Lounge Lizards - a Cigar and Lifestyle Podcast

Recorded at the Ten86 Cigar Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the lizards smoke the Drew Estate Undercrown Maduro in Gran Toro paired with non-alcoholic Beck's and Guinness Draught beers. The guys discuss the boom of non-alcoholic beers and spirits, Canada’s crackdown on smoking indoors, Drew Estate’s Creativity and their frustration with tip culture.

Show Notes

Recorded at the Ten86 Cigar Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the lizards smoke the Drew Estate Undercrown Maduro in Gran Toro paired with non-alcoholic Beck's and Guinness Draught beers. The guys discuss the boom of non-alcoholic beers and spirits, Canada’s crackdown on smoking indoors, Drew Estate’s Creativity and their frustration with tip culture.

Join the Lounge Lizards for a weekly discussion on all things cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban), whiskey, food, travel, life and work. This is your formal invitation to join us in a relaxing discussion amongst friends and become a card-carrying Lounge Lizard yourself. This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.

website/merch/rating archive: loungelizardspod.com
email: hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
instagram: @loungelizardspod

What is Lounge Lizards - a Cigar and Lifestyle Podcast?

Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.

The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.​

This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.

Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!

**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Pagoda. Grinder, and bam bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some non-alcoholic beer, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.

So take this as your 57th 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 the boom of non-alcoholic beer and spirits, Canada's crackdown on smoking indoors, drew Estate's creativity and our frustration with tip culture, 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 non-alcoholic Becks. And get us draft with the Drew Estate Underground Maduro in Grand Toro. A Grand Toro from [00:01:00] underground tonight from Drew Estate. A beautiful six inch by 52 ring gauge cigar comes in this very cool tubo with a packed foot.

What is that thing in the foot there? Like? It looks

**Grinder:** just like piece of sponge.

**Gizmo:** It's a protector

**Rooster:** for the foot

**Gizmo:** protector. Looks like a little spare leaf or something. Yeah. Well,

**Grinder:** I don't actually think it is tobacco leaf. Smells like it. Yeah, it might be. They, they've done this, they've done that before with another cigar.

They make, it's a flavored cigar. Mm-hmm. like the tobacco special or something like that. I forget what it's called. Or the, uh, the Lara Tuna or what? It's the natural. Spelled backwards. What is that?

**Gizmo:** Mur? I don't know. I feel like I'm doing a test, but what alphabet backwards test. I just wouldn't like it.

Whatever that is. Uh,

**Grinder:** la something like that. But they have a, um, a cigar that they basically package in this kind of stuff, so it's not surprising.

**Gizmo:** So it's nice because it protects the foot, but the presentation's fantastic [00:02:00] for, listen for a $12, 50 cent, $13 cigar. Beautiful. I mean, blue and gold tube. Yeah.

These really stand out. And the flip band is cool. Is it, is it blue or what's that? LaRutan? It's definitely blue. So they have three, they have different, three different, uh, rapper and, and flavor profiles in the underground line. It's the. Shade, which is white. The sun grown, which is the middle one is red.

Mm-hmm. , and the MedU is blue. Cool. Which,

**Grinder:** which? The Connecticut Shade one is the youngest of them all. That one came out like the most recent, most recently. And then, I think it was the first year it came out was like 2005 or something. Got it. And it was like the Maduro that we have. And then it was the,

**Gizmo:** the sun grown.

The sun grown, and then the shade. Yeah. The shade is a great cigar for beginners. Um, this one, we'll see, I, you know, I haven't had one of these in a long, long time. Really looking forward to trying it tonight. So, uh, as someone mentioned, I don't know who did, but it has a really nice, elegant foot band on it that just says Maduro.

Um, so peel [00:03:00] that off and, uh, let's cut this thing boys. Nice. See we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. It's really well constructed. I mean, yeah.

**Bam Bam:** And honestly, it, it's, the aroma is reminiscent of Omega.

**Gizmo:** So this is apparently the air, air apparent, as I've seen on the internet to the League nine series.

So obviously Lega We did, uh, well, isn't this the little brother to It's the little brother of the Lega. Yeah. Yeah. So Willie Herrera famous, uh, blender, uh, for Drew Estate wanted the, the rollers to create something not only that, uh, that they would like, but that he would like, that wasn't at the price point of a 17 $20.

**Grinder:** No. So, but Willie Willie only blended the, the Connecticut Shade. The first two were not blended by Willie. Is that true? Yeah. Oh, okay. And the story that the reality, he had nothing to do with the genesis of underground. So the genesis of the underground was that they were having the rollers row, the Lega [00:04:00] series cigars, and they were smoking them because that you, you, you can smoke the cigars and it was a very hot cigar with.

High margin and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they said, guys, you can't, you can't smoke all inventory. Yeah. You're smoking so many of these. Um, so they made another one, the blenders made their own, and it was similar, but with different tobacco to the lega. And they started smoking that. And then they, and then Drew Estate was like, wow, this is just as good.

We'll release it. And under the kind of lega, it looks a little lega ish, it's the, um, and this, you know, this rapper, this MEO rapper is like very lega it'ss, very

**Bam Bam:** traditional lega. It's reminiscent, although the lega is, is more iridescent. Yeah. It has a, it has a shine to iter and it's

**Grinder:** thicker. Yeah. It's much thicker as toothy and, and oilier.

Yeah. So, which, you know, this is probably younger I'm, I'm guessing. Yep. Um, but yeah, I mean,

**Bam Bam:** it's be.

**Grinder:** Rapper. I, I love, I, [00:05:00] I like these cigars a lot. I don't know if I love

**Gizmo:** them, but I haven't had one in a long time, so I'm really looking forward to trying 'em. And I think anything in that price point that hits some of the notes even, I mean, it, it's certainly well worth it cuz cigars are getting expensive.

Oh yeah. This is supposed to

**Rooster:** be a little bit like, kind of under the league. Sure. Like, as for as the strength and, uh, and flavor, flavor profile, right? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And Price point. Price point. Big time. Yeah. Leg was like what? 17,

**Gizmo:** 18? Uh, I

think

**Bam Bam:** was, yeah, almost

**Gizmo:** 19. It was maybe a little more. Yeah. That big. This is like 12, 13.

Yeah. So, uh, what are you guys getting on the cold draw on the

**Bam Bam:** wrapper? A hint of raisin like I got on a leg. Yeah. Dried fruit, um, you know, tobacco, if you want to call it that. Mm-hmm. Cedar. Deep cedar.

**Grinder:** I'm getting cedar. And it's funny. Well,

**Gizmo:** they were in two bows. They were in Cedar, two Cedar were in two bows.

Yeah.

**Rooster:** But you can smell

**Gizmo:** the Maduro wrapper. Yeah. You know, like this. Yeah, it's, it's the sweet Maduro. Yeah. It seems [00:06:00] like construction's great. My draw is absolutely flawless. It's awesome. I mean, I can't wait to smoke it. This is fantastic. Let's do it. All right, boys. Let's like this thing, the Drew Estate Underground Maduro in Grand Toro.

Again, it's a 52 ring gauge by six inch cigar. Really nice size. I like the size. It's a great size. You know, normally I think we've talked about it. I'm not gonna reach for a Toro. I think most of us probably don't. Nope. It doesn't look like a Toro. It doesn't look like a Toro. It almost looks like a either Robusto extra or I, well,

**Rooster:** it's not a Torah.

It's

**Gizmo:** a Grand Toro. Grand Toro. Yeah. Right.

**Bam Bam:** I like it. Oh, . I like it a lot. It's really nice on the

**Gizmo:** light. Mm, very smooth. Definitely has more of a, i, I hesitate to use the word rough edge than what, what I would think, you know, when you have the lega, but it's not a bad, rough edge. It's almost like drinking a, a bourbon or a [00:07:00] scotch that has a little bit more, I find it smooth.

Yeah. It's not, it's not, it just has a little more ooph to it. I think. It's

**Grinder:** definitely not as smooth as the lega. It's a little sharper as you're, or edgy. I don't know if you used the word edgy or You can tell it's not as aged. I mean, at least when I, when I draw on this, and I, and I smoke a lot of lega as, and I think the T 51, so very, I'm very fond of that cigar.

Um, you just tell, you can immediately tell it's not his age. It's got some of that, but it's good. It's still good. It's still Maduro age. Maduro. Yeah.

**Bam Bam:** Um, what's cool is I'm just holding my cigar. This thing has some crazy combustion. It's got a very good combustion. I mean, look at that. It's a chimney and I'm just holding

**Gizmo:** it.

Yeah. That's, that's the League of dna. Yeah. Uh, have, yeah. They work very hard at B Chis. What's your, what's your

**Rooster:** favorite? Uh, like Drew Estate? Cigar? I mean, maybe like top

**Gizmo:** three.

**Grinder:** Um, so I t 51, 52, sorry. T 51. Yeah, [00:08:00] T 52. Um, in Toro, I'm very, I like that cigar lot. Um, flavor,

**Rooster:** flavor wise. Is that like a liga?

**Grinder:** Yeah, it's just, it's very rich.

It's very chocolatey. It's very smooth. The, the, it's, it's kind of oily. Um, and yeah, I mean, I love that cigar. I don't know. You've probably had it, uh,

**Pagoda:** pagoda. Yeah, I have. Uh, although I prefer the number nine for whatever

**Grinder:** reason. Yeah. I, I like the nine. It's just not, I'm not as fond of the nine. It's more flavorful feels, I find it's more strength.

The strength, yeah, exactly. And I, well, I don't, I like you like Yeah. More medium bodied, you know, cigars and the, the 2 52 is good is up there. Um, I like the her deli, um, in, um, we did that on

**Gizmo:** the block.

**Grinder:** We did we Harris Deli in, um, [00:09:00] robo. That's a great, that's a great stick. Yeah. Although,

**Bam Bam:** I don't know, we didn't give it a good ranking

**Gizmo:** though.

Well, I'll tell you right now. So we gave the League of Prevata number nine and 8.4. Excellent score. That's excellent. That's a really good score. And then, uh, Herrera Esli, the hi Bono Ribo Grande. We gave a

**Bam Bam:** 6.3. Yeah, I remember it not being a great score.

**Grinder:** I, I think that cigar was warped in some way. May not have been kept well, I don't think it was kept well.

Yeah.

