ACHP 563 What's In Your Prison Wallet?

Episode Summary

Episode 563 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast finds Mike Palmer, Mike Szczepankiewicz and Phil covering a heavy week of cigar industry personnel news alongside their usual detours. The show opens with CHPod business — the team is close to launching a redesigned site with an auction feature, and they float the idea of running their own Patreon-style membership directly through chpod.com to cut out the platform's cut. Listener comments are read, including a debate over cigar regulation and whether the industry should accept any legislation at all rather than pushing for none.

The news segment leads with a Canada Border Services Agency detector dog named Aggie sniffing out roughly 2,100 undeclared Cuban cigars in a traveler's luggage at Toronto Pearson Airport, which sparks a long conversation about whether U.S. customs dogs sniff for tobacco (they don't), Canadian duty rates on cigars, and Florida's lack of a state cigar tax. From there the crew covers a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of a SiriusXM satellite from Cape Canaveral and the roughly $62–67 million price tag per mission.

Cigar news includes two "portal entries": John McTavish being named the new permanent co-host of KMA Talk Radio (replacing the long-vacant seat after Paul DeGrocco's departure), and cigar industry veteran Eddie Guerrera joining Plasencia Cigars as senior vice president of marketing after about a year at La Flor Dominicana and prior stops at Altadis USA, Davidoff of Geneva USA and Gurkha. The hosts debate whether frequent moves help or hurt a marketing executive's résumé, and what Plasencia's rapid hiring says about the company's direction. They also break down the Bocock Brothers' Oklahoma Sooners 2026 National Champion cigar — a 6x52 toro with an Ecuadorian Sumatra-seed wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan filler, $27.50 per cigar in ten-count boxes — and whether collegiate licensed cigars are a good gateway for new smokers.

The team pays respects to Glenn Wolfson, CEO of Drew Estate since 2016, who died at 70 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, reading Jonathan Drew's tribute. The episode closes with "What's the Score?", where the crew guesses the halfwheel score for Patrick Lagreid's 2018 review of the Tabacalera El Artista Fugly — a $3 5x40 cheroot with no binder that scored a brutal 71 due to relights, chalky bitterness and unsmokable samples.

In This Episode

1. 01
   CHPod Site Relaunch and In-House Patreon
   The team previews a new website with auctions and discusses building their own membership platform to replace Patreon.
2. 02
   Listener Comments and Cigar Regulation
   Comments spark a debate over the CRA, Illinois legislation, and whether the industry should accept any regulation at all.
3. 03
   Canadian Customs Dog Sniffs Out 2,100 Cuban Cigars
   A detector dog named Aggie finds a massive undeclared stash at Toronto Pearson, leading to talk of duty rates and Florida's lack of a cigar tax.
4. 04
   SpaceX Launches a SiriusXM Satellite
   The 17th flight of a Falcon 9 booster goes almost unnoticed in Florida, prompting talk of launch costs and satellite radio's relevance.
5. 05
   John McTavish Named KMA Talk Radio Co-Host
   The Canadian podcaster becomes the show's official permanent co-host, and the crew jokes about Powstanie branding behind him.
6. 06
   Eddie Guerrera Joins Plasencia as SVP of Marketing
   The industry veteran leaves La Flor Dominicana after about a year, and the hosts debate what rapid company hopping signals on a résumé.
7. 07
   Bocock Brothers' Oklahoma Sooners Championship Cigar
   A $27.50 Ecuadorian Sumatra-wrapped toro celebrates OU's College World Series title and raises questions about collegiate licensing as an on-ramp for new smokers.
8. 08
   Remembering Drew Estate CEO Glenn Wolfson
   The crew reflects on Wolfson's decade leading Drew Estate and reads Jonathan Drew's tribute after his death at 70.
9. 09
   What's the Score? Tabacalera El Artista Fugly
   The guys guess the halfwheel score on a $3 binderless cheroot reviewed by Patrick Lagreid, which lands at a rough 71.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

All right. We're back. Here we go. What the hell is he smoking?

I don't know. Welcome to a Cigar Hustler Podcast, where cigars are just the same. Join me, Mike Palmer, along with Mike Szczepankiewicz, and back with us today, Phil, who has announced his new Labor Day movie release, Blue Collar Ballers. Wow.

As we dive into the latest cigar industry news, sport, current events, and business, and whatever crazy stories are making headlines, whether you're a seasoned cigar smoker or just looking for entertaining conversation, expect honest opinions, plenty of laughs, and a few unexpected detours along the way. On today's show, Canadian sniffers are top notch. Okay. I don't know how that got in there.

SpaceX plays better music. And then in Cigar, we have a double portal entry. Bococks, baby, they're back again. And we say goodbye to a dear friend.

Or just somebody we've heard of. Yeah. And then, what's the score? H.

D.? Like and subscribe, wherever you're viewing and listening to this show. H. D.

is like, I am this close, this close to launching our new site and having the auction up. Oh, I have a question. Go ahead. With your new design abilities and programming, whatever you call it.

Skill sets. H. D.? I guess we could.

Eliminate their percentage they get, and then they only go one place for buying and listening. Oh. I guess we could. I thought maybe you could.

Yeah, you just gotta upload. Yeah, I could do that. Sure. Ask your friend, Claudie, how that works.

I could totally do that. I could totally do that. You gotta make sure. Go ahead.

You gotta make sure whatever it is, though, they could play it in their car. Because most of these people listen in their car, right? - I guess. - Well, you're talking about the Espinosa crew, I think all of them listen in the car, but, I mean, everybody else, there's different places.

- I could figure it out, I could put one together, and then you could upload it and we can test it out, we can give it to a couple of the Patreon members to kind of see. - Right. They would just have to, I mean, it's not like they have points up or anything, everybody would just have to create an account, log in, and put their credit card in. - Just slowly convert them over.

- Right. And then your yearly subscriber guys, you just already program them in. Yeah, the guys have already paid. Yeah.

Yeah, you could do that, or, yeah. Leave them both up for a time being. Sure. Well, we don't want to double charge them, though.

No, no, no. Like, if... Whoever's testing it. Yeah, maybe some people don't want to make the jump, right?

Oh, I got you. So just, you know, leave it up for the time being, but we can start... com Patreon episodes. Have it all work through the same website.

That's brilliant. I love it. Thank you. It's a great idea.

Thank you very much. So we are, I'm thinking by the end of this week I'm going to have this thing up. Okay. I'm going to push for the wholesale site to be up either end of day today or tomorrow.

And then right after that I'm going to work on, I've been working on these things all night, at night. I see you here, you've got like something on this screen, something on this screen, something going on on this screen. Yeah. I never know who you're talking to when I walk in up there.

Yeah, there's four things going simultaneously. I'm working on four things at the same time. Plus, you might be talking to Steve about something, so I come in and raise my hand. Raise your hand.

I get in front of him and raise my hand and wait on him to address me. So, the auction will be up, and they'll probably be two up the first month. Right. But that one will go up first.

I've got to get a photo of that today, and we'll be right there, man. What is today's date? Is today the last day of June? - Is today the last day of June?

- 30th. - Today, we're recording on the 30th, and I think tomorrow the 1st? - Yes, there's only 30 days. - Yeah.

- Oh, so the new mask starts tomorrow? - Yep. - Okay. - Yep.

- So. - So we need you here tomorrow, Phil. - Not necessarily. If he's not, I mean, if he can't make it, he can't make it.

We'll figure it out. - Okay. com. Where you buy one, you get the second one 40% off.

You spend $100 or more, you're gonna get free shipping on all your orders. - Bam! com, a Cigar Hustlers podcast, before we tell them to go F themselves and start doing it ourself. You're not taking our percentage anymore.

