408 Recap of 2024 Cigars and Highlights with Remus Reserve 8th Edition and Kings Gold

This is a year end review of the best cigars and a stroll througt the rest of the rankings. They have a new announcement for the new year and generally enjoy their ADventura Kings Gold and Remus Reserve 8th Edition. Happy New Year to you and yours!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
it take two

(00:06):
I'll go closed at thecare
no mite on the
Let's see it.
How am I?
What does it look like?
Is the numbers right there pretty close?
So I need to move a little higher than mine,
but when I'm reviewing it,
it always looks a little lower.
So I just leave it alone.
OK, well, we'll go with that because otherwise

(00:27):
I could move this closer.
Yeah.
Oh, and I'm going to turn this fire on.
Yeah, we probably don't need it.
Is the filter on?
Yes.
OK.
OK.
20, 24 year in review.

(00:52):
King's goal, baby.
I don't do that.
Yeah.
The one that started it all for us.

(01:15):
For us.
Yeah.
But man, next floor is good.
Explored Barbarossa.
Mm.
I think that Barbarossa is still my favorite.
And the Explorer probably second King's goal probably third.

(01:43):
All righty.
You lit?
I am.
Coolio, but I need to get yourself some.
So ribos.
I'm.
No, sir.
I broke out the big boy.
Glen Karen.
Mm hmm.
That away.
When you get a notice.

(02:05):
Oh, OK.
Welcome to our newest episode.
First episode of the year.
First episode of the new year.
In this episode, we will have adventurers King's gold.
And with it, the Remus repeal result.
Number eight.
Oh.
You're hanging out with Bill and Daryl with cigars liquor and.

(02:27):
No year to have to change.
All right.
Well, the adventuror King's gold is a robust.
It is a five by 52.
It has a Connecticut broadly.
Yeah.
Has a Mexican San Andreas.
I'm.
I'm.
I'm.
I'm.
I'm.
I'm.
What's.

(02:48):
What's going on in road?
You're.
You're.
As a Mexican San Andreas binder and fillers from the Dominican
Republic.
U.S. and Nicaragua.
It's M. S.R.P. is $10.
The Remus repeal reserve.
This is number eight came out recently in this fall.
It's bottled at.
One on one.
And has an m. S.R.P. of ninety nine dollars.

(03:10):
Nice.
Nice indeed.
This fall or last.
Yeah.
Well, until just now, otherwise I'd have had it earlier.
Not bad, not bad.
So let's get a nose of this and I'm going to go to the bottle because they do tell you
the mash bill kind of.

(03:33):
But I like the nose.
I like the nose a lot.
It's unique.
It is unique.
And I think what's unique about it is it's got the vanilla that Bourbons do.
But it's got this little hint of the fruits and then a little hint of some like baking

(03:56):
type spices.
And I like that.
See, I was going to say fruit and flowers.
Yep.
Another common one.
You can flowers a lot more than I do.
I'm not sure about the baking spices on that.
But yeah, I've been making a lot of Christmas cookies.

(04:19):
I smell not make everywhere now.
Oh, nice.
Mm.
Mm.
Well, on the palate does not feel one on one.
It's lovely.
Very nice.
Very nice.
It lights up, but it lights up flavor wise lights up the mouth.

(04:42):
Now alcohol wise, there's something light up your mouth.
Alcohol wise, this lights up your mouth flavor.
A lot wise, not quite like a scotch, but like a nice rich bourbon.
Like it's got a lot of punch to it.
I like it.
I wouldn't say it's got a lot of punch, but the explosion of flavored death.

(05:04):
The explosion of flavors is a lie happening.
And I really, so it's on the, so it's really weird.
It starts with that sweet, like, oh, that's really sweet.
And then, oh, that's really dry.
And then it finishes real long fruity for me.
What do you got?

(05:25):
Okay.
There's a little, there's a touch of sharpness right on the very front, but goes away almost
instantly.
Then the sides of your mouth just explode in flavor.
And I needed to calm down some so I could get that.

(05:47):
I fully agree.
It does have a long finish.
I think the dryness is more in the finish than in the middle.
But I need to get past the explosion so I can start getting some of the flavors in the
taste.
But each time you sip it, it's like, oh, nice.

(06:11):
Yeah, the finish.
I love how long it is.
It's a long finish.
It goes dry, but it's kind of like a like birthday cake.
Kind of like the icing and birthday cake.
It's kind of Swedish.
It's got the vanilla.
Yeah, I get where you're going with it.
Yeah.
I love it.
It's awesome.

(06:32):
I mean, since our first cigar and it's not the driest thing ever.
No, no, no, no, no, you know, it's not like you're eating sand or anything.
It's just just a touch drop.
It's not creamy.
But you know, I thought since the first cigar and the first liquor of the year are by default
going to be number one, I wanted to bring some number one action.

(06:55):
And I thought, oh, absolutely.
I thought I'm bringing these two, baby.
I've been sure a king's gold you cannot go wrong with.
And Remus eight, I mean, Remus, just Remus.
They've been doing very well.
Oh, you were talking about the mash bill.
Okay.
Tell, tell about the mash bill.

(07:16):
So they don't exactly give you the entire details, but it is MGP.
So if you look up MGP's, you know, ride bourbon recipes, you could probably find most of their
mash bill, but what the 2024 medley, as they call it, of the Remus special reserve eight.
And this is the Roman numerals on the neck of the bottle when you're trying to identify

(07:39):
which, which version it is they put out one every year.
And I've had them since the four of the five, but then we got the three, the four and the
five from Randy.
Yep.
And I think I actually, the three was a stunner to me.
I love the strawberry.
I digress.
So the medley on this, the 2024 is 9% of a 21% rye from 2007.

(08:06):
So that's got some years on it.
And then 24% from a 21% rye from 2014.
And then 67% again from a 2014 36% rye, ride bourbon.
So this as a minimum age statement of 10 years.

