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Let's Get Pairing 37 - Tatuaje CiGWAR 2015
7 Plays8 days ago
This week, we feature the Tatuaje CiGWAR! In 2014, Pete Johnson created the original CiGWAR for Richmond-based metal band GWAR to release at their annual GWAR-B-Q event. This week, we celebrate Halloween by breaking out the second iteration these extremely limited cigars with a few pairings!
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Transcript
Introduction and Technical Issues
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody! Welcome to Let's Get Pairing. This is episode 37. Today we're going to be smoking the Seguir from 2015. This is the second release. We'll talk we'll get talking all about that. so But for now, just know we're smoking the Seguir.
00:00:15
Speaker
um For now, just grab yourself a drink. Grab yourself a cigar. Let's get pairing!
00:00:59
Speaker
I just figured it out. The frame dropping, it's my firewall. I just got an error.
00:01:06
Speaker
i'll I'll be back.
00:01:58
Speaker
And we're back. Hopefully that doesn't happen anymore. But well, it looks like our video is not being picked up by Facebook at all.
00:02:17
Speaker
All right. I thought it wasn't working because it still says it's dropping packets. ah But I think it might be working. Nope, it's not working. On the live feed, it was working for a second.
00:02:32
Speaker
And then it stopped, and then it started again. So it's just like constantly freezing. Anyway, this doesn't work. Please watch the video tomorrow. And sorry about that. all I'll do some troubleshooting tomorrow and see if I can get figure out what's going on.
Locations and Movie Reference
00:02:46
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Let's Get Pairing, episode 37. I'm your host, Tripp, here in the Casa de Monte Cristo studio, sunny Florida, with Dennis, hanging out at the the Stanley Hotel, right?
00:03:01
Speaker
Overlook. Overlook Hotel. Okay, Stanley Hotel is the haunted one. ah Speaking of which, ah that that movie we were just talking about in the green room, did you notice the ah the carpet in there?
00:03:12
Speaker
I did. it was fantastic. They have it in a couple places in that movie. Nice, nice, subtle touch. Coming from Austin the other week, there was a bar that I went to whose entire floor was tile, and it was the same pattern.
00:03:27
Speaker
It was fantastic. You gotta love it, man. it's It's such a like a subtle, classy way to reference a horror movie, and I love it. ah Anyway, everybody, welcome back. Hopefully you can hear us.
00:03:39
Speaker
If
Seguir Cigar Discussion
00:03:40
Speaker
you can't, I apologize. And you're hearing us on Tuesday or Monday. ah But for now, we're smoking the Seguir 2015. Dennis, you want to hear ah all about what the Seguir is all about?
00:03:54
Speaker
I'm dying. Tell me. This is one that I missed. ah You know, when they were coming out and I was really big into Seguir stuff, this is this is a release that I never got my hands on. So I'm very excited to smoke it tonight.
00:04:06
Speaker
Well, so i am I grew up in Virginia for the first couple years and spent a lot of time going back to visit Virginia over the years.
00:04:18
Speaker
ah This cigar came out in 2015, and i think it was 2017 when I went to visit. um I'm trying to remember what the occasion was.
00:04:30
Speaker
I don't remember exactly. i think it might have been when my my grandmother passed. But it might have been a little bit after that. ah Either way, I ended up there for a couple days um to spend some time with family. And i as as one does, when you're in a ah a strange city, you hit you hit up a cigar shop.
00:04:52
Speaker
um I hit up a cigar shop, and I didn't even realize when I looked it up on Google that it was Havana Connections in Richmond, ah which is the the shop the only shop that sold these.
00:05:03
Speaker
um And they still had a bunch of packs left. So I bought, I think, two of each. might have been two of of one, three of the other, of 2014s and 15s. Because somehow they still had them on the shelf. So I just bought a couple handfuls.
00:05:17
Speaker
um And that's where this came from. So I've had this for seven years now or so. And, yeah, they're smoking pretty good, I think.
00:05:28
Speaker
I haven't smoked one in a couple of years. All right, so the story of the Seguir. is that ah Pete Johnson in 2014 released this cigar.
00:05:40
Speaker
I don't know exactly... Details are kind of slim on exactly how it came together. um we should We should ask Pete about it next time he's on the show, maybe. Yeah, man. ah But Pete blended this cigar for Gwar after the members of the band smoked through a little monster sampler and kind of gave him feedback of, I liked this, I didn't like that one,
00:06:02
Speaker
liked this one a lot, but I hated this aspect of it. And he kind of blended a cigar specifically for what he thought they would like based on that feedback. So the original was all Nicaraguan with a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper.
00:06:16
Speaker
This one is the follow-up, which had ah Ecuadorian Sancti Spiritus Maduro, which, if you don't if that doesn't sound familiar, it's very rarely used cigar leaf that is used um in pretty much everything in the Atelier portfolio on the Tatuaje brand.
00:06:35
Speaker
And was also used in a couple other things, like the ah the Jekyll... And or the Hyde. I know one of them was Sancti Spirit. um I think it was the Hyde. But yeah, it's it's such such a popular use in Letelier stuff.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah. um And man, it's just got it's just got a unique flavor, I think. um So, like I said, 2014, these were released at GWAR's annual Cigarbecue.
00:07:01
Speaker
Sorry. I always want to call it Cigarbecue. Knowing this cigar exists has turned GWAR into Cigar in my head. So anytime I think the band GWAR, I think Cigar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's
GWAR and Local Events
00:07:13
Speaker
GWARbecue.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yes, the Gwarbecue, which was an annual event that until Odorous died was an annual event that they held in Richmond for many years. I think 14 was the 16th one or so.
00:07:27
Speaker
um But they're a local Richmond band. they you know That's where they're from. um If you're unfamiliar with Gwar, I don't quite know how to describe them to you. They are comedy heavy metal with blood and slide and ah well, yeah, they're they're aliens. Everybody knows that, right?
00:07:49
Speaker
um
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, I don't even know how to describe them. They're awesome. their Their live shows are awesome if you've ever had the chance to go to one.
00:08:00
Speaker
ah Yeah, so this is the 2015. twenty fifteen Like I said, I have a 2014 left, but I don't know. I didn't have two of those that we could smoke on the show. This is 5x50.
00:08:11
Speaker
A three-pack of these, when they were around, was $35, which doesn't seem too shabby for something this limited. ah The original one, i think there were five.
00:08:22
Speaker
No. I'm trying to do math right now, and it's not working. They made 1,500 of this one I believe the original one, they made 1,000 packs plus 1,000 singles that were given away at the Seguarbecue.
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it was a See, called it Seguarbecue again. The Guarbecue. That's fine. So these are very small production. About 4,500 sticks of each blend were made.
00:08:47
Speaker
ah And the last time they were available was 2015, so this is something a little special. Dennis, what do you think so far?
Seguir Flavors and Pairings
00:08:56
Speaker
All right. Number one, she old. And I say this specifically because oftentimes we talk about cigars that have aged for a period of time. Um, More often than not, you end up hearing things like, well, it's a little subtle. It's it's it's a little bit light.
00:09:13
Speaker
There's not a whole lot of flavor. It kind of dies out, which makes sense, right? Because the oils over time, as things start to evaporate, even under good humidification, you end up getting like more of the subtle flavors.
00:09:26
Speaker
This is a cigar that i I, dare I say, I may not even have wanted to smoke like when it was fresh. I think h has done it really well in that it's mellowed out a lot of that sharp characteristic to it.
00:09:39
Speaker
No doubt that it had an interesting sharpness to it. um And sharpness being not necessarily strength, but ah ah kind of a full flavor kick in your face, heavy cocoa, lot of black pepper spice.
