A Broker Gets Fired Live On Air — Cigar Hustlers Podcast 600
Episode Summary
Episode 600 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a chaotic, comedy-heavy sit-down with Florida cigar broker Jeff Groover, hosted by Mikey with engineer Phil. Mike Palmer sent in a batch of deliberately fake news articles from Estelí (Disney/TikTok, aliens landing in Iran's Lut Desert, Michael Jordan returning to the NBA), which Mikey reads anyway while openly admitting none of it is true — setting the tone for an episode that's as much about the industry's personalities as it is about tobacco.
The heart of the episode is a long riff on the life of an independent cigar broker. Mikey badgers Groover into naming who he thinks the second-best rep in Florida is (he eventually credits Scott from Myron Dutch for sheer road mileage), and they run through the broker landscape including Alfredo, Pete and Steven Hernandez, and Adrian Acosta. Two live phone calls make the show: Terrence Riley of Aganorsa Leaf calls in and "fires" Groover on air over a misspelled Aganorsa post, and Alfredo calls back but politely refuses to rank brokers at all. Groover also tells the recurring story of repeatedly (and jokingly) pitching George Padrón for a broker position at every trade show.
Cigar news covers Cavalier Genève opening a new Houston-area warehouse and distribution center in Stafford, Texas — moving away from shipping directly from its Danlí, Honduras facility — plus Crowned Heads' Las Calaveras Decimo de Sombrero (Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro over Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at My Father) and RoMa Craft Tobac's Craft Maquette release Scuttlebutt, a lighter short Churchill riff on Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794 at $10 MSRP, limited to 1,800 bundles of 10.
The "What's the Score?" game has Phil and Groover guessing halfwheel's rating for the RoMa Craft Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794 Lee III (Ecuadorian Habano Ligero wrapper, Indonesian binder, Dominican filler, 5 3/4 x 46) — both land on 89 for a rare tie. Throughout, the crew smokes the new Casa Carrillo Ascend from E.P. Carrillo: Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler, made in the Dominican Republic, around $13 a stick in a box-pressed Salomón, Robusto, Toro and box-pressed 58, which Groover describes as creamy with a little spice and a "diet Dr. Pepper" finish. He closes by plugging a Casa Carrillo event in Sarasota, Florida.
In This Episode
- 01Fake News Disclaimer and IntroMikey reveals up front that Mike Palmer sent fabricated news articles from Estelí, then reads them anyway for laughs.
- 02Listener Comments and eVTOL Flying CarsThe crew works through YouTube comments on self-driving cars, eVTOL aircraft, and whether the U.S. government runs its own cell service.
- 03Who's the Second-Best Broker in Florida?Jeff Groover resists ranking his peers before finally giving a nod to Scott from Myron Dutch for out-working everyone on the road.
- 04Terrence Riley Fires Groover Live On AirAganorsa Leaf's Terrence Riley calls in mid-show and jokingly terminates Groover over a misspelled 'Aganora' social post.
- 05Alfredo Calls Back — Brokers Don't Rank BrokersAlfredo phones in and deflects every attempt to name a best broker, revealing an unspoken code among Florida road warriors.
- 06Chasing a Padrón GigGroover recounts pitching George Padrón for an independent broker role at every event and getting politely laughed off each time.
- 07Cigar News: Cavalier Genève, Las Calaveras Decimo, ScuttlebuttCoverage of Cavalier Genève's new Houston-area warehouse, Crowned Heads' Las Calaveras Decimo de Sombrero, and RoMa Craft's Craft Maquette Scuttlebutt.
- 08What's the Score? — Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794Phil and Groover guess halfwheel's score for the Lee III and tie at 89 as the clues reveal burn issues and late bitterness.
- 09Casa Carrillo Ascend BreakdownGroover finally details the new E.P. Carrillo Casa Carrillo Ascend — blend, sizes, $13 price point, and its creamy, spicy, Dr. Pepper-ish finish.
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
All right, let's go. We're waiting on you, buddy. All right, all you beautiful peoples out there in YouTube land. That time again.
One, two, let's just go. Welcome to Cigar Hosts Podcast, where premium cigars, unfiltered opinions, and conversations have no boundaries. I'm your host, Mikey, I still complain too much, joined by co-host, the one and the only, multitasking, Jerry Grouper. It's Grouper.
Felt Groover. Whoa, that's dope, that was dope. Thank you, shout out to Vaisel. Thank you.
And in engineering, Phil McGuffey, I just pushed buttons like a monkey, not even a trained monkey. That was from yesterday. Wow. From cigars, sports, and business, to pop culture, and the wildest headlines, if it's worth discussing, we're talking about it.
No scripts, no safe spaces, just real perspectives, big laughs, and chaos at any moment. I just want you guys all to know that the news articles in this, in today's episode are actually completely fake and they were given to me by Mike Palmer, he assumed that I didn't read ahead and understand exactly what was being said so just so you know we're going to cover some stuff and none of it's going to be true however I'm going to cover it anyways because it's going to make for great short clips and people are going to tell me how much of an idiot I am oh so settle in and welcome to a Cigar Housers podcast that's nice on today's show Disney goes on tick tock Iran gets a new visitor, Iran. How do you call it Iran or Iran? I like it, I sprint.
I sprint, oh yeah, I sprint? Yeah. That's nice. Just blurry.
I don't move slowly. Do you have his blurry again? Put your hand in front of the camera. Put your hand up.
Like this? Now walk it back? Now walk it back. Oh, and oh, oh, oh, oh, okay, stop that, put that down, put it down.
I think it's the way he's sitting. You think it's still blurry? Yeah, it's still blurry. Did we wipe the lens?
No, never. Not just Phil's last show. Where is it from here? Right there.
Perfect. There we go. All right, so Iceprint gets a new visitor. Then in the world of sports, we have a special announcement.
Again, this is not true. In cigars, Roma Craft and Skip Matan, not Martin, that would be how you spell it, with a capital M-A-R-T-I-N, however, this says M-A-T-I-N and it's lowercase, so he doesn't even respect them enough to give them the proper capital letter at the beginning of his last name. Or maybe Greg helped him with the spelling. Yes, or Greg did help him with the spelling.
Yeah. A new warehouse, shipping notification, and new cigars. com. Oh, Lord.
Okay, here we go. All right, what you want to do is first hit the like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening to or watching us on. com, where there's one of these great new shirts like Mikey's wearing, Triple G Superstar. You like this?
This is my brother. Anything with your brother's face on it's got to be. It's stellar? got to sell out.
I mean, it's instant, you know. It's selling slower than I thought it would. And then, if you guys like Patreons, we have one of the best Patreons. com, search A Cigar Hustlers Podcast, and then sign up for us, where we talk about Insider Baseball and all the other good stuff.
Yeah. Alright, Mikey. Well, what about those comments? That's it?
I think so. Okay. Usually I stumble through it, but I felt like I Well, pretty good today. Yeah, that wasn't bad.
Yeah. Nicely done. We like to review the comments from the previous show. Just so you know.
