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The lizards pair the Padron 2000 Maduro with Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The guys discuss Woodford’s impact on the greater bourbon industry, things to look for in cigars on any budget and Senator gives Bam a gift he’ll always remember.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda, and bam.
Bam. And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some bourbon, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 25th official invitation to join. And become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss Woodford's impact on the greater bourbon industry. Things to look for in cigars on any budget. And Senator gives bam a gift. He'll always remember all among a variety of the things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite. Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair Woodford Reserve, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey with Padron 2000 in Maduro.
A thousand series from Padron [00:01:00] Tonight on the Pod Boys, the Padron 2000 Maduro, which is our third petron. We've done, uh, we did the exi, we did the number one cigar of the year, the torpedo in natural. From the 1964 series, both of those, and this one is from the original Patron drone line, and I would argue, I don't wanna say budget line, but that's certainly how it fares in their, in their offering.
It's fair to call it that. Uh, and, and it's seven bucks a stick. Yeah. It's what it is. Yeah. Um, it's a beautiful dark Maduro wrapper. Construction's a little bit more rustic, I would say a little bit more imperfect than the other patron drones that we normally smoke. And uh, this is an interesting one because it came at the recommendation of a listener, uh, via senator.
And Senator had one or two of these and said, we gotta do them.
**Senator:** Yeah, I mean, I, I, so the funny thing is, as one of the biggest fans of Petron, certainly in the room, um, and there are many of. . I had never had a patron thousand series [00:02:00] cigar. I'd only had a larger ring gauge that I didn't enjoy. And, uh, someone told me to try the 2000 series.
So I had ordered a single, uh, two of them to try. And I smoked both and I said, wow, that was shockingly good for a $7 stick. And so I bought a box and here we are.
**Gizmo:** So I personally have had a bunch of the other thousand series in made. But they were much bigger than this and I found them to be harsh and, and really not as enjoyable as some of the 1964 series, but with senators, uh, endorsement, we are gonna do it tonight on the pod Boys.
**Bam Bam:** Nice. Honestly, I've always looked down on this entire line. I've never had any of the thousand series cigars. Yeah. .
**Gizmo:** What? Coming from Brewster? You just got called the snobs. You. Elitist
**Senator:** bastard. .
**Bam Bam:** I will tell you, the wrapper smells really good. It does.
**Gizmo:** It smells. Smell, smell, smell the foot. Yeah. I did
**Bam Bam:** that.
It's, it's very nice
**Gizmo:** Smells. It smells wonderful. Classic patron drone.
**Bam Bam:** It's, it's, uh, man. So far surprising. On, on this.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's cut this thing. Yeah. See we're getting on the cold.[00:03:00]
Puba and his phone never fails. That's a great Conan O'Brien ski man. Missed that guy. A great podcast though. The draw is nice and open and
**Bam Bam:** cedar. Great
**Gizmo:** job. A lot of. I get a lot of Coco's. Wow. I'm getting a lot of cocoa and sweetness and Oh yeah. Just classic padron. Mm. And that's what was shocking to me about what, what Senator said, being an exclusive guy that, uh, this cigar for him was, uh, really, really enjoyable.
So I'm very excited about this. So let's light this thing, boys. The Padron 2000 series in Maduro is five, uh, five inches by 50 ring gauge. and it's only $7 and 20 cents a stick. So what I've seen on a [00:04:00] lot of forums is guys chase these, they all come in cellophane. Uh, every cigar in the thousand series comes in cellophane and guys chase these with, with yellow cell cuz they, uh, you know, these aren't as aged as the 1964 and other lines.
Uh, so they think that with age, these get closer to what you get in a 1964 lines. , I guess we'll see how this thing does tonight here on the pod.
Yeah. It has those,
**Poobah:** it, it, it has those, uh, similar notes to when you light ani. Right? Just not quite as,
**Bam Bam:** it's not as robust. Yeah. Like a milder version of that. Yeah, a bit. I step down. Maybe
**Poobah:** it's like a cousin.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's really nice on. Oh, for me it's a classical co drone for me. It's a coco bomb on the light.
Yeah. Yeah. Great Smoke output. Great draw. [00:05:00] Really, really nice. So, Senator, do these come in box of Hang on, 20 or 25? Hang on, ba BA's got something.
**Bam Bam:** I like this cigar . I mean, it's really
**Gizmo:** surprising. Yeah. .
**Senator:** That was my exact reaction the first time I lit this. I mean,
**Bam Bam:** I'm sitting there saying, yeah, I'm kind of in disbelief for a $7 cigar for $7 right off the bat.
It's got a lot of flavor. Yeah, and you know what it is to me, it's, maybe this is gonna sound crazy, but it's actually a little creamy.
**Gizmo:** Agree. Yeah. So I just answered my own question. By the way, if you got a box of these 26 in the box and you can get them for somewhere between 185 and 200 bucks for 26, so that's a pretty good value cigar.
Absolutely. Especially from patron. . So I'm, I'm, I'm curious how this is gonna perform tonight, but Wow. On the white. Very nice. No floral notes for you. No .
**Pagoda:** I mean, starting out like a little bit milder
**Gizmo:** than the exclusive way it is. Yeah. But you can, but it has the same, uh,
**Bam Bam:** dna. Like Puba said, it's a distant cousin, a little baby brother.
That, [00:06:00]
**Senator:** that story I'll also say, give it time. Yeah. It picks
**Gizmo:** up really. I can imagine it has, there's something about on, on the light here that it, it, there's a little, there's a touch of harshness or. That's, that's kind of biting me a little bit. Um, I can't put my finger on it, but I'm not getting any of that yet.
It's not as refined as, you know, obviously what I'm used to from
**Bam Bam:** Pedro, but what's funky about it? I, I'm, I'm the exact opposite of that because I'm getting the creaminess and a little bit of the DNA n a, which I love that term. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Great description. I don't get that bite here. I'm not getting a bite
**Senator:** either.
Rooster, are you getting a bite? No. Puba,
**Gizmo:** no. So as rooster once said, pallet, it's fucked me neither
**Senator:** per primitive palate.
**Poobah:** No, it's just, it's just a lighter bodied Yeah. Really for me. Um, I
**Gizmo:** mean, look at the burn of this. Oh, it's razor sharp, right?
**Poobah:** Oh yeah. The construction's really great, like petr patron, you know, when you, when you clip it, the draw is like wide open.
It's typical. [00:07:00] But not the
**Pagoda:** most beautiful looking
**Gizmo:** cigar. It's not, it's, it's, it's
**Senator:** very imperfect. Having, having an entire box of these, it, it, you know how they achieve that price point? There's no doubt. The, the quality control is not like the 64 line, very rustic in construction.
**Pagoda:** Great smoke output
**Bam Bam:** though.
Oh yeah. The
**Gizmo:** combustion is ridiculous.
**Poobah:** Senate, the finish is distinctively like not. , it's not as long and it's not as smooth. You get a little bit of that. It's not like a
**Gizmo:** 64. It's not as refined. It's not as refined, but it agreed. It's, it's really good. Yeah. Agreed. I mean, listen, I, for $7 a stick, I mean, how many other cigars can you buy for $7 that just on the light, give you this kind of performance?
And so, yeah. So I think very interesting.
