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Recorded in October at Ten86 Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey the lizards pair the Quai d’Orsay Senadores 2019 Edición Limitada with 12 Year Aged Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch. The guys discuss Edición Limitada releases, Rooster selling his cigar tower, Senator discusses being a dad and the guys read an email from a listener who makes amazing desktop humidors.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge listeners 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 Roosters, Senator and bam bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 60th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard Plan, meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke cubit cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We discussed Senator Becoming a dad. We light up our first Cuban liata.
We discussed Rooster selling a cigar tower, and we share a listener's handcrafted desktop humidors, 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. Glen Levitt single malt Scotch with the Kors, say Seoras 2019 iata.
Our first liata on the [00:01:00] pod tonight from Cuba, the Kai CDOs out of Cuba. Um, very cool cigar. We've not had this before. It's a grand Corona. It's 48 by six and an eighth. And, uh, yeah, very excited to smoke this tonight, boys. It's a good looking cigar. Beautiful cigar, right?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Very nice.
**Gizmo:** Very nice. I like, I love
**Senator:** the shape.
Yeah, I do. So I gotta, I mean, obviously it's called the San Doris, but it's a very stately, like Yep. I like that. It's a little longer. Um, feels great in the hand.
**Bam Bam:** It's
**Gizmo:** elegant. Try it. It's elegant. It is. So we've done, uh, we've done a few Kai Doce. We've done the Coronas scleral mm-hmm. , and we've done the QD 50 s.
So this is the third, um, cutie that we're doing on the pod tonight. And like I said, our first liata, but let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. Yeah. They don't, they don't really make a lot of cigars.
**Rooster:** Yeah, they don't, I mean, they just make the 50 54
**Gizmo:** and the Corona's, Claro Coronas, Claro.
The one thing I, and we could talk about this, but I, I found it odd that they. gave k uh, KK at, uh, Liata, [00:02:00] you know, which normally you'd see KRS have a regional and they saved the Liata for like the global brands, but I guess they decided to give this for the French, decided to make an exception and give them an additional liata Delicious cold draw.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I'm getting a little dried fruit. A little pori. Very
**Gizmo:** nice. Yeah, it is a little Loral. Yeah. I'm very, I, I have very high hopes given how we feel about some of the other Qdi cigars, especially Theranos, Claro, I mean, well that and the 54 and the Yeah, you love the 54. I do love that 54. Look, we
**Senator:** always have to temper our expectations.
Oh yeah. . I say that cuz we've talked a lot about how the regular production stuff is typically the best. Yep. So whenever I have a liata or regional, I'm always, I have a healthy level of skepticism.
**Gizmo:** I have an extreme level of skepticism. I'm actually quite anxious about how this $34 Liata is gonna smoke.
You're anxious. This has
**Senator:** my namesake
**Gizmo:** on it. . I'm anxious. I know. That's why we're doing it tonight, baby. You're back. . All right boys, let's light this thing. The [00:03:00] Kai Senators Limited edition from 2019 from Cuba. Again, it's a grand Corona. 48 ring gauge by six n one eighth inch cigar. So very happy tonight, boys to be back at our clubhouse.
10 86 cigars in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Oh yeah. Always hap uh, have very happy for the hospitality, uh, and kindness that they let us record the pod here. As we say, it's
**Bam Bam:** the home away from home.
**Gizmo:** Love it here.
Clean 24 hour access, key card access. Humidor is filling up a lot of good stuff happening. So pretty strong flavor on the initial draw. Yeah, I like it on the white. Yeah, I'm really surprised.
**Senator:** I mean, I, I won't lie. I remember when this came out. I, I did read just a few reviews online about this and I feel like I described it as starting really mild, but there's a good amount of flavor on the light.
Oh yeah. Pleasantly surprised.
**Bam Bam:** Now that may mellow out. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it is nice though. [00:04:00] draw is great too. Yeah, it draws wide open. I was actually a little nervous about a couple of them, um, cuz they felt a little bit heavier than, than some of the others, but it seems like they're performing okay. The smoke
**Bam Bam:** out, the, the aroma on the smoke.
Delicious. It's delicious. Yeah. I dare I say a bit citrusy.
**Senator:** Oh boy.
**Bam Bam:** I'm really, it's really quite nice. Are you getting
**Senator:** any, uh, funded Doris notes out of this too?
**Gizmo:** not yet. . It's kinda
**Rooster:** like a barnyard.
**Gizmo:** Why are you back
You were getting off easy for too long. That's
**Bam Bam:** why I'm back. Oh, we all were
**Gizmo:** honestly. So obviously the name of the cigar is the Cens and uh, I've had these for quite some time. Uh, preparing for the return of our esteemed colleague here. Yes, sir. New Proud Papa. That's right, the senator. He's back. Welcome back, [00:05:00] welcome
**Bam Bam:** back.
**Senator:** It's, it's good to be back. I don't know what day, what time it is, , but I'm here
**Gizmo:** getting any sleep. Yeah. What's the situation at home? Yeah.
**Senator:** Sleep deprivation is very real. Um, luckily babies are, are sweet, cute, angelic things or I think, uh, they have a really rough go at it because parenting is not easy, . But it's been great.
It's been great. Everybody says it's the most amazing experience. They couldn't be more right. Um, I'll. I'll never forget it. I can't believe I've already been a parent. Um, as long as I have, it feels like it's flown. But um, yeah, outside of the sleep deprivation, everything else is wonderful. Ready for another one?
Absolutely not . It's so funny you say that because you know, you get home, you have this newborn, you're sitting there saying, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Look at how sweet. And I feel like within the first week, my wife had said to me, you know, oh, [00:06:00] you know, maybe we should at some point talk about another one,
And that was not really part of the plan . And I'm sitting there like, oh, please know . And then you fast forward, you go through this honeymoon period where when the baby first arrives, like baby sleeps nonstop all the time. The poop doesn't smell. Everything's wonderful. And then you get outta this honeymoon period after the first week or two and you're like, Nope, one is just right.
That's where we are right now.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you know what they say, plans are always made to be broken. Yeah.
**Senator:** Not this one
**Gizmo:** this cigars very good on the
**Bam Bam:** light. It's, it's actually still producing a, a ton of flavor and smoke.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And yeah, absolutely. A lot of smoke put on this thing. Yeah. It's like, it's surprising. It's, it's got some
**Rooster:** floral notes, like you said. Yeah. It's, it's got a little bit of sweet notes. Yep.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Little like dark chocolate maybe.
I'm
**Senator:** getting dark chocolate.
**Rooster:** I mean on the, on the wrapper [00:07:00] there was a lot of like the barnyard type. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It has like a, um, I'm gonna combine two things and see if it makes sense. It has a little bit of the cohiba thing. And it has a little bit of twang, like I almost wanna say, it has like a cohesive twang on the tip of my tongue as I, as I push the draw out as I exhale.
Yeah. I'm not getting the salty, salty, I'm getting a little salt on the tip of my tongue. Like a little bit of like, I can see that I get a little bit, yeah, just a little bit. I can see that a bit, but it kind of has like a cohesive thing, like a single two or a rib robusto. Haven't had enough on the finish.
No, a little bit.
**Senator:** I don't know. To, to me, uh, this is very qd. The, the things I'm, um, really impressed by is that the flavor profile is richer than any QD I've had. Like, I would not describe dark chocolate with the QD 54. I certainly wouldn't went to Kross claros. So I like that there's a richer flavor about this.
Um, it's
**Bam Bam:** absolutely the most [00:08:00] bold QD that I've ever had. Oh, yeah. It,
**Gizmo:** it is very much.
**Senator:** Which I just feel like is not how this cigar is described. That's why this is a real, it's surpris contradiction for me. Everything I've read about this cigar describes this as mi very mild and building to medium and sure having flavor, but it doesn't sound all that robust where th there's a good amount of flavor here.
I I'm really enjoying this off the, right
**Gizmo:** off the
**Rooster:** bat. Yeah. Yeah. And the, and the aroma out of the smoke is, it's off the
**Gizmo:** charts really nice. Yeah, it smells really nice at the burn one. It does. Oh yeah. It's a really nice aroma. It's unusual. It is certainly, like it's, this is not even a distant cousin to me.
I don't, I like the Corona's car is so
**Bam Bam:** different. I don't think I've had that type of an aroma off smoke of a cigar for a long time. Don't remember.
**Gizmo:** It's really pleasant. It is.
**Rooster:** I'm sure these are
**Gizmo:** hard to find. Right. Honestly, I think out of all the gli matata is out there, I think that this one's probably.
On the more reasonable end of both price and availability. Cuz I see them pop up a lot. [00:09:00] They come in a 25 count box. It's like a fancy presentation. It's a Liata. Obviously some of them don't, but this one does. Um, but I've seen it pop up quite a bit and you can't just go on a retail site and find it. But a lot of folks have these, I think they made a lot of 'em.
And
**Senator:** I think to your point, you said you were surprised that QD got a Liata. Exactly. I mean, it's a smaller brand. It's not there. There's not as vast a group of consumers that chase qd. Like there are, you know, Monty Parus, some of the bigger brands, Cohiba. No heba. So I, I think, uh, it works in our favor. If this can hold to the rest of the smoke is as good as it starts.
I mean, I, I would smoke this again.
**Gizmo:** What I find interesting about it too, obviously it has the, uh, addition Liata band on it with the year 2019, which is funny cuz this is a 2019 release, but the first box has started appearing sometime in 2020. So , that's classic havanas for you. But also that it's, it, it is the classic, uh, k dors se regular band on it, except it has [00:10:00] an additional printing of the word cen Doris on it, which is also rare.
I mean, for them to actually put the name of the Vito on the. Primary band with the, with the veto. Uh, with, with the viola name. What
**Senator:** is, what is a name like that? I can't blame them. . 80,
**Gizmo:** 80 bucks. How much are these each? $80. I paid 30. Yeah, you're gonna pay 30. You're gonna pay 80. But I paid 34. $34. Not a cheap cigar.
It's not a cheap cigar, but for a liata. I, I was actually, I felt that that was decently reasonable given some of these other cigars we talked. I think that's
**Senator:** actually very good for Liata. I mean, I think some of us have this, that the Ramon iis, the green box, the 20, it's also a 2019 lamata. Oh, those are expensive.