00:09:52
Speaker
I'm getting a lot less of that now. um mostly, honestly, a lot of baking spice. Baking spice with a little bit of black pepper on top. There's a twang to it that can't put my finger on.
00:10:04
Speaker
I'm a little surprised that you say that because to me, this does not taste like an old cigar. This tastes like a two or three-year-old cigar. but Well, yeah, it doesn't taste like an old cigar at all.
00:10:14
Speaker
It still has a lot of punch to it. um I'm getting a little bit of black pepper, like you said, a little bit of baking spice, um kind of a little bit of earth.
00:10:29
Speaker
I'm trying to think of i know what kind of earth I'm thinking of. It's anise. There's an anise flavor to it.
00:10:38
Speaker
Not to be confused with anise. I could see that. Yeah, that makes sense to me. um There is definitely a little bit of that. that I always call it anise to keep from any kind of confusion, if you know what I'm saying.
00:10:53
Speaker
um
00:10:58
Speaker
Nothing from the bottom, only from the top. Only from the top. Okay. ah But yeah, there's a little bit of that like star anise kind of flavor. There's... ah I'm still trying to figure out that the earthy note, how I would describe that.
00:11:12
Speaker
Damp hay, I guess. Cardamom. Maybe a little clove. Yeah, that's that's like in line with the baking spice stuff. I'm yeah I don't get as specific with baking spices because I have a hard time separating them.
00:11:26
Speaker
But like cinnamon, clove, cardamom, all those kind of flavors kind of meld together for me.
00:11:35
Speaker
And yeah, and so i I appreciate the fact that it actually doesn't, to your point earlier, just to clarify, it doesn't taste old for an old cigar in that it doesn't taste like effectively newspaper.
00:11:48
Speaker
Or nothing. Or nothing. You get nothing or you get newspaper at best. I get a lot of spice on the retro hill of this too. A lot of like black pepper. And there's there's some kind of flavor that I can't put my finger on, but as soon as I tasted it, i was like...
00:12:04
Speaker
That tastes exactly like that flavor I can't put my finger on in the Jekyll or the Hyde, whichever one it was. um And it reminds me of...
00:12:18
Speaker
I'm trying to think of it because it feels very specific. like Almost like lime rind and black tea mixed together. So licking the outset of a truffle.
00:12:29
Speaker
something like that i've never licked the outside of a truffle yet um not the mushroom the the the uh the chocolate no not quite not quite chocolatey it's got like that that little that little bite that lime lime zest has you know oh it's the astringency yeah i guess so acidity Might be the word.
00:12:54
Speaker
ah Either way, it's fantastic. This is a fantastic cigar so far. I'm really glad that we chose to do this. This is our our sort of Halloween episode, but we're not really doing anything too special. It was just a reason to bust out this cigar.
00:13:08
Speaker
Because it was close to Halloween. You know what i mean? Speaking of, how was Halloween for you? uh we don't go out and party like we used to when we were kids no no to be fair i never really did we went out uh with the kids we did some trick-or-treating with the kids which was really nice and uh uneventful for the most part otherwise you know not not crazy certainly not like it would have been to your point years ago um which is nice i kind of i like that i just Nowadays, i just want to be spooky more or less by myself or just with my family. Yeah, exactly. I watched some scary movies that I ah went trick-or-treating with the kids at the fancy neighborhood. It's it's very weird. This is the first time in my life that I've ever been in a neighborhood. oh to the fancy neighborhood?
00:13:54
Speaker
No, i I'm in a neighborhood where we are this is the second year in a row that we've lived here, and we've gone to the same place. We leave my dad here.
00:14:05
Speaker
In two years, we have not had a single trick-or-treater. Our neighborhood, there is no trick-or-treating. It's just not a thing. ah So we have a fancy neighborhood nearby that we drive to.
00:14:19
Speaker
um And this year they didn't seem to go as all out. I feel like maybe they're mad at all those of us who don't live in a neighborhood where everybody busses their kids in. Yeah. And everybody buses in truckloads full of kids and then hits up this neighborhood. It's still a cool neighborhood. But last year it was like popping. There were houses that were giving out beer.
00:14:39
Speaker
There was a house that was doing shots. yeah Yeah. Yeah. We got the same deal. It's amazing. yeah It was a lot of fun. Yeah. We have a separate section for the adults, and you go over there and you get stickers and beers and all kinds of stuff, which is really cool.
00:14:53
Speaker
This one did have, though, a guy. ah He came running out of a garage. like you know everybody The MO at this place is that you set up a table at the bottom of your driveway so the kids don't have to come up the driveway. They just stop.
00:15:10
Speaker
get their candy, keep going down the sidewalk. that's part This guy comes running out between two cars with a chainsaw. And it was like full going gas over what do you call it? Not lean. What's the opposite of lean?
00:15:26
Speaker
Rich. With a rich gasoline mix. so It was just spraying smoke out. It had no chain on it. To a kid, that's still very, very scary. so He was just running up and down the street swinging that thing around.
00:15:38
Speaker
and It was awesome watching just people spread. I was dressed as Leatherface. and I constantly tell my wife, I need to buy an old, almost working Japanese ah japanese ah chainsaw.
00:15:52
Speaker
ah You'll know why I said Japanese in a few minutes. Asahi, eh? Not quite. An old chainsaw, so I can do that. um And she always tells me it's not a good idea. So i I've just stuck to the the occasional, like, you know, at the person walking past me kind of thing while I've got my full leather face garb on.
00:16:13
Speaker
It's still fun. She was also suggesting I go as Florida leather face this year and just wear shorts because it was hot out.
00:16:22
Speaker
But I couldn't do it. I had to wear the dress pants. You know, one of my favorite scenes with with the ah no god this the CPR dummy where it took the face off and just put it on. oh from the office.
00:16:35
Speaker
From the office. Where cut off the face. He didn't take off. He sliced it off. Yeah. um Yeah, so yeah, Halloween was fun.
Freem Brewing and Pairings
00:16:44
Speaker
Anyway, let's get into some pairing. Let's slip.
00:16:47
Speaker
let slip what my first thing is here. Some Japanese lager. What? From where? So this from Freem in Portland, well, Hood River, Oregon.
00:16:58
Speaker
So got I started up Tavor again. going be having some beers from all over the place. um Honestly, the thing that gets me most excited on Tavor is when there's breweries I used to be able to buy at the grocery store that I cannot get my hands on at all anymore since I moved like an idiot.
00:17:15
Speaker
um And Freem is one of those Those breweries where every like six months I'll check their website just to see like maybe they started shipping to Florida.
00:17:25
Speaker
Maybe I can just order a couple cases a beer. um But alas, they don't. um Luckily, Tavor has my back and can sometimes get their hands on some frame stuff. So I went for this Freem Japanese lager. So Freem, based in Hood River, Oregon. They were started by a guy named Josh Freem in 2012 with two friends. he It's weird because in the one of the stories, I think the story that's on their website, it says that he met these two guys at a kid's birthday party, which, you know, you might know a little something about that.
00:17:58
Speaker
yeah he He met these two guys at a kid's birthday party and they struck a up a conversation over beer. um They also did work at the same brewery, so that may have been later on. They may have known each other for years, but something was lost in translation there.
00:18:12
Speaker
Anyway, ah this guy, Josh Freem. and his two friends started in 2012. Josh started his career in brewing at Utah at at a brewery called Squatter's Brewing.
00:18:25
Speaker
He quickly kind of realized how much he loves lagers, both making them and drinking them, and ah it really got to flex those muscles during a hop shortage that they had, where the hops that this ah brewery was using weren't available anymore, so they had to find an alternative source and make a similar beer. So he really like cemented his love for lagers in ah recreating this beer with new hops to try to make something similar that he thought was great.
