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LGP 55 - Cohiba Serie M Reserva Azul
13 Plays3 days ago
This week, we're checking out the latest (and bluest) iteration Cohiba's Miami-made Serie M, crafted at the legendary El Titan De Bronze!
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Transcript
Introduction and Cohiba Siri M Discussion
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Let's Get Pairing. Uh... Today we're smoking the... Man, I like lost my intro. Welcome back to Let's Get Pairing. This is episode number 55. Cohiba Siri M. Siri Azul.
00:00:14
Speaker
No. Reserva Azul. That's the word. Um... Man, check out this fine-looking cigar. We'll tell you all about it. We'll give you all the details. We'll tell you what we think. And, of course, we will get into some pairing.
00:00:26
Speaker
But first, grab yourself cigar. Grab yourself a drink. Let's get pairing. Let's pairing.
00:00:47
Speaker
all right, and we're back. Welcome back. This is Let's Get Pairing. I'm your host, Tripp, here from Casa de Monte Cristo Studios in Florida with Dennis from ah b the exact opposite of the dark, dank Dungeon of Doom.
00:01:03
Speaker
That's right. um I'm in the open forest today. Beautifully sunny yard, sun setting, get nice ah some lights. You're going to come up in the background, you'll see, which is lovely.
00:01:15
Speaker
But yeah, different different setting for us this time. and like Different vibe for you. I like it. We are, of course, welcome to Siriam Azul.
00:01:27
Speaker
It caught me off guard that I got the name right there. On the first try. So Siri M Azul, Siri M Reserva Azul, got a big name. um So Cohiba Siri M is a, well, I can't call it brand new. At the time it was a brand new series from Cohiba. It was their first ever cigar made in the U S um with the Cohiba brand.
00:01:49
Speaker
It's been an annual release since then when it first launched in 2021. The first three years, it was different sizes of the same blend. um that was the It was just called the Siri M, but it had a green band. 2024, last year, the Reservo Rojo, which was the red label,
00:02:08
Speaker
um It had a ah kind of a tweaked blend, but it was the same wrapper, mostly the same fillers. I know they specified that the binder was Nicaraguan Corojo rather than just saying it's Nicaraguan, but it's unclear whether that's actually a different binder or not. But I did, you know, we were told that it was an updated blend.
00:02:25
Speaker
This year, they've kind of come up with an even newer blend ah for the Reserva Azul. So this came out in February 2021. Made, of course, at El Teton de Bronze, Calle Ocho, Little Havana, Miami.
00:02:39
Speaker
Calle Ocho is the street. Little Havana is the neighborhood. Miami is the city. ah Florida, you know where it is. My favorite factory. It's a great factory. It's so lovely. it's Everyone's just so cool.
00:02:52
Speaker
ah It's a magical place. Yeah. I'm so happy that it's made there. And ah for for anybody, for most people who have never been, it's much smaller than you expect. Um, I don't remember the number, but they have like enough room for maybe 16, maybe 20 rollers total.
00:03:09
Speaker
It's very, very small operation family run. um but they make great cigars and, uh, they make them for everybody they can. and they are, can't remember what the classes are. I think everybody there is a class eight or class nine master roller.
00:03:27
Speaker
Um, And so, you know, their cigars are generally pretty solid from the lower end stuff all the way up to the stuff like this that's at the higher end. All right. So for this blend, it swaps out that Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper that the previous two had for some Dominican Corojo, which is an interesting change.
00:03:46
Speaker
The binder is from Esteli, Nicaragua. It has fillers from, ah well, it has both Viso and Lajeros from Jalapa, some Nicaraguan Esteli, and some Dominican Paloto Cubano in there.
00:04:00
Speaker
I was going to say we are smoking, but the only size this is available in is a 6x52 Toro. ah There's only 3,000 of these 10-count boxes available. I will say, very nice box.
00:04:10
Speaker
Got kind of like foam. Ow! ah foam insert to keep your cigars secure from rolling around. yeah And then has little piece of foam, a little piece of wood that goes on top.
00:04:26
Speaker
It's just ah just a very nice presentation. um Downside, this is a $30 cigar. $29.99 is the MSRP. um I've heard people say you can get them for a little less, um which I would probably jump on. I tend to enjoy this series.
00:04:44
Speaker
Not a big fan of... Maybe not a big fan, but not a big consumer of $30 cigars. I'll buy a lot of them. um But this is one i I actually have bought ah handful of times when I'm a lounge and need something to smoke and I'm like...
00:05:00
Speaker
feel like one of those right now um the green label not the blue label this is my second time trying the blue label so with that out of the way dennis what are your first impressions of this cigar man immediately off the first light it's got this really great leathery intensity that's followed up by this the way that i kind of describe it as hazelnut skin with that um What's that, ah ah you know how the hazelnut skin sort of sticks to you your tongue a little bit?
00:05:28
Speaker
I think the word we usually use is astringency, whether that's right or not. is But it's kind of that little bit like it, It's got that salty effect where it feels like it's drying out the part of your tongue that it touches. Yeah, where it's like kind of compressing on top of your tongue in a way.
00:05:43
Speaker
And so that flavor sticks really nicely. But man, that leather, that cinnamon, it's, and I know we talk about leather all the time with cigars. and Yes, a lot of cigars have that leather quality, that barnyard quality sometimes that we get from a lot of Dominican tobaccos, at least that I get.
00:06:00
Speaker
But this is a different kind of leather. It's not like a really dry leather. This is the sort of that humid kind of leather couch that's been sitting in the Caribbean somewhere for a while outside in a courtyard.
00:06:11
Speaker
It's when you're at ah the Jersey coast and you walk into that leather supply shop that has all those patchwork leather jackets. It's hot and humid and it smells like leather. And there's a sweetness to that leather too, I think, on the on the nose, certainly on the flavor that's coming through from the from the first light. And I'm trying to be gentle with this one because I actually really like this series so far.
00:06:34
Speaker
And I don't want to ruin it. but Hopefully not. don't want to be smoking and too fast, as I tend to do often. We'll find out in a little while if our pairings happen to ruin it. um I'm getting a lot of the same notes as you are. There's a nice a little black pepper spice to it.
00:06:50
Speaker
There's also a um A sweetness that I can't quite put my finger on, but I can't figure out how to phrase. um But I'm enjoying Coffee?
Evil Twin Brewing and Milkshake IPA Insights
00:07:01
Speaker
Maybe. Yeah, maybe like a sweet coffee kind of thing. No, no, not coffee. Toffee. Oh, toffee. No, that's that's even better. Toffee. Cooked down, sweetened condensed milk, yeah. Oh, yeah. There you go. I just had a whole bunch of banana toffee from England, so I'm like, that's in my mind.
00:07:16
Speaker
It's stuck in my mind. Banoffee? Banoffee.
00:07:20
Speaker
The lighting is is not going well, but I think I might have lit it too hastily at the beginning because doesn't seem to be fully burning. um don't know if that's its fault or my fault. I won't blame it for the moment.
00:07:35
Speaker
I actually was worried mine was a little bit underhumidified, and I had thrown a Bovita pack in there in my little travel humidor, and within 24 hours of or so, it it went back to normal. The stuff I sent you with this was probably a little underhumidified. I tried to get...
00:07:48
Speaker
ah packs and boveda packs in most of those bags but you know how i with shipping it takes a little while all right so let's get into what i tend to smoke a little bit drier anyway on oh me too i mean because i smoke so fast i have to i keep my humidor at like 62 ish 63 ish yeah by the time you're done lighting it's at 75 probably where i am yeah yeah all right we're gonna do some pairing i'm trying to decide what i should start with I have a couple of thoughts.
00:08:23
Speaker
so You think I should start with something hoppy or something scotchy? You know what? I think hoppy is going to be the best place for this right now.
00:08:34
Speaker
I'll go for that then. that but That was my original thought, but then I started thinking maybe I want that ah delicateness of the the whiskey. But for now, I'll get into to pairing with a beer.
00:08:47
Speaker
So...
00:08:50
Speaker
This one tastes like a cow got into a hot vine. That's the name of this beer.
00:08:58
Speaker
This from Evil Twin Brewing, which I know you're you're familiar with. um But ah for the for the people, I'll tell the story. And to tell the story of Evil Twin, you have to start with Mickler.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yes, sir. So Mikkel Borg Bierso, think I said that right, and started brewery with Christian Keller. Mikkel and Keller mashed their names together to to make Mikkel-er in 2005 in Copenhagen.
00:09:26
Speaker
Started this kind of a homebrewing project around the same time that his identical twin brother, Yepi, started a beer shop in Copenhagen. So... so Mikkel was brewing beer at home ah with his friend.
00:09:43
Speaker
Yep. He was selling some of it. um And then in 2006, they kind of started to get a little more popular. They officially went into business as Mickler brewing and started doing nomad brewing rather than home brewing bigger batches.