Okay, great. We're gonna talk about that. Terrence Riley's always in the group chat. You know who Terrence is, right?
He's a great American. He's a great American. He decided to jump on our podcast with Michael Zee, Chai Town Cigars. Okay.
He's a sponsor there. You gave him Jack Tarano a spot? Mike Szczecin: Yeah. Mike Szczecin: No, well, we did another podcast.
We did Chai Town. Mike Szczecin: Okay. Mike Szczecin: Have you heard of Chai Town? Mike Szczecin: I have.
Mike Szczecin: Welcome to Cigar Industry, Jeff. Mike Szczecin: Thanks. Mike Szczecin: Yeah. Mike Szczecin: It's my first day.
Mike Szczecin: So Terrence was, so Terrence is like the sponsor or whatever? Agonorsalee? Mike Szczecin: Yeah, I know. Mike Szczecin: You do?
Mike Szczecin: Yes, I've seen it. Mike Szczecin: You have? Mike Szczecin: Again, it's my first day. Thanks.
Again, it's my first day. Thanks. Okay, good. So, like, we call them a baby giraffe, so they tried to sabotage us.
Wonder where he got that nickname. I stole it from you. Thanks. You're welcome.
First day. Jeff is very angry because sales are going sideways today, so he's very jaded. " you guys value your life just way too much so have you heard about this so it's like uh flying cars let's say right you know yeah you excited about that no no you don't want why would you not want to be you should of all people should want to be in one i don't even trust the car that drives itself much less the one that could fall out of the sky have you been in one that drives itself yeah and you didn't like it again maybe like gen 25 you hear these people just smashing in the back I think it's a stack of 18-wheelers because the car didn't stop or it drove off a cliff. There's not a lot of cliffs in Florida, so it'll probably be okay, you know.
The Teslas? Sure. Yeah? These things happen.
Do they? Keep up. Do you think there's more car accidents without them? I don't know, but I just, maybe I'm a control freak.
You're a dangerous driver. So the vehicle I have now kind of drives itself a bit as well. You have to, it's hand assist, you have to touch the wheel and it will steer itself. But at least I know at that point, like, I'm still really in control.
You're not just sitting back like this and people fall asleep and somehow they wake up and they're at their destination. That's just too much for me. By the way, I didn't get a proper intro, right? Like, you had some fun little saying and, "Good morning, I'm Jeff Groover.
I'm feeling spunky. " And, "Sorry, Mike, you look a little chunky. " Take that to the bank. First of all, that was a great rhyme.
I want to hear the comments next week, please. Thank you. You can personally DM me if you have something mean to say about Mike. -I don't want it on his podcast feed.
-Oh, my God. -Do you hear that? That's not nice. -Great little ad lib there.
-Well, then tell the people who you are, Jerry. -My name's Jerry Grouper. I am, uh... -He's the number one sales rep in all of Florida.
-It's not hard to be... Listen, when the bar on the sales rep scenario is like, if you just do something a little better, they think you're pretty good at your job. And I'm not saying anything about the other sales reps, I do nothing special. You show up, send me this, fix this, that's really my job.
Who's your number, who's number two? Who's number two what? Who's the number two sales rep in Florida? I have no idea, I don't track these things.
Yes, you do. I do not. Dude, I've seen your, I've been to your house, I saw the board. It looks more like one of those things like in CSI where everybody's face is with the red strings.
That's correct. Well, there's only two other guys, isn't there? what as far as like brokers yeah no there's like a plethora of others but oh is there yeah they kind of pop in they're like oh i'm gonna sell cigars and they realize oh this sucks and then they get out listen you have adrian acosta you have uh carlos you have um uh our buddy uh mr foundation Oh, I'm afraid of. Yeah, like, so he has foundation and he has, um, I think that's it.
What? I think that's it. I don't know, he has other brands, doesn't he have lighters? I apologize.
Oh, yeah, he does. I'm asking you to keep up with what I have, much less what everybody else has. Right, right, right. Don't take offense, please.
Yeah, he's just not a big deal. We don't see him enough, so we don't really know what he has. I am not going to buy anything, but I don't really know what he has. Wow, and you totally discounted the man.
You didn't even bring him out? He doesn't want to say the name. Petey Hernandez? Yeah.
And his brother Steven, I love him. They're good dudes. No, because I got sideways with the Fredo things. There's a group of us that do what we do.
Road warriors, I respect them all. So who's number two? There's no number one, number two, there's no charts, there's no ESPY awards for what it is we do. I'm going to give you the ESPY awards.
You're number one, so who do you think is number two? " He's killing it? Yeah, he's working his ass off. Just give it to me.
Come on, stop being such a puss, bro. What's the big deal? Groovy seems like he's got a lot of stuff going on in his life. I see his Facebook all the time.
Oh, dude, I'm busy. Busy as can be this morning, yes. Sales meeting at 11 via Zoom that I don't need in the middle of my day. I have a podcast to start my day, and my phone's been going ballistic so far this morning.
This is perfect. Just trying to keep up with all the things. -So who's number two? Now that you're out to hook.
-What would Ricky Bobby say? If you're not first, you're last. There's no second place. -Okay, well, you know what?
You don't want to answer. That's fine. -Are you going to call Pete and ask him who's number one? -He'd probably say his brother, Steven.
Love you, Steven. Yeah I knew he was. We call him Pete. Call him Pete?
No. Maybe it's Jack's corner time. Oh boy. We may not.
You're calling Alfredo. I never call him. Fredo? No.
Costa? No. Me, Aaron? Your call has been forwarded to Boynton.
I know I'll get there eventually. I might be traveling this week. I don't know where that is at. We're at meeting time.
Yeah. Oh. You think Alfredo answers? I don't think Alfredo answers.
No. Alfredo doesn't even show up. Let's see. I still have him under Ortega and Kristoff.
He's gonna answer. He's gonna say he's at the gym or something. Hey, bro. Hold on a sec.
Let me put down the weight. Yes. He thinks it's in order. Let's see, how close are you?
Either that or it's a ball buster. Please leave your message. No, strike two. Oh, he's on an important call.
Ooh. That's his, like, standard reply text, I guess? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that one. Yeah, what's the important call?
Like, who the fuck are you talking to? Okay, so you're just not going to say it then? What do you want me to say? I want to know who you think the second best rep is.
God, I have no idea. Are we talking about independence, or are we talking about just reps? I don't care. I don't care.
I just wanted to say, man, that guy works as an asshole. Who is it that I always see out there whenever I read? Yeah. Come on, give it to me.
Well, wait, don't worry, it's just a podcast. It's gonna be a strange answer, I think, and I love the guy because, but I see him a lot on the road, but he covers a lot more territory. So in fairness, he's not a guy or a gal that has Miami to I-4 and one brand, the East Coast, you know, it's Scott from Myron Dutch, believe it or not, that dude gets around. I see him at accounts all the time and I'm like, dude's working, you know, so I respect the game, you know.
