ACHP 584 Happy Birthday To The King
Episode Summary
Episode 584 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is a birthday show for engineer Michael "Mikey" Szczepankewicz, with Mike "BDP" Palmer hosting alongside returning co-host Triple G (Greg). The crew opens with listener comments from the new CHPod Lounge and YouTube, a running debate about whether to build a private community platform versus using Discord (spurred by reports of a cigar retailer's Discord server being shut down overnight), and a look at the newly launched retailer ordering portal and the AI-assisted tools being used to build it.
The news block is classic Hustlers territory: an Illinois pontoon boat crash on the Fox River in which Richard Stevenson allegedly ran down a smaller boat at high speed while heavily intoxicated, killing a woman and injuring her husband; Florida's first double execution in more than 60 years under Governor Ron DeSantis, with a discussion of the state's outsized share of U.S. executions; and the "Batman of Lagos de Moreno," an anonymous Mexican vigilante duct-taping accused motorcycle thieves to lamp posts.
Cigar news leads with Chen Zhi — the Prince Group figure tied to alleged pig-butchering crypto scams and a record Bitcoin seizure — now formally charged in China with offenses that could carry ten years to death, plus the fallout that already cost him a cigar factory investment. The guys then break down La Aurora's new Santiago Collection mixed-filler (Cuban sandwich) bundle cigars — a Santiago Maduro with an Indonesian Maduro wrapper and Indonesian binder over Dominican filler, and a Santiago Connecticut with an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper — at $2.30 to $3 per stick, with blender Manuel Inoa quoted. They also cover the delayed Hooten Young American 250 Reserve, a two-cigar, $17.76 Connecticut/Maduro release shipping in August, and talk about how well Hooten Young is performing at retail.
The show closes with birthday tributes (including a ChatGPT-written toast and Little Debbie birthday cakes) and a round of "What's the Score?" using Brooks Whittington's Half Wheel review of the Caldwell Yellow Cake Maduro Robusto — a sub-$7, 5x50 smoke with peanut butter, cedar, cocoa and honey notes, docked for inconsistency and burn corrections. The final score: 86.
In This Episode
- 01Birthday Show Open & Listener CommentsMikey's birthday kicks off the episode as the hosts read comments from the CHPod Lounge and YouTube, including jokes about auctions, masks and 'bing bong.'
- 02Building a Community vs. DiscordWhy the crew is coding its own chat lounge with AI instead of using Discord, after a cigar retailer's server was shut down overnight.
- 03Retailer Portal & AI Tools in the Cigar TradeA look at the newly live retailer ordering portal, a planned brand-side data portal, and how AI-generated design is homogenizing industry graphics.
- 04Illinois Pontoon Boat FatalityRichard Stevenson's alleged drunken 80-mph pontoon crash on the Fox River, the reckless homicide charges, and a debate over sentencing.
- 05Florida's Double ExecutionFlorida executes two inmates in one day for the first time since 1964 amid DeSantis's death penalty push, and the guys riff on the state's numbers.
- 06The 'Batman' of Lagos de MorenoA masked vigilante in Jalisco duct-tapes accused motorcycle thieves to lamp posts, sparking a vigilante justice debate.
- 07Chen Zhi Formally Charged in ChinaThe Prince Group founder tied to pig-butchering crypto scams and a record Bitcoin seizure faces charges carrying ten years to death, with cigar-industry ties recapped.
- 08La Aurora Santiago Collection BundlesLa Aurora brings mixed-filler Santiago Maduro and Santiago Connecticut bundle cigars to the U.S. at $2.30–$3 per stick.
- 09Hooten Young American 250 ReserveThe delayed 250th anniversary release pairs Connecticut and Pennsylvania-wrapped cigars in one 20-count box at $17.76 each.
- 10What's the Score: Caldwell Yellow Cake Maduro RobustoClue-by-clue guessing on Brooks Whittington's Half Wheel review of the sub-$7 Yellow Cake Maduro, which lands at 86.
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
Mike Beattie, P. Palmer, Your Host, Alongside my Co-Hosting, The Cigar Hustler Podcast, Where Cigars Start The Conversation, But Anything Can Happen, I'm Mike Beattie, P. Palmer, Your Host, Alongside my Co-Hosting, The Cigar Hustler Podcast, Where Cigars Start The Conversation, But Anything Can Happen. I'm Mike BDP-Palmer, your host, alongside my co-host today, here again, by popular demand, Mr.
Triple G. The superstar. Here we are. The superstar.
The superstar. I'm here. Superstar. Then over in engineering, we have the birthday boy.
Today is technically Thursday, but we're shooting on Wednesday. So, it is his birthday. Thank you. Mr.
Michael Szczepankewicz. Oh. Did you show your button? Where's the button?
Thank you. I did, I showed the button. Oh, okay. Good birthday boy.
I have explicit instructions from Mrs. Szczepankewicz to make sure that button does not leave his shirt for the length of the day. The whole day, the button. The whole day, including the podcast, she said.
Oh boy. Each episode, we dive into the world of cigars, sports, business, current events, pop culture, and whatever crazy headlines of everyone talking. Nothing's off limits, no opinions are scripted, and you never know where the conversation is gonna go. This is a show like no other.
on today's show we told you to slow the boat down it's a two for tuesday in florida oh oh hola el hombre Murciélago i had to look that up they're in cigars hello the bat hello batman yes you'll find out when we get to the story okay in spanish though the man of bat uh yes it is el hombre the man of bat that is how you would say it in spanish did you say de Murciélago or just Murciélago Murciélago. Murciélago. Yeah, you got to say day. That's not what it told me.
My day. Of. The direct translation is the way you said it, but isn't it Hello, Batman? This is Hello, yeah, Hello, Batman.
Right. Yeah. Then in cigars, things don't look good for Chen Z. He's back in the news.
Uh-oh. A new bundle cigar, and we're hooting again, and then a what's-a-score. But first, Mr. Birthday Boy, how do we get some of that CH Potts wig?
