Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica5. 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, Poobah, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder, and Bam Bam, a full house of lizards.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink champagne and scotch, talk about life. And of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 149th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're going to smoke a Cupid cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We celebrate Senator's birthday, we revisit pouring water over your cigar with listener comments, and we go back in time for a cigar buying exercise, all among a variety of other things for the next two hours. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy. As we pair Bollinger, special cuvee and 15 year old Glenmorangie.
Cadball estate single malt scotch with the Partagas Maduro number three. [00:01:00] A Robusto extra tonight from Cuba. It's called the Partagas Maduro number three, and it's a 50 ring gauge cigar by five and three quarters inches long. And boys, this cigar is the sister to a very, very special cigar in our history.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** As we're coming up on 150 episodes, obviously next week is going to be a new world. Yeah. So I thought it appropriate to do the sister cigar. Of the first cigar we ever did, which was the Partagas
**Bam Bam:** Correct.
**Gizmo:** The Partagas Maduro No. 3 tonight. We're gonna do a little celebrating.
**Bam Bam:** Very excited.
**Gizmo:** I will say, this
**Bam Bam:** wrapper is rugged.
Well, all the Maduro lines, the 2 and the 1, are also rugged. Very similar.
**Poobah:** It's rugged, but it's the construction as well. Yeah, I think it's well constructed. There's an elegance to it. Very toothy.
**Rooster:** Only thing is if it didn't have the second band on it, I wouldn't know it's a Maduro. You know, it's not a dark, uh, Maduro rapper.
[00:02:00] I've had a D4 that has a darker rapper than this. Oh, that picture you sent to me. Your Dominican D4. It was a Dominican D4? That's
**Bam Bam:** correct.
**Rooster:** It was a Zeno. That's a Zeno. Because I got it through
**Senator:** you. This looks like a Maduro to me.
**Rooster:** I mean, some Maduros are like Dominican Maduros or Nicaraguan ones are much darker, you know.
**Gizmo:** This is exciting. I'm excited.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Let's cut this thing, boys. So we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. So
**Bam Bam:** Giz. Yep. Dare I ask how much you paid for these? These were 30 bucks, Bam.
**Rooster:** Really? Yeah. Are you serious? 30. That's a good sign. They are actually available right now on EGM. No. Swear to God.
**Bam Bam:** I
**Rooster:** have
**Bam Bam:** never seen these come up anywhere.
**Rooster:** Well, inventory is starting to come up. I mean, you're starting to see a lot of stuff.
**Senator:** Just careful telling Bam that, because the last time I told Bam about Aparagus
**Gizmo:** Majora, he cleared it out. Oh, that's right. That's right.
**Bam Bam:** Those are the half Coronas. That's
**Gizmo:** right. What are you guys getting
**Poobah:** on the
**Gizmo:** cold draw?
**Bam Bam:** I've got a [00:03:00] very tight draw, I will say.
**Poobah:** I don't. Mine's wide open. I'm going to say it. I'm getting, I'm getting dried fruit. I know that.
**Bam Bam:** Are you really? Oh yeah. Yeah. So my, my cigar's plugged, so I'm dying to get that. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm putting in my perfect draw right now.
**Gizmo:** My draw is really nice, just a touch bit of resistance.
It's very earthy.
Yeah. I got some cedar, some earth, and uh, a little bit of spearmint. I'm getting a mint, a minty, a slight mint note to this cigar. Huh. Did you have mezcal earlier, is that why? I did not, I did not.
**Poobah:** No
**Gizmo:** dried fruit yet. Very pleasant. Can we light this thing? All right, boys, let's light this thing.
The Partagas Maduro number three. Again, it's a Robusto extra from Cuba. 50 ring gauge cigar by five and three quarters inches long. I found it very interesting that for how common this size feels in my hand right here, as far as [00:04:00] other cigars go, especially from Cuba, This is the only Cuban cigar in production at this exact size.
Really?
**Poobah:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** What
**Poobah:** is it? What are the specs
**Bam Bam:** again? I'm sorry. 50
**Gizmo:** by 5 and 3 quarters.
**Bam Bam:** And, um, do we have a date and box code on this? Yeah, the
**Gizmo:** box code on this is PTG April 2021. That's a provincial. Provincial.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** April 2021.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. So
**Gizmo:** they're coming up on about three and a half years of age. I've had these in the tower for about 90 days. I mean, it's delicious right off
**Poobah:** the light. What was the cigar that we smoked in the fancy box again? Particus
**Senator:** Aliados. Thank you. Can, can we just enjoy this moment? I think, uh, chef Ricky is very pleased.
**Gizmo:** Wow. Well, this is, this is hopefully going to be the first great or good, at least Cuban cigar that Chef Ricky's had on the podcast with us.
This is right off the [00:05:00] bat. I mean, we're not even second draw and I'm getting bready, almost rye like caramel, creamy, like it's so complex and it's just started.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Senator:** Great. Wow. Great off the light. I feel like the, um, the Maduro one is the one we did before, right? Yes. Yeah. I feel like the one starts off sweeter than this. Uh, so it's, it's fun to see kind of how the
**Bam Bam:** flavor profiles differ with the Patolas. I think for me, the Maduro one, it's very heavy espresso and dark chocolate.
And, um, touch of pepper.
**Rooster:** I don't, I don't like the Maduro too, as much as the one.
**Bam Bam:** Neither do I. I've only had that once. I'm not a fan. Maduro one
**Rooster:** is
delicious. I'm ready to rate guys.
**Gizmo:** So let's talk about the sister cigars to this one again. The first cigar we ever did on this podcast. The Maduro number one is a Robusto 52 by five and an eighth.
That cigar came out in [00:06:00] 2015. It was originally released as a Habano specialist exclusive in 2018. That cigar was changed to general production as part of the quote unquote Linea Maduro from Partagus. And at that same time, they launched two additional cigars. The Maduro number two. The Petit Pyramid, which is 55 by four and three quarters.
And then the one we have in our hand, the Robusto Extra Maduro number three. So this one and the Maduro number two came out in 2018. The Maduro number one came out in 2015. And those three cigars right now complete the line.
**Bam Bam:** I thought I read that Maduro two was delayed beyond the three release.
**Gizmo:** No, they came out in 2018.
Okay. Yeah. Same time as this one. And bam, before we got on air, we were talking about, These cigars, you don't, you haven't been seeing them that much. I know that they're currently available on EGM, which I was unaware of. Well, this
**Bam Bam:** one is. You
**Gizmo:** don't see them come up a lot.
**Senator:** Never. Almost never. Honestly, you didn't back then see them come up [00:07:00] that often.
That's true too.
**Poobah:** Yeah. It was once in a blue
**Senator:** moon.
**Poobah:** Yeah, they're, they're somewhat limited. Mm hmm.
**Gizmo:** I would assume it's just a, you know, the Maduro wrapper is just scarce in Cuba. Because they also share that wrapper or a sister of that wrapper to the Cohiba Maduro line, which obviously from a priority standpoint, if you're Habanos, Tabacuba, where are you going to send your Maduro wrapper?
You're going to try to make more Cohiba.
**Bam Bam:** There's a great richness to this cigar right now. It's really nice. Very satisfying.
**Poobah:** You can tell the, at least with my cigar, the construction is real nice. The burn lines, it's working along. It's previewing. Great. Yeah.
This is so full bodied. I'm so curious to see where we're going to end up, you know, by the final third here because, uh, yeah, I started out, it's, it's taken over.
Yeah. Uh, just really creamy, really robust, uh, kind of salty too. A little salty. There's,
**Grinder:** there's a, there's a, there's a lot of intensity to this in the mouth. It [00:08:00] was like a, there's like a pepper, white pepper, I guess. There's like a pepper envelope that brings everything together. It's not. All pepper, but if there's just something that ties it all together.
I'm getting that
**Gizmo:** pepper at the very end of the finish.
**Grinder:** Yeah. And then I would say the aroma is, is so different. It's like a, it's so different from the flavor in the mouth. It's like a sweetness. Sweetness. It's like a sweet kind of, I don't know, like butterscotch. Yeah. It's
**Bam Bam:** like a sweet butterscotch. Yeah, that's actually I was getting more of a caramel, but I think it's more of a butterscotch type of thing.
That's pretty accurate I'm sure if
a few of you guys have not all have had like chocolate chocolate covered espresso beans, of course getting a little of that here Espresso further in the back. Mm hmm. But yeah, this is Wow. So you
**Rooster:** it's definitely a fuller Cuban cigar compared to ever had. And yeah, anything that I can
**Poobah:** really remember, which you would expect.
[00:09:00] However, um, through the nose, it's very pleasant. Um, the
**Bam Bam:** retro house. Nice. Now you've had the Maduro too.
**Rooster:** Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** I have to, I found it to be the lighter of the three.
**Rooster:** I think this is closer to the Maduro one than the two.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And that one had some pepper in it and a little bit of sweetness, but mostly wood and, um, Chocolate, right?
Deep espresso. Walnut. Walnut, woodiness, cedar, and a little pepper in it too. And it was a kind of light, it was more like a light plus, if I could use that. I get a
**Gizmo:** lot of shit for saying possum in this room. So I'm looking, I'm looking, it's interesting. And the chef is here, don't do it, don't do it to me, man.
I'm
**Poobah:** looking around the room at the, um, at the foot of everyone's cigar. Mine has a bright white ash. Yeah, it does. Um, not always typical, uh, for a Cuban, having a bright white ash. Maybe they imported some tobacco. Yeah, there you
**Pagoda:** go. Maybe the rap is not from Beijing. [00:10:00]
**Gizmo:** Mine's pretty, mine's pretty bright white.
So this is the 11th Partagus we've done on the podcast. We. Love part of this around here. Not enough. Now the last one didn't perform too well. The new Aliados LCD H we did. That's because it wasn't a part of it. It's definitely divergent of what we know of part, I guess. I think it needed a
**Rooster:** fancier box.
Maybe it was, it was so, and a higher price. It was
**Poobah:** so non memorable. I blocked the name from my mind. Yeah, this is a really, really nice cigar boys. I'm just looking at Senator and he has like cautious optimism. Bobby language. Well, he was burned. He got burned. I think he has cautious. He's, he's cautiously optimistic.
Like he's very quiet right now.
**Senator:** I think for me, whenever I have a part of this Maduro, there's just like, uh, there's almost so a wonder and an awe to just experience a Cuban cigar that is trying to be like many new world cigars that we enjoy. I mean, you can count them on one hand, the number of [00:11:00] Cuban cigars with a Maduro rapper like this.
And so I just, I haven't had a part of this Maduro and. At least a year, if not even two since our first episode, probably close to that at least. And it's just the thought of that. This is possible. I wish they made more of this. Like, that's what I'm just sitting here saying to myself. Like we're all talking about the richness and the intensity of the flavor.
Which is what we say about a lot of Maduro, new world cigars. And clearly Cuba can do it too. I just wish that they would do it a little more often.
**Rooster:** I mean, it's not just the wrapper. It's obviously the blend is more robust, so you can, even if you can't get the wrapper, you can, you can put out a cigar with a little bit more robust of a blend.
**Poobah:** I don't feel like. At this point, at least, it's like, I'm not getting, I don't feel like this is lejero heavy. I feel like it's balanced.
**Rooster:** But it's, it's a medium smoke right now. Yes. You know, and, and a lot of the Cuban cigars tend to be on the milder side. Mm hmm. That's what I mean. But
**Pagoda:** the, you know, they've been able to achieve something very distinct, right?
Having a [00:12:00] Maduro wrapper, which is not somewhat reminiscent of either, you know, the Dominican or the Nicaraguan. Uh, you know, uh, Maduro wrappers. There's something very different about this for sure.
This is amazing 'cause it's the best of both worlds for me. You know, I'm getting some of that pepper that, that pepperiness that you would get in an vo or in a new world cigar.
I'm getting that Cuban twang, the salt, some of the milder, nutty notes. Um, it's, it's great. There's a great sweet finish, though, that's
**Bam Bam:** a apparent a little bit at the end for me. Mm-Hmm. . And just to touch it of
**Gizmo:** that salty twang
**Bam Bam:** up. I get that up front. Yeah, right up
**Gizmo:** front. That I think that salty sweet. Thing with the earthiness of the cigar, a little robust.
Oh yeah. It's really, really nice. This is a treat.
The retro Hills. Amazing. Oh yeah. It's a, it's a strong retro. The first couple, the first couple, I
**Poobah:** didn't, the
first, the first two for me were on the stronger side because of the pepper, but once you're, you know, you assimilate to it, what about you guys?
[00:13:00] Strong on a retro or what?
**Gizmo:** I I'm finding the retro to be totally fine. I'm getting a little bit of the pepper. Yeah. I'm getting a little pepper on the end of the regular finish, but I'm not finding it to be
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, I find the retro to be very, very pleasant.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's very pleasant. Very pleasant retro. It's very
nice.
Yeah, the creaminess definitely helps, uh, just kind of subdue the pepper a bit on the retro.
**Gizmo:** So boys, like I said, we're pseudo celebrating tonight because it's getting close to 150 episodes. Correct. Tonight's 149. I think technically this might be episode 151 or 152 that we've done. Obviously, the numbers are the
**Bam Bam:** You have secret episodes stashed away.
I do, I do. Just in case
**Gizmo:** of nuclear attack. 5am Tuesday will still hit. That's right. But we are celebrating tonight, boys. We have a birthday in the room this week. Oh boy. From El Senador. Ding, ding,
**Bam Bam:** ding, ding, ding. Are we
**Gizmo:** giving out gifts or what are we doing? We're going to start with the champagne. Okay. Oh, and this is exciting because of, you know, Senator, Oh, you [00:14:00] did get the non alcoholic champagne.
All right. Good night, guys. It's like, uh, this is not Russia's birthday. What is it? That's it for
**Poobah:** me?
**Gizmo:** That's tomorrow. That is it for me today. So we not only have Bollinger, we also have. Oh, Paul Roger, and we have several bottles of this. We're doing, we're doing, we're doing the J. Bowley and Pauly tonight on the pod, celebrating El Senador's birthday.
