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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!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by Fabrica5. It's so good to have you here. It's a Leisure and Lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster, Senator, Chef Ricky, and Bam Bam.
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 162nd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're going to smoke a new world cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss a new custom cigar program from JC Newman. Chef Ricky guides us through some great holiday food plans and we play a new game called the BAM Price is Right 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 seven year aged Baker's single barrel bourbon with the HVC Seleccción number one in Esenciales a Corona Gordo from Nicaragua on the [00:01:00] pod tonight It's the HVC Seleccción number one in Esenciales And it's a 46 ring gauge cigar by five and five eighths inches long.
And boys, this is the second HVC we're doing on the pod tonight. If you remember, we did the hotcake quite some time ago. It didn't perform very well, but I got a few listener emails and recommendations to try this one instead. So here we are tonight. And I got to tell you, I love the size of a Corona Gorda in the hand.
Great Fatola. It's a great Fatola. Yeah. 46 is a perfect ring gauge. I agree. Although I hit I hate the band.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. This HVC, it looks like a cigar that I bought out of a convenience store.
**Gizmo:** It's kinda like a Juan Lopez band. This one has a little bit more,
**Senator:** a little more gold on it, a little more glitz to it. I mean, I'll say I don't love the band cigar.
The wrapper and construction is pristine. It's a good looking Beautiful. It's a good looking cigar. It's one of the best looking sticks I've held in a while. Yeah, it's nice.
**Gizmo:** It's
**Senator:** a San Andres wrap,
**Gizmo:** isn't
**Senator:** it? Yes, it is. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Is it [00:02:00] glistening a bit? It is. Yeah. It feels great. Alright boys, let's cut this thing.
See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper.
**Senator:** Perfect draw, just a bit of resistance. Yep.
**Gizmo:** And you know, the Corona Gorders I usually smoke are Cuban, right? So, the Magnum 46 from H. Oppen or the Cohiba Sigla 4. And what I have found in Corona Gorda is it's the Vitola out of Cuba that I have the most problems with construction wise.
So, to have a Corona Gorda, From Nicaragua in our hand tonight is refreshing because I know when I cut this, I'm not gonna have any of that. Well,
**Senator:** let's
**Gizmo:** see. Um, it feels good right now. Before we
**Senator:** light, just smell the wrapper and the foot.
**Chef Ricky:** It's intoxicating. Yeah. I love it. It is
**Gizmo:** unbelievable.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it smells, it smells like, almost like um,
**Bam Bam:** Isn't it like cotton candy almost?
Yes, it smells,
**Gizmo:** yes. And the cold
**Bam Bam:** raw is delicious, or like, remember when you were a kid, you guys are young for this, but it had the candy that you got with a little bit of a powder on it. [00:03:00] I don't remember what that was, but it's got that kind of a aroma to me.
**Gizmo:** This smells very good. Let's see how it does boys.
Let's light this thing the HVC Seleccción number one in a sensi Alice again. It's a Corona Gorda 46 ring gauge by 5 and 5 8 inches long comes out of Nicaragua
**Bam Bam:** How much was this
**Gizmo:** this cigar was eight dollars and sixty cents.
**Bam Bam:** It's a good bargain Not the QVC
**Gizmo:** version, but the
**Chef Ricky:** HVC. For easy installments of 2.
Correct.
**Gizmo:** Pay with Affirm. I see that popping up every time I buy something online now. Pay with Affirm. It's like this extended payment plan thing.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, Clarno, Affirm, they're all super popular.
**Bam Bam:** Everybody's going into debt. Yeah. A little, uh, sweetness on that, uh, initial draw. [00:04:00]
**Gizmo:** A little earthy.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** earthy and sweet.
I like it. It has like a sour thing to it, too. Almost like a Tatouage, Petit Cazador's kind of profile to it right now. I don't know why that's ringing my bell. The smoke is, it's got
**Bam Bam:** like an earthy spice. When you retro, it's got like this, almost like this cleansing quality to it. It's very clean. I'm not sure if I like that.
**Gizmo:** Definitely a little bit of spice on it. But not bad.
**Senator:** It's very balanced. I just like that of the notes I'm getting, nothing is overpowering or too dominant.
**Bam Bam:** Bam, I like the retro. Yeah. Although I'm getting a little bar soap here. Bar soap? Bar soap.
**Chef Ricky:** Would you say goat's milk, or? It's like the cleansing milk, quite literally. Yeah, I mean, it's a little soapy. I don't know.
Are you taking a shower with it? Yeah. [00:05:00] I get, on the retro, yeah, I get a little of, uh, like wasabi almost. I think that's the spice. That's that.
**Gizmo:** Maybe the red pepper. But it has,
**Chef Ricky:** it has this cleansing note that Bam's calling out there. That's kind of soapy. And this cigar would have been in Pagoda's wheelhouse.
**Gizmo:** I think it's, it's pretty, uh, pretty full. Yeah. Like, flavor is.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I wouldn't say it's super pleasant. It's,
**Chef Ricky:** it's okay. I think it's going to settle in a little bit. Yeah. I like it.
**Senator:** Going back to the wrapper, just, just feel the wrapper. Like, don't hold the band, just feel the actual wrapper. It's smooth. It's smooth as can be.
Yeah. And it has a nice sheen to it.
**Bam Bam:** Yes.
**Senator:** Glistens. I haven't seen like 40 cigars with a wrapper like this. Yeah, that's true. It's wild.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, there's something about the San Andreas wrapper that we tend to like the cigars that are wrapped in San Andreas. [00:06:00] It gives you that sweetness.
**Chef Ricky:** I got on the smelling the wrapper earlier, I thought we were going to get some dried fruit notes here.
I'm not really getting them yet, so I'm hoping they kind of come through. Right now it's kind of earthy. Soapy. What do you think, an Irish Spring dove? I don't know, man.
**Gizmo:** He's too bougie for that.
**Senator:** I love me an Irish Spring. I got a little on the cold draw and I feel like very faintly in the back. It wasn't dried fruit for me, it was like, Like a berry note.
I'm
**Chef Ricky:** getting sweetened coffee. I'm getting an espresso note and then that sweetness comes through a little bit. I got some sweet coffee here. I agree with that. But the spice is, is, is, it's interfering a little bit. Yeah, it's definitely the primary note right now. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** For me.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, for sure.
**Gizmo:** You feel like
**Chef Ricky:** it's a lot?
**Gizmo:** No, it's just what I'm, it's what I'm tasting the [00:07:00] most of.
**Chef Ricky:** It's also because we're retrohaling. Yeah, I don't get that. Sounds like it's interfering with your experience. Yeah, you better
**Bam Bam:** stop retrohaling. Not getting much pepper.
**Senator:** No spice? A touch. I get some, but not overpowering or not dominant. Same. It feels very balanced.
Look, for under 10,
**Gizmo:** this cigar is very good right now. I agree.
**Senator:** It's off to a nice start. Yeah. I mean, if you told me this was 20, I would believe it. It does feel amazing in the hand. It's beautiful. I can't get over this wrapper. Like, I want this wrapper on every cigar I have. Ricky, you should put this on like a dessert or something at the restaurant.
**Bam Bam:** Grind it on top of your parfait.
**Chef Ricky:** Well, he's often talked about it. Yeah, I tell you, man, you know, right now, uh, what's really on the cocktail bar scene, uh, you know, obviously espresso martinis, but now there's, uh, [00:08:00] variations of that. Or you have, uh, the El Carajillo, which is a, a very popular espresso based drink.
Um, and it usually has liquor Cuarentitre, which is a kind of almond cordial from Spain. Uh, something like that would go amazing with this. Isn't
**Gizmo:** that a vanilla? Yes. Vanilla liqueur.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Vanilla almond. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So like we said, the wrapper on this cigar is Mexican San Andres. The binder and filler are all Nicaraguan.
This cigar was launched in 2022 and it was the first cigar. Coming out of HVC's new factory called Fabrica de Tabacos HVC SA de Rainier Lorenzo. That's the name of the founder of HVC, opened up early in 2022 in Esteli. His idea with this cigar versus the other cigars he has, including the hotcake that we reviewed, he said that he wanted to pay tribute to the old Cuban style.
Making them a little bit more close to medium. [00:09:00] Uh,
**Chef Ricky:** I'm not getting anything Cuban esque here yet. Definitely delivering on the medium profile, but yeah, I'm not, not much here for Cuban. Mm
**Gizmo:** mm. So there are three Vitolas in the Seleccciónn No. 1 line. There's a short Robusto, 52 by 4 12. There's a Poda Rosas, which is a 54 by 6.
I guess it's a Toro. And this is the Esenciales we're smoking tonight, again, 46. By five and five eighths inches, the cigars range in price. This one's 8. 40 MSRP all the way up to 10. 50 in the biggest one. And they come in very cool looking boxes of 20 cigars. Kind of reminds me of that Ramon green. It's a little brighter than that.
This is more like a lime. This box, but it's a pretty cool box of 20 cigars.
**Bam Bam:** If you squint, you'll see QVC instead of HVC. That's a
**Chef Ricky:** problem. I see HVAC. Do we know what the HVC stands for? I guess heating, ventilation and cooling. [00:10:00] I mean, I
**Senator:** think that says right above
**Gizmo:** Havana city, Havana city, Cuba. HVC, Havana City.
Nice.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I, even with my contacts, I can't see that small font. No way. I was helping my kid with his homework earlier. And, and, uh, How'd that go? It, it always, you know, I always have to make him double back because all his answers are always super, you know. Was it Singapore math? No, it was a history assignment, and I'm reading the text on his computer screen, and I'm like, here, if you need to make that bigger so you can read it, he's like, that, I could read it.
I'm like, well, I can't. Every chance he gets to call me old, he does. Rooster knows how you feel. There's a lot of people I like the cigar so far. Yeah, I got to say, so I'm about half inch in and it starts to settle in a little bit. The spice dissipates and it's, it's really enjoyable right now. Yeah. You think it's
**Gizmo:** done on purpose, like that spice blast in the beginning?
It is. It's a very common thing.
**Chef Ricky:** I think it might have a little bit to do with the lighting as well, with the torch and [00:11:00] all of that, you know. Could be.
**Gizmo:** It also kind of wakes you up and like wakes
**Chef Ricky:** up your palate.
**Gizmo:** I just think a lot of blenders, and I've talked about this a lot with, with Rob Isla, I just think a lot of blenders kind of want to give you like a, Hey, you're here now opening before it starts to settle in, as opposed to, I think a lot of the cigars that we've appreciated You know, there's a journey throughout.
There's a first third, second third, last third journey, you know. So, we've had a lot of cigars that open really well or open in an interesting way and completely fall off. Hopefully, that's not going to happen here tonight. Well, there's not a single Cuban cigar that begins with a there's no punch. Yeah.
You know,
**Chef Ricky:** correct. Well, to Bam's point, it was like a cleansing quality, right? So, I mean, and to your point of like, hey, you're here now, you know, this is my third cigar for the day. And it's, I feel like it's definitely reset me and, and, Kind of prepared me to, to take in what I'm about to smoke.
**Senator:** This is
**Gizmo:** very
**Senator:** different
**Gizmo:** from what I remember
**Senator:** of the hot cake that we smoked.
Can we just witness the rooster Donald Trump sipping [00:12:00] water? This is literally how he did the two heads. Rooster just went.
Just trying to be careful.
**Gizmo:** So for anybody looking for a little bit of history on HVC cigars, go back to our episode that we did with the hot cake. Corona Gorda as well, which was on episode 108. And, uh, we'll talk about the rating a little bit later tonight. So also cool in this line, and we'll see how this does, but they announced in 2023, they released a Connecticut wrapped natural version of the Seleccciónn number one.
So it's the same binder and filler with a Connecticut wrapper on. Interesting. Right. Just to tone it down a little bit. So boys, I wanted to talk about a very, very cool news story I saw. This is something very unique and I was. Pretty impressed by it. I wanted to hear what you guys think. J. C. Newman Cigar Company introduced what they're calling the [00:13:00] Personal Reserve Program.
And what they're saying is that they're inviting cigar connoisseurs to do the same as they've done for 129 years and blend their own cigars in the new Personal Reserve Program. Guided by a master blender, cigar enthusiasts can create their own personal blends or select from a staff blend. J. C. Newman will hand roll these cigars.
At its iconic El Reloche Cigar Factory in the Cigar City of Tampa, Florida. After aging, these special cigars will be wrapped with custom cigar bands and packed in personalized leather cabinet humidors. Did you book your flight?
You know, you are an insider. It sounds like an expensive proposition. So they've said that they've curated a selection of 24 world class cigar tobaccos grown in nine different countries from its tobacco library. Cigar connoisseurs can use them to create what could be millions of unique cigar blends.[00:14:00]
Custom blended cigars are offered in a package of four personalized leather cabinet humidors containing a total of 80 custom cigars for a total price of 2, 400. So that effectively puts the price of each cigar at 30. Cigars rolled with a staff blend are available in a personalized leather cabinet humidor containing 20 cigars with custom bands for 500 bucks.
So that's 25 a cigar. So what's cool about this is you can do it in person or virtually with a master blender who guides the connoisseur in creating their personal blend. Then JC Newman prepares the luxury cigar tobacco selected and a master roller will hand roll them. They're aged in the factory's underground aging room to the customer specifications.
Finally, they're wrapped with custom cigar bands packed in the leather cabinet, humidors, and then are shipped to the consumer. What I love about this is they say that each blend created will be stored in the family's blend book. So if someone blends a cigar and runs out of them, [00:15:00] let's say they blended for a wedding or a.
