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Recorded at the Ten86 Cigar Lounge in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the lizards smoke the Crowned Heads Las Calaveras EL 2022 in LC46 paired with Ryūjin Japanese Whisky. The guys share their holiday plans, Bam gives a tower humidor update, they talk butane lighters and discuss the most controversial cigar and spirit they've reviewed this year.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge List podcast, nightmare before Christmas episode. 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, Senator Pagoda, grinder, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoker cigar, drink some whiskey, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 59th 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 new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
We share our holiday plans. We get an update on bams Tower Humidor, we talk butane lighters, and we discuss our thoughts on the most controversial cigar and spirit. We've reviewed all. All among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and, and enjoy as we pair regen Japanese whiskey with the crowned heads.
Las CVAs EL 2022 [00:01:00] lc 46 a Corona tonight from Nicaragua, crowned heads Las C. It's an addition Liata, which apparently has some pretty cool story about it, but, um, really nice look at cigar. Beautiful cigar. Beautiful Cigar Rooster. You said this is a Nicaraguan Piro, correct? Yeah, yeah, it is
**Rooster:** rolled by, uh, I think the, my father factory.
Got it. And this is a 2022
**Gizmo:** el so it's an annual,
**Rooster:** an annual release. I think they started doing this in 2014 and this is the ninth
**Gizmo:** version. Very cool. So it's got, uh, two bands on it. It's got a foot band that's silver with black lines, says crowned heads in their font. And then the main band is Blue, red, gold, and black.
It says Las Chaves. El 2022. Estee Nicaragua Band. Yeah. [00:02:00] The band is very cool. The foot
**Bam Bam:** band's nice. And the band itself
**Rooster:** the fan, and the band itself with the blue on it. Blue and gold, it's nice. And Las CVEs, uh,
**Gizmo:** means skulls. Mm.
**Grinder:** Did I read somewhere that there's initials of the family members on here? That's, that's
**Gizmo:** what I'm looking for.
For I see initials. I see. R l I see J. From what I've read,
**Senator:** there's four people who have passed these Ralph initials, Ralph Lauren on this. Ralph, Ralph Lauren,
**Gizmo:** lv, Louis
**Bam Bam:** Vuitton, lv gizmo. Pass me the magnifying glasses. ,
**Rooster:** uh, need
**Gizmo:** the black light. Oh, there's, there's another. This isn't a Cuban episode. We can,
**Grinder:** there's another little, uh, emblem or, or shield on the other side of this wrapper.
**Senator:** Do you see the thing next to the r l? It, it looks like a, a, a fist giving the middle finger. Do you.
**Gizmo:** I like it. Yeah. The, the, the small is and
**Senator:** really small. Yeah. I, I feel like they're trying to kind of hide it, but they've
**Grinder:** done it. Is that
**Bam Bam:** a, is that a middle finger to all their
**Gizmo:** s Oh, it kind of looks like a metal finger.
[00:03:00] That's what it looks like.
**Senator:** It does actually. Which is kinda like a fuck you for taking these guys lives. Or where do you, do you see this? Those are, those are the initials. There's the little circle with the r l to the left of it. The bigger circle. Look in what that little like coat of arms looking thing.
There's a fist with a middle. No, no,
**Gizmo:** you're wrong. It says jh. Oh, it's, it's the
**Senator:** initials. All right. I need stronger glasses. I'm gonna see an eye doctor right after this episode. .
**Bam Bam:** I think I'm
**Grinder:** blind. I put the, yeah. Flashlight on. So there are four. There are four. Four shields of, of, uh, initials as you roll back the wrapper on the other side.
Oh, okay. Cool. The band. Yeah. So the other
**Gizmo:** side is, uh, this is the deepest dive we've ever done
**Bam Bam:** on a, on a, on a band. Yeah.
**Grinder:** This is hard to tell actually. L w don't have to put that in the
**Gizmo:** episode description. Mm-hmm. , maybe. This is pretty cool. That we're digging through a band right now. All right boys, let's cut this thing.
Yeah. See we're getting on the cold. Draw the wrapper.
**Bam Bam:** The rapper is a beautiful brownish red haze to it. Gorgeous. [00:04:00] Wow. It's glistening. That's the most descriptive.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Man. I've ever heard from a rapper. Love it.
**Gizmo:** Look at this. I would, I would say this is definitely, um, imperfect. You know, if you consider like the Atta Bay rapper, how Christina was, this is not in that class.
**Senator:** I agree. I would say this is really rustic it, there are very visible seams Yeah. On this rap. Yeah. I don't mind that. The only thing I'm happy about this foot band, which I think we've talked a lot about being annoyed by right off. Thank God. It's just like the regular band where it just comes off. It's not like scotch tape, like the uh, EP Carillo Cigars.
We reviewed . That's right.
**Grinder:** The rappers Aho rapper. Hmm. This is the first year they used the
**Gizmo:** koho wrapper, by the way, by the way, the, I really like the cold draw. That cold draw is delicious. Yeah, it's, it has, honestly, you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of uh, just on the cold draw, it reminds me of a Padron family reserve [00:05:00] cold draw.
I had a family reserve a few weeks ago and it reminds me of that. Are you getting cocoa, like, like a chocolate cocoa? Yes. Milk. I'm getting earthy and salty. Yeah. Getting milk
**Bam Bam:** chocolate. So I'm getting more milk chocolate here. It's cuz I get that little sweet note up there at the end of that earthy and salty all the
**Gizmo:** way through.
Nice. All right. Let's light it boy. Light it. Boys through it. Thank you Rooster. It's a, uh, 46 ring gauge by five and three quarters inch cigar. I love this size. You're at a, this is the best size man, Corona. There are some other sizes. I think there's a, um, . There's several, actually there's a 50, there's four cigars.
There's a 52, a 54, or 46, and this is the 46. This is the 46 i I purposely bought the 46. There's also a petite lands, uh, that wasn't available at the time, which is a 40 ring gauge cigar. So I actually got these, uh, from our sponsor, perfect cigar blend [00:06:00] with the discount and everything, free shipping. Each of these cigars came out to $9 and 34 cents.
Wow, that's a great price. Great price for this stick. Hopefully it lives up to its hype. Have to shout out our friend, uh, fellow lizard here, Henry at the lounge who turned us onto these cigars.
**Bam Bam:** Now don't laugh. I am getting on the finish. A very faint hint of citrus on this guy. What else is new?
**Grinder:** Well, , I am not, I'm not getting citrus.
I'm getting. Nutty, nutty mushroom. No,
**Bam Bam:** none of that from me
**Rooster:** on the light. It's very
**Gizmo:** good. It's good. Yeah. This is really interesting. Now, now I'm not getting nutty mushroom. It has like an aged kind of musk to it. Literally just like the words outta my, my mouth. We are locked in just outta my mouth. It's earthy mess.
It's like very earthy, but it's got a
**Senator:** vintage, it's like a musk. It's like this has been aged like, you know, when you've had a really old cigar where at first it just ta like, kind of like that, [00:07:00] that really old stick rooster gave us. We did on the pod. It just takes the Los Stato aged and old, and then the flavors start to develop Once you get a little more through.
That's kind of how this
**Rooster:** starts for Well, that's why when Grinder said like nutty mushroom, I kind of relate to that. I kind of nailed it. Like a musky.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. You always nail it. I always nail it. Nutty
**Grinder:** mushroom, Petco, .
**Senator:** This is as long as, long as you're not saying saw dust . That is a
**Grinder:** distinct accent. By the way.
Do not
**Gizmo:** brussel sprouts. I grew up, my parents, did I say brussel sprout? You did . The best of episode at the end of the week. There may be some Brussels sprouts in there. There
**Senator:** should be like a, it should be like a clip
**Grinder:** of just me saying this absurdity. Like
**Senator:** all these ,
**Gizmo:** I've thought about it. Let's see what happens on Friday or Saturday.
All right. Does it come out? Today's the I
**Grinder:** do. I, so this is a, a, so far this is agar that I feel like I'd like. Yeah. The musty cigar. The smoke is very musty.
**Gizmo:** Musty. I have to say on the light for [00:08:00] what, what's jumping at me is the price point at $9 and 34 cents on the light. . The complexity, no, the complexity of the flavor I'm getting just on the light right now.
This initial few puffs, first 10 puffs is surprising me. It, it seems pretty complex. In advanced for a $9 cigar. Yeah, but there's a lot of cigars.
**Rooster:** We smoke on the light. They're like, phenomenal. That's true. You know, this is true.
**Gizmo:** We shall see. So far. This is, this is very good. That's nice.
**Senator:** I just wanna say one thing though, on the light, we're all talking about how it's complex, which I don't disagree with, but the flavors are very subtle to me.
Like, like when Rooster said this? Yeah. Like just they're, they're not very pronounced. , like everything we've described is like musty and this and that. Like I was expecting when, when Rooster started by saying this is a Nicaraguan pirro. I was expecting like a burst of flavor right off the bat. Spice Me too.
I wouldn't say that It's really that. I agree with that in your face. It's, it's very muted, very subtle. Mm-hmm. . So I'm curious how this is gonna evolve.
