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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica five. 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, senator, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some rum, talk about life, and, of course, have some laughs. So take this as your two hundred and twentieth 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 Cuba cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We return to a cigar we first reviewed four years ago.
Gizmo:We go through half wheels top 25 cigars from last year, and senator shares a crazy story from our lounge, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair eight years aged Don Poncho rum with h Upman Magnum 46. A Corona Gorda on the pod tonight from Cuba, boys, and it's a revisit. It's the h Upman Magnum 46.
Bam Bam:To someone's favorite cigar.
Senator:Oh, it used to be. Don't see them smoke these.
Gizmo:You know, that's 46 ring gauge cigar by five and five eighths inches long. And boys, it used to be my favorite cigar, and I really haven't reached for it in a long, long time.
Bam Bam:So can you say that it's no longer your favorite, really?
Gizmo:Yes. I will say that. Wow. I I absolutely will say that. Honestly, I'm happy to be doing this tonight for a couple reasons.
Gizmo:Number one, we're calling this a redux, but really, we reviewed this cigar on episode six. Wow.
Bam Bam:We were amateurs at that point.
Gizmo:Yeah. I mean, you know, as far as humidity and all those other factors yet.
Bam Bam:I'm feeling like an old boy tonight.
Gizmo:So really, we haven't smoked this cigar together for going on four years. So Yeah. We'll see how we'll see how it does tonight. I gotta say when we open this box so we just cracked this box tonight.
Bam Bam:Yep.
Gizmo:Box code for everybody out there is o e g April 22. So coming up on four years of age on this. We cracked this box. I gotta say the wrappers look freaking great,
Bam Bam:I I think that
Gizmo:the cigar is beautiful. It's in great shape. Has like a Just red hue to
Bam Bam:a touch of a maroon type thing happening. Like a risotto almost. Yeah. The wrapper's a little dimply, but it's okay. Overall though, handsome.
Gizmo:Yeah, I think so. Alright, boys. Let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. This is the point at which my nerves
Bam Bam:Wide open draw.
Gizmo:Praying to God that it's not plugged As we talk about Cuban Corona Gordas and small ring gauge cigars out of Cuba are the most prone to problems. Outstanding. Mine's perfect. Dude. Thank the good Lord.
Gizmo:Yeah?
Bam Bam:Same. I think we're in for a treat tonight, boys.
Gizmo:A lot of cedar here.
Chef Ricky:A lot of cedar, very savory.
Bam Bam:I'm getting a little raisin, some kind of a dried fruit thing happening. No cedar.
Chef Ricky:I'm getting spice and tomato, which is what I usually get when it's cedar folk. No
Gizmo:fucking ketchup?
Chef Ricky:No, not ketchup. Umami, Spiced like savory tomato, almost if you were to take a sniff of a Bloody Mary before the vodka.
Senator:All the greatest hits, dried fruit,
Gizmo:umami. No
Bam Bam:citrus. Citrus.
Chef Ricky:I miss you guys.
Rooster:The draw is wide and open. Excellent.
Bam Bam:Very good.
Rooster:And as far as notes, I don't know, getting some cedar, but I'm not getting any tomato and umami and any of that sauce.
Senator:Red tomato, green tomato?
Bam Bam:No umami. Red tomato. But a little bit of raisin,
Gizmo:I'm getting. Yeah, I'm
Chef Ricky:not getting anything sweet here.
Rooster:Like some cigars on the cold brew, you instantly get hit with that figgy note, that dried fig.
Bam Bam:That's kind of
Rooster:I'm not getting that obvious.
Bam Bam:I'm getting something in that realm. Fantastic. Yeah.
Gizmo:I'm very excited, boys. Let's light this thing. The h Upman Magnum 46 from Cuba. Again, it's a 46 ring gauge cigar by five and five eights inches long. Box code one more time is o E g, April 22.
Gizmo:Coming up on four years of age on it. Provincial factory on that. I don't know if I've ever seen a box of Magnum 46 come out of the Upman factory. Most of them come out of a couple of provincials. And, of course, the shares of Vittola with some other prominent Cuban cigars, namely the Cohiba Siglo four is the same one.
Gizmo:Delicious. And the punch punch. Oh, yeah. Right? See, that's what I remember.
Gizmo:I haven't smoked this in a long time.
Bam Bam:This is a primetime cigar right now.
Gizmo:Yeah. This is
Senator:Oh, cocoa. Yeah. It's ready for primetime like is on a rooftop. Correct.
Bam Bam:That fateful night.
Gizmo:Are you trying to are you trying to ruin my mood? Oh, this is really great on the light.
Bam Bam:That night will go down in the annals of lizard dumps.
Gizmo:That'll be the first episode of lizards after dark on Patreon. Wow. I'm getting like a bready thing.
Chef Ricky:Carbohydrate? It's giving a lot. I'm getting some nuttiness. Mhmm. I'm now getting that that figgy sort of raisin Getting in a light cocoa.
Chef Ricky:It's all there's a lot happening.
Rooster:It's little bit of spice. A little bit of cocoa.
Gizmo:There's little bit
Senator:of No spice for
Rooster:not woody.
Bam Bam:Are you getting any pepper at all, Giz?
Rooster:No. Not a pepper.
Gizmo:It's a Like a baking spice.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Okay.
Gizmo:But I'm not really getting much of it. Mhmm. Mine right now is a very well rounded, like Beautifully balanced. Dry, like, breakfast biscuit.
Rooster:Yeah. Like, the aroma on the on the burn line, that aroma has a little like, a
Senator:hint of spice for sure.
Bam Bam:Where I'm getting so for me, that burn line is like a baked good
Rooster:of some kind.
Gizmo:I'm getting the spice though.
Bam Bam:A 100% a baked good.
Gizmo:But are you getting the spice through the retro?
Bam Bam:No. It's very creamy
Gizmo:and smooth for me.
Chef Ricky:It's at the very, very tail end for me. It's not at the
Gizmo:front end But it's of so pleasant. Right?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. It's not unpleasant.
Gizmo:Not at all.
Bam Bam:No sharp edges.
Gizmo:Oh, man. This is a great cigar.
Rooster:Great draw.
Bam Bam:Let me venture a guess on the retail for this right now.
Gizmo:Right now, what do you think it is?
Rooster:I'd say like 28.
Bam Bam:I was gonna go 24 to 26.
Gizmo:You're right in the ballpark. 25 to 35.
Bam Bam:35.
Gizmo:Was seeing them online. I was seeing them online because of tax, and you can find them online. You know, singles, fivers, etcetera, a little more pricey. Generally, you're gonna find them between 26 and 28. So you guys Can I just
Rooster:walk into Cuba with a barrel of oil
Gizmo:and
Rooster:just
Gizmo:give me some boxes at this point? Right?
Rooster:Run the power grid for, like, two hours.
Bam Bam:That's not nice.
Gizmo:Some magnum 40 sixes.
Chef Ricky:Let me do a shift on the bicycle to run the power.
Bam Bam:That's not nice as well.
Gizmo:A box of these right now going for anywhere between 7 and 800, I'd say. Nice. If you get lucky, they're on sale somewhere. You might get them for $6.50, $6.75.
Bam Bam:Look. If they're smoking like this, it's worth every dollar.
Senator:And if BAM's selling them, what do they go for? Like, 2,400?
Gizmo:They're four or five x that.
Bam Bam:I'd go $2,100.
Rooster:7 to 800, that's like $30 a stick.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's $28 for 25 cigars? Yeah. That's a lot.
Rooster:More than a D4 I guess, or right in that range.
Bam Bam:I can't see it's got to be under a D4.
Senator:Yeah. Mean, D4 is going for at least 30 now.
Bam Bam:It's touching $30.32. This, no more than $28 max, think. I would hope.
Rooster:So this is in line with like a JL one that range.
Bam Bam:Yeah. A RAS maybe.
Gizmo:And this, by the way, I didn't mention that this is the same size as the Juan Lopez, Alexion number one. So we got the punch punch. We got the Solexio number one from Juan Lopez.
Rooster:Cohiba and
Gizmo:Cohiba Sigil four. Might be missing one too.
Bam Bam:It's a beautiful Vitola.
Gizmo:It feels great in the hand.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Chef Ricky:Yes. It's perfect.
Gizmo:I just I've always loved this cigar. I just really haven't been reaching for it. I've, obviously, I've gone on a run of Cohiba quite a bit, and I'm just smoking less Cubans.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:As I think we all are. Correct.
Rooster:I would say this is one of the better age upman cigars out there. Always loved an age upman 46.
Gizmo:Yep. And what's interesting about that statement is the reason why we're revisiting this is it performed very poorly when we reviewed it four years ago. Yeah. On episode six, it did not do it did not do very well. And I thought that the rating was not representative of really what a lot of our experiences have been with the cigar.
Gizmo:And I think a newer box code 22, 23, 24. Obviously, we have a 22 tonight. Would have gives it gives it a better shot, I think, than the nineteens.
Rooster:I bet that was a 2017.
Gizmo:It was a 19. A 19. Yeah. But, also, we didn't know about humidity and, like, dry box. Like, we weren't deep in the weeds on that stuff at that time.
Gizmo:No. You know?
Rooster:The cigar feels really nice in your hand.
Gizmo:It's so
Rooster:well balanced. It's elegant. It's just a great size.
Bam Bam:I
Senator:think the thing with this stick is construction has really been the only wild card. Half of them I feel like are plugged and when you have a nice open draw like this, they're usually really great. This is definitely one of the better constructed 90 got to four-six's. Be
Chef Ricky:one of
Bam Bam:the better boxes that we've seen to have one, two, three, five cigars performing well tonight.
Senator:Razor sharp burn even. Beautiful looks great.
Gizmo:And when I looked at the the bundle today so these come we're pulling this out of a dress box tonight. We'll talk about the other configurations in a moment because senator, obviously, is very passionate about one of the configurations of Magnum 46. But this kind of wheel that comes out of the slide lid box when you look at the feet of all the cigars, you can often tell which ones are going to be problematic just by the look of them if they're too packed or whatever. But they all look pretty good. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:You know? So, like, it's not like we had to dig through a box. Like, remember when we did the aspendidos and I was telling you that I was weighing them Yep. To see how many grams they were before we came in? Like, prank like, for a cigar that expensive
Bam Bam:Next time, can you just videotape yourself doing that,
Gizmo:please? Yeah.
Bam Bam:Because that's that's gold.
Gizmo:Well, that's why we had a good experience because a
Senator:lot of He's times a drug dealer when they walk in
Rooster:his house.
Bam Bam:Also correct.
Rooster:I was wondering why do you have that scale?
Gizmo:And the little baggies.
Bam Bam:Pablo Gomez.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. It could be a beautiful opening video for the video podcast
Gizmo:There you go.
Chef Ricky:If that ever happens. Sure.
Gizmo:Me just weighing cigars?
Chef Ricky:Yeah, the preparation behind it all.
Senator:Yeah, great invitation for the DA to come banging down his door.
Chef Ricky:They already took his global entry, what else could
Gizmo:they see?
Chef Ricky:That's true.
Gizmo:Next is prison.
Bam Bam:I'm looking at everyone's cigar. Everyone's got a fantastic burn line. Just this is a great night.
Gizmo:I got to say the smoke output is excellent. Excellent smoke output for a cigar of this size. It's like perfect for me.
Senator:The thing that's nice with this Yeah. You you have a bit of a different experience when this is younger versus with at least a few years of age because there's a creaminess right now that only with some age you get on this cigar where I feel like when it's younger, you get, like, more spice and, like, baking spice
Chef Ricky:Mhmm.
Senator:But not the creaminess that kind of rounds it out. So I I feel like right now we're getting this at its best.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Is anybody else getting, like, some pretty decent levels of salt on here? I'm getting a good a good amount of salt.
Senator:Not yet. Not yet? For me, just faint.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Maybe it was my dinner.
Gizmo:Yeah. Not I wouldn't say salt.
Bam Bam:Not yet.
Rooster:Yeah. Can I cut it? Are you talking about like the Cuban twang
Chef Ricky:kind thing? It's not much of a twang. It's just I'm getting a little salty salty taste at the moment, but no twang.
Senator:I'm getting that too. Just for me, it's
Bam Bam:fine. Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. So this cigar was released well before the revolution, well before 1960. It comes in a bunch of different configurations. Of course, we talked about the slide lid box of 25 cigars that our cigars tonight.
Bam Bam:What year was it?
Gizmo:Came out of pre 1960. I don't know what specific year, but it's before the revolution.
Bam Bam:Got
Chef Ricky:it. That that's not that's I too was gonna say, is that too young to consider
Gizmo:a rooster joke? I thought you said 1860.
Bam Bam:It would have went over better.
Rooster:Actually, 1960 is closer to
Gizmo:Bam '2, let's not forget.
Rooster:Just just for the record, I was born in '67.
Bam Bam:That's an edit.
Gizmo:No. It's not.
Bam Bam:We're gonna perpetuate this, so that's a fucking edit.
Gizmo:It also comes currently in a display box of 15 aluminum tubos in five cardboard packs of three. We'll talk about those in a second. Those were introduced in 2009. And for Rooster, the slide lid box of 50 cigars was unfortunately discontinued in 2012. Wow.
Gizmo:Which is that's a bummer.
Bam Bam:That's a big bummer.
Gizmo:Because pulling a 50 cab of these out did you ever have a 50 cab of mag 40 sixes?
Rooster:Not of the 46. No. What about cojones of 100?
Bam Bam:That would
Gizmo:be that would be
Chef Ricky:Cojones or cajones?
Gizmo:Cajon. Cajon. Cajon. Cajon.
Chef Ricky:Was like, woah.
Gizmo:What's going on?
Bam Bam:Chef's on point tonight.
Gizmo:So, senator, we've talked about this before, but obviously, for the listener tuning in who loves the Magnum 46, maybe somebody who just found us, we've had a couple discussions about how great the aluminum tubos have been of recent runs of these cigars. And you found a bunch at the Parque Central Hotel in Havana on the little cart.
Bam Bam:Single cigar that they had.
Senator:Oh, yeah. So the funny thing was, trip, this was maybe what, a couple years ago?
Gizmo:A year and
Bam Bam:a half. Year and
Senator:a half ago?
Gizmo:Yeah. I
Senator:think I was there like maybe a day early than you guys.
Bam Bam:That's true. That's correct.
Senator:And I went there maybe with Lizard Henrico, and I had bought a single Tubo, and I had looked through they had an open carton of 15 of these, and I, of course, like, I'm taking out the Tubos, opening them up, looking at the foot of each cigar to try to pick one that's gonna draw well. So I pick one, I smoke it, and I'm sitting there saying to myself, like, this has to be one of, if not the best mag 46 I've ever had. So fast forward the next day, then the rest of the guys arrive, and we end up back there, and I'm like, I'm telling you guys really should try these Tubos. Like, I was blown away. So similar, I start picking through them, checking the feet.
Senator:We all smoke one, and everyone is sitting there like, wow, this is really good. So I had asked the woman there. I'm like, are there any more of these tubos? And she's like, the only other ones would probably downstairs. They had this, like, display case down there.
Gizmo:Like right when you walk in the hotel. Exactly.
Senator:So she takes me down there. There's maybe, I don't know, three, four boxes of these tubos.
Bam Bam:And he grabs them all.
Senator:And the problem is that they're all still sealed. They haven't been open. So I had made friends with her the day before. Said, look, is there any way I can just cut these open, check them? People are gonna buy them.
Senator:She's like, fine. I'm not supposed to, but just do it. I'm sitting there probably for a half hour.
Gizmo:I watched this whole thing. The whole thing. There.
Senator:Yeah. Opening every single box, going through every single tube
Bam Bam:out I was enjoying myself while
Gizmo:I was doing it. Having, like it's nice to watch him work.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Senator:A rejects pile and, like, a pile of ones that we're gonna buy and buy By way,
Gizmo:it was like the I think the ratio was, like, one to five, I think. Right?
Senator:Or one to 10? There were so many that were, like, insanely tightly packed. There was no way they would draw. So I had picked out basically all the ones that looked like they would smoke well, and then we all split them up and we're smoking them well after the trip. They were great.
Rooster:You can only do this in Cuba. Correct. One out of five you're gonna pick Correct. After you open like four boxes. Unreal.