A birth of a child or some sort of milestone event. If they run out of them, they're able to go back to those tobaccos. They have the blend and they recreate them at a later time. Wow. So I think that's pretty cool. They're limiting it to 10 participants per month. I guess you can go on their website and get started in the process if you're interested, but.
I'll tell you, I, um, I experienced, you know, doing something like that at La Aurora, and it was a really fulfilling experience to be able to choose the tobaccos and make those decisions. Obviously, with Fabrica 5 being in the tasting panel, understanding a lot about that process, blending, tasting, you know, really diving deep into how a cigar is brought to market.
So for someone to be able to do this.
**Bam Bam:** I would love it if you go down. and do this and we critique your cigars. I would like that. Be very cathartic. What do you think? I love it. Four. Two.
**Gizmo:** That's what I'm [00:16:00] saying. It's a cathartic experience. Rooster, you're up. I think a lounge lizards blend. Yeah. There's been conversations about that.
Oh yeah. But I, you know, what do you guys think of this program? Isn't that pretty cool? Like for 25 or 30 bucks a cigar. Yeah. Like if you have a birth of a child, you can get, so I thought there would be a lot more. Yeah. But that's not crazy. No. I mean, 30 bucks a cigar, I think is very reasonable. 25 if you choose one of their blends.
Yeah. You get your own bands on it and everything like, I think that's pretty awesome.
**Chef Ricky:** That is a fantastic story. If you do see, if you do a custom blend for the birth of a child and then, you know, you're smoking
**Gizmo:** annually or something, no,
**Chef Ricky:** but then your kid grows up and he gets to go back and smoke that cigar that you made and you know, in his, in his honor, they'll actually design
**Bam Bam:** the band as well.
Yeah. Custom bands. That is a lot of production taking place there for 30 bucks a stick.
**Senator:** I can't wait for this. When my wife wants me to, like, take my kid to an art class, I'm gonna have him picking out cigar bands, [00:17:00] and design Let him design a band. Design the whole band. It's gonna be great. It's
**Gizmo:** gonna go over really well.
**Chef Ricky:** I mean, some of the bands out on the market look like children design them anyway.
**Senator:** That's true.
**Bam Bam:** Well, I thought Senator Jr. was already going through Cigar Aficionado magazines.
**Senator:** It's the first thing he crawled toward. It was a copy of Cigar Aficionado.
**Gizmo:** Correct. And a box of Padrones, no? That's true. I'm enjoying the cigar.
What do you guys think? Yeah, I think the pepper has really subdued.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, that's gone. You still getting
**Gizmo:** a bar of soap over there? No,
**Bam Bam:** it's okay.
**Senator:** It's just a weird cigar in that It's hard to place. Exactly. It's unlike anything I've had. The notes are A little confusing. I don't dislike what I'm having, but I can't pick out something distinctive enough to say, like, I love what I'm having.
So I'm in this weird in between where [00:18:00] I'm, I'm, I'm more satisfied than not, but I can't really explain, like I normally would be able to, what is satisfying about it. It's very odd.
**Bam Bam:** It's like a convenience store sandwich with mystery meat on it. It's edible. It's, it's good. I just don't
**Rooster:** know what I'm eating.
I Okay, that's a new note and I've done that
**Gizmo:** I mean smell the aroma off the foot. It's very pleasant.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah No, for me, there's clear notes of espresso here. So that's probably the best,
**Bam Bam:** that's, that's probably the best part of the cigar is the aroma coming off of the foot of the cigar. I agree. The aroma is delicious.
There's savoriness there actually. And sweetness. Yeah. A little bit like baking notes. Yeah. The retro hails. Okay. And the traditional draw is okay for me right now.
**Gizmo:** So boys, let's go into our pairing. I'm curious how this is going to do with this cigar tonight. We have the bakers. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Single Barrel, 7 years minimum aged, and it's 107 proof, [00:19:00] which, bringing this in tonight, I was a little freaked out that it's 107 proof, 53.
5 percent ABV, and uh, we're doing this neat. Yeah. Let's try this.
**Chef Ricky:** You know, first of all, I think at that, at that, uh, percentage of alcohol, The nose doesn't smell hot at all. It doesn't. The nose is just great. Vanilla, some little toasted nuts here. So I think we're in for a treat with this.
**Gizmo:** Did you guys pour me a glass?
What's that glass
**Chef Ricky:** there for?
**Gizmo:** That's for you. Just got a heavy pour there. We're
**Senator:** coming into the holidays. That's for you. We know what's in that, uh, thermos you bring.
**Gizmo:** So what do you guys think about how this high proof bourbon pairs with this cigar?
**Bam Bam:** Well, going to starting off with the bourbon initially, I was, it was, it's intimidating to drink the first few sips. It was, it's took the skin off of my tongue, but [00:20:00] honestly, without ice, it's settled in really, really nicely.
Yeah. It's, it's delicious.
**Chef Ricky:** I think the key here is to take a sip of the bourbon, allow the, the heat to dissipate a little bit, then draw on your cigar and that cotton candy note that we were getting in the beginning on the really highlights the fruit that you find here. in the bourbon. So I'm getting some plum here.
I'm getting like, it's, it's delicious. But if you don't let the heat dissipate, it could easily overpower the cigar. So you got to let the heat dissipate or your palate adjust. Doesn't that heater disappear over time? And I think you're, you're golden.
**Senator:** I get a lot of cinnamon on the finish with the bourbon and I really like it.
This time of year, it feels like a holiday bourbon and it helps balance out the, like sometimes aggressive sweetness that can come from a bourbon. So I like it. The only thing I will say. Right now, I don't know where this cigar is gonna go. [00:21:00] Right now, I feel like the bourbon overpowers the cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Really? A bit, yeah.
Interesting. I'm liking the spirit much better than the cigar right now.
**Gizmo:** I find that the bourbon, it has a very warming effect. Absolutely. As you sip it. And I think, Senator, I don't know if you mentioned this before we hit record, when we just sipped it quick, before we came on, but it is really good for cold weather.
Yeah. You know, uh, a spirit like this.
**Bam Bam:** It drinks like a, what a traditional bourbon drinker would want to drink. Every bourbon guy that I know that goes deep into bourbon, they want something that punches them in the face, that's very full flavored, and this delivers that. But I think as you get through it, it's really pleasant.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think those. Really intense bourbon drinkers love the high proof stuff. Mm hmm. They want single barrel. They want, they really want something that's gonna
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Skin the cat.
**Chef Ricky:** It's not just bourbon. I think as, as you start to appreciate a spirit Um, and, and what it delivers and what the distillers are doing.
You want higher proof [00:22:00] because it means less dilution, right? So it means you're getting a more, uh, a better sense of the expression and how the distiller intends for it to be had. In the tequila world, you'll see a ton of high proof tequila offerings now. Um, you know, Mezcal was naturally distilled at a higher proof for the same reason.
So I think naturally, once you become an aficionado of a category, you want to go a little bit hotter so you could get more flavor. Okay.
**Senator:** I can't wait till we do moonshine on the pod. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Absent, ever
**Chef Ricky:** clear. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
**Bam Bam:** But um, after taking a sip and just taking a slight break, then taking a draw It's actually helping the cigar tremendously for me.
Yeah. That's at that moment where I enjoy the cigar the most. Yeah,
**Chef Ricky:** and I
**Bam Bam:** think that Right After that drink settles in, and you see All the heat
**Chef Ricky:** that dissipate.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Cuz otherwise the burn and Yeah. And for me, honestly,
**Bam Bam:** otherwise, a cigar is not interesting right now. Without the spirit. [00:23:00]
**Chef Ricky:** How's your draw?
Great. Yeah. Mine is perfect. A little tight. Mine's a little tight. So I'm wondering if I open it up just a little bit, I'll get a little more flavor out of
**Bam Bam:** it. Let's see the cup.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. A little bit more maybe.
**Gizmo:** So boys, let's go into some listener email. This one is from lizard. John from Boise. He writes us a lot, always sends us a great email. He says, hi, Giz. First off, I just want to commend you guys for highlighting a large variety of spirits, including non alcohol versions on the pod. Personally, I would have never even tried cognac or paired tequila with a cigar, but I have done so after your reviews, and it's opened my eyes and taste buds to a whole new world of flavor.
My question this week, is there a particular pairing that the lizards come back to more often than any other? It could be general or non general. IE rum with a Cuban stick or specific Havana club seven with an H up in number two or something like that. Personally, I love [00:24:00] a good Cuban or Barbados rum with almost any Cuban cigar while I prefer a lower proof whiskey or bourbon with a new world cigar.
Thanks as always for your efforts and cheers. Lizard John from Boise. So I think, you know, my answer right now. in, in the way that I'm pairing with my regular rotation of cigars is I'm reaching most often for rum. That's probably number one for me, right?
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. If you have Havana Club, that's where you're reaching.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Havana Seven is probably number
**Bam Bam:** one. Even without it. Um, Florida Kanye Seven. Absolutely. And honestly, I've, I've delved deep into the Brugal higher level rums. They are excellent. I've had a recent experience with those. They're a bit of a revelation. Delicious.
**Gizmo:** And we've talked about rum, too, I think on a couple weeks ago in an episode, talked about how, you know, for me, versus a whiskey or, uh, you know, a scotch or a bourbon of some kind, [00:25:00] I feel better in the morning after drinking rum.
And I know Senator echoes this. Tequila as well. Tequila as well. Yeah. You know, I feel better in the morning after. Versus when I drink whiskey.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I just I feel certainly more groggy I'm not as sharp, you know after drinking whiskey even at a modest amount. I'm not hammering it But even after a modest amount I just prefer how I feel
**Bam Bam:** after drinking rum.
I don't know about you guys I haven't purchased a bottle of scotch or bourbon in a very long time. I mean I'm diving I said this before the whole rum tequila Cognac experience for me is like, that's the top shelf for me.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, listen, as much as I'm a, uh, uh, of, of as big of a fan of tequila, as I am, I still think cognac takes, takes the, the trophy for me.
I really enjoy drinking cognac with, My cigars, but a good reposado tequila to introduce a little bit of oak But as we've all had Blancos that do [00:26:00] really well on the pod. I think you know, you really can't go wrong Just with the high quality spirit delivers and is well done.
**Senator:** Yeah, I think it's funny I think the pod has kind of each year of this there's been like A spirit that's kind of risen to the top for that year.
Like our first year was Scotch hands down. Oh yeah. Yeah. I feel like that's like the gateway. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** That's the gateway
**Senator:** pairing for cigars is a good Scotch for sure. I feel like the second year was Cognac. That was the big revelation. And I think this year it's been rum. I mean, the fact that. We've done a lot of tequila as well.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Tequila is in there too. We've
**Senator:** done tequila too. That's, that's fair. Maybe then, Rum and tequila. Yeah, I just say like tequila after you know, we met Ricky it was clear There are many great options for us to explore in the tequila space with rum I mean, I've never disliked rum, but you know you you felt like the options are [00:27:00] like Bacardi and very limited not much else and now That we've been able to find Florida, Kanya, we've tried Brugal, um, obviously Havana club, some of the other Cuban rums, Pacto Navio, um, uh, plenty more that we'll still do, uh, Santiago, Santiago, I just, that for me, this year has been like the biggest.
Revelation. So, um, I'm reaching for more rum this year than I ever have. I've, I haven't drank nearly as much cognac as I, I want. It's weird. It's like I've. Interesting. It's, it's like I have forgotten about it. Yeah. I mean, even hearing Chef Ricky say that, I'm like, man, I really need to drink more cognac.
**Chef Ricky:** I think now coming into the colder months.
It's true. And that is going to help. That's going to help. Even in the warmer
**Bam Bam:** months, though, for me, the cognac and tequila, I kind of go back and forth between the two. All year long for me. It's true. But do you guys drink
**Gizmo:** more, uh, more rum in the winter season, do you think, or? That's a, that's an all seasons drink for me.
That's an all seasons drink. Morning, [00:28:00] noon. I mean, it's just such a good pairing with cigars. It is.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's delicious.
**Gizmo:** I also, you know, I, I mean, it's, it's classic, you know, going back to the early days of the podcast. But for me, when I'm at home and I want to reach for something, I'm not driving. The Balvenie is a wonderful pairing with cigars.
I mean, the 12 year Doublewood. Yeah. I've talked about that a lot. I
**Bam Bam:** forgot about that. I haven't had that in a very long time. No, I'm still, I still drink that. I still drink that. I don't go near it now.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. I think this year, but I'm going to sort of, uh, try to do more, especially because I drive so much.
I'm going to start doing tea. I want to start doing tea in the morning with some, with a cigar. Chai? Chai tea? A little chai. I want to start doing a little chai and, and, and just kind of dive into just tea and coffee a little bit more with cigars. Hot or cold? No, I think with the cooler, cooler months coming or here.
You know, do you like tea with milk? Yes, I think some teas with milk. Yeah, for sure. But, you know, I, I think, you know, a high quality loose [00:29:00] leaf tea. Um, you know, if it's done right and you, you source it well, you don't really need anything, uh, with it. But yeah, I wanna, you know, cause I, I do find myself pairing all of my cigars with an alcoholic spirit or with a spirit.
So I definitely want to dive into, I need to start hanging out with Rooster a little bit more.
