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LGP 45 - BLTC Morphine with Bear Duplisea
15 Plays5 days ago
Tripp is joined by special guest co-host Bear Duplisea as they tackle pairings with the Black Label Trading Company (BLTC) Morphine.
Morphine is a small batch release from Black Label Trading Company that first made its debut in 2014. It has been released on almost an annual basis and last year was the 10th anniversary of the line.
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Transcript
Introduction and Co-host Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Let's Get Pairing. This episode 45. Dennis, as you probably know, is still out. um He'll be back hopefully next week, I think. He's on the road to recovery. He had some gnarly dental surgery that I'm sure he can't wait to tell you guys about.
00:00:18
Speaker
um But
Cigar and Drink Introduction
00:00:19
Speaker
I'm here and back with my co-host, Bear. Bear, are you doing tonight? Oh, Tripp, I'm doing great, man. always ah Always a pleasure to to step in for the the great Dennis Fain.
00:00:31
Speaker
I really appreciate it. thanks for having Thanks for having me. happy Happy to have you, brother. um so we're going to be pairing the Morphine this week. We're scrambling a little bit. We've got slightly varying sizes, but they should be at least fairly close pairing experiences, I think. um But grab yourself a cigar.
00:00:48
Speaker
Grab yourself a drink. I'm going to light my cigar while the intro plays because this is a little short guy. and i wanted to save it all for the show usually light up before the show but grab yourself a drink grab yourself cigar let's get pairing
00:01:34
Speaker
ah All right, here we go. Welcome, everybody.
Gulf Coast Anecdote
00:01:38
Speaker
I'm your host, Tripp, with my special co-host of the evening, Bear. um As always, I am in the Casa de Monte Cristo studios in Gulf Coast, Florida.
00:01:48
Speaker
Gulf of whatever you want to call it. That's what I'm calling it right now. Gulf of it doesn't matter. and but go Gulf of two nations. I think that that's a cooler name. like That actually is a cooler name, I think. I hadn't thought about that. Gulf of nations. of two nations.
00:02:03
Speaker
That's a sweet name. I mean, let's let's go. Let's do this. Dude, that might be what I start calling it. Yeah, it's like, let's let's start let's start building bridges, man. Let's big look let's make like our friends at How About That Cigar, and let's ah burn cigars and not bridges.
00:02:18
Speaker
Exactly, dude. Gulf of two nations. You can also say it with a lot more, like, like really daunting. It sounds way more official, right? Yeah. It sounds like the, don't know, like a Roman general would be saying it. The Gulf of two nations.
00:02:32
Speaker
I'm not saying what sounds better, Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of America. I think they're both great. like yeah um i'm glad i i says I'm glad he went with Gulf of America and stuff instead of Gulf of the United States of America. That's just too long. I completely agree.
00:02:45
Speaker
And um America, like it's still it's North America, so I kind of get it. so yeah Yeah, you can do a lot of things with it. But Gulf of Two Nations, that's what we're doing. Yeah, we're rolling with that. That's sick. ah Welcome, everybody.
00:02:57
Speaker
And welcome, Bear. As as we I've already said a couple times. So tonight we're smoking the morphine.
History of Morphine Cigar
00:03:04
Speaker
Um, this is a, I'm in my notes. I'm calling it a somewhat annual release.
00:03:10
Speaker
Uh, sometimes they come out. Sometimes they don't once a year. Um, most years they've come out since 2014, but some years they've skipped a year here or there. Um, I started to put notes together to say like, originally it was this wrapper in this binder in this filler. And then it changed to this at this point.
00:03:29
Speaker
Um, but then I started getting real confused. So originally this cigar had two wrappers, Mexican San Andreas and a Ecuadorian Maduro. There were some filler changes in the first couple of years.
00:03:43
Speaker
um but it started off as that barber pole design or at least dual wrapper. I think it was dual wrapper, but not barber pole at some point. um Then they switched to San Andreas only.
00:03:55
Speaker
Then they would every year or every release rather um James would choose his favorite size and make that one, the dual wrapper barber pole.
00:04:06
Speaker
um And then ah couple years ago, and Actually, you know I think this is the first release since the original, or at least the first two or three that all sizes have had the barber pole.
00:04:21
Speaker
So there we go. Um, so effects on these Ecuadorian Maduro and San Andreas wrapper, as I mentioned, binders, Nicaraguan filler is Nicaraguan. Uh, and of course they're made at, uh, one of our favorite factories, Fabrica of a negra.
00:04:35
Speaker
Yeah. Um, Which ah winner winner of a small company of the year and small factory of the year. It's a good cigar coup primetime awards. Exactly. I thought I was in a cigar shop last week in Vegas um and the shop owner mentioned this cigar. So I thought that's going to be my next show.
00:04:53
Speaker
um yeah It just made sense that he has a killer new cigar and he is, ah you know, he won our person of the year and factory of the year and small company of the year ah for the cigar coup awards.
00:05:06
Speaker
Yeah,
Black Label Trading Company Achievements
00:05:07
Speaker
well, Josh Srebrescu won it for Person of the Year. but oh was sorry. and he was he was he He was a high nominee. like i think he I think he came in second or third. He was on the podium. So, like yeah, I mean, hit a killer a year for for James and Angela and the good folks. And Derek Matthews, of course, the good folks of Black Label Trading Company, Blackworks Studio, Novaya Negra, the family of brands.
00:05:28
Speaker
um Yeah, I've got the i've got the ah Box Press Robusto Torpedo. um um a myriad of size combinations and stuff. I admitted to James the last time i actually interviewed him that I was, like, really kind of questioning the size. Not questioning his judgment, just questioning if it would be right for me. here He's like, Bear, I gotta tell it's my favorite size.
00:05:51
Speaker
Like, And was like, well, shit, I have to fucking try it. He's like, yeah yeah. And so I picked a few up then and, and set a few back, you know, then, and he was spot on, you know spot on at the time. So this is 2022 and he's released. And then, um,
00:06:07
Speaker
for this iteration. And I picked, like i said, I picked a few up, loved it, picked a few up and says few back. And then, uh, I picked up another one, uh, last night at Lakeworth cigars in Lakeworth, Texas.
00:06:18
Speaker
Um, and, um, but yeah, it's, uh, uh, I mean, I'm dying, I'm dying to try it with some of these parents that I've picked. and And I'm really excited to hear what you, uh, what you've picked for tonight. I'm excited to show off what I've picked for my parents tonight.
00:06:31
Speaker
Um, I'm smoking the short Robusto, which is the, the 2024 version. this is a four and a half by 52. um the 10th anniversary, but the 10th anniversary version of this cigar, um surprisingly, they didn't change the blend or anything.
00:06:44
Speaker
ah They did a packaging update to, ah to, can't remember what they called it, but ah I think they called it dress packaging, dress box. um They're just slightly nicer, fancier boxes.
00:06:58
Speaker
um Yeah, so far I'm digging the cigar.
Cigar Flavor Discussion
00:07:01
Speaker
ah Lots of spice, lots of earth, like kind of those classic, uh, black label trading company flavors, you know, yeah spice or, um, there's like an umami to it, man. My camera won't focus on my face.
00:07:18
Speaker
There's kind of an umami to it. That reminds me a little bit of, ah maybe this is my, my palate of the last few weeks of eating a lot of yeah Japanese food, but, uh, it reminds me of soy sauce little bit, like a little bit of that soy sauce umami note.
00:07:34
Speaker
Um, And I think saltiness, too. That might be what's making me think soy sauce. Salt and umami. Have you lit yours yet, are you in the process right now? I'm i'm in the process. I'm toasting the foot right now. I'm about to process. I just took hit off the dry draw.
00:07:47
Speaker
the the the The draw is perfect.
00:07:53
Speaker
Just that slight kind of resistance and everything, so I expect the cigar to draw like a champion, as per usual. Yeah, mine's just about perfect, too. The wonderful thing about the aroma of this particular cigar, so I've talked about this before, um and it's it's both smell and the way kind of like it cigars taste and stuff like that. um Like they they they take you back to certain places and stuff. It's like, you know, olfactory sense is really particular, you know. and um
00:08:24
Speaker
But I've talked about this before. Like it like cigar specific cigar shops, if you spend enough time in them, Like if you if you have you're i regular at certain shops and everything like that, they they have distinct aromas.
00:08:39
Speaker
Yes. They have very distinct aromas. And though most most people are like, oh, they just smell like cigar. Nope. They have very distinct aromas. And there's two cigars that I can name that that right remind me when I smoke them the the the smell of of the first cigar shop I ever went to and the first cigar shop I ever worked at, at which was Pops Safari in Fort Worth, Texas.
00:09:02
Speaker
Wow. And, um yeah, and what's remarkable about that is that neither of them existed. Well, that yeah, neither of the blends existed ah prior to Pops, prior to my time at Pops.
00:09:18
Speaker
um Pops closed pop's closed a few years ago. um i ah think um just right after COVID um and everything. but um but And then we lost Perry Tong a couple years ago too as well.
00:09:34
Speaker
um But ah this cigar, the morphine is one of them. Then then dieselest the Diesel Esteli Puro is the other. ah Those would remind me of of Pop Safari. Like just walking in and it's it's it's always a drip down memory lane.
00:09:51
Speaker
That's very specific and I love it. That's awesome that you kind of, it pulls that memory for you. I don't think I've ever smoked a cigar that the flavor and aroma reminded me of a specific shop, but I know what you mean by like, when you walk into certain shops, you're like, ah, it smells like, yeah it smells like exactly this room.
00:10:14
Speaker
It doesn't smell like any other cigar shop. It smells like exactly this one. I worked at Michael's Tobacco of Keller and I worked at Michael's Tobacco of Uless and I can tell you they smell different. Yeah, exactly. Because people are smoking different cigars and just different things are happening, right?
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, what do you think of this cigar so far now that you've started to get into it a little bit? Well, as I mentioned before, the draw is absolutely sensational.
00:10:39
Speaker
I mean, it's absolutely perfect. I mean, one of my gripes, it's interesting because I've had a number of them finish well in my top 10 over the years. But my one of my gripes about torpedoes is I you know i complain about about torpedoes or figurados or bellicosos just about as much as I complain about 60 gauges.
