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LGP 39 - Las Calaveras Decimo with Bear Duplisea
20 Plays7 days ago
This week, special Co-Host Bear Duplisea of El Oso Fumar Takes joins Tripp to try out the extra limited Decimo release of Las Calaveras
Recommended
Transcript
Episode Introduction and Guests
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of let's get pairing. This is episode 39 and today we're smoking the Las Calaveras Decimo got the beautiful box back there. I'll show it off in a little bit, ah but for now grab yourself a drink grab yourself a cigar and let's get pairing.
00:01:08
Speaker
everybody. Welcome back. As always here at let's get pairing. This is episode 39. I am your host trip here in the Casa de Monte Cristo studios. um And with me, not as always, Dennis is out this evening.
00:01:22
Speaker
And, but with me, of course, in his place is the maybe even better bear duplicity from LL. So Fumar bear. How you doing tonight? Oh, I'm doing fantastic. Don't say that about Dennis, man. I'm just saying, i just say I'm here for the pinch hit, man.
00:01:36
Speaker
You are, and I appreciate it. and And I appreciate you for using the baseball reference in the green room when you were like, man, thanks for pinch hitting. And and i was like, dude, I'm honored. They don't come along very often for me.
00:01:50
Speaker
But yeah, man, I'm excited. I'm excited about the cigar too. So that, I mean, um, this is gonna be ah this could be a fantastic evening uh hopefully I got some really good pairings I've got a show after this too so hopefully I I don't get uh I don't get too nuts so get you try not to go a little too hard um I do have that piece of advice as somebody who's done it a handful of times
00:02:13
Speaker
Getting my cigar lit up here.
Cigar Lighting Ritual
00:02:15
Speaker
I will do my best. So, okay, so that's, yeah, so we're lighting up, right? I should have told you that before. um We generally light right before we go live so that we're just kind of, you know, working our way through the cigar.
00:02:26
Speaker
um I don't get too into the pair or the ah review experience. i like tea no I like to kind of give a, not quite a score, but a just just impressions of the cigar and a recommendation of whether I think people should try it or not at the end, right?
00:02:43
Speaker
I mean, it's it's gorgeous though. I mean, this the the label, the foot band, the label itself. I mean, the my wrapper is absolutely gorgeous. I mean, a little bit of tooth to a nice little sheen from the oil.
00:02:55
Speaker
i mean I mean, it's a gorgeous cigar. Let me pull this box down. I had to get a box of these because anything with skeletons all over it. I'm all about. Yeah.
Las Calaveras Decimo Cigar Discussion
00:03:05
Speaker
um And this is just an awesome like
00:03:19
Speaker
bright colored diao delli muos art just a great presentation from crownhead so for anybody wondering This is not the Las Calaveras you may have smoked a couple of months ago or that we had on the show um like five or six weeks ago.
00:03:36
Speaker
um Not too many episodes ago we smoked it because I didn't realize this was coming out so soon. Um, this is the limited edition of the limited edition, right?
00:03:47
Speaker
So to commemorate the 10th annual release of the limited edition series, Las Calaveras that comes out every year, every year is a new blend. Um, there's always, well, not always, there's usually three sizes.
00:03:59
Speaker
They usually change up what sizes are available, but, uh, you know, they kind of, they do their own thing. They carve their own path with this one. Um, And this one pays off new colors on the label, you know, like, you know yeah, exactly.
00:04:12
Speaker
they They like to not get too crazy, but keep it a consistent series. And this is commemorating 10 years of that series, um which I don't know about you, but I've always been a big fan of Las Calaveras.
00:04:25
Speaker
Oh, huge, huge fan of this series. In fact, we even talked about it. um Oh, we even talked about it on ah the Primetime Special Edition on Tuesday. um You know, we were talking about cigar stories, right? Stories, you know, behind brands, stories that we liked, stories we didn't like.
00:04:41
Speaker
ah This was my number one story that I liked. I love i love honoring the past. I'm a big milestone person. You are. um So, yeah. so I mean, I really love honoring the past. But one thing that you neglected to mention too about the Lost Caravage series is is the reason they created this series was is was a way of honoring people that were close to the people with the company. So every year um they'll actually put those, the people that they've lost that year, ah their initials yeah on the band.
00:05:09
Speaker
So super, super cool homage and tribute to them. um And i really i i really dig it. I was hooked. I admittedly said this on on Tuesday when i was talking about it.
00:05:21
Speaker
I was hooked ah for the series, had no idea on the backstory yeah um for like three years. like And didn't like even realize it was gonna be a series the first like from the first year to the second year, um which was- Yeah, i remember my um I remember not knowing that either until the second one came out being like, oh, there's more.
00:05:44
Speaker
Yeah, I was super excited about That first one had me absolutely hooked. i thought it was I thought it was phenomenal. Probably one of the best cigars that I've smoked in the last 15 years.
00:05:57
Speaker
um And you know ah i just i it it in it and and then I love the series that's kind of followed it. I think that outside of you know, the monster series with Todd's It's probably ah one of the, a handful of the most successful series and in in in the business.
00:06:19
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that comes down for both of those, just being so consistent. Comes out every year around the same time, and every time it is, um if not a great blend, and at least noteworthy blend, right? um there They're not—I can't use the phrase hit or miss, because they're not hit or miss. They're hit or grand slam.
00:06:41
Speaker
Right. Like sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's just really good. ah But they've been very consistent in both of those series, which I think says a lot about the people putting out those cigars.
00:06:54
Speaker
Always enjoyed it. um Manufactured always by My Father's Cigars. There was a great partnership between Crown Heads and them. um always Always done by them, which is ah interesting. um you know For a while, i don't you know i don't know the details or logistics behind it, but for a while, but collaborations with the with the Garcia family kind of just stopped.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah, they like they were going hot and then they it kind of just stopped. And then they partnered with, the you know, um um the the new factory down Oh, gosh, man, I'm drawing blanks tonight. um I'm trying to remember the name of the factory, too. The Pichardo factory. What used to be the Pichardo factory? Yeah, we used to be the Pichardo factory. they really They really went heavy into there and stuff.
00:07:43
Speaker
um and Yeah, I remember hearing maybe five years ago or so about capacity issues at my father, and they've since expanded. um So I think those capacity issues have probably gone away because they're they're pumping out crazy cigars now, crazy amounts of cigars.
00:08:00
Speaker
It's great. you create And they've also cultivated. They started. That was the time, the time they werere starting to cultivate their own tobacco, too. And so a lot more of it, at least. Yeah. Like, ah you know, like almost exclusively stuff. And and ah great. And they've got it down. They've got it down now. It's crazy.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah. And that's a great segue to the ah the makeup of this cigar. So the wrapper on this is Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro. um all of the other tobaccos in here are grown by the Garcia family. The binder is Nicaraguan. All of the filler is Nicaraguan.
00:08:30
Speaker
All of that, like I said, is grown on the ah the Garcia family farms, which is you very cool. Yeah, and almost tatuaje-like fashion, right?
00:08:41
Speaker
Undisclosed Nicaraguan binders. Can't talk about what they are for per se, but ah but no good stuff. And this is this comes in one size of the six by 54.
00:08:53
Speaker
um There are 2500 boxes of 10 available. Price is a little steep, but ah you know that all Garcia tobacco on the filler is ah probably where that's coming from. These are 1895 a cigar.
00:09:09
Speaker
All right. So how much I paid for this? and Probably something like that. Yeah. All right. What are your first impressions so far? Flavors, flavor notes.
00:09:21
Speaker
um I'm really digging. I'm really digging the the the kind of robust flavor of it. There's some good ah some good spiciness to it. I wouldn't put like a like a red peppercorn kind of spice more like a more like a like a pea.
00:09:39
Speaker
peppercorn, a little more Sichuan, more robust kind of earthy flavors, but not earthy. So it's not dirt. It's, you know, you're getting that kind of like that roasted coffee.
00:09:52
Speaker
I'm getting a little bit of just kind of um kind of a little bit of a kind of a dark fruit. I haven't really pinpointed it yet too much on the retrohale that kind of lingers on the sweetness, which tells me that it's probably, there's probably some jalapa tobacco in here.
00:10:10
Speaker
and that I think that's a good guess. Tends to do that to my nose a little bit. You kind of get a little of that dark fruit sweetness on the end, on the retrohale for me. But those those were the impressions I've gotten here in the first ah first little bit.
00:10:22
Speaker
I really get that, like, I would call it white pepper on the retrohale. like a lot of spice on the retrohale for me. um Other than that, I think you are, you have my palate.
00:10:35
Speaker
Like it matches up perfectly with what you said. So I have nothing to add.
00:10:41
Speaker
Good stuff, man. I can't wait. I can't wait to just to pair this up and and smoke more of it. It's fantastic.
Introduction to TX Blended Whiskey
00:10:47
Speaker
right. Well, then let's get started with some pairing. um I'll introduce mine first, which you introduced me to this one in the first place.
00:10:55
Speaker
So we may it's possible to have a little bit of overlap here, but I wanted to try some TX blended whiskey with this. Oh, yeah. Nice. um All right. So to give a little background on TX, um the distiller distilling company is called Firestone and Robertson Distilling.
00:11:15
Speaker
They were founded by Leonard Firestone and Troy Robertson, who knew each other because their children were friends with each other. Um, they would kind of, you know, it was one, it was one of those other dads that you meet at birthday parties.
00:11:28
Speaker
Uh, you see him at school events, but you, you're not friends. You just kind of know them a little bit. Um, and one day Troy went on a distillery tour, uh, cause he was just curious about whiskey and he walks in and the owner's like, you know, there's another Fort worth guy who has a tour scheduled for next week.
00:11:49
Speaker
And he was like, oh, well, who is that? And he said, it's this guy, Leonard Firestone. And he was like, holy shit, I know that guy. That's weird. um So he called later that day and was like, hey, Leonard, um I hear you're into whiskey.
