars and cellophane and just keep them on loose strays because it's just easier for me to grab and go than I have to open the box and find it and pull some out. But even for the ones that have been in the box when I, let's say, run out of the ones in my loose tray, and then I've gotta take one out from a box that's been sitting there, I have never gotten a strange taste or flavor note or smell or aroma from the cigar that hasn't been in any way impacted by the box. So I would just caution. I think, you know, if you're to sit there and you put your nose to a lacquer box that's recently been finished, yeah, sure, you're gonna get a scent.
Gizmo:I think the eighty fifth is probably the strongest that I've smelled.
Senator:It could be. There are other boxes I think that also
Gizmo:I think the Padron the Padron sixtieth Totally.
Senator:But those are all examples where, like, yes, of course, if you put your nose to the box. But those cigars wrapped in cellophane, it does not permeate into or in any way impact the flavor of the cigar.
Gizmo:That's
Senator:right. I'd have no reason to suggest otherwise if I've ever experienced that. So I just think don't put so much stock in, like, sitting there and smelling a box and assuming that all of that is Mhmm. You know, infusing itself into the cigar. That is nine times out of 10, if not more, not the case.
Gizmo:I think the I mean, the lacquer is on
Rooster:the outside of the box. It's not on the inside. The inside is all cedar. Cedar.
Gizmo:Yeah. Then I think I think one mistake that he's making is taking them out of the cellophane.
Bam Bam:Agree with that 100.
Gizmo:Cellophane, it kind of protects the cigar. And you're better off keeping it And think as far as aging goes,
Rooster:I think they age fine with the cellophane.
Bam Bam:Of course.
Rooster:There's no question.
Chef Ricky:Probably better.
Bam Bam:I have older Cameroons that are so delicious. They are just smoking incredibly well. 80 fifths as well. They're incredible. The cellophane's a bad move.
Bam Bam:I I think you have to leave that on there. Now on the eighty fifth box, if you open it, you will see the inside edge, that lacquer just
Chef Ricky:Just the lip.
Bam Bam:It turns back up and into the box. But again, if you leave the Cellophane in there and put it in your tower or your Tupper door, you're fine.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I think to some of my most lacquered boxes and the eye of the shark box, tons of lacquer.
Gizmo:I've never gotten an aroma off that one, though.
Chef Ricky:Never. Never.
Gizmo:The only the only two really for me that I I agree with this listener, I do smell it, is the eighty fifth and the Padron sixtieth coffins, which I was concerned about both. You know, there have been times where I've taken an eighty fifth out, take it out of the cellophane, and I just smell the cigar, I could smell a little bit on there. Really? But as soon as I cut it, it does not get on the flavor. Yeah.
Gizmo:It does impact the flavor. I remember Gizmo's talking about this does not impact the flavor.
Senator:The Padron sixtieth.
Gizmo:I was a little panicked on
Senator:on the sixtieth. If, of course, if you smell the the outside of the lacquered coffin or the outside of that insane box that that comes in, like, yes, you will get that. But the actual cigar itself does not pick that up.
Rooster:Mhmm. And the 60 Padron, I mean, they're they're in individual coffins.
Chef Ricky:And they're all lined in all
Gizmo:Those those are the ones that have the scent. It's not the outer box.
Chef Ricky:It's the coffins. They're all lined and felt too. So, don't think
Gizmo:Yeah. I've certainly smelled it. I've been sensitive to it. Senator and I had an argument about it on the sixtieth.
Senator:Yeah. Guess who won? Oh, come on.
Gizmo:An argument. It was before we even smoked them.
Senator:Just told them. Reading exactly like this listener's email about people saying like, oh, the box smells so strong. It it's gonna permeate the cigars and all this. And I'm like, there's no way I believe that they wouldn't put it in those if that were the case. I mean, those are $60 sticks.
Gizmo:Those are $75.75
Senator:dollar. Yeah. And we smoked it, you know, our mind was blown. It was outstanding. There was never a moment that we sat there and said, like, there's this funky smell or aroma.
Chef Ricky:Have you ever lost an argument?
Senator:Of course. Just not against Gizmo. Come on.
Gizmo:It's not nice.
Pagoda:Hey, but chef, instead of licorice, you might experience lacquerus. Lacquerus.
Bam Bam:We're creating new words now for the toilet paper. It's enzymatic.
Pagoda:Hey. You all started it. Alright,
Gizmo:boys. And now it's time for our lizard of the week presented by our friends at Bon Robert Cigars. And this one is gonna go to a lizard we hear from all the time and probably should win lizard of the week a little more. Lizard Enrique.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm. Lizard Enrique.
Gizmo:He's the man, and he wrote us a great email that I wanna share with you here. He says, hello, lizards. I was grateful for the robust discussion recently about handkerchiefs. I knew it. It was especially I
Bam Bam:I knew
Chef Ricky:it. Hartman did pull one out, Bryce.
Pagoda:Today. Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:By the way, yeah. This is tell the listeners. So when we sat down to record, the hanky made an appearance. Yeah. It's like every time we record now, it's coming out.
Pagoda:Correct. It seemed like a new one today, though. Almost.
Gizmo:It's allergy season. New one every day.
Chef Ricky:It was almost a new one. It was used six times prior to the podcast. He
Gizmo:says here, it was especially heartening to hear the elder statesman perspective from Bam Bam.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:About his zeal for congestion relief.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:An old boy. His passion reminded me of when people of his generation talk about penny candles, grabbing a soft drink from the soda jerk, or watching pictures at the local Nickelodeons. Thank you, Bam. You are true living history.
Bam Bam:I wasn't born in 1920.
Gizmo:Think using the handkerchief suggests that you were.
Bam Bam:Well, I like the throwback.
Gizmo:Well, I, like other listeners, truly appreciate the lifestyle topics like Bam's mucus or chef Ricky defecating in a bag while camping. I hope to
Chef Ricky:I forgot about that.
