Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 28 - West Tampa Tobacco Co. Red
2 Plays10 months ago
This week on Let’s Get Pairing, the boys try out a few pairings with the third release from West Tampa Tobacco Company, simply titled the “Red”.
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:02
Speaker
I was going to cold open.
00:00:04
Speaker
I'm not going to do that.
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey, everybody.
Introduction and Hosts' Backgrounds
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome back to Let's Get Pairing.
00:00:08
Speaker
This is episode 28.
00:00:10
Speaker
Yes, 28.
00:00:12
Speaker
And we're smoking the West Tampa Red.
00:00:15
Speaker
Oh, you can see my cool, my beautiful little band-aid there, as well as the...
00:00:22
Speaker
possum band-aid you got there it sure is i'll tell you the story in a little while it's not very interesting but uh i'll tell you anyway but for now everybody can go ahead and grab themselves a cigar grab themselves a drink let's get pairing all right guys we're back
00:00:52
Speaker
Welcome to Let's Get Pairing.
00:00:53
Speaker
I'm your host, Tripp, here in the Casa de Monte Cristo studio, along with my co-host in the Dungeon of Darkness, back in action.
00:01:02
Speaker
Dennis, Dennis, how are you doing this evening?
00:01:04
Speaker
Holy Anaconda testicles, man.
00:01:06
Speaker
I'm finally inside from being in the heat.
00:01:09
Speaker
I bet that feels nice, huh?
00:01:11
Speaker
It feels nice, but I'm also oddly suspicious of the cool air because I can't tell if it's cool because I'm getting heat stroke or because it's actually cool.
00:01:20
Speaker
Hopefully the former.
00:01:22
Speaker
I mean, no, the latter.
00:01:23
Speaker
That's what I meant to say.
West Tampa Red Cigar Details
00:01:25
Speaker
I mean, listen, I've been called worse, baby.
00:01:27
Speaker
All right, so today we're smoking the West Tampa Red.
00:01:34
Speaker
I got all the details on this cigar.
00:01:36
Speaker
We just lit it up, so I'm going to go through the details, and then we can kind of give our thoughts.
00:01:41
Speaker
I'll try my best to not let my cigar go out while I'm talking.
00:01:44
Speaker
So I may need to take a little break like that from time to time.
00:01:47
Speaker
All right.
00:01:48
Speaker
So West Tampa Tobacco Company.
00:01:50
Speaker
First of all, love the band.
00:01:52
Speaker
Let me hide my... Just a nice, elegant-looking band.
00:01:58
Speaker
So, Rick Rodriguez departed General Cigar in 2022.
00:02:02
Speaker
Um...
00:02:06
Speaker
After spending, I think it was like 13-ish years with General as master blender and brand ambassador for CAO, came out with a lot of great cigars, a fair amount of okay cigars during his time at CAO, I'll say.
00:02:24
Speaker
And a couple of real bad cigars, in my opinion.
00:02:28
Speaker
So anyway, in 2022, Ricky left West or left general.
00:02:33
Speaker
About two months later, he announced his that he was starting his own company called West Tampa Tobacco Company.
00:02:39
Speaker
He's from Tampa.
00:02:41
Speaker
I believe he grew up there and just kind of wanted to pay homage to his neck of the woods.
00:02:47
Speaker
So he created West Tampa Tobacco Company.
00:02:49
Speaker
Initially, they offered two blends, the black and the white.
00:02:54
Speaker
I was thinking about whether I should give my thoughts on those, but I'll just say I'm not a big fan of either of those cigars, so I'm hoping to enjoy this one a little more.
00:03:02
Speaker
He described this cigar when he was blending it kind of as blending a cigar for himself.
00:03:07
Speaker
Typically when he's blending, he says that he blends for what his fans will enjoy and what it will sell.
00:03:13
Speaker
The red was him blending a cigar that was in his wheelhouse.
00:03:17
Speaker
So I'm very curious to see how it compares to the pre-sign.
00:03:22
Speaker
So rapper on this guy is Mexican San Andreas.
00:03:26
Speaker
Binder is Nicaraguan from Condega.
00:03:28
Speaker
Fillers are all Nicaraguan from Condega and Esteli.
00:03:33
Speaker
and it's made at the Garmentia factory, which is kind of the West Tampa factory, though not titled as such.
00:03:40
Speaker
We're both smoking the Robusto, which we're talking in the green room, feels really small in the hand, but maybe it's just because I'm so used to Toros these days, because I tend to smoke Toros a lot more than I smoke Robustos, but this just happened to be what we both grabbed, which was lucky.
00:03:56
Speaker
Listen, man, it's small in the hand, but just enough in the mouth.
00:04:01
Speaker
It's a 5x50, your classic Robusto.
00:04:06
Speaker
Yeah, we're live.
00:04:08
Speaker
I had to make sure because, no, we're not live.
00:04:12
Speaker
It didn't go live?
00:04:13
Speaker
What the fuck?
00:04:15
Speaker
All right, we're doing it again.
00:04:17
Speaker
I guess we're doing the first couple minutes over again because we're running a little late, apparently.
00:04:22
Speaker
Normally, I have Facebook go live automatically, but apparently it was turned off this time.
00:04:26
Speaker
Don't know how that happened.
Technical Glitch and Reintroduction
00:04:27
Speaker
uh welcome everybody to let's get pairing i'm doing this for a second time because we didn't know we weren't live the first time so uh apologies for being a couple minutes late uh today we're smoking the west tampa red and you can see my beautiful band-aid on my finger there next to the the nice looking band i'll tell you about that in a couple minutes but for now grab yourself a cigar grab yourself a drink let's get pairing
00:05:06
Speaker
Cigar blenders are ordinary because I got all that tobacco and no teeth to chew on it with.
00:05:13
Speaker
I thought you were going for Mama told me there'd be days like this where we go live and we're not actually live for five minutes.
00:05:20
Speaker
That too.
00:05:21
Speaker
Ordinary blenders aside.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:25
Speaker
I brought us back from the intro in the middle of that.
00:05:27
Speaker
So hopefully people caught the gist of what you're saying.
00:05:30
Speaker
I think enough came through that people get it.
00:05:35
Speaker
um all right welcome back i'm your host trip this is let's get pairing episode 28 i am here in the casa de monte cristo studios uh dennis is there in the dank dungeon of darkness um back in action bringing it getting back inside uh after a hot day in the sun how you doing dennis i'm
00:05:56
Speaker
Yep, I'm here.
00:05:57
Speaker
I'm a little loopy from the heat, but I'll tell you what, I am here and ready to smoke a cigar after a long day outside of not wanting to smoke a cigar, which normally doesn't happen.
00:06:05
Speaker
You know when it's so hot and humid?
00:06:08
Speaker
I do.
00:06:09
Speaker
You don't even want to do it.
00:06:10
Speaker
It's not even worth it.
00:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
00:06:13
Speaker
So this is the West Tampa Red.
00:06:15
Speaker
West Tampa Tobacco Company was started by Rick Rodriguez in Tampa, Florida, as the name may imply.
00:06:22
Speaker
Kind of shortly after his departure from General Cigar, he was the master blender and brand ambassador for CAO Cigars for about 13 years, might have been 12 years.
00:06:35
Speaker
It was basically since a little bit after they were acquired by General.
00:06:39
Speaker
CAO, that is.
00:06:40
Speaker
In 2022, he announced his departure.
Rick Rodriguez's Venture into West Tampa Tobacco
00:06:43
Speaker
Also in 2022, about two months later, he announced West Tampa Tobacco Company, his own tobacco brand, working with the Garmandia factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.
00:06:55
Speaker
He started off with two blends, the black and the white, which I...
00:06:59
Speaker
I don't love those cigars, but I love Ricky, so I'm willing to give this one a shot.
00:07:06
Speaker
He followed those up in 2023 with the third core line.
00:07:11
Speaker
There was a limited edition in between there as well called the Attic Series.
00:07:16
Speaker
The core line that was added in 2023 is this one, the West Tampa Red.
00:07:22
Speaker
Interestingly, a thing that I see noted all the time in reviews of these is that it doesn't say red anywhere.
00:07:29
Speaker
It's just labeled West Ham Tobacco Company.
00:07:32
Speaker
And the label's red.
00:07:34
Speaker
It's kind of red.
00:07:35
Speaker
It's like a... Yeah, it's like a faded burger.
00:07:38
Speaker
Maroon?
00:07:39
Speaker
It's a maroon color.
00:07:42
Speaker
I've never known what mauve is.
00:07:44
Speaker
I've never been able to figure out what color mauve is.
00:07:48
Speaker
In my head, it's kind of a brownish...
00:07:51
Speaker
uh, beige-ish color, uh, yeah, sort of, reddish, I, I never know what to think of Mauve, man, um, anyway, this is the West Hamper Red, rapper is, oh, I forgot to tell the story about, uh, how Ricky came up with the cigar, so, the way he describes it is typically he's blending his cigars towards what his fans like, what he thinks will sell, um,
00:08:14
Speaker
And what people who smoked his cigars like.
00:08:18
Speaker
This time, he decided to pivot a little bit and blend kind of towards his flavor profile and his palate.
00:08:25
Speaker
So this was a blend that he came up with kind of just for him and wanted to see what other people thought of it.
00:08:31
Speaker
So the wrapper is Mexican San André.
00:08:33
Speaker
The binder is Nicaraguan from Contega with Nicaraguan fillers as well from both Contega and Esteli.
00:08:40
Speaker
Dennis and I are both smoking the 5x50 Robusto, which, as we were saying in the green room for the third time now, feels very small.
00:08:49
Speaker
Feels to me like a short Robusto almost.
00:08:52
Speaker
But I think that's a combination of me smoking mostly Toros these days and this...
00:08:59
Speaker
Very, very nice looking, but enormous band.
00:09:03
Speaker
It takes up like a lot of real estate, about a third, I'd say, of the full length of this review.
00:09:09
Speaker
And it does, you know, it, it, it, it melts in your mouth, not in your hand, which is an important distinction here.
00:09:15
Speaker
It is.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
But so I've been smoking it for a little bit.
00:09:18
Speaker
We just let this, you know what, on the, on the hour.
00:09:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:21
Speaker
Right at eight pretty much.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I, and I feel like I'm, I'm getting close to that band.
00:09:25
Speaker
I'm going to have to pull it off.
