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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards Podcast presented by Fabrica Five. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars as well as whiskey travel food work and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
Gizmo:And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drink some bourbon, talk about life, and, of course, have some laughs. So take this as your two hundred and thirty first official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plenty of meters here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Nicaraguan cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating. We discuss several new releases coming around the PCA show.
Gizmo:We answer a listener email on how cuts affect flavor, and we debate the merits of reviewing blind, 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 Wild Turkey one zero one eight year old Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey with the Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich, Puerto Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J. A Robusto on the pod tonight, boys, from Nicaragua, and it's a debut. Mhmm.
Gizmo:From Espinosa, it's the Knuckle Sandwich, Puerto Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J. And it's a 52 ring gauge cigar by five inches long. And boys, there's one, two, three, four, five, six of us in the room. We all have one way tickets tonight.
Bam Bam:Are they first class?
Gizmo:First class tickets to Flavortown. On United. Because this cigar is Guy Fieri
Bam Bam:Interesting.
Gizmo:Collaboration with Espinosa.
Bam Bam:Okay.
Gizmo:Highly talked about. Obviously, saw him at PCA last year when we were there.
Bam Bam:Knuckle Sandwich is something a lot of people are talking about.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's one of the highest selling cigars right now in The United States. What? Really? What?
Gizmo:Yeah. How could that be?
Rooster:Highest selling cigar.
Gizmo:I said it's one of the best selling cigars right
Rooster:a now in The United pretty big It's
Gizmo:a big statement. Yeah. They're selling a lot of these cigars.
Pagoda:But you have to The
Bam Bam:wrapper smells pretty damn good.
Gizmo:It does.
Bam Bam:The foot's great. It's a good looking cigar. I'm getting chocolate and cherry.
Chef Ricky:I'm not getting much on the wrapper.
Senator:Sorry. The wrapper for me, I'm getting a ton of barnyard.
Pagoda:I'm getting barnyard.
Senator:What's but the foot of the cigar, I'm getting sweet cocoa notes.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I mean, for me, the whole thing's cocoa and a Some little bit of
Chef Ricky:faint sweet cocoa. It's about it for me.
Bam Bam:It's nice.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's cut this thing. Let see what we're getting on the cold draw.
Rooster:Can I take these bands off?
Gizmo:Anything else on the wrapper? Got a foot band that I just took off.
Senator:Yeah. And I'm really glad this secondary band in giant, all caps, puro. Very essential information that needs you on a second band.
Bam Bam:In case you didn't know what it was. The cold draw is pretty nice.
Gizmo:Yeah, it's nice. Listen, I'm optimistic.
Senator:I'm going to give this cigar a chance. I think the branding is atrocious.
Chef Ricky:There's some cherry and chocolate.
Bam Bam:I love the old draw. Get
Gizmo:a little fig, a little dried fruit.
Bam Bam:Fig, cherry, definitely a fruit and a little cocoa.
Rooster:Very open. The draw is wide open.
Bam Bam:Handsome too. The wrapper's very pristine on a single vein or
Chef Ricky:I got a pretty big seam on mine.
Senator:I will say the construction though is very good.
Bam Bam:Looks like a machine made cigar.
Gizmo:I like the box press on it. Yeah. Alright, boys. So before we go, I figured we couldn't do this without doing it the right way.
Bam Bam:Oh god. Do you have dried fruit in there?
Gizmo:And as the leader of the organization Jesus Christ.
Chef Ricky:Oh my.
Gizmo:I figured we might have the right headwear.
Bam Bam:Are you gonna bring that to PCA tomorrow?
Gizmo:The guy Fieri
Bam Bam:You're gonna bring it, aren't you?
Gizmo:Frosted tips hat.
Pagoda:Oh, is that what it is? Yeah. Damn, that's hilarious.
Senator:Gives more from a gremlin to a hedgehog.
Bam Bam:That's embarrassing.
Pagoda:You know, I was about to call you a bandmaster, but then
Bam Bam:You've lost now I a lot of points right now.
Gizmo:Alright boys.
Pagoda:And right before that I was about to say Bam put on a few streaks in his hair.
Bam Bam:I could do that.
Pagoda:He he look like Guy
Gizmo:You tips. Could do
Bam Bam:Could do. Could do.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's do let's light this thing. The Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich, Puerto Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J. And again Pagoda's welding steel. And again, it's a 52 ringgit cigar by five inches long.
Bam Bam:Do we know how much the cigar is? Cigar is $10.
Gizmo:It's a
Bam Bam:pretty good value.
Pagoda:Too pricey for me.
Bam Bam:That's a nice price for
Gizmo:a Rupisto.
Chef Ricky:Put a lid, his lighter, and it sounded like a dragon over He almost He's
Gizmo:having lighter problems.
Bam Bam:He for sure. His eyebrows.
Senator:And he's charring the cigar right now.
Gizmo:So, Bam, if you're wondering, you can order that, Guy Fieri, hat on Amazon for, like, $5. Cool. So I'm gonna get you one. I thought it
Rooster:comes with the cigars.
Bam Bam:It should. Decent opening.
Gizmo:Yeah. Off to a good start.
Bam Bam:Chef getting any, cocoa or chocolate here?
Chef Ricky:I'm getting a little cocoa chocolate and honest, a little bit of a and Cherry?
Gizmo:Brown paper bag. Brown paper bag. Just a little bit.
Chef Ricky:So what And I don't
Rooster:mean that in a bad way. That's a new flavor.
Gizmo:Welcome back, boys.
Bam Bam:So the aroma of paper bags, there's a specific aroma.
Chef Ricky:There's not yeah, like, there's there's not a a round depth, or fullness to the chocolate cherry. It dissipates really fast, rather quickly, kind of dries out a bit. And then it feels get like what I just said. Don't want to say it again, but
Bam Bam:Anyone get a getting a short finish in general here?
Gizmo:Short finish? Yep. Right? I would say the smoke is kind of like a salty, slightly creamy. I like that actually.
Bam Bam:The it's salty is pretty spot on.
Gizmo:Right? But it's it is short. Like it Mhmm. Goes away pretty quick. But I don't mind what I'm getting here.
Gizmo:I like it.
Pagoda:Yeah. It's fine. You went to a very meaty. No. I'm just kidding.
Gizmo:I will say though, for all the stories of spice, I know we just lit Yeah. And strength and everything else, I'm finding this to be a very medium, mild affair right now.
Senator:Mine is definitely medium. I am getting spice. My tongue is tingling every draw.
Bam Bam:Really?
Senator:No one else is getting that?
Bam Bam:Yet. Now I will say the retrohale, that's a touch spicy.
Gizmo:A touch. Retro's spicy.
Bam Bam:Yeah. But the traditional draw, not for me.
Senator:See, some of us, our palate is able to detect that without needing to retro.
Gizmo:Got it. Going into PCA, boys. We are firing on all cylinders.
Senator:Can't wait to see Klaus.
Bam Bam:We're trying to get dialed in.
Gizmo:So for the listener, I think it's been to the day, because I was traveling. I think it's been about three weeks since we recorded. So it's the first time that we're all sitting in the room together.
Bam Bam:It's nice.
Gizmo:About three weeks. So it's good to be back.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:Coming back with a heater tonight, the Knuckle Sandwich. Oh, yeah.
Bam Bam:How are doing over there, old boy?
Rooster:Old boy's getting some spice for sure.
Gizmo:Yeah. I'm surprised the lack of spice right now.
Rooster:You're not getting any spice?
Gizmo:Very little on don't know.
Pagoda:Could get spicier.
Rooster:Even on the aroma when it hits your
Gizmo:The aroma, I'm getting it through the retro I'm getting it, but I'm not getting it on the palate. And I'm definitely I don't definitely don't have it.
Chef Ricky:It's all
Bam Bam:a retro for me. The guys on that side of the room have yet to say if they're enjoying the cigar or not. Are you enjoying it? Is it a positive or somewhat the Neutral.
Pagoda:The beer is out.
Senator:Neutral. Spice for me
Rooster:is It's overpowering the cigar right now. Really?
Senator:For me. Yeah. The spice is a negative. Like, I like the sweet notes that I'm getting, but there's a bit too much spice right now.
Bam Bam:You're getting some sweet, though.
Rooster:Yeah. The spice is the dominating note.
Pagoda:Yeah. Got the sweetness only in a few puffs right at the end and that's dissipated.
Senator:Like for me, I get the sweetness initially and then the whole rest of the finish is just spice. Are
Bam Bam:you finding it to be a short finish?
Senator:For me, because of the lingering spice, it's more of like a medium finish.
Bam Bam:There's a viscosity to the smoke.
Gizmo:I just wish the finish was a little longer.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Chef?
Chef Ricky:I'm trying to hone in on the spice on the palate. I'm just, it's not coming to me. I'm getting it all on the retrohale.
Bam Bam:Yeah, me too.
Chef Ricky:And yeah, the finish is rather short. The smoke is velvety, but the finish is short. I think it's going to develop a little bit more. I think as we get a little bit further in, it's going to round out. Let's see what happens.
Gizmo:I'm finding right now that the flavor profile is very simple Yeah. And very monotone. And it could get very boring very quickly. That and that's exactly where it was going. Hope it develops a little more because if not, it's a pleasant smoke, draws well, good smoke output, but it's not exciting me right now.
Rooster:For me, the draw is like too open.
Bam Bam:It is open. Right?
Rooster:Yeah. I would like it to be a little bit resistant.
Gizmo:Mine has some resistance, actually. No. Mine's open,
Bam Bam:but not in a bad way. It's fine.
Senator:Mine's wide open like roosters.
Rooster:Maybe that might be the reason we're getting too much. Could be. You know? Hopefully, it changes. I hope so.
Rooster:All right, boys.
Gizmo:Let's talk about the cigar. We'll go into a little history after that of Eric Espinosa. So first up, the wrapper on this is Ecuadorian Habano. The binder and filler are both Nicaraguan, and these cigars are made at AJ Fernandez's San Latano factory in Esteli. And actually, if you remember about a year ago, this was one of the cigars at that A.
Gizmo:J. Fernandez, the fire. This is one of the ones that was highly impacted by the fire. Wonder Espinosa brand.
Bam Bam:No wonder it's so spicy.
Gizmo:So these come in boxes of 20. Again, I got these for about $10 each. Have had them in the tower now for probably five or six weeks. So they've been acclimating. When I got them, they were pretty wet.
Bam Bam:They feel great.
Gizmo:So they came down quite a bit in humidity. It's burning well, actually.
Chef Ricky:That is huge. The burn line on this thing is
Gizmo:It's perfect. Perfect.
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Gizmo:So Eric Espinosa met celebrity chef Guy Fieri. Of course, everybody knows him. He's the guy with the frosted tips in his hair all over Food Network, diners, drive ins, and dives. And what else? He's in grocery games.
Gizmo:He's he does a bunch of different stuff. And, of course, now he's into the cigar world.
Senator:And he's chef Seidl. That's
Gizmo:where he
Senator:gets draws all his inspiration for
Gizmo:his dishes, bro. Shut the fuck up. That's not true. You have a poster of him on your wall,
Chef Ricky:right? Absolutely.
Gizmo:In the bedroom?
Bam Bam:Absolutely not. Is he a good Seidler?
Chef Ricky:The guy's a genius for what he's been able to do and how long his career has been on Food Network.
Gizmo:And I would argue he's probably been a star longer on Food Network than the early folks like Emerald and those guys. They had shorter stints than he did. I mean, he's been on there almost twenty, thirty years probably.
Rooster:Guy Fieri actually won the competition on Food
Gizmo:The next
Rooster:Food Network story. That's how it became a
Gizmo:well known.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, I think Emeril's sort of launched Food Network and Guy Fieri's just kept it going. And his show Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, my mother-in-law just watches every rerun over and over and over again. It just seems like it's always on. His three shows are what's on all the time.
Gizmo:It's kind of like MTV. That's all they run is Rob Dyrdek's show. What's that called? I forget the name of it. He just plays video clips, they talk about it, but it's the same thing over on Food Network.
Bam Bam:Real times.
Pagoda:Him all day long. Chef, when are gonna grocery grocery games?
Chef Ricky:I'm gonna bring Bam as my partner.
Gizmo:You're gonna lose. Promise.
Bam Bam:$22 for gallon of milk. Hey.
Pagoda:Hey. You need someone to push the car.
Bam Bam:I'm good at that.
Pagoda:Sous chef. Correct.
Gizmo:So Eric Espinosa and Guy met in 2020, and then they spent about eighteen months developing the blend of these cigars. And they launched in three different kinds, the Habano that we have in our hand, the Maduro, and they have a Connecticut. They also have some special releases and whatnot now, again, coming in 20 count boxes. So these launched in 2022. The one thing I will say about Guy Fieri, and we actually talked about this on last year's PCA episode, I'm impressed with how directly involved and actually, like, seemingly, like, consistent Guy is with promoting the brand and promoting the cigars.
Gizmo:It doesn't seem like this is one of those things where he put his name on a cigar, they have a contract for three or six months of promotion, and then once that's over, the cigars just run and you never hear from the celebrity again about it. He's pretty in it. I, know, I'm sure he has some equity in either the business or this line that that. Makes him want to be involved, but I think he also enjoys just smoking cigars. I don't think it's like a flipping thing for him.
Gizmo:I think he actually enjoys it.
Senator:Yeah, he posted videos about PCA even this year. Was excited about it, all that, so I will also give him credit. He's definitely serious about it.
Bam Bam:Did you guys see him smoke a cigar last year, PCA? Because that's
Gizmo:all yeah.
Chef Ricky:He was
Gizmo:walking around the whole time with
Bam Bam:a cigar. Not me.
Gizmo:You didn't see one.
Bam Bam:I am gonna call him out on it.
Gizmo:I've seen him smoke a lot of cigars.
Bam Bam:Is that true?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I would I think he's a cigar smoker. Alright. He's into big engines and
Bam Bam:We may, you know, confront him.
Gizmo:I would love to see this. I may record it.
Bam Bam:You should
Chef Ricky:wear the hat when
Bam Bam:you do it. Yeah. I don't think so.
Rooster:You can walk up
Pagoda:and say, hey,
Rooster:listen, guy.
Bam Bam:Hey, old boy. You don't smoke cigars, do you?
Senator:I will say on this cigar, so I figured out the spice issue. We have a really open draw, so the cigar was just heating up faster.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:I left it for a while and then have slowly and even taken, like, much smaller puffs Mhmm. And the spice is dissipating like a ton.
Bam Bam:Nice. So shallow draws.
Senator:Yeah. Yeah.
Gizmo:And just more time in between. Sure.
Senator:Yeah. Because it's just the draws honestly like more open than it
Gizmo:should be. So with that being said, do you find the flavor to be pleasant?
Senator:Now it is. Yeah. Okay.
Pagoda:But I'm not getting any sweetness at all. I, you know, I was expecting it to be sweeter after at least, you know, the initial feel we got from the wrapper.
Rooster:It's going to change. Rustom, It's what smells even for me, it just changed. It's a little less spicy now.
Pagoda:No, no. Yeah, it's less spicy, but it's not sweet.
Bam Bam:What are you getting, Rustom?
Rooster:I mean, there is a little bit of spice still there, but now it's a little bit more chocolatey cocoa notes are coming through.
Pagoda:I
Chef Ricky:guess where I'm having a hard time is with this cigar, I mean, I keep hearing the notes you guys are calling out and I'm getting them but so faintly.
Bam Bam:It's faint. Right? The cocoa's faint, the sweetness is faint, but it's there.
Chef Ricky:I've become so used to smoking cigars that are just they deliver. And this is
Gizmo:But you're not saying strength, you're saying flavor. Yeah. Just to be clear for the listener.
Bam Bam:Correct. There's a lot
Gizmo:of, like, we haven't actually been smoking a lot of, I would say, full or strong cigars on the podcast. We had a couple recently, but over the term of the last six months or a year, I would say we haven't actually hit that many kind of on the full strength side, but a lot of flavor. No question about that.
Bam Bam:I'm not enjoying the retrohale.
Senator:Just I am not.