00:12:05
Speaker
and They scheduled a lunch for later that week and found out they both were like had dreams of owning a distilling company. Yeah. And that's kind of where the journey started. the They had lunch together. They came up with a plan.
00:12:18
Speaker
um In 2012, they started distilling in a warehouse in Fort Worth. um And in 2014, they went crazy and bought and built Whiskey Ranch. Have you been there, Bear?
00:12:32
Speaker
Because I know it's in your neck of the woods. It sounds rad. So in 2014, they bought this property. They spent three years converting the clubhouse, um which it was a golf course. They spent three years converting this golf course and clubhouse into the largest distillery east of the Mississippi.
00:12:50
Speaker
ah That should be west of the Mississippi, right? West of the Mississippi. Okay. Yeah, I mistyped that my notes. um It's a big-ass distillery. I was going to say, that's off their website. That's hilarious.
00:13:01
Speaker
it they I might have copied that off their website. I might have just wrote East instead of West. um They were acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2019. So good for them.
00:13:12
Speaker
Cashing out a little bit. um I haven't looked up whether they still work there, but in and acquisitions of smaller companies like this, a lot of times that's the way it goes. it's It's an acquisition for monetary reasons, not to just retire.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah. allows you to distribute further to places like Florida. So I was able to get a bottle of this. um This is TX blended whiskey, 82 proof, available in 34 states.
00:13:38
Speaker
And it it only costs about $35, which is a smoking deal on a whiskey this good. The thing I always like to point out, which, Bear, if you have a bottle on hand, this little leather cap.
00:13:51
Speaker
So they buy cuts of leather from... saddle makers and holster makers and boot makers, stuff like that. And they punch out these little circles and every cap has a unique piece of leather there.
00:14:04
Speaker
I think I got a real cool one that looks like it goes on a saddle or something like that, or maybe a ah very fancy belt. Um, When they first started, they partnered with Tandy Leather, which is a really ah big local leather company.
00:14:19
Speaker
Oh, really? That's interesting. Locally owned, family owned stuff. But then they like started they wanted to create, like you said, more of a unique um kind of craft experience with it. So they started just going and getting a bunch of other stuff. Not that Tandy didn't have a wide variety of products, but they wanted to have...
00:14:37
Speaker
yeah Now they have like a crazy variety and they're they're mostly using off cuts that are, you know, pieces of leather that can't really be used for anything else because they're too small, too weird, whatever. um And it's just a cool way of upcycling those kind of things and adding a little piece of uniqueness to every single bottle.
00:14:54
Speaker
um I've seen some that have like green leather or red leather. Very cool. Very cool. Anyway, I'm going to take couple sips, let you talk about your first pairing tonight.
Bear's Tequila Pairing
00:15:06
Speaker
right. Well, considering we' we're doing Las Calaveras and it's been a reminiscent of my ancestors from Mexico and Dia de las Muertas celebrating that, you know, not just just about a month ago and everything. So it's crazy. It's been a month, but I've got.
00:15:26
Speaker
um Oh, that's funny. I do have a bottle in hand. about that? Let me see that leather. No, this one's pretty boring. Oh yeah. yeah
00:15:39
Speaker
But still unique. That's cool. That's funny. that um That's actually not my first pairing. My first pairing paying homage to my family and the country of Mexico. So every Thanksgiving, I have a tradition with with my brother and my family.
00:15:54
Speaker
um I buy a bottle of tequila that I've never had before. or that and And we share it as a family. And... This year, Thanksgiving was a little light. My ah my brother and ah my girlfriend were the only ones ah here and everything. um But, you know, we still had some... I still had some tequila with him, so that was nice.
00:16:14
Speaker
And the tequila that I got was ah tequila. it was ah It's a reposado, as always. And it's Uno Por Favor Tequila, which comes in a pretty badass bottle. That is yes one of the most interesting bottles. reminds...
00:16:30
Speaker
Very weirdly, it reminds me of like the barber side at the barbershop that they put the cones in. Yeah, they put the cones in. Fuck yeah, that does. Yeah. I always thought like a chalice to like, you know, like you drink out of it like that's crazy and stuff.
00:16:44
Speaker
But it's ah it's imported by the Stylos ah de Mexico here in Dallas, actually. So it's it's Texas thing, too.
00:16:57
Speaker
um And Really cool, really cool, ah ah really cool ah bottle.
00:17:08
Speaker
Really interesting color to it, so not too much. um And this tequila is really ah fascinating. So the company was born from, they say, from listening to their customers' needs.
00:17:20
Speaker
And the target in mine was designed to develop a tequila with the purpose of satisfying the market gap by going back to basics and perfecting processes and designs that had been forgotten.
00:17:31
Speaker
I don't know how you can perfect something that's already perfect like tequila, but I guess they wanted to go for it. So their brand's motto is here, you are the, here, you're the judge. So...
00:17:42
Speaker
um I like it. I like it. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. They use a Tequiliana Weber Agave from Jalisco. So you you can't argue with that.
00:17:54
Speaker
The southern part. So they use an autoclave, a high pressure cooking with a roller mill extraction on this particular tequila. ah The fermentation is done in stainless steel tanks with 100% agave. Again, very cool.
00:18:08
Speaker
It's twice distilled ah using a copper pot. And then it's aged in American white oak barrels. Oh. ah you So used bourbon barrels.
00:18:20
Speaker
I like that. Yeah, and so it's 80 proof. Is this 80 proof? Yeah, 80 proof. So it's a little lighter than some Reposados that I've had. ah It's a little darker than some that I've had.
00:18:35
Speaker
um um i'm I like an Anejo tequila just as much as the next guy. I'm not a big fan of Blanco's. I just, I'm not. um For me, if I want Blanco, I'm going Mezcal every time.
00:18:49
Speaker
It's just much more interesting to me. Yeah, I think Mesa Call has a little bit more of an interesting flavor if you're going to go Blanco and stuff like that. But um ah it is it's insanely fucking smooth. And I know that's an overused term when you're talking about alcoholic beverages and cigars for that matter.
00:19:06
Speaker
But it is it. This shit will get you in trouble. I'm telling you. How I do have to ask, how do you pour it out of that bottle? Is it like pouring it out of a mason jar?
00:19:17
Speaker
No, no, no. it's Or does it have a normal lid underneath? No, no, it's got enough. Oh, okay. Okay. That makes more sense. Yeah. That would be cool though. It was a little more wide mouth.
00:19:29
Speaker
Yeah, but totally interesting um flavor components to it too. um You know, I read some reviews about this tequila and I'm like, man, i man these people...
00:19:42
Speaker
They must be new tequila. They said that there's a burn on the front end. I don't get it. Like it's in, there's not a burn anywhere. And I don't drink as much as I used to, like straight up, like, like hundred percent honest. and um And I just don't get that burn at all. It's, it's insanely, insanely easy to drink.
00:20:01
Speaker
And it's got the wonderful, wonderful gavay sweetness to it. You get a little bit of vanilla on the aroma. You smell that from those bourbon barrels, I think.
00:20:16
Speaker
And um the overall flavors I'm kind of getting kind of are um meshing well right now with the cigar. um Just because that sweetness and that robustness and everything like that.
00:20:30
Speaker
I'm really kind of digging it so far. so What's the name of that again? Because I'm going to hunt that one down. I i need to try that. it's uh uno uh por favor so uner uno or favor for all you white people out there one please one please i like it uh or please one i haven't really decided like which side like it the the label is it could go either way it just depends on how you read it or for uno or you know po yeah or but the website is you know por favor so
00:21:03
Speaker
So we can assume that's the way it's said. yeah For the TX whiskey, um I really enjoy this whiskey.
Whiskey and Cigar Flavor Comparison
00:21:10
Speaker
It's a little bit on the lighter side, right? It's got... um
00:21:16
Speaker
there are I can't say it reminds me of but there are flavors in this whiskey that remind me of like an Irish whiskey. like It's got a little bit of that green apple sourness and...
00:21:28
Speaker
and I don't know. There's another flavor that I'm trying to put my finger on that I can't figure out. Pear kind of. It's got that like fruitiness of of an Irish whiskey to me, but it still tastes more like bourbon.
00:21:43
Speaker
um That being said, it's kind of on the lighter side. And for this cigar, I think the cigar is kind of overpowering it a little bit. Because like you had mentioned, this is a pretty robust and intense cigar as far as the flavors go.
00:21:58
Speaker
Do you find that that sometimes is complimentary though in a weird way? Like, um you know, when ah when a beverage is a little bit more on the easier side, like yeah for example. It can really highlight the flavors of the cigar.
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah. And vice versa sometimes. In this case, i feel like I'm only getting the fruitiness off of the whiskey. Like, I only get that kind of sour apple note, and everything else is covered up by the flavor of the cigar. um I'm interested to go back to this one and a little bit, because I think maybe my palate is just getting up to speed, because like you said, ah you haven't been drinking much. I was sick for like a week and a half straight.
00:22:38
Speaker
um I haven't had whiskey since i got since I was in Miami two weeks ago, okay which is abnormal for me.
00:22:51
Speaker
Well, it's interesting that you're getting some of those more brighter flute fruit flavors. When I've had TX before, i ah it's it's always one of the most reminiscent flavors for me in my experience and my palate is a Bananas Foster.
00:23:05
Speaker
I get a lot of banana caramel. No, I can definitely see that. um Buttery a little bit. Yeah, Bananas Foster is a good way to put it. Like, you get that kind of banana note and you get that that kind of caramelized sugar sweetness. Mm-hmm.
00:23:23
Speaker
It's good. It's just um I feel like the cigar makes it taste weirder than normal. I'm also getting a little more bitterness from it than I usually do. Interesting. um I'll tell you what this cigar reminds me of, ah that the kind of power that's there early on, too.