00:10:58
Speaker
And what's interesting is that i haven't had i i haven't had any 60 gauge, any plus cigars finishing my top 10, but I've had several Figueroa, Torpedoes, and Bellacostas finishing my top 10. In fact, I've had a couple of be my number one cigar of the year, which is interesting.
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah. So when you get my, but the point is, is when you can make it, you it's good. Like it's like, it's, it's really, really good. So, but that's been my complaint about it across the board for the last 20 plus years of smoking is like, man, like there are some fucking terrible torpedoes out there. Like, and it just, for me, it usually comes back to draw cause I'm exactly the same way. Yeah.
00:11:40
Speaker
Like when I have to cut, the head of a torpedo all the way down to the shoulder, like until it's no longer resembles a torpedo in any way, you've made it badly. Like just end of story.
00:11:51
Speaker
If I have to cut it all the way down and it no longer looks like it was a torpedo before I cut it, you've messed up. Um, but I feel like so many of the torpedoes I smoke are like that where like I keep cutting and cutting and it's still tight drop.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, I always cut it an angle um just to create a little more surface area. That's a little bit of little bit of a habit and a trick that that my former general manager, Michael, taught me. but um But yeah, I mean, it's i I think it's... I mean, the draw is sensational. The aroma is that that that picturesque aroma that i was telling you about. And the flavor is just...
00:12:28
Speaker
Really, um it's a really nice balance of like really dark, roasty, toasty flavors. i getting you know I'm I'm getting a little bit of that roasted meat flavor, beef, like kind of ah beefiness. little It reminds me of like the, this is a flavor I talk about all the time.
00:12:47
Speaker
Usually I'm talking about kind of more the sweetness of it. And this is more the smokiness of it. that like char on a brisket like when you get a brisket you just cut off a little bit of that bark and eat it and it's salty just a little bit sweet and like charry and that you get that earthiness um tons of that in this cigar Oh, absolutely. ah i That's a pretty good pretty good comparison. I think that's probably where you're getting that umami bum from it. um I'm getting a lot of other deep deeper notes. Leather, some roasted coffee.
00:13:24
Speaker
Then there's this really, really, I would call it a delicate pepper. Like a delicate, it's not an, it's not a pepper bomb as Steve Sokka likes to say about certain cigars, uh, uh, specifically Nick ones with Nicaraguan tobacco and everything. It's just, uh, this has got a just delightful pepper note to it. Like, and it's, it's a stronger pepper. It's a black pepper for me, but it's not like heavy, heavy handed.
00:13:50
Speaker
Um, for me, it reminds me of white pepper where like, it's got that, that stingy kind of spice to it. But it's almost more full flavored and delicate tasting at the same time.
00:14:04
Speaker
Like it's more intense, but more delicate than black pepper. That makes sense. Yeah. white White pepper to me yeah is is a lot. When I use white pepper, it's a lot. it's It's actually to me, it's spicier than black pepper.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah. To me, it's spicier, but it has like ah the core flavor of it. It's less earthy and kind of has this delicate touch to it. Yeah. It's less sharp for a thousand percent. Yeah. It's less sharp.
00:14:28
Speaker
A thousand percent. So... um But but um i I've really enjoyed this project. and I've mentioned the previous shops I've worked at.
00:14:40
Speaker
And i i i said I wasn't going to This is so morbid. I said I was never going to tell this story until he passed away. And sure enough, we lost him this year. ah um And I did a tribute show to him. Well, but late last year. I did a tribute show to to Mike Peacock, the the owner of the late owner of of Michael's Tobacco.
00:15:01
Speaker
and um um You know, mike Mike was one of those just principal men, like when he he he he said he was going to do something, he was going to do it. And he said he wasn't going to do it, he wasn't going to do it. And just, that was the way. it was just very, very staunch in his beliefs and principles. And, you know, some of them he even admitted were illogical or rooted in logic, and some of them were just rooted in just gumption or gut feeling, you know, that kind of thing. So, for years, I for years um he it wasn't that he had a problem with the with with the negro james or anything personally he just didn't like the name morphine he thought he just i don't think he was the only one um i remember when it first came out there was a lot of complaining about it yeah and he was he was one of those folks and he was like i just don't want that cigar in here and then um
00:15:55
Speaker
Eventually, we we got him to come around on some ah on on some other cigars. the the the The rebirth of Dissident really helped because those cigars were really in really incredible. And the block was picture-perfect made for him, like his palate.
00:16:12
Speaker
He loved that. And so we started bringing other stuff in, so we finally got... um We finally got Black Works and Black Label and on the shelves and stuff like that. He was a fan. He became a super fan of it. So I think he relented from some of his staunchness and in his his latter years with it. so ah but But that Morphine always reminds me of that story just because um you know he just wasn't really fond of the name. and it's But I think that's a really interesting...
00:16:41
Speaker
like segue into like how people perceive particular cigars um from their label from their branding from their name and and and uh kind of judgment judge them either fairly or unfairly on those on this pretext which is which is always interesting yeah for sure um all right why don't we get some herring get to pairing.
00:17:06
Speaker
I should have said, that was good let's get pairing. But i've I've been trying to... This is it is a workshop there. I've been trying to, for the last couple months, figure out a way to naturally say, all right, let's get pairing, and then start pairing.
00:17:21
Speaker
um But I haven't figured it out quite yet. just yeah I think you just gotta say it. You know, just like, all right, we're done with talking about whatever.
Florida Kaña 12 Rum Background
00:17:29
Speaker
It's like, all right, let's get pairing. All right, let's get pairing.
00:17:33
Speaker
First up tonight for me, ah is Florida Kanye 12. I love this stuff. um The name means flower of the sugar cane. ah Florida Kanye has a very interesting story that a lot of a lot of people don't know about.
00:17:49
Speaker
um Of course, it was founded in Nicaragua, um but it wasn't founded by a Nicaraguan. ah In 1890, it was founded as a sugar mill.
00:18:00
Speaker
was It was first created as a sugar mill for milling sugar ah by an Italian immigrant named Alfredo Francesco Pais. ah And they started producing very small quantities of rum because when you're milling sugar, you end up with some byproducts and like molasses, and those can be turned into rum.
00:18:20
Speaker
um So he kind of started... producing rum just for, uh, as payment for some of the, the help, the hands around the farm or around the mill rather.
00:18:32
Speaker
um and kind of started selling it a little bit locally. Um, and then, ah in 1937, he created Compania Licorera, the Nicaragua, the liquor company of Nicaragua, um, and started distelling at full scale.
00:18:51
Speaker
I didn't put it in my notes here, but I'm going to go back a few minutes. Uh, founded in 1890 as a sugar mill by Italian immigrant, Alfredo Francesca Pais. Alfredo Francisco Pais was an Italian. As I said there, uh, he was also, he moved to Nicaragua, be a riverboat captain.
00:19:11
Speaker
Uh, he moved there and his job was to take people up and down the river from the Eastern side of the country to the Western side. Um, for cargo purposes.
00:19:22
Speaker
So he would kind of, you know, if, if you had something that needed to go from, i don't know, California to Florida and you're shipping it by boat, you could ship it around through Nicaragua.
00:19:35
Speaker
And he would did that for a few years and then kind of was like, man, Nicaragua is a very cool place. And I just, I just want to relax here. And that's, that's when he started the sugar mill.
00:19:47
Speaker
So anyway, 1937, he started the liquor company. And since then, they have become one of the largest producers of single estate rum in Central America.
00:19:58
Speaker
um They are still family run um by Carlos Peas, who's the president and CEO right now. Great, great, great, great, great grandson of Francisco Peas.
00:20:14
Speaker
No, that's six generations, five generations. Five generations. What is that? Great, great, great, great grandfather. No. That's crazy. Great, great, great grandfather. ah But still, five generations, they've been run by the same family, which is pretty wild, especially that um you know they're now a Nicaraguan institution.
00:20:34
Speaker
Yeah. And they're not Nicaraguan by descent. He just showed up there to drive a boat and ended up starting the biggest run company in Central America.
00:20:46
Speaker
Or the biggest rum company in Nicaragua, at least. I think it's... Oh, no, I think it's Central America. I don't think you're far off from Yeah, actually, now that I think about it, you're probably right, because a lot of the big rum companies are... ah Jamaican. Yeah, Jamaican and barbas Barbados and Caribbean, rather than Central. And even Cuba, too, right? so So, like, yeah.
00:21:07
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I was going to say they're they're mostly Caribbean. I mean, it's a staple at every single cigar factory you go to. Oh, yeah. And I feel like everyone that I know, ah everyone I know that's a cigar, excuse me, a Nicaraguan cigar manufacturer has a penchant for it or has it on hand or talks about it in some regard. like Absolutely.
00:21:32
Speaker
um And it's also become, I've noticed it's become more and more popular as a mixer around the country. um Florida Cognia 7 is their kind of, um it's not quite the base level, but it's their mid-range.
00:21:47
Speaker
Gotcha. And I've seen it used in cocktail bars all over the place. I actually noticed i was in Houston airport yesterday and I noticed a bottle of it in, in multiple bars, just, you know, kind of on there behind the bar.
00:22:01
Speaker
Um, so it's, it's definitely around, um, you know, makes sense. Cause like I said, it is the most exported rum from Central America. What were you doing Houston?
00:22:13
Speaker
I had a layover. I was in Vegas last week. Um, and I had a, a like three hour layover. I took a red eye from Vegas to Houston. Then I had a three hour layover and flew home finally yesterday.
00:22:27
Speaker
Good God. Was it, that was a fun trip or was it work? It was work. Yeah. Um, I did book an extra half day. The reason I took a red eye so that I could hang out at cigar box for five hours or six hours and hang out with Jason, the owner.
00:22:42
Speaker
Such a good, or sorry, the, the manager, not the owner. Um, anyway back to florida kanya florida kanya this is the technical part it's distilled five times in a column column still which is still powered by steam which i think is very neat um using a column still means that most of the flavor comes from the barrel aging rather than than from the base spirit itself if you use a copper pot still you end up with a more flavorful base spirit um that influences the flavor of the final drink more use a column still the barrel really does most of the the work when it comes to flavor um as with all rums the number on the bottle is technically not an age statement because they're not allowed to do that um they're allowed to say blank years old but they're not allowed to say it sat in a barrel for blank years uh which is weird um
00:23:37
Speaker
Florida Konya says it is consistent with the aging time of the spirit in this case. But you never know. They're allowed to lie on rum bottles, so who knows?