It only took us 12 minutes to get it out of here, but we got it. I had to kill some time somewhere along with it. Thanks, thanks so much. All right, so let me get back to my comments then.
Yeah, yeah, sorry, I debunked the comment section. I know all the fans have been waiting for the comment section. - They do, they love to hear the comments, it's one of our best parts. - They could probably just read them, so.
" All right. " - Wow, how is he still commenting all the way in Nicaragua? Are you just making time to wake up? He finally chimed in.
Yeah. @stevenwell6945 says, "Please interview Steve. I know he doesn't like to talk, but use your significant skills as an interviewer. Lots of smokers are interested when you interview a maker.
But Steve is who handles your best customers. " I mean, I could interview him. We kind of did. Not really.
He didn't say a whole bunch. Well, that's what I mean. @michaelzcigarguy says, "Phil is wrong. S.
Government does not operate on their own phone service. Yes, there is an emergency service offered by cellular companies for emergencies, but we aren't moving tanks via phone lines. Laugh out loud. Any comment to that, Phil?
There's no government phone line. Do you have a government phone line? - I don't believe I do. - A cellular plan?
- No. - No? Who do you use? - T-Mobile.
- T-Mobile? - Yeah. - Yeah? You don't have just the one phone?
Yeah. Just one? I don't have, like, a weed phone and a Coke phone. No, not a weed and a Coke phone?
Not a wife and a, you know, girlfriend phone. No. Just one phone. Just a one?
Yeah, but you're from South Florida. You don't have a... Yeah. You don't have, like, multiple phones?
Drop in and drop five phones? Yeah. Feel free to call in with orders, ladies and gentlemen. Not problems.
If you have problems, call the warehouse. Thanks. At Ben Rollins 6241 says, These are likely going to be only single person due to weight requirements. Currently, all the battery ones have a lifespan of like seven minutes, and can get you about 10 miles.
So they got some major upgrades and capabilities before they're really, truly useful. The Evatols. Yeah. Things will be falling out of the sky.
Yeah. With people in them. Dude, I would think that you're one of the first guys in one of those things. Absolutely not.
Why not? I'd rather spend my money on a driver to drive my car. I want some old car. Anybody out there looking for a job?
If you're ex-military, ex-cop, want to work for some cigars, I'll buy you lunch, I'll get you a hotel room, and hit the road together. You need, like, ex-military, ex-comp? I'm worth a lot of money. I need protection.
You need something, like, to that extent? Yeah, yeah, of course. Kind of a big deal. I don't know if you know that.
I got news for you. This is the cigar industry. You're lucky if you're gonna catch, like, some guy, mid-60s, just catching, just got cleared to drive off his last DUI. That guy sounds great.
We got some down time, you know what I mean? What type of cigars are we talking about now, Jeff? Yeah, yeah. Lots of Ernie's.
I need a drinking buddy on the road, so when we're just cruising down 75, we're... Oh, nice! Tearsing, you know? Exactly.
Exactly. com lounge. Also, we got to announce a winner, dude. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Let's figure this out. Hold on, hold on. Oh, God.
What are we smoking there, Jeff? We're still not done with the comment section. I got in trouble for... No, you're good.
I'm trying to do filler. Stop talking. He's taking forever. Yeah, what are you smoking there, Jerry?
We are smoking, we, collectively, are smoking the new Ascend From Ipicario, Casa Carrillo in the house. Yeah, it is good. I didn't make it. Shout out to Ernesto.
Do you think he's going to make it in the industry? I mean, after 50 years, I'm kind of hoping. I mean, you hit me with that jab. Yeah, I don't know what the year mark is where you've kind of made it, you know what I mean?
Yeah. So, 60 years of the threshold? He's got a shot. J.
been in? I mean, that's probably the bar, right? Yeah. 's got to be the bar.
Well, that was my first job, so I think September is my 14th year, so... AJ was your first job. " Next week, that bit. It was right on line, though, but...
And that was the beginning of the year. Hey, dun-dun-dun. Yeah. No, this time's different.
It was a good run. But to be fair, dude, I mean, there are other brand owners, or there are even retailers that I can... They're like, "No, no, no, we're not going to discount it. " Like, "Okay, dude.
Meanwhile, why won't this let me do anything? This is so dumb. So, we're going to have the winner next week, or tomorrow, for the most recent giveaway. Nice.
Because Jerry broke my machine. Me, Jerry Ruper, or a different Jerry? I broke it? Yeah.
Okay. Well, I love the great idea, too. Mike, that you just didn't have, we're gonna do a giveaway for this podcast, for if someone could show the Casa Carrillo hat, I have another one for next week's big winner, so make sure you make comments online, especially about Mike being - Wow, that's not nice, that's very hurtful. - I'm not the one that built all of this, right?
- Listen, that's mean. - Well, that's very nice to give that away there. - No worries. - Maybe we should throw in, uh, an What do you send along with it?
How about a hat and a cigar? You're just filling the pot here. Let's go, baby. Yeah, big deal.
All right, so whoever comments below, we'll announce the winner on the next show. Awesome. And if you like the cigar and the hat, my name's Jeff Gruber, and if you don't like it, we never met. My name's Pete Hernandez.
Yeah, my name's Pete Hernandez. Love you, Pete. Yeah, we do love Pete. All right, so in the first news article, Disney's making a major move into shorts with TikTok and with Disney Plus and all of this cool stuff.
I thought they were stopping that. It's just not true. Oh. It's not true.
It actually isn't happening. Hmm. I don't understand why this would even be like a viable news article. Yeah.
Do you have Disney Plus? I do not. No? Oh, actually, well, I guess technically I do.
Cindy, my girl does. Yeah. But I don't have Disney Plus. I mean, listen, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but like, you should probably start dating people a little older.
she has a 10 year old kid she's 42 it's not it's not great it's not great not a good look yeah it's terrible when you're driving by elementary schools oh man my name's not scott weeks oh love you scotty but you deserve that one i thought that he was your mentor you know you learn from the best you learn what to do and what not to do sometimes in life right yeah okay All right, okay. In your age bracket, somewhat close. At least in that vicinity. What's the big, how's the, what's the age difference between you and your girl?
Nine years. Nine years? Yeah. All right, that's not too bad.
Yeah, it's not bad. It's like a, you know, it's not even a decade. Right. Well, it also depends on how old you are.
Yeah. Right? If you're like 28 and you're dating a 19-year-old, that's a problem, right? That's not a good look.
But if you're 51 and she's 42. You're not rich enough to do that. Yeah. I'm just saying, depending on your age.
got weeks money you know what i mean like like that's the difference you ain't lying that's the difference buddy so you better stick with this one because you can't reset again unless you know you become unless you become ernie you know and you make your own cigars successfully for 50 years i made a cigar and fall apart yeah listen that's a beautiful thing about my job man listen i don't I don't plant the seed, I don't grow it, I don't pick it, I don't age it, I don't roll it, I don't box it, I don't bill it, I don't ship it, I don't do it, that's all magic Kuebler Elf stuff behind closed doors, right? My job is to show up, somebody says send me this, somebody says fix this. Stay in my lane. Terence Raleigh's got to be the biggest Kuebler Elf I've ever seen.
