A Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 366: NFL Drama, Covington vs. LeBron, Yellowstone’s Tribute, and Cigar Industry Updates
Episode Summary
Episode 366 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with hosts Mike Szczepankiewicz and Mike Palmer running through the week's trending headlines — the San Francisco 49ers fallout after linebacker De'Vondre Campbell refused to enter the game against the Rams, Colby Covington's pre-UFC Tampa shots at LeBron James, ABC News settling with Donald Trump for $15 million toward his presidential library over George Stephanopoulos' on-air claim, Patrick Mahomes' ankle injury against the Browns, a McDonald's global tech outage, and the Yellowstone Season 5 finale's on-screen tribute to horseman Bob Avila. Phil's Fun Facts covers Dolphins receiver Grant DuBose's frightening head and neck injury in Houston, which spins into a rant about coach Mike McDaniel vaping on the sideline, Winston Churchill's cigar-ash negotiating trick, and the UK's proposed generational tobacco ban.
The cigar news segment leads with breaking industry news: Espinosa Cigars has parted ways with broker Alfredo Cruz and, effective January 2, 2025, Richie "the Riot" Otero steps into the Florida regional sales rep role while keeping his key accounts. Jack Torano calls in to confirm the move and to discuss a PCA-consulted meeting about a new premium cigar trade show in Dubai running alongside World Tobacco — cheap booth space, expensive travel, and a 100% import tax on cigars — potentially in November and colliding with Lozanopalooza.
From there the hosts break down Kyle Gellis launching Gellis Family Cigars as a separate entity from Warped Cigars, with the debut PC Series Toro made at Tabacalera Isla in the Dominican Republic, aged a year after rolling, watch-world-inspired one-and-done blends, and speculation about why Gellis is building a new brand. They also cover Altadis USA's announced January 2, 2025 price increase (vague on which lines, with a notable jump floated on Montecristo Churchill), and Ryan Rodriguez's Left Handed Cigar Company release High Maka Maka — a 6x52 Toro with a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper made at Tabacalera Pichardo, 5,000 cigars, $15.99 MSRP, debuting at Underground Cigar Shop in Fort Worth. That leads to a long, funny riff on dubious tobacco aging claims.
The back half digs into CAA data showing 2024 premium cigar imports at a record pace through Q3, and why import numbers are a lagging rather than leading indicator — bottlenecked inventory, forced deals and bundles, over-leveraged mid-size retailers going belly up, and the math on how many U.S. cigar consumers it would take to burn 450 million sticks a year. The episode closes with a Lakeland, Florida woman charged after telling Blue Cross Blue Shield "delay, deny, depose," a broader healthcare conversation touching the Brian Thompson shooting, RFK, and caregiving for a parent with dementia, plus Listener of the Week (Mike from Macanudo) and Shop of the Week (Tobacco Land in Illinois).
In This Episode
- 01Trending Sports & News RoundupDe'Vondre Campbell refusing to play for the 49ers, Colby Covington vs. LeBron James at UFC Tampa, the ABC News $15 million Trump settlement, and Patrick Mahomes' ankle injury.
- 02Yellowstone Finale Tribute to Bob AvilaThe Season 5 finale dedication to the late horseman and Yellowstone guest actor Bob Avila, twice named World's Greatest Horseman.
- 03Phil's Fun Facts: Grant DuBose Injury & Sideline VapingThe Dolphins receiver's head and neck injury in Houston leads to a rant on Mike McDaniel, cigars vs. vapes, and the UK generational tobacco ban.
- 04Breaking: Espinosa Cigars' Florida Sales ChangeEspinosa parts ways with broker Alfredo Cruz as Richie 'the Riot' Otero takes over Florida sales effective January 2, 2025.
- 05Jack Torano Calls In: PCA and a Dubai Trade ShowTorano details a proposed premium cigar show in Dubai alongside World Tobacco, the 100% import tax, and scheduling conflicts with TPE, TAA and Lozanopalooza.
- 06Gellis Family Cigars DebutsKyle Gellis launches Gellis Family Cigars separate from Warped, with the PC Series Toro made at Tabacalera Isla and watch-inspired one-and-done blends.
- 07Altadis USA 2025 Price IncreaseThe hosts dissect Altadis' vague January price hike notice, why brands should raise prices incrementally, and the Montecristo Churchill jump.
- 08Left Handed Cigar Company High Maka MakaRyan Rodriguez's limited 6x52 Toro from Tabacalera Pichardo sparks a debate about inflated tobacco aging claims.
- 09Record Premium Cigar Imports Through Q3 2024Why record import numbers are a lagging indicator, and how oversupply leads to deals, over-leveraged retailers, and shop closures.
- 10Healthcare, 'Delay, Deny, Depose' and CaregivingA Lakeland woman's arrest after a Blue Cross Blue Shield call opens a candid talk on insurance, the Brian Thompson shooting, and caring for aging parents.
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
I don't ever slow up, no I don't take shit, I got no love, for the fapeness, if you wanna play tough, and wanna hate this, I'll always show up, everybody stand by, industry is in the house, if you wanna play tough, and wanna hate this, I'll always show up, here he is, the controversial, but legendary, BDP. Make way for the King. Another Mike and Mike production. In 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 0.
Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast, Episode 366. 6. Recorded live at the Mike & Mike Production Studio in Deltona, Florida, this is Cigar Hustlers Podcast, the show where cigars, business, and life collide. Join your host, Mike Steponkiewicz and Mike Palmer, as they bring you the unfiltered takes on the cigar industry, insider stories, and a whole lot of laughs.
Sit back, light up, and enjoy the hustle. And me, I'm Boots, your sound and video engineer. So again, sit back, light up. Can you move the line to make it sound better?
And enjoy the hustle. Enjoy the hustle? Chad GPT, I don't know what to tell you. Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, the show brought to you commercial-free.
A massive shout-out to our amazing patrons on Patreon. Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to deliver unfiltered, unbiased opinions on other things, cigars, and personalities in the cigar world. Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. Cheers to you.
com and search the Cigar Hustler Podcast. We got some trendy topics today, Michael. We're going to talk about the Niners. Oh.
Devon Day-Campbell, Mahomes apparently hurt himself during a game. Trump won a lawsuit. And the Yellowstone finale was last night. Got it.
Look over there. He makes sounds all the time. How did he make a sound during the Sokka thing? He yelled something because he didn't have a microphone.
Yeah, he made this weird, so we did the Sokka interview. Right, there's a big Sokka special on Friday. And that'll be coming out this week, right? Yeah, on Friday.
Yeah, I don't know what the hell he did, but there was this noise. It was so bad. It was in the beginning. I mean, I hadn't heard the whole thing, but it was in the beginning.
Yeah, something, I'm like, I didn't even mic him over there. I just couldn't believe it. I'm thinking to myself. You can always count on boots to just fucking do something.
And he had one button that was programmed over there for intro music and it had a piece of blue tape next to it that said intro music with an arrow that pointed to it. Never hit it, never played it. Well, they just got right into it. I mean, I didn't want to press the button while Sokka started talking.
Oh, might as well. He wouldn't have stopped. That did happen. That is true.
Now, however, he was also afraid to turn everything off when it was done. " Yeah, you should have just unplugged it. No, I'm good. Because that little board was very, very warm this morning.
So I hope nothing happens today. Yeah, very expensive little video switcher board over there. Well, I was really worried because the button up in the top left, I always thought there was two reds. There's only one red.
So I was like, oh great. I only got one phone call. So that was good. He goes, I hit them both, right?
And he goes, no, there should be one red light. He looked at me and goes, what do I do here? And I said, you FaceTime Palmer. That's what you do.
I'm not the guy. I'm not the guy. I'm not going to tell you. You FaceTime Palmer.
But everything appears to be there. Saka's microphone was just out of place, but that was just, that's easily fixed, so. Yeah, it was a really good interview. I think it went, it was good.
Yeah? It was good, yeah. One of your best? Yeah, I think it's up there.
You know, I honestly, look, if you're not getting better at what you do. Well, certainly. You know, so realistically, I think that. A lot has, I'm sorry, a lot has to do with the guest you're with, though, also.
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. You know, he's easy for podcasting. Right.
Keeping them on topic is the forever challenge. Right, right. I'm like, alright, let me bring the question back. So, do you like the steak?
Well, when I invented cigars back in the years. No, no, steak, do you like the steak? Well, you know, the tobacco was something that I decided that the Indians did not really do correctly, and I thought I would... He would figure that out.
figure that out for them, and then go back in time and correct the Indians. The proper fermentation processes. Yes, exactly. All that sort of thing.
Excellent. Cool. Well, hey, let's get into some stuff here, buddy. All right.
Niners scorned selfish Devondre Campbell. Devondre must be the first name for the young man. Yeah. Devondre Campbell's refusal to play with injuries to their linebackers accumulating in the middle of the third quarter Thursday night against the Los Angeles Rams.
The San Francisco 49ers turned to veteran Devondre Campbell to enter the game. Right. They went, "You're in. You're in.
This is your big chance. Here you go. You're in. " Campbell went, "Eh, nah, I'm good.
" He declined the invitation. Then in the fourth quarter, Campbell walked to the locker room with a towel over his head without playing a snap. After the Niners' 12-6 defeat at Levi's Stadium. Is that...
12-6. No, Levi's Stadium. Is that the jeans company that they sponsor that stadium? Oh.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan explained that Campbell elected not to enter the game, even though the linebackers, they, what the hell were these people? Why are all their, Dre Greenlaw had a knee injury, apparently. Why are all there? And Dee Winters.