00:23:49
Speaker
ah Let's see. Sounds good. Oh, ah oh a couple of their philanthropic kind of ventures. In 1913, they started a school for children of the employees. As we know, Bear, ah in Nicaragua, schools can be hard to come by. So families that are working don't always have the... They don't always have the ability at all to bring their children to school. The nearest school could be two hours away.
00:24:18
Speaker
um And... Or it could be just very expensive. So... Florida Konya has their own school on site that ah is just for children of the employees, which is awesome. Currently they have around 600 children from elementary all the way up to high school.
00:24:36
Speaker
um So good on them. They also in 1958, they were one of the first companies in Nicaragua to open a hospital on site to offer free medical care to employees and and their families, which again incredible.
00:24:49
Speaker
Um, very important. Hospitals are not a given when it comes to Central America. So having one that if something happens to your, you know, if your kid wakes up sick or something, you have someplace to bring them, uh, is huge.
00:25:03
Speaker
Anyway, that's about it. Uh, this is Florida Kanye 12 aged about ish 12 years in X bourbon barrels, uh, and clocks in at 40% ABV.
00:25:15
Speaker
going to take couple sips to this. delightful brown juice and let you talk about your first pairing. how How often do you you bring this rum onto the show? I feel like it comes on quite a bit. It's obviously one of your favorites. and yeah it's it's definitely... See, part of the reason is that I'm just not a rum guy until I had Florida Konya.
00:25:35
Speaker
um I think between the Just the barrel aging that they do ah strikes me as different than a lot of other rum companies. And i think it has to do probably with the column still and the multiple times distilling.
00:25:51
Speaker
um But I find it's a lot less sweet, lot less cloyingly sweet. One of the things that they'll show you if you ever go to like a tasting is you can put a little on your finger and rub your hands together. And with most rums, that'll make your hands sticky because they're adding sugar after it's distilled before bottling.
00:26:07
Speaker
Florida Konya, there's no sugar added, so your hands come away clean. Don't stick. Interesting. Okay. But yeah, I definitely go through some of this stuff and feature it on the show probably once every six or eight shows.
00:26:22
Speaker
i I like Florida Konya a lot. I also like some of the sweeter rums. I like Appleton quite a bit. um ah So, I mean, I know that's a that's a pretty well-known brand. Mm-hmm.
00:26:35
Speaker
um But Cuisan makes a blackstrap rum that's so thick and rich. that that That shit I drizzled over pancakes, man. It's fucking good. Oh my gosh.
00:26:47
Speaker
I mean, that that's not a rum I sip. Like, I mean... Like you, you gotta make it with, like you make it dark and stormy with that or like, um, or you just have very little, it's so, I mean, it's, you, you mentioned a pitch for not like cloyingly see, that's what that is.
00:27:04
Speaker
It's so rich. Yeah. That's the kind of rum that I'll, I'll have in a cocktail, but, uh, I'm not drinking that straight.
00:27:13
Speaker
is anyone um um the that' the The history of Let's Get Pairing is is fading from my memory for the moment. no Has anyone brought brought a good cocktail on? Like a mixed cocktail? Oh, yeah. um Dennis and I both done at least a couple of cocktails. Dennis usually does them more often than I do. He's a ah cocktail experimenter.
00:27:33
Speaker
um So he'll like that doesn't shock me at all. He had like a clarified butter vodka rum punch or something like that. Christ. Like, okay. Some fat clarified craziness that I don't know enough about to get into.
00:27:49
Speaker
Fair enough. Well, I grabbed something. I wanted to do some unusual things. Not that unusual ah compared to to Dennis, but in honor of Dennis's absence, I wanted to bring a couple of interesting stuff.
00:28:01
Speaker
Now, this isn't something crazy that he would really like. like know it's so It wasn't a beer that's been um you know but made with clamshells or licorice root or anything like that. So... um But I grabbed um ah grabbed one of my favorite loggers from a local brewing company called Turning Point True American.
00:28:21
Speaker
It's a American style corn lager. So it's made of corn. So ah it has, you know, has a very distinct sweetness to it, obviously from that corn, those natural sugars and everything like that.
00:28:34
Speaker
This is a great beer for the the summer. I'm drinking it here in the middle of winter. That's fine too.
Pairing with Turning Point Lager
00:28:39
Speaker
um But it's, you know, it's got this delight the delightful lightness to it too, but beautiful sweetness. It's very...
00:28:48
Speaker
To me, it's very reminiscent. Interestingly enough, it's very reminiscent of one of my favorite classic beers, which is just regular Budweiser. um Even though Budweiser is made with... Budweiser is made with corn and rice.
00:29:00
Speaker
um So... um But this has... a this has i This does taste sweeter than like regular Budweiser or anything. But this is a really, really good...
00:29:11
Speaker
um Really good beer, you know, and, you know, birth free for three dollars at 16 ounces, you can't you can't beat it. Hell yeah. I'm I'm behind that.
00:29:23
Speaker
but um have some beers coming up that were not three dollars, fortunately for me. um It's kind of hard to get that range lately. So, um um i Turning Point was, you know, like I said, it's local.
00:29:36
Speaker
I've brought on Martin House quite a few times. I've brought Raw on the show a couple of times. um Turning Point has actually become a really, really popular brewery here in the DFW area.
00:29:48
Speaker
it's ah it was It's actually in my old stomping grounds in the middle of the Metroplex near Bedford. um Actually, in Bedford. um I lived in Euless, which is just literally the town over.
00:29:58
Speaker
ah But this this particular brewery was probably about four-minute drive from my house. Not bad. So Alex Knight is the is the co-founder of the brewery. He actually moved his way up the ranks through a couple of local breweries before he decided to make that his own.
00:30:16
Speaker
Didn't you know branch out on his own so in 2016 he decided to to kind of put it all out there So he raised some raise some capital got a partner Jean-Paul Gaultier and and Started making beer and and like really turned really turned a corner using a lot of those those I mean this was right around the time. This is perfect timing I'm not sure. I don't go ah as often anymore just because I i don't drink and as much beer as I used to and everything like that. But like growler stations were really starting to come around at this time.
00:30:52
Speaker
And one of the more popular ones in the area was Lone Star Taps and Caps. um and And you'd go there and just get growler filled, bottle filled. Or they would make giant cans.
00:31:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Growlers, as they called them. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:12
Speaker
And that's where they really they're true they really got popular. um But I mean, just frankly, I mean, a lot of his his a lot of his stuff in in the beginning for me was just a little, like,
00:31:24
Speaker
um
00:31:27
Speaker
a little too experimental. Okay. um You know, he was like, he was really delving into some sours and some like French saison and some like really aggressive IPAs and stuff like that.
00:31:40
Speaker
um That just, you know, frankly, if I was going to go that direction, I was just going to go somewhere else and stuff. But, um but he's, they've really put together a lot of, lot of great beers. mean, their collection is pretty vast at this point now.
00:31:53
Speaker
know, in 2017, when they opened door, you know,
00:31:56
Speaker
ah their brewery of their brewery, uh, there in Bedford. And, um, and now you can go, um you know, and, um,
00:32:09
Speaker
well, that's when they, that's when they, guess they broke on ground. They opened the doors actually at date in 2018. And so it's like a social house as well as a brewery and stuff like that. And you can go and just like any other, any other brewery these days and everything.
00:32:22
Speaker
Um, Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. So, um but yeah, like a lot of these, a lot of these feelings growlers, really stations are like the reason that they're successful. Like a low start taps and caps is where I saw them for the first time, but Bruce city, um you know, three nations brewery, which actually has its own beers and stuff like to the thirsty growler, um the bearded monk, ah luck wise guys, pizzeria,
00:32:49
Speaker
um Cool Keg and Arlington. They were all pretty big supporters at Turning Point. and Man, you got a lot of growler fill stations there, huh? Yeah. like it We don't have many here at all.
00:33:01
Speaker
like It was a pretty big thing, man. It was a pretty big thing. It still kind of is. I mean, again, I don't really drink as much beer as I used to. um But it's... a you know, it's it was and i mean it was, I mean, it was pretty, it was as, it was probably as fast and furious as the original carrot craft beer boom.
00:33:25
Speaker
Wow. To be honest. Like, that's how kind of like, it was like, okay, we have, like, the the the craft boom is kind of like fading, and it's just like, oh, bam, you know, growler stations now. That's great, though. Yeah. um I'm trying to remember when, in Portland, growler stations were popular for a while, but it was,
00:33:44
Speaker
twenty 2013, 2012-ish, like in that area yeah um where they were very popular. But then, ah you know, at at some point it kind of shifted to more drinking on site than Growler Phil's. And ah few years later, almost every every brewery had a tap room all over the place.
00:34:08
Speaker
So like a lot of the tap rooms were just owned by the breweries ah because they were so prevalent that I don't think the growler stations were really needed anymore while they started going away.
00:34:20
Speaker
Yeah, you could do flights and stuff. at the one The one that I used to stop in was in, like, North Dallas, Frisco, Allen, and the Colony area. I can't remember what city it was actually in. I just remember the exit. um But it was ah it was a and it was pretty cool. um But, yeah, um I mean, i but i I remember this one guy used to see all the time there.
00:34:44
Speaker
It's not like I went quite a bit, but I feel like I saw him every time. And he was, I guess we got off work around the same time or something like that. And he would come in and he would have like three or four empty, you know, growlers.
00:34:58
Speaker
Wow. And fill them up. And I'm just like, damn, man. Like, that's a lot of beer. but Yeah. ah Growlers generally. four beers, five beers.
00:35:10
Speaker
Mm hmm. So hopefully it had a big family or just had a good appetite for beer, I suppose. um But no, this is a... I've always been a fan of lager. I've always been a fan of Pilsner.
