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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features 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. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Senator Pagoda and Bam Bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some whiskey, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 118th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying Lounge Lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal Lizard rating.
We enter the world of Metallica. Tonight we discuss Padrone's New Farm in Esteli. We reveal yet another year of the Dragon release and Pagoda details, his recent trip to Costa Rica, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair blackened seventy-two season straight American whiskey with the Drew Estate.
Blackened M-Eighty-One in Corona. A Corona tonight from [00:01:00] Drew Estate on the pod. It's called the Blackened M-Eighty-One. It's a forty-three ring gauge cigar by five inches long. And Bam Bam, I know you're excited. I'm excited. We have entered a. The realm of Metallica, correct? Oh yeah. Oh
**Bam Bam:** yeah. Yeah. Bam.
**Gizmo:** Promised that he was gonna do karaoke tonight. I'll
**Bam Bam:** do karaoke. I gotta get my lyrics.
**Gizmo:** So this cigar, I would argue, is pretty rustic. Uh,
**Bam Bam:** very toothy,
**Gizmo:** very toothy dark, and it looks, comes with a very simple band on it that just says black. And there's a foot band as well. Yeah. With M-Eighty-One on it, which I pulled off, but, uh, yeah, it's pretty cool. I'm, uh, Mexican son. Andres rapper. Yeah. And everything in it is Maduro.
**Bam Bam:** Looks like a powerful cigar. Yeah, it's gonna
**Gizmo:** pack a punch. Here we go.[00:02:00]
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Who doesn't love Metallica? Oh yeah. Come on.
**Gizmo:** It Reminds me of Mariano Rivera coming out to the New York. Vegas. Here we go. Bam. Go. That's true. Say your prayers little one. Don't forget my son to include everyone. Oh, it's perfect. Keep going. Dock you in while within. Keep your free from sin till the sand, man.
He comes Sleep with one eye open. Gripping your pillow tight. Exit
**Senator:** life.
**Gizmo:** All right. That's enough. All right. Okay. giz,
**Senator:** can
**Pagoda:** you say it? Not even close? No. Come on.
**Bam Bam:** We have the wrong job. Hey, I'm into like three cigars tonight. I liked
**Gizmo:** it. Thank you. I thought it was good. Thanks, bro. All right, boys, let's cut this thing.
See, we're getting on the cold draw on the rapper. [00:03:00] Obviously this is the cigar designed by Drew a state and Rob Dietrich, uh, who helped with the blackened whiskey for Metallica and James Hetfield. Kind of a three-headed affair, designing the blackened cigar for Drew a state all with Maduro tobacco, which is interesting.
Every aspect of this cigar is Maduro. So that is James Hetfield's, uh, flavor profile. That's what his palette likes. So I'm anticipating that this is going to be a full body punch in the face tonight, and the draw
**Bam Bam:** is wide open.
**Gizmo:** Are we gonna have dinner before we like this, or, oh, we're gonna need a meal. I have steaks coming.
Yeah. Bam. Mine is wide open as well. Yeah. Which is surprising because when I was looking at the foot, I was actually a little concerned because I was anticipating that this draw was gonna be a little tight, but it, it's really well rolled. It's, it's wide open. It could
**Pagoda:** smoke a little fast. I'm looking forward to this.
I think, uh, you know, because I love this kind of flavor
**Gizmo:** profile that's right in your wheelhouse. All right, boys, let's like this thing. The [00:04:00] Blackened M-Eighty-One Corona. Again, it's a forty-three ring gauge cigar by five inches long from Drew Estate in partnership with James Hetfield of Metallica and Rob Dietrich, who, uh, is in charge of their Blackened Whiskey product.
The three of them came together and designed this all Maduro line of cigars for Jewish State. I think it launched sometime in 2023, I believe, or 2022. It's, it's fairly recent. Metallica is a very commercialized, heavy metal band as we know. So everything lines up. They put out an album. Uh, last year they went on tour and the cigar came out around that time.
**Bam Bam:** This is surprisingly smooth on, on light.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. I'm not getting a lot of, uh, notable flavor. No, no. That I can call out to you right now, but it's not harsh. No,
**Pagoda:** that's really interesting because [00:05:00] I thought it'd really, you know, me too, uh, come strong with, uh, really strong flavors, but no, just your,
**Gizmo:** wait. Uh, oh. So Rooster, you've had this cigar before.
You actually had this well before, uh, we recorded these on the pod. What, what attracted you to the cigar and what's kept you, uh, reaching for 'em?
**Rooster:** Um, I don't know. I just wanted to try it. It's interesting. It, the whole concept is, is neat and we all like drew
**Gizmo:** estate cigars. Yeah. You know, all the Liga line.
Um, they're full,
**Rooster:** full flavored. I mean, to me, what I remember is like the, the, the first note that you get right on the light, you get like the leather, little spice, like deep espresso
**Gizmo:** and, and a little bit of like a sweetness,
**Rooster:** which is like a deep, dark, sweet note that kind of dissipates. And you'll notice
**Gizmo:** that.
Yeah, I'm getting a little espresso, but I'm getting quite a bit of spice. Spice
**Rooster:** is, will, will, will be
**Gizmo:** throughout. Yeah. For, so you're gonna get a lot of, lot of pepper [00:06:00] on this. It's not
**Bam Bam:** hitting me hard. It's not spice forward for me.
**Gizmo:** No. It's very smooth. What do you guys think?
**Senator:** Yeah, I agree. I I think thankfully it's not.
Uh, aggressive with the spice. It's like just the right amount. I definitely get the espresso. There's something very faintly sweet.
**Gizmo:** There is like a,
**Rooster:** I was kind of like, on the one side I've had like a deep dark cherry
**Gizmo:** kind of thing. I
**Bam Bam:** get that on the retrohale in a finish.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. Like a leather, leather and espresso, you know, dark
**Bam Bam:** coffee.
Yeah. And the smoke
**Pagoda:** output is just like any other legal Yeah, it's true. It's excellent.
**Gizmo:** I'm finding though, that the smoke output is not as crazy as the league is that we've had, especially the, the league in nine. Remember that cigar? I mean, yeah. Every draw was the size, the size of this size.
**Rooster:** Yep. I mean, look at size.
That's true.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know, but for what it is this, this is a Corona, I think it's a potential. Quite
**Gizmo:** substantial. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting a little more now. This is a Mexican
**Rooster:** San Andres rapper. Mm-Hmm. [00:07:00] And I think the binder in filler is a broadleaf Pennsylvania. And, uh.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, so the binder is from Connecticut River Valley Broadleaf, also Maduro, and the filler blend is Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro Tobaccos, including what they say is the boldest Pennsylvania Broadleaf Ligero in Drew Estate's vast tobacco inventory.
So they reached for the boldest Ligero that they had to blend in this cigar, which I'm assuming is just in line with what James Hetfield wanted. Do we know where these are rolled? I believe these are rolled in Esteli. In Drew Estate's factory. Okay.
**Senator:** I would hope not. Pennsylvania,
**Gizmo:** there's some talented rollers in pa.
That's true.
**Bam Bam:** And what's the cost of this?
**Gizmo:** $9 and 15 cents. That's a value cigar.
**Bam Bam:** 10 bucks. Yeah, it's a
**Gizmo:** value cigar. So the line, like I said, was launched, uh, in the last year or two. Comes in. Really, really cool boxes. Actually, rooster was handing them around, uh, when we were selecting our [00:08:00] cigars. And the, the top three quarters of the front of the box pops open one way, and then the, the bottom third I guess pops the, the opposite way.
Mm-Hmm. You could pick your cigar up, but it's a really nicely and you uniquely designed box. I've, I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in this. Yeah, sure. And everything is dark about this. Yeah. Yeah. It's called The black in for a Reason. Box
**Rooster:** is black. Mm-Hmm. The band is black. It's a, it's a deep dark Maduro wrapper.
I mean, it's a sundry Mexican son under his rapper, which are known to be, you know, very dark.
**Gizmo:** I mean, so far so good, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's off to a nice start. So when they launched these cigars, they debuted in four sizes. The Robusto, which is five by 50, the Toro 52 by six, the Corona Doble, which is 50 by seven, and the Corona that we're smoking tonight, which is 43 by five.
Um, and I'm glad actually the rooster picked up the Coronas because this is actually the [00:09:00] cigar that James Hetfield smokes. So what's cool is, uh, I actually went to see Metallica, uh, on their tour when they played East Rutherford, which was one of the earlier dates on their tour last year. I think it was in May of 23, or maybe it was September, I don't remember.
But anyway, I was lucky to be kind of up closer to where the band comes on. And the way that they set up their show is, it's in a stadium, a massive, it was in the football stadium where the Jets and Giants play and everything is open air. So if you think about like, when you go see a normal show, the the stage is kind of backed up to one of the end zones, and then they kind of close off about a quarter of the seats, Metallica plays.
Essentially in the round. Mm-Hmm. So every seat has a full view and they're able to open up the entire stadium to it. But what that means is there's nowhere for the band to hide. So when they come out before the show, they're literally sitting in front of your face before they go on stage. And every night before he goes on stage, James Hetfield is [00:10:00] smoking one of these exact cigars.
**Bam Bam:** I've seen many clips of him getting ready to go on stage with a cigar in his hand. Wow. It's very cool.
**Gizmo:** He is definitely a full-on lizard. Oh yeah. James Hetfield. He has fallen in love with cigars. I think it was, he recently, in the last few years, moved from LA or San Francisco, excuse me, where Metallica is based.
He's now based in Colorado. Mm-Hmm. And I think he met a group of friends there. Um, 'cause he's sober. He doesn't drink. So I think he met a, a group of friends there where he shares his cigars with him. Uh, we need to interview him. I would love to. I tried. Absolutely. But I was told that the Cigar Aficionado episode was, uh, interview was the only interview he was doing about the cigars.