**Poobah:** The challenge with the cigar is that, and I've smoked these, I've smoked a decent amenities, uh, When I first started smoking padron, and you know, it's like an entry, it's, you don't realize like the [00:08:00] value in the, uh, like the, it does, doesn't have that smooth like velvety creamy finish that, that a 64 is gonna give you, but it's given you enough.
It's there. So I, we'll see how it develop. ,
**Senator:** I would agree with that. I mean, my, my even take this far and having had this before, you know, it's a less refined 64, but my big fear was that this would be nothing like the 64 and this would be a disaster. And it, it, it's, I think, so far by the reactions and, and having smoked it, it's not,
**Gizmo:** You know what I like? It's interesting. The, the band is very classic Cuban Monte Christo in style. It's true. It looks like a, like, almost like an imitation of the classic montecristo line, uh, band, uh, from the Cuban Monte Christos.
**Poobah:** It's very difficult to go backwards. Yeah. That's the problem. Because once that's true, once you, once, once you've [00:09:00] tasted the, the, the Cuda gra and then you go backwards, you know, you have this as like an as kind of an introductory ci.
and you're like, uh, and then you, and then you go to, and then you go to the X 64 in Maduro and then you go to go backwards to this is a little bit more difficult.
**Bam Bam:** But you make a good point though, the idea of an intro cigar. You know when you have guests that don't smoke cigars or haven't had very many of these, and I know Senator, you give outs like they're a dollar each, but this is a great party cigar.
that's, it's a well-respected brand, you know, one of the best in the world, but it's also, it's a very high quality stick to give out to
**Senator:** guests. I'm glad you said that. Yeah, because when I smoke this cigar, so I, I'm the person who said, , you know, I know guys talk about I have a guest human or all that. I can't look at cigars.
I don't wanna smoke. So I don't have a guest humidor. And, and as a result, I have no choice. I do, I hand out exces, you know, to anyone and everyone when they're over and they want a cigar and yeah, [00:10:00] sure. When they, they love them. And then I look at the box and I say, holy shit there, I just went through a box and, you know, what feels like a few hours.
Um, and, and some I'm sure really appreciate it and others probably couldn't appreciate it that much because they don't smoke enough cigars to really appreciate what's. Amazing about, uh, the, the 64 line. Um, but having this, I said to myself, this may be the first what I'd call a yard cigar, like a very affordable stick that you would light up at any time for any reason.
The first yard cigar that I would give to guests and I would smoke one with them, right. And not have a complaint of, oh man, how am
**Bam Bam:** I gonna get through this? You would actually enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's if you have this in your human or it's a respectable spot, I have, I'll,
**Gizmo:** I'll be honest. It for me, where I would kind of place this in my mind is if I'm in a time crunch or if I'm out somewhere and I'm not sure how much time I'm gonna have.
Or you're in a humidor that you have to, you, you know, you have a half hour, an hour, you wanna pick up a stick. You, you, you're not quite, this is, I would absolutely reach for this. Yeah. Tell me. And I, having had [00:11:00] the 3000 and the 4,000, I would've never said that. Same. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And a good thing about this, it has enough body where it'll, it'll hold up to a, a good glass of scotch.
Yep. You know? And what we're drinking tonight Yeah. It'll hold up to that.
**Gizmo:** So this, uh, so. Line of cigars, the thousand series from Petron. We, we waxed quite a bit on episode three about Petron, uh, and their history. But this cigar was the only cigar. This line, the thousand line, they call it the Petron series.
Uh, it it, this was the only line they had for 30 years from, you know, when they were founded to 1964 to 1994. The thousand series were the only cigars, the patron. So they built their business. On these cigars? Had no idea. I actually didn't know that either. Yeah, that was it. And in 1994, like we talked about, and again for the listener, if you haven't heard it, go back to episode three.
We wax on the history in Jorge Padron coming in after Ho Jose Padron's father. Uh, but uh, they didn't [00:12:00] introduce the 64 line, which really was their first foray into age cigars, you know, putting out tobacco that had four or five years of age. This was what they had for 30 years. .
**Poobah:** I used to smoke a lot of these.
Um, and uh, they're good. I mean, they, they, you know, um,
**Senator:** is it a familiar friend ?
**Gizmo:** Um,
**Poobah:** it's coming back to me. It's hard to go backwards. Yeah. Um, mm-hmm. with it, but it's
**Bam Bam:** on the right occasion though. It fits in.
**Poobah:** You know, if you're in a golf cart or something and you, you, you really just don't, you know, and you're driving along the fairway or, and you don't wanna light up like a thin-skinned Cuban, um, and you, and you want something to stay lit and you really don't give a fuck if you smoke half of it and have to ditch it.
Or
**Senator:** even, you know, I think gizmo's getting at that, he was saying like, oh, if you're kind of in a pinch, like you think about it, when we buy short smokes, . [00:13:00] You know, when we're really in a pinch, it's the end of the night. We just want one more smoke, but we don't have much time. , you know, we're usually spending 5, 7, 5, 6, 7, $8 on that little short smoke an up in half Corona, super affordable.
Mm-hmm. , I mean, at this price point, even if, even if I only smoke half of this Yeah. And it delivers a lot of flavor, you're good. I'm not gonna feel bad about leaving it my ashtray where, you know, an X placebo or something else. Yeah. I'm gonna feel bad about dumping a 15, $16 stick.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. To me, if I, I often, uh, With the, with the family.
And what'll end up happening is, uh, my wife and the kids will want to go shopping and stuff and there's a, there's a little shop where we go and they have a nice selection of patron drones and stuff, but I never know how much time I'm gonna have. This is what I'm gonna start picking up because I bought like a, a 1926 at one point, which is a pretty high price cigar.
And my dumb ass, I didn't realize how little time I was gonna have, you know how it is with kids and family. And I had a ditch half of it, and it. It like really bummed me [00:14:00] out. Oh, yeah. That I had to walk out of there with half of that cigar. Yeah. In the ashtray. So this is, this is really enjoyable for the price, and I really can see it fitting in those moments for me.
Yep.
**Poobah:** Absolutely. Yeah. The finish is just short. It
**Bam Bam:** is. I was about to say that. And you're absolutely
**Poobah:** right. It's abrupt. Yeah. It's like, it's like it comes off the pallet when you blow it out your mouth and then it's like it's just gone. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's like
**Gizmo:** a, that's accurate. It's like a mute.
Muted. It's placebo . Yeah, that's exactly,
**Poobah:** exactly
**Bam Bam:** right. Specifically for all said, well, on the notes for the exi, I do get on that cigar. I get cocoa and a lot of espresso, a little bit of Cedar Deep Coffee. Senator, you hit it on the nail for me. For me, I'm, I am getting a light chocolate and cocoa on this and I, it's very nice.
I don't get much more than that as far as flavor profiles are concerned.
**Senator:** Yeah, I, I would say the big difference in flavor profile between this and the 60. This is a coco bomb and the 64 certainly has cocoa, but the certain, uh, the 64 also is very earthy and that you [00:15:00] don't get in this. And it would be fascinating to see.
I mean, gizmo mentioned that there are people who buy these and age them. You know, I'm sure if you sat, if I just leave this in my humidor for three, four years, I'm sure it will probably develop pretty close to what a 64, you know, tastes like in flavor profile. So be interesting.
**Gizmo:** I think the
**Pagoda:** tobaccos that are used in this are not.
That long, so that, that's where you don't get that complexity that you get in some of the aged
**Poobah:** pad drones, right? Yes, and I also believe, I, I, I would have to say it's close, but the trimmings that are used in this are not gonna be the same. . It's, it's a combination of factors. I just don't think it's just the age.