No, all their names start with D's. Who's there? Who's there? It's Dee Winters.
The Niners. Kyle Shanahan, the coach, went to Dre Greenlaw, Dee Winters, and Dave, what is his name? Dave Von Dre. Are you even going to mention Deebo Samuels?
I mean, that guy's a stud. He hasn't gotten it out, Dave. He's not, he apparently is not a linebacker. Listen, Kyle Shanahan loves the D's.
Evidently. He loves the D's. Dee Winters hurt his neck. Everybody's, all the linebackers hurt.
They're all hurt. Except Dave Von Dre went, I don't want to play. I'm not playing. I'm not playing.
Everybody's getting hurt. He said he didn't want to play today. This wasn't my contract. Campbell's decision and subsequent stroll to the locker room left Shanahan and teammates and coaches fuming after the loss.
Shanahan said the plan was for Campbell to enter the game after Greenlaw had departed because he was dealing with some knee soreness. It was also Greenlaw's first game back from an Achilles injury he sustained in Super Bowl. What's LVII? LVII.
58? Yeah, sure. 58. II?
The two I's? Oh, V-I-I-I. So there's A. What is L?
Is L 50? L is 50, right? Okay. After Campbell said no, the Niners inserted, oh, Demetrius Flanagan.
So apparently it's a requirement. You've got to start with a D. They're all alphabetical on the team. Right.
So when third quarter ended, Campbell walked to the locker room. People noticed, but when someone says that you move on, Shanahan said, that's somebody who doesn't want to play football. It's pretty simple. I think our team and myself, we know how we feel about that, So, we don't need to talk about him anymore.
Yeah, you fired the guy. So, when asked whether Campbell would be released, Shanahan simply said, "We'll figure out something". Yeah, he doesn't want to say it flat out. Yeah, well, just in case.
I mean, well, the reality is that the media doesn't have to get the news first and foremost. No, no, no, no. Like, we handle things internally, and then we deal with it, and then you'll hear about it later. They'll talk to him and see what the problem is.
No, no, what you'll do is you'll hear about it, well, that was Thursday. That was Thursday's game. Right. So, I would say today, you'll probably hear that he was cut.
Oh. Well, apparently he doesn't care. Yeah, exactly. Has he been around for a long time?
Is he having like a big stash of money somewhere? Or has he got a bunch of cars and stuff? Who knows? Who knows, man.
Well, I'm not familiar with the sports people, so I don't know how famous this guy is. I mean, now you're talking offensive linemen. Oh, so yeah, not a big money position. I think it's a decent money position, but it's not, it's just like the unsung heroes.
Nobody really talks about them. Right, sure. You know, I mean, if you got Big Surs in here, he'd tell you. Oh, let's call him.
Yeah. Hey, Leon. Hey, let's call Howard. Howard will know.
What's going on? Howard, can you get, uh... How do we feel about... Can you get...
About D... Can you get D'Vondre on the phone, please? Yeah, right. Certainly, just a minute, hold on.
Okay. We got things cooking, or what's his tagline? We got things... We got action.
Oh, we got action. We got things cooking. I don't remember what it was. Wow.
If you'd like to use that, Howard, feel free. Yeah, we got things cooking. We got things cooking, right. And we call it action.
We call it action. We got action cooking. Oh my goodness. Okay.
All right, Covington, a UFC fighter, goes off on LeBron James before UFC Tampa just fight over the weekend. Yeah. Oh. Let's see.
Colby Covington? They don't say his first name. Hold on, let's see. Yeah, that's gotta be him.
So start with, it has to be a C, not a D. Yeah, these are all the C. The C stories. We're going alphabetical back.
Got it. Oh, something's tickling my nose. And that's Colby Covington. Covington, okay, he went off on LeBron James for UFC Mad.
Despite LeBron James' star powers, one of basketball's most influential athletes, Covington, a proud Donald Trump supporter, stood down Wednesday during his UFC Tampa pre-fight media scrum while making a scathing accusation. Oh. I want to ask LeBron, what does he mean by "there's no party like a ditty party," Covington said. I truly want to know, and not only that, I'm going to ask LeBron James' I want to know, and not only that, LeBron, how many Diddy Parties have you actually been to?
Uh-oh. I'm really curious to know, and is that reason you left social media? Because of all the backlash you were getting from going to so many Diddy Parties? A lot of Diddy.
He's a country guy, huh? A lot of Diddy. I like how he changed into, like, this country. I do accents.
I do accents for Billy, alright. At press time, James had yet to respond to Covington's comment. "Chaos didn't stop there, however. It's just pathetic," Covington added.
"People think this guy's a role model. He wants to defund the police, He's the most patriotic people in America, serving and protecting our country. Oh, really? Okay.
Yes? I didn't know that. Okay, so this guy's notorious for saying specific things. Covington is?
Yeah, as far as Trump. You think he went a little too far? I don't know why he was on... Did we ever establish if these were recent comments by LeBron, or is this something...
I think that some of this stuff is older. Yeah, at this point... Is he just grabbing headlines in is all he's trying to do? Because that made him a trending topic by talking about LeBron.
Otherwise, he probably would not have. Well, that's what I'm saying. I just think that, okay, look, the Diddy stuff is to be determined, right? Will we figure it all out?
Who knows? I don't think we'll ever hear everything. Yeah. There'll be little stories like last week's where, you know, they're just with Jay-Z and the little girl.
Well, yeah, but Jay-Z already attacked. He already went on full... Oh, did Harry fight back? I mean, I was sure.
I didn't see anything. Yeah, that was a big shocker. Well, yeah. I mean, that was going to happen.
Right. So, you know, look, it's just, it's a little, it comes across as a little lame. Yeah, it's a little late to the party type thing. I think he's just grabbing headlines.
Just wants to be a topic that everybody's talking about. Yeah, but you know what? There's better ways to do it. There's better ways to do it.
Yeah, but this was easy. So, I mean, I'm sure his people put him up to, you know, when you get up there, say something about LeBron. Yeah, about the videos from five years ago, or something, where he enjoyed going to the Diddy party. Like, why don't you just drop a Zelensky thing or something, like, keep up with the, yeah, I mean, for God's sakes.
Can you believe what he did with that Lewinsky girl, huh? Zelensky. Oh, I thought you meant the girl. The girl?
No, the president of Ukraine? No, that's not what I thought, I thought you were talking about Monica Lewinsky. No, I'm talking about Zelensky, there's a big difference. Well, there is a big difference.
There's a big difference, but he could have been talking about the other one. He's not even talking about the other one. It's more likely he's talking about her than him, I think. Okay.
All right. Because, I mean, Diddy, and, you know, the baby oil, and also we got a dress with a stain on it, and, you know, there you go. Once I found my first clip, that's for sure. ABC agrees to give $15 million to Trump's presidential library to settle a lawsuit.
Okay. I think it's a really nice library. That's a lot of books. A lot of books.
J. Carroll. Okay. Oh, I know who that is.
I don't know the books. How many times do you think he's going to... We've got to count the O's. I think the O's should be a drinking game.
A drinking game? Yeah. Oh, every time he says O, you guys have to take a drink. Yeah, you've got to take a shot, but do it responsibly.
According to his settlement documents, it is nice that he could have taken the money himself. Trump could have. I'm not surprised. Oh, I'm not surprised he didn't either.
I mean, it's not like he would, $15 million, he might not even notice. No, I think that it's a bigger shame thing too. This is all tactics. I would put up a flag, sponsored by ABC News lawsuit.
I'll tell you what, we're going to let you off the hook. And they're like, "Okay, you have to donate $15 million. dollars to our library right you know and that's i don't understand that that's more egg on your face than than trump taking the 15 if trump takes a 15 million right then everybody can say oh look at this and well this is what he's trying to do or whatever the case it's yeah did he need more money yeah it's a bad look instead he just made you donate to the library that's that's a great tactic well the the yeah the presidential library is where they store all the documents associated It's located with Donald Trump's presidency. Oh, got it.
So every president has their own library. Yeah, so you got it done into that. Right. Plus...
Oh, there's more. There's more. According to the settlement documents made public Saturday, ABC will also post a note on its website expressing regret over the claim in a March 10th segment on Stephanopoulos' this week's program and pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump's lawyer. Wow.
So it's 16 now. That's great. Look, we need to get back to regular media. Yeah.
It's so fucked on both sides. It's just ridiculous. And accusations and statements and all of this stuff. Oh, we got four more years of non-regular media coming, buddy.
I don't think so. Oh, I think so. They've lost viewerships. There's a major decline in all news platforms.
Well, yeah, but so they need sensational titles and topics and things to go look at. No, they need to actually report facts instead of outlandishly making accusations. That's not how the news works, Michael. Yeah, like that weird magazine that's always in public's on the thing.
What's that? Mad magazine? National Enquirer? Yeah, that one.
Oh. Yeah, and there you go. And how many... How many people do you think...
I don't go to the National Enquirer for news, right? Right. Like, nobody does. Is it even...
I don't even know if they even still there. It probably exists. If not, there's something like it. Oh, I'm sure.
I'm sure there's something there, yeah. So, yeah, no, I think that you're wrong there. You're going to see actual news coverage starting to happen again. Think so, huh?
Yeah, because look, we live in a capitalist country, and you've got to go where the money goes, right? So if you're not doing something right, what happens? You lose the money. You've got to make changes.
You've got to adapt. Well, let's come up with more sensational news stories. It's not working, and now they're crossing lines and they're getting sued $15 million for making statements that aren't accurate. Well, this is one guy who made the mistake.