00:35:22
Speaker
um i like i like a um um more traditional style beer in that regard. I've always been kind of a fan of that that flavor component. and And so this one kind of struck out to me. it's And it's good. i've had it I've had it a couple of times and it's it's got a wonderful sweetness to it.
00:35:40
Speaker
And... And I'm really enjoying it. It's ah it's definitely a definitely a counter. There's not really any complementary flavors with the way it's going with the morphine.
00:35:52
Speaker
um But it's still still very tasty. so Nice. The Flora Cogna. um I said this isn't a super sweet rum. It's still pretty sweet. It's sweeter than most bourbons.
00:36:03
Speaker
um Definitely sweeter than most scotches. But not like cloyingly sweet like a lot of rums are. Mm-hmm. that sweetness that it does have is working really well with the cigar.
00:36:17
Speaker
um Like it really, ah really offsets kind of the, that dark earth, those roasty flavors that we were talking about. um The kind of baking spice cinnamon notes from the, the rum go really well with again, that kind of super richness of the cigar.
00:36:37
Speaker
um I think it's working really well.
00:36:43
Speaker
What about your, how's your beer working with it It's good. Like, um, I think what's the great thing about lager and, and Pilsner is it, is it kind of, ah for me, it kind of goes well with almost anything.
00:36:55
Speaker
Um, I can, agree i can have that with the, you know, as much as you think about classic pairings, like, you know, like a cab or a red wine with a steak dinner or, you know, like whiskey and barbecue and and things like that. You started thinking about those more classic pairings.
00:37:13
Speaker
Um,
00:37:16
Speaker
i feel like I feel like this style of beer can go with anything. And that's why I said it's it's it's not interfering with the how good the flavor of the cigar is. It's not adding anything to it either, though.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, for for me, that kind of pairing works best as a palate cleanser. Like... yeah It's not necessarily doing the work as a pairing. It's doing the work more as a palate cleanser. So every time you taste that cigar, you're getting the full flavor of it kind of.
00:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Because the cigar is still smoking fantastic. It really is. I'm kind of upset with the fact that I'm halfway done already. I should have bought the Toro.
Japanese Beer History
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:53
Speaker
Anyway, I'm to move on to my next pairing. ah You mentioned... not so classic beer styles and that's exactly what this is but in a very different way than the stuff we usually have um was in the asian grocery store the other day and anytime i have a chance i'm gonna buy a japanese beer uh i love japanese beer this is kawaba twilight ale japanese pale ale they call it a jpa japanese pale ale so i'm gonna do a little primer on japanese beer ah titled this a Japanese beer primer.
00:38:26
Speaker
ah Japanese brewing shares a lot of similarities with the Japanese distilling. um as As many people, but not everybody probably knows, um Japanese whiskey kind of came from scotch.
00:38:39
Speaker
it was It was the Japanese falling in love with scotch, sending sacrifice to Scotland to spend a few years learning how to make it, and then coming back bringing all that knowledge and distributing it across the country, creating Japanese whiskey as a whole.
00:38:57
Speaker
And kind of the same thing happened with beer. um So beer was in Japan starting sometime around the 1600s when they started trading with the Dutch. um In the early eighteen hundreds is when they started being able to import small qualitiities quantities of German and European beer.
00:39:16
Speaker
Um, but it wasn't until the late 1900s that they actually started producing their own beer. Um, so Kieran brewery actually predates the story by seven years.
00:39:28
Speaker
Um, but was founded by an American brewer and then bought by the Japanese. But I'm, I call this guy, the origin of Japanese brewing because he was the first Japanese. He was the first Japanese certified brewer.
00:39:43
Speaker
This other guy was an American. Um, So Sebei Nakagawa left Japan at the age of 17 to just kind of explore the world. He worked his way through a lot of Europe, um ended up in England and just kind of stayed there for about seven years.
00:40:00
Speaker
um Then he went to Berlin after some inspiration. he He actually ran into a guy in ah England who would eventually be the you the foreign minister of Japan.
00:40:17
Speaker
um I didn't put his name down because i didnt couldn't pronounce it. And he was saying, you got to go to Germany, the beer. You got to try this, man. It's amazing. So he journeyed to Berlin after the inspiration that came from that conversation and started working for Berlin berlin Beer Brewery.
00:40:35
Speaker
um And just kind of started off as a guy who carried around kegs, but really wanted to learn the process of making beer. So after about three years, ah he was 27. So it was about 10 years after he had left Japan, he returned home, a certified brewer and,
00:40:53
Speaker
talked some of the people in the government into working with him to establish Sapporo Brewery in Hokkaido in 1876. Oh, snap. yeah cool That's So that's where Sapporo came from.
00:41:06
Speaker
um At this time, ah like I said, seven years earlier in 1869 was when Kirin was founded, but that was founded by a foreigner and didn't really become Japanese for quite a few years.
00:41:23
Speaker
It was just a ah guy you know opening a brewery in Japan. ah But during this time, late 1800s, it very quickly became apparent that Japan just didn't have any almost domestic production of beer ingredients.
00:41:43
Speaker
They had very little hops. They had pretty much no barley. um And so it became the norm to import 100 percent german ingredient so they would import german hops german malt german yeast and use that to make their beer so it just became normal to you know if you had saw a billboard for a japanese beer it said 100 imported german ingredients what year is this like what around what time this was the late 1800s early the right around turn of the century
00:42:17
Speaker
that that makes a lot of sense because that's when Japanese was importing a lot of Western expertise. Yeah. Like in in a in a massive amount of areas like, um, um, you know, they not only, not only obviously this too, as far as from Germany, but they brought, they, they brought a lot over a lot, a lot of German and Dutch engineers and architects to help with infrastructure.
00:42:44
Speaker
They helped with, they brought a lot of, um, ah scholars over from, you know, French and, you know, from french from France and England. um And then they they imported a lot of, like, Western weaponry, obviously, from the United States.
00:43:00
Speaker
This was kind of actually um fictionalized in that Tom Cruise film, The Last Samurai. It was around that point where they were bringing in a lot of Western influence into the country. So that makes sense with the timeline of what you're talking about.
00:43:17
Speaker
um So, around the, you know, for the first half of the 20th century, Japanese Japan fell in love with beer, specifically German style beer. Uh, during the 1980s, one company changed everything by adding rice to their beer.
00:43:34
Speaker
Um, just to kind of stretch out, like it was at first an experiment to, you know, we're spending all this money importing all this stuff from Germany because we can't still can't grow it here.
00:43:45
Speaker
So let's try adding some rice. And the Japanese lager was born. Um, this was a sahi, which is why they have that. Their, their signature beer says super dry.
00:43:57
Speaker
Um, super dry is what they called it because adding rice, but some of that sweetness on the palate. Um, and has now like there, there's now an entire segment of micro brewing that is Japanese rice lagers.
00:44:11
Speaker
So that was the primer. This is Kawaba. which is a microbrewery founded in 1997 in the very small village, about 3,500 people of the same name in the Gunma region of Japan.
00:44:26
Speaker
It's ah about two hours by train north of Tokyo, just for reference. Oh, wow. ah Interestingly, in the very in the very classic tradition, this brewery uses imported german ingredients and local spring water to produce mostly classic German styles with a twist. so they have um They, of course, have a rice lager.
00:44:46
Speaker
They have a pilsner. They have a Hefeweizen
00:44:53
Speaker
There's one other one that's like a, it's a slightly darker of Bach kind of beer. This one, like I said before, is their Japanese pale ale, JPA. They call it that because it has more hops than other Kawaba beers, um but it's significantly less hoppy and um kind of softer than an American IPA, what we would expect.
00:45:15
Speaker
So it is unfiltered. You can see it's got a little bit of cloud to it there. And it is 5.2%. going to take a couple sips and find out how it is and how it pairs. ah We talk about your next pair.
00:45:28
Speaker
Wonderful. Well, so I, um as a lot of people know or may not know, um James and Angela of a Negra are both certified small EAs in addition to all their many talents.
00:45:46
Speaker
And um so i thought it would I thought it would be interesting to bring on one of but on some wine to this. So I brought a a wine, a red wine from Great Creek Vineyards, which is out of Fredericksburg, Texas. um And it's a 2021 vintage. It's a rendezvous. It's made with Rhone red varietals. It's a blend.
00:46:11
Speaker
It's a very fruity wine. ah Get a lot of pomegranate, um like um and another stone, like stone red fruit flavors, ah aside from grape, obviously. like And then there's a very nice floral aroma to it, and it has some floral taste to it as well.
00:46:29
Speaker
um It's deeper. It's not very light. You know, it's when you think of Verone, I think of more of a Pinot, so a little bit more jammy, which kind of coincides with the which kind of kind of signs with it. um It's not that kind of that deep Cabernet that we were kind of talking about earlier with the steak dinner comparison and stuff.
00:46:49
Speaker
And and it's it's great. I happen to be a member of this of this this winery, so I get three bottles you know every quarter, four times a year.
00:47:00
Speaker
so they send me three bottles and and and they shake it up. You just get a variety of stuff. and um Yeah, man, I love it. um um they have ah They have another one called Serendipity.
00:47:12
Speaker
ah That's a really nice, it's kind of a super Tuscan-esque blend and stuff. But the Cabernet Franc is probably one of my favorites and stuff. But it's, I've mentioned some French things, that super Tuscan is more in line with their kind of their tradition. Like this is a, the vineyard's fantastic. if you're ever in Fredericksburg, Texas,
00:47:31
Speaker
It's beautiful. It's a very Italian style vineyard. that The architecture is is structured, has a very Italian a theme to it. um Very cool. They have a fantastic restaurant attached to it.
00:47:45
Speaker
um And some amazing stone-fired pizza and some pasta dishes that are just exquisite. And the the wine is really good. I've just really always enjoyed the wine from there. Yeah.
00:47:56
Speaker
um They do a couple of, they do grow some, obviously some stuff as well. They do have some Texan um grapes that they use, ah but they there they they do just some amazing blends and they get some amazing vintages and make some great wine. So I thought it would be a really nice pairing.
00:48:17
Speaker
Nice. It sounds like, I think red wine would make a really good pairing. I almost went red wine, but I have two bottles for next week's show. And I didn't want to end up with like three or four bottles of wine open at the same time.
