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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Ep. #205: Romeo y Julieta Dianas (Línea de Oro) (w/ Planteray XO 20th Anniv. Rum, Lizard's Favorite Timepieces, Gizmo Pronunciation Vindication, Cigar/Watch Culture Parallels, Finding Lizard to Split Boxes With & HAV Cigar Seizures)
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Gizmo: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Senator, chef Ricky, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some rum, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 205th 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.
We return to Cuban cigars after five weeks. We share a listener voice memo on New Orleans, and the guys answer an email and do a deep dive on their favorite time pieces, all numbing, a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink. Light up a cigar and enjoy as we pair Planter XO 20th anniversary rum with Romeo Julieta.
Dianas, a Robusto extra from Romeo Julieta on the [00:01:00] pod tonight, boys. And we are back to Cuba with the Dianas
Bam Bam: from Cuba with Love
Gizmo: 52 ring gauge cigar by five and three quarters inches long. It's interesting. We haven't done a Cuban cigar in five weeks, correct? The cadence has certainly changed. And we have a cigar in our hand from the line day Oro of Rome, Juliet, the celebrating the hundred 45th anniversary and the most recent line released by Romeo Heta.
So quite the, uh, the show, how this does tonight,
Bam Bam: rugged looking cigar.
Gizmo: It, I was looking at the wrapper. Bam. It,
Bam Bam: it doesn't look great. No, this is like a clean Eastwood cigar. Okay. Jesus, look at this thing. I mean, clear seams. I feel like this is gonna lift on me.
Rooster: You mean like the good, the bad, the ugly?
Bam Bam: Correct. It could be the good and bad ugly tonight.
Gizmo: I'm hopeful. I've heard good things about the cigar. We did have success with the Parus Linea [00:02:00] series. You know, the Reto, you know, these new wines from Cuba have been doing well. This line is only a few years old. So let's cut this thing boys. Shoot. We're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper.
Wow. Wide open. Draw
Bam Bam: a unique flavor profile on this cold draw. I almost wanna say mint.
Gizmo: Hmm.
Bam Bam: A faint spearmint. Mm-hmm. But the cedar, yeah. Faint cedar. Everything's really faint. Nothing overwhelming. Very nice. Mm-hmm. I'm getting
Chef: a little rosemary. I got some like woody stem.
Bam Bam: Little, yeah. Nutty. I get minty.
Yeah. More nuttiness for me, but I'm getting a sweet cereal on the wrapper.
Senator: Like the rice. I got the rosemary that chef mentioned. This is really bizarre. Mm. That's a, I've never gotten a note like that. Yeah. On the cold draw of a Cuban cigar. Correct.
Gizmo: Or any cigar for that matter. It's like Thanksgiving. I kind of like it.
Chef: Yeah.
Gizmo: We're gonna, we have a soy ball tonight. There you go.
Chef: That's It's great. It's like [00:03:00] Ted, it's like a dried stuffing. Opening a bag. Yeah. You're all set.
Rooster: I think it's more like tarragon. He's ignoring me.
The art of deflection ban.
Bam Bam: Not in this room.
Gizmo: All right, boys, let's like this thing. The Romeo Julieta Dianas from Cuba, again, it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by five and three quarters inches long. A rib Robusto extra. Its factory name is the Damas, D-A-M-A-S.
Rooster: Damas. Have you noticed how the bands are kind of loose?
Yeah. They're coming off. It's kind of like slides off very loose. Yeah.
Bam Bam: A foot band. That's how we know GIZ got fakes. Correct.
Gizmo: Listen, anything's
Bam Bam: possible these days. Boys. Do we know what factory these are rolled in?
Gizmo: Yes. The factory code on this is BRM July, 2024. Is that a prison factory or, you know, you know, I was thinking about that as I pulled these tonight, like after the [00:04:00] conversation we had last week about that La Corona.
Right? This is La Corona. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the so is the prison ones correct? They said it's Corona stack apparent. Apparently. So it's brutal. Brutal.
Senator: Let's check this out. Draw is wide open and the combustion is awesome. Oh, combustion's great. Oh, and I think it's very good off the light.
Bam Bam: I like this.
Chef: Yeah. Nice start. I could tell this is gonna lean a little sweeter. Sure. It's gonna give us some good baking spice.
Bam Bam: I'm getting like a faintly sweet carbohydrate type of cereal thing for me.
Yeah.
Gizmo: I think the thing that we can note already and we'll see if it appears, and I'm not surprised to say this, but that kind of cherry note that we would expect from Romeo is absent here on the light. And normally when you light or Romeo, when we've lit Romeos in the past, I always get that kind of cherry note.
Now, we did not get it on [00:05:00] the Romeo, the, the Churchill we did a few weeks ago, but it seems like the newer releases that's absent, which I guess is a change, getting a faint white pepper here guys, just
Chef: a touch
Gizmo: maybe.
Chef: You know, ever? Yeah. A little bit. Ever since, uh, the last pod, I've been hesitant to call out Pepper because I'm, you know, I'm like, let me touch just above the burn line here and see where we're at.
You know, maybe I need to slow down. I've been catching myself a lot in the car lately, especially smoking with the window cracked open and the wind rushing through to, it's kind of changed my, uh, my approach a lot. It's good. It forces you to be patient. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. This is
Senator: very good.
Gizmo: Yeah, it's nice on the light.
Senator: Yeah. Interesting. I don't know, I'm, I'm on the fence. Yeah. This is more savory than sweet right now for me, which I wasn't expecting. Um. And I'm not sure that I'm loving, so I don't know. I, I gotta see where the journey takes me.
Bam Bam: It is, it is unusual. There is something I can't put my [00:06:00] finger on. Almost like an anise type thing happening maybe.
Or that rosewater may have developed further, which I'm not used to than a cigar
Chef: rosewater
Bam Bam: rose or whatever. Rose. Rosemary. Rosemary.
Senator: Yeah. It's like rosewater.
Chef: Yeah. No, there's definitely like a tanic Soapiness. Yeah. To the rapper that reminded me of rosemary or anise is a good as well. Or Tara guy Tara's just a little woodier.
This is a strange start.
Gizmo: I know, but I like it. I'm finding mine very pleasant with I like it too. I'm with you. I do. I think I'm benefiting, maybe senator's not, I'm benefiting from a slightly resistant draw. There is a little bit of,
Bam Bam: you're also benefiting from Cuba being Cuba right now,
Gizmo: correct?
Bam Bam: Correct.
But I like this
Rooster: so far. I do like it too. Yeah. I mean it's pleasant. It's not, you know, the construction is good. Mm-hmm. Combustion is good and you know, it's too early to tell like what, you know, what it develops [00:07:00] into. But so far it so good.
Chef: A slow retro hill. Re rewards you with a little sweetness. Yeah, that's sweet.
And a little peppery.
Bam Bam: It's a little peppery. The retro hill on the initial part of it. And on the finish I'm getting like a sweeter carbohydrate. Just a little like a faintly sweet cereal type thing.
Senator: Mm-hmm. If you had this many puffs of this blind, would you guess this is an rj No way. I, no, me neither. I don't, absolutely not.
That's why I'm thrown off. 'cause I like, there's a very clear profile for an r and j cigar. And this is such a departure that like I'm totally thrown off. Yeah. Correct. It's different. Yeah. Don't
Gizmo: forget, when we did the par Agus, uh, line Mara, uh, we did that Reto line. Mm-hmm. And really until, I would say the last quarter of the cigar, not even the last third, the last quarter.
Rooster: Unlike, unlike anything part,
Gizmo: remember we were getting like buttered popcorn? Yeah. That was the note. We, that's right. Were chasing and salted buttered popcorn. Yep. And then finally at the end, we got a little bit of that particles, DNA, this is the sister line for Romeo to what we [00:08:00] experienced with Parus.
Obviously this one came first.
Bam Bam: Yep.
Gizmo: I bet they used the same tobacco in this, it could be the same cigar. Who knows?
Bam Bam: I'm looking at everyone's burn line. Looks pretty good overall.
Rooster: Mm-hmm.
Bam Bam: I'm a little uneven here. I would've guessed blind that this is a Ramon Ionis.
Gizmo: I was gonna say that. Yeah. I'm getting that kind of a rassy
Senator: Sure.
Mouth feel from this. I could see that. And even there's a, a bit of, this reminds me of the nuttiness, um, the, the Ramon, um, that liata the 2019, the green box. Oh, the number two. Yeah. There's some similar notes.
Bam Bam: Hmm. This definitely keeps your attention. It does.
Gizmo: It's intriguing.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: So boys, this line, the Linea de Oro was announced in 2020, finally released in late 2021.
That's how Haos always does it. Of course, this cigar assisted to the algos, which is a re robusto 57 ring gauge. By four and seven eighths inches long. [00:09:00] And the NOIs, which is a Pyramid 56 ring gauge by five and three eighth inches long. So this is actually the smallest ring gauge cigar in this new wow line from Romeo.
So, you know, obviously carrying the trend that we've been talking about for a long time that mm-hmm people are moving in the direction of bigger cigars.
Bam Bam: Sure. What do you think of the band design on this?
Gizmo: I think it's
Bam Bam: okay. It's definitely a departure.
Gizmo: These do come in very, very nice boxes. Red lacquer boxes.
Of course, you know, you're paying for packaging with these cigars. I'm kind of not loving the band. It's okay.
Senator: Yeah, I feel the same. I mean, normally I like gold in a band. Me too. But there's, there's so much of it. There's not enough contrast. It's like you can barely read like Dianas at the bottom. Mm-hmm. A lot of the artwork you can't even see 'cause it's just gold on gold.
That's right.
Rooster: It needs to be more red.
Senator: Yeah.
Rooster: Yeah.
Senator: Yeah. To balance
Gizmo: it out
Bam Bam: a bit.[00:10:00]
Gizmo: So boys, these cigars come in boxes of 20. It's the only way you can get them. And if, if you can get them. If you can get them. And the price, currently the price we paid for this box of cigars was $920 or 46 bucks a cigar.
Bam Bam: That is a $46 a cigar. That's an investment.
Rooster: I think when they first came out, they were about that price, if not a little bit more.
Gizmo: Yeah, that's, I think they've always hovered around that. Is that right? $50,000? Yeah. Oh
Rooster: wow.
Gizmo: So they, that actually might have been a little bit of a discount, I think So. Versus what they wore, what they were then
Bam Bam: have you had this rooster?
Rooster: Um, I did get a box of these. Um,
Bam Bam: did you try it or
Rooster: No, I did not.
Because from what I read, it needed it need, it needed to sit for a bit.
Bam Bam: So you let 'em go?
Rooster: So I just let them go. Yeah. I think I got them from Cyprus. Mm-hmm. You know, the [00:11:00] Yeah, yeah. Something we used to buy from. Yeah. I just don't remember if I got the Dianas or the Nobles or the algos.
Gizmo: Well, was it a pyramid or was it a robusta?
It wasn't a pyramid, so it's gotta be, the pyramid was
Rooster: larger than this, so it,
Gizmo: yeah, it would be the algos. Yeah, the nolis is the pyramid. The, uh, IGOs is the rub. Robusto 57 by a little under five inches long.
Rooster: This is pretty good so far.
Bam Bam: Where would you put the flavor profile Firmly? Medium. I'd say me a little lighter and low.
I'd say lighter than
Rooster: that. Really? I'd say between a mild and a medium, just I'd say mild, medium. Just a step below. Medium though. It's
Chef: like a medium minus. I'm pretty firmly medium in my opinion. Yeah,
Bam Bam: I, I would firmly medium. I, and I think because it's so firmly medium, it's, it's, it's capturing your attention because it's got, I think, a great punch here.
It's not overwhelming. There's pretty good amount of flavor. It is starting to get a little muddled right now for me. I'm kind of having a hard time [00:12:00] discerning and we're only a half inch in. It feels like it's changing quickly for me.
Chef: I'm getting a little of that soft pepper that you mentioned earlier.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm
Bam Bam: still getting
Chef: that. Um, which I like. Yeah, I, I'm not, I don't eat it.
Rooster: Anybody get like a, like a little creamy almond kind of thing? Like a little nut?
Bam Bam: Yeah. On the traditional draw. I'm getting something that's kind of creamy. Um, not almond, but um,
Chef: yeah, I think the smoke is creamy for sure.
Yeah.
Bam Bam: There's a creaminess That sweet carbohydrate's still there for me. A touch.
Gizmo: The way I would describe this flavor profile right now, it's odd, it's odd to me. It's all over the place. It's, it's very much, it feels little disconnected out left field. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Feels undecided.
Gizmo: Yeah,
Chef: it does. I feel like there's little, little hints of leather trying to sneak their way in here, but I'm not sure if they want to really come through on the aroma or on the actual draw.
On the draw itself. The, the retro for me is, is, is sweet carbohydrate as BA's pointing out. But the [00:13:00] traditional draw for me is a little spicier, some leather peeking through. Um, no cream at all. The smoke itself is creamy. Yeah. And the retro hill is creamy, but on the traditional draw, no, no cream. For me, aroma is nice.
I like that aroma a lot. Mm-hmm. What year
Gizmo: did
Chef: you say these are?
Bam Bam: 24. Slight hint of floral and aroma for me.
Gizmo: Are you, are you asking that question? 'cause you're, you're wondering if there's a youth issue here? No, I
Senator: was, uh, surprised by the creaminess. Mm-hmm. Which typically would come with some decent amount of age, so I'm honestly surprised to hear you say it's just a year old.
Chef: Yeah, it's true. They are smoking to,
Senator: it seems like
Chef: they're smoking a bit older. Is it true that the rapper on this is aged slightly more? It looks, I mean, I don't believe anything that they
Gizmo: say
Chef: that's true. Well,
Gizmo: you know, so if that's the story they're telling, fine. But, you know, I'm not sure if you know what the, what the real story is here.
Rooster: I mean, you would think if it's a special release that the tobaccos are a bit [00:14:00] more aged. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I read two years.
Senator: So I just suddenly got like a bit of a blast of salt. Me too. Which is actually very helpful. I think. Why I've not really loved the start of this, all those like herbaceous notes. It, it would be like having a meal with like a bunch of herbs but no salt, which is not pleasant.
Exactly. It's not, that's not fun. It's just like dry and woody. And now with the salt, it's like starting to like my pal is salivating, like I'm actually starting to appreciate the flavor. So I hope this stays. That would definitely help it. But I think that's what I was having a hard time with initially.
Gizmo: I will say, you know, I was talking about the resistant draw.
I took another cut. Like a legit cut
Bam Bam: resistant.