Yeah, and he probably, he probably actually misspoke himself, but it, but it doesn't matter because he said it. He's not the only guy. There are other, there are other comments that are made. I mean, the, the lady on The View came out and said something and she was instantly handed a piece of paper that said, I am sorry for making that accusation.
The View's doing everything. I am no longer permitted to say some things that are not true or something like that. So that shows you that. Well, we'll be getting in trouble like three times in a row.
Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's starting to get walked back.
There's no way that they, that media can continue the way that they've been going. Yeah. Yeah. See, boots of grease.
At some point, yeah, their hand has to be slapped. He just finished his Gladiator 2 documentary and he wanted to chime in. Documentary. Last year, Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carol and was ordered to pay her $5 million.
They had to pay more for the library. 3 million. Trump is appealing both verdicts. Neither verdict involved the finding of rape as defined under New York law.
Oh, so there you go. So he was technically found liable, but just not of the rape. Okay, but he hasn't been accused yet, for one. No, no, he's been accused, but he hasn't been charged or whatever.
He hasn't been found guilty. It was a civil, it was a civil case. Right. Yeah, so, and it hasn't been won yet.
But I see Stephanopoulos, well, yeah, well, technically, but he hasn't paid, but it's, it's going in front of, uh, whatever it was. Yeah, well, and guess what? I got new, I guess, I don't know how that works on a civil case, but, you know, I mean, you can... Right, I mean, there's no guilt or innocence, but technically, I can see Stephanopoulos' mistake here, because he, the, the court said, you have to pay her this because you did that.
But that's not the same thing as saying, well, you raped her. Right. So that's where he made the mistake. Yeah.
Yeah, he was never criminally charged. Can you pardon yourself on a civil suit? I mean, he's the president. You can pardon yourself on anything.
I'd like to pardon myself. I mean, you can't pardon yourself. Is that how that works? I think somebody else has to.
Yeah, otherwise, I mean, every president would just be blowing, you know, snorting coke off the desk and stuff. That's what happened in the last one. A lot of the presidents would be blowing, huh? They'd be snorting blow.
Interesting. " It's pretty easy to pardon yourself going into the tail end of things. If you look at your VP, if whoever's being elected, hey, just, you know, I could use it. Well, yeah, you get the next guy.
Right, exactly. Hey, tell you what, I need you to do something for me. Yeah. Mistakes were made, and I need all of this wiped out.
I need to be forgiven from 2010 on. Well, didn't Nixon get pardoned by Ford? I don't know. Probably.
I think he did. Ford came in after Nixon, and he went, ah, he's okay. It's fine. It's fine.
It's some real estate problem. It's okay. Chiefs Patrick Mahomes suffered an ankle injury versus the Browns. Oh.
There it is. Minutes after being removed from Sunday's game because of an injury in a right ankle, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he was unclear whether he would be available to play next Saturday against a Houston, Texas. It's like he feels like he needs to be included, and if he doesn't make that statement... Oh, I thought you were talking about Mahomes.
He can't get a word in. Right. So he's gotta do the... Oh.
I just feel it adds suspense. It adds suspense. It adds suspense. Now we're a murder mystery, Joe.
Dun, dun, dun. Tommy Schmidt. Oh. Tommy Schmidt's calling.
Two times. That's what happens when you link your phone beforehand. Thanks. It's hard to say right now, Mahomes, that after the Chiefs' 21-7 victory against the Cleveland Browns, you still have the adrenaline rolling.
Usually it's kind of the day after when you kind of get a good sense of it. But I feel like I could have finished the game in different circumstances, but I thought the smart decision was to put Carson Wentz in. Well, they were crushing Cleveland. Yeah, it was 21-7, so I mean, no.
Oh, that's not crushing, but I mean. Well, you're winning. You're up two teddies. Right.
Games are getting towards the end, you're like, you know, man. The guys had ankle issues all season. Oh, hasn't? All season.
Yeah. So he's got bad ankles. You know, I think that they're just, they just shoot him up and they stand up and get him back out there. He's out there.
All right. If you look at, I think, the Super Bowl, was it last year they won, right? Yes. He was jacked up.
If you watch him speaking at the end of it, I'm like, what is going on here? Well, the adrenaline's flowing. You just want to give a game. No, his adrenaline's not flowing.
I'm like, is he okay? Something's wrong. Allegedly. Allegedly.
Allegedly. Allegedly there's something wrong. Reed also said Mahomes could have stayed in the game, adding there was no need for that. He wanted to fight about it, but we've got a good support there behind him with Carson, and it was good to get him a few reps in there, too, and let our guys hear the snap count in case he has to go, Reid said.
Carson Wentz is a good number two. Is he? I mean, apparently he held the lead, I guess. He used to be in Philly, and then he went, where else did he go?
He went to Indianapolis. Yeah, he's been traveling lately. Yeah. He's a good number two.
They don't say when he hurt his ankle. Unlike Sam Howell yesterday, who really screwed the pooch. Sam Howell? Yeah.
Is this your next story? No. Oh. Sorry.
I don't have any stories here. I'm just holding this up. Oh, I thought you had, I thought you pulled a couple upstairs. I didn't, yeah, but I don't, it's on my phone.
You sent me to read it from my phone. Well then grab it. So just read it from your phone. Pick up your phone.
It was just the McDonald's one, which I find funny. Well, let's talk about that. You can't, you can do it. You want to talk about McDonald's?
Yeah. Can't you do it? You can do it from memory. Oh, he's, he's happy.
Oh, I'm going to read it to you. He's right. Okay, you read it. " You better stop.
People love that last week. That's trending. That phrase is trending. McDonald's restaurants suffered global tech outage.
The fast food chain said the issue was being resolved and is not a cyber security incident after customers reported issues at stores in Japan, Australia, and the UK. Oh, so just Asian big Wi-Fi. Yeah, McDonald's stores across parts of the world were either closed or had suspended online orders after, after Friday, what the company said was a tech, technology outage. Oh, got to make problem, you, you just did a, you just did a McBoots, is what you just did buddy.
Wow, how about that, oh drink, the unspecified issue affected the fast food chain stores in Japan and Australia while social media users also reported, no, disruption in China, no, you're reading too fast. No, it doesn't matter. They're hearing it. But they can't understand what you're saying.
Yes, they can. I can't. I'm sitting right next to you. I'm done reading this.
You get so upset. Dude, because it makes sense. I don't have to read slow. If I wanted to read slow, it'd be a two-hour fucking podcast.
No, just read so they can understand what you're saying. They can understand it. I couldn't. I'm right here.
I know the story. I can't say that. You have mental health issues. No, I do not.
Yes, you do. Oh, no. I do not. Yes, you do.
Oh, is it a drink? Okay, so what fast food restaurant was I speaking of? Well, you started that in the title. Let me ask you, what fast food restaurant was I speaking of?
I think it was Burger King. I couldn't understand. Yeah, okay. And where was it happening?
It's Australia and something else. Okay. There was three places. And what was it?
What was what? What was going on with the McDonald's? There was a problem with the Wi-Fi. Okay.
I know from upstairs because you read it slower upstairs. I didn't say anything about Wi-Fi. Yes, you did. Because I said make Wi-Fi.
That was the joke I made upstairs. Yeah. And it wasn't the Wi-Fi. It was something about the ordering process.
Yeah. So the ordering system was down. Yeah. Yellowstone makes an emotional tribute in the finale.
Oh. Did you watch the final season? No. I haven't watched it yet either.
Yellowstone shares a tribute to one of the series cast in the last episode. In the finale of Yellowstone Season 5, the neo-Western drama paid an emotional tribute to one of the series cast members who died recently. He was Bob Avila, not the guy who does it. The builder?
Yeah, no, not Bob Avila, Bob Avila. Oh. Different guy. In the last episode, a message appeared at the start and said, "This episode is dedicated to Bob Avila.
" I wish you would just pay attention to other podcasts and do actual research as to seeing how things are done. So are you trying to say, PCB, they talk fast? Yes, PCB, they talk fast. I don't think they talk fast.
They do. How would you know? Do you listen? I've listened to one show and he didn't talk fast.
Not that fast. Was he reading an article? I have no idea what he was doing. I couldn't understand what he was talking about.
So you're listening? Oh, so even when he was speaking slow, you couldn't understand what he was talking about? He wasn't speaking slow, but he wasn't speaking as fast as you were speaking. And here you are still not knowing what's going on.
We have our own show. I'm not trying to do somebody else's show. No, but you learn from other people. Joe Rogan doesn't talk fast.
Joe Rogan gets really, really high and interviews someone for three hours. He still doesn't talk fast. We're not a three-hour podcast where we're really, really high. Well, PCB was more than an hour.
PCB was more than an hour. There are some that are an hour. Well, the shortest one I could find was an hour and a half. That was the one I tried to watch.
And that's what you went for? Well, sure. Instead of saying, hey, I want to learn, let me just get the quickest one in and out of the way. That's the way it works.
That was the logic. Right. Okay, got it. Regarding his connection with the hit show, the late actor starred as a guest appearance in Season 3, Episode 8, titled, "I Killed a Man," in the episode, he went with Kevin Costner's John Dutton to shop for horses and share his expert opinions on the animals.
So I thought he was the old guy that died when they were coming back to the big party, but it's not, it's not like this guy was in the Cowboy Hall of Fame, but nobody's saying how he died recently. I tried to find it, and they're not announcing the cause, but it was in the last months, though. It's probably old. He wasn't that old.
How old was he? He was 72. That's old enough. I guess.
If he was a cowboy, dude, what do you think he did? He was eating fucking veggies all day and just being healthy? I don't know. Taking saunas?
