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LGP 69 - Mystery Cigar with Gas Station Pairings
19 Plays1 month ago
This week, we're smoking a surprise cigar, we know what it is, but we won't reveal it until near the end of the show!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Locations
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to Let's Get Pairing. This is episode 69, and we're going to be smoking a mystery cigar with some gas station stuff. So grab yourself cigar, grab yourself a drink, and let's get pairing.
00:00:35
Speaker
And we're back. Welcome back, everybody. um This is Let's Get Pairing, episode number 69. I'm your host, Tripp, here in ah the Gulf Coast studio. No, what do we call it? LGP South.
00:00:48
Speaker
We're LGP South. Yeah, baby. And joining me from the darkness that is LGP North is my co-host, Dennis, as always. Dennis, how you doing, brother? Yeah, man. um I'm here. We're here. Last week, unfortunately, we had that wild storm on the East Coast that ravaged, I think, most of the East Coast.
00:01:06
Speaker
And, yeah, between power outages and flooding and all this crazy nonsense, it's nice to feel normal on a Sunday when, you know, i feel like most Sundays don't feel that normal because we're all kind of getting ready for the work week.
00:01:19
Speaker
You might be.
Vacation Plans and Mystery Cigar Theme
00:01:20
Speaker
um vacation started on Friday, and I am hopping on a cruise ship tomorrow morning. So I'm going to go, you know, drink and smoke cigars mostly. Well, I hope you won't be driving that cruise ship.
00:01:34
Speaker
I will not, because I would. like select it I would not know what to do. I wouldn't know which buttons to push and which ones not to. I'd be like, there's an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where they go on on cruise.
00:01:45
Speaker
And at one point, Charlie and Frank are in the, in the control room and they're just ripping wires out, trying to find, uh, they're trying to find something. I think they're trying to find where the, the captain hid their beer.
00:01:58
Speaker
Um, and he's just ripping wires out and then the boat crashes. Uh, anyway, uh, this is let's get pairing episode 69. We're smoking a mystery cigar. Um, you may be able to guess what this is just by seeing it, but we're going to keep it a mystery for now.
00:02:14
Speaker
Um, And I'm not going to tell you anything else about it. That's about as far as we're getting with the details of this cigar for now. I'll reveal it at the end. um But surprisingly, there still aren't a whole lot of details, which is ah part of what inspired me to do this. um So we're going to be smoking a mystery cigar.
00:02:34
Speaker
I figured what better to pair with a mystery cigar than um gas station pairings. So we have gone, this is a throwback to the days of sharing our pairings before I was involved, um where Rob and John would do gas station pairings.
00:02:51
Speaker
um And I always thought it was kind of fun. So we went out and ah got some gas station pairings of our own. ah Dennis, how did your how did your gas station adventures go?
Alcohol Purchase Restrictions and Cigar Profile
00:03:02
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you, being in New Jersey, you can't just go to a gas station and buy any kind of alcoholic products. I think Pennsylvania is the same way. um New York, you can walk into a 7-Eleven, buy beer. And much to my surprise, recently, I saw that 7-Eleven is also selling um things like Fireball, like little mini bottles of Fireball.
00:03:22
Speaker
Really? Which is wild. I don't know if the laws changed or something happened that was different in the city. But yeah, it's a thing now. I know why back in my day, I've talked about this on the show before when I was in my very early 20s. I lived in Connecticut and all of our liquor stores closed at 8 p.m. There was no alcohol sales after 8.
00:03:46
Speaker
um So naturally, when we ran out of beer in the middle of the night, we would drive over the New York border to pick up a couple extra six packs. um And where where would you go? Would you go to like a 7-Eleven or what was your... Just gas station, 7-Eleven, whatever it was. That was a time where I was not particularly choosy about my beer.
00:04:10
Speaker
I knew I didn't like macro beers. So, like, I was drinking Dos Equis, Killian's Irish Red, Guinness, Bass, stuff like that.
00:04:21
Speaker
Sam Adams, probably. Sam Adams, once in a while. Just stuff that was a little less ah less plain. But i I didn't even know what craft beer was yet, I think.
00:04:34
Speaker
Uh, anyway, let's get on to smoking this mystery cigar. Dennis, right off the rip, can you tell me what you're tasting? It's real sticky. Those of you that have had cigars that when you, when you put it to your lips and you get through your couple of first draws, it has that where like your kind of lips are sticking to the leaf, the the the wrapper, you're sticking to the wrapper and it's got this like, um, almost syrupy quality to it.
00:04:59
Speaker
and And that's not to say that it's, it's, um, in any way adulterated or flavored or anything tipped, sweetened on the tip. It's just more of, I think, from the tobacco itself. It's lending a really great sweetness. And but there's a lot cedar back in cigars so far.
00:05:15
Speaker
It's so much more than I expected for this cigar. Again, I've never had this. And ah this is completely new to me. So I think... Coming into it, I was not expecting this level of sweetness, but also there's a really great level of body and spice to it, too. It's not just that sweetness. It finishes with a really nice spiciness, which I dig.
00:05:34
Speaker
Fully agree. Retro Hail is very spicy. It's interesting because, like, so far, I mean, this is a big perfecto and we're just a quarter inch in half an inch. um And it, like, it's crazy sweet on the palate. It's, like, all, don't know, sugar cookies and cinnamon rolls and creme brulee kind of stuff. It's like, it's very dessert-y tasting. um But then you retrohale it and there's it's got some power to it. um You really feel that power on the retrohale and get that horseradish, white pepper kind of spice.
00:06:15
Speaker
It's really nice and it sticks to the palate in this way that I feel like normally i would say, no, this is not great, but I kind of like the way that it's sticking to the palette. And in a sense, to be honest with you, considering my gas station adventures where I had to go to get what I did, um I need as much palette blocking as possible tonight because it one of us might die.
00:06:37
Speaker
One of us might. We were talking earlier today. I have what I would consider ah very good pairing or a very good beverage.
Victory Brewing's Golden Monkey Overview
00:06:47
Speaker
a medium beverage, and something that I've never had before that I'm expecting to be very, very bad.
00:06:53
Speaker
Oh, so you got so the one that you've never had. Have you had the other two? No. Okay, the first one I've had. The second one I haven't had, but I'm expecting it to be pretty good ah because I've had variants of it.
00:07:07
Speaker
um Okay, okay, fair. So it's something that you're not completely unfamiliar with. Exactly. ah Sam Finnell, welcome back to the show, brother. He's drinking a Southern Draw Jacob's Ladder Brimstone.
00:07:19
Speaker
Hell yeah. Presidente size. And drinking with a gas station monster mean bean. You love to see it. ah what monster A mean bean? mean bean. The monster, it is the monster coffee vanilla bean flavor.
00:07:36
Speaker
Oh, okay, cool. I forgot that they were doing the coffee the coffee stuff. I haven't tried any of those. The coffee stuff's honestly pretty good. I like it more than Monster. Well, hey, the PBR coffee was good and when we experienced it as well. We did it a show like two years ago, I think, or a year ago.
00:07:52
Speaker
I really like the, what's that called? The Beast, the Monster Beast, 6% alcoholic monster. I still haven't tried that. I'm afraid to try it because I don't even like the flavor of regular. Oh, you don't like the regular monster? Okay, so yeah, it tastes very close to the regular monster. I mean, I kind of, it's one of those things where it's like, part of me likes it and part of me is disgusted that I like it.
00:08:13
Speaker
You know, like I kind of hate the flavor, but you take a sip and you're like, yeah, I want another sip of that. Gross. No, so like a four local. want more. Pretty much.
00:08:24
Speaker
right. I'm going to get on to do some pairing here because ah we don't have a whole lot of cigar to talk about since we're not revealing any details. And like I said, even when we do, we don't have a whole lot to talk about.
00:08:37
Speaker
right. So I have something from Victory Brewing. I was surprised to see this in a gas station because I'd never noticed it in a gas station before. um Apparently, it's all over the place.
00:08:49
Speaker
um So this is Victory Brewing's Golden Monkey Belgian Triple. yeah. This is the new thing that is in every gas station that I've visited. It's crazy. Outside of New Jersey.
00:09:00
Speaker
It's in every gas station. It's definitely in every liquor store. And it's like top shelf, it meaning they've they've they've placed the placement in the in the liquor store is generally at the very top. Yeah. Yeah, this was... premium Yeah, this was in the, like, the premium beer section.
00:09:15
Speaker
um So, Victory Brewing was founded by Bilk Ovaleski and Ron Barchette, who met on the school bus in 1973, and they were best friends ever since. um They were in... I didn't put what grade, but I think it was, like, third or fourth grade. Yeah.
00:09:31
Speaker
So they were friends all through school. After they graduated college, Bill started using his father's homebrewing equipment to explore homebrewing while Ron went off to school.
00:09:43
Speaker
That Christmas, Bill gave Ron a homebrewing kit and was like, hey man, I think you will enjoy this. Try it out. So they both kind of got into homebrewing that way.
00:09:54
Speaker
um Throughout the early 90s, they both spent some time after college. They both kind of went into their field of work and thought, you know what, I'm just going to check out beer for a little bit.
00:10:06
Speaker
um So they both spent some time working at breweries to learn more about brewing. And then finally in 1996, they opened Victory Brewing Company in a former Pepperidge Farm factory in Downington, Pennsylvania, which I thought was really interesting that it used to be a Pepperidge Farm factory. um In 2016, they teamed up with Southern Tier, who we talked about last episode.
00:10:31
Speaker
I think might've been the episode before that. i think it was before. Yeah. To create artisanal brewing ventures, which is kind of their, um, don't even know how to explain this kind of thing. It's sort of a craft brewing conglomerate.
00:10:45
Speaker
The bunch of companies that band together to pool resources, um, they're not all under the same ownership umbrella.
00:10:57
Speaker
but they are they they use each other for distribution and stuff like that. um So typically, if you see something like this, you're probably going see a Southern Tier next to it. You're probably going to see a some six-point because they've got all of those in their catalog.
00:11:13
Speaker
So this is Golden Monkey Belgian-style triple. um It was first released just a year after they were founded. um They wanted to make a ah Belgian triple,
00:11:24
Speaker
Um, but they weren't really happy with it, at least not for the first couple decades. Oh man, you are making some faces there. Uh, so for the first, alright not at you.
00:11:36
Speaker
Oh, I know. It's like, see what you're doing. Uh, so the first few years of victory, uh, they kind of struggled to find a flagship beer. They had started off and said, all right, we're going make a Mars. That's going to be our, our thing. We're making a Mars in everybody's going to love it.