So, well, we're the lizards. It's gonna happen. We'll make it happen at some point. Yes. I don't
**Senator:** know why he is doing ca All they do is interview people that don't smoke cigars half the time for their frigging cover. Correct. That's true. I mean,
**Gizmo:** that's true. It's not unreal. Yeah. This is, um, shockingly good right now.
I'm pleasantly surprised, especially for being al Maduro. I, I don't have a lot of flavor notes to call out. I think still I'm getting espresso and a little bit of spice, but there's [00:11:00] not much more there, but it's a pleasurable
**Bam Bam:** smoke. Yeah. On the retro hill, you'll get a little sweetness on the finish. Other than that, you're right.
**Gizmo:** It's
**Pagoda:** earthy. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. I think the thing I'm just happy about is that this is not. Strength for strength's sake, which I was honestly worried about. Us too, I think. Yeah. Talking about how bold this cigar is and, and all the, you know, Maduro to its core. I was just worried this was just gonna like, punch you in the face and not actually be that enjoyable.
But the delivery is actually pretty smooth for,
**Rooster:** so when I say like, I've had this in the morning multiple times, it's not bad. Mm-Hmm. I mean, it's not like overpowering. Agree.
**Gizmo:** And a lot of the reviews that I have read, they
**Rooster:** talk about a lot of spice. You do get spice, but it's not the dominant note
**Gizmo:** so far. I agree.
Uh, it
**Rooster:** does build up a little bit, but in the morning with coffee and stuff, I think it could work. You know, if you're looking for a bolder
**Gizmo:** flavor, it's, it's there. It works
**Bam Bam:** for you in the morning. Sure it
**Pagoda:** does. I'm sure it'll work for me as well. I'm sure it would. [00:12:00]
**Gizmo:** I do like the size of the cigar. Yeah, it's nice.
You know, we've, we've actually been kind of reaching for bigger cigars, longer cigars, you know, Lanceros, which I guess are a similar ring gauge to this a little bit longer recently on the podcast. But to reach for a little Corona like this, you know, there's a lot of folks out there who maybe only have a half hour, 45 or an hour to smoke a cigar, you know, in, in, in their given week.
This is for someone that's looking for a, a full cigar. Yeah. That's smooth. This, this might be the right one for them, especially under 10 bucks. Double
**Rooster:** espresso, a Tesla and an M.A.D one. There's a perfect combination in the
**Gizmo:** morning.
**Bam Bam:** What? You know what, that's a great recipe for the start of a day. Hell yeah.
**Gizmo:** So, like I said, this was blended by Jonathan Drew James Hetfield of Metallica, and a man named Rod Dietrich. Rob Dietrich. He is the master distiller and blender of the Blackened American Whiskey, which we have as our pairing tonight. Boys. Yes, [00:13:00] we do. And he's the former master distiller for Stranahan's, Colorado Whiskey.
He's been blending for 15 years or so, and he's responsible for every aspect of production, uh, for the Blackened Whiskey and I guess because of his relationship with Metallica. So the Blackened Whiskey came out quite a few years ago, much earlier, much earlier than this. I guess. He had a relationship with Jonathan Drew and he conne, uh, connected James Hetfield a after he figured out he was a big cigar guy with, uh, Jonathan Drew at Drew a estate, and that's how they came up with this.
But apparently it took them quite a while to develop the cigar. Uh, that aligned with James Hetfield's palate was smooth but delivered. What he said was, I guess, the three things that he was really looking for in a cigar, which were espresso, leather, and dark chocolate. Ah, and I'm getting all three pretty close.
I don't think I'm, maybe I'm not getting dark chocolate yet, but I'm definitely getting espresso and lemon. I agree. It's a very
**Rooster:** deep bitter chocolate. Yeah. Not like a sweet chocolate, not a milk
**Bam Bam:** chocolate dark. And you mentioned [00:14:00] earthiness earlier. Earthiness think that's very accurate. Yeah, and it's nice, very
**Gizmo:** nice.
I think the earthiness though, is in line with what I expect from Drew Estate. Like I do taste similar notes to what you get in like a Liga or even the Underground series we've done. There is that kind of underpinning of, of flavor that I think is very much Drew estate in this. Maybe it's the wrap or maybe it's the blend or the tobacco or the way they, they ferment it, but it does taste like a Drew Estate cigar to, yeah.
Have you guys had the
**Rooster:** T-fifty two? Yes, I've had it a few times. Does this kind of remind you of
**Gizmo:** that a little bit. I, I feel it's
**Bam Bam:** milder than this and. Just as smooth T-fifty-two is milder. Yeah. Yeah. Than this for me. Yeah. Yeah. But quite a nice cigar. I think Pagoda has
**Pagoda:** had number nine of like I of the big number nine guy, so, yeah.
Yeah. And I, I do think that if you would've put them like side by side, you would think it's like a stepchild of the number, number nine in a way. Could be,
**Bam Bam:** you know, at Liga nine, we get a lot of deep raisin. I'm not
**Gizmo:** getting that here. Yeah. There's definitely more fruit in the [00:15:00] Liga series than I think there is here.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And the smoke had, there's viscosity to it, which we're not getting here.
**Gizmo:** This is a little bit thinner. I think the, the smoke output for me is, is definitely greater, but I am missing the, the, that kind of dried fruit note or that deep fruit note that you get in a lot of the league of stuff that we, that we enjoy.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I gotta say this is really quite easy to smoke. I'm surprised we, I was intimidated by the cigar,
**Gizmo:** right? Yeah. I don't think
**Rooster:** James Hatfield was really going for a fruit note, maybe.
**Gizmo:** No. Yeah. Yeah. That's not what he was reaching for. Really? Asked for that. Yeah.
**Senator:** I will say I'm getting a lot more pepper now.
**Gizmo:** Really? It's picked up spice.
**Senator:** Yeah. Hmm. The first. Third of the first third. I was not, but um, as you get further along, I'm starting to get
**Gizmo:** the sweetest note. You get the, so he's talking about the first ninth, by the way. I, yeah. That's about a quarter
**Bam Bam:** of an inch
for the listener.
**Senator:** I like to operate in thirds.
**Bam Bam:** [00:16:00] Correct.
**Rooster:** The only sweet note that you get is right on the light. There's a, there's a slight, like a, it begins with like a sweet note.
**Gizmo:** To me.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know, I keep going to the retrohale. If you do that, you'll get a sweetness on the finish of that. It's, it's actually very
**Gizmo:** nice, honestly, through the Retro Hale.
I kind of like that, that kind of spice that I'm getting in the Retrohale. It's very mild. It's a mild, it doesn't bite your
**Bam Bam:** nose. At the end of it, I get a little bit of a type of fruit I can't
**Gizmo:** put my finger on. Yeah, the retro is really, really nice. Cherry, someone called that cherry deep, like a dark cherry nut that's there.
So boys, let's talk about our pairing. Speaking of Metallica. So we're doing a full Metallica episode tonight and we also got a bottle of the Blackened Limited Edition 72 seasons version of their straight Whiskeys finished in Brandy Casks. So it's a pretty cool bottle. Has the 72 Seasons Metallica logo all over it.
It's [00:17:00] a 45% alcohol, 90 proof. And boys, what do you guys think of, uh, the Spirit tonight? I, I
**Senator:** think it's surprisingly pretty good. Yeah. Um, I, I mean I say that because I'm not a huge bourbon guy. Obviously I appreciate some bourbons, but it's not something that I actively pursue a lot. I was worried, you know, 90 proof and kind of the whole theme it seems for this brand, whether we're talking about their bourbon or their cigars, like full Yeah.
Flavor intense. So I was just worried this was gonna be like a really aggressive bourbon and I tried it need first. I didn't find it to be aggressive at all. Yeah. I didn't realize it. Hearing you say that it's finished in a brandy cask, I think helps mellow out. Mm-Hmm. Some of that aggression, which is good.
And I've just put a couple, uh, you know, chips of ice in this and I think it's, it, it is opened up nicely. I, I actually like
**Bam Bam:** it. Yeah. I've, I've had it neat. I'm still drinking it Neat. It gets better and better. It's really easy to drink and I'm surprised. Surprised by that. It's
**Pagoda:** easy to drink, [00:18:00] but I do get a bit of the sharpness in the back even, although, and maybe I took a slightly bigger gulp, I think I should give it small sip, tranquilo, tranquilo
**Bam Bam:** tranquilo.
**Gizmo:** I gotta say, there's a note in this whiskey that's interesting to me and is actually very complimentary to the cigar we smoking, which is, I feel like I'm getting like a, like a, a cherry note on the finish of the whiskey that. Is very complementary to the cigar. Mm-Hmm. Not that there's cherry in the cigar.
No. But it's just, it kind of aligns with it, but it's unique in its flavor that I don't think there's been a whiskey where I'm getting like a cherry type of note out
**Senator:** of it. I completely agree. Yeah. And, and the reason I actually really like it, so the only thing for me with the cigar, I wish I was getting some more of a sweet note out of it, and I'm, I'm like drier things, but this is a little too dry, the, the flavor profile of the cigar for me to start.
So the pairing actually works really well where I'm getting some sweetness and some fruit notes from the, uh, the bourbon that I wouldn't have [00:19:00] expected. And that's, I think helping balance the cigar more toward what I like from a flavor standpoint. Agreed.
**Bam Bam:** Good combo
**Gizmo:** tonight. So what's interesting is, and we've talked about him before, this whiskey, the founding distiller of this whiskey with Metallica was that.
Gentleman, Dave Pickerel, who we've talked about, who was, uh, known as the godfather of American whiskey and who passed away, unfortunately, I think he had like a, a, a sudden health issue. Wasn't he involved in Whistlepig? He was involved in Littlerest. Littlerest. Okay. Maybe Whistlepig as well. I don't remember.
Yeah, now I be that too. Yeah, it could be. He's not a lot. He's, he, they call him the godfather of American whiskey. And this guy, Rob Dietrich has followed in his footsteps and is now the distiller and master blender. But, um, you know, Dave Pickerel, I guess, was very famous with this whiskey for bringing in Metallica to do a whiskey pairing.