00:23:41
Speaker
um it reminds me of a Camacho Ecuador which is an Ecuadorian Oscar rapper like there's a little bit there's a little bit of similarity there too with it this one has a little bit more complex the cigar has more complexity than Camacho Ecuador and this not knock on the Camacho Ecuador I really like that cigar this one's a little bit more complex which I'm really enjoying but um that that's that rapper punch kind of reminds me of it yeah i I definitely see what you're saying with that one um I agree it does remind me of the Camacho Ecuador didn't even think about that All right, we I'm going to get to some some viewer
Viewer Interactions and Pairing Suggestions
00:24:15
Speaker
shout-outs. so
00:24:16
Speaker
Oh, man, Facebook's not showing me all the comments anymore. Well, I know Sam was smoking a cigar. I think it was a Perdomo 10th and drinking something.
00:24:27
Speaker
I can't remember what it was because Facebook won't let me see it anymore. um Peter, man, Peter, every time I say your name, I feel like I'm getting wrong. Genetidos. I think you said that's the right way.
00:24:41
Speaker
It's smoking a black Friday. Alma Tepe with bell mead reserve. That, that is a good pairing. Uh, I love that bell mead reserve man.
00:24:50
Speaker
And Sam wants to know, have we tried the great great cliff West Hill street? Um, I don't think so. Great cliffs that I've tried are pretty few and far between. been a long while since I've smoked any great cliff actually.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, yeah. It's been a while since I've had, I've smoked great cliff. Um,
00:25:11
Speaker
I wanna say that I had that cigar, um but maybe maybe not. um ah But Sam was actually drinking um ah Shiner Cheer. Shiner Cheer, that's what it was.
00:25:22
Speaker
Yeah, so, man, that beer, so I'll tell my Shiner Cheer story. um So I really liked that beer when it first came out, and every year I kinda looked forward to it.
00:25:36
Speaker
And then one year, think, i think My sister brought like a case over. I had already gotten a couple of cases and like a couple of other people brought cases for a party and stuff. And so like I had- Oh boy.
00:25:53
Speaker
So then you were left with 90 of the same beers? I was, yeah, I was neck deep in Shiner Cheer. And honestly, i haven't, I've had it once since and it was good. It wasn't, it didn't gross me out, man,
00:26:08
Speaker
i I just couldn't i I could barely stomach it at the end. You've just had enough of it, right? Yeah, i just had enough. It's a good it's a good beer. You know that the the pons is it's fun.
00:26:20
Speaker
It's really fun what they do with So I should try that one. I've seen it in the store before. I don't remember if I've seen it here in Oregon. think I've seen it here. that's so you know it's so crazy now that you can get tx and so crazy that you can get shiner now because i remember when i was you know again 20 20 plus years ago when i first started drinking when i turned 21 um it was like you couldn't get that shit like yeah i mean you had to be within 50 miles of a brewery to be able to get their beer unless they were one of like the big three or four
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, it was it it was crazy how local stuff was and how stuff's expanded. Like Yingling was the last thing to get to Texas. And like it's it's like all like all the rage and everything. And I really yeah, I had it before. I i enjoy it ah quite a bit. A lot of people say it's the best thing they've ever drank. A lot of people say it's overrated.
00:27:15
Speaker
um I just, I think it's good. i mean, straight up. It's a pretty good beer, man. For like a cheap beer. If I'm going to a, like, I've had it at concerts and actually baseball games. I went to a baseball game like a year and a half ago with Han in Miami.
00:27:33
Speaker
um But like Yingling is what you get because they have Coors Light, Bud Light, Miller Light, and Yingling. um At least that's the way it is here. But here is a little weird because ah so, you know, Yingling is from Pennsylvania, right? Hershey, Pennsylvania.
00:27:50
Speaker
um yeah And they're huge there. It's the n' the oldest brewery in North America, right? Yes. ah In the 90s, they opened their second brewery in Tampa. And so like before the craft bo beer boom really started, they were a local brewery down here and they took over most of South Florida.
00:28:12
Speaker
Um, and I think if I remember correctly, that brewery is now closed in Tampa, but it's still huge here. Like, um, I don't remember which sports stadium in Tampa it is, but their name is they're the sponsor of one of the sports stadiums.
00:28:26
Speaker
Okay. Um, um
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah, the first time I had yingling was,
00:28:35
Speaker
went with my my former wife with her family who lives in Mobile, Alabama, ah site and site and home to the oldest Mardi Gras parade, fun fact.
00:28:47
Speaker
Went to Mardi Gras parade ah and and in Mobile and had some yingling and it was, Yeah, it was stellar. I was like, this is great. I mean, it's a great beer, man.
00:28:58
Speaker
Anyway. Yeah. On to other pairings besides Yingling. All right.
Discussion on Bunahabin 12 Scotch
00:29:04
Speaker
My next pairing is one that I love talking about, ah which you'll you'll this one. I get a little long winded about this is Buna Buna Haban.
00:29:13
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. I almost picked that. oh really? Yeah. I love that one. I have another one. I love Bunahabin. um So Bunahabin was founded in 1881. They are located in the northeast corner way up there ah of Isla near the Isle of Jura.
00:29:31
Speaker
For reference, ah the the big three, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, and Ardbeggar kind of on the southern side of the island. um At the time...
00:29:43
Speaker
that corner of isla where they built this distillery was the most remote spot on the island um they basically set up a path to the port so that they could get deliveries by ship and send things out by ship uh and that's the way they did it for about 90 years they just didn't have roads you couldn't really get there um So the village of Buna Haban was really not there until the distillery was.
00:30:15
Speaker
It was founded as a ah village for distillery workers to live closer to work. um for So from 1881 until 1960, 79 years, they were supplied only by ship and there was no road.
00:30:33
Speaker
A road that trucks could travel on was finally built in 1960, which is wild. um In 1885, it was noted as the most automated distillery in Scotland um because they had steam-powered elevators for lifting barley up into the lofts for malting.
00:30:52
Speaker
um And then once they got up there, they had Archimedes screws that were steam-powered that would, you know, spray the the barley all over the floor so they didn't have dudes and shovels. dumping it out everywhere.
00:31:04
Speaker
Just super cool that they they did that but way back then when it was not really a thing. ah They were also the first building on the island to have lights, electric lights, that is.
00:31:19
Speaker
And they also are the only distillery that is currently still using only spring water for everything they do. It's all spring water. um I think I forgot to mention that's why they were built so remotely is because there was a spring up there and they figured, why not build our distillery on the spring instead of bringing the water to the distillery?
00:31:40
Speaker
Makes sense. Interestingly, being one of the distilleries on the Isle of Isla, most of their whiskeys are unpeated. So they've if you're not a fan of peated whiskeys, this is kind of a different experience. They've still got that that kind of full body that Isla is known for, but they don't have that smoky component for the most part. There are a couple whiskeys they do that are peated, but ah most of them, including this one, are not.
00:32:09
Speaker
The last little fun fact I have is that it's been a local legend for decades. Actually, over a century now. It's been a local legend that the designer who designed all the prisons in Scotland also designed the distillery for Bunahabin.
00:32:31
Speaker
so ah But it's actually that it was designed to look like a French Bordeaux and you know kind of have that like where you have like a yeah U-shaped building and it's overlooking the courtyard kind of thing.
00:32:44
Speaker
um But according to locals, it feels very, very prison-like.
00:32:52
Speaker
um French come and they feel at home. Everyone else thinks that they're in jail. That's great. That's hilarious. ah So this Bunahabin 12. Like I said, it is unpeated. It is aged for 12 years in a mix of sherry, bourbon, and other whiskey casks.
00:33:08
Speaker
Um, giving it a little bit of whiskey or ah a little bit of that classic whiskey influence with a little bit of, um, that sweet fruitiness that you get from Sherry.
00:33:20
Speaker
Uh, that's a dark color for 12 years, man. Yeah. It's very dark. I don't know if it's colored or not, because that is a thing uh, in Scotland that you don't have to disclose.
00:33:32
Speaker
But there are usually, i think there are databases online where people know what's colored and what's not. ah I haven't looked into this one. It'd be interesting to see if it was. um So my the bottle of Boone and Hum that I bought back from Scotland, we're going to about my trip to Scotland couple years ago in second. But...
00:33:51
Speaker
um It's funny, every bartender I talked to who drank scotch, I said, are you a scotch drinker? They said, yes. The ones that said yes, I said, well, what do you drink?
00:34:04
Speaker
And they would say, boon and hum. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Almost all of them had it in as their number one or number two. um And pigs and then so I drank a lot of it while I was over there.
00:34:17
Speaker
And on my way home, duty free, I got the duty free exclusive, which I thought about bringing on the show tonight. But i guess I'll have to save it for next time. Nice. So but it's a really cool, really cool. um um distillery, like you say, you gave some really fun facts about it, too.
00:34:35
Speaker
I will say this, too, is they also do like a lot of distilleries over there. And I think you've talked about this on previous shows, man. So i love I love this fucking story. So I was at the World of Whiskey in Edinburgh. Oh, wow.
00:34:50
Speaker
Okay. It's a fucking tourist trap. um They have several of them. It's a chain, so to speak. um and um But, I mean, some of the prices are still pretty fucking good compared to to here, when you think about it.
00:35:05
Speaker
um You know, um you're already if you're already paying for your luggage to come back home, you know, putting a bottle or two or ten in your luggage, ah you can save quite a bit of money. Oh, yeah. Stuff over here. It's crazy. um So ah but it's a friggin tour strip. So I am, you know, you know, the backstory about how how this trip was not ideal.
00:35:25
Speaker
Yes. But I won't I won't. We won't get into that. We won't get into that. But this story is fucking epic. uh as is my next story that i'll share when i talk about my pairing um i go in at nine no just before just after 9 30 uh start chatting up the clerk a little bit and we're talking about this and we're talking about that other and stuff and he's like well would you like to have a sample of said scotch that we we're talking about can't you remember the scotch we're talking about said absolutely sounds good So I take a little sample and stuff and we start talking some more. We get to, we guys like, guess we're hitting it off whatever. He's like, you know he looks at his watch. It's like 10 o'clock now in the morning.