00:11:51
Speaker
Uh, their other stuff was outselling it. the Pretty quickly, their Hop Devil IPA kind of became their flagship just on accident. um And that was kind of their flagship for a while. The story of how Golden Monkey got into the mix and became the juggernaut that it has become is a little more complicated, um but I'll give you some of the highlights because there's... And even with just the highlights, this is a...
00:12:20
Speaker
quite a bit of a story yeah there's a lot to talk about with these guys man um so they had like i said in 1997 they launched golden monkey but they weren't really happy with the the beer um trying to find i think it was bill i thought i had it in here but i just say he a bunch in my notes sorry ron So it was Ron, one of the owners.
00:12:44
Speaker
um He just wasn't really happy with the recipe. He was like, this could be better. So he spent some time going to Belgium, working with Belgian breweries to kind of learn the tricks of the trade.
00:12:57
Speaker
um What makes Belgian beer, Belgian beer? ah During that, he came up with an idea. ah So I believe I read that this was during some kind of European beer festival.
00:13:09
Speaker
ah He went to West Mall. uh bought a bottle of table beer which was fresh um and kind of uh took it off the table and brought it back to his hotel room where he had his head chemist waiting so that they could extract the yeast from this west mall table beer hell yeah bring it home that is the way isn't that awesome i thought that was so cool uh So this became the basis for their their Golden Monkey. it It was kind of the turning point.
00:13:44
Speaker
He spent about six more years developing what would become the final recipe before it was re-released with their new recipe in 2008. By 2012, Golden Monkey... um by twenty twelve golden monkey started taking off like a rocket. um in twenty twelve or By 2014, half of the sales of the company was Golden Monkey. um By 2017, it was taking in almost two-thirds of the sales for the company.
00:14:14
Speaker
um And I think that makes it, at this point, the most popular and most widely available U.S.-made Belgian beer. or Belgian style beer.
00:14:25
Speaker
um Because it's everywhere. Like you can get this at football games and stuff. Like yep it's all over the place. And it's crazy that it is as popular as it is when it's like kind of a niche style.
00:14:39
Speaker
That's what I was going to say, man. it's Generally speaking, that that Belgian spice that you get is distinctly different than if we're talking about a Duvel Peratt or perat or or like similar other Belgian breweries that have kind of more approachable beers. like This particular style is in your face.
00:14:56
Speaker
It has those esters that either you love or you absolutely detest and you can't drink it as ah as a beer consumer. well And it's amazing how they push that. That's kind of what interests me about this is that it's so successful, but when you taste it, you're like, oh yeah, that's a Belgian.
00:15:13
Speaker
Part of me was kind of like, haven't had Golden Monkey in a while. Does it really taste that much like a triple? Because I poured it. Oh, it does. It's not super Belgian looking. Usually you're looking at like cloudy, more of a pale yellow. This is more much more yellow than it looks on camera because of the way the reflections work, reflecting the darkness behind you.
00:15:38
Speaker
um But the I wasn't expecting it to taste as Belgian as it does. You taste this and you're like, yep, that is a triple. I think part of the selling point is, of course, that like this is, I don't know, five or six bucks for 9.5% ABV.
00:15:55
Speaker
20 ounces of it. like There's value to it, yeah. From that standpoint, if you're getting on a train and and you're to be on a train for a while, like New Jersey Transit or Amtrak or whatever else, or you're at a ball game you don't want to get up, you're going have one. want to turned up real quick.
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah. Pound one of these and you'll be on the way to Flavortown. Tailgating, yeah. If you're tailgating. And you kind of buy these in advance. Now you're spending less money at the venue.
00:16:21
Speaker
Stadiums famously have very, very expensive beer if you want to drink beer, whatever kind of beer it is. It's always very expensive. um So it's kind of a nice option. yeah And those slim cans, believe it or not, fit exceptionally well into your average bootcut size jeans.
00:16:38
Speaker
Oh, interesting. case you want to go and stuff your boots with some beer and get into a movie theater. There you go. um So for the recipe for this, they're using only Pilsner malt and only Tetanang hops.
00:16:52
Speaker
So it's like just just keeping it European. like The influence of this beer is truly as European as gets, um which is crazy for a beer that is so well distributed.
00:17:03
Speaker
like I think this has to be in like probably the... Top 10% of well-distributed craft beers, like a single-facing that is available everywhere. Everywhere, yeah.
00:17:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, to be fair, talking about Pilsner Moths and Tetanang, they are... They're generally kind of this blank canvas, which is really cool because what you're focusing on is the yeast. You want the yeast to produce those flavors and bring you that profile. And it is one of the cleanest ways to get into a kind of a sense of what that yeast is all about, what you can do with the yeast.
00:17:38
Speaker
And it speaks volumes about a brewery that can produce something that is that popular, that has that flavor profile, and is that consistent. Yeah. Because it's it when you talk about just yeast, it's tough, man.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeast, again, being a living organism and and you know billions, even trillions within a colony, sometimes can be hard to corral to get, you kind of force them to produce a particular kind of flavor profile, but then you have to do it at scale. And then you have to do it consistently.
00:18:07
Speaker
And that's the wild thing. Absolutely. So I'm going to take a couple sips here. See how it pairs with the mystery cigar. ah Well, you tell us what you've got up first, because I i have a feeling it's going to be interesting. i was I was really hoping you would take a little bit longer on yours so that I wouldn't have to get down on this fucking horrid thing. um But, you know, I embrace the concept of gas station. It's it's kind of one of those things that if if I were to walk into a gas station and I wanted to
00:18:37
Speaker
to buy you know, some amount of alcohol things, I would generally kind of shop with my eyes and go, well, what what looks interesting? What looks weird? What looks fun?
00:18:49
Speaker
What's something that I haven't had? And so I approached this exercise in this very similar kind of way.
Mad Dog 2020 History and Packaging
00:18:55
Speaker
And I walked in and just looked and saw what kind of new facings were in the weird section. the weird I call it the weird section, but it's really the, like the singles section where it's like random singles of things. It's, uh,
00:19:07
Speaker
You'll see your your juice boxes of wine. That's where they put that stuff. And I came across this thing, which packaging-wise, is good for them. They did a good job. I have to let me take a sip so I can really get into the zone.
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, I knew that we could cheat on this by, like, finding, you know, we went to one particular gas station in Miami last year. That blew our minds. Oh, that was wild. We're going back. We gotta go back.
00:19:34
Speaker
They had everything. Every craft beer you could think of was in this gas station. It was nuts. Sake juice boxes. Those juice boxes a little dog? Yeah, those are killer. That was fantastic. i don't know what it is about drinking wine out of a juice box, but it makes me happy.
00:19:51
Speaker
Which is probably, you know, good marketing on their their side. All right. Final sit-man, I'm going to put this down. Again, I purposely wanted to, of my three pairings, only one has an actual like glass that is not the original packaging because I wanted to showcase the packaging.
00:20:10
Speaker
And I wanted to kind of, I wanted to do it the way that somebody that would buy it at the store would probably consume it. They'd you know they'd buy it, you buy a can or something, or whatever, you drink it from whatever packaging is available. You're not pouring it into a glass and talking about and looking at it and doing the things that we tend to do.
00:20:28
Speaker
All right. That being said, my first, and I don't know if you remember this from your Northeast experience, but I suspect you do, Tripp. Remember a company called Mad Dog?
00:20:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah, of course. Everybody remembers Mad Dog. MD 2020. It's kind of the the big, big deal. Now, Mad Dog is kind of cool because... Technically, well, what we call mad dog now, right? But really, it was called Magen David, or it was called Magen David. And it's Magen David Wine Company. Now, Magen David, for those of you that are Jewish, like myself, go, and that sounds familiar.
00:21:02
Speaker
That's familiar because that is literally the shield of David. Translates in Hebrew to the shield of David. And if you're kind of of the Soviet proclivity, you might hear it.
00:21:13
Speaker
Some people will say, coco like, Magen David. And generally, that refers to your, when you wear a Star of David on a necklace, they'll they'll be like, oh, it's nice mug and duvid kind of thing. um Now, these cats have been around for a really long time, and I have no idea how they've managed to survive as long as they have.
00:21:33
Speaker
When I first experienced it in the late the young man, and you probably Tripp as well, yes similar age. oh yeah ah They were founded in Chicago in 1933, coming from really a background in wine production. That was their whole thing. But what they came out with back then was really, they were trying to do kosher wines for people.
00:21:52
Speaker
So they wanted to make accessible kosher wines that were not really a thing back then. No one was really doing it consistently. And they wanted to do this sort of mass market approach of branding, of availability, of distribution, and something that was not great, not terrible, but somewhere in the middle.
00:22:13
Speaker
Now, arguably, if you've had any of the Mad Dog stuff, you may... You know, lean one direction or the other. Yeah, it's not quite in the middle. But I will say, I will say this. It speaks volumes about the brand and the product. If all of us, it's just like Malort.
00:22:28
Speaker
Whether you like Malort or not, it doesn't matter because at the end of the day, if you've ever had Malort, you will never forget it. And you will never miss an opportunity to share that with someone else. And that in and of itself is incredible marketing.
00:22:43
Speaker
it's It's so good, it's so bad, it's good kind of thing. it's you know It leans into those tropes, which is really, really cool. Now, eventually they went into the flavored market and they started doing different flavored things. They started branding around. Eventually the nickname of Mad Dog came around. People started calling it that and they said, well, hey, let's let's change the name and let's make it, let's lean into this, which is great.
00:23:07
Speaker
It's always nice when you can lean into what kind of the the populace is is talking about and how they refer to your product. um supposedly the 2020 back in the day was related to the fact that it was a 20 ounce bottle at 20%. Do you remember those? Yeah, those little hip flasks that came in. the hip The hip flask bottles. I remember those distinctly. And also, I don't remember those distinctly.
00:23:30
Speaker
I distinctly don't remember how much I remember, um which I guess was the intended effect in their case. ah Now, The particular one that I'm drinking tonight, it's kinda wild. Let me show you.
00:23:44
Speaker
It is. Let's see if i can blow this out with martin with my hand now. Check this out. It's Mad Dog Whipped whiffpped Orange Cream. It comes in this lovely clear plastic container with this metal pop top You know, that that's um that's a very Japanese thing from like the late ninety s or early 2000s. Yes. Yeah, yeah. It's still very popular, actually It's still crazy popular. It's always fascinated me. i always thought that was some of the coolest packaging you can put anything in.
00:24:18
Speaker
It's like yeah i am clear bottle with the can top. It's just, it's so cool. it's ah It's kind of like a weird throwback classiness that I think it has that I like.
00:24:30
Speaker
So 15% ABV on this one. It is a flavored orange cream whipped monstrosity. I'm breathing. I'm breathing heavily as I feel it coming up and I'm pushing it down forcefully.
