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Recorded at the Ten86 Cigar Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the lizards pair the Atabey Brujos with Yamato Japanese Whisky. The guys assess whether Atabey lives up to its' hype as the “Cuban Killer,” Poobah campaigns for a lizard gin tasting, and they discuss the Derek Jeter documentary.
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 Lizard's podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Pagoda and Grindr, and our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some whiskey, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 49th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge, lizard planet. Meet here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating. We assess whether this cigar lives up to its hype as the quote unquote Cuban killer Puba campaigns for lizard gin tasting.
And we discussed the Derek Jeter documentary 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 Yamato Japanese whiskey with the Abe Brew hosts. A frequent request [00:01:00] from listeners tonight on the pod, the ATA Bay Brewhouse Ra Robusto, which is a 52 ring gauge cigar by a little under five inches, four and seven eighths.
I have heard more about Ata Bay from listeners requesting us do this cigar than any other new world that we've ever
**Poobah:** had requested. Is this right through the email?
**Gizmo:** Email discord on different servers. Instagram at Abe's number one by far.
**Senator:** Remember gizmo's deeper in the interwebs than we are?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I'm on the dark webs.
**Poobah:** I re I respond from time to time. You do, you're do a nice job Instagram. Yeah. Uh, cuz I also have access to the, but yeah, so message us sometimes, but message us. Message us. You may get puba, you may get me . You'll mostly get kissed .
**Gizmo:** So, yeah. Uh, this is an interesting cigar with an interesting story. We'll get to that in a minute.
But first boys, let's cut this thing. See we're getting on the cold draw. , I've heard so much about these cigars. I've never [00:02:00] had one. I don't think anybody in the room has had one. Um, supposedly there were rumors at one point. Grind grinder has, grinders had one. So a senator, oh, excuse me. I didn't know that.
**Senator:** I have, I'm hoping this is gonna be different than my first experience. .
**Gizmo:** I keep hearing that this is the Cuban killer and, and it was a one point rumor that it was actually made with Cuban tobacco and it had this whole underworld, uh, uh, myth about it. I don't think that's the case, but marketing is marketing excuse.
So can we look how pretty it is? It's really nice. So it's, uh, it's a very light wrapper. I mean, it kind of reminds me of RAs, I guess a little bit that kind of look to it, but not as rusty Think lighter than
**Senator:** Ra. Even lighter. Yeah. I It's like this is closer to a Connecticut.
**Gizmo:** It's Connecticut.
**Poobah:** It's, it is, yeah.
Well, the, the seams are totally in. The construct, I mean, outward, just cosmetically. I mean, it's, uh, it's gorgeous outside of the fact that when you look at the label, [00:03:00] it's clearly, um, or the band, it's, it's clearly. You know, trying to present itself as something that's close to a Cohiba and, um, BA is like a Bahi
**Gizmo:** esque.
Yeah,
**Poobah:** right. Well, what was designed by this dude Yeah. Who designed the bahi, um, did the graphics for Havana, and then he went and did this. And I think it was somewhat controversial. I don't know all the details, but it was somewhat controversial in how this, this, what's his name? Nelson. Alfonso Nelson.
Alfonso, yeah. How he went about kind of, you know, designing this band with the dots and the, it's, and, and you know, it looks clo as close to a Cohiba band without actually, you know, infringing, I guess on the artwork to a point where they're
**Gizmo:** gonna, if I'm ha Bonos and I paid this guy to design Cohiba, bohi Bek, I would not be happy.
**Poobah:** This cigar, they can't be, I can obviously about it, but what's the, you know, but also at the, you know, my point of view is, [00:04:00] but like what we call an advertising borrowed interest, it's like, it's like taking, uh, almost like if you were to do, let's say, uh, like a, a, a movie reel for a company party, right? And you made it funny, but it was like the theme from law and order, like Right.
But that's like not really creative, that creative cuz it's not an original idea. It's what you call borrowed interest where you're taking like a, like something that already existent. Doing a parody of that. Yeah. That's the whole framework. Underpinnings of the creative idea is, is borrowed. Do you know what I mean?
So you're doing, it's borrowed parody of it, but
**Gizmo:** it's borrowed from his own brain. Because he designed it. No, but he
**Poobah:** didn't design the dots and the Cohiba band. Sure, sure. And which is the really, the f I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like you're right on that. Yeah. Like, like Cohiba as a brand is, he had nothing [00:05:00] to do with creating Yeah.
This is, but you know what I mean. Yeah. And even if he did create the B, you already did created the, the, the design of the, of the Behi band for Cohiba with the brand guidelines and the guidance and in the spirit of Cohiba. And then just to like do something that's like so close to it. Yeah. And then pass it off.
Try to pass it off as something to me. Isn't that original? Yeah. Sure do something original, but again, it's marketing and maybe he knows something that people don't and maybe whatever. But I, that's what's been polarizing, I think about the smoke and then not revealing, obviously I think what the Blend is all about.
And the only
**Gizmo:** thing I know, I, I don't know. The only thing I know about, it's just like, and we'll get into it in a second, but the only thing I know about it is where it's made and, and the wrapper that's really about it. So. Okay. What are you guys getting on the cold draw this thing. My draw is [00:06:00] wide open.
Let's start there. I'm getting a little fig. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Little fig maybe a little raisiny fig thing. Yeah, that's about it though. But the draw's nice. .
**Poobah:** Mm-hmm. Construction. Yeah. The construction's beautiful.
**Gizmo:** I think you nailed it on the fig. Yeah. Which is funny because what's funny, I was actually on Friends of a Bonos, uh, the Forum and somebody specifically emailed Rob Iowa, the proprietor of that site, looking for other cigars like the Vegas, Romania, Unico, and that line that kind of has that fig note that we even discussed on the Unico episode.
Uh, and not a lot of folks came up with what I thought were accurate. Um, fig notes for cigars and I'm curious if the CALD draw's gonna follow through on the actual smoke of this thing and, and provide us some fig, but we'll see. Boys, let's light this thing.
**Grinder:** Is it just me or is the band like lower on the stick?
**Gizmo:** A little bit. Little bit. Little bit, little bit.
**Poobah:** I don't mind that though.
**Gizmo:** The Atta Bay Broho robo [00:07:00] again. 52 ring gauge by a little under five inches. Four and seven eights. So, uh, taboo's point, this cigar is, it's made in Costa Rica, which is pretty rare. This is our first cigar on the pod that's been constructed in Costa Rica and the wrapper is an Ecuadorian Connecticut.
So, uh, calling out the Connecticut, I think Senator, I think you said that, uh, is accurate. It's an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper on this thing, and we'll see if this is the Cuban killer as some folks have told us, or if it's a big sham. I will say the other thing that we need to talk about too with the cigar as we get it lit here, I'm still working on it, is the price point is arguably absurd.
What is it? What'd you pay for these?
**Grinder:** This was like 32 bucks a stick
**Gizmo:** with after tax. To me, that's pretty high for an Ecuadorian, Connecticut Ribo, but not compared [00:08:00] to a Bahi. Well, yeah.
**Pagoda:** Wow, that's expensive.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's a pretty expensive cigar. You can find 'em online somewhere between 26 and 28. TAs. Tasty.
But tasty on the light. Yeah, the light is actually very nice. I'm seeing boxes of these, by the way, online. 6 75 a box for 25. So Grindr at
**Senator:** one point had
**Grinder:** a box. Yeah, I had, I got a box of 50.
**Senator:** Wow. He didn't have them for long. Do you remember this? Yeah. . He said to back, oh yeah, that's
**Gizmo:** right. He did send them back.
I remember that. Was it this cigar? Do you know what? Do you know what? It was different size. It was bigger now.
**Grinder:** It was like a 54, you know,
**Gizmo:** like a Toro.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. I actually wish BA was here for this, because I think BA is part of the reason that Grinder sent by, well, ,
**Grinder:** can I, can I tell the story? Please do.
This is actually a good story. So, so we, so I was looking at these cigars and I'm like, God, I really want to try these cigars. I was talking about them at one of the lounges we were at, [00:09:00] and, uh, I think I was like, I don't, I want to get a box, but it's just, it's kind of, I've never had the cigar. It's kind of ridiculous for me to kind of spend this money in the cigar without knowing it.