Gizmo:He must have opened 50. Unreal.
Senator:Usually, probably more than that.
Rooster:Totally. Must
Gizmo:have been. It might have been three or four packs of the 15, so it might have been 45 or 60. It's gotta be one of those.
Rooster:How many did you guys end
Chef Ricky:up with?
Gizmo:We each left with five. You had you had a couple more, I think.
Senator:Yeah. I probably took a few more, maybe eight. Mhmm.
Gizmo:And pagodas, of course, as we know, are in the New Jersey Transit lost and found. If anybody's looking for these
Bam Bam:See, that's a crime, man. This is brutal. True crime.
Gizmo:I think he lost, like, three of them.
Bam Bam:You should have put him on a pip that day.
Gizmo:He's been on a pip for
Rooster:about two years. At the customs or on the train?
Gizmo:No. He lost these on the train. He got them back here. Right. He was taking them to, like, a birthday party and then lost his left his case on the train.
Bam Bam:Which, by the way
Chef Ricky:I mean,
Gizmo:I can understand on his way back if he fall fell asleep. Going there. Fall asleep.
Bam Bam:Going there. Rooster, you're not taking a cigar like this to a birthday party.
Chef Ricky:I know.
Bam Bam:You're gonna go to your club in serenity, open that, and smoke it like an adult. Big mistake.
Rooster:It's Pagoda. Life.
Bam Bam:Life.
Senator:As Pagoda would say, he's here, you can't postpone happiness, ma'am.
Bam Bam:That's correct. Always gotta be abundant. Abundant.
Gizmo:We are off to a good start here, boys.
Bam Bam:This is incredible.
Gizmo:I mean, honestly, this is so I did a did a parallel burns. It's a series that Rob from FOH is doing on YouTube. I did a parallel burns between the FOH Spada Gorda and each of the six of us, think, were on the the panel on the video. I picked twenty eighteen. Each of us picked a different cigar.
Gizmo:And that twenty eighteen performed so poorly. I mean, Spotted Gorda wiped the floor with it. Of course, I'm sure everybody watching thought that I was just being a fabric of five homer, which literally wasn't true. I mean, there were some guys on there that were enjoying the mag 46 that they had chosen. It was the opposite of this.
Gizmo:I was fighting
Bam Bam:to keep
Gizmo:it lit. Draw was fine, but it was really not burning well. Flavor was off. This is really what I was looking for.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Beautiful cigar.
Rooster:This is what a Cuban cigar. That's what we look for.
Bam Bam:I agree. Just perfect.
Gizmo:So, boys, we have a lot to get to tonight. A lot. Mhmm. We're gonna start first with some news, and we're gonna open with some news from Habanos. Of course, we always talk about price increases, and I'm happy to report that this year's price increase, of course, because they can't skip a year of price increases now.
Gizmo:It's only an average of about 4% across the lines. So nothing crazy like we've talked about in the past ten, fifteen, 20% jumps. Obviously, I think it was '22, the cigar mageddon when, you know, stuff, you know, jumped 3400%. Some of the markets. But thankfully, most of the lines are not seeing more than a four to five to 6% increase.
Gizmo:I'll highlight some of the ones that are higher than that. So La Gloria Cubana is getting a 17% increase. Oh. K Dorsey, which I'm not surprised on this one, getting a 9% increase.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:So the reason why that is is I think they're trying to relaunch Kay Dorsey almost. Of course, there's some new cigars that have come out. They're celebrating the regional, you know, all that stuff with Kay Dorsey. Think I'm I'm not surprised to see that they're trying to squeeze a little more out of that. Ramon Ionis, little over 8% jump this year.
Gizmo:And I was happy to see Cohiba, 3%. Oh, wow.
Bam Bam:So Well, they're high enough.
Gizmo:Yeah. Exactly. But, you know, listen, I mean, Habanos has certainly shown that they don't really care about the price sensitivity of the consumer. So overall, I think it's a pretty modest and decent price increase this year.
Rooster:How about a decrease instead of an increase?
Gizmo:Yeah. Well, I don't think that's ever going to happen.
Bam Bam:It's like taxes. Never gonna get a decrease. Okay.
Gizmo:So here's another one that I saw. This one actually hits home for me. So an employee of a company called Best Cigar Prices. I don't know if you've ever gone to bestcigarprices.com. Nice website.
Gizmo:An employee of Best Cigar Prices stole 600 cigars, accessories, and company apparel during July and August of last year totaling almost $9,000. Daniel Brennan of Scranton, Pennsylvania. So what's crazy is where they're located in Drums PA is about eight minutes from where I grew up.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:And I all checks out. I've been there many, many times. It's a great pub, by the way. So if you're ever if you're ever traveling on Interstate 80 or Interstate 81, Okay, in the Pennsylvania world, quite literally, where 80 And 81 cross, It's right there. Cigar What's prices.
Gizmo:And they have a it's their warehouse is there, and attached to the warehouse is best cigar pub. And what's crazy is Lizard Eric here from our club has actually performed there.
Bam Bam:Oh, wow.
Gizmo:He's done actually, like, an acoustic, you know, singer songwriter set. So it's a pretty nice place, great food, great bar, nice humidor. You know, of course, the big warehouse of the you can get all this stuff shipped to you, but thought that was pretty wild, stealing almost $10,000 from your employer.
Chef Ricky:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Not very nice. No. And this one was real wild. I don't I don't think we talked about this one, guys, but this is crazy. So the owners of all American tobacco, right, who was, you know, cigar importer, were shot and killed by an employee, both of them.
Gizmo:On Monday, January 12, Chuck Garagi, 67, and Richard Garagi, 72, the co owners of All American Tobacco LLC were fatally shot at their company's offices in Boynton Beach, Florida. They're one of the largest importers of handmade cigars dealing with logistics of importing some of the cigars to The US from factories in Central And Latin America. So they're like a middleman. That's why we haven't heard of the specific company, but they serve a lot of companies according Aganorsalief, AJ Fernandez, Altadis, La Aurora, Aleva, and many, many others. According to the Boynton Beach Police Department, two brothers were shot by Nassar Dwala, 39 years old, of West Palm Beach.
Gizmo:He's the brother of a former employee who stole more than 5 and a half million dollars What? From the company, and the brother is currently awaiting sentencing. So He's pled guilty to six felonies relating to the theft.
Bam Bam:Can I try and understand this? Yes. So a guy steals 5 point something whatever million dollars from a company. Probably gets fired and charges are being pressed. This guy's brother comes and kills his two bosses.
Bam Bam:Yes. His brother's two bosses.
Senator:The people that he already stole $5,000,000 from.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah. The brother's So coming
Gizmo:they took 5 and a half million and then killed the two guys.
Senator:Took their lives after it. I mean, that's insane.
Bam Bam:What a tragedy.
Gizmo:I mean, brutal. That's awful. So apparently, Chuck, one of the brothers, planned to meet with the brother of the thief on Monday afternoon of that week to discuss getting some of the money back. So I guess they were trying to
Bam Bam:still get some. Amazing.
Gizmo:According to police, during the meeting shortly before 4PM, Dwala pulled a gun from his waistband and fatally shot both brothers at the company's Boynton Beach offices. He then later ran across the street and got into a white Cadillac SUV less than an hour later. Citizen reported a suspicious vehicle about two and a half miles away. Traffic stop was initiated and they got the guy. Incredible.
Gizmo:So All American filed lawsuit against the brother the two brothers, excuse me, and five others claiming that the company had been defrauded. So these guys obviously were running a pretty serious ring stealing 5 and a half million bucks. So I guess the one that's in prison or is going to be in prison at this point well, they're both gonna be in prison now. Yeah. But he had access to the company's checking account so that he could pay his vendors.
Gizmo:So I guess what he was doing is he was writing unauthorized checks either to companies he was setting up or to himself, totaling just under 5 and a half million bucks. That's a lot of money. So then I guess the guy also had a $125,000 wired to his personal account through the payroll company. Oh. Thinking that they would never get caught.
Bam Bam:Bonus. It's not obvious enough.
Gizmo:I mean, it's That's pretty tragic. Wow. So on January 15, Sadman Diwala was sentenced to eighteen years in state prison for his crimes. So shout out to Charlie at Halfwheel, who I would say is the leader in these kind of crazy stories and investigating them. He's the guy that brought the Chenji stuff to the forefront with the Altida story.
Gizmo:So shout out to Charlie and Halfwheel for continuing to report on these wild news stories in great detail. So, I mean, just think about that. I mean, somebody steals from you, two brothers steal from you with their five friends and then you get killed for
Bam Bam:it. Correct.
Gizmo:All right boys, let's pivot now.
Bam Bam:Energy love is a little low boys.
Chef Ricky:What's going on here?
Gizmo:We'll get there. It's time to go to our pairing and we are back with Well I've been drinking it all the time.
Bam Bam:I know you. The whole time.
Gizmo:You didn't you didn't call out turpentine yet. No. That's a good sign.
Bam Bam:Oh, no.
Gizmo:So we have a Panamanian rum that senator was mentioning a different age age spirit that he was mentioning a few weeks ago when he went to Panama, his trip to Panama. We have the Don Poncho eight year aged rum from Panama. Mhmm. So tell us the story on this, senator.
Senator:Yeah. So I was sitting in the LCDH in Panama City, and this Spaniard walks in, and he asks the owner's son who's behind the bar for Don Pancho some year, and the kid's like, we don't have that. The guy like really aggressively says to him, like, what do you mean you don't have that? Why don't you have that? And the kid's totally taken aback.
Senator:As he's trying to figure out what to say, the guy's like, Relax, I'm just fucking with you, it's my brand. And he's like, I'm good friends with your father, he's like, You carry everything in our line except that one. He's like, That's why I was asking. So he asked to pour the eighteen year. So I'm fascinated here.
Senator:I'm like, Don Pancho. I've never heard of this brand. I Google it. I'm like, Panamanian rum. Later, connect the dots is I'm texting Giz and the guys about this, that he's the guy behind Mariolita that we like Don Don Pancho blended that.
Senator:And so I had chatted with the guy a bit and asked what I should try, and he's like, try the eighteen year, and it was excellent. So I immediately told the guys we have to do it on the pod. The store we had recently placed an order from didn't have the 18, but they had the eight. So that's what we're trying. Very curious how this performs, but what an amazing story.
Senator:Now Don Poncho, because we talked a bit a bit about him on the Mariolita episode.
Gizmo:He's a Cuban legend in the rum game.
Senator:Just some history on him because I think
Bam Bam:Okay. Let me put my glass back down.
Gizmo:Well, let's alright. Let's drink it, boys. Yes. Before you get into that, cheers.
Senator:Good to
Gizmo:see you. Cheers. And by the way, we have a birthday in the room tonight while we have our glasses up. That's right. Mister Rooster's birthday.
Bam Bam:Oh, boy. Happy birthday, young man.
Rooster:Salute. Cheers.
Senator:Happy 100. Correct.
Gizmo:So I've actually before we get to that, senator, since we're cheersing, I do have a gift for our friend Rooster. I tried to pull something out that I was hoping he never had. So we'll see if that's the case.
Chef Ricky:Good luck with that.
Gizmo:We'll see if I did a good job.
Senator:Don Especial. Is this pre 1800 or
Bam Bam:oh, that is the first cigar.
Gizmo:Ship that JC Newman recovered those those cigars from.
Rooster:Have you ever had that? I've had the Robusto size in this.
Gizmo:Oh, the Robusto. You haven't had that one?
Rooster:Not this. Okay. Good.
Senator:Thank you.
Gizmo:It's the La Essepcion. La Essepcion. Which is a
Senator:Oh, I remember when you got a box of those.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's a brand of Cupid cigars that's not it's kind of an offshoot of Nice. I don't it's not Monte Cristo. Very rare. It's a very rare one, and this is the Italian regional that they put out.
Bam Bam:So An aristocrat.
Senator:Age limited and rare.
Rooster:Only the second Italian regional, I think. The Mantua was the first one or this was the first one. Mantua is the second one.
Gizmo:Happy birthday, my friend.
Senator:Thank you.
Bam Bam:Yes, happy birthday, Rooster.
Rooster:Thank you. Looking forward to smoke this. Amazing.
Gizmo:Thank you, guys. Of course, I had it a couple of years ago. Was fantastic. I got two of them. So this rum is amazing.
Chef Ricky:Flavor is amazing.
Gizmo:Is this amazing?
Bam Bam:Again, another incredible rum. Is there any point to drinking scotch ever again? Like, why would you want to drink a scotch?
Senator:So I'm just going to tell you a quick story on exactly what you just said.
Bam Bam:I'm sorry.
Senator:Last night I was at our lounge, and lizard Felix was next to me, and I was drinking some of the Abuelo seven year that we loved, And he's like, oh, man. I used to drink that all the time in Costa Rica. He's like, can I have some? I said, of course. He pours himself a glass, takes two sips, and he looks at me and he goes, should I ever drink bother drinking scotch?
Bam Bam:There you go.
Senator:This is a guy who, by the way, exclusively drinks scotch. Yep. Only loves single malt Yeah. Anytime he goes on a trip somewhere, he brings back Havana Club, he just gives it away, he doesn't even want it. He was blown away, and he had to be up early the next morning.
Senator:He's like, I'm just gonna have one glass, and he's, another one, two glasses, three glass he couldn't stop. Like, it's so delicious.
Bam Bam:It's incredible. Now what I love about this, I know you're gonna go into the whole history. So this tonight. Yeah. It's reminiscent of the experience with the abuelo rum, but it is a bit lighter in viscosity.
Bam Bam:But the aroma is much more powerful on the nose than the abuelo is.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, it's butterscotch.
Bam Bam:Yeah, if you get your nose close to that spirit, the aroma is intoxicating. It's intoxicating.
Gizmo:I feel like we are con I feel like every rum that we've been drinking, we are taking one step closer to what we expect from Cuban rum.
Chef Ricky:Oh yeah. If this was a cologne, I'd wear it. It smells that I mean, can
Rooster:use it as a cologne.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. It's delicious. And
Senator:a very
Bam Bam:like the abuelo, a slight touch of heat, which I fell in love with with that, that I'm now in love with with this. But it's so smooth, and it's really balanced nicely. Because for me, I get a nutty finish on this, and then it's a peanut finish for me more than anything else. Great call outs.
Rooster:Spot on. Spot on.
Bam Bam:You gotta shut his mic off.
Gizmo:It's his birthday, I can't do that.
Bam Bam:That's also true. But really, and honey. For me, the sweet note is honey. The earthy nuttiness is peanut and it's balanced with that touch of heat. Another home run.
Bam Bam:That's off the charts.
Chef Ricky:I'm a refrain from what I was gonna call out because it's gonna be like tomato.
Bam Bam:Uh-oh. But
Gizmo:it's not No. For Well, you're teasing tomato out
Chef Ricky:of mom's I'm not getting tomato
Gizmo:out I'm not. I'm not.
Chef Ricky:No. This this isn't that wacky. So for the last two weeks, I've been vegan.
Bam Bam:I'm gonna have to call the Chef Association of America. If there is such
Chef Ricky:a thing. And I've been I have been avoiding sugar. Right? So I have I've been using coconut sugar. And there is a an aroma here that I get in coconut sugar that I find now that I've been getting in every great rum that we've been having.
Chef Ricky:So when I get it on the nose, it excites me because I know I'm in for a treat. And Ben, to your point with the spice that's coming on this eight year, it balances it just perfectly because it does it does deliver a lot of sweetness, but that spice brings it back in.
Bam Bam:Dare I say it's a touch more sophisticated, just a touch more than the Abuelo seven.
Gizmo:What are you looking at?
Rooster:How many what was that? Eight, ten, twelve? Seven. Seven?
Gizmo:Yeah. Wow.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It feels more elegant because it's so easy to drink as the Abuelo was. There's just something about this I can't put my finger on.
Senator:So I'll say this. With Abuelo, think Abuelo is a little bit smoother than this. Really? But I do think that this is, despite looking a little lighter in color than the Abuelo, like a little fuller flavor, like in in the flavor that it delivers. Not necessarily body like Abuelo is more viscous like you were saying before, but the flavor profile is a little bit bolder
Bam Bam:than Abuela. Wanna do a side by side. I'd love to do that.