**Gizmo:** Um, this is off to a great start though. Len

**Rooster:** and the Herrera. Estelle might be a,

**Gizmo:** so I

have

**Gizmo:** choice to do it on the pod

**Bam Bam:** almost any Landeros. Probably a

**Grinder:** good bet. I, so I bought, I, I have some cigars I, I'll share with you guys after the, the, at some point. The, the third one is the, her Herrera Sle, um, Lonsdale.

Norteno, yeah. Which is a very good cigar. It's got a green and white label, green and white, and it's

**Rooster:** very, almost looks like an old Ramona Yos

**Grinder:** label. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. It's a cool label. It's [00:10:00] very, it's very strong. It's kind of at, at, not in my typical swim lane, but I, it's, I like it.

**Pagoda:** Yeah, so after smoking the foundation to guys, I was introduced to the League nine.

Um, That's because Nick Melo had worked for Drew State and was involved in somehow with League, with Legal Nine production. And, and, um, I really, I really enjoyed it and I tried the T 52 and the nine, and for some reason I just prefer the nine over the, over the years and. Uh, the size. We, we smoke the Toro, but I do prefer the double Corona and I've had the double Corona after that and I've, maybe it's just, you know, it's one of those things with cigar smoking that if you feel a little nostalgic or you get tied to something, you just tend to enjoy it a bit more.

And so for me, I've always preferred the double Corona. And I know, bam, you were mentioning Corona Viva,

**Gizmo:** right? As a size? No, that's the one I smoke. I bought two boxes of those. Oh, you did, by the way, I [00:11:00] did two from I House. Yeah, from I got it from I Havana. Great price. Yeah, they're good deal. It's great price there.

So that cigar, we did the Toro. I love Corona. We've talked about certainly my size preference is a little bit lower, smaller of a ring gauge, but the Corona Viva is, it's almost identical, like a, a Magnum 46 in size an H up and Magnum 46 from Cuba, which I love. And it, to me, it performs even better than the leader that we had on the pot.

**Pagoda:** No, correct. I, I think, yeah. So it's funny, but because. It seems to, it seems to me, and in fact, uh, that we, we just tend to not like tos as much as

**Grinder:** the other. I like TOS a lot. Yeah. Um, I do like TOS a lot. I just, um, I don't think, I don't think they get much justice in this in this group. It's pretty aggressive on anti toros.

But, um, the, I was gonna say that another good cigar, it's probably tying for third is this [00:12:00] series, but in the Connecticut Shade, I think that's one of the best Connecticut shade cigars on the market for good price. People love it. It's

**Gizmo:** a great surprise. People love the underground shade. Yeah. Love it. It's a great cigar for, for folks who are beginners, uh, certainly is an a price point.

Entry point. Well constructed. Very consistent. Yeah. They're beautiful size. And then also for folks that have a palette that gravitates towards mild or medium, that. Is a great cigar for them.

**Grinder:** Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And this, this cigar, by the way, this is really good. Is getting, getting much better like it is. I don't know how far I am.

What, what would you call that? Like quarter of an inch? Sure. Did, did any of you get a ? Whatever that is. It like, it's, it was a little rough to begin with and it's just kind of, it's, it's bringing back those, those notes and flavor profiles of a, of aa of aga rapper.

**Rooster:** Yeah. Do, do you, you know, I was thinking of this the other day, like as you're smoking cigars and you go through different seasons, you know, spring.[00:13:00]

Summer seasons of left fall, winter, like when we start getting into fall, I prefer a,

**Gizmo:** a more robust. A more robust, yeah, me too. Yes. Is that,

**Rooster:** is that a common, uh,

**Gizmo:** in

**Pagoda:** this Welcome to the new world? I think Welcome to the

**Bam Bam:** new

**Gizmo:** world. No, I, I find it's right. I find like in the summer, like, you know, if we talk about outliers of our palette, right?

So let's think about your regular rotation in cigars that kind of sit outside. That which is in, in peril, you know, is right with what roost you're saying here. Yep. My answer to what roos you're saying is that those answers are seasonal for me. So in the fall, winter, a cigar that jumps into my rotation that's normally not is the late.

Ah, the late hour were boosto in Churchill. That's like a November, December, January. Like it's kind of cold February if you're around. Yeah. It's, it's like a fire fireplace, like picture. It's a fireplace. Ci a fireplace. Yes. It's like a fireplace. Exactly. [00:14:00] Exactly. And then in the summer, those, those cigars for me are like the Schwa Supreme or something has that kind of citrus flavor from Cuba.

Yeah. Our Cuban line. Yeah, the Cuban line. Yeah. So I'm curious what your others, you know what everybody else's outliers are? Cutie, cutie, Corona. Claro. In the summer. In the summer, the wheat beer. Yep. That's right. Yeah.

**Bam Bam:** And, um, any of the, the Perrons exi, but those are regular rotations. They are, but for in the winter, there's nothing.

Ani on your hand. See,

**Gizmo:** I'll go a step further In the winter, I'll, I'll gravitate toward family reserve line. Oh, yeah. With like a bourbon. If I'm cold, I'll sip a bourbon to warm up a little bit. The 45th 90th

**Pagoda:** 90th roo with the

**Gizmo:** 90th right after dinner. The black label. Only

**Bam Bam:** after dinner. After dinner after.

**Gizmo:** No, not after dinner.

Grinder. What are your, uh, what are your outliers outside of your regular rotation? Is there anything that's seasonal for you, or do you kind of add Aly?

**Grinder:** No, I don't think so. I mean, I, I, well, I'll be [00:15:00] honest with you, I do, I tend to smoke ajs in the, in, in fall. I, I smoke Cubans all summer. Um, winter time, I would agree.

I, I kind of get heavy on dat off, but that's because I'm, I'm invariably smoking in some nice lounge somewhere because it's cold, you know? And I wanna smoke a nice cigar and feel like it's, I'm getting the value out of it and, and that's why I'll smoke that. But AJ's are, are like a lot of the fall season, whenever, whenever we get to that time of year, I go up to Pennsylvania a lot.

Yeah. And spend a lot of time in the woods with my family. My, my in-laws have a lake house and we do a lot of campfires and. It's a, it's a rustic cigar. It's got a lot of punch. So in the, in the colder weather, you, it can sustain itself and hold up to the weather in some way. And, and you're probably sipping on some kind of bourbon.

Somebody brought bullet and, and a two liter bottle [00:16:00] and you're so happy drinking it, you know? And, and, uh, that's an AJ for me. Like some of the, he's made a lot of good cigars. Some of the earlier AJ's in my, you know, are my, the preferable

**Gizmo:** ones. But what you mentioned, like the New World.

**Grinder:** Yeah. The New Worlds, you know, San Laton, like those cigars are really good.

Okay. Um, and,

**Gizmo:** uh, we gotta do, we gotta do on the pod, we gotta do some ajs on the pods,

**Pagoda:** by the way. It's so funny you say San Liano and Lasko, those are all, uh, you know, one of my buddies who I golf, they, he loves

**Grinder:** those. They're, they're, they're good sticks. Yeah. They have a lot of flavor and, you know, they're, they're little, they're not as aged.

Uh, but he does a decent job of blending it and, and marketing it. And they're readily available and they're always discounted. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** Hmm. Cool. Bam, bam. What are your outliers usually? Anything we haven't said? No,

**Bam Bam:** I think you guys have covered it. I don't have a late hour very often. Yeah, I don't either. So that's Except for when it's called.

Yeah, that's certainly one. [00:17:00] Uh, the millennium is a staple for me. You know, the Diplomatico, that's the Pedro Diplomatico that is an outlier

**Gizmo:** for, that's the 6 19 64

**Bam Bam:** Churchill. Exactly right. Yeah. I don't have that often, so when, if I'm in a lounge, that's a great, a great cigar option for

**Gizmo:** me. You cigar don't have a lot.

You know what cigar jumps at me in the summer. That doesn't really around rest of the year for some reason. The 1960, the Padron 1964 Maduro and Torp. I'll do when it's warmer cuz it has like a sweetness thing to it that the ex placebo and the diplomatic, or don't Yeah. I feel like they're a little bit more like, Hey, we're here and we're gonna, you know, we're ready to fight.

It

**Bam Bam:** does, it is applicable for a winter smoke as well. It is. There's

**Rooster:** a lot of body in there. I think it's in any time after dinner. Smoke.

**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Pagoda. Do you have any outliers outside your regular rotation that are, are season, season

**Pagoda:** based? Not really. I think all Cubans have been outliers for me, but now that, you know, you

**Gizmo:** smoke more Cuban, I was gonna say not any more man.

As many as the rest of us, you're probably one to one.

**Grinder:** No.

**Pagoda:** Yeah. Now I, I think, uh, this summer I did smoke a lot of Cubans for sure. Um, [00:18:00] but yeah, meaning, uh, like the, the way I look at it is, uh, if I have a good cigar in hand, it doesn't matter where I am and what I'm doing,

**Gizmo:** I'll smoke it. Yeah. So. Nice. That's a good way to put it.

Yeah. Hey, so, uh, grinder mentioned being at a really nice lounge. Having to DT off for a really good cigar. And we have to mention how happy we are to be recording tonight again at the 10 86 Lounge. That's right. Our clubhouse in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Yes, sir. We love it here. Home, away from home. A plus place always.

Um, yeah. I'm just grateful that we're, that John lets us set up shopping here and let's, it looks like a rats nest with all these cables. But , we're able to do the pod here and we're very happy. It's awesome. We just love coming here. Got golf simulator is really golf simulator. Actually, grinder and I were here pretty late last night hanging out.

Just, uh, two of us and some friends, you know, Henry was here. Nice. Uh, Nick was here. Um, you know, a bunch of lizards we're here. Cool. And. Grinder was actually pining about [00:19:00] 1130. He was like, I really wanna go, hits the golf balls in the simulator. But, uh, so yeah, 24 hour key card access here at our, our clubhouse.