You want to pop this thing or do you want me to do it?
**Senator:** I mean, I kind of want to witness Gizmo do the honors. Just don't point it in my direction. You can point it, not
**Pagoda:** in
**Senator:** Ricky's.
**Poobah:** Wait, Giz, you didn't bring your saber? I'm holding, I'm holding on the Senator's arm here. He doesn't fly out of the chair
when you mess this up for those playing lizard bingo.
It doesn't look like the sabers making appearance, but
**Pagoda:** I do like the bully and bully
**Gizmo:** bully and bully. Listen, there's eight of us here tonight. We can't afford to drop a quarter of [00:15:00] this on the floor. If you
**Poobah:** were super bougie, you'd name your poodles like Bully and Polly. Except they both answered in the same name.
All right, gents, let's do this.
Is this the first episode with eight lizards?
**Gizmo:** This is the first ever episode with eight lizards. Don't, don't pop it off like you're about to do. What should I do? We're not trying to spray people with champagne. You gotta
**Rooster:** twist it. Twist the bottle. Hold the cork and twist the bottle.
Hold the court.
**Poobah:** There
**Rooster:** you go. There you go, guy.
**Senator:** All right. A lot of fucking critics in this room. Jesus Christ. All these years of life when he's learning how to open a champagne bottle for the first time. He did a good job. Don't tilt the glass. You're good.
**Gizmo:** He
**Poobah:** just dropped something. I know. You're making me
**Gizmo:** nervous.
Unbelievable.
**Poobah:** Goodness gracious. A lot of critics
**Gizmo:** in this room, Bam.
**Poobah:** Correct. Oh, thank you.
**Gizmo:** So, Senator, happy birthday. This is very exciting. You're turning, uh, 22.
**Bam Bam:** That's right. That's right. And [00:16:00] we are seven plus in the room tonight, aren't we?
**Gizmo:** We are. First episode ever with eight lizards in the room. Nice. How cool is that?
**Bam Bam:** Very cool.
**Gizmo:** And while we pass the champagne around, I got to tell you, every draw of this cigar, It's getting better and better. Mm-Hmm, . It's really nice. It's excellent. So we're starting with the Bollinger Boing J. What was that? Boing. Boing J. It's my birthday. Giz. Please get your eyes together for
**Pagoda:** Christ's sake.
We're starting with the bowl chain. This is one we've not rated, right? We have. We have, yes, we
have. I'm sorry GI missed the age on the cigar. What was it?
**Gizmo:** PTG, April 21. So it's like
**Poobah:** three and a half years. I think four years is like the number. On a good cigar.
**Gizmo:** I feel like this is pretty damn close. If not there.
Yeah. You know what I mean? At three and a
**Poobah:** half, that's what I've found.
**Senator:** I gotta say giz. This was also a nice unin, unintentional touch. A parus. That's right on my birthday that that's not an accident, Senator. [00:17:00] It's not an accident. How do
**Rooster:** you know it was unintentional? I have no idea. Nothing's
**Senator:** a nice accident.
I'd like to think. I'd like to think that gizmos, uh. Regimented, uh, way of choosing the, the pod cigars comes before any birthday.
**Gizmo:** Well, it actually, no, what it was is that it lined up. I really wanted to do the Partagas Maduro number three for episode one 50, because episode one was Maduro one.
**Bam Bam:** Yep.
**Gizmo:** Uh, but.
It lined up perfectly for this week, being, you know, close to 150. And then of course, your birthday is Mr. Partagas in the room. So it worked out very well. So, all right, boys, cheers to our friend El Senador. Cheers. We appreciate you. Love you. by the way, for introducing us all to. The brilliance of champagne with cigars.
Cheers, boys. Good health. Thank
**Senator:** you, guys. Cheers to the
**Gizmo:** listeners out there. We love a birthday in this room because we get to drink champagne.
**Poobah:** Grindr, I need eye contact. Cheers. I'm the only one who didn't make it.
**Gizmo:** So there are also some gifts. I'm going to pass this [00:18:00] over via rooster and Poobah. That's a special one.
**Bam Bam:** Excuse me.
**Gizmo:** That I love.
**Bam Bam:** Is that a Sir
**Gizmo:** Winston? That's a Lucy. Think in line of what we, uh, what we have in our hand tonight. Oh boy. That's a 2004. That's an old band. Partagas
**Senator:** Partagas band. Wowza. I can't wait to smoke this. Thanks, guys. That's a good one. Of course. Cheers. Could we take draws on that when you light it up?
Only if I get a draw of Booba's, uh, birthday stamp for you.
**Poobah:** Well, I have a cigar for you. That's very special. Oh boy. Oh
**Senator:** boy. That's very special. Oh boy. Oh boy. Uh, MD O2. That's it.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. MDO number two. That is outstanding. His favorite. He
**Gizmo:** is, he has showered in. Lonsdale's tonight on the pod. I love it. Aged Lonsdale's down the
**Rooster:** center.
**Gizmo:** Ooh, another one.
**Rooster:** Whoa. I don't think you've had this one. I
**Senator:** haven't.
**Rooster:** What is that? And I hear that the one
**Senator:** year I skipped out on might actually be one of the best years that they've done. So what is that? The Davidoff year of the dragons. Stupendous cigar. A big [00:19:00] double Corona. Excellent. Everyone I've talked to about this cigar agrees with me and says the year of the tiger, year of the rat, all the prior ones were not that great.
But they say, Oh, the, the dragon was actually really good. So I'm glad. So I have
**Rooster:** actually not had this. So I broke the box just for you, Sandra. Well, thank you, sir. Now, now that means you can smoke.
**Senator:** I'm
**Poobah:** so glad you're gushing over the Davidoff over the LGO, which I, which I would argue is just a little bit more collectible, but
**Rooster:** anyway, he has the LGO.
Oh, does he do, do you? You have that? What is this? He has the Nava.
**Bam Bam:** Enjoy.
**Rooster:** It's the Opus Dubai. Is it? You have an Opus Dubai in your hand? Is it really? It doesn't say Dubai.
**Gizmo:** That's why I didn't even know. Wow. That is, I'll be honest, Pooh, but we just got overshadowed. That is the showstopper. I don't know about
**Rooster:** that.
**Gizmo:** The Opus Dubai has made an appearance on this podcast. Well, I think
**Poobah:** it's only because of the hyperbolic. That's exactly right.
**Bam Bam:** Thank you. [00:20:00]
**Gizmo:** Well, happy birthday, son. Greatly appreciate it. We love you, man. Happy birthday, buddy. We appreciate you. And this champagne is going very, very well with this cigar.
**Senator:** Yeah, it is.
It was actually a good choice because we've talked about this before. I mean, the kind of the beauty of Bollinger is it's a more structured, fuller bodied champagne that like holds up well with a meal and to be smoking Maduro cigar with a lot of flavor, you need a champagne like that to really hold up well.
So I think it was a great choice. Yeah,
**Grinder:** that's what I was thinking.
**Poobah:** It's true. And, and, and the, the, the first bottle I bought of this in a restaurant was a few years ago. Oh, I'll never forget that. Text it. Yeah. So I sent help. There's no Paul Roche on the menu. I said, help. This is a limited champagne menu.
And I was in, uh, I don't know where the hell it was. in DC. Yeah. And, uh, he goes, get the Bolognese. You're going to like it. It's a, it's a, it's a full bodied champagne, but you're going to, you're going to like it. And, uh, sure enough, [00:21:00] It was a crowd pleaser.
**Grinder:** The cigar has turned to, the pepper has really subsided, and the sweetness has really picked up.
**Gizmo:** And I'm finding, actually, paired with the champagne, it's making the For me the salty twang pop a little more on the cigar, which is actually
**Poobah:** really nice. That's so true. Yeah Well, this is the beautiful thing for me personally that I why I like champagne with cigars and especially with the cigar That's got some pepper or it's got a little bit of body.
I love the cleansing Aspect of that, that a champagne delivers with a cigar. I think for the listener, you're thinking, well, I need a big, bold scotch to hold up against the holdup against maybe a cigar. That's a little bit stronger, but there's also a lot of merit, I think, in having something that cleanse your palate, like in between draws, when there's a long finish, Take the long finish, take it in, take a sip of champagne and [00:22:00] start over.
It's a little bit, I don't want to say a reset button, but it,
**Senator:** it, it's nice. I agree. And I think especially cigars that have some more nuanced flavors, it's like that palate cleansing effect that you're talking about allows you to kind of go back and revisit and pick up those like subtle notes that are there.
I feel like a cigar that's just like one or two notes and just in your face. That champagne isn't really gonna do much. You're getting everything out of it that you should in such an obvious way. But I think a cigar like this, we've called out at least a dozen, if not more notes already. That really helps.
I feel like you'd be able to extract those flavor notes. Yeah,
**Rooster:** I would. I would imagine it also brings out the minerality of the cigar. Probably a champagne, certainly, right? The earthiness.
**Bam Bam:** But going back to what Grindr said, the sweetness for me, there's no, it's not a fruit note. Of any kind. It's more like that sweet, biscuity, almost caramel type thing I'm getting.
Yeah. I don't think
**Grinder:** it's changed. I think there's [00:23:00] just more of it. More of it. Yeah, I agree.
**Poobah:** Yeah, it's, there's a little white chocolate, maybe? There's a little bit of
I'm getting some almond. A little bit of nutty, but there's a
**Poobah:** lot going on in the smoke. Yeah, it's complex. It's complex. It's in, I, I really like the viscosity of the smoke too.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Poobah:** And it did just change. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Right. Like just about now. About an inch and a quarter in roughly.
**Rooster:** I'm getting zero pepper. Spice is gone. The pepper is gone. Extremely pleasant.
**Bam Bam:** Worth every dollar right now. Agreed for what the cost is. 30 bucks for 30 bucks worth every dollar.
**Senator:** I also love this shape and the size.
I mean, it feels great in the hand. I can't believe you said this is the only Habanos this exact size.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So if you think like the Esmeralda from Trinidad that we did a few weeks ago, it's the identical length, but it's 53 ring gauge. This is 50. So, you know, it's very close, but it's not the same. And I think that I, [00:24:00] of course, My nature is to lean toward a smaller ring gauge.
I do prefer how this feels in the hand. You're a delicate guy. I am. I'm very
**Bam Bam:** delicate. I like how you twisted your head there. Yeah, you kind of, you kind of.
This is a hard episode for me because I don't want to talk. You know, I just, I'm really just sitting here relishing on everything that I'm getting from vanilla to cream to even almost, almost, Oats, you know, the, the, the, the smoke on and the flavor on this cigar is so, there's so much there and it's so round and it's so profound that I'm, I'm, I don't really want to talk about it.
**Senator:** You nailed the
**Rooster:** oats.
Yeah. A hundred percent there. Yeah. It's, it's.
**Rooster:** That's why we have you on the pods because we, we can't pick out these notes, man. Oats. Oats. Creamsicle. Honeycicle.
**Poobah:** There's a, when we, when we review a really, really good cigar, Or that's really going well. It's almost like a, [00:25:00] um, you're a little bit pensive, right?
You light it up and you're going, okay, what's this going to do? Is it going to be a disappointment? You know, you don't know. But then once you kind of settle into your point of like being quiet, It's like, there's like a, like a relaxing spell that gets put onto you by a cigar. That's really, really wonderful.
This is kind of doing that right now. So for me, um, I'm getting that, you know, so whenever I get that, um, like halfway, you know, maybe we're halfway through, maybe I was somewhat, uh, into the. Whatever it is, first, third is coming to an end. The third is first, third is coming to an end. And when you start to get that kind of like, wow, like I'm in the, I'm like dialing in.
You're already smoking a double Corona
**Bam Bam:** there? This is rooster. How dare you?
**Poobah:** This is serious commentary, man. I'm just saying, well,
**Bam Bam:** a calm comes over you where you're like, this [00:26:00] is like, this is kind of cool. So, you know, I get those moments when. I can retro and draw simultaneously, like that cycle that I discussed a few weeks ago, where I can keep doing it and not stop and just get enveloped into the cigar.
I get in that zone. I don't want to talk to anybody. I'm just enjoying the flavor. So I, I understand what you're saying.
**Grinder:** It's a real thing. There's a question for Chef Reggie. There's a, the restaurant in Ridgewood used to, former restaurant number 12, they used to have a donut with a dipping sauce. Like a New Orleans style beignet doughnut with a dipping sauce.
I know exactly where you're going. It's probably a creme anglaise. No. It's like a Grinder,
you should have just said yes. You wouldn't have looked like
**Grinder:** a genius.
**Rooster:** Correct! I shut up. Let me take that back. That's it! Exactly.
**Grinder:** It'll come to me.
Uh, no, you know what? I'm sitting here and, and just like a really awesome, well made, Vanilla bean ice cream.
Uh, [00:27:00] just super creamy, you know, you don't even have to go that far. Just go get a pint of Haagen Dazs or something, or just, just a decent, a really well made, whether commercial vanilla ice cream or something that's, you know, somewhat artisan. But this cigar is, wow, it's doing it. Like I'm, I'm, I'm ecstatic to be in this room with you guys, but I, I wouldn't mind being alone in a room with this cigar and just like the right, The right ambient light, the right song, and just, you know, Some candles.
You want a real intimate affair. Oh, you
**Pagoda:** mean do the lizard EDF? See him at 3am in the morning.
**Bam Bam:** Holy shit, man.
**Senator:** The funny thing though, you mentioned the creaminess. I'm not sure for me, it's ice cream, but there's definitely a lot of cream here. And I have to imagine that the age has done that. So it makes me curious to kind of revisit.
I probably have some of the Maduro one left in a box. If with that age. It brings out a more kind of creamy [00:28:00] finish. Cause I don't remember that being part of flavor notes. I got in the Maduro one, but I'm interested to see if the agents. So it's
**Rooster:** actually amazing how different the cigar is now from the first stage.
The pepper is completely gone. It's transformed. It's like smoking a different cigar. It has transformed. I know,
**Poobah:** but the, but the interest, the cool thing was that the pepper was good. Yeah, I didn't mind the
**Bam Bam:** pepper. Exactly.
**Poobah:** That's
**Bam Bam:** right. Yes, it was.
**Poobah:** So. We're talking two act play at this point. We'll see what happens in the third act.
Is it going to present rough edges? I have had none so far.