Chef Ricky:It feels very pedestrian. It feels like they're playing it very safe for a very broad kind of audience. Yeah. I think
Gizmo:this is an accessible cigar. I don't think it's an offensive cigar that a new smoker or someone that, you know, sees him promote this on a magazine or on Instagram or something goes out and buys it, I mean, it's not going to kick him around.
Bam Bam:I will say the traditional draw is actually quite good. I just can't do the retro. For me, it's a little powerful.
Gizmo:I'm not finding it to be as unpleasant as you're
Rooster:I think it's a good, like, medium
Bam Bam:Yeah, it's Okay.
Rooster:Between yeah, a little bit even more than a medium for me. Not quite as full, but medium plus.
Bam Bam:Got it.
Gizmo:So these guys met through industry contacts, and it's not just a licensing deal like we talked about. This is a full on business arrangement of business engagement that they have together, developed over eighteen months. They've launched in early twenty twenty two and it's produced in Nicaragua, like we said, and it's made at the AJ Fernandez factory. So AJ Fernandez, obviously that factory is making a lot of the cigars that we love, namely the Concerto stuff from Rafael Nadal. I believe the Trinidad line that with the Espiritu line that we did is also made there.
Gizmo:So a lot of cigars that we enjoy are coming out of there. So let's talk a little bit about Eric Espinosa. So he is a Cuban born cigar maker who has been grinding in the cigar industry for quite some time. So he was born in Havana, brought to The United States as an infant, and he didn't enter the cigar business through heritage or privilege. So he had nobody before him in the cigar business.
Gizmo:He built his career from the ground up beginning in the late nineteen nineties as a hustling independent sales rep during the cigar boom. So his early years were defined by instability and trial and error. He worked as a broker representing multiple brands, of course, learning the business from the ground up, but also experienced failed partnerships and false starts that could have ended his career. But he was tenacious and persistent. He stayed in the game when many others of the cigar boom era disappeared, and I know that we've talked about the cigar boom era and what happened after Cigar Aficionado became very popular.
Gizmo:There were a lot of celebrity folks coming in, you know, contrary to this story we're telling tonight with Guy Fieri. But there were every celebrity had a cigar and put their name on it and almost none of them exist to this day. You know, very few of those brands actually stuck around. Over time, Eric Espinosa transitioned from selling cigars to building them. He cofounded a company called EO Brands, which produced a few lines including one called six zero one and Mercia Lago, helping establish his reputation as someone with a strong palate and commercial instincts, they say.
Gizmo:Eventually, he struck out on his own launching Espinosa premium cigars and building his La Zona factory in Nicaragua, giving him full control over blending and production. So. What I love about this is that he's a rare guy in that he is self made. There's no legacy prior to him. He's a first generation in the cigar industry, kind of like Nick Perdomo.
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:I would say I would kind of compare him to that or Rocky Patel in a way with their stories. So he survived the cigar boom, learned every job in the business, built his own factory. And then, of course, with the celebrity chef Guy Fieri became very mainstream in the cigar world and is now selling a ton of cigars.
Chef Ricky:It's funny you mentioned that brand, Macelago. That was one of the first sticks I smoked earlier on in my journey off a cigar bid purchase. Camping? No, not camping. Not camping.
Chef Ricky:But it was one of my first cigar purchases.
Bam Bam:Are they calling out any notes on their site?
Gizmo:They're not calling out any notes on the site. No. All I know is that the blends are designed to reflect Guy Fieri's personality, bold, flavorful and layered while still staying true to Espinosa's core blending style and standards. That's what I got here. I can look up some notes if you'd like.
Gizmo:See what other folks got, but I did not do that per our conversation a
Bam Bam:few weeks ago. So for me, the pepper is actually starting to ramp up.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Black pepper.
Bam Bam:It's it's actually going up now and my draw is opening up. I'm gonna follow your guys your your lead. I'm gonna slow down a little bit and take shorter draws.
Rooster:It's like notes of Tabasco.
Gizmo:Really? Yes.
Bam Bam:For me,
Chef Ricky:it's There's a tingling sensation happening in the center of my tongue.
Gizmo:Well, that's what Senator was saying.
Chef Ricky:Like black pepper.
Bam Bam:But I will say there's something that's trying to break through that's decent, but it's kind of held back.
Chef Ricky:Falls flat, yeah.
Bam Bam:Because you're getting hints of some nice things there in the background and that layered description kind of hits on it. It's frustrating for me. So right now I'm a little frustrated with the cigar.
Chef Ricky:Trying to punch through, but it's almost like it doesn't have enough to do it.
Senator:Yeah, this is requiring a ridiculous amount of patience on my part. This blend, it's too peppery where the only way to get it to subside is to, like, try to smoke this cigar as cool as possible. It'll take four hours. Four hours. Like, these tiny little draws, and it shouldn't require this is my point.
Senator:Like, if the blend were as it should be, you should be able to take a proper draw, you know, at regular intervals and not be hit with a bunch of pepper. The fact that I'm not able to do that is is now frustrating me.
Chef Ricky:Think if pepper is your thing, then you're you'll probably love the cigar. But I to your point, Senator, the real shallow draws, I get a little bit of creaminess
Bam Bam:That's what I'm saying.
Chef Ricky:And like slight coffee.
Bam Bam:It's trying to break through.
Chef Ricky:Has to be a very shallow draw.
Bam Bam:It is layered in there, but you can't access it.
Chef Ricky:If you take a full drawer, gets lost.
Bam Bam:That's the frustrating part.
Rooster:It's hard to do that when the draw is so open.
Bam Bam:Yeah, also true.
Gizmo:Think I'm benefiting from a slightly tighter draw.
Bam Bam:And you're
Gizmo:asking It's not a wind tunnel. It's actually creamy. I'm not really getting much spice.
Bam Bam:Interesting.
Gizmo:Again, the flavor profile is kind of boring for me right now. I'm not loving it. But I'm not getting a lot of the things
Bam Bam:Because that there isn't you're enough of it. That's why it's boring. There isn't enough of that flavor that you're getting hints of. It's like a phantom note.
Rooster:I think it's the spice and the pepper that keeps dominating.
Senator:I want to be clear. My experience is not that there's not enough flavor in this cigar.
Gizmo:You think there is?
Senator:I do. I think it's firmly, firmly medium. And again, when I'm taking these shallow draws, I'm getting actually a little coffee like Chef was mentioning. There's a little bit of nuttiness, some cocoa. So like there there are several notes in here.
Senator:I don't think it's like a pedestrian flavor profile. I just think that it's not balanced. Without being outrageously cautious while you're smoking this, the pepper can just overpower the great notes that you would otherwise be able to get.
Rooster:Yeah, I feel like the blend could be like toned down a bit with some some sweetness, you know, just to balance out the spice.
Pagoda:Yeah. I'm sure that was the intention.
Chef Ricky:I guess I missed You spoke of the build of the cigar?
Gizmo:Yeah. Ecuadorian Habano on the wrapper, everything else is Nicaraguan. I just took that second band off and knocked the ash all over myself.
Senator:I took the second band off and tore the wrapper.
Gizmo:Oh, perfect. Oh, great. Alright, boys. Let's get to some news before we go into our pairing. Of course, we're going to PCA in just a few hours, really.
Gizmo:We're leaving tomorrow for PCA. So let's talk a little bit about PCA. You're gonna miss us?
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Miss you guys.
Bam Bam:We'll be back Monday. Looking forward to
Pagoda:We won't miss you at all. I don't know how those four days go by, by the way.
Bam Bam:We're gonna be at Commander's Palace having a meal.
Gizmo:We have a reservation, right? We do. Yes. Very nice.
Senator:We're locked in, boys,
Bam Bam:smoking in that courtyard, baby.
Gizmo:Yeah. I can't wait to
Pagoda:those missing chef Racaine.
Rooster:Senator.
Bam Bam:Of all guys, like, he would really appreciate this place.
Senator:He would. You would. You would. Oh my gosh.
Gizmo:You, your idol, Guy Fieri, Commander's Palace.
Chef Ricky:I'm sure he'll be there with you guys.
Gizmo:It'd be a nice dinner.
Pagoda:Hey, why don't we get him some turtle soup on the way back?
Gizmo:We should.
Chef Ricky:I'll pass on the turtle soup. Thanks. It's good.
Gizmo:It's really good. Yeah. All right, boys. Let's talk about some news here on PCA again. We're going we're actually leaving tomorrow for PCA, and there's some cool news coming out.
Gizmo:We talked about St. Louis before, and actually have a listener email I wanna read after we talk about this. But the Saint Louis mayor has signed a bill allowing for the PCA trade show to come into town. Mayor Kara Spencer signed in the law an ordinance that will clear the way for the city to host a PCA convention and trade show. So apparently, they're looking at somewhere around twenty thirty, but I'm hearing rumbling that PCA is also wanting to go to Nashville.
Chef Ricky:Oh, that would be great. That's good.
Senator:That'd be cool.
Gizmo:Oh yeah.
Bam Bam:Just avoid You know,
Gizmo:I feel like, you know, I wanna talk to you guys about that in a minute, you know, I wonder if St. Louis is hearing that or feeling that. It seems like this is really desperation that they're trying to get this trade show to come in. I mean, they're talking. What is it?
Gizmo:We're talking four years out, which I know is not a long time planning trade shows.
Bam Bam:I know
Gizmo:that, but still it seems pretty aggressive.
Rooster:It's like the Olympics.
Gizmo:The Cigar Olympics.
Bam Bam:Bunch of big fat guys smoking cigars.
Gizmo:So Josh Habersky said, it is welcome news that another large scale venue is allowing for trade show and convention smoking. We are committed to New Orleans and Las Vegas for our shows for the next four years, but this gives us another option for future consideration of the main trade show as well as new event activations like exhibition with the spirits industry, which we've been exploring recently. We hope other cities like Nashville will see what St. Louis just did and follow suit to expand options with adequate exhibitor space where smoking is permissible. So it's interesting to see this kind of jockeying for PTA trade show.
Gizmo:It's pretty wild. So we'll see what happens. And I wanna read an email actually before we jump off this topic from a listener. Before we go
Bam Bam:there, I have a question. Do we know? You probably don't know the answer to this, but are these facilities equipped with equipment to exhaust the tremendous amount of smoke that they're going to take in? It's tremendous.
Gizmo:There's no way. I would say no.
Bam Bam:They'd have to retrofit. Dude, you're talking for a building that size
Senator:Which I guarantee New Orleans had to
Bam Bam:do to
Senator:get PCA there. There's no way that convention center was built for
Bam Bam:Brewster, if it's a dollar, that's a $400,000 bill. You're going need machines that move tons of air out and tons of air in. At that point, it'll be cooled. It's a huge expense for this show. Think about that.
Bam Bam:Could be more if we were doing it.
Gizmo:But don't you think, like, if these trade you know, like trade shows that are also have, like, equipment and gasoline vehicles, like, these these same trade shows, convention centers are built for uses like that. I mean, don't know if, did New Orleans put that kind of money in or were they just there planning to host a variety of different trade shows? Like if there's a tractor trade show, they drive the tractors in and out, and there's carbon monoxide everywhere, which is way worse for you than cigar smoke, they gotta vent that out. Yeah, could
Bam Bam:have fresh air
Gizmo:in the I gotta imagine that when you build a convention center, you're planning for all potential scenarios. That's true.
Bam Bam:Good point. Has to be.
Pagoda:Good point. The really high ceilings got
Gizmo:Yeah, you're talking what? Fifty, sixty, 70 foot ceilings, right?
Bam Bam:75 feet, yep. Got a point, you got a point. Come on.
Gizmo:All right. You should hire me, Ben. All right. So let's go to an email here quick from listener. Do
Bam Bam:you type?
Gizmo:Not nice.
Bam Bam:Do you make coffee?
Gizmo:I make great coffee. Alright. From a guy named Lizard Patrick. He said, hey, guys. I had the opportunity to meet you all at Bern in Naples this past February with Nish Patel.
Gizmo:Who? I don't think that was us.
Bam Bam:I think it was Rooster.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Nice guy.
Rooster:Very nice guy.
Gizmo:Was anybody at Bern in Naples?
Senator:Absolutely not.
Gizmo:Yeah. I don't think that was us. He says here, I operate the Charles P. Stanley Cigar Lounge just a thousand feet from the front door of the center in St. Louis.
Gizmo:Regarding your podcast on this, I have actually been lobbying for the show to visit our beautiful community for ten years. There are many very special things about St. Louis along with hundreds of cultural and artistic points of interest to visit while in the Lou. St. Louis is home that's not a good nickname, the Lounge.
Bam Bam:No. No? But the barbecue there I hear is spectacular. I've not had it. Neither have I.
Pagoda:He might he might have meant the Louvre.
Bam Bam:The Louvre.
Gizmo:Nice pagoda. St. Louis is home to some of the most spectacular restaurants in the country from authentic Italian to Vietnamese.
Bam Bam:It's all you, senator. Food
Senator:capital of the world. There are
Gizmo:so many beautiful neighborhoods that make up a variety of cultures all in the Louvre. The crime statistics you mentioned are overstated. I have lived downtown for the past twenty years and have experienced crime. The typical crime issues are isolated to a smaller portion within the city limits, but not around the areas where a convention goer would be. Saint Louis as a spectacular cigar community is located in the center of the country, making it a great location for 60% of PCA members that live within 350 miles.
Gizmo:That is a good point. I am extremely excited about the possibility of the show arriving in 2030, and I believe all those participating will find Saint Louis to be one of the most welcoming convention friendly friendly locations in The United States. Best, Patrick. So I wanted to share that from a St. Louis listener who's obviously very engaged to the community there and lobbying to get the show to come there.
Gizmo:So I guess we'll see what what happens. But I got to tell you, man, going back to Vegas next year, I am not looking forward to it. Same. Like, I'm really somebody asked me, like, are you going to Vegas next year? And I honestly was like, I don't know.
Gizmo:So I'll say this.
Senator:I I think everybody knows I dislike Vegas. Josh at PCA, I think, has some really, really cool stuff planned for this upcoming Vegas PCA. I mentioned, you know, Josh has traveled to Dubai, a lot of places around the world lately, and really experiencing cigar culture in all these places. And my understanding is that there's there was some inspiration of like, there are really spectacular venues to be able to smoke cigars in around the world. In Vegas, we did not experience that.
Senator:You know, in New Orleans, like, PCA set up like dedicated, like, after hours cigar smoking lounge areas, like Cuban creations. There was the place with the courtyard that we found in PCA last year. There were designated areas. When we were in Vegas, there was nothing.
Gizmo:No. That's Yeah. Because everything in Vegas is paid for. You have to pay for everything. Yeah.
Gizmo:You wanted to go to eight. By the way, we didn't go to eight when we were there at PCA.
Bam Bam:What was the 50 Did you
Gizmo:go there? Do you have the table fees? Oh, it's ridiculous. It's like price gouging.
Bam Bam:I thought
Gizmo:was legal price gouging.
Bam Bam:It was $2.50 a table or No,
Gizmo:more than that.
Bam Bam:Oh, was it?
Gizmo:Well more than that.
Senator:Well, that's why my understanding is that he's trying to have a similar setup where there are like designated smoking spaces, but I think Vegas being Vegas, they won't just be like a hangout, come any hour you want for like five hours. It will be like an experience of like smoking a cigar somewhere extremely memorable, like with crazy view like, just places you wouldn't expect to be able to smoke, kind of inspired by his travels to Dubai and other places where you're sitting in a venue, like, I can't believe I'm allowed to smoke a cigar here.
Gizmo:You're gonna smoke a cigar with Sickfried and Roy's Tigers.
Rooster:Yeah. Like Sphere.
Senator:No. Thank you. I'm
Bam Bam:Holy smokes.
Gizmo:All I'm There is no way we're smoking cigars in the sphere. All I'm gonna say No.
Senator:No. I'm I talking think there are gonna be some really cool surprises that he has in store for Vegas. So I actually went from, like, completely unenthusiastic about Vegas.
Bam Bam:Well, now we're enthusiastic.