Come check it out. Hawthorne, New Jersey. We love it. We're very fortunate to

**Bam Bam:** be recording in this space right now. We are, as I think about it, more and more, very, very

**Grinder:** fortunate. The proprietor is really done great jobs with the humidor. He's, he's, he's sourcing some good

**Gizmo:** quality sticks. These, these, uh, these real state underground came out there, uh, tonight in the Tubo.

That's right. Right out of the,

**Bam Bam:** out of the humidor. He's

**Gizmo:** right out of the humidor. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, we're very grateful, um, uh, to John and 10 86, and we really encourage any Lizer two, maybe local pass passing through, or if you live in the area of, uh, you know, Northern New Jersey, come on down, pop in cuz you will not be disappointed by this place.

Grab a smoke and sit down and have a drink. And have a party. And have a party.

**Bam Bam:** You may have one of these. Exotic beers that we're drinking right

**Gizmo:** now. Yeah. Let's talk about, we talked a little bit about liquor too, but tonight, for the first time, we are [00:20:00] Yep. Inviting Rooster into the formal liquor that's gonna be non liquor rating.

Oh no. He's, uh, I finally

**Rooster:** get to rate. So

**Gizmo:** you get to rate it. You get to rate it.

**Bam Bam:** He's expanding his CNOs corner.

**Gizmo:** Absolutely. So we are drinking non-alcoholic beverages tonight, gentlemen. Uh, and we are starting with Beck. Which is one, you drink this non-alcoholic beer a lot, correct? Yeah.

**Rooster:** I, I like, I like, I like bes.

I mean, I used to like bes even the regular version, but since, uh, I stopped drinking, I like the, uh, the non-alcoholic. I mean it, like Grindr said, it's a pilsner lager, that format.

**Gizmo:** That's really delicious. Is that your first

**Bam Bam:** sip? Yeah. Honestly, it's very good. It is. I'm

**Gizmo:** surprised that was my first sip. If I

**Rooster:** had poured a glass for you guys and it's kind of too late now, and I hadn't told you that this is a

**Gizmo:** alcoholic beer, I would know would, you know?

Yeah, I think I would know. I could tell you why by way. I'll tell you why. Like what's, what's missing? [00:21:00] Or I could tell, I could tell.

**Rooster:** For me, my cast could tell because you, you're big time beer drinkers. I mean, uh, especially

**Gizmo:** Grinder.

**Bam Bam:** This would go down. I can drink this entire glass without stopping. Uh, alcohol.

A beer that has alcohol in it. You, it, it's, there's a bit's harder to drink. It's little harder. Were

**Rooster:** you, were you not in a frat ?

**Gizmo:** You never did funnels?

**Bam Bam:** Never. I never, I've never done a funnel.

**Gizmo:** It's like flat beer. You wanna do a Beck funnel right now? It's

**Bam Bam:** just so easy

**Grinder:** to drink this. It's, he went to architect school.

Do you think they had architect

**Bam Bam:** school? No, we were, he been on martinis in Studio .

**Grinder:** I think he

**Pagoda:** was in one of the, this is

**Grinder:** postmodern

**Bam Bam:** or modern . Let me take a look.

**Pagoda:** Probably one of those honor fraternities. Lambda Lambda Lamb. Oh.

**Gizmo:** Uh, it's very, very good. Less, it's a good, good retort. That beer, I can taste that it doesn't have alcohol in it, but I probably, because I have a bias that I know that it doesn't have alcohol

**Grinder:** in it, so I can, I know it's not [00:22:00] beer.

Sorry. It is beer. Yeah, it's very much beer. I know it's not alcoholic beer because of how sweet it is to me. Yeah. Sweet. And. It tastes like a Bex that someone artificially tries to flavor like a Bex, which is good. I like it. Yeah, it's fun.

**Pagoda:** So I dunno about that. For me, it, it seems a bit flat, right? Because, you know, the bubbles are not there.

The fst maybe because it's been sitting for a while. Yeah. But definitely sweeter and it feels lighter bodied or something. I'm

**Grinder:** not, I'm saying I like it. Yeah. It's very, it's good though. Very, it's

**Gizmo:** refreshing. It's delicious. I think this, this

**Rooster:** is, because this might be the first time you guys are trying out a non-alcoholic beer.

I think more and more if it's really chilled and if I had just poured it, I think it's, it's really delicious.

**Gizmo:** And you know, if you just poured,

**Grinder:** I, I mean I could

**Bam Bam:** drink this all day. I'm all in. It's delicious right now. It's very good. Yeah.

**Pagoda:** Yeah. I think I'm gonna get a few like beers in my house.

Non-alcoholic beer. Just because there are times I wanna smoke without having alcohol.

**Grinder:** This is. [00:23:00] And option. But you want a beer, but you want a beer. Yeah, exactly.

**Gizmo:** Great option. Kinda resolves that. Yeah. Yeah. And it's

**Rooster:** amazing what's out there now. You know, I mean, I think every, almost every single beer manufacturer has a zero.

Or, you know, this might be like a 0.5. Mm-hmm. , but some of the, some of my favorite brands, Bex is obviously one of them. Buckler, that's one called

**Gizmo:** ERUs Holler. Mm-hmm.

**Grinder:** is are German. All German. The Germans

**Rooster:** have a lot of, but even American, uh, this Brooklyn lager makes a great, uh, that's one that's called the Extra Hoppy.

It's like a really, like an amber colored. Nice. Really nice, really, really nice beer. If you guys get a chance, definitely, you know, source it and check it out. Um, Guinness has one. We're gonna. Yeah, we'll try that. We're

**Gizmo:** try that next zero. Are we?

**Rooster:** That's the, uh, I can't wait. I mean, that just came out. I think it's only been out for a few months.

We

**Gizmo:** had talked about that a few times on the pod and we were saying how [00:24:00] we couldn't find anywhere, but it was coming. Yeah. And now it seems like it's everywhere. Yeah. Cool. I mean, there's like end caps in, in retail stores now. You walk in and you, there's like, you know, the, the, the end caps at the end of the aisle promoting.

Yeah. Non-alcoholic. You know, it's not

**Rooster:** just lagers and

**Gizmo:** pilsners

**Rooster:** and, uh, they have everything. They have stouts, they have porters, they have IPAs, they even have, um, you know, like hard siders now that are non

**Gizmo:** alcoholics. So, nice. Huge, huge selection. Yeah. Yeah.

**Pagoda:** I'm enjoying it. So folks, if you wanna give up, drinking, this is the time

**Bam Bam:** This is it. This is how.

**Gizmo:** So, uh, wanna get back to the non, non-alcoholic beer in a second? Um, we're about an inch into the underground Maduro. What do you guys think? Cause I think it's really satisfying so far.

**Bam Bam:** It's satisfying, it's consistent. It hasn't changed.

**Gizmo:** I would classify its flavor profile as I would say medium.

Yeah, it's medium. I was expecting it to be full, you know, [00:25:00] given that it's, it's from the visual presentation. Yeah. And it's, it's their maduro, you know, comparing to lega. But it seems like a, like

**Rooster:** a, it, it started out a little bit on the fuller side and then it has kind of

**Gizmo:** subsided. This is trying to settle down a little bit.

Yeah. So much smoke. It's, it's, oh yeah. Every one of these is like a chimney. Yeah. Great. Combu. So

**Pagoda:** a buddy man was telling me that illegal, uh, like, sorry, drew estate, what they do is they spray something past cigars, which . Really produces a smoke, which, or a hubs.

**Bam Bam:** That's disturbing

**Gizmo:** if that's true. We talked about that on the league episode as well.

We were all looking at that rapper and machine of it. And I think somebody, I don't know if it was Grinder or you, it's a little iridescent, had mentioned that they, you know, there's rumors out there. I, I don't know if it's confirmed or not, but that there's some sort of added process that the, the rapper leaves go through to create more.

I'm not sure if I like that. I don't know if I

like

**Grinder:** it either. I don't know if it's true guys. Like

**Gizmo:** Yeah, maybe it's just a rumor. I'm saying I don't, I [00:26:00] don't know. But, um, there all their cigars certainly put out a lot of smoke. Mm-hmm. and this one's no exception.

**Bam Bam:** You know, honestly, I've never had a bad underground or lega.

Not ever. Yeah. They're very, very consistently

**Gizmo:** made. I find the underground shade to be a little disappointing and flavor for me. It's just doesn't fit my palette never really has, actually, I've never had that. Um, I've had the sun grown a few times, but this is definitely more in my wheelhouse for sure. I don't like the sun grown.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, back to non-alcoholic beer. So Rooster, I'm curious if you know, or grinder, you may as well. Um, why all of a sudden is there a boom of non-alcoholic products? It seems like for as long as I was alive, drinking or not, the only non-alcoholic beer I ever knew was uls. I got three, three words

**Rooster:** for that.

What

**Gizmo:** is that? Too many DUIs. Okay. I don't know. just guessing. I mean, I, I think there's a

**Rooster:** lot of people who are maybe not drinking and they just want options. Yeah. [00:27:00] And, um, you know, non-alcoholic weights, like you can still try to try, you can still taste like beer, but not, yeah, not get drunk.

**Grinder:** What are the, what's the calorie, uh, on these things?

**Gizmo:** Who cares? No, I

**Grinder:** mean, I mean, is it like a zero

**Gizmo:** calorie? It's not, it's

**Rooster:** not a light, but no, it's not a zero

**Gizmo:** calorie. 68,

**Grinder:** this bottle. So that's half the calories of a.

**Gizmo:** It's more like a light beer Of a light beer. Yeah. Yeah. Light beer's around 120 or 130. A hundred. So yeah. So that's

**Grinder:** 1 1 15 advantage. Yeah. So there's that.

It's an expanding segment. Um, that's why you, you know,

**Gizmo:** could be, uh, it just seems all of a sudden that there's a major boom of these products. Yeah. To the point that even the smaller breweries are making them. Is there, you know,

**Rooster:** there's some breweries that only make non-alcoholic beers. Wow. There's a brewery called Athletic Brewing Company.

I think they only do non-alcoholic beers. That's amazing.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. But there must be a huge market for it. Yeah. Apparently.