00:09:57
Speaker
um And Keller left the company actually just the following year in 2007, because he was, he was just in it for the home brewing. He didn't want to start business, um but they kept the name Mickler. ah they kind of ah played off of each other with Mickler getting popular because the Yuppie shop was distributing his beer.
00:10:20
Speaker
um And so Mickler became known by Yuppie's customers. Yuppie became known by people all over the world looking for Mickler.
00:10:32
Speaker
And it just kind of blossomed from there. Somewhere around then, Around 2007, 2008 is when they started feuding. They weren't getting along.
00:10:43
Speaker
um um I have more on a little bit more on this later, but it is it's been long speculated that it's kind of a fake beef that they have. Nobody really knows. um they're not They're weirdly unspecific about how much they hate each other and why. Yeah, it's definitely purposeful.
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah, it feels that way. ah There have been reports that it was because of a dispute over who owned an apartment they lived in in Copenhagen. um They both said that they own it, not the other one, and turn into a thing.
00:11:13
Speaker
um More likely, the other story that I've read is that Mikkel opened Mikkelr bar in the same neighborhood as that beer shop Yippie had. um And Yippie wasn't a big fan of him taking his business.
00:11:28
Speaker
ah To be fair, though, They've kind of turned that into a business alone. Anywhere there's a Mickler bar, there's usually going be an Evil Twin bar. Not too far from it, ah especially in New York.
00:11:39
Speaker
um So in 2010, Yuppie started brewing as Evil Twin Brewing in Denmark. He was doing Nomad Brewing like his brother was at first. And then in 2012, he moved his family to New York City and...
00:11:52
Speaker
ah you know, continued his brewing project there in 2016. He started evil twin brewing New York city when they opened their first brewery and tap room in Queens, which like I said, there is a Mickler bar, not too far from there.
00:12:07
Speaker
Uh, so, you know, it's, it does seem like they're, they're playing up this point in evil twin thing. Also, uh, I didn't put it in my notes, but I read that in 2002, uh,
00:12:18
Speaker
they, the two brothers competed in a homebrewing competition yeah and won a medal for a beer called Evil Twin Stout. um So they had the Evil Twin name way before they started using it publicly and way before their feud started.
00:12:32
Speaker
um And Yepi actually registered the name in 2005, apparently. um Since then, since 2016, the brothers have continued feuding publicly, which, real or not, adds mystique to the brands, which has always kind of bolstered their popularity.
00:12:51
Speaker
um And making but good beer doesn't hurt too much. um I think both companies make great beer. And they're very...
00:13:03
Speaker
They're pretty experimental, which is awesome. We love that. We love weird beers that put flavors you wouldn't expect ah together. And that's kind of what both of these breweries do.
00:13:17
Speaker
This one that I have from them is a little more normal. Called, this one tastes like the cow got into a hot vine. So this is a milkshake IPA.
00:13:30
Speaker
brewed with vanilla bean and milk sugar, double dry hopped with citra, Rewaka, and Nelson Sauvon hops. Man, Rewaka is all over the place.
00:13:41
Speaker
Is it? I'm not familiar with it. It's driving me nuts because i I have a beer with Rewaka as well. And you and I have, I don't think, once ever had the same, of the more unusual styles of hops or the hop varietals, we've never had the same hop in a beer on a show.
00:13:59
Speaker
That's wild.
00:14:02
Speaker
You know, I think you're right. Like, a lot of times, you know, we'll both have Cascade or Nelson or something like that, but yeah, like the more rare out there, what's the word I'm looking for?
00:14:14
Speaker
Exotic hops. Exotic quail melon, fuel melon, quail melon, yeah, not not often. um And as you can see, looks like a milkshake IPA. doesn't have as much sediment as it looks like it does. Like, it looks like it's got a lot of floaters in there.
00:14:30
Speaker
I think that's just the light. More than... Well... No, there's definitely some milk sugar floating in there. Oh, God. as As you would expect. um I mean, it is... There's a hazy IPA unfiltered with milk sugar. um And... Yeah, there's there's quite a bit of sediment at the bottom. We were talking before about how...
00:14:52
Speaker
There was just a lump of something and there's still, there's a bunch of them down there. It looks like a sandy beach at the bottom of my glass, but that's pretty normal for a beer like this.
00:15:02
Speaker
I don't get too upset about it. That's where all the flavor is. um So I'm going to take a couple sips and see, see you pairing with a couple of ah hazy IPAs last week made me want to try this.
00:15:14
Speaker
So I'm curious how this is going work. I'm not too far off from that this week. And, uh, Just a quick thing about Evil to Tomorrow. Well, actually, first, about your beer tonight specifically, me ask you this.
00:15:26
Speaker
what's the What's the date on the bottom? Let us see. um'm I'm just curious. it's not I'm not judging. i'm It's just a thing. ah i want to know. and and And I'm curious how it's going to affect your perception of that flavor or your your feeling of it. Uh...
00:15:48
Speaker
I don't know, because it looks like it says canned on 12-17-25.
00:15:55
Speaker
And I don't think it was canned this coming December. I mean, maybe it's from the future. but but Why do you ask about the date? That's fine. So the date thing has been a point of, not a contention, but I think sort of like a become like a weird box code thing.
00:16:11
Speaker
Maybe not in today's world. It was certainly when Evil Twin came to New York for the first time. And ah by way of 12%, importers, if I'm not mistaken. And when Evil Twin...
00:16:22
Speaker
Came into New York, we had breweries like Lord Hobo making their way in. Night Shift started coming in. um Other half, of course, was huge. Was the de facto sort of standard for craft beer in in Brooklyn.
00:16:33
Speaker
And ah so people would get cans of Evil Twin stuff. Some of it was a little harder to get. And the the date stamped on the bottom almost became like a box code. The way that, you know, guys will go and look at cigars and and look for certain box codes.
00:16:47
Speaker
Yeah. Particularly in the Cuban cigar space. um people would start looking for cans, certain canning releases, if you will. I really can't tell what this is supposed to say.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, man. I think today when we talk about it, it's a little bit diluted to where people say, okay, well, it's the freshness of the beer. Sure, the freshness of the beer and the the quality of the hops will degrade over time.
00:17:11
Speaker
But but in this case, it's a little bit more than that because some of these beers that are a little bit more interesting, more adjunct heavy are going to have a different effect with, with age. And sometimes it's a very good effect.
00:17:24
Speaker
And so what I've seen is collectors coming in trying to pick up a unique canning dates and sit on them for a period of time. And um yeah, that's, it's cool. It's cool stuff. And I remember when they came in, they took New York by storm.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure. um it was It was very strange when they came to New York because I went from being able to find Evil Twin in shops where I was to not being able to find it because when they were in Denmark, they would ship to the Pacific Northwest. And then when they started in New York, it was mostly local for a while.
00:18:00
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:18:04
Speaker
All right, what do you got up first? All right, let me make a makeshift little cigar rest here. and Make sure my cigar doesn't fly away. Because I forgot my cigar rest and I'm not home.
00:18:17
Speaker
um I had to think about this for a little bit. I was a little nervous, but i I think it makes sense to come in with the first pairing. ah It's a little sweeter. and little crazy and a little funky. I was nervous about this though.
00:18:29
Speaker
me show you what it is and I'll tell you about little bit more about them. This is from Double Nickel in Pinsaucan, New Jersey. I got a little scrub daddy action. Banana vanilla milkshake IPA. um This is invent just out of ah random happenstance. We both picked milkshake IPAs.
00:18:49
Speaker
Oh, well, but wait, there's more. I think next couple pairings will have a lot to talk about. up So this is actually an official collaboration with ah Scrub Daddy. I was going to say it. It's got the actual Scrub Daddy logo on there.
00:19:02
Speaker
it It is the official Scrub Daddy logo. It is the official Scrub Daddy collab beer. um And that's because Scrub Daddy just moved their headquarters to Pensacola, New Jersey, or just nearby.
00:19:13
Speaker
And I guess they left the brewery and they wanted to want to do something fun, which is... kind of cool and uh listen i got a whole case of scrub daddy sitting under my sink right now but i got those bad boys ready for everything because i love them i use them for everything they're pretty good they're so lovely uh so yeah double nickel founded in 2015 pensacca new jersey by drew perry who's the head brewer today brian needham which is the sales guy and uh dr bob dasley or dalcy sorry
00:19:45
Speaker
And I'm assuming his son. So Bob Dalsey and John Dalsey, I'm assuming they're related in some way. Based on the surnames. i would I would guess so. yeah But who knows?
00:19:56
Speaker
The cool thing about these cats is they're actually inside of a an old gymnasium. So they took that really huge gym space, gutted everything out, put their their brewing setup in there, which, right, it makes sense. Why build a warehouse when you have a space ready built for things like giant fermenters and bright tanks and everything else you might need?