**Gizmo:** I don't know about that, but you can drink some tea.
**Chef Ricky:** Well, I know Rooster has the good tea.
**Gizmo:** You know, I've never fallen in love with tea.
**Chef Ricky:** Have you ever had tea, like really high quality
**Gizmo:** tea? Yes, I've had great tea, but it just doesn't work for me.
I always go for coffee. If I could have coffee or tea, I'm going to choose coffee 100 percent of the time. When you come over next time, I'll make you a cup of tea. All right. Can't wait. This is not even like loose tea. This is out of, you know, packets. Yeah, yeah. No, but there's, there's high quality. So what kind of tea
**Senator:** will you recommend for kids?
Yes. Let's hear this. English breakfast, PG,
**Chef Ricky:** PG tips. P. G. tits? P. G. tits? Never heard of it. [00:30:00] Tits or tits? No. It's a black tooth. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a bad microbial activity. Correct.
**Gizmo:** A lot of the English tees, they're bold. Yeah, yeah. No Earl Grey? Robust. Yeah. Earl Grey has like a certain spice added to it that I don't like.
Yeah, I feel the same. I don't like I
**Senator:** like a good Earl Grey. And Darjeeling I like too. I don't like the aftertaste of Earl Grey.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I don't, I don't care for the really care lunch. I love English
**Senator:** breakfast tea though. Yeah. So like I'll have that with a little milk in the morning. It goes great with a cigar.
Oh yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** So do you, do you find that some teas have a drying effect in on your throat or palate? Mm, I, I always put some milk in it. I don't know if that maybe changes it. So, yeah. So maybe the milk creeps it out a little bit and, yeah. And not a lot. I mean, very little. Just a touch. Yeah, just a touch. And I think it could do a lot to extend the finish of a cigar and just kind of smooth things out and highlight some of the softer.
Yeah. I mean, I start my
**Gizmo:** morning with tea, especially with [00:31:00] a Cuban.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It does well. Mr. Jura, no coffee.
**Bam Bam:** I know, right? Well, that's the second cup. So this is actually getting really, really good now. Yeah. So we're
**Gizmo:** coming to the end of the first third band.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. It's I'm getting, I am getting a little bit of fruit now.
Yeah. Um, it's improving.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's definitely smoothing out.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I, I increased, I deepened my cut a little bit and I'm getting a much better smoke output. The smoke output wasn't satisfying earlier, so it's, it's improving for me.
**Senator:** Rooster has your draw opened up?
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it has actually.
**Bam Bam:** That's good. Yeah. I like the cigar.
**Gizmo:** Mm hmm.
**Bam Bam:** Same. One thing I didn't ask, how much is this bottle of bourbon? 60. Okay. Not bad. 61 technically. Not bad at all.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I think it's a fair price for it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's drinking very Very smooth for the proof. I like it. Now, is this something you would reach for? You know, you just [00:32:00] would, you know, answering Lizard John's email here.
Is this something that you would consider running out and buying? You just said you haven't purchased bourbon in a while.
**Bam Bam:** Bourbon or scotch. I haven't done it in a long time. Um, Senator said it earlier. This is a great winter holiday drink to have once in a while. during the next, what is it? Six weeks of winter, seven weeks that we're going to have.
I think I might for that price. It's excellent. Try
**Gizmo:** four months. Yeah. Really?
**Bam Bam:** Well, yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** I tell you where this global warming would go beautifully, especially because it is high proof. You throw this in a little eggnog and you have that with a cigar. I think you'd be in for a treat.
**Senator:** Wow. What this, uh, this bourbon bourbon.
Yeah. The flavor profile. Yeah. Even the cinnamon notes
**Chef Ricky:** and that sounds awesome for a treat, I think.
**Bam Bam:** I don't think I'd have that eggnog with a cigar, though.
**Chef Ricky:** Why not?
**Bam Bam:** No. It, that eggnog will coat
**Chef Ricky:** your mouth.
**Bam Bam:** I don't know.
**Chef Ricky:** No. I think the baking spice, you put enough of this bourbon in there, it'll thin it out.
Yeah. Half bourbon, half eggnog. There you go. I think if you do that, [00:33:00] I think if you do that,
**Senator:** you
**Chef Ricky:** need a really full cigar. Yeah. Like you have a drone. Agreed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Agreed. Yeah. This cigar we're smoking now might be too delicate for it, but for sure, something a lot more full bodied. Yeah. Yeah.
Forward.
**Gizmo:** So in thinking, you know, piggybacking on what lizard john asked here. What are some of, if you think about the classic pairings you've had in your smoking journey, you know, a cigar and a spirit or a wine or whatever it may be. What is something that sticks in your mind as far as a classic pairing for you as you've kind of gone through the years?
McAllen 12.
**Bam Bam:** And the late Howard Churchill. Oh, that's a good one. That is a combination that I've loved for a while. But I haven't had it in a very long time. Nailed it. I haven't had that in a very long time though, Senator. Easily
**Senator:** one of the most
**Bam Bam:** iconic
**Senator:** pairings.
**Bam Bam:** It's a great pairing, it's delicious, but I gotta go back to it.
**Gizmo:** For the listener out there, that cigar, some of the leaves are actually [00:34:00] aged in X whiskey barrels. Correct? I think those are the binders, single malt barrels. And that's the binder. That
**Bam Bam:** cigar also happens to be a great cigar for this time of year as well. Of course. During the holiday.
**Gizmo:** We actually have the Robusto coming up very soon.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, excellent.
**Gizmo:** Late hour Robusto.
**Bam Bam:** So at our North Lounge, way up north, when the fireplace is crackling, a McAllen 12 in that late hour, cannot be beat.
**Gizmo:** I also go to the classic pairing, the McAllen 12 with the Padron Exclusivo.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, sure. Agreed. I mean, that
**Gizmo:** is a day one pairing for
**Bam Bam:** us. Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** You know, and then of course, you know, I think about a classic Cuban pairing, you know, if it's the Havana Club 7 with like a Cohiba Sigloa 5.
Yeah. You know, that's or almost
**Bam Bam:** any other Cuban or any Cuban really. But yeah,
**Gizmo:** even a Guinness with some cigars does really well. So again, at our North
**Bam Bam:** lounge, right? Guinness and a late hour Guinness and an exclusiva. We've done that many times. That's a great pairing.
**Senator:** And that's Guinness from the tap.
**Bam Bam:** Absolutely
**Gizmo:** ice cold. So rooster is [00:35:00] someone who doesn't drink. What is your kind of classic pairing you think of cigars and something alongside it? If I'm having a morning cigar, I do, I do like a cup of tea. And even sometimes like late night, I'll make a cup of tea. Otherwise, just like double espresso with a shot of little hint of cream does really well.
Lately, I tried like the sparkling, uh, lemonade, French lemonade. It was like not, not overly sweet. It was delicious. Yeah, I've been a I've been a proponent of lemon for a long time around. Yeah, that's true. I got a lot of shit for lemon around here. Lemon
**Bam Bam:** and seltzer, baby. I love lemon seltzer. What do you, what do you smoke with a lemonade?
**Gizmo:** Well, whatever, like an LGC or something like that. Something with some nice floral notes,
**Bam Bam:** you know, it does well. Not for me, but
**Gizmo:** really any, any Cuban, any Cuban cigar does well with that. Oh, wow. It's, it's like, you know, I don't drink champagne, so that's like the closest thing to [00:36:00] champagne. Yeah, yeah. What's your classic pairing with a Padron?
Uh, coffee. Like an espresso. I like a coffee with that. I've done that too. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. Coffee. Coffee pairs well with a lot of cigars. Almost any cigar, I think. Yeah. Yeah. But a lot of, you know, a lot of the non alcoholic beers, I mean, do also really well. Mm hmm. Yeah. The athletic especially. I think it's great.
Athletic makes great NA beer. Delicious.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. I like me some Siete Legos Blanco with a Cuban.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. I love it. Citrus notes there and the minerality really pair well with what you get out of Cuban tobacco.
**Gizmo:** I think another new one too is the Uno Dos Trace. The Blanco, the Uno for me has been Outstanding.
Outstanding. I have two bottles at home. It's, it's been a wonderful pairing with Cigars.
**Chef Ricky:** I blew by two thirds of a bottle yesterday. It was amazing. How'd that go? Great.
**Bam Bam:** You know, also, uh, the Belvin E12 Doublewood that we talk about a lot. That with the [00:37:00] Ramona Lona specially selected. Excellent combo. Um, the Schwa Supreme I like with El Tesoro.
Añejo. Really? Because that's a pretty mild Cuban cigar. Yeah, but the Añejo is not over. I mean, the El Tresor is very smooth, easy to drink.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, El Tresor is a great call out because they, they do well in terms of maintaining the agave forward flavor, even in the Añejo. It's not overwhelming though. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** And that schwa, it's kind of a little delicate, but it's got great fruit notes. Some, there's a little bit of floral in there and a little bit of cocoa, just a touch. Yep.
**Gizmo:** So we've been talking about Honduran cigars, obviously Fabrica 5, our partner in this podcast. Mm hmm. Great Honduran cigars, the Aladino we did a couple weeks ago, which scored very highly.
What's your go to pairing with Honduran tobacco, generally? Topo Chico.
**Bam Bam:** Shout out Lizard Mike. So the other night at the North Lounge, I had a Glass of Red Breast and the Aladino Classic Elegante. That was a delicious combo. Because the [00:38:00] Red Breast isn't overtly strong, but there's a lot of oakiness to it and it's a little sweet.
And it worked great with that stick that night.
**Chef Ricky:** I haven't had it personally, but I really do think Andurin Tobacco would go great with tea. For sure. I agree. In fact, that might be my first tea and cigar pairing. We'll do that this week.
**Gizmo:** Try, um, If you have some cardamom at home,
**Chef Ricky:** oh,
**Gizmo:** that goes really well.
Yeah, yeah,
**Chef Ricky:** yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Black cardamom, not green.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. I have green cardamom, not black. I'm going to have to go to. I'll be honest. I have no idea what you guys are talking about. It's a spice. I thought cardamom was like a
**Gizmo:** sweater. No, that's a cardigan. No cardigan.
I'm being honest.
**Chef Ricky:** No, cardamom is great. It's, it's, uh, it, it, it has baking spice like qualities, but when you get into the center of the pot itself, there's a lot of, uh, minty menthol that you find [00:39:00] there, licorice notes, uh, but delivered in a, in a beautiful way. Why I don't like cardamom.
**Gizmo:** I hate licorice. Yeah, I do too.
Yeah. Me too. No, I think when it's done well, I don't think it's
**Chef Ricky:** overly licorice flavor though. No, no. When you bust that pot open and you get the small seeds inside, yeah. It, it could be pretty intense. So when we
**Gizmo:** do tea, we just put the whole cardamon. Yeah, yeah. Just for like a minute and take
**Chef Ricky:** it out. Yeah, it's like one of those things, you know, uh, in a lot of Caribbean cultures, they throw a whole habanero pepper in the pot of rice.
And the rice is great, but God forbid that habanero pepper pops open. You know, it's just. It's even better. Well, yeah. Sure. You just give it a rooster and he'll finish it. But, you know, until that pop pops burst open, it delivers a fruity sort of tropical backnote to the food.
**Gizmo:** Another thing we do with tea, ginger, fresh ginger, a little bit of, you know, whole piece and you take it out.
And cinnamon. Yeah. And with milk, it grows.
**Chef Ricky:** It goes great because it helps smooth out. [00:40:00] So when I get ginger with
**Gizmo:** my sushi, I immediately like move it as far away as I can. Oh man, that's unfortunate. I just can't stand the taste of ginger. It bothers me. You like wasabi? wasabi. Oh yeah, a lot of wasabi, but ginger just drives me nuts.
I love those wasabi peas. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Those are good. This conversation is going all over.
**Gizmo:** It's
**Bam Bam:** riveting. Honestly. Lizard
**Gizmo:** John always writes a good email. We always get, we always go somewhere.
**Chef Ricky:** That's a, he, he, he has a lot of notes. He has a lot, a lot of pointers in his response there.
**Gizmo:** So speaking of notes, boys, let's talk about some programming notes for folks out there.
So next week we have a great Cuban cigar coming up. The Boulevard new gold medal, Christmas Eve. The week after that is going to be our best of 2024. And then we're going to finish the year very, very strong, I hope. And we think that the Cohiba Esplendidos and some fun stuff for New Year's Eve. And we always do a great New Year's Eve recap of our year and the ratings and all that stuff.
So going to prepare a lot of [00:41:00] data for our end of the year episode. Can
**Bam Bam:** you, will the saber make an appearance? I
**Gizmo:** don't want to spoil it, but there's a good chance.
**Bam Bam:** I mean, you can't have New Year's Eve without the Saber, it's true. If you're good.
**Gizmo:** If you behave. Hey, I'm not Senator Junior, okay?
**Rooster:** I
**Gizmo:** feel like Bam might be on the naughty list. Well, I always am. For one reason or another. That's a Bam approved activity.
**Rooster:** Correct.
**Gizmo:** Alright boys, let's go to another listener email. This one's from Lizard Peter. He says, dear lizards, I've been enjoying a sampler pack of five cigars.
I purchased. And the first four were very enjoyable. And then I ordered a 25 count box. I smoked the last of the original five yesterday, and it was very disappointing. It was bitter in a tarry way and on the front of the tongue and lips, it became very ashy in flavor. I abandoned it less than halfway through.
