Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The lizards pair the Davidoff Millennium in Piramides with Hibiki Japanese Harmony Whiskey. The lizards review one of Bam’s all-time favorite cigars, discuss Davidoff’s special releases, and Gizmo shares a story about his growing lizard palate.
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 Visits 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 and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Grindr, Senator Pagoda, and bam.
Bam. And our plan is the A cigar drink, some whiskey talk about life, and of course have some laughs. So take this as your 33rd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss one of BA's all-time favorite cigars, Dave off special releases and our growing lizard pallets, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair haki Japanese Harmony whiskey with Davidoff Millennium in pyramid.
We're back to David Itdo once [00:01:00] again, boys the millennium in pyramid. Continuing with our series of lizard's. Favorite cigars. This is Bam. BA's favorite. Indeed. It is number one. Yes, sir. What about the cigar makes it number one for you?
**Bam Bam:** Well, it's the very first cigar I've ever had. Ever, ever. Oh, I didn't know that.
Yep. 15. You spoiled bastard. Yeah, I know. Geez. I know, I know.
**Grinder:** So you, you came into cigar smoking at a later age?
**Bam Bam:** Uh, 16 years ago. Wow. Just under 16 years. You guys, I think all of you have been smoking longer than me. So, like when you
**Grinder:** were 40?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, when my son was actually, when my, my son, the day my son was born, my brother-in-law got me into
**Grinder:** cigars.
Oh, you know what? I still need to do a cigar share
**Bam Bam:** for my Yeah. Yes you do.
**Gizmo:** Yes. We're waiting. We've been waiting. Unbelievable.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that was quite the experience for me. I fell in love with cigars that day. Really? And he gave us lega nines and. millenniums and this, and he loved millenniums at the time. Now he's off those, he's [00:02:00] like a big league of nine guy now.
But I've never stopped
**Gizmo:** smoking these. I see you with the cigar. I don't know, 3, 4, 5 times a week. A lot.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. A lot. You smoke a lot of these. Yep. Now, honestly, with the whole Cuban run that we've all been having, I've fallen off the millennium path for a while. Sure. But when I go back to it, it's a comforting friend.
Well,
**Gizmo:** I'll tell you, this is one of those cigars that there's no doubt it, it fits for me. It fits anywhere. Yeah. You know, in, in the week, in the day. Yep. After a steak in a range of 3, 4, 5 cigars, if we decide to do that any night, yeah. It's always satisfying. It's always good.
**Bam Bam:** So what I happen to admire about this is the construction.
I mean, it's from the point of view of flavor profile, I, I'm not gonna say it's the most memorable cigar from the point of view of the flavor. I get coffee and tobacco and cedar in this, and that's it for me. And I love that. But, uh, it's so beautifully made. It's sharp enough to throw an attack board.
Right now it is. Look at
**Gizmo:** the
**Bam Bam:** rapper is beautiful. It's beautiful. It's, I think, one [00:03:00] of the best mate cigars that you can find
**Grinder:** my opinion. That's a, that's a quote Sharp enough to throw the tag. I
**Rooster:** did not know this. There's alen in Millennium. What? What? I I never heard of that. I have
**Senator:** never seen that. Me neither.
We gotta get that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, we have to get that. Wait, so I thought there were only four. I thought there was a short rib robusto. Yep. Of a robusto Toro and the pyramid. Right. There's a petite Corona and the petite Corona experience spice, apparently a la manara. I have no idea. We gotta get that. That is a must.
Yeah, we gotta get
**Grinder:** that. There's a small, there's a smaller one then than that too. The petite Corona. No, I think there's a smaller
**Gizmo:** than a
**Rooster:** petite Corona
**Gizmo:** have to look. No, but to your point, bam. I mean the construction on this, the, the wrapper. Yeah. I mean it's, it's just a brilliant
**Bam Bam:** looking. Yeah. And honestly, when we recommended to do the smoke, I for some reason thought we've already recorded
**Gizmo:** it long ago.
Yeah. Well, you know, we've, we did a couple, we did a couple Dave off so far. So we've done, we've, this is actually our fourth Dave off. This is more, we've done this, uh, Marco more than any other. That's true. We've done the Chef's edition doa doa, [00:04:00] which I loved the late hour Churchill a few weeks ago. Yep. And now this Yes, sir.
You know, um, and we probably wouldn't have done this so soon. Yep. Had we not had it on the list, you know, trying to go through the lizard's favorite cigar. So, and
**Bam Bam:** honestly, it warms my heart that a lot of guys in this room, like this cigar,
**Gizmo:** it's probably my favorite regular daily driver data. That's awesome.
Awesome. You know, I think you're on point with that, so very happy. All right, let's, uh, let's cut this thing boys. See what we're getting on the, uh, cold draw. Oh, the draw is wide open and I didn't take too much off the top. I mean, any ti any cut I make on these, it's always perfect. Draw
**Grinder:** be surprised too, so that that's a new
**Rooster:** experience for you.
I mean, that's, that's one thing about DDoS the construction is impeccable. It really is. You never, have you ever had a clogged plugged Dave Itdo Davidoff? I've never,
I
**Bam Bam:** don't think ever. Maybe a
**Grinder:** Millennium Toro. Well,
**Senator:** that's the, I was, the draw would be three. The viola matters with Devo Kind does. I think we've, we've talked about this a thousand times.
The Toros, the Toros, for whatever reason, they don't burn well. The [00:05:00] draws not the same, the most consistent are, I think the, the torpedo that we have or the pyramid we have here. The Rob Robusto are pretty good. The robusto are great. The Churchills
**Grinder:** Churchills are awesome.
**Bam Bam:** Phenomenal. I'm glad he brought that up because, you know, a listener will look, will look in the cigar shop and find a, uh, a millennium toro and assume it's what we're smoking tonight.
Not realizing that it's a completely, completely different cigar and experience several steps below in performance and taste and even appearance in the, uh,
**Gizmo:** compared to the pyramid. Yeah, whatever this, whatever this ends up at tonight on the formal lizard rating. Yeah. Take about four off , four basis points off of, of what the Toro experience would be.
Oh yeah. In my opinion, a hundred percent.
**Senator:** That's what I was just gonna say. I can't emphasize enough to anyone who listens to this and decides they want to pick up this stick. It has to be in the pyramid. And I say that. because Bam would talk about this cigar a lot. And I had never had the pyramid. I was only, I had only tried the Toro and I really [00:06:00] disliked the Toro and I could not understand why people were so enamored with this millennium series.
And Bam had finally gotten me to try the pyramid. And I think it
**Grinder:** was here, I think it was at our formula. Oh, is that right? Yeah.
**Senator:** And all it took was one of those, yeah. To completely change my perspective on this cigar. So the So true viola, the shape makes a world of difference.
**Gizmo:** So true. So what are you guys getting on the cold draw?
I'm getting leather, caramel, a little chocolate. And there's some like dry fruit maybe? Yeah, like coffee,
**Grinder:** chocolate,
**Bam Bam:** getting. I get, um, a very light espresso, cedar and tobacco espresso. I'm getting that.
**Grinder:** Yeah. A lot of cedar, cedar tobacco and, uh, coffee.
**Senator:** I'm getting the same notes. Bam. Is just smell the wrapper though.
Please. Like, it's amazing. . I just get smells chocolate and like coffee. It, it's,
**Gizmo:** it's ridiculous. All right, boys, let's light this thing. The Davidoff millennium in pyramid. It's a 52 ring gauge [00:07:00] by six and an eighth.
**Bam Bam:** So I need to borrow lighter when someone's done. Oh geez. So I'm gonna admit something. Uhoh. I had my beautiful, um, DuPont lighter, I gifted to someone.
Uh, I heard about this. Yeah. You gifted it to someone. Someone I like a lot and, um, someone, someone we know . Really? Yeah. He, he commented how much, how much he liked it. Really beautiful. It looks great. Feels good in the hand. Perfect razor sharp burn. And I just looked at him and said, it's yours.
**Grinder:** Bam.
**Senator:** Have I told you how beautiful
Your humidor looks
**Gizmo:** great.
**Grinder:** Oh, yeah. Looks nothing like your tower.
**Senator:** I mean, man, I could thank you if you would be so generous to just give me that humidor,
**Gizmo:** Let's smoke this thing. Delicious. Right on the light, guys. Yeah. Wonderful. You know, we, we talk about elegance sometimes in cigars. I think the last time we talked about it was the late hour Churchill that we did. And, uh, this [00:08:00] is a cigar I feel very similar. It's, it's not as, um, it's obviously not as long as a Churchill, but there's something about this that's significant.
For me, it's
**Bam Bam:** the appearance of it. It's got this kind of old school stately look to it, and the flavor is reminiscent of that. It's not, like I said, it's not the most memorable flavor profile, but it's, it's, it's a good cigar. It's a beautiful cigar. I, I just gravitate towards it, you know. . Now I, someone said that Dick can wear a pinstriped suit and wear and smoke the, uh, the late hour church said that.
Yeah, I could do that with a
**Gizmo:** cigar. I agree. I mean, yeah, it's, this is right in, this is right in line
**Bam Bam:** with that. Yeah. Yeah. Sophisticated old school
**Gizmo:** cigar, I think. Yeah. And it's delicious, right on the light. Yeah. What are you guys getting? Getting Glory.
**Grinder:** This is great. Um, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Lot of
**Rooster:** coffee. Lot of chocolate.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Chocolate nuts. A lot of chocolate, right? Coffee, chocolate, dark chocolate cedar. Yeah. Right there with you.
**Grinder:** Getting
**Gizmo:** some raisin. I'm get, I'm definitely getting some dried fruit. Maybe the raisin. Absolutely. Some [00:09:00] dried fruit.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** The draws wide open. And I, you know, I think this cigar, we talk about several act plays and cigar.
I think the cigar really is one that takes you on a little bit of a journey. Yeah. Not necessarily that it changes necessarily, but it really kind of builds and it's complex and it's, it burns perfectly and slowly every time, like. It's, it's just, it's a wonderful hour, hour 15. Yep. You know, however long you take to smoke it.
I, it's a really nice journey. Yep. With cigar,
**Bam Bam:** you know, when you read up on this, they say it's, uh, maybe I'm wrong. Um, medium to full experience. I agree. For me though, it's a, it's a perfect medium experience. That's where I'm at with it. I agree. Right in the
**Gizmo:** middle. Yeah. I think, I think it, uh, toward the end, oh yeah.
Once the heats up, I think you're starting to get towards full. But I would say overall it's a medium cigar. Sure, sure, sure. So the wrapper on this, by the way, is Ecuador, Connecticut, and the binder and the filler are both from, uh, Davidov in the Dominican. Okay.