00:36:03
Speaker
He's like, you know what? It's 10, let's have some fun. And he starts pulling bottles from underneath um of of just scotch from all this stuff. But what Boone and Haman does and a lot of other ah the distilleries over there, because they don't want to affect the reputation negatively, will put out these alternate labels of shit that they experiment with.
00:36:27
Speaker
And I tried the Boone and Haman experiment. I can't even tell you the brand because i already drank the bottle. uh when i brought it home but it was immaculate what they did was is they aged it they aged it in you guessed it yes sir tequila barrels oh i could see that so this is so this is yeah so this is white oak american barrels that have been used for bourbon right at one point then used again for tequila
00:36:59
Speaker
and now used for scotch and then finished this one was particularly in so uh it was finished in a sherry cask trip when i say that sounds incredible and and it was peated it so smoky sweet it was like tasting like i can't really describe it was like tasting someone who put put like sugared peaches in a like an old school Texas barbecue smoker for like three hours. And it just was, and it was unbelievable. And I was like, Holy shit. Yes.
00:37:36
Speaker
And I was like, I don't even care how much it is. And I was like, and I'm just praying like, it's like not something stupid, like, you know, $500 for the bottle yeah we like Dude, it came out to, ah came out to, ah ah on the American side, it came out to 37 bucks.
00:37:50
Speaker
Oh, shit. Yeah, I was like, like, yes. I need to find out what that is and look you into it a little bit. Yeah, ah man, that's that's awesome. But like I bought so much that day from this guy and it was fucking great.
00:38:03
Speaker
And um this was 10 o'clock in the morning. Right. So from 10 to like noon, we're doing this right. So um I'm also smoking a cigar in the store. Pretty cool. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it was pretty fun.
00:38:16
Speaker
um But then and I had to get to an appointment. um I was meeting my friend Jamie and her mom at another distillery. Around the castle of Edinburgh, i went to the Edinburgh Gin Distillery, which is my second period. Oh, nice.
00:38:34
Speaker
So are we done with your pairing are we on to mine?
Edinburgh Gin Cannonball Experience
00:38:36
Speaker
Yes. You can talk about yours. So this is the Navy Strength Cannonball Edinburgh Gin. A small batch distilled gin made with the finest botanicals of Scotland.
00:38:49
Speaker
um And it's yes, it's gin from Scotland. He has a brought back gin. um I love Scottish gin. So it was... I mean, I had been drinking all morning and then I went to go drink some more.
00:39:00
Speaker
And this distillery was so much fun. But as you can tell, this bottle is unopened. I've been waiting for this trip. I've been waiting for this moment. I've been waiting to do a show with you again since this trip. I feel so honored. And i wanted to i wanted to pop this baby open. So that's what we're going to do.
00:39:16
Speaker
um And I'm going to pour it. ah and I did have this gin while I was there, um so but I haven't had it since. So I'm going to pop it open here. So it's been a minute. Yeah, it's been a minute.
00:39:30
Speaker
But super cool. um A really small batch distillery, man. But really, they they completely love their craft. I mean, they were working really hard behind the scenes while they were doing these tours.
00:39:43
Speaker
And... and um it is a lot of fun this gin is a lot of fun um but I'll talk a little bit more about the distillery here in just a second so so that's it's that's a a separate distillery it's ah it's its own distillery that just does gin yeah Edinburgh gin that's rad yeah most of the the gins that are available in the U.S. are made by one of the giant scotch distilleries they're just also making a gin Yeah, no, this is by itself, ah total, I mean, total craft to do the equivalent. So it was started in 2010, the Edinburgh Gin is distilled in the heart of Scotland's capital city, right behind the castle, dude, right behind the fucking castle, super cool.
00:40:26
Speaker
ah They but you may say they take the inspiration from the wonder-filled city that is its namesake, right? So ah Edinburgh is known as the city of wonder. And they have a lot of fun stuff. So they they they start with the classic. It's a world-class linen dry, ah which was their foundation stuff.
00:40:44
Speaker
Then they created the cannibal gin. But then they have flavor gin. So they have rhubarb um and raspberry hibiscus and a bunch of other cool shit. um It was really, really good.
00:40:56
Speaker
ah But the reason I told the brought this home was it was the unique strength of it. You know, it's 57% ABV. It's a Navy strength, John. Um, and, um, and it, uh, pays homage to the, uh, uh, the capital Edinburgh's Naval heritage, the cannons and what they call the one o'clock gun, which is, uh, you know, it's just thing there, there in Edinburgh and stuff. So, uh, I'm going to start drinking this.
00:41:23
Speaker
So Navy strength, Dennis and I talk about this anytime Navy strength comes up, uh, where Navy strength comes up is it comes from proof. So,
00:41:35
Speaker
Proof is 100 proof is where you can wet
00:41:43
Speaker
gunpowder. Gunpowder. Black powder with 100 proof liquor. And if it's over 100 proof, it'll still burn. If it's under 100 proof, it won't burn. And that's kind of where proof comes from.
00:41:56
Speaker
And Navy strength is the same thing where it had to be Navy strength because that way, even if you mix it with something ah and you spill it on the gunpowder, the gunpowder will not be ruined.
00:42:09
Speaker
You'll still be able to use that gunpowder now or later.
00:42:14
Speaker
So what's really unique about this, man, and I love the ingredients they use, they use lemon zest, Szechuan pepper, and double juniper. And I thought, that and it has a huge, huge pepper note on the aroma, on the mouthfeel, on the finish, it's there, but then you get this really bu beautiful, bright zestiness from that lemon and the juniper just sings through this this thing and i it's exactly how i remembered it but i chose this not only did i want to bring this no matter what we were going to smoke trip but i was really excited that we were going to pair it with this cigar because you know knowing the garcias they have a lot of pepper forward blends i was hoping assuming that this would complement it really nicely and and so far you know with a couple sips and a couple puffs it certainly is
00:43:04
Speaker
Man, i could I could see a gin working really well with this. um One of the things I like about gin is that even though gin is kind of a, it's thought of as a lighter flavor, it has this punchiness, especially when you're going Navy strength, because, you know, Navy strength, it's not just, you're not adding additional alcohol, you're not watering it down. So all of those flavors are like turned up by 30%. So I could see that really working with a cigar like this.
00:43:32
Speaker
Yeah. Sam's next pairing is Glenn Livett triple cask. That's he's doing. Oh, that's a good one. After the Shiner cheer. um
00:43:44
Speaker
Sorry, had to refresh my memory on the Buna Haben. The Buna Haben, I think, is working really well with this cigar. It's got that... um ah what's the word not quite uh I'll call it cherry hard candy kind of flavor from the sherry um along with kind of a caramel hard candy flavor um And it reminds me of kind of both of those mashed together. Then it's got a little bit of ah like a light black pepper kind of note um with a lot of vanilla and a little bit of honey.
00:44:19
Speaker
it's there's There's a ton of layers to this scotch that I'm still trying to kind of wrap my head around a little bit. Like I said, it's been a couple weeks off whiskey and and whiskey tastes brand new all of a sudden.
00:44:33
Speaker
ah It's working really well with this Las Calaveras. That... Earthiness is kind of ramping up, I think. It's still like you said, it's not like that deep, dark earth. It's just kind of the the essence of earthiness.
00:44:47
Speaker
sure It's there, but it's not it's not that super intense earth. I'm getting a little bit of leather now. um like' go to say Like you said, with the pepper, the pepper is still very, very there.
00:44:58
Speaker
This has that that typical, that Don Papine signature of the blast of pepper at the beginning, and then it fades away a little bit, and then it comes back at the end of the first third.
00:45:11
Speaker
I'm going to give you a little bit of a unique breadiness too. That's a, that kind of lingers on the palate a little bit um along with that coffee. So it's like ah kind of like a coffee, coffee cake, um,
00:45:24
Speaker
And when I say coffee cake, most people assume, like like, coffee cake doesn't taste like coffee, y'all. This is a coffee-flavored cake, so, like like, kind of an espresso cake a little bit. I don't eat tere masseur because I'm allergic to chocolate, but, like, that kind of, like, you know, just you got to get some breadiness, some cake-ish, sweet kind of breadiness, and then...
00:45:44
Speaker
um that coffee forward earthiness that we're kind of talking about. That pepper is really, really partnering well with that gin's pepper, the you know the the cannonball gin from Edinburgh.
00:45:55
Speaker
um And man, dude, the the pepper is lining up. It's great. And then the zestiness from that lemon. Ryan, you can just taste it, man. It's like, you know what's really cool about this trip is, I mean, I'm assuming you've had a number of them, but like you know you've had have you ever had a you know dry martini with with lemon instead of a lemon?
00:46:14
Speaker
right this in a glass without having to do all the lemon shit i like that i like that a lot yeah um that i added i'm i'm making a list of stuff i gotta hunt down liquor i gotta hunt down yeah man it that you might have i don't know if you can get it here um probably not um i may be able to find a way to find a bottle but i doubt it yeah So, but yeah, find fun friends that are taking a trip to Scotland and and grab a bottle and stuff. But it's a really cool dish.
00:46:47
Speaker
I know about ah three months ago-ish, something like that, Master of Malt finally became able to ship to the U.S. again, which is like... It's overpaying, like you said, but it's, you know, if you can buy a whiskey or a gin there that you can't buy in the U.S. at all, and it might be worth overpaying for it.
00:47:08
Speaker
um But I'm going to have to see if they can get a hold of a bottle because that might be the way. So what's interesting about this distillery too, so you know if you've ever been to the city of Edinburgh, Edinburgh's a very, very, very old city, hundreds of years old, and it's built on itself.