00:09:27
Speaker
I mean, before you light it, you're already close
Personal Anecdotes and Cigar Pairing Discussion
00:09:30
Speaker
to the band on this thing.
00:09:31
Speaker
Smoking, smoking, smoking.
00:09:32
Speaker
Before we get into pairing, we'll talk about this cigar a little bit.
00:09:36
Speaker
But first, I'm going to tell you about my little Band-Aid story.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:09:39
Speaker
What's the deal with those poppers?
00:09:40
Speaker
We have a fallen soldier in my house.
00:09:44
Speaker
As I was doing some prep work for this show and the show that comes after it tonight, which is El Oso Fumar, where we are going to be doing a pairing...
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, check it out.
00:09:55
Speaker
Check it out.
00:09:57
Speaker
I was doing some dishware, prepping my glassware for the shows.
00:10:02
Speaker
And unfortunately, a Glencairn glass took a tumble.
00:10:08
Speaker
As I went to catch it in the sink, it shattered as I was grabbing it.
00:10:14
Speaker
So I just got a little tiny cut that was bleeding enough that I needed to put a Band-Aid on it so that I could finish cooking dinner.
00:10:20
Speaker
The Glencairn glass is the Scottish assassin.
00:10:25
Speaker
It is one of those things that they keep exploding at random times when you least expect it.
00:10:31
Speaker
I have so many as backups, just in case.
00:10:34
Speaker
Yeah, I think this is the first one down out of the six pack I bought a couple years ago.
00:10:39
Speaker
I've talked many times before.
00:10:43
Speaker
The first time I bought a Glencairn glass was, I know, Jesus, was I think 2008 or 2009.
00:10:54
Speaker
They weren't available in the U.S. yet, but I was on a cigar forum that had a bunch of Scotch geeks, and we did a group buy where a guy bought two cases,
00:11:03
Speaker
and split them up and the price was like 1750 a piece so i think it was 25 uh shipped for my single glass at the time uh which felt like a lot of money for a single glass these days you can get like a six pack for 25 30 bucks uh which is much more reasonable so now i just buy them in a six pack and uh you know they fall they fall as they may uh if one goes down
00:11:30
Speaker
uh i've still got more if a couple go down i'll just buy another six pack yeah i'll tell you what man you know you know that reaction when something's falling and you try to catch it with your foot you ever do that with a glass because i have and i've kicked a glass and it shattered just kicked it all over the kitchen yep i've done that before um i will say about the glencaron glass though uh i have a stainless steel sink it fell
00:11:56
Speaker
It hit the edge of the sink because it was on kind of like a little drying rack thing.
00:12:00
Speaker
It hit the edge of the sink and bounced.
00:12:02
Speaker
That's when I grabbed when I like started to reach.
00:12:05
Speaker
And then it bounced off the bottom.
00:12:08
Speaker
And not until it hit for the third time did it actually break.
00:12:12
Speaker
So, you know, they're very resilient for what they are.
00:12:19
Speaker
And man, that glass is like...
00:12:22
Speaker
I mean, when you see the rim of the glass, that's like twice as thick as the glass in most of it.
00:12:28
Speaker
It's very, very thin glass.
00:12:30
Speaker
It was so thin that when a bunch of it fell down the garbage disposal, I was like, shit, what do I do now?
00:12:39
Speaker
And my wife said, well, we have some strawberries that went bad, so just toss those in there and
00:12:44
Speaker
See if it'll grind it up because I was like, I'm not reaching my hand in there and trying to fight the Scottish assassin to get these chunks out.
00:12:54
Speaker
Man, that thing didn't even last a second in the garbage disposal.
00:12:56
Speaker
That glass is so thin and so fragile that it just smashed it up.
00:13:02
Speaker
And it was gone instantly.
00:13:04
Speaker
It's amazing what garbage disposals will also do with bones.
00:13:07
Speaker
Oh, true.
00:13:08
Speaker
grinder you know actually an interesting just like little factoid about that a lot not all but a lot of uh garbage disposal manufacturers the thing they recommend if you're because i know because i had this problem so i had to look it up and read the manual
00:13:24
Speaker
No, if the blades get lodged, because the blades are kind of like attached by a bolt and they're wobbly so they can slap against the sides and not snap off if they hit something really hard.
00:13:35
Speaker
They were rusted in place at my old house because we had really, really, really hard water that rusted things instantly.
00:13:45
Speaker
They recommend throwing pork bones down there, like ribs.
00:13:49
Speaker
Isn't that wild?
00:13:50
Speaker
They're like, yeah, just grind up entire pork ribs.
00:13:53
Speaker
Just two or three of them at a time, and that'll fix your problem.
00:13:56
Speaker
And it did, but I was shocked that they would recommend that.
00:14:00
Speaker
Did they have garbage disposal back when Dahmer was back?
00:14:05
Speaker
I don't want to imply that he had a peak necessarily, but when he was doing that.
00:14:09
Speaker
They definitely did, but I will say we know they don't work because of the Dennis Nilsen story, which I don't know if you know who Dennis Nilsen is.
00:14:21
Speaker
He is a Scottish serial killer who was caught because he was putting his victim's bones down the garbage disposal and clogged up the drainage line for his entire apartment complex.
00:14:35
Speaker
Oh, fantastic.
00:14:36
Speaker
And got caught because he was digging out gore from the main exit point of the gray water at his apartment complex.
00:14:48
Speaker
Damn.
00:14:50
Speaker
uh yeah wild shit look him up um there's a couple movies about him uh he's a lunatic as you could probably guess by killing anyway on to more interesting things it's time for pairing i mean maybe not more interesting sometimes this is a show about cigars right but lighter things yeah we talk about cigars from time to time yeah from time to time
00:15:12
Speaker
I'm doing a bit of a vertical here.
00:15:14
Speaker
As I mentioned before, we have another pairing show tonight.
00:15:19
Speaker
So I wanted to go a little bit on the lighter side and not be too hungover tomorrow.
00:15:27
Speaker
Because, you know, I'm getting real rusty and old and hangovers hit me a lot harder than they used to.
00:15:33
Speaker
Even just like, there are some beers that I can have one beer and get a hangover.
00:15:38
Speaker
If it's like a 14% stout, like
00:15:42
Speaker
A 12-ounce bottle can give me a hangover from somebody.
00:15:45
Speaker
I used to be able to drink all night and go to bed at 5.
00:15:48
Speaker
Dude, I can drink all night and be fine.
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah, it was crazy.
00:15:50
Speaker
I can drink high-gravity Belgians all night, and I'll be fine.
00:15:54
Speaker
If I hit a high-gravity stout... Yeah, exactly.
00:15:56
Speaker
That's what I'm saying.
00:15:57
Speaker
One stout knocks me out.
00:15:59
Speaker
I'll just have a headache the whole day.
00:16:02
Speaker
So I'm going on the lighter side.
00:16:04
Speaker
I'm doing a vertical from Athletic Brewing.
00:16:06
Speaker
We're big fans.
00:16:08
Speaker
And I'm going to tell a little bit of their story right now.
00:16:10
Speaker
So Athletic Brewing was founded in 2017.
00:16:13
Speaker
So this guy named Bill Shufflet, Shuffelt,
00:16:18
Speaker
was an ultra marathon runner and a hedge fund trader who was reportedly very successful at hedge fund trading.
00:16:25
Speaker
He quit drinking in 2013 just kind of to live a healthier lifestyle.
00:16:32
Speaker
But he loved beer.
00:16:33
Speaker
And, you know, like many people who quit drinking, it's not always about...
00:16:40
Speaker
you know, the struggles of drinking for some people.
00:16:44
Speaker
Some people do it for health reasons.
00:16:45
Speaker
Some people do it for medical reasons.
00:16:47
Speaker
Some people do it just because they don't like the way they feel with alcohol.
00:16:50
Speaker
There's many different reasons to quit drinking, but that doesn't mean you don't love beer.
00:16:55
Speaker
And Bill was no different.
00:16:56
Speaker
So he kind of spent a few years not drinking, exploring, like trying to find a good non-alcoholic beer.
Bill Shuffelt's Journey to Athletic Brewing
00:17:05
Speaker
And he basically decided there isn't one.
00:17:07
Speaker
So in 2017, um, he met up with John Walker, uh, who was a head brewer at a place called second street brewery, which I'm not familiar with there in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
00:17:20
Speaker
Um, and just kind of wanted to discuss the idea of experimenting more with non-alcoholic beer, because that wasn't really a thing back then.
00:17:31
Speaker
So in 2017, uh,
00:17:34
Speaker
John decided to join him on this journey of experimentation with non-alcoholic beer.
00:17:41
Speaker
They started athletic brewing.
00:17:42
Speaker
They both ended up moving.
00:17:44
Speaker
I think they both moved.
00:17:45
Speaker
I'm not really sure.
00:17:46
Speaker
It may have been a law thing.
00:17:47
Speaker
It may have been where...
00:17:51
Speaker
Bill was already located, but they both ended up moving to Milford, Connecticut, which is not too far from my hometown in Connecticut.
00:17:59
Speaker
And John basically got started immediately working on homebrews.
00:18:03
Speaker
He spent about a year working on homebrews, just kind of experimenting with different ways of...
00:18:09
Speaker
making beer that's not beer but tastes like beer but is beer um with very very low alcohol uh and eventually he landed on what he now calls a proprietary method so they must be doing some kind of funkiness um but the way it works is they're doing a full fermentation so they are fermenting all of the sugars into alcohol um
00:18:32
Speaker
They're not removing any alcohol after the fact, which most non-alcoholic beers do.
00:18:38
Speaker
They are not adding anything, which a lot of non-alcoholic beers will do to balance out the flavor.
00:18:44
Speaker
They're making real beer that ends up being right around half a percent ABV, which is enough alcohol that there's technically alcohol, but you could drink 30 of these, and your body processes alcohol fast enough
00:19:01
Speaker
that 0.5 is not really going to make a difference.
00:19:06
Speaker
This is a really cool thing because there are several different ways to... You mentioned a couple of them as well.
00:19:12
Speaker
One of the ways, and I think the nod to kind of saying proprietary, I think that's a nod to saying there's a proprietary strain of yeast that they've developed.
00:19:19
Speaker
That's my guess.
00:19:21
Speaker
At a certain point, which allows them to do a completely full boil to extract, you know, get the colors, get the flavors that you want without having to stunt the boil.
00:19:29
Speaker
Because sometimes you'll see some of these non-alcoholic beers really, really light.