00:20:19
Speaker
Mm-hmm. um So this particular beer, Milkshake i IPA, mentioned that but banana is, I'll tell you about the banana in a second, 7.1% ABV.
00:20:31
Speaker
Sweet Baby Jesus, um it's got that banana. Full pun intended, Sweet Baby Jesus, if you remember the banana that they released. I never had it because I hate bananas.
00:20:43
Speaker
Well, i it's okay. A lot of people hate bananas. I think I'm actually allergic to bananas, but I still hate But they ah this banana flavor is very much like a Laffy Taffy, at least once in your childhood. Okay, that's better.
00:20:57
Speaker
I do like fake banana. It is fake banana, but it's it's fake banana in all the most glorious ways where it's not overwhelming. It's not like, you know, runts. You may ever have runts?
00:21:08
Speaker
Oh, yeah, of course. That banana one is the goat. So you know that banana runt, when you first put it in your mouth and it starts to like the coating starts to melt off, it it immediately tastes like... and turns into sandpaper.
00:21:19
Speaker
Well, does. But it's got that paint quality to it. It's like that. Oh, yeah. The varnish. of Yes. Thank you. Varnishing is actually a thing in candy making, if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure. Shellacking.
00:21:31
Speaker
Shellacking, not varnishing. Shellacking. Even better. Bug guts. It's derived from beetles, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, beetle carapaces. Good word.
00:21:43
Speaker
It's a good Scrabble word. Carapace is a great Scrabble word. um Anyway, Double Nickel's been around for a good while. They are really leaning heavily into the old kind of lore of New Jersey where back in 1955, I believe, New Jersey Turnpike had this exit sign, was Double Nickel.
00:22:00
Speaker
And it's kind of a nod to that.
00:22:04
Speaker
Because it was 10 cents instead of 5? Yeah. Interesting. Okay. All right, so for my hazy IPA, this is this is working shockingly well. I think you were right last week when we were talking about kind of just the... ah First of all, hazy IPAs generally work pretty well with a cigar because you're rounding out the sharpness of the hops with the sweetness.
00:22:32
Speaker
um And adding lactose it kind of doubles the effect of that. It gets thicker mouthfeel, you know, almost that chewy quality while also adding a bit more sweetness to it. So it's, you know, it's not quite candy sweet, but it's like ah almost fruit juice kind of sweet.
00:22:52
Speaker
um But without any acidity, which I think is what makes it work pretty well with a cigar. Yeah. It doesn't meant to be a mild cigar, right? It's not going to be a powerhouse.
00:23:05
Speaker
So I think a sweeter, a sweeter pairing, which was, I thought was a really good point. It's juice sweet, not candy sweet. Um, some good sweetness, which is nice. I think it works really well.
00:23:16
Speaker
I do find it does kind of cut the sweetness in the cigar that, that really nice round sweetness that we're, we're calling toffee at the beginning. Um,
00:23:27
Speaker
I don't get that anymore at all when I'm drinking this beer. So I'm um'm guessing it'll come back when I'm trying my other pairings, but one of them might be pretty sweet too. So we'll see. um how' that How's that banana milkshake IPA working?
00:23:42
Speaker
This is why I wanted to try this beer first before smoking the cigar. The banana flavor is gone. It just tastes like not even a vanilla milkshake IPA. It just tastes like a sweet IPA pretty much, which is not bad, right? It's not to malign it in any way.
00:23:58
Speaker
um I half expected that, but I like that the sweetness is lingering and working with the cigar well for me.
00:24:09
Speaker
yeah Not too heavy on the on the alcohol either. i think 7.1 is that point where if you have your process really nailed down, you're not going to have a lot of hot alcohol flavors, but you could.
00:24:20
Speaker
So I think that's a really good sort of border right on the edge of where the beers generally will start to taste a little hotter. Yeah. Um, mine 7.3. There's just a hint of booziness to it.
00:24:32
Speaker
Just a tiny bit. Um, on that note though, uh, they called a beta, a beta brewing. Uh, I had Andy Gator couple weeks ago. Oh yeah. That's great.
00:24:43
Speaker
The pack that I got came with a straw Gator, which is their strawberry version of Andy Gator. Um, um And ah it also came with Alpha Gator, which is in no way related to the other Gators. The other Gators are I'm trying remember the style.
00:25:05
Speaker
Well, Gators tend to be pretty ordinary, so I can imagine why they're not related. A Hellas Doppel. Hellas Doppelbach, I think, is what they call it. um That's a choice. And Alpha Gator is a double IPA.
00:25:16
Speaker
Just a straight-up normal Imperial IPA. it is the boosiest 8% I've ever had in my life. Like, it tastes like... Have you ever had, like, one of those... but Those... ah One of those triples that isn't super hoppy or super sweet, so it's just crazy boozy at, like, 12% or 10% or something?
00:25:41
Speaker
It tastes like that.
00:25:44
Speaker
Um... but Lord Hobo Boom Sauce. Oh I've had that one. Within the first year, the first year was pretty solid. I think because they expanded production to scale to meet demand, BoomSauce, for a very short period of time, was super boozy.
00:26:03
Speaker
Oh, okay. It was insanely boozy. And this is the same thing that happened with Hedy Topper at a certain point where people were buying this stuff up, collecting it, and then realized, oh, crap, nobody wants to buy this anymore.
00:26:14
Speaker
I'm sitting on these cans. And then, sure enough, two years later, you drink this, this I think Hedy Topper's 10% or 12%, I forget. 10, I think. It's up there. Yeah, it's up there. And so it ends up just tasting like just a booze bomb and nothing else.
00:26:28
Speaker
Maybe that's something that's going on with this. It tastes like they just ah didn't add enough hops and accidentally fermented all of the fermentables in there. So there's just no sweetness left over. It's just straight up booze.
00:26:42
Speaker
It's weird. I think Bigfoot also did that for Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot. One of the releases was super boozy, and I had to sit on it for, I think, like eight months. I had the two bottles and i I sat on one and it was fine after.
00:26:55
Speaker
right. Well, I'll, I'll let the rest of it sit for a little while and see how it turns out. Um, all right, moving on to my next, this is Glenn Morangi, a tale of the forest. I felt like I needed something a little bit fancy to go with this cigar.
00:27:10
Speaker
Um, and this was my, my somewhat fancy choice. Um, so Glenn Morangi, Well, that, of course, just means water, basically, in Scottish
Exploring Glenmorangie Distillery and Flor de Caña History
00:27:22
Speaker
Gaelic. Is that what they call that language?
00:27:24
Speaker
um this But so in 1703, the earliest record of alcohol production at the Marangi Farm ah was just, you know, homemaking.
00:27:38
Speaker
i don't know if you could call it Scotch liquor. Can't really call it whiskey, um but it was it was alcohol production. A brewery opened in 1730, so they were making beer there for a while. In 1843, they actually converted it into a distillery.
00:27:56
Speaker
ah Later, they named that distillery Glenmorangia. I couldn't find any records of what the original distillery and brewery were called. um They probably didn't want to be remembered because likely whatever they were doing was not legal.
00:28:10
Speaker
Very likely. um There's a lot of history of illegal brewing Scotland. A lot. it's so So good, arguably. And then we we argue the same thing about the bourbon in the U.S. Sorry, I'm trying to keep my cigar from going out.
00:28:28
Speaker
Do you find, ah as you're trying to puff on that, do you find the cigars getting really, really wet for you? No. No? It was threatening to go out, I think, just because I hadn't puffed on it in a couple minutes.
00:28:40
Speaker
yeah mine, I'm i'm i'm trying. i'm not I haven't found the rhythm quite yet with this one. ah As with all Scotch distilleries, um and most European distilleries for that matter, and breweries, ah during Between 1920 and 1950, there were a lot of closures where a lot of distilleries and breweries would operate for just a year or two, shut down for a year or two, be open for some seasons and closed for others.
00:29:08
Speaker
um Obviously, that was due to war in Europe and the lack of available goods. ah Workers combined with the lack of demand compared to normal. um These days, Glenmorangie has been the best-selling single malt in Scotland. So if you if you go to Scotland, the one that everybody's buying since 1980 has been Glenmorangie.
00:29:33
Speaker
It's the the hometown hero of Scotland. What I'm drinking tonight, I've had it on the show before. This bottle came to me from Dennis. ah This is a Tale of the Forest.
00:29:45
Speaker
It is a scotch that is made with kilned barley, ah which is kilned with gin botanicals such as juniper berries, birch bark, and heather flowers, as well as just a little bit of peat.
00:30:00
Speaker
So they're basically smoking all of these ingredients together with the peat. um And it's just got ah just a little hint of all those flavors, which is kind nice. um After drinking this beer, I've been able to taste it more than I usually can with a cigar. So I'm going to take a couple sips and see how it does and let Dennis talk about his second pairing. What you got?
