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The lizards pair the Illusione Cruzado Robusto Classic with Four Roses Small Batch Select Bourbon. The guys discuss aging new world cigars, the mystique of tonight’s cigar marca and the merits of the LIV Golf lawsuit.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Puba, Senator Anne Pagoda and our plans to smoke a cigar, drink some bourbon, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs.
So take this as your 47th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We are gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating. We discuss aging new world cigars, the mystique of tonight's cigar marker and the merits of the live golf lawsuit, all among a variety of other things for the next hour.
So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair four Roses small batch select with the EUC Crudo in Rub. Robusto Classic. A. Nicaraguan Piro tonight. [00:01:00] from Elucion, the Crozat in Rub Robusto classic, uh, a beautiful little cigar confusing presentation I would say. As the room peeled off a, I guess, three inch gold foil and the original gray and silver band of, of this cigar, which kind of encompassed it, it was very, very confusing presentation among a few other things.
In, in, in the presentation of these cigars that confuse me not realizing which cigar we had purchased. I thought it was the Ra robusto that I find out as the Rub Robusto Classic. Then I thought it was another one because of the gold foil. But there's a couple different presentations of this same cigar.
But at the end of the day, this is a cigar efficient on's number six cigar of 2021, and it is a 50 ring gauge by five and a quarter cigar. So let's cut this thing. Boy. See we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. . [00:02:00] Whoa. As I go to kata, do you guys see the like pigtail thing on the top of this? Yeah.
It's kind of weird. It's not a pigtail. Do you see that? I, I don't have a pigtail on mine. Look that, look at the top of mine. What?
**Poobah:** It's, it wasn't a pigtail, it was pigtail. You should be able to pinch off, right? It wasn't that, but it was like, his isn't crazy.
**Gizmo:** Look at his, it looks like a crop
**Poobah:** circle. No, it's like, it was like a truncated pigtail with no tail.
**Senator:** No, but GIZ had, there's a tail on his look at, look at his cigar. Grab
**Gizmo:** it, look at it. Take one, show it to Brewster. Making work.
**Poobah:** Uh, yeah, that, yeah, there is a actual pigtail there, but it's a truncated.
**Gizmo:** So I bought the cigar, I bought these cigars for the pod, uh, about a month ago. And I thought that this was a different cigar.
I thought it was this cigar. And then I started doing some research on it. I thought it was the crudo, what they called the mirek. Then I found out that wasn't the case, which is a very similar presentation to this, but it's a six and a quarter by [00:03:00] 52. So that's not the cigar we have cuz this is only five and a quarter.
Very confusing. But anyway, um, what are you guys getting on the cold draw? How's the wrapper open?
**Rooster:** Wide open, wide open. I'm getting something on the wrapper. I don't know if it's like a minty flavor or something like peppermint.
**Senator:** I, I get the same and, and strangely sometimes, like really aged cigars have that flavor.
So it reminds me oddly of like a Salem aged vintage cigar. Salem , Salem
**Poobah:** Light menthol, Salem Light, Marlboro
**Gizmo:** Menthols. I, you know, I gotta say to your age comment, I do think that these specific singles that we purchased for the pod tonight are an older variation of this Crudo rabu. . So I definitely think these have some age on 'em because the current release and what Cigar, fish and Auto Nailed is their number six of this year just has that silver band on [00:04:00] it.
No gold foil. So I don't know what's going on with these
**Poobah:** fascinating . Can we smoke 'em? , let's light
**Gizmo:** the Stick Boys Lu Grazado and Rub Robusto Classic. Again, it's a 50 ring gauge by five and a quarter
**Poobah:** cigar. I'm use my, my white trash
**Gizmo:** lighter. Yeah, that's a Cremer Way burner, man. Oh, I've got a story. Oh, I can't
**Poobah:** wait.
I got this thing when I was going down to the beach at, uh, I bought it at a Wawa and uh, on a whim. 8, 7, 8 bucks. And let me tell you this thing, it holds a lot of fuel and it flows. Flows, throws some flame off. It stays lit
**Gizmo:** forever. Yeah.
**Poobah:** apparently. And, uh, you gotta be really careful with this. Po o s
**Senator:** it can
**Poobah:** burn through almost anything thing.
It's terrible. Oh, what did he do? Senator Tu senator will tell the story. I let my [00:05:00] whole solo case on fire .
**Senator:** So thi this was a few days ago. We're, we're at our clubhouse. I, I just walk in Pub is sitting there. He says, oh look, I've got my white trash lighter. I picked up while I was, uh, down at the shore and uh, I'm in the flame.
This thing puts out at
**Poobah:** the serious look at thing. Look at, look at the flame. Look at the thing. Serious flame.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. And I go, I get a glass, I'm gonna pour myself something to drink and. . I hear the sound of like a butane lighter just running and I'm like, oh Jesus. It's just going, it's going for like a really oddly long period of time.
It was in the case at that time? No, no, no. It was on top of the case. It was on top. So Puba had put it on top of the case when he was done lighting his cigar and I'm looking around the room like, where's that sound coming from? And I look down on the coffee table and I'm like, holy shit, your case is burning
And he's the thing never turned off. And this jet flame is just going directly into the solo case, and burned a hole
**Poobah:** straight through it burned a hit the whole street through the [00:06:00] carbon fiber of the case. Did you
**Gizmo:** file a class action
**Rooster:** lawsuit against this
**Gizmo:** company? ? Yeah. What company is that Under? Who?
China is that? Is that under Warranty?
**Poobah:** People's Republic of China. That's who I'm gonna sue. There's no brand on this thing. It's got a camouflage like a, like almost like that you'd see in like an eighties. Like the Russians would have and like the eighties, it's like blue and gray and Yeah, it's got like that.
It's like a camo pattern. It's a camo pattern that like a ruski would wear. Yeah, like a eighties film. Um, Patrick Swayze, right?
**Gizmo:** Spies like us. Let me ask you a question. Is there a lock button on it that, okay, so
**Poobah:** that's the krewe part. That's the lock. So there's a lock button. Now when you hit lock, it's not supposed to go down.
It's fine when you take it off lock. Now this is just a piece of plastic on top and you hit it. It's on. Somehow when I lit it, I locked it on. I hit and I look. [00:07:00] If you hit lock, it just stings on. Oh my. So somehow I did that. See if so if you hit it down, boom. Now hit lock. And I take, look, I could just take this and throw it to somebody's house and burn the whole house down.
That's like a welding machine. Jesus. Right. , like, it's totally dangerous. This,
**Senator:** you should see Rooster walks in like a minute later. He is like, wow, it smells like something was burning in here. . We're like, yep. That's the smell of solo .
**Poobah:** Mm-hmm. . I'm gonna call, I'm gonna call, I'm gonna call Manning and tell him, uh, Hey Manny, listen, your cases are not fireproof, right?
I need a refund. I need to file a warranty claim.
**Gizmo:** what are you guys getting here? On the light of the Crio Ribo, I definitely taste a little age on
**Senator:** it. I taste age. I get a little bit of spice, also a little bit of something sweet. It, it, it's, it's got a little of a little of multiple flavors, which I like a little bit of complexity to start. You're getting some [00:08:00] sweetness, little sweetness, , bam, bam.
Uh, BA's not here to Pam's not here to say it, but in his honors, in
**Poobah:** his honor, he would go, yeah, yeah, .
**Rooster:** This would hold this on the hand and be like,
**Gizmo:** Hmm, hmm. So, uh, the Crito wine from Ellucian, um, came out in 2008 and it's changed packaging a few times. As I discussed, there's not a lot that I've found on the brand.
It's owned by, uh, Dionne Gito, and this guy is very secretive about the brand, uh, and the markings and the symbols and everything, which is the whole name, euc, all these symbols and whatnot. He won't tell anybody what they are. I think he likes to have a little bit of mystique about his cigars and his brand.
Um, even on his website, they have a pod podcast called Disinformation. The whole brand is, is built around, uh, you know, what do you want to call it? Marketing. Marketing.[00:09:00]
Thanks Puba.