00:19:33
Speaker
Like Milwaukee, Old Milwaukee is a great example.
00:19:37
Speaker
they don't really need to boil it for very long.
00:19:39
Speaker
And so as a result, they're not breaking down.
00:19:41
Speaker
They purposely don't break down the sugar.
00:19:43
Speaker
So the fermentation, but they're not, they're not breaking the chains down enough for the interesting.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:53
Speaker
He came up with this brewing method and kind of chose it and is still using it to this day because it maintains kind of the flavor and body that you expect from a beer without,
00:20:07
Speaker
having to add or remove anything at the end.
00:20:11
Speaker
So 2017 was when they first started in Milford.
00:20:14
Speaker
2018, they opened their production brewery in Stratford, which was fairly small.
00:20:19
Speaker
Stratford, Connecticut.
00:20:20
Speaker
In 2022, I didn't know this.
00:20:22
Speaker
They purchased Ballast Points Brewery in San Diego.
00:20:27
Speaker
Which at least somebody's doing something with that building.
00:20:30
Speaker
Because Ballast Point hasn't been doing anything with it in a while.
00:20:34
Speaker
So they bought that in 2018.
00:20:35
Speaker
In 2022, they expanded yet again and moved into a larger...
00:20:40
Speaker
I think this one in Stratford is gone now.
00:20:43
Speaker
I think, according to the can, if I remember correctly, that's where their office is still.
00:20:47
Speaker
No, Milford.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of their story in...
00:20:55
Speaker
uh 2020 sorry i'm trying to figure out what year oh it's not my notes no wonder i thought i put the year there i think it was 2022 when they became the number one non-alcoholic beer company in the country and uh man they just i think they crush it at what they do they're very for a non-alcoholic beer company they're very out there um
00:21:17
Speaker
You know, normally non-alcoholic beer, what you can expect is something that kind of seems like a pilsner, but not really.
00:21:23
Speaker
It's usually a little too sweet, a little too light.
00:21:27
Speaker
And they just kind of go ham.
00:21:29
Speaker
They're making fruited sours.
00:21:30
Speaker
They're making, I mean, I've got a whole range of beer styles here tonight.
00:21:35
Speaker
Of course, they make IPAs, which are pretty good.
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's all I've got to say about the history of athletic brewing.
00:21:42
Speaker
But I think what they do is pretty impressive in the non-alcoholic beer space.
00:21:47
Speaker
And I'm going to tell you a little bit about my first one.
00:21:50
Speaker
They don't have a whole lot of info available on the specific beers.
00:21:55
Speaker
They'll give you an ingredient list that's pretty rudimentary, and that's about it.
00:22:00
Speaker
So, like, this one is, I don't know if it says it here on the can, malted barley, water, hops, yeast.
00:22:07
Speaker
Nothing crazy in this one.
00:22:09
Speaker
But this is their Trailblazer, Hoppy Hellas.
00:22:13
Speaker
Of course, comes in at 0.5% alcohol or less.
00:22:17
Speaker
Give you a little look at the color here.
00:22:20
Speaker
Looks good.
00:22:21
Speaker
One thing I have noticed about their beers is that the head you get is very little, which I think has to do with the extremely low gravity.
00:22:29
Speaker
The higher gravity, you know, results in more viscosity, which gives you that foamier head.
00:22:36
Speaker
But I'm going to take a couple sips of this, see how it pairs with the West Tampa Red.
00:22:40
Speaker
Let me talk about your first pair.
00:22:42
Speaker
You know, I should say actually recently, a month ago, there were some headlines about they increased their valuation.
00:22:47
Speaker
I think it was like triple their valuation.
00:22:51
Speaker
Something crazy.
00:22:53
Speaker
Yeah, they're definitely living that startup life right now.
00:22:56
Speaker
They've got a ton of investors.
00:22:58
Speaker
I'm trying to remember who.
00:23:00
Speaker
I know there's some beer company that I can't remember that is a minority stakeholder.
00:23:06
Speaker
And the only person I remember from the list of investors that I saw is David Chang, which is the owner of Momofuku.
00:23:12
Speaker
Sort of celebrity chef.
00:23:14
Speaker
What do you got there?
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:23:17
Speaker
I'm going to try something different now.
00:23:19
Speaker
I got...
00:23:20
Speaker
I'm practicing in preparation for our, not yet, but soon podcast.
00:23:27
Speaker
In preparation, I've been practicing writing some things.
00:23:31
Speaker
So today, I'm having Hills Bottle in Bond.
00:23:35
Speaker
Uh, the reason why I bought this is because of that statement on the bottom there.
00:23:40
Speaker
Bourbon is seven.
00:23:41
Speaker
That's not focusing, but bourbon is seven years.
00:23:43
Speaker
Bourbon is seven years old.
00:23:44
Speaker
Uh, I like how matter of fact that is.
00:23:46
Speaker
It doesn't say seven year bourbon.
00:23:47
Speaker
It says this bourbon is seven years old.
00:23:50
Speaker
It's an old guy yelling it at you.
00:23:52
Speaker
It is.
00:23:53
Speaker
It is fantastic.
00:23:53
Speaker
So I bought this.
00:23:55
Speaker
I thought, oh, Heaven Hill.
00:23:56
Speaker
I've had a bunch of stuff from Heaven Hill.
00:23:58
Speaker
It's nice.
00:23:58
Speaker
I like it.
00:23:59
Speaker
And then I saw that statement, and I've never seen that before.
00:24:03
Speaker
So I thought, yeah, man, let me tell you a little bit more.
00:24:06
Speaker
So Heaven Hill Distillery was founded in 1930, and it stands as a testament to the industry.
00:24:12
Speaker
Why is that?
00:24:14
Speaker
Well, they've come out of the ashes of Prohibition.
00:24:16
Speaker
If you remember, Prohibition was back in 1920.
00:24:18
Speaker
1920 to 1932.
00:24:21
Speaker
I believe so.
00:24:23
Speaker
We had a fact check after the show.
00:24:25
Speaker
But they really established themselves as a producer.
00:24:28
Speaker
Over the decades, they've had, like, this is the classic whiskey story, right?
00:24:32
Speaker
Where the breakups of families happen, fires happen, companies go, right?
00:24:37
Speaker
This is a classic story.
00:24:38
Speaker
In their case, they had a fire, fires, multiple fires, and they maintained through despite all the fires.
00:24:44
Speaker
Now, today, they produce things like Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Larceny, Heaven Hill.
00:24:50
Speaker
But they took a very small family operation.
00:24:53
Speaker
Now they're in the third generation.
00:24:55
Speaker
And they're still pushing.
00:24:56
Speaker
They're huge now.
00:24:58
Speaker
They're absolutely massive.
00:24:59
Speaker
And Bardstown, Kentucky, they really are considered one of the... Definitely.
00:25:07
Speaker
The production value, or the capacity, I should say, is also massive at 1.8 million barrels.
00:25:14
Speaker
That's a ton of whiskey.
00:25:16
Speaker
That's a lot of whiskey.
00:25:17
Speaker
That's a lot of rickhouses, man.
00:25:19
Speaker
It's well, so I'm glad you brought up the rickhouse situation because they had a fire.
00:25:25
Speaker
November 7, 1996, giant fire broke out, destroyed multiple warehouses and the main distillery.
00:25:32
Speaker
So they were completely like they completely decimated.
00:25:38
Speaker
When you're when you're holding buildings filled with gasoline, basically, fires are not only very dangerous, but pretty likely.
00:25:49
Speaker
They're likely, they're incredibly dangerous.
00:25:51
Speaker
They're incredibly difficult to, but then also you're looking at it.
00:25:54
Speaker
This is your raw product.
00:25:55
Speaker
This is your, well, not your raw product, but this is your, this is your means.
00:25:59
Speaker
It's the whole thing, right?
00:26:02
Speaker
The whole business is done, right?
00:26:04
Speaker
They were really lucky because they were able to partner with a couple of other distilleries that, that helped them while they rebuilt everything.
00:26:11
Speaker
And they went back to full operation.
00:26:12
Speaker
Not, not too long.
00:26:13
Speaker
There's pretty cool, man.
00:26:15
Speaker
But they, you know, to this day, they really are kind of considered playing a crucial role in kind of the bourbon capital, which I still have yet to go to.
00:26:23
Speaker
One of these days, Mon.
00:26:26
Speaker
Oh, quick thing also, the seven-year thing.
00:26:28
Speaker
So Bond it, Bottled it, Bond.
00:26:31
Speaker
They literally just went, we're going to make it much nicer, and we're going to – now people are upset about this.
00:26:38
Speaker
They were doing a six-year.
00:26:40
Speaker
And the, so this bottle, I forget what this costs.
00:26:43
Speaker
I think it was 40, whatever it was in Pennsylvania.
00:26:44
Speaker
Right.
00:26:45
Speaker
Not bad, but the six year bottled in bond was $15 only available inside of Kentucky.
00:26:52
Speaker
Wow.
00:26:53
Speaker
And they discontinued this.
00:26:55
Speaker
They stopped making it.
00:26:55
Speaker
They released the seven year ramped it up to 50 average 50 across the country, a little bit, obviously up in arms.
00:27:02
Speaker
I mean, it sucks because it, it definitely feels like price gouging.
00:27:07
Speaker
Right.
00:27:08
Speaker
Um,
00:27:10
Speaker
But the two sides of the coin are either you're price gouging, no, either you're selling it for what you used to sell it for, and it's sold out completely, and there's just people selling it on the gray market constantly.
00:27:25
Speaker
Or you raise the price and it's available on the shelf most of the time because it gets rid of much of the gray market because you're eating into those people's illegal profit margins.
00:27:37
Speaker
I get why people are upset with it and it sucks.
00:27:40
Speaker
It happened to me with, as I've talked about many times, Weller 107 used to be $25 where I was and I was in heaven, man.
00:27:47
Speaker
I could just buy that every day of the week.
00:27:50
Speaker
Then the modern bourbon boom hit.
00:27:54
Speaker
And it started drying up.
00:27:55
Speaker
And then they raised the price to 50.
00:27:56
Speaker
But once they raised the price to 50, I could find it again.
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:01
Speaker
Listen, it's reasonable because this is the foresight of a business that if they produced, if they scope outside of Kentucky at 60, it'd be unsustainable for them.
00:28:11
Speaker
And gray markets would just take over and destroy the product.