**Bam Bam:** Pagoda, the combustion is unbelievable, isn't it?
**Pagoda:** Yeah, this is good. And I'm happy that it's a Portuguese meaning and for 30 bucks. Now it makes you wonder whether the David of Maduro at what 50. Plus, you know, there's, uh, although that's an excellent cigar, I, I've become a fan of that.
But, uh,
**Rooster:** we can get you a good deal on those. Yeah, we do.
**Pagoda:** We do. We, we, we have a connection recently, but this is fantastic. Going off [00:29:00] of what
**Gizmo:** Poobah said, I'm finding it to be one of those cigars. And the pairing right now, we're, we're going to get to the Scotch in a minute, but the pairing with this champagne, It is bringing your heart rate down.
It's bringing the speed of everything down. Like it just, it's, it's, it's got a nice rhythm. And even when you're in a room like this, you can sense the energy of the room is, you know, like we're all aligned in that. Everybody's kind of in the same zone right now. It's just, it's hitting on all cylinders.
It's a zen moment. It kind of is.
**Bam Bam:** All right,
**Gizmo:** boys, we're coming to the end of the first third here on the Partagas Maduro number three. I think we have hit something with Partagas in this one. I mean, this is a home run. Home run. I agree.
**Senator:** And you know, to Poobah's point about how much relaxation a cigar like this brings, I just feel like a cigar where You, you kind of get surprised at moments, right?
Like the pepper was a surprising note. We S we knew this was a Maduro. We expected a sweet profile right off the bat. And then there was kind of surprise and delight [00:30:00] with like white pepper, just enough pepper, not overpowering. Then all of a sudden we're getting to the second third, uh, the second third of this cigar.
And the pepper is completely vanished. And it's all of a sudden these sweeter, creamier notes. I just feel like when you have those moments where a cigar is surprising you, you just kind of settle in and like, you're no longer driving. Like you're just on the journey where like most cigars, you feel like you're driving and that's where I feel like that relaxation comes from me to prove his point.
**Gizmo:** You're an autopilot.
**Senator:** Exactly. And what's
**Gizmo:** helping to Senator is that we're not having to work. We're not fighting it. We're not having to. Continually touch it up. I'm not worried about the ash falling over me. I'm not worried about, you know, it burning weirdly. Like it's just one of those cigars that's easy, which every, every cigar, especially at this price point should be correct.
And a lot of the times, obviously, as we know, they're not. Yeah, it seems the more you pay, the more difficult they become. Exactly right. Alright boys, let's move into our scotch pairing now. We have a limited [00:31:00] release tonight. A single estate, 15 years age from Glenn Morengy. This is called the Cad Ball Estate.
So let's try this thing, I've never had it.
**Bam Bam:** I, I love the spirit. I like that caramel vanilla finish I'm getting on this thing. That's
**Senator:** nice.
**Bam Bam:** It
**Senator:** is. I'm drinking it neat. I am too. I'm drinking it neat. I think it's an excellent scotch. Agreed. And the funny thing is I feel like Glemer Angie is known for being lighter among scotches.
And I feel like this has the like smooth delivery that they're known for, but a lot of flavor. I think it's really great and easy, very easy to drink extremely. Yeah.
**Poobah:** I like the scotch on its own. I just feel like
when you, when you, when you put the champagne with this for me, personally, if I had to choose one or the other, I'm choosing the, I'm, I'm drinking the champagne with the cigar, just because I feel like it pairs better. I'm probably, [00:32:00] maybe I'm in the minority, but I love the scotch. I mean, I'm not taking anything away from it.
I love it. It's just feels like maybe it overpowers just Some of the subtle notes on the finish where with the champagne, it almost like it cleanses my palate and I'm getting, I'm getting the most flavor out of the cigar between draws with the champagne for some reason, but it's not, it's, it's not a demerit in the scotch, you know what I'm saying?
In any way. So that's what I'm experienced right at this moment.
**Bam Bam:** I think they both have different. if you want to call them uses, right? The cleansing nature of this, of the champagne. It's a different experience in the Glenmorangi, but uh, I love that caramel vanilla thing I get at the end and I'm getting that in this cigar.
There are hints of those, those, those, those taste notes in this stick and it's complimenting beautifully. It's a valid point. Uh, that's
**Senator:** where I go with this. I don't disagree with Booba's point. The champagne helps get some of those like subtle flavor [00:33:00] notes in the cigar. But to Bam's point, the scotch, I feel like the flavor is so complimentary to the flavor notes in the cigar that I actually slightly prefer the scotch pairing with the cigar than I do the champagne one.
But I think each of your points, like there's utility in both. I think
**Gizmo:** for me, the Maduro nature, the more full Cuban nature of this cigar is pushing me. More towards a spirit as opposed to the champagne, as far as a companion to it. I think a lighter, more kind of normal, regular production Partagas, I would 100 percent lean toward a champagne or something lighter.
I agree with that. But I think with this being certainly closer to full for Cuban cigars than probably anything we've ever done, honestly. Except for the Maduro
**Bam Bam:** one.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. But you know, this, this line, I'm saying, I think
**Poobah:** the Scotch is, is pairing really well with it. It's yeah, it's a fair point, but I'm, so it's also situational for me too.
So I had like a very early [00:34:00] dinner. Like I probably ate at like four. If, if this was after dinner. Do you know what I mean? I may be more amenable to, I wouldn't be drinking champagne after dinner. Do you know what I'm saying? But I haven't eaten since four and I'm just saying like, I could see myself after a steak dinner.
I'm like, I want the, I would want the scotch probably more than I would want the. The carbonation of the champagne, you know what I mean? And all that. So for me, like right now, today, I think it plays into maybe why I'm, I'm leaning towards the champagne a little bit. Cause I'm on an empty your stomach. If I was on a stomach, I think I'd, I think I'd be like gravitating maybe more towards the scotch.
The go to his glass. He's having dinner in the glass. He's
**Pagoda:** actually nursing it tonight, which is unusual. I just, I just want, uh, chef Ricky to take note,
no, there's
**Pagoda:** no ice. He
would like for me to pass him a device,
**Pagoda:** but then it would make a lot of noise, but you know, I'm drinking it and it's actually working really well.
[00:35:00] I
**Gizmo:** will say. You know, for, for a 15-year-old spirit. And it has, I would say, the appropriate character for what I would expect from a 15-year-old scotch. It's not a thick, viscous spirit. I It's on the lighter end. Correct. But it's not lacking in flavor or body, whatever word I want to use.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Uh, it, I think it's a really nice pairing for a Cuban cigar.
I agree. Is that 40% alcohol? It's 43.
**Poobah:** Yeah. You can, you can taste a little bit of that hot. Yeah. That's the other, that's the other thing that I was, it's funny. So
I will say, I think had we drank the scotch during the first third of our cigar, we probably, or you, cause I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I also don't think this, I think the scotch works great with it.
I think the champagne works great. The champagne acts a little differently in that, you know, you're, you're able Pull the notes out in between every [00:36:00] sip and every draw on your cigar. But with the scotch, it takes a couple draws to get back to what the cigar was offering. Right. And it's not a bad thing. Um, it's two very different experiences.
And this is to show the influence that what you're drinking could have on the flavor of your cigar. Uh, so with the champagne, I was getting more, uh, You know, vanilla, more vanilla bean on creme anglaise. Uh, now with the, with the scotch, I'm getting like plum notes coming through. I'm getting, uh, creamsicle even.
Like there's some citrus present on, on the scotch itself. Are you sure that's because
**Grinder:** Rooster didn't mention it earlier? No, no, no. I, I would agree. I get, I get mandarin and apricot. A hundred percent. Yeah, yeah. So yeah,
so maybe my plum reference is more apricot. You're right. You're right. Yeah. Uh, but it reminds me of just like the creme anglaise.
I
**Senator:** mean,
good call grinder
**Pagoda:** for the primitive palette. I'll tell you what champion was doing for me is I think what, uh, Uh, as Githan mentioned, it [00:37:00] brightened up a lot of the, of the flavor profile, just at that point in time, I was getting a little bit of the salty, it did, you know, uh, make it a little more pronounced, a little bit, you know, my, uh, the top of my palate was enveloped with very, very good light earthiness, saltiness, a bit of nuttiness as well, um, uh, and I guess that's the creaminess, uh, which was coming through, I think as soon as I switched over to the scotch after a couple of sips, it's become a lot more sweeter for me.
a lot more sweeter. And I think, so it's like what it's enhancing is, I think it's slightly different flavors. And, and the way it shows it as in terms of brightening on one side and over here, it's a little more like, I can't say subdued, but it's, um, it's, it's, it's, it's level. It's a slightly different feel.
It's a, yeah, I think,
**Grinder:** I think the, um, I mean, obviously how you experience the different tastes on whether it's through the nose or the mouth where on the palate, blah, blah, blah, blah, the. On the nose, this scotch is very sweet and rich. [00:38:00] And I think on the aroma of the cigar coming off the foot, it's a lot sweeter than on the palate.
And those two things balance out pretty, pretty well. I think.
**Rooster:** So can you alternate champagne and scotch? I've been doing it right now. I'm doing it. It's my birthday. I can do
**Pagoda:** whatever I want. I think we need, we need some more champagne. You
know, I'm not a mixologist, but. By a need, you know, means of the stretch, but stretch of the means.
I'm sorry. My gizmo moment. I'm not sure.
**Bam Bam:** We're actually going to coin that now. Me to the stretch.
Chef. You've been indoctrinated. Uh,
man, I forgot my fucking point. You're not a mixologist by any stretch of the imagination, by any stretch of someone's means, but if there's a cocktail out there that has either a champagne float [00:39:00] on scotch or incorporate scotch with champagne, that would probably be the perfect cocktail.
Be the perfect cocktail pairing for the cigar. I wonder if there is one. Uh, I hope not. You know, and I would also
**Poobah:** argue, I would make a strong argument, which, well, you can make a strong argument for this with almost any cigars, like, like a, like a Havana club, you know, a rum with the cigar would, would, would go well.
Yeah. Um, but. At the end of the day, the cigar's a great cigar. I mean, it's
Because of the Maduro wrapper, this thing is versatile, right? So I think you could go tequila, you could go rum, you could go scotch, you could go bourbon here, maybe a lighter one that's not so viscous and heavy. Uh, champagne. Um, so yeah, I think the introduction, at least for me, this is my first Cuban with a Maduro wrapper.
It really just allows you to play with it a lot. I
**Bam Bam:** think if you know your spirits, if you can pursue something that has more caramel and vanilla, like this tonight, Honestly, like the fourth for a tequila, I'd go after Fortaleza, which is sweeter to me than [00:40:00] Coscons. That would, I think, be better for me personally.
It complements it, I think, nicely, a sweeter spirit.
**Poobah:** I think that this cigar almost probably will hold up to anything. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I could smoke this with a bud can in a parking lot at a Giants game. Oh boy. I'd be just as happy. Oh yeah, 30
**Bam Bam:** cigar in a parking lot.
**Poobah:** No, but the larger point I'm making is it's, It's a damn good smoke.
It's a great smoke. It'll go great with a Guinness. It'll go. Oh, yeah, sure.
**Bam Bam:** Are you finding your pace of smoke is accelerating? Because for me, I'm having a hard time putting this down. I need to slow down. I can't stop smoking the cigar.
**Grinder:** Oh yeah.
**Bam Bam:** It's really good.
That's excellent. I kind of want to chew it. I just want to like, chew it and eat it.
It's just so satisfying.
**Pagoda:** Hey, do what you want at your birthday. No, I'm just kidding.
**Poobah:** I mean, if down, if like down past when you get, when we get close to the band, which will be soon enough. Um, cause I took the second band off. Once we get there, this [00:41:00] thing has no rough edges down the stretch. It's, we're looking at a high score.
Oh yeah. Oh, there's no question about that. You know what I'm saying? Unless it's like, Something weird, funky, funkadelic happens. I haven't.
**Gizmo:** And to your point, Poobah, I haven't had a single draw where I'm tasting rough edges, ammonia, nothing tar. I'm not getting any of those things that in the last third we'd even be probably previewing now here and there.
**Bam Bam:** You're pretty far ahead of all of us. Honestly, you are.
**Gizmo:** Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** I think you're. Yeah. About halfway. Yeah, you're getting there. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. So let's move into some listener email and comments. We have some stuff from the peak of doors episode, the poor Warren Yago we did two weeks ago. That was obviously the big episode where Senator revealed that he's been pouring water all over his cigars, a few and every cigar smoke.
What
**Poobah:** does he do? I missed that. Is he Dave? Is he Dave
**Gizmo:** dude? He's Dave duty. He's, he's Minran Ning. [00:42:00] He's Alex Grooming. He is pouring water over his cigars. He did it on one
**Rooster:** cigar that I've seen. Have you done that? No,
**Senator:** I've done it on maybe four or five total now. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Oh, you have. And what has your result been before we get into the comments here?
What has your result been? Every one has
**Senator:** been a great experience. I haven't had a single problem. I've done it on, um, a couple Davidoff Bellicosos. That's what I started with because it's a small cigar. If I ruin the cigar, it's not a big deal. Very affordable. It was great. Uh, my take on it and others have tried it since and had the same feedback enhanced the flavor profile.
We've smoked a zillion of those Davidoff little bellicosos. And I think when, you know, chef Ricky is who made me curious enough to try it. Cause he told the story about how, Whoa,
**Poobah:** Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, hold on. I brought this up years ago.
**Senator:** No, no, no, no. Oh, you never did it. Hang on. Kudos to you. You didn't do it.
You didn't do it. I didn't do it. That's the point. Now, if someone doubted it, if someone, I, I was the biggest [00:43:00] skeptic, that's why I wanted to try it. But when Ricky told me that he did it with a Vegas, Robina Classico, that's lunacy. How can I not try it? Can't wait to see you look at his face. I
**Bam Bam:** think Cuba just went white and he lost his speech.
My left arm is
**Senator:** numb. I had literally the same reaction to the lounge when he told the story. I mean, I was going off, like, how could you do such a risk to that cigar?