Gizmo:I agree with you on that. I I think that this it it, you know, it's kinda stands alone, but right next to the Abuela seven. I mean, they both have their application. Totally. And I mean, it seems like it's gonna be a battle.
Gizmo:What are you gonna pull?
Bam Bam:Are they not interchangeable?
Senator:Here's here's where I'm gonna introduce one part of the history that I completely left out when we did Abuelo. He was involved in Abuelo. I'm not surprised. Why? Guy is basically involved in every single run that we love.
Senator:Havana Club, Mariolita, Abuelo, and his own line Don Pancho.
Bam Bam:Is this true?
Gizmo:No joke. And don't forget, it it extends beyond Havana Club in Cuba because Havana Club people make a lot of the higher end rums.
Bam Bam:He's a genius.
Senator:So I'll just read a quick thing on this guy. Don Pancho, whose real name is Francisco Jose Fernandez Perez, a is legendary figure in the rum industry, more than fifty years dedicated to learning, researching, developing, and producing rum. He was born in Cuba, as we know, where he learned the tradition of Cuban style rum from his mentor, Ramon Fernandez Corrales. The guy graduated as a biochemist and microbiologist in Cuba, and he basically got into rum at a time when the term master blender didn't even exist, so he was kinda doing this before this was like a formal title or role like it is now. Initially, he worked in Cuba for forty years for Havana Club.
Senator:Subsequently, he moved to Panama, where he played a crucial role in the success of Ron Abuelo. Crazy. And then and it says led the rejuvenation of the Las Cabras distillery, which is where Abuelo is made from currently. And then eventually went on to start his own line, Don Pancho, which has expressions of eight eighteen, which is the one that I tried before, and a thirty year. Wow.
Senator:Which we'll have to try at some point.
Gizmo:That sounds like a special occasion.
Senator:Oh, yeah. And so it's like this guy is the single greatest rum distiller in history.
Bam Bam:Have to
Gizmo:issue a
Bam Bam:mandate. We're gonna issue a mandate. We need to fly down to Panama, interview this guy. Let's do that. Senator will set
Senator:it up.
Bam Bam:Don't anyone come in.
Senator:I'm No, no, I'm in.
Gizmo:I'm in. I'm going back to Panama. We gotta find him. We gotta find him.
Bam Bam:He'll be at the cigar lounge.
Rooster:It might be cheaper to fly him in.
Bam Bam:No, no, we need to go to Panama. Correct.
Senator:But what a legend. I'm sorry.
Gizmo:Brilliant. So
Rooster:this is the guy who you met?
Senator:No. No. I met a guy who's an investor who owns a part of this brand. Okay.
Bam Bam:Right. He'll put us in touch.
Gizmo:Just incredible.
Bam Bam:That's awesome.
Gizmo:So one more thing we didn't mention, senator. Price, $30.
Chef Ricky:Get the out of here.
Gizmo:Wow. $30 we paid for this.
Bam Bam:Why am I drinking scotch?
Rooster:I don't know. Why are you?
Bam Bam:I don't know. I'm done.
Gizmo:I'm done. Stop it.
Senator:There's no
Bam Bam:reason to drink scotch. I'm done.
Rooster:Nothing. No water, no scotch, no coffee, no tequila.
Senator:Just rum. Just rub.
Bam Bam:No. Rum and tequila.
Rooster:Day, night, afternoon.
Bam Bam:But it is a revelation. I mean, we're learning so much about something we haven't really had any idea about years ago.
Gizmo:That's crazy.
Bam Bam:It's like It's incredible.
Gizmo:I mean, I know rum is the classic pairing for cigars. Right? But as we dive deeper into these rums, especially Don Pancho rums, not just his namesake rum that is named after him, but these other rums that we love of his that we've been drinking, including Abuela, Mariolita, of course, Havana Club. Which we didn't know.
Rooster:They were involved.
Gizmo:This is really the perfect pairing for cigars. All of them that we've mentioned.
Rooster:You know, this podcast is gonna make these rums go up
Gizmo:in price. People are gonna be He's not wrong.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Gonna go up.
Senator:Right. So I'm not kidding. How I joke I want a royalty for Pol Roger. I don't joke. I'm serious about that.
Senator:I want a royalty on Abuelo.
Chef Ricky:Me
Senator:too. If you knew just yesterday how many people, how many members of our lounge Mhmm. Have more bottles of Abuelo than I do, I have one bottle. You're an evangelist.
Bam Bam:Are you serious?
Senator:Father senator. Lizard Frank bought four bottles after me just telling him about it. He never even drank it.
Gizmo:Wow.
Senator:Lizard Phil, also three bottles. Lizard Eric today, he's sitting there. This rum sounds amazing. I've never had it. He orders three bottles on DoorDash to the lounge.
Senator:I mean, all these guys are buying this stuff up.
Gizmo:So You
Rooster:know, they're so affordable. It's, like, $30.40 bucks. I mean, let's say, it's a price of a cigar. Correct. So they're gonna stock up, and the prices are gonna I think it's undervalued.
Gizmo:I mean, yeah, I mean, it's underpriced for its I mean, $30. I mean, if let's just put it this way. If this was priced at 50, it's like a We wouldn't be even saying a word
Bam Bam:about it. Not a word.
Gizmo:I might edit that out, by the way. But it's like a d four before COVID. Correct.
Senator:Yes. Correct. And just the last thing again, this goes to, there's something about Panama, man, with rum. Mhmm.
Gizmo:Well, I know I think it's Don Pancho.
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Gizmo:No. No.
Senator:No. I asked the guy why Panama, and he said the growing conditions for sugarcane in Panama are the closest there are to Cuba.
Gizmo:I don't dispute what you're saying about the raw material. But there is something about this guy's palate. If someone else was using the same raw material, might not taste like this. Here's the
Senator:only reason I'm gonna disagree. Abuelo has been around in Panama well before this guy ever got involved. It's the oldest rum in Panama. It was started in, like, literally I think 1900 or something crazy. That rum has been famous there for a very long time.
Senator:Mhmm. There's no way that I believe that Abuela was poorly produced, and all of sudden this guy came around, and you know, then it was just suddenly great rum. So all I'm saying is I think there's been great rum in Panama before he got there. There's a reason that he chose to do this in Panama. He can do this anywhere.
Senator:Most rums, you know, that are are well known are not made in Panama. These are small brands. I mean, Abuelo is not even carried in most total wines.
Bam Bam:Where did you get this?
Gizmo:I got it at Wine
Senator:Wine Traders, yeah. That's the same place
Gizmo:they They have two little stores around here.
Bam Bam:Seriously?
Gizmo:Yeah. Wow. I got it at Wine Traders.
Rooster:Don't even have
Gizmo:it Impressive. On Total It's brilliant. Yeah. And I actually thought we were gonna also have the Don Pancho 18, but they ran out of it. So that's next.
Gizmo:As far as the Don Pancho rum is, we're gonna we're gonna get to the 18. I mean Just For $30, I want three cases of this in my house tomorrow. And you know what's funny too? I'm running out of Havana Seven, and I'm I'm I'm I'm scarce on it.
Bam Bam:I might have three bottles left. Oh, poor boy.
Gizmo:I have one, and I'm like Well, that's because you dropped one on the floor in the airport.
Senator:Fab's like, why did I say this?
Gizmo:Correct. But seriously, I was worried about drinking it because I don't know when I'm gonna get more. But it's like this makes me not worry about it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I totally agree.
Gizmo:It really does.
Rooster:How much is the eighteen year in this?
Senator:It's $90.95 a bottle. It's it's pricey.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of the first third year on the h up and magnum 46 paired with this brilliant rum, the Don Pancho Ocho Anos. What do you guys think of this pairing tonight?
Bam Bam:I think the cigar is smoking incredibly well. It's delicious. You know, the traditional draw, the retrohale, just incredible flavor. The pairing is perfect. The
Chef Ricky:vanilla on the rum is pairing particularly well with the nuttiness in the cigar.
Gizmo:It's fantastic.
Bam Bam:Now I'm kind of getting a little bit of like a graham cracker, my traditional notes on a Cuban that I pursue. It's a little sweet and it does have a little bit of an earthiness now that's coming in. It's perfect.
Chef Ricky:And I think when you get a high quality rum,
Bam Bam:you get these tropical notes that always go really well with Cuban cigars. And what's insane is everyone's burn line continues to be very, very nice.
Gizmo:It's almost as if the cigar and the rum were made for each other. Yeah. That's how perfect this pairing is tonight. Yeah. It's perfect.
Bam Bam:Yeah. You know the parallel? Like, we've been exploring new world cigars for a long time, and we're now in love with so many of them. We're discovering rums now that we weren't really aware of before. It's kind of opening up a whole new repertoire for us.
Bam Bam:I love what we're discovering here with the rum, and it makes every cigar session just elevated.
Senator:The other thing I will say is
Bam Bam:Regardless of what you're smoking.
Senator:It's a beautiful bottle that the
Gizmo:rum I comes love the presentation. Yeah. It's not sticker heavy.
Senator:No, and you just don't see rum in bottles this shape. Like this, you would expect to be like a vodka bottle, or like maybe a nice tequila. You wouldn't expect a rum like this.
Bam Bam:It's like a retro, early twenties kind of a vibe. Beautiful. What are you getting,
Rooster:Chef? Umami.
Bam Bam:No, seriously. Are you getting a touch of banana or anything like that?
Chef Ricky:I'm getting that from the rum, not the cigar. That that to me, that that's those that's part of that those tropical notes that I'm getting out of the rum.
Bam Bam:Banana graham cracker thing on the retro.
Chef Ricky:The cigar right now is giving me lots nuttiness. Cahones? Some slight spice.
Rooster:Cocoa? Cocoa is throughout. It's persistent.
Bam Bam:But no pepper. I want the smoke to come back into my face. It's fantastic.
Rooster:It's unlike a lot of the other Upland cigars.
Gizmo:It's a little
Rooster:that's a huge Right? Anomaly.
Gizmo:Yeah. Right. I mean, we've talked about that. I mean, even inside the magnum one. Yeah.
Gizmo:You got the 46, the 50, the 52 now, the 54. Mhmm. None of
Rooster:them are really 46 just stands out.
Gizmo:It stands out. And I don't think the other three, the other two that have been really popular, now the 50 two's coming, the other three. I don't know if they're really in the same vein.
Bam Bam:I do love the 54.
Gizmo:I'm saying though, flavor profile wise, I don't think they're they're similar.
Bam Bam:They're completely different cigars.
Rooster:Exactly. Think I think the 50 in particular needs a lot more age.
Gizmo:Well, 50
Rooster:is too.
Bam Bam:It's too mild.
Rooster:Yeah. It's mild too,
Gizmo:but it needs age. Yeah. Although I do have a soft spot in my heart for the h up in Magnum 50. You know why?
Bam Bam:Yeah. That freaking yeah. I know why. Why? Go ahead.
Bam Bam:Say it.
Gizmo:The Bam Bam accountability Oh,
Bam Bam:boy. Oh, did you forget? How soon we forget?
Rooster:Should we do a redux? No,
Bam Bam:old boy.
Gizmo:Man, I almost feel like we should get through this cigar, pull out another one, and do, like, a four hour episode tonight and just smoke two Magnum 40 six's back to back. That's how good this is right now.
Bam Bam:I'm
Gizmo:in. That's how good this is.
Bam Bam:Count me in on that. Seriously.
Gizmo:And the rum.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I'm gonna have
Gizmo:to borrow a bottle from wizard Eric.
Senator:Yeah. Well, he's got the Abuela, but we can DoorDash our own this.
Chef Ricky:Wow. This is great because you I have a lot of spirits in my cabinet, but I have zero rum.
Bam Bam:They're taking up too
Gizmo:much Well, think about the value on that. You're talking $30. Yeah. This Florida Cana, Abuelo, seven. Don Pancho, 8.
Gizmo:Even the Maralita, which is the higher end of that. I mean, that's what? 60, I think it
Senator:65.
Gizmo:65?
Bam Bam:Mhmm. Unreal.
Gizmo:You can't even enter into a 12 year aged Nope. Quality scotch for under 65.
Chef Ricky:Correct. And they're all made by Don Pancho. Correct.
Gizmo:That's right. I love this guy. That's insane. He's like the patron saint of the lizardry.
Chef Ricky:The Carlos Camarena of of the rum world.
Gizmo:That's right. Exactly. Exactly.
Bam Bam:Just super impressed, man.
Gizmo:So, boys, we did our review of the Cigar Aficionado top 25 a couple weeks ago. Of course, we do that each year, and I had a few lizards email us, and I had some folks on Reddit actually tag me asking for us to review Half Wheels top 25 of the year. So, of course, Half Wheel, we talk very highly of Half Wheel.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Gizmo:I I really, really appreciate what Charlie does over there, especially with the journalism. You know, I think they do a great job, and think their list is a little more aligned with the cigar smoker. Not the person who smokes cigars, but the cigar smoker. Let me ask you a question.
Bam Bam:Are they generally a fan of the Cuban catalog or not?
Gizmo:They are, but they did not review any in the last year because they've had real problems getting them like we have.
Bam Bam:I don't like that.
Gizmo:The buzzer is back. So, yeah, they didn't review any last year, but they want to. They do want to. You know, they go to the Habanos Festival every year and cover it.
Bam Bam:Oh, I didn't know that.
Gizmo:Yeah. They cover it every year. They're actually one of the only ones that that actually do a great job each year doing it. So I really have nothing negative to say about Half Wheel like I do about Cigar Aficionado. So, you know, following the guidance of of our listeners who wanted us to do this and looking at the list itself, I do think it's a completely different list.
Gizmo:It's kinda like polar opposite of of what Cigar Aficionado has done. So I wanted to share that with you guys. And So it's all
Rooster:it's all new world.
Gizmo:It's all new world this time. Yeah. There have been years in the past where Cubans have been involved in the rating process, but they did not rate any Cubans in 2025. So let's start with number 25, boys. The Davidoff Escorio tenth anniversary limited edition cigar.
Gizmo:It's a 56 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. MSRP is 37, and it has like a interesting band on it. I've not smoked this. Have you guys seen this cigar?
Bam Bam:I have that. I have one. It was gifted to me.
Rooster:It's got a green a secondary greenish band.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It has a green tan on one at
Senator:PCA that they did a thing around.
Gizmo:I'm not sure.
Chef Ricky:I've had the regular one. Never the 10.
Senator:It's They did because Davitov's
Rooster:This is the latest one.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I have that one. It's a little expensive. I think it's at the $50 range.
Senator:Wow. Because that's It one
Gizmo:says $37.
Bam Bam:Oh, wow.
Senator:That's the one Davitov did that party at PCA. Oh. And gave out.
Rooster:Got it. Interesting. 10 count boxes.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So a buddy and man
Gizmo:12 counts. 12 count. Yeah. So the wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano. The binder is Brazilian.
Gizmo:The filler is Brazilian and Dominican.
Bam Bam:No buzzer on that. I think that's probably interesting.
Gizmo:I think
Chef Ricky:so too. It's probably one of the strongest Davidoff's that I've had or fullest flavor. Not that one in particular.
Rooster:Had Scordio Jaz. I think it's very different. This new one, it's not that bold like the other one.
Bam Bam:Okay. I'll cut the one I have in five parts and we'll smoke it.
Chef Ricky:Sounds good.
Gizmo:I mean, I could just get them for review. Correct. Number 24, boys. The brother of Justo Airoa, Christian Airoa, the CLE cigar company, the PCA exclusive twenty twenty five fifty two ring gauge cigar by six inches long, of course, coming out of Honduras. Mhmm.
Gizmo:The wrapper is Cameroon seed Honduran. Binder is Honduran, and the filler is from Colombia and Honduras. Wow.
Bam Bam:Not gonna buzz Justo's brother, but I'm tempted.
Gizmo:Next up, from Drew Estate, the Liga Provada Unico, Siri, year of the snake, 44 ring gauge No by seven inches long. Am I wrong? The wrapper is Connecticut Broadleaf from The USA. The binder is Connecticut Corojo from The USA, and the filler is from Brazil, Nicaragua, and The USA. Interesting.
Bam Bam:Still got the buzzer.
