Ep. #170: H. Upmann Magnum 54 (w/ Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve Blended Scotch Whisky, Telltale Signs of Counterfeit Cuban Cigars, Listener Created Lizard AI Images & Johnnie Walker History)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Gizmo (02:47):
Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast presented by
Fabrica five. It's so good tohave you here. It's a leisure
and lifestyle podcast founded onour love of premium cigars, as
well as whiskey travel, food,work, and whatever else we feel
like getting into. My name isGizmo. Tonight, I'm joined by
Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, ChefRicky, Grinder, and Bam Bam, a
full house of lizards, and Iplan to smoke a cigar, drink

(03:08):
some whiskey, talk about life,and, of course, have some
laughs.
So take this as your one hundredand seventieth official
invitation to join us and becomea card carrying lounge lizard.
We're gonna be this here once aweek. We're gonna smoke Cupid
Cigar tonight, share ourthoughts on it, and give you our
formal lizard rating. We reviewAI created images of ourselves
sent in by a lizard listener. Wedetail the long history of our

(03:29):
whiskey pairing, and we discussthe telltale signs of
counterfeit Cubans, all among avariety of other things for the
next two hours.
So sit back, get your favoritedrink, light up a cigar, and
enjoy as we pair Johnny WalkerGold Label Reserve blended
Scotch whiskey with the h Upmanmagnum 54. A Cuban Robusto on
the pod tonight, and we're backto h Upman. This is the h Upman

(03:51):
magnum 54, and it's a 54 ringgauge cigar by four and three
quarters inches long. And boys,Pagoda's already lit his cigar.

Pagoda (04:01):
I didn't realize that this was gonna be mentioned.

Gizmo (04:05):
It wasn't me.

Pagoda (04:07):
Hey. Listen. Once in a while, we all messed up. Right?
I did the Ricky today.
Yep. So he showed up.

Gizmo (04:12):
Came in, sat down, cut the cigar, and lit it. So he's a
little bit ahead of us all.

Rooster (04:16):
Excited we're doing another large ring gauge cigar.

Grinder (04:19):
He's no

Pagoda (04:19):
more excited about the gold label.

Chef Ricky (04:21):
He thought we started recording without him.
Exactly. Exactly.

Gizmo (04:25):
The factory name in the cigar is actually called the
Magnum 54. It's a unique size tothis, to this line. And, boys,
I'm very excited to smoke thistonight. I don't remember the
last time I had a Magnum 54.It's been probably years.

Bam Bam (04:39):
It's been a while.

Grinder (04:40):
Yeah. COVID times.

Bam Bam (04:42):
We waited long enough to do this.

Rooster (04:43):
I've

Pagoda (04:43):
never had it.

Gizmo (04:45):
Yeah. I'm looking forward to doing it tonight. Let's cut
this thing, boys. See, we'regetting on the cold draw and the
wrapper.

Senator (04:51):
Begona, do you need a cutter?

Pagoda (04:52):
No. I just wanna make the noise. I'm cutting.

Gizmo (04:58):
Do you

Rooster (04:58):
use the v cutter?

Pagoda (05:00):
The v cutter is only for special cigars.

Bam Bam (05:03):
Draws wide open.

Gizmo (05:05):
My draw is just a little bit resistant, but very nice.

Grinder (05:08):
Very cedar y.

Gizmo (05:09):
Yeah. Yeah. I wish you get a little saltiness on the

Grinder (05:13):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right off the bat.

Bam Bam (05:15):
I like the cigar a lot. Yep. I also started lighting it.
I course corrected, though.

Grinder (05:23):
He was influencing you.

Senator (05:24):
This is probably a bad pet peeve. You may get upset
with yourself on this.

Grinder (05:28):
Correct. Put

Gizmo (05:28):
it put it on the list.

Bam Bam (05:29):
I'm anxious to smoke, I'll be honest.

Gizmo (05:31):
Me too.

Grinder (05:31):
Alright. Let's go.

Gizmo (05:32):
Alright, boys. Let's light this thing. The h Upman
Magnum 54. Again, it's a 54 ringgauge cigar out of Cuba by four
and three quarters inches long.Let's get stuck in.
This is the third in the Magnumseries from h Upman we're doing
on the pod. The other two thatwe've done are the Magnum 46 and

(05:54):
the Magnum 50. We'll go throughthose ratings a little later.
The box code on these cigars isBLT, bacon, lettuce, and tomato,
September 21.

Grinder (06:08):
I didn't know Havana had a bacon, lettuce, tomato
factory.

Gizmo (06:12):
They do now. And, the price on these cigar boys is
just north of $32 a stick.

Grinder (06:18):
Yikes. Yeah. How's that? Lots of delicious Huttman
spice.

Senator (06:24):
Just look at the smoke above my head right now. Yeah.
This thing's a chimney.

Gizmo (06:27):
Yeah.

Pagoda (06:27):
It is. This is great.

Gizmo (06:30):
Which, you know, from a large ring gauge cigar is what
you're you're expecting. Youknow? Contrary to some of the
cigars we've had in the last fewweeks that, even at a large
large ring gauge didn't combustmuch at all.

Pagoda (06:42):
And, sir, just a reply to rooster. Hence, no be cut. No
be cut.

Bam Bam (06:54):
I've been looking forward to this all day.

Gizmo (06:55):
Me too. This is really nice on the light. What are you
guys getting right now?

Chef Ricky (07:01):
I'm getting Smoke. Baking spice,

Rooster (07:06):
chocolate,

Chef Ricky (07:07):
salt, and cedar.

Grinder (07:09):
I'm getting nut.

Chef Ricky (07:10):
All very deep deep in rich flavors right now.

Gizmo (07:13):
This is surprising on the light how close it is to some of
the better Mag 40 sixes I've hadfrom h Upman, which I think that
cigars an outlier versus themagnum 50. So I'm curious if
this is gonna be more in linewith that because I I feel like
Mag 50 is a little outside ofthe It's a little mild. Of h
Upman. You know, lacking thebaking spice and

Rooster (07:36):
It's much milder, I think.

Pagoda (07:37):
Yeah. Yeah.

Grinder (07:42):
I love it.

Gizmo (07:44):
Mhmm. This is really nice.

Senator (07:46):
I'm already realizing that my prior experience with
this cigar is not at allrepresentative of what this is
probably normally like. Thewrapper on this is so thin. The
ones I have, I had gotten, like,a 10 count box a long time ago.

Grinder (07:58):
Mhmm.

Senator (07:59):
These thick wrappers, and just it burned wonky, and
the flavor was not none of thenotes were clearly defined.
Where in this, every single noteis, like, very clear and clean.
This is this is off to a goodstart.

Rooster (08:12):
That's what I have. I have a 10 count box as well, and
I think I have, like, maybe sixleft, so I I forgot about it. I
had one or two and then justdidn't smoke anymore. Yeah. But,
yeah, you're right.
I mean, this smoke's verydifferent.

Senator (08:27):
Yep. Mhmm.

Rooster (08:27):
Because I would have gone through them, you know, had
they been this delicious. Same.

Grinder (08:31):
I think this explains some of the negativity that

Bam Bam (08:33):
you guys had with this particular cigar

Gizmo (08:35):
For sure.

Grinder (08:35):
Over the years. Yeah.

Gizmo (08:36):
Honestly, I my last time smoking the cigar Mhmm. Was not
very great. I don't know if itwas wet, different run,
whatever, but it didn't I mean,I know we just started, but it
wasn't even close to this on thelight.

Bam Bam (08:49):
Most of my boxes, I have three of these. Kind of

Grinder (08:52):
very similar

Senator (08:53):
I'm curious.

Bam Bam (08:54):
To this experience.

Senator (08:55):
Your boxes, are they 10 count or twenty five?

Bam Bam (08:57):
Twenty five.

Senator (08:58):
And this came out of 10 or 25?

Gizmo (08:59):
This came out of its 25 count box. Okay.

Senator (09:01):
We could be onto something. Yep. I mean, Rooster
and I did not buy thosetogether. We have, I'm sure,
different codes, everything,and, our 10 counts have been a
problem. Yeah.

Rooster (09:09):
I think mine's a 21, if I'm not wrong.

Gizmo (09:12):
Yeah. That's what this this one is.

Senator (09:15):
Probably around roughly the same time, plus or minus a
year. Mhmm.

Grinder (09:19):
Guys, the foot aroma in here is amazing. Yeah.

Gizmo (09:24):
This is classic up. It's a great cigar. I mean, this is
right in line for me Mhmm. Withwhat I expect from an h upman
cigar, and I'm actuallysurprised I'm saying that for
some reason given the experiencewith the 50 and sometimes even
the 46 is kinda outside thelines of some of the others mag,
h uppman cigar.

Bam Bam (09:40):
The ring gauge is excellent. It's not intimidating
because of

Grinder (09:43):
the length. Right? So this would be a

Bam Bam (09:45):
good hour and a half maybe for some people.

Gizmo (09:47):
Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't feel, like, big in your
hand, but it it's significantenough.

Bam Bam (09:52):
It's substantial.

Gizmo (09:52):
You know what I mean? Yeah. Will

Pagoda (09:53):
it fit to yours? No. I'm just kidding.

Grinder (09:57):
Go ahead.

Gizmo (09:58):
Not nice, pagoda. Alright. You and the people on
Reddit giving me shit about myhands.

Senator (10:09):
The tribe has spoken. Have

Pagoda (10:11):
you seen the episode where, George, becomes a hand
model?

Gizmo (10:14):
Of course.

Pagoda (10:15):
And then he starts putting the mitten and start
oven mittens.

Gizmo (10:23):
So as senator mentioned, these cigars come in slide lid
boxes of 10. They also come in aslide lid box of 25 cigars, like
we said we're smoking out oftonight, and they come in a
display box of 15 aluminum tubosin five cardboard packs of three
classic Cuban release, types.This cigar was announced in 2016

(10:44):
and was released in early twentyseventeen, '1 of the one of the
later cigars for h. Upman in theline.

Rooster (10:50):
We just need to go back on a comment that Bam made
earlier. Okay. Just wanna dwellupon that a little bit. Did you
say three three boxes? Actually,he's right.
That's That's a lot. Threetwenty five count boxes.

Grinder (11:05):
That's a lot.

Bam Bam (11:06):
I've always had that. Wow. And go back to the original
list that's on there, I think.

Gizmo (11:11):
That's amazing. He had one of these

Senator (11:13):
He's got nothing.

Bam Bam (11:14):
That's true. I had one of these very, very early on,
and I fell in

Grinder (11:18):
love with it. So I whenever I can buy a

Bam Bam (11:20):
box, I

Gizmo (11:20):
grab them.

Rooster (11:21):
Glad. Yeah. Coming over tomorrow. Alright. We got it.

Gizmo (11:26):
So, boys, this is the eleventh h Upman we've done on
the podcast if you believe it.We'll go through the full list
and the ratings at the end ofthe episode tonight, but, we
clearly love h Upman aroundhere.

Pagoda (11:38):
Oh, definitely.

Gizmo (11:39):
One of the global brands that, we celebrate from Cuba,
and we smoke a lot of thesecigars, namely the Upman number
two, the magnum 46, I would say,and the half Corona. And then
there's the outliers, the theAnajados Sir Winston. The Sir
Winston. You know, some of thecigars are a little bit harder
to find. And a Puba, of course,the Kanye.

Bam Bam (12:02):
Correct. Kanye. That's right.

Gizmo (12:03):
I love that. Big Kanye guy.

Grinder (12:04):
It's a great cigar.

Senator (12:06):
Kanye's been making a lot of appearances lately.

Grinder (12:08):
Yeah. Pagoda had one the other day. So I can't.

Rooster (12:13):
I mean, there was a time when

Gizmo (12:15):
this is what? About 30, 30 2 dollars? Yeah. $32.50.

Rooster (12:18):
There was a time when you can guess sir Winston's for
this price.

Grinder (12:21):
Yeah. It's outrageous.

Gizmo (12:22):
Yeah. Sir Winston's now are probably between 80 and a
hundred a stick. So depressing.Unbelievable. It's crazy.
This is really nice on the lighthere, guys. Yeah. I'm very
satisfied. First cigar of theday for me, off to a great
start. Yeah.
What year is this? BLT September21.

Chef Ricky (12:44):
There's a complex bitterness that I'm really
enjoying that's rounded out withsome with, like, a creamy
undertone, so that's why it'snot unpleasant. But I'm really
loving the complexity of theboldness, in this cigar. It's
like it's it's it's somewhere inthe medium full range for me. I
feel like it's presenting a lotof flavor without being, too

(13:04):
much, and there's there's just areally pleasant aroma to it and
some slight sweet nut pecancoming through that just kinda
works through the chocolate andthe salt. It's really and and
wood, like, tons of it.
Like, this is a really, reallyenjoyable dish.

Bam Bam (13:21):
Definitely chocolate. There's definitely salt. That's
there for sure. A little coffeemaybe.

Chef Ricky (13:25):
Yeah. It's nutty. Espresso. Yeah.

Bam Bam (13:27):
That bitterness that you mentioned, I'm getting for
me, it's like a turnip type of,Mhmm.

Gizmo (13:31):
Yeah.

Bam Bam (13:32):
Bitterness, which I love. Turnip turnip radish.

Chef Ricky (13:35):
Is it real? Is a little

Bam Bam (13:37):
Yeah.

Rooster (13:37):
Yeah. Radish

Chef Ricky (13:39):
It's a little spicy.

Rooster (13:40):
Little radish is like sauerkraut.

Senator (13:43):
Right? Not really.

Rooster (13:44):
No. Isn't isn't sauerkraut? From

Chef Ricky (13:46):
Are you

Grinder (13:46):
correcting the chef?

Senator (13:49):
I'm just correcting myself. Hey. He makes hot sauce.

Grinder (13:51):
Alright. He's gonna have

Rooster (13:53):
What is sauerkraut made

Chef Ricky (13:54):
out of? Cabbage. Cabbage.

Rooster (13:57):
But it tastes tastes like it tastes like white
radish.

Pagoda (14:01):
There's equations floating

Grinder (14:02):
around his head right now.

Rooster (14:02):
If you taste like white, like raw white radish,
they can kinda taste

Chef Ricky (14:06):
like that.

Pagoda (14:06):
Like Daikon or

Rooster (14:07):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Grinder (14:09):
I could

Chef Ricky (14:09):
see that.

Grinder (14:10):
Sure. Connoisseur's Corner.

Gizmo (14:11):
Yeah. What

Grinder (14:12):
can I say?

Gizmo (14:13):
Hot sauce corner. So what, Bam is referencing with
the hot sauce comment is,Rooster showed up tonight with
his famous Yeah. Hot sauce injars for us and gave us all a
jar of, Yeah. The famous Roosterhot sauce, which is excellent.
It's a

Bam Bam (14:27):
good show.

Gizmo (14:27):
Great on eggs, man.

Chef Ricky (14:28):
Hold on. I just gotta go back to Bam. I don't
like, every week you're hearingit now about how impressed you
are with you. But, dude, youjust pulled turnipile.

Bam Bam (14:36):
Can you stop placating

Gizmo (14:38):
me, please?

Chef Ricky (14:38):
No. That's incredible, man.

Grinder (14:39):
I think this is authentic.

Chef Ricky (14:41):
That's incredible. I mean, turnip is not something
that people are eating.

Pagoda (14:46):
I don't even know what turnip is.

Bam Bam (14:47):
I appreciate it.

Pagoda (14:48):
People don't eat it right now. A vegetable?

Rooster (14:50):
To be able to It's

Bam Bam (14:51):
a root

Grinder (14:51):
it's a root vegetable.

Chef Ricky (14:52):
Oh, really? It'll call it out. Yeah. Alright.

Pagoda (14:54):
I'm trying to avoid vegetables. Thank you.
Appreciate

Gizmo (14:57):
it. Oh, man. This is a nice cigar, boys. And, you know,
you can feel the spirit in theroom when a cigar is good. Like,
it always it's

Bam Bam (15:03):
it really put

Gizmo (15:04):
me in a better mood and ready to go.

Bam Bam (15:06):
So for those of you that didn't like the cigar, what
was it about that particularcigar that you didn't like?

Senator (15:11):
So for me, the the performance and construction was
problematic. It burned unevenlyand was just kinda wonky, and
the flavor was just muddled.

Gizmo (15:19):
Mhmm.

Senator (15:20):
Like, there was one point I remember one of them,
maybe a quarter of the cigar Ireally did like where it
suddenly got really sweet in,like, an unexpected way. And I'm
kinda curious if this takes uson a journey where, like, right
now I'm getting sweet and somesavory. I'm curious if, like,
there's gonna be a point atwhich it gets, like, really
creamy and sweet like I rememberin that other one. But that was
so fleeting, and then the restof it just went back to being

(15:41):
muddled, and I couldn't reallypick out a lot of the notes. So
Really?
I my take on it was like, oh,there's, like, a glimmer of
greatness in it, and then therest was just all over the place
for me.

Rooster (15:51):
Yeah. For me, this was, the MAC 50 and the MAC 54 were
probably my least favorite. Andthis one, you know, coming out
of the 10 count box, I haven'thad it in a while, so I don't
really remember exactly what theissues were, but I do remember
that it wasn't memorable. Like,it did not make me go back to

(16:12):
that box.

Bam Bam (16:13):
Yeah. Yeah.

Grinder (16:14):
What I get from these kinda the halfway point is a a
lot of anise I get.

Bam Bam (16:18):
It kinda turns a

Grinder (16:19):
bit, which I like to. Anise and deep coffee.

Gizmo (16:23):
Halfway through. The last time I had this, I just remember
it being like a muddled messMhmm. Of flavor. Very similar to
what senator described. And itwas so off from the greatness
that I've experienced with Upmanthat I haven't ever revisited it
until tonight.

Bam Bam (16:40):
Yeah.

Gizmo (16:40):
Like, this is the first time back for me.

Senator (16:42):
The funny thing, I was curious to try it just because I
had read a lot of commentaryfrom folks who had smoked it
before saying that this is,like, the sweetest in the Magnum
line. Yeah. And so I was lookingfor, like, a lot of those Upman
dessert notes, and I got it for,like, that glimmer, but it just
didn't really last throughout.This is actually not as sweet as
I would have expected, but we'restill early in, so I'm curious

(17:04):
how this develops.

