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The lizards pair the Cuban Juan López Selección No. 1 with 15 year aged Dalwhinnie scotch. Poobah discusses the history of Juan López and the guys discuss various types of cigar storage.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda, Grindr, and bam bam, a full house of lizards.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 15th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cuban cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
Puba will share the story of Juan Lopez, and we'll chat about the benefits of different types of cigar storage, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair the Juan Lopez selection. Number one with 15 year aged DA scotch.
A Cuban Corona [00:01:00] Gorda tonight from Juan Lopez. The Juan Lopez, number one a, uh, cigar. I have actually have not had, I've had a, uh, Juan Lopez too. I know that Rooster loves these cigars, right? Rooster? Yes, sir. And, uh, Puba very kind to provide these to us tonight. Um, let's cut this thing and see what we're getting on the, uh, the cold draw and the, and the
**Poobah:** wrapper.
It's a 20 December, 2019 cigar.
**Gizmo:** Nice. It's a little over two years old. The wrapper
**Bam Bam:** smells very nice.
**Gizmo:** It does.
**Poobah:** Mm-hmm. . Oh, it's three
**Gizmo:** years old. December, 2019 is two years in a month. Two
**Poobah:** years in a month. Oh, two years in a month.
**Gizmo:** Lizard math. It's the content we're becoming known for.
All right.
**Bam Bam:** Getting a typical cedar note on the
**Gizmo:** cold draw. Yeah. Really nice raisin, maybe. Little raisin. Mm-hmm. Wow. [00:02:00] The wrapper is a very toothy, um, reminiscent of a RAs. Yeah. Yeah. It's got a sort of rustic. Very
**Senator:** fragile too. Got a
**Grinder:** rustic construction. Lot of spice on the cold
**Poobah:** jaw for me. Just tastes like a, tastes like a humidor a little bit.
Kind of just
**Gizmo:** cedar. Cedar. Yeah. All right. Let's light this thing.
**Bam Bam:** It's a 46 by 5.6 inch. Yeah. Stick
**Gizmo:** selection, number one. Mm-hmm. . Let's try this thing. The Corona
**Bam Bam:** Gorda you mentioned.
**Gizmo:** Yep.
**Poobah:** That's a good, nice, creamy smoke, right? Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** I love the, i, I love the selection. Number two, two ton of
**Poobah:** smoke output. Yeah. Number one, good smoke output number. Number number one's
**Gizmo:** better. Good to know. Oh, that's nice. A lot of
**Senator:** flavor. Right on the first straw. Well, a lot of flavor. A
**Gizmo:** ton of flavor. Ton of,
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
Hun. A hundred percent. Agreed.
**Gizmo:** Wow.
**Senator:** I like it already. I can see why Rooster [00:03:00] likes these.
**Rooster:** So it's got some spice, right? Little bit of spice. Lot of
**Gizmo:** cedar. I'm getting creaminess here. And creamy.
**Senator:** Yeah. Grindr, you had a surprise. Look on the first puff,
**Grinder:** I'm getting like, cardin, like, like a different, well, maybe not Cardin, like a different spice.
I don't know. Yeah, this is really nice. Very, very, very
**Rooster:** unique. Nutmeg. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Perhaps nutmeg. Yeah. Baking spices. They, they're nice. They're in a really nice change of pace. Um, they have around, honestly,
**Bam Bam:** it's a flavor bomb for me right now.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's the light. It's not light. It's like a good, very supply medium smoke.
Oh
**Rooster:** yeah. It's not, you know, it's not a light smoke. I'm surprised
**Grinder:** it's a lot
**Senator:** of smoke out there. Just the shape in my hand reminds me of like a Magnum 46. Exactly, yes. But the flavor on, the light on this is more robust on the light to me than the Magnum 46. I'm surprised and I'm enjoying already what I'm, what I'm
**Gizmo:** getting out of this.
It's a, it's
**Poobah:** a good, um, they come in, uh, sliding lit boxes of [00:04:00] 25
**Grinder:** flavor forward. I would say
**Bam Bam:** I've had the number two. Not as flavorful as this guy.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, definitely. I'm, I'm with you on that bit. One one's
**Poobah:** better. Yeah. You've said that to me many times. Yeah. And it, that's kind of, I wouldn't say universally because that would be too broad of a statement, but it's, it's popular.
Uh, the one is a popular Yeah. Size, but they're people who love, they're people who really love the two as well. How much for this, um, they're not particularly expensive. I can't really remember how much I paid for them, but it wasn't more than 300 bucks. , maybe two. I will pursue these. Something, they're like
**Rooster:** 11, $12
**Gizmo:** stick
**Bam Bam:** definitely worth having.
A few boxes
**Gizmo:** I'm seeing on, I'm seeing on terminal, they're outta stock, but they're, it's 300 for the, uh, are they hard to get? Caba
**Poobah:** 25. There you get 'em. So, so you can get 'em. But they're not, they're not. It's a, so a little bit about Juan Lopez. They're, it's like a boutique brand or what, like some would call a portfolio brand within [00:05:00] the Havanas, a catalog.
It's, it's like an El Delmondo, oror Cubana. Not in the class of aor cabana, but, but it's, it's one of these boutiquey brands within the catalog. So, you know, they're, they're output in terms of volume isn't, you know, isn't like what a global brand would be. Like a Cohiba or Monte Cristo or
**Bam Bam:** I read earlier, they only have 10 violas.
Is that true? Less than, no, it's less than that. Less than 10?
**Poobah:** Yeah, it's less than that. Wow. So they, they've got a number one, which is a Corona Gorda. They have the number two, which is a rib robusto. They have a Corona, which is a 42 by 1, 42, a Panatella, uh, and a petite Corona. And then they do a bunch of regionals, um, on an annual basis.
You
**Rooster:** don't see a lot of regionals come up though. Mm. I mean, it's just like this, number one and number two are like the most popular
**Poobah:** sizes. Yeah. They're out there. [00:06:00] They're out there.
**Grinder:** Do we have context on the, on the band and the name and
**Poobah:** a little bit? So the, the, it's not, um, it's a little bit obscure. Um, there's, there's no big wow in the brand history, like, Like the storied history of Boulevard or RGUs or anything like that.
But, um, the company was founded or the in in 8 18 76 by Juan Lopez Senna. Uh, he created the brand and then in 19 0 80 passed it to his heirs. Um, then he sold it to a group, uh, socio sme PE in 1918, and then they held onto it until the revolution. Um, and then at various points in history, it was also known pre-revolution as, uh, for, for Dewan Lopez.
Um, then of course the factory [00:07:00] was seized, you know, post-revolution during the revolution was seized and, uh, taken over. And, uh, they're just known to be one of, actually the better, uh, a little bit harder to find brands, uh, outside of Cuba until recently. So this was something that was really more of a, like a portfolio brand that was a little bit harder to find up until the last, you know, 10 or 15 years.
So, um, now they're more, a little bit more readily available, um, than they once were off the island. And that's about it. You throw
**Grinder:** this background. I like this a lot.
**Bam Bam:** I love this fucking cigar. I don't know what else to say. . Yeah, it's really, it's
**Gizmo:** really good. It's so good. How do you really feel?
**Senator:** Bam. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** I mean, I'm getting an enormous amount of, uh, floral and little graham cracker, but it's hitting me like a truck.
It's wonderful.