00:24:44
Speaker
Um,
00:24:47
Speaker
What was I gonna say? ah Yes, okay, so the packaging itself really leans into what we've seen with other kind of ready to drink cocktails, ready to drink whatever beverages in a can.
00:24:59
Speaker
It's really marketable. It's a small, you know nice little pocket that you stuff this in your pocket to go to a venue. You can shoot this real quick if you're going into a concert and you've saved yourself probably 30 bucks on spirits or beer or whatever it is that you're into.
00:25:15
Speaker
Obviously at a price. But the name Mad Dog is widely used in Scotland, especially in Scotland, even though it is not really an official thing from the company, but everybody in Scotland apparently calls this mid the Mad Dog. You're going get some Mad Dog tonight kind of deal. Okay.
00:25:35
Speaker
um Again, they're also leaning on very much heavier dessert sort of dessert flavors and all of that stuff. Definitely. so Now they're part of a larger parent company, which is called The Wine Group.
00:25:50
Speaker
And The Wine Group is a bunch of different names under there for things like table wines and kind of prepackaged ready-to-go wines as well.
00:26:02
Speaker
But they really didn't hit their market until like about 1970, mid-70s. And here they are today still at every gas station, just about everywhere. ah Making people kind of convulse in their stomachs. Regret decisions.
00:26:20
Speaker
No regerts is what we say.
00:26:25
Speaker
uh yeah man how's your first pairing well what's the abv on that bad boy ah 15 15 okay so not the classic 20 still that's that's a lot for that little can it's um man golden monkey rules man ah i had forgotten how good this beer was it's been probably five to ten years since i've had one man it's solid it's
00:26:53
Speaker
Starts off exceptionally malty. Like, very sweet and almost cloying, which is kind of a Belgian triple thing. Like, Belgian triples aren't generally dry.
00:27:07
Speaker
They're generally pretty sugar-forward, sweet. They're very coating on the palate. Full palate coat, I think. And then you get that estuary funk that, like...
00:27:22
Speaker
don't know, spices kind of that I can't quite identify, like orange peel and... ah Man, there's something else that I can't figure You're thinking of cardamom and ripe bananas.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yes, ripe bananas. That's the one that I was trying to figure out. um And then shockingly, the finish on this is like very bitter and hoppy. um i don't know what the IBU on this is, but I would guess it's in like the...
00:27:52
Speaker
I don't know, 30s maybe, which is pretty high for a Belgian. I wonder. i mean let me look it up while you keep talking. um I'm very curious. And man, it's working great with that sweetness of the cigar. The cigar is... um It's maintained that like very de deserty sweetness, um but the spice has been like ramping up for me.
00:28:15
Speaker
You've been getting more black pepper, more same baking spice, and Kind of more more of that cedar-y woodiness that you were talking about earlier.
00:28:26
Speaker
Earth has started to work its way in a little bit of coffee. um There's a lot going on in this cigar. It is incredibly sweet. oying it But it is like shockingly sweet. When we reveal what cigar this is... but but it's going to make some sense why we're so shocked that it's sweet because I've never had other cigars from this place.
00:28:48
Speaker
It's the decadent. Yeah. i think Dude, it is decadent. It is the caramel sauce on top of a pie decadent, but at the same time, it has so much more depth to it beyond the sweetness, which is what kind of brings it back and makes it really cool.
00:29:03
Speaker
Now, Golden Monkey, 25 IBU. Okay. That seems about right. But I think it's it's not nothing. it's it's It's a reasonable amount for what it is. It's got some bitterness that sticks to your tongue a little bit um that, i don't know, kind of sets it apart from what you expect from a Belgian.
00:29:23
Speaker
Man, I forgot how good this beer is. This is going to be my go-to next time I need a beer at a gas station or I'm at sporting event or concert.
00:29:34
Speaker
Because it's, like I said, crazy widely available. tell you what, my first pairing is definitely not going to be on my list of things to get again.
00:29:45
Speaker
oh Oh, God. And I remember drinking the Mad Dog, the the green stuff in the little hip flasks. Oh, yeah. Down in Coney Island. Back when you can walk in, if you walked into the right business and if you spoke the right language, Polish or Russian, some other Slavic language, they generally kind if you didn't cause any trouble, they generally brushed it off. It's yeah, whatever.
00:30:06
Speaker
Sometimes you'd have to pay an extra fiver, cash, but some of them old days used to be around Coney Island, but Brighton Beach.
00:30:17
Speaker
turn it even I'm terrified for my next pairing. And you know, also thinking, talking about what what you mentioned earlier about your pairings, where you've kind of tiered it from kind of really bad to mid-range and then something better.
00:30:30
Speaker
i suspect I likely could fit mine into that as well. um Now that I've given a little bit more thought. I think I've gone from the worst and I'm going to slowly increase to something better.
00:30:44
Speaker
And I'm going in the opposite direction. I'm getting worse. you're going in the opposite direction. um um Yeah. All right. And with that, i'll go I'll bring it to the next one. So this one, ah you will recognize at least part of this. I don't know if you've had this variant. Oh, hell yeah. I've i've had. Wait, hold on. Which one is that? This is Fruit Force.
00:31:01
Speaker
Which one? Fruit Punch IPA. Yes, okay. i So I've had every single force that they've released. That's a lot of force. Dude, I have ah hunted these down for so long over the last year. I've had every force.
00:31:15
Speaker
I love them so much. they Another great gas station pick. um So New Belgium was founded as a Belgian-inspired brewery in 1988, Fort Collins, Colorado.
00:31:26
Speaker
But they really didn't start brewing until 1991 when they first released Fat Tire Amber Ale. Shout out to Fat Tire Amber Ale. Rest in peace.
00:31:36
Speaker
For 30 years, Fat Tire was their black their flagship beer, but was overtaken after they released the first Voodoo Ranger IPA in 2017. um In 2023, they relaunched Fat Tire as a lighter, crisper ale. I haven't tried it since then, so I don't know if it's any good.
00:31:57
Speaker
um But I hate that it's no longer the amber ale that I loved. It was like... Fat Tire was the first craft beer that I was like, hell yeah, this is my jam.
00:32:08
Speaker
And now, it is no more. So in 2024... Or 2022, rather... um they added the juice force or the, the force,
00:32:21
Speaker
line of voodoo ranger extensions um which have become a beast of their own like oh yeah the the voodoo ranger i feel like i rarely see regular voodoo ranger anymore i know it still exists um but it's all the fruit force the juice force the night force the day force the sad force the happy force whatever force they've got this week no um Yeah,
Voodoo Ranger and Buzz Ball Discussion
00:32:46
Speaker
agreed. It's amazing.
00:32:48
Speaker
but So I am drinking, or I'm going to be drinking, I haven't taken a sip yet, Fruit Force Fruit Punch IPA. Now that may make it sound like it's all fruit punched up, um but it's not.
00:32:59
Speaker
part of Part of the goal with this series is to give people the experience of what different hops can like how different different hops can really influence the flavor of a beer.
00:33:11
Speaker
So in this one, I'll start off with the malt, which is pale hell malt, malted oats, and white wheat. The hops are Pato, Amarillo, Centennial, Galaxy, Sabro, Lotus, and Strata.
00:33:25
Speaker
That's a lot of hops. This only clocks in at 30 IBUs, but it is 9.5% ABV, just like my first pairing. So I'm going to take a couple sips of New Belgium's Voodoo Ranger Fruit Force.
00:33:39
Speaker
See how fruit punchy it really is. Because I haven't had this one. but youve So this is the first try, yeah? You've never had This is the first try. Oh my god. What's the nose? Talk to us. The nose is red Gatorade.
00:33:52
Speaker
No shit. What? I don't remember it. See, I've never poured it in a glass. I've always had it just from the can because I like them so much. I go, fuck it, I'm going to drink it from the can. Hold on.
00:34:06
Speaker
I'm having a hard time believing that this is... What else is in this? yeah What else they put in there? yeah It does say Imperial India Pale Ale with natural flavor. Ah, you see the natural flavor they can put in a ton of stuff.
00:34:20
Speaker
But if it is... um I'm trying to think of what the law is in the U.S. with those things. It is... They they cannot...
00:34:33
Speaker
I think you're safe on the natural flavor. I don't think any of that has an impact on, well, it might. An impact on what?
00:34:44
Speaker
So like, for example, if you use an extractive, like a fruit-based extractive, like you use the essence of strawberry or something, right? You would have to list that specifically as that thing. Oh, that's true. If if it was extracted from that thing,
00:34:57
Speaker
If it is, if they added, let's say, grape juice or apple juice, and it's under a certain percentage, they don't have to list it as that thing itself. They can list it as natural flavor, but it may have some negligible amount of a particular compound from a fruit or, you know, so something kind of bring up the flavor. Now, that would also mean... i guarantee you this has, like, fruit punch flavor in it.
00:35:24
Speaker
Like, whatever they flavor red Gatorade with is in this.
00:35:29
Speaker
I honestly don't remember it being that intense. It's been a while. It's pretty fucking intense. I'll tell you that. I'll tell you what. So it's good. so it's getting It's getting better for you, actually.
00:35:42
Speaker
um I mean, it's it's not awful, but it is kind of shocking. It ain't no Golden Monkey. Yeah, exactly. Golden Monkey is just like a legit fantastic beer.
00:35:53
Speaker
If I had to pick between the two, I wouldn't pick Golden Monkey. Personally. i i I don't do triples. It's a thing. Belgian triples, not my thing. You know me, I'm Flemish all the way. The sour funk, I go in the opposite direction, kind of the adjacent direction.
00:36:09
Speaker
It's the kind of like the weird uncle of a Belgian triple. It's it's what I like to drink. The Flemish ales.
00:36:18
Speaker
Man, this is weird. All right, talk about your next pairing, because I got to ruminate on this a little bit. Hmm. All right, let me see. Oh, God, it's fucking awful.
00:36:30
Speaker
It is awful. I really don't like this. I can't wait to hear about it. Let me talk to y'all about this product that has taken the market by storm.
00:36:41
Speaker
Coming out of Texas. I actually don't know where in Texas. um Sorry. The Dallas area. Or Carrollton. Those of you Texans that know probably have an opinion about that area. I tell you what.
00:36:53
Speaker
From what I've heard about this area, it makes sense why this thing came from that town. Or sorry, that region. oh Oh my. What I'm drinking tonight is a Buzz Ball or Buzz Balls.
00:37:06
Speaker
Have you heard of this brand at all? Have you seen these everywhere? Every liquor store, every gas station. I have definitely seen them all over the place. Dude. Sam's second pairing is a buzz ball espresso martini.
00:37:19
Speaker
Oh, buzz ball. That's amazing. You're buzz balling together, boys. Oh, Sam. All right, man. We're connecting on on deeper ways we never planned. What I have tonight is this passion fruit martini of this lovely, again, packaging.