Gizmo:I'm still
Senator:not enthusiastic. It's gonna be a different experience. And I think for Josh, it was like seeing, like
Gizmo:That's cool.
Senator:How much everyone took advantage of, like, New Orleans' ability to offer all these different spaces and experiences for just smoking outside of the trade show.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:And I think this year is even gonna go further than last year. So I think he's recognized like Vegas needs to do something like that if people are gonna be interested in being there beyond just selling at the trade show itself.
Gizmo:Yeah. That's great. What I like too is that, like, in New Orleans, like, the the city and the state were so happy to have the show there. I mean, they they literally turned over a massive park, and that was one of the evening events. It was like smoking outside in the park.
Gizmo:I mean,
Rooster:it was
Senator:awesome. Mean, the cool thing is, like we talked about, you know, Louisiana Governor Landry obviously coming to PCA last year. He had such a great time. The whole PCA staff before PCA this year, he invited them all to the Governor's Mansion, and they all had dinner there. Like, this is prior to PCA.
Senator:Like, the entire staff flew in days early, all had dinner, smoked cigars, had a great photo op with him. Like, he's all in. I do hope that PCA returns to New Orleans more. I mean, it's fine to you know, they I think when we spoke to Josh at last year's, you know, he said, we didn't know how New Orleans would go, so it'd be foolish to lock in more than two years there. Obviously, went extremely well.
Senator:So they had Vegas lined up just being familiar with what to expect there. But I do hope that after that two years back in Vegas that there's an opportunity to come back to New Orleans because Sure. I think all of us left there saying like, is one of the most cigar friendly cities in the entire country.
Gizmo:And also, if you take the cigars, put that aside for a second, which obviously is really important to us, but just the hospitality, the food, the ambiance, the culture, the music that I mean, we talked about this. We're sitting in our Airbnb, and there's literally a funeral rolling down the street, which sounds like a concert.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Gizmo:A live concert happening down the street. That's how they celebrate
Bam Bam:They were celebrating his life.
Gizmo:It's unbelievable. Like, that is the stuff that really, for me, cemented a love of New Orleans that we talked about so much. The food, of course, that you shepherded us with into the sandwiches, the beignets, all that stuff. But the culture and all those other things, I mean, it really nailed it down.
Bam Bam:What I love about New Orleans is the uniqueness of each neighborhood that you get to experience.
Senator:Yep.
Bam Bam:Garden District.
Senator:Yep.
Bam Bam:Rooster, guys, you guys that haven't had a chance to go down there, I want to take Mrs. Bam Bam down just to go down and show her. It's incredible. The Garden District is very stately. The homes are beautifully manicured and well kept.
Bam Bam:And in between, you've got cool restaurants and bars, just beautifully done. Yeah.
Senator:The Mannings have a home
Chef Ricky:in the Garden
Gizmo:District.
Bam Bam:It's amazing. Like the football Mannings. Yeah. And then the French Quarter, also extremely unique from that neighborhood. Which is where we're staying this
Gizmo:year, right? Right near the quarter, yeah.
Bam Bam:Yeah, and then of course you got Bourbon Street and that whole area. The variety of experiences is off the charts.
Chef Ricky:It's a clean,
Gizmo:very clean.
Bam Bam:Very, very clean. And even around the convention center.
Senator:Except Bourbon Street.
Bam Bam:Yeah, Street's a little bit of a mess.
Gizmo:BAM BAM.
Bam Bam:A courtesy of BAM BAM
Pagoda:DNA on that flat on
Chef Ricky:the street.
Gizmo:They still have a of
Bam Bam:They're still scrubbing it out. Oh, man. That was crazy.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. We'll go back to that in a second, but let's go to our pairing now. We have a bourbon, the Wild Turkey one zero one, the eight years aged Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. Cheers, boys. Good to be back.
Bam Bam:Yes. Correct.
Gizmo:To a good weekend ahead of us in New Orleans. Very quiet. Not bad. Yeah. That is not bad boys.
Gizmo:This is one of my favorite bourbons we've had in a while.
Bam Bam:That is a it captures your attention.
Chef Ricky:Oh, yeah.
Bam Bam:And it actually forces you to keep it in your mouth a little longer because if you gulp that, you're gonna burn your throat. But it is actually very good.
Gizmo:I think it has very
Bam Bam:It's tasty.
Gizmo:It it doesn't have a ton
Chef Ricky:of heat. No, I think for what's on the bottle, it definitely drinks a little bit, lighter than that.
Bam Bam:I don't know. I think if you take that down quick though, it's gonna hurt.
Chef Ricky:But I really appreciate the fullness. Very flavorful. I love it. The finish on it is long. It's yeah, I think coming into this with the Nicaragua and Pluto, you thought the cigar would deliver that sort of same roundness and fullness and depth that this bourbon is right now and it's not, but it's going to be interesting to see how they go together.
Bam Bam:Extremely long finish. Very sweet for me, probably more than I want, but with that said, it's still pretty enjoyable. I'm very surprised honestly. I'm shocked by this
Gizmo:right now.
Bam Bam:I was expecting interpret time.
Gizmo:I'm shocked. Correct. Just today. What do you think of it, Senator?
Senator:Yeah, I actually think it's pretty good. I think the first sip you definitely need your palate to adjust, like there is heat. But the flavor is good. It's full, it's rich, it's got a long finish, it's very satisfying. This is great, I mean perfect in the winter and fall, but even in the spring and summer, Yeah.
Senator:It's not as aggressive a bite as something that I would say is only a winter type spirit. So there is some versatility with this. It's funny, I had forgotten. I haven't had wild turkey in a very long time.
Gizmo:I think the name kinda has a stink on it though.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Correct.
Senator:Well, doesn't. Doesn't. Mean, to bourbon people, like, it's known for being like a very flavorful bourbon, and I remember I mean, this says it's like the one zero one eight years. I don't know if they changed the label, and there's a regular one zero one and an eight year one zero one, or they've just now added eight years to the regular one zero one. But I've had the regular one zero one, and I remember even years ago, like, it didn't drink as aggressively hot as I would have expected.
Senator:So I think, like, that's their style. Like, they're able to deliver a ton of flavor without, like, smacking you in the face while they're doing it.
Pagoda:What's the proof in this?
Senator:A 100
Rooster:A 100
Chef Ricky:and Oh, it's a 101. Yeah.
Pagoda:No. It's it it doesn't it doesn't drink as much.
Bam Bam:What do think of the piccata?
Pagoda:I firstly, I, like, I thought it I was expecting a little more viscosity. I don't know why, but it feels very light. Really? Yeah. I really enjoyed the flavor.
Bam Bam:That's nice, right?
Pagoda:Yeah, sweet, long finish. I think it's helping the cigar a lot. My cigar, I started to feel it was a bit dry, so I think with
Bam Bam:That's fair.
Pagoda:With the with the long finish, I think it's really helping.
Bam Bam:Yeah. The long finish is amazing.
Gizmo:So there are two. I wanted to point out Senator's point. There is a one zero one, Wild Turkey one zero one, and this is the eight years expression, which I guess after thirty years has returned according to Total Wine. And the price on this boys is $48.
Bam Bam:Wow. Great
Gizmo:price. So I want to shout out Lizard O. We've mentioned him over the last few bourbons we've done, I guess, over the last month or two. He's he's sent us a couple of bourbons. So we really appreciate Lizard O.
Gizmo:He's one of the OG Lizards out there. Very hopeful that we'll fall in love with bourbon. And this out of the three that he sent, this is the best entrant so far for
Bam Bam:It's truly an eye opener. And and I will say after taking a drink maybe ten minutes ago, I'm still getting all that flavor, and it carries the cigar nicely. It does. It really does.
Gizmo:So boys, we're coming to the end of the first third now on the Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich, Puerto Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J. What's everybody thinking?
Chef Ricky:Why? Can explain Robusto J to me?
Gizmo:So every vitola has a letter at the end. So I think it's Robusto J Toro R, and that is representative of someone in Guy Fieri's life that has made a significant impact on him. It's like the initial of someone in his life.
Chef Ricky:That's cool.
Gizmo:So that's pretty cool. I a little confused by that as well. Had to do some digging, but.
Chef Ricky:I thought it was like Robusto Junior or something. I was trying to figure it out.
Gizmo:No. There's a letter after everybody.
Bam Bam:Got it. Senator's got a joke.
Senator:I was gonna say, thought they're all people he gave a Knuckle Sandwich. Like, I don't know why the Knuckle Sandwich name even exists with this cigar.
Chef Ricky:It's a good question. I think that's just his personality, guy's personality.
Bam Bam:Has the pepper dissipated for those that were getting it?
Chef Ricky:I'm still getting it on the retro. I just retroed my last draw and I almost sneezed. So it's still sort of spicy on the retro, but on the traditional draw I'm not getting much of it.
Senator:I mean, to your question, it's reduced, which is good. Yes. But it's still there. I think like Pagoda mentioned like a dryness that he was kind of getting like
Gizmo:That's very fair.
Senator:Before when I mentioned like chef was getting some coffee notes, I started getting the exact same thing, and there was like a little creaminess that it was like a coffee with some cream, and now it's like black coffee is what I'm getting.
Gizmo:I'm still finding the cigar to be where it was before. I'm not getting a ton of spice. It's picked up a little bit in strength.
Bam Bam:Has it picked up in interest?
Gizmo:It has now that I took a sip of this. Yes. Mean, this bourbon's really helping the cigar
Bam Bam:right It's
Chef Ricky:extracting some of the sweeter notes.
Bam Bam:Sweeter words.
Chef Ricky:It's struggling to come through. They're now just sort of lingering a little longer on the palate.
Gizmo:That's important. And as consummate professionals, Bam, we are not going to allow that to affect the rating of the cigar.
Senator:Bam is like, wait, what?
Bam Bam:We It's unfortunate that that's the case though.
Gizmo:Exactly right.
Senator:Yeah. I will say, even the spirit aside, the flavor notes in the cigar are interesting to me. Like, in the sense that I wouldn't compare this to any other cigar I've had. Like, this is a pretty unique experience. I don't really remember many cigars that like, I started with, like, a coffee with cream note, and then all of a sudden toward the end of the final third, it's like black coffee, and I'm getting, like, different expressions of coffee.
Senator:So, like, there's something cool about that that, like, I do enjoy. I just think what what is a shame is like this actually could have been like a really, really great blend if the balance was just better struck between the different flavors that are part of it. Yeah.
Pagoda:No. You'll have to increase it because remember I was just shooting up.
Bam Bam:How do I do that on this?
Pagoda:Give it to me.
Bam Bam:Hold on. I got it. Gotcha.
Chef Ricky:We definitely need a lighter sponsor on pod.
Pagoda:Ran out of fluid again.
Gizmo:And a fluid sponsor.
Pagoda:You guys getting black pepper? Because I'm not getting black pepper. I, like, I don't know whether do you remember in India? They used to put, I have to go to him. I have to.
Pagoda:You know, they would take a little bit of the salt and the red chili and mix it up together, and they would put it on fruits or.
Rooster:But that's just like red
Bam Bam:chili powder.
Pagoda:Red chili powder with a little bit of salt. Right. That was, I don't know,
Chef Ricky:it's pretty It's funny you say that. The sensation I've been getting on my palate for a million center that I mentioned earlier, it is sort of salty chili like. Chili, yeah. Yeah,
Senator:agree with that.
Chef Ricky:That's what that tingle is happening. It's almost like a saltiness that
Senator:is You know what's funny? What's the if it's not just like a regular salt rim on a margarita, but it has like the It begins with a T. Yeah. Like it kind of reminds me
Chef Ricky:of that. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Exactly that.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Tahin's a little bit more citrusy, but, yeah, there's like there's definitely step play of salt and chili together. Yeah.
Bam Bam:Let me take a nap between my drawers.
Senator:Yeah. I will say, look, the first third of the cigar was a bit frustrating for me, but getting into the second third, I actually right now, what I'm getting the pepper is dissipating now a lot.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Me too.
Senator:I actually like what I'm getting right now.
Chef Ricky:I think the bourbon has excited us.
Pagoda:It's definitely it's definitely not. I think that's what happened to
Chef Ricky:all of us.
Gizmo:All of is
Senator:I've intentionally stopped drinking the bourbon for, like, the last five minutes just to like try to really focus on the cigar, and I'm telling you I think right now the flavor profile is way better than when this started.
Bam Bam:The finish on this is like fifteen minutes though.
Pagoda:It's still lingering.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. This bourbon is like a salted caramel pancake. You
Bam Bam:could infuse this with a heavy cream and make ice cream out of this.
Chef Ricky:Oh, yeah. Yeah. This would make a delicious old fashioned.
Gizmo:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Think this would be great in an old fashioned. That's a great call.
Senator:Old bourbon should be used for old fashioned. The regular 101 that I've had, it's a great mixing bourbon because it's so flavorful without hitting you super aggressively.
Gizmo:So that one, I think, is like 12 to $15 less than this. How would you compare that flavor profile wise, what you remember, to this one?
Senator:I think actually similar. I just think this drink's more refined.
Chef Ricky:More developed. Yeah. That's what I would guess, yeah.
Senator:Interesting. But similar flavor. And I think like when I I mean, can't be that
Gizmo:far off in age, by the way. It's so it's that's 47. The other one's 30, 35 or something. Yeah. It's usually
Senator:low thirties. Exactly.
Gizmo:Yeah. What were you gonna say? I interrupted you. I'm sorry.
Pagoda:No. No.
Senator:I was just gonna say about price point. Like, it's usually, from what I remember, like, thirties. But, yeah, it's it's good. I'm this is surprising.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. Yeah. The bourbon finish mixed with the what you're getting on the palate after the draw on on the cigar, it's leaving this vanilla like note on very enjoyable.
Bam Bam:Could you smoke an Exclusivo with this bourbon?
Gizmo:Absolutely.
Bam Bam:Could you smoke a Sonata with this?
Senator:Absolutely.
Bam Bam:Yeah. And I would venture, I'd have a concerto with this too.
Chef Ricky:You know what would go amazing with this? A senator. A senator.
Senator:Oh, the
Chef Ricky:EP Korea. Oh,
Pagoda:hell yeah.
Bam Bam:And that new purple that came out, which I happen to really like.
Chef Ricky:I haven't had it yet.
Bam Bam:Fantastic. What did you call it the other day? Purple turtle. Where
Gizmo:did that come
Pagoda:from? I don't know. It's brilliant.
Gizmo:I was so confused. You put that on the chat there. I'm smoking the Carrillo
Bam Bam:I'll admit. I have something to admit. My eyesight's going.
Gizmo:We
Bam Bam:know. I didn't have my readers. So honestly, thought it was the purple turtle.
Senator:Well, Pagoda and I knew that.
Bam Bam:I didn't know that. But it's a great cigar.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, but don't be fooled, because you know what? Got a little excited and I started drawing more on the cigar, it's
Bam Bam:On this? Back? It goes south. It's pretty good.
Chef Ricky:If you draw too much.
Gizmo:I'm kind of liking the cigar right now. It's starting to develop into something that's interesting, And that's aside from the bourbon, genuinely. I don't like that it's taken this long to do this, but I'm actually finding it to be interesting. I kind of understand why they're selling a lot of these cigars. I think this is a really easy, accessible cigar to smoke, especially for somebody coming in maybe who hasn't smoked before or kinda just likes run of the mill Nicaraguan cigars.
Gizmo:I think this is an easy cigar to smoke for $10.
Bam Bam:Good description.
Senator:So the funny thing is I mentioned before that I wouldn't compare this to any cigar, but the midpoint of this cigar, the flavor profile just at this moment is actually very similar to the My Father Blue. There is like a saltiness, a nuttiness, like a little bit of coffee. It very much reminds me of that cigar. I just had one last night, like,
Gizmo:it's I very that cigar for me is a little bit more put together.
Senator:Oh, for sure. Yeah. I just mean It's
Gizmo:little more complete.
Senator:Yeah. Yeah. I don't mean like
Gizmo:But I mean, we rated that a 10. I mean, that that kinda speaks for No.