**Poobah:** They're good cigars.
**Rooster:** It's got a lot of cedar spice.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I'm getting a little bit of [00:08:00] sweetness and I'm
**Grinder:** getting the hard, the harder flavors personally like this. More spicy. There's definitely the cedar. You. Woodsy.
**Senator:** Yeah. Petrick,
**Grinder:** Petco,
**Bam Bam:** gizmo. Senator, what are you guys getting on it?
**Senator:** I, I think it's really well balanced because I'm getting the spice that Grindr's talking about, but I'm also getting some creaminess and the little sweetness.
It, it's, it's complex. It's robust. It's very, very tasty on the light.
**Gizmo:** I'm, I'm with him. I mean it, to me, I think the, the word complex is the best word that I've said so far, or where I've heard so far. It's like it has a little bit of everything. It's refined. Um, it's really, really smooth and I'm, I'm really enjoying it so far.
A half an inch in, has anyone
**Bam Bam:** had a young one? Lopez number
**Poobah:** one. Yeah. They're relatively young. And these are
**Gizmo:** fairly enough.
**Rooster:** Three years, two years. This is 2019. I have a 2020 box and a 2011. And 2011 is like off the charts. It's like this, but just completely balanced, very [00:09:00] complex. Wow. All the flavors like kind of really blend together, very smooth, you know, so, uh, One thing I wanna say, like, you know, we used to smoke a lot of Hondu and Nicaragua cigars, like, I'm going back like, you know, like the last three, four or five years.
So compared to like a Nicaragua cigar, which is, they tend to be heavy, they tend to be full bodied, lot of nicotine, these cigars. When you go to like cigar, like Juan Lopez or, uh, you
**Gizmo:** know, the, uh,
**Rooster:** like the Parus D four s, you get such creamy flavors, a lot of floral notes and, uh, fruity notes that you don't get with that Nicaragua tobacco.
So these are like super complex, very balanced, but the notes that you get from this, you just don't get them from any other, any other tobacco out there, any other cigar out there. So
**Senator:** I have to say very tasty. I don't, I, I have limited to no experience with [00:10:00] Juan Lopez as a brand. And I think the only one I ever had, rooster, if you remember, you had given me once.
It was a, it was very young, but I, I have to assume it was the number two of this. I don't remember it being this shape and I didn't love it. It, it probably just needed some, you know, some time to, to age and, and fully develop in, in terms of its flavor profile. But from that experience, I, I wasn't that impressed.
And, and from the brand, it, it's not as known. It doesn't have the, that a parus or an Ahman or some of these, a Montes, some of these brands have. And so I've always been very hesitant to buy a box of Juan Lopez and really give it a fair shot. And I'm very glad we're reviewing this because I'm just immediately sitting here saying to myself, I've missed out because already I want Yeah.
This in
**Rooster:** my humidor. Yeah, I mean, I started out with the number two is to smoke them and then once in a while, number ones. But the number one has so much more flavor, I think, than the number two does. And the cigar that you had, the number two, that was actually from 2012. Wow. Oh, [00:11:00] wow. And the, and the LOP number one is from 2011.
So, interesting.
**Senator:** Very different. Uh, your point then about the flavor is spot on because I, I found that cigar to just lack enough flavor to be interesting to my palate and what I normally go for, but this stick Wow.
**Bam Bam:** It's like night and day wanted a two.
**Poobah:** It really is. I agree. People, people love the two. I mean, people do really love it.
Mm-hmm. They're people like, they're people like within our group, um, in our world that actually really hold that cigar high in high regard. Um, and that's, that's a robusto, right? The two, yeah. Okay. So, you know, it's just one of those things, it's like personal preference, but this delivers it kind of, I think it, it kind of tastes like, like a little bit like part it, it, it's got a little bit of that fullness.
It's got a little pepper through the nose, but just not a ton, but just enough. And then it tastes just very like seay and [00:12:00] woody and, and good. It's, it's complex.
**Gizmo:** I think it has the right amount of everything. Yeah. Yeah. It really kind of does. It's very pepper balance. Get that the retro
**Poobah:** health mm-hmm. ,
**Bam Bam:** you guys have
**Poobah:** used the term.
Uh, but not a ton. Yeah, a little bit. Not a lot. It's a little bit, not a lot. Yeah. Yeah. You guys have used
**Bam Bam:** the term Cuban twang. Is that, are you getting that in this and what is that? What does that mean?
**Poobah:** It's not as salty as what a part to me is like what a RGUs would be. I agree. I see. It's minerally.
**Rooster:** It doesn't have that, it doesn't have that Cuban
**Bam Bam:** twang.
That is it. So it's the minerally salty quality is what the twang is
**Gizmo:** gives to me. To me, I get that on the, the tip of my tongue or like the, the front of my tongue when I, when I tap the, the head of the cigar, that to me, I like on a D four, I get that every single time, and then when you smoke it, you're getting the min minerally saltiness of it.
That's how I generally kind of feel the twang like myself, but, . This doesn't have it as much as some of those others, but it's the
**Grinder:** Caribbean soil.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's, it's exactly, it. It gives us a special cigar, man. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know, call me [00:13:00] crazy. I could do two of these back to back. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** Because of the flavor.
It's so delicious. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Because it's, you know, it's bold flavors, but the strength isn't there. Yeah.
**Senator:** That's the thing that's perfectly set. I mean, honestly, I just keep sitting here. I, I'm, I'm still like, the level of regret I have right now is just so off the charts that I haven't sourced these myself, and I've been skeptical for some reason of this brand, but I just keep holding this in my hand and all I'm envisioning is a Magnum 46 that I, I is part of my rotation.
I really like that cigar a lot. . But I, I gotta say, so far, this smokes better to me than a Magnum 46. And I would slot in already ahead of a Magnum 46 in that slot within my rotation.
**Rooster:** You gotta come over my place more often, Senator .
**Senator:** I will gladly i'll some special sticks. I'll be there tomorrow morning. So
**Grinder:** we know,
**Bam Bam:** we know senator's gonna out him.
Come on. You
**Poobah:** better share when you do that, . Yeah, I mean, I've had this box in my humidor for like a year. Um, and uh, you know, I just, I would [00:14:00] go in it every now and then and just grab one, not something they're, they are not exactly like, they're not that easy to really, you know, you can source 'em, but they're not ubiquitous.
It's, so I try not to just, you know, I try and get like right now, perfect time. Everybody's enjoying the cigar now. They're available. We can, I can share them, you know, kind of. Like enjoying something like this is more enjoyable in a group. You're like, oh my God. Well I'm, I'm first time I'm smoking this cigar.
So for me, I get a lot more ROI on just being like, let's all have it, smoke it, talk about it. So I'm glad I didn't just smoke 'em in my truck or , , you know what I mean? How did these
**Gizmo:** smoke, like if you said you've had 'em for a year, year and a half, how did they smoke then versus now? And I know we're under a microscope now and we're really analyzing it, but better?