And apparently what they do is they play [00:20:00] and hear me out, don't. Tell me. Oh yeah. Apparently when the whiskey is sitting in the casks Aging, they play Metallica music very loudly. What to infuse the,
**Bam Bam:** the essence of the song, the essence of
the
**Gizmo:** spirit, who the bell tolls in the other tunes, can't you taste it into the whiskey for whom the bell tolls?
Time marches on
**Senator:** Another great song. It's funny you mentioned them playing music very loudly that somehow is supposed to influence the spirit. I went to a whiskey tasting for, uh, this bourbon, uh, three chords. And, uh, apparently it's, uh, uh, I guess the person behind it is, uh, Neil. Giraldo, another
**Gizmo:** musician.
Yeah. He's, uh, the, the singer-songwriter. Pat Benatar, I think. I think that's her husband slash guitar player. Interesting. Neil Giraldo. So I just think these people want to hear their music loudly in a, in a
**Senator:** distillery. That's what's crazy [00:21:00] because during the tasting they were talking about how they apply vibrations from playing music in the finishing of the, the whiskey, and that's a difference maker for them.
And I thought it was so silly hearing it, but it's funny to hear that apparently they, they say the same crap with this stuff. Oh boy. Who knows what impact. I doubt it has
**Pagoda:** any, I do feel musical today. Oh,
**Gizmo:** it could have been Bam singing. Yes.
**Bam Bam:** You should sing the next song. No, please.
**Gizmo:** I think this is actually a really, really good pairing, and I know that James Hetfield doesn't drink alcohol, but they kind of nailed it with this. I think the Rob Dietrich went, you know, in blending this cigar, pairing it with the, with the, the whiskey. It's like, I actually think they have something here.
I think this is pretty, pretty solid.
**Bam Bam:** It's actually quite nice. It drinks beautifully. It's delicious. I think.
**Senator:** Yeah, I mean, I go as far as saying this is one of the better bourbons I've had in a while.
**Gizmo:** How much is it? 40 bucks. Wow. Wow. That's a
**Bam Bam:** good ver That's a great deal.
**Gizmo:** Wow. [00:22:00] $40. You can find it anywhere.
You can find it online in stores. 40 bucks. It's one of
**Bam Bam:** the more interesting bourbons.
**Senator:** Honestly, I'm also just impressed because I have a total bias against any sort of celebrity-backed product, whether it's a spirit or even a cigar, right? Like these are usually marketing gimmicks, right? These are oftentimes not people who are serious about these things.
I mean, look at tequila. Every celebrity and their mother has a tequila. At this point, you are gonna tell me that Kendall Jenner correct is serious about tequila. Oh, please. She doesn't, no shit about tequila. So I was very skeptical of this, but this is actually really good. I'm pleasantly
**Bam Bam:** surprised, other than the fact that they play music to the spirit while it's in the barrel.
Right?
**Gizmo:** That's what helps.
**Bam Bam:** You gotta turn his mic off.
**Senator:** That's part of my aging process for my cigars, is I play Chan Chan and everything just ages that much better. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** that's, that's
**Gizmo:** legitimate. That's, I gotta tell you, when I play Chan Chan, when I brush my teeth in the morning. For some reason everything just goes so much smoother with my [00:23:00] day.
Once I start with, your teeth are brighter after that. They are. Exactly, exactly. So boys, let's talk about some other Nicaraguan news. Uh, it was announced the other day that the Padrone family purchased a ton of new land in Esteli Nicaragua to grow even more tobacco. And I'm curious how this is going to shape their business in the coming years.
But apparently secretly, Jorge Padrone in October purchased 90 Manzana's, which is about 153 acres of farmland on a high elevation plot in Nicaragua 1200 meters above sea level. Wow. I mean, what's, what's
**Senator:** crazy about the size of that is I had read it's, it's basically as big as all of their other farms combined.
Wow. Yeah. I mean, that's huge part of wine. The drone already makes a ton of cigar. It's true. The fact that that Encompasses every other property that they own in one,
**Bam Bam:** maybe we'll see a price decrease future volume.
**Pagoda:** I doubt that you're an optimist. Bam. You're an optimist. [00:24:00]
**Bam Bam:** I'm, well, this is in many ways.
**Gizmo:** So they named the new Plot of Land after, uh, Jorge Pedro's Mother La Florinda is the name of the farm, and it's now in the midst of its maiden crop.
Obviously, we're not gonna taste any of that tobacco, at least I would think, until Twenty-twenty-nine, or Mm-hmm. Years plus. But you know, very much in line with the ethos of the Pedro and family. It's a very long, long tail on their vision. They're willing to invest time and money to make great tobacco. So I'm curious what's gonna happen in the next five to 10 years.
Clearly they're seeing. A need for supply. Maybe their demand is higher than what they're able to supply with what they have. Now. Maybe they're looking to sell to other manufacturers, who knows? But clearly this is a significant growth in the, in the Padrone business. Maybe they're working on a family Grande, Reserva line, 300 bucks a stick just for Rooster.[00:25:00]
**Senator:** The thing that was interesting to me when this came out, someone interviewing Jorge had asked what, what they can expect from this plot of land in terms of like, is, is the, the profile of the tobacco gonna be very similar to the other farms and what they grow? Will it be different? And I was just amazed.
I mean, Jorge basically said, we have absolutely no idea. Like, it's just so crazy to think like you, you invest in this vast amount of land and you will just have no clue what that's gonna yield until you actually plant some tobacco seeds there and let it grow. And then experience it and see what it's like.
It could be similar to their other plots that they have in Esteli and then obviously that'll help spur production for their existing lines. It could be very different. They may come out with a new line based on whatever profile. So for me it was just very interesting. I think, you know, we'll talk about this when we preview some more of our Cuba trip, but when you go out to any of these tobacco farms and you know, some have [00:26:00] a better yield than others and some are more desirable, and I think what you quickly realize is.
The process is so simple that there's not necessarily some secret sauce to the process. Mm-Hmm. It's, you kind of get lucky with that plot of land and just how the soil and the climate at that one particular area performs and you either hit a gold mine and it works great, or you don't, and, and you've, you know, maybe made a bad investment.
So I was just amazed at like the level of risk that's really involved. That's true. When you're trying to source these other, I have a
**Bam Bam:** general question. So how many other farms are at that elevation above sea level, because that's quite, quite high above sea level the way, and how does that affect tobacco growing?
That's a
**Gizmo:** great question. I would imagine that the climate is quite a bit different at at that level. It must be. It must be. And and certainly the way they've highlighted it here in the announcement of this, this purchase for Padron, it seems like. As they're saying, it's a high elevation plot. Mm-Hmm. So it seems like it's not gonna be identical to what they're [00:27:00] doing in other parts of Esteli at a much lower Elevation.
I don't think it could be. It has to be different. Air
**Bam Bam:** pressures are, are much higher. So the yields could be smaller. Maybe they're planning a small batch approach. Who
**Gizmo:** knows? Who knows what they're doing. I mean, but
**Rooster:** I, I would think that the
**Gizmo:** Esteli is a, is kind of a valley in a valley.
**Rooster:** Right. Right. And Nicaragua in
**Gizmo:** general, it has volcanic soil.
Right. So the,
**Rooster:** the, the soil in the valley would be more nutrient rich. Mm-Hmm. So higher you go there would be less nutrients
**Bam Bam:** would imagine, well it would make the tobacco fight for nutrients which could yield a much more robust leaf. Yeah. That's also a possibility.
**Gizmo:** That's true. Yeah. Interesting. That's the other theory.
Yeah. Yeah. We will get back to you in seven years. Stay tuned. Listeners, stay tuned. Tune into episode 700 twenty-five, where we, uh, we come back to this. Well, no, I, I just think it's very cool that, that, uh, obviously what, like Senator said, the question of what's gonna happen here? Mm-Hmm. [00:28:00] It's a huge investment for them.
Mm-Hmm. It's a massive piece of property. I'm sure they need a ton more people, a a a lot more resources to maintain this and, and to see this tobacco grow. But I'm really, really interested to see what's gonna happen with Padrone here. Doubling, yeah. More than doubling their, uh. They're acreage. I heard he outbid Rocky Patel to that land.
**Senator:** I mean, the funny thing though, to your point about like the, the quality of the soil and, and really this whole region, I mean, he says in his interview how they've been looking for five years basically for another plot of land and how most of them in Esteli just were not very good. They just didn't think it would yield a good crop.
So it's not easy to find these, uh, clearly if it took him five years and obviously he's, you know, I'm sure got pick of the litter in terms of Mm-Hmm. You know, land that's available
**Gizmo:** there. What's interesting too, and it, it goes back to what we said about the padrone ethos, about the long game of their business and their, their family and their tobacco.
Apparently [00:29:00] because of this purchase in planting this new crop, they decided to give one of the farms, which they call via Vieja. They totally gave it the year off, so they're not planting anything there for a year. I guess let the, let the soil replen nutrients. Yeah. Let the soil replenish itself. Mm-Hmm.
Not grow anything. Let it kind of grow over and, and give it a year off. So it's an interesting play, you know, for Padrona it's a huge investment and, and arguably maybe a, a little bit of a risk, you know, for their yield. So it wasn't barren land there, something was growing before. It was a cattle ranch, uh, prior to, oh boy, them purchasing this.
So we'll see. Look for hints of manure.
**Pagoda:** Very
**Bam Bam:** barnyardish. Very barnyardish. There's a lot of excavation gonna take place there to
**Gizmo:** get this ready. At least it'll be compost. Ranch. Mm-Hmm. Barnyard notes. So boys, we're about halfway through here on the blackened M-A-D-I in Corona. What are you guys thinking? I, I think this is a really, really interesting cigar.
Really a mild
**Bam Bam:** cigar. Senator's got a two-inch ash. So that's a good [00:30:00] mark in construction and quality, no
**Gizmo:** doubt about it. And for cigar, this small, it, it is interesting how that's holding on like that. Yeah, true. Have you tried to knock it off or No. Look at that. Wow.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah. There's just came up. Senator's trying to knock off, but there's structure
**Gizmo:** to it.
Yeah. Yeah. It took a little effort. It's
**Bam Bam:** well rolled. Honestly, I'm not hating it. I'm surprised as how much I like it right now. Why would you hate it? I would, you know, I had preconceived notions of this thing.
**Pagoda:** It's a new world. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** I'm kidding
**Gizmo:** that too. Yeah. I think this is a really good cigar. Uh, I'm still getting the espresso notes.
A little bit more dried fruit now. Yeah. It's very complimentary with the whiskey we're sipping and I, I think it's a very smooth delivery of, of what is a Definitely a full cigar.