And bam, and another, uh, uh, person were like, okay, well, you know, do you wanna split the box? I'm like, yeah, sure. That's, that's a great idea. Immediately ordered. The, the box of cigars was almost a thousand dollars. I'm like, okay, this is great. You know, get to have these cigars and, um, I, I bring the cigars to the lounge.
We have the cigars. I like, I like the ci. I didn't love the cigar at the time, but it was, it was a very good cigar. And, uh, a couple of the other people, they didn't like it. And they were like, you know, we're we one of the guy, one of the guys was like, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't want these.
And I was like, okay, well I just spent a thousand dollars on this, you know, he's like, well, I'm sorry, like, I don't want 'em. And I was like, okay. And bam immediately jumped. He's like, yeah, sorry. I don't, I don't want it either. .
**Senator:** Yeah. He stuck it with the [00:10:00] whole box. So
**Grinder:** I have a box of of thousand. Hold
**Poobah:** ho. Hold, hold.
**Grinder:** It was a low ball move. It was like
**Poobah:** not a shining Ronnie, the limo driver would say, hold the phone. . Uh, what do you, so someone. That's, but you can't do that. Yeah, I know. Somebody went, you, so somebody goes in, in a box cigars with you and you go, okay, let's go in, in this box. And then you order it. And then he, you guys are like, all right, awesome.
So excited to try. And they try 'em and he doesn't like you, like them. And he says, fuck you, I'm not paying you. Yeah, yeah. Fuck
**Senator:** that guy. Both that guy and bam, .
**Grinder:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** Wait, excuse me. I know. Excuse me. I, this is why if he was sitting here, I'd say, guy, what's up? Huh?
**Grinder:** You wish I never said that. I'm sorry, but I never said that.
I never, I It's just Why is this is coming up
**Poobah:** now live .
**Senator:** I wish Bam was here to defend himself. I think it's parter than
**Grinder:** he, he's by the way, he's indefensible. .
**Senator:** So I [00:11:00]
**Grinder:** It's true.
**Poobah:** There's no defense to this. And I Was there a clear commitment
**Senator:** to the Yes. There, there was so much. So I wanna be clear. Oh my God. I wanna be clear.
Is
**Gizmo:** this, is, this sounds like a disavow something insane. This is a disavow
**Senator:** in, in. in Grindr's defense. It was so clear that I thought about it and I knew there was too much of a chance that I wasn't gonna like this cigar. I said I was out from the get-go, and if it was wonderful, I would've missed out.
Right. That's on me. You don't say you're going to go in on a box split and then have someone purchase them and you are owing them this money, and then you try one and you say, ah, no, I don't like it. I'm not gonna pay you for the rest of the box. I mean, you just don't do that.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Well, you're in it together.
If I ordered a box of Hoyo, double Coronas with Gizmo, whether he paid for 'em or I paid for 'em and they all, and half of 'em fucking smoked dead and they were fucked up or something weird, it's on both of us. We'd go, well, We're fucked. What do we, what are we gonna do? . And it's hap by the way, it's happened.
We, you're right. Like [00:12:00] it's happened. We're we're fucked. Yeah. Okay. This isn't a, like, we got a bad box of cigars. Like, what do we want to do? Do we want to lay 'em down? Do we want to just throw 'em away? Do we wanna wait with them? Do we want to sell 'em? Yeah. If, you know, there's some in there that seemed like they were worth selling.
I, I, whatever. You're fucked. Yep. You don't like the cigar. You don't like the cigar. What is this? Like, is it's a free for all? Is Grinder a fucking retail establishment? Like there's no, like, I'm gonna return this Amazon
**Gizmo:** returns.
**Rooster:** All I can say is if, if that cigar was anything
**Gizmo:** close to this so far, it's awesome.
Yeah, I would buy them. I like it. This is, now listen, we're a quarter of an inch in, not even, this is really good
**Senator:** so far. So I'll say this. I, I, I'm, I'm gonna be as critical. in every aspect of this cigar. Just because I don't like the amount of hype and the Cuban kill I all that doesn't need to be part of this.
Right. If this cigar is that good, it'll, people will say that for themselves. I don't like that. The band clearly is like a knockoff [00:13:00] of a cohiba. I, I, there's a lot of problems I have with this cigar. I will say the construction puba started with this. Yeah. It is flawless. Yep. Look at the burn. It's actually one of the most beautiful looking cigars I've, I've probably ever seen.
So a plus there on the flavor. What I am thinking happened, cuz I had one of these, uh, I remember Grindr had given me one, I think that box was stored at that lounge's locker, which was always too high. Yeah, too wet. I am convinced that that cigar was too wet and because when I smoked it, it was so minimal in flavor.
I was sitting there wondering like, how, why would there be hype around this stick? This is clearly stored better. I, it, it's, it's really pleasant to start, not a ton of flavor. So I'm curious if this is gonna build, because for me, if this continues this way, this won't, this won't have enough. Um, that interests me.
But the flavor, I think like some of the, it, it's sweet dessert like flavors. Yeah. Like honey [00:14:00] and this creaminess that the cigar has. Um, so yeah, it's actually off to a very good start.
**Pagoda:** Great smoke output, or very
**Gizmo:** easy to smell. I got, I, I will say something, uh, uh, it's not a Cuban killer, but as far as new world cigars go, it is a distant cousin, I would say profil flavor profile wise, raw wise, right now, it's, it's kind of got that thing a little bit.
It's Cuban esque. It. It's a little Cuban esque.
**Grinder:** I would, I wouldn't say it's a Cuban, I would say it's Cuban esque. Yeah. I think that's a apt to take it.
**Poobah:** Take it easy, everybody. I mean,
**Senator:** honestly, for me, like, I mean, let's just be real. I, I, I mean, as I'm smoking, as I'm sitting here saying like, this may be the best Connecticut rapper like I've ever had.
Like, it, it smokes like a mild new world cigar. It doesn't to me smoke like a Cuban, like even some of the milder Cubans, you have just a little bit of that minerality or that twang that we talk about. I don't get any of that when on the light. . I just get like a creaminess, a really pleasant smoking experience.
But I, if [00:15:00] I'm being honest, there's nothing that screams Cuban to me when I'm, I
**Grinder:** think you're getting be more bang for your buck by getting a Monte Christo white label Churchill than anything like this. Cuz that is a lot of flavor in my opinion. But you're not paying that premium price. But
**Gizmo:** the,
**Rooster:** the aroma that out of the smoke, if you just smell the, you know Yeah, like the head of the cigar,
**Gizmo:** it's very
**Poobah:** pleasant.
I mean, yeah. But there's something, there's something, um, for me, there's a lot. It's, there's a lit, there's complexity to it, there's no doubt. But there's something going on for me. There's a note that I'm getting in here that I can't quite pinpoint, but it, I don't wanna say it's like sharp cheddar cheese, cuz that's not what it is.
It's like there's like a sharpness to it that isn't as pleasant to me as I'd like it to be. I don't know what it is like. I'm not
**Rooster:** getting anything sharp,
**Senator:** neither. Yeah. [00:16:00] I mean, it's very dessert. I'm just getting like, like honey and shortbread.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's very, very pleasant. Yeah. At least not yet. I mean, maybe it'll
**Poobah:** change.
There's a high note, there's some sort of a high note in there that is bordering on a little, not bitter, but slightly. It's just, it's interfering and I just don't know what this thing is. Uh, I'll,
**Gizmo:** I'll check, check back in. You know what,
**Grinder:** I'm not getting, I'm not getting anything unique though. Like I'm getting a little bit, little bits and bobs of, of some Cuban, a little bit of Cuban, some like Dominican, Connecticut, shade and uh, and some nothing.
Yeah. And it's very pleasant. The aroma I think is very pleasant. , like the, when you have it in,
**Gizmo:** in the front, yeah, it smells great at the burn
**Grinder:** line. But, but, but is it worth the price?
**Gizmo:** That's the question. Well, we don't know yet. We'll see. We don't know yet. See, we'll see how it goes. But
**Senator:** I'll say, I'm just saying the only thing for me that's clear upfront, I'm, I'm, I will argue this till I'm blue in the face.