It's getting better. Oh yeah. Like dramatically better. A little bit mark
**Poobah:** markedly better. Okay. Sure. Did you guys
**Rooster:** guys notice the cap on this? It's a triple cap. You [00:15:00] cut it. It's a triple cap. Well,
**Poobah:** the most Cubans are triples. Yeah. Um, yeah. But it's, it's, it's rolled. Nice. Um,
**Gizmo:** it's gotta, I don't know. There's a thing about it.
Like I maybe what you were saying, Senator, like it has that part, his thing, A touch of upk, a little bit of that cohiba e thing. Like it has a little bit of. , all of the different kind of Cuban markers. I think I, I, I think it's really a, a nice, it's toasty
**Poobah:** touch of everything. Is it toasty? That's toasty.
That's a good descriptor. Yeah. Is it taste toasty? Does it taste camp fiery, toasty? Kind of, well, earthy ish
**Gizmo:** maybe.
**Grinder:** I don't get, I mean, I, I get, I don't get smoke. I
**Senator:** get toast, but definitely don't smoke toasty. I get the earthiness and a little toasty, almost bready quality about it. But I definitely not campfire.
I wouldn't go that far.
**Grinder:** I
**Bam Bam:** put a, I just put a mandate out to my newly acquired, uh, suppliers.[00:16:00]
**Rooster:** sourcing as we speak, king bam
**Gizmo:** fetch me my, my minions. My minions ,
**Poobah:** anytime any, like, I just askeded it any, and it's got that, it's got that little nipple on it that says good, you know,
**Senator:** how's everyone's burn? I mean, for, for me it's uh, burn a pretty razor sharp burn. Yeah. Nice looking ash.
**Gizmo:** My draw is very nice.
Just a little bit of resistance. Very nice.
**Senator:** Yeah. And, and you, you mentioned the draw, and obviously I, you know, again, I like, I really like the Mag 46. I know you're, but I, I always criticize the draw because it has a little resistance, but I think just a little too much. And this started with a little resistance, which is why in every way, this keeps reminding me of the Mag 46, but it's opened perfectly, perfectly.
This is what I wish Combustion's really nice
**Poobah:** too. Right? Exactly.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think you get a
**Rooster:** little more spice with the 46. I agree. Yeah. This, this has like a good balance of cedar, little sweetness and pepper on, on the retro hill, but not a lot, you [00:17:00] know, this little bit
**Senator:** of pepper. Yeah. It's a different type of spice.
It's a spicier spice. Right. Where this, you know, Grindr mentioned cardamom or, I, I feel like it's hard to place exactly what it's baking, making baking spices, baking spice. It's a sweeter spice.
**Grinder:** I, I think, I mean, I don't, we're not here to compare, but I, I would, I would. For my palate. I like the Mag 46 Spice B bouquet better than this bouquet.
Um, if you want to call it a bouquet, I don't know. Um, it's, it's a little harsher for me. This is, than, than I, than I would normally go for. And my then maybe that's just my
**Senator:** interesting, yeah, I feel the exact
**Grinder:** opposite.
**Bam Bam:** Me too. I do too, but halfway through I'm getting more pepper. But I love that and I still get that really beautiful floral note, a little bit of pepper.
I'm
**Gizmo:** getting, I feel like where I slot in a mag 46 is generally where I'm little, I'm looking for a little bit more of a kick than I would where I would put this. [00:18:00] Um, yeah, I, I think this, this, this is a little bit lighter for me than the, the Mag 46 is, especially in the spice area. But I could put this in anywhere in the day.
I think.
**Poobah:** Yeah, you can. You, you, you, you, you could, I wouldn't smoke it first thing, but Rooster would like some of the seam. Rooster Rooster gave you. I've
**Senator:** had this in the morning. Yeah. I, I'm sorry. I think I'm with Rooster on this one.
**Rooster:** Coffee and a jail one baby. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Maybe I could, I mean, I'm not saying, it may not be my first choice, followed by,
**Grinder:** it's the Coffee Rooster has the coffee test.
It's the
**Poobah:** Rooster test. Rooster test, but the seams on it. Like I got seam, I got a seam. Like, you know, some of the, this is where, like some of these, it just, it's the luck of the draw a little bit. Yeah. There's a little crack by seam here. It's like coming, but you know, it tastes really good. It's like a Ramona Monet's type construction problem where you get a little bit of
**Senator:** that.
And that's the thing, you know, whether you're talking about a Ramon iis, [00:19:00] this cigar, some of the others that we've described as more rustic, you know, going in, you look at that cigar and you say, it's not the prettiest cigar, but the flavor that it delivers. It, it just doesn't matter. Also, the wrapper
**Rooster:** is really fragile.
Fragile, very
**Poobah:** fragile. Yeah.
**Rooster:** You know, so if you, you know, God forbid if you get, uh, if the draw's a little tight, be very careful if you're gonna go in with the perfect draw, super careful because that, that wrapper is gonna crack.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I, I don't know if there's any circumstance in which, under which I would smoke this outside unless it was absolutely perfect.
No wind. I think that this is something that you, any sort of wind is really gonna, I agree. It's gonna smoke this whole cigar for you. Yep. I agreed. It's
**Grinder:** not a golf, it's
**Pagoda:** not a golf course. Are you liking it? Yeah, I, you know, I think for my, uh, flavor profile, I think I find it a little on the milder side.
While I'm experiencing a little bit of the woodiness, uh, I have experienced a little bit of the preparation fact. I did, I kind of agree with Grindr on the thing. I'm feeling a [00:20:00] little bit of harshness in the back of my throat. Um, but overall, you know, just a milder, uh, Profile. Yeah. Meaning complex from the perspective of, uh, different flavors.
Um, pretty consistent. Good combustion, um, yeah, enjoying it. But, uh, I tend to prefer, you know, uh, cigars which are a little bit more stronger and bolder and, you know, a little flavorful. So,
**Senator:** I mean, to Bogota's point about it being a, a milder smoke, I, I don't disagree in the sense that for me, this is incredibly versatile in that I actually would easily, on a Saturday morning, have a cup of coffee like rooster said, and light one of these up or with lunch, have one of these where I think the Magnum 46, and I, again, I, I'm sorry.
I know I keep bringing it back to that, but I just, they feel so similar and they actually, there's a lot of similarities between them. Where Mag 46, to me delivers more spice that would be better served late afternoon, evening, um, and can even hold up [00:21:00] better with a meal than this cigar. But this thing, I mean, the, this J one, anytime any place.
It would slide
**Grinder:** in the, the retro hair for me right now is like, I'm, it's like horse radi, to be honest with you. Like I'm struggling not to sneeze. I have
**Bam Bam:** the, I have the opposite on my retro, retro hair. Exact opposite. I'm still getting a lot of sweetness for me. Um, a lot of floral notes. I'm still getting here.
**Grinder:** Puba,
**Senator:** do you want to provide any Afrin?
**Poobah:** Yes, I have af . I always, maybe grindr's nose is, well, I feel very judged right now. I'm not, I am not addicted to Afrin. , just fyi. That's questionable. , what
**Rooster:** do you think about the cigar paired with champagne and caviar?
**Gizmo:** I
**Senator:** think it would work. I think with champagne this would be outstanding.
And I say that because the spices are sweeter spices, they're not spicy, and there's a creaminess about this cigar that would go so well with champagne. So I think [00:22:00] actually it would be an excellent pairing. I'm glad you said it.
**Gizmo:** Speaking of pairings, let's talk about our. Scotch pairing tonight. What do we
**Grinder:** have tonight?
We have, uh, Del Winnie 15 Del Winnie is a, uh, Highland Scotch Bayside Bay. Um, it is, this is Scotch to me is like, it's, it's a very good, like core scotch, but if you have like a collection of scotch, some of us do. This is like a core for me. It's like a very core scotch. It's light, it's got honey. The thing that's unique about the Dwin for my, for what I like to typically drink is that it has really no smoke to it.