Bam Bam:I think you won the prize, my my friend.
Gizmo:I hope to ask a few cigar related questions. First, I wanted to know if you guys had any cigars that had been reviewed on the podcast and were one hit wonders in that they never performed the way they had on that one occasion that we recorded. So we'll start there. Any cigars that we reviewed that after we reviewed them, we went out and got more because they were amazing and they did not perform the way they should have.
Chef Ricky:For me, a clear one is the aging room Quattro Espressivo. The orange? The orange label. Yeah, that's sort of fallen off for me since So
Bam Bam:you've had a lot of those?
Chef Ricky:Unfortunately, yeah. There was a couple mishaps where my wife tried to order me a certain aging room for Christmas or whatnot. They screwed it up and then they fixed it by sending me a free box of those orange labels. And I'm sitting on like two boxes of those right now that I didn't pay for, that they tried to correct the situation with. As I smoke them very sparingly, every time I pull one, I'm just like, Yeah, this isn't what I remember it to be.
Chef Ricky:Interesting. I'd say for me, that's the clear one in my humidor right now that doesn't do it.
Senator:I have at least a couple.
Gizmo:I knew you would. I think I know which two you have.
Senator:The first one I'll call out, it was a Lancero we did a long time ago, and it was the My Father number
Gizmo:four Have
Bam Bam:you had it recently?
Senator:Oh, within the past year for sure.
Bam Bam:And you've had them for a long time. Oh yeah. Not good
Senator:for you? God helped, no.
Bam Bam:I don't
Gizmo:know. They're smoking really good for me. They are,
Bam Bam:me too.
Senator:No. I mean, say this because Well, this is
Bam Bam:opinion doesn't count apparently.
Gizmo:They're not a blue label. You're thinking Don I'm not saying no. I'm thinking of the Don Pepin. I like them both.
Senator:No, it's just called the My Father number four.
Bam Bam:I don't know.
Senator:And that was around roughly the same time, at least within that year. Well,
Gizmo:we did the whole Lancero. I mean, sorry.
Senator:So I had a really good reference point where I bought boxes of the My Father number four, of the Oliva series v Lancero, of the Don Peppin Blue Lancero. Those Don Peppins with age now are incredible.
Gizmo:That's what I was thinking of. Delicious. Dan You told you told me about this. I think you did too, Bam, and I still haven't pulled
Senator:them. I have to I go literally said it because if you have a box, pull They them are smoking incredibly well. Same time period. That My Father Number Four, that has sat for years just like that Don Pepein.
Gizmo:By the way, same manufacturer.
Senator:Yeah. Yeah. It has a harsh bite at the back of your throat. I've smoked several of them, I can't find one that is great, and I think at the time, it was early in our journey of finding good New World Lancero's, and it wasn't until after that that the Don Pepin came in and some of the other ones that we found, the Aladino Classic Elegante. That cigar has not at all performed like I remembered it that first time.
Senator:And I think because we were early in that Lancero journey, my reference point, I just didn't have enough New World Lanceros to compare that against. And now in hindsight, I would have never bought that box. So that has definitely been disappointing in a cigar that I don't smoke anymore. Another one, you know, oddly, has been that Cabay Guan. Tatawahi.
Senator:Yeah. The one we had was perfect. Spectacular. It was outstanding.
Bam Bam:Very amazing.
Senator:My mind was blown. I couldn't believe it came from Tatawahe. I bought a box right after, and it was not easy to find a box. None of the ones I've had since, they're not bad, but they're not tens. They're not amazing,
Gizmo:Are they what we sevens, eights? What are they?
Senator:They're sevens. At most, a few of them have been an eight, but they're nowhere near that 10 experience that we had when we reviewed it. So that's another one that has kind of fallen out of favor for me.
Gizmo:What about the Oliva? Oliva, that was mine.
Senator:That's another one.
Gizmo:The Oliva v Lancero, I'm so out on, and honestly, I think it's because I think it's because they've gotten cheap, and I think they're putting less tobacco in the blend The when they smoked
Pagoda:construction's really bad.
Gizmo:You know, talk about hearing a bunch of lighters. If we smoked that cigar today with the cigars that we purchased a month or two ago, it would be a disaster.
Senator:The tell was when we met the Aleva rep at PCA one year, and he asked, oh, what Aleva cigars do you smoke? And we said that Lancero. And I still can't believe. The guy literally said he's like, oh, it's a great cigar even if you have to relight it all the time.
Gizmo:And I'm sitting there like, your job is to sell these cigars,
Senator:and you're admitting that the construction of these
Bam Bam:is It's a great car, but then you gotta keep filling the tires all day.
Pagoda:Wow. Yeah, the same. I think the Lounge Lizard Lantaro was the first one. The construction was just really, really poor. But I think we rated it very high, didn't we?
Gizmo:Yeah, I mean, I think it got a 10
Chef Ricky:or
Senator:And close to that was also really early in that Lantaro journey where I feel like we didn't have enough reference points to understand that there were even way better New World Lancers.
Gizmo:But I don't think that's true, senator, because I purchased the box for review. We smoked the cigar. I smoked through that box, and they were unbelievable. Then I purchased more and it was like in the toilet.
Senator:That's fair.
Gizmo:Wow. So something changed with the value thing there. I don't know if they didn't want to raise the price and cut back on tobacco. But if you take one of the original Aleva V Lanceros we smoked for review, and you put it on my scale, and you get one that I have in these other boxes I purchased after, the weight difference on average is significantly low. Wow.
Gizmo:Significant.
Rooster:I don't know why they would do that. Mean because they
Gizmo:don't want raise the price. Yeah. I mean, that's exactly right. It's maybe a half a tobacco leaf. Know?