**Grinder:** Yeah, yeah. I'm enjoying the aroma
**Bam Bam:** for sure. The smoke has a [00:09:00] delicious smell.
**Gizmo:** Aroma. Yeah. Good,
**Rooster:** good. Smoke out
**Gizmo:** output. Oh yeah. Decent amount and
**Senator:** wide open draw.
Yeah.
**Grinder:** The draw's good. Like how,
**Gizmo:** it's interesting because it's a Nicaragua Piero and obviously so is one of her favorites, right? Manning pe
drones.
**Grinder:** Um,
**Gizmo:** yeah, it's gonna be
**Grinder:** interesting to see how it develops. Who, so who makes, is it my father? It's, I know it's manufactured at the My father's cigar, uh, facility.
But who
**Gizmo:** crowned heads is the brand, uh, of cigars and. So I'm not terribly familiar with crowned heads. This is actually the first Crown Heads cigar I've ever had. Has anybody else had one? No. Never. No. No. That's my first. Never heard of Crown Heads. Crown Heads is the brand. It's its own brand. You know, it's its own, uh, company like Drew State or Padron.
Uh, but kind of like Tatoe. They, uh, employ a different family's, uh, to manufacture factory to manufacture the cigars. I mean, it's really well rolled. The draw is perfect. Oh yeah. You know, [00:10:00] nicely packed. It's smoking great. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, it's a combustion. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** Cigar, cigar. I'm reading in one of the, uh, reviews from a retail giant cigar retail giant that says, Arguably the largest boutique brand of the past five years.
Oh, wow. Oh really? That that's, it's too boutique for us to know about it. ,
**Bam Bam:** I guess. Yeah. Sounds like a pr ploy. It
**Grinder:** does absolutely so
**Senator:** much to this. It does say Cuban inspired packaging blending, honor the tradition of cigars, more pr, the cigars they have. So it says, some of their 90 plus rated cigars include four kicks, the first of their cigar line, earthy, balanced by sweet and spicy.
Headley Grange and Jericho Hill dedicated to legendary Johnny Cash. So I feel like there easy take it. Easy's a easy a
**Gizmo:** lot of, lot of Take it easy. Crowned heads. . Thank you. Gizmo inspired by, did you say Cuban packaging? Uh, so did they put these in undersized dress boxes that give them a subtle box press.
They [00:11:00] squeeze this
**Senator:** shit outta me. do they, do they misspell the names on the labels and still sell 'em
**Grinder:** a
**Bam Bam:** subtle
**Gizmo:** box price? . Do they raise the prices 300%
**Senator:** year over year. Do they sell counterfeits at these Monte Fortuna? That's right. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Where's the black light ? We may need to check this. We need to have Dan back on.
Yeah, we need to get Dan back.
**Grinder:** I wonder if there's like some like, I don't know, strategist that month Fortuna or something. It was some guy who's like, these fucking podcast guys are like ripping our assholes apart here.
**Gizmo:** They're they are. I think they're very well aware of us. Oh boy. Very good. I would think they are.
the size is great.
**Rooster:** Yeah, this is, I love the ring
**Gizmo:** gauge
**Rooster:** to hold it in your fingers. I mean, that just feels,
**Gizmo:** yeah, perfect. You know, in the past, you know, I, we all kind of trend on a smaller ring gauge maybe except for pagoda, but I think you're kind of moving in this direction. That's kind of my guess here. I do enjoy them.
**Bam Bam:** This is, this is an excellent size. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** beautiful. But, you know, I, I was looking at, [00:12:00] should I pick up the rub robusto or obviously I'm not gonna pick up the Toro. We generally don't reach for that. But no, when I saw this, it, it kind of reminded me when we did the, uh, league of Nine, how I wish we had done the Corona Viva and not the, Bigger cigar that we did.
Yeah. Because now I really love, so I'm always, I feel like I'm always gonna reach for the Corona, although, because you're getting more of the rapper too. That
**Bam Bam:** League of Nine was spectacular. It was very
**Gizmo:** good. It was spectacular and rated high.
**Senator:** Sorry. So I, I just keep digging in on this cigar brand cuz I've never heard of it until now.
Gizmo, I feel like you and this guy would have a lot. To talk about. He's clearly a music person. Really, the reason I say this, every one of their cigars has some tie to music. So the four kicks that I told you was like their first big cigar to make it says, was inspired by the Kings of Leon song, by the same name.
Uh, I
**Gizmo:** only know two of them use somebody in Sex on Fire. That's the Kings of Leon song
**Grinder:** going back down south. Now I like
**Senator:** the names, you know that one? There, there are other cigar, uh, that Headley, Headley Grange I mentioned. Mm-hmm. . It says it was named for the N 1795 [00:13:00] Poor House in Headley, east Hampshire, England, where bands like Led Zeppelin among others, recorded during the sixties and
**Gizmo:** seventies.
Cool. It's pretty cool. He's going deep. I mean, that's cool.
**Grinder:** These are not common
**Senator:** like music. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** He's not calling it like the Jimmy Page. That's why I said you, you
**Senator:** in particular would probably have a lot to chat about. I like, are you guys getting a,
**Grinder:** uh, bitter
**Gizmo:** aftertaste? I'm getting something. A little bite of my tongue.
Okay. I wanna
**Senator:** warn about this. I should have said this just when I was reading a little bit specifically said on one of the reviews, That it gets bitter if you smoke this too quickly and pull on this. So to really, really take
**Gizmo:** your time with this, I feel like I'm smoking slow. I'm fine. I mean, I'm only, we're all about a half inch, half inch.
I
**Senator:** just, when you said bitter, that's exactly what I read. If you, if you,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Don't take it. It just sounded accusatory. Let's just be real. sounded a little aggressive. a little aggressive. Take it easy, boys. So I gotta say, when I got this in, uh, you know, as I always do, um, perfect gar blend threw a a, a humidity pack in there, but I always pull it out.
I always like my humidity, our humidity when we smoke a little lower. So I dry box this for two days. I think. Um, I [00:14:00] think it definitely benefited from that cuz when I felt them, when they first came, they were a little moist. Yeah. And now, um, they feel pretty good. Nice. Yeah. They feel great. And they're smoking great.
I mean, they're razor sharp burns, so. Oh yeah. You know, it kind of goes back to our point about dry boxing, that it's important. Put it with a lower humidity for a day or two. Mm-hmm. , I, I use an old, uh, patron drone box. , it's kind of dried out. Yep. And, um, I throw a 58 Bove in there and it's ready to go.
Here's a,
**Bam Bam:** just a general question. It, when you're buying from a cigar shop, we've talked about this at nauseum before, but, um, what I tend to do, if I get a, a cigar from a shop and it's soft Yep. I'll leave it out. Yeah. Before I've put it in just for a day or two.
**Gizmo:** It only that, unfortunately, that only works for me in the winter.
In the winter because in the summer, my ambient, my, where I keep my stuff is so damn high. . Yeah. You know, I, so I have to keep it isolated. You live in a sauna? I do . Yeah. Just put it
**Rooster:** in your empty
**Gizmo:** tower. .
**Bam Bam:** Yes, I will do that.
**Gizmo:** I may need to buy your tower. You know what it, it's, we're coming up on the holidays.
Bam. You know what [00:15:00] have? How's the, what's the tower situation?
**Bam Bam:** It's all done. Ready to go. It's, it's actually fired up. Yeah. I
**Gizmo:** don't believe that for a second. Because none of us got texts about We, we are
**Rooster:** coming tomorrow to do an inspection.
**Bam Bam:** Listen, it's
**Grinder:** a virtual, it's
**Bam Bam:** a virtual tower. He never really got it's virtual.
It's .
**Gizmo:** He puts on his, he puts on his virtual reality headset. We're all front. You realize you got the digital version ? I did.
**Senator:** Let's, let's be fair. It's in the metaverse. All right. It is.
**Grinder:** It is it. Oh my God. That's funny. With his Bitcoin.
**Gizmo:** It's there. So, uh, alright. Give us a real update. It's been a minute since we asked you, so I think this is fair.
I haven't done a thing the listeners want to know. Yeah. Uh,
**Bam Bam:** I hate to disappoint everyone. I haven't done a thing since I seasoned the fucking. At least he seasoned. Seasoned it. I did season it. I don't think he seasoned it. I did. I did, but I haven't. Little salt
**Gizmo:** and pepper, no ,
**Bam Bam:** no. Wiped it all out with distilled water and that's where it stands.
That's
**Gizmo:** not seasoned. Very nice. Seasoned is you have the, that's like step one humidity unit in it fired up and it's empty running [00:16:00] as if it was full. That's hasn't had,
**Senator:** that's step in his defense. That's step one. Yeah. Jesus.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Step one's
**Senator:** done. I mean he, he hasn't used a true cedar tower very much so you know, he, for him it's a little different.
**Gizmo:** Some amateur. Amateur. By the way, for the listeners, he's talking to me, not bam, bam, . Lemme just make that very clear. , I'm taking those bullets. Is that why he gives floral all the time? I don't know.
