Lounge Lizards - a Cigar and Lifestyle Podcast

Recorded at Ten86 Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey the lizards pair the H. Upmann Robustos Añejados with 14 year aged The Balvenie Caribbean Cask. The guys discuss how a cigar’s construction can affect performance, they debate Cuban quality control and value, and they reveal a post-pod lizard indulgence.

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

website/merch/rating archive: loungelizardspod.com
email: hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
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What is Lounge Lizards - a Cigar and Lifestyle Podcast?

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

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

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

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

**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounges 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 grinder, and bam bam.

A full house of lizards. And our plan is to focus cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 72nd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge Lizard Planet. Meet us here once a week. We are gonna smoke a cubitt cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.

We discuss how a cigars construction can affect its performance. We debate Cuban quality, control and value, and we reveal a post pod lizard indulgence all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair 14 year aged The bny.

Caribbean Cask with Huppman Robos. Ajas, a beautiful Ribo tonight from [00:01:00] Huppman, the Ahas, which has a box code of s o p, April 11, I think it was pba. It's

**Poobah:** uh, no Box Code of s a r, April 11, s

**Gizmo:** a r, April 11 out of the Ana Haas program. Second one we've done on the pod. We did the, uh, Parus Ana Haass pretty recently.

Uh, and this is a beautiful, beautiful cigar. Guys, it really. Bam. You guys were commenting as Puba opened his box that, uh, how good it looked in the box,

**Bam Bam:** the visuals on this when you open that box. Beautiful. Really,

**Gizmo:** really nice. So these have a, I don't even know if I'd call it subtle. These have like a very serious box press on these things.

It's an

**Bam Bam:** unintended box press.

**Poobah:** Yeah. From being stuck. It's a Cindy Box press, but it works out beautifully. I think it works great. The it draw is beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. You know these on these, and I say that just from smoking them. We've, we, I not all of us have gone through, um, have boxes of these and they're consistently [00:02:00] really good.

Oh yeah.

**Gizmo:** So, uh, let's cut this thing boys. See we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. So this is a 50 ring gauge cigar by a little under five inches, four and seven eights. And again, it's part of the ADOS program wide open. Talk about that again a little bit. Oh, boys, I got a dimple on the cut. I got a dimple.

Oh, look at you. Big news. . Not surprised. Mm. The draw on these is always perfect. Mm-hmm. never

**Bam Bam:** a problem. Every time. I've only had three of these, but I've never a problem. They are, they're

**Gizmo:** delightful. They are

**Poobah:** so delightful. And on the, on the retro hill, they're just, they're amazing. They're just, they, it has a spice all the way.

Full flavor mo It has this full f it's, uh, it's off the

**Gizmo:** tar. They are. So what are you guys getting on the cold draw? I'm getting a lot of cedar. I'm getting a little dried fruit.

**Senator:** Mm-hmm. and a, and a nuttiness. Mm-hmm. . Yeah.

**Bam Bam:** Like a biscuity, nutty kind of thing. Yeah.

**Senator:** Mm-hmm. , the, the wrapper actually tastes delicious.

**Gizmo:** Yeah.

**Poobah:** Yeah. It does. It [00:03:00] really does. I mean, there's so much on the cold draw. There's so much going on. It's just packed with, with fla, you know, sometimes on the cold draw you'll, you, you're kind of like, eh, tastes like a humidor. . Not this tastes and tastes like a

**Gizmo:** humidor. No,

**Grinder:** I'm getting like, uh, lot of baking spices and some like, Toasted whole

**Bam Bam:** wheat

**Poobah:** bread.

Yeah, bread. Something like that. Yeah.

**Gizmo:** We're

**Rooster:** in for a treat. You do get the nut, like the, yeah. I dunno if it's a walnut or a, some kind of nut

**Gizmo:** almond or something. Hazelnut. All right boys, let's light this thing. The Huppman ra Buso on Hato again. It's a 50 ring gauge cigar by four and seven eight inches. One of the many out of the Ahas program.

**Bam Bam:** Pago, are you okay over there, ? I'm gonna, I'm

**Pagoda:** gonna need you later. You got it? I'm like everything. Yeah. I just tested out right before coming. I, it was let out, man. [00:04:00] Cheers. Thanks.

**Gizmo:** Mm.

**Bam Bam:** Oh, careful

**Gizmo:** with that torch. Oh my gosh, boys. Oh

**Bam Bam:** dude. Right off the bat, just as I remember it. So good. So

**Gizmo:** good. Wow.

**Senator:** Wow. . So when I said nuts on the cold draw, this is one of the nuttiest Cubans I've ever had.

It's just like, I feel like I'm literally chewing nuts right now. Mm.

**Rooster:** Just haven't had this in a quite some time.

**Bam Bam:** And but the retro, it's the retro hail that's magical for me. Really, the baking spice is pronounced right off the bat, man. Wow.

**Gizmo:** This is delicious. What'd you say? This is full, medium, full. What do you guys think this is?

Uh, I think it starts

**Poobah:** medium. It starts medium. Yeah. In, but in such, but in such a great way.

**Gizmo:** It has a wonderful bite on the front of my tongue. It's a little tangy, a little tang on the front of my tongue. In such a wonderful way. Not in a bad way at all. No, it hits it very differently than most other cigars and [00:05:00] even most up.

**Poobah:** But it's the thing about the smoke, it's so balanced and it's really balanced. It's really complex. We, we've smoked a, a lot of these because they're hard not to smoke. I mean,

**Gizmo:** they're so coveted, though. I

**Bam Bam:** hide them in the back of my humidor too, so I don't reach

**Poobah:** for em. I do too. I do too. You know, I kind of do.

I do that too. Um, but this is a great for me, like if you're on an empty stomach, a great cigars, start the night or on a partially full stomach, almost anytime. It's a, just a delight. It has all these signature up and flavors kind of packed into this. It does robo and boy, I, I wish I could find this . I want more of these, um, more often.

**Gizmo:** So these, uh, these cigars have the classic up and band on 'em, and then they have the additional, uh, I guess it's like a maroon or something. Gold and white band that says ados hakuba. And, um, [00:06:00] they're not terribly fancy. They come in dress boxes of 25 standard up men dress boxes like a, an up manure or regalia does, you know, like we've always complained about that, that these fun lines that they put out don't come in fancy boxes.

Yeah. But fun fact too, like the RGUs we did, this is not a regular production size. No. In a Chapman. The Royal Robusto is different than this. Um, this was made for this program and then aged, I guess for a certain number of years, which then calls back to my question of intent with the aha line. You know, you're telling me they rolled these cigars and then sat on them for five to eight years?

Who knows . But, um, yeah. So, uh, these came out in 2016 with, uh, five years age on 'em. Uh, 20, uh, 2011 bucks. So, delicious little cigars. So I remember the first time that I smoked this and that was, I was with Senator Ubah at our North lounge, which [00:07:00] we were just talking before we came on air that we gotta go back there and have some dinner and some smokes cause it's such a great place.

Um, but I remember how great the cigar was and if you guys remember, oh, and we could tell the origin story of the cigar, but I smoked this top to bottom and Dish didn't ash it one time. Oh, I remember that. Mm-hmm. the ash was the entire length of the cigar. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah.

**Bam Bam:** It's hard not to want to smoke this fast cuz

**Senator:** it's so bad.

I know. And the thing with it is the draws usually wide open on this, so you really have to be careful cuz it's so easy to smoke this thing quickly because it's so

**Poobah:** delicious. Yeah, it is. But the, the, the, I feel like the. The finish is long enough where, um, if you just discipline yourself a little bit, unless you're a glutton like me, , um, it's easy to kind of smoke it slow because it easier

**Gizmo:** But this,

**Rooster:** this cigar

**Gizmo:** is unlike any other cigar though. Okay.

**Bam Bam:** Everybody. You get disciplined right now, .

**Poobah:** Well, it's unlike any other Ruba, right? It's really unlike any [00:08:00] other different, though. It's so different

**Gizmo:** and good.

**Senator:** I love the shape of this too. I mean, this reminds me of the, uh, the Boulevard Royal Corona in shape.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. It, it, it feels about the exact same, roughly in the hand and the box press that it gives it. But this cigar, I mean, how Gizmo smoked that all the way down, I've had that happen once with this stick. It's so well constructed and I just feel like the box press works really well for this cigar.

So I'm very glad that it unintentionally has this. Yeah, it's easier

**Gizmo:** to,

**Rooster:** When it's a, it's got a little box press

**Gizmo:** and there's,

**Bam Bam:** there's something special about it too. Really.

**Senator:** I think the ash also, it just holds on longer. For some reason, when it has that box press, it's why you look at, we spoke B drones. I mean, you can have a few inches of ash before you actually have to tap that to, to ash it.

And I think with this, it, it's kind of the same way. I'm not sure what about that.

**Rooster:** Well, the perfect

**Gizmo:** example of that is the eye of the shark. Yeah, that's a great point. Point. Just the way it's [00:09:00] shaped, it

**Rooster:** just holds onto that ash, you know? Yeah. It's a bigger ring age. I think it's a 52.

**Poobah:** Yeah. Um, and this has kind of adjacent some adjacent qualities actually.

To, to, yeah. The nuttiness, I guess. Well, the, the shortbread kind of dessert flavor emotions. Mm-hmm. Thenot in here. That's true. I think. And, and the retro hell is very Cuban. I mean, like, this is like when you blow, when you write, you can retro hell this thing full on, big time out your nose and it's like, oh my

**Gizmo:** God.

It's really nice through the nose. I just did it. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's

**Poobah:** just beautiful. It's,

**Bam Bam:** personally, I think it's where you capture the baking spice the most is in a retro hill. No doubt

**Poobah:** about it. Yeah. It's so smooth through the

**Gizmo:** nose. Yeah. It's, it's almost, it's almost like, to me, this is almost, um, it's almost as if it's a h Chapman.

Maduro or something like, it has just another, like, they've notched up the oomph just, just one notch beyond most of the other monds. Especially to get [00:10:00] that out of a cigar that now has what, 12, 13 years age on it. Um, to get this kind of flavor and, and really robust, um, notes out of it is, is really, really, really something.

Yeah.

**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. It's like one of those cigars where, you know, I think when we had Rob on and he Rob Island, he talked about like hitting a drive down the center of the fairway. Like this is what that kind of feels like. You're like, it's pure. Yeah. You know, you're just like, wow. Right in the middle of the club face and you know, you kind of chase that with Cuban cigars.

I think this has some of those qualities where, um, it just really delivers

**Gizmo:** this and a really nice experience to piggyback on your word chase, and this has become a cigar. That we as a group have chased, like pretty hard. Well, that,

**Senator:** that's a funny thing. I, I feel like this cigar leaves a really, really amazing first impression in that there are a few sticks that you [00:11:00] have won and you instantly know you have to get a box.