This, this is [00:17:00] not Cuban esque for me. I'm sorry. Okay. Like, it's just truly not. I don't get any twang, any minerality. , um, a any, it doesn't remind me I couldn't name a Cuban cigar that's like this. If I had to name one, there is one, but that is an outlier. And Rooster Renos, I hope, had the same, you're gonna say the same.
Uh, I think, let me say, it might be the same one. Go ahead. But this is an outlier among Cuban cigars. There's no other Cuban that smokes like it. And it's that Monte Cristo 80th anniversary stick. That's that smaller ring gauge that we've said is the creamiest cigar we've ever had in our lives. It's a lighter shade wrapper.
It's No, no. Cuban is probably as light as that cigar. This reminds me a little bit of that, but that's an outlier among Cubans. That's not the normal Cuban profile. So if there's one thing I'm convinced of, uh, from the start of this
**Poobah:** cigar, that's a good company.
**Senator:** You're putting it in. I am, but I'm just saying like the flavor of that Monty is not even very Cuban.
Like, it's so unique. So I'm just saying, like, for me to say this is Cuban [00:18:00] esque, which would be reminiscent of, you know, a number of Cubans. I, I don't see the, the comparison. Yeah, I'm,
**Rooster:** I'm, I was gonna say like the dessert, like flavors that you get out of the short, the punch little bit that I'm getting from
**Gizmo:** this.
That's more peanut butter. That's a, that's a peanut butter thing. Yeah, but this is much lighter to me though. I, I don't know what it is about this, but I, I do have to disagree with you, Senator. I, it, it is kind of giving me hints of that. Like, it, it's kind of, it, it, it kind of hitting my palate. Like, like I don't know what it is yet.
I'll get there. But it is reminding me of, it reminds me too, so of a Cuban what stick in particular? It's a, I knew you were gonna ask that, and I'm not quite sure yet. I'm, I'm
**Senator:** working on that. If it does remind me of ais, would you agree there kind
**Grinder:** of reminds me of a bva No,
**Poobah:** no, I disagree strongly with that.
Stick you, you don't get the dessert like flavors from the olive. Sorry, doesn't remind me [00:19:00] of a BVA at all, but did this cigar remind you of a BVA in a,
**Grinder:** in a sense, not totally. I'm getting, I'm talking about a little bit of reminding of not saying it is a
**Senator:** bva, but I'm just pushing this point because the fact that no one is able to sit here and say like, you know, this reminds me of this cigar.
Like I, if, if I'm even willing to agree that there's something Cuban esque about it, it's very faint. It's not, it's not really pronounced. So that, that's all I, that's my
**Poobah:** own point. To me, this is closer to maybe like, honestly, If you told me that this was something out of the Davidoff line and you took the band off of it and it was some sort of random.
David Itdo, whatever in a Connecticut shade wrapper. I'd be like, okay, it's a da itdo. And you know what, I'd be smoking it and I'd be like, Hmm, am I buying this at this price point? No. Yeah. You know,
**Gizmo:** so, well, I, I don't disagree with you at buying it at the price [00:20:00] point. I wouldn't buy this a
**Senator:** 20 driving, even like his comparison, cuz daino, like, they're, most of their sticks, not the ones that we pursue, like the late hour or the millennium.
Um, most of them are lighter, you know, milder and creamy like this, like they, this would fit
**Gizmo:** lot of, like
**Rooster:** if you told me it's more like the signature series, grand Cru
**Gizmo:** series. Yeah.
**Poobah:** Right. Like if you told me this was a Davidoff signature or something, cuz I don't smoke that that much and it had no band and you switched the bands out.
I would think it's a Dick, a David off series.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. But the signature series are, are milder. They're solder
**Rooster:** eggs milder than this, even milder than this even milder and not, not like dessert
**Gizmo:** flavors. Yeah. That you get, you know, that you're getting from this. I think
**Grinder:** Davidoff has a very distinct davidoff taste, which I'm not getting here.
That's no's,
**Poobah:** that's that's true. But if, like you lied to me and told me that this was something that I hadn't had, I never lied you. I know, but if you did, this is totally hypothetical. I know Grindr, I love you, man. All day. Non-gay . The, the, but, but it, that's what I'm saying. It's closer to [00:21:00] that for me. Like some sort of one of those.
**Grinder:** True. Okay. The second point that I had is that the flavor for me is amplifying Right now as I'm smoking this more, I'm getting a little more creaminess. It's a lot of
**Gizmo:** creaminess. Yeah. It, it's very much coating the roof of my mouth in a very nice way. Yeah. And I gotta say, I mean look at the burn on it.
It's just, that's where I'm brilliant. Construction a plus the construction is brilliant construction. It's
**Poobah:** staed off quality construction.
**Gizmo:** It is, it is. Yeah. Very, very pleasant so far. I do have a problem with the $32 price point. We can revisit that as we rate it, but um, . That's, that's expensive for, for, but you know what, there, there's, there's plenty of Cuban
**Rooster:** cigars that we pay sometimes
**Gizmo:** like that or more.
Yeah. But we're not paying that for a regular production. Re robusto. I mean, for a D four. For a ra. I mean, come on. I mean, there's some regionals
**Rooster:** and , you know, ELs that have sucked that we have
**Gizmo:** paid, you
**Senator:** know, a lot more stupid. Those aren't regular product. That's his point. Like this is their [00:22:00] standard
**Gizmo:** line.
This is a standard thing.
**Senator:** Yeah. This isn't a limited edition. This isn't some
**Rooster:** regional thing. Yeah. But New worlds really don't
**Gizmo:** do any
**Senator:** regionals or No, but they have higher end stuff like in the PE drone line, like the 80th. Right. That commands a 30 something
**Gizmo:** dollars release. Look at how many Davidoff Limiteds there are.
Right. I mean, that's
**Poobah:** the same thing. They've released regional s and Liata of
**Gizmo:** the same place Tab has regionals. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know,
**Poobah:** that's. I mean, it's pretty good. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, yeah. I'll just
**Senator:** say pretty good for, for where the flavor is right now with a coffee in the morning. This would be outstanding.
There's no doubt about that. I'll, I'll
**Gizmo:** say without question, this is the best Connecticut shade cigar I've ever had. I agree with you. Without question even I, I would put this above the Pedro Damaso.
**Senator:** I've never had that, but everybody, I don't disagree at all there,
**Poobah:** of all, I don't think this is the best of
**Gizmo:** anything.
No. As far as Connecticut
**Senator:** Shades that I've smoked, but I, I think this is important, like why I was bringing up, I would have this in the morning with [00:23:00] coffee and why I, I, this is where I have an issue with this cigar with coffee in the morning. This would be phenomenal. It's so creamy. It's so smooth.
Dessert flavors. It checks every morning smoke box or, but when I'm picking up a 30 something dollars stick, I'm looking for a cigar that I'm gonna. In the late afternoon, in the evening, that's gonna hold up and I'm gonna enjoy that night. Would is this what I would wanna reach for at seven o'clock at night?
At 10 o'clock? No way. So far, based on the flavor, there's not enough flavor here for me.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. This would not work after a nice steak dinner. No way. I'm
**Senator:** sorry. Even a regular dinner, I, I, I wouldn't
**Gizmo:** pick this cigar. The Caesar Caesar salad with salmon on it. I wouldn't pick this. That's my new jam, by the way.
Tuna tartar,
**Grinder:** might pair
**Poobah:** with tuna at the Harvard Club
but that stru it
**Gizmo:** best. I kind of wanna try this whiskey haven't too. Yeah, I was just gonna say, let's try the, uh, Emoto Japanese whiskey, which I believe now is the fourth Japanese whiskey that we've done on the [00:24:00] pod. We're on a, we're on a Japanese string here. We're on a little bit of a Japanese. Really .
**Poobah:** I didn't know.
**Senator:** Good to know. Tell us how
**Poobah:** you feel . It's good. Very good.
**Gizmo:** I would say, uh, it a first sip opened up a little bit. I don't love it. I mean, I'm in the same boat. Yeah. It's not great. It's uh, it's How much was this bottle grinder? Uh, one 30.