00:47:24
Speaker
Like, it's built on itself. In fact, you can go down into... um you know i had a couple of tours that were down into catacombs and stuff like that of where the city actually was and used to be. And it's really fascinating. I don't want to bore the audience too much with it um to go into the deep ancestry of maybe another time. but But to that point, the distillery was in ah basically in a basement of the building, which meant it was at this...
00:47:52
Speaker
these one of these catacomb levels that's really some so some of the pairing tables like you know at the end of the tour we kind of sat together and experienced a lot of the gin together and some cocktails together and stuff like that was really cool and it was in these caves essentially like the table was kind of wedged into this cave oh man that's so and you kind of sat around this table and and and and tried all these these gin products which was fantastic and ah Jamie and her mom and I just had a really great time. was really cool experience.
00:48:21
Speaker
um and um And ah just just a you know fantastic, fantastic time. And ah um yeah, really, really, really enjoyed it.
00:48:34
Speaker
and then And then I finished my day by running and catching a bus and going to the Edinburgh Zoo. Which by the way, y'all, if you ever go to the Edinburgh Zoo, like take your fucking hiking boots because it's built on a hill, y'all.
00:48:47
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah, when I say a hill, like the streets of San Francisco don't got jack shit on the Edinburgh Zoo. Like, man, I was, the and of course, one of the things they have at the Edinburgh Zoo, which you don't see in very many zoos, are pandas.
00:49:03
Speaker
So everyone's got to go see pandas. And pandas are at the very top, of course. I was dying. absolutely dying. What kind of, uh, do you know what kind of elevation change we're talking from one end of the zoo to the other?
00:49:18
Speaker
You know, I, there, that was a fun fact that I probably knew a couple years ago when I went and, uh, I can tell you now, but, uh, but dude, I mean, i can't tell you, I do remember the distance from the gates, the pandas,
00:49:31
Speaker
was just under two miles ah and it was almost fucking straight up dude i'm gonna need to rent a scooter for that one yeah it was it was crazy crazy um but cool it was a cool zoo it sounds very cool uh right on to my last pairing and then we'll go back around and see i'll get back to that tx whiskey and see if it's any better now that my palate has acclimated
IPA Pairings and Reviews
00:49:56
Speaker
this is a can that nobody will probably recognize because it's This is like an unknowable can design.
00:50:04
Speaker
So this is from Tired Hands Brewing. um Tired Hands is based Ardmore, Pennsylvania, founded by a guy named Gene Brolette in 2011.
00:50:16
Speaker
Early on, they were kind of the brewery when it came to milkshake IPAs. And those, you know, but they kind of they were one of the originators of the Northeast style IPA um and hazy IPAs.
00:50:30
Speaker
Got little lactose, baby. Exactly. um They quickly became known as the place to go for that. and They were kind of instrumental in the rise of that New England style and juice bomb style IPAs.
00:50:46
Speaker
um This was, you know, they were one of those first breweries where they would have people waiting in line going three blocks to get in and buy beer. Um, because they did these very limited releases that were only available one time. You never know if it's coming back.
00:51:05
Speaker
People are going crazy for this beer, uh, for better or for worse. The beer scene has really cooled off by now. Um, I read some stories about how they had, they had dudes that would show up on a Thursday night for, cause like they would open it 5 PM or whatever.
00:51:27
Speaker
Um, and they would have a guy waiting in line all day long. He sits down at the bar at five when he gets let in and he says, I haven't gotten paid yet. I have $5 in my bank account. I'm just going to sit here and drink beers and then use my whole paycheck on, and on cases of beers.
00:51:47
Speaker
Um, and like people were that crazy about this beard. He was probably selling it to be honest, because this was one of those breweries where people were selling their beers for, you know, 30 or $40 a can to ship them to the other side of the country for people who couldn't get them because people just wanted to try it.
00:52:06
Speaker
Um, These days, it's a little easier to get your hands on because the beer scene has calmed down. And also because ah there were some allegations in 2021 of some discrimination by the owner.
00:52:18
Speaker
I've seen a lot of backlash to that. But, you know, I just wanted to try this beer because I'd never had anything from this brewery until a couple weeks ago. I'd only heard about it. ah This particular beer from Tired Hands is double dry hopped punch. So this is a double dry hopped double IPA um with Montecca and Nelson Sovon.
00:52:44
Speaker
hops, which are imported from New Zealand. So this is one of their punch is one of their New Zealand. was going to say tech hops, like it's bad talking about pork fat. ah As you can see, this is, there is no lactose in this, but this is a very hazy beer, very unfiltered looks kind of like orange juice.
00:53:07
Speaker
If you let it sit out too long.
00:53:11
Speaker
8.3% ABV because like I said, this is an Imperial. um And um for just for anybody who's unaware, this is a double dry hop, double IPA. Double IPA means that this is an IPA with extra alcohol, hence the 8.3. A normal IPA is usually around six and a half.
00:53:30
Speaker
The double dry hop part is during the during the fermentation, I can't remember the exact timeline. Dennis would know.
00:53:41
Speaker
But after the first fermentation, you add in bags of hops in like cheesecloth so that you you're soaking fresh hops into the beer as it's fermenting.
00:53:55
Speaker
Double dry hop means they do that twice. um So that adds a lot of the sweeter flavors of hops, the sweeter, more fruity and more floral flavors um as opposed to crap. I forgot the name of the process.
00:54:13
Speaker
It's when you add hops during the boil. I don't remember what it's called. um Wet hopping. No, that's not what happened. Is that what happened? I thought wet hopping when you did dry hopping with fresh hops.
00:54:26
Speaker
it's been a while it's been a while since i've brewed beer me too but uh when you add hops during the boil it adds bitterness when you add hops during dry hopping it adds more of that kind of fruity uh fruity floral kind of flavors the last because there's there's there's bittering hops and then there's also like different there's different types like hops that Yeah, exactly.
00:54:51
Speaker
Bittering Ops is during that they're in that process, what which we can't remember what it's called necessarily. Yeah, um I'm bad at making beer. You can blame me. Dennis will correct me next time he's here.
00:55:02
Speaker
um The last time I had this beer, the only reason I'm pairing it that tonight is because the last time I had this beer with a cigar, I was shocked by how well it paired because this beer is kind of on the...
00:55:14
Speaker
it's It's less like an IPA and more like on the the sweet, juicy, fruity side. um So I think there's more pairing potential than with most IPAs.
00:55:25
Speaker
But I'm gonna take up couple steps of this and find out while you tell us about your final pairing. So conventional wisdom among brewers is hops added at the start of the boil are your bittering hops, like we just talked about.
00:55:37
Speaker
ah Those added about 30 minutes remaining are your flavoring hops, and those in the final 10 minutes are less like your aroma hops. um It might just be bittering hot... up bo Yeah, maybe it's just... ah Maybe it's just... There's adding hops during the boil. I thought there was a name for it.
00:55:53
Speaker
There's different types of of hopping. hop spider is a mesh container is often used to hold the hops during the boil, preventing them from clogging the boil kettle and ah allowing easier removal.
00:56:04
Speaker
Whirlpool hopping. Some brewers add a portion of hops after the boil is finished, while the wort is still swirling in a whirlpool to further enhance aroma. So... I swear there was a name for it, but I must be wrong. Yeah, might be just, you know, bittering hops, the bittering hops process. i don't know.
00:56:22
Speaker
So I actually chose a beer, too, and and I also chose an IPA as well. So I've got an Imperial IPA, 9% from Tup's Brewery in McKinney, Texas. It's the evil dangster Imperial IPA.
00:56:37
Speaker
Anything with the word Dank in it usually means that ah it's going to be more this style that I'm having. than like blast your palate off bitter IPA.
00:56:49
Speaker
So I'm pouring it while I'm talking about it, but Tubbs is a really cool local brewery. it's it's been around for It's been around for a little bit. It was part of the part of the boom. ah You know, the craft brew boom um here in in the DFW area in Texas.
00:57:05
Speaker
And ah really cool brewery. They've moved there ah their headquarters to the Mill District in downtown McKinney. um And it's a beautiful brewery. It's a four acre property in the middle of downtown McKinney um making k craft brews and stuff. So they began in 2009. Keith, a guy named Keith Lewis, his former partner, the namesake of the brand Tupper, ah part note, ah brewed their first batch of beer with a home brew kit.
00:57:34
Speaker
for Christmas ah that Keith's wife Pam had given them. They enjoyed the process and creativity, so they began brewing every weekend with the but Keith's son. Chris, chris ah the son, is now the head brewer at Tups, and eventually they realized they could turn it into a business. and So in 2015 is when they found a great location, built the brewery, um and opened.
00:57:57
Speaker
um their ah Keith sold his son, Chase, and his daughter, Katie, also have joined the business as well. So it's a true family-owned business. I love that stuff. So earlier this year, they actually move that's actually when they opened the four-acre property, which features out restored 120-year-old rain mill taproom restaurant and state-of-the-art brewery.
00:58:20
Speaker
in children's area because you know can't have a brewery nowadays without kids ah running around and ah plenty of plenty of space. So you make it's it's a family business you know family experience and stuff like that.
00:58:32
Speaker
ah The color is not as hazy. It's got a nice little crystal clear look to it. um It's made specifically with um um let's see Uh, two different types of, of hops, uh, hot pellets too.
00:58:53
Speaker
Um, so that's the big differentiator. it's big. They call it an experimental IPA and it's made with a Lotus and Calypso, uh, lulupin hot pellets. So, um, Oh, Lupulin pellets. Huh?
00:59:10
Speaker
Um, So most hops are going to be used in pellet form because hops don't last very long. um So typically you're going to be either pelletizing, which is where you take the fresh hops, mash them up, dry them out, and form them into pellets so that they last a lot longer.
00:59:28
Speaker
Or... Cryo hops, which everybody's heard about. You know, everybody's had seen cryo IPA or something like that. That's where you freeze dry the hops while they're still fresh.