I first got this, uh, in an auction sort of just auctioning off sort of singles. I remember that. And, uh, I had gotten a couple of these, had one new, immediately I love this cigar. Found a box online, then ordered another one later on. But the funny thing is, I remember as I was handing these out, and PBA also had gotten himself a box at one point.

I remember handing one to GIZ that night at, uh, at our, our North Lounge, and you smoked that one and you were literally on your phone looking at trying to find a box of them. It's just like, you know, as soon as you have this cigar, I mean, Maybe some people might not like it. I'm not sure who, but for, I think most people they would.

It's just a cigar you instantly want

**Poobah:** more of. It's creamy, it's delicious. It has great combustion, great construction. The, it, it's, it really, it's o you know, off, off the wrapper and the nose. Mm-hmm. , the burn line, everything. It's just really nice. It's a 10. It's, it's, it's . [00:12:00] Well, you know. Got it. See you tomorrow.

That's today.

**Gizmo:** I think, I think for this size, this is a definitive statement, but I think for this size it smokes. As elegantly as what we chase from like larger Churchills or Lawnsdale or even Lance Serros. Just how it smokes, how it feels in the hand, the quality of the smoke as you, as you push out the draw. I mean, it really smokes elegantly, which I don't feel like I say that a lot about robos.

I mean, I, we smoke a lot of robos, but I don't use the word elegant a lot with robos personally. You don't. That's true. I

**Senator:** don't. I I would with a D four.

**Gizmo:** Yeah, that's, that's just a bore horse of a cigar for me though. It is. That's not, that's the thing is elegant. The

**Senator:** reason I say elegant, like I just, that's one of the thinks a

**Bam Bam:** personal thing for senator whether

**Senator:** than No, but hang on, hang.

Just hear me out [00:13:00] cause it's not obviously I'm obsessed with That's

**Gizmo:** a great thing though. Get the boxing. Hey ba, you

**Senator:** got the boxing gloves, please leave that all aside. What I'm getting at, When you look at a D four, the construct, I think it just construction even alone. Forget how great the flavor is. I think it's probably just the nicest looking Cuban, like I just admire a D four sometimes just in my hand.

It's like the invisible seams. I love the band. It's just, to me it looks very elegant.

**Poobah:** A agreed, agreed. Um, yeah, the I, the D four s are great and, and I have some age D four s that are really, that are really good. Um, and they, some of the D four s is, as everybody knows, and we've talked about it so many times, they, they, some of them smoke, so a lot of them, not even some of 'em smoke so great young, but with like the right amount of age on, on, on 'em and, and that.

depending on the run, it could be four years, it could be three [00:14:00] years, it could be five years, it could be eight years. But they really become a very refined, and to me, a luxurious smoke in a different way than this. It gives a little bit more punch, it gives a little bit more of that parus give it to me.

Yeah. Um, there's more DNA there and that cinnamon, that cinnamon kind of parus. DNA that you want. Um, but this is a kind of a different thing. It's, I think it's elegant in its presentation, uh, of, of, of the, of the, the flavor profile because it's very dessert forward. It doesn't have a lot of pepper, but it's got that baking spice, which is signature H up and big time, which really is a, is something to be, I think a, it's a real virtue in the smoke.

I also may

**Bam Bam:** disagree that I feel that this is from the flavor point of view, a full flavored cigar, the body

**Gizmo:** of it full, I think it's medium full.

**Grinder:** Yeah. I, I agree with, agree with them. I, I think the flavor is very full, but the body's

**Bam Bam:** definitely medium. Yeah, the body's medium. Yeah. But the flavor profile, [00:15:00] wow, I agree with that.

It's not letting up, it's just

**Poobah:** not letting up. Oh, it's full, full flavor. Yeah. Yeah. But, but it's strength-wise it's medium. Medium, yeah. Medium.

**Gizmo:** Medium. Which is I think a virtue, I think what said about having virtue having this on a empty stomach or half stomach, I think you'd be totally fine doing it. Oh, I agree.

And you're gonna get a really full experience flavor-wise, but it's not gonna kick you around. It doesn't kick you

**Poobah:** around, but it gives you so much. Yeah.

**Bam Bam:** And piggybacking on what you said about the present, I think the presentation is what gives this its elegance. If you pull this out at a party with a group of guys that really love to smoke cigars, they would ooh and awe over that box.

Well

**Poobah:** over on the light. The minute you fucking light it. Yeah, it's a whole lot. Sorry for the F-bomb, but the minute you light it , you go,

**Senator:** Hmm, ,

**Grinder:** you go. Yes.

**Poobah:** I'm, I'm looking at Senator. I'm just looking for validation. . Sot you go. Because we know that this is true, don't you just go, okay, this is something.

**Senator:** You're validated.[00:16:00]

I'll validate your parking on the way out too.

**Poobah:** you bastard, you god damn bastard. .

**Gizmo:** So unfortunately these don't pop up that much. I mean, when we, when we got these boxes, we got them very reasonably priced. I don't remember what I mean, I think they were mid fours. Yes, I know exactly what I paid for this. For, for a box of these. What was it? It was four 50.

Yeah, that's four. We paid. Yeah, I think I paid 4 39 or something like that. Not what I paid for this box. . Oh, was this more recent? Well, yeah, you

**Poobah:** guys saw,

**Gizmo:** oh, that's right. We tagged you. Right.

**Poobah:** I'm guessing, I think I paid seven 20 or something like that. That Wow. Yeah. Crazy. Honestly. But that's what, that's what this is in this environment.

That's what these go for. Now I still, and then all you guys laid off, you guys didn't attack me because we're gentlemen. Because you're

**Gizmo:** gentlemen, as you know, you know how much I

**Poobah:** love this box, . Uh, cuz it was out there. Yep. And you laid off of it. Thank you. Um, when, when did you get

**Gizmo:** this? How far back? I

**Poobah:** don't know, six months

**Gizmo:** ago maybe.

Oh, wow. Okay. Wow. It, it, [00:17:00] it's, it's probably even gone up more. Oh, I'm sure. Now I'm sure that's a $900 box. Wow. Unbelievable. I would think so. Wow. Which is crazy because you're also factoring in the age thing too. I mean, you're just, you don't see these boxes anymore. See,

**Bam Bam:** and this is why, like, I'd love to go through this box, but I've smoked five of these out of the box and I probably won't ever look at that again for a long time.

That box.

**Gizmo:** See, here's where, here's, I'm gonna counter your argument. Bam. As I'm having this tonight, I know I'm kind of in the zone where I feel like this is, as you know, Rob Iola, you know, uh, and I had a nice conversation about this on a Zoom one time, like, , this box is smoking and we'll see by the rating tonight in a, in a while.

But this box is smoking, in my opinion, as close to perfectly as possible. It's as good as it's gonna smoke the thing, in my opinion. I don't know if it can get better, it may. Mm-hmm. But to sit on these for 3, 4, 5, 10 more years, ah, I think you're gonna see a, uh, uh, the quality degrade a little bit.

Interesting. Say, yeah,

**Senator:** I agree. I'm very glad to hear you say that because hearing the discipline of some of the other lizards, I've honestly have like [00:18:00] blown through the boxes. I've had . Absolutely. I feel bad, like I'm listening to this. I'm saying I, I wish I had this level of discipline. I mean, I have two boxes and I guess for some reason I forget, oh, I know why at first I, um, you know, those health stickers putting all over these damn boxes now.

So there was one over the bottom on one of them I had bought, and I think it was on, I have. And um, I had no clue what year it was, so I just order it. I off the truck. Wasn't happy with it. So then I found one that I wanted with the exact code exact year that I had first tried. I ordered that and then maybe a year later I just finally ripped the hell sticker off the bottom.

I'm like, Holy shit. It's the exact same year in code that I was pursuing. Mm-hmm. . And after they sat, I smoked it and it was perfect. But I've probably got, I don't know, maybe 15 of these left across the two box. Wow. I mean, I've just plowed through 'em. That's

**Bam Bam:** cuz you felt like you had an abundance of these early

**Senator:** on.

You went through 'em. Well, I just loved it so much. I also, I handed one of these out to every guy here. I'm pretty certain, um, I mean, I was love with cigars. That was happy to

**Poobah:** share. This is my third box. They're awesome hand. I [00:19:00] smoked them. I gave them away. You gotta give, you got

**Gizmo:** smoke 'em. I know, I know.

The stickers, the health stickers we're

**Rooster:** talking about. Mm-hmm. , the boxes that come from

**Gizmo:** Mexico. Oh, they're, it's some, you can't even see what kind of cigars you have. . It's all over the box. Oh no, it's, it's, it's, it's very graphic. Oh really? Yeah. They have like the throat open, like, oh geez. It's like someone who smokes cigarettes.

It's six packs of cigarettes a day. Mexico, the whole thing going full box is just covered. Yeah. I I I'm not

**Bam Bam:** going to Mexico

**Gizmo:** anymore. Yeah, you're not .

**Senator:** Well, can we talk, I, I don't understand this. I haven't spent a lot of time in Mexico, but I've been there. w of all the problems Mexico has, how is banning smoking out in public places a top issue that they needed to?

It's crazy. Go that far.

**Poobah:** Thank you. Well, I mean, it's definitely, I mean, it's like bag, it's the, the, it's a war zone worse than Baghdad. Parts of it. It's, you

**Gizmo:** think that they would put their efforts toward like, I don't know, murder, cocaine, heroin,

**Poobah:** [00:20:00] hanging, murder, hanging, hanging dead bodies from bridges every

**Gizmo:** day.

Yeah. Like, can

**Bam Bam:** I get a, can I get a room in Baghdad, please.

**Gizmo:** You know, the other thing too, I, on top of, uh, the smoking, uh, band coming in, uh, arguably as bad or worse than Canada, most of Canada, um, there's another factor too. , you're not like even the L cdhs in, in, in Mexico, you're not allowed to physically display cigars in an open space. So like when you walk in the L C D H, they have black tarps now inside the, the humidor that you, you can't even see in the humidor unless you physically ask for permission and go in.

