A Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 311 Booty Patrol

Transcript

Welcome to the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, episode 311, the number one cigar pass. Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree, how lovely are your presents. Oh, look, we have a tree here too. All right, that's those two guys.

And I'm Phil. So grab your favorite smoke, sit back, and join us for another exciting episode of Cigar Hostage's Podcast. Oh, so that did work. I'm not sure if the camera went to me.

Everyone was giving us a problem. It's on. Mike, Mike, Mike, you didn't start your clock. Silly goose.

I got so excited with the tree. Yeah. Welcome to the Cigar Hostage Podcast. It is the most handsome tree.

You're the most handsome tree. Handsome tree we have, Phil. Oh, thank you. You're the best tree.

Thank you. Just heads up, we're still proudly sponsor-free, but a massive shout out to our amazing patrons of the Patreon. Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to deliver unfiltered, unbiased opinions on all things cigar personalities in the cigar world. Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners.

Cheers to you. com, and then in the little search bar, put a Cigar Hustlers podcast. It'll pop right up. Pick the level you want, sign up.

Tip, don't pick level one, you don't get anything. Boom, got it going to work. We get $5. Yeah, if you just want to help just to help, then great.

If you want a video, it's the $15, I think it's the $15 one. Or the audio is like $10. The audio is $10. Hi, Michael.

Hello. How are you? I see you through the forest. Yeah, I can see half of you.

Right. We have this lovely tree here. Yes. What's going on?

I don't know. We're wearing these microphones. Yeah. Well, if you wanted me to jump right into that, I can jump right into that.

That's fine. Or you can tell us about your lovely events you just had down at Smoke on the Water in Weston, Florida. Let's start. Let's do this first.

Then why did you ask me? Well, you said the mics. You said the mics. This isn't part of the mics?

No. This is part of the mics. Yeah. So we're doing giveaways all month long for the month of December for Roma Crafts.

It's like it's Christmas. It's Cigar Hustler. And every time you grab a box, you get to... Grab a box of Roma Crafts.

Of Roma Crafts, yes. Thank you. Thank you for always clarifying that. Yes, yes, yes.

You're gonna be entered to win? I don't even have the ashtray on me. I should have brought the ashtray. Oh, yeah, last week.

Yeah, so we have a custom-made ashtray that we're giving away. A Roma Craft Ashtray. A custom made Roma Craft Ashtray that we're giving away. With little leaves all over.

And you get an entry in when you purchase a box. It's very festive looking. It is very festive looking. And every week we're going to give away one of these cool GORUCK Roma packs for everybody who enters.

Very sought after in the Roma Craft world. Highly sought after. Highly. Highly sought after.

With a patch and everything. The black on black. It doesn't have cigars in it? Segundo's?

Well, show us what's in the box. What's in the pack? It does have cigars in it. Oh.

And now we both have mics. Oh, oh. Look. I'm not holding a little mic either.

Oh, the tree looks lovely though. Look at that lovely tree. Oh, nice. All right, so hey, listen, I'm going to announce the winner for this GORUCK bag.

org thing, to be honest. Oh, because there's only been one? There's been one person. Oh, one person?

One person wins? I had one entry, one box purchase of AromaCraft. Is it Justin from last week? It's not Justin.

So, I have one box entry, I have one box entry, I'm over here, you're over here, that's Phil, Phil the Christmas tree, he's a Christmas tree, till Christmas, we even have a Chet sighting, oh, look at that, okay, so, hey, listen, yes, congratulations, to, to Francis Saletto, Francis Saletto, you know what, today is my and Francis' anniversary on Facebook, oh, happy anniversary to you and Francis, I got you that, that's, I, I, yeah, he got you that, that is from me, So congratulations. I fucked up and deleted the other orders by mistake. You are still entered to win the $320 fucking ashtray, Robocraft ashtray that I had made that's custom built. So then it's true.

If you win weekly, you do not get exiled from the ashtray. Yeah, he's still entered to win. As of right now, he has a 100% chance to win because there's been nobody else enters. You give me that for my anniversary.

com, a Roma Craft product only. Palmer, you wanna get in this with me? Not bundles. Let me split one with you, Phil.

I mean... And we got a 50/50 chance of winning. Oh, Ronnie's trying to call me. Oh, Ronnie.

So, hey, that's it. That's all you gotta do. Congratulations, Francis. We're gonna get back to our podcast now.

Congratulations. So, say bye, Mr. Palmer. Bye, Mr.

Palmer. Say bye, Chet. Bye, Mr. Palmer.

Say bye, Phil, Christmas tree, Phil. Goodbye. I love Christmas tree filled. I love Christmas tree filled too.

That's how we got the tree, the place we got the mask had a minimum order, and the tree put us over the top. And then I got Ronnie calling me, let's see what he's got to say. I don't want to talk to Ronnie today. Why not?

Because he's so long. He's trying to connect me to an iPad right now. It's so long. Trying to connect me to an iPad.

A random iPad. There's an iPad right here. There's several iPads in this room. It just says iPad.

Connection unsuccessful. Big shocker. Don't connect to the iPad. I'm not connected to the iPad.

I just hit the button by... You hit the button over here? I don't know, go ahead. I'm connected.

I'm connected. Oh. Unless I hit unpair. Let's see if he yells at me.

I guess we don't need the mics anymore, are we going to put these away? Usually starts with "You Motherfucker" or something. Yeah, let me guess, you're like Robocraft now, you charge my credit card, you ship a week later? Hey, you're podcasting with us right now.

We shipped on Tuesday. We shipped on Tuesday. You're like Robocraft, I'm going to repeat that again, you're like Robocraft, you charge my card, you ship a week later? Oh, that's nice, because if you buy Robocraft right now, you're entered into a podcast.

Oh, nice. Thank you for the plug. Oh my God. Your shit shipped last week.

What are you talking about? Tuesday. You're so angry. I'm going to call Robocraft for our tracking number.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Ask for that guy that doesn't answer the phone. What's the guy that doesn't answer the phone?

What's his name? We're doing well. How are you? Jason.

Ask for Jason. Ask for Jason. Ask for Jason. He's probably in a meeting.

Sales guy that doesn't like to answer the phone. Yeah. You know, I got some people that are very excited about their SBC 2022. Oh, yeah.

I heard good things. So, when are you getting here? And unfortunately, you know, unfortunately, I had sort of like a premature ejaculation moment. I actually picked them up for sale and sold a bunch, and now people are waiting for that warm and fuzzy feeling where that sweet sauce touches the back of the pan, and unfortunately, I don't have anything.

I think we talked about this. Your warm and fuzzy feeling, it should happen any day now. At this point, it's Monday. What the fuck?

I'll probably be there tomorrow or Wednesday. How's your show going about? What's going on today? We haven't really covered much.

We just started our raffle. We just gave away a price. And then I figured you were angry, so I'd probably answer the phone. No, rumor has it you can, raffles are a joke, you should not give away anything like cigars.

Oh, that was Skip's first name. You should not give away any tchotchkes, nothing tchotchkes. Nothing tchotchkes. Skip has never paid for a swag, right?

Yes. The wise one has spoken. Everybody shared the message with me, the wise one has spoken. The wise one has spoken, okay.

Does not like cigar swag. Well, we're giving a giveaway away anyways, so, you know. You know, it's kind of funny because we got them from him. Yeah, I hope my best friend gets mad at you for doing that.

He won't get mad. That's a shameless plug for my dear friend, best friend, Skip Martin. Your best friend, Skip Martin? By far.

Didn't you just call him the angry one? We're gonna do, um, we're gonna do the H99 Lancero for the Patreon, by the way, Ronnie. The Phineas Cage. And it's 13 grams, just for the record, on weight.

The cigar is 13 grams? Yeah, yeah, we weigh all our stuff, we weigh it all, make sure it's legit, yeah, so, there's that. Well, I'm sorry, sir, that your SB-22 has not arrived, I just want you to know that you were a priority, and we took care of your order expeditiously, so. Dude, I like that sexy voice, you should do that all the time.

Do you talk like that to Brittany when you guys are on the phone? Absolutely. 100% He's very violent, according to Ms. Brittany.

Sometimes she likes violence. Oh, by the way, I loved, I loved her on the show last week. Oh, she's always amazing. She's always a hit.

Everybody loves her. She does amazing. Yeah, she does amazing. No fucks given, she teed off on you.

That was special. Yeah, that's called, you know, but you tried to hold your own. I respected that. Like you tried to hold your own.

Yeah, you know, it's just not checkers, right? It's Chestnut Checkers. Yep. But I'm sure you're still not unpacking your bag when you get home.

No, I'm still not. She takes care of that. She's the best. Throw it randomly around the house.

She's the fucking best, dude. It's a game. She would find the bag. I'd be careful what you get for lunch, though, these days.

I wouldn't just bite into anything. I'd have, like, cheddar might taste it first. I had my chicken today. It was delicious.

Oh, we can announce it at this point. Chet is back at Cigar Hustler for a limited time. Yeah, the Chet, the Chet Rebellion is coming back on Thursdays and Fridays. He's making a...

Go ahead. He's like a limited edition cigar. We're gonna call Chet, like, Chet Limitada when he comes in, Chet Exclusivo, Chet Reserva. Chet Limitada.

Yeah. He's always limited. Limited on time. You know, I like that, actually.

We should... He's an alley in himself. He is an alley in himself. We're trying to hear him.

I'm if you want to say something. Oh, he knows I love him. Yeah, so we're not gonna use Reserva because he's not calm or reserved. Right.

So, there's that. All right. Well, thank you for having me on your show. Thank you so much.