00:59:40
Speaker
And then, of course, there is fresh hops, um which only come around about once a year and are only ah widely available in a couple parts of the country. couple parts of the world, even.
00:59:52
Speaker
um Lupulin pellets, though. that means That usually means that they are extracting the lupulin, which is the the... That's the oil that makes the bitterness.
01:00:07
Speaker
That is the bitterness in a hop. comes from lupulin. So if they're also adding lupulin powder or lupulin palates, that should be exceedingly bitter. I would expect.
01:00:20
Speaker
Yeah, the it's actually not. That's what's really crazy about this. The... The aroma, there's like there's this really beautiful citrus and floral aroma to it.
01:00:34
Speaker
And the flavor the flavor, the bitterness is a little bit on the tongue, but then it kind of folds into this this wonderful kind of blanket of of citrus and sweetness.
01:00:48
Speaker
ah There's almost there's a a little bit of um Oh, let me try go to get that again. It's a little bit of pear. Yeah, definitely pear on the mouthfeel and mouth flavor components of it, too.
01:01:09
Speaker
So nice fruit. Not your typical Imperial IPA. This could get you in trouble if it's 9%, man. So, yeah, yeah. um yeah um Yeah, I won't be drinking all this stuff, obviously. Like we said, I got Navy Strength Gin, Tequila, and an Imperial IPA. But what i love about all these pairings so far is that Tequila, which can overpower the palate, a Navy Strength Gin, which is really, really strong, and an Imperial IPA, and none of them, none of them have overwhelmed this flavor of the cigar.
Cigar Flavor Profile Exploration
01:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, this is a pretty intense cigar. um It's not like you knock your socks off strength, but it's just got a ton of flavor. Super dense with flavor.
01:01:55
Speaker
um As far as my beer, it's more bitter than I remembered it. This is kind of, and now that I'm saying it, I'm remembering this exactly what I said last time, which is that this is 50% Northeast IPA and West Coast IPA.
01:02:12
Speaker
So it's got that like intense, resiny, grassy bitterness that sticks to your palate a little bit. But then it also has those lighter, sweeter, fluffier, creamier kind of flavors that you associate with a Northeast IPA.
01:02:28
Speaker
The bitterness, I think, um definitely doesn't overpower the cigar, but it does fight with it a little bit. It it. the The cigar struggles a little bit to overpower that flavor in your on your palate.
01:02:45
Speaker
Yeah. It's interesting. um Do you typically go spirit to beer? No. Or do you change it up? Typically, I go beer to spirit.
01:02:57
Speaker
But I knew this was... um I had forgotten about the bitterness, but I knew that this was a very intense beer. um And I knew that there was more nuance in these spirits that I'm having today, ah which you you did exactly the same thing. And I'm guessing for the exact same reasons that, you know, you wanted to be able to pick up on that intricacy and those those layers of flavors within those spirits.
01:03:26
Speaker
And then the beer, beer is generally speaking, simpler on your palate. Less complex. Yeah. um Yeah, i just, I had a feeling that the beer, ah beer and cigars for me, and we've done it over the years, that the two of us, you know, over a variety of different shows. And I know you've done it a ton on the shows that you've done, stuff like that. So it's not like it's it's poor, but for me personally, my personal experience, um it's more of an experiment.
01:03:59
Speaker
Yeah, typically. um And IPAs in particular are are the most difficult pairing for a cigar, I think. Yeah, yeah I don't normally crack an IPA and smoke a cigar. it's not my That's not my bag, um you know, when I'm drinking. Yeah, it's usually one or the other for me.
01:04:17
Speaker
I mean, nothing you know, we were talking about just cheap beers. Like, um I mean, I love crack, you know, ice cold, regular original Budweiser and a smoking cigar after mowing the lawn.
01:04:33
Speaker
That's like one of my favorite things. think was it you that I was telling about the last time I had a Budweiser? Maybe. The last time i had a Budweiser, I stole it from my friend's dad when we were 16.
01:04:46
Speaker
That's right. I don't think I've had a single Budweiser since then. I've had Bud Light. I've had, you know, other. The first beer I had when I turned 21 was B to the E. Do you remember that? Mm-hmm. The Budweiser energy drink.
01:05:00
Speaker
it was I remember that being very good, by the way. i i then I have a nostalgia for Budweiser. It was my dad's my dad's go-to baseball game drink.
01:05:13
Speaker
ah So I remember taking sips off that when I was a kid you know at a baseball game and stuff and him always drinking it. so I don't think my dad was ever a beer guy.
01:05:24
Speaker
ah He's become more of a beer guy now with my influence, but I i recall once in a while having Rolling Rock in the house. which interesting if you've ever had rolling rock, that's like the equivalent of Coors Light Light.
01:05:41
Speaker
I was gonna say, I could see why he's not a beer drinker if that's what he drank. I mean, now he'll drink any kind of beer I put in front of him. um and He's happy to experiment, but growing up, um you know, there was there was whiskey and there was cocktails sometimes, and there was wine, but there was very rarely beer.
01:05:58
Speaker
yeah Wine was not big in our house. ah his My dad's, you know, he would always used to say that his favorite beer was cold. That was his favorite beer. ah um So I, you know, drank Bud at games, you know, had, you know, some lights and stuff like that in the beer, in the fridge a lot.
01:06:16
Speaker
um But, you know, and his cocktails were simple. Like, you you know, they, he did make, he did make a fucking legendary Colorado Bulldog though, that my, um, like, like was all the rage at family gatherings, all the fucking rage. He was like, he was the Colorado Bulldog guy. What is a Colorado Bulldog?
01:06:35
Speaker
So it's like a white Russian, but like without, um, like without the white Russian mix essentially. So, uh, he would make it with vodka, Diet Coke, uh, uh, um, Kahlua,
01:06:48
Speaker
Let me pull up the recipe. This fascinating to me. Yeah. um
01:07:08
Speaker
Vodka, yeah, Kahlua, and then a half and half. And then he would use Diet Coke. Interesting. He would use Diet Coke, yeah. um And then I think he would add something else that is kind of like a special ingredient, stuff like that. And then he would put maraschino shurries on top.
01:07:26
Speaker
Nice. And that was that was, yeah. And it was, dude, I mean, they were, my my sister sipped on it from a young age, i loved it. My aunt was all about it. My cousin, Karen, was all about it.
01:07:37
Speaker
my mom even liked, my mom's not a drinker. She fucking loved them. Yeah, like that. Family gatherings, he was the Colorado Bulldogs. That was his thing. But his cocktail normally was like a Saturday. day You know, Saturday was like, you know, was, you know, ah um um was a BLT, you know, was bourbon, lemon, and lemonade, and tonic. Oh.
01:07:59
Speaker
Or just bourbon and lemonade. That was just his thing. or Or whiskey and lemonade. You know, he loved his loved his cheap whiskey, man. Loved his comedian mist, man. Oof.
01:08:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's not for everyone, but I get it. Yeah, too. you was a man of simple taste, man. He didn't really, know, it just was, it was like the overall flavor of something. Do you like this?
01:08:24
Speaker
Yes or no? It wasn't like, oh, I like that specific whiskey, but I don't like this specific whiskey. Yeah. like Like, he saw like he he he had gin in his liquor cabinet, but never touched it.
01:08:38
Speaker
Because he said, like, his favorite story about this, like, he was drinking gin when he was playing poker in college one time, and he was just knocking him back, didn't realize what he was.
01:08:49
Speaker
And he remembers winning a lot of money, and when he stood up to leave, the next thing he remembers was waking up on the floor next to the poker table the next morning. Like, apparently, he just fucking just calmed down. Oh, man.
01:09:02
Speaker
Yeah. Did he still have his money? Oh, yeah. No, he was playing with friends. He was playing with friends, yeah. yeah All right. I've gone back through my pairings a little bit. Like I expected the TX whiskey is better on the second time around for me.
01:09:17
Speaker
um It's got
01:09:24
Speaker
burnt caramel is kind of the main flavor. I think. Yeah. That fosters baby. The bananas foster. Yeah. It's that burnt caramel, that little bit of fruitiness um and a
01:09:39
Speaker
I don't know. there's there's There's some kind of like black peppery kind of spice to it that I can't quite figure out.
01:09:48
Speaker
But it's just ah it's just a hint of that. ah The Buna Haben for me is my pairing of the night. It's got that... A flavor that i I hadn't put my finger on before is leather. There's a little bit of leather in there.
01:10:05
Speaker
There's that... um
01:10:09
Speaker
I hate to say it cough syrup kind of sweetness. It doesn't. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like it's got that little bit of I feel like anytime I'm especially Isla scotches.
01:10:22
Speaker
I feel like I give people flavors that are awful. but they taste good when they're in a scotch, right? like Yeah, it's that it's that medicinal quality that's mixed with that that barrel aging and stuff like that. Yeah, it's got like that little bit of of cherry cough syrup kind of flavor. just a Just a hint, just enough that you taste it.
01:10:44
Speaker
Do you like Laphroaig? Oh, I love Laphroaig. yeah see that's like and it tastes like band-aids iodine and campfire yeah exactly yeah it's got the world's worst fucking flavor palette ever but if you like it you like it yeah i i'm a fan i'll i'll drink it um yeah the buna haban for me is just working wonders with this cigar um those layers of flavor that are really complimentary like we talked about that leather um i find that uh that kind of
01:11:16
Speaker
like you were saying, the coffee kind of note, I think it is working really well with this. And then that very light sweetness that this cigar has works really well with the amount of sweetness that's in this whiskey, which is just a little higher than than what I would call average.
01:11:34
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, i it's funny. i think I think our second pairings are are the winner tonight. I thought the tequila was pretty good. as going I went back through that and I tried that as well. i really I'm really digging this tequila. It'll fucking get you in trouble, man. Just this letting you know.