Like you walk in the room and there's black tarps inside the humidor. It's, it's crazy. So one of

**Bam Bam:** our buddies was in Mexico, was it two weeks ago? Yeah, three weeks ago. And he explained exactly that blankets in the fucking

**Gizmo:** window. But he was smoking a cigar. Outside. Outside, but he can't inside. But is

**Poobah:** that for different reasons, like security reasons,

**Gizmo:** sir?

It's a smoking [00:21:00] band that went into effect in, you know, in. . So I thought you could have some, how

**Poobah:** about like, how about like a crystal meth manufacturing band? ? I mean, like, I mean, why, why not focus on that? I mean, how about a ban on that? Like,

**Gizmo:** you know, . I love it. Why would you wanna do that? . Watch it. Too much breaking bed.

Hey, I wanted to point out, I don't know if you guys saw this, but there's some really interesting crystallization or some Yes. There is sort of oil pattern. Oh, there, there is on the wrapper. That's even as look at the ash. Uh, there's like little bubbles of oil or something

**Bam Bam:** that Yeah. It actually separates from the leaf as it gets hot.

It's incredible and it gets shiny right at the

**Gizmo:** burn line. So we're we, a bunch of us have our phones out with the flashlight on. I mean, I've never seen anything like that on a cigar

**Bam Bam:** before. Oh yeah. And it's pronounced when you take a draw and you look at your

**Poobah:** cigar. Yeah, that's a, it's a super special.

Nice. Cool. Happy to be smoking it with you guys.

**Gizmo:** Hey, bam. Get closer on that mic or lift it up or something. Okay. Yeah. This is really, [00:22:00] this is really amazing. Yeah. And we're only, you know, we're coming in maybe to the second, third here. Maybe. I'm trying to smoke it slowly, but I'm getting like a chocolate thing now.

Coco, alongside the baking spice, alongside the, you know, it's just so smooth too.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I think the complexity note earlier that was mentioned by pba, right? On money.

**Poobah:** Yeah. It's

**Gizmo:** silky and freaking awesome. And there's a, there's a, a richness to the smoke. Yeah. In your mouth. It's like thick or something. Yeah.

It's got a viscosity

**Poobah:** to it. Yeah. And the, uh, if you share this with someone, and I've shared this cigar with, um, As like a teaser for Cuban, like to get for Cubans. I've shared this a couple times and they're like, okay, , like, even like the layman approaches the cigar and can and appreciates it because I think it really does taste that good.

Yeah. Um, where they're like, oh my God. Like, wow, cigar can actually be this really this [00:23:00] approachable and thi because I, if this was the, I would give this, I mean, I even think a, a novice smoker would smoke the cigar and be like, I've really enjoyed that. Yeah, absolutely. It's that kind of approachable. It's

**Senator:** really good.

They wouldn't be deserving of it, but they wouldn't .

**Gizmo:** No,

**Poobah:** you're right. You're right. But, but

**Gizmo:** it's, so let's talk about our pairing tonight. We, uh, so we did this on episode three, by the way, which is, this is episode 72, so that's like almost 70 episodes ago. We were young kids back here. We were, we were babies, man.

Hell yeah. We were babies on the journey. The BNY 14 year aged Caribbean cask. I

**Senator:** just have to say the last bit of commentary on this cigar, as you guys were describing the stick Yeah. And I was sipping on the Vinny, it's like you were describing the scotch. It was amazing. Like the viscosity, the, the, just the flavor notes, the creaminess.

I, I love this stuff. This is a excellent pairing already. I feel like with

**Bam Bam:** this, this is a, a crowd favorite.

**Gizmo:** Among us [00:24:00] Sure is. Yeah. So we did it on episode three for the listener. Why are we doing it again? It's because we didn't start rating liquors until, I think Grindr said on episode 11 or 15 or something.

Like, why the hell are we not rating the liquors too? And we just did. So, yep. We're revisiting the stuff that we, uh, we did early on and I'm very happy to, because this is an excellent. , single mal scotch.

**Bam Bam:** You know, on the way in, I thought the scotch would overwhelm the cigar. Mm-hmm. just in thinking about it, but it's pairing.

Oh, it's perfect. It's pairing beautiful because

**Gizmo:** it has that sweetness. Yeah. From the, from the, is that a rum cask? Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Okay. You, you guys could talk about it. Grindr, Senator, you guys know him a little more

**Senator:** just quickly before that? Um, the funny thing is how Aam was saying, I was worried this would overpower it.

Giz and I, as we were just thinking about pairings with this and we were debating wine or a spirit, and I kept saying, I feel like a spirit is needed with this cigar. And it had been a while since I had it, but now smoking it, how much flavor we're talking, I mean, everyone here is saying full flavor, medium strength.

The flavors so robust in this cigar. I feel like it just [00:25:00] holds up really well with the spirit. Yeah.

**Bam Bam:** I forgot how full flavor the cigar.

**Gizmo:** Yeah.

**Poobah:** Yeah. It has a long finish and it, it, it, it pairs up super well with the rum cask, um, uh, this Caribbean cask. Oh, yeah. Uh, scotch, which we all love the double wood 12.

Right. It chicken with there's consensus on there. I have that with my cereal every morning. . Yeah. It's right. I mean, no joke. It's that good, right? Um, ,

**Gizmo:** it's a great one. Lucky Charms . Yeah. Fruit,

**Poobah:** fruit Loops. But, but when you elevate it, um, this 14 Caribbean Cas Bal is, is, it's super good. And I'm not trying to be basic about the evaluation , but it's just super delicious.

Uh, there's just that, that, that there's that sweetness that you get from it, which is balanced. It doesn't, it's not [00:26:00] like a cognac Sweet. Mm. But it's almost like a s. Like it's closer. It, it's bordering on that sweetness. You kind of get from a cognac that pairs well with the cigar and, and

**Gizmo:** it performs.

**Senator:** There is, and there's like this. Soft creaminess about this scotch, which is not something I used to describe many single malts. Um, it's just so refined and smooth. Like we love the 12 and I feel like the flavor notes in the 12 are perfect for most of our, if not all of our pallets. This just has this creamy, refined element to it.

Yep. That I just love with this cigar. Do you

**Grinder:** remember? Creamsicles when you kid.

**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The orange and white.

**Grinder:** This is like a creamsicle, but without the fake orange shit int it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's like a, it's like a creamsicle, right? It's creamy. Yeah. I was thinking the same thing.

**Gizmo:** Here's a question.

It's, it's bringing out, sorry. Bam. It's bringing out just a touch of that twang that on the front of my tongue that I was mentioning really early on in the cigar. [00:27:00] For some reason, pairing it with this as I'm sipping it, that's come back again and I think it's a product of, of the pairing. Sorry, you were saying?

Yeah. Yeah. What of the

**Bam Bam:** price points is this? How much more expensive is this than the 12 double

**Gizmo:** wood? I, this is 85 today. Okay. I think the, the double wood is probably 65. Ah, yeah. Right. That 20 bucks, something like that. Okay.

**Grinder:** Um, the, I think it was, PBO was mentioning that the sweetness is subtle and that's, they do that very well like this, that it's not aged tremendously long in these casks.

They actually make their own rum, first of all, and then use their own rum. And then they dump out all the rum and then put in whiskey that's been aging in traditional oak casks. And then that's crazy. And this is part of their core lineup. Like this is not something they do extraneously. This is something that they, this is one of the four or five,

**Bam Bam:** like it's not special for them.

It's part of their staple.

**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And they do with a lot of different things. I mean, if you think of Belvy, the 14 obviously is in the rum, [00:28:00] uh, Caribbean cast we're talking about. Their 21 is a portwood. It's out of a port ca. So they're really good at, I think, you know, maturing for the final stage in some different cast that in parts like, like just this interesting, you know, perfect finish to whatever they're making, I

**Gizmo:** think works well.

And it does, it doesn't feel forced. Not at all. It doesn't feel like they're trying too hard to like, it, it feels like whatever marriage they're creating, It just, it works brilliantly. I mean

**Senator:** so brilliantly that I can't imagine it without it. Yeah, like I can't imagine this not finished in this because what?

It's imparted that like smooth, creamy, just. Delicious flavor. I would not wanna lose.

**Grinder:** It's, it's a rich, it's a rich taste that I, I equate to like holiday time again. Yeah. You know, it's

**Gizmo:** another holiday. Have you guys had the rum that they make? I haven't, no. They make a

**Bam Bam:** rum. Are you sure?

**Grinder:** I'm pretty sure they their own rum.

I don't think they make own, I don't think they didn't market. I don't think they, they don't market. I don't think it's a marketable run. Wow.

**Poobah:** Un Or [00:29:00] maybe they take the rum and somebody private labels it.

**Gizmo:** Perhaps. That could be, yeah. Interesting. They sell it to Costco. It's called a triplex rum and sold in India.

Costco Rum is

**Bam Bam:** rooster's own rum .

**Poobah:** Well, I'm sure they gotta, they, they're not just gonna dump the product. They're gonna do something. Somebody, the private label this stuff.

**Gizmo:** I mean,

**Grinder:** you think, you look at like, so many whiskey distilleries also are, you know, they make a lot of gin because gin is a hell of a lot easier to make.

You don't need to wait. Get a profit sooner. Right.

**Bam Bam:** Has anyone looked at Pagodas Ash? Look

**Gizmo:** at that. Look at that. That's where I was. That's where I was at. Yep. I am very proud of you. So pagoda. Thank you Baam for this. So, so for the listener, pagoda hasn't ash yet? Yeah, sorry. No, you're good. I, I was just gonna say pagoda.

Now you gotta start holding it a little higher, like, like vertically. And that's how I held the ash on for the entire season. But you have to

**Poobah:** be, you have to keep it above his shoulder like too much . I, I was, I was, I was doing that. I was on my way there and then I just said I could probably do this and then I just [00:30:00] askeded it after.

Just now I just ash it just now

**Pagoda:** from the, I didn't, I didn't even think about it. I was just because, because my ashray is, uh, not on the side table today. , you mean it's not, you mean it's not in your

**Bam Bam:** lap tonight? No, no it's not.

**Pagoda:** So, so I wasn't even thinking about this. Um,

**Bam Bam:** I've been watching you smoke off and on tonight.

I'm very happy, very pleased. Well done.

**Pagoda:** I'm maintaining

**Bam Bam:** my pace.

**Gizmo:** Yes, you are so pagoda. Where, um, . Where, where does this fall for you right now as far as Cuban cigars your experience like?

**Pagoda:** Yeah. I, I'm really enjoying it. I, I think, uh, you know, uh, and I was kidding around earlier, Robert Puba saying it's a 10 because it, it was feeling like a 10 for me all the way through.

Mm-hmm. . Um, it reminded me, actually of some Indian cookies, which only I think Rooster would know, which is just the regular glucose deep biscuit, which we call biscuits in India. Like when you growing up shortbread, they're like, they're, they're just interesting. And it just reminded me of that, and we grew up with those.

And, um, so it just, uh, you know, sometimes, uh, when you associate [00:31:00] flavors and they bring a good memory, it just, yeah, you're right. Enhances the flavor. Yeah. So I'm really enjoying it.

**Gizmo:** Wow. Yeah. This is really, really special. I'm enjoying this pairing.

**Poobah:** It's still, you know, down the stretch, down the Yeah, it's great.

The, the pairings great. It, it is. And, and even down the stretch, you retro held it. It's still, it's still so good. It's still so good and smooth.