00:28:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:15
Speaker
Brand reputation as well.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah, and the only options for them at that point, like where they were, is either you ramp up production, you flood the market to get rid of the gray market, which is not only risky because...
00:28:31
Speaker
You may not have as much demand as you think because you can't rely on gray market demand.
00:28:40
Speaker
If you were to just quintuple production, five times production, and start flooding the market with it, get it on every shelf in the country, the gray market people would stop buying it.
00:28:53
Speaker
But how many of those other customers are only buying it because it's on the gray market?
00:28:58
Speaker
You can't tell.
00:28:59
Speaker
You might do that and then nobody buys it anymore.
00:29:02
Speaker
So, you know, I get it.
00:29:04
Speaker
There's two sides to that.
00:29:06
Speaker
It reminds me a little bit of Opus X where, you know, you see all these shops selling it for a high price, which is not Arturo Fuente's decision because they haven't raised the prices over the years that much on it.
00:29:19
Speaker
but the reason a lot of these shops sell it for 30 bucks instead of 15 is because if they sell it for 15 then they're sold out immediately and they don't have any on the shelf so it's a matter of trying to like balance that supply and demand uh in a spot that works for everybody right how's a cigar it's a little middle of the road i think uh
00:29:44
Speaker
It's not popping with flavor.
00:29:45
Speaker
I mean, the flavors that are there are pretty good.
00:29:47
Speaker
It's a little bit earthy, a little bit spicy, a little bit baking spicy at the same time.
Critique of West Tampa Red's Flavor Profile
00:29:57
Speaker
Some kind of nut flavors, like almond kind of, it reminds me of.
00:30:02
Speaker
I always eat salted peanuts a little bit.
00:30:03
Speaker
Salted peanuts might be a better word for it.
00:30:09
Speaker
But it's just kind of on the boring side, I think.
00:30:13
Speaker
It's not very exciting, right?
00:30:15
Speaker
Like the flavors are pretty good, but it's just not a very exciting cigar.
00:30:19
Speaker
Hopefully it gets more interesting.
00:30:21
Speaker
What about you?
00:30:22
Speaker
What are your thoughts?
00:30:24
Speaker
You know, initially I thought this was a little, but it is thin in some ways to your, but it has that palate coating effect that we talk about.
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah, it does.
00:30:37
Speaker
I don't know that I like that necessarily, but the whiskey is doing a great job of cleansing.
00:30:43
Speaker
I'm drinking some Topo Chico.
00:30:44
Speaker
I've got some whiskey working out.
00:30:46
Speaker
There you go.
00:30:47
Speaker
All right.
00:30:49
Speaker
I'm going to tell my thoughts on the Trailblazer Hoppy Hellas.
00:30:54
Speaker
To me, this is less of a Hoppy Hellas.
00:30:56
Speaker
This is the almost non-alcoholic beer I made years ago.
00:31:03
Speaker
When I home brewed for the first time, no, the second time, I was trying to make an IPA and I don't remember exactly what happened, but it was a disaster.
00:31:15
Speaker
There were a lot of problems.
00:31:17
Speaker
I ended up finishing the boil and not having enough water.
00:31:20
Speaker
So I had to cut with water to be able to like fill up my fermenter.
00:31:25
Speaker
It was a disaster.
00:31:27
Speaker
And something like this is what came out.
00:31:28
Speaker
Very hoppy.
00:31:30
Speaker
But just kind of a light, crisp ale at the same time.
00:31:37
Speaker
And that's what this reminds me of.
00:31:39
Speaker
That was almost non-alcoholic.
00:31:41
Speaker
Probably had a little more alcohol than this, but I never got a good test on it because it was such a... This reminds me more of like a session IPA style.
00:31:53
Speaker
Right?
00:31:53
Speaker
Like, it's got that light, that crisp, and then that real hoppy bite, which is good, but I'm not sure if it's working with a cigar.
00:32:03
Speaker
It is working well as a palate cleanser.
00:32:06
Speaker
How is the sugar?
00:32:08
Speaker
I really enjoy Athletic, but sometimes some of their, they're a little bit sweet on the back end.
00:32:12
Speaker
This one is very dry.
00:32:14
Speaker
Got just a hint of sweetness.
00:32:17
Speaker
And it's nice because it's kind of like a citrusy sweetness.
00:32:20
Speaker
Combination between those hops and those malts.
00:32:23
Speaker
How's the... Heaven Hill.
00:32:27
Speaker
I lost it in my head.
00:32:28
Speaker
I was like, Bardstown.
00:32:31
Speaker
That's not it.
00:32:32
Speaker
The Bardstown, yeah, man, I really do.
00:32:36
Speaker
I just enjoy it more than anything by itself with cigars.
00:32:40
Speaker
I've had it at the end of the day, and I'm not expecting it to be, you know, seven years, fine, that's great.
00:32:44
Speaker
Clean and not hot, you know.
00:32:45
Speaker
Sounds fantastic.
00:32:46
Speaker
It comes off as a very approachable gift to somebody that maybe hasn't really experienced a lot of different varieties.
00:32:53
Speaker
Someone that's never really stepped outside of that range.
00:32:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:57
Speaker
I was going to ask what the ABV was on it.
00:33:00
Speaker
It is.
00:33:01
Speaker
It is.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yes.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yes, sir.
00:33:02
Speaker
It is 50%.
00:33:03
Speaker
But I dig it, man.
00:33:05
Speaker
If you see it out there.
00:33:09
Speaker
Sam Finnell.
00:33:10
Speaker
Good evening, Sam.
00:33:10
Speaker
Sorry, I saw your message before, but we got to talking and I didn't want to stop what we were into.
00:33:16
Speaker
He says he's smoking at Gray Clift West Hill Street.
00:33:19
Speaker
Excuse me.
00:33:20
Speaker
And drinking a Glen Morangi, uh, the cat ball estate.
00:33:24
Speaker
I'm not familiar with either of those off the top of my head, but good for you.
00:33:28
Speaker
How's the, how's the pairing?
00:33:30
Speaker
I love to hear what you guys are pairing out there.
00:33:32
Speaker
Um, I'm going to move on to my next pairing while we wait to hear what, what people are pairing and, uh, wait to hear what Sam thinks of that pairing.
00:33:40
Speaker
This is, as I said, vertical from athletic.
00:33:43
Speaker
Uh, this is wits peak.
00:33:45
Speaker
And I should note, um,
00:33:48
Speaker
You may notice that both this one and my last one have stickers for the labels.
00:33:53
Speaker
Most of their labels are screen printed onto the can.
00:33:56
Speaker
Oh, that's interesting.
00:33:57
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't even notice that.
00:33:58
Speaker
You're right.
00:33:59
Speaker
The reason for that is their limited edition stuff always has a paper label.
00:34:03
Speaker
Oh, that makes sense.
00:34:04
Speaker
Sometimes they have a simplified label that's just kind of a standard athletic label that doesn't have as much going on and just has like a block where it has the name here.
00:34:17
Speaker
and then they print what the name of that beer is for their very low production stuff but i think that's one of the really cool things about this non-alcoholic brewery is that they are i mean we talked about how they started off by experimentation uh trying to find a way to brew non-alcoholic beer well and correctly and they're still experimenting they come out with all kinds of crazy beers you may have one later actually
00:34:41
Speaker
But some of these are, I've seen it before where one of these cans turns into a screen printed and goes regular production, becomes part of their core lineup.
00:34:51
Speaker
That's kind of a cool deal.
00:34:53
Speaker
They've got, there's another, I mean, there's a lot of cool things about this brewery, man.
00:34:57
Speaker
One of the other cool things is that you can get any of their beer shipped to you.
00:35:03
Speaker
It's legal in, I think, every state and most of Canada.
00:35:05
Speaker
I read that Quebec has weird laws about it, or at least parts of Quebec.
00:35:09
Speaker
They're just weird altogether.
00:35:10
Speaker
Let's just leave it at that.
00:35:12
Speaker
Quebecois.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:16
Speaker
But yeah, so you can order direct from them.
00:35:19
Speaker
They've always got something new and interesting.
00:35:22
Speaker
Right now I saw some kind of like a berry wheat beer or something like that.
00:35:27
Speaker
I don't like berries, so I didn't look too hard at it.
00:35:29
Speaker
I haven't seen them do anything barrel aged yet, but I'm very curious if they ever will.
00:35:33
Speaker
Because I think that could be really interesting or a huge disaster.
00:35:37
Speaker
And I'm curious to find out which.
00:35:41
Speaker
But they have subscription programs where you can subscribe to like a beer of the month kind of thing where they'll send you, I think it's like four, four packs or three, four packs or six packs rather.
00:35:52
Speaker
They include a couple of their limited edition stuff.
00:35:55
Speaker
Some of which I believe there's stuff that you can only get if you're in there.
00:35:59
Speaker
They're like beer club.
00:36:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:00
Speaker
The club exclusive stuff.
00:36:02
Speaker
But I just think they're doing really cool stuff.
00:36:04
Speaker
So I'm going to talk about what I'm drinking now.
00:36:06
Speaker
This is wits peak.
00:36:08
Speaker
This is a Belgian-style white.
00:36:12
Speaker
Again, not a whole lot to say about this.
00:36:15
Speaker
The ingredients list basically says what I said before, but with spices.
00:36:20
Speaker
So this is inspired by a Belgian-style wit.
00:36:23
Speaker
They have used coriander and orange peel, of course, as is tradition for Belgian wits and many Belgian beers for that matter.
00:36:32
Speaker
Color on it.
00:36:33
Speaker
It looks a little lighter in person than it does on camera.
00:36:38
Speaker
And a little cloudier, I think, on camera.
00:36:40
Speaker
It's kind of more yellow than orange.
00:36:42
Speaker
It's less cloudy than most Belgians, but it's in the right ballpark.
00:36:47
Speaker
How's the smell on that?
00:36:49
Speaker
I haven't even smelled it.
00:36:51
Speaker
Give us a smell.
00:36:53
Speaker
I'm very curious because I haven't.
00:36:55
Speaker
Some definite orange peel on there.
00:36:57
Speaker
Is it on par for kind of what you would expect?
00:37:00
Speaker
I think it is.
00:37:01
Speaker
It has, I mean, obviously, for obvious reasons, it doesn't have that, like, the bite of the alcohol you get from a big Belgian, but it smells right.