I, we can taste it, you know, it's very, very sweet on the nose, very sweet on the palate. You don't get any spice until the end. Probably just on, just a touch on the finish. But it's like got a very sweet, smooth, you don't get any smoke. Um, [00:23:00] I think it kind of. is a good ying to the yang of the, of the cigar we're smoking right now.
**Gizmo:** I think it's working very well. It's, it's almost like neither are trying to fight for first place. Like they're, they're both okay staying in their
**Grinder:** lane. Yeah. This is a very, this is a very drinkable scotch actually.
**Poobah:** Yeah. The 12 is like really light. Yeah. The Darwin E 12. Have you? I didn't even know that.
Do they? They sure. Interesting. I didn't know. I've never seen, I think they do have a 12. They used to have a 12. I mean, I
**Grinder:** can, I maybe, I'm pretty sure they have a 12. But this is,
**Poobah:** let me see. I just remember it always being light. I don't rem well maybe it, maybe it was, maybe I'm wrong. It's not a sco I drink often.
**Grinder:** Delwin 12 is, is not, is not something that I'm finding .
**Poobah:** Okay, so maybe I'm
**Grinder:** wrong. Um, this is one of the, this is something I learned today. I actually didn't know this. This is one of the. So it's diagio, like so much, so much of the world. Um, they have [00:24:00] this, this like classic malt selection of like core for their portfolio, core SCOs that are very prototypical but get a balance of like all the different regions.
They're in an island, or sorry, Scotland. The six are the Glen Kinsey tenure, which is a lowland scotch. The Dwin 15, which is a Highland, the Craigmore, which is is Bayside oban 14, which is we all like Oban. It's kind of, it's more, yeah, we did that one. Smokey. Yeah, I would say that's West Highland, Tallis or 10, which, um, um, pagoda brought, we'll review it some potentially.
Yeah, we're gonna do that in the future episode. Sure. Future episode. Taser 10. A big fan of taser 10. And then the Lavo in 16. I didn't know this. They're, they have this, it's a marketing scheme I'm sure, um, of like, they called them a classic malts, but. . Um, yeah, I mean I, other than that, I don't know much more aside about do Dwin the [00:25:00] distillery, aside from the fact that it's, you know, it's a very drinkable, very approachable scotch.
It's sweeter, there's not much smoke on it, which I, you know, typically don't enjoy, not, you know, typically don't go for this. And then I think the Glen Moreng 10 are like the two lighter scotch is the ones that I, that I really like to take a Wera of every so often for a nice balance.
**Poobah:** It's a nice, you guys think, a nice change of pace.
I like it. Um, and I'm not a huge PD scotch guy, but I'm becoming one. Um, so this is more like in my wheelhouse in terms of, cuz it's not a PD
**Grinder:** scotch, it's just so sweet to me. It tastes like honey to me.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'll, I'll say this, so I, I'm honestly not a fan of Dawin. Um, I, I appreciate this pairing.
and I'm glad we're doing this with this cigar because this cigar, how we're describing it, right? It's, it's not a really aggressive [00:26:00] smoke. It's, it's mild, medium, has a creaminess about it that I think pairs well with a light scotch like this. I think to Grindr's point, I mean Darwin 15 for me was an introduction to scotch.
It's one of the first scotch, first single malts that I had because it's very light honey. Sweet. Not a whole lot else. And so it, it was very useful to get into scotch. I feel like most people, if you, someone were to say to you, Hey, I wanna start drinking scotch, but you know, I'm a little bit intimidated, you would start them with something like this or a Glen Ramey 10, like you, like Reiner mentioned.
Uh, but for where my palate is now, the only time I would probably pick this, is if for some reason I woke up in the morning and felt like I needed a scotch, which is not very often or
**Gizmo:** it's just some mornings, only once or twice a week,
**Senator:** or I, it was just extremely hot outside and I just [00:27:00] want something light and sweet, but I'm still craving scotch.
This would slot in there on the boat, but o on pub's boat that we're, we're waiting on .
**Gizmo:** Did you get, did you pick up the boat yet? Of course,
**Senator:** but outside of that, for me, I just, I, I look for a bit more flavor in scotch, so I, I don't normally pick this up, to be honest. Yeah, it's li
**Grinder:** you know, it's light and color.
You can see it's, it's on the letter side. It's a very, I think you're right. I think it's a good introductory scotch. Um, and like, you know, it's very approachable. For me, when you smell it on the nose, you get, you get that multi Scotland malt flavor. I, I hate to say like, oh, this, this cigar smells like tobacco, but similar to this.
Like, it smells, it smells multi, but the taste is just, for me, it's so sweet and so, so crisp on the finish.
**Gizmo:** I like it. I think it's working really well with the cigar. When you take a, a sip of the, uh, scotch and then you do a draw on the cigar, it kind of opens up in the back of your back of your [00:28:00] mouth. You guys should try that.
See what I'm saying? Yeah, it's very nice. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's very cool.
**Pagoda:** I'm actually pleasantly surprised. Fantastic. Like, I didn't realize that I'd enjoy this march, but I think this would be, you know, once again, uh, agree with, uh, Senator and Grande in terms of, you know, I think I'm gonna have one at home now for a lot of people who come over and want to try a scotch or, you know, want to at least, uh, join in on the scotch because typically, uh, we tend to have, uh, more flavorful and uh, Um, I guess, uh, ranges of scorches and, um, but um, I was just thinking about this, I said on a nice summer day on the deck.
I don't mind, you know, having a scotch like this, um, you know, something light. Um, I think it's flavorful. Very sweet. Um, I'm enjoying
**Senator:** it. I'm curious, pagoda, I feel like you've tried some of the Japanese SCOs. I is hibiki the lighter one? [00:29:00] Yeah, that's, how would you compare that to this? Is it as light in flavor profile?
Is it a little more flavor?
**Pagoda:** So, uh, hi, like hibiki is, um, um, the, typically the lighter, uh, whiskeys. Uh, what I find is that this is much sweeter though the less sweet. Um, but. . Yeah. Meaning I, I always consider them, you know, a lighter profile whiskey and I tend to typically have it in the summer, but I've had it, uh, actually I remember going to Montreal and I went to, uh, one of those Casa de Havanas and um, when I was having an, um, so I ended up buying an E two bar, E two, and they offered, uh, Hibiki as a pairing, which I kind of enjoyed.
So, um, you know, when you think about on, on the ptn where, you know, we'll go to the La Golin 16, I think, you know, or even how we [00:30:00] like the Macallan twelves and you know, the sherry tasting sweetness, that's sweetness is very different. I think this seems to me more like a very floral, fruity sweetness. It's a different type of sweetness or the honey I think kind of adds to it.
**Senator:** No, that's helpful. So not, not as sweet as this, but as light as this
**Pagoda:** light, it feels much lighter comparatively. I, uh, I haven't had the, like this is one of the first time I'm having this and I haven't had, uh, Hibiki
**Grinder:** for a while. No, I mean, I, I love, I really like Kiki yet I would, if I were to kind of cross compare this to the Japanese sco, you know, scotch whiskeys, Hibiki would be the one for sure.