00:19:02
Speaker
um To great success. Apparently was very successful. He then went on to move back to his home state of Washington to work at Chuckanut. which was a small brewery up there before ending up at, he kind of wanted to, see what the big boys were doing. So he went to work at full sale brewing, which is, we were talking last week about kind of the, the difference between a microbrewery and a regional brewery.
00:19:26
Speaker
Full sale is kind of a regional brewery. They, they're not, I don't know if they're still around cause I hadn't seen their stuff in years. Um, But they had a couple of very ah pretty basic beers.
00:19:41
Speaker
ah Think of Widmer or Henry. Henry Winehart's were kind of the other the other big breweries in Oregon that were a that had a little bit more footprint.
00:19:53
Speaker
ah But he worked there for a few years. That was the brewery where those two other friends that started freeing with him worked as well. ah And in 2012, they decided, let's quit our jobs and start our own brewery.
00:20:07
Speaker
And so they did. ah They built a brew system specifically designed for lagering. ah And so, you know, obviously their first two beers were a wheat ale and a blonde IPA because that's what they thought would be popular.
00:20:21
Speaker
And they thought if they made lagers out of their brand new lagering system, nobody would buy it. um So they spent a while, a few years actually, not making any lagers. In 2014, they released their first pillsner just free Pilsner, Freeing Pilsner, and that was where they really took off.
00:20:43
Speaker
Within a year of releasing it, they had won an award at, I think it was the Great American Brewfest for Best Pilsner, which is a huge honor. um And since then, they've now been in business over a decade.
00:20:56
Speaker
um They're renowned not just for their dedicated dedication to loggers and pills pilsners, um but they've kind of got a very Belgian-inspired product. belgianpid barrel aging program, which is super cool. So there's a lot of, uh, uh, Dennis, I know a style that is very close to your heart. They've got a Flanders red ale.
00:21:17
Speaker
Oh, they've got, uh, they've got pretty much anything you can think of barrel aged at some point. um and they just have a constantly rotating barrel aging program that's really pretty spectacular.
00:21:29
Speaker
um If you are local, you can sign up for their barrel club where you ah you get every, I think it's every month, you get like five new barrel-aged beers from them.
00:21:41
Speaker
I think, if I remember correctly, one of which per month or one of which per quarter is exclusive to club members. I never did that, but I always wished I had. On to their Japanese lager.
00:21:53
Speaker
Man, I learned a lot about Japanese lager just looking at their page. So Japanese beer, ah as we talked about ah couple weeks ago, right? We talked about it at some point. we got we kind of Probably three weeks or so. Yeah, three or four weeks ago when I had that Sapporo.
00:22:09
Speaker
um During the early days of Japanese brewing, which is like the 1890s to early 1900s, Japan had, I don't know, I think I read about 100 breweries, two of which were like the big ones, Sapporo and Asahi.
00:22:27
Speaker
ah say
00:22:29
Speaker
ah And it quickly became apparent, ah not just to the breweries, but to common folk, that ah if you're going making all this beer, where are you getting all that barley? Because we don't have barley.
00:22:43
Speaker
Or hops, for that matter. um So it kind of became a thing where... High-end Japanese breweries would import all of their ingredients from Europe, and the the less group scrupulous ones would ah say that they're importing all their ingredients from Europe.
00:23:04
Speaker
Of course they did. why Why else would they not? um so It kind of became a huge part of advertising that we use only European ingredients in our beer for a while. That kind of died down after the early 1900s when you know importing and exporting became more normalized for Japan.
00:23:23
Speaker
Sometime around... I couldn't find an exact history on this. Sometime around the 80s, maybe as early as the 70s, is when the what what is now called Super Dry,
00:23:34
Speaker
started coming out, the Asahi Super Dry. And the change there, what makes it super dry is rice, which I never knew. That's why it's called Super Dry. Oh, yeah. Because you end up with that much crisper, much drier, much less sweet flavor profile that really Japanese beer is known for.
00:23:53
Speaker
So for this beer, um inspired by both those early days of Japanese brewing and the more recent use of rice, this lager is brewed with European malts and hops and rice.
00:24:07
Speaker
So it's kind of fusing those two eras of at the different ends of Japanese brewing together. um If you care, it's got pearl sauce and celia hops, which I'm not even familiar with. I've never heard of oh Very curious. R-A-A.
00:24:22
Speaker
C-E-L-E-I-A.
00:24:25
Speaker
celia um the malts are cmc superior pilsen wire meyer pilsner rice and carafoam um yeah so you end up with man i've already been crushing this because i love this beer ah but you end up with this very crisp but very heady light lager um I'm going to take a couple sips, take a couple draws on this cigar and see how it pairs.
00:24:53
Speaker
ah But I have a feeling this going to be a good pairing because this is a very light, crisp lager. think um
00:25:02
Speaker
I think if ah if you've ever had a beer at a Japanese restaurant, this is a really good version of that beer, which I always i always get a beer at a Japanese restaurant, right? You must.
00:25:15
Speaker
A Sapporo, whatever the other one is that I can't remember off the top my head right now. Oh, Orion. I've never had that one. Orion is one of my favorites, and I happen to always get it.
00:25:29
Speaker
when I'm traveling out of Philadelphia, out of the airport, even if it's the morning time, I know there's one little Japanese stand that has some food and stuff and they have a cooler that you can get different from.
00:25:41
Speaker
And they have it bottled, they have it canned, and For better worse, I think Orion is a great breakfast beer if you're traveling. Good to know. um But this is kind of in that vein. it's I hesitate to compare them because they're really nothing alike, but ingredient-wise, it's similar to the macro beers.
00:26:00
Speaker
you know that Your Budweiser, your Bud Light, stuff like that. Ingredient-wise, they're similar, but flavor, they're really not. like If I could say this was... I guess you could think of this as a very, very full-bodied and crisp and much more flavorful Coors Light.
00:26:17
Speaker
But I feel like that's kind of ah not a good comparison. You know, i I would say thinking through it, I i find that... um Hold on now.
00:26:31
Speaker
Let me think through this for a second. I find that something like a High Life, a Miller High Life, is so light in flavor and very, in some ways, very close to those classic rice, Japanese rice beers.
00:26:45
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm, again, purposely excluding Budweiser because we know they're almost entirely rice-based. That's their whole jam. However, in my opinion, I think...
00:26:59
Speaker
Budweiser takes rice to the to that level where rice the rice flavor turns into almost like a ah light bubblegum wheat kind of thing. Yeah, like a sourness kind of thing.
00:27:11
Speaker
There's a little funk to it, and that's because they use an extensive amount. It's not just barley and then some rice. It's almost entirely rice with a little bit of barley. Yeah, with this, you're getting you're getting that light, crisp body from the rice, but then you're getting a ton of flavor from those malts.
00:27:29
Speaker
Anyway, what are you drinking first? And then I'll tell you more about this and how it tastes. in In my very faded glass, you can't see because of this this green screen action.
00:27:40
Speaker
So I'm running mobile. For those of you that don't know, ah my entire setup died. died um My whole setup died, so I'm just running off of my laptop right now for better or worse.
00:27:52
Speaker
Here we are. I'm drinking a golden ale. This is a homebrew creation from Odd Dug Brewing Company. I didn't personally make this one. ah You know, when my neighbor and I, when we brew, I make a beer and he makes a beer. So we brew side by side, but we brew different beers.
00:28:10
Speaker
We do different batches, and then we end up with you know kind of two interesting different beers that we can sample together once they're ready. So this was one of his. This is a Golden Ale. Kind of a clone, really. It's meant to be a clone of Kona.
00:28:25
Speaker
Kona Golden Ale. Golden Ales are kind of cool because they were originally back in the eighty s early 80s, would say probably 1981, 1980. They came nineteen eighty they came out to kind of bridge the gap. They call them bridge beers loosely. It's not really, I wouldn't call it a proper term, but to some people they call these bridge beers.