I think we've all been there. The draw was fine. It was slightly wonky burn, but I was smoking outside. [00:42:00] This morning when I went to dispose of the cigar on the garden compost heap, I noticed a hard section of the cigar running down one side, almost to the head. I took the cigar apart and there was a hard twig like stem about three inches long in it.
Could this have been the cause of the impaired flavor? I've read one or two posts on the subject on various internet sites. Some say stems in the filler are normal and indeed add to the flavor. I would appreciate the collective wisdom of the lizards. Kind regards, lizard Peter. And he writes of course, from Nottingham, England.
across the pond. I think some cigar manufacturers leave the stem in there, like when we were in the cube, like the factories in Cuba, the first thing you would notice is they would take the stem out for
**Bam Bam:** a reason
**Gizmo:** and it serves a purpose. They use it back into the soil for fertilizer or whatever.
**Bam Bam:** Well,
**Gizmo:** but I've seen like sometimes they leave the stem in there to improve the draw.
**Bam Bam:** So in Cuba, what I remember is they would soak that stem in water [00:43:00] and whatever leached into the water was used as a pesticide of some kind. Yeah. But isn't there a heavy concentration of flavor in that stem that you don't really want?
**Gizmo:** I don't think flavor, I think nicotine. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, I don't know
**Senator:** of anyone intentionally leaving a stem in.
No. I think that's a mistake.
**Bam Bam:** Now, here's the weird thing. Guys in the lounge, like Lizard EDF, For some reason always comes across a stem.
In an exclusivo no less. Like I have never experienced that before. So I've pulled
**Gizmo:** stems out of my exclusivo's. Dude, it happens. And I think Senator has too. I haven't ever seen that. Couple times. You know what, it's, you know, when I'll notice it is when I'll cut the cap and I'll be drawing and then you, like, you feel it with your tongue or your lips, like there's something poking out and then you start to pull it and then you pull out a stem, the length of the cigar.
So I don't know if that's intentional or not. It can't
**Senator:** be. The reason I say that the stem does not [00:44:00] burn at the same rate that the rest of the leaf does. So. It creates a burn problem. There's no way that they would intentionally want that.
**Chef Ricky:** I feel like if they're, they're steeping that stem in water and using it as a pesticide, then there's a tannic sort of sour, bitter quality to it.
In Cuba they do that, yeah. Yeah, so I would think that would Translate to the flavor of the cigar, you know, like that will carry over and if that's the experience he had.
**Gizmo:** So when you found the stem in the Padrón, did it change the flavor of the cigar? Honestly, in the, I found it in two Padrón exclusivos, I found stems.
And I've pulled them and it improved the draw when I pulled them. Cause I was having like draw issues, you know, but it wasn't like a flavor thing on, on either side before, you know, before I pulled it. And after it didn't affect the flavor, but I, you know, it did certainly affect my draw, but I've seen it a couple of times.
I've seen it in other cigars too. Like. I'm not [00:45:00] sure the answer here, if it's impact or if it could be affecting the bitterness or the wonkiness of the burn, like, I just don't see.
**Senator:** So, my experience has been, it does affect the flavor, and I think it goes back to my point about the burn. Both times, it was two Exclusivos, just like you're saying, I've had this happen with, and it burned a little funny.
And I feel like it was hot probably because I was having to draw to try to burn the stem at like the same rate. And it definitely impacted the flavor. It would have to
**Gizmo:** look. I mean, the Padron brand is so consistent that it's probably the most smoked brand by us. So we've all spoke like, you know, a couple of hundred, maybe a thousand Padrons, a couple of hundred.
I mean, what are a couple of thousands? I mean, you were smoking in 1942. What are you talking about? Fuck you guys.
**Chef Ricky:** Rooster does, Senator does that in a month. Exactly. Couple of [00:46:00] hundred thousand.
**Gizmo:** I mean, the point is like to get two cigars out of thousands of cigars. It still makes that brand very consistent.
**Chef Ricky:** I would say, I think stems are usually associated with, uh, lower price cigars, especially lots of them in a cigar. And I would assume that a stem in terms of flavor, it's going to offer a woody, earthy and perhaps spicier flavor. So maybe that is some of what he was experiencing and it wasn't as jam, you know,
**Gizmo:** the stamps are always taken out.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I kind of look, I side with what Senator said. I it's going to affect your draw on your flavor. It's not a good thing. I just don't think it's a good thing. I agree. You know, I've never had that. Honestly, I've been very lucky, but, um, it can't be a positive.
**Gizmo:** So, boys, we're about the halfway point here on the 1 and Esenciales.
What's everybody thinking? I like it.
**Chef Ricky:** I like it. I think it's gotten a little bit sweeter. Yeah. And maybe that's some of the influence of the bourbon. Uh, maybe not, but I [00:47:00] think, you know, ever since that additional cut that I made, um, getting better smoke output, I'm getting more flavor out of it. I'm enjoying it.
**Bam Bam:** At the midway point, it's actually, it's quite delicious right now for me.
**Gizmo:** So it's improved quite a bit for you. Oh yeah. Because you were not happy in the first place. I was very
**Bam Bam:** unhappy. Yeah. But it's gotten, like Chef said, it's, it is sweeter. There's a bit of an earthy savoriness to it too, under, that's underlying, which is, I think, a mark of a pretty sophisticated cigar.
I'm not sure if this is a sophisticated stick, but it's smoking pretty nice right now
**Gizmo:** and there's a fruity note that's coming through, right? Little
**Bam Bam:** bit. Yeah. Yeah. I,
**Senator:** I may be, um, on an island on this, but I'm not loving this.
**Bam Bam:** Mm. And you're at the same point. I am. More or less, yeah.
**Senator:** I, I, when this started, you know, I mentioned I was confused a bit by the flavor profile.
I'm at a point now, I feel like a lot of the notes you guys are calling out that the bourbon is really like helping produce. I think this is a cigar at this [00:48:00] moment without a spirit. I'd be putting it down. Yeah. You probably really bored. Yeah. The spirit is very much helping
**Bam Bam:** extract. I think he's probably right.
Cause I didn't like this early on either. I was confused. You know, it's
**Gizmo:** funny. I haven't taken a sip of the bourbon in probably about 10 minutes. That's all I'm doing.
I
**Bam Bam:** actually did a second
**Chef Ricky:** pour.
**Senator:** I really love this bourbon.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Senator:** But I just say that because I've intentionally tried not sipping the bourbon for an extended period of time and just smoking the cigar and I'm bored. And then I have a sip of the bourbon and then I'm saying, okay, now I'm starting to get something.
So the, the, the spirit's probably propping up the cigar for me. And when I say I'm bored with the profile, I mean, I'm getting a bunch of different notes, just none of them are pronounced enough to like really grab and hold my attention.
**Bam Bam:** There is, yeah, so it, it, we use the word muddled, it's kind of muddled, but on the retrohale that I just took, honestly, I don't laugh.[00:49:00]
I get it, uh, the fruit I'm getting is like a very slight mango type thing. It's very, very slight.
**Senator:** Or I'd
**Bam Bam:** say in
**Senator:** the flavor, it's muted. Yeah, muted. Like it's not muddled that I can pick them all out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're all muted. I just need some of them to speak to me more. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's a very sophisticated palate to pick mango.
No. I must say. It's, it's there. You can't have dried mango too. It's imaginary. It's there. I think dried mango was in the fruit platter that we got from Lizard Luigi. I would love another
**Bam Bam:** platter from Lizard Luigi, by the way. It's called Harry and David. I know. It tastes better when you get it as a gift. I love, I
**Gizmo:** love
**Bam Bam:** mangoes.
I do too.
**Senator:** Just Rooster's face when he said that. He was like a kid at Christmas.
**Rooster:** His eyebrows went up high.
**Senator:** I
**Gizmo:** love mangoes. Mango is one of my favorite fruits.
**Rooster:** You know, your eyebrows are very expressive. I know what you're feeling. I know what you're thinking. Just wear those eyebrows. Oh, the famous Rooster.
**Chef Ricky:** Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, [00:50:00] over the glasses. Yeah. Rooster has this move where his glasses somehow end up at the end of his nose and he looks over them.
**Bam Bam:** Very professor like. Very professor like.
**Gizmo:** I see better without the glasses up close. Alright boys, let's move now into our Lizard of the Week. This is Lizard Brent who writes us, Hey Lizards, I really love the podcast.
I have a simple question for you guys. Cigar, would you recommend for the holidays this year? I'm trying to figure out something to buy. Bye. New World, preferably, but Cuban, if you, if you insist, please let me know. Thanks so much, Lizard Brent. For a New World, I would say Padrón 50th. The Hammer. The Hammer.
Or the late hour,
**Bam Bam:** Churchill Davidal.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, late hour. There's so many.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Honestly, during the holidays, like, I like to go for the larger format. If I'm gonna do a long sit somewhere, the Punch Double Corona comes to mind for me. For Cuba? Yep. That late hour that I mentioned a few [00:51:00] times. Um, the hammer for sure.
They're celebratory, right? So you want something that's expensive and robust.
**Senator:** Satisfying. Satisfying. I'm going to mention one that's not as robust as the cigars that have been named, um, the Don Carlos Eye of the Shark. Oh, yeah. So that's a great, see, that's a great call out for the holidays as well. Just so dessert like.
Yes. To have after a nice holiday meal. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's, that's a great call out. It's
**Chef Ricky:** been a long time since I've had one. It's been a long time. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** I haven't reached into my box of sharks in so long because your four boxes that you have, no, I have one and it's probably half full, but I just don't reach for them because they're so hard to get.
Now
**Bam Bam:** they are hard to get.
**Gizmo:** You just don't see them anymore. You know, and I think, you know, Fuente, that that's a very hard cigar to roll. It's a box press torpedo. It's an
**Bam Bam:** incredible
**Gizmo:** cigar. It's, it's, it's an incredible cigar. I think we rated it like a 9. 9 or something, but [00:52:00] you know, it's just different in, um, You know, it's just so different now, like finding them versus a few years ago when I got that box.
**Bam Bam:** But if you have enough for the holiday, it's a great call out. I will have that this, this December for sure.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, even an H. Uppman, you know, number
**Bam Bam:** two. Uppman number two, for sure, yeah.
**Gizmo:** Cohiba signal five.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you, cause you have like a hundred of those.
**Gizmo:** I do love them. So piggybacking off this question, boys, a question that I did want to ask you guys is What are some of your plans for the holidays this year as far as your Rotation.
Like, what are some of the cigars you're gonna be reaching for? Smoking. Like, what's your holiday plan for Christmas, New Year's coming up in a couple weeks here? I'll start. Jail? I'll be in Canada. Oh, no. It's brutal. Oh. Are you going to that
**Bam Bam:** beautiful lake that you went to? No. No, I'll be in Whistler.
**Gizmo:** Skiing.
He's on the very far west coast. You're playing
**Bam Bam:** board
**Rooster:** games.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. [00:53:00]
**Gizmo:** He's going to be, he's going to be deep into Monopoly. Drinking hot chocolate.
**Senator:** I'm going to have a cigar in my mouth that is the greatest cold draw of all time because that's about all I'm going to be able to smoke there. You said something that
**Bam Bam:** was hilarious.
And it was regarding the board games. Oh, it's time to abort or something like that? Abort the board games. It's brutal.
**Senator:** No cigar
**Gizmo:** lounges in Whistler?
**Senator:** No. No, it's ridiculous. The crazy thing. So in Whistler Village, there's a cigar shop. And I look up the hours. They're open till midnight. And I was like, oh wow, you obviously have to be able to smoke there.
Who's retail shopping at 11 o'clock? You can't smoke inside, I call the place ridiculous. I'm like, who is strolling in there at 11pm to just buy cigars from a retailer? I mean, the hours didn't make sense to me.
**Bam Bam:** I'm sorry, there's nothing more frustrating when you're away with your family. Everyone's huddled up inside, in bed.
Cozy. You're a lone wolf. You've got your case of cigars with you, and you have nowhere to fucking smoke. It drives me crazy. So you light up
**Gizmo:** in the house [00:54:00] next to the
**Bam Bam:** fireplace, and blow smoke into the fireplace,
**Gizmo:** and everybody goes to sleep.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you get away with that at home. We don't. And you
**Gizmo:** take a six pack of Febreze with you.
**Senator:** No, but that's, that's tough. I'm going to bring a lot of cash. I've heard the four seasons there has some patio with like great heaters that people have told me they've let them smoke there. So I'm just going to grease the staff and hopefully that will work out. But you're going to be freezing your ass off.
**Gizmo:** Right. I mean, it's with the heaters
**Senator:** though. I mean, you'll be bundled up heavily. It's on whist, it's right by the mountain. I mean, you know what'll
**Bam Bam:** be bundled. Plus, you know what, I don't give a shit if that's available. I'm making a beeline for that property. I'm surprised to let you
**Chef Ricky:** do that. You might need a a on a property like that.
Yeah. You might need a, I've,
**Senator:** I, a couple of people have told me that they've done it there before and that's cool. They'll just kind of put you at a table further away from people. Nice. Um, so I'm definitely gonna try that. Um. My mother in law knows how hard this is going to be for me. So she was like, should we get a fire pit?
Like order it to the house or something? Yes. I was like, I mean, it would help, but it's [00:55:00] still going to be brutally
**Gizmo:** cold. I think you should get one of those tents with a personal heater and a lawn chair.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Order that. Yep.
**Gizmo:** And, and. I'm going
**Senator:** to pay to fly Gizmo to
**Rooster:** set up this tent. I remember as a kid, the first time I tried to He would
**Gizmo:** do it!
I would do it! That's what kind of friend I am. I would do it!