**Rooster:** True. I mean, for under $10. It's not, it's
**Gizmo:** not a bad cigar. No, not at all.
**Senator:** What other Vitolas does this come in?
**Gizmo:** So it comes, uh, it comes in three other Vitolas.
It comes in the Robusto, a Toro, a Toro, and a Corona Doble. Oh, no [00:31:00] thank you. Which is a 50 by seven, which is actually not as big. Oh, 50 by
**Bam Bam:** seven. Imagine this thing and a Toro. Ooh.
**Gizmo:** The other one I'm interested in is the Robusta, which is 50, you know, 50 by five, of course. Mm. I'm curious how that would, how that would perform.
It would be a cooler smoke. Mm-Hmm.
**Senator:** I can't imagine this in
**Gizmo:** a Toro. No. No way. A Toro wouldn't touch this. No way. No MAs. So boys, another good story out of the cigar industry, this one's really interesting. My father's cigars and Tatuaje celebrate 20 years of partnership together with a duo release called LA Union.
Now, of course, it's important to note that Pete Johnson of Tatuaje has had the My Father family, namely Jose Pepin Garcia. Rolling his cigars for him. So this is a celebration of their partnership that began in 2003. So they've released a, a really ornate box of 20 cigars, which I guess it, it [00:32:00] has four blends, two by each cigar maker, and it's only available in one Vitola, which they're calling Promenente Especial measuring 50 ring gauge by seven and a quarter inches long.
And very interestingly has a 1 0 9 head on it, which is a rounded, yeah, rounded head that we like that. Yeah. Very famous in, uh, in, in Cuban cigars. But, um, pretty interesting that they're releasing a dual cigar like this, very much in line with the long awaited Fuente Pedrone collaboration, which is arguably very similar in presentation with 10 cigars from each, uh, in, in, in, in the box.
Curious if the price will be
**Bam Bam:** similar as well.
**Senator:** Oh, we know the price.
**Gizmo:** Mm-Hmm.
**Pagoda:** Who? It'll be, it'll be a combined price, meaning the price,
**Senator:** it's 60 bucks
**Gizmo:** a stick. Excuse me exactly this
**Senator:** $60. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm not paying for any My father or Tua, he's 60. I mean, that's just silly. No way.
**Gizmo:** It is. No way. So they're, like I said, they're calling [00:33:00] it LA Union and uh, it features a, a, a bunch of different type of cigars.
Nicaraguan, Corojo ninety-nine, which is Shade Grown and a Garcia blended Ecuadorian Habano for the other cigar. Johnson used Ecuadorian Sumatra and Garcia used Connecticut broadleaf. So I guess it's two different types of blends available in this packaging. Like you said, Senator for 60, $60 a cigar. One other note, the cigars blended by Johnson will have a closed foot, whereas Garcia's Cigar will have a traditional open foot.
So that's, um, that's the plan there for Li Union. And I guess we're gonna see this presented at. PCA 2024 when we uh, when we go there in March. Yes. It also comes very cool with a cutter, with a, a special Okay. Straight cutter. It's actually cut into the box presentation when you get the, the box. Oh, well now I understand.
The $60 makes perfect sense. So you gotta walk around with a [00:34:00] box.
Yeah. So we uh, we shall see how that goes. So speaking of PCA Boys, we are gonna be a PCA 2024 this year in Las Vegas. Very, very excited. How cool is that? So it's their first time going to the trade show. So PCA is the premium Cigar associations trade show for Manufacturers and retailers. I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of, uh, smokers there as well.
And it's gonna be our first time there. So we'll see how, uh, we'll see how it treats us. We'll all be walking
**Bam Bam:** around with our lizard smoking jackets matching.
**Gizmo:** Very coordinated. I agree. Yeah.
**Senator:** Lizards who wanna meet up for a smoke should, uh, message
**Gizmo:** our Instagram. Absolutely. Yeah. Or email us, correct. Yeah, shoot us an email.
Correct. We'd love to meet up and, uh, see if we get something coordinated. Uh, for, for lizards who are gonna be a PCA, we're
**Bam Bam:** gonna take over the whole event. Come on.
**Pagoda:** Are we, are, are we all gonna be wearing face masks just to be anonymous
**Gizmo:** face mask and smoking jackets
**Bam Bam:** like Slipknot did in their, in their [00:35:00] tours.
Yeah. Speaking
**Gizmo:** of Metallica. Yeah. Correct. Yeah, boys, I'm enjoying the cigar. I gotta be honest. Yeah, it's, it's nice. Where would you guys slot this in a rotation? Where would you put this? Just when you wake up. Not in the morning.
**Bam Bam:** Like this guy.
**Gizmo:** I don't know. I, I, I, that, that's the problem I have as I'm thinking about this cigar is where I would put this in my rotation.
I,
**Bam Bam:** I wouldn't, this is the Vatola I would have. The other two are just two. It just seems really
**Gizmo:** intimidating. It's, it's an
**Bam Bam:** after-dinner smoke. I, it could be an after-dinner or an end of sit after, after a few cigars.
**Gizmo:** Last cigar. Yeah. Possibly after a Cuban cigar. You can
**Pagoda:** follow it up with this. No, I was just thinking about that because I really do like the purpose freed us and, you know, couple of others, uh, from the Liga nine, uh, from the Liga line.
And, uh, yeah, this would fit in towards the end of the night. If you are looking
**Rooster:** for a small cigar at the end of the night, that gives you that punch. This is it. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** And it burns pretty fast actually. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a very slow smoking
**Gizmo:** cigar. [00:36:00] Yeah. It's definitely fast. I mean, it's only five inches long.
I feel like I'm well past the halfway point. Mm-Hmm. And we're not even at 40 minutes yet. Mm-Hmm. So it's definitely a fast cigar and I don't, I don't even feel, I feel like I've been talking a lot. I don't even feel like I'm pulling on it that much. Yeah, it's true. You know, so the other, uh, newsworthy note that I wanted to mention because we discussed this on a previous episode, is that Rocky, Patel has decided to come out with a year of the Dragon cigar.
I think it's his first year of the, uh, release for the Chinese New Year. You can, you can kill my mic now.
So the, the reason why I bring this up is not necessarily because it's interesting to piss
**Bam Bam:** Senator, uh, to piss rooster off.
**Gizmo:** Uh, it's a limited production, says niche Patel, 6,000 boxes or so. About thirty-five dollars per cigar packed in a box of 10. The interesting thing though, uh, calling back to a previous episode where we discussed Gurkha suing Davidoff for their year of the Dragon cigar, this is [00:37:00] nearly identical in its packaging, so I feel like Gurkha's gonna have a, uh, another lawsuit
**Senator:** on.
Yeah, I hope, I hope Rocky has built the legal fees into the price of these cigars. I'm, he has. He's definitely gonna be a lawsuit.
**Pagoda:** Well, he was a lawyer,
**Gizmo:** I think that's correct. That's true. Yeah. His legal fees are, his legal fees are free. But you know, it, it's another one that, and we've discussed this on the Gurkha-Davidoff episode when we discussed that.
Is like the idea that that Gurkha thinks that they own this trademark despite it being a Chinese New Year's celebration. Now that I think I've seen four or five manufacturers, plus Habano's has a release out for the year of the dragon. I don't think there's as much red and gold on it as there is for this, but I, I just don't understand Gurkha's mentality thinking they own this.
Like, good luck to Gurkha. It's Chinese New Year. Yeah. Right. I mean it's, it's crazy. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry,
**Senator:** I only think of Gurkha when I think of a dragon
**Gizmo:** and premium [00:38:00] cigars. Yeah. Oh, of course. Fit for the garden. So yeah. We'll see what happens. I'm sure Gurkha's got their, uh, legal team racing to file suit against Rocky.
Patel like they did Davidoff. You guys are smoking
**Senator:** so fast. I know it's going
**Bam Bam:** 40 minutes in. It's just so easy to blow through
**Gizmo:** this thing. Who's smoking fast? I'm about the same as you. What? No, no, I'm sorry. Look at mine and look at how was that the same? Well, you have tro
**Bam Bam:** you're dimensionally off. You,
**Gizmo:** you gotta strengthen that prescription.
Jesus.
I need better glasses. So boys, we got a few emails from listeners about the bumper sticker callout that we did a few episodes ago where, uh, one of our listeners was driving in Texas and saw, saw a lounge lizard, bumper sticker on a car. So we called it out on the episode and we've gotten a bunch of listeners who email this now with, uh, photos of bumper stickers they've had on their cars or they put on their cars after that episode.
This [00:39:00] is crazy. It's a revolution. It's awesome. Is it all, is it all in Texas? It's everywhere now. Really unbelievable. Listeners from everywhere are putting bumper stickers on their cars, and we've had nothing to do with it. Don't we have copyrights? Wow. We're gonna, we hired the Gurkha people.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Pagoda:** You know, he's a Daisy brother too, by the way. Oh, as long, as long
**Senator:** as they're representing us. Well, we're happy to have, uh, correct lizards violate our,
**Bam Bam:** and they're doing very well. It's just very impressive.
**Gizmo:** It's very cool. I mean, it's, it is. We've gotten, I mean, we've probably gotten 25 or 30 emails of folks who have put bumper stickers on their cars who've made them, or said, oh, I'm gonna do this.
Just sent screenshots. Hey, do you guys want me to share the designs with you? Wow. Like, it's very, very cool, man. So cool. We've had a lot of folks doing that, so it's nice to see that. And of course, any listeners out there who wanna create a, uh, a Bumper sticker and put it on their car, send us a picture.
Yeah. I don't see many
**Bam Bam:** Metallica bumper stickers. Come on. [00:40:00] Lizard Nation is
**Gizmo:** strong, correct. Lizard Nation is very, very strong. I wanted to go to Pagoda here because the man who's been traveling, unlike anyone I've ever seen, this guy has been traveling since Labor Day, I think. Been, yes. He is the James Bond of the group.