Senator:I just mean like the notes that I'm getting right now, the combination of them is very similar to the combination notes for that cigar throughout, for this just at the midpoint.
Bam Bam:But you're getting so then you're getting what I'm getting then because I don't disagree with that. It's a touch sweet right now.
Senator:Yeah. It
Bam Bam:is. It's really quite pleasant. Yep. Just a touch. In a pinch.
Gizmo:It's starting to turn around, It's starting to come into its own. I think it's I just wish it happened a little bit earlier. Like, normally, we talk about that if it's a first quarter inch or half inch a little boring, and then it develops into something, like, great, take us on a journey. But to get to nearly the halfway point now, and it's starting to develop at this point, I think it's taking a little too long.
Chef Ricky:I can't help but think of Poohba. I don't know that this cigar would have made it to this point.
Pagoda:Oh, Poohba were
Gizmo:on the podcast.
Bam Bam:I don't know about that.
Chef Ricky:He would have put it down.
Gizmo:Yeah. It would have been a nightmare.
Pagoda:Yeah.
Bam Bam:Rooster, what's up?
Rooster:For me, it reminds me almost of one of the tattoo ajes. It's not
Gizmo:a bad call.
Rooster:The overpowering spice in the cigar reminds me of one of the tattoo ajes that I've had in the past.
Senator:I agree that the first third does,
Gizmo:for sure.
Rooster:I'm still not getting that sweetness that you're talking about. Really?
Chef Ricky:Want to sip my bourbon?
Senator:No, also think Rooster, I mean, his credit, he's smoking it very slowly. I'm way ahead. I think you're going to get sweetness as you go further along.
Rooster:Also, feel like the smoke kind of like hits your eyes. It's like you can even feel like the spice, you know, hits your nostrils and your eyes with that. Like the aroma is very spicy.
Bam Bam:That's user error. At
Senator:that point, I'm just telling you, like when you're an inch further into that cigar, you're
Gizmo:going to
Senator:have a dramatically different experience. Right now, I'm not getting any spice.
Bam Bam:No, it's good.
Senator:Which is great. That's what I was frustrated with before.
Bam Bam:Just tilt your head
Chef Ricky:back a little bit, man.
Rooster:That was purposely just slowing it down to get some of those flavors.
Chef Ricky:Combustion is great. A lot of smoke output on this.
Gizmo:Oh yeah.
Rooster:The draw is very easy. It's easy to smoke.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to another news story. I'm always fascinated by this one. We've talked about this several times in the four and a half years we've been doing this podcast. You know, Arturo Fuente, I think, believes that they invented the letter x, and they keep suing everybody who uses the letter x.
Gizmo:And they've lost another one, and I wanna show you this. They lost a company called DAB X. Arturo Fuente sued them because they put an x in their logo. Would you guys see that black x with a dot above it and think that that was
Chef Ricky:No. Immediately looks like a stick figure.
Gizmo:It's like
Chef Ricky:an abstract
Bam Bam:stick figure. Zero infringement on that logo for Opus. None.
Gizmo:I don't understand why they're so aggressive with the letter x. Like, they own
Bam Bam:Well, they lost.
Gizmo:They did lose. Correct. What's interesting, though, is this company doesn't even do things
Bam Bam:Dab X?
Gizmo:For cigars. They make what they call dab rings, which look like, when I looked it up, they look like something for like a, how would you
Senator:Who is Fuente's attorney? Can you guys explain It's what not even in the same category.
Gizmo:What is it, Is
Senator:there a rat's chance in hell you're gonna
Bam Bam:win that? Senator, it's called billable hours. Mean, good lord. Billable hours?
Gizmo:What is that? It looks like a bong.
Rooster:Faucet?
Bam Bam:That's what I thought it was, a faucet.
Gizmo:Yeah. It looks like a bong.
Bam Bam:Or a water purifier.
Rooster:Or like a separator of like oil and vinegar.
Chef Ricky:Is that a new neti pot? Apparatus or something?
Gizmo:That's a dab ring. I mean, for the listener out there, Google dab ring and see what we're talking about here. And Arturo Fuente sued them because they had the letter x in
Chef Ricky:their So is it a smoking apparatus?
Gizmo:I guess they make dab rings. I mean, I have no idea what the hell that is. It's it's a vaping product of some kind.
Senator:You could very easily confuse that for an Opus x. They make oil vaporizers.
Chef Ricky:Oil vaporizers. So is that the same as an oil diffuser?
Gizmo:I'm not sure.
Bam Bam:Does does do they think no one's gonna use the letter x in their logo?
Gizmo:They don't want them to, I guess
Bam Bam:For any
Gizmo:product any sort of product.
Bam Bam:Product category beyond cigars? They're pursuing
Senator:I have news for them. There's a social media platform called x. Uh-oh. Good luck. I
Bam Bam:mean, are
Senator:you gonna sue Elon next?
Pagoda:I mean Correct. Christ.
Bam Bam:Lot of billable hours there. Correct.
Pagoda:Try doing that.
Chef Ricky:Elon Elon's gonna buy
Pagoda:He's gonna buy it and then shit out of
Bam Bam:the space and then crash and burn them.
Gizmo:Here's another one, boys. I found this really interesting. Pagoda, you're gonna have to help me on this one because I'm very confused by it. So there's a firm called the League of Fat Bastards, and that's not that's not Wow.
Senator:Pagoda, you gotta help him with that one.
Gizmo:Jesus Christ,
Bam Bam:kid. That's not That's
Pagoda:not nice, Pagoda.
Bam Bam:Pagoda, I'll join you Hey.
Pagoda:You know I've joined the gym recently.
Chef Ricky:I'll join with you, Pagoda.
Gizmo:I'm sorry, Pagoda. That's not why I called on you for this one. Just stand by. So the League of Fat Bastards apparently have opened up an investment portal. And what they do, and I wanna explain this because it's very confusing to me.
Gizmo:So apparently, this is like a cigar company that sells cigars and they donate 40% of their profits to charity. They are raising money from cigar smokers out there at a $65,000,000 valuation, and they did 250,000 last year in EBITDA. So, you know, earnings before interest taxes, depreciation, amortization. Right? So on a $250,000 EBITDA, 500,000, they're saying, in 2025, they're raising money at a $65,000,000 valuation.
Pagoda:The investors are gonna get duped.
Bam Bam:I'd like to have
Pagoda:a I mean, sell
Gizmo:is crazy. They're projecting that in 2026, their revenue's gonna be 5,000,000, then 25,000,000 in 2027, then 75,000,000, then $300,000,000 in 2030.
Bam Bam:My lord. What do they do?
Gizmo:Yeah. They sell cigars and they raise money, or excuse me, they donate money for men's mental health.
Bam Bam:Oh, that's nice.
Pagoda:Yeah, but smoking cigars is for mental health.
Bam Bam:Kind of, yes.
Chef Ricky:The investors are gonna need the mental health.
Gizmo:So they're tapping into the men's mental health thing, you know? I mean, we tap into that. We talk about it all the time. Like, what we do here, I think, is a nice solution for the male loneliness epidemic. We talk about those That's things, very true.
Gizmo:We've obviously had a lot of emails from listeners out there confirming our feelings in the room here, you know, around the world that this experience that we share in this room and lizards out there share with other lizards, it's very good for men's mental health. Well, this firm has taken it quite a bit further and has turned this into a private equity fund.
Pagoda:So I have a question. Are they making 250,000 and they're doubling their EBITDA selling cigars to half 1,000,000? They must be selling a lot of cigars.
Gizmo:I guess so.
Pagoda:What cigars are they I've never heard of, I've never heard of them. No. But anyway, I think the valuation's just atrocious.
Senator:We're to believe that there are people who have actually invested in this business at a 60 something million dollar valuation.
Gizmo:65,000,000, yep. So they're raising 1,235,000 at a 65,000,000 valuation cap.
Pagoda:So you know what? I'll tell you. You know, today the news was Allbirds, you know the shoe company, said that it's gonna go and become an AI related for
Gizmo:Did you guys hear this?
Pagoda:No. And the stock, I think
Gizmo:It went 10x.
Pagoda:Yeah, 10x.
Gizmo:So shoe company was worth, what, 4,000,000,000 at some point, at one point. Wow. Now I think it's worth 20,000,000. They sold off the assets, correct, Pagoda?
Pagoda:Yeah, don't
Gizmo:They sold off the shoe assets, and now the firm is pivoting to an AI computer What is it? Aubur? Aubur's
Pagoda:sneakers shoes. You remember on Instagram they would
Rooster:keep They've gone up like 700%.
Pagoda:Yeah, today they went from around 2 or $3 to around $15.
Bam Bam:Interesting.
Pagoda:Yeah, so you know, it could be one of these meme stocks or
Bam Bam:Slap AI on anything and people will
Pagoda:buy it. So I think they should call themselves the fat bastards AI.
Rooster:The faster you grow, the harder you're gonna fall.
Gizmo:Yeah. So apparently, the league of fat bastards are selling premium cigars, and they have a bunch of retailers that they're selling them at 150 now. They're gonna increase that to 1,500. They're gonna sell NA craft beer, branded gear, and I guess, like I said, 40% of it goes to men's mental health charity. The profit?
Gizmo:40 percent of the profit Wow. Goes to
Pagoda:That must be some business school kid.
Gizmo:But here's the thing, though, number, At right, how do you even get to the point that you have money to donate? Yeah. I mean
Senator:The math does not
Gizmo:Not make sense.
Senator:At
Gizmo:all. I immediately thought of you, Pagoda, on this, because it really just seems like crazy to me that this is even possible.
Pagoda:But that's a greater fool's theory, right? There's always somebody who's willing to put money in somewhere to see high returns.
Gizmo:But don't you think it's kind of immoral to tap into the charity component? The whole thing is weird to me. Like, why not just create a not for profit, put yourself on a salary, raise a ton of money, and give it away?
Pagoda:No, you know, they are like the Tom shoes. They'll donate a pair of shoes in Africa or something. There are a lot of companies, there's
Gizmo:a Sox So like every time you buy a pair of shoes, they donate.
Pagoda:Yeah, I think there's a Sox
Senator:company That's not 40% of
Bam Bam:their company.
Pagoda:But they're not putting 40%. No way you, as a company, you can sustain yourself if you're giving 40% of your revenues over to.
Gizmo:And let me take that a step further. Let's just say this is all working. It's all above board. Everything's good. Donating 40%.
Gizmo:They're making money. What is the end goal? Who's gonna come in and buy that firm? Yeah. Who's gonna, is private equity gonna come in?
Gizmo:Is a big, like it seems like an island that these guys are on with this, and the name, League of Fat Bastards.
Pagoda:Yeah, I think, you know, people try a lot of different things, and as long as they can find a fool to invest, it should be good.
Gizmo:So apparently they're also gonna be releasing a limited edition project honoring first responders and the six branches of the US Armed Forces available to retailers at this year's PCA show. So I guess we're going
Rooster:to see a little bit
Gizmo:about this, and we'll learn a little bit more about it because I am very confused.
Bam Bam:I can't wait to see these guys.
Rooster:You're going to see some fat bastards driving around.
Pagoda:I'm just shocked that they're able to sell so many cigars. We know so many cigars, and it's a very competitive business.
Gizmo:I mean, people $100,000,000 revenue, man, think about how big a cigar company, even if they
Pagoda:That's include huge.
Rooster:Craft
Gizmo:NA Beer, how big of a company you need to be to be And when did
Pagoda:this start? A couple of years ago?
Gizmo:I think in the last two years.
Pagoda:Oh, no.
Chef Ricky:One of the founders This
Bam Bam:is all fabricated. It can't be written.
Senator:Yeah. This is a joke.
Chef Ricky:It's one of the founders of Room one hundred one Cigars, whatever that means.
Gizmo:I've heard of that name. I mean, it's a legitimate cigar
Bam Bam:brand, but
Gizmo:again, at this scale and
Pagoda:size Well,
Gizmo:think the valuation is
Pagoda:I think they'll match with this Wild Turkey 101 as well.
Bam Bam:This is pretty good though, man.
Gizmo:This is good bourbon.
Chef Ricky:It's good.
Gizmo:So anyways, I was really surprised about
Pagoda:Yeah, but you you think about even the multiples, right?
Gizmo:That's what the thing, I saw someone comment, I forget where I saw the comment, but the valuation was higher than like Palantir's valuation. You know? Some of these massive tech companies, it's bigger than that, the multiple.
Pagoda:Well, they must be very good at sales because if they can convince someone to invest in them.
Senator:That's what I don't understand. I'm sorry. Like, yes, there's there's some idiot that will invest in almost anything, but this is so Bizarre. Outrageous on its face. I don't understand how anyone could give them a dollar.
Senator:Correct.
Rooster:I mean, the concept is very bizarre. Yeah.
Gizmo:And listen, if they said, hey, we're doing 250,000 EBITDA and we have a 5,000,000 valuation, maybe I wouldn't even bring it
Bam Bam:up. Mhmm.
Gizmo:I wouldn't bat my eyes at it.
Bam Bam:65.
Gizmo:65,000,000.
Senator:I want these guys to go on Shark Tank and get
Gizmo:We could do a shark, we could do a lizard Shark Tank
Bam Bam:Sure.
Gizmo:At PCA this year with these guys.
Pagoda:So they've been 250,000. They're valuing themselves at 60,000,000. It's ridiculous. So that means they're doing sales, let's say that they have about 10% net margins, you're still talking about over a $2,025,000,000.
Gizmo:But they're also giving 40% of it away.
Pagoda:Yes, I have no idea how they're doing.
Senator:It's impossible. The numbers don't add up.
Bam Bam:Wouldn't a valuation have to at least have either projected sales accounts in place or investment, a cash infusion that brings them up to that lap value to be valued. Isn't that the case?
Pagoda:Yeah, typically they look at the rate of growth, and it's very, very difficult to raise money in the first few rounds, in the first few years.
Bam Bam:So they just throw a number out there.
Pagoda:Unless you have something that's extremely scalable,
Bam Bam:which You have to prove that.
Pagoda:In a noncompetitive business, right? Because the only way you're able to capture margins is if you're not. This is a commodities business.
Gizmo:It's tobacco, Pagoda. It's commodities.
Bam Bam:It's a commodity.
Pagoda:And a commoditized business, I don't think even sells as one time sales, like if you were to do it. You know? So a part of me thinks the numbers are a bit off.
Gizmo:All right, let's go to another one now, boys, before we get into some listener email. This one is for Rooster. Zeno has announced the Zeno Honduras line is coming out.
Bam Bam:It's all for you, Rooster.
Gizmo:So this is, of course, a follow-up to the Zeno Nicaragua, Rooster.
Bam Bam:Of course.
Gizmo:They are going to release three cigars in the Xeno Honduras line, the half Corona, the Robusto, the Toro priced at $6.70, $7.50, and $8 respectively, coming in a nice box, a nice orange box. So this is gonna look really good in your tower, man.
Bam Bam:How's how's feel, respect?
Rooster:I thought Zito's yellow. What
Gizmo:happened? Well, no. The Honduras line is orange.
Bam Bam:Oh. Oh, you're not keeping up.
Senator:And Pagoda's gonna have to get you another ashtray. Should've been blue.
Bam Bam:Better keep up with Yeah.
Chef Ricky:Blue would've been nice.
Rooster:He felt a little
Pagoda:guilty. I did.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to some listener email now. We're gonna continue. If you remember, the last time we recorded, we actually started an email from Lizard Enrique, who asked us a question, and I'll I'll refresh you, talking about he asked if we'd had any cigars that had been reviewed that ended up being one hit wonders. Now I went into that email not anticipating the size of the conversation we were gonna have regarding that question, and he had two others.
Gizmo:So I said we were gonna table it to the next week. So I have those two other questions for you now from Lizard Enrique. And I think the last one is actually very apropos with the fact that we're flying into PCA tomorrow. So let's start here. So he says, guys, second, as listeners, can we expect anything special for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our nation's birth this July 4 for cigar pairing.
Gizmo:Should we want to smoke along with the lads? So I was thinking about that. I'm not sure. Maybe the JC Newman two fifty?