Yeah, we're not, we're no share. We have found out how to eliminate you. Yeah, so about that, you gotta go, so yeah, I like that, I think that's a great idea, so that'll eventually happen too in the upcoming months, I'm sure. three to five percent more per person dude i love it i love it um it's another microphone right and so far the new mic is is going well is it there's no technical issues during the show right so that's what six hundred dollars will get you buddy crisp clean sound where is it uninterrupted i'm wearing it that's the whole thing you can't even see it isn't that isn't that something oh that's right i see it it's right in the middle yeah almost looks like a button yeah Is that crazy?

Yeah. Maybe if I move it up to the button. Oh, it is at a button. Don't mess it up.

No, it looks perfect. Just leave it alone. It does look like a button. Yeah, leave it alone.

It looks good. Some comments from our previous episode. Start sweating to get electrocuted. You're not going to believe this.

I Heart Palmer commented. I saw that again. Yeah. Yeah.

I really wish I knew it was. I don't know, Phil. You be quiet over there. Wait till you see your next movie.

He definitely knows. I don't know. I don't know. I've asked a couple people.

Unless somebody's just lying. At Brett Mercurio says, "Once again, we need a dedicated day with Triple G. " So just so you know. You pretty much have the dedicated days.

It's not a dedicated, but you'll have them one day a week right now. And then when the baby comes, you might have more. Just depends on, it all depends on all of our schedules. Yeah.

Right now, you know, Phil's losing interest. You know, he's got... Not losing interest. com i would totally listen if it wasn't so goddamn expensive to spend the tokens on like a short ai video i would totally build an ai video like Like the preview of Dead Inside Me, something like that.

Oh, we've got artwork for a sequel. Yeah. Oh, really? Dead Inside Me 2.

Still Dead Inside Me. Still Dead Inside Me. So, Triple G's a nice little mix in, but he can never replace you, Phil, just so you know. Right.

Especially when his batteries always die on his cars. Yeah, exactly. And the batteries dying on this front door. @tmoney007 says, "Somebody sent you the SBI press release.

I'm just somebody. Son of a- He didn't send it to the news department. Is that a separate email? Listen, listen.

Right, it's a separate email. Listen, you're definitely more than a somebody, T-Money. And the fact of the matter is, there's a lot going on on this show sometimes. Sometimes we don't get the opportunity to acknowledge the people that we need to acknowledge, okay?

We're just flowing, it's just flowing, okay? Doesn't mean we love you less, okay? Don't listen to Palmer. Palmer's a shitster.

At Michael Z, CigarGuy55, who is the CRA working for? What they helped get passed in Illinois is dumb. The new law is bad for retailers who sell into Illinois. I'd have to look more into that.

But he's probably referencing yesterday the CRA was in for that. I thought the CAA was into that. That was the CAA, not the CRA. Oh.

Yeah, this is a different thing. Maybe it's just a different thing then. Yeah. Yeah, I like the better approach with there's, we aim for no regulation, you know?

I don't understand why we're allowing any type of regulation to happen with cigars at all. And, because then once you let them regulate, it just gets worse. It's a constant battle. It's much easier just to have the line all the way over here and say, no, you don't get to touch it.

Right? Mm-hmm. Cigar? Yeah.

Like tug of war. Well, I mean... It's a great idea. Unfortunately, it's never going to happen.

Government likes to have their finger and everything. I think you just need good lobbyists and, you know, a worked out plan. People all on the same page instead of just acting in their best interest. Oh, wow.

That would be an interesting idea for the government, wouldn't it? Yeah. Well, not only that, but I'm talking about people in the cigar industry, too. Yeah.

Well, that's right, yeah. You know. " Nice description. Arby's was on the list at some point?

I like Arby's. Do you? Not anymore. You like herpes?

No. You like herpes? No, I'm not getting it anymore. No, you're done?

Yes. I like their sandwiches, not the roast beef ones, their deli sandwiches are good. Whoa. No, no, not today, Triple G, no.

I gotta be on the show. Go to Palmer, go to Palmer. Oh, this is the first payment. Oh, look at this.

This. Oh, it's a cookie delivery. Look, I got a cookie. Oh, thank you, Greg.

It's a black and white cookie. Oh, it's huge. Wait, wait, you got one for Palmer and not Mikey? Yeah.

Mikey got one the other day. Mine's upstairs. Oh, I was going to say, because that's Mikey's favorite cookie. But Palmer said, where's my, I don't get a black and white cookie, so.

Friday, he got everybody a cookie upstairs but me. Well, you mentioned it on the last episode. Yes, I mentioned it yesterday. So, Triple G hand-delivered a black cookie for you.

I did have to go get him, though. That's where his car died. His car died? His car died of a bagel cake.

Today? Yeah, this morning. That's awesome. What did I miss with the herpes and the Arby's?

Somebody spit into a sandwich and gave somebody herpes. She had herpes and she spit in a sandwich. She had a flare-up, yeah. And Arby's is being sued for letting the lady work with the sores on her mouth.

So now the lady got it and she's afraid she's gonna give it to her husband and to her child. And her mother that's in hospice, but, you know, I didn't remember that. Right. @Palmer, aka @iHeartBDP.

It's not me! " See, this is how I know it's you. That's a typo? Yeah, because it says BPS is screen time, when it's supposed to say BDP.

BDPs. Here's what I'm going to tell you. You are correct. I do cut more of everybody in, when I'm running the board.

That's because I just do the board better than Phil, that's all that means. I flip back and forth, because look, if someone is just standing there and just rattling off a news thing, and you're just watching that person the entire time, I feel like you gotta mix it up. Get reaction shots. Yeah.

Yeah, like you smile a lot at Preston when he talks, so I cut to you because you're smiling. Exactly. See? That's super important.

It makes me laugh. There you go. Oh, he's so dreamy. Yeah, he is.

He's very dreamy. " We did that cigar review. The 99? I don't even know where that's at.

Oh, for the what's the score? I don't know. But they didn't get it right. I mean, they didn't get it right on the money anyway.

whatever look he doesn't keep track of that thing yeah there's no way if i kept a list yeah no i try to remember i mean you probably should realistically but at some point we're gonna catch up and do all of them no they put new ones up all the time yeah but how many uh today there was two yesterday there were two okay so it's per day yeah whenever they review a cigar i just try not to pull those because those are the ones you're most likely to have read either one of you mm-hmm you could bet that i'll I'll never read anything off Half Wheel. Yeah, that's what you'd say if you read things off Half Wheel. Exactly. Exactly.

Okay, and that's it from this episode. So, well, let me see, most relevant, let me see if I do notice if it changes anything. If you want to hear your comment, read aloud on the show, comment below. Also, when you comment on this show this week, you're going to be answered to win a Winged Czar's Postana hat.

It's one of the ones that we were giving away at PCA for retailers and media people who took appointments. It isn't for sale. So the only way you can get it is through this show. So do it.

Do it now. Go to Palmer. I'm eating from my cookies. Okay.

On with the show. No, no. Oh, by the way, here. Go, come here, come here, come here.

What are you smoking today, Mikey? Habano, Powstanie Habano. Habing-Bong. Habing-Bong.

Habing-Bong. Did you get that because of the Powstanie Instagram post this morning? No. George Washington's favorite cigar.

Is it? It was. I believe it. Yeah.

That makes sense. I want to see that movie, Young Washington. Young Washington? It looks good.

Who are you? I'm Washington. Right. Oh.