**Senator:** 1 31 30. Oh my God.
**Gizmo:** Oh, the pain. Wow. Rubies, ,
**Poobah:** rubies. Yeah, it's like one 30 us.
It's
**Gizmo:** kind, it's kind of, it's kinda like $2. It doesn't have much. It's very thin.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Like the finish is pretty abrupt.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So apparently I'm, I, I read up a little bit about this when, uh, when Grindr said that he got it. What's it called again? Ya Moto Ya Moto Japanese Whiskey Yama. Are
**Poobah:** we going, are we [00:25:00] even getting like killed by like a samurai?
It's possible if we give
**Gizmo:** this a bad review. So this is, they, they drink it at
**Grinder:** the
**Gizmo:** Shogun , not bit sushi. It's a small batch. Apparently it was originally, uh, founded, uh, when, uh, it was, it was founded by an importing group who found an excess of barrels of whiskey and decided to make a, a wi a Japanese whiskey out of it.
Um, it's apparently very popular and some things a Grindr can touch on if, if he so chooses, but it's distilled from a blend of malted barley and, and other grains. It's grown in Yamanashi in Japan, which is a landlocked, uh, area of Japan, I guess. And, uh, it's, it's right near the reason why I found this interesting.
It's right near Mount Fuji. It's. It's like backed up right to Mountain suffer
**Senator:** for the Lester. That's a hibachi place. Dear us ,
**Poobah:** that's on top
**Gizmo:** of a mountain. The one thing I'll say is that, uh, it's, it's [00:26:00] a blend of three year to eight year, uh, old whiskeys and I don't really taste anything that they're talking about. Doesn't really knock
**Grinder:** my socks
**Senator:** off. It's, I think there's mostly three year in this hundred
**Rooster:** and $30 for a three
**Poobah:** year question.
I feel like I'm in a fucking knockoff reunion with the, with this cigar and the fucking knockoff fucking scotch Gosh reunion. This is like fucking ridiculous. I'm drinking Japanese overpriced Japanese whiskey in an overpriced fucking knockoff Bek . This is like a masquerade party. . That's
**Gizmo:** Hello. Eyes wide shut.
I, I am joining the cigar. The whiskey, not so much. I agree.
**Poobah:** The Hibiki so much. Grant, did you bring these? Did I, did you, was this your thing? Am I insulting? See, this is where you're not insulting me. I don't give a shit. Cause I love you so much. Making
**Grinder:** it was, it was a collective decision.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Cause I wasn't on the text and see, well, you don't see it
**Gizmo:** didn't, you don't look at the text.
You're on the, let's [00:27:00] clarify, you're on the text. No, but I, let's clarify. It's
**Poobah:** on the text. I'm on the text. But I've been very busy at work the last number of days and I can't catch up. I've been out a day out of, well, I,
**Grinder:** I did hear the silence when I said I was bringing beer for one of the cigars on the.
and you're, and I was like, oh, crickets.
**Poobah:** When I was talking to you, there were no,
**Senator:** I said I was good with beer. I just said,
**Poobah:** I'm out. I'm talking. Did we talk earlier today? Yes, we did. Yes, sir. , I can't remember shit. We did talk earlier today, . Oh, and when you said you were bringing beer, I was silent. Yeah, it was just like crickets.
I was like, okay, I guess. I guess I'll see you there. Oh,
**Rooster:** I'm sorry.
**Poobah:** That sounds like a new world. You guys have to understand how much I, I have a special place in my heart for Grindr. Is
**Gizmo:** it because of the Caesar salads? What is
**Poobah:** it? What do you mean? What is what?
**Gizmo:** The special love, I'm curious about it hang special.
**Senator:** There's no love specialties, you know, Caesar salads, side chats, leaves, you know, leaves,
**Rooster:** leaves.
Gummies. That's
**Gizmo:** gummies.
**Poobah:** Let's put it this way. We, [00:28:00] we exchanged Joe Biden memes. So , that's, that's, that's, that's, that's really at the heart of it.
you know, Joe Biden falling off his bicycle and stuff. We like to laugh at that kind of stuff. This is not a political show. Who doesn't, we do not get into political stuff here, but, you know, don't worry. We like, we're
**Senator:** in the nose spin zone. Don't worry, we're
**Gizmo:** Fuck it.
**Poobah:** No, but truth be
**Grinder:** told, I did, I did seek consultation on the selection tonight. It just so happened that it, this was a, you know, a little, a little bit of a failure.
**Poobah:** No, it's not a failure. I, I, I, I, I, it's just, I've, uh, look, this is, this show is meant for some entertainment. I'm just breaking balls here.
Um, The cigar is, is, is good. Um, I don't know what else to say. I thought, I thought he was talking about the whiskey. Oh, the whiskey. Oh, the
**Grinder:** whiskey. He's hedging now. Okay. The whiskey was, I had no idea what I was doing. I literally said I was this close to [00:29:00] getting Canadian club just as a, as a, as a joke. It probably would've been better.
**Senator:** Um. . Yeah, that's, no, I mean with, with the Japanese whiskeys, we're experimenting. Right. I think we got really lucky that that Nico Coffee grain was really good. Yeah. That was a, that was a surprise. There was a lot of hypes. I really wanted to try that. I'm glad that worked out. That was a 9.2. Um, obviously the Hibiki, uh, pagoda loves Hibiki and we all got to try it.
I think everybody loved it. That was a home run really. Was picked up some, uh, akashi White, white Oak. Oak that is on all these lists of like five Japanese whiskeys. You must try. And it was garbage. 6.8 we got, we rated that. Now, luckily that wasn't 130 a bottles, half that. But still, I mean, we're gonna hit some, we're gonna, which
**Gizmo:** coffee was,
**Poobah:** I wanna, which whiskey was that, that you were talking
**Senator:** about before?
Uh, a Kashi White Oak. There
**Pagoda:** was also the Nicker coffee.
**Poobah:** Remember? Coffee was, I wasn't, I wasn't there for that one. Oh, I brought, that's good. Yeah. The nier coffee. The white oak though. Was that the white bottle with the black letters? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was [00:30:00] good.
**Gizmo:** No, it's terrible. No. Yeah, we didn't like it.
It's horrible. Under seven.
**Poobah:** I can't remember what,
**Gizmo:** what was the car looking with now? Maybe the suny That's what I'm thinking. SUNY
**Senator:** Sun was good. That was good. The Suntory, that Tony Bucks and it's, yeah, it's like $35
**Gizmo:** a month. It's a hundred dollars less than what we have right now. Yeah. I
**Poobah:** can't keep track of the names.
I'm sorry. It's just, it's like, it's in one ear out the other with the Japanese names. I'm, I just can't , it's like I'm, you know, it's just like, it's a foreign fucking language. I don't, you know, I don't know. , delete, delete, delete. No, I, I, I, it's, yeah, it's like everything's, no, I get it. I get it. It's, it's sun to read the Yaka, , whatever.
I can't keep track of this. Kawasaki,
**Gizmo:** Cuba, how many languages do you speak? Many, many . Many. His Spanish is
**Poobah:** impeccable.
**Grinder:** Lisa, this has got a quite a different kind of kick if you don't have ice on it
**Gizmo:** sounds good. But so you're saying it's way better without ice? No. No,
**Senator:** not at all. It's better. [00:31:00] No, that's the thing.
So honestly, I, I try, I always do this. I mean, when we pour it over ice, I just immediately take a sip before the ice is melted to get a sense of what it's like. Neat. This stuff is very rough around the edges. Neat. It, it, it tastes, it's harsh. It's not, it's not, it's not a refined
**Grinder:** spirit.
**Gizmo:** It's not. I was just doing a, a little bit of a dig as we were coming on, uh, the on air here about this and somebody gave it a one-star review on one of the websites and said it was very simply, this is furniture polish.