Gizmo:Yeah. But at scale, I guess it adds up for these folks. I don't know.
Chef Ricky:It's weird because out of all Alevas, that's probably the least selling Aleva. Probably. For them, you know? So, yeah. I don't see many people smoking that Olivas.
Chef Ricky:I see people smoking Olivas, but not that one.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That that Eluzione that is it the ESG or VSG that we smoked?
Gizmo:VSG. Ashton.
Bam Bam:That was great on the pod, and I kind of felt it was uninteresting afterwards.
Senator:Great call out.
Bam Bam:Just something about it changed, and it's the same batch of cigars that I bought right after the pot. They were initially smoking fine. I think they get worse over time, not better.
Rooster:What about the late hour Churchill?
Gizmo:Well, that's I think I'm out on that.
Bam Bam:Well, because we feel the blend has changed maybe. I don't know. I haven't had one in a
Gizmo:But you had a good one. Yeah. I've had
Senator:so I've had a really odd experience with that. And we all used to love that cigar. Then we stopped smoking it, but we've held them. I mean, many of us have plenty of them. And I started trying to revisit it.
Senator:Was harsher than I remembered it. It wasn't great. And then I've of course just let them sit even longer. My more recent experiences, they've been very good.
Rooster:Really? Out of the same box.
Senator:Oh, yeah, out of
Rooster:It's the same kinda like peaks and valleys with that.
Senator:I just think it actually even needed more time. I mean, crazily enough, it had probably sat in my tower for like forty years, but, you know, maybe it hit a fifth year, and all of a sudden, I'm telling you, incredibly satisfying. Like, so much so, the last one of those I had on my patio, I smoked it in Churchill. I wanted another one. I only brought one outside with me, I wanted another one, I was like too lazy to go back, and I'm like, I shouldn't really smoke these back to back, so I pulled something else.
Senator:But the fact that my mind even went there, all I will say is just keep them. I truly think a lot of age does them well.
Bam Bam:Now would you go out and buy a new box knowing what we know?
Senator:Once I smoke through mine, I I definitely will.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Just
Senator:because I'm actually curious what the recent run I mean, I haven't purchased a box of late hour Churchills in probably forty five years.
Rooster:Me too. Same.
Senator:Yeah. I'm glad you called out the Ashton VSG because I've had a similar experience. The thing that's odd for me, I'm not sure it's that, like, the flavor profile is not what I thought it was. The box I bought after we did the pod, the draw I mean, it's a it's a small ring gauge cigar. Yeah.
Senator:That's
Bam Bam:38, something like that.
Gizmo:Forty, forty maybe?
Bam Bam:The 40
Senator:Vitola would be a Lonsdale? A Lonsdale, exactly. The draw is so tight on that cigar.
Bam Bam:Really?
Senator:On the box that I got after
Gizmo:I've not had that problem.
Senator:And the problem with that is even no matter how much I take off, like, it builds up tar. So, like, I'll smoke this cigar, and it's like, okay. The first inch is fine. It's good. It's very good even sometimes.
Senator:And then I'm gonna get a tar buildup, and I'm sitting there like, I can only take so much off the head of the cigar, so I've just had to ditch several of these. That's the construction has been the problem for me with
Bam Bam:The bitterness has been a problem for me on that side.
Senator:But I think, for me, the bitterness comes from, like, first inch is good.
Bam Bam:The tar
Senator:buildup. Once it's building up and not enough air can pass through it, that's when I get that bitterness and it becomes a problem.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:I'll add one more to the list before we wrap up here. The Partagas p two. I mean
Bam Bam:Yes. Come on.
Gizmo:No. This experience tonight has been pretty rough. The price keeps dropping. So boys, Lizard Enrique had two more questions. I'm gonna hold them for next week because we're coming to the end of our evening.
Gizmo:But congratulations again to him. He's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bond Roberts. Very excited. The Dahlias and the Phenomenos are coming out in April now.
Rooster:Can't wait for
Bam Bam:the win.
Gizmo:Happening. I cannot wait Me too. To get those in our hands. So we're really excited about that. But congratulations again to him, and thanks to those guys for supporting our lizards of the week.
Gizmo:And, boys, we are coming to the end of our evening now with the Santa Teresa seventeen ninety six, Venezuelan rum, and the Cuban Partagas series p number two, don't forget to send in your ratings.
Bam Bam:Doing it now.
Gizmo:Any final thoughts on the pairing? I wanna hear about the pairing. What do you think about the cigar and the rum together? How's how did that work for you?
Pagoda:If anything at all, it was the rum that really helped the cigar a bit. But, you know, without the rum, I think the cigar would be even it would be tougher for me to get through it.
Gizmo:I think if Rooster had the cigar I had and not drinking the spirit tonight, he would have been Yeah, it would have been really bad. It was a really, really up and down evening for me, I'm pretty disappointed.
Bam Bam:Yeah, I had the opposite experience.
Rooster:Me too.
Bam Bam:Pretty consistent. I have always remembered the P2 to have just a touch of earth, but there was always a graham cracker element to it, which I get in a lot of Cubans. I pursue that and that savory sweet thing I used to get in that. I didn't get much of that tonight, but what I did get was pretty enjoyable and fairly consistent.
Gizmo:I'm still getting that coffee espresso.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So I that for me, I got that in the the the tail end of the second third into the final third.
Gizmo:It's more pronounced now.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It did lose its sweetness, but that I do love that coffee, nutty. I was still getting cashew at that point too, so it was pretty pretty good for me.
Chef Ricky:This bottle's almost done.
Gizmo:It's
Chef Ricky:a I great can't remember the last time we almost finished a bottle prior That's to the pot correct.
Bam Bam:I want another glass. Me too. We're gonna fight over that last eighth.
Chef Ricky:That speaks volumes to spirit.