**Rooster:** Yeah.[00:28:00]

**Gizmo:** Good

**Bam Bam:** for me. And honestly, yeah. Good for you. And good for all those, uh, individuals. They don't want to partake in alcohol. They want to be as healthy

**Gizmo:** as possible. And you know

**Rooster:** what's out now you can get non-alcoholic tequilas.

**Gizmo:** Rums.

**Bam Bam:** You know what, what the hell is

**Gizmo:** the point? Well, the point is the flavor.

Flavor. And like Senator actually had mentioned, yeah, I was just gonna say that Senator was talking about Mrs. Senator, you just had

**Rooster:** a baby. And, uh, Mrs. Senator is, you know, breastfeeding and stuff,

**Gizmo:** so she can't, she can't have a drink, take alcohol, but she really wanted a margarita, so she Oh, yeah. Now did he go out and source?

**Rooster:** He did, he did. He got some tequila. She was very non-alcoholic tequila. And she was, she's like it, and he, apparently he tried it too, and he said, it's delicious,

**Gizmo:** fun. Said it was very passable. Very cool. So, you know, it's good for folks that, that, you know, especially, you know, obviously we're not a judgmental situation, but if you're a guy who's, who's kind of been known to be a [00:29:00] beer drinker, you're for your entire life.

You go out with your beer, drinking friends to bars, you watch sports, et cetera. Like this is providing a way that those folks don't have to feel. Awkward or ostracized, they're left out, which they shouldn't period. But you know how some people are, we're not like that. But, um, you know, it, it, it's a very inclusive move, I think by the, the liquor companies to make sure that everybody can enjoy, you know, alcohol or not, which I think is a great thing.

And I think that I'm happy we're doing this tonight because I think that this is enlightening for me and us. That's

**Bam Bam:** a huge motivating factor from the point of view of the business. It's an untapped market. And if you're including those people that have felt excluded for so long Yeah,

**Gizmo:** it's fantastic. And how much easier with great beer choices like this are, is somebody gonna be willing to put their hand up and say, you know what, I'll be the designated driver tonight.

Yeah. Let me have an op. I'll drink a b and I'll, or I'll drink Guinness, or I'll drink. That's great. You know these killer beers that are out. Like that's awesome. Yeah. You can drink a whole sex [00:30:00] pack.

Zero issues. Zero.

**Grinder:** You've

**Pagoda:** done that. Heineken, zero . My January detox just became better. .

**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. This is, uh, this is really good. The BX is really, really nice. Wow. So

**Grinder:** I'm Surpris, it has a Becks flavor. Mm-hmm. , you know.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. This underground is, is really, um, in a way it's surprising. Because I, I don't think as of right now that it's that far from how I felt about the

**Bam Bam:** league.

It is right now a one act play, though. It is. Okay. Certainly it's, but that's not a bad thing. It's consistent. I think the Lego

**Rooster:** was

**Gizmo:** better.

**Pagoda:** Oh yes. More certainly was more intense

**Gizmo:** flavors. More, more, yeah.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah, more. It was more interesting. And it changed and there were more, it was definitely more complex.

Yeah. There were fruit notes, dried fruit notes, a lot of raisin in that. Um, some deep, deep, deep cocoa in that cigar. But

**Gizmo:** for the price

**Rooster:** point, this is not

**Gizmo:** bad. This is great. Yeah. [00:31:00]

**Grinder:** Big

**Pagoda:** fan is the working man's like they call it the working man's high end cigar or

**Gizmo:** something. Wow. Certainly the working man's leg.

**Grinder:** Who's not a working man. I know that's true. We're all working

**Bam Bam:** men. That's true. I'm a working man.

**Rooster:** I lost a band on

**Gizmo:** this. It's nice, man. Yeah, the band is great. It's eye catching. The fact that

**Bam Bam:** it comes into Tubo

**Gizmo:** makes it. Oh yeah. I love a Tubo man. You know when I saw that, uh, John had gotten them here at 10 86, um, I was telling Henry, uh, Henry and I were walking through the humidor and I was like, I just love the fact you can grab that tubo, go to the golf course.

You're going to a wedding, throw your bag, you throw out in the bag,

**Grinder:** go to the golf course. You don't play

**Gizmo:** golf. No, but I'm saying for a lot, a lot of folks that do you. Go throw some discs. It's disc golf. It's, you go a concert. You go to a concert. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Concert.

**Pagoda:** Where can you smoke at all? Not

**Rooster:** getting there and back

**Gizmo:** in the Uber.

**Grinder:** I had a colleague of mine who was up in Ottawa over the [00:32:00] week and he was telling me how like it's the, you can't smoke anywhere in Canada. It's

**Gizmo:** the worst

**Rooster:** cigar laws in Canada.

**Gizmo:** Right. I mean, it is bad in North America. It can't, yeah. It's up there. It's

**Pagoda:** worse. And they have so much land.

**Gizmo:** They do. It's,

**Rooster:** yeah, but it's, they're, it's, it's minus 25 degrees most of the

**Gizmo:** time.

So , I mean, dude, they, they, they have ridiculous taxe. Right. The costs are so prohibitive. Yep. They don't allow smoking. Even in cigar lounges, any public place, there's no smoking. They cover all the bands and all the packaging with generic, uh, packaging like they would on cigarettes to not attract kids to them, it is asinine.

It's ridiculous. It's totally ridiculous. Well, they've good

**Pagoda:** Indian and Chinese food. .

**Gizmo:** I've heard that. Hi. Bonos is my understanding is that hi Bonos has actually reduced the amount of. Allocation [00:33:00] Vitos that they ship into Canada. Cuz they have to do this. Oh, they have to do extra work. I think it's down to like 16 or 20.

Wow. Regular production. Vitos actually end up in Canada at their retail shops. It's unbelievable. You know, versus, I mean, how many Vito, you know, how many Violas, how many markers does hi bonos have? I mean, it's, it's crazy. So it's very challenging to get, uh, to get great cigars at good prices

**Bam Bam:** up there. We know a few guys and a few of our groups that live up there, and I

**Gizmo:** feel for them.

They get punished. Man, if those boxes get popped at customs, like somebody sends them a box, they get hammered on taxes. Unbelievable. Yeah, it's terrible.

**Pagoda:** My, my trip to Montreal, they're never gonna be the same again. .

**Bam Bam:** Now if I'm traveling to Montreal from the States, can I bring a cigar?

**Gizmo:** I would, I would think so.

A small amount that doesn't look like cigar. Yeah. Not, they don't care about Cubans. Well, there

**Bam Bam:** is no, I know that, but do I have to cover it and cover the ban? No. No.

**Gizmo:** Okay. No. Only if it looks like you're, you're trying to sell it. Okay. You know, you have a [00:34:00] quantity that's mm-hmm. looking like you're gonna sell it.

Right. The

**Rooster:** issue, would that be, would that, you know, would be like coming back? The US

**Gizmo:** has the embargo. Canada doesn't, so I

**Bam Bam:** don't think we're buying anything from Canada. I don't think so.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. Not at these prices. No. No.

**Pagoda:** But they have a, they have great, uh, you know, Cuban to August over there. Yeah. With a beautiful

**Bam Bam:** bar in the Montreal that

**Gizmo:** you can't smoke.

That's, that's close by the way. No, what do you, yeah,

**Rooster:** they closed the L C D H and on Sherbrook Street. Correct.

**Gizmo:** Closed. But

**Bam Bam:** did you ever smoke a cigar there and, yeah. Yeah. How is that possible?

**Rooster:** While back, three

**Gizmo:** years ago,

**Bam Bam:** they changed the laws. That's recent. Yeah.

**Pagoda:** I didn't know right before the pandemic. In fact, we were there for one of my birthdays and.

We all smoked Cuban cigars and we had Hibiki and there was a great bar in the back and we were just enjoying ourselves. Great, great strip

**Gizmo:** clubs. Montreal, I don't know what you're

**Pagoda:** talking about.

**Grinder:** World class. I dunno what you're talking about. For what I hear,

**Rooster:** and it's funny, we were there like, I must [00:35:00] be like early.

Two thousands or late nineties. Do tell. And, uh, we went to, this is not a Sarepta Club story, by the way, .

**Gizmo:** We

**Bam Bam:** were all wa

**Gizmo:** I've never seen the room

**Bam Bam:** so focused Rooster piped out. Why? Why did you say that? Cause you had

**Gizmo:** our attention. That's, that's a, that's a different story you hear.

**Rooster:** This is about the Share Brook store, the lc DH in Montreal.

So friend of mine and myself, we went there, we drove to Montreal, got a

**Gizmo:** cigar

**Rooster:** and. Fantastic. It was a ham andree sandwich. Right. On a ette. Just food in Montreal is superb. It's really with the French influence and all that. I mean, it's fantastic. Wow. We get back to the hotel and I'm sitting in the hotel lobby and at that time you could actually smoke in the hotel lobby.

They had like a cigar cigar room. And I picked up a magazine. It was a cigar fishing auto magazine. And guess who was on the cover?

**Gizmo:** It was, [00:36:00] uh, George Burns. Oh yeah.

**Rooster:** Remember that? That, uh, that copy of the cigar fishing auto it with him on the cover. Mm. And the news comes on, and he died that day. Wow. Wow.

While I'm reading, while I'm looking at that magazine, George Barnes is on the cover. I look at the tv, I'm like, George Burn Dies. And he was like, he was 99, I think. Yeah. He

**Gizmo:** was almost a hundred, I think. Wow. And he was a lizard. He was, he's an OG lizard. True lizard. True

**Bam Bam:** lizard. How

**Gizmo:** many cigars a day? 10. And he smoked factory made.

Um, Queens, what are they? Uh, what's the manufacturer? I don't know. 10 cigars a day. 10. Wow. 10. He got shipped every month. The manufacturer, they were churchhill, weren't they? No, they're little. Uh, I'll tell you right now. Um, they weren't small cigars. They got, he, he got 300 of these cigars and they were shipped in.

They were, they came in glass tubs. He got 300 a month. That's cool. 10 a day. Wow. And he would panic, I guess, if the shipment was get, [00:37:00] shipment was getting close to like the due. He would panic. Like, where the hell are my cigars? We act the

**Bam Bam:** same way when we're waiting for

**Gizmo:** our shipments. ,

**Rooster:** I guess he didn't have a

**Gizmo:** tower.

He didn't have a tower, I don't think. I don't think so. They were all under glass. He smoked El, he smoked El productos. Don't know what that, so they were, uh, machine made like, almost like No, almost like, uh, uh, uh, social sweets. Like someone, yes, like, like you could buy them in a, in a, in a gas station. Oh, wow.

