ACHP 400 The Said We Couldn't
Episode Summary
The Cigar Hustlers hit a milestone with episode 400, opening with a look back at the show's own numbers — top YouTube episodes (the Intuition beer episode, Brian Desind of Privada Cigar Club, the "Have You Seen This Man" episode when Phil went missing in Nicaragua, and the Skip Martin episode), a Listen Notes score that puts the show in the top 5% globally, and past exclusives including the first U.S. interview with Hirochi Robaina. Gifts are exchanged, including a stainless steel "SBC 24 — halfwheel rating 82" sign and new limited-run t-shirts (the SBC sun design and an "Alcatraz New York" shirt) available at chpod.com. The crew also previews the Patreon segment, where they'll review the CAO Stoke.
Trending news covers the Labubu toy craze and a $7,000 Labubu burglary in La Puente, California; AOL finally shutting down dial-up internet on September 30, 2025; and Harvard physicist Avi Loeb's claim that interstellar object 3I/ATLAS could be an alien probe. A social media segment gripes about viewers who watch the shorts but never like or share them, plus a spoiler-laced review of the new Superman film.
Cigar news is the meat of the episode: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust's Red Meat Lovers Fritanga, a 6x52 box-pressed Toro ($16.25) with Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Mexican San Andrés negro binder and Nicaraguan/Pennsylvanian filler, joining the Beef Stick, Filet Mignon, Rib-Eye and Porterhouse sizes; Lampert's new Ocean Breeze vitolas for InterTabac; Luciano Morales and Adrián González's Casdagli/Constella-related "The Resilient" shipping at $24 per cigar with an undisclosed factory; and Fiero Tego releasing the 2024 vintages of Elegancia and Generoso after 22 months of aging, with Michael Herklots' tasting notes (flan included) drawing plenty of ribbing.
The episode closes with "What's the Score?", the crew's halfwheel guessing game. They tackle Brooks Whittington's redux review of the 2025 Tatuaje Pork Tenderloin (actual score: 91) and his 2010 review of the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Classic Sun Grown, which landed at a brutal 65. Plus listener of the week Juan DeJesus, a shop of the week at Old Times Claremont, and a canceled La Flor Dominicana event.
In This Episode
- 01400 Episodes by the NumbersTop YouTube episodes, a top-5% Listen Notes score, global reach, and the show's notable exclusives over seven years.
- 02Gifts, Merch and the SBC 82 SignA stainless steel halfwheel-82 plaque, the new SBC sun t-shirt and a limited 'Alcatraz New York' shirt at chpod.com.
- 03Trending: Labubu Heist, AOL Dial-Up, Interstellar 3I/ATLASA $7,000 Labubu toy burglary, AOL ending dial-up on September 30, and Avi Loeb's alien-probe theory about 3I/ATLAS.
- 04Social Media Gripes and SupermanWhy viewers watch the shorts but never like or share, plus a spoiler-filled take on the new Superman movie.
- 05Dunbarton Red Meat Lovers FritangaSteve Saka's new 6x52 box-pressed Toro joins the Red Meat Lovers line at $16.25 with a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper and San Andrés binder.
- 06Lampert Ocean Breeze and Constella's The ResilientNew Ocean Breeze vitolas for InterTabac and Luciano Morales' $24 Resilient shipping with an undisclosed factory.
- 07Fiero Tego 2024 Elegancia and GenerosoMichael Herklots' wine-inspired vintage approach, 22 months of aging, and tasting notes ranging from flan to Wagyu.
- 08What's the Score? Tatuaje and FuenteGuessing Brooks Whittington's halfwheel scores for the 2025 Tatuaje Pork Tenderloin redux (91) and the 2010 Arturo Fuente Hemingway Classic Sun Grown (65).
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
This is Jack Taranio, and this is episode 400 of Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Oh, thanks, Jack, and welcome to episode 400 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast. It's a big, this is a big one. This is the big one, this is 400.
Thanks, Jack. Jack did the intro, hi though. Oh. Oh.
So, I have some facts about the show, and I contact, I didn't contact, but I worked through ChatGPT and told it to act like you're a podcast savant, give me interesting facts and figures about the Cigar Husser podcast. Yes. Okay. Savant.
So, first, our top five episodes on YouTube. Yes. Number one is still Intuition Beer. Yeah.
Yeah. With Brian Descend of Pravada Club is number two. Interesting. Episode 279, Have You Seen This Man, When Phil Went Missing in the Jungles of Nicaragua.
Oh! Nicaragua. Nicaragua. Nicaragua.
Nicaragua. And Karen sat in. That's our third highest rated episode. Karen.
Wow. Who was Karen? It was Boots and a Wig. And then rounding out is episode 238 with Skip Martin.
So, Boots and a Wig beat Skip Martin. Nice. Oh. Wow, that's weird.
See, see, see a little, just a little movie magic. I can't even deliver the joke. I guess it's a, kind of a win, not really. Yeah, it's a win for you.
I mean, it's a win for the show, but not a win for me. It's a win for you. It's a win for all of us. Yeah, I guess.
Okay, now this is interesting. According to Listen Notes, I'm not even sure what that is, but this is ChatGBT, The podcast holds a listen score of 33. That's high. Placing it in the top 5% globally for popularity.
Wow. This indicates a strong standing among millions of podcasts worldwide. Millions. Wow.
I thought that was very interesting. Yeah. How are we still broke? Yeah, you know what?
I was reading this to my wife, and we still make no money? How is this? What are we doing? " Yeah, we got to fix that.
Maybe we should just, you know, open the bank again. Just go straight pay like Howard Stern's retiring supposedly, maybe there's a hole there we can tell. Yeah, take over SiriusXM. There you go.
GoFundMe. Guests in industry figures including Matt Booth, Jack Taranio, Hector Alfonso have been consistent contributors with notable exclusives such as being the first to interview Hirochi Rubanya in America. Wow. So that's on the internet somewhere.
Wow. It's available on all major podcast platforms, and has an audience spanning 90% of the world, a testament to its global reach. We are global. Global.
90% of the world knows who we are. Still no money. It's just a matter of time. Seven years, where's the time at?
You know what's going to happen? We are going to breach the level of engagement on YouTube. Yeah. And then it's going to say that we're not qualified.
Probably. It's like, it reminds me of a Christmas story, you remember a Christmas story, the guy saved up all he could to get the decoder for the Ovaltine, and then he broke open the code, and the code was, "Drink More Ovaltine". Oh, man. You guys have successfully made it to the top of the heap now, where you get paid to be on YouTube.
Congratulations. But you don't qualify. Sorry, tobacco, no. It's cigars, tobacco, no.
Well, not qualify, they just stopped doing it now. Oh, they just stopped the program. Oh, we stopped it. And you know, we decided to shut that down.
It's too expensive. Great. All right, Michael. It is a little late, but I do have a birthday present for you.
You do? If you'll reach over the side of your chair there. Oh, over here? Over there.
I didn't even know it was here. You're very slick. Now it's broke. Now it's broke again.
Just bounce it on the floor. It's fine. Is it Bluetooth? No, it's not Bluetooth.
Is it a chainsaw? Yes. Careful. Is it a picture of us?
No, it's not a picture. It's underwear with your guys' face on it, yes. It's a sign for you to hang up by your desk. SBC 24, half wheel rating 82.
Oh, that's a great award. Stainless steel, I will not rust. Oh, thank you so much. So you will have it forever.
I actually have a present for you. Oh, it's not my birthday. Is that all that's in here? Yeah, it's all that's in there.
Thank you very much. I will wear, we'll place it with pride. It's a quarter inch stainless steel. You could use it as a plate in body armor, if you need it.
I have a present for you. Oh. Yeah. It's our newest t-shirt.
Oh my goodness. And it just so happens to be in reference to the exact same thing. Oh. Oh.
It's got the SBC on the bottom. Oh, I like that. I like the SBC thing. It looks very Miami-likey.
Yes. com officially, and this is the first one ever made. Oh. And it's yours.
I'll get that later. Officially for you. Thank you! Yes, we made a nice little sun logo with a questionable media source in the middle.
Oh! 20%. Only got to change it 20%. Alleged.
Yeah. And, you know, because Icarus flew too close to the sun. Ah! And they are available limited quantities.
Excellent quality. Excellent quality. com. I have reached out to everyone who has bought a shirt, and they are all raving of the quality of our product.
Are they? Yes. Excellent. Oh, they're great shirts.
Yeah, the ones who originally bought the BDP, they're holding up well. Perfect. That's good to hear. And, well, I got news for you.
Yes. I had a little competition with my friend Boots over here. Yes, what's the score? Yes.
Yes. And I blew him out of the water. Yes. What was the ending score, first of all, for blowing me out of the water?
75 to 2. I was over by three points. So just a mild blow out of the water. No, that's pretty big.
Three points? Yeah. In order to, if I nailed it, I would get a point. Right.
And if not, like I'd have to get a half a point. Half a point. Right. Right.
So you got to figure that's at least three weeks of me beating him. Out of how many weeks, dude? I think out of like four. Four?
Four or five. Oh, well then, okay. Then it's, yes, it's a trouncing at three or four. Now, a while ago, I know some of you guys have forgotten about this, but a while ago, we were talking about Alcatraz.
Yes. And my dear friend, Boots, said that he would love to go on the tour and see the Statue of Liberty and then go visit Alcatraz. Yes. So, for you, my friend, I have made this Alcatraz New York T-shirt.
Oh, it's so nice. Yes. That's way better. Here you go, buddy.
Congratulations. I appreciate that. Go ahead. com.
Oh, we opened those up, too. Yes. That's going to be a hot seller. Well, I only made a couple of them.
It's very, very small quantities on that one. Oh, it's limited. Very limited. Super limited.
Super limited. Right. So you won and lost at the same time. Yeah.
Right. Well, thank you, Mikey. You know what? I didn't get you anything for you winning.
That's okay. That's okay. Damn, I just dropped my cigar. We both dropped something here so far.
Trust me. I mean, yeah. So what are we doing on today's Patreon? We're so nervous of this episode 400.
This episode 400 is a very big deal. We've never done it before. I'll hang Palmer's jacket for the 400. Yes, I wore the red one for the 400.
It looks very evil. Let me weigh it real quick. It's not going to weigh, just for the record, because it's spongy. I have not touched those yet, but I have talked to people.
7 grams. We are going to be smoking the CAO Stoke. How's that? Perfect.
On the Patreon. We're going to review it. And I'm going to tell you right now, it's squishy. Yeah, like a sponge.
Don't give them out early. I don't want to speak ahead of turn here. Don't want to speak ill of the Danish cigar. Is it Danish?
The man who made it is Danish, yes. I think the man who made it got rolled, but that's neither here nor there. Maybe it feels like a Danish. Ooh, if it tastes like one, I'm in.
It definitely doesn't. It definitely doesn't taste like a Danish. All right, on to trending news. Let's go.
Thousands of dollars worth of labubus. Oh, yes. Have you heard of these? This is going to be a great episode.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Labubus? Labubus. This is like the demon baby furry thing.
I have no idea what they are. Oh, yeah, they're pretty cool. They're pretty hot. La Boo Boo, stolen as toy popularity continues to soar.
Dozens of boxes of popular La Boo Boo toy, totaling around $7,000, were stolen from a store in La Puente, California, this week, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. m. on August 6th at One Stop Sales, a store known for its La Boo Boo dolls and accessories. We worked so hard to get to this point for them just to come in and, like nothing, take it all away.
Joanna Avendio, co-owner of One Stop Sales, told local ABC station KABC-TV on Thursday. The shop has since posted surveillance footage of the incident on social media. One video shows at least four masked people breaking into the store, ransacking shelves, and fleeing with boxes of merchandise. Grab the LeBuboos!
Just the LeBuboos! The owners of One Stop Sales in La Puente, California, shared video on Instagram of a robbery at their store on August 6th, 2025. A Vendo also shared images of the aftermath showing shattered glass at the entrance and scattered products on the floor. Apparently, only La Boo Boo's are taken.
Deputies told ABC News Thursday that the suspects remain at large, but they have recovered the stolen white Toyota Tacoma used in the crime. Oh, they had to describe what truck it was? It was an elaborate scheme. Wow.
Da-da-da, Da-da-da, La Boo-Boos, which debuted in China in 2015, have exploded in global popularity, spotted on celebrities like Rihanna and Blackpink Lisa, and grown into a billion-dollar industry. 8 billion. What? According to Popmart's annual financial report, while the dollar retails for $30, they can go for hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dollars on the resale market.
On social media videos, shows, crowds, packing store addresses, and pop-ups lining up for a chance to score a box of La Boo Boo's. - Yeah, these things are going for like... - What in the world? - $30 retail worth thousands of dollars on eBay and stuff like this.
- $200, I'm looking at one for $120, $167. - What is it exactly? - You don't know what it is? No, I have no idea.
I don't have children. It's like a demon thing. How big is it? Well, this one's $500.
Who created it? We'll take 12. Because it says celebrities are carrying them around. Are there like little keychain-y things?
They look like this. Yeah, but don't tell me. That's it? It looks like a beanie baby.
It's like a demon bunny. Is it like three inches tall? It's like a combination of three different things. Yeah, they're like this big.
Oh. All right, our economy is kind of fragile, maybe going down, and bam, here come the LaBuboos. On the labubos. $7,000 worth of labubos could be like five.
Let's bring, let's spend all of our money on the labubos. On the labubos. Geez. Not only is our economy, it's not allegedly going down.
I wholeheartedly believe that it's going, it's, we are in a recession. Not if you have a labubu. Yeah, because yeah, everybody's buying labubus. Well, I mean, how about this?
Why would anybody want to have a store in California? Even if you find these guys, what happens to them? Well, I know they said that was a store, but it was called One Stop? Yeah.
That sounds almost like a gas station. Uh, no, the, the video, I did watch the, the surveillance black and white video thing. It's, it's like a little, um, collectible store thing, you know? Yeah.
Beanie Babies, La Boo Boo's, I don't know what other things they collect now. Pot, those pop art things, the little rubber people thing, whatever it is. Right. That type of stuff.
Those are only a hundred. Wow, I mean, $7,000 in La Boo Boo's, that might be like five or six. Leave the rubber, guys. Let's take the La Boo Boo's.
If that's a $7,000 like standard MSRP, I mean... Yeah, is that retail figures, that wholesale? Is that like the regular $30 price for these? Well, then it's a lot of them.
Yeah. But if it's not, they have some of those $500 ones. This just in, Cigar Hustler sells La Boo Boo's now. One looks like Mikey, one looks like Boo's, one looks like Palmer.
Perfect. We call them La Beebe's. Pre-order now. com.
Thank God my kids aren't into this. I was going to ask if Teddy had a LaBubu. Don't even show them the clipping. Yeah, don't let them do the story.
Teddy does not have a LaBubu, but the person who would want a LaBubu would probably be Justice. Can you have your AI thing that you use make three LaBubus out of us? We can make LaBubu knockoff shirts. Right, that's what I mean.
Yes. Yeah. That'd be fantastic. Make me a LaBubu.
I wonder if I would know what it is. With this guy, I'm sure it does. You know what the big thing in now is with ChatGPT? You give it, so you take a picture of your own face, and you give it a very, very detailed description and say don't alter the face except for the expression, and it can make you do anything.
ChatGPT can? Yeah. But don't you get like two images and then you have to pay for it or something? No, no, I mean I have the free one, I get like five or six every 24 hours.
What do you do with it? Well, some of my profile pictures have been through Ched. It won't do dirty stuff. Like weird stuff?
No, it won't do weird stuff. And actually, it wouldn't do one of me and you together either because it says you're not me. Oh, so it has to be you. It has to be me because it knows.
I mean, if I would have started with your photos, that was me. Then I could have. But, yeah, it won't alter pictures of other people. Yeah.
Just a safeguard, I guess. So you got to add me in later? That's what you're doing? You're making your own?
No, no. Well, I was trying to use it for our tiles for the podcast, but it won't do you, it only does me. For some reason, it produced a picture of Mikey's face on Carmen Electra's body. It's so weird.
It's so weird. But amazingly, it looks good. Yeah. It's amazing.
It's amazing. All right, next story. Okay. This is a follow-up to a story from a few weeks ago when Jack Taranio was here.
Oh, boy. AOL, they hang up on dial-up internet service. They're over. They're cutting it off.
AOL announced that it will be hanging up on dial-up on September 30th. New York Times reported the company wrote on its help page, AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue dial-up internet. This service will no longer be available in AOL Plans. As a result, on September 30th, 2025, the service and the associated software, the CD that Fred has is no longer any good.
They're dead. The AOL dialer software and AOL Shield browser are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections will be discontinued. This change will not affect any other benefit of your AOL plan, which you can access anytime on your AOL plan dashboard. To manage or cancel your account, visit my account.
Wait a second, is AOL still around? Yes. Yeah, Jack Toronto has an email account. Yeah, that's where my mom is.
No, no, I understand an email account. But you can still buy, like that said, there's other services besides. Yeah. Besides AOL?
No, they're like, other than the dial-up. Yeah, yeah, there's regular internet, but they used to have dial-up as a backup. My dad had it for years. I would show it because, you know, you go through their bills when they get older and you're looking for stuff and they go, you could say $40 a month, what is this?
He goes, that's dial-up in case the internet goes down. That was actually going to be my first question. Like, can you imagine if your dad was still around to this day and you had to have that conversation with him? Hey, listen.
I'm kidding. We got to ax the dial-up. We got to ax, they're going to cancel the dial-up. How will I ever get my email?
I don't know, Dan. What CEO finally said, you know what, I don't think, when was the last time any of us used dial-up? Yeah, but easy $40 a month from your customer, why cancel it? Oh.
The old people don't know how to turn it off anyway. It's not like you or I are going to have a dial-up backup. Right. These are the older customers that still use it.
They got to figure out a way to transition them into something else. That's $40 a month. Yeah. Now you're instantly accessed.
We're going to upgrade you to... Maybe they can't keep the equipment running. Maybe it's gotten so old, they can't find the parts anymore. Right.
We got to shut it off. How much... The phone lines are dying. $40 a month.
How much have we been making off of this for the past decade? Well, every month we make about 160 bucks. That's crazy, because they still have like... They still have telegraphers and stuff like that.
With a... Yeah. But you can't have dialogue? Morse code?
It's just technology that's gone. Right. I mean, they still have pigeons. Yeah.
Some people still use pigeons. Yeah. Yeah. They had that in John Wick.
There's no more Pony Express. There's no more Pony Express? There's no horses riding cross country, no. They got rid of that?
Yeah. Not even in like, Arizona? No. Can you imagine running in somebody and like, what did you do for a living?
We heard of Pony Express? Yeah. I'm the guy. I'm the one horse.
I'm the one guy. One guy with the one horse that still exists. And I charge a hefty fee. A hefty fee.
All right. In the 1998 movie You've Got Mail, actors Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan strike up a romantic relationship after exchanging messages on AOL platform. Yahoo, which owns AOL. Oh, I did not know that.
Did not immediately respond to requests for comment. AOL rose popularity in the 1990s, giving Americans an entry point to the online world Google through Instant Messaging and Email Features. Originally known as America Online, the company changed its name to AOL in 2006. Yahoo didn't get back to you when they crashed their emails.
Maybe that's why. Maybe somebody unplugged the dial-up. A few weeks ago when Yahoo... Right, they didn't get back to us in anything.
Yeah, they're not going to comment on anything. Nope. They don't have to. They're Yahoo.
Does anybody use the Yahoo search thing anymore? I'm sure. I personally don't. You definitely don't.
I don't either. " You go away. Yes, I'm Google. However, I know that our dear friend of Rack Above, he's recently done an ad campaign on Yahoo.
That makes sense. Because it's better pricing. Cheaper. Yeah.
It's cheaper. It's more affordable. Cheaper is such a bad word. Oh, sorry, it's more affordable.
Yeah. It seems to be working for him. Oh, is he selling more of them? Yeah.
Oh, good for him. If he wants to come back, we'll give him a deal. Well, yeah. Maybe.
I don't know. I don't want to. I don't want anybody. I don't want anybody.
No. Well, I see the problem. Why we're not making money. Yeah.
Boots, I think I figured out what it is. Yeah, this is it right here. It's part of the management team. Not wanting anyone's advocate.
It's part of the management team. All right. " Of course it is. Of course it is.
Why wouldn't it be? It's a new movie. Astronomers recently discovered a rare interstellar object passing through our solar system, and a Harvard physicist is sounding the alarm that its strange characteristics might indicate that it's more than just a comet. Please hit my house.
Please hit my house. Please hit my house. It's flying by. It's not landing.
Maybe the trajectory was designed, Dr. Avi Leob, a science professor at Harvard University, told Fox News Digital. If it had an objective to sort of be on a reconnaissance mission to either send many probes to those planets or monitor them, it seems quite irregular. Interesting.
The object, dubbed 31 Atlas, was first detected in early July by an Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS. Oh, I didn't even know we had that. Interesting. We have an Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert, so this is the last one.
I wonder if there's other earlier ones. Well, it's because you don't follow aliens, so. Well, it's 31 Atlas, maybe there's one through 30 Atlas. Oh, other objects?
Maybe they, yeah, maybe they just give the next name. Yeah. That's kind of scary to think that 30 objects have triggered the alarm that it might crash into Earth. Right.
You want to know what would be even funnier? They've made a movie for each one of them. You know, if it was the, um, the Tesla that he shot. Oh, they mentioned that.
They mentioned that in the story. I don't know if I grabbed that part, but I'll tell you about that in a minute. The discovery marked only the third time an interstellar object has been observed entering our solar system according to NASA. Although NASA has classified the object as a comet, Leob noted that an image of the cosmic visitor indicated an unexpected glow appearing in front of the object rather than trailing behind.
Very glowy. Something he described is quite surprising. Usually with comets, you have a tail, a comet tail where dust and gas are shining, reflecting sunlight, and that's the signature of a comet, Laob told Fox News. He does contact Fox News.
Here you see a glow in front, not behind it, measuring about 20 kilometers across, making it larger than Manhattan. Please don't hit my house. Please don't hit my house. However, according to Laob, it is most unusual characteristic is its trajectory.
If you imagine objects entering the solar system from random directions, Just 1 in 500 of them would be aligned so well with the orbits of the planets, he said. The interstellar object, which comes from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is also expected to pass near Mars, Venus, and Jupiter, something that is also highly improbable to happen at random, according to Lowe. This spokesperson for NASA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comments. Nobody likes that.
so it did say at one point they mistaken the uh what did you just say tesla vehicle yes as a ufo they didn't realize what it was and they're like oh never mind oh zoom in oh shit that's that shiny truck and it's got the mannequin in it still right driving well okay so do you think it's a ufo like an i think there's aliens i mean we would be you know it would be very strange if We were the only thing out here. That's a whole lot of space for nothing? There's a whole lot of space out there. Yeah.
But do you think that this one? Oh, I don't know. I think it could be a new one. I mean, if the lizard people have already come through here, I doubt, you know, this is, you know, this is them again.
Did you see any video footage or pictures of this stuff when you were reviewing this? Uh, no. It's weird. So, you can pick which news center you want to get your stories from.
Okay. They gave you like a choice of three. This week, very popular, was a Hindu News Agency. Really?
And it was the best one this week. It was the best one. Very basic format, but the best source of news it seemed this week. The New York Times won't give you anything by the headline, they want you to subscribe.
Same thing with Chicago Sun Tribune thing or whatever, so the Hindu news was free still. It was spot on. Yahoo is always so bad, the Yahoo News. Really?
Yeah. Very short, very basic. Okay. Do you think it was an alien there, Bootsy?
Um, maybe. Yeah. Do aliens scare you like death? Uh, well, like the big ones that look like, you know, like alien, predator, all that stuff.
Yeah. Yeah, those scare me. The predator ones? What do you think the aliens look like?
What is, you know, the way he's backlit, it's kinda, it's kinda neat, I just see the headphones and his round head. Oh yeah, like a silhouette. To be honest, there's probably, they're probably not like aliens like we picture. They probably look just like us.
They probably are us. Probably other humans in other worlds. And these things are probably things that they're launching out of their yard, because their technology is way better, while they're drinking beer. So you think they're drinking beer, launching shit out of their yard, the size of Manhattan.
Yep, here it comes. It's like, hey, you know what we're gonna do? Let's send this one to Earth. And they're like, yee-haw!
That's a whole nother level of... Shane Gillis is out there with Peyton Manning on his... On his Bud Light trailer. Redneck ingenuity.
Sidney Sweeney's running around in her jeans. Oh, Sweeney. I have kind of a deep question. A deep question?
That's not what I just thought of. The jeans brought this up? No, no. I thought of it before that.
Okay. So, they say we are made in God's image, so God made everybody. Did he also make the aliens at that point? Well, that was, see, that's always been the thing, is the Bible says that there aren't aliens.
Right. Yeah. So if there are, would he just like, I'm just gonna take this corner of the universe over here and put people on this one thing here. Well, maybe they're demons.
Could be. Maybe that's where the Incas went. Maybe he wasn't sure what was gonna work, so he's gonna, you know, make some soft, squishy pink people over here, maybe some lizard people over here. You think he doubled down a little bit?
Yeah, out there, he's got some monkey people. Oh, he hedged his bet. I'm sorry, he didn't double down. Hedged his bet.
Yeah, hedged his bet. He hedged his bet. Trying to see which ones would survive the longest. Yeah, what's gonna work had the best.
Oh, now they're all fighting each other. Let's see who wins. It ain't gonna be us. No, no, we're soft and squishy.
We're the soft, squishy ones. Speaking of aliens, I saw Superman. Oh, is that the movie you went to go see? Yeah, I saw it this week.
Yes, and? It was amazing. Was it? Of course it was.
But you're a Superman fan. I mean, first of all, I don't understand how anybody isn't a Superman fan. No, no, but you are, I think, more of an excessive Superman fan than, say, Bootserite. I think that I was more of a skeptic going into this movie.
Well, I'm quite skeptical about this one. Well, the last four were horrible. No, no, no. You thought Man of Steel was horrible?
Is Man of Steel the one that begins where he's got a beard and he goes on the oil platform? Yes. That's my favorite one. There you go.
I like that one the best. No, I honestly thought that this one was really well done. And here's how I could gauge it. I brought the whole squad, the kids, right?
And there's a teddy barometer, right? Okay. So if she says, hey, I want to see that movie again, right afterwards, I know it was good. Does she sit there through the whole movie?
Oh, she tries, yeah. She tries. She sits there, and then she's like, there are a couple of, I want to go. I'm ready to leave now.
Can we go? Can we go? I think that would be more of a barometer, the number of times she asked to leave. She said it twice.
But at the end of it, she's like, I want to watch that movie again. Oh. So, you know, the internet is just flooded with people talking smack about this movie. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I've heard bad things. The internet is just evil. They're just bad. I don't like his outfit, from what I've seen in the clips.
Well, it's more comic-based. Oh, it looks like pajamas, like wool pajamas or something. Yeah, it's more old-school comic-based. Yeah, it looks like the old Captain America outfit, like that type of fabric.
Well, they went back with the red undies. They gave him the red undies. Oh, the red undies. So, how does he bleed?
He's not supposed to be able to bleed. The clips and the trailer show he bleeds. He's not supposed to. Why not?
Superman doesn't bleed. Superman always bled. Yeah, he always bled. When does he bleed?
He doesn't bleed in any other movies. Well, because the other movies didn't follow the original. Oh, in the comic book he bleeds? I got to tell you, man, this was so well done.
It really was. Man, I want to ruin it for anybody. It's been like a month. Spoiler.
Spoiler alert. No, no, no. Turn it off. They come back in five minutes.
Go ahead. All right, so yeah, so this is definitely a little bit of a spoiler on Superman. All right, spoiler alert. So, first of all, Bradley Cooper is his dad, which I thought was hilarious.
I love Bradley Cooper. And he's only in there for a blip, but apparently the translation of the text is like, we're going to send you to Earth and we want you to have like a bevy of wives and spread your seed across, because they're stupid people and stuff. I'm sure that that's what the aliens think, that's what made me think of it, you know? Bradley Cooper is the alien dad, not the guy on the farm.
Correct. Okay. The guy on the farm is way nicer. Yeah.
Who plays the dad on the farm? I don't remember. So, nobody notable. No, he is notable.
Oh, he is notable. And his eyes are constantly moving like this. Oh. Oh, Steve Buscevi.
No. That's a totally different... That would be a funny dad. His eyes...
Yeah, right. Well, Clark, you really gotta get your shit together. Right. You know?
I could see that. No. But he's a good actor. So yeah, no, it's a great movie.
I'd highly recommend anybody going and seeing it, for sure. Go see it in the theaters. Do it. Just do it.
Okay, go ahead. Continue. Aliens, over. No, we're getting into cigar news, unless you have a social media minute.
I mean, you just said Superman. I do have like one kind of brief social media minute. Okay. It was something that I actually had a conversation with Sean from Cigar TV after we did it.
I do find this a little bit frustrating. Why is it that we get X amount of views on a lot of our short reels, but people don't like it or share it? Laziness. Oh, you're right.
You think that it's laziness? Yeah. But, you know, like, I'll run into people all the time, like, hey man, saw the post of XYZ. Yeah, all the time.
Hilarious. Love the shorts all the time. I think I need to start asking, did you like it? Did you hit like?
Right. Because that would be good for us if you could just like it. Sure. Or are we like some, you know, side piece that you don't want to talk about or something?
I think that's what it is. I don't want anybody to know I'm watching. Like, you guys are hilarious, I'm rooting for you just quietly. Right.
You know what I mean? Like, what, why? Come on, dude. I don't know.
Hit the like button, share, let's go. Cool. Yeah, I mean, we're in the top three, what, 5% of all podcasts in the world. Across the world.
I'm pretty sure that the Mirafell guys, both Jeremiah and Reinhardt, shared... Yeah, they just shared the one you did with them in it. Right. Yeah, yeah.
Like, where's everybody else? Where are the rest of our people? It's about them. Yeah, but, you know, all these, but all the other guys in the cigar industry, or even not on cigar industry, that see all our stuff, you'd think that they would like and share.
Right. Or at the very least, like. " Something like that. " Oh, there you go.
Gorilla. Smoking a cigar. Alright, Cigar News. That's my social media approach for the top.
Red Meat Lovers Fritanga heads to stores. Did it? It's supposed to be. Okay.
We don't have it. Oh, I'm sure it's coming to us. The newest size in Dunbarton Tobacco, we never get it, we never get first. No.
No, we're always last. Redheaded stepchild. The newest size in Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Red Meat Lovers line is on its way to stores. Oh, it hasn't shipped yet.
Nobody wants to talk about us, Palmer. They want to be friends with us. " Can't be associated with you in public. Don't tell anybody.
Internet people. It's a 6x52 box press Toro called Fritanga, named for a style of Nicaraguan street food, centered around a grilling meat on an open flame. 25 per, oh, cigar. That's not for the meat stick.
No. For the cigar. The meat stick in Nicaragua. In Nicaragua.
Probably like two bucks. Oh. 50 for a box of 10 cigars. Red Meat Lovers line, which debuted in 2019, was created to be paired with beef dishes and was released as a collaboration between Smokin' Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust and Red Meat Lovers Club, An organization that gathers for meat-centric events with a charitable aim, it has a blend that uses a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Mexican San Andreas Negro binder, and fillers from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania, Steve Saka, founder and the blender of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, calls the newest size spicier and beefier, alliteration of the meat, red meat lovers blend, which is produced at Nicaragua, American cigars essay.
Did he say it was spicier and beefier? Or did he say, oh, you know, I really didn't want to make the cigar. It was a terrible idea, but I think that everybody's going to love it. So I made it anyways.
And screw you all. He hasn't been on social media like that lately. No? Nope.
He's disconnected a little bit. Maybe he's on break. Oh, he was taking a sabbatical. His wife made him go hide in the mountains and somewhere.
Hey man, you know what? I get it. Good for him. Yeah.
The Fratanga is a regular production size and joins the other three sizes in the line: the Red Meat Lovers Beef Stick, the Red Meat Lovers Filet Mignon, Red Meat Lovers Rib-Eye, Red Meat Lovers Porterhouse, the Fratanga size made its first appearance at the Red Meat Lovers Dinner on March 14th, which is part of the Great Smoke, an event put on by Smoke M, blotty, blotty, blotty, blotty, blotty, blotty. He should make small ones and call them beef jerky. Well, there's one called the beef stick. Beef stick?
That's a smaller one. Is it smaller? Yes. Give me a Lance Herald, call it a Slim Jim.
Yes! I was going to say, you may want to call it a Slim Jim. Everybody loves Slim Jims. That'd be called the Slim Bob, because Slim Steve?
No, that's not a thing. Slim Steve? You can't call it Slim Jim, there's a copyright on that. I don't think that they have a, there's, you think they have a copyright on it?
Sure they do. No way. Yes. On Slim Jim?
For tobacco products? Oh, I forgot, different product lines. Yeah. Very possible.
What's up, big guy? Come in, come in, come in, come in. Come in, sit down. Good.
All right, man, it's the 400th episode. Yeah. Episode 400. Can't do it without the audience.
Yeah, we need our audience in here. If you walk around, don't worry, you're fine. So you think there's a copyright on the word Slim Jim for cigars? No, probably not for tobacco.
I forgot the different categories. I was just thinking it as a, just a word. Could you, could you use, could you use something like a ChatGBT image of Macho Man on that? No.
No, that's a person likeness. Yeah. But the big thing now, oh, he already has the Sock of Squatch. Bigfoot's their new person at Slim Jim.
By the way, none of us are attorneys, so... Yeah, so this might not be correct at all. Jack was the attorney when Jack was the attorney. Yeah, when Jack was the attorney.
We can check with him later if you want to, I guess. Yeah. Dude, you can just walk right around us, you're fine. Just walk around, you're fine.
Okay. You can crawl through the middle, whatever you want to do. Yeah. You can sit down, sit on Mike's lap.
Well, not on my lap. Yes, on the lap. Well, he likes it. That way it could be a ChatGPT image of you.
I won't do it, just me. I bet you I can get a ChatGPT, maybe an AI image to do it. Like, now put someone on this. Well, yeah, maybe some, yeah, a different service.
I just use ChatGPT. Lambert is debuting two new Ocean Breeze Vitolas at Enter to Back 2025. At Enter to Back 2025, Lambert Cigars will be showing off two new Vitolas and Ocean Breeze. These two vitoles are Ocean Breeze Gordito and Ocean Breeze Toro Grande.
It's the year pre-release, so we're not talking about it anymore. Moving on. Who's Lambert? I've heard this name before.
I don't know. It's in Europe. Oh. I don't know why Half-Wheel covers...
They like to cover stories about cigars. We don't... Well, I guess maybe Half-Wheel is an international site. They're expanding.
Yeah, maybe they're trying to draw in those people too. Or maybe it was just... Slow Newsweek? Yeah.
Could be. Can Stella Group, the Resilient, begin shipping? Oh, so that's the end of the Lampert thing? Yeah, I don't cover it anymore.
We're never going to see the cigar. Is it Lampert or Lambert? Pert. Is that all you had?
Yeah. It was more, but it's a European release of a cigar we've never heard of. Okay. So, moving on.
That should be the next shirt. The end of the Lampert. The end of the Lambert? Moving on.
Can Stella Group, the Resilient, begin shipping, Michael? Oh, yeah? Oh. You familiar with who this is?
The Constella Group? Yes. Oh, I think I am. All right, the Resilient, a new line from Constella Group that the company debuted at the 2025 PCA Convention and Trade Show is beginning to ship to retailers today.
It's a line developed by Luciano Morales of Constella Group, formerly CEO of Luciano Cigars, former partner of ATL Cigars, Formerly involved with the Las Ignas, associated with Maker Cigars, with Rick Rodriguez, formerly involved with Ave, with Ave Prime, Ace Prime, sorry, typo, Ace Prime, Tiago Cigars, Pichardo Cigars, White Panda Cigars, and Peter James Cigars, and Adrian Gonzalez, who played, oh, and now he's associated with Adrian Gonzalez, who played for 15 seasons at MLB, sooning up for Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, and New York Mets. Was that everything that was on that article? Did you add all that? Yes?
Why? Possibly? Okay. He earned five selections of the All-Star Game, four Golden Glove Awards, and two Silver Slugger Awards.
And a partridge in a pear tree. Wow. He also represented Mexico in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. No wonder he's hanging out with this guy.
They both have such experience in everything. Pricing is set at? What do you think a zoo cigar is going to be, Michael? Roots?
$15. Baseball player from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, 4 Golden Gloves, 1 Giant Chicken Award, something, I don't know. $14. Boots?
$15. $24 a cigar. American dollars? $480 per box of 20.
That's unbelievable. Initial production run was limited to, how many boxes of cigars are they making, gentlemen? Oh, 1,000 boxes. 500.
Yeah, 1,000. He remembered that from before. But Mary Alice told half plans to add more size at the end of the year. The factory that made the cigars are not being disclosed.
Because... Why aren't they disclosing the factory, Michael? Why aren't they disclosing the factory? Yes.
Or the blend? Well, factory at the moment. I have no idea. Oh, but it's the same one that's producing the Al Aviv, another new line from Costello Group.
Because there is no factory? Don't they have their own factory? I don't know. They're not saying who it is.
I thought they had their own factory. I thought they had their own farm. Don't they have their own? Yeah, I thought they don't.
Apparently. I can't even keep up with it. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just so confused.
So much going on. None of it makes any sense. No. And I'm not going to make a short clip out of it because I don't need some diatribe of bullshit from somebody else on there commenting about it.
That's just not true. I'm just not. So I'm not going to say, I'm not going to dignify it. And, um, yeah.
Wish him the best. Go get him. Go get him. Pierrotegos released in the 2024 Vintage of Eleganze and Generoso in late August.
My man Herklots. This month, I just want to be his photographer for a week and follow him around and take the pictures. Yeah, we got to walk, we got to walk through here. Because there's no way he does it himself.
There's none of, you know, this. Right. There's no way he gets so set up with a timer on his phone. It's just a guy.
It's got to be somebody following them with a real camera. Yeah. Michael, I will follow you around for four or five days. Yeah?
Oh, not you. You got that kind of time? I'm talking to Mr. Herklotz.
I know who you're talking to. You got that kind of time? Okay, three days. I'll take three days.
Three days? A long weekend. Maybe it'll take a long weekend. I don't know.
I'm not going to have a day off here in what? 15 days straight. So who knows? Is that what's going to happen?
You have 15 days of hard work? Of hard work? Yeah. Every day is hard work here.
But why? You don't have a day off? No, not since last week. Yeah?
Yeah. Why is that? Because I worked a weekend upstairs. Oh, you're filling in.
Right. I am the only extra person. Yeah. I mean, did you take any wholesale orders this weekend?
Actually, I did on Saturday. Yeah? That's the one from Smoke Rings? Smoke Rings, yeah.
The one. Yeah. Well, 9 o'clock on Saturday night, it's not too bad. That's how it works.
Yeah. The sales never go away. Nope. It's a 24-hour...
Can we get back to the story? No. I'm having fun here. Oh.
Yeah. Yeah, you have 15 days of consecutive work. Yes. I got news for you.
Well, it's probably more than that because you're never really off. Yeah, I got news for you. Yeah, it gets worse. It just gets worse.
Yeah. Yeah. It was a little hard to get up this morning. Did you cut the grass?
Yes, I did, Saturday morning before I came to work here. Yeah, I saw your TikTok. Yes. Yes.
Did I put that on TikTok? Yeah. Because normally I stopped doing the cigar ones because they're- You're blowing stuff with Postanya or whatever. Oh, I didn't really put that on TikTok.
Maybe it was on another one. It might have been on something else, yeah, 'cause they're banning me on TikTok. Anything with a cigar on it, they shut down. You're evil?
Yeah. Cigar bad. Tobacco. Tobacco bad.
Bad tobacco. Okay. All right, continue with your story. All right, this month the newest vintage of Fiero Tego's Elegance and Generoso lines are coming to stores, though they aren't the 2025 vintages.
Instead, Fiero Tego is releasing the 2024 editions after they received 22 months of aging. Why is that? We weren't ready? I don't know.
You got headphones? I'll call them. No. Well, not handy.
We'll call them on the Patreon. The company says that it takes a wine-inspired approach to releasing them in vintages, rather than aiming to replicate the previous releases we do with all our core blends, this project offers the opportunity to reinterpret and polish the experience of each blend annually, It says Michael Herklots, co-owner and blender of Fiero Tego, in a press release: "Each year we approach these blends with the same commitment to style and structure as I put into my photographs, but also with the freedom to let the tobacco speak for themselves, our goal is to be captured, as in a photograph, the best possible expression of elegance and generoso in each annual production. " Don't you eat over there. Yeah, this is going for food.
We can hear the rustling. Are you good buddy? How are you flipping cameras while you're eating chips? So the 2024 cigars received additional maturation, a nod to the winemaking practice of late release.
The rolling process was completed late 2023, and cigars have been resting ever since. You know, there's a mute button for your microphone. You can't hear it on my microphone. I bet you can.
We'll see. The Fiorotego Eleganza uses an Ecuadorian wrapper, a Dominican binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic to create a full-body profile that the company says evokes flavors of cinnamon toast, cedar, flan, macadamia, cream, nut brittle, toasted brioche, and white burgundy. Flan? Flan.
Flan. Brioche? Brioche. Who said that?
Half Wheel or Michael? Macadamia cream. No, no, Michael. Mr.
Herklotz said that? Mr. Herklotz. It's like, flan.
Flan. Yeah. You know what, I taste flan. It is produced by Quesada's Tobacco de Exportatione.
Exportatione? Exportatione? Exportatione? Exportatione?
Exportatione? Fanatically, it's how you would say it. Yeah? Exportatione?
Yes. The factory is in L-I-C-E-Y? L-I-C-E-Y? I don't know.
I'm not going there. You get stuff in your hair. L-I-C-E-Y? L-I-C-E-Y.
L-I-C-E-Y. Lice. Lice. Lice, Dominican Republic.
Lice. There's not an umlaut after the Y. There's not an umlaut? Not the whoop.
No umlaut. No swoop. According to the company, darker, more savory flavors such as allspice, barrel-aged porter, mocha latte, toffee, Turkish coffee, and Wagyu, Mark De Ferro Teigo Generoso. Wagyu?
No flan? No flan. This is a darker, more exotic cigar, Michael. Okay.
It uses a Honduran sun-grown wrapper at the top of the A Nicaraguan binder and fillers which were selected to create a focus on the complexity and depth of the flavor. These cigars are made by Plasencia Cigars and Esteli Nicaragua. Nicaragua. Both cigars are offered in a 6x50 Toro de Tola and presented in boxes of 10 cigars that the company says can use as a traveled humidor for storage.
Flan. Pricing is set at how many per box? How many per box? Dollars, dollars.
Two hundo. Boots? With your mouth full of chips? Is it a box of 20 or 10?
It's a box of 10. Nah, I think it's going to be like 250. 240. Bam!
American? American. Well, you get to keep the box. 24.
Everybody's just hitting 24. You get to keep the box. We're just knocking 24s out of the park. The cigars are scheduled to begin shipping on August 27th.
This is the fourth release for each blend as they debuted in 2021. Revenue in 2021. I got to tell you, Powstanie's looking like quite the value cigar. It is.
We're almost like a bundle now. Yeah, I mean, jeez Louise. All right, you guys ready for the 400th episode with the What's the Score? Yes.
Oh, we're doing this. We had a celebrity that was going to call in today, but we had to reschedule. He had to reschedule. Well, we also had to reschedule.
We also had to reschedule. Which worked out good for him, too. He said, that's fine. So he will be on next week.
He'll be on the 400th and... 401. One, one, one. All right.
This is from August 4th, 2025. Brooks Whittington. It's a limited edition cigar. It's a Redux.
It's the Tatuaje Pork Tenderloin. Oh. You're supposed to tell me when I have ash on me. Do you have ash on you?
Still there under the fold. You've stopped doing it. He's busy eating. He has chips on him.
No, I had to put on my shirt. You put on his Alcatraz shirt. Oh, for the camera. Not really.
All right, come on, somebody, give me a score. Pork Tenderloin Redux. Pork Tenderloin, it is the 2025, but the review is a Redux. They've done it before.
All right, scores have been reset. Mikey goes first since he was the winner. You want me to go first? Yeah, that's what he just said.
91. 91. Booty? Does Brooks like Tatua?
Is that what you're saying? I don't know, you tell me. I hate that I don't know this guy. You don't know Brooks?
I love Brooks. I know who he is, but I don't know his, like, the cigars that he likes. You better review the SPC, because even if it was plugged, it still wouldn't have been a 90. Yeah, I mean, this is a great cigar.
I mean, it should, it should go up there. Let's go 93. You had the tenderloin before? So you said 93, you said 91.
I did. All right. It's a Tatuaje Pork Tenderloin from 2025. Country of origin, Ni-ka-ra-gwa.
S. Connecticut broadleaf. Binder, Nicaragua. Filler, Nicaragua.
Length, it's a five and an eighth inches, ring gauge 52. It's a round. MSRP is $13. Bundle of $25 is $325.
It was released on May 2025. Number of cigars released, that's not really important for our purposes. He only smoked the one for the Redux. Really?
That was always three. So I'm going first, right? Yep. As per your request, you want me to go first?
Yep, you're first. 90. 92. All right, we have a special clue.
Ooh. This is one of the rare cases when we are doing a Redux review of a new version of a cigar and not an age sample of a cigar we have already reviewed, says Charlie Minato. That's a special clue? So normally what they do on a Redux is they do the same cigar they originally reviewed, but it's been aged, let's say, two years.
Right. Okay, so this is a redux of the original, but it is a brand new cigar. Okay, so it's not been aged extra time. Got it, I'm at 90.
92. All right, first clue. First thing I noticed about this incarnation of the pork tenderloin is the band, an aggressive, and if I'm being honest, not exactly attractive, red band with white type that matches the color scheme of the exterior bundle, a far cry from the original release, which had no band at all. A Far Cry?
Yes. So he's got a band, he's not very happy with it, but it is better than what they did before. These are the things that throw me for a loop. I mean, were their bills due or something?
Are they all agitated? Right. Yeah, some things just set them off. Have you seen this or smoked this cigar?
I have. I think we did it on the show. No. Did we?
I've had one and I wouldn't have bought it. You know what, I think, didn't Pete give us one? No. No.
No? No. I can't get Pete to message me back to do a come up here. Hernandez?
Oh, Pete Hernandez? Yeah, I'm not talking about Johnson. No, no. Pete Johnson?
Pete Johnson won't call you? No. I've messaged him. He's responded to that, but.
Oh. All right. Score, gentlemen. You're at 90.
I can't get him to commit. What are you at? He's at 90. I'm at 92, but this is the new one, so.
It's just crazy to me. I'm gonna go 89. 89? Mr.
Booty? This has got to be in the 90s, 92. 92. 89, 92.
After about 10 puffs, the spice recedes noticeably. A new flavor of powdery cocoa nibs and roasted peanuts take over the profile. What about flan? No flan.
No flan? That is the first time I've ever heard flan mentioned in a flavor profile. The flan. I'm going to tell you, does it taste like flan?
I've had flan. I like flan. I couldn't tell you what it tastes like right now. Sweet.
Well, right, but so does everything else that's got sugar in it. Well, yeah, I guess. All right, second clue about the cocoa nibs and the roasted peanuts. So does the spice going away upset him?
It doesn't sound like it does. I'm going to go back up to 90. Maybe he doesn't like peanuts. Maybe he's allergic to peanuts.
Maybe he has a peanut allergy. Could be. 90. 90.
92, I'm sticking. During the final third, the flavors in the profile mellow out and become slightly less distinct, But it's only noticeable because of how rich the profile was during the first half. Liked it, got dull at the end. Only thing left are the final thoughts, gentlemen.
I'm going to stay 90. I was going to go 89. I'm going to stay 90. I'm going to go 91.
Along with the original black label Corona Gorda, the original pork tenderloin will always hold a special place It was, and remains to this day, one of the best non-Cuban cigars I've ever smoked, due to its combination of savory flavor profile, incredible balance, and great construction. However, interestingly, the new version has quite a bit in common with what I remember of the original blend, including strong flavors of coffee beans, charred meat, and dark chocolate, as well as some nice maple syrup sweetness on the retro hill. I would also be remiss if I did not point out the amazing construction, especially the burn line, which was one of the best looking burn lines of any cigar I have smoked this year. Having said that, the flavors and the profile of the version do become a bit muddy and slightly less defined in the final third, especially when compared to the amazing first third.
The success rate for release of legendary blends is all over the map, but this incarnation of one of my favorite cigars ever It's as close to the original as we'll probably ever see. Son of bitch. I'm gonna go 91. Booty?
Man, this sounds like the cigar, in his eyes, should rate a hundred. Right? Just the way he describes it. Obviously, he loves Tatuaje.
I'm going 92. 91. Wow. Yes!
Wow. Love it. Unbelievable. Oh, man.
All right. Now, Boots lost that one. Didn't Brooks rate something higher than the 91? Yes.
All right, Boots, if you would like to make it a If it's a tie, what was the original score from 2010? You get one guess, no clues. If you get it right, then that one becomes a tie, not a win for it. What?!
This is one of those rare episode 400 extra rules. Oh, it's also only today. Today only. 91.
95. Really? So that's a perfect, that's the highest score. Yeah, that's like the highest thing they give is a 95.
That's so crazy. It's crazy how they score. Completely just all over the place. So he got no bonus.
No. He got no bonus. You still get the win. 95.
I'm the best. All right. February 2nd, 2010, another Brooks, Arturo Fuente Cigars, Dominican Republic, Arturo Fuente, Hemingway Classic, Sun Grown. You want to go first?
Well, I have to. He goes first because you won. Oh, no, that's okay. Whatever you want.
You want me to go first or you want to go first? It doesn't matter to me. Whatever you want. I beat you sufficiently.
It doesn't matter. You can dominate this game. Whatever you would like. Look, here's the problem, right?
This guy just, he's just rated a Tatawaje, right? Mm-hmm. Nicaraguan, Connecticut Broadleaf, super high. Now he's gonna go to a Fuente.
Come from 2010. Right. This is, but still, it's a Dominican cigar. Yeah.
Where is this guy's palate? Where is it? In his mouth. I don't purposely pick the same reviewer, just the way it worked out.
Yeah, it's in his mouth. This is Brooks again? Yes. You know, here's, you want to know what I think the problem is, Boots?
Your lack of accountability. No. You're the problem. No.
Fix the problem. No. No. Yeah.
This pallet is crazy. Okay, so, again. You know what, no, I don't think his pallet is crazy. I think his, his, his logic of numbers is crazy.
Well, we don't know how, what their scoring system, how it works. Yeah, we don't know how to do that. Right, I think it's a hat, and they fucking put all these numbers in it. And yet, here I am just nailing it, time after time after time.
Well, you got a good hat. You know what's funny is, you were also at 91, but you shifted up. I was, yeah, because I was like, oh, okay, this guy's like, oh, I love it. This is great.
The burn line's perfect. This is close to the original. That back end, though, crushed it down. Four points off.
It was not even close to the original, obviously. Maybe four points is a cocoa nib to him or something. It's still an A, bro. A 91 or a 94 or a 95 is still an A.
Let me tell you, if you put a coffee bean in your mouth, a cocoa nib, and whatever else he fucking said, you think it would taste good all together? Nutmeg. All right, Boots, come on, give a score. Are you going to go, or am I going to go?
I'm going to go 86. All right, Mike. That's a good fucking number. That is a good number.
Thank God I fucking picked one out of the hat. I got to tell you, that is a good number. What did he just say? 86.
86. Whoo! I like that one, 87. 90.
Date released, oh, 2003, but it's a 2010 review. Great price. Great size. Probably not a great cigar, though.
I think I've smoked this before. The Sun Grown is not a great cigar. 22 years ago. No, I did not smoke it 22 years ago.
No, no. Wow, that's when it came out. So long. It's an old cigar.
That's when I graduated high school. Well, apparently Brooks was reviewing cigars. Yeah. Let's go...
I don't feel so old. The Sun Grown is not good. I gotta go 85. I gotta go down.
Oh, he went down. Went down. Just by the description. I'm holding 87.
87. Yeah. The cigar itself is quite rough to the touch with a very little oil to speak of. Hates Fuentes.
Brooks hates Fuentes. He hates Fuentes. Oh my goodness. That was it?
That's it? 85. So did he go up or down? I stayed.
Oh, he stayed. I'm going to stay 87. 87. Next clue.
I'm hoping that maybe at some point he lightened up a smidge. Because I know that he pelted one really bad that was a fun day before. All right, next clue. There seems to be very little actual flavor so far.
Okay. Why not? Let's go 86. Let's just dabble in both.
He went up one. There's very little flavor. You know what? I'm going to go up a score.
Do you see where the problem here is? I just don't know how shitty the cigar is to him. Do you see where the problem is? Well, yeah, but it was bad.
What should I, then I should, we should be in the 60s at this point. Okay, well, I'm going to move to 80. I'm gonna move 80. 22.
7. Is there a 22? 7. It's a single digit.
It's a 7. 82. You're at 82. Yes.
And what's he at? 86. No flavor. Gotta move it up.
Yeah, baby. I can't taste shit. Okay, perfect. Let's fucking rank it higher.
But you said 87, that's only four off of the 91. Yeah, but then it just went down. But I know, but I'm just saying like, first of all, I bet you this cigar is probably going to rate like 89. You think so?
Yeah, I bet you it's going to fucking be like 92. Maybe you're just really optimistic. At the end it turned and it tasted amazing. It's the greatest.
You know what? I can't wait to see the number. The final third is the greatest cigar I've ever had. Yeah.
Final clue before the final thought. That's it? No, we got one more clue, then you have the final thought. But out of nowhere, the cigar gets extremely bitter.
Not the well, let's keep smoking and it will get better bitter, but more like, let's put this cigar down bitter. This piece of sheet. Yeah, I'm going to have to go, man, you're at 82. See, that makes me question myself.
I'm going to have to go 90. Bitter? Want to put it down? 97.
Greatest cigar ever. You know what? But he would rate it high if it was bitter and shitty and didn't light. Didn't light.
Can't get it to light, not sure what it tastes like. You said 82? 83. No, he's at 82.
Oh. I'm at 79 now. I'm going 79. All right, final thought.
Bold. I'm making a bold move. Disappointment does not even begin to describe what I was feeling at the end of this cigar. This thing should not rate.
I was expecting a fusion of two of my favorite cigars, and instead, I got a foul-tasting mess. Every time I hear about a cigar that I have been wanting to try, it gets bad ratings. The first thing I ask is where this cigar came from and where had it been stored, as storage conditions can be a huge factor in the quality of the final smoke. I know exactly where these cigars have been since they were released, and I have to assume that the specific sticks have just gone way past their prime.
He's never to return to anything close to their former glory. Glory? Glory. For the glory.
For Rome. For the glory. For Rome. We do it for Rome.
Gentlemen, final scores? Boots. You know, he wanted me to go first because he knew that this guy was going to rate really bad on a Fuente cigar. You know what?
Actually, if you watch the video, I did not give a flying fuck if you went first or last. It doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter to me. He said he so trounced you in the first one.
All right, I'm going to go 80. Oh, perfect. Did he go back up? No, he went down.
I thought he went up again. I'm going to stick at 79. It's probably going to rank lower than that, but now I know I beat him. 65.
Boom. 65. Do you see how that works? This is the lowest rated cigar they've ever done.
Do you see how I just crushed you again? Because you just went under me. Yeah, it wasn't that hard. If you'd at least said 75, you would have put me to a test.
I'm like, damn, do I need to go lower than 75? But Brooks is so all over the place. No, he's not. You just rank everything high.
I mean, you're the guy that ranks a paper. No, no, I do not rank everything high. Yes, you do. Yes, you do.
Your interpretation of everything is great. Hey, this cigar sucked. It was terrible at first. It was rough to the touch, and it was bitter on the tail end of it.
So much to where I wanted to quit. Would you buy it? Yes. That would be your response.
You'd be like, of course. How much is it? Yeah, I'll take 12 of them. I would, you know what?
I don't think I've ever bought a Fuente out of Cigar Hustler or anywhere. Never an Opus? Nope. Never a, I'm going to tell you, there's some great- I have smoked two Opuses.
Okay. And they are both bought for me. Okay. Next Patreon, we're going to review a Casa Cuba.
Please remind me. Okay. All right. It's a less expensive Fuente.
It's not a less expensive Fuente. I thought it was like $10, $12. $10, $12? No.
I don't know. That's not a lesser expensive Fuente. Well, I was comparing it to an Opus. Curlyhead is a lesser expensive.
Curlyhead, that's what I was thinking. Curlyhead. No, this is the last blend of Carlito Fuente's father before he passed. Gotcha.
Okay, so this is a Coraline. Yeah, I guess it is to some degree. It's a limited, but it's not extremely limited. Oh, you know what?
Maybe I had three, because did we have a Casacuba in Vegas? Probably, but don't worry. Hold on. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
No, I just don't think they're good. You said Fuente sucks. We'll smoke that. And if you think that sucks, I have questions.
However, you're eternally optimistic about every single... It doesn't matter what somebody says on their review. They could tell... I mean, the guy flat out told you it sucked.
It did suck. And you struggled to get to the... We're doing this cigar. You struggled to get to the 80.
And I'm like, oh, this is a... Not only did you, like, let me win, you gave me a layup, bro. You didn't even put me in a position where I had to think. But there's been cigars that are good that he's rated, right?
They already smoked or whatever. And then he rated it, like, low, like in the 70s. Go back to the video. Go back for the past three months and watch our half-wheel review and how you rate these things and every single time I'm willing to bet you're over.
At least 90% of the time you're gonna be over. You're playing the cigar each week, he's playing you. No point. No, I'm not because if I'm going first, I have...
Well, it really doesn't matter who goes first or who goes last because once he starts saying, once one of you starts saying his score, you can play off the other. If you don't think you know what it is, but you think it's going to be bad, you just have to always be lower than him. Well, if you think he's making a stupid move and it's going to be higher, you just always have to be higher than him. Here's what I do.
I go off of the cigar and I go off the guy who's smoking the cigar. Right. That's where I go. Now, if he wants to make it super easy for me by giving me a rating that there's no competition, then yeah, I don't have to think.
At that point, I no longer have to think and that's what happened at the end of that game. So, get your shit together. Pull your head out your ass and fucking dial in. I want some competition.
Listener of the week. Is it back on me? We got a listener of the week. Yeah, I'm on.
Juan DeJesus. Oh, dong. Shop of the week, Michael. com.
Yes, he's one of the people that enjoy his shirt. Thank you for being an avid listener. We appreciate your support. Juan's a great guy.
Juan is a great guy. Oh, careful, you're on fire. Do I have a shop of the week? No, I have a shop of the week.
Old Times Claremont will be on Wednesday from 11:00 to 3:00. This Wednesday? This Wednesday. Okay.
Is that it? By the way, our LFD events canceled. Oh. Yeah.
You know, apparently our rep didn't commit something. Oh. That just happened because I asked Greg this morning if he was going to get more details. I'm going to get more details.
Yeah, no, the details are he didn't realize that it was a serious date, I guess, or something like that. I don't know the details, but here's what I know moving forward, I'll just be calling the office for my orders. I'm not doing this. Yeah, from what I've heard.
This is ridiculous. It's the second or third problem we've had with the rep. Yeah. So.
Gotcha. Do we have a different event we're doing? What? Do we have something different we're doing?
We haven't solved that problem now. Now we're behind the eight ball a little bit. Right, with two weeks notice. Yep.
No pressure. No pressure. No, but we love Press Your Head, Cigar Hustler. But we'll figure it out.
Yep, there'll be something exciting going on. Yes. All right, Boots, you want to plug anything? Um...
No. Okay, good talk. All right. All right, thank you, everybody.
It's been episode 400. It's been a lot of fun doing 400 of these. We would like to make money. Oh, you know what?
What? I appreciate you guys for letting me do this podcast with you guys. This is the 400th one. What, I've been here for what?
Three years now? I have no idea. Three of them? Probably just three episodes.
Maybe three. Maybe just three of them. It is a fun time. I do enjoy doing the show.
I look forward to this. This is the thing I look forward to every week. Yes. It stresses me out sometimes.
I'm the only one. You're the only one that you hate? You hate this? I don't hate it.
But it's a lot of work for me each week. Look at what he's wearing. Of course he loves it. You think he wears this to the grocery store?
Hold on. Wait a second. You think that this is just a lot of work for you? I think it's more work for me than you two.
Really? So this is the end of the show. So you think that I don't devote three fucking days to short clips? You do do, you are, yes, after the fact, you're right, I apologize, yes, you do do all the clips, sometimes it's five days.
Yeah. Yeah. I just meant to prepare for the show, not after the show, but you're right. If you put it all together, yes, you are right, you do as much as I do.
This shows in Palmer lived a great life, he will be greatly missed. No, it's not that, I just, you know what, I just don't want someone to feel like they do all of the work and then no one else is pulling with them. No, you do, yes, you do do all the clips, sorry, I, I did, should have misspoke, yes. How about those lovely shirts that are coming up all the time?
Yes. And Brittany's doing a great job. Brittany, thank you for making them. Oh, yeah, who's creating the design and putting them on the site?
Well, you put them on the site, but we made that last show. Make sure you get your Alcatraz one. com, Alcatraz, New York, go visit the Statue of Liberty. I think the, uh, SBC shirt is going to be a big hit.
I think it should do well, yeah. I like that, it looked nice. Okay. All right, all right.
Everybody happy now? 400. Episode 400. Thank you.
This is what happens when it don't work out. I was trying to congratulate these guys and thank them, and I turned into a place between mom and dad. You know what, Boots? I appreciate you, buddy.
Thank you. Oh, thanks, guys. For all your hard work. And I just want you to know, you do a great job over there.
Thank you. And Palmer acknowledges that, because he tried doing it one week, and he realized that it was not easy. It's not easy. It is hard to do.
Yeah. If you add all this, yeah. It's even harder when you're me and Palmer's sitting in that chair and you're sitting in that chair and you guys yell at me the whole time. Switch to cameras.
Switch to the cameras. I will tell you this, though. We need to set up so we can see what camera is on. We need a second monitor.
You know what? Here's one that's really kind of crazy for you, though. I think that you do a better job of this when Ginger's not in the room. Maybe.
Oh, it's right. Yeah, you're right. You really do. You mean like talking-wise?
Just the whole thing in general, yeah. I mean, it was a little rough for me today that when we get on the Patreon, I got something to say about this thing, this cigar. Okay. Well, let's go.
Let's get that out of the way and we're done with it. All right. Thanks, guys. Bye.
Goodbye. Bye. Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, the show brought to you commercial-free. But a massive shout out to our amazing patrons on the Patreon.
Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to do unfiltered, unbiased opinions. All things cigars, 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. F*** that one up.
Show Notes
Cigar Hustlers Podcast – Episode 400
We made it to 400! This week we take a trip down memory lane, revisiting our Top 5 most-watched episodes on YouTube— from Phil’s Nicaraguan jungle disappearance to epic chats with Skip Martin and Brian Desind. We also reflect on our journey to becoming one of the top 5% of podcasts worldwide, share some of our favorite guest moments, and look ahead to what’s next. Plus, trending news, cigar updates, and maybe a little trouble along the way… because it wouldn’t be a Hustlers episode without it.