Lounge Lizards This Week: Sancho Panza Belicosos with Cave L' Aurance Cremant de Bourgogne Brut. The future of Cuban Cigars, Why Are Long Ashes Celebrated? The history of Sancho Panza

[El Presidente]

 

 

This week the lizards pair Sancho Panza Belicosos with Cave L' Aurance Cremant de Bourgogne Brut. One of the last remaining cuban marcas makes its review debut tonight, the lizards answer a listener email on a budgeting for cigar purchases and they begin a discussion on the future of Cuban Cigars on this podcast. PLUS: Senator's Search for Budget Sparkling Wine, Percentage of Cubans/Non-Cubans In Lizard Collections, Why Are Long Ashes Celebrated?, Sancho Panza History, Cuban Cigarillo Demand, Michael Jordan Joins NBC, Cohiba vs. Cohiba & Bane joins the program

 

 

[MagicalBikeRide]

You’ll likely get a biased opinion on this forum, but from where I sit, I’d hate to see you guys do any less CCs than you currently do. Whilst I get that their price / availability is a challenge in the US, the reverse is true in my part of the world - I can’t get Padron, Davidoff, Rocky Patel, AJ Fernandez, etc., without substantial hassle and when I can - it usually winds up being more expensive than an equitable Cuban. 

You’ve obviously got play to your listener base, but it’s horses for courses re what people can access I think. If you need anecdotal info - I’ve revisited many of your CC episodes, but I’m not sure I’ve ever revisited a NC episode.

[Lucas Buck]

4 hours ago, MagicalBikeRide said:

You’ll likely get a biased opinion on this forum, but from where I sit, I’d hate to see you guys do any less CCs than you currently do. Whilst I get that their price / availability is a challenge in the US, the reverse is true in my part of the world - I can’t get Padron, Davidoff, Rocky Patel, AJ Fernandez, etc., without substantial hassle and when I can - it usually winds up being more expensive than an equitable Cuban. 

You’ve obviously got play to your listener base, but it’s horses for courses re what people can access I think. If you need anecdotal info - I’ve revisited many of your CC episodes, but I’m not sure I’ve ever revisited a NC episode.

This!

[potpest]

Great episode and thrilled to feature as Lizard of the week.@LizardGizmo, actually quite Impressed with the pronunciations (Especially Xarel-lo), was mostly correct. I think you only butchered Perelada.

Ali

[LizardGizmo]

4 hours ago, MagicalBikeRide said:

You’ll likely get a biased opinion on this forum, but from where I sit, I’d hate to see you guys do any less CCs than you currently do. Whilst I get that their price / availability is a challenge in the US, the reverse is true in my part of the world - I can’t get Padron, Davidoff, Rocky Patel, AJ Fernandez, etc., without substantial hassle and when I can - it usually winds up being more expensive than an equitable Cuban. 

You’ve obviously got play to your listener base, but it’s horses for courses re what people can access I think. If you need anecdotal info - I’ve revisited many of your CC episodes, but I’m not sure I’ve ever revisited a NC episode.

Fair points here. I do expect FOH listeners to be Cuban-focused - and as someone who calls this place my internet cigar home, I am very sensitive to that fact.

This is will be an ongoing discussion/debate in our crew and with our listeners over the next few Cuban episodes. We have not made a decision and won't for another month or so.

Finding 26 unique Cuban cigars a year is proving to be incredibly stressful and difficult for me. I do not want to sacrifice provenance nor do I want to be someone asking for favors every month...

I'm hoping to keep our worldwide crew of lizard listeners happy in whatever decision we make - but I have to be able to get enough unique Cubans to do it with as little stress/risk as possible.

1 hour ago, potpest said:

Great episode and thrilled to feature as Lizard of the week. @LizardGizmo, actually quite Impressed with the pronunciations (Especially Xarel-lo), was mostly correct. I think you only butchered Perelada.

Ali

I felt like I butchered every single word of that email . I'll be in touch in the next few weeks to get your LOTW package sent out 💪. Many thanks!

[LizardGizmo]

(Moving this discussion here as to not fill the chatbox):

In the chatbox, @barrygoodvibes asked: "I'm sure you have the numbers for listens, what are your top 3 most listened to episodes? Were they Cuban reviews or New World?".

Our episodes perform fairly evenly across Cuban/Non-Cuban, with exception for special episodes e.g.: Laguito/Danilo, Rob & Hamlet, Jorge Padrón, Episode 100, NYE episode, etc.