I don't know. He's a cowboy. Cowboy guys don't last time. Well, I don't think he's, well, 72, that's a long time.
So is it a long time or is it a short time? 72 is a good age, but I don't think he's, you know, living on the range the last 20 years. And I bet you he was. No, he was doing movies.
He was just on Yellowstone. You think they plucked him out of a cattle drive? Yeah. They plucked him out of a cattle drive for the movie.
Is that what I watched for the TV show? That's what they did. Oh, okay. Yeah.
Not here for a long time. We're here for a good time. He was twice earned the title of World's Greatest Horseman and was in the National Reigning Horse Association Hall of Fame. Nobody judges Baba Leiva's speed reading for his articles.
Well, because he's dead. Right, he's dead. He still reads faster than U-Bootz. Even though he's dead.
All right, it's all the trending topics. That's it. See, now you're shutting down on me. I'm not shutting down.
That was the last trending topic. Gimme Boots is a fun fact. Did we fix that or no? Does it still say Phil?
I just said he'll have a new theme song next week. Oh. I don't listen to you even at the pace that you talk. Apparently not.
Yeah. Let's go. Welcome to Cigar Hustlers Podcast Feature, Phil's Fun Facts. Oh, you're gonna start it now?
Hello, people! We're 22 minutes in. Well, then you'll know. I'm not sure if I like this trending topic.
It's on the Dolphins! Yeah, it's not a good one though. Better than the transgender you've had the last couple of weeks. All right, here we go.
The Dolphins' playoff hopes took a big hit Sunday, but that wasn't Miami's biggest concern coming out of its Week 15 loss in Houston. The focus was on Grant DuBoss, who left the NRG Stadium turf on a stretcher in the third quarter. DuBoss was attempting to reel in a pass from Tua Tagovaila... Yeah, Tua.
How do you not even know his name? I figured he would. There's no way I could have said that. Yeah, how do you not know your quarterback's last name?
How could you not say that? You're a big Dolphins guy. Teco Viagra. Teco Viagra?
Teco Viagra? Oh my God. Teco Viagra. This is terrible.
What are you doing over there? Today is a little rough for me. He took too much blood pressure medication. Oh, that's right.
He took too much blood pressure medication. I mean, I'm trying to say it wrong, and I'm saying it right. When he took a massive hit from Texan Safety, Kalen Bullock, across the middle, the game was paused for roughly 12 minutes, The Dolphins put out a statement shortly after the incident and revealed DeBoss was in stable condition when he arrived at a nearby hospital. After the game, Miami head coach Mike McDaniel revealed there was a positive feedback from the imaging on DeBoss' head and neck, but the 23-year-old stayed in Houston overnight to receive further examinations per ESPN.
Miami head coach Mike McDaniel revealed there was a positive feedback from the imaging on DeBoss' head and neck, but the 23-year-old stayed in Houston overnight to receive further examinations per ESPN. Sunday marked DeBoss' third game of the Dolphins, who claimed the 2023 seventh round pick off waivers in late August after he was released by Green Bay Packers. The Charlotte product hadn't played since week two when he sustained a shoulder injury that put him on injured reserve. Oh my god, so this guy, he hasn't seen the field a lot, and every time he sees a field, he gets hurt.
Yeah, he's done. Is he an older player? No, 2023 draft pick. Has he been hurt several times where like something is triggered easily or something?
I don't think so, it just sounds like he's just injury prone. That was a head and neck thing, they said, so what have the other injuries been? The shoulder injury. Shoulder.
Do you not listen when he speaks? You read the article, did you not? No, I didn't read the article. I just winged it.
I sent it to him. It was about the Miami Dolphins. Oh, this is the Dolphins. Right.
Got it. Okay, cool. It's for him to cover, not me. All right.
Okay. That's it? That's all you got? Yeah, that's all it was.
I figured you guys would have more of a back and forth. He's a Dolphins fan. Apparently he doesn't even know the quarterback. Well, there's not really any update.
They didn't really give anything. It's obviously a serious injury if they're cutting off his jersey. helmet on the field, and that sucks. That's unfortunate.
I hope the guy's okay. I'm going to take this moment to say Mike McDaniels is a terrible coach. I mean, he's atrocious. Why is he a terrible coach?
Well, for one, he vapes. I can't stand that. Because he vapes? I don't understand.
Oh, you're judging him on his... Yeah, solely on the vaping. I already have questions. Does he smoke cigarettes or something when not on the field?
Leader of men, not a vaper. That's all I'm saying. I'm sure the amount of stress they have, they all smoke cigarettes. Right, so I mean, obviously you can't smoke a cigarette on the sidelines.
Be a man and smoke cigars, man. What are we doing? Well, he couldn't do that on the sidelines either, could he? I don't care.
Then do the little zen pouches or something. Oh, okay, yeah, you should do that. At least then you wouldn't notice. You can just slide that in.
The whole vape thing, you're sucking on a battery, bro. What are we doing? Because guys dip on the sides all the time anyway. I think maybe not anymore.
Isn't like it's a tobacco-free yada yada or something? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. Yeah, like sports, the whole thing.
Football's a tobacco-free sport? They get all uppity about it, and then meanwhile when they win, when somebody wins the Super Bowl, we're celebrating with cigars. Right, they're smoking cigars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. I just want it to make sense. And I got on that tangent just because Mike McDaniels is terrible. Is it a jewel?
Is it like the little skinny one? I think it's something like that, yeah. Oh, nice. He got caught busting it out in the middle.
I'm like, what are we doing? What are we doing? Maybe it wasn't just a regular vape. Yeah, maybe it was.
Listen, I could see Dan Campbell, I could see Dan Campbell, cigar in his mouth, playbook in the other hand, you know, a big jug, a gallon of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, just, you know, plowing away, being, and that's my guy. That's the guy I want, right? If that doesn't scream America. Yeah, if that doesn't, if that doesn't scream masculinity, I am, you know, I'm going.
Shouldn't he have a bourbon or something instead of the coffee? No, don't be. Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Oh, that's ridiculous.
He can't be messed up on the field. That's stupid. If he has a high tolerance, he'll be okay. You can't be drinking when you're coaching.
That's dumb. You know? That's just ridiculous. Yeah.
How is a cigar ridiculous? It's not. I smoke cigars all the time. Winston Churchill would purposely put a pin, like a wire, in his cigar because he believed that the ash, the length of the ash, would determine a level of strength.
And when he was in meetings with guys, he would make sure that the ash stayed extra long during negotiations. Oh. Yeah. Oh, right.
There you go. I didn't know that. Yeah. Well, I mean, that seemed like a...
The guy was epic. I mean, and I'm sure that he would be in... He's turning over in his grave currently saying that... Because the coach is vaping on the side.
No, because Great Britain's currently working on a... Oh, generational tobacco ban. Thank you. Right, yes.
Yeah. It's insane. What are we doing? Mike McDaniel's got to go, and so does Great Britain's Law.
Other than that, the world's fine. That's how I segmented all of that. That's where that works. Gotcha.
It's just absurd. Give me a break. All right, can you hit the news button over there, boss? Oh, sure.
We're never going to find out what happened about the McDonald's, guys, because you are a dick. Because I'm a dick. Oh, no, because you read too fast. No.
Yes. I don't read too fast. Yes, you read too fast. No, I don't.
Yes, you do. No, I don't. When you watch the nightly news on TV, do they read through the story really fast? I don't watch the nightly news because the media is skewed.
Boom. All right. Huh. Hit the news button.
From the four corners of the world. You had to find it. All the news you could possibly need. I had too many bills.
Cigar Hustler Podcast Report with Mike Two. Espinosa Cigars announces a sales team change in the state of Florida. Oh. Very exciting.
We're going to limit his O's. He can, two O's per podcast, that's it. Only two? Yeah, because you're already at eight.
I need you to cut down. Cut down on the O's. You don't like the O's? No, I don't.
Take a third blood pressure pill. Are you okay, baby? I am fine. I'm actually, you know what?
I actually feel pretty good today. I'm not. Maybe it's a red bull. I'm going to tell you right now.
If he'd have said the statement that he said to me about cutting, that I'm speaking too fast last week, I probably would have killed him. So, no, I think that I'm in. You're in a better state. Yeah, I'm in a better state right now.
I'm very zen. I'm just over here tolerating nincompoopery from the both of you. All right, when you're done, I'll go on with the story. No, I'm not done, I'm going to keep going.
I said when you're done. You've got the wings from the Red Bull. You go ahead, you take a break, buddy, because this is absurd. You're correcting me, and he continues us to say, oh.
You correct us all the time on the show. He's got two letters in his vocabulary, that's it, O and H. That's it. That's it!
O and H? Yeah. Maybe he's just saying the O part of the word. Oh.
Oh. If we don't have merch that says "O" after this, I don't know what to tell you. We're missing out on an opportunity. Yeah, what are we doing?
Oh, wow. You want me to do a new one? Bam! It's too many letters for you, buddy.
It's too many letters. Just bah! Yeah, it's gonna bah! Bah!
All right, go ahead. Let's talk about the Espinosa, because I botched this last week. Right, this was last week's story. They have held the announcement for us so that we can have the release today.
Which is fantastic. I'm very grateful for the people at Espinosa. Espinosa Cigars has officially parted ways with cigar broker Alfredo Cruz as the company transitions to managing its Florida operations in-house. Effective January 2nd, 2025, Richie the Riot Otero will step into the role of regional sales representative for the state of Florida.
