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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Poobah, Senator, Pagoda, and Bam Bam, and our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 127th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plenty of news here once a week. We're going to smoke a Cuban cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We smoke one of the most listened requests in Cuban cigars. We celebrate the life of the late Habanos legend, Minran Ni, and we discuss the recent civil unrest in Cuba, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes.
So sit back, get your favorite drink, and Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair Don Filano Tequila Reposado with the Monte Cristo Especiales No. 2. A Cuban Panatella tonight on the pod for [00:01:00] Monte Cristo. It's called the Especiales No. 2. It's a 38 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. The factory name is a Legito number two.
And this is the second Legito number two that we've done on the pod. And boys, we're back to Monte Cristo after almost 50 episodes. Yeah, we're back. Nice toothy cigar. Nice Vitola. I'm surprised we have not done this cigar. I mean, it's a lot of Montes we haven't done. We have a lot of listeners. That have requested specifically the Monte Cristo Especiales No.
2. A lot of guys love this cigar. And I think it's because it comes at a reasonable price point. It's not a major time commitment. If you're sitting down for a smoke, this is kind of, you know, right in between that petite Corona and what you'd get from a You know, uh, a double Robusto or something like that.
**Bam Bam:** It's about 10 minutes for me.
**Gizmo:** From the way it looks. But yeah, we are, uh, we are back with Monte Cristo. Let's cut this thing, boys. See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. [00:02:00] Everybody has their fingers crossed. These are notorious for having a decent percentage in the box with draw problems. So hopefully that's not the case tonight.
Mine's, mine's wide open. Open draw, right? Wide open. Mine's really nice. I like the cold draw. Cold raw is great. A little cedar.
**Bam Bam:** A little, a little fruit, honestly.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You're right. Raisin, maybe? Figgy?
**Poobah:** Tastes mighty crystal like.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, this is gonna be good.
**Gizmo:** How many have had this before? I've never had this.
I've never had it.
**Bam Bam:** Never.
**Gizmo:** I had one probably about two years ago. And I'll be honest, it wasn't great. It was certainly Lackluster compared to, at the time, my experience with Monty No. 1 and, uh, Monty No. 2. But I'm hearing that the, the current run of these, so this box is from early 23, it's PTE February 23.
Um, I'm hearing that the current run of these is pretty good, so.
**Bam Bam:** You know, the ring gauge demands a very [00:03:00] slow paced smoke. Oh yeah. You'll, this thing will back right into you if you go right through it quickly.
**Gizmo:** It'll definitely bite you.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** Somebody had sent me a bodyguard. Of this. Of this, but really like, had a lot of phage in it, had the old, like the lighter colored band on it.
It was delicious. Delicious. The whole straw is enjoyable.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Wow.
**Gizmo:** Sick. Alright boys, let's light this thing. The Monte Cristo Especialis No. 2. Again, it's a 38 ring gauge cigar by 6 inches long. Factory name in Cuba is a Leguito No. 2, and it's a Pentela.
Classic Monte Cristo on the light.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, that's good. Oh, that's very good. Oh, that's great. Mmm. That's really nice.
**Gizmo:** Let's hope this [00:04:00] continues. Getting a little coffee, a little nuttiness.
**Bam Bam:** That's very sweet for me. Little cedar. Sweet forward.
**Poobah:** Reminds us a little bit of days of old. The olden
**Bam Bam:** days.
**Poobah:** The olden days when we smoked a lot of Monte Cristo.
**Senator:** Oh
**Bam Bam:** yeah,
**Poobah:** we don't smoke a lot of Monte Cristo anymore.
**Senator:** We don't. No, it's very true. I mean, I was commenting the other day. I lit up a Monte number two and that was probably the first one I had in at least six, if not eight months. Yeah. I forgot how great that cigar is. Oh yeah. But the Monte flavor profile, I feel like for everybody in the room.
Pretty much checks the boxes and stuff that we look for. Oh,
**Poobah:** yeah.
**Senator:** Great DNA.
**Poobah:** Yeah, for
**Senator:** sure.
**Poobah:** I, I just got a couple bad runs of them. When they're good, they're good. When they're not good, they're not good. They're not.
**Bam Bam:** You know, you guys have said that, and honestly, I don't remember ever having a bad Monte Cristo.
I think I've been lucky. Oh, I have. Oh, I've had many. I know
**Gizmo:** you have. Plenty of
**Poobah:** bad Monte 2s. Not me.
**Gizmo:** I've had some real stinker Monty 1's, I've had mediocre Monty 2's. Monty [00:05:00] 4's. Great, great Monty 3's. Monty 4's I've had some
**Bam Bam:** stinkers. Yeah, interesting. Monty 1's you guys really don't like. I happen to love that cigar.
I like it.
**Gizmo:** I had one good box.
**Poobah:** I do
**Bam Bam:** like that cigar.
**Poobah:** I like the Monte three more. Or maybe it's just the box. They just make so many. Oh, yeah. One of the ones we talked about doing was the, um, I think it's called the petite two or the petite number two number two. Yeah, that's which I hear is a sleeper. Oh, it definitely is.
That's a beautiful cigar. Beautiful
**Bam Bam:** cigar.
**Gizmo:** And we bought a box of those in Cuba. You did. San Antonio. That's right.
**Bam Bam:** Those
**Gizmo:** were good. At Parquecentral.
**Bam Bam:** I stole one of those sticks from you guys. It was Malía. Yeah, that was Malía Cohiba. Malía
**Gizmo:** Cohiba. So how did you guys, so you have, we told the story before, I know.
But so you walked in the humidor at Malía Cohiba. And you happened upon a five year old box of them? Yeah. How did that
**Senator:** happen? We, we found the Monty Petit No. 2 and the Monty [00:06:00] Medea Corona. Both were like 2017 boxes, so we got really excited. We wanted to buy them, but the problem was they'll only let you pay in cash in U.
S. dollars for like a handful of single cigars. And, uh, we, this guy had just transacted with a credit card and sat down and we were sitting there. And we're like, what do we have to lose? Let's ask the guy. So we went up and asked him a guy from Spain, if he would be willing to use his credit card, we would give him the money in cash and dollars.
Really nice guy. He was very happy to do it and so we were able to score him.
**Bam Bam:** Nice. Did he get a VII
**Senator:** think I added a little bit. Yeah. That's cool. So thank you. Was my, my idea. How
**Poobah:** Well, how were they? I mean, like I 'cause I hear that cigar. I've always heard that. I haven't, I've never bought a box. Um, how were they?
Very good. So excellent. The
**Senator:** petite number two. That was the first one I had ever tried. It was honestly better than any great mon regular Monte two. Regular Monte too. That's what I, yeah. Yeah. They were delicious. And that little Medi Corona, I hadn't had that. I think Rooster had it before. I love that stick.
[00:07:00] It's, it's just like a chocolate bomb. Just like for this little cigar, just packs so much flavor.
**Bam Bam:** Yep.
**Senator:** I thought both were excellent. So where do you guys slot the Petite No. 2? For me, anywhere I would a Monty II, which is, I mean, most occasions. In the afternoon, before dinner, after dinner. Late in the evening.
It's pretty versatile. Yeah. I mean,
**Poobah:** we, we, we smoked like hundreds of those. Oh yeah, we did. Back in the day. But then there was like a bad run of them. Like I got like boxes that were just, and I still have some, I'm like, well, maybe something will change over time. And I haven't revisited them. What year?
Regular two or the regular two. No, no, no. The regular two. I was talking about the petite. Oh, I'm sorry. The two. Um, but I just haven't gone back so much to the Monte too. Cause I, I, I. I had some bad luck.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I think, I think the run since people will argue 2018, early 2019, I think 2019, certainly 2020 through current of money too, has been [00:08:00] really, really stellar.
Bro. I
**Poobah:** have that, but I've had, I mean, I've had bad boxes from those years. Sure.
**Bam Bam:** Eighteens as well. You know? Yeah. Wow. Wow. Absolutely. Of course. I have multiple eighteens. Nineteens. The eighteens are incredible. I've never, I don't have anything older than that. You have a 17 that you hate?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I got rid of most of my seventeens.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Much pa across all markets. He just got rid of the same, cleared out , but I, I think it's a little bit of pop, I think
**Poobah:** premium, you know, it's a little bit of a potluck thing. They make so many. You know, it's a little bit, it's a little potluck
**Gizmo:** and I think what we learned with, you know, in the Danilo episode, I think it almost reaffirmed what we were kind of going against, which was that B, you know, getting cigars from the mother factory made a difference.
And certainly I left that Danilo conversation and the, you know, time since we've had that conversation really feeling like if you're going to spend good money on a box of cigars and they're made at a, you know, Mother factory, and that's a [00:09:00] choice. That's where I want to get cigars from
**Bam Bam:** agreed,
**Gizmo:** you know, so money twos I want out of Corona if I can get them out of Corona this cigar That we have in our hand right now, these aren't made anywhere other than at, uh, at the Provincials.
So, so what do you guys, uh, what do you guys think of the cigar so far?
**Senator:** I'm really surprised. I think it's great. I think it's delicious. No complaints at all. Number one, talking about a Provincial factory versus a mother factory. I mean, the fact that this is from a Provincial and I think everybody's draw is performing really well.
The ash looks great. It's well constructed. So, um, they've done a nice job, but the flavor profile, the thing I'm the most shocked about, I'm not tasting. Much youth like I would have expected to get on this being just like a year old and, um, All the flavored notes are really clear and defined. I'm really happy with this.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm getting deep earth notes, a lot of fruit. It's fruit forward for me with the earth tone in the background and some pretty heavy coffee. Heavy coffee. Yeah, it's really quite [00:10:00] delicious. And you know
**Gizmo:** what kind of stuck in my head like after being with Danilo. He mentioned, um, Yeah. That whenever there's a hurricane in Cuba, the crop that comes out is harvested after, the year after, will always be good.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You have to imagine all those minerals and sediments are coming up and it's being mixed with the topsoil. That could have something to do with it. Who knows?
**Pagoda:** Oh, very scientific. Correct. Really good. Really good. Oxygen
**Gizmo:** oxidizes. I bet that comes into play somehow. No, it doesn't. I'm not sure how, but I bet it does.
You're relieved of your duties tonight. So boys, these come only in semi buoyant nature boxes of 25 cigars. They used to come in a, Semi buoyant nature box of 10 and this would have been very cool even though it was discontinued 45 years ago It used to come in cojones of 100 [00:11:00] cigars in cellophane. Can you imagine?