**Rooster:** But there was a reason why he did.
**Senator:** There was his was really dry. And so he wanted to add some moisture to try to save the cigar. And it worked out great.
When he said he did with the classico, I said, all right, if it works with that cigar, I would never start there. I'll try it at least with a little bellicoso. And for me and our theory, we were talking about this. Like when you do that, it's not changing the humidity of the cigar. It's changing. Cause he had told me to do it with cold water.
The only thing that's being impacted there is it's changing the temperature if the water's cold. And I feel like we've [00:44:00] all talked about how when a cigar burns cooler, you're able to extract more of the flavor. When it burns hot, the flavor gets muddled and you'll actually lose it. And so my experience the first time, and then I tried this several other times after to see if it held true, was that that cold water was helping the cigar burn cooler, which was actually imparting even more flavor than I normally get out of the cigar.
So I tried it with that, uh, lizard EDF, uh, then was inspired. So he did it with the Padrone Exclusivo had an amazing experience. So then I tried it with the Exclusivo. I will admit with the Exclusivo, I think it's equal. I've I lit one, um, with water, one without, and I feel like they smoke the same. So I can't say that I got, now I think that cigar has so much flavor to begin with.
It's hard to really amp that up. It's such a constant performer. I think EDI was
**Bam Bam:** excited vicariously. It also has a pretty thick wrapper. That too. The placebo does, yeah. That too.
**Senator:** But I've yet to do it with a Cuban cigar, so that's the [00:45:00] next one.
**Pagoda:** And you've yet to do it with tequila, you know. You've got to do it at least once, right?
To see where Arnold stands. Is he redeemed or not?
You have that 04898, so. Oh Jesus Christ. Oh yeah, that's gonna happen. If
**Senator:** I were Gizmo, I'd murder the person who does that with that.
**Gizmo:** I didn't want to say it, but it's not gonna be good. Alright boys, let's move into some comments on this topic and that episode that we mentioned.
This one coming on FOH from Tom's Rib 210. He said, I tried water on a Padron 1964 Exclusivo Maduro last night. That's the cigar we were just talking about. He said, I felt like a fool What? But the flavor seemed slightly enhanced. This could have been a thousand percent psychomatic. Always remember. Excuse me, psychosomatic.
Yeah, the power of
**Pagoda:** suggestion. There you go.
**Bam Bam:** Correct.
**Gizmo:** This is a good one from Liz, uh, from Lizard Crispy Bacon. I love that name. He said, as always a great episode, great week. I think you should do a blind test. Run some cigars underwater and [00:46:00] some of the others without, and distribute them randomly to the lizards in the room.
I like that. Now that's an experiment. That would be interesting. Just have one of us, probably me or senator, 'cause he's been doing this. Like we marked them, we label labeled them somehow. And half are,
**Bam Bam:** now you'll have to let the cigar dry. Well, then you'll know, you'll feel it's well, you'll know which ones.
Oh,
**Gizmo:** true, true. We'll have to figure this out. It's a science experiment. Take those things very seriously. By the way, I'm the listener who did this with the
**Senator:** Exusivo. I actually do, when I said there wasn't a difference for me, there wasn't a difference in my enjoyment. But yes, there was a little bit of amped up flavor where with the Davidoff Bellicoso, I enjoyed it more with water.
No, I've, I've had at least three now doing this. Okay. So you run it under the, under the tap for what? Two seconds. Oh no. So I've, I've really experimented now with the length of time. When I did this initially with Ricky, I just did it for a few seconds. After [00:47:00] a successful test run, I said, all right, now I'm just going to get bold and I'm just going to douse it.
So, I mean, some of the guys have seen me do this and I've just dropped the head in. No, no, no, no, no. Just, you hold a cigar with the head up foot down and you pour a bottle of water on just for a few seconds. And then you just kind of shake it off. The key is you don't want the water to get in the cigar.
Just that's what I mean.
**Poobah:** That's what I mean. The head, not the foot. That's right into a glass of water. No, no. If you put that in the water,
**Senator:** it's all going to get inside the cigar. You pour it over the word over,
**Poobah:** over, right. You're over, over, over the head.
**Senator:** Yes. But you don't dip the cigar in any water. No, no, no, no.
Yeah. You
**Rooster:** just run it under the tap. Yeah. You put the whole box in the dishwasher.
**Pagoda:** I'm just saying where are we headed? The way I
**Poobah:** saw it, run it on a rinse cycle. With vintage cigars, where he would, where he did a whole video on it. Was that was what you're talking about? As if I just took this glass of
**Senator:** champagne and just poured this whole thing over the cigar.
Now, prior to cutting it, you can't cut it. Cause not getting right.
**Poobah:** [00:48:00] Exactly. Exactly. Right.
**Senator:** But my point was then what I tried was if I just really douse it. So I'm talking like seven, 10 seconds of just letting the water all cascade down the cigar. And even with that, because, you know, my fear in ever trying this was that the cigar would absorb so much of this water that it would just burn horribly and ruin it.
And remarkably, even if you do this for 10 seconds, I mean, you just, you shake it off after, you can wipe off some of the beads with your hands, and um, it still smokes perfectly. Yeah, but you know, it tells me the old
**Pagoda:** adages are coming true, right? Then what about people dipping, you know, a lot of people will, would dip their cigars in cognac or I think that's just what they're doing.
That's for the flavor.
**Gizmo:** Well Arnold Schwarzenegger would put tequila on it. Tequila, yeah. So we should develop You guys know what Pagoda would do? No.
Ice. He would take a cube of ice and rub it on
**Gizmo:** the ceiling. I think we need to develop a proper lizard science experiment. Alright. To [00:49:00] distribute in the room.
We'll have to figure this out. And we're gonna have to do this on an upcoming episode. Figure out a way to Create like a A blind. A blind,
**Bam Bam:** yeah.
**Gizmo:** So that we can properly evaluate what we feel is the effect on, you know, how this water is affecting the right, but wouldn't
**Poobah:** it be better to do, not a blind, but maybe like a test on a short cigar, and then.
Smoke the cigar and not do it. I
**Senator:** mean, to Pooh's point, you have to do both. So like, the idea that you give some lizards, you know, cigars that have had the water and others that don't, you need each person to be able to assess which was preferable. You need to control. You need to control. There's no point in trying to trick
**Gizmo:** anyone.
Alright, so we're gonna, we're gonna figure this out. We're going to come back to you out there, our listeners, with an excellent science experiment, and we're going to knock this out once and for all, and see if that's going to be a new part of the lizard habit. Well,
**Grinder:** maybe it's a, it's an experiment. It's not a habit.
**Senator:** Yeah. I [00:50:00] mean, again, the thing is, you know, my take just doing this maybe five times. I don't think it's a necessity. Uh, you'll never hear me say that. What I wanted to explore was that, will it harm the cigar, which was my hypothesis going in. And I can say with absolute confidence now doing this at least five times, it has never harmed the cigar.
Even when I've doused in water for 10 seconds, it hasn't harmed the cigar. And that's really what I wanted to test. I think in my
case, it was a necessity because I felt, had I not done it while I was driving, my, the wrapper of my cigar would have just unraveled and.
**Poobah:** Exactly. So Dave dudes, if now don't quote me on this, um, on YouTube, he was doing it with very, very old cigars that have been stored at probably between 62 and 63, 64, um, RH, right?
So I think that he would, was recommending doing that with really, really old cigars. I'm talking 20 plus. And
**Gizmo:** I'm sure that's how Minron knee was [00:51:00] doing it too, because that's what he was smoking. Right.
**Poobah:** You
**Gizmo:** know, Minron knee
**Poobah:** was smoking
**Gizmo:** really, really vintage.
**Poobah:** So, so it was almost like rehydrating that wrapper almost a little bit to get it kind of like, I guess, to a point where the cigar would perform better.
I think that's my, I haven't watched the video in a couple of years. Um, I think that was a rationale for why he was recommending doing it. And I remember watching the video and seeing him take a very, a couple, very old cigars and putting them under the tap and going, Oh my God. But I mean, he's a guy, you know, he knows, he knows his stuff.
Has
**Bam Bam:** anyone else in the room done this? No, I have. I did it with a Sigla 6 and you were in the room when I did that, Senator. It performed great. The wrapper was still kind of glistening from the, and I was a little nervous about lighting it, but the foot lit perfectly, even with the edge of the foot being wet, it lit, it lit completely.
It smoked consistent Poobah. I can't say that it enhanced the [00:52:00] flavor, but the performance, I'll tell you, the burn line was straight. All the way through, but
**Poobah:** unless it helped, unless you smoked the cigar previously in this, under the same condition, I have, there's, there's no control. Yeah. I know, but there, there is a sense that
**Senator:** that's what he's going to say.
You know, for me, I think if anyone's going to do this, you need to do it with a cigar. You smoked a lot. Yeah. And that's the easiest way, you know, exactly how it performs, you know, what the flavor profile is like. And it's easier to compare. So that's why, you know, I think Bam smoke plenty of those CGLOs where he can make that comparison.
Same thing with the Belicoso.
**Bam Bam:** The burn line was surprisingly even. Now, you know, those CGLOs, they, they kind of move around depending on how you light them because they're so damn sensitive. But it burned beautifully.
**Senator:** To Bam's point, the only thing that I have noticed when you do this, on the Exclusivo and the Davidoff Bellicoso, the ash has held on longer than it normally
**Bam Bam:** does.
That's also true. Yeah.
**Senator:** That Exclusivo, I almost went halfway with that cigar with the ash still holding on. You [00:53:00] sure you didn't have a
**Bam Bam:** toothpick in there?
**Senator:** I mean, Padrone construction is amazing, but I don't ever really go halfway with the Exclusivo. Usually a third of the way in, I'll ash it. With that Davi off Beso, I went more than half, which also I don't ever do with that cigar.
So,
**Rooster:** but you have not tried it on a Cuban cigar? No. Right. I haven I haven't. Where the wrapper's a little bit thinner. I have thinner and more fragile. But he has, yeah,
**Bam Bam:** he did it with the coheed cigar. It worked perfectly fine. Again, enhancement of flavor, I'd have to do it again, but the burn was beautiful.
Better than all the previous secrets I've had. So it does help, I think with that, that burn line and it lit. Which was shocking because the edge of the foot was wet.
**Senator:** Yeah, to, to Ben's point, I mean, you're nervous when you're doing it. Very nervous. You see beads of water on the cigar. Right at the edge of the foot, dude.
And you're lighting it. And you're thinking that it's going to burn horribly. And it burns perfectly. And maybe a quarter of the way through the cigar, the whole wrapper, Dries and you no longer see the beats up, right? Yeah.
**Rooster:** Now, do you wipe, wipe the cigar of excess water or you don't? I [00:54:00] just
**Bam Bam:** wicked it with my finger.
Yeah,
**Senator:** just with your finger a little bit because there's no need for it to be soaking. So it, I do do that, but you'll still have some. Yeah, exactly. But you'll still have some, you know, beads of water on there and then it just dries naturally and smokes beautifully.
**Bam Bam:** That's fascinating. I will pour tequila on my next one and give it a shot.
**Poobah:** Well, you know, maybe Schwarzenegger wasn't crazy when he said he was wiping things down with tequila. Maybe he wasn't totally nuts. Or maybe he is. Only with the baby. California. California. Governor of California.
**Gizmo:** So boys. Lizard John in Cleveland wrote, everyone's focused on the watering of cigars and they glossed over those delicious sausage casing wrapper.
Picadoras, you've got me salivating over here from the review. That cigar was rough.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** The wrapper on that thing was like a sausage. Oh, yeah, it was. It was really, really bad. And he says, uh, in all seriousness, I can't wait to hear where this water thing goes. I've got a lot of old [00:55:00] cigars and I'm very tempted to try this with all of my stuff.
Pandora's box is officially open. So I think that's a perfect way to put it here on the pod from the listeners out there. We've got, you know, I read, read a couple of comments here. Got a ton more email, very much in line with that. People looking to see how it goes with us wanting to do an experiment and, uh, try it on their own stuff.
I guess after we try it for them first. What do you have to, what do you have to lose? It's one cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I'm going
**Grinder:** to do it with a
**Gizmo:** D four after
**Grinder:** the
**Gizmo:** pod. I'm going to do it.
**Poobah:** I got a B two. I
**Gizmo:** got a P two. I'm going to do one with a P two. All right. All right, boys. We are past the halfway point now on the part of guess Maduro number three.
I've been dying to say this. Uh,
you guys,
**Rooster:** What's everybody thinking? Chef Ricky is drunk on tobacco right
now. That's great. Guys, you know, I'm going back to the, the, the desire that I have to want to eat this cigar almost because it's so tasty. So you guys, are any of you familiar with millionaire shortbread cookies?
It's usually a combination of like, uh, Aren't there little squares? Yeah, [00:56:00] I grew up eating those. So they're, they're short, it's a shortbread cookie stacked between or stacked with a dulce de leche and not a slightly bitter chocolate, not super dark, not super tannic or bitter, but just slight bitterness.
And that's what this cigar is presenting to me. Just shortbread. Caramel. No chocolate though. So a little bit of, of chocolate. Yeah. But a very pleasant, again, not nothing bitter, nothing, you know, not nothing, nothing super dark, but just more complex than white chocolate. Like milk chocolate. Yeah. Yeah. Or semi sweet chocolate.
Yeah, exactly. Even a little bit, you know, milk chocolate's usually in the 40 percent range. I'd say this is probably a little bit closer to like 58. Uh. Wow, we're getting deep. Yeah. That's nuts. Sixty. Fifty eight. We are getting granular, baby. This to
**Grinder:** me is, um, this is like smoking, like, chicory. You know what chicory, like sweet chicory is?
This is, this is that sweet kind of [00:57:00] spice, but not a spice, but like a Vietnamese coffee. Yeah. This is like a chicory. Café,
**Rooster:** Café Du Monde. Café Du
**Gizmo:** Monde. Back to your beignet. That's right. We've called that no doubt before, and it's going to kill me because I don't remember what cigar it was. Yeah. But we've talked about chicory before and Vietnamese coffee.
