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LGP 38 - Macanudo Emissary Espana
9 Plays8 days ago
This week, we try out first release in Macanudo's Emissary series! Using aged tobaccos grown in Spain, this unique blend from Macanudo offers some new flavors that should lend themselves very well to pairing.
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Transcript
Introduction and Change of Plans
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome to Let's Get Pairing. This is episode 38. If you're watching live, you probably saw that we were supposed to Bear on tonight, but Bear's not feeling well. I didn't want to put him through the pairing ringer um right before he has another show when he's a little under the weather. So ah we we decided to pivot. We're going smoking the Macanudo Emissary, which does not show up great on camera, but I assure you it's a nice-looking band.
00:00:27
Speaker
um I'm trying to get it to focus. There we go. You can't really see it too well, but it's a it's pretty nice-looking band. We'll get into the cigar. We'll tell you what it's all about.
00:00:38
Speaker
And, of course, as always, we'll have some pairings to go along with it. So for now, grab yourself a cigar. Grab yourself a drink.
Cigar Habits and Humorous Anecdote
00:00:45
Speaker
Let's get pairing.
00:01:05
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm looking off camera here to light my cigar, but that's alright. I'm your host Tripp, here as always in the Casa de Monte Cristo studio in Florida. um Trying to light my Macanudo emissary.
00:01:20
Speaker
With me as always, you can hear my little paint can going. um eron With me as always is my co-host Dennis. Dennis, how are you this week? Howdy doody. Pretty good.
00:01:32
Speaker
Tired. i always feel like I need more sleep than I'm getting, ah which means less time for cigars. So I guess maybe that's I'm not sleeping enough. I'm too busy smoking cigars. That's true. I do kind of feel like there's a trade-off there. Whenever I have time to take a nap, I also have time to smoke a cigar.
00:01:49
Speaker
Cigars most of the time win. Not always.
00:01:54
Speaker
Well, unless you get to that point where you're so tired and you want that cigar, but you also need to sleep, and you sit there with a cigar and you keep falling asleep. And the only reason you wake up is because that cigar fell into your crotch and now it's on fire.
Introducing Macanudo Emissary
00:02:07
Speaker
I've ruined many a pair of pants that way. I've ruined a lot of pants. I think I've only fallen asleep with a cigar once. Maybe. Oh, I have a habit of falling asleep. It's bad. And I fall asleep on the bike as well at like 80 miles an hour. That's, that's a little sketch.
00:02:23
Speaker
I might be narcoleptic. I don't know. I think I might be too, but who knows? Um, Anyway, thanks for joining us, everybody. Welcome to Let's Get Pairing. Let's talk Macanudo Emissary.
00:02:35
Speaker
um Now, this is a cigar that we were very high on coming out of the show. I haven't smoked one in a few months. um So this was announced at PCA last or this year. It feels so long ago that I feel like it was last year, even though it was earlier this year.
00:02:49
Speaker
Because, you know, we're accustomed to doing it in the summer. All right, so Macanudo Emissary. What is that all about? um You've probably seen these around.
00:02:59
Speaker
um there They're the new fancy Macanudo. um So it's a new sub-brand called Emissary ah that was introduced at the show this year at PCA. um Emissary, they say, is kind of a um They haven't completely specified what it means, but they say they'll be bringing...
00:03:18
Speaker
European smoking experiences, ah the first of which is the Espana here. So the Espana, Espana, rather, ah is a cigar using Spanish tobacco from rio Lobos.
00:03:35
Speaker
um And my assumption, we haven't gotten confirmation of this, and they haven't announced any new cigars in the series yet, though I expect we'll get that in March, ah or April, rather, when we're back at is it march or april this year i think it's april uh when we're back at pca in new orleans yeah i think they'll announce the next one early and but my suspicion is that this is going to a line of cigars that are all using ah tobaccos from different european countries so this one focuses on spanish tobacco um and it is made in the stg factory in honduras but it has no honduras tobacco in it uh the blend is actually
00:04:20
Speaker
very transparent, which is kind of nice.
Flavor and Pairing Experiments
00:04:22
Speaker
They tell us almost exactly what is in this cigar. ah So the first filler is the 10-year-aged Spanish tobacco from Rio Lobos, 10-year-old tobacco, um combined with Colombian tobacco, which is five years old, some six-year-old Nicaraguan tobacco, and some five-year-old Dominican Palloto Cubano.
00:04:46
Speaker
This is an old cigar. ah And and i think I think that comes through in the flavor a little bit. The binder is Nicaraguan from Condega, aged six years.
00:04:57
Speaker
And the wrapper is a five-year-aged Connecticut-grown Broadleaf Claro. um You can see it's got kind of a little more of a brown color than most ah Connecticut Broadleaf cigars. Yeah, it's a little brighter. little lighter.
00:05:11
Speaker
little brighter. That's another word for it. um and I we already took it off so we would wouldn't light it on fire but I kind of like these little foot bands how they have that kind of like mountain range vibe going on the texturing of it um and also these come in very nice boxes so you know that makes it a ah more premium cigar it is Macanudo which isn't known for their seven dollars cigars um so this comes in at 14.99 for this Robusto that we're smoking a five by 52 believe
00:05:44
Speaker
ah Up to $17.99 for the Perfecto. They recently launched, just earlier this month, a limited edition box press torpedo. I do have some of those here, so we'll be probably featuring that at a later date.
00:05:59
Speaker
um We've been big fans of this cigar so far. I think that um not just is the blend very solid, but I feel like I can really pick out the flavor of that Spanish tobacco because there is a flavor in this cigar that is foreign, an alien flavor that I've never tasted in a cigar before, which usually says to me that's the special tobacco they're using.
00:06:23
Speaker
ah What are your thoughts right off the rip here? There's a twang to it. I've had probably eight or nine of these so far since since we came back from the trade shop, had so many of them. um There's really interesting twang to it, to your point, kind of different than what what we typically, i certainly, you and I smoke very similar cigars.
00:06:42
Speaker
What we typically see, um obviously there's a lot of leather, which I really love, very rich kind of pungent. I want to say pungent purposely because it has a unique smell to it When you say leather, sometimes it's only on the,
00:06:54
Speaker
on the draw and other times you'll get draw and you'll get that room note you'll get that residual aroma of that intense leather so this one has that a lot of um but there's a twang to it that's really interesting not quite a sourness to it but some sort of a brightness that's a little bit different yeah totally maybe that's the way to put it i think brightness is the right word for it for what i'm tasting um and you're spot on the the leather in the cigar is crazy if you don't like leathery cigars you're not going to enjoy this one um
00:07:26
Speaker
I want to say that flavor that I can't put my finger on, even after all of these that I've smoked, I always taste that little twang you're talking about, but I can never quite figure it out. It reminds me a little bit of like a black licorice with no sugar in it.
00:07:44
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like chewing on a licorice root kind of thing. Maybe the pith of an orange or a citrus fruit. pomelo it's a little funkier than that but there is like that citrus brightness in this cigar um oh anise anise is uh yeah that that is kind of what it reminds me of anise fennel seed like that kind of flavor and
00:08:11
Speaker
But it's very unique. it's Like I said, this is a flavor I've never really found in a cigar before. The only other cigar that I think might come close is the Sarsaparilla from Espinoza and and Dojo.
00:08:22
Speaker
um But I think that's a little different than this. It's been a while since I smoked one of those, but it does vaguely remind me of it. I will tell you this. This is the first and only Macanudo I have ever enjoyed.
00:08:34
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Considering I've smoked so many of them, I've enjoyed every one. And I think at the trade show, when we first lit it up, we were both surprised at at how good it was. Everyone we talked to, except for maybe ah maybe there were a couple of other folks in the media.
00:08:49
Speaker
very Very few. That said they weren't wowed by it. But most of us, like our whole Coop team, when we tasted this for the first time, like we all lit it around the same time. We're all like, whoa.
00:09:01
Speaker
What is
Exploring Beer Pairings
00:09:02
Speaker
that? it's just It's got this difference to it that tastes like nothing else, um which to me is um whether the cigar is good or not, if you're going coming out with something special like this, the bare minimum is that it has ah flavor you can't get anywhere else.
00:09:22
Speaker
um you know that's what makes cuban special that's what makes some Davidoff special that's what makes a lot of cigars very special is there are flavors that you can't get elsewhere um and this has that which is awesome um we just lit it up I'm still like acclimating to it a little bit i also get a little bit like a hint of spice on this cigar like that baking spice little bit of white pepper um but I'm gonna kick right into the pairing here because I'm raring to go and I've I've brought out some cinnamon is a good note it's cinnamon that's what I'm there is said there's a dryness to it that's very much like cinnamon hit it retro it give it a little retro hill there's something there right I think it's cinnamon there's definitely cinnamon in there
00:10:17
Speaker
Maybe they dusted it with cinnamon. I mean, it is Macanudo after all. Who knows what they do back behind the scenes. But I will say one other thing about not liking a Macanudo. ah The Flint Knoll is another exception to the rule.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like that's a fantastic cigar. Yes, sir. We agreed. Which really interestingly, that cigar is like right down the alley of the classic Macanudo flavors, but with enough difference that it is suddenly way more interesting.