Bam Bam (17:05):
Yeah. At $32, though.

Gizmo (17:08):
I was just gonna go there. I think it's that's
that's a high price for look atthe cigar, man.

Grinder (17:14):
I mean, it's

Gizmo (17:15):
$32 for this. I don't know if you saw a cigar like
this in in the new worldcategory

Pagoda (17:22):
The Maduro.

Gizmo (17:22):
In a shop.

Chef Ricky (17:23):
The Davidoff Maduro.

Pagoda (17:24):
$50.

Gizmo (17:25):
But I I don't see someone walking in there and just
picking that up on a whim

Bam Bam (17:29):
Not for $30.

Gizmo (17:30):
Unless they're educated about the cigar. But this size
at $32 Yeah. Is wild.

Bam Bam (17:38):
Just goes back to how fortunate we are. Buying what we
did when we did.

Gizmo (17:41):
Yeah. We got lucky.

Grinder (17:42):
I mean, I'm not ever gonna buy another box of these
at that price.

Rooster (17:45):
How many of them are fifties?

Gizmo (17:47):
They gotta be better. Probably around the same price.
Maybe 34 because they're longer.

Senator (17:51):
Yeah. I also I mean 50 by six? With the reality of
pricing as it is right now, I Idon't think it's actually that
crazy. I mean, if a d fourRobusto is going for what? Like,
$28?

Gizmo (18:01):
Yeah. It's good. It's definitely gonna be 30, I would
think, by the end of the year.

Senator (18:05):
Four ring gauge. I mean, it's four millimeters
more.

Rooster (18:08):
Yeah. It's more more in line with the e two.

Senator (18:12):
Yeah. Although this is shorter.

Rooster (18:14):
Yeah. But price point wise, e twos are around a little
over $30.

Senator (18:19):
Then, yeah, this is a little bit high because you get
more cigar, and we'll see, but

Gizmo (18:24):
I think probably a better cigar at the e two. So, boys, we
have covered so much of H.Upman's history in the past.
We're not gonna go through ittonight, and we've done so many
of the cigars from H. Upman likeI said.
So if anybody out there wants tohear H. Upman history or,
obviously, any of the otherreviews that we've done, check
out the website, go to theratings guide. You could find
the episode numbers. And like Isaid, we'll go through the

(18:45):
ratings and the episode numberslater. So, boys, it's a little
early, but I wanna go to ourpairing tonight, which, by the
way, we have to talk about.
The room was not thrilled aboutthe pairing choice tonight.

Bam Bam (18:57):
You're not wrong.

Gizmo (18:58):
Okay. I got a little heat on the

Grinder (18:59):
chat disappointed.

Gizmo (19:00):
From you and Rooster who doesn't even drink.

Pagoda (19:03):
I'm excited

Gizmo (19:03):
about it.

Rooster (19:03):
I was the first one at home.

Gizmo (19:05):
He's like, who the hell chose that?

Bam Bam (19:06):
Yeah. Does Pagoda want a sploosh of seltzer, though?
What's the question?

Pagoda (19:09):
Well, just because it's not from Costco, it doesn't mean
it's not a good drink.

Gizmo (19:13):
Costco does sell it.

Pagoda (19:13):
Costco does.

Grinder (19:15):
Pagoda knows that. How do you

Gizmo (19:16):
know that?

Senator (19:17):
Here we go.

Bam Bam (19:18):
They don't have this, do they? Of Of course.

Chef Ricky (19:20):
Yeah. You

Pagoda (19:20):
know you know,

Grinder (19:21):
of course. They have

Pagoda (19:21):
they sell blue labels. You you you you know what Roost
is?

Rooster (19:24):
Talking about BJ's.

Bam Bam (19:24):
This is Costco.

Pagoda (19:25):
You know what Roost is doing? Costco. He's walking by
the liquor aisle.

Gizmo (19:29):
Taking inventory.

Rooster (19:30):
They have palates of this shit.

Gizmo (19:33):
So boys, tonight, we are drinking the Johnny Walker Gold
Label Reserve blended Scotchwhiskey, and I have never had it
before tonight.

Bam Bam (19:43):
This is my second time.

Rooster (19:44):
I know you prefer shivas.

Pagoda (19:46):
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Gizmo (19:48):
Cheers. Rooster, no cheers to you. Cheers to
everyone else. I'm drinking thisneat. I think we all are.

Chef Ricky (19:54):
Mhmm. If Pooh was here

Pagoda (19:55):
I don't think that may not be a good idea.

Rooster (19:57):
Look into my eyes when I do cheers.

Gizmo (20:01):
That is, that is much better than I expected.

Bam Bam (20:04):
I'll be I'll be blunt. It's delicious. This is my
second last

Senator (20:08):
Yeah. So, ironically, you would never expect I was the
one that to ask is to pick thisup, the gold label, only because
there was a guy at our formerlounge who used to drink this
all the time. Not a person of

Gizmo (20:20):
Great guy.

Senator (20:20):
Taste.

Grinder (20:21):
Or repute. Not not

Senator (20:22):
a great guy. But, all of us were just curious why he
would only really pick thisbottle up. And I remember he
poured it for us a few times,and I I was surprised. Like, it
it's very drinkable, veryeasygoing. And I said to Giz,
the key with it because it'sreally smooth and it's on the
sweeter side is to pair it witha cube and not a New World.
Not that it can't be drank witha New World, but that it would

(20:45):
be ideal with this, and I thinkit's working well.

Gizmo (20:47):
Mhmm. I think it works very well. The honey, the
sweetness thing pairing with thecigar flavor profile, which as
we said is a little absent ofsweetness as we expected. So I
think it's actually verycomplimentary.

Bam Bam (20:57):
Balance. Yeah.

Gizmo (20:57):
So there's balance. How

Rooster (20:58):
much is it?

Senator (20:59):
60. 50 something?

Gizmo (21:00):
So I paid, $58 for this with tax here in New Jersey. It
was marked down, quote, unquote,from, a price of $70.

Senator (21:09):
But that's nonsense.

Gizmo (21:09):
So I think that's a fake price.

Senator (21:11):
Yeah. To Total Wine has this for 50 something. Yeah.

Gizmo (21:14):
Yeah. So we got it for 58 tonight.

Bam Bam (21:16):
Honey and a touch of vanilla.

Grinder (21:17):
Yeah. Delicious. Yeah. All in the finish, though.

Chef Ricky (21:20):
Yeah. Yeah. I gotta say, I I took a couple sips,
before, lighting the cigar, andI wasn't that big a fan of it.
But the pairing, it it it mademe go, oh, shit. You know?
It it it woke me up a littlebit. I was shocked that I while
it worked together.

Pagoda (21:37):
Yeah. Chef is not tequila. Yeah.

Rooster (21:39):
Yeah. Oh, I know. I know.

Pagoda (21:43):
I just thought I'd say that.

Gizmo (21:46):
So for the listeners out there, let's run through so
we've done two other JohnnyWalkers on the pod. We did the
Johnny Walker black label, andwe did the double black. So
we'll go through those ratingslater. This is the third Johnny
Walker on the pod tonight, andvery rarely do we do a blended
whiskey like this with a Cubancigar. So this is also a a kind
of unique experience tonight.

(22:06):
Very rarely are we going singlemalt with a with a Cuban.

Bam Bam (22:10):
It's a great change of pace.

Gizmo (22:11):
So my question is the line of Johnny Walker all the
way from, I guess, it's is itred or green? Is the lowest Red.
Right. Red all the way up to

Senator (22:20):
Which is not for human consumption.

Bam Bam (22:24):
Literally. For washing machine parts.

Gizmo (22:25):
So so can you run us through, senator? Can you run us
through the order of of, youknow, from least to greatest in
their wine?

Senator (22:33):
So it's red, green, gold, used to be platinum, but
now is eighteen year. Theyactually put an age statement on
it, and then blue is

Chef Ricky (22:42):
the highest of the black,

Pagoda (22:44):
red, black

Chef Ricky (22:44):
black, green.

Senator (22:45):
Black, green. Red, black Green. Double black,

Bam Bam (22:49):
green

Pagoda (22:49):
Oh, double black.

Senator (22:50):
Yeah. Gold, platinum now eighteen year, and blue.

Gizmo (22:53):
And the eighteen year is the only one that has an age
statement. Like, even the bluedoesn't have an age statement.

Senator (22:58):
What's funny is when we did the black label, we were
talking about at the time thatthey had recently made a move to
actually put a twelve yearstatement guaranteeing that it
was minimum twelve year, scotchthat was in that. The gold,
ironically, they still haven'tdone that.

Gizmo (23:16):
I was looking at the bottle earlier and the box
looking for some sort of agecommentary, and there was
nothing on it.

Grinder (23:21):
You don't see age statements that, like, often on
blended Scotch

Gizmo (23:25):
either. So

Senator (23:26):
Even Blue Label doesn't have one.

Gizmo (23:27):
You know who does, though? Rooster.

Senator (23:30):
Costco. Kirkland. Jesus.

Rooster (23:32):
Oh, well,

Gizmo (23:32):
is that true? It's better Scotch. Right? What? What?
I'm, I'm pretty impressed

Grinder (23:38):
with this to me too. Very happy.

Senator (23:40):
And the reason it's notable in their line is just
almost all of them. This andblue label are the outliers. All
the rest are are kind of theirsignature note is like a little
bit of peat that you get withthose sweet notes. I mean, the
black label, for sure, younotice some peat. The double
black, we got a lot more peat.
And, the gold is made in a verydifferent style, and blue is

(24:02):
also sweeter in profile likethis.

Bam Bam (24:04):
No Pete here tonight.

Grinder (24:05):
There's there's a lot of, Eli Eli distillers that that
make Scotch for Johnnie Walkerblending.

Bam Bam (24:12):
You know, I could see this interchanging in a week,
taking a break from cognac for aday. This is a great

Grinder (24:18):
change of pace. I could see us drinking this whole
bottle tonight.

Bam Bam (24:20):
I'll I may finish this fucking thing. I think it's
gonna go You

Pagoda (24:23):
know, actually, like, from from my perspective, I
think this could be more of asummer drink as well because of
viscosity. I think it's verylight bodied.

Bam Bam (24:29):
With ice during the summer? Sure.

Senator (24:31):
I don't even think it needs ice. This is so smooth.
Yeah. I would never really thinkof putting ice in this.

Bam Bam (24:36):
Just for for temperature purposes. Right.

Rooster (24:37):
Yeah. So it goes from gold to

Grinder (24:41):
We just went through this. 16.

Rooster (24:42):
Right. I don't know

Gizmo (24:43):
what I mean. What I mean is,

Rooster (24:44):
I mean, the price point wise because this is 60, and
then the blue label is almostthree times. Well, there's the

Senator (24:51):
platinum or 18 before that, which is what, like, 80?

Gizmo (24:54):
I think it's under a hundred. Yeah.

Grinder (24:56):
Still pretty good.

Chef Ricky (24:58):
Do you

Rooster (24:58):
think the blue is worth No. What it is?

Gizmo (25:00):
No. No. Some folks love it. And I've heard it's better
you know, like, we talked we'vetalked about this on previous
episodes about Scotch. Like,Macallan kinda went through a
phase.
Balvenie went through a phase.We've talked about this before.
I've heard that the recent stuffof Johnnie Walker Blue. My dad
loves Blue Label, and he felloff it for about five or six
years and recently got back, andhe said it's really, really

(25:22):
good. But the problem is theprice.

Senator (25:24):
I'll just say this. I I mean, I've had plenty of Blue
Label. This this is so similarin flavor profile to Blue Label
and literally just as smooth.Blue Label has some more
complexity, but it's not worth,like, five times the price. That
that's the problem.

Gizmo (25:40):
I'm enjoying it. I'm shocked at how well it's pairing
with this Cuban cigar that Iwould argue is mild to medium.

Bam Bam (25:46):
Outstanding pairing.

Grinder (25:47):
Right? Says the guy who picked the pairing.

Gizmo (25:49):
No. Actually, senator did. We're gonna give him the
credit. But

Rooster (25:51):
Wait. The blue is not five times.

Senator (25:54):
Retail? More like three times.

Gizmo (25:55):
Are we?

Rooster (25:56):
It's like $1.80. No?

Senator (25:58):
No. It's $2.50 retail. Wow. You can find it duty free
for cheaper for sure. Like,$1.60 you can find it for, but

Bam Bam (26:03):
the retail price fiscal approach tonight, aren't you?

Senator (26:07):
What other question do you have?

Rooster (26:09):
When I used to only drink Blue Label, it was $1.80.

Grinder (26:12):
Alright.

Bam Bam (26:13):
Back in 1922.

Pagoda (26:16):
He was talking about the Gatorade. Wait a

Rooster (26:19):
No. Was it the Gatorade Blue?

Pagoda (26:21):
The Powerade Blue.

Rooster (26:22):
Blue Label used to be around like $1.60, 1 80.

Bam Bam (26:25):
Now I know Pagoda loves the sploosh of seltzer in his
Johnny Walker. Is that happeningtonight?

Pagoda (26:31):
On the black. No. Not in the Not in the Good.

Bam Bam (26:33):
Alright. But in black, yeah,

Pagoda (26:34):
chef Ricky has trained me well. Alright.

Bam Bam (26:37):
No sploosh.

Gizmo (26:37):
Pagoda, do you still drink Black Label with the
sploosh? Is that like, I'm I'mbeing serious. Do you have your
average

Pagoda (26:42):
I haven't had it for a couple of years. I do always
have it at home.

Senator (26:45):
You're welcome, Pagoda. That's because of us.

Pagoda (26:47):
Oh, yeah. No. Absolutely. And and I've got
into rum, and I've got into acouple of other drinks, and then
in tequila. And so it's, justnot made it in the rotation for
whatever reason.

Rooster (26:57):
Look. It's if there's some Indian guy in the room and
you put out a bottle of blacklabel, he'll be very happy.

Pagoda (27:02):
Of course. No. That's so I'm holding out for the cricket
team when they come over. I'llget the black labels out. I'll
say, oh, that's a nice They

Rooster (27:10):
love black label and shivers.

Bam Bam (27:11):
You guys lifting weights when they come over?

Grinder (27:14):
No. We don't. Okay.

Chef Ricky (27:15):
Well, Gauta, I'm curious. You just celebrated
your birthday. Happy birthday.

Bam Bam (27:18):
Well, thanks so much. Happy birthday, man.

Chef Ricky (27:20):
What was the, beverage of choice that evening?

Senator (27:23):
How long do you

Grinder (27:24):
have here? What wasn't the beverage of choice?

Pagoda (27:26):
I have no idea, man. I mixed it all up, but I'll tell
you what the greatest thing was,no hangover the next day. I was
like, what the hell? I I gottakeep that mix in mind, but I
can't remember what I drank.

Gizmo (27:37):
You know Keep it in mind.

Senator (27:38):
You know what was responsible for that pagoda?
What? The champagne.

Pagoda (27:41):
The champagne. Yeah.

Chef Ricky (27:42):
Well, I thought you were gonna say

Senator (27:44):
ice. No.

Pagoda (27:46):
We, yeah, started off with beer, a lot of Balvenie,
Hibiki. Oh. The yeah. And Ithink that's what I sucked and
then champagne. And then, wewent home, and then we had, the
gram 20 port.
We called it a night. You hadport? Yeah.

Chef Ricky (28:04):
It's six in the morning. Six in the morning.
Wow.

Gizmo (28:07):
Yeah. That's that's a hell of a night. You covered it
all.

Grinder (28:09):
Pretty disgusting. Yeah. It's a nightcap with the
port. Holy

Pagoda (28:15):
lord. Love it.

Grinder (28:15):
I love it. I I love it.

Bam Bam (28:17):
You're very adventurous. Alright.

Grinder (28:18):
We should

Senator (28:19):
do that on the pod.

Pagoda (28:20):
The gram 20 is fantastic. No. I have had that.
It's delicious.

Grinder (28:23):
We've actually delicious. After having seven
different types of

Pagoda (28:26):
olive oil. Just a little. We were just hanging
out. We we did a small cigar atthe end of the night, and then
we went home, and we were stillchatting. And Okay.
Yeah. This is this is how weroll.

Gizmo (28:36):
So We had some listeners, by the way, request us to try,
pork and other We

Senator (28:40):
need to. Yes.

Bam Bam (28:41):
Yeah. Yes.

Gizmo (28:42):
We we should do some of that at some point here. So you

Rooster (28:44):
had a nice sleepover.

Bam Bam (28:46):
Okay. With the cricket team.

Rooster (28:48):
No. Not the cricket team. No.

Pagoda (28:49):
This is nobody plays cricket in that team. Alright.

Gizmo (28:52):
So, boys, let's go through a little bit of Johnny
Walker history. I listened tothe, previous episodes we've
done, and it was a littleincomplete. So I'm just gonna go
through that real quick. Thecompany was founded in 1820 by,
of course, Johnny Walker, whowas a Scottish grocer. And he
started blending whiskey becausehe wanted to create consistent
whiskey products for hiscustomers.

(29:13):
At the time, single malts werevery inconsistent in quality,
and blending created a smoother,more reliable whiskey. John's
blends gained local popularity,but it was actually his son,
Alexander Walker, who propelledthe brand to international fame.
The iconic striding man logo,which is on every bottle of

(29:34):
Johnny Walker, Scotch wasintroduced in nineteen o eight
and was created by a cartoonistnamed Tom Brown. The figure
symbolizes progress and forwardthinking. The famous slogan,
born 1820, still going strong,was designed to reflect the
brand's commitment to innovationand global reach, and it's been

(29:54):
their, their slogan for quitesome time.
As we discussed before, JohnnyWalker uses the color coded
label system to differentiatetheir blends. I thought this was
cool. Both the the red label andthe black label were launched in
nineteen o nine.

Rooster (30:08):
Wow.

Gizmo (30:09):
That is a long time for a single product to have been on
the market. Rooster was there.

Senator (30:14):
I love how

Gizmo (30:14):
Rooster just looks around. He's waiting for the age
joke.

Grinder (30:18):
He said Rooster was there.