Known for his dynamic personality and extensive industry experience, Otero is posed to strengthen Espinosa's presence in Florida, a critical market for premium cigars. Espinosa Cigars thanks Alfredo Cruz for his contribution and looks forward to his next chapter, their next chapter, sorry, under Otero's leadership. Well, listen, I love Alfredo as a person. Right.
The bar is set pretty low for Richie to come into Florida, okay? Okay. He's going to eclipse it. I've noticed social media-wise, he's already been sort of transitioning into the role of regional manager for the state of Florida.
Well, he's done it in the past. He's done things with Caldwell prior to. Sure. He was with someone else before that, too.
I can't remember who it was. Yeah, there's one more. And he's a sweetheart of a guy. He's a great guy.
I love Richie. It's a great fit for him. It is. Yes, it is.
Do you know exactly what he did at Espinosa before this? Because he was already there. They moved him from whatever position he was in to this. He was the guy.
Yeah, he was the guy. I think that, yeah. Whatever they needed done, he was the guy. I think in store, like in office stuff, he fixed a lot of those whatevers, you know?
As you know, Michael, there's a lot of things, right? Oh, there's a lot of things. Like, you're the guy. Yeah, right.
Right? It's true. Sure. I think that you're overly abused in too many scenarios, especially when it comes to my brother.
Yes. Yes. That's it? That's all you got to say?
About your brother? About just things in general. I mean, the podcast was done. We had the private lounge event.
Right. You pretty much single-handedly moved the chairs in here because you didn't want anybody else to do anything. Well, it's not that I don't want to do anything, but I've seen how they move stuff into the storage room. Right.
He likes it his way. Well, no. When they put stuff in the storage room, basically they just open the door and start cramming stuff in. Yeah.
I didn't want anything broken in here, so I wanted to move the furniture into here. Right. So that nothing got broken. It's the Keanu and Ryan kind of way.
Right, but I thought they would, you know, move it back out would be fine because, you know, it was the in, not the out I was concerned about. Right. Sure. So, like, when I was gonna go move the chairs at the end of the event, my brother was like, "No, no, no.
" So, then here you are, you get stuck with the whole job of moving chairs by yourself. Well, everything from in here at that point was over there. Right. So, I mean, there was nothing to break to move it out.
Yeah, but he was, like, he's so comfortable making sure, just... Well, you heard about the bread thing too? The bread thing, no? The bread thing?
He had arranged, because I was out of town, he had arranged for me to have Connor available so he could do the bread at the house, which was the plan. Yeah. Well, he never called, Connor never did the bread at the house. Okay.
So, Connor, you know, Connor hurried home from work so he was there because the dogs had to be put away, and so Greg would have access to the house. " We're not doing the bread. So I texted Greg and he said, I don't know, he said something. I don't remember.
But I told Connor, okay, go ahead and eat. Take a shower, whatever you need to do. I'm sorry you stayed there for the last three hours waiting on this to happen. So then Greg tried to call me and I refused his phone call.
I refused his phone call. You know, you have to push back on him. Yeah. I'm going to tell you, for years, for years, I would let him just mow me over.
Oh, you just follow him. I'm like, eventually I got to a point where I was like, no, I'm not. Right. You're going to do it.
So I'm not fixing your problem, right? So he's buying Conor a gift as an apology. " Right. To bake.
Yeah. Well, it was just to toast. It wasn't even to bake. Yeah, he toasted on the grill.
Well, see, whatever, however it worked. It would have been nice to have that communicated to you. Well, I mean, I gave him Conor's phone number. He could have, you know, "Hey, we're not going to do that.
" Right, super busy. Super busy. Super busy. He actually was busy.
He was. I'm sure he was. But I mean, he could have taken a second. Of course.
Yeah. There's no excuse for that. Right. I agree.
Hey, Connor, I don't have much time, but I don't need the toast done. Thanks. Do you want me to call Jack about the experience? Oh, yeah, yes.
So there is a new cigar organization in the Middle East. Jack was invited to the meeting. Excellent. The PCA had a meeting with his new organization.
Does Jack know we're calling? I mentioned to him when he told me about it, but that was a week ago. Yes, sir. Jack, you're on the podcast.
How are you, sir? Good. We just broke the news of the new acquisition for Espinosa Cigars with Richie Riott now taking over the state of Florida. Yeah, that's big breaking news.
Big news, big news, big news, big news, big news, big news. Thank you for giving us that intel. We're very excited about that. I think that Richie is going to be a fine upgrade for the state of Florida.
Well, you know, anything would have been an upgrade. Alfred, moving on to a greener pastures. He's retiring? I don't know.
Which line did Groover give up so that he would never do it? I was with Groover on Saturday, and I couldn't figure out which one of the 42 lines he was repping that day. Where did you see him at? At a multi-bender here down here at Sauruana, Smoke This.
Nice, very nice. Yeah, we had a really nice time. Very cool. So, go ahead.
So yes, Richie will remain key accounts, he will still handle the binnies of the world, the ABCs of the world, the smoker friendlies of the world, and he will assume the Florida rep role. So, we have high hopes for Richie. See, we weren't fully aware of what he did in the office other than just solve the general... Hector and I weren't aware of it either.
He kind of just wanders around. He's always very busy. He's usually delegated at things. " He always looks very busy.
Hector says this is a Costanza thing. If you look frustrated, nobody bothers you. It moves with a purpose. Richie's very good at that.
Yes. Yeah. It's an excellent tactic. And then Palmer wanted to briefly tap in on another thing that you were talking about.
You were invited to a PCA meeting with a group from the Middle East? Yes. Yes. They're looking to do a trade show in Dubai.
Apparently there has been a trade show called World Tobac, but it mostly deals with vape and shisha, whatever the hell that's called. And all that stuff, and they're adding a, similar to what the TPE does, that they added the premium cigar footprint, but this is going to be in a completely different convention center, running at the same time as World Tobac, so they have, I think they've hired the PCA as consultants in order to get everybody on board, and they had a meeting for all of us, and they had a little nosh, it was a nice little meeting to tell us what it was for. That's what it's all about. Actually, it's very similar to the TPE in the sense that, you know, it's not expensive to be there.
What is expensive is the travel, unlike TPE, and the cigars have a hundred percent tax on importation. Oh, wow. So, yeah, so that hits it kind of hard, but I think a lot of my, I spoke to some of the guys that were there, It's a multi-vendor and, and they're still kind of have some questions. So I think we're all going to get together and, and, and put together questions and see if it's worth it.
It'll be in a, it'll be in, when was it, Hector? When is it scheduled for? - Beginning of the year? - November?
- Oh, November? - November. - November next year. - November next year.
- You know, it kind of, kind of makes it, you know, kind of, it's right after Dortmund, right after TP, uh, right after the, uh, the T, TAA for us. And then the following week, which would be either the week before or the week of Lozonapalooza, we would have to move Lozonapalooza if we're going to be in Dubai. So we're kind of looking at it. Or we could have Lozonapalooza in Dubai.
Look, hear me out on this. Drive over? Yeah, we will drive over. A couple of things.
A couple of things. Number one, we can reach out to some sheik or something to cover airfare. They would send over a plane, right? big deal right yeah sponsor us yeah and number one number two if you guys need us to represent we have no problem going in there representing for you no problem sure i'll go in i'll take richie well palmer will say this is we love those pajama things yeah we'll say palmer is jack you know and then i can go around you can be hector i was gonna say i'm gonna i'll go as eric oh there you go honestly i'm still a little concerned about palmer's performance on catastrophic Oh no, Sean's fired, Mike.
Yeah, no kidding. All right, well, we gotta go. Sir, that's Patreon content. Can we get Hector's number?
We're gonna start calling Hector. Hector's sitting right in front of me, guys. Hector's just as bad. Same phone.
We're gonna call Richie. You think you're gonna get a little bit of... Leeway? Yeah.
Leeway from Hector? Hector will fucking... We'll call Tyler. Yeah, that's the guy.
Tyler will tell you how great you are. Right, all right. All right, we gotta go. Get Tyler in the phone quickly.
You're just wonderful. You know what it is? He did, even though you guys made no comment about your boy Tyler Jones, but he did laugh at my joke on the thread. He gets a pass.
Yeah, he gets a pass. I think it's like one negative thing. Of course. One negative thing requires three positive things.
At this point, Tyler can say 700 negative things about us. He's banked his negativity? Yes. He'd be at about even.
I think they hung up on me. No, we're still here. All right, guys, if I'm still there, I'll let you go. Did you do something over there?
You're still here. It was beautiful. Hello? We can still hear you.
Did you mute him with your phone or something? He's gone. Dang, Facebook calling. Wow.
Facebook? That's weird that all of a sudden, and the call got clearer when he couldn't hear us. Because he was cutting it out. " Maybe that was him.
That was his way to get off the phone. Yeah, we did not hang up. We heard everything you said. All right, go on to the next show.
All right, to the next show. All right, this has been episode 367. No, go on, come on. Topic.
Uh, first, Gellis, speak very slow though, please. First, Gellis, oh, we'll see, I enunciate and I speak clearly when I read the stories. Yeah, that way you can say all the words wrong. Would you like me to do it at your speed?
I'd love to see you try. Hold on, this one's short, okay. The first cigar to Gallus Family PC series is heading into stores as a City of 52 Toro that uses an Ecuadorian, Connecticut tea wrapper and ASP over a Nicaraguan binder and village from the Dominican Republic of Nicaragua. As with other cigars from Gallus Family Cigars, a new brand from Kyle Gallus, founder of Warped Cigars, is made by Tablicalera Isla in the Dominican Republic.