00:10:46
Speaker
Not that, like, um I feel sometimes when we're talking about stuff like this, like I'm talking shit about Macanudo. I love Macanudo cigars, but to me, for me, for my palate, they're just very boring.
00:11:00
Speaker
They're not usually this exciting.
00:11:03
Speaker
And this one and the Flint Knoll are true exceptions to that. Just when I think of the Macanudo brand, I guess. That's what I mean. ah Anyway, I'm going to get into my first pairing here.
00:11:15
Speaker
And it's something very interesting. It's a little close to home for me. I went a little different with my pairings this week because I think the interesting flavors of this cigar i wanted to test out a little bit.
00:11:27
Speaker
I think we're probably going to have to smoke the other size, the new LE size, soon because that way we can... you know give it another run through the bases of something else but for now I have a beer this is an IPA ah hazy IPA I'll say um called Astro Zombie look at that can art I love the like yeah and the offset 3D kind of vibe to it um they don't say much about what's in this but we get a little bit uh before I get to that this comes from Aslan beer company are you familiar with Aslan I e hold on I know Aslan from somewhere why do I know Aslan uh they're based out of Herndon Virginia which I'll talk about in a moment um but they did fairly recently open in uh I think it's Pittsburgh not Philly pretty sure it's Pittsburgh is it Aslan with the bicycle
00:12:26
Speaker
I don't think so. Okay. There's another, there's a brewery that has the ET bicycle logo. No, it's not that one. I don't think. Yeah. Okay. I haven't, I haven't heard of Aslan in this case. i just looked it up.
00:12:39
Speaker
Well, they're based in Herndon, Virginia, like I said, which is crazy. Cause that's my hometown. That's where I grew up as a, a little kid. um Spent my fierce Ohio.
00:12:50
Speaker
No, I've barely been to Ohio. but um What about upstate? You grew up somewhere. Connecticut. ah connecticut it's like ohio so i lived in alexandria virginia which is right next to dc they also have a brewery a tap room in alexandria i think that's where their production brewery is um but they started in herndon virginia which is where Uh, you know, that's where all my memories are as a kid. I don't remember being a baby.
00:13:19
Speaker
Uh, but I moved to Herndon when I was like two or three, and so all my like child memories are from there. And then when I was like ten, I moved to Connecticut, so all my teenager memories are from there. Um, but I think it's really interesting that that's that's where they're based.
00:13:34
Speaker
Um, but it was formed in 2015 by brothers-in-law Andrew Kelly and Kale, uh, Leskowitz. Kai Leskowitz. I have an L in there, but that doesn't go there. um So Kai and Andrew, brothers-in-law, they both married into the same family and their,
00:13:56
Speaker
They're kind of that's how they met each other was, you know, at Thanksgiving, the two daughters bringing home their boyfriends for Thanksgiving. um They kind of met through that. They would email each other.
00:14:08
Speaker
They became pretty close and, you know, started geeking out about beer, both of their wives independently from each other without talking about it. within a couple years bought each of them homebrews kits so they both started homebrewing and then you know they started talking about homebrewing they started nerding out about beer sending it to each other and stuff like that and uh then they both got married into the aslin family so their maiden name the maiden name of both of their wives is aslin
00:14:39
Speaker
they felt like aslinn is kind of what brought them together um so when they started a brewery they decided to call it aslinn i think that's a pretty that's cool interesting story that uh you don't hear every day uh man i just i thought it was really cool and they did mention they chose herndon not because they already lived there um but they wanted a brewery in a small town that reminded them of the small towns where they grew up in connecticut um which I couldn't find any information on that, but it's kind of weird that we switched places at some point between Connecticut and Herndon, Virginia.
00:15:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah and so they decided to start up a brewery and have been brewing ever since. And they've gotten pretty big. Like I said, they have, I think it's five locations now. They have,
00:15:25
Speaker
two in North Virginia one in DC I think they have one in Richmond and then the one in Pittsburgh I believe it is um but they're all over the place I was able to snag a can of this through uh T not team Tavor not team Tavor yeah um which I love being able to like find some beer that I can't buy but the prices are crazy I think this was like eight dollars a can and if you buy it from the brewery it's 12.99 for four pack Stop.
00:15:57
Speaker
You can't. it's It's not worth it. It's crazy. Yeah, that's why I'm only buying like one or two cans to try this stuff, have it on the show, and that's it. um This Astro Zombie, it
Non-alcoholic Pairings and Unique Beers
00:16:07
Speaker
is kind of one of their standard IPAs brewed with Galaxy and Amarillo hops, and it clocks in at 6.7% ABV.
00:16:16
Speaker
So gonna I'm going to give it a couple sips and see what I think and let you talk about your first pairing and make sure my cigar didn't go out because I think it might have as I was talking there.
00:16:27
Speaker
it did I'm gonna gonna take a sip of my first pairing just real quick while you're doing that uh good evening Sam Sam says he's smoking an aging room Quattro and pairing it with an Appleton estate rum Negroni good choice I love a Negroni man uh which I'll talk about a little bit later because uh we might have something that that is Negroni adjacent I'm a huge fan of Mezcal Negronis.
00:16:52
Speaker
I absolutely love them. That's my go-to Negroni if I go somewhere. too. I Mezcal Negroni. But also, to Tripp's point, he and I both love any kind of Negroni. It's so versatile. You can do so many cool things with it.
00:17:04
Speaker
And it's so simple that if you you come to a bar that doesn't have a lot of options, if they have a couple a couple of key ingredients, right you can you can have them make you a drink and you'll enjoy it. unless you're in a dive bar like a divey dive bar yeah they're going to be able to make bars i go to have fernet and campari i'm talking like the only way you're you're going into a bar that can't make a negroni these days is if it's some off the beaten path dive bar but not the cool kind of dive bar like the shitty dive bar
00:17:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah, we got we got places like that and by me that are just... The walls are covered in mold. It keeps growing. There are, mushrooms sticking out of the walls. Yeah. but yeah We got places like that.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, not a cool dive bar. Gross dive bar. Gross dive bar. Yeah. Fair point. I'll go with you on that one
00:18:00
Speaker
that one. Oh, I feel so free. I'm, like, without a hat for the first time in the longest time trying to, like, let my hair up. Got that Wolverine hair going. Something's happening. and I don't know what it is, but it's good.
00:18:12
Speaker
We'll call the flock of Ravens. How about that? That's how I feel. i feel like that sometimes. So, Holy crap, man. I got a cool, I got a cool beer, a cool brewery to share with you tonight.
00:18:25
Speaker
It's called Heavy Seas Beer, founded by Hugh Sisson in 1995. And to this day, stands as Maryland's largest and original craft brewery. Well, one of the largest and original craft breweries located in Hale Thorpe, Baltimore.
00:18:41
Speaker
So Hale Thorpe is neighborhood in Baltimore. And the beer that having for them is Midnight Diver. Look at that. Oh, what it mean What is that, an anglerfish, I think? It's an anglerfish with a ah blackberry.
00:18:57
Speaker
And this is a blackberry mango sour ale. Nice. coming in Coming in at five and a half percent. So Hugh Sisson is a very interesting character, especially in and around the Maryland area.
00:19:12
Speaker
Beer people know this guy for a very long time because he started around 1980. So 1980, he and inherited um his family's business, which is was a tavern.
00:19:24
Speaker
And he kind of said, all right, I'm going to running this tavern. And over a period of time, he started to make beer. But in between making beer and officially launching the brewery, today we know it as Heavy Seas.
00:19:36
Speaker
In 1995, it opened as Clipper City Brewing Company. So they... They kind of, at the time when they were Clipper City, they only started releasing Heavy Seas to indicate the beers are really high gravity.
00:19:51
Speaker
So these were like your Barrel, your Imperials, your, right? Like that kind of thing. Eventually the name changed to Heavy Seas officially. i think it was around 2010.
00:20:04
Speaker
People loved Heavy Seas and the branding so much that they kind of stuck with it. So think of your your ballast points. Right. That had their branding that was so popular and and people just loved it And it was iconic.
00:20:16
Speaker
Similarly, they did the same kind of deal. So today they produce over 45,000, 155 gallons of beer every two weeks. Wow. gallons of beer every two weeks, which has a lot of beer.
00:20:32
Speaker
It's a shitload. um They have a 96,000 cubic foot walk-in refrigerator. Wow, that's a big fridge. Which is nuts. Like, I'm trying to conceive how big that is. Like, that's a whole warehouse. it's Yeah, it's it's a proper warehouse.