00:30:25
Speaker
Oh, I just took a sip. I'm salivating now. Sweet mama. There's so much going on with this beer. We're going to have to unpack it piece by piece.
00:30:37
Speaker
Let me show you the can first. You can love this. This can is so fantastic. And it's a series as well. So they have a lot of different varieties within that series. Super cool can from Imprint Beer Company. Oh, I have seen these around. like What, down by you?
00:30:53
Speaker
um They're actually available on Tavor. Oh, dude, you have you have to get some. You have to. This one is the smoogee is the series. This one is a strawberry ah margarita. Well, what do they call it? Margarita.
00:31:09
Speaker
In the smoogee style, if you will. ah Lactose free, by the way, i should mention lactose free, which is really cool. These cats are out in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, and they were founded in 2018.
00:31:23
Speaker
ah Man, let me show you this beer. like Just before we get into it, let show you this. It looks like if you take watermelon juice or watermelon chunks and you throw it into your... That's exactly what it looks like. Into a blender. It's just like blended fruit.
00:31:40
Speaker
if If I took this and I turned it into a frozen slushie, I could make a ah strawberry daiquiri. Actually, that's what it tastes like. I i mentioned it tasted like slushie before.
00:31:51
Speaker
The old slush puppy. I don't know and if anybody remembers. I know you remember. I definitely remember slush puppies. The slush puppies from the 90s. Huge fan. I taste a lot like that red one.
00:32:03
Speaker
You know, because back then they didn't have names of flavors, I don't think. I think it was just you went by color. Yeah, exactly. The blue, the red, the i think it was purple at some point. They did a limited edition green for a while. um Yeah.
00:32:16
Speaker
So this is a 6.5% fruited sour It's got tons of strawberry flavor, which is insane because generally when you have sours, the the the bacteria that makes it sour often can take away from the subtle flavors of something like a strawberry, like a blueberry. If you think of these berries that are generally not considered that intense unless they're super fresh.
00:32:41
Speaker
So looking at it, i I suspect what they did first was to ferment the beer. I think they did through a three-stage process. They fermented the beer, um they pulled it off, they soured the beer to to a certain point, and then they, after that, took that off and they put that on fresh fruit as the last process.
00:33:00
Speaker
So this way there's minimal mineral bacteria and or yeast to some degree, at least during the the active stages that's touching the fruit and kind of breaking down the fruits. So maybe the fruit, um the pectins are certainly in place, as you can see, it's completely different.
00:33:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Smoothie. So they haven't pulled the pectins out. Very haze-forward, which is, I think, really kind of one of their themes. They really love doing hazy things. They're known for a lot of fruited sours, but also they they do a couple of really cool IPAs.
00:33:32
Speaker
Hazy IPAs, our kind of style that we really love. Nice. And this particular series covers the classic types of margaritas that you can get. Think like if you go to, i don't know, Texas Roadhouse or...
00:33:46
Speaker
Applebee's or wherever you get your generic margaritas. DJI Fridays. Oh, God, Fridays. I hate Fridays so much. Not as much as Applebee's. Yeah, Applebee's, I think, is bottom of the barrel for me. Everything there tastes microwaved.
00:33:59
Speaker
That's because it is microwaved. Exactly. but it I mean, it all tastes like TV dinners. Like, I could have just bought it at the grocery store. listen No, no, no, no. Stuck it in the phrasezer or the microwave for three minutes.
00:34:11
Speaker
Do not put a bad name on Hungry Man because Hungry Man kept me going as a young man. it it got me through the war. I loved my Hungry Man. Salisbury Steak Dinners, that was my jam.
00:34:23
Speaker
That little brownie that by the time you got out of the microwave was rock solid. so To be honest, those brownies go pretty hard. um like there's There's just something unique about that the the mixture of where we're pudding meets brownie.
00:34:40
Speaker
that stuff It was. Over-seasoned corn on the side and you mix it and ends up getting all the juices get mixed together so it's a brownie soaked in like sauces and things. Oh yeah. and left Soaked in corn butter.
00:34:55
Speaker
So this sour man is is pretty it's pretty intense on the flavor from the strawberry and and oddly enough it it's working with the cigar but also I think it's a little bit too much flavor for the cigar.
00:35:07
Speaker
Okay. So They don't have any available now, or I would have just ordered it now, but, uh, I put smoogee on my, my wish, my wish list, my watch list. So I'll get pop-ups whenever they, they get it again.
00:35:21
Speaker
um cause I was curious about it, but I was like, I don't know. The doesn't, doesn't seem like my kind of thing, but I will, I will try it next time they have someone stuck. I'll get a couple of cans.
00:35:33
Speaker
I do have some smoothies coming. I told you about them last week, the star Wars themed ones with the, uh, The funny enough, the slurpy dog or slushy dog. Slushy dogs. Yep.
00:35:44
Speaker
I'm excited for that. I'm curious to hear how the how they are. um For now, this whiskey is working wonderfully with the cigar. I'm kind of shocked by how well it's working.
00:35:57
Speaker
um I know that I can't remember what cigar was. There was one other cigar that I had that I really liked with this whiskey. um But for most cigars, it was kind of a miss because the cigar is too strong.
00:36:08
Speaker
This cigar to me is ah nice medium body, um, um None of the flavors are super intense. They're there and they're noticeable. They're, you know, it's flavor forward, I guess you might call it.
00:36:25
Speaker
um But it's not like there's no overpowering flavor. It's a very balanced cigar, um which is making it work really well with this whiskey. I can taste those kind of ginny flavors in it. I can taste that little hint of heat.
00:36:39
Speaker
um And it it kind of brought the the sweetness back on the cigar, which I appreciate. I can really see smoking this cigar now for the first time, this this particular one for the first time, of the Azul.
00:36:50
Speaker
um Man, I can really see this being a great cigar to either start your evening before dinner or to finish your night after dinner when you sit down and have maybe some some brandy or something else. I think it would work really well.
00:37:03
Speaker
I think so, too. um As we've talked about this before. It's got enough power to it, right? I wish it wasn't $30. If this was like a $12 cigar. ah for sure. And it was available all the time, it would be such a winner.
00:37:16
Speaker
For $30, I don't think it's a horrible deal. um I've certainly smoked a lot of way worse $30 cigars before. um Even $90 cigars. Yeah, I've been disappointed by a $90 cigar. too um Maybe from the same same brand?
00:37:35
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. But this one, um i would I would definitely recommend. Anyway, how does it work with that smoochie?
00:37:45
Speaker
I really love that the smoochy, the slight sourness, and it's not a classic sour the way that you and I love sours. We love those puckering sours. This is very subtle. This is almost like a, like there's a hint of lemon juice sour. Just a bit of citric acid. I love a sour like that. As much as I like a a crazy sour, like you were talking about, like, i mean, i can barely do one most of the time. Like...
00:38:11
Speaker
All of that acid and bacteria like messes with your stomach, and it almost numbs your tongue with that amount of sourness in some of those. It's delicious. But it's, you know, I can only take so much of it.
00:38:27
Speaker
One of those things. just ah I wish they came in tiny little cans. Sometimes. You know what? but Something like that sounds right up my alley. That's a fantastic idea. Releasing a series of of Imperial Sours in six ounce cans.
00:38:41
Speaker
um You know, that's a thing now with barrel-aged stouts. So barrel-aged stouts, this has been only in the last couple months. um there's I can't remember any of the breweries. There's two or three breweries that have started making six-ounce cans ah barrel-aged stouts. So it's like a 14%, 15% beer, but they have a six-ounce can, which cuts down on... you know ah Everybody loves a barrel-aged stout, but sometimes it's hard to swallow the $35 price tag of a 22-ounce bottle. Sometimes it's hard to swallow the of a barrel-aged stout. Well, and that's the other thing. Not only the price, but... It's the richness, dude.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah, like even making it through a single bottle of Goose Island can be tough. um because it's just such an intense beer. There's so much flavor to it, so much intensity, so much richness.
00:39:40
Speaker
um It's like trying to eat an entire chocolate cake at once or something. Oh, yeah. So I think the six-ounce cans are going to catch on. um At least that's what I've been reading, is that people think they're going to catch on, and they will be the next big thing in barrel-aged beer, which would be nice.
00:39:59
Speaker
I would love to see a little bit of juice box action, personally. And, you know, you may say, okay, but it's carbonated. how are you going to stick that in juice box? Well, to be fair, I think a lot of... Well, science, yes, fine. It'll hold it in pretty well, but...
00:40:13
Speaker
You don't need that. This is not going to be an Italian pilsner or even a Czech pilsner. It's going to be effervescent in your face. This is going to be a slightly crisp on the on the bubbles, but much less carbonated, I think, than most other styles. Sours don't need to necessarily be, you know, fully carbonated to that degree. Yeah, that's a point.
00:40:36
Speaker
no Yeah, I think small bottles or small cans or small juice boxes of sours could really catch on. Are we running into a latency issue now with my my Wi-Fi?
