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The lizards pair the Cuban Montecristo No. 2 with 12 year aged Appleton Estate Rare Casks Rum. The guys attempt to define Cuban twang, they discuss Jamaican Rum, and they share a not-so-kind review of the new Batman film.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. 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 Grindr, senator, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some rum, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 28th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke Cuban cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We attempted to find Cuban twang. We discussed Jamaican rum, and we share our not so kind review of the new Batman film, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 12 year age to Appleton Estate Rare casks rum with the Monte Cristo.
Number two. A classic Cuban pyramid tonight on [00:01:00] the pod, the Monte Cristo. Number two, a well regarded cigar, I would argue probably top five if not top three selling cigar in the world as far as Havanas is, uh, concerned. Certainly up there with the D four and uh, I mean, just a classic Cuban, you know, any cigar smoker really knows this cigar, even if they haven't had it.
They know montecristo and they know this
**Bam Bam:** specific cigar. It's an absolute musta have in your humidor. It's
**Grinder:** kind of iconic actually. It really is. Yeah. As far as Handmaids are concerned. Yep, it
**Senator:** is. I mean, this and the D four are the two most sold Cubans
**Gizmo:** worldwide. That's right. Yeah. So I think that, you know, we talked a little bit about, uh, Monte Christo on the, uh, line 1935 episode we did all the way back, you know, co 20 something episodes ago, and we talked about the inconsistency of Monte Christo, and I think that since that time, , I have had a much warmer experience with this brand or this mark, excuse me.
Mm-hmm. than I could have ever [00:02:00] thought possible. And I am smoking so many of these cigars. It's obscene. I agree. Have you really?
**Senator:** We haven't heard about this in all .
**Gizmo:** Tell us more. Gizmo. . I, I am, I have completely fallen in love with the money number two. Yeah. I think it's big. The young stuff is, it's just smoking so good.
They
**Bam Bam:** seem to be so much more consistent than they've ever been. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Recently. And, uh, they're coming out of the boxes these days. These beautiful rappers just so well, just so well packed. Um, they must be fake. They must be fake . So, uh, let's, let's cut this thing boys. The montecristo number two. It's a pyramid 52 ring gauge by, it's got a little box, box press, right?
Yeah. I think that's just from being in the dress box. You know,
**Grinder:** you like that grinder, that move? . That was a good
**Bam Bam:** move.
**Gizmo:** wide open draw for me. Very smooth. Same. Yeah, same here. So we're smoking cigars tonight from uh, 2020 L t I think May 20 or October 20 or something, but only a couple years old. And I think that, you know, for the listener out there, this [00:03:00] is a great cigar to get young.
Keep it well, and I think it's gonna, how are we lighting? Smoke Great years. Apparently we're lighting now. Oh, sorry about that. I'm geez, I'm totally outta practice, boys. I'm just so excited about the cigar. We didn't, we didn't get the cold draw. Yeah. What are you guys getting on the cold draw? Nothing
**Bam Bam:** not
**Gizmo:** true.
I always get that Cuban twang. Little chocolatey, little
**Grinder:** leather. Yeah, definitely. Get the leather. Yeah, I don't get chocolate gizmo. Nailed the notes.
**Senator:** That's exactly what I'm getting. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** yeah, yeah. And you know, this cigar, like I said, it's, it, it's really the king of Cuban twang. When I see someone looking for that, that call it an X factor that only Cuban cigars have, I think this is the one that has it more than any other.
So, all right boys, let's like this thing, the Montecristo number two. , awesome. Pyramid 52 ring gauge by six and an eighth. Really nice in the hand. And I think this is really starting, if you want to call it the battle of the pyramids here on the pod, you know, we're gonna [00:04:00] have the P two coming up. The part, I guess we're gonna have the up in two.
Coming up. The, uh, Robinia Unico, all the twos,
**Grinder:** all the twos are coming. I mean, I, I, so I have a, I got a box of P two s with this shipment. The, and um, these out of the box compared to the P two, it was just light years ahead as far as aging process. Like the P two s were so, so young still.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, they do. More time.
I need a box. I need a box of these gift. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** Aren't the, isn't it a bit of a. . It's a, this is good. It's a flavor bomb. This is unlike right off the
**Gizmo:** light. Yeah, it's fantastic. I, I think there's something going on with young something cuz they've never been like this. There's something very special about nineteens, twenties, 20 ones that everybody is saying that they are just some of the best they've ever been, which is awesome.
That's great.
**Rooster:** This is one of the best Monty Twos I've had. I've had, I'm so, so surpris in the last 10 years.
**Grinder:** I, I don't, I don't doubt it. [00:05:00]
**Gizmo:** I
**Rooster:** had such very much high, I had such bad Monty twos, I almost gave up on this. On the Mons. Only Monty I Smoke is like the number one, the number three, which is fantastic.
And, and the, uh, the petite, uh, at Mun.
**Grinder:** Yeah. That's it. I mean, for the listener, this is, uh, fascinating because, um, you were, you were just, you were just reflecting on how you hate Monty
**Gizmo:** Toos. Yeah,
**Rooster:** yeah. I haven't had a good Monty too. I mean, this is, ,
**Gizmo:** this is fantastic. It makes me really happy because, um, you know, we joke you guys were busting my balls about how I've been raving about these every time I smoked them recently.
I mean, I, I've, I smoked 3, 4, 5 of these a week now, and I can't believe that they've slotted into my rotation that frequently. I'm smoking a ton of these.
**Bam Bam:** And it's funny, months ago we were talking about how inconsistent they were, they'd be plugged, draw
**Gizmo:** issues and why you had, you know, the comment that I remember making on the, the Linea episode was, why do you have to spend this kind of money on money Christo Yeah.
To [00:06:00] get this kind of experience. And I, I mean, what, six months later, right. I'm totally going back on that statement. How much, uh, how much are these? So you're looking probably about 14, 15. Yeah. You're probably looking at maybe somewhere between 13 and 17, depending, depending on where you get 'em. Great.
Great. And so these come in a variety of different, uh, uh, packaging. They come in a, uh, display box of, uh, 15 cigars, which are the cardboard boxes. Cardboard packs. Um, five packs of three. They come in a dress box of 10, which I really like. I really like the dress boxes of 10 cause I feel they're not as packed in there.
And then they also have the dress box of 25. I need a hundred cab. This. Yeah. . Yeah, I'll definitely, uh, I'm definitely gonna keep buying these. Hell yeah. This is really good. It's awesome. So what are you guys getting on the flavor this day? Just on
**Rooster:** the light, Sam? I'm getting some
**Gizmo:** chocolate. Yeah. Yeah, I
**Bam Bam:** think cocoa's right there.
**Gizmo:** Cocoa weather. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Maybe it's my taste buds, but I always, for me, the Cuban twang, I always [00:07:00] get dried fruit with that. For me, it's
**Gizmo:** definitely some
**Rooster:** Cuban twang of
**Gizmo:** us. Yeah. Yeah. I, I feel like theses the young ones, especially that I've had, I've had some older ones that I thought were mediocre at best.
Mm-hmm. . I had some thirteens, I had some sixteens and I had some, 17 seventeens were the worst of all of them. The thirteens were all right. The sixteens were mediocre, but never something that I was like passionately reaching for. And these, even younger just. Blowing them outta the water. Absolutely.
**Senator:** I, I think one of the things that's cool about this cigar is I, this was one of the first Cubans I had when I first started getting into Cuban cigars, and I think what's interesting is the flavor notes that a lot of you mentioned, cocoa dried fruit, those are a lot of flavor notes that we get outta new world sticks.
So I feel like it's a really good bridge if you, you know, have primarily smoked new world cigars to get into Cubans, you get a lot of those notes that you would get out of like even a, you know, something with a Maduro wrapper that's New World. , which I really like and I [00:08:00] think is very unique. Like this is probably one of the most chocolatey Cubans period.
I don't even know what I would compare it to. Agreed than this. Agreed. Milk
**Bam Bam:** chocolate. Yeah. Oh yes. Absolutely. Not deep, nothing deep. This is also one of the more accessible Cubans. It is. Right? And ubiquitously available. So what's interesting about you saying piggybacking, piggybacking on senator's comments, it makes sense for guys that are just getting into Cubans to really
**Gizmo:** try this cigar.
Now, what I think is interesting about you saying that because I, because I completely agree. Now, what I think is different about any other cigar that we've said that about is, I, I would not say that this cigar is mild or medium. I'd argue that this cigar is medium to full in flavor. So what's funny about you saying it's accessible?