00:20:50
Speaker
um They distribute out to 18 states today, including New Jersey, which is how I got it.
Culinary Diversions
00:20:56
Speaker
um Now, that's all cool and exciting, but this cat, Hugh Sisson, really did some cool stuff.
00:21:03
Speaker
So he played a pivotal role in transforming all of Maryland's brewing landscape, in essence, in the 80s. So he owned you know he got the tavern in the 80s.
00:21:15
Speaker
um At the time, it was illegal to have a brew pub throughout the entire state Maryland. You could not have a brew pub, which is crazy. It sounds wild to me. So in 1987, he started to work directly with legislators to draft up a bill to legalize brew pubs.
00:21:31
Speaker
They lobbied it successfully, and they got it to pass on the first try, which was really cool. And since then, they became the first brew pub in Maryland, 1989. And it kind of paved the way for a lot of other businesses to start embracing the the the beer culture.
00:21:49
Speaker
He was the um Art Larence of Maryland, apparently. Art Larence, as I've talked about before, the founder of Cascade. Rest in peace to both him and Cascade because they're both dead now.
00:22:02
Speaker
um As of last month. um But he in Oregon, he he was kind of the guy that started the movement of we should be able to sell beer that we're making here to our patrons instead of having to go through the the distribution system and, you know, change the landscape. That's that's how these places became popular.
00:22:24
Speaker
beer cities where you can get tons of different craft beers because of people like these who, you know, lobbied for those changes.
00:22:35
Speaker
Absolutely. it It's incredibly exciting and and cool to see that people, even back in the 80s, had the kind of passion for beer that we that paved the way in a lot of ways. When we started to see the craft beer boom, realistically, and well, craft beer was booming for a while. But when I got into it, I got into it in the mid 2000s.
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that the the craft beer boom was kind 2008 or nine ish. is when it really started and then 2012 ish is when it was in overdraft and but to that point people and into to to you know the point of hew system they have been working on this for so long before they even got to a point where we could see it as consumers yeah been in the works for that long, which is really cool. And again, in some ways, kind of similar to the cigar industry and in the way that we've seen trends within the cigar industry where it takes years, sometimes five, six, maybe more years to ramp up, whether it's getting your your raw materials, whether it's aging your cigars, whether it's getting branding together, or even distribution.
00:23:40
Speaker
yeah Sometimes we we we hear about manufacturers that have a cigar they can't distribute because it's a logistic issue. Like when COVID happened, nobody could ship cigars. Then people were sitting on cigars for for months and months, years sometimes.
Complex Flavors and Tobacco Discussion
00:23:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. Yeah, man. It's wild times. All right. So Astro Zombie. um First, I do want to give a call out to if anybody knows where Astro Zombie came from.
00:24:09
Speaker
It's an old movie. Also a Misfits song. ah Astro Zombie.
00:24:19
Speaker
No, that's it. It was a it was a movie from the 50s, sci-fi movie, and then it was eventually a Misfits song. Oh, boy. You're going to give me a give me get a Google this.
00:24:32
Speaker
It was a movie. Yeah. Oh, I know this. I know the, the, um, okay. I just saw the poster. I know exactly what this is. I forget. That's what it was called. Yeah. Holy shit. What a movie.
00:24:44
Speaker
ah Wow. Uh, all right. So the beard. What? John Carradine is in it. Really? Yeah. Wow. I didn't remember that. That's wild.
00:24:57
Speaker
John fucking Carradine, which is crazy to think about how old that guy is. oh it was only from 1968. I didn't realize it was that that recent. i'm it's still ah ah Again, dude, it's 2024.
00:25:10
Speaker
Pretty old. but that Well, I mean, think of how old that movie was when the Misfits made a song about it in, I don't know, 78, 81 maybe at the latest.
00:25:22
Speaker
a Late 70s, yeah, probably very early 80s. It was only 10 years old at that point. Now it's been 60 years. It's crazy. There's a hoary alien with a scimitar holding a distressed blonde that is mostly very buxom, if you will.
00:25:40
Speaker
Mm-hmm. It's Tora Santana. Vernacular. she's She's one of the most famous bimbos from the 50s and 60s. She was in all those old ah sci-fi movies. Yeah, yeah, I know.
00:25:54
Speaker
um Legendary. um It was a casting decision, for sure. Yeah, exactly. Um, all right So this beer is like, it's bringing me back to the West coast, man. This reminds me of West coast IPAs all the way. It's hazy, but it doesn't taste like that typical East coast, you know, very, uh, fruit forward kind of flavor.
00:26:15
Speaker
Um, it's citrusy, but not, you know, it's, it's got grapefruit, but it doesn't really have like those mango-y kind of flavors that you associate with the East coast ales.
00:26:27
Speaker
Um, It has like that grassy resin hop bitterness, which I really miss about West Coast IPAs. yeah um So I'm really digging this. And surprisingly, as I kind of was hoping would happen, um that that peculiar flavor of the Emissary kind of cuts through and somehow works with
Wrap-Up and Media Recommendations
00:26:49
Speaker
an IPA.
00:26:52
Speaker
I've had good luck with the Emissary and IPAs so far. This is my first time trying it with an IPA, and I'm pretty impressed. How's your first pairing going? I, well, I didn't like it at first.
00:27:08
Speaker
At first, I thought that the flavors of the cigar with the the very thin sourness of the beer were kind of washing each other out. Now that I've had a little more of the beer, now that it's kind of sitting on my palate, it it's a little more friendly with the flavors of the cigar. it doesn't take away from the cigar at least as much.
00:27:29
Speaker
I think it's not bad. I would say, personally, I would prefer more sourness from the beer with the flavors that I'm getting from the cigar. I think it could handle a little bit more sour beer. Okay.
00:27:40
Speaker
Interesting. We'll ah see how a little bit of sour works with it in just a moment here. Very excited. um I've got something a little different. I'll show it to you first.
00:27:52
Speaker
But you'll never guess what this is. There's no way. Hold on. That is a
00:28:01
Speaker
It's a jungle bird with... That's what it looks like. It's a jungle bird with the a habanero reduction. Not even close.
00:28:13
Speaker
ah Campari Bloody Mary? Still not close. It's not a Negroni. Nope. It's sort of, it's similar to in a Negroni.
00:28:26
Speaker
Talk to me. What is it? But it's not. It's a sideways Manhattan. So
Upcoming Events and Social Media Updates
00:28:31
Speaker
this is, it's called Ghia. The fuck is that? All right.
00:28:37
Speaker
My kid got really into Shark Tank last week. So he loves watching Shark Tank. We've been watching all episodes of Shark Tank with him. And from last season, I think it was, or maybe the season before, this was on.
00:28:50
Speaker
This is a non-alcoholic Amaro. Say what now? Kia is a non-alcoholic Amaro. I'll tell you all about it. um this lady invented it and uh it's been selling like hotcakes it was a whole thing on shark tank um but basically they sell it in a normal 750 milliliter bottle and then they also have these ghia spritzers i wanted to get both but this is what they had at the store the only store within driving distance that happened to be on the way home from ah barn smoker which was nice because it was an hour away oh man but i was on the way home what
00:29:27
Speaker
what I'm looking at the website now. I'm like in i'm so intrigued by this. Exactly. i saw it, and I was like, I have to try that. A non-alcoholic aperitif inspired by you know the great Italian Amaros. And I was like, I have got to try this.
00:29:46
Speaker
um So this it's called Ghia, G-H-I-A. Their branding is on point. They've got like this very... ah very it's like a mix of 20s gatsby style and ah i don't know kind of like a 60s modernist thing very interesting like indonesian soda vibes that i'm getting from it it's weird isn't it all right so let me tell you a little bit about what's in it and what it tastes like so it is the base is kind of uh a ah ah white grape juice and it also has yuzu orange ginger and rosemary
00:30:24
Speaker
um with classic bitter ingredients like elderflower gentian root acacia um i believe it was on here yeah eucalyptus ginger lime peel orange extract um fruit and vegetable juice for color because it is you know it's got this red color it looks a lot like campari in the bottle um this is kind of a spritzer version um So this is the Amaro Ghia with a little bit of soda water.
00:30:59
Speaker
And this is the they have a couple different flavors. this The salt and lime flavor. So it's got just a little squeeze of lime and a hint of salt. um I'm really impressed by this stuff.
00:31:12
Speaker
It reminds you of not quite a Campari, but kind of a Campari cocktail in a bottle. Um, because it's got, it it has that, you know, that bitterness that you expect from something like Campari or another Amaro.
00:31:32
Speaker
Um, but then the, the ginger and the eucalyptus taste a little fresher, I guess, than you would get in a distilled spirit. or I guess in a liqueur as most tomorrows are. That's fair.