Yeah, he definitely is. That's pretty funny. Oh my god. He probably lives in one of those big red oaks over in the California area.
All right, so Disney's not having TikTok. Okay, got it. All right, mysterious visitors make first contact in Iran's Lut Desert. Iranian officials have announced what they claim is humanity's first confirmed contact with extraterrestrial life.
Are you excited? Did you hear about this? So excited. This is good stuff.
I can't wait. Aliens, aliens decided to go to Iran. Of all the places. You want to know why?
Ask him to stop running in the buildings? I'm sorry. No, no, they don't. Dude, listen, if you're running into buildings at this point, you're blowing yourself up, it's solely for love of the game.
I guess. I mean, your drone does it now. You just fly a little thing. You know what I mean?
Well, yeah, but that's how they get their 42 virgins and their whatever. Didn't you hear about inflation? It's only 22 virgins now. Oh, discounted.
Yeah, that's all you can get. Oh, man, that sucks. Yeah. 22 is a pretty good number still though.
And they're in the proper age bracket. Oh. Oh, there was a different age before. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They were younger before. Oh. Okay. Nine year window?
Yeah, it was about a nine year window for the virgins. Yeah. Anything past a decade, you have to have an extra zero in your bank account. That's how it works.
With a comma. Solid number. Yeah. Exactly.
We definitely just lost all of our desert watchers. All of them? Yeah, one of them. All one of them.
All three? " Let's see, I just love the fact that this is going to play and Palmer's going to be so pissed that I realized that he was foolish. Speaking of extraterrestrial, I don't know, for some reason on my Facebook this popped up like when I was sitting here before Jeff got here. Jeff Keiger.
Yeah. , when it first came out? Uh-huh. Yeah.
T. light-up finger. It was like a silicone thing with a light at the end of it. Who was he?
The toy company. Okay. They made a silicone finger with the light at the end of it. They immediately removed it from shelves after like a week.
Why? I mean, think of what it looks like. Like a pecker? We have no idea.
Won't you tell us? Well, think of what his finger looked like. They took it away? Yeah.
How many of these you got? I don't have any of those. You didn't get any of them? They're probably worth a lot of money, though.
Yeah, they could have made a ton of money. You think they're on eBay? I don't know. Maybe.
Oh, Terrence called me. Oh, call him back. T. finger.
By the way, this is his profile picture. So, again, if somebody did own one of those today, the amount of money that they would be worth, probably a fortune. Oh, yeah. I was in the comic book store a couple weeks ago in the old He-Man, Grayskull Castle thing from Mattel.
Hey, you're on the podcast right now. Those things were probably, what, 50 bucks maybe when they came out? It was $800. I'm looking, I got Jerry Gruber here on with me.
You gotta be kidding me, man. Yeah, that's great. And I just had a quick question for you. You got who with you?
Jeff Gruber. Have you heard of him? Have you heard of this man? Jerry Gruber.
Jerry Gruber. Yeah. Jerry Gruber, yeah. He's a famous used car salesman.
He's car salesman. He is. I know the name. He's a little sleazy.
You're right. So, listen. My name's not Pete Hernandez. Oh.
I'm sorry, Pete. I don't know. I don't know why he's apologizing. So, listen.
If you had to fire Jeff today, like... Yes. Tremendous sex scandal, something like really bad. You know what I mean?
And you had to let him go. Of the pool that exists, who would be number two? Who'd you say, you know, you're not gonna be as good as Jeff, but I think that you would fit What do you think that you would fit for the time being? Replacement.
I do most of Jeff's sales, so I would just take the commission from myself. Nice. You would just absorb it? Yeah, I mean, he hardly does any work.
He's a full-time EPC employee, and he moonlights for us once in a while. I do most of the work in this territory. So, Jeff would just do my hard work, really, for the most part. You know what?
I'm agreeing with you on this. I think you might be right. He's got his Casa Carrillo shirt on. and uh and and he gave me an uh uh an ascend it's a smoke see it's ridiculous wow he just relies on me to do all the work in fact maybe you know jeff you're fired it's been great working with the fine folks at agonorsa and that was it is it because i forgot the s on the uh post the other day i put agonora yeah no no s oh you're like mike calmer you forgot You forgot to add the S in Aganorso?
So when you brought up the misspelling earlier, I kind of kept it shut until... I think it's an age thing, you know what I mean? Because as you kind of get older, you know? Maybe you're just past your prime.
I've never been a good speller. English is not even my first language. Too many letters? Hillbilly is my first language.
English is my second language. I'm better with numbers. Well, that's good. That's good.
All right, Terence, well, we'll let you go. I'll make sure that he properly removes any articles of Aganorsa from his vehicle before he- It won't take long. It won't take long. I didn't even have any in the car in the first place.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's ridiculous. I like the one that looks like Homer Simpson.
That's one of my favorite cigars, the Arsenio, which is amazing. Yeah. You see, the O is a smoke ring. Did you notice that?
Oh, yeah. I did notice that. What? No, good.
Good job. You're observing. Thank you. Well, I'd say this has been, of all the conversations I've ever had, this is one of them.
Yeah. But I'm going to let you guys go now. All right, brother. You're a great American.
Thank you. You're a great American. All right. Thanks, brother.
Bye. Bye, guys. All right. So you're fired.
There you go. Now you can concentrate solely on Ernie. This is him. Which is apparently what you're doing now anyways.
Somebody just entered the portal. Oh, yeah. Phone will be ringing soon. Jerry Grooper enters the portal.
NIL money. Come this way. Let's go. - So what were we talking about?
Aliens and Iran? - Extra-trancial. - Oh, so yeah, do you know why they were there? - I have no idea.
- Because of the Stargate. Oh, Alfredo's calling us back. - Oh, yes. - This is fantastic.
Multiple calls. - Number two, here he comes. - It's been a day. - Fredo.
- Well, good morning, sir. What's up? - Good morning. Hey, you're on the podcast.
I'm staring at Jerry Grouper right now. - And it's not in order. - Okay. - All right, I have a question for you.
- What's up, Fredo? - What's going on, man? - Who's the best broker in the state of Florida? - I wanna know.
- Um, you know what, it's, um, it's all about perspective, sir. - Yeah, so what does your perspective tell you? - Yeah, who's the prettiest girl? What's the most delicious food?
- Yeah, I wanna know what you think the, yeah, like. - Whatever, bro. It's not about that. - Yeah, it is though.
- It's not about that for me, bro. Who's the best blogcaster? I don't know, bro. - All right, hey, let's walk this back one quick.
- I don't know, it all depends on what people like. - All right, so let me ask you, let me ask you, what's your favorite food? My favorite food? Wow, bro.
That's a super complicated question. Depends on my mood. Sometimes. Pizza good?
You're a pizza guy. Pizza, done. All right, what's your favorite alcoholic beverage? None.