00:37:10
Speaker
Like it's got that little bit of citrus from the orange peel, that little bit of baking spice kind of from the coriander, a little bit of savoriness from that coriander, I guess.
00:37:20
Speaker
Yeah, it smells great.
00:37:23
Speaker
As a Belgian should.
00:37:24
Speaker
Michael King says he's pairing a Kinkajanero.
00:37:28
Speaker
I think I said it right that time.
00:37:30
Speaker
Paired with a 2021 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.
00:37:32
Speaker
My man.
00:37:33
Speaker
Nice, man.
00:37:33
Speaker
Great things there.
00:37:35
Speaker
Awesome.
00:37:36
Speaker
Good choice.
00:37:36
Speaker
All right, Dennis, what's your pairing number two for the night as I take a couple sips of this Belgium?
00:37:41
Speaker
You know, smelling this pairing, I finally realized there was a flaking in this for the last, I don't know, probably a week or so.
00:37:48
Speaker
And there's a flavor that I couldn't pick out of it.
00:37:50
Speaker
And it was very, reminded me of something and I didn't know.
00:37:53
Speaker
And it wasn't until about five minutes ago that I figured out exactly.
00:37:57
Speaker
We have now gone full circle.
00:37:59
Speaker
We talk about,
00:38:00
Speaker
Trip's famous story of, you know how when you lick a rock, it's got that flavor of just licking a rock?
00:38:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:38:07
Speaker
So what I'm drinking is exactly like, it's exactly like licking a rock, the flavor.
00:38:12
Speaker
And the smell on it is like a bag of concrete, kind of that distinct dust.
00:38:18
Speaker
It sounds ridiculous.
00:38:19
Speaker
I am very curious to find out what this is, as I'm sure everybody else is.
00:38:24
Speaker
All right, I took a sip.
00:38:25
Speaker
Now that I can make coated the insides properly.
00:38:28
Speaker
Check this out, man.
00:38:29
Speaker
Really cool bottle.
00:38:30
Speaker
Boscal Mezcal.
00:38:34
Speaker
Ah.
00:38:34
Speaker
This one is distilled with Damiana.
00:38:37
Speaker
Damiana is something that I'll get into a little bit after, but this is a really cool bottle.
00:38:42
Speaker
It has a string and the string is to symbolize the connection that we all, those of us that love these kinds of really old school traditional, it connects all of us in this really cool traditional
Exploration of Mezcal and Its Unique Qualities
00:38:54
Speaker
way.
00:38:54
Speaker
So I thought it was nice.
00:38:55
Speaker
Nice little, I don't want to call it hokey pokey, but so actually 42%
00:39:00
Speaker
Love that label.
00:39:02
Speaker
Mountain to market.
00:39:03
Speaker
This is really.
00:39:04
Speaker
And they started, they officially released their first product.
00:39:07
Speaker
They started in early 2000s, but their first Mezcal in 2015.
00:39:11
Speaker
And so they're really a fairly young company.
00:39:13
Speaker
And we've seen.
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely a Mezcal boom going on.
00:39:17
Speaker
10 to 15 years, we've seen a lot of companies in the early 2000s starting to kind of position themselves for – Mezcal's big now, man.
00:39:25
Speaker
Mezcal is having this really – that we saw with bourbons and we saw with cigars and the nine bourbons in the – well, I guess early 2000s really also.
00:39:35
Speaker
I would say really bourbon kicked off around 2017.
00:39:39
Speaker
Like that's when it really, the bubble started.
00:39:41
Speaker
After the heist, of course.
00:39:43
Speaker
Once the heist became popular and everyone kind of heard about it, then yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:39:47
Speaker
But we saw things starting to be more available.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah, for all the bad that comes along with a boom like that, there's a lot of good, which is way more product and way more options.
00:39:59
Speaker
And with Mezcal, that's really appreciated because like, I go into a lot of liquor stores and
00:40:05
Speaker
I'm a peruser when I go in a liquor store, right?
00:40:08
Speaker
Like, I never just walk in and grab what I want.
00:40:10
Speaker
I got to see what scotches they have.
00:40:12
Speaker
I got to see what bourbons they have.
00:40:14
Speaker
I always check on the Mezcal section.
00:40:16
Speaker
I'm always disappointed.
00:40:17
Speaker
I've never been in a liquor store that had more than, like, maybe 10 different... 10 is a lot, though, to be fair.
00:40:23
Speaker
For, like, an average liquor store, that's a lot.
00:40:26
Speaker
I mean, like, even in, like, a total wine kind of place, like a mega liquor store, options are very slim, and it's crazy.
00:40:34
Speaker
Oh, the Damiana.
00:40:35
Speaker
So Damiana is a really interesting thing that has been historically used in Mexico.
00:40:39
Speaker
As you know, herbs and plants are used for medicine.
00:40:44
Speaker
Very particular quality that it has.
00:40:46
Speaker
Aphrodisiac.
00:40:47
Speaker
It's very hard to say.
00:40:48
Speaker
Aphrodisiac.
00:40:50
Speaker
The Mayans and the Aztecs both really loved making tea out of this stuff.
00:40:54
Speaker
I'm sure they smoked everything back then.
00:40:58
Speaker
But specifically making this plant was a thing, which I'm very surprised about.
00:41:03
Speaker
It's a really cool rabbit hole that I went.
00:41:06
Speaker
No pun intended because there's a rabbit on the bottle.
00:41:09
Speaker
But this thing, just smelling it has this real quality to it.
00:41:13
Speaker
On top of the stone, half a bottle or so, and I can't say that I've noticed any difference.
00:41:20
Speaker
No, I was going to ask if it's more like oyster kind of aphrodisiac or blue pill kind of aphrodisiac, but I guess it's more like oysters.
00:41:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's more of an oyster thing.
00:41:31
Speaker
Because that would have been hilarious if that was the kind of thing they were putting in there.
00:41:36
Speaker
Let me ask this.
00:41:37
Speaker
Is there a flavor to that?
00:41:39
Speaker
Does that add flavor to the...
00:41:42
Speaker
Mezcal or?
00:41:43
Speaker
It does.
00:41:43
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:41:45
Speaker
Floral, citrus.
00:41:46
Speaker
You ever have an edible flower?
00:41:48
Speaker
So you know what edible flower has that vegetal kind of quality to it.
00:41:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:52
Speaker
But sometimes they do have a scent.
00:41:54
Speaker
Most of them don't.
00:41:55
Speaker
But once in a while you get one that actually smells like something.
00:41:57
Speaker
It's kind of like that.
00:41:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:00
Speaker
There's a subtle floral to it, but it.
00:42:02
Speaker
Have you ever been to a sushi restaurant and they put a flower on your plate?
00:42:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:06
Speaker
I was going to say, it's always edible.
00:42:08
Speaker
I never knew that was a thing until fairly recently.
00:42:10
Speaker
Obviously, when they put that little plastic grass on your plate at some places, I've tried.
00:42:17
Speaker
That's not edible.
00:42:18
Speaker
It doesn't work.
00:42:19
Speaker
That's plastic, fam.
00:42:21
Speaker
The flowers, though, apparently are always edible.
00:42:25
Speaker
What's with rabbits and mezcal, man?
00:42:28
Speaker
Oh, I'm glad you asked.
00:42:30
Speaker
One of my absolute favorite kinds of mezcal.
00:42:32
Speaker
I was noticing that the other day when I was looking at the mezcal selection at this ABC.
00:42:39
Speaker
Everything's Rabbits?
00:42:41
Speaker
Just about.
00:42:45
Speaker
I thought I noticed that if it's got a rabbit, it's always a mezcal, but no, there's a lot of tequilas with rabbits on them too.
00:42:50
Speaker
I was hoping that I was finding more mezcal, and then I took a step forward and was like, nope.
00:42:55
Speaker
It's kind of a mixed thing, but the rabbit is generally a sign of good fortune, prosperity.
00:43:00
Speaker
It's a good luck
00:43:02
Speaker
The whole rabbit, the idea of the rabbit as living in the desert or in the mountain, that's always a connection.
00:43:09
Speaker
But for many others, especially in Mezcal, specifically in Mezcal, as far as I know, the various Pechugas, man, that I love so, so much.
00:43:17
Speaker
I've only had like one or two because they're very difficult to.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yes.
00:43:21
Speaker
And these guys make one with rabbit and it's rabbit and apples.
00:43:27
Speaker
what they so they take this but you can classically you would take a it would be a chicken raw chicken or raw rabbit or other whatever animal you had around some meat product completely raw and you would put it in the column so as the vapors would rise they'd go through the meat and the kind of the subtle flavors of meat which maybe sounds a little nasty with spices and into a thing so you're making a an aromatic kind of soup
00:43:53
Speaker
Yeah, and I believe, if I remember correctly, the idea there is that at least in ancient times, I'm sure somebody's disproven it by now, but that never stops anybody, especially when it's cool and it adds flavor.
00:44:07
Speaker
But I believe it was that it would take impurities out.
00:44:11
Speaker
Yes, yeah, that's a big thing.
00:44:13
Speaker
So it's not entirely inaccurate.
00:44:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:44:17
Speaker
Just by nature of the meat, you're putting something into the column that
00:44:22
Speaker
Impurities will stick too just based on their ionic.
00:44:24
Speaker
Certain things will stick.
00:44:28
Speaker
But again, to what extent?
00:44:30
Speaker
I think maybe at volume we see differences, but on a homemade still, it's just more of a traditional from chicken that was smuggled in into the US.
00:44:38
Speaker
It wasn't like a label.
00:44:39
Speaker
It was like somebody's mom made it.
00:44:41
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:44:42
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:44:43
Speaker
I'd kill a man for that stuff.
00:44:44
Speaker
I bet you would, man.
00:44:47
Speaker
I know a guy apparently.
00:44:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:51
Speaker
So how's that Belgian going for you, man?
00:44:53
Speaker
It's pretty good.
00:44:56
Speaker
I think the only thing lacking, the hardest thing about drinking athletic beer for me is trying not to say what it should taste like, right?
00:45:08
Speaker
Like when I taste this and I think of a Belgian, I think the main thing that it's missing is just the alcohol bite.
00:45:16
Speaker
But not having that, it doesn't really taste like a Belgian, right?
00:45:21
Speaker
Which is just kind of a, I don't know, it's a speed bump I have to get through every time I drink Athletic.
00:45:28
Speaker
It is good, though.