Cuz it's light, it's balanced. Hibiki to me is more citrusy than, than Honey. Sweet. What I'm getting with this. Definitely more citrusy. Is
**Gizmo:** it
**Rooster:** Dal that you guys had? It was the cigar
**Gizmo:** cigar mall. That was dalmore. A doomo Delmore.
**Senator:** Yeah. Much fuller flavor. Dalmore,
**Gizmo:** lot of sherry. I, I gotta say, so I, uh, I just poured a little bit more for, uh, Puba and I, [00:31:00] and I had an ice cube in it originally and I just poured it now without an ice cube.
Doesn't need it. It doesn't need the ice cube. No, I think the ice cube actually opened it up too much.
**Poobah:** Too much,
**Gizmo:** yeah. , you know, and I thought
**Poobah:** does, does not need ice at all. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I
**Grinder:** agree. This is, this would go, honestly, this would, this is, this would be a good scotch to, well, like all SCOs, but this would be a good scotch to put in a Glen carn glass.
Neat. And just really like, get your fucking nose in it. . Yeah. And like, just, you know, take in all the,
**Gizmo:** what is that? What kind of glass is that?
**Grinder:** A Glen Karen Glass is a, it's like a, it's like a little pear shaped glass. It's kind of like a sniffer. Um, but it's, it's round at the bottom, kind of like the pot, and then it op it, it narrows and then flares
**Gizmo:** at the end.
Do you
**Rooster:** pour like certain whiskeys in that or, uh,
**Grinder:** no, I don't think so. Um, you know, it's just really, it's a really nice way to isolate this, the aroma, um, of the scotch in the glen carrying [00:32:00] glass. Drink it, eat, isolate, get, you know, really be able to swirl it around and open it up and get your, get your, get your nose in there and, and taste it that way.
**Poobah:** So I have another
**Rooster:** question. Yeah. , when you guys do these, uh, tastings, I'm usually not a part of this, uh, drinking my Pellegrino, but does the glass matter? I mean, you guys drink out of a plastic cup, is it, does it matter to you guys? Like, if I drink beer, even if it's not an alcoholic, I prefer to do it in a proper glass.
So does STEM stemware come into play? And if it does, you know, I mean, to me, I mean, I mean, I would want it in a
**Poobah:** glass. Yeah,
**Grinder:** I, I think that's a great point. I mean, I, I'll be honest, I very, very, very, very rarely ever use a blank carrying glass. I'm always using a Tumblr, and to me it doesn't matter. ,
**Senator:** which is basically what we're drinking out of now, I mean, that's a tum.
I think that the point is you want something that is wide enough that it's gonna allow any to breathe and to [00:33:00] breathe any tendons to sort of evaporate and for you to be able to, in, in the most sensory of ways, get. The nose as you're, you know, about to sip the scotch and, and, and the full flavor of it.
And so I'm with Grindr. I mean, I have a few of those glasses you were talking about and I really rarely use them. I feel like to this point, a any Tumblr really gets the job done. Esthetics,
**Grinder:** I guess it's something, you know, it's something you pull out for
**Senator:** like special
**Grinder:** occasion. Special occasion. You know, I'm never gonna put what I, the, the normal rotation of scotch in a Glen Carn glass.
Just because why? You know what? It's, then I have to go grab it from the special cabinet and, you know, do something nice with
**Gizmo:** it and well, is Glen
**Rooster:** Carn the name of the person or,
**Grinder:** I think it's just the name. It's just the name of the glass. It's like a, it's not like a brand. Okay. Is it Glen? It is Glen Karen, right?
Honestly, I'm not sure. Am I, am I crazy now? I need to look this up.
**Senator:** I also, the, the reason I don't use them that often either, there are a lot of SCOs I like with a [00:34:00] cube of ice. It's not really conducive to that. So,
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Glen. Glen,
**Grinder:** Karen. And it's, uh, it looks like this. Hold on. Come on. Amazon.
**Poobah:** It's like fat at the
**Gizmo:** bottom and then, yeah.
Oh, okay. I got it now.
**Senator:** Very nice. And, and especially because I, I think a number of us, like just a little ice with our scotch. You know, sometimes when you have that big Tumblr glass, we like those big giant squared cubes that melt a lot slower so that it doesn't just water down the scotch too quickly. And you could obviously never fit that in a glen car glass or
**Grinder:** any, it's a faux pot to put any ice in those fucking things.
That's true. You don't,
**Rooster:** you don't do that. What cubes that don't melt? Like, they're like metallic cubes.
**Gizmo:** I don't like those things. Um,
**Grinder:** I don't like 'em either.
**Gizmo:** Unless you want a little bit of a, you want a
**Rooster:** little bit of, little bit of water Yeah. To kind of melt and open up.
**Gizmo:** I love the, I I have, I got these glass tumblers on Amazon.
I don't know how I found 'em, but they're so great cuz they're so heavy. . I don't know why I like a [00:35:00] heavy Tumblr. When I have a scotch. I don't like the square ones. I like a because you're fancy bottom. You're fancy. I, they were cheap, man. But I, I, I just feel so, uh, bougie when I drink that You are
**Bam Bam:** bougie while
**Gizmo:** you're getting there.
I'm wearing a hoodie. Is that a problem? You don't. Is that a problem for the
**Bam Bam:** group?
**Grinder:** It's like
**Poobah:** a hoodie with a, you know, you don't want to get Senator goin on on glassware. He, yeah. He could do a whole podcast on this is very
**Gizmo:** with stemware,
**Senator:** you know, with wine. Stemware
**Gizmo:** matters. I like plastic, uh, stemless glasses for my wine first.
I think
**Rooster:** stemware matters.
**Senator:** Oh, wait, no. So again, I think with whiskey, I'm not as convinced that it, it, it makes any dramatic difference. But with wine it is very important. Period. You should not be drinking your red wine and white wine outta the same glasses. That's all I'm
**Grinder:** gonna say for beer. Oh, a hundred percent.
That's correct. For beer, I always, I I will always put beer in a glass with me too. With a, with ample amount of head.
**Senator:** and just the same [00:36:00] way. So just, I mean, rooster mentioned champagne before, and I think every listener at this point knows how much I love champagne after I savored on our New Year's episode.
Champagne is another example where, you know, a typical champagne flute is that very narrow glass, right? That's very long and, you know, champagne for, for whatever reason. Uh, you know, in, in, I feel like years past, certainly not that much, not nearly as much recently was served in coop glasses that are wide open and I have completely adopted, I'm on the coop train.
I have coop glasses that I'll serve, cocktails that I'll make out of, and that I love to serve champagne out of. And I feel like you just get a much more sensory, full experience when you're really tasting a champagne out of that coop glass where you're, you're the, the, the, the nose that you can get on that champagne is so restricted.
by a champagne flute that's very narrow and elongated. So [00:37:00] I, I stemware, I rooster, I think makes, brings up a very important point.
**Rooster:** So the, is the reason why it's a flute because, so, so it doesn't lose the effervescence that quick. Is that part of the reason
**Senator:** why it's not shape? I thinks absolutely part of the reason, and I think, you know, why I, I am not sold on that being a necessity is the reality is, and I I'm gonna sound like a snob for saying this, but you know, good champagne, you don't have to worry about that.
You know, that's really a concern with really, really budget champagne where you pour that, I shouldn't, it's not even champagne, uh, budget sparkling wine where you pour that and all of a sudden you're looking 60 seconds later and there are no more bubbles, , that's flowering moving in that glass. It's, it's just flattening out right away.