And I don't remember which one. Well, I'll think of it
**Poobah:** to me right now. I'm at the, where I'm at the very end. It's in that espresso range, but in like that good espresso range, it's got caught, like there's definitely coffee here for me at the end where it's, it's, there's a, there's that. A little bit of bitter, which I love, absolutely love.
Cause I'm a huge Campari lover. You know, I love, I love bitters. I love Campari. I love, and it's not even that espresso. It's not even that bitter. No, it's not even that far in the scale, but it's just that little bit of bitter note, um, which, you know, at the end is a nice little kind of surprise. It's going to give you that last five minutes.
So now we're talking what? One, two, three. [00:58:00] Back play.
**Gizmo:** And I would say the thing, you know, you talk about one, two, three as well. What I love about the cigar, what's keeping me really interested in it is obviously the ease of smoke. We went through that. But the differences between the normal draw, the smell at the burn line, the retro and the retro hail, those three components are so different and are very, very complimentary.
It's making the whole flavor of this thing. Very robust. It's very,
**Poobah:** very complex. I'm getting like all coffee at this point, but like good coffee. It's more complimentary
**Bam Bam:** for me. So those three, the three experiences are more complimentary than the differing for each. I am getting coffee, but I'm still getting that biscuity, creamy honey thing happening for me.
And it's, I think it's just getting better and better. And yeah, and it's enhancing as I get through it. Yeah, this is a great cigar.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. It's time to do lizard of the week. Lizard GP 0 1 2 is going to win some stuff from our [00:59:00] humidor. We're going to send them a nice package. Anybody out there can win.
All you have to do is send us an email, a great comment. A voice memo, whatever you choose. We're gonna pick one every week as we've been doing for about the last five weeks, and he writes another enjoyable episode. I found the warranty seal conversation very intriguing. I'm not sure if I agree with the sentiment that the serials are compromised and shouldn't be considered at all, but rather that the serials shouldn't be the only factor.
In evaluating legitimacy, provenance, bands, box codes, serials, etc. should all be part of that evaluation, not just one single factor. It's very easy to get a legitimate serial number and use it for fake warranty seals. If I recall correctly, uh, Habanos S. A. uses Sequential serial numbers for each box, as opposed to some form of randomization.
I can't confirm this at the moment as the verification website is giving a bad request error, classic Habanos. But I recall if you had a serial ending in four, nine, eight, for example, some range within 20 to 40 or so consecutive numbers above below would be the same type of [01:00:00] cigar and packaging tied to a master crate for as valuable as Bon Roberts, advanced search and data is bad actors can easily generate a bad Plenty of legitimate serial codes for fohiba reboost those just by mining, completed auction results, and then adding numbers around those to generate multiple quote unquote, official cereals.
What intrigues me is what other data is associated with each serial based on gray market vendors, defacing the numbers and barcodes. What he's referencing there is sometimes you'll get a legitimate box from I Havana's or one of these other gray market sellers where the serial number is scratched off.
And it's simply because when it was sold to them, The distributor doesn't want that box coming back to them as having gone out the back door to the gray market vendors. So they'd scratch those cereals to detach the connection to the original retail. You're seeing that less and less. Now you are. Yeah. I remember on a previous episode, someone recommended a digital scan of, I remember on a previous episode, someone recommended a digital scan of the bottom of the box to be [01:01:00] used as another verification tool that their serial number and all the other evaluation metrics would certainly make it much easier to know you have an authentic box.
Sadly, there's not a chance in hell, Habanus S. A. would ever do that though. And he's 100 percent right. So what he's referencing is, uh, Alex groom from Cuban cigar website proposed, uh, Habanos putting in a system just to scan the bottom of each box. And that would be like a fingerprint.
**Senator:** Let's, this is not rocking science.
That's how most other products are. You know, this is how that's done. I don't know why this should be so complex for them to build a scanner
**Bam Bam:** with bubble gum. And, um, Rubber bands.
**Gizmo:** Jesus. A little Logitech camera. That would be the way to do it. You know, cause each piece of wood on the bottom of those boxes is like a fingerprint.
I mean, every piece of wood is different. The grains are all unique. Where the code is, where the, you know.
**Poobah:** That's heavy duty. Sure it is. Data management that is not going to happen. That'll be another 20 bucks.[01:02:00]
**Gizmo:** Unfortunately, to his point too, you know, the thing that frustrates me about the verification stuff with the serials. Is that Habanos doesn't have the box codes when you punch in your cereal, it doesn't have the factory code and the date and all that. Just another simple level of authenticity to put there when you, it's just, that's such a, that's another easy example of something that would work.
It's
**Poobah:** asking too much. And there's so many other tells, uh, in terms of the band, the build, the construction. And also, by the way, I mean, after you, once you smoke enough Cuban cigars, You kind of know, I mean, you're going to know you pick up a box and if it's in your smoke, the smoke, one of the cigars, look at the construction, look at the color, how it's color matched.
I mean, I'm not saying there aren't ways around that. Of course there are, there's a lot of ambitious counterfeiters out there and you know, it's part of the game, but. You know, you can [01:03:00] tell if you, if you pick, if you've smoked enough Cuban cigars, you can tell if you're smoking a legitimate D four now, uh, or not.
I mean, I couldn't
**Gizmo:** tell the other night. His was like black. That was a Maduro. D four.
**Rooster:** Nobody knows
**Gizmo:** about it.
**Rooster:** I mean,
**Senator:** it's your own region now, Dominican Republic, 2025,
**Bam Bam:** I mean, I'll allow Rooster.
**Poobah:** I know if a seller is, is, uh, if on this, on, you know, like a private seller is ambitious enough to actually repack cigars in a different box.
Do you know what I'm saying? And say they're from a different year, but it's a legitimate box. I mean, there's not much you can do about that. You know what I mean? That it's the risky it's part of the game. And again, that's
**Gizmo:** what you're pointing to the number one thing. And we've said this a lot on this podcast and maybe if someone's listening to us for the first time tonight on this episode.
The number one tell of authenticity is knowing who you bought it from, [01:04:00] correct? Getting it from a legitimate source, correct? Try to find a legitimate retailer that's direct or someplace like I Havana is EGM. Some of these other, some of the others that we've mentioned, you gotta know who you're buying
**Bam Bam:** from.
**Gizmo:** It's not worth the risk, especially. When you're talking about cigars that are way more expensive now than they've ever been fact, multiple factors, uh, you know, it's, it, you really need to know who you're buying. I also
**Rooster:** understand the price. I mean, if you're paying, you know, 50 for a vehicle cigar, you know, it's fake.
You have to know what the pricing is, what the current pricing is. Correct. I mean, to
**Senator:** Rooster's point, if it's too good to be true, it's obviously fake. But at the same time. And to Gizmo's point, if the price is what it's supposed to be, they're still selling fakes. I mean, I've met guys at our lounge who will tell me what they paid and it's normal, standard pricing.
And you look at the band and you're like, Jesus, this is so obviously fake. So you have to, to Gizmo's point, know the source too.
**Rooster:** And also, [01:05:00] especially with. Cohiba is one brand that's most counterfeited, right? Just because of the pricing structure.
**Pagoda:** Right. Essentially what they're saying is don't buy a box of a guy on the beach of Cancun.
Or on the internet
**Gizmo:** somewhere. You need to, you need to develop your acumen and your expertise via legitimate retailers. Don't. Go to the easy route, go to legitimate retailers, build your acumen, build your collection there, and then start to understand what these tells are. Compare it to the things we've talked about, compare it to the box code sheet that you can get on our website, you know, do your homework, and then you can start to venture out into maybe, maybe being a little more risk friendly, but don't start In that place.
You have to start paying the premium at a legitimate retailer for Cuban cigars.
**Bam Bam:** And if you can find, uh, a group of guys that are in a group that buy and collect Cuban cigars, get advice. And you can split boxes too. That's true. You know, you
**Gizmo:** buy a box at the [01:06:00] real price. So legitimate retailer and you split it amongst some friends and you're in a better place.
So anyway, great email from GP 0 1 2. We really appreciate it. Lizard of the week. We love, we love hearing from listeners, so congratulations to him. So boys, another one that I wanted to talk about, you know, this is really been on my mind for the last few weeks, the good people at FOH where we just got some of those comments from Rob posted a great thread and it got a ton of responses and I wanted to do this in the room tonight.
Rob said, knowing what you know now. If you were to, if I were to take you back to 2019, obviously before the price Armageddon and all the things we've talked about ad nauseum, 2019 pre COVID before the prices went crazy with a 5, 000 United States dollar cigar budget, how would you spend? That 5, 000 on Cuban cigars.
This is what
**Poobah:** year in 2019,
**Gizmo:** 2019. So we know what the rough prices of cigars were at that time, as he says, shouldn't be too hard. [01:07:00] Now, this is what I liked about this. It is not for flipping cigars. It's for collecting and consuming. So if you had knowing what you know now, but the prices today versus what they were five years ago, if you can believe that 2019 was five years ago, how would you split up that 5, 000?
I
**Rooster:** think it's simple for me. I would have probably indulged more in the staples, you know, like boxes of multiple boxes, standard production, RAS, as many 50 cabs I could get my hands on at that price. I think, you know, that's probably what I would have done.
**Poobah:** I wouldn't have changed. Actually. I don't think I would have changed much.
Um, but probably
**Rooster:** would have loaded up more, you know, had we known the prices would be what they are now.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I, I wouldn't have changed much. Um, I loaded up on up and twos. I have a lot. I loaded up on a, which when every time I had a chance for [01:08:00] them to come up, by the way, back then in 2019, 2018. They were, when they came up, they didn't come up a lot.
So I did load up on those and I did the right thing. There probably would have bought more deep, maybe more D fours. I did actually buy a lot of P twos as well, and I'm well stocked on those. I wouldn't change that. Bought some Sir Winston's would have bought more. Again, hard to find and expensive even.
Then what else? I mean, would I have bought some eight nine eights? Eight nine eights? Well, if you could find them. If you could find them, you know, have a couple boxes of those that are still sitting. Even back then all bought them. They rarely came up. Yeah, they were hard to get. And they were hard to get.
So when they came up, you got 'em. Um. What else? I mean, MDOs,
**Rooster:** LGC, La Gloria Cabana, MDO number two, three, four.
**Poobah:** Oh yeah. There were age boxes that were still out there that were around at a much better, accessible [01:09:00] price. And now I'm getting very angry right now. Um, you're okay. You will survive.
**Bam Bam:** But you're
**Poobah:** also not loading up on those.
Like if you're talking about loading up on stuff for long term, I don't know if I would have changed much.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, I would have gotten a lot of MDO number twos. Oh my Lord.
**Senator:** So I don't know. I have a different tech for me. Number one, if I knew what was going to happen, I would have bought an entirely additional tower and I would have completely filled it.
Um, for me, the easy answer, like if I just wanted to keep it simple, I would have filled that tower with D fours. If I could only have one Cuban cigar for the rest of my life, it's the D four. Always has been, always will be.
**Gizmo:** By the way, that would've been 20 to 25 boxes of D fours for that $5,000 US and by the, we were getting 'em for 215 bucks a box.
I mean that
**Senator:** to your point, like I got married in 2016 and someone very generously, I didn't even pay for them, but someone very generously had gifted me six boxes of D fours as wedding cigars. They were like 2 20, 2 30 a box back then. Yep. Me. Bag of shells, , [01:10:00] I mean. Now they're what? 700 a box, 600. Yeah. Yeah.
600 a box. And that's right. I mean, it's insanity. So for me, I would have, that would be the easy answer. Now, if I wanted to, you know, create some variety, it'd be D fours. It'd be RAS. It'd be Lucy's it'd be eight, nine eights. Uh, it'd be up in twos. And that's probably it. I've been prioritizing. And that's
**Poobah:** kind of what I did too.
I mean, I, I, I wouldn't change my, okay. But I say this,
**Senator:** I'm not questioning your, what you purchased, but the reality of the situation is like all of what we have will not. Well, not all of us will last us the rest of our lives. So you have to, at some point, like you're going to need more. And if I knew what I knew, no, now, I mean, I would have literally tried to buy as many of these cigars as would last me my entire lifetime that I would never have to purchase.
I don't disagree with you. So it's just the quantities.
**Poobah:** Yeah. Yeah. The quantity. Sure.
**Pagoda:** Pagoda. [01:11:00] Uh, the same, uh, as defaults, RAS, maybe the Culebras, the half Corona's You know the up and twos and that's really it the standard production I guess you know and I was I think a box of defaults came up for 750 bucks now
**Bam Bam:** Wow Yeah, it's it's crazy
**Pagoda:** 2017 box for 750 that was pretty much 215 bucks.
It's ridiculous But the only
**Senator:** thing we haven't mentioned that has to be The single dumbest thing most of us in this room have ever done is when we discovered the Vegas Urbana Classico, thanks to Poobah, like idiots, we just bought one box. That was my single biggest cigar regret to this day. We didn't load up.
We should have cleared out every single box that that seller had. And we just bought one a piece. I mean, what were we thinking? Unbelievable. We're big dummies.
Yeah.
**Senator:** Chef Ricky.
Yeah, you know, I don't have the experience you guys have with Cuban cigars, but I could just easily list, uh, some of the [01:12:00] most memorable ones that I've had from a Punch Punch to, uh, the Sir Winston to Coronas Claros, uh, The Fours for sure, uh, and the, uh, BBF.
I really enjoyed the BBF. Yeah. So, you know, I, I would say just really hunkering down on what I've, what I've had, uh, to date and, and enjoying, enjoying that and sticking with those.