And what are the comments over the multitude of places you can make them? I like that you just discredit our people who comment. I didn't. I commented.
And what are the multiple? What he said was it was complicated. There were many, many places to make comments. I wanted him to read all of them.
He got confused yesterday on where he was. It's hard to figure out where they're at. There's two places. That's more than one.
There's simply two. That's more than one. Okay. I didn't say three.
Okay. Three is a lot. All right, so less complicated than three, more complicated than one. Yeah.
Is it fair? Okay. Fair. Fair.
Fair. Fair. Let me lower this. What are you lowering?
His chair. He wants to do a shrinking inch. Oh, well, there's a cushion on it because that happened to be the one I grabbed. Oh, thanks.
Like and subscribe. We're reviewing and listening to the show. com for all your... I'm sorry, are you good?
Yeah, your butt's older, it needs more cushion. You can't talk over him on his birthday. Here you go! Now things are being thrown.
He didn't even see it. I didn't see it. I didn't see it, sorry. I can't see you!
It's on film. I didn't know we could throw things. I'm gonna bring things to throw. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is gonna be awesome. Bring a squirt gun, you guys love that. A little pop gun, a little shoot the ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah, watch this.
Oh, you're gonna break it! That's definitely gonna break, for sure. Somebody's phone's ringing. Yeah.
It's probably yours. Nope. It's your laptop. It is my laptop.
Genius. I appreciate it. - My wife is calling me. - Make sure you get that button on.
- She times these perfectly. - I know, it's like she knows. - She does now. - No matter what time we shoot, every day.
- Are you wearing a button? - Are you wearing a button? - She calls. - I was checking to make sure the birthday pin was still on.
- I got you! - Thank you. - So you don't trust Palmer? - Ah.
- I just had it on, I didn't even take it off. - Oh, okay. - Mm-hmm. - It might be.
- That's why he didn't answer the phone right away. com a cigar house podcast where we talk shit about everybody in the industry and where they're fucking up That's amazing. Oh, he's extra honoree today. It comes from the heart, though.
That's all that matters. We just want them to do better. We just want everybody to do better. Do better.
I don't think that that's asking too much. Do better or we throw shit. People avoid us because we can peer into their soul. And they're like, damn, they can see us.
Yeah, we see you. We see you and we see the bullshit. Talk about it on that stupid show they do. Yeah, you know.
Oh, God. Or you could pirate it. Don't pirate it. Don't pirate it.
Because you may lose your job, apparently. Oh, he's in a mood today. I want to know what you're talking about. It's my birthday.
I can say what I want. I think it's that cup that's beside him. He's got that extra dark coffee flowing through his veins. Yeah, so I botched my coffee by accident when I was leaving.
I was like, "You know what? It's my birthday. " So yeah, I did. I did.
Did you tell them that you get free coffee for your birthday? I think you do. I hit that button, but they still charge me. " How do you say the large one in there?
Was it Grande? No, Grande isn't large. Vente. Vente.
He ordered the Vente Cocaine. Vente. Vente. Vente Cocaine.
Vente La Cocaine. El Hombre Muchilago. El Hombre De Muchilago. So do all that.
And then we got some comments I'm going to look at in a second. So Matt Booth called me today to wish me a happy birthday. Oh, good. And he's like, hey, you know, he said all like really nice things.
I was like, man, I'm glad you called. I just pulled the gun up. out of my mouth to answer the call. And he's like, and you know, the sad part is he instinctively said, I get it.
Yeah. Life of an entrepreneur. I get it. I know.
I know what gun metal tastes like. It's a thing. But he said Glock. I'm like, no, no, no.
It's Desert Eagle. We have a little bit of money. We want the whole little, you know, like the whole thing. That's what we're going.
No coming back from that. Yeah. It's like, oh God. Yeah.
Okay. So, where are we, who are, who are we? Well, you're going to look at two different places. I'm going to check, yeah, I like that I can just go to the front now.
First of all, the live auction, there's one day left, and Chris is in the lead still, holding fast. There are no additional comments on the auction site. Oh, I forgot to look there. $46, I now change the name to the lounge.
I saw that this morning. And I'm going to put my own feet to the fire, and before this episode's up, the contest will be up to see what you have to do. Ooh, let's see, ooh, so long, okay. Maximus says, I was going to leave a profound comment, but I need to conserve my last two brain cells for the upcoming contest.
Why waste them here? Yes, you can waste them, it's fine. It's not that required. The Real BDP says, poor sloths, we need justice for the sloths.
Is that actually you? Do you? Yeah, that's me. Yeah?
On that one, that's me. Okay. I love that his status is now that he actually has to put "the real" before his name. Authentic Beedipop.
" I need a blue check. Oh, that's amazing. Wait, we can do, I can put a blue check in it, can I now? I don't know, maybe.
I can put, because you said you set it up for, I can't think of the word. Verified? Is that a vacation? No, no.
They're little symbols. I have no idea what any of those are doing. Hey, I don't know what he's doing. He did a little pinch thing.
Do that again? He did the little symbols. Yeah, whatever that means. Okay.
Okay. I don't know. I don't know what's going on. At Steven Wells says, I asked Claude, what is the best way to rob a liquor store in Florida and not get caught?
Asking for a friend. It answered, win a mask from an online auction, wear it during the robbery, say bing bong a lot during the hold up. Like, during the getaway, stop at two fast food drive-ins. Oh, that is awesome.
That's hilarious. That would be great. And then all of a sudden we're recording and the police come in and just carry the masked man away. Oh my God.
And communicating with the teller, not in words, just bing bong, but with like different cadence. So they understand what you're saying. Like Groot. Bing bong, bing bong.
Okay. Bing bong. How many, do you want fries with that? Bing bong.
Bing bong. And what kind of sauce? Bing bong, sweet and sour. Got it.
It's like Groot. I am Groot? Oh, God. But it's Bing bong.
Yeah. So those are the comments on the latest episode. And that's all I'm going to check is I'll check the latest episode on the CH pod. And then to get to the lounge and the lounge on the CH pod.