**Rooster:** I was just gonna say the rapper is beautiful.
I, so I wasn't sure if, so it is the Ecuadorian, [00:10:00] uh, rapper. Nice.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Ecuadorian, Connecticut, which is interesting.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know, also, this is not, uh, one of the more affordable
**Gizmo:** cigars. Yeah. So where does this price, you said this is,
**Senator:** it's
**Bam Bam:** not, no, it is not. It's an expensive cigar. It's tw they average, I guess 27 to $29, depending on where you find it.
That is
**Gizmo:** not cheap. Which is interesting, again, comparing back to Davidoff, that this is a more expensive cigar
**Bam Bam:** and for the, for the size of it, you would expect to get more for, for the price. Yeah. But because of the quality and how it's made, and I, I
**Gizmo:** gotta imagine this is hard to roll. Oh, I,
**Bam Bam:** I would have no
**Senator:** idea.
I mean, it, it's a pyramid, right? Like it, it, it's like a P two. If a, you know, RGUs can roll a P two and Ahman can roll a number two and Boulevard can roll a besos pheno and charge like 13, 14, 15 a stick. The one criticism that frustrates me with this stick, the price point is , it's aggressive for it is what is just
**Gizmo:** a, a pyramid.
Yeah. [00:11:00] Well, it's more expensive than the Churchills. Right. You know, not the limiteds, like the, the chefs, but yeah. It's certainly more expensive than the late hour churchi. Sure, sure. But it's typical enough to
**Rooster:** David ados, right? I mean, Dave Adolphs are
**Gizmo:** always, they're just priced a bit
**Rooster:** higher than, uh, most.
Bob
**Gizmo:** Cubans. Yeah, certainly. What's the aging on these? Do we know? That's a good question. I don't think they announced that. Um, I, I would imagine at least it's a couple years, but there's no information that Tobacco isd definitely, I think four
**Pagoda:** years. I was reading somewhere, I, I think when it came out in 2005 or something, um, there, I was reading one of the articles and it kind of mentioned around four years for the millennium blend, which I'm assuming would be the same for this.
**Gizmo:** So on David's website, the cigars 30 bucks, they also have a pack of four, which is a little under 120. And then the pack of 10, uh, pack of 10 on their site is a little under
**Bam Bam:** 300. So that's an increase in price because at our former lounge Yeah, I repeatedly brought these at around $27. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And, and, and [00:12:00] you know, you can find 'em online.
Mm-hmm. , you know, you could find deals here and there. That's true, that's true. Um, especially out of the country deals, you know. Um, we find those all the time. So it's just, you know, a matter of if, if you like the cigar, you're interested in the cigar, you wanna stock up, just, just find a nice deal on it.
Mm-hmm. and, yeah. But they're hard to get right now. They're not everywhere. I like a lot of good cigars are. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. This is really, really delicious though, guys. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. I think the thing that stands out beyond obviously a lot of flavor notes that we like in this cigar, going back to something Ben was saying earlier, I, I think this is one of the best constructed cigars, period.
Cuban new World, doesn't matter the number of photos that I have on my phone, smoking this cigar with an ash that is easily over two inches in length. It's just absurd. Oh yeah. Every time it burns evenly, the ash is white and bright. Yeah. And it just, it you don't have any issues with
**Grinder:** construction. So how, how is a, how is a long ash or, or a sturdy [00:13:00] ash indicative of good construction?
**Bam Bam:** Well, you, you'd have to think it's the packing and the roll. If it's densely done and it's dis e evenly distributed, there's a structure there.
**Grinder:** A hundred
**Senator:** percent. And I think,
**Grinder:** oh, sorry.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, no, and as it burns, you know, you've got oxidate ox, the, the tobacco oxidates as it, as it burns, and it creates the air pockets that are there.
It depends. It's all depending on the role and the packing, if it's consistent and then you get a great ash, there's a structure.
**Senator:** So I, I agree with bam. I mean, that, that's, that's also my take. And I think, you know, you think about, right, like really, really, really, really cheap yard cigars are like short filler, you know, tobacco inside and the ash is just crumbling because the, the leaves, right, they're short filler.
So it's just crumbling off when you have a long filler cigar. With those longer leaves that are properly wrapped, it should burn evenly and hold for a good amount of time. And so I do look for in a cigar when that ash holds. , and it's not all over my pants as I'm smoking it. I know that's a really well constructed cigar.
**Grinder:** Yeah. It's a [00:14:00] mark of quality. And, and we, we smoke only long filler cigars. Right, exactly. So I would say, you know, it's a check, it's a checking of the box. If you have a good ash that's sturdy, it's indicative of good construction and long filler, which is mostly what we all smoked
**Gizmo:** anyway. Exactly. And you know, it, it, it, it, it speaks to the robustness of the leaf.
The, the fact that they are rolling with really high quality leaves. Like when you buy a $30 cigar, if it's ashing all over your pants. I mean, it's very frustrating to me. Yep, yep. Now I expect that with an $8 cigar or $6 cigar, but when you're spending 30 bucks on a cigar and it's ashing without your, you know, intervention, that's really, really frustrating to me.
Happens to the best of us though. It does, and it, you know, it's a matter of maybe the cigars weren't kept well, they're too dry, they're too wet. But if you're in the sweet spot and you're spending that kind of money, It should be holding up. I agree. At least for an inch or two.
**Grinder:** One of the best, uh, one of the funny things about these cigars, [00:15:00] um, growing, growing up in a certain age group where we are, you know, some of us in this, in this room are millennials.
There is a time, still is a time where a lot of people are referring to these cigars as millennials as opposed to . Oh
**Senator:** boy. Let's be clear. There are even lizards who have
**Grinder:** puppy lizards. Excuse
**Gizmo:** me. Oh yeah. Go smokes. The millennial
**Grinder:** pyramids.
**Senator:** We still love you.
**Gizmo:** Puba .
**Bam Bam:** I am happy to say that he does like the cigar, loves the cigar.
Yes, he does like the cigar. He loves the millennial. Yeah. Yeah. the
**Gizmo:** millennial pyramid. No, this is great. So, you know, you are already half an inch in the Ashe is bright white. You know, as they say, I, I don't love the term, but stacking dimes, like you can see the, what looks like a stack of dimes in your ash.
It's, it's really, really fantastic.
**Rooster:** So I remember the first time my wife actually gave me the millennium. We were at [00:16:00] the, uh, Mohawk Mountain house. There's a couple of, uh, series that we have watched and they have shown the Mohawk Mountain house. We were there for like a weekend. It was our anniversary. So my wife presented me with a, I think it was a four pack or a five pack of millennium assorted sizes.
They had just, they had just come out and I had not tried one, and I had it there and it was, I was blown away. I'm like, this is the first David Itdo that's full flavored, you know,
**Gizmo:** uh, that is quite the case. Compared, compared to like
**Rooster:** the Grand Cruise or, I have a question. 2000
**Gizmo:** series. How
**Bam Bam:** did she know to get that gift for you?
She, do you talk about cigars with your wi with the, with Mrs. Rooster and have discussions?
**Gizmo:** I think she just went to, does she know what your favorite sticks are? I think she had some help. From our formal lounge. She,
**Rooster:** she went there and, uh, you know, acquired those
**Gizmo:** steaks
**Bam Bam:** because I'm not sure Mrs. Bam, bam would ever buy me a
**Gizmo:** cigar.
**Rooster:** Well, if she goes to the formal lounge, I'm sure you know, they'll tell her like, yeah, this is what he smokes. Sure. And, [00:17:00] uh, yeah, yeah,
**Gizmo:** that's kind of cool.
**Rooster:** But what a cigar. I mean, I was blown away by it. Every single steak in, for me, one of my favorite sticks was the petite Corona, cuz I got so much flavor out of that, out of the wrapper and a short steak with so much flavor, I was absolutely blown away.
**Senator:** I agree on the petite Corona. The only reason I've had several of them, the only reason I won't buy that steak. Yeah. It's the price is the price out of Prince. I know how much Yeah. Much. It's like $16 for a little petite Corona and it's, it's half hour smoke. It's, it's shorter than even a normal petite, it's a small
**Grinder:** cigar.
I'm ashamed
**Bam Bam:** to admit that I haven't had that cigar. I would like to try it. Well, you should. Just from the point of you getting that flavor, $16 for
**Gizmo:** petite
**Rooster:** Corona used to, it used to be 13, like 12, 13 bucks. But like anything else that's gone up. .
**Gizmo:** So you mentioned the grand crew Rooster. You love that cigar?
I
**Rooster:** used to, I mean, I used to smoke a lot of grand crew number two. Uh, you, you still smoke that? I feel like I, I do. Yeah. Once in a while.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So how does that compare to the, this Davidoff [00:18:00] and the others that we've smoked? Like where would you kind of put it price wise? Like where does it land in the, in the Davi off line?
Well, the
**Rooster:** grand crew, depending on the size, it, you know, it, that's what differs in price. Um, but the grand crew itself, it's um, it's a light to medium bodied cigar. Uh, to me it's more of a daytime cigar. Okay. Uh, great afternoon or morning with cup of coffee and stuff. But this millennium, I think it can easily fit in, like after dinner.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's full, it's medium to fall. Yeah. I think it's
**Bam Bam:** most appropriate in the evening for me,
**Gizmo:** but
**Senator:** I, what I love about this cigar, as much flavor as it puts out, , the delivery's so smooth that I've lit this in the afternoon and still enjoyed it just as much as at night. So I love the versatility about this cigar in Virginia.
And
**Bam Bam:** that's, and I think that's why I consider this to be a medium bodied cigar rather than medium full, because it's so
**Rooster:** smooth. Yeah. But I'm just comparing it to like the grand crew line. Oh yeah. Okay. There's, uh, you know, Davidoff came out with these later, they were not [00:19:00] into, uh, you know, when they came out with the Nicaragua was after this, like the Yama and uh, and the Nico, the P Nicaragua stick that they came out with.
I like the
**Bam Bam:** Yamaha when they first came out. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I do.
**Rooster:** That's good. I do too. I haven't had it in years, but I think Millennium is Oh, the best Absolutely. That the Davidoff makes other than their limited edition series, like the Chef's
**Gizmo:** Edition and their, the Chef's Edition
**Bam Bam:** do. Yeah. Yeah. Dominican is so delicious, man.
I love the Dominican. Oh gosh. So I had the, uh, Brooklyn, uh, pizza, Brooklyn edition. Millennium, not Mil, I'm sorry, Brooklyn edition. Davi off. A few weeks ago. Uh, it's a Toro. I sent you guys photographs of it. It was a while ago. Very good. Good. Yeah. Surprising. Surprisingly good performance.