**Grinder:** Grinder. I'd say mostly QDs. And BBF. Yeah. No gizmo. There's a
**Senator:** lot of BBF love in the room. There is. This is what I like to hear.
There's only one of us in this room who doesn't appreciate that. I like the
**Gizmo:** BBF. It's just the, the ones that I have are not performing to the level that they should be, which is unfortunate. You have to show
**Poobah:** them some love to receive them. It's true. However, I, I will say as a guy, I, you know, I have a couple, maybe three, maybe four, Two or three [01:13:00] cabinets, maybe two and a half cabinet boxes.
I will say I do find some consistency issues, uh, with, with Bolivar it's hit or miss when they're good. They are great, but when they're not. They're kind of not great. So like, that's my issue with, with the BBF. It's like, I've had some that have completely blown my mind. And then I've had some that the construction they're plugged or it's just weird.
So
**Gizmo:** that's where I'm at with it. That's exactly where I'm at. Yep. Bam. What would you, what would be your list?
**Bam Bam:** I'd be going after a lot of e twos. Oh my God. I forgotten. I Me too. That's done's a great point. Well done. So I don't know who I was sitting with, but I had a, a sliding lit box of five E twos and I think it was you, UBA and I opened that box for the first time.
It was magical. That little tiny jewel box, they don't make those anymore. No, they don't. Yeah, so I, that's what we
**Senator:** smoked on poop's deck.
**Poobah:** Those [01:14:00] were 2014. Those were gub. Yeah, they were.
**Bam Bam:** Correct. I would have loaded up on those. Um, but those
**Poobah:** were hard to get at the time too. Yeah. Um, and also E2s were premium priced.
I would grab them down in tubos. The tubos were outstanding as well. As much as I could. But yes, if there was one regret I have is not jumping on 25 count boxes of E2s when they were available back then, I would have loaded up on those fucking big time. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And that's where I'm, that's where I'm kind of heading with that.
When they were ready, you're a hundred
**Bam Bam:** percent right. I would have, that's a miss. Because those are not coming up at all ever now. Um, and I missed that so far. They weren't coming up that big then. That's true. That's true. That's all in the
**Rooster:** past, right? I mean, I feel, I think we all did okay. We did. We got, we, you know, we did okay.
We have full, full towers. We do. We're very fortunate. We have nothing to complain about. We are all very fortunate. Except for us. To be grateful, correct. I feel bad. Don't knock the premise
**Gizmo:** of the, [01:15:00] of the discussion here. And with gratitude, the whole question
**Senator:** is if we could go back one other
**Rooster:** thing. No, but I feel bad for a guy who's starting out now.
Yeah, it's tough. Of course,
**Poobah:** finding a 25 count box of you too. So I don't even know where to find. Can we let BAM continue to go back in
**Bam Bam:** time? Yeah, he was very helpful. That would be nice. No one's mentioned the Ramona a alone especially select that it's also We did, three of us did. Oh, did especially selected.
I would absolutely go for 50 cabs. I, I, I've got two at home and I'm just staring at 'em. I want more of those. Um, and a mar somewhat of a marginal cigar in this group, but the Schwa Supreme, I came into that. That's a good one. But I came into that late. I didn't know about that cigar five years ago until this, this podcast.
I would pursue a lot of that cigar because I love that cigar.
**Senator:** I didn't know about the fabric of five Robusto was going to come out back then, but now that it is out, I don't need any more Schwab Supreme. That's kind of true. That's
**Bam Bam:** kind of true.
**Rooster:** Or the Connie, right? Yeah. Connie one's the marriage of Connie.
And honestly, [01:16:00] who
**Bam Bam:** mentioned punch punch? I think it was chef. The two bows, punch, punch, and the two bows, the green, the green two bows are outstanding. They're so exquisite and pristine. I would have gone for a lot of those as well. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Punch, punch, 50 caps of punch punch. I mean, it's special. One of my favorite, favorite cigars.
I had one with
**Bam Bam:** rooster on his deck. But these are all standard production cigars, like you said. So I think it's a common theme here. Right. So
**Gizmo:** I'll, I'll say my list, knowing what I know now and where my palate is now, I think the, I'm shocked that it hasn't been mentioned so far in the room. Let
**Rooster:** me guess,
**Gizmo:** Lucy Cabs?
No, I was going to say Cohiba. Of course. Yeah. I wish, I wish I had discovered and had not turned my nose up to Cohiba. We all did. We all did. And I wish I hadn't because the Siglo 5 is a cigar is close to a daily rotation. Perfect cigar for me. The Pyramides Extra. Even the Co Ro. The Co Ro. The Siglo 2. A good Coro.
And, and you talk about [01:17:00] 2024 on those cigars I just mentioned versus five years ago. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** forget about it. You could have
**Gizmo:** purchased five boxes almost, three boxes.
**Bam Bam:** The Cohiba Lancero, don't forget. All
**Gizmo:** of
**Bam Bam:** them.
**Gizmo:** All of them. And it's just, it's, it's intensely frustrating in this exercise looking back at it, how stupid I feel for having not tried it before.
To the level that we have now on this podcast, gone to
**Bam Bam:** Cuba, you know,
**Gizmo:** visiting Laguito like we have and, and how good those cigars are and how they hit my palate. I mean, they're just excellent. I certainly would have purchased less special stuff. I would have not been purchasing the Addicione, uh, the regionals or the limitadas.
I would have purchased less Lucy's and I would have changed how my tower, Looks and feels. I did great with D fours. I have eight or 10 boxes of those. I have Pete twos up and twos Monte twos. I don't reach for them because the replacement cost is, is not at something I'm going to do as a daily smoke. But you know, I [01:18:00] wish that I had known what I know now.
And I think my tower would be more aligned with where my pallet is today
**Bam Bam:** versus where it was five years ago. So pallet alignment, something you couldn't have predicted.
**Rooster:** Of
**Gizmo:** course.
**Rooster:** Do you have more than one tower? No, I have a full tower and a bunch of Tupperware. How do you fit six boxes of D fours in that tower and everything else that every bath is like?
I have eight boxes of those. I have 10 boxes. I mean, Gizmo's defense, he's got another towel. I have
**Senator:** it too. But that's what Tupperware is for. , that's, I mean, I probably have the exact same amount of D fours and it's between the Tower and Tupperware. True.
**Gizmo:** And you know, I'm just sitting on them. You talked about having enough cigars.
Oh, I'm not saying I'm smoking them, but you smoke them more than I do. But you have, you talk about having cigars. To have for the rest of your life. I look at those boxes of D four is saying, you know what? I don't really want to run out and pay 600, 700 for a box of D fours. I'd rather keep what I have aged them.
They're going to get better and better. And they are, um, you know, it's just every time I reach for one, it really, really hits me and it's great. But I'm not smoking those as a daily driver. Like I used to [01:19:00] the other one, I would like to say to, to Pagoda's point and some other folks in the room, bam, you mentioned this as well is the Ramon I own, especially selected.
I only have one or two 50 cabs of those couple of them got confiscated as we know by customs. But I wish I had, you know, six or eight of those.
**Senator:** The only problem I will say though, with the RAS, and this is kind of similar to the BBF conversation is there is a lot of inconsistency with RAS. I mean, Pagoda has definitely experienced this.
And I think for all of us, like, there are some RAS that I've lit that are some of the best Cuban cigars I've ever smoked and others that are just good, but nothing great or special. And so for me, you know, why for like a Cuban Robusto, I lean more D4 is I've been disappointed far less times with a D4 than I have a RAS.
And so that's the only calculus. I totally agree. Yeah.
**Grinder:** I had a razz before the pod tonight. It was not,
**Poobah:** yeah, you can, you can run into some rough patches with those, but at the time
**Bam Bam:** they were good. They
**Poobah:** were, well, it was a, it was an [01:20:00] accessible cigar where now there's a premium that's put on them that, that, that, that's not aligned with, Some of the construction issues that you can run into with them, uh, today, uh, as opposed to where you didn't mind that in 2019
**Gizmo:** was point on that.
Just for the listener out there as an example, I was saying about Cohiba, the price has probably tripled on a lot of those. Even quadrupled. In some cases, the RAS that we're talking about, that 50 cab that we're talking about of RAS has easily doubled in price since this time, right?
**Poobah:** So, so you're kind of asking yourself, well, okay, I'll just spend the extra money on and get a D to get some D fours.
Cause the cost Delta versus the. Versus the consistency issues with the rest. You could put up with that back in 2019 and go, okay, we know this is, it was almost a cigar that we're like, this is cigar that I'm going to buy that I can smoke. If I had to put it down halfway, I don't feel that bad, you know, whatever I'll age them, they'll get better and they do.
And, but there are issues with those, [01:21:00] um, That can't get frustrating when it gets up to a price point where they are now. Even the Trinidad Colonial is, I think I would've bought
**Rooster:** more.
**Bam Bam:** That's a good point, because I happen to love that stick too. That's a great point.
**Rooster:** Out of the entire market, I think. I've never had a bad, that particular cigar.
That's great. Colonial. Yeah. That's a good
**Bam Bam:** cigar. Yeah, good point. That and the Esmeralda, I'm not so experienced with that, but colonialists, a hundred percent. Hmm.
**Poobah:** Oh, is it, they were expensive then too, though. Kind of, you know. Can
**Bam Bam:** we call, uh, Garan? ? Hold on. What are you doing? Pagoda. What are you doing? Oh, fuck.
**Gizmo:** Anyway.
**Rooster:** There's more in
**Gizmo:** there.
**Pagoda:** For the listener. You know, we were talking about the whole whiskey, uh, uh, champagne cocktail. Now you have
**Grinder:** to taste it and tell us how atrocious that is. I bet it's good. For the listener, Pagoda
**Senator:** just poured his Bolognese into his whiskey glass. Oh, this is excellent. We all must try.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. We're into the last third now on the Partagus Maduro number three. What's everybody thinking? [01:22:00]
I tell you, you know, it's, it's for, for me, I'm going to go ahead and introduce a fourth act here. It's, it's become somewhat savory for me, uh, introducing a little mommy. Uh, if you guys are familiar with shiitake mushrooms, uh, I'm, I'm getting some of that woody nuttiness that you would get from a shiitake mushroom.
Uh, and that depth and, you know, something that someone touched up on earlier, the minerality is really coming through now, you know, it's for me. Um, and I'm even, I'm even getting a bit more of that mint that I mentioned earlier, uh, much earlier in the cigar that sort of disappeared but is now coming back.
It's, it's an incredible experience. I,
**Grinder:** I think, um, I've had some, I've had to touch it up a lot. It's gotten a little charry. But like once it, once it starts to get a full burn, it comes back to its form. Uh, but that, that's, that's manageable. Let me put it that way.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I had a little bit of burn issue throughout the cigar, but it [01:23:00] didn't change the flavor.
The flavor was phenomenal.
**Senator:** I agree. I have had to touch this cigar up, honestly, more than any cigar I've lit in probably the last, you know, two, three years. month or two. Is that right? So that has been frustrating, but to Rooster's point, it hasn't affected the flavor, which I'm very grateful for. Um, yeah.
Chef Ricky's note, mushroom is exactly what I'm getting right now.
**Bam Bam:** You're a genius. No, no, no, no. He's a genius.
**Senator:** I'm just agreeing. But I say that because this is Probably the rare cigar that I think it's legitimate to say this could be a four act play. Yeah. I don't think we've ever said that.
**Bam Bam:** It's pretty earthy right now.
Uh, I'm not getting minerality, but there's like, um, I'm not going to say barnyard, but it's in that world for me. And it's very earthy. That
**Rooster:** earthy note has kind of continued throughout for me. I didn't get that until
**Bam Bam:** now, honestly. Yeah, I'm just
starting to get it. I'm no longer getting any vanilla or caramel or light chocolate.
We're, we're, we're, we're completely on the earth [01:24:00] savory side of things here.
**Gizmo:** My performance has been pretty good. I think the last third is when I've had to touch it up. I don't know if it's because I was talking, but mine has been performing very well. Maybe twice, maybe twice.
No, I agree with Senator.
This has required a quite a bit of touching up, but I honestly don't mind it because I've been so in tune with this cigar. It's almost like just, you're just caring for it. And even when I'm drawing the cigar, because the draw on it is so open, you know, I'm not, especially in some cigars that we've done recently, I've felt like I've had to really wrap my lips tight around it and just do some intense drawing there to, you know, get anything out of this, out of those cigars.
With this cigar, it's just like a light kiss, you know, you're just kind of just softly touching it and drawing and you're getting so much on the palate.
**Grinder:** It's like tending your garden, right Jeff? Yeah. Spritzing your cigars.
**Bam Bam:** I just have it. I just, I just do indoor
plants. I'll show you all the pictures later, but [01:25:00] yeah, I'm, I'm quite the, uh, indoor gardener.
**Gizmo:** So before we get to the ratings tonight, boys, I wanted to ask you, cause I've been thinking about this. Obviously we talked about. Part of us having three cigars that are Maduro. Cohiba has a few. I'm wondering, and we just did this whole discussion about, about various markers that we would have purchased.
You know, if we could have five years ago, I'm wondering if you could choose a marker or a line of cigars out of Cuba to introduce a Maduro line, where would you go? So right now they only have Cohiba. Parus, where would you go to add a Maduro?
**Senator:** I mean, one immediately jumps to mind. Ramon Ionis. Yeah, that's where I was going to.
I mean, it's such a, the cigars they produce have so much flavor. Yeah. And they're never full, but just four Cuban cigars flavorful that I think a Maduro wrapper on a RA on, on anything like a RAs would be unbelievable. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. You're a genius. The other one I was thinking of too was [01:26:00] Bolivar. Bolivar. I was just going to say that.
Yeah. I think, I think anything in the part of his family would, would, would, you know, you talk, uh, Partagas, Bolivar, Ramon Iones, La Gloria Cubana, potentially that's a lighter cigar, a little more floral, but I, uh, Bolivar is where I would, where I would go, I think, as far as if I can introduce a line.
**Rooster:** I don't know.
I think any Marco could have a Maduro line. Well, it would just add, you know, like another, another line to, I don't know, even a QD with a, with a Maduro rapper. Can you imagine? Yeah. I wouldn't go there. I wouldn't go there. The other, the other one I
**Gizmo:** was thinking of, and this might be a controversial one in this room, but just because of the twang we were getting, I wonder how it would go with the twang of a Monte Cristo.