00:40:47
Speaker
I don't think so. No. You look fine to me. i'm watching I'm watching on my side of the house. I'm like looking at my video, and it's like so just real slow. I mean, it's kind of getting blurry just because of the light condition.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah. It's getting dark out here, man. I'm trying to get... find the right lighting. you know I don't know how David Attenborough does it because when he's out in the woods, he always looks gorgeous. Crazy high-end cameras.
00:41:11
Speaker
Very fast cameras. ah Too much. Too bright.
00:41:18
Speaker
Alright, I'm go to move on to my last pairing. Now that we're sidetracked and talking about David Attenborough. Talk to me about this last pairing. I'm i'm very curious. ah It's nothing too crazy. This is a oh what we could call the official rum of Let's Get Pairing.
00:41:34
Speaker
It is. Florida Cognia. ah It is hands down our favorite rum. um And 12 happens to be my favorite expression. Hands up even at this point.
00:41:44
Speaker
Hands up. Florida Cognia, of course, means flower of the sugar cane. ah They were founded in 1890 as a sugar mill by an Italian immigrant named ellf freska Alfredo Fres... I can't talk lately.
00:42:01
Speaker
Alfredo Francisco. Hey, us. Um, who was, uh, he was an Italian. He moved to Nicaragua and started a riverboat company where he would ferry people up and down the river, fell in love with the country, fell in love with rum and decided to start a small sugar mill and a sugar plantation.
00:42:21
Speaker
Um, he started making rum in small quality quantities and just sold them to the village and his workers. Um, By 1837, he had created the the liquor company, the family liquor company of Nicaragua.
00:42:37
Speaker
um and started distilling at full scale turned into an actual distillery stopped milling sugar and started distilling um today they are the largest rum producer in nicaragua and one of the largest single estate rum producers in central america um five generations later they're still run by a member of the payas family carlos payas who's president and ceo um These days, Florida, Florida, Kanye is distilled five times in a five column still, um which is powered by steam, which is, which is always kind of interesting to see. Not no electrical heat for that. Still, it's all steam power.
00:43:19
Speaker
um Using a comp. Pretty cool, man. Yeah, it is. ah Using a column still rather than a pot still means that a lot of the flavor is actually coming from the barrel.
00:43:31
Speaker
um It's, you know, the the raw rum is a fairly neutral spirit. um You know, if you've ever had their steel barreled Blanco rums, it's not entirely flavorless. It doesn't taste like vodka, um but it's closer than a lot of white rums.
00:43:50
Speaker
So when they barrel age it, it picks up more flavor you really get a lot more intensity from the barrel flavors um rather than the influence of the base spirit. um As with rums, legally, the 12 years old here is not an age statement, um but Florida Kanye promises that that's how old it is.
00:44:11
Speaker
That's as good as it gets in the rum business. you could say You could put a 50 on there, and nobody can stop you. Luckily, ah it doesn't seem like anybody does that anymore.
00:44:23
Speaker
at least not in the not at the mid high end rums um no when they try not to because at it's at this point i think people have gotten keen to that they understand as you as your education starts to expand you're getting into rums and i i learned this i think certainly to a degree you learned this as well when you started getting into rums it's a very different demographic age in terms of age statements than we see in um with whiskey Yes, definitely. Stop saying, oh, 50 year aged, excellent, whatever, super old, very rare kind of rum. Like now, man, there's a limit to the flavor profile that you can develop with rum as opposed whiskey.
00:45:05
Speaker
And it's generally, um the on a whiskey bottle, you can't put a number. You couldn't put, you couldn't make Johnny Walker 12 and have it not be 12 years old.
00:45:18
Speaker
um Even if it doesn't say 12 years old, um putting that in the name kind of implies it. Rum, you can do that. Like, ah one of the ones that comes to mind that throws a lot of people off is... Crap, I forgot the name. Starts with a B. Barcelona.
00:45:35
Speaker
No, it's the one that has the finishing and in France. I thought that was Barcelona, no? Maybe it is. Barcelona from the Dominican Republic. Yeah, I think you're probably right. Yeah.
00:45:48
Speaker
It's not Brugal. It's either way. god's the other one yeah There's one that has a 20 on it. It's their XO 20. um It's not 20 years old. It's they say it's probably closer 12 or 13 or 14 years old, um but it's their 20th anniversary.
00:46:04
Speaker
Can't really do that in the whiskey business this easily. um Very frowned upon. Yeah, exactly. And it's even frowned upon in the in the rum business, but some people still do it. Anyway, back to Florida, Konya.
00:46:16
Speaker
um their master blender pedro uriarte uh has said that when he when a new make spirit is ready to go into the barrel he can taste it and he can say is going to be 18. this is going to be seven this is going to be 25. he knows exactly what it's going to be before it even goes into the barrel which is pretty neat um I don't think I mentioned they are aged all in ex-bourbon barrels.
00:46:44
Speaker
That's all they use is ex-bourbon barrels. Well, they do have a couple finishes now, but it's mostly ex-bourbon barrels, um especially for the stuff that doesn't say it's finished in a specific barrel.
00:46:55
Speaker
um As with a lot of Nicaraguan companies, we've seen this a lot in not just Nicaragua, but in Central American cigar factories. ah They have kind of a ah public health concern.
00:47:09
Speaker
for their, their employees. so in 1913, they started their own school for children of employees. These days it has about 600 kids going from elementary school to high school, which is awesome.
00:47:21
Speaker
Um, you know In Nicaragua, there aren't a whole lot of schools. If you don't have the the resources, you may not be able to send your children to school at all. and this is ah you know If you work there, your kids get to go to school, which is awesome. um In 1958, they also opened a hospital where they offer free medical care to employees and their families.
00:47:41
Speaker
um I think I read that they also have a dentist there. Um, which again are two things that you're not guaranteed being in a a third world the country like Nicaragua. So it's really awesome that they're, they're doing that for their people.
00:47:54
Speaker
Um, all right. That's all, all I got. This is Florida Kanye 12, age 12 years and ex bourbon barrels. The classic 40% ABV, unless you're in Nicaragua and then it's 35 or 36.
00:48:09
Speaker
Um, cause they, they water it down a little bit there. have to, yep. Uh, I'm to take a couple sips. Find out what your last pairing is. What do you got?
00:48:20
Speaker
I'm just thinking about the cigar right now. i'm I'm having this really interesting shift of flavor. And I'm curious if, as you're getting into the final third, if you're also experiencing this sort of, uh, I'll let you know after I relight. Cause mine went out.
00:48:32
Speaker
Oh no. Okay. So let me tell you a little bit about it. What I'm thinking. Um, I mentioned that hazelnut skin in the beginning. I think, That was different than astringency, but now I'm getting astringency.
00:48:45
Speaker
Specifically, you know when you bite into a toothpick and you start chewing on that toothpick and you get that little that dryness. ah that That wood resin kind of flavor. Yeah, quite exactly. It's like a wood resin.
00:48:56
Speaker
um this really intense cedar flavor has has really come out ah to the front of the cigar. And part of that is that astringency as well. So it's kind of shifted my perspective on the beers a little bit. I didn't expect there to be such a noticeable change getting into the final third.
00:49:15
Speaker
And you can puff on that a little bit. Let me tell you about this this final beer. Then we can revisit and see what you think. maybe I get exactly what you mean. that like yeah i would call that a woody bitterness.
00:49:27
Speaker
hu
00:49:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's certainly not as sweet as it used to be um just 15 minutes ago. But I think it's good. I think it's oddly apropos that I've picked my this final pairing for this this this final third here.
00:49:47
Speaker
I feel like behind you, the villagers are getting ready to come get you with their torches. Oh, did they come out? I love it. Oh, yeah. the lights came on. There's villagers just waiting in the wood line for you to finish the show so they can come grab you.
00:50:00
Speaker
and i'm And I'm running off of the laptop camera. I don't have my nice camera with me. Yeah. I completely forgot it. But if I did, you could see the beautiful flicker of... It's excellent. Makes me very happy.
00:50:11
Speaker
um All right. Check this out. Let me see if I can break the light. Dead Flowers. Dead Flowers. It's kind of a cool, very simple, but but sort of cool label.
00:50:25
Speaker
um This comes from Foam Brewing, which is up in Burlington, Vermont. And I think you might be familiar with them as well, if I'm not mistaken. I don't think so. Foam? I should say, sorry, Foam Brewers. Yeah.
00:50:37
Speaker
No, I'm not familiar with Foam. Hard word to say. Foam Brewers. They've been around since they were found in 2016. And their cool thing is that they're right on ah they're right ah on Lake Champlain.
00:50:51
Speaker
Oh, no. lot of bubbles in this beer. So they are right on on Lake Street in Burlington, Vermont. Beautiful views of of the lake. If you've never been, you got to go.