**Grinder:** What, we should have a, a series on these reprisals, because there are some pairings that just really were home runs. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. This is one of them. Like that we should do like a series of seconds.

Mm-hmm. , why

**Bam Bam:** often go back to the RAs and what we paired with that. I don't remember Lable, was it? Yeah. Now normally I wouldn't drink that, but it, with that cigar for me, yeah. Tremendous, tremendous evening

**Gizmo:** that we had. And we paired this originally on episode three, which again, going back call a callback. I mean, that was when pub.

Did, you know, did the whole thing about the lizard names, I mean, that's how long ago this was, was with Theo, right? With the exi. Ah, and it it paired brilliantly with the patron. [00:32:00] Yes. Did so,

**Pagoda:** and I remember Puba getting the bottle right. I think Puba, you'd got the Caribbean 14 at that point. I, I did, I did.

Yeah, because I, I'll tell you, for me, the Belvue 12, the double wood is something I enjoy so much that I think in memory it wasn't, um, you know, I always, because, uh, I drink 12 a lot, um, I've always preferred it. But today I think the combination's been so great. I think, I don't know, maybe changing my mind.

I don't know what's

**Gizmo:** good. I totally, I totally agree with you. I think in most cases, I'm gonna go for the double wood 12, but in certain select situations and pairings, I'll reach for this. Like, I don't reach for this terribly often at home. I have a bottle. I go through a lot more Double wood. With what I'm smoking on a, on a day-to-day basis, maybe because the sweetness doesn't work for me on everything, but, but, uh, this is really the perfect pairing here.

Yeah. I like,

**Poobah:** just, can I talk, can I, can I talk about something? Forgot the floor is [00:33:00] your, I forgot. I forgot. Forgot. Well, the lighter, I didn't, I didn't refill my lighter. Um, so , I asked Rooster, I, I needed to touch this up just a little. And I asked Rooster for a lighter, and he handed me the pimps lighter of all time, which he's never handed me before and I've never seen because you keep losing it.

Well, so he hands me this Ellie Blue lighter . Oh boy. . And it's really neat. I'm gonna show you guys, you probab. You guys have probably seen it, but check it out. Check out the flame on the, it's got a flat flame. It's got a wide flame, a wide flat flame. This thing is pimp. I've rooster. You've never seen it before.

You like it. You're a baller rooster. Thank you. You're a baller. Thank you so much. You can have it.

**Gizmo:** Keep it. Take it home. Take it home. You'll go well with the Cutter .

**Poobah:** It's a Xeno Cutter .

**Gizmo:** It's a Xeno Xeno Davidoff.

**Pagoda:** And, and Russ has confirmed his expertise on lighters. He's, uh, oh yeah. We do have, uh, another member in the lounge who has a really fancy [00:34:00] lighter, which is some kind of like, it's got a really interesting way to open

**Grinder:** Oh,

**Senator:** that sounds like a downhill, that's our, that's our esteem friend, edf.

**Grinder:** That's right,

**Poobah:** that's right. I may treat myself to something very. Nice at some point. I,

**Rooster:** I think I know where you're going with

**Gizmo:** that. Can I take a guess? Yeah. I think it's the line two .

**Poobah:** Why? How did you know, how do you know? Well that

**Rooster:** maybe cuz I mentioned it before. Dual flame. Yeah. Yeah.

**Poobah:** Really Line two. Yeah.

Because

**Rooster:** dual dual flame, you get the, yeah, it's got the

**Poobah:** soft flame because you guys know how much I like the soft flame. Mm-hmm. .

**Gizmo:** Yeah. I love soft flame endorse. I honestly, I thought you were gonna, I love, I love how you say that. Like, you guys know I love a soft flame. I had no idea.

**Senator:** Oh, you knew that. You know how we knew that he love matches.

I was

**Gizmo:** just gonna say he uses a creme lighter. He blew through his soda though. with a creme. Lay lighter .

**Poobah:** What are you talking about? Excuse me. Excuse me. Yeah, I did. Okay. You did got it. Okay. I told you I bought the white trash lighter on the way to the Jersey [00:35:00] shore over the summer because I was with a flat top grill in the back.

Right, exactly. , because I needed to be because I was on the beach and I needed something that was like massive. The wind you needed off the hour. Hey listen, I was one house off the beach guys. I mean, you know, a lot of wind there just saying, yeah, it's

**Gizmo:** a winds. Humble, humble brag right there. It

**Poobah:** was a wind problem for the humble brag.

Yeah. I mean, please. So, and you know, so I bought that. But anyway, but not notwithstanding the, uh, But I, yeah, there, there's at some point, so I'm working towards thinking about, maybe I want the Peter James set up because the solo thing, my, I brought the solo case to the group, my man, and it was, it was well received.

But then all of a sudden, and I'm gonna say this for the record, and everyone should know, the zippers are not good on the solo. Uh,

**Gizmo:** there's no, I, I think I have the V2 or V3 version. My zippers are excellent. All the zippers have failed. They're the same zippers. Mm-hmm. . Oh, okay. Maybe I, maybe it's a user error every time we've had it.

Much longer [00:36:00] than you've had though. Okay. Yeah.

**Poobah:** So anyway, and I'm on my side. I've been through two. Um, uh, anyway, my point is I was thinking maybe I would treat myself to that kind of a set at me now, a nice little setup at some point. You cannot beat the Peter

**Gizmo:** James, I think, I think, don't disagree. I think every cigar smoker who's as serious as we are, Smoking, let's say between 3 10, 12 cigars a week, whatever that number is, really needs to invest in a, a great lighter and a.

Great case for sure. Can

**Senator:** we wait a minute? Can we just take a quick thank you man. We're say

**Grinder:** wave like do it. I need to see that Home Depot box.

**Bam Bam:** Please do .

**Senator:** I just, I'm sorry. You have to admit, you gave us shit for years about you guys. I didn't. No,

**Gizmo:** no. Let me finish. Let me finish.

**Senator:** You finish. Oh God

**Bam Bam:** got a

**Poobah:** lot of shit.

We let way we were way beyond. I'm gonna pass it to you right now. , we were way beyond you case wise for for

**Gizmo:** years thank years. No, no, no, no. [00:37:00] For years. No, no, no. Kiss. I was on the defense. . Go ahead.

**Senator:** Go ahead sir. For years, we all had a nice case to put our cigars in whenever we went somewhere and you would show up with this literally bright orange Home Depot looking case.

It's

**Bam Bam:** a construction gang box .

**Gizmo:** That's

**Poobah:** what it's, I I, I, when you show up, I'd go, are there drill pits in that ?

**Senator:** Exactly. And we would laugh about this and you would sit there and. Well, your case can't be run over by a car and still have your cigars be

**Grinder:** attacked. Yep. No, a tank. Yep. Tank.

**Gizmo:** A tank. A tank. And

**Senator:** he'd say, he'd say, why would you spend all this money on these nice cases?

And then fast forward a few years, and now you sit before us and say, anyone's who's as serious as as we are, should buy a nice case

**Grinder:** and a nice, just say

**Senator:** what, what kind of, it's it's a beautiful thing to see this transformation that

**Gizmo:** all I'm saying. It's sounds, I'll tell you, it sounds, it . It sounds real beautiful how the winds of time

**Senator:** change.

**Gizmo:** Grindr, I need you to be my attorney. Are you still on retainer, Alabama? I

**Grinder:** have a question. It's, this is part of the, this is part of the fact finding mission [00:38:00] here. Go ahead. What kind of activities are you doing that you actually need that kind of protection on these cigars, .

**Bam Bam:** Exactly.

**Gizmo:** It was, it was all, are you going to war?

Listen, I grew up in Pennsylvania. Man, you need rough and tough, rough and tumble. You. It's not, it's not even camouflaged. It's not, it's bright orange so you can see it. If you lose it in when you're in a coal

**Bam Bam:** mine. When you're in a coal

**Gizmo:** mine, you can see it. If you lose it in the woods, you can find it.

**Rooster:** But don't, don't you remember he called the

**Senator:** coal mine analogy track.

He doesn't need that. I think I get it now. . It

**Gizmo:** does. It

**Rooster:** does. Don't you remember when he left the box of cigars on top of his car, right?

**Gizmo:** Oh, kill the

**Bam Bam:** whole purpose. Didn't

**Poobah:** he remember

**Gizmo:** what he bombed by the way? That was, that was two boxes. B fives of aged like almost 10 year age Cardus D five s my. Oh my God.

Fell into my stomach that day when I had a refund. These vicious friends of mine, uh, bam, bam. And senators, some of none of us don't leave our cigars on the roof. And thank God

they

**Poobah:** weren't D six s. Excuse me. Five is, excuse me,

**Bam Bam:** is no point. My box [00:39:00] survived. I have that box at home. I smoked.

**Gizmo:** He replaced them.

I gave you my box.

**Senator:** Oh, you are the Prince of Princes. Because I didn't know that box survived. Picked trunk. Your box was all over the sea. Is that true? I had no

**Bam Bam:** idea. You gave me your box.

**Gizmo:** Well, I got three for one for each of us. You know what? And then I destroyed two and I gave it to you. I'm taking you to

**Bam Bam:** Wendy's.

Let's go.

**Gizmo:** Wendy's. We're going to Wendy's baby. Wendy's. That's after the what's? That's after. What's, I'd like to go to McDonald's if, what's your Wendy's meal? I don't even, I'm, I'm a McDonald's guy. Okay. Okay. If I go to McDonald, I'm, I, I prefer McDonald's. I grew up with that. It's like, to me that's like comfort food.

Mm-hmm. . Um, like my, my mom always loved, I don't know why we didn't eat it a lot. Maybe we ate it once a month. Like, anytime I went to the, a doctor's appointment or I got Dr. Uh, blood drawn as a kid, I always had a 10 piece chicken McNugget meal. I love that. With the hot mustard sauce. Look at you.

McDonald's hot mustard sauce. It's a thing, is arguably my favorite condiment I've ever had. It is pk. It's [00:40:00] a thing. It's a phenomenal condiment. It, it's, it's awesome. No, I don't

**Poobah:** disagree. The completely, I don't the, but I remember specifically in the, in, in, I don't know if you guys remember this Juicy Fruit and used.

Tissues in my, so in my mom's purse, that was the same time we would go, she would take us to McDonald's and I remember she would have all these tissues that she blotted her lipstick with, ah, and, and she would wipe my face down from the McDonald's that'd be red, with these blotted things from the lipstick.

And she always had sticks of juicy fruit all in the bottom of her bag. And so all that goes together with the McDonald's. But I mean, hey, sometimes, uh, I was on the way to the airport. Coming back, uh, you know, coming back to New Jersey and, you know, you're in a rush. Let me tell you something. A quarter pounder with cheese.