00:28:46
Speaker
Bridge beers specifically because they they were trying to take people that were drinking mass-produced beers, think Budweiser, think Schlitz, Coors, right? all All the big names.
00:28:58
Speaker
PBR, of course. And they were trying to get those people into a new kind of demographic of of beer that was being released. At the time, they didn't call it craft beer, but it was a little bit different.
00:29:11
Speaker
It's called bridge beers. And golden ale kind of came out of that. It's a little bit more um a little bit more intense. Again, the IBUs are pretty light. Maximum, you're looking at probably between 15 25 IBU. So not bitter.
00:29:25
Speaker
so not very bitter And also not very alcoholic. Generally, you're looking at probably at most, I think, 6%, but really between 4% and 5%, to be fair.
00:29:37
Speaker
um So they're meant to be crisp. They're meant to be very easy to drink. They're meant to be light. Obviously, this is, there it is. Pretty light.
00:29:49
Speaker
And, you know, truth be told, there's a whole lot of this available. So i I'm kind of trying to chip away at the block of the five gallons of beer that's available to drink.
00:30:01
Speaker
But it's working, the cigar. Good. um Mine is working great with the cigar. So I found really interestingly, I didn't notice in the previous cans of this that I've had in the last week. Yeah.
00:30:15
Speaker
But with this cigar, I noticed there's like a really distinct fruity note. Reminds me of like... I hate pear, but it reminds me a little bit of the smell of a pear.
00:30:27
Speaker
And they call this very floral on the nose. But i don't I don't completely get it. There's a little bit of floral, but I really just smell pops. know The smell of a pear is such an interesting point.
00:30:39
Speaker
I... It's so hard to describe. I understand what you're saying when you say smell of a pear, but I understand that it's also really difficult to, if you've never taken the time to smell a ripe pear, it may seem kind of weird.
00:30:56
Speaker
But i for for me, there's a certain tannic astringency to to the skin of a pear that I always associate with either pear juice or or just eating a pear that tends to come out for me with with certain champagnes.
00:31:11
Speaker
like That's where I get the most.
00:31:15
Speaker
um Yeah, the that that little fruity sweetness to this really really gives it an edge. advice um And I just find that that how clean it is works really well with the the kind of full-bodied nature of this cigar.
00:31:31
Speaker
I'm very curious how my next few pairings are going to go because they are not clean and crisp like this one is. Oh, you and me both. ah Nice. How's the Kona knockoff working?
00:31:44
Speaker
I think it's good, man. I think it's it's it's just light enough where ah I'm trying not to smoke through the cigar too fast. Me too. I'm struggling. i'm I'm getting to this point where I'm...
00:31:58
Speaker
Like I'm trying to put it down and not touch it too much. Yep. I'm doing the same thing because this is a little five by 50 and we are known for smoking through cigars a little faster than usual on this show because we're trying to get all the flavor out.
00:32:10
Speaker
But I like this. I think the the first third, maybe even beyond the first third of the cigar really warrants a much lighter pairing than you would normally do. So I wouldn't do personally. I don't think I would even do a rum with this. I would want, um,
00:32:25
Speaker
Something just kind of light and clean bubbles. Always very good. Opens up the palate a little bit, right? ah Light beer. Great choice. Nice, light, clean, crisp lager.
00:32:36
Speaker
I think it's a fantastic choice for the cigar.
00:32:42
Speaker
ah Jay Davis is talking about how Coop hates floral. And yeah, he does. And Jay is smoking floral. he I think he doesn't.
00:32:53
Speaker
ah he has not yet discovered the definition of floral. but He hasn't discovered the right floral. that what you're saying? well Well, that there there are elements to floral that people go, holy shit, this is this is curious, right?
00:33:07
Speaker
This is when you when you see people that drink rum and they've spent their years drinking industrial rum and they go into agri-coal and they go, holy shit, this is crazy. I didn't know I could get pear and and jasmine flower out of a rum.
00:33:20
Speaker
That's that floral. It's different. It's a different world of floral that I think it takes time. we can We'll fix scoop. It's fine. Not that there's anything wrong with them. we'll We'll get them on the same page. ah Jay is also smoking a Diamond Crown No. 9 and a Black Currant iced tea, which both yeah sounds fabulous.
00:33:37
Speaker
I just had a Diamond Crown last night, and I just... Fantastic. i it never It never ceases to make me happy. many Big fan.
00:33:48
Speaker
Good cigars. Alright, so on to my next pairing, which ah may be a mistake based on what you just told me.
Ty Caton Vineyards and Jokes
00:33:54
Speaker
Got no bubbles. It's not light. Oh, good lord. You guys...
00:33:59
Speaker
I wanted to try try this out with a wine. um And as people may know, I'm not a um not much of a wine connoisseur. I enjoy a good wine, but I don't know much about it, so I had to do some research here.
00:34:13
Speaker
This is one that I've enjoyed on many occasions. I bought i bought years ago like 10 bottles of this um in several vintages. ah But this is from Ty Caton Vineyards. Ty Caton's an interesting cat.
00:34:26
Speaker
um who's kind of a farmer first, winemaker second. In 1997, he's a Sonoma native. In 1997, he moved back to Sonoma after spending a successful few years in his younger years in the real estate market.
00:34:46
Speaker
And somehow he convinced his parents to let him turn their 108-acre property into a vineyard. So he took off work and spent the next three years developing the property to prepare it to be a vineyard.
00:35:00
Speaker
2000, they had their first harvest. And that on their website, they make it sound like this iss a tiny amount. um But he sold most of his grapes that were harvested that first year and held back enough to make his first 500 cases of wine.
00:35:17
Speaker
That seems like a shit ton of wine, don't you think? lot of wine. It's a lot of, again, you're investing. That's 3,000 bottles of wine, man. you're not If you're not sure exactly how it's going to turn out, that is a huge investment.
00:35:32
Speaker
yeah Even if you are sure and you have your process dialed down, you're still putting money down on something that potentially, depending on the conditions, may end up not well. Similarly to tobacco, you might get a great piece of tobacco from a farm, from a crop, and then by the time you get to the final stage where you're ready to roll, tobacco is just it's not good. It's too brittle. It's too dry. There's a problem with it.
00:35:55
Speaker
It's too thin. um So, yeah, it's a big deal. So it says a lot that he put 500 cases a lot of money, man. Yeah, exactly. Luckily for him, he had made the wine or the the grapes. You know, he grew them. So it wasn't like he was paying for them.
00:36:09
Speaker
He was just not making money off of them. Well, don't forget, growing stuff is very expensive as well. That's true. cheap um Well, over the years, he has slowly transitioned one year after the next to selling most of his
00:36:28
Speaker
harvested grapes to other vineyards to using almost all of it himself and selling a small portion. These days, the brand is making about 10,000 cases per year, which is a lot more.
00:36:42
Speaker
They have like... It's a really interesting wine company because they don't... they don't have constant new releases or anything like that. They're basically just pumping out the same stuff every couple years.
00:36:55
Speaker
They'll make the ball field. So raw, they'll make the other. So raw, they'll make their Cabernet. They've got a couple of blends they do, but they really, you know, it's everything they make is grown on their farm.
00:37:06
Speaker
So they have limited means of production there. But from what I've had, what they make is very good. There's about 30 $40 bottle of wine.
00:37:18
Speaker
ah This is their Ball Field Syrah, which is named because the part of the vineyard where these grapes are grown was originally a baseball field back in the 30s.
00:37:30
Speaker
This one is a 2014 vintage, so it was grown 2014 using 100% Syrah grapes grown on that corner of the Caton Vineyard. Aged 18 or 19 months. I saw a couple conflicting pieces of information. In 50% new French oak.