00:37:36
Speaker
Drink aside, the packaging, fantastic, man. were like Really cool packaging. I like it. It's fun. I think it, remember when we had, when we were kids, we had those barrels, the little juice, the- Oh, hell yeah. They're not juice, but like those colored barrels with the foil top. um Something jugs.
00:37:53
Speaker
Hugs? Were they hugs, huggies? Hugs. Hugs, something like that. Yeah, right. ah it it you don't For me as an adult, I hold this thing and it it fits in the hand really well. It's genius marketing. It's just the right size. It's 15% alcohol.
00:38:08
Speaker
You know they Yeah, so they make leader fifty d they make a liter and a half now too. Yeah. crazy yeah so So those are called biggies.
00:38:20
Speaker
but And this company launched in 2009. It was founded by a lovely lady named Marilee Kick. And she had this idea from her master's thesis.
00:38:34
Speaker
where she was kind of like, I think it was a master's thesis or like ah it was a teaching project that she was working on. She's a high school teacher in in Texas. She was at the time. i Probably now she's retired and living in Thailand, I'm sure.
00:38:47
Speaker
So it was in it inspired kind of this idea of having something to drink that that's safe to be around a pool, plastic container, but sort of easy to throw in a cooler.
00:38:57
Speaker
Not a can necessarily because you know, when you we have a bunch of cans you have a lot of ice and things get really cold and you end up popping a couple of cans or it it just kind of unwieldy. You can't fit as much of cans as you can as these little balls.
00:39:12
Speaker
And because they are higher alcohol, you don't need as many of them necessarily. Now, if you've gone to a summer party, Some people don't know the difference and will keep slamming these things, but they are 15%. Wow.
00:39:25
Speaker
ah um I think they fluctuate as well. I think 15 is one of their offerings. I think they have a lower alcohol offering as well, but I don't remember offhand what it was. ah Now, fast forward, 2024, BuzzBalls announced that they were being acquired, and they got got into an agreement with Sazerac.
00:39:46
Speaker
Now, Sazerac owns BuzzBalls. Which is crazy because Sazerac also owns Fireball and Buffalo Trace. Wow. So really, Buzz Ball is kind of, you know, in that sense, they're doing their ready-to-drink cocktail portfolio. that' They're expanding that section of it. That does make sense because I have seen that there is a Fireball version of Buzz Balls.
00:40:10
Speaker
It just now you. Yeah, it yeah, yeah. a Fireball-flavored one. That makes sense. I have this one tonight, but I bought a second one. I almost did it on the show, but I was a little nervous, so I didn't. But i it was a... Remember the movie Elf? Of course.
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah, so this one was like a milky maple cookie something thing, but I figured i'd I really didn't feel like shitting myself on live stream. so As someone who very, very rarely eats dessert,
00:40:44
Speaker
That sounds awful to me. I just don't like sweet, man. Like, overly sweet, and I am fucking out. Same. Oh, same same for me. I completely avoid all the sweet stuff. Minus Alton Brown's aged eggnog. That is a thing that i love. I put my own spin on it. and You know, I've done four different years I've done versions of that.
00:41:11
Speaker
And every year around Halloween, I'm reminded somehow, this time it's because of you, ah that Halloween is the time to make it. You make it on Halloween or right before. Oh, yeah. And then it's ready around Christmas. You have that eggy liquid sitting in your fridge for three months, and it's perfect. um Full of brandy and cognac and all these lovely things. Yeah, so in in the recipe, it's brandy, cognac, rum, whiskey.
00:41:43
Speaker
Or brandy rum whiskey, I guess.
Eggnog Recipes and BuzzBall's Market Strategy
00:41:46
Speaker
You can play with like what whiskeys you put in, what brandies you put in. That's where brows go yeah I I did a version one year um where I did a you know just classic with brandy.
00:42:00
Speaker
can't remember what the rum was. It was probably Gosling or it might have been i don't know. Another blackstrap style rum. um And I did Buffalo Trace.
00:42:13
Speaker
Because Buffalo Trace is like a classic bourbon. Then I did one with rye. Then I did one with Laphroaig. Oh, damn. That shit killed.
00:42:24
Speaker
That was the greatest eggnog I've ever had. Oh, yeah. The Laphroaig was number one? Oh, my God. It was incredible. Okay. So I haven't made mine yet. So I'm going to do Laphroaig this year, and I will report back. Do Laphroaig for a minimum of one of your bottles.
00:42:40
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, I'm going to do that. And so what I stick to is Jamaican estate rum, generally. I do Jamaican estate rum. There's a particular brandy that I really like, which is a... Oh, I forget what country it's from. But it's it's something that kind of in the Soviet culture is is really popular for a brandy.
00:42:58
Speaker
And, you know, cognac is cognac. It depends. it ah Again, at that point, it's personal preference. um, Kvasi for me is is, is kind of the thing that I go to.
00:43:09
Speaker
I don't like Remy Martin. I'm not a big fan of Hennessy necessarily, but yeah, yeah, that's cool. I'm going to try this. Man, LaFroig made a killer, killer eggnog.
00:43:21
Speaker
That sounds exciting. And I I've since transitioned into like on the years. Cause usually i kind of make, I, I make my own eggnog like once every three ish year.
00:43:33
Speaker
Because, as you know, it is a shitload of work. absolutely. And then you have to deal with your wife being frustrated by somewhere between one and six, ah you know, milk jug or bottles.
00:43:48
Speaker
I use glass, like those old-style milk bottles, you know? Oh, yeah. um Same. I have to deal with her being frustrated that like I have between two and six milk bottles filling up areas of the fridge for three and a half months.
00:44:05
Speaker
um at One year, I left a bottle for an entire year. Oh, I remember this year. I made it in October. Yeah, yeah, yeah, remember this. I drank three bottles and I left the fourth bottle in the fridge for a whole year.
00:44:21
Speaker
It was still delicious. ah a year later. It was crazy smooth. It was really nice. I think we did a test where he measured this. guy and At least for me, I remember, i think six months was my my perfect time.
00:44:35
Speaker
That makes sense. Three to six. The problem is remembering to make egg dong in July is difficult.
00:44:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's true. Because you want to have it on Christmas, You do. Anyway, sorry. I got us way off base. Hoop says, you drink eggnog? Yes, I do. It doesn't taste like eggs, so it gets a pass from me.
00:45:02
Speaker
Anything that doesn't start tasting like farts is okay in my book. And doesn't have the texture of eggs. Egg has a terrible texture and a terrible flavor.
00:45:14
Speaker
No, kimchi is delicious. Spicy farts. It tastes like a different kind of fart. Ah, yeah, the different kind of fart. That's okay. when stiff egg Egg farts is what I'm talking about I see what you mean. I get it. Okay.
00:45:26
Speaker
um Yeah, and Coop would appreciate the fact that I have a officially licensed moose mug for my Christmas season when I do my eggnog.
00:45:40
Speaker
And I have my sweater, and I essentially am Cousin Eddie. I figured out in life, I think I'm Cousin Eddie. I've always wanted to be Chevy Chase. It's not me. I think I'm just Cousin Eddie.
00:45:52
Speaker
And that's okay. I've learned to that. respectable. And I enjoy sitting there on the couch watching this movie with my moose mug that my my lovely wife got for me. And I love this thing. I'm so proud of it.
00:46:04
Speaker
I'm so disgustingly proud of it that I just bask in my own filth. Is it like for the glass or the acrylic version? It's the glass one. so I have the acrylic one. And my wife spilled, I don't know, some kind of acrylic stuff that you use for nails all over it. So it has like half of it is cloudy.
00:46:22
Speaker
Oh, okay. I thought were going to say you have like a slasher version with splashes of red. That would be great, but no. would be fun. Anyway, I got us way off track. yeah Let me close out this buzzball thing so we can move on.
00:46:36
Speaker
Alrighty. So, I mentioned Sazerac, which is a big deal because Sazerac is still, to this day, an incredibly serious company that is really focused on doing a lot of cool things in the market. And you may not agree with necessarily the buzz ball thing, the fireball thing, but it sells.
00:46:54
Speaker
People buy this stuff. And remember, they can still make great spirits that are in different portfolios that are not exactly the same type. And that's kind of the nature of the business when you talk about this kind of thing. So we talk about, oh, the name is skipping my head, Tripp.
00:47:15
Speaker
help me Help me figure it out. i don't have enough context. Diageo. That's what it is. Diageo. Diageo owns so many things, and you may not like everything from them, but you appreciate the fact that you have access to the things that you like, and Diageo makes that happen with the distribution, with the production, with the support for stabilizing businesses that otherwise would have failed. They would have hit a peak, would have reached this demand that they can't produce for, and would have fallen apart, and we've never seen them again. So...
00:47:43
Speaker
To that degree, I think I give him a lot of credit, both Diageo and obviously Sazerac for pulling in buzz balls. I've never had a buzz ball before. This is my first time. It's not bad. it I think it's... Is there anything about that that reminds you of a martini?
00:48:03
Speaker
A classic martini or a fruited martini? In my opinion, there's only one, the classic. I will tell you this. i'm very I'm very perturbed by the use of martini these days on drink. Yeah, I think it's ah it's a buzzword. No pun intended because we're drinking buzzballs, but it's a buzzword now. I think personally for me, if I were to go into a ba bar or restaurant and order a fruited martini, like passion fruit martini, right which is what this is supposed to be,
00:48:30
Speaker
If I ordered it and received it, I would immediately know if they poured it from this thing, from this buzz ball thing, or if they made it fresh. I would know the difference. But that's just me and and probably you and probably a couple of other people. But the vast majority of people, I think, honestly, i could pour this in a glass and I can share it with 100 people.
00:48:52
Speaker
And probably 90 of those people would say, man, that's a good martini. You made that fresh. Okay. so So it's not bad for what it is. Yeah. You know what? And for what it is, I think you also have to understand the market.
00:49:06
Speaker
You have to understand who's drinking your stuff. And these guys are making crazy IPAs with crazy hops and all of these like really new exotic experimental hybrid hops.
00:49:17
Speaker
And they're making these beers that are $30 for a four pack. Yep. The people that are buying that stuff are the people that want that. You know, it's it's not you your casual person goes, that sounds fun. Let me go spend all this money on this thing I've never had before and known nothing about.
00:49:33
Speaker
um So, listen, they're they're pandering to their demographic, which is great for them. They're making money, which is, I think, more than we can say for a lot of ourselves in terms of coming up with an idea like this.
00:49:45
Speaker
Kudos to this high school teacher. And the only other thing going to leave you with is these were meant to be kind of evocative of snow globes. ah Nice. Which makes a little more fun.