Senator:I'm gonna equitably distribute it. And I'm gonna start with our host, Giz. Alright.
Chef Ricky:Speaks volumes to quality of the spirit that we had tonight. Great job, Giz, on this.
Gizmo:Thank you. By the way, this was literally a product of me, I swear to you, going through the Total Wine website, looking for rum, because we hadn't done rum in a minute, trying to find something that was rated well on their site, rated well elsewhere, and also hit the numbers that we look for on the fat rum pirate where they have the hydrometer tests. And this was the one that checked the box. And then at $37, I was like, this is
Chef Ricky:It's a
Gizmo:no brainer. This is a no brainer. There's a
Bam Bam:lot to chat about when we rate this.
Gizmo:Yeah. For sure. Thank you, senator. Alright, boys. It's time to move into the formal liquorating tonight on the Santa Teresa seventeen ninety six Venezuelan rum.
Bam Bam:Alright.
Gizmo:Bam Bam, you're up.
Senator:Well, I'm I'm sorry, Bam Bam. You're not.
Bam Bam:Oh, yes. Correct. We have something to do here.
Senator:I'm the captain now. Okay. Well, we'd be remiss to not mention it was our boy Lizard Gizmo's birthday last week.
Bam Bam:Oh, that's correct.
Gizmo:Hey. Allegedly. My man. Allegedly.
Senator:We do need to raise a glass.
Gizmo:That's right. Thank you, man. Sure.
Senator:Happy birthday, Giz.
Bam Bam:Happy birthday, Giz. Appreciate that. Many, many more.
Gizmo:Thank you.
Bam Bam:And good health.
Gizmo:Thank you. Very happy right now.
Senator:Like, '25 looks great on
Bam Bam:you guys. That's correct.
Gizmo:'25 going on '70.
Bam Bam:Happy birthday.
Gizmo:Cheers, boys.
Senator:Thank you all.
Gizmo:Appreciate that. Very kind of you. Well, that was a nice surprise. Thanks, boys.
Chef Ricky:You got a bottle of tequila coming your way, sir. Oh. Obviously, can't
Gizmo:Don Julio?
Chef Ricky:I can't
Gizmo:With ice. With ice.
Chef Ricky:I love you too much.
Gizmo:I can't
Chef Ricky:guarantee that. I wouldn't give Don Julio to my worst.
Rooster:Fine class AZO
Gizmo:with the bell on the top.
Bam Bam:Sugar water.
Gizmo:All right, Bam Bam, formal, formal liquority, you're up.
Bam Bam:So I hated this initially.
Gizmo:We know.
Bam Bam:We know. We are aware. And I was surprised I wasn't getting anything interesting or good in this experience. We were worried. It was really shocking.
Bam Bam:But as I finished my first glass, it was getting okay. But as I delved into my second pour, the caramel came out, and for me that dark chocolate's still persistent now on my third Yes,
Chef Ricky:very much.
Bam Bam:So for me, it's a consistent caramel dark chocolate experience and a little clove early on. I'm giving this a nine. In I will say, in fact, with all of all the rums that we've had, this is a very sophisticated expression. It's not too sweet at all. It's beautifully balanced.
Bam Bam:There's a nice touch of tannic quality that it has and that just touch of sweetness creates that almost not savory sweet, but that type of relationship.
Chef Ricky:You know what, it creates a sophisticated experience.
Bam Bam:It's sophisticated and very elegant. And it's a great one to have in the repertoire. This is, it could easily be a 10, I think- 100%. Yeah. I think nine's a fair score.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah. All right, Jeff.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, I'm right with you, Ben. I'm at a nine and a part of me almost wishes I gave it a 10.
Bam Bam:Me too.
Chef Ricky:But I need to know a little bit more about Santa Teresa as a whole. But this brand was I mean, this rum, this butter in particular was delicious. The price point is crazy. I can't believe that, you know, we could well, I can also it's the room category, right? Abuelo seven there, La Maria Lita, although that's a little bit pricier.
Chef Ricky:But I mean, we got some pretty quality rums at this price point, but this was delicious. Know, the nose is intoxicating. Reeks of just deliciousness. Then, you know, I'm glad you came around, Bam. I was nervous.
Bam Bam:Me too.
Senator:Very nervous.
Bam Bam:Oh, I was too.
Gizmo:I knew he would.
Chef Ricky:You did. You did. You It would take
Senator:two hours, but you knew
Gizmo:he It's official. It's official. You need to drink before we record.
Bam Bam:I do.
Rooster:Yeah. The more you drink, the better it gets.
Gizmo:Yeah. I've seen it before.
Bam Bam:Palate adjustment.
Rooster:Oh, boy.
Chef Ricky:No. But, you know, I actually can't wait to buy a bottle of this stuff.
Bam Bam:Me too.
Chef Ricky:That's how
Gizmo:good it is.
Chef Ricky:Awesome. I can't wait to stock this. I can't wait to talk about it. Everything that it stands for, you know, all of the charity and whatnot, you know, that's all great. Alcatraz.
Chef Ricky:Yes. Project Alcatraz.
Senator:What's your word, Ben?
Gizmo:Penile something? Penis. Penis something?
Bam Bam:Penologist. Penologist.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, that was the word of the day today. We learned a new word. But no, this is a great spirit, great rum. It really helped the cigar. It helped provide what the cigar wasn't many points of the journey.
Chef Ricky:I enjoyed it. It's a nine and arguably probably a 10. So look forward to doing others from Santa Teresa or Saint Teresa.
Gizmo:Alright. Pagoda.
Pagoda:Yeah. By the way, I really went back and forth between a nine and ten, and I sell for a nine.
Gizmo:Wouldn't be an episode. Hold on. Mean, every time. Doesn't fail.
Pagoda:I'm I'm I'm going to yeah. You know, so the way I think, I always bounce between a couple of ratings and then opt for one. I'll do that even with the cigar, by the way. But in this particular case, was so it is a really, really delicious rum, I think.