(08:30):
And then it goes up another seven.
So we got 10% of it's 17 year.
And then the rest of it is 10 year.
So it packs, packs a lot of age in there.
So wonderful.
And like I said, we've, we've liked every year and I'd have picked this up earlier if

(08:51):
I'd found it earlier, but I found it now.
Sometimes it's all it takes, right?
All right.
I liked it.
I liked that they give you a hint of where it comes from.
And it's almost like a, I do like that they call it a medley and they've done that since
the beginning.
But it's, it's, it's almost like they're trying to impart a little bit of their history into

(09:18):
the drink that you get.
Right.
And using the name remiss, et cetera, et cetera.
Tends to do that.
And then they tend to come to the table with some old juice.
They're not bringing anything for eight years.
Right.
Right.
Almost every year seems to be 10 and more.
And good.

(09:39):
Mm hmm.
So good.
Yes, working for them.
If MGP did not put out a good product, people wasn't, would not use it for it.
Everything.
Yes.
Yeah.
And then them, them saying, wait a minute, we should do something ourselves.
Right.
Why are we giving away all these great barrels?

(10:00):
And then other people are tripling the price.
That too.
Yeah.
So they, they're like, we can do that.
We can troll the price.
You know, but the same time, you know, they're kicking out a 10 year old for a hundred bones.
That's a $10 a year rule for a good drink.
And that's after inflation.
So that's not bad.

(10:21):
No, because we had a rule before inflation.
So but it works.
It absolutely works.
Indeed.
Are we far enough into the cigar?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let me set and drink down.
Go back to the cigar.
So you and I are familiar with Kings gold.

(10:43):
We're familiar with adventura.
We've talked to Henderson a number of times.
Really great blender, really great company, really great family.
So absolutely not a stranger to us.
Adventurer.
So.
Kings gold.
One of our favorites.

(11:04):
One of the striking things about this cigar is the band itself.
There's that band itself is a little aluminum.
Yeah.
You do have to be careful when you peel it.
Yeah.
Because it's metal, it's not paper, it's not going to tear.

(11:25):
And if it's stuck on there, you have to be nice and easy in how you impart it.
So it's really important to try to let the heat get to it.
Get to the glue.
Yeah.
Right.
Before you try to peel that sucker off.
Sometimes sometimes you can rotate the band.
Mine doesn't move all that much though.

(11:46):
Well, right off, I'm going to say this is right in line with.
Adventura's main drive, which is he's a baking spice agaric.
This is what he makes.
He makes baking spice cigars.
And that is absolutely the form of flavor here.

(12:08):
The but it's a beautiful dark Connecticut broadly for apple.
It's real clean, not very veiny.
Some of the broad leaves can get kind of veiny.
They don't mind it.
I don't care.
I don't care at all.
But these are all very clean.
That doesn't happen by accident with a broad leaf.
Yeah, it's so smooth.
Now it is dark wrapper.

(12:30):
It does have a little bit of, I don't know, not hairs, but right.
It's not smooth like a domedura Connecticut.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
But still so very nice.
And the veins that are in it, they don't protrude over much.

(12:51):
Just beautiful wrappers.
Beautiful wrappers.
High quality there.
Now the retrohale?
Because you probably haven't done one yet.
Unfortunately, it doesn't bring out like some of the others.
Because it's already there kind of.
So a lot of times my retrohale brings forth a lot of flavors.

(13:15):
This one just adds the flavor of the retrohale.
Doesn't really bring out more flavors like some of the others.
Because I guess it's already flavorful.
It's already there.
Yeah.
It's all there, man.
Now it is going to be, I think it's
going to be on the medium boulder side.
Because without a water or a liquor,
you will build the mouth coating pretty quick.

(13:38):
It does.
Yeah.
But it's not a it's it's a mouth coating you can more than deal with.
You're not going to be spitting every second because of the saliva
buildup in your mouth from this.
Right.
Now, one other thing I like is another kind of soft flavor.

(13:59):
It says how we describe it sometimes.
Light, delicate, what are some like that?
So I love the baking spices up front.
But then the finished is paper.
And I just I like the I like getting the paper.
The only thing I would top it off will be must.
But yeah, finishes with a paper tend to I tend to get that in the end,

(14:21):
in the very end, like in the finish or with the retrohale.
So I'm I'm not getting it at all.
Cool.
Occasionally I feel like I almost get a graphite type flavor out of it.
Right at the very end, but not all the time, just occasionally.
So I'm doing something.
Yeah, it's also pretty earthy graphites right in there in the earth category, right?

(14:45):
I yeah, earth, metal type stuff.
Mm hmm.
Yep.
So off to a good start.
And I do love the dichotomy of the and the rapper.
It is a white ash with the dark wrapper.
A little oil line, the oil line.
Yeah, the little sheen right there.

(15:07):
You're going around.
Right at the burn interface, you get that little oily sheen.
I like the oily sheen.
Because it it's kind of like seeing the future.
You know, I know this is going to be good.
Remember, remember when we were kids and there were 70s cars in the driveway and they
leaked oil and after a rain, you get that she rain both right.

(15:31):
I thought it was cool.
Yeah, I also thought it was cool going out in the heat of the sun and popping the
bubbles that form in the tar because they used to fill all the cracks with tar.
And then you could pop the bubbles with the tar with the other bubbles.
But you're fingers.
I did not have that growing up.
Oh, you missed out.

(15:53):
Not a lot of the tar used down here back then.
Well, I think what happened was you get a lot of freeze, thaw and it break up the
roads.
And before you repair the road, you just fill it with with tar to slow down the
freeze, thaw with the water getting in it.
But you don't have that down here because there's no freeze.
Thaw.
There's just thaw.

(16:16):
No, so yeah, no, I never played with tar bubbles.
No play with the time.
Well, yeah, yeah.
So there's that.
But things change.
I hated it the first time I played with when I played with I was filling in a whole
using a bag of asphalt.

(16:37):
OK.
Asphalt in a bag.
Somebody thought this was a good idea.
Really is a good idea.
But it's a man that when that's when it's 110 degrees outside, that stuff gets sticky.
Yeah, that's.
So, yeah, don't do that.
I never played with tar bubbles, but I played with asphalt in 110 degree

(17:00):
temperature.
So not as much fun.
It turns out.
Well, how about we think about the combination of the two and then move on to our year in review.
2024 review right here.
So the most things respond to a drink draw.

(17:21):
So let's see how that goes.
Interesting.
So it makes it more papery right up front.
But it's a very weird interaction between the smoke and the liquor that just adds a new flavor.
I don't know what to describe it.