Pagoda:Are they gonna do a pledge of allegiance this year?
Gizmo:That's a great question. I'm not sure. They'll announce it this weekend, but I don't think they have yet. But, you know, there's not a lot of all American cigars outside of the JC Newman stuff, at least at scale that I think a lot of listeners can pick up. So I don't know the answer to that question.
Gizmo:I actually haven't thought about it yet. So maybe we'll see something at PCA
Rooster:this At PCA, they'll release something.
Gizmo:Yeah. Well, think there's gonna be a lot of cigars coming out for the birthday, we'll have to find something that we haven't done. And this one, I think, is even more apropos here. It says, lastly, what do you guys think the podcast impact has been on the cigar world? From emanating from a garage like all good startups to having quality sponsors, first class interviews, and showcasing brands like Stoic before they pop into the mainstream, what do you guys see as the tactile impact when you are at PCA, etcetera?
Gizmo:I can speak for myself to purchasing a tower, learning about humidity, buying a rover setup, and having an 11 year old who mocks me by asking if I'm tasting, quote, dark chocolate or dry fruit Nice. When we are out to eat because he listens along with me. The podcast shows what true influence is all about. Chin chin, old boys, your friend, Lizard Enrique. So it's an interesting question he asks.
Gizmo:Again, I'll I'll read it for you one more time. What do you think the podcast impact has been on the cigar world? I don't know how to answer that.
Pagoda:I think
Rooster:I think it's a question for the listeners, not for us.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. I was gonna say even before I was on this part, I would ask you guys just if you've realized the gravity of the impact you're making on the cigar world and you've all always been very humble about your responses. So this is probably not the group to answer that question. It's almost like we need to hear from listeners what they think it might be.
Senator:I'll answer this. And I don't think this is in any way being braggadocious. I think, number one, you know, for small boutique brands, I think we're aggressively looking for and pursuing great new brands that are doing something, you know, really great and interesting, and Stoic was obviously a perfect example of that. But I think, you know, this year when we're at PCA, we're going to be looking for other brands that are coming up just like Stoic has. So I think that's one impact.
Senator:And I think for those small brands, it's easier now than it's certainly been in the past to like make it quickly in the industry. Like, there's so many more distribution channels to, like, get your name out and your brand out and your story and more people to try your cigars. I mean, before it was like media in this space was like Cigar Aficionado and, like, a few other things. There weren't as many channels and vehicles to tell your story. So I think that would be like the obvious one to me.
Senator:And I think, you know, for us, like, I don't want to call us investigative journalists, but, you know, I think we have a very serious bullshit meter. And I think brands that we have encountered and had conversations with, I think, know that. And so I think, you know, there's, you know, maybe some more accountability than there has been in the past around what's happening with certain cigars and, you know, we detect something just seems off, like, that's not going to fly here. Right? We're not collecting marketing dollars from most of these companies to sit there and say, we're just going to overlook it, we wouldn't take their money if that's what they were expecting us to do.
Senator:So I do think for some of the hotter button questions that listeners may have, we are happy to be like that vehicle to try to find answers to those questions.
Bam Bam:I think I agree with all of that. And I also think our non biased approach, and you touched on that, and our interviews with established makers like Klaus Kellner, Aladino, and some of the other interviews that we've had, I think those are eye opening interviews. I've learned a tremendous amount about the cigar industry, how cigars are made, their passion for it. I'm sure other pods are interviewing other makers. I don't think they're doing it to the level that we're doing it in in-depth conversations.
Bam Bam:Like Senator said, the cutting that knife that cuts through the butter and asking those hard questions, we do that. Think that's very unique.
Pagoda:What a self reflective moment of the year, right? What impact are we making?
Gizmo:Yeah, it's an odd thing to think about.
Bam Bam:But I also think, like that interview with Klas, and every time we talk about his cigars and that last cigar that we smoked and discussed, it all circles back to his philosophy and how he makes his cigars and how much we respect his process. Who's talking about that?
Pagoda:I think the impact, you know, from a different perspective is educational and personal as well. Educational because we do try and talk as much as about cigars, obviously talk about the histories, obviously how the cigars are made. Our trips to Cuba I think provided a lot of insight So into how the Cuban cigars there's a a great great point.
Bam Bam:Cuban point is big. Information.
Pagoda:Information. And on the personal aspect, I think a lot of people, I think we've heard it via listeners' emails, etcetera, a lot of my friends, you know, we're the companions, we're the friends when they're driving down a long drive or they're sitting on their deck smoking a cigar. So, you know, from a personal and an educational perspective, I'm sure there's a reasonable impact.
Rooster:And looking at it from a listener's point of view, I would imagine it's very cool, like when we announced that we're going to be smoking these cigars in the upcoming weeks, and they're able to acquire them, and they smoke that cigar while listening to the episode.
Bam Bam:You
Rooster:know, that must be that's a pretty cool idea.
Bam Bam:Also very unique.
Senator:Yeah. I think just the third thing I would highlight, you know, Pagoda mentioned Cuban cigars. I think for any cigar smoker that has ever tried a Cuban cigar, pursues Cuban cigars, you know, there's a a huge void right now in that it is next to impossible to get Cuban cigars into The United States. And
Gizmo:And it's becoming more impossible outside of The United States as well. Totally. It's it's a But I think It's diminishing.
Senator:Because of that and like our broader focus where, you know, we don't only review New World cigars, we also review Cuban cigars. And given the scarcity right now, I think like we have been on a hunt for New Worlds that are Cubanesque that can scratch that itch for the listener when they want a Cuban cigar. And so I think, like, you know, another, like, tangible impact and something we'll be looking for, I mean, that Perdomo legacy even recently, like there were very Cuban esque notes in that cigar, we were shocked to find. I think that's also something that we would be looking for. Like, it's not hard to find like a great Dominican puro or a great Nicaraguan puro, but it's it's a lot harder to find like something from any of those countries or Honduras that like delivers a Cuban esque experience.
Senator:And I think that's where when we have found brands like Aladino, obviously, you know, our great sponsor in Fabric of Five. Oh, sure. I think for some of hopefully, I think like even Stoic, like they don't take a like smack you in the face with flavor approach. Like it's a very nuanced, refined, like, you know, almost Cuban esque in like the blending style. And so I think, again, like for some newer entrants that I hope we'll meet at PCA this year, like, I think what we'll be pursuing is not, okay, another obvious Nicaraguan puro that is going to deliver exactly the notes we already expect, but some of those more Cuban esque, more subtle yet flavorful cigars.
Senator:You know, Cabo Iguan. Yeah.
Gizmo:It was such a
Rooster:you would never guess it's an Nicaraguan cigar.
Bam Bam:Would you call that, going back to his first question, would you call that a one hit wonder? Did you
Rooster:buy I bought a box and I occasionally do smoke,
Bam Bam:but you know, You're getting the don't same experience?
Rooster:And I do like it.
Bam Bam:Really? Yeah. Interesting, okay.
Pagoda:Another impact I thought of, which actually a listener in our lounge said it, financial. You know, you have a list of cigars, you know which are rated well, they're willing to give it a shot. So we are filtering cigars for them.
Gizmo:Also Saving their money, spending their money.
Bam Bam:So that lends But
Senator:in an honest way. Because there's a dime a dozen outlets that give The ratings on problem is like why we started this in the first place is our experience was we couldn't trust those ratings. We would try many of those cigars, and most of them would be disappointing, and only some of them would be good. And so we've tried to be a legitimate authentic filter for if we're gonna say something's great.
Bam Bam:That is probably the greatest impact I think we've had, the non biased approach to every cigar that we smoke here.
Rooster:It's not only cigars, but also accessories, cigar cases, lighters, pairings.
Bam Bam:Yeah, but I think the most salient point is a listener won't waste his or her money. Oh, okay.
Gizmo:Yeah. And I think the thing, as you guys are discussing this, and I've thought about this question and Chef opened this by kind of pointing to, it's kind of an uncomfortable question to answer, I guess, you know? I think the thing that I would say I'm most proud of about what we do that I think also answers the question is the fact that we have really, really stuck to our guns of producing long form content that is consistent, that is not built for clips on Instagram and influencer shit, and all these things that people are doing to get attention. I'm very proud of the catalog that we have out. I'm very proud of that living forever, and people being able to reach into that and hopefully find value or entertainment or whatever word you wanna use.
Gizmo:I think that is, for me, the lasting impact that this has had on me inside the room is that I have a lot of pride in that we don't do this for the sake of anything other than sitting down and sharing our experiences and being honest with the listener and each other. And I think also, I mean, we call on the listeners to create their own group of friends, but I think the fact that disappointment in the calendar every week has put us all in the room together for as long as it has. Mhmm. Like, given the other things that happen in our lives, we all make this a priority. I don't think without this, we would see each other as much.
Gizmo:And I think that inside the room, think there's a lot of value in creating this thing that we have for us and hopefully inspires other folks out there to do it for themselves.
Rooster:Yeah, I would also be curious to hear from listeners as to what kind of an impact the pod has on their lives. That would be great feedback from them because it could be different for each person.
Gizmo:Like you guys said, I'd love to hear from listeners on this. I think it's odd to answer it. I find that what we do you know, is built for cigar smokers like us, people like us. It's audio only. You know, it's not a clip based show.
Gizmo:It only exists in audio in long form. So I think, you know, the tail on it is a lot longer into, you know, the the growth isn't as crazy as if we put up a YouTube video or something. But the long term of it is I I think I'm very proud. I think we're very proud of the catalog, and I think we're very proud of the relationship we've built with the listener, which is a relationship I'm really sensitive to not disrupting. I think the authenticity, I think the fact that the listener can trust what we say because they know that we're not full of shit, like you guys have said, I think that's really I think we stand alone in a lot of ways in that with that piece of it because we have the retail angle.
Gizmo:Yes, we have sponsors, but even with our sponsors, we're very direct and honest with them and with you about it. I mean,
Senator:it's And selective.
Gizmo:And selective, and I think, yeah, exactly.
Bam Bam:But we also happen to love their cigars.
Gizmo:Of course. That's my point. Of course. We've turned out a lot of people that wanted to sponsor this podcast. Yeah.
Gizmo:You know, and that's not a pat on the back or like an ego thing. It's just, we have said no more, way more than we've said yes.
Chef Ricky:One thing I'm super proud of, just thinking of the title and description of this podcast, right? It's Lounge Lizards, a cigar and lifestyle podcast. I think we do really a really, really phenomenal job at encapsulating that and what that means. And I'll take it a step further. And it's more of a cigar in life podcast.
Chef Ricky:There's so much that we speak about here that goes beyond cigar and spirits and, you know, airline miles that that I'm really proud of that just really bring about awesome conversation and awesome content to look forward to listening to if you're a listener.
Rooster:It's a mental health podcast.
Gizmo:It's a mental health. You know what? If you want to invest, I
Pagoda:think they should give the 40% to us. Correct.
Gizmo:I mean, we could set a value at what? $6,070,000,000.
Bam Bam:What's the valuation, Mike?
Senator:I was thinking more like a 160,000,000.
Gizmo:Okay. Alright. Fair enough. That's fair. So, yeah, I'd love to hear from listeners on Please answer this question for us.
Gizmo:Tell us what you think, and we'll share this in coming weeks, your answers to this. And I'm sure some of you are gonna win Lizard of the Week with it.
Rooster:So But a listener of this podcast actually paid $2,700 for a box of Fundus.
Gizmo:That's true. So that's
Rooster:a that's a huge impact.
Pagoda:That is correct. By the
Gizmo:way, not knowing if it was the box, but thinking it probably Yeah. Pretty awesome. Alright, boys. We've come into the last third now on the Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich, Puerto Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J. What's everybody thinking about the cigar and our Wild Turkey one zero one pairing?
Rooster:It's punchy like a knuckle.
Bam Bam:I'm kind of liking it right now.
Gizmo:Yeah, I think it's all right.
Bam Bam:Yeah, I think it's gotten better. It's better now than it was in the first third. Second third was a little bit better and I think now I'm getting a bit more.
Rooster:The last third is probably the best of
Bam Bam:the salt. I think all the pepper. Yeah, that's Thank
Senator:what I was waiting to hear.
Bam Bam:Pepper is completely dissipated and I think there's a touch of sweetness. There's that coffee that you guys mentioned and there's still for me dark chocolate.
Chef Ricky:Creamy coffee chocolate.
Senator:Yeah. I'm just gonna say the the last third is very good. Yeah. Like, I enjoyed the last third.
Bam Bam:Same. Same.
Senator:I don't really have Are you finished with the Oh, last
Bam Bam:You're down. Ahead of us. Wow. The last third
Gizmo:is That's rare you're that that far ahead
Rooster:Well, of
Senator:my draw is also very open, but the last third was thoroughly enjoyable. I mean, I I don't have any complaints. I just wish that the whole cigar performed like the final third.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Frustrating.
Senator:There's merit in this cigar. Like, this what they did for this portion
Bam Bam:Well, there's merit here. There's merit here and
Senator:the midpoint also, like I was getting those My Father Blue notes, which I really enjoyed. So the second half of this cigar I think actually does quite well. It's the first half that is challenging.
Rooster:Yeah. I think if the blend could be tweaked and, you know, the spice level could be toned down somehow, I think this would be a very
Chef Ricky:good start.
Pagoda:What if it's in a bigger vitola?
Rooster:That's
Pagoda:possible. Right? It's it's you never know.
Gizmo:You know what's funny about that, Pagoda? I did not talk about the other Right. Vitolas offered in. Let me just announce that really quick right here. Comes in a Corona Gorda r 46 by five and five eights inches.
Gizmo:The Robusto j we have in our hand, 52 by five. The Toro h, 54 by six. And then they have a Maduro version with the same exact Fittolias.
Pagoda:They do have a Godot, right? If
Gizmo:they do, you're gonna find it. We know that.
Bam Bam:Even if it's by accident.
Senator:Sorry. There's a Maduro version of this entire line?
Gizmo:Yeah. So there's a Habano, a Maduro, and a Connecticut.
Bam Bam:How much darker is this than this line, what I'm holding here?
Gizmo:Yeah. Interesting. Alright, boys. Let's go to another listener email now. This one's from our friend Lizard Sammy who won Lizard of the Week a few weeks ago.
Gizmo:He says, good evening, Gilfmo and all the other lizards. First off, maybe that's the impact we've had on the
Bam Bam:I don't like that. I like kiss. Kiss.
Gizmo:First off, I'd like to thank you for the box of Bon Robert petite one o nines.
Bam Bam:Nice.
Gizmo:Great cigars. He won Lizard of the Week and got his petite one o nines. I've already smoked one and shared a few with friends. It's an incredible cigar. I've even gone out and bought myself a 50 count cabinet of the larger Vittola Nice.
Gizmo:As a birthday present to myself.
Senator:Now you're That
Gizmo:is a good move.
Pagoda:Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Very nice. Something that I've noticed lately as I've delved deeper and deeper into the worlds of cigars is how much more I am disillusioned with the industry itself. This is very apropos of the conversation we've been having tonight. It's pennies on the dollar to produce them, and you see companies like Davodoff and Habano's charging ridiculous prices for these rolled up leaves. Once you get past all the marketing, you start to wonder what you're actually paying for and whether or not it's worth it.
Gizmo:It's almost like I wrote this email. It's been unlucky enough to chase after allocated bottles of bourbon in the past and came to a similar realization about the bourbon industry. Now I'm sure this has probably been discussed before, but have you and the Lizards thought about adding blind reviews as a recurring segment? This is something I have taken part in with both cigars and spirits, and the results are very surprising. I'm sure you've all seen someone gravitate toward brands like Opus X or Blanton's and proceed to tell you about how incredible their experience was while blind ratings would put them towards the bottom of the ladder.
Gizmo:I think it would be very entertaining to see what the lizards would say about cigars when they don't have the band or label in front of them. Just to be clear, I still do believe that branding has an effect on your experience. Blinds aren't 100% objective because in normal circumstances, you won't have the details obfuscated, and we all know we feel more elegant puffing on a Padron sixtieth compared to a Padron 3,000. Just as smell is important to taste, so is your sight. If you'd like to try out a few blinds, I'd be happy to send you guys and the crew some unbanned cigars and unlabeled spirits as a fun segment when you don't know what else to smoke.