Gizmo (30:22):
So, of course, the gold, green, and blue label and the
other offerings were offeredmuch later. The slanted labels
on the bottle were deliberatewere a deliberate innovation by
Alexander Walker, his son, tomake bottles stand out on
shelves. Johnnie Walker was oneof the first whiskey brands in
the world to heavily emphasizethe art of blending. Each blend

(30:44):
contains grain whiskies withsingle malts from various
distilleries with Cardew beingthe heart of most of their
blends. By the nineteenth by thelate nineteenth century, thanks
to Alexander Walker's innovativemarketing, Johnny Walker was
finally sold worldwide.
The brand's distinctive squarebottle introduced in 1860, which
is also wild that they broughtthis in in 1860, the square

(31:06):
bottle, minimized breakageduring shipping and allowed more
bottles per case, which wascrucial for exports. What's
interesting about that is I wassurprised that the bottle is
square, but it comes in arectangular box that frames out
the square bottle. Like, itmakes no sense to me why they
would do that.

Bam Bam (31:26):
It looks like a

Grinder (31:26):
remnant that they've adapted.

Chef Ricky (31:28):
Well, it's it's actually great for shock
absorption.

Bam Bam (31:31):
That's true.

Gizmo (31:32):
Ah. Yeah. So it's a That's true.

Chef Ricky (31:33):
Yeah.

Gizmo (31:34):
Preventative, like, breakage thing.

Grinder (31:36):
I gotta ask a question.

Bam Bam (31:37):
Did you say Cardhu? Cardhu.

Gizmo (31:39):
It's c a r d h u. I may be pronouncing that.

Bam Bam (31:43):
Anyone know what that is?

Rooster (31:44):
It's not g.

Senator (31:44):
I've heard of it. I've never had it.

Grinder (31:46):
Isn't that a region?

Gizmo (31:46):
I think it's a region. Yeah.

Bam Bam (31:48):
It's a region. Oh, okay.

Gizmo (31:49):
It's a various distill it's

Senator (31:51):
it says What's made there? I'm curious, like, the

Grinder (31:53):
you guys know? I don't know.

Gizmo (31:56):
So in the nineteen nineties, we've talked about
this before. Johnny Walkerbecame part of Diageo, the
world's largest spirits company,giving it, of course,
unparalleled global reach,making it the best selling
Scotch whiskey brand in theworld. Apparently, by the way, I
have to mention this because Isaw Winston Churchill loved

(32:16):
Johnny Walker Scotch. Which one?I would assume the black.

Pagoda (32:20):
Oh, really?

Gizmo (32:21):
That's what I was told.

Pagoda (32:22):
Wow. This is fantastic.

Bam Bam (32:23):
It's a disappointment.

Senator (32:23):
There's no way.

Grinder (32:24):
Very disappointing. Yes. He did.

Bam Bam (32:25):
That's a disappointment.

Pagoda (32:26):
A history of the black label and the Paul Roger.

Gizmo (32:29):
Well, I don't know if the gold label was out at that time.
I'm not sure. There had

Senator (32:32):
to be some premium version. There's no way in the

Pagoda (32:35):
Red label.

Senator (32:35):
Rochelle's taste would drink black label.

Grinder (32:38):
He also he also put seltzer in it, though. A
sploosh. He put seltzer he putseltzer

Bam Bam (32:43):
in it.

Senator (32:44):
In his defense, the guy's drinking at, like, six in
the morning. This guy woke upwith champagne. So I'll I'll
give him a pass on that.

Gizmo (32:49):
Just like pagoda the other night. Correct.

Pagoda (32:51):
So you see, this this is what we call sophisticated
taste.

Bam Bam (32:53):
Very elegant.

Gizmo (32:57):
Alright. Let's talk about Gold Label Reserve, the one
we're drinking tonight. It wascreated by master blender, Jim
Beveridge, which is a hell of alast name. Jim Beveridge, one of
the most respected figures inall of Scotch whisky. It
includes whisky from the nowclosed Kleinlish distillery
known for its subtle waxy andcreamy characteristics.

(33:18):
The distillery's water source issaid to flow through gold
bearing rock, which inspired thegold label name. It's known for
its silky texture, which we'reexperiencing tonight, I think.
Globe label reserve, they say,delivers honey, vanilla, and
dried fruit notes, which Bampointed out, with a touch of
smoke in the background with along smooth finish with hints of
wood spice and smokiness. I'mnot getting the smokiness No.

(33:41):
Not at all.

Bam Bam (33:42):
Not at all. And, thankfully, we're not getting
it.

Gizmo (33:45):
Gold label reserve, finally. Gold label reserve was
crafted as a celebratory whiskeypositioned between the very
approachable black label and thepremium. So Cardew

Grinder (33:55):
is a distillery in Speyside.

Senator (33:57):
That's what I thought. I've heard of it as a brand.
Okay.

Rooster (34:01):
Spelled with a c. Right?

Grinder (34:02):
Or is that

Senator (34:03):
it Yeah. C.

Grinder (34:05):
Just like Costco.

Rooster (34:09):
See, I don't I don't bring it up. I don't talk about
it.

Gizmo (34:13):
Why are you looking at

Grinder (34:14):
me? I just,

Chef Ricky (34:14):
you know

Grinder (34:15):
You're the moderator.

Gizmo (34:16):
Do bring it.

Rooster (34:16):
I wish we could rewind.

Pagoda (34:21):
Abuela, did you do the spelling bee? Because you're
really old with the drips in thespellings. I realize that.

Senator (34:26):
And he's a big numbers guy.

Grinder (34:27):
He's a talk sharing guy. Alright. I'm sorry.

Pagoda (34:31):
It's just January.

Gizmo (34:33):
So, boys, I can't believe it, but we're already coming to
the end of the first third here.

Bam Bam (34:37):
It's gone quickly.

Gizmo (34:38):
H upman magnum 54. I've been talking, and I've not been
smoking.

Grinder (34:41):
We smoked $15 already.

Gizmo (34:44):
And, I'm surprised it's moving this quickly.

Pagoda (34:46):
Yeah. It's moving quicker than I thought. Yeah.

Rooster (34:48):
Me too. I think it's maybe not packed very densely.

Gizmo (34:51):
It's not. Yeah.

Bam Bam (34:52):
Does seem very light. Pagoda, what are you thinking
about this?

Pagoda (34:54):
I'm loving it. Have

Grinder (34:55):
you ever

Bam Bam (34:55):
had this before?

Pagoda (34:56):
No. Never.

Bam Bam (34:57):
This is your first one. Right?

Pagoda (34:58):
Yeah.

Gizmo (34:58):
Okay.

Pagoda (34:58):
And it you know, like, it's it's like one of those
things where I feel like it'sit's an upman for sure.

Bam Bam (35:04):
It's nice, isn't

Pagoda (35:05):
it? It's, definitely. I I got, like, like, it was very
like, the bay the baking spicein the in the beginning, you
know, there was sweetcreaminess. And then towards the
end, I got the saltiness, like

Gizmo (35:22):
and

Pagoda (35:22):
then now that I'm in the middle I I don't know. I felt a
little bit of the earthiness,saltiness, which

Rooster (35:28):
No marmalade? A

Pagoda (35:29):
little bit. No. No. No marmalade. So I'm really
enjoying it.
This is fantastic. The retrohaleis delicious.

Gizmo (35:35):
It is.

Bam Bam (35:35):
I agree. Right.

Gizmo (35:36):
And I'm I really I can't get over the pairing right now.

Grinder (35:39):
That's great, man.

Senator (35:40):
Giz, you're you're really, you're gonna be
vindicated. Why? The Gizcut. Itmay no longer be the Gizcut.

Grinder (35:46):
It's the pagoda cutting.

Senator (35:47):
This is happening. Too much pagoda. Look at this. Oh,
that's a huge the head of thecigar is unravelling. He took
off, like,

Bam Bam (35:53):
a half inch That's a bit it's a big cut.

Grinder (35:54):
I I think he just chews it. No. No. That's a bad cut.

Pagoda (36:00):
I've I've heard a few bad cuts recently.

Bam Bam (36:03):
It's okay. Jesus. Alright.

Pagoda (36:05):
No. I'll say that.

Gizmo (36:06):
Cut early too. I don't know when you were rushing.
Yeah.

Pagoda (36:08):
Because, yeah, I just came in and I just cut, and I
said, damn. I gotta catch upwith these guys.

Bam Bam (36:11):
I have to say, you look very dapper tonight, dude. I
like the outfit.

Pagoda (36:14):
Yeah. I come out today on the bathroom.

Grinder (36:16):
Straight from work. Yes. Socks. The socks are sharp.

Pagoda (36:19):
It's, yeah.

Bam Bam (36:20):
This I

Grinder (36:20):
like that. Work.

Pagoda (36:21):
It's work.

Bam Bam (36:22):
Look at you, man.

Chef Ricky (36:23):
Razor sharp creases on the sleeves and

Bam Bam (36:25):
Correct.

Grinder (36:25):
Legs there. Nice.

Gizmo (36:26):
He's ready to go to our next topic, boys. We're only a
couple weeks away from theHabanos Festival, very
appropriately dressed for theHabanos Festival. And I have
good news for you, Pagoda.

Pagoda (36:37):
Yep.

Gizmo (36:38):
Habanos SA is giving away two free tickets to the Habanos
Festival this year.

Pagoda (36:44):
Well, really? What do you

Rooster (36:45):
have to do? This is what's exciting. You have to
send us an email.

Chef Ricky (36:48):
Is that is that what our listener of the week

Gizmo (36:52):
is? Yeah. Listener of the week is gonna go to Habanos
Festival courtesy of Pagoda. SoHabanos is making the contest
very straightforward with thetheme centered around Bejike. Of
course, we talked on our NewYear's Eve, Cohiba Esplendidos
episode that the Cohiba Bejike58 is expected to be launched at
the festival this year in only afew short weeks.

(37:12):
And I just love this, and I I'mhoping we can practice together
here tonight, boys. Toparticipate, you have to answer
one single question in thecomments of an Habanos SA
Instagram post.

Rooster (37:26):
Can you afford it? And the

Gizmo (37:27):
question is, what is the magic of Bejike?

Senator (37:33):
Okay. Medio Tiempo.

Grinder (37:36):
That's correct.

Gizmo (37:38):
High price. That's also correct. Impossible to get.
That's also correct. Fakeseverywhere.

Bam Bam (37:43):
Yeah. Danilo.

Grinder (37:46):
Sleight of hand. Sleight of hand. Smoke and
mirrors.

Chef Ricky (37:52):
Oh, boy.

Gizmo (37:53):
False false scarcity. Yikes.

Pagoda (37:55):
It reminds me of a really bad word in India.

Gizmo (37:59):
It's an elite cigar. According to Habanos boys, if we
wanna win this pair of tickets,our answer should inspire and
capture the essence of Bihike.Cigar of the gods. You also have
to use the hashtag twenty fivefestival Habanos, and you have

(38:19):
to follow their Instagramaccount. This is a new thing for
them, like reaching out onsocial media, giving away
tickets.
I don't think they've ever donethis before, but, some of the
responses, of course, is, youyou know, you can imagine are
people just lighting up Habanosover the price of the cigars and
the scarcity and the fakes outthere.

Rooster (38:36):
Maybe sir Kirby Allison has something to do with it.

Gizmo (38:39):
He might.

Grinder (38:40):
Sir, he was knighted?

Gizmo (38:41):
He was knighted.

Grinder (38:42):
He was knighted in Havana.

Gizmo (38:46):
So you'll, you'll win two free tickets, and that's an
expensive, that's an expensiveticket probably close to $2,000
each. So it's a pretty highprice. I went, two years ago, in
2023 as we detailed on anepisode after coming back. That
was probably my first and lasttime going. But whoever goes
this year is gonna get a giftbox of, Bahiki fifty eights.

Grinder (39:10):
Yeah. Worth it. No.

Gizmo (39:15):
I find this interesting too. You do not get your travel
paid for. You have to find yourown way to Cuba.

Bam Bam (39:20):
Alright.

Grinder (39:21):
That's not too bad. Obviously.

Pagoda (39:23):
They're both going out of Miami.

Grinder (39:24):
No worries. You bring your own electric generator with
you. That's a must.

Gizmo (39:28):
Alright, boys. Let's go to some listener email now. This
one is from lizard Blake. Hesays, hey, guys. I just came
across your podcast, and I'vebeen listening to a bunch of
them while at work.
So far, I've listened to to onesof the cigars I've had to see
your opinions on them. A fewthings I'd love to see you guys
review. Cohiba Sigalos four,Cohiba Sigalos six, the Joyo de

(39:50):
Nicaragua Classico original, andthe Casa Cuba, which is a Fuente
line. I don't know if you guyshave ever had Casa Cuba, but No.
Two guys in the lounge smokedthem here, and they say they
enjoy them.
Yeah. And this one, I I wantedto earmark, senator, especially
because we've talked about thisbefore, and we've had a few
listeners requesting, asking whywe haven't done Emanente Reserva

(40:14):
Cuban rum.

Bam Bam (40:15):
Yeah. We should do that.

Gizmo (40:16):
As well as the other one is Pato Navio.

Bam Bam (40:19):
We should do that too.

Senator (40:20):
Yeah. We should do.

Grinder (40:21):
I've had the Emanente. It's nice.

Gizmo (40:23):
So he says, keep up the good work, fellas. Lizard Blake.
This one's another one here fromlizard Jason. He says, hi. I'm a
New York City resident thatrecently discovered the pod.
It's such a refreshing changefrom the garbage reviews online,
and it's filled with interestingfacts I wouldn't be able to find
easily elsewhere. Thanks forputting this out there, and keep

(40:46):
up the great work. I'm wonderingif you guys ever make it out to
Manhattan for recordings. I'dlove to meet you guys if there
are any upcoming events. Pagoda,you, you go to Manhattan all the
time.
Yeah. You were there today?

Pagoda (41:01):
Yeah. I'm always there, but I'm very antisocial.

Grinder (41:07):
That's a great that's a great fucking answer. That is a
great fucking answer.

Rooster (41:12):
So I

Gizmo (41:13):
do have to ask, you know, Pagoda does like the the
Carnegie Club, and I know that,bam, you were at the Carnegie
Club with Pagoda Just

Bam Bam (41:19):
the other night.

Gizmo (41:20):
The other night?

Bam Bam (41:21):
Yes.

Gizmo (41:21):
Is this guy the mayor there or what?

Bam Bam (41:22):
He is the mayor. Everyone knows him. They're
like, celebrities in that place.

Pagoda (41:27):
It's just home for us.

Bam Bam (41:28):
Oh, mister Pagoda, how can I help you? What can I get
you? I will say one thing. I hada diplomat ago there. It was
outstanding.
Padron. Padron

Senator (41:39):
From their humidor?

Bam Bam (41:40):
Yeah. Shock. I was shocked how good it was.

Pagoda (41:43):
What was the price?

Rooster (41:43):
By the way 50.

Grinder (41:44):
This is

Bam Bam (41:45):
not It was expensive.

Grinder (41:46):
From Bambi. You like that cigar. You love the
diplomatic.

Bam Bam (41:49):
I don't have it enough, but I need to get a box.

Grinder (41:51):
You always explain fucking stole the virtues of the
diplomat. But

Bam Bam (41:54):
that night, I was over

Rooster (41:56):
Never seen them on Yeah.

Senator (41:57):
He never smokes that cigar.

Grinder (41:58):
Kugota left me alone. He talks about he talks about
it. I do.

Bam Bam (42:01):
I do.

Pagoda (42:01):
I've been so bad. I Yeah. I'll tell you.

Bam Bam (42:03):
He left me alone. So I ordered a put a Diplomatico, and
it was exquisite. Senator, youit's I I have boxes.

Gizmo (42:10):
I I love this.

Pagoda (42:11):
You do.

Bam Bam (42:11):
But I was shocked how good it was there because I
wasn't my expectations were verylow from the humidity point of
view. It was beautifully kept.It was exquisite.

Pagoda (42:19):
And you know what's really interesting? Because
initially, I think they hadcontracted out to, the Davidoff
store on Avenue Of The Americason 50 Sixth. But now they go and
they put it in their ownhumidor. So whatever they're
doing, it seems like if they'vebeen able to keep the cigars
well, it's fantastic.

Bam Bam (42:37):
It was impressive.

Pagoda (42:38):
That's impressive. Yeah.

Chef Ricky (42:40):
Yeah. It looks like

Gizmo (42:41):
you guys had a good night. I was very envious.

Bam Bam (42:43):
It's very nice.

Gizmo (42:43):
Yeah. I I love smoking there. So lizard Jason,
concludes here. Also, I'mlooking to pick up a box of
special occasion cigars to agefor three plus years. I don't
really have a price point orlimit in mind, but I have really
liked the Trinidad, especiallythe Esmeraldas, but I have found
some of the Partagas too strongfor my taste.

(43:07):
Any pointers on sticks, I shouldbe looking into finding. Thanks
very much, wizard Jason.

Pagoda (43:13):
I think,

Bam Bam (43:14):
wait a minute.

Pagoda (43:15):
I think senators already said, you're out. You're out.

Bam Bam (43:18):
Yeah. Partagus too strong?

Gizmo (43:21):
It doesn't work for his palates. So we'll stay away from
Partagus, but he's looking forhigh end special occasion
cigars. He clearly likesTrinidad.

Pagoda (43:30):
What about the Utman two?

Gizmo (43:32):
H Utman number two is a good one?

Rooster (43:34):
If if price is price is not

Gizmo (43:36):
a fact, it doesn't make sense.

Rooster (43:37):
Winston's would be good that's a good cigar to age for a
few years.

Bam Bam (43:41):
Yeah. That's quite the exclusive cigar.

Gizmo (43:43):
I think the one we did on the New Year's Eve episode, the
Cohiba Asplendidos, I think thatwas we all had a yeah. Wonderful
experience with that Yep. With,four or five years of age on it.
The other one I was thinkingbecause he mentioned Trinidad,
he likes Trinidad, the TrinidadFundadores

Bam Bam (43:57):
Correct.

Gizmo (43:58):
Is a nice box to age. I think those do need some age.

Bam Bam (44:01):
They do.

Gizmo (44:01):
You know, I don't think that's something that you wanna
be buying for the price thatthey go that they command and
then pulling something out.

