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Episode 29 - Don Pepin Vintage
2 Plays10 months ago
Before there was My Father Cigars, there was Don Pepin. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Don Pepin Garcia line, My Father released the Don Pepin Vintage addition to TAA retailers in 2023, and made it available to all retailers earlier this year at PCA 2024.
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Transcript
Introduction and Technical Difficulties
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back.
00:00:02
Speaker
Sorry about some technical difficulties there.
00:00:04
Speaker
I had this scheduled for tomorrow and I didn't want to sit here for 24 hours waiting.
00:00:09
Speaker
So I had to make some adjustments, get it fixed so that we could go live.
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to the show.
00:00:15
Speaker
This is Let's Get Pairing.
00:00:16
Speaker
This is episode number 29.
00:00:17
Speaker
And we're going to be smoking the Don Pepin Vintage Nicaragua.
00:00:23
Speaker
I mean, it says Nicaragua, but that's not part of the name.
00:00:26
Speaker
I'm just reading what I see.
00:00:28
Speaker
It smells so good.
00:00:30
Speaker
It's really good.
00:00:31
Speaker
I can admit I've smoked a few of these, but for now, everybody go ahead and grab yourself a cigar, grab yourself a drink.
00:00:36
Speaker
Let's get parents.
Sponsorship and Brewing Enthusiasm
00:00:53
Speaker
sax and maybe a little like uh a couple brushes right on the add a little add just a little bit of sexy sax that intro yeah that would be good exactly uh all right welcome everybody back to the show this is let's get pairing episode 29 with the don papine vintage uh i'm your host trip here in the casa de monte cristo studio as always with my
00:01:18
Speaker
wonderful co-host dennis from the dungeon of doom and darkness dennis how you doing from the dungeon of doom and darkness who is now taking sponsorships so call me interested parties give them a call i know you're watching out there liquid death you call me now i got i got all your products check this out free plug liquid death it's good go get some um there you go doing good it's uh giving away the merchandise
00:01:45
Speaker
That's right.
00:01:46
Speaker
I'm working on it.
00:01:47
Speaker
Merchandising is, dare I say, my thing.
00:01:49
Speaker
It's true, actually.
00:01:53
Speaker
Let's get pairing the toaster.
00:01:56
Speaker
Let's get pairing the flamethrower.
00:02:01
Speaker
I was going to say something.
00:02:02
Speaker
Oh, brew day.
00:02:03
Speaker
Today was a brew day.
00:02:05
Speaker
Ah, yeah, it was.
00:02:07
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:02:08
Speaker
Two beers.
00:02:08
Speaker
We've got two beers knocked out.
00:02:09
Speaker
Really cool.
00:02:11
Speaker
And really looking forward to testing that out.
00:02:14
Speaker
Kind of new recipe.
00:02:15
Speaker
Can you spoil the surprise and tell us what it is?
00:02:18
Speaker
Are you playing it close to the vest?
00:02:20
Speaker
No.
00:02:20
Speaker
So one of them, my neighbor did a... Oh, God.
00:02:24
Speaker
So he did a West Coast... East Coast, sorry.
00:02:26
Speaker
Northeast Hazy IPA.
00:02:29
Speaker
I know how much you love those.
00:02:31
Speaker
He used a pound of lactose, like a full pound of lactose.
00:02:35
Speaker
We were both giggling about it because it was just wild.
00:02:39
Speaker
Somehow my beer ended up sweeter, you know, pre-ferment.
00:02:43
Speaker
Pre-ferment, my beer ended up sweeter.
00:02:45
Speaker
I did not use any lactose.
00:02:46
Speaker
I'm doing an American IPA, classic American style IPA, which is effectively, it's a clone of Bell's Two-Hearted.
00:02:54
Speaker
Great beer.
00:02:55
Speaker
With some modifications.
00:02:56
Speaker
I changed a couple of things here and there, made it a little more fun.
00:03:00
Speaker
I'm excited.
00:03:02
Speaker
I'm very curious to see how it turns out.
00:03:04
Speaker
I'm a big fan of bells.
00:03:05
Speaker
So I'm looking forward to what, what your version of it is.
00:03:09
Speaker
I'll get into that a little bit more for my one for the road, because there is, there is some connection there.
00:03:13
Speaker
All right.
00:03:14
Speaker
Very interesting.
00:03:15
Speaker
I'm very curious to know.
The Don Pepin Vintage Cigar: History and Details
00:03:18
Speaker
All right.
00:03:18
Speaker
So we are smoking the Don Pepin, uh,
00:03:21
Speaker
Classic.
00:03:22
Speaker
No, man.
00:03:24
Speaker
I keep messing up the name of this thing.
00:03:25
Speaker
Vintage.
00:03:27
Speaker
The thing is, it doesn't say vintage on the label.
00:03:30
Speaker
So it's throwing me off.
00:03:31
Speaker
Cause like a lot of times I'll hold up the label.
00:03:33
Speaker
and I'll kind of read it on the camera.
00:03:35
Speaker
And, uh, that doesn't work with this cigar.
00:03:37
Speaker
So this is the Don Pepin vintage, um, originally released in 2023 as a TAA exclusive, uh, kind of to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Don Pepin brand.
00:03:49
Speaker
Um, the first Don Pepin cigar had a band, at least somewhat similar to this.
00:03:54
Speaker
I've never seen them other than, uh, the ones they had at the show kind of on display.
00:03:59
Speaker
Um,
00:04:00
Speaker
but reportedly had a band similar to this one.
00:04:03
Speaker
Uh, this was before even the Don Pepin blue, the quote unquote original.
00:04:09
Speaker
And to pay homage to that for the TAA cigar last year, they released this, the Don Pepin vintage with that classic band, kind of a throwback style, throwback cigar, throwback band.
00:04:21
Speaker
Um,
00:04:22
Speaker
To commemorate that.
00:04:24
Speaker
This year at PCA, they were released nationwide.
00:04:26
Speaker
So you can now pick these up at your nearest My Father retailer, if they've got them yet.
00:04:33
Speaker
They've been out for a couple months.
00:04:34
Speaker
Most shops should probably have them if they're ordering them.
00:04:37
Speaker
Or, you know, some shops might be waiting to see what...
00:04:41
Speaker
what other stuff comes out or whatever waiting to make room, you know?
00:04:45
Speaker
Um, so blend on this cigar.
00:04:47
Speaker
This is a Nicaraguan puro, uh, using a Corojo 99 wrapper from the Garcia's.
00:04:52
Speaker
They've, they've been big fans of Corojo.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:04:56
Speaker
Um, with the Fonseca, the, uh, the latest, um, surrogates, the closing time, um,
00:05:07
Speaker
I forgot about that one.
00:05:08
Speaker
The Escasos Arco Rojo and the Wise Man, the new Wise Man, the Reblend of the Wise Man is also My Father Corojo.
00:05:19
Speaker
So I've been a big fan.
00:05:20
Speaker
This one to me looks a little darker than any of those because those are all almost Connecticut shade.
00:05:24
Speaker
This is like almost Maduro shade.
00:05:26
Speaker
Though I think...
00:05:30
Speaker
I have some more around here that are just a shade lighter than this, but still not the way those other ones look to me.
00:05:36
Speaker
We're smoking the, if you can believe it, Dennis, this is the Corona Gorda.
00:05:40
Speaker
I don't know about that.
00:05:41
Speaker
Unless they sent me the wrong size.
00:05:43
Speaker
I mean, I have more Corona Gordas that I got separate from this that appear to be exactly the same size.
00:05:48
Speaker
This is a 5 3⁄4 by 48, which I'm not really sure qualifies as a Corona Gorda.
00:05:53
Speaker
I don't know.
00:05:55
Speaker
I'm never a big fan of putting Corona up against a 48.
00:05:59
Speaker
Like, 47, I think, is the limit for a Corona, right?
00:06:04
Speaker
Unless you're box pressing.
00:06:06
Speaker
Keep it under 47.
00:06:08
Speaker
46.
00:06:10
Speaker
46 is a Corona, though.
00:06:12
Speaker
Right?
00:06:12
Speaker
At least the classic.
00:06:13
Speaker
The Gorda, it's got to be at least a little bigger.
00:06:16
Speaker
But 48 makes it seem more like a little Toro, a big Robusto, something like that.
00:06:21
Speaker
Maybe Toro.
00:06:22
Speaker
Maybe Toro.
00:06:25
Speaker
This size is about $12.
00:06:28
Speaker
According to the press release, they're available in boxes of 10, but most of the retailers that I found are selling boxes of 20.
00:06:32
Speaker
I don't know if they're doing both 10 and 20 count boxes or if something changed or if perhaps the original release was 10 count boxes and they've changed that and there was a typo somewhere.
00:06:45
Speaker
No.
00:06:46
Speaker
I'm a big fan of the split.
00:06:47
Speaker
We've seen this happening over the last couple of years where they'll release, you'll see a release come out in a full like 20 box, 20 count box.
00:06:54
Speaker
And then the smaller, they'll either do a 10 or they'll even do like a exclusive size five pack.
00:07:00
Speaker
Yeah, I like that too.
00:07:03
Speaker
It's more accessible that way.
00:07:04
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:07:06
Speaker
Or you'll see sometimes like Crown Heads, for example, the Mil Diaz comes in, I think, a 20 or 25 count box.
00:07:13
Speaker
I think it's 20, if I remember correctly.
00:07:16
Speaker
But most of their limited editions are 12 count.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:20
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:07:22
Speaker
It makes it easier to just be like, yeah, what the hell, I'll just buy the whole box.
00:07:25
Speaker
My favorite cigars that used to come in a three pack don't exist anymore.
00:07:30
Speaker
I think one of your favorites, too.
00:07:32
Speaker
What came in a three pack?
00:07:33
Speaker
The Gwar Cigar.
00:07:35
Speaker
Ah, yes.
00:07:36
Speaker
Gwar Cigar was amazing.
00:07:38
Speaker
I loved those.
00:07:38
Speaker
Anytime I can get my hands on them, I'll always buy them.
00:07:41
Speaker
Let me tell you a little confession.
00:07:44
Speaker
I have one box left of 2016.
00:07:45
Speaker
Alright.
Exploring TX Blended Whiskey and Great Jones Bourbon
00:07:48
Speaker
Alright.
00:07:49
Speaker
It's my birthday in two weeks.
00:07:51
Speaker
That's true.
00:07:52
Speaker
Maybe we should do it on the show sometime.
00:07:54
Speaker
That might be a good idea.
00:07:56
Speaker
We should do that.
00:07:57
Speaker
Just a super old cigar.
00:08:00
Speaker
finally crack that last box open because I bought I bought like 10 boxes or something of those I mean 10 three pack boxes but yeah man maybe I should crack that open we should we should try it out on the show sometime that'd be fun do it for the people exactly for the people if we're doing it for the people you know I got to anyway back to this cigar what are you thinking so far dude I said this earlier
00:08:27
Speaker
Pre-light, the smell off this cigar, just the whole, the wrapper smelled so good.
00:08:32
Speaker
It smelled like...
00:08:34
Speaker
It's got that, like, you know when you walk into an aging room that's really humid, and it's got that wet funk to it.
00:08:41
Speaker
It's that almost barnyard, but not quite as dry.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, I know what you mean.
00:08:46
Speaker
It's got that leathery barnyard, dirty earth kind of thing going on.
00:08:50
Speaker
It's hard to describe, I think, sometimes, of wet leather, maybe.
00:08:54
Speaker
Actually, maybe it's a good way to put it, wet leather.
00:08:55
Speaker
I love that smell on this cigar.
00:08:58
Speaker
And first couple of draws, super spicy.
00:09:02
Speaker
I'm finding it's very spicy.
00:09:06
Speaker
Lots of black pepper on this one.
00:09:07
Speaker
It sucks spicy, but hey, wow, surprised.
00:09:10
Speaker
I'm surprised by how clean the spice comes through.
00:09:13
Speaker
Yeah, I'm getting like a lot of sugar, a lot of black pepper at the beginning.
00:09:17
Speaker
You got that sweetness from the Corojo, and then of course that signature black pepper of Don Pepin.
00:09:24
Speaker
The Pepin, what do they call it?
00:09:26
Speaker
The Pepin Pepper Blast.
00:09:27
Speaker
That's what we always called it back in the day.
00:09:29
Speaker
Way back in the day.
00:09:30
Speaker
When I was in cigar forums.
00:09:32
Speaker
Pepin Pepper Blast.
00:09:33
Speaker
I remember that.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'm really enjoying this cigar so far.
00:09:37
Speaker
I'm excited to see how it pairs.
00:09:40
Speaker
Because I've smoked a few, but I haven't paired any of them yet.
00:09:43
Speaker
Other than with like morning coffee.
00:09:46
Speaker
And I got some interesting pairings tonight, I hope.
00:09:48
Speaker
We'll see.
00:09:50
Speaker
Any other thoughts on the cigar before we move on to the pairing part of this?
00:09:55
Speaker
I'm really loving the flavor so far.
00:09:56
Speaker
I love that it sticks to your palate.
00:09:59
Speaker
Sometimes we say it's not always the best thing, right?
00:10:01
Speaker
But I think this one is going really well with that, where it's kind of coating.
00:10:05
Speaker
It's the full mouth coat, full, I don't want to say full flavor because I think that gives it the wrong connotation.
00:10:11
Speaker
But it certainly does have quite a bit of flavor this early on, which is nice.
00:10:16
Speaker
And it's not, at least so far, a super strong tasting cigar.
00:10:19
Speaker
No.
00:10:20
Speaker
It's kind of medium-bodied, full flavor, I guess you could call it.
00:10:26
Speaker
Medium-full flavor.
00:10:27
Speaker
Let's call it that.
00:10:29
Speaker
I'm going to move on to my first pair.
00:10:31
Speaker
I'm excited to try this because I haven't even tried it yet.
00:10:33
Speaker
I picked it up to smell it, but I didn't take a sip yet.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:37
Speaker
bear had this on the show last week on his show um so this is tx blended whiskey um so tx blended whiskey comes to us from firestone and robertson distilling company you can see on the bottom there uh very interesting story behind these two guys leonard firestone and troy robertson um they kind of knew each other um
00:11:01
Speaker
You know how sometimes you have your kid has a friend and you become like acquaintances with the dad.
00:11:08
Speaker
You know, you'll sit down while they're at a play date and you'll talk.
00:11:11
Speaker
We don't really know each other.
00:11:12
Speaker
Um, so that's kind of how he was with this guy.
00:11:15
Speaker
He knew him a little bit, but didn't know him super well.
00:11:18
Speaker
One day, Troy went to a distillery tour, uh,
00:11:23
Speaker
They didn't say where or what distillery, but I'm guessing it was in Texas.
00:11:26
Speaker
This was in Fort Worth, Texas, where they lived.
00:11:29
Speaker
And he started chatting with the owner kind of before his tour and found out, oh, there's another Fort Worth guy that has a tour scheduled for next weekend.
00:11:37
Speaker
And he said, oh, wow, that's weird.
00:11:40
Speaker
I wonder who it is.
00:11:42
Speaker
Or something like that.
00:11:43
Speaker
Anyway, he got to talking to him and he said, oh, it's this guy Leonard.
00:11:46
Speaker
And he's like, holy shit, I know that guy.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
So he gets home from the distillery tour, calls Leonard, and is like, hey, so I hear you want to start a distillery.
00:11:58
Speaker
because you know, the guy had somehow revealed this information.
00:12:01
Speaker
Uh, and he was kind of shocked because apparently he hadn't really discussed that with anyone he knows other than his wife and this, this guy at the, you know, when he was setting up this distillery tour next day, they went to lunch and kind of by the end of the lunch, reportedly they were planning a business together and trying to like figure out where all the pieces come from and how to, how to put it together and make it happen.
00:12:23
Speaker
Um,
00:12:24
Speaker
That was in 2010, and they started the company.
00:12:27
Speaker
In 2012, they started distilling after they moved into a warehouse just south of downtown Fort Worth.
00:12:35
Speaker
They were pretty successful because in 2014, they bought and started building what became known as the Whiskey Ranch.
00:12:43
Speaker
They spent basically three years converting the clubhouse, the country clubhouse, of a 112-acre golf course.
00:12:52
Speaker
uh, into a distillery and kind of, um, I don't know, entertainment space.
00:12:59
Speaker
I don't really know what to call it.
00:13:00
Speaker
They have an event space there.
00:13:01
Speaker
They have a bar there.
00:13:02
Speaker
They just kind of have, uh, it's just kind of one of those places where you can go.
00:13:06
Speaker
They're distilling.
00:13:07
Speaker
So you can maybe get a distillery tour if they're doing it that day.
00:13:11
Speaker
Um, and you can just get a glass of whiskey and go sit on the porch, uh, which sounds pretty sick.
00:13:17
Speaker
Um,
00:13:18
Speaker
Immediately, technically, once they opened that place and started distilling, they became the largest distillery east of the Mississippi, which seems crazy.
00:13:29
Speaker
I'm wondering if maybe the actual term is the largest whiskey distillery, but either way, that's a pretty big honor to have, I think.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's a big deal.
00:13:40
Speaker
In 2019, they were acquired by Pernod Ricard, which will come up later in one of my other whiskeys, actually.
00:13:46
Speaker
Briefly.
00:13:48
Speaker
I am drinking their Texas blended whiskey, which they don't really give much information on.
00:13:53
Speaker
But it does sound like, based on what they say, they distill at least some of the stuff in here, if not all of it.
00:14:01
Speaker
and are then making a blend.
00:14:03
Speaker
It's available in 34 states, which is all over the place, including New Jersey.
00:14:08
Speaker
You should be able to find it.
00:14:09
Speaker
It's about $35, 82 proof.
00:14:12
Speaker
And lastly, just the details of this bottle.
00:14:15
Speaker
Bear didn't prepare me for the little details of this bottle.
00:14:18
Speaker
The neck has a canvas wrap, which is just a nice little detail.
00:14:25
Speaker
That's so cool.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, I just think it's a nice little thing that you do that makes your bottle pop a little more.
00:14:31
Speaker
But the thing that I didn't even notice until I got it home is this.
00:14:38
Speaker
So they have done this since the very beginning.
00:14:41
Speaker
This is a little piece of leather that they embed into the cap of everyone.
00:14:47
Speaker
And they kind of started doing it just as, hey, that seems like an interesting thing to do.
00:14:53
Speaker
And they would sometimes use old boots and stuff like that.
00:14:56
Speaker
And you would just get some cool little leather patch with your whiskey.
00:15:01
Speaker
And it's become a thing where they're now sourcing leather and...
00:15:04
Speaker
just buying off cuts of leather and stuff like that to do this this little punch um you can't really tell that the wooden ring is actually around the cork so they kind of lay this over and then hammer the wooden ring on to hold it together and i got a very cool looking one i think it looks like it might have been a belt or a boot or something yeah flower pattern on a boot maybe yeah but it's that's a nice little nice little touch so when you buy a bottle of this whiskey
00:15:32
Speaker
I mean, they're all going to be different.
00:15:33
Speaker
Every single bottle is going to be different.
00:15:36
Speaker
Sometimes you're going to have a piece of black leather, sometimes brown, sometimes tan, sometimes red.
00:15:40
Speaker
I just think it's a really cool little touch that they do that definitely endears me to their whiskey a little bit, just because I really like that.
00:15:48
Speaker
You know, the kind of thing that there's no reason for you to do.
00:15:55
Speaker
You do it just because you're like, you know, it'd be cool.
00:15:58
Speaker
We had just a little piece of leather on the top of our cork.
00:16:00
Speaker
It's an extra little thought that just is kind of there.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, that just shows that they're willing to waste a little money just to make you smile, which I like.
00:16:10
Speaker
So I'm going to take a couple sips of this, find out how good Texas blended whiskey really is.
00:16:16
Speaker
I want you to talk about your first pair.
00:16:18
Speaker
Tell us all about it.
00:16:19
Speaker
I wanted to, you know, for tonight, I wanted to bring back something that I drank a whole lot of over the last couple of months, and it was on the show, I think it was episode...
00:16:29
Speaker
12th probably 11 or 12 around there i bought it i wasn't sure i wanted to give it another chance with a cigar and see how i feel and uh man i've got i've got some things to tell you about how i feel about it so let me show you what i got you remember this bottle great jones ah yes the great gatsby one the great gatsby one with this really cool
00:16:52
Speaker
side on the bottom like both sides are really nice got this really great like mantle clock art deco kind of thing going on which is fun um Ray Jones is really cool because this is a location you can visit in New York City in Manhattan specifically uh in NoHo which is north of Houston Street not Houston I think you're familiar with Trip right yes definitely been there many times you've haunted Manhattan many a time I certainly have yeah as as many of us uh living in that area have as well
00:17:21
Speaker
So here's the thing, man.
00:17:25
Speaker
These are also 43%, I should have mentioned.
00:17:28
Speaker
So 43% bourbon, they have a bunch of different expressions.
00:17:31
Speaker
They founded in 2021.
00:17:33
Speaker
And since Prohibition, they are still, they were, well, they were at the time, they were the first distillery, whiskey distillery in Manhattan since Prohibition.
00:17:44
Speaker
Legal whiskey distillery.
00:17:46
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:17:47
Speaker
Which is pretty cool.
00:17:48
Speaker
Prohibition was from 1920 to 1933.
00:17:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
Which is really fun.
00:17:54
Speaker
So they came in and they're sourcing.
00:17:56
Speaker
These are younger people.
00:17:57
Speaker
This is what we've seen this boom in...
00:17:59
Speaker
in whiskey in general, in spirits as a whole.
00:18:01
Speaker
We've
Non-Alcoholic Lemon Radler Discussion
00:18:02
Speaker
seen this boom of younger people getting in, trying to do something different, trying to create more of a, the distillery is part of the experience rather than a product of whatever, you know, the final outcome, well, product of the product, if you will, right?
00:18:16
Speaker
The piece of the product.
00:18:18
Speaker
They have all kinds of experiences.
00:18:20
Speaker
You can go to the distillery.
00:18:22
Speaker
They have a restaurant on site.
00:18:23
Speaker
Nice.
00:18:24
Speaker
A lot of local stuff, which is really cool.
00:18:26
Speaker
For their whiskeys, they source almost everything from New York, New York State.
00:18:30
Speaker
The food is all local sourced as well.
00:18:33
Speaker
They even have a deal, which is really fun.
00:18:35
Speaker
It's $25.
00:18:35
Speaker
I know it sounds like a lot, but hold on.
00:18:37
Speaker
It's a $25 bacon cheddar burger.
00:18:42
Speaker
That is a real expensive burger.
00:18:44
Speaker
Like an Angus Holder.
00:18:45
Speaker
That's a $25 bacon cheddar burger Angus the whole deal, right?
00:18:49
Speaker
With an old-fashioned.
00:18:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:52
Speaker
Now you're just speaking my language.
00:18:53
Speaker
Burger and a cocktail kind of deal for Manhattan.
00:18:57
Speaker
It's still, I think, not a bad deal.
00:18:59
Speaker
I think that's a great deal for Manhattan.
00:19:02
Speaker
You're very lucky to pay $15 for a decent cheeseburger in Manhattan.
00:19:07
Speaker
You're also very lucky to pay $10 for a Manhattan.
00:19:11
Speaker
Old fashioned.
00:19:12
Speaker
Old fashioned.
00:19:13
Speaker
Sorry.
00:19:13
Speaker
But I bet you can get a Manhattan.
00:19:14
Speaker
You said Manhattan so many times that I got mixed.
00:19:16
Speaker
I know it is the borough of Manhattan or the city, if you will.
00:19:21
Speaker
Those of us that know it as the city.
00:19:23
Speaker
Man.
00:19:23
Speaker
So I bought this bottle because I thought it looked really cool and really interesting.
00:19:27
Speaker
But learning more about them is it was really fascinating.
00:19:31
Speaker
They do.
00:19:33
Speaker
Other than that, they also do a prohibition hour.
00:19:36
Speaker
So they don't do happy hour.
00:19:37
Speaker
They do prohibition hour.
00:19:39
Speaker
We're drinking illegally for an hour.
00:19:42
Speaker
Well, it's there like the happy hour.
00:19:45
Speaker
But it runs, I think it's during the day, it runs for three hours during the day.
00:19:48
Speaker
But anyway, their experiences, their approach to spirits, I think is really interesting.
00:19:54
Speaker
And probably the future of, we want people to come to distilleries and experience
00:20:00
Speaker
the entire process start to finish.
00:20:02
Speaker
You want people to see, it's kind of like breweries.
00:20:03
Speaker
You want people to see the equipment.
00:20:05
Speaker
You want people to be able to ask questions and to take a tour and to sample things and see casks and understand, well, this actually comes from a barrel.
00:20:15
Speaker
Sounds crazy, but there are people that don't really know what a real barrel looks like in real life.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:20:22
Speaker
Barrels and cartoons.
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's the thing that Donkey Kong lives in, right?
00:20:26
Speaker
Or like, you know, shitty dive bars that just happen to have old barrels that are graffitied and smell like urine.
00:20:33
Speaker
Speaking of barrels, you brought me back to an interesting thing about the... What the hell are they called?
00:20:39
Speaker
Firestone and Robertson.
00:20:41
Speaker
In their shop, they have a whole section dedicated to barrel stuff.
00:20:46
Speaker
So, you know, being a whiskey company that is aging their own whiskey...
00:20:52
Speaker
They go through a lot of barrels.
00:20:54
Speaker
You can get like furniture made out of barrels and all sorts of stuff.
00:20:58
Speaker
And you can even order it online.
00:20:59
Speaker
Pretty bad.
00:21:01
Speaker
That is pretty cool.
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:21:03
Speaker
So bourbon, pretty clean, pretty simple.
00:21:06
Speaker
There's nothing really not going to be overly complex.
00:21:11
Speaker
The only other thing they mentioned on the bottles crafted in small batches and aged in new American oak barrels.
00:21:19
Speaker
That's it.
00:21:19
Speaker
Straight bourbon whiskey.
00:21:21
Speaker
There's no age statement on it.
00:21:23
Speaker
43%.
00:21:24
Speaker
I am in a similar boat with this TX whiskey.
00:21:27
Speaker
No age statement, no information about barrels or anything like that.
00:21:31
Speaker
So you can assume two to four years.
00:21:34
Speaker
You can assume virgin charred oak.
00:21:39
Speaker
But who knows the rest of the details?
00:21:42
Speaker
Nashville and such.
00:21:45
Speaker
But this TX Blended Whiskey, this is solid for, what did I say the price was, $35?
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, I paid about $35.
00:21:54
Speaker
And I'm really impressed with it at that price.
00:21:56
Speaker
It's not super intense or anything like that, but it's for a sipping whiskey.
00:22:02
Speaker
I think it's very approachable.
00:22:04
Speaker
I think it could work with a cocktail if that's, you know...
00:22:07
Speaker
For those of you who like to have a sipping... I mean, I do this.
00:22:11
Speaker
When I'm camping, I like to have a sipping whiskey that I don't mind somebody turning into an old-fashioned or pouring into one of those metal cups with a Coke or something like that.
00:22:22
Speaker
Oh, gosh.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's fine.
00:22:24
Speaker
I mean, yeah, exactly.
00:22:26
Speaker
It's for you to enjoy.
00:22:27
Speaker
It happens.
00:22:28
Speaker
There are people who like it that way.
00:22:29
Speaker
I'm not one of them.
00:22:31
Speaker
But, you know, I don't want a whiskey that I'm going to be like...
00:22:34
Speaker
this guy's pouring my Oban into his Coca-Cola, his Diet Coke.
00:22:40
Speaker
I don't want to be in that situation.
00:22:42
Speaker
So I bring something like this that's a little more approachable.
Cigar and Whiskey Pairing Analysis
00:22:45
Speaker
I might be able to convince somebody to drink it straight if they never have had whiskey straight or if they're not used to it.
00:22:52
Speaker
But if they dump it into their camp cup with Diet Coke, it's not going to be the end of the world for me.
00:22:59
Speaker
That's exactly what I do with my granddad bonded.
00:23:04
Speaker
I'm like, never had whiskey?
00:23:06
Speaker
Have some whiskey.
00:23:08
Speaker
You're going to learn today.
00:23:10
Speaker
Exactly.
00:23:11
Speaker
I could see this being that kind of whiskey.
00:23:13
Speaker
It's solid, but it's approachable.
00:23:17
Speaker
And nice and sweet, too.
00:23:20
Speaker
For the cigar, it mutes the sweetness of the cigar a little bit for me.
00:23:25
Speaker
But it really is bringing out kind of the more earthy, woody tones that are already there, but become much more apparent with this whiskey.
00:23:35
Speaker
How's that Manhattan stuff going with it?
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:23:40
Speaker
So, you know, it's a straight bourbon.
00:23:42
Speaker
I expected it.
00:23:43
Speaker
I remembered it to be on the sweeter side.
00:23:46
Speaker
And, you know, to some degree, it's kind of amplifying the sweetness, maybe a little too much from the cigar.
00:23:52
Speaker
Oh, OK.
00:23:54
Speaker
Interesting.
00:23:55
Speaker
I'm curious how my next pairing is going to work or how the rest of my parents are going to work.
00:24:00
Speaker
I want one that will amplify that sweetness a little bit.
00:24:02
Speaker
But maybe maybe you're right.
00:24:04
Speaker
And that's too much.
00:24:05
Speaker
It's a balance, right?
00:24:07
Speaker
It's a hard balance to get.
00:24:08
Speaker
It's all about the balance.
00:24:10
Speaker
And again, remember, sometimes what you have for your first pairing, this happens to us on occasion.
00:24:15
Speaker
Our first pairing should have been our last pairing or vice versa.
00:24:18
Speaker
And the part of the cigar that you're experiencing with those particular flavors, that has an effect on what works well, what doesn't work well.
00:24:27
Speaker
I'm going in proof order like I usually does, which is definitely not foolproof.
00:24:33
Speaker
Sometimes you do that and you're like, well, this one drinks like acid and it's only 40 and this one tastes like maple syrup and it's 130 or whatever.
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:47
Speaker
yeah uh i am noticing the cigar um in kind of that like again back to the classics of don papine uh it kind of has that starts off super spicy super black pepper and then it just kind of fades away pretty quickly in the first inch and a half um because now it really that spice has really died down and i'm getting a lot more wood coffee um
00:25:14
Speaker
leather, a little bit of earth than I was before.
00:25:17
Speaker
Any thoughts on the cigar before I move on to my next pairing?
00:25:23
Speaker
The spice is ramping up a little bit more for me.
00:25:26
Speaker
And again, I think it's the bourbon is a little bit sharp on the back end, so I'm wondering if the alcohol is pushing some of that spice up.
00:25:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:38
Speaker
Interesting.
00:25:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:40
Speaker
All right, my next pairing, one that I had on a couple weeks ago, is Blue Note Duke Joint Whiskey.
00:25:48
Speaker
Sold by BR Distilling Company.
00:25:50
Speaker
They were founded in 2014 in Memphis, Tennessee.
00:25:54
Speaker
Making them the oldest licensed distillery in Memphis since Prohibition, similar to Manhattan.
00:26:01
Speaker
Seems like people just really didn't have interest in making a new distillery there.
00:26:07
Speaker
Because, you know, when you go 70 years without a distillery opening, it means there's probably not a lot of interest.
00:26:13
Speaker
But the bourbon boom has definitely changed that.
00:26:16
Speaker
So, Juke Joint.
00:26:17
Speaker
It is sourced from an undisclosed distiller.
00:26:22
Speaker
And they don't say where it's aged, whether they're aging it or somebody else is, but it does say...
00:26:30
Speaker
Well, it does say distilled in Kentucky and bottled by B.R.
00:26:33
Speaker
Distilling Company, um, aged in white oak barrels for a minimum of three years, which is pretty normal for something called straight bourbon whiskey, because that's, them's the rules.
00:26:45
Speaker
Uh, it does say crafted in Memphis there, though, um,
00:26:49
Speaker
so i'm not sure what the crafting in memphis part is all about uh it is unfiltered which is always a good thing no chill filter no uh sediment filter well probably sediment filter but no uh chill filtering is really what they mean no color filtering um and it's 93 proof the mash bill i did find is 70 corn 21 rye 9 malted barley um
00:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's all I got on this whiskey.
00:27:16
Speaker
There's not a whole lot of details available for it, so I just kind of threw together what I can.
00:27:22
Speaker
But last time I had this, I was pretty impressed with it, so I'm curious how it's going to stack up against this cigar.
00:27:26
Speaker
So why don't you tell us about what you were pairing next?
00:27:30
Speaker
Look at this as I pour.
00:27:31
Speaker
Let me tell you real quick.
00:27:32
Speaker
This is another example.
00:27:33
Speaker
We've seen this in the industry is talking about young people.
00:27:36
Speaker
The the kind of the opposite of what I mentioned with the whiskey, we're seeing some of the bad habits also coming out toward from kind of like the younger crowd in the beer industry.
00:27:46
Speaker
We're seeing some some overfill of people going and saying, yeah, we're going to do this cool stuff, but we're not going to really talk about it.
00:27:53
Speaker
Just going to leave it mysterious and kind of.
00:27:56
Speaker
It's crazy because a lot of those, you know, in the case of the beers, when we talk about them, a lot of them are great.
00:28:02
Speaker
And all right, well, I don't know what's in it.
00:28:05
Speaker
Why should I keep drinking this?
00:28:06
Speaker
Right.
00:28:07
Speaker
I really dig it, but I have no idea.
00:28:08
Speaker
So it gives me no, it gives me no fuel to understand what I like about it and to go and seek out similar things.
00:28:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:17
Speaker
For me, uh, I mean, part of it I think has been maybe, I don't know if it's because of doing this show for so long or if I did this before, cause I don't really remember, but I really enjoy when somebody comes to my house and we're maybe sharing a cigar, maybe not.
00:28:34
Speaker
Um, and I give them a glass of whiskey.
00:28:36
Speaker
I can tell them, you know, this is made here.
00:28:39
Speaker
It's made from this.
00:28:40
Speaker
Uh, this is the interesting things about it.
00:28:43
Speaker
Um,
00:28:44
Speaker
And I just like having like, not talking points, but I like having a couple things rattling around in my head so I can tell them something about it.
00:28:53
Speaker
I don't know why.
00:28:55
Speaker
Well, it's part of the experience, right?
00:28:57
Speaker
You want to be able to share the experience.
00:28:59
Speaker
And part of it is the history, the story, the people that are involved in some cases, these historic distilleries or breweries that were burned down or exchanged hands or overcame something crazy.
00:29:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker
Like the breweries that survived COVID, for example, are the ones that are thriving today that survived COVID and were around before.
00:29:21
Speaker
They are, I think, a great, if we were to sit down and have a fireside chat about something, I think that would be a really fascinating topic.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think so too.
00:29:28
Speaker
Another fascinating topic is a brewery that, dare I say brewery, yeah, they are a brewery, but they are a non-alcoholic brewery or a near beer brewery.
00:29:39
Speaker
You know what I'm talking about?
00:29:40
Speaker
I bet you're talking about athletic.
00:29:42
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:29:43
Speaker
I had this last week on Bear Show.
00:29:45
Speaker
I had to bring this back, man.
00:29:46
Speaker
Athletics.
00:29:48
Speaker
See if I can focus it.
00:29:49
Speaker
Oh, boy.
00:29:50
Speaker
Almost had it.
00:29:51
Speaker
You see that all right?
00:29:52
Speaker
There it is.
00:29:53
Speaker
There we go.
00:29:54
Speaker
Ripe Pursuit.
00:29:55
Speaker
Non-alcoholic lemon radler.
00:29:58
Speaker
Man, she's tart.
00:29:59
Speaker
I'll tell you that.
00:30:00
Speaker
She's real, real tart, which is awesome.
00:30:03
Speaker
Really nice, clean flavor.
00:30:05
Speaker
Founded in 2017, and I'm not going to go too deep into this because I think we've
00:30:10
Speaker
I did a vertical last week and like really covered it pretty well.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:13
Speaker
We waxed on, you know, check out last week's episode, episode 28 for some more detailed information about them.
00:30:20
Speaker
But man, do you remember the numbers?
00:30:22
Speaker
They, they recently went through a new funding round.
00:30:25
Speaker
It was a 15, $50 million
Review of Maker's Mark 46 Cask Strength
00:30:27
Speaker
funding round with a valuation of wait for $800 million.
00:30:33
Speaker
That's a lot of non-alcoholic beer.
00:30:36
Speaker
That's,
00:30:37
Speaker
When you talk about those valuations on paper, you're really kind of saying this is the projection for the next whatever the forecast is for the next five to 10 years.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:46
Speaker
right it's like the company is it going to grow what's it really worth today versus what it may be worth down the road at some point so it's hard it's really hard when you have somebody say confidently 800 million big number like that for a brewery that makes a product that i guess to some people is unmarketable because doesn't have alcohol no man this is where we're at today this is the way of the future right
00:31:12
Speaker
In a sense, it's kind of the way of the future, but it's really great because it gives us options.
00:31:15
Speaker
You love beer.
00:31:16
Speaker
I love beer.
00:31:17
Speaker
A lot of people out there that also drink alcohol really love Athletic because of what they're doing and how they're doing.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think they're just doing non-alcoholic beer right.
00:31:29
Speaker
When I can drink a non-alcoholic beer that reminds me of beer as much as a beer does, you're doing something right.
00:31:40
Speaker
It's fantastic, refreshing.
00:31:42
Speaker
And again, we say near beer because negligible amount of alcohol usually, almost always, it's under 1%.
00:31:51
Speaker
But generally, it's half of a percent.
00:31:55
Speaker
Yeah, athletics limit is half a percent.
00:31:58
Speaker
For context, with the bizarre way the human body processes alcohol, half a percent, there's enough water in there that you're basically flushing it out before it's able to affect you in any way.
00:32:12
Speaker
Like, theoretically, we may have to test this someday, because as far as I know, nobody's tested it, but maybe somebody has.
00:32:21
Speaker
You could drink like 30 of those and not even feel a buzz.
00:32:25
Speaker
You might feel very full and bloated, but supposedly, theoretically, you won't feel buzzed because your body can process that alcohol fast enough that it never has time to build up and make you feel drunk.
00:32:39
Speaker
30 Rattlers.
00:32:41
Speaker
You might be sore.
00:32:42
Speaker
That would be rough, man.
00:32:43
Speaker
That's a lot of acid to put in your body.
00:32:45
Speaker
That's a lot, dude.
00:32:47
Speaker
But yeah, you make a great point.
00:32:48
Speaker
It's worth, I think, worth trying.
00:32:49
Speaker
And I wanted something to...
00:32:52
Speaker
I just really like the flavor, but I also wanted something to cut through the cigar a little bit and it's doing really well with that.
00:32:57
Speaker
Nice.
00:32:59
Speaker
My dupe joint, Blue Note, is actually cutting through really well.
00:33:04
Speaker
It's a lot spicier than I remember.
00:33:06
Speaker
That 21% rye really goes a far way in, like, spicing up this whiskey.
00:33:13
Speaker
It's not overly sweet.
00:33:14
Speaker
It's fairly full-bodied for a whiskey that's 93 proof, which isn't super high.
00:33:21
Speaker
Not nothing, but it's not super high.
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:25
Speaker
That rye definitely gives it a lot of spice, a lot of heat, but then it balances it out really well with that kind of woody, oaky body and a little bit of sweetness, but not too much.
00:33:40
Speaker
And like you said with your previous whiskey, it's really bringing out the sweetness in this cigar in a good way for me because I really love that sweetness of Corojo.
00:33:51
Speaker
I told Pete, man, I've told him multiple times now.
00:33:54
Speaker
I want him to make La Casita Corojo.
00:33:58
Speaker
An all Corojo cigar.
00:34:00
Speaker
I told him, like, just make me 10 and I'll be happy.
00:34:04
Speaker
I just want to know what that's like.
00:34:07
Speaker
And I want him to blend it, though.
00:34:11
Speaker
Oh, I would be so down for that, man.
00:34:13
Speaker
It would be very sweet and very intense, but I would be excited to try something like that.
00:34:21
Speaker
So that Rattler's working pretty well, huh?
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah, man, it's fantastic.
00:34:25
Speaker
And a little bit of the bubbles, I think, are helping cut through some of the flavors of the cigar.
00:34:29
Speaker
So I mentioned early on where they were sticking to the palate.
00:34:33
Speaker
I find that, you know, the bubbles, we talk about how they scrub the palate a little bit, they scrub the top.
00:34:38
Speaker
It's been really helpful.
00:34:39
Speaker
Nice little reset.
00:34:41
Speaker
All right, I'm going to move on to my last pairing, which I'm thinking is not going to reset me at all because it's my third bourbon in a row.
00:34:49
Speaker
Well, third whiskey in a row.
00:34:51
Speaker
The first one wasn't really bourbon.
00:34:54
Speaker
This one, I'm going to admit, I don't normally buy Maker's Mark, but when I see a 50% off, I mean, it might have been 40% off sticker on something, I got to buy it.
00:35:06
Speaker
I always buy Maker's Mark, but when it's free, god damn, I'm going to buy it.
00:35:09
Speaker
I mean, not quite free, but this is, as far as I can find, this is somewhere between like $60 and $80 a bottle.
00:35:17
Speaker
And Walmart's liquor store had it marked down to 45, 41, I think.
00:35:20
Speaker
So I was like, all right, if you're giving me that much off, I'll try it.
00:35:27
Speaker
But then when I read about it, I'm pretty excited.
00:35:30
Speaker
Maker's Mark number 46.
00:35:32
Speaker
Before I get to that, I will say first, I'm a big fan of Maker's 46.
00:35:36
Speaker
I think it's a very interesting departure from the kind of lighter side whiskey that Maker's Mark is.
00:35:44
Speaker
Maker's Mark was created in an interesting way.
00:35:48
Speaker
When Bill Samuel Sr. purchased Burke's Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, in 1953, he paid 35 grand for it.
00:35:58
Speaker
which I guess was kind of a lot of money back then.
00:36:00
Speaker
I think, I don't know the conversions or anything, the inflation rate since then.
00:36:05
Speaker
But I would guess that's like in the neighborhood of 150, 200,000.
00:36:07
Speaker
Still not very much for a distillery.
00:36:13
Speaker
In 1954, they started producing Maker's Mark.
00:36:16
Speaker
And then in 1958, they did the first bottling of it.
00:36:20
Speaker
This I didn't know.
00:36:21
Speaker
In 1958, when they made the first bottles, they had a distinct red wax steel
00:36:27
Speaker
around the top.
00:36:28
Speaker
This has been a thing since the fifties when makers Mark was created.
00:36:32
Speaker
Um, even the very first bottles had it.
00:36:35
Speaker
And it's, it's since then become of course, iconic, like, you know, makers from, you could have no label on a thousand liquor bottles and say, which one is makers and everybody would know which one.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:48
Speaker
It's iconic.
00:36:51
Speaker
One of their taglines in the 60s and 70s, which is crazy now because Maker's Mark is what?
00:36:59
Speaker
$25, $20 a bottle for just normal Maker's Mark?
00:37:03
Speaker
Yeah, I would say about there.
00:37:04
Speaker
In the 60s and 70s, their tagline was, it tastes expensive and is.
00:37:10
Speaker
What a tagline, man.
00:37:13
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:37:13
Speaker
I'm going to say personally for my palate.
00:37:15
Speaker
That would not make me want to buy it.
00:37:18
Speaker
Personally, for my palate, I would disagree with both of those statements.
00:37:22
Speaker
Right?
00:37:24
Speaker
It's not expensive anymore, and I don't think it's that great.
00:37:26
Speaker
But the 46, I think they really nailed it.
00:37:29
Speaker
But we'll get to that in a minute.
00:37:31
Speaker
In 1981, the brand was sold to Hiram Walker & Sons and was sold a bunch of times after that.
00:37:38
Speaker
One of the times was to, as with TX Blended Whiskey and their distillery, sold to Pernod Rico.
00:37:47
Speaker
Ricard, rather.
00:37:49
Speaker
Nirocard, man, has been... They're making their moves pretty... Yeah, and you'll notice, as they did with Maker's Mark, they treat liquor companies like a stock market, man.
00:38:01
Speaker
They come and go.
00:38:02
Speaker
They're buying, they're selling.
00:38:06
Speaker
They're making moves all the time, man.
00:38:08
Speaker
And in one of those, they sold Maker's Mark.
00:38:10
Speaker
So eventually, there were a ton of acquisitions in between then of mergers and...
00:38:16
Speaker
just selling off the single brand a couple times, but it ended up that now it is part of Centauri, Beam Centauri.
00:38:24
Speaker
I'm very curious to see what Centauri does with them five years down the road.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know what year they were bought by Beam Centauri.
00:38:32
Speaker
I think it was 2016, if I remember correctly.
00:38:36
Speaker
Even with all those changes in ownership, which, like I said, there were a lot, Bill Samuels Jr., the son of the original founder, served as president and CEO until he passed the position down to his son Rob in 2011.
00:38:50
Speaker
Rob is still at the helm and, you know, making Maker's Mark what it is.
00:38:58
Speaker
Another interesting fact is
00:39:00
Speaker
was that in 2013, they made the announcement that they were going to reduce the ABV of the original Maker's Mark from 90 to 84.
00:39:13
Speaker
Just kind of to extend the supplies a little bit, you know?
00:39:18
Speaker
I mean, I don't know what the number is, but that's at least five extra bottles per case, right?
00:39:25
Speaker
Something like that.
00:39:28
Speaker
It's enough where when you're selling...
00:39:31
Speaker
Cases and cases.
00:39:32
Speaker
Thousands of cases.
00:39:33
Speaker
It does make a difference.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:36
Speaker
The backlash was so succinct and intense that eight days later they announced, never mind.
00:39:46
Speaker
We're not doing that.
00:39:47
Speaker
Please buy our whiskey.
00:39:49
Speaker
That's wild, man.
00:39:50
Speaker
That is absolutely wild.
00:39:51
Speaker
Eight days, man.
00:39:52
Speaker
They made a public announcement.
00:39:54
Speaker
Eight days later they said, nope, not happening.
00:39:58
Speaker
um dave pickerel who we know from uh as the creator of black and whiskey his name is still on the bottle of course along with uh rob's um may he rest in peace he passed away in 2016 i think 17 might have been a little later than that either way uh he was the master distiller of maker's mark for uh for years long time
00:40:22
Speaker
Which brings us to Maker's Mark 46.
00:40:24
Speaker
Task strength.
00:40:26
Speaker
Says Bill's recipe on there.
00:40:28
Speaker
But as far as I'm aware, this is the same recipe as normal Maker's Mark 46.
00:40:35
Speaker
The 46 in the name comes from Bill Samuels Jr. being the owner of the company back then.
00:40:42
Speaker
taking 46 attempts to perfect the recipe of this before he finally got to one he was happy with.
00:40:48
Speaker
Um, that included a bunch of stave finishing options.
00:40:55
Speaker
Um,
00:40:56
Speaker
which they ended up on virgin French oak.
00:40:59
Speaker
And it says that a barrel of this Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey is finished with 10 virgin oak staves, French virgin oak staves.
00:41:10
Speaker
I think it's interesting that it specifically says 10 staves.
00:41:16
Speaker
But either way, it enters the barrel at what you would call a relatively low proof of 110.
00:41:26
Speaker
Seems like a lot, but whiskey a lot of times, most whiskey I think goes in around 120, 125.
00:41:31
Speaker
So there's a little lower than those.
00:41:34
Speaker
Sometimes even more than that.
00:41:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:36
Speaker
There is a limit, though.
00:41:37
Speaker
I don't remember what
Exploration of Riga Black Balsam
00:41:38
Speaker
it is.
00:41:38
Speaker
It might be like 150 or 150.
00:41:41
Speaker
But this goes in at 110.
00:41:43
Speaker
It's aged for at least four years, then finished with those 10 virgin French oak staves, and then bottled a cask strike.
00:41:50
Speaker
This one measures in at 110.3 proof, not ABV, 55.15 alcohol by volume.
00:41:53
Speaker
And I do have the mash bill for this one.
00:41:57
Speaker
It is 70% corn, 16%, 14%
00:42:10
Speaker
I didn't even say the second one.
00:42:12
Speaker
70% corn, 16% wheat, and 14% malted barley.
00:42:19
Speaker
So no rye in this like there was in the blue note.
00:42:23
Speaker
But I'm excited to try it.
00:42:24
Speaker
I haven't even tasted it yet as with the first one.
00:42:28
Speaker
So I'm going to take a couple sips and let you know how it is.
00:42:32
Speaker
What are you drinking for your last one?
00:42:34
Speaker
Taking you on a journey, man.
00:42:36
Speaker
Back to Europe.
00:42:37
Speaker
Back to almost the motherland for me.
00:42:39
Speaker
Not quite motherland adjacent.
00:42:41
Speaker
Do you know where Latvia is?
00:42:44
Speaker
Vaguely.
00:42:45
Speaker
Roughly.
00:42:46
Speaker
I know a Latvian.
00:42:48
Speaker
Does that count?
00:42:50
Speaker
I know a Latvian.
00:42:51
Speaker
Does that count?
00:42:53
Speaker
Sure.
00:42:54
Speaker
We'll say yes.
00:42:56
Speaker
Probably.
00:42:57
Speaker
So Latvia is sandwiched between Estonia and Lithuania.
00:43:00
Speaker
If you have no idea where that is, go to Finland.
00:43:03
Speaker
Just go straight down.
00:43:04
Speaker
It kind of like cuts through.
00:43:07
Speaker
Ah, you see?
00:43:07
Speaker
There you go.
00:43:08
Speaker
So Estonia is right across from Finland.
00:43:11
Speaker
If you're like looking at straight at the map.
00:43:14
Speaker
Also, if you're looking straight from Finland out, you just may see Estonia on the horizon.
00:43:20
Speaker
So this stuff is really cool, man, because it's got some history to it.
00:43:24
Speaker
And it's got this thing that we talked about on the show previously.
00:43:27
Speaker
I think we had this on the show.
00:43:29
Speaker
Man, I can't remember what episode it was.
00:43:31
Speaker
But we talked about Amaros, Amari.
00:43:33
Speaker
And what is an Amari?
00:43:36
Speaker
What classifies it?
00:43:37
Speaker
What can we...
00:43:38
Speaker
It's an Italian.
00:43:39
Speaker
Traditionally, it's an Italian thing.
00:43:40
Speaker
But so many countries have started producing herbal liqueurs that really it's become its own cultural kind of staple.
00:43:48
Speaker
Definitely.
00:43:49
Speaker
And this is absolutely no exception.
00:43:51
Speaker
This is really cool.
00:43:52
Speaker
Let me show you this bottle.
00:43:53
Speaker
Ah, right.
00:43:54
Speaker
I remember Riga Black.
00:43:56
Speaker
Riga Black Balsam, but this is the black currant flavor.
00:44:01
Speaker
So, and I should have mentioned, this is, oh boy, this one is a different ABV than the other stuff I had.
00:44:09
Speaker
The other stuff was 40%.
00:44:10
Speaker
This is 30%.
00:44:12
Speaker
What was the other one?
00:44:13
Speaker
Just no black current?
00:44:14
Speaker
Just the normal?
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah, it was just the standard one.
00:44:16
Speaker
No black current.
00:44:18
Speaker
Comes in a really cool ceramic bottle on purpose.
00:44:22
Speaker
But this is a really big deal for Latvians, Riga being the capital of Latvia.
00:44:28
Speaker
And this is a story like we hear a lot of times with different Amaris.
00:44:32
Speaker
It's this some guy, somebody came up with this crazy recipe of 24 herbs and spices.
00:44:38
Speaker
It was going to solve every sickness known to man.
00:44:41
Speaker
Yes.
00:44:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:42
Speaker
So in this case, there was a pharmacist, 1752.
00:44:45
Speaker
He took 24 different botanicals, put them together and said, hey, you know what?
00:44:49
Speaker
This stuff is good for your body.
00:44:50
Speaker
It's good for if you're sick.
00:44:52
Speaker
And it kind of made sense because he had valerian root, he had wormwood, gentian, all these things that we still kind of, to an extent, use today for different health purposes.
00:45:04
Speaker
Even wormwood, believe it or not, is still used medicinally beyond just going into absinthe.
00:45:12
Speaker
And I should say actually malort.
00:45:14
Speaker
If you really want to taste what wormwood is.
00:45:15
Speaker
I was going to say wormwood is also in malort and European versions of Jägermeister.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:21
Speaker
And now Malort is all wormwood.
00:45:23
Speaker
So if you're curious, that's... That's where all that horrific bitterness comes from.
00:45:28
Speaker
I love Malort so much.
00:45:32
Speaker
What was I going to say?
00:45:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:45:33
Speaker
So classic, right?
00:45:35
Speaker
Ailments, people were drinking.
00:45:36
Speaker
It became such a big deal.
00:45:37
Speaker
These bottles, of course, this is a part of the pride and the history.
00:45:41
Speaker
Always sold in these really cool ceramic bottles from day one.
00:45:45
Speaker
And you get this and it's hefty.
00:45:47
Speaker
It's got this right.
00:45:47
Speaker
It feels nice.
00:45:48
Speaker
You pick it up.
00:45:49
Speaker
It feels nice.
00:45:50
Speaker
It looks kind of like those mead bottles.
00:45:53
Speaker
Sort of.
00:45:54
Speaker
Whatever that brand of mead is that comes in those ceramic bottles.
00:45:57
Speaker
Dansk Mjöte.
00:45:58
Speaker
That's the one.
00:45:59
Speaker
Dansk Mjöte is a huge fan.
00:46:02
Speaker
One of my absolute favorite meads.
00:46:03
Speaker
Non-carbonated.
00:46:05
Speaker
Now I feel like in the U.S. I have to preface by saying it's not carbonated.
00:46:10
Speaker
People go into breweries and they go, yeah, we make mead, man.
00:46:12
Speaker
Well, okay, you're making mead, but it's a slightly different kind of mead.
00:46:14
Speaker
It's just honey beer.
00:46:16
Speaker
Yeah, you're making cider.
00:46:18
Speaker
Well, I shouldn't say cider, but it's
00:46:20
Speaker
There are distinctions we can get into on another show.
00:46:24
Speaker
But anyway, so this stuff is really cool.
00:46:25
Speaker
It's very thick.
00:46:26
Speaker
It gained popularity.
00:46:28
Speaker
Even royalty.
00:46:29
Speaker
Catherine.
00:46:30
Speaker
What's your name?
00:46:31
Speaker
Catherine the Great.
00:46:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:32
Speaker
No, no, no.
00:46:34
Speaker
Catherine the Great of Russia visited Latvia.
00:46:36
Speaker
Supposedly she was sick and they were like, yeah, drink this stuff.
00:46:40
Speaker
We'll cure you.
00:46:41
Speaker
And sure enough, drank it.
00:46:43
Speaker
Fell in love with it.
00:46:44
Speaker
And that's kind of the history, if you will, at that point.
00:46:48
Speaker
But people have gone nuts in the last, I want to say probably the last 30 years.
00:46:55
Speaker
Gone nuts over this stuff.
00:46:57
Speaker
This, now you can find in more stores than you would believe.
00:47:01
Speaker
I don't know about the distribution in the US.
00:47:03
Speaker
It's still growing.
00:47:04
Speaker
But people are talking about it, man.
00:47:05
Speaker
People are asking for it.
00:47:07
Speaker
I haven't seen it.
00:47:08
Speaker
But I also...
00:47:10
Speaker
I feel like it's in like a dark aisle in the back of the store that I don't know where it is.
00:47:14
Speaker
There's like a secret password that you need to get to that aisle.
00:47:17
Speaker
So I don't know if I would have seen it.
00:47:19
Speaker
We had it down.
00:47:20
Speaker
I have a knack for reaching out to companies that I can't get their stuff up.
00:47:23
Speaker
And I go, hey, so you need a distributor?
00:47:26
Speaker
Because I know I can call somebody.
00:47:27
Speaker
Let me broker this deal for you.
00:47:30
Speaker
We can talk.
00:47:30
Speaker
Just give me a case of whatever.
00:47:32
Speaker
Has that worked out for you yet?
00:47:35
Speaker
No.
00:47:35
Speaker
Not yet.
00:47:35
Speaker
But you know what?
00:47:37
Speaker
You never know.
00:47:37
Speaker
I was excited.
00:47:39
Speaker
Maybe.
00:47:39
Speaker
I will be the person responsible for bringing Riga Black into the U.S. market officially.
00:47:45
Speaker
Turning it into the next Red Bull and vodka.
00:47:48
Speaker
Check this out.
00:47:49
Speaker
This doesn't have that same... The other stuff would stain the
Brewing Techniques and Cigar Flavor Evolution
00:47:53
Speaker
glass.
00:47:53
Speaker
It would just sit there and... It had legs for months.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:47:58
Speaker
This, not so much, but it is sweet.
00:48:00
Speaker
Significantly sweeter.
00:48:02
Speaker
The other stuff...
00:48:03
Speaker
Truth be told, I love Amari and I had that and I had to put it down.
00:48:08
Speaker
That was just intense for you.
00:48:10
Speaker
It was just, there was so much going on, but I wanted it for my final pairing because I thought maybe if the cigar was kind of ramping up in intensity, I wanted something sweet to kind of back off the intensity, but also sugar is kind of good when you're smoking as fast as I do.
00:48:27
Speaker
And your blood sugar starts to drop a little bit.
00:48:29
Speaker
It definitely helps.
00:48:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:33
Speaker
You're going to notice, I've put the cap back on this for the moment.
00:48:39
Speaker
This Maker's 46.
00:48:41
Speaker
Task strength, what was it?
00:48:45
Speaker
110.3 proof.
00:48:47
Speaker
That 110.3 hits like a truck.
00:48:49
Speaker
I think it's that last.3.
00:48:51
Speaker
This is hot as balls, man.
00:48:57
Speaker
Like, oh my god, I don't know if I've ever had a whiskey this hot.
00:49:02
Speaker
I think it might be partially because it's Maker's Mark.
00:49:04
Speaker
I mean, like, you know, that's 20 proof over what they bottle at normally.
00:49:14
Speaker
And it's just, I mean, with this cigar, at least, it's just all heat, man.
00:49:18
Speaker
Maybe it's coming off of these two relatively smooth whiskeys before it, but it is...
00:49:25
Speaker
scorch city man for my palate interesting uh i'm i had to switch back to the tx blended um so that i can get a little bit of this in me and try to reset my palate a little bit a little bit because i can't even taste the cigar at this point and you know how much ask strength whiskey i drink it's more than normal people i'm surprised man i have a lot of experience with cask strength but this one is like next level
00:49:51
Speaker
It may need just a little bit of water, which I might try in a little while.
00:49:54
Speaker
I'm going to go back to it, but I just want to give it a rest for a minute.
00:49:57
Speaker
Maybe I need to pop that cap and let it breathe.
00:50:00
Speaker
Talking about that velvet chew, I was thinking about the abunat.
00:50:04
Speaker
It has that deep, deep, thick, wild... And it makes no sense.
00:50:10
Speaker
When you drink it, it doesn't make sense because it's that chewy.
00:50:13
Speaker
When you say... We talk about chewy with spirits.
00:50:15
Speaker
It's like syrup.
00:50:17
Speaker
People go, oh, what does that really mean?
00:50:20
Speaker
You're not actually chewing on it.
00:50:21
Speaker
But yeah, it's like syrup.
00:50:22
Speaker
It's got the consistency of a really thick syrup.
00:50:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:25
Speaker
I would not have shockingly thick.
00:50:30
Speaker
Perhaps you did.
00:50:32
Speaker
Perhaps.
00:50:33
Speaker
I actually... I was going to make this part of my...
00:50:38
Speaker
One for the road, but I'll just talk about it now while we take a couple sips of our stuff and fill the time a little bit.
00:50:45
Speaker
I went to a brewery yesterday that's not an actual brewery.
00:50:48
Speaker
Voodoo Brewing Company has, they're a franchise model, so you can open a restaurant where they send you their beer and send you their menus and stuff like that.
00:51:01
Speaker
So it's, they're a franchising brewery, which is strange.
00:51:05
Speaker
So nothing is brewed on site, of course.
00:51:09
Speaker
But I've been very impressed with their beer.
00:51:12
Speaker
A couple years ago, I found... I'm trying to remember where it was.
00:51:17
Speaker
I think it was Total Wine.
00:51:20
Speaker
A beer that I could not not buy.
00:51:22
Speaker
I don't think I ever had on the show, but I haven't seen cans in a long time.
00:51:26
Speaker
So I went to the source-ish.
00:51:30
Speaker
Called Lacto Cooler.
00:51:32
Speaker
What?
00:51:33
Speaker
Lacto Cooler with lactose?
00:51:35
Speaker
Yes.
00:51:36
Speaker
This is a...
00:51:39
Speaker
heavily fruited Berliner Weiss with lactose.
00:51:43
Speaker
It is still super clear, so I don't know how much lactose there is in there.
00:51:47
Speaker
I think they're actually doing it for sweetening rather than for texture, like
00:51:53
Speaker
A lot of, you know, a lot of beers get super, super hazy because of the lactose.
00:51:57
Speaker
I think they're filtering this one and using less lactose than some of those.
00:52:02
Speaker
But, man, that stuff is delicious.
00:52:06
Speaker
It tastes just like I remember.
00:52:07
Speaker
I had a couple cans of it a year or two ago.
00:52:11
Speaker
And then last year, I went to Halloween Horror Nights and found out that it's the official beer of Halloween Horror Nights.
00:52:16
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:52:18
Speaker
That's cool.
00:52:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's bright green, as you would expect.
00:52:25
Speaker
It tastes vaguely limey and orangey and fruit punchy, as you would expect.
00:52:31
Speaker
It is ecto cooler with 6% alcohol or whatever.
00:52:36
Speaker
Man, what an interesting website, too.
00:52:38
Speaker
I'm looking at their model.
00:52:40
Speaker
We brew it, you move it.
00:52:42
Speaker
I like this model.
00:52:43
Speaker
It's very familiar, you know, coming from the streets of Brooklyn.
00:52:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's pretty, I think it's a pretty reasonable model.
00:52:51
Speaker
The food was fantastic.
00:52:52
Speaker
Like the dining experience was a little odd because it has the vibe of like a tap house, right?
00:53:02
Speaker
Where it's just kind of open seating.
00:53:04
Speaker
You sit wherever you want.
00:53:06
Speaker
You order at the bar.
00:53:08
Speaker
But then they have a pretty extensive menu that has a lot of really good stuff on it.
00:53:14
Speaker
But you don't get a waitress.
00:53:15
Speaker
You have to order from the app or just go to the bar and order it and tell them what table you're at.
00:53:21
Speaker
Holy fucking shnikes.
00:53:23
Speaker
Look at the numbers.
00:53:24
Speaker
These are some numbers, man.
00:53:26
Speaker
That's good for them.
00:53:29
Speaker
Required liquid capital.
00:53:30
Speaker
You ready for this?
00:53:31
Speaker
$400,000.
00:53:31
Speaker
Net worth, $800,000.
00:53:31
Speaker
Fine, but we're talking... We're probably talking net worth like...
00:53:41
Speaker
Liquid Capital is a whole other conversation for a whole other night.
00:53:46
Speaker
But your initial investment is... Let's see.
00:53:50
Speaker
Initial investment is between $479,000 and $1,144,000.
00:53:53
Speaker
Wow.
00:53:53
Speaker
I mean, it was a pretty nice looking place.
00:53:59
Speaker
They've only been open for like maybe five months, six months.
00:54:03
Speaker
Oh, boy.
00:54:04
Speaker
I mean, here's the deal, man.
00:54:05
Speaker
So they're shipping kegs.
00:54:06
Speaker
You think they're doing kegs or are they doing the Guinness model?
00:54:09
Speaker
No, I think they're doing kegs for sure.
00:54:11
Speaker
Like the Guinness model, which is genius, and it is the Coca-Cola model as well.
00:54:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:16
Speaker
Send them some fucking syrup, man.
00:54:17
Speaker
It's genius.
00:54:18
Speaker
Make the beer.
00:54:20
Speaker
Make a syrup.
00:54:21
Speaker
Mix it with water.
00:54:22
Speaker
At onsite, you control the entire process.
00:54:26
Speaker
You can even dumb down the water to whatever profiling you need.
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're not actually doing brewing here.
00:54:33
Speaker
I can't remember where they're based, but I think it is in Florida.
00:54:36
Speaker
So it's not like the beer is moving too far.
00:54:41
Speaker
Well, hopefully that I'm making the beer in Florida because we know how that water goes.
00:54:45
Speaker
I have been shocked by the amount of decent breweries I've encountered in Florida.
00:54:50
Speaker
But also shocked by the amount of terrible ones.
00:54:52
Speaker
Especially Miami has a lot of beers that I'm like, ugh, that's
00:54:57
Speaker
the Miami water is particularly ripe.
00:55:00
Speaker
I mean, our water here is pretty ripe, but if you're on city water and you filter it, it's definitely usable.
00:55:09
Speaker
Miami, I'm not so sure about.
00:55:11
Speaker
We have good water.
00:55:12
Speaker
And actually, I was going to tell you, the brew that we did today was completely distilled water.
00:55:19
Speaker
We used clean, dead water, if you will, or untouched water.
00:55:24
Speaker
And then we added a whole bunch of different things to it to rebuild the water profile.
00:55:29
Speaker
And so my profile was very much rebuilt as a kind of a clone to the water profile where they make...
00:55:36
Speaker
Oh, God.
00:55:37
Speaker
It's too hearted.
00:55:38
Speaker
Too hearted.
00:55:39
Speaker
Bell's too hearted.
00:55:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:40
Speaker
That Michigan water.
00:55:42
Speaker
Michigan water, if you will.
00:55:44
Speaker
Michigan.
00:55:47
Speaker
Man, I've been trying to go back to this makers 46 and it is just very intense.
00:55:53
Speaker
It's grown on me a little bit.
00:55:55
Speaker
But that heat on the tongue and in the back of the throat is like much more intense than I'm used to from 110 proof like.
00:56:04
Speaker
I have a couple whiskeys around that are like 120-ish, but none that drink this hot.
00:56:10
Speaker
Crazy.
00:56:13
Speaker
That being said, the flavor's pretty good.
00:56:16
Speaker
I mean, it has that classic Maker's Mark almost cherry note that you rarely get from whiskey.
00:56:24
Speaker
Well, American whiskey at least, for the most part.
00:56:27
Speaker
But I always find Maker's has a distinct cherry flavor to me.
00:56:32
Speaker
And this is no different
00:56:34
Speaker
I do think that French oak smooths out the cherry flavor a little bit, so it's not overly intense like it is on normal maker's mark.
00:56:43
Speaker
But then that alcohol bite just is real, man.
00:56:49
Speaker
So I'm going back to my pairings.
00:56:50
Speaker
What about you?
00:56:51
Speaker
How are your pairings going?
00:56:53
Speaker
I just went back to the bourbon.
00:56:56
Speaker
I like it.
00:56:57
Speaker
But I think I like it because it's not...
00:57:00
Speaker
It's one dimensional.
00:57:02
Speaker
That's not a bad thing.
00:57:03
Speaker
I think it's, you know, it's definitely not always a bad thing.
00:57:05
Speaker
You don't want something necessarily that's very complex because you don't want it to take over the flavors of a cigar that perhaps may be nuanced or vice versa, where you have a cigar that's kind of one dimensional, but you have something that's really complex to drink and they sort of balance out.
00:57:22
Speaker
Usually we have, we've seen historically, we've seen problems where both are on the same side of the fence.
00:57:27
Speaker
And they, in a sense, kind of cancel each other out by just intensifying that one note.
00:57:33
Speaker
That single note of it, it just becomes intense and you really don't want too much of that, I think.
00:57:39
Speaker
So in this case, I don't know, man, I think the Lemon Rattlers is working really the best.
00:57:44
Speaker
All right.
00:57:47
Speaker
I'm trying to decide, man, between this blue note and the TX blended note.
00:57:51
Speaker
The blue note has like a little bit more spice, a little bit more of kind of a butteriness.
00:58:00
Speaker
The TX has a little more of, you know, your classic bourbon sweetness, that like maple syrup almost kind of sweetness.
00:58:10
Speaker
They're both working really well with the cigar.
00:58:11
Speaker
I think I'm going to give the edge to the blue note.
00:58:14
Speaker
because as you mentioned with your whiskey, it brings out more of the sweetness in the cigar, which is really, that's why I'm here for this Corojo.
00:58:25
Speaker
I just love the sweetness of this Corojo, which I guess brings us kind of to the end of the show.
00:58:31
Speaker
What do you think about this cigar before we move on to one for the road?
00:58:37
Speaker
I love that.
00:58:38
Speaker
I'm absolutely same side of the fence with you on this, man.
00:58:41
Speaker
I think the sweetness of the Corojo is fantastic.
00:58:44
Speaker
And I love the spice that starts off really intense.
00:58:49
Speaker
For a lot of people, I think it would be overly intense.
00:58:52
Speaker
Yeah, they'd probably put it down at that point.
00:58:53
Speaker
But you probably won't buy something that has Don Pepin's name on it if that doesn't appeal to you, because he does that with a lot of cigars.
00:59:00
Speaker
Not all of them anymore, but there was a time where pretty much all the cigars start like that.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:05
Speaker
Then, to me, that black pepper falls off a cliff halfway through the first third, and then it just slowly creeps back up until you're like, oh, it's spicy again.
00:59:19
Speaker
And that's the point where I am now, where it's almost back to where it was at the beginning, but it's been slowly ramping up the whole time.
00:59:26
Speaker
Just every puff is a little spicier than the last.
00:59:29
Speaker
I think it's a lot fuller, too.
00:59:30
Speaker
As the cigar is warmed up, it's much fuller flavor.
00:59:33
Speaker
And the spice, specifically, is much fuller, especially on the Retro Hill, whichever.
00:59:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:40
Speaker
All right, well, I guess that brings us to one for the road.
00:59:43
Speaker
Before we do that, check out the cigar, Napa Bean Vintage.
00:59:47
Speaker
Good cigar, man.
00:59:49
Speaker
If you like Corojo, it'll be right up your alley.
00:59:52
Speaker
One for the road.
00:59:54
Speaker
I'm going to start with a bonus one for the road because I forgot about this one last week.
Entertainment Recommendations and Episode Wrap-Up
00:59:58
Speaker
I remembered it during Bear's show, but I didn't have a chance to talk about it.
01:00:03
Speaker
I watched a movie.
01:00:04
Speaker
It's free to watch.
01:00:05
Speaker
It's on like... I think I watched it on Amazon Prime, but it's on like... Whatever that free one is.
01:00:12
Speaker
Tubi, I think, or something like that.
01:00:15
Speaker
It's on a bunch of streaming services for free, so you can find it.
01:00:19
Speaker
Called Godfathers of Hardcore.
01:00:22
Speaker
And it's just kind of a documentary about the lives, the beginnings, the tribulations, and then the current lives of the guys from Agnostic Front, which is a hardcore punk band from New York City.
01:00:38
Speaker
They were real big when I was growing up.
01:00:40
Speaker
They were very influential to me.
01:00:43
Speaker
And to find out Vinny Stigma is actually a cigar guy was kind of shocking.
01:00:49
Speaker
He's very into cigars.
01:00:52
Speaker
Um, he's seen several times in the documentary, smoking cigars.
01:00:55
Speaker
And he's such like, I had never realized what a New Yorker that guy is.
01:01:00
Speaker
Like, he's like walking around the neighborhood.
01:01:02
Speaker
Like, Hey Bobby, haven't seen you in a while.
01:01:04
Speaker
Good to see you.
01:01:05
Speaker
How's your mother kind of guy.
01:01:07
Speaker
And I dying breed, man.
01:01:09
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:10
Speaker
I just didn't expect that from the dude that plays guitar and agnostic front, which is a, um, like I said, a hardcore punk band.
01:01:18
Speaker
Um,
01:01:20
Speaker
But if you've ever been into agnostic front at all, or punk music, or punk hardcore, definitely recommend checking it out.
01:01:29
Speaker
If only to see Vinny Smokin' Cigars.
01:01:32
Speaker
But I'll do my real one more thing after you do yours.
01:01:36
Speaker
So go for it, Denny.
01:01:36
Speaker
Real, real one.
01:01:37
Speaker
So, you know, this is not a funny coincidence.
01:01:41
Speaker
Slightly funny coincidence.
01:01:43
Speaker
What was his name?
01:01:44
Speaker
Paul Verhoeven?
01:01:45
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:01:46
Speaker
Paul Verhoeven.
01:01:49
Speaker
famous director of RoboCop.
01:01:53
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:54
Speaker
Among many others.
01:01:55
Speaker
Among many others.
01:01:56
Speaker
But the movie that I'm talking about, I started going through a bunch of old movies.
01:02:00
Speaker
I hit The Running Man.
01:02:02
Speaker
I love The Running Man.
01:02:03
Speaker
Big fan.
01:02:03
Speaker
It's like, man, I need some classic Total Recall action.
01:02:08
Speaker
1990, Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
01:02:10
Speaker
And, you know, the kicker is with now, I was telling you in the green room, I'm feeling a lot like Quato.
01:02:17
Speaker
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll watch the movie, you'll understand.
01:02:20
Speaker
For those of you that do know... Not the remake, not the remake.
01:02:23
Speaker
Not the remake, sorry.
01:02:24
Speaker
The original 1990 film with my hernia action going on, my stomach...
01:02:33
Speaker
Not very good.
01:02:35
Speaker
I'm feeling like Total Recall moment here.
01:02:37
Speaker
Like it's going to, there's a face going to pop out and start talking to me.
01:02:42
Speaker
By the way, renowned for special effects in that film.
01:02:46
Speaker
Obviously, Robocop, but Total Recall was another banger for just practical effects.
01:02:51
Speaker
They were awesome.
01:02:53
Speaker
Man, I really miss Paul Verhoeven's like...
01:02:57
Speaker
two decade-ish run of like being the master of action satire.
01:03:05
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:05
Speaker
Like Robocop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers.
01:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, man.
01:03:10
Speaker
Like just great movies that have amazing action, but are also like dark comedies at the same time.
01:03:18
Speaker
Starship.
01:03:19
Speaker
Hold on now.
01:03:20
Speaker
Starship Troopers.
01:03:20
Speaker
Fun fact, the shower scene where they're all naked.
01:03:23
Speaker
They only agreed to do the naked scene altogether if he was also naked, which he was.
01:03:28
Speaker
Dude, that's super Paul Verhoeven thing to do.
01:03:30
Speaker
He actually did it, and they all rode naked filming this.
01:03:33
Speaker
That is an absolutely Paul Verhoeven thing to do.
01:03:38
Speaker
I recommended it.
01:03:39
Speaker
It may have been the first episode this year, which would be like episode 10 or 8 of Let's Get Pairing.
01:03:47
Speaker
I recommended RoboDoc, the documentary about RoboCop.
01:03:52
Speaker
Loved it.
01:03:53
Speaker
They have a ton of footage interviewing Paul Verhoeven.
01:03:57
Speaker
And like, you just get such a feel for what a maniac that guy is.
01:04:02
Speaker
Um, and just like, uh, yeah, but like, he's just such an insane artist who has like such a distinct vision of what he wants to do.
01:04:15
Speaker
Um, and as, uh, as emphasized by the story you just told, uh, he is willing to do anything to make the movie turn out the way he wants it to turn out.
01:04:27
Speaker
Uh,
01:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, man.
01:04:29
Speaker
Big fan of his stuff.
01:04:30
Speaker
If you haven't seen any of those films, go check them out.
01:04:33
Speaker
Definitely, if you've only ever seen the new Total Recall, go watch the original.
01:04:38
Speaker
Oh, it's so much better.
01:04:38
Speaker
It's not going to be anything like it.
01:04:40
Speaker
Totally different films.
01:04:42
Speaker
Conceptually, they're kind of the same, but really, they're very different films.
01:04:46
Speaker
All right.
01:04:47
Speaker
Good recommendation.
01:04:48
Speaker
I love that movie, man.
01:04:51
Speaker
Total Recall is an absolute classic.
01:04:54
Speaker
I'm going to go with something on the complete opposite side of the spectrum and a little more contemporary.
01:05:00
Speaker
I mentioned I went to the brewery yesterday.
01:05:01
Speaker
We had dinner.
01:05:03
Speaker
One of the specials was a sandwich inspired by the bear.
01:05:07
Speaker
It was like an Italian beef, Chicago-style sandwich.
01:05:12
Speaker
um with giardiniera everything was made in-house it was like it said on the menu like his our chef's favorite show was the bear so we put this on the menu um and it was delicious we had like a charcuterie board because my son wanted to try a bunch of the stuff and it was awesome but the reason we were there we're taking my son to see comedy magician justin willman which sounds easy as hell um but he's like legitimately a stand-up comedian and a very good magician um
01:05:41
Speaker
I don't know if I'd call him like, you know, he's not one of those melt your face kind of like, I mean, you mentioned Darren Brown in the green room kind of magicians where it's like, uh, he takes it super serious.
01:05:53
Speaker
Like he's different.
01:05:54
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:55
Speaker
He's yeah.
01:05:56
Speaker
He's a different kind of magician who just really seems to enjoy, uh, blowing people's minds with his magic.
01:06:04
Speaker
Um,
01:06:06
Speaker
But he's also like a stand-up comedian.
01:06:08
Speaker
The way that I got to know who that guy is was like 12-ish years ago.
01:06:15
Speaker
through watching videos of comedy clubs.
01:06:18
Speaker
So I would like, there were a couple of TV shows that I would watch and I would watch on YouTube, like just sets from comedy clubs that were awesome.
01:06:28
Speaker
And then suddenly this magician dude starts showing up and he's doing standup comedy that's magic based.
01:06:33
Speaker
And it was like, man, that reminds me of, what was the guy, Jonathan the Amazing?
01:06:38
Speaker
No, the Amazing Jonathan.
01:06:39
Speaker
That's right.
01:06:39
Speaker
I had it backwards.
01:06:42
Speaker
I met his wife in Vegas.
01:06:46
Speaker
I was there for DEF CON in Vegas a couple of years, two years ago.
01:06:48
Speaker
I was in Vegas when I got my implant in my hand.
01:06:51
Speaker
And she was there like hanging out with all the people, all the implants.
01:06:54
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:06:56
Speaker
Just hanging out, talking, talking shop.
01:06:58
Speaker
It was just great.
01:06:59
Speaker
It was just such a cool having grown up myself, really in love with magic and working in magic for a little bit of time.
01:07:06
Speaker
Very amateur brief stuff, but great stuff, man.
01:07:10
Speaker
The comedy magic.
01:07:12
Speaker
Harry Anderson is another great example.
01:07:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:15
Speaker
David Williamson, Harry Anderson.
01:07:16
Speaker
If you don't know those names and you love magic, check them out.
01:07:19
Speaker
Definitely check out this guy.
01:07:20
Speaker
He's really funny, too.
01:07:22
Speaker
Um, so I have, like, like you said, I've been a, I'm not a great magician.
01:07:27
Speaker
I can like make a pen disappear and do a couple of card tricks and stuff, but I don't have the, like the sleight of hand to be able to do it.
01:07:34
Speaker
Um, but I've been, I'll call it a student of magic for a long time where like, you know, I, I want to know the craft.
01:07:42
Speaker
It's, you know, it's, I, I geek out about everything, anything that I'm into a little bit, I'm into all the way.
01:07:48
Speaker
Um,
01:07:49
Speaker
And so I've done, I just know a lot about magic and have done a lot of, I'll call it studying of magic.
01:07:58
Speaker
And so I really appreciate it from not just like a, whoa, that's crazy that you just did that kind of thing, but I appreciate the mechanics of it.
01:08:08
Speaker
And Justin Willman is a comedy magician.
01:08:10
Speaker
He has three seasons of a show on Netflix that I highly recommend you watch.
01:08:14
Speaker
So that's my one for the road called Magic for Humans, where it's just him doing kind of street magic most of the time, tied together with kind of a story, not a storyline, but like a theme for each episode.
01:08:29
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:31
Speaker
But man, that dude is so, so funny in person and just so good at what he does, I think.
01:08:40
Speaker
Like a master of his craft.
01:08:42
Speaker
One of the, I don't know about one of the best, but he's up there with the best working magicians today, I think.
01:08:49
Speaker
and really, really just crushed it.
01:08:52
Speaker
I highly recommend going to see him if you have the chance, but if you don't, I recommend checking out Magic for Humans on Netflix.
01:09:00
Speaker
And it's hilarious and just really good magic.
01:09:06
Speaker
I guess that closes us out for the night.
01:09:10
Speaker
This was the Don Pepin vintage.
01:09:14
Speaker
It was a great cigar.
01:09:15
Speaker
My pairing of the night was TX blended whiskey.
01:09:18
Speaker
No, it was blue note Duke joint whiskey because it brought out that, that sweetness a little bit.
01:09:24
Speaker
And Dennis's was the athletic radler.
01:09:27
Speaker
That's right.
01:09:28
Speaker
I've been trip.
01:09:29
Speaker
He's been Dennis.
01:09:30
Speaker
Dennis hit us with the catchphrase.
01:09:32
Speaker
Oh wait, one more thing.
01:09:34
Speaker
Closing note, programming notes for the next couple of weeks.
01:09:38
Speaker
That's right.
01:09:38
Speaker
Um,
01:09:40
Speaker
I'm having a baby next week.
01:09:41
Speaker
So, uh, next weekend, I am not going to be able to do the show because I will be in a hospital most likely.
01:09:48
Speaker
Um, having a new baby.
01:09:49
Speaker
I will, I'll share a picture of my cigar.
01:09:51
Speaker
Don't worry.
01:09:52
Speaker
Whatever I pair with it.
01:09:54
Speaker
Um,
01:09:56
Speaker
Yeah, I'm very excited.
01:09:59
Speaker
I've been here before, but I'm excited to do it again and looking forward to it.
01:10:04
Speaker
So we'll be out next week.
01:10:07
Speaker
Then we will be back with some kind of cigar that we haven't chosen yet.
01:10:11
Speaker
And then Dennis is going to be out of town, so we'll be off for another week.
01:10:14
Speaker
So we've got a little bit of a bumpy schedule in the next couple weeks, but all good things.
01:10:19
Speaker
We'll be back.
01:10:20
Speaker
All great stuff.
01:10:21
Speaker
And actually, I should mention, I will be out of town, but...
01:10:24
Speaker
And we'll be in Vegas for DEF CON, DEF CON Blackhead, all that stuff.
01:10:28
Speaker
So if you are in Vegas the week of, what is it, August 8th to August 12th, I'll be in town.
01:10:35
Speaker
You want to get together and have a cigar?
01:10:36
Speaker
Let's do it, man.
01:10:37
Speaker
I'll be at the cigar box probably hanging out.
01:10:39
Speaker
Nice.
01:10:40
Speaker
Great shop.
01:10:40
Speaker
Tell Jason, I think his name is, that we said hey.
01:10:45
Speaker
That the Cigar Coop team says hey.
01:10:47
Speaker
So thanks for watching, everybody.
01:10:49
Speaker
Check out El Oso Fumar later tonight.
01:10:53
Speaker
And we will see you in a couple of weeks.
01:10:54
Speaker
So everybody have a good one.
01:10:55
Speaker
And Dennis, you can do the whole catchphrase thing.
01:10:58
Speaker
Thanks, everybody, for watching and listening.
01:11:00
Speaker
And remember, we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink less.