Full of holes in your coat. How did you not get shot? I'm wondering if I should start, like, this week, I'm just watching all the other Spider-Mans with the kids, and kind of get up to speed, because I feel like I'm lost a little bit. Just the ones with the new kid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because like the multiverse thing happened, and I think nobody remembers who he is now or something like that. Right, yeah, nobody knows who he is. Nobody knows who Spider-Man. So I think I got a...

Dr. Strange made that... thing. Just like that?

That's the way they do their hand. Yeah, that was impressive, you know, the way you did that. Right, he made the spell. Yeah.

So everybody would forget who he is, that's the only way all the bad people didn't come through with the multiverse. Right. Hmm. So now no one knows.

No one knows. Mary Jane's out there banging somebody else. She's dating some new guy. Banging somebody else.

Yeah, the other guy. His little weird friend doesn't know who he is. Yeah. Even Dr.

Banner doesn't know who he is. Even Dr. Banner, huh? Right.

Wow. Isn't there one person that knows? I don't even think Dr. Strange knows.

Dr. Strange probably knows. I don't know. I don't think he's in it.

Okay. All right. Well, let's go, Cookie Man. All right.

I had to Americanize this story a little bit, because it was sent to me on a Canadian website, and it was a little dull. Oh. Through McTavish? Yes.

That's par for the course. Canadian Border Service Agency Detector Dog Aggie recently put her highly trained nose to work in a Toronto Pearson Airport, uncovering approximately 2,100 undeclared Cuban cigars hidden in a traveler's luggage after a flight from Cuba. While screening baggage from the Caribbean flight, Aggie alerted her handler to a suspicious luggage. A subsequent inspection revealed the large stash of cigars leading officers to detain the traveler and seize the tobacco products.

Detector dogs like Aggie play a vital role in protecting Canada's borders, trained to identify a wide range of items by scent, including tobacco, narcotics, firearms, currency, and agricultural products. Tobacco? The dogs regulating tobacco? So they don't bring in...

our dogs do down in Miami. They check for tobacco? Mm-hmm. No way.

Yeah. Why? Don't you bring in any illegal cigars? I guess, I don't know.

That's ridiculous. Why is it ridiculous? Because they're just cigars. Yeah, but it's an item you can't bring back from Cuba.

You're allowed some. Maybe they just look for more than. I don't think our dogs smell from tobacco. Don't know.

I'm gonna find out right now. They often detect what technology alone missed. The Canadian Border Service Agency did not disclose the exact date of the flight or whether the traveler received a fine, but one thing is certain, on this day it was Aggie's incredible nose that stole the show. We will miss McTavish.

Alex McTavish. Now, the Canadian version of this basically talked about how important it is to register your stuff coming through customs. Of course they did. Yeah, one line about the dog and then four paragraphs about registering products coming through customs.

And pay us our tax. Right, and pay the taxes on it. I mean, I thought they have those cameras now at the airport where it's like a... They can smell things?

Can you smell things? No, like they can see through your bag. Like an x-ray type thing. Yeah, I mean, we put our stuff through x-ray machines, but there's still a dog there.

Not an x-ray machine. They have, you know, they do have cameras. Like in the military, they have cameras that are just put up in the corner of the rooms, and they can see what's inside of your bags. Oh, so an x-ray from far away.

Yeah. Okay. No, customs dogs in American airports do not sniff for standard tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars, or vapes. Yeah, it's definitely drugstore.

I mean, it's just, that's just wild in itself to me. Apparently in Canada they do. Like, that's just insane. I may or may not know that they don't sniff for it, if that makes sense.

It does. But why can't you say if you know or not? I mean, it's just ridiculous. You're allowed to bring your own personal items back.

Yeah, and even when they ask you, Hey, do you have any tobacco inside of your bag? Yeah. And you say no. They still don't know.

Oh, you say no? No, I'm just saying. Oh. Hypothetically?

Yeah, hypothetically. Oh, that's right. He just made that. Because I hypothetically just say yes.

Yeah, no, no, no. I say yes. Do you have cigars? Yeah.

What are they for? For me. Yeah. Because that's what they're for.

For smoking, right. Right. As long as you're not for selling it. Yeah.

They're my own cigars that I made, and they're for me. Yeah. Because usually, if I'm bringing something back, that's exactly what it's for. Yeah.

And one of the, I think they ask you like, is it under 200 or something like that? Something like that, yeah. I've never counted mine when I brought them back, so I was just like, yeah. I don't think so, it's gotta be close, give or take, we can both smoke a couple, put me under if you want.

That's obnoxious, maybe it's a byproduct of something else. Well, no, because they want the taxation. Oh yeah, they do, they're right. And you can, in Canada, you can smoke Cubans.

You can buy Cubans, yeah, you just can't sneak them in. So what you're saying is that you trained a dog to solely see if an individual is evading taxes at an amount of 2,000 cigars? Well, that's what this guy was snagged at. Who knows what the maximum number somebody had.

Yeah, well, how much do you think someone could honestly bring in without a—think about what 2,000 cigars looks like. That's a huge—that's a full— Maybe they were cigarellas. That's a full case. Like, we're not talking carry-on here.

Suitcase, full suitcase. Right. The roll of a suitcase guy. It's a suitcase guy.

Did you say suitcase or did you say backpack? It's a hundred bundles. It was just luggage. It just said luggage.

Imagine moving a hundred bundles. Like. Yeah. That guy is maxed out.

Yeah, he has no clothes in the back. Maybe he has four suitcases. Who knows? Okay, so like, so what's the percentage of taxation on cigars in Canada?

Isn't it like a hundred percent? Do you want me to use ChatGPT to answer? - I do want you to use ChatPayPT. - Can't he figure it out himself?

- I want you to use the, the poor man's AI. - Why does your AI have to go to another AI to answer your questions? - Here's a long answer from ChatGPT. - Thanks.

- Hey, go back. What? Where'd you go? - Oh, I got offended because I asked why it had to use somebody else.

- I want to read that. Come back. The page is not set up. - Look, you told me I had an hour off.

Stop asking me questions. We can get back to the work upstairs. I got to sneeze at stuff. I don't use ChatGPT.

No, apparently Claude does. So maybe you do and you don't know it. No. For cigars.

Let me just do this. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Searching. Here it is.

Mikey. Yeah. I need more cookie. Thank you.

I got to entertain these people somehow. You can bring up to 50 completely duty-free. Mm-hmm. You're a little over.

15 per cigar. Oh, that's it. So it was $100 or $300 maybe? Right.

So what are we doing here? So you snag this guy for $300. We trained the dog to sniff tobacco. They're just looking for the one guy.

Dude, this is insanity. Maybe this guy's a problem. Maybe he's done it multiple times. Maybe it is a problem there, period.

Maybe it's not just this guy. Maybe there's the whole ring and there's thousands of people bringing in 2,100 cigars. Or maybe it should be unregulated. Maybe it should be not taxed.

Don't know. You know? I'm not a Canadian. That's my thoughts.

You're not a Canadian, but you're an American. There's plenty of taxation in a lot of our states for cigars. Maybe they don't even care. Not the one I live in.

Not the one you love. That's why I chose this one. That's why? Land of the free, home of the brave, and no taxes on tobacco.

That's right. Well, there's taxes on tobacco. No cigar tax here in Florida. There's no cigar tax in Florida.

You don't pay a cigar... Whoa. That's sales tax. Hold on, let him talk.

He likes to paint himself into a corner, and you're shutting him down. Go ahead, Phil. Go ahead, paint away. Well, I'm just...

I mean, you're paying a tax from Nicaragua to here. That's federal. Right. Oh, so you're talking about a state tax?

Uh-huh. That's why I live in the state. But that wouldn't be a state tax up in Canada. No, that's a Canadian tax.