Bam Bam:Oh, boy. I
Pagoda:think the aroma was fantastic. I thought when I started the rum, the aroma was, in fact, sweeter than when I actually had the first sip. And then once my palate adjusted, I think it was very, very easygoing, very smooth, I think. I really liked everything about it from the flavor profile to even the feel on the tongue and the palate. I wish there was a little bit of heat, maybe just a little bit.
Pagoda:I it's so difficult now because the way I look at it is like you're looking at rum and whether it's flodeconia or abuelo, and a lot of these rums when you have them, some of them, like they're just naturally, a lot of them have been very, very good. And I don't even know why I knocked off a point, to be very honest.
Bam Bam:We don't know what your number is.
Pagoda:It's a nine.
Gizmo:That was
Senator:great. Oh
Gizmo:my god.
Senator:Ladies and gentlemen, Pagoda.
Pagoda:It's like my mind's been going back and forth. Yeah. It's a nine for me, though. No.
Gizmo:Pagoda. So it's also a nine for me. I I mean, I I really think this is an excellent rum. It's not a perfect rum for me. I can name a few others even at a lower price point that perform better for me.
Gizmo:And, you know, I really like the rum, though. I I love the story. I love a new, you know, country entrant to rum excellence on this podcast.
Bam Bam:There's no doubt
Chef Ricky:I think that's what it comes down to for me and why I couldn't give it a 10 just yet. But I'm curious, why couldn't you give it a 10?
Gizmo:Because it just didn't talk to me the way that some of the others do. I think about the Don Pancho eight, which is really for me perfect. Havana Club seven even. And I'm comparing it to stuff that's fair.
Bam Bam:The Abuelo seven.
Gizmo:Abuelo seven, which I also think is just a touch, you know, a touch below the Don Pancho for me. That's the one that kinda in this price for For you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:And then also the Florida Cano seven. Wrong. The Florida Cano seven I I also You're
Bam Bam:correct, Senator.
Gizmo:But I I really love the flavor from the first sip. I actually think as we drank more of it throughout the episode, I think it actually got better.
Bam Bam:Well, that's what happened
Gizmo:to me. I know that happened to you, but I'm talking to the rest of the room. Alright. It actually did get better, you know, as we sipped it more and more. It was great at the beginning, but it even got better, but it wasn't perfect for me.
Gizmo:I do think the price is very fair. I love the story. I love that this is from Venezuela and not another country that we talk about often. Sure. But when it comes to rum, I thought that was a pretty cool story.
Gizmo:So all in all, there are some other expressions that they make that we're gonna try that I've I've been eyeing up that I'm interested to bring in to see how they perform. But for, you know, for tonight, the seventeen ninety six standard entrant from Santa Teresa, it's a nine for me. Senator?
Senator:So I'm also at a nine. I I think this may be one of the few times that on a spirit, every single one of us
Gizmo:A flat number on a spirit, I think, is pretty rare unless it's a 10, you know, a perfect cigar.
Chef Ricky:Correct.
Gizmo:A perfect rum.
Senator:As everyone has said, the nose, it's memorable. I will remember exactly what this smells like. The flavor is robust. I love on the palate, it's super balanced. I think Bam or someone mentioned, you know, it's not too sweet.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Senator:I don't like a overly sweet rum or spirit period.
Chef Ricky:What Shinoska tell you can make you think otherwise. Yeah. The nose for
Gizmo:me right now
Chef Ricky:is a is a blondie.
Senator:Totally.
Gizmo:There's a funk on the nose too.
Senator:A little bit. Agree. A good funk. Yeah. A 100%.
Senator:100 Yeah. Percent. And
Gizmo:I think that makes it like you're saying sorry to interrupt, but like you're saying, you're gonna remember that. I think that funk is what's defining that uniqueness of the nose.
Senator:For sure. The the other thing that's for me even more memorable is this is not as viscous as abuelo
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Senator:And even some other rums, yet it's so flavorful. Yeah. And I feel like our experience thus far with rum has been either you have a viscous rum like abuelo that delivers a ton of flavor,
Gizmo:or
Senator:you have a thinner rum that delivers less flavor but is also very satisfying like flor de canna or some others that we've tried, or even mariolita I would kind of put in that category. This doesn't have a ton of viscosity, yet it delivers so much flavor, and I don't think that's easy to do, so I give them a lot of credit for that.
Bam Bam:And the very long finish.
Gizmo:I'll be honest, senator, I didn't even notice the viscosity No. Not that I how it hit the palate. Like Yeah. Eye didn't even catch Just look at how it
Senator:moves around. Like, it moves very quickly. There's not a ton of viscosity
Bam Bam:to it.
Gizmo:Doesn't have a lot of legs on
Senator:No. The It still delivers Like, so much of a
Bam Bam:what Pagoda said, the mouth feel and the palate feel, that's something we really haven't chatted about. That's a really good comment.
Gizmo:And it doesn't align with the viscosity.
Bam Bam:Well, that's just it.
Gizmo:That's crazy.
Bam Bam:With the lack of viscosity, that palate and mouth feel on this is so delightful. I think there was just a very faint touch of heat. I disagree with you a little bit, Pigar, on that.
Gizmo:Need a
Chef Ricky:little at there with
Gizmo:you.
Bam Bam:And it lasts, and it lingers, and it's so enjoyable, which makes this pretty unique.
Senator:Yeah. It's an excellent spirit. I would definitely drink it again. I'll definitely buy a bottle of it. The only reason I didn't give it a 10, you know, at this point, we've done so many rums that I have to be honest with myself in, what am I going to drink every day, and what am I gonna drink some days?