You're almost as regular as Brittany. Yeah, you're almost as regular as Brittany. So go to Secreto for SBCs because, you know. He's going to get them eventually.

He's going to have them soon. Soon. Very soon. He's going to have them soon.

Very soon. All right. Good. Bye.

All right. Love you too, buddy. All right. Bye-bye.

Bye. Take care, bro. Bye-bye. All right, Ronnie.

I think your wife, he knows what time we do the show on Monday. He's like, oh, it's 3 o'clock. No, no, no. He didn't know we were on the podcast, he started off out the gate, fucking angry and agitated, and then he owned it.

Yes, that's exactly, you're right, he did not care. He reiterated to let you know, that he didn't care. Mm-hmm. So, how did the event go?

The event went great, man. It was fantastic. Dude, Smoke on the Water is such a great place. Yeah?

You know, Joaquin is fantastic, Larry's fantastic, Danny's fantastic. You know, I met David, and I met Jeff, the two guys that are in the humidor. There was a gentleman named Andres who was the barback. What's his name?

Andres. Andres. He introduced himself as Andres. And then he tried speaking to me in Spanish, and I kind of knew what he was saying, but I got a little nervous.

You just go, it's Andres. I'm like, I don't know. There's no S at the end of the day. I don't know.

I don't know. What are you saying? I don't know. It's because you rolled the R.

He thought you were in. Yeah. I said, oh, hello. Right.

Do we need to announce that the Pedro episode will not be seen? Well, I guess I just did. Yeah, the Pedro episode is not going to see the light of day. It was locked in the vault.

The only portion of Pedro's episodes that you see will be this. Hold on, I'll tell you right now what it will look like. Oh God, he's not getting to it. Where did you go?

Just so you understand what kind of excitement Pedro had. Oh my goodness. We'll never find it ever again. It's gone.

Apparently, it's even going off the board. I'm watching you hit these buttons, and it's sad. It's handmade. That's not even the one I wanted.

Segar Hustler is the goddamn fucking best. Yes, that is definitely the one I wanted. That's it right there. Because that shows you the tempo, though, that things were made at.

So yeah, I guess the Pedro thing isn't happening. It's done. It's over. What?

99, you send you a copy of the Patriot Show. That's not enough money. Per person? Sure.

It would have to self-destruct and they couldn't record it ever again. Oh, I'll do like Amazon does. When you download a movie, you get 48 hours and it's gone. I will do that.

Forever gone. What are they recording on their phone? Yeah, can you record it on your phone? Well, I did record it.

How does that work? I don't know how it works. Can you record it on your phone? It's called pirating.

No, no. I mean, download it and then record it. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Oh, I don't know. But yeah, I guess that's called pirating. Well, you heard it here first. $299?

99. Well, I can tell you this, that we did do a podcast at Smoking the Water. Oh, yes. Yes, he still has that on his laptop.

And I gotta tell you. I missed you, buddy. Yeah, it was tough, huh? You're like my...

I saw the photo and you're sitting across from the gentleman, so I figured, okay, there's no video. Yeah, there's video. video no there's not what do you mean it didn't capture everything there's no it didn't capture anything there's no video at all there's one still photo the wi-fi no it's not just one still photo it's a video but it goes and then you oh it looked like a still photo and then moves again where was the camera shooting you guys from the side yeah oh front from the front so so do we have Do you have video or no? No.

It's very choppy. No, you don't have video. Wow. I missed you.

I missed you. See, this is what happens. You're not allowed to go on vacation. No, I get to.

No. No, it's unacceptable. It was like the stallion didn't have his goat in the barn to keep me at bay. I understand.

You know, I need that. We'll have to do better scheduling next time. Phil just goes ahead and monkey fucks his way through all this stuff. " He said, you know, stopped recording, and he did like a, oh, what do you want me to do?

Pay attention while it's recording. I don't think it would have mattered. Maybe he's only capable of doing either audio or video. Yeah.

Because Dana's show had video, but no audio. Ah, I got it. Got it. And then I heard he left to play some mess.

Yeah. And all the cameras were left on and unplugged. So if they go off during the thing, I know about it. Okay.

Look at he's angry. It's like they all finished. " And you forgot to turn the back lights on on their show, so it doesn't even look good. You said it was all set up.

I don't leave the up lights on for three days. What do you want me to do? You said it was all set up. Oh my goodness.

" These lights were off too, I guess I'm lucky you didn't shoot it in the dark. I love this. I love this. You know what's funny?

What? I mean, you did kind of fuck up, I'm not gonna lie. How did I fuck up? You did make one mistake.

What was the mistake? What was the mistake? You always tell him that he doesn't have to clean up his shit. Just because I'm here.

If I'm not here, then he has to clean up his shit. I know, that's a fuck up for you. You should just tell him, make sure you pick up your shit before you fucking leave. But he had to do the stuff I would normally have done.

Right, right, right. I'm just saying. So I should have told him to make sure you hit the record button. Listen.

Make sure you hit the stop button. Now you're getting jaded, yes. No, I'm not the same thing. Here's what I need you to do.

What? Here's what I need you to do, Angry Palmer. " You know, I don't have to talk like this on the other show. They both chip in without even asking a question.

I pick up all my shit before I go. You pick up all your personal stuff, yes. Yes, that's fine. I pick up my area.

Hold on, time out. No, he does. He does. What he didn't do was he didn't turn the cameras off, so they were all dead.

And then there was a half-drink tea thing on the table, 30 ashtrays, and Dana Norley picks up her money at the end of her show, but she didn't even have those quarters all over the table. That's exactly. Chet, listen, you have a shit show, or the Chet and Palmer show. Let me ask you, I obviously need some pointers here.

What can I do better to make sure that my friend Palmer feels good about it? The thing I try to do, any ash that's on the tables, I like to wipe it clean. You clean all the ash off the table. Just right on the floor.

Right on the floor. Okay. Perfect. That's the first thing?

Anything else? Mikey does that without even putting it on the table. It's not what you do when I'm here, it's what you do if I'm not here. Turn the air back up.

Turn the air back up? Yeah, we used the air back up. 74, okay. That's about all I let's just do.

You shut your cameras off, Brandon shuts off the other cameras. So you want me to shut this camera off? Well, the LED lights. Oh, the lights back here?

Oh, he does the lights. Yeah, he does the lights. Alright, okay, so I'm just reviewing here. I want to make sure that...

No, it's what you have to do when I'm not here. No, here's the thing. If I'm not here, you don't act like I'm still here. Look, how you do anything is how you do everything, brother.

I'm a fucking, I'm a shut down my area. Okay, fine. I'm a shut down my area. Well, the lights are on your side for the tree, too.

I don't want, that's fine, I'll take that, I'll take care of that, too. That's a switch, that's a battery. I don't want you to be like, you know, Well, I expect you to do these things when you're not here. I'm going to do them all the time.

I'm going to do them all the fucking time. Well, if I'm not here, does nobody shut this camera off then? Because I'll do that because I'm right here. I don't really like to do anything without you here, so I don't fucking know.

Well, I'm talking about if someone's helping on someone else's show. Chet, go ahead. I don't touch the camera. Chet doesn't touch the camera.

No, Brandon does. He's the engineer. Yeah. B-Dog.

B-Dog. Well, I mean, listen, I'm going to take care of my stuff. Okay. I'm going to shut down these lights back here.

I'm going to turn the air up to 74. I'm going to wipe everything off on the floor. Okay. I'm going to shut this camera off.

I got you. And I'm going to even turn off this tree. Yeah, turn off the tree. I'm going to turn off this tree.

There's a light on your side. I got you. All right. There's a little switch on the top.

I got you. I work on that. But look, I'm hitting it right now. It's not working.

They're backwards. Because they had to be reset. So you have my eyes. Oh, so you can turn it off.

That's okay. Just leave it. Don't worry about it, I don't need this, I don't have a sniffle. I don't have a sniffle of it either.

So, so the event went great, the event went great, I had some friends come up, uh, Shawn Wilson came up, dude, I gotta tell you, did a football guy show up? No, no, no, no, Phil was not, yeah, Phil was very upset, yeah, he showed his, his anger by sleeping. Oh, in the car to and from? Yeah, it's just a dream at this point.

He's like, forget it, you know what, I'm just gonna check out, he's like, oh, yeah, I'm like, okay. And then I would roll down the window to ash my cigar or whatever. And it would kind of startle him. And he'd wake up and he'd be like, hey, you need me to stay up or something?

I was like, I know you're tired or whatever. And I'm like, no, no, I got it. He goes, okay, back down, back to bed. Back to bed.

That's when you pull up to a truck pulling another truck. You get real close and then start screaming. He thinks that truck is coming out of you. I scared the piss out of Palmer one day when we were in Philly.

And we were driving and he passed out in the passenger seat and I made sure it was buckled, but I slammed on the brakes. I go, and he's like, Oh, I don't doubt you didn't do it, but I don't remember. Oh my God. It was amazing.

All I remember is us hitting that thing in Georgia. You hit the thing in Georgia. No, I think you were driving. No, you were driving.

Yeah, you were driving. It was in the rain. You couldn't see. Yeah, we couldn't see a thing.

We didn't even know what it was. It could have been a car or a tank or something. And that was the last time you said we'll ever take your car in. Right.

Well, we about to rip the front end off. Yeah, it's still fine. It still has tape on it, by the way. I gotta tell you one thing about the event.

First of all, Joaquin is an amazing retailer. He does a great job in that humidor, for sure. Sean Wilson. Get out of here.