Gizmo: Yeah. It was just slightly resistant. I was saying before I took it out, the, A dimple came out and my draw is wide open and, and I just had the same experience You did. I just got a full blast of flavor, you know, highlighted by a lot of
Bam Bam: salt. What I'm not liking is that how wide open the draw is.
Mm-hmm. For me, I feel like I can blast through this in 20 minutes and move on. [00:15:00] Um, not a merit, which for $46 Yeah. You don't wanna do. No, it's, it's also feels very light to me. It does. It feels underfilled, honestly. Yeah. Not, also, also not a good thing.
Gizmo: I was looking at the feet, uh, of these cigars when we, I was bringing them in and they all looked shockingly good for mm-hmm.
Cuban construction. Usually when you see a box of cigars, you can look at the feet on them and generally you see a few that are, you know, are gonna be, you know, fighting. Yeah. And it's not the case tonight with these No. Which is good. So, yeah. Agreed. Thank God I'd, I'd rather them underfilled than overfill.
Yeah. But I would like a little bit more resistance in my draw. Hmm. Touch. I agree. Yeah. So I looked up the launch information of this line, so I'll share some of that with you. Now, most of this is coming from Cigar Fido. So Romeo Julieta, the brand turned 145 years old in 2020, the final Haos Festival before COVID.
So I think it [00:16:00] was that last week of February, kind of a couple weeks before the world shut down, was the last, you know, Havana's festival for, for a year or two years, really. Uh, and they celebrated on the Friday night Gala dinner, the Linea Day oral launch, the Comm Commemorative Cuban gold line, they said, and it's a high-end addition to the main Romeo brand as we discussed.
Much the way that the, uh, line in 1935 with the Monte Cristo brand that we, we smoked, obviously Cohiba Bahi, and the part Degas. Maestro. So all of those are kind of in the same line of thinking, 20 cigars to a box. Lacquer, they all have a distinct color to them. Monte Cristo Brown Parus has that odd blue that's weird for Parus.
This one obviously Bright screaming red for the Romeo brand. So we'll see what comes next. As far as the linear series out Parus,
Rooster: maybe yellow for Trinidad,
Gizmo: I, well, I don't know if they would do [00:17:00] Trinidad 'cause it's not a global brand. I'm wondering if it's gonna be oil, if it's gonna be up, man, or um, you know, something else.
Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, I don't know what to think of this cigar right now.
Chef: I, I think the pairing iss gonna really help it from what I'm smelling on the nose of this pairing. I think it's gonna go really well with it.
Gizmo: Alright, let's do it boys. Thank you. Little early, but we'll try it 'cause this is an odd
Senator: flavor here.
Staring at my glass.
Gizmo: So we have the planter. XO 20th anniversary rum from Barbados tonight. Cheers boys. Cheers. Cheers. And a note to listeners out there, this was formerly called Plantation Rum. Obviously, I think all of us can understand why they changed that name here in the United States to planter re probably a little bit better of a marketing move.
Bam Bam: Did you hit that yet? I did not. It's
Gizmo: fucking good. Oh my God, that's, no, I [00:18:00] like it. Oh, that's like a honey forward cough syrup. I don't know.
Senator: No,
Gizmo: I don't like this at all. This is very honey forward for me. I, I don't
Bam Bam: agree with you. I, I, I like it. What's the, do we know what the sugar content Well, like how's the, what's the, the, the profile of this thing and how it's made.
Senator: So when I looked it up, do you remember we did the Bacardi eight year? Mm-hmm. It's the same as that. What do you mean? The same as that same sugar content, which is, was it 32? Was it no lower than that? Four grams lower 32. We'd be diabetic by the end of this.
Bam Bam: How many? I still feel like I might be with this.
This is up, um, I think it's like 19, 19 grams. Yeah. An the entire bottle. Oh, fuck. That's why I like it. It's like dessert in a glass. I don't think it's that sweet though. I don't get that tonight. I'm, I'm getting hit with sweet sugar. I'm usually getting that, but I mean, I'm getting sweetness, but honestly it's pretty drinkable.
It doesn't
Senator: taste like there's 19 grams in this.
Bam Bam: If it's that sweet, you may need a chip or two of ice. I really don't like it. [00:19:00] Okay. Go home.
Gizmo: Listen. Just hit the space bar. You guys are done. I got the rest of it. Perfect. Yeah, that's very odd. And mi, mine might put a splash of water. Water. There's actually ice here too.
If you, did you put any in yours? No. No. Normally with Ram I don't, unless I want it to be cooler. I'm try now.
Chef: I'm just curious. I guys, I would really, the alcohol content on this feels very low. I think if you add ice, you're gonna not in maybe some water. No, same thing. Yeah. I'm not loving that 40% standard.
Yeah. It just feel it is drinking very, how do, what do you think about it, chef? Um, I I don't think it's cough syrup.
Gizmo: Like,
Chef: no,
Gizmo: I'm just going cough syrup. The reason why I say that is I, I really have an aver. I hate honey. Number one. Ah, I don't like the flavor of honey. Number two,
Bam Bam: how do you get through life without liking honey?
Yeah. Like I, that's a very odd thing. That's a thing for me. I ha I have
Gizmo: always disliked honey since I was a kid. I love honey. I can live without, I can't stand. It's disgusting to me. [00:20:00] Wow. I love all
Bam Bam: kinds
Chef: of honey.
Bam Bam: Alright, give it a shot. Senator. Senator. Put some water in his spirit. Honestly, it's really nice.
So we should follow. We'll give it a shot. Yeah. Chef, I'm opening your bottle.
Gizmo: Go for it. It even smells like honey on the nose.
Chef: Yeah, it is very honey forward, but it's not, it doesn't have that viscosity. It doesn't have that presence of honey, but it does have, uh, yeah. I get more vanilla than honey. Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah, me too. I get like honeyed wood. If, if, what does that mean?
Gizmo: You've never, you've never honeyed wood.
Senator: I got a shovel ready Chef. I'll help you dig yourself out.
Chef: I think I would need a,
I like a woody, like a woodiness with honey's. Yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, this, this room has gone through some aging. It's obvious there, there's, you know, oak present. You know, I, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a, [00:21:00] a bourbon and. I don't know, maybe cognac maybe or something. I mean, I'm getting just like kind of tannic wood, so I, has anyone ever like chewed on bark or, or sucked on bark or nobody's anybody in here a bar sucker?
Nobody's been to the countryside. Chocolate bark, but not tree bark. Nobody's been to the countryside of the Caribbean. And just kind of follow suit. No. No. All right. Well closest to that is sugar cane. Sugar
Bam Bam: cane, I was about to say. Sure.
Chef: Even sugar cane. Exactly. Yeah. Like some, you know, after a while you kind of suck on it and, and you know, obviously in the beginning it starts very intense.
Those flavors really come through, but then as it kind of sits in your mouth, it just kind of like waters out. And this, it's very faint. That's what this reminds me of. There's a very faint honey there. Uh, but there's obviously influence from other things. Whatever. This spirit has been aged in. So
Senator: there's a interesting thing about their aging process.
I'll just say a little bit about, uh, plantar ray, because how they make their rum is very different. [00:22:00] Um, so they're famous for their double aging where they first age it in Barbados, it doesn't specify the oak. I imagine it varies obviously expression to expression, but then they transfer it to French Oak Cas in France for a second agent.
Oh wow. There's, there's the cognac.
Chef: Yeah. Interesting. Um, and I'm sure for their initial agent, they have to be using X bourbon barrels. I mean, that's what everybody's doing. I would think so.
Senator: And then the other thing that's interesting they do is. For a number of expressions. They actually, it seems, blend different rums in some of them that are from Barbados, but also places like Jamaica, Fiji, Australia, Peru.
So they're like a lot more experimental than a lot of the other distillers that are like very traditional. Everything's from the estate. Mm-hmm. Um, so it kind of interesting what they do. Yeah. I'm surprised you hate it so much.
Gizmo: It's probably my least favorite rum so far that we have done on the podcast.
Okay.
Senator: I'm shocked by that.
Gizmo: Yeah. I real like at the Bacardi, I'll take [00:23:00] over this. I'm trying to think of other, I'll take the Mount Gay. I really like that. That was good. I mean, for an xo this is not for me.
Chef: Hmm. There, there's, there's a, for me, there's a roundness that's missing. Right. That's exactly how
Bam Bam: I feel about it.
Chef: Yeah. There's like, there's a circle. But then the circle cuts off. There's some portion of that circle that's missing.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Chef: Um, that's in knocking it a little out of balance, but what it's presenting it, it's pleasant. The honey's good. It's drinkable. Yeah. Yeah.
Bam Bam: How
Senator: much was this bottle? So Total Wine sells it for 48 a bottle.
Pretty reasonable. Yeah. For
Chef: Anl. Yeah. Considering they ship it from Barbados to France for further aging and I
Rooster: mean, just the plane ticket,
Bam Bam: you know. It is, it is fairly sweet. I think this would be a great post dinner drink.
Senator: Yeah. I mean, I I'll say with this cigar, it's nice with this. I like that this is like a, a sweeter, kind of richer rum.
It's helping the cigar that has lacked sweetness for me. Mm-hmm. And I think like [00:24:00] other sweeter rums that would do well with this cigar, like Santiago, Cuban rum mm-hmm. Lean sweeter. Especially like that 20 year is like, almost syrupy like it's, it's an intense rum. I think Havana seven would be nice too.
Yeah.
Bam Bam: Florida Kano. I think that all rums would be great with this.
Gizmo: I almost wanna go to my locker and get
Bam Bam: Florida, Kanye right now. Hate I I really hate this. You're not allowed to do that. This,
Gizmo: I really hate this one. Did you try it with water? No, I don't have any water. Can you pass it over? There's un open wa unopened water right here.
Yeah. I don't need unopened, dude. You can just gimme yours. I don't care.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Rooster won't send you a silver. So,
Gizmo: so I've put some water in my glass here. We'll see if this improved it at all. Oh boy.
Bam Bam: That's horrible.
Gizmo: I really, really, really dislike this rum. Wow. This is crazy. I don't understand. It is so, uh, it is like. I, I'm almost getting nauseous. Drinking. I, that's how much I dislike.
Rooster: Can I, can I smell it?
Gizmo: Yeah. Why don't you have it?
Drink it. It can rate for me. What did you [00:25:00] eat? Nothing. I ate, I ate a pretty simple meal. I had, uh, chicken with broccoli tonight. There's no, nothing special. No sauces, nothing. Yeah. It smells no carbs.
Rooster: Smells like alcohol. What an assessment. Thank you for that insight. Ster. Smells. Smells
Gizmo: like rum. It does.
Rooster: I mean, it doesn't smell offensive.
No. All I'm
Gizmo: not saying it smells offensive, but for my palate, yeah. I really don't like it.
Chef: I think it that, that, that goes to show how, just how much it tastes like honey. It reminds you of honey because It does, it does. Remind of that. Yeah. So
Bam Bam: what's interesting too, I don't think it takes much to satisfy you.
So I think a glass of this will last quite a long sit. Um, this is gonna last me all night. Yeah. I mean, maybe into tomorrow. I kind of like that. I mean, there's, I have one glass of it. It's very satisfying. It's sweet. Easy to drink. Nothing wrong with it.
Gizmo: So I have a question for you guys that I've never, we've never talked about this.
This is episode 205. I've never had this. So you guys are [00:26:00] raving about this rum. Well, I'm not raving about it. No. Well,
Senator: you're why? You gotta be such extreme. Jesus, Jesus. You guys are enjoying the rum. You're just saying that like, it's pleasant. It's not offensive.
Chef: I don't like it at all. It's drinkable.
Gizmo: But here's my
Chef: problem.
Am I raving? It's serviceable.
Gizmo: It's serviceable. Uh, from my perspective, I'm actually having a little bit of an existential ratings crisis right now. Mm. Because I don't know if it's, I, I don't think it's a bad product, but for me it's really, really opposite of what works on my palette. That's okay. So I'm having a, a rating problem there.
'cause it's not like,
Rooster: maybe it will get better. Maybe it'll open up or, yeah, we'll see. I'll keep
Gizmo: trying it. Yeah. All right boys, let's go to some news now. Got a lot of stuff going on, a lot to get to tonight. First up, this is very exciting. A lot of folks have emailed us about it. I know we've talked about it.
Bon Roberts cigars are now in the United States available on the fabric of five [00:27:00] website. Wow.
Bam Bam: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Gizmo: So what's great about this is for folks who maybe don't wanna shell out for a 50 cab of the bond, Roberts 1 0 9 or the petite 1 0 9, you can now get them in. If you guys remember when Rob and Hamlet were here, we saw the variance of the 10 count boxes that they had, and they now are shipping 10 count boxes of the Bon Robert cigars from Florida.
So. The Bon Roberts 1 0 9 Linea D number one, the Petite 1 0 9, Linea D number six are available right now on fabrica zero zero five.com. The new box is designed by an angel Miranda Battle Battle
Bam Bam: Battle, a
Gizmo: battle a, the creative mind behind some of the most coveted hano, specialty humidors. And, uh, they are awesome 10 count boxes.
So check those out. FABRICA zero zero five.com. I'm so happy that they're finally available. Cool. And also available our limited release cabinets of 50. Uh, they have [00:28:00] very limited stock and their plan is to only produce them every few years. Uh, something special for the collector is as Rob says here. So check it out.
Go get some bond. Robert Cigars on fabrica zero five.com.
Senator: Do they come with a hand signed, uh, card from Rob? I think they do. I hope so.
Gizmo: I think so. I only
Senator: order those to collect Rob's autograph.
Bam Bam: Correct. And you make sure you say, we love you, Rob.
Gizmo: So here's another one, boys. This one we've talked about before, we've, some of us have experienced it.
Bam Bam: Somebody's planting a seed over there. I can see a beautiful plant rising.
Gizmo: So the Havana Airport folks have really stepped up their aggressive seizure of cigars at the, at the airport. From folks leaving the island with cigars that they don't have fact tota or receipts for.
Rooster: I mean, the country really does not want you to go there. What
Gizmo: the, why they don't, they don't want you to go there.
What is the point of them doing that? I think what they're [00:29:00] saying is if you don't have a receipt for them from a legitimate, so a legitimate retailer. That they were either stolen from a factory, they were kind of out the back door and they didn't receive their cut. They want their money. They want their cut.
Rooster: That's true.
Gizmo: So
Rooster: why don't you concentrate on fixing the God infrastructure or the power to the Oh, that doesn't make them money, power.
Bam Bam: No, no.
Gizmo: Yeah, that cost them money. Tru Kilo,
Rooster: bring tourists in. Come on.
Gizmo: So this one is from Cuba, headlines.com. In a significant bus, Cuban customs officials have seized more than 7,300 loose cigars, along with 64 boxes at Havana's Airport.