00:49:59
Speaker
But again, same packaging on the top. A little canned pop. Yeah. um Japan has is has been pushing their stuff on us for so long. My Fruit Force, Voodoo Ranger Fruit Force from New Belgium. How's that going with the cigar? I'm very curious.
00:50:16
Speaker
Awful. Yeah. It doesn't go well with the cigar. I don't think this is a very good beer. ah It tastes like...
00:50:27
Speaker
i ah You know where I'm going with this, huh? Yeah, I know. It tastes like yeah people you if I was drinking a delicious Voodoo Ranger... What's the what's the good one?
00:50:43
Speaker
Like the main... They're all good. I like all of them. I think it's Juice Force. It's Juice Force, yeah. Just their hazy IPA. I feel like this is like, I'm drinking a can of hazy IPA, or of Juice Force hazy IPA.
00:50:57
Speaker
I take a big sip, and right as I bring the can down, you spit a mouthful of red Gatorade in my face. That's what this tastes like.
00:51:08
Speaker
Oh, my. Salty. Kind of thick, but not really. Okay. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. But a lot of like that artificial cherry, like artificial fruit punch kind of flavor. That's exactly what this tastes like. it's It's not like, it's not so bad that I'll, i if you handed me one, i would be like, oh that's disgusting.
00:51:37
Speaker
But it's off-putting. And it's surprising. I was expecting an IPA. Oh my god, I just burped and it tasted like red Gatorade. The Fruit Punch? You know, sometimes I kind of like that though. I i like the... The novelty?
00:51:53
Speaker
it's the Yeah, it I wouldn't say it's the novelty. i was going to be a little bit more crass about it and say kind of basking in your own filth.
00:52:00
Speaker
some You know, sometimes we like to do that and whatever that means for you, that's fine. Sometimes basking your own filth means you're gonna sit there and you're gonna get that tub of nacho cheese or squeezy cheese and put it on your on your bread and just make a squeezy cheese sandwich and eat that in the dark in your underwear and feel good because it reminds you of something.
00:52:21
Speaker
I feel attacked right now. Dude, i love i love squeezy cheese, so it's it's crazy because I can go to the store and i can I can sit with a cheesemonger and chat about production and different cheeses and profiles and things because really love cheese and I'm really big into cheese. But at the end of the day,
00:52:39
Speaker
You know, when I'm not being Mr. Cheese Man, I'm sitting down like, I want that can. man I wanna to want to hit that can from like a goofy movie. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The Leaning Tower of Cheese. I'm right there with you. Dude, I'm the same way. Like, I geek out about cheese. Like, I love fancy cheese and give me the funkiest blue cheese you got and I'm all over it.
00:52:59
Speaker
And, ah but also, if you put infinitely processed cheese in a can, I'm down. I'll go for it. Yeah, it's wonderful. It's not even cheese anymore. spackle at that point, but it's great. Exactly, but I'll still eat it.
00:53:15
Speaker
I love it. Cheese whiz? Hell yeah, I'm in. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, how's how's the buzz ball going with this? You know what? I think it's going better.
00:53:26
Speaker
It's going significantly better than my first pairing. um But also at the same time, I've consumed, so I drank half of the first one. more a little less A little less than a half. but And about half of the second one. And they're both 15%.
00:53:42
Speaker
And it's not like drinking a 15% wine. It's like drinking swill from under a sink that's 15%. It makes sense, right? yes It hits you fast. And hard.
00:53:54
Speaker
It's like drinking out of a bar mat, right? Yeah, it's kind of like that. like it's It's one of those things where like I want to get into a fight with a jock.
00:54:05
Speaker
Like that ah that that guy in a Double Down.
00:54:11
Speaker
What? you remember that guy at the Double Down? Yeah, that that yeah wanted to fight me. like He was very interested to fight me, and I was just like, nah, it's cool, dude.
00:54:21
Speaker
um'm ah I'm okay. That was what? It was like 2 o'clock in the morning. 3 o'clock the morning? Yeah. was fucking ah um And I, you know, Tripp, I always have your back. You know this. Of course. Anytime we're around. But at the same time, I can tell you. That wanted to fight me over politics, though, which I wasn't even involved Not even politics. He wanted to fight you. He wanted to fight you about the brand of t-shirt. the Not even the brand. it was something on a t-shirt you were wearing. the Yeah, exactly. nice shirt. Fuck it.
00:54:49
Speaker
But I will say, i can be honest with and say now, a couple of years later, that entire time I was just chilling, was just like, man, it's going to be interesting.
00:55:01
Speaker
I want to see where this goes. Yeah, I wasn't going to fight that Jason Momoa-ass looking motherfucker, dude. You know what? It's funny you say that because that's what I thought as well. ah In my mind, he's just Jason Momoa, dude.
00:55:14
Speaker
Like a T-Mu version. Mm-hmm. yeah Yeah, that's funny. All right, let's move on to our last pairing. What do you have for your last pairing? I have one that I'm not excited about. This is one This better suck. Walking to the car, I was like, man, I should have grabbed something else.
MXD Long Island Iced Tea and TouCan Cocktails
00:55:32
Speaker
um So this is produced... I'm going to talk about the very slim details I have before I reveal it.
00:55:40
Speaker
This is produced by Mark Anthony Brewery. whose parent company started out buying wineries called Mark Anthony Company or something like that. um Singer or the guy that made love to Cleopatra? Which one?
00:55:53
Speaker
Neither. Just a guy. Anthony or Anthony? Anthony. um and But his name, man, I should have noted the dude's name. he He's a Canadian that started this company to buy wineries and has become a in Billion, billion, billionaire Probably the one of the richest people in Canada at this point Because he started off buying wineries And eventually Owned the company that created Mike's Hard Lemonade Oh wow Made a whole bunch of money cool And then later they created White Claw Damn So they This guy's rolling in money um But what I am drinking is from MXD
00:56:40
Speaker
MXD drinks company. Holy shit. I almost bought that today. Long Island iced tea. this was the i the The can spoke to me and this was the best sounding flavor out of like Bahama Mama and Sex on the Beach or whatever else they had.
00:56:56
Speaker
ah And you can tell it's it's wildly good because it says so on the can. um This is a Long Island iced tea flavored malt beverage.
00:57:09
Speaker
ah flavored to taste like a mix of cola, gin, rum, and triple sec. And it says it is premium malt beverage with natural flavors and certified colors.
00:57:22
Speaker
So this should taste like... Okay, what is there certified? little bit of gin, little bit of rum, little bit of triple sec. God, that looks so much worse we put it in like a glass. I know. i immediately, as soon as I started pouring this, I was like...
00:57:36
Speaker
I would pour this back into the can if I thought that would not end up with me covered in whatever this stuff is. Looks so bad. Man, i'm I'm not excited. As you saw, this is 12% ABV.
00:57:51
Speaker
um i think this is going to be awful. But maybe I'll be surprised, and it'll be great, and it'll be great pairing with the Mystery Cigar. um Before you get into your third pairing, Sam's last pairing is 903 Sasquatch.
00:58:07
Speaker
He says it's in some of the local gas stations here in Sherman, Texas. 903 Sasquatch? Why does this sound familiar? 903 Brewing, I think they're called. Sasquatch is their... That's super familiar. and I may have seen it. It's like a brown ale. I've definitely had it. We talked about it a couple months ago when Sam mentioned it.
00:58:28
Speaker
What do you have up next while I suffer through a couple sips of this Long Island iced tea? You know, my my last one is an interactive experience. ah were we Since we're here, we're going to do it together. That didn't sound good, Tripp. Are you okay?
00:58:44
Speaker
It tastes like a slice of key lime pie and in Diet Coke.
00:58:52
Speaker
I'm not even kidding. That's exactly what it tastes like.
00:58:58
Speaker
Man, that's like the carpet if you spill Coca-Cola on carpet. and you go I'm not just going to lap it up real quick. It's fine. As a child, you know. The kids do the things like that. It sounds like that. Jesus Christ, dude. um I want to get into the packaging of mine because it's kind of it's really cool. and I suspect this is be the better pairing of... I don't know what's going on all with this, but i think it's going to better pairing.
00:59:24
Speaker
Packaging-wise, very impressive. I'm wildly impressed with this packaging. I think it's really cool. This is toucan cocktails, and I think, Tripp, you've seen a lot of this around.
00:59:37
Speaker
Oh, can I have not seen this. So this is toucan the bird, but it's it's a play on toucans because it's toucans attached together with this this plastic here that i'm I'm peeling off to detach the two, which is snazzy.
00:59:54
Speaker
I mean, it's a a bit of extra packaging, it's kind of interactive in that you buy something and then you have to put it together. You have to do something with it. It's kind of fun. um And again, going to the concept of when we talk about cocktails, pre-mixed cocktails in a can, cool. That's fun, right? Pour it over glass, add your garnishes, whatever, fine.
01:00:15
Speaker
But I think giving the consumer an opportunity to to pour it for themselves, to mix it for themselves, really. is is kind of cool. you get to You get to do something.
01:00:30
Speaker
um So it's it's, again, it's that child spirit that childhood spirit that we all loved doing we're and you know back back in the day when we were kids. We loved mixing things together and making our own concoctions. Making creepy crawlers.
01:00:43
Speaker
Making creepy crawlers, right? ah doing fun stuff. So good on them for kind of figuring out how to make this work. 903 Sasquatch is a milk stout.
01:00:56
Speaker
That sounds familiar. Oh, is it? Okay, that's cool. That sounds good, actually. So I've got this can and that's half filled. And I've got this. So it's only half full.
01:01:07
Speaker
It's only half full. So the way this works is that I'm going open this can and I'm going to flip this in there and to shake it. This is the shaker. let's go. This is the cool part. All right, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let's pause for a second.
01:01:22
Speaker
I noticed the little can says bourbon. Is that actual bourbon or is that bourbon-flavored malt beverage? This is a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey at 51%. fifty one percent Wow. Okay. Okay.
01:01:37
Speaker
So now, now, uh, so it is 102 proof. It's small batch, of American Oak handmade product. They don't say where this is coming from, but that's fine. Cause it's probably, you know, some MGP thing. Yeah. You assume it's MGP, which is fine. No, it's, it's no big deal. Now, let me, before I pour this I'm going to give you a little background. so you understand what this is all about. This is a relatively new company.
01:01:59
Speaker
They were founded in 2020, by two SMU Cox School of Business alumni. It was John Dallinger, who's the president, and Stephen McCarthy, who's the VP of operations. They got together and said, hey, let's make some bar quality stuff that's available in a you know kind of a convenient format. 2020 was the year for these kinds of things. It sure was. We saw a lot you know during covid we saw a lot of bars doing batched cocktails where you go into the but you can order pre-order online, go in, pick up your cocktails, take them home. i mean they would be Where i was, you could get a cocktail delivered to your house. It would come in like you know those those plastic soup containers.