**Senator:** The Manhattan edition was not very good.
I heard the, uh, five 15 Madison. Oh, that's, that was, that wasn't good. Awful. That was really a bad cigar. Yeah, it was really a bad
**Bam Bam:** cigar. Inexpensive, yeah. More than this. This is like $45. I
**Senator:** paid this. Oh dude, that's ridiculous. I had that on my birthday like two or three [00:20:00] years ago. Yeah. After a steak. And I was sitting there saying, this is the most disappointing thing.
And thank God I had brought some patron drones with me just to have after that. And I just ditched it and just lit up a patron and I was back on Cloud nine .
**Rooster:** Now you had the tiger.
**Senator:** I did. Right? Yeah. How was that? So I, again, this goes to why, like there are some DDoS I really like, like what we're smoking right now, the late hour, et cetera, chefs.
Um, but I don't love the marketing gimmickry that goes on with these Chinese New Year, you know, lunar New Year cigars that they put out every year. I had the ti You're the tiger. The rapper literally looks like it has tiger stripes on it. Yeah, I've seen it. The price point is outrageous. I paid, I think 52 a stick for that.
Wow. Wow. Wow. I, you know,
**Gizmo:** I, that's, that's as much by the way, as the Patron 50th , which
**Senator:** is a much bigger, bigger stick, which I
**Gizmo:** mean, world class cigar that's Sure. Like the Yeah. That's, that's like, [00:21:00] that's Ferrari of cigars stick. Absolutely.
**Senator:** And, and it's a big stick. Yes. Like you're actually getting a lot of cigar for that price.
Six and a half inches or something, right? Yep. Yeah. Where this year of the tiger, it's actually shorter than the millennium, than this millennium pyramid. , even though it's a pyramid shape. Mm-hmm. , but it's shorter than this. And man, it, it, honestly, if it were half the price, if that were $25, I wouldn't buy it again, let alone 50 something bucks.
I, I just couldn't believe it was very disappointing. Not a, i, I should just qualify in saying not a bad cigar in that there, it was offensive, but nothing that at all excited me to want to smoke one of those again. No, I mean,
**Rooster:** not worth the price that
**Gizmo:** you paid. Right. Well, boys, let's try our beverage. I'm ready for a sip here.
**Bam Bam:** I gotta tell you. I love this, this beverage. It's
**Gizmo:** fantastic. Haki Japanese whiskey. Yeah. So it's a blend, right? Pagon, you said it's a blend? Yeah,
**Pagoda:** it's, it seems to be a blend of quite a few, uh, different whiskeys. Uh, I think up to 10 is what I was reading, and I'm not sure whether that's that's right or [00:22:00] wrong, but, uh, uh, that article talks about how it's blended in around five different types of barrels as well.
Wow. So it is, uh, reasonably complex. Um, .
**Senator:** So I've gotta say it's awesome.
**Gizmo:** It's really good. I love it. Love it. And you know, we did the, uh, sun Tori, uh, a couple of weeks ago, and that is, to me, it was lighter, it was sweeter. This is closer to, and thankfully with the cigar we're smoking, it's a little bit more, what is the word?
A little more, more robust or It's more complex. More complex, yeah. And it
**Senator:** has more structure. Like there's some viscosity to this. Absolutely. Like, literally you can taste just as you're sipping. And if you even look in the glass, it, it's, there's much more viscosity in this than that lighter, uh, sun that we had.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. And this is really good. So how much is a bottle of Hibiki? It's
**Pagoda:** around, uh, I think I paid 90 bucks. It used to be 80 bucks, but, um, that's, that's expensive. The issue with this is that, um, [00:23:00] they're ha they're never really available, you know? Yeah. They're hard to find.
It seems like they come, you know, once in a while and they tend to sell off so quickly that. You know, if you're not there on the day and get lucky, it's kind of gone.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think this is a, a really nice pairing with the cigar. I think so
**Senator:** too. I, the thing that just really blows me away about this, this Japanese whiskey, really, all the Japanese whiskeys I've tried have been very light.
Yeah. Very light, very floral. And that has a time and a place. I mean, I was just saying, I, I had a little, before we recorded, I think a few of us tapped into mm-hmm. , uh, some SUNY that we had left. And on a hot day, I would absolutely drink that. It's really nice light floral. Um, this, I would call kind of the Macallan of Japanese whiskeys in that it has a richer, deeper flavor that we're used to in, you know, single malt scotches that we really like.
I like the comparison.
**Bam Bam:** I'm, I really do. Yeah. Yeah. [00:24:00] That is a good comparison. What's interesting there is a, there is a hint of sweetness on this, on the fridge. It is. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There is one. Yeah. And. You know, I never really thought of the millennium as having any type of that type of sweetness, but the raisin, uh, profile that Grindr brought up, I am getting that.
As I think about it and as I taste it, it really pairs beautifully with this
**Gizmo:** cuts right to it. I'm gonna say something that you guys might find silly, but after I sip the hibiki and I took a draw of the cigar, it, it kind of gave me a little something different on the cigar of the smoke. It was almost like a saltiness
**Bam Bam:** or something.
Thank you. I was, I was, I was feeling the exact same thing. Like, there's a great compliment
there.
**Gizmo:** It, it, it really does compliment it and it kind of opens up another uh, uh, you know, lane of flavor. There's a little saltiness or something in the smoke there and it's, it's really, really nice on the front of your tongue.
And
**Senator:** I get it. You're right. I'm getting the same thing.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Do you know what kind of barrels these are? Uh, made in
**Bam Bam:** Pagos? I, I think,
**Pagoda:** yeah. I haven't really read in detail, but it seems like it goes to five different various oak. Various [00:25:00] Yeah. Barrels, including the
**Bam Bam:** American Oak. There's gotta be some sherry there for, there's a bit of Sherry for sure.
I don't get any, no, you don't get any, get a little bit of
**Grinder:** sweetness.
**Senator:** I think there could be
**Grinder:** some sherry. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** there is a little bit of sherry, no color, but on the flavor.
**Gizmo:** It's partly matured for sure in plumb lacore barrels. I'm seeing that. Oh, that works. I don't see,
**Bam Bam:** I don't taste sherry. Well, the sweetness must be coming from that barrel.
Yeah.
**Rooster:** The plum, the plum barrels. Yeah. That would give the sweetness.
**Bam Bam:** That almost makes this a much sexier scotch knowing that
**Grinder:** honestly, anything the Japanese do is fantastic, in my opinion. Yeah. . That's true. I, I think the water
**Bam Bam:** out there, right. Can't imagine. Yeah. . Well now that they had the, uh, Cher Noble of their, uh, lifetime.
What's the water like out there now? .
**Gizmo:** Oh, Jesus. . What's questionable? I just took a dark
**Bam Bam:** turn. I did. I'll
**Pagoda:** be all radiating. , you talking glow in the
**Bam Bam:** dark. Wasn't there a, uh, nuclear meltdown? Yeah,
**Gizmo:** there was.
**Grinder:** Jesus. That was how many years ago though? Three. Not
**Gizmo:** five, four. Yeah, maybe something like that. [00:26:00] Pre, pre
**Senator:** covid.
This is really interesting, Sima. So I'm reading about just some of the stuff that's blended in here and it says malt whiskey aged in American white oak. I could definitely chase that. She cheetah grain whiskey. The company calls it the Dashia Your Broth. Designed to bring everything together. Sherry Cas Malt Whiskey Working as addressing or highlight, uh, this is somewhat Older whiskey that is the only dark amber component of the main five, and provides personality, flavor and top notes of dried fruit, cigar, plum, and wood.
Ms. Zara Cas Malt Whiskey, another dressing component, one of the oldest whiskeys in the blend. Age 12 to 15 years in Japanese, Ms. Zara, Cass, and provide a Japanese character to the whiskey. And lastly, smoky Malt whiskey. Just a hint of Isla style. Smoky whiskey is included to add complexity and depth.
That's
**Grinder:** wonderful. It's very interesting. Wonderful. See the . The thing that [00:27:00] fascinates me about this podcast and us smoking cigars and pairing whiskeys and stuff, we go through this exercise of describing flavors. and it can get, it can get really ethereal. Like we're talking about personality , you just said it adds personality.
Like, what the fuck? There's no personality. I love the, I love how we, I mean, petor, right? Like you, we, we grab certain, this guy's
**Bam Bam:** catching on worldwide, certain catching
**Gizmo:** on world money. Do you know how many people have emailed or messaged us and have mentioned the word Petco? Some around the world. I mean, it's gotta be at least seven or seven or eight.
That's funny. Guy in Australia, another guy the other day. We'll get to that in a minute. But yeah, I mean it's really, it's amazing. Grindr has entered the lexicon. Yes. We, we started by democratizing
**Senator:** caviar. Now we're democratizing Petco, ,
**Bam Bam:** Petco car
**Grinder:** all day or day. I'm not getting any petor
**Bam Bam:** in this though. No,
**Gizmo:** no petro corn in this.
I'm so happy to hear that. So, uh, going into the second, third here, [00:28:00] I, this cigar kind of right here is where it really hits its stride for me. And it keeps, it always keeps going like right around this. inch and a half mark in ash. Um, do I It's just
**Bam Bam:** delicious. Yeah. There's a consistency in the flavor notes that continues all the way
**Grinder:** through.
**Senator:** There is to, to Gizmo's point though, this is where in the cigar, maybe a quarter or a third of the way through where the coffee notes pick up for me, it's almost as if like a pot of coffee's been brewing. Like when you light it, it's just slowly brewing and then all of a sudden you've got that like, it, it's really pronounced at this point in the cigar.
**Grinder:** And I think that that was a great, that was a great,
**Gizmo:** uh, analogy. I love that . It was, and I think that that's a, that's a compliment to the blending and the master blender. You know, who, who puts the cigar together every year or every crop, you know, that, that they harvest in really making it an experience from the, from start to.
So it would
**Rooster:** be interesting because the master blender at Davidoff is no longer there. [00:29:00] Yeah, he left, right? Hanky Hendrick. Hanky. Yeah. So and so did his son. Yep.
**Gizmo:** When did he leave? I think two years ago, I think. Two years? Somewhere during Covid, I believe. Oh wow. Right before Covid. Who is it? Who is announced?
Well, who joined? I don't know. I don't know if they've announced what he's doing or he just may have retired. I think he was a little older.
**Bam Bam:** Be curious to you think Ro
**Gizmo:** Patel. Yeah. Rocky might be the guy.
**Grinder:** What a disaster that would be. No, please.
I'm dead serious. I . What are we talking
**Gizmo:** about? That would be the end of Dave
**Grinder:** fucking, fucking end of days. Armageddon. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Patel.
**Pagoda:** Davidoff collapse. I, I think, I think I met him. Met, met the blender and his son because I went to one of these, uh, David off events, um, in the city. And um, it was a really interesting event where we actually, they gave us, Somewhat like, um, a semi roll cigar.