**Senator:** That's the second one that I was going to say. I completely agree.
**Gizmo:** A Monte Cristo with. I'm a door wrapper might be a really interesting because of the chocolate salt, adding an element of creaminess to it, you know, [01:27:00] but again, I would assume that it's pretty scarce. You know, it's pretty hard to get. Maduro tobacco.
So that's probably why they don't have next,
**Grinder:** next,
**Gizmo:** uh,
**Grinder:** uh, Habanos Maduro, watch it be like, uh,
disappointment for the Romeo or Romeo. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we have three ratings to do in the room tonight for how many times we've drank Bollinger together. And we've done it, I think, one or twice on this pod. We've actually never rated it.
**Bam Bam:** Is that true? Wow. That's true. Really? We've never rated Bollinger.
**Gizmo:** Wow.
So we're gonna do that tonight on the pod. Okay. Let's do it. And Bam Bam,
**Bam Bam:** you're up. So what's the bottle cost? Let me start there. 65 bucks. So I know we rated the Paul Roger at 10, and the Bollinger for me is excellent. I, I, I believe the last time we had this and we didn't rate it, I, for me, I edged it. Out just a bit more than the Paul, the Paul Roger, just a touch because it's a bit fuller for me.
I'd probably give it a 10. I'm gonna give it a 10. [01:28:00]
**Grinder:** Okay, Grindr. I'll give it a nine. I think Paul Roger just,
just
**Grinder:** is a notch
above. Chef Ricky. Yeah, I agree with Grindr. I haven't had Paul Roger with you guys, but I have bought a few bottles at home, uh, because of your recommendations. Um, and it, it just slightly edges out.
Now it could be because I didn't have a whole lot of this one. Um, and I wasn't really focused on it. That's exactly why. Yeah, but, but I'm going to give it a nine because it was enjoyable. It was delicious. I held up well with the cigar and it was, it was, it was, it was a great champagne.
**Pagoda:** Pagoda. Um, I'd give it a nine as well.
I think I really enjoyed the Paul Roger. And, um, it's, it's like become one of the go tos. Um, I think, yeah, today I wasn't focused on, uh, you know, trying to rate the Bollinger, but it's very pleasant. It's a really good bubbly and. I'd rate it a nine. Senator?
**Senator:** I'm also at a nine. I [01:29:00] think the only reason I'm at a nine, Bollinger for me is just not as versatile as a lot of champagnes that I love.
So I think when you're looking for a champagne that has some more body. Some more complexity that, you know, is almost like a meal, you know, like Paul Roger is just in the passenger seat, just complimenting whatever you're doing and you can have it
**Bam Bam:** anytime, right? Exactly. Yeah. Anytime. That's a good point.
You're having
**Senator:** a Cuban cigar, you're having some appetizers or hors d'oeuvres. Um, it's always just. The perfect accompaniment to whatever you're having. Bollinger wants to kind of sit in the driver's seat when you're drinking it. And I think that because of that, sometimes it works extremely well. And I think other times that maybe it's a little much for what you're going for.
So. Um, only the versatility of it is really what factors into the nine versus the 10 for me, like a 10 is something that like anytime, every day, I just have to have it where Bowling J a lot of the [01:30:00] time I want to have it, but not necessarily all the time, but, um, For anybody who hasn't had it. I mean, if you love champagne, it's some of the
**Bam Bam:** best stuff that's out there.
Period. Quick question. So when you say it wants to sit in a driver's seat, what do you mean by that?
**Senator:** I mean that it has more flavor and complexity
**Bam Bam:** forward
**Senator:** than most champagnes,
**Bam Bam:** I'm a genius. Yeah,
**Senator:** there you go.
**Bam Bam:** I said that same
**Gizmo:** thing. Somebody's fishing tonight. Hook, line and
**Rooster:** sinker, baby.
**Gizmo:** So for me, it's a 10.
Uh, I think that for everything you guys just said is why is it? Why it's a 10 for me. I think it works in parallel in my brain with Paul Roger. I think when I want something a little bit more full, if I'm going to have it with a, a bit of a heavier meal, obviously if we're having, you know, on new year's eve caviar with, you know, with champagne, I'm going to go Paul Roger, but Bollinger is, is something I'm reaching for when I want something a little bit more.
With a little bit more oomph to it. There you go. And for me, it's a 10. I think that it's a [01:31:00] brilliant, brilliant champagne. I love it. I only keep these two in stock at my house at all times. I love both of them. So I'm very happy to 10
**Poobah:** Poobah. Yeah. I'll echo, I'll echo everybody's sentiment, sentiment here. Um, it's a nine for me.
I, I, Bollinger has its spot. Polar J has its maybe spots, plural. It's slight, it's, you know, probably a little bit more versatile if you're going to have something in your house, you know, and just to have a few bottles in the fridge for whenever that special occasion may come up or you need to pop a bottle, you know, you're probably better off stocking, you know, a couple of bottles of Paul Roger in your basement fridge or whatever, just to have in case somebody comes over and you want to pop a bottle or whatever, but, um, but they're both great.
I mean, uh, for me, it's a nine. You know, I love both of them equally, to be honest, they're just, they just fit in different slots.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, that puts the formal liquor rating tonight on the Bollinger champagne at a 9. 3. [01:32:00] Nice. It's a perfect score.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** great score. It's a great score for that champagne.
All right, it's time now to move into our formal liquor rating on our second pairing. The Glenn Morengy 15 year single estate from Cadbull. It's the third batch I just, uh, read on the box. It's the third batch that they've released of this barley, the Cadbull barley. And, uh, I'm curious what you guys thought of it.
**Senator:** Before we rate this, how much was this?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** A hundred
**Bam Bam:** bucks. All right, well. Bam Bam, you're up. Okay, so 100 a bottle, yeah? Yeah. That's, that's expensive, but I'll be honest with you. I'm probably gonna give this a 10. Wow. I love the caramel finish, that vanilla finish at, at, on the end. And on the front, maybe it was a touch hot, but honestly, for me, it dissipated very quickly, and it was very pleasant to drink.
Not a chip of ice, just really easygoing, delicious flavor. 10.
**Grinder:** Grinder. I'm giving it a nine. Um. Glenmorangie is one of my favorite [01:33:00] whiskeys. And I think they, like this particular one, I said it to Bam when I first tasted it, Neat, it tastes like Scotland. It, the, the rich barley, um, the sweetness in the, in the nose.
It's, it's really over overwhelming in a great way. I do think that It's a little hot for me, you know, um, and it's, it's a little, I think, I think it's a little pedestrian because it's, it's very, it's very straight line. It's very normal. It's not too nuanced, uh, there's too much, not too much variety in it.
I don't like that word. For me, it's a nine. I think there's some other scotches that I, that I would certainly rate higher for what it's worth. I'm happy with a Glenmorangie 12, just this very traditional 12. that would, I would probably slot that in, in the same spot. Um, and, uh, yeah, nine all day.
Chef Ricky.
Yeah. So this is my first expression of the Glenmorangie. And, uh, I will say this, uh, [01:34:00] I'll, you know, for me, it's a, it's a very solid nine. Um, you know, a lot of those very pleasant notes of vanilla, caramel, some citrus coming through. I'm even now getting a little bit of rind towards the tail end. And, uh, I do, I do appreciate the heat, you know, just slightly, just a slight introduction of, of, of heat there at 43%, you said it was?
You know, I think it went well with the cigar because the cigar was fuller bodied. It did bring out some great, uh, notes that the cigar had there. So yeah, I, I enjoyed it very much.
**Pagoda:** Pagoda? Um, it's a strong nine for me. Um, what I liked about it was obviously that it really complimented the cigar and brought about a lot more of the sweet.
And I, I think. To my palate, it was even a little bit of the dark chocolate kind of notes and with a medium to long finish for me, uh, you know, it, uh, enveloped my, uh, tongue for a reasonable amount of time. I really enjoyed it. Uh, the only thing I think what was [01:35:00] somewhat, um, What I would have preferred is something with a slight more body, uh, like a little more viscosity.
I don't know. Um, um, and I think it would have really, then it would have definitely been a 10. Um, I think, uh, what was really interesting was I generally don't like, uh, uh, Whiskies would become, you know, which tend to be on, become a little hot and a little sharp on the back, but this was, uh, one of the whiskies I had without ice throughout, excuse me, Chef Ricky, but, but it was, uh, it was great.
Uh, I think I enjoyed it. It wasn't overwhelming at all. Uh, it's a strong nine for me.
**Senator:** Senator. For me, it's a strong nine. This is honestly one of my favorite, um, Glenn Ranji expressions I've had. The two kind of staples that I love from Glenn Ranji are there the 18 and the signet and the signet is like a full body scotch.
I mean, very different from everything they [01:36:00] make. A lot of viscosity in that. A lot of viscosity and, um, just different from a lot of scotches. The 18 Is much closer to kind of traditional Glenn Moranji just with more complexity and a little bit more body, but this honestly, I mean, this has like, for those who are complaining about the body of it, this is their style, like Glenn Moranji outside of the signet, even their 18 year, I mean, that's got to be and grinder.
It will probably back me up on this. I would say that's probably one of the lightest 18 year scotches that you could buy, but it has complexity and the flavor profiles. Nice. And so, um, I think they've stayed true to who they are, but I think there's still a lot of flavor in this, that this is pairing with a Maduro cigar.
And I haven't heard anybody say there's not enough flavor in the scotch or. It can't hold up to a Maduro. It's keeping up. It is, yeah. And I think that there's a lot of versatility in this, and I think for a hundred bucks, I mean, their 18 year is probably like 160 a bottle. The [01:37:00] Cigna's a $250 bottle at a hundred dollars.
I think it's actually a, a pretty fair price point for what it's delivering. So I would definitely buy this again and, and, and definitely recommend it.
**Gizmo:** So for me, it's also a nine. I thought this was an excellent scotch tonight. I was actually a little surprised, you know, given my other experience with, with the manufacturer of the spirit, I really, really enjoyed it.
I was shocked how well it stood up to the cigar tonight. And even though it's a Maduro, it's still a Cuban cigar. I think there are some 15 year age scotches that would well overpower. Any Cuban cigar to the point where I think most of the time we probably wouldn't bring in a 15 year age or an 18 year age scotch on a Cuban cigar.
So I, I really appreciated that. And I also think that for a hundred bucks for a 15 year age spirit to Senator's point, I actually think the price is very fair. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, how much is McAllen 15? Comparison point.
**Senator:** 180. 180, yeah.
**Gizmo:** 180 or something like, you know, that from, you know, that's almost [01:38:00] double what this is.
So, I thought it was a very good spirit. And I
**Senator:** candidly would rather drink this than Macallan 15. I totally agree. I totally agree with that. I think Macallan's 15 year expression is like the one thing in their line they have just totally Screwed up. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So I, I, I'm very happy with the spirit tonight and it was really, really good.
So it's a nine Poobah.
**Poobah:** Yeah. I echo a pretty statement. Um, is, is it for me all the time? No, but the particular expression of this within the line and to echo what I'm going last. So I'm not going to be redundant and recapping all this stuff. Uh, the citrus and vanilla notes. I liked it. It's a nine for me, but is it something that I would like really, really pursue?
Maybe not. But like standing on its own two feet and for what it it is and what it's trying to be Like it's a nine. Um, it's a nine for me. I I don't like my particular palette doesn't totally align with it It's a little bit hot for me. It's a little bit high proof for [01:39:00] what I want in a scotch but like that's not a demerit on what it is like it's The expression of it is stands on its own two feet.
It is what it is. And, uh, I, for that, I give it the merit it deserves. And I'm going to, it's too good to get, it's too good to give it an eight. Do you know what I'm saying? It's too good. It's too good to give it an eight, even though it's kind of like not in my wheelhouse, it's a nine still for me.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, that puts the formal liquor rating tonight on the Glenmorangie 15 year single estate Cadbull.
at a 9. 1 and I will say that I think that not only is that a great score for the spirit, but I think for most of us, if not all of us drinking it neat tonight. And again, what 15 year age scotch would all of us be sipping neat with a Cuban cigar?
**Bam Bam:** That's right.
**Gizmo:** I think that that really adds to the merit.
And I think that again validates that score at a 9. 1. It's a really, really nice spirit. There's
**Poobah:** merit in the scotch. Like I said, it's [01:40:00] not totally in my wheelhouse. It's like, it's not something I would pursue. I'd have a glass of it. Um, for what it stands for, it's pretty damn good.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, you know, so this is the third expression from glenmorengy we've done on the pod on episode 20 We did the glenmorengy 10.
We did not rate it That was right on the cusp of when we started rating spirits So I think we should revisit that and recently on episode 114. We did the quinta reyes 14 years aged and it scored a seven point zero Zero. Oof.
**Bam Bam:** I give you a 10 on the pronunciation. Thank you. Very well done. very much.
You're a
**Gizmo:** genius.
**Bam Bam:** You're a linguistic genius. Let's end up paying off. Let's end
**Gizmo:** up paying off. Listen, anybody who comes to this podcast for pronunciation, you're in the wrong place. All right, boys, it's time to do the formal lizard rating now on the Partagas Maduro number three from Cuba. Rooster, you're up.
**Rooster:** So the Portuguese Maduro No. 3, I think it's one of the best Maduros put [01:41:00] out by Habanos. It's kind of similar to the No. 1, but I think it has a little bit more flavor, a little bit more body. And, uh, you know, it's a cigar that was a three act play, if not a four act play. I love the size of the cigar. The combustion was great, fantastic smoke.
The price point is not bad at 30. If you can get it. I think that at this day and age, that's a very fair price for a cigar that delivers a three to four act play. Uh, so I'm at a solid nine. I did have a little bit of burn issue when we all had to kind of, maybe not all, but some of us in the room had to light it up a few times, touch it up.
But the flavor was phenomenal. I would definitely, uh, you know, if we can find, uh, boxes of these, we would definitely, I would definitely go and buy a box of this cigar. So I'm at a solid nine.