**Poobah:** As a marketer, I can tell you that that's marketing.
**Gizmo:** Well, it seems like it's working , because this cigar was number six of the year. . Yeah. But I, like I said, I, I found the brand to be a little confusing, even researching the cigar for the pod tonight. Um, but a lot of people like these cigars.
**Poobah:** Hey, you know, they're shooting an open space. They're trying to con make, put some mystique around, uh, the brand.
**Gizmo:** I gotta say the smoke output is fantastic. I, it, it takes very little to draw and it is, it's like I, it it's, this could be one of the cigars that I've had to put the least effort into the most smoke.
**Senator:** I completely agree. Literally read my mind. I love the combustion on this cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The girl's perfect. Draw is perfect. Dry is perfect. So I've kept these in my humie, they've been in there probably three, four weeks. So they've definitely come down [00:10:00] in humidity since when, you know, since I purchased them.
So these are probably closer now to 64, 65. But it's, it's definitely benefited these versus when I bought 'em, them we're definitely a little spongy. ,
**Senator:** do you get the sweetness I'm talking about? Absolutely. Like I, I actually like the flavor profile. This
**Poobah:** to start. Yeah. So far it's, it's so far it tastes real good.
It's
**Gizmo:** very different, let's say, than most of the Nicaraguans that we've not had prior to the pod experience with this is, it's even different from those. This is a Nicaraguan. This is a Nicaraguan
**Senator:** P. This is nothing like, yeah, most Nicaraguans.
**Gizmo:** Wow. Yeah. This is a Nicaraguan Piro. Wow. Pretty wild.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It's got this natural looking rapper on it, but it's not natural.
Natural. It's got a little bit of, I don't know what the rapper,
**Rooster:** the rapper's Nicaraguan too. Yeah. It's a Poro. Yep.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I
**Rooster:** remember Eucs,
**Gizmo:** they used to have like
**Rooster:** just one skinny band on [00:11:00] this, on the sticks. Do you remember that? Yeah. The EPINet. Enet. Yeah. That's the one I've
**Gizmo:** had. .
**Senator:** I was gonna ask, I feel like you said you've tried something that they make before.
This is my first one. Enet. Was it good Enet?
**Rooster:** Um, it wasn't memorable. I mean, it
**Gizmo:** was
**Poobah:** okay. I kind of like that. I have no band on it. I kind of like that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I took the silver band off the gold and I put it back on the cigar. You put the band back on. Very elitist of you guys now. I am. Well, I just, I like when I'm holding a cigar.
I like being able to hold the band in my finger. Why? I don't know why. As opposed to the tobacco. I don't know why. I just like how it feels.
**Senator:** You're just showing off. That's all showing off,
**Gizmo:** that's all. That's right. That's right. Yeah. This is very, very pleasant burning. Great. Yeah. Good construction.
Absolutely burning Great,
**Poobah:** good construction. [00:12:00] You
**Gizmo:** know, I would argue that this is definitely a medium right now, especially as far as Nicaraguans go. I agree.
**Rooster:** It's like the cigar is like a girl that your mom wanted to date. Like, oh, she's got great personality. You should really meet her.
**Gizmo:** what? Not too spicy.
Not
**Poobah:** too, you mean like a fat chick named Beth or something?
**Rooster:** Well, you had never met her, so you don't know. Think she's had great personality.
**Gizmo:** Okay. So these cigars were, these cigars were about 14 bucks a piece, which I thought was a little pricey for what it is, but, um, who knows? Yeah, we'll see what the, we'll see how it's, see what the pre, you know, see how it performs.
Exactly.
**Senator:** I'm just pleasantly surprised for a cigar that I am not at all familiar with the brand. Obviously I've heard of it. I've just never tried anything that they make. I like the flavor notes to start. Yeah, it's pretty good so far. And it, it does, you, you do taste some age, which I like. [00:13:00] Yeah,
**Poobah:** yeah, yeah.
You taste tobacco, you know, it's got that kind of, It's got depth. It's
**Gizmo:** a little musty or something. Yeah. About, you know, the tobacco's. A little musty. Yeah. Which I think is really nice. Yeah. It's not like
**Rooster:** your typical Nicaragua flavors though.
**Poobah:** No, no. It doesn't like smack you in the face with a whole lot.
Um, it's good.
It's got, like, I, I can see it building in strength. It's like full-bodied right now. Medium to full and body. Not in strength, but
**Gizmo:** I really want to try this with the bourbon we have tonight. Guys, if you don't mind. Um, I'm really interested to see how this is gonna pair with it. The Four Roses small batch select, which was sent to us by a listener friend of ours in California.
Highly recommended. Highly recommended actually to the point. . I sent him pictures of some others and he sent four [00:14:00] roses. He's like, Nope, that's not the one. He said Neither, neither. So we found the right one. Puba. Yeah. Thankfully. Found it.
**Poobah:** So how much was this? $59. Okay. With tax. So I probably drink more bourbon than, than the most people in this group.
I, so, yeah. You and Grindr, I would think. Right? Yeah. I, I, I like bourbon. Um, so I, I, I've, I, I kind of, I can see w where this differentiates itself and sets itself apart from like, uh, running of the mill, like Woodford or, or, or bullet or something. It's definitely a step up from that. Um, . We had a sip of this prior to the, you know, because we always take a little bit of a belt prior to, prior to the, the recording.
But the Preta, the Preta. But Senator [00:15:00] was talking about, you know, kind of bumping it up against Elijah Craig's, um, uh, small batch, small batch. And um, and you were mentioning you thought you liked that better, but, um, there's something about this bourbon that like is def it's, it's the, it is a little bit distinctive for me.
There's almost like a, I get a lot
**Senator:** of cinnamon
**Poobah:** with this cinnamon. Um, but there's like a little bit of a floral aspect to it too, which I thought was kind of nice. Um, and maybe that's where the four ro, the, that maybe four roses. Maybe that's where that maybe there's some link there. I I, I didn't even, I'm just making that connection now.
Um. So there was like an aromatic quality to it that I thought was nice. Um, so I, you know, I'm enjoying it. Like, I
**Gizmo:** gotta say, when Senator first poured it [00:16:00] and, uh, we took a, a sip, it was prior to having any ice in there, I, I was pretty turned off to it. And now as I'm sipping it more, the ice has kind of done its thing, opened it up, it's definitely better than, than that first sip for sure.
It's really
**Poobah:** interesting. We, we've talked about this a little bit before with high proof, um, spirits. You like the palette needs a second to adjust. And I think it was in the te even in the, maybe one of the tequila episodes, like when you first, some of the higher proof tequilas that we had when you, when they, when it first hits your palate, like you may have that, or if you maybe just needs one Cuba ice or something, the, the spirits opened up your PAL to adjusts and I think you need to give it a chance.
To kind of develop on the pallet before you, before making a judgment, you know, to get your pallet to adjust properly. Cuz it can be hot. These, some of these higher proof. When you say high proof, what is the proof [00:17:00] on this? 104. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, that's
**Poobah:** high 54. Same with like the rum, you know, if you were to, like, if we were to bust out some high proof foursquare rum, you know, if you give it a second, maybe just put a small ice cube in it, but give your pallet some time to just like, adjust to it and everything.
Give the spirit just a second to open up in the glass. I think it makes a difference. It definitely,
**Gizmo:** I experienced that tonight. There's no question about it. Yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's very good and I think it's pairing very nicely with the
**Poobah:** cigar. Yeah. It holds up. Yeah. Certainly to this Nicaraguan tobacco.
Definitely. Um, so for me, you know, I think this, I I like it. I, I'm gonna give it. I like it. Do you think it's worth 60 bucks? . Let me have another glass.
**Gizmo:** than
**Pagoda:** it sure is a little bit.
**Poobah:** I'm gonna have another glass with less ice.
Actually, I'm gonna just drink this.[00:18:00]
**Gizmo:** Let try some, gotta get this cigar
**Rooster:** in nine on the construction.
**Gizmo:** The draw. Yeah. It's amazing. You know? Yeah. I, the fact that the fact how little effort I have to pull into drawing this for the amount of smoke I'm getting out of it is, I don't know if I've ever experienced something quite like this. Well, I agree.