**Bam Bam:** Etc. Citrus senators got my back. What
**Grinder:** are you
**Gizmo:** guys. Of the cigar. I like it. Um, I'm smoking slower. I'm, I'm still getting a little bit that, that bitter thing on my tongue though, so I'm
**Senator:** not getting any bitterness.
Just for me, the flavor is very muted and subtle and I just want bolder.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. From a Nicaraguan cigar, no bitterness. It is a little muddled. I guess if that's another way of saying what senator's saying at the moment, you're
**Gizmo:** getting like earthy
**Rooster:** mushrooms.
**Gizmo:** That's about it. petro. He sounds like he's loving it.
of course you're .
**Senator:** Pine nuts. Pine nuts.
**Gizmo:** Toasted pine nuts. I, I'll make some pesto . [00:17:00] I, um, I, I'll be honest, this is different than I thought it would be. Hmm. For a Nicaragua, it's kind of surprising me. It's kind of subtle for Nicar. Doesn't, doesn't, doesn't taste like a nicarag cigar. It, this is mild
**Senator:** for me.
Yeah. I, I'm sorry, I I barely struggle to call this even a medium
**Gizmo:** smoke. I agree. Yeah, it's definitely mild.
**Grinder:** I agree. I, my, the finish I'm having on this is just god awful for me right now. I hate it. Really? Um, wow. Like when I smoke it, it's, it's good. There's that mustiness then. Fine. But the finish on this is like, I don't
**Gizmo:** like it.
How's, how's the retro? Hell, I haven't done that yet, so,
**Grinder:** you know, it's kind of muted.
**Rooster:** I'm gonna text Henry to get a refund on this
**Gizmo:** It's okay. Yeah, I think I, I'm not, I'm reserving judgment. I'm, I'm happy so far. I'm hoping that this bitterness thing goes away a little bit. It's not, I don't hate it. It's
**Rooster:** not bad. No, but it's not great. Yeah. And correct. You know, [00:18:00] typically when you say Pu Nicaragua and Cigar, you kind of have this image in your head that you're gonna get that blast of flavor.
Mm-hmm. , like, you'll get, you know, Nicaragua and tobacco flavors. That's what we anticipated, know what they Yeah. You know what that is. And you, you don't get that
**Senator:** from this. No. I mean, honestly, a Fuente, that signature we did that has more flavor to me than that. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's an afternoon smoke.
And
**Gizmo:** that's Dominican. Yep. With a camera and wrapper, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Not a pure, you know what I want you guys to try. I just did it. I feel like it was a little more pleasant. Take a longer, slower draw and see it's hitting like all the action right now is on the front of my tongue. The bitterness at the end.
And there's something really interesting on the front. Yeah. Honestly,
**Bam Bam:** I'm not, not getting any bitterness. It's not, it's not harsh in any way. Um, in the middle of my tongue, if you want to say I'm getting some decent flavor, but I can't distinguish it at the moment. It feels just like
**Gizmo:** a, eh, I don't know. I, there's a goza [00:19:00] smoke, which I've smoked with jacola seed and creamy, and that's all.
But I don't find that in this, I has become very monotone, slightly earthy for me. Hmm.
**Senator:** I agree. Monotone and, and when Bam said muddled, I, I think both of those apply.
**Gizmo:** But the combustion's great. Oh, dude. Smoke output. If these are chimneys, the room is full of smoke. So do you guys want to. Try our whiskey parrington. Well, we're eating.
**Senator:** It's got more flavor than
**Gizmo:** this. Yes. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I've never had it .
**Bam Bam:** I thought he was actually saying, wanna
**Grinder:** read it ? This is so for everyone's edification, gizmo has been, we wanted to try and IBE early, but GIZ is
**Senator:** insist.
Not even ibe.
**Grinder:** Just poor. Yeah, just poor. But Gizmo is insisting that we have a revelation reveal .
**Gizmo:** Well, when I was in the liquor store, the reason why I picked this up, I've never heard of it. I've never tasted it. I have no [00:20:00] idea what it is. The presentation I thought was a little dynamic, a beautiful box. So it's in a, uh, cardboard white box.
It's Rubin. I'll have to figure out how to pronounce that before I do the intro. Some sort of Japanese word. Rubin, I'm you looking at me like I Japanese? You're the, the cunning linguist in the group. So, CN cunning. Linguist . So it's a Japanese whiskey. Um, am I cunning
**Bam Bam:** or am I linguist? You're in both .
**Gizmo:** So you're persnickety.
What? You are. . I'm gonna open this up and, uh, see what you guys think of the presentation. Let's do it. Give us with this bottle, do we need the saber? Whoa, this bottle
**Senator:** better not disappoint. This is a lot of hype.
**Grinder:** Gizz. Oh God. Look, it does have a dragon on it. Whoa, whoa. I said it
**Senator:** as a dragon on it.
**Gizmo:** Oh my gosh.
Pass it around. By the way, there's quite literally a loose dragon on the bottle. Wow.
**Grinder:** I literally said there's a, there's a dragon on it. And I did not know there was a fucking dragon on that. There's a dragon on it. Put it on, mark it on the pod. It's on
**Bam Bam:** there on market it. Amazing. All right, so before we go into the, how much was this bottle?
**Gizmo:** Uh, it [00:21:00] was on sale quite a bit. I think it's normally, I've seen it online between like 69 and 99. I got it for 49 bucks. That's cheap. So I saw that. So they had it displayed, you know where the liquor wall is? Of, of whiskeys. This is gonna be awful. .
**Bam Bam:** Oh, I think so. I dunno. ,
**Gizmo:** listen, if I can, if I can make a
**Grinder:** gimmicky suggestion that there's a, a fucking
**Senator:** lizard on creature.
No, no dragon, a lizard would be
**Gizmo:** good. A dragon dragon. If it was a lizard, I'd be, what about seven? And that gimmicky
**Grinder:** joke is actually true. And it's, and it's heavily discounted. So my,
**Gizmo:** do you guys wanna the age statement? This, is this a Japanese poro? Do you wanna hear the, do you wanna hear the age statement?
I don't wanna hear. I don't, I do 12. 12, okay. Months. . Ah. Hello
**Senator:** Gibel. Why don't you spoil us for the holidays like this slur. Merry Christmas boys. You shouldn't have Well done . So,
**Grinder:** uh, it's got a, [00:22:00] um,
**Gizmo:** sask. It is, it's aged 12 months in Mazzara cask, uh, native Japanese oak. Uh, and apparently what's cool about that tree.
Is, it must grow to be at least 200 years old before it can be used, uh, to be, to be destroyed. To make, what do you, what do you do with that fucking dragon? I'm gonna find something to
**Grinder:** do. That's like a, that's like a, I don't know. Use it as a cock rinus
**Bam Bam:** slip that, figure out that a .
**Gizmo:** There you go. So open it up.
Let's, uh, let's try this thing. Let's do a little beer. Someone,
**Grinder:** no part of this. All right. Alright. Right. I'll do it. I'll do it. Rooster refuses to
**Bam Bam:** look at the bottle. I'm just afraid of the dragon. You don't want, don't want to get.
**Gizmo:** So it's definitely an interesting presentation. So I, I'm joking, I don't know what the actual age statement is.
Um, so it's not 12 months. I, I was age 12 months in those casks, those ocas. But I would assume that it moves to different casks. Well, it's certainly,
**Grinder:** it's certainly a light, uh, light color. I'm [00:23:00] really excited
**Bam Bam:** about trying this. You should take the dragon off before you pour. I don't know, man. It'll slip right off.
**Senator:** I kind like you. That's true. I would take it off. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Ba ba. I'm too glad we have two glasses. Yes, I do. I'm very glad.
**Gizmo:** So, listen, if we hate this guys, um, don't yell at me. So we have to drink this.
**Grinder:** Without
**Gizmo:** ice. Put it on. No, he has ice.
**Bam Bam:** I have ice. Oh. Oh. It's not even metal.
**Gizmo:** Oh, oh my God. I thought it was metal.
It just broke my dragon . That was senator. It was all grinder. It broke your dragon. It was
**Bam Bam:** all grinder. Damn, you grinder, .
**Gizmo:** Dude. My, the dragon's in half. That was not me. Now that's even, that's enough. Two dragons. I mean, really that is
**Bam Bam:** the generous. Poor. I don't want that much. You
**Gizmo:** know the, I have a feeling I'm gonna be more excited about the broken dragon now.
Did I have to fix, try to take a sip. Thank you.
**Bam Bam:** Good.
**Gizmo:** I hope that's a good Oman.
**Senator:** I didn't know about the rest. Oh, gizmo. You're face. You look like you're loving it. Don't say
**Rooster:** anything.
**Gizmo:** Don't say
**Senator:** anything. . [00:24:00] I'll take the exact same one. I'm serious.
**Gizmo:** This is the most, uh, good. Thank
**Bam Bam:** you. Not much on the nose.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys.
Ready? Let's take a sip. I'm gonna, I have to ice.
**Bam Bam:** All right. Hold on. Hold on. No, no. Try
**Gizmo:** without.
**Senator:** Why are we drinking this without ice? I, I, we, we need ice. I'm just not even gonna do it without, it's not bad. 12 months. O okay. Drink this without ice. Are you kidding me?