No alcoholic beverage. Okay, what's your favorite drink that's non-alcoholic? Soda, soda. Oh, chocolate milk.
All right, chocolate milk. Oh, yeah, he popped that out there. All right, okay, so pizza, chocolate milk. Who's the best broker?
We're figuring this out, come on. Oh man, listen bro. I like that his pitch on his laugh got higher. Different tools do different things?
Yeah, I know you have your opinion, sir. Yes, I definitely have an opinion. But I want to hear your opinion. Is it Pete Hernandez?
What's that? Is it Pete? Is that why? He's the best.
Pete's the best, okay. No, Steven's the best, 'cause he has to clean up Pete's mess. Yeah. Okay, all right, so that's all I'm getting out of you?
Yes, sir. This must be a broker thing, like, they just defer. It's like a coat of arms or something. Yeah.
We don't talk shit about each other. All right. I love it, Fredo. You're not even talking shit, you're just saying who you think is the best.
I do nothing but praise, bro. It's like saying, you know, like, hey, you all, we all play basketball. We all play basketball, but man, Jordan is the best. You're not, you know.
Nobody ever had to say that. People say it all the time. No, nobody ever had to. All right, if you had to buy a jersey, would it be a Groover jersey, Alfredo jersey, or a Hernandez jersey?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What jersey would you wear? Like a P. Hernandez jersey, not the other one.
If there was a broker, if there were broker jerseys. So is it bad that I own a jersey and it has my last name on it? No. I actually have two.
I think it's perfectly acceptable. I think you might have to give one to Alfredo. This is super disappointing. I thought you were caught up with an order.
I know. That's what we said before, yeah. I know. Yeah, I said that on the show.
Don't worry, Fredo, I'll get you an order before I leave, buddy. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
All right. Mike, thanks for having me on the show again. Thanks for coming on. Talk to you later.
See what I did there? No, I didn't hear you. " And I go, and that's why I'm. Good setup.
So did you hear Michael Jordan's going back to Chicago? Oh, boy, I did not. Yeah, because it's not true. But apparently, he's going to be, he's going to be, he's re-signed up in the NBA.
For what is he doing? He wants to get like a little, he says he's been training, and he's going to get back into it a little bit. He's like a little doubt, like a minute or two on the court. Okay.
Yeah. This is going to give him a roster spot. Yeah, exactly. This is like the WNBA stunt?
No, this is all just complete bullshit that Palmer was bored down in Esteli, so he sent news articles. And then he wrote at the bottom, all this was fake. Are you ready for some cigar news? Is it true or fake again?
I think this is legit. All right. Yeah. Dun, dun, dun.
Have you ever heard of Cavalier? I have, yes. Oh yeah, Genevieve. Cavalier, Genevieve opens Houston Area Warehouse and Distribution Center.
After nearly a year of work, Cavalier Genevieve has announced that a new warehouse in Houston is now operational. -based retailers and other clients, and the location was chosen not only for its central location, but also for the international airport and port. Cavalier Genevieve has been working since last year to increase production in order to have as much inventory as possible to store at the new facility. Stafford is located about 15 miles southwest of Houston's city center.
Previously, Cavalier Genevieve shipped its cigars directly from its own distribution facility in Van Lee, Honduras, to retailers via UPS, a relatively uncommon method for fulfilling orders. I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't know that either. Yeah.
I thought they had some stateside distribution. Would have assumed it would have been in Miami like most everybody else, but there are a few out of Houston. Yeah, there's some in Texas. Most companies opt to ship larger quantities of cigars from the factory to a statewide warehouse or distribution center that keeps inventory on hand and fulfills orders placed by retailers, a practice that Cavalier will now use.
This year marks a lot of positive news that we are glad to share with our estimated Cavalier crowd. Our estimated Cavalier crowd? Are they at, what, they're possibly? Yeah, it's like, is it, what's our crowd?
It's like 10,000? Is it, maybe it's 12? We're estimating. Said Sebastian de Coppet, who's actually a really nice guy.
Founder of Cavalier Genevieve Cigars, in a press release. On top of the special releases, we have actively been working since the end of last year to open a new warehouse based in Houston. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, you don't carry, you're not the Cavalier guy, right?
No, sir. You know the Cavalier guy? Is there a Cavalier guy? Yeah.
Yeah, who has it? Brian? The Cavalier guy. Oh, they have in-house?
Yeah. Got it. I forget. I knew at one point they were...
He travels in and out. Yeah, there's been some swaps as of late with regards to some of the brands, right? Mm-hmm. So, yeah.
Is that Brian? No. I can't think of his name off the top of my head. He's another really nice guy.
But he's -- Brian is not the -- The owner. Oh, the rep. Sweet. Yeah.
Yeah. Sweet. Awesome. Would you want a rep, Cavalier?
Again, I got a full book of businesses. Who's the brand that you're like, man, I want to carry? Padrón. Okay, realistically, who's the brand?
So you know that every time I see George Padrón now, I approach him for, you know, a job. Do you? Absolutely. What if you had to go in-house?
I told him no. I would only do it as a broker. Really? Did he say, what about in-house?
No, he laughs and says we're not doing any of that. Even if I change my last name to Padrón, they already have a Jeff Padrón. I'd be like number two. I'm their guy that is out on the road, Jeff, you can take some of the big in-house, and I'll make sure everything is pretty on the shelves and orders are coming in.
Literally every time I see the guy, I'm like, I wait politely, and then he finally is going to help you. Hey, Jeff Gruber, how you doing? George, nice to see you again. Good, how are you?
What's up? What's going on? George, I apologize, man. Why are you apologizing?
You guys keep calling. You keep emailing me. I'm sorry. I haven't responded.
I've been busy. He's like, we are contact. Why are we calling you? I'm like, it's about the position that you want me to fulfill as your independent broker in the state of Florida.
And again, my book is full right now. I have to adjust a few things around, make some space for you. And he just starts laughing. He's like, yeah, we're not doing that, right?
And I'm like, again, do me a favor. If you could just stop the phone calls and the emails, I'd really appreciate it. Eventually I'll have my people, I don't have any people, I'll contact your people, and then we'll work it out, right? You've tried to have people, though, in the past.
Yeah, it never works. It's tough. It's tough. Literally, I've done that to George maybe four or five times.
Every PCA? Every time I see the dude, right? The good news is he kind of remembers who the heck I am at this point, right? Most people, again, I get it, probably go and kiss the ring, and I'm like, listen, I don't have time to take your brain right now.
I'm too busy, man. Right. I get it. So when he does go, he'll, you'll be first on the list?
Yeah, or last, I've probably, I've ruined this from the, from the jump, you know? All right, are you the Crown Heads rep? I am not. No, you're not, shit, okay.
Yeah, who's doing, who's doing Crown Heads now? There's a new guy, his name's Gio, I think. Yeah, like I said, I have so much transition. Yeah, you're at that point, you're at that cycle, you know, a little mix-up.