00:48:30
Speaker
The thing about, i I am not typically a ah wine cigar person. Um, started doing a lot more. I started doing a lot more when I was hanging out with Carney a lot.
00:48:43
Speaker
Um, you know, whenever he'd come into town, we'd like hang out just outside of a cigar shop. He would have wine. We would do we were doing wine and and cigars. Um, So I got into it a little bit more there.
00:48:54
Speaker
Um, when I, you know, started getting to know Tony Bellotto of La Barba. yeah he He's a sommelier as well too. We started talking about it. Um, and, um, a lot too. So I've, I've played around with it a a little bit as, yeah as well. And it's, it's, um it can be good. It can also really, really dry out your palate. It's been my experience for me or dry my palate out.
00:49:19
Speaker
Oh yeah, definitely. So it's, so I tend not to do it as much. I tend to drink a lot of water when I'm pairing with the wine. That's true. And I have some just some sparkling regular water here. So I've been kind of sipping on that in between this and everything. So um but yeah, it's very sad that the cigar is is going so fast because I'm already taking the label off.
00:49:38
Speaker
Yeah, i' I'm a little upset about how fast that's going by. We should have bought bigger cigars. but you'll live you'll learn, right? um So this beer is fantastic. It's, as you can kind of tell, looking at, it has, Dennis and talk about this a lot.
00:49:57
Speaker
Bear, I don't think you've been privy to this conversation more than once or twice, if at all. ah Bubble size. Bubble size is very important when it comes to beer. You can have, ah the the range is kind of from what I would call foamy bubbles, like,
00:50:14
Speaker
smaller, less sharp than champagne bubbles to soda bubbles, which are gigantic. Um, and it just kind of gives a different feel on your palate and through the use of different fermentation methods, uh, you can end up with different size bubbles and beer.
00:50:31
Speaker
It also depends on the texture of the beer, the actual viscosity of the liquid. Um, but that being said, this has very foamy bubbles, very soft, ah champagne style bubbles, which kind of adds to the softness of it.
00:50:46
Speaker
It's got a little bit of bitterness, but it's um I'm trying to think of what this is even close to. I think it's less bitterness than even in most like American pale ales.
00:51:01
Speaker
um Like, you know, something like a steer Nevada pale ale, something that's not identified as an India style pale ale, but it's just a pale ale. Um, it's kind of in between that and like your classic ESB English special bitter, which is typically not very bitter at all.
00:51:19
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I love the name. It's yeah. It's very weird. Isn't it? ah love ESB. Um, me too, but it's, it's not like, it's just not bitter or hoppy. No, no, but this is kind of in between those two.
00:51:35
Speaker
It's such an easy drink, man. The ESP is such an easy drink in beer. Like, holy cow. That's exactly where this sits. Like, this is the kind of beer that I could really see drinking 11 of with a bunch of fried food in Tokyo until 4 in the morning.
00:51:52
Speaker
Yeah. um Like, it goes down real smooth, but it's got enough flavor that keeps you interested um i could see I could see this actually working really well. If it wasn't like $8 or $9 a bottle, this would work really well as a cooking beer, like if you're going to beer batter something, um because it just has that really velvety texture and a really, really nice balance of malt and hops.
00:52:20
Speaker
And it's surprisingly working with the cigar pretty well. I find, again, the sweetness... is what really tends to play with this cigar well for me um not over the top sweetness but just enough that it uh offsets those darker flavors of the cigar a little bit and brightens it up um ah i hit the The thing I always think about when I think about like just like smooth drinking beer are like English or Scottish-style pubs and stuff. and
00:52:54
Speaker
um where i mean they have They'll have different types, obviously, of beer and stuff like that, but like they... like they i feel like the... i mean they This could also be said about Germans, too, but i think like I think English and Scottish people make beer for drinking.
00:53:13
Speaker
And when I say drinking, I mean drinking. like Yeah, they want to be able to drink it like it's water, like they're hydrating. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, um i you know I was in Scotland a couple years couple summers ago, and, like, I went to what yeah ah you know public house, right, and for for dinner. And, I mean, when I say this, like, everyone in my group, like, hated their food. Like, everyone in their group hated their food. The food was not good.
00:53:44
Speaker
I mean, it was fantastic. Yeah. Well that, but yeah I mean, the just food wasn't like anything in spectacular and stuff. And it was just like, occurred to me like, as I was looking around, like people would go sit at the table, eat like scarf down something. And then they were back at the bar.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yeah. Like it was that kind of a it was that kind of a public house. And like, I mean, and these people are just like throwing back pints left and right. And, and like, and I mean, like I said, I haven't been drinking much beer the last few years, but man, I mean, I had, I had four beers and didn't feel a damn thing.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah, i man, I love an English pub. Like, ah when I was in Manchester years ago, like eight or nine years ago, ah we spent some time at pubs like that, and it was rad.
00:54:30
Speaker
Just very chill environment to have a beer. Yeah.
00:54:37
Speaker
Or three or four. Loud, but not the kind of loud that, like, American-style bars are. Yeah, exactly. ah Great, great conversation. you know, you know, music's also not blaring, too. Like, it's just this like a public house. That's right.
00:54:55
Speaker
throw him back Throwing back a few and having a good time with your your coworkers, friends, family, whoever. You know, so it's it's pretty cool. This wine is actually pairing really well. Yeah. And I'm really, really, really enjoying it.
Wine Pairing with Morphine
00:55:09
Speaker
Yeah, the super fruitiness of the wine is pairing really well with the spiciness and earthiness. ah They're both darker flavored, very deep flavors, you know not like the beer was. you know There's just a little bit lighter and stuff like that.
00:55:24
Speaker
um But this cigar is still tasting phenomenal. I'm you know getting into the final third here now. ah It's just terrific. um And it's pairing really well with this wine. So I'm...
00:55:38
Speaker
I'm hoping that my last pairing does pretty well, but I think we think we got a front runner here for tonight. Nice. That sounds delightful. I think my first two pairings have been pretty good.
00:55:49
Speaker
I'm hoping my last pairing is the winner because I have high hopes for it. um
Holy Mountain Black Beer Tasting
00:55:54
Speaker
Hopefully, my cigar will last long enough for me to start pairing it. Luckily, I don't have much notes on this one. so This is from Holy Mountain Brewery. um but They have...
00:56:06
Speaker
They have a logo that will break your brain. Okay. So that is a triangle. It's just not quite a triangle. It's got a couple of curves in there, but you can't really tell.
00:56:21
Speaker
but looks like all straight lines, but then when you look at it up close, you're like, those look like straight lines, but my brain keeps telling me they're not. Like, it feels like your eyes and your brain are not working together on this.
00:56:34
Speaker
Um, especially when I looked at it on my computer, like on their website, they just had a big logo in the middle of it. And I was staring at it. Like, I can't figure this out. Like it makes my brain hurt just to look at.
00:56:47
Speaker
So this is from Holy mountain brewing brewing. They were founded in 2014 in Seattle, Washington by a group of homebrewers who they would kind of get together at homebrew.
00:56:59
Speaker
They were running out of space. They had too much equipment. They wanted to do barrel aging, but they didn't have anywhere to keep barrels. So they just kind of pulled their money together and rented out a space. and over the next few months, it turned into like, well, now that we have all this space, maybe instead of buying homebrewing our beer, we should actually, like, get serious.
00:57:22
Speaker
ah So they did. In their first year, they brewed ah hundred different brews ah different beers. ah Jesus. Which is, it's not, like, completely insane for a big brewery to do, but for a brand-new brewery, it's crazy.
00:57:36
Speaker
For three guys in a room? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how how many... God, how many pots were they using? Like, how many... They must've had kegs on kegs on kegs on kegs or something.
00:57:49
Speaker
That's crazy. Cause you can't, uh, like even if you have like a 15 barrel brew system, you can only brew one batch at a time. Like, right. They gotta be just cycling through, pegging everything so that it can do final fermentation and stuff.
00:58:06
Speaker
Um, anyway, they, uh, wanted to focus on barrel aging from the looks of it. They haven't done a ton of barrel aging, ah projects. They're mostly focusing on canning stuff right now, which is, you know, fresh, fresher beers.
00:58:23
Speaker
Um, this one is called black beer. It is a clean and simple, dark ale brewed with flaked barley Maris otter. I don't know what that is. And East Kent goldings. I think Maris otter is actually hop.
00:58:36
Speaker
don't think about it. Um, clocks in at four and a half percent ABV. Like it says on the tin, it's black. Big surprise. Yeah. ah i would have been sort disappointed I would have been so disappointed if you had poured that shit out and it was like a lighter beer.
00:58:53
Speaker
It would be funny, though. I would have been angry. like Like, that's false advertising, you assholes, man. Oh, I think that's going to work well. Tell us about your last pairing why while I drink this a little bit more of this.
00:59:06
Speaker
Yeah, Paris. Well, talk about the bubble size, because I saw that i saw the head on that. It was pretty light. Very similar to Guinness. Yeah, this is um it reminds me a little bit of Guinness Export, if you've ever had that.
00:59:19
Speaker
um The non-nitro Guinness. um They are... i mean
00:59:28
Speaker
It's normal beer-sized bubbles. but there's less of them. So you get like that slightly more viscous mouthfeel. It's a little less carbonated than most beers.
00:59:40
Speaker
Nice. Man, it's good so far though. All right. What do you got Well, my last pairing is, um, something of a combination of what we've been talking about spirits and, uh, wine.
00:59:59
Speaker
So I have a Remy Martin Cognac de Champagne 1738. I um i love this Cognac.
01:00:09
Speaker
I think it's, I love Cognac in general. I think Cognac in general, if you're just talking about things in general, um you know, rum versus whiskey versus or even rum versus scotch versus bourbon, cognac, all this stuff. In general, I think cognac is the best distilled spirit to pair with a cigar.
01:00:34
Speaker
I think it combines all the things that make good pairings good pairings. So when you think about people who like their scotch and cigars, well, cognac has um you know deeper barrel flavorings, but not as deep as bourbon. It's fruitier like wine, but not as fruity as wine, and it doesn't dry out the palate.