Bam Bam (44:08):
And they are on the milder side. So for his palate,
it might fit.

Senator (44:11):
I'd also on the Fundadores, I'd be curious how
some of the recent ones aresmoking. I mean, we've been
talking about the quality hasimproved

Gizmo (44:18):
of

Senator (44:19):
recent years.

Gizmo (44:19):
Mhmm. I

Senator (44:20):
mean, the Coheba, that Espinidos we did, that was a
recent cigar. Right? That wasn'theavily aged?

Gizmo (44:25):
It was about five years we we had. Okay. Yeah. That was,
like, a '19 or an early twenty.Okay.

Senator (44:29):
There was some Cohiba we did that was not not old.

Gizmo (44:34):
Well, the Sigl o five is smoking brilliantly. We did that
one. We rated that very

Bam Bam (44:37):
well. Young.

Senator (44:38):
Did we do the Pyramides extra on the pod? Yes. We did.

Bam Bam (44:40):
We did.

Senator (44:40):
And that was very new.

Gizmo (44:41):
Yeah. That was great.

Senator (44:42):
So That's great. I would just be curious. The Fundy
the recent ones are probablygood.

Bam Bam (44:46):
Yeah. So the oldest I mean, the youngest Fundy I've
had is a 21, and it was very,very mild. Delicious, but

Pagoda (44:54):
So so what so what's the

Grinder (44:55):
oldest like that?

Bam Bam (44:56):
That's the that's the oldest, youngest. That's it's it
doesn't capture your attentionYeah. Honestly. Yeah. Once
you're done with it, you kindamove on.
But it's a very good cigar foryour specific palate if you'd
like.

Gizmo (45:08):
I think the other one too, if if price is no factor, I
I would look at something like aCohiba Sigla six. You know,
those with some time on them aresmoking really well. If that's a
little too high on the pricepoint, I mean, a box of those of
25 is probably about $2,700right now. You know, you could
go for a a Cohiba Robusto

Bam Bam (45:26):
But there are

Gizmo (45:27):
put those down.

Bam Bam (45:27):
Some other markers like that Punch Double Corona. That's
for

Pagoda (45:30):
this punch Double Corona.

Bam Bam (45:31):
That's like a celebratory cigar because of its
fatola. That's a great cigar.

Pagoda (45:35):
It's an excellent cigar. Right? Yeah.

Gizmo (45:37):
And we rated that very high.

Pagoda (45:38):
But it's

Bam Bam (45:38):
very it's fairly full bodied. It's not a mild mild
cigar for this for thisparticular guy.

Gizmo (45:44):
My recommendation is if Partagas is not in your flavor
profile, I would stay away fromthe entire Partagas family.
Boldivar, Ramon Ionis, Partagas,I would stay closer to the
Trinidad Cohiba, Upmans, ifthat's your if that's your
profile.

Bam Bam (45:59):
I'm just curious what Partagas he's had that he feels
is just too strong for him. Imean,

Senator (46:04):
the only partagus that I feel like can be strong P two?
Not can be. No. No. No.
I think the young p twos aren'tstrong. I was gonna go eight
nine eight. The the young eightnine eights, those

Chef Ricky (46:14):
are bold.

Bam Bam (46:14):
They are.

Senator (46:15):
They're bold cigars. They need time to mellow out,

Pagoda (46:17):
but that's that's what

Rooster (46:19):
he wants to do. He wants to age them for three to
four years and maybe evenlonger. The eight nine eights
will change.

Senator (46:24):
Absolutely. After five years But they're still a fuller
Cuban is all I'm saying.

Chef Ricky (46:28):
We're like

Senator (46:28):
the other Particus cigars, young and with age, are
not as bold as the eight nineeight.

Rooster (46:33):
I mean, I would try the e two.

Bam Bam (46:35):
A %. Yeah.

Gizmo (46:36):
Particus e two might be one to try. Yeah.

Grinder (46:38):
It's delicious.

Gizmo (46:39):
If you don't love some of the others, that that one, I
think, is a little creamier, alittle smoother. Even in the
letter series, you know, the dfour, the p two, I think the e
two is the standout in thatseries. You know? Well, thanks
to, lizard Jason for writing.Alright.
Let's go to another one, boys,and I sent you this document. I
wanted to, share this, and I'llput these up on the lizard

(47:02):
Instagram page.

Pagoda (47:03):
Hey. Just just before you say that, did he just say e
two is a standout or just sendit right? Just wanted

Rooster (47:08):
to I'm

Senator (47:08):
glad that

Grinder (47:08):
you picked up notes.

Senator (47:10):
I refrained

Gizmo (47:11):
to it as a stand.

Grinder (47:12):
I was hoping that water was gonna run under the bridge.
Thank you, ma'am. Right?

Senator (47:17):
I held back.

Gizmo (47:18):
The water flooded the bridge, Jonah.

Grinder (47:20):
I swear to God, I was hoping that water was gonna go
under the bridge.

Gizmo (47:23):
I can't get away with anything around here. That
graphic haunts me that LizardMax made for us where the list
of names who voted for the etwo. Mhmm. There's six.

Senator (47:32):
And there's one.

Gizmo (47:34):
And there's one.

Senator (47:34):
Wizard on an island unto himself. On

Gizmo (47:36):
the p two. I do love a good p two.

Senator (47:38):
In a hoodie on the beach.

Gizmo (47:42):
So boys, I I want you to open up that document I sent
you.

Bam Bam (47:46):
Yeah. I don't like it.

Gizmo (47:47):
So lizard John

Bam Bam (47:49):
No. I don't like it.

Gizmo (47:50):
Lizard John sent over AI created images of what He
perceived us to be. Yeah. So letme read the email.

Bam Bam (47:58):
Disappointed lizard John.

Gizmo (47:59):
He says, hi, Giz. It's lizard John again. After sharing
the lounge lizard's bingo cardsheet with you, I started
wondering what else I couldcreate while enjoying a cigar to
send your way. Since there's novideo feed, we're left to
imagine what you all look likebased on your voices and what
you've mentioned on the pod Itook you shot at creating AI

(48:19):
generated versions. I love mybed.
I don't like it.

Bam Bam (48:23):
I don't like it.

Gizmo (48:24):
Hold on. Let me

Rooster (48:24):
finish here. It.

Pagoda (48:27):
That's the most accurate, by

Gizmo (48:28):
the way.

Grinder (48:29):
Oh, really? Is my stomach really that big? Is it
really that big?

Senator (48:34):
Let's get the tape measure. Hey.

Pagoda (48:36):
Have we been running?

Gizmo (48:37):
Have we

Grinder (48:38):
been running outside? Have, motherfucker. Yes. I have.

Gizmo (48:41):
Lizard John says, love the work you're doing on the
podcast. Keep it up. I tune inevery week. So let's open the
document here, boys. I knowyou're gonna have it open.
So it opens with me, his imageof me here, Gizmo. I had more
work, more to work with since hewas on FOH with Rob, which is
true, wearing a hoodie, ofcourse.

Grinder (49:01):
It's not that far off.

Pagoda (49:08):
Yeah. Good is a good one now.

Bam Bam (49:09):
Had some work to do since he was on FOH with Ron.

Gizmo (49:12):
He may

Pagoda (49:12):
be he may be most accurate. Wow.

Gizmo (49:14):
Really?

Rooster (49:16):
Yeah. I think the pooh boy is spot on.

Gizmo (49:19):
Alright. So what's going on?

Grinder (49:20):
I like senators like a 05:00 shadow.

Gizmo (49:25):
Senator Esquire. Oh, shit. Rick Hoffman, he looks
inspired.

Pagoda (49:28):
But that could be senator. Yeah.

Grinder (49:30):
He looks like he looks like a pedophile here. That
that's no good. Jesus. I mean,no good.

Rooster (49:35):
Alright. Grinder is way off.

Gizmo (49:38):
Alright. Hold on. Let's go to Pupa now. Brendan Fraser
inspired since his voice soundssimilar to him You know? With
blonde hair on a Gulfstream.
And, of course, he has a pictureof the Gulfstream he doesn't
have. Well, on the Gulfstream,he definitely does not fly on.
Two watches because

Grinder (49:55):
That is this is great.

Gizmo (49:56):
Two watches because senator only has one.

Rooster (49:59):
What? That's hilarious.

Gizmo (50:02):
He doesn't even know how much they were at the,
authorized dealer. He just gavehim his black card, delayed on
the tarmac, probably thinkingthis is fucking lunacy. And by
the way, that is so hilariousbecause Pupa's in Florida right
now and was getting absolutelytortured at the airport
yesterday with, like, an a sixhour delay or something and was
absolutely screaming that on thelounge lizards text chat. Now

(50:24):
this one this one's wild. TheBam Bam, an Italian man with
shaggy hair smoking a cigar

Senator (50:31):
in a construction size. Yeah.

Bam Bam (50:32):
Yeah. With quite the waistline dimension.

Grinder (50:35):
That is a big fatola right there. He's a

Gizmo (50:38):
formidable dad. That's a that's a Toro Gordo.

Grinder (50:41):
That does not look formidable.

Gizmo (50:46):
For some reason, his voice reminds me of someone with
shaggy hair.

Rooster (50:50):
Alright. Question mark.

Gizmo (50:52):
I just love the construction equipment behind
you there. That's hilarious.

Senator (50:55):
I just wish I could see his shoes to see if they're
clean. Correct.

Grinder (50:59):
Correct.

Gizmo (51:00):
Grinders. Sounds like a skinny guy with glasses always
working, always grinding. That'snot that far off.

Pagoda (51:06):
That's not that far off. He's a consultant, and you can
see that he's with a littlelaptop over there. I think
that's pretty good.

Gizmo (51:12):
Alright. Sleeves are rolled up. I love this one.
Pagoda.

Pagoda (51:17):
Pagoda, you look

Gizmo (51:17):
so handsome here. Middle aged Indian man with an accent.

Pagoda (51:21):
Look how handsome you look.

Gizmo (51:22):
A cup of black tea not pictured.

Pagoda (51:26):
No tea with milk. Tea with

Grinder (51:28):
no I

Chef Ricky (51:28):
think he's on to something here. You need to get
that beard going.

Bam Bam (51:30):
Gotta get that beard, bro.

Pagoda (51:31):
No, man.

Bam Bam (51:32):
Why is it gray?

Pagoda (51:34):
It it will be gray.

Grinder (51:35):
I have gray?

Pagoda (51:36):
I might just look right like it.

Bam Bam (51:37):
Pictured near

Senator (51:38):
the Titanic.

Bam Bam (51:39):
Don't be ashamed of the gray, man.

Gizmo (51:40):
Yeah. This is great. Rooster, a more chronologically
seasoned Indian man. That's akind way to put it.

Pagoda (51:46):
That's another really good one.

Gizmo (51:47):
Is he bald? I'm not gonna say.

Bam Bam (51:49):
Wow.

Gizmo (51:50):
Pictured near the Titanic since he was old enough to be on
it and made it off.

Bam Bam (51:54):
Amazing. That's fucking

Pagoda (51:56):
That is excellent,

Rooster (51:57):
Stash. Bro.

Pagoda (51:59):
That is excellent.

Chef Ricky (52:01):
I gotta say it's pretty accurate.

Grinder (52:02):
That's crazy. No alcohol.

Gizmo (52:05):
And chef Ricky, a nice Latino man, pictured with
bottles of fine tequila.

Grinder (52:12):
Of course.

Pagoda (52:14):
I like the way his shirt says tequila on it. Yeah.

Gizmo (52:17):
You're like, tequila. Tequila.

Senator (52:19):
Look at the glass he's drinking the tequila out of too.
Yeah.

Rooster (52:21):
I think there's some ice in it.

Gizmo (52:23):
And he's smoking, and the AI has him smoking his cigar
backwards. The lid end is on hislips.

Bam Bam (52:30):
Are these AI generated? Yeah.

Gizmo (52:32):
This is all AI. Really? He prompted all these things.

Bam Bam (52:35):
No. That's very accurate. Very handsome. Very
handsome.

Gizmo (52:39):
So, I'd be so if you wanna check these out, I will
put them on Instagram right whenthis episode drops.

Rooster (52:45):
I'm sorry. You don't win the lizard of the week. He
won

Gizmo (52:49):
he won he won recently, so, we're gonna give it to
somebody else. But thank you,lizard John, for putting this
work in. It was, it was prettyhilarious. I was, I was really
enjoying, looking at the imagesof the boys here. So we'll put
this up on Instagram if youwanna follow along

Bam Bam (53:05):
It's pretty awesome.

Gizmo (53:05):
While we go through them. It's pretty creative. So thank
you, lizard John. And boys, ourlizard of the week is gonna go
to lizard Maximus. And this isone we get a lot of questions
like this, but I wanted tohighlight this one.
He says, good morning. I've beenlistening to your podcast for
over a year, and I've thoughtabout writing in with comments,
but I never did. I believe yourshow and panel are the Cuban

(53:29):
cigar authority. I've never beeninto Cuban cigars. I've only
spoke New World, but I'm curiousabout Cuban cigars.
However, the price point andconsistency issues have been my
excuse for not making the leap.I know you have discussed it
during some of your emails ofthe week, but as a future show
idea, you should think aboutgoing you should think about
going through the steps tovalidate a Habanos SA cigar. For

(53:53):
the real reason I'm writing you,I was gifted a box of Romeo y
Julieta Churchill's, which isstill in the cello wrap, the
cellophane wrap, and thewarranty seal intact. I've gone
to the Habanos verificationsite, which states that they are
valid box, but could that sealhave been forged as well? They
are from a Cuban immigrant withmany contacts and families who

(54:17):
still live in Cuba, and he istrustworthy.
Also, how do I read the factorycode and the date on the box? It
appears to have a b k I code,July 11. Does that mean these
cigars have 13 years of age onthem already? I'm trying to
learn all of this, but theHabanos world seems so
confusing. Thank you for theshow and information, lizard

(54:38):
Maximus.
So, unfortunately, boys, we haveto break some bad news here to
lizard Maximus tonight.

Chef Ricky (54:45):
Jesus.

Gizmo (54:45):
Our lizard of the week. So, you know, there are so many
red flags as as we go throughthis. First off, the idea that
you've gotten Romeo y Juliet toChurchill's in cellophane

Bam Bam (54:58):
Yeah. It's a problem.

Gizmo (54:59):
The number one tell that you do not have real cigars.
Yeah. As soon as you open thatbox, you know. The barcode
seal's not bad.

Bam Bam (55:07):
So hold on.

Senator (55:07):
They're probably better than the ones that aren't in
cellophane. Yeah.

Bam Bam (55:10):
It's true. Is each individual cigar in cellophane?
Oh, that's throw them in thegarbage. As opposed to what? I
mean, I I thought the box waswrapped in cellophane.

Chef Ricky (55:20):
Cellophane? How

Gizmo (55:21):
Yeah. Each individual cigar is unfortunately, the box
code doc, the box code image,the factory code is the
incorrect font and is just notauthentic. The bar code's wrong.
You know, everything about thisis wrong. And then the classic
backup story of, you know, Ihave a trustworthy Cuban
immigrant, a lot of familymembers in contact still in

(55:43):
Cuba.
Trustworthiness has nothing todo with it. It's just the fact
that there are so there's somuch rampant forgery even inside
Cuba with these cigars that theydon't even know that they're
buying something that's fake.

Rooster (55:56):
I mean, too bad he didn't send us

Gizmo (55:57):
a picture of the actual cigar. I know. I had just the
box. Yeah. I I asked him forhim, but I didn't get them in
time tonight.

Bam Bam (56:02):
But Rooster, if they're in cellophane, it's they gotta
go.

Rooster (56:05):
They used to be in cellophane, but I think that was
before,

Gizmo (56:08):
$2,011,000. Yeah. That's a long time ago. Mhmm. Long time
ago.
So, yeah, I mean, everythingabout this box is wrong, and I
like pointing out pointing thisout even though Wizard Maximus
is getting some bad news rightnow. You really need to be
careful when you get a box ofcigars. I'm I'm assuming you got
these as a gift and didn't payfor them, but when you're

(56:30):
getting something that's highlyaged in cellophane with a bad
box code, with a questionablewarranty seal that's still
sealed for thirteen years, theydidn't crack the the seal on the
box. I mean, everything about itis wrong. And we've talked about
this before, boys.
The number one thing for someonewith authentic Cuban cigars is

(56:51):
knowing where you get them. Andsaying you have a friend in Cuba
or trusting that that friend inCuba knows what even they're
getting is just it's just arecipe for Does

Rooster (57:01):
he mention how much he paid?

Gizmo (57:03):
I think he got them as a gift.

Rooster (57:04):
Oh, Return it.

Chef Ricky (57:10):
Yeah. It's it sucks to break that news to someone
because there's it they're justheartbroken. I mean, at least in
in the case of this listener, hedidn't pay for it.

Rooster (57:18):
Well, smoke it.

Gizmo (57:19):
You know?

Rooster (57:20):
What do you do?

Chef Ricky (57:21):
Cut them open first if you're gonna decide to smoke
them just so you can see what'sin there, I think. But, yeah,
it's, it's never a great thingto break this news to people,
especially when they pay, goodmoney for these cigars, but
there's usually some big redflags. And having dealt with it
recently and a couple times now,I could tell you it's not a my

(57:43):
mother-in-law of eighteen yearscalled me ungrateful when she
brought me a few boxes of,Cohibas. And I was like, mom,
yeah, these aren't, legit. Idon't know.
And, you know, she she didn'ttalk to me for two weeks. And at
the time serious? At the time,she was living with me.

Pagoda (58:00):
Yeah. And I

Gizmo (58:01):
think I

Bam Bam (58:01):
think this is this is all

Grinder (58:02):
good advice. Don't ever break the news to the gift
bearer.

Bam Bam (58:05):
Well Just accept it and Well,

Gizmo (58:07):
I I think there is an example that you have to, and
that is if it's going to be arepeat gift.

Chef Ricky (58:12):
Yeah. It

Gizmo (58:12):
might be a risk mitigation.

Rooster (58:14):
This is your mother-in-law. Right?

Chef Ricky (58:15):
That that was my mother-in-law, but now

Rooster (58:17):
now she doesn't live with you.