00:51:02
Speaker
it's It's fantastic. I love that place so much. And this is one of those really cool breweries that's in town. And you Vermont has a ton of breweries everywhere you go. Burlington certainly has their fair share. And the, i'm trying to remember the name of the town right before you get into Burlington.
00:51:21
Speaker
Oh, Garrett's going to poke me about this later, no doubt, because i I should know these things. um But founded in 2016, and they their whole thing, like a lot of things in Burlington, it's about the culture, and the music, the food. It's about hanging out.
00:51:37
Speaker
it's It's very much art focused, whether that's music, whether that's some kind of a medium like painting or sculpture. And so really they try to bring in people from the community to do the artwork. So this is a specific person that came in from the community. It's not their like regular artist.
00:51:52
Speaker
Oh, that's very cool. it's It's someone that came in, they collaborated with and said, yeah, do us to do a label for us. It's kind of cool. um It's got some really nice embossing on it. You can't tell on camera, but...
00:52:04
Speaker
What this is, is a classic IPA. It's just Let me show you what looks like. little haze, right? A little East Coast style, yep.
00:52:15
Speaker
I dare not call it a hazy IPA because I think it's so far from that in its crispness. And this is what we talked about, that hop. The Rwaka hop from New Zealand is...
00:52:27
Speaker
It's kind of dry. ah It's almost very champagne-y for me. And floral, super, super floral. So lot of hops we talk about getting these rich fruit flavors, the the passion fruit, the melon, ah mango.
00:52:40
Speaker
Obviously, we talk about that a lot. But there are some hops that are intensely floral and have that essence of like a little bit of, um not vetiver, but almost like a vetiver.
00:52:54
Speaker
ah What else is out there? trying to think of a really intense floral jasmine. That's like that's actually a good example. yes Intense jasmine. If you had jasmine tea, it's kind of like that. It's it's pretty cool. it's I think it's a little bit different and fun, and I love that they're collaborating. More people should be doing this.
00:53:14
Speaker
I think when we talk about breweries in general, we see a lot of them doing collaborations sort of with other breweries, maybe. but they're not really actually connecting with where they are.
00:53:26
Speaker
in In South Jersey, where I live, we are seeing a lot more of that now and they're getting local ingredients. And we actually have a malt house. I think it's the only malt house in New Jersey. They grow so many different crops.
00:53:40
Speaker
They malt everything on site and they supply distilleries and breweries across New Jersey. Obviously for a premium, because it is ah it is more expensive to do everything in house and especially in the temperate climate that we live in.
00:53:53
Speaker
you're really affected by the seasons in a big way. Yeah, local's just about always more expensive. Usually better, but ah you got to pay the price. No, it'll be better. But again, right, with so many raw ingredients, just like with cigars, it's a matter of not just the the raw material that you get, but it's also what you do with it and even how you store it.
00:54:14
Speaker
How many times have we heard about a great cigar coming back that we know is great and we know the crop is good. We know the test blends and everything. The cigar was ready to be shipped and got shipped and something happened with the container where the cigars were just completely messed up with some kind of, oh whether it was, you know humidity or or some other kind of contaminant and cigars done.
00:54:35
Speaker
It tastes like shit. It happens. Um, Yeah. So the cool thing about these cats is they really maintain a small distribution as well, which I was really surprised to find them in, in Pennsylvania.
00:54:48
Speaker
Is they, that they're kind of big thing is they just really distribute locally. Um, so I wonder if somebody, somebody went up there, bought a whole bunch through a distributor, which, you know, you technically, you can do that. I suspect if you pay the state, um, the state transport fees, right? The tariffs.
00:55:06
Speaker
I believe you can go up there and buy, if you have a license in another state and it's recognized by state of Vermont, you can go up there and buy stuff and then bring it back to your shop and then sell it in your shop, which is likely how they get a lot of these beers from from up there.
00:55:22
Speaker
Interesting. But it's very, it's a very much different on the tongue profile because of the bubbles are really intense.
00:55:32
Speaker
It seems like it. I can tell just from your reactions. I feel like Henry Zabrowski, you know, you listen to the last podcast and sometimes he's, he's just like huffing through a sentence because he needs to burp.
00:55:44
Speaker
He just had a meatball parm sandwich and chug two beers. It's like, that's how I feel right now. I know. I know what you mean. All right. So the Florida Cognac. I think it's just too sweet for this cigar.
00:55:56
Speaker
Um, wow. ah Like this cigar has kind of a delicate sweetness and the sweetness of Florida Kanye, even though for rum, it's not that sweet, really overpowers the sweetness in this cigar.
00:56:10
Speaker
Um, in a, in a not so great way, which is unfortunate. Um,
00:56:16
Speaker
I'm going to go back and try because I felt like the the beer, even though it's sweet, had a more balanced sweetness that worked better with this cigar. Maybe it's the that kind of creaminess that you get from having vanilla on your palate.
00:56:29
Speaker
um But i I'll find out. How's your your IPA working with all those bowls? I think it was working really well until I believe my cigar went out. I'm going to try to bring this thing back to life.
00:56:44
Speaker
What is with cigars going out lately? I've noticed in a lot of reviews people have cigars go out a lot, and I don't know what it is. um I'm sure there are some people in our circles that might speculate that climate change has affected the... I would guess ah fermentation.
00:57:02
Speaker
but Fermentation, but also supply chain. Changes in supply chain. Potentially. Could be, could be. Maybe we're just all super stressed.
00:57:15
Speaker
We're smoking these things too damn fast. We need to go back to the 90s where no one's stressed and everything's great. We got the future ahead of us. Maybe that's what it is. I don't know. but paul my
00:57:28
Speaker
ah Man, this ah milkshake IPA is working really well with it.
00:57:37
Speaker
that really balanced hoppiness, the sweet but not too sweet kind of balance of it um makes it work really shockingly well with this cigar.
00:57:51
Speaker
Man, I'm getting a weird thing. i almost don't want to say it because I know someone out there is going to chastise me for it, probably. Say it, don't spray it. um Yeah, let me you get my palate clean up.
00:58:03
Speaker
And it maybe it's because I'm sitting outside. Maybe I'm sitting... kind of relatively fairly humid, I should say. And there's a lot of fertilizer smell in the air and it might be affecting my my kind of this the the way that I perceive the scent of the cigar in the final third.
00:58:19
Speaker
But it's it's that sort of if you've ever walked into a ah like a new newly built house or space where they had just put up the drywall.
00:58:31
Speaker
right They did all the mudding and everything else. Drywall's ready to go for paint, but it's not painted yet. It's got that smell. Does that make sense? It does make sense. It's a weird reference. But I'm not sure I've ever experienced that.
00:58:44
Speaker
um Or at least if I have, I don't recall a particular smell to go with.
00:58:51
Speaker
Yeah. it's a i I attach... Smell memory is a weird thing. i think some people are more ah visual. Some people are more scent-based. and Other people are more sound-based for core memories. and For some reason, that's a core memory.
00:59:05
Speaker
Who knows why? but So your cigar is back on? Uh-huh. what do you think? In the final third, how you feel about it? I love this cigar. This is a great blend.
00:59:17
Speaker
Like I said before, I'm not sure it's worth... you know I wouldn't buy every box I can find for $30 a cigar. um
00:59:27
Speaker
But for me, it's definitely the kind of cigar that if I was in a cigar lounge and I wanted to put my pinky up a little bit and smoke something a little fancier than I usually do, um this is one I would reach for.
00:59:38
Speaker
um it's It's hard to...
00:59:45
Speaker
It's hard to recommend a $30 cigar, right? Because that's ah about double what a very good cigar should cost. um But cigars have gotten a lot more expensive. There's a lot more $30 cigars than there were five years ago.
01:00:01
Speaker
um And for me, this is one of the better $30 cigars. mean, it's...
01:00:07
Speaker
um i mean it's
01:00:11
Speaker
Hard to say it's right up there with, but it's close to the stuff like the Atabays, the Byrons of the world. um Yeah, I think that's a completely fair point. I wholeheartedly agree. $30 cigar is tough even for someone who is very much into $30 cigars and generally tends to spend their money in that range on what they smoke and maybe smoke a little bit less frequently.
01:00:36
Speaker
but i I think it's a nice cigar to pick up if you happen to see it and there's really nothing else maybe catching your eye and you're in the mood for something new and different. I think that would be ah really a good experience.
01:00:50
Speaker
Yeah. And if if by some miracle you find it on clearance for like $18, that's when you buy a box. Yeah. At least that's what I would say.
01:01:02
Speaker
um Like for for under $20, I think this cigar would be an easy, easy recommendation. At $30, it's more like if you're if you're in the mood for a $30 cigar, I would recommend this one. But I'm not saying, ah you know, put down three Umbagogues, four Umbagogues and buy this instead.
01:01:25
Speaker
Because if you're buying four Umbagogues, you probably like that cigar lot, right? You know what I mean? Yeah. that's I feel like I'm just weirdly talking in circles, but... ah No, no, I think it's good. You know what mean I mean?