It's all cyclical. Yeah. I mean, honestly, what's really kind of funny, without really getting into this, like, the boutique brands all kind of like have this wave and then they kind of fade back down and then they kind of come back up, you know, and I think the Crown Heads is actually on their tear back up as of recent. Sure.
Yeah, well, the rebrand definitely helped out. Well, because they're about to release the Las Calaveras Decimo. Oh. Yeah, it's a very exciting, good cigar.
2024, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its popular "Las Calaveras" series, Crownheads created a limited edition called "Las Calaveras de Sombrero". I think that means hat. Yeah. Yeah, I know a lot of Spanish.
Yeah. Yeah, because they're really good hat people. They got a lot of awesome hats. Sombrero.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's what they, they leaned into it. I love it.
With this 10th anniversary. They do have a lot of hats. Yeah. Yeah.
They're actually really good hats. They are really good hats. I know. Yeah.
I wouldn't lie. They're not as good as the Polestani hats. I have one of those. I rock it all the time.
And mine's signed by the President, Paul. Yeah. The Polestani hats are very nice. And Terrence yells at me all the time because I never wear their hats, and I always wear your hat.
Yeah. And he's like, you don't even represent their product. You represent ours. Why do you wear that hat?
And I'm like, because it's such a good hat. Well, now Terrence is not a problem because you know-- I don't work for them anymore, so hat problem solved. Yeah. There you go.
Matt Promes, back to Las Calaveras. Yeah, the Decimo 2026 de Sombrero is said to use the same blend as the 2024 release, an Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers. My Father SA, which has produced every Las Calaveras release, is rolling the cigars, and the Garcia family that owns the factory also grew the Nicaraguan tobacco. While the Las Calaveras Decimo de Sombrero Anniversario was, it's not really called that, just for the record.
I don't know why you'd lie to me. Because you're mean. The packaging is very similar to the 2024 release, but there is a green color scheme for the new cigars. Yeah, so a new cigar, I know it's coming in three sizes, it doesn't say that.
What do you think the three sizes are? Lancero, a Perfecto, and a Box Press Salomon. Yeah, you go. Those are the three number one sellers in the industry.
- People really like those sizes. - Of course. - High demand. - Yeah.
- And if they're gonna do a fourth size, I'd probably say like a 12 by like 120 or something. - Yeah. - You know, like a baby arm. - Oh, they love those.
- Yeah. You gotta go slightly bigger than whatever Terence made. What do you make, like a 110? - A 10 by 100.
This is not about Terence, this is about Las Calaveras. - Okay, you're right. - Stick to the topic. - But that's it, they're coming out with a cigar, and we're gonna carry this.
- Rebuso Tor 60. - Yep. Pretty close. It's like 54.
And we're moving on. By the way, Willie Maranti just called, so if you want to phone in a friend yet again, you know that guy. I told him I couldn't talk right now, but apparently you can talk to every other person. I don't really want to talk to Willie.
I mean, I like Willie. He's not as fun. I love Willie. He's a great dude.
Yeah, like what kind of love? Like, you know, cuddle each other. - Yeah? - Yeah.
- Who's the big spoon? - Me, of course. - You are? - Well, he's taller.
- Yeah, he fits right in here. - I don't know, maybe you had some weird fetish behind closed doors or something. - For midgets? - And you wanted him to hold you.
No? - It's which weird fetish is really the... - Like a midget. - Yeah, I get it.
- I'll call you back, Willie. - Yeah, and you don't have to answer his call because he's not gonna be placing an order with you. - He's probably... that's why he's calling.
- Yeah. - He might be the new Aganorsa ref. Now it's all making sense. Hey, so Terrence just called me.
Yeah, and things move so fast. So quick, so quick, yeah. What do I need? I need to get the lay of the land.
All right, so Craft Maquette Scuttlebutt Chips, the latest. Oh. And by the way, it wouldn't have been the first person that called today that took my job as a rep from another company. Oh.
Really? Hashtag, Fredo Cruz. Oh. Oh, yeah, that's the robot.
With AJ. Hey, we, we started with the, you know, like, all right, yeah, didn't work out well for either of us, but he said don't worry about it. We've all moved on to segue. Does AJ have a rep in Florida?
I think it's Kyle Farling. Still? I believe so. I haven't seen that guy in years.
Love Kyle, good dude. The, yeah, I know, you guys all love everybody, I get it. The latest in Roma Craft Tobac's Craft Maquette series is off to, off to stores. In April, the Austin-based company showed off Scuttlebutt, A new, short Churchill that is said to be a lighter version of the company's Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion, 1794 line.
While Roma Craft Tobac has declined to disclose the blend of the Scuttlebutt, the Whiskey Rebellion uses a high-priming Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. Each cigar has an MSRP of $10, and production is limited to 1,800 bundles of 10. The Craft Maquette series is a loose collection of different blends, some of which are complete one-offs, while others, like Scuttlebutt, have direct ties to regular production cigars. The cigars share similar packaging, craft paper bundles, with colored ribbons on the cigars.
Are you the broker for Romacraft? I am not. You're not, okay. No.
Okay, that's interesting. I thought that you were. Isn't that a Skip Martin? Yeah, Martin.
Martin. Yeah, Martin. Are you excited about this cigar? So excited.
You're a big cigar guy. How many cigars do you smoke a day? 12. Like 12?
Yeah. On a light day, or is that like an average day? - It's like an average day. - Average 12?
- Yeah, yeah. - Pretty impressive. All right, now it's time for our industry's favorite, wait a second, you're gonna screw this up. " But you gotta say it with me.
- Okay. - And he's gonna say it with me, the man in the unicorn mask. " You know what I mean? You got me?
- Yeah. - Okay, you sure? - Should I practice my lines? No, no, no.
I believe in you. Okay. Don't screw this up. Okay.
Now it's time for industry's favorite game: What's the Scores?! Yes, that's what I'm talking about, Jeff. My heart's racing. It's all the cigars you smoke.
That's what it is. Yeah, the 12. It's the 12 cigars you've had on the way into it. Can you predict the cigar scores from a half we'll review before it's revealed?
We'll give you clues. You make your guess. As the review unfolds, the answer gets closer. Or does it?
Dun, dun, dun. The closest guess wins. Do you want the sparklers? He doesn't even know what those are.
I think they're the things you light up and they... There's a remote right there on the table next to you, to the left. To your left. Your other left.
Your American left. Hit the power button. Okay, perfect. Let's play.
What's the score? Don't hit anything else. Leave it, leave it. Just put it down.
It's going to warm up and you'll hear it. Yeah. No, no, you can't help them. Is it off?
Yeah, they're heating up. Okay. July 27, 2022, Brooks Whittington Cigars, Nicaragua reviews Roma Craft Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794. Oh, normally we would do something that you represent.
However, Palmer has no idea that you were going to be in. So in fact, In fairness, I had no idea who I was going to be in. Surprise! So that's the first clue, that's the first statement, where now you have to guess the half-wheel score for the Aroma Craft, the Tamperance Whiskey Rebellion.