Yeah, man. And a large and, and a large fry, and a Diet Coke from, uh, can I just say [00:41:00] in the, in the rental car, dude, on just never just cruising up I 95, like 85 miles an hour. Like just to get to the airport. Sometimes you just need to push that

**Gizmo:** in. And I'm down with it When I'm doing like a two I'll, it, when I'm doing like a two hour plus travel, like my brain automatically goes like, we need McDonald's right now.

I, I, I'm down with the rock and, and I like the rock. You guys, you guys don't like that when I say this. The, the chicken McNugget meal with the french fries. Very easy to eat in the car. Sure it is. Oh, totally sure

**Poobah:** you open easier than

**Gizmo:** a salad. Well, it's a good salad topper. . Yeah.

**Bam Bam:** I used to like taking that chicken on a chicken P pie.

Take a bite at a burger.

**Gizmo:** Um,

**Poobah:** we need a, I hear Kentucky fried chicken. Chicken pot pie is unbelievable.

**Bam Bam:** We've got an update Ash update here for pagoda. Oh, Ash Update. Half cigar gone. Look at that. Wow.

**Pagoda:** By the way, this is a lot of work. I I just don't want to do it. But

**Gizmo:** do it for the people, man. Just, just do

**Grinder:** it.

Lizard Nation need do it. [00:42:00] It's, that's not enjoyable.

**Poobah:** No. Just

**Grinder:** can't do it.

**Poobah:** Oh, just, uh, got it.

**Grinder:** Did it So recklessly too , you could have just gracefully ended its

**Gizmo:** life. But you, well, for the, the listener. For the listener who was really waiting for pagoda to report that he was all the way down. With a full ash.

He has canceled the mission. Well passed the halfway mark he made, and he askeded well, he

**Poobah:** did enough I'd. I'd like to just say for the blizzard record too. All of you. Except Rooster. All of you, after the podcast at times, eat the Wendy's double cheeseburger. Yes, we do. Agree. Like animals, all of

**Pagoda:** you, of course.

And thank you

**Poobah:** Pu Can I say even senator came around. He goes, okay, . It's good.

**Gizmo:** I gotta admit he's admit he's a dad now. He's hungry. That's true. ,

**Senator:** my, my standards have completely got out the weekend. Oh,

**Bam Bam:** that's what, it's . He'd been having baby

**Pagoda:** food lately. ,

**Poobah:** we'll tour, we'll tour dash Wendy's [00:43:00] after this.

Sometimes I'll just get like $70 worth of double cheeseburgers as

**Gizmo:** soon as, and

**Senator:** they're all gone. My favorite part of this is Puba orders this ridiculous amount of food and he's just standing around the lounge like fucking Donald Trump firing toilet paper rolls in Puerto Rico. just like shooting them like basketballs at people lounge cheese

**Gizmo:** cheeseburger, boom.

Cheeseburger. That's true. Boom. It's true. Hamburg. Boom. You did

**Poobah:** hysterical. You did get, you got a, an an, an

**Grinder:** ordinate amount of, of cheeseburgers last

**Poobah:** time and they were all eaten. They were, they were

on ,

**Gizmo:** by the way, Puma, here's what I think our new move is when we hit the formal wicker rating. Mm-hmm. , I think you need to place the order

Right?

**Poobah:** We know

**Gizmo:** we may, I mean, we could time this man. I like

**Poobah:** that. It's, it's a 15 to 20 minute,

**Gizmo:** that's what I'm saying. Drop time. We can, we can we hit the formal liquor rating. Bam. Bam goes, we go around the room. By the time we get to you, you could have this all ordered. No

**Poobah:** problem. My pleasure. Perfect, [00:44:00]

**Gizmo:** perfect.

So boys, we are well into the second half now of the Huppman rib Robusto, ados, and uh, as we expected, as you can hear in our voice and the conversation and how we're feeling, this is an excellent, excellent cigar. Has anyone

**Grinder:** had, uh, burn issues like I have or just I've done a

**Gizmo:** lot of touching up? Oh, that's been perfect.

Yeah, mine's smoking.

**Bam Bam:** Great. You know, it's funny, I had an bit of an unevenness early on. I just stopped smoking it and I let it kind of catch up and smoke it slowly and caught up. I thought

**Senator:** I did that. But yeah, I will say, so I think Grindr's touched his up a few times. I've had to touch mine up. The one thing I will say, it's kind of a crapshoot with this cigar having smoked a lot of these either.

Outrageously perfect and burn almost all the way down like pagoda had, or I am having to do little touchups here and there, and that the burn can get very uneven. The flavor is so delicious regardless that it's never bothered me a whole lot, but it is a bit of a crapshoot. I [00:45:00] gotta say,

**Bam Bam:** the whole business of letting your, I'm not gonna say that.

I mean, let me say it. Letting your score or perception of the cigar be affected by simply just having to touch. . To me, that's a minor

**Gizmo:** detail, but I think that that's also, that's a minor detail. I don't think it's the case here, but I think the understand reason why we, we sometimes harp on it, we do is it does directly tie a lot of the time to construction issues.

Yeah. It's indicative fat quality. It's indicative quality for sure. I don't think that in this case, with the age, with the tobacco, with the roll, with the, how it, the, the draw. I don't think that there's a construction issue here. Mm-hmm. , you know, maybe grindr's wrapper is a little thicker in some, like, who knows what the situation is.

But I don't think it's indicative, indicative of construction issues. Like when we had mon, when we had Monty one s and we had burn issues, I think the Monty one s were. A product of bad construction, which informed the drawing.

**Poobah:** These, these aren't bad construction, I think in any, in any way, shape or form.

No way. But, but, [00:46:00] but, but a, a touch up here and there is negligible in the overall experience that the cigar gives.

**Gizmo:** Totally agree. I agree. Agree.

**Senator:** Just to clarify a touch of here or there is not an issue. What becomes a problem is when you're having to touch up a cigar so many times it actually impacts your smoking experience.

Mm. Yeah. Cause it's, you wanna be able to Exactly. You wanna be able to have a conversation, enjoy your cigar. You don't want every five minutes to have to sit there, grab your lighter. And that's true. And that's not, that's not what's happening here. But I'm just saying like why it would in some cases, factor in for some cigars.

Sure. Right. It's when you're having to do it so often, it really detracts from the smoking experience. Sure.

**Gizmo:** Yeah, sure. That's,

**Grinder:** that's exactly, I don't need to beat a dead horse. But everyone basically said, well, we beat the dead horse . This is, you know, if this were really construction problems, I wouldn't be fucking smoking it.

And of course, and like,

**Gizmo:** that's not, you wanna put it down. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like we've done many times. Yeah.

**Grinder:** It's also preference like that you want to smoke it the

**Poobah:** way it was meant to be smoked. Yeah. And, and it look in very few, um, cigars until you [00:47:00] get up to, in the, in the Havanas portfolio. Um, in the catalog, let's perform like, you know, so perfectly like a davidoff wood, do you know what I mean?

In terms of the like just impeccable, you know, Davidoff, you get that impeccable construction. Yeah. You know, it's just So

**Gizmo:** Petron and patron

**Poobah:** Petron too. Yeah. And Petron, you get that impeccable. So very few cigars in the catalog until you, some Cohibas, maybe Parus Sure. Some parus, you know. But again, it's touch and gut.

You know, it's a couple touch if I, I touch the cigar. Two times. Yeah. And it was just like, yeah, quick.

**Gizmo:** No big deal. But you

**Rooster:** know what the, the, the price that we pay for these Cuban cigars now, I mean, this is close to 35,

**Gizmo:** $40 a stick.

**Rooster:** The construction should be

**Gizmo:** impeccable. But I'll tell you, here's, here's what I want to say about this whole conversation.

**Poobah:** This is close.

**Rooster:** Yeah, no, I mean, I'm not saying like this particular cigar, but there's so [00:48:00] many times we lied a Cuban cigar and it's, it's the construction. There's issues.

**Poobah:** There are, but the Corona's claros I, I smoked before we came in here.

**Gizmo:** No, touchups. Let me, let me just say, I think that for when this cigar was, Rolled in 2011.

I think there's two factors to this. Number one, I think that there were a lot more quality issues across the entire ha Bonos catalog. Um, versus let's say, I don't know what the year on the CORs scleral you just mentioned, probably a 20 19, 18. I think that it's a significant difference in, in construction and rolling quality from 2011 to, to, to now, let's call it, right.

The other thing too is like the part of GU ahas we did, I would bet that because this was a special size made for the ahas line, that they probably only had one or two rollers that rolled every single one of these boxes, and they probably brought in some of the better folks to do it as opposed to with a D four, Amani [00:49:00] four, some of the other things, they spread it across.

How many factories, how many people, how many rollers, how, how many hands touch it versus these. , I would think that this is probably touched by some of their top people at the time, which is giving us the experience that

**Poobah:** we're used to like a little bit of vein in the wrapper, like here and there. Like they have a limited amount of raptors for these that match the flavor profile.

So I think just once in a while you may need to just touch it up a little bit. Like there maybe be just a little bit of this, a little bit of that. But the over, but, but on balance, it's a real performer.

**Gizmo:** Oh yeah. And I think too that I, I gotta think that maybe, let's say Grindr had a wrapper or something cuz we're seeing unique oil spots or unique oil.

um, markers on the wrapper in the burn. It's, it's an old cigar and he could have just one that has like an irregular type of oil. Like who knows what the, what the situation is. But I'm gonna blame the leaf. There's

**Poobah:** no tunneling. [00:50:00] There was no, no, no way. There was no fucked up stuff with the cigar at all.

Grinder, I'll finish your cigar please. A couple clicks of the lighter to me's. Not a

**Grinder:** dm. I asked him. This is not a merely asked one. Lemme just say, I near jokingly asked one question if anyone had troubles with their burn. I'm enjoying this tremendously profusely. Yeah. Uh,

**Senator:** so Im not complaining. I think we've gotten in a rabbit hole for some reason.

Grinder was not saying that this has caused a problem for, it was just commenting. Hang on, hang on. What I did wanna comment on was what Rooster said, which I think was a valid point, not about this stick Rooster's point was. that this now goes for 30, $40. That there are many sticks now in the Havanas catalog that go for a lot of money.

And so as they've increased the price, what's gonna have to go hand in hand with that is our expectation. Yeah. For quality of construction. Has increased, right? If we're gonna pay more, they're gonna charge more. They have to get better about [00:51:00] consistency, meaning, and I think in a lot of cases they have, I think we've been commenting how the recent years have fared better, especially than our experience in years past.