**Gizmo:** That's got, there's some bite on it for sure.
You may as well just drink shoe polish. Might even, the ice is older.
The ice is more age.
Okay. I'm very curious. All right, so let's try it with some ice here, boys. The rek, jabin regen. I have to figure out how to say that before I record the intro. Here we go. Is is it j silent in Japanese? No, it couldn't be.
**Bam Bam:** Well, it's, and it's, it's [00:25:00] drink, it's more drinkable with the ice, but there's no flavor.
Like, I don't get anything.
**Senator:** Yeah, I, I, sadly, this is a perfect pairing.
**Gizmo:** It just tastes like I
**Senator:** sugar. It's weird. It's actually fairly smooth. I thought this would have a huge bite. It doesn't have a huge bite, but there's
**Gizmo:** not much flavor at all. Is it better than the, uh, what was that? The fruity decadence, the, uh, the Singleton 15 that we did?
I think it's better than that. I think it's better than that. It's definitely better than that. It's better than that. And that's 15 years aged. God
**Grinder:** bless them. Yeah. But this, this, this tastes like someone slammed a bunch of additives in it.
**Gizmo:** It, it tastes like sugar to me. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Someone, I don't get that, but there's just flavor.
It's flavorless to me.
**Grinder:** Takes malt sip. It tastes like a casamigos. .
**Gizmo:** It does. It tastes like they have definitely added a lot of stuff into it. And my dragons broken on the floor now. . So that's a waste. It's a collector's. It
**Senator:** that's probably worth more than the liquid in this bottle. Oh yeah. I am disappointed though that that thing is plastic.
Yeah, I know. Yeah. If you're gonna put a dragon, a gold dragon, it should be metal at least. Absolutely. [00:26:00]
**Gizmo:** I was gonna give it to one of you guys for Christmas, but that's done. It's 49 bucks. No, it's, it's actually retails for 99. 99. Oh.
**Bam Bam:** The poor soul that pays for that.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Ooh. Yep. Wow. So, uh, we got Christmas coming up here, boys.
Yeah. What, uh, you, what are you guys gearing up as cigar wise for the holiday? What is your normal, let's say Christmas routine? I know what I do well, I go big. We've discussed
**Bam Bam:** this late hour church, you know, Dave, it off late hour for sure. Yep. Exi and the millennium on the new world side.
**Gizmo:** Okay. For me. All right.
Anybody else on the new worlds? I'll definitely do a Padron 80th. I mean, that's a no brainer. I mean, senator's gonna do four of them. That's right.
**Bam Bam:** That I hold for New Year's Eve. For me personally. Yeah. The Dominico, I prefer that on
**Gizmo:** New Year's. I like doing it. I go, I go big on both. Honestly,
**Senator:** I'm, I'm the opposite.
So I, I do for Christmas, um, Fuller, new world sticks. Some Cuban, but mostly fuller, new world sticks. Yeah. And for New Years, same [00:27:00] because I'm drinking so much champagne, excuse heavily
**Gizmo:** Cuban. Yeah, you'll do Plus with, with plus with, uh, with Christmas you're, you know, certainly having a more significant meal.
Right. Sure. And I
**Senator:** also, I have tons of red wine that day, so it's like I need something fuller to hold up to. Like red wine. Yeah, like heavier food. I think the
**Bam Bam:** three I mentioned New World would hold up to that type of a meal, but I know Senators doing D four s all New Year's Eve, no doubt. Oh yeah,
**Gizmo:** no doubt.
Yeah. I don't have a plan really. You just kind of roll with it. I just
**Grinder:** fucking roll in and see what happens.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Russa, what do you, what's your, what's your Christmas uh, generally like for cigar smoking?
**Rooster:** I'd probably do the 8 98 for sure. RGUs Portus 8 98. And uh, I'm also saving one of the chef's editions.
**Gizmo:** Stab it off. Nice. That's cigar by the way. That's a great choice. Let's jump back to that. So we did that. What did we do? Episode three, four in a while? It, it, that was pretty early. Early, yeah. Awesome. Cigar. And, um, I feel like that cigars actually gotten better since we got them. Mm-hmm. , I think [00:28:00] it's actually gotten better as it sat in the humidor.
Have you had one since? Yeah, I had one a couple weeks ago and I know Rooster's had a few. Yeah. Nice. I think they're performing brilliantly. They're incredible cigars. Yeah. Hard to find now. Yeah, they're
**Bam Bam:** gone now. Are you doing a soy Turkey ball this year? Brewster. . What do you,
**Gizmo:** yeah. What Christmas? Yeah.
What's your Christmas
**Rooster:** ball? What's that? ? Christmas is usually at, uh, somebody else's
**Gizmo:** house, so we go to my, um, uh, sister-in-law's house, no soy, Turkey ball. That's, uh, we have that for Thanksgiving. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** I'm sorry. Right. Tofu. Right, right, right. Oh, so the, so. Tofu, the soy ham. Don't call it soy ball. . It's tofu. It
**Gizmo:** sounds so for the listener, UN Rooster looks so irritated with bam right now , but
**Grinder:** he's not lashing out.
He's restraining himself.
**Gizmo:** true weight, ,
**Bam Bam:** Russo. You need a deep
**Gizmo:** draw of that excellence guy you have in your hand. . So, you know what I find a about Christmas is I, I think actually most of the [00:29:00] time on Christmas, I feel like I actually have a little more free time than I do on most of the other holidays. Like Thanksgiving is always crazy.
I'm always running around. New Year's Eve is kind of like date night. Like you, you know, you're spending your significant other and the kids are all, you know, Christmas, I feel like it's kind of, we, we do the, the gifts in the morning, we prep the meal, we hang around, we do all that, we eat and then I'm free.
Yeah. You know, so I, I, at Christmas I get to have a lot of time to myself. That's great. Whereas New Year's eve's just a later. Events. So I, I don't get as much time, my
**Grinder:** favorite part is the run up to it. Mm-hmm. , like, we're at the point where people are just like, I've had enough with work in the year. Yep.
And they're like, okay, I'm done. The, the time period between like, when you stop, when you s you know, cease working hard, and up to like up to Christmas, and then the time between, between Christmas and New Year's is always kind of fun for me. Like, it's always low key. It's always chill, you know, you get to really [00:30:00] unplug because everyone else is unplugged.
Do you enjoy
**Rooster:** a wrapping gift?
**Gizmo:** I hate it. I don't, I hate it. I don't do that.
**Senator:** You know, the worst part is like, I feel like years ago, every frigging department store, dude, they all did It would have free giftwrapping. They bought stuff there. Yep. And then everyone started cutting costs. And I feel like some Nordstroms will wrap for you, but there, there's not a ton of places that do it anymore.
It's really disappointing. It's,
**Gizmo:** have you guys made the stupid mistake of clicking, uh, gift wrap on Amazon ? No. Have you ever seen that? Have you ever had that experience? Uh, no. No. Doesn't come with a smile. It's as if my dog wrapped the present. It's. The gift wrapping from Amazon. Yeah. Um, horrible. I'm not surprised.
Yeah, don't click that button. Who the hell is wrapping it? Something? Warehouse worker. . I guess I, it, it, let me tell you this. It's, there's not a lot of TLC happening, let's put it that way. , they're still working
**Senator:** on their programming for the drones to wrap this .
**Bam Bam:** Exactly. It's a white, it's a white paper. Uh, or
**Grinder:** brown paper like Satchel with like
**Gizmo:** yarn around it.
It's, it's not pretty. I did [00:31:00] it one time and it was a mistake. Yeah. I don't, I mean, when
**Rooster:** I get gifts I'm like, you don't
**Gizmo:** have to wrap my gifts. I'm a big fan of the gift bag. I love gift. A bag in a bag and I just kind of play with the tissue paper and I'm done. Rabbit newspaper. There you go. I'm good with that.
Yeah. I love the bag. . Sorry, I'm a big bag guy. Big bag. Big guy over here. All right, so here's a, here's a question for you cuz I think I know what my answer is, but do you guys find that around the holidays, um, Obviously it's a thoughtful time. It's introspective your time with your family. Like Reinder said, you're not working as much aside from being able to smoke cigars more or imbibe more, whatever you want to do.
Do you guys find that you enjoy the hobby a little more around the holidays?
**Bam Bam:** Well, yeah, because it's a al it's an opportunity to be introspective with your cigar and you're sitting alone and or with a group.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Because no stress, you know, like when you're in a, your normal routine. Yeah. You know, you're sitting, you're thinking about work.
The next day you're thinking about your [00:32:00] obligations and everything else you have to do. I find around the holidays it's so much more relaxing. Like I can just unplug. I'm not thinking about anything. There's great sports on. Yeah. You know,
**Senator:** I, I view cigars on holidays as like those celebratory cigars that we've talked about.
Like, there's so much work and effort that goes into every holiday. It's like thanksgiving. Thousand things need to be cooked and ho you host people and there's so many things, and when you are able to enjoy a cigar, which usually isn't even that night for me, but maybe the next day. You just appreciate it so much more.