00:31:46
Speaker
um A steeped spirit. ah So it tastes a little fresher. It doesn't quite have that same melding of flavors all into one unidentifiable flavor.
00:31:56
Speaker
ah But it is pretty solid, and I think you would be pretty hyped about this stuff. um It's available in some places at targets in these little cans. I don't know.
00:32:09
Speaker
i know you can actually just order it on Amazon. It's like 38 bucks a bottle for the the aperitif. Yeah. um And I really want I'm really tempted to order a bottle because I really want to try it um because I just think it's very it's a very curious invention that i I need to know more about, you know.
00:32:31
Speaker
um You know, I'm going to ask the question that everybody forgot to ask you in the comments. Do you have more? And will you have some for the Zona Palooza when I see you next week, earlier, ah later this week? Why, yes, I will.
00:32:45
Speaker
I have two more cans of this. ah They're coming your way. um I just, I can't tell you how impressed I am with this stuff. Like, you know, we love a good cocktail. Yeah. But even more so, I love being able to have a cocktail when I don't feel like the ah you know the alcohol of a cocktail.
00:33:04
Speaker
I like to be able to have a cocktail while working sometimes. So like you know that's when I'll do a Coca-Cola or ah um what's that stuff LaCroix or something like that with a little bit of bitters in it because I I love that bitter flavor but you can't get it in normal drinks and so something like this is right up my alley um and I'm very impressed with it um like I said it's very gingery at least in this expression very gingery little bit limey little bit salty it's really got kind of that on the beach but still in a like
00:33:40
Speaker
you know on the beach vibes for me but closer to an Aperol spritz or a Negroni than like a Mojito or something like that it tastes like a European beach cocktail that sounds fantastic and and certainly high praise coming from you who is a fellow very experienced Amaro drinker yeah a lover of Amaros and this is like this is the first Amaro I've ever had that's non-alcoholic that actually tastes like anything You know, usually it's kind of ah not very good.
00:34:14
Speaker
This is delicious. Wow. And the best part is it really backs up the bitterness. It's got that bitterness you expect from something like that.
00:34:26
Speaker
Something like what it's imitating, you know?
00:34:33
Speaker
All right. What's your next pairing? I needed to find something... I needed to know the name of something that I forgot to pull up. um I can see you focusing there.
00:34:45
Speaker
ah There's a name of a thing. Hold on now. I'm holding.
00:34:59
Speaker
Mayered reaction, fine. There's there's a name... Anyway, let's get into it. We'll talk about it. you um I want you to kind of fart on this for a second as I introduce kind of what we're going to talk about. So I'm doing a beer from Evil Genius Beer Company, ah which kind of cool. They they came out in a sort of unexpected way in, when was it?
00:35:22
Speaker
Well, they met in 2008. So the two founders, they met in accounting class. And eventually, shortly after that, basically couldn't find a job when they decided, screw it, we're gonna make beer, because we love beer.
00:35:35
Speaker
Let's go and make some beer. And so they were officially established in 2011. Originally, they kind of floated around in locations. So South Bend, Indiana, Cooperstown, New York, Hartford, Connecticut.
00:35:49
Speaker
Eventually, they got together with Thomas Hooker Brewing Company to start doing their initial beers. So in a sense, kind of gypsy style. And officially, eventually in 2017, they opened up their 15 barrel brew house in Philadelphia, and in Fishtown.
00:36:05
Speaker
So those of you that know Philadelphia, Fishtown is a really cool spot that a lot of great places to go eat and also a lot of breweries. And there's a really cool history there for just food culture. It's a great, it's a very exciting place. Fishtown is one of the few places that if you go to Philadelphia, you have to go regardless of what you're into.
00:36:24
Speaker
Even if you don't drink, you got to check it out. um tony they opened up the this uh a 15 barrel brew house and started making all kinds of crazy stuff so their slogan do you know what their slogan is trip yeah i know you're a fan of their beer as well have i had it well you've had different you've had different evil genius beers over the years yeah that's true yeah um Like Stacy's mom is a good example. It's one that I think we've all had because, you know, Stacy's mom has got it going on.
00:36:56
Speaker
she does and that She does. I don't know what their slogan is. Their slogan is ah very silly, very silly names for very serious beers. ah That's great. so Purple Monkey Dishwasher is a beer. Stacy's mom is another one. Adult, hashtag adulting, which is a great guava IPA. I'm a big fan.
00:37:17
Speaker
They have one called i Love Lamp. um And so they got really popular and surprisingly coming out of COVID even expanded. So now they're in central Ohio, they they're they're producing, they're they're shipping their beer out to central Ohio um and getting kind of beers into people's hands. Like they're in Acme stores that are allowed to sell beer, which is not Jersey.
00:37:42
Speaker
Giant sells their beers if you're in upstate New York. So the one that I'm having tonight is a really interesting beer called Is Butter a Carb? ah And Is Butter a Carb is a pretzel Oktoberfest. And this is why I was thinking about this this kind of like what how do I describe this this flavor?
00:38:03
Speaker
To know it doesn't taste like butter. It's a lager, yes. It's an Oktoberfest, yes. There's something different to it, but it's the bitterness that you get from the outside of a pretzel. Like that toastiness, like the caramelized?
00:38:17
Speaker
Beyond the toastiness, because again, with pretzels, the secret to pretzels is, ah hold on, I've made pretzels before. um It's ah baking soda.
00:38:29
Speaker
Okay. So you boil water and you throw a baking soda in, and then you you throw your pretzels into that before you go and bake them. So kind of like how you make bagels, you you throw it into the water, right?
00:38:43
Speaker
So what happens the baking soda reacts with the outside, kind of eating away at the outside. So when you put it in the oven, it gives it that mallard reaction. Isn't it like... Art reaction.
00:38:56
Speaker
I may be way off base on this. Isn't it lye? Isn't pretzels the food that you put in lye or something? Like you put it in like a lye water solution or something? They they do use lye.
00:39:08
Speaker
um I don't know if people at home use. I didn't use lye when I made mine. but um Yeah, lye water for pretzels. But i I used, I want to say it's baking soda for pretzels.
00:39:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's baking. Okay, so the cheap way to do it without using lye is using baking soda. Oh, okay. Okay, cool. Outside of Lye. So Lye is also used for something called Lutefisk as well.
00:39:35
Speaker
e Where the Lye gelatinizes and reduces down the fish into this funky sort of... I haven't had it yet. I'm very excited to try it. You haven't? I figured you had.
00:39:47
Speaker
It's on my list. it's it's um i I mean, I had a wonderful feast of horse earlier in the week. and But I've had horse before, so it wasn't really that unique in particular. But yeah, if you know anybody who Lutefisk...
00:40:01
Speaker
um I will do it live somebody sends me Lutifisc that watches the show or listens to the show send it to me i will do it on the show and uh we can experience it together man that's one of those things that like i don't know if I could eat and I will eat almost anything well not not really octopus things with tentacles You've witnessed me eat octopus.
00:40:29
Speaker
I'm like, you know, even if it grosses me out, if I haven't tasted it, I'm like, I mean, I got to find out what it tastes like, right? Lutefisk is one of those things that's kind of on my no-fly list.
00:40:45
Speaker
I'll find something. Believe me, i have a couple of ideas from Miami of things that I would like for you to try to eat. and and uh see how well it goes we'll we'll report back but uh anyway so this beer ultimately it it sounds crazy and wild but it's just a good solid lager it's not crazy or does it have pretzels in it no okay because i mean pretzels wouldn't really do much to a beer right like no uh it's just carbs that will be turned into sugar and alcohol yeah
00:41:17
Speaker
So what they nailed was the crust of a pretzel, the outside of a pretzel, that slight excuse me that's light bitterness.
00:41:26
Speaker
Almost like when when you put your lips to a cigar, certain types of tobaccos, wrapper tobaccos, that have that the leftover kind of intense, slightly bitter flavor on your lips.
00:41:40
Speaker
right even before first light just as soon as you put up to your mouth uh it's kind of like that it's that lingering slight bitterness that's very dry okay
00:41:54
Speaker
not bad Sam Fennel says try some conch penis I don't know what conch penis is conch penis is he talking about um Ah, crap. What's it called? Um, gooey duck.
00:42:08
Speaker
That's what I assume. duck He's talking. I've never had a gooey duck. I don't know that I want to try it because it seems disconcerting in a lot of different ways. I've had bull penis. I've had at this point in my, my culinary career, I've had, uh, every part of a bull.
00:42:26
Speaker
I've eaten every part of a bull, all the, let your imagination run wild. I've eaten every part of a bull. I believe. um And they're fine. I mean, I have soups made from hooves and things like that.
00:42:39
Speaker
Okay, it's fine. Gooey duck, for whatever reason. Very disconcerting. I was at a sushi restaurant once. And ah we were sitting at the sushi bar.