Right. Yeah. That was their car. They're not wrong. Yeah. It's
**Poobah:** just speaking of speak.
**Gizmo:** No, I just saw it now. I, I, I didn't see it, you know, obviously earlier
**Poobah:** today I was thinking to you guys, I was thinking of you guys over the weekend. Um, thanks. Speaking of polarizing, it's kind of you. Yes. Polarizing, no polarizing spirits.
Like this is, seems like it's a little bit maybe polarizing the cigar seems like maybe it's a little polarizing, like the price point doesn't align with this whiskey, maybe the Correct whatever, you know, you see one star reviews, et cetera. Yeah. [00:32:00] Um, but a spirit that I know that some, maybe the majority of folks in here don't enjoy on the regular, um, is gin.
Yeah. We haven't touched, let's, let's just, I want to talk about it just for, just for brief, just briefly, because I thought about you guys this weekend. I, um, I enjoy a traditional gin martini with, you know, with a half ounce of vermouth in it. You know, the way that a, a martini should be made with high quality vermouth.
And a couple of valves. And it was, it was very, it was, it's been pretty warm here lately. And to me, a really, a nice cold martini. Um, either a vodka martini or a gin martini for me, like hits the spot at times. I know everyone in here, Senator. I know you don't love vodka gin. It's not your, it's
**Senator:** not. So you, but I, I used to be a, a big vodka drinker and I would have a vodka martini.
Right. Not gin, I wouldn't do,
**Poobah:** but vodka. Right. Well, so I'm getting to something that where I was thinking to you actually specifically. Um, so [00:33:00] gin, gin generally, um, is a high proof spirit. Right. Can we agree on that? That, that mo that mo that most gin is 90 to a hundred proof. Right. But there's a gin called Plymouth Gin and, um, it's made in England and it's, it's an, it's an 80 proof gin.
And I'm bringing this up because, and it's good. It's really, really, really quite good. It's not Bombay Sapphire at this high proof. And I've gone through stages where I've drank Plymouth gin and, and drank it and you know, then put it down. It's not like I'm drinking gin all the time, but when I'm in the mood for it, I'm in the mood for it.
I buy Plymouth because it's a lower proof gin, and when you make a martini out of it, you kind of get that current. and that that kind of body in the, in the martini that a gin delivers without that, oh my God, I just had a gin martini and I'm [00:34:00] hammered kind of thing. Or you know what I mean? Or it's too much or too overwhelming.
And I thought maybe I would bring some onto the pod and just shake up some Martin, some of these gin martinis with this lower proof gin, which in and just see what people think of it because it's so pleasant. And I was just drinking it. And it's just like, it's so refreshing and so nice. And when you put a decent amount of vermouth in it, it cuts it again, and then it cuts it just a little bit.
When you stir with some icee, it cuts it again. So it's not this thing that's not approachable that I think people think gin martinis. It's like, oh my God, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get furniture polished in my mouth. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, it's tangerine. It's like this horrible thing.
There's a smooth and around aspect to this that if you were to have a gin martini, this could be an introduction to that. So I thought about maybe, you know, doing that to see, you know, [00:35:00] what folks think because it's a classic cocktail, it's a really, really classic cocktail for a reason, and it, it, it tastes good, you know?
So anyway, I, I, I don't, I'm,
**Gizmo:** listen, I'm in because I, I don't have a lot of great experiences with gin, but you have to give credit to, you know, all the different things that we've been able to try on the pod, if it's tequila, if it's cognac, if it's different beers that we've tried it, it's been very eye-opening.
So I, my, I'm, I'm totally game to try anything, especially a lower proof gin for sure. All right, boys, we're halfway through here. Uh, the Atta Bay. Robusto, what do you guys think of this thing? I think
**Pagoda:** it should out, it should be out of the bay. . . I think it's pretty good. No, no. It's, it's all right. Listen, I, I think the price point has just really disturbed me quite a bit already.
Yeah. 30 bucks is too much. I hold my reservations till the end. Yeah,
**Senator:** so I, I'm taking price point even out this for me, I, I really, honestly, if this cigars that great, I'll spend the 30 bucks on. I'm not concerned about that. The thing is, [00:36:00] the flavor, this has been enjoyable. There's nothing offensive. I, I haven't had any problem with this.
The most impressive thing still remains the construction. The construction's fantastic mean. My ash for the whole first half stayed on. I chose to ash it, so it's not all over me. The it it's flawless. I truly one of the best constructed cigars I've ever seen. Um, the problem for me though is just the flavor.
It, it's still two miles. I, I do want more out of this cigar. It's creamy. It's nice, you know, it, it's, there's so much to like about it, but this is still a morning stick for me. I'm waiting for how I would ever light this in the afternoon or in the evening and be that satisfied. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's, I'm getting's a morning.
It's a morning cigar with coffee. Yeah. I mean, to me that's, you know, the coffee will add the flavor for sure for a $30
**Senator:** coffee .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. What do you think of the cigar so far?
**Poobah:** You know, it's, it's, the construction is great. Um, The combustion has been very nice. [00:37:00] The burn has been very nice. Is the flavor profile really like, for me, not, you know, it's pleasant. I, I, I kind of just, I'll just concur with Senator in terms of the analysis. It's this kind of the same thing for me is, is, you know, is it slightly compelling?
Sure. Um, but is it better than any davidoff or the, probably not. And it just, it didn't, it's not a standout to me. It didn't stand out flavor-wise, like, where I was like, wow, like, woo. Like, or you get that re relaxing, whoa, , uh, these guys are really hurting me. They're breaking me up tonight. , the, uh, no, but it doesn't give you that.
Like, I was confused by it. Yeah. More than I was really, I, I would like, enjoyed
**Grinder:** it. You know, I would, I would echo your, your sentiment there. There's. A good barometer for a good cigar for me is if [00:38:00] you're, if I, if I'm, if I'm smoking a cigar, and I, and I like it enough that it, there's something in it that keeps me coming back and I'm focused on that and I'm like, wow, this is really good.
I get just as much enjoyment out of this, out of this cigar as I get from a decent cigar that I smoke when I'm mowing my lawn. Mm-hmm. , it's just something to, to puff on and, and slightly enjoy while I'm doing other shit. Like, there's nothing that I'm focused on where I'm like, where I'm doing the bam bam pounce with the, with the hand and, and the, the revelation of how great the cigar is.
There's nothing like that.
**Poobah:** Um, no. There, there, there's there No, there's no exclamation point on it. There's nothing that's like, that's, that's a great way to put it. There's no exclamation point. It's not like this is, and it's like, uh, yeah. You know, um, it's not bad, it's not unpleasant, but it doesn't. It's not, it's, it wasn't exciting to me.
**Gizmo:** I, I do think though, and this is maybe a stupid statement, but I [00:39:00] think if Grindr came in and said that this cigar was 12 bucks, I think I'd be like, wow, okay, maybe I should get a few of these for the humidor. Not that I'm gonna smoke them at night, but at 32, I think it's different than at 12 bucks. I just
**Senator:** go back to though, so this is where, for me, even at $12, I'm not sure this has a place for me in that I still don't think there's enough flavor at $12 for me to pick up this thing.
There's not, I go back to one of the most shocking cigars we reviewed was that Arturo Fuente Heming, um, the Hemingway Signature Hemming Hemingway signature. Yeah. Id never had that cigar. It's a great cigar. And that cigar, it, it's a mild, medium cigar. It's not a full cigar at all, which is not normally my speed.
I would like medium full. I was just shocked, like the, the nuttiness in that cigar, it had enough flavor that I could light that in the morning, even in the afternoon, and I would be satisfied. I could mow my lawn, have that cigar, and be very happy. This cigar has less flavor than that. I'm calling out that nutty [00:40:00] flavor that I got from that random, probably $10 Arturo Fuente cigar.
This cigar, I, I don't know what I'd even say stands out flavor-wise. Its' muzzled. It's just, it's like, it's just creamy and sweet, but there's nothing really distinct. You know, you could, we could name every single cigar brand and we would say, you know, a parus, it's got like that, that spice and, and cinnamon and all these things.