Yeah. That's why I don't live in Canadian, either. That's why you don't live in Canadian? Yes.

Okay. I don't want to pay the Canadian tax. No, what I'm going to say is, maybe they don't care about the money, maybe they want the cool bands and stuff, because they don't have bands or anything, right? They have bands, they're covered.

Oh, they're covered. Do they have that health problem where they have to put all the health stamps over the box? Oh, yeah. You can't even go in and pick out your cigar.

You have to announce it to the person. Is it like that at Arby's in Canada, too? I heard there's no herpes in the Arby's in Canada. Too cold.

Yeah. That makes sense. Allegedly. Okay.

Just freeze the herpes. All right, so carry on. Just freeze the herpes. Freeze the herpes.

That's why people used to lick the poles, but now that became a problem, because their tongues would stick. Right. The Arby's girl licks all of them. Attacks the poles.

Brevard County, Florida, back at home, we're the land of the free, home of the brave, and no taxes on cigars. A Palm Bay woman was arrested over the weekend after she was caught with cocaine in her lower region. Uh-oh. After a traffic stop, according to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, in a release, the Sheriff's Office revealed that the woman, identified as Reagan Cox, 30 years old, had been pulled over and arrested on a charge of resisting without violence on Saturday morning.

Does that just mean a car chase, I'm guessing, for some reason? Well, she probably just like kind of said no or something. I don't want you to arrest me. But when she was being processed at the jail, the scanner caught an abnormality in her jail purse.

You're right. " Oh, because the twisty was hanging out. 8 grams of cocaine. Oopsie.

Once the baggie dropped to the floor, Cox spontaneously uttered that she had no idea how she didn't know anything about the drugs and that someone must have put it there during an intimate encounter. Wow, let me just plug this in here. Yeah, this one doesn't light up, but here you go. She's just walking around, I don't know what he put in there.

It's funny because you know that she didn't say, oh, this had to have happened in an intimate encounter. Right, that was in parentheses, I assume she used the word. Yeah. Yes.

So now you're being paid with drugs, and you're hiring in your jumpers. Right. Cox now faces an additional charge of introducing a controlled substance into a detention facility. Mm-hmm.

And the police department said, "Folks, if not realizing that someone left cocaine in your jail purse is not a good enough reminder to not do drugs," he said, "I don't know what is," said Sheriff Wayne Ivey. That's a felony, by the way. To hide something in your prison purse? Uh, narcotic, yeah.

8. To introduce it into the jail? Well, is that an introduction or is that more of a surprise? Nah, it's an introduction.

You're not going to believe what I thought? Introduction, I believe you. Da-da-da-da! Check this out.

It stinks a little bit. Check this out. The good stuff's on the inside, don't pay attention to what's on the bag. When you were Master of Arms, did you happen to come across anybody that put anything in a jail purse?

No, I didn't work the jail. What about, but did you ever arrest anybody? You just had the dog? You had a dog?

No, yeah, most people in the military. Did the dog sniff the tobacco? No. Okay, just curious.

No. Most people in the military, their drugs are out in plain sight or in their locker. That's the worst one. And they always do it because they go, oh, I'm going to go to work.

And when they do, because we do health and comforts a lot, is what they're called. When we go to do health and comforts on ships and stuff, we go and sniff everybody. We bring the dog around and they sniff. Okay, that's not what I was picturing when he said we go around and sniff everybody.

No. So, when we, when we, after that, then the captain goes, "Oh, well, he has to request it. " And that's where all the lockers are. And then you start seeing everybody sweat.

Right. Immediately. What's the worst thing that you found? Oh, dude, this, this one guy had like a whole kilo in his locker.

Really? And they had just come back from a deployment. Yeah. So, he brought it home?

Yeah. Ah. Well, almost. It was on the ships, though.

Well, yeah. It didn't come all the way back, unfortunately. Yeah, no. A whole kilo.

Yikes. So, how much did you guys sell that for? Yeah. Oh, that was...

S. government after me. So, like... Oh, you had to give it to somebody else?

Yeah, you had to... Actually, who takes over that jurisdiction is FBI and... Somebody's like, I'll take this. Yeah, they all, yeah.

There's like five different squadrons that come in, you know, FCI, CIA, ATF. We'd like to report half a kilo was found. Right. And the FBI guy looks suspicious.

They did. I mean, we didn't, I didn't get to find it, but there was one time a dead body washed up, and the Coast Guard, 'cause they take care of that when it's in the water. When it washed up, it was full of cocaine. Okay.

So it's just a lot of you pointing to who's responsible for this is what you did. Well, yeah, when the Coast Guard found the body, when it washed up, they took control of it. So they're actually not- Why is it not on you while you're talking? They're actually not a military branch.

Okay. The Coast Guard. They're like a Department of Homeland Security. Mm-hmm.

So you can't like just go on their grounds. As Navy? Yeah, as any military brand, you can't just go on their grounds, they have to invite you on and stuff, so you can't just go inside there and patrol or whatever. So you guys are like vampires, you're not allowed in unless you're invited.

Oh yeah, like Lost Boys. Yeah. But anyways, yeah, I washed up, and then FBI came out and they took over the body, it was filled. And you had a dog?

I had one, but we couldn't search that. Okay, but what happened to the dog? Well, the dog belongs to the base captain. Okay.

Yeah, so... Oh, so you just walked the captain's dog, it was like a little beagle or something? That's not a beagle, but... So you don't get to keep the dog?

No. That sucks. Now, if the dog retires, then you can adopt it, if you're first on the list. Were you first on the list?

No. I wasn't the first owner. Were you second on the list? Third.

Were you very attached to the dog? Yeah. Did you like the dog? Yeah.

What was the dog's name? Bobo. Bobo? What kind of dog was Bobo?

He was a Czechoslovakian Shepherd. Didn't speak English. He was a Czech Shepherd. Yeah.

Hey, we're podcasting. Oh, sorry. It's all right, I texted you. Love you, bye.

Thank you, bye. You got a lot of editing today. Geez. One's at seven.

What are we at now? 31. 31. That's easy to find.

That's okay. That was just two seconds. Okay, moving on. All right, SpaceX launched a new Cirrus XM satellite from the Cape Canaveral Space Station Sunday.

Oh, just like that, boom. Yeah, just that's how unexcited we are about space travel here in the state of Florida now. And it was at nighttime. I didn't hear anything about it.

Was it for Howard? Yeah, well, I mean, Howard's on the way out, I heard, right? I don't know. He's kind of not doing, you know, he's just not as controversial, I mean, listen.

Does anybody even use Cirrus? I mean, you could do all that other stuff now. I mean, it's easy. I mean, there's like...

Do you have your followers? I think just because podcasting and everything is just so open platform at this point. There's so many different people. Like, he was controversial when it wasn't common.

Now, everybody is. Right, now everybody can say whatever he says, yeah. They can say whatever they want. Yeah, I don't think his show's as big as it used to be.

No. And I think that he's been kind of winding down in his career for years anyways, so... Yeah. No, but I meant a SiriusXM.

I mean, 'cause you could Spotify, you can iHeartRadio, you can... Yeah, but the thing about SiriusXM is that most dealerships give it to you for free. They give away their product for the first three months. Right, yeah, and then they hound you forever to...

Right. They'll give you a deal. Right. Come back.

It's almost like crack. Right, yeah. First thing's free, then after that... Right.

Gotcha. I never really liked it. I had it when it first came out. I never...

Crack? Right, yeah. Crack. I enjoyed it.

I used to enjoy it back in the day, but I didn't miss it. Spotify's better. Yeah, I mean, there's so many other things. 100%.