01:02:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. ah they would They would bring you two or three cocktails in one of those for $30 or whatever.
01:02:49
Speaker
That was the time for it. And I think, to their credit, I think they really considered, well what would happen when life would go back to sort of normal and people were going back to bars and people going back to hanging out, sitting by the pool with friends?
01:03:01
Speaker
um How would they... How can you capitalize on that going back from what we experienced where we had those those really cool cocktails? I remember ordering cocktails that were in these... It would be four cocktails in one bag and then vacuum sealed or... you not vacuum sealed, but um press sealed at the top.
01:03:21
Speaker
he he Heat sealed. Yeah, like a heat perhe press seal. And I remember those and they were really good. And it was a cool thing because so many people were doing it. You could...
01:03:32
Speaker
You could be like, hey, i haveve yeah my friends are going to come over. my Someone else going to come over and hang out. And um you could order from a couple of different bars in in your neighborhood and then have it delivered and experience sort of a flavor from different places, which was really fun.
01:03:47
Speaker
Now, these cats, they stand out because this is a patented, they've patented this can lid, this plastic piece that goes over the top. This is a patent that they own, well it's patent pending, but they've submitted it for review, right?
01:04:03
Speaker
So what it does is it acts as a holder during you know the packaging, there's plastic seal over around. But this, when I open this, what happens is this little can is going to press into and lock in that that that ring.
01:04:19
Speaker
creating a seal between the two cans, allowing you to go over your shoulder and do like a proper cocktail mix. Do the do the Tom Cruise and cocktail thing. yeah Yes. Now, i think, all right personally, I like my old fashions shaken.
01:04:35
Speaker
Stirred, rather, not shaken.
01:04:38
Speaker
I like them stirred. I don't like them shaken, but that's fine. No big deal. Give them a pass on this one. but we didn't pull a chance to like When in Rome, right? When in Rome, is how going to do Now, the company itself built this massive 9,500 square foot facility in Farmer's Branch, which is which is in Texas in the Dallas area, for the production of all this stuff.
01:05:02
Speaker
And they have a really cool lineup. They have a lemon drop, they have a margarita, the old fashioned. um It actually includes, everything's built in, so it includes aged cherry, orange zest, French oak. It's got cherries in there?
01:05:17
Speaker
not So not cherries, but it has, it's rested on aged cherries. Okay, yeah, gotcha, gotcha. um Aromatic bitters, because know clumps, it's hard with solids. Yeah, I was thinking like, putting the garnish in a can is crazy.
01:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's not always going to great. Now, French Oak Simple Syrup is the other thing. What I will say is I'm going to do this and going to pour it into a glass, but I'm not doing ice because I think the best way to experience this right now is just without ice.
01:05:50
Speaker
I don't want to dull my palate too much. And each can, ah should have mentioned this, each can is two full-size cocktails. So I think bang for your buck, if you put this in your in your backpack and you're going hiking, camping, whatever, c glamping, whatever it is that you people do, you can throw a can in this in your backpack and go, like, sit down somewhere in the woods and and have lunch and then have your, you know, your two cocktails ready to go. but And how much how much is one of those?
01:06:19
Speaker
um You know what? I don't recall what the MRA... I just looked it up. About 10 bucks. Ten bucks. Okay, yeah, that sounds about right. I don't think it was a lot. Not too shabby.
01:06:32
Speaker
If that's a decent cocktail, that's like that's the one to go with. And the glass, the last thing I'm going before I pour this, you can tell us about your last pairing, is this glass that I have is a very generic, basic glass strip. I think I sent you a picture this.
01:06:48
Speaker
Did I? I don't think so. This is a Nagori that I drank the other night at a restaurant. when Oh, maybe you did send me picture that. And I took the label off. i had a sticker on it with with some polar bears and stuff. it was cute. But it had that same sort of metal.
01:07:02
Speaker
You have to, like, really lean in and kind of rip this metal thing off the top. And then now you have your nigori for the evening for your meal. And so I thought the glass was nifty. I kept it, washed it, so I'm using this nifty little glass. It reminds me of I used to, when I was a kid, we had a bunch of, like, ah little glasses like that that originally held, like, jam or jelly.
01:07:26
Speaker
And then my dad would wash them out because they had that lid like that that. You know, it was just like the rim of a glass. All right. I'm going to talk about my MXD drinks company, Long Island Iced Tea.
01:07:40
Speaker
um What was the ABV on that? 12%. Okay. okay There is nothing about this that reminds me of a Long Island Iced Tea.
01:07:52
Speaker
Like I said before, it it literally tastes like key lime pie soda mixed with just a little bit of Diet Coke and mostly seltzer water or club soda or whatever. it um But it's like, it's weird because it's very lacking in sweetness.
01:08:12
Speaker
Other than that initial hit of like just straight up key lime pie flavor. Like I can almost guarantee that they put key lime pie artificial flavor in there. so um An interesting thing about it, though, is looking at the can, ah this is qualified as a flavored ale by the... ah Oh, that's wild. the Not most the liquor board. But flavored ale.
01:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, so this is this is top fermented, baby. um But it is an ale with natural flavors and certified colors. um Man, it's awful.
01:08:51
Speaker
um just terrible ruins the cigar almost most um i'm going back to the golden monkey and sticking with that for the rest of the show um i saw you shaking up your your little toucan there how'd go did it spill all over you how's the patent working it no dude this i love i love the interactive part of this this makes me so happy I love, it's like when you get a Lunchable and you have to make your little pizza, you have to make your own pizza. yeah You have control.
01:09:24
Speaker
You're getting this mass produced thing, but then you have a little bit of control with the final product of how you consume it. Some people like to just eat it you know one way or mix things together differently. i love, and it feels, I think it's a good tactile thing of oh like locking the cannon, it really locks in there.
01:09:42
Speaker
It's not going anywhere. You can release you could release it and shake it and it's great. um The other thing is it smells so good. It smells like... I meant to ask you earlier but just take a little nip off of that top can and see if it's really just bourbon. Oh, you did? yes Yeah, so the bourbon itself is is ah infused, if you will.
01:10:04
Speaker
That's the part that's been arrested on the aromatics. And I suspect everything else is is in the i mean the larger can. That does make sense because um alcohol is better at extracting flavors out of things like that. So it does make sense to just put the flavors in that side.
01:10:25
Speaker
oh Oh, sweet mama. it And it smells really good. It smells like, ah you know, for me, I'll do Manhattan. I'll do high rye from Iman Hattons.
01:10:37
Speaker
um Black walnut bitters and a Luxardo.
01:10:45
Speaker
This is good. it it's Yes, it's very sweet. So if you like classic old fashions that are are particularly candy sweet, then this is awesome. I think I definitely would do some justice and water down a little bit.
01:11:00
Speaker
But... All in all, this is a really high-quality product. I'm amazed this is a gas station thing that you just go and buy. I can't believe that. um As far as I know, only malt beverages are allowed to be sold here in gas stations, but I'm not actually positive about that, so I could be wrong.
01:11:22
Speaker
um But I may try this out at at Total Wine sometime because I see that they have them. Do they have? Okay. I was going to say i can bring some down. So this is a liquor store thing down here.
01:11:35
Speaker
okay not ah Not a gas station thing. um But ah apparently New York has some um different gas station laws. Yeah, the laws are wild. And it's not in know my case, it's a 7-Eleven. It's even a gas station, which is crazy. I mean, I've been to some states where you know you can you can buy a bottle of whiskey at a gas station. yeah Well, I mean, in Japan, you can buy lobster at a gas station.
01:11:59
Speaker
ah In Vermont, you can buy ammunition at your gas station. and liquor. We had a couple of those in Oregon. There was a... Man, I always love going to that place. There was a gas station on the way to the coast that was like a... It wasn't quite a like last gas station for 100 miles kind of thing, but it was like you go through 30 or 40 miles of forest, and then you get to this gas station, then you go through 30 or 40 more miles of forest.
01:12:25
Speaker
um So it was like, you know, if if you need gas, this is the only place you're going to stop for a couple hours. um And they had, it was a gas station. They had ah like a porno section in the back.
01:12:39
Speaker
yeah yeah And they sold guns. like And they had homemade beef jerky. And ah is it was a cool gas station. You could just, you could buy a Glock on your way to the Oregon coast.
01:12:53
Speaker
Dude, let me tell you, know we have Buc-ee's, right? The famous Buc-ee's. I've never been to Buc-ee's. I know the stories, I hear stories about Buc-ee's. You know what I think trumps? I will one day. But you know what trumps all of that stuff?
01:13:06
Speaker
Is the gas station that you and I went to in the Dominican Republic that Phil took us to. Oh, my God. That had the ceviche. It was a car wash. It was a gas station. It was a convenience store. It was a casino. And there was a strip club on site as well. And a full restaurant. And restaurant. And a full restaurant. And they ceviche, which was fantastic. The best ceviche I've ever had in my life. Fucking great.
01:13:27
Speaker
It was like a... So good. It was a a so a salad mixing bowl. Like, the bowl that you mix your salad in flipped upside down full of ceviche. Like, just a mountain of ceviche with chips.
01:13:42
Speaker
And, man, that place was incredible. Next time we go to Santiago, we gotta find that place. Hell yeah,
Cigar and Drink Pairing Surprises
01:13:48
Speaker
man. I'm down. Uh... Well, i'm I'm back on the golden monkey.
01:13:53
Speaker
um But it sounds like your're ah your final pairing went pretty well. so you We really did. I went best to worst. You went worst to best. It was unplanned, but it was perfect.
01:14:05
Speaker
It's funny how that worked out. Yeah. I'm so impressed that this stuff is available at at gas stations. All right. Should we do a little reveal of what cigar was? Okay. Well, hold on now.
01:14:18
Speaker
I think before we do, let's revisit the cigar real quick. And where are you at in terms of s smokeage? How far are you in? Right here.
01:14:29
Speaker
Right about the same. you're I'm a little ahead of you somehow. Yeah, I just dumped my ash. Yeah, I haven't smoked. been talking a lot. Now I know how it feels. You talk too much, your cigar goes out. Mm-hmm. um So tell us what, what's the, what's the profile like the sweetness and the intensity? Is it still continuing to get spicier or is it mellowing up? Oh, it's definitely getting spicier. The sweetness has finally started to look to like die down a little bit for me, but I'm still, I'm so shocked by the amount of sweetness in this cigar.
Opus X Green Reveal and Pricing
01:15:00
Speaker
Um, because I, I just wasn't expecting it. This is not the cigar I expected to light tonight. Um, You were not expecting to like this?