So with really good champagne, you're, you really don't have to be concerned about that. And that's why in a coop glass, it's not gonna lose that effervescence. And for me it's a more sensory experience. when you're, uh, tasting and appreciating a, a champagne or
**Grinder:** something. I learned something. Yeah.
**Rooster:** This, this, I guess, uh, no [00:38:00] for you right?
**Senator:** Absolutely not.
**Grinder:** The second this, I'm, I'm, I guess you call this the second half or the second. Third, or, it's delicious. It's getting better for me. I agree. It's not as harsh. I it's still not something I
**Gizmo:** gonna, it keeps, yeah, it keeps improving for, it keeps
**Grinder:** going. It does. It's, it's lightening.
**Gizmo:** I feel like though it's rounding out i'll, I I, I do feel like this is smoking faster than I expected it to.
Well, the draw is so open. It is. And I feel like I'm moving faster through this than certainly I would through a Mag 46 or another. Uh, a corona of that size. You're at bam speed tonight. Yeah, I am. And I'm not
**Senator:** smoking fast. Well, it's very strange because I, I am a fast smoker. I'm not as fast as bam, but I'm a fast smoker and I feel like I'm not as far along as a number of you guys, and I'm not sure why that is.
Yeah. I don't know. Maybe my draw is just a little bit snugger that I'm not. going through this as quickly, but, but I'm, I'm still enjoying every, it's
**Rooster:** a single time. It's fantastic. Cigar. Thank
**Gizmo:** you Puba, for bringing this Absolutely. Great cigar. It's a great cigar. And again, for my favorites for the price. I mean, you can't, [00:39:00] you can't find, yeah.
What, what are these a stick? Uh, they're, they're, you get 300 bucks for, for 25 of them. So little over, you know, 10, 12 bucks a
**Poobah:** stick. I guess. They're nice. It's, for me, it's, it's, the reason why I have these in my humidor is because it's, it's a nice change up. It's a nice change of pace from, I think someone mentioned it on the last pod.
Uh, maybe it was you, uh, giz like I get into my routine. I get into my, and, and it's easy to, you know, I, sometimes I look up my humidor and, um, And I, and all I see is RGUs and upend and, and Patron and you know, uh, and, and I'm, and I'm in some David offs and I'm, and I'm kind of, kind of sometimes go, well, I, I, I'd like something just different than that.
So I think having these, um, around and then if you want to buy more, you know, buy more. But I think, you [00:40:00] know, buying a box of these and having 'em, they're good. They set up to, to Rooster's point, they set up really good for aging. Um, cuz it, it's not, yes, it's medium, but uh, in strength, but it does deliver kind of a full flavor experience.
So I think that they, I think that they'd age pretty well. Um, over time. Um, I haven't had an aged Juan, a really, uh, a really old, uh, uh, Juan Lopez, but, um, I would imagine they'd age pretty nice. Um, So I, I, you know, for me, I think that they're really great to have around and, and I'm just looking around the room.
I mean, I, I touched it up once or twice or something, just a little, but it's a pretty razor sharp burn on mine. It's holding its ash. It's pretty good
**Senator:** stacked up. Nice. I mean, to your point, amazingly, I haven't touched this up a single time, so neither have I, I'm really
**Gizmo:** surprised. I, I've touched mine once or
**Poobah:** twice.
I'm a little bit of a fiddler though. I touch mine every night. . You like to fiddle around? Well, yeah. You know, I like to can edit. No , [00:41:00] you know. Uh, but you know, they're good to have. It's a good, you know,
**Gizmo:** it's funny you said that PBA because a couple times this weekend I was, uh, and I was thinking about that because I've, you know, I've bought so much stuff recently.
I know we all have that. I'm kind of going back into the Tupperware, you know, to, to do some long st long term aging and some storing of some, of some, uh, new world sticks. But, uh, I, I really find that to be a benefit of having that tower where you can stand in front of it and kind of examine what you have and what you want to smoke and.
You know, last night I pulled out a Parus Maduro three, which I hadn't smoked one of those ever. I just have fi uh, I just got a fiver from somebody. But, um, you know, in the Tupperware it's kinda like you're grabbing what's on top unless you're literally gonna pull everything out. So the, the, the, the six foot tower has been such an improvement for, for, for my collection and, and my smoking habits.
I mean, like you said, I, I get into my routine. I smoke the same thing all the time, but that tower certainly changed that, and obviously the
**Rooster:** pod too. But you know what, [00:42:00] every, every single one of us in this room right now has a tower. One of us is getting a tower very soon. The issue with, after getting a tower is sometimes you spend like 20 minutes staring the tower.
I did that yesterday. You trying to decide what you're gonna smoke, and I've literally pulled out like five sticks outta the tower. Then I bring it upstairs and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna choose one out of these five. . I mean, it's a decision. It's kind of like going to a diner, ,
**Gizmo:** the menu's too big and a five
**Rooster:** page menu.
The menu's too big. Deciding what you're gonna pick.
**Poobah:** Well, that's why I was thinking so many options sometimes. Yeah. That's why I was thinking about, which may sound like lunacy to some, but like, uh, rooster, you have a Daniel Marshall, uh, uh, desktop and like, there's merit to, I mean, when you're buying a lot of boxes, having a desktop humidor that's just convenient to just like open up and kind of go into and have a variety of stuff stacked in there.
It's so practical. It's kind of a, it's not, yeah. I [00:43:00] mean, I don't know how It's convenient. Okay. It's convenient. There's a con, there's a convenience level in my mind to it where it would help me because I have a lot of different things in the tower that maybe I'm, I'm aging or that I'm not touching for a while and I'm fiddling around and I'm, I'm pulling out drawers where you could stage stuff.
That you'd want to sm in my mind, I'm just something I was thinking about, you know, you staged some stuff in a nice desktop and then you can just go in there and
**Gizmo:** real quick, there's another, there's another benefit to that though too, and that is stepping down the humidity as you're preparing to smoke.
So let's say you're storing something at a higher humidity. You, you're keeping it for a while. You, you not to dry box it per se, where you, you really try to dry it for a day or whatever before you smoke, but putting in a desktop humid or pulling it closer to that lower humidity so it smokes even better.
I mean, that's another benefit of what you're saying too, is you know, it, uh, you, you can start to step it down a little easier without having to step down an entire [00:44:00] box or
**Poobah:** a Yeah, like instead of doing like a, what I would call a load out. Yeah. Like I'm gonna do a load out for the night. You know, you have a desktop where you, you're kind of.
Say, okay, I'm gonna load out some stuff and then have like a, you know, instead of digging through to the back of my humidor to get to the cab little cabinet of Wong Lopez , because that's where it kind of lives. Cuz I'm not digging in there. It's, you know, you have two, you put two in the desktop and, and, and you know, it's just something, another thing that just spend money
**Gizmo:** on.
And it's good too for your tower. It's good too for your tower to be opening it less, you know. But what
**Rooster:** do you, what do you feel about, like, if you have a desktop humidor and you put like multiple or different sticks? I mean, do the flavors kind of, unless they're, they're marry, I mean, uh, you're putting
**Gizmo:** punch un unless they're infused, I don't think you
**Senator:** Yeah, I don't problem.
I don't think so. The only thing, I mean, you know, I think what works out nice in, in those circumstances is cigars that are a bit rough around the edges and really need [00:45:00] time. I actually feel like benefit when they're in close proximity to other cigars and can really marinate. I just say that because, you know, before having a tower when I had a, was just using desktop humidor cigars that I was not crazy about and I knew just really needed to rest for a while and I would just leave them in there with other cigars that was pulling out and smoking left and right.