And the rocket ship went off, and we didn't even know. Sunday night, we didn't even know. This was the 17th flight of the Falcon 9 first stage booster. 17th time they used this rocket.

We have no idea about it. After stage separation, the first stage landed on an A shortfall of Gravitas drone ship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. So we have a drone ship that's out there just floating around and just, these pieces land on them. That's awesome.

And then they reused them. Mm-hmm. Man. Okay.

Elon's just like, he's just so ahead. But he's losing money. Yeah, but his technology is so ahead. What do you think Cirrus pays to have that thing launched?

I mean, it's got to pay for the spaceship at least. Do you have that price there? No, I'm just curious if we could just talk about it. I mean, I have no idea what it is.

It's up there. I mean, that's the end of the article. That's how unexcitable this stuff is anymore. It took off on this date.

Yeah, we caught a piece of it and when it landed, whatever. It's gotta be a few million bucks. At least. At least.

Probably more. How much do you think SiriusXM pays SpaceX to launch a satellite into space? Let's ask. Do you want me to use chat GPT?

Yes, I do. Why does Claude not have his own search engine? It's not Claude. Oh.

Uh, 62 million to 67 million per mission. Wow. I mean, according to this, that's all it did. Losing money, huh?

It is. Well, what he's probably doing is he's setting the market, right? " Yeah, I mean, NASA's not, you don't hear about NASA launching stuff for like Burger King or anything. I mean, this guy should shoot up a rocket for anybody who paid for it.

You think Burger King needs a satellite? No, I just use it as a far-fetched example. We need to know exactly the temperature in which you are cooking the burgers, and we want it sent to space. Well, they want the moon to say Whopper at night.

Whopper. Oh, yeah, the king appears. Have it your way. We need the king to appear.

You're on the moon. It's just a matter of time before there's ads on the moon. You think so? Somebody will do it somewhere.

That'd be cool. I don't know how that rolls. Why? Well, the moon's not really anyone's property though.

Right, nobody owns it. Okay, well, we'll see. There's a country, there'll be some weird country that makes a rocket that puts a glow-in-the-dark flag on it. Well, then I would start with just throwing up the bat symbol.

That would be dope. When the new Batman movie comes out. Yeah, exactly. Here comes World War III.

Everybody's gonna want to own the moon. Own the moon, gotta get there first. I thought we all wanted, I think we, I think there's an agreement there that, you know. You can't own the moon.

You can't own the moon? Doesn't mean they can't take it. We now possess the moon. The moon is ours.

Come get us. Look at the crew. Space Wars. All right, we got cigars.

Floating around. That movie done was called Moonraker. It was a James Bond movie. Oh, was it?

Yeah. Who was the Bond in Moonraker? I believe it was Sean Connery. It was?

I could be wrong. It could be that guy whose name nobody's going to recognize. So that was 80s. No, it wasn't Sean Connery.

Who was the guy after him? Pierce Brosnan? No, no. That was way after him.

He's going to look it up. Roger Moore. Roger Moore. That was a name I couldn't think of.

So it was 80s. You just went Sean Connery. He might have done a version. Was Sean Connery before Roger Moore?

1979. Yeah, Sean Connery was before Roger Moore. Oh, Sean Connery was Bond in the 70s? There hasn't been a Bond movie lately.

The last one he died did he yeah they killed him yeah they killed him at the end so they're looking for a new one and I think they're gonna do a they're gonna do a prequel go back before double eight no no till 007 but when he was younger how did he die a rocket hit where he was so did you see the body you saw him explode they showed him sitting there out in the desert and he says He fell in love with that girl for the last couple of movies. Yeah. So he saves her, but they both die. So he got soft, is what you're saying?

Yeah, he got soft. Hmm. Okay. They haven't picked a new Bond yet.

You know, when they were slinging that knot up under his nuts in that chair. I mean, I didn't see it. You didn't see that torture where he was being tortured? No.

Oh, yeah. They showed his nuts being slung? No, they showed, it was a wicker chair, and they cut the thing out, and they strip him and make him sit on the chair. And then this guy's got this rope with this giant knot on it, and he slings it and then just whacks it up underneath, and he screams.

I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Right. But he's screaming, he's going, "I have a little itch. To the left!

" Baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball. Oh, not baseball. At that point, it just exploded everywhere. Okay, we're going into Cigar News, Mike, unless you have something for us today.

Oh, I have a video. Oh, how nice. Oh, I think I got chocolate on my phone. Probably from Bonds Balls.

From my cookie. From Bonds Balls. There you go. Oh, Albert is the name of the...

How did he know we asked the question, who's Albert? CCW just answered the Albert question. What Albert question? What were you trying to figure out who Albert was?

Was that yesterday? Must have been yesterday. Yeah, I don't even know what you're talking about. You'll read that tomorrow.

The red light's obviously working well. All right, go ahead. I meant to do it at least half a dozen times during the show. Ah, it's in the title, that's why I titled the title the title.

We keep getting sidetracked, but to all our KMA fans out there, since Paul DeGracco left, we've been doing a floating rotation of guest hosts, keeping it fresh. But if you go to the KMA About Us page on the KMA website, you will notice that there is now a new official co-host, the KMA Talk Radio. And it is none other than the surgeon, John McTavish. What?

Welcome to the KMA family. Official. It was a good group of people. I feel honored to be in that group of people because I consider them all my peers and obviously followed along and listened to everybody and I feel quite honored to be picked as the new co-host.

I'm excited. John is the new permanent co-host of KMA Talk Radio. Go to the KMA website and check out his bio. It's up there now.

There you go. Oh, well congratulations, Mr. McTavish. Mr.

McTavish is now part of the KMA, he is the KMA co-host. Who was the other one? Paul De Rocco was the one before that, he's been gone for a while. Yeah.

You wanna know how I know Abe is rich? How? Look at that t-shirt, man. I love that shirt, I was looking at it like, that's a great shirt.

What's that? Hawaiian print t-shirt? Yeah, that's nice. I bet it's expensive.

That is next level. That shit was tailored. You know what I mean? Well, he's lost a bunch of weight, he looks good.

Yeah, yeah, he's well-groomed, you know, not like the rest of us. That looks really nice, you know? It does. It looks good.

He's even putting the other three to shame with their playing tees, you know? But Canada doesn't have crazy tees. McTavish has something with a Canadian maple leaf on it. I can see that in the bottom of the image.

Well, they're still in the World Cup, so yeah, he probably does. They're still in the World Cup? Yeah. Okay.

Oh, so what's it cost us to put the Powstanie logo behind McTavish now for KMA? Hey, we'd like to get some KMA ad space from you, we're wondering what does that entail? I'm gonna ask you on that. We would like to put Postanya in the background.

On our morning combos, I'll ask you. Why don't you just put a t-shirt on them? Uh, just a regular, like a Postanya t-shirt. A t-shirt, just something discreet, a little red, maybe one of the collared shirts, a little red P on it.

Postanya hat, Postanya hat, there you go. Oh, maybe he can win the Hazar hat and then he can wear it on the show. There you go. Oh, he can do his comment on the episodes this week.

Yeah, John. Well, he won't because he's a year behind. That's true. I'll never hear this.

It'd be crazy if he won. Every once in a while, he likes to send me what episode he's on. I'm like, "You kidding me? I think you're dropping.

" You're never catching up. Well, congratulations, John. You're in a good spot there. KME guys have been doing it for a while, and they're pretty good at what they do.

Is he still doing his other show? Are you still doing his other show? I'm sure. Developing Palettes?

Oh, yeah, sure. He's Canadian. He's got a lot of free time. Yeah.