And then we were actually putting the final [00:30:00] wrapper on it. So we were wrapping the cigar and then we, we were smoking it and they gave us a couple of extra Are
**Rooster:** you sure that wasn't
**Gizmo:** Hamlet?
**Bam Bam:** What? Oh, boy. Don't, because we, Jeanette Cigar .
**Gizmo:** That is
**Rooster:** because we had the guy from Hamlet Cigars come to our formal lounge.
Yeah. He literally gave us leaves. Yeah. And he said, roll 'em and smoke 'em. Correct.
**Pagoda:** And even with his son, and his son speaks really well.
**Rooster:** Well, no, this wasn't a, for, this was a different, uh, absolute, totally different company.
**Bam Bam:** Took a dark turn. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I mean, it was, it was literally the worst cigar ever. Oh, really?
**Pagoda:** I've ever had. Yeah. But like for us, I think we were just enjoying the, the moment and the time and, um, yeah. It was, it was a lot of fun.
**Senator:** So we're not gonna review Hamlet on the. Oh
**Bam Bam:** boy. Yeah, for gardening, you can use it as fertilizer. I
**Gizmo:** smoke a Rocky Patel before I smoke a Hamel. I think
**Senator:** technic technically
**Grinder:** that is a Rocky Pat Patel.
No doubt. Technically that is a Rocky Patel.
**Rooster:** What a hamlet.
**Gizmo:** [00:31:00] Hamlet.
**Bam Bam:** Really? It's a
**Grinder:** Rocky brand. I think you're
**Bam Bam:** right. . I take
**Gizmo:** that bad .
**Rooster:** I'll not be smoking either
**Gizmo:** of those. Please, please. So I gotta say, um, I've been, you know, talking about messages that we've been getting from listeners. Butch, by the way, is awesome to hear from everybody.
And you know, we're getting a lot of good recommendations of stuff to try up, you know, upcoming as you know, both in spirits and cigars. We got a, we've added a lot of stuff to the list. So if you do have a recommendation or you have some feedback, please email us. It's extremely helpful messages. It is extremely helpful.
It is. It really is. Yeah. But I've noticed, um, I'm getting a lot of messages from folks who are picking up Don Julio and Ajo because of the pod. You know, like kind of the, in a lot of ways that we had this kind of revelation with tequila. Um, Pairing it with cigars, you know, certainly I have, I mean, I
**Grinder:** I was just gonna say, you, we've all been spoke or drinking tequila for a lot years.
I
**Bam Bam:** haven't. Oh, you haven't eaten my not, yeah. Bam. And I are, a lot of us haven't, you know, Senator made a great point at our, [00:32:00] at our new club, you know, how long ago could we have looked back and think to ourselves, when would we ever have a tequila and a cigar together? Yeah, right. A hundred percent. Yeah. And it's, it's a fabulous
**Gizmo:** pairing.
It's a great pairing. And it's awesome to see the listeners, you know, trying this stuff out and then messaging that they're pairing it with an exce or another cigar that they're trying. Um, it's, it's, it's really great to see.
**Grinder:** Have we gotten any trolls through the interest
**Gizmo:** or No trolls yet? No trolls. No
**Grinder:** trolls.
Oh shit. Don't
**Bam Bam:** come up with a short list of trollers. .
**Gizmo:** I love a good troll. Yeah, so we had a, we had a guy, uh, message us on Instagram. A guy named Paul. , he was smoking an ep, uh, choreo, uh, Laia El Centor, which by the way, side note, side note Senator and I had, uh, he was very kind and brought another one. Cause I mentioned to him, I was like, dude, I wanna try that cigar again.
Like, were we crazy on the pod? Or was it really that good for seven and 7 58 bucks? And he brought one of the [00:33:00] clubhouse the other day and he and I had it together and oh my God, it was phenomenal. And he said something that was shocking to me. I, and I'm gonna say it again,
**Senator:** shocking to me. Here we go. I, I said, honestly, you know how much I love Padron.
If we took, if I took the bands off of that cigar and gave them to everyone in this room. And I said, guess what Cigar it is. It's the closest thing I've ever had to a Piron. Really? Wow. Gizmo agreed. A hundred percent. Hundred. What? I said,
**Gizmo:** wow, that's interesting. It
**Senator:** was great and we enjoyed it so much. I ordered the last two boxes on Atlantic and, uh, giz and IH got another box.
**Grinder:** That's very cool. Is that, is that the third. Is that, when did that one come out? So he had the three, right? Yeah, I think
**Gizmo:** that was the first one. And then
**Grinder:** the en encore. And then what was the third? The
**Gizmo:** pledge. Pledge pledge. Pledge. Pledge.
**Pagoda:** You know, you know, even the Montecristo, the 35 I think, which we reviewed here.
Yeah. But very similar to the Petron as well. It
**Senator:** was, but that was a terrible imitation
**Gizmo:** of a petro and, and it kind of, it, it kind of fizzled out at [00:34:00] the
**Bam Bam:** end. You know, you could say that about the aging room cigars. They're, they're trying to be a petron. We've discussed that a few times in the past. You know, you end up with the cigar that's not, that doesn't have that quality of a petro, you can you pick it up right away.
I love that. El Centor.
**Gizmo:** So, uh, so Paul was saying, now going back to the, the listener, the gentleman Viking, who, uh, messaged us on Instagram. He was having a Guinness, uh, with the Elena aor and he was saying that he loves the Padron 3000 Maduro. And, you know, we were talking, we did that episode about the Padron 2000.
Now the 3000, to me, I don't love. . I've had that in the 4,000. I don't love those. The 2000 I really like, but the 3000 guys love those cigars, man. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** I don't mind the 4,000.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You like that
**Pagoda:** cigar? Yeah. You remember I used to have it. That the one you gave
**Senator:** me? Yeah. I couldn't smoke the first time. Yeah.
Yeah.
**Grinder:** I had to ditch it. I'd never heard of
**Gizmo:** these. It was ditched. It's the, it's the patron drone line. It's like they're, it's thousand thousand series small brown label. It looks like a, [00:35:00] I know.
**Grinder:** Yeah. I didn't know there was 3, 4, 5, whatever. I thought it was just one.
**Senator:** No, they're just the violas. The, the, the
**Grinder:** number.
Oh. Yep.
**Pagoda:** I, I think it might have to do with the
**Senator:** place smaller. The smaller the number, the smaller the Vito. Okay. Viola.
**Pagoda:** It might have to do with the place because at that particular place, the steakhouse went to smoke the cigars. There was another cigar that was ditched. I think there was a rough couple of months for me.
The a l r .
**Bam Bam:** Oh, I remember. Whoa. Gave, remember that. Then the 4,000 was ditch you actually that a l r. No more
**Gizmo:** contribution Brewster. Oh boy. Oh, he dumped that quick. Brewster
**Senator:** ditched the a l r and I ditched
**Grinder:** the patron drone. So you did
**Pagoda:** smoke around. So that's why I, uh, a lr. I'm happi you're supplying the liquor
**Rooster:** I don't remember .
**Grinder:** Selective
**Gizmo:** memory. And, uh, so, you know, going back to this one, one quick, one quick. Last time here, Paul ended our conversation. He said, you know, sometimes you need to slow down in life and smell the Petco. . [00:36:00]
**Bam Bam:** That's awesome.
**Gizmo:** We need to put that on shirts. We need to put that on a shirts. Smell the Petco.
Smell the Petco. So yeah, again, listeners, please, please reach out. We love hearing from everybody. It's, uh, it's awesome.
**Senator:** Just, can I make a quick side note on the Japanese whiskey please? Um, Hibiki is made by suny.
**Grinder:** Yes. Oh, I didn't know that. So they're all in the same family. They're ing I think all, yeah.
Japanese whiskey is made by the same sun. Tori Sun,
**Senator:** yeah. .
**Pagoda:** Yeah. I think this is called the Hibiki Harmony. and a couple of different ones and some are each more.
**Gizmo:** So, is Haki like a higher end? Like is do they, does Santori kind of view it like the Santori line? Is there entry, is there like, or is it just that they are kind of a conglomerate that's bought up different Japanese whiskeys?
Like I'm curious how that's how that structure is. You know,
**Grinder:** I don't, I don't know the answer to that. I,
**Bam Bam:** how much did the santori cost? The santor 35 bucks. 7 35 point. So [00:37:00] I guess from the point of view of cost, a beki would be
**Grinder:** a top shelf spirit. I think the sun, I, so I too had a, a Wera of the Santori when I got here today.
I think I prefer this, this sun, Tori. Really?
**Gizmo:** Oh, I'm, I definitely prefer the hippy Me too much
**Bam Bam:** better. I can, I totally hibiki. Yeah. Honestly, I can drink that hibiki all night long. I can finish that bottle. No problem. We will. I thank tonight. It is so good. bet. So good bet. Oh, I'm, I'm taking that down. Yeah, no,
**Pagoda:** I, I really enjoy it tonight, tonight.
So
**Bam Bam:** I'll, I'll take it with back to the clubhouse. We are, it's the thing that's crazy though. That's
**Senator:** clubhouse scotch. So, I mean, this hibiki is meant to be one of the more refined in the sun line, but these hibiki also have H statement bottles that this is not, so they're, this gets really crazy. They have a Hibiki 12, a Hibiki 17, a Hibiki 21, and a boy 30.
What's this? What's this one? So if this is like, start of that line, and this is 90
**Grinder:** bucks, this is the 12.
**Pagoda:** Probably the 12. Like I didn't [00:38:00] see a 12 line. Yeah. It, it didn't say any.
**Grinder:** Where's our Garone?
**Senator:** Gar. But if this is 90 bucks, I mean, imagine what some of these
**Gizmo:** others I've Well, how much? How much? Crazy. 30.
It's gotta be 500 bucks. Oh my God. 500?
**Senator:** No. Thousands. Thousands, thousands. Thousands. Wow. Can we, 5,000,
**Grinder:** can we do a, can we do a carry trade for the, uh, aki?
**Pagoda:** Like, no. So these, I don't know, Beto, the limited supply or whatever the story is, the prices that have been going up ridiculously. Oh
**Senator:** boy. They use, I just, I just found the price of the Hibiki 30.
Five thousands. Way modest. What? 10,000 bucks
**Gizmo:** or about a fully moly. Wow. I mean, what are they
**Grinder:** pricing
**Pagoda:** it? So in the city, this cost like between one 30 and one 40.
**Bam Bam:** I think one of you really, one of you captains of industry in this room need to close a big deal and get a that bottle. I wonder if it's uh, I agree,
**Grinder:** ma'am.
Right? I wonder if it's, uh, . I can't do it. Yens Bien has been pretty well correlated with U S D over the past few years. Right? Because they're, they're May, they're [00:39:00] probably pricing this in Yen.