Every time I talk to this fucking guy, I feel like I need to level up. Sean Wilson? He's a great guy. Oh, is that the end of all the photos?

Yeah, Sean. Okay. We met him in Texas. I don't know if you met him in Texas.

I don't think you were there. I haven't been to Texas. I think he might have went with Chet. Chet, man.

Texas? He's on Weasel Team 6. So when this guy travels for an event, and I apologize if I'm putting you on blast Sean, but when this guy travels for an event, this is what he does, he goes to the event, you know, his wife books his tickets for him, he flies in, he does the event, he gets the next flight out when he's done for the next morning, and what he does is he goes to the airport, he brings a yoga mat, he goes to sleep there, he wakes up fucking on the plane. Oh, wow.

That's a good idea. I'm thinking, look, man, is that what we're going to start doing? Look, they, you know, that is some next level shit. And why am I spending $300 in a, in a, in a hotel to sleep there for four fucking hours?

I just need to bring a fucking yoga mat. I just stay awake. It wouldn't be the first time I spent the night in an airport. Like, why, why am I doing this?

This is so dumb. You'd have to, you'd have to red light more if you did that. I'll just drop the fucking car off, bring my own yoga mat. Oh, it's fine with me that I have no anxiety about where you haven't left in time.

Because we're already there. Yeah, we just fucking go to the airport, I'll just crash for four fucking hours. I'm really okay with that, I'll just wake you up when it's time. When he told me that, I'm like, God damn, you are on next level.

Finds an empty gate. You are next fucking level, bro. So you have that camp pillow that you fluff through the air and it blows up, it's made out of nylon? What?

There's a camping pillow that's made out of nylon. It's kind of nylon. Yeah. It looks like a bag that you would keep your yoga mat in.

Yeah. And then when you go to use it, you take it and you just sort of fluff it through the air and it fills it up and then you crumple the end and you have an air pillow. That sounds amazing. What the fuck?

What am I doing here? I feel like we can do this. You're doing the right thing. I feel like I can do this.

You're doing the right thing with the hotel there. Dude, how much money would I save on hotel fees? This is why I'm fucking crushing that. Whatever the hotel is.

300 clips. Wait, you're going from a special hotel with special pillows and blankets to now sleeping on the floor. But then I was sleeping on the floor in a dirty airport. I'm going to fuck it.

I'm moving to fuck it. We weren't even going to stay in the hotel that smelled like Lysol. We didn't. Right.

You had to change hotels. Right. You think the airport is going to be any different? I don't give a fuck.

There's going to be wet farts from the other people sleeping next to us. Dude, drop off the car. You find an empty gate, you set up camp. That sounds amazing.

Sure. That does not sound amazing. That sounds amazing. I feel like we can do this.

I can't wait for this first story It'll never happen again Why won't it happen? No, it'll happen one time But it will never happen again Sean is the master of this I need to just take my notes And give some extra $300 to spend on cigars Yeah, that's brilliant We're not buying cigars I know we're not I'm trying to increase my EBITDA The director of social media Probably should not have to pay for his flight Either anymore I'm sorry? Director of social media? Yeah He should not have to pay for his life You don't have to come Okay Then it doesn't cover social media How the fuck am I I can't fucking You just saved $300 on the hotel The director of social media That's Cigar Hustler Cigar Hustler I thought it was everything Oh you are doing You are doing everything You are doing everything That's true So you want That's where you're You're already gunning for No I was just asking Airline fees I'm just asking I mean if you're gonna save the money in the hotel I mean, we can send you Frontier like you guys did that one time.

Oh, I don't care. I mean, you did get there earlier to the second time. Well, I'll just find a good place to sleep for that night. I'll just, you know, check out spots and find a good location.

You know what, this airline's out of business, Michael. Nobody will be at this gate. We can go here. Perfect.

So, I have a question from a listener for you. Apparently, he's asked several times and he will not answer the question. Oh, no. So, they would like to know, if you had to pick one brand owner to fight by his side, who would you choose?

If I had to, like... Another brand owner. I don't think we talked about this. I don't think he picked one.

I think we talked about this before. Well, then just pick the same one. One brand owner to fight... I think the question before was a zombie thing.

To fight by my, like, to have my back? Yes. I don't know, man. The Epic dude's pretty jacked.

That's the guy, I like that. As far as a brand is concerned? Right. Brand owner.

I don't know why. Because you're a brand owner. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, I like, I can't think of his name, Greg, I think, from Epic? I don't know. Dean? Dean.

That's him, Dean. Oh, that makes more sense. He's a cop. He used to be a cop.

Oh. Alright, well, there's your answer. He's relatively big. Yeah, that'd be the guy.

Dean from Epic. Yeah, I mean, who else? I mean... Thank you for the question, user 955.

That was, um... Jason Hawkins. Yeah. Not Justin.

Not Justin. Not his brother. But he did mention his brother loves the show too. His brother's also a fan.

Also a fan. Yes, yes. Yeah, I think it'd be Dean. I mean, any of the guys that's got some know-how, you know, some size.

Okay. Yeah. There you go, Justin. It wouldn't be...

Jason. Which other brother it was? I mean, maybe Matt Booth, I guess. He's a killer.

Marine. He's a Marine. He's a Marine. Right?

He might fight harder. Oh, he's good. Because we're friends. Well, he'd be, you know, tearing off dicks and sticking fingers in butts, so.

Yeah. We shall dock. Ah, I got you. But when he goes to the gym, I always hear some lame-ass excuse about some shit.

Oh, something always hurts. Yeah, he's like, oh. He's like, oh, my arm has been bothering him. I'm like, so, what'd you do for legs?

He's like, oh, I just didn't go. I'm like, yeah, that's the problem. That's what he wants you to do. If the arm's broken, you go through the legs.

He wants you to think, you know, you can prey on him. I got a good story for you if you're ready. About Matt Booth? No.

I'm preying on people? No. What? Oh.

I coach basketball on Friday. Oh. By yourself? You're the head coach.

No, I'm the assistant coach. By yourself? No, not by myself. You got in a fight?

Without the guy that was the head coach. The other head coach lost his fucking mind. Not my head coach. Oh, the other team.

The other team. Yeah, man. And you had to hit him. No, no, dude.

Wait a second. you had to go coach the other team no no he lost his mind between the guy went crazy and started yelling I should have I should have went and coached the other team I would have helped those kids and then you would have completed our you know thing that we always say so we played this team so we played this team last week two weeks ago and we won by three it was a close game and our kids played like complete shit Nobody was doing their jobs, they weren't, they were playing on top of the, they were covered, they weren't being in the positions where they needed to be, people weren't looking for passes, people were taking shots that were ridiculous, and they weren't in the positions where they needed to be for rebounds, recoveries, and what to do when they had those rebounds. So we won, we barely won, we won by three. So we had that conversation with the kids, this bad practice.

I said, "Hey, listen". Oh, last week you won by three. Yeah, two weeks ago. " Right.

You should have won by 20. Okay. This game shouldn't have even been close. You guys are way more talented than what you were.

Right. You guys weren't listening to us. It was like we didn't practice last week. You guys got kinda in your heads and whatever.

So, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do our jobs. We're gonna fix this. Here's what you're gonna do defensively.

Defensively, because there's two simple plays that they do that you guys, if you're in your right positions, they're not going to be able to make those shots, and you're going to play well, right? So we're up by 25, right? Going into the fourth quarter. We're smoking these kids, right?

One of our kids gets the ball passed to him. He's close to the top of the key, wide open. I said, "Take your shot. " And he does.

Right. And it goes in. Okay. Coach loses his mind.

You're telling him to take a three-point shot? That's ridiculous. You're hurting the demeanor of our kids and all of these other things. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Doesn't like getting beat. I'm trying to raise the confidence of the kid to take a shot when he's wide open. Like, what does that have to do with the demeanor of your kids? Like, you're supposed to be there for your kids when things go sideways.

Right. It's not your job to build up his kids. And let's say, hey, listen, sometimes you lose, right? Every game there's a winner, every game there's a loser.

Well, I always like to tell the kids, hey, listen, we either win or we learn. What did we do wrong? No lose, learn. L is for learn.

Right. What do we learn? How do we adapt? We're learners this week.

We're all learners. Where were the mistakes made, right? You know, I mean, yeah, you need to hit record on the video. Like, that's all right, you know?

So, we're getting close to the end of the game or whatever, we're in the fourth quarter whatever and i walk over there because he keeps chirping and i'm like listen man like dude we are not trying to beat your kids down well i'm building my kids up were you that calm yeah you were that calm i was yeah that's what i was it doesn't matter it doesn't matter because everybody freaks out right i start walking over there and everybody's like whoa whoa Get him, get him, get him, calm down, get him, calm down, they know you from football, I'm like, I'm like, I'm looking around, I'm like, I am calm, man, this guy needs some help, the kids are yelling, fight, fight, fight, fight, like this dude is lost, start Bobby Nyan with the chairs and stuff, like, you know, this guy, you know, looked, we won by three, this guy thought he was coming in, they were going to win, that's what happened, and instead, it was the opposite, where they got smoked, so now he's losing his mind, get him, baby, smoked, I love it, he's losing his mind, and I'm like, look, man, you got to be able to learn to save, the right things to these kids, say, hey, look, I say to the kids every single game, hey, if you win or you lose, do your parents love you more, less, or the same? And the answer's the same, right? Okay. Are we talking about basketball?

Yeah. The pressure's off, man. The pressure is off. Go have fun.

Nothing else matters. Your parents are still going to love you. Okay. How did the guy take it?