Yeah, this is a working. I'm very excited about this. You know, I know a lot of you guys make fun of me, but I'm not here. I'm not mocking you.
Here I am just at the helm. I'm very supportive. I'm looking forward to the live chat part. Very supportive.
Well, it is relatively live right now. I just got to make it better. Well, because they would post and I would post, but there's not like a room? Is that what you're working towards?
Oh, you want a room? He wants a room. You want a room where you can go in by yourself? He wants a room.
You want like an AOL room? Yeah, that kind of idea. Let's go private chat. Let's go private chat.
No, I don't want a private chat. A group chat. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to get to. That's what I'm trying to get to.
Like a group DM. The way it is now, I would have to refresh, I guess, to see if somebody else commented. Yeah, I'll figure that out. You want it like scrolling.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like Discord. Yeah. I have no idea.
I need to get on Discord to figure out what that is, so that it's... I went on it, it looked confusing, so I left. So many buttons. Kind of like people that you gave the portal to.
You send people to our new, our new retailer portal is officially up and live. Yes. " Yeah. Yeah, of course.
I had a brand owner reach out to me. " And he is a person that's like a techie guy. So he was very, very impressed by it. Oh, really?
Yep, without a doubt. Tell him we'll set it up for him. He just got to pay monthly and we'll build a zone for him. Well, he doesn't need one.
I don't need one. He does. He has another job. He wants one.
He doesn't. Okay. We'll give him one right now. Well, that's cool.
I'm glad he's impressed though. Yeah. Seriously. All right.
@Rookscoding says, "I love my Discord, but you do have to be careful not to go violate community guidelines. " See, there you go. So, stuff like that. You know, I think that there are plenty of things that go on that are completely legit, but you have to worry about getting flagged and then taken away.
And I'm not building another community where it could be gone. So, will your community have guidelines? It's a dictatorship. That's kind of my point.
Like, are there going to be set rules? I mean, obviously, you're going to be able to talk about cigars, but there's got to be a line of things that people can't do on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No nudity.
Yeah, like, no, there's no titties. Feet? Are feet okay? Your feet are okay.
My feet, all right. With the stained blue feet. I hope that we wind up getting lots and lots of feet pics after this. Greg, I don't even know if pics are set up yet.
We need to set up the pics and then get the feet pics. Yeah. Greg wears blue socks, and because he wears only blue socks, his feet are purple. He looks like they're blue.
He looks like Smurf. That's actually true. My feet are blue. He has blue feet.
I do have blue feet. Permanently stained. @iHeartBDP says, "Happy Birthday, Michael. " BDP.
I can only hope, Chris. I mean, I have BDP. Is that, have we figured out who this is? Oh, he's admitted it.
Yeah, Mikey figured it out and he's admitted that, but he's not the other seven, he says, he's just the one. The other seven! Well, I had figured it out a while ago and I wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna let it. Yeah, what's the fun in it?
Like, I like to, I like to harass Palmer and say it's Palmer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But just one day I was like, oh, okay, dude, it's like you're right next to it over and over again. It's kind of obvious.
Yeah, it was being obvious. He would post, second later, BDP would post, second later, Chris would post. Yeah, you gotta cover your trends. Clues out of context, yes.
He got excited with the power. So you have to actually have a barrier when you do this. You've gotta pay somebody to be and say the things you want to do within their own timeline so that there's no pattern. You just gotta figure it out.
Yeah, you gotta time it right, you know? Yeah, like he works nights. Make one in the morning as soon as you get off work, and then go take your nap or sleep, whatever, and then make the second one. I have like an alibi photo of you in front of an ATM while the poster is coming.
Couldn't have been me! Look at this! Look at this, I'm at the end, look at the timestamp. Yeah, I'm right here.
" @ihearttripleg has an erection that you're on the show again. I'm very good. Maybe that's your mother. Oh, no, not anymore.
Atbricefield2489 says, Happy Birthday, Mikey, I have a July Birthday also. Happy Birthday, brother. Atcw6383 says, Happy Birthday, Mikey, I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you, bro, I appreciate you.
Let's see here. AttexasSouthpaw, he gets mad if I say just TX, it's @taxasSouthpaw. Texas Southpaw. Texas Southpaw says, love Discord, but understand your concerns.
Maybe two to three months ago, there was a cigar retailer's Discord that was shut down overnight. Boom. There you go. We're not on Discord.
There you go. So, you know, I know without even knowing, right? Like, hey, I want to be in control. So, at the Buzznator says, happy birthday.
Thank you, bro. At for Kiwi Gman says, regarding using a Discord server, why reinvent the wheel by designing your own? You could use this time spending it with your wife, kids, and friends. Yes, you are correct, but this is important to do, I think, and it needs to happen.
One guy just said a cigar one was taken down. Right. And, you know, nothing for nothing, but usually when I'm writing code, I'm sitting right next to my wife. Because I'm not really writing code.
That feels dirty for me to even say. When I have Claude write the code, because I don't write code, that's ridiculous. There is like a texture and a feeling to the things that Claude writes as far as websites and such, and it's really, really funny because I was shown a digital tool that was used by Plasencia a couple of years ago by Javi. He's like, "Look at what we can do.
" And looking back on it, what you've built now, it's a very similar feel. Like just the way the user interface is, it's very, very similar. Yeah, and here's what's going to happen, is if you see that a lot of these pop up and they all become very common, then I'll go back and change ours. Yeah, like if you look at the graphics everybody's using, there's a look to them that are very, very similar.
But again, all you got to do is just tell the robot, "Hey, I don't like this. " Right, just tell it how you want to change it. " Right. Here's the generic cigar picture.
Right, here you go. This is the one we're all doing. Yeah, I mean, AI has officially taken over YouTube tiles for every single show that you see on YouTube. Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just so much faster and easier.