I don't think the blend is the same. And this is just mm-hmm. younger. Yeah. And this is, you know, but it's close. It's damn close. But what's the
**Gizmo:** interesting part? It has patron flavors, which is what
**Bam Bam:** surprises me. It's damn close. It does. And for the price, it, there is zero harshness to the cigar. None.
**Gizmo:** And what I was saying about, I was getting a little bit of a bite that certainly am [00:16:00] about.
Three quarters of an inch in, now half an inch must have evaporated by that. It's They're gone now. Yeah. It's, and it's, it's down to what we're talking about. It is an abrupt finish. It is very, very nice and smooth, but it doesn't, it's not quite giving you what you get when you purchase something in the 64 line.
And
**Bam Bam:** combustion is great.
**Gizmo:** It's, it's great. And the, and look at the burn. Yeah. I mean, it's razor sharp burn. It's Razer sharp white ash stacking dimes over here, dude. . Very
**Pagoda:** nice. Burning quickly though, right? Like I think I had like five or six puffs. Well for
**Bam Bam:** you. Yeah. , everything burns quickly for you.
Everything for utter . Yeah, but you
**Pagoda:** know, no, you're right though. I'm just surprised. It just went around three quarters of an very quickly. Yeah. It's gonna be 15 minutes ago for me. .
**Senator:** That's the same as your Exi time. .
**Gizmo:** Oh, . You know what else is interesting too about this that I think we should note is, unlike the other lines that Patron Drone puts out, it doesn't have that second band with the serial number on it.
Yeah. So, you know, other patron [00:17:00] drones have a, a little bit more of an ornate, uh, logo and band on it and whatnot. Like we said, this is closer to, to the Money Crystals band, but it doesn't have the, the, the secondary band underneath. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And that's, that's, that's pretty special. Yeah. It's
**Gizmo:** pretty cool. and again for seven bucks, I can't complain.
**Senator:** I mean, that serial number also is really to prevent against counterfeiting. Absolutely. And I think they have to calculate that at this price point. What moron is trying to, you know, make fakes of these.
**Bam Bam:** I'm very impressed with this little cigar.
**Gizmo:** Great. Just
**Senator:** the first budget cigar that I have found that I said like, I actually wouldn't mind smoking.
Certainly not gonna pursue it like I do other, you know, higher end cigars, but I, I wouldn't have a problem smoking this. Yeah. It kind of
**Pagoda:** makes you want to hunt down those, uh,
**Gizmo:** yellow cell, yellow sellers. Yeah. . Yeah. You know, wonder what they're like. Just, I'm curious, like what it does to this stick. Right.
And the
**Bam Bam:** bourbon
**Gizmo:** goes well. Yeah, let's talk about the, uh, let's talk about the bourbon pairing tonight. So , we kind of, uh, we wanted to match up, uh, [00:18:00] kind of the mentality here of, of going in a little bit more of a value direction than some of the other Perron offerings and pairing that with a more accessible bourbon tonight.
And we went with, uh, Woodford Reserve. It's enjoyable thanks to Pagoda. Of course. Thank you, pagoda. Thank you. So let's try this, the Woodford Reserve. Well, I.
**Senator:** Yeah. Pumas never drank this
**Bam Bam:** first time. Wait a minute. Don't you have a faucet in your shower that's dedicated to
**Poobah:** Yeah, I love it. I mean, I think it's, I love Woodford Reserve.
I like, I like Woodford Reserve. I like bullet. I like, uh, I like both. I mean, to me, I'm a bourbon guy, so Woodford, uh, is super versatile. Um, very drinkable. Um, I've got a question for you between
**Bam Bam:** the and, and the price point's. Great. Between the bullet and the, and the Woodford, is this smoother?
**Poobah:** Um, they're both good.
Yeah. Yeah. I like the Woodford better. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I, [00:19:00] I agree with
**Senator:** people. Yeah, I do too. Yeah. I, I'll also say funny story, so Grindr's not here to, to tell this, but, um, when it was Grinder's birthday, um, he did a, a little bourbon tasting. and, um, I had provided a, a bottle that was actually m's, which we reviewed, which Grindr really, really liked.
But ironically, in a blind taste test, I think we did maybe seven or eight different bourbons of all different price points. I kid you not, Woodford Reserve was number one. It was probably the most affordable bottle of any that was part of the. I was shocked. Wow. Yeah. I had it in my top three. Mks was in my top three, and, and Woodford also made it there.
I don't
**Poobah:** know why. It's shocking. It's a, it's a well regarded, oh, just
**Senator:** a price to, to like have something that's like, that enjoyable at that price point, similar to what we say about Pedro Drone relative to Davidoff or some other brands. It's, it's kind of shocking that's they're able to do that so well at that price.
**Poobah:** Yeah. They really are. It's, it's, I love it. I, I, I drink, I [00:20:00] drink it on the rocks. And, uh, how much
**Bam Bam:** is that bottle of, uh, Woodford. 38 bucks, I think. Oh wow.
**Poobah:** A little under 40. Wow. Great. I don't, I mean, a big bottle of, it's only 60
**Gizmo:** bucks or something. So, you know what's cool? I'm reading a couple, you know, I was reading a couple things about, uh, Woodford that I thought were interesting.
Number one, I didn't realize that on average, the bourbon in these bottles is age seven years. Cool. So I would've expected it to be younger than that for that price, which is cool. It's very high quality product. Yeah. And it's, uh, it's also credited, these guys are credit. This specific brand Woods Woodford Reserve is, is credited with helping reshape whiskey's image over the last few decades, especially for sure with stuff coming out of, uh, the Americas
**Poobah:** for sure.
So Woodford was really at the f at the f I mean, it was almost like when it came to bourbon coming out cuz there was a bourbon boom. I mean, people started, when was that? I wanna say it started to happen in like the early 2000. Where Woodford, uh, where bourbon started to [00:21:00] become more in vogue. I mean, people drank, you know Jack?
Yeah. They. Uh, wild Turkey, you know, when you thought of bourbon makers, makers, maker, by the way, makers do worse,
**Gizmo:** makers is still great makers. You know, I agree. No one gives shit on makers. I, I do enjoy. I agree.
**Poobah:** I drank Makers Mark for years and, and, and, and, and, uh, I should revisit Makers Mark. I should buy more of that.
I mean, uh, and then Woodford came around and this was an ultra premium bourbon, but it kind of like stayed. It's almost like Kettle One. When Kettle One came on the scene, it just, it, but it stated its price point. It's like it didn't, it didn't continue to, uh, then all this small batch stuff and the market expanded, the category expanded, but it's, uh, uh, you make an old fashioned with this, you make a Manhattan.
you make a, you make a, a, a, you know, it's so versatile. If you're gonna make any kind of bourbon [00:22:00] cocktail with this thing mm-hmm. , it's fantastic. No one's gonna feel
**Gizmo:** like, yeah, no one's gonna complain. Puba,
**Senator:** you're again reading my mind. Yeah. So my favorite cocktail. Bourbon cocktail of all time is a paper plane, which I know I've told you guys about a thousand times, and I promise you when the weather's really nice and warm, you gotta make it for us.