We could talk about an mond and the dessert, like flavored. I don't know what to say about an abi other than it's creamy. It's smooth. There's not much more
**Poobah:** there. And flawless construction and, and that, yeah. And, and you know, and, and it's a very handsome smoke, but I I just mean
**Senator:** for flavor. Yeah. For flavor.
Right. Like that's like the distinctive characteristic to me about each brand. Yeah. It's got a unique flavor profile. I can't say there's really a unique flavor other than it's creamy and it's a smooth, pleasant enough cigar. That's about it. I thought
**Pagoda:** this utility could lion, you know, and you meet somebody new who wants to try out cigars, who wants to try out a very nice cigar.
I think this could [00:41:00] be a really good
**Gizmo:** starter cigar. You could trust that this is gonna perform well. Certainly guess. I think this cigar is perfect for your father-in-law. I agree. He would, I think he would love it. He would enjoy this. Yeah. I mean, listen, he, he's
**Senator:** a but of the lighter cigars that he smokes, you put this at 30 something bucks a stick, he's not gonna touch it.
Every other one of those is a third of that price. Yeah. At most. and they're just honestly as good. Like the flavor that he'd get out of those
**Poobah:** is similar. Yeah. You know, I, I think the, the Hemingway, um, comparison's very interesting because that cigar for the, at that price point delivers just so much more.
It was great, um, than, than this, you know, I, I gotta be honest, if, if, totally be honest, Mia, if me and Rooster walked into a cigar lounge and he said, I'm gonna buy you a cigar, I'm gonna buy this aby. You want one or do you want to, or do you, or do you want a, a Hemingway? I'd say gimme the Hemingway. Yeah, same.
I agree. That was a great cigar. Y y you [00:42:00] know, like, gimme the Hemingway. I mean, um, uh, you know, it's, nothing stands out for me with this outside of the, the really immaculate construction.
**Grinder:** Yeah. It's got a nice, it's got a
nice
**Gizmo:** band though. And
**Poobah:** it's got . It's
**Gizmo:** got a real nice BK band.
**Poobah:** Nice, nice behi, knockoff band.
So,
**Gizmo:** so let me ask you another question because I have a pretty strong opinion on this. Uh, uh, totally not off officer cigars, but kind of I'm in the same mentality and I'm curious where you guys are at. We've talked a little bit on the group chat and outside of the podcast on the Derek Jeter, uh, espn, uh, 30 for 30 series, the Captain.
What do you guys think of it? Who's Jesus?
**Poobah:** Incredible. You love it? Yeah. I mean, I've watched, I think up through Epi episode five or maybe even [00:43:00] six. Yeah, it's, I think it's one of the most, one of the more honest, um, takes It's up, it's up there with the, with the Michael Jordan, 30 for 30. That's where I was going, is I'm, yeah, it's right there.
It's, yeah, the last dance. It's right there because. You know, he really doesn't. Um, he does something, what he's done his whole career, which is, which is he doesn't pull any punches and he is very, very honest about what his point of view is on a lot of different things, teammates, um, his own development as a player.
Um, but he presents those opinions in, um, a very, very, very, uh, Derek Jeter way, which is measured, uh, and uh, calibrated perfectly. Like, almost like in another life, if he wasn't a baseball player, he could have worked at a PR firm. That's [00:44:00] how Cal calibrated in how his overall worldview, how his parents influenced that.
It's all exemplified in this and how. That his whole, his upbringing in combination with his natural ability and talent and what he had to, and what he had to do to cultivate that and then preserve it on an ongoing basis is compelling. I, I
**Senator:** think that's right. I mean, the funny thing is when that came out, I, I was looking at just early reviews from some of the sports writers.
I was curious, is this, I was gonna watch it either way as a Yankees fan, but I was just curious if it's gonna be anything like the last dance, which I think is one of the greatest, like, I think it is the greatest, the gra Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm, I was trying to temper it. I'm right. Yeah, it is. I think it's flawless.
Yeah. Literally Flawless. And Jordan is just so honest. Yeah. About everything in that, and some of the early reviews I read were about how, oh, [00:45:00] you're not gonna learn anything new about Derek Jeter. He's so polished in it. He's not that honest. And having watched most of it, I think he's actually very honest.
He is. And I think Puma's Point, like he does it in his way. Like, you know, Michael Jordan is brutally honest in that, and that's just the kind of guy like Jordan was. I mean, right. This is a person who he's practicing with his teammates, and if a guy is not pulling his weight, he's in their face telling them he's beating up on him, that they're playing like garbage and they need to raise their level of play if they're gonna compete on this team and win a championship.
Derek Teeter is not that guy. Derek Teeter's not the guy that goes up to every player and is getting in their face about every single thing. He's the guy that's, you know, quiet, but very firm and confident and wants to make sure people are doing what they're doing. So he did it in his way that was authentic.
But I thought very honest. I mean, I loved how he, he's entirely transparent. He doesn't like Brian Cashman. Yep. They, they don't. , he will never forgive him for what he put him through with the arbitration. His final contract. Yeah. Well fir, yeah. First the [00:46:00] arbitration earlier in his career that he did wasn't paid enough and the Yankees wouldn't give him what he felt he was owed.
And he was right. And they took him to arbitration and he won. Had to fight for what he was worth. And then you look at later in his career, this guy's delivered several rings for that franchise, made them hundreds of millions of dollars, and he's sitting there saying, we're gonna haggle over, you know, a few million dollars on my contract.
Get the fuck outta here. I don't blame him at all. So I love that he was honest about stuff like that. . Um, and for me, you know, just some of the stories were just hilarious outside of Jeter, very much like the last dance. You know, some of the stories about Dennis Rodman in the middle of the NBA Vegas finals going off to Vegas and he's, he's, you know, uh, shacked up with Carmen Electra in a suite in Vegas and Jordan has to fly out.
That was a great story. It had nothing to do with Jordan that was about Rodman. Similarly, I just love some of the stories about Steinbrenner, like I couldn't believe they're talking about the 2000 subway series that Mets and Yankees in the World Series [00:47:00] and one him talking about how of any World Series that was the one that Steinbrenner could not entertain the thought of losing, made crystal clear to every single player, we must win this series.
We don't like you're outta here. That's just how he was. And I'm cracking up as I'm listening to him say they play the first two games at Yankee Stadium in that series next, or tour her at Shay Stadium at the time. This is funny, . And he goes, this is funny, you know, for, for, for the boss. The furniture in the visiting clubhouse in Shea Stadium was not to his standard.
And so Steinbrenner had the Yankee staff remove all the furniture out of the Shea Stadium visiting clubhouse and had them bring in the Yankees furniture from Yankee Stadium, just for the World Series. I'm sitting here saying What owner has ever done something so ridiculous to, he wanted it comfortable for
**Poobah:** the players.
**Gizmo:** For the players. He's furnishing, he's furnishing the enemy stadium. He's enemy stadium for his players.
**Senator:** It's unbelievable. So just little [00:48:00] anecdotes like that. I loved, loved it. I, I
**Gizmo:** will. Oh, and I'm sorry. No, no. I was just gonna say, I will say, you know, not to compare, but I did find the Jordan documentary, the, the Last Dance.
I felt like it was a little more raw, a little less calculated. I, I felt like they. They highlighted his flaws. I think him sitting there the way that he was, he's not as polished as Jeter is. Certainly. Um, I found that, I don't know, I don't want, I hesitate to use the word relatable, but I, I found him more of a human being.
I feel like Jeter's more of, a little bit more robotic in, in his presentation is,
**Senator:** but the thing that was really useful about it is it helped you understand why he felt he had to be that way. And I think a really important distinction is right, Jordan played in the Chicago media market, right? He was a global figure, but his home media market, right, where like all the beat reporters [00:49:00] every single day are there.
they're Chicago based. Derek Teeter's playing in New York, and the microscope in New York is, is, is more intense than anywhere in the world that you could possibly play a sport. And I think as he's going through it and talking about all these distractions and things that would happen and these huge stories that would blow out a proportion, something very simple or small that had happened.
It helped you understand why he had to be that polished and why he didn't want there to be any distraction. And there's a reason you'll never hear someone say, well, that's the thing. Oh, well can they, can they play in Chicago? Can they handle it? No one ever says that. But any media market, the question's always, when someone goes to play in New York, whether it's baseball, basketball, doesn't matter what the sport is, can they handle New York?