01:01:37
Speaker
I feel it, man. I feel it. and We all need a variety. We all like to Sometimes you want to smoke less, but you want to smoke something different. Yeah. We want you to smoke better. want you to smoke less. Smoke less.
01:01:49
Speaker
Just kidding. Don't smoke more. No, smoke a lot. I have a cigar that says that. Smoke more cigars. This sure doesn't say it, but I wear the wear it all the time. Uh...
01:02:01
Speaker
right, I've gone back through my pairings, and shockingly, against all reason and logic, but the the vanilla milkshake IPA is my winner. I did not think that was going to happen. This was kind of a throw shoot against the wall pairing inspired by your pairings last week, um and it works really well. The Glen Morangie Tale of the Forest goes fantastically with this cigar.
01:02:28
Speaker
um But so does this, this beer Florida Cogna in a rare turn of events is kind of miss with this pairing. The sweetness just overpowers that really elegant, mild sweetness of the cigar.
01:02:41
Speaker
Um, and causes it to, to fall a little flat while you're, while you're drinking that. Um, and Let me think of what what else would I recommend to pair this with. I think a smoky scotch would actually work pretty well.
01:02:57
Speaker
um I think if you wanted to pair something on the lighter side of beers, a Pilsner or an Amber or a Blondale or something like that, I think that could work really well.
01:03:10
Speaker
How about a straight up just black coffee, man? Oh, I mean... Plain black coffee, I think, is ah it's undersold and under experienced and a lot of people kind of overlook They say, well, that's, that does, um why would I do that? That'd be silly.
01:03:26
Speaker
I talked to a couple of people at PCA about that, that um there were a couple of manufacturers and stuff that I spoke with that I, I talked to them about pairing a little bit and they're like, I'm just not a pairing guy. I'm, I don't drink.
01:03:37
Speaker
I just pair all my cigars with black coffee. And I said, yeah I do too. like that's the the Black coffee is the... che We call it the cheater pairing. like Nothing pairs better than black coffee with any cigar.
01:03:51
Speaker
um So we just don't usually try it because it's such a specifically good pairing that almost never fails with any cigar.
01:04:02
Speaker
um so it's all you know Shout out to all the black coffee drinkers out there.
01:04:08
Speaker
Something with bubbles, but again, well, I should say seltzer, yes, maybe, but mineral water more specifically is what I meant. think mineral water is really cool, but there's ah there's an element of, um there's potential there for it for it to be not great, depending on the cigar that having.
01:04:24
Speaker
If it has a ton of minerality and you hit it with with a particular type of mineral water, you're going to get this floying funk on your palate that you're not going to want to enjoy. Yeah, you could, yeah.
01:04:36
Speaker
But yeah, that also works really well. What's your pairing of the night? I'm very curious because your pairings have been all over the place. As usual. Oh, man. Okay. I'm
01:04:50
Speaker
going to with the Smoogee. Smoogee, strawberry margarita. Strawberry margarita, man, is super cool. No lactose. Slightly sour, but not so much to pucker you up.
01:05:03
Speaker
I mean, it's probably got like a little bit of lime, right? No, as far as I know, there's... I would think calling it margarita it would, but who knows? Well, I think... and i And I say this having recently experimented with citric acid.
01:05:17
Speaker
um I think they added citric acid. for a little pizzazz, but not ah beyond the bacteria sour, right? That's ah like a totally different culture of sour, if you will.
01:05:29
Speaker
Pun in full, I think full pun intended on that one. But citric acid will oftentimes, and I did this because I had fruit in mind, I have mango puree in mind. So I wanted the mango, the sweetness to pop out a little bit more.
01:05:42
Speaker
And interestingly enough, if you throw a little bit of citric acid in there, ah like seven grams, really. Seven grams to a five-gallon batch should be fine. ah It opens up a lot of those flavors, but it doesn't make it it it doesn't make it sour or doesn't make it tart in the way that you would imagine, like putting a like lime juice in there, let's say.
01:06:04
Speaker
It brightens up and and accentuates the natural flavors of whatever the fruit is. So I i wonder if they did that, man. And again, citric acid is a really great preservative for for natural preservative for flavor.
01:06:17
Speaker
yeah true true that that would be my guess but at this point i'm gonna call them and ask them for a case of this stuff because it's so good nice um i'm gonna keep an eye out for it because like i said i don't think i can find that locally um but i have seen that logo go by on taylor before um so i'll keep an eye out for it and see if i can nag some next time they have it um Alright, that's one for the road. or Sorry, that's tearing the night out of the way.
01:06:46
Speaker
um And now it's time for one for the road.
TV Show Reviews: Poker Face and The Righteous Gemstones
01:06:48
Speaker
um You can tell I still have a little bit of brain fog from the colds. The multiple colds I've fought in the last three weeks. Um...
01:06:57
Speaker
All right, one for the road. i'mnna ah I'm going to go first and let Dennis do on it if he needs to. um Mine is a TV show that came back two or three weeks ago. So there's a couple episodes for you to watch of season two called Poker Face.
01:07:13
Speaker
Have you heard of the show, Dennis? No, I don't think so. All right. What's that about? um So it stars Natasha Lyonne. You know who she is? i I expect a lot of people probably don't know her by name, even not but she's the girl that has like a really raspy voice and frizzy red hair. Yeah, I know exactly. I know exactly. with Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Once you hear that, you know who it is.
01:07:34
Speaker
um So she plays a character who for literally no reason, there's no, explanation for it ever they don't even try um it's just like it's a thing move past it uh because that's the least interesting thing about this show um she can tell if people are lying if you talk to her or if she sees you on tv and you say a lie she goes bullshit just add a habit it she just has a habit if you're if you're having a conversation you say a lie she goes bullshit in the middle of you talking and
01:08:08
Speaker
ah it makes for a really interesting character who can always tell when somebody's lying. just it's there It's a superpower that doesn't need to make sense. but she owns a Jewish deli southern Brooklyn?
01:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. No. ah She is... birth god it one and most of season one and season two, she's kind of on the run from the mob kind of thing. she there was There's a whole backstory that you get in one of the later episodes of season one where she worked for a casino because...
01:08:39
Speaker
Being a pit boss at a casino, being able to tell when somebody's lying ah makes life for the casino owner a lot easier. But she got into some trouble with that and some stuff happened.
01:08:51
Speaker
ah But the format of the show is that it is a very Columbo-inspired kind of mystery show where it's always about a murder that happened and she's ah her superpower. Somebody says something and she goes, bullshit.
01:09:08
Speaker
wait, why did you lie about that? And then she figures out why you lied about it and how it connects to somebody who died. and ah The really interesting thing about it is that every episode is a complete story arc um where it'll have it'll have crazy guest stars.
01:09:28
Speaker
um There was an episode with God, what's her name? The girl who was Tom Cruise jumped on the couch, Katie Holmes. oh Katie Holmes and Giancarlo Esposito were the guest stars in this episode, which is like... That's super cool, man.
01:09:45
Speaker
Steve Buscemi has been ah only voice i love steveham co-star or guest star for now. He's been in like three or four episodes. You only hear his voice.
01:09:56
Speaker
I assume at some point we'll meet him. But I heard the voice and i was like, that's Steve Buscemi. um but every episode is told in a really interesting way. So the main character, Charlie, is lives a nomadic lifestyle.
01:10:10
Speaker
She's just kind of traveling across the country, going wherever she feels like, and the first act of the show, of each episode, is what happened.
01:10:20
Speaker
So it's this new character that's introduced. You meet their friend or their wife or their coworker um who ends so and somebody ends up getting murdered. But there's a whole story to it. Like you're, you're with these people for 20 minutes without seeing the main character of our show.
01:10:36
Speaker
um And sometimes this part of the episode can take place over a week or two. Then in the second act, we rewind and we go back to our main character and find out how why she's in the same area as these people, how she's involved. A lot of times um she'll have been basically just off screen for everything you're watching, but you don't know that.
01:11:00
Speaker
um So it it makes a really interesting contrast where like ah this week there was an episode about baseball. And as they're in the baseball stadium during the first act, all this stuff is happening.
01:11:12
Speaker
Uh, and it takes place over like five weeks and constantly my wife and I were like, I bet she's the mascot. Uh, because a lot of times you'll see her, but not even notice it's her on screen, uh, during the first act. Uh, it turned out she was not the mascot, but it was a good guess.
01:11:30
Speaker
Um, And then we we kind of, after the rewind, we follow her up to the point where the murder happens, and then she has to solve the case. it's I think it is one of the best well-written ah mystery shows, like Prime Solver kind of shows. It's more interesting than, you know, the CSIs, the NCISs of the world.