(17:42):
Yes.
And he loved to do you do a draw drink.
Do a draw drink.
There is an extra flavor in there.
And I think it comes out a little bit more doing the draw drink.
Right at the end.
OK.

(18:04):
It's the same flavor.
I don't know what to call it though.
It's interesting.
It's a little.
It's a little sweet and a little not sweet.
It's a little sweet.

(18:25):
And it.
It reminds me of some kind of candy.
It's almost like a taffy type.
I'm having no luck.
I'm having no like it's very very unique.
I like it.
It's not good enough for me to call it a primo pairing.
But the two definitely don't harm each other.
So I like the pairing.
No, I think it's a good pairing.

(18:48):
At this stage and I don't see it changing because evidentura cigar don't change.
No.
No, they don't.
Enough got our appreciation for this.
All right, Bill, why don't you.
Why don't we just start by covering our top 10 and then we can roam around and discuss why we put things.

(19:10):
Why I put things you didn't do anything.
None of this is on you.
I didn't do anything.
This is not a good I wasn't here.
This is a.
None of this is on you.
So find out why I put things where I put them and maybe why you might have put them in the same place.
I would venture to say that maybe 92% of the time we were in the same room.
Very close area, which is why there are some.

(19:34):
You want to cover Tampa Bay red, don't you?
Apps are fucking lulie.
I feel like we beat that dog.
Why is that?
Okay.
Anyway, so over the course of 2024, we ranked 50, so.
I'm going to start with the top 10.
Yeah, let's go from 10 on down.
Let's start top 10.
So number 10 rocket Patel 60.

(19:58):
Now that's a pretty big cigar.
Yeah.
I'm pretty expensive, isn't that in the 20 something category?
Yeah.
Yes.
It was one of the more expensive cigars on this one.
And people rave about the 60.
Man, it's a pretty big cigar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was one of the more expensive cigars on this one.
And people rave about the 60.

(20:19):
Man, do people love the 60?
I've really enjoyed the 60.
Mm hmm.
And through the course of the year, wound up in number number number 10 spot.
But hey, it's in the top 10.
And even though it's even though it's a higher dollar cigar than what we normally play with.

(20:42):
I'm glad I grabbed it.
The newness of it.
I think you grabbed it.
I grabbed it.
The newness of it.
And, you know, just having something from rocket Patel in that type of category.
Right.

(21:03):
Because when you think of that category, you think of Coheba, the drone, right?
Devada.
Yeah.
Right.
You think of those types of.
Yeah, they put out a premium and super premium.
Let's say super premium because they're already premium.
Yeah.
Doing a super premium in rocket Patel and being a brand new release, it seemed like the way

(21:24):
to go.
Right.
And we really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed it.
But it wound up with the upper 10.
Yeah.
All right.
Again, to what we're smoking today in adventura by Aurora.
Okay.
Okay.
Six by 60, a little, uh, uh, day of the dead type thing going on.

(21:48):
Pretty pretty good cigar.
What?
So I thought so as far as the La Aurora and you'll see that, you know, there's another one a little
bit farther up.
Um, so he's got better offerings than the La Aurora.
And then the La Aurora, which is funny because it's still made number nine.
That's the irony.

(22:09):
Right.
That's how good his entire line is is that even.
My favorite, my favorite ones were still even better than ninth for the year.
So I do still love that it's in that baking spice category.
And man, that's just where I am.
So that's why a lot of baking spice cigars just went right to the top.

(22:34):
Uh, you and why not?
You get plenty of flavor out of them.
If you can get baking spices out of a cigar, it's not a rough cigar.
It's not a tough cigar.
It's not that's probably, you know, so it's going to be more.
It's going to be more towards the medium.
So you're more likely to get a variety of flavors and having, uh, having a baking spice.

(22:58):
Cigar that's got some earth in it.
Why not?
And other things.
Yeah.
Uh, so number eight, we had the Alec Bradley.
Coriol.
C O Y O L late contender to come swoop in.
On the last week, this, this to me was a surprise cigar.
This was a big time upside for surprise for me.

(23:21):
Uh, Alec Bradley does put out some good stuff, but there are some things from Alec Bradley.
I don't really care for, which I'm not going to mention.
This one, this one in particular, when I, the first one that I smoked was, uh, more rough.
Uh, more, more bold.
This one, uh, the second one that I smoked, which was during the show, was more of a medium to medium bold.

(23:49):
And I really enjoyed that second.
First one, I didn't care for so much.
Second one, I thoroughly enjoyed.
And I had more after that and thoroughly enjoyed though.
They've turned out to be an awesome cigar for me where is initially that very first one I had.
I didn't really care for.

(24:10):
Okay.
But some, I don't know.
Something may have been off with that cigar or.
Okay.
Additions or ride or whatever I ate or whatever.
Right.
Yep.
All the rest of them have been fabulous and I love this cigar now.
Now me, I'm an Alec Bradley fan.
I tend to like most of their line and this one I had never had before and it's not in shops and it's not around.

(24:35):
The only place I found it was online and I was like, okay.
I've never seen this before.
I have to try this.
So it was a surprise to me too because if it's this good of a cigar, why isn't it more widely available?
Why don't you see it on what is it they're facing?
Why don't I see these in shops?
So I'm confused at that level.

(24:58):
I'm happy I can get them readily online.
But it is weird to me that they're not in shops because it was a real surprise.
Even for me liking most of the Alec Bradley line.
Right.
So interesting and last week of the year.
Slit in.

(25:19):
Pretty sweet.
Number seven.
La Aurora Maduro.
This one came out of nowhere for us too, didn't it?
Yes it did.
We weren't expecting it.
And a relatively tiny cigar that we had.
Yeah.
I mean, I believe in smaller than a Corona, right?
I mean, it was small.

(25:40):
But it smoked for a good hour.
It was a slow smoker.
It went all the way through.
Yeah, it was really slow smoker.
And this particular, this specific band, we had a problem finding.
We really did.
So interesting that it made it all the way to number seven.
And again, I don't see it in shops.
I don't see it around.