And it's like the same thing with Christmas. It's like you had to do Christmas shopping and get everything ready and then it's finally here and you get to just unwind and you can say, you did it. You survived. You made it through it. And there's just something special about sitting there with that cigar, like, oh yeah, I'm done.
That's right. It's all, everything's been handled. It's a personal
**Gizmo:** reward. You know, the thing, the thing about Thanksgiving, you know, comparatively to Christmas and New Years for me is like after Thanksgiving, it's like kind of like the big comedown, you know? And then you're, a few days later you're back to work and back into the routine where with [00:33:00] Christmas you have Christmas, you have the week off.
You know, hopefully a lot of folks don't, but we're lucky that we do. Um,
**Senator:** it's true week between Christmas and like grind. Oh my gosh. Like I always say, people ask me, you know, Senator, what are you doing for Christmas? And I say, my ideal Christmas is the hardest decision I'm going to make is which cigar I'm gonna smoke love.
That's truly how I view the Christmas holiday every year. I love that. Yeah. I
**Grinder:** love, I love, uh, No, I'm not trying a lot of different beers on Christmas. Hmm. Oh, that's a great idea. Um, so like, there's always these like, seasonal beers that come out that's
**Gizmo:** a lot of fun. Do you buy, do you buy the seasonal beers from like, uh, big manufacturers like a Samuel Adams or are you buying it from like smaller local breweries or a combo?
What? Both. Yeah, both for sure. Kind of is a boutique. Oh yeah. Yeah.
**Senator:** I can appreciate that. I'm the same way but with wine. So like Christmas Day I'll like open gifts, like have brunch and then like, pretty much the afternoon all the way through the night , it's like different bottles of wine that I'm excited [00:34:00] about.
I have never had some that I have that are just special bottles. Like some Schaffer will come out on Christmas Day. Nice. It's, it's a lot
**Gizmo:** of fun. You know, we're gonna be in the, the garage today. I was gonna say we're coming over. . We'll
**Bam Bam:** be in the garage with our glasses. ,
**Gizmo:** we, we'll have to do an emergency recording on Christmas.
Honey. I gotta go C house. Hey,
**Rooster:** do, do you guys open gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas day?
**Gizmo:** We do both. Um, oh, there's only one way to do it. Well, no, see, but we Christmas morning, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Christmas morning. But the reason why we do both is because, because of the, the variation in, in-laws and schedules and families and stuff.
Like, there's a segment of it for us that's Christmas Eve with one side of the family, and then there's a segment of it that's Christmas morning with the very close-knit in the house. Family. Mm-hmm. . I
**Bam Bam:** know other families that do that too. Yeah. Yeah. We do that. We do different morning after for us. Yeah.
**Grinder:** We have different, uh, cycles.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It changes every
**Grinder:** year or No, just like there's the presence with my family and there's a presence with Alicia's family, and then there's, you know, yeah. So, yeah. But we have like, the, the traditionally [00:35:00] the night before is like the family presence and then like the Santa Claus presence is the day after, but we've, we've.
the Santa Claus presence is now the in-laws presence, you know? Yeah.
**Senator:** Are you still getting gifts from Santa Grindr? I am not. I
**Grinder:** wish I were. Oh, I'm just making sure. grinder. No, I'm saying Santa when I was younger. You trying to say Santa?
**Gizmo:** It was, yeah, it was. Are you trying to say Santa's not real? I
**Senator:** don't wanna ruin it for you.
He's very
**Gizmo:** real gizmo. He brings me cigars. Oh, I wish. Um, you know the other thing too that we have to note is obviously this is both of yours, Senator and Grindr, first Christmas with the little ones. Yeah, it's true. That's right. Grindr's a little further along than, than Senator is, but uh, as far as the age, you know, yeah, he is coming up on a year and his is only a few months, but I'm excited
**Grinder:** for her to you.
She's crawling now, so like Oh, that's amazing. She's gonna be crawling all over the house
**Gizmo:** and mean she'll actually be able
**Rooster:** to open a gift. That's awesome.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. That's pretty cool. Rip the paper off, right? [00:36:00] Hopefully, yeah, we expect video. Okay. on video. So we're, uh, about halfway through here, boys on the Crown Heads Los Calaveras.
I've had the 2022. Let thinking I, my, I put mine down really has, hasn't changed much.
**Bam Bam:** I think I'm gonna put mine down too. Yeah, I'm not, I'm i'll over to my cigar that I started before the recording. Sorry,
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna keep powering through, but this is not great. It's, it's, this is not a Nicaragua, it's tough , you know, it's flavorless.
Yeah. So for me, it's
**Bam Bam:** dead to me. For me, I didn't get any of the bitterness until a moment ago and it made an appearance in a big way. So,
**Gizmo:** Not to change the subject, but think fla flavorless
**Rooster:** is a pretty good description of the cigar. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Not really getting anything
**Grinder:** the best, the best time I've had smoking the cigar in the short period of time. Smoking a cigar was when I wasn't smoking the cigar. Oh boy. .
**Gizmo:** But
**Rooster:** you know, remember like when we lit the cigar, we got some, it was
**Gizmo:** nice, decent, uh, flavor light [00:37:00] was good.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Yeah. And what was funky about a and then that was it for me. On the retro, I got a hint of orange peel and I'd like that. And that disappeared very
**Senator:** quickly. I mean, it's crazy. I like, I tried that Japanese whiskey and we were talking about how it doesn't have a whole lot of flavor. And I take a few puffs of this, I go back to the Japanese whiskey, it's like, flavor, flavor bomb.
I'm like, whoa. It's like a drinking. Macallan not good. It it, this has been just a really unfortunate pair. I'm really
**Gizmo:** surprised. Yeah. I'm definitely disappointed. Mm. I'm glad that this cigar wasn't 20 or 30 bucks. I'll say that. Yeah. But, um, I can't imagine how poorly this is gonna rate tonight.
**Grinder:** Do, do you. . I mean, could have, could there have been a, a saving grace to the pairing though?
I don't think so. I don't think we, we could've, we could've done Mac 12 and it still would've been trash. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Well, I mean, that would've saved, I would've
**Grinder:** probably,
**Senator:** that would've given us something to enjoy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some, some, like, some
**Gizmo:** consolation price . Yeah. I can't remember the last time that we felt like this in an episode.
Oh, I did. Where both the cigar and the scotch were this bad. No, I'm probably, we, we've got [00:38:00] lucky. This is, yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true. We've got lucky. This is not a, uh, nice Christmas present here from Crown Heads tonight. It does go well with water
So you said you were gonna change the subject grinder. I interrupted you. What? We Well,
**Grinder:** Christmas. Do you guys drink eggnog? Are you guys like eggnog
**Senator:** people? I'm, I'm not. So, my wife loves to like, make eggnog from scratch. Oh. She's like diehard about this. I do enjoy egg glass, but it's the, my problem with eggnog, you just can't drink a lot of it.
It's just, I don't like how it fills
**Gizmo:** you up.
**Senator:** It's sick. I get like, ugh.
**Bam Bam:** It's, it's so sweet. It's heavy. It's
**Gizmo:** so sweet.
**Senator:** It's. One like small glass and I'm good. What is rum with rum?
**Gizmo:** What is in it? Yeah, what is, what is
**Bam Bam:** an eggnog? So that's one quick statement. I've never had homemade eggnog.
**Senator:** It's really good. It's
**Bam Bam:** just super rich.
See that? I would
**Gizmo:** probably like, so what, what is it made of that that, that eggs your wife makes it. Eggs.
**Senator:** Eggs. Eggs and rum. Eggnog. Eggs and eggs. Spices. I'm sure there's maybe some other stuff in there. Cream what? Or something like that. Cream. It's probably like eggs and heavy cream like, uh, cinnamon, nutmeg, [00:39:00] you know, some spices and things like that.
And then I like to spike it with some ramen nuts. Of course it's more
**Gizmo:** my, so we do hot
**Rooster:** cider
**Gizmo:** like that. That's good. You know. Oh, I'll try that. Yeah. Nice. I like ci with like whole cinnamon sticks and you don't spike it.
**Bam Bam:** It's
**Grinder:** a spike. It's a dairy bomb. It's just like, yeah. It's too
**Gizmo:** much. It's a lot. So, uh, so back to Christmas, cuz I'm always curious, we talk about this almost every holiday, what's generally on the menu for you guys?
I know, uh, bam bam was grill and rooster about soy balls. But, um, what is your normal, uh, what's your normal, uh, Kind of food routine on Christmas. Christmas, um, because I have a very special one that's close to my heart. Yeah, I mean, like growing up in Pennsylvania
**Grinder:** we do um, we do ham, we do short ribs or also buco and uh, then the rest is like the sides and shit, which is pretty standard.