He has been to, I think, seven or eight countries since Labor Day. Just got back again now from Costa. Rica. Tell us how retirement is
**Senator:** Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** I think Costa Rica is not a bad place to retire, by the way.
**Gizmo:** So you've been to, you've been to where? Let's lay it out. You've been to Panama twice. Twice. You've been to Havana?
Cuba with us. I'm sorry. It started with Cartagena. Cartagena, that's right. Yes. Cartagena as well. India, India now. Costa. Rica, and soon to be the Dominican. Republic. Yeah. And then Vegas. Don't forget Cuba, don't forget Cuba. I said Havana. Yeah. And he is going
**Rooster:** and he is going to Dominican. Republic. Right. And then Vegas.
And it's
**Pagoda:** all wedding related, by the way, guys. Yeah, sure.
Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. Are you getting married? [00:41:00] No. Alright, so walk us through Costa. Rica. What, uh, tell us, tell the listeners how, first, of course, how was the smoking experience? Was there any, uh, cigar-related activity?
**Pagoda:** Uh, a lot of cigar-related activity. There's no real cigar lounge, uh, where we, uh, we didn't find any cigar lounge, but, you know, you could smoke outdoors.
We were at bars smoking and we were just, uh, very relaxed. But not every restaurant and not every bar allows you to smoke. Um, but what we had done was, uh, went with a group of guys and we had rented a really nice place with a pool. So a lot of, uh, our smoking predominantly was, uh, within the premises, uh mm-Hmm.
Of the facility we were living in. But having said that, uh, Costa, Rica is, uh, a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place to visit. It's, uh, got a lot. It's very hilly, very uh, very green, you know, uh, the rainforest on the mountains. It's, uh, beautiful drives right by the water. Once again, central America, uh, you know, right below Nicaragua.[00:42:00]
Um, very, very nice. Uh, yeah, there's a lot of outdoor activities, so if you're interested in any kind of adventurous outdoor activities, I think it's a great place to visit. You know, we did a lot of ATVing and you
**Gizmo:** were on ATVs,
**Pagoda:** really? Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I'll tell you, even though it had four wheels, it was so difficult, uh, to really control them.
But, you know, we were. Uh, I think riding or driving ATVs at night through these rainforests and these, uh, you know, designated paths it was, and going to waterfalls, um, you know, chilling, relaxing, having a smoke, and then, you know, riding back. It was excellent. And then, uh, um. There's a planning for the people who like it.
A lot of hiking, a lot of, uh, cyclists which are found. I think they're probably trading for Tour de France or something because it's very hilly and uh, uh, but you find, you see it's a lot of, uh, very physical, outdoor, adventurous activities available there. Hmm. Uh, having said that, I was Reasonably disappointed with the food.[00:43:00]
Really? Uh, yeah. Meaning I prefer the food in a lot of the other countries I've visited. The other 18 you've been
**Gizmo:** to in
**Pagoda:** the last six months? Yeah. Uh, a little pricey. Uh, uh, the beer is not bad. I really enjoyed, uh, uh, the beer. It's called Imperial, and they have, uh, uh, like, I, like a little, um, you know, licorice kind of beers.
And so there was a silver, which was fantastic. I didn't like the original as much. Uh, but yeah, an excellent trip. A very outdoorsy, a lot of physical activity and then just chilling, hanging out with the pool and smoke. So, pagoda.
**Gizmo:** Did you
**Rooster:** rent a boat for the day? And how was that experience?
**Pagoda:** That experience was excellent.
Um, it is a beautiful, beautiful country. So you know, the water is very clear if you go a bit north, um, in Costa, Rica, um, it's, uh, beautiful, you know. Where exactly were you? Green Mountains, where were you exactly? In, uh, we were between, uh, San Jose and Haco Beach. Somewhere in between there. It was, uh, excellent, uh, [00:44:00] experience, you know, um, you pass by some of these really wealthy areas where they're marinas and you see some really fancy boats.
Uh, there's a lot of water activity going on from banana boats and, you know, the boat will dock in the middle of the water and then a small boat will come banana boats. So we were couples and it was just a great, great experience.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So I, I think I heard you say this when we were talking before we came on air, you were saying something about the ride from the airport to where you were, you said it was pretty, pretty long, right?
Yeah, about hour, hour and a half. Yeah. Hour, hour and a half.
**Pagoda:** Wow. So, yeah, um, it wasn't too bad. Uh, you know, the roads are way better than Cuba for sure. So Sure. The only problem is, uh, they're like one lane, somewhat highways. If, uh, somebody's driving slow, you get backed up a bit. But having said that, uh, not all, not a bad experience
**Gizmo:** at all.
So when you're at the airport, are you chartering a taxi? Are you calling Uber? Like, what are you doing to get 90 minutes from, [00:45:00] from the airport to where you need to be? So
**Pagoda:** we, uh, had a huge Airbnb and our house, uh, host arranged for everything. Oh, nice. Okay. So you
**Gizmo:** did Airbnb and not a hotel? Yeah,
**Pagoda:** because, you know, we were a lot of us.
And then, um, we had a beautiful pool, you know, great, great facilities and, uh, um, we had a couple of coordinators who were working with us. Now you said you had a chef right? In the house? Yeah, we did have a private chef. Uh, for
**Bam Bam:** And how was his or her food that they prepared for you? It was good.
**Pagoda:** You know, I, nothing really, um, you know, they were grilling a lot of food.
Okay. Uh, overall, um. Not very, um, I don't know. I think the food quality, I think I prefer the food in different. Okay. Uh, countries. Uh,
**Gizmo:** just so, to be fair, let me, let me dial down into that. What, what is it about the food there that doesn't stack up to even the experience we have
**Pagoda:** in Cuba? So, I'll tell you the best, the two best meals I had was one of them were, uh.[00:46:00]
In a regular bar where they had really excellent beef skewers, which is fantastic. The quesadillas were all right. Uh, a lot of their food revolves around rice, beans, either pork or chicken, or, uh, thing, you know, very traditional. Sounds great to me. That's everywhere in the Caribbean, but not very spicy, not very flavorful.
A little bland flavor, right? Frank's hot sauce. Yeah. So, um, that's the trick. They do, you know, what's really the irony, if it all is they do have, you know, everywhere you can ask for hot sauce, which you have to, you know, add in and they have some really good hot sauce, I must say. A couple of my buddies, uh, did buy some hot sauce.
I forgot the brand, but the coffee was great. Um, uh, found a small little pan area. I think it's like a small, a bakery kind of thing. Nice, right. And, uh. Really good cappuccinos and lattes and, um, it, it was, uh, that was really good. The bakeries were so, so you will think for a country that has a lot of chocolate as well, because, [00:47:00] you know, they have coffee, cocoa, uh, chocolate.
Didn't see a lot of chocolate bakes and you know, I love chocolate. Oh yeah. They could be big
**Gizmo:** dessert guy.
**Rooster:** Big,
**Bam Bam:** huge, huge
**Gizmo:** thing. Did you hold up the entire table of 10 people for dessert? I,
**Pagoda:** I, I'm, I'm asking for a friend. I did, I did. I did, uh, try a few times, but you know, the dessert was overall very disappointing.
Although a buddy of mine tried some local pudding, which he said was really good. Hmm. Uh, oh, I heard about that pudding.
**Gizmo:** Oh, did you? Yeah. I heard Costa. Rica has good pudding. Pagoda's a big pudding guy. No,
**Pagoda:** I, it wasn't me. Loves pudding.
**Gizmo:** It wasn't me. It's the first time we've ever mentioned pudding on the podcast,
**Bam Bam:** by the way.
Correct. Yeah. And hopefully the last time, um, now we, I dunno, it wasn't me. Now we know you. It wasn't me. We know you, you brought your own cigars. What about spirits? Is there a local rum or, or [00:48:00] something that they have locally that you tried?
**Pagoda:** Yeah, I did try a local rum. It was a All right. Um, I think I sent you guys a photograph of that.
Um, don't remember. Yeah, it was, it was all right. Meaning, I, I, I had just taken like 65, 70 cigars and Nice, by the way, I nearly finished all. That's it. And I shared, and I shared a few, but you finished them all. Yeah, yeah. Nearly in a week. You brought, you brought 70 cigars. 6, 5 70. Yeah. Wow. It's, it's easy.
He's a lizard. But I did, I did share a few,
**Senator:** well, he didn't want them, he didn't want them taken away by,
**Gizmo:** he was, he was expecting
**Rooster:** to lose 25. So
**Gizmo:** how was it,
**Rooster:** is there any tobacco grown on uh, in Costa? Costa. Rica
**Pagoda:** there is. Right? Isn't at bay from there? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Oh wow. I think some components of Attabey are from, from Costa.
From Costa Rica. Yeah. And other cigars. There's other cigars too certain, certainly. Yeah,
**Pagoda:** yeah, yeah. But you know, it's just south of Nicaragua. So I think what could be in order next time is we go for a trip to Nicaragua for a day or two and then just head down to Costa. Rica. Yeah. I'm not gonna Nicaragua, but
**Bam Bam:** I [00:49:00] will go to Costa Rica.
**Pagoda:** Well, it depends. If you want to talk Patron, you know, you
**Bam Bam:** wanna see the new Padrone farm. That's true. 1200 feet above sea
**Gizmo:** level share. So you said there's not really a cigar culture down there, like even you've experienced in Panama and some of the other No. Caribbean
**Pagoda:** countries. It didn't seem like it. No.
Really? I didn't see a lot
**Senator:** of people. People. Is there an LCDH there?
**Gizmo:** I'm not sure about that. That's a good question. I've not heard of LCTH. Maybe not where he was.
**Pagoda:** Hmm. Let's put it this way. They didn't mind us smoking cigars. Mm-Hmm. So overall, were you
**Gizmo:** able to smoke at restaurants and bars? No.
**Pagoda:** A lot of them.
There were just a couple of places. I think wherever it was very outdoorsy and you could hang out. Uh, you know, uh, we were allowed to smoke, but Did you visit any beaches? Uh, we were right by the beach, by the way. And, uh, we barely Like where your Casa was? Yeah, where we, but we barely stepped on it. I think I just went there one day.