Not to, and he had offers from every manufacturer to make cigars, sell 'em cigars, give 'em cigars. And he stuck with, he only smoked one cigar 10 times a day. That's cool that

**Bam Bam:** there's something about that. Amazing.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. El Producto queens in glass. It's pretty cool though, you know? Oh yeah.

That's a wild story. Yeah. Those days are gone though, sir.

**Pagoda:** Burnie. So, so you didn't go there for the Jazz Fest or Formula One?

**Rooster:** No, no. It was winter. Now I, jazz Fest is supposed to be really cool [00:38:00] up there and obviously I wanna go for the Formula one. That would be, that would be awesome. It would be, yeah. It's an excellent time.

Yeah. Yeah. I was actually recently, I was looking at, I was watching one of the Formula Ones and one of the big sponsors was Heineken, and it wasn't Reg, it was Heineken Zero. Wow.

**Gizmo:** Wow. See that's what I mean. That's cool. Like think about how, how,

**Rooster:** how much money they're spending on

**Gizmo:** promoting that. Yeah. On promoting this.

Like they, somebody has realized what a, an opportunity this, this non-alcoholic,

**Bam Bam:** well you hit it on the head earlier. A lot of people feel left out. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** And a lot of people aren't drinking alcohol. Yeah. Yeah. You can't

**Pagoda:** drink and drive. Meaning Formula

**Grinder:** One . No,

**Gizmo:** That's a good point. So, um, that was like a semi shank. It was like a Yeah, that was like a half shank from Pagoda. Yeah. So this, uh, under Crown Maduro has an OTA Negro Ultima. San Andres rapper. The binder is T 52 Connecticut River Valley stock [00:39:00] cut, cured. Hi Bono. And the filler is Nicaragua. So it's, the sources are pretty, uh, diverse, pretty diverse in this cigar.

And again, for 13 bucks, I mean, that's

**Bam Bam:** quite the production. To put this cigar together.

**Grinder:** It is for that price. This, this room is so,

**Gizmo:** so smoky. Oh, that's so smoky. This is very, this is rivaling the lead. This is

**Grinder:** like, we have seven

**Bam Bam:** people in here, but Yeah, yeah, yeah.

**Gizmo:** No doubt about it. Yeah. So these come in, uh, the tub bows that we're smoking again, the Grand Toro tub bows, uh, come in boxes of 10.

They, uh, suggested retail is somewhere around 150 bucks. Um, but you can get them anywhere, you know, around 120. Yeah. Um, something like that. So again, we, we paid 1250 for these. Can we try Guinness? Very reasonable. Yeah. Yeah. It's time to move into Guinness. Oh, nice. So we're into the Guinness now. Guinness.

Zero. It looks as Grindr was pouring it for off. It looks like a normal Guinness from the North Lounge. It looks like a chocolate [00:40:00] bomb. It does. Let's try this thing. What are you getting on the nose? foam. That's very good. That's good. Very passable rooster.

**Bam Bam:** That is good.

**Gizmo:** It tastes like a Guinness, right? I think that's closer than the Becks, in my opinion.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. This, I couldn't tell if it was a, well, if it

**Pagoda:** gets or an alcoholic grinder's, uh, approval. I think, uh, yeah, agreed. Means something grinder

**Rooster:** Actually like the Becks too. I think. I like the bes love the bes. The Becks

**Gizmo:** has

**Rooster:** to be cold, has to be chilled.

**Grinder:** It's a pilsner it, yeah, it has to be. Yeah. But, and I wasn't, what I was in, my comparison on the Becks was that it, I could tell that there wasn't alcohol, not that I didn't like it. It tastes, it tastes great. Um, it was a little sweeter than a typical Bex, but I think it's, it's probably the balance of the alcohol or something like that.

This tastes actually like Guinness all the way. Yeah,

**Bam Bam:** yeah. It's good. [00:41:00] Uh, tough to distinguish.

**Gizmo:** And it also, uh, I wouldn't be able to

**Grinder:** tell also, I don't get drunk off Guinness, so Really, you won't be able to tell. I could, I could have six pints of Guinness and I would be sober as a fucking. None. Yeah. And, uh, sober has a nun.

And, uh, that's when I would, uh, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. That's when I would

**Pagoda:** drop Baileys and tables in a

**Grinder:** car, bombs . Don't go to an Irish pub and say, I want car bombs, because it's, that doesn't go over very

**Bam Bam:** well. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** No, you were pointing out as you were pouring it that like it has the, the nitrous in it.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it, it looks and feels like Guinness. It has the texture, the, it

**Grinder:** looks and feels like it. The, the, the thing that I like, there's a very distinct Guinness aftertaste. Mm-hmm. . Um, and this, this is the very same aftertaste. Yeah. It's

**Gizmo:** like a milky spout.

**Bam Bam:** It is really, really good.

**Gizmo:** [00:42:00] Really good.

Yeah. So how much does, uh, I'm gonna speak generally, you can be more specific if it differs, but. How much is non-alcoholic Guinness, let say or best? Same price.

**Rooster:** Same price. Pretty much the same pack as the other. So these come in a four

**Gizmo:** pack.

**Rooster:** Okay. And I think it was like $2 a can. Okay, great. About that.

Great.

**Pagoda:** Does it liquor, liquor store charge you a double tax for it being non-alcohol?

**Gizmo:** you should charge less tax, you know, no tax. Yeah. I, I, I am very impressed with this one. Absolutely. The Bex was good. I'm very impressed with

**Bam Bam:** this. Oh yeah. It's so good. Easy to drink. Very

**Gizmo:** enjoyable. Are you sure you didn't grab regular canes,

**Bam Bam:** Could this product be a bridge to someone that's struggling with alcohol?

**Rooster:** Actually, I think, I mean, I don't know. I could be wrong, but if you're recovering alcoholic, do you even wanna try

**Gizmo:** like, I don't think that's, no. The answer similar to alcoholic. I'm not gonna suggest it, but I know, uh, so I have some recovering alcoholic friends [00:43:00] that really are happy that there are options out there.

They're not looking for. The taste of alcohol, per se. But for them, and I don't know if this is the right fit for everyone, I'm not gonna, I'm not making a judgment or opinion, you know, uh, a recommendation. But I do know some, uh, some folks who can't drink anymore and they find that they're still able to live, uh, a lifestyle very similar to the one they had before in a much healthier Yep.

By choosing to drink, not alcoholic beer. Makes sense. Watching a football game, you know, a lot of folks tie that beer drinking experience to watching sports.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Or hanging out with a

**Gizmo:** group of friends. Exactly. Now they can do it and check all the boxes they need to check and be healthy and Yeah. Make the decisions they need to make.

And it tastes like this where we're sitting here and it's fantastic.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's almost impossible to

**Grinder:** distinguish this. Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna buy, I'm gonna buy

**Gizmo:** this beer. I am too. And, and Pito made a good point too. There [00:44:00] are moments when I want to have a cigar and I don't necessarily want to drink alcohol, but I want to.

**Grinder:** Yeah. You know what I mean? And I'll tell you what, that refreshing

**Bam Bam:** Christmas of a beer. Yes. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** I'm like,

**Rooster:** I'm shocked that you guys are saying this. You would

**Gizmo:** actually buy a novel. I would totally buy the

**Grinder:** Skinness, because this is beer though. Like, I mean, at least for me, um, if I have three, four beers, I'm not gonna really get buzzed.

No. And I like beer, so I'll drink a good amount of beer. And don't you want to get buzzed? No. When I drink beer, I like, I just love beer. I like the taste of beer. I don't try to get banged up and I drink beer, because otherwise I would, I probably would be an alcoholic. Yeah. Because I, you know, I'll have, like, I'll probably have, there might be two, two or three nights a week where I'll have, you know, three or four, you know, three or four beers after a long day after putting my daughter to bed, you get a.

I won't get, I won't get a buzz. You won't. Yeah. [00:45:00] It takes a lot

**Bam Bam:** of beer for me, and I'm sure for you as well. Yeah. Yep. Same here. You really get hammered on beer, but the act of drinking a beer and it's cold and it's refreshing and that's great. It's so, it's delicious. Satisfying. So like, I, I, you know, this is a great alternative because not

**Grinder:** getting, not getting all those calories.

Oh, yeah. And not, um, now this, it's, I'm not, I'm not drinking the three or four beers to get, to get a buzz or banged up. So, so, you know, what's the point really?

**Gizmo:** And if you have a meeting the next morning at six or seven or 8:00 AM Exactly. You wake up, you're totally refreshed and you, you're like, everything's

**Bam Bam:** good.

Here's a question. Are the, are the non-alcoholic beers less than calories? Less than carbohydrate usually. Really? Is that right?

**Gizmo:** Well, the Bex was, the Bex was about half the calories of an 68 of a light beer. This

**Bam Bam:** probably about. See, I think Mrs. Bam, bam would enjoy to have one of these beers at home.

**Gizmo:** Yeah.

Yeah. Well, if I'm having a cigar on a Tuesday night on the deck, so this is around of fire. I'm gonna reach for this,

**Grinder:** this 12 ounce. This is uh, what, 16 [00:46:00] ounces or something? 15 ounces. This is, uh, 75 calories. So

**Gizmo:** that you're talking about the Guinness Zero. Yeah. 75 calories for a 12 ounce can. That's fantastic.

Compared to what's in the, what's the normal? Oh, it's gotta be 4000, 4200.

**Grinder:** No. Yeah. Yeah,

**Pagoda:** they very low calorie for a 12 ounce. Yeah,

**Bam Bam:** someone look it up.

**Grinder:** He's probably right. It, I believe is on,

**Bam Bam:** I believe him.

**Gizmo:** Um, yeah, this is, this is really delicious and it's pairing very well with the cigar. I,

**Bam Bam:** I actually like this pair me too better than the x.

The, the what?

**Grinder:** 1 45? I think that's the 12 ounce serving size though.

**Pagoda:** No, I think it's the same cans. Right.

**Grinder:** Well, this one is the serving size on this is 1.25. So I just said 75.

**Gizmo:** 125. Oh

**Pagoda:** wow. There you go. There you go. Yeah, because

**Grinder:** that's a 12 ounce can of gifts. That's what I just said, so, so he might be right then.

Yeah. 1, 1 60, 1 55,

**Gizmo:** which is great. Yeah.

**Pagoda:** Yeah. Meaning if you think about a regular Corona's, [00:47:00] 200 calories,

**Grinder:** a Corona who he actually drinks

**Bam Bam:** Corona. A

**Gizmo:** lot of people drink Love Corona. My wife loves Corona. Like in, in

**Pagoda:** the summer? Yeah, in the summers.

**Grinder:** Great. There's only one place I drink. Corona on the beach. On the beach.

On the beach. In

**Gizmo:** Mexico. Just like Snoop do anywhere. Beach, Jersey Shore is like the Guinness. Yeah. Ba BA's point makes be happy. This is pairing really well with the cigar. I think

**Bam Bam:** it pairs better than the Becks pairs with this particular cigar. Right.

**Gizmo:** It's matching up perfectly. I think it brings out a little bit of, uh, like a sweet thing in the cigar.

I agree. The coffee flavor, it's like it's helping enhance that. I've been,

**Grinder:** I've been like literally just drinking this beer since, since we've transitioned you that my cigar went out and I haven't been smoking the cigar. So let me relight the cigar. Didn't we do join

**Rooster:** conversation number nine? I think we did have the Guinness.

I have a feeling we did the regular Guinness with

**Gizmo:** the,

**Bam Bam:** I think you might be right. Yeah. Honestly, that was a delicious pairing. I loved [00:48:00] that

**Gizmo:** evening. No, we did eagle wear. Ah, eagle rare. What

**Rooster:** did we do

**Gizmo:** the Guinness with? We did Guinness. We did that with the EP cardio El Centor. Oh, that works.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that works.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I could,

**Grinder:** I can smoke this a lot. Yeah. This is a

**Gizmo:** fun for me for 12 bucks, I think this is, is very high up on the. Scale as far as flavor and performance and

**Bam Bam:** construction? Nothing, uh, tough about it, you know. No ammonia at all. No,

**Gizmo:** not at all. And I do think it's, it's kind of become a two act play at this kind of Right beyond halfway point.

It is a little different for me, not for me yet. I think I need to, I'm finding it to be a little bit, yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a little different. Hmm. A little bit more ooph. I think the sweetness. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give that credit to the Guinness, to the beer area. Um, but it's a really, really nice experience Right

**Grinder:** now.

The retro Hill is very rich. It

**Bam Bam:** is. And there aren't many bands [00:49:00] with the name of the cigar on the back of it. Oh, on the underside of the bin. Yeah. Not many cigar makers do that. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** I mean, Jonathan drew those guys over there at Drew State. I mean, they know how to market. Market and they, the packaging. The presentation, yeah.

It's always very high quality. Even for these smokes that, you know, they could bundle these in. In wrap and charge the same price, but they choose to really present them

**Bam Bam:** nicely. They're spending money on their branding and their identity and their labeling

**Gizmo:** for sure. Yeah. This is really impressive. Yeah.

**Grinder:** He distributes, uh, Lord Nicaragua, which is this, uh, Aon.

You, I'm very fond of that cigar. That's a classic

**Gizmo:** cigar. I just saw that, uh, Metallica, I dunno if you guys saw Yes. Metallica announced recently that they're doing, so they have blackened whiskey and now they're doing a blackened M 81 Metallica 1981. Cuz I guess, uh, James Hadfield, the singer is a, [00:50:00] is a lizard and, uh, really Jonathan Drew and Drew Estate are, have paired with, uh, James Hatfield to make a great cigar.

Yeah. And uh, I saw that on, it was on ca Yeah, it was cigar fishing auto. I saw that Notice. I hope we don't do it. It might be very good. I mean, look at how good this is. I mean, I don't think there's any sort of weird kitchen is flavor. No, I don't think so. I mean, apparently the bourbon they have is very good.

The whiskey. Wow. It's gonna be called Sand Man

I, I, listen, I think that that, that is a good example. We've talked about stuff that brings people into the hobby. I think that's very cool. That, I mean, the biggest metal band in the world, one of the biggest bands ever, I mean, is, is celebrating cigars. That's kind of cool. Premium cigars. Yeah. That's, that's extra.

And he's doing it right with a, with a proper partner.

**Rooster:** I mean, just think about what's going on with, in, in the tequila world. Mm-hmm. , you know, with all the celebrities kind coming out with tequilas

**Gizmo:** and they're all awful. They're awful. But they sell,

**Bam Bam:** they do sell because the general public doesn't know a good [00:51:00] from bad tequila.

Same

**Rooster:** thing could happen with cigars. I mean, a lot of the celebrities could be endorsing. And, uh,

**Gizmo:** that happened though. I mean, in the cigar boom that happened, there were a lot of celebrities out there that had cigars and they sucked and they fell apart. . Yeah. And there's. There's very few now that are succeeding, but I, you know, we're smoking a estate cigar.

We love legal, we love, we're enjoying this. I'm optimistic. Okay.

**Bam Bam:** I'm optimistic. We shall see like the legal nine. This has a creaminess to it. Smoke

**Grinder:** is velvety. This is a long smoke too. I mean it is. How

**Gizmo:** long have we been going here? It's a good question. We've probably been going almost an hour. Yeah, almost an hour, 50 minutes or so.

I think it's a lot left. Yeah. I can't see. I can't see the timestamp, but it's probably just under an hour. I dunno. I like the GOs with

**Pagoda:** great smoke

**Gizmo:** output. Sure. Yeah. Of course. Senator always says that want to be a chimney. I think he'd be enjoying this right now. Yeah, I think you're right. I don't know if Poo would likes this very much, but I think Senator would.

Well, I can,

**Rooster:** I can just picture PBA because I'm sitting where PBA usually sits. [00:52:00] and PBA would be s sitting on the, on the beer

**Gizmo:** and the cigar. . There's

**Bam Bam:** no doubt about the beer that he would be s sitting on . The cigar is up for debate. I think he'd like the legal nine. Yeah, I think he would like this. I think he would

**Pagoda:** drop it.

**Bam Bam:** No, there's on the lake, there's nothing offensive about this cigar at all. Yeah.

**Rooster:** Cigars pretty good. Yeah. It's, it's like, it's like a, it's very easy younger brother to Ali.

**Bam Bam:** It is. It's really easy to smoke.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. And they're very easy to get. You can get these anywhere, right. And they always have them, they're always in stock.

Very consistent price. I'm, I'm certainly gonna reach for these, you know, you go to a place, you wanna have a cigar? Yeah. I'll grab one of these. Of course. No question.

**Pagoda:** Great construction man. Like overall, yeah, yeah. The rapper is, yeah. So this, uh, San Andrews, uh, rapper, the Mexican rapper, the couple of cigars we've smoked.

And they have the same rapper and I think, [00:53:00] uh, like the Olivia

**Gizmo:** V Yeah. The church. Yeah, the church. The Oli V Yeah. Oli v

**Pagoda:** Churchill. Yeah. Oli V. Yeah. So I think, um, that has a San Andrews rapper. The ep, Carr Theia

**Bam Bam:** haven't

**Gizmo:** had that. Yeah. I haven't had that either. The only one, we had the pledge prequel and we had the Elena door.

Yeah. Which was, and the Elena door wiped the floor. Outstanding. Yeah. It was a great cigar for the price. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen on the podcast, I mean, we've said this before, but a lot of these new worlds have been an absolute revelation. And this is another one for me, you know, where I wouldn't reach for these cigars normally, but I think it's really good.

Yeah. Just

**Pagoda:** overall, there's so many options out there. It's, it's just unbelievable that the number of new world options out there. And, um, and there's a huge following for so many of the different, uh, cigars. I think. Uh, it's fantastic.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think the shortage with Havanas that we've talked about at ad [00:54:00] nauseum here on the podcast, but I think it's forcing people to reconsider, you know, um, not

**Bam Bam:** just jumping into the world, but also the, the price.

The price. The price and the possible counterfeit Yeah. Cubans that could be coming up now. Yeah. Not good. It's so, it's so disappointing. It's not good. Do

**Grinder:** you guys know if he grows his own tobacco? I think he does.

**Gizmo:** He does?

**Grinder:** Okay. Yeah. So he grows, he manufactures and he distributes.

**Gizmo:** Yeah, I think it's just like Padron and Davidoff.

**Rooster:** And he also rolls for other, other, other bands of brands.

**Pagoda:** Does it? Yeah, but I think Drew Isto was sold out to a much larger company. I think it

**Grinder:** may have been bought recently.

**Bam Bam:** Where are these manufactured? Where are they

**Gizmo:** rolled? I should, that's the

**Bam Bam:** Nicaragua. Yeah. Okay, got it. Now, isn't there going to be a potential, uh, embargo on Nicaragua product?

**Gizmo:** There, there's a rumor about that. I guess. Uh, Biden's administration was [00:55:00] saying that they're kind of considering Nicaragua government to be dealing with terrorists or they're kind of in that zone. So it's been mentioned that there's gonna be an embargo on Nicaragua import. That would be painful. That would be bad for us, but, um, I don't think it's gonna happen, but I hope it doesn't

**Rooster:** happen.

Right. Like a reemergence of Noriega ? What's that? No, I don't know what that is. No, Noriega was the, uh, was the man in charge of Nicaragua back, back in the day? Back in the day. You know, he is no more. But maybe Ruthless is ruthless. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** Ruthless dictator generally.

**Pagoda:** Yeah, so it was, uh, drew State was bought by a company called Swisher International

**Gizmo:** Swisher

**Grinder:** Streets.

Oh, that's right. That was age, that was, that was not, that was a

**Pagoda:** few years ago. 2014. Oh, wow. So it's a Ziegler family that owns Swisher, and they're from Danne, Connecticut.

**Gizmo:** There you go. Oh my gosh.

**Rooster:** What did they [00:56:00] pay for it? .

**Gizmo:** So

**Grinder:** they, I don't think they disclosed that.

**Pagoda:** Well, they've been . I was about to say something really stupid, but

**Grinder:** please. Have you ever had Swisher Sweets, by the way? I've

**Gizmo:** never had a Swisher. Sweet. No,

**Grinder:** no, you guys, no. I'm surprised you haven't. I know, right? No way. Why? Why? I mean, that's what we, you're

**Bam Bam:** the,

**Grinder:** we'd smoke . We'd smoke Swisher Sweets and drink fricking Keystone light in the woods.

That's true.