We're gonna sit out on my deck and I'm gonna get outta shaker and make this, it's incredible. I'll be stunned if any of you don't like it, , but the bourbon that I always use when I'm making it is Woodford. Wow. It's the best to
**Gizmo:** mix with. It's
**Poobah:** the best. Uh, you make an old fashioned with bourbon, you make a, any of the paper plain, whatever it is, uh, a min Jule.
Yep. Uh, you know, you're going to, you, you're gonna have a really good result. So it's super versatile. It doesn't have these overpowering notes that's gonna take, take you into a divergent direction, so it's just, it's right there in the middle.
**Bam Bam:** Not to change the subject, but back to the cigar. Everything that Puba and Senator are talking about, it's regarding affordability, quality, the taste, the value.
You're getting [00:23:00] everything in this particular I'm, I am, I'm, I'm shocked by this. Just to go back to it for two seconds. You were totally right, Senator. There's, I'm getting a little sweetness now and the cocoa is ramping
**Gizmo:** up and it's, it's pairing perfect. What the, going on This bn here, this bourbon is
**Bam Bam:** perfect with this.
Yeah. But even, even from the point of view of the economics of it, it's, it's everything you're saying. It works well with the cigar. That's just from the point of view of flavor, but value, absolutely. Very.
**Poobah:** Absolutely great value.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. So I found two interesting things about going back to the bourbon for a second that I think are interesting.
Number one, uh, going back to a grinder point when he was going through some of the scotches that we talked about, uh, recently, uh, Woodford is distilled primarily in potstills, which I guess is rare for bourbon and, you know, more, more commonly, I guess it's in a column still. They're vertical. Yeah. Um, and, and that's cool.
And this is most shocking. that I've learned about Woodford so far is that they were founded in 1996. What? Wow. This brand is only [00:24:00] 25 years old. Wow. shocking.
**Poobah:** It, it, it, it, it came on the scene. I mean, Woodford, I just remember in the early two thousands when I discovered it, it was, like I said earlier, it was like kind of that, that was the, this was like the ultra premium bourbon that kind of, I think made, potentially opened up the category.
I'm not an expert in this at all, but for me as a consumer, it was like, Woodford, I'm gonna get a Woodford, I'm gonna get a, you gotta try Woodford Reserve you. , it was around the office. Um, you know, people were drinking it in the office late at night, uh, back when that was acceptable. 22 years ago, ,
**Bam Bam:** it's, it still is last time offices, which is, hold on.
Which is hard to believe yesterday in poop's office, ,
**Poobah:** which is hard to believe that this is true. But it's true. I mean, it was, uh, you know, this was kind of something that. You people were gravitating towards, it gives you it's 90 proof. It's really [00:25:00] delicious. It gives you a good, it gives you very good, you know, you wanna, you wanna have a cocktail and just get a get, get, you know, get it on real quick.
You know, you have a glass of this and go out. You're like, okay, give me a little pep in my step. I
**Senator:** have to say, I'm just so grateful for Woodford in the sense that as someone who travels a lot, and we obviously have some other lizards who do that as well, for work, when you're on a flight, when you're on the ela, on the.
I mean, for years the bourbon option was Jack, right? I'm not gonna drink jack on the rocks. It's not gonna happen. Right. I don't enjoy that. You need alush, you need a sploosh of something. Um, it wasn't until Woodford really became big. And then, and I say this especially because the scotch options on these planes or, or trains, it's usually, you know, doers white label, which I also don't enjoy.
So there was never really great options. And now wood. My airline, American Airlines, uh, Woodford is the, the official Bourbon of American
**Bam Bam:** Airlines. It is also the official Bourn Rooster. Go ahead, . [00:26:00] Go ahead Rooster. It, it's
It is, it's
**Senator:** a moot point. , I mean, it is a moot point because they all suck. So we do agree on that. I will never say American is greater. Anything close to perfect, they're as fucked up as most of them. But, uh, on the ella, on the train also, the official bourbon is, is, uh, is wood. and I've appreciated that when I, I'm not gonna sit there and enjoy, you know, a doer's white label on the trainer or plane.
The fact that I can get a Woodford and always be satisfied has been a such a blessing.
**Poobah:** It, it's, it's ubiquitous in a way. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's out there. And speaking of official, uh, Woodford is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. Hell yeah. There you go. So there you go. Wow. Hell yeah. It is. So it's pretty.
Pretty cool guys. This cigar, it's fucking shocking. I can't even believe it. What the hell's going on? I I, I do have to say though, and this may be a controversial point, I don't think you should be shocked that's it's patron. No. But I am shocked for a $7 cigar that price I am. And the one thing I will say [00:27:00] that, that I, and this may be a controversial statement in the room, I do think that pairing this with this spirit is improving my enjoyment of the cigar in, in, its in, in how it's kind of meshing.
Dancing in
**Bam Bam:** my
**Gizmo:** mouth a little bit, it meshes
**Bam Bam:** nicely. But nah, I can have this by itself with a cup of coffee and be just as happy with the cigar. Honestly, I
**Poobah:** think, I think the whiskey, this, the, with this high proof, with this cigar doesn't really, isn't the best pairing for me. Like I would not, it's a lighter.
You know, no, I wouldn't necessarily say that it's the greatest
**Senator:** pairing. I'll say this. I, I'm with Gizmo and that I, I would not call this at all a light cigar, and I think as you smoke this further along, it's gonna pick up toward the end. . But what I would say is, I think padron generally, any padron, Maduro, this 2000 series, the 64, the 26, I think it just pairs well with anything that's robust in flavor.
Yeah. And so, you know, a, a bourbon like this that's [00:28:00] very flavorful, I think holds up well. You know, a Macallan 12, a very flavorful single ball. I think that holds up well. , you know, a, a nice rich cup of coffee, like man mentioned. I think that holds up well with a patron. Right. But I think it's all those things, you know, would I enjoy a, a rapsodo tequila with this cigar?
No, I'm gonna need more flavor. I'm gonna definitely need an an ajo. Yeah. At a minimum. Yep. Um, so, you know, I just, everything's got good point, time in place.
**Poobah:** Yeah. For, for Yeah. Fair enough. It's a good that the, the smoke is good. It's burning quick too. It is burning quick. Yeah. It's so open. It's
**Bam Bam:** the smoke output's.
Fantastic. Great combustion and the, and the construction. As you can see, I've got an inch and a half ash on this. It's,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Look at bams
**Senator:** cigar. That's right. Yeah. Ridiculous. Yeah. In fact, the other day when we were at the lounge and I was smoking that, uh, gle, remember the, the ash was like that. Yeah. He's taking photos of it, you
**Gizmo:** know, it's
**Bam Bam:** incredible.
I'll admit something like you guys call it elitist. That's not, you know, what if I see a guy smoking the cigar and he is that, and let's say a first timer, I'm gonna have respect for that guy. This is a really good cigar to pick up. [00:29:00] Absolutely. Yet, if you haven't had. Cigars in your life, and this is something that you want to try and get into, it's great.
**Gizmo:** So, and if you're, and, and, and if you are looking from a budget standpoint, oh yeah. And certainly I think the, the flavor of this kind of, you know, uh, not only compliments the, the price, but kind of makes that irrelevant in its, you don't need to go to this cigar because of the price, the flavor's doing enough, but.
If you're gonna look for a couple cigars during a day or a couple cigars during a round of golf, this is gonna follow a more mild, medium cigar really, really well in those moments. Yeah, and, and kind of like we talk about going up in strength, I think somebody who doesn't have a ton of experience, you know, maybe you're playing around a golfer, you're having a lunch or something, this is gonna dance really well with other cigars.