It is, but it, it is a flavor bomb. A lot of
**Bam Bam:** guys confuse this. There's this, again, this confusion. Full flavor does not equate to a full bodied cigar. Yeah, that's a, it's a completely different thing.
**Gizmo:** Because it's, you're not getting a nicotine No, you know, kick on this. Oh, [00:09:00] there's
**Rooster:** very few Cubans that you would consider full body.
That's true. You know, strength wise. That's true. It's not a Nicaragua cigar. That's where you get the, uh,
**Gizmo:** you know, the strength. Full body, full body strength. And these are full flavored,
**Rooster:** uh, but yet more like a medium, medium to full cigar.
**Senator:** I'll say though, we're lucky the price point that we're able to get these for, because one of the things that frustrates the hell outta me when you travel abroad, and I've said this before, the only two cigars you can find hilarious leaving at a news stand are a part against D four and a MON two.
But the price that you pay for this cigar, I mean, how, how much were these
**Gizmo:** giz? I think I got these for 14 or 15. All right.
**Senator:** 14, 15 to stick. No exaggeration. I've been in London and Singapore and had to pay 40 something US dollars. Wow. Just for Monty too. That's
**Grinder:** outrageous.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. You know, it's kind of cool though if you can pick up one of these cigars at a new stand.
That's pretty awesome. That is awesome. .
**Gizmo:** You imagine just walking like in Times
**Senator:** Square. I'll take, I'll take a D four and Tubo. Yeah. And a Diet Coke .
**Bam Bam:** [00:10:00] It'd be a dream and a hot dog. That'd be a
**Grinder:** dream come true. And the Wall Street Journal. Thank you. And
**Bam Bam:** my Greek coffee
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This is really, uh, really, really a special cigar. Mm-hmm. burning. Great, great. Uh, great smoke output. Yeah.
**Grinder:** So lots of bad pub puy smoke. I was about to say that. I wish PBA were here.
**Gizmo:** PBA hates us, right? I, I'm a similar to you. I wish PBA was here because he's had a very similar opinion to what Rooster's had.
And I'm, I would think that this cigar, I think he would like this.
**Grinder:** Where did, where did he get the shitty perspective
**Senator:** on Monty? So, I think he, so he and I have debated this for a while. I, I think he got a bad box, which happens in any cigar. Yeah. Sometimes you just get a bad box. . And I think that that sort of ruined it for him.
But I think if he tried this, he'd be really pleased.
**Gizmo:** Quick aside, I got a bad box of DEF four s. Wait a second. Did I give you your first money too? Very possible. I think I did. I think you might have. I don't think there's, I think you did when you [00:11:00] ordered
**Bam Bam:** them. Yeah. Thank you very much. Is there such a thing as a bad box of DEF four s?
I got bad. Does that happen? I got
**Gizmo:** a bad box of D four s, ma'am. Wow. What was wrong with them? They smoked. Um, he left them on the roof of his car. No, , Touche. That was a bad, uh, the flavor was just, they didn't burn at all. And I had them, the humidity wasn't a problem. I had them for a while. They were stored probably about six months a year in my humidor.
Um, it was a box of 25 and versus another box in the same code versus other similarly aged cigars. And, you know, uh, in the dress box and, excuse me, in the, in the semino, uh, semi boy nature box. Tasted horrible.
**Grinder:** Sometimes there's a horrible, sometimes there's like a, like a stall when you're aging some of these cigars where it just, it kind of doesn't get as, as good as it should for a certain period of time.
It's like when you're cooking meat, like there's a stall when you're, when you're smoking, you know, a brisket, you [00:12:00] know? And I think for aging cigars, you age it long enough, it's going to, it, there's a, there's a
**Gizmo:** hump to get over. There may be something to what you're saying because what I, what I feel I tasted or experienced with that, and not to get off on defor s but I feel like what I experienced with that is I think that at some point they were so over humidified almost to the point of mold.
Right. That I think that there's just something happened there that wasn't good. Yeah. Anyways, back to the money too. Money too. Um, so let's talk about Cuban twang. I think that that's a, an interesting, uh, flavor note that I, I don't know if somebody put a gun to my head. Or put a microphone in front of my face that I could very adequately describe.
Do do any of you feel like you can do that? Because I don't know. I don't
**Grinder:** know what it is, so I don't know if I could
**Senator:** I I'll give it my best shot, but I, I'm with you in that what I'm about to say isn't, doesn't satisfy even. I also have description, description that I'm looking for, but I think it's a bit of like a, a salty minerality [00:13:00] that you get out of the cigar.
Like I, I, when I, when I think of Cuban twang and when I like this cigar, like I imagine me smoking it like on a beach, like in the Caribbean, it's very hard to describe, but for me it's like that salty minerality that kind of describes the flavor. So, so that
**Rooster:** saltiness is, I think what the Cuban twang is.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Right. It distinguishes it from any other cigar.
**Gizmo:** It's almost like think it's like there's something on the front of your tongue or something. Yeah. Like in the roof of your mouth. Yep, yep. There's something that happens there that. I guess, could we, we might equate it to salt. Maybe it's from
**Grinder:** the water.
Probably. Probably the human sweat from the rollers. ,
**Gizmo:** thanks a lot. Let's that visual, that's not advertising. This is the last episode of the podcast, . Uh, I, you know, I don't know if it's from the soil or the water. I don't know what it is, but it's cutting. That why? Cutting that.
**Bam Bam:** I quit. I quit cigars .
**Gizmo:** So Cuban
**Rooster:** twang equates sweat, roller
**Gizmo:** [00:14:00] sweat.
**Bam Bam:** Jesus. How dare you.
**Gizmo:** No, I think that, and I think that it's important to have that discussion around this cigar because I think the cigar more than any has it. So predominantly, uh, for me, I, when I like this, it's like if somebody handed me a, a Nicaraguan fake man too, that would be the, maybe one of the easier cigars to go, this is, this is off.
Mm-hmm. , you know, because it's so, it's so classic to the cigar, but I think it is assaulting it. So I think it's a minerality. , there's something about the way the smoke coats the, the, the roof of your mouth. It coats your entire mouth.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I
**Senator:** wanna say something else about this, the, the construction of this cigar.
So we, we've talked about how we've had bad Monty two s before, but I want to make one distinction. I've smoked a lot of Monty two s. It's remarkable to me that I have never once had a plugged Monty two. That's interest. I haven't either. Has anyone I That's true. I've really like my problem's been like the flavors muddled sometimes.
Doesn't burn well, doesn't burn well. So, but I have [00:15:00] never ever taken a perfect draw twice
**Bam Bam:** to Monty two. So I've had two plug Mons and I've had, you know, the oil, the epi, epi two s and uh, those are also kind of similar. And in performance, they, for me, it's always a plugged cigar.
**Rooster:** Yeah. For me, the Monty twos that I've had in the past that I was talking about, the flavors were like non-existent.
They were like absolutely flat. Like I wasn't getting anything out of it. This morning I had an edmundo that
**Gizmo:** was just like that. It was flat. Was it
**Rooster:** super? There was like no flavor. No, no, not like highly aged like last couple of years, maybe 2019 bucks or something. But I get no flavor. I get huge amount of flavor out of the petite edmundo, but the regular double ed munos, nothing.
I don't know. It's just, you know. Yeah. It's one of those things, it's a bad box. Yeah. I mean, this on the other hand is just phenomenal.
**Gizmo:** It's so
**Bam Bam:** flavorful.
**Grinder:** Yeah. This is a good
**Bam Bam:** one. It's un
**Gizmo:** it's a amazing, you know what's interesting about you saying a bad box? This is, I've kind of bounced around between several boxes that [00:16:00] I have just to see like, wait a second, am I getting just a, a plus?
Call it a P S P, like an amazing box, or am I experiencing something that's happened pretty commonly and I think I have four or five boxes. I've tried one of each similar ages, and they are, same thing swinging. They're all swinging for the fences. Oh yeah. That's good. Good to know. .
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Tasting very nicely with this rum that we're having tonight.
Yeah. Let's
**Gizmo:** talk about the rum. I haven't tasted the rum yet. The Appleton estate, 12 year aged.
**Grinder:** It's, it's good. A lot of warm feelings in the room for Appleton Estate from our dear senator .
**Senator:** I, I love this rum .
**Gizmo:** That's great. Wow. It's really good. Oh,
**Grinder:** so is it, is it, is it as, this is like when you're in Jamaica and you're real Jamaican, this is what you want to drink.