(26:01):
Found it online.
Crazy.
And again, not so Aurora.
Great line.
They have several sticks in the super premium category.
This was almost a budget stick.
Practically was.
I mean, I don't remember the price on it, but it was definitely under $8.

(26:22):
I think it was.
I might be wrong.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
I was really surprised at this one.
Yeah, most La Roras that you see are probably in the 11 to 15 category.
Perfecto, two bows that are 60 or whatever.
Yeah, you've got those that are really high up there.

(26:43):
And they've even got some $100 cigars.
Right.
So they.
And this may be my favorite one.
Absolutely.
Such a good, such a good upside surprise there too.
Well, from here on out, probably not many surprises, maybe one.
We're at number six.

(27:05):
Rojas Bluebonnet.
Oh man.
Yeah.
One of my absolute favorite from Rojas.
Absolutely.
A favorite in general.
Rojas.
He's he tries to put out new stuff on a fairly regular basis.
The street taco was.
Good offering.
People really like it.
But to to date.

(27:27):
The bluebonnet is still my favorite.
This is his flagship.
This is his logger.
This is his.
This is his best offering, my opinion.
What I hear people talk about Rojas, I hear a lot of talk about street tacos.
I do.
It's everywhere.
But I'm in agreement with you.

(27:50):
My favorite of the Rojas line is the bluebonnet.
And been out quite a while.
Long time.
Yeah.
But if you haven't had one and you've had the street tacos, you like the street tacos,
you got to pick up a bluebonnet.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I like the Rojas.
All right.
Number five.
Coheba Blue.

(28:11):
Echo Heba Blue's been solid, hasn't it?
Absolutely.
We've had a lot of them.
Do like the blue.
I like the blue because it's not as harsh as what the red used to be a red guy.
Yeah.
I was all about the red guy.
I was.
I was all about the red dot.
And it is still one of my favorite overall cigars.

(28:32):
But the blue.
The blue snuck in.
It did.
It did.
The blue was a Shum Williams blend.
And one of my.
One of my favorites.
The blue and the black are legging it out for my favorite.
Coheba.

(28:53):
I still really like the red.
I like the red too.
But not as much as the blue and the black.
The blue.
The blue is just smoother.
It's just so smooth.
Yeah.
And you just you're never going to go wrong.
If you pick up a Coheba Blue, you're just not.
No, I don't think so.

(29:14):
Outside of outside of the blue, the red and the black.
The Dominican Bureau.
Bureau Dominican.
The Bureau is good.
That's another.
Yep.
Outstanding one for me.
Alright.
Number four.
Alec Bradley.
Lost art.
Yet another.

(29:36):
Came out of nowhere.
I mean, the Tempest and all these other ones that got really great reviews.
94 ratings.
Well, maybe think of maybe what eight years ago now.
Really made news.
Really so big.
How has I never heard of this one?
I've stumbled across it and I'm like, wait a minute.
How have I not had because it's still in the Tempest line, right?

(29:59):
I believe so.
It's got the same looking band.
Yes.
And lost our.
Okay.
What is this?
And then boom.
Wow.
They're fast.
Just skipped right over it somehow.
I don't know how.
Maybe it's just me.
Maybe people are like, yeah, dude, we've heard of it.
It's great.
You know, I don't know.
But I again, another one.

(30:20):
I don't see in shafts.
You know.
But so good.
This was a good.
And I like most of the algebra.
All right.
Or no, no, no.
I like a lot of the algebra.
There are some that I really don't like.

(30:45):
Okay.
This one.
I absolutely do.
I'm a fan and look at that.
Two of them made in the top 10.
So I get to surprise.
Yeah.
All right.
Number three.
Caldwell long live the king.
Oh my God.
That is probably one of my favorite cigars.
I mean, oh man.
Caldwell has done really good.

(31:09):
I like a lot of the lost and found.
Sure.
I like some of his time series.
But the long lived king.
Is just so so.
Yeah.
Far and above.
For me.
Yeah.
For me.

(31:30):
So very much love that.
And he does.
So if you like the bolder cigars, most of his line is on the bolder side.
He does have.
So in the same way that, you know, some lines are on the milder side and some line.
Like, you know, so many you can name his tend to be bolder.

(31:51):
And this one, this one in particular, unless you name your cigar, law, whatever.
Yeah.
And then that one needs to be more more medium.
Isn't quite as bold.
The this one strikes, I think, the best balance between bold and medium with, with the right level of spices and character.

(32:14):
It's got a lot of character.
It does love it.
Good.
It's a good spice cigar with no pepper.
And bold.
And not really.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There we go.
All right.
Number two.
Have a jerk.
Explore.
Go figure another.
Another.

(32:35):
I've been sure.
So two of them making it a top 10 when we open the new year with with one as well.
But, you know, it's me and I get to choose.
And, you know, you're just going to have to suffer through.
I can't argue.
I cannot argue.

(32:56):
So this was his first cigar and it's his flagship.
This is his lager.
This was the first cigar he made and it remains one of his best cigars.
A very, very good cigar.
I agree.
But when he came out with the Barbarossa, Barbarossa's invasion.
Yes.

(33:17):
The Barbarossa is probably my favorite.
And if we do it this year, it's going to be pretty high.
Actually, you're rating this next year.
I'm rating 20, 25.
Right.
So you're rating 20, 25.
So I, I very, very much enjoy the exploring.

(33:39):
It's my, it's the second for me in his line.
The first for me in his line is the Barbarossa's invasion.
Probably same.
Yep.
I, there's just, there's a lot going on.
It's got a little bit more boldness to it that, you know, most of his cigars are a medium.

(34:03):
Uh huh.
The Barbarossa's invasion touches a little bit of that bold.
Yeah.
And gives you some different flavors that are in there and I'd really, really enjoy it.
Oh yeah.
And then seconds for me is the Eventure Explorer, like you said, kind of his flagship.
Yep.

(34:24):
And has, has all those beautiful spices in it.
Mm hmm.
It just, just come out.
A little touch of wood along with it that just fits perfect.
Yeah.
Love it.
And goes great with just about any kind of liquor you want.
It's one of the other great things about those cigars.
All right.
Ah, I almost hated this one's number one.