I mean, can you just imagine a, like a shipment UPS shows up at your door and there's a Cajon of Monte Cristo. They got your Cajones right here.
**Bam Bam:** Like they're delivering a side of beef and tinfoil.
**Gizmo:** So this is one of the oldest, uh, cigars. Obviously it was, it came out in 1969. It's been around a long time.
Shares the Liguito number two name with only two other cigars that they're currently making. I mean, technically one in regular production. Uh, which is the Corona Especiales from Cohiba, which came out in 1967. And the other one, which I guess is still current cause I've seen recent box codes, but I'm not sure if they're still making them.
The other one we did on the podcast is the Punch Mantua, the. Regional, uh, addition from Italy, which was announced in 2018. Aside from that, uh, everything else that has come out under a legato number two factory name is either a special [00:12:00] release, a regional addition, a Reserva. Uh, et cetera. So this is, alongside the Corona Especiales from Cohiba, the only, uh, Laguito No.
2 in production.
**Senator:** I just don't understand why Monty was willing to use a semi boite nature box for this, and all the other stuff they make are in the dress boxes. It's so true. It makes no sense.
**Gizmo:** It makes no sense. Because this is so much more classy. Right. Of course. And it's certainly more sturdy. And more protective.
And how much are these a stick? These are about 15,
**Senator:** 18 bucks a stick, I would say. Yeah, I mean, what's crazy is like a Monte II or even a Petite No. 2, you're paying more than that. You are. You'd think they would use the nicer box for a higher priced stick.
**Poobah:** It's interesting. I mean, it could have something, I don't know.
I'm just speculating, but the smaller ring gauge, um, warrants, I guess, a, a, a semi Boyd nature box because, uh, yeah, because well, if they get semi box pressed in a cardboard box, it can defect the draw, but I mean, are they thinking ahead [00:13:00] that much about it? I have no idea.
**Gizmo:** There's got to be a method to the madness.
I don't know. That's probably
**Poobah:** another box that's used by other, by, you know, the boxes are made. They contract for the boxes, maybe with other makers that are making something the same size. I don't know in volume potentially. And they,
**Senator:** I mean, the thing you said that was convincing to me was maybe the ring gauge, but then I think about it.
What's a money for in ring gauge, unless they're able to amortize
**Gizmo:** the
**Senator:** money for
**Gizmo:** is a Moravius it's a 42 by five and an eighth. So it has a, it has a little bit of ring gauge on it, but shorter Corona.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Then they fix the latch. You know, I don't know. I don't know.
**Senator:** Yeah, it's just odd.
**Poobah:** It's odd. It could be like a procurement thing, like where there's another box of cigars that are this similar size where they're just, I don't know.
**Senator:** Well, you can leave Habanos SA feedback. So I'm going to write them that I want all the Monty's in a semi boy nature box going forward. I'm sure [00:14:00] they're going to be changing that immediately. Well, I love when you ask them, like people we've talked to in Cuba about, You know, how they decide these new releases that they come out with every year for like the Banos festival.
It's like, Oh, you know, on the website, you can just submit feedback to Banos SA and people request that they want these things. And like, you actually expect me to believe that they give a shit what people are putting on the little comment section, basically on the website.
**Gizmo:** There is no way. No, it's not even worth the exercise of typing the email.
I'm sure most of them are lower the prices and that
**Senator:** certainly hasn't happened.
**Gizmo:** So this is a really nice cigar, dude. It's very elegant for its size. It feels elegant. It tastes sophisticated to me.
**Bam Bam:** It's just, it's quite delicious. I would, I would get a box of these. If this continues, I think it's worth pursuing.
**Gizmo:** It's like milk chocolate. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of very
**Bam Bam:** enjoyable. But it's grounded with that light, that earth tone in the background, for me. It's
**Gizmo:** like, it's woody, it's woody, earthy,
**Poobah:** milk chocolate. It tastes like Monte Cristo and it's got a little bit of, um, it's got a little bit of like white pepper maybe going [00:15:00] on.
**Bam Bam:** Maybe on the very end, that finish for me.
**Poobah:** Yeah, like a little bit of a slight pepper, but, but nothing aggressive at all. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, for me the predominant flavor is coffee, cocoa coffee. That's there. But more coffee. Um, yeah, but you're right. A little bit of earthiness. In the background. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I think the coffee for me kind of ties everything together.
Yeah, it does. It's just this undercurrent, constant, every draw, you know. We
**Bam Bam:** said smoke this slow. This is so good, it's hard to smoke it slow.
**Gizmo:** Well, we'll just do another one. We'll just do them back to back. Please.
**Senator:** I just think like all the notes that we're calling out, I In the Monty line, this is one of the best balanced Monty's I've had where like some are just a pure cocoa bomb that like I'm not getting earth or really anything else to kind of balance it out or add some complexity and others I'm getting like a lot of earth and woodiness and I'm getting just a little bit of cocoa.
To me, this is like the perfect balance of all those notes that we would want. Yeah. So
**Bam Bam:** I really like it. [00:16:00] It's reminiscent of that little Media Luna, that little Corona, half Corona, what's it called? And the yellow tins. I've got a bunch of those. That's the Media Corona. Media Corona. I'm sorry. To me, that's a chocolate bomb though.
I wouldn't call that
**Senator:** very balanced. I
**Bam Bam:** get that. For me, I do get a little hint of earth in that little cigar toward the end of it. And I find it really nice. Um, it's reminiscent, somewhat reminiscent of this, somewhat. For me.
**Gizmo:** It's a little fuller than
**Bam Bam:** this.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Right? I would agree with that too. Yeah.
Another good cigar.
**Poobah:** There's a little bit of salt.
**Gizmo:** Yeah,
**Poobah:** it's got that touch. Monty. Monty. Twang. Twang. It doesn't
**Gizmo:** have the twang though that like the Monty II does. Like the really, really decisive twang. It's just, it's got a touch of it. It's got a touch of it. I'm actually kind of glad it doesn't. I agree with that it, I think that the flavor profile is helped by its absence here.
Yeah. Um, and, and coffee, earth. And the cocoa being the predominant notes, but they're, it's funny. They really are all kind of putting their stake in the ground. You can really taste them all [00:17:00] uniquely, but it's a really nice marriage of everything.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Which is what Senator calling it out. It's really pretty accurate.
It's well balanced. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice. This is really nice. Cigar bit of a revelation. Honestly, I mean,
**Poobah:** through the nose you can taste a little bit of its youth. It doesn't have that like the deep, deep with, with some age. I could see these being like much deeper in flavor. You through the nose, you can kind of taste a little bit of the youth, but it's, it's not a detriment to the cigar for where it is in its point.
I find the opposite to be the case with this cigar.
**Bam Bam:** I've kind of don't taste any youth now. You know, I haven't had any of these, right? This is the first one I've ever had, but it's smoking. Um, it's punching above its weight class from the point of view of age in that typical, I'm not getting
**Poobah:** like ammonia.
I'm just, I'm just getting a little bit. If you put it through your nose, I'm getting a little, just a little bit of youth. That's all. It's not, it's not a detriment to cigar. I
**Senator:** have to say, I'm shocked. Uh, I mean, Gizmo, we're well into the first third. I haven't heard [00:18:00] any commentary on the Retro Hill. Well, I got blasted.
**Gizmo:** I got blasted on a recent episode. Okay. About my enthusiasm for the Retro Hill. For you and I, you know what it is? Hold on.
**Bam Bam:** For you and I, retro is such a natural thing. We don't even talk about it. It's true. We're very, we're very, uh, it's just there. We're advanced smokers. It's part of the repertoire, man.
**Pagoda:** But we'd love to hear what, uh, you're
**Senator:** Tell
**Bam Bam:** us, Gizmo.
**Gizmo:** I think the retro hair is your nose. Feel it. The retro hell is really good. I do agree with Poobah. I, I, I am not enjoying the retro as much as I am the traditional draw. I think the retro is showing a little bit more of the rough edges. Let's say it just, there's more
**Bam Bam:** pepper.
**Gizmo:** There's a little more pepper, but they're just, but that's not rough to me, but it's not as smoothed out as it is on the, on the normal. I agree with
**Poobah:** it. I agree. It's it's previewing nicely is what I'm trying to say. It's previewing nicely. It's not like through the nose. It's bad. It's just, it presents a little bit of its youth.
**Gizmo:** So let me ask you guys a question on flavor profile. I think I would put this at a mild to medium [00:19:00] in body. Mild to medium. Would you guys agree with that? And mild in strength, I think.
**Bam Bam:** Totally.
**Gizmo:** I agree. But I think very elegant. Yeah. I'm thinking
**Bam Bam:** about that. Um, it's a really flavorful, but I think it's a merit,
**Poobah:** but the body, I think the body of it is actually quite, the finish is not short.
No. Agreed. Um, so there's body there. That's why I'm saying it's previewing well to me because You can taste the body. You can taste the potential in the cigar and the, in the, in the construction as well, you've got to, you've got to, the combustion, the, and also the construction of the cigar and the burn is, is really, is, is lovely.
So for me, I'm, I'm, what I'm saying is, is this is previewing really nice.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'd probably, mild to medium makes sense. Probably going a little bit toward, more toward medium. Medium, yeah. Just toward it a touch. Yeah, I
**Gizmo:** don't think it's mild.
**Bam Bam:** No, but it's not firmly
**Gizmo:** medium, right? Yeah, it's like in
**Poobah:** between mild and medium.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I think this is a cigar. I think [00:20:00] what I'm liking about it, and obviously we always talk about where we would slot it in our rotation, right? To me, this is a, this works at breakfast with a cup of coffee. It works after lunch with a light salad. And it works, you know, as you're coming into dinner with a, light salad.
In the car, a Caesar salad, a car
**Poobah:** doing 70 down the highway. What do you want? A cob with no egg and like a little a light vinegarette. Just a, just a, maybe a little slice, lemon slice of salmon
**Gizmo:** in there. A little smoked salmon,
**Poobah:** just in a beautiful often or light salad
**Gizmo:** or first cigar of the night, the side of champagne or light salad.
**Bam Bam:** You know, honestly, I was thinking about that as you were saying it. It's so flavorful. I could see me ending the night with this depending on what I've smoked in a sit. This could end the night nicely because it's a short smoke, you know. I
**Senator:** don't know. I think I'm aligned on every occasion that's been said, but I'm not sure that I'd have this as my last cigar of the night.