Yeah, so I don't know what that is. Uh, so I, I, yes, I understand that you don't know. So when you, the title, the picture of the show has a picture, right? So Palmer likes to do crazy things and he'll put something in AI and it'll say, you know, um, I want, um, We have this man riding a horse, right, and this one getting trampled, or whatever, you know, and it's tied into the show.
Digital cartoon image-esque. Yeah. Like the one with the pretty blonde lady that I keep seeing for a postdoc. Yeah, yeah, yeah, same idea.
That's a real person, just so you know. Yes, I'm aware, I know her. Yeah, Paul has never met her. But Paul doesn't think she's real.
It's more his wife, but yeah, but they have met now. Oh, they have met? Yes, yes, now they have. Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah. What it is, is like Palmer pays for this lady to show up from time to time. Right. That's the trick.
Oh, God. And like the funds have been a little tight, so he hasn't been able to have her around as much. Was it like a make a wish thing? Yeah.
So it's like... That's how it started. Yeah. So she says, you know...
But I've obviously not died. I died, so she's like, what's going on? Yeah, this is so odd. I married him for the Make-A-Wish thing.
You were supposed to be dying. Sorry, apparently it's not as serious. Yeah. Here's your money.
I'm in remission. I'm in remission. Wait, she's leaving? Oh my God.
Still a chance. It could come back. com or on our YouTube page. Now, on with the show.
Richard Stevenson, 45, allegedly smashed his 31-foot pontoon into the back of a smaller boat in a no-wake zone at high speeds. Oh, this is news. This is news. This is in Florida.
I think it's Illinois. Oh, really? Yeah. Killing...
They have pontoons today. Oh, killing? Oh, wow. Killing a 48-year-old woman and injuring her husband after a day of heavy drinking on the Fox River, yes, in Illinois this past Saturday.
According to the reports, the unidentified woman was decapitated. Oh boy. Wow. That's a big one.
Yes. And obviously she was declared dead at the scene. No autopsy. Yeah.
No. Yeah. They didn't try to revive her. Cause of death may be cancer.
Right. Prosecutors revealed at Stevenson's hearing on Monday where a judge ordered he remained in custody ahead of his trial. ABC 7 Chicago reported this man was a ticking time bomb and that bomb went off this past Saturday on Fox River. County Chief Brian Miller argued he'd already been pulled over five other times.
Oh no. Not in that day, but over a span of time. Oh. Brian Miller argued at Stevenson's detention hearing.
Stevenson was found standing near the pontoon boat along the tree line when police arrived. I don't know what happened. Yeah. He was taken to Northwestern Hospital in McHenry where tests revealed a blood alcohol concentration approximately...
75,000. There was no more blood in his system. I think it's like a fractal, it's like point zero something is usually, I don't know, it's not 75,000. The blood, the fluid that was coursing through his vein was solely Jack Daniels at this point.
He was 50,000 light years drunk. It's like the abyss, like you know how your body figured out how to breathe off the liquid, you remember that movie? Yeah, it's the same thing, his body's figured out how to function solely based on alcohol. 200.
That is, I think, really, really big. Two and a half times the legal driving limit. Two other passengers in the pontoon boat had left by the time the cops showed up. We're out of here.
We've got to go. Yeah, I'm not staying. She's lost a head. There's a head here and a lady there.
I'm out of here. I'm leaving. They're going to be in trouble, too. m.
Sunday. Prosecutors said he was going as fast as 80 miles per hour. On a pontoon boat. On a pontoon boat.
I feel like these boats are really not designed for high maneuverability, right? That is correct. This is for like a puttin' around type thing. Yes.
Yes, it's a barge for lack of a little bit. I mean, yeah, it's designed for you to get drunk and to move at like two miles an hour. Seven. Right.
He plowed over the 20-foot crown line, the prosecutor said. Stevenson was arrested and charged with reckless homicide and two counts of aggravated driving under the influence. Why two counts? Because he injured two people?
Two counts of driving under the influence. Well, first he struck the boat, that's the one, and then he drove off. There's the second time where he continued to drive, inebriated. Reckless homicide, I get, and then two counts of aggravated driving under the influence.
okay maybe because he struck two people that's what i think maybe because he hit two people so why would you pull this let me ask you that let me let's start there uh slow news day and it was interesting story because of the decap the head going decapitation yeah the decapitation and so you're like oh that's a little different it's a little different it's kind of a slow day someone lost a head so let's cover that right okay all right um uh the other types of stories you're They're always poo-pooing and I get cut off halfway through. Because there's just not enough going on in them, but this one, there's a lot going on, maybe a bit too much. So you're like, you know what? I'm going to go all out here.
It's the middle of the week. It's the slow part of the news cycle. Okay. All right.
Okay, so... What do you think this guy should get? Like, what should his sentence be? Thank you.
You're welcome. What do you think, Palmer? He should not come out of jail or just take his boat away? No, we're not just taking the boat away.
If you're bad, we're taking your boat license in your boat. No more boats for you. But this guy's life is ruined. He's not getting out for a very long time.
Well, he said this was not the first time, so he obviously has a problem. He's a habitual offender, yeah. I don't know what the legalities are in Illinois, but it feels like they're soft. Really?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why, you know, you have all these issues with Chicago and all this other stuff. Well, then, being that you said that, I would like to know what finds out what happens in the story later on when he's actually sent it. If we could follow up with this, even though he doesn't like the story, I'd like to find out if, what was the gentleman's name?
Todd? McHenry, I think was his last name. I believe his name was Todd. He sounds like a Todd.
What was his name? I want to know how many years Todd... McHenry, McHenry was his name. No, no, that's the policeman.
Never mind, that's not his name. Let's just think, I want to know how many years Todd gets. All right, we'll see if we can find out. How do you not see a pontoon heading your way?
Well, they were probably stationary and parked, he obviously was inebriated and just plowed into them, you can't just move the boat if somebody's going, by the way, 80 miles an hour, I think, I don't know if that's accurate, that's really, really fast on the water, that's really fast. You know, if he had a big motor on his pontoon boat. I don't know about that, that's crazy fast on the water. I bet you this guy gets like a three year sentence and he's out in six months.