**Pagoda:** Oh yeah. Fair enough. Okay. Yeah, I'm not quite sure. I, I just think it's got more to do with the supply. They're tough to get.
Yeah. Um, but for 10,000 bucks I'd rather go to Japan, spend a week, ,
**Bam Bam:** have some sushi,
**Pagoda:** absolutely. Hang out in the Ginza District and come
**Gizmo:** back. speaking by the way, or not or die speaking of, uh, of sushi. , have you guys seen the documentary? It's my favorite documentary I've ever watched in my life, ever. I know where you're going.
It's, it's the greatest documentary I've ever seen. It's called, I think it's Hero, but it's spelled j i r o, dreams of Sushi. And it's about this, this, uh, about this sushi chef who's I believe probably now in his eighties or close to 90. Uh, and he is, he has a restaurant in a subway station, in, in, I believe it's Tokyo, uh, or Kyoto, I think it's Tokyo.
And he has a, a, a restaurant. I think there's eight seats in the restaurant. And when you sit down, you [00:40:00] pay the fee and you sit down and whatever he puts in front of you is what you're getting. Oh, my Ohma Casa, it's, yeah. Um, and this guy is, I think the only Michelin three star rated sushi chef ever. Wow.
Wow. Like to the point where President Obama, when he went to Japan, had a sushi dinner in his restaurant in the subway station. . I wonder what that meal will cost. It's, I think it's only like two or 300 bucks. Wow. But it's impossible to get in. That's amazing. You know, but that's the thing, the documentary, I, I recommend that to every listener out there, hero Dreams of Sushi, j I R O, dreams of Sushi.
It is so inspiring to watch someone focus so simply on fish and rice. So that that's
**Grinder:** all he does. But that's, that's like, that speaks to, there's a Japanese word for like, this pursuit of excellence within one thing where you just get really, really deep and perfected a trade or an art. They talk about this on, I forget what's called Me Too.
And, [00:41:00] um, I think that that, that documentary, I think, I don't know if I've seen it, I may have seen it. Um, speaks to that.
**Gizmo:** It does. That's what it, that's the whole premise of it.
**Grinder:** And I think, and it always reminds me, there's like a mystique around this, and I've mentioned it just earlier in our conversations here, like everything the Japanese do seems to be phenomenal and.
you know, cars, industry, everything they make, just, just fantastic the way they, the, the way they manage their, their enterprise, the industrial, it's precision and integrity. Yeah. Well, and just a lot of hard work and fucking lean Six Sigma, but mm-hmm. , aside from that, there's, um, this, I don't know, there's just sex appeal to it and almost so much so that like, there's that guy in that character in Billions.
You know who I'm talking about? The Billions character? Is it Billions? Oh, that young girl? No. Oh, that, like his buddy, like, uh, who's the, who's the, who's the hedge fund guy in Billions. What's his name? Axelrod. Yeah. Yeah. And who's the [00:42:00] guy
**Senator:** that works for him? Oh.
**Rooster:** Oh,
**Senator:** I know you're the young Asian guy. No,
**Rooster:** no, no.
The, the guy who, you know, his, the max, the second, the second in. What's
**Gizmo:** the second guy's name? Wags Wags.
**Senator:** Wags
**Grinder:** Wags. So Wa isn't Wags like obsessed with sushi? and like the perfection of
**Senator:** the, he's obsessed with everything. Wa wags is just obs obsessed with any expensive meal. Like, remember the Orlon episode?
They're eating like with the napkins over their head. You know the, the like fried bird? Do you remember this? Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's like a French delicacy. It was like a finale. It was a finale. Once he's just obsessed with any expensive meal, which, like some of the best sushi meals can get very, very pricey.
**Gizmo:** I, I just think that, you know, for me that documentary is, it's inspiring, it's interesting to watch someone focus on such simple things.
It's all he, that's all he thought about. He, he let his wife raise the kids. He only thought about fish and rice his entire [00:43:00] existence. That's all he is thought about. I, I like what
**Senator:** Bam said when you said precision and integrity. Cuz I, I do kind of associate the Japanese culture with those two and I've watched, uh, uh, Giro Dreams of Sushi or however you pronounce it.
Hero. Yeah. And um, . It was so funny. I remember there's a point in there where sort of a cardinal sin if you go to this restaurant is to dip the sushi and soy sauce. Yeah. You do not wanna do that. and the way like the guy has structured everything is, if there's meant to be some form of soy sauce involved, he puts it on, he's put like the precise number of drops in the exact place.
It's supposed to be, I don't know if it's not supposed to touch the fish and it's supposed to be on the rice or whatever the case may be. And that's the way it's meant to be eaten. And that has like stuck with me where if I've done like Ooma Casa somewhere, or I'm at like a Japanese restaurant and I'm like nervous to like take in like dipping in soy sauce and I'm like, maybe they're very particular.
And that's the way it's intended to be eaten. And some places are very much like that. That's great [00:44:00] experience.
**Gizmo:** That's very, very cool. Yeah. And it, it's, I, I say, I said this word several times already, but it's just inspiring. Yeah. If you're in business, if you are into a craft or a hobby or there's something that, you know, um, that, that, that you're passionate about us with cigars, I mean, yeah.
It's, it's, um, there's something about craftsmanship and the pursuit of perfection and integrity and all those words you said, bam. That is, it just makes it special. And I would. Do anything to have a meal at that point. I
**Bam Bam:** want to
**Pagoda:** go there. Yeah. I'm getting really motivated. .
**Bam Bam:** That's a good thing. I
**Gizmo:** can see that
I can see that. It's very, very good. All right, so we're coming in the second. What? What's that? Oh, I
**Pagoda:** was just about to say when next, Ted talk. .
**Bam Bam:** Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. Next week on the pod. Uh, we're coming in the second half of your boys of the Davidoff millennium
**Bam Bam:** pyramid. Yeah. Note on the, uh, it is note on the construction.
The construction's great, man. So the ash is very, VA is just hanging on. Tapping. Tapping. Oh, [00:45:00] lost it.
**Gizmo:** So I give the cigar two Michelin stars. Oh.
**Bam Bam:** Like to hear
**Grinder:** that. Do you? I know. How Do you know how Michelin started? No. Does anyone know
**Gizmo:** this? Something do with a tire? This entire company. Entire company, yeah.
Right. Who told me? Did you tell me this? I don't know. Maybe. Okay. Nevermind.
**Grinder:** I think it may have been you. I'll stop there. .
**Pagoda:** There was a time the Michelin man was considered one of the most recognizable. I guess
**Bam Bam:** character brand.
**Gizmo:** Character characters. Brand characters.
**Pagoda:** I don't know. He seems to have disappeared.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's a very coveted award. It is.
**Senator:** Still is. I think. I think he went vegan
**Gizmo:** So what are you guys getting outta the cigar in the second half here? I mean, it's just, uh, it's very consistent. It's slowly developing. It's slowly increasing and, and just the touch and strength.
**Senator:** I will say though, here is where when they say it's a medium full cigar, I think now it's starting to get medium full.
So I,
**Gizmo:** I agree. Yeah. And it's, it's per, it's pairing [00:46:00] perfectly with the scotch. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know, I've had these for 15 years and they have all been
**Gizmo:** identical. So I was gonna ask you that. Identical. So there's been no change. It's ridiculous.
**Bam Bam:** Really. None. None. You know, I, I kind of, I would associate this with Thei and the 80th, how consistent they are.
How beautifully made they are. It's really, it's just, it's just right up there. It's
**Grinder:** perfection. Yeah. Yeah. . So when did, when did hanky leave? A couple years ago. Yeah. Two, three years ago. So, I wonder, I wonder if we're on the cusp of maybe a sound shift in, uh, I don't say that. Yeah. But
**Rooster:** the blend is, blend is there, right?
I mean, the blend is already predetermined. This is, this is the blend for, for the
**Gizmo:** millennium
**Grinder:** par. Yeah, but it changes, right? Rooster? Every year they're, they're blending. It's not the same blend every year to get the same taste, honestly. I dunno. Cause the leave change, same. The
**Bam Bam:** seasons change. But look at the, look at the exclusive of how consistent it is that that really,
**Senator:** I think we're conflating some things here.
I it's the [00:47:00] same blend every year. The only thing that's a variable, right, is like the environmental factors that impacted that crop could make it taste or, or seem a little bit different. And they do things to try to make sure that it's as close to that original blend as well. So what do they do? I mean, I'm sure they adjust the ratios, right?
So like if one of the crops is like more aggressive than it normally is, I'm sure that they have to tamp that down a bit and add more of something else to try to create
**Grinder:** more balance. So isn't that by definition changing the blend?
**Gizmo:** Sure. If you change the ratios, keep it as close to the original blend as the can.
We could split hairs.
**Senator:** I think the point I'm making is simply that the ingredients are the same, but the master, they just might have to play with the ratios. If
**Grinder:** what's the master button is, but the master.
**Bam Bam:** But the craft of keeping this consistent through all these anomalies is what makes this, this, and a lot of other cigars.
That's why we love cigars, right. It's the craft of it, the na, the natural nature of it and how it changes and how they control
**Grinder:** it. Yeah. The
**Senator:** thing I'm worried about when a Master Blender changes is not as much the stuff that they [00:48:00] already have that they're just trying to replicate it. It's the new stuff.
It's the new stuff, right. So like the Chef's Edition is like a new blend every single time they come out with it. Will this master Blender be able to produce as great of a, you know, chef's Edition blend as they've been able to produce in the past, under the last guy? Yeah. Those are more the things I worry
**Bam Bam:** about.
Yeah. And this is a standard production cigar, so you're gonna have to think that their consistency built into their system.
**Gizmo:** Plus
**Rooster:** Davidoff, I think, has the most amount of bales of tobacco aged tobacco that they're holding for each blend. Yeah. You know,
**Gizmo:** so they have a lot, they have a lot in stock. Well, they're,
**Grinder:** they're, they're like, they're like the business case definition of like vertical integration.
They, they own the fields. They owned the DIS distribution. They own the pricing, they own every, it, you know, it's like an H B R. Case, business case, you know, they own everything. So when you, you, when you own that type of supply chain, you have a lot of control over it. It comes with a cost. That's probably why our cigar prices and DDA are so expensive.[00:49:00]
Um, but there's so much flexibility. You can, you can manage inventories of, of tobacco as much as they do, I'm sure. Um, and, and land and Dominican Republic is kind of cheap, you know?
**Senator:** Yeah. I'd love to see the margins on Dino's business. .
**Grinder:** Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Just think about that. Like what, what the cost for the, for them is so it's so minimal.