Notably, the company says the cigars were aged for one year after rolling. Okay, so Warped Cigars is now making a new cigar, a new cigar brand. No, Warp's isn't making, Warp's not making it, the owner of Warp. Yeah, Kyle Gellis has made a new brand called Gellis Cigars, right?
And it's Ecuadorian, Connecticut. Gellis Family Cigars. And it's about 40 bucks, I think is what you said. Gellis Family Cigars.
Yeah. Uh, no, actually, I stopped before I said the price. No, you said 40. No, I didn't, because that was the next line.
I said age for one year after Rollings, where I stopped. So it is 40. " Well, you read it upstairs. Oh, I did?
Yes. Okay. So what do you know about the Gallas Family Cigars, Michael? You know, Warped Cigars have been in the industry for a while.
It's interesting to hear, like, branch out and creating of a new brand, but the distributorship is going to be the same under Warped Cigars. So I don't know what the purpose is of it, unless he's trying to build this higher-end brand or something. Well, it says he was the founder. Maybe he doesn't own Warped anymore, and he's looking to make another brand of cigars?
That's not under the... That would make sense. Get your investors and then go away and go make something. You don't have a non-compete clause, so...
Right. Well, it's expired. I can do what I want now. Interesting.
So now I'm making Gellis. Gellis? I mean, that's an interesting story to cover. I'm curious to hear Kyle's side of that.
Because, you know, look, one thing that you could always do how to mess up a business is get the wrong partners. Sure. So, and this is all speculative, I have no idea, I don't know Kyle that well, but I would guess if that's the reason why he's branching out, it's a possibility that, hey, these other guys came in and messed up the whole thing. Right, now they're running warped and I don't get to do anything.
Yeah, now I just step aside and do my own thing, trying to do something else. He's made one cigar and it comes in a box with an ashtray. There you go. Nice.
Apparently he likes watches. I actually have that article right here, too, because I have your... You have a copy of it there, yes. What type of watches?
But you read it wonderfully. It's too fast. And I stumbled on some words because it's so fast. So then slow down.
Another example... Oh, he uses the watch world as inspiration for cigars. An origin piece, unique, refers to a one-of-one watch, typically reserved for a brand's most prized customer or charity auction, like Only Watch. like only watch in this case there are 7 500 cigars that will be sold it won't be a one-on-one cigar but it will be a one-and-done blend listening at drop cigar club says that the interior blend will only be used once hence the name there you go the gallows family cigars described as a separate entity from warp the cigars are just are distributed by warped right so he is using his distribution system he already has in place to distribute these cigars that he's He made this one-off cigar that has something to do with his watches.
I haven't seen anything from him. Well, this is a first that we're hearing of his name and this other brand. I mean, I don't remember hearing anything before. It's curious to hear what has kind of transpired in the past year or two as far as his brand and to why he's going this direction.
So, Kyle, if you want to talk about it, give us a call, Kyle. Or just private message me if you don't want to make it public. I'm kind of curious. Oh, just for you to know, we won't say anything.
If he doesn't want me to say it. Winky, winky, winky. No, no, no, winky, winky. We won't say anything, winky, winky.
All right, go ahead. Altanist USA announces a price increase coming for 2025. This is interesting. Why, why is it interesting?
Because you've had so many tremendous price hikes over the past two years, if not three, three years. Right. Like COVID and then boom, boom, boom, boom, like everything went up through the roof. And, you know, I'm curious to see what the percentage is, because I haven't read this article, and how many other companies are going to kind of follow suit with this, and is it even justifiable?
Um, did they do one last year? Yeah, they all, I don't remember. Let's see, go, go ahead. Well, but like, we don't every year, but we did last year.
So, odds are, in 2025, at this time, we don't have plans to do another one. Well, realistically, honestly, I have to sit back with Skip and kind of talk about that, like with projections coming up, are we, you know, are we feeling that there's gonna be another price hike? I don't want there to be, but, you know, looking back, if I had given myself cushion moving forward year after year after year of a 3 or 4% increase, I wouldn't have had to whack the consumer on the head at 20 or 30% increase, right? It would have just been, okay...
So some companies could just be doing just a little precautionary increase so they don't have a big one later. Yeah, but I mean, this company? Well, yeah, this is a big company. It could be testing the waters.
Oh, could be? Yeah, could be testing the waters. Alternus USA has informed its retailers that it will implement a price increase beginning January 2nd, 2025 in a message to retailers. Did we get the message?
I did not get a message. The companies, and he was just here. He was just here. Ryan was just here.
In a message to retailers, the company said that while it strives to absorb increasing costs, they need to make a change was due to rising costs associated with premium tobacco production, packaging, and supply chain. The company did not provide any specific details of how much increase would be, which lines might be affected more significantly than others, or if any lines would be subject to an increase. So they're... What?
It's very confusing. Why not increase across the board? Right, yeah, well that was the question. But no, but they're saying, okay, we're gonna have an increase.
We don't know how much, we don't know which lines, and we don't know why we're doing it. Yeah, so, okay, here's what I can tell you. " Oh, so he's fishing for them, he's looking for them. Yeah, yeah, as good media does, right?
You go out and you try and find the stories. " He's trying to get ahead of things. Do you have... " Well, the beginning of the increases didn't originally happen at the beginning of the year.
They happened a month before the trade show. But now the trade show is Q1 instead of Q3. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. Right? So, because of that... So, they should come sooner.
Yeah, they're going to, you know, you're going to see January, February, you'll start to hear about price increases. So Charlie's just trying to get ahead of it, which is smart. Now, unfortunately, the way that this falls, I don't think a lot of these brands, inclusive to big or small, has really thought that much about that yet. " Because at this point, a lot of retailers will complain and say, "Hey, it's cold out.
No one's smoking. There's always something. Oh, sure. You know what I mean?
I have a floor tax that I have to cover. Right. And I don't want to have inventory. Right.
That's another one. Yeah. Those are the things that you hear. Right.
So, you know, it's a bigger uphill battle for brand owners and manufacturers at end of year. I think that's why you see a lot of the Fuente push stuff with like the Anejo and all this other stuff. Right. The pinks that just showed up.
Yeah, it's a really, it's a great way to solidify your year, because all of, you know, any retailer will look at a lot of that product and be like, okay, perfect, because I'm not holding on to this. Right. Yeah, I'll flip this pretty easy. This will be in and out, right?
And some of it's at increased margin. Just like catastrophic failure that you could buy. I like the reorders that we're getting, that's fantastic, on the wholesale side. Yes, yes, the reorders.
Surprised. So how does Charlie have, he has, that means a price list of approximately 440 skews that spans wide range, blah, blah, blah, and therefore a range increase, but here's a sampling. It's too fast. So, well, I was just trying to rush through that.
Sampling of changes to the MSRP. So this is an actual information. This is what he thinks might happen. Is that what this is?
Yeah. Ah. Yeah. So, you know, obviously, I think that he got this intel from somebody, And they couldn't confirm it.
Oh, okay. I understand. Right? That's how I read this.
Like, this is what we're specking on. This is what he's speculating will happen. But I can't tell you for certain that this is what it's going to be. 99.
Yeah, not huge things. 66. 84. Oh, yeah, that's a big one.
That's huge. That is actually the biggest one. That's weird. Well, it's a question of who's, did they move the factory over?
Is that something that AJ's doing now, or somebody else is doing, or whatever the case may be, you know? Sure, right. I'll tell you right now, the new Monte Cristo, I don't know if it just came out, or if it's about to come out, it's pretty good. It was good.
Yeah. I was surprised. " Yeah. I love that.
You know what's awesome is, when you light a cigar up... Sure. and it's brand new, and it impresses you off the jump. " Right, yeah, this isn't a Monte Cristo White, this is better.
Because after I just ridiculed him. Right, nothing that I like. Oh, God. Oh, what else do you have I can smoke that I might like?
Right, that's usually my line, right? Give me something terrible, I mean, you know, pretty much anything from your line, right? Right. " All right, Left-Handed Cigar Company is releasing the High Maka Maka this week.
High Maka Maka. Maka Maka. Left-Handed Cigar Company, a brand created by Ryan Rodriguez of Ohana Cigars, is releasing a new limited edition this week called High Maka Maka. You're right over there, Boots.
Oh, Maka Maka. Boots is kind of laid back right now, his head's kind of sideways. The cigar is a 6x52 Toro, if he needs CPR, it's all up to you. He's gonna die.
Yeah, don't do that. The cigar is a 6x52 Toro that uses a Connecticut, we'll go get Keanu to give him up. Keanu, come here. Like, oh, no.
Keanu, uh, Boots is dead, but he said for his dying words he wanted you to make out with him. That's right. He used a lot of tongue in that mouth of mouth. He'd be like, okay.
Cigar is a 6x52 Toro that uses a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper and a dual binder of Ecuador and Habano in tobaccos from Nicaragua's Jalapa region and a Nicaraguan filler in tobacco from Omotepe, Jalapa, and Condega regions. The cigar is finished off by a fan cap, a differentiator from the original pigtail-style cap that Rodriguez usually uses. You ever had any Hawaiian cigars? I don't like that you can see my notes.
We carried a cigar here for a brief time that had Hawaiian tobacco in it. Yeah, I think it did okay. Well, I bought the last box and a half because Greg just couldn't get rid of it and I liked it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they had good tobacco there.
I couldn't imagine that they wouldn't. Right, now this is a company from Hawaii, but it's not Hawaiian Tobacco. Right. Right.