Uh, a buddy of mine went for a run six mile run over there. And, but having said that, uh, you know, uh, [00:50:00] uh, did not really, uh, hang out at the beaches at all. How was
**Rooster:** your experience, like, how would you rate the countries between Cuba Panama.
**Gizmo:** Costa, Rica,
**Rooster:** India. Colombia, except India. India's number
**Pagoda:** one. India's number
**Senator:** one.
**Bam Bam:** Okay.
**Pagoda:** Well, uh, depending on what you're seeking, but Cuba is definitely, uh, number one, uh, for sure. Uh, Panama and then Costa. Rica.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. So what is it, you know, we obviously talk a lot about Cuba on the podcast, right? Yeah. So what is it about Cuba for all of its, you know, uh, issues that it has and its, uh, challenges?
What is it about Cuba that elevates it even above? Uh. Uh, a, a developed
**Pagoda:** nation passion for cigars, right? Like, you go and you feel like you're home. Mm-Hmm. You can go and smoke anywhere. You're chilling. You have access to, you know, a lot of these, part of gas stoves and all. You can try a lot of different cigars.
Um, and they're reasonably priced right? A few dollars cheaper than what you'd get in the [00:51:00] us. Um. Great food. You know, we've had some really good Yeah. Uh, experiences with cuisine in, uh, Cuba, um, recently priced, um, you know, the weather was definitely better in Cuba, you know, but
**Gizmo:** really it was, yeah, because I found in Cuba when we were there, we, you know, we went in January, we had some rain, we had a, a few days of rain and,
**Pagoda:** but it was eighties, right?
That's true. Costa Rica was nineties. Nineties. Oh wow. Wow. Uh, even in
**Gizmo:** January it's more south. Yeah.
**Pagoda:** Wow. It's, uh, it was, uh, during the day was, uh, pretty hot. Uh, so that's where the pool was great, you know, just to chill, relax or anything in the water, right? Like, you know, whether you're doing the boat ride.
We went ATVing we went later during the day, in the evening was very pleasant. So, you know, the temperature would drop, uh, by the end of the day. Um, yeah. Overall a great experience. You, you know what it is. It's like, I think, uh, in Costa Rica, you feel your. Clothing to nature, a new one [00:52:00] with nature because it's very hilly.
Uh, you know, a lot of rainforests, very green in Ireland. Obviously the water's right there, their beaches. And um, I think Cuba is slightly different from that perspective. Uh, but Cuba has its, uh, own charm, you know, it's all country. It reminds me of India when I grew up in a way, you know, we went to certain areas, uh, where even the housing and the way they're structured very similar to that.
And um, yeah, Cuba just feels a little bit more. Homey, uh, for me, um, Costa Rica is a bit outdoorsy from an adventurous experience, also much cheaper. Mm-Hmm. Visit, definitely. I
**Rooster:** think housing and lodging in Cuba is cheaper than anywhere else. Anywhere.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, of course.
**Pagoda:** Sure. But if, if anyone's interested in just any kind of outdoors activity, I, I would recommend Costa Rica, uh, right away, meaning it's, uh, and, uh, you know, wherever you go, they're kind of [00:53:00] facilitated.
They have a lot of organized tours. A lot of people go hiking on their own. Um, you know, and you, you see a lot of families around. It's, it's a very, it's a very comfortable place to visit. And just one more, uh, thing, what I realized was a lot of expats.
**Gizmo:** Really like
**Pagoda:** living there. Living there. Really. A lot of people from the u.s, from California, from Texas, from different parts have moved there, bought places over there, and just staying there.
I think, uh, uh, there's something to that effect where even the medical system's slightly better and, and overall, uh, it's a beautiful place. It's just one of the more beautiful, uh, countries in central America. Hmm. More beautiful than Panama and uh, uh, in way Cuba. We haven't been to the beach area. Uh, you know, we've been in Havana, but, uh, you know, you go to, uh, Costa Rica and you say, oh wow, this is natural beauty.
Yeah. Nice.
**Gizmo:** I wanna go to Costa. Rica now. Yeah, I'm gonna bring [00:54:00] my own food, but I'm gonna go.
**Bam Bam:** It's not that
**Pagoda:** bad, you know? Can I find a McDonald's? I think we've also been spoiled. Can, can I find a McDonald's there? You do. Find a subway. We did see a subway. That Subway. Oh
**Senator:** yes. My wants to drive an ATV while he is eating a salad.
Yes, I'll
**Gizmo:** do it.
**Pagoda:** I'll tell you. The ATV experience was great, by the way. It's, uh, why, um. Firstly, we, I didn't expect much. And you know, the tour was about four hours. And, uh, so, uh, they drive you to this guy who owned his ATV company. We drove up, uh, you know, about a couple of hours in and among the Hilton, Mountains, he owned his own place, very similar to, uh, you know, uh, Hector Luis's area.
Very similar. It was like an outdoor thing between hills and all green, beautiful views. And we were lighting up smoking cigars there, had a really good meal. Um, and then, uh, you know, had a few drinks and then we got back on the ATVs and then. Came back [00:55:00] slightly in the dark through these really, uh, you know, uh, like pathways between the trees and the forest, and drove stop by a waterfall and, you know, lit up again.
And, you know, it was just very relaxed and casual. The forest went by pretty quick. Um, it was, uh, an experience. Did you smoke a cigar
**Bam Bam:** on ATV? Yes, my man,
**Pagoda:** now we talking and, uh, so did, uh, so did a couple of buddies, uh, whom, uh, we all kind of know. Nice. Yeah. Nice.
**Senator:** I love it. The legal limit on the ATV is like a 0.4.
**Gizmo:** He was four times that. So I just wanna inform the listeners. Did you put the ATV in reverse at any time? Or was it only going, oh,
**Bam Bam:** did you bump into anything? Did you
**Gizmo:** hit anything on the ATV? How much
**Senator:** of your damage, uh, like deposit did you get back?
**Gizmo:** It was on a percentage
**Pagoda:** basis is fine. It, it was only going forward.
Um, yeah, I, it's really strange. I don't think those ATVs could [00:56:00] reverse. They, they might have nobody. They
**Gizmo:** must listen to the podcast. They
**Bam Bam:** probably can't. There isn't reverse.
**Senator:** Just your ATV could go in reverse.
**Gizmo:** That was on purpose.
**Pagoda:** You know what, I think that my ATV did have like a pole-like structure right behind.
So it was, it was coming along with me everywhere I went. You had the bumper car
**Gizmo:** racing? Yep. So boys, we're into the last third here of the blackened M-A-D-I in Corona. What are your thoughts? Yeah, I've got about, what do you have left there, babe? You have one-third of
**Bam Bam:** one-third. Yeah. I've got about five-eighths of an inch.
And you know, I'm not getting any harsh edges on this at all. I'm really surprised at how smooth this is all the way down. I can't complain about
**Senator:** the cigar at all. Did we ever talk, what is the M-A-D-I
**Gizmo:** Metallica was formed in 19 eighty-one. Okay. That's what that is. Yeah. Yep. Ride the lightning. Ride the lightning baby.
Yeah. Pagoda. What do you think [00:57:00] about the cigar? I know you've been talking a little
**Pagoda:** bit, but Yeah. No, it's, it's good. Uh, I didn't know whether I would really, uh, pursue it. Like I didn't, I didn't feel that, uh, it's really triggered something in me, which is, oh wow, this is excellent. I'm in the same
**Senator:** boat as Pagoda.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** There's value though in the price. There's I'm sure a category that fits a lot of guys and gals that want a fuller cigar. It smooth and very affordable. Yeah. And this
**Rooster:** delivers that. Yeah. On Atlantic, actually I paid I think 1 53 for the box. Yeah. It's ridiculous. It really seven
**Gizmo:** 50
**Rooster:** a steak.
**Gizmo:** That's insane.
So for that price, I mean it's, it's a good value. Yeah. What do you think of it, Rooster? I like it.
**Rooster:** I mean, it's, it's kind of fits my flavor profile. I mean, I like the bold cigars, so. Especially, you know, after a meal or even with cup of coffee,
like
**Gizmo:** in the afternoon and stuff, it's, I'm good.
**Bam Bam:** You know what it is, it's, it's kind of like a large petite [00:58:00] Casa Doris to me from Tata.
Why? Yeah. The bigger version of
**Gizmo:** that. I think it's a little bit spicier. Yeah. Maybe
**Rooster:** more black peppery than the Casa
**Gizmo:** Doris Casa Doris. I didn't get a lot of pepper in this, for me. A little bit
there.
**Rooster:** I mean there there is black pepper. It kind of builds up. You don't, you don't get it in the first third. And I think after the halfway
**Gizmo:** point it really picks up And am I gonna
**Bam Bam:** get it in the eighth of an inch that's left here?
Yeah, if you do,
**Gizmo:** I don't know if you eat the whole thing.
**Senator:** I mean, you gotta be getting notes of metal right now. I can't believe this. You've got like a roach clip in there. It's metallic.
**Gizmo:** Metallic M-A-D-one.
**Rooster:** Right. Notes of metal, heavy metal black.
**Pagoda:** And
**Senator:** you think we play another song? The vibrations are gonna enhance the flavor.
**Gizmo:** It very well could, it might extend it too. It might, yeah. If we play another tune. Yeah, so I got a question. So Pagoda was talking about bringing cigars and we all brought cigars to Havana. Pagoda has obviously brought three, 3000 cigars to the [00:59:00] various places he's visited over the last six months. We did the same in Panama.
Mm-Hmm, absolutely. So my question for you guys is when you're planning now, even when we go to Havana, we bring our own cigars, right? No, we, we don't come home with that much, obviously, given the customs experience that we detailed. Uh, I think it was last week. Mm-Hmm. On our first Havana recap episode. Uh, I certainly don't bring, I, I, I don't bring anything home.
I, I come to, you know, wherever I travel to with all the cigars I'm gonna smoke. So I'm wondering for you, pagoda and all of the guys here, when you're traveling to the Caribbean, what, what is the ratio, I guess, of Cuban versus non-Cuban that you're bringing with you? Good question. And, and what is the kind of layout of the rotation you're, you're planning for?