**Rooster:** Will you bring a Rover too, please? I would do it. I'd set up the TV,
**Gizmo:** the Wi Fi, the tent, the heater. I would do it. Get some 1926, number 35. You're gold. You'll be good to go. I bet you're a teepee. Yeah, I'll, uh, you know, I'll completely set everything.
I
**Bam Bam:** will say though, that was thoughtful for your mother in law to say that. Yeah. No, I did appreciate the offer. She knows it's going to be very rough for me.
**Chef Ricky:** They might let you smoke one in the house. If I didn't have
**Gizmo:** a kid, baby. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about holiday rotations. So Senator, we know is going, what cigar, if you could sit down in Whistler, At the four seasons, you grease everybody, you're able to smoke two cigars.
What two cigars are you pulling out? Padron
**Senator:** [00:56:00] 80th for sure. Cause outdoors is going to perform perfectly full flavored, delicious smoke. Always like a celebratory holiday type of cigar. So that's a, for sure at the top of the list. The hard thing is outdoors in the freezing cold, I worry about Cubans.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** They're going to crack
**Bam Bam:** and break. Maybe a Rass could hold up, um, maybe a Madura No. 1, That's a candidate. Possibly. You know, it's an option. Just dry
**Gizmo:** box them outside in the horrible temperatures for about a Six hours. Let them acclimate. Let them acclimate to the, uh, 20 degree weather. Yeah.
**Senator:** In the Padron factory.
Yeah. But yeah, I'm not sure the second. That I've got to figure out. Padron is obviously, they'll perform perfectly. I just, I'm not sure what it is. I mean,
**Gizmo:** I have a recommendation for you. It would be the Davidoff Maduro in Rabuzzo. That's a great
**Bam Bam:** idea. Yeah. That
**Gizmo:** would be the other [00:57:00] one. In his situation, that's where I would go.
**Bam Bam:** If you're thinking Cuban though, I'd go Rass or Maduro number one. Yeah, those are pretty heavy duty. Those are good. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Bam, what's your rotation like for the holidays? What kind of cigars are you going to be pulling for Christmas and New Year's? Everything
**Bam Bam:** I've mentioned earlier. I'm, I'm, I'll be having the Davidoff late hour Churchill for sure.
I am going to pull the Don Carlo Shark. That's, there's no doubt about that. Um, Upman II. I'll have the Punch Double Corona, no doubt about it. Um, I'll stay away from Schwa. Most Partigas I'll stay away from. Maybe I will have a D4 indoors for sure. Um, and a New World, I'm gonna go for my Davidoff Millennium Pyramid for sure.
And Exclusivo, no doubt. Basics, all the basics. All right, Chef Ricky, what's your plan?
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, I think a laid out where Churchill's a fantastic cigar for the holidays. A Diplomatico would be great. Padrone? Yeah, yeah. Um, and shit, man, even the aging room sonatas, you know, they're [00:58:00] not super pricey. Oh, forgot about that.
Flavor profile, cold weather. I think it'll do amazing. Yeah. I think it'll be delicious.
**Senator:** I'll say on this topic, I've found that as just the years have gone on, I'm a lot simpler when it comes to holiday stars. I was
**Gizmo:** gonna say that. We all are. I used to, in years
**Senator:** past, like, think about, like, a crazy age cigar, like, something stupid that I had to have to, like, commemorate a holiday.
And now I'm like, I just want my staples that I smoke every day. It's really not like that. I want the killers. I want the killers.
**Gizmo:** I want to know everything I light is going to be incredible.
**Chef Ricky:** Dude, that Bon Roberts 109. That's,
**Gizmo:** I, that is absolutely on my list. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. The Bon Roberts Petite 109 is going to be incredible.
A Christmas cigar for me, for sure, for sure. Also, I mean, the Padron Hammer definitely is going to make an appearance on one of the two holidays. Padron 80th is going to make [00:59:00] an appearance on one of the two holidays. I would say for me, if I think about Davidoff, I'm either going to go for the Millennium Lancero Limited Edition, or the Millennium Pyramides, you know, in Bam Bam territory.
I would say Cuban wise, I'm probably gonna do, I'll probably go a little crazy on the Cubans. I'll probably go with a Lubb 14 up in number 2. I might go with an MDO number 2 from LaGloria Cubana. Um. Excuse me? I love how Gizmo is just
**Senator:** saying, I'm just like you Senator, I keep it simple. This is the basic staples.
**Bam Bam:** Hold on. I'm not gonna let this one go. Hold on. How many of those do you have? Be honest. What was the question? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Which cigar?
**Bam Bam:** MDO number two.
**Gizmo:** I have a box and a half. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah. No, I'm not kidding you. Cannability Hour. I say it, Ben. What do you mean accountability? I've had the same amount of cigars.
I'm like ready to cry, right? I haven't bought [01:00:00] another box. I don't watch for the half. I'm tearing up. I have a sealed box Yeah, I have a sealed box of MDO twos tonight and a couple singles Probably I don't remember
**Bam Bam:** right there. That's a crime took place there.
**Gizmo:** I Mean I I have to go with a Cohiba signal 5 somewhere in between the two days.
Yeah Absolutely. I love that cigar and I, I'm either going to go, I'm going to go with one of two, eight, nine, eight, I'm either going to go with a part of this eight, nine, eight from 2004,
**Bam Bam:** only the basics.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, these are the basics is so
**Senator:** full of shit. I can't believe you said you agreed with me. I do
**Rooster:** agree.
This is like the elite of the elite level of cigars. What are you talking about?
**Gizmo:** Um, I'm right with Senator. Just put your pinky
**Rooster:** out when you go to his.
**Gizmo:** Continue. Or the Ramon 898 from 2002. That would be one of the two 898s I'm going to call. Simple guy? Holy smokes. It's as if I'm in Whistler with Senator.
**Bam Bam:** Will you do any outdoor smoking? No, zero. No fire pit? None of that? Zero. So you'll [01:01:00] be in the Gizmo garage? I'll
**Gizmo:** either be here at the lounge or I will be in my garage. Nice.
**Chef Ricky:** So no vintage Sir Winston's? Wow.
**Gizmo:** No, I probably won't pull a Sir Winston. No, no, he's a simple guy. I'm simple. Uh, yeah. Come on. I can't open that, uh, varnish box.
**Bam Bam:** I am, I am blown away with the MDO number two. I don't know what to say. Yeah, it's a great cigar.
**Gizmo:** Why don't you come over on one of the holidays we'll have? Alright. And you know what we'll do is we'll FaceTime Senator. Alright. And we'll say, hey man, how's it going? Alright. We'll just have some MD twos. All
**Chef Ricky:** right.
As he has a, A zinc patch. A zin patch. . Yeah. We talked about last week the zins. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** that's probably legal candidate too.
Rooster. You're up. I'm gonna do the, uh, the Chef's Edition. Davi off Chefs. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. Oh, I might put that in my David off rotation. Fancy. I have like three of those fancy. You guys are amazing. And do the padron hammer for sure. A hammer I gotta say. We have debated Senator looking at you.
We have debated the 80th versus the hammer and you're all wrong. Okay, [01:02:00] listen Wow special occasion the hammer. They're a different experience. The hammer stands out on a special occasion.
**Bam Bam:** Well It's not better than the 80th though. It's a different effect. Yeah, I can't say one's better than the other I do like the 80th a little bit more but they're both incredible, but they're both very different
**Senator:** They are different nine out of 10 people you ask will say that they prefer if they had to pick one.
They're going to take the 80th over the hammer. The 80th is creamier. It's full flavored,
**Gizmo:** but it's very good. Yeah. I'd love to see your data on that statement. I've asked,
**Senator:** first
**Gizmo:** of
**Senator:** all,
**Gizmo:** in this,
**Senator:** of this group, you and maybe one other listener, he's going to do a focus group next week. I know exactly number two in that lounge, same exact story, but
**Bam Bam:** the hammer, that's something that I never, ever have.
That'll be an interesting that I may pull that this this this holiday season
**Gizmo:** that dude that is a perfect holiday cigar Yeah, yeah. All right rooster. We interrupted go ahead. I'm saying and I would do the Ramon eight nine eight. Oh You have some of those too. Yeah, nice [01:03:00] and I didn't know that his his are older And I love the punch punch 2014 You have a 50 cab of those, right?
Yeah. Yeah. They love the punch punch. That's a great cigar. And, uh, you know, on the milder side of the Cuban, a Juan Lopez, number one. Number one. Nice. I haven't had one of those in a while. Yeah. That's a great one. Actually, it's the same size as this. It's a Corona Gorda. Yeah. The Seleccción No. 1. I love that size.
And also maybe the Davidoff Maduro.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You
**Gizmo:** know, I haven't, I
**Bam Bam:** haven't been reaching for those. So when you're at that property outside, that is a great candidate to smoke outside. No doubt about it. Yeah, I think you got to
**Gizmo:** go Padron either 80 or 50 and Davidoff Maduro that those would be the two if you're able to
**Bam Bam:** do you have any punch double Coronas.
If you don't, I want to gift you one because I like that rapper. It's very thick. There's I think that could probably hold up up there. All right, I'm in. [01:04:00] Yeah, no, seriously. He's got a box. He doesn't have it. No, he doesn't have any of those. No, I think that, that's probably one of the only Cubans I would probably attempt to have outside.
If there's heaters and I'm bundled up, I think that'll hold up pretty well. He'll figure out a way. Yeah. After four seasons. I'll have to find something.
**Chef Ricky:** You're gonna make it work, dude. Can you remind me the part against Maduro that we did on the pod? Few weeks back, or couple ago we did the material number three.
That was the number three. Mm-hmm . Yeah. So I think to your point, 'cause you gave me a number one, I think the three or one would be a amazing, the one would be great. I, I would've preferred a one
**Bam Bam:** outside. Yeah, yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Uh, outside for
**Bam Bam:** sure.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
**Gizmo:** I feel like the wrapper on the one was a little thicker, little more robust.
Oh, yes. At least the ones we had, you know, we had an original release. I still have that of those, I still have that box. That was episode one by the way. Yes. I still have that box. I think there was a 2015. Right. I. I think so. Something like that. So none of you guys mentioned the Vegas Robaena Classico.
Well, I was trying to be pedestrian. Wow. Oh. Mute his mic. [01:05:00]
**Bam Bam:** He has three boxes of those. I know. No, I have a box and a half. Oh, only a box and a half. Motherfucker.
**Senator:** What? I am That's what happens when you don't share those cigars. That is bullshit. Come on.
**Bam Bam:** That's not nice. You know Senator, I can't even look at him anymore.
I
**Gizmo:** can't look at him. It's like I can't do it. What about those beautiful Esplendidos we're going to do in a couple weeks here? I can't wait. For New Year's Eve.
**Bam Bam:** Can't wait.
**Gizmo:** What about those? Good deflection. All of a sudden, I'm a good guy, right? All of a sudden,
**Bam Bam:** my
**Gizmo:** man, I didn't really want to say good guy.
You're not going to smoke a Lucy. I've, I've fallen off the Lucy, man. So hold on.
**Bam Bam:** You had like eight boxes of those. I got rid of them. All of them. You didn't keep one box.
**Gizmo:** I have a full cab of 50. This is how he's paying for everything. He just said. I have a full cab of 50 and I have about 30 and a second cab.
That's about it. So it's just 80. He only has 80. I [01:06:00] sold, I sold like five or six cabs.
**Bam Bam:** I think most of us have one cab. You have a cab. I have a cab. You probably have three. No, I don't. I have less than that. Okay.
**Gizmo:** But you have that many. I have some. Okay. You know, the ones I have performed very well. It's just that flavor profile for me, the Partagus Lusitania.
Yeah. It's just, it's just fallen off for me. I know people love it. People chase it. People go crazy. That was your favorite stick. It was, but things change.
**Bam Bam:** I. Never ever think of smoking that cigar. Five Five. Oh you said? Yeah. S five's definitely gonna happen.
**Gizmo:** I think the 8, 9 8 is a better cigar. Parus. Yeah.
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Oh, absolutely. More flavor. I think
**Senator:** they're very different profiles though.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I different application. I
**Gizmo:** personally have not had great luck with the Parus Luan.
**Bam Bam:** I don't think any of us have. Overall. I have. I've had some really good ies. I have a great cab. Did you? Yeah, I, I've had
**Gizmo:** some
**Bam Bam:** really good loosies outta my cab.
Nice. Yeah, I've only had one out of that cab and I haven't gone back. What's
**Gizmo:** the date on yours? Do you know?
**Bam Bam:** I have to [01:07:00] look. 2018, I think. Okay. Something like that.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we're coming into the last third here on the HVC Seleccción No. 1 in Esenciales. What's everybody thinking? I like
**Bam Bam:** it. I do too. So, I haven't had a sip of this incredible bourbon in a while and the cigar is holding up, actually.
It's gotten
**Chef Ricky:** a lot better for me. I'm curious to hear Senator's thoughts because I know when you weren't feeling it, you were still about an inch away from where we were all at, where we started to enjoy it a little more. So do you find it to be better now?
**Senator:** I think the flavor's picked up, so I'm happy about that.
Yeah. But I still don't have a dominant note that grabs me. Neither do I. Like for me, when I really love a cigar, There's always some prominent note that like defines that cigar for me, right? So like the schwa supreme, like that, like those berry notes you get, like, you'll never forget that you always reach [01:08:00] for it.