It seems like a lot of Nicaraguan, Nicar, what, what was that? Yeah, a lot of Nicaraguan Tobacco. Right, a lot of Nicaraguan Tobacco. Nicaraguan Tobacco.
The High Maka Maka comes with a new band design as well as Rodriguez changed the logo to feature a pair of skeleton hands making the letters L and H, the original logo used when the brand launched in July 2018, Depicted a cigar being held in a person's left hand, but Rodriguez said that he received feedback on that initial logo that suggested he changed my benefit to brand, so he came up with the new design. Hi, Maka Maka has made a Tabla Calera Pichardo. Got it. The first time that Rodriguez has worked with this factory.
Well, now it's his again. Yeah. He took it back. We can talk about that on Patreon.
According to Rodriguez, the name means "pretentious" in Hawaiian, a name he chose because of the cigar's price. 99 is one of the most expensive cigars created for either left-hand or Ohana cigars. I chose the best wrapper, binder, and fillers I could, Rodriguez told Half Wheel. Adding that the binders and fillers were aged between two and four years.
It's not really a long time, is it? I mean. Normally, when somebody says how long, they're like, I was aged for 15 years, 27 years. Two.
I was just sitting around a little bit. Like, a lot of good tobacco is aged 12 to 18 months, year and a half, and it's really good. Right. Like, I don't, I just never understood that, well, this is six year aged, like, okay.
I mean, they found it. And then you hear shit that's 20 year age, and like, okay, you're just so full of shit. You know, at this point, 20 years, so at 2004, somebody put this in a pillow and it's been rotated And this entire time? Yeah, it probably not rotated.
It would decay if you don't rotate it. Oh, really? Yeah. " If that was the case, it would be destroyed.
Oh, so they still been- It turns into like compost. Oh. Yeah, you have to monitor the temperature of the tobacco and then rotate it in and out. So how many different guys work at a factory over the span of 20 years?
Yeah, exactly. And I'm going to tell you right now. And they keep accurate records. The math is not math.
Right. This doesn't make sense. Come here. I'm going to show you something before I leave.
Come here. This pillow on here, I've been flipping it for eight years. Make sure that you keep going with this. I need you to keep this up.
Need to keep this up. Now I'm leaving, but I need you to keep it up. And by chance you should leave. Make sure you pass it on to the next fellow.
I'm going to tell you right now, when that guy, when the first guy left, he didn't leave giving information. He left. Nah, he left. Fuck this place, I'm out of here.
Right, exactly. I want nothing to do with you guys. Right. Yeah.
You know what? You're fired, Pedro. Okay, but hold on. I need to talk to the next man to show my magic pallone I have going here.
What happened is Pedro didn't show up one day. He's like, I'm done. He's at home. You know, I'm not going back, I don't think.
Yeah, I'm thinking it's over. I really hope someone finds my magic tobacco. My magic tobacco. With the card on it.
We need to keep this going. We need to keep this going. So it's age 20 years. Yes.
Hello? Hello? Fernandez? Yes, I go find the magic pallone in the back.
It's in the back. Make sure you flip it, because it's in the back. Because someone will find it one day. It's just absurd.
And make the Haka Haka. Yeah, Maka Maka. And there's no way to check it. This is a different one, Maka Maka is two years, Haka Haka is 20 years.
Yeah. Yeah, there's no way to check it. The guard's gotten wet by now. Wait, how old is this tobacco?
Two years. Okay. Two to four years. But it took him a year to make this.
Two and four years. Two to four years. How long has Pichardo been in business? Two to four years.
Two to four years. So he's been sitting on his balloons for two to four years? It's the first one I ever bought. In his factory?
It's the first one I bought. I had to hide it from the other fellow. Luciano didn't just take it out of there? No, I hid it.
It wasn't aged enough yet. It doesn't matter. I faked the card on top and said it was brand new. If it wasn't bolted down, I'm sure it was taken.
It took him a year to make the cigar, so does that mean when he started it was just a year old? Yeah. You know, this is not right. We must wait.
It must be aged. It must be aged. We need the aging on top of the aging. Call Fernandez, find out where the other tobacco is.
He's not answering. He's not answering the phone. He told us to go fuck ourselves. He told us to go fuck ourselves.
There's no way he's coming. High Maka Maka will be a one-time release with 5,000 cigars produced and offered in 20-count boxes. Cigars will debut Friday, December 13th at Underground Cigar Shop in Fort Worth, Texas. And then we'll begin shipping to other retailers following the event.
Excellent. I love Underground. Yeah, they get a lot of stuff like this. He's a good dude.
Is he? Yeah. Good. Did he buy Catastrophe Failures?
I don't sell it, you sell it. Well, I thought he might have been one of the bigger ones that called you. No. Might want to call him.
Oh, my backwards. Well, if he's on the list, he's been contacted at least twice. Yeah. Now, if he answers, I can't make them answer, it's a problem.
Or read their emails, or respond to text messages. Okay. Are we... You're good.
Uh, where'd it go? Uh, 2024 premium cigar imports remain record high through Q3. This is very interesting. This is interesting.
Yeah. S. S. 8% from 2021.
And if this pace continues, it will mark the fourth consecutive year starting in 2020 that the US has broken the CA's previous mark for record import, blah, blah, blah. So how is everybody saying sales are down? Where are all these cigars going? Yeah, well, first of all, when did we break over 350 million?
Was it this time or? Last year, 2019. Last year, 2019, this pace continues to mark the fourth consecutive year starting in 2020. Okay.
That is up. And it's up. S. population?
I guess you could legitimately... Oh, I see. Yeah, there's a cigar for every person. Yeah.
And that was for the entire year? Last year, it was... No, that's just up through third quarter. Okay, it has exploded and exceeded 450 million cigars in '21, '22, and '23.
S. population. Yes. I think that it's a, you can't really gauge, like you can see what's being imported, but you don't know what's being sold, right?
Right. So I think what you're gonna see is it's kind of like a bottleneck approach, where all of these cigars are coming in. And they're sitting in a warehouse somewhere? Well, they're not moving, they're not gonna move at a pace.
Right. So what happens? You have a price correction. Right, price goes down.
Yeah, you have a forced bundle purchase, or you know, buy five, get one, or some of these other crazy deals. Yeah, they're going to do crazy deals and whatever and what have you. And then Altidus has to announce a price decrease. No, they'll never announce a decrease.
Nobody announces a decrease. What they'll do is they'll do creative marketing. " Right. Or like I said, buy 10, get one, buy five, get two, whatever that would say.
Well, buy five, get one. It's only an 18 percent discount. It's not 20. Right.
Right. " I need you to break 40, 50k, or whatever the case may be. Like that's what you'll see. Realistically, retailers get stuck holding a lot of the bag.
Sure. And then they gotta figure out ways to then move the product. Right. Yeah.
So, I think there's some challenges coming up here. Hmm. Curious to see what happens in the fourth quarter. What happens, the scary part is that when some of these like medium level retailers get a hold of these deals, They wind up going broke.
Oh, because they buy so much. Because they over leverage. Right. You know, you can't spend $20,000, $30,000 on a brand of cigars thinking that because you're getting a deal, you're going to be able to move them when you don't have that market share of a consumer.
Right. You know, you have your local dudes or whatever the case may be, and maybe you can entice them to buy a little more. Sure. But, you know, 10X or 20X.
Right, you gotta buy ten times what you normally buy. It's just too much. So, what happens? These guys, they go belly up.
I think he's sleeping. They go belly up. I'm up. They go belly up.
And, you know, they're stuck with all those cigars. And then they blow out whatever and try and salvage any type of cash they can get. Sure. And more often than not, it's, I think the retailer side is really the side where you see The instant hit of going out of business like it's they slowly bleed out and then boom it's like okay we're done right they get to the point where there's just no money left and it's an announcement and they're going out and then also everybody goes and sees them like give them their farewell like where the hell have you guys been for the past 12 years right exactly well I came to pick the meat off your skeleton that's what I'm here for so I'll give you buy that box for five dollars but yeah but the other side of things as far as the brands are concerned your manufacturing is concerned they don't crash and burn just disappear like they slowly kind of They're still around.
Right. They may have produced 10,000 sticks this year. Right. Smaller amounts and stuff.
5,000. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. If something like that happens where you start doing the deals because there's too much inventory, do they still keep producing this mass amount of cigars? Like next year, is it going to be another 8% increase imported?
Well, something's got to be adjusted. They still have to make something new to stay relevant. I mean, what could happen potentially is, I mean, obviously job cuts, I think that, you know, there's more stuff that we can talk about on Patreon when it comes to stuff like that, but like, at this point, if you're ramping up production, and you're trying to grab everybody you possibly can for pairs to make cigars, and cigars wind up being, some of them wind up being really shitty because of that, eventually, it catches up with you and you say, "Hey, we need to make cuts," and you start with the people that suck the most, right? People are the most unreliable, and then you see kind of like an economic downturn in a lot of these countries.
So yes, I do think that they try, you know, that it's a lag indicator is what it is. It's not a lead indicator for your overall tempo of sales. That's the problem with looking at those numbers and if you look at the number of imports for the year and think that that's a lead indicator of additional sales that's about to occur, I think that you can't. You have to look at that as a lag indicator.
Manufacturers and brands are trying to catch up and bring more stuff to the table. And now the market has exceeded what they're bringing, in my opinion. S. consume 450 million cigars annually?
The answer to me is yes. I think that that's very possible. What do you have? 335 million average population, call it, what do you think, 7% cigar consumers, maybe less?
Maybe less, but I'll give you 7. Okay, so let's run some simple math here. Run the math. So just at 7%, right?