At least 1200
Chef: of those are Pagodas,
Gizmo: correct?
Chef: That's
Gizmo: correct. This hall was discovered during an attempt to smuggle them out with any invoices or documents verifying their legal origin. So I guess the case has been reported to police. So this person was actually arrested. The cigars were meant to be exported without adhering to Cuba's stringent export and control regulations.
And what they didn't say if it was in one [00:30:00] shot or one. You know, one person or one shipment or something. But this is a warning to everyone listening to this podcast who may go to Cuba, who may get their hands on some cigars. Even the ones that are given to you, um, gifted to you if you meet people or you purchase them somewhere.
You gotta get a receipt. You have to have some kind of proof. I mean, I, I've been panicked going through the airport in our most recent trips with gifts that we've gotten. Those behi, K 50 eights, we smoked on the podcast. I was terrified that they were gonna take those from us because there's no bands on 'em.
There's no proof of where they are. They could've kept them though. They could've. Yeah, they weren't great. No, they weren't. But I was worried about that. So anybody who's going to Cuba, things have changed leaving that island with cigars. So make sure if you have cigars in your bag, that you have effector.
I'll give you a a an example. I was gifted 50 small cigars by a friend in Havana. And I was actually, it was when, uh, my wife, Mrs. Gizmo came with me to [00:31:00] Havana and I threw 'em in her suitcase. These little, these little cigars. That's great. Get his wife arrested. Well, my suitcase had way more than 50 little cigars.
Okay.
Bam Bam: There's a, there's a plan for everybody.
Gizmo: They, they pulled her off the plane. We had boarded What? We were sitting on the tarmac. They came and pulled her off the plane. Did you guys know about I didn't know how. And it was all part of his plan. Bad Correct. And interrogated her. They interrogated her in Spanish.
She doesn't speak a w of Spanish. Wow. Thank God she's a little aggressive Italian, so she's fine. Yeah, she didn't mind.
Bam Bam: Oh
Gizmo: yeah, I was on the, I was panicked on the plane. Oh my Lord. 'cause they wouldn't let me go with her.
Bam Bam: You found your, uh, new mule? Poor Mrs. Gizmo.
Gizmo: She didn't care. I mean, I had way more cigars in my bag, uh, which is, she wasn't
Rooster: nervous at all.
Gizmo: No, you can ask her. She didn't care. I was freaking out because I was like, oh my God. They're yelling at her in Spanish right now. Who knows what's going on, but who had
Rooster: the cigars? She did. Or you, they were
Gizmo: in her suitcase. My suitcase was full of way more cigars than 50 little cigarillos. Anyway, so be careful going to Cuba, uh, do the right thing.
Make sure you take care of yourself and, uh, get your receipts. Get your receipts. Do not mess [00:32:00] around with that.
Rooster: But as a US citizen, even if you have a receipt, are you really allowed to bring any back? No. No, of course not. All from the Cuban government's standpoint,
Gizmo: they don't care. The United States government cares,
Bam Bam: ISTed.
You forgot what's going on in the world.
Rooster: It's the stuff keeps changing. In Cuba. It's like every week. Well, it hasn't changed here. Yeah. American policy hasn't changed in decades. You can't bring cigarette on under Obama. You could.
Senator: Right. Okay. For a period of time it changed. It's all right. Father time.
Father time.
Gizmo: So boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the Romeo Julieta. Dianas, what do you thinking? The cigar sucks. Yeah. This is mediocrity. I
Bam Bam: I like the cigar. You
Gizmo: do?
Bam Bam: Yeah. I, I don't mind it. I don't mind it. 'cause you are
Senator: so negative tonight.
Gizmo: I am Mr. Positive. I, I am. I live in, I I love doing this with you guys.
There is
Senator: no one who has ever called you Mr. Positive.
Bam Bam: You couldn't even say that with a straight face. That's correct. It's [00:33:00] weird. It's a little muddled, but it's not, it's not awful. It's not hard to It's awful. It's not awful. It's a, it's a decent, it's a decent smoker.
Gizmo: I think what we were getting at the beginning that I was saying was intriguing me is, yeah.
Absent now it's just kind of a average run on the mill cigar that we paid cost of $50 for boys. Yeah. So, in with that in mind, I certainly am expecting more coming, you know, at this point in the cigar, almost on the halfway point.
Senator: My problem with the cigar is it's imbalanced. Oh, definitely. So I'm back to this being too dry.
Mm-hmm. Too herbaceous and woody and I'm not getting enough sweetness and it's like I just keep pulling for the rum to try to get some sweetness to balance this out. But the blend is off.
Bam Bam: So are you guys not getting sweetness either? Chef? I get sweetness iness on
Chef: the retro hill. Only
Bam Bam: on the retro only.
Only getting on the
Chef: retro.
Rooster: I'm not getting much sweetness at all.
Bam Bam: Wow. It's faint. The
Chef: retro
Rooster: or
Chef: otherwise?
Bam Bam: It is faint. It is faint, but it's not enough is for me. That's my point. No, no, that's true.
Chef: You know what, what I am getting a [00:34:00] lot of, and I think what's leading to the disconnecting flavor that I'm, that I'm, it, it's kind of the, uh.
What's the word I'm looking for? Father time. The motif could be,
no, this is the most, I speak all week. That's true. You're in your think tank creating dishes. So no, the cigar, a lot like the rum is kind of, there's moments where they both seem disconnected from, so it's not well rounded, not well balanced or, yeah, it's, and yeah, it's not complete. I'm getting this. All flavor, it kind of feels like a, a radish or like, this is fair.
Like, I'm not expecting these veto herb herbaceous notes that I'm getting in this cigar. I want something sweeter. I want something that's leaning more into baking in the, in the area of baking spice and brown sugar and, and you know, and it, it feels like it wants to give me that, but for some reason it can't.
I don't know if it's because there's not enough tobacco in here. I, I don't know what's going on, but [00:35:00] it's frustrating me and it's be, I've, I've become more frustrated because the rum is doing the same thing. They need an RYJ Chefs edition. I think
Bam Bam: you may be smoking your cigar a little too quickly. 'cause I'm not You're flying through it.
You are flying. I'm barely
Gizmo: pulling on it.
Bam Bam: But you're, look at you, you're flying.
Gizmo: I
Bam Bam: mean,
Gizmo: I think mine's very underfilled. It feels like a piece of paper right now. You G six right now.
Bam Bam: So I, my biggest complaint about this cigar is not so much, what I'm not getting in the flavor is that it does feel very wide open.
It's very underfilled.
Gizmo: I think mine might be the most underfilled out of everybody. Like it feels like
Bam Bam: a piece of tissue paper. It could, if you're not careful, smoke super fast and be unsatisfying. That's what I'm, that's what, that's what what I'm not liking about this's. So under slow it
Gizmo: down, it's underfilled.
Slow it down and mine's underfilled for a
Bam Bam: 40 something dollars cigar. It's very underfilled.
Gizmo: I'm, I'm not hot up by the burn line. I can literally hold my fingers there. There's no heat. That's cool. I'm not pulling on it a lot. Mm-hmm. And um, really why I'm not pulling on it a lot is 'cause I'm not loving the flavor and I don't love the pairing.[00:36:00]
So I'm not even going to that to kind of fix it or, or balance it. Yeah. So, you know, I'm just kind of letting it ride right now. Do you wanna just rate Yes. How's it pairing with your seltzer? Seltzer Iss fine. I love a good seltzer. Alright. Alright boys, let's go to some listener email. Now we have a lot to get to tonight.
First up we're gonna go to Lizard Sgu who writes us a lot, says, I have a question for the lizards. I'm interested in buying just a couple of Cubans or so as I can't afford a full box. Do you have any suggestions on maybe collaborating with two, three, or four people to split the cost of the box that I might be able to do and afford?
Let me know what your thoughts are. If there's any place that I could find folks to collaborate with, I think his friend Mike
Senator: and his friend Tony, would be perfect to split up place. Tall order.
Gizmo: Yeah, it's a tall
Senator: order. Um,
Gizmo: and obviously right now, given this climate, it's pretty tough. What I would say to Lizard Siegel is once [00:37:00] us shipping reopens, which I'm hearing that it's gonna be happening,
Senator: really,
Gizmo: uh, I'm hearing it's gonna be happening very soon.
Hmm. Uh, at least to some retailers, some of them do offer. Singles, quarter boxes, et cetera. So you can just purchase from, let's say, FOH, you can purchase a quarter box of cigars, a 10 pack of cigars. They have samplers. Sometimes you don't have to commit to a full box. Even on FOH, which is obviously our pref mm-hmm.
You know, preferred retailer, we trust them. Uh, so it's nice you can get a quarter box on there. There are some other folks that do sell singles. I don't know what their policy is. And of course the question of the guarantee, if they are, you know, lost in transit. Yeah. Uh, that will they replace them? Will they refund you for them?
I think FO H's guarantee is still in place once things kind of come back. So. I would, uh, I would start there. I think trying to find folks on the internet to split boxes with, that's a risky game to be playing.
Bam Bam: Yep.
Gizmo: The other option is, you know, if he's part of any
Rooster: Facebook groups
Chef: Yeah. But those are even [00:38:00] tough.
Or just your friend circle maybe if you belong to a loan or unless you're in the middle of Idaho. Or send
Rooster: ba an email. Correct. Yeah. Accommodate,
Senator: I'm sorry. Honestly, this person's best bet at this point. Take a vacation somewhere. There's an LCDH. That's a great idea. And buy some singles. Of course. Enjoy some nice cigars while you're there.
Sure. And, you know, bring a box of something back that you enjoyed when you Yeah. Uh, tried it. That's what I would do at this point. If Europe, he's trying
Rooster: to save money or the ca Ron Caman.
Bam Bam: Yep. Islands does want Moya. That's correct. That's your ideal bet, actually. Yeah. Our boy won.
Senator: I mean, that's the only way to guarantee that you're gonna get something real that you're not gonna have to pay like an insane premium for it.
Mm-hmm. You get a vacations out of it. Yeah, you get a vacation and you can get singles. You don't even have to commit to a quarter box. You can just try individual cigars. Great
Bam Bam: idea.
Gizmo: And Seagull finished just saying that he will be looking for the Greek AErica wine that we did. He really loved that episode.
And Senators deep dive into [00:39:00] AErica White wine from Greece. All right, I'll split a box with him and just send him some. Alright, here's another one.
Senator: Let's, let's both send him some Brewster. Yeah, you
Gizmo: guys
Senator: send him some. It's a great idea.
Rooster: I don't drink wine.
Gizmo: Here's another one from Johnny, the Greek. Speaking of Greeks, he said, gents, I love the pod, but today I write not as a raving fan, but as a respectfully disappointed critic.
And I trust this won't disqualify me from future lizard of the weak contention. It might, you're out, you're glowing. It might you're glowing. 10.0 reviews of the all Dino Cameroon Ribo landed way off for both me and my longtime smoking Buddy Miles.
Senator: Holy.
Gizmo: We grabbed ours from a reputable retailer. Let them rest a few weeks and sat down clearheaded ready to experience what you guys hyped up.
We've been Cuban smokers for years, painfully so given habanas on ongoing disaster and the all Dino just didn't measure up beyond the size. [00:40:00] There's really no comparison to a Cuban certainly. Not a D four. Mm-hmm. Senator. It lacked the DNA, the depth. He's already out our guests. The booze that you guys were drinking gave it more credit than it deserved.
We smoke clean, no cocktails flavor first call us old school purists. But hey, at least the band look good. This isn't a knock on the squad. You guys are sharp, hilarious, and passionate about the leaf. My only point. Alcohol can elevate, but it also can mask. And in this case it left us feeling that the all Dino was overrated.
Thanks for the Entertainment boys. Keep doing what you do best. And if you can, send a shout out to my cigar Brothers. Zane John and Miles, shout out boys. Thanks for listening. And most importantly, to my father, art. I lost him this past December and he's the reason I came to love cigars. Mm. Every Smoke is a reminder of him.
God bless him. You guys rock.
Bam Bam: Yeah. God bless
Gizmo: him. So that's a great email from Johnny the Greek. Yeah. And it does not qual disqualify you from Wizard of the Week [00:41:00] contention. Well, maybe please keep emailing, but, uh, shout out to Zane, John and Miles. Uh, we really appreciate you guys listening and, uh, to his father.
Art, rest in peace and thanks for sharing cigars with your, uh, son, Johnny, the Greek.
Bam Bam: Yeah, I'm, I'm not sure. I can't agree with this email though.
Gizmo: I, I don't either. And I, I'll, I'll tell you what my response was. Well, so I replied to him Okay. Pretty quickly, and I normally don't do that because of the volume of what we get, but this one I was very specifically asking him if when he brought them home from the retailer, if he dried them out at all.
Bam Bam: Well, he said he had 'em for a month somewhere, but he didn't dry them out. Right. That's what I'm saying. So
Gizmo: I told him that I would be pulling it down to, as close to Cuban level. I would call between low sixties, between sixty sixty two, uh, because that's how I smoke all Dino. Correct. I find that all Dino, uh, especially the Cameroon is very, very sensitive.
Even the sign, the, the original series that the Lance we did. Mm-hmm. I find that they are very much similar to cubit cigars in how they perform. Humid, [00:42:00] which is when I smoke off the truck Linos, they do not taste good.
Senator: Correct. And we're not the only ones that feel this way, because when I was just looking around online to better understand the Lino catalog, there are Reddit forums of people talking about how you have to bring that cigar down significantly in humidity to actually experience all the flavor that it's intended to.
So. I feel like for people who have really dove into the aldino line, it's like a known fact at this point that you have to put them away and bring them down in humidity for them to perform.
Gizmo: Yeah. So putting them with a 65 boda, a 69 BOA in a tight airtight situation, even a 62 boa, it's a co colossal
Bam Bam: mistake.
Gizmo: They're gonna run two humans. Correct. So I told him, storing them in an airtight, I would be using a 58 boda to get them closer to 60. Yeah. If they're not in an airtight like a desktop uses 62. Now
Bam Bam: he called himself a seasoned Cuban cigar smoker. So you would think that he would know all of this.
Gizmo: Well, I would think [00:43:00] that maybe he was approaching aldino like he would other new world.
So obviously that's also true. Your patron drones, you're not gonna put it 60. That's right. So I'm assuming that that was the thinking. But all Dino Honduran cigars that are Ur piros are very, very sensitive to humidity. I would also say for Fabrica five fans, I was
Bam Bam: about to say
Gizmo: that that's not the case for them.
Bam Bam: No. I mean, they smoke very
Gizmo: well in the mid sixties.
Bam Bam: Mid sixties, even up to 68. Yeah. That Trinity Ribo is still delicious.
Gizmo: Yeah, they, they smoke very well. They're not nearly as sensitive to humidity as That's correct. Some of the other hundred stuff. Isn't it
Rooster: possible that the Aino brand is not in his wheelhouse that he doesn't like?
No. That flavor. I don't, so if he's a Cuban
Gizmo: smoker, I think that it's right in his wheelhouse. I mean,
Rooster: it is, it is savory and a lot of Cuban cigars are savory. So, I mean, it's, it's a little odd, but it's, yeah. I think
Gizmo: it's a humidity issue. Or he just got a bad box or something happened there.
Chef: Well, and not just that, I mean, to, to, to blame alcohol for the rating.
He's really not taking into account rooster's contributions. That's aside from the sound of his lovely voice, his hundreds of [00:44:00] years smoking. You tell him chef smoking cigars, he also does not drink alcohol. That's right. Correct. And, and that rating includes his rating, which is always without alcohol. Yeah.
It's the only
Senator: one that counts.
Chef: Chef. So
Senator: you, and the other thing is, even for all of us, it was the same thing tonight. When we light this cigar, we're not drinking the pairing initially. No. We're first just commenting on this cigar, and then we eventually go into the pairing. So it's not like even the whole way through, we're having alcohol with the cigar.
That's correct.
Gizmo: Yeah. And I think to the, you know, to Johnny's point here, I think the other thing that needs to be said as well is that when we love a cigar and we rave about it, all of us leave here and buy the cigar and continue to smoke it. Yeah. I bought eight boxes. That's
Senator: after that episode.
Gizmo: That's right.
So in 205 weeks of doing this together, if we were sensing that having left the pod, smoking that cigar again, it was a completely different experience. You know what we would do? Mm-hmm. We'd probably eliminate alcohol from the podcast because we would have come to the same conclusion that. [00:45:00] It was affecting our judgment.
Right. But in fact, it's not correct. I, I smoked that cigar with seltzer in the car, in my garage at the lounge here, wherever. It's a, it's a beautifully and it's a consistently identical experience,
Bam Bam: what we had on the car. Beautiful cigar. Yeah. It's so enjoyable. I, I can't disagree more.
Rooster: And I think more than 90% of cigar smokers are pairing it with some kind of, of course, alcohol or, that's correct.
Or whatever. Even if it's
Senator: not alcohol. I mean, tons of people will drink coffee with a cigar. There's so many other things that, yeah, I've had coffee with a Cameroon. Of course. It's fantastic. Yeah, no, fantastic.
Gizmo: So I think that's my answer to it. I, I think, like I said, if, if we were sensing that it was changing our judgment, I think that we would change the pod.
And after 205 week, 205 weeks of this, I think, uh, we've been pretty consistent.
Chef: Yeah. There's no need to hype any cigar. You know, we're not in anyone's pocket, so it's not, there's no need for it.
Gizmo: So I wanna shout out Lizard Jared again. I didn't do a good enough job on our DT off. Chef's [00:46:00] Edition 2025 episode Lizard Jared sent over that coupon code that got us the box for much, much less nice than we paid.
It was almost a hundred dollars less
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Than what MSRP is. He said, Hey, just an FYI, I got the Chef's Edition from a retailer for $460 for 10 after taxes. Here's a screenshot of the promo code. It's the cheapest I've found so far, just spreading the discounts to you guys. Take care of lizard Jared. And I have to shout that out because that saved us.
That's awesome. Quite a bit of money, so we really, really appreciate that. Yeah. And, uh, thank you Lizard. Jared, obviously, I hope folks have listened to our Davidoff Chef's Edition episode because, uh, it kind of fell off in that last third. Oh yeah. In a big way. Which was unfortunate. Yes. So let's go to some listener feedback now on, on the Padron 1964, Rosario Torpedo in Maduro Lizard.
Enrique, a friend of ours, said, great episode when the, with an assist from Salty Senator who is [00:47:00] taking on all corners on the retro hale spirits and so forth with blistering verbal assaults against Gizmo and Chef.
Bam Bam: What episode is he talking about? I don't even remember this. It
Gizmo: was the Padron episode where you Oh, the, the Retro Hale.
We were arguing about a lot of different things. I
Chef: don't even remember his argument about the retro I, where he challenged me to a palate. Exactly. Oh, that one. That's correct.
Gizmo: That's correct. A pallet off. So a special bonus was Bam, contorting himself like a gymnast to agree with senator's perspective against gizmo's liquor rating.
Despite Bam, giving the same exact rating to the liquor as Gizmo. What liquor
Bam Bam: did we rate? I don't remember.
Gizmo: It was the bny, the Sweet Toast of America Oak. Oh, that's right. Oh yeah. He was the only one that hated
Bam Bam: it. That's right.
Gizmo: Like tonight.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: He said it's a great show as always. Akin to mom's pot roast on a cold,
Bam Bam: rainy
Gizmo: night.
Bam Bam: A
Gizmo: lot
Bam Bam: of criticism, criticism coming in here off the wires.
Gizmo: Our friend, our friend, Manny Sotelo said, these guys [00:48:00] always put on a great podcast.
Bam Bam: We love Manny.
Gizmo: Love to hear that. Here's another one from Lizard Bmac. He says, F are all of the lounge lizards members of FOH? And if so, what are their handles?
Bam Bam: Yes.
Gizmo: As always, I enjoyed this week's show. So then somebody informed me that there is a username on FOH called Lizard bam bam. That I was unaware of.
Bam Bam: That's correct.
Gizmo: So you do have a handle over there, but you've never used it. Correct. Are you a lurker or did you just register it? What happened? I just registered.
Senator: How is this possible? I just registered. Bam claims to be like the least tech savvy person. They can't even order cigars online. What tech? I
Bam Bam: filled out a few fields and enter. I went on that
Senator: forum once and I was like, this is too much. I don't even know where to start. No. See, it took
Bam Bam: me, let's go to the water hole.
It was nifty really quick. Like two years ago now. Uh, no, it was this year. It was this Sunday. So I think I have an old account. See, I don't remember what the hell that, so I signed up for a new one under my True. Got it. Handle.
Gizmo: So if you, uh, want to get in touch with bam, send 'em a DM [00:49:00] over on FOH. Do not do that.
Bam Bam: The ba ba bam. Accountability hour can continue on. I'll never check that board. Correct. Actually, GIZ will check it for me.
Gizmo: I will. Yeah. Gimme the login. Alright. So boys, I will say that I don't know if I've ever been more excited. To do a segment than I am this next segment. Hmm. I am very excited. You're getting getting me a card here for something Lemme show you.
I'm just gonna play a little clip for you guys.
Chef: These always get me nervous
Gizmo: so we
Chef: don't know where he's coming from.
Gizmo: Correct. A couple weeks ago we read a. An email from Blizzard Chris. Remember he was asking about champagne for his wedding. Great. Really positive email. That was good. Great email. And he listed some kava that he was suggesting.
We try and, uh, let me play this clip for you. Preserve kava and fresh net cordone negro brute fresh net. Spelled F-R-E-I-X-E-N-E-T. What the hell are, this is all Senator speed. I, I have no idea what the hell this is. I have no idea what he's saying. Do you know what it's,
Senator: did you just call it fresh net?
Gizmo: I don't know how to [00:50:00] pronounce it.
Senator: Help me out here. I'm not sure. Is it a wine and a shampoo? What the hell? Whatcha talking about?
Gizmo: Cha's Chava Freeze
Bam Bam: egg.
Gizmo: How is it actually pronounced? Go ahead. It's a sparkly white. No, no, fresh dad. Fresh dad do com. This amazing, how do you actually pronounce that? So then a few moments later, we went into the pronunciation of the spirit.
Senator: If you were to pronounce it based on the letters that I'm sure are in front of you, say F free would say, you would say frick net, which is what most people say. Now. That's obviously not how it's pronounced. Oh, I was thinking the X was a C. It's Fme. No T Fre. That's
Gizmo: fresh. All. Well, I got close enough. Fresh net.
Fresh net. All right, so Senator, he need,
Senator: so is there on the same thread, is there vindication in the air here? Oh, I think so. Oh man, I'm so excited. I'm sensing it. Oh, I'm so excited. My spidey senses are
Bam Bam: tingling right now.
Senator: So lizard pop by the way is like the cheapest [00:51:00] sparkling you can get.
Gizmo: Correct? Come on.
So Lizard Pot Pest on FOH says, great episode. It always, as always, guys, lizard gizmo. One thing to note, your pronunciation of Fresh Net was correct.
Bam Bam: Ooh,
Gizmo: Frazier name sounds French. It's Catlan. It should have a softer SH sound in the middle. Interesting. Not a hard X. And the T at the end should be pronounced.
So then I had to do my own research. Cool. As you know. So I went to their official website and it is pronounced fresh. Annette Tesla, fresh. Annette fresh net. You said fresh net. Oh, come on. No, you're acting like you nailed it. You did not. I got a lot closer. That's close. You just played it.
Rooster: What's that?
Earlier you said fresh net.
Gizmo: I did say fresh net, but
Chef: I, I missed. Well, very close. Very close. But they were technically cult closer. And by the, I mean Rooster and Senator. 'cause they said, they said Fini. But that's not right. You skipped a whole syllable. I skipped an E. An E, [00:52:00] correct.
Gizmo: Hold on.
To be pronounced like CH, how do you go about pronouncing the name of this brand? Fresh net. Fresh net. Fresh net. Fresh net. There you go. So that's your video. That's what I found on YouTube. You're fresh, you're there
Senator: you go. Giz.
Gizmo: I
Bam Bam: will give it to you. You're vindicated. Well done.
Gizmo: My heart has been so warm.
Awesome. Since I found this out about a week ago now you can sleep. I could sleep Good. Now this gives me another reason never to purchase this stuff. But giz, there's a first time for everything. Listen, I, I gotta say my pronunciation is better. My pronunciation has been better. You got
Rooster: one out of a thousand?
Yeah,
Bam Bam: one out of 200.
Rooster: Five
Bam Bam: episode. There's no vindication around here. Bam. Oh, you got it. You got it. Thank you, sir. I'm on your side.
Gizmo: All right, let's go to another one. Now I do have two voice memos I wanna play, but I wanna go to this one first. Oh, this is great. 'cause it goes into the kind of lifestyle component of what we do here.
And I'm gonna step back from the mic 'cause you guys are the ones to talk about [00:53:00] this lizard. Enrique, just read another email, him free, he wrote tonight. Hello lizards with an emphasis on the lifestyle part of the Cigar and Lifestyle podcast. What is your daily driver timepiece? So what watches are we appreciating?
Well, let's start with giz, Mr. Fresh net. I have a dead Apple watch
Senator: on right now. It's, it's not charged. It's dead.
Gizmo: Uh, it died today. Yeah. So I, I'm gonna step away from this conversation as I am not a watch guy, but Senator is, and bam, now is in the game. Well, I'm
Bam Bam: just, I'm just starting out. I am not a watch guy yet.
But I'm getting Well, I'm getting there. You're getting there. I'm getting there.
Senator: You've already got the itch after your first one. Oh, I
Bam Bam: do. I do. The uncanny thing is when you buy a luxury timepiece, your first one, honestly, you want another, and another, and another. Correct.
Gizmo: Hmm.
Bam Bam: It feels awesome to wear this, this piece, I only have one luxury timepiece.
The moment I bought it, I kept it on. I think I [00:54:00] slept in it. It was, it's a great feeling. It feels fantastic. There's weight to it. It, it's eye catching, it, there's weight to it, yet it feels weightless. It's true.
Rooster: And it's on your wrist. Yeah. You don't Correct. You don't feel like you have a watch on.
Bam Bam: And I now can notice a luxury timepiece on a guy from across the room.
You start looking for that, and I, I think it's a, I think it's a great pastime. Great. Do you
Chef: notice people noticing yours a few times? Yeah.
Bam Bam: Although what I have is a very, like, I, I'm gonna call it a starter. Model, but still
Chef: Sure. I mean, I have an enough watch.
Rooster: It's a classic. It's a classic watch. It's well sought after.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Rooster: Yeah.
Senator: It's a classic. So I mean, I think Bam left out. So Bam got a sub, A Mariner first. No date, no. So for date, for the
Gizmo: uninitiated, a Rolex Submariner Sub Mariner. Correct. It's
Senator: a diver watch. Yes. Um, you can, the thing is a tank. I mean, you can literally dive with it. That's what it's been for. [00:55:00] Thinking hundreds of feet deep
Rooster: dives in, uh,
Senator: Cozumel.
Gizmo: I do it Cozumel.
Senator: I do a weekly deep dive, multiple, multiple times a week
Gizmo: in the Hudson. Well
Bam Bam: anyway, back to time pieces. Yes, correct. So I love this. It's a, it's a no date. Very classic. Um, I think well priced for what it is, and it's, I, I actually would like to get another one from my son when he graduates college. And
Gizmo: by the way, that's a very timely email because you just got that a few weeks ago, correct?
Yeah, about two months. Like late summer, two months ago. Yeah. A couple of months ago ago.
Bam Bam: Correct. Correct. Well, sourced by senator and that source is fantastic.
Senator: One of my absolute like, trusted gray market dealers, European watch company in Boston on Newberry Street. Um, a plus people, you never have to worry about authenticity, the quality of the stuff that they're actually willing [00:56:00] to procure and then sell the service.
Is off the
Bam Bam: charts. I, there were three people servicing the purchase of my watch. Multiple follow-ups, making sure I received it. How, how is it looking? How is it feeling? Are you happy? Of course, there's insurance components that they also offered. It was flawless service. That's that's great. Just fantastic service.
Senator: Yep. Free overnight shipping. I mean, they're, that's great. They're just a plus top to bottom. Yeah. And the watch I'm wearing right now, I bought from them actually. Yeah. They're amazing. Yeah. That's an incredible watch. And what are you wearing today? Yeah, what's your daily driver? So, yeah, this person picked a good day to ask them question.
That is not a daily driver watch. That's not a daily driver for, for me right now. So I just got this service, so I've missed it. I, it's been away for a couple months. Uh, so I'm wearing, uh, uh, an AP Royal Oak, uh, auto Mar Pega. Oh yeah. Um, baller.
Um,
Bam Bam: high class. Yeah. You're not wearing that every, every day. No,
Senator: I wear it a lot. Yeah. Um, [00:57:00] honestly, it. It withstands, it holds up way better than I would've ever imagined as like a daily driver piece. Now obviously the price is why I should not wear it on a daily basis, and I try to avoid doing that. Um, I got it serviced for the first time.
It took two months, the service process. So where was it?
Gizmo: Service that it took that long?
Senator: So it's all through ap, so you, you drop it at, uh, the AP boutique, um, in Midtown, they ship it out to the AP service center. There's only one like official one. I strongly discourage any listener that's getting a high-end timepiece serviced.
You can bring your watch to an authorized dealer and they'll tell you they service it and they'll tell you that they send it to the Rolex service center or the AP service center and all of that. There is no way to verify and guarantee that they've actually done that and what a number of. Authorized dealers will do.
They have in-house watch people that will service them, [00:58:00] and you'll never know who really touched it and you risk them not doing something perfectly correctly. And especially on an ap, the polishing, I mean, you can all probably see the way this thing glistens in a room.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Senator: the polishing process is absurd.
Only AP is able to do that the way it's meant to be done. And if you let anyone else touch a watch like that, you're, you're very easily gonna have someone ruin it. So, um, what I would recommend anyone do for Rolex, ap, any of these, uh, companies. They have either their own boutique that they own and operate in Manhattan, or service centers that you can actually physically go to.
So Rolex has one in New York. You can actually go to the service center itself and drop your timepiece off there. They used to have one in, I think Dallas. I'm not sure if they still do. So there are usually some options. Same thing globally. I was very bummed. So ap uh, if we, if we were in Europe and I thought the way they worded it, uh, [00:59:00] it makes it sound like it's everywhere.
They send a courier to your home. Cool. To pick up your timepiece. I like that. Yeah. And take it to the service center. And I'm like, now that is service. That's cool. So I like file my service, you know, um, request. And I, uh, and the person sends me like shipping options. And I'm like, shipping. I'm like, I thought you guys courier it.
And then the woman said, oh, sorry. If it's uh, for our customers in Europe, in the us you can drop it off at the boutique or ship it. Um, I dropped it off. I'm not shipping a watch to this value. No way. And then I'm assuming you're viable the risk. Exactly. No way. Once I drop it in their hands, they assume the risk.
Correct. So that's usually what I do. But I love this watch. It's my favorite watch I have. Um, but I've got a, you know, a collection. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Um, yeah.
Senator: Uh,
Bam Bam: I think you and Rooster are the right now in this room. Have more luxury watches than anybody here right now.
Rooster: I'm wearing an Apple watch.
Bam Bam: I know that. But Rooster, come on.
We know what you got.
Chef: I got four different bands from my Apple watch. Me too. I have two. I have two. I
Bam Bam: swap it out. Well, I'm wearing, I'm wearing my luxury BVA tonight. Ooh, [01:00:00]
Gizmo: okay. So what is your daily driver, senator, when you're out and about? Whatcha are wearing
Senator: usually? Um, I mean, honestly at this point, um, probably my Rolex, GMT Batman, um, that watch where it's the back girl.
It's the Jubilee, uh, bracelet that I wear on that. Um, the Jubilee Band dude holds up to scratches, so well, so like, I don't worry if I bang that around,
Bam Bam: but just you can see that band literally from across the room. It glistens. It does. It's very, very cool.
Senator: So that has become my daily driver. Um. But, um, I also have a Daytona that I, you know, wear quite a bit.
Um, obviously this ap, um, a Submariner like Bam has, which
Gizmo: one is the Paul Newman that's famous. Is that
Senator: a Daytona? The Daytona, yeah. That's a Daytona. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that's a coveted watch. Yeah. The, the Submariner Bam has, I have the date version, obviously. He said he has the no date. Mm-hmm. That watch Anytime I'm on vacation, that is the only watch that I wear.
It is a tank. It can withstand anything. I can swim [01:01:00] in the ocean with it, never have to worry. And honestly, if like, uh, you're ever in a really bad situation, like it's just currency. Yeah. Hand the WatchOver. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's not a cheap watch, obviously it's expensive. No. But it's also not at a price point that also Correct.
Is, you know, irreplaceable like an AP or something else. Yeah. So, um, that I always travel with. Um, I have a paddock Philippe. Um, that's for very formal occasions. Mm-hmm. I don't wear that often. It's leather band. So what, what, uh, what coloring is that? What's the color scheme? Uh, it's the cava, the, the new one.
Uh, it has like a, a. Um, like an, a gray dial.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm.
Senator: Um, but it's really cool because it's, it's a sunburn style. So like in bright light it looks gray. In dim light, it looks black. Um, is it stainless? No, it's all gold. It's a 18 karat, like white gold. White gold. There you go. Yeah. So that's why I can't wear that every day.
Like its precious metal. If it, if I hit that around, it'll really show D and scratches. So Yeah. That's
Rooster: a beautiful
Senator: watch. It
Bam Bam: is. I haven't ever seen it on him, but I, I hear it's [01:02:00] crossing. Yeah. I don't know if I've
Senator: ever, if you've ever worn it. I mean, my thing is like when I, like when I first got it, I probably wore it for like two months straight.
Sure. Um, but I, so I'm a little odd. A lot of people don't have, you don't say No, no, I, I say that. No coming clip that, clip that coming from Gizmo of all people in this room. Mr. I don't like honey who's ever said that,
Gizmo: by the way, this rum is terrible, but go ahead. Alright.
Senator: Um, no. A lot of people with a watch collection, they like every day try to alternate and wear a different watch.
Mm-hmm. That's not really my style for whatever reason. I'll like pick a watch, wear it for like a few months at a time, then pick another watch, wear it a few months at a time. That's cool. For me, it makes me like I miss a watch more that way. So like I'll forget about something. I haven't worn it in six months and then like as soon as I put it back on my wrist, I like reform that same attachment I always had.
Yeah. Or if I alternated every single day, different pieces, I'd never miss any of them. They'd like always be present. Sure. So that's just my [01:03:00] weird way of, you know, choosing to cycle through my collection, but. Obviously to each his own.
Gizmo: So boys, we'll continue in a second here. We're coming in the last third on the Romeo Julieta Dianas.
Mm-hmm. What do you, what's everybody thinking right now as we get into the last third? It's blah. It's okay. Yeah. Mine's pretty boring. Mine has, I have really not been hitting it a lot. It has flown for me.
Bam Bam: Yeah. So, again, being very lightly packed. It's just too quick to smoke. It's not a memorable, it doesn't seem like it's gonna be a memorable cigar the way it's smoking.
Rooster: It's kind of boring. Yeah. It's, it's a little,
Bam Bam: it's muddled. It's monotonous. I can't pick out a single note chef. I'm getting a
Chef: flat floral note that's just kind of withering away. Um, but this is the most balanced, it's been uhhuh, ironically enough.
Gizmo: Yeah. But with all that said, it's not terrible. It's not a terrible cigar.
It's not terrible. It's a balance of no flavor. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Pretty much. It's a zero sum game. That's,
and for [01:04:00] $46, I mean, it's outrageous. It
Chef: should
Gizmo: be
Chef: given us more. Correct. You know, giz, all this watch talk, I've realized that you and I have a lot of growing up to do. I
Gizmo: just,
Chef: I, you know, we knew
Gizmo: that about giz. I'm not sure about you. That's true with you, chef. I just, I've never, and that's why I, I respect it.
I admire it, but it's just like, it's like golf for me, it's just Sure. Yeah. Something that I've not ever connected with in a meaningful way, you know? Mm-hmm. So, and I'm also, what weird to, I've got also a crazy personality. Like, if I got into this, you don't say you. No. You know what? I'll clip that for you.
I, I, I get a little wild when I get into something. I go real hard, real fast. Oh no. So it's dangerous with hobbies like that. GMO likes Jura Coffee. I do. I love Coffee Bakers.
Bam Bam: Oh, I had a Dura at his house the other day. Yeah. Delicious. The only thing
Senator: I'm surprised with watches is like you're obsessed with.
The
Bam Bam: technical nature
Senator: of things. Yeah. The technical nature of things. You, you get excited about the Hoover Dam. Unlike anyone I've ever been around. I around. I mean, the Hoover
Gizmo: Dam is one of the greatest human achievements of all. True. That's right. [01:05:00] True. That's,
Senator: and it's like the craftsmanship, like how they were able to construct something like that.
Yeah. Like the fact that they construct these watches, these are handmade pieces. Most of these watches we're talking about that do not require a battery of any kind to it operate. I mean, it's brilliant. Like it really is. The technical nature of it
Bam Bam: is unbelievable. If you spend us a little time online researching these watches, it's fascinating.
Gizmo: So, you know what's funny? I have watched so much watch content on YouTube. Mm-hmm. Um, I love there, there is a. Antiques Roadshow episode. I think Senator and I have talked about this before. I've seen that where
Bam Bam: yeah,
Gizmo: there was a Marine who bought a watch while he was overseas, when he was coming home.
Spent a month of his, spent a month of his salary on this watch and put it in a, a safe, and it was effectively new old stock. It's one of my favorite clips from Antique Roadshow ever. Cool. And I also, also, I love John Mayer, uh, as a guitar player. Yeah. And he is ap, he's [01:06:00] like creative director now. Um, so I've watched a lot of watch content, but I just don't collect stuff.
Bam Bam: Right.
Gizmo: Um, so I, I just have never fallen in love. Some cigars with, well, cigars, you know, I consume them obviously. You know, the
Bam Bam: cool thing about having a luxury watch on your wrist, uh, regardless of what you're wearing. It does elevate your look. Sure. From a distance, you know, you can wear jeans and a t-shirt and have a luxury watch on and it works.
I went to a wedding last night, I had my sub on. It felt fantastic. I got a lot of compliments just from sitting at the table. It works. So it kind of all walks of life. If you start looking into the luxury watch market, it works for whoever you are, kind of. Mm. You know, you know, women have, it's interesting,
Rooster: women have, a lot of women do get expensive pocket books.
Jewelry and jewelry. Julie Jewelry. Really? So this is really,
Bam Bam: you wanna come
Senator: over my
Bam Bam: house?
Rooster: I can imagine.
Senator: But even on the, it's a disaster. Even on the craftsmanship piece. Like, here's a great example. So another watch I have is the, uh, omega Speedmaster, [01:07:00] the story alone I gives You're obsessed with space, right?
Big space guy. I love space. He is, I am too. So like you, you, you have to be able to appreciate this when. Nasa, NASA was trying to figure out how to give astronauts some sort of watch that could tell time in space when they're out there. So they put out basically a challenge to all the big, uh, high-end watch makers to create a watch that could be able to withstand space and still perfectly, accurately tell time.
Like without gravity. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And so to do that, an automatic watch, which is, you know, if I just, when we're moving the watch on our arm mm-hmm. It's helping wind that, it's effectively
Gizmo: charging it Exactly. For the lay, lay layman's terms. Exactly. It's incredible. It's incredible.
Senator: So that doesn't work without gravity.
Mm-hmm. So you would need to manually wind the watch by, uh, turning the crown, uh, when you're out in space. So all the manufacturers competed Omega [01:08:00] beat out Rolex Paddock, Philippe, like all the huge guys, and it was the Omega speed Master. They created that. To this day, every astronaut, when they graduate and become an astronaut, they're gifted from NASA and Omega Speed Master.
Oh wow. Which they wear. If you look at photos of like astronauts out in space, you'll see strapped attached onto their, uh, spacesuit in Omega Speedmaster. Really? It's the coolest thing. That's pretty cool. That is cool. And so, like that whole story, like I was so enamored with it. Like I, I love that watch.
Um, I think it's just so amazing, like what they were able to accomplish with that. So. That's the part of the craftsmanship that I feel like you would be able
Gizmo: to appreciate. Well, see, I, I love the story again. I just don't collect things for the sake of it. Mm-hmm. Like I've never been a collector of things.
Yeah, yeah. But it's not a collector. It's functional. I understand that. There's utility there. Tell you wear it daily. So it does play into my next question. So if you didn't know me and I was just a, a cigar smoker at the lounge and you came in and I said, wow, that's a really beautiful watch, tell me about it.
What would you suggest [01:09:00] as a starting point for someone who's interested or maybe like lizard Chris, who's 22 coming into his professional life. Mm. Maybe starting to earn some money. Where would you direct folks to go? Like what is the stepping stones to get That's a good, to get to the point. Good question.
Where you were at
Senator: two watches, uh, the Omega Speedmaster is And how much is that? You can probably get that for six grand. Okay. Which in this world is a steal. It is a steal. That's a good price. It's an outstanding watch. It's a chronograph. So it's a complicated watch. Um. Outstanding value for what you get.
They're beautiful watches. They can withstand just about anything. Uh, the other watch would be a Rolex, a Mariner, I mean. Mm-hmm. That thing is one of the most iconic watches of all time. You know, I remember when I first got a sub, there was a part of me that didn't want to get one because I'm like, everybody, it's token.
Yeah. Like everybody wants to have a submariner. But the difference is like when you put on a sub and you see what they've created, like there's a reason it's that popular. [01:10:00] Like it's hard to find a watch that like, looks nice like that, but can withstand anything. Mm-hmm. I mean, I've put my submariner through hell and if you saw it, you think I just got it a few months ago.
Yeah. It's unbelievable that just like the quality of what they've, uh, created there. Um, that, so those are the two that I would say are like the best options to start. That
Bam Bam: goes for around 11 k,
Chef: 11,000, 11,000. You think a submariner holds up on, on a hotline picking up dishes and. Oh yeah. Like extreme temperatures.
Oh yeah. Oh sauce. Ba goes diving with sauce
Senator: splatter. That's correct. Oh yeah. Yeah. Deep dive. You can dive like co 600 feet below sea level with that thing and it'd be fun.
Chef: You know, it's great that we're here talking about watches and we just brought up golf and you know, recently I saw this, uh, this post about the watch that Jordan wore to the Ryder Cup.
And I'm probably gonna do a GIZ job on pronouncing this.
Gizmo: I just got, I just got vindicated. Bam. You did, you did. Like Rooster said, fresh net. You're banting. One outta a thousand.
Bam Bam: You know what? You're insulated now. Thank you. You're [01:11:00] insulated from all this. So he wore, I'm in a bubble.
Chef: He wore a gruel. You're bubble boy.
Say he wore a gruel. Forese. Double Baer Sapphire. Burgundy gruel. I don't even know this watch, no freaking idea.
Gizmo: Here. Here. So this is Michael Jordan, right? Just to be clear. Yeah. This
Chef: watch is worth over $675,000. Wow. Wow. All right, senator's, next watch.
Not
Gizmo: gonna happen. It sounds like a champagne.
Rooster: Yeah,
Gizmo: Bel. So obviously, uh, you know, we talk about cigars, uh, every week here, and we know that cigars are viewed, especially by Haos and I would say by the Fuente family with Opus and some of these other high-end davidov as a luxury piece. As we would talk about cars, as we would talk about handbags or, or high-end clothing, jewelry, and of course watches.
So. Have you seen or, or felt parallels between what we [01:12:00] kind of call high-end cigar culture, you know, or premium handmade cigar culture? Mm-hmm. Versus, you know, folks who are just kind of casually smoking at a wedding or whatever, like what we do, being deep in it. Do you see parallels between that lifestyle and the collectors and aficionados of the watch world?
I
Senator: do. A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, it goes back to like the handmade, you know, part of this, like, it's crazy to me just imagining like, I don't know. Most of these high-end pieces like, you know, all the indices and the hour markers, like someone is literally by hand Yeah. Precision applying. There's no machine that's doing this for them.
No, it's fascinating to, and that's the same thing with cigars. Like, it, it, it's a product that a, an individual is trusted to make so that someone can experience and enjoy. And the only thing that I really appreciate about watches that you know, is certainly different in cigars and spirits and wine is, you know, they're, they're not fleeting, right?
Mm-hmm. You light a cigar, we're gonna enjoy this for an hour, hour and a half, and that's it, it's gone. [01:13:00] A watch, I mean, will last your entire lifetime, your kids' potential full lifetime. I mean, there, there's few products that are able to have that kind of longevity. And so that's the part that like, makes me so fanatical about it.
Um, and you know, the other thing is obviously it comes at a premium. They're, they're not cheap, but. When you're buying from, when you're buying a watch that's either made by Rolex Paddock Philippe or or Au Mar Pega. Those three brands you could wear that watch for years, wake up one morning and say, ah, I don't really like this anymore.
And sell it. Yeah. And not only get all of your money back that you paid, you'll even profit.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Senator: After wearing it. It's a used product. There's so few products that that is, it's,
Bam Bam: it's an
Senator: investment.
Bam Bam: I'll be profiting on those funded orders too soon. Hopefully. I
Rooster: wish you
Gizmo: hadn't mentioned that. I had forgotten about it.
You might be able to buy yourself a new watch with that though. And talking
Bam Bam: [01:14:00] longevity like rooster's, cigar collection's, at least 200 years old. Correct. At a minimum. And it's, look at
Senator: the appreciation over the last five years
Bam Bam: and they're smoking great.
Senator: And I say, you know, kind of another thing that that's, I think watch people laugh about that we do in the cigar space, you know.
Obviously for us, our definition of a premium cigar is a handmade cigar. So like, you know, machine rolled stuff is not, they're not things that we look for or purchase, consume in the, the watch space. Uh, kind of the parallel is for a true high-end timepiece. That brand has themselves created and manufactured the movement that powers that watch.
For other brands that try to be like high-end, uh, they purchase mm-hmm. Movements. From Makers that just make movements. They don't actually make watches. They like Braley and they just put them in. So Bret Lane Bra used to do that for its almost entire history until, correct, until within the last five years.
Now they have in-house movements. Mm-hmm. All of a sudden Cartier, I, [01:15:00] I will just for any listener who's a watch person, there is a hysterical guy on YouTube. Archie Luxury, just search for this Archie Luxury and he reviews, watches this British guy, absolutely hysterical. And his rant about Cartier as not being a serious watch maker.
Not because their watches don't look nice. There are many cart watches that look nice, but Cartier just buys, there's a company ETA that makes all these movements and they just take a movement that someone else made. They put it in a Cartier and they charge you $9,000 for a watch that they themselves didn't even make the movement.
You can buy a Rolex for $9,000. That's a Rolex manufactured movement. Yeah. That's of the highest quality. So, you know, that's kind of like the machine role, like cheat in the watch world. Some of these brands that are more fashion jewelry than they are like true watchmakers, which watch aficionados really appreciate.
Rooster: Yeah. I mean, a watch brand, that's one of my favorites is the IWC.
Bam Bam: Oh yeah. I love the
Rooster: [01:16:00] simplicity of the dials.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Rooster: And one of the watches that I have, it's called, it's the seven day Power reserve. I love watching that dial. I mean, it is just so simple. Mm-hmm. And you just wind it once and it, it'll last for seven days.
That's the, that's the crazy part. Whether you have it on or not. That's cool. Wow. Or even if you take it off, it's gonna last seven days before you even touch it. Sure. So
Senator: the average high-end watch has a power reserve of usually 48 hours. Some, I've noticed that three, three days, yep. Seven days was like an engineering feat to be able to come up with, it's not like this is some big giant watch.
Like how they're able to do that with roughly the same number of parts that any other watch is made of is incredible. So it's just stuff like that, like just,
Rooster: and you know, if you, if you flip it over, I love the flyback, you know, you, it's kind of like a see through, you can see the mechanism me, the mechanism of the, of the dial.[01:17:00]
Mm-hmm. Which is, that's nice of the workings of the watch, which is, I mean, you, so like same on this, you
Senator: see how the back is clear? Oh yeah. You can, you can actually look at the movement and all the parts that power the watch. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Rooster: I think that's really cool.
Senator: Yeah.
Chef: Awesome. Wow. I want a, I want a new watch.
Yeah. It's a, it's a, i i
Gizmo: I wanna go home and charge mine. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Honestly, if you can afford it, start small like I did and work your way up. I'm trying to work my way up, um, hard to find inventory for what I want. Almost impossible right now. I,
Gizmo: I, let's talk about that for a second. The scarcity of some of these high-end watches, is it another parallel to Cuban scar?
Is it false scarcity?
Senator: Wow. Uh, so, you know, it's not false scarcity in the sense that it's scarcity with a purpose. Um, you know, bourbon would be an example of something that's false, like weller
Rooster: weller with bourbon.
Senator: Exactly. Like no one is purchasing weller to hold it and have it appreciate you're purchasing, you know, whiskey to drink it.
Chef: Correct. Mm-hmm.
Senator: So the fact that like, they're intentionally restricting supply. There's no value, there's no value in it, there's no purpose. Right. That to me is [01:18:00] false scarcity. Yeah. In the watch world, like there is a purpose and the brands that don't do that, so like as much as I love Omega, omega pumps out watches left and right, you're never gonna need a waiting list to get almost anything that they make.
The downside of that, the positive is any buyer can usually go into an Omega boutique and get a watch. That day or at most they'll wait a few weeks or become an astronaut. Or become an astronaut, whatever. Good idea, roo, whatever it takes, I'm gonna apply to nasa. So there's a positive there for the buyer.
Now the downside is once you own that watch, because there is no scarcity for their watches, you can expect kind of like a car. As soon as you wear that watch and put on your wrist, it's worth about half what you paid for it. Ah, okay. So there's a trade off there. Wow. Interesting. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It's a cool world.
So I mean,
Rooster: I think, I think for the listener. So, like Senator said, you know, he named three brands, right? So he said Rolex, AP and Paddock Philippe. So as [01:19:00] a beginner, I think Rolex is probably the most affordable out of the three, three brands to start off with. Yeah.
Gizmo: And where does I WC fall in the pricing versus like an Omega versus a right
Senator: alongside Omega.
Okay. Yeah, there's not a lot of scarcity. You'd be able to go into an IWC boutique and get their watches. You can,
Rooster: but, but the But the prices really varied. Oh yeah, totally. You can buy an IWC from, I don't know, four, 5,000 all the way up to a couple of hundred thousand easily. Yeah. Wow. Now
Bam Bam: that AP that he's wearing, that's not that easy to find.
Senator: No, this is a vintage piece that's, this got discontinued in 2014. Correct. So that, that's another thing that I really love in the watch space. I'm glad that you mentioned that. I would've forgot this. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a parallel to cigars. It's like we talk about the Vegas Robina Classico. Oh, that cigar was discontinued.
We will never be able to procure that again. Correct. There is a finite number of those that are still left in this world and watches. It's the same thing like the watch I'm wearing. Once that was stopped being made, that's it. Why I was willing to pay a premium [01:20:00] for this. There's a finite number. They'll never, no one else will be able to buy this.
Yeah. Unless you find someone who already owns it and they're willing to sell it. So there's also that component where like. It, it's, it's, it becomes a collector's item in that sense. You know, there's
Rooster: something about 2014 that's, um, you know, even in the cigar world. That's true. That's a love, that's a
Gizmo: love 14, uh, AP he's got on there.
Well, that's a quite a learning experience. Yeah. And I, I hope that our listeners got a lot of value out of it. And of course, I would love to hear listeners answer not only what they're wearing every day are some of their favorite pieces. You know, 'cause obviously a lot of folks love watches. A lot of folks love to talk watches, especially in cigar lounges.
I mean, uh, how many times have I walked into the lounge hearing you guys and a bunch of other folks in their talking watches? Yeah. You know, what's coming, what you're looking to get, what you're trying to source. The difficulty of sourcing it. Yeah. Buy, buy what you love. Right.
Rooster: I mean, investment aside, you should really buy what you love.
And then of course, you know Rolex [01:21:00] and like he said, you know, those brands really do hold their value. I mean, you could wear it, like I said, for a couple of years, and
Bam Bam: yeah,
Rooster: and sell it if you don't like it, you know, something else.
Bam Bam: For me personally, the great thing about Rolex, they're very masculine and chunky and also very elegant.
There's a great balance. AP is out of reach for most people, but like you said earlier, I think that Rolex, if you can find them, grab 'em. And I'm desperately looking now, and it's not easy.
Senator: For sure. Yeah. And like I even mentioned, I mean, omega also great place to start. They make really high quality pieces.
Mm-hmm. IWC is another good one. Rooster mentioned very high quality stuff.
Gizmo: So can we were talking about walking into boutiques and just getting something. I know that you were telling Bam. I think that if Bam, as a new consumer were to walk into the Rolex boutique,
Bam Bam: I've done that. And, and get on the list and
Gizmo: it's empty.
They're empty. They empty, empty boxes. They don't have anything there. And get on that list. Oh, he could be waiting years.
Bam Bam: Oh. I waited two years for one, two locations and they never called me. Yeah. That's my
Senator: point. [01:22:00] Now the other thing though is like if you can buy it at MSRP, essentially from the boutique.
Oh, good luck with that. Like that same watch would be nine grand. Yeah. Oh, okay. As opposed to on the
Bam Bam: gray market, you've gotta pay like 12. Impossible to find that. It's just not possible.
Gizmo: And the waiting list is, they're kind of protecting against resellers buying that watch and flipping it. Yes. Obviously the, the scarcity of the type of product that it is.
That's right. For sure. The difficulty of making it. But like
Senator: you would be blacklisted immediately if a retailer ever, if an, if an authorized dealer ever sold you a high-end timepiece and they actually were able to find that you. We're reselling that like on Krono 24 or one of those websites, and they could figure out that it was you just by numbers serial, right?
I mean, never. Yeah, I, I wish
Rooster: Chanos did that with, uh, Trinidad, with the fund doors here, here's what I wouldn't
Senator: make any money then would be blacklist that's gonna pay for FedEx. Watch
Rooster: in my, in my
Senator: book, BAM is already boat black. Here's one small kind of stupid [01:23:00] thing that they've started to do now to try to make that a little harder.
It's not that it's harder, but it hurts the value to try to discourage that. You used to be able to buy one of these watches at an authorized dealer and they had all the stickers on all the plastic wrap, everything, the tag, and they just hand it to you and you could walk out with it if you buy now, I wish they will not.
Sell it to you and let you leave with it. Unless they remove every single sticker off that watch, they cut off the price tag to guarantee that you can't go out and say, I have a brand new perfectly unworn, you know, X model. Interesting. They're trying to find ways to just make it harder to do. Wow. Wow.
Gizmo: I respect that though.
Senator: Yeah,
Gizmo: I do. I mean, I, I like if you're selling a product like that mm-hmm. I'd want to sell it to people who want to want consume it and want to wear it to use it. That's, that's just a Rolex who wanna reseller Rolex for sure. Just
Bam Bam: Rolex. Yeah. I think another good starter is Panai, if we're gonna keep talking about this,
Senator: actually you won't.
You wanna know a cigar smoker who famously fucked up and did exactly what I'm talking about, [01:24:00] Arnold Schwarzenegger. He sold a watch there, there, oh my God, this was huge. He got stopped in, um, Austria. So Arnold Schwartzenegger bought, I, it was either a paddock or an AP at a crazy price, probably a few hundred thousand for this watch.
He bought it and he got stopped in the airport in Austria, and they said that he didn't pay some duty on the watch, so they find him, he had to pay like some huge tax bill on this piece. And the wildest part was he got it from an authorized dealer and then months later. He sold it at an auction. Oh my Lord.
Oh man. Which became public. Wow. And the boutiques gotta be sitting there saying like, what the fuck, we just gave this to you at retail. Arne's blacklisted that you wanted the watch. And he flipped it.
Bam Bam: Wow. Wow. That's wild. That is wild.
Gizmo: I mean, it's almost like I have a friend that works at Ferrari. I'm not a car guy either.
But it, it's a very similar thing. Like you can't just walk into a Ferrari dealership and buy a Ferrari. You gotta get on a list. Mm. You have to have owned one prior to actually, I think even [01:25:00] get on the list what they're really crazy about selling their vehicle. How do, how do you buy the first fer Ferra?
Try to
Senator: flip them. Exactly. It's the same thing thing. Same thing. How unbelievable. If you buy a Ferrari at MSRP, you would instantly make money by reselling that car. Yeah. Incredible. And they don't want people doing that. Wow.
Gizmo: Pretty wild.
Senator: Yeah.
Gizmo: Great deep dive on watches boys, and like I said, I'd love to hear from listeners on what you're wearing, you know, what you're talking about and enjoying as far as watches go, I find this fascinating.
I do so, so, yep. I think obviously tonight I've, I've known that they existed, but I think detailing some of the parallels between what we do here every week and, you know, luxury time pieces and how similar they are in the thinking of, you know, consuming them and having them. I think it's pretty cool. Yeah.
And I think there's a lot of
Senator: value there. Very cool. Can I give one last thing that would be helpful for listeners on watches? 'cause there's a lot of people that are gonna hear this and say, well, I'm nowhere near being in a position to buy a $9,000 Rolex. And we all, you know, started at a point where we couldn't afford a watch of that value.
A really [01:26:00] good quality brand at a very affordable price is tso. Yeah, they're Swiss made. Any either watches you can buy for like 200 to 400. Yeah. Maybe 500 at most dollars. And the quality's awesome. So we, they're mechanical movements, automatic movements, they'll last a lifetime. They have many models that look great.
Yep. Um, so I just actually wanna shout out that brand as like a really good, like, entry into an actual, you know, mechanical watch that's not battery powered, that's gonna be Swiss made and still a good quality piece. Yep. I also would, and that's a good
Gizmo: way to put it on and see if you like how it feels and you like how it looks like get, get into the habit of wearing this watch.
It's like
Rooster: Gonzalez Cigar. It's the Quin, the Quintero. The Vagaro, yeah. And Senator, how
Senator: many of those do you have? So one of my first WI watches was a tso. Awesome. Yeah. I still have it. Wow. It still
Gizmo: works. Cool. All right, boys, it's time now to go [01:27:00] into our Lizard of the Week segment, and this week we have a voice memo from our friend, lizard Sean, who sent a very, very nice email after he went to New Orleans.
So I wanted to share this email. He says, Hey, lizards, a little intro before playing my voice memo one, one never knows the impact that another can have on a person. Your guys' trip and recap to New Orleans for PCA led to one of the best trips for my wife and I, and I wanted to take a moment to share our experience.
And thank you. Had it not been for your discussion about some of the things you did while outside the convention, I don't think our trip would have been as great. Thank you for the great content cigar and non cigar related. It truly can have a huge impact on people's experiences. On behalf of Lizard Nation, I and my wife, thank you.
Here's the voice memo from our Lizard of the Week Lizard, Sean.
Lizard Sean: Hey lizards, congratulations on 200 episodes. [01:28:00] Phenomenal accomplishment, and I know we're all looking forward to the next 200. I wanted to send this and focus in on your introduction, where you talk about it's a leisure and lifestyle podcast.
Sure. We all come here for the cigar content, but the fact that you recently talked about PCA in New Orleans led me to take my wife down to New Orleans, a first for the both of us for a four day birthday weekend for her. I geared the trip around a lot of what you guys talked about, and it turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of our lives.
Of course, as soon as we got off the plane, we had to go to Central Grocery for a mu lettuce sandwich.
Gizmo: Correct. And
Lizard Sean: both the wife and I loved it. Uh. It was fantastic. We split a half, which was perfect. That's all we needed. Um, but then of course, you know, we went a little bit down the road across the way to Cafe [01:29:00] Dumont for Beignet, uh, which were good.
I'm not gonna say great, because then we did go to Loretta's and had their praline beignets and I think those blow 'em out of the water. Slightly different with the PRA liens in it, but still, uh, a top-notch experience getting to go to the Garden District. Remembering what you guys were talking about, um, my wife and I loved walking around.
Gizmo: Beautiful.
Lizard Sean: Um, the hospitality there was, was terrific. You know, even a gentleman came off of his porch to talk to us about the history, um, of the houses in the area. Uh, and it was just phenomenal. Um, having the opportunity to go to Commander's Palace, obviously was a, a high life for us.
Senator: Turtle suit, uh,
Lizard Sean: ands, right?
Was just the service out of this world. What, what can you say? Um, and of course we also had the opportunity to try oysters for the first time per your [01:30:00] recommendations. Although I will say we did get 'em Char grilled, uh, we're not at the point of trying raw at this point. So, uh, but overall, this was just one of the most incredible experiences, uh, and I don't think it would've been as good had it not been the, the things that you had talked about on the pod.
So. I know Lizard Nations thanks you for everything cigar related and I thank you for the additional content, uh, because it just made for an incredible birthday weekend for uh, my wife. So thank you lizards for all that you do. Keep up the great work and I know we're all looking forward to the next 200 episodes.
Gizmo: Alright, that's cool. That just made my week. Wasn't that awesome? That's very cool. A great voice memo from Lizard Sean. And listen, Senator, you take a lot of that credit 'cause you shepherded us to those same experiences. Obviously you had been there many times before and did, did the legwork to, to kind of whittle down a, a nice list of things [01:31:00] to do, but I mean, he nailed it.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Gizmo: he nailed
Bam Bam: it. I missed that Muta.
Gizmo: Yeah, sandwich was great. Special
Bam Bam: place.
Gizmo: The and Commander's Palace. I still stand by the fact that that was the best dining experience Wow. I've ever had in my life.
Bam Bam: And getting the smoke in that courtyard.
Gizmo: Yeah, exactly. Off, off the charts. Actually, I, I told Lizard Sean to do that.
He emailed that, said he was going. I said try to, and unfortunately it was closed for a private event that night. Oh. So he was un he was unable to do it. Oh wow. But yeah, he said they had a brilliant
Bam Bam: time at Commander's Palace, the owner of Commander's Palace. She's so awesome. Yeah. Came up to our table.
You guys can do whatever you want. Stay as long as you want. As long as you want. Where do you get that? That's nice. I mean, it was just incredible. Yeah.
Gizmo: Yeah. So what did you think about Lizard Shawn's comment on the Beignets? Yeah, I think it depends. I do, we know where he's from. He's from Philadelphia area.
Okay, interesting. Yeah, not too far from here.
Senator: Um, I worry that the, the one with the ENS would be too sweet for my palate. Um, but I'm sure [01:32:00] they're delicious. I mean, I have no doubt about that. But, um. I, I'm, I'm always willing to try something. So our next trip, we'll, uh, I mean we'll be at PCA next year. Yeah.
We'll be there.
Gizmo: We'll be there What? March or April, I guess. We'll,
Senator: we'll go there. We'll give it a try.
Bam Bam: Correct. I can't wait to go back. I loved it. And Chef has to come down with us. You
Gizmo: gotta come chef
Bam Bam: this year. Just from the point of the culinary. Yes. I mean, my God,
Gizmo: what's funny, I don't wanna change the thing of the trip we did.
I literally want to have a m at every day, almost the moment
Bam Bam: we land, we're gonna get outta of and every
Gizmo: day for lunch. Yep. DoorDash, dinner, whatever we did, did we get a DoorDash or we go, no, you have to go. They don't DoorDash. That's right. That's right. So having that every day, the beignets, the, the coffee of course.
With the, uh, chicory. Chicory in it, which is wild.
Bam Bam: Now you can get Thatm outta ship, right?
Senator: Yes. Yeah. GoldBelly Gold. Yeah. I told you I did it during the pandemic. That's awesome. I was so depressed. I'm like, I need something. I had that overnighted. Oh man. It did put a smile on my face. It's so satisfying.
Rooster: So I, what is a motta?
Senator: So sandwich. It, it's, it's kind of New Orleans take on like an Italian sub in a [01:33:00] way. So it's instead of like a, a hero roll though, it's like this round, huge round roll. Mm-hmm. Um, with, uh, like sesame seeds on the top.
Bam Bam: Yep. It's very light in air though. Yes, exactly. It's not overly focaccia,
Senator: but even later kind of lighter focaccia a little bit, but softer in a way.
It's
Bam Bam: softer. It's very lighter. It's light and airy. Yeah. Yeah.
Senator: Um, and then there's like this olive to aade that they actually jar and make there that you can buy and bring home. That's amazing on this. Um, and then like Italian meats, I think it's like provolone. Salami. Salami. Salami. Yeah. Ham, maybe. Ham. Uh, maybe I forget the meats.
Is there a pepperoni on
Bam Bam: it or
Senator: no?
Bam Bam: No, no. Um, and there's cheese of course.
Senator: Yeah. But just like everything is. The exact perfect proportion and like the flavors so perfectly balanced. That's awesome. And it's just hard. Describe it. It's the best sandwich I've ever had.
Rooster: Is there any other dressing, like [01:34:00] mayonnaise or vinegar?
No, it, it just, the olive top. It's olive oil.
Senator: Olive oil. And this olive to knife. Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Senator: On the top.
Bam Bam: Yes. And that's soaks into the bread. Exactly. But it's fantastic.
Gizmo: It was an amazing time. Have you ever been to New Orleans? Chef?
Chef: Never.
Gizmo: Oh man. Man, my God. You gotta come an, an awful lot of what make it happen, chef.
You gotta come not
Chef: from there. Yeah. But, uh, did this have, uh, like Mortadella on it? I don't think, I think pro. Ozella as a meat ham. Oh, the cheese pro? I believe
Senator: the cheese is provolone. Can we just reflect on that for a moment? Mozzarella, I thought you said, I thought you said mozzarella. No, not ozella.
Provolone.
My bubbles burst ba correct. But the thing that's even crazy is when you're there, I mean there are plenty of places you can get a muff in New Orleans. None of them pale in comparison to central grocery.
Gizmo: Mm.
Senator: And I wish it were different. 'cause then I'd have many options as far as getting this. I don't know why.
It's [01:35:00] just the way they do it is absolute perfection. Yeah, it's delicious.
Gizmo: It's like the Katz's Deli of New Orleans, correct? Yeah. Like every time I go to Katz's, it's amazing and, and consistent
Bam Bam: for me, regardless of how full I am. I'll just go for that next, that next portion. It, it just, I just kept going.
Gizmo: It was amazing. Yeah. All right, boys, thanks again to Lizard Sean for that awesome voice memo. We love voice memos and of course the great feedback on our trip to New Orleans and sharing, uh, the great birthday weekend he had with his wife there. And I hope that that inspires other listeners to kind of follow along the same path and, and enjoy New Orleans.
It's, it's not an expensive place to go. Commander's Palace for the experience we had was one of the least expensive dinners Yeah. I think we even had in New Orleans.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Right. It, it compare that even to New York. It's a Yeah. It pales in comparison price wise. Yep. Yep. To New York. So, uh, you know, again, thanks to him, uh, congratulations on winning Lizard, lizard of the Week.
Of course. Any lizard out there. Can win Lizard of the [01:36:00] Week. All I have to do is send us a voice memo like lizard Sean did an email, a comment on YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, whatever you choose. You can win Lizard of the Week. We do this every single week, so please keep in touch with us. So boys, I do have another voice memo.
We'll save that for next week. I think it is now time as we come to the end of our evening to discuss the pairing here. And, uh, what are you guys thinking of the pairing right now?
Senator: I mean, I said before and I still stand by. I think the pairing has definitely helped the cigar. Mm-hmm. I don't think I would've been able to get through this honestly without something sweet alongside this.
Yeah.
Bam Bam: So it did dissipate in interest to cigar. It didn't, it just got worse and worse. Not in a bad way, but it wasn't interesting. Um, the, the
Rooster: second half,
Bam Bam: yeah. It, it's not a memorable cigar for the price. Um, around the liquor rating. We're not rating anything. We're not even there yet. We're not rating anything, buddy.
We're talking about the parent, right? Um, I I actually don't mind the rum. Oof. I, I liked it. [01:37:00] We'll get into that. It's okay. You know, it's drinkable. What's it?
Gizmo: All right, boys. It's time now to do the formal liquor rating. Tonight on the Erie XO 20th anniversary rum from Barbados. Bam. You're up.
Bam Bam: Yeah. So I'm, I'm gonna give this an eight.
Um, I think it's a very nice drinking rum. Again, this is my first class. This has taken me through this entire hour and however long we've been here. It's pretty satisfying, you know, it's, it is sweet. So if you're not used to that, maybe a chip of ice or a little bit of water would help this a lot. And for the price, if someone offered me a glass, I'd happily drink this.
So I'm at an eight.
Rooster: Can't wait for gizmo's waiting on this.
Gizmo: Well done. Keep that in.
Chef: Ah, did you, did you just pour another glass or is that I, I did, because you know what? Research, I'm sort of at a [01:38:00] seven right now, even though this is my third pour. Wow. Poor. That is your third pour seven. It sounds weird. It sounds weird. Obviously. You love it. I think he's off tonight. No, I,
Bam Bam: he's off.
Senator: I mean, who takes three glasses of a drink if they don't enjoy it?
Chef: Yeah. You're right, you're right, Senator. You're right. And, um, it's too late. You can't change your mind now. No, no. I said I think I wasnt, he wasn't give, it wasn't a definitive score rating just yet.
Bam Bam: Pagoda wouldn't let you off the hook. I'm
Chef: kind of, you know, hovering back and forth between an eight and a seven and, and I'm at an eight because I am enjoying the rum.
But I'm a little disappointed in myself that I am.
Oh man. Self accountability. A seven for chef and eight for.
Well, it's, it definitely drinks sweet and it, and it, and there's a sweetness for me that feels kind of empty, um, because it's not well-rounded, right? Like there's a, there's a segment of that circle that's missing, uh, for me. Um, and [01:39:00] I think a lot of that has to do with body, you know, typically even that Bacardi eight, for as sweet as it, you know, it was drinking sweet.
And when, when I drink a sweeter spirit, I expect a, a, a viscosity or this kind of fullness in mouth feel that this rum isn't delivering. And it's confusing me. Um. But it is something that, you know, I'm enjoying, I'm enjoying, I'm enjoying, you don't wanna admit it.
You know, this does have, you know, nine 19 grams of, of, of sugar per liter. So it's definitely bam. It is per, per liter, not per serving. So you're, you're okay. Oh, thank God. Oh good. Yeah. So it is a little, it's a lot, it is a little on the sweeter side. Mm-hmm. But I think the story, you know, for me, the story kind of drives it home with being age and bourbon, and then it hits some French, uh, some French oak.
Um, you know, I'm, I don't know [01:40:00] what cognac is, is put in that French oak prior. Um, that that would be interesting to, for me to, to learn. But, you know, it's just for my own kind of nerd brain when it comes to spirits. Uh, but yeah, you know, it's an a, it's, it's a, it's a very serviceable rum. It is, uh, priced very, you know, fairly, uh, I think a 48 bucks.
It's, it's an, it's a, yeah. You know, it's a nice bottle. Mm-hmm. It's a good spirit. Uh, there's a great story behind it to talk about, uh, as far as the pairing, you know, it, it, it did its job, but the cigar really offered nothing. Um, and, you know, thank God today for the, uh, the voice memos and the watch conversation because I, I think as well and 19 grams of sugar.
Yeah. I think as, as we'll as thank God for that as we'll. Learn as we get a little deeper into these ratings. Those were the true stars of the show today. So, you know, with what we were presented with [01:41:00] today, um, I'll give this a Nate
Gizmo: well said chef. So I, I'm sure this comes as no surprise. I. I'm at a six. I hated this rum.
Holy
Bam Bam: moly.
Gizmo: Um, I, I, I figured out what it tastes like to me when I was a kid growing up at Christmas time. Oh boy, here we go back to Pennsylvania.
Bam Bam: I go, coming out of a coal, walking out of a coal
Senator: mine. I'm, yeah. And elk crosses. You know
Bam Bam: how true that is. I know that. You know how true that is. I know that's true.
Gizmo: That's a very true statement.
Bam Bam: Correct. Sitting down to the table after the coal mine,
Gizmo: like Zoolander with the black one. Correct?
Bam Bam: That's correct.
Gizmo: So there was this thing that was on the table, uh, at Christmas before we ate, and our meal was always pierogis and fish and all these other things, right? But there was this thing we did, it was called ky and it was these wafers.