00:42:52
Speaker
And, you know, i order a bunch of food. And the ah if you've ever eaten at a sushi bar, there is a difference between... There's there's three different types of sushi bars. There's omakase.
00:43:05
Speaker
which is where you say, give me whatever you feel like making. There's just where they give you whatever you order. And there's the kind of one in the middle, which is what this one was, where I ordered a bunch of stuff, and the guy just starts handing me plates that I didn't order. One of them was ah crunchy fried gooey duck. So I have eaten gooey duck, and it was pretty gross.
00:43:29
Speaker
and What didn't you come for? Was it the texture, or...? The texture was a little rough um because it's like imagine an oyster made of soft rubber made of silicone.
00:43:48
Speaker
Like it tastes like an oyster, which is fine, but just the consistency and the oyster taste together was the weird part.
00:43:59
Speaker
Okay. And it's not like super rubbery. It wasn't like that octopus I in Vegas. I was like chewing on a guard chewing on a uh uh you're still salty about that dude it was like what am I trying to think of it was like chewing on an engine mount from a car like that hard rubber
00:44:18
Speaker
ah he says apparently it's just a conch's penis um I've never heard of that um I'm gonna have to look that up snails horrify me but I do love a conch fritter all eat conch fritters all day I do like snail.
00:44:33
Speaker
i've had I've had many a snail over the years. ah as long as they're well As long as they're from a reputable place, like I wouldn't buy a snail from a ah roadside vendor.
00:44:47
Speaker
Or Burger King or something like that, yeah. Well, maybe Burger King, but but like farmed snails that are less likely to have um parasites that survive being cooked, like yeah, that's fine.
00:45:01
Speaker
I don't even remember where I was. There was somewhere. I did i have eaten snail.
00:45:07
Speaker
I was somewhere fairly fancy and somebody ordered it or maybe it was like ah a very fancy place where like a fancy party and they had hors d'oeuvres or something. But I was like, I guess I'll go for it. And I ate one.
00:45:19
Speaker
listen And it was delicious. Anything you soak in butter, garlic and cover in cheese exactly good. You can you can but take a gooey duck, wrap it in cheese and soak it in butter and garlic for a month.
00:45:35
Speaker
Yep. That's what it tastes like. Yeah. I didn't care for a jellyfish. I did not like jellyfish salad. I was not expecting it to be crunchy.
00:45:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's on a that's a no-go for me. It's like biting into a Cheeto. It's disconcerting. That sounds disconcerting. Yes. ah How's this pairing going for you?
00:45:57
Speaker
Really well. i'm This stuff works really well with a cigar, I think. It is a little aggressive for some people. I think that if you don't like bitter at all, um Like, Sam is watching, and he said he hadt he's having a Negroni.
00:46:11
Speaker
If you can drink in a Negroni, this would be right up your alley. If a Negroni is off-puttingly overbitter for you, I don't recommend this because it's going to be too intense. um But for people like us, I think it's fantastic, and I think the kind of the kind of lightness of it works really well with a cigar.
00:46:31
Speaker
um And those those somewhat subtle ginger flavors and that eucalyptus flavor. um You know, you end up with this, like, it's a little bit it's got a little bit of flavor of ginger ale. It's got, like, that kind of grassy bitterness from a eucalyptus.
00:46:48
Speaker
um And then a lot of, like, bright, fruity, acidic notes. It's just really, really well balanced and works really well with this cigar.
00:46:59
Speaker
especially a cigar like this that's not very sweet. This is kind of ah earthy, leathery, um not spicy, spicy, not black pepper spicy, but like a lot of baking spice layers in this cigar.
00:47:13
Speaker
And I'm finding it works really well with this drink. What about your pretzel beer? How's it go with a pretzel? i yeah I wish I had a pretzel. I'd love a pretzel right now.
00:47:25
Speaker
I think it's good. I think it's a really solid lager to their credit. It's a fun name, but it's a very solid beer. Even if it didn't have this kind of catchy name that got me to buy it. ah and And again, the marketing, their marketing is always really clean. All their labels are very clean.
00:47:42
Speaker
um That being said, I just think it's a really nice lager. It's going really well with the cigar. And I can see a lager like this that's leaning more on the...
00:47:56
Speaker
more slightly on the bitter side the more intense side and less on the sweet side like a marzen i find to be a little a little more sweet uh than a typical october fest uh yeah man i'm digging it i'm digging it we'll call it a fest beer it's it's a fest beer but it's an american style so you have a little bit more hop quality to it which is really nice
00:48:20
Speaker
Sounds great. Like, really great. Sounds right up my alley. I love a Fess beer, man. I'll bring one. Sounds good. though I'm in. ah All right. On to my last pairing.
00:48:31
Speaker
This is something that I can't usually get my hands on. What is that? Holy shit. that is cant I sent you a picture of this. This is from Tired Hands Brewing. yeah yeah yeah um all right so tired hands they've had a storied history in the last 13 years of being in in existence they started in 2011 in ardmore pennsylvania which is right outside philly um by gene broilet weird name uh turns out he's kind of a toilet of a person too um
00:49:06
Speaker
broilet the toilet broilet the toilet that's what i'm calling good a good wrestling name ah so early on this brewery became crazy well known this was like this was one of the breweries that started the trend of people waiting around the block for them to open so they could buy all the beer they have in the building um i read an article about it about the early days and they had they said that they would have people waiting in line um for them to open at, like, whatever whatever time they opened, at 5 or something like that, 5 p.m., they would open.
00:49:43
Speaker
And they had dudes that would come in, order a beer and a case, and say, I don't get paid until midnight. Once my direct deposit hits, then I will check out because I'm broke as hell.
00:49:59
Speaker
But it's worth it to spend hundreds of dollars on this beer. And these dudes would just sit at the bar, have seven beers, and then at 1210, they would pay for everything and leave.
00:50:11
Speaker
And that's how how crazy popular this brewery was. um They were also kind of the first brewery in Philly. I mean, there were they were in the first wave of breweries in the country that were doing this.
00:50:23
Speaker
um They were the first one in Philly by far um that kind of received that national, international notoriety where people were flying from other countries just to buy their beer. ah And they were kind of instrumental in the rise of the New England style IPA, one of the The forefathers of that, I guess.
00:50:43
Speaker
Yeah. One of the early pioneers, they were they were for a really long time when I was coming up in the beer scene and learning about but all these different breweries and experiencing that boom that you also experienced.
00:50:55
Speaker
Tired Hands was one of those unobtainiums that you heard about. oh yeah. Like Treehouse, Tired Hands, right? You had these breweries that were these, like, they're doing crazy stuff.
00:51:05
Speaker
Nobody really knows what's happening. it was so exciting at that time. tip you know To see the innovation. Nowadays, obviously, things have changed. Things have calmed down a little bit. Those beers are much easier to get these days because there's just the demand has gone away.
00:51:19
Speaker
Well, some of the other burgers are making those kinds of styles. Yeah, that's definitely part of it is that you know it used to be. There were three breweries in the country doing crazy fresh hop New England hazy IPAs.
00:51:34
Speaker
Now everybody's doing it. Like, now can buy that at the grocery store. It may not be as good as what was going on back then, but, you know, they're still around. All right.
00:51:45
Speaker
So ah they became very widely known for their kind of juice bomb style IPAs. You know, like we're talking about the super fruit forward, not crazy bitter, but have enough bitterness to call it an IPA.
00:52:00
Speaker
um And they look like that, like orange juice. Oh, boy. Yeah. All right, so a couple years ago in 2021, there was kind of a Me Too movement of the beer industry.
00:52:15
Speaker
And ah the head of Tired Hands, Broilet the Toilet, was accused of um sexism and discrimination within within the company.
00:52:27
Speaker
He immediately said he was leaving, stepping away. And very weirdly, like, 11 months later, he just announced that he was back at the brewery working again.
00:52:41
Speaker
I don't know whatever happened to that. I couldn't really find too much information, but it sounds like he's back in the mix. And people aren't happy. Which may be why this is a little more widely available now. You know what happened.
00:52:54
Speaker
This is the old adage. You know why Italians don't like Jehovah's Witnesses? I don't. Because they don't like any witnesses.
00:53:07
Speaker
coincidence I don't know yeah
00:53:13
Speaker
Jay Davis says demand is down because he doesn't drink beer anymore um I'm sure that's a contributing factor Jay uh we have you to thank for me being able to get my hands on this stuff this is once again through Tabor um like I said before like or like you said before I mean this was unobtainium years ago so this is the first time I've ever in my life seen a can of tired hands like that's how how rare this stuff is and i used to trade beer all over the place but i i i believe i couldn't find anybody who could find it for perspective i was selling cans of heady topper for 40 a can that is crazy
00:53:54
Speaker
And now you can buy that for $6 a can. Yeah, I would i go to the store and get cases of it. And I had people that wanted it. And it was just like, yeah, but whatever you want to pay, man.