Let's call it 360, no, it's less than that, 330 million, oh God, I got new buttons here. You got a new phone. One, two, three. I got a new button.
30 million. 330 million. Da, da, da. Carry the one.
So you're saying 23 million consumers. Okay. Right. So, if you had 23 million consumers and you have 450 million cigars coming in, right?
Right. Right. You're talking about every consumer consuming about 20 cigars annually. Yeah.
A year, that's not hard. So that's less than one every two weeks. Right. Right?
And the average is what? 56. No, no, no. Oh, the average consumer consumes how many cigars average?
Isn't it one or two a month or something? Yeah, your average consumer probably does that. Yeah. Right?
Okay. So, essentially, you know, maybe that number makes sense at $450 million. Yeah, I guess. Maybe it's low.
You know? Because, yeah. I don't think that that's the case. You know, the crazy part is, and what's not really being accounted for, is your consumer that just buys stuff and just keeps it and saves it.
Right, doesn't smoke it, just keeps it. Yeah. Collectors, yeah. " Right, yeah, I have plenty of cigars.
Right. I'm going to cut back and I'm going to burn through some of this stuff. Right. And there's no mathematical equation in there for new consumers.
Well, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying that if actually you increase that number to like 10%, even if you had a 3% uptick on cigar consumers and that brought you to, you know. So it sounds like a big number, but it's really, it's not. Yeah.
S. Right. That number is definitely achievable. $450 million doesn't meet the supply, doesn't meet the demand.
That's why there's back orders on some cigars. No, I don't think, I think that, well, no, that's a totally different thing. I think you have back orders on cigars because particular cigars, you don't have the right components to continually make. Oh, okay.
And that's where that kind of falls short. I mean, amongst other things, production issues, employees, costs. What kind of time we had over there? We're well past an hour.
Oh, an hour, 12 minutes. Yeah, we're way past. You want to skip that domain thing and save that for the Patreon? Sure.
All right, and I have a quick Florida story and then we'll be done. Okay. " Uh-oh. Do you know what that's from?
I've heard that before. It's from the shooter. It's part of his... Oh, Luigi?
Yeah, Luigi Magistroni or whatever his name is. The guy who killed the... Yeah, it was part of his little writing thing. Shot the healthcare guy?
Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. A Lakeland woman was charged Tuesday after police said she ended a call to an insurance company with the words, Delay, Deny, and Depose.
In an arrested affidavit, the Lakeland Police Department said officers were contacted by the FBI on Tuesday, December 10th, regarding an alleged threat made over the phone. Brianna Boston, 42, had reportedly placed a call to the Blue Cross Blue Shield regarding recent medical insurance claims. She was denied. The entire phone call was recorded, according to an affidavit.
Near the end of the call, investigators said Boston could be heard stating delayed, denied, opposed, you people are next. The first three words are similar to those written on the ammunition that a gunman used in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, New York City, last week. That's it? Yeah, the affidated notice, well, I was pausing for you to comment.
The affidated noted the similarities between the incidents, stating that those words have become nationally recognized as a phase directed against insurance companies. She, uh, let's see, what was she, uh, based on? It's not the trigger. Yes.
Uh, she was charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, according to the affidavit. Okay, well, that's not good. We don't want that. No, no, no.
We don't want that. No. No, but they've made this guy like a folk hero. Well, I mean, there's something to be said about our health care being totally jacked up.
Oh, sure, it's completely wrong, but still, you can't justify shooting. No, it's not okay. No. You know, unfortunately, it had to get to that.
In order for it to be highlighted to: "Hey, this is a serious problem," like that's very unfortunate. Sure. Delayed, denied, opposed, I'm sure that that's some stuff that CEOs and other people in insurance allegedly talk about, right? Like that's probably a term that they use: "Here's what you're gonna do when they call," right?
Yeah, sure. Right? " Well, apparently he wrote those on the bullets. Right, but I'm saying, but he...
So they probably said it to him, what you're saying. Yeah, he probably found himself in a conversation or saw somewhere that, like, here's what you do as a tactic as an insurance company. Sure. Right?
You're going to delay them. You're going to hold off as long as you can. Right. Right?
And then when a lawsuit comes, you're going to deny responsibility. Right. Yeah. And then we'll depose them and we'll tell them they're wrong.
Right. Sure. So, that's probably how healthcare... She might have been okay if she didn't yell, you people are next.
Yeah, you probably can't say that. Look, nobody wants that. Nobody wants to see people shot at for no reason. No, and it's a very normal looking woman too.
They showed her mug shot. She's probably really frustrated. Oh, I'm sure. You know what I mean?
You think with this whole situation that happened with Luigi, now there's another lady, you think that anything changes or? Well, you hope for some change in our healthcare. It's totally- What type of regulatory change would have to happen? The way that it's designed is totally messed up.
Sure. It doesn't make sense. You're not- You're not even supposed to keep people healthy. Right.
Oh, no, they want you to be sick so they make more money. So they can medicate you. Sure. You know.
That's where all the money is. I don't know. Big Pharma. Look, it's going to be interesting the next four years.
I'm curious to see how RFK handles a lot of these things as far as health and, you know, all this other, you know, like he's made statements. Sure. About specific dyes and stuff that we use in food that are owned by. Oh, they're finally taking the red dye number five or whatever it is.
that these companies are allegedly owned by Big Pharma as well and they get you coming and going, you know. I don't know if there's any truth to that, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was. So, you know. Sure.
Sure, there's some truth to it. Right. So, hey, you know what? Like, let's clean it up, man.
Let's get it right. Let's take care of people the right way. And I don't think that funding healthcare is the right way. I think that restructuring how healthcare is taken care of in this country is the right way.
I don't know what it looks like, but what we're doing is totally wrong. There you go. All right. I'm just trying to wrap it up.
We're fine. It doesn't matter. We're having a good conversation. We're having a good conversation.
You're already over an hour, so. Yeah, that's fine. You got to listen to the Wii? Yes, actually.
How do you feel about health care, Michael? It's not. It's not running right. I get my prescriptions outside of health care, not outside of, but I don't use my insurance for it because it's cheaper.
Right. How does that make sense? Yeah. Right.
They have a program at the pharmacy where, you know, they're like, here, your insurance will cost this. If we run into this other program, it'll cost this. And I go, well, do it on the other one then. Do you want to talk about your mom at all?
I mean, your mom's going through this whole thing. With healthcare? I mean, she's having dyslexia. Oh, not dyslexia, I'm sorry.
She can't read? Dementia. She can't read dementia. Sorry.
Yes, but I mean, there's no medication for that once it happens. Yeah, but what do you do? Right, but instead of it being fixed, instead of having someone take care of her, maintain, help you provide aid along the way, she's stuck at her house all this time. Well, we could put her somewhere, she refuses to go, so we could.
I would just find out in Missouri, there's a program where, Ms. Cicero was telling me about it, there's only five states that participate, but I could make, they would pay me to take care of her, the state government. Yeah, they have. Really?
Yeah. Yeah. I forget what the act is called, but she sent me the link last night and I looked in Florida to just not participate in it. They have a certain type, though, but she has to be like completely disabled.
I don't know anything about that, but I... It's something to do with Medicare because it's cheaper to pay me to take care of her if I keep her at home than for them to pay to put her in a facility. Ah, I see that. Yeah, they basically give them a check, a lump sum.
Yeah, well, no, they give you a monthly paycheck. Right. You become like a paid health care worker. Right, but now, flip side of that coin, I mean, I could see that being easily abused.
Oh, yeah. Right? Certainly. Well, yeah, but it also takes all the responsibility off of the insurance company.
Yeah, off the Medicaid stuff. What was the one, what was it, Happy Gilmore? With his grandma? Yeah, with, what's, Ben Stiller, everybody knitting and stuff.
You're in my house now. He was running like this mill, where all the ladies were knitting quilts and stuff. Yeah. Anybody else's fingers hurt?
'Cause you just pulled Garden Detail. Right. Garden Detail. My fingers hurt.
I'm in the garden for you, Granny. That's it. You're out of here. All right, who's you got for Listener of the Week?
I don't know his last name, but Mike from McAuliffe. Mike from McAuliffe. Mike from McAuliffe. Yes.
He's a good dude. He is a good dude. He is the Florida Territory Manager for McAuliffe Cigars. I don't have no idea what his last name is.
I have a listener, huh? Yes. You want shop of the week? I do.
Tobacco land. Tobacco land. Jerry's place. Jerry's place.
Exactly. Illinois. Illinois. Jerry with a G.
Jerry with a G. Another good dude. Yep. All right.
All right. It's been episode 366. Wraps it up. Of the Cigar Hustler podcast.
Thank you, everybody. We gotta go. Yeah. You know what?
Fuck Alfredo. The End. Music by Ben Thede.
Show Notes
This week on the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, Episode 366 brings you a mix of trending topics and cigar news. We dive into the Niners calling out De’Vondre Campbell, Colby Covington’s heated words for LeBron James before UFC Tampa, and Patrick Mahomes’ ankle injury against the Browns. Plus, we unpack ABC’s $15 million settlement over Trump’s presidential library and Yellowstone’s emotional finale tribute.
On the cigar side, we cover Espinosa’s sales team changes in Florida, Altadis U.S.A.’s upcoming price increases, Lefthand Cigar Co.’s High Maka Maka launch, and record-high premium cigar imports in 2024. Don’t miss details on Domain Cigars’ new Entropy release and the debut of the first Gellis family cigar to hit stores.
We wrap up with a classic Florida story: a Lakeland woman’s wild threats to her insurance company. Tune in for all the action!