And I'd go back in there in six months and I would just light one just to see if it had gotten better. And the, the change, it just, it felt dramatic. It really did Cigars that I wanted no part of for a long time. And just six months and especially 12 months later, just marrying with those other cigars, I, I'm sitting there saying to myself, wow, this is like a whole different
**Poobah:** cigar.
Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because we've talked about Monty Twos before and like the troubles that can come, the inconsistent or what, you know, the things. So I had a bunch of Monty twos, a bunch of bunch, so I took, I just [00:46:00] said forget it. I took the boxes and I tossed the boxes and I just, I took some ribbons, I had from cabinet boxes and I just made 25 count bundles and I just tied them up and put 'em like in the top rack in the back of the tower and just bundled them and just let 'em sit and bundled them.
And I had, and I don't smoke Monty two s that much anymore, but I went in and I pulled one from the middle of the bundle and I hadn't smoked one in like a year. And I pulled one out of the middle of the bundle the other day. I think I, on the text, I sent it out like I had a Monty two. It was great cuz I pulled it from the middle of that.
Uh, now I'm not saying empirically that that was the reason, but maybe they just, they're sitting and they're kind of like, I made my own little bundle with a ribbon and I tied 'em up in a little bundle. To your point, I
**Senator:** just did the exact same thing with Romeo and Julietta Churchills where we've talked about this and at some point maybe we'll review this cuz this is, Probably the most frustrating [00:47:00] cigar for me, I think is throw him in the lake.
Yeah. Gi, gi gi is already shaking his head where So frustrating. I've had some Romeo and Julietta Churchills that have been really, really tasty. And I've had other ones where the draw has been a nightmare. I've gotten like a blast of tar out of this cigar. I mean, crazy, wild stuff has happened and I got so frustrated.
Now, mind you, you know, I've gone on my crusade about how I hate dress boxes. They come in a dress box. I took them all, all the rest of the box. This was a u e b box, a good box code. It's, uh, a 2019 box. It's got some age. Very good. I have the same box. Yeah, we got the same one. Yeah. And, and it's like, it's a, it's by every measure should be an outstanding box of cigars.
And I finally just took them out of that dress box. I threw the thing. . I put them exactly like Puba said at the top of my humidor, let them marinate with other loose Cubans I had up there and I lit one up the other day. I sent you guys a photo and I know GIZ immediately. How's it smoking? First question.
First question. You know, expecting it to be terrible and I, I actually enjoyed it. It was [00:48:00] finally like a Romeo Churchill that I knew. So again, maybe needs air, needed air or it just, something happens when cigars are able to age either in a cedar cabinet as I think they ideally should be, or just with other cigars in a nice cedar, you know, cabinet humidor.
I think I
**Grinder:** have two things that I would, you know, insight, not insights, but comments about the, there's a, there's an a nice, something nice to have about a nice desktop humidor. It just adds an element of class to your, to your living room, you know, to your co put it on the coffee table if you have a nice one.
It makes it a lot more pleasant. For the wife to be like, oh, that's a nice little piece of furniture just hanging out, you know, for guests to see or whatever. Right. And also there's the utility of it, of having the cigars that you would, you know, either smoke often just right there, or ones that maybe you want to age a little bit or, or whatever, right.
To have it available even if you wanna showcase it to guests when they come. The other, the other thing that I would say is that if you [00:49:00] have a good desktop, it's in a lot closer proximity to some of the good Spanish cedar. It really does. Uh, to your point about Marin, someone used the word term marinating it, mar it, it it does, it does round off some of the sharper edges for some of the harsher cigars because it's so close to that Spanish cedar and because it's a lot easier to control, you know, it's easier to control the temperature, it's easier to control the humidity.
It's not as much space. And I think if you want to fast track any kind of aging process, get it out of the larger container and put it in the smaller container that's, you know, I think there's, there's something to be said about that.
**Rooster:** So going back to the, uh, we were talking about the number two Ma Krista, have you guys tried the petite version of that?
No, I want to, the petite two. Number two is fantastic. Really I want to, and same thing with the Ed Munos. The petite Ed Munos are unbelievable. Petite Ed Muno is better than the, to me, I mean, regular
**Senator:** can, can we say we're gonna review that at some point? We have should because I, I really want to try that.
I've [00:50:00] never had one. Yeah. I have
**Gizmo:** box
**Rooster:** of the petite Ed Munos as a really, we
**Gizmo:** have to review. I just, I just got a box of 10 there for
**Poobah:** Fantastic. Yeah. But the petite number two that he's talking about though is like a little bit of a hidden secret. Um, and, and, and some, and like people in the know they're that you can grab those and, and, and, and find those, uh, maybe even with a little bit of age.
And that's, that's, and, and, and, and, uh, that's a little secret. And I think that the, maybe not a secret, but. And people love the petite window. And Senator, I know that, uh, you've had, you've had those and you're not a huge fan, not too bullish on 'em. Um, but uh, but people like them. I mean, people do really, people do like them.
And I, and I've bought multiple, um, I've never bought a full box, but I've bought multiple, like five packs and I've had really, I've had a number of aged ones. Um, and they're, they put off like a lot of smoke, a [00:51:00] lot of combustion. They give you that kind of classic Monte Krista blast, um, chocolate and, uh, they're fun
**Gizmo:** to me.
I mean, you know, we talk about disappointing sticks. I mean, Monte Cristo, number two, I know we talk about that a lot up and down those Romeos, we, the Churchills that that senator mentioned too from Romeo. I mean, that's gotta be the number one most disappointing stick experience I've ever had. In my history of buying and smoking cigars, which is not terribly long, but just consistently frustrating.
And I, I'm with you. You know, it's Cuba being Cuba, I guess. So I'm curious what the listener thinks. I mean, if, if you have any opinions on cigars that have disappointed you for one reason or another, I'd love for, uh, send us an email. And it is definitely time. I think it is definitely time for the formal lizard rating.
Are you guys ready? I can't wait to rate the flr. The ffl r We are, we are, we are here now. My fingers are starting to burn. I've definitely smoked [00:52:00] through this faster
**Grinder:** than I expected. I mean, I'm down at the nub as well.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, same here. Yeah. All right, rooster, you're up. Okay.
**Rooster:** So I think the cigar is fantastic.
A lot of flavor, a lot of flavors that I like a lot of fruity floral notes. I think the construction could be better, a little better. I think the, uh, the wrapper is a bit fragile. So I'm gonna give it a solid eight Puba.
**Poobah:** This is a tough one for me. I, um, I'm gonna give it, I'm gonna give it a seven. Seven.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Okay. Wow. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna give it a seven. We'll talk about that in a second. I want, I want to get into that. I, to me, I'm gonna put this very close to the Mag 46. I can see this slotting in right next to it. For me it's an eight.
**Senator:** So I'm in a tough position because this is very close. Again, as I've said to a Magnum 46, and I know I gave the Magnum [00:53:00] 46 and eight, and if there were decimals, I would give this slightly higher.
I'm gonna have to give this an eight cuz I have to round down. But if I have to compare the two, this would be slightly above. So I want to talk about why we all rated it. I agree what we did, but man, this is, this is very good
**Pagoda:** Pagoda A seven for me. Um, once again, Kind of a very nice cigar, but it's, is it something that I'm gonna go ahead and, uh, buy a box today?