[yuppie]

You guys made this Sancho Panza sounds too good. Now it'll be even harder to find!

[CigarCulture09]

Great episode as always. Thanks 🙏 

[BlueWS]

1 hour ago, yuppie said:

You guys made this Sancho Panza sounds too good, now it'll be even harder to find!

It was my last FOH purchase. If I can get a box you can get a box.

[potpest]

I'm fine with the move to more Non Cubans, my love is Cuban cigars but at this stage I know what I like, I'm also aware of the inconsistencies within the Cuban world, a review is often just a review of that particular box of cigars rather than the cigar itself. I smoke NCs regularly, I'm always interested to try new cigars and flavours and hear what the Lizards are enjoying when their palates lean towards Cuban cigars like we all do here. I welcome it, the beauty of this podcast for me lies in the discovery of new things people didn't know they liked, new spirits, wines, foods, places, cigar regions etc. We all decided one day to try a Cuban cigar and for many of us here that changed us forever, maybe there are other things out there that can have the same dramatic effect.
 

[ha_banos]

Cave L' Aurance Cremant de Bourgogne Brut

13.50£ in Sainsbury's! 

Got to be a try.

[potpest]

Cave L' Aurance Cremant de Bourgogne Brut
13.50£ in Sainsbury's! 
Got to be a try.

All the Tesco cremants are decent as well, much nicer than prosecco. Some are around £7.50 when buy 6 get 25% off. The sparkling rosé are good with cigars.

[El Niño]

I'm DYING to find that Cave L'Aurance around town. I just got into French sparkling and really love the nuance.

Super fun episode, thanks gents

[ha_banos]

Ok. I got something. Same region, different producer? Ah well. Bargain bottle. Will try after work with something Fab5. Lowering expectations from the 10/10 rating! Very important! Will report back...

[GP012]

My initial reaction to the once a month discussion:



After thinking about it some more, I can understand the concerns with sourcing, but it's worth reaching out to the listeners for help. I don't think it would be construed as begging and you're not expecting all the cigars to be gifted, it doesn't hurt exploring before a drastic change. Maybe every third week would be a reasonable compromise?

Personally, I smoke 95% CC's and prefer those episodes because I relate closer to their flavor notes. I'm not chasing a particular CC based on a rating from any one specific source, but that's not the case for pod's liquor ratings as I've probably purchased 8-10 bottles. You're also not smoking baller (Gran Reservas, Cohiba EL's) or unobtanium cigars (70's, 80's vintage, Davidoff, Dunhill, etc) that are impossible to find. For the most part, recent production CC's can be sourced within the US with some patience, effort and of course $.

I believe there will be listener interest in continuing to revisit CC's reviewed in the early episodes - here's a short list of ideas to consider:

- H Upmann No 2 - a recent code that wasn't from the LUB 14 run reviewed on episode 40 in 2022
- H Upmann Sir Winston - Christmas/NYE? 
- H Upmann Coronas Major - This may fall too much into the "cheap/budget" CC realm like the Partagas Mille Fleurs/Habaneros, but for a while they were smoking very well for the cost 
- LGC Turquinos - we're at 2 years since these were reviewed on episode 84 in June 2023. They were part of that new wave of releases that smoked excellent fresh, how are they now after 2 years? What about a recent box code, are they just as good as the original release? Maybe this sort of situation is on a three year cycle, so summer 2026?
- PSD4 from 2021 NYE episode, ERDM Choix 2022 episode, etc - how are the recent codes?
- Monte No 3 or 4, or Especial No 1 - I don't recall these being reviewed yet

Revisiting cigars would add to the argument about including the box code/year on CC's for the rating database. You're all well aware of variations across year, month, factory or even within a box. We've all ruminated about changes in blending style and/or tobacco from the late teens to newer 22/23/24's and how fresh boxes are ready to smoke right away, nothing like previous years where they needed to sit and lose the ammonia. It may also be worth revisiting cigars that only had 4 or 5 lizards rating them to get a more accurate composite score. QdO Coronas Claros (5), PSP 2 (5), RA Small Club Coronas (4), QdO Senadores (4 - although not ideal due to sourcing issues), etc.

I did find an ironic sourcing issue when looking for the current episodes' sparkling. All of the top Google results redirect to one store, Bottle King near the lizards in NJ... and there are no results on wine-searcher. Maybe CC's aren't that hard to source after all, eh?