00:45:29
Speaker
I don't know how Belgian it really is because I'm having a hard time kind of placing the flavors against what a Belgian normally tastes like to me.
00:45:39
Speaker
Well, I think judging by the sound of what they were, it's almost like it was meant to be.
00:45:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's kind of what they were going for.
00:45:49
Speaker
And that sort of thing is what it reminds me of.
00:45:51
Speaker
It's on the drier side.
00:45:53
Speaker
It's got more sweetness, I think, than the Hoppy Helles I had did.
00:45:59
Speaker
But not by a lot.
00:46:00
Speaker
Only like 5-10% maybe.
00:46:03
Speaker
It's still fairly dry, especially for a Belgian.
00:46:06
Speaker
Because, you know, Belgians are usually very kind of sugary tasting.
00:46:10
Speaker
They can be.
00:46:11
Speaker
This doesn't have that at all.
00:46:14
Speaker
Yeah, I guess they can be.
00:46:15
Speaker
They're not always very sugary, but they usually have like that, not quite cloying, but that kind of intense sweet.
00:46:24
Speaker
This doesn't really have that.
00:46:25
Speaker
You do get a little bit of that coriander, that orange peel.
00:46:29
Speaker
So it does have kind of that layered flavor.
00:46:33
Speaker
vibe going that Belgians tend to have.
00:46:37
Speaker
And it's actually going really well with this cigar, I think.
00:46:39
Speaker
It's bringing out some of the spice, some of the earth.
00:46:42
Speaker
Part of that is the cigar being about halfway through and starting to get a little bit richer and more intense.
00:46:50
Speaker
But as I'm pairing it, I'm noticing that it really is bringing out a little bit of flavor.
00:46:55
Speaker
What about that?
00:46:56
Speaker
Oh, it's minerality all the way, man.
00:47:00
Speaker
Like licking a rock, huh?
00:47:01
Speaker
It's exactly like Flick and the Rock.
00:47:03
Speaker
And generally, you know, I think it goes really well with, for me, at least for my palate, certain kinds of tobaccos work really well.
00:47:11
Speaker
Condega, I don't know.
00:47:13
Speaker
I would say not as much, even though it is kind of earthy by itself.
00:47:17
Speaker
This definitely has, like, a lot of Condega influence, I think.
00:47:22
Speaker
Like, a lot of that tobacco is Condega.
00:47:24
Speaker
You get a little bit of spice from that SLE, but the Condega is, like...
00:47:27
Speaker
that kind of intense marshmallow-y kind of sweetness.
00:47:32
Speaker
Yeah, I almost want less Condega.
00:47:35
Speaker
Me too.
00:47:37
Speaker
I'm not loving this cigar, but it's not bad.
00:47:40
Speaker
It leaves me wanting a little bit.
00:47:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
00:47:44
Speaker
Alright, I guess I'm going to move on to my last pairing.
00:47:46
Speaker
This one, again, athletic.
00:47:48
Speaker
I told you it was going to be a vertical.
00:47:50
Speaker
This one, you can see, this is a screen-printed label.
00:47:54
Speaker
So this is one of their regular productions.
00:47:56
Speaker
This is all-out dark.
00:47:59
Speaker
It is their stout.
00:48:00
Speaker
It is brewed with barley, oats, and wheat.
00:48:03
Speaker
So it should have a little bit more body to it.
00:48:07
Speaker
Stouty.
00:48:08
Speaker
Looks kind of like a Guinness.
00:48:11
Speaker
Without that nitro head.
00:48:12
Speaker
I'm...
00:48:13
Speaker
I wonder if nitro works with this kind of stuff.
00:48:15
Speaker
Because I know... Did you ever have the nitro Pepsi?
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:20
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't like it.
00:48:21
Speaker
It's too acidic.
00:48:24
Speaker
The problem with it... Like, the first couple sips are pretty good.
00:48:29
Speaker
The problem with it, though, is that the viscosity of the liquid means that as soon as you pour it, that nitrogen is just...
00:48:39
Speaker
gone.
00:48:40
Speaker
It just leaves immediately and you're almost immediately left with something flat, which I think is probably what would happen with this unless they added something to thicken it just a hair.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, so this is All Out Dark.
00:48:52
Speaker
It's their Stout.
00:48:54
Speaker
It's just looking at the calorie count.
00:48:56
Speaker
Like, the first beer I had was 50 calories.
00:48:59
Speaker
The next one was 60, and this one's 90.
00:49:01
Speaker
So it should have quite a bit more body, a little bit more viscosity, I think, to it.
00:49:07
Speaker
And, oh, I should note that this won multiple gold medals at the World Beer Awards in town of Austin.
00:49:18
Speaker
What's the calorie count for enough calories?
00:49:21
Speaker
Yeah, 125, I think.
00:49:22
Speaker
It might be as low as 110.
00:49:24
Speaker
So they're not far off.
00:49:28
Speaker
Oh, man, that's good.
00:49:30
Speaker
I'll talk about it a little bit.
00:49:34
Speaker
Before you go, I'm going to talk about it.
00:49:35
Speaker
Michael King has a comment.
00:49:36
Speaker
He says, man, it sounds crazy.
00:49:39
Speaker
I bet a Cherry Lambic might work with that cigar.
00:49:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:42
Speaker
I think you're right.
00:49:43
Speaker
Something with that acid.
00:49:44
Speaker
That's a good call.
00:49:46
Speaker
Or like I had, was it last week or a couple weeks ago when I had that Cascade Creek?
Urban Artifact Brewery and Experimental Beers
00:49:52
Speaker
Something like that I think would work.
00:49:53
Speaker
Like that little bit of tartness in the cherry note I think would go really well.
00:49:56
Speaker
That sweet and sour would brighten the cigar up a little bit.
00:50:01
Speaker
More accessible, more wildly available.
00:50:04
Speaker
From what?
00:50:06
Speaker
Well, they have from what?
00:50:07
Speaker
They have from what?
00:50:08
Speaker
Which is the strawberry.
00:50:09
Speaker
They have the cherry.
00:50:10
Speaker
They have a blackcurrant and two other flavors, I believe.
00:50:13
Speaker
I never knew from what was cherry or was a strawberry.
00:50:15
Speaker
I always thought it was cherry.
00:50:17
Speaker
I don't know anything about it.
00:50:18
Speaker
I've never bought that beer or tried it.
00:50:21
Speaker
It's great.
00:50:22
Speaker
If you see it, please buy it.
00:50:23
Speaker
It's lovely.
00:50:24
Speaker
All right.
00:50:24
Speaker
I will next time I see it.
00:50:25
Speaker
It's the beer for people that want beer but also don't want beer.
00:50:29
Speaker
And it's something you can bring to share where people are not going to be like, oh, this sucks.
00:50:33
Speaker
This asshole brought a triple IPA that no one.
00:50:35
Speaker
And then you get upset because you brought your limited batch.
00:50:38
Speaker
And everybody drank a third and dumped it out.
00:50:40
Speaker
Everyone drank it and dumped it.
00:50:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:50:42
Speaker
And you were just alone at the end of the party, just walking around, like, filling your super glass with whatever the remnants are.
00:50:50
Speaker
Like a vagabond of IPAs.
00:50:52
Speaker
What's your final pairing while I'm tasting this extra dark?
00:50:57
Speaker
Oh.
00:50:58
Speaker
Oh, boy.
00:50:59
Speaker
Let's talk about this.
00:51:00
Speaker
Let me show you.
00:51:01
Speaker
I poured it into a glass.
00:51:02
Speaker
I said, hey, something...
00:51:03
Speaker
Ah, going with some Clamato tonight, huh?
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, it is that time of the month for this beer for sure.
00:51:10
Speaker
Let me tell you, I love this label.
00:51:13
Speaker
I love this beer.
00:51:15
Speaker
I found this at a store.
00:51:16
Speaker
Look at that can just right.
00:51:18
Speaker
Oh, Cappy Snacks.
00:51:19
Speaker
They put a bird on it.
00:51:22
Speaker
So, Cappy Snacks, Fruit Punch Ale, kind of cute little can.
00:51:26
Speaker
Again, I bought this because it's the can.
00:51:29
Speaker
It had a capybara on it, yeah.
00:51:30
Speaker
What are you going to do?
00:51:31
Speaker
I'm a sucker for it.
00:51:32
Speaker
And you know what I found?
00:51:33
Speaker
It's a pretty good beer.
00:51:35
Speaker
So, this is from Urban Artifacts Brewery.
00:51:38
Speaker
They are actually, they're really cool.
00:51:39
Speaker
They're based out of, so they're in the Old St.
00:51:42
Speaker
Patrick's Church building.
00:51:44
Speaker
Nice.
00:51:44
Speaker
And they converted the basement into the tap room and they, but their specialty is really fruited beers, sour beers, kind of experimental barreled.
00:51:54
Speaker
I don't always love those styles.
00:51:56
Speaker
Well, they're tough, man.
00:51:57
Speaker
What I mean is I'm not always in the mood for those styles.
00:52:01
Speaker
Like an IPA, I could drink just about any IPA any afternoon, right?
00:52:07
Speaker
Like I love an IPA or a stout or a porter.
00:52:12
Speaker
I'm rarely in the mood for those kind of like super fruity sour kind of things or even super fruited anything.
00:52:18
Speaker
And also I should mention wild, wild sours are a thing that they love to do as well, which is why I'm not the best.
00:52:24
Speaker
So I love those, those I can, again, maybe I can't pucker, you know, full face puckering sour, but I really love in general thousands of pounds per batch of,
00:52:38
Speaker
Even at a commercial, it's a lot of fruit, but even for a commercial brewery setup, think about what you're producing, a 30 barrel system.
00:52:46
Speaker
Thousands of pounds of fruit is a lot of fruit, man.
00:52:49
Speaker
It's an insane amount of fruit.
00:52:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's a ton of fruit.
00:52:53
Speaker
Literally.
00:52:55
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:52:57
Speaker
Tons of fruit, I guess.
00:52:58
Speaker
Because what was the one I talked about a few weeks ago?
00:53:01
Speaker
That cascade was like 16,000 pounds of cherries.
00:53:05
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:53:06
Speaker
It's a ton of cherries.
00:53:08
Speaker
Shit ton.
00:53:10
Speaker
Eight tons is a shit ton?
00:53:13
Speaker
It makes it ineffective.