Gizmo:Number 22, the Avowed Awakening, the Red Band cigar. We love Avowed. Of course, manufactured by Klaus Kellner.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:The wrapper is Ecuadorian. The binder is Ecuadorian Habano. The filler is from The Dominican Republic, Criollo '90 eight, Piloto Cubano in San Vicente, and The United States Of America from Pennsylvania.
Bam Bam:Great cigar.
Gizmo:52 ring gauge cigar by five and a half inches long. Interesting on this one, boys, the MSRP on that is $30.
Chef Ricky:Mhmm. You think that's because of tariffs?
Gizmo:I don't think it's because of tariffs. I think it's just because it's a limited release. I think there's there's not a ton going to be around.
Bam Bam:That's a good cigar.
Rooster:What what tariffs? Be allowed?
Chef Ricky:Well, from other tobaccos.
Bam Bam:Hey, chef. Chefs. Chefs.
Gizmo:That's for you, not the cigar. Number 21 from half wheel 2025, the Dunbar tobacco and trusk, Umba Gog bronze back in Robusta, which we rated.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Of course, it's coming out of Nicaragua. Rapper is Connecticut Broadleaf. You gave it in USA. You did give it a dead dog.
Bam Bam:I'm not buzzing it.
Gizmo:Don't even hold it. I'm just holding your phone. Filler, our Nicaraguan. I like that cigar.
Bam Bam:Yeah. It was good.
Gizmo:And it was only $11. So kudos to Steve Saka on that one.
Bam Bam:Stevie boy.
Gizmo:This one is from Raices. I don't know this one. Liga de Reyes Salamon from Honduras. It's a Honduran wrapper, Trojes. The binder is Hamasthan Valley, and the filler is Honduran, Hamasthan, and Trojes.
Gizmo:So remember Rob Ayla talked a lot about Hamasthan tobacco
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:In our interview with him. So if you wanna hear more about that. Cigar price on that is $13. It's a 58 ring gauge cigar by six and a half inches long. Looks almost identical to me in shape to the Padron sixtieth.
Bam Bam:Look at that.
Senator:Alright. I'm just gonna say we need to do it. I
Gizmo:think so.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I agree.
Senator:It's a Honduran
Gizmo:cigar. Honduran, cool stuff. Yeah. Take back your buzzer.
Chef Ricky:Disregard the buzzer.
Bam Bam:Yeah. The buzzer thing, honestly, there's a lot of cigars even on the CA, not a lot, but a few that we should probably do and here tonight too. The buzzer, we just don't know the cigar. So it's gotta get a buzzer until they prove otherwise.
Gizmo:So it's guilty till proved innocent.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Okay. That's the Bam Bam method.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Number 19.
Senator:Just remember, we're gonna apply that to Bam. With his accountability. We always have. I'm always guilty. We honestly already have.
Bam Bam:I walk in the door. I'm guilty. Like, that's news.
Gizmo:Senator, can you get the violin out? It's right next to you. All right. Number 19. The Mirapfel cigar creacion librete.
Gizmo:And this is what annoys me about this, is every aspect of the tobacco is undisclosed.
Bam Bam:That's why it gets a buzzer.
Gizmo:50 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. Get your buzzer ready, bam. Guess what the MSRP on this one is?
Bam Bam:That's gotta be 60 something. Yeah.
Gizmo:$120. What? Wow.
Senator:It is a disgrace.
Gizmo:It is a disgrace.
Rooster:Oh my god.
Gizmo:How do you not disclose everything and charge a
Senator:100 That's and 20 insane.
Gizmo:That's crazy. What size is it? Six by 50. Insane. Crazy.
Gizmo:Let's go, like, a Robusto X-ray, I guess you'd call it. Alright. Number 18 now. Back to Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust. This one, the year of the duke.
Gizmo:48 ring gauge cigar by five inches long, kinda similar to what we're smoking tonight. The wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano Rosado. The binder is Mexican San Andres Negro, and the filler is from The United States Of America, Pennsylvania, and Nicaragua.
Bam Bam:Well, we gotta give Steve the benefit of the doubt. So Yeah. We should try it.
Gizmo:Yeah. I think so too. Honestly, I I don't hate this list. I would have not spent this amount of time on our episode tonight Mhmm. Doing a list that the listeners didn't like, but I looked through it.
Gizmo:I mean, it's a respectable So I think we should do some of these. Alright. Now number 17. We are on to La Flor Dominicana, the Suave Natural en Maximo. It's a 54 ring gauge cigar by six inches long.
Gizmo:I'm sorry. Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper binder is Mexican San Andres, and the filler is from The Dominican Republic. Number 16. This one, I can't even believe is on here, boys. Quite honestly, the Davidoff limited edition twenty twenty six year of the horse.
Gizmo:55 ring gauge cigar by six and one half inches long. Poor shit. The wrapper is Ecuadorian. The binder is Ecuadorian, and the filler is from The Dominican Republic. Number 16?
Gizmo:Number 16. Unbelievable. Honestly, it was a horrible cigar. Yeah. I smoked it.
Gizmo:Did I tell you that? No. I smoked it. Horrific. Horrific.
Bam Bam:So is the sound bite.
Gizmo:Correct. I I honestly thought it was a terrible cigar. I smoked it last week. Alright. Number 15, the Placencia Alma Del Cielo Amanacer, 60 ring gauge cigar by six inches long at Gordo 60 by six, boys.
Senator:Is that the white band or
Gizmo:a different Blue band. Blue band on this one. Wow. All Nicaraguan. The rapper is Condega.
Gizmo:Everything from this one is Nicaraguan. This one's weird. MSRP on that $30.
Bam Bam:Gyoza. You
Chef Ricky:know? It looked like a hexagon. No?
Gizmo:No. It's not.
Senator:No. It's Pagoda's favorite shape.
Gizmo:A buzzer.
Bam Bam:It's could be buzzer worthy, but Placencia's, they're killing it now. We should try that.
Senator:Yeah. We have to try it.
Bam Bam:Yeah. They are everywhere and they're doing very, very well.
Gizmo:And honestly, I've heard from a lot of people that I respect that Placencia has kind of Yeah. Pivoted into this really premium brand. And and I think we should try more of them.
Bam Bam:Correct. Correct.
Gizmo:We'll see we'll see what happens here. Okay. This one, we've heard of this brand before. We've not done it from AJ Fernandez factory, the El Pupo, the squid.
Bam Bam:Just the name alone.
Senator:I had it too.
Chef Ricky:I did not like it.
Gizmo:You had it?
Senator:I've had it.
Gizmo:Wow. Because Rapper is Mexican San Andres. Binder and filler are Nicaraguan. Wow.
Senator:Pagoda's buddy, Lizard Shawhead, he likes that cigar, he gave us some.
Gizmo:Is it the El Pupo or the El Pulpo? El Pulpo. Pulpo.
Bam Bam:Pulpo. Pulpo. Yeah.
Gizmo:60 ring gauge cigar by six and a half inches long. Okay.
Senator:I did not have the 60 ring gauge version.
Gizmo:I had a review.
Bam Bam:I got a buzzer.
Gizmo:20 cigar on that one. Let's go to number 13 now. Back to Dunbar, and he does very well here. This is the Sobremesa Solita Red, which I saw on a bunch of lists. The rapper was Ecuadorian Habano.
Gizmo:The binder was Mexican San Andres Negro, and the filler was Nicaraguan and Pennsylvanian. The MSRP on that is $18. Well, it doesn't say brulee in the name, so we ought to just try it. This one apparently is a stronger take on the original Sobremesa line. So we will have to try that one.
Gizmo:Number 11. This one's weird. I was surprised to see this almost like a flying pig size, 60 ring gauge by four and a half inches long. West Tampa Tobacco Company, the devil crab. The all of the tobaccos are
Bam Bam:undisclosed. Buzzer worthy. It's
Gizmo:a really weird size. I just don't understand the point of making cigars of that size, but what do I know?
Senator:And what's the price for this undisclosed?
Gizmo:The Little football. Price is $13. Okay. 13
Rooster:That was number 11. Correct?
Bam Bam:It's very highly rated.
Gizmo:Now we are going into the top 10 here, boys, and we like this one. The Aladino eighty fifth anniversary of Reserva in Robusto, 50 ring gauge cigar by five inches long, Honduran Piero. We love this cigar.
Bam Bam:Just a little bit.
Gizmo:We love this cigar. It was on our list of best cigars of 2025, and I'm happy to see it there as well. Number nine, we're going back to Placencia. The Placencia Alma Fuerte Colorado Claro Robusto Corto 52 ring gauge cigar by four inches long. Oh, man.
Gizmo:Everything is from Nicaragua. The wrapper is from Jalapa. MSRP on that is $15. Apparently, that's the second release in what they're calling the short smokes collection. Fourth in the Alma Fuerte Colorado Clara line.
Bam Bam:With that ring gauge, that's an hour plus.
Gizmo:So I don't know if you wanna buzz this one because we need to talk about this. This is actually out of the entire list we need to talk about this.
Bam Bam:Let me determine that. Because
Gizmo:because this has been on a shocking number of lists this
Bam Bam:year. Mhmm.
Gizmo:It's the Perdomo Legacy Connecticut in Epicure.
Bam Bam:You know how tempted I am right now?
Gizmo:I am with you on that. But the amount of list that this cigar has been on this year is shocking. So we should try it? Something about the Perdomo legacy, which is the first cigar, the first line, excuse me, that Nick Perdomo's son, Nick Perdomo, I believe the third, actually blended to celebrate his father. The tobaccos are from the twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen harvest, apparently.
Gizmo:I've heard amazing things about this cigar. So as far as
Senator:Connecticut.
Gizmo:This one's a Connecticut. They do have others. I'm gonna figure out which one people like the best, and we're gonna bring that one in here Cool. As our first Perdomo. I mean, for how big Perdomo is, we're a we're 220 episodes into this podcast.
Gizmo:We've not done a Perdomo. That's true. I do think we need to bring something in. So when I'm seeing people loving this legacy line, I think this is the one we're gonna bring in. This one that they rated was a 54 ring gauge cigar by six inches long.
Gizmo:The wrapper was Ecuadorian Connecticut seed. The binder was Connecticut seed from Nicaragua and Cuban seed hybrid from Nicaragua. Filler is Nicaraguan purely, the condega, estali, and jalapa. Price on that is $13.50. This one is interesting.
Gizmo:This one is the Adabay black Delirios, which is, I guess, a limited edition cigar for the two guys cigar shop up in New Hampshire. 55 ring gauge cigar by five and three quarters inches long. It is coming out of Costa Rica. Wrapper is Ecuadorian. The binder is undisclosed,
Bam Bam:which annoys the shit out of me. Can we please guess the price?
Gizmo:And the filler is from The Dominican Republic and Peru.
Bam Bam:Mhmm. That's gotta be 60 plus all day long.
Gizmo:What do you guys think? I would think 60. 48. You're the closest. It's $45.
Gizmo:Still. MSRP, $44,000.
Rooster:That's not bad. Total
Gizmo:That's buzzer worthy. So apparently, this is the second Vitola for the Ataboy black. Ataboy. So we have not had success with Adabay, but I'm sure we will go back to it at some point. Number six.
Gizmo:This one I've not heard of. It's from Tabakar La Isla. It's called the Matilda special edition 50 ring gauge cigar by six inches long. It's a special edition cigar using Peruvian tobacco. The wrapper is Ecuadorian Sumatra.
Gizmo:The binder is Nicaraguan, and the filler is from The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Peru. Price on that is $13.25.
Rooster:It's a number six cigar.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I know.
Rooster:How could you buzz that?
Bam Bam:Well, we don't know it.
Rooster:Just because of that. Just because you haven't had it, you're gonna buzz it.
Bam Bam:Tabakala Isla?
Gizmo:Tabaclara. Is that who makes La Isla Bonita. That's a Madonna song. Yeah. So we'll go to the final five here in a second from half wheel boys, but now we are going into the final third here on the h Upman Magnum 46 from Cuba that paired tonight with the brilliant Don Pancho, eight year age drum from Panama.
Gizmo:What's everybody thinking right now?
Rooster:So good.
Chef Ricky:So good. I don't want it to end. I feel like we're not even into the meat of this episode yet. Mhmm. And this cigar is gonna deliver all day long.
Gizmo:I'm blown away by this cigar. This is honestly one of the best Magnum 40 six's I've ever had. Yeah. Hands down.
Bam Bam:And you
Rooster:have had a lot.
Gizmo:I have. I'm looking I really have. Yeah. I know. But you know what's funny, Rooster?
Gizmo:This is the first one I've had that was not from '21 or earlier. '21 or later. Early. Excuse me. '21 or later.
Gizmo:Everything I've had is '21 or early. Early. Yeah. So I've not had anything twenty two, twenty three, twenty four. It's not often rooster catches someone else in a senior moment.
Bam Bam:Oh, correct. That's correct, old boy.
Gizmo:What's everybody thinking of the pairing? Because I'm loving it.
Bam Bam:It's outstanding.
Chef Ricky:It's all part of yeah.
Bam Bam:There's nothing negative that anyone can say about this pairing. Nothing.
Senator:Thank you. All I'm gonna say is the first suggestion someone threw out for a pairing tonight was an old fashioned, and I quickly pivoted to this route.
Gizmo:Well, Pagoda's not here to make it, by the way.
Senator:Also true.
Gizmo:But come
Senator:on. An old fashioner I could make
Chef Ricky:it an old fashion.
Bam Bam:You know what that deserves. Right? An old No way.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Back to half wheel. The top 25 cigars of 2025 from these guys. The number five cigar. What's that?
Gizmo:Top five. Thanks, Rooster.
Rooster:You didn't mention top five.
Gizmo:I was just gonna ask. You did. You did.
Rooster:You did. Okay. Go ahead.
Senator:I just gave Rooster credit
Gizmo:for catching someone else in
Senator:a Cedar moment, and he immediately has one after it.
Gizmo:No. You didn't say top five.
Rooster:You said the top You
Gizmo:did. Whatever. No. I was saying that we're doing the top 25.
Senator:Right.
Gizmo:This is number five. Okay. Alright. You didn't
Chef Ricky:say top five.
Gizmo:From JC Newman, the Angel Coesta, shade in double toro. Don't buzz it.
Senator:You love a double toro. The double toro.
Gizmo:You love a double toro.
Bam Bam:The Vitola, but I don't know about JC Newman.
Gizmo:52 rigged cigar by six inches long. Top five. Shane shade grown Nicaragua is the wrapper. The binder and the filler are both undisclosed. You love shade grown.
Gizmo:I don't understand why folks don't disclose binder and filler. Number four. This one is from Patina cigars. Patina? The Patina Oro de Nicaragua Patit Robusto.
Gizmo:50 ring age cigar
Bam Bam:I typically four inches.
Chef Ricky:You know, that's very true. I haven't heard someone say patina as much as Pam
Gizmo:has since I've been on this talk ever.
Chef Ricky:So I'm watching, like, pawn stars or something.
Gizmo:Go ahead, Giz. Coming out of Nicaragua, the wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano Escoto. The binder is Ecuadorian Sumatra, and the filler is from The United States Of America, Connecticut Broadleaf, and Nicaragua. Again, 50 ring gauge cigar by four inches long. MSRP, $10.50 on this one.
Bam Bam:It's a good price, but
Gizmo:Question Tina. Alright. Number three from Padron. The Hammer and a Dream Natural, which is one of the exclusive cigars for the tobacconist of Greenwich commissioned private label cigars in its rare find series. Padron participated in 2025.
Gizmo:And, of course, this is a Nicaraguan puro four ring gauge cigar by six inches long. MSRP on this, boys, $60.
Bam Bam:So I've had this cigar.
Gizmo:Which one? Natural or Maduro? Not surprised. Natural.
Bam Bam:So there's a lot of guys in town that go up there a lot, and they bring cigars back. And they gave me one. It's expensive, but it was actually very, very good.
Rooster:How would you compare it to the
Bam Bam:others? It's very peppery if you're into that. Now, honestly, for me, it
Gizmo:was Like Family Reserve? No.
Bam Bam:If it sat for a few months, it'd be much smoother, but it's very pepper forward.
Rooster:Like your favorite, the black label?
Bam Bam:No. So it was peppery, but there was a great balance of like a molasses in the background. So it gave it that balance that it needed, but it needs to sit. Really? I think a great quality cigar, though.