Gizmo:Thanks very much, Lizard Sammy. He says, PS, I will not stand for any more Roma craft slander. No more Roma Craft slander.
Bam Bam:I think with his email, he's looking to grill a few lizards in this room. No doubt about it.
Gizmo:What do you guys think of the blind thing? I mean, I I you know, we did the blind. Obviously, the stoic blind was a good example of not knowing what it was or where it was coming from and
Chef Ricky:And that's a great thing.
Gizmo:Turning out brilliant. But here's a good example tonight. Right? We came in with this cigar with branding on it, Guy Fieri, celebrity chef, everything else. I would argue the vibe was negative before we lit, and here we are finding merit in the cigar.
Bam Bam:And some frustration.
Gizmo:And some frustration. But I don't know. I mean, I I don't know. Do you think there's merit in the idea that what's on the cigar affects our rating of it? I I
Senator:think traditionally that has gotta be the case. I just think in our case, it's a bit unique. You know, I'll give one example and then how I think we kind of solve for this. The best example has to be the Perdomo that we recently did. Oh, We all sat there and said, we don't smoke I really any fully admitted, I could not have been more unenthusiastic Same here.
Senator:To smoke that cigar, and I gave it a 10.
Bam Bam:Yeah.
Senator:Me too. And so my perception of the brand was very negative. I had never had this cigar, was not interested in trying this cigar, but I couldn't lie. Like, it was really an incredibly complete and complex blend that an experience that they were able to deliver. So I think that proves whether it's blind or not, the fact that we all admitted we don't have any affinity whatsoever for the brand and produce that kind of, you know, score for what we thought was an excellent product that they made.
Senator:We don't need it. And I think the other thing is, you know, when something's not blinded, like there's this temptation to reward like the more expensive product, like it must be better. And I think, you know, I'm always a very big proponent of like price needs to be factored into our ratings.
Gizmo:I agree with you
Senator:on I think we actually are predisposed to reward something that is more affordably priced that is delivering like a really spectacular experience. So, you know, I don't think it's the case that we see a Davidoff label on something and we're like, oh, because this is a $30 cigar, it's it's complex and refined and amazing. I mean, we hold a cigar at that price point to an even higher standard Correct. Because of what they're asking for it, and I think we hold them accountable for that. And I think a cigar that is $9, we're sitting there saying like, wow, this is delivering almost if not as satisfying an experience as a $30 cigar.
Senator:Going And to reward that every time.
Bam Bam:And we're buying boxes of that.
Rooster:Yeah. An example is the Opus. We have done so many, I mean, not so many, but at least like four or five Opus cigars, and most of them have not delivered.
Gizmo:That's true. Most. I don't think any of them have delivered. The
Chef Ricky:opposite of that is a Davidoff white label Bellicoso.
Bam Bam:That's true.
Gizmo:I mean, I'd argue another one to put on this list. I mean, we all love Partagas. We have great experience with Partagas. That P2 we did last episode. Abysmal.
Gizmo:I gave it a six, dude.
Bam Bam:Not good.
Gizmo:That, I mean, I just don't, I mean, another one, I was totally ready to come in with that Padron sixtieth and Maduro at $75 and I was totally prepared for that to be the first Padron that did not rate well on this podcast because of the price to value to flavor delta that happens. It ended up being excellent. Not because of the Padron band or anything else, but because it was excellent.
Bam Bam:But also Klaus' cigar that he dedicated to his father.
Rooster:The LE 80. The $57
Bam Bam:cigar, which we all loved.
Senator:That's the thing.
Rooster:It's like
Senator:for the listener, to put it bluntly, a cigar that is 40 or $75, I'll just say it. We're kinda rooting against that cigar.
Gizmo:We root against that cigar.
Senator:Because we fundamentally don't believe a cigar needs to or ought to cost 40 or $75 a stick. So if a cigar is at that price point, and we're sitting there saying
Chef Ricky:It better
Senator:be easier. Really that spectacular, like, I admitted with that Padron, it's $75. I've always had the $40 rule, nothing should kinda, you know, exceed that. To sit there and say like, I I really can't fault them because that experience was so unique, what they were able to deliver, and so complete and spectacular, that even I broke my own rule, and I had to say, Of course I'd go out and buy it, even though I wish were you know, retailing Exactly, for a fraction
Chef Ricky:of that.
Pagoda:Even though my father blew, I think we we are not fans of my father.
Bam Bam:That's right.
Gizmo:Yeah? You're right.
Pagoda:And the blue came out and it just blew up. Tremendous. Yeah. So I don't think we're
Bam Bam:What's that, about $6? 6 to 8
Gizmo:to I 8 think it's little more than that.
Bam Bam:Okay, not much more.
Senator:9 or 10.
Gizmo:Yeah, think it's 10.
Bam Bam:Okay,
Pagoda:Yeah, but I don't think the brands sway us one way or the other that much.
Gizmo:And like you said, honestly, I think when a brand is very clear to us and the price is very clear and it's high, like you said, we root against it. I mean, honestly, we love Klaus Kellner. I was totally ready to beat that cigar up for its price.
Bam Bam:You know,
Gizmo:and ended up being excellent.
Bam Bam:Going back to one of the lizards that sent that question in, I think this is also a great point and an impact that we have in reviewing these cigars, the expensive cigars. I don't know of any other podcast that would be brutally honest smoking a $60 cigar. They'd want to respect it. They'd want to cherish it in their recording and not shit on it.
Gizmo:Or if they have a retail operation, sell it.
Bam Bam:Oh, of course.
Gizmo:You know, like the Davodoff chef's edition. I've seen that cigar reviewed brilliantly around the internet. I think it was mediocre at best. And I think most of the guys in this room, the new version.
Bam Bam:Yeah, yeah,
Gizmo:yeah. The 2025 that we reviewed.
Bam Bam:It wasn't great.
Gizmo:It wasn't great. No. I've seen it reviewed brilliantly by other media. I just, I'm shocked at their response to it. You know, I don't know.
Gizmo:Think the blind thing is interesting in in when you get lucky like you do with the with the stoic. I think that was a really fun experience. We had an excellent cigar. We had no idea what it was. We took some guesses as to its origin.
Bam Bam:Lizard Henry was in the room.
Gizmo:Lizard Henri Till came on. You know, I think that's a lot of fun. But, you know, to do that more than a couple of times a year in the format and the way that we work and the way that we are, I'm not sure I would love it more than once or twice a year at the most.
Rooster:Yeah. So.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's go to another one now. This one is from Lizard Aldo. He says, hi, guys. I'm a new listener here.
Gizmo:So I apologize if this topic has already been addressed, and feel free to put this email in the circular file. I like that. My question, what are your favorite cut styles for your cigars? I'm partial to a v cut for just about all cigars that aren't tapered. For tapered cigars, it has to be a straight cut, I think.
Gizmo:What about you guys? What are your favorite cuts? And do you think this is why I wanted to bring this wing because we have discussed this in past, but I like this. Do you think the cut affects the flavor? Mhmm.
Gizmo:Thanks. And I really appreciate your show. Best Lizard to Aldo. Good question. Great question.
Gizmo:Do you think so let me start with this. Do you think the different cuts affect flavor? No. Yeah. I think the answer is no with an asterisk because I think if you cut a cigar, further down, you open it up too much like we had tonight.
Gizmo:If you have a wide open experience versus someone else in the room cutting it a little bit more shallow, who has a tighter draw, that is going to affect the flavor. But inherently, the cigar is the cigar, I think.
Chef Ricky:I think more than anything, it affects the experience. Right. I think people that are amateurs and, you know, with their cigars to start and in cutting in particular and maybe they have that guess cut to start, you know, you could experience some unraveling, some rapid burning. If you don't cut enough, you could experience some tar buildup. So that is inherently going to affect the flavor.
Chef Ricky:But if if let's say a good cut across the board, you're probably going to get consistent flavoring. But yeah, I think the experience is what's going be
Rooster:affected I think the cut is more of a mouthfeel, you know, like the V cut. Some people just like the V cut. I think it's more of a mouthfeel than what it really does to the cigar. I think all of us just prefer the straight cut.
Bam Bam:Correct. I think it's all experimental. I don't believe in anything other than flat cut. I don't see the utility in a V cut, I just don't, personally, for me.
Pagoda:It's really interesting. I've seen some people only do V cuts.
Gizmo:I mean, Tadila only does V
Pagoda:Yeah, but
Bam Bam:I like That's true.
Pagoda:I'll only do a straight cut, but you know, for torpedoes, there are like multiple reasons why people may choose a V cut, because they feel that it's probably packed a little tighter in the air.
Bam Bam:Yeah. I I I personal preference. No.
Gizmo:But I feel like with the V cut on the torpedo, I feel like what they're thinking is they're gonna be able to dig deeper into the head of the cigar without causing it to unravel or disrupting the role and creating a bad smoking experience.
Pagoda:Yeah, because, you know, and people feel that they're typically packed a lot tighter around the end when But they're trying to do you know what happens with that is sometimes a V collapses, and then you're like, so it's a mouthfeel, you know? I think it's an independent choice, really.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, if it's a cigar you want to take down to the very end, a V cut can make that a little difficult.
Senator:Yeah, I'll just say I agree completely. Like, it's mouthfeel. I don't think, you know, when we spoke to Danilo and he said he exclusively, you know, prefers a V cut. I went out and bought a, you know, V cut cutter. I was
Gizmo:This is news to me, by
Senator:the way. Oh, yeah. No, I said it at the time.
Gizmo:Were you aware of this?
Chef Ricky:No. I know I was V cutting for a
Senator:while after that episode aired. My experience was like back to a flat. Any cigar that I had had previously that I used a V cut on for the first time, it did not in any way impact or change the flavor. Correct. And I feel far more comfortable having, you know, kind of a firm head of the cigar with a straight cut than I do something that can collapse like Pagoda is saying that you you I feel I have to be more careful with with a v cut.
Senator:So I just think it's personal preference, but I do not view either as enhancing or meaningfully changing the flavor profile in any way. Yeah.
Bam Bam:It's like an herbal legend.
Gizmo:I I just think it's personal preference, But you I yeah. I think the you know, I think we're all in agreement. I I don't think it's a flavor thing. Think it's a I performance
Senator:mean, there are people who say, v cut it concentrates the delivery of the flavor, all this stuff, and just trying it again like that just was not consistent with my experience.
Bam Bam:I don't think it does any of that.
Gizmo:You wanna explain to the listener what hand gesture you're doing right now, Ben?
Chef Ricky:It's one of service.
Bam Bam:Correct. Well put. He
Pagoda:he wants a gordon. Yeah.
Gizmo:He loves to shake weight. Alright, boys. Let's go to another one now. This one's from Lizard Julio, our friend Lizard Julio. He says, dear gentlemen, I was thinking back to episode 171 when you guys had a powerful discussion on the importance of men seeking out prostate cancer screenings as they get older.
Bam Bam:I thought you were gonna
Gizmo:say this.
Pagoda:Yeah. I yeah. Me too. When you took your time.
Gizmo:And my mind turned to the topic of health as a regular cigar smoker. Obviously, many hobbies carry some risk, like flying small airplanes or riding jet skis. We all know the stigma that smoking carries even though things like vaping are becoming quite common these days. Let us not forget about the great George Burns who died at age 100 after smoking what would have been close to 250,000 cigars during his life.
Bam Bam:10 per day.
Gizmo:Maybe senator will hit those numbers someday or Rooster already has him beat. We're fortunate to have heroes like George Burns and Winston Churchill. Back to a more serious note, though, I'm curious about your feelings on the following points. How do you weigh the risks and rewards of cigar smoking? What are conversations like with your doctor on this aspect of your health?
Gizmo:Have you made any decisions about what types of health shifts may change your regularity with the hobby? And how do you generally approach conversations with family or friends about their concern about the hazards of our hobby?
Chef Ricky:None. I probably don't have those conversations.
Bam Bam:Correct.
Chef Ricky:My family, as I've said many times on this pod, they see the joy that cigars bring me. They see the calm that it brings to my life and to theirs as a result. They appreciate the hobby We and what it
Bam Bam:know several doctors that smoke cigars at our former lounge. We had one there that was there almost every day. In our current lounge. Oh, that's correct.
Pagoda:And he's a cardiologist. Yeah, that's right.
Chef Ricky:That's right. I don't really ever get any gripes from my doctor, but you know, I always present well and do well on the exam. I mean, anyone cares, it's probably the life insurance company. But again, I think that's just based on the stigma.
Rooster:I think the biggest thing is it reduces stress. Stress causes inflammation in your body, which is the root cause of a lot of diseases.
Bam Bam:Chronic diseases.
Rooster:If you're smoking cigars, it's actually, we're not smoking cigarettes, we're smoking cigars. And sometimes, I just personally have like maybe one cigar a day. And if you're smoking like one cigar a day,
Pagoda:it's Not enough. Correct. And
Rooster:sometimes, you might go like a couple of days without having a cigar.
Gizmo:Yeah, I went. I was in Europe for what? Ten, twelve days. Had it. The situation just didn't work.
Gizmo:The weather was terrible at night. There weren't any lounges around. No shops, by the way, where I was. I had like two cigars in twelve days. Wow.
Chef Ricky:And you came back looking stressed.
Gizmo:That's because you saw me today but you didn't see me when I got back.
Bam Bam:I also think oral hygiene helps.
Gizmo:I agree.
Bam Bam:Think you've really got to floss, brush and rinse before you go to bed if you have a smoking session that day. You cannot
Senator:not do that. I just wanna say to the listener's question, I I do care very seriously about, like, the health impacts that this could have. I wouldn't do it if I thought that they had harmful effects. Like, I'm not afraid of having the conversation or hoping for the best or anything like that. And I think that there are like some important distinctions with cigars.
Senator:I think that there are also some important habits to have when smoking cigars. You know, number one
Gizmo:Smoke six a day.
Bam Bam:Which we did for a long time.
Gizmo:Which we does.
Senator:Forgetting quantity. Truly, forgetting quantity. Because whether you have
Gizmo:one cigar
Senator:a month, or six a day, or whatever the case may be, you know, there's a reason chewing tobacco is bad for people. You are not to chew on and mangle a cigar, you are increasing your risk of mouth cancer by doing so. That is proven. That is why chewing tobacco can cause some pretty serious problems, and even just oral hygiene problems, let alone like cancer. So I think for anyone who properly smokes a cigar and the end of their cigar isn't chewed on and soaking wet like they drowned it in water, they're smoking the way that you should, which has a small to negligible risk of mouth cancer is really the thing that someone will be worried about.
Senator:I think obviously cigars are not meant to be inhaled. You know, there is no meaningful risk of lung cancer among cigar smokers. There's been no studies that have ever shown that there is like a disproportionate high risk of lung cancer from cigar smoking, from cigarette smoking, different ballgame. So I think when you keep those things in mind in terms of how you're actually smoking your cigar, and how this is very different from a cigarette, I've yet to meet a doctor who has had any concern with, you know, recreationally enjoying a cigar the way they're meant to be in having some like outsized potential health risk or impact. So I think for all those reasons, you know, as long as people are enjoying this the way they're meant to be, they shouldn't be fearful of it in any way.
Senator:But I think in terms of conversations that you have, I mean, there are many people I've encountered where I mentioned, oh, I smoke a cigar, they're like, oh, you're a big smoker. It's like, no, no, Let me be very clear. I've never smoked a cigarette a day in my life.
Gizmo:Me neither.
Senator:And I mean, so much so, like, that's also probably part of the reason it's hard for me to intentionally retrohale because I've never brought anything down into my lungs intentionally I've smoked ever.
Bam Bam:Mhmm.
Senator:So, you know, making that distinction helps in explaining to that person, like, you don't do that. Like, I'm very physically active. Like, I put my lung capacity up against anyone who's never smoked anything in their life. Mhmm. And I think, like, that's uniquely possible with cigars.