Senator:And I have fallen in love with Abuelo. That's no secret. Mariolita. That too, but Abuelo is spent like a It's staple. I'm at a point where, you know, back before we were drinking rum and we were mostly scotch only really with cigars.
Senator:Mhmm. You know, I couldn't live without Macallan 12. That that had to be always a part of
Gizmo:my I can't tell you the last time I saw you drink that.
Bam Bam:I know.
Gizmo:For all of us. Dude, all
Bam Bam:of us.
Gizmo:I can't remember the last time I saw it come out. Pagoda's probably the most recent that I've seen Scotch appear.
Bam Bam:Yeah, he's the Belveney man.
Senator:Yeah. Totally.
Pagoda:And I had Macallan actually just last week I think. But I was thinking about it, I'm sorry.
Gizmo:We're on a podcast, there's a microphone. Yeah.
Pagoda:And then the last time, I don't even remember the last time I had Macallan before that. It's been so long.
Senator:Yeah. But, you know, in rum now at this point, like, me, Abuelo is what Macallan used to be for me. It must be part of my regular rotation, and this will be there. No question. But I can't lie to myself and say, I will drink this just as frequently as Abuelo, but it is outstanding what they've done with this rum.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I agree with you a 100%. I think that's why we all hesitate in giving it a 10.
Gizmo:Yeah. Alright, boys. The formal liquor rating tonight on the Santa Teresa, seventeen ninety six Venezuelan rum It's a very easy to calculate Mhmm. Nine point zero.
Bam Bam:I wanna comment on that last comment about frequency of this drink of consuming this. What I love about this, it kind of it complements the Abuelo seven for me where if I wanna diverge from that just a little bit on one day, I can have this have the Abuelo seven the next day.
Senator:It's
Bam Bam:true. And alternate. It gives a really good opportunity to kinda get away from the abuelo just for a day. No. Or two.
Pagoda:It's one of them, which is absolutely capable of becoming a part of the rotation.
Bam Bam:No doubt about it.
Gizmo:And I think, to everybody's point here, I think it works with every type of cigar that we
Bam Bam:smoke, honestly. I agree.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. And I think as far as it relates to Bam, Bam likes to chase. This rum plays a little hard to get.
Gizmo:Isn't that the truth?
Chef Ricky:This rum plays a little hard to get for him, you know?
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time to do the formal liturgating tonight on the Partagas series p number two from Cuba. Rooster, you're up.
Rooster:So I'm super happy that I'm gonna get this box for, like, $400. Super happy about that.
Bam Bam:Turned off his bike.
Gizmo:Keep dreaming.
Rooster:I think me and Bam, it was kind of an anomaly that I don't know if Cigar was we got two of the better cigars out of the box.
Bam Bam:And Chef, I think.
Rooster:Chef, too. The only issue that I had with the cigar was a little bit of a construction issue that I had to relight it multiple times. And the finish was on the drier side. The D4 and the E2s are definitely better. It's like D4, E2, and then the P2.
Rooster:The P2 lacks the creaminess that you get out of the E2. And you don't get the cinnamon note that you get out of the D4. But I still thoroughly enjoyed the cigar. I mean, was earthy. There was a decent amount of cedar.
Rooster:Even on the cold roll, there was a lot of cedar and dried fruit. It was earthy. There was leather throughout the cigar. The espresso and the coffee note was present, maybe not in the first third, but I think after about the halfway point, it was there consistently. And I really enjoyed the last third of the cigar.
Rooster:It was absolutely excellent. It was brilliant. We didn't really talk about the combustion on the cigar. The smoke output was fantastic. It was very easy to smoke.
Rooster:So I'm at an eight on the cigar.
Gizmo:All right. Senator.
Senator:So I I was debating between a seven and an eight. I've rounded up to an eight because there were a number of moments throughout the cigar that I did enjoy the flavor profile I was getting. I'm disappointed that that wasn't consistent all the way through. The finish is the biggest problem with this cigar, and I'm still confused because I don't remember ever smoking a p two that I thought had a short finish. I don't know if I've ever had a Partagas period, I would describe I mean, even a Super Deluxe, like, there are more affordable lines I would never describe as having a short finish.
Senator:So this was definitely an anomaly in the Partagas experience. I think the best part of the cigar for me actually was the final third. It picked up a bit, so like that short finish because there was a bit more fuller flavor, it lingered more on the palate in a way that I found myself, you know, wanting to go back to the cigar. I smoked it all the way down to the nub despite my frustration at many points throughout, but what definitely precludes it from a nine or a 10, it was an inconsistent experience. The construction, like Rooster said, I had to relight it several times.
Senator:The finish, as I said, obviously was problematic, so, like, there there was no semblance of, like, greatness in this cigar, but there were many moments that were satisfying that I think it's very good. You know, the creaminess that you got at certain points, that cappuccino note, that nuttiness that came through, the final third having some more body to it, but I just really hope I mean, you know, I've never disliked p twos. I've purchased them, I have them myself. I really hope that well, not more than I like the e two, but I just hope that more recent runs deliver a more consistent experience because I would hate for this to be what most people experience from a p two. That's not what this cigar should smoke like.
Senator:So I'm at an eight. I think it's definitely worth smoking, worth trying. I was able to smoke it all the way down to the nub so you can absolutely finish the cigar, but there will be many moments where you're sitting there just wondering what is happening because it doesn't deliver it the way it should all the way through.
Gizmo:So I can't even believe I'm saying this. For me, it's a six. Oh my god. My cigar was victory.
Bam Bam:What the hell am
Gizmo:I doing? Cigar was really not good, man, in every way. It was bitter. Would you say an E2 would have been better? Yes.
Gizmo:I am 100% on board with that.
Bam Bam:That's pretty harsh.
Gizmo:No. It's not. For the experience I had tonight, for how many times I reached for a lighter that's not even my own, I feel like I owe somebody some butane, you know, for for tonight's experience.