(34:47):
I, I kind of do too, because I can't find it.
Can't find it.
And yet it was a stupendous cigar.
It really did stain hand and shoulders above.
It did really did.
I mean, even, even against some of our favorite cigars.
Favorite cigars.
It was still so, I mean, just it, it, it, it was a, a whole body length ahead, not a nose.

(35:15):
And who knows?
Maybe that night was just the perfect night.
It could have been.
But, but he, whatever.
But you look back, right?
You, you go through the cigars and you're thinking back through all these cigars as you see them.
And none of them, none of them supplanted.
My feelings are still warmest for that 12 man.
That was, I like to find them.

(35:36):
Absolutely.
There's just something, something about it that was just so, I don't know, magical at the time.
Yes.
Yeah.
I don't know how or why.
And it, it maintained.
It did.
All the way through the year.
It did.
And we had a lot of them pop up in the top 10 in the last two months.
Yeah.

(35:57):
So I'm not afraid to move some numbers, but.
No.
No.
Let's take a little break.
That's our top 10.
We'll come back with comments on the rest.
Nice.
Check out our website.
It was perfect that that took the first time.
It's perfect.
Podcasts, blog, and the show, by shopping for more.
It's a little bit longer than that.

(36:19):
Cause I did.
Instagram.
I'm going to call it cigars and look for you.
You want us to review anything else you'd like.
Come on and try to be more diligent about using that thing.
You're going to have to keep some of this here.
The website is cigars, liquor and more.com.
Connect with us on Instagram.
Looker.
Oh, I'm going to go to the garage.
You're going to score C L.

(36:41):
All right.
Well, this is not something we're going to make an old fashioned out of.
No, we're not.
Very much.
It's the price point and I don't want to do it.
Thank God because I'd veto that decision.
Yeah, I mean, I would too.
I don't know if I have veto power, but I would certainly try.

(37:04):
Well, we could, we could certainly, you know, vote into a draw.
All right.
Have a secret ballot between two of us.
All right.
Let's let's let's cover the back five.
Okay. Okay.

(37:25):
Let's cover the back five. Sure.
Let's go back down.
All right.
Because that doesn't get to one of my worst cigars for me.
Not for you, obviously. Yeah.
And this time we're going to go, we're going to go up and set it down.
So.

(37:46):
Let's start off with a number 46.
We just got through talking about this cigar, just just momentarily.
Okay. Yeah.
Caldwell, well, whatever. Yeah.
I think why this wound up where it was in the end.
I think why it wound up where it was was because you come to expect.
Certain things out of a Caldwell cigar. Sure.

(38:09):
And this was more mild than any of them.
By a lot. Yeah.
Yet the name over the I love that name.
I love the name.
Absolutely love the name.
It's one of the reasons I bought it besides being a Caldwell.
I was like, Oh, that's hilarious.
I know his sense of humor.

(38:31):
That is hilarious.
That's not by accident.
He did that.
And I have a feeling that he was like somebody said, I need a mild cigar,
whatever.
And he threw that out.
And it's mild.
There you go.
It's mild.
And I think that's why it went low because it was un thematic.

(38:53):
And yet this is something, this is a cigar you can hand anybody.
Mm hmm.
And anybody can smoke this cigar.
Yeah.
And enjoy it.
And it's not bursting with flavors.
Right.
It's a pretty simple cigar.
Yes.
Yet it's still a good cigar.

(39:14):
Yeah.
I mean, remember, you know, all of these are premium cigars.
Everything we smoke is a premium cigar.
There's no, there's no machine rolled cigars in our repertoire.
No, not at all.
I just want to pause for a moment.
Yeah, you still stack in dimes.

(39:35):
Yeah.
You haven't asked yet.
I'm about to ask.
You want that in your drink?
No, no, especially not in the remiss.
Okay.
Number 47.
El Bureau Corrojo.
I barely remember this.
I have to admit, you said it.
And I'm like, ah, it's not ringing a bell.
Yeah.

(39:56):
Oh, see in the band.
My help.
See in the band.
My help.
Take a look.
Take a look at the picture.
You'll remember.
No, I do remember this one.
Yes.
Unfortunately, but from these cigars, not from every cigar ever, but from these cigars, it was really kind of a non entity.
It was.

(40:17):
Same thing, though.
I mean, similar reasons that wound up down low is it was.
Unmemorable.
You had to show me a picture of it to remember it.
Right?
So that's a, that's not a great.
I did not have to show you a picture of what, whatever.
No, you did nice.
All right.
Yeah.

(40:38):
Okay.
Number 48.
I think this belongs exactly where it's at.
And that's the Turks and Caicos cigar.
It was mild.
It was very mild.
I mean, I'm going to buy one if I'm there, right?
Absolutely.
And I would too.
And I wanted to bring it back.
I wanted you to try.

(40:59):
And I didn't hate it.
So like we say, if we really hate something, we're not going to bring on the show.
Oh, yeah.
I wouldn't even be on the show.
These are just ranked, but we still like them.
Oh, yeah.
But if there, we wouldn't turn them, well, there's no one out of a turn of what.
All right.
But yeah, they're still good.

(41:20):
They're just, they're just milder and, and yeah, there was 10, 10 to be that memorable.
Number 49.
El Parla Habana Black.
I don't even have a picture of this one.
So oddly, I do remember this label.

(41:42):
So it's a shame, you know, a label, but.
It is in that category too.
I think one of the difference with this one was it wasn't just mild, but it's also.
A little.
Not exactly harsh, but not exactly smooth.
Like it didn't.

(42:04):
So none of these top 50 have created that.
That I've gotten from some in the past.
Some of them, I'm like, Oh, I hate that.
And this one is not like this did that, but it wasn't, it wasn't smooth.
And number 50.
New Cuba, Corona, a J Fernandez.

(42:27):
So I definitely picked this up because it's Fernandez and Fernandez has been on fire, but I guess everybody's got a twins, right? So.
It, but it's also.
It's more of a budget cigar.
It's not there.
Very much so.
It's not their normal lines, right?

(42:49):
It's a budget cigar and.
Yeah, but you say that about tattoo.
Hey, is budget Siri P new?
No, I don't.
I mean, there's budget lines from other lines that are really good.
Yeah, but I really kind of expect.
A little more out of an AJ.
I do too.
I do too.