Rooster:I'm sure the tobaccos are aged in that. Maybe. They have to. For that price.
Bam Bam:I'm
Gizmo:I'm thinking that this is folks And can call me on I would think this is a glorified family reserve. That's what I think we're dealing with here.
Bam Bam:Well, Padron can do no wrong, so I'm not buzzing it.
Gizmo:So it's limited to 5,000 total cigars, 10 count boxes, 500 boxes of those. Let's go now to number two, the Pistani San Andres in Bellicoso. People love What? This line.
Senator:Pakistan? The Pistani.
Rooster:Pakistani cigars.
Gizmo:People love this line.
Bam Bam:Yeah. How's that?
Gizmo:Nicaraguan, we're gonna do one of these soon. Are we? The wrapper is Mexican San Andres. Binder is Ecuadorian Habano, and the filler is Dominican and Nicaraguan. 54 ring gauge cigar by five and one half inches long.
Gizmo:The MSRP on this is $13.50. It's like a bellicoso.
Bam Bam:Well, let's see if
Gizmo:So I've heard very good things about this line.
Bam Bam:Let's see if it reestablishes itself from being a buzzer worthy cigar.
Senator:Is this some new brand?
Gizmo:I don't think it's very old. I think it's the fourth or fifth production line from them. I don't think they've been around very long.
Bam Bam:Is it made in Italy?
Gizmo:Maybe since early twenty twenties. Pakistani. And boys, it's time now for half wheel cigar of the year. Number one, Padron Hammer and a Dream in Maduro. And the other one.
Gizmo:Interesting. 54 ring gauge by six. Of course, like it's Sister Cigar at number three. Nicaraguan Puro, also $60. Scoring would like
Bam Bam:to I'm actually considering giving the buzzer. Honestly,
Senator:I'm sorry. How is the sixtieth anniversary not even on the list? And then you're putting both the natural and Maduro of that In the top five. Gimmicky release for a tobacco shop in Greenwich.
Bam Bam:Mean, come on.
Gizmo:It's weird to me that both of those cigars landed in the top five. And it's almost as weird to me as the cigar aficionado complaints we have where you're you're not seeing repeats. You're not seeing multiple entrants in the top 25. To see the same line, Natural and Maduro, in the top five here is completely makes no sense to me.
Bam Bam:It's bonkers.
Gizmo:And again, like you said, senator, the sixtieth isn't there.
Bam Bam:No. No. It's great. Natural.
Rooster:No. But you have had the sixtieth, and you have had this one.
Bam Bam:Yes.
Rooster:Would you edge this one over the sixtieth?
Gizmo:Hell no. There's no chance.
Bam Bam:No way.
Senator:No brand would put out a better cigar for a tobacco shop release than in their regular line, and especially a flagship cigar like the sixtieth anniversary they
Bam Bam:percent correct. That sixtieth is a stellar cigar.
Rooster:Yeah. So why would Halfreel put like two of the same
Gizmo:I'm cigars in the top not sure. I thought it was odd. Paybacks. White office. I mean, not for Padron.
Gizmo:I mean, Padron doesn't play like that. You know, I I was very surprised to see both of those in the top five. So those are the top 25 cigars of the year for Half Wheel
Bam Bam:this year. Honestly, that kinda ruins the whole list.
Senator:Yeah. It was a good list while it lasted. Yeah. I mean, jeez.
Bam Bam:Doesn't it? I mean, it puts a little
Gizmo:air at
Rooster:the same.
Bam Bam:It puts a patina on it.
Gizmo:I thought it was odd. You know, it it it is odd
Chef Ricky:So to
Gizmo:I I wanna also talk about so this is the fifteenth year that Half Wheel did the consensus 2025, which is where they combine and, you know, kind of parse out all of the ratings from, like, 50 different sources of top lists of the year in the cigar industry, including their own cigar aficionado, Us, a bunch of folks. Okay? All the all the folks out there that you can think of who are not just influencers on YouTube or pod you know, folks who don't have a website or whatever. They're only on social media. Those folks, they're not including this year, but pretty much everybody else they've included.
Gizmo:And what they do is they parse it out in a spreadsheet and they figure out the consensus top cigars of the year. And we're not gonna go through all of these because we did hear some of these. And I think there is some interesting I don't wanna call it collusion, but there's some influence because what you see here is I think you're seeing brands that send out packages to these reviewers. You're seeing those obviously performing well because folks are getting them for free and they feel good about it. So some of these are very odd entrants into into this list.
Gizmo:I will say, though, I was happy that the consensus 2025 top cigar of the year of all of these lists was the My Father Blue.
Bam Bam:Oh, cool.
Gizmo:The Honduran, the first Honduran from My Father, which was released in 2025, we loved that cigar, and I think we still do. I'm smoking quite a few of them. Sure. So that was That help. Is that
Senator:didn't even make their top 25?
Bam Bam:No, it didn't.
Gizmo:But not theirs. So this is everybody. We're talking 50 sources.
Senator:Obviously have to be some on the consensus that made their list. My point is how did that not even make their top 25 cigars of the year?
Rooster:I'm curious what they scored during the year when they reviewed that cigar. Mhmm. You know what I mean? Like, did it not score, like, a 90 plus?
Bam Bam:Yeah. They must have reviewed it.
Gizmo:So the Toro Gordo, when they reviewed it, got a 90, which is not bad. They reviewed it in September.
Rooster:So is the top 25, like, over 90 plus?
Gizmo:I think what they do is they take a bunch of the cigars and they smoke them again, kinda like Cigar Aficionado says they do. I actually believe that Halfwheel actually smokes them. Cigar Aficionado, I do not. But, you know, it's an interesting parsing out of the list. There's a spreadsheet and everything.
Gizmo:So if you're a data nerd, you know the consensus. We're on it alongside a bunch of other media sources contributing our top 25. And I will say for listeners, I did create a best of 2025 list on our page of the top 15 cigars we reviewed in 2025. So all of them are listed on our page. There's a link at the top.
Gizmo:You can click each one. It drives you right to the episode link. There's some notes on how we do it, of course. Then if you really wanna dive deep, you can go to our ratings page. You can see our individual ratings, all the data, etcetera.
Gizmo:So if you're just kinda casually wanting to see what we did, go to best of 25. If you're a data nerd and you want to dive in hard, go to the ratings page and you can really see what all of us
Rooster:did.
Bam Bam:And if you don't want to waste your money, you go right to that list and start buying those cigars.
Gizmo:Correct. Exactly right.
Chef Ricky:So I saw that consensus video, and he did make it a point to call out some cigars not making the list or because of maybe some collusion that was happening. So, I mean, it's hard to believe that they're not doing it themselves based on what we just heard, but he did make it a point to sort of call out some obvious things like that in his list. I mean, this must be a damn good cigar, but is it better in the sixtieth?
Gizmo:That's the thing. I mean, I I mean, I think Charlie said on the consensus video, like, I think he said something like, you know, the reason why I don't know if even know if they rated it. Maybe they couldn't get their hands on it or something. I'm not sure because they buy everything.
Rooster:Yeah.
Gizmo:But for us, I mean, was it easy to get the cigar? No. But for us, was a cigar that I think we felt like we needed to try. It was a celebratory cigar. Of course, then it
Chef Ricky:formed brilliantly. Insiders. Correct. It's
Gizmo:easier for us. Obviously. But, you know, I I felt that that was an important cigar. We all did. Of course, after talking to George about it.
Gizmo:I mean and, of course, it performed brilliantly. It was a perfect cigar for us. So alright, boys. So that's it for half wheels top 25. And I can't wait any longer because this story is so unbelievable.
Gizmo:You're gonna think listeners, lizard nation is gonna think. You guys are gonna think that we're making this up. This is the most ludicrous, insane story I've ever heard about a cigar lounge, and it happened here last week. Unfortunately, most of us weren't here.
Rooster:Everything happens here. Senator was here.
Gizmo:Senator was here, and we're gonna we're gonna blank out names. Mhmm. But senator, I need you to run us through exactly what happened, and I'll share my piece of it as you go through it.
Senator:Alright. So this was easily easily one of the funniest nights of my life. Of your life. Of my life. I I I would pay our annual lounge membership just for this level of entertainment, forget being able to smoke cigars here.
Senator:Mhmm. So one night, a whole bunch of us members are sitting in the lounge. Lounge was packed. And all of a sudden, there's a doorbell at our lounge if for some reason someone forgets their key card or something like that.
Gizmo:I hate that doorbell, by the way.
Rooster:So do I. DoorDash.
Senator:DoorDash. Correct.
Rooster:The guest guest off a guest.
Gizmo:That too. Long list.
Senator:So the doorbell rings. I immediately, loudly say to everyone in the lounge, do not answer the door.
Gizmo:So why do you say that? Let's explain to listener.
Senator:The reason I say that is because we have in the past had sometimes that doorbell ring, and someone who is not a member of our lounge enter when someone opens it for them, foolishly assuming that they're a member, and they just kinda camp out and park themselves there, and they're not even supposed to be there, and then someone figures it out, the owner's gotta come down, remove them, and it's a whole scene. So to avoid what has happened multiple times in the past, I said to everyone, Do not open the door. Everybody listens to me except one. This person is sitting at the bar, gets up
Gizmo:So let's explain the bar. Okay. So for the listener out there, visualize in the center of the lounge, there's a circle that we kinda sit in generally as the lizards, and all of the kind of core members of the lounge sit in this circle.
Bam Bam:That I like to call the peanut gallery.
Gizmo:The peanut gallery. Correct. And us in the circle here. The bar is elevated kind of high top seating that sits behind the circle Which I call the bleachers. The bleachers, correct.
Gizmo:And the bleachers though, the vantage point is you have a view not only of everything going on in the circle, you also have a vantage point of what's going on at the door.
Senator:Well, one seat in particular. Yeah. So the corner seat at the end of the bar where this member happened to be seated is really the only seat that can directly see through the glass of the door who would be in front of it.
Chef Ricky:Which explains why he couldn't listen to you.
Bam Bam:Oh no, it doesn't.
Gizmo:Oh no, it doesn't. It doesn't, because you could just not open the door.
Chef Ricky:But this person knows this person.
Senator:Well, that's the crazy part of this story. Correct.
Rooster:Unless he knew before.
Senator:Well, what what we found out after the fact is that the person who got up recognized and knew exactly who was at the door and did not warn any of us before they decided to open the door.
Bam Bam:And one particular guest or a member,
Senator:I So the funny thing is this person gets up, opens the door. Once they open the door, they announce member so and so, your wife is here.
Gizmo:The wife showed up. At which What a nightmare.
Senator:Everyone in the lounge burst out hysterically laughing because we think he's joking. No one's wife has ever shown up to our lounge. I mean, that's just crazy. So none of us took that seriously. We thought it was just a big joke, and we're waiting to see, you know, some friend of his or someone walk in.
Senator:All of a sudden, enter this member's wife, angry as can be. I mean, furious. Pointing with her finger, telling him to get
Gizmo:Doing the doing the come here. Come here.
Senator:Get up from the couch that he's seated on. She says to him, I've been calling you for three hours. Is your phone dead? Now the hilarity of this, the guy sitting on the couch with his phone clearly illuminated. It is not dead.
Senator:He's on it messaging someone or doing something. She says, is your phone dead? She goes, I thought you were dead. Now you're going to be dead. We're we're all sitting there now incredibly uncomfortable.
Senator:We're like, alright. This is no longer a joke. This guy is in deep shit. So this poor guy very slowly gets up.
Bam Bam:Who's a sweetheart, by the way?
Senator:He is a very nice guy.
Bam Bam:Mild mannered as a kid.
Senator:Mild mannered. Very, very nice guy. Very slowly, starts to make his way to the door. As he does. And him and the wife are in the vestibule between the entrance to the lounge and the entrance to the retail part.
Senator:Now as soon as that first door closes, everyone just erupts in laughter. I'm sure they could all hear it. I mean, we can't believe what we're witnessing. Absolutely hysterical. Now the guy who opened the door, he's just sitting there with the biggest grin on his face.
Gizmo:Shit eating grin,
Bam Bam:watching this whole thing unfold.
Senator:Like, he just lobbed a grenade and just watched it set it all in motion and watched it all happen. So they spent about ten minutes arguing in that vestibule area. We're all wondering, is he gonna come back? Is he gonna go home? Sure enough, he does not come back.
Senator:He just goes home. So the the member who opened the door for him, who's sitting in what I call the bleachers, now he's moving on up like the Jeffersons. He goes and takes the guy's seat on the couch.
Gizmo:The guy he read it out. He took the seat in the circle. Took the seat in the circle. That's diabolical.
Senator:Hysterically laughing about what had just happened, and we're all sitting there in just complete disbelief. And just the whole the whole seat was just so ridiculous. And, you know, we think there are some other dynamics at play there that, you know, may have motivated this person to come to the lounge and check-in on her husband. I wonder why. And oh my god, it was just so crazy.
Senator:And so as soon as this happens, I start texting Giz and a few guys, and I'm like, you will never believe what just happened. This is the wildest thing that's ever happened in our lounge. And they're all like, what's going on? What's going on? So I start it must have taken, like, 10 texts to, like, give a play by play of what we're witnessing.
Senator:So Gizmo has access to the cameras at our lounge.
Gizmo:I'm not sure if we want people to know that. We're not gonna talk about why, but I am the only guy who has access to the lounge cameras. True.
Senator:So I'm like, you gotta pull the footage of this. You won't believe I it until you see
Gizmo:honestly thought you were bullshitting. I thought there was some element of, you know exaggeration. Exaggerating or, like, the guys are a little tuned up and they're having fun. Oh, no. Zero.
Bam Bam:Very accurate.
Senator:Zero. So Giz starts pulling up the footage. First, he sends me a screenshot of one of our dear friends, I won't name. We'll just call him Lizard J.
Gizmo:Yeah, baby. Yeah. There he is. What does Lizard Johnny. Just saying.
Gizmo:Who gives a shit?
Senator:Lizard Johnny, Giz just, like, freeze frames his face in the video Mhmm. Right at the moment that, like, the wife pulls out her husband into the vestibule, and he looks He
Gizmo:turned to the bleachers to the guy who ratted him out effectively. Yes.
Senator:Correct. And is stunned beyond I mean, jaw on the floor. Could not believe what
Rooster:he is reading.
Gizmo:I took that photo, and I set it at lizard I set it as Lizard Johnny's profile photo in my phone.
Bam Bam:Did you?
Rooster:So when
Gizmo:he texts me or or calls me, I got
Bam Bam:that photo. You know, he got the red line diagram.
Rooster:Correct?
Senator:Correct. So then Giz pulls up, sends over the actual video footage. And this is where we're starting to actually break down some of what happened. This is when it becomes even more apparent that the member who opened the door in the first place very much knew what was gonna happen and what he was doing.
Bam Bam:He knew what he was doing.
Senator:So the guy who opens the door, once the wife comes in and grabs the husband to come out, he starts waving goodbye.
Gizmo:Yeah. And she's leaving. He's she's waving leaving at him.
Senator:To the two of them, just waving his hands in the air. And the other thing we see in the video is right after he opens the door and announces that this guy's wife's here, he then returns back to his seat in the bleachers, crosses his arms over his chest, and just has a huge smile on his face. Like, he's so proud of this work. Wow. Just the whole video is absolutely hysterical.
Gizmo:My favorite part is the wife shows up. Okay. So imagine, I think we have access I have access to, like, 16 cameras here. So the wife shows up in the parking lot. So I'm, like, documenting every move from when she pulls in, you know, she when she comes in, everything.
Gizmo:Right? So I I I pull her video of when she's walking into the lounge, ringing the doorbell all pissed off. And then I pull the video of when she's coming into the lounge and the guy in the bleachers, the member in the bleachers who opened the door. And then I realized she's wearing her muumuu.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Well, she got out of bed.
Rooster:She Like
Bam Bam:She got out of bed to
Gizmo:come to lounge. Out of bed and put on her coat, like, you know, like old, like, cat like, old Catholic folks, like, they wear their coat in church.
Bam Bam:Yeah. With a cigarette hanging out of
Rooster:your mouth.
Gizmo:Exactly. But she has the muumuu on underneath it. You know? Like, New Jersey folks will understand what we're talking about here. Like so she comes in all pissed off in her muumuu.
Senator:The best part is you even had the footage of her in the parking lot where she's scaling the front of the building, trying to look in the windows, banging on windows and doors to, like, try to find her way into this place. Cool.
Gizmo:I did complete reconnaissance on this. Unbelievable. I pulled every angle. So what's crazy is when the member and the wife are in the vestibule, Well, obviously, these guys are losing it in the lounge. Oh my god.
Gizmo:I can't believe
Senator:this is tears at this point.
Gizmo:I can see the she's teeing off on him. By the way, there's no audio, unfortunately. Can't
Bam Bam:hear are moving.
Gizmo:I'm devastated I don't have audio for this because it would have elevated this whole experience for all of us. But so the member is in the vestibule, and the wife is teeing off on him and then takes his phone violently and is going through the guy's phone.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Senator:Woah. Going through the phone, which we'll just say
Bam Bam:Lot of evidence.
Gizmo:There's a
Senator:lot that's probably in that phone.
Bam Bam:Lot of evidence.
Gizmo:I would imagine that he's not very good at
Senator:No. Being just hitting the delete button.
Bam Bam:But he survived.
Gizmo:He did survive. The craziest part. That might be
Senator:the craziest think he
Bam Bam:was part. Here the next day.
Gizmo:He was here the next day as if nothing happened.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Rooster:That was his burner phone.
Gizmo:Yeah. Could you imagine if this happened to any of us?
Chef Ricky:Did you check the seat cushions? The real phone's probably in there.
Rooster:Now how far was he on his cigar that he was smoking? Oh, probably halfway through. And what about his accessories and so on?
Senator:That's the wild part is he never came back, so I don't recall him, like, clearing and cleaning up his stuff like he knew he was leaving and not coming back. He just got straight up and had to deal with this and then just never returned.
Bam Bam:That shit got claimed by the void.
Gizmo:It's almost like a like a a movie in the nineties where, like, the mom is dragging the kid out of school by the ear. Correct. That was the video as they were leaving the vestibule into the parking lot. She was effectively pulling him, not by the ear, but it felt like that, like, to the car. It the whole thing was crazy.
Gizmo:Poor guy.
Chef Ricky:Listen, for me to renew my membership, we need one way tint on that vestibule door.
Bam Bam:Not a bad idea.
Chef Ricky:Thousand percent. People can't look in, but we could see them.
Senator:Correct. Now after that, everyone in the room immediately said, now I understand why you said don't open the door. Correct. So I think going forward, no one is gonna open the door when
Gizmo:they're not got he got a seat on the couch.
Chef Ricky:I have a question.
Bam Bam:Go ahead. And I have a comment.
Rooster:The person, the member who was sitting by the bar area
Bam Bam:Yeah, that's when
Rooster:he saw who that person is, why did he not go up to the member and say, Hey, listen, could you please walk up to the door? Hope he had
Gizmo:that kind of time. Oh, Because
Senator:it was not about time. He knew exactly who was there, and he wanted his whole
Chef Ricky:seat to bed. He wanted
Rooster:to the He wanted come to front Could you please go up
Senator:and see? After the fact, I asked the person who got up. I said, why did you get up when I told you not to? And he said, well, I know his wife, and she saw me and was motioned to come to the door. If he already knew her, all he had to do is say out loud, hey.
Senator:Your wife's here. But he waited until he opened the door and then announced her.
Gizmo:Yeah. Your wife's here.
Senator:I just let her walk
Bam Bam:right in. I saw the video. His arm went up. Your wife's here.
Gizmo:That's exactly it. Pointed right at member x. Correct.
Bam Bam:But that's kinda he so member y, the guy that opened the door
Gizmo:I love, by the way, we're in like basic algebra. That's correct. Member y,
Bam Bam:and member curve in between. It's hard to be in that position when you see someone at the door flailing their arms, Please let me in.
Senator:No, I get having to open it. But if you recognize that, but you don't Yeah,
Chef Ricky:that's true.
Senator:Immediately say, Hey, by the way, your wife's at the door. She's emotional, I have to open it.
Bam Bam:So on a more serious note, honestly, that is, I think, a huge breach of cigar club etiquette. Which part?
Chef Ricky:Him not All of it.
Bam Bam:Member Y not informing member X that his wife was here before opening the door.
Senator:I disagree.
Bam Bam:Well, don't know why. It was beyond entertaining.
Gizmo:Of course. Well, yeah, you're not I would've paid the guy to
Senator:do it the exactly way you And did
Gizmo:he did it for free.
Senator:He's my hero.
Gizmo:It's true.
Bam Bam:It's true. I'm sure it was
Gizmo:I mean, the texts that were happening And
Senator:he knew it was gonna make great entertainment. That was the best part. Like, he knew this whole thing was gonna just set off
Bam Bam:in motion. Remember why.
Gizmo:I was by the way, so I was with missus Gizmo when this is all happening. And I'm on my phone. I'm laughing. I'm watching she's like, what the hell is going on? And I said, I don't know how to explain this, but one of the guy's wives showed up at
Rooster:the club. She goes, what did
Gizmo:he do? I don't know how to explain this, but, you know, it's hilarious. I gotta deal with it. But I mean The best part of the story, man.
Senator:The the member this happened to has only been a member here at this point for
Gizmo:like He three
Senator:just joined.
Rooster:And the fact that he showed up the next day as if nothing happened.
Bam Bam:Iron balls. Yeah, he doesn't care. He's got iron balls, man. Gotta give him credit. Nothing gets in the way of the cigar.
Senator:I'm just grateful that this did happen. I'm just grateful for entertainment for you.
Gizmo:No. I was
Chef Ricky:grateful it wasn't his wife.
Gizmo:I'm grateful. So true.
Senator:I'm grateful that it did not happen a day earlier. That's all I'm
Gizmo:gonna say. Correct. Oh, yeah. Correct. That would have been not good.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Senator:There would have been police involved.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:So you mentioned lounge etiquette.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:So I I think this is a good lead in
Bam Bam:I agree. Mhmm.
Gizmo:To discussing lounge etiquette. Right? I agree. So obviously, this situation is lunacy. Right?
Gizmo:This is not happening. I mean, we've been members here for four some odd years, members at North Korea before that.
Senator:I'm sorry. There's one detail I actually left out that we learned after the fact.
Bam Bam:Hold your horses, everybody.
Senator:So after the fact, when I actually spoke to the member that this happened to
Bam Bam:Member x.
Senator:Member x. He told me because I'm like, she couldn't reach you? Like, what was the issue? And he goes, I somehow accidentally blocked my wife on my phone.
Gizmo:So her calls just immediately went to voice mail. That's his subconscious taking over. Exactly.
Rooster:This sounds like another member we used to know who had issues with his phone.
Bam Bam:Oh, correct. In North Korea.
Gizmo:In North Korea.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:Insane. Unbelievable.
Bam Bam:Wish I was there.
Senator:I do too. But as far
Gizmo:as etiquette I wish I was there.
Senator:There there are breaches in a number of ways. Oh, yeah. Mean, obviously, you know, remember why I I hear that even though he's still my hero. Was so entertaining. But there's also like, mean, come on.
Senator:These are grown adult no wife should show up to a cigar lounge like that.
Bam Bam:Not ever.
Senator:He's sitting in a room with a bunch of men smoking a cigar. I mean, like, there's no reason to show up like that.
Chef Ricky:By the way, he's He in his
Rooster:was that. Right? He's like 65, retired, 70, close to 70? Probably, yeah. Yeah.
Rooster:Yeah. He's retired.
Senator:Yeah. And I say this because the only time we've ever had something this ridiculous happen at the lounge, and I happen to be there for this as well,
Gizmo:Some I don't some of
Senator:you might not even know this story.
Bam Bam:I feel
Gizmo:like I'm being targeted. What?
Senator:Some some do, but some probably don't. There was some young kid who was a member here that was very annoying. I don't think many of us really enjoyed this guy being a member here. He's no longer for a reason. And this kid was in the back poker room here with a bunch of friends.
Senator:I mean, these kids, like, literally looked like they were just out of college. And the doorbell rang just like this, and someone opened it. I didn't warn this time. I had no clue what was going on. And all I remember is just like the doorbell rings, someone opens it, and then a woman walks in, and she starts yelling, where's my son?
Senator:And it was this kid's mother. What?
Gizmo:Oh my god.
Senator:And talk about when you describe figuratively dragging someone out by the ear. That happened. She literally grabbed him, dragged him out, and in the parking lot, we're all looking out the window, is screaming at him. And we're like, how pathetic is this that your mother has to come to the cigar lounge to, like, tell you you
Gizmo:need to go home?
Bam Bam:Oh, there's a lot to talk about. Probably
Rooster:use a credit card.
Bam Bam:There's a lot to Here's talk my question.
Gizmo:Is it worse if your wife shows up and pulls you out of the lounge or your mother shows up As a grown adult. And pulls you out of the lounge?
Senator:I I have to say your mother.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:Probably. I think the mother's worse.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. For sure.
Gizmo:That disqualifies good.
Bam Bam:That's the worst. Wife's not good,
Senator:but that disqualifies you as a grown man. So your mother has
Bam Bam:to get some launch right into that. So I've explicitly informed Mrs. Bam Bam.
Rooster:Do not show up at the lounge. Ever. Ever.
Bam Bam:And I I told her that, and she said, honey, I got it. That's your place.
Senator:How much can we pay her
Gizmo:to Call
Bam Bam:her tomorrow.
Gizmo:Dude, I was thinking about it. Call her tomorrow morning whenever you back me up. She'll corroborate
Rooster:If I explain
Gizmo:If this ban gives her $200
Chef Ricky:for a gallon of milk.
Gizmo:If I explain to her the idea of content, I think she might do
Bam Bam:it. No problem. But you've gotta have your own This is a sanctuary for us, man or woman. If a woman's a member here, she should leave her personal business outside of the club. Educate your family, your friends, your spouses, your girlfriends.
Bam Bam:No drama at the cigar club ever. This is not a place for it.
Chef Ricky:That motivation was something
Bam Bam:You just mention it. Honestly, we all work our asses off. This is a place where we want to come enjoy a cigar, have some camaraderie, laugh at each other. But you have to have that conversation.
Rooster:Let's look at it from the wife's point of view. The wife is trying to call him. Maybe he's got a health issue. She tried to call him three times, four times. And the guy did not pick
Senator:up the money. No, I'm sure it was way more than that. She said three hours she was trying to
Gizmo:reach Three hours, but he's locked
Bam Bam:her. Look, seriously though, it's his lack of communication with his spouse that created this. Exactly. Just communicate with your spouse.
Chef Ricky:It's so
Gizmo:easy to not fuck this up.
Bam Bam:Yeah, I'm sorry. He's gonna hear this. I'll I'm confront. You gotta be an adult. Speak to your spouse.
Bam Bam:Don't stay out of communication for hours. Sit here, not answer That's why she showed up. You've gotta talk. You've communicate. I think
Senator:that's too much. I'm sorry.
Chef Ricky:Oh, no. No. Especially if she knows where you're at.
Senator:You're telling me that every single one of us hasn't been here.
Rooster:But she obviously knew where he was at. Exactly.
Senator:Well, that's
Gizmo:awesome. How did How
Rooster:did she know where
Bam Bam:he Hold was Senator. I do this too. I've seen you communicate with Mrs. Senator many times. Open communication.
Bam Bam:You guys have a talk on a chat, it's over. I do the Yes, same
Senator:but you're gonna tell me that all of us haven't been here at one point or another for a three hour stretch where if we did receive a message, we didn't respond until three hours later?
Bam Bam:Of course. Well
Senator:That doesn't mean he needs
Gizmo:to come down right now. Missus Gizmo's texting me.
Bam Bam:Well, she
Senator:knows how to record.
Gizmo:No. She has no idea.
Bam Bam:Okay. Well, that's your fault.
Chef Ricky:Why? It's Monday.
Gizmo:It's not my fault. It's her fault. She forgets that it's she doesn't know
Senator:it's mine. But my point, it's three hours. It's not three days. It's not a full day.
Gizmo:Like know what day of the week it is.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That's also a
Gizmo:good point.
Senator:I don't think if you don't hear for someone for three hours, anyone, doesn't matter who it is Look.
Rooster:I think
Senator:some assume they're dead unless they're like a 10 year old.
Rooster:Yeah. Something must have been going on between them two. We don't know the whole story. Right? You don't
Gizmo:know what's
Senator:going There's no doubt about that.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah.
Rooster:Yeah. So, obviously, she was suspicious about something.
Bam Bam:Maybe.
Rooster:That she actually showed up at Yeah. The
Senator:Which is why, I'm sorry, the member It's his own damn be wiser about.
Gizmo:It's his own damn fault.
Bam Bam:Can you continue with what you're saying?
Senator:Not just the communication, but who knows exactly what's going on? But assuming that there is more to this story than we know Correct.
Bam Bam:Don't bring your dirty laundry into the tub. It's that simple.
Gizmo:It does affect everyone. This one was entertaining. No doubt. But listen
Bam Bam:It could have gone
Gizmo:really bad. Have gone real sour real fast. Yeah. Mhmm.
Rooster:We should have his wife on as a guest.
Senator:I mean, the next
Gizmo:Missus X. Missus Lizard X. Missus she may be more of a lizard than he is.
Senator:You say it could have went really badly. Mean That's terrible. The very next night, Giz and some other guys were here. I was not, and I'm getting photos. There's like a knife night at the lounge.
Senator:Some guys with, like, all these knives they collect. I'm like, if that would have happened the next day, God Oh only my goodness. He wasn't dead.
Bam Bam:Correct. Correct. Yeah. Things to consider as a grown adult. Sorry.
Gizmo:More than grown, I mean, advanced.
Chef Ricky:Has that not ever happened to any of you guys? Where Which you've gone MIA for a little bit, maybe your phone died and you were just having a good time.
Gizmo:Yeah, but my wife, of course, Mrs. Gizmo doesn't think that I'm like dead. She understands that I'm not a lunatic.
Chef Ricky:No. My wife thinks I'm actually dead.
Gizmo:Right?
Chef Ricky:Is she happy? No. I mean, she's happy I'm alive. Are you sure it's happened?
Senator:Yeah. What's your life insurance
Gizmo:policy? Correct.
Bam Bam:Are your premiums paid on?
Chef Ricky:Yes and yes. Right. But no, there's been times where I've been opening a restaurant and after a couple of those rough nights when you first open, you have a few drinks and you're trying to connect with the staff and whatnot. Pulled a chef.
Gizmo:Hold on. That was just the
Senator:chef's honor. Mean, what can I say?
Chef Ricky:And your battery dies. You don't realize the battery died and you're a little tuned up, as Giz says. And next thing you know, the sun's coming up.
Rooster:But there's a slight difference.
Chef Ricky:There is. There is.
Rooster:You have a job. You work. Yes. This guy is retired. Yeah.
Rooster:But but, again, I'm sorry.
Gizmo:Like, especially if the person job he has is to not piss off the wife.
Senator:Especially if the person knows that you're at a cigar lounge.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah.
Senator:He's not in the middle of Times Square. Know? He's at a cigar lounge. So even if it's three hours, it's like, okay, he's not paying attention to his phone. He's having a cigar.
Senator:He's watching a
Gizmo:football game. What I mean.
Rooster:There's something more to the story.
Chef Ricky:What time of night was it?
Senator:Probably like 11:00.
Gizmo:It was 11:30. Was 11:30.
Senator:It's not like a crazy hour.
Bam Bam:Sure.
Gizmo:Listen, it would take a lot. And I think I speak for all five of us here. And I think I speak for the other lizards, and I think I speak for lizard nation. It would take a lot for missus Gizmo or any of our wives Mhmm. To get to the point of getting in a car
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:And driving to the lounge. I don't care if you live 500 feet away. To get in the car and drive here
Bam Bam:It's a big deal.
Gizmo:That's a big deal.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:Yeah. Like, missus Gizmo's like, I don't give a shit what you do when you go there.
Chef Ricky:Like, I I don't You know there's a sense of urgency if she doesn't even change her clothes.
Gizmo:She's in the moo moo.
Chef Ricky:She's in the fucking moo moo.
Gizmo:She's the moo moo.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Rooster:Yeah.
Gizmo:It was a nice moo moo, by the way. Was silk. Nice. The whole thing.
Bam Bam:Nice. You weren't even there,
Gizmo:you picked that up. I was on lizard analysis.
Chef Ricky:That's that retirement.
Bam Bam:Man of detail.
Chef Ricky:That was
Senator:a different level of analysis. That's good. Analysis. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Gilfmo. Oh, holy shit. Gilfmo.
Bam Bam:Where's my buzzer?
Gizmo:We're gonna use that name going forward. Gilfmo.
Bam Bam:I love it.
Senator:I can't wait for the ratings. Giltmo, you're up.
Gizmo:Oh my god. I just can't believe like, we do a podcast here. I can't believe that this happened at our lounge
Bam Bam:Incredible.
Gizmo:With you here. I just can't believe it.
Senator:I just can't believe it's his first or second week of being a member. Yeah. He he only imagined community meeting. Like, you're just starting to meet the guys here, get to know everyone, and your wife storms in like a stormtrooper. And you're just like, what is happening?
Chef Ricky:We should start a GoFundMe for the guy for his next year's date.
Gizmo:No. To get an apartment.
Bam Bam:Honestly, though, Lizard X has some thick skin. He was here the the day after.
Senator:Oh, doesn't care.
Bam Bam:Not at all. No. He's great. He's great.
Gizmo:He doesn't even it's as if it didn't happen.
Bam Bam:And you know why?
Senator:Because No. It's as if it did because every two Every day happened to before. It still comes up. Maybe.
Bam Bam:And life's too short. Before. And he wants to live his life. Just keep it ahead of the club.
Gizmo:Unbelievable. Alright, boys. Before we get to our ratings tonight, we have to name a lizard of the week. And I I have a bunch of stuff. We'll save it for next I
Chef Ricky:think we have one already.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Lizard X.
Bam Bam:Lizard X. He deserves a box of cigars.
Senator:I was gonna nominate Lizard Y,
Gizmo:but that's that's also possible. I'll talk to Rob. Possible. Alright, boys. It's time now to go to our lizard of the week presented by Bon Roberts.
Gizmo:Our friends at Bon Roberts are giving away 10 count boxes of cigars to all of our lizards of the week. And this week, it's lizard j c. And he says, do you think when we see these nonbanded Cuban cigars, the people say or say from the Partagas factory, from El Legito, the H. Upman factory, etcetera? Or recently, I saw one that even said selling non banded Cubans that say they were from, quote, quality control.
Gizmo:Mhmm. Do you think these factories are giving away these cigars for free and they're not using them? It just seems hard to believe that the factory just says, okay. We don't want these. Let's send them out into the wild instead.
Gizmo:Thanks for your time.
Senator:Lizard JC. Where's the buzzer, Bam?
Gizmo:Get get the buzzer out.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Sensitive question.
Gizmo:So let's just say this. Number one, Tabakuba or Habanos SA, number one, does not approve or does not like when cigars leave the factory. That's number one. Number two, if I'm being told that these failed quality controls, so now I'm gonna sell them to you, that's not only number one tell of a problem, but number two, I'm gonna sell like, when I see this or hear of this, of course, I think that it's almost like the person that's selling them is telling too much of a story that is bullshit.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Gizmo:I mean, if you go to the factory, of course, there's people trying to sell you cigars because they're desperate for money or whatever. But I would argue that most of the time, 99 out of a 100 times, this is bullshit. Am I wrong?
Senator:No. And and the other thing, like, the listener, it's important to recognize, like, there's no way to verify this for them. Exactly. So anyone who's telling you, oh, this came from here, this came from there, prove it. They can't.
Senator:No. Correct. They can't. Unless they're gonna show you a video that they took of a roller or someone at a factory handing them these cigars, and it's all clear as day, which they're never gonna do.
Gizmo:That's correct.
Senator:That's why they say these things. There's no way to verify it. So unless you yourself physically go to these places, and you know someone or meet someone who hands you the cigars from the factory, that's the only way. You meet someone in Havana or wherever, and they tell you that they got it from so and so, who got it from so and so, and now they're giving it to you, it's bullshit.
Gizmo:Correct. So we've said this before. If it's too good to be true, it is. Mhmm. So in every case that Lizard JC presents here, it is too good to be true.
Gizmo:The idea that you're getting factory seconds effectively from Cuban factories, it's not happening. By the way, those factory seconds in those Cuban factories are going in the boxes. Correct. They're not throwing anything away.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. They become regionals.
Gizmo:Yeah. They're not throwing anything away. Everything's going into the boxes. They don't waste anything. So that's number one.
Gizmo:Number two, to be able to pinpoint, this is from Partagas, this is from Legito, etcetera. The amount of detail actually is it's almost too much detail that tells you it is too good to be true. It is fake. So everything that this guy is saying here, I think is bullshit. Right?
Senator:Yep. 100%. Correct.
Gizmo:If you were presented let me ask you guys a question. Let me say, you know, you get email from someone who kinda sounds legit. Right? And they say, you know, lizard bam, lizard senator, lizard rooster, lizard chef. Right?
Gizmo:I have some cigars available. I'm coming from the Partagas factory in Cuba. I also visited Leguitto. I was able to bring these cigars out. I got them through the airport.
Gizmo:I I have 200, 300 cigars, bundles of this, of that. They came, you know, out of the quality control rooms. I have connections there. My cousin works at the fucking factory. It's already outlandish.
Gizmo:I mean no. But that's what's happening here, and that's the story these people are telling. Lizards around the world who are desperate
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:To get the h up and magnum 46 we have in our hand tonight. Mhmm. They're desperate to get that cigar to smoke with us. What are you responding to that email?
Bam Bam:I'm ignoring it.
Gizmo:Ignoring it. Stay away. Yeah. I'm hitting the report spam button exactly. Right?
Gizmo:Yep. And it's happened.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Do you know
Gizmo:how many emails we've gotten on the lizard email about, hey. I've got cigars to sell you? I mean, it's unbelievable how many people are selling fake Cuban cigars banded and unbanded around the Internet. But also, like, I mean, there's so many shops on the Internet that are fake. So it's almost like at this point, if you're feeling that you are, kinda hit the sweet spot or you hit the jackpot on buying Cuban cigars, you have to assume that your gut is misleading you.
Senator:And the other thing I'll say, you know, let's say someone that you think, for whatever reason, you can trust gives you a story like this. If you smoked enough Cuban cigars to pick out blind, a Partagas d four, a Magnum 46, something like that, say to them, okay, let me smoke one. Let me try one. Because I've seen even in our lounge here, someone pulled exactly this. I won't say because we love this person.
Senator:This
Gizmo:lizard z.
Senator:Lizard z.
Chef Ricky:Oh.
Gizmo:You got all three coordinates. This person all three
Bam Bam:d. Correct.
Senator:This person uses a lot of letters in their name. They go by an acronym. I'll leave it at that. And said that they could get access to something, and I'm watching this group that all bought in, Oh, I want some of those, I want some of those, and they all split it. And of course they asked me, Oh, Lizard Center, do you want it?
Senator:And I said, Absolutely not. And I'm watching these guys light these cigars for the first time. The ash is crumbling off of the cigar like sand.
Rooster:Mhmm.
Senator:It is short filler tobacco. Oh, you don't want that? Alleged Cuban cigars crumbling.
Bam Bam:It's a mark of quality.
Senator:Yeah. And so it's like, again, if you try any these cigars, I mean, by the the performance of them construction wise and then even the taste, we've had guys show up in this lounge with bandaged Cuban cigars that they thought were real, and I've smoked one of these, and I'm instantly like, this Dominican tobacco.
Gizmo:It's not even Cuban tobacco.
Senator:It's so clear. So if you've smoked enough Cuban cigars, have them give you one to try without paying anything. You'll be able to tell right away that it's crap.
Gizmo:Correct. What's interesting about your point here is it's almost like I I see a lot of folks on, you know, Instagram and Reddit and all these places saying like, oh, you know, you know, this specific cigar performs better than this specific Cuban cigar that, you know, is constructed better than this Cuban cigar. The idea that any of those markers are different except for blend is just false.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Right? So like senator is saying, if someone says, I have a Cuban cigar for you, you don't need to get so granular that you're picking out this as Partagas versus Upman versus Cohiba, you will know if you've smoked enough of them if it's Cuban or not. Yeah. You you might not be able to say, oh, this is a Upman blend, Partagas blend, Cohiba blend. That that's really granular.
Gizmo:Right? I think even for us, it would be difficult. But when you're smoking Dominican, even Honduran or or Cuban Nicaraguan tobacco, it's very different than Cuban tobacco. You will know.
Senator:And the tell is not if it tastes good. Because the guys that were smoking these banded Cubans that were fake, they didn't realize at the time, when I tried this cigar, it actually tasted good. Yeah. It was quality Dominican tobacco, but it's not Cuban tobacco. So again, don't think like, oh, I'm gonna try it, and if it tastes good, it must be a Cuban cigar.
Senator:It must be real. That's not it. You have to have smoked enough Cuban cigars to know even if it is good, is it what that particular Cuban cigar should taste like, And that's where there's a huge difference.
Bam Bam:So this is pervasive in almost every cigar lounge I visit. Almost every single one.
Gizmo:Every one.
Bam Bam:Yep. You know, my first question is when they're holding up I don't know. I got a Sir Winston from someone one night. Oh, would you pay for this? It cost me $18.
Bam Bam:I mean, come on.
Gizmo:Yeah. You're not It's too good to be true it is.
Bam Bam:It's impossible.
Senator:I think the funniest example of this was our proprietor here, the owner of our lounge.
Bam Bam:Well, that's a special No.
Gizmo:No. Very special. Correct. He he
Bam Bam:at least In a loving way.
Senator:He was the recipient. He didn't commit the crime here. But some clown who I don't know if he was a guest or what the deal was. He's not a regular member here. Hands the proprietor a grand reserve.
Bam Bam:Oh, Bolivar, I think.
Senator:Right?
Gizmo:Yeah. Hands it to him. By the way, the finger cords are going. Ground reserve. Ground reserve.
Senator:Like, he's handing out a $2 cigar. Just say, oh, here. Have this. These are great. Blah blah blah.
Senator:And the proprietor can't believe it. Like, oh, is this a good cigar? I'm looking at this like, do you know how much that cigar cost? There's no chance in hell that if someone had a box of those, they're just handing them out to you. They just met you for two seconds like it's nothing.
Senator:Yep. And then the hysterical part, I happen to be smoking, by chance, a Bolivar Bellicosos Finos
Bam Bam:That's right.
Senator:As he's handed a Gran Reserva Bolivar Bellicosos Finos, and just the Bolivar bands, I go, look at what I'm smoking, what the artwork is on the band, and look at your band, and it's like the shittiest fake you've ever seen.
Bam Bam:Not just that. If you remember, that fake one had a razor sharp point. Correct. You'll never get that on a BP.
Gizmo:Yeah. So, yeah, the bellicose is a rounded
Bam Bam:There's a slight
Gizmo:softness It's not to the a torpedo, which is a hard Like It's almost like a triangle.
Bam Bam:A Davidoff Millennium Pyramid. Those are sharp. They're sharp. That's what this looked like. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Gizmo:It's so easy. I mean, the printing on it was hilarious. Horrible. It was horrendous. But listen, unless you're in the weeds like we are and we try to be, I think the assumption that every lizard listener needs to take is that you are being sold a bag of goods here.
Gizmo:Right? You're you're being sold a bridge in Arizona. Like, it's just not real. Yeah. 99.9% of the time.
Gizmo:Out of all the people we've ever dealt with, I deal and we deal with one person that we trust is actually getting us Cuban cigars.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:And have I verified this? Yes. Have I verified this through ways that I know are able to validate this person?
Bam Bam:Yes. And there aren't many of those people in the world. There's probably three. Honestly. Yeah.
Bam Bam:So every other person that you've ever met in any lounge that says he can get Cubans, has Cubans, shows you his Cubans, everything I've seen has been completely fake.
Chef Ricky:Yep. Can I just clarify one point? In the event there's any other chefs listening, in the weeds in this case is a very positive thing.
Bam Bam:Hold on. Can you get the chef's association of America on a phone?
Gizmo:I will. I will. We're we're gonna call them tomorrow.
Bam Bam:Speed dial. Yeah. Yeah.
Chef Ricky:In the weeds in the kitchen is not a good thing. No.
Gizmo:So thanks again to Lizard JC for writing us about these Cuban cigars that he's been given access to. I would be very cautious if I were him. And congratulations to him again for winning lizard of the week. He's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bon Roberts. Thanks to them for supporting us and for providing our lizards of the week a 10 count box of real, by the way, Russell.
Chef Ricky:Needs them. Correct.
Gizmo:Real great cigars.
Rooster:Not unbanded.
Gizmo:They are actually, these are banded, Rooster.
Bam Bam:So will he could he get the box of Phenomenos? Are those available now?
Gizmo:They're not available yet, but they will be. So Okay. I I don't know what he's gonna get, honestly. I
Chef Ricky:don't I'm
Gizmo:not sure.
Bam Bam:Wait for those to be available.
Gizmo:I can't wait for the Dalias and the Phenomas. Yeah. I'm gonna buy a lot of them.
Bam Bam:Oh,
Gizmo:yeah. Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of our evening now with the Don Pancho, Ocho Anos, Rum, and the h Upman Magnum 46 from Cuba. Any final thoughts before we go into our rating tonight?
Chef Ricky:I'll tell you guys right now. I'm on cloud 10.
Gizmo:Yeah. I am too. I am shocked at how well the cigar has performed. I'm honestly not shocked by the rum. Senator came in very highly touting how well this rum was gonna be.
Gizmo:Obviously, hadn't had the eight, had the 18. Mhmm. But I'm blown away by the Perrington.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I'm blown away by this particular rum. It's incredible to have another option that you can make a staple and never go wrong. You'd have a tremendous respect for someone that says, This is my drink and it's gonna be my drink for a long time.
Chef Ricky:That's just by Casey's boys, because I think after this episode,
Senator:And a break going just a wild thing, it's like, there are three Panamanian rums now that each are so good, but yet so distinct They're different. That it's not like you know, there's some products where you're like, oh, wow. That was really good, and it kinda knocks the other one off your bar.
Gizmo:Yep.
Senator:No. They're so distinct and so delicious that all three of them will always be a part of my bar.
Bam Bam:Great compliment to a bar.
Chef Ricky:But they all have a similar identity, right? There's a foundation to all three of these rums that you know they're made by someone who knows what the
Gizmo:fuck they're It's like there's a lineage. There's like a family lineage. It differs with each.
Bam Bam:Intellectually, it's kinda cool to know that. You're getting incredibly high quality products here. And the MAG 46 redeemed itself tremendously. What a unbelievable. Tremendously cigar.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. It's time now to move into the formal liquorating tonight on the Don Pancho, eight years aged rum from Panama. Mhmm. Bam Bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:So this is no surprise. I'm at a strong, strong 10. This is another bottle. Senator, you said it two seconds ago. You have to have it in your bar.
Bam Bam:I think every cigar smoker has to have a high quality rum. You won't be disappointed. This is something I'll drink for the rest of my life. The whole category is something that I just can't get away from. For me, really no reason, and I said it earlier, to go back to a scotch.
Bam Bam:It doesn't have the interest for me. This has been such a journey. It's been incredible. So, strong 10. Incredible.
Rooster:So, they make an eight and an 18.
Gizmo:Also make a And
Rooster:a 30. So, no 10,
Gizmo:no 12. I wish they made a 12. I wish there was eight, twelve, eighteen,
Senator:thirty. What's weird is 12 is not common. Well, no, I guess Santiago does I the mean, Havana Club doesn't. They do a 15 is after the seven.
Gizmo:That's correct,
Bam Bam:Which is not as good as the seven, in my opinion.
Gizmo:I think value for dollar, yes. But it's a good spirit.
Bam Bam:Basically.
Chef Ricky:Right, chef. It's a 10. I mean, buy this rum right now. It's delicious. It's not going to disappoint.
Chef Ricky:It delivers on every single level, body flavor, everything about it. It's it's a perfect rum for me. I'm getting this immediately. This belongs on I'm almost disappointed, know, Bam, to your point, you're you're 100% correct. Every cigar smoker should have a great rum.
Chef Ricky:I have 30 something bottles in my cabinet, not one rum.
Senator:Shock hits a crime.
Chef Ricky:It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So it's time to know what
Gizmo:Call my the first chef's rum association. Let's tell them about this.
Bam Bam:They should get the buzzer.
Gizmo:It's not good.
Senator:We're gonna call the Michelin guys.
Gizmo:His Michelin star might be under review. Oh, that's correct.
Bam Bam:You're fucked, buddy.
Chef Ricky:There's no record. Just a recommendation.
Gizmo:So for me, it's also a 10. I mean, I think it's obvious. This rum is another perfect rum. This Don Poncho guy, I said it earlier, is like the patron saint of the lizards pairings on this podcast. I'm blown away.
Gizmo:I want three cases of this in my house tomorrow.
Bam Bam:Yep.
Gizmo:I I just can't even believe for $30 to be able to get a bottle of this for it to perform like it did with a Cuban cigar. But this can go this is one of those. This can go all the way up to the strongest of Nicaraguans. Totally agree. I stand by that.
Gizmo:I agree. I think it's a perfect rum.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:It's perfect. And I wish I had heard of it sooner. Again, like you said, why are we paying double or triple the price on some of these other types of pairings that don't satisfy like this?
Bam Bam:I'm gonna assume there's gonna be some pushback if a listener hears that comment. There may be some negative commentary that comes back, possibly. Yeah, there's always a place for scotch, but no longer for me.
Gizmo:Listen though, if that listener drinks this, how are they gonna complain?
Chef Ricky:Dollar for dollar, this pairing was incredible.
Bam Bam:It's unbelievable. You said earlier, if this was a 50 or $60 bottle, I'm still buying it.
Gizmo:We've seen the same place.
Bam Bam:We've That's correct.
Gizmo:We've seen the same place. I am completely blown away by this. God bless Don Pancho. Brilliant, brilliant rum tonight. Perfect pairing.
Gizmo:Cuban or otherwise, it's a perfect 10. Senator.
Senator:As you would imagine, I'm also at a 10. The wildest part of this Panamanian rum journey for me has been I mean, number one, I'll just say about this guy, Don Pancho, you know, we love Cuba so much. Obviously, it's become harder to visit Cuba now than it was when we were going. I've been preaching to this group and Pagoda as well, like how special Panama is, and the fact that this guy is responsible for making my experience in Panama so similar to my experience in Cuba. You know, we used to love like, you can only get Cuban rum in Cuba, and how amazing that rum was compared to anything else we could get.
Senator:And it's like, I go to Panama, and I have that same experience because of that guy. Like, that's who is responsible for this stuff. So I'm, like, incredibly grateful for that. The other thing I'm gonna say, someone said this to me the other night when I had poured them some abuelo rum, and I've been thinking a lot about this, and I'm now gonna very declaratively say it. And I am someone who I think everyone in this room knows, I travel plenty, and whenever I'm anywhere, I always try to bring back Havana Club.
Senator:It's my favorite rum, Havana seven, anywhere I'm going. Europe, Canada, Panama, doesn't matter. This rum, this eight year, and Abuelo seven is better than Havana Club seven year.
Gizmo:I agree with you. I agree with you.
Bam Bam:If you go back to the last recording of that episode, I said exactly that. I agree with you. I said exactly that.
Senator:And it's crazy because I never thought I would have as strong of a love for a rum as I felt Correct. Every time I would pour a glass of Havana seven. It's like Mhmm. I could have the worst day and just have a sip of Havana Club seven year, and it's like my whole day. Yeah.
Senator:It just brought back all the great memories of
Gizmo:the It's like the clouds clear, and the sun comes out.
Senator:Exactly. Yep. And it's like now when I drink these Panamanian rums, I have that experience, but even more. It's that much more satisfying. And when you drink this stuff, and then you have Havana Club seven year, it drinks thinner.
Senator:Uh-huh. It drinks a little hotter and just not as refined.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And I think we said it in the Abuelo episode. Chef, you mentioned this. That touch of of pepper, that touch of heat that dissipates very quickly, each sip snaps you back into into attention. You said that, and I wholeheartedly agree with that.
Gizmo:It grabs you every sip.
Bam Bam:And it's Yep. Particular to the Panamanian rums.
Gizmo:Almost like the Havana seven and the Florida Cana. It's almost like it's almost like a passive sipping experience where it's kinda like after a few sips, you kinda forget you're sipping it. Yep. You're having rum And there's merits to that. And that's fine.
Gizmo:Yeah. But this and the Abuelo
Bam Bam:seven It's different.
Gizmo:Every sip is like, holy shit, this is good. Yep. Holy shit,
Bam Bam:this is Exactly right.
Gizmo:Holy shit, this is good. That's what's happening. Yep. Holy shit, this is good. Correct.
Gizmo:That's what has happened tonight, and it happened on that Abuelo seven episode. I can't believe it.
Senator:I just can't
Chef Ricky:wait for
Senator:more It's amazing than group for us to take a trip to Panama, sit in the LCDH in Panama City
Chef Ricky:And have my wife visit.
Gizmo:You're fired if that happens. You're out. Correct.
Senator:And just be able to order this stuff with a great Cuban cigar. They've got almost the whole line there, and it's really cool. Like, in the back of the LCDH, clearly, owner of the LCDH
Gizmo:Don't tease us. It's really nice. Correct. No. Not a nice Only
Bam Bam:he and Pagoda have been there.
Senator:Correct. I'm just gonna say how much this shop, the owner, loves Don Pancho. In the back, they sell a ton of rums. There's an entire room with just walls of rum that you can buy, and they've got a wall decal of Don Pancho, huge, back there with all his stuff. I mean, just can't wait for us all to be able to experience that together.
Senator:I need one
Gizmo:of those from my office.
Bam Bam:I can't wait either. Yeah.
Senator:It's special. This is as strong of a 10, and, yeah, I just man, we've gotta meet this guy.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The former liquor rating tonight on the Don Pancho, eight years aged Panamanian rum is a perfect 10. And now it's time to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the h Upman. Magnum 46 from Cuba. Rooster, you're up.
Bam Bam:Oh, boy.
Gizmo:I knew it was coming.
Bam Bam:I was looking at him even
Chef Ricky:even on his birthday. Rooster's Rooster's gonna get his own buzzer.
Bam Bam:I know.
Gizmo:You should get your own.
Rooster:That's a good idea.
Bam Bam:No. It ain't.
Gizmo:What app do you use?
Bam Bam:I ain't telling you.
Rooster:I mean, what can you say? I mean, this cigar is what a Cuban cigar should be. This is what you expect out of a good Cuban cigar, and this is what we've been missing. But every time you smoke some of these cigars out of these fresh boxes, they just deliver. And this H.
Rooster:Upman absolutely delivered. I mean, right on the light, first of all, the draw, the combustion, it was just fantastic. It was open. I mean, all five cigars were absolutely perfect. The burn was amazing.
Rooster:The cedar, the cocoa notes throughout, that little bit of spice that you get, it kind of breaks away from the other H. Upman cigars. This is one of my favorite H. Cigars. I mean, the Upman 46 is absolutely it's beautiful to hold in your hand.
Rooster:It's the perfect size. It's absolutely a great cigar, and tonight, the cigar was absolutely perfect. So I'm giving it a 10. Very nice. Absolutely.
Rooster:Fantastic smoke. I
Gizmo:wish they
Rooster:were still like $14 $15, but nothing is.
Gizmo:Like they were when we reviewed them the first time.
Bam Bam:When you were born.
Rooster:They're probably a buck.
Senator:Senator. So this was spectacular. Definitely one of the best mag 40 sixes I've had. I do have one major complaint.
Gizmo:Oh, Jesus.
Bam Bam:What the heck?
Rooster:There we go.
Bam Bam:There we go again.
Gizmo:Know, I was Where's the buzzer tonight? Get the buzzer up.
Bam Bam:Not anymore. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Oh, by the way, when I said that, the joy out. The joy. Oh, yeah. The joy he said.
Senator:Let me let me share my gripe, then you can you can decide what you wanna do with that buzzer. Alright. My one major complaint, it's not long enough.
Bam Bam:Okay. That's that's He
Rooster:no.
Gizmo:Hit it because he he did a little bait and switch there.
Bam Bam:That kind of is a bait and
Gizmo:That's a bait and switch.
Bam Bam:Alright. You know what?
Senator:No. Honestly, I was so sad when I finished the cigar. It's like, it was so delicious. I almost wish, like Correct. This was a Churchill.
Rooster:I want another one.
Gizmo:A second
Senator:I mean, I could smoke another one right after this.
Gizmo:We're we're out of cigars tonight, boys. There are no
Senator:cigars. God that
Gizmo:box is closer to being a Gizmo. We're completely out of everybody. I'm looking right at it. It's going back in the tower.
Senator:I mean, just outstanding. And, you know, for this to be 2022, and you get, like, the the baking spice and the nuttiness that's part of, like, the Upman DNA and some of the dried fruit we were talking about, but there's a creaminess that
Chef Ricky:Yes.
Senator:Like, if you had this blind and didn't know the box date, you would think this has even more age on it.
Gizmo:True.
Senator:There is not a single rough edge. It's so smooth Down to the nub. To the nub. Correct. I mean, literally, I smoked mine till there was, like, a quarter of an inch left.
Bam Bam:Same.
Senator:It it it's spectacular. Like, I wish everyone were exactly this experienced. I can't say that's necessarily the case, but this cigar, I think all of us have bought boxes. We've all had really special moments with it, and to see that the more recent runs live up to that, if not even exceed it, is so promising. If I was in any LCDH anywhere in the world, even at $30, I would so happily pick one of these up.
Senator:It's absolutely worth it for the experience that you're gonna get. What a spectacular cigar. I'm I'm thrilled with it in every way.
Gizmo:Yep. So for me, it's easily a 10. I mean, this is a perfect, as you said, Rooster, perfect Cuban cigar. And for me, it's easily the best Magnum 46 I've ever had.
Bam Bam:Is it your favorite again?
Gizmo:I mean, yeah. Yeah. I mean, dude, this was exactly like you said, again, Rooster, it's exactly what you look for when you light up a Cuban cigar. It's this is the high that we chase. This is the perfection that we chase.
Gizmo:And to find this in regular production in H. Upman that's pretty available to anyone who has access to Cuban cigars, It's not special. It's not rare. It's not limited. You can find this cigar.
Gizmo:And, you know, as senator said, to find a recent production of this that performs so perfectly, so brilliantly, down to the nub, I mean, I can't even believe it. It's absolutely worth the price. It's absolutely worth the effort. It's absolutely worth the time. I can't get over how good this cigar was tonight.
Gizmo:It's the best magnum 46 I've ever had
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Ever. Correct. It's a perfect perfect 10.
Bam Bam:Now are these aren't coming up, though, a lot.
Gizmo:They come up, but because we're in The United States they're not nothing's coming up
Bam Bam:for We're not seeing
Gizmo:this.
Rooster:But if
Gizmo:you're outside of The US, there's no problem getting
Chef Ricky:this.
Bam Bam:Yeah. That's
Gizmo:true. And that's honestly why I reach for these Mhmm. Because we're doing these once every five weeks. I I went back to the Magnum 46 because this is a cigar that the listener could get. I knew the rating was not accurate to the the current production cigars of this, you know, of of of this Fotola from from agent.
Gizmo:The revisit's brilliant. So I'm so happy we Yeah. Revisited this tonight. It's a perfect, perfect Cuban cigar tonight. I'm blown away.
Gizmo:Perfect pairing. They were made for each other. I can't believe it.
Chef Ricky:Chef. Listen. I'm in pagoda seat. So in your honor, Ten Ten wins.
Senator:The only problem is you have no ash on your lap.
Gizmo:He did earlier.
Chef Ricky:I did earlier. I I clear it quick.
Bam Bam:I look out for that shit.
Chef Ricky:I clear it quick. No. This cigar was perfect. The pairing was perfect. The night was perfect.
Chef Ricky:It's such a good time to be back. I I have nothing else to add on top of what you guys have already said. So for me, it's just a ton.
Bam Bam:Alright, Bam. Only thing I can add is the environment tonight, smoking an incredible Cuban cigar, it's reminiscent of the older days when we were doing Cubans every week. Every other week, yeah. So, that was great. Just that feeling of having a great Cuban in in our hand again with the mic on, that was really special tonight.
Bam Bam:So clearly, it's a 10. I I think it's one of the best Cubans I've ever had in in quite a while. I got a little baking spice. I got a good amount of graham cracker toward the end of the second third. And in that final third, it was there was a little bit of minerality, a touch of pepper, but I still got that strain of sweetness that came in, so it was beautifully balanced and like
Chef Ricky:Creaminess. You said
Bam Bam:Right, yeah, it's still creamy right down to the bloody end. It was fantastic. So ten, ten, 10.
Rooster:Great. Great cigar.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Fantastic.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. That puts the formal lizard rating tonight on the h up in Magnum 46 at another perfect 10. And boys, ten ten wins.
Bam Bam:This is ten ten wins.
Senator:The Cross Bronx is backed up all the way to Jerome Avenue. Pagoda's lost his cigar case.
Gizmo:Correct. Coldagers at Transat. We'll give you the world. I can't believe it. I I mean, you know, some some of our friends bust our balls that we give too many tens.
Gizmo:But I can't believe how lucky we've been on the pairing side and the cigar side with the cigars that we've been smoking over the last few weeks.
Rooster:How can you not give the cigar a 10?
Gizmo:It's un dude, it was a perfect cigar.
Bam Bam:It's not possible.
Rooster:It's unbelievable. Single point that you can take off of the cigar.
Bam Bam:Other than the fact that it was too short.
Gizmo:Yeah. Exactly right. So, boys, let's compare this to the other h Upman ratings we've given on the podcast. We'll start at episode 40, the h up in number two, the loved 14 rated a 9.8. On episode 62, the BAM accountability hour, the h up in magnum 50 rated 7.6.
Gizmo:Thank you for that, BAM.
Bam Bam:Duly noted.
Gizmo:On episode 72, the Robustos Anajados scored a 9.6. Then we went into the connoisseur series, all four of them. On episode 86, we did the Connie a rated a 9.2. On episode 96, the Connie one rated an 8.6. On episode 111, the Connie b rated a 7.2.
Gizmo:And on episode 125, the Connie two rated a nine point zero. Jeez. Then on episode 135, we did a short smoke special with the half corona rated at 9.7. On episode 170, the Magnum 54 scored a 7.9. On episode 192, we revisited the h up in number two.
Gizmo:We did a redux 9.6. On episode 200, of course, we did the sir Winston scored a 9.6. And tonight, revisiting the h Upman Magnum 46, the best h Upman we've done on the podcast so far. Incredible. A perfect 10.
Gizmo:What a night, boys.
Rooster:Well deserved.
Senator:Yes.
Gizmo:What a night. What a pairing. Of course, we have to thank Bon Roberts boys, and we have to congratulate Lizard JC for winning lizard of the week. He won a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bon Roberts. We have to thank our presenting sponsor, Fabrica five.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Incredible cigars out of Honduras. We love their stuff. There was some great stuff coming this year from those guys, the Bon Roberts cigars. Try them out. Use our code lizard pod for 10% off your entire order.
Gizmo:And finally, boys, small batch cigars are preferred retail partner of the Lounge Lizards podcast. I love ordering from them. I love getting shipments from them. They do a great job, and
Senator:you can I love
Gizmo:getting used to our cigars? Avowed. Yes. Correct. They have great stuff there.
Gizmo:So check them out and use our code wizard 15 for 15% off your entire order. And one more time, boys, both pairings tonight on the podcast scored a perfect 10. The eight years aged Don Poncho rum from Panama and the h Upman Magnum 46 from Cuba. What a brilliant night. What a brilliant
Chef Ricky:night.
Bam Bam:Delicious night overall.
Gizmo:I can't believe it. I wanna have another one of these cigars when we wrap up tonight. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We all are.
Gizmo:Correct. Alright, boys. A great night tonight, and, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us.
Gizmo:You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello at loungelizardspod.com.
Gizmo:You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.