You think so? No way. For killing a person? Involuntary manslaughter.
Aggravated. Whatever. Aggravated. That's, that's the same, doesn't sound.
A reckless homicide is what it was. Yeah, there you go. You accident, you accidentally murdered an alive person. Yeah.
Accidentally. Yeah, no, I like, I don't think a life sentence is appropriate, but I definitely think a harsh punishment isn't, should be in place, especially being that he was a habitual offender, you know? Six months. No, there's no way.
I'm telling you. Six months and he takes classes on how to not drink. Yeah, exactly. He has to go to AA meetings the rest of his life.
He switches from Scotch to Bush Light. I think that we need to, I think that this, here's what the system needs. Here's what the system needs. The system needs people to follow these people around that have these alcoholic problems and just call them pussies every time they start to drink heavily.
Like, dude, you are the weakest man alive. You're, you know, you're a pathetic human being and like really kind of defeat them so that they either eat it. Or, or, it will up the decapitations. I mean, you're gonna anger a drunk person.
You're gonna make them drink more. Yeah, this is a terrible person. And then give them the right to execute them if they start drinking. Oh.
Yeah. I think that would be perfect. All right. You know, if you're, if you are unstable in society and you can't hold your booze.
Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna attach a person to you. Ooh, a robot. Let's do AI.
There you go. Yeah. Give them one of those dogs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
" No, like make it bite them. Oh, make it bite a lot with a metal mouth. They don't come with mouths yet. They do come with ARs, though.
They can mount them all. Perfect. That's all we need. That's all we need.
A laser. Oh, laser. An AI dog with a laser beam. As soon as the guy takes a swig.
Perfect. Have you seen the laser thing you can put in your backyard to kill mosquitoes? Yes. No?
Yes. It looks like a little box. They make it for inside the house, too. I almost bought one.
It's a little pricey. I don't want it in the house. I do. What if it hits you?
It doesn't. It tracks the mosquitoes. You put it in the bedroom. You never say you step in the way.
It knows that you're not a mosquito. You don't look like a mosquito. I'm not saying it. It shoots and you get in the way.
How much is this thing? Right. It was a little pricey. I think when I looked it up, it was like six hundo.
Oh. But the mosquitoes are gone? And it's like a light show. The little red beams are shooting everywhere?
Well, it's not exactly a light show. Like, you just see a quick little blink of where the mosquito is struck, and then there's just tons of dead carcass mosquitoes all over the place. We got one of those fly sweaters that electrocute the flies, Skeeter Vac, that's not it, and I hit one in the kitchen, it exploded! They make another version of it that's actually for people that's got paint balls with pepper spray inside of it that you can mount at your house as a turret, Then it gives warning, get off property, get off property, get off property, and then...
Oh wow. I want one of those too. I see a YouTube video for it, I don't see it available for purchase. I think I saw it on TikTok, which could mean it could be fake.
It could be fake. Systems like the Photon Matrix, let me see. Oh, there, buy now, hold on. How much is it?
Let me see, let me see. Oh boy. This one's a G. Yeah, that's a lot of money.
But no mosquitoes. But no mosquitoes. Yeah, but that's a lot. I got the bug zappers.
And also, I really enjoy the hunt with the fucking tennis racket, the electrode one, you know? Oh, in the house? Yeah. Well, that and on the patio, too, because there's a couple more on the patio.
You know, you get the screen going, and then you see the little black dot go across the screen of the TV. " Better for industrial use. It's like the Iron Dome over Israel. I will.
This is incredible. We need this. We need this. I want this.
I just want to hear the... Yeah, I would ask for it to make Star Wars laser beam sounds when it shoots one down. Yeah. Yeah.
That would be incredible. There's no sound in space. They messed that one up. You don't know that.
You just know what they tell you. Right. They've been there. They've been to space.
There were a million people that told us that we're idiots by looking at our Instagram Reel about Gravity. Wait, what? We have an Instagram Reel that hit over 4 million views because he saw some clip somewhere about two black holes merging on August 12th and that we're going to lose gravity for seven seconds. And then I said seven minutes and I got it all wrong.
And people were just so pissed. But what's even funnier is if you go and you read some of the comments, they're like, yeah, some people are like, it's happening. This is going to be unbelievable. Oh, so all you have to do is say something controversial and like many people will talk about it and argue with you?
You got to find the right one, that just happened to hit and you throw stuff out all the time and it, you know, it doesn't really. That's beautiful. There's a post right now circulating in the cigar industry about CI being racist in Orlando. Oh, I saw that today!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's getting a ton of traction. Because of the whole like racial thing, right? That's a good topic for people to argue about. Yeah, he talked about it.
Right. So what happens is like race obviously tracks, so people watch it. Yeah. Oh, wait, I think I did actually see that clip.
Somebody got fired and they're, they're saying that. And he never. Yeah. And there's some manager with a cowboy hat or something.
Right. Some cowboy manager fired the black man and then didn't hire another black man, hired a different guy. Yeah. I don't know.
I don't, I don't know. I don't know all the details, but obviously it's one of those things that that's, you know, it's a guy sitting in his car. It's a hot topic. Well, there.
Yeah. talking about it. I love this. And he's had conversations, he claims, with the people at CI.
Nice. Very cool. Interesting. Totally.
Yeah. We don't talk about stuff that's productive on social media. It just doesn't make sense. We just, you know.
Yeah. It's all anything controversial. Yeah, well, we enjoyed decapitation here at A Cigar Hustle's podcast. A lot of death in today's show.
He's from a cigar company, the guy who's talking. Is he? Yeah. Either that or they posted the video, but I assumed he's from the cigar company.
Okay. All right, Florida has put to death two inmates in what's now the state's first double execution in more than 60 years. We're putting in a lightning round. Two at a time.
Do it, do it. I love it. Amid an aggressive death penalty push by Governor Ron DeSantis, James Duckett, a 68-year-old former police officer convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. Why do we keep these people around?
Oh, my God. Well, that's what he's trying to do. Let's speed this up a little bit. Let's speed this up.
m. on July 28th. m. for the murder of his ex-fiance's parents in 1986.
'86 and '84, good lord. '87, '86 and '87. Still, what's taking so long? At 80 years old, Ochicon became the second oldest inmate ever executed in the United States and the oldest inmate ever executed in Florida.
This is putting more elderly prisoners to death than any other state in the nation. We're number one. Yeah, I like this. This is good.
Tuesday also marks the first time since 1964 that Florida has executed two inmates on the same day, according to an execution database by the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center. By lethal injection? Yeah, they both were injected. I like to think they could, like, human centipede it up.
Like, one dude gets the poison in this arm and then his blood goes out that arm and goes right into the next guy. Like, super efficient, right? Yeah. I mean, or a bullet.
That's true, too. I don't know if you get enough through that way. You just double the dosage. Yeah, but it's gonna take a long time to get from this arm to that arm to that guy.
Not really. Not really? Not really? I don't think so.
Because, I mean, the centipede... And then cycle it back to the first guy, so it's just one big circle of poison until they're not breathing anymore. Why don't they drip it into a bucket and save it for the next guy? There you go.
Perfect. Save costs that way. Anybody else we got? We can hook them up to the other side.
We got about 10, 15 minutes. I gotta be honest. I think Netflix could kill on something like that. No pun intended.
If they just did executions. Oh, yeah. Show them? People would pay a super premium.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And then you know what?
You could give back funds back to the state. Yeah. And just start burying people. We catch up to 2010 real quick.
You know what I mean? This person was convicted in 2027. Wait, but it's 2026. Yeah, no, we're done.
Yeah, but we can make how much money by killing him? Hook him up. He's got to go. He's got to go.
We're out of people. Find somebody. Yeah, get some more people. Ratings are up.
Ultimately, that is the problem because that's what happens, right? What do they have over in Arkansas? They got some there? Yeah.
The last time any state executed two inmates in one day was in 2017 in Arkansas, According to the non-profit, Florida's rare double execution comes amid an aggressive push by DeSantis to put more inmates to death than the state ever has before. Well, he's got a lot of space if he's only hitting in the 80s. Oh, yeah. Right, yeah, a lot of time.
There's a lot of pay-per-views coming up. Yeah, think of the ratings. This is right. Of the 66 inmates executed in the United States since January 2025, Florida has carried out 31 of them.
Attaboy. There we go. Well, boy, 50 states, we're at half. Let's keep going.
47% including Duckett and Ochicones, according to the analysis by the USA Today. Since the start of the year, Florida has carried out 63% of the executions in the United States. Don't come here. Don't come, don't come here and kill somebody.
It's a scary state. Fuck around and find out. Terrible state. That guy's glad he's in that boat up in Illinois.
Stay with your taxes and your state. DeSantis has said he wants to give closure to the families who have waited for justice sometimes longer than four decades. All right. Okay.
It's a long time to wait. Totally long. Like, at that point, it's... You've been behind bars for 40 years.
Yeah, you're 80-some-odd years old. It was a life sentence. You made it to 80-some-odd years. Right, they're almost doing the guy a favor.
Yeah. Like, you don't want to stick around anymore. I think there should be a law that says if you're convicted for a death penalty, I mean, you have to be executed, you know, within five years. Yeah, sure.
But the problem is, is until they wind up looking at the data and they, oopsies, that one DNA proved that he was actually innocent. Can't bring him back. We'll do a better job next time. Just run it through AI.
We'll be expediting things faster. There you go. What's the possibility this guy's innocent? See, it's under 50%.
We're good. Did you see that one Chris Pratt movie where he had to go up against AI to prove that he was innocent? I started watching it and didn't really like it. Yeah, I think I watched it.
It started off well, and then it really kind of crashed and burned at the end. " So, anyways, they executed the cat. Did they pay-per-view it? Because that might work, too.
The fucking cat didn't make it. Maybe we run out of people and we start throwing in animals. So they found the cat. Well, at that point, you could just go to any of those, you know.
Well, they use the dogs that bite people. Right. My dog bites a person, I'm not giving them up, just for the record. No, no, it's the ones that, like, get loose in the neighborhood and they, you know, eat your neighbor.
Eat the neighbor. If my dog did that, I'm still not giving them up. Oh. I'm like, you know what?
The animal control comes knocking for the weapon. He's not here. He's not home. Yeah.
He ran off. I don't know that he ran off. I don't know that he ran off. I don't know that he's gonna sniff your ass.
We hate that one. Yeah. He moved to a non-extradition country. Good luck.
He moved to South America because the dog's German. The dog's in Argentina. The dog's in Argentina. He made it there via a submarine.
Oh, God. Okay. He could be the guard dog for Skip's Factory. Yeah.
All right, an anonymous vigilante in Lagos de Moreno in Mexico's Jalisco Estate has been duct-taping alleged thieves to Lamp Post, the Independent Reporter. Oh, I saw this. This has been going on for a little bit of time. This is Ombre de Batman or whatever you're saying.
Yeah, this is the Ombre de Batman. Oh, I love it. The first victim was found on June 13th. Since then, police have discovered four more individuals bound and taped.
Some showed visible signs of battery. Others had mustaches, cat whiskers, and the word thief drawn on their faces. So you got to beat these guys a little, like no, but it's not, it's not, it's not easy just to duct tape someone to a pole. It requires an awful lot of effort.
You, you've got to establish dominance on some level. So you got to, you got to hit them a couple of times. Right, it's Batman. This is awesome.
Not only that, but well, it's probably not just one man. You know what I mean? It's a group. Yeah, one guy's, one guy holds a gun to their head and the other guy says line up by the pole.
Yeah, okay, that works. There's Robin. Yeah, that's true, okay. Right.
Yeah, how do you say Robin in Spanish? In Spanish. Rabino. Rabino.
Rabino. Pink signs about the victims indicate the alleged thieves have been punished for stealing motorcycles. Police are investigating the alleged crimes as a search for the person responsible for tying the men up. Mexican journalist Luis Cardenas has dubbed the perpetrator the Batman of Lagos de Marino.
Why do we want to find this guy? Yeah, I'm all for vigilante justice. Let's go. Well, just to be devil's advocate, the police don't know if these guys really did anything that are taped to the pole.
They had to do something, maybe they had to do something, maybe they just pissed Batman off. You know, 44 years I've been alive, never been taped to a pole. I've never stolen a motorcycle. There's a correlation there.
You probably should have been once or twice. Exactly. Exactly. That's why we need people like Hombre de Batman.
Hombre de Batman. Hombre de Batman. Yeah. All right, moving into Cigar News.
Okay. We had 30 minutes? 37. Oh, look at that.
Gen Z has been formally arrested in China and is facing nude charges mostly notable causing intentional injury by cruel means. I'm so confused. So, Gen Z, I thought, was a cumulus group of people that were born with it. No, no, Gen Z.
Chen Z. You got ash on your shirt, by the way, Greg. I thought they rounded up every single person within this age to that age in China. No, okay.
This is the guy who did the Bitcoin stuff and the factory got taken away from, was it STG? Oh, right, okay, very good. No, it wasn't STG, I think it was Altidus or something. Altidus, right, Altidus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, he was captured and given to China. Ah. So, for six months, he's been in China jail, supposedly, but now the Chinese has charged him.
They have found out other crimes. He's Chinese. We're gonna hold you for six months and then we're gonna charge you. Right.
We're going to figure out, and this isn't even the thing, they're saying he's beat people up, oh, maybe he's the Batman. Oh no, I don't think he's the Batman. Oh yeah, he doesn't look very big. Well, he knows karate probably.
Wow. If found guilty on that charge, it carries a punishment of between ten years and death. That's kind of a broad span there. Ten years and death?
Between one year, and we cut your head off. By the way, ten years, you could also get out good behavior, six months, or death, I mean. A Chinese media outlet, he was formally charged on July 6th, he has been in Chinese custody since January when Cambodian officials arrested him and turned him over to the Chinese authorities. In addition to this charge, he is also facing an added charge of copyright infringement.
So now he's bootlegging DVDs too. S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed an indictment against Chen, who they say was the head of a massive criminal enterprise that engaged in pig butchering. Criminal enterprise of killing pigs?
Well, I think just what it's called. Maybe it's a translation problem, because then after the pig butchering, it says scams. So pig butchering scams? Give us money, we're going to give you a dead pig, and then you don't get the dead pig.
That's probably where you call like the old people and stuff and you say, "Hey, you know, we're gonna help you with your laptop or whatever. " Stuff like that. Oh, but it's specifically cryptocurrency. A multi-step process of scammy people out of cryptocurrency.
Oh, so like, "Hey, you know, here's the email. " Right, I get those all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember the first time you got one.
I'm like, is this legit? Am I in trouble here? No, you're fine. Okay, good, good.
Ignore. I get like two a day now. It's amazing. It's funny to me that you see this and you're starting to panic a little bit, Greg, but yeah, I don't think you have to worry.
It's the feet thing. It's the feet thing. The blue feet give me away every time. I don't know what to do.
We must say, haha, to your feet. This is very funny. You like a Smurf. S.
government says that at its peak, his enterprise was generating as much as $30 million. Crushing it. Wow. From these pig scams.
S. 7 billion. Yeah, no, 100-and-some-odd-thousand Bitcoin they've seized? Yes.
That is a massive amount of money. 7 billion. Wow. I just read that.
Yeah, I know, but I was doing the math before you, and I'm like, wow. The largest seizure in the history of the Department of Justice. Since the indictment was unveiled, other countries have announced the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets tied to Chen. Chen, who was born in China but immigrated to Cambodia, led the Prince Group, one of the largest companies in Cambodia.
Its empire included banking and a bunch of other stuff, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So why do you think that they gave him up? He wouldn't give them the money. I think that's why they gave, I think they gave them, they gave them up because they found the money.
Like, oh, we got it now, here you go. Oh, we got the money here, you can go? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, we don't need you anymore. Just get them out of here. I don't want to deal with them, we took the money. Yeah, make it China's problem.
Six months or death, you figure it out. Well, China's letting them, released them to wherever else he's got to go, right? That's what you're saying? No, no.
No, they have charged him now. China has charged him. They've had him in jail for six months, and then Greg's, like Greg said. Yeah, but he was extradited from somewhere else.
Right, yeah. " Sousu. Sousu. Sousu, get out.
Go back. So they held them, and now they got the funds? That's what I think. Like, all right, well, now, guess what?
Now you're in China. Oh, the Chinese people got the funds? Yeah. Oh, it could be.
They beat him up for six months until he gave up the code? And now they kill him. No, I'm willing to bet the farm that they find him not guilty and they let him go. Oh, you think so?
I don't think the Chinese do that. They're gonna keep the money. They're keeping the money. They keep the money and kill him, it's China, they can do whatever they want, they can put him in a work camp for the rest of his life, they can put him and every single one of his descendants into a work camp for the rest of their life, they do that, they do that, it's wild.
Do they really do that? Yeah. Where did you read that? I don't remember where I read it.
We went to three work camps when he was in China. You know what, actually, I think the waitress at the Chinese restaurant I was at last night was telling me about it. I hide him, they want me to go to work camp, because my great-great-grandfather hit someone. Right, hit someone, now we all go to camp.
And we all go to camp. So it's a rumor, you heard a rumor. Oh, I believe, I think, or whatever it is. Allegedly.
Allegedly, that's what I'm supposed to say, allegedly. Don't insult China, we don't know where we're going. Next thing you know, they're coming here and I'm being bagged over the head and thrown in a van. That was Greg, I don't know, I saw his blue feet leaving.