But yeah. Ham also buco. That's it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. My, so [00:40:00]
**Grinder:** I'm sorry. No, go ahead.
**Gizmo:** No, my wife's family does, uh, fdu.
**Grinder:** Oh, we did fond up on, on on Christmas E Eve. Yeah. So did we. Yeah. Cool.
**Senator:** It's fun for me. It's always Christmas Eve is seafood. Um, I mean, it's funny, I love the Italian, like seven
**Gizmo:** fishes. Seven fish is like, lemme tell you something.
When my father-in-law's over, he'll literally count at midday how many fishes are being prepared. Yeah. If it's not seven, if it's. We're cutting one . If it's six, somebody's gotta go get something.
**Senator:** It's, I mean, I'm, I'm not even Italian, I just love seafood. So I have embraced this tradition with fellow Italians every single year, probably my whole life.
And for me it's fun because like, you know, certain things I appreciate, like caviar comes from fish, from sturgeons. Yeah. So like, that counts, that counts as a fish. Like, I, I, I do courses and make sure I hit at least seven every year. And then Christmas day is always meat. It's uh, I'll usually do a Chateau Breon.
Nice.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I love Beef Wellington on
**Bam Bam:** Christmas Day. Yeah. I've had that a few years. Yeah. It's just really hard
**Gizmo:** to prepare. It is, yeah. It's hard to get it [00:41:00] right. Uh, my Christmas Eve is very special cuz uh, I grew up, my, my grandparents were, uh, Polish and Slovak, so my grandmother would make like 20 dozen pierogis from the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And she would freeze them and. . Lemme tell you something. These pierogis that dude my grandmother would make. I, I would eat like a dozen and a half pieces. I love, loves easy, easy, easy. And I like the plain ones. Just potato.
**Grinder:** Yeah. I learned something recently. What's that? There's this section of the United States that is called the Pierogi Pocket.
Hmm. It's a Pennsylvania, it literally looks like a, like a pierogi. Really. Like the area on the map looks like Agi. It's basically, you know, uh, Pennsylvania, little bit of upstate New York, some, like some Maryland. It's in all the way up to like the Chicago area and looks like a big pierogi. Nice. Uh, because of the Polish immigrants,
**Gizmo:** obviously.
Yeah. Yeah. And uh, my grandmother used to [00:42:00] make a HOK and Hoki Yeah. Which are very popular dishes for them. Yeah. And then, you know, my mom, I, I was your bob did, was, is she a Bhi? No, I didn't call her that. You didn't call that I called my grandmother Bhi. I just called her gram gram.
**Rooster:** Isn't, uh, what, what is that called?
Spna. Capta or something? It's, uh, Kabak Isn't that big?
**Gizmo:** Polish? Uh, I don't, I don't remember that. I remember eating Kobasa, but I don't remember it being called that. Um, the, the thing that sticks out to me, even when I was a little kid, I remember I would, I was more excited at Christmas for Pierogis than I was presents when I kid
Like, it was that incredible. And it was the one time of year we got 'em, like no other time during the year. What, what, what
**Grinder:** were the, what was the innards Potato?
**Gizmo:** So she would make a bunch. So she would make, um, she would make pero uh, potato, she'd make cheese, she'd make sauerkraut, and then she'd make some with, uh, , either fig or plum or something.
Oh my god, you're talking my language. Interesting. Yeah, it, I mean it was incredible. It's a dessert, dessert pierogi. It was, [00:43:00] it was pretty incredible. And you know, we always, like, like Senator was saying, we always do the fishes. Yeah. My wife is Italian, so that's a big deal.
**Grinder:** What are, do, are there specific fishes
**Gizmo:** that you need in this?
Uh, well there's seven of 'em, so you gotta kind of get em along. Gotta get creative. Yeah. , she's kind of done the thing, you know, we found a sushi joint that's open on New Year, uh, Christmas Eve. So she'll order a tray of, of sushi of, so that counts for three or four of the fishes. So there you go. She kind of cheats a little bit, but, so that's
**Senator:** my New year's every year.
Ah, sushi nice. Every year.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Do you make it your own? No, of course not. We've done
**Senator:** that a bunch of times. I don't want to disgrace the Japanese by trying to attempt to make sushi. They, they know what they're
**Gizmo:** doing. , after you watch that Jro Dreams of Dreams of Sushi documentary, I will never even try. Yep.
I love sushi. It's so good. It's, it's the best. I find that. I don't enjoy it. Around cigars. Usually like I won't have a cigar and like I'll eat sushi and then have a cigar. But together, like there are some meals that I'll like to have a cigar with it. I don't think it's a steak or something, but I
**Senator:** completely disagree.
I think a Cuban with [00:44:00] Sushi, Paris Adi
**Gizmo:** Cutie Coronas collateral. Amazing. Maybe a Schwa Supreme as well. Schwa
**Rooster:** Supreme. Yeah. Yeah, Regio.
**Gizmo:** Nice. So I have to tell you guys, I bought a little Christmas present for myself. Hmm. I don't know if I told you about, And I'll put the, uh, link in the episode description. I got this lighter on Amazon for $11 and 99 cents.
And you know, I'm an St. DuPont guy. We all are. Yes, we are This thing. Not all of us. No, not all of us. Not
**Senator:** me. Pu Puba has got the lighter that burned a hole in it. It's so .
**Gizmo:** That's
**Bam Bam:** that's true. It's a lighter That doesn't go out . It doesn't turn off.
**Gizmo:** Um, this thing has the, but you know, it's a butane lighter and it has the jet, but it also has the soft flame.
You flip a little switch and you get the soft flame. That's cool. So, you know smokers who like to, you know, sometimes I like to touch up a lighter Cuban or a lighter cigar with the soft flame, cuz it, you know, the rapper's a little more delicate. Yeah. It's nice to have the option
**Senator:** [00:45:00] but for 11 bucks. So I was impressed when at some point, somehow this got handed to me the other night.
Yeah, it actually feels pretty good. Yeah. Like it's got a good amount of weight to it for like $10 lighter. Um. Yeah, I mean, it, it's, it's not bad for 10 bucks. The only thing I have to ask you, have you refilled this lighter yet? I have. I had no issue. No issue. Do you know what's so funny? You sent me the Amazon link.
The reviews are
**Gizmo:** terrible. Well, you know why? Here's the problem. Okay. Thank you for bringing this up. Here's the problem with people refilling lighters. Usually, uh, pagoda just handed me a real cool letter. I'm surprised
**Rooster:** you actually read
**Gizmo:** reviews on the 11. Oh, I always, oh,
**Senator:** well no, because the thing is he sends me the link and the first thing I noticed is like the overall star rating at the star rating top was like three or something was low.
And I'm like, this is odd. Gizmo's singing. Its praises, but most people are not having good experience. So
**Gizmo:** I was just curious. So here's the problem. Could be delivery issues. This is the case with almost all butane lighters. I find even my St. DuPonts, when they run outta juice, you have to take your, uh, your, uh, take the air out, your perfect draw.[00:46:00]
You take the tip and you push down on the little. Fill thing that moves, you gotta empty the air out. Yeah. Because what happens with these lighters is they get filled up with air and when the butane is out, you try to fill it again. There's no room, it, it just won't fill. So you have to clear the air out completely.
I've never had a problem. I've refilled it like four or five times since I've had it. That's the problem with the lighter for 11 bucks is it doesn't hold a lot of fluid. Yeah. So I burn through that lighter. I'll burn through that in probably one or two sittings where the S two DuPont, it'll last quite a while.
**Senator:** Oh yeah. But I'm good with that because I honestly, I refill my lighter after every sitting just cuz I, you don't wanna run out. Smoke a lot. I use a lot of butan. Same here. You never wanna run out.
**Grinder:** Same. So I got this thing, the grenade, because I don't want to fill Philip Butan. Yeah. This thing is like,
**Gizmo:** This the last minute.
I, I just like this, this lighter A perfu. It's a good option, huh? Like a perfume spray thing? This thing? Yeah. It's great. It kinda does . I I just kinda like, you know, [00:47:00] for 11 bucks it's a good option. Kind of a good backup for the, uh, good stocking stuffer for the holidays. It is. Exactly, exactly. Is that like lizard merchandise?
Ooh, wizard merchandise is always good. I mean, we're obviously coming up. Today's the 20th, so coming up on gonna be tough to get me time for Christmas, but mm-hmm. . Yeah. Check out the Lizard Merch store. There's a lot of good stuff in there. Get your got twang t-shirt. Get your, uh, boxers. Get your boxers signed by.
Bam. Bam. Oh
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
**Gizmo:** You know what I
**Rooster:** saw the other day? I was on YouTube just flipping, uh, looking at stuff about Cuba. Cigar Von has a YouTube video about her visit to Cuba. Really? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** You should. You should watch it. Oh, really? Pretty cool. Yeah. Ooh,
**Bam Bam:** I think you'd like that, man. Ooh, I need a room, . I need a moment to myself with that one.
A few moments, Mrs. Bam. Bam. Cover your ears. . [00:48:00]
**Gizmo:** You know, we're smoking at 10 86 Lounge. We talk about that a lot. It's our clubhouse. We, we record here every week. I always like to tell lizards always a good gift. Always a good gift for yourself if you're so capable is find a great lounge, especially when like this, I mean, 24 hour access and whatnot.