The Rast, the D4, the Baking Spice, like every cigar, Padron, the Cocoa note, like the Earth. I can't call out a dominant note that I'm really, Thrilled with
**Bam Bam:** I want to hear what you're thinking about it.
**Gizmo:** My feeling is this. I think it's a delicious cigar
**Bam Bam:** Mm hmm,
**Gizmo:** but I think it's incredibly forgettable.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Gizmo:** like I I don't think after smoking this tonight I'll ever think about the cigar again.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, you know,
**Gizmo:** but with that being said it's a good cigar like yeah, I'm Entertained by it. Mm hmm, but it's very forgettable to me. It's better
**Bam Bam:** than the other
**Gizmo:** It's definitely better than the hot cake that we did, but still I have not fallen in love with, with HVC here. I don't think it's worth buying a box, but maybe a fiver to have, to have once in a while.
Yeah, especially at this
**Chef Ricky:** price point. Yeah, can't go wrong with that. How much are these again? About 8.
**Gizmo:** 60, you know, that's the other thing too, is a sub 10 cigar, you know, this [01:09:00] isn't knocking my socks off, but I can't complain about it right now.
**Senator:** No, but I wish it was giving me more. You know, I can complain about it only because there are a lot of sub 10 cigars we've done that have like really defined notes that like we pursue and immediately said, yeah, I'm buying a box and blow
**Bam Bam:** this away.
Here's
**Senator:** what I will say though.
**Bam Bam:** This
**Senator:** is not that
**Bam Bam:** right.
**Senator:** It's not like the Sonata. It's not like the Oliva V Lancero. It's not like the Aladino Lancero. Like there's a lot of sub 10 cigars. I will say, I
**Gizmo:** think that The thing about this cigar is I don't feel like this is in my wheelhouse. We use that word a lot, but I think there are smokers out there in our audience that, the Tatawahe smokers, the smokers who love Nicaraguan puro.
Oh,
**Bam Bam:** actually Tatawahe is a pretty good alignment with this cigar. Those smokers,
**Gizmo:** I can see this cigar really impressing them. For us, for me, I'm thinking about Honduras. I'm thinking about Cuba. I'm thinking [01:10:00] about tobaccos that, Have nothing to do with this those ring my bell way more than this So this isn't bad, but I can see someone in our audience smoking this along with us going you guys are crazy This cigar is perfect for my palate.
Mm hmm, but it's just not perfect for my like
**Senator:** I'll even say this We thought this would be a really full cigar.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, actually the rate the reviews online Half Wheel, by the way, we've talked about Half Wheel reviews when we did the Aladino a couple weeks ago. Half Wheel said that this was the strongest cigar that he smoked in like four or five years.
That is absurd. And I just
**Senator:** say that because we love Nicaraguan tobacco. So, you know, if this actually were like a full Nicaraguan experience, I'd probably like this a lot more. It's like in this weird in between and It doesn't pick what it wants to be. And that's what I have a hard time doing. We, we
**Gizmo:** did that short smoke special last week.
Yeah. We did the padro number 35. Yeah. That is a way stronger cigar. Oh, [01:11:00] absolutely, though. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I, I do question again the humidity thing. Yeah, yeah. You know, is, is adding a lot of moisture to this. Is this gonna. Put it in a place that is going to knock you on your ass. Also, he
**Chef Ricky:** smoked it this far down, right?
Cause it did start a little stronger, but it settled in and it's kind of become muted. And, you know, so maybe he just didn't.
**Gizmo:** I mean, it's medium at best. I agree. I mean, the Padron 1926 series is way more, you know, flavor and strength wise. It's, it's up there.
**Chef Ricky:** Clearly he hasn't smoked one of those in five years.
I think to all of your, Oh
**Bam Bam:** Lord. I think to all of your, the points that you're making, there are cigars in this category that really did blow this away. Yeah. For the same price. I think so. Yeah. But again,
**Gizmo:** I just can't dismiss. The place of this cigar in someone's palate or rotation out there who appreciates what this cigar is doing.
I don't think that person is in this room.
**Bam Bam:** No.
**Gizmo:** [01:12:00] But I think that person exists.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And they're listening to this pod right now, again, smoking with us, going, You guys are crazy.
**Bam Bam:** But if that was a buddy of mine in the lounge, I'd give him a Sonata over this. I agree for sure. I'd give him the maestro del tiempo over this.
Oh yeah. Sure. Pedro
**Senator:** and
**Bam Bam:** Exclusivo. Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** As far as
**Senator:** Nicaragua
**Gizmo:** goes.
**Senator:** And where I do agree with everyone, it's not a bad cigar. No. There's nothing like offensive. There's nothing I'm overly upset about. I just want more.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I mean, if there's one flavor note that kind of comes through, it's the earthiness that's kind of been like, you know, all throughout the cigar, you get that there, but there is that sweetness
**Bam Bam:** now.
Yeah, but I can't put my finger on
**Chef Ricky:** it. I can't lose the mango. On the mango. The man I'm actually's kind of moved away from me, but
**Bam Bam:** there's still a sweetness that I don't know what it is. The mango brothers over here.
That's a BAM approval activity.
**Rooster:** Mangoes in a period of activity.
**Gizmo:** Let me ask you a question. What do you guys think of the bourbon right now?
**Bam Bam:** That's awesome. Cause
**Gizmo:** every sip for me, the [01:13:00] bourbon has gotten better. Yeah,
**Bam Bam:** that's good.
**Gizmo:** For, you know, we're an hour 15 in every sip has gotten better.
**Senator:** I like the bourbon a lot.
You know, I just stand by, I said this earlier, I do think it overpowers the cigar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah,
**Senator:** yeah. I mean, Rooster said the cigar is medium at best. This is a full bodied
**Gizmo:** bourbon. Can I be honest with you? Yeah. Looking at the reviews I saw online, Half Wheel and others, I put this bourbon aside, seeing it was 107 proof, for this cigar, thinking we need something pairing wise that's going to align with what we're gonna get from the cigar tonight.
I expected this to be You know, knock us on our ass.
**Bam Bam:** So then you'd have to assume what Chef said earlier, that they may have smoked an inch and a half into the cigar. Yeah, or super wet. We were getting a lot of pepper at that point and it seemed like a full bodied cigar, but then it dissipated. Yeah. They probably didn't finish the cigar.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I don't know how you review a whole cigar. I mean, half real goes into [01:14:00] Yeah. And
**Senator:** they photographed the sections, like you're saying. I think they're smoking them. I think it's a humidity issue for sure. I think it's humidity. I think it's humidity. Because I'm sorry, even the first third of this cigar, there was no point in the first third that I said, this is a really full cigar.
That wasn't my experience with this. We were just getting some pepper, but not like super,
**Bam Bam:** super full. Sure.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we didn't talk about it, but I want to share some of the information on the bourbon we have tonight. Baker's 7 Single Barrel Bourbon is a distinguished member of the Jim Beam family. I didn't know that.
In their small batch bourbon collection, which also includes Basil Hayden's, Nom Creek, and Booker's. This bourbon was introduced in 1992 by sixth generation master distiller, Booker No. Baker's bourbon was named in honor of his cousin, Baker Beam, a grandnephew of Jim Beam and a former distiller at the Claremont, Kentucky plant.
Baker's 7 single barrel bourbon is crafted using a mash bill comprising [01:15:00] 77 percent corn, 13 percent rye, and 10 percent malted barley. Obviously that meets the mandate of a minimum of 51 percent corn in the mash for traditional bourbon production. The Jim Beam distillery where Baker's is produced is overseen by 7th generation generation master distiller Fred Noe.
Fred Noe continues the Beam family legacy in bourbon craftsmanship, maintaining the quality and tradition associated with the brand. Or so they say. Long history there. Seven generations of master distillers. Here's a question for you. In the family.
**Bam Bam:** So when I get an old fashioned, from time to time I'll ask for a basil, hayden rye.
Yep. Which is nice. Would any of you request this in your old fashioned? Only the eggnog.
**Chef Ricky:** Or in a mixed drink of any kind. I think it, I think because it's high proof, it would make a delicious Old Fashioned. It would. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, [01:16:00] it's not something I've ever seen before, you know, on, on bar shelves. Um, but yeah, I think it would make a delicious Old Fashioned.
I could see some of the, the citrus note, the, you know, from that orange rind coming in and just really complimenting it nicely.
**Bam Bam:** You know, other than Weller and that entire line of bourbon. Every other bourbon for me is a candidate for a cocktail. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** But I do prefer, like you, I do prefer, uh, a whiskey with a higher rye content than the mash.
I agree. For old fashions.
**Bam Bam:** And most other bourbon cocktails.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** But I think the cinnamon that's present in this bourbon, as Senator noted, With the orange in an old fashioned, I think, I think would really work very well.
**Chef Ricky:** You
**Gizmo:** know, and I think, you know, kind of, you know, diluting this a little bit with the ingredients of the old fashioned, I think it would work really well.
**Chef Ricky:** You know, for next year, I'd totally put this bourbon in a side dish for Thanksgiving. Like what? Sweet potatoes. [01:17:00] Wow, wow. Yeah, some bourbon spiked sweet potatoes and do a spiced fluff over the top. I love doing fluff instead of like whole marshmallows. Whip some egg whites, a little gelatin. Maybe some cardamom, cinnamon into that, uh, that fluff mix and then just torch it up.
If
**Gizmo:** you want to come over for Christmas, I have a Ramone 898
**Bam Bam:** with your name on it. Can you just whip up dinner for me and I'll have whatever cigar you want? You can raid the tower.
**Chef Ricky:** Correct. Wouldn't be the first time I've made multiple Thanksgiving dinners. That's awesome. But yeah, yeah, it's, it's a really good bourbon.
Really, really good. I was actually surprised to hear the corn, the corn content was so high in the mash.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, and I think it has to because it has to meet at least 51%. Obviously, it's 77.
**Bam Bam:** 77 is, it's, it's, yeah, it's pretty high. 10 more minutes of drinking this, I may have to Uber home though.
And I've been taking this down. Cruise control. Oh yeah. Cruise control. I don't have a Tesla, [01:18:00] so I can't auto drive.
**Gizmo:** So, boys, we've talked about cigars. We talked a little bit about spirits. Let's talk about food. Obviously, this is our first holiday season with Chef Ricky. I'm curious, what is everybody's go to this season, Christmas and New Year's, for food?
Beef wellington. I love a beef wellington. Beef wellington. Let me tell you, one of my favorite YouTube videos ever is, and I encourage everybody to go find this right now. Big YouTube guy. That's you. Not like you. Correct. Gordon Ramsey making a beef wellington is one of my favorite YouTube videos I've ever seen.
It's, he is just so into it. It's so compelling. It's well instructed, and the result is, I mean, I probably could never do it, but it is shocking. And, and, Chef Ricky, I mean, that's one of the hardest dishes to make, correct? [01:19:00] As far as beef goes.
**Chef Ricky:** It is, especially at a, at a high end sort of, uh, just, it requires a lot of discipline.
You're using pastry, number one. That meat better be super finely cooked. And then you have to duxelles. And honestly, I think that duxelles oftentimes doesn't. It needs love, right? And I love adding dried porcinis to my duxelles. So for those that don't know, duxelles is the mushroom coating that goes around the beef tenderloin before you apply the pastry.
Um, and it usually, it comprises a shallot face. I mean Gizmo has his
**Senator:** head tilted to the side like a lap dog right now.
**Rooster:** It's like, he's looking at a playboy. I resent the implication, but you're not
**Gizmo:** wrong.
**Chef Ricky:** That was
**Rooster:** a
**Chef Ricky:** perfect description. Can you
**Gizmo:** explain what this is? I
**Chef Ricky:** think Gizmo is getting aroused. Hey, that's a BAM approved
**Gizmo:** activity.
**Chef Ricky:** At its most basic [01:20:00] form, you know, the Excel is thyme, mushrooms, shallots, and in its most rustic form, it's all kind of Post in a food processor, obviously, when you go to someplace like a Gordon Ramsay restaurant or a high end restaurant, they're doing all these cuts by hand.
**Senator:** Or when BAM's making
**Chef Ricky:** it. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** With those monster hands. I will
**Chef Ricky:** never make that dish. But let me tell you, man, you make that dish so Some shallots, garlic, thyme, a little Madeira. And then just incorporate some dry porcinis into that, and it's, it's, it's gonna kill, it's gonna be amazing, and, um, there really is, for me, there's no better dish than a beef wellington for Christmas.
I wanna, I wanna
**Gizmo:** again say, my tower is your tower.
**Chef Ricky:** That's all I'm
**Gizmo:** gonna say. What time is dinner Christmas Eve? Do you have two extra plates for Bam and me? Oh yeah. Senators and Whistler, he's gonna be having Wendy's. But you and I, Bam, we're good. Beef
**Chef Ricky:** wellington, baby. We're in. Yeah. And so, so for [01:21:00] Thanksgiving, I try not to do multiple meats, but Christmas, that's when I do a beef wellington.
And then I always have to do a pain de nid, uh, cause I'll be disowned by my Puerto Rican heritage if I don't. Uh, uh, so yeah, beef wellington, pain de nid, some cream spinach, a wonderful pan sauce. Um, and then everything else on top of that, it's, it's, it's, it's gravy. It doesn't matter. Uh, but as long as you nail those proteins, um, you're, you're good.