**Senator:** Apple tea. So in Jamaica, like their version of like a well rum that like every human being that's drinking rum is drinking is called Ray and Nephew. That's like [00:17:00] ubiquitous throughout Jamaica. Like that's what any bar you go to, you're gonna get Ray and Nephew and Ray and Nephew ironically bought and owns Appleton.
And then I would say for age statement rums Appleton estate is like the gold standard in Jamaica.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So we talked about it a little bit. I'm sorry to interrupt, but most rums don't have age statements. Right? That's, that's, so
**Senator:** yeah. I, I would say the vast majority do not. Okay. Um, and then some brands have higher end stuff that they do have age statements on.
Oh yeah. Um, I mean, if you want, I can talk a little bit just about Appleton and, and kind of even some of the different age statements that they have.
**Grinder:** I was gonna say, I would love to hear that because I was, you know, just observing. I've seen rums more so than scotch is have age statements that are just like so old.
And I'm like, how is this a 35 year old rum that's $60? Yeah. I just saw know. That's bullshit. I just saw a 30 year rum. Or maybe not 60. I don't know. Something that can't be something that's not three 50
**Senator:** because I'll, I'll give you an example. So, so Appleton [00:18:00] Estate has a 50 year rum, but it goes for like six grand a bottle.
Wow. Wow. . So like they have heavily aged, heavily aged ones, but you gotta pay a real premium for it.
**Rooster:** But don't they blend like certain different ages? That's
**Gizmo:** what I was gonna say. I remember when we did the four square uh, rum and PVA went into a deep dive on it. So
**Senator:** it's no different than scotch. So that's one of the things that's interesting about age statement rum.
They're actually identical in the sense that, and I can only say this for Appleton estate, so I'm not saying every rum I know they don't cut corners. I'm sure plenty of brands do. Um, and I don't think Foursquare does either. Um, when Appleton estate puts 12 year on that bottle, that guarantees that the minimum age of anything in that bottle is at least 12.
There could be some stuff that's 14, 15 years, uh, blend in there with it. The same with a single malt. They have to guarantee the minimum is 12. 1212 plus. Exactly.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Okay. I didn't know that. I should have known that.
**Gizmo:** So on the episode we did that had the Foursquare rum, I remember Puba saying that that guy that makes the foursquare rum is at war, has kind [00:19:00] of declared war on the rum industry because of the insincere age statements.
Hundred percent. A hundred percent. You know, it's nice to hear that this is a rum that's also kind of subscribed to authentic age statements. That's
**Senator:** the thing. So like in, in Jamaica, they're extremely, extremely stringent about the requirements for rum and just any eight statement that goes on the bottles.
I think, if I'm being honest, there are a number of Dominican rums. I think. Like where was the Foursquare from? Is that Barbados? I think that's, I think it's Barbados, yes. Which would make sense for whatever reason. I think like in the Dominican on some of the other islands, it's a lot looser what you can claim around the rum and there's a shit ton of added sugar in a lot of these rums.
I mean, rum is obviously from sugar cane, but when you take a sip and it, it tastes like, you know, a Jolly Rancher or syrup, like, you know, they've added a ton to it. And one of the reasons I've always loved Appleton estate, and you can probably tell from drinking this, it's not overly sweet. , like [00:20:00] it's very balanced for a rum.
I think there are a lot of Cuban rums that are like that, that do not add any sugar and you're just getting it straight from the sugar cane. So that, that's why, you know, Appleton to me has always been a brand that I trust and, and a rum that I really enjoy. Um, and I think they have a really just cool history.
I mean, they're, they're founded in 1749. Wow. I mean, okay. They've been around for a very long time. Um, and then I think even just a, a cool fact about, um, who's really responsible to the brains behind the operation now. Um, Appleton Estate, um, has the world's first female master blender. It's a woman named Joy Spence, who for the last 35 years has been the master Blender Wow.
For
**Gizmo:** 35 years. Wow. Wow. Very cool. It's crazy.
**Senator:** Um, and then I mentioned, obviously they have a number of different aid statements, so they're sort of entry level, um, entry level rum has around four years. Then they have a reserve blend that's around six years. They have a 12 that we're drinking a [00:21:00] 21 and a 50 year old.
And I mentioned the 50 year old goes for like six grand a bottle. Um, but there's something for everyone. And the rum we're drinking, I mean, this is now Grindr territory, but it's a blend, uh, of rum from pot and column stills. Um, and, uh, that, that's all I've
**Grinder:** got. Nice. So I c I have a hard time finding this.
Where did you find this gizmo Found it. Oh,
**Gizmo:** gizmo. I found it, I found it at a place, uh, about 10 minutes from my house. Nice. Yeah.
**Grinder:** I, I mean, I always look, I'm always on the lookout for it and I never ever can find it. Yeah. There's
**Gizmo:** a, it's a little shop I can point you to it. It was 52 bucks. Yeah. I mean,
**Grinder:** and there wasn't bad.
I mean, it's great. I, this call me crazy, but when I smell this, you smell it. I smell like a bag of aromatic pipe tobacco. Yeah. That's for interesting comment For any pipe smokers in the listen, like I smell pipe tobacco right
**Bam Bam:** now. It's on the nose. Really exquisite. It's exquisite. Can I smell that? Yeah, [00:22:00]
**Gizmo:** you gotta get your nose in there.
That's a really interesting comment cuz it does smell like that. Doesn't it smell like when you put your face pipe tobacco, you go to Aist and you stick your face in the jar. Cherry cavender shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very interesting. Yeah. Well you know what, what I find very cool about this, this scotch and pairing it with this cigar, which I kind of, it's a rum, sir.
Or excuse me, the rum. Wow, good Call the rum. I'm just so used to saying scotch on this podcast. the rum. Uh, pairing it with this salty twangy. Yeah. Cuban. It's kind of uh, they go
**Grinder:** like for like Exactly. Yes. Yeah. I mean like you can tell it's Caribbean, I think. You know, it's got this odd sweetness, this apple crisp sweet.
Cherry Cavendish as, as, uh, roosters said, I think the pairing is really enjoyable. And then sync that up to the saltiness of the so, so-called Cuban twang. It's just like salt balancing out the sweetness. It's great. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So it they're perfectly complimentary. Yeah.
**Senator:** So it's actually very, very funny that you say that.
Um, and [00:23:00] I'm, I'm looking some of this up because I, I know, I know that what you're saying is real and exists, but I'm trying to understand why. So there's a thing when you talk about Jamaican rum, and there's obviously a ton of different brands there. They say that Jamaican rum has this funk to it. They call it a funk.
And I exactly what you're describing that smell as I look this up, it says, in rum, the funk refers to an array of distinctive aromas produced by organic compounds known as Esthers. These aromas can vary from ripe tropical fruit notes, um, to notes, uh, moving into like even clay, a whole bunch of different things.
So what you're picking up is very real. Like it's a, it's a characteristic that's very unique, um, in, in Jamaican rum. And I like, because when you taste it, it, it's just, it's very balanced in that it's not overly, uh, sugary or sweet. You're getting a whole bunch of different flavors and I think we were just pulling out a bunch of them.
I think there's so many, and I get nutmeg and [00:24:00] all kinds of
**Grinder:** dried fruit. It's subtle though. It's not dominating. No. Doesn't predominate or dominate the taste, the taste profile, which is great. It still tastes like a rum. It does this to
**Bam Bam:** me. It's very sophisticated.
**Grinder:** That's the thing I would, it's,
**Senator:** it's unusual.
This is one of the more complex,
**Gizmo:** it's very rums. I like that they're not pulling the flavor from this added sugar, which I feel like anytime I get a, an average rum, I'm not, I'm not, I never really enjoy it because I just feel like it's like kind of like candy in a way. Yeah. It's just, it's there's, this is, it tastes
**Grinder:** natural to me.
There's so many different whispers of flavor with this pairing with, with this cigar. Truly Cuban, you know, Monty two, iconic, whatever, iconic word you want to describe it. And then the, the, the faint tastes of these, you know, fruit. I'm getting, I'm getting apple fruit, the cherry, the funk, you know, it's, it's subtle and it, and all the different subtleness is really kind of marrying well together.