00:54:06
Speaker
um And it'd be $40 can. wild but those days are long gone because uh the wonders of modern distribution and people not being willing to spend 900 to get to a place to have a beer uh to fly across the country or whatever but you know it's uh things are evening out i would say because it was a pain in the ass back then because you couldn't you couldn't just go have a beer anywhere right like anywhere that had really good beer had lines out the door and around the
00:54:39
Speaker
around the block for hours and it was ridiculous. So this double dry hopped punch, their label, I'm not sure what the label's even supposed to be.
00:54:53
Speaker
It's just kind of ah looks sort of like, um
00:55:00
Speaker
what am I, fungus. like Looks sort of like fungus and roots or something. Like those those little mushroomy looking things. Yeah. I'm not sure what. It looks an Asterix album. It looks like a what?
00:55:12
Speaker
An Asterix album. It does. um But this is double dry hop punch. Punch is one of their previous releases, and this is it's their they're one of their standard kind of double IPAs.
00:55:25
Speaker
And this is the double dry hopped version. um I think they make multiple versions of this, but I wasn't able to find any others, so they may not have any. ah But this one is dry hopped with Monteka and Nelson Sovan ah hops from New Zealand.
00:55:42
Speaker
um That's what I was going say. Nelson is a really great hop varietal. uh punch is their new zealand ipa that's what i was trying to remember like a punchy stick maybe don't know sounds painful clocks in at 8.3 abv it's got that wonderful hazy color and i'm uh i'm very curious to see how it works with this cigar so i'm gonna take a couple sips find out how it pairs let you talk about your last pairing
00:56:15
Speaker
You've completely jaded me on this whole experience tonight because I had a plan for my final pairing. I was ready to go. i was going pair this this lovely, beautiful can of Liquid Death, who I'm still waiting to hear back on for sponsorship if you're listening or watching.
00:56:32
Speaker
Please, let's talk. I've been sending you lyrics for songs that I've written for the last year ah in different styles. um Anyway, so I was going to do Liquid Death's Cherry Obituary, which is a seltzer.
00:56:47
Speaker
It's really lovely. I'm not doing that. i In the sudden turn of events, I've decided you've got me all jazzed up. I'm going to do this. Ah.
00:56:58
Speaker
What little bit is left, but I'm bringing to you to share. um So you'll experience this later in the week. This is the Frenet Vexia that I had last week um from Vermont, Coburn, I believe. Coburn, Vermont.
00:57:12
Speaker
Is it Coburn or is it? ah It's by Burlington. Jay Davis says liquid death makes great water. We cannot disagree with that. They make great water and great water e products like their teams and their seltzers.
00:57:26
Speaker
I have fans. I've been such a big fan for a long time. i have a liquid death neon sign in my office. I have. um different merchandise from liquid death their hoodie is killer um i used points to get the hoodie uh but honestly i would pay whatever 65 bucks it is for that hoodie i would absolutely pay for it it's so nice nice and and anyway i love liquid death been a big fan for a long time so for net vexia is really cool because this is a really unique friend from a very small producer effectively this was uh somebody that was making it
00:58:00
Speaker
kind of at home for for their friends that were bartenders and sharing with local, you know, cocktail bars and in the in the Burlington area. And who's a friend of Garrett's.
00:58:12
Speaker
Garrett from my Friend of the show. Friend of the show. Big fan of the show as well. And he... You know, his buddy got connected with a local distillery and they said, hey, we're going to make this stuff for you, man.
00:58:26
Speaker
And they made it. They bottled it. They started ah shipping it all over the state, which is really cool. And it's really because it is a um distinctly different Amaro than what we're used to.
00:58:37
Speaker
This is a really cool American kind of take on a classic Italian Amaro in that it's very chamomile forward. Chamomile has traditionally been a big ingredient in Amaros.
00:58:49
Speaker
But this takes it to the next level. Like this is intensely chamomile forward. And even to the point where it's it's kind of chunky. So on the back it says, hold on, I gotta tell you how it's supposed to be experienced.
00:59:05
Speaker
um Best enjoyed knead over ice with friends and loved ones in the clearing of a dark wood possessed by the light of the moon.
00:59:16
Speaker
And it says here now, for optimal flavor, because it's an it's a lightly filtered spirit, for optimal flavor, swirl vigorously, counterclockwise seven times before serving.
00:59:31
Speaker
That being said, I don't have a glass right now because I wasn't planning to serve my place. Sorry, Tripp. going to have get my cooties later. ah I've had them.
00:59:43
Speaker
we've We've shared cooties many a time. That's fine. But anyway, so chamomile is such a really unique ingredient because it's so...
00:59:53
Speaker
cam I think in a lot of ways, what what it does to the palate is very similar to what you get with mint, spearmint specifically. When you have spearmint and a spirit, it lights up the whole palate all in one shot. So it's not like you know when you eat something or you smoke something, you get pieces of flavor on different parts of your tongue.
01:00:11
Speaker
This stuff lights up your whole palate all at once. So you're experiencing a much... Fuller bodied, if you will. um You know, certain wines will like certain Bordeaux's will do that as well. When you when you get a Bordeaux on your tongue, it just covers the whole thing. Right. And and lights up your palate in that same way.
01:00:30
Speaker
And I love that because it's really refreshing. Chamomile with a little bit of alcohol. And this is really not very strong. This is only 36.7. too bad. thirty six point seven so not too bad Certainly less than a Frenet, which comes at a classic Italian Frenet Branca comes in at 40%. There's some Frenets that come in at like 43, 45. But yeah a little bit of alcohol really opens up that that really bright floral quality of the chamomile and essentially resets your palate, kind of what we talk about with bubbles, with seltzer and things like that, but without adding any bubbles at all. So there are people that, for example, don't really like to drink anything with with carbonation.
01:01:10
Speaker
This is a really great alternative where you can pour this over ah ice or you can pour it with, ah you know, maybe a juice of some kind. I think it would really cut through nicely. Or even water. You can cut it 50-50 with water.
01:01:24
Speaker
I'd be very very curious to try it with a Coke and see how that works. Because i love the I love the Coke as a base, but I think Amaro's work really well to spice it up a little bit.
01:01:41
Speaker
Yeah, you would need you would want to get probably a full sugar. Yeah. um proper Proper sugar Coke. So Mexican Coke is, is I think, the most common in U.S. That makes sense.
01:01:52
Speaker
Something like that. Or, ah as we talked about a couple weeks ago, the ah Fever Tree soda. there's is Oh, yeah. Those is kind of made full sugar to mimic that Mexican Coke style.
01:02:04
Speaker
um all right so this punge punji whatever it's called double dry hopped edition um man what a beer this is the second one I've had from the pack and I'm just really impressed with it it uh it kind of mixes the styles of juicy New England and crisp bitter uh resinous west coast style so this has like that intense resinous sticky bitterness um but also has that you know that juice bomb kind of flavor and i think it works really well as a beer i'm surprised by how well it's working with this cigar like i don't think i didn't expect ipas to work with this
01:02:57
Speaker
kind of I wanted to try it, but I didn't expect it. and I had these two IPAs on hand, so I figured why not try them. um Man, this cigar is great.
01:03:10
Speaker
How's your last pairing going? It's fantastic. I think it's a really great way to end the cigar, especially where it's at now. I'm getting into the final third. At this point now, generally most cigars at this point will have
01:03:27
Speaker
warmed up to their fullest extent they have whatever flavors that you can get out of them this is the point where you're getting the most potentially depending on tobacco um you know but for a lot of cigars this is where you're going to get the most of your uh sorry the fullest picture of the profile of the flavor if that makes sense I see what you're saying. as Because after a certain point, once you get into final third, generally speaking, as you close out the cigar, you're rarely going to get anything extra to it.
01:03:57
Speaker
You're not going to really develop any new and interesting flavors, potentially. um Some cigars are an exception, and that's great. This cigar, I've found i've had nine nine of these so far.
01:04:08
Speaker
um And they this is a good place for it. Now it's warmed up. Now the flavors have developed a little bit. That cinnamon that we talked about, that leather, have sweetened up quite a bit, at least for me.
01:04:22
Speaker
How do you feel? do you get that sweetness as well, or or is it different for you? i I get a little bit of sweetness starting to creep in, like a a dark brown sugar kind of sweetness, very caramelized sugar.
01:04:35
Speaker
But there's still very a very dry cigar. not necessarily in a bad way but in a way that works really well with pairings i think um like we talked about before it's got some unique flavors in that that kind of uh anise some kind of root herb flavor that i can't quite figure out sarsaparilla root something like that um
01:05:05
Speaker
Man, I just can't figure out what that flavor is quite. Uh, but then it's also got leather, a little bit of very dark chocolate. Like we're talking pitch black, 98, 99% cacao chocolate going on in this cigar.
