178 PCA Exclusives, we have no friends left...Black Star Line Bonus

Episode Summary

Episode 178 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with the Mikes riffing on their plans for the 2021 PCA Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas (July 10–13) — including the color-coded COVID wristband systems some conventions are adopting, and the fact that one of them is attending strictly as a retailer buyer rather than exhibiting Powstanie. There's a long, unfiltered segment about a Saturday day-drinking session gone sideways, the resulting Facebook fallout, and the trolling that followed from friends across the Florida cigar scene. Listener of the Week goes to Douglas Pendleton and the $25 gift card goes to Mitch Smith, plus a thank-you to Jeff at Riverside and Match Cigar Bar in Jeffersonville, Indiana for the hats.

The news segment covers J.C. Newman Cigar Company's formal petition to the U.S. government to import Cuban tobacco into Tampa (with Drew Newman quoted), Illusione's second release of the CG4 Candela as a PCA 2021 exclusive (5 5/8 x 46 Corona Gorda, all-Nicaraguan, $9.90, boxes of 25 — last year it was exclusive to The Vault in Meridian, Idaho), and the Asylum and CLE PCA exclusives, including an all-Honduran Asylum blend and a CLE Eiroa with a Cameroon-seed wrapper from the Eiroa family farms, shipped in boxes that double as wooden ashtrays. They also cover Southern Draw's Manzanita line expanding from one vitola to three (Toro 6x52 $14.99, Robusto $13.99, Gordo 6.5x60 $15.49) with production raised to 75,000 cigars per size, plus the charitable tie-in with the First Nations Development Institute, and Ashton adding a 7x49 Churchill to the San Cristóbal Quintessence line. A Florida story about two pilots who crash-landed in the Everglades en route to Taco Tuesday in Arcadia rounds it out.

The bonus segment is a 25–30 minute in-studio interview with Erik Wimbley, retired Chicago firefighter and founder of Black Star Line Cigars. He walks through how the brand started — networking at Drew Estate events with Jonathan Drew, being pointed toward El Titan de Bronze in Miami, and famously winning over Sandy Cobas by sending flowers to the factory during a family illness. That relationship produced the El Milagro blends. Sean Williams then connected him with Terence Reilly at Aganorsa Leaf, which produces the War Witch — a Connecticut shade over Nicaraguan binder and filler that Erik describes as spicy and peppery rather than a typical mild Connecticut, available in a 6x46 Corona box-press, 5x50 Robusto and 7.5x40 Lancero. He also discusses an upcoming Aganorsa blend called Lalibela (originally conceived as "Crossover King" for a collaboration with NBA legend Tim Hardaway), Skip Martin's feedback on his blends, being in roughly 50 lounges with a four-person sales team, and shipping direct from Chicago via blackstarline.shop.

In This Episode

1. 01
   PCA 2021 plans and COVID wristbands
   The hosts discuss attending the PCA Convention & Trade Show as retailers, not exhibitors, and the color-coded wristband systems some conventions use to signal contact comfort levels.
2. 02
   Day drinking, Facebook fallout and listener shout-outs
   An honest, self-deprecating recap of a Saturday moonshine bender and the social media aftermath, plus Listener of the Week Douglas Pendleton and gift card winner Mitch Smith.
3. 03
   J.C. Newman petitions to import Cuban tobacco
   Drew Newman and J.C. Newman Cigar Company ask the U.S. government to allow raw Cuban tobacco into their Tampa factory for the first time since 1962.
4. 04
   Illusione CG4 Candela PCA exclusive
   Illusione brings back its Candela-wrapped CG4 Corona Gorda for 2021, this time nationwide to trade show attendees in boxes of 25 at $9.90 per cigar.
5. 05
   Asylum and CLE PCA exclusives
   Asylum's all-Honduran blend and CLE's Eiroa Cameroon-seed exclusive arrive with undisclosed binders and fillers, unfinalized sizes, and boxes that double as ashtrays.
6. 06
   Southern Draw Manzanita expansion and Ashton San Cristóbal Churchill
   Robert Holt grows the Manzanita line to three vitolas with 75,000 cigars per size, and Ashton adds a 7x49 Churchill to San Cristóbal Quintessence from My Father Cigars.
7. 07
   Erik Wimbley on founding Black Star Line Cigars
   The retired Chicago firefighter explains how networking with Jonathan Drew and a bouquet of flowers to El Titan de Bronze launched his brand and the El Milagro blends.
8. 08
   War Witch, Aganorsa and what's next
   Erik breaks down the War Witch Connecticut-shade blend made at Aganorsa Leaf, the upcoming Lalibela, the shelved Tim Hardaway 'Crossover King' project, and growing past 50 accounts.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

welcome to episode 178 cigar hustler podcast of the bdp show bdp ladies and gentlemen please Please welcome, on the main stage, the BDP. And, we can play that, and the other guy, and then the king, ta-da, ooh, there we go, that's perfect, it's out of my way, I feel good about this, I tried using that over here, it didn't work for me, it's too high, it's too high, but it was a very clean look, though, when that, well, 'cause that one we were gonna have was there, and that one we were going to have was there, and that one we were going to have was there, and that one we were going to have was there, and that one we were going to have was there, and that one we were going to have. It was over here, and it was a very clean look. There's a lot going on.

Yes. I mean, it's still kind of tall. But it works. Yeah.

I saw one that was like, we could just shred this thing apart and just take the wind. Well, you know, looking at that, there's something we could cut or something, but it's got a threaded end on two sides. Yeah, yeah. I saw one that was like 40 bucks, I'm like, we'll just take this, throw the fucking mic away, and we'll use the stand.

Oh. Because it's got like this type of a thing. Yeah. It's a shorter.

Well, it needs to, that thing needs to fit in. It's not that, because that U-clamp thing is built for that microphone. Yes, but there's one. And that microphone is technically upside down.

I don't think it matters. Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters. So, what's up, Michael?

Give us a live read. Oh, yeah, sorry. Oh, yeah, sorry. We have a live read.

We have a new live read today. I'm excited about this. You, too, can be part of the podcast family. Put your products in front of a thousand listeners and viewers every episode.

We are heard on 12 different podcast providers weekly all around the world. com. com. Look at that.

Thank you. But if you're in the cigar industry, we don't want you. No, I do mean that. Because we want to be able to talk shit about you.

We want to talk shit about you. If we don't like. That's what we do, we talk shit about you. If we don't like what you're doing.

And if you're a sponsor and feel obligated or something, you know. Well, you just get mad. Yeah, I was like, yeah, and then you want your money back, and I can't do that. No refunds.

Sorry. Sorry, all sales are final. All sales are final. Thank you, thank you.

No, you can cancel, but there is no money back. There's a penalty, a restocking fee. There's a restocking fee. Exactly.

Yeah, there's always a restocking fee. Well, we gotta restock that. Gotta restock, that's the way it works. What do we got up for the Patreon there, Mikey?

Uh, today we are doing, what are we doing? We're doing the Warwick Witch? War Witch. War Witch.

Sorry, War Witch. War Witch. The War Witch by Black Star Line, did I say that correctly? Black Star Line Cigars, our friend Eric was here.

Is he going to be on this podcast? At the end. He'll be on at the end. There'll be a little thing at the end, as long as we still have that.

As long as it didn't get lost. As long as it's not disappeared, because that was several weeks ago on a massive podcast day. Exactly. Sorry, you're already getting messages.

I'm a busy guy. I'm already popping things. I'm never too busy for you, Mike. I'm already popping things.

So, what do you want to talk about? Let me, um, let me take yours and give it the old scale wing. Oh, gotcha, get away. I need a cigar.

Hey, uh, we talked about this before, uh, that we decided, uh, that we're going to go to the PCA, but did you know, there's this thing that some, uh, uh, conventions are doing now. What's that? They do a colored wristband. Yes.

Have you heard about this? Now, I don't know if the PCA is doing this, but I heard other industries are, are doing this, where if you, uh, have a red one, that means nobody touches you. Oh, so this is like COVID-related. Right, yeah, yeah, it's COVID-related to the new world order, I guess you can say.

The new world order. But some people are actually doing this for weddings too, as I understand, but a red one means nobody touches you, a yellow means I'm okay with the, you know, the elbow or the fist bump, and the green is bring it in, I'm just, whatever you want to do. What's the one for, I need you to be 10 feet away from me at all times? That would be red.

No, that's six. oh you anymore oh oh maybe sir sir maybe it flashes and where am i throw my wrist up in the air get away from me stand back i tell you right but uh fantastic uh thought it might be fun maybe uh next episode we'll come out a list of the cigar people that we know and we'll try to determine what color wristband we thought they would uh what they wouldn't have so i've had a couple people asking me like well are you gonna sell Powstanie there and i said no no no i'm not So I'm going to sell Pustania. And then somebody asked me. Not even if somebody wants to buy them.

Yeah, no. No? No. You just say no.

I didn't, and that was actually what I was about to get into. Oh, sorry. I didn't pay for a booth. Right.

I'm not, I'm going to go in as a retailer. Right, I got you. And I'm going to make my purchases as a retailer. Oh, how nice.

We're going shopping. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes.

Going shopping. I like going shopping. But no, no, I'm not. For one, I don't really have many to sell.

Is the czar going to? Has he been decided yet? Has he been decided yet? I don't know, I was supposed to ask him about today, but it's kind of, hmm, hmm.

Yeah, well, he's, what was his word today? There you go. The maestro. These maestro-ing things.

The maestro-ing things. I have to maestro these things. So you know not to use these things around us. Yeah, don't, why, why, why you help?

You don't need to give us ammunition. We can handle that on our own. Now I have to come up with pictures to put his head down of people maestro-ing things, so. " You would refer to him as the Maestro.

The Maestro. Which is not what we're doing. I think that's what Claudio Sigroy called himself at, uh, uh, Mombacha, when he said Mombacha. Oh!

I think so. Maybe. Maestro. Maybe.

Do you know who I am? I am the Maestro. Uh, so, uh, I had a drinking day this weekend. And I'm fine.

I mean, we can talk about this a little. Oh, you're just going to come out with it? I'm just going to come out with it because I'm not dead. Man, I was really hoping.

I really wanted to lob that up. Oh, no. You're on fire today. Go ahead.

Why lob it up? Just throw it out there. Let's talk about the fact. It's not like my drinking problem or alleged drinking problem is a secret.

Middle of the afternoon. It was amazing. Middle of the afternoon. Boots and I had planned this earlier in the week.

I'm like, what are you doing Saturday? He goes, I don't have any plans. He goes, my wife busy all day with a friend. You want a day drink?

And he's like, sure. Now, I did not intend on passing out in the house at some point, and I apologized to my wife. Apparently, I was a little abrupt with my language, but I would assume it had to do with the mess that Boots made with chips and dip in the garage. All the sex, too.

It could have been. I don't know at this point. Once his wife showed up to pick him up, I don't remember anything. He's like, I got to get the hell out of here.

Apparently, he texted her. He told me this today. " He goes, "I just sent her, I'm gonna throw up, I need help," or something like that. He said that or you said that?

No, he said that to her in a text message. I didn't even know. I'm about to vomit. I'm gonna get sick, I need help.

And then he shared his location with her. And meanwhile you were-- And she'd never been in a house before. Oh. So I don't know if one of us gave her the gate code or she broke through the gate.

That's pretty clutch. Yeah. That's pretty clutch. Yeah.

I mean, I feel like I could drop that pin too, but there would be some shit. You fucking can't hold your fucking... My wife would fucking be like, you gotta get your shit together. You're embarrassing me.

You're embarrassing me. For fuck's sake. What the hell's wrong with you? I was only drinking beer because I figured it was going to be a long day.

But he brought this moonshine. The moonshine. Next thing you know, we're just a little bit in a glass and nothing. Anyone have, there's half left.

Let's just play what's left. And that was when the, you know what, I'm just never enough text came out on Facebook. Well, that had to do with something that had happened the day before that apparently came back up that next day, so I don't know, but everything's fine. Well, Michael, when you throw chips on the ground, you are not enough.

You are inadequate. Someone needs to pick this shit up. It wasn't me, it was him. Doesn't matter, he's with you.

I didn't eat the chips. He's part of your team. I remember seeing him like handfuls into the cheese dip. They're falling everywhere.

He was talking daytime drinking, totally shitfaced. Day drinking on a Saturday. I guess on the way home, he had to have food, and he made his lovely wife take him to Burger King. He went to Burger King.

God. " I'm sorry. I married a man with Down Syndrome. " Like, what is going on?

Yes, he'll be in bed by five. Right. He's gonna have these cheeseburgers and he's gonna fall asleep some more. I didn't, uh, I didn't eat anything and I woke up later fine, but very thirsty.

Yeah, very thirsty and prepared to delete all of Facebook. Oh, yes. Yes. So, and Adrian had been answering text messages.

People were texting me. I wonder if I was okay. Hey, are you okay, man? The kids checked in on me.

" Dad, are you okay? Is everything fine? So, uh, you know. I just wanted to know, Dad, I love you.

Once every six months, I try to, you know, just fall off to a complete fucking deep end. Right. You know, it helps reset the system. You know, it gets everything out.

Your liver might be so angry right now. Oh, it's fine. It's fucking still shriveled. No more.

No more. I can't detox anything right now. No more. When do I get a vacation, Mike, is looking at you.

Right. Seriously. I had no acid reflux the next day, which I normally do. Your body just shut down and just said, just fucking run it through.

I took two big antiacid Prilosex. Oh, ahead of the curve. I'm professional. I'm professional.

So let's just review real quick. So even though you were totally fucking shwasted, you went off the deep end on Facebook, you probably yelled at your wife, you threw chips all over the place. I didn't throw the chips! You say it was Steve, but I believe it was you.

You still remember to take the antiacids. No, that was early in the day. Oh, that was pre. That was pre.

It's like you're trained. I'm a professional. Yeah. I was going to say, like, you have a fighter's stance tactic.

If you're trained to, when your body's about to shut down, you know to grab the any assets. And assets, water. Like, there's nothing here. There's nothing going on in your mind.

Nothing's working at all. But the body is trained. I will take these, too. And then I will go to sleep.

I'll take this aspirin. I'll take this. Into the bed. The shoes are off.

Put the bowl by the bed. There's no throwing. I get it. But I do love that giant Roma Craft metal thing, though.

Two of those, and I was good to go. Oh, two big jugs of ecovessel. I got eco-vessel water, and I'm back to normal. Well, it seems like your wife was very concerned.

She was looking for you. There were some angry tests. I don't know why she was looking for me. I never left the house.

Well, apparently, when you went off the deep end, she decided to go off the deep end, too. Oh, no, she wasn't. No, she wasn't licking it up at all. No, not that you remember.

How do you know? Good point. Yeah. I don't know.

Maybe she got shit-faced, hypothetically, of course. Maybe she got shit-faced, forgot that you were in the room, and where the fuck is my husband? Well, she was out, she was at the beach. Oh.

And you weren't responding. Apparently, I guess. Assholes, wherever he is. Well, she just, look on her phone, see where I'm at.

We share locations all the time. It doesn't matter. It doesn't, it just doesn't matter. This is a lie.

He left his phone. He left his phone at home. His phone at the house, he's out gallivanting. Right, gallivanting.

No, there was no gallivanting. They were barely walking, let alone gallivanting. He's out peddling my vagina for $5 at the local pub. Oh, no.

Oh no, I need more, I need more moonshine, I need $5. Who's interested? We had an offer at $5 last time I was here, I want to see if we can get to $6. $10, I need $10 for a whole bottle please, $10.

Absolutely amazing. So I commented, as did the rest of the fucking Florida Cigar World, and the manufacturers and brand owners that you're friends with, which is remarkable, I love when Skip, it was Skip instinctively. Oh, did Skip? I didn't even see Skip.

Oh, yeah, daytime drinking, and then Chet said, morning drinking, that parlayed, that slid right into afternoon drinking. I did notice Sunday, though, Skip was drinking, talking about rum drunk. Yeah, was he Zapaka? Well, he had several different kinds.

Yeah, he's got options. He's got quite a bit. He did throw the XO in, I saw, so a fan of the other show where we put the XO. You know, I appreciate where you're going, but I'm going to bring it all back right here real quick.

So, an array of comments on your no one loves me, I'm never enough posts. No, it's just I'm not enough, something like that. I'm not enough. It wasn't enough, not enough.

And I said, you're enough, Mike. And so did everybody else. Yeah, it was everybody else. So that got deleted.

I don't know why that made her mad, too. She's like, everybody in the world is worried about you. I'm like, I don't like that. Well, you know, everybody likes me, honey.

You're a likable guy. So, you wake up, you delete it. Because obviously you're now, now we have awoken and we are in damage control. Exactly.

Yes. Yeah. So I, all right, we got to start cleaning this up. I can successfully identify when damage control mode is going on and I felt the need to do the post on your, I just want you to know you're enough.

Somebody took down the other one. So yeah. So then sure as shit, boom, deleted like within probably 10 minutes. No, the second one is still up.

No. So then I posted up after that one and I said, for some strange reason, I keep losing my post mike thank you very much i just want to know we're hanging it on right yeah i went to go clean up the garage where we're like this is all very fixed oh man what happened it's like it's like somebody got shot in the cleaning crew came in and just took care of everything magical leprechaun showed up took care of this whole guy this is all back to one again look at it yeah there is there is a glass missing oh steve has it no no he brought one back it's probably broken we might have broke it i guess i know but he brought one back and he's like here i cleaned this i'm like I didn't even know you took that. Well, I got to tell you, you know, this very seldom happens because like you were the king of Facebook trolling. Yes.

You always drop the one-liners and shit like that. Yes. But when, when you open that door, I was not going to let that go, not by a long shot. Fair, fair.

I was like, okay, this is going to be amazing. I can't wait. I throw it on everybody else and just bring it out. Uh, yeah.

And then I did see one other one. Oh, you commented on Rich, Richie Riott's post. Which was hilarious that we didn't comment. This might have been like a week ago.

That got taken down too. Oh, really? Oh, he did like a post, and you're like, what were you, in some kind of fucking boy band or some shit? Yeah, I didn't know you were in a boy band.

Like you're busting out jokes, and he's like, uh, yeah, I kind of was. I was in a band. Then he gave me the video, but he posted the video. Yeah, I started watching the video.

I did too. I couldn't finish it, but I did start to watch it. I mean, kudos to the guy for doing the fucking thing, like having a band. I'm sure that they had good music.

But the video was tough. Well, it was a little 80s, 90s. It was definitely in that 90s, very depressed. Where you're following the camera around and everything.

It was a very angry teen. It was a very angry teen, is what it was. You're right. And I probably would have enjoyed it, you know, when I was an angry teen.

Exactly. I'm like, oh yes, I'm an angry teen and this angry teen music fits me. Yes. But at this point, it no longer fits me.

I think I look good. I look good. I'm all washed out. I think it's the screen, because that's what we got in the video.

We're fine, we're fine, we're fine. Anyway. That's our most expensive light, too, though we never turned on. Right, we never turned on.

Just this time, we didn't turn on. Yeah. So, yeah, I thought that, oh, so Richie Wright lost his post, too, huh? His post went down, too, yeah.

I wonder who came after him for that. Dude, take that down right now. Maybe one of the guys in the band that didn't want anybody to know. I don't want anybody to know about this shit.

Right, but the boy band from the 90s, don't anybody know. He just got engaged, too. Congratulations, Richie. He just got engaged recently.

Well, yeah, but I say all that because every, you know, you don't really get an opportunity to troll you, but if, yes, because you troll the fuck out of everybody, so when it happens, when it, when it backfires with fucking, um, when boy bands go wrong, and, and, um, when you do your shit and nobody loves me. Oh, is there somebody else that I don't know about about to happen or something? No, no, no, that's all I got, that's all I got. It's just somebody calling coming in.

No, there's no shoe. My wife's here, right? My wife's here. D.

King Baller. With the divorce papers. Yeah. And here's a, we're going to take the last.

One more, I get a set of steak knives. 25% of your shit that you have left. That's right. I have nothing.

She comes and takes one of these microphones and just walks out. So before we, I know we're running out of time. No, no, we're good. We're 15 minutes.

Yeah. Okay. So you fucked this up for me, but. Well, you know, don't leave shit sitting around.

You just go through my desk. It was on my desk. You're cleaning your desk up all the time! It was a closed box.

No, it was just like that. It was just like that. See, this is closed. Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter. See this box? See how this is closed like this? Doesn't matter.

This is closed. This doesn't mean open me. Could have been empty. Does it say Mike fucking Palmer on it?

No, it doesn't. No, it could have been empty. It says, "Mike's Jeb Onkevich," but it's not spelt right, but it's okay, because... Could have been empty.

How do I know? I'm just cleaning things up while I was here. Because he's pretty closed, Jeff Mutay. It's better than Sam and Rosie with Mike something-something.

Mike something, something. That's what they dropped. Or Mike Spongebob Squarepants. So our dear friend of Riverside and Match Cigar Bar.

Yes. In Jeffersonville, Indiana. Yes. I got it right, Jeff.

I got it right. You got it right. You got it right. Sent us these lovely hats.

Oh, the bottom one's already fit to me. Oh, no kidding. I don't know if you can see that. Yes, you can.

Slapdick Cattle Company. Slapdick Cattle. Now, someone sent us hats a while ago. Someone sent us stickers.

We had stickers, did we have stickers? No, just one shirt, and we had stickers, because no parking sign had a sticker on it, that's hanging in my garage. But now we have trucker hats. Now we have slapdick trucker hats.

I like what you did there, that's very creative. I already had mine sized, because I already had it. There you go. We should wear these at a PCA.

They already don't take us seriously, Mike. You really want to seal the deal with the slapdick hat? But these are very nice, man. They're very nice hats.

Jeff's thinking of us. They're nice. He bought a couple. He sent some out to some other people.

Oh, not just that? No. Other people that schlep dicks, too? Yeah.

Still, it's very nice. Yeah. You know what's funny? Maybe this is for Greg.

He needs one that says maestro. The maestro. Yeah. Very nice.

I like it. It's very fancy. It's a lovely hat. Thank you, Jeff, very much.

We appreciate you. And I appreciate your friendship, dude. You're a hell of a retailer and a great friend. Meat that's hard to beat, it says on it.

Meat that's hard to beat, baby. They've just come out with a whole line of apparel. I follow them on TikTok. I mean, I don't know how you...

Why wouldn't you pass this opportunity up? Slap tick apparel all the way around. Right. You're welcome.

I feel like we did it for them. Maybe. Maybe made them popular. We'll take royalties.

It looks just like the burn smoker colors. This must be trendy, this color. Color combo. Blue and red?

Blue and red and white. Red, white and blue. It's very Tommy Hilfiger. Red, white and blue.

Yeah. Oh, Merca. Merca. Merca.

So, yeah. What else you got, Mikey? Well, this is, then it gets into the news, and I have a Florida story. We have to pick a winner.

We have a little social media thing, and we got 10 minutes. You want to do that? No. No, okay.

We'll save that for the other show. I like to do that at the end. Okay. I want you listening the entire time.

It's fine. You know what? What we'll do is we'll mix it up. We'll put it somewhere in the middle.

Like you do the news and then we'll drop it in the middle. That way you can't fast forward. You have to listen to the show. Oh, nice.

Yeah. You know, we haven't done a listener a week in weeks because we've been doing the winners. But that's fun. Yeah.

That's fun. You know, I can give you a listener of the week. Well, one of the comments on our YouTube thing is the sound drops are getting to be a little bit much. Yeah.

Well, and I agree with that. Who said it? I don't remember the name. I don't, I don't know.

Oh, the last guy who won, by the way, was Gary Plumlee. Oh, gotcha. Fishing Kid 21. Yes.

Or 12, whatever it was. Fishing Kid 12? Oh, good. Well, he's, he didn't comment this week, so.

Well, my listener of the week, if I say so myself. You ready? Go ahead, I'm ready. Would be Douglas Pendleton.

Congratulations, Douglas Pendleton! You are Listener of the Week! I believe he's also, yes he is, he's also up for the gift card. Is he?

Yes. Ooh, it could be a double whammy for Douglas. Turn that over so you don't see the numbers. Yeah, I don't want to know the numbers.

No. So, yeah. Oh, congratulations, Douglas, that really, you don't get anything but our love and affection. So, congratulations, we'll give you one more.

It's a lot of love, though. Oh, you know what, he didn't get a... I can't clue! Alright, now leave it alone.

I have clue! Now take the buttons, that's it. You're upsetting people. You're pissing people off.

I don't know what you're doing now. I have to switch it to do the news after the... After the news. I believe it's that one right there.

Is there anything else you have to add? Anything else that you did before we run out of time and jump over the commercial? Kind of thing. I went to Universal this weekend and we stayed for like an hour.

It was fucking atrociously hot. Oh, really? Hot? Yeah, it was ridiculous.

That was the same day you had the meltdown, so I enjoyed that. Oh, nice. Oh, no one knows. No, Sunday I trimmed the tree.

It didn't do anything Sunday. It was an easy day for us as well. Well, trimming the tree, trimming the tree. I've had that huge oak tree in the front yard.

It's never easy to trim a giant oak tree, but I don't know if I'm paying somebody else to trim it when I have all the equipment. I got to tell you though, I got this like little cough and shit that I'm kind of dealing with. COVID. My fucking...

COVID. No, no, no. It's like some kind of RVS or some shit like that. What's RVS?

I don't know. So, some kind of upper respiratory thing? Oh, no. It's going around.

So, I'm getting the, for like three weeks now, when I wake up in the morning, my eye waters and my nose runs. Yeah. And any time I go outside, my eyes water and my nose runs. This is the first time this has ever happened to me.

You're just dying, that's all. It could be. It could be slowly dying. But even here, if I stay in this room, I'm okay.

If I go out there and to the lounge. Let's talk about you. I was commiserating, Michael, with your made up disease. It's not made up.

RVS. I'm going to tell you right now. It doesn't fucking matter, whatever my kid brings home, brings into the house, I get, it doesn't matter, it doesn't fucking matter what it is, I'm going to get it, and at this point, she has been sick every other week, for the past two months, but it's not enough to slow her down, it might be enough to make her soggy for a day, or give her a runny nose, or a little cough, or some shit like that, but then it comes to me, and I'm like, this fucking sucks. Right.

And we had a whole year of like no contact with people in the masks and shit, so I didn't, I wasn't sick at all. Oh, that's right. I felt great last year. Oh, put your kids back in the mask.

No flu, no nothing. Put your kids back in the mask. Knock on wood. I even got my flu shot.

You got, you got the flu shot too? Yeah. I always get my flu shot. I'm not a fucking pussy like you, Mike.

I ain't pussy like me. I don't even have to get the shots. I don't get sick. So Mr.

Pussy over there. As your cloggy little eyeball starts to droop. Just one eye. Yeah.

Uh huh. Yeah. Could be a stroke. It's a stroke.

You never know. It could be the other stroke. That'd be amazing. I hope it's Sarah Palsy.

It's like Fred Rui had to deal with it. I'm getting palsy now. That poor guy. But it came back.

I just want you to suffer for a little while and then you'd be normal again. Good. Why am I starting to water now? I hope that you lose feeling on the entire left side of your face.

You're so mean. You're so angry all the time. I'm lining up on the cereal. I tried Honey Bunch's Oats today.

That doesn't work with your system. It's too healthy. It's good cereal. I like the cereal.

It is good cereal, but like, when you get to the tail end and you're super full, like the consistency of it, it's not. It's a little heavier. It's not happening. Right.

It is heavier. So it was less to eat. I couldn't finish it. Good thing you don't even like granola or grape nuts or something.

Yeah. No, no, not doing that. Yeah. Not doing that.

I'm going back to Lucky Charms. I think that protein water would soften up Grape Nuts. Fuck this bullshit with Lucky Charms. I was like, I'm going to try the Honey Bunch.

You tried like the Crunch Berry, just berries? Oh, I did. All berries? Yeah.

amazing but they don't have that at costco so i have to wait for the costco stuff yeah costco well if all berries is on sale at public's i'd buy a bunch of those oh well they do that bogos all the time they do but you have to get the right size general mills you gotta get the large size you can't get the standard you can't get the family because one's too big one's too small large large yeah they have three sizes of cereal at public they do do they really oh yeah Yeah. Believe me, I fucked them up. I brought them up. They're like, this one's not buy one, get one.

Oh yeah. Yeah. That's how they get you. I'm like, guess what?

Put them the fuck back. Oh, see, they want you to just go, well, just keep it then. Yeah. But it's, yeah.

Okay. But if I got, I'm sitting on fucking 15 boxes of cereal. Right. And they're like, Hey, these are no longer, these, all of these aren't buy one, get one.

I said, cool. Take them off my order. Oh, see, I don't even look if I get the wrong one. He's like, are you serious?

You're serious? I'm like, oh yeah. I'm dead serious. I got to eat one of these a day.

You think I'm going to about to get fucked? Oh yeah, we'll see, they don't understand. I'm about to get clobbered an additional $5 per? Nope.

Take it back. So. Yeah, what are you doing, man? Nothing, they're just, we're very, nothing.

Everything's fine. Everything's running fine. Everything's fine. Normally, it appears louder on the screen.

You know what, Mike? Oh, you know what, the volume's probably turned out. It is. You know what, Mike?

There we go. We're back to normal. You're enough, Mike. Thank you, Mike.

I just wanted to know. Thank you. I'm worried about you. Thanks.

All right, well, let's get into the news. We'll take a break, and we'll get into the news. Oh, okay. That's all right with you.

Yeah, I don't know what you're doing. The king says we'll take a break, so we'll take a break. You're just over here messing around. No, no, we'll take a break.

We're fine. Keep your hat on. I'm dying here. It's a runny eyeball.

All right. All right, welcome back to episode 178 of a Cigar Hustler podcast. Hi. The Aftermath.

The Aftermath. The Aftermath. Alright, you ready? Ready to go?

It's not your fault, Mike. With Goodwill hunting you. It's not your fault. From the four corners of the world, all the cigar industry news you could possibly need.

The Cigar Hustler Podcast Report with Mike Tu. Thank you! C. S.

government to do so. I saw that. I saw that. More than a century, the old tradition of crafting premium hand-rolled cigars still rolls on inside the company's factory.

Cigars are an important part of the fabric and character and history of Tampa and Cuba, was a big piece of that, said Drew Newman, a fourth-generation cigar maker. So big, in fact, that a century ago, more cigars using Cuban tobacco were rolled here in the cigar city than in Cuba itself. That all changed in the early 1960s when President Kennedy essentially cut off trade with Cuba. And then he bought all of them before.

After he... Okay, somebody's coming in. He's being very sneaky. He's being very sneaky, the maestro.

Here comes the maestro. He's walking in maestro-ing. He needs the keys. Yeah.

He's not making any noise. Very quiet. Now he's tiptoeing back out. Very confusing.

He has a serious shoes on today, but the hat's on backwards. It's very confused. Very confusing. Maestro-ing is tough business.

Tough. Maybe you have to have that backwards for maestro-ing. You know. Usually I don't do anything.

Since 1962, there haven't been Cuban cigars made in Tampa, and that hasn't been Cuban tobacco in Tampa, and we wanted to change that, Newman said. Would they still be Cuban cigars that made them in Tampa? Wouldn't they be Tampa cigars at that point? Right.

That's what you would think. C. Newman Cigar Company is petitioning the federal government to allow them to import Cuban tobacco. It's a simple request, Michael, albeit one with rife and major international implications.

Let's just say, hypothetically, Cuban Tobacco shipped over to Esteli, Nicaragua. Yes. And then you shipped that tobacco into the States. How would you know it was Cuban?

I guess the big Spanish rapper. Clearly, this is Cuban. It says Cuban right on the back. It says Cuba.

Right. It's got this little island. Just take the tag off, I guess. Yeah, right?

What is this? It's... Yeah, how are they going to know? C.

C. Newman gets tobacco from other parts of the world, I'm sure, shipped into Tampa. Yeah. So, right, why not they just boop, boop?

Yeah, it's not Cuban, wink, wink. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Let's see, the government allows for coffee, charcoal, and metals from independent entrepreneurs, and we're asking the government to allow us to import raw cigar tobacco from independent human farmers into Tampa. Yeah, that makes sense.

Are there independent farmers? Hey, we get coffee from there, what the fuck? Where is the tobacco? How can they be independent?

It's a communist country. I don't know. Who knows these details of these governments? It's all bullshit.

Just like a grape that's grown in France tastes different than a grape grown in California. The same is true for cigars and cigar tobacco. Yeah, because it speaks differently. Ho, ho, ho.

Ho, ho. I am a grape from France. We're getting it. No, no, no, no, no.

Let that go, because we're getting it. C. Newman's request isn't clear. It isn't clear.

Fox 13 reached out for a comment and has yet to be given a response. We know there's interest from consumers, from us, and from farmers who are independent in Cuba, and we'll be interested to see what happens in New Mexico. And we know that there are suckers that would buy it because it says it's Cuban. Right.

Yeah. Exactly. It's Cuban. Ooh.

Ooh. Don't worry, if they come in here and say they're looking for a Cuban, I happily sell them something from the Dominican Republic. And nobody knows. You guys got any of those Cohibas?

Yeah, I do. Sure. Sure. Sure, right here, red dot, red dot means they're special.

Yeah, it's a big deal, it's a big deal. Hey. Gauge myself by your reaction. I had a guy, you know, so I was, uh...

Yes? I was at a place. You're at a place. You're at a place.

One of those places. I had a guy... And a guy? Yeah.

Trying not to go into too far detail. " I was like... Yo, where are them cigars at? I will get you some cigars here.

So I'm breaking, I got him some cigars, I broke them down. Yeah. this this is this is like where the maduro is at okay here you go it's gonna be that type of conversation so here's your maduros and have a nice day this is for you it's hard out there it's hard it's tough you know it's funny it's a doggy dog world michael and you're eating milk bone underwear wearing wearing milk bone underwear it's a doggy dog world and you're wearing milk bone underwear that's weird it's so awkward it's like peanut butter i don't want to do that no the Hey, what are the dogs eating? My underwear.

I heard a new phrase that I'm trying to work in as much as possible. Yeah, because you're not working on that one. That was terrible. I'm riding this dinosaur right into the tar pits.

Nice. I like that one. I like that one. Feel free to use that.

Yeah, we're going to ride this dinosaur all the way into the tar pit. That's a great idea. All right, that's like this show. We're just going to ride this thing right into the tar pit.

Right into the tar pit. Right in there. And it ain't coming back. Let's see, Illusion, Candela gets second release at PCA 2021 exclusive.

We would like to pre-buy the Candela since we're shopping. I've ordered shit from Alfredo, from Lugion. We're going shopping, though. I would like to, can I have a credit card?

I'm going to talk to you, and I'd be like, I just want a different rep. You've heard about my disdain for this man from the board, dad. He probably hasn't, I'm going to say, this guy is a waste of space. Oh, Richie, sing us a song while you play his daughter.

Zoom in. Zoom in, sing a song. Last year, Lugion released a special version of its CG4 with a Candela wrapper. C-G-4.

And now that Cigar is back for second release. Next month's 2021 PCA Convention and Trade Show, Luziom will offer a second release of its CG4 Candela to retailers who are in attendance. That could be us. That could be us.

That could be us. While most of the details... Attendance. Attendees.

Attendees. Possibly you. Investors. While most of the...

Investors? Possibly you. We're having investors? That's what we should do on the live feed.

What live feed? Like Prestige Worldwide. Oh. Investors.

Yeah, yeah, I like it. See, while most of the details remain the same, it'll be offered in boxes of 25 instead of bundles of 10. Oh, that's nice. The other obvious change is that this year's release will be offered to stores nationwide, whereas last year's version was sold only at The Vault in Meridian, Idaho.

The Vault. Is that his place? That's his place. I don't know, it must be his place.

I don't know, that's his place. Idaho. You don't really hear about, you know, Idaho being the cigar capital of America. Potatoes.

Potatoes, yes, obviously potatoes. Maybe vodka, because you made it from the potatoes. Maybe potato cigars. Blend wise, the 5 and 5/8 by 46 Corona Gorda, your favorite size, Michael, is made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco, including the green Candela wrapper.

90 per cigar. Dion, that you mentioned, Lucien's founder, told Half Wheel of Cigars are awaiting transport from Nicaragua. He declined to give a number of how many were made. Maybe just some, maybe not some, we don't know.

Are you alright? What are you doing? I'm trying to look up... I think Dion has a store.

I just don't know where it is. I'm guessing Meridian, Idaho. I don't think that's it. Asylum CLE creating a PCA exclusive.

Who is? Asylum CLE. Oh, okay. The Asylum and CLE brands will each be releasing their own exclusive cigars for retailers who attend next month's 2021 PCA convention at Trade Show.

Both lines will come in the same three sizes, though the blends are different. The Asylum PCA Exclusive will be made entirely of Honduran Tobacco, Honduras, while CLE's Iroa PCA Exclusive will use a Cameroon Seed Wrapper grown at the Eroa Family Farms outside of Donnelly, Honduras, Christian Iroa, CLE's founder, isn't disclosing the binder of fillers used for the, that's the thing now, don't be able to say what's in the cigar, stuff, tobacco, leaf, leafs. See, the Asylum exclusive is a 50 by 5. What do they get that backwards for?

50 by, you know. 50 by 5. It's actually 50 inches in with a 5-gauge. Oh.

Yeah. Asylum PCA exclusive. It's a 4-foot cigar. Wow, it's amazing.

It's big. It's big. Six and a quarter by 52, 52 by 60? What is it?

52 slash 60? Carry the one. They're not sure about the size yet. Each cigar was sold in boxes of 20.

It's going to be a 6. So, not only do they not know what's in it, but they don't know what size it is either. 50, yeah. See, it depends on how much we have to put in these.

No, I don't know, but we gotta get a press release out here. That's right, so, throw a bunch of sizes on there, let's get this thing out. It's gonna be somewhere between a 3 and a 7 inch. Each cigar we sold in boxes.

38 by 60 gauge. 20, which will also function as wooden ashtrays. Rapper, filler, undisclosed. Oh, the box is also an ashtray.

CLE. And it's gonna come with an ashtray? It comes in the ashtray. It's gonna be an ashtray.

Pricing for the lines has not been announced. Because we don't know anything about this cigar. We have no idea what's going on. We don't know what's in it.

We don't know what size. But goddammit, we're gonna do a press release. It's coming in an ashtray. And you're gonna get an ashtray.

Maybe. Possibly. Take the ashtray back away. You're definitely maybe gonna get a possible ashtray.

Hopefully. Let's see. Told Halfwheel that the cigars will be regularly production items for retailers to attend the trade show and are expected to begin- Charlie, how the fuck did you write this? I can't write this.

In the fourth quarter. Seriously, how did you not respond to everybody? This exclusive is available to everybody. You're giving me nothing.

You've given me nothing. I cannot write this. Honestly. That's probably why Brooks went on vacation.

You know what? I'm going to take a couple days. I had to write all that Weaselfest stories. " I'm going to take a couple days.

I'm just going to get out of here. I'm going to take a couple days. The 2021 PGA Convention Trade Show takes place July 10th through the 13th in Las Vegas. Yeah.

Okay, that much we're sure of. That's because it's not ran by CLE. Right. Who doesn't know?

Who doesn't know what, when, where. It's gonna be something. It's a cigar. We know the wrapper.

Maybe. And there's 20. And it's not disclosed. But we don't know when, why, how much.

They sound like scientists. They should go into politics. But they should all be politicians. All be politicians, no.

How do you feel about the border wall? Well, I feel that maybe something should happen there. Possibly, maybe. That would maybe be a good idea.

With an undisclosed amount. How should we do it, sir? Well, we're not sure at this point. Yeah, it could be.

We're gonna give you an ashtray. We don't know. But we're gonna include ashtrays. For sure.

For sure. " Right. I'm in. I'm confused, so it must be a right.

Southern Draw expands. I feel like I should wear headgear to the next PCA. I feel like we've pissed off so many, you know, like we've said something about everybody at this point. Oh, everybody at this point.

Hey. No, you go first. I'm not going first. with one of the golf carts that are gated, caged.

Oh, like at the golf thing? Like driving range? Let them throw shit at us. Okay, we're going to do two laps.

Everybody can throw shit at us, and then that's it, okay? You guys can get over it. We all suck. Then we have credit cards, so we're going to buy some.

For additional fees, you can continue to throw shit at us. There you go. Southern Draw's Manzanita line has recently expanded from one Vitola to three. Oh.

You have to do it in French, Michael. I can't. Come on. That's the only reason I pulled the story.

Oh, Southern. Oh, oui, oui, oui. Southern draw. Southern draw.

This is me. Southern draw. Launched last year, the Manzanita uses a hybrid Havana wrapper over Havana binder and fillers that include Palo de Oro, Corojo 99, and Little Apple. Aero Tobacos.

Apple of the little. You know, we mentioned last week we hadn't seen him. He did two videos since our last show. Did he?

Yes. Oh, yeah. Two Facebook videos. Early.

Was he speaking French? I didn't know. You know, apparently, people think I have not been around. I am from these other friends, whoa, the company purposely isn't disclosing the countries that tobacco's come from.

Oh, so they're telling us what it is, but not where it comes from. It's this, but we can't tell you where we got it. Hoping consumers focus more on the tobaccos if they don't know where the origins of the tobaccos. What?

The company purposely isn't disclosing the countries the tobacco comes from. Yeah. Hoping consumers focus more on the tobacco if they don't know where the tobacco comes from. Hmm.

Maybe it's, so is it San Andreas? No, does it come with an ashtray? Because that's the only part I can get right. Is it San Andreas?

Um, uh, no, a hybrid Habano wrapper over Habano binder and fillers that include Palo de Oro, Corojo 99, and Lajero. Okay. So that could be from anywhere. Yeah.

When the Manzanita Toro launched last year... From now on, when somebody asks me what type of wrapper this is, I'm gonna say that's none of your goddamn business and I thank you for staying out of my personal affairs. But you get an ashtray. But we will include some form of ashtray.

Southern Draw said that there would be more sizes coming in 2021. Late last month, the two new sizes began shipping to stores. So, Michael, can you say, please, that there will be more sizes coming in 2021? There will be more sizes coming in the upcoming months.

99. Southerndraw has to need a Gordo, Big Fat Apple, 6 1/2 by 60 is $1549. Robert Holt, Southerndraw's co-founder, told Halfwheel that he has increased the production to 75,000 cigars per size. 21 gigawatts.

So if you could say you've increased the planned numbers. We have increased our numbers to 75,000. What is wrong with us? We have increased over 20% growth.

I'm sorry, Robert. He was always so nice to me. He's a great guy. Honestly, dude, I have nothing bad to say against Robert.

He's a great guy. Hopefully, he's a good guy. You're just a target right now for our entertainment. If we walk up to him and he starts doing the accent.

If he starts speaking French. I will wet myself and fall down to the wall. I think he's on a list of people I can do. Oh, sorry.

National Development. A portion of sales are being donated. Never comes into the store again. Never come into the store again.

Fuck those guys. First Nations Development Institute, an organization that works to improve economic conditions The Native American community, Southern Draw, previously said it hoped to donate $30,000 to the group's Nourish Native Food and Health. We may have to put a metal detector in the front of this office for when we interview people. Oh, because we don't remember if we talk shit about you or not.

We're going to need you to step through this. See, Ashton adds a San Cristobal Quint... Cristobal? Cristobal.

Ashton adds a San Cristobal Quintessence Churchill. Okay. All right. There's a new Vitola for the San Cristobal line.

The San Cristobal line, Ashton Distributes, Inc. has begun offering its retailers the San Cristobal and a new 7x49 Churchill Vitola, like the rest of the line, is made at My Father's Cigars, let's say, using an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers. MSRP is set at $9 per cigar, offered in boxes at $24. It's the 6th Vitola for the line.

Well, that's very exciting. All right, we have a Florida story, and then we have... Oh, before you get that, let's do it now. Slide it in.

Slide it in. They never knew. We have 16, Michael, 16 people. 16.

Now, I may or may not have hidden my name in this list. I'm gonna go Kobe 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Mitch Smith!

Mitch Smith. That has not been a previous winner. Congratulations, Mitch. Congratulations, Mitch.

" Mitch Smith, you're the winner of a $25 online cigar hustler gift card. Douglas got Listener of the Week, no gift card. Sorry. Sorry, Douglas.

Sorry, Douglas. And we're gonna do it again next week. Do it again next week, for people to comment, and there were several, you know, like you requested, I'm just here to support the show. I appreciate that.

Thank you very much. That was Mr. Wolpert. Oh, of course.

Of course it was. Such a nice man. He's a good dude. So, uh, hold on, let's get to the Florida story here, Florida story, Florida story, Florida story, Florida story.

Does it involve a gator? Uh, no. All right. Does it involve Burmese, Does it involve a guy with a hawk killing the Burmese Pythons?

Almost. There's an airplane. In Arcadia, Florida, Michael, after doing a little bit of digging, we may have found the place where two men were headed when they crash-landed their plane in the Everglades. Oh.

Jose and his pilot friend were flying from Tamiana to Arcadia to grab some tacos on Tuesday. Oh, Taco Tuesday. Yes, when the engine of a small plane failed and they crash-landed in a remote-- it's apparently a print problem out there. A remote area in the Florida Everglades.

The friends were not hurt in the emergency landing. Business owners Yolanda and Jose Hernandez said they see a lot of pilots in their food truck in Aviation City in Arcadia for Taco Tuesday every week. Wow. The Tangeray Quittero sets up near the city of Arcadia Municipal Airport, serving what they call delicious and authentic Mexican food every Tuesday.

Imagine to have it like that. Imagine to be such a badass, you're like, you know what, let's go get tacos. Well, everybody, apparently, they set up by this little airport and people fly in for their delicious tacos. That's what I'm saying.

In a Facebook post, they said, "Pilots fly in from around the state and glad to see other patrons from South Florida are doing well. " Well, as they should. Here you go. Here's two dollars worth of tacos.

Can you imagine that flight, though? We're going to crash. Crash? We're getting tacos.

Now I'm going to die? How do I explain this to my wife? Now I'm going to die hungry? Right.

So they crash, and then they go, well, which way to the tacos? Did you get a compass reading when we left, because the tacos this way, or the tacos that way? Okay, now that we're in the Everglades, how far out are we from the tacos? Right.

And then we go, you know, as long as we're here, we could kill a Burmese python and pay for the tacos that way. Yeah, we could take one of those out. $1,500. Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

That reminds me of the Miami Vice movie. Do you remember the Miami Vice movie with the... The movie or the TV show? No, the movie.

Yes, with... Jamie Fox. Okay, Jamie Fox. And Chris.

No, no, it wasn't Chris. Yeah, Chris, no. No, no, it was the other guy. The other guy.

Anyway. It was Chris. No, no, it wasn't Chris. I'm going to look it up.

It wasn't Chris. The guy who played Bullseye. Yep, that's him. Is his name Chris?

Miami Vice. I don't think his name is Chris. I really need a James or something. Somebody look this stuff up.

James! Look this up, James. Colin Farrell. There you go.

Like I said, Chris. Yeah. Colin. Yeah, very close.

They went to go get mojitos. " And they took a fast-ass boat to get fucking mojitos in Cuba. Right. So, that's the way.

I don't want to live a life like that. You don't want to live like that? I want to go have lunch in Paris, 'cause fuck it. Oh, Paris, 'cause you can do the accents.

Yeah, 'cause I go hang out with Robert Holtz. Robert Holtz. You can get a manzanita. Or whatever, you know?

Go get a pizza in Italy, just because, fuck it, I can. I think that would be badass. I don't know, it's a little further. You might want to stay the night.

Well, you're going to have to know pretty much, I mean, you've got to go, ooh, I'm hungry, where should we go? Pizza in Italy? Oh, okay, yeah, I got it in 12 hours. I just, you know, like.

And then you're going to have to eat something else. You might not want the pizza when you get there. I just want to be so badass that when you hang out with a, you got to have your passport on standby. Oh.

You know what I mean? Well, you better. We can do that. We live in Florida.

No, but we don't have a Learjet where you just jump on some shit and fucking haul ass. We can get a boat. That's not fun. You don't like boats?

The rocking. The rocking. No. The rocking and the rolling.

Yeah, I want to be somewhere. I want to be somewhere. You want just airplane. Then, you know, you land like, oh, welcome back.

Good to have you. Welcome back, good to have you. Oh, Mr. S.

Mr. S. We've missed you. Because we can't say your name.

Yeah, I'm like, hey, how are you, sir? How are you? Let's get the cars, let's go. Hey, what do you want to talk about now?

We're here for the pizza. What do I want to talk about now? I have my little social media story, or we can save that for the other show. Then we wrap this up a little early today, because we have the extra thing to put at the end.

And we can totally, I feel like that, that story requires Patreon truth. I agree. So. We'll save that.

So we can call this an end. We, we're going to put the, uh, uh, black star line. I can't remember. Black star line interview here at the end.

Yeah. He's a good guy. So it's a good 20, 30 minute interview. Yeah.

I'm excited for that. I like to build up and root for the little guy, you know? Oh yeah. We got a good product and I think that you're, you're going in the right direction.

We'd like to support you. So. Excellent. Alright, then this has been episode 178 of a Cigar Hustler Podcast.

Please stay tuned for the bonus video from Black Star Line Cigars and our friend, Erik. Alright, we're back. This is episode 171, 7. Yes, 177 of a Cigar Hustler Podcast.

And we have Erik. We have Erik from Black Star Line, correct? Is that it? Yeah, Black Star Line Cigars.

Black Star Line Cigars in Chicago, right? You're from Chicago? Yes, sir. Can I have my lighter encoder from you, too?

I have to fire this up. So you just started in the cigar industry, right? Yeah, we've been in business just under two years. Okay.

Oh, so not just. Welcome to the shit show, bro. Y'all having me. I'm talking about the cigar industry.

So what made you get into this? Like, I know you were a firefighter, right? Yeah, I'm a retired Chicago firefighter. So I started smoking in the firehouse.

So basically, my man cave is my garage. So I was sitting in the garage smoking, and I knew it was time to start a business, I just didn't know what it was going to be. So I was sitting and smoking and thinking and looking at my hand, and I'm like, man, you love these cigars so much, why don't you try to run at that? So then I contacted my good friend, childhood friend Derek Bell, and I asked him, I was like, hey man, you want to help me start a cigar line?

So he was like, hell yeah, let's roll with it. That's a great idea. Oh yeah, yeah. So we started networking at Drew Estate events, particularly the ones that Jonathan Drew would be at.

So that's how I got cool with JD. I heard about that guy. Yeah, so we started networking with him and he, you know, he initially gave us his email. Never got a response from that, so we went to some other.

That sounds about right. Not the real email. Call me. Call me.

Send me an email. Send me an email. I'll get you on the phone later. Yeah, we're gonna hang out.

We'll hang out. We'll be friends. Yeah. So then we went to another event in Chicago that he came to and he gave us his phone number.

Son of a bitch, those guys that gave my email. Son of a bitch. Now they're with the phone number. Right.

So he remembered us. And he gave us his phone number. He is good about that. He does have a great memory.

Oh, yeah. I think he's got like three phones, though. You should ask for all the numbers. Yeah.

I need all the numbers. And what about the other one? Okay, okay. And what about the other one?

Yeah, you need all of them. Right. All of them. You ain't fucking dodging me.

Because even with the phone calls and text messages, he wouldn't respond to that even. Oh, son of a bitch. But he did point us to LT and DeBronze down in Miami. His assistant's phones are going off like crazy.

I go, what are these guys going off? Miami, Titan DeBronze is a hell of a factory. Yeah. And you did some really good stuff.

Yeah. So that was where you started? Yes. And my first two blends came out of El Teton.

Okay. So I had to chase Sandy for at least eight months or so. Is it Teton? Yeah, Teton.

Yeah. El Teton de Bronze. I like Titan. Well, you're going to name one of your children Titan, weren't you?

Well, Justice's middle name is Titan. Oh, there you go. Probably same with an expelling. But you never know.

We'll go with Teton. Maybe you say it wrong. Maybe it's going to be Teton. Justice Teton.

What's up, Teton? Teton de Bronze. Alright, so you started there, and what did you, so how did that blending process kind of go? " Well, we would communicate over the phone, and Sandy wasn't in the factory a lot because her mother was sick at the time, so I think the young lady that was the gatekeeper, basically, that was answering the phone, her name was Kitty, she just kept telling us to call back week after week, and we'd never catch her.

" Handed the phone over to her. She didn't know how that works right away. " You obviously had not learned the screening department of Teetan DeBronze. This is why we miss Kitty.

Man, you really fucked that up, man. Right. " A month ago. " And that's what gave birth to Black Star Line Cigars.

So the first two blends were El Milagro. So two years, are you going back right before COVID? Yep. Oh, you picked a good time, bro.

Yeah, I know, right? Yeah, I know, right? Jeez. It was a shit show once the COVID hit.

But, 'cause the cigars came out that August before COVID had hit. Okay. So, yeah, we hit the ground running, pushing sticks everywhere. Our first big event was Atlanta Cigar Week.

So we did that, and then it was February, Warwish came out. And that was with Aganorsa. Okay, so how did you make the transition from Teaton to Browns? I'm gonna go with Teaton for you.

I'm gonna stick with that. So how did you make the transition into Aganorso? Well, Sean Williams is a good friend and a mentor of mine from Cohiba. And he came to Chicago, so I went and met him at his event.

" Like I said, you know, I love El Teton, but, you know, due to the fact I'm buying tobacco here in America, you know, the price is higher. Of course, it's a premium. So he was like, man, what you want to do? He was like, you want to work with Placenta, you want to work with Aganorsa, named a bunch of factories, so I'm a big fan of Kyle and Warped, and he started off with El Teton and he works with Aganorsa as well, so I was like, man, you know, I'd like to work with Aganorsa, so he was like, man, give me a day and, you know, I'll get back to you, so the next day he called me and he was like, hey, man, I talked to Terrence Riley personally for you, he's waiting for you to call, he's ready to work with you.

Terrence is a good guy Yeah he's a real nice guy Only had to call him once probably Yeah he answered the phone right away He hung up the phone and he sent you a follow up email And then send flowers to him Here's some flowers for you I had to attend one of his sermons Because you know he's Joel Osteen So that's solidified Alright so how does this blend break down You turn around and say okay I want a cigar Mm-hmm. So did you say what particular leaf that you're looking at? Yeah. You know, and so when it comes to the fillers and stuff like that, obviously, like your first one came out in August.

So this one came out when? February. Okay. 2020.

So this came out right at the beginning of like the hit. Yep. So did you go down to Esteli at all? Or did he just send you some samples and you put it together?

No, I gave him the blends. I gave him two blends. Okay. And then they sent both blends back to me.

And Warwitch is the way it is from inception. So the way it is, you're smoking it right now, is the way it is from Jump Street. So the second blend, it was just okay, so I don't think I'm going to release that one. But the Warwish, when I smoked it, it was exceptional because it's not your ordinary Connecticut, it's a Connecticut shade with Nicaraguan buying a Nicaraguan filler.

So it was just a great Connecticut, it's not your ordinary Connecticut, it's spicy, it's got pepper, it's flavorful, and it's got a kick to it as well. Right. Okay. And how many sizes you got on this thing?

You're smoking the Corona Boxpress right now, the 6x46. 5x40. So you did no Toro? No, no Toro yet.

Why not? I wanted to stray away from that a little bit, because I started off with Toros with El Teton, so I wanted to try other sizes and see how they would work out. So the blends are the same? Right, yeah, they're the same blends.

Okay. And was the other one, the second one that you didn't like so much, was it like a Maduro? Was it like a San Andreas, a Broadleaf Maduro, or was it a Pennsylvania or something? What I remember was a Corojo rapper, a Nicaraguan Binding, a Nicaraguan filler.

Coro can be tough. Yeah, so, um, yeah, I mean, the blend was okay, but it wasn't like the one which is. Dude, you know what, I think that that's a major downfall that a lot of people do is they, you know, they smoke something, they convince themselves that it's great, and then it sucks, you know, so good, kudos to you for- Yeah, I realize this may not be as good as I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, like, oh, well, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna pump the brakes on this and revisit it at a later date, you know?

Yeah, I don't want to put out something just to be putting it out. I want to put it out and it's actually a good state. For sure. I mean, the more interesting part, have you ever considered a little aggressive, but don't burn yourself.

Well, you're a fireman. You know what you're doing anyway. If not, we'll be okay. You know, um, give it a couple of, like God, just give my letter, please.

All right. Yeah. Yeah. That's more of a brulee torch or something I got as a gift, but I mean, it's, it's, I can hear it running through, right?

Yeah. Oh my God. You're gonna fucking kill Eric. He's a retired firefighter.

That's what he's doing. Well, so let me tell you how this kind of came together. So Eric reached out to me, and he's like, I was like, hey, we like to do interviews, obviously, in studio. Obviously, yes.

I was like, hey, all right, cool, I'll be in town this week. I'm like, oh, sure, no problem, done, right? And then three weeks ago, or, you know, Weaselfest kicks off, I'm like, all right, we're there. And then he's like, hey, I'm in town.

I'm like, fuck. I totally just blew that. So I'm like, man, I'm really sorry. I'm in Texas.

But then they're like, hey, well, you know, I'm not going to do the podcast on Monday. we're going to push it to Tuesday. And I'm like, so like I'm on the plane, I'm thinking, okay, well shit, well maybe we can make this work out. Cause then I'm looking at the dates and like, he's still in town.

So he reaches back out. I was like, Hey, can I stop off and at least drop off some samples? Like, well, wait a second. I think that we could actually pull this podcast, you know?

And cause you know, I definitely didn't want to blow you off. You know, that's definitely not my MO by any means. You know, I mean, if we're enemies, I could definitely say to go fuck yourself. But you know, as of right now, Where everybody's cool, so, you know, I like to go out of my way and make sure that if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to, you know, commit, so thank you for making the modifications for your trip.

I know that it's not easy when you're in town with the family and stuff, so. Yeah, it's not a problem. Did you go and see the mouse already? Well, my wife texted me a little while ago and said that they actually saw the mouse at Epcot.

Okay, perfect. So I'm sure my daughter is happier than a pig and shit, right? Oh, no. And how old is she?

Seven. She turned seven yesterday. That's the right age, man. Have a good day.

Did you hit all the parks? So did you just do Epcot, or did you do Magic Kingdom? Epcot and Magic Kingdom so far, I don't know where we're, I think we're going to Animal Kingdom later on. Animal Kingdom's cool, it's very cool.

Then we hit some more tomorrow, you know. Magic Kingdom though, I'd dodge that place like a fucking plague man. It is so, like the way it was designed 50 years ago, it's, you get on a boat or a fucking tram and it's just like, the mass exodus at the end, if you stay to the end, if you want to watch the fireworks and shit, It's going to take forever to get out of there. It's stressful.

Oh, yeah. There's no way to walk out on foot. Like, and when you're with your kid, like, all of a sudden, like, I get into super dad protective mode, I'm like, all of you are the enemy, you know, like, you will all stand clear and we are getting on this boat, you know, like, we will make the ferry, God damn it. So, you know, it can be pretty intense.

Run, Brittany, run! Grab a child! And, you know, especially a seven-year-old gets tired, you know, like, everything starts to kind of wear. it's like okay you know and like usually it usually it's not like i'm tired i'm sleepy it's usually i'm tired i'm miserable right and that parlays you know it's like okay you're getting edgy now i'm getting edgy you know so i mean it's uh the theme parks are a lot we go to universal a ton okay so we go we have annual passes and we go like every other weekend just kind of like you know we're blessed with that we're very fortunate that we can kind of go for a couple hours and then who gives a shit if the line's 20 minutes i'm like fuck that i ain't waiting You know, I'm not doing that ride.

" Yeah. So, are you going to Universal too, or are you just doing... Yeah, we're gonna go to Universal. So you're gonna try to hit 'em all.

You're hitting everything. Right. Ooh, boy. Yeah.

That's a big one. Oh, yeah. She has a good experience. That's why, yeah.

She'll never forget it. Come to the shop, sure, I'll go to the shop. I don't care, whenever you want me to the shop. Right.

To get a break. Yeah, and she'll let you break away. Yeah. Which is cool.

I've never smoked since I've been here, so I definitely appreciate it. Wow. Are you staying on site? Are you close to the parks or?

Claremont, I think it's called. Okay. We're not too far. Is there no smoking in the hotel?

Well, it's an Airbnb, so we can smoke outside. Oh, okay. It's just by the time we get bagged and we go to dinner. You're exhausted, yeah.

Who wants to sit outside? So, and it's still kind of hot outside, too, so I'm not really, it's not that hot. When we left Chicago, it was like 50 degrees outside, so this is a culture shock for me to come down from 50 degrees to 90 degrees. To hot and humid?

All right, all right, all right, all right, he's cutting the air because he can do so heavy here Chicago's a crazy city man mm-hmm it's a crazy city um I've only been there a couple times I've driven through more than I have like hung out there like I said I go see Connie I've seen Connie a few times a blue Havana he's a good dude um he has his moments but he's a good dude um and you know like they have like a place like in the airport they have a I'm pretty sure it's it's at O'Hare a place where you can throw out your weed before you get in the airport. I'm like, who in their right mind's gonna throw out the weed? Right. Like, that fucking dumpster's empty.

There's no fucking way that you're-- Well, it doesn't stay in there long. It's like, this is the no-questions-asked green bin. The guy that works there-- Get the fuck out of here. The guy that works there grabs it before it hits the bottom of the bin.

That's out your goddamn mind. Somebody fucking-- you gonna put in some-- whoop! There's a guy in the bin. He's going-- Thank you!

What was that? The bottomless pit. Right, yeah, there is no bottom. The guy comes out-- He just falls into a room.

He comes out of the back. It goes right back to the streets. That's it, man. Right.

You follow football at all or anything like that? I'm an era player. So, like, when my favorite player is retired, I kind of retire with him. So, like, my favorite player is like Walter Payton.

Okay. You know, those guys. But I became good friends with Ed Reed, though. So, me and, you know.

Okay. I mean, I don't know how you don't become good. I mean, you know, I don't know how you don't become friends with Ed Reed. Like, you see, like, we saw him at PCA last year and I was like, yeah, that's Ed Reed.

And I just couldn't, I didn't want to bother him. Like, he was bullshitting with somebody else or whatever. whatever and i'm like man i probably should have bothered him because that guy's that guy's next level you know um well i ran into ray lewis once at corona and he didn't when i went there a hundred years ago but he didn't want to talk to anybody no photos nothing 50 cent was over at david off that was kind of a big deal okay okay you know with ira ira put up some pictures yeah you see the fucking grin on iris oh yeah right like you know uh so so you're done so you don't really Do you follow football? Yeah, not current players.

No. Like, people say people's names and I have no idea who they are. Really? Yeah.

I'm like that across the board with sports, though. Like, with basketball, like, my last favorite player was Kobe. And when he retired, I was totally done. You know, I didn't know how much of a big deal Kobe was, unfortunately, until Kobe died.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I would always get into this. Like, I know nothing about NBA, but I like to pretend that I do.

And I'm like, no, LeBron's better. Or whatever the case may be. Mm-hmm. Right.

once all that kind of comes to light what type of player Kobe was I'm like god damn that guy was good I mean take two shots with a torn Achilles you know just remarkable talent unbelievable and then when I watched the last dance with Jordan I was like he's the best fucking player it's over this conversation is over whoever's on a local documentary I was never a Jordan fan even growing up in Chicago I'm the youngest of five so my brothers are all Bulls fans and they're like Are you sure you're from the same mother? Because I was always a Lakers fan. James Worthy, those are my teams. California teams, San Francisco 49ers, Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Joe Montana, those are my people.

Barry Sanders is one of my favorite running backs. Okay, it's Detroit though. Yeah. Okay.

So do you watch Chicago Fire being a fireman? No. I've actually never seen an episode before. Not a single one.

It's just, you know, so since It's sensationalized. I heard that it's nothing like reality. No, people running in fires by themselves. My son's a firefighter down in Estero and he says that's the most unrealistic show you can watch.

I watch the show, Jake, did you have to do this? He goes, we don't do that. It's really funny. They're about to have a serious conversation and all of a sudden the alarm goes off.

It's like, doo-dee. Oh, there we go. I guess we can't talk about this now. Yeah, and the firehouses on the show look real nice.

In Chicago, they all run down. It's over a hundred years old. Oh, right, yeah. You know.

Like, oh, you wanted Wi-Fi? No, that's not. Two weeks ago, the building's on fire, and the guy decides to propose to his girlfriend, so they both rip off their helmet and their mask, and he gets down on one knee, and they're like, what the fuck is burning around you? Very romantic, very powerful.

Very romantic, yeah. But they smoke the gloves. Yeah. Yeah, you know?

You felt it. You felt it, right. At that moment, right. She came in and saved it.

It was good to get some new footage on TV. Like, I've been trying to watch movies. The only time I can watch movies is when I travel. So we went to Weasel Festival.

I took the opportunity, right? It's like, when did you have time to watch TV? On the flights. So it wasn't, so, but like, your options are really limited right now.

You know what I mean? So I'm like, okay, what am I gonna watch? So Wrath of Man just came out with Jason Statham. Right.

That was actually pretty good. Was it? Okay. You know, I would call it, I mean, it was a solid B.

Okay. You know, it's not life changing, you know, but it was a solid B. He plays the same character every movie. Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, exactly. Pretty much. They could give him the same name. Hey, you know, I'm okay with that though.

Right. When an actor becomes a specific thing, whatever, I'm cool with it, yeah, you can be some badass who's gonna beat the shit out of everybody, okay. Yeah, it's not like he's gonna lose by the end of the movie. Right, and then I watched Nobody, which, when you look at the trailer for that, it's the one cat from...

Yeah, Breaking Bad. Yes, and you're like, how is this guy gonna be a badass? But that's kind of the movie, it's like, you don't fit this MO, and that was actually pretty good, that was actually a pretty good movie. And then Greyhound, which was Tom Hanks's, he's like a battleship guy.

Oh, okay, yeah, I haven't seen that one. It's like, I mean, shit, the movie should have been, it could have been in Chinese, and like, you don't understand, I don't understand what the fuck's going on, but it was amazing. Because he's like, starboard, turn left, like, it's all these terminologies, and like, you know, they're going against U-boats, and like, they're definitely, the U-boat's a superior ship in comparison to what they're working with. and uh you know it's like you you're watching it and you kind of understand what's going on you know that shit's really bad and but it was like a powerful movie like he you know by the time he's done his his feet are bleeding you know people around him have died like what's he running like guy didn't get off his feet for like 48 hours oh wow okay you know he's just walking around freezing his ass off you know and that one just came out yeah it was on apple Plus, I upgraded to a new phone, so I was like, oh, I'll just get this for free.

Yeah, to give a year trial or something like that. I'll turn this shit off in a year, you know, hopefully, as long as I don't forget. But, yeah, have you seen anything good other than that, or, you know, like, do you watch movies at all, or what? Oh, yeah, yeah, I watch movies all the time.

What's the last good movie I saw? Watched a lot of TV, like, Godfather of Harlem. Okay, I keep seeing that. Like, it keeps, that's Forrest Whitaker, right?

Yep. Yeah, it's a good show. I'm trying to think what's the last good movie I saw. It's not sticking out right now.

I haven't seen a lot of good ones. It's hard, there's not a ton out, you know? I watched a lot of old movies though, like I watched Scarface again for like the eight millionth time. Yeah.

What else? If he didn't fuck with that one dude, it would have been fine. Yeah, right, I know, he had Sosa. I told you, Tony, not to fuck with me.

Okay, well, I'm gonna dust off my cocaine and get this M60 or whatever. Hello to my little friends. Yeah. Yeah.

Let's see, what else we got here? What do you have? This is the article that was about him in... Oh, you did?

So I heard, yeah, I did hear this, that you wanted to work with Roma. Yeah, I asked Skip about it. He said they didn't have the capacity at Nicosueno. So that's cool.

You know, I figure once I get bigger and he sees the kind of noise that we're making, you know, maybe he'll change his mind. Okay. All right. It's, uh, so you're getting even less now, uh, yeah, well, it's, they make our postaña cigars too.

Do you know that? Right. Yeah, I know. Right.

I figured that's why I reached out. He's like, yo, what's up? Some good steaks. What's up, man?

I was just smoking the war bearers. Oh, okay. So yeah, I mean, um, it's a, it's a constant struggle in that factory. You know what I mean?

And, uh, I was fortunate enough to kind of meet and hook up with them when Nico Sueño was just starting. Yeah. Like literally, like this is the factory that we're about to start working in. I'm like, okay, well, let's make a Yeah.

I'm like, okay, well, let's make a I was like, sure. Yeah, but Skip smoked everything that I had, I sent him, El Milagro, I sent him Warwish, and he gave me his thumbs up on this. Oh, good deal. I was definitely pleased by that, because, you know, he's in the business, he's one of my elders, so I definitely appreciate the feedback.

He likes to tell me how much I suck all the time. I was gonna say, if he thought it was bad, he would have said it was bad. He'd give you his honest opinion. Yeah, he posted for me on Instagram and everything.

Oh, very nice. I really appreciated the help. Well, Uncle Skip's such a nice man. So who's the collaboration with the NBA player?

Well, it was supposed to be with Tim Hardaway. Okay. I have a new stick. I thought it was going to be harder to get.

I'm not disclosing that to the basketball player. Come on, man. Come on, let's ask him who it is. Tim Hardaway.

I did the whole movie thing. We broke the ice. You worked in it? I'm sorry.

I just got a little excited. You can't just hit it off the gate. I just got excited. Come on, we're professional.

I have a new stick coming through Aganorsa called Lalibela. Lalibela are the stone churches that were built into the ground in Ethiopia. Okay. And that blend was actually supposed to be for Tim Hardaway, the original name of the stick was the Crossover King.

Okay, that's cool. " I mean, yeah, you can always circle back at some point. At least piss you off, give them the one you don't like so much. You know, here's the problem, like, you know what, here's one for you, this one's nice.

Like, you know, like, that's always a big thing with celebrities, right? I feel like I, or, you know, sports guys, sports icons and stuff, you see some of these guys make some cigars. i'm not gonna name names i'm not gonna name names no but some of them make cigars and then and then you see the shit that comes out or like the factory they're working with i'm like oh they just took their money right that's gonna suck all right you got blood number four probably you know and like there's only i've only come across a couple of guys that i've seen like celebrity wise that are smoking that know what's up right you know like i see ojo sinko and he's smoking some pevin garcia smoking some padron shit i'm like okay that's my guy yeah right but and supposedly his cigar is really good. You know, there isn't too much that I know about it.

I honestly should, like, look for it and smoke it because I am intrigued. And, like, he was a wide receiver, just so you know. Okay. Because I don't know where you're at.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. Because you gave up, you know. But, like, I don't know how you don't know. I have no idea who he is.

Yeah, he doesn't. No. I don't even follow the older sports guys. I've never known.

You know, as far as talent, when it comes to a wide receiver, that motherfucker could create space. Like, he would convince you that he's going this way. And he would tell you. He's like, it's a go route.

He's like, I'm on post. Like, he would talk shit to the guy. Oh, wow. Yeah, he was.

I'm going to go out here and turn left, just so you know. Yeah, and there's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do. And, you know, like, that's just such a mindfuck.

This is the touchdown now, just so you know. Yeah, so he was pretty incredible, you know, especially in Cincinnati. Couldn't really get his shit together in New England. But, unfortunately, I think that's a tough kind of regime to follow.

It's like, hey, you're taking five and you're cutting left. And that's not the type of wide receiver he is. And then he was going to have a debut in Miami. And he headbutted his girlfriend or some shit and then everything went sideways.

" Yeah. And now he's pushing cigars. Now he's pushing cigars. Well, you know, you fall down, you fall down big.

He drives a, he drives like this really crazy, well, he was driving like this smart car. Yeah. Okay. That was all, they had like matte black, it was kind of decked out and shit, like you can't miss it, but it's like this fucking big.

Oh. So, let's see. That's always on that page. Well, you were talking, you have dark matter here on Atlanta as well.

I mean, working with Tim Hardaway, how did you get in touch with that guy? Well, the high school he went to in Chicago is called Carver High School. And my father worked there his entire career from a teacher all the way up to when he retired as a principal. So that's how my father knew Tim Hardaway.

So my father would talk to me about Tim Hardaway all the time. You know, I think Tim is roughly about 55 years old. So that's how I became a big fan of him with the UTEP two-step and the Golden State and everybody, right? right so i met him when they had all-star weekend at chicago in chicago and uh asked him about my father he was like yeah he was like yeah i know arthur wimbley he's like man he's like that's my guy and i was like dude i was like dude that's my dad and he was like dude so that's cool i gave him my uh san andreas the el milagro from el titan you know he smoked it and he was like dude this is a great stick and then that's how the conversation went on about me doing us doing the stick together but yeah he's a good dude so i'm gonna circle back and do something with him We just got to work out the logistics on it, and I'll get another blend for them, and we'll roll with it.

All right, so how are we doing on time, just out of curiosity? Five, yeah, five. So, do you have a sales force, or is it just you? It's me and three other guys.

Okay. We're very, very small. Do you guys handle specific regions, or everybody kind of handles whatever? I do most of the sales.

Okay. So, I talk to most of the lounges and stuff, and when people contact me, or I reach out to them, And, you know, I handle the majority of that depending, you know, it doesn't matter where it is, I talk to everybody in different states, we're carried in roughly 50 different lounges right now. Okay. Oh, good for you.

Now, are you shipping from Chicago, or is everything kept at like the Aganorce factory? How's that work? No, I ship directly from Chicago. Okay, so you get everything.

And I sell directly to consumer too, via the website. Okay. All right. But you don't discount or anything like that?

No. No. Like that's always kind of a fine line, you know what I mean? Like some people, sometimes people get shitty with you because you sell to a consumer.

And you're also trying to, I mean, I know what that's like because I have it available on my site but I'll never discount it and then when I release something, I don't put it on my site. I'm the last person to get it. I make sure that everybody else gets theirs, they have the opportunity to sell it and then it becomes available on our site. Stuff like that, just looking out for the other retailers.

I know that you know my boy, Sean, Sean in Memphis. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Smokers Abbey, Memphis, yeah, that's our home lounge in Memphis. He used to text me all the time that he was praying for me, he stopped, I guess, he just kind of-- Oh, he just gave up. Yeah, so you know him?

Oh, yeah, the custom pastor. Yeah, yeah, he's special, he's a good egg, man, he really is. I went down there for a multi-ventor event, I was filling in for Roma, and man, we just kind of hit it off right away. So he's come down to the shop a couple times.

Yeah, he told me. Yeah, he's a good dude. I think he's a good dude, but I saw that I went through yours looking through your feet a little bit, and I saw I'm saying black star, like from black hole sun, I was like, man, if that isn't Sean, you know, that was a funny video. Yeah, it was good stuff.

So you, so you have about 50 accounts. So where do you want to be? How many you want to deal with? How much, how much, how many, how much money you want to make?

Like, what's the number? Uh, I mean, the sky's the limit, you know, we, we're trying to get in everywhere that, that I could possibly handle right now. I'm eventually going to have to bring more people in because it's, it's getting overwhelming. You know, it's a lot of work, and we're in at least two different cities a month, so doing events and, you know, it gets tiring, you know, so I might have to bring some more people in eventually because I can't handle everything myself, but yeah, we like to be everywhere.

It's a high level of abuse, though, in this industry. Yeah, it is. It's like, who the fuck are you? I don't know who you are.

I've never heard of your shit. Like, what, you got one minute? One minute. T.

New Bronson, because people know the factories. Right, it opens the doors for you a little bit, yeah. If they know the factories, then they know, you know, that the tobacco is going to be good. Right, it's going to be good.

Right. So that helps out tremendously. Right. Okay.

Well, I think, I think we should cut it then. Right. Well, I, dude, I really appreciate you coming on. Guys, check out Black Star Line Cigars, please.

Uh, it's really good. I'm, I'm about halfway through this. We'll, uh, we'll definitely do some on the Patreon as well and kind of get a little more in detail about it. You know, get, get, give our opinion on it and stuff like that.

Um, and, um, we'll go from there, but I really appreciate you coming. - Thank you for coming out, man. - Right, thank you very much. - And making the additional effort.

So, yeah, that'll be it. If you have anything else to add to your website, you go ahead and plug it right now. shop. shop.

- Yeah, I ship every day. - Gotcha. - So, UPS, so you'll have it two to three business days. - There you go.

- Perfect. - All right, thank you very much. - Thanks, guys. - The Cigar Hustlers podcast, its owners and its sponsors, And its sponsors take no responsibility for the opinions or statements made by the talk show host or their guest.

Statements or show topics are not necessarily the beliefs of Mike & Mike Productions or the podcast providers and opinions between talk show hosts may differ. It is not our intention to libel, incite, or hurt anyone's feelings. We invite you to write the show's host, Mike Szczefankewicz, with any feedback or suggestions that you have for their shows. These broadcasts are presented and made public as entertainment in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience.

This has been a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, a Mike and Mike production. m. for all new episodes. Hi, I'm doing, I'm Hoostoli Raw.

Yeah, we just don't have to do a single podcast ever again. Perfect. I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing?

The Hojo de... Hojo! It's the Hojo! You didn't even let him fuck it up all the way.

I couldn't get past Hojo! I don't even have to try it. I'm not even going to try it. We're going to cover a lot of ground here, Mike.

All right. Try to keep up. That's a sign of a good podcast. It'd be like four cigars when I walked in a door.

All right, end this. End this.

Show Notes

more PCA Information...Bonus Information and Robert Holt is French?