He got kicked out. I didn't get to have the full conversation with him because I got pulled away and told to sit down. Brittany told you to sit down? No.

Who told you to sit down? Wait a second. So how did you coach the game? Fucking all of it.

Everybody starts losing their mind. Like, calm down. I'm like, I'm fucking calm. Like, you're about to get un-calm here in a second if somebody doesn't fucking let go of my arm.

The ref had a hold of your arm? No. Oh, man. Who had a hold of your arm?

There was an assault. Brittany had a hold of your arm. So I went and... So the game ends.

I know Brittany was involved in this. The game ends. No. We shook everybody's hands.

Except him. No, I'm going to shake his hand. Slapped it away. Dude, Brittany was involved.

" You know, we're shaking hands, dude. We're going to work this out. We are going. We're going to Matt Booth right here.

We're going to figure this out. God damn it. Yeah. We're going to be friends.

This is... Invite him up on the show. Yeah. I would love to talk to the guy.

Wait, so how did you become the head coach? I would love to help the fucking guy. I'm not the head coach. I'm the assistant coach.

So I'd love to help the guy. So we're going to leave. I'm carrying Teddy while walking out, and he's over there. I go out in the parking.

I shake his hand. I'm like, listen, man, we're not the coaches that are trying to destroy your kids, but you got to fucking, I didn't say fucking, you got to build your kids up. Right. Like, I bring lollipops to these games.

I make sure that everybody gets lollipops. Oh, you brought the lollipops. I told you about the lollipops last time. I bring dum-dums.

He goes, that's not what it's all about. He's an orange guy, and he brings the orange. I'm like, what is it all about? He likes to win.

He likes the oranges. Yeah, of course. First of all, everybody likes to win. Yeah, but he really likes them.

Well, he needs to coach better. Does he have an assistant coach? Let's call him up. He needs to work on his kids.

Let's call him up. Look, dude, I got to tell you, when I was coaching these Patriots with this team, we were 2-0, and then we lost four in a row. I mean, we were a complete mess. I didn't lose my mind.

" Check, can you go in the room so we can call him? You guys are so much better than this. I don't even know what the fuck he's talking about, but I'm about to beat the shit out of a Christmas tree. The tree's really tight, certainly.

That's like a Grinch thing to do. You shouldn't do that. I don't give a fuck. I'm a Scrooge the fuck out of this room.

There's no Grinch that says, "I hate trees," either. I look for that. Oh, yeah. I hate Christmas.

" Yeah, he hates the Hoos. The Hoos in Whoville. So that was my fun and excitement for Friday before I got to go downtown. So when he quits, are you going to coach that team?

No, they're in a different school. But I do want to help the guy. Like, I would totally sit the guy down and have a conversation with him. I'm like, look, man.

Find out where he practices and go. I might. Can I come and bring camera? I might.

You're like, I'm not here, sir. So, but because I'm in shape, because I take care of myself, I'm instantly fucking considered. Oh, God, you're intimidating. You're intimidating.

I told you. I'm not even doing anything. Do you have a tank top on? No, I had my youth sports, Catholic youth sports, yellow fucking.

Oh, with a big Maybe wear a priest uniform or something. Maybe they will, you won't look as intimidate. I'm gonna, I'm gonna fucking, I'm gonna have brainy vinyl on the back, you know, nice guy on the back or something like that. I'm not angry.

I'm not angry. That's perfect. I'm big, not angry. I'm just, just fit.

I don't take steroids. I'm fit, not angry. There you go. And my brother's fine.

And what? My brother's fine. My brother's fine. He's not here, he's fine.

He's not here, he's fine. He's a little upset upstairs this morning. I don't know what happened. He left.

Like, no, I'm busy. I can't stay. All right, is that it? It's time for Phil Phones Facts.

I think that was it. What else happened? I went to Missouri for a giant gingerbread thing. Yeah, let's talk about that.

How did the gingerbread house go? I got second. You got second? They wouldn't give you first.

Well, my grown Adrian's nephew is an engineer, and he put a thatched roof on his. A thatched roof? That's true. He cut pieces off a Christmas tree that was behind him.

And he thatched the roof. He whipped it together. Wait a second, wait a second. How was the judging?

Who judged it? It was just everybody agreed. I use cinnamon sticks. He made a log cabin out of his with pretzel sticks.

Oh, it doesn't count. That's not the same. It's not a gingerbread house. A log cabin is not a gingerbread house.

You should have been DQ'd. Well, I gingerbread, I log cabin mine too, but I use a cinnamon stick. You're also DQ'd. So who was third?

Who was third? I don't know. All the rest of them were the kids just spray paint and shit everywhere. Yeah, I mean, God forbid we should have given it to one of the kids.

Right. Well, it was just everybody. Not like we won a prize. Yeah.

Well, yours is the best. Yours is about there. Well, you know, we're going to give you second because, you know, we know that you're new here and this is a thing. And, you know, so.

But, I mean, there was like 75 people there. It was ridiculous. Did anybody get in a fight? Nope.

Are you going back next year? I would imagine unless something happens between now and then. I feel like you better work that out. So.

Well, make sure you let us know the day way far in advance. Yeah, if you can get a, if you can get the date locked in, so I don't do a fucking event somewhere else on that weekend, that'd be fantastic. Oh, well, I can put you on the family calendar, like you keep, so you're gonna do with me on your family calendar. Okay, all right.

I'll add you the codes. Because there's things that are coming up. There are things that are coming up? Well, I've got a baby, I've got a grandchild being born soon.

You're gonna have to get us a date. It's in March. It's like a hard date. It's in March.

Well, I mean, the, I mean, you can have the date that they say, but you know, there's a window of opportunity. There's an opportunity there. If it passes 6am, you need to take the shot. Oh, I don't think I'm going to the birth, but I'll have to watch the dogs.

I'm not going to that. Why don't I just stand around? You're on dog detail? Well, I'll stay home with my dogs.

Oh. Okay. Right. You know what?

I gotta be honest. I fucking love having Chet in this room. Because I'm seeing his expressions and shit. He's not saying nothing, but I'm like...

Yeah, I can't see him. He's behind me. Yeah, I just want to give him a hug. I offered to set up a mic for him, he wasn't interested.

No, this is perfect. Chet and I, we're on the same page and I'm seeing the expressions and shit and I'm just like, oh. It's like my own private TV show. I love it.

I fucking love it. All right, let's get on to this Christmas tree who I'm about to beat the shit out of is Fun Facts. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers podcast feature, Phil's Fun Facts. Hello. Hello, it's a trees facts.

It's a fact about trees. All right. We're hard to watch cigars. Yeah.

We smoke cigars. We could make a tree facts. That's a Christmas tree facts, since he's a Christmas tree. All right.

Cigars were once banned in Turkey because someone used one to spark a political debate They got too heated. I guess they got mad someone burned the turkey. It was heated, so they sparked and it got heated and it was terrible. That was absolutely terrible.

It was a little late. Turkey was. Turkey was the country. It just happened to work out that way.

I get it. It's still a true fact. All the facts are true. Yeah, they're true.

Amazing. Amazing. I have two minutes of my life, I won't get back. The air?

Yeah, it's very thick. You stop making faces behind me. You gotta turn up the filter. If it's louder, it picks up on camera.

We had that problem last week. Does it? Yes. The engineer for the Chet and Palmer show noticed he could hear it in his headphones, so he turned it down.

Really? Turned it down, yeah. Wow. That guy's next level.

He is, he's really good. B-Dog's next level. B-Dog's next level. From the four corners of the world, all the cigar industry news you could possibly need, the Cigar Hustler Podcast Report, with Mike Toon.

S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has unveiled the schedule for the next step of the Cigar Association of America vs. the United States Food and Drug Administration. S.

Food and Drug Administration, deeming regulations. So the Court of Appeals has ordered the following schedule for briefs. Now, these are just when they have to submit the paperwork. These are not dates when they will actually go over.

Yeah, we can, you can pick a date and then they cannot acknowledge that date. Right. Well, these are the dates that the court has chosen. And then you can say, oh, that won't work for me.

I'm doing my hair on that date. Well, you have to have the paperwork in by that date. Oh, okay. So these are paperwork deadlines.

So they're all in January. 2024? Yeah, 20 January 16th is the appellate's brief. Then the appendix for the brief is due, also due on the 16th.

And then the appellate's brief, or the appellate's brief, it's February 15th, and then the appellate's reply brief is March 7th. I should have been a lawyer. Ah, think of the money, man. I just heard ka-ching, ka-ching.

These deadlines all pertain to paperwork and not a date when parties will argue the case in front of a three-judge panel. But Mahatta's August 2023 ruling determined the form of remedy the judge had already decided in July of '22 that the FDA erred when considering how to regulate premium cigars. Specifically, he found the new agency ignored comments that show the premium cigars, large, unflavored cigars, were not used in the same way as their smaller, oftentimes flavored counterparts. Mm-hmm.

So they are not complaining about the premium cigar definition, so that will stand. Oh, great. Yeah. Esteban Carrera announces a price increase for 2024.

See, here's what's happening. Yes. " Right, so they get them all in before the PCA. Yeah, they should probably get mine in before the end of the PCA.

Do you want to guess how much there is? Their increase? Yes. 7%.

But they did 25 to 50 cents per cigar. Well, that's more than, uh, no, that's probably, that's probably about right, it's probably about 5%. 5-10%, depending. Okay, Perdomo informs retailers their price increase for 2024.

Oh. You wanna guess theirs? I would say about 7%. 25 cents per cigar seems to be the going rate later.

