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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Ep. #209: Tatuaje Cabaiguan Imperiales (w/ G4 Tequila Reposado, Champagne Toast for Four Years of the Pod, Can Nicaraguan Tobacco Taste Cuban?, Lizard Cold Weather Winter Smoking Setups, Nicaraguan Tariff Threat & Gizmo’s Garage War)
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Gizmo: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Senator, chef Ricky, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 209th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan the M 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 sabor champagne for the pod's. Fourth birthday. We answer listener emails on humidity and our cold weather smoking setups. And I tell a story about a 30 minute Holy War in my garage, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up cigar and jaw as we pair G four Tequila Reposado with the Kaba Igu by Taua in Imperial.
A Churchill on the pod tonight from Nicaragua [00:01:00] Boys is the Kaba Igu by Tahe, the Imperials 47 ring gauge cigar by seven inches long. And boys, we chose a tahe tonight that is very different than the other three that we've had and that my expectation is that this is not gonna be a pepper bomb.
Bam Bam: Hmm. I'm probably gonna also smoke through this in 15 minutes 'cause it's so light.
Gizmo: So this is one of the lightest, large format cigars
Bam Bam: ever
Gizmo: I've ever held in my head. It seems very, I don't wanna use the word underfilled, but it seems like lightly filled.
Bam Bam: Yeah, it's light,
Gizmo: you know,
Bam Bam: it's not densely packed.
Chef Ricky: It smells, the wrapper really light,
Bam Bam: very and very thin it seems. It
Chef Ricky: almost feels like one of the lightest wrappers we've ever had on the pod, if not the lightest.
Bam Bam: It does smell good.
Chef Ricky: Yeah, it does.
Gizmo: Don't forget the brulee.
Chef Ricky: Oh, I wasn't here. I wasn't here for that one. That's right. That's true. Yeah.
Gizmo: All right, boys, let's cut this thing. See what we're getting on the cold draw and the wrapper. [00:02:00]
Bam Bam: Oh, wide open. It's like a tunnel
could drive my semi through this thing. Wow.
Gizmo: Hmm. Mine has a little bit of resistance. I didn't take that much off.
Bam Bam: And how did did die? Yeah.
Senator: I took very little and mine draws perfect.
Gizmo: Yeah, same. Just
Bam Bam: the extreme tip.
Gizmo: Wow.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Yeah. It's cold draw though.
Bam Bam: Hmm. Actually. Very good.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I get a lot of milk chocolate, light cocoa on this cold draw.
And on the nose of the, on the of the wrapper. I
Gizmo: don't know why, but the aroma on this reminds me of a padron thousand series. Mm-hmm. Cigar.
Chef Ricky: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Gizmo: Not any of the more aged cigars, but for some reason padron thousand series.
Chef Ricky: Absolutely.
Gizmo: That's what it smells like when you open one of those boxes.
Alright boys, let's light this thing. The Kaba Igan by Tua [00:03:00] Imperials, again, it's a 47 ring gauge cigar by seven inches long. The fourth Tua we've done on the pod, and certainly expecting that it's gonna be one of the more mild to medium cigars.
Bam Bam: It's not gonna take much flame to light. This one.
Gizmo: Not bad.
Rooster: Sweet. On the light?
Bam Bam: Yeah, not bad on the light. Almost like a sugar cane type thing. Kinda mild. Mm-hmm. I'm getting slight graham cracker.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's creamy.
Bam Bam: Very nice smoke. Little
Gizmo: woody
Bam Bam: smoke's. Pretty velvety.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Bam Bam: No wood for me yet. No cedar.
Gizmo: You know what this band reminds me of? It's the old k Dorsey band.
I
Senator: was thinking the exact same thing.
Gizmo: It's, it's like identical to that.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Almost. I
Senator: was gonna say, I, I, I want us to [00:04:00] just talk a little bit about the look of the cigar.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Senator: I mean, one, it's awesome to see a Churchill. Two, the band is, I love the simplicity. It has like this kind of old school feel to it.
Bam Bam: It's elegant.
Senator: Um, the cigar itself, the only thing is the construction looks very rustic. I mean, my wrapper is super veiny
Bam Bam: and thin.
Senator: Thin. It's even like kind of falling apart in a few places. But it tastes good on the light.
Bam Bam: The aroma is actually excellent. I.
Senator: I can't believe just the flavor because if you gave me 20 guesses from the flavor on the light of the cigar, I would never say te. No way.
Gizmo: No way. And honestly, this came from me asking Lizard Matt for a TA that would not blow our hair back and, 'cause that's what we've gotten when we've had Todd to before and it's not rated very [00:05:00] well.
So I said, give us something if they have it totally in the opposite direction. And this is,
Bam Bam: this
Gizmo: is it where he pointed us. So cheers to lizard Matt.
Rooster: It almost not, it does not even taste like a new world. I agree.
Gizmo: I was gonna say it. It does taste a little Cuban, Cuban esque. Mm-hmm.
Senator: Or Honduran maybe.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm.
I like it so far.
Senator: The tobacco because of like the creaminess, the tobacco tastes age.
Gizmo: That's true.
Senator: It's not like youthful tobacco. Correct.
Gizmo: So what's the build on this 'cause? So the binder and filler are Nicaraguan Really? And the wrapper is Ecuadorian Connecticut.
Senator: Huh.
Gizmo: And that's it.
Senator: Interesting.
Gizmo: Wow. Wow.
Senator: Nicaraguan.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Senator: I would've never guessed that. Me neither.
Bam Bam: I kind of like it. I think it's very good right now. It's unique, it's different, it's very elegant and I think the smoke is velvety delicious right now.
Rooster: It's like creamy and also nutty.
Senator: Yeah. [00:06:00] I'm just imagining like having this in the morning with coffee, if this is a breakfast would be great.
Bam Bam: You know, if it's anything, it's if there's a nut involved, it's a cashew for me.
Senator: Yeah, I agree with that.
Bam Bam: Right.
Very good. How much are,
Gizmo: I'll have to a nice start here.
Bam Bam: How much are these?
Gizmo: These are about 10 bucks a cigar. You can get 'em. Wow. Between nine and 11.
Bam Bam: Very nice.
Gizmo: For this, this format for
Bam Bam: church. Nice. Six.
Gizmo: Yeah. For a box of 26. You're like in the two 30 range? Two 40.
Bam Bam: Wow. Wow. This is all around surprising. Price, performance, flavor, flavor.
Chef Ricky: Making something on the milder side. Much milder.
Rooster: So this has been out for a while.
Bam Bam: This has been out, I believe since 2011. It's been around for a long time.
Rooster: It's been,
Bam Bam: yeah. Yeah. Chef Whatcha getting on the retro?
You're [00:07:00] counting ceiling tile.
Senator: Do, do you have the Jeopardy music on your, uh, soundboard?
Bam Bam: Correct. We missed that opportunity. Dammit.
Chef Ricky: No, in interestingly enough, the retro's a little bit more punch it for me than the traditional draw, so I'm getting a little bit of white pepper.
Bam Bam: Yeah, me
Chef Ricky: too. And some like maybe nutmeg.
Bam Bam: Yep.
Chef Ricky: Um, so that, I was just surprised by that. Normally even if I control the retro and I get a, I'm able to get a really slow one. I could kind of cream it out. Mm-hmm.
Bam Bam: It's more cinnamon than nutmeg. Yeah. But definitely a little cinnamon, like a baking spice and a mm-hmm. And a white pepper for sure. On the retro.
Gizmo: We're off to a good start here, boys.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: So it's time while we let the cigars settle in. Everybody noticed Garone showed up tonight with this Saber
Bam Bam: correct.
Gizmo: And a chilled bottle of Paul Roge
Bam Bam: and no one's telling me what's going on or
Gizmo: me. So we are very excited because, uh, today,
Bam Bam: well, let's chef do the honors
Gizmo: Chef.
Go ahead. Tell uh, what's
Bam Bam: the
Gizmo: big news story? Tell, tell.
Bam Bam: Ah, fuck you [00:08:00]
Gizmo: tell, tell them why we're doing it
Chef Ricky: today. We're celebrating the Jet's first win. One in
Gizmo: seven,
Chef Ricky: baby.
Gizmo: Congratulations Ben.
Bam Bam: Thank you
Gizmo: more seriously, boys this week. Is the four year anniversary of the beginning of the podcast. The first episode came out
Bam Bam: really
Gizmo: November 10th, 2021.
So, wow. This episode will land in the four, four year range Wow. Of the podcast. So we didn't sare on episode 200, if you remember, because we had that really fancy bottle of Sir Winston, uh, Paul Roge, the very expensive bottle. So we didn't wanna waste a drop of that. So tonight I texted Senator and I said, you know what?
Let's, let's consider sing. And he, he thought it was a good idea. So that's fabulous. We're gonna do, so you, uh, celebrate four years here on the pod.
Bam Bam: There we go.
Gizmo: And then next year, I guess we'll be celebrating our five year anniversary. So maybe we should make that a big one. All right. There's the Sabre and the [00:09:00] tassel.
I see the tassel is out and about today.
Bam Bam: Very salton like.
Gizmo: Absolutely not near the computer.
Bam Bam: Not near. Bam. Bam.
Gizmo: This, bam, bam. Over computer.
Bam Bam: Can you tell me
Senator: this wall?
Gizmo: Perfect. Here we go.
Bam Bam: Wow. Look at that. Ooh, the necklace flowing. Well done. Beautiful.
Gizmo: Beautiful.
Bam Bam: That's cool, huh? I
Gizmo: every
Senator: time. Very clean. I mean, that was a golf shot. That was straight. I know. That was right. That was like a perfect drive down to, I mean,
Bam Bam: hit the screen
Senator: for the listener. We have a golf simulator behind us right now.
That's correct.
Gizmo: Great job. Yeah. That was awesome. Well done, Senator. Yep. Look, he even came prepared with paper towels to clean up the, there you go. The over spill there.
Chef Ricky: He's such a pro at this. He's like, he does. He's able to do it sitting down. Anyone else needs to stand up, get in the proper positioning.
He's just like behind the back. Alright,
Bam Bam: chef, pass my glass. Will you? He's
Rooster: done it before
Bam Bam: enough.
Rooster: I think [00:10:00] the floral notes of the cigar would probably compliment the champagne.
Bam Bam: Agreed.
Gizmo: I actually think this is actually gonna be a great pairing.
Rooster: Yeah.
Gizmo: Wait, this is tasting right now For sure. Hmm. And we're gonna get into, uh, raid tonight. We're gonna do a tequila, so we're gonna get to that in a little bit.
But we're gonna start with some champagne here.
Bam Bam: Nice.
Gizmo: Do a toast of four years. And we have a lot of stuff to get to tonight, boys.
Bam Bam: Lovely. I will say that this cigar, if you allow yourself, you'll go right through it very, very quickly. Yeah. Scientifically calibrating the pores, gentlemen.
Gizmo: Cheers. All right.
Cheers. Salute a little celebration tonight, boys to four years.
Senator: Cheers fellas.
Gizmo: Salute lounge lizards.
Bam Bam: Cheers. Cheers.
Gizmo: Cheers boys. Cheers to our lizard friends out there. Cheers, everybody.
Bam Bam: Cheers. Cheers.
Gizmo: Very nice little Paul Roge.
Oh, it's perfect. Every time.
Senator: Every time.
Gizmo: It's, it's perfect. Every time. [00:11:00]
Bam Bam: And that does pair beautifully.
Gizmo: Now I'm gonna take a draw right now. Oh yeah. That's actually very nice with it.
Bam Bam: It actually brings out the sweetness of a cigar. It does, right?
Gizmo: Yep.
Bam Bam: That's a beautiful pairing. I agree.
Gizmo: Total accident too.
Bam Bam: Unintended or total accident. That's an excellent pairing. Worth the pursuit actually at another time.
Chef Ricky: This is smoking delightfully.
Senator: Yeah. I'm just gonna say this cigar is awesome.
Chef Ricky: I agree.
Senator: Like you, you guys know I I really aggressively. Search for morning cigars. Yeah. Because I like to smoke throughout the day. This is a prime candidate.
Rooster: Totally
Senator: agreed.
Rooster: Yeah. But maybe not in this size.
Senator: No, not in this size.
Right. That was gonna be one of my questions. What, what other vitola do they make in this? Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: So this line comes in five vitola senators. So like we said, we have the [00:12:00] Imperials tonight, 47 by seven. They have a bellaco Fino 52 by five and a half. Ooh Coronas extra 46 by five and five eighths rib robusto extra 50 by five and a quarter, and a petite kaba igan 32 by four and a half.
Senator: Wow. I like that lineup. Yeah.
Gizmo: Yeah. It's a pretty cool lineup. I, I like the Bellaco fino. You never see that.
Bam Bam: That's beautiful
Gizmo: in a new world offering. Yeah. Obviously, you know this line named, uh, Kaba Igan, which is, it's a town out in Northern Santi Spiritist province in Cuba. So that name, that's where that comes from.
So that's what they're celebrating. And the whole idea here is that it's blended in the style of the flavorful, yet medium bodied Cuban cigars. So that's what Pete Johnson was going for here. This cigar, it was made in Nicaragua by Jaime Garcia, of course, at the My Father Cigar Factory.
Bam Bam: I'm just shocked how good this is.
Gizmo: Me too.
Rooster: How do you get this medium flavor out of [00:13:00] Nicaragua and tobacco is, I don't, I don't get that.
Gizmo: And you know what? Here's my bigger que I'll, I'll piggyback on that. How come we can't get an InBetween of this in the rest of the TAA cigars? We've smoked. Like why has there not been a,
Bam Bam: it's like
Gizmo: a middle ground.
It's like, yeah, we're on, we're on po. It's either breakfast or it's pepper bomb at night.
Bam Bam: Late. Late evening. Yeah.
Gizmo: And is it, does everybody share that sentiment?
Bam Bam: Agreed. Yeah.
Gizmo: Like, I feel like this is showing us that there is opportunity for
Bam Bam: mm-hmm.
Gizmo: A middle ground. If that means bringing in Honduran or Dominican tobacco, I, I would like to see that.
Bam Bam: Yeah. At 10 bucks or less. I think this is worth pursuing right now.
Senator: I'm actually curious on the Vilas, did this specific Vila get recommended?
Gizmo: This specific Vila was recommended by Matt, who's, uh, helped us out. He hooked us up with the stoics before, so he recommended these to us. So I've had these in the humidor now for like three or four weeks, and they've been dry boxing, I think for [00:14:00] two or one and a half.
Bam Bam: You know, they are soft.
Gizmo: They're definitely soft.
Bam Bam: They're not smoking wet.
Gizmo: No. I mean they're definitely not wet. I just think they're lightly filled.
Bam Bam: Yeah, it's unusual.
Rooster: The construction is pretty good.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It's surprising Ashe
Chef Ricky: is holding
Bam Bam: on, which is shocking for such a lightly filled cigar.
Chef Ricky: Do you think the density of of its packing has a lot to do with how much strength we're getting?
Maybe?
Gizmo: I think it's all factoring in. I would also think if you's the Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I think it's the blend, but I think if you're also smoke through this too quickly, I think it's gonna perform a lot differently.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: Than it is right now.