Yeah. I have a couple of those boxes. They sell now for 50, $60
**Gizmo:** a stick. That's crazy.
**Rooster:** That's about average for a liata. Yeah. 50,000
**Gizmo:** up. So this is a bargain. So I'm saying that this is a very
**Rooster:** good price. It's a 2019. So some of the older liata more
**Gizmo:** expensive. A lot more. Yeah. Yeah.
**Senator:** And I'm even saying that Ramon is also 2019, and I promise you'll never find that now cheaper than
**Gizmo:** $50.
[00:11:00] Yeah. This is, this is
**Rooster:** actually better than the, than that Ramone agree. Dude, this is
**Gizmo:** this. Haven't gone back and tried it quite the, quite the cigar tonight so far. You know the thing I'll say about 34 bucks though, to, just to touch on that for one more second. I think for the cigar size, like the actual amount of tobacco in this, I do find for $34, like we're gonna get a decent amount of smoke time out of this.
And if it performs like it is for this first half an inch, we're gonna be in heaven. The experience is luxurious. Yeah. Like I'm, I, I'm hitting that thing Puba talks about with that relaxation. I'm into the rhythm, like I'm feeling good. And for me
**Bam Bam:** personally with this cigar, you know, y'all know I smoke very quickly.
I can't go through this very fast. It packs a lot of punch for me and it's really, it's pretty special
**Senator:** so far. Well, I think the thing that's nice about this, the, the smoke is actually a bit creamy. Mm-hmm. and it really coats your mouth and sort of lingers on your pallet. Yeah. So I think to your point, when you say I, I'm not gonna blow through this cigars because after each [00:12:00] draw you're satisfied.
You're satisfied, you're getting so much, it has a
**Gizmo:** very long finish. And that's the.
**Rooster:** You know, it's fu it's funny you bring up, you said it's, it's only
**Gizmo:** $34 a stick. . Yeah.
**Rooster:** And there's this funny, not funny, but it's a series, there's a commercial, like an ad that comes on tv. You can feed a child for a
**Gizmo:** dollar a day.
Oh boy.
**Bam Bam:** Jesus. What are we doing? Oh boy.
**Gizmo:** I don't know. Dunno
**Rooster:** why it came to my
**Gizmo:** Adam left. Thank you for the perspective. So we're eating a month feed a
**Bam Bam:** 34. You gotta kill his mic. .
**Gizmo:** Jesus. Whole month's feed for a baby. Senator. Has your month? Uh, has your month cost $34? I wish.
**Senator:** I wish. Most days don't cost $34.
**Gizmo:** Kids are expensive, man. They are. Oh yeah. You know what? I will say I'm impressed and surprised, but impressed by how many cigars when you were kind of staying home, how many cigars, even in the early days you were [00:13:00] able to sneak in and, and actually get a little bit of, uh, you know, Senator time. Senator time.
I'll say this, little lizard
**Senator:** lizards will always find a way, always better believe it. If you can't, honestly, your lizard credentials are, are probably, should be revoked. Yeah. It's in question. But the thing is, you know, you have, it's just like anything in life. You, you have a newborn and what I quickly figured out is this child sleeps really well during the day and not so great at night.
And so all I would do is in the middle of the day when he's out cold, I'd say, I've got a three hour window. I'm gonna make this count. Pour myself a nice drink, get a cigar, sit out on the deck, have one. And, um, I mean, it's important to keep yourself sane through all this too much. Oh yeah. You're, you're just doing so much.
So, uh, I mean,
**Rooster:** you can have a, a Churchill every three hours. Eight
**Gizmo:** eight cigars, . It's perf
**Rooster:** 24 hours in that day. .
**Gizmo:** That's right.
**Bam Bam:** So the, uh, 12 year old we're drinking.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This's, go and live. It's pretty, I mean, listen, it's a, it's a. [00:14:00] For what it is, it's
**Bam Bam:** stock, you know? Yeah. It's a table scotch, if you wanna call
**Gizmo:** it that.
Yeah. It's what they serve on the airplane. Mm-hmm. ,
**Bam Bam:** any info on
**Gizmo:** that? On the Glen Levitt? Mm-hmm. . I have zero info
**Senator:** on it. I mean, I think we've done a thing on Glen Levitt generally
**Gizmo:** when we did that. Yeah. So we did Levi 18, Glen. Yeah, we did the 18, which was very good. Mm.
**Senator:** Excellent. But the thing I like about this, I mean, Glen Lovett, we've talked about this, obviously it's one of the most sold single malt scotches in the world by far.
Um, it's, it's number one I even believe. But, um, for me, It was funny when Gizz mentioned we were doing this because, uh, Glen Levit 12 was the first single ball that I had tried, uh, many years ago. And that was your first scotch? It was single mal scotch. Really? First one he
**Gizmo:** was seven.
**Senator:** My child will be seven . And,
**Gizmo:** um, so Senator
**Bam Bam:** Junior should be getting one soon.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, you already have one. You should, you
**Senator:** all did get a photo of my son, uh, trying to crawl toward a padron cigar box. So I am [00:15:00] starting him very early lizard. Very, very good, very early. But with this scotch, um, you know, I remember just looking up lighter, smooth, single malts to just get an introduction to scotch.
And I think this is still, even to this day, a really good, like if someone were to ask me what's a first single malt I should try and they're not gonna dive into the deep end and, you know, I'm not gonna pour them laga in or something like that. Mm-hmm. or even open at first. Yeah. And I think this. , it's light, it's affordable.
It has just enough body, like you said, it's very expensive. Great price point. Yep. And
**Gizmo:** I think I paid under 44. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure that's the beauty of the 12. Yeah. Early low thirties.
**Senator:** Yeah. Should be like low thirties. Yeah. And the thing I like about it is it also has some unique flavors that I actually think no other single malt does.
And I remember vividly, this actually doesn't happen as much. So I think Glen Levitt 12, that it's changed a little bit over time, but at the time I thought I was nuts and I looked this up and it's a prominent tasting note that a bunch of people [00:16:00] get. I would always get notes of pineapple out of Glen Levitt.
12. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Fruit. I get a lot of general
**Senator:** fruit. Yeah, you do. But the pineapple piece though was so pronounced and I thought I was crazy. I said, there's no way that scotch is supposed to taste, have a pineapple note in it. And when you look it up, it's literally part of like their flavor. Uh, like we all, like they say pineapple, they say.
Oh wow. Yeah. Okay. And um, I always found that to be very unique and so for me, especially in the summer, even the spring, early fall-ish when it's still not too cold, um, that's worked extremely well. But I think even year round, the utility Glen Levit 12 has for me, I think, uh, American Airlines, this used to be like their kind of standard signal.
That's right. A lot of airlines actually. Well used to, now they've cut cost and now it's like doers. It's
**Gizmo:** Johnny Walker, United Glen Farcus. There you go. Right. It's a single mo. It
**Senator:** is, but I'm sorry, like it's. No, the, the thing I like about this, of these kind of really accessible single malts that you would find on a plane or a train for me, I would drink Glen Levitt 12 over, uh, doer's White [00:17:00] Label ashi.
Hundred percent. Really? Any of those? So, hundred percent. I wish it would be on more of these. Uh, honestly, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Have you guys done the Glen Fed?
**Rooster:** Yeah, we did. We, we did. Yeah. 14,
**Gizmo:** uh, I don't remember. 15. It was the 15. 15. 15, yeah. The
**Senator:** green box. Right. Uh, it's like a
**Gizmo:** purple-ish color purple.
**Bam Bam:** You know, getting through the serviceability of this, of this scotch.
So I've mentioned our big cigar blowouts that we have in town. That's right. This is the one Right. Every year one's potentially coming up in the spring. Yep. Um, and this is what we serve, but we buy the big Magnum bottles of the 12th. It goes quickly. It's very affordable, but it's excellent quality for a large group of people.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So people that drink scotch all the time Yeah. Aren't gonna complain. They'll be impressed by people that have that drink single, uh, blended or Johnny or whatever. Exactly. Right. It's, it's gonna be perfectly fine. Never fails. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty damn good for what it is. I, I gotta say it's exactly very satisfying.
**Senator:** And for a 12 year, I think this is one of the [00:18:00] smoothest 12 years that you really can buy. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, the be 12. It's a little, it's a, there's a little harshness to it on the front. There is a little bit, yeah. On the front. Not here with this guy.
**Gizmo:** No, it's true. Yeah. Yeah. This is very smooth. It, to me, it tastes like a blended whiskey.
Yeah. A lot less expensive as well. Sorry. It's the same
**Rooster:** price as the cigar. .
**Gizmo:** The whole bottle. The whole bottle. It's true. . It's true. Exactly. We're spoiled. I also
**Senator:** really like this pairing. Yeah. Because there's so much I'm liking about this cigar. The scotch is never fighting with it for attention or even trying to take the lead.
Exactly. It just compliments it
**Gizmo:** perfectly. Agreed. And I think that, I do think that the fruit forward thing that you'd mentioned or that you, the fruitiness of it is matching with the flavor profile of the cigars, especially in the, the finish of the cigar and how long that lingers in your mouth when you take a sip it.
They're not clashing at all. There is a
**Bam Bam:** bit of that in this. There is this, which is a nice compliment. Yeah. [00:19:00]
**Senator:** I am really shocked how much I'm enjoying this cigar. I really did not expect to enjoy this this
**Gizmo:** much. We're we're an inch Shannon, and it's getting better for me. I, I agree. Like,
**Bam Bam:** it's, it's a complex, unique cigar.
It's very good.
**Senator:** The smoke, it's just velvety. Yeah. Each draw. I, I can't believe how
**Gizmo:** much I'm enjoying and it, it's like it bums me out that I've had other liata that have been disappointing. I I know San uh, that Rooster has also had some that, like regionals are very hit or miss. And the other thing too is the price point is so prohibitive.
I mean, I bought a box of, uh, Parus. Liata, I think they were 20 fourteens. They were like, um, grand Corona's, almost like this, I believe, or Corona Extra or something. Um, and they were 75 a piece. They had a lot more age on them. Mm-hmm. , it's like 65. 65 and they're smoking. , but I think you had one the
**Rooster:** other day.
I did.