Gizmo (58:22):
She does have it. Right?

Rooster (58:23):
I mean, maybe it worked out. Worked.

Pagoda (58:26):
Are you sure there was no other reason? No. I mean

Chef Ricky (58:29):
No. You know what it took. She gave cigars to a
friend of hers, who's, you know,I guess, at the time, was
smoking cigars longer than Ihave. He's about your age
rooster, so he probably startedin the early nineteen hundreds.

Rooster (58:40):
Ninety '7?

Chef Ricky (58:41):
Yeah. And and, he he broke the news to her. So at the
after that, she came andapologized to me, but I I also
had an experience recently witha friend, father of a friend of
mine. You know, we connectedover some cigars. He sent over a
few gifts.
First one, you know, it was Imean, the the just the thought

(59:02):
itself is a great thing. It'sit's amazing for someone to go
out of their way and be sogenerous. But after the second
time, you know and I gifted himthe, Habana Moderno with the
hopes of

Gizmo (59:13):
Alex Groom's book,

Grinder (59:14):
by the way.

Chef Ricky (59:15):
With the hopes that it just you know, he could use
it as a resource. And, after Ireceived the second gift, and
these were blatantly, they werejust obvious how fake they were.
And we had a FaceTime call, andhe was a he was a trooper about
it. You know, we had a wholeconversation. He's buying cigars
from this guy for fourteenyears, and buying cigars from,

(59:38):
SwissCubancigars.com.

Gizmo (59:40):
Which is one of the biggest Yeah. Most successful
counterfeiting operations that'sever existed on the Internet
with Cuban cigars.SwissCubancigars.com never ever
buy from there.

Chef Ricky (59:51):
Yep. And it sucks to break that news to someone,
especially because, you know,they tell you fourteen years and
you just think of, wow, like,how, you know, how much money
and time has gone into this. Butyou know what? Now he knows. I
sent him a couple cigars, somesome authentic ones so he could
just compare to what he has, andhopefully, he enjoys them.
But, yeah, it's never a goodthing to break down use to

(01:00:12):
somebody. It it really sucks.And you don't wanna come across
as a know it all, but, look, ifyou do your research and you're
as lucky as I am to besurrounded by you guys that, you
offer that advice and

Gizmo (01:00:23):
then A

Bam Bam (01:00:24):
bunch of know it alls.

Rooster (01:00:25):
Yeah. But

Gizmo (01:00:25):
it kind of depends

Rooster (01:00:27):
on your comfort level with that person. Sure. Because
I think you're kind of doing hima favor by letting him know so
he's not getting, you know,robbed.

Gizmo (01:00:36):
Yeah. Which he clearly has been for fourteen years.
Yeah.

Pagoda (01:00:39):
That's a long time. But but but being an optimist, hey.
Listen. You know, ignorance is abliss.

Gizmo (01:00:46):
And if

Pagoda (01:00:46):
you've been smoking cigars for fourteen years, then
you've enjoyed it.

Rooster (01:00:49):
Knows well about handing out seniors. We know
there

Chef Ricky (01:00:51):
is a lot of

Rooster (01:00:52):
species wrapped in QD wrapped

Gizmo (01:00:54):
or the

Rooster (01:00:55):
other way around.

Gizmo (01:00:57):
Yeah. You know, it's unfortunate. And and I think the
the other thing that we shouldnote here is that, a lot of
folks go to the Habanosverification site. When they get
something that's questionable,they plug in the code, it comes
up authentic. And as we've saidbefore in the past, that system
is compromised.
You know, folks know these thesethe numbers that work, They

(01:01:17):
print these labels. There thereare micro differences versus
authentic labels and quality ofthe print or the number, the
font, whatever. If you're notstudying this on a regular
basis, you're gonna miss that.You cannot trust the Habanos
verification site.

Rooster (01:01:33):
You you don't even have to go that far. I mean, the
biggest telltale sign is theprice. Well, the price price.
Yeah. You know?
If

if if you're

Rooster (01:01:41):
paying, like, half of what they're going for

Grinder (01:01:44):
Yeah.

Rooster (01:01:44):
It's it's an it's obvious.

Bam Bam (01:01:46):
It's

true. And having my conversation with my buddy, you
know, he'd he was looking atsome Cohiba Seagull sixes, and
he's like, hey. I'm a get thisbox of Seagull sixes, and
they're, you know, just above$900. And I shot a quick text to
Gizmo, and you're alreadyshaking your head no rooster.
And I asked

Rooster (01:02:02):
one one third of the price.

Yeah. Exactly. And I asked him, hey. What's the box
of Seagull sixes going for thesedays? He's, like, $262,700
bucks.
So as he even after a longconversation, what she was
convinced by this point, he'slike, I'm a get this box, and
I'm a send you somebody. Let meknow what you think, and I'm
just shaking my head no in thein the

Rooster (01:02:20):
It's impossible because even in Cuba, you can't get them
at that price.

Bam Bam (01:02:23):
Definitely not. Yeah.

So So I'm just like, don't do it. Just don't do it.

Bam Bam (01:02:27):
It's hard to break that

Grinder (01:02:28):
news to someone that does this.

Rooster (01:02:29):
But that but he you know?

Grinder (01:02:30):
It's true. No. You're right. In the

Rooster (01:02:31):
in the future, he's gonna he's gonna prevent him
from spending $900 on a fakebox.

Bam Bam (01:02:36):
It's true.

Gizmo (01:02:37):
I I do think there's a difference though if if you're
sitting in a lounge with someoneyou're not familiar with Mhmm.
You don't know. To drop the newson them, it's as if they're
wearing fake shoes, you know,fake Jordans or something.

Bam Bam (01:02:49):
It's a big slap in the face.

Gizmo (01:02:50):
It is. And and people take, you know, they take the
it's it's an insult.

Rooster (01:02:55):
Yeah. Well, that's why I said, what's your comfort
level?

Gizmo (01:02:57):
Yeah. So someone like this that Ricky, you know, that
chef trusts and and trusts him,you know, that that's a
different story. But it's justamazing how many of these emails
we get asking for authenticateauthentication, you know,
details, and can you check outthese photos and stuff? And this
is a prime example kinda hittingevery single wrong mark on these

(01:03:17):
cigars from cellophane to sealedbox to the code is wrong to the
c the the the seal coming upaccurate. It's, it's so common
these days.

And and it's probably good fair to assume
that anything available onlineas just as we could use it as a
source of verification,counterfeiters could use it as a
way to secure somewhat bettercounterfeiting measures. So, you
know, be careful. You know? Imean, just don't don't do a
Google search asking Google if,Swiss Cuban cigars is a legit

(01:03:51):
Cuban retailer, because you knowwho controls that is Swiss Cuban
cigars.

Gizmo (01:03:55):
Yeah. They put up sites with reviews of for themselves.

Exactly. So, you know, you have to be careful
and, yeah, just yeah. I mean,the obvious red flag is is price
point. If it's too good to betrue, then it's not true. You
know?

Gizmo (01:04:09):
Yeah. So sorry for the bad news here, lizard Maximus,
or any other lizards out therewho are in the same position,
but he's gotten a little bitsomething good out of this. He's
won lizard of the week, andanybody out there could win
lizard of the week. All you haveto do is send us an email like
all these lizards did, a voicememo as we've played in the
past, comment on Instagram,YouTube, whatever you choose,

(01:04:29):
just reach out to us, and youcan also win lizard of the week,
and, we'll send you some stufffrom the humidor. So, boys,
we're coming into the lastthird.
I can't even believe I'm sayingthat right now. We're only about
an hour in on the h up andmagnum 54. This is not

Rooster (01:04:45):
It's delicious.

Gizmo (01:04:45):
A value cigar, but it's delicious.

Bam Bam (01:04:47):
Yeah. It's great. Very good.

Gizmo (01:04:48):
But for 30 some odd dollars

Grinder (01:04:50):
That's tough.

Gizmo (01:04:50):
I can't believe how fast this is smoking. This is smoking
faster than a Yeah. CoronaGorda.

Bam Bam (01:04:55):
Yeah. So the boxes that I bought were

Grinder (01:04:58):
at least $12 less per stick

Bam Bam (01:05:01):
way back in the day.

Gizmo (01:05:02):
Yeah. And

Bam Bam (01:05:03):
that that for me, it's worth every dollar because I
happen to love this cigar. Butat $32

Gizmo (01:05:09):
At 20, I think that's a fair price. At $32.50 Yeah.
There were a little too high forit.

Bam Bam (01:05:13):
Probably, like, $22 each that I paid.

Grinder (01:05:16):
Yep. But, you know, the smoking experience is great. You
know? The the combustion is thebalance. The the combustion is
great.
The balance of spicy and sweetYeah. Is pretty, delectable. It
is. There's, like, this nuttycashew flavor in there that's
just rounding out. It's, like,adds

Bam Bam (01:05:37):
to that. Nuttiness for me is in that final third.

Grinder (01:05:40):
Yeah. Deep cashew and some I'm getting a little more
now.

Bam Bam (01:05:43):
But there's a little strain of sweetness there too
that I like. Yeah.

Grinder (01:05:45):
And and I think chef

Bam Bam (01:05:47):
mentioned it. Touch.

Grinder (01:05:48):
The woodiness with that spice, it's like I don't know.
It's like sitting by a campfire,but having, like, a

Gizmo (01:05:56):
like, an It's definitely

Rooster (01:05:57):
a wood note that Yeah. That

Gizmo (01:05:58):
comes through. Yeah.

Grinder (01:06:00):
It's great.

You know, something that's going just as fast as the
cigars is scotch.

Gizmo (01:06:05):
Yeah. It's good, man. Wow. Yeah.

Grinder (01:06:06):
I was gonna say the the the the pairing as as, as Gizmo
has has mentioned is just spoton.

Bam Bam (01:06:13):
I think I'm so

Grinder (01:06:13):
Good job, Senator. Sleeping. Good job.

Pagoda (01:06:15):
Look at Senator. He's been He's naughty.

Senator (01:06:16):
He's like No. No. No. No. I'm looking at the bottle.
We're running on Eve right now.

Gizmo (01:06:20):
Are we

Grinder (01:06:21):
really? We are. Seriously.

Gizmo (01:06:22):
Gosh. We are. I haven't gotten a second pour, Bam, so

Grinder (01:06:25):
That's all you.

Bam Bam (01:06:26):
That's all you. I had three pours. I'm

Grinder (01:06:28):
good. And I'll I have to say they were heavy pours.

Rooster (01:06:32):
It's a good thing I don't. Right?

Bam Bam (01:06:33):
Yeah. I'm not leaving here tonight.

Grinder (01:06:34):
I'm staying home. I'm staying here.

So, guys, I have an announcement to make.

Pagoda (01:06:38):
Oh. What? You're getting married?

No. I got married already twice.

Gizmo (01:06:42):
An announcement. This is huge. Uh-oh. Yeah.

Rooster (01:06:46):
You can't leave the pod. Oh, I I just got here. I
just started.

Gizmo (01:06:51):
He's still on his pep.

Rooster (01:06:52):
I ordered my I ordered my tower. Hey.

Bam Bam (01:06:55):
Hey. Hey.

Gizmo (01:06:57):
No time. Let's go. Did you did

Pagoda (01:06:59):
you get the tower of power?

I got the El Bard, it's a black espresso. It looks
like the tower of power, butmaybe a little bit more

Pagoda (01:07:08):
Did you get

Grinder (01:07:08):
did you get the cabinet? Alright.

Pagoda (01:07:09):
No problem.

I got the cabinet. It's

Bam Bam (01:07:10):
the same

Grinder (01:07:11):
it's pretty much the same model, but does it have the
drawers?

It has drawers. It has a built in fan, and it has a

Gizmo (01:07:18):
I was so pumped. It has a built in fan system and lights
built in. And guess what? On thebottom, there's a plug already
built in an electrical plug soyou don't have to seal it. Like,
it's all sealed up.

Bam Bam (01:07:31):
Oh, wow.

Grinder (01:07:31):
That's an upgrade.

Pagoda (01:07:32):
That's a why does not have that?

Gizmo (01:07:34):
It's serious.

So long story short, it won't take me as long as it
did Bam Bam to set it up.

Grinder (01:07:40):
Oh, come on. I'm sure you're right. We're still there.
You know you know what was

Pagoda (01:07:46):
really funny? Because when Giz said on the bottom, I I
thought he was gonna say,there's a little tray for kitty
litter because

Grinder (01:07:53):
the fan is already built in. It has it does have
drawers.

Gizmo (01:07:56):
I'm gonna fashion one out of cedar for chef Ricky.

Grinder (01:07:59):
I know that model.

Bam Bam (01:08:00):
It has drawers. It's pretty cool.

Gizmo (01:08:01):
Chef Ricky, so what was the impetus to finally do it?
What's the plan with the tower?When do you think you're gonna
get it? Like, run us throughthis.

So I already got the email. I I ordered it last week,
maybe Wednesday, and I got theemail two days ago saying that

Senator (01:08:14):
You gotta say where you where'd you order it from?

Mhmm. ElegantBar.com.

Senator (01:08:18):
Elegant Bar. That's where I got mine from. Grindr
got his.

Bam Bam (01:08:21):
Mine. Same. Yeah.

Senator (01:08:23):
Bam got his from there. I think Pagoda did as well.
Great site. They do a reallynice job.

Bam Bam (01:08:27):
The only problem if it gets stuck on a ship Yeah.

Pagoda (01:08:31):
Like mine did.

Rooster (01:08:32):
When you wait, like, two years later to order it and
there's a shipping containercrisis

That's what happens.

Bam Bam (01:08:36):
It's circling around the Gulf Of Mexico.

No. Let let me go to

Gizmo (01:08:39):
the Gulf Of America.

Grinder (01:08:41):
Oh, that's right.

Pagoda (01:08:43):
Is it the Gulf Of America?

Grinder (01:08:44):
We're gonna name it

Bam Bam (01:08:45):
the Gulf Of America. Okay.

Senator (01:08:49):
That was good.

That was perfect.

Bam Bam (01:08:52):
We're gonna do it.

Pagoda (01:08:53):
I hope that now through the Panama

Grinder (01:08:55):
Canal amazing.

Bam Bam (01:08:56):
It's incredible.

No. Listen. I ordered it, Wednesday of last
week.

Pagoda (01:09:00):
Really good.

And I think I

Pagoda (01:09:01):
got really good.

I got the email two days ago saying that it would
arrive Tuesday.

Grinder (01:09:06):
So so when I Are

Gizmo (01:09:07):
you serious? Yeah. Wait. Under I'm sorry, Grindr. Under
two weeks, you're gonna get

Bam Bam (01:09:11):
the tower

in about a week. Yeah.

Gizmo (01:09:13):
So for for the list you know, the I'm listening. That's
not fair. That's pretty amazing.It's coming on an Estes truck.
Yeah.
It you know, that doesn't shipUPS or something. That comes on
a, a less than load, an LTLtruck with a with a

Bam Bam (01:09:25):
That's awesome.

Gizmo (01:09:26):
You know, to your house. So that's fast. Bam

Rooster (01:09:29):
ordered it during COVID, so maybe that Yeah.

Senator (01:09:31):
I don't know. I ordered mine right at the start of
COVID.

Pagoda (01:09:34):
It was a disaster. And it

Senator (01:09:35):
was so fast.

Grinder (01:09:36):
I think No. No. No. No. No.

Senator (01:09:37):
His timing just coincided with

Gizmo (01:09:39):
that shit.

Pagoda (01:09:39):
No. No. No. No. Bam ordered it at his friend's
place.
Remember? And then what? Andthen he had to carry it over
from there. Wasn't that thecase? Or something?
No.

Senator (01:09:47):
It was in his garage. No.

Rooster (01:09:48):
You ordered

Grinder (01:09:49):
it to your hotel. Yeah. You had to you had to get it
groomed.

Senator (01:09:52):
Yeah. No.

Pagoda (01:09:53):
That took no. No. That's just

Grinder (01:09:55):
weeks. I gotta go back now. Hold

Rooster (01:09:57):
on. Wait a minute.

Pagoda (01:09:58):
Because he had to carry it on his back? No. No. No.
Sorry.

Rooster (01:10:01):
May I ask why?

Bam Bam (01:10:02):
I don't know. Because I wasn't a procurement expert at
that time. So

Grinder (01:10:06):
so he

Rooster (01:10:06):
He forgot his can't type your address.

Senator (01:10:08):
He forgot where he lived.

Grinder (01:10:10):
So and I and I let me I didn't wanna order it, but I
wanted it. I have people Idelegate. Alright then. Counsel
needs to speak on his behalf.

Senator (01:10:20):
Thank you.

Grinder (01:10:20):
I will I will say, when I ordered mine, I was I was
living I was living in anapartment at the time, and, I
found out when they weredelivering it that it was, you
know, it was coming on a a bigtruck, and they wouldn't deliver
it to the apartment. So I theytook it to they had a like, last

(01:10:46):
mile

Senator (01:10:47):
Objection. Relevance. Pam lives in

Rooster (01:10:49):
a house. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

Grinder (01:10:52):
Somebody pipe down the judge. Okay? Order.

Gizmo (01:10:55):
Order. Order in

Grinder (01:10:56):
the corner. Shut his mic off. Here.

Pagoda (01:10:58):
Leading You

Rooster (01:10:58):
don't speak to the judge like that.

Pagoda (01:11:00):
You need leading the witness.

Rooster (01:11:01):
I'm gonna hold your contempt.

Grinder (01:11:03):
So I had a I had to ship it to an I had to send it
to, like, my family members.They they also have a warehouse.
Send it to there and then havea, like, last mile, shipper
bring it to my house. And thenthey I had to pay them to bring
it up the steps and install itand all this other shit.

Bam Bam (01:11:20):
I don't know if you had that problem. No. No. I didn't.

Gizmo (01:11:22):
No. No. I get

Senator (01:11:22):
he lives in the house.

Gizmo (01:11:25):
His problem was it was in the garage, and he just didn't
unpack it and deal with it forabout a year.

No. But you didn't you didn't

Grinder (01:11:31):
you didn't get the the cabinet.

Senator (01:11:32):
You got the tower.