**Senator:** So if you could go back in time, you might, you might buy some of these. Yes. All 5, 000 worth. [01:42:00] Poobah,
**Poobah:** you're up. It was, it was a solid nine for me.
I enjoyed it all the way through. I smoked it quick. I, it had all, it had so many great notes in there. I mean, we, I don't have to recapitulate all of it. It was complex. It was, it had some pepper up front. It's, and then in the first third, it was, you know, you had these peppery notes, it was, it was kind of, but it was also kind of mild, a little bit of like white chocolate and cocoa.
And then it, then it, it just developed and developed and developed the whole way through. It was just, I mean, that's, you want, you know, In, in, in the Cuban cigar, you want this kind of journey that it takes you on. And it, and, uh, You have a smile on your face. And it, and it, yeah. And it took me on a really nice, it took me on a really nice journey.
A relaxing one, a flavorful one. And, uh, what more can you ask for? Uh, yeah, there were a couple of touch ups. Big deal.
**Bam Bam:** But you took it down. You took that thing down all the way. Yeah. [01:43:00]
**Poobah:** And, and, and what, I mean, yeah, a couple of touch ups here and there. But, uh, but overall it was really pleasurable experience.
It's a solid nine for me. I was bordering on maybe a 10, but, uh, it's, it's fantastic. A really nice expression, a unique expression in the particles line.
**Gizmo:** So for me, it's a 10. I'm actually surprised. I'm the first, I thought this cigar was unique. I think, uh, credit to Tabacuba and Habanos for blending this the way that they did.
I think it stands alone, uh, in its performance and its flavor for me. I thought it was really excellent. I loved the, the relaxation it provided me and the entire room. It put us all into a slower rhythm and we really, really enjoyed the cigar. I think the flavor. Was awesome. I thought the, the differences and, and the, the, also the compliments between the draw, the smell at the burn line, and also through the retro [01:44:00] hail, I thought was really interesting in ways that I haven't tasted that before it being a three or four, even act play adds such merit.
to it, that it really does take you on a journey, like in, in ways that I don't think we've talked about a lot of cigars, you know, it really, really took us there and I thought it was great. And finally, mine performed very, very well. I touched it up a few times, mainly when I was talking, I just, I thought it was excellent through and through.
So I'm very happy to 10 Senator.
**Senator:** So for me, this is one of the most complex Cuban cigars I've had period. I mean, I'm, I'm really shocked I say that because we've done the Maduro one, which I love, but this definitely has more complexity, and I think it is definitely a four act play that last act as Ricky said, gets completely savory in a way that the first three lean much sweeter than it does savory, I think.
It starts a medium bodied cigar and I think [01:45:00] it finishes medium full. It never in any way gets overpowering. I didn't get any rough edges even down to the last quarter of the cigar. Um, it's definitely something I would smoke again. The only complaint I have and I can only rate this cigar that I I got, I had to touch this up a lot and what frustrated me about that is, you know, it started so effortless and I was so relaxed and then it became work to just kind of touch up and, and keep it lit.
Um, thankfully it didn't impact the flavor, which is why it's still going to get a high score for me. But the, the funny part is the number three is more complex than the number one, but performance and construction wise. Yeah. I have had a great experience with the number one. I've never felt like I'm fighting that cigar having to relight it many times.
So they each kind of have their, you know, pros and cons that for me, that's out to a nine. I can't give it a 10 given the construction issues that [01:46:00] I had in terms of staying lit and having an even burn, but the flavor profile is memorable. It's definitely a cigar I would smoke again. And to everyone's point before me at 30 in today's pricing to deliver this kind of experience with this complexity, you're getting some real value for that dollar.
**Gizmo:** All right. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** Um, very strong nine for me, actually. Uh, it's, uh, funny because on the way back I was listening to, uh, The episode for Maduro won. I wasn't there for that episode because I'd gone to the U. S. Open. I think it might've been the U. S. Open final with Djokovic. And ironically, it's the
**Senator:** U. S. Open right now.
**Pagoda:** It is the U. S. Open. And
**Bam Bam:** microfiche was prevalent.
**Pagoda:** You know, you know, for the first episode, that was a great episode. Yeah. Uh, But I was listening to it and I, you know, I was, you know, and I haven't tried the number one yet. And, uh, so for me, it was a completely independent, uh, experience, but I was really looking forward to it. The very fact that it's [01:47:00] Maduro, uh, in, you know, and a Cuban, uh, it was, I was really excited to smoke it.
Uh, it, it delivered in, in most fronts, right? In fact, nearly all fronts. And I think the only thing to echo everyone's sentiment over here, I had to touch it up a lot. I think it was a bit humid, maybe, uh, the cigar. And maybe if it's a bit drier, someone's
**Bam Bam:** insulted.
**Senator:** I'm not going to lie. I have to agree with Pagoda.
It felt a little bit wet when I, when I got mine and
**Bam Bam:** not mine, not mine either.
**Pagoda:** And so that's why I had to touch it up a lot. And I think that experience in this whole journey, like I think Poober mentioned, it was a journey from a flavor profile perspective. It is very, very flavorful. And I think, you know, we all seek that out to be able to, uh, get hold of a cigar and just enjoy it and enjoy the flavor.
And, um, really it's an excellent journal journey. I just, uh, wish that I didn't have to touch it up as many times as I have to be fair to the way I score. Uh, cigars, uh, which is based on what I'm smoking, [01:48:00] uh, at this, uh, very point in time. And it was a strong line for me.
**Rooster:** I think it needs more kitty litter.
I knew it was coming, man. I
**Poobah:** resent the implication. I will say this real quick. It didn't tunnel. It didn't do it at all. It just needed like the rapper just needed a little, for me,
**Senator:** without the touch ups in the real life, it would have tunneled. I was preventing against that. Same.
**Poobah:** Yeah, probably. You may be right about that.
Yeah.
**Pagoda:** And, and just because I heard the first episode, you know, I, you know how I go and say it's a nine? It's a nine. It's a nine. Yeah. I'm
**Poobah:** like, it didn't tunnel, but yes. I guess if you kept doing smoking it didn't touch it up with a tunnel, I guess that's fair.
**Pagoda:** But I was listening to Rooster's Commentary on the first episode and he says, you know, it's a nine for me.
It's not an eight. And it's not a 10. It's a nine.
**Bam Bam:** You're a mathematical genius.[01:49:00]
**Gizmo:** All right. Chef Ricky,
man.
**Gizmo:** He's still smoking it, by the way. Chef. This is an intense room. Okay. For the listener.
**Senator:** Ricky has had a roach clip. Basically took his perfect draw. It pierced it. To get it all the way to the nub.
Let me tell you, I, you know, I, um, I've never had the Maduro one. In fact, on my way home tonight, I'm going to go back and listen to that episode.
Um, but this cigar, you know, we've had a few weeks where we've had some hit or misses. Um, this cigar just, just didn't. Did so much. And yes, I had to touch it up maybe, you know, eight times. Uh, and then, and, you know, that's why I'm not going to give it an 11. Uh, There we go. But instead I'll give it a 10.
There we go. Cause you know what? The, the, the touching up would have, I probably would have found annoying on any other cigar that wasn't worth touching up, but the cigar was worth it. And it was, it was [01:50:00] just, you know, it required a little attention. You know, you were making love to someone and sometimes it required a little bit more attention and that's just what the cigar was and
**Senator:** candles in a room.
Hey,
that's it, man. You know what? Point to that earlier. You know, if it wasn't for the fact that I had to stop every once in a while to touch it up, I probably would have never stopped smoking it. So I'll say the touch ups, you know, my cigar wasn't wet at all. Maybe I was smoking it a little too fast.
Maybe there was a slight construction issue, but. You know, regardless of all of that, the flavor just never stopped delivering. Uh, and I'm so, we must have called out 16 to 20 different notes on this thing. Uh, and you know, I, I've listened to this pod to every episode. I've been on a few episodes and I've, I haven't yet heard any cigar that's delivered on this level.
Um, and this cigar did it for me today on, on every level. Uh, you know, if, you know, I think for [01:51:00] a lot of people when they smoke cigars and they, they haven't quite experienced the Cuban journey that you guys have taken us on. Um, this is that cigar that makes you say, holy shit. You know, it's, it's absolutely worth it.
Like this, you know, this, this hobby is worth it. Pursuing Cubans are worth it. Uh, cause yeah, to come across something like this and, you know, just not, not find it in any other stick that I've had, that I've had before. Uh, it was quite amazing. So yeah, for that, I'm going to give it a 10. Um, we finally gave you a good Cuban cigar experience tonight.
Finally. Every other rating I think has
**Gizmo:** been a six or a seven for working on Cubans. Yeah, that's true.
The cigar took me out. It was an outer body experience for me today.
**Gizmo:** Awesome.
**Grinder:** Grindr. At least you kept your clothes on. This is a nine for me. I think, um, the, the taste was wonderful. The, the chicory in after the first.
for a centimeter. The [01:52:00] pepper subsided. That chicory that I, that I mentioned was really phenomenal. Um, the sweetness on the, on the foot and, uh, that kind of balanced spice was something I haven't really experienced in a Cuban cigar. You know, I maybe, maybe before, but not, not something that I'm reminiscing about right now.
And, uh, I mean, the fact that I had a Cuban cigar, Touch it up as much as I did was was very frustrating though, and I did get as a result. Maybe I know Rooster and senator didn't experience this there was a bit of an altered taste as a result Because I was I was touching it up quite frequently and I was constantly charring it So that was a little bit of a downer That's why it's not getting a 10 for me, but a 9 for me is a good strong score
**Gizmo:** All right, Bam.
**Bam Bam:** You know, I think the level of conversation tonight around the cigar was so intense and everyone had incredible variations in all of the flavors they were [01:53:00] catching. I can't see how the cigar is not a 10. And it was absolutely a 10 for me. That's
**Grinder:** three straight 10s tonight. Yeah. It was a flush.
**Bam Bam:** Now, putting my unbridled enthusiasm aside, which has been an accusation.
**Gizmo:** I think it's more than that, but go ahead.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. You know, I want to echo what you said and what Pupa said. The evolution of the cigar is very unique. And how many cigars have we had, New World or Cuban that took us on this kind of a journey or it, how it evolved from the, from the foot to the, to the, to the, you know, to the very end, it was very unique, excellent Cigar 10.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. That puts the formal lizard rating tonight on the Partagus Maduro number three. At a 9. 4. Awesome. Part of this is back, dude. All right, let's talk about the other after the Aliados. I want
**Bam Bam:** to know what we rated the Maduro one.
**Gizmo:** Let's go through them. So we'll start with the Aliados. We're going to work backwards on episode 133.
The part of this Aliados LCD age scored a 5. 7 on episode [01:54:00] 113. The part of this 898 did not perform as we expected. Still scored a 9. 0. On episode 82, the series E number two, the E two scored a 9. 3. Just a point below this episode 64. We did the Corona scored us on a hot house, which scored a 9. 7. That was the best part.
I guess we've ever done on the pod episode 56. The Lusitania scored an 8. 0 on episode 36, the series P number two. We call that the P two around here scored an 8. 7. On episode 16,
**Senator:** lower than the E2, just keeping, I'm going to keep, I'm going to, I'm just going to keep
**Gizmo:** rolling episode 16 roll baby. The part of his short scored an 8.
0 on episode 14. This one will always stick with me. The part of his Calabria's episode scored a 9. 3. That was delicious. I had a lot of age. Oh, my Lord. I was so good. Spectacular. I'll never forget that one on our New Year's Eve episode for 2021. [01:55:00] One. We did the series D number four, scored a 9. 2. And finally, on episode one, we did the sister cigar to this, the Partagas Maduro one, which scored an 8.
7, 8.
**Bam Bam:** 7. So this
**Gizmo:** edged it out by seven points tonight, which I think is pretty accurate. Yeah,
**Pagoda:** it is. But it was more complex. Yeah. Look at the merit of the cigar. I mean, if we didn't have to touch it up, I think this would have scored even higher.
**Senator:** That's the thing. I mean, truly, I would have given this a ten without question if this burned flawlessly and I didn't have to touch it up.
No question.
**Rooster:** I'm just curious, the Partagas Anejado, that rated what? 9. 7. So that had a lot of age on it too. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I think that was 2014, 2015. I go back to 2014. We always reach back to that. Alright boys, a great night tonight on the podcast. First, I want to congratulate Listener 2 for lizard of the week. I want to say very happy birthday again.
Happy birthday friend. We love you, man. I [01:56:00] hope you have a great
**Senator:** birthday week. I have to say the highlight of my birthday. I met one of my absolute idols, Dave Chappelle.
**Gizmo:** That's right. Oh,
**Grinder:** that's right. And I got a photo with him. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Oh man. Days
**Senator:** before my birthday. It was a huge, huge treat. Amazing guy.
**Gizmo:** That might have been one of the most shocking texts when I opened it. It's like, Oh, a new photo popped up from Senator and it's him and Chappelle.
**Rooster:** I showed that picture to, to my wife and her jaw dropped. She's like, he's with David Chappelle. I'm like, yes, and Kamala Harris and, uh, Obama and, yeah, but he's with
**Gizmo:** David Chappelle.
**Rooster:** That was great.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. A great night tonight on the podcast. Let's recap one more time. The Bollinger champagne scored a 9. 3. The Glenmorangie 15 years age, single estate batch. Cad ball scored a 9. 1. And finally, the Partagas Maduro number three scored a 9. 4. What an awesome night.
**Bam Bam:** Great night.
Great,
**Gizmo:** great, great night. Of course. [01:57:00] Thanks to our listeners out there for writing in. We really appreciate it. Send us voice memos. Emails, comments, whatever you think of. We love hearing from you. Of course you can win lizard of the week. Thanks to our sponsor fabric of five. We really appreciate them as well.
And we'll see everybody next week.
**Poobah:** Keep smoking.
**Gizmo:** 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, p o d. com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
If you have any comments, questions, do you want to reach out? Say hello, tell us what you're smoking. Email us. Hello at lounge lizards, pod. 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.