It's cold up there. What else are you going to do? Yeah. Doesn't he have a regular job?

Yeah, but that's daytime. He does, but AI does the majority of it now. He hasn't told them. KMA is a Saturday show.

All the other shows are night shows. Yeah. What's he going to do? Go outside?

He can. It's too cold. Right. Sit in your house where it's warm.

Do a podcast. Exactly. Exactly. Okay.

Mike Savage is named permanent co-host of KMA Radio. Oh. So, we'll just zip through this real quick. There you go.

Start demanding high salary, John, right off the jump. Yeah, when you do your contract negotiations, ask for money. I want to know what am I getting paid per episode. That's all I want to know.

A million dollars. That seems a bit excessive. How are they going to smuggle cigars to you to review for the show? Yeah, exactly.

Because you have to have, you know, cigars. And friends got it. All right. Well, that was one of our portal entries.

So here is the next one. Eddie Guerrera joins Placencia. Yes. Whoa.

Eddie Guerrera, a cigar industry veteran, is the new SVP, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Placencia Cigars. He joins after spending roughly a year in a similar role at La Flor Dominicana. That's what I was going to ask. If he was at Florida Dominicana.

How long was he at LFD for? Roughly a year. Yeah. , not of USA.

Rumor is steak knives was his idea. He was the steak knives guy? He was the steak knives guy. Yeah.

Backpacks, what about the backpacks? No, that was before his time, and he came in right after the giant mugs. Okay. What are we doing next?

We have the backpack, we have the mugs, and he goes, steak knives. Steak knives. We're doing steak knives. Were they dishwasher safe?

Of course. Yes, of course they are. It is both a privilege and an honor to join the Blasencia family, a lead global marketing for a company whose legacy spans more than five generations in over 160 years, said Guerrero. I've never heard him speak.

I don't know what accent he can use. I believe the world is only beginning to appreciate the depth of what this family has to build. To help shape the next chapter of the story is an extraordinary opportunity. I believe the world is only beginning to appreciate the depth of what this family has to build.

To help shape the next chapter of the story is an extraordinary opportunity. I wonder if he said that every time he moved to another company like this was the proudest now this is the proudest now this is well well he's been in the industry for a while yes and I've heard nothing but good things about the guy I've never heard anything bad myself yeah I probably met him maybe once or twice yeah I don't know yeah maybe at the show or something maybe I like his name do you want to read on yeah I have more but I'm about to sneeze oh do it I look forward to bringing I'm bringing every lesson and every experience from my journey to a brand with limitless potential and a legacy worth the global stage. He replaces Victor Lelou, who announced that he was no longer serving as the company's chief marketing officer. Lelou joined the company in 2024.

A press release says Guerrera will report directly to Ed Bello, CEO of Plasencia Cigars. " Yada, yada, yada. Right. Okay.

So that's the third person they've added in the last two weeks. Plasencia. Well, and their duty-free shops. Was that Plasencia?

Wasn't that Plasencia? No, they were a separate company, remember? Right, they were a separate company, but they were owned by. Prestige Worldwide or something like that.

Yes, yes. Yeah, and the other guy, they made the new executive brand ambassador. The other guy is now just a heavy drinker. And smoker.

Yeah, and flying around drinking and smoking. Yes. Yeah. What a job.

It's a job until you need to show profits. It's the first one to go. It's the first one to go. Okay, so, do you think this is good for Placentia?

I don't know anything about the previous guy, but sure, bringing in a new blood is always a good idea. Okay. Do you think-- He's got a lot of marketing-- sorry, I wasn't finished. He has a lot of marketing experience with all those other companies, and those are, you know, they're all major players.

I'm sorry for cutting you off. No, that's okay. Go ahead. As long as you don't cut my-- oh, a lot of you drinking, a lot of footage of you drinking.

Well, I like the reaction. Yeah, that's what I was trying to get. That's what I was trying to get. What about you?

Do you think this is a good call for Placencia? You know, I don't know much about Placencia. I do know that they look, you know, like a great brand. You know, their branding is very nice.

They look organized. A lot of people know the name. Okay. For him to come in and revitalize or change or make an evolution for the brand on marketing?

Maybe. Okay. I feel like I haven't heard about Gurkha in a long time. And I haven't heard of, what was the other one?

LFD? LFD. Alters? I mean, ever since Carney kind of left, I haven't heard a lot.

Well, LFD has been working on this whole rebrand and reshape thing for a while. You know, maybe... After everybody quit. A couple of years.

I don't know if it was a quit thing. Yeah, I think it was... We don't know the full details. Disagreements.

Let's just say disagreements. I think it was just a reshape of the corporate structure. Let's just call it that. Okay.

Agreed. Okay, so, uh, well that was kind of where I was going to on the next question. Do you think that Eddie left because Placencia was a better opportunity? Do you think that he left because maybe things weren't gelling at LFD with him?

They just weren't meshing? What do you think? Phil? Um, I think it's a great move.

I think Placencia is a bigger company. Yeah. Yeah. So you think that it's possible that just a better opportunity kind of came along and he said, all right, LFT, I'm going to, I got to go here.

Yeah. Cause I mean, from Placencia, where do you go from there? Right. What would be the next move?

Like an STG or? I think, I think STG is backwards. STG is bigger, but I don't, I don't know, man. I think Placencia is like the one that tricks is kind of tracking up.

Right. And why are they making so many changes They're obviously not happy with, I would assume that they're not happy with how things have tracked and they can do better and put, you know, look, at the end of the day, as a company, you always have to continue to reinvent and press forward and try and figure out what works and what can work better. Right, it just seems like all of a sudden there's a lot, or is it just because we need to move this guy over here that created another space, so now let's put a first release out by moving this guy over here, and then when he moved here, oh, by the way, now we need somebody over there, Because that guy moved this way, so it's just sort of dominoing its way through the fact, through the company. Yeah, I just think that it's constant growth and restructuring, yeah, I guess when you promote from within that does start creating holes that you have to fill.

Okay, here's my final question about this article. Let's say it doesn't work out. Let's say Eddie is not the fit for Plasencia, for whatever reason. I'm not saying that Eddie's bad.

Yeah, you know, it's just, it takes a, you can have a talented person, and then they can come into your group, and things still might not work. Sure. Right. So let's say that it doesn't work out.

Does it look bad for Eddie to move through so many companies in such a short period of time, as far as going into the next place? That's a tough call. Well, he was LFD for a year. I think a year is a substantial amount of time to be somewhere.

It's not like every six months he's jumping ship. And I don't know how long he was with all the other companies. Okay. Well, let's say in a three-year span you've gone through three companies.

Yeah, okay. Each one's a year, then yeah. Then you started like... You're like, I don't know.

Maybe it's, you know, maybe it's him. Like, yeah, right. Yeah. There's no way that all three of those companies made the wrong decision or something.

I don't know. I disagree. I think the way that he moved, I think he went up a ladder. Okay.

I think that's fair. But if I'm looking at it, if somebody comes into Cigar Hustler, and they give me their resume, and they have new job after a year, new job after a year, new job after a year, and that's three consecutive times. Right? And I heard this guy's a good guy.

I don't know if I hire that person. You know what I mean? What if each job was a step up for him? OK, but then at that point, the next job opportunity needs to be the next step up.

Oh, yeah. At that point, what's to say he isn't going to move up from here? And he's going to be higher than Placentia? And there's not very many.

Right. Excuse me. So, you know, I don't know. That's kind of my question, right?

Like, I hope that it works out. I think that, first of all, I think that it will work out. Right. I think that he's going to do well there, and he's going to grow and flourish, and he's going to help the company.