00:37:47
Speaker
Which I assume means 50% new, 50% once used.
00:37:55
Speaker
Clocks in at 15% ABV. to To tell you how how big his first release of wine was, that 500 cases that we talked about, they only made 242 cases of this one that year.
00:38:07
Speaker
And this... you could still buy as ah as as of a few years ago. I don't know if there's still any around now.
00:38:16
Speaker
Jay says, Syrah grapes are yummy, and I completely agree. the um I love Syrah, Petite Syrah, Regular Syrah, um That's my only real ah watermark for my, it's it's like my only landmark out in the ocean.
00:38:35
Speaker
If I see Syrah on a bottle, I'm like, I'll probably like that one. If it says any other words on it, it's a crapshoot, man. yeah i you know I think the only thing they missed out on, they have all these varietals of Syrah, all these different expressions, if you will.
00:38:51
Speaker
and They missed ah a very important point. They could have done something very cool with it. They could have called it Que Syrah Syrah, aged in limousine oak. That's what I would do.
00:39:03
Speaker
To be honest, that's probably already taken. No, don't. I don't. i that Such pedantry is not common in the yeah open world. I guess that's true. wine Winemakers but don't like laughing at all, generally.
00:39:17
Speaker
God damn it, never mind. Somebody made it. Oh, see? um It's a straw from Sonoma Coast vi a Vineyard. and There you go. Shit. I guess Odd Duck Vineyards isn't making that one, huh?
00:39:31
Speaker
No, no. it's Vineyards. We're not even a vineyard. We have a a single bush vineyard. Odd duck i dug grape bushes. ah that Odd duck vine.
00:39:43
Speaker
It's just one vine, right? Off the vine. Well, I i am Okay. and for those of Is it in your yard? For those of you that don't know, I live in Vineland, New Jersey, the home of Walsh's grape juice, among other things like the mason jar and also the word moron.
00:40:00
Speaker
Did you know the word moron originated in Vineland, New Jersey? Interesting. Had no idea. It's a true story. So um maybe something. are your Is your greatpe grape tree in your yard?
00:40:15
Speaker
No, so I don't have grapes. I have... ah Okay. I was going to say you could call it vine space yard. Odd duck vine space yards. Could be, could be, could be. Yeah, you know, ah yeah we have a couple of things that grow and they're not growing well and they've been not great.
00:40:30
Speaker
Pears and peaches and a couple blueberry bushes here and there, but... nothing Nothing that I've planted quite yet other than peppers.
00:40:42
Speaker
All right. Tell us about your second pairing of the night while I take up sips of this wax. Yeah, man, I...
00:40:50
Speaker
Long story short, I will say there is a need to to empty the stock, if you will. The stock has to get burned. i hear you. You got to rotate that stock, right?
00:41:02
Speaker
Right. So we're trying to burn through the stock so we have space and brew some new stuff. And so I'm just trying to kill off this. Oh, I can't see it. This Dunkle, which is in a glass, very old glass. Wait.
00:41:17
Speaker
um It's coming. It's coming.
00:41:21
Speaker
Nope, there it is. So it's a very old, very out, kind of, the color has died from this glass. It's the Bavarian Black Lager from, um ah what's that brewery New York?
00:41:36
Speaker
Heartland. Heartland Brewery. Okay. But the glass has completely been destroyed. But on It looks like it's been through a couple of industrial-sized dishwashers. Dude, it it is at least 12 years old.
00:41:49
Speaker
Wow, okay. It has been abused and used, and this is a glass that I acquired. It fell off the back of a truck kind of situation, if you know what I'm saying. that Better or worse, here we are.
00:42:01
Speaker
But anyway, this is the Dunkel, the Dodo Dunkel that I made ah now almost two months ago, I guess. Brood over two months ago.
00:42:12
Speaker
And I wanted, specifically went with the Dunco because I wanted something that had that that toasted quality to it, little bit less less on the hops, a little more sweet. Because I kind of anticipated my experience with with the Seguires over the years. This one I haven't had.
00:42:28
Speaker
But over the years, the ones that I've really enjoyed, they to your point, they've always been pretty strong and pretty intense flavor-wise. I didn't want to come in with something that was too hoppy that would kind of in a sense, mask.
00:42:41
Speaker
Hops are very intense flavor. they're very bright, but they sit on your palate for a really long time, right? So I didn't want something that would linger on the palate for too long, nor something that would potentially take away from the the quality of the cigar.
00:42:55
Speaker
So again, I think Dunkle is a really great style for that because it has that sweet toasted quality, not as bitter as you would expect, and also a little bit less alcohol. So you're not kind of you're not you're not fighting.
00:43:08
Speaker
your your Your palate is not fighting to exist and survive as it would, let's say, with a and barrel-aged spirit or cask. We call it cask-strained spirit.
00:43:20
Speaker
wanted to go gentle with it. right. I think that seems like a smart decision. I didn't go with anything too hot tonight. I don't think.
00:43:31
Speaker
We'll see. No hard liquors. No spirits. But that might be close. ah it makes one Man, this wine is fantastic. it's After sitting on my shelf for eight years, I felt like it was ready ready to be drank. Especially because i had there were a couple bottles that I had.
00:43:51
Speaker
This was one of them where the ah the move across the country had bulged the
00:43:59
Speaker
cork out like a quarter inch and i was worried they were going start popping or i get something um i think it was from the the atmosphere changes sure but it may have also been from some warmth uh anyway this is a really good wine uh i'm bad at explaining wine but i would say that this has some it's like the brightness of blueberries with the That kind of dark flavor of like a grape jam.
00:44:29
Speaker
We'll see if my last pairing does, but for now I'm in the clear.
00:44:34
Speaker
Dennis, how did your dunkle work? I love Dunkle to begin with. And so for me, it's a very common pairing to have with just about any cigar. But I think this cigar in particular really benefits from the Dunkle, especially now that I'm, well, let's say halfway through, little bit more than halfway through.
00:44:54
Speaker
ah The flavor is getting more intense. I'm getting much more spice than I did in the beginning. Beyond, I said, hey, it's it's kind of light. It's not that i I didn't expect it to be as light. necessarily given the age that makes sense sure but i mean for a cigar that's almost 10 years old this has a lot of power it's punchy it's super super punchy yes less so than the smoke on the palate and the flavor you get from the cigar also changes and that goes same way with with seltzers or mineral waters or anything else you might enjoy that has carbonation to it so yeah long story short i think the dunco is working really well
00:45:30
Speaker
Nice. um Well, I have one more pairing, of course, so going to get right into that. um This one... Have you ever...
Melange 14 and Frenet Vexia
00:45:41
Speaker
ever um um don't generally sell a beer, but have you ever tossed a beer in your liquor cabinet? Like, I'm going to drink that sometime.
00:45:49
Speaker
And then you forget about it? Um... At any given point, I'm cellaring between 20 and 30 bottles of beer. Okay. Well, this is one that I accidentally sell. it There was a while where I had kind of a cellaring area, and this one just got tossed in with some some wine bottles and some liquor bottles and stuff, and I forgot about it.
00:46:10
Speaker
um And I ran across it a couple months ago and was like, ooh, I got to have that on the show sometime. um So this comes from the brewery. oh yes spelled a little bit differently bru um named so because in 2000 2008 it was founded by patrick rue so you know rue brewery a little play on words there they're based in placentia california not not the word you think it is placentia um
00:46:40
Speaker
They mainly brew Belgian-style experimental ales, as they call them, um with a healthy dose of barrel aging thrown in. Just about everything they make is barrel aged. um The last recorded ah records I could find was that they were brewing just about 10,000 barrels a year, which is a lot of beer for a small brewery.