**Gizmo:** Oh, about two weeks ago. Yeah. It was really good. Um, a lot of oomph [00:20:00] and it's still a lot of, I mean, it's a 2015 box date cigar. Yeah. 2014 label on it. Um, man, it had a lot of power. Wow. Yeah. Like that's a cigar that in 10 years it's still gonna, it has a lot of aging, you know, potential left. So I guess I'm gonna, I'll hold on to them and see how they do.
But these are two years old. These are two and a half years old. Two and a
**Bam Bam:** half years old. Yeah. I can imagine they'll get better and better. I would think so. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** But
**Senator:** remarkably, they're already so smooth. They're very good.
**Gizmo:** They're very good, smooth and creamy. There's no harshness.
**Senator:** There's like, if you would've told me that this has four or five years of age on it, I would, I would believe that.
Well, it kind
**Rooster:** of does because all the liata are, they use two
**Gizmo:** years age tobacco's. That's true. So they had, that has a two year head start. It's about
**Senator:** five years. And that, I mean this is what that smokes like. It smokes like a four or five
**Gizmo:** year age. But also, I don't believe a word ho Bono says Yeah, that you were really telling me that they put this specific bunch of tabba.
They, I don't believe that for a second. I mean, just like the anado line, I mean they say it's age, they don't, they don't describe [00:21:00] anything about how much age, different ones have different age. They're a mess. So that is true. But i's such a cynic where coming
**Bam Bam:** from ,
**Gizmo:** what's given you, what's given you reason question.
I dunno, we haven't blasted 'em on the pod. Every Cuban episode for the past year.
**Senator:** I mean the labels are always printed correctly. What are you, what are you so upset about?
**Gizmo:** Fox Codes. I love how hot Puba gets about the spelling of connoisseur, the connoisseur's, misspelling. It's amazing. Haos being havanas.
I just love that. It's
**Senator:** one thing when it happens and they make the decision that it's just they don't wanna spend the money to fix it. The fact that after all that production run is done, that they all these years later, they just click reorder. They just say, you know what? For the next 20, 40 years, we're gonna call it connoisseur respell incorrectly.
I, they can't spell
**Bam Bam:** The retro ha in. This is fantastic.
**Gizmo:** I have to push it. I haven't, I haven't, I haven't. Retro hailed.
**Bam Bam:** I think it's very good. Salty, a little Cuban twang for me. [00:22:00]
**Senator:** I like the twang too. Thing you mentioned it's
**Gizmo:** like a cohiba twang. It's not a retro mon twang to me. Yeah. But now I, I get that you're getting but it's not like Amani.
Yeah. It's a little different than like that Monty two thing. Um, totally different, but it's still the Cuban twangy. Yep. In its own way.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Wow. A limited smoking this well, and worth the money so far.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Now, would I be happy if this was 80 or a hundred bucks? No, I'd probably feel the same about the cigar and experience, but certainly the value would evaporate, which I think that it's, it's standing up right next to any other liata I've had, I've had, um, it's doing well so far.
**Bam Bam:** What other Liata have you enjoyed?
**Gizmo:** I've had quite a few, so I've had, they were actually good. Now that's, that's the question. If good, good and worth the money. I, it's very few now. Rooster's had way more than I have. Mm-hmm. , no doubt about that. What's
**Bam Bam:** good and worth the money [00:23:00] compared to this guy.
**Rooster:** One of the, one of the better liata is the Ramon S 2011.
Mm-hmm. . It's got that green and white old school band
**Gizmo:** on it. I've never tried that. That's, I love that ba I've actually had that cigar. You've never given us one. I did, I did have that. I haven't had it. You have that. , I got that cigar. It's, it has the, the square white label on it. With the green. Right, right.
Yeah. Yep. I did have one of those. I, I think I may have gotten it as a bodyguard from someone. Ah, I see Rooster. That one's worth sharing.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. .
**Senator:** Someone has their hand out. .
**Bam Bam:** Oh, it's right out .
**Rooster:** Uh, um, and also the, the EGUs Ionata, the 2010. Ah,
**Gizmo:** that's really
**Senator:** good. You know what other you didn't mention? I, I think we both had this, it's an upk, I think 2011, that really dark wrapper.
Props, props, props.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah, the props good. That's a good, was good. It's short. It's a short [00:24:00] cigar. Yeah.
**Senator:** But powerful. Powerful. Yeah. I, I would argue, I, I mean at least for of Cubans, I've tried, that was the strongest Cuban I've ever had.
**Gizmo:** To me it's
**Rooster:** the RGUs, the
**Gizmo:** 2010.
**Senator:** Is that not all, at least in your top five of strong, I mean, oh yeah. It smokes like a
**Gizmo:** new World cigar dude. The 2014 that I was just talking about. Yeah. The RGUs. It kicked my ass a little bit. Wow. And I was surprised, cuz I'm thinking, oh, it's gonna be like a, a d, you know, a a letter series or maybe a Lucy or an 8 98.
It was far stronger than any of those. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Call me crazy. This is getting better. I'm starting to get very faint hints of barnyard, which I have in a love, in a sakara. Fantastic. Yeah. Very faint.
**Senator:** I, so I like faint hints of barnyard. I don't like a lot of Barnard in a cigar. Mm-hmm. We've been through, I think some of my smells like a dirty, [00:25:00] like horse barn thing.
We want like the clean barn is what we're going for. Which I getting think this has. Yeah, yeah,
**Gizmo:** absolutely. Like the horses haven't moved in yet. It's fresh. Exactly. There's hay in the hay. There's like big difference. Yeah. There's a, Hey, there's some sawdust on the ground. It, it's hard to
**Bam Bam:** explain. That may not be the right terminology,
**Senator:** but No, no, it is, it is.
I think that's, I'm just saying it's like light barnyard, not like it's developing.
**Rooster:** There's actually notes of hay that you get to
**Gizmo:** Yeah. But
**Bam Bam:** it's not off-putting, it's developing in this whole envelope of sweetness with the, with the nice
**Rooster:** combination of it's great hay and barnyard and chocolate
**Gizmo:** and, uh, I'm also
**Senator:** chocolate.
Yeah. As I'm smoking this further along, I'm getting a little baking spice now, which I really like
**Gizmo:** the
**Bam Bam:** chocolate I'm getting Without a doubt.
**Gizmo:** I'm definitely getting more of that. The barnyard kind of hanging thing thing coming in, right? Yeah. Yeah. Get any spice, little bit pepper. I don't know if I'd call it baking spice yet,
**Bam Bam:** and I wouldn't call it spice in the, in the pepper. The spicy yet I'm getting,
**Senator:** I don't mean like [00:26:00] spicy pepper, I mean like nutmeg, baking spice and spice.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. It's really nice. Oh, I'm trying to think of a cigar. I'm shocked. I it, it's funny, I'm, this is the first time I've had this cigar, but it's reminding my palette of another cigar that I've had and I can't put my finger on it. Like it's reminding me very specifically of another havanas that I, another Cuban cigar.
I've had htc
**Bam Bam:** maybe,
**Gizmo:** I don't know. I just can't put my finger on what it is.
**Bam Bam:** And maybe a Magnum 54. I get slight reminiscent to that maybe. I don't know. Very
**Gizmo:** slight. Speaking of Magnum, I got a question for you. So I was having one of my Magnum 46 s the other day, and I'd actually been dry boxing it. I actually left it in the box, um, probably two, three days.
So it was definitely not a, a humidity condition. I'm curious if you guys ever experienced this. So I'm smoking the cigars, smoking brilliantly. It's one of the best Mag 46 s I've ever had. And I've, we've all had a lot. I've had a ton. I love them. [00:27:00] I smoke a ton. That's your go-to sticks. That's one of my go-tos.
Um, I really love it and I'm smoking it. And about kind of where we're at now, kind of like a little bit into the second, third, um, end of the first third, the cigar just starts smoking dead. Like, I can't get this thing to smoke. I'm lighting it. So I eventually took my perfect, perfect draw and I knocked off what this chunk, which was like a three quarter of an inch chunk of the cigar that was just rock hard, would not do anything, knocked it off, lit the cigar up, and the rest of the cigar smoke brilliantly.
Yeah. You get chunks. You ever,
**Bam Bam:** like, have you ever chunks of the vein, vein of the leaf itself that build up maybe once or twice at that. That's
**Gizmo:** a good theory. I was thinking it was like a tar buildup or something. I, it was, it was almost like it was cement. You mean the ash? I knocked it off. The ash was, yeah.
The ash. I knocked a piece of ash off that I could not get it to relight. I, and I knocked it off and then I re-let the cigar and it smoked. Wow. As if nothing ever happened. That's odd. It [00:28:00] was like a dead spot in the cigar. And I never, sorry. You said you knocked ash off, but you used the perfect draw. Yeah, I took the perfect draw just to like smack it off.
Cause So you didn't put the perfect draw to No, I didn't. Perfect draw the cigar. I used that as the tool to get the ash Got you off the cigar. Nice. And it smoked brilliantly after that. Probably a fake box . Not my first one. Yeah. . No, but you know, it's, it's a legit box and the cigars smoke great. And all the other cigars have, but I've never experienced that before in any
**Bam Bam:** cigar.
That's funny. I've never had a bag Magnum
**Gizmo:** 46 ever. Never. It was great. Other than that little piece of it just would not smoke. Yeah. I mean,
**Rooster:** when the, when the roll, the cigars. . The leaf. The leaf of the, the vein is like in it, right? Yeah. So you can get that hard.
**Gizmo:** Oh, yeah.
So,
**Rooster:** but that's odd that it was like that hard like cement
**Gizmo:** type.
Yeah. I couldn't get it off. Like I was knocking it on the ashtray. It would not come off right. I, I quite literally pushed it off with the Dr, the perfect rounds, let it and we're,
**Bam Bam:** Regarding availability. I'm gonna start looking into these to see how easy they are to find this. I [00:29:00] would buy these, a box of these.