However, if it doesn't, for whatever reason, and things don't mesh, eventually it gets to a point where you have to take a job at a lower position somewhere else. Sure. " Yeah, maybe you're not an executive marketing guy. Maybe this isn't the fit.

Maybe you're assistant director of marketing. If I'm just looking at a piece of paper, like, the math doesn't math, right? Good point. That's kind of my point, so.

Yeah. You know, send me some more Almoduselios or something, you know, whatever. Almoduselios. - Okay, next.

- Earlier this month, the University of Oklahoma's baseball team won its third NCAA championship. You know what that means, Bocock brothers is licensing your-- - I thought you covered this. - It was just in Half Wheel today, I think it was a different team last week. - No, they just won, yeah, they just won.

- Oh, okay. - It was somebody else last week. - Bocock brothers are right on the collegiate licensing thing. - They're just crushing this.

- They're just doing. with licensing agreements with around 20 different college and universities for branded cigars has announced a cigar that celebrates the school's 2026 College World Series win. The Oklahoma Sooner 2026 National Champion Cigar is a 6x52 Toro that uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra seed wrapper over a Honduran binder and fillers from Nicaragua. Bocock Brothers is most of its cigars made in an undisclosed factory in Honduras.

The company says this cigar differs from some previous baseball-themed cigars, which have used Mexican San Andres wrapper. Pricing is set at? How much is this famous baseball school cigar? Phil?

30 bucks. 20 dollars. 2-0, you said? Yeah.

You went the right way, but you went too far. 27 dollars and 50 cents per cigar. So? So he technically wins, he's closer.

This is a bubble, go ahead, go ahead. It comes packed in boxes of ten cigars. The Bocock brothers say this is a limited edition release, though it has not disclosed how many limited numbers they're making. Okay.

The Sooner Bococchi. So, it's not what it's called. I just put a little French on it. But they're not shipping the cigar until August, so obviously they waited to see who was going to win before they made the cigar.

Right. Phil's next episode. The sooner Bukkake. The sooner Bukkake.

The sooner Bukkake. Phil starts visiting colleges. Oh, wow. You know, I should do that.

What? We should visit colleges. We should visit colleges? We should visit colleges?

We should do the podcast out of college. Yeah? Okay. This is the first OU branded cigar for the Bukkak Brothers.

Oh, is it? Yes. Okay, so they've obviously cornered this market. Yeah.

Right, they're just sitting around waiting on somebody to win something. They're going to win something. Right, they're just, you know. Right.

They've obviously cornered this market. Do you think this is good or bad for the cigar industry? Oh, I don't think it's bad for the industry. Okay.

It's colleges. So then you'd think it was good for the industry. If you didn't think it was bad. Well, maybe it's just okay for the industry.

I don't think it hurts the industry at all, but I don't necessarily see how it makes it better either. Well, introducing cigars to non-cigar consumers. Well, that would be good in that fact then, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. But I mean, are they putting these in the, you know, the school stores at the colleges? Are they sold there? I would not think so.

They don't have a tobacco license. I'm sure there is some type of marketing to the students. It could be a local shop in the same city as the school, I guess. Hmm.

Okay. I thought they were direct-to-consumer anyways. Are they? Bocock?

Yeah, I thought they were. Isn't that an octopus cigar we like so much? Isn't that them too? Or is that a different brothers?

That's a totally different brothers. Oh. I knew they were brothers. The El Pupo's?

Yeah. The Artisan Brothers? Is that Artisan Brothers? Something like that, yeah.

I hear they just change their hats and they become Bukkak brothers. Oh. I think the Bukkakis only do intercollegiate. Is that another group of brothers?

Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure, though, like, if your team wins, like, say you're at the college, right, you're still at the college, your team wins, I'm sure there's some type of thing that goes around the campus or like, oh, look, they made a cigar for our team winning, and that they buy it. Well, something on social media, I'm sure. Yeah. So do you think it's good or bad?

I think these guys are great that they're the only ones. Right. I mean... Okay.

I think that it's good in the fashion that it's a good way to introduce younger cigar smokers to the industry. The cigar better be good though. You know, that's the other thing. It would be, I mean, there's not a way to do it, but it would be nice if they had them so that the winning team could smoke them in celebration of winning.

I'm sure they do. Why? These aren't even shipped until August, so I mean, what do they just make one for both teams, I guess? Make a half a dozen or a dozen cigars with both bands for both teams?

Yeah, probably. Whatever the two final teams are. You could probably do that. Yeah.

I guess you could. You know? Okay. I mean, that's what somebody does for, like, professional teams, right?

Yeah. I mean, yeah. But, like, I don't know... Well, they usually smoke Ceniza Fina, apparently.

Right? I don't know if I go... I don't know if Honduran is the one that I would go for, for an intro to Cigar Smokers. Ah, yeah.

That's kind of my point. Oh. You know? Like...

Well, it wasn't... Like, nothing in it was Honduran, was it? Can you read back that? It's country of origins, Honduras.

Yeah, but it sounded like all the tobacco was not Honduras, like there was no... Ecuador and Sumatra, which could also go either way, could be really bitter, could be sweet, could be gold, you know what I mean? In the past they've used Mexican San Andreas wrappers, this is the first Ecuadorian one that they... Right.

What was the fillers in Binder? I thought it was like all Nicaraguan or something. Sumatra seed wrapper over Honduran binder and fillers from Nicaragua. Okay, so the fillers in Nicaragua.

" That's a good point. I don't know if these guys are doing that. It doesn't sound like it. " My son doesn't like it.

That could be why they... So now it's downgrade to a Sumatra. So at least they're trying, well, it's not really a downgrade, but let's... Well, I don't mean downgrade, but change.

Right. Strength-wise. So maybe that's what they're trying to do. Yeah.

Could be. Okay. I'll end up with a Connecticut eventually. I thought they would have led out with that.

I think you can get away with a good Sumatra if it's done right. I mean, our, our, I would say our weakest cigar, for lack of a better term, is the Sumatra. The Connecticut's definitely bolder. Yeah, I would say the Sumatra's the weaker one.

Yeah. Is the more acceptable to smoke? I haven't had. Approachable, more approachable.

Approachable. Oh, that's a good word, approachable. It's what Eddie Guerrero would have said, he's a marketing guy. Yeah.

No, no, no. I heard about him. " I'm sorry. You don't even know what he's talking about?

No, he doesn't. Well, I didn't. Well, you know. But I saw Moonraker, though.

You did. You probably saw it in the movie theater. I did see it in the theater. Yes, I have seen it in the theater.

Exactly. They had movie theaters back though. Yeah, you could walk there. I saw Star Wars, or Star, yeah, Star Wars, the original one.

Was it movie theater or drive-in? Movie theater. Okay. I do like the fact that I get to pick my seats.

The movie theater? Yeah, then I don't have to worry about that shit. Oh, at the theater? Yeah.

Because I'm like, you know, the movie theaters, the movie starts at 7:30, I can stroll in close to 8:00 and not have an issue. You don't like the previews? I love the previews. It was one of the same.

Yeah, but that's like seeing three more movies to me. Do I like the previews? Yes. Do I have to make it if I'm in the middle of something else?

No. Oh no, I have to be in there sitting down before the previews start. No, that's not happening. Where is it?

Well, the other thing too... It's like traveling on an airplane with you too. Same idea, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. No, I like to be there and get in and sit on a plane. " Exactly. Yeah, I mean, remember back in the day though, when they didn't have that, you know, reserve seating?

Yeah. In the day, that wasn't that long ago. It was probably like a couple years ago. Yeah, probably about 10 years.