That's right. With

**Poobah:** the, like with the fund, how many fundies like kind don't maybe perform like they should for the price? No, it's true. So for the, you know, you get some that are too tight. We had that, that's,

**Gizmo:** I'm,

**Senator:** that's, and the reason I, I, I like rooster's point is because we're sitting here talking about should construction factor in, and I think especially when you consider the price point a certain cigars, it has to, but Right.

You, you want, you want and expect that to, to be deserving of that price.

**Bam Bam:** Those expectations are realistic, but it is cube after all. Really is. I

**Senator:** think they don't increase the prices if you can't maintain the quality. I agree. But this is, I agree.

**Grinder:** I think this goes back to a point we were discussing on a previous podcast, and it's about the elasticity of supply and demand in regards to these price increases.

There are, they're testing in the market in real time, what works and what doesn't. So they're trying to take [00:52:00] price right now with their consumers and say, okay, how much are you willing to pay? How about this? How about this? How about this? They're gonna hit a point where some consumers are gonna say, we're not gonna pay that kind of price.

It's already happening Grinder. I know, but that's what that, this is what we're living through it right now. Yeah. And this is, but this is what any rational actor's doing. They're looking at the what, what they can do. They're not as sophisticated as a lot of. . Right. So they're kind of blunt force object.

Just throwing it out there and seeing what people are gonna pay. But

**Senator:** this is the way it works. Yeah. And, and to Grindr's point on exactly that and, and we're saying that they're already, this is happening right now, right? Yeah. We're living through it. We're finally, people are saying the prices are starting to creep up so high on certain sticks that people are pausing and saying, I'm not sure that that's really worth that.

The problem is the only thing they can control for, right? These cigars, they're meant to maintain the same profile year after year after year. The only thing they can control for is the quality of the construction in that stick. That's the only thing that can be a variable, really a significant enough variable year, uh, year after year.

[00:53:00] And I say that because why does Avedo charger a avid off charge? A premium? A very aggressive premium sometimes for their cigars is because they would argue that the construction is flawless on every one of their sticks. And so, you know, when you go and buy a davit off, you may say, well, this is a little painful.

I can't believe I have to spend $30 on this stick. But you never doubt that the quality of the construction, that cigar is at all gonna be a problem. A hundred percent. Yeah. And I think that's where, I mean, Havanas has to, and I think they're realizing this because again, the quality I do think has improved.

It has, yeah. Right. It's far from. , but it's definitely better than where it used to be. Yeah. And that's the challenge for them, right? What would make the consumer that right now has pause about spending so much more on that stick. If they get to a place where they can guarantee that for some of these really premium sticks that everyone is gonna smoke wonderfully, you're gonna have buyers that are willing to spend more money, say, well, if that, if I know if I spend X amount of money, every one of these is gonna be good to go.

They, they wouldn't think twice about. That's true. I,

**Rooster:** I mean, right now in the Havana's

**Gizmo:** portfolio,

**Rooster:** [00:54:00] it's only the Cohiba brand. That smokes the construction-wise, it's

**Gizmo:** flawless. Agreed. You'll never

**Rooster:** get a bad cohiba, burn wise,

**Gizmo:** construction-wise.

**Rooster:** But you know, now, like a Siegal series, you go into the Sieg GLO four, Siegal five,

**Gizmo:** Sieg Glo six,

**Rooster:** they're upwards of $8,200 a stick

**Gizmo:** now.

Oof. It's crazy. It's insane. That's an expensive hour and a half. So that's what you have to

**Rooster:** pay to get a, you know, perfect construction on a, on a cigar from Havanas. I mean,

**Gizmo:** that's, it's crazy. It's not fair. It's not right. So when

**Bam Bam:** we were in Cuba, you'll, you'll know that most of the markers are made in multiple factories across the island.

There's no way they can have that level of quality control like they have at one. , the factory. Right. So when you go through the Cohiba factory, most, correct me if I'm wrong, most of the cohibas are made in one place in very small rolling rooms. Hmm. There are maybe eight rollers in a room, if I [00:55:00] remember

**Gizmo:** correctly.

Yeah. When I was there. Yeah. So Elto is going to, as of early 20, 23 now, let's say now. Mm-hmm. as of now, is gonna be the only factory that Cohiba comes out of. Okay. So, which has not been the case in, in, in years past. And, and you'll see when

**Bam Bam:** you go through that factory, there are, there are strict controls, there are two supervisors in every room, eight rollers per room, and it is really, really monitored.

I can get a D four in one box that could be made in three factories. How do you, how do you control that? Yeah,

**Rooster:** but my point is that as the cigar prices have gone up, Havanas has raised

**Gizmo:** their prices, it can change to be better.

**Bam Bam:** It can, how can it change when they have five factories rolling Parus They

**Gizmo:** needs

**Rooster:** there need to

**Gizmo:** train.

It's not their rollers better. It's true. It's tough. It's the, it's very tough. But I think that

**Senator:** overall baam, I'm sorry. The reason that, I'm sorry I side with Rooster here, it's not as tough as, as some are making it sound's, every job, every It's true. It's true. Every new world cigar company is able to do it.

Agree. Some new world cigar companies that are [00:56:00] smaller and with less resources than even Havanas has, are able to do it. So it is possible. I

**Grinder:** agree. I I, I'm

**Bam Bam:** not disagreeing with you, but I just think they have a system in place and they're all rolling certain violas for markers across multiple factories.

And then you walk into this palace called ido, where most of the cobras are. You can't compare.

**Gizmo:** Well, the problem is also,

**Rooster:** you know what? They get paid. Maybe they don't give a shit. You know? I mean, there needs to be better training and better understanding of what they're doing. How much totally stakes are.

You can't like charge. I agree. You know, 40 to $50 a stick while these rollers are making like 10 bucks a month. I agree. Yeah. You know, where's the equality in

**Gizmo:** that? The pro, the problem is, is that for the amount of money, the out amount of extra money that we are paying for cigars, it's not ending up No.

At the supply level or at the rolling level. It's not getting there. It's stopping at the distributor's. Stopping at the, at the, the head manufacturing. And it probably never will. It probably never will. [00:57:00] It's just the way that it's,

**Bam Bam:** that country operates. Exactly. It need, there needs to be a structural change and to do that, I mean, that's a big undertaking for, but

**Gizmo:** we smoked, we

**Rooster:** smoked a bunch of Len arrows.

Right. Lately. Especially lately. And those are one of the

**Gizmo:** hardest sticks to

**Bam Bam:** roll, but made in one spot though. By the, no,

**Gizmo:** I'm talking about, I'm talking

**Rooster:** about the new world six. Yeah. Yeah. Made in one factory. Exactly. But the amount of quality control that they have, you know, rolling these sticks and these are under like $10

**Gizmo:** a stick.

Wow. And they're flawless.

**Bam Bam:** It's the nature of the environment that they're

**Gizmo:** produced in. But they're also paying those people, well, they're, there is an element that, you know, ha Bono's Cuban cigars, they can do whatever they. in their mind, and they're still gonna sell every cigar that they manufacture. It's different when Well, until the consumer pushes back, it stops and shame.

**Senator:** And which is happening in ways. We've said it's happening right now. But, but this is the point. I think none of us is naive enough to think that this money's gonna trickle down to the roller of the worker. It should. We know that's not how Cuba operates, unfortunately. It's not going to. Yeah. But what could happen, and I think this is where I grew with Rooster, [00:58:00] um, you know, sadly, folks are willing to work for what is not a living wage rolling cigars in Cuba.

The reality is folks can havanas say, can invest more in training those rollers. , right? These are competitive jobs. As little as they pay people. It's a source of pride. People compete to be a cigar roller in a place like Cuba. They do. They do. And so the simple point is, if Havanas SA wasn't so focused on just pumping out as many cigars as quickly as possible and said, we need to make sure that the quality is maintained because mm-hmm.

we're charging more and making more money now than we did before, this could happen. So I'm not, I'm not saying like, I don't think that they have to even pay rollers more. They should. We know they won't. Yeah. Yeah. But they have to just invest more in training. Yeah. Such that the quality Well, well, I is commensurate

**Bam Bam:** with the price.

I'm not, I don't think it's just training. That's part of it. But I think you look, you're a brand strategist. Part of a brand strategy is in determining how things are made and where they're made and how often they're made by different. [00:59:00] You

**Senator:** that's totally different from Brad's machine. Well, whatever ,

**Grinder:** that's, that's supply chain

**Bam Bam:** strategy.

Ok. Well, look, this is all part of it, right? So if you've got all these factories, making all of these cigars for one markup, how do you, how do you control quality? I'm not arguing with you, I'm just getting a fact as to how it is now. Well,

**Gizmo:** here's what I'll say, bam comes down for trading. So bam. And I were fortunate to go to Laona and we've become very friendly.

With the head Tors Sudor at La Corona factory, LA Corona makes more cigars than any other factory in Cuba. I think they make eight or 9 million cigars a year. I don't know the exact number, but we became friendly with the head Tors Sudor there. And his role now is not only to roll the cigars that he's required to roll, but he's also training everyone there and he's responsible for the quality output.

So I do think that in the past few years, especially since Covid, there has been an increase in exactly what we're talking about, um, that's separate from the money piece. Mm-hmm. I do think that they've heard the complaints, [01:00:00] certainly from retailers and distributors, and I think that they've put quality people in place to start to train people to make better cigars.

**Poobah:** Yeah. Well, it's been a relatively decent run. It hasn't been, you know, call it twenty nineteen, twenty twenty. 21 now into 22, you know, through 22 has been, it's been pretty good. Um, there's been worse periods of time, certainly. So, but it's the availability in the capacity of the island. Um, there's a, they have a capacity and a production issue, um, which creates a shortness in the market.

So the market is relatively short on, at least that's what they say. Yeah. Um, I think

**Gizmo:** they're correcting it. It's just, it's a long correction period required to, you know. Yeah, but don't, don't

**Rooster:** increase your prices until that happens. [01:01:00] Yeah. Yeah. That would be nice. I mean, the prices, the price increase should be in conjunction with construction training, you know, the whole, the,

**Gizmo:** the whole man yards.

**Poobah:** Makes sense. But, but in the short market,

**Gizmo:** prices go up. , but we're talking as capitalist boys and we're talking about, we're talking about Cuba communist operation that hop, uh, uh, that I'm saying. I'm

**Rooster:** just saying sometimes that's more value in some of the new world sticks.

**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's what, that's where the conversation started.

It was kind of like, well, you know, what do you do in a situation where you, you know, a box that was $450? Double two, three years ago. Uh, and, and now it, it's six, eight months ago it was 750, and now we're like, oh, it's a $900 box. Well, what do you do?

**Rooster:** Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we haven't been, I mean, well, some of us have been smoking, you know, Cuban cigars for a while.