It's kind of wild. It,
**Poobah:** it, it is. Petro petron's do that to a certain degree. All you gotta do is kiss
**Gizmo:** it. But usually Pedro drones have a bit more resistance than this. Just a touch kind
**Rooster:** of tightly pack the, uh, the, the ash,
**Gizmo:** you know?
**Poobah:** Yeah, yeah.
**Pagoda:** many.
**Gizmo:** So Fort Roses is a very, very popular brand of bourbon, obviously produced in Kentucky. Um, a lot of folks drink this. So have you guys had experience with the regular four Roses? [00:19:00] I haven't had that for quite some
**Poobah:** time. No, it's not, it's not a, it's not a bourbon that I've, I've really been exposed to before tonight.
**Senator:** So I've had the, the like, entry level yellow label at like a Giants game tailgate years ago. Right. Um, I mean, I think people like Four Roses, because generally there's stuff for a bourbon. It, it's not really aggressive, like some bourbons by design. Um, it, it's a bit smoother, a little creamier. So I think it, it's just really approachable for a lot of people who want to get into bourbon or who are into bourbon and just want something that.
Is just a little more even keeled, not too aggressive. Right,
**Poobah:** right. But to be specific, this is the select, so it's a higher proof
**Gizmo:** Totally. Um, small batch. Let's make, let's make another distinction on top of that or not. Select batch, small batch select. There's also a small batch that's not select. So they Interesting.
They have, they have like four or five [00:20:00] different levels and I'm sure there may be even more than, than this one. Right. Um, of, of, of bourbons that they're releasing above their normal run of the mill, uh, four Roses. Yeah.
**Poobah:** It's, it's a high quality spirit. That's what we're drinking. It's definitely, it's, it's satisfying to me.
So now this is neat
and like my pal, it's totally calibrated. Like, I can totally drink this. No problem. So what do you
**Gizmo:** think of it without ice?
**Poobah:** I think it's good. I think it's better with one cube of ice, but it's good. But that's me. That's like, sure. I just want like it to. . I like, I don't really drink my bourbon meat stuff.
That's this high proof. I just don't drink meat.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. I call meat. They use it for cocktails as well. Yeah. Good. Manhattan.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Or I drink it a little, you know, I put on the rocks. Um,
but very
**Gizmo:** nice. The cigar is [00:21:00] definitely working for me right now. I gotta be honest. I'm really impressed. Yeah, I'm impressed. Yeah. This is really, really nice. Pleasantly surprised about an inch. The, the look at the ash on, I mean, just perfect. Yeah,
**Pagoda:** same actually. This is, this is not bad at all, by the way. I'm really enjoying the bourbon and I've, you know, I'm not really into bourbons, like having them, you know, either need or with a cubic eyes.
I just prefer whiskey. But this is, this
**Senator:** is great. Yeah, I agree. I, I actually, you know, I'm coming around on the bourbon. I, I think it's pretty good. The only thing I have a hard time with is honestly the price point and the reason I say that I agree. is, um, Elijah, Craig's small batch is literally half the price.
It's 30 a bottle. And I think that these are, uh, there are some similar qualities. Um, this is probably a bit, uh, this is definitely a bit less aggressive than Elijah Craig's small batch. Um, though both on ice mellow out, I think pretty nicely. [00:22:00] And I think that is a richer, deeper flavor where this is a creamier, I don't wanna say light, but lighter flavor.
So, um, I think it kind of depends on the occasion or what you're pairing with it. And I actually think with this cigar, I mean this cigar has a good amount of flavor, but this is not like a traditional Nicaraguan that would smack you across the face with flavor. Right? So I actually think this pairs really well with this cigar.
**Poobah:** It, yeah. I, I, I agree. Um, and I also agree with the comment. I, I find this bourbon, I drink bourbon. Um, I don't go so, so, so deep. But I mean, I drink it. This has a very creamy and a very smooth, it's a, it's, it's, without a doubt it's more way more complex than a Woodford and it's way more complex than some of these other bourbons that I've, that I've had.
I, I, I, I do think it offered that there's a creamy aspect to it that [00:23:00] I think is really actually quite nice. Um, uhoh Uhoh, he's gonna grab Elijah. Craig , no liquid reserve. I'm sure he's moving. Garan is moving and then
**Pagoda:** we're gonna taste it side
**Gizmo:** by side. So while he's moving, just briefly, I found a little bit of a regular production list of what they release.
Four Roses bourbon, the normal one they have, which is an 80 proof. They have the small batch was a 90 proof. They have a single barrel, which is a hundred proof. And then they have what we're drinking tonight, which is the small batch select. , which is 104 proof and has an age statement on it that it's
**Poobah:** aged six years.
Yeah. It's nice. I really like it.
Um,
**Gizmo:** they also offer two others four roses, black and four roses super premium. See what that are only
**Poobah:** sold in Japan. When you put one ice cube in this thing. Like I just poured it and I just put one, one cube. Yeah. In it. It's creamy. It's [00:24:00] smooth. It's got like a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a little caramel tasting.
It's very nice. It is, it is very nice. I'm actually really, I'm really liking it. I'm really liking this, this, this. No doubt about it. Yeah. Good luck getting through the church. Gar son's. Okay, so play by play. Gar Son's moving around. That's when Senator serves people. He's navigating, he's, he's putting out something which appears to be Woodford.
He's li, he's in the, he's in the Presbyterian cabinet. He has cabinetry in here that was built by like a Presbyterian or something. , or like a Lutheran, Lutheran cabinet. He's got, he's got pr Do I need to move? Can you move? All right. He's confused, there's confusion. He's coming around. Here he comes, [00:25:00] he's making his way back.
He's got another spirit. He's got the same spirit. He's dishing out what appears to be Woodford Reserve. He has some sort of a, an agenda that he's is advancing. Let's see what happens here. Okay? Everyone's gonna be back in their respective stations and places momentarily.
**Gizmo:** Not
**Poobah:** done, not done yet. There's, there's ice being divvied up.
Okay, here he comes. Looks like he's putting one cube. It's gonna be apples to apples. , one cube, apples to apples comparison. One cube. Thank you.
Okay, that's a little weird. He put two cubes in gizmo's glass. Yeah, that's understandable Why he did that. We don't know, but who knows? Maybe, maybe he's nervous. Well, we don't want you to explode and do something bizarre. Giz [00:26:00] transform like Goonies.
**Gizmo:** All right,
**Poobah:** senator's back. Okay, so, so he is back. So what is he trying
**Senator:** to, what are we doing? The, the reason I do this, I'm just cur, I, I feel like Woodford is kind of the benchmark for just like an accessible but satisfying bourbon, right? So I'm just curious for something at less than half the price point, just how, how we would
**Gizmo:** compare it.
**Poobah:** Sure. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll do that now. ,
**Senator:** but no agenda here. I have no idea what to expect. I'm just curious.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Not as creamy. Not as com not not as complex. I definitely like the, the finish is definitely more abrupt than the Woodford. The finishes without a doubt, longer on the four Roses, select blah, blah, blah, blah.
What is it? The four
**Gizmo:** Roses, select small batch. Select, small batch Select. Yeah. Definitely better than the most,
**Poobah:** I mean, way longer finish.
**Senator:** Yeah. I a hundred percent agree. This is why I want to do it. Yeah. I just like, w w we think it's better, but I feel like when you try [00:27:00] them side to side, it really makes the case for why this is at a higher
**Poobah:** price for Absolutely.
The finish is like three times as long. Yeah. On, on the Four Roses.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And I, I really like the higher proof of it too. Of the four Roses.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. This feels sharp. Like when I went back in my throat, I said, damn .
**Gizmo:** You're talking the, uh, the
**Poobah:** Woodford Wood. The Woodford, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the finish is just, it stays, it stays, it stays, it stays.
It's still there. I can still taste it. Where the Woodford, it's just, it's there and it's gone. Yep. So I think that says a lot.
**Senator:** Wow. I just re-lit this because as I was running around pouring that, the combustion on this cigar, it's fantastic. Truly. I think GIZ might have used the word special. Yeah. Very unique.