So that's 5%. Yes. While the 8th line will be going up 10 cents per cigar. Ah.

So the 25 centers are the Perdomo Double Age, the Perdomo 20th, the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary, Habano Bourbon Barrel Age, Perdomo Lot 23. Oh, sorry, Jay, and the Perdomo Humidified Bags, Perdomo Amincio 70. That's the big one. Mm-hmm.

The net effect to consumers will vary as many states impose their tobacco tax, so it'll vary by state. Obviously. Black Label is announcing their price increase for 2020. I'm starting to see a repeat here, yeah.

Black Label Trading Company has announced it will be implementing a price increase in 2024 as it seeks to keep up with the increasing costs that have been absorbed by the company over the past four years. Okay. Uh, let's see, where is this area at? They're not, oh, here we go, okay, they have a percent.

Seven percent. Eight. Fucking close. Pretty close, pretty close.

Cassidy Monte Cristo is closing the Webster, Texas location at the end of December. Yeah, that thing was set up for failure off the rip, it was in a terrible spot. Yeah, Webster's is kind of a weird town to put some, it's not a big city, is it? It still could have worked, it's just that where they picked, it didn't make sense.

In the Houston suburb of Webster, Texas, announced that it will be closing at the end of the month. The store did not provide a reason for the closure. Yeah, it didn't make any money. Just that it...

Why are you closing? We appreciate your limited support. Well, we're not making no money, so we're closing. We're closing.

Cigars International plans a Pittsburgh-area store. Oh. Ooh, that's interesting. Cigars International, whose headquarters and roots are in eastern Pennsylvania, is heading across the state for the company's newest superstore location.

The new superstore location, specifically it will be in South Fayette Township, a small suburb located 10 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, the company has purchased land in Newberry Market, located approximately 10 miles from the Pittsburgh International Airport. Oh, that's smart. Pittsburgh's got a few really good shops, too, so they're not going to like that too much. Sarah Santos, president of Cigars International, told Cigars Podcast that the company plans on opening the store in the second half of 2024.

Danto said the new store would be similar to the company's recent Superstore locations in Texas and Florida, meaning it will have a large walk-in humidor, an expansive bar, and patio. Well, why the fuck would you open it in the first quarter of 2024? It's freezing up there. Right.

Nobody's buying shit. Nobody's buying shit, then. Super cold. And the way those things are all opened, it would be freezing in there all the time.

I just wish this thing wouldn't tunnel on me. I'm getting ahead of myself on the Patreon. So, Scandinavian Tobacco announced last year, the parent company of Cigars International, that they are adding six to eight stores by the end of 2025. Great.

South Fay would be the fourth new location since an announcement was made, following openings in Conroe and Katy, Texas, both in the Houston area, and planned a store in Jacksonville that is now slated to open also in 2025. Yeah, I forgot that. Luciano Cigars to release a cigar called Underrated in January. It's January.

Underrated. Luciano will be kicking off 2024 with a new cigar lining that is called Underrated, which the company says comes from the fact that all their cigars are not rated well. Is this a made up story? The story is true.

Wow. Some of the details may be, you know, artistic license. Oh. It's a process of creating the unexpected from the overlooked is what they're saying.

Interesting. The blend features a Mexican San Andreas wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder, and then a unique filler that contains Connecticut broadleaf, an Ecuadorian, Broadleaf and Ecuadorian HVA leaves, both of which are generally used as wrappers. Alongside those tobaccos, Mediotiempo, did I say that right? Mediotiempo.

Mediotiempo from Nicaragua, Pueblo Nuevo region, leaves that come from the very top of the tobacco plant and coveted for their distinct flavor profile. Oh my God. This particular batch of Medio Tiempo is unique for having come out of the field Luciano took from someone earlier than planned due to the heavy rains during the 2021-22 crop year. That necessitated a unique fermentation process with lower temperatures and a longer time in the pilones.

It's delightfully sweet and bold like a fruit and meat charcuterie tray underrated. It's not just a cigar, but a statement the company wrote in a press release going to call the flavor dynamic both candied and rich. It's further described as being medium, full in strength with a robust body that captivates without overwhelming. So there's a bunch of different sizes.

"After months of seeing Luciano experimenting with these tobaccos, I was in awe when he gave me a mystery to smoke at a factory in Nicaragua last summer," said Ed Trevino, VP of sales for Luciano Cigars. " In a press release, his cigars are a tribute to Luciano's imagination, his ingenious use of high-quality leaves and non-traditional rolls brings forth the unparalleled sensory journey, Providing that magnificence often lies unnoticed. The cigars are produced at Luciano. You're telling me it took nine years to get acknowledged.

Produced at the Luciano Cigar Factory in Nicaragua. That's the one with the banner over the other name that was called before he came to the factory. All right, now we have a Florida story. Oh.

A Florida driver was taken into custody after deputies found him driving around in a truck labeled "Booty Patrol". Oh, I heard about this. This is a while ago. "Booty Patrol"?

Well, no, he just got nabbed again. He's been nabbed several times, apparently. Yeah, it looks like a Border Patrol. It looks like a Border Patrol, which we'll get into that in just a minute.

Booty Patrol. In an incident report, deputies said they spotted the truck at the Mosaic area on October 29th, and apparently it's a beach, and the vehicle had red and blue flashing lights attached to the grill turned on. No, you can't do that. Believing the truck was a law enforcement vehicle, the deputies went over to find out what was going on, though they prompted the truck and turned its lights off and sped away.

So, as they pulled up, the guy got in the car. The Booty Patrol is on the move. Booty Patrol is on the move. Booty Patrol is on the move.

Believing the truck was a law enforcement vehicle, the deputies went over, oh, that was a, well, the paint job looked familiar to Customs and Border Patrol vehicle, it was evident that the truck wasn't affiliated with law enforcement, so deputies gave chase after the truck and pulled it over, the report shows. Investigators said they made contact with the driver, identified as Gabrielle Luviano, not Luciano. Gabrielle? Gabrielle.

Yeah, it almost sounded like a girl, but it's definitely a guy. Uh, who told them he believed it was legal to have police lights on his vehicle. Oh, I thought I was okay. So they issued him a citation for displaying prohibited lights in the vehicle, the county's clerk's office shows that the $113 fine was paid, however, deputies reviewed footage from the traffic stop, then they realized that the truck was nearly identical to a Border Patrol vehicle.

Right. They didn't catch that at first. That's federal. Yes.

Except for the phrase, "booty patrol" being stamped in place of Border Patrol, and the arrest report states, "Devity said they discovered that Luviano had several other run-ins with the law enforcement due to his truck, and he had a TikTok account on which he featured his truck. " The truck is illegal. As a result, additional charges were filed November 21st of impersonating law enforcement and obstructing police. " Right.

" When he told the police, they just cited him for the lights. " Right. So now they're looking for him. And his truck.

Oh, so he didn't get arrested yet? No. Sheriff's Office announced that it wanted to raise awareness about the truck, saying that it had been cited in several other Florida counties. If you have been arrested by the Booty Patrol or given a ticket, contact the Duval Sheriff's Department.

It doesn't sound like he's in Jacksonville. Duval, oh, is that why they say Duval? Yeah. Duval County.

Duval County. Got it. Hey, there's a Florida woman that will decorate your Christmas tree topless for $300. Oh.

The Booty Patrol guys in trouble with the topless ladies, okay? Well, there was a long story, which I didn't pull, but I just grabbed the headline. I've seen her on TikTok, she normally will clean your house, topless. Now she's decorating trees.

But now she put up on Reddit, just as a joke, hey, I'll decorate a tree for $300, and then her offers came flooding in. Just so you know, that star's never getting straight. The what? The star.

Oh, yeah, no. So what time is she coming over, Mike? My wife already decorated my trees, but I have tried to negotiate that my wife will do a topless next year. Yeah.

It took all the balls off. She's not doing it. I should take all the ornaments down. Oh, you know, these will go back up faster if you're topless.

I could get a person over here to take care of that. $3,000, she's made, she made $3,000 the first day. Wow, that's a lot of trees. You know, I'm sure there would be women, Michael, that would like to have their trees decorated.

Yeah, you think I could just pour myself out? Sure, $300 a tree? Yeah, do you want my wife to just kill them afterwards or beforehand? Well, after.

Well, wear maybe, maybe a tree mask. Yeah. No, no, no, she kills them and Booty Patrol comes and puts them in the trunk. Right, it's all wrapped up in your gun.

And I got my 300 bucks. Right. Yeah. Well, 3,000 if you just don't know.

Oh, I just gotta, you know, I gotta move fast. You gotta move fast. Well, I figured you'd be, just throw 'em at the tree. It's up.

It's done. All right, you got a listener of the week, Michael? I did. I lost them, though.

I do. It's a, hold on, hold on, hold on. It's, his name is Jake. From State Farm.

Ah, Jake Palmer, you were listening to the other week. No. Oh, he doesn't listen. His Instagram name is Body by Jake.

Body by Jake? Is that like an infomercial? The infomercial guy? No, he's not an infomercial guy.

He actually came up to the shop this week. Up here? Yeah. Oh.

And he dropped off a cigar for me. Oh. It was very nice of him. Delicious.

Does he listen to the show? He does. Oh. Delicious.

He does. He said, boots don't fucking touch. Mmm. Delicious.

He said boots don't fucking, I don't even know what cigar you're talking about. Yeah, that's what he said though. He's the one that takes them out to death. I'm not loud on his desk really anymore.

No, he just kind of elbow it. He's smoking all his stuff. Yeah. I don't take the stuff he has to pay for.