Senator:Now I don't think any cigarette smoker could credibly sit there and say, like, I put my lung capacity up against anyone. Like, that's totally different. So I think those distinctions are really important. Agreed.
Chef Ricky:Also, just want to just to go on the record to retrohale, you don't have to bring the smoke into your lungs. In fact, you shouldn't.
Senator:You shouldn't. I just mean because I'm not used to bringing it anywhere more than just my mouth and expelling it. I get it. I just
Chef Ricky:don't want people to think that that's I something they have to
Gizmo:mean, listen, if anybody out there is retrohaling and putting the smoke in their lungs, they're gonna have a very bad experience.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Sure.
Gizmo:Yeah. You're gonna be throwing up
Bam Bam:if Correct. You inhale And if you're doing it consistently, you'll have a problem.
Gizmo:Yeah. It's a major problem.
Pagoda:Yeah. Yeah. You gotta really listen to the episode today.
Gizmo:Yeah. Yeah, Pagoda almost died. He inhaled a little
Chef Ricky:bit for
Gizmo:the first
Rooster:right. Time
Gizmo:Yeah, I mean, I'm lucky my family, I've not really had any conversations about it. My wife, her father smoked cigars growing up and still smokes cigars. Everything that we've said, I mean, I don't think there's ever been any sort of study that has proven that there is a meaningful impact on longevity or length of life with cigar smokers who smoke cigars at a reasonable amount and the way they're supposed to be smoked, like you said.
Chef Ricky:Would say if there is a study done, it would show the opposite.
Gizmo:I agree. Yeah, because like Rooster said, you know, reducing stress.
Senator:That may be the reason
Chef Ricky:why the study's not done. There
Senator:are studies that absolutely show the risk of having serious health issues that could result in death from really high or extreme amounts of stress infinitely more risky than smoking a cigar and actually de stressing. So think the net benefit is very clear.
Gizmo:And as far as behavior or decisions I think that health wise I've made as far as cigar smoking, I just go to the dentist more than I'm advised to. Instead of going twice a year, I go four times a year.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Me too.
Gizmo:Not for any other reason that I just wanna stay ahead
Bam Bam:of it. Yeah. Go every quarter.
Gizmo:I just like my mouth feeling clean like
Chef Ricky:Yeah.
Gizmo:You said about hygiene and whatnot. But I just go to the dentist four times a year, I stay ahead of it. And every time I ask them how many cigars do you think I smoke? And they say, oh, maybe one or two every couple weeks. Correct.
Gizmo:You know? I I like hearing that. That's that's That's a good thing. That's a feeling, yeah.
Rooster:I think your diet has more of an impact on your health course
Gizmo:than for sure than saying
Bam Bam:No doubt. Right?
Rooster:I mean
Gizmo:So Lizard Julio also sent this clip from the Carson show of when George Burns was on. Anybody who's seen this
Rooster:That's awesome.
Gizmo:It's it's hilarious, but I'll just play it. It's very short here.
Pagoda:Alright. What number of cigar is this for you today now? This is my tenth or eleventh cigar. I smoke between fifteen and twenty cigars a day. Yeah.
Pagoda:And it's very exciting.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. At 93,
Pagoda:if I can get it into a holdup. Well, it's it's the little things in life now, George. As your doctor said to you, now, George, you got My doctor is dead.
Gizmo:That's a great clip
Senator:from Carson.
Gizmo:Him and Rickles are the best
Bam Bam:on Carson. So
Gizmo:alright, boys. Let's go to one more listener email before we go into our ratings tonight. This one is gonna be our lizard of the week presented by our friends at Bon Roberts. And our lizard of the week this week is Lizard Steve who's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from Bond Roberts. He's gonna get to choose what he wants from them, place his order.
Gizmo:And he says, gentlemen, Lizard Steve checking in from LA. That's Lower Alabama, by the way, not LA with all the traffic. Wow. Just whatever's happening outside the Waffle House at 01:30AM.
Pagoda:Oh, boy.
Gizmo:Quick story for you guys. 04/01/2025. I'm told I'm losing vision in my left eye. I have a retinal detachment. Same day procedure saves it, but I'm benched from work for a bit.
Gizmo:So naturally, four days later, I walk into a cigar shop knowing absolutely nothing, and I tell the guy, teach me. He hands me an Alec Bradley, a Macanuto, and a Xeno rooster, which in hindsight I love this Xeno thing.
Rooster:Rooster.
Gizmo:Rocky? Which in hindsight feels like getting drafted straight into the minors. Shop itself, no directions. Just vibes and dust. The next weekend, I regroup.
Gizmo:I hit a different shop. I walk out with an Arturo Fuente and a Davidoff. That was the moment I was hooked. Somehow, my oldest son, Lizard Chase, jumps in with me, and now we're a year deep swapping cigars, blind tasting like degenerates, and building out real collections. He wins Lizard of the Week and brings home the Bonn Roberts one o nines.
Gizmo:Outstanding, by the way. I'll say it. I might take them over the Trinity Robusto.
Bam Bam:Oh, lord. Oh, yeah.
Gizmo:Also, he's not wrong. The Lizards are asleep on warped. Kyle Gellis is quietly putting out killers. GR 88 and the Corto line, x 52, and Maduro x 54 are absolute hammers. We don't have a proper lounge where we are, but that's the long game.
Gizmo:Build one the right way. Hospitality first. No dust. No nonsense. Watched the masters this weekend.
Gizmo:Every pure tee shot, I'm yelling, like an idiot. You guys have no idea how much impact you've had on this whole thing. Ten ten wins. Here's to life, Lizard Steve. Oh, man.
Gizmo:Fairhope, Alabama. Wow. Very nice. Isn't that an awesome email?
Bam Bam:It's awesome.
Chef Ricky:Like I said, Cigar and Life Podcast.
Gizmo:I love, by the way you're correct, Chef. I I love that he is sitting in in Fairhope, Alabama yelling, Etihav is his TV every time there's a shot at the masters.
Bam Bam:I'm gonna take this pod and clip everything you just said from this listener. This will be my weekly pep talk. It a smile it'll put a smile on my face every single time. That's a great email.
Gizmo:And if we tie this back to the first listener email we went to tonight with Lizard Enrique asking about the impact. It is full circle here coming to this email now with Lizard Steve. I I mean, it's just it's just that's just awesome.
Bam Bam:Fantastic.
Gizmo:Ten ten wins, 80 off.
Bam Bam:80 off. It has it all.
Chef Ricky:I'm glad that made tonight worth it.
Gizmo:Correct. Yep. And I'm glad that Lizard Steve and Lizard Chase have that experience, father son experience. I love hearing those father son stories that we've had come in over the years on the pod. It's awesome that cigars are able to create these really, really strong ties.
Chef Ricky:Yep. I'd love to hear the health impact that this podcast has had on his relationship with his son and his overall life.
Gizmo:Correct. Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of our evening now with the Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich, Puerto Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J, and the Wild Turkey one zero one, eight years aged. Any final thoughts before we move into the ratings portion of our program tonight?
Bam Bam:Sending you my rating right now.
Gizmo:Please send your rating via text to me, and we'll get into it. Alright, boys. It's time now to go into the formal liquorating tonight on the Wild Turkey one zero one, eight years aged Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. Bam bam, you're up.
Bam Bam:I'm at a very strong 10. Am pretty blown away by this. Have to admit. And it for me, initially, I said it was a little too sweet, but the notes were great and extremely satisfying with a tremendously long finish. For me, it got better and better as the palate adjusted.
Bam Bam:The sweetness wasn't a factor. Yeah, it's there, but it dissipated and it became a very lovely drink that you can really, I think you can have virtually any cigar with this, even some Cubans. So I'm at a very, very firm 10.
Gizmo:All right, chef.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, I'm right there with you, Ben. 10. Delicious. Delicious. Shocking.
Chef Ricky:I love the way this, this, the mouthfeel on this bourbon was great. Although it was a 101, it presented much softer than that, much more balanced than that. I really appreciated this bourbon and I love what it brought out in the cigar, and I think it will do that for many others.
Bam Bam:And I hope you make ice cream with this because I want a pint.
Chef Ricky:Oh, oh, yeah. Ice cream, a caramel for some bread pudding or what yeah.
Gizmo:Oh, bread pudding. Nice.
Chef Ricky:Throw this in an apple pie.
Bam Bam:Now we cooking. Oh, yeah.
Pagoda:All right. Pagoda? I'm at a strong nine. I think for a bourbon, think this probably is my highest rating, would imagine, because I typically don't like high proof liquors, but at 101, this was fantastic. I didn't feel any, there was slight, just the right amount of heat.
Pagoda:You know, you want to feel a little bit of the thing. It was just really, really nice. I think what I really enjoyed about it is when I left it lingering on my palate for a bit longer, And when it became slightly warmer, it just tasted delicious. You know, the price point is very, very fair. I think the viscosity, you know, sometimes I'll go and, you know, try and compare with other liquors that I like, and this was, for me, the viscosity was a little thin, which was great, you know, like because bourbon sometimes can be pretty viscous Yeah, and tough very to Yeah, and was just great.
Pagoda:Definitely a nine. You know, I don't buy bourbons, but if I were to, I would definitely go and pick this one up.
Chef Ricky:This is probably going to be one of my favorite rating portions in an episode, and it's because Pagoda said two things that are very non Pagoda. Non Pagoda. He said high proof and warm, right? And this is like, you know, I think when people see high proof, they, they want to add ice to kind of cool it down a little bit and numb it somewhat. And that, that speaks volumes to the quality behind this bourbon that even though it was high proof, he preferred it at a warmer temperature.
Chef Ricky:He didn't feel the need for ice or anything like that. So that's, I mean, speaks volumes to the flavor I'm and how this was evolving.
Pagoda:Your education is finally paying off.
Bam Bam:I'm happy for you.
Pagoda:No, but I did really enjoy the bourbon. You know, thinking about the name, I wasn't very keen on having this liquor before, but I'm glad we did. But this is the whole point of our podcast as well, it exposes you to so many different types of liquors and cigars, you know, which sometimes we'll walk in with a preconceived notion and then just have you blown away. This was really, really good.
Gizmo:So it's also a 10 for me, Bam. Nice. Chef. I thought it was a perfect bourbon.
Bam Bam:Agreed.
Gizmo:From the first sip. You know, for me, the bourbons that I've enjoyed on this podcast, even at the first sip, it's like, alright, I need to adjust. I don't want to react too quickly. I'm not going to call it turpentine like some folks might. Yes.
Gizmo:You know, this from the first sip was right there. It was not hot to me. It required no ice, no water, as Pagoda just said. I just I'm blown away by this. Yeah.
Gizmo:It's $47 on shocking.
Chef Ricky:None of us mentioned the price is right.
Gizmo:$47 for this? It drinks, honestly, to me, it tastes like it's been aged more than eight years. The eight year age statement actually seems low to me versus how it performs. It's very, very smooth. I love the flavor profile.
Rooster:I think
Gizmo:it's a wonderful companion for cigars. We talked about other cigars it might pair with outside of this one that we had tonight. I think it would go with any Nicaraguan. Check that box. I think it would go down as far maybe into the lower end of Dominican cigars.
Gizmo:As far as strength goes, I think it would pair just fine. I think it's a very versatile spirit for cigars. I thought it was really great tonight with this cigar. It was certainly the star of the show. There's no question about that.
Gizmo:Correct. It was a perfect bourbon. I'm very grateful to Lizard O for sending this to us. And honestly, sending a brand name into the room that I said earlier, and I will say it now, has a little bit of a stink on it.
Pagoda:Mhmm.
Gizmo:It's not, you know, when I hear Wild Turkey, I don't think premium, excellent bourbon that's gonna pair great with cigars, but were we proved wrong tonight? Very wrong. Was I proved wrong tonight?
Bam Bam:Correct, same.
Gizmo:Same. It was really, really excellent. So for me, it is absolutely a 10.
Bam Bam:Yeah, that's a wonderful sipping bourbon.
Gizmo:It is. Sipping. And this is something I think Senator will probably mention this, he did earlier. Any time of year. This is not just a hot, you know, burning your throat, feeling it in your chest bourbon that you're gonna drink when it's cold outside.
Gizmo:This would be fine in the summer or the spring. I mean, it's it's really, really excellent. So Mhmm. For me, a 10. Senator?
Senator:I'm in agreement with everyone in the room. This is an excellent bourbon. In terms of my score, I net out to where Pagoda landed. I'm in a strong nine. I really like the flavor profile.
Senator:It's impressive that at a 101 proof, all of us were able to drink this without ice. It's got a nice long finish. I just think, you know, for the 10 for me, I did want a little more viscosity like Pagoda was talking about, like at how flavorful this is at a 101 proof. It's thinner than it ought to be in my opinion. And the other thing for me is on the finish, you know, you don't get, like, a tremendous amount of heat like it's overpowering, but there is like an alcohol, like ethanol taste that I get with the other flavor notes that are there, that on a spirit, if I'm gonna give a 10, like that really ought to be absent.
Senator:And I think if this had some more viscosity, like, you would just get a 100% of the flavor and not like that alcohol taste that was still present for me every sip with the notes I was enjoying I was getting. So it wasn't perfect, but it was excellent. I would definitely drink it again. As I mentioned and just summarized, it's very versatile, but it's almost perfect. It's just not perfect for me.
Senator:So a strong, strong night.
Bam Bam:That's interesting. I didn't get that experience. For me, the the notes were so overwhelmingly interesting and impactful and lasting. Vanilla and butterscotch all day long. So that kind of for me was the star of the show.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, I wasn't craving anything more viscous in texture, just because it was delivering that in finish flavor. I think if it drank thin, I would have been craving some of that, but you know, and I could see what Senator's saying about, you know, some of that ethanol being present. 101 proof, though. I mean, the way they delivered that, that was Smooth. That was yeah.
Chef Ricky:Very smooth. Impressive.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The formal liquor rating tonight on the Wild Turkey one zero one, the eight years aged Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey is a 9.6. Very good. Wow. Great rating.
Bam Bam:Wild turkey.
Gizmo:Hell of a bourbon. No. Wild turkey tonight. Wild I mean, it's crazy.
Bam Bam:9.7.
Gizmo:Wild night, wild turkey. And now, boys, it's time to go into the formal lizard rating tonight on the Espinosa, Porto, Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J. Rooster, you're up.
Bam Bam:Dum dum dum dum.
Rooster:So the Knuckle Sandwich was a bit of a disappointment for me. I mean, it was there was too much pepper throughout the cigar. I mean, the best part of the cigar was the last third for me when it did get a little sweeter and the pepper kind of dissipated. But till about the halfway point, it was a lot of pepper. It was just too much pepper.
Rooster:And that really was the dominating note on the cigar, which made it very difficult for some of the other notes to come through. Having said that, I mean, the construction was pretty good. I think it was a little too open. I was getting even more pepper because the draw was so open. But it was easy to smoke, it had great combustion, it's a well made cigar.
Rooster:The price point is fair at $10 for this cigar. So I can see people who like a pepper heavy cigar, they might enjoy it. It's in their flavor profile and they would like it. I personally did not really enjoy that cigar. I mean, the last third was good.
Rooster:There's a merit to that, but you're going to smoke three quarters of the cigar, and then you get the last third, and that actually gets very pleasant.
Chef Ricky:Too little, too late.
Rooster:Yeah. So I'm at a seven on
Senator:that cigar. Alright, senator. So I'm also at a seven, and this was like the tale of two halves for me because the first half there was too much wrong in the first half for this to get like an eight, a nine, or a 10. And honestly, like, the way this started, I thought I was gonna be a five or a six. Mhmm.
Senator:I think, you know, there were moments that the cigar was too dry. There were moments the cigar was too spicy. There were some good moments. You got a creaminess in the first half that I did like, just again, overpowered by the spice that was present in the cigar. The draw for mine was too open that I had to smoke painfully slow initially.
Senator:And then the funny thing is I hit the midway point and all of a sudden the spice dissipates, the sweetness starts to pick up. I'm able to regularly draw the cigar and have smoke billowing out and not get a pepper blast after it. So the second half was performing as a cigar ought to from a construction standpoint. And then that's where the flavor really took off. Like, I started to get the coffee with cream in the second half.