You have, but a lot of us have collected cigars like in the last three to five years, and those prices have doubled. So [01:02:00] basically our entire inventory that we've

**Gizmo:** smoking double in value. It's paid, it's paid for. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. We're very, it's already paid

**Rooster:** for. But a new smoker who's gonna start now collecting cigars, you know, the amount of money that he's gonna pay and, and some of the boxes is not gonna smoke.

Well, there's gonna be construction issues. Yeah. Yeah. It's, that's,

**Gizmo:** I mean, it's not right. It's not right. It's troubling. Definitely not. Right. It's true. All right, boys, we're coming to the end of the huppman ados before we do the formal liquor rating. How are you guys feeling on the cigar? Uh, tremendous

**Bam Bam:** cigar.

Yeah. Great. So

**Gizmo:** very good. Tremendous cigar. Yeah. And I think the pairing was perfect. Yeah. I really think that, no doubt the BNY 14 performed excellently. Is that a word? Yeah, sure. Is excellently a word? ? We'll take it. .

**Pagoda:** It could have been ropo

**Bam Bam:** too. Probably not, but probably not. I like how, uh, maybe

**Poobah:** if you were using in the context of your excellence

**Bam Bam:** confirming with the academics in a room your

**Gizmo:** excellently.

Excellent, Lee. Excellent.

**Poobah:** Lee, you're excellent. C you're

**Gizmo:** excellency. We'll Google it. Are you guys [01:03:00] ready to do the uh, chat? G p t it? Yeah. . . Are you guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on the BNY 14 Caribbean cask? Yeah. All right. Bam. Bam, you're up. So,

**Bam Bam:** my first glass, I had some ice in. It was great, and then I had it with Neat without any ice.

For me, that's always a pure indicator. It's delicious. I give it. Nine. Fantastic.

**Grinder:** Grindr. I give it a nine. It's, it's definitely something that I, it's, it's a staple that I always can trust on and, um, I just have so much, you know, joy enjoying it. Um, and it, it's so versatile. Like you can, you can get the sweetness out of it to pair with sweetness and still has got that kind of space side, you know, you know, uh, NY character, uh, it's so versatile and I love it.

It's a

**Gizmo:** nine. Yeah. All right. Pagoda? Uh, for me

**Pagoda:** it's a 10. Um, I typically would rate it below the [01:04:00] 12. Uh, it would be a nine for me on my general experiences, but today I just, I think I've just been really enjoying it more than ever. And, uh, maybe it's a combination. Maybe it's, uh, what I'm experiencing between the cigar and this.

It's a perfect combination. Uh, it's a 10 for me. Hmm.

**Gizmo:** Senator? ,

**Senator:** I'm at a nine, um, firmly a nine. I think it's an outstanding spirit. I, I've never had a bad experience with the Caribbean cask. Um, I think Gizmo said it well earlier in that, um, they didn't just put this in a finish it in a Caribbean cast for the sake of it.

There's no marketing gimmick here. It works extraordinarily well. And I also like what Grindr said in mentioning how versatile it is. This is a scotch that I reach for equally in the winter as much as I do in the summer. I think in the summer, the little sweetness from the rum cast works really well. I think in the winter it's got enough body and it's full flavored enough as a single malt that it's just as [01:05:00] enjoyable.

So, um, there's never a bad time, I think, to reach for this. Uh, it's a nine for me.

**Poobah:** Yeah, I agree. There's, there's never a bad time to reach for it. It always satisfies, it's very consistent, uh, which is encouraging. And I. I love it. I mean, I'm between a nine and a 10. Um, I'll give it a nine. Uh, it's great. It's really, it, it, it, it, it, it, you know, it, it checks every box for me.

**Gizmo:** I'm also at a nine for sure. Um, I, I, I was between a nine and a 10, but if I were to be a decimal, it'd be like a 92, 9 0.2. Like I'm kind of right there. But it's definitely a nine for me. Uh, I think that the most cases, the, the 12 edges it a little bit for me. But tonight it was excellent. It really paired wonderfully with this.

Um, so it's definitely a nine. All right, boys. So for the BNY [01:06:00] 14 year Caribbean, It's a 9.2. Yeah, excellent. Score, score nine. That's a perfect score. Which as I just said, that's where I would've rated it, but yeah. Yeah. 9.2 is perfect. That is a perfect score for this. Awesome. What's, what's,

**Grinder:** let's take a look at the previous scores if you have 'em.

**Poobah:** By, by I do. I mean, I think the double wood write given nine two, I mean it's,

**Gizmo:** oh yeah. So actually the double wood. The double wood we did on, uh, episode 17 with the Pedron 1964 torpedo in natural. Oh, that rated is also a 9.2. Look at that. Perfect. On par. Look at that. Um, and that, I think, is it for, uh, b on the podcast?

We, we never rated the correct. Me and cat. No, we didn't rate it the first time. Oh, I think we know what we're doing. Yeah. 9.2 boys. So BNY is very, very strong as a brand on this podcast. I mean, we've done some ob, we've done a few macallans, I think. Um, what's the highest rated scotch? The highest rated Scotch?

That's a great [01:07:00] question. Let me look here for you. Haki.

**Bam Bam:** No, that's a

**Poobah:** whiskey. The Haki, well, that's gotta be Mac 12. It's not, that's not the highest rated.

**Gizmo:** Oh, we gave that a like score. We didn't rate Mac 12 yet, by the way. No, we didn't. No. I think this is the highest rated, so glad tied with, uh, BNY 12 Double wood.

This is the highest rated scotch we've done so far. Wow. Now we have not rated, we have not rated, uh, Macallan 12. How's that possible? Um, and well, we did it, but we didn't It. And we also didn't rate the Kirkland Boys. Yeah, . That was back

**Bam Bam:** in the day. So Reprise, it's coming back. We gotta have that again. We're gotta do

**Grinder:** like T Swift and Rerecord all our previous episodes.

I, I'd love to know what Giza

**Gizmo:** scores are. It's an 11. It's an 11.

**Poobah:** Committed at 8.6,

**Senator:** 8.4. I'm almost glad we didn't do it then because GIZ used to drink so much of a 10 that he would've given so much, but then he would've given it 11. No doubt. Now I rarely see it with Kirkland, so I'm

**Gizmo:** actually curious. Yeah, I haven't, I haven't had it too much.

He's elevated himself. Moved. Yeah, his, his

**Bam Bam:** palate has, I [01:08:00] think Gizmo has become an elitist in

**Senator:** many ways. I just love the irony. I agree with that. All the best. The irony all he would spend all this money on Scotch. Guys, why would you spend

**Gizmo:** all this on Macallan? You can have a Kirkland bottle for, I think the Satello changed him.

**Poobah:** Senator. And the chocolate. And the chocolate.

**Bam Bam:** One other thing. No more. I haven't seen a hoodie on the man. Oh, you're right.

**Senator:** Everything you've ever criticized us for, you've become one of us. I

**Gizmo:** lawyer. All right. Lemme just say for the listener, it's not been criticism, it's been in defense. No, it's, it's on, he's tried to survive.

It's . He's tried to survive. It's a survival technique. Are you guys ready to do the formal lizard rating on the H upk on ados Robo? All right, let's do it. Rooster, you're up.

**Rooster:** So I'm, I'm gonna give it a nine. I can't give it a 10 because 10 is like, you know, I mean, it's rare. Like there's very few stakes that were gonna give us, [01:09:00] you know, complete 10.

But this cigar is phenomenal. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Great flavor from beginning to end. Great construction. I had no, uh, no issues. Uh, so it's a form nine for me. Pba.

**Poobah:** I'm gonna give it a 10 because I think as an up in rub, busto, it stands out. It's, it's a, it's a standout cigar. Um, there's nothing really like it.

Um, it's unique. Um, it's distinctive and it's special. And, uh, I think it represents the atman DNA in a very, very unique way. Um, So I'm gonna give it for, for, for what it stands for. Uh, this is a very, very good cigar and I think you'd be very, very hard to find something that performs and tastes this well out in the world right now that's gonna [01:10:00] smo a robo that's gonna smoke like this.

So for me, it's a 10.

**Gizmo:** So for me, I, I've been between a nine and a 10, um, the entire time. For, to your point, for Rob Robusto, I do think that this is exactly, this is the best that a Cuban robo has to offer. Now, that's not a knock on a D four or a RAs or any of the other great Cuban ribos, but this is really at the, the very tip top of aged Cuban ribos that you can find.

So I'm also at a 10 for sure. Um, I just think it's an excellent cigar. It's an excellent experience and I'm gonna be reaching into my box a lot more than I've been because I've just been too conservative with it. Senator,

**Senator:** this is also tough for me cause I'm in the exact same boat. I, I just keep going back and forth.

Nine or a 10. Yeah. Which makes clear this is an outstanding cigar. [01:11:00] I think where I've come down is I'm gonna have to give this a nine, and I say that not because I'm left with any ounce of disappointment from this cigar. The reason I, I can't give it a 10 for whatever reason and I've had a hard time trying to figure out how to articulate this as much as I love this cigar.

I think I very much agree when Puba said there's nothing like it could not agree more. There's not a single other Cuban cigar would compare this to at all. Very unique, wonderful smoking experience. The only thing I have a hard time with is after. , you know, after certain days when you really, when you seek a celebratory stick in some way, you wanna light something just really spectacular for some reason, and I can't quite place it, this doesn't usually crack that list for me in the way that, you know, a Vegas Vena Classicos or a Pedro ath or some of these cigars that we've almost all given tens.

Um, [01:12:00] and I think it. If there were one slight complaint, maybe it's just slightly not complex enough to warrant that top score for me. Interesting. And I

**Gizmo:** say I'm, I'm not to hear you say it's complex enough, honestly. Yeah. Sorry to interrupt, but, uh, no, you know, yeah. That, that is shocking to me.

**Senator:** The thing is, as I say this, there's no one here that lights this up as like when they're gonna have like a celebratory stick.

Like, I mean I see, you know, we all send photos of the stuff we smoke, like, cuz you don't pull this out when you're like, I really need one of my best books. You know why?

**Gizmo:** Because I only have

**Bam Bam:** Me Too and one box. Yeah. Honestly, it's, I have scar scarcity

**Gizmo:** of it that makes more classicos than I do this. Yeah.

There's the scarcity of it. I have more Vegas robi classicos than I do. . That's fair.

**Senator:** Either way, I, I wouldn't give this the same score as the classic goes. Okay. Think that there's something that to cut above with that cigar in the same way as some of those others not taking anything away from this cigar.