I agree. I think like even an up and half Corona has a bit more body than this does. I think like that's like firmly medium. I think [00:21:00] a, um, a Monty mediocre firmly medium. I think, uh, Davidoff bellicose is firmly medium. I think any of those short smokes really have more body than this. And I'd prefer to finish a night than something like this that I think is, I agree with rooster.
That's between you got a retro to get those notes. The thing is the retro hails messing up somebody, not the sound
**Poobah:** cliche. I mean, it's a young cigar and you can, you can, you can feel some of that. Isn't it? I think the cigar's got a lot of potential. I would lay these down for a little bit, just even a couple of years.
And, um, I think when you revisit it, it would be really, really improved. I think it's got a really great, this is a really, really great preview. These are, these are
**Gizmo:** great
**Poobah:** with
**Gizmo:** age. I
**Poobah:** can, I can vouch for that.
**Bam Bam:** You've had an older one. That's right. He's had one. Oh
**Gizmo:** really? You know, I will say though, to your point, Senator, you were calling out some of the other cigars that we kind of look to as end of the night cigars.
I think all of us reach for those cigars you listed, half Corona, Davidoff, [00:22:00] Bellicoso, some of those other things that we go to for kind of a dessert stick. I'm, here's what I'll say when I lit this and, and, and as we've been smoking this for about 20 minutes now, I'm happy that I didn't have a cigar prior to this cigar tonight coming into this episode.
Cause I think this cigar does need to kind of kick things off. And I think if it's following, especially. Uh, a padron, a padron, a richer cigar, a Nicaraguan of some sort, a Dominican cigar. I think it might be overpowered a little bit. That's a good point. That's a good point. Oh, a
**Poobah:** hundred percent. No doubt about it.
I mean, there's notes of Vegas for Bania, kind of that those chocolatey, earthy, I agree with that. Yeah. That's a good call. Elegant cocoa. Notes that you get in a Famosos that you, that you, I mean, I'm not going to the classicos category, but. Uh, downgraded, you know, it's the, it's the Ford Fiesta of, of, of, of that, but, [00:23:00] but, but like, you know, it's got the interior, it's got the luxury interior trim.
Hey, Hank, I need my keys.
**Bam Bam:** I got to take the Ford out today. No,
**Poobah:** I'm just saying, you know, I think that with age, this cigar is the way it's smoking. Now, if you picked it up in five years, it's a home run. Yeah. A real home run, a real sleeper home run possibly in terms of value.
**Gizmo:** So boys, this is the sixth Monte Cristo we've done on the podcast tonight, of course, because it's one of Habano's global brands There's a ton of cigars in regular production and being that it's the sixth cigar we've done.
We're not going to revisit the history Really the the key things to know is it is one of the six global brands for Habano SSA It was established in 1935 as it's been celebrated by both by Habanos and also the new world cigar. We actually did both of those 1935s on the podcast in the past. And, uh, yeah, it's one of the highest selling and most popular brands in the world.
I'll go through some of the [00:24:00] cigars that are in regular production. Now, um, Monte Cristo, number one, Monte Cristo, number two, number three, and number four are very, very popular. The number five is a petite Corona. The Joyitas, which is a small panatella, 26 by four and a half. I've never had those, but they've been around since 1969, which surprised me when I was reading that earlier today.
The Monte Cristo Especial, which is the sister cigar to this, Aliguito number one, which is 38 by seven and a half. Of course, it's a very close to, it might be identical to. The Fundadoras from Trinidad, the Monte Cristo number A, which is what I wanted to talk about the Grand Corona. It's a giant Corona, 47 ring gauge by nine and a quarter
**Poobah:** hard pass.
**Gizmo:** And I actually smoked one of those on New Year's. And it was very, very disappointing. I'll take the cigar tonight over it. And I had about five or six years of age on it. Also the Edmundo we did on the podcast. That's the Robusto in the line, the Petite Edmundo, and then the Monty [00:25:00] Eagle series, which is the Open Eagle, which is Robusto Extra, the Junior, which is a short Panatella, the Master, which is a Robusto, the Regatta, which is a Petite Pyramid.
That line has never been really celebrated by Monte Cristo smokers. And they now have announced another one in that line called the Slam. Which is a weird name for it, which is a Robusto extra 52 ring gauge by five and five seats, five eighths inches long. Weird that they called it the slam. The high level line right now from Monte Cristo is called the linea 1935.
Of course we did the Maltas, the Robusto extra quite some time ago. The other two in that line are the Dumas, which is a Corona extra and the Leyenda, very popular cigar. The double Robusto 55 by six and a half. And then one of the newer ones that has not come out yet. The only La Casa Del Habano release for Monte Cristo at this time is called the [00:26:00] Herraderos.
It's a Gran Corona. I'm actually pretty interested in this. 47 ring gauge by 6 3 8 inches long. So that'll be pretty cool. It'll have that second LCDH band on it. Isn't there one that has a yellow band? That's the wide edmundo. Wide edmundo we had. That's a new one. I had that in Cuba. How was it? You did?
Yeah, it was, it was
**Poobah:** okay.
**Bam Bam:** Mild. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it was mild.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** The petite edmundo and not everyone here liked, but I like that cigar. I love
**Bam Bam:** that cigar.
**Gizmo:** I like it more than the regular edmundo. The only one we've done on the podcast is the Edmundo. We have not done the petite. We have a lot of cigars to do for Monte Kristo, so that'll keep us busy over the next couple of years.
Um, and of course there's plenty of discontinued cigars throughout the line. And the line is very popular for the edition limitada series. Of course, the first one was made famous by Tony Soprano on the Sopranos. He smoked the double Corona with the. This year, I'm going to, I'm going to taught a band 2001 on an episode of the Sopranos.
Must be good.
**Poobah:** [00:27:00] Yes. And he shouldn't wear shorts according to, uh, an anonymous phone call in the middle of the night. You guys know that story? No. So, so, um, the cast members of, um, of the Sopranos tell a story that he got a phone call at his house and in like at like two in the morning he picks up the phone and he's like, hello.
And he's like, listen. Don's don't wear shorts. Okay. Do you understand? He goes, who is this? And that was it. And that was it. And you know what? You never saw him
**Gizmo:** in shorts after that. I'm not
**Poobah:** sure, but it, but. He, it's a true story. It's all validated. Makes sense. You know, James Gandolfini, can you imagine waking up in the middle of the night?
Yeah. Hey, heads up. Just FYI. And he never even made the phone call.
**Bam Bam:** Have you guys had that open eagle? [00:28:00] Yeah, I have, I have too. Very light. Yeah. Unremarkable, but smooth
**Poobah:** people. It's approachable. I mean, you know, there's a market for 'em, I think. And
**Bam Bam:** there's a master, is that the other one? The open master? Yeah.
There's a lot of, yeah, there's a bunch of, there's the Eagle just name though.
**Poobah:** The Regatta. Yeah. Very similar. That
**Bam Bam:** Master and Open Eagle.
**Gizmo:** I'm not,
**Poobah:** are they making
**Gizmo:** those still? They make all of them and, and you know, they just haven't been celebrated.
**Bam Bam:** And I gotta be honest, the NDA I had one a month ago, and we all brought those, I think as a group.
In our early days in Senator's Garage, I don't remember how old they are. They're pretty old. They're plateauing and going down. Like which ones the LAIs? They're, they're not old. They old from the 1935. I think they're 20 17, 20 18. For me, that's old in my case. That's pretty, it's got some age. It's not it.
Try it if you've got a bunch. I tried one the other day because I, some, someone said that they're flat lining and going down and he's not wrong. Which, what? What was the um, they're not that great. What was
**Poobah:** the ones that one, what were the ones that I brought that we reviewed? Mal Maltese.
**Gizmo:** Mal. The mal Mal.
That was very good. [00:29:00] We did that very, very early on. I think it was episode four. Mm. Right. We did the, uh, the Linea 1935 Maltas. And then after we rate tonight, I'll go back and I'll pull Feels like yesterday. I know. I'll pull all the ratings and, uh Leanda is the biggest, the biggest of the three. Are there not younger Leandas that came out
**Senator:** after that?
**Gizmo:** They, they're,
**Senator:** that's an ongoing series. Yeah, yeah. So no, I, the ones I have, I think are like Are younger? Oh, really? Oh wow.
**Bam Bam:** Cause they needed time. When I had the first few, they, they need. Yeah. Then maybe mine need more time. So,
**Poobah:** which is wild because it's a premium.
**Bam Bam:** Yes it is.
**Poobah:** Premium box. I still have some of those that we reviewed, but.
Comes in a box of 20, I believe.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, that's right. It's a nice box. That's correct. Beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful presentation. Yeah. And you know, that was really the first line that linear using the linear, the, the creation of these higher end, uh, higher end lines for each of the global brands. Now that was the first one.
Then they, they did the. Uh, Romeo and Julieta linea, and then now they've done the [00:30:00] Partagas linea by H& M, LaGoria, and LaGoria. Right.
**Poobah:** Whether it's your bag or not, those cigars, whether you like them, don't like them, the construction on them is exemplary. You know, the build on those cigars are not. You know, there's attention paid.
Yeah. Uh, I can say that they better be price for the price. I haven't had one in a while. I mean, I don't think I've had one since the review. Uh, maybe I had one, but it wasn't, it was good. It's one of those cigars you just don't reach for all the time. You know what I mean?
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's talk about our pairing tonight.
We are back to tequila. Bro. Which is very exciting. I am, I am high on tequila tonight. I am really excited. You know what, I don't know the last time I had the Reposado from Don Filano. And I really think that it's gonna be a magical pairing with this cigar tonight. So I'm very excited about it. Cause Don Filano, for me and tequila, it's really hard to beat.
Cheers. Cheers, boys. Let's try it.
**Poobah:** Oh, that's excellent. I mean, I've, [00:31:00] I drink this a lot when I'm in Florida. It's just more readily available for whatever reason. I mean, they have it at every liquor store. Um, maybe it's, I don't, it's part of their distribution model, but, um, same with tequila Ocho. Um, yeah, yeah.
Just, I think that tequila Market there may be more robust. I can't validate that quantitatively.
**Pagoda:** What notes are you guys calling out on this? I got a lot of pepper in the first set. Pepper? In the first set. Okay. But since then it's, yeah, it's been very good.
**Senator:** I get some peppers and like toasted agave. Yeah.
Traditional notes. Um.