Right. I did give him something special though. I gave him a... Michael Joseph, fucking dare burn you with my smoke.

That's when you're decorating the trees. Yeah, I'm not, I'm, no, I'm not, sorry. So is that his name? Body by Jake?

Is that the one we're going with? Yeah. Oh, sorry. I thought you were still looking.

Bodies. Bodies by Jake. Yeah. Oh, is he part of the Booty Patrol?

He's part of the Booty Patrol. Oh, nice. Booty Patrol, Bodies by Jake, your listener of the week. Do you have a shop?

What's the next location you have an event? I have a shop of the week. It's Secreto Cigars. Oh!

He's so angry. Look at that. So angry. He's very angry.

Angry Ronnie. Anything else? else? That's it.

That's all I got. That's all you got. That's all I got. Okay.

Well, hey, before we go, I want to give a shout out to Gio on the Down to Her podcast. Oh, for the baby. Congratulations. Congratulations, Gio.

The baby's name was awesome, too. Stefan Kevich Gio? No, it was... I'm going to tell you.

It was Boots. Hold on. I got to get the name because it's a fantastic name. Hustler Network?

Gio Randa? No, it was like... Spider-Man. Electra.

So it was a girl? Yeah. Oh, Electra and Dinogirl, he had twins? He had Electra and Dinogirl, yeah.

Oh. That was a superhero show from when I was a kid. I think it was a text to me in boots. It was Evangelia.

Oh, Hurtful Geo. Evangelia. He only sends me messages about business. Evan.

Evan. Oh, please not be Evan. It's spelled E. Evangelia.

Yep. E-V-A-N-G-E-L-I-A. Yeah, Evangelia. Oh.

That's a pretty name. Strong Italian name. Yeah. That is short.

Like Evangelist. Right. Evangelic. Yeah.

I don't think he's naming her after a guy that says he can heal with his hands. Like Evan? No. I said, what would be the short?

I mean, you're not going to say that whole name. Yeah. E. I guess it could be.

I don't think you shorten that name. So congratulations, Gio. Congratulations, buddy. And that's all I got.

Let's get to this Patreon. There we go to Patreon. We're doing the Phineas Cage. Liga Privada, H99.

H99. H99. All right, guys, we got to go. Bye.

All right, you ready? Yep, go ahead. Okay. All right, are you ready?

Yep, go ahead. Okay. First ever Cigar Hustlers podcast, traveling. What should we call this, Boots?

I mean, Phil, I'm sorry. The Phil and King Show? Oh, the Phil and King Show because we don't have Palmer today? Yeah.

We have a special guest with us. We are at Smoke on the Water in Weston, Florida, one of my favorite retail stores in the entire nation by far. This place is absolutely incredible. They have a huge humidor.

They got an awesome bar. They have a fantastic private lounge in the back. On top of the fact that they have Joaquin here. Say hello, Joaquin.

Hi, everybody. So, Joaquin, you've been in the industry for how long? I've been in the business for six years. For six years?

Yes, and I smoke on the water two years. You've been here for two years? Yes. All right, now I can tell you personally that I've been to smoke on the water for probably 10 years at this point, maybe longer.

And the fucking humidor was a complete mess until you got here. Bro, I could tell that you were working here when I walked in and I said, "Oh my God, everything is perfect. " So, where were you before you started here? I was working for four years for Nettoon Cigars at the Florida store.

Okay. And you eventually just made your move over to this spot? Yes, sir. How was it working with Danny?

No, bro. Let me tell you something. This is the first time that An American from Louisiana worked with a Puerto Rican. I don't know how he can understand me and how I understand him.

The accent and my accent is so strong, but we made an awesome team. He's the best. He gave me the opportunity to do it myself, what I do best. And that's the secret, bro.

Smoking cigars, the best customer service, The most knowledgeable team that we have right now, and it's unique, everything is clean, organized, vibrant, and we have a team, that's a secret for the customer service. Right. All right, so I got to tell you a couple things. I know I've probably told you these things in the past, but at least we're gonna, I'm gonna put it on record here.

So, I knew you were a bad motherfucker when I walked into the humidor, first of all, and I saw where everything was, right? Everything is perfectly immaculate, everything is, there's nothing on the floor that, you know, there's no, nothing jammed into a corner. These are the things that, as you travel, you can see that in the industry, right? So when I, when I noticed that here, and what was here, and now that that's gone, I was like, holy shit, who's running this humidor, right?

Super impressed. And then we start talking, and you said, oh, you know, like, who are you? And I'm like, oh, my, my cigar is Powstanie. " And that was super impressive.

" So, how long have you been smoking cigars? I began to smoke at the 18th. Okay. A history that not everybody knows, my grand-grandfather, he planted tobacco on Puerto Rico.

Oh, no shit. In the 50s. And I smoke it, but I take it seriously when I begin to work with Necton cigars, and I begin to enjoy more what is the industry. Right.

The history behind the cigar, the history behind the family who made the cigars. And the secret is a study. Right. We are lucky right now that we have Google, we have Yahoo, and everything is there, but when you make an awesome relation with you guys, the owners and the rep, and they are very prepared, and you ask the correct question, what is your blend, why do you use that, why do you look in the cigar, that helped me teach my customer, it's not only smoking.

It's not what do you expect when you're going to smoke? What do you want? You want a spiciness? You want a sweetness?

You want a lead in? You want a earthiness? Right. And that way, you need to read a lot.

Right. Smoke a lot. Yeah. And then you develop your palate.

Right. I totally agree, man. A hundred percent, you know. And most important, this is not a job.

This is my lifestyle. Right. And we open at 10 to midnight. Right.

And I came every morning, eight in the morning, Because I love what I do. No shit. It's where I spend my life. I spend more time here than my home.

Right. I mean, shit, today's your day off, and you're here because of the event. And because you. I'm a friend.

I need to be here. And I truly appreciate that, bro. That speaks volumes. But, you know, I gotta be honest, I'm not surprised that, you know, you're coming up here on your off day to come and support me and support the brand.

Actually, it's the second one. This is it. Everybody that has known me, when I smoke like this, it's a home run, guys. It's a home run.

Thank you, man. Yeah. So, you know, I unfortunately didn't blend that one. My friend Skip did.

But yeah, you know, I'm not surprised, dude, you know, and it's, I'm glad that you smoked it and loved it. And, you know, we only made 500 boxes. So, when they're gone, they're gone. And then it'll be on to the next one in two more years.

So, what was, tell me one of the things that you have learned, like, What was your biggest struggle in this industry that you you're like that you had to overcome? What was the hardest thing, maybe on a retailer side, whatever the case may be, you know? Okay, my only thing that made me mad is sometimes our customers don't respect the humidors. Yeah.

We have a naked cigar without cellophane, we have cigar with cellophane, and I don't know why the people don't understand that cigar is for smoking. Right. It's for sniffing. Right.

If you want to sniff it after you pay, it's okay, bro. Right. But don't sniff the cigar, make a COVID test with your nose, and put it back at the box. Right.

It's so respectful for the other people. Right. That's what pissed me off. And the other thing is, you take a cigar, you don't want to put it the same way that you pick it up.

Don't drop it, don't put it anywhere, or ask for help. We have professional guys, they know where is everything here. You don't know, hey, that's my job, give me the cigars, I put it back, thank you for your kind. That's the only thing that pisses me off a little bit.

But in general, the cigar smokers are great guys. All of them, they love to enjoy the smoke with the drink. He made a nice conversation, and this is a relaxing time, he said enjoy after a hard day working, come on, sit down, lay down, enjoy your smoke, relax, put the blood down, enjoy life, it's short. Absolutely.

You need to enjoy it. I totally agree, man. How long do you think it took you to get the employees that you wanted, that you found would be in the right place for you? Because obviously, you know, it takes a team, right?

It takes everybody to be on the same page, or at least relatively on the same page. So how long do you think it took for you to kind of get all of that where, you know, this is the first time that I have been here, and I know I haven't been here in a little bit, but you know, I could tell that you're very confident with David, who's behind the register right now in the humidor. How long do you think it took for you to kind of work through all of that? I'm lucky.

Yeah? Because my other colleague is Jeff that began today at Seeds. He could be here for 10 years or more. He knows his cigar.

He knows how to run in the humidor. Davey is the young one that we have here, and he takes it very, very quick. Right. And the secret is he loves cigars, too.

Right. He likes smoke, and he's in the right path. He's going to the way, and we are very happy with him. And he made himself and he, everybody, customer, every customer told me, hey, the guy's good, you know, he's tough, he's very, he's very professional what he's doing.

Right. So that takes maybe a year. Yeah. So how many employees work in that humidor now?

Three. Three. Being myself, I work in Sunday to Thursday and during the day and David and Jeff covered the time that I know here. And every third Friday of the month, I work in a night seats to close, for giving a break to the guys, you know, closing every night.

I got to have weekends too. We want to give you a break in too. But it's a fun place. We have the best customers.

This is a family here. We celebrate New Year's Eve, we celebrate Christmas, we make a lot of private events here for parties, and personally I do events with the manufacturers, a master blender, we put it here at the back of the cigar bar, and I make a private presentation to them, because I believe more in teach our smoking that selling cigars only. You need to learn where they come from, why a cigar costs $20 or $18, because behind the construction, it's a lot of time, a lot of money, and some people don't understand that. Me that have the opportunity to be at Nicaragua and Honduras and DR with the Master Blend, the other owners, I know all the process, the idea of the process, and that's something that teach me a lot, I learn a lot with them.