**Bam Bam:** It's a very high value cigar for the price. It is. And that's really the.
**Poobah:** Totally. Yeah. For the price for $7 of smoke. That's crazy. I mean, you're getting a lot. You're getting a, a lot. .
**Senator:** Well, speaking [00:30:00] of getting a lot, uh, ooh, bam has been, uh, getting a lot from us lizards. We, we've been, uh, what? We've been a little, you know, I, I, I, I feel, I feel, I
**Bam Bam:** feel like I'm being set up now.
No, you're not being set up. . Is this an
**Senator:** ambush? But, but at, you know, at, at our clubhouse, you know, you were
**Bam Bam:** getting some jokes. Uh, the brunt of a lot of jokes. Oh, I remember this. You remember this. Fuck you. I share cigars. See? Oh, here we go. So bam, bam was upset at last
**Senator:** whisper. Back me up. We were, uh, we
**Bam Bam:** were given
**Gizmo:** He, he was the wrong guy to go to.
**Bam Bam:** We were given mage
**Senator:** shit. I think Gizmo actually, uh, gave him some shit and Bam. Didn't appreciate. So I wanted you to know. Bam. Yeah, I've been, I was thinking of you and, uh, I felt bad about that. So I wanted to get you a little gift . So I
**Bam Bam:** want you to, uh, open that. Open this.
I gotta ruin my As. Pass that to bam. What the hell's happening here? Pull out
**Senator:** what's sticking out from the top. Pull it out.
**Bam Bam:** What's
**Poobah:** happening in pre-Pro here? I don't know. Pull
**Bam Bam:** it. PBA back, help me out here. Bam.
**Gizmo:** I have no idea.
**Senator:** Pulling out. Bam. You're no stranger to that. No, I'm
**Bam Bam:** not . [00:31:00] I love the delay. Yeah, I, I didn't hear
**Poobah:** any, I didn't get any.
Is this like a poster of Jean Claude Vandam or his,
**Gizmo:** the inside of his locker?
**Bam Bam:** I'll let you guys see it first. No, no, no. You have to see it first. Oh, thank you . Wait a minute. Look, look at the hand note at the top hand note. Really? Yeah, that's her bro. ,
**Gizmo:** he would pointing. P Would love this out. Cast it out.
**Bam Bam:** Or show it to everyone.
This woman's a goddess . Who? What is,
**Poobah:** what is this mini poster? I would have her in bed. .
**Gizmo:** Oh Jesus. With a
**Bam Bam:** cigar. She would have one too.
**Gizmo:** Babe. Show cease. Show. Show the poster. Just turn around. Show everyone
**Poobah:** the poster. Show. See the image? What's what?
**Bam Bam:** Wait. Well, let's see. She's holding right now.
**Senator:** Joe, the. ,
**Bam Bam:** I'm not sure what she's smoking.
It's
**Senator:** a cal
**Bam Bam:** the cigar that the
**Gizmo:** cigar vixen. The cigar
**Senator:** vixen calendar. It's the cigar vixen delicia. So I messaged her [00:32:00] and, uh, it is signed by her. Fuck me. There's a little hard for bam at the top, her signature. And, uh, I thought, bam, would
**Gizmo:** appreciate it. Wow. Fair. Nice. You have a signed. Personalized dude.
Cigar vis, cigar vis, and calendar for 2022. Shoot. Wow. We can put it below your
**Bam Bam:** pillow.
I Or on the ceiling? I don't know. I don't know what to say. I am blown away. You know I love
**Gizmo:** her. Now can you pass it
**Bam Bam:** around for all the, listen, everyone's gotta see it. Pass it around. I, I love my wife dearly . She's my godd. But honey, but , the cigar vix in it, man. Oh boy.
**Poobah:** Wow. Hashtag cigar Vix. Dude, she
**Bam Bam:** is off the chain.
This one.
**Gizmo:** We gotta be careful when we have her on for an interview that, uh, I've seen her on, uh, this is a hell of a calendar. Can you figure out what she's was? She's smoking there. Uh, I would assume it's Pad Padilla Cigar Company. I, I'm not even looking at that because it says Padilla. [00:33:00]
**Bam Bam:** Can we just replay that?
Padilla Padilla. Padilla Padilla. Okay. Do you have any tortillas? Uh,
**Gizmo:** oh my God. Listen, I, uh, Senator, was this you doing? I'm taking, yeah, I'm taking with this poster right now. I literally ordered this
**Senator:** for you. I, I'm not.
**Gizmo:** Bro.
**Bam Bam:** Here you go. Here you go. Puma. I love you. I love you, babe. This is, this is ridiculous.
I'm framing that.
**Senator:** I literally messaged her and asked her for a side copy just for you. Oh
**Bam Bam:** my God. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Wow. And what does it say? Puba read it.
**Poobah:** It says My
**Gizmo:** Bam . It says
**Senator:** it does not . It says. It says long ashe's. Heart delicia,
**Poobah:** long ashe's heart delicia. Jesus Louise. Right.
**Bam Bam:** Ripe
**Poobah:** Puba. I mean, she's not my type, but I get it.
Look
**Bam Bam:** at her. Look her up.
**Gizmo:** She's got a great page
**Bam Bam:** on Instagram. Among other things. . That is an incredible gift, man. . [00:34:00] Yeah. Yeah. Show Rooster. Are we, are we gonna edit some of this? No , none of it. You have to do damage control before I make it in trouble. .
**Gizmo:** Rooster has the glasses on his forehead. . He's doing a full examination of the calendar.
Don't, don't crease it. Hey, rooster, what day of the week is July 4th? Can you zoom in on that for me and tell me no
**Bam Bam:** permanent crease? Is Rooster on that
**Poobah:** poster?
**Gizmo:** Monday?
**Bam Bam:** time
**Senator:** has
**Gizmo:** stopped for Rooster. Yeah, that's very, very cool. All right, Ben. Ben . Ben . Buy it now. Buy it now. Buy it now, baby.
**Bam Bam:** Oh man. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's been anytime. Fantastic.
**Gizmo:** I'm, I'm actually kind of impressed with how impressed he is, dude,
**Bam Bam:** with the gift. I knew he would loved it. I
**Senator:** loved. Are you, you kidding me?
As soon as I saw she posted on her Instagram that she had made these calendars this year, I was like, if I could just get a signed version of this for Bab, this is gonna make us here. It's
**Bam Bam:** almost as impressive as this [00:35:00] ash on a $7 cigar. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, it's ridiculous. You got almost a two inch ash over there.
It's two inch now. Wow. Yeah, it's fantastic. It's pretty amazing.
**Gizmo:** Great construction. It's a,
**Poobah:** it's a, it's a pretty approachable smoke. It really is. You know, like I said, I, I, in, in my, in my past, I, I, I smoked more of. ,
**Gizmo:** um, did you always smoke Maduro and then
**Poobah:** Yeah. And then graduated? Well, no. I smoked some naturals as well and then just graduated up.
But, um, good cigar. Yeah, I mean, for sure.
**Gizmo:** So remember when we did the papas Fritos?
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. I like that cigar
**Gizmo:** too. You
**Senator:** didn't review it on the pod, but we had it, right?
**Gizmo:** Right. So if you had a choice, would you smoke that over. .
**Senator:** It would depend what I'm looking for cuz that that cigar, I mean Liga generally for me has a very particular occasion and that's when I need like an insane blast of flavor.