Grinder (01:11:33):
I didn't get the tower. The the cabinet is a it's a

Bam Bam (01:11:35):
it's a massive piece of furniture. Double wide.

Grinder (01:11:38):
Yeah. Yeah.

Rooster (01:11:39):
I still don't get why you ordered it at to your
friend's house, though.

Bam Bam (01:11:42):
Well, so we were ordering it. So we were sitting
in

Gizmo (01:11:44):
Let him finish.

Bam Bam (01:11:45):
Alright. So we were sitting in his yard, and we
were, you know, looking aroundshopping and okay. Irrelevant.
Irrelevant. Craig, you place theorder.
I'll give you the money for it.Great. So he was he was about to
order it. So okay. Put two.

Grinder (01:11:58):
That's it. That tracks.

Senator (01:11:59):
So he thought that meant that Craig was gonna

Rooster (01:12:01):
bring it, deliver it to his house Well,

Pagoda (01:12:02):
he did.

Senator (01:12:03):
Set it up for him, and

none of that happened.

Bam Bam (01:12:05):
So he he brought it to my house. He's a sweetheart. But
then I did put it in my garagefor about a month. That's it?

Gizmo (01:12:11):
I think it was a little

Senator (01:12:11):
while ago. Longer than that. I think it was plural.

Gizmo (01:12:14):
Oh, yeah. It was

Pagoda (01:12:14):
Well, he's just on the band. Can we

Grinder (01:12:16):
cut his mic off? I don't think that's possible.

Gizmo (01:12:20):
By the way, I love how we've completely derailed
Ricky's story on how he'sgetting his tower to go back to
your tower.

Grinder (01:12:25):
It's not about you guys. It's not about me.

Gizmo (01:12:27):
It's always about you.

It's my fault. It's my fault.

Gizmo (01:12:30):
Alright. So, Ricky, so you have this tower coming. It's
coming next week.

This week.

Gizmo (01:12:34):
It's coming this week.

Rooster (01:12:35):
Wow. From

Senator (01:12:36):
from the Amazon of towers.

Rooster (01:12:37):
Excellent.

Gizmo (01:12:38):
Yeah. That's awesome. So what is your stock like right
now? Like, how much of that doyou think you're gonna fill, and
what's your plan to, fill it up?

Half the tower is gonna be a bookshelf for a
couple months, because my stockisn't, you know, there yet. I
probably have about a 34 cigars.

Senator (01:12:53):
Bam's got three of these boxes. He's happy to lend
you

Gizmo (01:12:55):
some. Yeah.

Bam Bam (01:12:55):
You can have a box.

Rooster (01:12:56):
At $22 each.

Grinder (01:12:59):
At $38

Bam Bam (01:13:01):
each.

But listen. I'm just happy to have it. You know, I
could grow into it. Whereas nowmy wine ador is, you know, it's
it's fully stocked. So, youknow, I'm just looking forward
to growing into it, and now Icould build a collection without
any kind of anxiety or worrythat I'm gonna

Rooster (01:13:16):
be boxes in there so it looks full.

Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Through do that, some
kitty litter, a couple books,you know, whatever.

Gizmo (01:13:24):
So what is your plan for humidification? Are you gonna go
cigar oasis?

The cigar oasis is already in my house waiting to
be

Bam Bam (01:13:30):
Is it is it the, three point o?

Senator (01:13:31):
Three point o. Why why ask that question like there are
options?

Bam Bam (01:13:35):
Yeah. There really isn't.

Senator (01:13:36):
I mean, it's cigar oasis or bust. So kitty litter
and that crap

Grinder (01:13:39):
is You might you might consider I've considered this
with this

Senator (01:13:42):
With the spritzing.

Gizmo (01:13:43):
No. Spritzing.

Grinder (01:13:44):
Not the spritz. You might consider getting two

Rooster (01:13:46):
Milton's because

Grinder (01:13:47):
because it's it is remote controls. It is
bifurcated in the middle.

Gizmo (01:13:51):
And Grindr, he didn't get a, double wall. Yeah. He got
down there.

No. No. I got the tower. It looks like a cabinet,
so that's why your questionconfused me.

Gizmo (01:13:58):
But, no,

I got the tower.

Gizmo (01:13:59):
My bad.

Grinder (01:13:59):
My bad.

Single door. Yep.

Gizmo (01:14:01):
Congratulations. Thanks. I mean, this is a huge move.

Bam Bam (01:14:04):
Big time.

Gizmo (01:14:04):
And I gotta say, I don't know if this is good lizard
influence or bad lizardinfluence.

Bam Bam (01:14:08):
Yeah. Get your checkbook ready.

Gizmo (01:14:09):
Since you since you joined the pod couple months in

Yeah.

Gizmo (01:14:13):
You're in full tower mode.

Oh, yeah. And and my wife was fully bought in. She
even, you know, she had a greatweek last week with her
business, and she even said,here you go, honey. I'm
contributing to the tower.

Gizmo (01:14:22):
Wow. Six seventy Well, you

Bam Bam (01:14:24):
know what's gonna have to happen, Shadi.

Pagoda (01:14:25):
I know what's good and good in the top of the tower.
You can put cookies.

Grinder (01:14:28):
Yeah. Cookies. Yeah.

Bam Bam (01:14:30):
It could

Grinder (01:14:30):
be a pastry storage.

Senator (01:14:31):
If if pagoda will be over every night.

Grinder (01:14:33):
It will be.

Rooster (01:14:34):
You'll really be getting some baking spices.

Grinder (01:14:36):
With a glass of garlic. For for the listener, mister
chef makes the best. Incredible.Incredible.

Gizmo (01:14:42):
Thank

you. Thank you.

Grinder (01:14:43):
He's gonna have to sell a lot of tacos to fill that
humidor, man.

Rooster (01:14:46):
Yeah. That's what we do.

Or tequila.

Gizmo (01:14:48):
Or tequila. Yes. So we need all the listeners to run to
Anejo restaurants

Bam Bam (01:14:51):
in Correct.

Gizmo (01:14:52):
New York and Philadelphia and in Montclair, New Jersey,
Playa Taqueria.

Bam Bam (01:14:56):
Yes.

Gizmo (01:14:58):
Absolutely immediately so that Ricky can fill his tower
ASAP. We need you to place bigcorporate orders.

Yeah. Let's go to sweet Melissa bakeshop while
we're at it on Instagram.

Grinder (01:15:07):
There you go.

Just to get her money back. Yeah.

Gizmo (01:15:11):
Let me ask you this. While we're on the topic, what
is your let's put budget asidelike we just did with that
listener. What is your first,like, I can't wait to buy this
box and put it in my tower.

What

Gizmo (01:15:23):
what's your first Cuban cigar and New World cigar
purchase you're eyeing up?

The first New World purchase is already done, and,
it was a box of a chef'sedition.

Gizmo (01:15:33):
Oh, from Baraboo.

Rooster (01:15:34):
Very fitting. Yes.

Pagoda (01:15:36):
You beat me to it.

Yeah. I was there. And, I think, there's there's no
better cigar for me as a chef toput in there first. And then, I
did get a box of QD fifties. Iwouldn't say I got it for this
humidor, but I'd love to stockit with a bunch of d fours.
And, Now we're talking. Yeah.Maybe get some, some of the good
Lucy's in there at some point.Lucy's?

Pagoda (01:15:59):
Just a quick question. Where'd you get where'd you
store security fifties? Was it aDevdoff store?

Grinder (01:16:05):
No. I just

Pagoda (01:16:05):
wanna make

Gizmo (01:16:06):
sure. Zenos.

No. No. EGM. Alright.

Bam Bam (01:16:09):
Confusion has ensued.

Gizmo (01:16:13):
Well, congratulations. Got him on Amazon. No. It's all
sweet. Congratulations, Ricky.
This is huge news. That's great.And any listeners out there who
wanna want the link or anythinglike that, just email us and
we'll send you the link of whathe bought. Because I was
surprised we were actuallylooking for the tower of power.
I think it's been discontinuedand replaced by this model.

Bam Bam (01:16:30):
You see, that's a disappointment.

Gizmo (01:16:31):
But it seems a little upgraded. No.

Senator (01:16:32):
It's not. They upgraded. It's really clever to
add the built in fans. I mean,almost no units have built in
fans.

Bam Bam (01:16:38):
But we're not but you don't like the drawers, though,
do you? No. Neither do I. Ithink when I have to Do

Rooster (01:16:43):
they do they make the model without the drawers?

So I I think I misspoke here too. They're
shelves that you could puteither at an angle.

Gizmo (01:16:51):
They don't slide. Or two. Yeah.

Senator (01:16:52):
Yeah. I don't think he

Gizmo (01:16:53):
got the one with the drawers.

Yeah. I don't think there's

Rooster (01:16:55):
drawers in it. Yeah.

Senator (01:16:55):
Yeah. I saw the image.

Bam Bam (01:16:56):
We we just

Senator (01:16:57):
sent it in our chat. Yeah. Yeah. He did. I would have
said something immediately.

Gizmo (01:16:59):
They're just trays, and they're they have those little
pegs in the side that you canadjust to hang or thing

Bam Bam (01:17:05):
on the tower car. And we've we've talked about this ad
nauseam. Like, you have toyou're gonna go for the basic
standard production Cubans. Idon't care how much they fucking
cost. You're just gonna have tobuy them.
Just buy them. You're gonna wantthem. D fours, RAS, the whole

Senator (01:17:18):
Mortgage the house, whatever it takes.

Grinder (01:17:19):
Yeah. It's not gonna take that much.

Senator (01:17:21):
But Have your friend order them and

Grinder (01:17:23):
deliver them.

Bam Bam (01:17:24):
Yeah. You get a box of each, start collecting, and
you'll be very satisfied.

Gizmo (01:17:29):
And, I mean, you could start with 10 count boxes. I
mean, we've done a lot of like,this cigar tonight comes in a 10
count.

Rooster (01:17:34):
Yeah. We

Gizmo (01:17:34):
have some turkey, terquinhos Yeah.

Bam Bam (01:17:36):
Don't get

Grinder (01:17:36):
those in

Rooster (01:17:37):
a 10 count box.

Well, with these, I think 25 con is the way to go.
Yeah.

Bam Bam (01:17:42):
Correct. Sounds like it. Correct.

Rooster (01:17:44):
So your tower has built in lighting already.

Senator (01:17:46):
Yes. Correct. Statue. That's another improvement.

Rooster (01:17:48):
That's cool.

Gizmo (01:17:48):
It's nice. Yeah. And I think the door is sealed, which
the tower power is, and I thinkthe door comes We

Bam Bam (01:17:53):
have to seal that ourselves.

Gizmo (01:17:54):
Seal in it. So it seems like a nice upgrade.

Grinder (01:17:56):
Nice.

Gizmo (01:17:56):
And and if you don't mind me asking, what was the price of
the tower? Does your wifelisten?

No. I told her what it. Be careful.

Bam Bam (01:18:05):
He is the fiduciary in

Gizmo (01:18:06):
the room

now tonight. The price on the tower was 14 and
change and after taxes.

Rooster (01:18:12):
Price. That's not bad.

Bam Bam (01:18:13):
No. Yeah.

Not bad. And knowing I think the lowest price I saw
on the tower power a few yearsback when I was considering it,
it was maybe 1,200 or so. Andthen just knowing that you have
to, you know, outfit it and

Gizmo (01:18:26):
Mhmm.

You know, kinda Yeah. Just do all the things you
guys said, whether Yeah. Youknow, the lighting or or
securing the air gaps orwhatever. This one seems to have
all of that done. So that extra$200 felt

Gizmo (01:18:38):
what was

Grinder (01:18:39):
My my cabinet when I bought it was, like, a wow.

Gizmo (01:18:43):
Yeah. $20.17. Right?

Bam Bam (01:18:44):
Dude, that thing is massive.

Gizmo (01:18:45):
It's gotta be more than double that now. Oh, easy. I
would think. Yeah. It's gotta beprobably 25 My

Senator (01:18:50):
tower power when I bought it was, like, probably
$600.

Wow. Jesus. Yeah.

Gizmo (01:18:53):
Alright, guys. Why are you Now

I feel like shit. Thank you.

Bam Bam (01:18:57):
No. No. No. You need it, you get it.

Gizmo (01:18:59):
Let me ask you this. Where in your house are you
planning to put it? We talkabout that a lot too. Great
question.

A finished basement. And right now, the basement is
what I call the family room. Youknow? The biggest TV is down
there. The video game systemsare down there.

Gizmo (01:19:14):
We're gonna have to get that all out of there. No. No.
No. Family's out.

No. It's it's fine because, honestly, the only one
who spends time down there rightnow is my son.

Bam Bam (01:19:24):
Oh, okay. Okay.

Pagoda (01:19:25):
Who enjoys it goes?

Who who enjoys listening to the pod.

Bam Bam (01:19:27):
And he's on a p x two. I'm

sure. And playing his p s five. We're up to we're
up to the five now, Ben. At atime

Gizmo (01:19:34):
his p s five is in the garage. I have no idea. He
didn't move it in yet.

Grinder (01:19:38):
P x two,

Bam Bam (01:19:38):
p x five, whatever it may be.

Grinder (01:19:40):
P x or p x

Pagoda (01:19:41):
I had no idea.

Rooster (01:19:42):
P x.

Gizmo (01:19:44):
He's combining the PlayStation and the Xbox.
Correct.

Rooster (01:19:47):
Do you know a gallon of milk went up?

Bam Bam (01:19:51):
I thought it was like $11.

Grinder (01:19:53):
What's what's the cost of a dozen eggs?

Senator (01:19:55):
Wait till he sees egg prices. They're all crazy.

Gizmo (01:19:57):
Yeah. They're crazy.

Grinder (01:19:57):
Yeah. But

Pagoda (01:19:58):
what would the strawberry price be?

Bam Bam (01:19:59):
You can't get chicken breast anymore. Right?

Gizmo (01:20:01):
I sent

Senator (01:20:02):
you a picture of the strawberry. How would you know?

Grinder (01:20:04):
Costco. I heard. I was told by

Bam Bam (01:20:07):
the by the house manager.

Grinder (01:20:09):
The house manager.

Gizmo (01:20:12):
Well, congrats, Ricky. That's huge news, man.

Thank you.

Gizmo (01:20:15):
Let us know. I'm curious, like, how it shows up and the
process of getting it in and andhow ready all of these new
details are about it versus theothers that we we have. I mean,
if that's a great recommendationfor listeners, that's awesome.

Yes. So so far, I've received an email from Elegant
Bar saying to take pictures ofthe package just as it comes off
the truck. Otherwise, I'll haveno claim if there's anything
wrong with the tower itself. Andit it was it was a breeze. It
was a breeze purchasing it.
I think they even do Apple Pay,so you don't have to, like, pull
out the wallet. You know? Youcould just do it do everything,

(01:20:48):
the entire process through yourphone. So, yeah, it was it was
it was great.

Rooster (01:20:53):
It's like buying a Tesla.

Pretty much.

Rooster (01:20:55):
I mean, Tesla. That's a throwback.

Gizmo (01:20:59):
Hey. Hey,

Pagoda (01:21:00):
guess.

Gizmo (01:21:02):
We're hitting all the we're we're hitting all the
greatest hits today.

Bam Bam (01:21:04):
By the way, that's fucking hilarious.

Grinder (01:21:07):
I love that.

Rooster (01:21:08):
Feels like the best stuff I

Gizmo (01:21:09):
could say.

Grinder (01:21:10):
Oh, god.

Gizmo (01:21:11):
Alright, boys. We're coming to the end of our evening
tonight with the Johnny WalkerGold Label Reserve and the h
Upman Magnum 54. What'severybody thinking of the
pairing as we, close it outtonight?

Bam Bam (01:21:22):
Delicious. Pairing was great.

Gizmo (01:21:24):
Yeah. I have a question for you before we rate. Do you
think that the whiskey made thecigar better or vice versa?

I think it was vice versa. I think the cigar made
the whiskey better.

Senator (01:21:35):
I disagree.

Pagoda (01:21:35):
Yeah. I think they complimented each other
completely. I'm gonna this

Senator (01:21:39):
will be reflected in my rating, but, I expected this to
be sweeter and more up and likethan it was. There were a lot of
woody notes that I was notexpecting. So the sweetness in
the Scotch really helped

Pagoda (01:21:54):
Yeah.

Senator (01:21:54):
Me feel like this was more Upman like, but without it,
it would have been moredisappointing.

Gizmo (01:21:59):
Yeah.

Pagoda (01:21:59):
Yeah. Because this is very savory. Yeah.

Bam Bam (01:22:01):
Did you dislike the cigar?

Senator (01:22:03):
I I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it.

Bam Bam (01:22:05):
Really? Interesting.

Senator (01:22:07):
I mean, I I'm I love Upman. I'm I'm a huge Upman guy,
so, like, I want traditionalUpman sweeter baking spice
notes. And the woodiness in thiscigar Yeah. Detracted from that
so much that I was left cravingso much more Upman that I didn't
get. That was my problem.

Grinder (01:22:23):
Is an outlier, this cigar

Gizmo (01:22:25):
It is.

Grinder (01:22:25):
In the entire line.

Bam Bam (01:22:26):
But there's some uniqueness to it

Grinder (01:22:28):
that I happen to

Gizmo (01:22:29):
love. Sure.

Yeah. You you're not wrong about that, but I think
because it delivers it in a in acreamy fashion

Gizmo (01:22:34):
Mhmm.

It's tolerable. I think if that creaminess wasn't
here, then the cigar would beway too dry. Good word. Sorry.
It's, serviceable.

Grinder (01:22:45):
That's not a good word. I'm glad we're all just muddling
through it. Yeah. Right.

Rooster (01:22:50):
And the

Senator (01:22:51):
thing I will say, the the magnum 50 fours that I've
had that I haven't reallyenjoyed, they're sweeter than
this all the way through.They're not this woody, so I'm
also very thrown by, like, howintense the woody notes are in
this.

Rooster (01:23:05):
Yeah. I'm curious. I wanna go back and try it. You
know?

Bam Bam (01:23:07):
The other

Rooster (01:23:08):
ones. Because it's been sitting around for a while.

Bam Bam (01:23:10):
Let me try one of yours.