And what we're gonna do is, you're the guest, so the guest gets to go second, which is gonna be better for, don't worry about that call. Is it Willie again? Man, I just, I love you so much. Phil's gonna go first, the person who goes second is in a better position.
So Phil, what's your score? Delicious Cigar, 99. OK. Every review in the entire world is pretty much like an 83, 84 to about a 95, 96.
That means every woman or whatever you're into that you've seen in your life is like a 8 1/2 to a 9 1/2. Solid B. Unfortunately, there's some 2s in the world and there's some 12s. So, the review and rating scenario in my jaded opinion.
Sometimes you need the twos, Jerry. Yeah, again, since this is a complete stab in the dark. Just pick a fucking number already, my God. Can I have my time?
You're the one inviting me to this show. If I want to talk for the rest of the hour or whatever we got here, which is only four minutes apparently left. Yeah, you're getting close. I'm gonna talk, and this is my time.
I'm going to say it's a 91. Yeah, and the reason why you picked that number is because you're sensitive and you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings or something. Cigar Rebued, Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion, 1794, Lee, I mean, if it was a 90, if he thought it was a 91, he would have came in saying, dude, I just finished smoking an Intemperance because I love that cigar. It was my 12th cigar.
, Country of Origin, Nicaragua, Fabreca, Fabrica de Tobacos, Nicosueño, Rapper, Ecuadorian Habano Ligero, Binder, Indonesia, Filler, Dominican Republic, Length 5 3/4 inches, gauge 46, it's a Coronol, Gorda, not a Corona, Coronol. So one more inch. It's got an L. I think that guy works for Aganorsa as a rep.
The Coronel Gorda? No, his name's Canal, but close enough. Canal Gorda? 31.
It came out in 2022. 2,500 boxes of cigars, about 5,000 total. And for the review, they smoked three. Bill?
99. Now, he's being an asshole as well, because he knows it's not a 99. It should be. See, that's the thing that I have to deal with with him.
So if you could give me what you think is a real number That would be fantastic. Ninety-one. The almond and creamy oak core sounds exceptionally smooth with maple sweetness, black pepper, and cinnamon, adding enough contrast to keep the profile engaging. That's the first clue.
Phil? Ninety-nine. One hundred. One hundred and two.
It should be, I don't know. It should be seven hundred. But I know they would never do that. So, I'm going to go 99.
I don't know why I do this to myself. What's your number? 91. This is a terrible game.
Everybody loves this game, though. Why is it a terrible game? Tell me. Because we keep going around, Rob, and just guessing at numbers that someone else chose.
Yeah. Maybe we should do the match game next time. We can just put them on the table and flip the cards over. Like the matching game?
Is that an easier sensory game for you? Yeah, or like guess, you know, a number in my head between 1 and 10. Something like that? Let's get some real games.
Yeah, but we could change the number. I got news for you. Next time you're here, there will be a twister board. Nice.
I'm flexible. You guys lose. Probably. You're taller.
Okay. Excellent Draws, Abundant Smoke Production, and Mostly Steady Burns made the Lee III a consistently enjoyable cigar across all three samples. Of course it did. Phil?
Sounds like a 99. Well, nothing bad has been said, so I'm going to go 99. Groover, 91. Clue number three.
The late bitterness and repeated burn corrections in the final sample hurt the balance and kept the cigar from finishing as strongly as it started. Phil? Well, if I know Half Wheel, they counted off a lot for this stuff, as they did on the post-9, so I wish they should have enough. I'm gonna go 89.
I'm gonna stick to my guns. Okay, now this is the final thought. After this one, what's your final answer? But you can't guess what it's going to be.
Yeah, I have no idea. Other than the final few puffs of one sample, the Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794, Lee III, was an extremely consistent cigar. Not only with a flavor profile, which included main notes of oak and almonds, as well as some maple syrup sweetness, I have smoked in the line, and it is a very easy cigar to recommend if you have been looking for a reason to look at it. The line.
Final score. Bill? The way they said that, it's like, it's not in your top five, but it's an easy cigar to recommend. Like all the other reviews, you haven't said anything like that.
But I'm going to stick... No, I'm going to go to 87. Because I know these guys, man. This should be a 95.
Like a real score, 95. Before you said it should have been a 99. Well, yeah, but they're not gonna do that. All right.
Well, and I think that the winner that chimes in on the comments next week for the Hat and the Ascend, if they know the number that I'm about to say the first person to post the number... But you're gonna say it. Well, they have to guess it. If the first person that responds, my rating of a 91, they should be the winner.
Okay. Okay, well... Now, this game has kind of a point. This is going to be my last interview with you guys, though, and my last day at Aganorso, so it's been great for all of you.
Not me so much. A lot of laughs today. Well, in a rare, in a rare situation that we have here, Uh-oh. We have a tie.
Oh, it's an 89. It's an 89. Wow, I was right. Good for you.
Well, you were right. Well, you can't win the hat because you already got one. No, yeah, yeah. And the cigar.
No, I know. I can't ever win anything in this place. But you did, technically. You won the prize.
Well, yeah. He's just a grumpy. I mean, he's wearing a mask for you. Look at him.
Do you have a unicorn mask? Would you like one? I don't have it with me. You don't have it with you?
I don't have a unicorn mask. I don't have a unicorn mask. No one told me that we were. You know what, Gruber does look like he would have a unicorn mask.
He's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's very eyes wide shut. Yeah, South Florida type.
Yeah. You know how he just said he's very flexible? Yeah. Yeah.
Maybe like when he's on his boat. Yeah. Yeah. I want to see that next time.
Or on Scott's boat. Or on Scott's boat. All right, well, hey, do you have anything else to add today? Where are you going to be?
Are you going to have any events anywhere or anything like that? I have one tomorrow night in Sarasota. So tonight, because it's going to release tomorrow, so tonight you have one in Sarasota? No, tomorrow night, Friday.
Try and keep up with me. This is going to release tomorrow. Oh, sorry. So, being that this is going to post tomorrow, which is Friday, then in the future setting, yes, tonight at 6 o'clock in Sarasota, Florida, I have an event with Casa Carrillo.
Yeah. Do I name the location? - As long as it's not that one. Is it that one?
- N, A. - I'll edit it out. Don't worry. Of all the places, buddy, I'm trying to give you a plug.
- Hey, I don't book 'em like that. When and where to be, right? - Yeah, we can talk more about the Ascend that you've asked nothing about. - Yes, I said it was good.
This is a cigar show that we hardly talk about cigars. So this is brand new. You've talked about a lot of cigars, but the one that I brought to the table today. Yeah?
Yeah. The newest in from Casa Carrillo. Go ahead, tell us about it. Ecuadorian Habano, Nicaraguan filler and binder.
I love it when people ask me about cigars. " Tobacco lose, yeah. Dumb it down. I wasn't there when they picked it and rolled it and stuff.
No, nice, easy, smoke, they retail about $13 a stick, put it up on the Vitola. Can you guess the three Vitolas? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Salamone.