And for me, I thought it was really useful to just get people to see why he had to be as polished as he was and try to minimize distractions. And I did appreciate even his honesty. I mean, [00:50:00] he's sitting there talking about how when Arod, the whole steroid thing happened and Arod has to hold the press conference, and the whole team was there.
It was this sign of Unity. And Jeters just said, he's like, I didn't want to be. Well, that's,
**Gizmo:** no one wanted to be there. Yeah. No one wanted to be there. And he's
**Senator:** like, cuz it's a distraction. It's the last thing we need. He's like, every single story for the next month was about a ride hero.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Him and Pasada are the, you know, the original four.
Th they were pissed. They're like, this is, this is ridiculous. Yeah. Like, this is, this is a total disgrace, a total distraction. Which it was, he was very honest about how he felt betrayed by Arod, um, with the, with the, with the negative things that he said to, to the Vanity Fair reporter, I forget his name.
Um, but, or around, oh, well, Derek, well, you know, Derek really never had to really lead because he had such a, you know, such a great team around him where I, you know, had to, it's like, please man, please. [00:51:00] And, uh, and Jeter just comes out and goes, yeah, he, he flat out says to the camera, looking straight in it, but did he win?
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Senator:** No, and, and he admits, he's like, Arod by, by Stats is a better player than I ever was. Yes. He fully admits that. Yes. Yeah. But he says, my metric
**Poobah:** is winning. His metric is winning. And, but his, me also, he's been judged his whole career on these intangibles. And uh, you know, Michael Jordan had both of that.
He had, he had the intangibles plus he had just superior athletic ability. I mean, um, as an athlete, you know, there's really no comparison between I think a Michael Jordan and a Derrick, of course, Jeter of course as an athlete. I mean, uh, just pure athlete. Um, Michael Jordan's up there athletically with the best in the greatest ever, maybe the greatest ever up there with even like a Bo Jackson type of Sure.
Athletic ability. Right. So almost, uh, Bo Jackson may be the best pure athlete. Different discussion, but I mean, for different reasons. But, um, anyway, [00:52:00] he was honest and he was, but, and, and I don't think that he was being, uh uh, I think a lot of that is the way he actually, a lot of this what comes across as calculated or measured?
Well, I did think, you know, I think I, I mean, I think that is part of his authentic self. I don't think that he's totally, um, part of it and he admits it, is like, this is, I did this and I answered these questions and I handled the media in a certain way. But because I had to do that for all the reasons that Senator
**Gizmo:** stated, but there's a reason why he was in, you know, a single guy in New York for 20 years and there was never an article about.
Impro. Like craziness,
**Senator:** like, well, I mean, there wasn't, I mean, but, but I appreciate that he admitted, he said, I was lucky that I didn't play in the age of social. Yeah, it's media a different world. He admitted the social media would be different. He said my career would've been about three years long. [00:53:00] if I played today.
He did say that with the environment that're in because let's just be clear, this is not a guy who's a saint or anything. No, no. He was out. I mean, he says this and he's like, I could tell you every single night of the week the hottest nightclub in New York. I was at all of them. He's like, Monday, we went to the China Club.
Tuesday we went to here. I mean, he, he partied. There's no, he makes, there's no doubt, no apologies about that. But it wasn't front page where some idiot is videoing him, you know, dancing with some girl, and it's a big story that that just didn't exist then. So he was lucky in that
**Poobah:** regard. Sure he did. And he methodically talks about how he did put a wall around him.
He would go out, but he only lets certain people in his circle. So he was kind of smart about it and he mitigated, he, he mitigated risk.
**Gizmo:** So I, you know, listen, I, I would say no question that it's a recommend from the Lizards for sure. It's a great show. Watch the captain. And more
**Pagoda:** importantly, he himself is a lizard.
He is, he used to apparently order cigars from merchants in New York because there was a [00:54:00] time he was living somewhere in, you know, the Upper East Side or slightly lower, uh, but on the east side. And he would order cigars from merchants and these guys would run cigars to him and he would,
**Senator:** wow. Why isn't this told in the documentary likes a question.
This is when you said, you know, the last answer was raw. I just , I mean, we all know Michael Jordan. Jordan smoked
cigars
**Poobah:** during the interval. Yes. That,
**Senator:** that's, that's, and he was drinking too. He was drinking tequila. He's got his own tequila brand, right? He's drinking his tequila, he's having his cigar. And everyone knows that Michael Jordan's a cigar smoker.
But I loved how honest it was, where I ne never knew this, I couldn't believe watching the last dance. He's sitting there talking about how every bull's home game. on the bus ride over . He was smoking a cigar before the game on the team bus. Yep. I mean, that's one of the coolest things you
**Poobah:** could possibly, he's amazing.
He's the ultimate. He's the ultimate man. He's ,
**Senator:** he's the ultimate lizard. I mean, I'm listening to that and here I am watching the captain of Derek Cheerer [00:55:00] great documentary. I didn't even know he's a cigar smoker until Pagoda just said that.
**Grinder:** And,
**Pagoda:** um, and I, meaning the only person who can really confirm is him.
He's welcome to come and, you know, chime in into the podcast if he needs to. But, but, um, there's a guy called Russia I'll Needs to Work Then he, he kind of mentioned that and it was really interesting and I, I've seen him because a lot of the Yankees used to hang out in merchants after the games, and I'm talking about like late nineties, early two thousands.
Uh, I'm dating myself
**Senator:** here, but yeah. Merchants, by the way, legendary Cigar Bar in New York City.
**Gizmo:** Oh yeah,
**Poobah:** yeah. It's
**Senator:** still around. Well, yeah. I mean, it closed for four years. It reopened. It's not what it was, but it's, it's still a, it's still a good spot to check out.
**Gizmo:** So yeah, watch the, uh, watch the captain.
Very entertaining. Yeah. Derek Jeter's a legend for sure. All right, guys. You ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on the, uh, Mato Japanese whiskey? Not
**Pagoda:** on neither of them. . No, I'm just [00:56:00] kidding.
**Gizmo:** All right. Grindr, you're up.
**Grinder:** Uh, I'm
**Senator:** a three. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Whoa. That is the lowest. All right. Let's just say that's the lowest score ever given on a cigar or a liquor ever on the podcast.
**Grinder:** I, I, I would give a balmar, uh, scotch, like a one or a two. I ranked this just above it. Wow. That's where I gave for three. Wow.
**Senator:** Wow. Welcome back, Reinder. I love it.
**Gizmo:** Who? Pagoda. You know,
**Pagoda:** I did drink a whole class, so I'll, I'll say it's a six.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Senator? Uh, five. Yeah. Puba.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Uh, I'd say
**Gizmo:** a five. I'm absolutely in the same place.
Five since the first sip.
**Senator:** I mean, the reason I give it a five, like yeah, I, I mean, I I did drink it, it it's, it's not undrinkable. Yeah, but there's nothing all that pleasurable about it. Was it? Four eight. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Nice job. 4.8.
**Poobah:** I think it's funny how these pairings are working out when we rate the cigar . Do you, you cut.
It's like, it's like, it's funny. They just [00:57:00] seem to work out in a very weird way. Now we're, now we're, we're gonna go to this cigar that really nothing stood out, but the scotch or whatever you want to call it. Japanese whiskey taboo's point. Let's see what stood out with
**Senator:** the cigar taboo's point. I think I'm gonna start taking a quick sip of whatever we're pairing and I'll know what the cigars gonna be like.
for the rest of the episode. I wonder
**Pagoda:** how the gin episode's gonna turn
**Poobah:** out. , uh, probably not that good for you guys, but I'm
**Gizmo:** I, I'm coming in with an open mind for sure. All right, boys, you ready to rate the aba BHOs Robo? Yeah, let's do it. . Rusty, you're up. All right. So it's .