No, it hasn't been 10 years they've been reserving seats. Maybe it depends on what theater you're going to. Okay. But remember like back then, like, especially like you have a family.

Yeah. Right? Like it's super hard to get that many seats together. Right.

Like you would get there and it's like, there's only three seats. Yeah. And there's the one guy that won't move over. Right.

Oh, man. They're sitting in the sweet spot and they're going, oh, whoa, and it's all right where the sound's right. Mm-hmm. Okay.

All right. Glenn Wolfiedson, CEO of Drew Estate, passed away at 70 years old. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Play a sad song. What are you taking whippets over there? What's going on? No, those are illegal in the state of Florida.

Super illegal. We just passed that law. They're illegal everywhere. Yeah, but I don't know why.

They just made a big thing about it that the governor said you can't use them. CO2 cartridges. Glenn Wolveson, the CEO of Drew Estate, has passed away after a brief illness. Drew Estate announced his passing at a press release on Monday.

Wolveson joined the company in 2016 after serving as a consultant for most of his professional career. After stops at Boz, Stops at Booz, Allen, Corn Ferry, Simpson, and others, Wolfson was working at Twin Lab Consolidation Corporation, a vitamin supplement company, in July 2016, he joined Drew Estate as CEO. Huh, that's quite the pivot there. From all those things, I mean, yeah, now running a tobacco company.

They stayed there for a decade. A major change for the company that had recently been acquired by Swisher. While Glenn's talents and... My microphone just went off.

Oh, it's back on. That was weird. When Glenn's talents and business operations and general commercial practices drove the company to new heights, his influence as a people person was his separate among equals, his superpowers, said Jonathan Drew, the company's president, in a press release. Our Drew estate, Wolfie, was a natural-born leader who instinctively knew how to climb into each of our individual psyches and drive our strength while mentoring us on how to course-correct our personal weaknesses.

Most importantly, he accomplished this with love, really, really deep love, like the hardy oak, Wolfie always gave more than he took. And then he goes on to say several other nice things. Sounds like a hell of a guy. It does.

Sounds very nice. Maybe this thing eats batteries. Maybe the batteries are going dead. It says 69% on the thing already.

Yeah, you're in good shape. It just clicked for a second. Like, when you leaned, it clicked. Yeah, maybe you hit the button.

The button's enclosed inside. I think that's why the button's on the inside. but maybe you did something when you moved maybe if so it was only a brief second anyways right yeah I could just tell it went off in my ear he says more things more things more thing I never get to meet this guy I didn't even I always thought Jonathan Sonsdrew ran the company Sonsdrew I don't know what his name is he I don't think he knows it depends on which post you look at which name he uses right I didn't know there was another guy mm-hmm I always thought He was the guy, apparently he's not the guy. Well, he was the guy, but you have to have like a CEO, CFO.

I mean, if this guy was at the helm of things, he did a hell of a job for the past decade. Yeah. You gotta give it to him. He had pancreatic cancer is what he died of.

He announced that he had it, and then shortly after he was gone. Yeah, that's not a good one. Right. You know?

Man, sucks. Sorry for the loss. Right, sorry for the loss. And, yeah, I mean, there's not much more to say about that.

No. Alright, it's time for the industry's favorite game: What's the Score? Players hear clues from a Half Wheel Cigar review and try to predict the score before it's revealed. As more details are shared, the challenge gets easier, or does it?

The closest guess to the actual score wins the round. Can you read between the lines and predict the score? Let's play What's the Score? Today's Cigar, November 15th, 2018.

Patrick LaGreed is the reviewer. It is the Tablicalera El Artista Fugli. These are your guys? Yes.

These are the brothers. Yeah. The Octo? The Pupo, Phil.

I'm not going to say a little. Okay, I'll go first. Palmer likes them. He picked this thing.

This thing, so I'm gonna go 89. 88. Who's reviewing it? Patrick.

Got it. Cigar Reviewed, The Fugly. Country of Origin, Dominican Republic, Factory, Tabla Calera El Artista. It's an American San Andreas wrapper, binder.

It says none. I don't know if that means there isn't one, or they're not telling you. Probably on the school. I'm sure it's on the school.

There has to be one. Well, normally it says something different than none. Right. Filler, Dominican Republic, Correo 98, Lajero, and USA, Pennsylvania, Broadleaf.

It's a 5x40 Cheroot. Oh, so there is no binder. Oh, there is no binder. MSRP is $3, and they smoked free of them.

I like Cheroots. Yeah, I'm gonna stay 89. I'm going down. I'm going 84.

Clue number one. Well, it looked like clue number one was the final thought, so I had to go forward a little bit. Well, you were right. Well, I know, but I mean, I could have cut and pasted it out of order.

It's not like that's out of the realm of possibilities. Okay. Clue number one. I actually appreciate the rustic, old-school presentation.

It sounds like a cigar that embraces its factory test roots instead of trying to look perfect. And when the earth, coffee, and sweetness come together, it seems like it's a lot of character hiding in the blend. 89. 86.

Clue number two. Even though the review had mixed results, it's encouraging that one sample delivered the earthy coffee-forward profile the cigar was aiming for. The reviewer also praised the retrohale throughout, which tells me there's some potential here the consistency can be improved. So, 89.

84. Clue number three. The biggest issue wasn't the appearance, it was the inconsistency. Frequent relights, chalky bitterness, and two of the three cigars becoming unsmokable late in the smoke make it hard to recommend until the construction and flavor profile become more reliable.

That's clue number three, right? That was clue number three. 88. Final thought: I remember being intrigued by the Ugly Beast when I was introduced to it at the trade show, and while the name changed to Fugly generated a bit of an eye roll, it didn't diminish my thoughts of wanting to try it if I came across it.

Its Vitola and background reminded me of some smoking fumas in factories to taste varietals of tobacco or as part of the occasional blend-your-own-cigar exercise that occurs. However, it was by the midway point of the first sample that my interest in the cigar had completely waned, as the profile was brutally chalky and sour while almost managing to be abrasive on the front half of the tongue from a physical perspective. While the draw and burn were generally good, I found myself needing to relight each sample at least once and often several times, something that I'm sure did not help the flavor whatsoever. So he liked it, it's just relighting.

Okay. '82. I thought he liked it. I don't know, these guys are weird sometimes, Leanne, like, a relight might count way down on this.

You went way down on this, or... I haven't had this cigar, but I liked your roots. I could win by just going 81, I think, but I'm gonna put the number out there that I think is correct, and I'm gonna say 79. You went the right way, but not far enough.

71. Boom! One's going better than the other. Yep.

It's 'cause the other one got smacked in the nuts. Was in a Wicked Chair. But they're not. No.

I am the winner! Okay. '71, wow. '71.

'71. '71. 'Cause of a relight? No, he said it was terrible.

It was unsmokable by the halfway through. He said it tasted terrible. Only one of the three had any type of coffee flavor at all. Mm-hmm.

Oh, he went in with expectations. Well, I guess it's... No, he smelled... No, no.

When you said that he liked it, I instantly thought he was not listening, just so you know. Probably wasn't. Yeah. Robbie didn't care, I don't know.

Too many words. Anybody got anything else? That's all I got. I got nothing.

com for all your CHPod swag, buy one, get the second one 40% off, spend $100 or more, get free shipping. com, A Cigar Hustlers Podcast, and that's all I got. All right, guys, we gotta go, thanks! Boop!

Show Notes

On todays show Canadians Sniffers Top Notch, I don’t know how that got in there?  SpaceX Plays Better Music, then in cigars double Portal Entry, Bococks Baby, we say good bye….then whats The Score!