**Gizmo:** I never had a Swisher Sweet. Or Lions. I had, I had plenty of Keystone Light and Yingling

**Bam Bam:** Yingling Lion Yingling Yingling. That's a beer. That is one of my,

**Gizmo:** they, I think they make a non-alcoholic cuz. Well, you should try. I think it's

**Grinder:** $24. I was never a fan of jingling. You joking? Yeah. Me neither.

It's like, you

**Rooster:** know, rolling Rock

**Pagoda:** Regling. Yeah, please.

**Bam Bam:** Crappy. Yeah. No Rolling Rock. Not good, but the Yingling dude, that's great. So I lived in Philadelphia for three years, so I fell in love with the Yingling there and I've never stopped loving it. [00:57:00]

**Pagoda:** Well, that's the only beer they

**Bam Bam:** served there. Well, that's not true.

That is not true. I

**Rooster:** bush. Schmitz.

**Gizmo:** No, . There's a, listen, there's a lot of good beer there. . Grinder. They're trying to take us down, our US Pennsylvania

**Grinder:** voice. No, man, I'm, but anyway, I've got your back. Swish your sweets Apple, swish your sweets. Like apple flavored, it was like a green wrapper. Disgusting, but also amazing at the same time.

you're just slamming, like, and they have a precut like hole,

**Gizmo:** so you don't have to snip it. No .

**Grinder:** It's like a flavored tip.

**Rooster:** Wow. Not

**Gizmo:** happening on the pod. No, we're not gonna be doing swer

**Bam Bam:** sweets

**Grinder:** on the pod. No, no. And and it's, and it's, and it's not long filler, right? Oh, it's

**Gizmo:** definitely short filler. Yeah. Yeah.

Machine made. I'm sure that's

**Rooster:** one way to drop an audience. .

**Grinder:** Oh, Keystone Light does a lot for that as well. Yeah. You know

**Bam Bam:** what I had a lot of, when I was in Philly, black and Tans. Oh yeah. Oh, very popular. Oh, they were great with harp. [00:58:00] Yeah. Yeah. Good call. That's the way to do

**Gizmo:** it. Absolutely. Harp and, uh, and a Yingling.

Yingling.

**Rooster:** What? No,

**Pagoda:** that's not black in town Place. Oh, wait a minute.

**Bam Bam:** What was the beer? That bass. Oh, yes, it's, he's right. Bass. Yes. Bass is great

**Grinder:** beer. It is a good beer. There's a, there's a, have you ever mixed, uh, bass with a Boddington's? No, I haven't. I love Barrington's Delicious. It's a delicious beer. Or a barrington's with a harp also.

I

**Pagoda:** haven't, I gotta try that. But I'm, I'm a huge Barrington fan.

**Grinder:** I know this. I want to

**Gizmo:** do Barringtons. Yeah, we we're gonna do that on the p It's a great

**Pagoda:** fall drink. This is such a creamy beer. Creamy.

**Rooster:** You know what else is really good that I used to love Anchor steam. Yeah. From San Fran. I think we talked about this in the past,

**Gizmo:** right?

Really delicious beer. It's so good. So we're coming into the last third here, boys of the Underground Maduro. I think it's really good.

**Bam Bam:** It's good. But for me it stayed very consistent. [00:59:00] Has the umph pheasant come for me? Um, enjoying it. You know,

**Gizmo:** I, I was thinking about my comment. I think what I've been doing, I've been pulling on it a little more than I usually do.

Mm-hmm. because I'm just enjoying the smoke output. Yeah. So I think that's probably contributing to, I'm sure it is. I'm just making a little more, a little more hot, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I'm just pulling

**Bam Bam:** on it more. It's a nice, consistent smoke.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. So I got a complaint. I'm curious if you guys are, uh, on the same page with me here.

I'm, uh, incredibly irritated. I am tired of being asked for tips everywhere I go on at every transaction. Tips you mean? I had a roof put on my house. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. And the guy asked me if I wanted to tip the roofers.

**Bam Bam:** Which guy? The, the

**Gizmo:** owner of the roofing company? No, the person like doing the billing.

Oh, boy. And I'm like, no, I'm, I was like, why would I do that? Like, factor it in your price. Yeah. No. Panera Bread. You go to Panera Bread. You talk to this [01:00:00] person, they're like irritated. You're there. They're mad. You're ordering your, you're, you know, pick, you picked two, someone at

**Bam Bam:** Panera

**Gizmo:** asked you for a tip.

You can't transact automatic. You can't transact without making a tip to decision. Yeah. You put zero. So I put zero. But they stare at you. They see what you're doing. That's okay. It's, I, I feel immense guilt. No.

**Pagoda:** During the pandemic, I did tip right, because I think those were extraordinary times. But I'm back to zero tipping.

Yeah. Gotta talk about and turn it around and there's a 20% right in front of you and there's small little zero on the

**Bam Bam:** side. So giving, giving a gratuity, a gratuity is always earned. I agree. So it depends on, I, if you're at a retail establishment like a Panera Bread, and if they make good eye contact and they're friendly and they're very helpful, a hundred percent, that person will get a tip from me.

But if they. Not paying attention to you and they're rushing you and getting, trying to move you along. No tip. Yeah. It's that simple. All right, so

**Rooster:** what do you feel about this? This is a new thing that's [01:01:00] been happening a lot and it's at the restaurants, and it's a lot of different places now, the pr your, uh, credit card processing company, right, charges the company, or let's say if I'm the, you know, you are my client and you, you buy something, there's a processing fee.

There's a processing fee that I

**Gizmo:** pay. Yeah. Right. Two to

**Rooster:** 4%. Two to 4%. Amex is a little bit higher. Yeah. Visa, MasterCard is about two and a half percent. So now what they're doing is they're giving vendors free equipment, charging them a higher processing fee, and that processing fee gets passed on to the.

**Gizmo:** Oh boy.

**Rooster:** Right. So you go to a restaurant and she hands me, this was the other day, she hands us two bills. If you want to pay cash, it's this price. If you want to pay by a credit card, it's gonna be the, the well, the tax amount is, is equal on both. Yeah, sure. But you pay a 4% processing fee, so they're passing on the [01:02:00] processing fee to

**Gizmo:** the consumer, which is technically, by the way, it's illegal.

It's against their agreement with Wow. The credit card processors like Amex. Obviously when you sign up to be an Amex merchant, you can't charge people more money who are, are doing a, uh, a non cash transaction because then why would people wanna, Use their Amex. Right. Right. So it's, first off, it, it's, it's unethical, but it is against their agreement.

But this shit drives me crazy. I don't know how they're getting away with this. I don't know either. I've never heard of that

**Bam Bam:** or experienced

**Gizmo:** that. You'll, you'll, I've seen service charges. Yeah. 3% service charge, 5% service charge.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah, it's fine. I pay that.

**Rooster:** No, but that's, I'll reduce it from the processing fee.

It's

**Gizmo:** on the business.

**Rooster:** They're charging you on top of the, the sales tax. They're charging you another 4%. Oh, wow. It's an add another 18 or 20% gratuity.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. That just takes a phone call.

**Gizmo:** Oh, wow. To who are

**Bam Bam:** you gonna call? Consumer reports, Ghostbusters, [01:03:00] who you go to call, who are you gonna Consumer affairs?

You call Consumer affairs.

**Gizmo:** I mean, I, I, I'm just, uh, you send me their, Having, having been in Europe and stuff. I mean, it's not how different, the culture is there with no tips. People are paid well, it's factored in. Yeah. It's just, I don't understand why we can't get this right here for non-service tipping.

Makes no sense to me. That's crazy. I'm a proponent of no tipping. Yeah. Uh, yeah.

**Rooster:** I would definitely be in for that. Pay your, pay your employees a higher salary so they don't have to. And if the service is exceptional, we'll go above and beyond. And, and tip always, I'm a great tip

**Gizmo:** or man,

**Bam Bam:** always, always, always.

So that's a great, that's a great point. Above and beyond. It's worth

**Gizmo:** a tip because even

**Rooster:** if you get shitty service, they still expect an 18 to 20%

**Bam Bam:** tip. No. So I, I, I really, they're on performance. I mean, I, I take the Mrs. Bam Bama for. How's the service? Is it good they got tip? If it's not, do

**Gizmo:** you

**Rooster:** ever, do you ever tip less than less than 15% even if the

**Gizmo:** [01:04:00] service is shitty?

No. None of us do. None of us will do that. None of none of us will do

**Bam Bam:** that. Yeah, because it's ingrained in you, right?

**Gizmo:** So like you feel bad. Yeah. Like it actually takes away, like even if the service is bad, I have this weird guilt thing with it that even if I'm treated like absolute shit, I'm still gonna tip 15%.

So here's one

**Bam Bam:** little thing. If I go to an establishment over and over and over for a bunch of years and I love it there, I will be generous with tipping Me too. Because I want to keep them happy and they know me.

**Gizmo:** Yeah, they take care of you. Yeah,

**Bam Bam:** yeah, yeah. But there, there you kind of want to tip and take care of them.

And the places that you continue to frequent are usually very good in the services, usually. Excellent. So you gotta, that's why you

**Pagoda:** go there. You gotta make sure that, uh, the establishment is actually passing on the tips to

**Grinder:** the service. I hand,

**Bam Bam:** I hand the every server cash. That's the way to do it. Yeah.

Cash to never in a credit card.

**Pagoda:** Yeah. Yeah. Because what's happening is, uh, a lot of the restaurants have really increased the wages of the people working there, especially during the pandemic, because [01:05:00] they cannot find people Retention. Yeah. For retention. So they've really increased that. But what they're doing in turn is

**Gizmo:** it's taking the tips they're

**Pagoda:** keeping, they're keeping the tips.

Is

**Gizmo:** that legal? No. I

**Pagoda:** don't know. Yeah. I don't know how that works. Don't ask

**Gizmo:** me. Definitely not. I mean, unless they're making the, unless they're making the customer aware that the tip is going to the restaurant. That's not a. Agreed. That's crazy. Yeah. Like, I like, you know, to your point and all of our points, like if I'm getting exceptional service at a place that really gave us a great night, if I take, you know, Mrs.