00:47:01
Speaker
That's not a ton, um but it's also not nothing. Like, that's... A lot, dude. That's a good amount for us for a fairly small brewery. Well, for a brewery that produces beers that are, generally speaking, kind of unique in their own right. Every beer is very unique from the brewery. Very.
00:47:19
Speaker
And this beer is kind of the culmination of that. ah So this is called Melange. as you can see there. And this is Melange number 14. They did... um They're still coming out with these.
00:47:32
Speaker
Not all of them are numbered, so it's I don't know how many there are. They've done Melange Noir, Melange Dark, Melange Berry, Melange this, Melange that. um This version was released in 2016. The original Melange was ah released in 2014.
00:47:51
Speaker
And Melange is kind of an ever-changing blend. um It is a series where they they try to take some of what they already make and turn it into something that doesn't taste like anything else they make.
00:48:03
Speaker
um So they're blending other beers that they make together, usually that have been
00:48:12
Speaker
aging for quite a long time. So some of these are aged between two to four years before they even go into this blend. um And then some of those are aged further.
00:48:23
Speaker
So Melange 14 is a blend of vintage barley wine and old ale, um with Imperial Stouts, including Share This Coffee Stout and the much-famed Black Tuesday Imperial Stout.
00:48:44
Speaker
um So this is a mix of all those. It says on the bottle that it 85% ale aged in bourbon barrels and 15% Imperial Stout. So I think they're doing the barrel aging um as a blend and then adding fresh Imperial Stout to that to kind of freshen up the flavor, keep the carbonation.
00:49:03
Speaker
And it's 15%. 13% ABV, I believe. No, 13.4. um I had that in my notes, but I saw the 15% Imperial Stout and it threw me out.
00:49:14
Speaker
um So yeah, I haven't tasted this yet. It's a 2014, 2016 edition rather, um that I got probably around then. i don't even remember buying it.
00:49:25
Speaker
I just realized I had it and was like, oh, I forgot about this. So I don't remember where I bought it or exactly when, but I'm going to take couple sips, see how pairs with this cigar and see if it just destroys the flavor of the cigar because I'm afraid it might.
00:49:40
Speaker
I'm very curious. Given what it is, I think you can go either way, right? You you may have a really great experience and it may be potentially not great, which is fine.
00:49:51
Speaker
That's the nature of the business, so to speak, right? When you pair things. yeah Sometimes things are great on their own, and then you you have a cigar with them, and it just doesn't hit kind of what you hoped for.
00:50:03
Speaker
but chan this so in the description, the flowery description that they give of what Melange is, it says, like, this is where we get our hands, we roll up our sleeves, we get our hands dirty, evoking flavors from beer that don't exist in other beers.
00:50:18
Speaker
um And actually, they're kind of right. Like, this has some real funk to it.
00:50:25
Speaker
I got to drink some more and figure out what I think of it. Tell us about what you got.
00:50:32
Speaker
I'm just... Give me a second here. um um I'm trying to take this in because it is so... There's a lot of intensity. There's grit. There's a lot of grit to it, if if you will. And not in a bad way.
00:50:45
Speaker
It's meant to be, i think, gritty to some degree. It's meant to be very kind of in your face. I hope it's meant to. know you're bottled there. What I'm drinking... You can see kind of some of that grit in there. Yeah.
00:50:58
Speaker
Chunks. but um It reminds me of when you ah when you make French press and you have, unfortunately, ground the coffee a little too fine. So you end up with that sludge in the bottom that's a little bit suspended in your coffee after you pour it out.
00:51:15
Speaker
Well, it's funny you say coffee because um we'll get to the coffee thing in a second. but So it's not coffee. It is an Amaro, but it's an Amaro... that is so uniquely cool and ultra, they're small batch. And this is ultra, ultra, ultra small batch.
00:51:30
Speaker
This is friend of ours, Garrett, um you know who has a friend who has been making this stuff at home for a while and shared it with so many people. And eventually ah somebody said, hey, this is great. let's Let's mass produce this thing. let's Let's start pumping this out and make it you know official.
00:51:49
Speaker
And ah let me get you the info on it real quick, and then I can talk a little bit more about it. So this is an Amaro based on Frenet. This is called Frenet Vexia.
00:52:01
Speaker
Let me show you this this really cool bottle. Got that tarot card inspired look. I dig it. Yeah, man. Arcana Botanica is ah officially who who makes it. That's his buddy that makes Arcana Botanica. this is distilled.
00:52:20
Speaker
um and kind of bottled, if you will. This is bottled at, where's the, I had the info here for you.
00:52:31
Speaker
Oh no.
00:52:33
Speaker
What happened? I can't find, oh here, okay, oh sorry. Wild Heart Distillery in Shelburne, Vermont. So he's based out of out of Burlington, Vermont.
00:52:45
Speaker
And then this is produced out of the Wild Heart Distillery in Shelburne. And, man, and so you can't see the the cap right now, but normally there's a white wax seal that goes over the top. It's really, really snazzy.
00:52:59
Speaker
Nice. I like it. Very snazzy deal. Very cool. Very spooky. Obviously, you know, I like the spooky stuff. And ah so this is really cool because it's distinctly different than a classic. Like you talk about Frenet Branca, right? Classic Italian Amaro.
00:53:15
Speaker
You have your Frenet Branca, Frenet Menta. You have a couple of other Italian Amaros, but I think Frenet is really, when you say an Amaro, I think the first thing comes to most people's minds is Frenet.
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah. um i It's the most truly distinctly flavored, not counting like Ramazzotti or Montenegro or any of the other many different Amaros that exist within Italy.
00:53:38
Speaker
um Frenet is the one that is the furthest reaching across the world. Montenegro to a degree only because I think it's it's an easy sell for most bars because they can make cocktails with it as well. yeah um as I think technically stuff like Campari is an Amaro, but I wouldn't really count that.
00:53:59
Speaker
No, I don't. I personally don't. I know some people, some purists, some Italian purists will say that Campari is an Amaro. I'm happy to argue that ah in a friendly way.
00:54:12
Speaker
I'm happy to argue that it's not necessarily. It's more of an infused liqueur in my opinion. But again, right the like you're you're splitting hairs on a horse that has not had hair for years.
00:54:25
Speaker
ah It's a bald horse. So it's a waste of time. But this is really cool. So the deal with this, first and foremost, I want to say this is so distinctly different than Frenet in that it is completely chamomile forward.
00:54:40
Speaker
It's a weird complete chamomile bomb.
00:54:45
Speaker
Very different than than classic Frenet. I'm trying to figure out if I even know chamomile tastes like. Well, you're going to find out in about a week half when I see you because I'm bringing this bottle down and we're going to share this with our good friend Anfan and enjoy the rest of it, whatever's left in it.
00:55:05
Speaker
But um anyway, This thing is really cool. There's a thing on the back of the bottle that says sediment will be present because it's lightly filtered. just have sediments being present It says, swirl this bottle counterclockwise seven times before serving. I like that's little bit spooky.
00:55:22
Speaker
A little spookiness to the tarot aspect. um There is a little bit of more flavor text. so This is ah mint, chamomile, cocoa nib, saffron.
00:55:34
Speaker
The saffron is heavy. The chamomile is really heavy.
00:55:38
Speaker
And it says here now, is best enjoyed neat or over ice with friends and loved ones in the clearing of a dark wood possessed by the light of the moon.
00:55:51
Speaker
Hence, Vaxia, right? That's for the name Vaxia. I really love this as a sipping Amaro. And it's one of those things that you talk about Amaro's. Most people are used to them as something you put in a cocktail, right? Yeah. You mix you makes it with Coca-Cola.
00:56:07
Speaker
You mix it in into a cocktail once in a while. Rarely will you have an Amaro that can be just sipped on because it's so intense. To be fair, I get it.