**Bam Bam:** A
**Senator:** little bit
**Bam Bam:** of
**Senator:** vanilla, I
**Bam Bam:** guess. I've got some, uh, notes here. On the actual spirit. I'd love to hear it. Go ahead. So the notes they're calling out, round on the palate, right? With notes of coconut and macadamia. Oh my god. Okay. Coconut's there. I wish we would've paused longer
**Senator:** to talk about this.
Yeah. That's okay. First. Hold on. Let's [00:32:00] stop.
**Gizmo:** I'll edit that out and we can go back and you can say no, no, no. It's just the first odd note that
**Senator:** came to mind was coconut, but I'm like, it's there. Maybe I ate something. I'm like, no, no, no. You don't get coconut often from a tequila and I can't believe that was the first one you said.
It's very
**Bam Bam:** prominent. Agreed. Agreed. So
**Gizmo:** tequila, what was it again, Bam? Tequila and what? Tequila and what?
**Bam Bam:** No, it's, it's a round on the palate with notes of coconut and macadamia. Those are the general notes.
**Gizmo:** I meant coconut, not tequila. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** On the palette, there's what they're saying is it's enticing sweet prune, right?
Cooked agave, as Senator mentioned, a mature fruit compote with, uh, from, from the mid palette. They're saying, I don't get much of that. Yeah, me neither. Now the aroma is interesting. This is pretty funny. Limousine oak emerges with notes, with notes of vanilla bean, dark chocolate, baking spices, Dried herbs, grass, add to the delicate and ethereal character of this expression.
Everybody
**Poobah:** relax. [00:33:00] I don't think I can get my notes right. It's a lot. There are
**Senator:** only a few of them that I do actually think hold up. I think they do. A few of those do hold up. The vanilla bean, I do think you get a little bit of vanilla out of those. Oh yeah. The, uh, did you say like, herb, uh, what was the Dark chocolate, baking spices.
Dried herbs. Dried herbs. Dried herbs are there. That I think you get. Yeah. And a little grass I think you
**Bam Bam:** get. Now on the finish, it's cream and ashy materials add to this complex and pure reposado, what they say.
**Poobah:** I really like it. I drink this a lot.
**Bam Bam:** I think it's fantastic. He also
**Poobah:** said toasted
**Bam Bam:** agave.
Toasted agave. Yeah.
**Poobah:** You get a guy
**Bam Bam:** that you pointed out.
**Gizmo:** I feel like to me, it's not a note that you called out or anyone has, but to me, the, the kind of sweet thing that I'm getting is almost like a very, very dark Brown sugar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that's absolutely correct. But for me, and I get that in the middle of my tongue, it's buttery, a little salty and caramel and Brown sugar type thing going on.
That's way too much, but that's what I'm getting on the middle, in the middle of the time.
**Gizmo:** You know what it almost [00:34:00] is? It's almost like, you know when you have a creme brulee and they toast the sugar on it? That's there, man. And it's like the burnt part of the, the, the crispy sugar on top of the creme brulee.
Yeah. That's what I'm, that's what I'm getting as far as the sweetness. With a hint of vanilla. Yes, definitely vanilla. No question about such a sophisticated palette. You guys, I'm going
**Poobah:** to tell you, give us, give us, gizmos come along. He's come a long way from the Bouchard chocolates.
**Senator:** For all this shit. He's given every one of us in this room.
He said, you're talking about a light salad, creme brulee. When they just, Jesus, I'm going to
**Poobah:** give my, I'm going to give my analysis. It's it's good. I think it has. Notes of vanilla. I do. I think it has notes of agave in there. I think there's a little bit that there's a little bit sweetness. Sweetness and salt.
Salt and minerality that you want in a, in, in a, in a tequila that's made in a traditional way. Correct. That's not made in a diffuser. So I mean, [00:35:00] that's about as deep as my analysis is gonna go. Well, here's what I
**Gizmo:** have a question about my analysis.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Am I wrong? You're not wrong. Okay. Thank you. It's delicious.
Just all around a delicious spirit to drink. A few more details if you don't mind. Oh, I'm ready. Yeah, so the agave itself, you know, this is all foreign to me. It's, it's, it's a maduro pinto agave. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know what that is. I have no idea. That's, that's, that's what I'm getting here on the actual Don Filano site.
So when you
**Poobah:** need Ricky Camacho. You give him a call. You give him a
**Bam Bam:** call. The extraction is self engineered screw press. It's self engineered. Just to let you know. The distillation is 80 percent copper pot, 20 percent coffee.
**Senator:** I have to say, what I love is how transparent they are about this process. They're very, yeah, straightforward about it.
There are very
**Bam Bam:** few spirits. Which is why Ricky loves them. They're proud of it. But here's what's interesting. The maturation on this is only 8 to 11 months. Yeah, it's a rep.
**Gizmo:** That's a reposado, traditional. That's typical with tequilas, right? Yes. Well, for Reposado, it's Blanco, Reposado, I know he [00:36:00] has
**Poobah:** more, yeah.
It's, it's, it's, it's super. It's a, they're making great tequila. I was really excited to have this today. It's a toss up between this and the Ocho Reposado, which I drink a lot as well. Um.
**Pagoda:** I like that one, the one with the orange, uh. Yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** The one with the orange lemon. It, they're, it's, they're, they're different.
Um, but I think, uh, in my opinion, they're on par with each other. I enjoy both. Um, do you like this over the La Forteza? That's
**Bam Bam:** a, that's a tough, that's tough. Tough because the Forteza Forza amazing. I like, I
**Poobah:** like, I think I like the Forteza a touch better. A touch better.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** But this is also excellent. I mean, he
**Gizmo:** can't, the thing I'll say though about this Don Philo, is I think that this repo might be a better fit for this cigar.
Versus the Fortaleza Reposado. Correct.
**Senator:** I agree. I totally agree. It's no question. Yeah. I just think the Fortaleza Repo has like um, earthier quality about it [00:37:00] that is less dessert like than this. Like the notes of like coconut and nuts and the creaminess that this has that like I think compliments the dessert like cigar we're having.
Right. I, I think, like, the Fortaleza would pair better with, like, an earthier cigar than this.
**Pagoda:** But don't you think the Añejo would be better with this? No. I think the Añejo would overpower this. Would it overpower it? I think so.
**Gizmo:** So, speaking of the Añejo, we did do the Añejo on this podcast on episode 70. We actually did it with the Trinidad Fundadores.
Ah. That's just a
**Bam Bam:** nice pairing.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, quite some time ago. Uh, so we'll review that, uh, when, when we get to the ratings in a bit, let's talk a little bit about the history of Don Folano. The Fonseca family owns Don Folano and they have a lineage of over five generations involved in agave cultivation and tequila production.
The family's patriarch, Enrique Fonseca, is a central figure in the brand's development, and he's been recognized for his vast knowledge of agave [00:38:00] farming and tequila production. His experience and dedication to the craft have been instrumental in defining Don Filano's distinctive character and quality.
The Fonseca family's approach to tequila production combines traditional methods with a keen eye for innovation. This includes the careful selection of agave plants, which are allowed to mature fully, often beyond the industry standard, which I think goes to ban what we were talking about, which aligns with their integrity for their product and their brand.
This, uh, is, uh, This is done to develop a richer and more complex flavor profile. The cooking of the agave is done slowly in brick ovens, and natural fermentation processes are employed, followed by a distillation in copper pot stills and coffee stills. The meticulous process ensures that the essence of the agave is preserved, resulting in tequilas that are celebrated for their depth, aroma, and
**Poobah:** smoothness.
This is the difference. So the process that, that they're talking about is the difference. It's the same process that Ocho [00:39:00] employs. And it's the same process that if, if the listener refers back to, um, our esteemed guest, Richie Camacho, this is, this is what makes the difference in, in the type of agave that's harvested, how it's cultivated, and then how it's, how it's cooked.
And how it's pressed and diffused. Yeah, well, yeah, but no, but without a diffuser, how it's cooked in an oven minus the diffusion process, which is what, you know, Don Julio uses in these mass market tequila uses. So the fact that they're cooking and rendering the agave in In the traditional fashion,
**Senator:** how it's extracted,
**Poobah:** how it's extracted.
Yeah, it's not, they don't use a diffuser. They use these, they use it, an oven process. And I think that trying tequilas that are made in this traditional fashion, um, which are becoming more popular, they're becoming in vogue. There's, it's why when I was at the liquor store [00:40:00] today, picking up this Don Flano, you know how many bottles were left of the Repo?
Yeah. I bought the two.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** How many bottles were left of the Anejo? One.
**Bam Bam:** Right.
**Poobah:** So, you know, people, it's not, it's, it's
**Bam Bam:** there,
**Poobah:** but it's somewhat limited.
**Bam Bam:** It's, yeah, it's a smaller batch process, right? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And it seems like it aligns, you know, we always celebrate the Padron family, right? We're always talking about Padron and their commitment to quality and consistency.
Great analogy. They don't care how many people have ordered cigars, how many people are sitting around waiting for cigars. If the cigars aren't ready, if they're not. ready to go out. They're not shipping. And I think especially everything I've talked to Ricky about Chef Ricky Camacho's as Poobah was talking about that we had on the podcast a few times, you know, he references the same thing with these guys.
They don't care about all that. They are going to put out a product that is excellent, consistent and delivers on all of their values. And that's the way it's going to be. So It is actually, like Poobah said, very difficult to get this stuff, but [00:41:00] thankfully you can find it in places like Total Wine and a lot of local retailers.
So definitely try to get yourself it's
**Bam Bam:** worth the hunt,
**Gizmo:** a bottle of Don Flannell. And I think our rating tonight is going to reflect that. Oh yeah. That's my, that's my assumption. Yeah,
**Poobah:** absolutely. And those Fortaleza bottles are, are, they're numbered, you know, they're numbered like the four square bottles are numbered.
It may, everyone may not like four square rum, but at the end of the day, you know, They're making it's it's somewhat small batch. I don't think these Don Filano bottles are as small batches for the laser. Um, I think for the laser is somewhat harder to find. I find it. I find it harder to, to, to procure a little bit.
Don Filano is a little bit in between. It seems like they're able to make a relatively decent amount of it, but I can't find for the laser all the time. Yeah. Even, even in Florida. Yeah, it's hard to find where it seems where it seems like, you know, tequila is just a little bit more. Um, [00:42:00] you know, a little bit more omnipresent on the shelf because of the market there.
Uh, but
**Gizmo:** great stuff. Great pairing tonight, boys. So we're about halfway through here on the Monte Cristo especialist number to speak for yourself.