Uh, probably not. Um, a seven for me.
**Grinder:** Seven
**Gizmo:** for me.
**Poobah:** Bam. Bam. Bams
**Gizmo:** a 10. I'm
**Bam Bam:** at a nine all the way with the cigar. Wow. And if we get a chance to talk about it, I want to get into it.
**Gizmo:** I, well, we're, we're about to start arguing and debating because I think you're all nuts. The, uh, that's, uh, the composite score, the only reason only 7.7 on the cigar.
7.7. Ugh. So the reason
**Rooster:** why I gave it an eight is because the [00:54:00] ones that I've had in the past, it's from a box of 2011, and those are like a high nine, I would say, like, you know, nine point something. Uh, this one, you know, I think if it sits like a couple of years longer, I think it's definitely a potentially a.
**Gizmo:** So Puba and, and, uh, and pagoda. I'm curious, what's with the sevens? I'm a seven too. Well, oh yeah. And grindr's
**Poobah:** a seven too. Excuse me. But it's, so, I, I want to pr I just want to caveat that, like, I really like the cigar. I brought 'em here. Sure. bought 'em. You gave us a seven. I gave a, I gave, gave seven. You gave me a nine.
And I, and I, yeah. And I really, uh, yes. And I really, uh, I really do like the cigar and I'll buy more, uh, I and I, and I'll smoke 'em. I just, um, for me, I prefer if we're talking Corona, Gorda is, I'm gonna, I, I, I, I, I, I like I, but as you guys know, I'm a really big Upton fan. I like the flavor [00:55:00] profile of DeMar.
Um, to me that it delivers a little. More of what I like. Um, it's all personal preference. There's nothing, by the way, nothing about the cigar at all. Well,
**Gizmo:** listen, A seven, A 7.7 is still a, a, a recommend
**Poobah:** for sure with this group. This, you know, and we're dealing with whole numbers too. If I was really gonna rate it, I'd give it like a 7.8, do you know what I mean?
But since I have to give it a, like, I'd be, it would be up there, which is close to where we landed Seven seven, which is right. Well, I, oh, is that okay? Yeah. Great. So I'm just speaking extemporaneously here. So yeah, I would've given it like a 7.8, like it's close to an eight for me. Um, but, uh, it's really good.
It just doesn't align with fully, with what I want all the time. But that doesn't mean I don't want it. Sometimes it's just personal, like, so I really enjoyed it. I think it, for me, it gets a little bit like, It just doesn't deliver the kind of flavors [00:56:00] that some of the dessert flavors that I really enjoy in a cigar upfront.
It does. But, but it's really good. I mean, I like it. I, I, it's, it's a good cigar and I think seven's still a strong recommend for me. I,
**Senator:** I'll say this just on, on my eight and then I definitely want to hear from other guys that gave this a seven. What I wrestled with, with this cigar is, you know, I like its versatility and that I could have this in the morning or the afternoon, but after smoking this fully, would I like this up after a dinner?
No. And the Mag 46 that obviously we, we've compared this a lot to, cuz it's similar size, all of that. Would I light a mag 46 up afternoon? Absolutely. Would I light a mag 46 up in the morning? No. And so there, there are trade offs with each cigar and that's why they each have a place for me. Um, but none has the, the versatility of.
you know, let's say a D four that I light up in the morning, the afternoon after a meal, anytime. And I, that cigars [00:57:00] gonna be outstanding for, for my palate. And I think I've, I've probably gave that a nine when we rated it. Um, so that's what I wrestled with, with this cigar. And the last thing I'll say is the last third of this cigar, I actually did not enjoy as much as the first two thirds.
And as I was wrestling between an eight or a nine, because it had more versatility to me than the Mag 46, which I started to lean a nine. But the last third, I don't enjoy as much. Where the Magnum 46, I would give credit all every third of that cigar is pretty consistent. And that, that's the thing that really bumped it down to an eight for me.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I, I mean, I saw you sh shaking your head Grindr, as he said about the last third that you, you
**Grinder:** were agreeing with. I mean, I was gonna say the same comment. It was just not, it was a little rough. The last third. The second, third was, it got better. First third was okay for me. Um, I definitely like some of the, excuse me, some of the unique spices, but it just, I was thinking [00:58:00] back to the Bellco Sophos, which I also gave a seven, and I was struggling with this being better than that , you know, so that's why I gave it a seven.
It it's, it's not a six by any means. It's a great cigar. I love it, but it's not something that I'm gonna reach for or come back to unless it's in, you know, unless I have a, a box that I can draw from.
**Gizmo:** Pagoda. Why'd you give it a seven? Yeah,
**Pagoda:** it just felt like I kept seeking something more, you know? Uh, and maybe it's because of my flavor profile, you know, I tend to, uh, prefer cigars, you know, were just slightly bolder and flavor and, um, um, and smoother to, you know, some extent because in this, uh, like I mentioned before in the podcast, I did feel a little bit of harshness in the back of my throat.
Um, it felt very mild. I. Could, you know, feel, um, at least taste some of, a little bit of, uh, [00:59:00] you know, cedar, couple of things, but nothing very pronounced. Um, yeah, so for me, it didn't really catch my attention saying that, Hey, listen, this is a great cigar. Now you have to remember like eight and a nine are really, really good cigars.
Uh, and, uh, you know, for me, um, I thought, uh, would this be an eight? And, you know, it's, it's not easy to rate as, as well, like, as you can imagine. Um, so he seven for me.
**Gizmo:** All right. Bam. Bam.
The
**Bam Bam:** nine. Yeah, there was nothing disappointing about the cigar for me. You know, there's a difference between bold, uh, body right and bold flavor.
And rooster, you said it perfectly earlier, it's a full flavored, medium bodied cigar. And I, and I love cigars like this. Um, The, for me it was flavor from beginning to end. Yeah. It got stronger as it got toward the end for me. I had no harshness. It was a spectacular stick for me. Fantastic. [01:00:00] All
**Poobah:** the way through, by the way, a lot of people feel, people feel that way.
**Bam Bam:** And honestly, I, it was slightly reminiscent to a punch, punch very slightly at the beginning. And I happen to, we all love that cigar. I really love that stick. But that combination of floral, a little sweetness, a tiny bit of pepper in the beginning and creaminess and as it got through to the end, yeah, the pepper kicked.
But that's what makes to me, for me, a really interesting smoke as it changes and it gets down to the end. Loved people
**Poobah:** loved it. People do really, people really, there's, there's a select, there's a group of people who do really enjoy, um, who enjoy this, this selection, number one. And it's. it, it, it's well regarded.
So I think that it's just personal preference. It's a
**Bam Bam:** fucking flavor bomb for me. Right. Totally. Right. And how do you
**Poobah:** not love.
**Gizmo:** Well, I, I, you know, I like the differences and scores in this. I think it, it, it's definitely one that any listener should be, be trying and if they love it Oh, absolutely. Simply [01:01:00] buy a box and at a 7.7, I think that's a, a, a recommend for sure from the lizards.
And, uh, that's it. So Juan Lopez, selection number one, 7.7 boys. Good, spar. Very good. Yeah, we'll see you next week. Keep smoking. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge Lizards Pod, p o d, that's a lounge, lizards pod@gmail.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.