**Bam Bam:** Uh, getting back to what Senator said, it'd be great to know that, would
**Gizmo:** love to know that. Yeah. But you gotta
**Rooster:** factor in everything. It's not just the cost
**Gizmo:** stuff, you know, it's, yeah. They spend a lot of marketing. Yeah. Distribution.
**Grinder:** Absolutely. It's a huge amount. It's the biggest line item. I'm, I'm sure on their income statement.
Is, you know, you know, it's like
**Rooster:** when you buy selling costs, when you buy a bottle of like a fragrance, right? Like a perfume, a cologne. I mean, it literally costs cents. Yep. You know, 15 cents, 20 cents less than a dollar to get that bottle. But, but a lot of the money [00:50:00] is the packaging costs, sometimes more than what's in it.
Right. And then the marketing and all of that goes, you know, factors in. Oh yeah. And then by the time you've done it, you know, the bottle is gone for like a hundred, a hundred hundred $50.
**Grinder:** Oh yeah. Everything in luxury retail. I've, I've worked a lot with luxury retail and fragrance companies and the, the whole mystique around it, it's similar to, to the whole mystique around cigars.
You, you look at, you look at premium luxury brands, some of them, if you're looking at companies like Chanel that are making. Custom made purses out of France and Italy. Yeah. They're gonna have high costs and they're gonna charge costs and they're, they might get 60% margin still. But then you look at other companies that are selling fragrance out of a, there, there's, there's one or two companies that basically control the entire fragrance market.
International fragrance, international flavors, and fragrances. I think I f F is like the biggest con, you know, the biggest [00:51:00] manufacturer of fragrances in the world. I don't think that you have a comparable case for Davidoff, cuz Davidoff is so unique and sh and you know, niche. Exactly right. You
**Bam Bam:** know? Yeah.
And the brand, the history of the brand.
**Gizmo:** I will say to your point on, on viewing cigars as a luxury product, Haos has certainly heard that in reacting. Reacting accordingly. Reacting appropriately. Yeah. Yeah. With the cigar and Trinidad
**Senator:** are classified
**Gizmo:** as a luxury good. Oh boy. And all the other prices just went up.
I just saw, uh, uh, 50 cabs today. On one of our favorite retailers just went up from, I bought it last week for 500 bucks. It was just 5 5 82. Oof. Wow. So in a week it's gone up. Oof. You know, over 10%. That's a big increase. Big increase. And the other thing I wanted to say for the listener out there, uh, there is a wonderful, I think it's 40 minutes or an hour on YouTube.
There's actually kind of a documentary, uh, filmmaker went in and, and kind of went through David Off's process from seed to, to the role. Uh, it's a really interesting documentary you can find on YouTube [00:52:00] for free about, uh, about the Davidoff process. So, cool. If you want to do a deep dive, you know, YouTube it.
Cool. What were we gonna say? Senator, I interrupt you. Oh, I,
**Senator:** I was just gonna shout out Gizmo for a second. So, speaking of, of just our appreciation for fine. We've in the past given Gizmo some shit for having a primitive pallet. Primitive pallet as another lizard coined, uh, a long time ago. I'm
**Grinder:** in the room.
**Gizmo:** You can call you . Let's not be kind, let's not be kind term. Grinder coined a long
**Senator:** time ago for Gizmo's palette and to gizmo's credit, he has bor not only boarded the tequila train with pub and I, but now he's like inching his way up to almost become the conductor of this
**Grinder:** train. connoisseur, status. .
**Senator:** And apparently he was at a restaurant recently.
Oh, I'm very proud of this. Thank you
**Gizmo:** Senator,
**Senator:** and you should tell this story. I was, I was very
**Gizmo:** impressed. So I went to a Ruth Tris, uh, steakhouse for a Mother's Day dinner [00:53:00] with my mom and my parents and my brother and, and, and his significant other, and Mrs. Gizmo. And we were all there and we ordered drinks and everything and I ordered a Don Julio ajo and drinks come out.
Everybody passes around. and I take a sip and I look at my dad and I'm like, there's something up here. I'm like thinking maybe my brother ordered like Knob Creek or Woodford or something, a bourbon. So I, I look at him and I'm like, does yours taste right? Because maybe they switched our drinks. His looked a little lighter than mine, and not that Don Julio ne is clear.
It's not, it, it has an amber to it. But I was like, this isn't right. So I, I tasted it. I looked at it, I'm like, there's something off here. And uh, my brother said, no, no, this is right. I tasted his, it was, it was correct. It was definitely bourbon. And I had, it was tequila, but I was like, this is not Don Julio Ajo.
So the server comes back and I very kindly, I was not, I was not harsh, but I said to him, I said, listen man, that's good. We need to get his
**Senator:** side of the [00:54:00] story. .
**Bam Bam:** I'm calling Mr.
**Grinder:** Smoke anytime. So, anytime a. has a, has a segueway to, I wasn't, listen man, , you know, it's, I,
**Gizmo:** I, I, there's, I'm kind of, I was kind, I was like, Hey man, I, I, I think, um, I was like, I think the bartender either poured something incorrectly or, you know, it's Mother's Day weekend.
Maybe you grabbed the wrong drink. Something happened here. This isn't right. And I said, did you put Don Julio in? Did you accidentally hit something else? And, oh, no, no, no. I put in Don Julio Ajo, and that's what they poured, a hundred thousand percent guaranteed. I said, listen, ma'am, I've been drinking a lot of this stuff, so now I'm starting to get a little irritated cuz he's arguing with me.
And I said, no, . Listen man, , listen man. And I said, uh, I said, it's not right. He said, well, do you want me to go get you another one? I said, yeah, if you don't mind. I, I don Julio Anejo. That's what I want. So he goes back to the bar and he comes back out and I can see on his face, like hat in hand, man. He [00:55:00] goes, mm-hmm
He goes, you know what? You were right. Look at you. She. The bartender decided because they were outta Don Julio ne to just pour me patron and didn't say anything, and were gonna bill me for Don Julio Ajo. And I was like, I j I was shocked by That's a problem. I was shocked by like, how do you not come back out and say, Hey, we gave you, here's like before you put it in front of me, tell me what you're giving me and let's, let's make some corrections here.
They were completely out in the entire casino. Had no Don Neo Njo Wow. In the whole place. Un unacceptable. I'm very, very, I was very proud of myself that I picked out. We are, we're all
**Grinder:** proud of you. Its not We are, we are officially, officially no longer primitive, but refined. Oh, here's
**Bam Bam:** a question. I got a question for you guys.
Yeah. Would it be inappropriate to ask them to bring the bottle, to do the pour in front? . I, I think that'd be great. In restaurants.
**Gizmo:** I mean, that's, I think it'd be great. I think I, I would feel
**Grinder:** logistically that's a fucking nightmare. I would feel sad.
**Bam Bam:** Sad would That's true. That's
**Gizmo:** true. I would feel bad about it on Mother's Day weekend.
Yeah. If it, it, like the place was [00:56:00] slammed. Hey, Garon, bring me to bottle, please. Yeah. Like, I, I, I would normally do that. I actually said though, I said, I'll go to the bar. You know, I, I I'm glad to deal with this. I know you're slammed. Like it's all good. Um, but thankfully they admitted it and that's cool.
Was
**Rooster:** it the Paton
**Gizmo:** Silver? It wasn't silver. I think it was in an Nek or something, because it was Amber. They have it. An aho. Yeah. Yeah. It was Amber. It was not good. It was not good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So then I went to Macallan cuz they didn't have anything else. There you go. Beautiful. But they, they should tell if they're out
**Rooster:** of it, they should tell you, well sir, we out of it.
Would you like to try something else before making that decision for you? Especially at like a restaurant or establishment
**Gizmo:** like Yeah. Well, I mean, that's gonna be a $30 glass of tequila probably. Totally.
**Senator:** And it's just sad because most places just count on the consumer being stupid. And when you're dealing with a lizard who drinks as much Don Julio Ajo.
His gizmo does .
**Gizmo:** He knows the difference. I represent the implications. That's awesome. . Well, gizmo,
**Rooster:** all I can say is if Senator was there, the whole meal would be
**Gizmo:** calmed. Oh. Everything would be become Oh. Oh, that's true. [00:57:00] That's true. All right. That's true. That whole meal would've been, you made me drink Petro.
How? How dare How dare you. Do you know who
**Rooster:** I am? . I'm gonna take you down .
**Gizmo:** I'm not sure
**Grinder:** if bam bam was, I'm gonna write a Yelp review.
**Senator:** who said,
**Grinder:** wait a
**Senator:** minute, who said that? I'm gonna talk about you on the Lounge Lizards podcast.
**Rooster:** Yes, sir. I have heard of that. Please
**Gizmo:** don't do that. . Well, I was very proud of, that was rough.
That was a, that was rough. So that's wrap. Thank you Senator for a That's fantastic. That's
**Bam Bam:** fantastic. Very proud of you as well. Thank you.
**Gizmo:** Thank you guys. I knew you'd be proud this the point in the staff would make that attempt to come. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. Yeah. And, and that goes to, you know, listen, trust your gut.
Yeah. I mean, I, I was very close to not saying a thing. A lot of people are shy about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, when you're paying a premium for something, you gotta get what you're mm-hmm. , you're ordering, by the way, I'm, I'm finding it difficult to find the, uh, Don Julio, uh, the Magnums that we've been buying, the 1.75 s I can't find 'em anywhere.
That's true. I wonder why you finished the wall.
**Senator:** I wonder who's
**Gizmo:** been buying [00:58:00] so many of them. I have. I've been buying
**Grinder:** a lot. What, what is I w curious to, like, how, what kind of transformation your home has undergone over the past six months? It's crazy. It's crazy because like, there's a, there's a little corner, a little nook I'm, I'm aware of in your home where you have massive amounts of cigars.
Yeah. Where do you keep the liquor?
**Gizmo:** I hide that I have a whole thing in the garage. In the garage? That's right. Yeah. Cabinet in the garage. I hide it.
**Bam Bam:** Everything.
**Grinder:** So like six, seven cases of various
**Gizmo:** liquors. I have a lot of stuff in there. I probably have, no, not six, seven cases. I probably have like 30 bottles of stuff.
2030. And he just leaves out.
**Senator:** These are full bottles too. . Oh yeah. Not open. He just leaves out all the stuff he used to drink before he met the lizards for the kids. Yeah, exactly. As as a, as a .
**Grinder:** As a Costco consumer.
**Gizmo:** I'm not surprised. Yeah, I, I do buy a lot of stuff.
**Senator:** Have you seen the club soda collection at this guy's house?
It's in my trunk.