**Bam Bam:** I know
**Gizmo:** I'm trying to take it easy. What do you guys think of it?
**Bam Bam:** It's one of the, I think for me, the one of the best tasting Monte Cristos ever had. And
**Gizmo:** I think it's picking up nicely as I'm, I'm trying to smoke it slowly so I don't get a tar blast, which, you know, a 38 ringage cigar like this is very easy to get.
**Senator:** Yes, uh, some could speak to that firsthand. You got it? I did. Oh boy. I clipped a little bit more, so first I pushed smoke through it. Yep, purged it. And then I took a little bit off and now I'm back in business. Well, Senator's not known for aggressive
**Bam Bam:** smoking, that's unusual. You must like the cigar look.
I'm enjoying this cigar. That's good, right?
**Poobah:** I'll reiterate. That the purge does work is a good thing to do three times, four times in [00:43:00] a cigar. Um, it does work
**Senator:** to think to Gizmo's point, uh, that I like about midway through, it does pick up a little bit and it inches closer to medium, which I think helps in terms of versatility, because when you start this cigar, I think, you know, we were talking about where would we slot this and it's kind of between mild and medium.
And I think the fact that now this is creeping up toward medium, you know, It, it opens up the kind of occasions that I'd be willing to light this cigar. That's right. I agree with that.
**Gizmo:** And I think too, you can smell that on the burn line where it's really picking up. You can, you can smell the difference cause I'm always smelling the burn line.
You are. And you can, you can feel the difference in the smoke coming off the cigar, obviously complimenting the, the, the flavor and retrohale. But I think that something around halfway point here in this blend is just It really starts to move towards medium and I think it's for me. It's very welcomed.
You know, I can't very
**Bam Bam:** well At a price that it is.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's a great cigar. The [00:44:00] problem, you know, is, is they're not easy to
**Bam Bam:** find. Yeah, no, I haven't ever seen these come up.
**Gizmo:** You know, I think somebody was saying, I think, uh, Lizard Henrito, uh, was telling us earlier when he saw we were doing these tonight, said he actually saw them on iHavana as recently.
**Bam Bam:** Get out of here. But
**Gizmo:** I haven't seen them pop up much. I think they come up like Corona Sclero or Schwa Supreme. I think they only come up in spurts. They're not one of these cigars that you're seeing all the time. And what's interesting too. And I wanted to mention this to you guys is that, um, Monty fours have been very hard to come by.
I don't know the last time I saw Monty Crystal number fours come up, and that's, I think, one of the most popular markers. Or the number three. I haven't said the three. Oh, it's definitely one of the
**Poobah:** most popular markers. Because Rooster's got them all. Exactly. Rooster bought them all. Um, he used to smoke that cigar all
**Bam Bam:** the time.
Look at him. He's
**Poobah:** scowling. I gotta revisit this. I have so many old ones. Yeah, I haven't touched them in a long time.
**Bam Bam:** Rooster's tower. That's what I got to revisit. You don't know the money
**Poobah:** three,
**Bam Bam:** three
**Senator:** and four. I feel like he used to smoke. I don't [00:45:00] have any
**Poobah:** force.
**Senator:** So then it's the three number one
**Gizmo:** and Marty number three.
So the three, that's why they're out.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** they don't make a lot of those either. Yeah. You don't see them come up too often. So boys, there's been some sad news in the community. And I, I wanted to highlight this in the podcast because for us, this man, certainly as, as we've gone through our journey, Of, uh, cigar discovery on this podcast, going through the history of marcas and cigars, no one was better at compiling this information and presenting it in such an elegant way.
I'm of course, talking about Mr. Minran Ni, who wrote the illustrated encyclopedia of post revolution Havana cigars. Came out in the mid two thousands, I believe was the first edition. And it was a real encyclopedia, beautiful book limited. I was fortunate to get a copy, right. As we were starting the podcast.
And I referenced that on almost every single episode I would come and I'd [00:46:00] take my phone. I'd take pictures of it. We'd go through everything. Then obviously the successor to that was the brilliant book by Alex groom, El Habano Moderno. And obviously Alex groom is the curator of Cuban cigar website, which A resource that we use.
I'm using it right now as we go through this episode. One of the most brilliant resources for Cuban cigars on the internet and beautifully published beautifully published So, you know min ron me was the starting point to that and alex broom was his pretty much his chosen You know heir successor his successor to complete the next phase of that because I think min ron knee's book kind of cuts off where right around where a lot of Cigars were being discontinued.
So for the modern Cuban cigar smoker, there's not a lot of value there other than for the historical piece, but cigars you're smoking today, there's not a ton of them in there. And that's where Alex groom stepped in. So unfortunately, Minron knee died recently. I do have a note here from Alex groom that I thought was really great.
He posted on, on Twitter. Uh, friends of El Habano's forum, [00:47:00] and I, I wanted to read a piece of this because Alex, uh, knew Minron Knee's personally. So he says here, I was given a copy of the Minron Knee book for my 21st birthday, and pawing through those pages was a big part of what kick started my interest in the hobby.
Impossible to overstate the impact that the book had on the Cuban cigar community. Without it, I doubt there would be any Cuban cigar website, and I don't think the vintage market, and we're talking Bond Roberts, we're talking vintage collectors, etc. I don't think the vintage market would exist in anything like its current form.
He says he met him personally in 2019 He was a true eccentric funny deeply knowledgeable about many subjects far above far beyond cigars Generous to his friends and totally unforgiving of his enemies nights with min rani invariably ended around 3 30 am with me bordering on passing out and him bouncing around the room, keen for another cigar and another champagne ready for three more hours.
**Bam Bam:** Sounds like
**Gizmo:** my kind of lizard. I knew you guys would like that during 21 and 22 and the many [00:48:00] covid lockdowns in Melbourne and Hong Kong. So Alex is in Melbourne. Minran Ni was in Hong Kong. I had a four hour phone call with him once or twice a week as we worked through all 700 pages of El Habano Moderno together.
Anybody who knew him will know why it took so long to get through it. Conversation with him would invariably meander through many repetitions, endowed side paths of stories about his life, Chinese history, photography, champagne, and many other things. It was not an efficient way to work, but I had nothing but time for him and enjoyed every minute.
You know, it makes me think like, I wish we could have
**Bam Bam:** had that
**Gizmo:** conversation. Can you
**Bam Bam:** imagine those sessions that they've had together? I mean, that's incredible.
**Gizmo:** I have notebooks full of his musings in between. All of it were flashes of true genius. El Habano. Moderna would not be what it is today without his input.
I'm honored to call him a friend and Miss him deeply. And then he shared a photo, uh, of Alex was standing on a bamboo, uh, kind of presentation that Min Roni was developing for his second edition of the book. [00:49:00] And he says, Min Roni was waxing lyrical about the strength of the bamboo cabinets. He had prototyped for his unreleased second edition and invited me to test it out by standing on it for what it's worth.
It didn't flex at all.
**Poobah:** What a cool little anecdote. What a tribute. Um, because the Minron Knee book, um, went out of print and it was expensive. I mean, if you wanted to find one in print, it's like a thousand bucks. Yeah. Plus, and what Alex did was really a, a wonderful thing to, to, to, to get, uh, uh, Cuban score website up and, and keep it current, um, as a reference.
For everyone who's into the hobby, it's and, and then for him to take it a step further and, and do what he did, uh, with, with his book, um, which is a really comprehensive, I mean, I would recommend that any listener to, [00:50:00] to, and, and gives to, to give the website out. I mean, it's, it's gorgeous to order it. I don't know if you can still even get it.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** They're doing a second edition. You can go to Cuban cigar website. com and the link is right there. It's there's a banner right on the front page of the site. You can click that and they're doing another edition of it. Uh, and you know, we're going to have Alex on at some point. He just got back from the Havana festival a few weeks ago.
So it was awesome. Yeah. And
**Poobah:** it was so, I was really impressed, you know, you know, somebody's committed when, um, not only, so it took a little while, you know, we, we pre, we pre ordered the, the book, of course, from Alex and, you know, it's really impressive when, uh, Um, there were newer developments and there was a delay, you know, because it was such a big project.
There was probably a six or eight or nine month delay in what the original due date for the book was, but he actually put together a saddle stitched, um, supplement, uh, with any, um, with any updates that had happened within those. Uh, within that year or [00:51:00] whatever, those nine, 10 months. And it wasn't insignificant, like it was like a 20 page book.
It was like a 20, 30 page supplemental book that he. Wrote and published and issued to the buyers. So, um, you can trust that whatever you're getting, uh, is comprehensive.
**Gizmo:** So for any of the listeners out there who don't know who Minron knee is, you do by proxy because of the, like, like Alex said, the vintage market.
The celebration of old cigars. Minran Ni was a pioneer with explaining how to age cigars, how to store cigars, how to collect cigars, how to keep them for value for age, how to smoke with them. He was one of those guys that loved to run his cigar under tap water before he cut it. He really was a pioneer with that.
Wow. And you know, by proxy, On this podcast, if you're a listener of this podcast, everybody in this room right now, you know, we've all really, really benefited from Minronese knowledge. [00:52:00] Absolutely.
**Poobah:** And now it's grooms book as just like in Minronese book, which is, they're basically the same format, essentially the, the, the lithography for one, the, the printing of the book is exemplary.
They didn't, he did not skimp on any of the, any of the lithography. The book is printed beautifully and everything is to scale. You can, you can hold the cigar up. To if it's an up in two, you could hold the cigar up to the book and compare that the cigar that you have directly to that lithograph that's, that's, that's on that page to scale.
**Bam Bam:** It's nuts
**Poobah:** to scale, you know, and you have to, you know, and it's, that's. That's takes a lot of work. Well,
**Bam Bam:** I think it also graphic design work. I'm going to guess it takes a lot of smoking as well, because you can't mention Min Ranee without mentioning his extremely extensive cigar collection. Yeah, you'd have to think that he smoked [00:53:00] every single cigar.
In that encyclopedia extensively knows every note, the dimension of it all, you name it.
**Gizmo:** And, and there was a number that he had spent somewhere around 20 million Hong Kong collecting boxes, buying boxes to take photographs, to smoke them, to get the flavor notes. I mean, this guy, you know, that wasn't his name.
I don't know for sure what his real name was, but I do know that Min Ran Ni was a pseudonym, kind of like what we do here. It adds to
**Bam Bam:** the mystique. It adds to
**Gizmo:** the mystique. To the mystique. And I think he had a very successful career outside of this. And this was almost his retirement project, but you know, he, no expense was spared making sure that everything about his, his encyclopedia.