I mean, we're very lucky. You know, we wouldn't have met each other. No ha had it not been for meeting in a lounge. Right. For this thing of ours. Yeah. Yeah. This thing of ours. I like it. Laco, I like that, like that La Castle lizard. And, uh, yeah, so I, I always encourage that. I, I, one of my, uh, cousins actually sign up at a lounge near him.
Nice. After hearing our experience and has a circle of friends now, so. Awesome. There's a lot of folks out there that I'm hearing that are lizard like this. Yeah. Which is great. You know, obviously it's been around since one of my lounges were the, were invented, but one of my neighbors
**Bam Bam:** signed up here.
Really? Yep.
**Gizmo:** Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Awesome. So boys, this cigar is a dud coming into the last third here. Yeah. [00:49:00] Oof. Tough. What are we thinking? Tough. Tough. Still
**Bam Bam:** a.
**Gizmo:** It's tough.
**Senator:** I'm, I'm gonna just make a definitive statement. This is the worst cigar I've had doing this podcast with this, with you guys. Yeah.
Yeah. This is a bummer. I, I can't even
**Gizmo:** believe I, I'm just the broken, the broken dragon on the floor, kind of. It's a perfect symbol for tonight. .
**Grinder:** Did you, did you throw that at my
**Senator:** ass or something? . I would hope you'd feel that . How did, how did, did you just throw it at me? No, I threw it at the floor. Oh my God.
To express my displeasure with the, uh, the, the spirit tonight. I think
**Grinder:** senators lashing out so dramatic.
**Bam Bam:** We, we, we've known senator too, could the of the flow. Geez.
**Gizmo:** I almost wish Puma was here for this because Oh, it would be, he would've got left. He would've got up and left . He might've left. He would've
**Rooster:** thrown the bottle on the floor.
**Gizmo:** He would've . Oh gosh. 12 months. Yeah. Crazy. What the fuck? 12, [00:50:00] 12 months baby. How do they seriously put that on the market? It's it and price it up at $99. . It's horrible. Speaking of, are you guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquid rating? on This is a half hour .
**Bam Bam:** This is good
**Gizmo:** for the, this is one of the shortest Well, you know, it's good for the listener.
Just for the listener. We, we normally don't, we didn't announce it last year, but there will be a, uh, bonus episode coming on New Year's Eve so that you have another nice, good block of content coming this weekend. Um, so chew that up. Enjoy it. Let us know what you think. Um, it's gonna be a best of, yeah.
Cool. Best of the lounge lizards. Uh, since last year, I wish I knew what I rated the Singleton. I can tell you, you can tell me. Oh, no, I can't tell you the li I can't tell you the liquor. Yeah, it wasn't good, but, all right boys, let's do the, uh, formal liquor rating on this terrible, uh, regen, however you pronounce that.
Japanese whiskey don't skew the scores. Yeah, no, don't say terrible.
**Grinder:** Who knows? No, not at all. Maybe,
**Senator:** maybe some of [00:51:00] us gonna be generous. True. I love some. There may be a few
**Gizmo:** twos. True, true, true. Bam, bam. You're up,
**Bam Bam:** you just skewed the score.
Well, you know, we can't always review a winner in this room. Yeah, right. So I will give it a four. Okay. Grinder?
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Grinder:** I'll give it a, I'll give it a three.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Pagoda. It's so funny because I think four is like, probably gonna be the lowest score I've ever given us to God, but everybody four is
**Grinder:** generous. Yeah. Oh, liquor .
**Senator:** Hello. Welcome
**Grinder:** to the podcast. Four Works.
**Gizmo:** So this is episode 59, . Your, your name is Pagoda . We do the liquor first.
Even when it's bad, I don't even
**Grinder:** want to give it a four. Um, so give it a five, give it a three like me, man. Four, I'll, I'll just stick to a four. Oh, cool. But ma'am, thank you for sure. Setting the anchor. I'm skewing it. So he's, he's, that's the, that's the hurdle rate. . I'm, I'm [00:52:00] curious what, uh, Senator Elena AOR is gonna do it for this one.
Is it two? Do we all guess
**Senator:** I'm gonna save the harsh rating for the cigar because Yeah. Believe it or not, the cigar is even more disappointing. Totally agree. The spirit is, it's, it's, so I'm gonna give the spirit a four because if I had nothing else, no other whiskey I could consume, but that it's at least drinkable even though I wouldn't enjoy it.
Yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Like if you are, for me, if you're on the, if you're on the island with Wilson Tom Hanks cast. You could sip this
**Senator:** once a week. Yeah. So I'll give it a four just cuz I mean you can at least drink it. You won't necessarily enjoy it, but yeah. Sea water with
**Bam Bam:** ice would be called. Oh, that'd be nice.
**Gizmo:** Like a sea water, ice cube,
Uh, I'm also gonna give it a four. Um, wow. Uh, so the formal liquor rating on that boys is a 3.8. My goodness.
**Bam Bam:** Horrible. Wow. Yeah. That's not good. Don't even try it. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Not a recommend.
**Senator:** I think we're done with Japanese whiskeys. I think we found the great ones and we have worry that now as [00:53:00] we really explore more, we're finding that Yeah, the rest don't live up.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The hibiki was incredible. Just so we know. So we did discuss the Singleton 15. Yeah. Um, this, so this is a 3.8 and the Singleton 15 was a three point. . So this beat out the singleton 15 by 0.2 Should, and it, and I think that is perfectly unwinded cuz that hundred percent one of the worst things I've ever read.
And I think Grindr
**Bam Bam:** mentioned that earlier. Yeah. A bit, a notch above it. Just a notch. Which is not very good. . Yeah, .
**Gizmo:** All right. I dare to ask this, but, uh, any final thoughts here on this cigar before we, uh, go around and do our rating on? Well,
**Grinder:** this cigar is lovely. Oh yeah. Can I make an observation? And so is the one I'm holding
**Senator:** now
Yeah. I, I think this is the first time since we've been doing this, that almost every lizard has picked up a different cigar to smoke and put down the stick reviews.
**Gizmo:** I'm, I'm back to smoking. What I was, you know, smoking before us too. Turn the pod half halfway. Just how to put her down. Yeah, same. You know, so, yeah.
[00:54:00] Very disappointing. Wow.
**Bam Bam:** Not me. I'll
**Gizmo:** go to the end. Not good. I'm still, I'm still praying to God. It's not happening. No, it hasn't happened
**Rooster:** till now. It's not gonna happen.
**Gizmo:** You, but, you know, uh, drinking the other drink
**Bam Bam:** that I'm drinking, it's Oh, that is like nectar
**Gizmo:** when you're drinking bny, right? Oh, yeah. All that
Okay. All right, rooster, let's do the, uh, formal lizard rating on this thing. The Los Calavera. How low can I go throw it up there? Three. Three. Wow. I'm also gonna give it a three. Senator. Two.
**Senator:** Oof. Wow. Wow. I, I say that I, I want to just explain this for a second. Yeah. Please.
**Gizmo:** Just scratch this. I'm putting this now.
I've rated it, you, I feel I've putting it down. I've done my duty. It's horrible.
**Senator:** The reason I'm at a two, what's amazing to me, the cigar is smooth. I actually didn't have any harshness, uh, throughout the smoke, and I didn't get bitterness in mine at. . The, the [00:55:00] problem is, it's so flavorless. I like struggle to even call it a cigar.
Like I'm not really sure what I'm smoking and I would actually rate higher a cigar that is harsh and that I don't particularly enjoy, but at least gives me some semb flavors of flavor. Yeah. Yeah. And the fact that I got none of that from this, it's a two. Yeah. It's, it's
**Grinder:** surprising
**Gizmo:** is
**Bam Bam:** Nicaragua, you know?
Oh yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It doesn't taste anything. A pure, no less pago. What's your rating? I'll, I'll
**Bam Bam:** stick to a
**Gizmo:** four
**Bam Bam:** and, uh, I'll,
**Gizmo:** I'll give you a couple of reasons why I really liked the size. I really, um, the combustion was
**Grinder:** great. Um, I was smoking the, you know, just overall
**Gizmo:** everything but the flavor , it's like you're smoking nothing.
Yeah, you're right. So, but, um, yeah, four, I'm being. Grinder
**Senator:** me.
**Grinder:** Um, so this is not the worst
**Gizmo:** cigar I've had. Me neither. That's, and I want to talk about my rating when everybody's done. Okay. All right. Um, I'm with you on that. This
**Grinder:** is not the [00:56:00] worst cigar I've ever had. It's obviously not even close to the best.
Um, I, I might, I mean, what would I rate the worst cigar? A one or two. This is probably, this is a four for me.
**Gizmo:** Okay. And bam, bam.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I think four is a fair score. I'll give it a four.