01:11:48
Speaker
It's super easy to drink. um And it's got a wonderful sweetness that pairs well with the spiciness of the cigar and everything. It doesn't get lost, even though it's an it's an easy sipper and it's a reposado. It's not dark and...
01:12:01
Speaker
and and um ah and dense like an anejo or anything like that. So it was good. um But the the Edinburgh Gin Cannonball is the money tonight. um ah That pepper, that strong peppercorn note and that zest from that lemon just pairs extremely well with the pepper from this cigar.
01:12:23
Speaker
And then it offsets and contrasts against the robust kind of coffee ah note um and earthiness and leather um and a little bit, i'm getting a little bit of nuttiness now on the cigar.
01:12:34
Speaker
So it just really, the contrast pair up well, the compliments pair up well with the gin. And I was predicting, and I probably was trying not, I should have not done this, but should have gone within a little bit more of a,
01:12:47
Speaker
a blank slate and open mind but i didn't think the beer was going to go too well with it but i'm surprised how well it did i thought my beer was going to work pretty well with it and it it didn't quite work for me we're on opposite ends of the spectrum right there It was a nice contrast of flavors, complete contrast. There is no spice the beer. um you know There is a kind of citrus velvetiness to it. It pairs actually well with the gin, interestingly enough, even though that i think the gin was the pairing of the night, which is funny, right? You think there's some little similarities there. But yeah, if I had to rank, it's the gin, the tequila, and then the beer for me.
01:13:27
Speaker
Nice. um One of the other things that we do here, I should have. This is another thing I should have warned you
Book and Movie Discussions
01:13:33
Speaker
about. um We do the one for the road, which is where we just highlight some kind of media that we've been intaking over the last week.
01:13:44
Speaker
um I'll go first since I'll let you give you a minute to think about it. I've been watching some garbage TV shows. ah because I have a baby and I spend sometimes two or three hours a day just sitting there with the baby in my lap, but I'm not going to bore anybody with the terrible TV shows I've been watching. It's all like like these these modern sitcoms that are just not really very good, but there's two or three seasons of them, so I'm like, I might as well put that on so that I have something to watch this week while I'm hanging out with the baby.
01:14:16
Speaker
ah It's actually funny. So we... a thing we've always strived for it with our kids when they're babies is to never leave them in a silent room because leaving them in a silent room makes them used to silence.
01:14:31
Speaker
And then they wake up more. Um, so when we put our other kids to bed, anytime the baby is sleeping alone in our room, ex we should start putting something on when we go to bed, but that's besides the point.
01:14:45
Speaker
Um, We turn on The Office. So she listens to a lot of The Office. ah But my ah my one for the road this week is a book. I'm almost done with it. I have like two chapters left called Horror Story.
01:15:01
Speaker
um by Paul Tremblay. It is a horror book, as the name would and would imply. um But the structure of the story, I think, is what makes it really interesting. It is, um I think it's only available as an audiobook. Most of my books i I listen to instead of read, because that way I can listen to them while I fall asleep and do the thing where I listen to the same chapter every day for a week.
01:15:26
Speaker
But this one I've gotten really into, and I'm almost done with it. And it is about a movie that was made in 1993. There was a horror movie. Our protagonist was one of the stars and the entire book jumps between what was happening while they were making the movie and what is happening right now as they're getting ready to remake the movie.
01:15:51
Speaker
ah And we know there was some terrible tragedy tragedy that happened in the original that caused it to never actually be released. So nobody's ever seen it.
01:16:03
Speaker
ah But we don't know what that is. And so I'm like two chapters away from the end and I still don't know what the tragedy was. I just think they do a really good job of drawing it out. A lot of this book is um really, really fascinatingly is presented as script pages at a table read. So they'll have somebody saying,
01:16:25
Speaker
Joey walks into the room. What are you doing over there? yeah What are you doing over there? No. What are you doing over there? And it's still like somebody at the table read who's giving different reads on the same line a couple times.
01:16:40
Speaker
It's just, it's very entertaining to me. um And it ah it's pretty creepy. So if you're into horror audiobooks, check out Horror Story by Paul Tremblay.
01:16:54
Speaker
All Barry, you got one? Yeah, I've got a couple. So on the tra on the trashy side, it's coming across my feed a lot more just because i'm um I'm glued to it whenever I fucking roll through to my news feed. But it's this really there's a couple there's apparently a few of these podcasts ah that exist where it's these teams of of people, teams being like two, three people, four people sometimes.
01:17:18
Speaker
on a pod and they, they fucking filter through Reddit and find these terrible relationship stories. I have listened to a podcast like this. So, so like I said, I listen to audio books and podcasts as I fall asleep.
01:17:35
Speaker
There is some podcasts. I don't even remember the name of it, but I wake up to it all the time. Cause I forget to turn on the sleep timer and I wake up and it's somebody reading stories like that from Reddit.
01:17:47
Speaker
Sorry, sorry to interrupt, but go ahead. Thanks. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Yeah, Amazon delivery did guys, breath stuff. Nice. Scared the shit out of me on the side. I'm sure.
01:18:00
Speaker
um So yeah, um no, it's yeah it's it's funny, man. It's it's it's a total it's a total it's as total trash um magnet and it's just like the lowest common denominator of of of of listening to like relationship problems and stuff like that. It's just like today, it was it's basically like Jerry Springer in Reddit form.
01:18:20
Speaker
So like today I was listening. Yeah, today I was listening to a saga of a woman who's posting about her relationship that was falling, her marriage, her 20 year marriage that was falling apart um because her husband um was carrying on an affair with their 18 year old son's girlfriend.
01:18:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Come on, yeah man. Yeah. Yeah. And it just went down the fucking rabbit hole of just like the worst, like the guys that I mean, if any of this is true, right? It's all fucking who through the fuck. Yeah, it's very, very true on Reddit, like probably 50% of what you read on Reddit is even true.
01:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, and so it's an interesting just saga and stuff of of just total trash. Like the dude's total sleaze apparently and and then and the marriage is over, the kids are all fucked and, um you know, fucked up from it and stuff. And, you know...
01:19:13
Speaker
um the the 18 year old girlfriend is with the the husband now and she just thinks she's hit the fucking lotto and stuff and it's just yeah it's yeah it's gross it's just gross but i'm just like you're locked in man you're just totally locked in because they hook you with the headline it's like total clickbait it's total listen bait and you just dive in and you're like god damn this is just total trash but i can't stop listening right but i can't stop listening but I have um um I've tried to get a little bit. i'm i'm ah I'm a big I'm a big proponent of not celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving.
01:19:48
Speaker
I think Thanksgiving is an overlooked holiday. I love Thanksgiving. um was a little light this year just because my kids weren't in town. But um I really love Thanksgiving. I think it's so much fun.
01:19:59
Speaker
Me too. And and um so but I've been getting more into Christmas. i Trying to get a little bit more into the Christmas spirit a little bit. Got a baby coming in two weeks. So like, you know, it's just like, I want to, I don't want to miss out on that, that Christmas experience ah with the rest of my kids and, and stuff.
01:20:17
Speaker
And so I've been trying to get into it. So i've been watching a lot more Christmas movies and, and this, ah this afternoon I watched Four Christmases with Vince Vaughn and and Reese Witherspoon. Oh yeah.
01:20:29
Speaker
Pretty, pretty, you know, pretty funny. ah It's, I think it's a really, comedy aside and everything, some really cool actors, Sissy Spacek's in it, John Voight, Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duvall's in it.
01:20:46
Speaker
Robert Duvall plays ah Vince Vaughn's dad. um But it's it's a really cool, there's a really cool cast of characters in it. um Kristen Chenoweth's in it.
01:20:57
Speaker
um Love her. i But it was really funny. So Mary Steen, not Mary Steen, Sissy Spacek is Vince Vaughn's mom, who's no longer with Robert Duvall, she left him and is now, funny connection point, right?
01:21:12
Speaker
Is now with Vince Vaughn's childhood friend, right? They're all adults now, right? But the childhood, so he's a younger dude, right? The guy, and I was like, oh shit, I'm watching it.
01:21:23
Speaker
And I'm like, oh my God, that's Sue. So if you've ever seen Swingers ah with Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, right? The character Sue, I can't remember his name, but he's the but the the husband to Sissy Spacek. And it's just, I was like, oh my God. you know So there's like, it's really cool because it's like got a lot of Vince Vaughn ah friends.
01:21:48
Speaker
friends and family in the movie um in it and and and Reese Weatherspoon plays the love interest and stuff. and But I think it what would my takeaway from the film ah comedy aside was it's an interesting ah um introspective to to complications with family, you know, like We all have family drama. We have our childhood traumas, you you know, big or small or whatever ah that we carry with us into adulthood.
01:22:14
Speaker
And how we choose to embrace, push away, adapt, roll, you know, block out, you know, how we choose to deal with that stuff is a it was be really interesting kind of.
01:22:31
Speaker
exploration into it from a comedic standpoint. So I appreciated it from a storytelling perspective and really enjoyed it in that regard. So it was a fun film, you know, cheesy mid-2000s, you know.
01:22:46
Speaker
comedy i vaguely remember that movie i don't remember if i've ever actually watched it but it sounds like i should yeah there's only like one or two like with those quintessential like gross slapstick moments it's when uh a baby throws up on reese witherspoon but like other than that it's like it's not really too over the top like a lot of those comedies of that age and stuff yeah it's not overly it's not overly um vulgar either.
01:23:13
Speaker
So it's, you know, for probably, you know, in a contemporary time, if I was that age, I probably would have found it a little bit more boring, but as a 41 year old man, it was a little bit more, was funny and it was a little bit more introspective. So I, I enjoyed it.
01:23:26
Speaker
Nice. Um, that reminded me of two things. First of all, um, Your upcoming child may be cursed because my wife, as her birthday is December 13th.