01:15:11
Speaker
No, it's not the cigar I was expecting to smoke. I said light. Oh, okay. like Oh, light. like Light. I heard light. With a fire. I got you. yes, yes. I got you. But like immediately, right off the bat, I was like, this is not the cigar I was expecting.
01:15:26
Speaker
Because I was expecting something a little more on the spicy side of in your face. And this has slowly gotten there. But it started off with like that crazy dessert sweetness that was a really nice change of pace. Because I don't know the last time I smoked a cigar that had that much sweetness to it.
01:15:49
Speaker
Man, i'm just I'm thrown by this cigar, man. It's a full shift for me. It's real good. It's a complete shift for me as well in that regard where the sweetness has...
01:16:03
Speaker
died down almost entirely, and it's just that full spice. And it's that, you know when you have a first light of a really intense cigar, very strong, heavy-bodied cigar, you have that throat quality to it where it kind of sits heavy in the throat?
01:16:19
Speaker
no That's what I'm getting now from the cigar. I definitely get a little bit of that. it's a For me, at this point, the cigar is more about the...
01:16:31
Speaker
There's the cedary kind of quality. And then there's a
01:16:41
Speaker
I'm trying to figure out what the flavor is that I'm thinking of that it reminds me of. Kind of like a raisiny, pruney kind of sweetness and kind of complexity to it. Dates. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
01:16:56
Speaker
um All right. Let's reveal what the cigar is. Mystery cigar.
01:17:04
Speaker
I wonder how many people are to shut off the show now. Is it a sweet tip or just sweet? Absolutely not a sweet tip. Definitely not. um I don't think they'd put a sweet tip on this cigar. I'm curious how many people are going to turn off the show now after they find out. Maybe.
01:17:18
Speaker
So the cigar we're smoking tonight is the Opus X Green 25th Anniversary. And the size we're smoking is the La Familia 25, which is the Perfecto.
01:17:32
Speaker
Yeah. Um,
01:17:35
Speaker
Somehow I don't have the size in my notes, but it's like a 6 and 5 eighths or so by 58 perfecto. I'm guessing. um MSRP on this, $58.
01:17:49
Speaker
fifty eight dollars Most retailers I've seen are charging between $75 and $100 per. um You can sometimes pay closer to the $58.
01:18:01
Speaker
but a lot of times you're going paying closer to the hundred. The reason for that is that the MSRP for these is $58, but, uh, due to the way, uh, purchasing cigars as a retailer works, um, the cost of the box is included, yeah is not included in that.
01:18:23
Speaker
Um, so you're, you're buying as a retailer, a box of 20 cigars for 58 bucks each. and paying $500 for that box. or Sorry, not paying, but expecting to sell. With your with your cost with your margin, you're expecting to sell them for $58 each and make $500 on the box.
01:18:43
Speaker
So a lot of retailers just roll that $500 into the rest of the cigars. Yeah, to make it easier. Which is pretty common thing. A lot of people don't know that. I'm glad you brought that up because I think even people that have been buying cigars for years and smoking for years don't necessarily understand what things look like from the retailer standpoint, how that works. And so hopefully that kind of quells a little bit of frustration. Some guys come in and go, what the hell? The cigar is so expensive.
01:19:11
Speaker
What's the deal? I can buy it online for whatever. Well, it's different at the retailer level versus the retailer has to pay for that box, man. Yeah. essentially there's no two ways about it it and it sucks shelf space yeah right you're pay you're paying for shelf space yeah at the same time you you are taking up a spot on your shelf you can put some other product on um so you also have to consider that yeah and i i have seen retailers that were selling these for the the msrp 58 a piece um and then what they do is if you buy one you get a ticket to win the humidor
01:19:49
Speaker
um Or in some cases they you know some cases, they just sell them for $58 each and say, all right, if you want that humidor, it's $500. It's nice humidor. It's pretty. Oh, man. It's it's pretty.
01:20:03
Speaker
um Each of these comes in a metal coffin, which is maybe the coolest coffin I've ever seen in cigars. Beating out... beat The all time Avo Synchro Nicaragua. I fucking love that coffin so much. This one is a flip top coffin and it's so cool.
01:20:23
Speaker
ah It has a little hook built into it. So you flip the top open and as you flip it, the cigar rises. It pulls it out. Yeah. It's so cool. super cool, man. It's, it's one of the coolest coffins I've ever seen in the cigar business.
01:20:37
Speaker
um Man. Uh, This is a great cigar, unsurprisingly. um it It does shock me. Like I said earlier, I don't expect that kind of sweetness from an Opus X. I expect the more... The classic, more classic. Yeah, that kind of classic Opus...
Fuente's Innovative Packaging and Future Projects
01:20:58
Speaker
Um, like, I mean, I said raisins near the, in the final third here. And like, that's kind of what I expect from Opus X. Um, is that more raisiny kind of profile where you've got that sweet, but it's really balanced with a lot of spice, a lot of, um,
01:21:16
Speaker
kind of spices in addition to the the black pepper spice um and just kind of other flavors. But the beginning of this was just like pure dessert sweet.
01:21:28
Speaker
um Yeah. yeah i come in I could see this cigar working crazy good as like after a big meal where you have like a creme brulee or a slice of pie or something like that.
01:21:43
Speaker
um I could see it working really well. Or even if you did, ah like we were talking about a little bit earlier, if you did like a cheese course as your dessert and then smoked this cigar, then this would feel like your dessert.
01:21:58
Speaker
um i'm I'm surprised by this cigar. I wasn't expecting it to go the way that it did. I was expecting to like it because, you know, You got to set your expectations when you're smoking a cigar like this. I think also, I want to i want to bring up the fact, listen, Fuente has been known for a really long time as this really classic...
01:22:20
Speaker
this old school brand that has this vibe, right? There's an air to them that's classically Fuente. Always, it always has been. And the fact that now we're seeing things like that coffin, which is them kind of understanding that the market is changing, things are changing, demographics are changing. They are pushing that limit and trying to do new things and they're doing really well. all right So I'm excited to see what what they're coming up with. Let's pause for a second. You weren't at PCA this year.
01:22:48
Speaker
i was not. um You will be next year. Fuente this year at PCA, their booth was crazier than usual because, well, first of all, they were actually telling us information about new releases, ah which is wild.
01:23:03
Speaker
I get it. Yeah. But they had a couple new projects that are like so out of left field kind of for Fuente, which... The two that I can remember off the top of my head are Sangre de Toro, which is the new Don Carlos.
01:23:20
Speaker
um Don Carlos i'm excited for that forever has been only Cameroon rapper. And this is a Don Carlos with a Mexican André rapper.
01:23:31
Speaker
um they just i've I've seen them. They've just launched this week. They're arriving in stores. If you can get your hands on a Sangre de Toro, do it. um I haven't been able to get my hands on one, and I don't know if I will.
01:23:44
Speaker
um But I'm very curious about that cigar. The other one that looks crazy, man, I wish I could remember better which cigar it was. I think it was a Don Carlos.
01:23:57
Speaker
um But basically, it was a project. I can't even remember the name of it off the top of my head, but it was like, it was crazy to see it and see.
01:24:08
Speaker
and hear about what the project is. I believe it's a Don Carlos. Someone hopefully will correct me if I'm wrong, um, that they made them. They let them sit for a year.
01:24:20
Speaker
And then after aging, they slapped a Corojo rapper on there. Oh, damn. and And so they're like, they're getting weird with it, man, which is awesome. Um,
01:24:32
Speaker
There's still the Blackpink, and you know they they have all these sorts of crazy things. But those two, to me, the Sangre de Toro and the... ah and i i swear it was a Don Carlos, but I might be wrong.
01:24:45
Speaker
They had the Corojo rapper on top of the regular rapper. um Those were the two things that were like, that is not... Oh, thank you, Coop. The Don Carlos 90 años.
01:24:56
Speaker
um Wow. Those were the two things that, to me, were like, this is so not Fuente. to do these two things. um And, you know, here they are doing it.
01:25:08
Speaker
So, good on Fuente for make for like starting to get weird with it these days. I like it. um And this this cigar is great, but it's just so not what I expected, which is why.
01:25:23
Speaker
Yeah, man, i'm i'm I'm excited to see what's coming from them, and I'm happy that they are actually
PCA Event Predictions and Music Recommendations
01:25:30
Speaker
keeping their ears to the ground and paying attention to where the you know the the consumers are, how the demographics are changing, the the palettes of their longstanding fans that you know some people would love to smoke the same. you know Maybe it's a double Chateau or something else. They'd love to smoke it for the rest of their lives. That's great.
01:25:49
Speaker
But when those people that have been smoking that one Fuente cigar their entire lives go, man, I'm really excited for this release. You know they've done a great job. Yeah. Fuente does a great job, dude.
01:26:02
Speaker
What do you think? PCA 26 projection. um Padron's going to have a DJ. Mm-hmm.
01:26:17
Speaker
and and but I can't wait. and in the And you'll go to the Drew Estate booth. They're going to have just a pianist. No other music.
01:26:28
Speaker
The classical pianist playing. That'll be it.
01:26:34
Speaker
I really hope that it's going to be Gwar playing live. because I think that is the next step of evolution from what we saw while I wasn't there last year, but between last year and the previous year.
01:26:45
Speaker
they They have been getting themselves involved with a lot of big names in the music industry, and I hope that that keeps momentum, and they keep doing cool projects because everything they did with Metallica was so exciting and so fun and so cool, and just kind of that next level. It's it's a reason why I'm still such a huge Drew Estate fan. I've always loved...
01:27:07
Speaker
you know, everything that they've done with this. And I want to see more, more cigar brands and manufacturers doing these kinds of collaborations, these kind of, what's the word? It's fucking English. English is is evading me right now. Because it always does.
01:27:23
Speaker
ah Yeah, we'll just leave it at cool stuff. and Cool stuff. bands All right. Well, i guess that brings us to the end of the pairing segment. um I don't know if it's even worth asking pairing of the night.
01:27:36
Speaker
Mine for obvious reasons. Man, all of that carbonation is getting to me, especially the Belgian one. um Obvious reasons. My pairing the night is Golden Monkey.
01:27:47
Speaker
ah I assume yours is toucan, old-fashioned, right? Yes, absolutely. The toucan thing. and Even if it sucked, honestly, the fact that I had to do this, this interactive experience, it made it better.
01:28:02
Speaker
it's It's very sweet. I would say now knowing what it tastes like for me personally, for my own palate, I would want to cut this with a little bit of, of well, some ice, maybe some ice, so spring water, something, something. I want to cut it with something.
01:28:15
Speaker
But if you love old fashions, if you're into the classic vibe of an old fashioned, this is it. It's clean. It's really good. It's inexpensive. Trip, you mentioned, was it $10 MSRP for two pours, essentially, for two cocktails?