You're good to go. Is your
**Gizmo:** wife going
**Chef Ricky:** to make the flan? No, no flan, but definitely do pies. Um, I'm a big pie guy. I prefer pie over cake. Although my wife makes amazing cake. What kind of pie? Pecan. For me, it doesn't matter. Please say blueberry. Uh, not for Christmas. Blueberry is more for summer. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** That's more for Thanksgiving.
It's more, more for summer. Blueberry, cherries. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** Pecan, apple, pumpkin. She makes a great s'more pie. You know what else
**Gizmo:** is good? The sweet potato pies.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah, but I love banoffee. Uh, [01:22:00] with Bourbon for Christmas, but not, he's great, but not, he's in a, a great pie. What do I do with an obvious banana chocolate.
Uh, that sounds amazing. I've never had a banana chocolate pie. I love sticky toffee pudding for Christmas. It's sticky. Toffee pudding is. It's, it's, I'm just a fan of wet cake. Also a BAM approved activity. Wet cake? Yes.
**Gizmo:** You should send the recipe from Banafi to BAM. Yeah. I'd love to see him make this. I know, right?
**Chef Ricky:** Um, yeah, so these are all things that happen at home. Uh, my wife goes nuts and, you know. God bless her because she, you know, on top of the baking she does for home, she does a ton of baking for her business. And on top of the cooking I do for home, I do, I don't do a ton of cooking these days, but I do oversee a lot of cooking.
Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's always a production at home, but it's, [01:23:00] it's probably, uh, the holidays are my favorite times to cook for sure. Awesome. And it's, it's, it's just great to see people be really satisfied with what they're eating. You know, from
**Gizmo:** just, and listen, it sets us up for a great cigar, right? Correct.
Great meal. Right. What's the perfect followup? Right. In a great cigar. Right. Chef's Cigar Lounge at home. That's what we're going to do when we go there. We're going to have the Beef Wellington. What was the, what was the dessert? Uh, Bouffant. Bouffant. Bouffant. Bouffant. Bouffant. Bouffant.
**Bam Bam:** Bouffant. Bouffant.
Bouffant.
**Gizmo:** Bouffant. Bouffant. Bouffant. Bouffant. Bouffant.
**Bam Bam:** Um, leg of lamb. Oh, nice. Usually a leg of lamb.
**Gizmo:** Do you go to the Costco business center to get that?
**Bam Bam:** No. I don't buy anything. Costco business center. So, Mrs. Bam Bam buys everything. I don't know where she gets it. What do you mean you don't go to Costco?
I don't. What's wrong with you? I can't food shop. I don't know how to do it. You don't know how [01:24:00] to do it now. I just, I'll be honest. It's
**Senator:** not that hard to accountability. Our part three, I also don't do laundry. So new year's eve episode
and Graham makes Bonafi. So which, which part of the shopping experience is hard? The shopping cart. The putting it in the cart,
**Bam Bam:** um, transacting, getting myself the bagging, the groceries. No, I, I'm a good bagger, but I can't get myself to go to the supermarket. I can't do it. Is it 'cause
**Gizmo:** you're a celebrity, like you afraid of being seen?
I just, I just don't Wait. Are you bam, bam. From the Lounge Lizards podcast? I get that from time to time. Oh, you do? I do. Oh yes. ,
**Bam Bam:** he looks formidable. I think that might be him. No, I don't, I don't, I don't go, I don't go to the supermarket often. When is the last time you've been at his supermarket years?
**Senator:** This can not be serious.
Are you kidding?
**Bam Bam:** I'm not lying. Come on. I've also, I haven't ever done laundry. And we've talked about that before. So there are things I just don't do. I don't, I don't do them. I don't know. This is the gift that [01:25:00] keeps on giving. So I make a list of things. I actually make like lists of entrees and she figures it out.
He puts his
**Gizmo:** order in.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. So the lamb with the, what's the, with the root vegetables. I love that. Oh, roasted root vegetables. All root vegetables for Christmas with the lamb. This is crazy.
**Senator:** Oh,
**Bam Bam:** I just don't go shopping.
**Senator:** I can't get over it. I know someone saying they haven't been in a supermarket in years.
Yes.
**Bam Bam:** So today I needed like chicken breast because I needed a protein for a meal. And I'm like calling Mrs. Bam Bam, are you going to go to Whole Foods and then come home? Are you going to go to work and then go to Whole Foods? I need to eat. Let me introduce you to Instacart.
**Gizmo:** I know your life is really, I just don't do it.
It's just something I don't do. But I need a drink. Here's the thing, though, Senator, I'm taking a drink. It all aligns. I don't know what that means. It's. Am I wrong? What the hell does that mean? Senator knows what I mean, and so do the listeners.
**Senator:** Correct.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, that's not right. Just wait till we get the emails.
Oh yeah, we're gonna get some [01:26:00] emails. So, Rooster. Yeah. No meat for your protein. What? No, actually, say it, say it. That
**Rooster:** a soy ball, a soy, a ball of soy. It's like a basketball, but it's a soy. It's going to be a leg of tofu.
**Gizmo:** Crown roast, baby.
**Rooster:** When he one year said he's going to have a soy. Soy ball. Oh my God. I
**Gizmo:** would, I don't know what to think. And actually Trader Joe's makes, makes a pretty good vegan roast and my wife's going to make, uh, he's
**Rooster:** going to make a vegan Trader Joe's soy
**Gizmo:** ball. Is it
**Chef Ricky:** seitan? I don't know what it is, but it's good.
And she's going to make a vegan shepherd's pie. Nobody's going to Rooster's. Did
**Gizmo:** you notice how I didn't say my tower is safe? Yeah, we'll be at chef's. Good, my tower is safe.
Oh gosh. Now I
**Chef Ricky:** know. Don't underestimate the power of a charcuterie board. You know, we're [01:27:00] talking main dishes here, but definitely got a
**Bam Bam:** beautiful charcuterie board out so you could keep your guests. I have to say one thing, though. There was one Easter. Senator sent the photo. This was years ago, and I haven't forgotten this.
You know where I'm going. That bread pudding. That's my wife's. Dude. It's a plus. Do you guys remember that fucking photograph? That's
**Senator:** the wild thing. Bab. Like, I didn't even know what it was. It was like, probably the furthest dish in the photo. He likes to zoom. And he circled it and zoomed and nailed it.
And that was probably
**Bam Bam:** the
**Senator:** best dish on the
**Bam Bam:** table. I didn't know what it was. Because it was, it was lumpy, it was crispy, it was chunky. I have never seen, I don't know what the fuck it was. Bread pudding? I love bread pudding.
**Gizmo:** We still haven't tasted
**Bam Bam:** it. Did you notice that? That I haven't had. Now I know there's a lot of culinary arts going on in the Senator's house.
Correct.
**Chef Ricky:** My wife makes a croissant bread pudding. But he doesn't talk about it. With a vanilla anglaise and the bread pudding has [01:28:00] a rum caramel. It's insane. If
**Gizmo:** I give you some Havana Club 7.
**Chef Ricky:** Yes.
**Gizmo:** Can I have some of that? I have a bottle of that too I can give you. No, no. Forget him. Forget him. Walk in here.
**Bam Bam:** Although he's got like 10 bottles. I got one.
**Gizmo:** Senator, I know you're going to Whistler. What's what's it looking like man? He's gonna have Canadian bacon. Yeah, I'm gonna be eating
**Senator:** poutine Cheese fries. I don't buy it for a second No, luckily the Pacific Northwest has great food. I mean the seafood out there is ridiculous I mean you'll get some of the best fish you can get and oysters Oysters, um, there's a great place in Whistler Village, there's a place called Aroxi, amazing for apres.
They've got like every kind of oyster you can imagine, um, so the food seems really good. I'm actually excited for that. Um, I'm happy that I'm like off the hook for being [01:29:00] fully responsible for cooking, which is nice. I mean, we'll all contribute the nice that we don't eat out. But usually Christmas for me, like Christmas Eve is always heavy seafood.
Christmas day is like a Chateaubriand or like some fillets I'll throw on the grill. Um, so I'd like to adhere as closely as I can. That's just what I, it's like my tradition. It's what I like. So, uh, hopefully Christmas Eve will probably be some seafood and then I want a steak on Christmas day. So how many people are
**Bam Bam:** going up?
Uh, The three of you? I think six of us will be there. Oh, nice. Yeah. Okay. That's manageable. And who typically, who controls the menu? When you're eating at home, well, he has an in law to deal with. What kind of
**Chef Ricky:** question is this? Is there something Senator doesn't control? Oh, I think. Thank you. That's exactly what I was going
**Senator:** to say.
I think he's not asking in my house. He's asking when I go out to Whistler. When you're away, yeah. I have no control. It's a
**Bam Bam:** different, it's a different scene. Totally different. That must be hard.
**Senator:** Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. How's
**Gizmo:** that go?
**Senator:** Although actually, I shouldn't say that [01:30:00] one of the years I went out there. Um, I made steaks for everybody and it got like rave reviews.
Um, but that's a mistake because then you get asked to make it again on the grill. Um, uh, uh, no, they didn't have a grill. So I had to do the pan in the oven. I kind of like that. It came out. I like a flat
**Bam Bam:** sheet pan. No,
**Senator:** no, no. Cast iron. Cast iron. Cast iron
**Bam Bam:** sear and then in the oven. So dude, there's nothing like a steak in a cast iron pan, that caramelization that you get, that's off the charts.
So this is,
**Chef Ricky:** this is an amazing meal. With butter and rosemary. But I'm gonna, thyme, thyme and garlic. Okay. Rosemary works too, but everyone, this, if you've never done it, try reverse searing. Especially if you have a thick cut of steak, which I imagine on Christmas Day you do. Reverse what? Reverse searing.
Reverse sear is the move. It's the opposite, right? Yup. So you put your oven on 200 degrees or 225 or 250 max. You put your raw steak into the oven. Also dry brine your meats, right? [01:31:00] The wet brine on turkeys is messy. What type of surface are you putting it in the oven? You could put it on a sheet pan with a rack.
Okay. Right? That's easy. Now here, the goal isn't to get color. Kind of cook it evenly throughout. So you get it to a rare temperature. You want
**Gizmo:** it to rare.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah. You pull it out at rare. You get a blazing hot cast iron pan. And then that's when you sear on your stove top, super hot. Um, you know, preferably maybe avocado oil or something with a high smoke point.
So you're not smoking out everyone in the house. And then you sear your steak heavily. Get caramelization. Hold on. Okay. Are you putting butter in there? Always base your proteins. This is what we call I was a, in the, in the business, you're going to use, you're going to use butter time and you've got a head of garlic, you cut it in half.
Don't even remove the, the, the skin, the skin of the garlic. And you're just, you know, your butter's going to start to [01:32:00] foam, always wait for the butter to begin to foam, and then you're going to. Take a spoon, preferably the largest, you know, the spoon with the largest bowl, not like a large serving spoon, but you know, ideally the perfect spoon is a coon spoon.
You should have enough time to get one on Amazon. That's a raccoon spoon? Coons. Coons. That's a questionable name. What Brewster uses to club the raccoons.
Great, cool. Great. Cool. Club
**Gizmo:** before you have a nice, nice, nice patina on it. Before you say
**Chef Ricky:** the reason is
**Rooster:** so serious.
**Gizmo:** So is that how you get the steak medium plus
the plus comes back. Oh, my God.
**Chef Ricky:** Kuhnspoon. [01:33:00] Kuhnspoon. Kuhns, K U N Z is named after one of the most celebrated chefs, Grey Kuhns, may he rest in peace. Uh, he was one of the first chefs to get, uh. The first raccoon that roosted a raccoon. The first one he choked out. His name was Greg. He was the chef of Les Panas in New York City in the 80s.
They got one, I believe it was the, the first, uh, one of, one of the, no, Michelin wasn't around yet. It was one of the first, uh, three star ratings from the New York times. Or is it four stars? I forgot. I haven't seen a New York times review in years. The New York times. Correct. But this is when the food reviews are horrible.
This is when they were relevant. They were, this was in the eighties, late eighties. And, um, yeah, so he created a spoon. It has the perfect size well in the bowl of the spoon, and it allows you to grab enough of whether it's a pan sauce or, you know, because in higher, um, in Michelin star kitchens or just in fine kitchens, it's frowned upon to use tongs to flip your meats or things like forks because you destroy the meat.
So you're taught [01:34:00] to flip meats and things like that with your spoon. Uh, so this spoon is, you know, it's like perfect for all of these things. So it's the perfect spoon to use for basting your meats. So you throw your steak in the cast iron pan with your half head of garlic, with a few springs of time with your butter, let that butter foam up and then just.
Baste your meat,
**Gizmo:** paste your meat, bam.
**Chef Ricky:** That's a bad proof activity. Oh, correct.
**Gizmo:** Love my basting. But before you do that, you got to go grocery shopping.
**Bam Bam:** That's over for him. I am so sorry. I fucking mentioned that. By
**Gizmo:** the way, can I just tell you, as you're describing this, like, I'm, I'm starving. I'm falling. I'm falling
**Senator:** in love with you. I hate to say it, Gizmo. I'm sorry, but chef Rick, he's coming to Whistler.
He's not coming to your place.
**Bam Bam:** You know what I want? I want that steak and the bread pudding for dessert.
**Gizmo:** I'm going to listen to this episode as I reverse sear my steak. For Christmas. I'm going to listen to [01:35:00] these full instructions. You're
**Bam Bam:** overlooking the bread pudding though. That's like an underrated dessert.
He's going to make the
**Gizmo:** bread pudding for me and you. We're still on the entrees.
**Chef Ricky:** Alright. So yeah, sear your meats, baste your meats, and You know, please don't get soy balls for Christmas unless you have to.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, you're going to have to send us a photograph of this soy ball. You got it.