00:56:18
Speaker
ah Perhaps I'm weird. I really enjoy sipping on gin. Neat. Oh, me too, baby. Well, give me dirty looks, man, but it's fine. you You don't get as many dirty looks if you ask for a... ah ah a um I lost the word. What's the English word? Martini.
00:56:40
Speaker
Extra dry. A gin martini, extra dry, with olives or without, whichever you prefer. um Because that's basically just cold gin.
00:56:52
Speaker
Just somewhere between three and six ounces. Boy, you know, I'm going to i'm gonna have to ask you the thing. I'm going have to bring it up. Go for it. there were there were There were two German soldiers that were in ah in a submarine that were dropped off the coast of the U.S. And they got off the coast and they they got into a – well, we call it a Zodiac. The Germans don't have Zodiacs necessarily. But they got rubber boat basically and they went to the coast.
00:57:20
Speaker
And they changed into American civilian clothing and went to the first bar to get intel. right They came to the you know to the U.S. s to get some intel. And they're undercover. They're at a bar. The bartender says, what are you going to have?
00:57:30
Speaker
The guy says, martini. And the bartender says, dry martini? And the guy says, no, it's zwei martini.
00:57:39
Speaker
And that's the story of my my shitty German joke. I like it. those it those That might have been better and less offensive than most of the ones. You tell me.
00:57:50
Speaker
um It's my least offensive joke. Yes, for sure. Anyway, I think this is really cool with the cigar because we talked about coffee before. You mentioned the French press and you get a little bit of the grit.
00:58:01
Speaker
You get that intensity. So some of that grit, as bitter as it may be, as as chewy as it may be, has a really unique sweetness to it. When you talk about French press in particular, if you get your grind just right for a French press, it's a little bit larger size, right?
00:58:18
Speaker
When you get to the very bottom and you're at the final dregs of the last ounce of coffee that you have, that's been sitting on those, you know, the the the bit of the grind for a while, there's this really unique sweetness that comes out.
00:58:32
Speaker
It's super bitter. Yes, but it's also very sweet. And I think that's the perfect. It's the perfect way to describe what this particular Amaro tastes like. It has this wonderful bitterness initially, but it finishes very sweet.
00:58:51
Speaker
You're going to love it. sounds delicious. And you're going to say, man, that is uncanny. And it is. It is very uncanny. I can't wait to try it. um Finishing out, I'll talk about Melange a little bit.
00:59:04
Speaker
um I think I was right in my suspicion after my last pairing that this may be a little strong for the cigar. It washes out the flavor of the cigar a little bit. there's still There's still a lot of flavor in the cigar, but I think this pairing ah takes focus off the cigar a little bit, which you know we we always strive to have the cigar be the focus of our pairing. that's That's why we're pairing. If I i was just drinking a beer, I'd just drink a beer.
00:59:37
Speaker
but we're pairing, and we're pairing with this cigar. you know ah This beer is incredible, though. It really is a a bizarre mix of flavors. like You really get that that intense that intense malt sweetness um that's not roasted from barley wine.
01:00:00
Speaker
You know, like that particular barley wine flavor. um But then you also taste like this, ah you know, that that super dark roastiness of a stout with the the bitterness of an imperial stout, that kind of hop profile.
01:00:17
Speaker
I get a little bit of that coffee from the coffee stout. I get, there's some kind of fruitiness in there that I can't figure out. um It's just like, this is ah beer that takes you on a ride, man.
01:00:32
Speaker
just trying to figure out what you're tasting. ah And I'm having a hard time with it. I can't quite put my finger on it. um It's crazy good.
01:00:44
Speaker
Unfortunately, it's just the cigar doesn't love it.
01:00:48
Speaker
So I'm going back through my pairings now. um how is that I mean, I guess you already told us how that Amaro paired with the cigar, but you can ah wax poetic it feel like it for a little bit.
01:00:59
Speaker
Oh, yes, let me tell you. Let me tell you about the story of the legs of the sea from the region with no ocean.
01:01:09
Speaker
You know, there's nothing worse than a seaman that comes from the middle of a forest, landlocked, desperate, desperate even for the chance to even touch something wet.
01:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, poor seaman. seement Anyway, um yeah, the Frenet, I think it's great. it's It's one of those things, again, i say Frenet, and if anybody is interested, they're going to go to their stores and they're going to try to look for Frenet.
01:01:38
Speaker
This is not something you can get outside of the state of Vermont, unfortunately. And it's so uniquely different that I don't want to say, go get a Frenet, have it with a cigar.
01:01:49
Speaker
I was going to ask, is this anything like Frenet? Like, does it really remind you of Frenet or is it just Frenet inspired?
01:02:00
Speaker
it is
01:02:03
Speaker
it is every bit of Frenette that we know and love, Frenette Branca. It is every bit Frenette Branca. However, Frenette, the best way to put it, I think, is... um um here we go. right You've had espresso, right?
01:02:20
Speaker
Of course. Have you had espresso with sugar? Yeah. Okay. This is the difference. If you have an espresso by itself, that's for net bronca. If you have espresso with sugar and you add a little bit of of lemon peel to it, this is like, that's the difference.
01:02:38
Speaker
Keep that in your mind in in about a week or similar base flavors with a little twist. Very good. base flavors little twist much more sweetness to it but it's a gritty sweetness it's a gritty like when you add sugar to coffee it has that it takes the bitterness it doesn't take it away from the bitterness it adds sweetness to the bitterness which makes it just bitter and sweet if that makes sense You're not masking the bitterness of the of the Frenet.
01:03:05
Speaker
That makes sense to me. Keep that in mind, and I'm curious. Let's revisit this, I think. We'll see each other. You'll sample it. We'll we'll smoke together about with it. And then you know on the next show after after we come back from Lizana Palooza, let's talk about it again.
01:03:22
Speaker
i would love to get your opinion. I'll leave this bottle with you, by the way. So whatever's left. you can keep, and then you can do a pairing for the next show. I'm in with a little bit extra knowledge, right? You might, you might have a better idea of what cigar might work best with this.
01:03:38
Speaker
True. Yeah. True enough. all right. So for my pairing of the night, I'm going with Syrah. like Like Jay Davis said, there are certain rappers that pair really well with Syrah. I think there's a flavor that i've been trying to I've been thinking of the whole time and trying to put my finger on, and I think it's kind of that Davidoff funk, that little umami, earthy, mushroom kind of quality um that the Sancti Spiritist rapper kind of imparts. Yeah.
01:04:12
Speaker
And I think that in particular works really well with this wine. um And I think any Syrah or Big Red would kind of work well with it. um This a very wine-adjacent pairing cigar for me.
01:04:27
Speaker
um What about you? What's your pairing of the night? I'm very curious because you've been all over the place. I have been. I have been absolutely. And I think fernet is this Frenette in particular is going to be my pairing of the night.
01:04:40
Speaker
Nice. I love where the cigar is at. It's such a weird place because it's so aromatic. It's, ah there's a lot going on with the cigar. But the Frenet brings out this this funk that I really dig.
01:04:56
Speaker
That umami. We talk about umami a lot. It's hard to put your finger on or finger in, depending on how you like it, but. it's hard It's hard to nail it down. ah it It's just it's such a unique flavor combination.
01:05:09
Speaker
I usually think, um like, the the flavor that really comes to mind for me when I think umami is, like, ah white miso.
01:05:20
Speaker
Well, uh... White miso, mushrooms, like, that kind of, ah Just funky is the word, man.
01:05:31
Speaker
So subtle, not like, not like a red miso. Cause red miso is no, no, no. Not like red miso, like a white miso where it's, it's got that, like you taste and you're like, what even is that flavor?
01:05:44
Speaker
I can't describe that flavor. Um, that's a mean that's that umami to me. Yeah.