(43:11):
And I feel like it just wasn't there as well.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, let's get the.
Let's get this out of the way.
Okay.
Number 31.
Tampa red.
All right.
So you, you brought this cigar to us.
I did.
You brought it into our lives.
Yeah.

(43:32):
You're hilarious.
I'm creating drama.
That's all it is.
I know it's really not as bad as I make it out to be.
No, no, you just love having fun, but this would have been towards the bottom.
It would have been.
It would have been more sort of the bottom for you.
So I think it had.
Here's the redeeming quality that I gave it a bump up that you would not have.

(43:58):
So it is a fairly mild cigar and a vacation.
It's very mild, but.
There was some character to it that I gave it a little bump and said, okay.
It's, it's, it's really still really mild and almost unnotable, but then there was like this little note.

(44:19):
And so I put a little bit farther up than you would have for sure by a lot.
By a lot.
You didn't give it a little bump.
It was a big six away from the halfway mark.
Okay.
It's still below average.
It is below average.

(44:41):
Oh, speaking of average, what is average number 25?
Oh, good.
Good.
Good call.
Yeah, that's not bad idea.
But what was number 25?
Although heritage robusto.
Oh, I love the.
I'm over here.
And that's, that's a good stick.
We had 50 good sticks.

(45:02):
We really did.
All right.
49 for you.
Whatever.
Absolutely.
No, we had a great year.
What a year.
And that's a great example.
Our middle of the road was an avo heritage.
I mean, I don't, I don't think there's an avo I don't like.

(45:23):
We had found.
I would agree with that statement.
We've had at least four or five of them.
I can think of four or five color because they all have the same type band, but then they just changed the color.
And then I don't remember all the colors and all the designations, but I just, I know we've had at least five.
And I more than I like all the avos.

(45:44):
They're great.
More than that.
And they do tend to be on the more modern side.
I was in Fuego Murphy events.
For avo where we picked up like 10 different bands, including we also purchased their charities.

(46:07):
Oh, so yeah, we did that too.
I don't think that made that on the list here.
But we did have that.
It might have been an impression.
Yeah, I don't think it was this year or this past year.
But yeah, there's, I don't think there's an avo that I dislike at all.

(46:34):
I'll tell you a big surprise for me is the one right past that just below the Tampa red number 32.
Rocky Patel Darkstar.
I know you like the Darkstar a lot more than I did.
I did.
And I thought the Darkstar was a little bit harsher.
It was a good, it was a good bold, but it had some harsh components that just nudged it down a little bit.

(47:02):
See, for me, I would say aside from the red banded edge.
Uh huh.
The decade and the 15.
The decade.
My favorite.
Okay.
Aside from those three cigars.
That's your next.
The dark star is the fourth in line as far as rocky goes for me.

(47:24):
Okay.
And it's just sad to see it down way down here.
Not just way down there, but just under the freaking Tampa red.
If it weren't for that slightly harsh component, then I would have put it higher.
Oh, it just, I mean, for me, it brought something different to the Patel line that I thought was, I didn't realize was needed until it was there.

(47:56):
I would agree with that.
It is a little bit of the divergence, especially from his edge series.
Yeah, so I get that.
What are your little little islands of groupings?
Would you like to cover?
Because they did tend to fall into little islands, didn't they?
They kind of did.

(48:18):
So we were talking about avos.
Right.
Well, we've got two of those back to back on this list.
We talked about that.
That was funny.
Yeah.
We talked about the number 25, which was the heritage.
Number 24 is the classic.

(48:39):
Did you not go wrong with the novel classic either?
No.
It was funny though, because as I was scrolling up, there's two of them.
There's actually two of them who have brothers that are right next to each other.
And as I was scrolling up on that one, I was like, I was like, okay, oh, that's funny.
It's right here by I'm up to another avo.

(49:01):
And I went to the next to Garland.
I don't know if I can put it right above that one.
I paired them up.
I think I did that twice.
So speaking of that, number 20 CAO flathead, six by 60.
One that used to be a staple for us.

(49:22):
Oh, yeah.
Right.
The C A O V four 50 spark plug, which is the same blend.
So it should be right next to you.
Little bitty cigar.
That would.
So the flathead that we have was a six by 60, the spark plug, of course, four and a half.
But same blend.
So yeah, same, same basic.

(49:43):
So they really should be next to each other.
And again, I did the same thing.
Oh, that's kind of funny.
Here he is right there.
And I went to the next one.
I'm like, no, I can't go past the next one.
But these are the same blend.
They have to be next to each other.
And I didn't realize it until I was scrolling, you know, because you're not thinking about
until you look at it, you're not thinking about it.

(50:04):
You know what I mean?
Like I wasn't thinking about it the day before and looking at the ranking.
I look at the ranking the moment you hand it to me because it's your iPad that's on.
So I don't see it.
Yeah.
You know, that much.
Well, and if you're doing the ranking, you probably shouldn't.
Right.
Yeah, it's probably true.
Don't look ahead.
Yeah.

(50:25):
Yeah.
Because you don't want to prejudice the decision in the moment.
Yeah, it's good.
Yeah.
Okay.
Two surprises for me that I thought you were going to put in different spots than I would
have that wound up being pretty close to the same spots I did.

(50:47):
And they happened to be back to back to completely different cigars.
Okay.
Right next to each other.
First one, I'm going to go with number 42, the Ramon Busso Genesis.
Yeah.
I like the Busso series.
And you'd like this, you had it wound up at number 42.
Yeah.
So that was kind of a surprise to me that you put it there.

(51:10):
Yeah.
And then the other one, which was just kind of a one off cigar, the chilling booths.
Yeah.
That was just out of nowhere.
I saw it and I'm like, well, I got to try it.
It's a moose.
I know that sounds, that sounds like I'm picking my wine by the label, you know, how
pretty the colors are.
But yeah, I was like, I got to try the moose.

(51:34):
And it is a one, it is the one off.
I think that's the only offering from that band right now.
You put it higher than I would have.
And I, and the Busso, I think you put lower than I would have.
Okay.
Yeah.
And everyone look at it.
I was surprised that they wound up in these spots.