01:05:19
Speaker
Um, it's a very complex cigar with some very interesting, very different flavors. Um, that i'm not used to tasting and i'm still after five or six of these over the months trying to figure out what exactly the flavors are that i'm tasting i have a feeling um i'm getting i'm getting a feeling i think i know what it is potentially the skin of a hazelnut of a roasted hazelnut i mean that's i think that's part of it that dryness that dryness to it it's still a little little bit bright the nature of hazelnuts the flavor is a little bit kind of brighter for for most nuts but maybe that's what it is i get a little bit of that yeah that makes sense
01:06:06
Speaker
sorry I'm fiddling with settings here because Facebook keeps complaining about my streaming software sorry I'm being nuts yeah um yeah Jay Davis says I know I'm late to the show but I believe Macanudo Emissary would pair great with an Aberlauer 16 or an espresso martini or a nice shish Barilla sugar soda shish Barilla I agree with all of those it really has um it just has this unique flavor that reminds me of again like he said sarsaparilla soda but not quite and i can't figure it out hazelnut is a good um is part of it i think like that skin of a hazelnut like i get that you know that dryness that uh on your palate that little bit of saltiness yeah it's there's a lot going on in the cigar man that i can't quite figure out
01:07:06
Speaker
What's that very popular drink on the streets of Spain? A Cali Mocho, isn't it? Cali Mocho is 50-50 red wine and Coca-Cola. Oh, from Jay's other comment? Yeah.
01:07:20
Speaker
I would work. Oh, did somebody bring that up already? Yeah, he did. Oh, fantastic. Yes, that's exactly what it is. Jay Davis said, ah I know car Coke works well with Cabernet Sauvignon.
01:07:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:33
Speaker
Indeed, it does. It's really good. I've had it on the show once or twice before, much to the chagrin of the classic, like, wine drinker that's like, well, what are you doing? Why? Why are you putting Coca-Cola in that? Why would you ever drink that? But it's nice. It's a good good mix.
01:07:47
Speaker
Just like Fernet and Coke is great.
01:07:51
Speaker
Sam Finnell is asking if we've ever had whorehound candy. I had to look it up. Wait, what? And no, I haven't. Whorehound candy. Whorehound. Hold on. I get to look it up.
01:08:03
Speaker
H-O-R-E Hound candy. Oh, see. Good thing I didn't Google the other one. mean, spelled it wrong and I Googled it that way. who Okay, hold on. The first thing I see is... Yes, I've had this....Horehound drops a candy as horrible as its name.
01:08:19
Speaker
Yes, so this is this is like the the malort of hard candies. I've had it. It was fantastically bitter and wonderful. All right. I've never seen it before. I'm have to hunt some down because it sounds interesting.
01:08:35
Speaker
um Yeah. Whorehound root ah menthol and root beer. Yeah. All right. That sounds pretty good, actually. ah Jay says he thinks it's the Colombian tobacco we're tasting, like Costa Rican tobacco with the salt complement.
01:08:51
Speaker
um i've had a rough go with costa rican tobacco over the years i haven't really revisited my first experience was really rough back in uh 2000 2009 2008 sorry and i really have leaned away from costa rican tobacco but please if you have any suggestions of anything that i can smoke that has that i mean we've had some great coaster cigars with costa rican tobacco um we have some of the uh
01:09:21
Speaker
Jeremy, what's his last name?
01:09:26
Speaker
ka Castagli. Some of his cigars have Costa Rican tobacco. did they have? Okay, okay. and Maybe I just didn't realize. Some of the the United Tobacco stuff. I can't remember which ones or if all of them have Costa Rican.
01:09:44
Speaker
um but atabay byron bandolero at least some combination of those have some costa rican jay says the ferroteggio pan-american pan-americana rather kind i were i gotta to check that out i haven't had that one so i will need to hunt that one down because this is like a flavor that um like we always talk about with tobacco you can only taste what you've tasted before right yeah And a lot of times it's very difficult to tell.
01:10:14
Speaker
you know Once you've smoked enough high Lajero cigars, let's say, you can pick out this particular flavor comes from the Lajero.
01:10:25
Speaker
Yeah. They're also, Lajero specifically is very easy to pick out the flavors of. um But then once you start getting into regions, it's a little more refined. And the only ways, there's two ways to be able to identify what flavor is coming from which tobacco.
01:10:42
Speaker
It's either you taste the tobacco all by itself, which I'm a huge fan of and I do as often as possible, but it's not that easy, guys. it's hard know it's it's It's hard to get your hands on stuff like that. You've got to find somebody who will let you smoke. They're ready to turn into a cigar, but they don't want to turn it into a cigar tobacco, um which sometimes you can get. Uncle good for that.
01:11:05
Speaker
What? uncle leo is very good for exactly uncle leo leo is great for that um but a lot of times that comes in the form of parito or uh a uh a farm roll kind of thing like i know fsg shout out to the barn smoker yesterday has the fsg farm rolls which are just all the same tobacco wrapper binder filler and like a four and a half by fifty forty five or so um maybe four and a half by forty is more like it forty two something around there um But those are the only real ways that you can taste a tobacco by itself. The other way is smoke enough cigars and know what's in them.
01:11:43
Speaker
And you can say, okay, I've smoked this cigar. All the components are the same except this one tobacco. So the difference is at least somewhat coming from that tobacco. But then there's also the rest of the blend going on, right?
01:11:55
Speaker
um So it's very difficult to be able to pick out specific tobacco flavors. Jay says, can't really have DoorDash send you some Costa Rican blunts.
01:12:07
Speaker
If only. i would be all over that, man. um Oh, man. Yeah, it's just not something you can really do. So the answer is just smoke more cigars that have those those tobaccos in them.
01:12:20
Speaker
So I need to find some more Costa Rican, some more Colombian, and some more Spanish tobacco-containing cigars. Spanish, yes. um But all of those are, you know, you hard to find.
01:12:36
Speaker
Anyway. let's ah Let's talk about what our pairing of the night was. I gotta go back through mine a little bit. Same. I have an idea, but I gotta hit it hited again.
01:12:59
Speaker
i have to tell you, I think you nailed it, Tripp, with Going for um the Amaro that you had, the pseudo Amaro spritzer, I think this cigar really lends itself readily to an Amaro, to the quality of the profile that's a little bit more bitter, a little bit more floral and intense.
01:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me it's that um in this it has brightness of citrus, it has the sweetness of fruit, it has the bitterness of those herbal extracts or whatever.
01:13:33
Speaker
um And all of those things together work really well with this cigar that doesn't have any of that. This is a very this cigar, to me, works really well with a ah contrasting pairing like what I've had tonight.
01:13:47
Speaker
And I think ah you're on to something with your comment that the Ghia... non-alcoholic spritzer is the pairing of the night for me. like This stuff, it just works really well with a cigar. like I can't wait to get some more flavors and get some of their Amaro and make some cocktails with it.
01:14:10
Speaker
think that'll be awesome. I know Jay doesn't drink, but this might be right up your alley, Jay. It tastes... similar enough to a cocktail it evokes the same flavors of a cocktail that's what it is um it's kind of like in between negroni and an aperol spritz um for this one and it's fantastic what's your pairing night it was the amaro yeah so i'm gonna it's gonna be that fernet vexia which again has a really cool label big big fan of very very pretty and it's by arcana botanica
01:14:48
Speaker
Officially.
01:14:54
Speaker
Sorry, making sure my cigar doesn't go out. um All right, time to do one for the road. We talked about ah what are are what media we've been consuming this week.
01:15:08
Speaker
What do you got for us, Dennis?
01:15:11
Speaker
So I wanted to do excuse me i little to do a film. I'm not going to do a film tonight. Because I've just been, I've been working a lot. i've been consuming. Generally when I'm working, I tend to go through new albums and and just play them in the background, listen to them.
01:15:27
Speaker
I find that albums that I really enjoy while I'm working, while I'm not paying attention, are albums that I end up revisiting and enjoy them even more. And there's a group that ah came out in 2008 in Jersey City, New Jersey.
01:15:43
Speaker
called fit for an autopsy which is i know not everyone's like very edgy name particular flavor of music if you will but it's an american i think they're deathcore i don't even know at this point but they're one of those sub genres that like no one's cool enough to know what it's called kind of thing right yeah it's like a sub sub um thing and so they just came out with an album called um the nothing that is just came out, I think, last week, something like that. And I've you know i've been listening to it.
01:16:14
Speaker
It's not bad at all, and I've been really digging it. And think if you're looking for a different change of pace, and if you're into death metal, black metal, like if you like those kinds of genres, you might really like this.