Any given day when you travel to, uh, Caribbean Nation? If it's Panama, if it's Costa, Rica, if it's Cuba, like wherever it is, what are you guys thinking? Now? Having traveled as much as we have to various Caribbean nations. [01:00:00] I think for
**Pagoda:** this trip in Costa Rica, it was fifty-fifty. So I did take a lot of, uh, you know, uh, uh, some of the Unbanded Cubans, um, took a lot of D-Fours.
It was also a lot of, uh, celebrations. So just wanted to make sure I took some of the cigars I really enjoyed. And then the rest were new worlds, uh, which included anywhere from the drone 50th anniversary. Yeah, the 80th. Um, and uh, you know, exclusive was my Dominicanas, which I love. And I also took a few of the aging room, the Sonatas, which I handed out.
And um, but overall, um, is that yellow? Is that the
**Gizmo:** yellow band? Yeah, the yellow band. We have to review that. Yeah, we're do that on the pod. Yeah. True.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. So fifty-fifty with, and by the way, I do have to tell you that, uh. My buddy was, uh, checking the bag in for me because he got a free, you know, checked in bag.
It's like, kind of really weird, but, uh, got stopped. They opened my bag up again and they found [01:01:00] you. Oh boy. They found the cigars and they talked a little bit about the cigars two, by the way. And, uh, when
**Senator:** you're an easy target, but
**Pagoda:** you know, you know what it is, is that in the lighters, all my, you know, a lot of my, uh, the field was, you know, the butane was consumed, so they let go and they didn't take any lighters.
But you have it stopped again, just the cigars. Yeah. But you know, having said that, you are allowed to bring, if you're able to purchase Cubans, by the way, on the streets there were people selling cohibas or fake cohibas.
**Gizmo:** So, you know, are you sure they're fake?
**Pagoda:** So, but you, you are allowed to bring back, uh, Cubans, uh, from.
Other parts of the world except from Cuba for personal consumption, just justify. Hmm.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. So what do you, what do you guys do when you're traveling now to C? So, Senator, you went to Panama and to Havana in recent weeks. What, what was your kind of planning?
**Senator:** I think for me, [01:02:00] usually when I'm traveling it's about 50 50, but when I go to Cuba, it's more like, it's 60 30.
Leaning more Cuban than 60 40. That doesn't add up. 60 40. Sorry. 60 40.
**Bam Bam:** Jesus. You know what, I like that. No.
**Gizmo:** Hey, Bam. I just wrote
**Bam Bam:** that down. You know what? Check memo. No.
**Gizmo:** Like, like not, not a math guy. Not a math guy. This is what, uh,
**Senator:** this is what bourbon does. Correct. Correct.
**Pagoda:** Leg Hector Luis a 10%, you know? Yeah,
**Senator:** yeah.
Um, but no, I just think when you're in Havana, you know, there's, there's a Romantic element about smoking a Cuban cigar Absolutely. In Cuba. So, of course for me, I definitely skew more Cuban there. But everywhere else, you know, you, you just, you can never predict the conditions. Right. If it's super humid, you know, sometimes that can be problematic for how a Cuban with a thin wrapper is gonna perform.
You're guaranteed every time with most new worlds that. Whether it's windy Mm-Hmm. Whether it's too humid, whatever the case is, you're gonna be able to smoke that and [01:03:00] enjoy it. So that's why it's normally 50 50, but Cuba is definitely the exception.
**Bam Bam:** Mm. Yeah. I tend to go 70, 30, 70 Cuban wherever I go. I just prefer that when I'm away and I don't put the Boveda packs in, especially if I'm going to a warmer climate.
No Boveda for me, just right in the, in the, um, in the box. 70% Cuban.
**Pagoda:** Yeah. I didn't have any Boveda packs. Yeah. All my cigars smoked really well. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Really. Yeah. Yeah. Even, even
**Pagoda:** even, uh, the Cubans, even, even the Cuban smoke really well. Yeah. Hmm. Uh, uh, you know, in the morning I would wake up and have one of those unbanded cigars with coffee and it was a great way to start the day.
Smoked really? Well, some
**Rooster:** of us are less finicky about the RH.
**Gizmo:** Correct. I am very finicky about RH, by the way, even during travel. Oh, yeah.
**Senator:** I'm sorry. I'm, I'm with Gizmo on this. With travel in particular. I really do think, especially when you're traveling to some of the like. Either any Caribbean country when it's hot in the, like midst of summer or just a hotter [01:04:00] country.
I mean, Costa, Rica, you said it was like 90, right? January. I, I have experienced, I've done that before. The humidity can be so high. Like your Cubans, especially if you're there for a while, it can really start to absorb a lot of that humidity. It, yep. Yeah. And I think it really messes up the smoking experience.
So I am a proponent of bringing a Boveda that can keep that down so it doesn't get too high. That's a good
**Gizmo:** idea. Yeah.
**Rooster:** I, I like to carry them in the five-finger
**Gizmo:** bags. I think that kind of, you, you like that?
**Rooster:** Yeah. Protects the cigars. And if you want, you can throw in a sixty-two or sixty-five Boveda, and that kind of keeps '
**Gizmo:** em good.
Lower. I, I used to go, I go fifty-eight. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fifty-eight now too. I agree. I go fifty-eight on everything, by the way. Mm. I
**Rooster:** used to carry more Cubans and less of the new world, but the way the Cuban prices are like, I hate to kind of Yeah. Replace them now. This is true. And, and you know, so I carry, it's, it's more like 60 New World and 40 Cuban now.
Wow. Except, except when you go to Cuba. When you go to Cuba, you wanna, you wanna smoke more Cubans. [01:05:00] Agreed. But also they're accessible there and it's hit or miss. Mm-Hmm. But you can kind of find some of the Cubans, some of the staples you can find. Yeah. Like we were able to find D-Fours, we were able even able to find some
**Gizmo:** punch double Coronas RAs
**Bam Bam:** and honestly the Unbanded cigars that we have, have had access to recently.
That's kind of changed the game for I think a lot of, sure.
**Gizmo:** For me, for sure. If you can find Cuban cigars that don't have bands on them that you appreciate there, there's a real value in that. Oh yeah. You know? Oh yeah. To have something that's 10, 12, $20, whatever it is, and delicious, you know, comparable to a a hundred dollars Cuban cigar.
Yep. It changes your wanting to reach for them. It does for me, me too. You know, but, you know, to, uh, to all of your points. I mean, when I go to Cuba, I'm definitely packing more Cuban cigars. Mm-hmm. Only because I know that indoors I can smoke more Cuban cigars, which is where primarily we're smoking, aside from what we're smoking on the rooftop early morning or late evening, [01:06:00] we're often inside in a shop, in a lounge where we're able to smoke Cuban cigars.
So I'm reaching for Cubans, but outside of Cuba, it's probably fifty-fifty for me. But you know, to Senators point, I'm constantly going with a fifty-eight boveda to reduce humidity in every aspect of my cigars situation, Cuban and New World. I'm trying to prevent anything from happening with, with the humidity from going up.
That's good advice.
**Senator:** And the only other reason for me, particularly when I go to Cuba, that. I prefer to bring more Cuban cigars. You're able to smoke more cigars in Cuba than arguably anywhere. Absolutely. That you would go on vacation. And so the fact that the overwhelming majority of Cuban cigars are like medium, if I'm gonna have eight cigars in a day, you know, most of my new worlds are for a more robust, full flavor profile.
Mm-Hmm. Right. I'm not smoking five new worlds a day. I am smoking maybe you know, three. Yeah. And the rest are Cuban. And primarily
**Bam Bam:** in the evening
**Senator:** you're doing those Exactly [01:07:00] right. Yeah. So when I'm in Cuba knowing that I'm gonna be able to smoke so much, I like having a lot of medium sticks. Mm-Hmm. And then those few, you know, closers to be full-bodied, new world cigars, where when I'm in other places that I'm gonna smoke half of what I do in Cuba, that's where I'm gonna be smoking just as many new worlds as I am.
Cubans.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, it's time to move into our ratings tonight. Are you guys ready to do the formal liquor rating on the blackened? I. Straight American whiskey. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Bam. Bam, you're up. So I was between an eight and a nine on this. I had to put a single chip of ice in my drink and it really drank beautifully.
It was delicious. No complaints at all. Um, will I go for this bottle? Maybe occasionally. So I'm, I'm gonna give it an eight. Overall, the, the experience was very nice.
**Gizmo:** Eight. Okay. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** I think I'm at an eight too. Uh, I think, uh, my experience with a couple of chips of ice was slightly better. Uh, uh, and, uh, smaller steps.
Always a
**Bam Bam:** good idea. [01:08:00]
**Pagoda:** But, but I do think, uh, that, you know, this drink with this, uh, particular cigar really helped me a lot because I felt that after the cigar I really did need something to follow up with, with a drink. And, you know, it provided a really nice, uh, combination. So I think the pairing really worked well in its own right.
Uh, but it's an eight for me.
**Gizmo:** Senator.
**Senator:** This is surprising, but I, I'm actually gonna be slightly higher than both of these guys. I'm not surprised. I'm gonna round up to a nine. I'm not surprised. And the reason for that, again, not being a huge bourbon person, the fact that this, I, I think this is where I do agree with Pagoda.
This really helped the cigar for me, and I thought it had just the right amount of sweetness, not overly sweet. Like there are plenty of bourbons that are too sweet for my palate. This was balanced enough. But, and I think, you know, Giz mentioned like a cherry note that was in this, that Yep. In the bourbon that I think [01:09:00] was unique.
I, I don't know of a single other bourbon I've ever really gotten a cherry or. Uh, really that many fruit notes that, that's just like, not normally what
**Bam Bam:** you get. Yeah. And we did get a slight cherry note in the cigar. Very slight site. Right.
**Gizmo:** You think
**Rooster:** maybe it's the brandy cask finish.
**Gizmo:** Likely. It could be.
**Senator:** It very well could be.
I mean, brandy, right? That that's all from fruit. So absolutely possible that that's the case. And I do think that like the finishing in that brandy cask for a 90 proof bourbon, I found it to be, you know, pretty smooth. Mm-Hmm. And, um, and very drinkable. And I think the price point at $40 is, I mean, more than fair, it's ridiculous.