01:05:54
Speaker
Sorry. I had to get one more sip in before the end of the show. Um, I guess that wraps up the show. i would say go check out the saguar, but, uh, good luck finding any of them. If you do, um, they're worth smoking.
01:06:08
Speaker
I'll tell you that much, but, uh, This was just kind of one-off special episode where we wanted to try something old and cool. And I just wanted to share this cigar with Dennis.
01:06:20
Speaker
that was That was most of it. To be fair, it's it's even less than that. it's It's more so the fact that, hey, you're you're now a dad three times over. That's a big deal. We need to honor that.
01:06:33
Speaker
To a degree, I think this cigar was really meant to honor the fact that you you have a new member of the family, which has been fantastic and Thank you, man. This is a hell of a cigar to celebrate that.
01:06:44
Speaker
I agree. This cigar is almost as old as my middle kid. ah And just holding up with that power delivery, man.
01:06:56
Speaker
ah This is a cigar that is nine years old and could knock a novice on their ass.
01:07:04
Speaker
Oh, easily. Oh, app apps i the the poor schmuck. I just imagined not schmuck, but the the poor. I say schmuck endearingly, but the the poor person that doesn't know what they're getting into smokes a cigar goes, wow, this is really tasty.
01:07:19
Speaker
Let me power through it. Can you imagine a dude smoking this at the barbecue? Like that's never smoked a cigar. He's like, oh, cool. A cigar. ah That would be a mess, man.
01:07:29
Speaker
It would be a visceral experience, much like going to a GWAR show. I was going to say, they would drag him up on stage so he could puke all the audience. It's visceral. I love the band. I love the music. I love the... the Just everything about them is so much fun and and so cool.
01:07:47
Speaker
And to their credit, listen, the theatrics are great. To Tatuaje's credit. I inhaled beer. I'm good. You inhaled beer? Yeah, a little bit. How do you feel now after, you know, the, it still pairs pretty well making the ultimate pairing drowning in beer.
01:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. It took a minute, but I'm good. Nice.
01:08:14
Speaker
Man. It's time for one for the road, which is where we tell you about a piece of media that we've been consuming. It's been years since I consumed this piece of media, but you just reminded me of something.
01:08:24
Speaker
Oh boy. That I could not pass up.
Entertainment Recommendations
01:08:28
Speaker
um So there's a show. What? Dare I ask? Oh, I'll tell you all about it.
01:08:36
Speaker
um There's a TV show, but first, have you seen... going to give you a couple movies. Have you seen the movie Frozen? Not the one with the princesses. The one with the ski lift?
01:08:49
Speaker
i Maybe? Maybe. This is a horror movie where a girl is going up on a ski lift with someone, maybe a couple people. I can't remember exactly. But they're on a ski lift and they're going up and they basically accidentally snuck onto the ski lift. So the the mountain shuts down while they're on the ski lift and they're stranded up in the ski lift all night.
01:09:11
Speaker
Dude, that has happened to me. i I can't even tell you. That has happened to me twice. But you didn't get eaten by wolves either time, did you?
01:09:23
Speaker
No. And that's why but that's why it was a reminder of like, that's why we traveled to pack cigarettes, couple of cigars, and least a bottle of whiskey. Smart. um Have you ever seen the movie Hatchet or any of the sequels?
01:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So that's going your reference point. So this is made by and starring the director of Hatchet. Oh, interesting. It's called Holliston. It is a sitcom about two guys that have a late night horror movie TV show on public access and their roommate is odorous.
01:09:59
Speaker
What? Really? Yeah. and So that's the little Gwar connection is, unfortunately, I don't think there's anywhere where you can watch this right now.
01:10:11
Speaker
I've been looking and the only thing I found is that you can buy it for like $1.99 an episode. um But if you can find a way to watch it on YouTube or something, maybe maybe you'll get lucky.
01:10:23
Speaker
ah Anyway, it's it's a hilarious little um
01:10:31
Speaker
three alleys to the left kind of sitcom. It's a sitcom, but it's not a normal sitcom. It's a very abnormal sitcom, in fact. It's a very horror-inspired sitcom.
01:10:44
Speaker
sitcom and it's awesome there's two seasons came out like 10 or plus years ago ah but it's great and i'm gonna need to watch it again now that's that's my life i talk about a movie and then i gotta watch it or in this case a tv show yeah all right what's your one for the road
01:11:04
Speaker
there was an album that just came out uh november first that I was really excited about then. And I thought it was fantastic.
01:11:15
Speaker
it's It's a it's band called Brothers of Metal, which is kind of power metal, but but really i think the best way to put it if you've never listened to Brothers of Metal is kind of if you imagine um newer Nightwish, so Nightwish after Tarly Alive.
01:11:33
Speaker
It's a new age Nightwish mixed with a little bit of Rage and mixed with Sabaton in the vocals. So it's male vocals, female vocals. The guitar is very close to to Sabaton.
01:11:46
Speaker
um There's some Rage stuff in there with the drums and everything. But it's called Fimble Vinter. Fimble Vinter is... Fimble Vinter. Fimble Vinter, yeah.
01:11:57
Speaker
It's nice. and I just want to make sure I understood you correctly. It rolls right off the Reich properly. symbolble ah But Brothers of Metal is a great band and this new album that came up for them, if you haven't listened to them, please, if you look like power metal, if you're into that kind of um symphonic, really kind of epic metal, this is a great band for that.
01:12:21
Speaker
And this album absolutely embodies that. Highly recommend I just listened to it ah two days ago when it came out. What's the name of the band? ah Brothers of Metal.
01:12:32
Speaker
Okay. I'm going to check it out. um you can I lost my tab. Sam says he's still watching Fallout. Man, that was a great show. I can't wait for it. Hell yeah. I love Fallout.
01:12:44
Speaker
It was so good. edge i I've been a fan for the game of the game for a very long time. like Since the 90s, I'm talking. Since before the game was 3D.
01:12:55
Speaker
um And I think they did it justice. It's great. Oh, hell yeah. I love it. Wholeheartedly agreed on that. If you haven't seen it and you have Amazon, go check it out. Because it's fantastic.
01:13:08
Speaker
um And for my wife, who's only been tertiary associated with any of the Fallout games, all she's ever known is, hey, I did this cool thing and I fought this Deathclaw in Fallout today kind of shit.
01:13:21
Speaker
Um, she was super into the show and loved it. Um, which, you know, says a lot when you're adapting something like that and more than just the fans are now fans of it, which is cool.
01:13:33
Speaker
Um, anyway, that brings us to the end of our show. So we'll talk to you guys next week. Um,
01:13:43
Speaker
Week after next, we are taking an off week yet again ah because we will be both on our way back from Lizona Palooza. ah At the tail end of next week, man, I can't believe it's a week and a half away.
01:13:57
Speaker
um At the end of next week, we will be in Miami hanging out at Lizona Palooza. We'll try to do a couple lives or at least a couple of like group posts to to keep you guys aware of what's going on and and show you the festivities there.
01:14:13
Speaker
but we're very excited. Can't wait to hang out with our, all our homies at, uh, Luzona. Yeah, man, I'm, I'm for All the, all the Luzona Palooza fans out there. And, man, it's, it's one of those things where you, you see a bunch of people you've known for years. And this is the time where you get together and you get to hang out and have a beer and have a cigar. And, uh, it's a great time.
01:14:35
Speaker
I can't wait. Um, Anyway, that brings us to the end of the show. Thank you, everybody, for watching hanging out with us. um Sorry if there were technical issues, but I don't think there were. I think it's all on my side that i'm going to have to go debug this week.
01:14:51
Speaker
So thanks, everybody, for hanging out and watching and commenting. And Dennis, hit him with the catchphrase, and then we will talk to you guys on the next. Remember, everybody, we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink less.