Gizmo out, I'll tip 25, 30%. No question. Yeah. No question about it. No question. That's the, if I'm treated well, no brain. Cause then I leave there and I'm, I feel better about every, the entire meal. And you're gonna go back and I'm gonna go back. Yeah.

**Pagoda:** Because I'll want serve you any day and ask

**Gizmo:** Grinder what your I

**Grinder:** would be terrified if I were a server at your table.

My

**Gizmo:** table. Yeah. Why?

**Grinder:** You just, you got high standards and you're quick to call out. Bullshit. You know, I'll get 'em the Don [01:06:00] Julio. Hell . Yeah. .

**Gizmo:** Yeah. I do. I I do have a low tolerance for stuff. Bullshit. That's a good

**Bam Bam:** story. What's that? The, uh, tequila that you were served? That wasn't actually what you said. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** Tequila or baen? It was tequila. They said it was something. I thought they said it was 42. I knew it was, or, uh, uh. They said it was Don ju ne I knew it wasn't okay. And then after some real arguing Yeah. Um,

**Bam Bam:** found they were wrong. Yeah. They were wrong. And they admitted it. They

**Grinder:** admitted it. Yeah. So my philosophy on tipping, um, I'm beginning to realize that tipping is not as, like the way it's being manipulated is not as, like I always been a generous tipper.

Um, but I just don't, I don't have tolerance for an aptitude anymore. And if I don't get the service that I want or if I don't, if my order's wrong or anything like that, I won't tip you. Right. You know. Fuck you. Yeah. At all. I'm sorry for me. No, I agree. I [01:07:00] agree. And um, You know, to, to Baba's point, you gotta earn it.

Uh, one of the things that's frustrating for me is I can't get an Uber ride anymore because all the Uber drivers are doing like Uber Eats and DoorDash because they're getting fucking tipped because it's ingrained in our culture to, to tip your server. Yeah. And you have this guy bringing your food and you're thinking, oh, he's my server.

No, he's just an Uber driver. , yes. I don't tip my Uber driver. Do you guys tip your I don't never, I don't tip him. I

**Bam Bam:** tip my Uber driver. I don't tip the, I don't tip him. I don't tip the Uber driver for

**Grinder:** food or, or being, you know, why I don't tip my Uber driver? Because I started using Uber when Uber was very, very new and tipping was never part of the equation.

Oh, they added it and they added it later. So I grew up, not grew up using Uber, but I, I started using Uber very frequently because I was traveling a lot and I never had a tip. And I will say, now it's asking for a tip. No, I, I've never, I've never tipped you. I'm not gonna start tipping you just because you're asking for it.

So I've had

**Bam Bam:** some exceptional Uber drivers. Right. [01:08:00] And I have tipped them. Yeah. So they'll offer me a hand wipe, they'll give water. They'll gimme a mint and a water, and pretty decent conversation. And just not looking at the road. That guy should get something. Cause I enjoy it. It makes, I enjoy the ride

**Grinder:** more.

I, I tip, tip you more when you don't, they

**Rooster:** hand you the mint and then you put it in your mouth. . Well,

**Grinder:** if you're, if you're very chatty, it's in a rapper. .

**Gizmo:** Yeah. See, I'm, I'm in Grindr's camp. If they're chatty with me, I, I get it. I don't want

**Grinder:** to talk to you, dude. I don't, don't want to like, know your story. I don't care.

I don't mind that.

**Gizmo:** I don't see. But Uber now, Uber now when you sign, when you sign up for the ride, you could tell them your preferences. Yeah. So I always go quiet and cold. I want meet, I want quiet and cold. I want it quiet.

**Rooster:** I want it cold

**Gizmo:** in the car. Ac crank ac on the front.

**Bam Bam:** I do too when I'm traveling with the family.

Yeah. Oh, I end up sitting in front. No, you do, do you do them when we travel with the kids? Yeah. Because there's, you know, I'm, I'm upfront.

**Gizmo:** So boys, we are coming in the end of our evening here. I want to do, [01:09:00] uh, formal liquor, but non-alcoholic ratings. Yeah. On both beers. All right, boys. Let's, uh, let's rate the bes.

Bam. Bam. You're up. I'm giving it a seven.

**Bam Bam:** Seven

**Gizmo:** pagoda. Seven grinder. Uh, seven. I'm gonna give it an eight. Rooster. Yeah. Seven. Okay. The formal liquor rating? Well, no. On the be non-alcoholic is a 7.2, but Gz Y eight is pretty good. Cause I thought it was, I thought it was pretty good. I think it's one notch.

You're you're getting a preview of what I'm gonna do in the Guinness, but I think it's like one notch below the Guinness for me. And I generally like Becks beer. Yeah. You know, I, I like Becks regular bill beer, so. Right. So let's keep moving. Let's do the, uh, the Guinness Non-alcoholic. The Guinness.

**Bam Bam:** Bam. Bam.

You're up. Guinness gets an eight from me. Okay. Delicious. Chocolatey. Really, really good. Easy to

**Grinder:** drink. Okay.

**Gizmo:** Same here. Eight. Eight grinder. Eight. Eight. I'm going nine on that one, boys. There you go. Going [01:10:00] nine. Yeah, me too. Nine. Nine. All right. Formal look at rating on that is an 8.4 outstanding. So a 7.2 for the BES and an 8.4 for the Guinness.

I think that, I think those ratings are perfect. I think those ratings are perfect. I'm, I'm glad we did this tonight. So we're coming in the end of the Drew Estate. Underground Maduro and Grand Toro. What are you guys thinking? Before we, uh, we, we rate

**Bam Bam:** this thing, you know what's crazy? I'm an inch down from the end, and usually at this point, for most new worlds, it's kind of hard to smoke.

Right. This is, I can take this all the way down and I would

**Gizmo:** say very most new worlds in this price range. Yeah. Hard to, in the, to finish in the last third get very difficult to fish. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not feeling like that

**Bam Bam:** a lot. Kuba would've thrown us at the wall by now. But this is, this is really

**Gizmo:** smooth.

Yeah. I think it's very good. What do you guys think?

**Grinder:** I think it's a good cigar. I mean, I, I'm enjoying it. I got a lot of flavor. I get some of the notes and the hints and the subtleties of a typical lega, [01:11:00] not as much, so it's a little lighter. Kind of like the beer we're drinking. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I'm very happy, very satisfied.

I'd smoke it again. I'd buy a box, a small box. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** 10 count. Perfect. I like 'em in the

**Rooster:** tub bowls. Yeah. I agree with your assessment. I mean, it's, it's like a younger brother to league number nine, very smokeable, um, for the price. Yeah. It's slammed worth it. Yeah, most definitely. Would I buy a box? I'd probably take one from Grinder's Box.

**Bam Bam:** I will say though, these, it's so, it's such a versatile cigar. You can take it with you anywhere. It's in the tube. Yeah. And that's, I think, gives it a little bit more credibility because you can have this, like, I don't play golf, but you can easily have this on a golf course. Absolutely. For the price that it is.

Have it in

**Grinder:** the car. This would be a great golf course to go.

**Gizmo:** Absolutely. You know, p always talks about it. You could smoke it in a hurricane, uh, to tornado. I think you could. This is, this would absolutely work there. [01:12:00] Yeah. This will work. The combustion's so good. So

**Bam Bam:** in the fall outside once Crisp with a fire.

Great. Yeah. Great smoke. Yeah. At a, at a

**Gizmo:** tailgate at Rock.

**Bam Bam:** It'll, it'll hold up. It'll hold up in a nice, chilly day. Yeah. While you're eating.

**Gizmo:** Chilly. Yeah. Chilly time. Chilly dog. All right, boys, you ready to give this thing the, uh, formal lizard rating? All right, rooster, you're up. I'm gonna give it an eight.

Okay. I'm also gonna give it an eight grinder. Eight. Okay. Pagoda

a seven. Okay. And bam,

**Bam Bam:** bam. I am also going at a seven.

**Gizmo:** Okay. Formal lizard rating on this thing is a 7.6. Right. That's, that's respectable. Very respectable. It's a, that's a price point. Absolutely. It's a recommend.

**Rooster:** Absolutely. That's, that's a fair rating for the cigar.

**Gizmo:** Yes. I think any lizard recommend Absolutely.

Have a couple of these in their humidor for the occasions that we talked about, you know, or you may fall in love with the [01:13:00] cigar,

**Bam Bam:** you know, the price and its easy access. It just makes it a

**Gizmo:** winner, I think. Absolutely. So boys, we did, uh, a great non-alcoholic night. I'm so glad we did that. I'm, I'm looking forward to the next one.

I wanna try more. Non-alcoholic beers as, uh, yeah, I'll get some as we go on. Yeah. Maybe some, some of the boutiquey ones. Yeah, we'll do some IPAs, some

**Grinder:** loggers. A lot of, I like independent brewers are making it like, like their own non-alcoholic. You go to like a, like a brew pub or something? Yeah, they'll have an NA on town.

Oh yeah.

**Rooster:** Yeah. I saw, we were at Lake Placid like not too long ago, and we went for a hike and we were kind of like towards the back of the, of the property where the deliveries coming there. There was a truck delivering cases and cases of athletic brewing non-alcoholic beer,

**Gizmo:** because that's all they make, the, the whole

**Rooster:** breweries based upon non-alcoholic.

Very

**Gizmo:** cool brews. Very cool. Yeah. So it's, you were having patching on, [01:14:00] and I'd love to hear too, from Lizard who don't drink like Rooster. Yeah. Uh, to let us know what their favorites are. You know, email us, tell us what to try. Um, most of us in the room, you know, we're, we're novices with non-alcoholic beer and I'm certainly really intrigued by this tonight.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's a revelation. It'd be great to get other recommendations Absolutely. From listeners. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. All right boys. So a 7.2 for the Bex non-alcoholic and 8.4 for the Guinness. Zero. A 7.6 for the Drew Estate Underground Madero in Grand Toro. Three ratings tonight. I think that's a, uh, I think that's a new one.

It's a record, especially with two, uh, two alcohols, so, excellent. Great night guys. Rooster, thanks for the, uh, un alcoholic Bruce, and, uh, we'll see you all next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com.

That's lounge lizards p o d.com. Don't [01:15:00] forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod.

We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.