01:11:52
Speaker
um Just by... the way it's written. It's, it's a very interesting, very well written. Uh, there's, it's one of the more interesting things I think is that you almost always know what happened and watching her figure it out is the fun part rather than the twist being the fun part.
01:12:13
Speaker
The fun part is watching her go Oh, I know what happened there. yeah it's It's a blast. It's on Peacock. Check it out. It's called Poker Face. um There's one and a half seasons out now um with the new episodes airing, I don't know, some day of the week.
01:12:29
Speaker
There's an episode a week now.
01:12:32
Speaker
ah So check it out. Check out Poker Face. I highly recommend it. if you Especially if you're into like, ah you know, Columbo, Monk, that kind of stuff. um This is like the the next generation of that sort of thing.
01:12:45
Speaker
Check it out. right, what do you got, Dennis? Oh, man, that sounds like a cool show. i gotta to check this out. And I love the Columbo vibe. I really recommend it. And they they specifically said in an interview at some point that it's basically based off Columbo, which I thought was really cool.
01:13:02
Speaker
I kind of got that from Sneaky Pete a little bit, too. sort That's similar, the storytelling. Which is, I loved Sneaky Pete so much. That was a really good show. I only ever watched the first season. There were like two or three, right?
01:13:15
Speaker
My commute, I think there were three total. My commute to war work, total round-trip commute, every day was between five and six hours. like It was a hell of a commute, dude. So I had all this time.
01:13:27
Speaker
to to to kind of sit on a bus and multiple buses with trains. And the yeah, so I got down on a bunch of different shows back then. So the show that finally, my wife and I finally finished watching just recently was ah the last season of The Righteous Gemstones.
01:13:43
Speaker
Yeah. Which, man, if if by this point, by season four, if you have not heard about it, I think you're really missing it I have not watched the new season yet. Unfortunately.
01:13:55
Speaker
Okay, so I'm not going to ruin anything. I think the new season is... It's pretty good. I think it's more of a closure season. It's not so much of an enigmatic season like 2 and 3 were. okay Number 1, for sure.
01:14:07
Speaker
Number 1 was the intros. The intros always going to be hot. The 2 and 3 seasons were the development of the characters, the story arcs, so all these things. And then now the final season was more of a closure, but I think it was... Yeah, wrapping things up.
01:14:19
Speaker
It was appropriate. It was appropriate, i think, the way they did, and we certainly enjoyed it. um There were some people I didn't expect in that season. There always are. That's the kind of show that, like, they have cameos, and you're like, what the hell is that person even doing in this show?
01:14:33
Speaker
Yeah. great Well, we got we saw in in season four, and I think it's no secret, what's his name? Siffler. Mm-hmm. Sean William Scott.
01:14:45
Speaker
Sean, thank you. Sean, William, Scott, and also ah Mr. ah Whistle Arrow, man. Oh, Michael Rooker.
01:14:55
Speaker
Michael Rooker, thank you. Man, i got I can't remember what I had for breakfast, and I can't remember the name of the beer I'm drinking most of the time. We remember these things, you know? actors Actors I usually have a handle on somehow.
01:15:10
Speaker
I love, and it really sat well with me because I love this take on this relate this ridiculous televangelist. Like, classically, I think you talk to anybody and say, like, that's an American thing. Like, classically, megachurch-type deal. These televangelists.
01:15:28
Speaker
Baby Billy Freeman's character was based off of several famous televangelists in real life. Um, right. Who was it? It was, uh, uh, Jimmy Swagger is a good example. Actually, Jimmy Swagger is crazy. Televangelist.
01:15:40
Speaker
That one guy with the white hair. I can't remember his name. The 700 club guy. Was that, um, Jim Baker, Jim back backer, Baker, something like that.
01:15:53
Speaker
Probably, uh, The guy with the fart videos, they they they dubbed over him? No, that wasn't him. Pat Robertson. Ah, Pat Robertson, okay. He did. Well, you know.
01:16:06
Speaker
But he was like, he was a, I think a lot of Billy Baby is based on him. Probably, probably, yeah. I remember seeing him late at night or early in the morning when i was watching TV as a kid.
01:16:20
Speaker
It's just fun. It's it's fun. I love the take, Danny McBride's take on this whole experience. ah It's everything kind of what you would imagine, almost in the sense the real life behind all these big enigmatic characters and in megachurches are.
01:16:35
Speaker
the way that they infight, the way that they're sort of religious, but they're not really that religious, and and they sort of are fighting with with their own celebrity in ah in a funny way. Yeah.
01:16:46
Speaker
um But ah just a ah ah preface. If you're religiously sensitive, I do not recommend this show. No, please don't watch it. Yeah, I think it's...
01:16:58
Speaker
If you don't mind people poking fun at religion, then it's not crass. I don't think i don't think it's crass. There's a little bit of of nudity and exposure, and some of the themes might be considered a little bit crass, but crass in a human way, I think than religious thing. It's not intended to offend, I think is what you're saying, right? like it's not in i don't It's supposed to be just funny poking fun at these way larger-than-life people that are based around religion. Yeah,
01:17:23
Speaker
And it and it to be fair, it really pokes fun at the the the largest extreme points yeah of of religious communities. I just wanted to give people a warning because I know some people out there can be sensitive to that sort of thing, like people making fun of their religion, and I don't want to and't want to make make any of those people angry because then we might we might not make it.
01:17:47
Speaker
Enough said. I... I wholeheartedly agree with you on that. But yeah, check it out. Otherwise, it's it's a fun show.
HBO's Rebranding Journey and Cigar Recommendations
01:17:54
Speaker
It's cool. It's on HBO. I think just HBO, if I'm not mistaken, for now.
01:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, um which is recently renamed HBO Max. What? ah So HBO, ah when they when they started streaming, they became h HBO Max when they started the streaming app.
01:18:13
Speaker
um They got rid of the HBO Go app, and they started HBO Max. Then they did a merger with Discovery or National Geographic or something. And they changed the name to Max.
01:18:29
Speaker
And last week they announced they're changing the name back to HBO Max. um Because I'm sure people like me, when I click the Max app, I say I'm going to open HBO Max. My wife says, what channel is that on? And I say HBO Max.
01:18:44
Speaker
um and they couldn't stop people from me from saying that, so they just gave up and renamed it again. I just find it a little hilarious. Sometimes it really do be how... It is... They don't think it'd be like it is. It would be how it do sometimes.
01:19:01
Speaker
but It did do be that way. They don't think it'd be like it is, but it do. Everybody knows that. Alright. Everybody...
01:19:12
Speaker
If you are, again, i don't want to, I can't, I have a moral objection to telling everybody, go check out this $30 cigar. Um, but if you're in a cigar lounge and you're willing to spend 30 bucks, I think this is a simple way to spend it.
01:19:29
Speaker
Um, this is a very good cigar it for its price range. Uh, I really enjoyed it. Um, I wanted to talk about kind of the the art deco, great Gatsby inspired style of the band, but I already took the band off.
01:19:47
Speaker
So I'm not going to show you a ripped up band, but check out this cigar. I definitely do recommend it. um If, if you're in the neighborhood to try one out, definitely go ahead and do it.
01:20:00
Speaker
um Because I think it's a very good cigar. Any closing thoughts on the cigar, Dennis? I'm a fan. I think it's fantastic and certainly really approachable for any, any kind of smoker. It's really not i think you a powerhouse.
01:20:13
Speaker
You're right. engaged Throughout the whole process. I think that's part of what I appreciate so much about it is, um, I, I think the, you know, the Padron level of $30 cigar, you know, the Padron family reserves that are in the 30 to $50 range very good.
01:20:32
Speaker
are very good but they are knock you out strong for a lot of people. Um, people who have been smoking as and as often as, and and as long as us don't tend to be affected by that. But there are, I know there are a lot of people who are nicotine sensitive and who a strong cigar can ruin their day.
01:20:54
Speaker
And those Padron family reserves are that kind of cigar where they will fuck you up. Um, because they're very intense. This is in the same vein as that, but, uh, you know, not, not knock you out kind of strong. This is, uh, squarely medium bodied and medium flavor.
01:21:16
Speaker
Um, so it's not going overpower you. Like you were saying before, For me, this could be a first thing in the morning cigar or an end of the night cigar.
01:21:26
Speaker
I like something on the slightly milder side. I love a Corojo for the end of the night. um Something that's got that sweetness. um And this cigar fits the bill either way for me.
01:21:39
Speaker
So I recommend checking it out. And yeah, I think that's about all we got for you tonight.
Conclusion and Audience Appreciation
01:21:49
Speaker
So thank you everybody for hanging out with us, um for checking out the show.
01:21:55
Speaker
We will see you on the next one. We haven't decided what we'll smoke yet, but we will figure it out and we will get the announcement posted. Dennis, unless you have any other closing comments, hit him with the catchphrase and we will get out of here.
01:22:08
Speaker
Yeah, man. Thank you everybody for watching and listening. And remember, we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink less.