I mean,
**Poobah:** perfect. I like the smoke and I, you guys know that, like I'm really not clo, you know, back to the new wolves. Well, no, I like Patron and I like Davidoff [00:28:00] like a tool bag. But, um, this is good. This is really
**Gizmo:** good. I
**Poobah:** really like this . This is a good cigar. I don't know anything about this brand. Yeah, I have no bias.
I don't know who this illusion a dude is and what his agenda is, but this smoke, like it almost, so the rap, what I kind of like about it is that, um, the construction's really good, but the rappers got like this toothy. aspect to it. It's, it's, I wouldn't call it rustic really, cuz the seams are tight. Like it's tight, like the construction's good, but it's toothy.
It's got this toothy wrapper and it's, it tastes good.
Yeah. I am like, there's some bumps on it. When you run your fingers across it, it's like kind of bumpy. You can see a sheen. There's these oils. It's very nice.
**Senator:** I, I also like, it hasn't lost the flavor. I mean, we've talked about this so many times where, how many cigars have we reviewed where the [00:29:00] first third we say, wow, this is really, really good.
And then the second, third, now we're starting to lose the flavor. It's changed a lot and not a good way. This still has maintained exactly what I liked in the first third, and I'm hoping it lasts all the way through. But so far this is
**Gizmo:** really good.
**Poobah:** It's really good.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** What, what, what flavor notes are you guys getting on this?
**Poobah:** Me a little bit of chocolate, a little bit of cocoa, a little espresso. A little, yeah. Maybe that's what it is. Coffee. Like, like a mocha. Yeah. But
**Rooster:** unlike a
**Poobah:** padro, but not like a patron. Right.
**Gizmo:** No. That's
**Senator:** why I'm not sure that I would say espresso. For me, espresso is is more on the darker, even a little more bitter side.
Like for me it's a creamier cocoa. So like a coffee with cream.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah. Coffee with that's, that's fair. Like a latte or something. Yes.
**Poobah:** There's a cream. And you know what's, you know, it's funny how we do the pod, cuz you're right, it is creamier than that, than espresso. It's like [00:30:00] a cappuccino almost. Like yes.
Right. Kind of thing that's going on with it. And when you put it with this four roses, that's got this creamy aspect to it, it's perfect. I mean, I'm not, this isn't the alcohol talking, this is the, this is, I'm being serious. This is, it's weird how in this podcast that sometimes these. Serendipitous type of pairings happen.
Yeah. That are just like, why is this happening? I think that this is a pretty solid pairing. Fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic. Cuz there's like this creamy element to the, to the bourbon and there's a creamy element to the cigar that's really quite pleasant.
**Gizmo:** Agree. I do wonder because we don't know, you know, how long were these cigars sitting in that brick and mortar?
Were they there for six months? Were they there for six years? Who knows? I wonder how age has affected this, because these are clearly, there is some age on these. No [00:31:00] doubt about it. Yeah. There's something going on. There's no doubt about it. What is the cigar?
**Senator:** Ellucian .
**Gizmo:** It's the euc. It's the what? Hell is the cigar again?
It's an . It's an Ellucian, uh, grazado, uh, uh, grazado, which is the, the, the, the wine. , and it's just called the Rub Robusto Classic. What's the price at 14
**Poobah:** bucks? That's pretty good. There you go. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. $14 cigar in a retail
**Gizmo:** store. Yeah, that was at the b and m. So I think online you could probably get 'em for 10, 12 bucks.
You know what?
**Poobah:** But this is, sorry, go ahead. Go
**Rooster:** ahead, go ahead. I was just gonna say like, why don't they put like box dates on New
**Gizmo:** World sticks? That's a great question. Too much money they do on Patron Drones. .
**Senator:** That's right. They do. They do Ons drone. It's on that little piece of paper. It's on the little white piece of paper.
Yep. It's the name of the person that rolled it. Everything. Yep.
But
**Gizmo:** how easy
**Rooster:** would it be? Just stamp the date on it. So I agree. You know,
**Pagoda:** it's, it's like Cubans need to be aged [00:32:00] new olds.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** But I mean, you just want to know what
**Gizmo:** you know. Yeah, no, I
**Senator:** agree. I agree. I mean, I think actually, so just trying to get in their head like why that's the case.
I. , I would, I would be confident in saying a majority of new worlds are aged before they're boxed and shipped to us. Yeah, that's that's true. So the, the thinking is like, you don't need the box code because we've already aged at a point at which it's ready to smoke. We're in, obviously with Cubans, they're just boxing 'em right after, you know, they, they, they just wanna
**Gizmo:** pump them out.
That's, and I would think from a, I would think from a sales standpoint, you don't wanna put it in the consumer's head by stamping a date on it that older cigars are better so that people are chasing certain dates or codes of new world cigars.
**Senator:** Like, but, but the reason I say like, getting in their head, it's, it's honestly not all that relevant is we get a box of patron X placebos that we all love.
Yeah. And it says, I mean, I, I just, from our clubhouse, just to support them, [00:33:00] I had, uh, literally two days ago picked up a box of Exces and I see in the little white piece of paper in there, it says the roller's name and it says it was boxed in 2022. That they've aged it for four years though, before that.
Yeah. Right. So like, does it really matter to me? No, because I know it's ready to smoke when we get a box.
**Poobah:** They're aging their tobacco in a proprietary fashion. Right. And that's completely different than what anybody else does. And, and for years time. Yeah. I mean four
**Gizmo:** years.
**Rooster:** Well, it, it, it kind of matters because, you know, because even if the box is sitting, it's still aging.
Yep. Right. Although the tobaccos aged, but when, when it's produced, when it's boxed and you put a box code on it, so it's still aging while it's sitting. So even if you have some boxes. Absolutely. I mean, so you, you know, you have some boxes. It would be nice to know, like well have a couple of padrone boxes.
Well, Padrone does, does have the box code, but other boxes don't.
**Senator:** We should start creating new world box codes. , I'm gonna put our own dates on just like when, when like Miguel, like is like the name of the roller [00:34:00] at like Pedro that rolls this code. We're just gonna create a code for whenever he rolls. Put the date
**Gizmo:** code, but like
**Rooster:** m i m i g 2019
**Gizmo:** But like,
**Poobah:** by the way, it's not that unusual for, for certain aficionados to actually age patron drones. So like they do. One of the reasons how we got to, how I ended up finding the group that we're in was, was through, uh, uh, like one of the greatest YouTube, uh, PE like, uh, cigar channels ever, which is Dr.
Joe
**Senator:** second to the lounge list, but keep going. Yes.
**Poobah:** Second to the lounge. Well, yeah, but his is a video legend. He did a video, but Dr. Joe really would go through and he would have like all be like, he'd pull out, you know, he was all over the place, but he would pull out, he'd go into these desktop humidors and pull out, um, like it really aged like family reserve stuff, all kinds of [00:35:00] stuff that he would be pulling out and be like, I've had this cigar for like, Six years I'm gonna smoke it.
Like, and it's gonna be amazing. So he would, it, it's not unusual for people to age singles or age handfuls of, of patron drones and just see what happens. I mean, I think it's a probably a really cool thing to do and Right. And you had
**Gizmo:** that box. I have a, I have a box right now, a 10 year old natural Coronas that are patrons from 2012 and they're definitely better than the young.
I have a 2019 or 2018 box. They're way better. Yeah. Now I don't experience that with Exos. Well
**Senator:** that's the thing. So it's funny you say that. I want to talk about that box you have. Yeah. Cuz it is really instructive for me. I think for Padron that the Maduros don't need much more than that four years of aging.
They already get, I think for the natural wrappers, there's a much greater benefit, more age. I say that because GIS had given me, and I'm sure some other guys, uh, the box he's describing, it's got 10 years of age. [00:36:00] It's a, a small ring age. Wonderful cigar. I remember I didn't get it. Yes, you did. You did. You were there.
I actually remember you were there for
**Gizmo:** this, right? I forget that tobacco was cultivated,
**Poobah:** I forget, was cultivated 14 years ago. Right? Yeah.
**Senator:** Which is amazing. And I remember GIZ giving me one of these, and I didn't, I, I don't usually smoke natural in patron. So for me it was something new and different also that ring gauge I had not had in the 64 line.