Gizmo (01:23:11):
Sure. Alright, boys. It's time to move into the formal
liquor rating tonight on theJohnny Walker Gold Label
Reserve. Bam Bam, you're

Bam Bam (01:23:19):
up. I thoroughly enjoyed this. In fact, I'm I'm
finishing my third pour. Ifyou're not gonna drink that, I'm
drinking it.

Gizmo (01:23:26):
Oh, I'm gonna drink it.

Bam Bam (01:23:27):
At Jesus. Fifty dollars a bottle? 60. 60 bucks a bottle?
I said earlier, I wouldinterchange this with the cognac
journey that I'm on.
And it's so easy to drink. Itthere's a sweetness to it. It's
not complex. It's not it has alittle bit of viscosity. It's

(01:23:48):
sticking to the glass a littlebit.
I'm at a nine. I'm at a nine onthis all day long.

Senator (01:23:55):
For the record, the loudest complaints about this
pairing

Bam Bam (01:23:58):
Oh, that's true.

Senator (01:23:58):
Record was from that corner of the Amen.

Grinder (01:24:00):
I was Amen.

Bam Bam (01:24:01):
I was scared. I I remember I didn't I don't
remember the first time I hadthis. It's been a very long
time. This is a revelationtonight.

Pagoda (01:24:09):
Listen.

Bam Bam (01:24:09):
It's a nine.

Pagoda (01:24:10):
Johnny Walker's good stuff, man.

Bam Bam (01:24:11):
Well, this one is. I don't

Grinder (01:24:13):
know about the black, but this is good.

Gizmo (01:24:15):
Alright. Grinder.

Grinder (01:24:15):
It's a seven for me. Wow. I thought it was good. I
typically not a fan of blendedScotch. Typically not a fan of
sweeter Scotch.
There was the the sweet on thefinish was odd to me. It was
almost unnatural, but I likedit. So I'm I'm not knocking it
forward necessarily.

Bam Bam (01:24:35):
Prefer a smoky finish.

Grinder (01:24:37):
I do. Right. Yeah. That's your palate. I thought I
thought the pairing, it wentvery well with the pairing.
I would agree with senator'scommentary. I think it it added
some sweetness. I do I do thinkthere was some sweetness in the
cigar that it just it kind ofkicked up a level. So for me,
it's just, you know, it's a it'sa solid seven. I've had a lot of
really good Scotch, and Iwouldn't put it in

Bam Bam (01:24:59):
Well, like I said echelon. Resident Scotch guy.

Grinder (01:25:02):
Come on.

Gizmo (01:25:03):
Alright, chef Ricky.

Yeah. I'm still developing my Scotch palette,
and I probably came into thissome somewhat biased with Johnny
Walker, not being one of myfavorites. Not that I have a ton
of experience with it. Maybe,you know, growing up, my uncle's
drinking black label, and I gointo the kitchen sink and grab
the bottle and, you know, drinka little bit of it. Then I

(01:25:25):
realized they would market tosee if I was actually drinking
it or not, so I stopped probablyfor good reason.

Pagoda (01:25:32):
But, yeah when you pour water in it.

I did. I did. I I stopped short in case you
decided to listen.

Bam Bam (01:25:38):
Well, pagoda calls out a sploosh.

But, yeah. No. The this gold was was good. You
know? I I was surprised.
There's a there's a finish thatI'm not the flavor in the finish
that I'm not fond of. I almostwanna I don't think malty is the
right word, but there'ssomething there that I that I
find that I'm not crazy aboutthe way it ends. And I think
Grindr's onto something where,you know, there's some sweetness

(01:26:02):
present, but it doesn't feelsupernatural to me. Because of
the price point, because Ienjoyed it, and because it did
better and I thought it wasgonna do and it was a great
pairing, I'm gonna give it aneight.

Bam Bam (01:26:13):
Good score.

Pagoda (01:26:14):
Okay. Pagoda. I'm at a nine. I I know it seems very
simple in terms of the overallflavor profile. It doesn't feel
very complex.
I also think, for me, theviscosity was a bit lighter.
Like, it was a lighter bodiedthing. And I and from that
perspective, I think drinking inneed you could drink it this
need even in the summer out onthe deck. I think it it provides

(01:26:36):
some versatility from thatperspective. But I'm also a
Johnny Walker fan.
Right? Like, I really likeJohnny Walker in terms of the
Black Label, as, if you'velistened to the episodes before.
You know, my thought is it'ssuch an easy drink, and I I'll
tell you, the bottle's finished.It's very rare that we have
sometimes, you know, the bottlesjust finished so quickly. I just

(01:26:59):
think everyone really enjoyedit.
For me, I agree. Like, I think,and I'll talk about the cigar
later and the pairing a bitlater when I'm doing the cigar.
But I think it did add, to thesweetness in the second half
more so, and it was fantasticfrom that perspective, and it's
a nine for me.

Gizmo (01:27:18):
Alright. So it's also a nine for me. I I'm blown away by
this. I really enjoyed it. I Idon't think when I think Cuban
cigars at this point in ourjourney with other spirits or
pairings, wine, tequila, rum,cognac, I'm not thinking

Bam Bam (01:27:34):
You're not thinking Johnny Walker.

Gizmo (01:27:36):
I'm not thinking Scotch whiskey Well with a with a Cuban
cigar, and I think this youknow, senator nailed it on the
head when we were talking aboutpulling this one in with a Cuban
tonight. This is a great Scotch.It's

Bam Bam (01:27:48):
different for

Gizmo (01:27:49):
Cuban cigars.

Bam Bam (01:27:49):
Surprisingly good.

Gizmo (01:27:50):
It was so easy to drink. I love the sweetness of it.

Pagoda (01:27:54):
You don't need ice. You don't need a sploosh of soda.

Gizmo (01:27:57):
You don't need any of that. The vanilla, the honey,
which are notes I actuallynormally don't chase, but it was
just done so well. It was sosubtle. It was so easy to drink.
The bottle's empty.
I mean, there's I don't know thelast time we sat in a ninety
minute episode and looked at abottle like that, and it was
empty. I mean, the entire roomkept going back, and I haven't

(01:28:19):
even touched it yet. You know? Imean, it's a real merit to this.
You know

what fairness? Bam Bam must have had a rough day
because he finished his firstclass before we hit record.
Correct. And,

Grinder (01:28:29):
you have good peripheral vision. I am not sure
if I like that.

Senator (01:28:34):
It was it was it was the four finger pour.

Bam Bam (01:28:37):
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's true.

Gizmo (01:28:38):
He did 12 fingers tonight.

Bam Bam (01:28:39):
Rough night.

Gizmo (01:28:40):
And I love too that, none of us even thought about
reaching into that ice buckettonight. We all drank it neat.
Absolutely no ice ice needed.The price, I think, is very,
very fair for what it is at at$58, 60 bucks. Very, very happy
with this tonight.
It's a nine. Senator.

Senator (01:28:57):
So I say this as I'm not a Johnny Walker fan. And,
this bottle in particular, like,for me, I would just describe as
supremely drinkable. Like, it isthis stuff goes down like water.
It is versatile, incrediblysmooth. You would never dream of
putting ice in this.
I think, you know, dollar fordollar, I think this is, like,

(01:29:20):
the best value in the JohnnyWalker line, period. I am
thrilled to see, like, with aCuban cigar, it really held up.
I mean, I ironically, I I said,I think this will pair well with
a Cuban. But at that lounge, wewere not smoking many Cubans.
They were New World.
Mostly New World. Yeah. So,like, I hadn't even really drank
this with a a Cuban, and and Ithink it's clear, it's something

(01:29:40):
we would do, again. I think forme, what stands out in this is
it has a defined place. Like,most of the single malt scotch
that we drink, we drink whenwe're looking for a bolder,
fuller experience, and thattypically lends itself to a new
world cigar.
There's not of the lighterbodied scotches that we've

(01:30:03):
tried, I don't particularly likeany of them very much. I'm not
saying I wouldn't drink it, butI I certainly don't seek it out.
I mean, we did that, Dalwani.Dalweni 15. That's probably my
least favorite, like, lighterbodied Scotch.

Bam Bam (01:30:16):
Agree. Yep.

Senator (01:30:16):
And it's it's it's harsh. It doesn't it's not
nearly as smooth and and refinedas this drinks. And so I think
some

Bam Bam (01:30:24):
price point's very close.

Grinder (01:30:25):
Oh, it's higher. That one is higher.

Senator (01:30:27):
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Oh. And and I think Pagoda maybe
mentioned this, like, thesummer, you know, the summer is
also not a time that, like,you're always thinking of, like,
wanting that, like, fullerbodied single malt There's
versatility here.
For sure. And so, like, it hasthis defined place where it's
not competing with the singlemalts that we would drink in
those occasions. It's got itsown place in, like, summer

(01:30:50):
months and even winter monthswith a Cuban cigar that's
lighter and not as full bodiedas many New Worlds we smoke. So
I I give it a world of credit.Like, there's I can see myself
drinking this at certain timesand places.
I would give it a strong eight.You know, for me, the only
reason I didn't give it a nineor something like a nine or 10
is, it's not, it's not a complexScotch. No. No. Of course.

(01:31:14):
Very simple straightforwardScotch. But what it's
delivering, I do like and Ithink has a place. And I think
anybody that is looking for, atamer scotch, which is what
blended scotch is meant to be asa category. But I think among
blended scotches, which I'mnormally not a big fan of, this
is definitely one of the betterones, and I would drink again.

(01:31:35):
So a strong eight for me.

Gizmo (01:31:37):
Alright, boys. That puts the formal liquor rating tonight
on the Johnny Walker Gold LabelReserve at an 8.3.

Bam Bam (01:31:43):
Nice score.

Gizmo (01:31:44):
That's a nice score for the That's

Pagoda (01:31:45):
a nice score. Score.

Gizmo (01:31:46):
I'm I'm honestly surprised that it scored that
high tonight coming in. I wasnot expecting that.

Bam Bam (01:31:51):
Personally, I think I'm gonna buy a bottle and keep it
in in a locker.

Gizmo (01:31:53):
I agree. And I think too, I I wanna piggyback on something
a bottle. Yeah. Yeah. Senatorwas talking about with the
lighter single malts that we'vedone Mhmm.
And how bland they are Yeah. Andbasic and boring.

Grinder (01:32:07):
But some

Bam Bam (01:32:08):
are edgy as he noted as well.

Gizmo (01:32:10):
Some are harsh.

Grinder (01:32:10):
And that's not.

Gizmo (01:32:11):
This kinda toes the line between not very viscous and
thin. It's not taking over yourpalate, and it has a lot of
sweetness and and really goodflavor. For $60, I think that's
something.

Grinder (01:32:23):
So, Giz, what did I

Senator (01:32:24):
I when I when I look at

Grinder (01:32:26):
the rating, I I I kind of wanna compare it to a very
standard light single maltscotch. And for me, the
quintessential scotch to thatcaliber is the Glenmorangie 10.
And that is a light. It's verydrinkable, and it has all of
that essence that Scotland thatScotch whiskey should should

(01:32:47):
have in it. And this, it it felta little it felt a little
artificial.
That sweet finish is notsomething you get with the
Scotch. No.

Bam Bam (01:32:56):
You don't get it with the Glenmorangie

Gizmo (01:32:57):
for sure.

Grinder (01:32:58):
No. And and and that's not a demerit by any means. It's
just something different. It's ablended Scotch versus a single
malt Scotch. So so when I

Senator (01:33:05):
In fairness, Abelur is as sweet as sherry Obama's
exists. You can get some very

Bam Bam (01:33:11):
sensitive to the whole cow.

Grinder (01:33:13):
A sherry cask. This is this is not this I'm talking I'm
not talking

Senator (01:33:16):
about We don't even know what this what cast is.
Yeah. We have

Gizmo (01:33:19):
no idea.

Bam Bam (01:33:19):
Blending. Yeah.

Gizmo (01:33:20):
So the Glenmorangie 10 by the way Cask. The Glenmorangie
10 that, Grindr's referencing,we actually did on episode 20.
We never rated it. Yeah. Thatwas one that was the last,
spirit that we did not rate.
We started rating seriously on abound around episode 21. We
started doing them every week.So We were Maybe we should,
revisit that one, the Glenmoreand GT.

Grinder (01:33:40):
But, you know, we're we're smoking cigars with it.
It's a pairing, and it doesn'tmatter whether it's you know, it
carries this purest mentality ornot. It's it's what we enjoy,
and and we enjoy we certainlyenjoyed it tonight. We drank the
whole bottle. Yeah.
So it is what it is. I mean, I'mit's just it's just a mode of
comparison. And I think for me,when I look at single malt

(01:34:03):
scotch or or very light scotch,that's the that's kind of the
that's kind of the standard, andthen I I raid around it.

Senator (01:34:10):
The last thing I'll just say on this, you know,
we've talked about this withcertain rums, certain cognacs,
and other spirits that we like,but we also like the way we feel
after we drink it. Yes. And Ican already tell from just a
couple of glasses of this, like,this is, you know, the the
reason that we don't drink in asmuch volume certain single malts

(01:34:33):
is they're much fuller, andheavier and, you know, you can't
really consume a ton of that andfeel great in the morning. This
bottle, you know, I mean, Bamcould probably drink this whole
bottle and feel fine in themorning.

Grinder (01:34:46):
Like No doubt about it.

Gizmo (01:34:47):
Well, if you look at the AI image that, wizard John put
together, I would agree.

Grinder (01:34:55):
I'm gonna pay you again. That's your job.

Senator (01:35:00):
But I I do give a credit for that because as much
as we love the flavor profile ofsingle malt scotch, none of us
well, maybe pagoda is theexception, are able to drink
that in as much quantity ascertain rums or cognacs or other
spirits. Quantity. And feel, youknow, great in the morning
after. And I just think this isone of these rare scotches. And

(01:35:23):
I wouldn't say this about BlackLabel.
I mean, I remember when I wasyounger drinking Black Label
environment, not feeling greatin the next morning.

Bam Bam (01:35:30):
Mhmm. Yeah.

Senator (01:35:30):
And I feel like this uniquely, you could have several
glasses

Gizmo (01:35:33):
Yeah.

Senator (01:35:34):
And feel wonderful.

Bam Bam (01:35:35):
Yeah.

Grinder (01:35:36):
It's it's eminently drinkable, for sure.

Bam Bam (01:35:38):
Agreed. You know?

Pagoda (01:35:39):
You know what's really interesting? And I was just
thinking about it because you'rediscussing this. You know, when
we got into the rum journey, andI'm not a big rum guy. And then
when we discovered thefloridicana, and we loved the
12. And then we finally foundthe seven.
And, you know, it gives me thesame feel and experience like
the florocana seven.

Gizmo (01:35:57):
I totally agree. Thank you. Know.

Grinder (01:35:59):
Yes. Very accurate.

Gizmo (01:36:00):
Yeah. Because it's so easy to drinkable. Yeah. It is

Pagoda (01:36:03):
so well preserved. Every day, but you'll have it in your
locker, and, hey. It's a greatdrink to go to. Yeah. And it's
not that overly expensive, andit's easy.

Gizmo (01:36:12):
I think that's an interesting comparison too
because I think about thedifferent applications in which
we're drinking the Florida Canaseven. This is right with that.
Yeah.

Senator (01:36:20):
I agree.

Gizmo (01:36:21):
I would reach for this at at about the same amount as I
would the Florida Cana justwant.

Bam Bam (01:36:26):
% agree.

Gizmo (01:36:27):
In the mood for? Correct. You know? It's a home run.

Bam Bam (01:36:29):
Gotta keep you in the locker.

Gizmo (01:36:31):
So let's compare this to the other Johnny Walker whiskeys
we've done on the Pod Boys onepisode 39. We did the Johnny
Walker black label, scored a7.6. And on episode 43, four
weeks later, we did the doubleblack, which scored a an eight
point zero. Okay. So this edgedboth of those out.
That tracks. And boys, it's timenow to move into the formal

(01:36:52):
lizard rating tonight on the hUppmann Magnum 54. Rooster,
you're up. So I

Rooster (01:36:57):
was a bit skeptical on the cigar, having read some
reviews and, having, you know

Senator (01:37:02):
Your history with it.

Rooster (01:37:04):
Yeah. I mean, you know, smoking one out of the the box
that I have.

Grinder (01:37:07):
Your shit box

Bam Bam (01:37:08):
that you have.

Rooster (01:37:09):
I'm gonna trade you. And I I really wasn't looking
forward to it, but it was I waspleasantly surprised. It was
started off like it was creamy,and you were getting a baking
spice, which is kinda like theupman DNA. It had a nice woody
note, and I don't mind that itdidn't have the sweetness that

(01:37:31):
we were talking about. You know,it wasn't there all that much.
But I felt the cigar was a bitunder filled. It kinda we kinda
blew through that cigar. It wentit went kinda quick.

Bam Bam (01:37:42):
We did. Yeah.

Gizmo (01:37:43):
So I

Rooster (01:37:43):
think it it I mean, it was a bit under filled. So I
think, and and then the sec andthe price point of it, the price
point is is a little

Gizmo (01:37:52):
bit on the higher side Fiduciary.

Rooster (01:37:53):
For that size of that cigar. Having said that, I'm at
an I'm at an eight. I mean, I Idid enjoy it. K.

Gizmo (01:38:01):
Senator.

Senator (01:38:02):
I might be the outlier on this cigar. I'm gonna give it
a seven. I think it started outreally nicely. I was, like,
pleasantly surprised. It wascompletely different from my
prior experiences.
I thought I was gonna love thiscigar. It didn't transition much

(01:38:23):
at all. And the transition I washoping for was some sweeter
notes at some point, and thatwoody note really stayed
consistent. And at the very endfor me in the last third, I
think early on, we were talkingabout this bitterness that we
were getting, but it was like apleasant bitterness

Gizmo (01:38:40):
Mhmm.

Senator (01:38:41):
Early on. For me in the last third, that bitterness
kicked up in a way that wasunpleasant. I didn't really
enjoy.

Rooster (01:38:47):
You mean the turnip note? What is turnip?

Senator (01:38:53):
So that that really didn't, you know, it just didn't
finish the way that I had hoped.I did have some tunneling issues
actually while I was smoking it.

Bam Bam (01:39:01):
Really? Yeah.