And
**Poobah:** the work that it takes to be exacting with the sizes. Where you can hold the cigar up to the book. It really is exacting. I mean, it's a lot of design work. It's it's, you know, the graphic production, the graphic production is staggering along with the accuracy of the content. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** [00:54:00] So we are very lucky as a community to have had min run knee.
And unfortunately he has gone now. And, uh, so we celebrate him. Yeah. We celebrate his name. God bless us all. Cheers to Alex Groom. Absolutely. Yeah, cheers to Alex as well. Cheers. Cheers, boys. Cheers to Minran Ni and Alex.
**Bam Bam:** On that note, please pass the Don Filano. Garcon.
**Poobah:** That book is like a cigar Bible. It is.
Yeah. It really is. It sits on, it sits right on my coffee table. Thank you. Proudly. Yep. And then you just pick it up and it's heavy. It's heavy. When I get, so
**Gizmo:** I want to tell everybody. So when I ordered Alex Groom's book for the lizards, I ordered everybody's together and I saw the shipping notification when it shipped and I think it was 98 pounds for our books.
I mean, it was, it was staggering how heavy these things were. You needed a
**Poobah:** hand truck. Yeah, it was, it was crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like when you're checking, it's a great reference point because if you're checking a band. If you're checking, you [00:55:00] know, if you're checking the size of a cigar or the taper of a bellicose or a torpedo and you're, you're not sure it is exact, you compare, if you have any doubts about any, any of the cigars that you're preparing, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's the ultimate reference point because it's analog.
Um, so you can hold up an up in two and you can hold that up or you can hold the Monte Cristo for up to that book and you can compare exactly the band, the size of the cigar, what it should look like, and, and then, and then bump that up against what the flavor notes should be. And you can pretty much protect yourself.
In a decent way, uh, from counterfeiting and it's not, and not that it's a fail safe, but it's, it's a good checkpoint and reference point to have about what kind of cigars you may like, may not like. [00:56:00] Um, so I'd highly recommend it to anybody. It's a, it's a really fantastic public. It's, it's, it's, you don't see books like that.
No, no, extremely well, especially for, especially
**Gizmo:** for a hobby like ours, you know, which is not, uh, it's not like the Rolex community where there's, you know, hundreds of millions, maybe of people in, in, in history who have wanted or had a Rolex or celebrated a Rolex where this is a much smaller community than a lot of other collectibles.
So, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's a triumph. Yeah, it
**Pagoda:** is. How much did the book go for?
**Gizmo:** I think it's around 200
**Pagoda:** bucks, 200 bucks. All right.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we're into the last third here. On the Monte Cristo Especiales No. 2. What's everybody thinking? It's picked up in strength a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, but It's gotten a little fuller.
**Bam Bam:** I think in a really smooth But it's still a medium smoke. Still very well balanced. Yeah. Still very smooth. Um It's gotten more woodier, I
**Senator:** think. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. I agree. I will say the final third is where I think a little bit of the youth shows. And it is [00:57:00] woodier and I've lost a lot of the dessert notes.
So the first two thirds for me were fantastic. I really enjoyed, but the last third, it's good, but, um, to me, it's
**Bam Bam:** not great. Have you lost any, how are you doing, Gizwit, your stick? I'm doing good. With your dessert notes, because I haven't yet lost my dessert notes, not just yet. Everything's
**Gizmo:** picked up for me, and I haven't lost any real flavors.
**Bam Bam:** It continues to carry through, but it's dissipated, of course, right, because you've got more strength at the day. Yeah, I'm not, I'm
**Gizmo:** not quite getting the cocoa notes that I was getting in the, And then again, tell about the half. Yeah. I'm definitely still getting the coffee. Maybe the cocoa's faded a little bit, getting a, maybe a little bit of a, I wouldn't say it's bad, almost like a bitter thing on the front of my tongue.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's showing, it's showing its youth. I'm on the bad
**Bam Bam:** way though.
**Poobah:** I'm with Senator. There's given the age of the cigar. I don't think there's, there's any criticism that I would give to it. It just shows it, it just presents a little bit of its youth down the stretch in the last third. But. That's, I think that's to be expected [00:58:00] and not surprising.
And, uh, I think it previewed really, really well. And, and again, I'll reiterate that the build construction and burn was really good. I didn't have to touch this up. You have to touch it. And
**Senator:** I did a little bit, but the thing I will say to the point around the construction, The combustion also that a cigar at this ring gauge has produced almost all the way through.
It's impressive. Has been really good.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. The combustion has been amazing. Every draw is a massive amount of smoke.
**Bam Bam:** And not a single touch up for me as well. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I didn't touch it. I didn't touch it up at all. I mean, I think that's a real merit.
**Bam Bam:** Agreed. For sure.
**Gizmo:** So boys, it's important to talk about the good things and the bad things going on around the world, especially as it relates to our cigars and Cuba.
And it's been big news going on recently over the last few weeks that things have gotten pretty bad in Cuba, especially. Around power and food. And now I'm [00:59:00] hearing water as well, obviously relating to power, you know, pumping water is a little bit of a challenge, but people in Cuba's second largest city, Santiago staged a public protest and have continued to over chronic power blackouts and food shortages, which is really, really terrible.
I've talked to a few friends of ours on the ground there. And they said that they've lost, uh, water and power at times for 18 to 20 hours. People
**Bam Bam:** we know.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, people we know. So this is in Pinar del Rio, this is in Havana, this is in Santiago. It's all over the island and it's really just a lack of fuel.
to power the generators that, uh, that power the island, you know, which is really terrible. And what happens then is it, it's a trickle down effect. Obviously there's already a food shortage to the point where the government asked the UN's food program for help with food shortages, sending, Unprecedented request for assistance in providing powdered milk to children under the age of seven.
That's, when they're [01:00:00] asking the UN for that, it's really, really bad. It's very hard. It's really bad for the, for the government to be doing that. And now what happens obviously is when the power isn't. You know, working refrigerators and freezers, holding the food that these people have worked hard to, to collect are failing.
And now that food is spoiling. So there's a real, as we've said in previous episodes, there's a real, real humanitarian crisis going on in Cuba. So I am, you know, I empower anyone who is traveling to Cuba to make sure that you're traveling with a load of stuff, the best you can to give away. If it's food, if it's, you know, sealed food.
Powdered milk, whatever it is, just don't show up any empty handed if you're, if you're going to Cuba, but yeah, it's good
**Bam Bam:** advice. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it's a really, really terrible thing. What's going on in Cuba, guys? A real, real sad. It's a sad thing.
**Senator:** I mean, the saddest part of it is like the country obviously needs help and there, there are countries that could help them.
And you just look at how the Cuban government has handled this. I mean, these [01:01:00] protests that have, that have happened, it's, it says that these are some of the biggest demonstrations since 2021 or 22 when. Hurricane Ian had hit, uh, Cuba, and the Cuban government is going and saying that the American embassy in Havana is responsible for stoking these protests, which is just so outrageous, and obviously the U.
S. government has completely denied any involvement in this, and it's like, There is already so much tension between these countries at some point, if the Cuban government wants any chance of being able to provide for its people, it's going to have to change how it approaches countries like the United States.
That could very well help, right? And it's just a shame to me that instead of using this as an opportunity to maybe humble And try to seek a policy change with America to double down on the rhetoric and just point the finger at the U. S. for it. It's just outrageous.
**Bam Bam:** And isn't there always the chance that it will align itself more with China and Europe and Russia rather than the United States?
Well, the problem is that those countries don't actually care to help the [01:02:00]
**Senator:** people. They're
**Gizmo:** not humanitarian, humanitarian driven. Right.
**Senator:** Exactly. They care. They're more business driven. Right. They care to invest in a country like Cuba to profit, make money for themselves. Exactly. They care less of the people.
That's true. That's very true.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, and and what's unfortunate about that is that I think everything that we've seen about Cuban people that we've met there and certainly we've only met a few, right? So we're not talking on a grand scale, but these people are not motivated to do things other than when they cannot provide the basic needs for themselves and especially for their Children, you know, someone's gonna, you know, get a little upset when they can't feed their kids.
You know, that's a real powerful thing. Sure. Like Senator said, for the government to point the finger at the United States as opposed to humble themselves and try to make good things happen. Yeah. It's, it's a real tragedy because I assume the United States are going to veto. Yeah, they should be taking a different
**Bam Bam:** tact, honestly.
**Poobah:** It's very tough, um, and it's very difficult. For the people of Cuba, because if you speak out against [01:03:00] the government, there could be severe consequences. Of
**Senator:** course. I mean, this is a statement on an X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it from the Cuban president who said, quote, mediocre politicians and networked terrorists.
Lined up from South Florida to heat up the streets of Cuba with interventionist messages and calls for chaos. That's just, I mean, outrageous. It's
**Poobah:** lunacy. Propaganda.
**Bam Bam:** Of course. You know. They're not helping themselves by doing that.
**Poobah:** No, no. They, you know, the, the, the, the fact remains is, is that, um, in that kind of an environment in a communist country, if you, if, if, you know, there are people who are incentivized to, um, To listen to what you say.
This has been going on since Castro. If, and if you're caught saying something that's, um, that undermines the government of Cuba. You can get thrown in jail for a long period of time, [01:04:00] like my brother's father in law. Uh, he spent six years in a Cuban prison, uh, for just, for things that he said. And, uh, in private
**Gizmo:** conversation, by
**Poobah:** the way, not on the internet and not elsewhere, just in a private conversation.
Yeah, this is pre interview. Yeah, yeah, sure. In a private conversation. So, um, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a sad state of affairs. Um, you know, it's not a problem that we can solve. Of course, I mean, they control the internet. They can just shut the internet down. Sure. So people
**Gizmo:** can't, uh, right. You know, you can't see the protests.
You can't, uh, no voice against the government. Well, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a real sad state.
**Poobah:** No, it's a real thing because, um, because they'll incentivize people like in every, any communist country to You know, to spot, you know, to spy, you know, and when you get people in that desperate of a situation, they say, Oh, well, so and so, you know, rooster said this and rooster said that, and rooster said this, and he said that, and the next thing, you know, [01:05:00] You know, you find yourself goes to jail, God
**Bam Bam:** forbid,
**Poobah:** you know, with an LGC number two in his head that they may confiscate, which confiscate, and then you'll be eating snakes on the beach.
On the beach.