Okay, that were covered in honey, that you'd split up your favorite
Bam Bam: thing
Gizmo: and give to everybody else. And the combination of that [01:42:00] wafer flavor and the honey, I always hated them wafer sounds like communion. Mm-hmm. And it's, it's very communion esque in the wafer. Like it's a church kind of communion wafer and then the honey dip on top of that.
That is what this tastes like to me. Um, and not that I had any tra trauma around. It sounds like unresolved childhood trauma. No, there's no trauma. That's what this sounds like. Christmas was my favorite holiday. My grandmother's. Potato pierogis. I lived and died by those all year long waiting to have those at Christmas.
That's cool. It was such a highlight. So there it is, none of that. But, uh, that's what this tastes like to me and I absolutely despise it. Mm-hmm. Uh, why am I at a six and not lower? I think it's because I acknowledge that it's a well-crafted spirit. The viscosity's good, you know, it's balanced. Uh, it's just for my palate.
It is an absolute miss. I think this is the first time that Oh yeah, I have probably, that's true. 90% of what I poured still in my glass. Mm-hmm. Almost two hours into this episode. So, uh, you know, it just wasn't for me. So, uh, plan A is [01:43:00] not my speed, so I'm gonna go with the six. Okay. Senator.
Senator: Alright, I'll disregard that commentary for the unresolved childhood trauma that is causing that rating.
We'll discuss that again, and I'm right there with, uh, with Bait Chef. I'm also at an eight. Um, you know, I tend to like things on the dryer side. Spirits, wine doesn't matter. What I do like about this. I mean, it is sweeter, but it's not like aggressively sweet. Yes. It's not like syrupy, it doesn't remind me of cough medicine.
Like there are rums like that that I truly hate. Sure. Um, and so, you know, when I'm having a dryer cigar or you know, I want something sweeter, like this is a perfectly, you know, good option in those, uh, those circumstances. So I think it's, it's well made. Um, I really, the first thing that kind of grabbed me the nose.
Yeah. I just got like vanilla, A lot of vanilla Yeah. But like, just the right amount. Like sometimes you like [01:44:00] taking the nose of a rum or a spirit and it's like, it, it smells like artificial vanilla or like overwhelming. Mm-hmm. Like it, it smell very natural. Um, I liked the, it had just enough viscosity but not syrupy and overall was balanced despite being, you know, on the sweeter side.
So I would, you know, drink it again in an instance like this. Um, for most of the cigars that I do smoke, I wouldn't need necessarily as sweet of a spirit. That's correct. So it would be certain occasions that I would, you know, have a glass of this. But I, I think, you know, for what they were trying to do, they did a, a pretty good job.
I think it's a solid eight.
Chef: Yeah. Well priced as well. Can I go back to giz? So put your
Gizmo: face in there. Have you ever had a pot? That's what it smells like.
Chef: So, so I've never had it Right, but I, I was just curious and I Googled it and, uh, so it, it's a water and flour wafer. Mm-hmm. Right? So there's no fat in this wafer, and then it's drizzled in honey.
It's disgusting. And, but to me that's [01:45:00] exactly, you nailed it, right? Like this has this, this is when I, when I was mentioning how it was lacking some body there, it's missing that kind of viscosity that, uh, some butter or fat in general would bent, would bring to ablock, right? But they're relying on that honey to bring that sort of density to the dish, that richness to the dish.
So I, I, I think you're, you're onto something. Guess
Gizmo: that's what I'm trying to tell you boys. All right. So boys, the formal liquidating tonight on the Plante XO 20th anniversary rum. A 7.5.
Bam Bam: Okay. That's a great rating. Rating. Glad gonna be therapeutic for you. Yeah, I
Gizmo: feel, I feel really good now.
Bam Bam: It's not a bad rating for
Gizmo: this.
I feel really good. I think it's an appropriate, so I'm sorry. I think it's an appropriate rating for this. So given your in, you know, tolerance of it, I, I don't even think it's beyond that. Mm-hmm. It, it's, Senator just said this is pretty much the only type of cigar he would smoke, you know, drink this whip.
No, I just said any dry cigar, A dry cigar CI cigar, I will say. But you don't smoke a lot of those. No, that's like just said. He just said that, I mean, keep up was I was processing my [01:46:00] trauma. I'm sorry. Clearly you're like 20 years back right now.
Bam Bam: Longer than that, pal. All right. You know, one thing that this does do it, it, um, you know, other rums that we've had that have zero sugar and zero additives, half the price of this bottle.
Drinks. So deliciously well and easy to drink and incredible experience like that. Florida Kano seven year, that is a true merit. How they can make something taste that good without any of the additives that this thing has and a lot of other rums. So I, I think, you know, you look at those types of manufacturers, you want to gravitate more toward those guys.
Senator: Oh, I agree. The wild thing with Unreal with this cigar though, is like this cigar is so dry and lacks so much sweetness. Mm-hmm. That Florida Kanye, as much as I love that and drink it all the time,
Gizmo: yeah.
Senator: It wouldn't have been sweet enough to help this cigar. You're probably right.
Gizmo: You're probably right.
Senator: Yeah.
Chef: Yep.
Gizmo: All right boys, it's time now to move into the formal Liz Reading tonight on the Romeo Julieta [01:47:00] Dianas, the Line Day Oro series. Rooster, you're up. So the cigar is a
Rooster: lot like the ochi without the honey. Correct.
Bam Bam: Good point.
Rooster: Kind of. Uh, you know, it started off promising, I must say on the light. You know, first of all, the combustion, the draw was very easy.
It was a bit underfilled, but you know, nonetheless, the draw was the combustion. The draw was excellent. I think the combustion was outstanding. Yeah,
Bam Bam: yeah,
Rooster: yeah. I mean, the cigar looked okay. It had, you know, I mean, for almost a $50 cigar, it should deliver much more than it did.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Rooster: But the first third was good, you know, and.
I was under the assumption that the cigar should build upon this and it will get better. It will get, you know, it was kind of like mild, like borderline medium at the most. Uh, but on this, on the, at the halfway point, it kind of got boring. It changed, it kind [01:48:00] of lost it. Never really quite had that balance that we look for in a cigar.
Yeah. Yeah. It took a turn for the worst. Yeah. There wasn't much of a sweetness and it, it just wasn't well rounded off. Wasn't well balanced. The, the, some notes that we did get were kind of muddled. Um, and it really got, I think it, I, I lost all interest in it at the halfway point and then it kind of really went down after that point.
Um. And with the price. I mean, it's just, you know, it's disappointing to say the least. So I'm at a seven. Yep. All right,
Senator: Senator. So this doesn't remind me of anything in my childhood, but it's a six, um,
Gizmo: no AKI references
Senator: here. So Noke references, uh, this was a huge disappointment. Yeah. I mean, I, there are like $10 Jose Piera cigars that have been more interesting than this cigar.
Oh yeah. And the price point on this is like, what, four or five times [01:49:00] that for me on the light. I, I was not getting much sweetness. It was very faint. It was drier than I wanted. I felt it was out of balance from the start, pretty much all the way through. Um, the only parts of this that started to appeal to me was when all of a sudden, like the saltiness really picked up and helped kind of blunt the.
Dry herbaceous notes that I was getting. Um, the second half, like Rooster said, at least in the first half I could pick out distinct flavor notes. I just didn't love the balance and what I was getting. The second half, it got muddled correct and muted. It got drier and drier. Yeah. And just completely uninteresting.
I mean, if we weren't recording this and didn't need to smoke this all the way through, you would've put down, come up with a rating, correct? On the complete cigar. I would've dropped it. Yeah. Yeah. No question about it. Um, I would never smoke this [01:50:00] again. I would never recommend this to anyone. Um, I think the blender completely failed.
So for me, I'm at a six. The reason I'm at a six and not lower is it's smokeable. Yes. I smoked it all the way to the end. Were there some moments that I was enjoying what I was getting? Yes. But far more moments that I was incredibly disappointed and that's why I'm at a six.
Gizmo: Alright, so I'm also at a six.
Let's go with the good stuff. It was a chimney. Yeah. And let's go to the bad stuff. So he listed one thing. So I mean, listen, it was an interesting opening, right? Uh, and the opening worked. I think the opening was arguably good, but it was good. It was good. It, it really went down pretty quick from there. Uh, there was no Romeo DNA in this at all.
This doesn't smoke anything like, uh, Romeo Julietta. I know that we don't really love that mark on this podcast. I think we're trying to change our perception and our perspective on it after the Churchill episode, which performed very well.
Bam Bam: Yep.
Gizmo: Uh, in the classic line. But, uh, this is a [01:51:00] total miss as Senator said.
I think it's a, it's a real disappointing cigar. Um. It fell off quickly. Like I said, it was dry, it was boring. I think this is a cigar I would classify as an evening killer. And what I mean by that is, yeah, when you pull out a near $50 cigar, you're pairing it with your best drink. Not the, not this runway we had, but you're gonna pair it with your best drink.
You're gonna set the time aside, you're gonna set up some sort of conversation with friends or a movie or some sort of sit, you're planning a sit around this cigar. This is not a casual cigar. No, it's not. And when a $50 cigar performs like this, which that's a very expensive cigar.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: When it performs like this, that kills an evening.
It's punishment. It ruins your evening, it's
Bam Bam: punishment.
Gizmo: You know, like Senator said, if we weren't doing this, most of us would've dropped this cigar before the halfway point. I mean it, it was smokeable, but really was it, I don't think any of us would've smoked through.
Bam Bam: Well, we had to, tonight,
Gizmo: I'm saying outside of our ex, what we do here, and
Senator: it was, I said Smokeable because it's not like in the second half.
The flavor I was getting was so [01:52:00] offensive. Yeah. That I like, was angry about it. It was just so boring. Sure. That's why I waste more time. I just totally
Bam Bam: ditched it. Unmemorable cigar. Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo: So I will say the one thing, uh, I thought was odd or interesting about the cigars. Unlike most of the cigars we smoke here, the cold draw often doesn't translate to the smoke.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: We often say we get these various things on the cold draw and then we light the cigar. It's a totally different animal. I think this is one where a lot of the notes in the feelings we were having about the cold draw
Bam Bam: initially
Gizmo: did translate initially. Initially, correct. It did translate to the cigar.
So I, I'm just trying to be
Bam Bam: No, it's cool.
Gizmo: Find some good things to say. It's accurate to say because this
Bam Bam: pretty quickly
Gizmo: after, um, there was no preview potential here at all. So anybody who has these or says I'm gonna buy them, sit on them, smoke, you know, smoked them in a few years, I don't see the potential.
I mean, sometimes you get a cigar that smokes young, little harsh. She tastes the youth. Oftentimes when that happens, you can tell if the blend is there or not, and you can kind of look into the future and see [01:53:00] where it's potentially gonna go. I, I don't think this cigar has any hope. Uh, and at $50, I don't think any listener should go out there and invest their time, energy, or money into it.
Uh, for all those reasons, it's a six for me. Chef.
Chef: Yeah, I, uh, I, I agree with everything you guys are saying. Um, I think the cigar is very disconnected, not only from the, the r and j profile, but also in general. You know, if this is, if this would've been my first cigar, my first r and j cigar, I wouldn't have known what it was, what to expect or, or what I should be getting, because the flavor profile was all over the spectrum, starting with grassy herbaceous notes, getting into some pepper.
And then the retro hill offers some sweetness, but that just dissipated. And then by the time you get into the second, third, final third, it's just completely flat. Mm-hmm. It just felt totally flat. And I was smoking for this, for the act of smoking, but almost [01:54:00] forgot that I was smoking a cigar. Um, so, you know, when I, when I bring that into the formula, into the equation, and then think about what the cigar costs, I feel like I have no choice but to give it a six.
Correct. Uh, so, you know, although it started interesting and I thought maybe it would develop into something because it was giving us some unique, uh, notes in the beginning, it just really fell off into nothingness. So I'm at a six.
Bam Bam: All
Gizmo: right.
Bam Bam: Bam. Yeah. I think I'm also at a six. I don't think there's anything else that you can rate this.
There's, it started off great. Interesting. A little different and unique, but then it plummeted very, very quickly. I can't add much more. Unmemorable cigar in factoring the price, it's,
Senator: it's not worth your time. You need to wear an omega Speedmaster. When you smoke this cigar, it's a black hole, correct? Hold on, you need to
Bam Bam: be ready for anything.
I can't see you. You're the glistening on your watch is blinding me right now. [01:55:00]
Gizmo: So boys, the formal lizard rating tonight on the Romeo Julieta Dianas from the Line de Oral series from Haos is a 6.2. All right, so let's compare that to the other two. Romeo Julieta. As we've done on the podcast on episode 48, we did the wide, Churchill scored a 6.8, a little bit better than this.
And on episode 194 we returned to Romeo with the classic Churchill, which scored a 9.5. That was a home run. Great cigar. Excellent. So, you know, coming off that episode, uh, I was very optimistic about this. Mm-hmm. I think this is one of the only. New release Cubans, new blend Cubans that has come out in the last few years.
That has been a dud.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Uh, if we think about all the Cubans we've had that have been released in, let's say, since COVID time that have been blended since COVID time, most of them have been pretty damn good. Mm-hmm. I, I don't remember another dud do you? The Pargo? No, that was a great [01:56:00] cigar. Oh, the other one, de Linea,
Rooster: the, uh, was legato or,
Gizmo: oh, the, uh,
Rooster: yeah.
You know what I'm talking about.
Gizmo: I'm glad someone does. I, the LCDH in't that really fancy box. Oh, remember that? Yeah. That was, yeah. That was weak. That was, that was
Bam Bam: weak. Not good. Yeah.
Gizmo: Uh, but I think most regular production, new releases have been pretty damn good. Yeah. This is definitely an outlier for us.
Agreed. Agreed. Uh, and it's very disappointing at that price. Yeah. So definitely. Not a buy recommendation for our listeners tonight. Uh, boys was a good night. Not a great pairing. Yeah. Six, six wins for me tonight. Okay. So let's, uh, again go through our ratings on the Rey XO 20th anniversary rum from Barbados.
We a 7.5. And on the Rome Julieta Dianas, we had a 6.2. We, of course have to thank all of the listeners for writing us. We really appreciate it. Of course, lizard Sean and Lizard of the Week voice memo that he sent. We always appreciate hearing from our listeners. We, of [01:57:00] course, have to thank our friends at Fabrica five who make great cigars, very consistent, easy to get.
And of course now you can get those Bond Roberts releases that we've talked about so highly. You can finally get them, uh, from Miami. Right now in 10 counts. So do that. Check it out, Fabrica zero zero five.com and uh, boys, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us.
You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's lounge lizards PO d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
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