01:16:27
Speaker
It's certainly worth checking out if you haven't heard of them before. And if you have, they have a new album. If you don't know about it, go check it out. ah definitely more kind of locked in than lot of their older stuff.
01:16:41
Speaker
You know, I think more, what's the word trip? Give me the English word now.
01:16:47
Speaker
um I'm not sure you're going with this.
01:16:52
Speaker
ah Well, better produced, if you will, right? It's tighter. It's better produced. it's it's um It's a much better produced album all around.
01:17:02
Speaker
Yeah, so it's kind of cool. The name is, you know, it's fun. Either you hate it or you love it, and you can still listen to the music. Nice. I'll have to check it out. I have also music, but from the complete opposite side of the spectrum in many ways.
01:17:20
Speaker
Disco. Not disco, but closer than what you what you talked about. I talked about this before Coop Show on Thursday, um which unfortunately my internet went into maintenance mode at midnight.
01:17:36
Speaker
And so suddenly I missed the last 10 minutes of the show or so. But I talked. Nicaragua, just like the power grid in Nicaragua. Well, apparently i I knew what it was immediately. My internet stopped working. I was like, I bet that email they sent me yesterday is scheduled maintenance coming at midnight on Thursday night. And that's exactly what it said.
01:17:58
Speaker
um but I was talking to Coop about it and I gave it another listen today and I was just like damn so and this is I'll I will say this is not at all my genre not even a little bit material girl by Madonna came out I believe the year I was born 1984.
01:18:23
Speaker
nineteen eighty four ah back before she turned into a blobfish exactly um I was very late to the party on this but in I think it was January or February uh they released a 2024 remastered version of material girl and I heard it in the car like a month ago and was like how is this the same song how is this the same recording it sounds so much better it's like a different song and i just think it sounds so good that i am shocked by it i can't believe how good this the remaster of a 40 year old song sounds but it sounds incredible
01:19:11
Speaker
and it like brings new life to the song that you've heard a million times on the radio at cvs um man i'm just i was shocked by it and i listened to it again today and was like yeah this song really holds up like until they remastered it it was just another one of those 80s songs that was huge when it came out but has turned into just a song from the 80s, and it's a really just well-produced, well-performed song.
01:19:45
Speaker
Great song. Sam Finnell says, as he said earlier, he loved Abigail from our right recommendation last week. Absolutely. Abigail was fantastic. I loved that movie.
01:19:58
Speaker
Oh, the movie, not the song. Oh, maybe he's talking about the song. I think he's talking about the movie, though.
01:20:06
Speaker
Did you talk about a song named Abigail last week? Well, I mean, King Diamond. i don't know if Sam's into King Diamond, but I haven't heard it. I think he's talking about the movie. Okay. Throw on Abigail by King Diamond and and and let your ears just bleed for ah for a minute and a half. It's fantastic.
01:20:22
Speaker
I know at some point I definitely recommended Abigail. I don't remember when it was. um But yeah, that's a great movie. It's just so much fun. Such like a over-the-top...
01:20:34
Speaker
ah cheese fest kind of movie but has enough teeth that uh it's actually still qualifies as like a horror movie you know it's still still thrilling to watch i love that movie i think i've watched it three or four times since it came out not that long ago um dennis final thoughts on the cigar Should people check it out? Should they skip it?
01:21:01
Speaker
Is it worth $14.99? No, $15.99. Is it $15.99? No, $14.99. Sorry. Listen, I think $14.99, as like me, for a long time I have purposely avoided McAnunas because I have tried and tried and tried and just not really enjoyed the ones that I've i picked up.
01:21:22
Speaker
um I've never been a McAnunas fan. and This is, again, the this and the Flint Knoll, are the two cigars that I really absolutely love and were so I was so surprised by that i I've smoked.
01:21:32
Speaker
Now this is my 10th one. So I've smoked through 10 of these things. I kind of really dig it and I love that they're doing this. I want to see more of this, but I'm worried that I think because many people hold the same kind of opinion as I do.
01:21:47
Speaker
you know We've avoided Macanudo for whatever reason. We've not really enjoyed their offerings over the years. It's going to be harder for us to get in, but I think new consumers will be more likely to say, oh, all right, could be a good cigar. It could be worth worth smoking. So definitely try it if you haven't.
01:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, i completely agree. um This cigar, I think, is worth picking up. If you see it in your B&M, if you see it available on your favorite online shop, I think it's worth trying out.
01:22:17
Speaker
It's a ah really well-done cigar with um like we were talking about with jay new flavors that you don't get every day um and just a really interesting blend i'm really curious where the emissary project goes from here um i think they could do some really interesting things with some tobaccos that people haven't had in a cigar um ever if often deutschland perhaps i mean the german tobacco scene is arguably
01:22:48
Speaker
coming up yeah exactly uh but it's coming up there's tobacco in germany there's estelle or estelle italy um i mean all of eastern and southeastern europe grow tobaccos so it's uh you know all over the place sweden netherlands they all love tobacco and they all grow i assume a crap ton of it
01:23:14
Speaker
Okay, Jay says, smoke an aged Macanudo pre-SDG with the Jamaican wrapper, and it will redefine your opinion on Macanudo. oh yeah I haven't had the pleasure of smoking any of those old, old, old Jamaican ones. Neither have I. But I've heard very good things.
01:23:30
Speaker
I've heard nothing but praise for those days of Macanudo. um If I could go back in time, I'd snag some. But alas.
01:23:41
Speaker
All right, well, I guess it's time to wrap up the show. We will miss you guys next week because we will be on our way home from Lozona Palooza when the show kicks off. um But keep an eye on our social.
01:23:52
Speaker
ah We will be posting from Lozona Palooza.
Lozona Palooza Plans and Excitement
01:23:56
Speaker
We'll try to do a video or two at least, ah you know, at least something on my phone. Just, hey, hey, guys, we're drinking this and smoking this.
01:24:03
Speaker
And keep you guys updated to what we're doing and what's going on because that should be fun. We're very excited to go see all our our friends at Lozona Palooza. I've been not getting my hair cut in preparation for getting it cut there because the best haircut I've ever had in my life is from the guy there.
01:24:23
Speaker
it's It is what you do. It is the classic. um I'm also very excited for it. I've been hol trying to do grow out my thing here and now, fix it. The flock of ravens. the Man, that hairstyle right now is what you should rock.
01:24:36
Speaker
I'm just... You got the Brian sets are gone. Peacock and through town. It's Johnny Bravo, but smaller edition. But yeah, so we'll we'll be in Miami.
01:24:49
Speaker
We'll be palling around with some of our friends. We'll be meeting up with some people at Zona Palooza. We'll be eating some good meals. um We'll try to take some pictures, take some videos, keep you guys apprised to what's going on.
01:25:01
Speaker
um And then when we get back, we haven't picked a cigar out yet, um but we'll be doing a little handoff of cigar packages, so we'll have lots of options to choose from. We'll get it all figured out before then.
01:25:13
Speaker
um
01:25:16
Speaker
Jay says, Lizona Palooza, the birthplace of El Oso Fumar takes. Is it? I don't think I know the story behind that. I'll have to ask Bear about it. It actually might be. have to ask Bear about that. ah But man, we love Lozona Palooza. It's a great, it's one of my favorite events in all of the cigar business because it's just hanging out with a bunch of cool people, um smoking a bunch of good cigars, drinking a bunch of good drinks, eating a bunch of good food.
01:25:41
Speaker
It's a blast.
01:25:43
Speaker
um thank you sam he says great show he'll be watching el oso fumar check out uh el oso fumar takes with bear tonight he wasn't able to do our show i don't think he's gonna be smoking during his show um but you know that's that comes with the territory and especially when you do an interview show when we're sick we gotta to call it out because we can't taste anything um but uh when he's sick he toughs through it so he's gonna be uh interviewing gosh i can't remember the guest's name
01:26:18
Speaker
um it was a lady i believe yeah it it was i just don't want to get her name wrong um so i'm i'm holding off on what my my thought was janine janine perdomo um i was i was gonna say from perdomo but i didn't want to get to it and have it be the wrong company um gotta fact check myself so he's gonna interviewing janine perdomo from perdomo cigars that should be a good one i'm gonna watch it Everybody have a good night.
Closing Remarks and Future Episodes
01:26:47
Speaker
Thanks for hanging out with us. We will see you in two weeks. um And see you from the road a little bit at Lizana Palooza. I should have talked about the barn smoker, but we'll have time for that in the next episode.
01:27:01
Speaker
So everybody have a great and safe week, two weeks, rather, without us. um Dennis, hit with the catchphrase with that glorious flock of hey flock of penguins haircut.
01:27:15
Speaker
Jeez, it's crazy. All right, I'll do something with this here. Anyway, thank you everybody for watching and listening, and and remember, we want you to drink better, but we wanted to drink less. We'll be back.