**Grinder:** You know, because they, they're guys are
**Gizmo:** gonna go into a store and pick it up because of the way it looks. Or
**Grinder:** they wanna try something new.
Let me
**Bam Bam:** be clear though. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Anything under a five we're splitting hairs. It's an awful cigar. It's an awful cigar. Agree. Anything under five, it's, it's really not a recommended, it's not a recommended all. Yeah. Yeah. No, I totally
**Gizmo:** agree. Yes. So the formal lizard rating on the crown heads Los CVEs, EL 2022 is a 3.3.
Holy cow. Which is when I tell you the worst cigar we've ever smoked on this podcast, it's that by two by a lot, two and a half basis points. I think it's a lot. That's a lot. It's a lot. The opus, no, the
**Bam Bam:** opus [00:57:00] got a, the La Punta got a five something. La Punta
**Gizmo:** Ata la Punta got a, so the Atta Bay BHOs got a five point senators shaking his head, God the, uh, San Cristobal got a 5.9 and the, so the closest cigar to this rating wise was the Ho de Nicaragua we did on episode 13.
Right. The, an Antonio that was a 5.0. Yeah. That was a
**Bam Bam:** tough cigar, I suppose
**Gizmo:** to . So, I mean, this is still, this validates is the worst cigar smoke. Oh, yeah. Now the reason why I gave it a three, similar to what Grindr said, is I do think about the worst cigars I've ever had. To me, a cigar that won't, you can't even smoke is a zero.
Right. Cigar. That's, Barely able to smoke, tastes like shit as a one. Maybe like a factory smoke or some sort of like three, $4, you know, cigar that you get. Maybe that's a two. This is just Right. Just a notch above that. Cuz it performed well. Yeah, it, the burn was fine, draw was great, draw was great. Smoke output was great.
So you have to give it a little bit of merit on those things. But the [00:58:00] flavor was, yeah, horrendous. Now what's shocking is
**Rooster:** that this is an el Yeah, this is a limited edition that
**Gizmo:** annual come out. Annual Annual release. Annual release, yeah.
**Rooster:** So if the animal release is like a three or a four,
**Gizmo:** what's the regular stuff like?
I have a question.
**Bam Bam:** How is this rated over a
**Gizmo:** nine.
**Senator:** Well, I wanna say one thing in their defense, I, I don't, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that because this el is so poor that their regular stuff is, is as bad or worse. And I say that because we talk about with Cubans, for instance, how regular production sticks.
I think, I think a number of guys agree with me are, are better than most regionals or ELs. A hundred percent come out a hundred. So I, I wouldn't go that far to assume that all their stuff is garbage. It could be the case, but I, I would, at least for me, I would keep
**Gizmo:** somewhat of an open mind. Yeah. But as
**Rooster:** a, as a, as a manufacturer or as a company, when you, when you make your cigar and you're gonna do an annual release and you're gonna call it an EL that comes out once a year,
**Gizmo:** it's
**Rooster:** sure to have more flavor than
**Gizmo:** this does.
I agree with that. [00:59:00] And, and it's a Nicaragua
**Rooster:** poro, so you know what I mean? What's going on with that, with that cigar?
**Gizmo:** It should have a lot more flavor than, yeah. Like,
**Bam Bam:** as an example, the Anjo that Fuente releases every year in Christmas, it's such a flavor bomb. Very rich and robust. You would expect that from an annual holiday cigar, right?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I think, I
**Rooster:** think when we just started like on the, you know, let the cigar cut it,
**Gizmo:** we were expecting a lot more. It was good. Was good rid expecting like
**Grinder:** a nickel it. Okay.
**Senator:** For like a little It was okay. Yeah. Yeah. But like maybe it was never great. Maybe
**Gizmo:** not great. Yeah. But
**Rooster:** you just expected more from it because just, just by when it's a Nicaragua puo, you know, you expect a lot more flavor and it just didn't
**Gizmo:** deliver.
**Senator:** I want to say the most shocking thing about this whole thing. Guess what? Half wheel
**Gizmo:** raided the cigar. It's like an eight,
**Senator:** right? What is it? Eight. So they, they rate on a hundred point scale. Yeah. Just, just a few guys say I'm gonna 92. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna 82. I'm gonna say 88. I'm gonna say 89. 89,
**Senator:** [01:00:00] 88. They gave it a 91.
Oh, no way. It's, it's absurd.
**Gizmo:** That is absurd. If
**Senator:** you're the mi and we've talked about this, I, I hope for the listener, this isn't just, we sit here and we like full flavored cigars, so because it's not, we're gonna shit all over it. That's not the case. No. We've rated cigars that are actually mild and even medium.
Um, Very highly. I mean, I mentioned that Fuente cigar. I'm not a big Fuente regular production guy because I like more flavor, but as an afternoon smoke, that was a damn good
**Gizmo:** cigar at a really cheap price. And did, we did, we did the short, the short story on the short smoke special right before Thanksgiving.
Yeah. And, and that rated well, right? Yeah. And don't forget, and that is, that is as entry level. It is accessible as you can get. It's not a bad cigar. It's a, it was a very good cigar. It's a good cigar. It's double this rating overdo. It's a good cigar. And
**Senator:** that's what said, if you were to give this cigar to even the most novice of cigar smokers, I don't think they would understand , why we smoke cigars.
They would say, what, what does this taste like?
**Grinder:** They would probably
**Bam Bam:** never smoke
**Gizmo:** a cigar again. You know, and you know what, you know what almost makes that worse is, is the counter [01:01:00] to the point I made about its performance. Someone smoking the cigar, seeing it burn like it does ash, like it does output. Like it does draw like it does.
Yeah. And then has nothing else. That's almost worse to me than having a cigar that's like, oh, this isn't burning. Right. The rapper's coming undone. It's not well like, That's my arc. It's deceptive. It's deceptive. It's almost like it makes it 10 times worse.
**Grinder:** I mean, I don't, I, I don't, I don't factor any of that in really much, but for me, the, the bitterness just really fucking threw it for me.
Wait
**Rooster:** a minute. You, you don't factor in the way it's burning, the way the draw is. That has nothing to do.
**Gizmo:** Construction.
**Bam Bam:** You must the rating, it's a
**Grinder:** must. It's a must. Yeah. I think I do, but I'm not pulling hairs on. You know, for me, when I, I, I'm thinking about the enjoyment of it. And for this particular stick, I wasn't focused on the draw.
I didn't really care about the draw. The draw was good. I didn't care about the burn. Honestly. I
**Bam Bam:** was, I was, hold on. I need to counter just for a moment. The most, my most favorite Cuban, if [01:02:00] there's no draw, how do you enjoy a cigar that you can't draw?
**Gizmo:** It's a fair point. Yeah. The performance has to, or
**Senator:** they have to touch up every five seconds.
Yeah. It's like you can't enjoy it. That has to
**Gizmo:** factor into it. Grinder. Yeah. A bit.
**Grinder:** Okay. It does. But my point is that I'm trying to make is that the bitterness was so overwhelming. Yeah. Forget about like, I just couldn you couldn't get through it. Yeah. I was just like, this is too much. Like I can't enjoy this.
And then the app, the finish, the bit, the finish with the bitterness was just so pro prolonged. Like Yeah.
**Senator:** The saddest thing about this stick is that this was meant to honor four people who passed. They deserve better than this stick. Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You know, here's what I'll say about crown heads. Uh, this is an el.
you know, we've talked about, you know, special Haos releases on the Cuban side of this podcast that we do. A lot of times regular production is the way to go. So maybe that's the case too. Here with Crown Heads, they obviously sell a lot of cigars, so I remain cautiously optimistic that when we do another Crown Heads that it's certainly gonna, I don't know how it could perform worse once It can't be worse.
Yeah. It can't be worse. [01:03:00] And why I remain
**Bam Bam:** optimistic that we have to, I would say that if crowned heads hears this Yeah. Have them send us the cigars that they feel worthy of us smoking. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** We, we need to, we need to definitely try something else because this cigar is a serious disappointment. And if I was a smoker and I smoked this, I would never go near that brand in the humidor again.
And I just hope that that's not the case as far as their entire line goes. Yeah, you know, this, all this almost makes me want
**Bam Bam:** to. Wow. That's why we grabbed our own cigars. Yeah, we had to put it down.
**Gizmo:** Wow. Well, you know, at least we have Christmas coming up here. Boys, like we talked about, we have some good cigars coming up the end of the week here, you know, at home with the holidays and stuff.
So this will certainly be the worst cigar we smoke. This was also helpful.
**Senator:** Instead of Cole, you
**Gizmo:** just
**Bam Bam:** throw some of these in.
**Gizmo:** I'm gonna
**Rooster:** be giving this to Henry as a gift. .
**Gizmo:** There you go.
**Bam Bam:** I'm gonna give them all of the, oh, we need to have a talk with
**Gizmo:** Henry . Yeah, we need to have a little conversation with Henry.
All right, boys. I hate to sum it up, [01:04:00] but we must A 3.8 for the reus Japanese whiskey with the dragon on the bottle. And a 3.3 for the crown Heads Las Calavera, EL 2022 Corona. Boys, I hope you have a great Christmas,
Oh gosh. All right. And like I said, listeners, uh, tune in. We have, uh, quite a bit of content coming for you at the end of this week. The best of Lounge Lizards 2022, uh, special episode. And then, uh, following week we have a couple episodes for you. So, uh, stay tuned for all that. And, uh, we'll see you guys next week.
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new. Lounge lizards pod.com. That's lounge lizards p od.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 [01:05:00] us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizard's Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.