Bam Bam: So other than a morning or daytime smoke, where else would you slot this, if anywhere else?
Gizmo: This is pretty early in the evening for me, I would think. Mm-hmm. I would almost put this right now. Right now, before. Honduran, the Hondu cigars that we're smoking
Bam Bam: this. Yeah. As likely is your first cigar.
Gizmo: Yeah. I think this is lighter than,
Bam Bam: it's a
Gizmo: nice way, way to start any of the URA stuff. Start the fabric of five stuff.
Bam Bam: Right.
Senator: I'm sorry, I just, this is so delicious. I'm getting a [00:15:00] ton of salt now.
Bam Bam: Mm.
Senator: I, I'm, oh man.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Senator: This, I, I told you there was, um, there was uh, an Aino Connecticut cigar I had, uh, earlier this year that had a very similar profile to this. And the problem was in all the other olas, it tastes nothing quite like the one that I had tried.
Gizmo: You tried the Rothschild,
Senator: right? I did. And that only comes in a sampler. They make no boxes of it in any other ol It's really annoying. Um, but, um, this is like that, but on steroids. I love this flavor profile.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Senator: Creamy. There's even a buttery nest. Like
Bam Bam: it's buttery
Senator: toast. Bread's
Bam Bam: salted butter.
Senator: Yeah.
Bam Bam: And roasted cashews.
That's, that's what I'm getting
Senator: Spot. And like a bready quality
Bam Bam: or doy type thing. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: You know, bam said it earlier with the Honduran. This is very Cuban esque and very Honduran like. I, I, I can't believe especially for this price point [00:16:00] and everything, you know, every direction that we know that Cuba cube is heading in, this is an insane steal.
This is exciting to find this and gives me some hope
Senator: and I'm impressed. I mean, the intentionality on their part, like to name this after somewhere in Cuba to say they're going for that. How many brands say they're trying to do something Cuban esque and it's a total flop.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Senator: This is spot on.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Rooster: true.
I'm just surprised it took us 11 years or 12 years to find this.
Senator: Yeah.
Rooster: How could we never
Bam Bam: let, let me ask you guys a question. So. What Cuban cigar smokes similarly to the, what we're smoking
today.
Senator: I have one right off the bat.
Bam Bam: What is it?
Senator: Fundee.
Gizmo: Oh, it's the first thing I thought of.
Bam Bam: You know what? That's pretty damn good.
It's
Gizmo: like a fundee.
Bam Bam: That's pretty damn good.
Gizmo: It does have that, that profile. It does. It's, it's like a sister to that
Bam Bam: because the fundees are very mild and they're understated in flavor. And I think that's what this is.
Senator: And there's [00:17:00] like a saltiness Yes. With a little sweetness. Correct. And the creaminess always there.
Bam Bam: So one that's one for sure.
Gizmo: Just got the salted cashew bomb. Holy
Bam Bam: shit. Yeah. Yeah.
Senator: Amazing.
Gizmo: Wow. I think Trinidad actually, I think if you stay in Trinidad, like if you think about the Esmeralda mm-hmm. Or the colonial, I think, I think there's, colonial has a little
Rooster: more own
Bam Bam: height. I agree with Brewster. There.
There's more pungency to it. There's more of a, um, salty and savory for me in that than I'm getting here.
Rooster: Yeah.
Bam Bam: But I think the Fundee is pretty damn, damn close. I
Rooster: think the floral notes maybe have something out of the luck. Gloria line,
Bam Bam: maybe
Rooster: luck, Gloria,
Bam Bam: Ana. Those also have more punch as far as flavor is concerned.
It's tough. That's probably, I don't know, honestly, that's probably the only goddamn Cuban that you can compare right now. It's uncanny.
Senator: That's the only thing that came
to
Bam Bam: mind. Honestly.
Rooster: It's pretty wild. I can't believe this is a taua.
Bam Bam: I know.
Rooster: I would've never guessed. This is a Nicaragua and Tobacco
Bam Bam: same.
Mm-hmm. [00:18:00]
Senator: I mean, this holds all the way through. Uh. Tua has,
Bam Bam: they're so
Senator: back.
Bam Bam: They resurrected
Senator: themselves. They have, this is gonna be a redemption tour for Tua.
Rooster: Bring back the bushel paper.
Senator: Oh Jesus. Just for Rooster
Gizmo: Loma
Senator: Desto. Who doesn't eat meat?
Gizmo: Alright boys. So let's go into some news here. We're gonna start with some interesting news out of Nicaragua, well outta the United States about Nicaragua.
We did talk about this on the chat. I wanted to bring this up here 'cause I think it's pretty wild. The Trump administration has threatened 100% tariffs on Nicaragua imports to the United States. Why? So? The reason why is because Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Marillo, uh, have been accused of human rights abuses in the dismantling of the rule of law in the country.
So this president. And and credit to a cigar. Fido here. [00:19:00] He served as Nicaragua's president from 1985 to 1990. Became president again in 2007, 18 years ago. And earlier this year, the constitution was amended and the president named his wife as the co-president of the country. So it seems like things aren't too good in Nicaragua right now, but being that we're looking at a near 60% share of all of the imports of cigars coming into this country, or Nicaragua, we're talking about a significant amount of the cigars on our shelves,
Bam Bam: of course,
Gizmo: would be seriously impacted by a 100% tariff.
Bam Bam: And our favorite, of course.
Gizmo: Of course, Pedro is definitely in there. I mean, we're talking about. A lot of brands. A lot of brands, and a lot of cigars. So if we think about a hundred percent tariffs, we're talking about the wholesale price of cigars. So I guess generally as a rule, if we're paying, you know, if you're paying $15 at the retailer before tax for a cigar, you can assume it was seven 50 wholesale, right?
I mean, [00:20:00] let's just pretty simple math. So that would effectively double that wholesale to 15. Now, for that retailer to make money on that cigar, they have to go to 2250 to maintain the exact same margin or up to 30 bucks.
Bam Bam: You're paying Canadian prices now,
Senator: can't wait for $30 x placebo.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: I mean, this seems like a pretty likely scenario right now.
Senator Wright, I mean, this is, this is very real.
Senator: I mean, it's hard to say likely with anything in this administration, but it's not
Rooster: good. I mean, he is still negotiating with China. It's been, it's been two years now. I. But it's not done yet. Right? It's not a done deal.
Gizmo: It's not done. I guess this was just what was recommended because of what's going on over there, and I guess they really wanna punish them.
But you're talking about Perdomo, you're talking about AJ Fernandez, drew, a state, Padron, Oliva, uh, of course my father, Rocky Patel, Placencia, JC Newman, general Cigar. So many others.
Senator: I mean, this, this, the most concerning part of it is, [00:21:00] you know, the way Washington works when members of Congress, when anyone in the White House does not.
Use or consume a certain product, there is no regard given to the impact that's going to have. I always use the example of, like, we always say, I can't believe our train system is such a disaster here. Look at Europe's and Asia's train system. That's because no member of congress gets DC on a train.
Correct. They all fly.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Senator: And that's why they, they've expanded routes and or at least air, you know, uh, travel has been, you know, relatively, uh, decent now with Nicaragua. I mean, we know the president doesn't. Drink or smoke.
Rooster: Yeah. Care less.
Senator: That's why you look at all the impacts tariffs have had in the liquor and spirits industry, and now, uh, in the cigar industry, there's not enough members of Congress who smoke cigars for this to ever be a legitimate enough concern.
Mm-hmm. And so that's the scary part, is like there's no [00:22:00] authoritative brake pedal for something like this in terms of the impact that it could have. So that's just what worries me. That, you know, I certainly hope it's not a hundred percent, you know, most of the time he's come out with something ridiculous and then has to kind of walk it back, but it, it's gonna be something.
Gizmo: And I would think with Nicaragua, I don't know how much of an incentive there is for us to back down from it. It's not like we're, you know, relying on them for major things or, or serious pieces of our, our import business. I mean,
Senator: correct. Well, we are, but the president's not.
Gizmo: Yeah, of course.
Senator: That's right.
Gizmo: Well, cigars of course, but I'm saying generally as the United States of America, I mean mm-hmm. I don't know. It doesn't look good. So, uh, we could see a major price increase coming in. And you know what's, you know what's tough too for the manufacturers importing these cigars. Is the amount of work that that causes dealing with these tariffs, implementing them, passing those costs down, you know, costing that out across their, you know, their, their, their supply chain.
I mean, it's gonna be a really difficult thing,
Rooster: but you know what I, I mean I, this is just, it's [00:23:00] just a guess, but like, what's to say? Like if Padron moves their rolling to Dr but grows tobacco in Nicaragua, brings the tobacco to dr, and now the cigars are made in Dr
Bam Bam: and shipped
Rooster: outta DR and, and shipped outta dr
Senator: The cost and time it would take to completely shift.
That would be huge.
Bam Bam: Logistics and mobilization.
Senator: That's what
Rooster: I said. Cost and time.
Bam Bam: Yeah, you said time. Yeah. It's huge. Tremendous, tremendous.
Rooster: Well, or employ another factory to roll their cigars.
Senator: They're not gonna do that.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Rooster: they're patron
Senator: drone.
Rooster: Yeah. It's not good.
Bam Bam: We are their, we are their biggest market though, here, right?
United States. Oh, for sure. Patron drone's. Largest market for sure.
Senator: But that's just what makes me sad about this. It's like. You think about what a disadvantage that all these Nicaraguan brands are gonna be at versus, you know, brands that are manufacturing in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, or other places.
I mean, it, it, it's, it's not a level playing field. Like they're really screwed. I, I can't imagine if you're padron and you're saying, now I have to [00:24:00] charge $30 for cigar. That used to be 15, but Fuente can still charge 15 for the same class of cigar. I mean, that's a huge problem.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: It changes the entire competitive landscape, entire retail landscape.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I don't know how insane of an idea that is though. What per drone's making what? 9 million cigars a year? Something like that. They're on a smaller scale compared to many of the other big guys. Is it conceivable that he can move his finishing operations, let's say to Dr.
Gizmo: Somewhere else talking significant amount of Yeah.
Labor. Tons of time. Yeah. And time. I mean,
Bam Bam: yeah,
Gizmo: it's not worth it. You have to ride it out. So it's not great boys, what's going on with Nicaragua and the tariffs? And I'll, I'll hit you with another one here that I saw again. Uh, kudos to cigar, Fido, and Half wheel for covering this stuff. This one coming from cigar Fido.
More generational tobacco bans have hit in both California and Massachusetts. You're gonna love this one. So, a few weeks ago in Tiburon, California, the town council [00:25:00] unanimously approved an ordinance that will completely ban the sale of cigars and products made with tobacco or containing nicotine in the city to all citizens, regardless of age.
Takes effect on December 5th next month.
Bam Bam: What's the, what's the population of Tiburon?
Gizmo: 9,000
Bam Bam: Tiny little town. Great.
Gizmo: So the legislation was prompted by a local advocacy group. Of high school students. So high school students rallied and got nicotine and tobacco banned for the entire,
Senator: send the National Guard to Tiburon.
Bam Bam: Yeah, 9,000 people, you can kind of round them up in like an hour.
Senator: I mean, this is ridiculous.
Gizmo: So now they are trying to do, the same group is trying to do the same thing in the nearby town of Ross, California. So that's unfortunate. And then in South Hadley, Massachusetts, the Board of Health voted to implement a generational tobacco ban in the city.
Meaning anyone born on or after. January 1st, 2005, won't be permitted to purchase tobacco products in that town ever.
Senator: [00:26:00] Hmm. Which is that Massachusetts copycat.
Gizmo: So it's the copycat thing is happening. That's why I bring this up again, is it, it's not about the 9,000 there, the 2000 here. It's that it's spreading.
Senator: Yeah. It's a domino effect.
Gizmo: Yeah. It's a slow, yeah. It's a domino.
Senator: Massachusetts slow wildfire started this, and now all these other crazy places are following suit.
Gizmo: Yeah. So it's, uh, it's a worrying thing because, you know, if, if it takes a couple years, fine. But if states get to the point where they keep doing this, obviously, you know, California has that UTL that we talked about, I think last week or a couple weeks ago.
That new implementation of, uh, you know, you have to file and it's $300 per vital, you have to send a box of cigar. Mm-hmm. You know, it, it's a lot of work and a lot of effort and a lot of money. That's a huge expense. Now you're piling on these generational, or in, in this case of tiberon, like you're just banning it for everybody.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Gizmo: I mean it's, it's just a wild, it's wild behavior to me to, to. Try to control what adults are able to do,
Senator: especially given all the problems that we have as a society.
Gizmo: Oh yeah.
Senator: This is what these [00:27:00] idiots are focused on. Unbelievable. That's the most shocking part of this to me.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Why don't we focus on something actually serious for crying out loud.
Gizmo: So boys, it's time to move to our pairing. And I planned ahead because UBA was supposed to be here tonight. And I said to chef, I said, we need to have an agave tonight. I wanted to bring an agave and it's been a couple weeks, so I grabbed the G four in Reposado
Senator: pus, Gulfstream. Never landed,
Bam Bam: always gotta have the G four on hand, boys.
Oh yeah. So,
Gizmo: so we do have the G four REPOSADO tonight and uh, we were debating if it was gonna fit well with this cigar and based on what I've tasted so far in the first third,
Bam Bam: yeah.
Gizmo: Pretty happy with it. Cheers. Cheers boys.
Bam Bam: Cheers.
Gizmo: Cheers. Again, to four years. Hmm.
Great tequila.
Bam Bam: Oh,
Chef Ricky: phenomenal pairing.
Bam Bam: Fabulous pairing.
Chef Ricky: Shit.
Bam Bam: That is so good. [00:28:00] That is who came up with this
Gizmo: uba. Yeah. Correct.
Bam Bam: Thanks,
Gizmo: UBA.
Bam Bam: Wow.
Gizmo: I'm actually disappointed that poop's not here tonight because I think he would really enjoy the cigar. And of course this tequila and champagne.
Bam Bam: It's interesting.
Gizmo: Great celebration.
Bam Bam: So the champagne brought the sweetness out in a scar. The is bringing that salty twang out of the cigar for me. Um, yeah. Some
Chef Ricky: of that minerality.
Bam Bam: Yes. Um, a little saltiness. And it's actually a more of a nuttier experience with the smoke after the tequila. Mm-hmm. Very, very good.
Rooster: When you said you get nut, but you get a toasted nut.
That's what you get from this ci car.
Bam Bam: Toasted, cashew.
Rooster: Toasted, cashew.
Bam Bam: Cashew. For me specifically.
Rooster: Yeah. Yeah.
Bam Bam: And the retro and the finish on this is, honestly, it's, there is a little dry fruit going on there on the finish. Play the hit Bim. Yeah, go ahead. Don't,
don't
Bam Bam: feel bad. A little, A little apr. I don't. A little apricot.
Chef Ricky: Yes.
Bam Bam: In the background. Yes. Like it's really, this is quite
Chef Ricky: especially on the burn line.
Bam Bam: What the hell is going on [00:29:00] here with the cigar?
Chef Ricky: So delicious. Fucking cigar.
Bam Bam: What are we doing?