Bam, bam loves the funk.[00:25:00]
**Gizmo:** I love when you're talking the third person, by the way, ,
**Senator:** but it's funny
**Grinder:** how you say, well, there is, there is a third person for bam, bam. It's, there is, he
**Gizmo:** comes out there every once in a while. He makes an appearance.
**Bam Bam:** It's an absolute
**Grinder:** alter ego. Yeah, no doubt about it. What
**Senator:** is that? I was gonna say. No, it, it's funny that you say that it, it's not very dominant because there are some rums where like that funk you're describing is like super, super, super dominant.
And in this it's like very balanced. You're just getting little notes of a lot of different things that I think just make for really complex, it's enjoyable rums. It's,
**Grinder:** it's sophisticated. Without a doubt, the second half of the cigar is really kicking me. You're already on the second half . Sorry. Wow. The second, I'm sorry, the second, third.
Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. The second third. Yeah. You're not as far along. No, no, that's not clearly that's not half of the cigar.
**Gizmo:** So, would you describe the cigar? What kind of act play would you describe The cigar? Because for me, I feel like it is, it's very complex and flavorful and interesting, but I don't feel like it changes [00:26:00] much throughout, which I like.
I do
**Senator:** too. I agree with that. I, I would say it's one act in that it's consistent all the way through. I just think it picks up in strength as you go, as you work your way through it.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. . And I think that that also, you know, plays into how fast you're smoking it. If you're pulling a lot, if you're heating it up, I think it's gonna give you a little more oomph.
But if you take your time, if you milk an, you know, an hour out of hour, 15 out of this, as opposed to like, you know, uh, pagoda would smoke this in 40 minutes. Um, you know, if you don't heat it up too much, it's gonna, the, um, it's gonna be good. I
**Grinder:** say this about cigars. fairly frequently, but one of the things that I really love is the, the aroma of the cigar.
So like the, me enjoying someone else in the room, smoke a good cigar can be just as pleasurable sometimes as smoking it yourself. Yep. And this, this cigar to me is like very classic when I was like 16 years old at the golf course and some guy was smoking a cigar down the, down the hole. And like, I was get getting the, [00:27:00] the gust of that like this to me is that, is like that summertime, like green grass, beautiful scenery.
It's like quintessential to me.
**Gizmo:** You know what, it's interesting you say about the aroma coming off of it too, if you smell where it's burning the burn line. I, I love how these smell at the burn line . That was, that
**Senator:** was too much for
**Gizmo:** me. , take it easy. Grinder, , take it easy.
**Grinder:** Little, little, little warm in the nostrils.
Send in the nurse please.
**Senator:** To that point though, I think this was a perfect pairing in that both the Monty two and the rum are just so flavorful, aromatic.
**Grinder:** This is great. It's awesome.
**Bam Bam:** Fantastic
**Gizmo:** pairing. You know, we talked a little bit about counterfeit, we joked about it, but this cigar, I think is, aside from Cohiba, which obviously, um, is, is really counterfeited, this cigar is counterfeited, [00:28:00] like almost more than any other regular production cigar outside of a Cohiba ver buso.
Well, it's easy. Yeah. You know, it's an easy one to do with the band that, you know what the problem is with Monte Crito is this simple brown band is so easy to replicate. Mm-hmm. , there's nothing special really about it. There's a little embossed on it for the, what do they call it? Uh uh, Florida Lee.
Florida Lee. Um, but otherwise the band is really not that. There's nothing really that special about it. However, I do, I do hear that if you take the band off and you put a a, a black light on it, There is an mc. Really
**Bam Bam:** hidden. Are
**Grinder:** you serious on the band? Yeah. So where on the white do you have your black light on?
You feel like that's something you should carry with you? Yes. For the listener.
**Gizmo:** I'll check all your, I'll check all your bands before we go home. Buy your black lights immediately.
That's a cool fact. Yeah. There's a little mc on the band underneath
**Grinder:** Mc Hammer. Hammer. Yeah, I was gonna say in case anyone knows, wants to know who controls the mic. can't
**Bam Bam:** touch this. [00:29:00]
**Gizmo:** Yeah, this is uh, this is really, really delicious. Oh. So I wanted to bring something up Uhoh, because I feel
**Bam Bam:** vindicated. Why are you looking at me?
**Gizmo:** Well, I'm looking at you cuz I'm about to look at him. There you go.
**Bam Bam:** You wav you're directed that way. You're waving over there.
**Gizmo:** You it up finger because I'm about to throw it to Senator, but I got chastised a little bit, couple episodes back for walking out of a movie. Oh, oh, oh. Not at all. And you know, this is good.
You know, I, uh, I, I was, I was feeling a little bad about it. Was I too critical of the Batman movie? Was I too rough on it? Did I walk out unnecessarily? And Senator, what was your experience with the
**Senator:** Batman? I have to say, I'm glad you brought it up, because I did say that I would publicly back you up here,
Uh, first of all, let's just make sure that we separate this from everything else, and that you, you can be a little too hot sometimes, in your reaction to, I
**Gizmo:** don't know what you're talking about,
**Senator:** but in this, in [00:30:00] this instance in particular, , you were spot on. I mean, my, my wife and I the other day started watching the, the new Batman movie.
It's the only like superhero thing I will watch. Like, me too. The only one I don't wanna see Spider-Man, any of that other. only
Batman
**Gizmo:** and Marvel. I'm completely out on Marvel a hundred percent. After the second or third Ironman movie I was
out
**Senator:** and like all the, you know, the, the Christian BA movies, like amazing.
They're great. Right? The last like three that he did outstanding. Chris, just by any metric period, Chris Christopher Nolan was the director. Yeah. And you know, I wasn't that excited about the Twilight guy that they chose to be Batman in this, but I was at least happy It was not Ben Affleck, uh, that that would've completely ruined it for me.
Um, but to gizmo's credit, it was awful. I actually think he was too kind to it. Oh, it was, but was it too dark? It's not even that, it was just so uninteresting. Well, so boring. The,
**Bam Bam:** the [00:31:00] acting was.
**Gizmo:** So only,
**Senator:** the only acting that was actually really good in it was the woman, um, who plays Catwoman Kra, Kravitz's daughter.
Travis's daughter Zoe, Zoe Kravitz.
**Gizmo:** She was great,
**Bam Bam:** but also, you know who else I liked? She's smoking hot.
**Gizmo:** She is smoking hot. Okay. But you know who else I liked in the film was, uh, Colin Farrell played the Penguin.
**Senator:** Uh, so I'm gonna have to disagree with you that the reason I'm gonna say this, he looked no, it completely unrecognizable at all that it was Colin Ferrell.
And at that point, like you couldn't tell it was his voice. You couldn't tell it looked like him. I'm like, why did they even cast Colin Ferrell? Like anyone could have played that role. It, it just, it did nothing for me that he was behind all these prosthetics and weird shit they did with him. Yeah, that's true.
So I was like, that's kind of a waste. That's true of casting him.
**Grinder:** I couldn't
**Gizmo:** recognize him either. Yeah. So
**Rooster:** remember when Jack Nicholson played the
**Gizmo:** Joker? He was awesome. To me. That was, he was
**Senator:** Grace. Awesome. That was so, yeah. And remember Heath Ledger? Heath Ledger was, that was an
**Grinder:** incredible spec.
Spectacular. Even, even Joaquin Phoenix. I thought that was
**Senator:** Oh, yeah. A Joker movie. [00:32:00] That was great. That's a great actor. Absolutely. He was perfect for
**Grinder:** that movie. Yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, I, I love Batman. I've always, I've always loved Batman and my wife always teases me because like, you know, just another billionaire superhero, you know, trope or whatever,
Um, and I, I, so I was kind of snarly making snide comments to you about your, your departure from the, from the, from the viewing. But I was also, uh, disappointed Yeah. In it, because what I found was that I just wasn't, there was nothing that was grabbing my attention from a storyline. It kind of was like bo it was kind of bopping around a little bit and I'm like 45 minutes into it and I'm still like, what the fuck are we do?
Like, what are we doing here? Yes. Yeah. It made no sense , like, what is exactly what we were saying? Is there anything that's trying or we trying to do here? . Um, and I did think, I don't like Batman to wear eyeliner. I totally agree with that. Come on. [00:33:00] Really? So, you know, the whole he was, he was playing the vampire thing a
**Gizmo:** little too much.
There, there, there was an element about it, and I think I mentioned it on the, on the podcast where I talked about it. The thing f there's two factors for me that, that failed in this movie. Number one was believability. When you're setting up a premise, let's say like the Joker film with Joaquin Phoenix, there's an element that they're trying to make it believable and they really succeeded in that film.
I don't know if you guys saw that Joker film with Joaquin Phoenix was not a superhero movie. Very believable. That was a thriller, uh, uh, psychological, or it was an origin, origin story, and he was a tortured soul and really did it well. What I didn't like about this film is they tried too hard on believability, and they failed in that.
For me, I didn't believe this guy was Batman. I didn't believe that any of this was plausible. I, I didn't believe any of it. And number two, I think that there was. an attempt for the film to be too dark and almost feel almost like an A 24 film like Hereditary or Mid Somar or [00:34:00] these other recent horror films that have really succeeded in the theater.
Almost like trying to be low budget, but you know, it's not, it's too dark. But they're not succeeding cuz they're still trying to make it a little fun. Well, yeah, I just didn't, it didn't, no one, nothing connected
**Grinder:** for me. No one really likes postapocalyptic shit unless there's zombies involved and like War
**Gizmo:** World.
War of the World. Just the two. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Aliens, zombies. When it's Batman in the post apocalypse likes crazy world, upside down world, then it's kind of like, I don't, I don't want, I
**Senator:** don't wanna say that with all of that, but I'm even willing to go so far as to say, like, I can accept if they want to do everything you just described.
Okay. Not my preference, but like, I can live with it. Sure. The thing that just kills me, I, I agree with you on the believability. I never felt like the guy was Batman. No. Like, one of the things that's cool about Batman, right? He's this superhero. But there are times and there are moments where you're like, holy shit, I'd be terrified if this dude, you know, rolled up to me on the street.
Like, you know, you watch like Christian Bale, like when he's at his angriest. Yes. Like, [00:35:00] he's a scary dude. Yeah. Yep. This guy is a joke.
**Gizmo:** Well, to me, like even like there was a scene, and this is me, this is, okay. This is Gizmo nitpick that you, you mentioned, right? There's a scene where he's standing in front of you, you can see his.
Top to bottom, head to feet. And when he's walking in his boots, it's almost like the boots are too heavy for his legs. Oh, oh, oh. And he can't remember this. He can't like lift the boot. Like he looks like he's awkwardly trying to maneuver these heavy ass boots that
**Senator:** they put on the guy. It's so funny you say that.
My, my wife even noticed that and said something like, is there something wrong? Like, look at how he's walking . Like it looked fun. Like you thought like there was something wrong with him when that was not at all supposed to be part of the storyline. The other thing is
**Grinder:** he's, he's creeping like a vampire.
You can't shake that out of his blood. He's creeping . The the other
**Senator:** thing that kills me in this movie,
**Gizmo:** what movie was he on? Twilight? Yeah. Yeah. All of them.
**Senator:** Terrible. Yeah, but how hard is it for all the little like special effects things they do, like the bat mobile? It's very simple. It should look fucking cool.
It should be fast, sleek, all of that. Whatever [00:36:00] thing this guy drove out, it looked like a like, Dune buggy or something that they just like strapped some shit onto. I was like, this is like, I could make this problem.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Like a little orange. This
**Grinder:** is not a be it looked like a black Dodge Viper. I mean, it wasn't, yeah.
It just, it was terrible.
**Senator:** It was, and then did you even see the like bat suit he's wearing? I'm like, this is not a real like Yeah. Hero.
**Grinder:** It looked like, it looked like Aunt Betsy sewed it for him the
**Senator:** night before. Yeah. Yeah. just everything top to bottom. So we watched half the movie, we stopped, we said we would come back to it.
Never weeks later, never. We have not come back to it. Yeah. .
**Grinder:** Yeah. You know, and it, it was not good.
**Gizmo:** And, and I, uh, you know, I didn't finish it either. I, I know they're making more of 'em. I hope they make better ones, but it's hard, it's hard for me as a guy I grew up with. Listen, as a kid there were a lot of cool Batman movies and they never, it would, there was never a pretense of, of, of believability in the, the Michael Keaton Batman or the George Clooney Batman that was always supposed to be stupid.
Arnold Schwartzenegger, I, Mr. Fries or whatever. Those, [00:37:00] those are awful, you know, but, but. They were almost more entertaining to me than That was fun though. They were, they're fun, honestly, because they were, they
**Grinder:** to be fun. One
**Bam Bam:** and two, the two key first Keaton movies was they were Okay. Very entertaining.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Yeah. And the, okay, now you get to real movies with Christopher Nolan and, and Christian Bale. I mean, that's, those movies
**Grinder:** were, those are serious. Those
**Senator:** are all time those serious films. Cinematic Masterpiece. They are all three
**Gizmo:** of them. All three of them. Fantastic. So, oh my God, that's, oh, yeah.
Incredible. The Bain character that, uh, Heath Ledger's joker character. He was awesome. Music was amazing. The music, the music on Zimmer. So, yeah. So I'm feeling vindicated in my opinion of this film.
**Senator:** You should, I, I, I, I honestly feel bad that, I thought it was ridiculous that you walked outta that movie and also fuck the critics, because the reason that I thought Gizmo was out of his mind walking out, if you look up this movie, was that a 90 Everything from IMDB to Rotten Tomatoes.
Yeah. Like you. Eight point something people say, it's an outstanding Batman. It's not even watchable. I felt let
**Grinder:** down because you were so excited for it. I [00:38:00] was. You were like showing us like the trailer. The trailers
**Gizmo:** were cool. The trailers look great. The trailer, they did a great job and normally I find with movies, oftentimes the trailers the weakest part.
You know? Uh, this, to me, it was the strongest part. That's, if I only saw that, I would've been way more satisfying. You know? It did make a billion dollars. Of course
**Senator:** it did. Yeah. , I'm Batman,
**Grinder:** so the global sales. I had a, I had a Batman backpack when I was a kid. Costume. No. Well, no,
**Gizmo:** I think I did that
**Senator:** for Halloween.
One, I, I was Batman for Halloween several times. In fact, I loved that last year. ,
**Gizmo:** I think there's just, at the work, at the work Halloween
**Grinder:** party, there's something every, every,
**Bam Bam:** every, with Echo as a sidekick. .
**Grinder:** actually,
**Senator:** oh no, I'm sorry Walter. You know what's actually very funny? There's a great photo of, of my wife and Echo, where one year my wife was Catwoman.
And Echo has this bow tie on, and he looks like Alfred Alfred movies. And there's this great photo, the two of them staring at each other. It's incredible.
**Gizmo:** That's cool. Awesome. So you were [00:39:00] saying Grindr, we interrupted you, you had a backpack. Uh,
**Grinder:** what was I saying? Oh, I was saying there's, I think there's something, um, like inherent is, you know, there's something about little boys wanting to be Batman.
Like every little boy wants to be Batman. Absolutely. I think, you know, because what do you wanna do when you grow up? Well, I still want to kick ass and have fun and have a lot of money. That's basically what Batman is. Absolutely. And he's a good guy. Yeah, but he has a bad guy. Edge.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's like the, it's like a, it's like a modern take on Robinhood
**Grinder:** in way.
It's like Elon Musk. If, if maybe Elon, maybe he's like secretly
**Gizmo:** Batman. If anybody is, it could be him. That's,
**Grinder:** it could be Elon. I mean, he fucking goes to space. we're showing, we're
**Gizmo:** seeing the pictures of the, oh, that's a great picture. Oh my God. You gotta pass, pass that around. We gotta pass that around.
That is hilarious. And your wife's face is hilarious. . She's so, so, so in character. That's cool. Oh, she's so serious. . Look at the, she's got like the fucker, like, so, so, uh, so Senator's passing around a picture of his [00:40:00] wife holding their cat dressed as Catwoman and, and Alfred. It's fantastic. So, um, yeah, so anyway, I, I, I think, uh, it was very disappointing for me.
I thought the critics got this one way wrong. Um, and, uh, I will not be, uh, I will not be excited about a future Batman film. I can tell you that.
**Grinder:** Well, the thing is they have to fucking keep making them. They do. Because if you don't make 'em, you'll lose it kind of thing. Goes up to public domain. Is that, what am I
**Gizmo:** talking Right?
I don't know if, I don't know if they, I don't know if that has to do with the movie making. I think just that the, I think that did, I think the movie, uh, companies, Warner Brothers, you know, unlike Disney who has everything, they only have so many properties that are, that are almost near guarantee.
Stunners, every time they go out, they're gonna make, like, like Roosters said, a billion bucks. I mean, not many movies you can count on that. I mean, as bad as this movie
**Rooster:** that you guys are saying is, it's still made a billion
**Gizmo:** dollars.
**Senator:** I mean, it's, oh, I mean, there are tons of shitty movies that have made, uh,
**Gizmo:** boatloads of Money all the fast and furious
**Rooster:** film.
That's so, that's why they'll keep
**Gizmo:** making you Yeah. [00:41:00]
**Senator:** But it's just so, so sad because Right, like, here, here's a, I think a great example, like if you were to compare this to the whole Bond series, right? Like there's a pressure that comes with playing a character like James Bond, like Batman. And when the person who did it before you was so outstanding, if you're the next director, if you're the next lead actor playing Batman, you feel like you need to live up to that.
I'm just stunned that by almost every single metric, no one delivered in that movie outside of Count Woman. That was about it. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Well, the, the, the, the Ridler was kind of scary to begin with.
**Gizmo:** in this film. Yeah. See, I just don't like that guy as an actor. I agree. Ever since he agree, ever since he got his brains beat out by, uh, Daniel Day Lewis, and there will be blood with a bowling pin.
I just, that guy is like, oh my god. A joke to me. That's that guy. That's that guy. I hate that guy. I, that's what I'm saying.
**Bam Bam:** By the way, that's one of my favorite
**Grinder:** movies. I love that. That's such a good movie. But his, [00:42:00] his character in that, you, you, you wanna punch him as soon as his head off, as soon as you see him and then talking, you know, doing the whole God thing and Yep.
Remember the
**Bam Bam:** scene with the, in the Mud pool,
**Gizmo:** Love it. And when he's saying, I have a milkshake and oh, and I, a very long straw.
**Senator:** So just a hilarious story's colder. It's called Drainage Grinder will appreciate this. When I was younger in my career, I guess, uh, as a consultant, some other firm we were competing against, we were both working for a client.
And I succeeded eventually in edging that firm out of that business. And my boss at the time was like, so proud of me, and he just looks at me. He sends me the, the, the I drink your milkshake, uh, like, uh, video, and he's like, that was you. I'm very proud. .
**Grinder:** Excellent. Awesome. Excellent. I love
**Gizmo:** that. Uh, so, uh, the second half of the Monty two boys, I'm getting, it's, it's picking up in twang almost.
Yeah, it's, it is. I'm getting even more of what we were talking [00:43:00] about now. Yeah. It's, I, I, I don't know if it's, I'd say it's picking up in strength. Certainly we've been talking, so I'm not hitting it as much, but the flavor is picking up a little bit for me in that twang. I'm, I'm really enjoying it.
Absolutely. I feel like it's less chocolatey. It's, it's more like leather and twang right now for me. .
**Grinder:** You're right. So is is twang, uh, is there an official definition of twang in the, in the cigar book that we're getting? Uh, that's
**Gizmo:** a good question. I don't know. I don't know. Um,
**Grinder:** we should, we should get lounge lizard shirts that say the definition of Cuban twang, just twang in the back and then like what our definition of twang is.
**Gizmo:** It's like the, it's the X factor in these cigars that no new world will ever have. That's true. It no new world will ever have that. They've tried and tried and I've never to, I've never tasted it anywhere, but in a good Cuban cigar. We should. We should. Well, we're gonna make some merch.
**Grinder:** We gotta make some mech.
We're
**Gizmo:** gonna make some merch . So what are you guys thinking about the money to right now?
**Bam Bam:** Really love halfway way through. Really love this cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. [00:44:00] Love it. Yeah. It
**Rooster:** hasn't changed much in flavor. No, but like you said, like the chocolate notes have kind of subsided a bit. Mm-hmm. You know, and it's, it's ramping up, getting gained
**Gizmo:** a little bit
**Bam Bam:** in, uh, body and strength and fullness.
Yeah.
**Grinder:** It's, I mean, it's getting its final third, you know, intensity for me right now, which is good and bad. Um, I find that with, with with Cubans like the final third, sometimes the intensity picks up on some of the harsher areas that are not as well rounded.
**Bam Bam:** I will say though, I think the older the Cuban is, the less you get that.
Yeah. Probably right. .
**Gizmo:** Like it smooths out, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Like, it's smooth. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm, because you're closer, you're,
**Grinder:** you're close. Go ahead. You're, when you're down here, you're closer to where the combustion is. Yeah. So it doesn't cool off and, you know, I don't, I don't know what I'm saying.
I'm
**Gizmo:** just trying to, and, and, you know, it's also, I think it's an in, uh, it's, it's intentional by the Master blender to, you know, blend these cigars the same way and keep them as consistent as possible, cigar to cigar. But [00:45:00] certainly they, they're planning on this little journey that we're going on right now in the blend.
They're, they're planning this, how long they're mapping this guy. How, how long have they been making this guy? This has been since the 1950s, 1940s, even before. So imagine
**Grinder:** that. Imagine the pressure on that guy. Yeah. To be like, you have to make Amani too taste the same way it tasted in 1952.
**Rooster:** crazy. Do you think it tastes like it tasted
**Gizmo:** back then?
There's no way , you
**Grinder:** know, it's, there's too, there's too many plastics in the soil these days. You know?
**Gizmo:** You know what I love? Not in Cuba. You know what I love though? And, and we talked about this and this is. , you know, talk about the journey of smoking Cuban cigars in, in, in a room like this. Like to me, the fact that you guys are all enjoying this as much as I've been recently enjoying this, like it does enhance this experience of, of sharing cigars, and it, it, it is, it's really, really wild that for 15 bucks that we can have such a quality experience with a hand rolled pro.
It's really [00:46:00] amazing
**Senator:** to me. I, I, I love what you're saying because it's funny, I mean, before you had tried a Monty two bam, and I, I feel like were really the only lizards. Yeah. Regularly smoking Monty two s. That's true. I know Rooster had gotten a bad box and was not so crazy about them at the time. , and I'm not sure if Grindr maybe just wasn't on this cigar at that time, or if you got into them later, but I I, I did not feel this was a stick that like I would light up and everyone would be wanting to light up the same thing.
Yeah. So this is great.
**Grinder:** It is,
**Bam Bam:** it is great. It'll be interesting in the next few months, future purchases
**Gizmo:** what they're like. Yeah. And I, you know, I, I'm, I'm really, I feel like right now based on not only my experience smoking these and having old, having had older ones, um, but I'm curious not only are we in like a really special window right now with these cigars and others, I mean, look at D four s.
Yeah. Look at maybe look at up and two s I mean, I mean the last couple years of those P two s, I mean, I think we're just in a special window of maybe of, of Cuban cigars. Mm-hmm. . And I'm curious [00:47:00] what theses that we're smoking right now, if we hold them for 2, 3, 4 more years, are they gonna get better? Right.
You know, how are they gonna change? Are they gonna get worse? Who knows? But I'm gonna smoke the shit out of these.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely No pressure savoring every cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. Mine's still burning really, really, really well too. Look at the combustion man. Combustion. It's smoke output. The only time I've had to touch it up when I was, uh, when I was talking, you know.
Yeah. Give a little touch
**Senator:** up. It's like the perfect amount of combustion. You know, there are some cigars, like I think I talk about some of the larger ring, uh, ring gauge Cubans, like the, um, the E two, the parus E two or even a QD 54, where like you're a chimney. The smoke output is even overwhelming sometimes and you have to kind of be in the mood for that.
Yep. And then others that just don't draw that much. But this is, it's like the perfect amount of smoke
**Grinder:** output. Yeah. What's the ring gauge on this, cuz? 54. It's 52. 52 50. So like, this is about where I am right now. This is probably about as wide [00:48:00] of a ring gauge I'm ever gonna enjoy.
**Gizmo:** That is a really interesting comment.
I, I'll tell you why in a second. I had
**Grinder:** a, I had a Mag 46 today. Mm-hmm. and I was sitting in my backyard. It was beautiful day. Yeah, where we are in the state of the world. Um, and I was reflecting on how much I love that ring gauge, like the 46
**Gizmo:** 46. I'm like, the Corona Gorda I think is one of the best.
**Grinder:** It's, it was just, it was like the perfect ring gauge for me.
And I was, you know, I was just reflecting on how much I, that those sticks and smaller ones and, um, I mean this is probably, you know, this 52 you said this is about as big as I would I'd ever go. Um, I'm just in more into the smaller sizes these days.
**Senator:** I mean, I just think that tor the torpedo shape generally is, is just perfect because Right.
The fact that it, it goes to that point at the end, what you're actually Yeah. Drawing on is actually smaller and ring gauge than the rest of the cigar. So [00:49:00] is this
**Grinder:** a torpedo or a pyramid though? Because there are differences, right. I would say a torpedo, a pyramid, really. , really? So
**Senator:** it is a pyramid. Gizmo is mouthing pyramid as he's, uh,
**Grinder:** talking, because I thought we had that, did we not talk about We did,
**Senator:** we did.
Uh, Puba gave a deep
**Grinder:** dive. He gave us, yeah. Okay. He took us to school.
**Senator:** I mean, I'll be honest, I still just use the terms interchangeably. I haven't learned my lesson, but I need to, I, I mean,
**Grinder:** I, I don't, I don't recall. Yeah. I, I forget what the difference is, . I don't, I don't know. But I, I I sound smart when I say, but is it really, it's
**Gizmo:** You're smart.
I'm back. This is a, uh, this is a pyramid. All right. For sure. And you know what, again, as we get into the Battle of the pyramids a little bit, you know, this is the first of them. We're gonna do the up in two, we're gonna do the park two P two, we're gonna do the Vegas, Romanian, Unico. Uh, and I'm missing some, something.
I don't remember what I'm missing. Uh, but yeah, this is a, this is definitely a pyramid 40.
**Bam Bam:** That up up in two episodes gonna be off the chain. Oh yeah. We're gonna go by, it's gonna
**Gizmo:** be off the chain. [00:50:00]
**Senator:** I mean, it's funny as I'm just thinking about this, like what's special about this pyramid or torpedo shape?
We smoke and I think I'm speaking for all of us. We smoke a lot more Cubans in a pyramid or torpedo than we do any new
**Grinder:** world other Absolutely. Other than the
**Senator:** millennium. Other than, yeah, the millennium. I mean, occasionally we'll have a patron drone torpedo, but That's right. I, it's not, none of them are like
**Grinder:** I, I smoke a lot of, uh, patron torpedoes, actually, I don't know what size that is.
I forget the name. They have so many sizes. I don't forget the name. No, they called the torpedo. They
**Gizmo:** called it torpedo. Yeah. And the 64 wine is just called the torpedo. That was the, uh, number one of the cigar of the year this year. Oh, was in natural? Yeah.
**Grinder:** Oh, in natural. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We reviewed that.
We reviewed
**Bam Bam:** that one.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Great. Stick. You know, going back to Grindr's point about ring gauges for a second, um, I was doing, uh, I was, you know, I'm always on the internet poking around and there was a discussion on one of the forums I'm on about, 54 ring gauge cigars [00:51:00] and the proprietor of the site was saying that, and I agree with him, that he loves the QD 54 and there was another cigar that he loves that he wished, I hope it's the E two.
No, no, no. His comment and the E two was the exception, and I agreed with him on this. The comment was that he wished that the QD 54 came in that same flavor profile, tasted exactly the same, just in a smaller gauge. I agree with that. I agree with that too. Now, the E two I think is the only exception that when I see and reach for that cigar, I'm fine with it as it is.
It's a, that's a world-class cigar. The part, his E two is perfect as it's absolutely the other one I'll put in that category two. That's, that I wish came as the same flavor. Magnum Mag 54, ah, I wish it was smaller ring gauge. Same. I wish that I could get that same cigar. Yeah, I agree with that. In a smaller ring gauge, you know, because the, you look at the Magnums, the UPNs.
the, the 46, the 50 and the 54, [00:52:00] which are the three most readily available, are all very different in flavor. They are, I, to me, the 46 and the 54 are like miles apart. They are in flavor, which is a good thing. Absolutely. You, you know, you're reaching for different stuff. I love all three of those cigars. But I, like right now, when I reach for a qd, um, I'm either reaching for the Coronas claros, which is the 46 ring gauge, kinda like the Mag 46 or the QD 50, not the 54.
I don't reach for the 54. I have a boxer. I just don't reach for it. I just don't love that ring gauge. And that's cigar. I'm not that excited about that. I, that I'll reach for it that often. I think the 54 has more flavor. I do like that cigar a lot. 50 is a good morning
**Rooster:** cigar. Yeah. So it's got a lot of cedar
**Gizmo:** and, uh, yeah.
Someone, someone gave us one the other day. Yeah. It was, uh, yeah. At the clubhouse. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know what I liked about it and, and maybe this goes to my point of why I'm reaching for the 50 is where the 54 would sl my, uh, slot in my lineup. , I'm gonna reach for pyramids. Mm-hmm. , I'm gonna reach for a P [00:53:00] two, Amani two, or whatever.
Here's a
**Bam Bam:** question for you guys. Do you think this month two is, um, underrated among cigar
**Gizmo:** aficionados? I would say no. I would say in a lot of aspects. I think it's overrated, really given, given my previous experience. Well, when These are good. These are fantastic.
**Rooster:** They're fantastic. So I just looked up the pyramid, like the shape, the difference between a pyramid and a torpedo and a bellaco pyramid kind of tapers all the way down from the head to the toe.
Mm-hmm. You
**Gizmo:** know, interesting. Not so in torpedo's, right? Yeah. And I feel like the tor, uh, is what is the BF bellaco Soo No, I know what it is. We're all confused now. It's a osa The Bbf isso. Cause I think it's a little rounded on the top and it flares. Yeah. Right. And, and it flares at the, at the foot. A little, little bit, a bit.
**Rooster:** Beso I think comes straight down. And then it goes to a point. Yeah. Right. . Yeah. So the pyramid kind of tapers down from head to toe. Mm-hmm. and then the
**Gizmo:** pyramid. I mean, the torpedo, the torpedo is the other way. Yeah. Very interesting. Yeah. [00:54:00] All right, boys, do you want to give the, uh, the Appleton estate rum, the formal liquor rating?
Mm-hmm. Let's make it formal. Let's do it. All right. Bam. Bam. You're
**Bam Bam:** up. I'd take a sip, but I don't have
**Gizmo:** any. Thank you very much. Oh, sorry about that. Hold on, I'll give you some.
**Bam Bam:** No, um, I'll give it, I'm giving it an eight.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Yeah, Senator.
**Senator:** I have an emotional attachment to this, so I, I'm going between an eight and a nine. It's hard to make a rum that's not like overly sweet and that's complex and I think it's one of the most complex rums at its price points. I'm gonna give
**Bam Bam:** it a nine. A nine is a Yeah, that's a fair score
**Gizmo:** here. Yeah. I'm gonna give it an eight cuz I think I gave the four square a nine and I would put that one notch above this.
Wow. .
**Grinder:** I would give this an eight. Okay. I'm not a massive rum drinker, but I like rum a lot and I like, you know, not added sugars, which I think is an overabundance in the market right now. Um, very good rum. Very, very
**Bam Bam:** well paired. [00:55:00]
**Grinder:** A a plus is an eight's pretty, pretty solid.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, totally. So the formal liquid rating on this cigar, or excuse me on this rum, is an 8.3.
Very good
**Bam Bam:** score. It's a perfect score. Good score. You know, and honestly, I would, I would definitely reach for this. Yeah, I would If you can find it. Yeah, if, if you can find it. But I would, total wine has it. Oh, is that right? Very good.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This is, uh,
**Bam Bam:** really tasty stuff. This is something I, I would keep in my weekly, every two week rotation.
**Grinder:** No doubt
**Senator:** about it. I have to say also, so rums very versatile in that there, there's an almost every occasion it works, but I really love rum. Like either with like a Cuban cigar in the summer or in the winter. , like some of the notes you get, like nutmeg and a little spice. It's a great, it's for the holidays.
Great for the holidays.
**Grinder:** Big baking spices in particular.
**Bam Bam:** This, this Appleton would be great. It's
**Grinder:** a great winter drink. It is. Great point. This is like a, you just had a roast sitting by the fire Oh yeah. .
**Gizmo:** But I feel, and I, but I feel like at the same time, I [00:56:00] feel like this is a nice, uh, I'd argue a summer drink in a way.
It's an every time period. Yeah. It really, I think you're nailing like that fire, you know, it's cold out. You, you want something to kind of warm your, think of all
**Grinder:** the shit that rum goes into for various Yeah. Machinations of fruity drinks.
**Senator:** And, and, and think of just holiday drinks, right? Like eggnog, they spike with
**Gizmo:** rum, right?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Right. Yep. I would not mix this with anything. This,
**Gizmo:** this. I agree. I wouldn't, it's not, I think it'd be a
**Bam Bam:** two chips of ice in your golden, it'd be for this particular,
**Gizmo:** I think the ice opens it up just enough. I think it just kind of this
**Grinder:** rum. Yeah. I mean I would, it's just as anathema to fucking putting.
Scotch and a fucking diet Coke. Like, gimme a break. You just can't mix this. Just don't do that around me. I'll smack you. Just keep your picardi silver for, for, for this. Although,
**Bam Bam:** although I had a black label with Alush of, what was it? Club Soda Splush. Honestly, was it good? It was very good. All right. I [00:57:00] was surprised.
**Gizmo:** Uh, pagoda would be very happy to hear you say that. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Was that at the clubhouse? No, that was in one of our Mag Mag The Magnum? No, that was in some secret apartment somewhere. .
**Senator:** Oh, . I is our favorite restaurant owner. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** By the way, he stopped drinking your Jo.
**Rooster:** Wait a minute. I just saw him last night.
He has closets full of bottles. I know. He goes, I'm not going to drink out of my apartment. Something happened. Oh, oh no. Something happened at the, at the restaurant. So he goes, I'm not gonna drink in public. If I'm drinking, I'm not going to
**Gizmo:** venture out of the apartment. Smart man.
**Bam Bam:** Oh geez.
**Grinder:** Yikes. That's good advice.
I, I don't want to know what that,
**Rooster:** sorry. I gotta get him a six pack of Heineken Zeros next time.
**Bam Bam:** See .
**Grinder:** He's self-policing. And
**Senator:** some Monty two s .
**Gizmo:** So we're coming to the, uh, we're coming to the end here on the Monty two Boys. What, uh, what's kind, what's your read right now on this thing? Because I, I, I just can't say enough
**Bam Bam:** things about this show.
Yeah. I know what I'm going to rate this and P Puba will probably have a heart [00:58:00] attack with the rating, but honestly, I feel a lot of guys overlook the cigar. I, I know you said you think it's overrated. I think a lot of people overlook it. Like you said, it's ubiquitous. Even among this group,
**Senator:** I actually agree with bam, even among this group, and I don't know, you know, this is just my perception for whatever reason, but I feel like years ago the Monty two was like really held up on a pedestal almost.
Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like over the last even five years, and I think even longer than that, but even, let's just say the last five years, , it doesn't have the same level of respect or cache that it once did. Exactly, exactly. And I can't explain why that is. Same, but that's how I, I think strange. You're right, Ben.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's weird because I
**Rooster:** think there was a number of years when this wasn't
**Grinder:** that good, I think's. Right. I think there was too, there were too many quality control issues for a while there. And maybe that was generally Cuba. Um, you know, the, the, the rise, or sorry, the fall of the Monty two was coincidental with a lot of [00:59:00] the Nicaragua cigars taking their place among the top cigars in the world.
And I would venture to say that it was kind of cast in that comparative analysis. And when you have Pedro dominating so much of the taste profiles, especi. In North America and you know, basically over here, not on the, that side of the, of the Atlantic, you probably had people just not consi, gi giving its due consideration.
I don't know, maybe that's, that's some random hypothesis. Just
**Gizmo:** thought of it. No, I think it's right. And I think too, I think that it, it was oversaturated. I mean, yeah, the stories I've heard about this is that, you know, I think I read in cigar fishing auto, they were talking about the money too. And they were saying if you were in an office, you were going to lunch with someone, you were gonna have a cigar with someone in the early nineties.
And the, the financial craziness in New York City, everybody was pulling Amani two out. It was the cigar to smoke. And I think that, you know, it could have been just an oversaturation of this cigar, a product of everything we're saying quality, um, good and bad over the years. And I think [01:00:00] that Monte Cristo has put out some really high end limited additions and regionals that have kind of over, you know, Overwhelmed this cigar in, in, in its quality.
All right boys, so let's, uh, let's give the mon mono Cristo number two. It's formal lizard rating. F L r f l r, baby ro, you're up. Yeah. So
**Rooster:** I'm, I'm like really pleasantly surprised by the smart two, uh, much better than the ones I've had in the past. Uh, great flavor, great combustion, good draw. It's perfect. I mean, it belongs in a daily.
If, if you can get this kind of consistency out of a Monte two every time, I mean, I'm sold, so I'm gonna give
**Gizmo:** it an eight. Wow,
**Grinder:** very good. I'm also giving an, giving it an eight, um, top tier cigar for me. I smoke a lot of these on a reg, on a regular basis. It is in my rotation. Um, [01:01:00] and I'll keep buying them.
**Gizmo:** It's great. Excellent. I am going to give it a nine. And the reason is that it may seem like a high cigar versus other cigars that I've rated. But I have, this has found a, such a high place in my rotation. I'm smoking more of these right now than I am D four s. It's right up there with the Mag 46 and, and other cigars.
I'm smoking four, four times a week or so. Um, so an absolute nine for me. Have you thanked me yet? No, I will after. Oh,
**Senator:** uh, high praise Gizz. Yeah, indeed. Um, I'm gonna give it an eight. I, I love the, the flavor profile of this. I think it's one of the most flavorful Cubans that, that we regularly smoke. And, um, I, it checks every box, I think, like Rooster said.
I mean, the combustion, the construction, everything's been great. So no complaints.
**Gizmo:** Excellent.
**Bam Bam:** I'm at a nine. Excellent. Yeah. I'm, I've had these for two years, maybe I've had two that didn't perform well. [01:02:00] Recent purchases are, are, hopefully, are, the trajectory is upward and I think it's, it's a, it's a wonderful cigar, fantastic.
Cuban must, it's a must in every humidor. I agree.
**Grinder:** Yeah. And every humid
**Senator:** are the, the only thing I do want to say, so I, I explain why, what I love about this cigar that I gave it an eight, but why I didn't give it a nine or a 10. As much as I love the flavor profile of this cigar, I, I would not say that this is an overly complex cigar.
No. I think like the flavor notes are like very straightforward. Agreed. They check the boxes for what I'm looking for. Um, but I think I get more complexity out of some istic that I mm-hmm. That are in my daily rotation than some others. So that's the only knock I have on this cigar. But very fair, otherwise, an outstanding
**Gizmo:** cigar fair.
So the composite lizard score boys on the mono Cristo number two is an 8.4. Excellent. It's great. I think that is a perfect score for the cigar. Very good score. Um, you know, the, the reason why I think, and I think, uh, it's an interesting comment you make Senator about the complexity of it. I, I totally agree, but there's something about this that, that stands on its [01:03:00] own.
I think in almost every Cuban cigar that I've smoked or that we smoke regularly, in that it, it has a twang about it. It has something special about it has an X factor about it that no other Cubans, even in the Montecristo wine, I love A four rooster has given me. I think that was a one you gave me, or a three, I'm not sure.
Um, but this one specifically has something about it that is special. I
**Bam Bam:** think it, the simplicity is what helps it stand alone. Mm-hmm. , in my opinions, that's a really interesting comment. It's, it's just a very simple cigar and it, it, it's got that beautiful flavor note and it's there. It's that simplicity. I think that that, uh, gives it to standalone
**Gizmo:** quality.
So I, I think to, to BA's point about every listener should have this in their humidor. I think the a great place to start on this cigar. It's so ubiquitous. Ubiquitous. You could find it anywhere. Get a 10 count box of these cigar. Throw in your humidor, let it acclimate to a lower humidity, get it to 62 [01:04:00] and email us if you think we're crazy cuz I know that you're not going to but start with a 10 count.
You don't need to dive into a 25 count box, start with a 10. I will say,
**Grinder:** um, I think with these cigars, the acclimation with the humidity is extra, extra important. Cause I've had some pretty shitty Monte two s that were just set. Like when I first got these, the boxes I have now, they were too moist, too dense.
Yeah, definitely let it acclimate and come down to like a good Cuban humidity temp, you know, humidity
**Gizmo:** profile, which is the 62. Yeah, 62 ish. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, awesome guys. I am so happy that everybody's. As I hoped you would about the cigar, I'm feeling I wish Puba was here. I wish Pagoda was here to to give me six other opinions.
I agreed to validate mine. And you know what, Grindr, thank you for introducing me to the money too. Hey . I know he wanted to hear that on air. Thanks. So, um, alright guys, an 8.3 for the Appleton Estate, 12 [01:05:00] year age rum and an 8.4 for the Monte Cristo. Number two from Cuba. Fantastic pairing. Fantastic. Awesome.
Yeah, total luck by the way. Yes, I just kind of called it out, but I'm glad it worked out boys. And uh, we'll see you next week. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. 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 Lounge lizards pod, p o d, that's lounge lizards pod gmail.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.