**Gizmo:** It's, uh, Well, anyway, it's a very, you know, it's a very sad thing. And, and like we've said in the past, I think it's important for us to talk about it and point it out. And I think it's a little bit of our duty, certainly with how we feel about a lot of the people that we've met there, to, uh, to talk about these stories.
It's, uh, it's terribly unfortunate. Because
**Poobah:** the people are, the people, um, are wonderful. Yep. And, um, you know, um, not to get too personal, but I mean, my, my sister in law, you know, She, she picked tomatoes, uh, from the time she was, you know, 12 until she was 17, uh, and she had, you know, like two pairs of [01:06:00] underwear, that's it.
Do you know what I mean? And, and, and, and, and working for, for like 5 a day, you know what I mean? Two, two, 2 a day, 5 a day. And, uh, and that's, that's crazy. And when you hear these stories, um, you understand why people. You know why people, well, why protester flee the country if they can't get out of there and try to get out of there.
You know what? Only
**Senator:** 400, 000 Cubans have fled the country in the past year. I wonder why. Yeah, right. And you know what's
**Gizmo:** amazing about that too is with all of the people, I think it's millions in the last, since before COVID, right? Millions of people have fled. The fact that all of those people have left the island and they still can't provide.
I mean, that's a significant number of people that left and the people who are still there still aren't able to be provided for. It's a, it's a, it's a real unfortunate. And it's mostly the young people. In any country that's losing their young, that can't be [01:07:00] good. It's not sustainable. And
**Bam Bam:** it's an indictment on the government.
Yeah. And the way they're handling their business at the end of the day.
**Gizmo:** So where's that money going with all these, uh, Cohiba, you know, two, two, 3 million humidors,
**Poobah:** right? I'm not going to answer that. It's a drop, drop in the bucket. Well, I would, I could, I could make a hypothesis that it's going, it's going into the pockets of the people who are in power, I would guess.
**Gizmo:** So that's a sad story, boys. Yeah, unfortunate. So I have another story I wanted to talk about before we get to our ratings tonight uplifting. I hope this one's a little bit more uplifting, but certainly interesting. A Miami man was arrested with counterfeit packaging for more than 1, 000, 000 of Cuban cigars.
So this is One of the gentlemen who was empowering the counterfeit market in the United States of Cuban cigars the Miami Dade police Arrested Jorge Gomero [01:08:00] 52 years old of Miami on multiple felony felony charges Some relating to stolen goods and others related to counterfeit cigar bands Apparently since January of this year police have been investigating him in his business Elberaton a retail store in Miami that's been operating as a fence apparently You And, uh, after arresting a different person for theft, that suspect, that suspect indicted, uh, Gomero, uh, uh, on receiving stolen goods.
And then when they raided his place, they found 28, 000 of merchandise. Which was including 4, 500 empty boxes of counterfeit cigars, which are a value. I guess they've done the math of over a million, one, uh, United States dollars, thousands of labels, ribbons, and certificates. So if you see this, it's almost like what it looks like in the boxing and banding rooms at the factory.
Yes, it does. The bands just lined up rubber banded together. And I mean, he it's, [01:09:00] this is a real legit operation. You know, the behicke bands look good. The Cohiba bands look good. I mean, it's pretty incredible.
**Bam Bam:** I'm glad he got caught.
**Gizmo:** And he had everything. I mean, he had Romeo, Upman, Trinidad, Monte Cristo, Cohiba, Bolivar, Ray Del Mundo, Gloria Cubana, Punch, Partagas, Sancho Panza.
He was Counterfeiting Sancho Ponza
**Bam Bam:** band. He was counterfeiting the entire catalogue.
**Gizmo:** The entire catalogue. So, yeah, I guess they contacted various cigar companies to figure out what the value was, and it was well over a million dollars. So, this is, I think, where a lot of the Counterfeit stuff coming out of that Miami area.
He'll get probation.
**Bam Bam:** What's he gonna get? What's he gonna get?
**Pagoda:** But, but I have a question over here. He's counterfeiting something which is not, Manufactured and produced in the U. S. anyway.
**Gizmo:** They'll get probation. No, I think it's still a problem that it's [01:10:00] a counterfeit good. Certainly. Certainly.
**Senator:** I think the biggest problem is it's counterfeiting to sell a product that is illegal in the United States.
Yeah, it's like a double whammy. That's why they're going to go after this guy. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** maybe this is what I wish customs and border patrol was chasing down. Not a pagodas, a bag of,
**Bam Bam:** uh, 15, 20 cigars.
**Gizmo:** They're going to put the bands on.
**Pagoda:** Devin, is that the one? He's an accessory.
**Gizmo:** You're going to sell it back to,
**Pagoda:** I'm a customer. I'm a customer.
**Gizmo:** So I wanted to, I wanted to note this cause I thought this was a really interesting, uh, help for folks sourcing from gray market vendors, which certainly This guy was probably supplying some of the gray market vendors.
Certainly we're operating out of Miami and Rob Isla on FOH listed different types of gray market vendors. I'll highlight a few, uh, in order. Number one, sourcing exclusively through, uh, one Habanos distributor sourcing from [01:11:00] more than one Habanos distributor. And then it moves to sourcing from Habanos distributors and privateer wholesalers, which this guy was.
And then. It gets even worse into Cuba, direct retailers, et cetera. The only two safe ones are people like, I think I Havana's who are, uh, sourcing from Habano's distributors and retailers, uh, one or more. But once you, once they get into private wholesale, They say that they're buying them from Cuba direct.
They're getting them from random retailers. That's really where you get into problems. You need to know where you're buying your cigars
**Senator:** with the initials. M M like Mickey Mouse on Facebook groups.
**Gizmo:** So it's very, very, very, very easy to get duped if you don't know where you're looking or who you're buying from.
So just be very, very careful. Certainly if you find something you want to, you know, want to ask us a question, if it's legitimate or not, you can certainly send us an email. Uh, and we'd be happy to help. So that's the story, boys. Thank God they caught one. I hope they find all of these guys and we can get back to a normal supply chain of [01:12:00] legitimate Cuban cigars.
But yeah, we need to talk a little bit about how not to lose a cigar case, uh, on a subway train for the third time.
**Pagoda:** With a DuPont cutter, no less. I'm not ready. How about this, uh, for the next episode,
which I'm going to skip. That is that tequila doing a number on you?
**Gizmo:** So Pagoda, really the question that Rooster's trying to ask here is just like the
**Bam Bam:** unbanded
**Gizmo:** cigars that you lost in the Miami airport coming back from Cuba that you actually had sourced in the United States. Still, that one bothers me.
How have you now lost a third stocked case? In the United States, on a train in Manhattan, full of DuPont lighters and cigars. How is this happening? Were there any Manhattans involved? Or Champagne?
**Pagoda:** There were quite a few Manhattans involved. Well, um, life. Life!
**Bam Bam:** Life! Life gets in the way. You
**Pagoda:** win some, you [01:13:00] lose some.
So what
**Gizmo:** happened? So you left Carnegie Club, and you left DuPont. Your cigar case on the train. Is that what happened?
**Pagoda:** Yeah, because what ends up happening is I go, I sit there, I get very comfortable and I have to switch trains, uh, at Secaucus. When I come from the city all the way, uh, to, uh, uh, a town in Jersey.
And, uh, um, I, I just tend to leave my case right next to me. And oftentimes, I'm rushing out the door when the train stops and yeah, I'm going to get him
**Poobah:** a pair of handcuffs because you're snoozing
**Senator:** I need to ride the train with you get a
**Gizmo:** free
**Bam Bam:** case. Yeah, I have a nice new do Well what we could do
**Poobah:** see caucus stop see caucus And you go, Oh, and you go, Oh my God, I got to get off or I'm going to miss the doors are going to close.
And then you leave your cigar case.
**Bam Bam:** You need a pair of handcuffs. And I do go [01:14:00] to lost and found handcuffs that case to your wrist
**Pagoda:** and I reported over there, but all these guys are cigar smokers and I'm like, there's no way I'm getting the back. I
**Gizmo:** think out of everybody I've ever met, you have supplied stop
**Poobah:** C caucus last stop.
**Gizmo:** Oh,
**Bam Bam:** you've supplied more cigars to
**Gizmo:** government agencies than anyone else that I know by far. So this is now what, your third or fourth one you've lost?
**Pagoda:** I hope. Is it a write off? I don't know. Can I write it off? What's a write off? No, I'm just kidding.
**Gizmo:** I think you should put an air tag in all of your cases so you can at least see where it is and you get a notification if you separate from it.
**Bam Bam:** And then what I'll do is I'll pick you up. We'll go down and we'll rumble. We'll rumble. We'll get your case back. I'm in. I'm all in on that.
**Pagoda:** It's all right. It's all right. Yeah. No, so I lost him in my airpods this time, and I could see that they ended up in Staten Island. And what am I going to do? How do you contact the person?[01:15:00]
It's, uh, It is what it is.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, we're coming to the end of our evening here with the Don Filano Reposado and the Monte Cristo Especiales No. 2. I gotta tell ya, this was a really good pairing. I'm interested to see how these ratings end up tonight. Any uh, final thoughts here before we rate uh, the cigar and the pairing?
**Pagoda:** Very enjoyable. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** really good. All right, let's do the formal liquor rating on the Don Filano Reposado. Bam Bam, you're up.
**Bam Bam:** So one thing we didn't ask was how much was the bottle? 79. 79. So, you know, look for me, I love. The
**Poobah:** Añejo is 99.
**Bam Bam:** Okay, this was actually exquisite for me. It was buttery. It was creamy, a little vanilla, and a bit of salt for me.
It was delicious. I'm gonna go with a nine. I'm gonna nine with this tequila tonight. Excellent. No doubt about it. No doubt for me.
**Pagoda:** Not that I'm a big tequila fan, but yeah, this is definitely between a nine and a ten. It's a nine for me. Really, really enjoyed it. Um, it just started off [01:16:00] with, my first sip just had a huge blast of pepper.
And then after that, it was just smooth sailing. It was, once again, very buttery, very, very flavorful. You could get a hint of vanilla. There was some sweetness. Uh, it was fantastic, you know, um. Not, no, like I can't describe it like, uh, uh, GE did with, uh, a little bit of a torch over the sugar being caramelized over creme brulee
Uh, but yeah, no, it was a, it's a fantastic, fantastic drink. Senator.