00:53:14
Speaker
So yeah, I purposely picked this because I'm kind of anticipating a little bit for it to get kind of harsh and a little more intense, yeah.
00:53:22
Speaker
But no, it's a service to the cigar with that sourness.
00:53:26
Speaker
It's very subtly, it's like a mid-sour.
00:53:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:30
Speaker
Half sour.
00:53:31
Speaker
Somewhere around there.
00:53:31
Speaker
Like a pickle.
00:53:33
Speaker
But it is certainly one of those things that you want
00:53:36
Speaker
Yeah, it just doesn't look super appetizing, right?
00:53:38
Speaker
It looks like grapefruit juice mixed with Flamato.
00:53:41
Speaker
It's chunky.
00:53:44
Speaker
For the all-out dark, man, I think this is the most beer-like one I've had tonight.
00:53:51
Speaker
It reminds me of not as much of a Guinness because of the consistency you get from that nitro.
00:53:57
Speaker
I'm trying to think of a beer this reminds me of.
00:54:00
Speaker
The Chutes Obsidian Stout.
00:54:03
Speaker
That's the one this reminds me the most of.
00:54:07
Speaker
It's got a little bit of that Russian Imperial stout influence where it's like... Does it have IBUs on here?
00:54:15
Speaker
No, but I would guess it's like 60, 70 IBUs.
00:54:18
Speaker
This is a very intensely bitter, very hopped stout that works really well with just kind of the blend of flavors in it.
00:54:27
Speaker
It's got the... This has everything you expect from a stout, maybe like a...
00:54:33
Speaker
what do they call it?
00:54:34
Speaker
A Baltic Porter, as I've seen it called, which is like a baby Russian sound.
00:54:40
Speaker
Yeah, the Baltic Porters are interesting.
00:54:42
Speaker
Two spectrums.
00:54:44
Speaker
On one side, they can be really sweet and malted, and the other side, they can be really dry and bitter.
00:54:49
Speaker
This reminds me more of the dry kind.
00:54:51
Speaker
It's got some sweetness.
00:54:52
Speaker
It's got more sweetness than the previous two.
00:54:56
Speaker
But it's not a ton.
00:54:58
Speaker
It is on the same level as a lot of Baltic porter kind of stuff.
00:55:02
Speaker
I can't even think of a Baltic porter off the top of my head that it reminds me of because I don't remember the name of any Baltic porters right now.
00:55:09
Speaker
Ah, so you've had quite a couple Baltic porters then.
00:55:12
Speaker
That is the trick.
00:55:13
Speaker
Yeah, I've definitely had a few.
00:55:16
Speaker
There was a short time where it was a very popular style in Portland.
00:55:19
Speaker
But that's what this reminds me of.
00:55:20
Speaker
It's got those roasty, coffee, chocolate, caramel-y...
00:55:26
Speaker
roasted nuts kind of flavors with just enough sweetness to balance that out and then a pretty good helping of hops um so i think it's pretty well balanced for the style that it is and it's actually working much better with the cigar than anything else was it's letting that uh that sweetness of the cigar breathe a little bit more than my previous how's that how's that funky funk
00:55:51
Speaker
It's crazy because this is the first time I've gotten this flavor out of this sour.
00:55:56
Speaker
Maybe it's the cigar, but it's exactly like Welch's Fruit Snack, which tastes exactly like Grand Cabaret by Hendrix.
00:56:04
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:56:06
Speaker
Grand Cabaret is amazing.
00:56:07
Speaker
I almost bought a bottle the other day.
00:56:08
Speaker
I should have, I guess.
00:56:09
Speaker
Oh, you got it.
00:56:10
Speaker
I'm working up.
00:56:11
Speaker
I'm trying to pick up a case of it.
00:56:13
Speaker
Wow, that good.
00:56:14
Speaker
For posterity because it's going to go away soon.
00:56:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's how that gets you.
00:56:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:19
Speaker
Man, I feel like I'm reaching the end of this cigar already.
00:56:23
Speaker
This is why I don't smoke Robustos, man.
00:56:24
Speaker
Too short.
00:56:26
Speaker
I got very little bit left.
00:56:29
Speaker
Wow, you smoked faster than me tonight.
00:56:31
Speaker
Or smoke another cigar in like an hour.
00:56:35
Speaker
You could try that.
00:56:36
Speaker
That is happening after all.
00:56:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:39
Speaker
Just a reminder, we'll be on Bear's show El Oso Fumar tonight.
00:56:43
Speaker
I'm doing another pairing with him.
00:56:44
Speaker
We're going to be pairing the Juan de Fuca from Serafin Cigar Company and Arnold Serafin right near me in Carpenter Springs, Florida.
00:56:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's very good.
00:56:56
Speaker
I'm very excited to pair with it because I haven't done much pairing with it yet.
00:57:00
Speaker
I got to figure out exactly what I'm pairing with it because I haven't even... I did all my notes this morning and then I was hanging out with my family and
00:57:10
Speaker
My wife said, you got all your notes done?
00:57:12
Speaker
You're all ready for your show?
00:57:13
Speaker
And I said, yep, all ready.
00:57:14
Speaker
Did all my notes.
00:57:15
Speaker
I'm all good.
00:57:16
Speaker
Oh, I did notes for one show instead of two shows.
00:57:20
Speaker
But I'll figure that out.
00:57:21
Speaker
I have backup notes for a lot of stuff, so I can throw something together real quick.
00:57:28
Speaker
What are your final thoughts on this cigar?
00:57:31
Speaker
Well, I would say this is, we talk about middle of the road, I think.
00:57:36
Speaker
It's, I wish it was a little bit, it had more of something.
00:57:40
Speaker
I don't know what exactly, but I'm full in presence.
00:57:42
Speaker
Yeah, for me, the word I would use is intensity.
00:57:45
Speaker
I wish it had more intensity in any way of saying that, any meaning of that word.
00:57:52
Speaker
Like, more spice, more sweetness, more earth, more anything.
00:57:58
Speaker
For me, it's just a little bit lacking.
00:58:01
Speaker
I think it's not a terrible cigar.
Final Thoughts on West Tampa Red and Movie Recommendation
00:58:05
Speaker
This is, to me, a very good starter cigar.
00:58:12
Speaker
Somebody who's not ready for super full-bodied, they're still working on their palate,
00:58:18
Speaker
I think this would be an enjoyable cigar for them.
00:58:21
Speaker
But for somebody who smokes usually a couple cigars a day, and, you know, I expect a little bit more intensity from something like this.
00:58:30
Speaker
Because I could try this at some point as a morning cigar and see if I like it anymore.
00:58:37
Speaker
But at this point, I'm just, you know, it's not for me.
00:58:40
Speaker
I don't think it's a terrible cigar, though, which...
00:58:43
Speaker
Isn't what I can say about some of Rick's other cigars that he's come out with.
00:58:47
Speaker
Love you, Ricky, if you watch this.
00:58:49
Speaker
But, you know, not everything's been for me.
00:58:55
Speaker
Yeah, I guess.
00:58:56
Speaker
What's your pairing of the night?
00:58:57
Speaker
I know what mine is.
00:58:58
Speaker
I think it's pretty obvious that mine is the all out extra dark.
00:59:02
Speaker
The other two are great.
00:59:04
Speaker
This one like drinks like a beer, though.
00:59:07
Speaker
Like this one, you don't feel like you're missing anything.
00:59:10
Speaker
from a non-alcoholic beer which is like i mean that's huge with non-alcoholic beer right like on alcoholic beer there's always a compromise like there were in my previous two pairings um it just feels like it's missing a little bit of something this one i don't feel like i'm missing anything with so check it out and this is like i said one of their regular productions so even if it's not uh it may only be available in season at stores around you but athletic is carried in like walmart most grocery stores
00:59:38
Speaker
You can get it online.
00:59:41
Speaker
This one in particular, I would highly recommend.
00:59:42
Speaker
All right, you're up.
00:59:45
Speaker
I'm going through all the pairings again.
00:59:49
Speaker
You know, I think while I like the bourbon, I think unfortunately the bourbon, because the cigar is a little bit... So dude is a good word for the cigar.
00:59:58
Speaker
And again, we're not saying that it's shitty.
01:00:00
Speaker
I don't think it's shitty, and that's okay.
01:00:02
Speaker
I would have changed my pairings a little bit, but at that point...
01:00:07
Speaker
I think that's the perfect.
01:00:09
Speaker
It's just low alcohol, little effervescence, and it cuts through some of the flavors of the cigar and actually brings it up rather than just kind of demolishing all the flavors.
01:00:19
Speaker
Awesome.
01:00:20
Speaker
All right.
01:00:21
Speaker
I guess it's time for pairing of the night.
01:00:23
Speaker
Before we get into that, I feel like we've been pretty hard on this cigar.
01:00:27
Speaker
So I just want to say we highly recommend the Boliche Boulevard.
01:00:34
Speaker
Belichi.
01:00:36
Speaker
That was a fantastic cigar.
01:00:40
Speaker
The story of that cigar was not in any of the press releases or anything like that.
01:00:45
Speaker
When we interviewed Ricky at the PCA this year, he gave us the
01:00:50
Speaker
download on what that cigar is all about.
01:00:53
Speaker
You can check out our interview over on Cigar Coop YouTube page.
01:00:59
Speaker
But the short version is essentially he was working with a factory to make the original West Tampa blends and ended up at a point where the cigar was just going to be too expensive.
01:01:12
Speaker
If you know, I mean, most people probably don't know this.
01:01:14
Speaker
Some people might.
01:01:16
Speaker
The cigar business, as far as pricing goes, is pretty standardized.
01:01:22
Speaker
at the base level, I should say.
01:01:25
Speaker
If you're selling a $2,000 box of cigars, the economics change a little bit.
01:01:31
Speaker
But at the bare minimum, the economics are pretty standardized, where the cigars cost a specific amount, your profit margin is a specific amount, and then the markup at the retail store is a specific amount.
01:01:46
Speaker
And basically, Ricky got these cigars and did a production run of them and found out they were too expensive.
01:01:52
Speaker
They were more expensive than he thought his customers would pay for, and he didn't want to do that to his customers.
01:01:59
Speaker
So he just kind of ate the cost of those and put them away and released the black and white.
01:02:05
Speaker
And then about two years later, he released the Beliche Boulevard, which was kind of, I mean, it's basically the original blend of, I would assume, black, I guess.
01:02:16
Speaker
But maybe, you know, who knows if even the names changed between them.