(52:01):
Probably one of our, so on this particular cigar that I'm about to talk about, there
are two others of these, they're brothers, they're three brothers.
Okay.
And so, we happened to have the other two on the show prior to the beginning of the year.

(52:25):
Oh, I know where you're going.
So in the number 38 spots, yeah, there's the Pradomo 30 year, but there, right.
We had the Connecticut and the sun grown in the previous year, previous year.
So they weren't on this list.
Right.
So looks like not a good showing for the 30 year, yet the 30 years good.

(52:52):
So this was, this was interesting because this was early in the year.
It was, it was early in the year.
So we came out of our tour at the Pradomo factory with a number of, number of cigars,
a number of new revelations, a number of tests and, you know, just a lot of experience.

(53:15):
And I know I like Maduro's.
I pretty much like everything.
So, but he had done a test with us where they took the same blend.
Yeah, they took the same blend, same fillers and binders and put three different wrappers
on, the sun grown Connecticut and Maduro.

(53:38):
And you do a blind test and you do, which one do you like better, left or right?
And then you put that down and then you take the third one, which one you like that
over the one that you like and blah, blah, blah.
And my favorite was the sun grown, which I don't have a lot of sun grown wrapper cigars.
And he, oh, they also mentioned that the, the filler and binder was the champagne.

(54:04):
Yes.
And so it kind of surprised me, but at the same time, I'm like, well, you change up the
binder and filler and you're going to probably like a different wrapper with it.
I thought that maybe it was, I don't necessarily like a Maduro wrapper on a, on the champagne.

(54:28):
But it got me to trying all of them.
And we did a lot of sun groans.
And in the 30 year category, the sun grown was my favorite.
And the Maduro was my least favorite as it turns out, which was a surprise to me.
I was sitting in a different part of the table for you and I, I'd do in the same thing at

(54:51):
the same time.
Right.
And mine was the Maduro.
And yet I preferred the Connecticut law.
But after it, I wound up liking the sun growing the best.
But bear in mind, we had that wrapper test on the champagne, not on 30 year or the

(55:12):
chamois or whatever.
On the champagne body.
Right.
Yeah.
So I think we would probably like different wrappers on those other, you know, fillers
and binder's doesn't, it doesn't say a lot, but it did maybe make me think more, right?
And I do believe that that's part of the idea of that.

(55:34):
That's exactly the idea of that exercise is absolutely don't necessarily think about
what the wrapper is, try everything.
Because a lot of frogs don't know.
That's what they just told us.
Same thing we tell you.
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Same message.
Right.
It was fabulous.
Same message.

(55:55):
Yeah.
In the end of the three, the Maduro is my least favorite.
I thought it was too strong for what it was trying to be.
And then it had maybe two flavors and then it was really strong.
And so I was like, ah, you, you did so well with the other two.

(56:17):
And this one missed the mark for me.
So why don't you, why don't you take a look at it and scroll through and pick something
out that you think stands out to you?
Okay.
So we went through 50 cigars and a lot of them we recognized.

(56:39):
And I'm going to say there's two that really stood out to me as a surprise and to top it
off, they landed right next to each other as well.
So the Tatooah series P landed in the number 22 spot.
So slightly above average, but it was a four-hour cigar.

(57:02):
But it had a lot of great flavors.
But again, I couldn't put it ahead of the flathead or the Patel DBS or the one you really
love, the La Aurora 120th anniversary.
I did love that.
So it got stuck behind those.

(57:23):
And that's what I mean by end up with islands.
You end up going as far as you can go and then you stop.
And the P was phenomenal cigar and surprised me because we don't have a lot of the Tatooah
and that one is probably my favorite Tatooah as well.

(57:46):
Then right next to it is the Graycliff G2.
Also a budget stick, probably four or five bucks, but so rich in flavors.
So great.
It really landed really high in 23.
And those two, both budget sticks and both beat out a lot of other cigars to land where

(58:11):
they were.
And that is not easy to do.
Yes.
But that's not an easy thing to do.
So those two really stuck out to me.
I got another in the Graycliff line based on that.
We'll have in this coming year.
Excellent.
Excellent.
I'm happy to hear that.

(58:32):
Well, as we get towards wrapping up this particular episode, I'm going to pour me just
a little bit more Remus because it's Remus.
Feel free to partake.
Here's the lid.
So in the coming year, I did it that way because you can't let it evaporate.

(58:56):
So you've got to pour or put a cap.
Yeah, no, that's the problem.
Once they're open, they have a really high evaporation rate.
I've come back and the bottle's been gone before.
It's just sad.
So in the coming year, I think we mentioned it earlier, but since this is the year wrap
up, we should mention it again.
So in the coming year, Bill will be because we wanted one voice.

(59:20):
That was, yes, we wanted one voice for ranking.
So we're not just, you know, bab, bab, bab, bab, bab, bab, bab, bab, bab.
One voice for ranking.
And then you'll find you discussed.
Why you wouldn't put it there.
Great.
So this year, it's going to be Bill's voice for the cigar.
Yep.
And then we're going to add liquor rankings.
So we're going to, we're going to break out the rums.

(59:41):
You can't put rums with whiskeys.
That just is not even in, it's not the same.
Yeah.
So, so we're going to do, well, the spirit and the cigar top 50, probably 50.
Maybe we'll get 52 out this next year.
But let's just say probably 50.
We'll get top 50 out next year.

(01:00:02):
And I'm looking forward to that.
And I think, I think actually ranking the liquor is going to be even harder.
I think it is, which is why I'm glad you're tackling that one.
What do you mean glad it was your recommendation?
So we're going to carry through with ranking what it is that we have on the show.

(01:00:29):
What are your thoughts about doing a ranking?
What is it that you'd like about it?
What is it that intrigues you about it?
So what I like about it is you sort of like journaling, right?
You put everything in order and you know what to go back to.

(01:00:51):
That's why you journal.
You go, oh, yeah, I remember that.
Maybe I try.
I like things along that line.
You know, that kind of stuff.
So when we rank them, you go, you know what, I noticed, I noticed in this ranking,
I like a lot of adventure.
So big surprise.
But I go, OK, maybe that's not a surprise.
But maybe you do find it a surprise if you're journaling slash ranking for the first time, right?