**Senator:** Uh, I'm also at a nine, I think for a repo. This is one of the more complex reposados. Yeah. I thought it had really unique, distinct flavor notes. I mean, I'll never forget the coconut component to this. I don't think I've ever. Yeah, experience that in any tequila.
Um, and I would definitely drink it again. So for me, it's a strong nine. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** you know, before, before I give my rating, I want to say something about the coconut. It's interesting because the flavor note coconut, I would normally associate with rum, right? Like that's a [01:17:00] rum kind of note. So for it to appear in a tequila,
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
**Gizmo:** Like, I don't know why my brain would never even have associated that with tequila, but it's just interesting how that came up tonight and how that was a component. It's a
**Bam Bam:** thing. It's definitely there for me. It's on the front of the spirit.
**Poobah:** It's it's well in the description it was, it was macadamia, right?
You know, in vanilla, so that's kind of, that's there, that's a mashup. Yeah, it's nice. I mean, I, I enjoyed it. I think there's some, there's some, there's some complexity here that you don't find in most repos, you don't see that in most
**Bam Bam:** repos that
**Poobah:** you don't see in most reposados and, uh, it's made in a traditional fashion.
So for me, it's a nine.
**Pagoda:** I do want to say one thing that I, you know, there were at least a couple of, uh, you know, steps that I had, which gave me. A little bit of the chocolate now, I don't know whether it enhanced the cocoa flavor in the cigar, which gave me a really good feeling. So of, uh, it's
**Bam Bam:** in the description of the notes of a dark chocolate on the aroma, so maybe you're getting that [01:18:00] on the finish.
Maybe just enhance it. It was
**Pagoda:** very, very pleasant. Yeah, it's in a description. It's an excellent, it's an excellent drink.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a nine. I thought this was an excellent repo. I thought the pairing tonight with the cigar, it was. It was, it couldn't have been better. It was fortuitous really, because we hadn't intended to drink this specific tequila tonight.
We ended up with it and it was a perfect match for this mild to medium cigar. I guess ended up towards medium, but most of the cigar, I felt it was mild to medium. So I'm very, very happy with the nine and that puts the formal liquor rating boys at a flat 9. 0. And that's a great rating. So let's look at the other, uh, Don Filano we did.
Like I said, it was on episode 70. Quite some time ago, 57 episodes ago. Uh, we did it with the Trinidad Fundadores and the Don Filano Tequila Añejo got a 9. 6. That tracks. I'm sure I get a 10, but I
**Pagoda:** do like that one slightly better. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** that does track. And. Pagoda, you did give it a [01:19:00] 10.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. Oh boy.
**Gizmo:** So the other one that we mentioned tonight was the Fortaleza Reposado, which we did on episode 44 with the Diplomatico No.
2, and we gave the Fortaleza Reposado an 8. 3. Wow. So it scored, uh, 7 points lower than tonight's score. Don Filano Repo. So that's what, uh, that's what we have for the Don Filano boys, and it's time to do the formal lizard rating now on the Monte Cristo Especiales No. 2. Rooster, you're up. Yeah, great, great cigar.
Really enjoyed it. I mean, it's, um, all six of us smoking that cigar, no draw issues, all the way down, all the way down. Um, having said that, I mean, I think the first half, I'm like at an eight, but the second half, but the score kind of diminishes to a seven, but I'm going to round it off to an eight. I think it's a phenomenal cigar and it has, uh, potential to age really well, and I think a couple of years is going to do wonders for the cigar.
So, [01:20:00] it's, it's an eight.
**Poobah:** Okay. Poobah. Yeah. I'm I'm with rooster for me. Um, I think it's got a lot of potential and I'm, I'm incorporating that into my, into my score. They previewed great. Like I said before, it had a lot of great notes up front. I think with age, uh, the cigar will be fantastic. So for me, uh, at the price point, all things considered it's an eight.
**Gizmo:** So the price point is really interesting as it's factoring into my rating tonight. This cigar to me was shocking. I expected this to kind of land in the six or sevens quite honestly. Um, cause I had heard some things in the past. I had seen other people review it. I had never smoked one. I don't think maybe two years ago I smoked one.
I don't even remember, but, uh, I'm going to give it a nine for sure. I thought it, I think previewing, I think for how it smoked tonight with a year of age on it for the value at 15 to 20. I'm very, very happy with that. With [01:21:00] the other cigar in the line, the Corona Especiales from Cohiba. Can we restrain Bam in his seat?
Yeah, Bam's excited over here. He's giving me the finger. I really like the cigar. Okay, go ahead. So yeah, I mean, you know, if you want to reach for a Liguito No. 2, this is a really great size. It feels good in the hand. Your other choice is the Corona Especiales from Cohiba, which is really, really hard to get.
And it's really, really expensive. So to get something under 20 bucks, around 20 bucks, this is also hard to get, but that price point can't be, yeah, you can't beat it. So I think it's going to preview very well. I think it's a low nine for me. Like a 90, 91 is where I'd put it. So I'm very happy with a nine and I'm going to stick with that Senator.
**Senator:** I don't know what a 91 is here. Cause we only use whole numbers for a rating. You can't change your rating. I rated a nine. All right. 90. All right. Just making sure we're all holding each other accountable. Cause the Lord knows I've been held accountable as far as the rate. Well, you tried to change yours.
I didn't try that. Correct. Well, at least they, At least I ultimately gave one number, [01:22:00] not two, but um, for me, it's a, it's a solid eight. I think the first two thirds were really, really good and I actually toyed with a nine and the only reason that I rounded down to the eight was the last third is where I think the youth of the cigar showed and I lost a lot of the dessert notes that I really liked in the first two thirds.
So I think with some more age, this could easily hit a nine, um, the construction and combustion were excellent. Great draw, tons of smoke for a smaller ring gauge cigar. And, um, I would definitely smoke another one of these again, and if I got my hand on some of them, I would just put them down for a little bit of time, and I think that that last third would probably deliver what I'm looking for.
So, definitely I recommend.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda?
**Pagoda:** Yeah, I've been toying between an eight and a nine. I think that I'm a lockstep with the Senator here, because for me, I think the first two thirds were fantastic. Yeah. You know, uh, guys, I know you mentioned that this was the first cigar you smoked today. [01:23:00] It was the first cigar I smoked today.
So it was very, very flavorful, very distinctive notes. It was, you know, cocoa coffee. It was just excellent, you know, but obviously mild to medium, slightly, uh, you know, not typical in my typical, you know, smoking profile, but, um, really, really enjoyed it for the first two thirds. Um, I'll give it an eight because towards the last third, I had to, uh, just touch it up once and then after that it did become a little bit tobacco heavy and, uh, so it lost its, you know, flavor profile towards the end and, uh, I think an eight is, is, is a good score for me.
**Gizmo:** All right, Bam Bam.
**Bam Bam:** I don't remember smoking a cigar that's so diminutive in size that also simultaneously gave me deep earth notes. Deep coffee and deep fruit and dessert notes. That's pretty unique. I was at a nine from the big, from the get go. And I, I'm at a nine all the way [01:24:00] through. I took this down literally to a quarter of an inch of a cigar.
I didn't get the ammonia at the end. I didn't get the dissipation of the sweetness. It did dissipate a little bit, but it became richer for me. For me, I'm at a nine. It got more earthier and woodier. Which I love, but the slight hint of fruit continued is very faint, but that for me, I pursue that rough edges.
No, I really didn't. I got lucky too. I did not have any bite at all. I took it all the way down. No bite at all. Um, and that could be, you know, we go back to the market itself. There is a little inconsistency. That could play into it. Sure. You know.
**Gizmo:** So boys, that puts the formal lizard rating on the Monte Cristo Especiales No.
2 at an 8. 3. Oh, that's a good score. Let's compare that to some of the other Monte Cristos we've done on the podcast. Honestly, it's a bit low as far as I'm concerned. You think so?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I do. I think it's a fair score for how it performed tonight, honestly. Yeah. I mean, I would have given it a 90 or 91, but that's me.
Here we go. All right. Let's just [01:25:00] change it. Gizmo, I don't know. No, we can't. No, Pagoda is already upset with no
**Bam Bam:** retraction.
**Gizmo:** All right, let's go through the others. So on episode number four, we did the linea 1935, the Maltas. That was an 8. 9. That's a Robusto extra on episode 28. We did the classic Monte Cristo number two, the Pyramides in the battle of the Pyramids that got an 8.
4. On episode 46, we did the Monte Cristo number one, the Lonsdale performed very poorly at a 6. 3 on episode 66. We did the edition limitata from 2019, the supremos, which is a Montesquieu Robusto, a 9. 0, and finally on episode 80, we did the Edmundo, which was the Robusto from the line. Which got a flat 8. 0.
So this is kind of in the middle of the pack.
**Senator:** I'm sorry. I think that's a perfect score. I think so too. It's good. It's a good score. I, you know, cause I, I would take Amani too over that cigar. Well, I think it's also
**Gizmo:** the application. It's a [01:26:00] different cigar. Amani too can fit. It's really almost anywhere after any kind of meal, anything, right?
And this can't. Well, that's true because,
**Bam Bam:** well, the Vitola in a Dimension, of course, dictates that, right? No, no. It's nothing to do with
**Senator:** the Vitola. I'm talking about the flavor profile. This is a mild to medium cigar. Amani 2 is a firmly medium cigar that you can smoke anytime. Hold
**Bam Bam:** on. You're going to tell me that that didn't tick up toward middle?
Or, or toward the back half,
**Poobah:** but not in the strength was in a youthful fashion, like not in a deep complex fashion.
**Bam Bam:** That's what you two got. I think
**Senator:** the last two of you got that cigar finally hit medium halfway through. It was just inching closer and closer to medium. Amani two is medium all the way through.
**Bam Bam:** Amani two is definitely more versatile. I will admit that.
**Gizmo:** I just, I mean, I am, I was impressed by the elegance of such a small diminutive as, as you said, but the power that
**Bam Bam:** it gave you, it's just the
**Gizmo:** flavor profile is pretty powerful. I think
**Poobah:** if I think, I think four years from now you pick that cigar up.
It's a completely [01:27:00] different.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Could be. All
**Gizmo:** right, boys. A great night tonight. Good pairing. The Don Filano Reposado tequila was a 9. 0 and the Monte Cristo Especiales number two got an 8. 3. And, uh, that's it for tonight, boys. We'll see everybody next week.
**Poobah:** Keep smoking.
**Gizmo:** Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod. com. That's loungelizardspod. com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking.
Email us hello at loungelizardspod. 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 [01:28:00] week.