01:23:40
Speaker
We were brother-in-law. that's my sister's. Oh, really nice. that's my Yeah, that's my older sister's birthday is December 13. How about that? My brother-in-law recently ah compiled a ton, like just a month's worth of home videos from when they were kids ah and digitized them. So we were watching a couple of those the other day and it reminded her of how upset she would get when anybody tried to ah
01:24:11
Speaker
do anything involving Christmas before her birthday. Like she was like, Christmas season does not start until my birthday. We don't put up decorations. We don't tell people Merry Christmas.
01:24:23
Speaker
but Oh man. And so i thought hopefully, okay hopefully your kid will not be, be that, that picky about that. I hope. Nice. The other thing is I did watch a Thanksgiving movie this week.
01:24:38
Speaker
Which is planes trains and automobiles because I i love that movie How do you feel about that movie? I know you hate Chevy Chase, but that's unrelated to this. John Candy and Steve Martin, dude, they're fucking icons. Dude, it's great. It is an incredible movie. I cannot get enough of it.
01:24:56
Speaker
it's It's one of those movies where every time I watch it, I like am laughing my ass off. Like I'm laughing at it when, you know, usually I can watch a funny movie and not actually laugh. Like it's funny, but I'm not physically laughing.
01:25:11
Speaker
I physically laugh at this movie. It gets me every time. It's a good one, man. John Candy is one of those actors that i I genuinely, I mean, even in ah more subtle roles like Home Alone, the Home Alone cameo, yeah you can almost qualify it as a cameo.
01:25:29
Speaker
um All of his lines were ad-libbed. A lot of people don't know that. do and you know they they they They gave him kind of a general direction like hey you're this guy this is what you do and this is what your role in the film is and so he just goes up to Catherine O'Hara and just starts fucking going like throwinging heat throwing heat and it's like yeah don't know if you heard me you know heard of the you know, the, the, the Tally Hoochie polka, you know, the polka twist. And there's the little gyration and stuff. Apparently that was all fucking ad lib. That's awesome. And just, yeah, he's just firing on a thousand.
01:26:04
Speaker
I mean, in plane trains and automobiles, he is both a a hilarious slapstick goofball where like the part where he gets, he gets his shirt stuck in the chair or in the seat and sets the car on fire.
01:26:19
Speaker
And, In the same movie, he gives that that monologue near the beginning where he's like, people like me. I like me. And, like, for him to be able to have a poignant moment like that and just complete slapstick moments is kind of incredible to me.
01:26:35
Speaker
Yeah, and the same film, mind you, too. Yeah, exactly. It's crazy. yeah Uncle Buck's good. ah His last film, Wagons East, is pretty funny. um Yeah, ah Great Outdoors, of course. Like, there's just some really...
01:26:50
Speaker
I mean, he he was, I loved him in Cool Runnings. It's such a weird role for him. Yeah. You know, paying it playing a former gold medal athlete is just comical in itself, but he's such a beloved...
01:27:04
Speaker
he is such a beloved individual, like, and you're you're immediately, like, he has this, it's this very interesting camera presence, because, I mean, he's, you know, it's not like it's, he does not have classic Hollywood good looks, he's obese, you know, and, and he, you know, he's a funny looking dude, and, um but you,
01:27:27
Speaker
regardless of how you see that, like even in films, Uncle Buck and stuff like you root for the guy. um And, you know, he, the camera really, really draws to him and he's, he he plays the camera really well and he's just an incredible, I think he's an incredible comedic actor, but I think he's just an incredible actor in his
John Candy Tribute
01:27:46
Speaker
own right too. And it's, this it's a shame we lost at him so young.
01:27:49
Speaker
It really is. He was so incredible and man, it's such a bummer that we lost him as young as we did.
Sam Finnell's Recommendation and Cruise Stories
01:27:58
Speaker
uh all right so I'll get on to Sam Finnell Sam Finnell has joined us honorarily in doing one for the road every week he's watching almost every week he's got a one for the road uh his is Brian Green's an elegant universe which I had to google but that is a book on string theory um I guess you're pretty smart Sam Get after Yeah.
01:28:24
Speaker
My word. he He says also he hosted a cigar exchange on a cruise and can't recommend that it enough. That's awesome. um I feel like almost every cruise I go on, i am the only person on the cruise that smokes cigars.
01:28:37
Speaker
The last one I went on was the Disney cruise, and I smoked probably 12 cigars over the five days at the very back of the ship in this back corner of the bar on the patio.
01:28:47
Speaker
I did not see a single other cigar. Everybody else that was out there was smoking cigarettes. um In one of the previous ones, there was a cruise that I went on. This would have been 2010. two thousand and ten it was for my honeymoon.
01:29:01
Speaker
It was very cool that they had a not quite secret, but kind of secret cigar lounge where you had to go into a bar and then you had to walk back behind the bar and there was a door and that's where the cigar lounge was. So I was spending a lot of time in there.
01:29:19
Speaker
Um, and it was very cool that we went to the, the, uh, magician and watched the magician perform. Uh, and, a couple hours later I went and had a cigar and he was in there having a cigar. So I got to shoot the shit with him. that was pretty neat. Oh, there you go. Um, and I, I still remember this cigar room. It was this little cigar room had a door on each side. So it was like ah it it felt like you were smoking in a hallway or a train car.
01:29:45
Speaker
Um, But I thought it was very cool that, ah you know, I would have been, what, 24, 25, something like that? 26. I was 26 when I got married. and And I can count at least eight dudes that I smoked cigars with in that room that gave me marriage advice, which I thought was super cool at the time.
01:30:09
Speaker
Nice. That, you know, this young dude is getting married and on his first honeymoon, and all these dudes are... are giving me advice on on how to treat my wife and how to think of things and it was just very cool nice man that's super cool yeah i've never been i've never been on a cruise uh been and but i i look forward to it hopefully one day um so when do you travel uh how many like if you're gone for say if you're gone for five days how many cigars you taking with you hmm
01:30:44
Speaker
Not smoke, just taking with you. I usually take with me about 15. I try to bring a five count and a 10 count humidor just in case if I buy more, you know, I'll smoke down to where I can fit them all in my humidor before I go home.
01:30:59
Speaker
Oh, man. i i take But it depends on where I'm going because, like, sometimes I'll bring 30. thirty Yeah. On a cruise, I usually try to pair it down.
01:31:10
Speaker
Yeah, I've learned my lesson going to go into like PCA or cigar events. I take a very small, a very small humidor and that's it. Just cigars that I want to share with you guys or stuff like that, but that's it.
01:31:21
Speaker
Cause I know I'm going to get cigars and I've learned my lesson a long time ago.
Travel Advice for Cigar Enthusiasts
01:31:25
Speaker
But no, when I travel for leisure or even business and stuff, I'm always over packing on cigars. If I'm gone for five days, I've probably got 30 40 cigars.
01:31:37
Speaker
a lot of times that's the case for me but i usually have i have a 10 count and a five count that i pretty much always have in my backpack nice and then uh what about hats um hats on a five-day trip that depends where i'm going if i am flying i am probably not bringing extra hats uh just because I like to pack light and i have a little hat box kind of thing that fits for baseball caps.
01:32:10
Speaker
Um, that takes a lot of room with my luggage. That's like four pairs of pants or five shirts or pair of shoes or something. I don't know. Um, actually, now that I think about it, I have taken that on more trips than I can, that I'm thinking of, uh,
01:32:30
Speaker
but typically I'm going to bring one hat with me which is crazy pack because I wear a different hat like every day yeah I over pack on hats too I usually take three or on a five-day trip I'm usually taking three if I'm in my truck like when I went to Miami a couple weeks ago I brought three hats with me and I bought three while I was there nice so you know uh I I tend to over pack on hats if I have the room ah I do need to find like a the problem is I'm very space minded like I want to have a carry-on but size bag and a backpack and that's it um oh I don't travel heavy either i'd like yeah I just yeah I usually have a carry it when I fly I try never to check a bag me too um unless it has whiskey or beer in it then I have to check it but
01:33:26
Speaker
Yeah, but like work trips lately, like i've been taking ah i've been taking our booth for like work trips. I've got it over here, the far corner of the studio. And and so that's always checked.
01:33:37
Speaker
And so I'm like, well, fuck it. You know, I'm already checking a bag. So might as well check another, right? Yeah. It doesn't really matter. But, um, but I hate, I hate, wait, I hate checking bags. I hate waiting for luggage. Uh, it's a bane in my existence. Yeah. If I can get on a plane, get off the plane, get straight to where I need to go. Exactly. Life so much easier.
01:33:56
Speaker
Exactly. So, so I'll always check a bag on my way back from PCA. Cause I usually take an empty bag with me in my carry on to get there. And then, you know, second bag gets filled with cigars, and I check it. I check, you know, my my dirty clothes on the way back.
01:34:11
Speaker
Yeah, I usually pack, on my skit for PCA, I usually pack a backpack that I don't give a shit about that I can fill up with clothes and just zip it shut and check that, and then I carry on all my cigars in my hard luggage.
01:34:26
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, 1,000%. Yeah. ah yeah
Show Closing and Teaser
01:34:31
Speaker
All right. Well, I guess that brings us to the end of the show. Thank you, Bear, for filling in tonight. Oh, it was my pleasure.
01:34:37
Speaker
um I may call on you in a couple weeks if Dennis isn't back yet. um But for the moment, next week, i'm going to have Coop. Coop's going to be filling in, and I'm really excited for that.
01:34:48
Speaker
I think I'm going to do an all-soda pairing, which I'm super excited about. There you go. So get your, get your cheer wine on. Exactly. So thanks everybody for hanging out.
01:35:00
Speaker
Thank you, especially to bear for, for joining me tonight. Um, and we'll see you on the next one. everybody have a great and safe week. And, uh, remember I got to do this part. I hate doing this catchphrase, but I don't have Dennis to throw it at.
01:35:17
Speaker
Uh, so remember we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink less.