**Gizmo:** I think you'll see them come. We'll see. , please do. I gotta
**Bam Bam:** my head just hangs in disappointment. ,
**Gizmo:** I gotta, I'm in 4 0 5. I
**Bam Bam:** gotta look away. I gotta look away. Know.
**Senator:** Look in the year 2046, these are gonna smoke. Amazing. They're gonna be, they're gonna smoke. Great. Bam. Finds them. Why did
**Gizmo:** I,
**Bam Bam:** why ? Okay. Turn my mic off.
How's,
**Gizmo:** how's, uh, how's your, this is gonna be Senator and I when we're done here. How's your tower doing? My
**Bam Bam:** tower's good. Is it up? It's, it's, it's in the, it's in the house and, well,
**Senator:** it's, we know it's
**Bam Bam:** been there. It's seasoned. It's just sitting there for a couple of
**Gizmo:** weeks. Oh, for what? What do you mean? Is it, do you have cigars in it?
Not yet,
**Bam Bam:** no. Oh. I like to season it for and let it sit for a while. Then I'll put the oasis in and start loading up. Hopefully
**Senator:** in about a week. You're supposed to season it
**Gizmo:** with the Oasis for the record. I was gonna say that I don't, I don't know. I don't, I love that you don't call us and you just do this in secret because you're afraid the whole point of season
**Senator:** to get it to hold and regulate the humidity.
[00:30:00] You need that in there.
**Bam Bam:** Well, okay. I'll get it in tonight. . ? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Okay. I think there's a better chance we get a box of Senate doors than that thing going in tonight. ,
**Bam Bam:** you're making me sweat. Let's
**Senator:** move on. . I can't wait to tell my son that Bam is sourcing him a box of Senate Doris that he'll smoke 20 years when
**Gizmo:** he's 19.
I gonna say when he 20.
**Bam Bam:** He's 20 years old. . Hey, will come over. . Get away from your dad.
**Senator:** careful for, what'd you wish for? I know. I've got a new babysitter. His name is Ba Babb .
**Bam Bam:** Uh, oh.
**Gizmo:** Remember you could, you can uh, do some home, you can do some homeschooling. , right? Right. You can do some homeschooling, enriching hours. It's true. You can teach him a few things. Bam,
**Bam Bam:** approved activities. , .
**Gizmo:** We've detailed those on the pod.
Oh, we have . So, uh, we haven't talked about it yet on the pod, but did you guys see, uh, Brady and Gisele or kaput? Wow. You know, I saw a theory for the first time the other day that it made sense to me that he retired to save his [00:31:00] marriage, realized he wasn't gonna be able to save his marriage, and then went back to football.
Now, hold on. That's the, the first time I heard that theory. I thought the reason why he's getting Yeah. Divorced is because he went back to football. He went back to football. I mean, that's so logical. Everybody's assuming, wanted to go back. I, we
**Rooster:** don't know the, the, uh,
**Senator:** that's logical. That's what I thought.
But hearing Gizmo say that, I actually think that there may be something there. Mm-hmm. , I just say that because this is a man. You think he did
**Gizmo:** it in spite? No, I just think that maybe didn't he fixable black and he
**Senator:** did. I think he realized like he couldn't maybe I, I'm, I'm, I'm already That's a great theory, right?
Theory. Like that's not my saw it somewhere, whoever came up with it, but he thought, okay, I can't fix this, so what else do I have in my life? Football I may as well go back to, that's just gonna take him. Kids obviously. Great point. Great. But the reason I'm starting to buy that is just you think this is a guy who has achieved every level of success you can in professional football, period.
There's nothing he has left to prove. Yeah. He's one, he will never be [00:32:00] equals one Super Bowl, seven championships. I mean, he's done everything. So it was so crazy to me when he came back, it was clear his wife has been saying for. , he needs to retire. And she expects him to be, you know, a present father with that family.
And when he came back, I'm like, why would you possibly be risking losing that? To play a sport and win something you've already achieved all these things in. Yeah. There's nothing left. Maybe it would've already done. That would make sense.
**Gizmo:** That theory makes sense. Now here's the other thing that kind of solidifies this theory in my mind is that it was like a month after he retired that he returned.
It wasn't like, like most guys, if they're coming back, Gronk, Edelman, those guys, they'll wait till closer to the season so they don't have to deal with training camp and everything else. He retired, I think in February and he was back in March or something.
**Rooster:** But didn't they miss a couple of games this year?
Like he
**Gizmo:** didn't come back right away. Not,
**Senator:** not games. So during the off-season, yeah, he practiced training camp practice, yeah. For a significant period of time. That's pretty normal deal with
**Gizmo:** family issues. No, but for a, [00:33:00] for a qb,
**Rooster:** you know what I heard? I heard that he was doing that. Masked that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, that wasn't true.
I wasn't, no. What There was a big rumor that he was doing that. Fox show the mask singer. Oh boy. There was like this big Reddit thing. . So it was actually a theory. He was, there's no way he would do that. Oh, he hasn't accomplished that.
**Senator:** I guess that would, you know, ,
**Gizmo:** you know what else he hasn't
**Rooster:** accomplished?
He has not beaten the Giants in a Super Bowl. That's Oh, that's
**Gizmo:** right. Thank you. Producer. Proud. He hasn't done everything. , take it easy. He never will . I don't, no, he won't. Really Sucks. , . Um, yeah, so I, uh, I found that theory to be very interesting. Mm-hmm. . It is, it's the
**Senator:** first I'm hearing of this. I, it's finally starting to, because
**Gizmo:** if he didn't have football, he couldn't start broadcasting.
I think, I think actually he was supposed to start broadcasting this year, but I think they punted that down the way to when he retires. But maybe, maybe it just wasn't fixable. Didn't she have a
**Bam Bam:** Brady jersey on? And social media and like supporting him? [00:34:00] Yeah, but I mean,
**Gizmo:** that's,
**Senator:** that's pr She's, she's been photographed out without her wedding ring now.
Oh,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Yeah. Yeah. . Wow.
**Rooster:** Has she been seen with anybody or
**Gizmo:** no? No, they're smarter than that. She's worth half a billion dollars on her own. So he'll get more. Yeah. He may get spousal support.
it's burning
**Rooster:** a little weird. Mm-hmm. ?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Little bit. Mm-hmm. . Mine's burned. Great. Yours is razor sharp. Yeah, mine's perfect. I have
**Bam Bam:** a question. When you a, when you ash, you'll find that it's a little jagged. Yeah. Yeah. Not a detriment at all. Well, I'm
**Rooster:** sure he is. Ash,
**Gizmo:** you haven't askeded it. I have. Oh, you have? I asked once.
It was perfect. It was straight through. Can can I
**Senator:** bridge the gap for a quick second? Sure. Or bring these topics together. We're talking about children now. We're talking about Brady. Something that's very odd to me and I don't know, everyone's actually a parent here, so I'm just curious. Tom Brady. Kisses all of his children on the mouse on a lip
[00:35:00] Yeah. And I find it very odd. Am I alone in this? Is this like a normal thing? Not all. Are you alone? It's weird.
**Gizmo:** Okay. No,
**Senator:** but there's, I, would you kiss your son on his lips? I, I think that's extremely
**Bam Bam:** odd. I think my son would punch me in a face if I kiss him on a lips. , there's no doubt about it. Like, why does
**Gizmo:** he do this?
I, I mean, I, it is, I've seen Italian families are a little bit more kind of when they're little, the guys and stuff, but, uh, you know, to me I've just, I'm like, not even my mom. I don't even kiss my mom on the lips. It's always a cheek. Never. Right. The only person I kiss on the lips is Mrs. Gizmo. That's right.
That's the same. I, I. And bam. Bam. Why is full time to now that you come over here from time to time? Ba, Jill's, Jill's family
**Rooster:** that do sometimes kiss on the interesting but immediate like sister or
**Gizmo:** sister that I can
**Senator:** see. Um, I could see that. I just, just think it's really odd for son, an adult male to kiss his son on the lips.
I think it's weird.
**Bam Bam:** And his son's not young. I mean, he's his teenager. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's really odd. It's strange. I don't know, maybe I've seen Italians sometimes, like I'll see Italians that I'm kind of like acquaintances with. Mm-hmm. , like older Italian ladies and they [00:36:00] come, I mean, like a missile. They're coming straight onto the lips.
Oh boy. . I mean, it's like, take it easy. Like I have tongue and all. Hold on,
**Bam Bam:** I'll be back. I gotta get the salad and I'm out.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I, uh, I, I avoid it like the plague, but Oh yeah. Not for me. If you ever need someone to talk to, we're here for you. Thank you guys. , we'll do a bonus episode. Gizmo therapy.
**Bam Bam:** So this thing has gotten creamier smoother.
Uh, it's still delicious.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. So I think, are you a little bit ahead of me? I'm, I'm a bit, I'm a little under halfway
**Bam Bam:** through. Yeah. I think I'm ahead of all of you now. It's really
**Gizmo:** settled in this. I'm not even, I don't even think I'm halfway yet. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Beautiful cigar.
**Rooster:** It's a medium. It's not
**Gizmo:** mild. Yeah.
Where
**Bam Bam:** would you slot this in? Let's
**Gizmo:** say we're doing a, you know, if, I mean, if I had, if I had more than I do, which I don't have any after tonight. Um, you have one. I have one , one left. But I [00:37:00] would probably slot this in maybe cigar number two. I don't think I'd open with it. I'd probably slot this in the middle.
Now if I was o Now we always talk about this. I think this is kind of a litmus test for us as far as where a cigar stands up. But if I have that steak dinner on Saturday night and I can have one cigar, I'm happy to reach for this. As of
**Bam Bam:** right now. You know what this could be? It could be a candidate for a one and done cigar.
Cause it's so satisfying.
**Gizmo:** I, as of right now, like I'm not feeling, sometimes when we smoke a cigar, we're not loving. I'm saying I can't wait to have another one that's gonna scratch that itch. Mm-hmm. . I don't feel like that right now. I feel like this is doing it. Yeah.
**Senator:** The thing I like most about this, As I think about where I would slot this in, this is really versatile to me.
I think my favorite cigars are all pretty versatile. The D four I wake up with it sometimes have in the afternoon, have an evening. It works at any point. Um, this cigar, honestly, I can't think of a bad occasion to smoke this. I truly think, like, I'm not sure [00:38:00] that I'd wake up to this, but if I really needed a cigar with flavor, but that's not gonna kick me around and it's gonna be really smooth.
I could have this in the morning, certainly in the afternoon and in the evening. I can't think of a bad time for it. So this is why I would pick this stick up again because it's lots in so many places.
**Bam Bam:** For me, it does. I probably would not have this in the morning, but late afternoon, evening, it's an.
Really
**Gizmo:** robust stick to me. I, I feel like to, to your point about day, time of day, I think that to me, this demands your attention. I think I'm not, this is not an afternoon casual smoke for me. I'm gonna put it later in the day. You could be late. You have a QD day. Yeah. You could do a QD day. It actually would work with this.
With a QD 50. Oh yeah. Have a Coronas
**Rooster:** Claro in the afternoon. Yep. Late afternoon of 54 and end with the
**Gizmo:** windows. See now that is lizard thinking. First skin. That is love that lizard thinking right there. I fucking
**Senator:** love that. Can we pick up on that a little bit? So I have recently been smoking a lot of QD [00:39:00] fifties in the morning.
Really? I have found that to be one of the most satisfying morning smokes I've ever had. I could see it, and I'm not a huge QD guy. You know, I found the Kross claros through this group. Um, the QD 54, that's pretty much all I smoked. The 50. And it's funny because I remember the first box I got, they, they were a little harsh at first.
I wasn't crazy about 'em, so I just tucked them away in the back and then a while later realized I had them and I started smoking them. And man, just, I dunno, maybe it was six or eight months, they sat in my humidor. Completely different cigar. They got creamy but flavorful. Perfect morning cigar. That little size.
Oh my gosh. I love that
**Gizmo:** cigar. Now you know what's funny about you saying this? I, I, we, we smoked that cigar. I don't love that cigar, but I, it is interesting thinking about it now in relation to the other qds and this being certainly the most full QD that I've had, that we've had. I, I, I think the QD 50 might be a very good [00:40:00] candidate for that early Try the
**Rooster:** QD 50 as a breakfast cigar with a cup of coffee.
Yes.
**Gizmo:** It, it's good. It's amazing. Yeah. Agreed. Yeah, because I don't think it served the purpose. When we did smoke that cigar on the pod, we didn't do the 50. Yeah, we did. What
**Rooster:** did the 50 of the 50
**Gizmo:** we did, we did the 54. Are you sure? Positive. Hold on one second. Am I being nervous? We definitely never did the 50 on this.
I think you're right. I think we did the Yeah, 54, you're right. We did do the 54. I'm sorry, because I've had the 50 Cuz John basketball, John loves the cutie 50, obsessed with it. And I've had it, but it kind of doesn't check all the boxes, but I'm always having it late at night after dinner. Oh yeah. CI
**Senator:** would never, so when I, I, I can't stress enough.
I have exclusively smoked that cigar in the morning. There's no other occasion I would smoke that cigar. It'd have to be early afternoon for it to be an afternoon smoke, but that's it. Yeah. But it's
**Gizmo:** perfect. 54 has a little bit more kick.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Strength. And that's one of my favorite cigars. I do love that stick.
**Gizmo:** I just, I go [00:41:00] back to it. I just don't love the ring gauge of that cigar. Yeah, you're, I like the flavor, but you're moving away from that. I'm totally, yeah. I mean, I got my E two s, I moved those. Yeah, I, I just, I took a box from you, I think. Yeah. I just don't love the cute, the 54 ring gauge 55 ring gauge. I don't know why.
Hmm. This is very satisfying. This is great. Like I, I feel the vibe of the room. Like I think we're all kind of in lockstep that it's ridiculous. This is really good. How good this is. Yeah. Now you know what's interesting? I saw some folks on the Facebook groups totally poo-pooing this cigar , and I was a little anxious coming in tonight, like, uhoh, here we go on a liata, we're gonna blast another care
**Bam Bam:** to name names ,
**Gizmo:** and we're gonna blast another, you know, high-end ha bonos.
But this is pretty damn good. Look for
**Rooster:** what you paid. I think it's, it's kind of worth it at that price point. Yes. Anything above that. I think the ROI factor is kind of won't be there. Like anything over like 45, 50 when you get into [00:42:00] that, like typical
**Gizmo:** liata. Yeah. With some page. Oh, some of them are 50, a hundred, 150 bucks, hundred bucks.
Yeah. Yeah. 70
**Rooster:** bucks, a hundred bucks. I mean, then it gets, gets a little insane and then you don't get the, uh, satisfaction out of that. I got
**Gizmo:** a question for you guys. So we got the holidays coming up. Right. Christmas, new Year's, all that stuff. Yep. Is this cigar special enough to find its way into a holiday, a holiday rotation for you?
I think so. I think so. For sure. Yeah. No doubt. And and the reason is that's a, and that's a compliment from this group because I certainly know the cigars I'm gonna be pulling for. Oh yeah. They have to be special. They're special cigars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
**Senator:** They have to be special. But it goes back to when I described this as so versatile.
The reason, especially for the holidays, that this has utility for me. You know, when it's the holidays, you're around family, you're seeing friends, it's a very social occasion. So it's harder to find sticks that not just I'm gonna enjoy, but that I can have other people enjoy that maybe don't smoke as [00:43:00] often as I do, but also really enjoy cigars.
So you're gonna hand
**Gizmo:** these out? I would not, no, no. Hand these out. , I wouldn't, I wouldn't hand 'em to. I was thinking the same
**Senator:** thing. No, no, but just, Hey God, hear me out, . I wouldn't hand 'em out to a large group . But if you're sitting there having a cigar with. Your father, your brother, you know, someone close different to you.
Yeah. Yeah. That it's, it's a nice occasion when you're able to sit down and share a cigar and maybe, you know, they're not gonna smoke a Pedro 90th with Rooster that's gonna be too aggressive for them, but something that you'll be able to appreciate and they will. Yeah. As someone who doesn't smoke as many cigars as we do, I think this is a great candidate
**Bam Bam:** for that.
I, I agree. I'm actually jealous that you and GIZ still have your dads around. Those are special moments. And when you find the cigar that you can share with your dad or relative, or anyone that you're tight with, family-wise, It doesn't get any better than
**Gizmo:** that. You know, I'm, I'm, I'll double down on your envy.
Obviously I'm lucky that I still have my dad. Yeah. And Senator does as well. Yeah, my dad doesn't smoke cigars, so that for us has been more whiskeys and wine. Oh, [00:44:00] that's okay. So I'll have a cigar. Yeah. But he won't, but we'll, we'll celebrate the spirit together, you know? Absolutely. It really works really well.
The, and it works well. . This
**Rooster:** is Adora by
**Gizmo:** the way. . What do you think? What Don? Getting .
**Senator:** But you're also lucky, your father-in-law smokes cigars. Yes. So you do
**Gizmo:** have my father-in-law. That's exactly right. My father-in-law is, he smokes milder cigars. Yes, he does. Does. So he, you know, the QD 50 actually. Yeah. Yeah.
That's actually a great Christmas gift. He would love that. I hope he's not listening. Love. I think I may do that for his Christmas. Great idea. Ken. Box Acui fifties. Great. I mean, that's, if he like that kind of short, I guess it's a Rob Robusto ish. Mm-hmm. . It's a short row. It's a short Rob Robusto. What, what is it?
Like four and a half, five inches long? Uh, four and a half. Yeah. So he'll be very happy with that. Yeah. Yeah. That's a brilliant idea. Mm-hmm. . Yeah.
**Rooster:** There's nobody in my family. I would be handing these out too
**Bam Bam:** nor I
**Rooster:** I'll give em the Taai ka .
**Gizmo:** There you go. [00:45:00] It's a good cigar though.
**Bam Bam:** It's a good cigar. And then they'll look at you.
Hey, why are you smoking a different cigar, ?
**Gizmo:** No, I'll put the gold
**Rooster:** band on their cigar. There
**Gizmo:** you band on. Don't say that.
**Senator:** You could always light this up with, uh, your, your daughter's boyfriend, that that's right. He got you some chocolate cigars for the holidays. That's
**Gizmo:** true. That's true. Yeah. He's, he's very, he's actually
**Rooster:** very generous.
Oh, that's great.
**Gizmo:** He better be. He
**Rooster:** just, he just bought, uh, my daughter some AirPods. Ah,
**Gizmo:** nice. I'm like, I like that. That's one last thing you had to buy. Well, yeah. Well, I have
**Rooster:** already bought her two pairs that
**Gizmo:** she's lost, so, ah,
**Senator:** little does he know he's gonna be buying her two more pairs. . Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, he's a yucky.
He's a very lucky young man. Yeah. You've got, you've got great daughters. Thank you. It's true. You
**Senator:** do. You do. It's true. They definitely, they take after the Oh yeah. The rooster. Mm-hmm. . Very hospitable. Very kind. Very kind. Yep.
**Gizmo:** Great kids. They've got that. And we know, we know you had nothing to do with that, but, we'll, we'll give you the kudos.
They have
**Bam Bam:** that calm
**Senator:** Yeah. They actually let the raccoons live. , [00:46:00]
**Gizmo:** they feed the raccoons.
**Bam Bam:** The older one has that calm, don't, don't fuck with me dme. Oh yeah. Just like rooster.
**Gizmo:** They're good kids. Yeah. Oh yeah. So we're. halfway through this thing, boys. I'm loving it. Oh yeah. I just pulled the Liata band off. I'm going there now.
I'm kind of, I'm kind of having that feeling like, man, I, I don't want this to end. Mm-hmm. , you know, I'm really enjoying it.
**Rooster:** You know? Now that you mentioned about the, uh, ahman liata props, it might have some similarities with this cigar. I mean, I know it had more strength, the dark c Yeah, yeah. I'll have to go back and, uh, kind of
**Gizmo:** revisit that, but, you know, it was also a smaller ring gauge, so you're getting more ooph out of the wrapper if it is similar.
Yeah, yeah. Those were what, 20 eighteens I think. Yeah, they were 20 eighteens. So this cigar, um, I think Rooster mentioned it. Um, but uh, it was officially previewed during a [00:47:00] dinner in Paris in September, 2019. And it was the first, like we said, it's the first li. That K dors SE has ever had. And we mentioned that, you know, the liata are usually reserved for the global brands.
The big brands, the six and the regional releases are reserved for smaller markers like K dors se, Ramones, and um, some of the others. But they made an exception, I guess, for K Dors SE and their French roots to release a liata specific for. For the French market. So that's where these cigars started showing up.
So these, this was directed pretty much at France to celebrate this guy. Yeah. Really this spec, this specific cigar. I didn't know that. Yeah, no, I gotta say
**Senator:** I'm glad they did. And I'm also just surprised because this goes back to, I think when we reviewed the QD 54, I had said, I think a number of guys agreed, you know, a cigar that was made for the French market.
The French market is not one that is looking for incredibly bold or flavorful cigars, right? They're looking for milder sticks. [00:48:00] And I always assume that all qds would be extremely mild and would not satisfy my palate. And this defies, you know, what you would expect in a really nice way,
**Gizmo:** no doubt.
**Bam Bam:** They're also typically going for smaller vitola.
Yeah. Oh yeah. The
**Gizmo:** European market overall. Yeah. But they, they
**Rooster:** have the 50 and the
**Gizmo:** 54. Yeah, it's true. Those are not small. Makes no sense. Which, which it's not. And which don't forget, when we did the QD 54 4 episode, those cigars were only released, they did the complete overhaul of qd. Right. And I think 20 17, 20 16, 20 17, not recent.
So those cigars didn't even exist. The only one that still exists from the old days is the Coronas sclera. Wow. Which is, I think, a very different cigar than it was long ago. Yeah. But the whole line was revamped in 17 new bands knew everything. I think
**Rooster:** 1970s was like the first time that QD actually was made by Cuba tobacco for France.
I see. Because they didn't have anything and that was introduced at that time. And then he was completely revamped in [00:49:00] 2017. Yep.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So pretty cool story here. Um, definitely one of the better guata I've had so far. Agreed. Very satisfying. And I, and you, I can't get over the value at 34 bucks. . You know,
**Senator:** we're two for two on Centor cigars.
I have
**Bam Bam:** to say it. Weren't we waiting for that comment to come out ?
**Senator:** Well, I'll be honest, I was nervous when we started this because, I mean, I, I had low expectations for the, uh, EP Carillo El Centor. We did. And that definitely our expectations
**Bam Bam:** blew our off.
**Gizmo:** That was amazing. It was. I bought, we, we bought boxes.
Boxes, I
**Senator:** mean cigar at the price. I won't do that a lot. It's ridiculous. Yeah. But this, I was worried. Cause I said, ah, it's a liata, it's qd. Which is, is on the milder end of the spectrum. But man, I'm really pleasantly surprised. Yeah.
**Rooster:** You know, typically when you get a cigar with this kind of a
**Gizmo:** wrapper, like I love that reddish brown color. Yeah. A [00:50:00] bit rustic. A bit rustic. Bit rustic.
**Rooster:** Yeah. But, but just the color-wise. Yeah. It's very similar to that EGUs liata. It is. Mm-hmm. the color-wise. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And I look for that like that.
I know. Like it's gonna be a good
**Gizmo:** cigar. Right. So what I see is it just the, your experience with them, is it just, you kind of gravitate towards that? Like what, what is, why is that such a, a tell no more, more
**Rooster:** than the color? When I smell a box of cigars, I can kind of tell like, what if the cigar is gonna be good or not?
Yeah. Like a lot has to do with that smell on the wrapper because you get so much aroma out of that. Sure. And same thing with this, I mean, the aroma out of this wrapper
**Gizmo:** on the burn lamb is fantastic. It's, yeah, it's
**Bam Bam:** amazing. The
**Gizmo:** smoke is delicious. Yeah. Yeah. Mine is still burning brilliantly, by the way.
Same. Perfectly
**Senator:** same. That's one thing. It's funny. So the, the only thing I, I've had to touch this up. I think I've seen Roosters had to touch his up, but the Ashe itself has been really neatly packed. Yeah. And it has burned evenly, even though I've had to touch up along the way. So overall, I would still [00:51:00] say the construction is pretty good.
Yeah. The
**Bam Bam:** structure of the ash is really strong. Yeah.
**Senator:** I also really love the shape. Me too. I wish there were more cigars. I know this exact
**Gizmo:** shape. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a great size. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Great. Engaged. Especially if you're gonna do just one cigar. I think it's kind of, the name of
**Bam Bam:** the viola again is what?
**Gizmo:** Grand Corona. It's a, it's a Grand Corona. Grand Corona. Ha.
Bonos has a, uh, a, like a classic name for it. Um,
**Bam Bam:** any other Gro Coronas in different markets?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. There, there are
**Rooster:** a couple. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Montecristo I think has one. Okay. I can tell you right now. So this specific cigar, um, like we said is a Grand Corona, but they call it a, uh, in the factory name for the viola is, is a Hermosa number two.
Okay. Uh, so other Hermosa number two, uh, there was an, uh, boulevard, uh, regional and 11 and a bunch of Liata and a regional for Juan Lopez and oh eight. And like we said, Parus and Romeo have [00:52:00] liata. That's the, those are the only five cigars. There are no regular production cigars in this specific viola.
Right. Um, as far as grand Coronas go, there are more. . So the signal of four by Cohiba is technically a, a grand Corona. Um, there are some, uh, other canceled cigars. Obviously there were only
**Rooster:** three Liata that were introduced in 2019.
**Gizmo:** Yep. Mm-hmm. , the Ramone was one on
**Rooster:** this, one was this one was the other one was the Ramona, yo.
Mm-hmm. . And then the third one was the Monte Krista Sopranos. Cool. Which,
**Gizmo:** which is, have you heard good things about that cigar Supremos? Yeah. Mixed. Yeah. I've heard mixed about this one though. Yeah. You know. Oh, this is here. Uh, so the Mag 46, by the way, is technically a, a grand Corona. You, it's a Coronas Gorda 46 ring gage.
But it all, it's still classifies. Love that shape. Anything
**Bam Bam:** Corona. I mean, yeah. Honestly, that Juan Lopez, number one, the shape of That's beautiful. I
**Rooster:** love that. Right.
**Gizmo:** That's one of my favorite. It holds, it [00:53:00] holds beautifully. Juan Lopez, number one, dude.
**Bam Bam:** Most definitely. When it's on that is a fantastic, fantastic smoke.
Yeah, great. With coffee free fruity. Yeah. Floral.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Cigar. It is delicious. Right? So, uh, same, similar Viola we're actually gonna do, I got, um, some Ana Hato RGUs for us, 20 fifteens that are Grand Coronas, uh, from our friend in California. Oh. Um, and he sent those to us. So we're gonna do those on the pod coming up.
Love that guy. Yeah. He's amazing. But, uh, I'm very excited because I, you know, we've had some hit or miss experiences with the ahas. Obviously we love the Ahman ahas that we have from 2011. So Great. I mean, one of the best cigars that I've ever had, well, there's only three, right? What? The ahas? No, there's more.
There's a Romeo Churchill. Yeah. We don't like the Romeo . No. There's quite a few. There's quite a few of them. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** This is nuts. I'm like, I'm smoking the, I'm smelling the smoke. It's just so good. I'm
**Gizmo:** surprised. Yeah. Wow. It's really good. [00:54:00] So we've gotten, uh, a lot of new listener emails, so for new listeners out there, welcome, so glad to have you with us.
Um, one I wanted to highlight was from a guy named Jason, uh, and he said, new listener. Hey y'all, listener, uh, li I'm a listener. Uh, found your podcast recently. Love your most recent episode immediately. Had to email you guys. Uh, I'm a professional humidor maker in Milwaukee. And he's just getting into cigars.
So he is been making humid orders, I guess for like six years. Just getting into cigars now. Found the podcast. Very cool. Very cool guys. You should see I, I'll pass my phone around. You should see some of the hum orders, humid orders. This guy is
**Bam Bam:** making, he could make your double y tower that you desperately need now.
I
**Gizmo:** do, I do. By the way, rooster sold his tower. Did he didn't tell any of us. Just came what? Sold the tower today. It's, it's actually gone. I, I don't think out of his
**Senator:** house. Where? Where's your
**Gizmo:** what? I leave for a couple months. This is what happens, Sally. Your
**Bam Bam:** tower. The earth is shattering. Where are your [00:55:00] cigars?
**Gizmo:** They're
**Rooster:** sitting on a desk right now.
**Gizmo:** how many boxes? Three 80. 84. 84.
**Bam Bam:** 84 box. I love,
**Senator:** hold on, hold on. Why did you sell your
**Gizmo:** tower? Because
**Rooster:** I'm getting the
**Gizmo:** triple wide . Is it really? Let's getting another one. Getting the vigilant. These guys are nuts.
**Senator:** Is this the same sty as the other one, or is this cedar?
**Gizmo:** What do you
**Senator:** mean inside?
Like the fridge style inside or
**Gizmo:** cedar? It's still a Remington mo line. It's not a reming. It's made, made by vigilant. Okay. Yeah.
**Senator:** Vi, do you understand what I'm saying? I'm saying is it all cedar or is it cedar with like refrigerator material inside
**Rooster:** like that? No, no. I'm gonna get it. Same as, uh, guess. Um, so all cedar.
**Gizmo:** All cedar. All cedar. Ah, without the human look at how everyone is. They've graduated, haven't they? We have because we realize that
**Rooster:** where I keep mine, the humidity in that room is like always between 62 to 65, you know, RH nice. So right now the boxes are just sitting there [00:56:00] and it's perfect. I'm sure have like govies on sitting on top of.
So this guy who bought it, I didn't think he, he was, Like, take it like right away. But he's traveling. He's gone for like, almost like a month and a half, and he wanted it right away. So he called me when I was in Massachusetts. He's like, listen, can I uh, send my guys to pick up the tower like tomorrow? I said, I'm not even back yet.
So I'm like, I'm gonna be back like Tuesday night. So you can send the guys over on
**Gizmo:** Wednesday. He lives in Boston?
**Rooster:** No, no. He lives in, uh, cranberry by Princeton. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. So these two guys show up in a U-Haul. . One guy's covered with like paint. So I'm like, what do you do? He's like, I'm a painter. And like, what does the other guy do?
He's like, he's a plumber. So they came with drop clots.
**Gizmo:** Oh gosh. As a protective, not packing blankets. No. Oh, ah, drop cloths. They have three drop
**Rooster:** cloths. Oh God. And I'm like, Joe, can you give them some like
**Gizmo:** comforters or something? He's like, the comforter, a comforter. Take, take the comforters off. Take the comforter off our bed.[00:57:00]
So she's like, no, fuck
**Rooster:** that. They should have brought what they needed. I'm not giving them my, my stuff. I'm like, yeah, you're right. Oh my gosh. So they literally had it. So I took like pictures before. I'm like, all right, this guy's buying it. , you know, if something happens, like, you know, I'm like, I'm not liable for, well, it's on him.
These guys are coming with like drop cloths and these guys are not professional
**Gizmo:** movers. Did you take a video or photo while they doing? I did. I, I took, took, I took photos
**Rooster:** like all three sides. I said, this is how it's going to your house. I hope it gets there safe. And I actually helped them out. And it was raining.
Oh boy. , it had just stopped raining. It was a little window for like 15, 20 minutes. But luckily they got, they got, they got it to his house safe. He sent me a picture. He's very happy
**Gizmo:** with it, so That's awesome.
**Rooster:** And yeah, now I don't
**Gizmo:** have a tower, so . You will soon. You will soon. These are beautiful. So I, so I just, I sent you guys the, the photos of, uh, lizard, uh, listener, Jason Oh.
Who's a lizard. Um, his [00:58:00] website. I'm gonna shout him out because this stuff is beautiful. He makes jml modern.com. M ml modern.com. He makes these by hand in Milwaukee. Beautiful work. Amazing. So he makes, uh, there's travel humid orders for like three cigars. Look at that little beauty. I mean, amazing. Right?
That's beautiful. Very, very nice stuff. That's very, very cool. So he has a bunch of great stuff on his site, different furniture pieces and stuff. I think like if you have a watch collection, you know, he makes boxes for that. There you go. So, yeah, so, um, yeah, amazing stuff. So thanks for email us, Jason. We love hearing from listeners.
We've gotten, I have such a list of cigars that we're gonna try because of listeners. So we love hearing from listeners what you're smoking, what you want us to try. So definitely reach out to us. Um, you know, we appreciate hearing from you. Yeah.
**Senator:** So, sorry, just to close the loop on the rooster. the rooster, human
**Gizmo:** focused,
**Senator:** the rooster.
I'm still, I can't believe this. So when are you getting the new human? No idea. Uhoh. Oh boy. This be a while. Is this on bam time? Yeah, I
**Gizmo:** think it is. It's gonna be a while. Is it [00:59:00] lost
**Senator:** on a shipping container? ?
**Gizmo:** Well, no. They make it, they make it in Massachusetts. It's 12 to 15 weeks. I see. Ah, yeah. Wow. It's gonna be a while.
Wow. .
**Senator:** Well, bam. Can rent you human respect. Yeah. Cuz Lord knows he's got an empty
**Gizmo:** humidor right now. It's a hundred. He's got, he's still seasoning it.
**Bam Bam:** So Yes, it's . It's, it'll be a hundred dollars a shelf. . It's all yours. . A month or a week or what?
**Gizmo:** That's per week. Okay. You're fucking kidding
**Rooster:** me. Right.
**Senator:** and Gizmo. You're
**Gizmo:** also getting a new humidor. Yeah, but I'm being a little bit more reasonable about my timeline, so I don't have to have my box to sit around my basement. Um, so I'm gonna, once I have like a solid firm date of when it's. Then I'm gonna order, uh, I'm gonna formally order it. This is what he's getting.
I'm getting the glass doors. He's getting with the glass.
**Rooster:** I'm gonna get it without the glass. But in it comes in like six or seven different finishes. What's nice is the room between the shelves. Mm-hmm. . [01:00:00]
**Gizmo:** So you can stack, you can really stack boxes. It's wider than the Remingtons. That's good. Yeah, it's flat.
Um, nice.
**Bam Bam:** So that's a golden oak. Is is that the finisher you've
**Gizmo:** selected? No, no, I'm doing espresso. Espresso. Espresso.
**Bam Bam:** Okay.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Nice. So I'm gonna look like, kinda like this.
**Rooster:** Just like an arm.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Just don't want anybody to see. No one will know. See inside. Yeah. He's gonna lock it. Nobody can see. Yeah. Your
**Senator:** girls are stealing all your cigars at home.
**Gizmo:** my girl's boyfriends. That's right. . We have to get in touch with them. We can get, get some stuff on the side. True. I need some swag. I need some rooster swag. Yeah. Dip into the connoisseur corner. Shelf number four. Oh yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah, it happened so fast. I
**Gizmo:** wasn't anticipating this. Yeah, I can't believe it. Yeah,
**Rooster:** we were talking about like kind of try to try to move
**Gizmo:** it together. Yeah. Buy together, move it together. Including typical rooster though
**Rooster:** it just happened. I mean I, you know, you moved too fast on, it just happened[01:01:00]
**Gizmo:** so what are you guys thinking about this cigar and pairing? I'm, I'm in heaven right now, guys. Very happy. I'm very satisfy. I wish I had a whole box of these. Yeah. I really love
**Senator:** the smoke output. Yeah. Yep. I mean, honestly, we, we've talked about some of the larger Ring Gate smokes, like the QD 54 or the Parus C two.
You know, I always associate a larger ring gauge with a lot of smoke output. But for this, at this ring gate, this, I honestly think this puts as much smoke out as a QD 54 does.
**Bam Bam:** I'm surprised that our online, uh, fellow cigar mates are complaining or negatively commenting on this. Yeah. I It
**Gizmo:** doesn't add, well, I saw it doesn't compute.
I saw some folks saying that it doesn't age well. That, that when they first got it, it smoked better than after the time. Like, I've seen quite a few comments on it, so I, I was surprised.
**Senator:** Well, I, I just want to point out one review. So it's funny, I was reading on half wheel when this came out, and half wheel midway through the review says that it feels spongy.
And I'm [01:02:00] sitting there reading that. , how is that the cigars fall, obviously you're not fucking storing the cigars. Exactly right. Correct.
**Gizmo:** I I
**Rooster:** read that article too. So I think they smoked three cigars and they said it had some spongy spots, but one of them had like a very soft spot right above
**Gizmo:** the band.
Yeah. So that tells me that they didn't, it didn't
**Senator:** enough that they didn't, they didn't let it come down to the proper Yeah. That's typical humidity. Right. That needs to sit. But I feel like a lot of them, honestly, uh, look, we've talked about this. If you look at Half Wheel, they hate Cubans. I'm sorry they hate Cubans.
But the funny thing is, you know, I thought it was intentional, uh, because let's face it, right, they, there's no marketing dollars for them to make by. Yeah. They're not selling ads. The bonos. Exactly. But the funny thing is they, they post photos as they're smoking the cigars. And if you look at the photos of the Cuban cigars, they review, they are burning so horribly, a lot of them, and it is so clear that they don't store them at a low enough Rh.[01:03:00]
they're storing Cubans at the same humidity. It would seem as they are new worlds at a higher, they
**Rooster:** might just be getting
**Gizmo:** them and smoking them. They're not. Yeah, that too. But if you're gonna, if you're gonna, hence the
**Bam Bam:** negative
**Gizmo:** review, the
**Rooster:** cigar did get an 89 on half wheel.
**Gizmo:** Okay. If you're gonna, if you're gonna put yourself out as a cigar expert, right.
Don't you think that your humidity situation should factor into You should know better. You should know better. And you should educate your customer. Yeah. Yeah. You should educate the people that are coming to your site. Don't setting up the media kit . Like, we don't, you know, we don't sit here and pretend to be experts, but, I mean, come on.
Like, that is such a basic thing. Like, we're not gonna sit here and call out crazy flavor notes that these guys call out. Some of them are like, you know, psalm level, like, like senator over here, you know, calling out crazy notes. I, I don't, I can't call out crazy notes like that. I'm never gonna be able to do that, but that's fine in dandy.
But if you're smoking a cigar and you're rating a cigar, [01:04:00] as a, as a professional and expert on the internet, you, how can you not have the humidity? Right? They've gotta store their cigars properly. Like, it's so simple. Like even, let's say they're, they're, let's say they get them fresh, right? These have been in my humidor, I don't know, three, four weeks.
At 62, I knew we were gonna smoke this on the pod, and 36 hours ago, I put 'em in with a 58 bda, just to make sure you took 'em out of, I took 'em out of my 62 general Popul population, populated them right in a dry box at 58 Rh. just to make sure that there was no, to bring him down potential that we're gonna sit here and smoke a cigar.
That's too wet. It feels
**Rooster:** like a 59
**Gizmo:** and a half though.
**Bam Bam:** connoisseur
**Senator:** commenting again. There he is. But by the way, they, they have that like tool that you can stick in cigars that's supposed to tell you. Have any of you guys used that? I have one. Does it work? Have you used Gave me one. That's
**Gizmo:** right. Have you, so what's interesting? I, I have used it. Um,
**Senator:** is it accurate?
I'm really curious.
**Gizmo:** Well, what's, what's, [01:05:00] what's interesting about it, I don't wanna say if it's accurate or not, cuz I think it is. But what's wild is obviously you have a certain humidity, your tower, and wherever the cigars sitting, how long it's been in there, it's gonna vary. So sometimes I'll pull like a patron drone out and it'll read like 64, 66, which is right around, sometimes I'll pull a Cuban out and depending on where it is, it'll read 59.
It'll read 63. So I'm finding like, I think it's accurate and, and what I've found, and maybe the number's not right, but it correlates to how well the cigar smokes when I do put it in, you know, I just put it in the foot and measure it. It does correlate to how well it smokes from a, from a burn point.
**Rooster:** You, you stick it on like both, both hands to see if there's a
**Gizmo:** difference.
I have, I've actually stuck it in the, the head after I've cut it and it, the head is definitely more humid usually than the foot, you know, because it's kind of contained. Yeah. I guess it, you know, the open end is just it, you know, as it, I, and I [01:06:00] think that's what aging is doing as well. Right. The longer it's in there, the, you know, it's gonna take time to work itself down the, down the cigar, the acclimation and the oils and everything else.
So I don't know the science behind it, but my experience is that when I plug it into the head of the cigar, it's more humid than the foot. Does that device need to be calibrated in? It does. It has its own calibration tool. I see. Which is cool.
**Bam Bam:** That's cool. Yeah. That's a cool
**Gizmo:** tool to have. I forget what it's called, but um, I'll mention, I'll, I'll put it in the episode description.
I love the cloud effect. Yeah. There's a lot of smoke in here for four of us. It is. There's a lot of smoke in here
**Bam Bam:** tonight. It is. It's a plush experience right now. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's really good. Yeah.
**Rooster:** I must say it's one of the better limit taught us.
**Senator:** It is, and I never would've picked this up if it weren't for us doing this and just getting these.
So I'm really glad that, the
**Gizmo:** only reason I got it quite. The only reason I got a fiver is because it said senators. And I was like, [01:07:00] oh, senator's coming back. Well, this would be cool to do. That's perfect. Yeah. That that's why I did it. Right? Like I would've never picked this
**Senator:** up. I'm deadly serious after this.
Any cigar that's ever made that says Senator on it. I'm buying . I mean, we're two for two. Like how can I not Like, the track record is so strong. I don't know why,
**Gizmo:** but it works. Yeah, I heard the Placencia coming out . Oh, that may be an exception. I heard. I heard Rocky's putting one
**Senator:** out. I'm filing a lawsuit to block that from
**Gizmo:** happening
So I'm gonna try the, uh, the Glenlivet neat now cuz we tried it with a little ice before. Hmm. Before we raid it. I kind of wanna try it just as it is. It can't
**Rooster:** help.
**Gizmo:** It can't help
actually. I think I like it better without ice. Wow. Wow. Just because I think I. single malts that have a little bit more of a no bite it, it has a little, just a touch. More bite. I like a little bit more bite in my single malt. That's right. Like you were saying about the BNY double wood certainly has a little bit more bite even with ice on the front.
Yes. Just a [01:08:00] little bit.
**Senator:** But that's the funny thing. I mean, it's remarkable that you're saying that most 12 years, 12 years, single malts need a little water. A little ice. That's right. Because they can have a somewhat aggressive bite. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. The fact that you're having this neat and you're saying it just has a little bit more bite and this was incredibly smooth with ice, um, I think speaks to how smooth that is.
That's why I think at that price point, it's really
**Gizmo:** hard to beat it. It is. And you can find it anywhere. Yep. And I, you know, the other thing I think is playing into how I'm feeling about it neat, is that obviously I've had some, I've had a, you know, a finger of, of scotch with some ice. But now having smoked almost to the end of the cigar here, I think it's kind of playing a little bit better of where this cigar is now.
Agreed. You know, in the last third, yeah. Yeah, this has been great.
**Bam Bam:** It's not getting harsh at all. Mm-hmm. Toward the end.
**Gizmo:** Curious what the rating's gonna be. Oh, I know what it's gonna be. .
**Rooster:** Yeah. I get like a faint hint of cinnamon. [01:09:00] Yes.
**Senator:** That's when I said baking spice. So at first I got nutmeg and now I get cinnamon.
The cinnamon's accurate.
**Gizmo:** It's accurate. A little bit like faint.
**Rooster:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Wow. Smoke is just, I just, man,
**Bam Bam:** and they're retro. Hell, welcome back. . .
**Senator:** Yeah. I'm, I'm a happy camper right now, man. This is great.
**Bam Bam:** Retro hale at this point. Still very good.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a very, very strong performer tonight. Oh yeah.
**Senator:** what are these coming? Uh, the box have 25, 20
**Gizmo:** count. So it's a 25? Yeah, it's a 25 count. Really nice. Wow. Box.
**Senator:** Wow, that's great. I mean, the, the Ramone limit matata, it's a 10 count box. Semi boy
**Gizmo:** or sliding? It's a, it's a, it's a fancier, I would say semi boy or I don't know if it's varnished. Um, I think it's closer to like a semi boy, but it's a little bit nicer.
Like nice. You know, we've talked about the liata of the part against Liata come in a classic cardboard 10 count box, and I'm like, what, [01:10:00] what you, what do you
**Senator:** put in a liata? How they don't get, I mean, the fact that a standard letter series comes in at least like a ni uh, nice enough box. Why You'd put a cardboard, put
**Gizmo:** it in AEL beer or something.
Put in the sliding wood box. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how hard is that? Or, you know, a varnished box like the Sir Winston or an 8 98. I mean, Liata should demand a step up, a step up in packaging, I think in presentation, but I guess we don't work at, uh, a Bono's essay.
So you guys ready to do a formal liquor rating on the Glen Liver? 12? Yeah. Oh yeah. All right boys, let's do it. Bam. Bam. You're up. Eight.
Eight.
**Senator:** Exact
**Gizmo:** same eight. I'm right there with, you don't need to do the math boys. No. 8.0. I think that's a perfect score for that. Good. Recommend. It's
**Senator:** easy. The price point's phenomenal.
Yeah. And it's first, this is, this is not a single malt that I would recommend anybody have with a very full cigar. That's not what this is made for. It's a lighter single malt, but it has just enough flavor that it [01:11:00] holds up extremely well with anything mild and also well enough with anything medium bodied.
Like I think we're saying this cigars. That's
**Bam Bam:** right. Yeah. Yeah. And the quality's unquestionable.
**Gizmo:** And I think you, for our purposes tonight, I'm happy that it kind of played like this because to your point, the cigars doing more of the talking than, than the single Maltz scotch. Oh yeah. Which, which is obviously what we want here, but I think anytime I have this cigar, it's so smooth, it's so delicious and in interesting.
That I wanted to be a little bit more of the story than the,
**Bam Bam:** than the scotch. Yeah. And I think we want to pursue that more often than not. Right. Yeah. Let the cigar do the talking. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And I think we've gotten lucky with a lot of the pairings. Mm-hmm.
All right, boys, we're coming to the end here of the k Do say senators, any final thoughts before we, uh, rate this thing?
**Rooster:** Very satisfying, I must say. I mean, out of all the liata that I've had, I mean, definitely haven't had all of them, but quite a few that I've had. This is, this
is
**Gizmo:** up there. Yeah. [01:12:00] Yeah. You know, definitely doesn't disappoint.
No, not at all. For me,
**Senator:** the, the thing that really just stands out and it's gonna be reflected in my rating, this was consistently great all the way through. That's right. There was not a single point during this smoke that I felt it fell flat or went dead. all the way through. I enjoyed it.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. And piggybacking on the consistency, the flavor notes continued all the way through.
And you would get a hint of barnyard, it would go away, a hint of cinnamon, it would go away. That is a mark of a complex cigar.
**Gizmo:** And I think, um, kind of combining everything you guys have said. I think when I think about pagoda and Puba and Grindr, their pallets, which, you know, puba, I, I would say Puba and Grindr are a little bit more mild, medium.
Pagoda obviously loves a full cigar. He'd like this. And, and we're kind of, we're kind of in the middle, I would say. Mm-hmm. the four of us. But I think this is a cigar that everybody with any kind of pallet, I think would be very satisfied. And nothing's gonna kick you around here. It's gonna satisfy the guys who like a full [01:13:00] cigar.
Yeah. It's, it's gonna satisfy the guys who like a mild cigar. I think it kind of checks all the boxes.
**Senator:** I completely agree. Which is why I think for the holidays, as I was saying before, this is a perfect smoke again for people that you really, you know, care to enjoy a fine cigar with. There's something for everybody in this state.
Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** and my father-in-law .
**Bam Bam:** I do think Senator Sr would like the cigar. Oh, no question. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This has really been good. Mm-hmm. . All right, boys, you're ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating on this thing? Yep. Rooster, you're up. Nine. Nine. Senator. This is a tough one for me. It is for me too. I know.
**Senator:** No, I'm actually kidding. This is very easy. It's
**Gizmo:** definitely a nine. See, I'm, I'm, it's tough for me in a very good way. Oh, wow. Uh oh.
**Bam Bam:** It's absolutely a nine.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I'm right there with you guys. I was bordering on 10. Yeah, I was bordering on 10 because it's that good. But it's closer to a nine for sure, for me.
So a 9.0 boys. Excellent. Excellent. [01:14:00] Recommend. Yeah, it is very strong. Recommend. Wow. It is for 34 bucks if you can get it. Yeah, under 40. I would encourage any listener out there, if you can get this for under 40, get a five or get a three wherever you can get them. Um, just don't buy fake ones. You know, find a retailer you trust.
Yep. Do email us if you have questions about sourcing. We're glad to help. We always answer our emails. Um, we're always glad to help you find stuff, but, um, I would definitely recommend this to go checks every box. Yeah. I think this has done a great, great job. Now you're
**Bam Bam:** a bit further than me. You caught up and actually exceeded my, how are you experiencing?
What's that look like right now?
**Gizmo:** It's fantastic. It's harsh. No harshness, right? No harsh.
**Bam Bam:** Not
**Gizmo:** a single hard edge. And, you know, for two and a half years for a cigar that kind of has this, I, I don't wanna say oomph cuz it's not strong, but it has a lot going on. It's complex. Yeah. Rooster said the aroma coming off the cigar, like I would not have been surprised if we got to this last third and we were like, oh, there's a little bit of tar.
Yeah, ammonia. Something like that. There's none of that. It's [01:15:00] crazy. It's crazy. And I've, you know, I've kind of caught up. I've been pulling on a little more. Yeah. Um, because I've just been enjoying it. So, to answer your question, start to finish. A plus. Very satisfying, outstanding. Yeah. Hmm. I don't want this to end boys, but we are here now an 8.0 for the Glen of 12 boys and.
9.0 flat nine for the Kai Se. Senators Liata from 2019. Great night, Senator. Welcome back. Thank you. Nice job making these cigars. I know. Welcome back. I know you had a strong hand in .
**Senator:** I'm a jack of all trades. What can I say? .
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. Great. We'll see you next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us.
You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's Lounge lizards, P o d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, do you wanna reach out? Say hello, tell us what you're smoking, [01:16:00] email us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
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