Especially Don Julioa, he's teaching me how to roll in a cigar. Nice. It's very, it's not easy. Right.

I broke in maybe 10 wrappers before I can roll in my three cigars. Right. But when you have that opportunity, help you to develop your knowledge and your passion for the business. Right.

Yeah, absolutely, man. That makes all the difference. I'll tell you one thing. " And he's like, "Oh, I'm Danny.

" I was like, "Oh, shit, dude. " You forget something. Yeah. The sandals.

Oh, yeah. In sandals. Yeah, 100%. So, so he's in sandals.

He's got a mop bucket in his hand. He's got his hat backwards, you know, just kind of super chill. " You know, when I, when I got that impression from him, I was instantly, I'm like, "You, we're going to get along. " And we hit it off, man, from that point forward.

So, I can understand how, when you meet him and, you know, you see, you guys find the opportunity together for you to work here, it's, you know, you gel. I'm sure that there's times, you know what I mean? As any business goes through, I'm sure that there's always head-butting and conflict, but at the end of the day, the perspective and the goal is still the same thing, right? You know the funny thing, I've been, I was a customer for two years before I came to work here, and I came every Thursday or Friday to smoke my cigars, make a drink, actually they, in that moment they don't sell in the rum that I drink, and they buy it for me, and that was very kind of them, and I am the only one that's smoking, drinking Dunk U here, it's a Puerto Rican rum, of course, and we make a friendship.

And during the pandemic, I've been working at that moment. We begin to talk and develop our friendship. And in 2021, we have a serious conversation. And as I said, he suffered.

And I don't regret it. It's the best decision I've ever done in my life. I love Dan. He's an awesome guy.

He's a hard worker. He is. And if you think I know cigar, he know more. He remembers every cigar from 16 years, 20 years ago, and I say, "Bro, how do you remember that?

" Right. And he had a complete knowledge. What is this business? What is the industry?

And I have all my respect. Yeah, man. He's got a good pulse on things, dude. Yeah.

And he's got another shop up in Louisiana? Yep. Is that Smoke on the Water as well? It's Smoke on the Water in County Street.

It's two blocks from Barber Street. So hopefully that does, has a nice little bit of business when we go back to PCA. In 2024. Yeah, that should be really good.

We are going to be there. Yeah, so we've had a couple opportunities. He's come up to the shop a few times and we've hung out as well, you know, when he's not here. And I get to, you know, what's really kind of fascinating is, when you're in your store, you are kind of in this mode, right?

And you're focused on business and yeah, it's still leisure, but at the end of the day, you're still focusing on business. When he came up to the shop I finally got to experience Danny 100% you know without any interaction from his own retail shop and dude that just made me like the guy even more I'm like fuck man you're awesome dude so I'm glad that you're here dude I really am and you know and I'm very fortunate very grateful that you are in that humidor and that you always have my back and that and that you support the brand the way that you do and I appreciate all the time and the effort and the knowledge of that. I love the knowledge that you have put into your entire life for the cigars, and I look forward to continuing to work with you, man, and continuing to build, and if you have anything else you want to plug or anything, just let me know, go ahead, we'll drop it right now. I want to invite everyone that is in South Florida, close to Weston, we have a sales event with his cigars, and we have the lounge of the SBZ22, and we have special, and we're going to make a raffle tonight.

I'm going to be here. You want to meet me. I'm not going to be at the humidor working, but I'll be outside. That is much better.

I'm going to be taking my room, smoking my cigar. I know everybody. Absolutely, man. And if you're in the South Florida area, please come out here at any time and meet Joaquin, meet the squad here at Smoke on the Water.

We're going to talk about one more guy in a minute here. We're going to bring out Larry and we're going to have a little bit of a conversation too. So thank you again for so much for coming on, bro. Appreciate you.

Do you have an upcoming event after this event that you want to plug to, or do you know of yet? I am going to have one this weekend, Wednesday, that's posted on my page on Instagram, Joaquin Ortiz, it's only 26, 20 person only, it's with JC Newman Company. Okay. But it's limited, it's only 20.

You want to make a reservation? You need to text me at 787-645-8587. There you go. It's only 20 persons.

Get on it, get on it. The direct connect right there to Joaquin and Smoke on the Water. I'm scared with the 77. It's like for Rico and Eric.

Thank you, guys. All right. Thanks so much. Thank you.

All right. You can just keep it recording. That was perfect. Yeah, that's what I brought.

Yeah, 16 minutes. That was perfect. Can I take my mask off for a second? Yeah.

Yeah, that's got to be fucking miserable. That's hot. Let me see. Let me see that dome.

Oh yeah, sweaty. Yep. It was 16 minutes. It said recording stopped.

You got them on video with that? That's because the storage was full. Uh-oh. Let me go ahead and delete some.

How much all that shit cost? 3 grand, 2 grand? The board and everything? Well, this isn't even our main.

This is the backup. This is the backup. This is our smaller one. You have a studio.

I heard about it. Dan told me about your studio. That's what it looks like. Yeah.

That was when I had drunk Pedro on. I couldn't air it. Pedro was drunk? Oh, yeah.

He was really fucked up? Yeah. Yeah, he's like, hey, you know. You can barely understand it.

Yeah. He's like, hey, before. No, it's okay. Yeah, we'll crop it.

" And I said, "To be honest, dude, you were a little drunk. Didn't come off the best. I don't know. " And he goes, "Yeah, maybe I'll do another one with you some other time.

" And I'm like, I'm like, fucking awesome, dude. That's hilarious. Alright, did you get that video saved or no? You sure?

Yes. Alright, we're good. Go ahead and put the headphones on. And you'll see same scenario, right?

So it's a shotgun mic. So if you're up close and on it, you'll sound perfect. Alright. Good.

Yeah. Perfect. You can hear yourself. Yep.

Okay. And now we have you, Larry. What's going on, buddy? Not much.

What's going on with you? All right, so what the fuck do you do at Smoke on the Water? I don't know. Whatever is necessary, Claire, honestly.

Whatever is necessary, yeah. You're like the wolf. Yeah. You solve the problems.

I solve the problems. Sometimes I create the problems. It is what it is. Yeah.

Sometimes those problems are good. Sometimes those problems are bad. What's awesome for me is I contact three of you at this point when I'm looking to see if you guys want anything, right? I try and start with Joaquin, believe it or not.

I text Joaquin first, and then I text Danny, and then I text you when all else has failed. He just failed. I'm like, Larry, no one's responding. What's going on?

You know, that's what happened last time, right? Yeah. Yeah. Where we at?

Where we at on this? You know, but everybody's running and gunning, dude. There's a million things going on. It's not like, I never take that as, oh, nobody wants to talk to me.

Like, I know everybody here, you know? Yeah. So it's just like, okay, they're in some shit or whatever. I'll circle back or whatever the case may be.

So, so tell me some of the shit, man. So tell me, um, give me your funniest story that has happened at this place. This place. Funniest story here.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God. I mean, there's so many funny stories here.

I couldn't single it out to just one, quite honestly. Yeah. There was not one that just pops in your head? No, they're all pretty funny.

I mean, I don't drink anymore, so I'm not part of those stories anymore. Right. That's important. So when I observe these stories, I just shrug it off and shake my head and just like, what the fuck?

When you observe the fuckery. You observe everything. Yeah. So I see what I used to be.

Right. You know, and, you know, some of these people are still the same, which is... You know, that's, that's part of the process. I mean, every day is funny here.

It's funny because we have a podcast as well and we talk, that's exactly what we talk about. What's the name of the podcast? Thick Skin Podcast. Thick Skin Podcast.

" Right. And then, and some people can't believe what we're talking about, right? Right. " It's like, "Where did it happen to go?

" Right. That's the thing, so there really isn't anything, nothing funny that sticks out in my head, other than, you know, people getting in fights. Right. You know, not, not the serious, all our kids are in a serious fight.

No, it's usually just drunk idiocy. Exactly, just dumb shit happening. Right. That's basically it, but I don't have anything, honestly, something specific for you.

I wish I did, if I, you know, I will, I'll let you know, I'll type it out and let you know. Phil, he's holding back. He's holding back. He's definitely holding back.

He's definitely holding back. I am not holding back. Come on, come on. I promise you I'm not holding back.

That's a luxury of me not drinking, actually. I am not holding back for the record. I am not holding back on anything funny. Joaquin, get him a drink, man.

It's been 490 days. Yeah, I know. We don't want to break that. I'm just fucking with you.

So how often do you do your podcast? Every week? We do it every week. We record it every week, and we're messing with our editor right now, a couple editors.

So it's kind of like one of those deals where we promote the bar, promote our cigar pimp line as well, promote any events that we have. That's basically what it's for. Right. Honestly, it's just, it was three guys shooting the shit and we're sitting here, you know, I actually listened to one of your podcasts and it's like, you know, we should just record this crap and just see what sticks.

Yeah. You know, that's part of the fun. That's part of the fun, especially in this industry is, you know, you have a core following like you guys do and like everybody else does. You try to create something like that.

Right. Something fun that if someone can't experience our place, you know, maybe they could live vicariously through us through this podcast or else it is. What's really kind of crazy, dude, is, you know, as you start doing that, people will come up to you and talk to you about shit that you said, or maybe you tell them a story that you said on the podcast, and then they'll finish it before you even, like, oh, okay. They're like, yeah, I heard it already.

I'm like, son of a bitch. I'm like, okay, well, did I tell you about, oh shit, you heard that one too, you know? Or someone comes in that's from out of town, like, man, I've listened to your podcast, and I just wanted to come in and meet everybody. Who's on there?