And I lit that up and I said, wow, this is an incredible afternoon smoke. And then I wondered, I said to him, you know, I wonder if the, the younger ones will smoke the same way. And fast forward a couple years later, I, I think maybe you
**Gizmo:** had gotten, I got, I got a younger box at a really great deal. Yeah. And they're totally different.
**Senator:** Totally. And we smoked one together. Yeah. Yep. And we said, wow. It, it's not the same. No,
**Gizmo:** it wasn't. Let's just say it wasn't. No, but it just wasn't as refined or elegant as Yeah, right.
**Poobah:** As, as the, yeah, that of 2012, that was a really spectacular cigars. So there [00:37:00] is something to it. I think, you know, setting aside like, like Nicaragua cigars is not gonna hurt 'em.
Yeah. It, it, you know, I think that they can develop into something that's interesting that it, that, and some people don't think about doing that because they are so good right out of the box. And they, and how they start their process and their proprietary process at Petron is so unique and so good.
**Senator:** So I, I have a proposal.
I think the f FDA should stop trying to classify cigars under the same regulations as cigarettes and should instead require box codes on all new worlds . Agreed. That's all I want to see.
**Gizmo:** Perfect. Well, you know, the other thing I wanna say too, you know, not, they're not Nicaraguan, but Dominican, we've talked about the benefit of time on the Fuente opus line.
You know, where folks have had, I think Rooster was talking about original opus or, or Opus that have significant age, I think. Senator, you said you had some, some opus that had age on it. At some point. A
**Senator:** number of us did, and it was exactly, it was truly outside.
**Gizmo:** So that, that's a cigar, even though it's [00:38:00] Dominican, that either a, the age that they're coming out with now, they're just not ready and they're rushing them out, or they just really need time to develop.
**Senator:** Yeah. Speaking of Opus, just really quick. Yeah. I came across this, uh, I think yesterday, and I meant to send this around to the group. We've talked about Shark Yeah. Shape cigars that we love. There's three of them, right?
**Gizmo:** There's an opus, there's a, a Ajo, and there's the Don Carlos.
**Senator:** Correct. Good memory is more than that now, apparently.
Uh, I saw, so a retailer, um, uh, just across the border in New York State. Not New York City, but just across New York State. So I think Rooster probably knows what I'm talking about. We've bought some stuff from them. Um, they just got in. This super limited. It's called the Opus Dustino Sieg Glow Shark. Sieg Glow.
It's an opus shark with another secondary band that [00:39:00] says Dino Sieg Glow. They look beautiful. I've never had this, I hadn't even heard of it. I'd be curious to
**Gizmo:** try it. Wow. They look great.
**Poobah:** What a presentation. Wow. Wow. You can't fault Fuente for their effort in, in that regard. I think it's all marketing.
Well, that's what I'm saying. You can't fault They do good market. Hey, they, they, he's the name out there. He's good. Do they do good stuff? I mean the, the Omni look at the, look at the hu right? Look at the huge ash Fuente ashtray. You're ashing in right now. Uh, you know, very nice. Yeah.
**Senator:** And I love on there it says you could never rush the hands of time.
That's obviously Fuente thing. Yeah. The only unfortunate part, I love a lot of Fuente cigars. I think those sharks come out a little too early. But yeah, it's
**Gizmo:** a nice Logan. Speaking of Fuente, we didn't talk about this. Did you guys see that? Uh, Carlito, [00:40:00] uh, is suing General Cigar over the letter X? Yes. So c a o cigars, I
**Poobah:** guess it's part of Davidoff, right?
Um, I think
**Gizmo:** they're distributed by Davidoff, but I'm not sure. I think they're gen. I think it's General Cigar has c a o I don't know if Davidoff distributed. Oh, I'm thinking of Avo. You're thinking of Lavo. I'm sorry. Yeah. C a o. Uh, I guess they have a band that has a big letter X on it and the Fuente family sued them over the letter.
Yeah,
**Senator:** well look, I'm no Supreme Court Justice, but we've talked about this in a yet. Yet
**Gizmo:** yet . yet. That'll be the day, .
**Senator:** But we've talked about this on another episode. I have a great solution. One should put an apostrophe before the ex. There you go. And the other after the X,
**Poobah:** the ex. There you go. Problem solved
I can't wait till they kick the tires on Senator at the congressional hearing. , he kicked sitting there with a cigar. He get [00:41:00] the shit kicked out of him
as we all would
**Gizmo:** See, I I, I, I thought the lawsuit was interesting suing over the letter X. I guess they have a trademark on that band, the Opus X Band. But, um, c a o obviously is disputing that. Well, does the X
**Rooster:** look like the Opus
**Gizmo:** X? Not really.
**Senator:** No. I mean, that's the thing. Look, I, I love Carlito and everything he does. I, I think whatever the outcome is,
I don't think there's any consumer that looks at that other band and thinks that that's an opus. It, it's not a,
**Rooster:** I mean, the Opus X has such a following. It's totally different. The band is ornate. I mean, yeah. Totally different.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean, you could sue anyone for anything. You've got a le, you've got 11 players on Liv, the live golf tour suing the pga Yeah.
With a class action lawsuit, antitrust Nicholson, uh, de Shambo [00:42:00] and like nine other players, um, filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court. Um, uh, and, and three players, uh, Matt, Matt Jones, Hudson Swofford, and Taylor Gooch are also seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow them to compete in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Um, so this is very, interesting that there's basically the lawyers that are representing these suspended players, they're believe, they believe that the PGA Tours ban on players who join Liv, um, uh, has vastly strengthened the ban. And it encompasses not only p g tour events, but also the four majors which are organized by separate governing bodies.
And that, that the, so this is very interesting, um, [00:43:00] that, uh,
**Gizmo:** I just don't know how the pga how this is gonna play out. You know, I don't know how the P G A thinks, uh, you know, I was asking before we, we came on, cuz we were talking about it, but there's no collective bargaining agreement, you know, similar to other leagues where, you know, the players make these agreements when they sign in to play in the league.
Like they're. . I don't know how they can just say like, you're out,
**Senator:** but that, that, honestly, I think that's what actually makes it easier for them to do that. Right? So when these things are not strictly codified, when it is not a clear contract drawn up that says, under only these circumstances, you can do X, Y, or Z, which is how, under a collective bargaining agreement, they're trying to game out every possible scenario and set really clear rules of the road when that doesn't exist.
And you're, uh, almost voluntarily saying that you choose to be a member of that. I mean, they can make the rules whenever they want. That's why, I mean, if I were a defense attorney, sure, I'd represent them too and tell them that [00:44:00] they have a case. I would be stunned if they're able to win that. Well,
**Poobah:** the, the, what the purpose of this action is, is to essentially strike down the P G A tours, anti-competitive rules in practices that prevent what you, what, what the live players are defining themselves as independent contractor golfers from playing when and where they choose.
Um, So there are provisions, um, in the Tour handbook, the PGA tour handbook, and to, of, of in tournament regulations that each member acknowledges that the commissioner, the TAs policy, um, and the appeals committee have the authority to permanently ban a member from playing and tour co-sponsored, approved, or coordinated tournaments if the member violates its regulations.
Hmm. And um, you know, there's this code of ethics in one, there's one regulation in there that prohibits tour players from paying, playing an events where there is a P G A [00:45:00] tour prove sponsored event taking place at the same time. So there's a timing issue too, in terms, I mean, there's only so many the same tournaments weekend or something.
Right, exactly. Like in other words, like, you know, if you have a tour card and then you play in these competing events at the same time. Um, so there's all these bylaws and rules and. The tour claims, it has this legal authority to issu issue these disciplinary measures. So it's just, it's gonna get complicated.
It's gonna get messy. Did and, and, and all, all I have to really say in the matter is, I know I watched the broadcast on YouTube. It
**Gizmo:** was, it was, I did too. It was unwatchable and Trump
**Poobah:** bedminster. It was fucking unwatchable. It was horrible. It was you, it's a shotgun start. You can't follow. And the way they did the pairings was weird.
Like, like the pairings, the, the team members, they have these teams on Liv and the team members, like the ACEs or the bombers or whoever aren't even [00:46:00] paired together. Yeah. Plus it's a shotgun start, so you can't see how things are kind of tracking from hole to hole. Really. Like you wouldn't have very traditional in a traditional MA in a traditional stroke
**Gizmo:** plate.
What I don't understand about the shotgun start is, is they have. So fewer players than the PGA W does. Why not stage them out like the PGA does? Makes sense. Cause of time. Ah,
**Poobah:** okay. And there are only 54 whole Yeah. Tournaments, not 72 old. Yeah. So
**Rooster:** I wanna ask you something after you make that point. Yeah.
**Poobah:** So, so, so it's because of time.
It's essentially, you know, time. So think about it, if you're, you have all these pairings and they're teeing off in the morning and everyone just kind of goes out, it's a 10 hour, 12 hour day.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. So I get it. I get it. I mean,
**Rooster:** these guys who left didn't leave, but they wanted to play for live golf are getting paid an
**Gizmo:** absurd amount of money.
Yeah. Bongo bucks. So
**Rooster:** Sure. If they win the antitrust, why wouldn't every single PGA player wanna play for live? Yeah. And do [00:47:00] both. Yeah. And make money both ways.
**Gizmo:** Well,
**Senator:** sure. Yeah. I mean, I, I just like, why, why only this issue, I'm sympathetic to the PGA tour. is because look, at the end of the day, I mean, if someone were to create a rival league to the N NFL or the nba or any of these sports, I mean, you know, the, the amount of money that they're able to generate, like there is a contract, right?
You say that you will play and compete in this league, and of course we don't want you to compete in any other competing league. And so I, I just find it really hard. Sympathize with the players that are, are suing. Now, again, if, if it violated a clear contract, that's one thing, then I'm a hundred percent on their side.
But they're
**Gizmo:** independent contractors. They're not employees like they are in the NFL with the N nba. Exactly. Which is
**Senator:** where the organization can make its own rules. I mean, let's just let, let's use ride sharing as an example. They're all independent contractors. If you're a Uber or Lyft driver, you're an independent contractor.
Uber or Lyft can change the rules any day of [00:48:00] the week, any hour of the day they want. That is the arrangement. There is no official employment agreement that states that you get X in return for Y. Which is why I'm saying I just find it hard to understand how any court is going to suggest that the p g A tour can't prohibit them from competing in the FedEx Cup.
The only area that I think that maybe there is some teeth, even though if they win, it's not gonna be that meaningful is sure the four other, the four majors are governed by other bodies. . And so if the PGA tour, if they can prove in court, and I feel so silly cause now I'm like putting my lawyer hat on, but Supreme Court Justice Senator.
Yeah, . But if they can prove, which will be difficult, but if they can prove that the PGA Tour has actively tried to push those other four governing bodies of the other majors into banning them as well, as opposed to them just deciding that on their own [00:49:00] or there being no paper trail that they said, Hey, we don't think they should compete in your tournament.
That that's the only place to me that this might have some legs, but the burden of proof
**Gizmo:** is pretty high. So let me ask you this. I thought the most interesting thing about this action was not that it was filed, but that what came out of it was that Phil Nicholson, nobody knew this, but he was banned for two years from the PGA months and months ago that nobody knew about simply for talking to other.
Tour players and trying to recruit them to, to live. So the PGA banned him from events simply for talking to other players about, so
**Senator:** there's a, which is the same way that Uber could do, right? Like this is what, this is the blessing and the curse of being an independent contractor. Like they can't have it both ways.
They want flexibility, but the flexibility goes on both sides. So if Uber decided that they want a terminate a driver because they have found out that they're actively recruiting drivers off their platform to lift, they have every legal right [00:50:00] to do that. Yeah. So I have a hard time sympathizing with Phil Nicholson.
Like you can't want it one way and, and not go the other where I want the ultimate flexibility. But now if the governing body has the flexibility to decide, I'm not allowed to do. , I, I wanna bring a legal action. I mean, how, how is that possible?
**Poobah:** Well, it's possible because if the Liv golfers are able to prove that the PGA tour held control of this market, the antitrust questions become more relevant, at which the point, the tour may have a tougher time making their case.
By the way, that's, that's, that, that's what they're talking about. And that's at the core of it because the bylaw, which I need to Google and find, there's a very broad bylaw in the PGA tour, uh, handbook, uh, that really gives them a lot of latitude. And when you earn that card, that tour card, and you sign up, you sign up to these rules.
So there's, there's a lot of latitude interesting that you agreed that, that the players agreed to. Um, [00:51:00] uh, that in terms of the PGA's ability to govern, uh, the tour. So, uh, this is gonna be a fight. It's interesting. I, I, I, you know, I, I, I, you know, not to beat this horse to death, but I, I, I will say we're not a sports show.
We're not sports experts by any means. But, um, but I
**Gizmo:** would say
**Rooster:** isn't, uh, isn't PGA concerned about their ratings? Like, if half the players from the pga, you know, play for live golf and not playing for pga? Well, of course they're, if the top names
**Senator:** are gone of, of course, they're as they should be. I mean, that's where, like, look, the PGA Tour has many, many flaws.
I'm not gonna defend the body as a whole, but I just honestly find it ridiculous to think that there, there is no obligation on the p g A tour's part to make it easier. or even acceptable for players to play for multiple different, you know, bodies and do whatever they want. That's not in their interest and they're not required to do that.
Now, if they [00:52:00] were somehow, which is not what's happening, preventing players from joining Liv outside of anything the P G A tour is doing. Obviously there's a legal action there and they would be prohibited from doing that, but by them simply saying, you can't compete in our events, if you're gonna go play for them, make your choice.
Yeah. And the amount of money these guys are paid, it's been a very easy choice for some of them. Go, take your paycheck, make your 200 million, and
**Gizmo:** stop fucking competing. It's been a, it's been an easy choice for all of them where the guy who placed last. And shot in the eighties. What did he make? Pat Perez, 750 grand or something.
He shot 80 . I'm gonna start playing golf , you're gonna start playing for the Liv . If Pago, if Pagodas not here, that's, you know, where he is at. He's, you know, he's shooting
**Poobah:** in the eighties. Right. So it is, and, and, and look, the, the, it's, they have a lot of work to do. My expectations in terms of this being given the, and we can leave it at this because we're not a sports show, but, but I'll leave, [00:53:00] is that the broadcast was not that great.
I turned it on,
**Gizmo:** I turned, I turned it off in two minutes. The
**Poobah:** format is gonna take some adjusting and, uh, Feherty does a good job. But there also, there's music playing in the background while people are putting, and there's kind of pandemonium. You've, it's, it's just odd. Oh,
**Gizmo:** that's an easy, that's, that's an easy
**Rooster:** fix, right?
I mean the, uh, , the broadcast side
**Poobah:** and all of that. Well, no, but you would think with the hundreds of millions of dollars Yeah. That are being dulled out, that they would've had this worked out.
**Senator:** Right. Let's also say this. We think it, it should, you're, you're right in that it should be an easy fix rooster.
The problem is, let's look at something like Sunday night baseball that's been around for God knows how long. Yeah. And it's never been fixed. I mean, ESPN has the resources of Look at Apple, major network.
**Gizmo:** Look at Apple's Friday night baseball, apple.
**Senator:** It's horrible. It's horrible. Horrible. So it may not be as easy as we think.
Yeah. But I, I just wouldn't, uh, rule out the Saudis buying CBS or, uh, Jim Naz . So that may be, that may solve [00:54:00] all their problems.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** And Barclay Wall Street won't cover for that. Wow. Yeah. Anyway, this cigars
**Gizmo:** been good, huh? Yeah. We're in the last third here, boys of the euc, Grazado Robusto Classic. I think it's very, very good.
I'm, I'm very
**Senator:** surprised it's picked up in strength toward the, the last third, which I like in
**Gizmo:** a very nice way. Yeah. It's not kicking us around. Yeah. It's very surprising how good this has been. It's a good,
**Poobah:** it's a pretty good cigar. What do you think, Bogota?
**Pagoda:** I'm really enjoying it. Buy a box. I'm enjoying the combination as well.
Of course. Yeah. Yeah. For 14 bucks, maybe 12 bucks. I don't know. I haven't really looked for it. But
**Senator:** I mean, at retail, if you were paid 14, I'm sure on live you can got them pretty cheap. 12, maybe even 10. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think you can get them, you could probably get a box for like 200 bucks of 25 or whatever.
That's good.
**Pagoda:** And this combination's great.
**Gizmo:** Thank you. Yeah. The, the four [00:55:00] roses has been a very nice, do whoever suggested this, that's our friend
**Poobah:** in California. Oh, oh, oh,
**Gizmo:** oh. Call o. Call O in, in
**Pagoda:** call. Oh yeah. No, this is great. Like I'm not the kind of guy who would go and buy a bourbon then just sip it. Yeah.
Because for like 60 bucks. You can, I like, I like the Bevin E 12. I'd rather do that. Yeah. Uh, but I think, um, this is interesting and
**Gizmo:** I'll
**Poobah:** definitely have a bottle of drink. This would go great with a D four cuz it's got that, it's got like creamy cinnamon and that's what a d to me, that's what a D four delivers.
It would compliment Aus, uh, with some age on it where you get that cinnamon blast. Yeah. Like that, that would really pair nice with this. And it, it kind of holds up to a cigar that's got some, some body and some strength. And I think that that's a merit in the spirit. Sure.
That's
**Gizmo:** surprised for sure.
**Poobah:** Yeah.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Because,
**Pagoda:** uh, Gaz, what did I tell you when we [00:56:00] talked about Four Square, right? In the beginning I said, oh no, four roses. Four roses. Four roses. Yeah. I said there was a buddy of mine who's really into these and uh, he listens to the podcast. That'll be interesting to see what he has to say.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. It's a good, it's a good bourbon. Good bourbon. Um, very good Bourbon. What, what is the best bourbon that you guys have? I think Pappy is the best, right?
**Gizmo:** I, I like Blains a lot. I thinkin is very good. Yeah. Listen,
**Pagoda:** we need to get Blain, we need somebody
**Gizmo:** suggests Yeah, we definitely need to do, um,
**Poobah:** the is is, there's
**Senator:** a salary.
I, the, the only problem with Blain's is the, the price. They're gouging now. Yeah. I mean, retailers are literally, this is the definition of price gouging. It's like
**Pagoda:** a hundred bucks now or some,
**Senator:** yeah. I've seen even more at some places. I mean, it's crazy. You, Blanton's was always less than half that. I mean, it's outrageous.
And, and what's Pappy's at?
**Gizmo:** Oh, thousands for
**Poobah:** fucking forget that. [00:57:00] Thousands. Thousands. Serious. Wow. I told you guys, we, we, you need to watch Pappy Gate on Netflix. It'll tell the whole story.
**Senator:** I'll just say this. I'm not a huge bourbon guy. Every single person I know. who's as deadly serious about bourbon as I am.
Wine and scotch. Every one of them has had it. I know friends who even have bottles of it. Everyone says it's not at all worth that price point overrated, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah,
**Poobah:** I've
**Gizmo:** I've had, I've had it. Yeah. It's a cohiba cohiba of, uh, bourbons. Yeah, I've
**Poobah:** had it. Is it, is it excellent? It's excellent, but it's, it's the cohiba, right?
It's, it's, yeah. It's not worth the money. Yeah. It's, it's the rareness of it. That, and, and look, you, you, you, you want to, if you're living in Malibu and you got a great view and you want to have a cigar, you know, in your, in your 10 million house and you have some people over and you bust out the pappy, does it [00:58:00] make people smile?
Absolutely. And when you're loaded, like, you know, beyond loaded and you want to break out some Pappy Van Winkle, , does it make people happy? And is that gonna make you happy and blow up your scene for the night? And people are gonna be like, dude, I had like three glasses of Happy Van Winkle. This was great.
We said, I'm looking at the ocean. Absolutely. Like for that person, it's worth the money. It works. Yeah, it works. And there's the, there's enough people out there and there's a small enough supply of that, that there's a market for that. We're just not that market .
**Gizmo:** I think the other one that I really like is Eagle Rare.
But if I hit the
**Poobah:** Yeah, the rare is good too. Eagle rare is really good. Yeah. Yeah. And again, the price Buffalo Point, well that's the same distillery. It's
**Gizmo:** It is. It's a
**Senator:** Buffalo tracer and the price point on that is fantastic for what it delivers,
**Poobah:** you know?
**Pagoda:** Yeah, you did say it. It did have a lot of age in it, right?
The
**Senator:** eagle rare. Yeah. It's 10 years. 10 years. I mean, the reason I give Eagle rare so [00:59:00] much credit, as someone who prefers scotch to bourbon, it's one of the only bourbons that actually puts an age statement that guarantees. There is minimum 10 years age on what's in that bottle. How they do that at that price point.
I'll never understand because all these other bourbons that you see on the shelf, go find me another age statement at that price point. Yeah. I mean, even double that price point, you won't find an age statement. That's what's crazy and really respectable to me about what Eagle Rare is able to produce.
Yep,
**Poobah:** yep.
**Pagoda:** Absolutely. By the way, I was talking to a couple of, couple of my buddies who were listening to this, uh, podcast and they, they're really into mescal. I know people have their opinions about mescal. Maybe it is one of those things we should
**Gizmo:** try. Yeah. Have to Rick's Ricky's, uh, chef Ricky's teeing us up, uh, for, uh, for a mecal.
Yeah. Excellent. Yeah, we're gonna do mescal with him for sure.
**Senator:** Ricky's promised me that I will drink a mescal that he provides that is not gonna taste like a campfire in a [01:00:00] bottle, which is what I am trying to find something that is not that right, because I will never forget being at a bar once. and some girls walking by.
I was sitting at the bar in a chair with a, a couple friends, some drunk girls stumbling by, and she spills her drink all over my arm. I, to this day, will never forget the smell of that mescal, on my shirt. I mean, oh my God.
**Gizmo:** Oh
**Pagoda:** yeah. I What about the girl I've had, what happened? Did you get her number
**Senator:** senator?
That we need more .
**Poobah:** Yeah. I mean it, the mescals that I've had, I haven't had the right ones, that's for sure. Eric's been exposed to them in the right way, so I'm looking forward to that from Ricky. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Ricky will hook us up. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, for sure. So what do you guys think? You guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on the, uh, bourbon tonight?
Sure. All right. Pagoda, you're up. Listen,
**Pagoda:** I'm in a very generous mood today, , and this is gonna be a nine. [01:01:00] Ooh, I, I never would've imagined I'd ever raid a bourbon a nine, but excellent. I've really enjoyed. Oh my
**Gizmo:** Lord. Thank. Oh my Lord. Oh my Lord. Oh my Lord. . Oh my Lord, Senator.
**Senator:** All right, so this, this has surprised me.
Um, four Roses is honestly not a brand that I have ever had any affinity toward. Um, it's interesting to hear you say giz, that there's a Four Roses small batch and a four Roses small batch select. Yeah, I've definitely not had this before. Yeah. Um, this was really satisfying. I would definitely drink it again.
Um, I'm left impressed. The only thing that factors into my rating is just the price point is a bit high for other small batch bourbons for what it is and what it deliver. Nonetheless, I'm at a solid eight. You
**Rooster:** didn't like it in the beginning, right? You kind
**Gizmo:** of changed. Yeah.
**Senator:** First sip wasn't great. The first sip wasn't
**Gizmo:** great, but hub's point it was, [01:02:00] it was a pallet adjustment thing, I think.
Well,
**Senator:** that too, but when it settles in with ice, it, it's, it's great. Solid
**Gizmo:** eight. Yeah. I'm gonna go with a nine. And this is definitely been a very impressive and delicious bourbon for me. I, I definitely put it toward the higher end of bourbons that I've had, and I've not had a ton, but it's, it's definitely a nine for me,
**Poobah:** for sure.
Yeah. I, I'm, I, I like bourbon. I like this bourbon. I'm giving it a nine. And, and the voice of our beloved, the illustrious pagoda. It's a nine. It's a nine. It's a nine. It's a nine. for me. It's a nine. It's a
**Gizmo:** nine . Thanks for the recommend with that boys. The formal liquor rating on this is an 8.8, which I think is a perfect score.
I think that's fair. Yeah, I think that's very fair. Very fair. And I think that does factor in the price of it, which I think is a little high. Honestly, I, if this was inflation ,
**Senator:** it's like, I'm sorry, if you [01:03:00] want to charge just for 45 bucks, we put an age statement on there. Yeah. Like smooth out some of the early rough edges when this is neat.
You know, there, there are, there are things at that price point that could be done to make this, I think, like a perfectly spectacular spirit, nonetheless, really, really enjoyable. And I would drink it again.
**Poobah:** Absolutely. I'll reach for it. I'll reach
**Gizmo:** for it. So boys, we're coming to the end here of the EUC Grazado.
We're Buso Classic. What do you guys think? I've really enjoyed it. I, I'm shocked. It's pretty good. It, you know what, I, can I say something? And, and to your credit about the fact that because of the podcast, we're trying a lot, I'm pointing to Puba, by the way. Okay. I, I gotta say that this has happened quite a few times now.
Yeah. In with recently, I mean, we do Uhhuh , we do an, every other week we do a, a new world and we've been doing a, doing a lot of new worlds that we've never tried before and this has really been one of the better One. Another revelation,
**Poobah:** another one. It's one [01:04:00] of the be it's, it's one of the Be and I'm a dick when it comes to new world cigars.
Kind of agree. A
**Gizmo:** real asshole. . So Don, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
**Poobah:** You're kidding, you're kidding. I gotcha. . Uh, but, uh, this was good. This is not that bad. Yeah. Really
**Gizmo:** good. This, this was a really
**Senator:** good, I mean, there are a few cigars that I've never had any experience with, that I am down to the nub and I
**Gizmo:** got a half inch left and I'm like praying that I can get a couple more.
There's
**Poobah:** no rough edges down this street, not fetch right? Am I wrong?
**Senator:** Nothing. Nothing. Ugh. There's not one moment in this cigar that I haven't enjoyed
**Pagoda:** and I can't believe it that, uh, you guys have smoked more than I have because Yeah. More than half an enough. You know, I become a slow smoker. Thank you,
Good training.
**Poobah:** I don't put, I don't believe that for a minute. , I think this is, this, this is an outlier.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I, I, I'm very pleasantly surprised. You guys ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating on this thing? Yep. [01:05:00] All right. We're, so, you're up. I'm gonna get rid of an eight. Okay. Puba. .
**Poobah:** I don't know what to say.
Um, I feel like I would buy this. I I'm gonna buy it. I'm not, I feel like I'm gonna buy this and like, outside of a shark or a, or a patron drone, uh, or some of the DDoS that I really like, I would think I would, I mean, I, I have no idea. The illusion. What is it? .
**Gizmo:** It's be generous. We've been here for an hour and 10 minutes.
He still has no idea what's going. No, don't worry. It's
**Senator:** the, it's the Illuminati . It's the Illuminati .
**Poobah:** I'm a part of that, by the way. Just, I can't talk about it. Um, I really, I really liked it. I mean, I'm, I'm Do it
**Gizmo:** do it. No, do it's, do it. No, no, no, no, no. Don't hedge stitching. I'm not hedging. You're [01:06:00] hedging.
**Poobah:** You're hedging. No, I'm not. It's definitely hedging.
**Senator:** I'm, we know where you are. You're Just say it.
**Poobah:** I can't, can't.
**Pagoda:** No. We, we
**Senator:** know where Puba live in the moment. Live in the moment. Experience that you've had. What
**Poobah:** was your It was good. It was good with this, with this particular bour. I'm the bar can, can't do it.
And the price. I'm giving it a nine. Yes.
**Gizmo:** I like the cigar. Gosh, I really like the
**Poobah:** cigar.
**Gizmo:** Oh my gosh. Wow. We pulled that out of him and we did.
**Rooster:** That's highest rating on new award by
**Gizmo:** Puba. That's right. Absolutely. That's right. Aside from
**Poobah:** patron's. Good man. I'm not gonna lie. It's good. .
**Gizmo:** I'm right with him. It's a nine for me.
Wow. No doubt. Wow.
**Poobah:** It's
**Senator:** good. I'm stunned. I mean, I've been just shocked. Start to finish by this cigar. I'm also a nine. Let's go
**Gizmo:** in a nine.
**Pagoda:** I'm in a generous mood as well. It's a nine
**Poobah:** it minute. This is a good [01:07:00] cigar. It is.
**Gizmo:** It's a diet. 8.8. 8.8. Baby formalism rating. 8.86. Good smoke. Same as the four roses. Yeah, both of them.
8.8 what a what a. Pairing.
**Poobah:** I mean, this is one of the better new worlds that we've had. Agree. I'm not I agree than mine. Agree. I agree.
**Pagoda:** And a great pairing. I a great pairing. We could pair, we could rate the pairings, the pairing
**Gizmo:** pairings, or none the pairing. I'd give a 10 on this. Agree. This is great. These, these, these two things are perfect for each
**Poobah:** other.
Agreed. We, it's, I don't know how this worked out. Thank you o uh, for the, for the recommendation on the bourbon. But this is freaking, I don't know what it is. This cigar is good, but it's a weird box. It's a weird thing. You got, I don't know what you got here. The, I'll go get the rest of gold metal,
**Gizmo:** whatever.
What cigar is The illuminati. Re boosto. No,
**Poobah:** seriously. You gotta repeat what the name is. The
**Gizmo:** Ellucian Uhhuh Grazado. Mm-hmm. Rao Classic.
**Poobah:** All [01:08:00] right. You need to text that to me. What, what was the rating? It's
**Gizmo:** gonna be on the episode when it comes 93 . What was the rating on the league? I provided number nine.
**Poobah:** I'll tell you right now. It's, it rated lower than this. I, it did?
**Gizmo:** No, no, no. It rated higher. No, that, that rated really well. No, that it was a bigger,
**Poobah:** it was a bigger quorum though.
**Pagoda:** Corum, I remember I rated a, I probably rated that ten nine. Oh really? 10
**Rooster:** or, yeah, I wanna say 9.2, I think.
**Gizmo:** 8.4. Wow. What? Oh, it was lower.
8.4. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
**Rooster:** I, I prefer the League of nine over this, but,
**Gizmo:** you know, that was, this is episode, I don't know, 45 or something. Uh, that was episode number 10.
**Senator:** But again, I, that's, this is the beauty of what we're doing here. Everyone's P'S a little bit different, and I'm not at all surprised if Ru when Rooster says that he would rate the league of nine higher,
We know Rooster likes a really full-bodied new world cigar [01:09:00] that delivers, I mean, that's like a Piro 90th That's right. In his wheelhouse. Absolutely. For Puba. Do I think the petro 90th is in his wheelhouse for every, not no. It's really not. Not really. This cigar Totally. In his wheelhouse. So I, this all I think makes
**Gizmo:** perfect sense.
That's up. You know, what's interesting about the cigar too is right now where I'm sitting having this cigar, I'm craving like, it's one, it's, it's, it's causing me to want to have another cigar. I agree. I agree in, in a very good way. Not in a way that it's making me want more, but it's like, it's just like I want to keep the party going, which is how absolutely every good
**Senator:** cigar should.
That's what it should
**Poobah:** deliver. Yes. There was just the right amount of nicotine. Yep. There was just the right amount of body. There was no rough edges. I mean, I'm down to the nub on this thing. I, I, I don't know where this cigar came from. I don't know if I should know about this fucking thing or not know about it, but all I can tell you is that I liked it.
What was the name of it? Pba Illusion .
**Gizmo:** Here
**Pagoda:** we Gok. . [01:10:00]
**Gizmo:** Oh, awesome. What a great night, guys. What a great pairing. Yeah, it was very, very great pairing. It, it didn't fade out. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
**Poobah:** No way. Great Smoke. It. Delivered, delivered, delivered. I'm still.
**Gizmo:** Awesome. So boys, an 8.8 for both the Four Roses, single batch select, and the Ellucian Grazado in Rub.
Robusto Classic. Great pairing. Great night what? Pairing Great. Pairing. Outstanding. Absolutely. All right boys. Perfect. We'll see you next week. Keep smoking. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge Lizards Pod, p o d, that's lounge lizards pod gmail.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll uh, we'll see you next [01:11:00] week.