Rooster:$3.50 for the box.
Pagoda:You lost Pagoda's lighter.
Gizmo:I must have I must have relit it 20 times tonight. It was bitter. The finish was short. The moments of excellence were so few and far between. We're talking about a $37 cigar.
Gizmo:I am beyond disappointed with the cigar tonight. I'm really bummed out that after five years of sitting in my tower, not even being looked at, it gave us this experience tonight. Gave me this experience tonight. Maybe I picked the wrong cigar.
Bam Bam:I got a question. Yeah. These do come in ebbs and flows and waves. Right? So it could be at the bottom of the curve.
Bam Bam:Maybe another year it'll go back up.
Gizmo:But the rest of the room had
Rooster:I don't think so.
Bam Bam:Eight or no.
Gizmo:The rest of the
Bam Bam:room Hey. Pipe down. This is the
Senator:greatest lobbying effort I've ever seen.
Gizmo:I love it. I mean,
Senator:you know We need to get rooster on
Pagoda:the case to fund 300
Gizmo:bid, doctor. Correct.
Pagoda:300 bid. Wow. Alright.
Gizmo:I I I am very disappointed. I can't believe I'm giving this cigar a six tonight. I thought it was honestly mediocre at best. I honestly think a six at at points tonight is generous for this cigar. $37, this experience, the time we that I put into this, the investment across the board, mediocrity, bitterness, short finish, you know, just just really not a great cigar at all.
Gizmo:Not even a good cigar, I'd argue. Very unhappy with this. So tonight, this p two is a six for me. Pagoda.
Pagoda:I'm at a seven, and I think I've kind of mentioned it before. You know, I was oscillating between different numbers. And at some point, like in the beginning, right after the first inch, was closer to an eight, then I went all the way down to a six. It was one of those most inconsistent experiences I've had in a cigar. But I've also had such great memories with the cigar.
Pagoda:So it's so difficult really to experience this. And I so the smoke output was great, but leaving that aside, I think just a fluctuation. These cigars are difficult to source. The price at $37. But are they good?
Pagoda:They're typically very good, but you know, They you can get a be. Bad So I'm kind of rating it totally based on this experience and maybe a little bit of nostalgic things envelops it where I rounded it up to seven. And I think seven is being generous for the cigar.
Gizmo:I'm feeling like that about In my six,
Pagoda:fact, you know, everyone knows I smoke a cigar all the way to the nub. And I went pretty far down. It just wasn't changing. I was hoping the last third would really pick up and make it a lot more fun, but it wasn't the case. Wow.
Pagoda:Seven for me.
Gizmo:Alright, Chef.
Chef Ricky:So this cigar, the score here for me is doing the opposite of what the rum did, where the rum got a nine and I kind of felt like I could have gotten a 10 had I known a little bit more about Venezuelan rum. I gave the cigar an eight and I probably would have given it a seven if it wasn't a partagas to be quite honest.
Bam Bam:You're a brand guy.
Gizmo:Big Cuban brand. Cuban market
Senator:guy. Don't like any of this, Jeff. I'm sorry. You gotta rate for the right reasons.
Gizmo:You're a
Bam Bam:brand follower.
Chef Ricky:You're you're right, senator, but I find it hard to believe that you disagree with me.
Senator:No. I don't. Look. I'm I'm sorry. I feel terrible.
Senator:I I don't like to interrupt during rings, but I'm just gonna say this one thing and then
Bam Bam:I love interrupting. We know.
Pagoda:We definitely know. Correct.
Senator:I'm just all I'm gonna say, on the rum, who cares what we know about Venezuelan rum or any country's rum? If it's great, it deserves praise. If it's not, it deserves criticism. And after the fact, I will dive deeper into figuring that out. On the cigar, actually, you know what?
Senator:There, I'm gonna give you a pass because I can't lie. My my
Pagoda:On the fence. Wow. On the fence.
Chef Ricky:Wow. On
Pagoda:the fence.
Gizmo:There's Teetering.
Chef Ricky:Teetering. There's a
Gizmo:little biases.
Senator:You see, said I'm I'm We
Gizmo:are officially in the zone. Oh, yeah. With him admitting that Bizarro world. I mean, I can't lie.
Senator:I have an affinity for Partagas, so I can understand the I can understand the bump.
Chef Ricky:And through you, so do I. So stop the music. This sound
Bam Bam:bite is so fucking long. I love the sound bite, dude.
Chef Ricky:So the thing for me is if this were any other cigar that if it were anything but a Partagas and I would have taken a lighter to it 15 times like I did tonight What about my father? And had a crappy ash and a crappy burn line, it would have gotten much worse than an eight. But I also haven't had this cigar many times. Right? So I don't How many
Gizmo:times do think? Less than five?
Chef Ricky:This is maybe the second time I've had
Gizmo:this Oh, wow.
Chef Ricky:Okay. Right? So this Oh, wow. I can't I can't rate this with that same sort of foundation that you guys have to rate this. So I understand wholeheartedly why you gave it a six because you probably had so many of these and you expect much more from it.
Chef Ricky:For me, this is my second time having this cigar, maybe third, but definitely second. There were moments where I got that creamy cappuccino, I got some vanilla, I got some hazelnut, I got some spice, I got licorice at one point, and 100% that sort of Bloody Married Tomato call out that Senator was joking about that I actually get at the beginning the with the cold draw especially. But that final third didn't deliver like there were moments entering the end of the second third where I was getting some of that creamy cappuccino and hazelnut happening, then it just disappeared. It picked up in strength, but it wasn't delivering flavor for me. So, you know, for that, I gave it an eight and it had not been a Partagas, I probably would have been in seven.
Chef Ricky:So that's that's my rating. I'm sorry.
Gizmo:Big marker guy.
Bam Bam:No need to apologize. No.