**Grinder:** It's ridiculous. It's insane. It's everywhere. And
**Bam Bam:** lemons
**Gizmo:** in his locker and his trunk. Lemon juice. Lemon juice. Yeah. I mean, I have a, I have a laundry [00:59:00] basket in my trunk just full of sel uh, of club soda seltzer. Oh, what? Fantastic. I drink a
**Grinder:** lot of it, man. Dude, why aren't you going to get your.
Can't you make your
**Gizmo:** own? Uh, I could do that soda stream thing, but I just don't feel like that's a lot of, that's a lot
**Grinder:** of work. Yeah. Whatever. Fuck that
**Bam Bam:** one brief side note environment. Yeah. Every refilled my cup without ice. Yeah, it is, it is really, really
**Gizmo:** delicious. Actually, if you pass that around, I think I'm gonna do the same thing.
Cause I was just gonna ask few. That's a gizmo
**Grinder:** pour there. Bam. Bam. By the way, ,
**Gizmo:** he said he is finishing the bottle.
**Bam Bam:** I, I'm shocked how much I love the scotch. It's,
**Grinder:** it's fantastic.
**Senator:** You gotta Fingers, fingers. Ha. Yeah. Two, two fingers.
**Gizmo:** Two fingers.
**Bam Bam:** Neat. . Those are two bam, bam fingers. .
**Gizmo:** I, I mean, the hibiki for me is a revelation, you know?
Absolutely. We've said that a lot. But it is really, really good. I do like it better than the santori. Um, it's, uh, I, I wish it was a little cheaper. I wish it wasn't 90 and hard to find, but so be it. I, I think it's really delicious.
**Pagoda:** So just F fi I, I've been [01:00:00] buying it for 80 for a very, very long time. It's just a suddenly showed up to 90.
Wow. And. In the city. It runs around 1 30, 1
**Bam Bam:** 40. Oh, that's not good. It's so easy to drink without ice. It's really,
**Grinder:** really good.
**Senator:** Wow. But I have to say, you
**Pagoda:** okay? You okay? Goes? No, no, I'm good. I, I think I stretched
**Bam Bam:** a bit
**Grinder:** too much. You look like you're having a fucking heart attack, bro. . It's
**Pagoda:** like, I think I need a banana
**Bam Bam:** cramping out here.
It's the listener. Can't picture the room. You've got half the room of young guys bucks and half the room of the senior. You know, I'm gonna call a stately stateman. stately.
**Pagoda:** I'm a stately gentleman. I'm on the onde sided of fifties, so just
**Gizmo:** distinguished
**Senator:** gentleman. Look, everybody checks their wheelchair before they come into my lounge.
So we're all, we're all the same age once we
**Grinder:** sit down. I stepped up my wheelchair this morning, .
**Gizmo:** Bam. You are right. That is really great, isn't it?
**Bam Bam:** Isn't it fantastic? It's really nice.
**Grinder:** Fantastic.
**Senator:** I was just gonna say, I'm really, really glad that Pagoda has talked up. Hibiki, and I say this because there's been so much hype [01:01:00] the last five years about Japanese whiskey.
and it's just not something I've ever really gotten into. It's not something I know a whole lot about. Obviously I've taken a deep dive into scotch and some other spirits and wines, but I'm really glad that we're trying this because I would buy this, I would drink this again. I was just saying before we hit record, you know, the sun on a hot summer day, I would, I would definitely have that in an afternoon.
There's really a place for these Japanese whistle. I totally agree.
It's,
**Grinder:** it's in the, it's in the like lighter swim lane, I would say. They don't do much charring of the barrels. I believe, someone, correct me if I'm wrong, um, they don't do much charring, so you don't get a lot of smoky. Mm. Like you're not, you're never gonna get a i that's, someone's gonna prove me wrong here, but that's what makes it so easy.
You're never gonna, yeah. You're never gonna get a, an equivalent lag villain out of Japan. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Mm. [01:02:00] Which is fine. You're never gonna get it anywhere. Frankly. They don't have
**Senator:** pe, you know? Exactly. Yeah. I'm not complaining about that at all. I just like, I love that there's such a unique character to this.
Yeah. That like has a place to slot in, in my rotation. You know, the other
**Grinder:** thing that's fascinating is that they've tried to replicate the scotch, and I'm don't mean that with capital s like this Scottish way of making whiskey almost to like, like the rule book, but it tastes very, very different. You know?
So they, they, they, they, they traveled to, you know, Scotland. Scotland traveled to Japan and they share their secrets and did their whole thing. Right. And they have these whiskeys that are scotch style, but it is very different, you know, and that's
**Gizmo:** the fascinating thing to me. Well, it's the same thing. Why can you take a Cuban seed out of Cuba planted anywhere else?
Yeah. And it's completely different. Yeah. Even the same people. Who were planting, growing, harvesting, rolling. The, the, the cigars in Cuba took the seeds [01:03:00] and grew them in, in, in, uh, Dominican Republic. Right. And Nicaragua and Ecuador and Mexico. It's the soil. It it's the, it's the soil. It's the, and the hands.
Climate. The hands. It's the moisture. It's it's one word. It's everything. It's
**Senator:** the terroir. Teah, yeah. He's running exactly everything. Exactly. We're talking about cigars, wine, spirits,
**Gizmo:** all of it. Absolutely. We are purveyors of terroir. What is it? How's, what's that
**Senator:** word? Teir? Yeah. You got it right. There you go.
What's that mean? Not only, not only is the palate graduated, , the vocabulary
**Grinder:** is the
**Bam Bam:** charts and the, uh, and addiction, isn't it?
**Gizmo:** It's just, it's just landscape. Wait till we do it's, uh, territory. Yeah. Wait till we do, uh, poor warga.
**Senator:** It's not territory. Terrain.
**Gizmo:** Terrain. Terrain. Terrain. Terrain. Yes. Wait till we do poor warga landscape.
Struggle on that word. Agreed.
**Bam Bam:** Agreed. Holy moly. You know, it's, it's, I like what Senator said about this, this, these two particular SCOs having a place in with time. I agree. I'm already starting to think about the cigars I would have with each scotch earlier in a day [01:04:00] and later in the day, early evening.
**Gizmo:** To your point, I'm thinking, because I've been so obsessed with them, the up and two with this Hibiki,
**Bam Bam:** oh dude, oh, home.
That
**Gizmo:** is a home run the up into, there's something that, that there's something in that that upk sweetness in that cigar that I think with this specific whiskey would be an A plus.
**Bam Bam:** Right on. We should do Antman too. I haven't done, we're gonna do it right
**Gizmo:** on the money. I've, you know, another one's that's a PBA favorite, so we're gonna, you know, when PUB is here, we're gonna do that.
It's a great callout. It's great. Another one
**Pagoda:** is the Etu accuses the guy who recommended Hibiki with the cigar. So I, I've had hibiki before a few times, but I was in, uh, Montreal and I went to Casa de Havana. Yeah. And I ended up getting a Pathi two. and he recommended the hibiki with that. And it was a great pairing as well.
That's a great point. At that point in time, and I, you know, it's, I haven't tried it since then. Yeah. But I think, yeah. Now that I've a couple of boxes of those, I think. Sure. Yeah. I'm gonna definitely, yep.
**Bam Bam:** Indulge and I'm thinking of Cubans with this. The, um, the, [01:05:00] the other, uh, Japanese scotch here,
**Grinder:** punch, punch whiskey.
It's whiskey.
**Bam Bam:** And you're talking about Santori Santori, yes. Yeah. The punch punch would be fabulous. Yep. Corona just agree. Just after lunch. Wow.
**Gizmo:** QB Corona's Clares. We just did that on the pod Q Yeah, absolutely.
**Bam Bam:** Would be great with
**Gizmo:** that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting, you know, you talk about, you know, we're joking about refining pallets or all these different things, but, uh, you know, the benefit of the pod for me and us inside the room is that the eye-opening experience that I've had in trying these things that, not that I'm forced to try them, but we're trying to get into different things and find different pairings and different, you know, spirits.
I mean, what, what are revelations? So many of these, these things have been, Can I
**Senator:** just project that in two months we're gonna do a pod and gizmo's gonna say, why are there no more handles of Suntry, and Hibiki left
**Grinder:** in the liquor stores? It's so hard to find. Oh, it, it is, it is fast. It is not fascinating.
It's very fun and [01:06:00] fulfilling to talk to do this podcast. Talk about spirits and cigars and other, you know, other spirits aside from whiskey and have people respond. Yeah. Because they're into it as well. Cuz we're here a bunch of jokers just fucking smoking our faces off drinking a bunch of whiskey all the time, thinking like, oh, this is great, this is awesome.
And to have other people around the world, Hey, we're kind of like you and we love doing the same stuff and you know, we, we got that flavor profile from this cigar. You should try this. It's just, it's so, it's so fun. Like there are other people that are as enthusiastic about the shit that we love so much.
And to share that. It's pretty awesome. It's
**Senator:** awesome. Yeah. I think that's what we, we've said this many times. I mean, that's what this is all about. It's about sharing and there's nothing more gratifying. I think I probably speak for everyone in this room. When you give someone something or you recommend something and they appreciate it as much as you do, there's nothing better than that.
Yeah. Like [01:07:00] I, you know, it's like great that there are certain things that I enjoy, but when I say to someone, Hey, you should try that, and they fall in love with it just the same way I did. That's so much more exciting, right? Yeah. Right. Like when we had, oh, you're so gratifying. I think Gizmo read, we had, uh, a listener who said he was off for the weekend with his wife with Paule Max Caviar and the, her Fedor.
And I, I mean, I just see that and I'm like, that makes me so happy.
**Grinder:** Yeah, yeah, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely. And this,
**Gizmo:** you know, and, and what, there's a level of pride there. It's very cool. And what Max, the listener from Australia, you know, bringing his wife into it. With the Paul Roche. I did the same thing with my wife, you know, and she loves that champagne.
Yeah, that's so cool. You know, and it's a product of, of it's fantastic, of getting together and doing this. And the one thing that I will, I, I have two comments. I wanna say, number one, the listener that I, I, we discussed earlier, Paul, um, mentioned something about community and how it, you know, it's nice to have community to listen to.
You know, we're very fortunate that we get to sit in this room and we have seven guys that are like-minded in the same geographical area. I [01:08:00] mean, there's a lot of folks, if, if I lived where I used to live in Northeast pa, I don't know if that, if I would've found this. Cuz I, there aren't clubhouses like we have, so No,
**Grinder:** no.
As this Granton guy, I can tell you for a fact that that's, there's not, that's not available. They're there. So you, you might get it at a country club and they're smoking Romeo and Juliet, Dominican Republic. Exactly.
**Gizmo:** But that's it. Yeah. So it's just nice to have that. And it's nice to hear that, like, like Senator said, from listeners.
And really I think the, the summary point that I have is, is a, a quote that Rooster always says, and he says it to us, And that cigars are meant to be shared, and there's nothing better than when you're smoking a great cigar and you've given that same cigar, you're smoking outta the same box you're smoking out of, to someone that you're sitting next to, or in this case that you're, you're, you're, you're sharing an experience with on a podcast.