Is it you, Danny? No, actually, Dan's not on there. Dan's a little gun shy when it comes to stuff like this. No, he doesn't like that stuff, so that's what I'm here for, basically.

What? Yeah, he's not a camera guy. He's not, you know, he's the guy behind the scenes. That's the thing.

I mean, people don't realize, you know, any time people come in here, they're like, "Oh, who's owner? " I go, "No, absolutely not. " It's like that guy who dressed up, he's like, nope, guess again. That's not him.

That guy over there, nope, guess again. I can't. Which one is it? The guy that looks like Jesus.

The guy that looks like Jesus with his feet up, jeans that he had on for probably a couple days, and his flip-flops, and his hat on backwards. That's Dan. The thing, when people don't know who Dan is, they don't realize what he does for this place. We've been open for 14 years now, so it's kind of like one of those deals where he literally knows every inch of this bar.

So if you ask what I do, I try to learn every inch of this bar as well, Which I don't. I'm not allowed to touch certain things because I'll break it. Right. That's me.

Don't touch that. Yeah, exactly. No electronics. I'm not allowed to touch any electronics.

I've broken way too many TVs here. Just trying to install new TVs. Like one broke, I install one. He's like, you're fucking broke.

And I go, what are you talking about? I said it right on the table. He's like, did you put anything on the table? Like, no.

Crack. No shit. Yeah. So.

How long you been here? Uh, four years. Four years. Four years, yeah.

No parole. No parole. Absolutely no parole. So you got mid-sobriety like halfway through it.

Yeah, it was a year and a half ago. It was just something I wanted to do, you know, for myself, more for my kids and my family. You know, I want to see, be able to watch them grow up and, you know, get old and then me get old, grandkids, all that other good stuff. And it was one of those deals, you know, everybody always asks me.

I used to drink a bottle and at least a bottle and a half a day. No shit. Every day? Every day.

With that man. Like, what was it? Anything good? No, Johnny Walker Black and tequila, man.

Oh, shit. Towards my tail end there, it was always tequila. Every tequila, every bottle on the plate. Like, that's why we have over 600 liquors here, because I brought in half of them.

No shit. Like, our book was like literally like half an inch, now we're like almost an inch and a half, two inches thick. Wow. Yeah, so we have a lot of stuff, but the good thing is we've increased our offering, it's good for the public, it's good, you know, breadth of product line in regards to the liquor bar as well.

I mean, you see our expansive, how our humidor is, and we're trying to, you know, I'm not trying to emulate the same thing with the bar. Right. But, you know, for the most part, we sell time in there, and, you know, the longer cigar that Joaquin sells, then that means, you know, You guys are going to sit at that bar longer and drink more. Yeah, of course.

That's the, that's the, that's the goal. That's the magic formula, I guess. So, did something happen that gave you, and if you don't want to talk about that, it's cool, but I'm just kind of curious, did you have a moment where you're like, fuck, I need to get my shit together? You know what, it was, just like everybody else, it was one of those what the fuck moments.

Right. You wake up one day. Naked in a bush or something? Please say naked in a bush.

Okay, that has happened. Not in the bush. With me, not in the bush, I actually was dropped off one fourth of July. okay, let's talk about this shit.

Yes. One Friday of July, this was a couple years, two years ago actually, I made this tequila-infused pineapple. Okay. Like that jar actually full of tequila.

Okay. And full of pineapple, sliced pineapples. And Dan and I, we were made crawfish and we started eating it at 10 in the morning. Oh my God.

It didn't stop until 2 in the morning. No shit. So he takes me home along with one of our good customers. And me and him get into a wrestling match in my driveway.

Nice. And Dan, he's like, get the fuck out of the car, shut the fuck out of the car, and then we hit each other, and we're literally resting in the driveway. I fell, hitting my head on this guy's car, like dented his car, back then I was bigger, I lost some weight too, so I was like 390 pounds back then, and dented his car, then they throw me in the house, don't put me in bed or none of that, throw me in the house, but when I woke up the next day around four or five in the afternoon, I woke up naked with one shoe on. One shoe?

One shoe. One sock and one shoe. I have no idea what the hell happened to my clothes. You gave up at that point.

But I don't understand how I got my pants off and everything else off, and I have one fucking sock and shoe on. Nice. And that wasn't the instance when I said, hey, I gotta stop drinking. You know, honestly, it was something else, you know, for another day.

Right. Maybe my memoir book. Right. But, you know, it's something that I just made a personal decision for.

Right. To better myself, obviously to better this place. Right. You know, better my family as well.

That's awesome. And I'll be honest with you. The first two, three weeks was very difficult. I'm sure.

Especially here, you know, I'm here every day and I'm around liquor every day. And you ordered a lot of this stuff. I ordered a lot of this stuff. Now, for the record, I still taste the liquor.

I just don't drink. I just choose not to drink anymore. Right. Nothing.

I need a glass of wine, no beer. So what do you do, spit it out or? No, I just, I taste it. I'd literally take a little sip.

I taste it because it's, you know, just like cigars. If a king's in there picking cigars, he's gonna smoke. I'm like, okay, this is really, really good. This is really a piece of shit.

Right. You know, we're not going to carry this cigar. Right. Granted, his pal is different than you, me, you know, everybody else, and Steve over there.

So, it's different, but liquor, you know, it's somewhat of a constant, right? So, and I'm only going to serve, what we're only going to offer here is, like, some of the good, the best stuff here available. Right. And, you know, we're going to spend money, it's liquid gold, and I don't want to just carry it in, you know, regular swill or bullshit that any other bar.

Right. You say, yeah, whatever, we'll take that. You know, you want to know exactly what you're selling. Exactly.

I mean, we're not going to have as expensive of a, you know, higher-end selection like Corona would be, Jeff and his group. Right. But, you know, we have a pretty, pretty good selection. I think you have a damn good selection here.

For sure. Yeah. For sure. I'd say better than theirs, personally.

Way better. Way better. Okay. Well, so how often are you here?

Are you here every day like Joaquin or Sunday through Thursday? No, I'm here every day or as needed. Right. You know, here primarily at nighttime.

This time of year, I actually have the luxury of taking some time off because it's off-season, so to speak. We really haven't had an off-season down here, which is great for the business, but, you know, spending time with my family, and I get my kids every other weekend, so spending time with my kids and my girlfriend or, you know, just basically just a day off or two. How many kids you got? Two.

Two? Two girls, 14 and 17. Two girls. Yeah, man, I'm paying for the sins of the past.

So, yeah. The girls are awesome, dude. No, they're amazing. They're amazing.

My oldest daughter's actually graduating a year early from high school, so. No shit. That's fantastic, dude. That's pretty cool.

Yeah, she didn't get those trades from me. Does she want to go to college or what? Yeah, she's looking at UCF and UF right now. Oh, no kidding.

Yeah, she wants to get in like law enforcement and stuff like that. So, I just said the only rule is if you do that, like FBI or anything like that. Don't look me up. Don't, no.

Well, background check, obviously, that has to pass. But me and my friends, I'm going to give you a list. Right. Please give us fair warning.

Drop the heads up. Exactly. But I'm going to smoke in the water in Nicaragua pretty soon. You never know.

Cool, man. Cool, man. Well, and where can they find your podcast? It's on YouTube right now.

I do, you know, Thick Skin Podcast, also on Instagram. Okay. But you can find it on YouTube. Okay, perfect.

So check them out on YouTube. And you're good? That's it? We ran out of footage, that's okay, but we still have the audio, so we'll put in some black space here on the YouTube video.

That looks skinnier with no camera. You and me both, pal. You and me both. All right, well, we're going to get back out there.

We're going to get going on this event. All right, no, I appreciate you guys coming out, absolutely. Dude, thank you for having us, man. We love you too, bro.

You guys are fucking all awesome, so. Yep, the only other guy with a last name longer than me in the industry. I like it. That's it, baby.

That's it. 15 letters. All right, well, we're gonna get going. Thanks again.

All right, guys, thanks again. All right, bye. Bye. Perfect.

A Cigar Hustlers podcast, its owners 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 Szczepankewicz, with any feedback or suggestions that you have for their shows.

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Show Notes

Description:

In this episode, the Cigar Hustlers dive into the legal landscape, unpacking the upcoming schedule unveiled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in the long-standing Cigar Association of America et al. v. United States Food and Drug Administration et al. lawsuit. Seven years in the making, this lawsuit filed by three cigar trade groups challenges the FDA's deeming regulations.

Listeners get the latest scoop on industry shifts as Esteban Carreras, Perdomo, and Black Label Trading Co. all announce impending price increases for 2024. Meanwhile, the closing of Casa de Montecristo's Webster, Texas location by the end of December prompts contemplation about the evolving cigar retail landscape.

Delving into industry expansions, the team discusses Cigars International's strategic plans for a new Pittsburgh area store, tapping into the market's pulse.

The episode doesn't just stick to business updates; it ventures into intriguing news. Luciano Cigars teases enthusiasts with the imminent release of "Underrated" slated for January, sparking anticipation among aficionados.

But the surprises don't end there – the hosts take a lighthearted turn, sharing quirky news from Florida. From a driver in custody sporting a truck labeled "Booty Patrol," as per the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office, to a Florida woman offering to toplessly decorate Christmas trees for $300, the hosts inject humor into the mix, proving that the world of cigars isn't just about regulations and price shifts.

Join the Cigar Hustlers as they navigate the serious, the intriguing, and the downright unusual facets of the cigar world in this eclectic and informative episode.

Stick Around at the end for a Bonus episode from Smoke on The Water Westin