**Rooster:** It's not a bad cigar. It's definitely smokeable.
It's
**Gizmo:** got some
**Rooster:** attributes. It's, it's, you know, constructed Well, I
**Gizmo:** enjoyed the flavors. Would
**Rooster:** I go out and buy a box? I don't think I would. I mean, would I, somebody gifted me one. I would smoke
**Gizmo:** one
**Pagoda:** unless bam, bam. Shared it [00:58:00] with you. .
**Rooster:** But, so I'm, I'm gonna, it's, I'm gonna give it
**Gizmo:** a six. Okay. Puba.
**Poobah:** I don't know. Um, I'm tempted to even go lower than that, but because it was so constructed, so well, I don't think I can, I'll, I'll give it a six as well. It's not a five, but it's, it's, it's a six. It was, it's a
**Gizmo:** six Senator.
**Senator:** I'm in the exact same boat at a six and the construction is what got me to a six, I think similar to Puba.
Uh, but the reality is for the flavor this delivers, there are cheap yard cigars that I've had that have delivered as much or more flavor than this cigar. Uh, I would never smoke
**Gizmo:** this skin. Yeah, that's to Grindr's point. Pagoda,
**Pagoda:** yeah. Six. You [00:59:00] know, um, pretty much the same. Um, what's really interesting about this is that uh, there is some weight, obviously given to the construction, the smoke ability, it's so easy to smoke and it is creamy.
Um, but, uh, considering the price point, I think six is a pretty, pretty, uh, good rating. I think
**Grinder:** Grinder, I'm a five, I think it was. Um, I don't really care about construction as much. Uh, I've seen pretty shoddy made cigars that don't have invisible seams or a little rustic and smoke. Amazing. And I enjoy it.
I enjoyed this, but I didn't. It's just so underwhelming. Um, I'm a five.
**Senator:** I think one thing just quickly, I knew you're gonna give the composite rating that I didn't mention. We didn't really get to talk about the first half of this cigar. A lot of us described how creamy and sweet and dessert like, but [01:00:00] light.
This cigar was the second half of this cigar for me, especially the last third. It was just one lost all of the creaminess. This last third is not creamy. Yep. I would, would not at all describe it that way. It lost some of those sweet dessert like flavors that it started with. So, you know, another problem for me, if I even was chasing this really mild, creamy bit, uh, slightly sweet cigar.
It doesn't hold that all the way through the last third for me. I, I'm not getting anything other than tobacco. Yep. I mean, that's, that's really it. So that's also a problem
**Gizmo:** for me. So I'm in the same place. I was gonna give this a seven until the last third. You're, you just, you nailed exactly what I was gonna say.
The last third to me has been completely dull. So I'm gonna go with the sticks here for sure. And that makes the composite lizard score a 5.8. Is that the lowest?
**Pagoda:** I
**Gizmo:** don't know if it's, it's gotta be one of the lowest. It's, it's, it's not the [01:01:00] lowest, it's
**Senator:** not lower than the La Punta .
**Rooster:** La Punta was, LA Punto was in the force, I think.
**Gizmo:** Oh, really? Oh. So I
**Rooster:** mean, this cigar, like in the ABA series, a lot of guys talk about that. We should try the, uh, Lance Arrow. I don't know how much better the lanzaro can be from this, but you know how in the qd line, like the Corona's, sc Claro is like a totally different cigar. Maybe the Lanzaro might be.
Might be worth a shot.
**Gizmo:** I
**Senator:** can't wait to get all Connecticut rappers. It'll be perfect. .
**Gizmo:** I'm not, I'm not, I'm not dropping 30 bucks. Yeah. I don't know. Just to answer the questions, by the way, the, uh, the lowest rated cigar we've done on the pod was episode 13, the Hoya de Nicaragua, uh, an Antonio, which was a 5.0.
My father, the judge was a 5.6, and the La Punta that we just mentioned was a 5.9. So this is just a little under the La Punta actually, that's not
**Poobah:** a 5.8. Yeah. Yeah. Boy, that's, [01:02:00] that's for this price point and the way the cigars rolled and everything. Maybe there's an audience for this, but I don't know who it is.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, certainly not in this room.
**Grinder:** That's for sure. So those listeners that are asking us to review it, we reviewed it.
**Gizmo:** Yep. , it's a 5.8 .
**Poobah:** I mean Yeah. Buy a Hemingway. I, you know Yeah. Buy anything out . Yeah. I don't know. I mean,
**Gizmo:** It's not a value stick.
**Senator:** No, it's not. I mean, look, I just wanna say I, I, if it sounds too good to be true, it's, it, it, it's, there's something wrong, right?
I, I just, every single cigar that comes with this hype around it, I've been disappointed by it. It's a gimmick. I, I really like some of the hundred percent, the best cigars that we have found that we love are not cigars that are overly hyped or anything of that sort. You know, we've heard, so this was supposed to be the Cuban killer.
Clearly it is not. Absolutely not. How many cigars New World have we heard the Padron Killer? You know, we reviewed [01:03:00] some Monty Christo anniversary thing they had put out number two of the year. Yeah. Number two of the year. That's not a patron drone killer. She's not, you know, it's, and then it's unexpected cigars.
Like we review this ep, Carillo Elena aor and we're like, this may be the most petron like thing we've actually had outside of Petron. And we gave it a pretty good rating. No, there was zero hype
**Gizmo:** about that cigar. How about the EUC or the euc? Another great example. The
**Poobah:** Foundation Tabernac. No. Yeah, the Ellucian was a really terrific cigar and I know nothing.
You know, I had no pre preconceived notions and I still don't even know anything about Ellucian. I know little about the Abe besides the, the designer of the band and whatever, and some of that controversy. If this was a good cigar, I certainly would've said so. Yeah. You know, um, but to me, you know, not, not that big of a standout.
Uh, what was
**Grinder:** disappointing to me was I, I actually enjoyed the one we had. What was that, two years ago now? Three what? [01:04:00] The Toro, three years, I guess. Three years ago, right? Yeah. Oh, two years maybe. Um, and this didn't
**Gizmo:** even meet that I was gonna, you know, I was gonna ask you. I'm glad you brought that up. I like that.
How it compare to
**Grinder:** the Torah. Well, I mean, it's, it was so long ago. Yeah. But what I remember, I remember liking. and liking it enough to be like, okay, I, I wanna smoke more of these. I don't ever wanna smoke this. Yeah. And
**Gizmo:** we're
**Senator:** also under the microscope here, but I have a slightly different perspective. I mean, I, I didn't like that cigar.
And, and so for me, that's why I was hoping, I mean, truly rooting for this cigar to be better than my experience then, because my issue with it was the construction was gray. Like all it checked, all the rudimentary boxes, but the flavor, and I had said this to Grindr at the time, it just left me wanting so much more.
Yeah. And felt very short. So for me, this is a problem within the line. It's not just this one cigar that we had. This is exactly what I remember my first experience with Nabi being. Yeah. Is
**Poobah:** it having, does anyone know if it's having commercial? [01:05:00]
**Gizmo:** I mean, from a hype standpoint, my, I, I want to say yes, but I don't know,
**Poobah:** but I haven't seen it in CA's ratings high.
Has it been high
**Gizmo:** anywhere? I don't think it's terribly available. I, I, I don't think it's a cigar. You're fine. I, I, I even at the b and m that, uh, Grindr got it at today. They got it there like two or three weeks ago. So I think it's just coming into being available, you know, pretty, pretty regularly. Yeah.
It's, it's a boutique brand. Yeah.
**Senator:** It's not that big. Yeah. And it's clearly well marketed because you ask people about this cigar and they like think it's this holy grail of New World cigars in, I'm sorry, it's just not
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You know, it's the first third. We're certainly better, no doubt. San Sans par. Yeah,
Yeah. But
**Senator:** their cigars are much better than this. Yeah. I mean, I will be, but they're
**Rooster:** also over, you know, really overpriced. Yeah. High, I mean, 50 bucks a
**Gizmo:** stick. Yeah. Yeah. All right, boys, 5.8 on the ATA Bay Brew hosts Ra Robusto, thanks to our host, our, uh, our clubhouse, our lounge, 10 86 Grindr. Thanks for, uh, grabbing the [01:06:00] cigar in the Japanese whiskey.
And, uh, we'll see you guys next week. Keep smoking. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge lizards pod, p o d, that's 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.