That's honestly probably the most flavored, that's what it's cigar ever had. Yeah. [00:36:00] Ever. It's like up there with like a 90th in flavor. Where if I just want a lot of flavor but not to be punched in the face, then I'm definitely reaching for this over that. So it depends, which I'm looking
**Poobah:** for. Did you find the p I didn't find, I don't find the Papa Frida
**Senator:** strong.
Oh, it's, it's find
**Gizmo:** strong, strong flavor.
**Bam Bam:** Strong a flavor. It's just flavor. Yeah. So it's not strong in body. It's like a meal in a little cigar. It's not strong in a body, but the fla, it's a full flavor. It's a
**Poobah:** full flavored cigar. But I, it's delicious. It's delicious. But I didn't, the body's not strong. The the, but yeah, I didn't find it to be.
**Bam Bam:** It's really, it makes it quite not a strength flavor. We're only talking about flavor. That's
**Gizmo:** what makes it so enjoyable because I, I would reach for that cigar over this. Okay. That's just me. It's because we know you, because I love a
**Bam Bam:** full
**Senator:** flavored cigar. Totally. And, and you, you smoke, you know, fewer in quantity.
Right? So like for me, if I've had six sticks, And then I'm gonna pick up that last smoke. I'm probably gonna pull this and knock that six. But if I've had two or three smokes, then like, I'm
**Gizmo:** definitely gonna pick the listener. Listen, if I've
**Poobah:** had 11
**Gizmo:** cigars, , the lizards out there listening right now are like, who the hell are these people?
So, [00:37:00]
**Bam Bam:** and, and by the way, this is for
**Pagoda:** the
**Bam Bam:** morning session. ,
**Gizmo:** completely different.
**Bam Bam:** So Pagoda gave me my first Papa's Fri this last week at the club. Yeah. And I really, really loved it.
**Gizmo:** I gave you that cigar. You did?
**Poobah:** Yeah. I was bullish on those years ago. . Kudos
**Bam Bam:** to you. .
**Poobah:** It was, I used to buy 'em out of those. I used to.
They come in cabinets of 50. That's very cool. Um, and
**Pagoda:** 20
**Senator:** fives, but we'll review that at some point
**Gizmo:** on the pod. Yeah, definitely. I think we, you know what I think we do is, I think we do another cold weather. Uh, Episode, uh, coming into the winter and I think we do the half Corona from H Chapman and we do the uh, papa.
Yeah, it's a little pigtail. It's a cool cigar. Yeah, it's a great little cigar. Well, that's cool's gonna be tough. Yeah, that's gonna be a cool,
**Poobah:** it's got a foot band on it. It says Papa Frida. Yep.
**Gizmo:** I like that cigar. So here's my question on the Papa's Fris talking, you know, since we're doing a little comparing, how much is that cigar.
**Senator:** Honestly, it's the same as this. Yeah. It's like seven six or seven to seven bucks. No, even
**Gizmo:** less. [00:38:00]
**Pagoda:** Same. Isn't the cab
**Senator:** like 230 the cab? Yes. But per stick, this is seven 20 and that's also seven something if you buy a single of it. Because I, I first bought it in singles. I bought two singles. It was seven change.
Right,
**Gizmo:** right. I think it's a more
**Poobah:** premium, maybe potential, more premium cigar, but I don't know.
**Gizmo:** I'm really enjoying the, uh, the
**Bam Bam:** Woodford, I'm enjoying this, this, this drone 2000. I mean, I'm so. Do you for me, the sweetness is continuing. ,
**Pagoda:** we know what to get for your birthday. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Okay.
**Gizmo:** He's singing into year 2000 from Conan O'Brien.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Good smoke. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Really, really nice. Yeah. I mean, kudos to Padron that they can put out a $7 stick like this and it delivers in flavor. And I mean, listen, there's plenty of new world smokes that we've done on this podcast from Nicarag. That are more than pale. Double the price That pale in
**Poobah:** comparison.
The pale in comparison. Pale. Pale in comparison. Pale. That Hoyo. [00:39:00] The hoyo was, yeah, it's a piece of Shiite.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The Anton horrible and I would argue the pledge prequel. Yeah. EP said we have the My Father, right? The My father as well. Yeah. I mean, it's for seven bucks. This wipes the four with all of
**Poobah:** them. It really does.
Yep. You know, you're right. You're
**Gizmo:** not wrong. Almost done with this. Yeah. It's, it's a short smoke. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. It does fast run
**Gizmo:** fast, right? It does. It's tasty.
**Poobah:** It's so open and it just blows up in tasty
**Senator:** question. That's why, you know, and ironically can slot in, in that like, you know, last end of the night, you just want a quick 30 minute smoke.
You, you could blow through one of these very fast.
**Poobah:** Yep. The draw is just so wide. You just kiss it and it just, it. It just, and you're not
**Gizmo:** fighting it at all. It
**Poobah:** burns half an edge, it burns. F but that's not, you know, that's a virt That's kind of a virtue in it too. It, i, it, it, it, it, it, it smokes. I mean, [00:40:00] how many cigars you, you know, you light up and you're, you're struggl struggling to get it to burn and to, you know, generating, touching it, retouching it.
Yep. This thing is just stacking up. And just burn it real well. And
**Pagoda:** so, so Senator, you know, you tried the 4,000, what'd you think about that?
**Senator:** I hated it. I'll just be honest. I mean, I, I, I won't lie. I, I, you know, I hated it too. Um, you know, pagoda was nice to give it to me cuz I said I had never had any of the Pedro Drone thousand series and it was a large ring gauge and, um, I, I don't ditch that many cigars, but I, I had to, I just, I don't know what it is for some, I.
you know, for this cigar that doesn't have much age on it at all. Uh, when that's in a larger ring age, it, it doesn't do it any favors. Where I feel like the wrapper on this is, is, you know, we love the wrapper on most, almost all the padron cigars. I think that that's really where a lot of that good flavor that we like comes from.
And I think you [00:41:00] get more of that in this, in a smaller ring gauge. and um, I think that's really the difference. And honestly, having that really discouraged me from wanting to try any of the thousand series. And I'm glad that a listener had reached out and said, try the 2000 and for me, this really delivers above a $7 price point.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And you know, I'm around a lot of guys that are, haven't been smoking cigars for a long time. I will certainly steer them toward this particular cigar. No. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And, and you know, that's a good call out to listeners too. I mean, if there's cigars out there that you're smoking, again, we have it on the tag at the end, but please tell us what you're smoking, what you're loving, because this is a great example of something that had it not come from a listener request, we would not be smoking the cigar right now.
You know, please, please shoot us an email.
**Senator:** And I think to BA's point, you know, when I think of friends of mine, , um, have recently gotten into cigars and they don't really know a lot and they're trying to figure it out. You know, they'll always say, especially [00:42:00] cuz they're not yet in the vortex that we are, they want something very affordable.
And they'll say, well, what can you recommend at like 10 bucks a cigar? That's a very hard question because really probably the cheapest thing I would recommend is gonna be 13, 14 bucks like a D four or a, uh, a 1964 xci. . So I feel like this is a really good gateway for someone into Petrone. Oh yeah. That add an incredibly accessible price point.