Chef Ricky:No. They they should do better. They deserve better. It's a great marker. I mean, it doesn't disappoint often, if ever.
Chef Ricky:And that's what my reading reflects.
Senator:So just curious, you said you've had at least one other of these that you remember. That one was better than this, I take it?
Chef Ricky:Yes. Alright,
Gizmo:Bam.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I enjoyed my cigar. It was actually very good. There were moments where there was a dry finish, but for me, I I got a lot of coffee, some of the cappuccino that you guys mentioned, but that last third was actually quite good. It was consistent espresso.
Bam Bam:Cashew for me was are the really the two predominant notes for me. I didn't relight my cigar at all. I didn't touch it up at all. My burn line was How's pretty
Gizmo:it go from zero over there? I relit mine like No. 20
Bam Bam:I did not touch my cigar.
Gizmo:It's definitely a bad box for sure. This is so good.
Rooster:I heard
Pagoda:a two fifty bed. Two fifty bed.
Senator:Bruce, do you wanna come work with me in DC?
Bam Bam:Yeah. So I had a great experience. I'm at a firm eight. I wouldn't say that this is the best p two that I've ever had because it's definitely not.
Gizmo:It's definitely not. It's not even close to you.
Bam Bam:Well, I mean, it
Gizmo:was in the top 10. That would I've been with you for 10 other good p twos
Bam Bam:I know that.
Gizmo:Better than Terrible
Bam Bam:ones. I remember.
Gizmo:Bad bucks.
Bam Bam:They were all incredible.
Gizmo:But This is going up on BR tomorrow, by I
Bam Bam:think from my experience
Gizmo:You can buy it there.
Bam Bam:An eight is a fair score.
Gizmo:Alright. So boys, the former lizard rating tonight on the Partagas series p number two from Cuba is a 7.5.
Bam Bam:I guarantee our first time around was over a nine. It was not.
Senator:No way. Eight.
Gizmo:But we'll review those
Bam Bam:scores I'm guessing. I'm gonna guess eight point Keep
Senator:going, Bam. Really?
Gizmo:Let's go through the other Partagas we've done on the pod boys. On episode one, of course, we did the Maduro number one eight point seven. New Year's Eve twenty twenty one, we did the series d number four, the d four nine point two. Episode 14, the famous calibres episode 9.3. Episode 16, the Partagas short eight point zero.
Gizmo:Episode 56, the Partagas Lusitanius eight point zero. On episode 64, Coronas Gortis Anyhatos 9.7. On episode 82 series e number two nine point three. Episode 113, the Partagas eight nine eight nine point zero. On episode 133, the Partagas Aliados, LCDH 5.7.
Gizmo:That was a stinker. On episode 149, the Maduro number three in 9.4. On episode 176, the Linea Maestra in Rito, 9.2. And episode 211, we went back to the d four, scored a perfect 10. And finally, the first time we did this cigar on episode 36, it scored an 8.7.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Gizmo:So quite a bit better than this.
Bam Bam:That was close.
Gizmo:And I wanna compare this to three other ratings that we did because we're kinda back to pyramids from Cuba. On episode 184, the Diplomatico number two scored a nine point zero. On episode 190, the Monte Cristo number two scored a 9.8. Great rating on that. And on episode 192, the up in number two scored a 9.2.
Gizmo:So those are all in the ballpark price wise of this. I mean, this is certainly the weakest of what we've gone back to.
Bam Bam:I'm surprised that Diplomatico did so well.
Gizmo:Does a great
Pagoda:guard, dude. Monty two with a 9.8 because they can be very inconsistent.
Gizmo:But I think the box that we did in that time zone Incredible. You know, that date range that we did has been, they've been absolute stars.
Bam Bam:I've had more excellent Monty twos than I've had bad ones.
Pagoda:Yeah. No. No. I've yeah. I've yeah.
Pagoda:It's been a mixed bag. But I thought the Upman two would have done better.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. One more time tonight on the ratings. The Santa Teresa seventeen ninety six Venezuelan rum scored a nine point zero in the Partagas. Series p number two from Cuba scored a 7.5. Of course, we have to congratulate again our friend, wizard Enrique.
Gizmo:We actually only got through one of his three questions, so I'll come back to those next week. He's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from the gentleman at Bon Roberts. We appreciate them supporting our lizards of the week. And like we said, they have two more Vitola coming out very, very soon, so look out for that. Of course, we have to thank Small Batch Cigar, the preferred retail partner of the Lounge Lizards Podcast.
Gizmo:They've been awesome to us. Use our code lizard 15. Get 15% off your entire order. Free shipping all the time. It's fast.
Gizmo:It's great. And if you have any questions, you can call them. They pick up the phone right away. They're awesome. And, of course, check out the Lounge Lizards sampler pack, which they now have back in stock again.
Gizmo:So, be sure to pick that up. And finally, boys, our presenting sponsor, Fabrica five. They've been with us for a long time. We love their cigars. Talk about cigars that are performing well for a reasonable price that
Pagoda:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Trinidad Robusto. I can't get off it. I keep mentioning it. But every time I have one of those from that bundle, they're unbelievable. They're delicious.
Gizmo:So good. Yeah. It's crazy. Comparing that tonight to a $37 cigar
Bam Bam:Unreal.
Gizmo:I mean, it's unreal. And
Senator:the best part about both of our sponsors, you won't get a letter from the tax department in your state. They collect the appropriate amount of taxes.
Gizmo:Lois will not be writing you. Lois. Lois will not be in touch Lois Lane. Regarding tax on those those cigars. I just wanna say one thing.
Gizmo:Before you end
Rooster:up in handcuffs, guess you might wanna sell this box.
Gizmo:Sold. Thank you, rooster. Alright, boys. A great night, and, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Gizmo:Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us, Hello at loungelizardspod .com.
Gizmo:You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.