01:02:20
Speaker
So the cigar is unfortunately not coming back.
01:02:22
Speaker
I'm holding out a small shred of hope that someday he will go back to that factory and say, please make me a bunch more of those cigars because I love that cigar.
01:02:30
Speaker
I would love to see it.
01:02:32
Speaker
Or I hope he nails that cigar with something else in the future.
01:02:36
Speaker
I think he actually came pretty close with the pre-release version of the Circle of Life that we had.
01:02:42
Speaker
Circle of Life, I really liked.
01:02:43
Speaker
That's a fantastic cigar.
01:02:46
Speaker
Please don't see this as us hating on Ricky because we love that dude.
01:02:51
Speaker
I wanted to have a Bud Light tonight in his honor, but I didn't have time to run to the store today.
01:02:56
Speaker
So I went with what I went with.
01:02:58
Speaker
Anyway, enough talking about all the great things Ricky has done.
01:03:03
Speaker
Now it's time for our one for the road.
01:03:06
Speaker
This is where we tell you about some kind of media we've consumed in the last week.
01:03:10
Speaker
Dennis, you want to go first?
01:03:11
Speaker
I'm still undecided on what mine is.
01:03:12
Speaker
So I'm kind of like pondering here what I want to talk about.
01:03:16
Speaker
That's all good.
01:03:17
Speaker
I was just going through my music.
01:03:19
Speaker
I have this thing where I like to, every now and again, I'll pick out some albums across all kinds of different genres that came out in the last month or two.
01:03:29
Speaker
And if I haven't listened to it, I'll run through those albums.
01:03:33
Speaker
I really like doing that.
01:03:35
Speaker
Just like kind of getting a sample of...
01:03:40
Speaker
what kind of music is out there right like it's very easy especially for me to get stuck in listening to like the same 30 or 40 songs over and over again of course we all fall into that yeah uh so it is kind of nice like once in a while i will do that and i will just go on spotify to their new releases and just listen to some stuff like some of its top 40 stuff some of its random in the weeds kind of stuff i absolutely cannot do that
01:04:07
Speaker
it would make me cry i couldn't do it i don't i can say i don't listen to much of the top 40 stuff my kids like it so you know i end up being forced to listen to a certain amount of top 40 kind of stuff um same but just like going into the more obscure stuff the bands i've never heard of that just came out with their 10th album or the bands that are brand new and are coming out with their first album it's just kind of fun to go through those a little bit sorry go ahead i didn't mean to interrupt
01:04:31
Speaker
No, no, no.
01:04:31
Speaker
I completely agree with you.
01:04:33
Speaker
So I have a very specific subset of kind of 80s inspired stuff and then some phonic metal and then jazz, man.
01:04:41
Speaker
Like it's crazy.
01:04:42
Speaker
And I love the connections to different music.
01:04:44
Speaker
And even Europe, once the songs are released, I grab a playlist of all the songs for this year's Eurovision.
01:04:51
Speaker
Man, you love Eurovision, huh?
01:04:53
Speaker
Because I grew up on it.
01:04:55
Speaker
We had parties.
01:04:55
Speaker
We would go to houses, get together and drink.
01:04:58
Speaker
Well, I wouldn't drink.
01:04:59
Speaker
I was a kid.
01:04:59
Speaker
But everyone would eat and drink for hours and hours, and we'd have Eurovision on it.
01:05:04
Speaker
That was the thing.
01:05:05
Speaker
Or some other similar kind of variety concert show.
01:05:10
Speaker
Kind of like a – Sure.
01:05:11
Speaker
Sure.
01:05:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:13
Speaker
So this guy, I'm revisiting because I really started listening to a lot of his stuff.
01:05:18
Speaker
Not that I fell out, but I was listening to other things and released an album.
01:05:22
Speaker
Bart Graft released an album called Jewel in the Crown.
01:05:27
Speaker
So Bart Graft's style is very much like retro.
01:05:30
Speaker
Think of like 16 Candles, right?
01:05:34
Speaker
Like the music candles or think about being the background.
01:05:37
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:38
Speaker
I was just thinking like bass groove is the thing I think of what you're describing.
01:05:43
Speaker
Like the, uh, one of the things that makes me that, that makes me think of the way you're describing it is the twin peaks theme song.
01:05:53
Speaker
That like baseline music that you heard in countless eight or eight, even well less eighties action and more.
01:06:02
Speaker
Oh, I'm trying to think of a weekend at Bernie's.
01:06:05
Speaker
Okay.
01:06:06
Speaker
Stockbrokers stressed out, smoking cigarettes, trying to cut the deal.
01:06:10
Speaker
He's a young guy struggling.
01:06:12
Speaker
Songs from that kind of movie, but without the Dave Bout Bout song.
01:06:16
Speaker
Sort of.
01:06:16
Speaker
Because that's the song that's in every one of those movies, man.
01:06:20
Speaker
And it's all instrumental, as far as I know.
01:06:22
Speaker
Check him out, man.
01:06:23
Speaker
Bart Graft.
01:06:24
Speaker
Bart Graft.
01:06:25
Speaker
Check it out.
01:06:26
Speaker
In the crowd.
01:06:28
Speaker
We also got, maybe we should start doing this.
01:06:31
Speaker
We have a one for the road from Sam Finnell.
01:06:35
Speaker
He says, check out the High Kings.
01:06:36
Speaker
I just Googled them really quick.
01:06:38
Speaker
It looks like they're an Irish folk band.
01:06:42
Speaker
Sounds like my mom would love it.
01:06:45
Speaker
just based on Irish folk music because she loves Irish folk music.
01:06:48
Speaker
I will check them out.
01:06:49
Speaker
And if it sounds like up her alley, I'll tell them.
01:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for the recommendation.
01:06:53
Speaker
I'm going to show, man.
01:06:54
Speaker
See, this is what this is about.
01:06:56
Speaker
Isn't it great?
01:06:58
Speaker
You know what?
01:06:58
Speaker
I'm going to put it out there.
01:06:59
Speaker
If you have a one for the road, we'll start doing like maybe, I mean, depending on how many we get, one or two a week from viewers, if you guys like it, send me an email.
01:07:09
Speaker
Trip at letsgetpairing.com and
01:07:13
Speaker
We'll see if we can get a thing going, get a little segment going.
01:07:17
Speaker
All right, my one for the road.
01:07:19
Speaker
Man, I debated on this because I feel like a lot of times my one for the road is just the latest movie that costs $20 to watch on.
01:07:24
Speaker
I mean, you are a cheap whore, but that's a different one.
01:07:29
Speaker
But this movie was really good, and so I have to give it a shout out.
01:07:33
Speaker
And I don't know when it's going to be on streaming, the subscription streaming stuff.
01:07:38
Speaker
Tell me it was long legs.
01:07:40
Speaker
I wish, man.
01:07:41
Speaker
I'm dying to watch that movie.
01:07:42
Speaker
My buddy went to see it yesterday and told me it was great, and I have to see it.
01:07:46
Speaker
I just haven't had time yet.
01:07:48
Speaker
But this is a movie that I think you would like.
01:07:50
Speaker
It's called The Bike Riders.
01:07:53
Speaker
Have you heard of this?
01:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:07:55
Speaker
I purposely avoided it.
01:07:58
Speaker
It's actually pretty good, I think.
01:08:01
Speaker
It's less Sons of Anarchy and a little more like Easy Rider, I guess.
01:08:07
Speaker
And the acting is phenomenal.
01:08:09
Speaker
Like, it's mostly about, uh, like, the, the main character, if you can call him that, it's about his wife, kind of telling the story of his life to this reporter that spent, like, eight or ten years following this group around, um,
01:08:26
Speaker
Oh, you mean like Hunter Thompson did?
01:08:29
Speaker
Yes.
01:08:29
Speaker
Actually, this is based on the book, which I'm not familiar with because I'm not into that thing.
01:08:35
Speaker
No, it was a book called The Bike Riders.
01:08:39
Speaker
Oh, interesting.
01:08:40
Speaker
And it's like a coffee table book kind of thing where it's just a bunch of pictures with a little bit of story about who's around and stuff like that.
01:08:48
Speaker
It was based on kind of one of the first biker clubs, motorcycle clubs.
01:08:55
Speaker
in Chicago in the late 50s, early 60s.
01:08:59
Speaker
So these were mostly guys who were in the war or guys who were very young and born right around the baby boomers.
01:09:09
Speaker
Right when World War II ended, they were born.
01:09:12
Speaker
And I mean, most of the thing that I got to give props to is the acting, man.
01:09:16
Speaker
Like the acting in this movie is phenomenal.
01:09:20
Speaker
um Jodie Comer I think is her name the girl from uh Killing Eve is like incredible um Austin Butler's pretty good Tom Hardy of course is pretty man it's here's what it reminds me of I got it this is not a Sons of Anarchy movie this is a more like Goodfellas
01:09:43
Speaker
It's about just kind of this dude's life and the trials and tribulations he went through.
01:09:48
Speaker
But it really is very good.
01:09:51
Speaker
And, you know, got some badass fight scenes and stuff like that.
01:09:54
Speaker
And some, again, similar to Goodfellas, some sadness and some, you know, a view into why I really sucked being involved in this stuff.
01:10:06
Speaker
Because your friends die and your husband leaves and just goes off to California for years.
01:10:12
Speaker
It's all very familiar.
01:10:14
Speaker
I know.
01:10:15
Speaker
It might honestly hit too close to home for you, but it is a really good movie that I would recommend people watch.
01:10:22
Speaker
And when it's not $20.
01:10:23
Speaker
All right.
01:10:25
Speaker
I guess that closes it out for the night.
Conclusion and Audience Farewell
01:10:28
Speaker
Check out West Tampa Cigar Company, especially the Bovici Boulevard, and keep an eye out for when the Circle of Life comes out.
01:10:34
Speaker
Thank you, everybody, for watching, for hanging out.
01:10:36
Speaker
Thank you, Sam, for your one for the road.
01:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, man.
01:10:40
Speaker
That was cool.
01:10:40
Speaker
Thank you.
01:10:41
Speaker
Yeah, that was very cool.
01:10:42
Speaker
So thanks, guys.
01:10:44
Speaker
And Dennis, give him a little catchphrase thingy.
01:10:47
Speaker
Thank you, everybody, for watching and listening.
01:10:48
Speaker
And remember, we want you to drink better.