Chef Ricky: Oh, I
Senator: can't wait till we rate this cigar.
Chef Ricky: I kept taking in the burn line. Anybody
Senator: screws this one up? I swear
Bam Bam: you're gonna have one tomorrow morning on your patio.
That's right.
Chef Ricky: Now we still have a ways to go on here. Right. But I don't know that it's gonna. Turn for the worse here. Just, I've never been more
Senator: optimistic
Chef Ricky: than I am right
Senator: now
Bam Bam: about this ci ci. I'm just tempted to continue smoking this thing. It's hard to, hard to slow down.
Gizmo: Just for a second, let's go back to the tequila.
What, how's this repasado hitting you as a, as a tequila pairing to the cigar? We said it's, it's pairing well with the cigar, but Beautiful. What do you think of it for its price at $46?
Bam Bam: I think it's an excellent price. It's very botanical for me. Um, there's a little brineness and the finish. Hold on.
Senator: It's only 46.
Gizmo: 46
Senator: I got. Yeah. Honestly, I think the price point is a steal. Wow.
Bam Bam: There is a touch of sweetness that I can't put my finger on.
Chef Ricky: It's a very light for me. It's light. Very light vanilla. Very,
Bam Bam: yeah, that
Chef Ricky: very, there's a light vanilla there. I think that's coming from the oak. [00:30:00] G four is really known for, yeah. PR like Fort Dissa in this sense, they produce a tequila that even though their, you know, their age expressions are in oak barrels, they age 'em to the point where the agave still comes forward.
And I think here what we're really enjoying is the fact that there's a lot of that minerality, saltiness, um, and it's just the right amount of oak where it's not taking it into another direction.
Bam Bam: It's not overly mineral mineral though.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah. It's just enough. It's enough. It's not, yeah, it's just enough.
Nothing about it is forced.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Chef Ricky: It all feels just right. Um,
Bam Bam: and a great price.
Chef Ricky: And again man, this is that this is, uh, come in your lineage. This is Felipe Nia and his sons. That's why it's G four four. Four generations. Um, great, great.
Bam Bam: G four Love
Chef Ricky: 14. Correct.
Senator: I mean, the other thing, I think the flavor notes have definitely been hit on, uh, just in terms of the like structure of this.
This is so smooth.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Senator: It really is [00:31:00] so easy drinking. I mean, I remember first time's I tried the G four Blanco. I'm like, this has to be one of the smoothest tequilas, let alone blancos. I've ever had the same thing with this, which when you have a cigar like we're having, that's so Cuban esque. It's milder in flavor.
It, it, it in no way overpowers a cigar. Like I would pair this with
Bam Bam: almost any Cuban.
Chef Ricky: Exactly.
Bam Bam: It's very complimentary and without a chip of ice.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. And there's this, the slightest amount of pepper that makes it pleasant and it pairs extremely well with the cigar as well.
Bam Bam: You know, I haven't dived into the G four products enough.
Senator: I don't know why I always thought that G four was like on the more expensive end of tequila's. Me too. I can't believe how affordable this is. 40 something dollars. I, I
Gizmo: got it
Senator: for 46 today.
Bam Bam: Are they all priced similarly? Yeah. In this range?
Senator: Yeah.
Bam Bam: I had the same assumption.
Gizmo: I think might
Bam Bam: be 60 to 60.
Gizmo: 60 something.
Bam Bam: Yeah. That's cheap.
Gizmo: I, I have seen this repo for like 56 as well. I still think [00:32:00] that's a great price. It's still well
Senator: worth it.
Yeah,
Gizmo: but I got it for 46
Bam Bam: today. I had the same assumption.
Gizmo: So Blanco's gotta be less,
Senator: I would think
Bam Bam: maybe
Senator: low
Bam Bam: forties. That's probably 42.
Senator: I mean, that's nuts. That's crazy. We've all said that's one of the best blancos we've ever had.
It's true. 40 something. Geez. What a steal.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Too bad poop's not here.
Chef Ricky: And it goes great with the champagne too.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Oh, you can, it's
Gizmo: honestly, it's great to you go back and forth and forth. It's so true.
Bam Bam: A hundred percent true.
Gizmo: So boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the Cabo Igan.
Imperials from Tahe.
Rooster: Geez. $10 charge shield. Man. How could you go wrong?
Gizmo: We're $3 and 33 cents into this.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I mean, it's pretty awesome.
Bam Bam: I'm ready to inhale this thing
Chef Ricky: a $10 Churchill with Cuban notes. I mean, come on. And bam, your, your apr or apricot call as you, as you on the end. It is even on the burn line.
Bam Bam: Yeah. A little bit
Chef Ricky: on the burn line. It's so on the burn line. It
Bam Bam: is
Senator: spot
Bam Bam: on.
Chef Ricky: Holy cow,
Bam Bam: man. I get that on a finish of my, of my draw. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Such an intoxicating cigar. [00:33:00] It's,
Bam Bam: that's a great word. Intoxicating when you envelop yourself in this smoke from this cigar.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Bam Bam: It's quite the
Gizmo: experience. I just can't believe that we have a $10 cigar in our hand that at this point, right.
We're making assumptions that it's gonna continue on. It's killing it right now, but. You know, at this point it is such an effortless, easy smoke. It smokes like what you'd expect a Sir Winston to smoke like, or, or you know, a lucit or like any large format cigar
Rooster: just compared it to an $80 fund. Doris
Gizmo: the fund.
Doris, but
Bam Bam: I would actually, the Sir Winston, maybe the 8, 9, 8. I know the eight nine eight's got a bigger punch, but. It's kind of in that realm.
Gizmo: But I'm not talking about flavor per se. I'm talking about your expectation when you pick up that cigar, what you wanna feel when you're smoking it. Well, that's what I feel right now.
I feel very relaxed. Yes. It feels elegant. It's easy.
Bam Bam: Good points.
Chef Ricky: And
Gizmo: there's, I'm able to focus on the conversation. Very
Bam Bam: good points.
Chef Ricky: And there's so much going on here. I know we're calling out Aico and some baking [00:34:00] spice here and there. And cashew. Toasted. Cashew. But there's, there's a, there's a, A chewiness.
A A A A creaminess. A meatiness to the smoke in your mouth that I, just looking at the cigar, I wouldn't think it would give me,
Bam Bam: what's that cereal with the tiger on it?
Chef Ricky: Frost Frosts
Bam Bam: Flakes. Frosted Flakes. So I haven't had that since I was a kid.
Chef Ricky: Oh man.
Bam Bam: That
Chef Ricky: used to be one of my favorites.
Bam Bam: Me too. But that sweet car carbohydrate.
Please don't
Senator: compare this to Frosted
Bam Bam: Flakes. I, I'm getting a little bit of a sweet carb of some kind and it's, and it's, and a little cream. So kind of,
Chef Ricky: I was gonna say, it's not so much the cereal, but it's
Bam Bam: the, I it's not that crazy, but it's the net. That idea.
Chef Ricky: It's the milk. It's
Bam Bam: the milk. It's a little milk after
Chef Ricky: the
Bam Bam: cereal's.
A little. Yeah. I've
Senator: gotta give it to you.
Bam Bam: You had
Gizmo: that
Senator: Tony the tiger.
Gizmo: They're great. You still love
Senator: them? I, I have to give bam credit. Your, your notes have been on point tonight because [00:35:00] I
appreciate
Senator: you
Gizmo: boys.
Senator: Even the Frosted Flakes call out as much as my reaction was. Frosted Flakes is just, you know, a cheap cereal, like to compare a cigar that feels so elegant and refined.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Senator: But I've now, after taking a few draws since you said that, I do legitimately
Bam Bam: no. Peer
Senator: pressure reminds me of, you know, childhood days. Like there there is a parallel there.
Bam Bam: Sweet cereal of some
Senator: kind. Oh, it's true.
Bam Bam: So strange.
Gizmo: This is really impressive, man.
Bam Bam: It's crazy.
Senator: Can't believe it for 10 bucks.
Bam Bam: Great recommendation.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I'm, I'm
Bam Bam: all in on whatever this guy recommends.
Gizmo: Yeah. He's killed it so far. Mm-hmm. He's doing
a
Gizmo: great job.
Senator: I mean, to your point about how effortless this smoke is and the experience, it's like I've had a very long day. This is completely turned around my day.
Gizmo: Yeah, absolutely
Senator: agree.
And I never thought that a $10 UA could ever possibly do that.
Gizmo: Can I just go back to when I, when you asked me this morning, what we were smoking tonight, [00:36:00] lemme just
Bam Bam: Oh, please read that out loud.
Gizmo: Lemme just, lemme just quickly read Senator's response. So he goes. Giz, what are we smoking and drinking tonight?
As I said, the Kaba, IGU, Imperials and an undecided tequila reposado. I'll work with chef to pick and he goes, WTF Is that cigar?
Bam Bam: It's a revelation
Senator: be. I know you were thinking this thing. It
Bam Bam: was I and I,
Rooster: by the way, why do you think I didn't put it up until you asked?
Bam Bam: That's correct.
Rooster: Well, this is why we do this podcast. I mean, you just never know. Sometimes you smoke a cigar that's so hyped up and it rates a six. Yeah,
Bam Bam: yeah.
Rooster: And this cigar we knew nothing about.
And it's a home run.
Bam Bam: Yeah, you can
Rooster: probably, it's delicious.
Bam Bam: You probably able to get this less online someplace if you look around. It's such a deal.
Rooster: I don't care. I mean even at, even at a $20 price point. This is a,
Bam Bam: I agree with you. Yeah.
Rooster: This is an excellent, I agree.
Bam Bam: A Churchill. 'cause what Senator and GIZ both said [00:37:00] really hit spot on.
It's, it's got a relaxing, calming effect because it's so effortless and delicious and creamy and you kind of get lost in the smoke and you forget about. Your day.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Bam Bam: There's a beauty there.
Chef Ricky: I had an it's amazing, insanely insane day today. Yeah. We know. And I feel like I'm on vacation.
Bam Bam: Mm.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Gizmo: It's amazing how when we have these moments on the podcast, and I'm glad it's happening today with the sing and all that stuff to, we can reflect on it, but when we have these moments, it's amazing how we can all like lock in and it's like everybody's moving at the same speed.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Gizmo: Like a, like a G four through the clouds, you know, like a Gulf Stream.
Bam Bam: Yep.
Gizmo: You know, like it's, it's really wild. And of course for you guys uplifting your day, it's a great thing.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It's awesome.
Gizmo: It's obviously why we do this, but again, I can't get over that. This is a $10 cigar. It's
Bam Bam: insane.
Rooster: Crazy. I just can't get over that.
This is Nicaragua and tobacco beer. You are smoking. I
Bam Bam: know. That's also true. Yeah.
Rooster: I don't get that. I mean, how, how can Nicaraguan tobacco smoke like this?
Bam Bam: Chef you fighting some e coli today.[00:38:00]
You deserve that. Oh boy.
Gizmo: So boys, let's get to some listener feedback. We have two episodes of feedback I wanna get through. There were some great comments. On the timepiece discussion that we had a few weeks ago on our Romeo Julietta Diano episode, we did the Planter Rum and we talked about watches quite a bit.
And uh, it was a big hit. I learned a lot. I actually got hyped for watches. I know that you guys were actually talking about, you know, time pieces before we started today. So let me read some feedback. I bought a Rolex band from my Apple Watch. Oh, nice.
Bam Bam: Was it a jubilee?
Gizmo: How many, how many Ls in Rolex? So this is from user Tom's Ribs two 10.
He says, this was another Stella episode of the Lounge Blizzards, and it's always great whenever they dunk on a bad cigar. That was not a great cigar. The episode was like waking up fully rested while on vacation. All of the family's still asleep. You amble out quietly, slip on the hotel robe, grab a blanket, step out onto the balcony, steaming coffee in hand, and look out onto the morning's horizon [00:39:00] and breathing the crisp dawn air, the joy one feels when Gizmo finally gets a pronunciation connect.
Correct. Cool,
Senator: that's so cool.
Gizmo: Fresh net, if you remember, that was the Fresh Net episode,
Senator: correct?
Gizmo: I still am excited about that, Senator. So the cigar shoulder said what?
Senator: I said, you should be
Gizmo: the cigar Soldiers said Great episode. It always, as always, only downside this week was the combo was a total swing and a miss.
Thank you all for being sacrificial lambs and saving me money. I found the watch commentary very interesting. The question was posed to Senator what he'd recommend for a beginner or younger professional just starting out in their careers, looking to get in the luxury watch space, uh, to which he suggested an Omega or a Rolex.
Both are phenomenal options and I concur with his take on everything. However, I thought I'd offer a couple options. That are in a more feasible price range if you're in your twenties.
Senator: I did give that as well. I said ti so ti so
Gizmo: I'll preface that these will be a notch below the luxury level he's talking about, but still Swiss with ex uh, exceptional quality with a military background [00:40:00] cigar, soldier.
Of course I have always loved pilots and divers watches. So does Bam. When he is diving in the Gulf of Cancun wasn't or Seacaucus. Yes.
Bam Bam: Yes. Diving deep over there, man.
Gizmo: I received the marathon 40.
Senator: Oh my gosh.
Gizmo: I received a marathon, 46 millimeter CSAR as a gift from my last unit when I left, and I wear it weekly. Long Gys also has e longness Long.
Senator: Okay, here's where it completely off,
Gizmo: bitch.
Senator: I gotta get a long,
Rooster: dammit. The, the Lochness monster.
Senator: Fuck you did that on purpose, right? No, I
Gizmo: swear to God I did.
Oh my Lord. I swear to God I didn't man
Senator: long jeans.
Gizmo: I gen long
Senator: jeans.
Gizmo: What is it? How do you pronounce it? Long, long
Rooster: jeans.
Senator: Long jeans.
Gizmo: How do you pronounce it?
Senator: Long jeans.
Gizmo: Long jeans, long jeans. It also makes an affordable piece with great quality in that 1000 to $3,500 [00:41:00] price range. Hamilton comes even more base level, anywhere from 500 to 2000.
I understand a lot of these options are not done in-house like Omega Rolex or ap, but that's the trade off to get a taste of a great watch and an approachable price point before sinking eight grand into a new hobby. Just my 2 cents. Curious to hear what others think on the topic.
Senator: So I'm just gonna say that is a fantastic call out.
Yeah, it's cool. By Cigar Soldier you
Gizmo: said? Yeah. The Cigar Soldier, great guy. He had the voice memo last week. If you He's the man. He's the man.
Senator: Long Jeans is another one where like the value proposition is off the charts. I remember, um, lizard Ryan, uh, uh, one of the members at our lounge here, he had bought.
A long jeans perpetual calendar, which for the uninitiated and kind of the watch hobby, a perpetual calendar is one of the most complicated movements that has ever been made in that it can tell you the date, the [00:42:00] day of the week, the time and the year forever in perpetuity.
Gizmo: Wow.
Senator: Like it will never hit a point at which it is not able to continue to tell you that.
It's crazy.
Gizmo: Wow. So you never have to correct it for like a leap year or anything like that.
Senator: All of it. It's able to handle it. It's crazy. It's mechanical watch.
Gizmo: Wow.
Senator: Now a perpetual calendar in any of the high-end, you know, uh, watch brands is you're talking a
Rooster: hundred grand.
Senator: Minimum 60, 60, 70, minimum 60,000.
Like crazy money. He had purchased this long jeans perpetual calendar. I think it was like $4,000.
Bam Bam: Wow.
Senator: And if you looked at it now, again, like cigar shoulder is saying it's not a in-house movement, but at that value, $4,000 for a mechanical perpetual calendar that actually looked nice, looked much higher than its price [00:43:00] point.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm.
Senator: There's a lot of value in long jeans. So that's a really, really good call out.
Bam Bam: I will say they do make beautiful time pieces. They've got a lot of options and some of them are so beautifully designed.
Rooster: You know, bell and Ross is another one
Bam Bam: that's, that's also true. I've heard that now through into
Rooster: like military type time pieces.
Mms
Gizmo: true.
Bam Bam: They're cool.
Gizmo: So we'll continue on Lizard. John and Cleveland said, the lizards asked what our everyday watches. I wear a Jager. Son of a bitch. Oh,
Senator: this is great
Gizmo: Jager.
Senator: Let's hear it. No, no, let's hear it.
Gizmo: Jager. Lara la cult. Jager Lara. Master Control.
Bam Bam: All right.
Senator: All right. That was not bad.
Gizmo: Oh, and he says, I'm only adding this to here.
Gives pronounced Jager la I wish I should have read this. I swear to God I
Senator: didn't. I'm gonna be kind and give you an assist. They A, you can abbreviate and say JLC.
Gizmo: JLC. Perfect. Here's another one from Jay Dowdy. He says, my everyday watch is a, is a cell phone. It does everything a watch does and much more.
There's not, there's [00:44:00] absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a nice watch or anything else in life that you can genuinely, genuinely take pleasure in. If you like a thing and you wanna collect or wear it, that's cool. And I respect it. I just can't see the use of a fancy one for myself. I do have one of those satellite risk tracker units that are good when hunting in remote areas without signal and consider that to be well worth the investment and the carry weight.
You guys don't have one of those
Senator: satellite risk tracker. That's ridiculous.
Gizmo: I'm, well, I guess when you're hunting, that's good to have if you get lost Yeah. And something happens to you. You know,
Chef Ricky: I'm actually surprised none of us are hunters.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Maybe is, um, is Grindr a hunter?
Gizmo: Don't know. No, no
Chef Ricky: he's not.
Bam Bam: Uh, poopa shoots birds.
Chef Ricky: I thought you Pennsylvania boy does for sure.
Bam Bam: He kills birds.
Gizmo: Ske. Shoot.
Chef Ricky: That's right. Chickens don't come. Right.
Gizmo: So Ny Guido says, great episode though. I think they picked the wrong vitola here. So we picked the deis. So you were talking I think Rooster Noble about the Nobles. Yeah. As being the right choice.
[00:45:00] I've been smoking through a box of nobles and they've been delightful. Floral, tasty, great burn. Sure. They're not worth the price per se, but I needed a quote, age box of something to start my collection and picked up a 2020 box for a bit of a discount on a trusted site. I think they may just not love the RYJ profile, which is totally fine.
I think that's generally true. Mm-hmm. But we have had some success there. We love the Churchill. We had like, we actually came into that Denis review. It had been five weeks since we did one on this podcast. Hopeful. A Cuban, we were hopeful. We were very, very optimistic and hopeful. Correct. You know, so he says his daily driver is a Brightling Avenger, GMT, but he also has a few others.
Crown jewel of my collection is a Parmesan Fluer TDA PF annual calendar. Does that sound right, Senator? Did I say that correctly?
Bam Bam: I've heard of the maker. I don't know much. Their
Senator: chicken parm is
Gizmo: chicken Parmesan. Looking forward to smoking. Along with the guys on next week's episode, any NYC members who wanna meet up somewhere and smoke and listen together, let me [00:46:00] know.
So if anybody wants to, uh, get together in New York City and smoke and listen. With NY Guido, uh, give him a shout. So that was some great feedback there on that episode. We really appreciate, uh, everybody chiming in. They're there on FOH and I have another one for you. So we had two episodes that I haven't gone over.
This one is some commentary on the stoic equanimity, and then we'll get into some emails in a bit. I have some bunch of stuff to get through today. So obviously on this one we did the, uh, equanimity. We did the Macallan double Cask. I don't think Senator was here for this episode. So the first comments from NY Guido, he said, holy hell, I want Lizard of the Week.
So we just heard from Lizard Guido and that other thread. He said, I'm buzzing, right? I'm freaking buzzing right now. Absolutely stoked, honored, and just completely thrilled. Thank you so much, lizard Gizmo, and all of the lounge lizards. Fantastic episode. As always. I so enjoyed the discussion with Vance Taylor and I'm looking forward to trying.
The equanimity once I finish my pallet recovery journey in about a week. Obviously we talked about that on the podcast. Thrilled to see another independent cigar maker doing [00:47:00] so well and putting out such fantastic products. Hamlet, Rob and the Fab Five team have some company in the kickass, accessibly priced cigar market.
Which I think is wonderful for all of us smokers. I think that's a great comment. Here's another one, listening now with a Nudie Churchill while processing acorns and sipping some Elijah Craig Barrel proof. Good combo all around. I'll have to try that cigar. They're praising for sure though. There's already too many damn sticks on my want to taste list while my humidors are piled high.
Bam Bam: Is he making a corn pie?
Gizmo: I don't know. Maybe this one is from lizard. Brett, I wanted to share this comment. So this is, uh, going back to the prison Labor news. I thought this was a great comment. He says, I've shared some of my thoughts on this elsewhere on the forum on FOH, but I'd like to directly respond to the lizards request for listener feedback on the Prism Labor News.
I dramatically slowed my Cuban cigar acquisition in 2023, and my latest box code is a November 20, 23 box of Monte four, which is one of a handful of cigars. I was prepared to continue buying. Even at [00:48:00] today's absurd prices, because they're so central to my core rotation, no more if any of my box codes overlapped with the alleged force labor they'd be headed to Bon Roberts.
Haos has already sapped much of the enjoyment from cubit cigars by transforming them from a delightful hobby accessible to most into a luxury lifestyle. Accessory and smoking one that may have been rolled by forced hands would inspire dismay and discomfort rather than enjoyment. And let's be clear about something.
This is not the same as US prisoners being forced to make license plates for the record, the US allows forced prison labor despite banning the imports of goods. Similarly, similarly produced elsewhere. US prisons are by Western standards, often not role models of ethical incarceration. At least they're not populated by large numbers of political prisoners.
This revelation also underscores what a charade haos luxury rebranding has become. The target market for Haos probably wouldn't care about the ethical implications of forced labor any more than they [00:49:00] already care about buying a quote, super luxury product that is frequently defective. Habanas no longer wants you to focus on the actual cigar.
That's why so many of the new releases are bland. Their job is to be unobjectionable while the band does all of the heavy lifting. Indeed, it is fitting that one of their unofficial, unofficial brand ambassadors Kirby Allison has admitted that he can't really taste cigars. So to conclude, I'm done with buying cubit cigars.
Bam Bam: That's no surprise.
Gizmo: Thank you for bringing attention to the story, Liz. Brett, I thought that was a great comment.
Bam Bam: Good email.
Gizmo: Yeah. I appreciate his perspective on it. I'm glad he, uh, shared that with us. I, I really appreciate it. All right boys. So continuing on. There were a lot of great comments here. One, one commenter said, I can't even fathom the waste of someone smoking a vintage Davidoff or Dunhill without being able to taste it, just using it as a fashion accessory.
And I clipped that, that to me, it's like I said that, that described the exact type of customer Haos essay is looking for now.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: They want a luxury buyer.
Bam Bam: They [00:50:00] want a
Gizmo: collector to view,
Bam Bam: they want a
Gizmo: collector. The cigar as a fashion accessory, just
Bam Bam: a collector.
Gizmo: They don't care about, you know, they don't want somebody who's a geek.
Yeah. Tasting it, talking about notes, et cetera. It's just not what they're looking for. So there were a lot of great comments there. So, uh, great thread. And, um, I have one more comment to read here from, uh, lizard Enrique. He said another stellar podcast by our boys, the Lounge lizards. The cubit cigar segment was well done, and the commenters above provided much smarter inci insight than I could offer.
Of course, talking about the, uh, the, the prison stuff and all the other things we just discussed, I looked forward to trying the new stoic cigars. That last one was a home run. The interview with Vance was an easy listen, which was refreshing. Because he fit in with the natural chemistry of the group. This episode covered some heavy topics, but done with typical savvy and wit of the crew.
It reminded me of the night when you prepare to attend a class reunion with your significant other who does not know any of your classmates. You face the natural trepidation as you think about what it will be like seeing the changes in those you've not seen. [00:51:00] Because jobs and families have taken you in different paths.
You too wonder what new they will see in you. As you walk through the halls of your school, you recognize that everything seems smaller than you remembered. The familiar smell of the corridor strikes in you, a wistful nostalgia. You smirk squeezing the hand of your loved one and the, and think of the person you once were and who you will be for the next reunion, next decade.
You hear the song that was the big top 40 hit the summer before your senior year playing loudly interrupted, only by loud, familiar laughter. You walk into the old gymnasium where you immediately see friendly faces with broad smiles, greet you as you enter. They pull you in for a big embrace or to whisper an inside joke.
You've not thought about in years the same feeling Rooster had at his first class reunion shortly before the war of 1812.
Bam Bam: That's correct. Oh my god,
Gizmo: what a payoff.
Bam Bam: We're next in his mouth.
Gizmo: Did he, did he say smiling broads? [00:52:00] I don't think he said smiling bras, but. Broad. I love that payoff there.
Bam Bam: Good email.
Gizmo: Excellent. So great feedback here, boys. Uh, we really appreciate everybody writing in and we got a lot of emails back and forth on the Cuban prisoner story and, uh, you know, it, it kind of goes both ways.
There's really no in-between there. So, uh, I think these sentiments that we shared and, and what I just shared from Lizard Brett on the other side of it, um, kind of covers everything there. So unless we hear something, uh, you know, something else, we'll, uh, we'll table that discussion, uh, you know, for now.
Alright, boys, now we're gonna move to some emails. So we're gonna move away from the FOH forum. Now we're gonna go to email. Let's start with this one. This one is from Lizard Kobe. He says, Hey lizards, now that the temps are dropping for us northern lizards, that's northern here in the US for our worldwide listeners, it's getting cold here.
Other than the lizards HQ that the podcast originates from. What do you all do for winter smoking? Are you smoking exclusively at the lounge? Do you have a home setup? Have any of [00:53:00] you ever created an outdoor smoking area with a tent, a heater, and a fan setup or anything like that? Thanks for the consistency in the podcast.
I look forward to it all week. Lizard Kobe? Yes. Great questions. We're coming into that time of year boys.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah. For me on my deck, I usually, I haven't yet 'cause it's not that cold, but it's definitely coming up on the time to set up the, uh, 10 by 10 pop-up tent with a couple of walls and, uh, my heat.
Bam Bam: You
Chef Ricky: have
Bam Bam: that?
Chef Ricky: I do.
Bam Bam: Wow.
Chef Ricky: I do.
Bam Bam: Is it, um. What's the material made outta the town?
Chef Ricky: It's vinyl, I think.
Bam Bam: Do you have a fire pit in there?
Chef Ricky: No. No, no. I, I have a
Bam Bam: heat. So how do you warm? You have a heater. You trying
Chef Ricky: to kill the guy?
Bam Bam: I know. Like you can't that without melting,
Chef Ricky: man. Tell want me here? You have a propane heater?
No, I, I have a gas
Bam Bam: slide running into that thing. Jesus. You have any coli in there? You basically go there next?
Chef Ricky: No, no. I have a 10 by 10 popup [00:54:00] that I usually put out on the deck and I put up two of the walls and, uh, to block
Senator: the wind.
Chef Ricky: Yeah, to block the wind. That's cool because my, my deck is elevated so it gets very windy up there and I just plug in a, a heater that I got at Costco a couple years ago for maybe 160 bucks.
Senator: Here we go.
Chef Ricky: Rooster
Gizmo: just got aub. I've never heard
of
Chef Ricky: that place. Yeah, I, I used the, uh, he just pinched his
Senator: shoulders.
Chef Ricky: I, I, he's got
Senator: goosebumps.
Chef Ricky: I used the, uh, rooster coupon code
Gizmo: Rooster 15.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. That's, that's no
Senator: Rooster. 1812.
Chef Ricky: Correct. So
Rooster: which
Chef Ricky: heater is that? Is that the parabolic?
Senator: Because he knows 'em all.
Chef Ricky: It's not a parabolic. What aisle were,
Gizmo: was it in six or 12?
Chef Ricky: It's not a parabolic p parabolic heater. It's just, uh, you could either mount it on a ceiling or a wall or it comes with a stand.
Gizmo: Nice.
Chef Ricky: Uh, it has three, three heat settings. Um, and it's great if it accidentally knocks over, it shuts, shuts off. Um, you
Senator: just [00:55:00] disappointed baab?
Correct.
Chef Ricky: But, uh, it's usually, it's usually enough to keep me warm on a, on a real brisk, chilly, windy night. Outside of that, if it gets much colder or there's a lot of snow or something like that, I'll take it down. But, and I'll end up in the lounge. But for the most part, my deck is usually the go-to, or I go to one of my buddy's house who, uh, in his basement, he's set up, uh, with a smoke eater.
Oh, nice. And we smoke in the basement. Wow. So,
Senator: uh, so my setup, um, I recently redid my backyard. Um, there's a, a big patio, a raised deck. The deck is like waterproof, sealed, you know, recess lighting heaters under there. Um, and these heaters put out a crazy amount of heat. I mean, they're
Bam Bam: impressive. So to be clear, those are recessed inset thermal heaters.
And they're
Rooster: infrared now
Bam Bam: and they're electric? I think so,
Rooster: yeah.
Bam Bam: Um,
Rooster: they work great.
Bam Bam: Yeah. They're stainless steel finished. They're really [00:56:00] cool. Yeah. I
Senator: mean, I say this like they put off a hell of a lot of
Bam Bam: heat though. Oh dude.
Senator: Bams been at my place.
Bam Bam: It makes you sweat
Senator: when it's like 40 degrees at night.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Senator: you're
Bam Bam: sweating.
And
Senator: I've put the thing on full blast and bams like it's too hot and I have to put it down to 50%. Like it gets really,
Bam Bam: it's magical how powerful they are. And it makes smoking almost all year round. Very possible.
Senator: Yeah. I mean, honestly for me it has allowed like. September, October, November is no problem to smoke on my patio.
Mm-hmm. Like you feel like you're sitting indoors when you're out there. It's great. Oh yeah. Um, you know, December, if it were to get super cold, January super cold. Those are the months that I'm just gonna go to the lounge. There's really no point. But February even is like when you could again be using them.
So pretty much 10 outta 12 months of the year.
Gizmo: That's pretty amazing. That's
Senator: cool. I can be smoking out there completely comfortable. Yeah, it's awesome. Those are great. You
Rooster: can use them to melt snow.
Senator: Yeah.
Rooster: Well it probably heats [00:57:00] the deck above true.
Gizmo: Yeah. Senator, have you thought about, I mean, I, I would assume that wind, let's say when it gets really cold, wind is a real challenge, right?
Oh yeah. Mean that's, that becomes a hell, you know,
Senator: problem. The only problem thing that's good is because the way this is set up, so that deck. There's a, a wall there.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm.
Senator: Which is, uh, one of my garages. And so, you know, if the wind is actually coming from that way, it's completely blocked from that wall.
It's when the wind is coming side to side where it's open, that that would impact it.
Bam Bam: But you also have the stairs if you're sitting in, in your chair. So the, the stairs block Yeah.
Rooster: Left. It's really open from two sides front. That's exactly right. The front and the left side. It's
Bam Bam: two exposures that he has.
Senator: Yeah. That's an
Bam Bam: advantage.
Senator: It dramatically reduces wind when it is windy, but on like a crazy, windy day, I mean, almost any setup you have. Mm-hmm. Like you may as well just smoke inside. There's, there's no point of like, trying to fight it. So, you know, I just look at the wind report. If it's gonna be a crazy windy day, there's no point in me battling with any of that and trying to get clever.
Just that's what the lounge is for.
Bam Bam: True. [00:58:00] Uh, I don't have an outdoor setup. I am about to take my house down. And go through that whole process. Um, you're
Gizmo: ripping your house down.
Bam Bam: I am, I'm going to inspect those units that you have 'cause I'm buying those fucking things, putting those right in the rear deck and in the front deck.
So I'm excited.
Senator: Nice.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Rooster: I think
Bam Bam: they're ideal, but primarily it's. Lounge time. Yeah. In a winter
Senator: I'll also just for the listener, help them out. The, the brand is infra Tech.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm. Infra Tech.
Senator: Infra tech.
Bam Bam: Infra
Gizmo: tech.
Senator: They make like commercial great restaurants buy these, like they are some of the most powerful heaters you can buy.
When I met with my contractor, I'd explained to him like any of my friends that I've ever been at that have outdoor heaters, they don't do anything. Mm-hmm. I'm like, still freezing. And he said, this is the only brand he installs. He's so confident. He's like, if you don't want 'em after I install 'em, I'll take 'em out.
I have tons of customers that'll happily have them and they're unbelievable. So Infra Tech is the brand
Rooster: and they come in different finishes?
Bam Bam: They
Rooster: [00:59:00] do,
Senator: they do different finishes. You can also have them, uh, literally built in flush with the ceiling. Right. If you have ceiling that's cool. A ceiling above you or surface
Bam Bam: mounted like yours?
Senator: Yeah. Surface mounted like mine, I wanted mine surface mounted just because. If I built it into the ceiling, it would come down and then go out on the open side. Mm-hmm. As well. There's the wall on the other side. The way they're angled, it's direction. It comes direction down and at the wall and kind of just come back and sit there.
Is that
Bam Bam: adjustable?
Senator: Oh yeah.
Bam Bam: So there's a rotation factor to it?
Senator: Yeah.
Bam Bam: Yeah. And how do you turn it on? Can you turn on with your phone or is it a switch
Senator: in the house? It's a switch's. No, not in the house. It's right around the
Bam Bam: outside.
Senator: Right by the outdoor bar.
Bam Bam: Outdoor switch.
Senator: Yeah.
Yeah.
Bam Bam: Wow. That's cool.
Gizmo: Great setup.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Senator: Yeah.
Gizmo: So Rooster and I have a nearly identical setup in a garage.
Bam Bam: Roosted Roosted.
Gizmo: So you and I both have 10,000 BTU comfort zone, ceiling mounted electrical heating units. Um, and they work great. So [01:00:00] they're electric, you know, force hot air, I guess you'd call it. Mm-hmm.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Gizmo: And they work amazing, man. I'm out there sometimes in the garage. Oh, are these, and it's not an insulated garage.
Are
Chef Ricky: these those square units that are usually ceiling mount? The, in the garage?
Gizmo: Yeah, exactly.
Bam Bam: Yeah. So those are, um, there's a heat coil in it and it pushes air across the coil and it heats it as it's going across and outside. Exactly. How you're experiencing. Yeah,
Rooster: what what's nice about those is like, you know, if it's really cold in the garage, you turn those on like for like 15, 20 minutes and it really heats up.
And then you can use like a parabolic heater just to kind of, but you
Bam Bam: have one of those too.
Rooster: Yeah. So you could turn that unit off and just use a parabolic.
Bam Bam: The garage setup's nice.
Rooster: Yeah,
Bam Bam: I
Rooster: like that. 'cause it's enclosed at three sides. You just, you know, you could open,
Gizmo: I don't even open the, the door. I have a, uh, uh, uh, like a bedroom fan blowing out
Bam Bam: through the window.
Gizmo: Through the window. Yep. So I have a window in my garage and then it kind of creates a, you know, a negative air pressure. So it Nice. The smoke never goes in the house.
Chef Ricky: I should try my garage. I have a window, but I'm hesitant because it's under my bedroom.
Gizmo: [01:01:00] So my,
Chef Ricky: so I'm concerned that
Gizmo: it's, so mine is under,
Senator: that's
Chef Ricky: a bonus.
Gizmo: Mine is under my living room.
Bam Bam: Living and kitchen
Gizmo: and kitchen
Bam Bam: kind of dining
Senator: area. Mine is under my kitchen and I went through this before. I mean, well, yeah, we about this. I started the garage lounge thing. Like if you have that set up, all you need Is that like spray foam sealant? Correct. And any pipes wiring that goes up, seal around it.
And I'm telling you, it's foolproof. I mean, the first year of our pod we recorded that. We had
Gizmo: Yeah.
Senator: Six, seven guys sitting in that garage smoking and none of it made it into my house. I correct. I mean, correct. I can't
Gizmo: believe you're, you're that miss Mr. Senator never came
Senator: downstairs. No, it wasn't mean.
It's crazy.
Gizmo: You did have a window fan,
Senator: so that's what you need. You do need some, that's some kind of exhaust you want. I mean, yeah. Especially with seven guys smoking at the same time. So I have a window in the garage. I have a, like, you know, two small it, I mean it's one unit, but there's like two, two fans that exhaust the air out.
Chef Ricky: Mm-hmm.
Senator: Um, I had an air purifier, like you would have a [01:02:00] smoke eater in a lounge. Yeah. Two those right. Two of those, which was overkill, but you can do one. But I just had two just to be extra safe. That is just cleaning air as you're, uh, smoking your cigar. And I was lucky 'cause in, in this garage of mine, um, I have steam heating in my house and the heat pipes actually run through that garage.
So that garage is heated, toasty, 68 70 degrees it could be. That's
Bam Bam: amazing. It's
Senator: toasted 10 degrees outside. It's it's the same. So I was lucky that like heat is just basically built into there. But that's, that's kind of all you need to make that work in a garage.
Bam Bam: Not to go off topic. So you have steam heat in your house, you have central ac
Senator: of course.
Bam Bam: Now does that system also have heat? 'cause it usually does.
Senator: No.
Bam Bam: So it's pure air conditioning.
Senator: Yeah, just ac steam
and
Bam Bam: then steam, there's a
Senator: steam boiler.
Bam Bam: That's, that's my
Gizmo: setup
Rooster: too.
Bam Bam: And, and you have baseboard heat or radiators? Uh, radiators. Nice.
Rooster: Yeah, me too.
Bam Bam: Best heat, by the way. The best. Oh, super efficient.
It's the best heat.
Rooster: That's what we have. A boiler.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Yeah. Well
Rooster: you, so that's like the baseboard heat, you
Bam Bam: know? Yeah. Boilers can produce hot water or steam. I like [01:03:00] steam. Yeah.
Rooster: It's hot. Wa Yeah,
Bam Bam: steam is ideal. We have hot water. I don't know what I have, but I don't have baseboard heating.
Rooster: So you have like forced air?
Bam Bam: Well, if he has base air pour heat, then he's probably got hot water.
Rooster: No, it's, oh, it's, oh, it's a baseboard. So it's, it's hot water. Likely
Bam Bam: hot water. Yeah.
Rooster: Yeah. So you have a boiler.
Chef Ricky: Yep.
Bam Bam: Cool.
Rooster: Gas boiler.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Gizmo: Great question from lizard Kobe.
Bam Bam: Excellent
Gizmo: email. And I think, you know, the discerning thing for me about if I come to the lounge or not, I'm further away than these guys.
So for me it's like a 20 minute drive each way. I think chef's a little bit what, 25? Yeah, 25. Yeah, 25 minutes each way. So that factors into the drive. I mean, for you guys it's six to eight minutes at the most, I think. Right? 15.
Chef Ricky: That,
Gizmo: that's
Chef Ricky: driving the speed limit. I have a guy
Gizmo: in here in
Chef Ricky: 15, 18 minutes.
Bam Bam: That's a topic for another
Gizmo: time. Yeah. We'll discuss that on the lizards after dark. That's
Bam Bam: correct.
Gizmo: Uh, but, uh, yeah, so, you know, it's kind of split on, you know, time of day and, and what these circumstances are and if we have a get together or something planned. But, um, yeah, very lucky to have the garage setup.
I, I think it's a great setup. Obviously, you guys having the, the setup at home is, [01:04:00] is nice
Chef Ricky: too. I think I definitely need to, um. Dive into the garage set up a little bit. 'cause I do have a baseboard in my garage also that provides heat. I have the window so I probably have the perfect setup. Yeah. It sounds like you have
Gizmo: a good setup, man.
The window is the biggest thing that, that you gotta create negative air pressure with that fan. Yeah. But you have
Senator: to seal the joints. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. I just been hesitant because of it being under my bedrooms.
Gizmo: You feel? The joints I'm telling you could
Senator: see it. It won't. I'm telling you the air can't make it up there this morning.
Gizmo: Yeah. Yep. And by the way, the heater, and it doesn't
Senator: take that long.
Gizmo: Like heat an
Senator: hour and
Gizmo: you're good Heat rooster. And I have that 10,000 BTU comfort zone. Mm-hmm. I think it was 400 bucks.
Rooster: Even less. I think three 50.
Gizmo: Three 50. Yeah. And then you have to I
Rooster: and Costco
Gizmo: Rooster. What? Island and Costco.
Bam Bam: Correct.
You do need a,
Gizmo: but you do, you do have to hardwire it.
Bam Bam: Yes. Yes. That's like a 30 amp unit, I think.
Gizmo: Yeah. So you have to have an electrician come. It's, you need a whole separate,
Bam Bam: you also have to have the capacity for that. 'cause that's a lot of power.
Gizmo: Great question from Lizard, Kobe and boys [01:05:00] we're coming to the end of the second, third on the Kaba Iwan by Tawa Imperials.
What's everybody thinking right now? So good.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Excellent.
Gizmo: I It's a perfect cigar for me so far.
Bam Bam: It stayed consistent. Yeah. Um, maybe just a, maybe a touch increase in body, but
Gizmo: mm-hmm.
Bam Bam: Still velvety and very easy to smoke.
Senator: Yes. That's exactly my experience. Yeah. Like consistent in flavor profile. But there is just a little touch up pink and like body and strength in a really great way,
Bam Bam: in a subtle, elegant way.
Senator: Yes.
Bam Bam: It's very, very cool.
Gizmo: I think the cigar has taken us on a really nice journey tonight.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. It's developing a subtle funk now where Yes, a a part of me feels there's something going on there. This would go great with a mezcal too. And I'm, I'm really excited about the versatility to this cigar, the price point also.
Um, and just the journey that it takes us on.
Gizmo: I think the word funk is, is a great way to put it. 'cause I didn't, I was gonna say like, I'm getting a different flavor note, but [01:06:00] there is some sort of edge that it has now. Mm-hmm. That's not harsh. It's not pepper, it's not tar. It's weird. It's a, but it's good.
It's prebiotic. Like
Petco core.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Maybe some Petco. It's not heavy on the mineral.
Bam Bam: I
Chef Ricky: was kidding though. Like, Petco would be, uh, but no, there's, there's something there. There's a funk there. That's, um,
Rooster: like a mustiness.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Yeah.
Bam Bam: You know, and I've been going back and forth between the tequila and a champagne. Oh, man. It's a great entire night freaking phenomenon.
Gizmo: It's a great trio,
Bam Bam: man. I've never done this before. That's very unique.
Chef Ricky: I fucking love tequila pods.
Gizmo: All right, boys, let's continue on here. We've got another great email from Lizard Enrique, who has a great memory and says, happy fourth anniversary. It says lizards. Congratulations on the fourth anniversary of the podcast, which premiered in early November, 2021. [01:07:00] Every lizard plays a key role in providing content for the show, like the Chicago Bulls, using the Triangle Offense.
Rooster with Wisdom Senator with Taste Gizmo with the vision. UBA with the comedy. Grindr always speaking the truth, pagoda with his generosity to the riders of New Jersey Public Transit. That's true. That is so good
Bam Bam: life.
Gizmo: Ah,
Bam Bam: love that.
Gizmo: That was good. Chef with the pal, but there's only one Michael Jordan of this crew in terms of developing content.
Bamba, excuse
Senator: me.
Gizmo: Wow. Just look at his first ballot Hall of Fame content production list.
Senator: Oh God.
Gizmo: In episode one, rooster foreshadows the legend of bam, when he said, of using bam stock of partis Maduro once. Bam had to be pursued to share these In episode 30. Episode 38. Bam. Refuses to split his box of Ramona.
I own a small club Corona with with Koda.
Bam Bam: [01:08:00] That's incorrect.
Gizmo: Oh, that's true.
Bam Bam: Alright. This is all material. That's all it is. Go ahead
Gizmo: it.
Bam Bam: That's only material folks.
Gizmo: In episode 49, although BAM is missing from this episode, Grindr shares that BAM did not own up to his portion of a box of Aase cigars. After agreeing to do so
Bam Bam: because they suck
Gizmo: in episode 62, we're not even close to done the lizard stage in intervention with BAM and setting up his tower.
With the comedy and resonance of Christopher Maltais,
Bam Bam: the
Gizmo: intervention is great.
Bam Bam: You know who I am.
Gizmo: In episode 63, the next week, bam faced what many call the lizards finest moment, the bam bam accountability hour.
Bam Bam: All right. This is a fake email.
Gizmo: It's not, yes,
Bam Bam: it's
Gizmo: You think I did this?
Bam Bam: I think someone in the room wrote this.
Gizmo: No, no. I'll you can, you can FaceTime with lizard Enrique. He'll confirm it. Uhhuh. Alright. On episode 113, it is discussed how Bam said he liked Aras more than the Parus. 8, 9, 8 mm.
Bam Bam: Also incorrect
Gizmo: on [01:09:00] episode 134. Despite the promises never forget that he did not give tuxedo. Tuxedo, Timmy and Opus Dubai at PCA.
Bam Bam: And I'm glad
Gizmo: on episode 162 Bam. Admitted he did not. How to shop for groceries?
Bam Bam: I'll do. I admit now I dunno how to shop for groceries
Gizmo: On episode 176, he is, he is accused of reselling a box of Roosters Fund, Doris. Hallelujah. They
Bam Bam: have yet to sell. By the way. They have still not
Gizmo: sold. They'll never sell.
Episode Karma is a Bitch. On episode 190, BAM spills a bottle of rum in the Havana Airport.
Bam Bam: That was one of my darker
Gizmo: days. Holy shit. On episode 192, he puts his cigars in freezer protocol next to the oxtails and bolognese. What's more he introduced the world to his 10 commandments of etiquette, single-handedly brought back the agricultural power of the new American century with his citrus and dry fruit callouts.
And he compared [01:10:00] rooster to being over one millennium old. Truly the goat. Thanks for all the content. Bam. Four more years. Four more years. Cheers. Lizard Enrique.
Bam Bam: I hope we survive. What an email.
Gizmo: Wow. That I, I don't understand seriously the, his ability and, and some of our listeners' ability to recall these things and point them out to that level of detail.
Yeah. Like this photographic memory thing. He must
Senator: be unemployed
if he is, he's about to be gainfully employed. Yeah, I'm sure he's
Gizmo: Oh, that's impressive.
Chef Ricky: He's an avid listener.
Gizmo: Oh yeah.
Chef Ricky: Oh man.
Gizmo: Oh, that's awesome.
Chef Ricky: I love that email.
Gizmo: All right, boys, let's go.
Chef Ricky: Was that Lizard of the Week?
Gizmo: No.
Chef Ricky: Good. Should,
Senator: no, that's Lizard of the Year. Yeah.
Gizmo: So a great email from Lizard Enrique. We really appreciate him, uh, and his memory.
Unbelievable. And bam, bam. Of course. Thank you for [01:11:00] four years of
Chef Ricky: Thank you. Bam.
Gizmo: Fantastic content, my friend. Uhhuh.
Senator: Uhhuh, we love you. Bam. We can't wait for the next four Uhhuh. Okay? We're gonna teach Bam Dish, uh, grocery shop.
Gizmo: We should do an episode live on scene at like a ShopRite. Oh my God. It'd be amazing.
Whole Foods.
Chef Ricky: Could you imagine? Bam on that. What was that show? Supermarket Sweep.
Gizmo: Supermarket Sweep. Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Oh, man. Bam. On that
Gizmo: show would be, or, or, or Guy FI's. Uh, grocery games Price
Chef Ricky: is right. I don't
Bam Bam: care. Price is right. That's it.
Chef Ricky: Oh man, that would be great.
Gizmo: So boys, I gotta tell you a story. We're just talking about garages and I was, uh.
I was having a really tough time the other night did, I don't know if I told you guys this story, but I had an intruder in my garage. Did I tell you about this? Was
Bam Bam: it a creature of someone
Gizmo: was in a raccoon? So I was furious, and I'm gonna use my little box here to give you an example of what I got going on.
So. I'm so excited. So bam knows, I, I mentioned it a couple times. So my kitchen, I had a really bad leak last November. This is almost, this is going on a year now. I had a [01:12:00] really bad leak that destroyed, it was behind a wall in my kitchen. It was the drain pipe destroyed. We didn't see it. Obviously. It was behind a wall.
Destroyed the entire subfloor of my kitchen and, and below. Okay, so my kitchen, I have a bi level, so kitchen's right above the laundry room, which is right to the left of the garage. So this pipe starts leaking. I'm in Cuba. Mrs. Gizmo calls me, says I see water leaking from above in the laundry room. So I said, just put a bucket.
I'll be home tomorrow. Get home. Rip this whole thing out. Discovered that there's been a long, slow leak mm-hmm. Of water from this drain pipe. Destroyed the entire subfloor of the kitchen. So, with bams help, you know, we've designed a whole new kitchen and, and, and set it up for demolition when it was a little warmer so I could set up a kitchen outside, et cetera.
And thank you, by the way. Bam. Of
Bam Bam: course,
Gizmo: you're the man. So we ripped this whole kitchen out. So on top of this, my garage setup is completely ruined for the entire summer. Mm-hmm. I couldn't smoke [01:13:00] a single cigar in my house,
Bam Bam: and it was full.
Gizmo: It was full of stuff. Like I couldn't, everything from the kitchen and e everything was downstairs in that garage.
My kitchen was out. We ripped it down to the studs. Whole new kitchen. We took walls out, we're putting beams in. It was a whole, it was like a crazy project. What We did $240,000.
Senator: Yeah.
Gizmo: Now we know what's paid for those watches. That's correct.
So, I'm so excited. So it's, you know, this is, I guess at the end of October, middle of October, I'm finally putting my garage back together. Everything's happening, kitchen's in. I'm so excited. I'm setting up my garage. There's a fucking intruder man, and all I hear is this.
Bam Bam: Oh, cricket, right? Oh
Gizmo: gosh. Cicadas. I entered in Rooster.
Just heard a cicada from that. Cicada.
Bam Bam: Cicada.
Gizmo: It's a cricket. I entered into an absolute, pretty sure he
Chef Ricky: said John C.
Bam Bam: Well, that's what they sounded like about 300 years ago. I mean, that they evolved. They've evolved. [01:14:00] Could
Gizmo: be a psycho. The crickets have evolved. It's an evolution. I entered into a Holy War. In my garage trying to find this fucking cricket.
And the problem was, is so under my, under my two garage doors, you know, the, the, the door's opening. What? Just say it. Senator's losing it.
Senator: No, just when you said a Holy War, I'm just imagining like, what's going on here.
Gizmo: It was a Holy war. I, I was so furious. So I, I got to the point where I took the wasp spray, you know what I mean?
Like, I have this industrial wasp spray. I, I bought it. Harbor Freight Tools,
Senator: the stuff that foams up
Gizmo: and Yes. Yeah, yeah. I use that. Yeah. So I use that on crickets too. 'cause I hate these bastard. I, and I'm a sound guy. I am an audio guy. Everybody knows, you know, hearing this all the time, like, drives me insane, you know?
So, so I kill all the ones by the door, the front door, right?
Senator: Oh, you have more than one? One?
Gizmo: There were a bunch. Oh. It was like, it was crazy. Oh, it was crazy. Oh shit. Okay. [01:15:00] He's in
Senator: Guam. Yeah. So.
Gizmo: I kill all the ones by the door, and I'm like, all right, great. Finally sit down, pull out my cigar. I'm gonna have my cigar, and this fucker starts again.
And then I get up and he stops. He stop, and then he starts again
Senator: when he sit down,
Gizmo: as soon as I sit down and then he stops. And then I'm starting to figure out where he is.
Senator: He's trying to tell
Gizmo: me
Senator: he wants to Sir Winston. Correct.
Gizmo: So. I make my way over to where all this crap is, and I start ripping apart my garage.
Now imagine my garage is piled with shit.
Senator: Well, they hide.
Gizmo: I had to rip my entire garage apart. Guess where this thing was? It was under my stepson's tuba. Okay. I lift this tuba up. He barked one more time at me, and then I, it's
Bam Bam: hardly a bark,
Gizmo: but stomped him out.
Bam Bam: You got him.
Gizmo: And it was one of the greatest pleasures of my life.
Bam Bam: Nice.
Gizmo: Was it
Bam Bam: almost like choking a rooster, a rooster choking a rooster, choking a [01:16:00] raccoon
Gizmo: roosted?
I was curious to know if, if the cricket sound was
Chef Ricky: amplified through the tuba.
Gizmo: It was not. The tuba had a, uh, had a bag on it, but it was so like, hidden under this thing that tuba was buried under stuff. It literally took me 25, 30 minutes to find this goddamn cricket.
Chef Ricky: Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: And I was furious. It ruined my whole night.
But when I did kill it, it finally, it brought me great joy.
Chef Ricky: And you were still waiting like 10 minutes into your cigar or here if, um, oh,
Gizmo: I was totally sitting there. Like this guy. He's got a friend somewhere that's coming for him. But do you guys deal with crickets at all?
Chef Ricky: No. I had one in my laundry room and I did some research soap water.
Uh, so I have baseboard heating in the laundry room too, so I just took a soap water and a. Squeeze bottle. Right. I'm a chef, so I have a bunch of squeeze bottles at home and I squirted a bunch of soap water underneath the baseboard heating where I heard [01:17:00] it coming from, which was in a corner.
Gizmo: Mm-hmm.
Chef Ricky: And, uh, never heard it again.
So I guess I got it. And it's been two years and I haven't heard any since. I would think he's dead
Gizmo: now.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So just so you
Gizmo: never know, he's off to college now.
Bam Bam: What's their lifespan?
Gizmo: It can't be that long.
Bam Bam: No. Three
Gizmo: days. Alright. Does anybody in the room like the sound of crickets?
Bam Bam: No. When they're course,
Gizmo: when
Bam Bam: they're outside, don't mind.
And the window's cracked open. It's, I actually do
Gizmo: like it. Like I heard Robert Redford, I was watching, you know, Robert Redford died. I was watching like an obituary, him and he was on that show inside the actor's studio.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: And they, and the guy, uh, James, whatever his Lipton, I think his name was, he asked Robert Redford like, he always does, you know, what, what is a sound that you love?
And he said, the sound of crickets. And I just, I can't watch his movies anymore.
Bam Bam: In the field. Maybe not in your living room. I mean, you don't want to hear them indoors 'cause they're hard to
Gizmo: find. No, but I just, I don't wanna hear them
Bam Bam: ever outside.
Gizmo: Yeah, outside. It's fine. It's,
Senator: I mean, I don't mind it when I'm sitting outside.
But you don't
Bam Bam: think of it,
Senator: [01:18:00] it's not a sound I would ever pursue. It's not like if I could curate, of course and press some buttons while I'm sitting outside like, I wanna hear cricket. Like, does, that's not, you
Chef Ricky: can have. But I'm, I'm a city boy, so when I came out here to Jersey and got my house and, you know, it's, it's, it's a welcome sound, but sure if it's indoors and you can't find it, it sucks.
Gizmo: Alright boys. So let's go to another listener email. Now, this one is from Lizard Sylvia. He says, greetings lizard people. I have found that my cigars taste like steam or just burnt paper when they are at or near 70% relative humidity. Like I couldn't taste the difference between a Connecticut and a Maduro.
I am switching to 62% relative humidity, but I am worried about the possibility that some cigars taste better at different Humidities. Case in point, I just watched a, my father, the judge review from the cigar hound dog and he enjoyed it, but he keeps the cigars at or below 62 Rh. He found the LA Aroma de Cuba Mia Moore to be too harsh and [01:19:00] peppery in your podcast.
You gentlemen enjoyed the Mia Moore from La Aroma de Cuba, but hated the judge. When I tried them, I couldn't taste the MIA more and almost threw up at the judge. I remember you gentlemen noting that the judges were a bit soft before smoking. So lemme just make a note. The first one that we smoked was soft.
The second one we were wholly prepared for. And we were properly humidified on that one for sure
Rooster: and it still sucked
Gizmo: and it was terrible. It is possible the humidity impacted the difference in flavor that drastically. I used tupper doors. Should I keep different cigars at different humidities? Thank you very much Lizard Sylvia.
And I want to share a second email he sends shortly thereafter, he said, greetings again, lizard. Sorry to spam you. My local tobacco shop owner recommended I try an a la Diano Reserva al. He seems very knowledgeable and passionate about cigars, but he is never heard about dry boxing and he keeps the cigars in his main humid or its 72% oof.
I placed it in my humid order with my other cigars, with the 62% [01:20:00] boda for a few days and I'll be damned. I lit it up and I still can't taste it. It tastes like steam. My tobacconist says that the cigars are ready to smoke from the shop.
Bam Bam: Never. Is that the case?
Gizmo: I smoke slowly, like a puff per minute. So I don't think it's, that, is it My palate are my taste buds simply less sensitive?
I don't smoke very often because I wanna mitigate the health risk, but I en want to enjoy them when I do. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you lizard. Sylvia? So a couple things here, boys. Number one, I assume
Rooster: he's, he's talking about new world cigars, right?
Gizmo: I, it seems like he's definitely talking about new world cigars.
There's no question about that.
Rooster: Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: I mean, I don't know what's going on with cigars, tasting, bad cigars, tasting like steam burnt paper, I mean. To me, it seems like this 70, 72% thing, I, I've never had a cigar taste like that. Have you guys
Senator: steam Steam? Absolutely not. I'm not sure
Gizmo: what
Senator: steam tastes like.
Right. What does that
Gizmo: taste like? Like over humidified cigars to me actually have a more intense, [01:21:00] less pleasurable flavor, but when they're more humid, they're actually harsher.
Bam Bam: That was actually an actual mistake. That was bad. Fucking air ashtray. Get this thing outta here.
Gizmo: You know what I mean though? Like, like when I have a wet cigar, it smokes poorly, it tastes harsh.
It actually hits you with more of a punch in the face. It's
very
Bam Bam: acidic.
Gizmo: Right?
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Like I, I I would feel like it's the opposite, uh, of what Lizard Sylvia is expressing here.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: So I'm confused as to, to what's going on here with his palate. I just don't understand. Um, how to help him here.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: Well, seven 70% is way too high, I think for 70 and 72 is crazy. You know, I mean, the other thing too is like,
Senator: didn't he say he had a problem with a Mia Moore?
Gizmo: Yeah.
Senator: Yeah. No, the humidity is definitely like that. That's just crazy.
Bam Bam: That's crazy.
Senator: I mean, I, I started smoking that Mia more in college and I'm buying that from a tobacconist.
It's not like I was keeping those for a while or dry boxing, anything of the sort. And they were still [01:22:00] enjoyable back then. So whatever his setup is, it's gotta be aggressive. And if he's even reading 70 or whatever he is, it's probably even higher than that
Bam Bam: probably. Yeah. But I mean, if he's at a Tupper doors, you know, they run hotter.
Gizmo: They do, yeah. 62 And Tupper doors is gonna run hotter than 62.
Bam Bam: Absolutely. If
Gizmo: you're air tight,
Rooster: there's no air movement either,
Bam Bam: so you
Rooster: Exactly.
Bam Bam: You
Rooster: gotta move some boxes around
Bam Bam: or you know, air out. Yeah. It's tough being in Tupper doors exclusively.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Bam Bam: And I don't have any Bo Vitas in any of my tupper doors.
They're all kind of relying on each other. For equilibrium. I do have a 52 Bo Vita, one big one in each Tupper door. That could be on the lower side, but I know that's gonna run a little higher in humidity because there's no air movement. Anything beyond that, I think you're risking over humidification of your cigars.
Sorry, especially in a tupper door.
Senator: Did you say you have no Bo Vita packs?
Bam Bam: I have one in
Senator: your Tupper
Bam Bam: door. I have one big 52 in each tupper door.
Senator: Oh, okay. So you have something?
Bam Bam: I do, yes. I was worried
Senator: you said no, that
was,
Bam Bam: yeah. You
Rooster: mean 62?
Bam Bam: 62. I'm sorry. Yeah.
Senator: [01:23:00] Gotcha.
Rooster: But it's also in the lower level of your house.
Bam Bam: Yeah, it's in the basement, but they're also sealed. Tupper doors are pretty airtight. Oh, super airtight. So the ambient environment's not gonna affect it as
Gizmo: much. It's not gonna change that much. Yeah, that's correct. Every time you open in a will,
Bam Bam: but
Gizmo: if you're not opening it a lot, it's gonna stay pretty static.
That's
Bam Bam: correct.
Gizmo: But like Rooster said, I think air movement is good for
Bam Bam: Oh, definitely
Gizmo: maturation
Bam Bam: and that's why we have towers.
Gizmo: Exactly.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: So I think, uh, one point I wanna make again is the first, my father, the judge, we did many, many moons ago. The first review, those cigars were definitely wet. We got them the same day.
We reviewed them, we were, you know, new to the game here. The second one we did more recently, we dry boxed. We had 'em for some time. That was the cigar of the year. That's why we smoked it again. It performed pretty poorly. So unfortunately, that's what it was.
Bam Bam: It was, it was awful.
Gizmo: So my suggestion, suggestion to Lizard Sylvia, is to actually maybe even get a 58% boda and just dry box a few of the cigars isolated that you're gonna smoke during the week.
Pull them down even more over a week or two and just [01:24:00] see what happens. Because my hunch is that you're still smoking. Something that is too wet or make sure you're lighting it correctly. Make sure that it's consistently lit, you know, and make sure you're, you're, you know, taking a good cut, et cetera. Um, that's something that, uh, you know, you can definitely check out.
But a aside from that, I'm not sure exactly. Uh,
Bam Bam: I think he's just over
Gizmo: how to
Bam Bam: help him. He's over humidified.
Gizmo: Yeah,
Bam Bam: that's, I think what I is going on here.
Gizmo: All right, boys, one more for you. And this one's gonna be our Lizard of the Week, presented by Bond Roberts.
Bam Bam: Here we
Gizmo: go. I love this. The Great Bond Roberts.
We love those guys over there. And all of our lizards of the week now are gonna win 10 count boxes of Bond Roberts cigars, either the petite 1 0 9 or the regular 1 0 9. So congratulations to our friend here, lizard Christophe. So let's go now to Christophe's voice memo.
Lizard Christoph: Hey Lizard. It's, it's, uh, Christophe from Belgium.
I've been a regular listener for half a year. Uh, smoked cigars for a few years, but recently got really [01:25:00] back into it, uh, regular collecting and smoking 'cause I stumbled across your podcast on Spotify. I have a question, um, about, uh, humidity and dry boxing. 'cause Gizmo was talking about dry boxing again last week, as well as stating that his tower was in, uh, the low sixties.
Um, but I thought that this generally only applied to Cuban cigars and you guys were smoking, uh, stoic, which is a new world. So my humid orts mostly fuel new worlds. It's at 67. Um, can you explain a little why this lower humidity, what you guys idea on the correct humidity level? Um, is there a difference between Cubans and New Worlds and should I always dry a box and if so, how should I do it?
We love your input because I generally smoke new worlds, but because of you guys' recommendations. I recently picked up some Cubans and the all Dino Cameroon. And I've smoked Cubans in the past. I was not blown away, but could have been my, my untrained pallet at the time. I just wanna rule out this time around that it's got anything [01:26:00] to do with improper storage of, uh, Cuban cigars.
Um, would very much appreciate if you can clarify. So thanks a lot. Um, Christophe from Flanders, from Belgium, and by the way, I really hope that I can find these stoke cigars in Europe at some point in the future. Alright, thanks guys.
Gizmo: Great voice memo.
Bam Bam: I'm shocked that he can get all Dino Cameroons in Belgium.
Yeah, that is actually wild. Right?
Gizmo: Well, don't forget one of, uh, uh, STOs Daughters works only in Europe.
Bam Bam: Oh,
wow.
Gizmo: That's all she does. Really? Yeah, they do have, wow. I think his oldest daughter works in Europe and, and works on European distribution. So very
Bam Bam: impressive.
Gizmo: I think that that's why they have a, a nice European presence that, that he's able to get 'em.
So that's
Bam Bam: great for him.
Gizmo: Yeah. So number one, we love voice memos, so congratulations again to Lizard Christophe with that awesome voice memo. We're gonna answer your questions in a second, but he has won a 10 count box from Bond Roberts that we're gonna send him. So, uh, again, thanks to those guys over there.
Check out FABRICA zero zero five.com. Use our code lizard pod, [01:27:00] the Fabrica five cigars are there. The bond Robert Cigars are there. Go get 'em. Everything's available. Check it out and, uh, let us know what you think. So let's answer his question about tower storage and cigar storage between Cubans and non Cuban cigars.
So I think I'm gonna speak for the room that. We like our Cuban cigars a little lower, and we like our new world Cigars a little higher, I think New World cigars, we try to keep in the mid sixties and Cuban cigars. We try to keep around 62 ish. For me, I like my stuff a little bit drier, I think, than most of the rest of the room.
I'm 60 to 61 generally on Cubans 63 64 with New Worlds. That's the way I like to smoke. Uh, but uh, generally I think 62, 65 Cuban and non Cuban respectively is the way to go. So do you guys agree with that? Is there anybody in the room that, that disagrees with that assessment? Absolutely agree. Totally agree.
So then let's talk about dry boxing. So I kind of view dry boxing except for [01:28:00] pod cigars that we're reviewing, which are coming from a retailer. I haven't had 'em in my tower for a long period of time. So I dry box them. I put 'em in a, a low humidity situation for at least a few days, if not a week, week and a half like I did tonight.
For my cigars that I'm smoking, that I've had for some time, I've kind of view them as they're ready to go in my tower. Like I'm not needing to constantly be dry boxing as if I was living at a tupper tupper doors. Right. So are you guys kind of operating in the same fashion? Like you're going in your tower and just picking what you want ready to go?
Is anybody actually dry boxing on a regular basis? I do. I just reach from the tower.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I have not dry boxed in a very long time.
Chef Ricky: I don't dry box, but I think you dry boxing for the pod is a good thing, but 'cause he's buying from
Bam Bam: a retailer.
Chef Ricky: Exactly.
Gizmo: Yeah. And I don't have the, the, I don't have the, uh, the, the benefit of six months of time.
Right. Exactly. When I'm buying pod cigars, I may have two months of time that's very different than six months.
Senator: Sure. Yeah. I, I think time is the operative piece here. [01:29:00] You know, whether you're buying from a brick and mortar retailer or an online one. Mm-hmm. 95% of them are arriving too wet. Correct. And so I'll use a recent example where I, I did dry box, I ran out of aging room Sonatas.
You prize. Yes. I was shocked. I was like, oh my God, your
Bam Bam: 19 boxes are gone.
Senator: Gone. Like gone. I, I was like really surprised that I had not realized that I was so low on these, so I ordered a bunch of boxes online now because I need some of them to be ready to smoke quickly. I left in the box sealed, but out of my humidor for like a week and a half to try to bring them down and then put them in my tower and.[01:30:00]
They're smoking way closer to how they normally are when I've like, had the benefit of having them sit in my tower for like a couple months time, something like that. So, you know, there's, it just depended on how much time you have now. If you don't need to reach for that cigar right away, you just throw 'em in your tower and, you know, over months time they're gonna acclimate.
That's right. Exactly the, the RH that you prefer to smoke your cigars at. But dry boxing is just extremely helpful. When you need something ready to smoke sooner, that's the only way you're gonna be able to bring that down as fast.
Bam Bam: So he's bringing up a good point. New boxes of cigars that I buy, I typically don't touch for a while.
'cause we have a lot of variety. So we'll pick from things if either in a teodor in a tower that we've had for months or years. So they're all ready to go. But if a new shipment arrives, I just put it in with general population like you said, and just, I don't go near them until I need them and I kind of give [01:31:00] them a month.
Rooster: Right.
Bam Bam: More or less.
Rooster: Yeah. I mean occasionally I, I have taken like a box that arrives and like you put a few cigars that you get smoke that week,
Bam Bam: then you'll dry box
Rooster: that. Put it, put it in a, in a desktop. Yeah. Humidor
Bam Bam: dry box
Rooster: without a boda.
Bam Bam: Correct. Yeah. Yeah. If you need to get to those sooner, if
Rooster: you need to get to them sooner.
Bam Bam: That's right.
Gizmo: I, I think at the end of the day, if we want to really just make it very simple for listeners out there, dry boxing is only necessary to accelerate. The readiness of your smoke.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: That's it.
Bam Bam: If you need to smoke those sooner than you'd want to.
Gizmo: Exactly. Or if you need to smoke them sooner than maybe they'd be ready by just sitting in your tower.
Yeah. At your normal humidity level, which is gonna come down slower. So again, example, a pod cigars, when I get them a month before, I'll throw 'em in my tower for two weeks, but I want to really make sure they're ready to smoke, so, so I'll dry box them for a week, week and a half before we smoke them, just to be sure that humidity is not gonna be a factor in our review and, and [01:32:00] unfortunately, I feel like a lot of online reviewers.
Do have humidity as a factor in their reviews. I, I think a lot of these guys take their cigars in the shower with them before they smoke. They're like over humidified to a point where you see the burn lines are off. And I mean, it's crazy. Like we don't have those issues here because we try to make sure that humidity is not a factor in our
Bam Bam: reviews.
Like poop's, uh, shower scotch.
Gizmo: You never had a shower cigar bin?
Bam Bam: No,
Gizmo: but I think they keep, uh, the
Rooster: RH a little bit higher because the door keeps opening and closing. So there's the
Gizmo: retailers.
Rooster: Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. There's constant movement. Absolutely.
Senator: I mean, there's that, but there's also a lot of retailers that genuinely believe you should smoke them at 70 Rh.
Rooster: I just think
Senator: that's lazy math mean you talk to most retailers, if you were to ask them, I have a desktop humidor, what should I have my skirt? They'll tell you, you 70
Rooster: tells crazy. 70. 70, 70.
Senator: Yeah.
Rooster: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Yeah. That's, that's, that's just efficiency, laziness. A K. Mm-hmm. You.
Gizmo: All right, boys, again, we have to congratulate Lizard [01:33:00] Christophe from Belgium.
Our Lizard of the Week just won himself a 10 pack of bond Roberts cigars. From our friends over at Bond Roberts, he's gonna win either a pack of the Petite one oh nines, or the regular one oh nines. We'll see. But, uh, as we always say, anybody out there can win Lizard of the Week. All you have to do, like Lizard Christophe here did is send us a great voice memo.
Send us an email, a comment somewhere, comment on FOH, Spotify, whatever you choose, just get in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you and, uh, we are very happy to share your feelings about the podcast on the podcast. And boys, we are coming to the end of our evening tonight with the G four Tequila Reposado and the Kaba Igan.
Imps by what's everybody thinking before we move into our ratings tonight? What a cigar.
Rooster: I mean,
Gizmo: right.
Chef Ricky: I'm not ready for the vacation.
Bam Bam: I'm not sure if you guys are going getting, I'm kind of getting something really special, so I dramatically slowed down my [01:34:00] smoking at the very end. Let it cool down. You
Rooster: got a be hot for me.
Bam Bam: Well, I stopped, I kind of stopped smoking it and you're lighting and taking a drag and letting it sit and doing it again and again. I'm getting dark chocolate and very deep cocoa now,
Senator: so I get a little bit of cocoa. The, the cashew note, we called out earlier, it was like lightly toasted before
Bam Bam: mm-hmm.
Senator: And now it's like really toasted.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Senator: In a great way. Like I, I love the flavor down the stretch.
Bam Bam: It's awesome. Right now,
Senator: when you got to the end of the second third, we were talking about it just slightly picked up a little bit in strengthened body when you get down to the final third. It does pick up. Not that it's in any way full or strong or anything like that, but like, it, it really lets you know it's still there and it's a transition that like grabs your attention.
I, I could not be happier with this cigar. Yeah.
Rooster: I mean, the whole cigar is between a mild and a medium, [01:35:00] but towards the end it, it does get a little bit more me.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Rooster: yeah,
Bam Bam: yeah. But for me, what's special is that dark chocolate. It's not overly sweet. It's that it's got that refined, chocolatey experience I can't put my finger on.
It's really, this is gonna be highly, highly rated, I think.
Gizmo: All right, let's start first with the tequila tonight. The G four Tequila Reposado Boys. It's time for the formal liquoring. Bam. Bam. You're up.
Bam Bam: Yeah. It's a 10 right off the bat.
Chef Ricky: I feel like we could do this in unison.
Bam Bam: Yeah. I mean, I, I don't know how you can't give this a very high score.
Nine or a 10. This is a 10. I just love how botanical on the nose. J right after the poor, the aroma was incredible. Cucumber bot, other botanicals. Mm, it was fantastic. On the nose, I think on the palette. Just the touch of sweetness. It was a little salty. It wasn't very minerally for me, which I'm happy about.
Just, just enough. But for the price and how deliciously [01:36:00] this thing drank, I mean, it's hard to beat. I'm at a 10.
Chef Ricky: All right, chef. I'm right with bam, outta 10 i bam. Are you available for consulting? Just no bams palate tonight is on fire. Man, this
Bam Bam: is crazy.
Chef Ricky: I mean, this tequila delivered on so many levels. It was beautifully oaked.
It was beautifully agave forward. It just, it was so balanced, just like the cigar perfect pairing. It paired beautifully with the freaking champagne. I mean, it was an easy back and forth and, and, and, and just, you could go anywhere with this thing, uh, you know.
Bam Bam: Don't forget the countless cigars that this could pair beautifully with.
Absolutely.
Chef Ricky: Poop our new worldly. Oh, absolutely. I know poop's not here. Oooooo would be fucking gushing about this.
Gizmo: Well, first off, it's G four. Let's start there. Yeah,
Bam Bam: true. But I, I think
Gizmo: it's also an excellent expression of G four,
Bam Bam: I think. I think Oo and Grinder would love the cigar too. I think it's right in their wheelhouse.
Senator: I think pagoda would too.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. As it got down the [01:37:00] stretch. Yes. I
Senator: mean, G four's a great tequila. It's a great rum. It's a great scotch. Oh
Bam Bam: yeah.
Senator: Everything.
Chef Ricky: But I, I, yeah, I mean, everything they've done with this tequila from the oak, they're using Tennessee whiskey. Uh, I mean, Felipe, Nia, his sons, these guys are geniuses. They know what the hell they're doing. Great. Fucking PIs Point. Great juice, great. Uh, expression of tequila. It's a 10. It's a 10.
Gizmo: So for me it's also a 10 I, I think.
I think you've used the word balanced. Refined is another word I'd use. Crisp, yes. Yes. No heat. Nice. Great price. No bite it. It's just an excellent reposado. It might be one of the better reposados we've had on this podcast. And what I love about this, and, and I think you, you mentioned it, chef, you know, kind of double fisting with the, you know, the Paul Roget in the other hand.
That
Bam Bam: was fantastic.
Gizmo: What I love about the tequila is. For it being aada with a little [01:38:00] age, hitting a little bit more, you know, time with those barrels. It's not trying too hard.
Chef Ricky: Yeah.
Gizmo: It just, it's not forced. Just, it's like the, it's the guy in the corner of the room who's just kind of chill and cool, but he's making his point, you know, this tequila is perfect.