(01:01:17):
So I like that about it.
But what I don't like about it is we're doing this over the course of a year.
And that is a long time for you to change, you're pal to change, you're body to change,
a lot of dinners and memory.
And so you can have, you know, and maybe an outlier like the Tampa Red.

(01:01:39):
So.
Thank you.
So it's just it's just one of those things that.
Yeah, like you said, it's pros and cons.
Where do you sit with it?
I love the idea of it.
I love the practice of it.
I I really like it when when where you would put something where I put something is different.

(01:02:08):
It is a challenge to the memory as you go.
It is.
Right.
Over the next couple of weeks, it's going to be pretty simple.
Yeah.
Right.
But when you get into second quarter, third quarter, oh my God, the last quarter, you've
got to you're coming across cigars that you haven't smoked in almost a year.

(01:02:36):
And you're trying to take this cigar that you have and place it above or below.
Yeah.
It just it.
It stimulates the mental activity and.
That's both a frustration and I like it.
So I think that's why when you go to like a cigar aficionado, they go through a lot

(01:03:02):
of detail, especially, especially with with half wheel, right?
You go through a lot of detail of nailing down exactly how you get a number and then
you scale it so that you you're not exactly ranking it because what this has become for
us without having some sort of quantified number to assign to these things is it becomes

(01:03:29):
an exercise in emotion.
How did I feel when I drink because how did I feel when I drank this?
How did I feel when I smoked this because I'm not going to remember the exact flavor.
I'm not going to remember everything.
I'm going to remember how I felt.
I'm going to remember the positive and negative I felt on that day.

(01:03:50):
That's what you're going to take.
And that's the drawback is it comes down to emotion.
But at the same time doing an absolute ranking.
This is one.
This is two.
This is three.
I think gives it a bit more finality than it does of this score 91 or this score 93.

(01:04:15):
That's the problem with those numbers is you're so you all these are premium cigars.
So you can't you almost can't give something below a seven unless it's really detrimental.
So let's say you're Charlie or your Brooks or whatever right.
You're one of the guys are just ranking something and you're giving how many 89s do you get

(01:04:40):
in a year?
Yeah.
Two dozen which one's better?
Yeah.
Right.
So that's where the emotion can help separate some of those 89s because they're all there's
a ton of 89s.
You know maybe there's some 94s you go.
Yeah, I know that 94 right.
But how many 89s are there?

(01:05:02):
There's a buttload of 989s.
So the finality as you described it does I think is a benefit.
And yeah, we shuffled around a onesie two's in a lot of cases.
But we came in a lot of places we came up with the same a similar location.

(01:05:24):
And in that place I picked a spot right.
And you'll pick a spot and you'll have a spot.
That's the key.
And I would look at the list before I handed you the pad and determine where I would put
it.
I like that.
And then I would hand it to you and then I would tell you what it is because I didn't

(01:05:46):
want my where I would put it to influence you.
Yeah.
So talk about afterwards.
It's clear when we're talking about it during the show though that you like it or don't
like it whether it's going to go high or not.
So in a sense I still have a sense of where you're going to go.
But you know so am I.

(01:06:07):
Because we do have a lot of similar palette.
But there are there have been some throughout this year where I've had two or three people
three different places on the list that I could see it going.
Right.
You know high media low.
I could.
So the benefit of the position I was in.

(01:06:28):
He's handing it off.
Yeah.
Going you figure it out.
So I hear here here.
There you go.
So you know the tables are turning for this.
But I still get to play a little bit of that with the liquor.
And now I get to play that with cigar.
So quite fun.
Quite interesting.

(01:06:50):
What I think you need to do is bring your pad and put the liquor on it.
That's what I should do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We should have two separate ones because it'd just be too much to keep going back and forth
and scrolling at.
We'll do two separate ones.
Yeah.
I like it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Final thirds because we didn't do a midpoint but that's fine.
We did not do a midpoint.
Not a lot changed at the midpoint.

(01:07:11):
So it's not a tragedy that we missed it exactly.
I do think the more I smoked and drank these together, the more I thought they were really
good pairing.
And that's because the rye, you know, not exactly a rye but the rye component that
added spice.

(01:07:32):
And the way this is spicy is in this nice medium mild where this cigar sits.
So, you know, it's really nice the way they went together because they were similar.
So I'm really pleased.
Again, not a primo pairing.
I don't think either one of them made the other better but they compliment each other

(01:07:56):
in that they were in the same category.
They.
Well, so the drink draw and conversely the draw drink.
It's brought out an interesting new flavor.
Not enough to pop it up into the primo pairing.
Exactly.

(01:08:17):
But it was it was very interesting, very enjoyable.
Very pleasant.
And still cannot nail what that flavor is.
No, I can't either.
But it's still there.
So lovely.
Yeah.
Absolutely great.
The Remus.
I mean, man, thank you, Randy for introducing us to Remus.

(01:08:39):
Yeah, I wasn't on my radar until he brought him over and I was like, Oh, yeah, aka Randy
Sullivan, Randy Sullivan from Bourbon Real Talk.
And the someone say whiskey.
What's good.
Yeah.
Yep.
So when we when we did when we interviewed him, he came over here to our studio and brought

(01:09:08):
three different remisses as is it remi?
Would you get three of them?
Is it remi?
Good question.
I don't know.
We'll have to ask a linguist to test for it on that one.
However, it was fabulous.
And I'm so glad he entered.
Because when you see remiss on the shelf, you see one facing.

(01:09:32):
You don't see five different facings.
So they they can get lost in the shuffle.
Yeah.
And highlighting them like that to us or at least to be just.
No, same.
I agree.
Maybe see them on the shelf.
Yep.
We have the last three.

(01:09:53):
So in Evantura, what can you say?
Just a tremendous cigar.
Not my favorite from his line, right, but right up there.
Oh, it's good stick.
And a great way, both the liquor and the scars.
Great way to start out the 2025.

(01:10:16):
Yeah, that's why I did this fabulous man.
Good job.
All right.
Thank you.
Oh, by the way, the ranking since it's the first show of 2025.
They're both number one.
Yeah, amazing.
So that that so difficult to put those there.
What are the chances?
All right, man.
I feel better.

(01:10:37):
Heck yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.