Totally. You would try one of these and say, okay, well that was good. Now, you know, I want to try an ex receivable, the 64 line and Yeah. Keep working their way through, so. Right,
**Bam Bam:** right. And they'll eventually elevate themselves. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And this, you know, this line from, uh, Pedro. just for the listener. I mean, we're smoking a, a 50 ring gauge by five inch.
It. They have every single, almost every size you can imagine in this line from, you know, a a a what? A, a petite Corona all the way up to a Churchill. They do, do they have lawnsdale as well? I think there might be a lawnsdale in this series. I don't think so. I'm
**Poobah:** not sure, but yeah, and I [00:43:00] mean, one thing to note with this is that because the draw is so open, Everybody's pretty much done.
Yeah, we're getting close. We're, we're, you know, where, um, you could smoke a petite Corona that's more tightly rolled. That's gonna last you an hour. Um, so. This thing blows up with combustion and although it's a re robusto extra, or is it a,
**Senator:** it's a ra robusto.
**Poobah:** I mean, it's five by 55 by, is it five by 50? It's five by 50, yeah.
Five. It's not over five. Okay. So, I mean, for ra robusto it's, it's smoking pretty quick. Um, where, you know, you can smoke a petite Corona that's a little bit more tightly rolled, that is actually gonna take you maybe a little bit longer, but you. So, um, the combustion on this is kind of just blows up a lot of smoke output lot.
The o draws really open, which is, which is cool. I, I mean, it's given [00:44:00] you a lot of smoke and outdoors that can be really great with, but like, like with Petron, you know, if you're on the golf course, if you're out, um, outdoors, doing whatever, you know, it's kind of a nice thing you get some smoke to roll around in your.
outside in, in maybe a windy situation, I can see this thing holding up. Um, and if you were gonna smoke two-thirds of it and ditch it, yeah. Who cares? Yeah. Who gives a shit Right. Throw, throw it
**Gizmo:** in the ocean,
**Pagoda:** you know? But still, you know, towards the end, I think, uh, I'm getting a lot more cocoa flavor and it's mm-hmm.
It's actually pretty
**Bam Bam:** tasty. Yeah, it is. Yeah,
**Poobah:** absolutely. It's certainly he is, there's nothing a. There's nothing offensive on the finish down the stretch here. So that just, it speaks to the quality that Patron drone says. A lot does. Yeah. They don't put out, they don't put out crap. The,
**Senator:** the thing that impressed me, I feel like with a lot of cigars, especially at a more accessible price point, we always say, well, it started [00:45:00] off well, but how's it gonna finish?
Right. And it does not finish well. And what I like about this cigar, and it's incredible at this price point, I think the cigar gets. Yeah, as you keep smoking it, it does, you know,
**Bam Bam:** it's unusual, but you're right. It. ,
**Poobah:** that's No, no doubt, no doubt about it. It, uh, it, it's, it finishes, it's, it's a strong
**Gizmo:** finisher.
You know, I'm, I'm just kind of scouring around the internet right now looking for pricing and I just found a couple places that have this box of 26 under 170. Wow. It's amazing. Wow. I mean, that's an incredible price. Wow. And I just saw a note as well that these, uh, this tobacco's aged two and a half years.
Wow. Oh, that's good. So there is some, the 64 is aged four. Mm-hmm. , uh, the 26 is aged five. So, , you know, I mean, that's pretty great. $170 for 26 sticks is, I'm gonna get a box of this. I am too. It's a Cole's
**Poobah:** cousin and it just doesn't have like the, the, as the complexity and as full of flavor, but all those, all that, to Rooster's point before all that [00:46:00] dna n a is there, it's a cousin.
Yeah. And, uh, you can taste it. You can really taste it. It's. It's a little junior exi. Yeah. Basically.
**Bam Bam:** One little note on this particular cigar, if I may, if I can mention this, I'm throwing a pretty big cigar, a fundraiser coming up. This is the cigar for the group. Nice that, that, that we selected. I'm, I'm very pleasantly surprised and happy that we're gonna serve this cigar to our guests.
And I don't
**Gizmo:** think it, and I think everyone will be very satisfied, and I don't, yeah. And I don't think it, for somebody who maybe doesn't smoke a lot of cigars, I think Senator or somebody touched on it, it, I don't think this is gonna be overwhelming. Oh no. You know, in, in some other, uh, cigars, in
**Poobah:** pajama line, you know what?
And Nicaraguan Tobacco, I'll give you a little example. Um, just from, uh, uh, over the. , um, uh, I gave a friend of mine, Ramon alone, especially selective, and he's not a big cigar smoker, like the guy generally smokes, like [00:47:00] he's not a, a regular cigar smoker. Like, he'll smoke a Java, he'll smoke, you know, I, I g and he doesn't, he's not huge in it.
And I gave him one and he goes, that was really, really, Of course that was really, really great of, um, and I'm like, well, welcome to Cuban tobacco. Mm-hmm. , because that's Ramon Malone, especially selected, is like we've always said, approachable. It's like, it's very, very medium bodied and complex, but doesn't overwhelm you with strength.
The, the thing with Nicaragua tobacco is, . It does. And even this cigar does have a little bit of that sharpness. Mm-hmm. to it, even down the stretch, which we are used to. Sure. And that we, we know to expect with ni, with the Nicaraguan cigar, um, this, I could see someone like that smoking the cigar and not being, You know, not loving it.[00:48:00]
Well, no, and not not loving it. Oh, I see. Like meaning, like liking it. Yeah. Okay. Because it's, it doesn't deliver that, it doesn't deliver the, kind of as full of an experience as, as a 64, which may take somebody who I, I just, I think Nicaraguan tobacco, honestly, for some can. . It's strong. It has a, it has like a sharpness to it.
I
**Senator:** think very simply. Nicaragua tobacco's for people who like very flavorful
**Gizmo:** cigar. Right? You want a lot of flavor. You pick up a Nicaragua full flavor. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Full like flavored and the, and, and I just, I think that this is a good introduction to that. Yeah. Absolut. Totally. Absolutely. It's a good introduction to that.
Like if you're gonna, if you're gonna start with this, you can graduate to the 64 over time. Sure. And, and I think this is a really good introduction to Patron. Almost like a Ramona Alones is a really good, I think that's a really good introduction to Cuban
**Gizmo:** cigars. Same with the D four. I would say the same
**Poobah:** thing though.
And the D four. Yeah. Yeah, sure. [00:49:00] Yeah. But the D four down the stretch can sometimes deliver
**Gizmo:** a punch. A punch, yep. Yeah, and I, I feel you're right on that. I think the RAs certainly doesn't deliver that as much of an ooph as the D four towards the end, and there's a nuttiness and a sweetness about the RAs. I think is very, very
**Poobah:** approachable.
It really is. I mean, I blown away to the point where he was like, I can't believe I really how much I like this. Yeah. Um, so this is, is is a good example I think of something that maybe someone who's been put off by Nicaragua Tobacco or can it, it it's a good introductory in introductory cigar to kind of pave the.
graduate up to something a little bit bolder. Yeah. And now
**Bam Bam:** that I've had this, I would highly recommend this. Absolutely. I, I will be pushing this. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So back to the Woodford for a second, boys. Yeah. Are you guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on this thing? Yes, sir. Let's do it. Bam, you're up.[00:50:00]
**Bam Bam:** I'm a little perplexed with this one because it, it's so approachable and the price point is right where it is. Right. It's so, so afford. But the flavor and the sweetness, and there's a little bite to it, which I happen to like, uh, you know, I, I'm gonna give it
**Gizmo:** an eight. Okay. Pagoda eight. Okay. When I
**Senator:** factor everything in, including the price point mm-hmm.
I've been going back and forth between me too, eight and nine. And I have to give it a nine because at the price point what it
**Bam Bam:** delivers it fair. I have to do it. It's a fair, it's a fair score.
**Gizmo:** I'm an innate.
**Poobah:** Yeah, I'm in a nine. I'm aligned with Senator. Nice. Same
**Gizmo:** point of view. Nice. All right. The composite lizard score on the Woodford Reserve Great.
Is an 8.4. That's a great score. Great score. I think that's a very fair score for this definite recommend. Absolutely. Great, great bourbon. Especially at the price, you know, and, and we talked about, you know, having guests over, having people. Throw a pro drone, 2000 Maduro and a wood for the reserve [00:51:00] all day.