01:00:56
Speaker
It's it had They have some interesting flavor components. So if you're like a peated scotch fan, you know, it doesn't have any peat to it, but there's just the this very unique, different...
01:01:07
Speaker
ah flavor to cognac as opposed to as opposed to like other spirits in general. And people are like, well, bare cognac is just really fancy brandy. And that's true.
01:01:19
Speaker
It really is. um Because it's made, it is a distilled spirit made with champagne grates specifically from Champagne, France. So, cogac there you know, champagne is only champagne if it's made in Champagne, France. Cognac is only cognac if it's con if it's brandy made in cognac.
01:01:34
Speaker
Like that's with champagne grapes like that. It's very, very, very specific. It's it has never been abandoned in that regard ah where now people are making like Texas style bourbon and then there's bourbon made in other places now and all, you know, different things.
01:01:50
Speaker
You know, it used to be where bourbon was only made in Kentucky. ah You were talking about the hip history of Japan, Japanese. ah There's Japanese scotch. distilleries now. It used to be only scotch was only made in Scotland, for example. so
Cognac Pairing Discussion
01:02:03
Speaker
Well, um there is a reason for
01:02:07
Speaker
Scotland has has declared that Japanese whiskey is so close and follows the rules of scotch so much that they are willing to extend an invitation to allow it to be called scotch.
01:02:21
Speaker
An invitation? be They're willing to extend an olive branch or a ah a barrel something. A barrel. Yeah, some kind of metaphor there.
01:02:33
Speaker
But that that is my general opinion about cognac. I just absolutely adore it. um i have been a fan ever since I've tried it for the first time in general. And I've really enjoyed it with cigar brands. 1738 is probably my favorite um from the Remi Martin brand. They're saying I should try this, huh?
01:02:55
Speaker
Yes. Because I've never had, I've never truly tried a cognac. Really? I've had a couple, but I've never like sat with a glass of cognac and experienced it.
01:03:06
Speaker
I've tasted it a couple times. That's the closest I've got. Ben's driving down to New Orleans, so I might Venmo him and have him pick up a bottle so that he can drive down with it.
01:03:17
Speaker
Because i'm not I plan on not checking a bag to PCA, just like I normally do. I would be very down for that. The try. So, um...
01:03:29
Speaker
So, ah but Remy Martin specifically, 1738, so there's... I can go... We can go deep here. So we can go with the history of Remy Martin, um or we can just go with the 1738 history. So what which way do you want to go with this?
01:03:44
Speaker
You do you. Okay. Okay. So um rey Remy Martin is still is still family owned. It is not is part of a conglomerate now.
01:03:56
Speaker
um in ah In terms of cognac, it it it ah Remy Martin owns Cointreau. So it's the Remy Cointreau is the name of the ownership group, but they they own both both ah both ah distiller both distilleries. So Cointreau is, of course, the the orange liqueur, the famed orange liqueur.
01:04:18
Speaker
um ah Spirit, ah it's also the same famous bottle that was ah the original plot, ah assassination plot to kill Adolf Hitler. They put a bomb in box of Cointreau. That didn't work. Was that the Operation Valkyrie?
01:04:32
Speaker
and then was that the operation valkyrie No, there was so this was the predecessor celebrating the of the house's 300th anniversary here. Remy Martin, 1738, a cord royale bottle comes in a canister, which I have here.
01:04:50
Speaker
ah remy martin seventeen thirty eight a accord royale bottle comes in a canister but i have here And it's decorated with a red celestial design and an embossed gold and silver details.
01:05:04
Speaker
The wraparound pattern features the bottle's silhouette, star constellations, and astronaut astrological motifs.
01:05:13
Speaker
It's a blend that commemorates the recognition of exceptional quality of the Rémy Martin Cognac granted by the King Louis XV of France in 1738. Wow. thirty eight wow so um ah it it's very it It has a very wonderful oaky flavor to it. It's got gorgeous sweetness.
01:05:33
Speaker
I absolutely, like I said, I really adore Remy Martins specifically. But it's considered you know one of the big four. When you think of four con the big four cognacs, there are four.
01:05:45
Speaker
There's Hennessy, which is probably the most prolific and honestly the most popular in America. Cavassier. Cavassier. ah which also pretty well known.
01:05:58
Speaker
um Martell, which unfortunately has a ah little bit of a more, at least in this country, has a little bit more of a downgraded status.
01:06:10
Speaker
People think of it as a more cheaper cognac, and it is, but people think of it that more of it, this is kind of a like low grade, um but it's um they are there it's a fantastic house. And then, of course, Remy Martin.
01:06:22
Speaker
um They, all four of these brands specifically produce most, ah over 90% of the world's cognac. Wow. These four particular companies.
01:06:35
Speaker
um And Remy Martini, Remy Martini specializes in creating cognac fine, as they call it, cognac fine champagne.
01:06:47
Speaker
It also pairs really well with champagne. So like double fisting champagne and cognac also very cool. just one Or doing like a ah ah I'm sure it has a name, a French 70 something probably, but I know a French 75 is champagne with a shot of gin.
01:07:06
Speaker
um I would assume champagne with a shot of Remy Martin is probably French 72, some shit like that. So there's a very famous scene at the very beginning of ah of a Humphrey Bogart film called The Big Sleep.
01:07:18
Speaker
And Humphrey Bogart's character comes to meet his employer. He's a private detective. He meets his employer, who's a ah retired ah general who's who's actually disabled.
01:07:30
Speaker
ah He's paralyzed. um and And he's sick. He's an older man. um has a lot of ailments is the point. And he says, hey, you know, they actually meet his home's greenhouse, which is very hot, as you can imagine, humid.
01:07:44
Speaker
And he says, hey, you can smoke. And so he lights up a cigarette. He says, I can't smoke anymore, but I love watching people do it, and I really enjoy it. He's like, i sick I also love watching people drink. um Would you like some brandy? says, sure. he says, how do you take it? He says, in a glass.
01:07:59
Speaker
He says, I used to love drinking brandy with oh with champagne. And that was his that was the general's favorite was favorite pairing was having champagne and brandy. I um i did a little Googling. A French 75 is basically champagne and anything mixed together.
01:08:17
Speaker
Oh, okay. So champagne and cognac is still a French 75. Nice. The... the
01:08:27
Speaker
Remy and Bartin typically represents about 90% of the the group's um business. So we talk about Remy Cointreau. And which I also look them up. They own Brooklottie, which is a huge in the... I mean, they're not a gigantic scotch distillery, but they are very popular. They do Brooklottie, Port Charlotte, and the Botanist Gin.
01:08:54
Speaker
are all part of that. That's right. Yeah. The botanist gin, um, Port Charlotte's a great scotch. But they, yeah, they've expanded into some other companies. Um, they're not, they're not becoming like a huge powerhouse or anything by any stretch, but they're buying up smaller operations and they have expanded like, discern um you know, uh, spirit options and stuff like that. So, um, but the name, Remy Martin, comes from the company's founder who was born in 1695. Um,
01:09:23
Speaker
That's an old company. Yeah, near Rululac in southwestern France. it's ah He was a vinter by trade and in 1724. He created a cognac trading house. So the 1738 was, again, commemorating the 300th year of the house specifically. So this was 1738 came the 1990s when this specific was released.
01:09:43
Speaker
this seventeen thirty eight came around in nineteen nineteen ninety s is one of this this specific one it was released After Martin's death in 1773, the business passed to his grandson, who was also named Remy.
01:09:57
Speaker
And in 1841, Paul Emile Remy Martin assumed control and oversaw great growth. He added ah the logo to the bottles and cases. ah Centaur, after Sagittarius, which was Martin's zodiac sign, became like the preeminent symbol of Remy Martin, ah which still continues today.
01:10:16
Speaker
So, um, and, uh,
01:10:22
Speaker
A couple of other pieces of history, which is pretty cool. ah In the early there um a it there was a a period of time where Andre Reneau, who was a lawyer and merchant, actually took control of the company.
01:10:39
Speaker
And that's when, in 1927, launched the VSOP.
01:10:42
Speaker
Fine champagne from Remy Martin. um And also sought worldwide distribution at that point. So after World War two Remy Martin continued to rise under ah another Andre, not Renault, but Hernan Dubril, who was Renault's son-in-law.
01:11:00
Speaker
And um in 1965, Renault died and Hernan Dubril became the president. kids joined him after that, notably his daughter, ah Dominique Hernan de Bril, who became the general manager in the late 80s.
01:11:17
Speaker
and um And then she became the president in the 90s. And the the House of Remy Martin was incorporated, Remy Cointreau, into business in the early 90s. And then most recent history, uh...
01:11:32
Speaker
um
01:11:35
Speaker
the In the 2010s, this is really interesting. We saw this a lot across all spirits. This is why, like, for a while you couldn't find, like, Buffalo Trace. Even Jose Cuervo became really rare.
01:11:46
Speaker
it you know, became hard to get in some liquor stores during the 2010s. And that's because ah ah of the Chinese market was really opened up and China started buying a lot of the world's liquor.
01:11:58
Speaker
Crazy amounts. Yeah, they they experienced a really significant sales downturn. after China bought like ah a massive amount. It's the same thing that's been going on the last couple years with Cuban cigars.
01:12:13
Speaker
Cuban cigars have been vacuumed to China. like there I've seen... i mean, I know there was ah there's a big thing a couple years ago, um maybe about a year ago, actually, that all...
01:12:27
Speaker
Cuban distributors were getting their, their distributions cut by like half or something like that. Like number of cigars Habanos was going to send them was going to be cut in half because they needed to ship that much product to China.
01:12:45
Speaker
It's crazy. When China goes, they go, man.
01:12:50
Speaker
And, uh, which was, and the reason why, again, why I picked this particular cognac, um, is this is the bottle. This is actually the bottle that I took to the hospital with me ah when my last son was born, Justice, back in December. so Nice.
01:13:06
Speaker
His mother and i enjoyed a glass after he was born. That's an important distinction. I enjoyed a glass to celebrate. ah the birth of justice. So, um, so I've got a, you know, a little bit left and I thought it would be, it would be fun to bring on, um, and talk about, cause I have a very, very, very fond love for Vakoniak. I am so shocked.
01:13:27
Speaker
I am so shocked that you've never had it. This is really, I mean, i so the thing is, I don't, it's one of those things. It's like wine for me, um, which wine has become much less of a blind spot in the last 10 years or so.
01:13:43
Speaker
Um, but, I didn't know enough to order it at a bar.
01:13:50
Speaker
And I didn't feel confident enough in choosing one to buy a bottle of. So I think there was a point where I bought a bottle of Hennessy at some point for some cocktail.
01:14:03
Speaker
And I eventually finished that bottle. But that's the only experience I've ever had with true cognac. I've also had a couple bottles brandy for, uh, yeah.
01:14:14
Speaker
uh some cocktail thing i think it was actually it was dennis sent me a subscription box thing that was like you buy 750 milliliter bottle of this spirit and we provide everything to make for each of four different cocktails or something like that it was very cool oh that's cool that's um that sounds like a very dennis that dennis christmas gift for sure that is but but it was brandy and i i bought a bottle of of some random brandy because i was like i don't even know what i'm buying i'm just gonna stick to the 30 range and hope that this good and it was it was good enough
01:14:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think but brandy is one of those things because brandy in its essence can be anything. Brandy can be made with any kind of fruit. Yeah. there's I mean, there's peach brandy, apricot brandy, ah brandy made with grapes, ah which is not cognac. Cognac is made specifically champagne grapes cognac, so you can't say that grape brandy is cognac because it's not.
01:15:11
Speaker
um It's very snooty, so everyone out there bears being a snob. Yes, i am. um um But Remy Martinez is absolutely my favorite, um specifically this this line from 1738. I just absolutely think it's phenomenal.
01:15:25
Speaker
um It's not terribly expensive. um No? you knows it's it's Yeah, it's about $65. Okay, that's not terrible. Yeah, it's not terrible. um um And, you know, there's VSOP. And then, of course, the famed...
01:15:45
Speaker
expensive cognac, which is Louis the 13th. Yeah. ah Which is a Remy Martin product, um which I have had, i have had some from, but I did not buy it um because there's no way in hell I could have afforded it. so Wow.
01:16:00
Speaker
I can't believe you even tasted it. I've tasted some insane whiskeys. I've never tasted anything that expensive. I was, I was on a, I was on a work trip a few years ago.
01:16:16
Speaker
And um
01:16:19
Speaker
were of all things, we were talking about the movie Fly Boys, which is you know James Franco, a World War I film of some Americans who went over and fought with the French and flew airplanes.
01:16:32
Speaker
And one of the characters in it is a rich aristocrat from America. he's ah he's He's the black she of the family. He's shamed of the family. And so his father sends him over to fight in the war.
01:16:44
Speaker
And so in the last act of rebellion, ah he steals his father's bottle of lemb of Louis XIII. Oh, man. So we were I was talking about it at a bar um because there was a bottle there.
01:16:59
Speaker
course, it wasn't in paper. But I was talking about it with ah with with a gentleman and... He's like, well, hell, we you he's like we got we got to try this. I was like, no, we're not. was like you know he's like, no, man, it's on me. We're doing this.
01:17:12
Speaker
We're doing this. Wow. And yeah, two glass two glasses, two servings, two two-ounce pours. And yeah, it it was absolutely exquisite.
01:17:24
Speaker
It was just as phenomenal as I thought it would be. Would I pay for that? and No. I mean, unless I just had, ah you know, I won the lotto and just had fuck you money around. Um, but even then, like, I wouldn't go crazy with it. If I won the lottery, I would buy a bottle.
01:17:39
Speaker
Yeah. I would absolutely buy it. So it's kind of like, um, I had I mean, not quite similar, but I had a similar reaction and expectation of when I had happy 23, um, sure happy Van Winkle, 23 year, a very good friend had a bottle. And I said, last time you offered me a sip of that bottle,
01:18:04
Speaker
I just, I didn't take it. Can I just trouble you for a very small core of it? So he obliged. And tasting it was like, i mean, it's not worth two grand, but it sure is good. It really is good.
01:18:19
Speaker
Like, you know, you expect to be disappointed a little bit by stuff like that. Like, you're like, there's no way it's worth it, which of course it's not worth it. um because it wouldn't cost that much if it was actually worth that much, right?
01:18:34
Speaker
I think there's a lot of things like that have mystique around it, surrounding it. ah for For me, in my younger years, it was Johnny Walker Blue, right? you know and that's Oh, yeah. I mean, pales in comparison to the two things we're talking about. It's like $250 a bottle, right? yeah Yeah.
01:18:51
Speaker
But you taste that, and you're like... Alright, it's pretty damn good. yeah It's pretty fucking good, yeah. and you know And, you know, you go to a bar, it's what, $30 a glass? Yeah. You know? it I wouldn't buy that every time, but it's kind of worth it.
Cigar and Drink Pairing Exploration
01:19:07
Speaker
It's pretty good, yeah.
01:19:10
Speaker
So, everybody go out and find yourself a bottle of Louis XIII. Yeah. Let Bear know what you think. Yeah. No, buy buyrself a bottle of Remy Martin 1738. It's phenomenal.
01:19:21
Speaker
It's absolutely phenomenal. And It's pairing incredibly well, incredibly well with morphine. so i'm I'm very happy to note that I'm i'm destroying the end of this cigar.
01:19:32
Speaker
like i i would have normally put this down by now, but it's good, and it's pairing really well with this black beer from Holy Mountain. um The beer is just kind of a just a classic dark beer.
01:19:47
Speaker
um It's not quite a stout. It's ah a not quite a porter, but it's close. It's in between an amber ale and a porter, I would say, as far as flavor profile goes.
01:19:59
Speaker
Not quite as roasty as what you expect from a porter. Yeah, not like a... Yeah, when I think of porter, I know that there's obviously porter beers that are not coffee porters, but I can never disassociate. In my head, before I can drink a porter, I never dis so disassociate those two words.
01:20:15
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I always think of coffee. I mean, coffee porter is just a classic style.
Cigar Blending Preferences
01:20:21
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:20:23
Speaker
All right. um My pairing of the night is this black beer from Holy Mountain. I got to put my cigar down because I'm burning my lips and fingertips. um Bear, any final thoughts on this morphine?
01:20:40
Speaker
um i I think it's... I think it's phenomenal. And I think it's phenomenal in this size. I mean, James was right when he recommended this size to me. um i was, like I said, I was skeptical.
01:20:57
Speaker
ah Not that but from James. Like, i you know, like the cigars that he ah produces, and we've talked about this exhaustingly the last couple years to multiple audiences. Like, he just, when he blends, like, I am, he just doesn't miss my palate.
01:21:15
Speaker
you know Yeah, that's kind of the thing. i know there's a there's a there's a collective of us. There's like five or six guys in our friend group that like between James and Hector, like it's like they're blending cigars for us.
Favorite Cigar Brands Discussion
01:21:31
Speaker
Like yeah what they love is what we love. And it just like it makes it really easy for for them to just make anything and us to go. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah.
01:21:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's like, you know, there's there's cigars that I absolutely love. You know, Espinosa's won my Cigar of the Year multiple times. so Surprisingly, James has never gotten number one Cigar of the Year so far for me.
01:21:54
Speaker
He's come close. He came close again this year. He was the number two cigar with the Killer B, Robusto. But... the I mean, he's never he hasn't won it yet, so i'm i I imagine he will one of these days.
01:22:08
Speaker
um You know, just how the the numbers fall and the tallies fall and stuff like that. But, you know, Hector's won it a couple of times with Espinosa, Habano, and and Crema.
01:22:19
Speaker
But I, yeah, I just, like, there's other cigars that, like, other cigar companies that I love, ah cigars that really kind of hit my palate, you know. you know, the original Cro-Magnon from Roma Craft.
01:22:31
Speaker
um Yep, that's one of those cigars in that in that grouping for me, too. Yeah, the BA. Like, those those were, like, hits. A lot Drew Estate cigars. Some of Placentia's recent stuff. The Almodafuegos, just fucking smacks. Like, I love that. And the, you know, and the Concescia 49 is just... 149 is fantastic. It was in my top 10 this year. Like, um...
01:22:56
Speaker
I feel like I always love the Las Calaveras from Crown Heads. There's a lot of companies that make cigars that I gravitate towards. I'm always like, we go for it. I love it. yeah um But those two guys, I feel like they can't mess, for the most part. like a hey Hector's blended a couple of cigars that I did not like.
Cigars That Missed the Mark
01:23:15
Speaker
yeah ah the The Royalty from James, is the the Black Label Royalty, I think it's called, is probably the the one that I can name off the top of my head that just doesn't hit my palette Same. That's one of the ones that is not in my wheelhouse.
01:23:30
Speaker
As much as I love almost everything that he makes, the royalty, it's one of ones that I'm just like, don't quite get it. Yeah, it just, I don't know. I don't know what it was. I can't i can't tell you. Like, I just, yeah, for whatever reason, it just didn't hit.
01:23:43
Speaker
um And it's
Movie Recommendation: 'The Gorge'
01:23:45
Speaker
all over the map for me because I loved his porcelain too. So like I loved his lighter stuff, which he doesn't do a lot of. love the rave from Dissident, which is a quote-unquote lighter cigar. And then i love his darker, deeper stuff.
01:23:57
Speaker
the or The recent one that we smoked on the round table was the Orthodox, and that would fucking kill me. That thing was great. God, that so good. so Yeah, ah um yeah it's ah this is an absolutely fantastic.
01:24:09
Speaker
Really rings true in this size. ah For me, the pairing of the night. Are are we doing that? Yes. Did you do that? Yes, I did that. I said it was black beer. Yeah, i my mine mine's the cognac.
01:24:20
Speaker
um it's ma and it's it's It's coming because it's in the later third, too. like i'm doing it I'm smoking in the last third. like I imagine if I had had this for the entire cigar, it would have been perfect, immaculate.
01:24:31
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds about right. um Yeah. All right. And it's time to close out the show. Before we go, we have one for the road. Bear, you want me to give you a minute and I'll go do mine first.
01:24:44
Speaker
Go ahead. Do yours first. i mean, I have mine, but go and do. your All right. Mine is my one for the road. you You guys know I constantly do a movie. and Sometimes it's a movie you can't watch for free or with a subscription yet, but this time it is.
01:24:59
Speaker
If you have Apple TV, I highly recommend you check out The Gorge starring ah Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller, directed by Scott Derrickson, who's like, his resume is all over the place. Like, he directed...
01:25:15
Speaker
ah Sinister in 2012, which is a terrifying movie about children killing their families. And it is, it's just one of the creepiest movies I think that I saw within that span of time.
01:25:29
Speaker
um He also directed the first Doctor Strange movie, a big Marvel blockbuster. um He directed The Black Phone just a couple years ago, which also starred Ethan Hawke.
01:25:42
Speaker
um But he directed this movie called The Gorge. It is a a weird mashup of movies that starts off as a kind of military ah thriller, then suddenly turns into a romance kind of story, um, about these two characters getting to know each other in very bizarre circumstances.
01:26:05
Speaker
Uh, and then they have to fight a bunch of monsters and it's, uh, Sounds right up your alley, man. Yeah, it's just right up my alley. Like, a lot of fun in this movie. It's not the best movie you're ever going to watch.
01:26:19
Speaker
um I don't expect it to win any awards or anything like that, but it's just a lot of fun, and it really kind of toes the line between, like, uh...
01:26:32
Speaker
but kind of faking you into thinking it's a romantic, not quite comedy, but almost romantic comedy. Uh, and then suddenly it turns into a scary movie, scary action movie.
01:26:43
Speaker
Um, I think there are some things that could have been done better. Like the villain was not really that, that interesting or explained very well. Um, but overall it's just a super fun movie with, I thought really good special effects.
01:26:57
Speaker
And I've been a big fan of everything. Scott Derrickson has done up to this point. So if you have Apple TV, I highly recommend you check out the gorge. It may be the type of movie you can watch with your wife or girlfriend.
01:27:09
Speaker
Um, depending on how she can take the the scary parts. Not quite a horror movie. It's not super scary,
Movie Recommendation: 'Carry On'
01:27:17
Speaker
um but it might be a little intense for some people um because it's, you know, being chased around by creepy bad guys.
01:27:25
Speaker
All right. Bear, what's your one for the road? i was It's a movie as well. I watched this. I was in South Carolina this week for work. Uh, you know I've been traveling quite a bit for this for the job that I've held for a year now. so i'm I'm traveling about once a month.
01:27:42
Speaker
so um Not quite like our our cohorts that do cigar repping in the this industry and they're on the road constantly, but I'm spending a lot more time away, which is kind of sad for me to be with my kids, but I get to watch some films and stuff like that that I normally don't necessarily get to watch.
01:28:02
Speaker
um Yeah, i also actually watch this on a plane. There you go. I watched my way home from Vegas on Friday. It came out on Valentine's Day. I should have noted. It was like Apple TV's big Valentine's Day movie.
01:28:14
Speaker
Nice. This one actually was a holiday film, too. This was a Christmas one, but I finally got to watch it over this past week, and it's ah Carry On starring Taron Egerton and um and Jason Bateman.
01:28:27
Speaker
um Jason Bateman plays the villain, and he does a phenomenal- Dude, he rules in that movie. Oh my god, he's so good. um And it's it's a really great film.
01:28:38
Speaker
ah Plot is simple. Taron Egerton is a TSA agent, and he kind of gets involved in this not heist, but this not heist but this plot attempt to yeah this plot and attempt to smuggle on something illegal onto a plane um and Jason Bateman is the and the villain who's trying to get this this particular object onto a plane so he's trying to get through security so he hacks into you know basically hacks his way into getting
01:29:10
Speaker
ah and Terran Edgerton to pick up an earpiece, Terran Edgerton puts it in, and he's basically talking him through this whole thing. There's a lot of plot twists and turns. ah I mean, in terms of just, ah they do think of everything technologically, like how they could try to get around it, how they could do it.
01:29:29
Speaker
Um... I would say this is very accurate. from I've been in enough TSA lines. This is pretty accurate in terms of like the people around the passengers.
01:29:39
Speaker
It's probably pretty spot on. yeah But how accurate is behind the scenes of TSA, I would i wouldn't. I wouldn't venture to know because I've never been a part of that organization. But Taron Edgerton is the TSA agent. Jason Bateman is the villain, as I mentioned.
01:29:54
Speaker
Theo Rossi of Sons of Anarchy, I'm a big Sons of Anarchy fan, is also in it. And he he plays a phenomenal ah part. He's on the he's on the the the villain side. He plays a really nice supporting character.
01:30:07
Speaker
ah It's directed by ah Jean Coelette Serra, which is a Spanish-American director. He ah started his career with House of Wax. ah did ah Which people... Gets a lot of hate, but the House of Wax remake is a great movie.
01:30:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, this was ah not too far from one of his original movies. He did two movies with Liam Neeson, one of them being Non-Stop, ah which obviously is a plain...
01:30:34
Speaker
a plane film and so this was probably in that vein and everything to me a lot of the plot points um a lot of the plot points a lot of the dialogue a lot of the action points was kind of a combination for me of like mid 90s action films so The Rock Air Force One dude it reminded me so much of Die Hard And yeah, and very much, very much Hard kind of was in it too. Like there, you could see that, ah that Quilet Serra had a lot of influence from those nineties action films.
01:31:07
Speaker
And um it just, I thought it was superbly acted. I thought Jason Bateman was incredible. I thought Taron Egerton really went toe to toe with him and really went well. Like it's a really, it's a really good film.
01:31:19
Speaker
It keeps you engaged the whole time. They really do think of everything. Like if you go back and think, well, why didn't he? Oh, he did try to do that. Like he could try to do this. Like things that you think about, like, um you know, you know, with today's technology and stuff like, OK, he tells him to put his phone away and then he he tries to get a message out using his Apple Watch.
01:31:42
Speaker
that doesn't fly, things like that. So like they really did think of a lot of things technologically where there's a lot of big plot holes sometimes where like, why didn't someone so just do X or Yeah.
01:31:54
Speaker
yeah And this is one of those refreshing movies where he tried that. Like, yeah, it just, yeah he couldn't get it to work. Yeah. And so I thought, I i thought it was really, really well thought out. And, um,
01:32:05
Speaker
um Just really good. and Really good. i
Personal Movie Anecdote
01:32:08
Speaker
was I was into it, man. I'll um i'll be watching it again, and and yeah, I recommend it for anybody. Yeah, i it was my one for the road ah sometime in December, like the week it came out, because i which i've I say that, but I also fully support you bringing it it up again, because it is a great movie.
01:32:26
Speaker
But I watched it, and I watched like 20 minutes of it, like laying in bed or something like that. no it was finishing a cigar, so I watched like 20 minutes of it and then went to bed. In the morning, my baby woke up, my...
01:32:40
Speaker
She would have been three or four months old at the time. And ah she she woke up and, you know wife said, can you get her? So I brought her out to the living room, sat on the couch, was feeding her a bottle and start watching that movie.
01:32:53
Speaker
And then like 15 minutes later, my son comes in, my 12 year old, and he sits down and he was... hook within 10 minutes. He was like all excited about what's going to happen.
01:33:06
Speaker
And i was like having to pause it for a second and explain like, Oh yeah. so what you missed was this, this, this. And he watched the entire rest of the movie with me. It was awesome. That's awesome.
01:33:17
Speaker
He's not normally a movie kid. Oh, okay. That's even better. He loved it. and Nice. then And, like, i I, you know, would tell people about it. And, like, is his ah grandparents, my in-laws, would come over, and he'd be telling them about, like, this movie that you have to watch. It's so
Recap of Pairings and Cigars
01:33:37
Speaker
exciting.
01:33:38
Speaker
You're on the edge of your seat the whole time. is It was great. Nice. Love it. all right. Well, thank you for your one for the road, Bear.
01:33:48
Speaker
Bear's one for the road. Carry on on Netflix. Mine was The Gorge on Apple TV. ah We smoked the morphine tonight in two different sizes, but both of them were incredible.
01:34:02
Speaker
ah My pairing of the night was Black Beer from Holy Mountain. Bear's was Remy Martin 1738. Correct. Yes. Got the year even. correct yes got the year right even ah Check out morphine, man. Like, if you haven't smoked this cigar and you like a bit of a powerhouse but it's not going to knock you out or anything, um you should try this cigar.
01:34:26
Speaker
Yeah, you're missing out. Like, you are you're absolutely missing out. It's phenomenal, phenomenal blend, um and it smokes great in a lot of sizes. Yeah, and they' they've done like, i don't I don't know how many sizes. They've done a lot of sizes because kind of the yearly cadence, yearly-ish cadence, every couple of years they'll skip a year.
01:34:48
Speaker
um But almost every release has at least one new size that they haven't done before. um So they're kind of jumping all over the place with the sizes, which is fun. You get to try different sizes every couple of years when they come in.
01:35:00
Speaker
Check them out.
Show Wrap-up and Future Guests
01:35:02
Speaker
Thank you everybody, for watching. Thank you, Bear. for joining on somewhat short notice. um Everybody check out El Elso Fumar. This evening's show is going to be with Chris Topper, right?
01:35:13
Speaker
That's right, Chris Topper. Love that guy. Love his Connecticut Broadleaf cigars. ah he makes He makes some good stuff, man. or They are what they are, but they're great.
01:35:25
Speaker
Yeah, they're phenomenal. We're going to be smoking the 130th Celebration. Nice. I haven't smoked that one yet. The Topper 1894.
01:35:37
Speaker
um Got a couple of other ones. I smoke Topper cigars ah quite a bit. um Like the Machine Maid. The Machine Maids are like fantastic. Yeah, it's fantastic. For a Machine Maid.
01:35:50
Speaker
It's fantastic tobacco. like You can knock it all you want and stuff. and yeah it's They're cheap. They're inexpensive. They're not cheap. they're not cheap They're inexpensive. They are ugly, but they're damn fine tobacco. They're so good.
01:36:05
Speaker
um right we'll Enjoy that. Thank you, everybody, for watching. Thank you for hanging out with us. and Remember, as always, want to drink better. but what