It makes the cigar 10
**Bam Bam:** times better. Yeah. There's a feeling of hospitality and being hospitable and handing over one of your favorite cigars to someone and they're enjoying it. It feels fantastic. Absolutely. It's,
**Grinder:** it's wonderful. Well, that goes back to why, [01:09:00] you know, people give cigars when they have a birth.
They're just like, let me share. That's right. So when's that gonna happen? And by the way, I don't know. It's gotta happen soon. Getting back. The cigars I, I was gonna share are, are, they don't
**Senator:** make 'em anymore. You told me that you had procured what you were gonna give
**Grinder:** everyone. Oh boy. No I
**Bam Bam:** didn't. You should have Preed.
**Gizmo:** Wait, does I thought I did it.
**Senator:** Begin
**Grinder:** with the letter P and then I got a, a notification that these are outta stock and they long, no longer fucking make it.
**Senator:** Rooster thinks he figured
**Gizmo:** it out. What does it begin with? The letter P Oh oh. .
**Senator:** Does it rhyme
**Grinder:** with Valencia. Valencia, . Valencia. Valencia. Does it
**Bam Bam:** begin
**Pagoda:** with p
**Gizmo:** Valencia, Los Lancia
Oh gosh.
**Senator:** Is the viola. The alma.
**Grinder:** That's not a viola .
**Senator:** That's the line of
**Grinder:** cigar. Listen. Yeah. That's a
**Bam Bam:** line. Yeah. Yeah.
**Grinder:** That's a one. That's a marker. No, it was, it was actually, it was a 7 0 2 in Buso Davidov 7 0 2. One of my favorite cigars, which they don't make [01:10:00] anymore. Apparently. They don't
**Gizmo:** really? Yeah, they don't.
Yeah. Wow. So
**Grinder:** it's a great
stick.
**Bam Bam:** It is a good stick.
**Grinder:** Yeah. That, that's, that whole scenario sucked. But the other, the other cigar I was gonna share with the guys was actually the 50th, the Petron. The Petron 50th family reserve in
**Bam Bam:** natural. I'll take it.
**Gizmo:** Great cigar. Very good cigar. All right, boys. You guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on the hibiki?
Absolutely. Let's make it formal. This is fantastic. Bam. Bam. You're up. Let me clear my throat.
**Grinder:** Him my throat. No, no, no. For
**Bam Bam:** bam. For bam, bam. This is a 10.
**Gizmo:** Beautiful. Wow. Wow. Holy, excellent.
**Bam Bam:** That is first tent ever. And I, and I'll go into it after he Okay. The recipe vote. Pagoda? Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I think it's a 10. Holy wow.
Shit. Wow.
**Senator:** Senator. I'm not kidding. 10. I'm gonna give it a nine. I'm not getting 10 vibes
**Gizmo:** from this. I'm a nine all day. I, I'm a high nine if I could, but I'm not a 10. I'm a nine.
**Bam Bam:** Still an Elite score. I'm a,
**Grinder:** I mean, seven and a half, eight. What,
**Gizmo:** what's your number? I'll give it an eight. [01:11:00] Eight.
**Grinder:** Sorry, I'm bringing down,
**Gizmo:** I'm bringing down the meat.
Not at all. You know what though? That's a perfect score at the Composite Lizard Score Boys is a 9.2.
**Bam Bam:** That is incredible. It's awesome.
**Gizmo:** That's a incredible great score. That's a great score. I think a 92, you know, I think a 92 for this is perfect.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. There aren't many SCOs for me personally, that I can drink without a piece of ice in it.
That's, it's got a little bit of sweetness. There's a complexity. Um, it's got legs like you mentioned earlier, Senator. It, and it's really the, it's just a fantastics fantastic spirit.
**Grinder:** We, we like, we like legs. Oh, yeah. I, I, more ways than what
**Senator:** I I agree with. Bam. And, and the reason I say that, I mean this is a blend.
This is. To me easily the best blend blended whiskey I've had, period. No doubt. Blended. Well, we're gotta try black
**Pagoda:** label soon though.
**Grinder:** Oh, please. With, with, with Alush. With Alush. But in the meantime, please stop. I, I
**Senator:** can't, I can't, I mean that seriously, because I, I, I think, you know, obviously right, like what [01:12:00] happens with blends, like they tend to be smoother, right?
Because they can blend out those kind of anything that's too aggressive or those imperfections and all of that. But they usually don't have enough character about them. That excites me and why I say that, I would call this like kind of the Macallan of, of Japanese whiskeys, which is all on the lighter end of the spectrum.
It has enough that brings you back wanting more in a way that most blends, they just drink well enough. But I never crave more and with this I, I want more. It's different. It's really satisfying. There is a
**Grinder:** difference there
**Bam Bam:** where you want more. Yeah, gr very well said. Love it.
**Pagoda:** I just rated a 10 because I knew Grinder would rate it low.
So ,
**Gizmo:** he hedged. .
**Senator:** So Grinder, we have to hear. Why don't get that? Why, uh, why? Yeah,
**Gizmo:** why, why a seven or an eight? Yeah, it was an eight,
**Bam Bam:** but he was thinking seven. He was, I was. He's right in the middle.
**Grinder:** Seven's not a
**Bam Bam:** bad score. Take another sip. You don't know what you're
**Grinder:** talking about. So I have a lot of respect for this.
**Senator:** Are you drinking from the [01:13:00] right glass? You have two glasses? Yeah,
**Grinder:** the bottom one. I'm just, I just poured it, just making sure. This is also neat . And I would, I would, I will say the taste as, as you would expect is, is, is different with not ice in it. Um,
I don't know. I think I just, I have like a, a sweet spot and it's not this, um, I get it. You know, I have like sherry, I have for Pete or what do you like I have Sherry and Pete and when I drink a scotch, I love that. Not that this isn't fantastic. . I think the, uh, aftertaste of this for me was a, just a little wonky.
Hmm.
**Bam Bam:** The finish. The finish. Right. Interesting.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** No, I'm finding the finish to be very
**Bam Bam:** delightful. It's
**Grinder:** pleasant. Yeah. So it, it goes sweet and then it goes bitter for me. Hmm. It
**Pagoda:** goes salty, A little salty, I don't know. And it goes in my mouth,
**Bam Bam:** so I do get a little saltiness in the coating. That's what makes it so
**Senator:** pleasurable for you.
Yeah. I, I would just say for, for me, I think the finish is really [01:14:00] refined and elegant. It really is like truly refi, like it tastes like a premium
**Grinder:** spirit. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's kind of my, my mouth is a little tingly and I don't know what that is. I love it from the point of view
**Bam Bam:** of, from the point of view of experience there, the, like a beautiful, very dry white when it goes in sweet and it finishes clean and crisp at the.
It's kind of similar to that. It's, it's, it's not the same type of, of, uh, of alcohol, of course. Sure. But just physically that, that taking it in and how it, how it changes as you take it down and at the finish. That's what this is like for me. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I really love it. Yeah. All right boys, we're coming to the end of the Davi off millennium pyramid, certainly in our last third.
I'm coming up on about an inch left. You guys ready to give it the, uh, formal lizard rating? All right, rooster, you're up.
**Rooster:** So I'm gonna give it a nine. Excellent. Very, very, very
**Gizmo:** satisfying smoke. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent
**Grinder:** Grinder. I'm, uh, the millennial [01:15:00] in Pyramid is getting
**Gizmo:** a nine. Excellent. I'm also a nine all day.
I think it's, uh, very satisfying, like Rooster said, and to me, as you know, this is gonna be my last cigar of the night. Tonight I'm gonna go home. Very, very satisfied. Wow. Wow.
**Senator:** It's not gonna be his last cigar of the night, but I will .
**Gizmo:** It is actually very rarely, but it is. It is tonight, but
**Senator:** I'm also.
Completely in lockstep with you guys. Nine.
**Pagoda:** It's a nine. It's a nine. It's a nine.
**Gizmo:** Wow. Bam. Bam. You're up. What's the number? I'm at a nine. All right. Wow. Wow. That's really, I don't need to divide that out. Boys. Composite lizard score is a flat nine. That is ridiculous. Great
**Bam Bam:** score. Damn. Is that the highest? No, it's not the highest.
No. What's the highest, but the most, honestly, the most consistent score. The most consistent score. What's the
**Grinder:** highest rated?
**Gizmo:** Probably the shark. Yeah, probably the shark. I'd have to go back a, A listener could tell us. Some of the listeners. Some of the listeners know more than I do about, I think that was a nine
**Bam Bam:** seven and the chef's edition was nine four, remember?
And even the exclusive
**Pagoda:** was very [01:16:00] high.
**Senator:** Exclusively. That was a nine something. There are a number of scores higher, but this is an outstanding
**Bam Bam:** cigar. Yeah. This actually does belong one rung as far as I'm concerned, below the exi. I've always said that for
**Gizmo:** the composite score
**Senator:** does reflect Yeah, it's, it's the
**Grinder:** got higher, it's very
**Bam Bam:** fucking accurate.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, because I isolate that and the 80th above this all day long. Also,
**Gizmo:** also, if you take
**Rooster:** in consideration the price point Yes. With an exclusive one,
**Gizmo:** exclusive oil is like half the price. It's 17 bucks.
**Bam Bam:** 14 to 17. $14. 14 bucks, 14. Yeah. Yeah.
**Rooster:** That's insane. So that kind of satisfaction, out of a $14 steak,
**Gizmo:** it's Incredibles.
Yep. Yeah. I, I, I just, um, I'm continually blown away by these, and, and bam, I thank you because you turned us, you know, turned me onto 'em. Certainly. Uh, I, I, I don't reach for them terribly often for that reason. We just discussed price and mm-hmm. reaching for an exi or, or, or cigar like that at the end of the night.
Very high praise. Yeah. I [01:17:00] mean, I, I, I do, do really, really love the cigar concert because
**Rooster:** I have a comment to make One of the cigars that we need to try in one of our future episodes Yeah. Is the Abe lance. Yes. You gotta do it. What the lance,
**Gizmo:** yeah, we gotta do it. I've heard lot I've, people are raving about the lance grinder and I have had some experiences with that.
No, I know, but you get,
**Rooster:** you haven't had the lance. That's what
**Gizmo:** I've heard. Like the lance's true Theto is important. Just like, hey, just like this cigar. If you had the cigar in Toro, Oh yeah, versus the cigar we're having tonight. The viola does matter, so yeah. So we should give it a shot. I mean, it's a size matters guys.
I agree. Uh, yeah, I agree. All right, boys, a flat nine for the Davi Millennium Pyramid. Great cigar. Great, great cigar, ba very nice. And uh, thanks guys. We'll see you next week. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, [01:18:00] say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge lizards pod, p o d, that's a lounge, lizards pod@gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.