So for all those reasons, I'm, I'm gonna round up, I think this is, you know, one of the few or rare kind of celebrity spirits that I actually think does a pretty nice job. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So I agree with Senator. Uh, I, I've been at a nine since we started. I anticipated coming in looking at this bottle with the Metallica logos all over it.
I thought I was gonna be at a six or seven. Yeah. Honestly, it [01:10:00] looked like it looked like a gimmick. Yeah, it looks like a gimmick. It still does. Even after drinking it. But I was really intrigued by the complexity of it. I was intrigued by that cherry note. And I'm not a guy who likes Cherry. I don't, I, I don't reach for, you know, cherry in my, my, my spirits.
Mm-Hmm. Like, I don't like that. There's a very nice dryness to this though. But it's, well, it's really, really nice. And honestly, for me tonight, it was the star of the show. Like, it, it really performed well. I think $40 a bottle is very, very reasonable. I think the fact that the four of us had this whiskey tonight, and it, it, it.
I think satisfied everyone. Absolutely. You know? Totally. And help the cigar and help, help the cigar and that's a good point. Help the cigar. So I'm very, very comfortable at a nine. So the formal liquor rating boys is an 8.5. Very nice. Which I think is very reasonable for a whiskey that's only been out a few years.
Yeah. You know, and it, and, and like Senator said, is a celebrity driven whiskey, which I think if we rated some of the [01:11:00] other celebrity driven spirits out there, I don't think they'd get an 8.5. So. I guess we'll see at some point. Do you wanna do the, uh, Kendall, Jenner tequila at some point? Oh, Jesus. Uh, no.
Are you guys ready to do the formal lizard rating on the M-Eighty-One from Drew Estate, the blackened in Corona Rooster. You're up. Yeah. I mean, I, I think the
**Rooster:** project, the culmination of the project with the Robert Dietrich, Rob Dietrich. Yeah. Rob
**Gizmo:** Dietrich, uh, Jonathan Drew
**Rooster:** and, uh, James Hatfield. It kind of works.
Yeah. I think they have delivered. Um, it's a, it's a cigar that's under $10. Uh,
**Gizmo:** it delivers,
**Rooster:** you know, it's a smooth cigar. It's a bold cigar. I don't think it's for a novice smoker. It's for a seasoned smoker who likes that bold flavor
**Gizmo:** profile at an affordable price, at affordable price.
**Rooster:** Um. It has, you know, it has, it has black [01:12:00] pepper, it has leather, it has, uh, I mean it is lacking that sweet note.
Maybe somehow if that could be tweaked in the blend, I think it would score a little bit higher for me. So, having said that, I am at an eight. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Senator.
He's thinking, he's debating. Dun, you can, I'll play some Metallica band. You can always change your score. It's, I thought he was gonna
**Senator:** be at a nine, so that's what's kind of thrown me for a loop.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
This is while Senator's thinking.
**Senator:** All right, I have my
**Gizmo:** radio. All right. Here we go.
**Senator:** I am at a seven. Ooh, wow.
**Gizmo:** Brutal.
**Senator:** Wow. Oof. And I'm, let's hear this again. Rooster threw me for a loop because I really thought he was gonna be at [01:13:00] a nine, and I was debating between a seven and an eight, but I, I'm definitely gonna have to round down to a seven.
And the reason is, um, I mean, number one, I, I would not pursue the cigar again. So I, I think most cigars I would rate an eight or higher. You know, I might in some form or fashion, you know, pursue and, and, and want to smoke again. I, I, there are merits to the cigar, right? I agree with Rooster. It's smooth for how bold the flavor profile is that they've tried to deliver.
I just, you know, it goes back to when we first lit the cigar. I was expecting like really robust, distinct flavor notes that I was gonna get outta the cigar. And I feel like everybody, when we started, we were getting a bunch of kind of faint notes, but just delivered in a bold way. And I just wanted those to be more pronounced and the lack of a defined sweet note throughout it at this bold, a flavor profile for me just [01:14:00] didn't meet what I would be looking for in a cigar like this.
So I think the blend is not quite my speed and, um.
I, I struggled to think of where I would slot this in. I think, you know, gizmo had asked at one point like, where would you smoke this? I mean, with the exception of Rooster, I don't think any of us, the rest of us would smoke this in the morning. No, I wouldn't smoke it in the afternoon. And the problem for me is in the evening, I'd pick up a padrone any day of the week over this.
So I just, I can't see anywhere that I would really regularly slot this in. So for that, I'm a seven and that again means that if I had no other Cigar is available to me and someone handed me one, sure I'd smoke it, but am I gonna go out and pursue this cigar? I just wouldn't. So if he were in in prison,
**Bam Bam:** he'd have to have it.
So,
**Gizmo:** lemme ask you a question.
**Rooster:** So you said I threw you in a loop. If, if had I [01:15:00] scored it a nine, you would've given it an eight? No,
**Gizmo:** I'd still
**Senator:** be having the same debate. I just was shocked to hear how much I thought you liked a cigar and then you only gave it an eight. I was just surprised by
**Gizmo:** that. Eight's a good score.
Yeah, it is. But
**Senator:** you sounded like you liked a lot more than that.
**Gizmo:** That's all. Mm. Connoisseur corner. A lot of influence here on Senator Taylor. Correct. I was just surprised you hear that, Pam. That's all. So for me, boys, it's an eight. Uh, uh, I, I've been in an eight since we started. Yeah. I wish there was a little bit more complexity to the blend.
I thought it paired very well with the whiskey, so that helped it. Um, I don't know, like Senator, if I'm gonna reach for this or, or go purchase a box of these, however, if it ended up in my face or I'm in a lounge and I had a choose a cigar, certainly for the experience he gave me tonight, it was very good.
Mm-Hmm. I think the important thing to note too is it's under 10 bucks. Yeah. It's a $9 cigar. And I think that that is a merit to it. So I, I'm into it. Eight is a fair score and I'm in [01:16:00] eight all day. Mm-Hmm. Pagoda. I scored an
**Pagoda:** eight. Uh, you know, I was very excited by the flavor profile walking into the cigar.
You know, the way it looked and after, uh, you know, uh, listening to the fact that it's all Maduro driven, you know, that's typically within my flavor profile. Um, I really liked the size. The combustion was good. Um, overall, you know, I kind of agree with Senator in a way where I thought the flavor profile for me was very muted.
I was looking for something a little more
**Gizmo:** robust. I think that's a good word for it.
**Rooster:** Muted. Mm-Hmm. You were looking for
**Gizmo:** a more robust, robust, I mean, say
**Pagoda:** flavor. Not in strength. In in flavor. Not in strength. So, I, and, because I've had the Ligas, you know, I was, and I was thinking about where I'd slot it in, and even towards the end of the nine.
If somebody put a Papa's Fritas in this, I think I might just take the papapa Fri of course. Me too. Of course. Cigar. So considering all that, um, I think, I think it's a really good score. I also think that [01:17:00] the drink kind of enhanced the cigar in a, in a way. Um, and there was something, and I don't know whether I've used this before, it felt the cigar when I was puffing without the drink felt a bit dry.
Um, and I'm not sure what drives that, but that was something I was
**Gizmo:** experiencing. I think Senator said that too. Yes. Then there's just rice.
**Senator:** There's not a defined sweet note in it. There's not fruit, there's not, uh, anything that you would deem sweet. I there's not milk chocolate that at least would have some sweetness.
And so for me, the ball, the, the blend was so skewed toward espresso and like these drier. Full notes that I just wanted more balance so that I'm, I'm not feeling what pagoda is
**Gizmo:** describing. I think it's more
**Rooster:** what I got out of this was more
**Gizmo:** leather earth. Yeah, dark espresso. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Looks nice. That, that's it.
So those things, I got in a, a very nice smooth delivery and it was, the smoke was velvety. Um, I'm gonna go right into my rating. [01:18:00] So on the retrohale is where I captured that faint sweetness at the finish of the retrohale, and there was a slight cherry there. I, if you're not retro hailing, there's something that you could miss in a lot of cigars.
I highly recommend it if you can do it. I'm at an eight because of the combination of those things. Is it a sophisticated cigar or No, but I'm just rating it for what it is tonight and how it performed. It's beautifully made. That structure on the ash was very impressive and the combustion was actually quite nice and the price
**Pagoda:** point was really
**Bam Bam:** good.
Of course, of course. I'm going eight,
**Gizmo:** so the formal lizard rating boys is a 7.8.
**Senator:** That's
**Bam Bam:** fair for that. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Sad but true. Sad but true. 7.8 boys.
Pain while you stay.
**Senator:** Oh, it's sad but
**Gizmo:** true. Sad but true boys is [01:19:00] 7.8 tonight. Unfortunately. Like, like I said, you know, the, uh, the whiskey, that's, that's a mild recommend. The whiskey was the star of the show tonight. Yes it was. That's just thing cigar. I was not there. It's, it's true. Just my
**Senator:** last comment will be, had we not had this whiskey with this, this would've been a frustrating experience for
**Gizmo:** me.
Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it's true. Alright, so let's go through some of the other, the Drew Estate cigars we've smoked on the podcast. On episode 10, we did the Liga Provado number nine, which was an 8.4. On episode 57 we did the Drew Estate under Crown Maduro. Which is 7.6. On episode 77, we did the Drew Estate, Herrera, Esteli, Norteno, Lonsdale, Scored very well in 8.9.
On episode 1 0 2 we did the Liga, Provada, Unico Papas Fritas, which Pagoda mentioned was an 8.2, which was just a little four points better than this. Yeah. So unfortunately tonight it didn't break 80, but 7.8 boys. It is what it [01:20:00] is. Yeah. Mild recommend. Mild recommend, for sure. Alright, so a great night guys on the Blackened Whiskey.
We had a formal liquor rating of an 8.5 on the Blackened M-eighty-one in Corona. We had a 7.8. It is what it is. Sad but true. Good night. Overall, it was a good night. Overall, boys, great conversation, great pairing, and we'll see everybody next week.
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, Lounge Lizards pod.com. That's lounge lizards pod Dot-com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us Hello 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.[01:21:00]