Senator:In the final third, that turned to black coffee but was very enjoyable. There was a nuttiness. Like, there was complexity in the second half of the cigar that I really liked. If that could have been the story of the entire cigar, I would have been at probably an eight and even recommended this cigar. I would even pursue smoking another one of those cigars.
Senator:But the first half left way too much that just disappointed and I think could have been fixed. It's like when you have a second half that actually works, clearly you could have done more in that first half to fix that experience to try to mirror more closely what you got in the the final half of the cigar. So I'm at a seven. It's a mild recommend. If I had nothing else to smoke and someone handed me one, I would go in knowing.
Senator:If you were desperate. Yeah, I mean, I'd go in knowing I'm gonna suffer the first half and I'm gonna enjoy the second. Just cut the
Gizmo:first half off and then light it.
Senator:That may be the move.
Gizmo:You would
Rooster:have like one inch left.
Senator:Is it something I'm gonna pursue? Absolutely not, just because it's not a complete experience all the way through.
Gizmo:So question on your seven. Tail of two halves. Is it a five and a nine or a six and an eight? Netting that seven.
Senator:A six and an eight.
Gizmo:Six and an eight. Okay. So for me, it's also a seven. I will say the construction was excellent. For me, I didn't have this wide open draw situation.
Gizmo:Mine was perfectly resistant. It was from the first, you know, from the first draw from the cut. It was excellent the whole way through. The burn line was great. I don't think I saw anyone touch up.
Gizmo:Did anyone touch their cigar tonight?
Chef Ricky:I did.
Gizmo:Didn't touch mine up once.
Bam Bam:Because I was watching water boil in between draws, so I had to How
Gizmo:was your nap, by the
Bam Bam:way? Good.
Gizmo:So, you know, construction was great. There's no question about that for me. I thought the burn line was awesome. Smoke output, great. Overall flavor wise, I thought it was boring and simple, especially in the first half.
Gizmo:I didn't actually get the pepper thing. Really, I I didn't get hit with pepper almost all the way through. Maybe the draw was what was impacting that. Maybe if I had a little more pepper, it would have been less boring to me. It would have been more interesting adding a little bit of something to it.
Gizmo:I thought it was a fine smoke. It did not keep my interest. As everybody has said so far, the last third, it definitely picked up. That was its most interesting moment. But in a cigar this size that is so diminutive at that point, it's I don't know which of you said it, too little too late.
Gizmo:Yeah. Too little too late. And you got no spice? I got very little spice, except for the retrohale. That was there from first retrohale, like the first draw, But on the regular draw, it was very minimal.
Gizmo:Very minimal for me. So that's hearing you guys talk about spice tonight, I really didn't have that experience. Like, I I you know, I'm smoking a concerto right now. Mhmm. I expected coming in tonight to have a spice bomb, so I wanted something a little sweeter, a little more chocolatey that was still Nicaraguan.
Gizmo:I'm honestly going from something that ended up being like mild medium to me into something that actually, I think this concerto's a little bit more full than the knuckle sandwich I smoked tonight.
Bam Bam:And that's pairing with the burping nicely, isn't it? Oh, it's brilliant. Right?
Gizmo:Yeah, no question about it. But, you know, I wish the cigar was better. You know, I've heard a lot of great things about it. That's why I brought it in tonight. I love the story.
Gizmo:I I I really like that Guy Fieri is a celebrity who's actually engaged in the business and the brand, you know, who's actually, you know, in it every day, it seems, wants to see it succeed, wants to market it unlike a lot of these other celebrities. With all that being said, for me, it's also a seven. I wish it was higher, but it's not. Pagoda.
Pagoda:Yeah. It's a seven for me as well. You know, thinking about the cigar, think from, in the beginning it was the pepper, it was a little spicy. But after that I did get a flavor which I did not mind at all, which was when I was talking about the salt with the cayenne pepper. It was reasonably pleasant at that point in time.
Pagoda:You know what, I was seeking like the sweetness. I didn't get a lot of sweetness at all. I got a couple of touches in the beginning, I think I'd mentioned that, and some towards the end. In the middle half I think I experienced it getting a bit dry. Once I started having the bourbon, I did continue smoking, so it was good.
Pagoda:But then you know, it's like the bourbon's really, I think Bamin mentioned carrying the cigar at that point in time. So you know, considering so many different things, while I do agree with everybody in terms of the construction, the smoke output, you know, overall a pretty solid cigar from that perspective. I do see a few of my friends probably enjoying this a bit more than I, and I'm sure they would be between the eight and nine range
Chef Ricky:in that.
Gizmo:Is it from the accessibility standpoint, or the flavor profile?
Pagoda:The flavor, they like a little peppery, spicier. Okay. And you know, at some point in time, even I might have enjoyed it in the beginning of my journey, but yeah, I think seven is good because I'm not gonna go out and pursue the cigar and I'm not gonna buy, but it's a mild recommend. I'm sure that there could be some good sticks out there, you know, Vitola itself, seven for me.
Chef Ricky:All right, Chef? Yeah, this cigar, it's getting a seven for me as well. I think it required some level of manipulation, having to sort of manage your draws and play with things a little bit and take shallow draws and very few draws and just kind of slow down your pace of smoke to kind of get the flavor profile that we all seek in this room. Look, I have no problem with pepper if it's delivered in a beautiful manner, if it's delivered in a balanced manner. I think when it's the when it's all you're getting for a majority of the cigar, that just becomes a boring and rather unpleasant experience.
Chef Ricky:So, you know, at the midpoint, it started to develop a little bit as everyone has said, you know, you started getting some creamier notes and some kind of creamy coffee. And I think the bourbon had a big part in that because some of those sweeter notes were kind of coming through and sticking around a little bit. It has something to catch on to with what the what the bourbon was leaving on the palate. But that final third of the cigar was the most exciting point for me. And I wouldn't even say it was a final third.
Chef Ricky:I think it was more like the final inch. But at that point it was too little too late.
Rooster:But don't forget the brown paper.
Bam Bam:Yeah. So brown paper bag.
Chef Ricky:But but that that just, you know, I I I didn't want to say this per se, but there's like a soullessness that that that first half presented. And it was just because it was one note with nothing else behind it. There was nothing to carry it. There was nothing. You know, usually it's like, you know, giving somebody a dish that's all acid, right?
Chef Ricky:And no fat. And there's, you know, sometimes you need the fat to cream out the acidity to just bring things into balance, you know, and this sort of it lacked that it was all kind of punch and not in a good way. It was all punch for the first half with nothing to sort or soften the blow with nothing behind it to cushion it. So the cushion came at the very end. But, you know, I don't know that a lot of people in this room, or I don't know if we weren't on this pod, we may have not gotten to that point.
Chef Ricky:A lot of us probably would have
Gizmo:put think most of us would have put it down.
Chef Ricky:Yeah, so the fact that
Bam Bam:I am so fucking happy I didn't, Yeah. But I'll talk about it in a moment.
Chef Ricky:Yeah. So, know, with all that said, I'm at a seven. I think that's a good score for this cigar. I wouldn't recommend it. I'd probably smoke it again if I came upon it and that was all I had or the only option or the best option.
Chef Ricky:But that's it.
Senator:All right. Let's hear BAM's 10.
Gizmo:So
Bam Bam:Rooster joked about cutting the cigar down to the final inch. That's the only part of the cigar that I'm gonna address because for me, the rest of it was completely and totally mediocre. I think that final inch was delicious. It was rich. It was smooth.
Bam Bam:I was getting really delicious deep coffee. I was getting a little bit of dark chocolate, and I love that, and dare I say, some kind of dry fruit. And that's why I'm so frustrated with the cigar. With any cigar, if I have to bear through an entire stick to get to something that I enjoy, I'm giving it a seven, and that's generous. It should be a six, but I'm giving it a seven.
Bam Bam:So this is to Guy Fieri. Hey, Guy. Smoke your cigars all the way down and do that multiple times. You're gonna discover that
Gizmo:And then when you find that, bring the blend to the front of the cigar.
Bam Bam:Well, yeah. You're gonna change your blend because if he's not if he, the chef, isn't smoking the cigars all the way down, he's doing a disservice to himself and his product because go ahead.
Senator:That's the saddest part of the cigar. It's like, if a cigar sucks all the way through, you you just kind of accept that, like, the the entire blend is just trash.
Gizmo:It's wrong. Not
Senator:it there's nothing you can do with that. It has potential. You know, there's like the the Bronx tail line. Like, the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. When you get to the final third of this, and you're like, there was talent here.
Senator:This could have been a very good cigar. Where was that the rest of the way?
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Senator:It's just lazy, like, the blending process, you may have to go through, 20 iterations of a cigar, but you have to stick it out to find a way to get that experience to you.
Gizmo:Let's just say they spent eighteen months on this blend.
Bam Bam:It's a long time.
Senator:It's ridiculous.
Bam Bam:And if they're not doing enough testing, they're just not, if they're not checking and smoking their cigars all the way down, they're not informing themselves.
Rooster:But maybe that's his flavor profile. That's what he wanted to present
Bam Bam:on I the am gonna see him at PCA. I'm gonna ask him that question. I'm gonna ask him. I'm gonna take his cigar. We're gonna smoke it together.
Bam Bam:Smoke you tell me, chef,
Gizmo:what you're getting. Can't wait to
Bam Bam:see I'm this very curious
Pagoda:about Please, can you please put that hat on?
Bam Bam:Yes. I'm not wearing a hat. Please. But I also wanna ask
Senator:Please don't insult Ricky and call him,
Bam Bam:This is a fun experiment because we're actually going to get to see the maker of a cigar that we reviewed here. We're going be at PCA tomorrow. I think for me, a great chance to ask him that question. Did you smoke your cigar all the way down? Are you doing tests enough of testing before you put the product out?
Bam Bam:Because it was so good, and it's like you said, it's so frustrating. It should be a six, but I'm being generous with a seven.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. The formal lizard reading tonight on the Espinosa, Porto, Nicaragua Habano in Robusto J is a flat seven point zero. And I wanna ask a question.
Bam Bam:Great math. A touch.
Gizmo:Yeah. I I did I did put that in the calculator.
Bam Bam:A touch generous.
Gizmo:I wanna ask a question. Two questions actually. Do you guys think, number one, do you guys think that this cigar is designed for the novice smoker?
Chef Ricky:No. No. It's hard to say that because it's so pepper forward in the beginning.
Bam Bam:Does any maker make a cigar for the novice smoker? Do they intentionally do that? Course. Yes. Okay.
Gizmo:Because I think you sell more cigars for the novice smoking than you do for
Bam Bam:Are you saying
Gizmo:that because
Bam Bam:the price?
Gizmo:Perdomo. Yeah. That Perdomo champagne. Can
Senator:you imagine how many of those they sell a year? And it's all, like, novice smokers that want just a mild cigar.
Bam Bam:So he's gonna be there tomorrow too, you can ask him that question.
Senator:No. I I guarantee that he'll validate it.
Rooster:But, you know, early on, you did mention that this is one of the most
Gizmo:High selling cigars right now. Of the highest selling cigars. It's just because he's he's that personality. I mean Yeah.
Senator:Praisely, these celebrity cigars do sell. I mean, I think for us in this room, it is a demerit, not a merit, when there is a celebrity attached
Gizmo:to But
Senator:what shocks me is clearly for the mass market, it's the opposite. The reason I say this, when I was in Turks and Caicos last month, I'm in the airport and I see they have a little like cigar stand. They're selling cigars as a humidor. And I go in there, there's a ton of Fuente. And I hilariously see our friend who was at PCA when we were in Vegas, Mike Tyson's cigar in
Gizmo:there. And
Senator:I'm not kidding. Of all the boxes that were in this humidor, the one that was the most sold, as in, like, there were probably four boxes, each of them only had, like, three sticks left, where all the other boxes had, like, half or more still there not sold, who's buying these? I'm like, this is crazy, but it's clear because Mike Tyson is this, you know, the
Gizmo:Well, great news. The headliner. Smoked that in two weeks when we get back from PCA here. We're gonna review that. The Gurkha Tyson collab.
Bam Bam:Yeah. You brought up
Gizmo:Cigar. That's interesting, though. I was shocked. That's crazy. Yeah.
Gizmo:You would think it'd be a Monte Cristo or an H. Uppen or some sort, Cohiba, some sort of name that's out there in the cigar world. But Tyson, of course,
Bam Bam:is brought up some our cigar aficionado. This is a theory of ours in the room, but we don't know if they smoke all of their cigars down They for their full
Gizmo:can't possibly.
Bam Bam:If that's true, then I think these people are doing a disservice to the whole cigar industry and rating these cigars just haphazardly.
Gizmo:So the other question I wanted to ask the room is, so we all ended up at a seven. Now, talked about the email. We talked about the blind rating thing. Of course, we all ended up at a seven. We all texted you know, individually, anonymously almost, that we didn't see each other's ratings when we rated.
Gizmo:We all landed at a seven. You said it was a generous seven.
Bam Bam:This rating should be a 6.8.
Gizmo:Do you guys think that the seven is
Chef Ricky:generous tonight? Yes.
Bam Bam:Yeah. Should. A 6.8 is a perfect score.
Gizmo:So why did you guys go with a seven thinking that it should be lower than that? Did you expect someone else in the room to hedge that?
Bam Bam:I have an answer. Can I answer?
Senator:I don't think it was generous
Gizmo:about I think seven is perfect for this.
Chef Ricky:I think if we were allowed decimals, there would have been a lot more six point fives.
Bam Bam:But I wanna just hit on the potential conversation. Because the cigar does have potential, and that's the most frustrating part of it, I think that's why I acquiesced and give it a seven.
Senator:Yeah. I flat out said, I'm sorry. The final third for me was Like, very I enjoyed the final third. The final inch. For me, a six is like something that, you know Too busy.
Senator:I I wouldn't even be probably at all pleased to receive from someone and smoke. That would be like dire straits that I've gotta smoke that. And then a five or below, obviously, like, I'm just categorically gonna say, like, no. Thank you. But the reason for me it was a seven is because, like, honestly, like, would I wanna experience that final third again?
Senator:Yeah. It's just the problem is the rest of the cigar is just mediocre. So for me, that's why the seven holds.
Gizmo:Alright, boys. Let's review one more time on the Wild Turkey one zero one, the eight years aged Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. We had a 9.6. Great rating. And on the Espinosa, Puerto, Nicaragua Habano and Robusto j, a flat seven point zero tonight on the pod.
Gizmo:Of course, we have to congratulate our friend Lizard Steve with that great email. He's gonna win a 10 count box of cigars from our friends at Bon Roberts. Thank those guys. I mean, putting out great cigars. Thank you for sponsoring that portion of our program.
Gizmo:We really appreciate it. Of course, we have to thank boys, our sponsor, Small Batch Cigar. Correct. Go to smallbatchcigar.com. Use our code lizard 15 for 15% off your entire order.
Gizmo:They're always fast, always free shipping. They're excellent retailers. Go to smallbatchcigar.com. And, of course, boys, our presenting sponsor, Fabrica Five. We love Fabrica five.
Gizmo:You love Rob.
Bam Bam:Oh, yeah,
Gizmo:said many times.
Bam Bam:That's correct.
Gizmo:Great cigars, man, coming out of Honduras. They have great sales every week. Have you guys been getting the emails? Every week, there's, like, this flash sale sale. Like, crazy 25% off the entire it's unbelievable.
Gizmo:It's awesome. Go to fabrica005.com. Use our code lizard pod for 10% off your entire order. Get it in their ecosystem. You'll start getting emails for for crazy deals.
Gizmo:It's worth doing. They're great cigars. You're definitely going to enjoy them. I promise you that. And, boys, what a great night tonight.
Gizmo:It's good to be back. We're going to PCA tomorrow. We're gonna record at PCA while we're there. Always do an episode there, and, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Gizmo:Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, loungelizardspod.com. That's loungelizardspod.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.
Gizmo:Hello at loungelizardspod.com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time, and we'll, we'll see you next week.