Senator (01:39:02):
Yeah. Wow.

Gizmo (01:39:02):
And I

Senator (01:39:02):
had to, like, aggressively light the outer
portion of it to try to get itto catch up with the filler, and
I think it

Rooster (01:39:08):
goes Underfilled.

Grinder (01:39:08):
That's it. Smoking too fast.

Senator (01:39:10):
I think it goes through Reacher's point filled.

Bam Bam (01:39:11):
Yeah.

Senator (01:39:12):
That the cigar is underfilled. So, my experience
with the 10 count box I have,there have been construction
issues. This is now a completelydifferent 25 count box, also
construction issues. So for allof those reasons, you know, I
can't, for my palate, give thishigher than a seven. Would I
smoke it again if I didn't have,you know, much else to choose
from?
Sure. But is it anything thatreally excites me or that I

(01:39:34):
would pursue again? It's not. Ithink it's a departure, really
from the Magnum line and from alot of Upmans in a way that I
don't love because I love thetraditional Upman profile. So,
I'm at a seven.

Gizmo (01:39:47):
So I'm at an eight. You know, I I thought the first
third was actually pretty closeto excellent, if not amazing.

Bam Bam (01:39:53):
That was nice.

Gizmo (01:39:54):
And then from there, it just decreased in enjoyment for
me. I actually found myselfenjoying the the whiskey
pairing, the Scotch that we werehaving with this tonight more.
The second third was good, and Ithought the last third, similar
to what senator just said, justsaid was not great. I have two
problems right here with thiscigar. Number one, I think with
four years of age on this or alittle over three years of age,

(01:40:17):
it should be way better.
And the construction issues, I Ididn't experience it as bad as
you did. I did have to touch itup a couple of times after I was
speaking. But with four years ofage, I mean, this should be
pretty damn close to perfect. SoI feel like what we experienced
tonight is maybe close to thebest of what this cigar has to
offer, and I wish there was morethere, And which is why I don't

(01:40:39):
know if it'll ever reach a nineor a 10 even with some more time
on it. I just think the blend,you know, the Vitola, the the
underfill that we allexperienced, you know, it's
unfortunate, but the cigar iswhat it is.
And, of course, the final pieceof it is the price to value
delta there Yeah. It is it's notgreat.

Grinder (01:40:56):
It's outrageous.

Gizmo (01:40:57):
I mean, we smoked that Juan Lopez Alexio number one two
weeks ago. Mhmm. And that cigar,we got, I think, another thirty
or forty minutes of actualsmoking time out of it. You
know, most of us finish thiscigar right around, right around
when Ricky was talking about histower. Like, this cigar and

Senator (01:41:15):
I lit another cigar. I mean, we finished it so quickly.

Gizmo (01:41:19):
And and grinder too.

Bam Bam (01:41:20):
Yeah. Yeah.

Gizmo (01:41:20):
Yeah. So it's like for $32 to get an hour fifteen, hour
twenty out of a 54 ring gaugeRobusto, I mean, you get more
time out of a an epic Epicurenumber two from from Hoyo. You
get more out of a d four. Youknow, so for $32.50, I just I
can't buy it. However, I think A

Bam Bam (01:41:39):
nice score.

Gizmo (01:41:40):
I I'm fine at an eight. I thought the cigar was very good.
I think it's peaked right now.

Bam Bam (01:41:45):
Mhmm.

Gizmo (01:41:45):
I don't see it getting better. I don't think it has
legs from here, with more age,but, I thought the cigar was
okay. So I'm gonna give it aneight. And did

Rooster (01:41:53):
you have good smoke output?

Gizmo (01:41:54):
The smoke output was amazing.

Would you

Senator (01:41:56):
buy any to put in your tower or no? I'm just curious.

Gizmo (01:41:58):
You know what I would do, senator, is I would probably buy
a more recent run of them. Like,I would buy a recent 10 count
box maybe and and try thatbecause I think the recent stuff
is performing better than maybesome something, you know, from
four or five years ago, but Idon't know. It's definitely a
risk. It's definitely a risk. Ijust don't know if this is ever
gonna touch a nine or a 10.

(01:42:18):
I don't know if this blend isever gonna get there for me.
Alright. Pagoda.

Rooster (01:42:24):
I'm not getting

Bam Bam (01:42:25):
What was that?

Senator (01:42:25):
Pagoda is summoning the universe right

Gizmo (01:42:28):
now waving his eyes.

Grinder (01:42:29):
Helicopter over there.

Pagoda (01:42:30):
You know, generally, I put both my arms out and say
abundance. Abundance. But rightnow, we have a small cloud right
up which is just hanging rightabove us. That's a pleasant
sight. Yeah.
It's it's it's it's a it's adifficult decision because I've
been at around an aid andlistening to everybody and now

(01:42:50):
really reconsidering it. Don'tget

Gizmo (01:42:52):
influence. No influence. No.

Pagoda (01:42:54):
Should it be a seven? Should be an eight. But it is
somewhere between a seven and aneight. This is better to say.
But I'm gonna give it an eightfor two reasons Because I think
I really enjoyed the first thirdbecause for me

Gizmo (01:43:04):
I agree with that.

Pagoda (01:43:05):
Did get in fact, even up to the first half, I really
enjoyed the smoke output. Itfeels really good in my hand.
You know? 54 ring gauge wasvery, very easily, like,
smokeable. The smoke output wasgreat.
Sweet, creamy, you know, bakingspices. I thought it it
initially, in the first,definitely had the Atman DNA.

(01:43:27):
But after that, I think itbecame extremely you're right.
Like, worry. Well, it maintaineda little bit of an, you know,
the savoriness I liked, but thenit became a little salty and
earthiness.
I think I might have mentionedit. So it it kind of really
declined in terms of, myenjoyment in the second half.

(01:43:48):
Having said that, the things Ireally enjoy is also did it
leave a pleasant palette, like,flavored my in my palette? Yes.
It's left a reasonable, youknow, a pleasant, flavor in my
in my mouth because sometimessome cigars give you a really,
you know, bad tobacco kind offeel.
I I think yeah. It's been aseven and eight, but I'll give

(01:44:10):
it an eight today. Yeah. Okay.

Gizmo (01:44:12):
Chef Ricky.

Yeah. I'm a give this a strong eight, and maybe
that's in part to the whiskey,the pairing, just kinda elevated
it a little bit. For me, thefirst third was great. I got not
that much baking spice, but Igot enough creaminess, a little
bit of baking spice, but thewood was a dominant note
throughout the entireexperience. But I did enjoy
that.
Now that's not a flavor notethat I typically enjoy, but the

(01:44:35):
way this cigar delivered it, Idid because it was on it was in
a creamy smooth fashion. Now forwhatever reason, I had you know,
maybe this is because I for foronce, I was one of the first
ones here today. And for thefirst time in selecting my
cigar, I actually looked at thefoot. I looked at the cigar, and

(01:44:56):
I made it a point as you guysusually the one selecting your
cigar off the box, you know, tolook at how the cigar is packed
and the condition of the footand all these other things. And
I think I hit a home run.
I had no relights. I had no burnissues. My burn line was great.
You know, the aroma was great onthe cigar. I even punched my
cigar.
Usually, when you punch a cigar,there's a little little crack

(01:45:18):
happening, especially, you know,with Cubans and, you know, Gizmo
who stores them at 62, and thenmaybe dry boxes it bringing it
down to 58. And, you know, I hadnone of that experience. So I
think it delivered what it did.I think it did it well. Was a
typical Upman?
No. But, you know, I enjoyed it.It was a little bit bolder and
wood and earth for sure. Ienjoyed that salty chocolate

(01:45:41):
sort of truffle note in thebeginning. And at the very end,
as I got to the knob and burningmy fingers, I started to get
some, like, bright fruit, almostcurrant or raspberry happening.
So I I enjoyed it. I I I didenjoy it. So I'm gonna give it a
good eight.

Gizmo (01:45:57):
Alright. Grinder.

Grinder (01:45:58):
I'm a solid eight. I, I enjoyed it from the first light
all the way down to the bottom.I did have some some minor, burn
issues at the end, but that wasyou know, I'm not worried about
that. I I found that the thetaste profile to really, you
know, be something that I enjoy,very typical of something that I

(01:46:19):
enjoy. And as a result yep.
If I were to I I wouldn't giveit anything higher than that
because I just felt like itcould be more. The comments
about maybe it was packed tooloose. Yeah. I think that's
probably a good that's a fairassessment and a and a good
reason why I was look searchingfor more. Having said that, the
combustion was crazy in here.

(01:46:40):
Like, there was a lot of smokein here. It was a great
experience. I did get a lot ofthat that creaminess in the end.
The it felt like it it seemedlike it was cashew cream,
towards the end there. And youcombine that with the wood, and
there was a little sweetnessthat I got.
And like I said, the pairinghelped, elevate that sweetness

(01:47:00):
to another level. So, and Ithink it was senator. It said,
you know, it it added to it.Yeah. I think it added to it,
and it may have it may haveaugmented my score a little bit,
but, it's a solid eight for me.
I would smoke more of them if itweren't so widely wildly,
priced.

Gizmo (01:47:19):
Yeah.

I

Grinder (01:47:20):
would wanna get some of those boxes off BAM if you were
willing to part with some. Sure.

Bam Bam (01:47:25):
And

Gizmo (01:47:25):
Everybody has a price.

Grinder (01:47:26):
Yeah. Every Yeah. So, yeah, it's an eight for me.
Happy with it. Very pleased.

Gizmo (01:47:33):
Alright. Bam

Bam Bam (01:47:33):
Bam. Yeah. I'm also an eight. I've smoked these for
years. I happen to like thiscigar a lot.

Grinder (01:47:41):
I think there's that strain of sweetness for me that
continued from the beginning allthe

Bam Bam (01:47:45):
way to the

Grinder (01:47:46):
end. Chef, you mentioned it, chocolaty, a
little salty. That was there. Itwas also very earthy, so I love
that savory, sweet, earthy,fruity type thing that happens
with, I think, some of the bestCuban cigars in the world. I
mean, that's what we're that'swhat I pursue.

Bam Bam (01:48:05):
So for me, it's a solid eight.

Gizmo (01:48:07):
Alright, boys. That puts the formal lizard rating tonight
on the h Upman magnum 54 at a7.9.

Grinder (01:48:15):
Right.

Gizmo (01:48:15):
So I wanna ask a question

Bam Bam (01:48:16):
touch low.

Gizmo (01:48:17):
I wanna ask a question. The reviews as we're going
through our ratings, I thinkacross the room, even with
senator seven, and thecomplaints that each of us had
in various areas of the cigar.It seems that the commentary is
a little higher than what therating is reflecting.

Senator (01:48:35):
Oh, I And I completely disagree.

Gizmo (01:48:36):
I'm wondering what's there because It's true. There's
a lot of glowing reviews here.

Grinder (01:48:41):
There's a

Gizmo (01:48:41):
lot of positive commentary. Positivity.

Senator (01:48:44):
There's no one in here that's gonna go out and buy a
box this tomorrow.

Gizmo (01:48:47):
And that's what I wanted to get to.

Grinder (01:48:48):
They can't find it.

Gizmo (01:48:49):
Because of value.

Senator (01:48:50):
That's for sure.

Gizmo (01:48:51):
That's what I was getting.

Senator (01:48:52):
I agree. $2 for this cigar is absurd.

Gizmo (01:48:55):
And so

Bam Bam (01:48:55):
what all agree.

Gizmo (01:48:56):
Is that if you listen to the ratings we just gave Yeah.
Compared to the numbers, I thinkthe major thing that's factoring
in here on this $7.09

Bam Bam (01:49:04):
Is price.

Gizmo (01:49:05):
Is the price. And If this was $15 Dude. Or $10

Bam Bam (01:49:09):
You're gonna tell me that

Grinder (01:49:10):
you guys would at least get one box at $15

Gizmo (01:49:13):
If it was half the price or less, it would change For
sure. Quite a bit. But there's

Senator (01:49:16):
but there's many cigars we'd say the same.

Bam Bam (01:49:18):
This is also true. That's also true.

Gizmo (01:49:19):
But I just I find it interesting the difference in
the quality of the commentaryYeah. Yeah. Versus the actual
final rating.

Pagoda (01:49:27):
Answer to the other guys, the other lizard's
question, I think, a couple ofweeks ago about why do you put
price in in terms of a value?

Grinder (01:49:35):
It matters. That.

Pagoda (01:49:36):
It does matter. Matters. Right. Because the other thing,
you know, like, loosely packedis one thing. Loosely packed
when it smokes like in bloodyyou know, it smoked very quick.

Gizmo (01:49:45):
Yeah. Too quick.

Bam Bam (01:49:46):
Now these I bought at low twenties years ago. Yeah. I
would not buy another box atthis price.

Gizmo (01:49:51):
Of $35.50. I agree, Dan.

Rooster (01:49:53):
So it's actually two things. It's it's under filled.
Yep. And the price is a bit onthe higher side. Correct.
Right.

Gizmo (01:50:00):
I think if for you. I think if we got a good two hours
out of this cigar tonight That'dbe different story. That also
would change the value equationOf course. For me.

Rooster (01:50:08):
I think $32

Gizmo (01:50:09):
to get wine over an hour because

Bam Bam (01:50:10):
we'd still be smoking it.

Rooster (01:50:11):
Exactly right. I would say every single one of us or
most of us enjoyed the firsthalf more than the second half.

Gizmo (01:50:18):
Absolutely. Right? Yeah. The first third, I thought, was
excellent, but it fell off fromthere.

Bam Bam (01:50:22):
Good commentary overall.

Gizmo (01:50:23):
So let's compare these boys to the other h Upman cigars
we've done on the pod. I'm gonnaskip over the Magnum series for
now. We're gonna go back tothose at the end. On episode 40,
we did the h Upman number two,the Love 14 we always talk
about, rated a 9.8. On episode72, the Robustos Anajados rated
a 9.6.
On episode 86, Pupa's favorite,the connoisseur a rated a 9.2.

(01:50:47):
Then we went through theconnoisseur line following that.
96, we did the connoisseur onerated an 8.6. Episode 111,
connoisseur b rated a 7.2. Onepisode 125, the connoisseur
number two rated a nine pointzero.

Bam Bam (01:51:04):
Wow.

Gizmo (01:51:04):
On episode one thirty five, we did the h up in half
corona on a short smoke special,scored a 9.7. That's a killer
cigar. Of course. In episode153, we did the Robustos
Anajados LCDH scoring a 9.2. Nowlet's look at the two sister
cigars to this starting withepisode six, the Magnum 46 rated

(01:51:26):
an 8.1.
And finally, episode 62, theMagnum 50 rated a 7.6.

Bam Bam (01:51:34):
So not too far off

Grinder (01:51:36):
from the mag 46.

Gizmo (01:51:37):
The mag series is lagging.

Pagoda (01:51:39):
No. But, you know, the 40 sixes have been spoken really
well. They have I think therecent ones we've had.

Gizmo (01:51:43):
And that's what I was getting

Grinder (01:51:44):
to. Runs.

Gizmo (01:51:46):
We just did the Juan Lopez, Alexion number one. We
revisited that. We're gonna redothe punch punch. I think the
Magnum 46, we're gonna revisitanother Corona Gorda. Yeah.
Sorry to all the folks out therewho want us to be smoking 54
plus ring gauge cigars, but, weare gonna do another one of that
because I do think that therecent Magnum 40 sixes are
smoking Yeah. Brilliant.

Rooster (01:52:06):
Let's see. So the connoisseur b rated the lowest?
Yeah. Right? Quite

Gizmo (01:52:12):
a bit lower.

Bam Bam (01:52:13):
But the Kanye, though.

Rooster (01:52:14):
The Kanye

Gizmo (01:52:14):
was was high. Kanye was 20 points higher than the
condenser.

Rooster (01:52:18):
The condenser b and the MAG 50 were kind of Those were

Gizmo (01:52:22):
right in right.

Rooster (01:52:22):
They were in the low Max.

Gizmo (01:52:24):
Yeah. Low sevens.

Grinder (01:52:25):
50 was

Gizmo (01:52:25):
a little

Bam Bam (01:52:26):
bit very mild cigar.

Grinder (01:52:27):
Yeah. Not interesting.

Rooster (01:52:29):
So the MAC 50 would be interesting in this flavor
profile.

Bam Bam (01:52:33):
What's interesting about this cigar is because it's
such a large Vitola, you'reexpecting so much more from it.
Right.

Gizmo (01:52:38):
So And

Bam Bam (01:52:39):
you're getting

Grinder (01:52:39):
And you're getting

Gizmo (01:52:40):
so thin.

Bam Bam (01:52:40):
Yeah. You're getting so much less.

Rooster (01:52:42):
So the Mag 54 blend and the Mag 50 would be a home run,
I think. Yeah.

Gizmo (01:52:46):
Because what's funny about the Mag 50 is you never
have construction issues

Bam Bam (01:52:49):
with that. That's true.

Gizmo (01:52:50):
That cigar has always performed well. It just doesn't
taste great.

Bam Bam (01:52:53):
No. It's very mild.

Gizmo (01:52:55):
Alright, boys. A great night tonight. Again, let's
review the Johnnie Walker GoldLabel Reserve scored an 8.3, and
the h Uppmann Magnum 54 scored a7.9. A nice pairing tonight,
boys. Of course, we have tothank our sponsor Fabrica five.
We have to congratulate lizardMaximus and his unfortunate

(01:53:15):
question about the authenticityof his Romeo y Juliet to
Churchills. He won lizard of theweek this week. Like we said,
anyone out there can win lizardof the week, so please be sure
to write us. And, great night,boys. We'll see everybody next
week.
Hope you enjoyed this episode.Thanks for joining us. You can
find our merch store and ratingsarchive at our brand new

(01:53:37):
website, loungelizardspod.com.That's loungelizards,p0d,.com.
Don't forget to leave us arating and subscribe on your
favorite podcast platform.
If you have any comments,questions, do you wanna reach
out, say hello, tell us whatyou're smoking, email us hello
at lounge lizards pod dot com.You can also find us on
Instagram at lounge lizards pod.We really appreciate your time,

(01:54:00):
and we'll, we'll see you nextweek.

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