Excellent. It was box-pressed. Box-pressed Salamone, box-pressed Lancero. Excellent.
Great size. And then I'm going to say Perfecto. Perfect. My man.
Rebuso Toro and a box-pressed 58. Not quite a 60. Not quite as it is. Yeah.
So, but this is a lot of Nicaraguan tobacco, and it's made in the Dominican Republic? Yes, sir. Interesting. Yeah.
It's actually a pretty, it's a pretty good smoke. Does Ernie give you a bigger commission than Terrence? Is that what that's about? We don't talk about this.
We don't talk about this. We don't talk about this. Okay. Alright, so yeah.
Well, Jeff, thank you for coming on and being a good sport. Hey, my pleasure. You didn't even talk about the flavor profile, dude. What?
Okay, go ahead. What's the flavor profile? You weren't there when they made that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me.
I can tell you what I taste. Oh, yeah, let's hear the peanuts and all that. Listen, I'll just say the cigar smokes great. A little spice, right?
Easy, smooth, such creaminess. It has like a lingering, like on the back end, like all 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper. But more like, I don't know, like diet Dr.
Pepper, not the one with all the sugar in it. You know, I don't know, it's kind of what I, it's what I get on the back of my, my pet, the finish, you know, the finish. The finish. I mean, I gotta tell you, I think that this is one of the better Ernie's I've had.
I think it's up there. How many Ernie's have you had? A lot? I'm not talking about the cigars, I'm talking about just guys you've hung out with named Ernie.
The answer's the same. Okay. A lot. You're the big spoon.
Mucho Ernie's. Yeah, mucho. Our Spanish is going real well today. Yes.
Mucho Ernie's. He didn't even get to hit the spark. I prefer the little spoon. Snuggle.
Yeah, he didn't get to hit the sparklers because he blew it. Whoa, he's tied it. Well, I appreciate the setup with the prop situation that I had no idea, like, you know, you want to hit it? Yeah, let him hit it.
I think Jerry would get a great reaction. The top button? What do I do here? My hair's flammable, Jesus Christ.
Turn it off. Off, off, fire, fire. This is, all right. Oh, we're all out.
You didn't turn it off. We're all out. I hit off. No, oh God.
Turn it off. All right, over your shoulder, over your shoulder. He's not hitting it. Apparently it's the last day of my life as well.
It ran out of juice. No reason to fire me, Terrence. I'm dead, thanks. I'm dead, thanks.
Oh, my God. All right. Well, this one has officially gone off the rails. Yeah.
Phil, anything else? Uh, nope. All right. Hey, thanks.
Thanks, everybody, for watching. Like and subscribe wherever you're viewing and listening to the show. com for all your chpod swag. Thank you, T-Money, for your recent order as well.
And we hope you've provided great edutainment for you today. And go check out Ernie's Ascent. It's really good. Thank you, CH Podcast.
Best podcast in the world! Whoa! Oh, yeah. All right, everybody.
Oh, wait. Hold on. Bye-bye. Boop.
Show Notes
Episode 600. Mike Palmer is in Estelí, he was bored, and he sent Mikey a stack of completely made-up news articles assuming he wouldn't read ahead. Mikey read ahead. He covered them anyway.Guest co-hosting is Florida broker Jeff Gruver — full-time Casa Carrillo, part-time Aganorsa Leaf, at least until Terrence Riley calls in and fires him live on the show. Phil McGuffey is in engineering. What starts as a simple question — who's the second-best sales rep in Florida? — turns into a 20-minute phone tour of the state's brokers, none of whom will answer it.Real cigar news starts at 31:18: Cavalier Genève opens a Houston-area warehouse, Crowned Heads readies the 2026 Las Calaveras, and RoMa Craft Tobac ships Scuttlebutt. Then it's What's the Score? on halfwheel's Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794 review — and for the first time, a tie.CHAPTERS0:00 Cold open — heads up, today's news is fake2:00 Jeff's camera will not stop being blurry3:16 CHPOD merch, the GGG Superstar shirt & Patreon4:05 Comments from the last show5:20 Back on the eVTOL flying cars6:40 Jeff's freestyle intro7:10 So who IS the second-best rep in Florida?10:00 Calling Pete Hernandez10:20 Calling Alfredo12:20 More comments — does the government have its own cell service?14:15 Jeff is hiring a driver (ex-military or ex-cop preferred)15:40 What we're smoking: the Casa Carrillo Ascend17:20 This week's giveaway: a hat and a cigar18:40 FAKE NEWS: Disney goes all-in on TikTok20:20 "I don't plant it, I don't roll it" — what a broker actually does21:00 FAKE NEWS: first contact in Iran's Lut Desert22:50 The E.T. light-up finger that got pulled from shelves23:40 Terrence Riley calls in25:20 Terrence fires Jeff, live27:20 Alfredo calls back and still won't answer the question30:40 FAKE NEWS: Michael Jordan returns to the NBA31:00 The reveal — Palmer sent all of it from Estelí31:18 CIGAR NEWS31:20 Cavalier Genève opens a Houston-area warehouse34:00 The brand Jeff most wants to carry34:40 Asking George Padrón for a job, every single time36:40 Crowned Heads Las Calaveras Décimo 202640:20 RoMa Craft Tobac Scuttlebutt42:20 WHAT'S THE SCORE?43:40 Clue one — Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 179450:20 Final answers51:40 The score, and a rare tie52:30 Jeff's Casa Carrillo event in Sarasota53:30 The Ascend: blend, sizes and flavor56:00 The sparklers nearly set Jeff on fire57:00 Thanks and out——————————————ABOUT CHPODThe Cigar Hustlers Podcast is a premium-cigar, news, and culture talk show — honest conversation, industry commentary, and cigar reviews, new episodes every weekday.▶ Subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss an episode.👍 Like and comment — your comment might get read on a future show.GIVEAWAYComment the number Mikey guessed in What's the Score? — first correct comment wins a Casa Carrillo hat and an Ascend. Winner announced on the next episode.SUPPORT THE SHOWSupport CHPOD on Patreon: https://patreon.com/acigarhustlerspodcastCHPOD show merch (mentioned in this episode): https://chpod.comCONNECTInstagram: https://instagram.com/cigarhustlerPospiech Cigars: [ PospiechCigars.com — FILL IN ]Facebook / TikTok / X: [ @FILL IN ]MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE- E.P. Carrillo / Casa Carrillo Ascend (the cigar smoked on the show)- RoMa Craft Tobac — Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794, Scuttlebutt- Cavalier Genève (new Houston-area warehouse)- Crowned Heads — Las Calaveras- Aganorsa Leaf, Padrón, Foundation, My Father Cigars- halfwheel (review source, Brooks Whittington)(Links above are references to products and shops discussed in this episode, for viewers who want to learn more.)DISCLAIMER: This channel features cigar reviews, interviews, and industry commentary for adults 21+. Nothing here is a solicitation to purchase tobacco products.#CigarHustlers #CHPOD #CigarPodcast