**Gizmo:** I'll put it on the Instagram for the listeners.
It's going to be like this white ball. It'll be our most commented post ever. Rooster's soy ball. Next.
Oh, man. I
**Chef Ricky:** can't wait for Christmas.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, we're coming to the end of our evening here with the Baker's Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, seven years aged, and the HVC Seleccción No. 1 in Esenciales. Any final thoughts here on the pairing before we move into our ratings?
**Senator:** I'll just say on this cigar, the last third has been the most enjoyable for me.
It [01:36:00] was good. Yeah, I think so too.
**Bam Bam:** Did you get some sweetness there? I did.
**Chef Ricky:** Right? Don't you love how everyone's talking past tense because you're the only one still smoking?
**Gizmo:** Alright, let's move into our rating now. Our formal liquor rating on the Baker's 7 Years Aged Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, uh, I'm at a firm nine with this thing. This was honestly intimidating initially, but it As time went by, it became very easy to drink, delicious, my palate adjusted, and I'm taking copious amounts of this down.
Excellent bourbon. Nine.
**Chef Ricky:** Alright, Chef Ricky. I tell you, high proof spirits are the way to go, um, if it's a quality spirit. I'm not saying high proof for the sake of high proof, like Everclear or things like this. Uh, but when you find an amazing tequila, an amazing bourbon, Amazing mezcal. Um, venture out a little bit, go a little bit higher proof.
You're [01:37:00] going to get more flavor. Uh, and it, it's, it's just, it's, it should do you well if it's a quality producer. And you know, I don't know anything about this bourbon. Obviously it's, you know, seven generations or whatever you said there. Cause, uh, so there's a lot of history, uh, but these guys know what they're doing.
You know, 70, 77 percent on the corn mash does result in a sweeter bourbon, but at the higher proof, it's not glowingly sweet. It delivers a complex experience and, uh, I'm very happy with it. So I'm at a nine.
**Gizmo:** So I'm also at a 9. I, I thought for how high proof this was, coming in tonight expecting I was going to be trying to bury it in ice, I mean at 107 proof, I certainly expected that to be the case.
You know, for a cigar that I expected to be completely full, it wasn't, and this bourbon really matched very well for me. I know some other guys here said that it was a little bit too much. You know, too hot for the cigar, but it worked very well for me. I think every sip [01:38:00] of the bourbon, it, it smoothed out even more.
Yeah. It kept getting better. It does. And I'm very happy with it. And it does make me want to venture. Further into high proof bourbons, which I know our listeners want us to do and we've been a little resistant to do because of some experience with bourbon But this one's making me want to try going a little deeper on the single barrels the the 50 plus proof stuff I'm very happy with this Baker's tonight.
So it's a 9 for me senator.
**Senator:** I'm also at a 9 I I mentioned I always pursue A distinct defining note in anything, spirits, cigars, doesn't matter. I love the baking spice finish on this bourbon. This actually, I was trying to, it reminded me of something we've had and I finally figured it out. It reminds me of a high proof version of that E.
Leon Jimenez rum that was so cinnamon forward. That's [01:39:00] what the, the, the comparison it's. It also doesn't drink so neatly like a bourbon. Like the fact that I compared this to a rum, there's like, this could be a high proof rum in many ways. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** absolutely.
**Senator:** And I like that because there's something unique and different about what they've done with it.
I think it's a definite recommend. I think even at the high proof, um, it's still very drinkable. It's not overpowering. I think the last third of this cigar is where it paired well for me. It picked up a bit in strength, but there's countless new world cigars that are full body that I think this would pair really well with.
So I'm a definite recommend it and especially in the winter around the holidays, it's a great drink.
**Gizmo:** Agree. All right, boys. That puts the formal liquor rating tonight on the seven years aged Baker's Kentucky Street bourbon whiskey single barrel at a nine point zero Delicious spirit perfect rating for this and it's 60 bucks.
That's a very accessible spirit for the eyes [01:40:00]
**Chef Ricky:** You know, where was it 60 bucks
**Gizmo:** total wine total wine?
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. It's time now to move into the formal lizard rating tonight on the HVC Seleccción number one in a sensi Alice Rooster, you're up. The cigar was good. It wasn't offensive, but it wasn't great.
I think the one note that kind of came throughout the cigar was that earthy note. And, uh, the first third, I mean, you got a lot of pepper on it, which kind of eventually it subsided. Uh, I love the size of the cigar. It felt really good in your hand. It was a good cigar, but, you know, the reviews all talked about being very full and it wasn't, it was medium at best.
So, I don't think I would recommend this cigar to anyone, but it's, you know, I wouldn't go out and buy a box, that's for sure, maybe a five pack to have, you know, here and there, but, um, the price is not bad, so I'm gonna give it a seven. [01:41:00]
**Senator:** Alright, Senator. I'm also at a seven. For me, it's a soft recommend. I think the things that stand out.
Number one, the construction, uh, was a plus. The burn line was perfectly even all the way through.
**Gizmo:** Nice wrapper. It's a well made cigar.
**Senator:** The ash held on great. I have no ash on me at all. Um, the wrapper is one of the most beautiful wrappers I've honestly ever seen on a cigar. So, um, all those huge merits. The flavor profile, not what I would typically pursue, but.
Interesting enough and some good flavor notes. The last third was good. That's where I finally started to enjoy this cigar. I wish that it were that way all the way through. I think the first two thirds were medium. I think the last third got medium full. Never at any point though was this a full bodied cigar.
Um, I could see a market for this. I can see some people wanting something that isn't as full as many Nicarag, traditional Nicaraguan cigars, something kind of [01:42:00] in between. That's where I think this fits. Um, the price point is great, um, especially for a cigar that's well constructed. So for me, soft recommend.
It's not something I would go out and pursue myself. Um, if I didn't have a cigar and someone handed me this, could I smoke it? Sure. Um, but I just wouldn't be overly enthusiastic about it.
**Gizmo:** So for me, it's also a seven, you know, I, I thought the cigar was beautiful. I get why people enjoy it. Why we've been recommended to smoke the cigar.
I, as I mentioned before, I can see listeners in our audience, loving this profile, loving what this cigar gives them. It's not for my palate. It doesn't align with the, the. The type of cigars I choose to smoke. I think the value at 8 and 60 cents is a home run. Can't dismiss that. You know, I, I think that's a very fair price for the experience tonight.
I love the Vitola as Rooster mentioned, the Corona Gorda is one of my favorite Vitolas, you know, we're an hour, 45 minutes in, [01:43:00] I think I put this down about five minutes ago, so to get an hour 40 out of a Corona Gorda,
**Chef Ricky:** yeah.
**Gizmo:** You know, I, I thought it was a, a, a nice value at 8 and 60 cents. The problem for me, as I mentioned earlier, is this cigar is forgettable for me.
**Chef Ricky:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I am not going to reach for this cigar again. I'm not going to wake up tomorrow thinking about it. I'm probably never going to smoke this cigar again. Uh, it's just not, it's just not for me. The cigar is not for me, but I get again why it might work for someone else. And I think the final point I want to say on, on my rating tonight is that humidity makes such a difference.
**Bam Bam:** We've said that
**Gizmo:** over and over. And I think that, you know, we, we mentioned this with the Aladino, we did a couple of weeks ago, we gave it a 10 where other folks online ripped it apart for construction and burn and everything else. And I think this cigar hearing that it's. Super full strongest cigar I've smoked in years.
And what a powerhouse. And that certainly wasn't our [01:44:00] experience tonight. And I think it's just a product of bringing it down to the correct humidity. You know, and I think for a listener out there, you really got to take note of that, that to get the correct experience on a cigar, the wet, what it's supposed to deliver, what it's designed to deliver.
And the manufacturer is saying, I'm trying to imitate a Cuban experience. That's not a full experience. Flavor profile aside. Certainly. You got to bring it down to humidity. So with all that being said, I thought the cigar was serviceable performed very well. It kept my interest. It's a seven it's forgettable.
It's not great, but it's a seven. And I think that's a very fair score.
**Chef Ricky:** Chef Ricky. I think a seven is the perfect score for this. Um, mostly because. You know, at the price point, you're, you're almost, you're almost in, you feel inclined to give it a slightly, uh, higher score, but we've had great cigars that are at this price point or even less, [01:45:00] uh, that deliver more on flavor that deliver more on strength.
Um, so, you know, I think for that reason, you know, you know, and band the side, it is a very handsome cigar. Looks great, fits great in the hand, um, I definitely recommend a, a, a slightly deeper cut on it just for a good smoke output and draw, uh, but yeah, I think a seven is a perfect score for this. I think, uh, you know, you get a fiver, you have it on hand for some people that are maybe visiting that don't smoke often, you know, it's not going to put them on their ass and they're going to enjoy it.
And maybe, you know, may, maybe feel inclined to get into cigars as a hobby, but it, you know, at this. point in my journey where I've been smoking for a few years and exposed to amazing cigars through you guys. It's not, uh, I don't think it's anything more than a seven at this point, but it is a, it is a soft recommend.
**Bam Bam:** All right, Bam. Yeah. So early on, I wasn't happy with the cigar at all. I didn't know what I was [01:46:00] smoking. It was very ambiguous up until the beginning or halfway through the second third. I started to enjoy it and I got a little bit of mango, some fruit. Yeah.
**Chef Ricky:** And that was a pleasant flavor. It was
**Bam Bam:** very pleasant.
The sweetness kind of continued at Senator's point. It went all the way down for me. So that sweetness continued. The body built up a little bit toward that end of that second third and I did smoke it down all the way. But honestly a seven is where I'm at as well. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
There are many other cigars that I would give to a newbie that's starting out, like the Sonata that we mentioned early on. That's, what is that? Six dollars? Yeah. Eight dollars. I'd give many, many other cigars to people that are getting into the hobby over this cigar. Um, but again, it was fairly enjoyable, but overall.
I couldn't put my finger on what I was smoking. It seemed like an ambiguous cigar. Seven.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, that puts the formal lizard rating tonight on the HVC Silexio number [01:47:00] one in Esenciales at a 7. 0. And I think for what we had tonight, I think that's the perfect score.
**Senator:** You know, I have a, I have a quick segment before we close.
The price is right with BAM. What's this now? How much does a carton of milk go for? I want to hear this.
**Gizmo:** I'd love
**Senator:** to hear this, go. Wait,
**Gizmo:** wait, wait, is this a gallon of milk?
**Senator:** Uh, a gallon of milk. All right, gallon of milk,
**Gizmo:** BAM, go.
**Senator:** Oh, this is great.
**Rooster:** Eight bucks. Oh my God. Eight $11.
**Gizmo:** Oh my God. 11.
**Rooster:** I don't know what, $5.
Higher. Higher. I don't fucking know. I don't do the shopping in the house. I don't know.
**Gizmo:** Four bucks, man. Four bucks. $4 for a gallon. Okay, my, that's a good deal. What about a dozen eggs?
**Bam Bam:** It's got to be like 10 bucks.
**Chef Ricky:** I don't know, dude. I [01:48:00] mean,
**Senator:** this is so on brand. I
**Rooster:** don't
**Senator:** know. I don't know. His wife could come home and say, honey, I spent 500 at the grocery store. Okay. I bought 10 things. He's like, all
**Rooster:** right. Yeah. I don't get involved in any of that. Bam. You are
**Gizmo:** one of one. You've said that one of one.
**Rooster:** I don't think you are one of one.
That is not a compliment.
**Chef Ricky:** Wow. You know, when I would be at home as a kid and you know, you're homesick, you're watching the prices, right? With your grandma. Well, your mom, and I'd see some of these people up there and the prices that they're yelling out. And I'm like, where the fuck do you buy groceries? In Bam Bam world.
All
**Gizmo:** right, boys, a great night tonight on the Bakers, Kentucky straight bourbon, whiskey, single barrel, seven years age. We had a 9. 0 and on the HVC Seleccción number one in Esenciales, we had a 7. 0. And, uh, we have to shout out Lizard Brent. Congratulations to him on winning Lizard of the Week. Anybody out there can win Lizard of the Week.
As you know, all you have to do is [01:49:00] write us an email, send us a voice memo, a comment on Instagram, whatever you choose. You can win Lizard of the Week. Just tell us what you're smoking. Tell us what you think about the podcast. Of course, thanks to our sponsor, Fabrica 5. They're a great partner to us. As we mention every week, go out and buy some of their cigars.
Try them. We love Honduran cigars. You have to try them. One hundred percent. And use our code, of course. And I want to thank Chef Ricky, for the erotic Erotic for you. It was. Erotic description of making Christmas dinner. I'm actually very hungry. I'm very hungry. And we learned about the coon spoon and what Rooster really is doing in his free time.
Clubbing, clubbing raccoons. Clubbing raccoons. I'm basting them. Prior to the chokeout. All right, boys, a great night tonight. We have a couple great weeks ahead of us, like I said, with some great Cuban cigars. Best of.
**Bam Bam:** Can't wait.
**Gizmo:** Great finish to the year. And, uh, we'll see everybody next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thanks for joining us. You can find our merch [01:50:00] store and ratings archive at our brand new website. Lounge lizards, pod. com. That's lounge lizards, P O D dot com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you want to reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking.
Email us. Hello at lounge lizards, pod. com. You can also find us on Instagram at lounge lizards pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.