You can take this.
**Poobah:** It's crazy reserve like my wife and she mixes it with like a diet coke. Yeah. Yeah. She loves it. Yeah, she loves it. You know, she's just like, she throws little, it's, it's versatile. It's versatile. You can, you can. That's the thing. It's personal. Yeah. You know
**Bam Bam:** it. Very same comments I would give for this cigar.
Were smoking. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Speaking of this cigar, we are coming very quickly into the last third here, boys. Yes, sir. Towards the, , are you guys ready to give the, uh, formal Lizer rating on the Puter on 2000? Everybody ready? Let's do it. You're up, rooster. So for me it's a seven. Seven, okay.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it's a seven for me too.
**Gizmo:** Okay. I'm gonna give it an eight.
**Senator:** I'm with Gizmo. When you factor in everything, especially as the price point, I'm at an eight. Pagoda. I'm at
**Pagoda:** a seven, and the reason is I don't think I would just go. Uh, you know, buy a lot of these. I, you know, I'm an exclusive of fan, which is a 10 for me. Um, [00:52:00] so I'm more likely to go towards the exclusive o Um, that's a seven for me, but definitely something I'll have for guests and, you know, people who want to try out a Maduro cigar for the first time.
Mm-hmm.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I'm at an eight. Okay. And I'll go into the reasons as well. After we come up with our composite
**Gizmo:** score. Composite Lizard Score, boys is a 7.5. Yeah. . Yeah. Modest. Recommend. That's fair. Yeah. It's fair for this. I think
**Poobah:** that's fair. It's a seven. It's a seven because I, you know, I can't put it up there with like, Uh, a Mag 46 or, yeah, that's
**Bam Bam:** true.
You know what? That's
**Poobah:** true. Some of these other ratings that we've given, eight, given cigars, eights, I mean, I'm, I, I think I gave the cohiba single two and, and eight. I, I mean, I'm not gonna, I can't, I can't. It's, I'm not putting it
**Gizmo:** in that
**Senator:** class. No, I, I think all that's fair. I, I, the only thing I would say I hope people consider as they're scoring, um, , you know, this for me, when I say is an eight like [00:53:00] this, I'm not comparing this, this isn't in the class of, you know, nicer, more expensive cigars like, right.
Like if I were to rate based on that, I mean, I would give, I mean probably every cigar, like a much lower score. The same way that some cigars that are really expense. , then I down rate because it's a very good cigar, but it's, it's not at that price point, it's not that special. Yeah. So that, that's where I'm coming from just introducing some of that.
So like for me in its class, like I would rate it an eight, which is like a seven to maybe $12 stick. Um, but yeah, I agree with you. Puba. I mean, no, no arguments there. Uh, I mean, a, a cigar that, um, is in a different class, a 20 something, $30, a $25 stick, like a Sieg two or, you know, some of these. I would never compare in
**Bam Bam:** any sense.
Yeah. The BO and the argument that both Puba and Senator making it, it's very valid. Sure. The 7.5 score could be a little, it's, I'm not gonna say it's [00:54:00] misleading because it's, I really enjoyed the cigar, but from the point of view of if it's potential ubiquitous nature that I can give it to almost anyone, there's a
**Gizmo:** lot of value there.
Well, that's why I gave it an eight, was the value proposition that, you know Exactly right. I think about other cigars in that price. I doubt if we smoked most of the other new world cigars in that price range. Yeah. $7, then we're gonna come in. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And that's the thing to that thing. And if, if a listener's listening to this and wants to try this and have a party and have a few guys over, this is a great cigar to handout.
Yeah. I
**Gizmo:** don't think anybody would be very unhappy with this. Yeah. And I
**Senator:** like where this netted out because you know, ironically, if I had to put this not just in its class, but against everything, like Yeah. 7.5 I think
**Gizmo:** is a fair score. Yeah, yeah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Definitely.
**Gizmo:** I agree. I agree. Yeah. I think it's a very good value smoke and, and, uh, I'm, I'm certainly personally very surprised by this, and I'm glad we did it tonight because, you know, as a patron fanboy, I think we're a patron.
You know, as a [00:55:00] podcast, we're patron fan boys. I, I think this really stacks up. For what it is, uh, as a really value high quality cigar. They, they put out
**Poobah:** a good product. It's a quality product. It's a quality. The, the, the draw is great. The combustion is great. Um, uh, and the, the, the taste is, is really, really good.
Is it exemplary? No, but is it serviceable? Hell
**Gizmo:** yes. Yeah. . Absolutely. And again, you know, you you, you look at some of these other cigars that have been rated high in cigar, fish and auto or come at a 15, 20, 20 $5 price point. I mean, a lot of those pale in
**Senator:** comparison to this. So I think the best example was the one GI uh, GIZ gave earlier when you said the pledge prequel.
Yeah. Number one cigar of the year was Cigar of the Year. That's like a 16, $18. any day of the week, I would smoke this $7 patron over the pledge. Pre totally agree and more than double the price. 100%
**Gizmo:** agree. Yeah, [00:56:00]
**Bam Bam:** that a hundred percent agree. Yeah, that pledge pretty equals. Yeah, no, not at all. Terrific. Yeah, it was not good.
It's a lesson for the listener for
**Gizmo:** sure. Absolutely.
**Senator:** Absolutely. Yeah. Don't let price fool you, cuz I'll admit that. Right. The only reason I never smoked a thousand serious is cuz I said, how good can a $7 cigar be? I, I just didn't believe it was possible to make something at that price point that had enough flavor I would enjoy.
And for seven bucks they've done it.
**Gizmo:** That prequel is really, $8 cigar with a, with an $8 band on it. Yeah. Well, don't forget the band. Don't forget the foot band band is more impressive. Oh, don't forget the SCO tape. Don't get the scotch tape. That's, that Adds a little price to it. All right, boys, the Padron 2000 Maduro.
Very nice. Uh, pagoda, thank you for the Woodford Reserve. Fantastic bourbon. Thanks. A classic bourbon. Thank you. And I think this was a good lesson for me personally. Oh yeah. In value and, and in enjoyment. We've been, we, we got about 50, 55 minutes outta the cigar. A great hour for me. Yeah, for, for the value.
Totally agree. I like, I would enjoy this with anyone. No [00:57:00] doubt. So I, I think it's, uh, I think it's a good lesson for me and, and for us and for the listeners. So go out, grab a couple of these sticks and enjoy 'em. And, uh, we'll see you guys next week. Keep smoking. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it.
Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us lounge lizards. P o d. That's lounge lizards pod gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod.
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