01:28:30
Speaker
ah yeah, man, good on them. Good job. I hope to see more from them. I hope they they're going start expanding with some other options. And I think, you know, unofficially, I might steal their their their design and for my own needs.
01:28:45
Speaker
But this ring. There you go. um I did forget to mention when we were talking about this cigar. Yeah. Undisclosed. um all filler, binder, wrapper, all undisclosed, but we know it's all Dominican. That's kind of all we know about this cigar is that it's Dominican.
01:29:02
Speaker
So, there you go. Alright, time for one for the road. Why don't we tell you about some kind of media we consumed recently ah and give you some recommendations of what you should check out in the near future.
01:29:17
Speaker
Dennis, what have you got for us this week? Oh, man, you know, I... I have been trying desperately to get down on, on ah what's his name?
01:29:30
Speaker
John Cena. Peacemaker. Peacemaker, thank you. Season two Peacemaker. I have not watched it. I'm so desperate. So desperate to watch it. I've heard wonderful things about it, so i'm going to leave that out. But really what it's been for me, when i I'm mostly half asleep on my commute. I have a really long commute.
01:29:46
Speaker
And when I do have a chance to consume something, it tends to be music. So for me, it is going to be something that came out on the 17th of October. So it just came out. It is the new album from Biohazard.
01:29:59
Speaker
Ooh, nice. You know Biohazard? Divided We Fall is the new album from Biohazard. And for those of you that don't know, they are an American hardcore band originally formed in Brooklyn and New York and in, I think it 1984.
01:30:13
Speaker
87, I thought I was gonna say 88, but it's 87. And it's kinda like this mix of of hardcore punk and there's heavy metal, kinda weird hip hop sometimes, but not really.
01:30:25
Speaker
It's kind of a fun band. it's ah It's a mix of so many different things. And this new album was just, it was fun. I think it was is approachable for somebody that loves them. Like I do, probably Tripp, you enjoy them as well. yes But then also if you've never listened to them and this is the first album you pick up, I think this is a really great place for you to start and to kind of explore what they're about.
01:30:45
Speaker
As musicians, fantastic styles aside. I know styles are, some people like the style, some people don't. That's fine. But if you can appreciate it for the for them as musicians, I think you'll really enjoy this album.
01:30:59
Speaker
So that's mine. Interesting. Because, man, just keep them alive. Well, so I had already written mine down here in my notes. um Mine is a hardcore punk and sometimes ah wading into the metal zone band that has not released any music and um in a quite a while. couple years.
01:31:24
Speaker
um ah Maximum the Hormone. Are you familiar at all with Maximum the Hormone?
01:31:35
Speaker
I'll take that as a no. No, but I know the difference between a hormone and an enzyme. I don't. ah But Maximum the Hormone is one of the kind most popular, I guess, hardcore punk bands in Japan.
01:31:50
Speaker
They're from Tokyo. They sing pretty much all in Japanese, so I don't understand a word of what they say. But they write some great music, man. ah So these guys have been around since the mid-90s.
01:32:05
Speaker
Um, they kind of started to hit it big around 2000. Um, they have, man, I don't remember the name of the record, but they, they have a 2007 album that is kind of their biggest album.
01:32:21
Speaker
Um, And they've since become the the biggest kind of metal band in Japan. um They've done all sorts of TV shows and stuff. they Their current claim to fame is that they did the theme song for Chainsaw Man, which is a... If you've never heard of it, it is an anime about a guy...
01:32:51
Speaker
basically accidentally turns into a chainsaw. Yeah. It's very Kafka-esque. It's in, it's in so pure insanity. Um, but it's fantastic.
01:33:01
Speaker
Um, from the, I watched part of the first season and then I fell off the wagon. Um, but maximum, the hormone has been a song or has been a band rather that has been kind of on repeat in the car with me.
Horror Film Recommendations and Actor Discussion
01:33:14
Speaker
Um, I wrote down a couple songs to check out, which are most of these, again, all Japanese. You're not going to understand anything they're saying, but if you like hardcore punk, check out Choo Choo Lovely Moony Moony.
01:33:28
Speaker
There's more to with the name, but I'm not putting all that in my notes. I've been called worse. VAP, B-A-P, and Kamigami, which is which is actually a theme song from a different anime show that they wrote.
01:33:43
Speaker
of Which is, that that one is, that's an insane song. Because that one, kind of like you were saying, they go between hardcore metal and a little bit of like rap, kind of pop sound. old Old hip hop sort of. Yeah, there's a weird vibe to that song that I really dig.
01:34:02
Speaker
um hips check out Check out Maximum the Horma. They're pretty cool. So you know a Trip? I've been jamming on it. What's up? can't leave the listeners hanging.
01:34:15
Speaker
For those of you that don't know, do you and you mentioned you didn't know, right, the difference between a hormone and an enzyme.
01:34:23
Speaker
No. Differences, I've never made an enzyme. but I thought you would know that joke. It's an old shitty... do know that joke, but I haven't heard it in a long time. I love that. It's an old it's an old dirty bar joke, yeah. An oldie but a goodie.
01:34:38
Speaker
um I also, of course, it is spoopy times. So I brought a car along a couple of picks from Shudder.
01:34:50
Speaker
If you haven't heard of Shudder, it's, I think, $7 a month. Dude, it's such a deal. To watch a shit ton of horror movies. If you're into horror movies at all, check out Shudder.
01:35:02
Speaker
And some of my picks for recent releases and just stuff you should check out are Night of the Reaper, Night of the Reaper is a movie about, ah it's it's a classic tale, as classic as they come for slashers.
01:35:17
Speaker
um Babysitter. There's a serial killer on the loose. ah Little does he know that she knows more than they think he does.
01:35:27
Speaker
They think she does. Oh, it's Ryan Robbins. It's good. ah bri Ryan Robbins, isn't that? I don't know who Ryan Robbins is.
01:35:39
Speaker
ah My other recommendations are The Borderlands. This is a 2013 movie, but it is in my top five, maybe top three ever found footage movies um about a couple of Catholic priests that are sent to a church where weird stuff happened and they need to investigate ah what's going on for the Vatican.
01:36:05
Speaker
And it's it's incredible. It's so good. um VHS Halloween, which is a very recent release. VHS is a long-running series where they get four, five, six directors um to all film shorts.
01:36:25
Speaker
ah And it's just a mashup of a bunch of shorts. with a framing device that is usually like, hey, let's watch these VHS tapes for some reason. um And then they watch them and weird stuff happens. and I think it's one of the better movies in the series. ah as far as I always rank the VHS movies on an average.
01:36:48
Speaker
The average of each VHS film is how good that VHS film is. VHS 2 has the greatest short that has ever been made in horror called Safe Haven.
01:37:00
Speaker
But VHS 2 isn't the greatest VHS movie because some of the other ones are kind of ups and downs. VHS Halloween, I think, is mostly ups. It's got some real weird stuff, including Fun Size, which is one of my favorites ever because it's so weird.
01:37:17
Speaker
oh And my last recommendation for this week is a... Shudder produced film called Dangerous Animals. What if a serial killer, but his weapon was sharks?
01:37:32
Speaker
What? it's ah It's a guy who kidnaps people and feeds them to sharks. It's awesome. it's ah It's a shark movie. It's a slasher movie. it's a It's got Jai Courtney doing what I think is the best performance of his career because I think he's awful.
01:37:51
Speaker
awful in everything he's done. Except this. is He's fantastic in this movie. Interesting. Because it's like the role he was born to play. Check out Dangerous Animals, VHS Halloween, Borderlands, and Night of the Reaper on Shudder.
01:38:06
Speaker
Sam's One for the Road is Zig Ziglar's book called The Goals Program. I love that you've always got a book. Cool. Zig Ziglar, man, is a character. That's cool.
01:38:17
Speaker
All right. Any other closing notes before we end the show for the night? Yeah, I was going to say, man, ryan you know so you know Ryan Robbins. the Night of the Reaper, Ryan Robbins, Night of the Reaper, ah he is from, i mean, he's in a bunch of different things, but I distinctly remember him from Turbulence 3, Heavy Metal.
01:38:38
Speaker
And he didn't have a major role in that film. It was kind of like background. He was just sort of there, but he's always there. And so I remember the face. I got to look this guy up. He played the character of Tor, T-O-R, in Turbulence Heavy Metal.
01:38:54
Speaker
And I loved the Turbulence series. I think it was hot garbage. He was the cop in Night of the Reaper. Right. Okay, I guess I have seen him in a bunch of stuff.
01:39:05
Speaker
Because now that I'm looking through his IMDb, man, he's got a lot of like action. ah He's got a ton of low-budget action. Yeah. In his it is repertoire.
01:39:19
Speaker
that's my That's my goal. but but He was in The Lost Wife of Robert Durst. Alright. right I'm going to have to look that guy up a little bit and see what I've seen him in. He was one of those guys that like you know you see an actor and you're like, oh, I've seen them in something. but like Yeah, you know him from somewhere. yeah yeah man um well maybe Maybe you'll recognize me at some point.
01:39:46
Speaker
i've been i've been pumping casting calls I've been pumping for casting calls so hard. I'm like, oh, you need a guy you need a guy to be a patron in Dive Bar? I'm your guy. get it Get it. Bring me
Show Wrap-Up and Humorous Exchanges
01:39:57
Speaker
in. bring me in I would love to see you in a B-movie.
01:40:00
Speaker
Alright, guys. Thanks for hanging out with us and enjoying the mystery that is the Opus X-25 with our gas station pairings, which... um ended up with ups and downs, more downs than ups.
01:40:17
Speaker
Both of us. But I think at the end of the day, i think we were able to to bring it in. Ultimately, I think know coming out of this, neither of us had a absolute shit no-go experience. with There was something that we found that was valuable that kind of worked somewhat. I watch you as you sip on this and I'm gagging.
01:40:36
Speaker
It's bad. Don't sip on that. I took a sip. I feel it. What's really weird is that it tasted like key lime but pie before. That time it tasted like orange cream sickle.
01:40:49
Speaker
My stomach is training. You got this incredible vanilla note that's just so overpowering. And then with like a sweet citrus. Oh, God. God, it's terrible. I'm going to dump that down the drain. That is not going anywhere today.
01:41:05
Speaker
My stomach is squeezing everything out of it. I'm burping heavily now. Just watching you drink that. And it's funny because I almost bought that same exact can today, which would have been cute if we had it at the same time. glad that I made the mistake and I've made enough mistakes tonight.
01:41:24
Speaker
Yeah, man. Good show. Good show. All right, guys. Thanks for hanging out. We'll see on the next one. Dennis, hit him with a catchphrase. We'll get out here. Thanks to everybody for watching and listening. And remember, we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink.