ACHP 403 Cigars, Scandals & Scorecards b

Transcript

Welcome to episode 403 of the Cigar Hustle Podcast. This week, we're diving into the biggest stories making waves. 5 billion Gmail users must change their passwords immediately, it's a fact or fear-mongering. We break down the truth, Bill Belichick's college football debut in North America, North Carolina, turns into a multi-million dollar disappointment, a major, still North America, a major appeals court ruling strikes down Trump's tariffs with big implication for the cigar industry in China, authorities bust one of the largest fake cigar operations in recent years.

Plus, Espinosa's Warhead 11, is 11 or 2? 11? 11. Lands.

Not a 2. Warhead 2? It's a 2. El Pupo drops the squid, and Hoon Young unveils the Jack Car Edition.

And don't miss our special guest, Joshua Haberski, CEO of the PCA, joining us in a few minutes for exclusive interview. Stick around for cigar reviews, industry insights, and, of course, the best cigar game in 2025, What's the Score? Afternoon, gentlemen. Let's get it on.

Hello, hello, hello. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Michael, how do I get my hands on some of that CHPod swag?

That is a great question, Mr. Palmer. com, where we have new releases every single month. What's available right now?

Well, this month we are releasing the Don Juan Nieve shirt, which I really love. I think it's hilarious. Not a lot of people get it though, well, you know, you need, you guys need to do some research here and figure out what the hell we're talking about when we say Don Juan Nieve. Um, yeah, and, uh, I'm going to do, we're going to up it here.

Yeah, we're upping it? Yeah, we're going to up it. If they, if someone likes, subscribes, and comments on this show, show, right here, the long show, long format, not the short format, the long format show, they're going to be entered to win a new Don Juan Nieve shirt. Oh.

What if they're already a subscriber? All they got to do is comment. Yeah. Yeah.

Like and share. They're already there. They're halfway there. On the YouTube show.

Yes. Okay. On the YouTube show. Okay.

Got it. All right. And then we will announce the winner on next week's podcast. And they get a shirt.

Yeah. Oh, nice. The Don Juan Nieve. What are we doing at today's Patreon, Michael?

Today's Patreon, we are doing. How's that? Perfect. The Viaje Wolverine.

Ooh, the Wolverine. Yes. 6 grams, and I'm excited to get my first cigar down for the day, so let's get this. First one for the day?

Yeah, but lighten up a little bit. I used to smoke, I was smoking all the way into the gym, and then I'd smoke all the way out of the gym. Right. Not so much anymore, huh?

As of right now. Right. It's a little, it's a tad less. For no particular reason, other than, eh, eh, you know, whatever.

All right, this month, there's a month-long Camacho event, that on 926, we're going to give away a Halo Elite 2B Outdoor Griddle. Yes, I want that grill. More. It's a grill or griddle?

It's a griddle. It's the flat iron yadda yadda yadda. It's the flat iron griddle thingy, Barbara. I would like this.

It looks really, really fancy. It's lovely. Like, it's compact. I gotta tell you, some people have already said, well, if I win, last time, Camacho was here, Mike, you made a deal for the...

The deal is on the table. So, they're thinking, maybe I'll get more cigars. Yeah, the deal is, of course. All right, then on 9:23, I'll be at the Treasure Coast Cigars in Vero Beach for a Pustania Cutting Light from noon to 3:00.

What time is it? Do we have time? Yeah, it's not 3:00 yet. No, no, we need to go ahead and call Joshua.

We should probably go ahead and get set up and call Joshua before we get into anything else. Okay, is there anything else? No, the next thing we're going to do is the trending news. Okay, so, all right, let's give Joshua a call.

How much sound do we have? Not a lot with him? Uh, I don't know. There's not been an out, just an in.

Okay. Get your headphones ready, gentlemen. Oh, mine are ready. Into the cone of silence secret phone calls from Cigar Hustler Podcast.

Secret squirrel. Secret squirrel. Turn me down a little bit, it's kind of loud. Because you have sound in both sides.

Holy moly. I do have sound. Yeah. Did you fix that?

I fixed that one. Oh, still. What number is it? Keep going.

Still one adapter. He's the same as you, by the way. He shares your signal. Oh, we share.

Okay, I'm going to start turning this down. I don't know which number I'm on. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Hello, this is Josh.

Hello, Joshua. This is Cigar Hustler Podcast. This is Mike Balmer and Mike Stepankiewicz, and then we got Booty. Booty over there on the board.

Hello. How are you guys doing? Doing well, sir. Thank you so much for taking this call.

No problem. I mean, you know, you didn't have to take the call, let's be honest, because we're brutal on this podcast, aren't we, Palmer? Well, we can be unfriendly at times, I would assume. Yeah, and that's good to bring it back up.

You guys give me a good self-esteem push, though. You said that I was short, and I don't make enough money, and like, you know, any time I get a little too arrogant, I gotta listen to the podcast, and it keeps me grounded. Well, we found out the money might not be the issue any longer. I still believe the money is an issue.

Oh, you still think it's not enough? Yeah, I think that, you know, he could, yeah, I did the whole clip about it, yeah. All right, well, if he, you know what, if he's fine with it, I'm fine with it. I think it should be a little bit more, I mean, okay, so, but listen, we just, I did just see a post this morning, I believe, and you were talking about something that's going on on September 11th?

Never forget, Josh, you there, or did you hang up? Yep, yep, we, oh yeah, we have our fall fundraiser. C. Okay.

All right, so, but like, how do we get you a better camera or something, dude? Because did you see that video? And what the hell, what is going on there? Well, PCA as a unit need better audio, video, I mean, just something, you know?

So we are getting a podcast studio in the office, like, we're gonna actually compete a little bit, you know, I don't think we're gonna take anyone away from your listeners or your viewers, but we are gonna professionalize a little bit. Oh, okay. Well, we're more than happy to come up and consult, I mean, that's on the table, small fee, we're happy to help, you know? We'll have to have you come on the show.

Oh, we would love that. Oh, that'd be great. Absolutely. So, let's talk a little bit about your education initiative that you have going on at FIU.

Yes. Super excited for this. Very few times do you get educational institutions able to do something that's tobacco related. Obviously, we all know the unique nature of premium cigars and that, you know, we're not cigarettes, we're not vapor products, we're not marketing to use, things like that.

But, you know, we've been working with FIU for the past five, six months and putting together this masterclass. This is kind of phase one. It will be a three-day crash course on luxury marketing, product launches, media relations, what you can and cannot do as a highly regulated product, bringing in, you know, the top industry experts, some of our lawyers. So the course is really meant for people that are like a director of marketing for a brand or a general manager of a store, we already have I think 10 people signed up, the capacity is 40, and we've, you know, sent one release on it, so we're pretty confident that we're gonna fill up that course.

That's awesome. That's great. It sounds like a great opportunity. Now I do have to ask you, I saw this morning that you have partnered up with the TPE, That's correct.

The underbelly of the cigar industry for the education. Is this part of the FIU thing, or is this something different? This is something different. Education is going to be one of the initiatives that you see the PCA really getting involved in a lot of different areas.

You know, we brought on Ricardo, who was a co-founder of the Cigar Academy. Part of his function is education-oriented. The other part is, you know, we want the PCA, the trade show itself to be the epicenter for the cigar world. And there's been a lot of brands from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Honduras that have been increasing market share globally.

And we want to get those retailers, those importers to come to the show to make purchases as, you know, I don't need to restate to you guys the issues that we've seen with Cuba. With Cuba and the cigar market there, so it's really just to increase the value of the trade show for our manufacturers in recruiting outside of the United States. Got it. So how does that help PCA?

So, I mean, you'll write more orders. You'll have the retailers themselves that attend the show, they'll have access to all of the member benefits. You know, I think it's a partnership and a trade-off. We are not actively lobbying or doing anything in, let's say, use the European Union as an example, but we are looking to partner with organizations over there where we can get some of the, share some of the research that we've paid for, some of the tax cap studies, but from like the manufacturing standpoint, we're bringing more buyers globally to the trade show.

So hopefully write bigger orders as brands. And then of course, like the expansion of the overall network, we saw an increase, you know, in attendance to 6,000 this past year, I would like to get to 7,000 or 8,000 people and really, you know, the worldwide Super Bowl of the cigar industry, not just the United States. So how would you track that as far as it being successful? What do you have for like kind of markers to indicate that that's working?

So, it's going to be membership. We've done an analysis of, like, global membership and, like, you know, in the United Kingdom, for instance, we had four retailers that were members. So, like, that's, you know, the bar is very low. Like, next year, I want to see 20, 30 retailers or importers that are members that are coming to the trade show.

So, that's a barometer of success in the way, like, you know how state block grants work? That's how I envision this for our partners worldwide. You know, if people are paying membership dues to the association, you know, let's say, use the United Kingdom as that example, our membership is $600. We can take $300, provide all the member benefits there, and then remit that as a block grant so that they can fight generational smoking bans in the United Kingdom.

That's similar to what we do at the state level too. A lot of the membership dues from retailers is reinvested in advocacy at the local and state level. Okay, so, but how much does the one guy get paid for all of that? If you get the four, you get the four members at 600 a piece.

Eduardo? Yeah, it's 2,400 bucks, right? Oh, Ricardo? Ricardo, Ricardo, sorry.

He's got education and the international piece. And he is a consultant that works for us, so he's paid on a monthly basis and it's performance driven, so, you know, we have a contract with him September to December, we'll look and see, you know, is this justifiable to continue, and I know he's hit the ground running with a lot of new partnerships with some of the other organizations out there in the Dominican Republic in Nicaragua. So, you know, membership development, piece of the puzzle, but education, another piece. Okay.

I like, dude, I like all the answers you're giving me. You know, this is amazing. He knows what he's doing, it sounds like. It's like, it's like he knows what he's doing.

It's crazy. So odd with a government, you know, a government type organization. Okay. I want to back up though here, because there was an outfit on Instagram.

Oh my God. What, what happened? Did you get run over? I mean, like we saw, Was it raining?

We saw the outfit in a previous post, and it looked okay. And then something happened. What happened? So it is comical.

You guys caught me at a bad time because I had been doing three trips. I did three trips like back to back to back. I didn't sleep going into that. And that was at the end of the night.

There was a retailer that traveled an hour and a half and they asked to take a photo with me. And I said, you know, absolutely, I did the Cigar Coops podcast, and it was like 12:30 at night when that photo was taken, no sleep, and I love that jacket, the jacket is actually a three cigar holder, and a brand new exhibitor from the UK, international member, that will be exhibiting at the show, and they do these really neat jackets, but my hair was not combed, I look like a mess, and I'm glad that you guys were there to highlight that. Well, the Coop Show is rather long. I can see how you can look a little disheveled at the end of the show.

Did you wrestle the retailer before you took the photo? Let me ask you that. I'm going to wear that and wrestle an alligator in New Orleans. Oh, perfect.

Maybe Anthony Mackie. Maybe you can wrestle Anthony Mackie. No photos, though. No photos.

Okay, one other quick question. So, like, with the FIU program, I understand what you're trying to do as far as the implementation and all those things. That sounds good. good.

However, there is some kind of irony here in the fact that you're doing this on a campus that's totally smoke-free, right? That doesn't allow any type of smoking at all. Is there any plans on trying to work on, hey, well, you know, listen, maybe cigars should be not considered the same. Like if you go to wine school, you're going to drink wine and have some of those experiences, right?

You can't drink beer there. You can't drink, you know, hard alcohol, but you can drink wine where it's kind of deviated. Are there any kind of focal points in maybe making that How do you feel that cigar is acceptable in doing something like this in this program? I would love to do that.

One of the cool things about this initial partnership with them, day three will be off-site at one of our member lounges. We are doing a cigar pairing, tasting, and, you know, we got approval from the university for all the students to get a custom masterclass FIU PCA branded travel humidor, lighter, and cutter. So, we were allowed to do all the accessories. I tried to have, you know, cigars banded.

We got a little bit pushed back from them there. We're going to push the envelope. Like, make no mistake, I want this to be a fully immersive class. I understand their policies.

The one thing I will say about FIU, their dean is incredibly forward-thinking. " And of course, you know, this is an in-person class. Bacardi and Lavazza have done online courses with FIU. That's kind of what we want to grow this into.

But like, now we're trying to figure out, "All right, we have a ton of members on the West Coast. " We have a very good hospitality school as well. We are doing, actually myself and Ricardo, in the beverage program at the University of Houston, we are doing a lecture on cigar education. That's something that is brand new and it was a result of kind of this wave of fanfare around the FIU.

So just to answer your question directly, I plan on pushing the envelope. We are going to be smoking cigars day three at one of our member lounges, Empire Social in Las Olas. So we're excited for that course. Okay, nice.

Awesome. All right. Okay, so now I have some questions that you're probably not going to want to answer. So if you want to dodge them, this is my disclaimer.

Hello? Hello, Joshua? Hello? You can dodge them.

Just say Boots is the best if you don't want to answer. So, are you ready? Yep. Okay, so listen, the last PCA, the celebrity, the opening event was pretty big, right?

Yep. With Guy Fieri? That's correct. So, is there another following PCA opening event that will be another celebrity-oriented thing, or do you think that the celebrity is what helps draw that attention?

So are you trying to go a different direction? So I can tell you that there is going to be a celebrity component for next year. It will be another high-caliber, big-name celebrity. You know, it's a part of it.

I think that there's the allure of it. Part of it's the cigars. You know, that conference day, we're going to have several different speakers. You know, of course, hand-rolled has become a little bit of a tradition.

We'll be unveiling a new episode there, but you know, we are tweaking things and amplifying, I think a lot of people were content with the growth of the show, some of the investment, we didn't have shitty food. I don't know if I can swear on this podcast, but I will. Sorry, beat me out, if you will, but you know, we made some improvements and we're going to continue to improve. I know next year there's going to be, you know, an additional large-scale party that's the We're also going to continue that festival atmosphere with the outdoor park, and it's one of those things, we don't want to fix what's not broken, but we want to amplify and grow, and like, you know, like I said, I want to continue to see that attendance grow, and if people weren't at the show and they see the photos, they see the fanfare, they see people, you know, with the governor of Louisiana or with Guy Fieri, they, there's excitement of, oh, maybe I should have went to the show.

- Right. Okay. Is it going to be aficionado coverage only or are we going to let Coop in? Did you talk to him about that?

Because I want to make sure that Coop is covered on this. It's not just aficionados opening show. - Yeah. I mean, Dave does a good job, you know, like we obviously respect the cigar media in general.

I do releases with everybody and, you know, I try to spread the love, so to speak. Okay. Well, let's all get together and, you know, sing kumbaya or something. I don't understand.

If he could still not get in, though, for media time in the morning, that would be great, because I like his complaints. Yeah. You got to let John McTavish in 20 minutes before Coop. Right.

Exactly. All right. The next question I can't ask you. It's just, it's way too late.

Go ahead, ask Michael. It's too inappropriate. It is. Well, then it'll be the last question to ask, and then he can hang up.

No. No, I can't do it. I can't do it to Josh. He's been so good.

He has been very accommodating. Yeah. Do you have any questions for us? No, no, shoot, shoot, you can ask me, it's a salary question, and it's publicly available, so you can look it up, and like, I'll tell you this one, I am very content working in the cigar industry, I love, I'm passionate about it, you know, I could be working in, I came from banking, you know, five years ago, and, you know, each part of my career has been great, if I would have stayed in banking, I would be multi-millionaire.

He's got a very nice resume, I looked him up. I love the cigar industry, and like, you know, outside of my day job, I'm in hospitality, I have, I'm an investor in seven restaurants, so I think the moral of the story is I should be able to afford a comb, even if it's not on my PCA salary. Yes, absolutely. You should be able to afford a comb person, just follows them around and combs his hair.

All right, so then I'm going to give it to you. Ask the question, Michael. Okay, so there's this rumor going around that you have a tendency to give out private loans to individuals, and sometimes you take payment back in dried up leaves. Is that true, or is there no comment there?

No, no, no loans. I definitely will take any cigars that people want to give me to smoke, but those are for personal consumption reasons, not for sale. You know, people knew. I owned two cigar lounges before taking over.

I sold those when I became the CEO and executive director, and I think I have a unique perspective of what to do, what not to do, having bought a lounge and also having built one from the ground up. And the one in Erie, Pennsylvania, is still in existence. It's my hometown. There was never a downtown cigar lounge.

And I was happy to have built it, but they're learning experiences and, uh, you know, you win some, you lose some. Absolutely. Okay. Well, we're going to let you go, dude.

Josh, thank you so much. Thank you. Yes. I appreciate you, uh, accepting our dry humor for what it is.

Oh yeah. Hey, I re-shared it. I had people like, what, what are you doing? Like, you're making fun of yourself.

I'm like, this is satire. These guys, hey, they're doing something a little bit different. So I appreciate what you guys do, and keep keeping me on my toes, I'm going to wear stilettos or something at the next door so I look taller. I will have a step stool on hand for a photo when you show up.

I'll have some. Thank you, Joshua, we appreciate your time, sir. All right, take care, guys. All right, bye-bye.

There you go. What a nice guy. Joshua Habersky, PCA. He is a nice guy.

He took it really well. Yeah, if only everybody else in the industry would take it so well. Right. Well, they gotta be willing to let it fucking just roll off.

You know what, if they don't though, they can't mess with my happiness, you know what I mean? Right. Like, you want to be angry, go ahead, that's you, that's your problem. Right, be angry, we don't care, we don't care.

Yeah, okay. So wait, you heard a rumor that he gives loans and accepts cigars? I can't... No, no, don't divulge your source.

No, no, no. But is that really, like, he gives you $10,000, you give him $10,000? I heard a rumor that that's actually, that is something that went down. That is something that went down.

Now, I mean, you know, he said that not so much. No, no, he said not so much, yes. Yeah. So, it's kind of debunked, you know, but he could just be protecting people.

Certainly. We don't know. No. We don't know.

Right. We have no idea. It's the cigar industry, you know what I mean? It could be anything.

A rumor hasn't started by 12 o'clock, you better get one going, you know? Start one, exactly. Okay. All right, ready to go to trending news?

Yes. All right, speaking of rumors, all Gmail users should change their password immediately. Oh, no. Here's the truth to the viral claim.

5 billion Gmail users should change their passwords. The headlines warn saying Google has issued an emergency alert to all its users. Not so fast. However, while Google and Gmail are often targeted by scammers, claims of an emergency alert are entirely false.

I knew it. The tech giant said, in June, cyber, excuse me? There's no way, sorry. In June, cyber criminals known as the Shiny Hunters.

The Shiny Hunters? Hunters. There's more than one. That's what I said.

Yes. Successfully breached Google's Salesforce database. It stores and manages customer data for small and medium sized businesses. According to Google, the breach did not compromise other products such as Gmail or Google Drive, and no passwords or financial data was exposed.

Okay. That hasn't stopped multiple reports claiming the Gmail users should change their passwords immediately as a result of the hack. Adding to the concern are reports that scammers are contacting Gmail users in an attempt to get them to change their passwords. In these cases, scammers are using news of the Google hack to trick people into thinking their accounts are compromised and they should change their passwords over the phone.

Or use a link that is sent to them. Send it right here. com. They're like the wet bandits.

Oh, yes. Secure. Google routinely advises people to change passwords and be vigilant about accounts, but recent reports of immediate threat are false. Well, normally, if you do anything with Gmail, you know, if you have a YouTube account or anything like that, you have to authorize it through YouTube.

Right. Yeah, because you and I share a couple of things. So, I mean, we're approving each other back and forth. Allegedly.

Yeah, and it's damn near impossible for us to track. For its millions upon millions, North Carolina got sold a bill of goods. Oh. A bill of goods?

Yes. Like a Belichick? Is that what you're talking about? Yes, this is the Belichick story.

Forget the cutoff sleeves, alleged football genius got pantsed in his college debut. North Carolina paid $10 million for Bill Belichick and got sold a bill of goods. The students gave up before the third quarter was halfway over right after the defense. Gave up.

It was bad. It was bad. According to the article, it was. It's certainly possible that this could have gone worse for Belichick and the Tar Heels, but that's an argument over a matter of degrees.

Belichick and his brain trust promised the 33rd NFL team, and yes, this was certainly at the level of what the Cleveland Browns annually perpetrated on their fans. North Carolina gave millions upon millions to a guy who convinced them this would be easy. That is, genius wouldn't tie knots none of his predecessors could, and his NFL pedigree would do things none of his new peers could, only to find out that maybe this business wasn't as easy as it looked from the outside after all. Wow.

Okay, so... It's harsh. It's harsh. They paid $10 million for this guy.

Yeah, that's one game. So, how long do you think it takes to change a culture in an organization? Two years. Two years.

Sports, I don't know. Sports, you don't know. I would imagine, though, a team that people rotate in and out every, what, two to four years, roughly? Yeah.

It's kind of hard to build on that. I think, I mean, the NFL has the same thing. You have a lot of rotation, you have a lot of guys, but it's not two to four. But like the senior class all leaves, you know, they're there four to five years, max.

Well, the thing is, is that the NFL's only got 32 teams. Right. The college has way more, right? So your pool- 33?

They have 33? No, yeah, way more. Their pool is much slimmer, right? So like a school that he went to, North Carolina, right?

They're not really known for football. They're starting to become known for football over the past five years, but they're still not like a school that you're gonna sign with, right? A top recruit. If you're like a four-star or a five-star, you're not going to Carolina.

Yeah, at least. Right, right now. There again, three star, two star. Now, what they did last night was really good.

They brought in all the stars, right? All the guys that went to Carolina. Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was one.

Oh, all the past to watch the game. Right. So, so if we haven't learned anything from Dion, right, there's probably, you're probably going to start getting four and five star recruits next year. Just because of the publicity that Carolina is getting, you're going to probably start getting better.

NIL deals, you're probably going to start getting some type of advertising, you know, everybody's going to get a Porsche or whatever. A Porsche? I mean, whatever it is, Ferraris, yeah. Okay, well, listen, he's arguably the greatest coach of all time, right?

Yeah, one of them. You feel that way, I know you feel that way. Certainly do. You're a huge football guy.

I have Belichick pajamas I wear at home. Oh, do you? And the reality is that- Lucky I can say his name. The reality is that to develop a culture in a team doesn't happen overnight.

How long has he been there? When did he come on? Yesterday. He showed up yesterday.

Oh, really? The day before the game? No, maybe a month or two. Yeah, he signed a few months ago.

Okay. So, you know, I mean, you're watching the plays and some of these, some of the plays were atrocious. I mean, super, super bad. Well, there's stuff that works in NFL that doesn't work in college.

It wasn't even that, man. I'm watching the safety go the opposite direction of the football and all these other things, and there's some fundamentals that were completely missed. But I don't think I can blame Belichick for that. No, that's a player issue.

Come game one. I just don't think that that's fair. I think that it's to be determined. I think that there's a lot of a lot of season left here.

It's week one for college. And the reality is that if he becomes a playoff contender in two years, I think that that he's turned And that program in the right direction. Yeah, I mean, look at like a football team like UCF, remember 10 years ago before Frost, right, that team was horrible. Nobody knew of UCF.

When Frost came around, that team blew up. You know, after a couple years, that team was on TV, national championship, you had guys going to the NFL, being drafted top, you know, 10 from UCF. Can you say Shador for us again? Shador.

That's not what somebody said last name. Schroeder. Okay, but look, Nick Saban. How many years did it take for Nick Saban to become a champion?

Do you know? Oh, it took a while. He didn't just walk in and become a champion. Well, he started at LSU.

Right. And it took three years. And then when he went to Alabama, it took two. So, to expect Belichick to go in and then just to just blow up is insane.

You got to change the entire culture of the organization, and then you got to move the bad seeds out and replace them with better players. So, all this is going to take time. I don't think it's fair to write off Belichick and say, hey, this is the... Now...

Oh, that didn't work. Now, we come towards the end of the... It didn't work. Time to peck, buddy.

Now, we come towards the end of the season, and he's won two games. Yeah. All right. Maybe we need to reevaluate.

But still, I still think that at that point... You're not giving the guy a fair shake. And TCU is not an easy team to play against. They're a pretty good team.

No, I'm not discrediting TCU, but there were some plays there. Oh, yeah. The players are going in untouched. I mean, they made it look way too easy.

So it should be interesting to see how it develops. I think this is the most college football I've ever watched ever in my life. One game? One game?

No. Oh, you watched the whole week? Yeah, well, because there's no NFL stuff. Oh, good.

Still knowing about it. And I was, you know, so I watched, I watched Alabama lose to FSU, which I'm sure makes you very happy. Of course. You and Howie G probably did like a little dance or whatever hug together.

Yep. Jumped up and down. Arch Manning, which we'll get into, Texas, Ohio State, right? Yep.

I watched that game. I watched everything. It didn't matter what it was. Well, yeah, it's either, it's either college football or baseball at this point.

Yeah, I'm like Ole Miss was playing or, you know, like there were teams that I had no idea who they were. And I'm like, oh, this isn't Mississippi. Yeah, no, it wasn't that one, but it was like, yes, but thank you. Thanks, Palmer.

I understand where they came from. I just never knew. You said you didn't know where they came from. There was one that was...

I'm just trying to help. I think it was like UTSA or something like that. UTSA? Yeah, what's that one?

I think my wife had that one time. Oh, yeah? Oh. UTSA.

She had a UTSA? Infection, yeah. Oh, really? I think that's University of Texas San Antonio.

Watch that game. See what I'm saying? That was probably a rough game. So, it didn't matter.

If it was football, I was watching it. I'm like, we're doing this. We're doing this. You need the button.

You need your button. Oh, I had to rewire this one. I didn't get a chance to. Got it.

All right, Belichick said, we're better than what we were tonight. We have to show it. We have to show that. Prove it.

Nobody's going to do it for us. We have to do it ourselves. Oh, you could hear his laughter from Raleigh when the images from another ACC football coach With his feet up and a cigar lit in a red solo cup full of good stuff as he cracked his way through the second half. You could hear from across the border in Clemson and from wherever Mack Brown and Larry Fedora are now, and from Chestnut Hill to Coral Gables, TCU looked every bit of an established football program that knows what it's doing, maybe not at its peak, but still, having its way with the football stew, a bunch of parts and places thrown into a pot, simmering in hopes some magical flavor would emerge at the hands of a celebrity chef.

Other than those first 6 minutes, it tasted like UNC football, always tastes bitter, disappointing, and unfulfilling. It's gonna take time, man. I mean, they had a couple good seasons in the past 5 years. Okay, but still, it's gonna take time to establish.

Yeah. You know, I mean, look, Alabama's on their way down. Yeah. Are they a good team?

Alabama? They were the greatest team for a long time. Roll time! You ever heard of that, Palmer?

But, you know, I'm not discrediting Florida, because Florida looked really good, too. Yeah. Our guys are getting older. You know, our quarterback is now a junior.

He was a freshman two years ago and looked horrific. It's weird when he talks, I can't see him. Shooter. So, you want to talk about Arch Manning?

I didn't pull anything for Arch Manning, but we're about to roll into Cigar News. Yeah, I absolutely want to cover Arch Manning. All right. So, did you watch the game?

I did not get to watch that game, no. I've actually been on a baseball fix. Oh, the Korean baseball. No, not Korean, just regular.

I follow the Braves, so I've been watching baseball pretty heavy. You're all over the place. I don't understand you. Atlanta Braves.

There's no way that you could like a Florida team. Why not? Tampa Bay Rays or the Marlins? Yeah, why wouldn't you like Tampa Bay Rays?

First of all, Tampa Bay Rays just became relevant. Atlanta has been relevant for years. Yeah? You're from Georgia.

No, I'm not from Georgia. You live in Georgia? No, but before the Marlins were the Marlins, there was nothing. Did you have sexual relations with a man in Georgia?

No. That's what I want to know. No. No, you did not.

So then why are you rooting for Atlanta Braves? Because they're a great team. So you're just bandwagon. No, it's not a bandwagon.

It's the racial aspect of it. I've liked them ever since I was a child. So you're a Big Chiefs fan is what you're saying? No.

You love the Eagles? No. Yeah? I'm a Dolphin fan.

So, okay, this doesn't make sense to me. You're a Miami Dolphins fan. Like the Braves. Hold on.

Shh. You're a Miami Dolphins fan. Yes. You're an Orlando Magic fan.

Yes. What's your favorite hockey team? Yeah, do you follow hockey? Not really.

Okay. If I had to pick one, maybe the Lightning. You're a Tampa Bay Lightning fan. Okay.

Draws the line in baseball. Okay. And then when it comes, so Florida, Florida, Florida? Yes.

Question mark. No, it's not a question mark. It is a question mark. It makes no sense.

There's no question mark. Okay, so yeah, so Arch Manning, he, his performance was lackluster. Let me just, that's the, that's the best way to say it. Everybody was excited about this guy.

He is, was the nephew of Eli and Peyton, right? Yeah, he's a nephew. And he, everybody is excited about Arch Manning, right? So much to a point, we're already talking about NFL teams are talking about sucking this season to get Arch Manning in the draft next season.

I don't know why he would. I mean, first of all, last season, irrelevant. Who? Arch Manning.

No, they lost to Ohio State in the playoffs, right? Yeah, but not with Arch Manning. Okay. He's a different quarterback.

But still a good organization. No, I know, but I'm just saying, just because his last name is Manning, like they're putting this guy on a pedestal. Well, they believe that he's going to be great. So, they do that with a lot of family members.

Michael Jordan's kids didn't play a day in the NBA. Yeah, but it seems like Arch Manning wants this. He wants it. I mean, yeah, of course he wants it, but bro, if you ain't got the skills, you can want all you want.

So you think that one game determines if the guy has skills or not? No, I just don't think he's the caliber of quarterback. It takes time. I just don't think he's the caliber of quarterback.

You don't think so? His decision making is horrible in the pocket. I mean, you saw a glimpse of it at the end of the game, that he started to do well. Uncle Rico had glimpses too.

Uncle Rico? Uncle Rico? Who's Uncle Rico? Okay, but did you see his tweet?

No. That's the best part. Did you see his tweet? No.

His tweet was epic. He tweeted... I still got six mil? No, he said, "All I heard on Saturday was questions about the game.

Not one person thought to ask if I can draw a dinosaur. I can, by the way. the way it's a triceratops and it's a giant dog with head knives and a rock helmet and Eli Manning wrote what he's got a good sense of humor yeah and Eli Manning wrote this this MF spitting on the bottom of it yeah he's definitely closer to Eli than Payton okay but listen Payton's arguably one of the greatest of all time not the one of them right and Eli's a quarterback right I mean, he did get two rings. That's all you're getting from me.

Eli is a quarterback, a decent quarterback. That's it. He might be the best Giants quarterback of all time. Okay.

That's not saying much. Okay. So here's what I, what I really, my biggest takeaway from that, right, is that when you have those opportunities and when you have celebrities as your uncles or their close family members, Yeah. If there can be a lot of pressure on you, right?

To achieve and become great. Mm-hmm. And you can let the outside sources suck you in and really hurt you negatively, right? Mm-hmm.

Too much pressure and all those things. But it seems like to me that this kid's already ahead of that, right? If he makes a tweet about dinosaurs, I love that because what he's saying is, you know, listen, internet people. Listen, internet people, you cannot hurt me, right?

You cannot get in the way of my happiness. I know I have work I have to do. I know that there's things that I need to accomplish, and I'm going to get back at it. No matter what you say, it isn't going to change that.

No? Perfect. Perfect? That still doesn't mean that he is going to be as good as Eli, or Payton, or the other Archie.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I'm going to say that he's going to be a great quarterback. Okay. He's got the mindset, man. And the mindset, I think, is 80% of it.

70% of it? Right? Yes. What do you think?

You think 70% at least? 75. 75? Maybe.

All right. Well, I just wanted to cover that because the guy deserves it. Whatever. He got his ass handed to him.

I have a question for you, though. Go ahead. Have you read a new book lately? No.

Is that a new video or something? No. Because you've used the phrase get in the way of the happiness three times on this show today. Have I?

Yes. And it's not something you normally say. Maybe he's watching a lot of TikToks or something. I've said it three times?

Yes. You gotta turn around and spit, huh? Well, I don't want anybody to get in the way of my happiness. I understand, but you had to have picked that up somewhere.

I was just curious where. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It's just, I think that it's very, you know what, here's what it is.

The reality is that we're doing this. I say that a lot too, the reality. So we continue down this path. The show-wise?

Yeah. We do these short clips too. And our attention is continuing to grow. And with that growth, there's always negativity.

Of course. And I think that when you kind of start in the beginning of it, you're concerned about that negativity, right? Okay. It can have an effect on you.

However, as you grow and develop, you realize, eh, whatever. You know, I'm sorry that you keyboard warrior got upset about whatever, or even if I've offended, if I hurt somebody in the cigar industry and they get pissed off or whatever, I'm like, I know where my intentions are, right? Right. And I'm not going to let how they feel impact how I am going to be, right?

And when I saw that tweet, I thought the same thing. I'm like, this is a guy that was just slammed. He was ridiculed across the board, across the entire nation, right? And the tweets were, It's pretty funny.

Well, that's what he, when he asked me to look it up, I go, I don't know, there's something about him and a dinosaur that's more popular than whatever else you said he did. And he took it so well. I mean, you know, look, Joshua Habersky's a great example of that, right? Sure.

I mean, we have gone hard in the paint against Joshua Habersky. Right, yeah. In a humorous fashion. Right.

We don't have ill will towards Josh. No, not at all. I love him. He's a very nice man.

We want him to succeed. We want everybody to succeed. And he could have not taken the call. Sure.

He could have not come on. He could have not commented. He could have not shared. Right.

But he's like, "Hey, you're not going to ruin my day. " Right? I think that that's the right approach. Well, what does it say?

It's only bad when they stop talking about you. Who cares if it's good or bad? Sure. And you just see, but you see so many people get negative and take all of it and, you know, just instant reaction is, ah, right?

It's just this... Fight back, slap back, whatever. Yeah, like you do something and, oh, I'm instantly pissed off. It's like, well, why are you instantly pissed off?

You know, lighten up. Don't give somebody the right to take away your happiness. No, I understood with the med. I'm just curious where you had picked it up.

I think that when I saw that tweet, uh, that's, it, it, it definitely triggered something. Yeah, it's definitely something that's been formulating for me for some time now, and I saw that and I was like, good for this kid, man. Yeah. Yeah.

So I think that's where it came from. All right, no book. I don't have time for the books right now. I'm coaching five fucking teams, five football teams, three basketball teams.

Maybe it was a book on tape. It was a book on tape? No, I haven't. Maybe listen to the way you're coaching.

No, man, I need to, no, no, no, no. " No, I think that I'm just at a different point in my life where I'm just, you know. Good for you. He's getting older.

All right. Ready to move on, everybody? Yes. Boots over there in the non-Florida baseball?

Yep. Alright, the appeals court strikes down Trump's tariff rates in effect until at least October 14th. Oh. The justification used by the Trump administration to enact the sweeping tariff scheme has been ruled illegal.

Illegal. Illegal. However, the tariffs will stay in effect until at least mid-October. S.

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 7-4, with one judge not participating against the administration's use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, I-E-E-P-A, I-E-P-A. That sounds like a ripoff is what that sounds like. Yeah. Yeah, what is the Economic Emergency Powers Act?

Is that something made up? It sounds like it's something to take away money from us and rights. To enact the tariffs on goods from nearly 100 countries. However, the court will allow the tariffs to stay in effect until October 14th, giving the Trump administration time to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

This is the latest ruling against the White House and the novel approach that it used to enact the tariffs while bypassing Congress on the grounds of national security. Wow. My hands over here. What did he say?

My hands over here. The tariffs were announced on April 2nd, though many were modified a week later. Trump announced that he was temporarily suspending some parts of tariffs, many of which were reenacted late July, days after the tariffs. I'm getting a glare.

Went into effect, five businesses sued the administration, arguing it did not have the authority to unilaterally enact the tariffs. That case was brought in the Court of International Trade in a Specialized Court that handles trade matters. Listen, two weeks later, a second lawsuit was filed in the court at the time by a dozen states. On May 28th, a three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade granted both sets of plaintiffs.

What are you doing? My camera go off again? Oh, thank you very much. Aw, I see that.

Thank you. Well, he was looking for something. I thought maybe something else happened. Oh, wow.

Plaintiff's request. Actually, that helped. Thank you very much. Request for summary judgment finding that the White House lacked the authority to enact these tariffs without Congress, which has historically been required to enact tariffs.

However, the Trump administration appealed, and this is granted a stay, allowing the tariffs to remain in effect while it appealed. Today's ruling is the first appeal, but presumably not the last. The Appeals Court affirmed the previous ruling that found that the IEPA does not allow for most of the tariffs that the Trump administration enacted via executive orders. Okay.

What a story. So, alright, so what do you think? Do you think that the tariffs are going to be successfully appealed? No.

No? Okay, why do you think that that's... You think they're gonna stay in place? Yes.

Why? Because the government put them in place. Okay, so what's the purpose of the appeals then? Of the judge to...

Well, of course, anybody can put an appeal for anything that they want. That doesn't mean it's gonna get approved. No, the appeal, wait, this is all government. Right.

The government, somebody has sued the government because they said he did something he wasn't supposed to do. Right. Okay. So the court said, you're right, he can't do it.

Right. So now he has to appeal that. Right. But they're still going to effect until October.

Right. They're giving him time. It's not like it just goes off now. Well, I mean, he's the president of the United States of America.

He's got access to the best attorneys in the world. No, first of all, what he's going to do is he's going to put some type of law on a piece I don't think I don't think you can veto this I think it's how it works yeah or maybe I'll make a new law and then they'll have to because now it's a new law well have you not seen schoolhouse rock how a law is made he's too old he's too young oh that's not how it works I know the song he can't he can't just say here on everybody wears blue ties now goes to jail yes he can't do ties out blue ties out but this doesn't have to do with anything that's of harm or it harms American business Sure, it does harm American businesses. I would agree with that. Then he's just gonna come up with another way to make the money.

Well, he can make the money without taking it from the cigar people. Is that what this was about, about the cigar tariffs? That's one of the things, yeah, the tariffs on the cigars they're saying is one of, the only thing that nobody's disputing is stealing automobiles. Apparently that was something that was in effect before.

Those are fine. Those, we can charge the tariffs. We're okay with that. Nobody cares on that, apparently.

He cares on that, apparently. Right, yeah. Right. They have plenty of money.

We've given them plenty of money in the bailouts. Right. They're gonna be fine. Okay, well, so you think that, what do you think?

You think this is actually gonna work? Well, it's not like he can go hire different attorneys. He has to hire the attorneys he already has. I mean, the national, with the criminal justice system, whatever the...

Yeah. " Well, I'm sure his lawyers are way better than Morgan & Morgan. Well, I would imagine they are, too. Morgan & Morgan is extremely left.

They would not help. They would not help. But he's doing it in front of the Supreme Court. These are like the top judges.

Okay. I don't, I don't, he's proved his point on whatever he's wanted to do, so maybe he just goes, eh, let it go. You think so? I don't.

I think there's some type of agreement that'll be made. They're not going to go to zero. That's never going to happen. Right.

But they're saying maybe, is there another way he could do it where it is legal? I don't, I don't know how all this works. I think this is entirely BS. The IEPA?

Yeah. I think that none of this changes anything. I think that this is a show to show that there's some attempt to try and alter things for the people that are in upheaval about the tariffs. Yeah.

But it's not going to change anything. I don't think that the tariffs go away. I think that it's just another form of taxation. You think they go down?

No. Stay where they're at. Yeah. Yeah.

I can't see any of it being modified. When the government starts to take the money. Right. They don't like to say, you know, we'll take a little less.

Well, isn't this the government saying he did it illegally? It doesn't matter what they say. They're the government. They change these things around all the time.

Yeah. I know, but you're saying once the government takes the money. Yes. They keep the money.

Yeah, that's how that works. Okay, this is another part of the government going, he legally is taking the money. Yeah. So he's got to get some of it back.

And then they're going to say, well, maybe not. The appeal is successful, he's the president, then you'll see the tweets, and the anger, and all this other crap on the Facebook, you know. All right, let's say it does go down. Yes.

How does the cigar industry handle that? What do you mean? Well, they've raised all their, a lot of people have raised prices. Uh-huh.

They've taken the money. They've taken the money. They've taken the money. It's not going back.

Yeah, you can't walk it back. No, no, I understand that. But if they lower the price, then does the shops who have taken the higher... You think they're going to get money back from the...

No, no, no. Well, I'm asking for his opinion. He is a shop owner, a brand owner, and a wholesale. Thank you very much.

Thank you for acknowledging me. Yes. I mean, it's somebody to ask. This would be the person to ask.

Godfather 2 is what it is. Right. The rent stays like a before. It doesn't change.

So the price went up. So you changed the prices in the shop. Yeah. Okay.

The tariff goes away. Does the brand manufacturer lower his prices back down? No. Nobody does.

How could you do that? Well, that's the question. How could you do it? It's a question.

If you walk yours back, then as a, let's say I own a shop, do I walk my prices back? But you have inventory, you paid the higher price on it anyway. Correct. I would be so pissed.

So what, you sell through that? So it doesn't matter really what happens, whether it changes or not, we're all stuck with these higher prices anyway. But if you have higher prices anyway. Correct.

Then why do we care? It's never going back down ever. Well, here's why you should care. Because there's a couple of brands that are hanging tight.

Yes. Right? Powstanie being one of them. Sure, we have not raised prices, right?

We have not raised prices. Right. Right now, we're just taking the hit. Sure.

Kabam! And we're trying to figure it out. Right. And we're holding as long as we can.

Right. So, you know, if the dust settles and we never moved our price, I would feel pretty good about that. Sure, I would too. But I don't think that the dust is going to settle.

I think that when the government takes money, they take the money, and they don't give it back. No, I don't think they could, they're not going to cut us a check. " Well, maybe he does cut a check, Palmer. Not to mention, Nicaragua was closely affiliated to China.

Right. So, he's, you know, that's where all of this begins. Well, I mean, if this is illegal, the part they did to China is illegal too. It's not just cigars.

None of it changes, buddy. " Yeah, but they're not going to take this away from him. As much as I'd love to see them do it, right? They're not going to do it.

Well, I would imagine this is the side of the government that doesn't like him. Or it's just a, you know. Smoke a mirror. Or, you know, it's a, yeah, I mean, and it's just kind of built up because the media has taken it and ran with it, and they see the people are tracking and getting attention for it, right?

I mean, there's a reason why news coverage is, you know, murder on this. All bad news. Right, right. People like bad news.

Exactly, so. Nobody's going to watch that, you know, the flowers grew really great today in the garden. I would love that. Just give me the flowers.

Next week, it'll be all flowers. Look at these flowers. Look at these flowers. These are great flowers.

Solid. No tariffs on these flowers. No tariffs. Are there tariffs on flowers?

American grown. No, they're American grown. There's no tariffs. But let's say you get flowers from Holland.

They have beautiful flowers in Holland that they probably ship over here. Super tariffed. I would say that there's going to be a tariff. I mean, I'm not a tariff expert.

You're not a flower guy. I'm not a flower guy. Gotcha. All right.

Well, you know what did happen in China this week? What happened? 57,000 fake cigars were seized. What?

Worth 700,000 pounds. Dollars. Dollar-wise. Oh, you mean monetarily.

Yeah, monetarily. Thirteen people behind bars. A court in Sichuan ruled the summer one of the biggest cigar counterfeit cases. If I don't hear Chinese accent in this news article, I swear to God.

Wait till we get to a quote? Wait, man. Come on. "The story begins in an incredible way in March 2023 during a routine inspection at a parcel relay center in Kwanwi District, Sichuan Province.

Svon Province, South, by agents from the local state branch of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the Sittama, Sittama, Sittama, Sittama, Sittama, Sittama, Sittama, their attention was caught by a package returned to its center from Hong Kong, upon inspection it was found to contain Cohiba cigars, with a ridiculously low declared value, less than 50 pounds, an anomaly that raised suspicions. That's where they fucked up. The Gahibas. See?

You always pay your taxes. That's where you fucked up. As in the past, locally produced tobacco had been used to make counterfeit premium cigars. A 150-meter apartment turned into a workshop.

Inspectors decided to leave the packages in place and wait. Soon, two men came to Galactic. Following discreetly, they were seen handing it over to a third man. That is the guy.

Realizing they were being tailed, the group quickly fled, But the third man was apprehended. Dun-dun-dun. And he squealed like a pig. And his apartment inspectors discovered two workers attaching fake Cohiba, Romeo and Julietta, Monte Cristo, and Powstanie bands.

What? What? No, I'm sorry, dab it off. Sorry, my bad.

So close. Bands to cigars rolled with Chinese tobacco. Chinese tobacco is very bad. They also found counterfeit packaging and stockpile of 37,000 fake cigars with estimated value of 700,000 pounds.

A warrant was issued for two Two fugitives 10 days later, the fugitives turned themselves in and confessed, yes, they had purchased antiznal tobacco from local growers, rolled it into cigars, and then sold them being TikTok and WeChat. We did it. Never buy cigars on TikTok. I can't say, I would never, I would never buy cigars on TikTok.

You think so? And I would never get any type of plastic surgery on TikTok either. Passing them off as genuine high-end cigars, it was a lucrative business and the month prior to their arrest, Nearly 800 packages had been shipped. Damn.

That's incredible. A lot of money in fake cigars. Well, yeah, I mean... The trail then led to Guangzhou.

The case seemed solved, but investigators were in for more surprises. Oh, Guangzhou. They noticed that even after the arrest and the dismantling of the network, ads continue to appear on social media. Clearly, another ring is still operating.

A new investigation began using big data analysis to cross-reference suspect interrogations. Client information, and social media traffic, and shipping label details. The investigation confirmed the existence of a second team. Oh, man.

Can't buy no cigars on a cigar page. So there was a second gunman, is what you're saying? Second gunman on the grassy knoll. A gunman?

Located more than 1,500 kilometers away in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, there was the mastermind... These are all pronounced correctly, by the way. There was the mastermind of the network was running a highly organized operation with separate production and sales sites The sales sites spread across no fewer than five provinces. While authorities celebrated the bust, they also admitted concerned over a growing trend.

The Sichuan case was not isolated in 2023. Another case in Nanjing, Jingzu province led to the arrest of 21 people. Wow. And the seizure of 16,000 counterfeit cigars, 3 million fake cigar bands, and 30,000 wooden boxes.

Three million? Yes. Bands. Dear God.

30,000 wooden boxes. That's a lot of bones, man. Oh man, there's like no, like what type of boxes they were or what bands? They're Cohiba boxes.

Cohiba, it's all Cohiba. Oh, it's just Cohiba. They're big Cohiba, Davidoff, and whatever the other ones. So we'll keep an eye on this story as more details.

I like the fact that they're so confident that people are so stupid that they'll smoke these cigars and think that they're Cuban. And that's the reality is a lot of you guys are just dumb and you would smoke fake Cubans. That you bought on TikTok. All the good cigars come on TikTok.

Not our listeners, though. No, no, no. You guys are smart. They got these real Cubans straight from China.

Yeah. I love the guys. That's Chinese TikTok. I got news for you.

If you went on a cruise in the Bahamas, and you find yourself bringing home a box with a plastic case cover, and it says Cohiba, Romeo, Juliette, and Monte Cristo, they're not really Cubans. I know. They're probably from this ring. They're probably from this ringmaster in China.

Yeah, Big Dong. Big Dong. Big Dong. Big Dong is his name.

That's the mastermind. That's the mastermind. They call me Big Dong. Big Dong.

You buy a cigar from me on Ticketot. This is very nice. It's very good. All right, moving on.

Espinosa's Warhead 11 and Warhead 1 arriving at stores. Just not ours, Michael. Just not ours. Just not ours.

The 11th and latest edition of Espinosa's Premium Cigars Warhead series has begun arriving at retail alongside a return to the very first cigar on the line. Just not here. We don't have one here. You know, you would think that we would get these things.

You would think, yes. In a timely fashion. Maybe not first, but you know, when other people are getting them. Definitely not last.

Maybe like 10th, 11th. Something. Not 387th. Right, not last.

Right. Send them a cigar house or two. If you're getting first, you're last. I mean, we had this problem with the last one that came out.

Yeah, this is ridiculous. " Call Jack right now, let's call Jack. Want to call Jack right now? Yeah.

Oh, we have the headphones. Let's call Jack. Yes. That's what we do right here in Cigar House, our podcast.

We do not mess around. We put people on blast. Yes. All the time.

You know what? I have Jack on my speed call. He's your favorite? Ask him if he bought any cohibos on TikTok.

Would we like to evaluate his shipping process? Yeah. Hello, Jack Taranio. You're on the podcast, the regular show, not the Patreon, so keep that in mind when you answer our questions.

Dun, dun, dun. - I just had to update my payment method, 'cause I saw that my payment to the Patreon had failed. - Oh, well, then you won't get this week's show. - I got it, I get it.

- That's not what we're calling. - No, no, no, it's been updated, it's been updated. - Oh, good, whew, that's close. - Yeah, you guys can eat, you guys can have lunch.

- Perfect. - No, we can't. - $10, only one of us can get it. - Yeah, we can only go to the hot dog car and order a soda.

Okay, so we have a question, Mr. Jack. Yes, sir. The 601 La Bamba Warhead 11 that was shipped?

Yeah. Yeah, we still haven't got ours. Yeah, why are we... We'll get it tomorrow.

Why are we always last? Yeah, why? Last pipe got theirs last week. Yeah, everybody in Florida's having a good time, and then you send to us...

Well, not everybody. Not everybody. It went out to lounges, and then it went out in order that it was placed at the show. You guys chose to wait till the last day of the show to place your order.

Because we're working. We have a personal relationship with the people at the company. Yeah, we should be able to jump along. Which is why, I can't even tell you the jump you made today, because most people haven't even touched any.

It took some guessing. Thanks to Greg who reached out to me, because I was unaware you hadn't gotten them. I took it out of the bottom of the stack of papers and moved it to the top, so it is shipping today. That's because when Greg walked in this morning, I asked him why we didn't have him.

Oh, so you were the one asking? He said customers were asking. Oh, well, that's me. I like to buy them.

And Boot's asked too, so I'm a customer. He didn't even get his backpack put now. Yeah, I mean, we give you the sling bag. I mean, we give nothing but love for Jack, and you'd think that he'd be like, "You know what?

" By the way, Ceci loved the sling bag and took it from me. That's right, and we meant it for her. She said it's perfect to utilize on cruises. It is a true sling bag.

Where you can buy the Cohibas with the plastic covers, we just went over there and get those Cubans, yeah. You know what, one other side note, after one successful year of having all ice cream in my freezer from my birthday, And for my birthday, I got to try the black raspberry chompa. The best. It was amazing.

Wow. It is incredible. And it had a year of age on it. Yeah, it was aged one year.

Scratched it off the top and it was delicious. I was like, holy moly, why didn't I try this one first? Hmm. That one is the shit.

That was next level right there. Yeah, Junior's mom sent him a 12 pack for his birthday every year. Among all the other gifts she gives them, she sends them the Grader's 12-pack, so I looked through it immediately, and she didn't include that one in it. It was very disappointing.

Oh. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like not getting your warheads in a timely fashion. Oh, it is.

I had to. It's a bad feeling. I had the butter pecan, which was fantastic. Mikey, you got a 12-pack of this stuff, too?

Oh, yeah. So, do you eat one thing of ice cream every month? No, no, no. Oh, I crushed him a long time ago and I found this one hidden in the back of the freezer.

Oh, okay, I was just trying to figure out why it's Saturday for a year. Yeah, how does he have one left? I was like, oh, okay, I'll try black raspberry. One night he ate 11 of them and had a coma.

I don't want to point out that I think it was a gift for one of your kids, right? No. Or was it for you guys? This was my 40th birthday.

You gave these to me for my 40th birthday. Oh, okay. You send popcorn to my kids. You do popcorn.

That's right, okay. Oh, popcorn's good. I don't know. I haven't been invited to anything in two years.

Don't you worry. Don't you worry. He hasn't had an opportunity to send anything. Guess what, buddy?

Justice's birthday's in September. Oh, there you go. I'm having an online birthday party. I'm going to send Jack.

Oh, an online? Oh, a Zoom? Is it Palmer's birthday, Zoom? Yes, yes.

My birthday is this month. You will get an invitation to my online birthday party soon. Get your credit card out, motherfucker. Let's go.

You're not renting the private lounge and throwing a party? No, I can't afford that. I work for him. It's too much money.

Who wants that? We don't have Joshua Habersky money. Or the guy from Priceline. Well, he spends all his money on clothes, clearly.

We just interviewed him on the show. You get to listen to him tomorrow. It went very well. Was he there or it was remote?

We called, we called. Well, I just had a, I'm over here in the Espinosa Cigar Lounge, and Hector Alfonso just joined me. Oh, Mr. Wormf, oh, that's lovely.

Mr. Wormf, Mr. Wormf has just joined in, so he's giving the queen's hello, you know, or you kind of do that weird thing when you're here. Well, tell him we said hello.

They say hello, Hector. And that we love him. They love you, they love you. And now that we know our warheads are on the way, we are going to let you go.

Okay. If they don't arrive tomorrow, call me back. I will. You'll hear from Greg.

You love Greg. You'll hear from Greg. You love Greg. We gotta have Greg do something.

Let's make up for last week's Patreon, huh? Let's do better. We'll do better. Listen, they can't all- Let's do better.

Look. It started out, it started out like it was going to be the best show ever, and then it kind of fizzled out. I don't know what happened. I'm sorry, man.

Listen, you cannot bat a thousand, okay? It just doesn't happen. We're a good 920. But let's be real, you guys aren't batting a thousand.

Bye bye. I hung up on it. All right, the Wordhead 11 is a 6 3/4 by 54 oval figurado, the first time the shape has been used for the series. It's a blend that was designed to amplify the strength and complexity of the all-Nicaraguan blend, which is highlighted by a broadleaf wrapper.

Man, I can't wait to try this one. Wordhead 11 not only delivers, but continues to evolve, said Eric Espinosa, president of Espinosa Premium Cigars, Those premium cigars and a press release when the line was announced in early April. The project means a lot to our team and to our fans and we think that this year's release is something special yet again. Package of the Warhead 11 gets a notable upgrade and the boxes are shaped like little bombs.

The company says stay tuned to the line's military inspired presentation. They have an aluminum metal body with a detachable head which the cigars are going inside the bomb. Price is set $15 per cigar, $150 per box of 10. The company has not disclosed how many boxes are being produced, but said it is around 4,000.

Gary the one-ish. In tradition, incredible blend, unique vitolas and packaging that stands out, said Hector Alfonso, master blender of Espinosa premium cigars, and a press release. This year's Warhead size is a great way to start the next 10 years of this fantastic LE. The newest release alongside the first of the Warhead Re-Up Series, which revisits previous cigars in the series, with the first one to release being the Warhead 1 Re-Up.

5x54 box-pressed Toro that uses a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and filler. The company said that the first Warhead quickly made a name itself, Full Body Strength, Dense Smoke, and an Aggressive Flavor Profile, which means Jack can't smoke it. It's too full. It also comes in the new bomb-style packaging prices at $15 per cigar, $150 per box of 10.

It's being rolled out in a handful of waves as the company awaits the full production to arrive. As for the Warhead 6 re-up that was scheduled to be shipping in the next week or so, the company awaits more cigars to arrive in the warehouse in Hialeah Gardens, Florida. Okay. You know, I will give this to Jack.

Yes. I mean, we placed that order when there are forklifts around us and things are being moved. Oh, did we? Is that when you did it?

Yeah, at the end of the show. The show. When we were stealing cigars? Yeah.

And I got to be honest, I think sometimes I'm like, there's no way that he's going to remember this order. And he does. And he does. He does, so.

Well, he might just assume we take everything. Oh, I mean, that's true. We will take on whatever Espinosa makes. Right.

Except Sumatra. Except Sumatra. Well, no, you took it on. We did the one time.

Yeah, the one time. Just the one. No re-orders. El Pupo.

Oh. Huh? The squid shipping this week. Oh, lovely.

Not to be confused with the Hooten Young Squid Looking Cigar. It's a completely different cigar. It's a totally different cigar. Completely different cigar.

This week, Artesnero Del Tobacco is shipping a Nuvatola for its El Pupo line. Once again, it's named after a marine animal. J. Fernandez, who apparently did not catch on fire.

6 1/2 by 60 perfecto? Yes. Wow, that's big. 6 1/2 by 50?

No, 60. He uses a Mexican San Andreas wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers, he'll have an MSRP of $20 per cigar and comes in boxes of $10. Holy moly. $10.

Well, yeah, it's a big cigar. It's a big cigar that's shaped like a squid. I really like that cigar at $20 per. Yeah, by Al Pupo.

Al Pupo. Listen, hold on. For $15, I can get one in a bomb-shaped case. Yes.

Yes. From the same factory. No, no, their cigar was made at the San Latino factory. The bombs were.

They're both made by AJ. Yeah, AJ. Okay. Both AJ Fernandez.

Okay. San Latino factory or the other one. So it's the same, the same factory. Well, different peoples.

$20. $20. No bomb. No bomb.

15. Bomb. Bomb. Bomb.

See what I'm saying? Just saying. I understand they had a slight problem because of them shipping all the bombs in. Did they?

They're shaped like bombs. He called when I was talking to Jack last week. He's like, I'm shipping all these bombs. I'm like, now you're on a watch list, buddy.

Congratulations. And they had to put the cigars in them here. Did they? Because what do cigars look like?

Sticks of dynamite inside of a bomb. Yeah, through the... Interesting. Right.

Do you think so? No, he told me. Through the x-ray machine. Yeah, x-ray machine.

It looks like a bomb. It's a problem. It could be a problem. Well, yeah, then they'll open all of them.

Right. Based on suggestions from our loyal consumers who desire a unique shape that embodies strength and balance of the El Pupo blend, We have to for a perfecto shape, said Faki Family, which owns- Who? Whoa, hold on a second. F-A-K-I-H.

Faki. Faki? Faki. Wow.

Faki? El Pubo Faki Family. I didn't say with a U, it's with an A. Fa, not Fu.

Fa, who? Faki. Faki. Faki.

Which owns a company and a press release after enjoying a pre-release with friends at Matador Cigar Lounge in New York City. Willie? It's Fakai. Fakai?

I like Faki. I honestly don't know, but I think it was funny. What's Willie's last name? I don't know, he's a GM, so he has a name in it, the Squid, due to his resemblance of a fascinating creature.

Willy Faki. Willy likes the Pupo. Willy's a Pupo. We believe these perfectos represent a harmony between strength and flavor derived from our well-aged San Andreas Rapa.

El Pupo, Spanish for octopus. Oh, not even squid. What the hell? Was the company's second regular production line when it was introduced in 2023?

As the company has expanded the line, it uses aquatic-themed names for the Nuvatolas. I wonder why it would come out with a sea otter. What else do you think would be a good aquatic sea, aquatic name for a cigar? I like sea otter.

Sea otter. Sea otter. What's the big fish? What's Spanish for sea otter?

Fakiupo. Yeah. How do you say... How do you say sea otter in Spanish?

Oh, this is where people start yelling. At the show? At their... At their...

At their screen? Oh. How do you see... They start yelling what it is?

Sea otter, yeah. In Spanish. Excellent. Yell louder.

We can't hear you. What? What was that? One more time?

One more time, please. Nutria Marina. Yes. Nutrina Maria?

Marina. Marina. Yeah. Sounds like dog food.

Oh, and El Pupo? I mean, come on, bro. I like El Pupo. El Pupo?

El Pupo. Hooten Young is shipping the Jack Carr edition next month. Does not look like a squid. No.

A new release from Hooten Young is named after a former Navy SEAL. Oh, but it still has an aquatic theme. Turned author Hooten Young Jack Carr edition is six and a half by fifty two Dominican Puro made up of a Corojo wrapper covering a San Andreas seed binder. What does that mean?

It's San Andreas seed, but it's not really San Andreas? So, okay, this is this whole thing. This is becoming a bigger and bigger thing. Right.

I feel like every year. So it's, so there's telling you that they have the San Andreas seed from Mexico, And they're growing it in a different region, whether it's Ecuador, or Nicaragua, or wherever, but it's the San Andreas Seed. Oh, if I would have just kept reading. A seed that originates in Mexico, and a blend of filler tobaccos that includes Piloto Cubano, the cigars are being made at the Tablicalera Diaz Caballera factory located in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

Each jet car edition will have an MSRP of? $17. $21. $20.

$20? We're not even playing the game today. I'm out of here. Cigars will be packaged in 20-count boxes.

There are 500 boxes being released for a total of 10,000 cigars. A new release is named after Jack Carr, a retired Navy SEAL sniper who spent 20 years as a member of the Naval Special Warfare Command. He has since become a New York Times bestseller author with his 2018 novel, The Terminalist. Oh, it's a good TV show.

I'm liking the new one. They're making another one. It's come out. Two episodes are out.

It's a prequel. Oh, it's already come out? Yeah, two episodes come out. I watch them over the weekend, it's good.

Which has been adapted into a television series on Amazon Prime Video, Jack has been a trusted friend and collaborator for years, said Norman Hooten, founders and president of Hooten Young in the press release. Our first project together, the 16-year warrior-proof American whiskey, even gained national recognition on the Joe Rogan experience as Cigar continues our shared mission to honor legacies, tell stories, and create experiences that bring people together. I'm not going to make fun of these guys, they're kind of scary. Oh, you got to make fun of these guys, come on.

I'll make fun of this next guy. Don't make fun of the hackers, you don't want to make fun of hackers. I'm not making fun of retired Navy SEALs either. He's not going to snipe you.

You never know, he's a sniper. He's got way too much to lose. The guy is financially well off. You think if he snipes me somebody's going to know?

Yes. How? Do you think he's going to go out of his way? He could be out there in the weeds and shoot me as soon as I walk out.

Just because you're making a joke and he's going to come out to you? Never know. In an email, John Carney told Cigars for Podcast that boxes of the Jack Car Edition are scheduled to begin shipping to retailers on September 22nd. The retailers end on Hooten Young website.

Carney leads Bentley Tobacco USA, which has a service agreement to manage Hooten Young premium cigar operation. Nice. There you go. No jokes for John Carney?

I thought you said you were going to make fun of the next guy. Yeah. It wasn't funny. There was nothing funny to talk about.

The guy has one baby, and then we haven't seen him. That's it. You know, he's got a... Well, it's a big baby.

Oh. Yeah, he's supposed to come bring us the, what, the Night Ranger Cigar, or whatever it's called, with the squid. Operation Midnight Hammer. The squid, you know, the squid thing on the bottom of it.

With the squiddy. Yeah. Yeah. I did show them that I got Facebook monetized.

I showed them that I made 11 cents. Did you get your monthly total? Today's the day you get your monthly total. Not a statement, but if you go, you have to go and look, because it ended on September 1st.

So then I got like a dollar. Nice. Got that, yeah, which is nice. No, it doesn't even offset my verification for Instagram cost.

You did the check for Instagram? I did. What do you get for that? That doesn't do anything especially.

Bragging rights. You paid for it. Yeah. That's like buying an honorary degree.

Wow. I donated a bunch of money to college and made me a doctorate. I would love that. We'll donate a lot of money.

I don't have that. How about we start at $1? I got this. I got this Facebook.

How about I just forward you my Facebook monetization money? Yeah, residual. I'll make payments. Yeah, if you like residual check, you'll get from what movies are.

Here's a dollar. All right, finally, SCG reports lower second quarter 2025 sites. The problem is the exchange rate, not the cigars. Oh yeah, so everything's fine.

Right. Scandinavian Tobacco Group, the world's largest handmade cigar company, announced its second quarter 2025 results. Depending on the metric, the company was either flat or down slightly. Yeah.

Depends on how you want to look at it. It could be down, could be nothing. I'm like, what? Right.

In many cases, the company says that the sales are flat, but due to the exchange rate, the numbers are slightly down. Ah. It's the exchange rate. It's the exchange rate's problem.

It's the dollars. God, you know what, man? Who does this job? How are we not working for this company?

It's just all bullshit. Yeah. It's amazing. You know?

No, well, why aren't we selling? No, it's just the exchange rate. Exchange rate, we're fine. And then you just shove them along and you just walk out.

There you go. You know what I mean? The brilliance. Whoever said that.

The guy. You know what? You're worth it. I bet he took that FIU course on marketing.

Oh, yeah. Obviously. Yeah. Did you know Joshua Berski was a professor?

So, I mean, this is a legit thing. Really? Yes. I believe you.

I looked him up. S. S. dollar lowered the quarter's number However, in addition, the company is no longer distributing ZenPaks.

It's that, oh. Really? They were ZenPak guys? They were Zen.

Oh my God, what a market. Which hurt its numbers? Why would they? Why'd they cut that?

I don't know. They're a bunch of idiots sucking on those pouches. He's not lying, man. People buy them stupid Zen things all the time.

Baker Mayfield being one of them. The company's 2025 guidance, which is lowered after Q1, remains unchanged. com, Cigar Bid, Thompson Cigar, Pipes & Cigars, Cigara, Cigara, Cigara, Cigara, Cigara? It also owns General Cigar, Ford Cigar, they sell Cohiba, not the fake ones from China, but the real ones.

The real ones. No, the fake, no, no, they're not the fake ones from America. Yeah, the fake ones from America, and then the, no, the Dominican Republic. There's two kinds.

Oh, okay. And then the real ones they sell everywhere else. Yes. Yeah.

So they sell the real and the fake. Yes. Yeah. But not from that, the 37,000 from China.

No. From Big Dong. Yeah. Not him.

Big Dong should have just called STG. STG. Yeah. Yeah.

Just give it the Dominicans. And then they would have said nothing about the exchange rate at that point. Right. Yeah.

S. and international markets. It also sells Agio, Alec Bradley, CAO, Macanudo, Room 101, and Taranio, not Jack, the Cigar. Yeah.

STG also has a strong machine-made cigar business, especially in Europe, as well as units that include pipe tobacco, roll-your-own-in-tobacco-free nicotine products, a handmade cigar business, which accounts for 36% of the group's product sales was a mixed bag. Organic sales decreased by 1%. Is this everything STG sells? Pretty much.

Pretty much. Why do we read this every time? It's in the story. It's funny.

You know what's funny to me is that Room 101 got mentioned right before Taranio. Right. Right, it's right at the end. Oh, shit, we almost forgot about this guy.

We're going to have to slide him in. Also the largest retailer of handmade cigars. The company says its online business has stable net sales in parentheses. Without the exchange rate.

While the company's physical stores had double-digit organic growth, Stag has repeatedly said that the Cigars International Superstores have been growth drivers for the company. Earlier this month, they announced two new stores that will open in 2025, one in Orlando, right over on Conway near Universal Studios, and the other in the Cincinnati area. We don't care where that one is. Ohio.

The one in Orlando is near a store on Sand Lake, but the new store will have a much better location and better humidification control for the cigars. And nicer people. And nicer people. Allegedly.

I heard, allegedly, there are six armed guards inside that Sand Lake store, no? No way. That's what I heard. Come on.

Six? From a reliable source. Six? Six.

Why? Why would they need armed guards? Dangerous. Sand Lake?

Yes. Stop it. That's what I heard. Are we talking about, like, over by, isn't it like Dr.

Phillips over by there? No, let's call Howie. Okay. I'll tell you who after the show.

Okay. I'm on Patreon. Oh, yes. Can you tell me on the Patreon?

Yes. Okay. Good. All right, everybody.

You ready? It's ready time for What's the Score? Yes. It's the fastest cigar game show sweeping the industry.

We love it. Did he have a question or was he just whistling in excitement? He was just whistling in excitement. I can't see him.

It's really weird. Okay. All right. First cigar.

By Charlie Minato. Okay. Davidoff, Honduras, limited edition review. The Camacho, limited edition 2025.

It's from Honduras. It's from, yeah, the Honduras. By Charlie. By Charlie.

The one in the can. The cigar that came in the can. Like Spam? No, no, it's a round can like coffee.

Oh. If they put the right top and bottom on it, it could be a bomb. But they did not. They didn't.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Okay. Boots, what do you want?

What do you want? Do you want me to go first? I'll go first. You'll go first?

I'll go first. Okay. This is by Charlie? Yep.

I'm going to go 85. 75-85. Yep. All right.

Camacho limited edition 2025. Oh, it's Camacho. I said Camacho. I thought you said Davidoff.

I'm sorry. Well, he did say Davidoff. Davidoff owns Camacho. Right.

Okay. We've had this. We smoked the cigar on the Patreon. Yes.

This is Charlie's review of it. Okay. Still 75-85? Yep.

You don't want to change because now you understand what cigar it is? I'm rolling. I'm just curious if Charlie's still angry, if it's a month-long thing or what? Well, we'll know after the first two clues.

Country of origin, Honduras, Factory, Diadema Cigars de Honduras, Wrapper, Mexico, San Andreas, Binder, Honduran, Filler, Dominican, Republican, Honduras. 50, came out on June 19th, number of cigars released, nobody cares. Reviewed, three cigars. 75.

Still at 75. 85. 75, 85. The Camacho Limited Edition 2025 is a rather generic-looking cigar.

A reddish-brown wrapper that is darker than average, though certainly far from a black color. But the veins, oils, and discoloration are solidly average. Maybe he's fighting with his girlfriend or something. I don't know.

I just don't understand why. I don't know his personal... His preferences? Affiliation.

I don't know if he's married, single, girlfriend, boyfriend, maybe he's married, who knows? I don't know. That description does not yield married. Okay, I'm sorry.

Maybe he's fighting with his spouse. There you go. Partner. Could be partner.

Spouse implies marriage, doesn't it? I'm gonna stay at 75. Stays at 75, Michael? It's dark and veiny.

Mediocrity, I'm sticking 85. 85. Next clue, clue number two. The aroma from the wrapper are medium full with a scent that reminds me of newspaper and tree bark, leading edge of the three cigars, though the first two have former over the latter, whereas the third cigar is reversed.

If anybody understood that, you're smarter than me, because I got it. I pulled it because I had no idea what you said. I got it. Okay.

75. Newspaper and tree bark, except this one smells different than that one, and this one is over this one. Well, newspaper and tree bark were the first two, and then And Tree Bark in the Newspaper was the last one. Hmm.

Right. All right. So smart. I'm going to stick 85.

85, and he's stuck at 75? Yep. Yeah. All right, third clue, then we go on to the final thoughts.

Okay. However, in the second third, the profile seems much more reactive to any movement I make after I blow the smoke out. If I am still, it develops naturally. But, making movements with my mouth immediately results in the flavors getting more amped up and harsher.

- Harsher. - Palmer, did you edit any of these? - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I enjoyed this review completely. - Oh my God.

- I don't understand most of it, but I enjoyed it. - You're not understanding? - No, I do on this, now he can control flavor with his mouth, he's like, now. - Right.

- Where you at? - 75. - I'll stick 85. - Wow, look at you guys, such a 10-point variance there.

- Well, first of all, we launched with Camacho Honduran Charlie. We know Charlie's angry, and you haven't said anything that has made us want to shift upwards. Anywhere, yeah. Alright, the Camacho Limited Edition, this is final thoughts, everyone, final thoughts.

We're already there. The Camacho Limited Edition 2025 is not the type of cigar that delivers transitions that see one list of flavors replaced by an entirely different list of flavors. Instead, for more or less the first puff, there are about a dozen different things I could taste and a few additions for the next two and a half hours. Wow.

That said, it was a cigar with a clear transition. There's no confusing the profile from the first inch to the second inch, the first third to the second third, or the final third with really anything else. Furthermore, the cigar delivered a couple of different linear transitions. After 20 minutes, the profile had gotten fuller in just about every way, and the strength tramped up was even cleaner, medium plus the medium full, medium full to full.

It's not the most exhilarating profile, but the execution was pretty good. So Charlie is actually taking a writing course. You think so? I just didn't like when he said more fuller.

Is it at FIU? It might have been. He just chatted GPT in these things. Well, it should be more fuller.

But we're gonna go with 82. What a move. What a jump. 75 to 82.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he is 75 to 82. That's a good number, dude. Michael? I'm gonna go 84.

84, 82? Yep. 86. Yes!

This guy did not like this fucking cigar. He was at a superpower to make it taste different. It got an 86. 86, that means he didn't really care for it.

For him, that's like, oh, I loved it. No, 88 or above it means that Charlie liked it. 88, I'm telling you, if Charlie gives something an 88, I'm like, okay, it's a good cigar. You'll never be able to guess it from the description if it's an 88.

Well, it's not. No, I know this one wasn't, but I'm just saying. Well, I can't guess it. No, you can't, because you're like, okay.

First of all, I love the fact that when it's like, all right, Tatuaje T110 by Charlie, and the first thing that comes out of your mouth, if this cigar isn't a 90, I'm like, all right, fuck it. Like, that's what you love to say. That's your line. I have to crop that out every single clip.

Go ahead. Alright, second cigar from July 25th, 2019. Reviewed by Patrick Lagrid. Lagrid?

Lagrid. Lagrid. It is a La Serena limited edition Mexico. What is it?

Sorry. La Serena. Oh. Limited edition Mexico.

The Mexican cigar. Pepin Garcia. Oh, sorry. It's the La Serena Anniversario Especial.

Okay. Don't we switch? No, no. That's actually the name of the cigar.

Yeah, I thought we always switch. By Patrick? Yeah, that's fine. Okay.

I don't care. There's no difference to me. I'm going to go 88. On a Mexican cigar?

Yep. All right. I'm going to go 84. All right.

The La Serena Anniversario Special from Mexico. Nueve. Madacapan. Nueve?

That's how you spell Nueve? Why did I say that wrong? What's the next word? I don't know.

M-A-T-A-C-A-P-A-N. Just say it. Madacapan. It's good.

Oh, perfect. Next. Rapper, Mexican San Andreas Negro. Okay.

Yes. Binder, Mexico Criojo 98. Filler, Brazilian Dominican Republic, Mexico and Nicaraguan. It's a five and three quarter by 54.

The Vitola is a Robusto Extra. Back in 2019, it sold for $19, a box of 10 for under 90. The number of cigars smoked three. So this was not made by Pepe and Garcia?

Nope. Sounds like a good cigar, though. 88. 88.

84. 84. The La Serena and Versario Special started off with a crisp, dry flavor profile, giving the tip of the tongue a bit of black pepper, while a thin earthiness gets more prominent towards the back of the tongue. 89, 88, 88, 89, so I'm trying up to 88, one goes a bit heavy with it, one goes a bit light, which allows white pepper to drive much of the profile, and the third leans more pepper forward, but does a better job balancing the two.

It's an enjoyable profile on my palate, which has developed a fondness for San Andreas tobacco, though I do find myself wanting more out of the cigar in terms of depth and the complexity in the early goings. Oh, my dip down there because of that, 87, 85, 87, 85, this is not third, third and final clue, then we have the final thoughts, there's not much in the way of sweetness, something I find myself expecting from the cigar and while it's missed, it's not a complete determent to the profile, 88. Eighty-five. Anniversary cigars inherently come with a lofty...

Is this the final thought? This is final thoughts. Anniversary cigars inherently come with a lofty expectations, and for good reason. But beyond that, in the case of the La Serena Inversario Special, I was intrigued to see what the Turrent Factory would be able to produce.

Oh, Turrent. This is the San Andreas guy. Okay, thanks for interrupting. I'm sorry.

Would be able to produce for the La Serena brand, as well as what a decade-old San Andreas Negro Leaf would offer to the blend. That's all before looking at the interesting combination of filler tobaccos from the cigar offers as well. The result is a cigar that holds onto much of the earthiness and pepper, while seemingly shedding the lighter notes that give it the nuance, depth, and complexity. While I wouldn't say that the tobacco is past its prime, it does offer a new take on Mexican San Andreas Leaf that I can't say I've experienced before.

I'm not quite sure just how much the filler is able to fill in those gaps. First two-thirds of the cigars are where it shines brightest and save for a chocolate syrup in the final third of one sample, that section didn't do much to impress me, consistently scoring as the lowest portion of each of the three samples due to the increased heat and subsequent sharpness of the flavors. While I have some issues with the La Serena Varsario Special, it still manages to deliver an overall enjoyable experience marked by a robust profile with a good amount of pepper and Mexican... I don't know, some French word.

T-E-R-R-O-I-R? Or is that Spanish? Try it. No.

Please? No. Please? Nope.

Come on. Mexican flavor. The four-y. It's not terro-y.

Oh, what is it, though? The flavor. It's whatever flavor is. Whatever language that is, it's flavor.

I see through you, Patrick. Throw in a word. Final score, anyone? Throw in a word.

This is a tough one. Well, because, yeah, because he says that he enjoys it, but then the last is a piece of shit consistently. He says he's got some sharp notes to it. Some sharp notes.

Notes that are sharp. But maybe it blew it out of the water because he was, you know, wanting to see what the factory could do. Maybe it blew it out of the water. Maybe Blue Isle of the Water.

I'm going to stick 88. Boots. I'm going to go 90. 90?

Okay. Final score, gentlemen? That's it. 88.

Oh! Double! I mean, I wasn't too far off out of 90. No, but he was right on with it.

I was. On the money. That was good. But that's just crazy, because like, he only enjoyed the first two thirds of the cigar.

That's why I got an 88. That's why I didn't get a 90. That's why I didn't get a 90. You'd be better off at 87.

But he said it tastes like chocolate syrup. Do you not enjoy chocolate syrup? Let me ask you a question. He said it had faint, and he didn't even say that it was good.

Your ice cream that you just found in the depths of your freezer. Black cherry. Black cherry. Black cherry.

If you would have put chocolate syrup on it, would it have tasted even more? Would it have tasted? Would it have been tasted? How would it have been tasted?

Would it have tasted fuller? Would it have tasted, I think, better. I think chocolate would have gone well with black cherries. Oh, see, that's what I'm talking about.

See, right there. It has chocolate in it. Black raspberry ice with dark chocolate. Right, but if you would have put chocolate syrup.

Oh, with dark, it already had chocolate in it. It would have been too much. You don't fuck that up. No.

You leave it as is. You don't mess with Michael Jackson's Thriller. You just leave it. You don't throw something on top of it.

It is, it's iconic for what it is. There was this hilarious TikTok about Michael Jackson recently. Yeah? Yeah, this guy found his shoes.

He was like on the basketball court. " And they put him on. He started dancing and everything. " And he did the tiptoe thing.

" Oh boy. And he broke them out of his ankles. He almost made it through a whole show without some racism. There we go.

All right, Shop of the Week. Black River Tobacco Company in Dunn, North Carolina. Now you can find Post-Time Your Cigars. Online or in-store?

Yes. Yes. Perfect. Okay, Listener of the Week.

Listener of the Week, Jose Ortega. Ortega. From my father. And it's also his birthday.

Is it? Yes. And he's a listener? He listens?

I'm assuming. Oh, excellent. Maybe he is now, make this a clip and tag him. Happy birthday, Jose.

Happy birthday, Jose Otega. Happy birthday. Anything else? That's all I got, you got anything else?

Nope, nothing else to add. This has been episode 403 where we talk to Joshua Hiberski and Jack Taranio. com t-shirt. Al Cadras.

Buy one. All right, guys, you gotta go, bye. 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, that one up.

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 403 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast!

This week, we’re diving into the biggest stories making waves—

🚨 Viral headlines claim 2.5 billion Gmail users must change their passwords immediately… but is it fact or fearmongering? We break down the truth.

🏈 Bill Belichick’s college football debut in North Carolina turns into a multi-million-dollar disappointment.

⚖️ A major appeals court ruling strikes down Trump’s tariffs, with big implications for the cigar industry.

💨 In China, authorities bust one of the largest fake cigar operations in recent years.

🔥 Plus, Espinosa’s Warhead 11 lands, El Pulpo drops “The Squid,” and Hooten Young unveils the Jack Carr Edition.

And don’t miss our special guest—Joshua Habursky, CEO of the PCA, joining us for an exclusive interview.

Stick around for cigar reviews, industry insights, and of course, the best cigar game in 2025—What’s The Score!