Nine is an outstanding rating. [01:13:00] I love this cigar enough that I've bought multiple boxes of it, but it just for some reason doesn't crack the, like, top, top, top cigars I've ever had. Yeah. So, so we

**Gizmo:** are

**Rooster:** rating as a cigar, right? Not as a Rob

**Gizmo:** Robusto per se, right? In this room right now, now in this room right now as we're experiencing

**Rooster:** it.

So to me there's a lot of other like cigars that I would rate a 10. I mean, this doesn't fit that. That, that, you know, that rating like, you know, 2011 robusto that you

**Gizmo:** have. I I don't have a 2011 or like, well, like a nicely

**Rooster:** aged robos. I mean that might be a 10.

**Gizmo:** Yeah. Very well made. And it doesn't have to, but

**Senator:** I'll say this, even if I'm, if I'm embracing the other side, that, that does want rate this based on it being Rob Robusto, which I don't have an issue with per se.

The thing is of re robusto even, I've had an oh five . That I would rate a 10. It was absolutely flawless. It would be a little higher than this cigar. Interesting. There are even age parus D four s I've had that I would put a cut above this cigar. Wow. That's not [01:14:00] taking anything away from this,

**Gizmo:** but No, but for my palate though, I, I'm not saying that I gave this a 10 because it's one of the best or the best co uh, Cuban robusto I've had, I'm giving this a 10 because this specific cigar out of this specific box smoked perfectly for me.

It gave me every single thing I wanted. That's why it's a 10. So there very well may be a Cohiba Robusto or ano a D four that's aged. That also gives me that experience tonight with this, with this specific cigar that I had, it was every single thing I could want out of a, a Cuban cigar. It's a 10. It's a 10.

So it it, I, I just want to tell you, rooster, it's, I didn't give it a 10 because it's, Robusto and I don't rate robos that high. It, this specific cigar was excellent, but

**Poobah:** they're, it's very unique. I mean, I, I, I think that you look, people in this room have different palettes. You, you, you love Greg Gloria [01:15:00] Cabana and those floral notes and those, those, some of those, and, and Cohiba has some of those notes for me.

You know, the, I'm a big Huppman fan. It's gonna rank higher for me based on that dna. N a cuz that I like that a lot. I so, so, so, I mean, you're splitting hairs. Here's the DNA analysis. Here's the thing. I don't think, I think between a nine and a 10 No, there's,

**Senator:** there's no big deal. But here's the thing is I'm just, again, trying to piece together why this doesn't crack a 10.

Cuz I, I mean, when I say I've really been going back and forth on them, I think the other thing for me, I guess for my palette, what I pursue a bit more of in a cigar that's gonna get a 10, I wish, like I described this single malt, that this cigar were a bit creamier. And I say that because that up men that love 14 Upmanu that Puba gave, that we reviewed.

Yeah. That I gave a 10. That was one of the best cigars they've ever had. Yeah. And that cigar with all the flavor notes in that was just brought together so beautifully [01:16:00] with a creaminess that I think just made it so elegant all the way through. And I think with this, I don't get as much of that as I personally would want or pursue.

Okay. And so I think that that may also be what just. It falls slightly short of being one of the best cigars they've ever had. Nonetheless, it's among obviously the top cigars I've ever reviewed. Yeah,

**Gizmo:** right. Grinder. I feel I

**Poobah:** feel like everyone's been deposed already. like, it's like, this is like your job.

The OJ Simpson trial for Christ sake. .

**Bam Bam:** Uh, I'm a

**Grinder:** nine judge. You don't for the cigar, because I've had, um, I was been, I've been fortunate enough to been gifted these cigars many times in, in a couple of very important times in my life, especially, uh, after having a baby. Uh, I was gifted at this cigar by both Puba and Senator.

um, and, uh, because they know I loved it and we had a great experience smoking it various places. And, and, uh, every time I've had it, [01:17:00] I've been so impressed by the flavor. Um, and this one was, you know, the same story. And I've never had a bad experience. Like I've never had have bad experience smoking the cigar, and I love it.

So I, but again, uh, whether you're a nine or a 10, you know, it's up to you for me. Uh, a 10 is really, really special. A 10 is something that, you know, I, it's hard to find. I find this a lot every time I smoke it. Uh, and as a result, I'm giving this a

**Senator:** nine.

**Gizmo:** Pagoda.

**Pagoda:** Uh, for me it's a 10. It's a 10. It's a 10. I think it started off as a 10.

Uh, it's, uh, reminded me of, uh, you know, like I mentioned earlier, um, in the podcast about the cookies, you know, the Indian biscuits. It gave me, uh, it reminded me of my, uh, childhood. I, I think I, I just really enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, I think when it comes to rating, for me it's about the experience at that point in time for that particular cigar.

Uh, this [01:18:00] one's burnt really well for me. The ash was really long. You know, the finish has been long. The smoke output has been fantastic. You know, those are things I really seek in a cigar. Um, and, uh, to be very honest, um, I think I really buy into pub as, uh, h Chapman. , uh, love because I've realized that I really have started really enjoying the H Chapman, whether it's Hot Coronas, whether it's, uh, H Chapman two.

Yeah, yeah. Um, and um, for me it's a revelation. Uh, I really enjoyed it Today. For me, it's a 10 and there's no question about it.

**Gizmo:** Bam,

**Bam Bam:** bam. Yeah. I don't see how the cigar cannot be a 10. Mm-hmm. , honestly, you know, you're, you're giving, you're gifting this cigar for a reason. It's, it's an unusual heart to get cigar.

I mean, I smoked it down to a 3 8, 7 inch. You know, you don't do that very often with this type of a cigar and the flavor. It just kept building and building. It was delicious all the way through. No edges at all. It, it's, it's gotta be a 10, [01:19:00] you

**Poobah:** know? And I think that this is a nice conversation to have because th this is not about like, like, like splitting hairs between this, forget it.

**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Between a nine and the ten's

**Poobah:** very elite. Right? This is about, but this is, but this is about like what, like you gravitate towards, uh, it's very personal. This is not, you know, it's a very personal thing. Like, for me, I really like H Chapman. Everybody knows I really like H Chapman and I like that flavor profile.

I really love Parus. But I may like love h Chapman a little bit more than Senator loves Huppman. He like may love parus a little bit more. Right, right. I speak for me. Its RGUs one. He may love RGUs like little bit more. So for, for, so for me, I

**Gizmo:** love he's presenting this as a hypothetical argument next to him.

A fact.

**Poobah:** But I mean, half my humidor is parus, you know? But I mean, but do I like have a little bit of a love affair with h Chapman? Let me have it. But the argument, in other words, that's me though. [01:20:00] But that's me. So, but the marker, like, like, like there're people, it's me. But, but that's my point. Like the

**Bam Bam:** drama.

We're not, we're not reading, we're not reading a marker. You know what I'm saying? Hold on, hold on. We're not reading a marker. We're reading a cigar tonight. H Chapman or not? That's a 10 cigar. That's, I don't care who the fuck made it. That's a great cigar. It is incredible. From

**Poobah:** No, but people gravitate towards certain things, my

**Bam Bam:** friend.

This is true. That's true. Let's say, let's say, look, I agree. If I have an incredible event in my life and I want to have only the most incredible cigars, and I can choose two or three, the Vegas Ravina Classico and this guy. I'd have those in a sitting. I'd be extremely happy.

**Poobah:** Senator B. Senator Malls. He can mall.

Uh, Pedro 80 gets back to back . I don't do that. That's not my scene. Four in a row, by the way. Like, like, right. Like, like I don't do that. So like, so my, what I like is like a little bit different. What's the big deal?

**Gizmo:** Guilty is charged. Am I? Am I, am

**Poobah:** I am I am I crazy? You're not

**Grinder:** Senator

**Gizmo:** One's saying you're [01:21:00] crazy.

Senator, please don't. Please don't forget to validate pubis parking. That's

**Senator:** right. Your parking's validated and I will validate that. Yes. I put Parkass just slightly ahead of him. .

**Gizmo:** All right. So of course he does. Let's, uh, let's just run through the eight jumpman ratings we've done on the pod. By the way, the formal lizard rating on this cigar tonight.

Is a 9.6. That's high. Wows very high. I think it's actually

**Poobah:** like,

**Gizmo:** should be.

**Grinder:** You think that's too high? That's I think that, well, it's from our ratings.

**Senator:** Yeah, that's a very high, I think that's fair. If I could give this decimals, I would've given it a nine. I'm not saying it's

**Grinder:** fair. Fair. It's very fair. That's not my property.

I agree with Senator. That's a great score. This is not a

**Poobah:** polarizing cigar.

**Gizmo:** What the fuck? No one's polarized. So. All right, so let, let's, let's run through the huppman that we've done on the podcast. The Magnum 46 got an 8.1. Yeah. You're not happy about that. The Magnum number 50 got a 7.6. The Huppman number two, lub 14 got a 9.8 I think tonight.

I waited at nine, and [01:22:00] tonight the. Antos Rao got a 9.6 boys.

**Grinder:** Wow. So, you know, it's perfect. Very, yeah. It's, it's not the highest, it's not even the highest Suman,

**Gizmo:** right? No, no, it's not the high, the Lu 14 up two is the highest I think, Senator. Which,

**Senator:** which is why the rating is perfect again. If I could have given it a decimals, I would've given it a nine five.

Who cares what I alone would've rated it. Yeah. I think there's not one lizard in here that's gonna disagree that when I brought up that love 14, that that cigar is a bit better than this stick. And so I think a nine, eight and a nine sticks ends up being very fair.

**Poobah:** And by the way, if I could do decimals, I'd give it a 9.5.

Yeah, it's pretty. I just rounded up cuz I love this. I have a personal thing, guys.

**Bam Bam:** One thing. One,

**Gizmo:** he's not the payroll's. Interesting.

**Poobah:** He definitely, no, I'm being serious. Like I would give it, I would like if I had a choice guys. That's

**Grinder:** why we do, yeah. A composite rating. Okay. But what's what's interesting though?

Like why are we debating this? Think

**Gizmo:** about it though, because this is why, hold on. Happens when we smoke great cigars, we get giddy.

**Bam Bam:** Four. Four or three or four of you guys we're debating between a nine, nine and a [01:23:00] 10. That nine six, like Senator said, it's truly a perfect score from all the comments that have been given.

Yeah. Regarding where their rating would be. Yep. It's

**Gizmo:** perfect. All right boys, another excellent night with an excellent cigar and a phenomenal scotch. We ended up at a 9.2 for the BNY 14 Caribbean cask and a 9.6 for this excellent h upk Ribo ados. Look at us. Hey, look, ,

**Senator:** look at you. Look, look at you.

**Gizmo:** You've transformed.

Gibel, . No sweatshirt tonight. All right, boys. Great night. Great cigar, great Scotts great conversation and we'll see you all next week. Keep smoking. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website. Lounge Lizards pod.com.

That's Lounge lizards, p o d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, [01:24:00] questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizard's Pot.

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