It's priced so great at $46, we got it tonight. This for a tequila lover has to be on the shelf. Has to be, and like you said, bam, it pairs so well with this cigar tonight and so many other cigars. I can imagine. I think so. I, I loved it. I'm, I'm so glad we grabbed it tonight. So it's a 10 for me more Senator.
Senator: I mean, this is easy. It's a 10. Um, I, I, bam. Truly your call outs tonight,
Bam Bam: mm.
Senator: Flavor-wise have been outstanding.
Bam Bam: It's easy to do when you have a great product.
Senator: I say that because to me, the best word that can be used to describe this when you said botanical mm-hmm. It, it is. I just, the nose of this, it, it's like [01:39:00] everything.
If you were in like a, a nice spa, like, it, it, it just like when you said like cucumber and there's like this brininess there, there's so many things coming. You know, I love the
Bam Bam: spa,
Senator: but truly like it. It's just the nose is intoxicating and then all the flavor that it delivers, it's super refined. It's complex. There's nothing you could possibly complain about here. And it, it has such a range that I feel like this appeals to people kind of across the spectrum, whatever you're looking for in a tequila mm-hmm.
You want something. This would appeal to someone who likes a, a lighter spirit, a lighter tequila. But there's also enough flavor in this. Yes. That like someone who likes something more flavorful. Is gonna enjoy this as well. I can't think of a person that wouldn't enjoy this. [01:40:00] Um, great pairing. Absolute 10.
Great price, strong recommend. I, I can't wait to drink this again. Yeah. And this is one of the few products and, and definitely tequilas that I would go as far as saying is even underpriced.
Gizmo: Yeah, I agree with you on that. That's true. Yep. Alright, boys. The formal liquor rating tonight and the G four tequila reposado is a perfect 10.
Let's compare that to the only other G four we've done on the pod. We did the Blanco Madea on episode 155, scored an 8.8. It didn't clip a nine, but tonight at a Perfect 10, the Rapto is certainly a much preferred expression in this room. And now it's time for the formal Liz rating tonight on the Kaba Igu Imperials by Awa Rooster.
Good luck. So, I mean,
Rooster: this cigar is unlike a tattoo. I, it's unlike that it has Nicaraguan tobaccos. It doesn't smoke like it has Nicaraguan tobaccos. [01:41:00] Um, the cigar is so creamy. It's, I mean, we, it's a $10 Churchill cigar that we mm-hmm. Compared it to a very high end. Cuban cigar a funder, Doris. Correct. Which is an 80, $90 cigar.
Um, I mean this cigar, I mean the notes that we got, it was creamy. It had, uh, you know, there were like floral notes. Um, it was toasted cashew that came through. The entire cigar was so delicious. I mean, it's absolutely, you can smoke this in the morning, you can smoke it in the afternoon. You could smoke it as your first cigar before you have like a fabric of five cigar.
Chef Ricky: You could
Rooster: smoke cigar, you could smoke it again. Yeah. I mean, I'm curious to smoke some other sizes of this and yeah. Maybe get some five packs of, you know, all of them and just try them out.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Rooster: Uh, so I'm at a solid 10. It's absolutely delicious. I mean this [01:42:00] at this price point of 10 bucks, it's absolutely a must try.
Correct. And thank you Matt Juarez for recommend, uh, for this great recommend.
Chef Ricky: Yes.
Senator: All right, Senator. As Pagoda would say, 10 10 wins, correct? I mean, it, it's absolutely a 10 i this calendar year, this cigar has been one of the biggest shocks and surprises and one of the most satisfying cigars that we have done on this podcast.
I, I can't find a singular flaw. It's a two act play. I think most of the first two thirds. It's mild, but complex delivery of flavor.
Bam Bam: Yeah,
Senator: it's creamy. It's the tobacco is definitely aged. There is no sign of youth, such a delicious cigar. And then that last third picks up a [01:43:00] bit in strength, gets closer to medium, leaves you feeling like this cigar actually has utility beyond the morning or the early afternoon.
Like it has enough strength at the end that like you could start an evening with this cigar. Um, so satisfying. I, I, I really am just blown away. Perfect blend. I, I'm speechless. I truly speechless. I, I just can't get over how satisfying this cigar has been. Oh yeah.
Bam Bam: That's shocking.
Senator: What a treat.
Gizmo: So I just want to quickly remem remind Senator what he said when I answered today.
He said, WTF is that cigar. We not gonna forget that. And now he speechless.
Senator: Speechless. And I said that because like, who's heard of the, the brand on the label? I mean, taua. Yeah. If you would've said like Taua, blah, blah, blah. Said we were all that. He might have
Gizmo: said it, but we were all thinking,
Bam Bam: all think were all the same thing.
For
Senator: sure. Totally.
Bam Bam: No doubt. [01:44:00]
Gizmo: So for me it's also a 10 boys, you know, we joke, but uh, I mean we were laughing coming in and obviously Senator prompting that today. I didn't even put it on the chat because I was anxious about how this was gonna perform tonight because. AWA has not, UA has not done well for us on this podcast, but tonight is such an exception.
I think it blew all of us away. I am shocked that this $10 Churchill performed like it did tonight. I mean, even when we picked it up and looked at it, we felt that it might've been underfilled lightly filled. It was the lightest, large format cigar we've ever held in our hands. It was
Bam Bam: risky.
Gizmo: It was.
Tonight was a little bit of a, uh, this could have gone either way.
Bam Bam: Oh yeah.
Gizmo: But to go to this extreme of excellence at 10 bucks
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: Is shocking.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: So, uh, again, I'm gonna go back to my favorite word that I've been using quite a bit on cigars that we love. It was effortless. The elegance that this cigar brought tonight, I think the, the energy in the room that the cigar brought it, it just [01:45:00] kind of, it was the glue tonight in the room.
Of course, the, the, the Paul Roge and, and the tequila and celebration of four years. I mean, that's all great, but this cigar being great kind of. That's the, that's the, the, the tip. Correct. You know, that that's what made it great. That's the
Bam Bam: hallmark. The evening.
Gizmo: Exactly right. Yeah. I think there's Cuban notes in this.
We talked about, there's Honduran notes in this we talked about.
Bam Bam: Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: And again, like you said, rooster, I can't find anything Nicaragua about the cigar.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Gizmo: There's nothing
Bam Bam: so unusual
Gizmo: that I could point to that If this was a blind taste tonight, we would've all gotten every aspect of this cigar wrong.
I really believe that. We would've never called out Tata Wahe. We would've never said it was Nicaraguan in any component.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Gizmo: Absolutely. Great. The funk that that chef called out, I think added another factor of, of, of, you know, it was different, different kind of funk that I haven't tasted before. I didn't even know how to name it.
Chef Ricky: Yeah,
Gizmo: it was excellent. It was just easy as pie. I loved it. It was such a great cigar. I can't wait to smoke more. It's a [01:46:00] 10 for me.
Chef Ricky: Oh yeah.
Gizmo: Chef,
Chef Ricky: listen. Turn $10, Churchill. A Tua with a Nicaragua blend that just blew us all away. Finally, a cigar that calls out Cuban esque flavors or claims to be Cuban esque.
And actually is this thing is a lifesaver. It it, it changed. It's, he had,
Gizmo: he had a really bad day. I could tell
Chef Ricky: this cigar just seems just like this cigar.
Bam Bam: Did
Chef Ricky: the health department come in? No. Health department. They find the equal.
Gizmo: Those are bad. Those are bad rumors to start. Bam. I'm
Bam Bam: just saying.
Gizmo: Couple jets jokes and you throw out e cole at it.
Bam Bam: Correct.
Chef Ricky: If they did, we'd sco anate.
Bam Bam: I know you would. I know you would.
Chef Ricky: This cigar was effortless. It was delicious. It was dynamic. It was memorable. It there. I see it. [01:47:00] It's a celebratory cigar at $10.
Gizmo: It is.
Chef Ricky: This is a fucking amazing cigar.
Gizmo: Imagine having this, I'm gonna be celebrating Thanksgiving every morning with this cigar. Correct. But having this on Thanksgiving, you wouldn't be disappointed at all.
Chef Ricky: This is an amazing cigar to have on a football Sunday where you know you're gonna have a long smoke session. You're, you're gonna start early. And it's like, what better way to start? You know, the Jets have one win and it's like, you know what? I'm gonna light the cigar. I don't
Bam Bam: understand.
Chef Ricky: It's a lifesaver.
It's
Bam Bam: a lifesaver.
Chef Ricky: It was an absolute delight to have the cigar tonight. And I, you know, like Senator, when I caught up with my text messages, I too thought, what the fuck is this cigar? And boy did it make a statement today. Boy, is this gonna be in our, in our, in our regular smoke sessions? I can't wait to see you guys all put this up in the [01:48:00] chat that you're smoking it and, and I, I can't wait to buy a few boxes of this stuff.
Gizmo: Yeah.
Chef Ricky: Um, this was just. An amazing night, an amazing evening, an amazing everything. This is a perfect 10. We need the 10 10 wind, uh, soundbite. I'll what we, we, here, I'll pull it. We need a 10. 10. That's good point, sound bite. Because you know what? A night like tonight when you're halfway into cigar and, and, and two spirit pairings in with a champagne, with a delicious champagne, a delicious tequila, you just kinda know it.
And I feel like very early on, we all knew that this was gonna be the night that it's, and this is a night that's deserving of that soundbite. So, um, yeah, this is a perfect time for me.
Bam Bam: Awesome. All right, ba, so I'm outta 10 as well. Um, you, GIZ and Senator said something earlier that rang true. This cigar is very therapeutic.
Because it's so easy to smoke. Mm-hmm. But it's, there's [01:49:00] a lot of depth in this cigar that's can be easily overlooked by the average smoker. I think because it's so subtle and so creamy and elegant, you'll miss the nuances of the cashew. You'll miss that creamy and velvet inness toward the end. That, for me, the deep cocoa and that dark, dark chocolate that I got.
Rooster: Don't forget the dried apricot.
Bam Bam: Yeah. At on the finish. The one thing about this cigar sleep, we've up all night. 10. 10
Rooster: wind all time.
Bam Bam: It's a 10. It's a 10. A 10. You may disagree with me on this comment. I'm not sure if I would give this. To an a super novice, early smoker. Yes. It's easy to smoke. They'll probably, the thing is they'll probably blast right through it, not pick up the nuances of it and go on to the next cigar or never have a cigar that the rest of that day
Gizmo: at 10 bucks.
That's
Gizmo: okay.
Bam Bam: I know. Yeah, I know that is, [01:50:00] but I think it's, you're able
Gizmo: to coach 'em. I don't think it's a bad
Bam Bam: choice. It's true. But this, this cigar, it deserves a seasoned guy or girl that really knows what they're doing and can pick up all the nuances that we picked up today. Otherwise, the average person may miss a lot of it.
Rooster: Yeah. You should give them a funder Doris
Bam Bam: instead. Yeah. Yeah. Outta your box,
Gizmo: since nobody's
Rooster: buying it,
Bam Bam: but, um, I, I think everything's spot on tonight. It's, it's an absolute tent. Yeah.
Gizmo: Well said. Bam.
Bam Bam: Yeah. Incredible.
Gizmo: The formal lizard rating tonight, boys. It's an easy one on the Kaba Igan. Imperials by t. Is a perfect 10.0.
Can you believe it? Wow. What a cigar.
Bam Bam: Incredible.
Gizmo: So before we compare this to the other Tawa Hayes, we done, I wanna say one thing. I think I do disagree with you on giving this to a novice smoker. I think if you're able to
Bam Bam: coach
Gizmo: them, number one, you said, I think number one, I think the biggest thing I will say to listeners out there is I think this cigar wet is not going to smoke like it did tonight.
Mm-hmm.
Bam Bam: Of course not.
Gizmo: I think drying the cigar out to the point that we did tonight was [01:51:00] very, very helpful. The burn was consistent for everybody. There weren't a lot of lighters coming up. I hit it a couple times when I was talking a lot, but that was it. Like it was my own doing. It wasn't the cigars.
Bam Bam: Yeah. But you're not touching on the salient points that I made, but
Gizmo: I'm getting to the point that you made. I think if you're sitting next to someone and you give them this and they're a novice mm-hmm. And you're able to coach them through it, maybe making sure they pace it right, slow it down, et cetera.
Bam Bam: Yeah.
Gizmo: Okay. I think this is a brilliant. Cigar for a novice because yes, that's, it's easy
Bam Bam: if you're with them and if you're coaching them and telling them to slow down, it's appreciate gateway, cigar. The cigar for what it
Gizmo: is. This is a great introductory cigar to what excellence is in this hobby. And guess what, if they put it down halfway, bam, you're not even gonna mind it's 10 bucks
Bam Bam: and I can finish it for them.
I'm right there with you. Correct.
Gizmo: All right, so let's compare this 10 to the other three Awa Hayes we've done on the podcast. We did the Petite Kura on episode 16 for a short smoke special, scored an 8.0 the reserve, a [01:52:00] broadleaf Reggio on episode 41, scored a 7.0. The text lomo deto the pork wine that.
Rooster brought in on episode 89, scored a 6.3, and tonight we have a perfect 10 on the Kaba, equine redemption. Imperial
Bam Bam: did 11, I don't think Rooster box
Gizmo: that.
Bam Bam: Uh
Gizmo: oh. What a great night tonight, boys. What is this? Vila?
Bam Bam: Excellent.
Gizmo: Imperials,
Bam Bam: Imperials.
Gizmo: Imperials.
Bam Bam: Fantastic.
Gizmo: 44 by seven. So what a great night tonight, boys.
Of course. Amazing
Bam Bam: night.
Gizmo: We have to congratulate again, lizard Christophe, with that awesome voice memo. Great questions about humidity, and of course all the lizards out there. We really appreciate you writing in lizard. Christophe, of course, won that 10 count box from Bon Roberts, which is awesome. So we thank those guys for helping us with our lizard of the week.
We have to thank Fabrica five boys.
Bam Bam: Oh
Gizmo: great. Honduran cigars,
Bam Bam: correct?
Gizmo: I actually [01:53:00] can't wait to have a Fabrica five right now. When we hit stop,
Bam Bam: I got one with me
Gizmo: too. I'm gonna have one as soon as we stop recording. I think it's a great follow up to this great cigars great discount using our Code Lizard Pod.
Get 10% off your entire order, so check them out at fabrica zero zero five.com. Of course, we have to thank small batch Cigar Boys
Bam Bam: also, correct?
Gizmo: Great retailer, the best boutique retailer in the United States.
Bam Bam: Hands
Gizmo: down, go check them out. Small Batch Cigar. Listen. Yes, they're a partner. Yes, they're a sponsor, but we've all been buying from small batch for years, all before, for years, correct.
So many of our pod cigars are pod review. Cigars have come from small batch. We are no bullshit. You know that about us. Small Batch Cigar is a fantastic partner, a fantastic retailer, and for you, you're gonna get amazing products, amazing service at a great price. And for all those other reasons that we talk about in the on the ad that's running, you definitely need to check out Small Batch Cigar and of course use our code Lizard 15 to check out.
And boys. What a great night tonight. We'll see everybody next week.[01:54:00]
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's Lounge lizards PO d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll uh, we'll see you next week.