Palmer's next article next week. And in other news, China has now put Greg with Chen Xi in their cell. Chen Xi is named Greg, his chief accomplice. For the pig scamming.
Right, for the pig scams. Various governments that have accused Chen of wrongdoing have not accused any of the cigar companies of any legal activity. We just wanted to make that clear. They just said, "Hey, dude, you got a lot of money.
" Right. We hear you like cigars. We got a lot of, you know, these Cubans over here. We've been rolling people for decades in this industry.
Heard you're good at it. Hand in the cookie jar, found a bad one. Oh, no. S.
Next month the Santiago Maduro will ship to stores. It uses an Indonesian Maduro wrapper over an Indonesian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic in September. Ugh, sounds terrible. The Santiago Connecticut will arrive on shelves.
It uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut seed wrapper over an Indonesian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic. Both lines are mixed fillers. Yeah. Cuban sandwich.
Yes. I don't know why they don't use that term, but they don't use that term. Yeah. Meaning they use a combination of long filler tobaccos found in most handmade cigars as well as smaller pieces of tobacco that are produced as large pieces are cut for other cigars.
Okay. Both blends are offered in the same two Vitolas. It's a five by fifty. How much are these two cigars?
Each. Singles. Two dollars and thirty cents. It better not be more than four bucks.
Two dollars and fifty cents. Oh, I was so close with that one. That's so close. Wow.
The Maduro is $3. It's a Toro. It's slightly bigger. Indonesia wrap or Indonesia binder does not sound good.
No. There's just not much to it. Yeah. Blending the Maduro is about balanced sweetness from the wrapper, depth from the fillers, said Manuel Inoa, Master Blender at La Roar in a press release.
You guys ever met him? Anybody know him? No. Then we won't say what else he said.
Cigars are named after Santiago de los Caballeros, the home of most of the Dominican Republic cigar industry. Three dollars. Three dollars. Three dollars.
Two dollars. Two dollars. Two dollars. Two dollars.
It's a very good cigar. You like it much. Very good. Hooten Young American 250 Reserve Ships.
America. You're late. It's coming out in August. Hooten Young has not one, but two cigars celebrating the 250th anniversary of America.
Yeah. One that uses a wrapper from Connecticut while the other uses a wrapper that comes from Pennsylvania. Oh, my God. Oh, great.
You know what? It was a lovely departure until you dropped your microphone and tripped over the chair. " No, no. Can you knock it around as much as possible, please?
Yeah, if you could just make some more noise with that, that would be great. Yeah. And then if you could click the lighter right by, and by the way, you grabbed the one that barely has fuel in it. Yeah.
I mean, I have one right here that I stole from STG, allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. That you could have just, I could have just handed it to you.
Instead of it being a dumpster fire of a transaction there for a minute. Oh. Mic on? Good.
Nope. It's crooked. Is it on? It's on.
Oh. He wants it straight. Right. Yeah.
Right. Because it's a cardioid. Cardioid. Cardioid.
Uh, both the guards come in the same box and they're now they're shipping. He's gonna stay on him. So we watch him be I'm not being retarded. Oh, good.
That's fine. You can keep talking, though. The Hooten Young American 250 Reserve is a six and a half by, oh, they said 5-0, it's not 50, it's 5-0. 5-0 as in the letter O?
Yeah, they typo. Charlie's getting a little lax here. Look at all our viewers. You see how that's still crooked?
The 250 Reserve Connecticut uses Maduro underneath. This is more exciting than the story, so I'll just stay on here. Why does somebody watch our show? What if you watch this?
Look at this. Each cigar has an MSRP of? What are we talking about? I don't know.
$16. 76, we discussed this when they talk about this. Oh, yeah, that's right, 17, yeah, yeah, yeah. Boxes of 20 cigars, the box contains seven Connecticut's, 13 the Maduro, because, you know, there's 13 stripes, blah, blah, blah.
Listen, Carney, you really kind of screwed the pooch here if it's coming out in August, that's all I'm saying. It should have dropped in July. The release was delayed as Hooten Young added some additional elements to the box, which can be seen above some more pretty pictures to the box. That's all it was.
This is like typical cigar production problem. I wish we could hear you well, but you know, the person to the right of you sounds great. Right, I don't think it's on. It's so fucking ridiculous.
Okay, watch, watch. I guarantee you it's gonna lean the other way. Watch. Ready?
There it is. this is my life this is my life pardon the noise sorry about the noise oh there we go oh i can see it there that's what i should have based it on that yeah all right there we go oh look at how much you sound so much better so yeah like this is just oh yeah look at now i can hear you this is just like typical cigar production problems where the boxes aren't ready the bands aren't ready the cigars aren't ready something's always not ready but i'll tell you something about hooten young because i was having a conversation with somebody the other day about their overall numbers And how they're doing marketing and how many retailers they have, they're doing something in this industry. They are selling some cigars, for sure. They're doing quite well, without a doubt.
Of course. I mean, John's a good guy. You know, I like Carney. He's my friend.
He's just late. He's just a little slow. Okay, are we ready again? I'm straight.
We're good. Yeah. More of that. It took three minutes.
I hope that lighter doesn't light it. We get the click, click, and the... I hope you run out of fuel. Guy is such a baller, and I've said this before, guy smokes only limiteds, SBCs, all day.
Only one a day. All day. Well, you know, you rotate in the bears, so, you know. He smokes more bears than I do.
He's smoking all the bears that aren't even for sale yet. Why are you getting so defensive? Yeah, why? Because you're picking on me.
I smoked the Segundo's. Going along with the show. Yeah, I smoked the Segundo's. I smoked the unbanded ones, the ones that we're not going to sell.
We don't have, again, unbanded versions of the SBC because we sold through all of them. We smoked the unbanded ones and we've sold almost all the other ones. So I have to smoke because I have no choice. Listen, it's my birthday.
You're supposed to be nice to me. I am nice to you. The one day. You're yelling.
It's one day a year. I'm not yelling. My voice is elevated. That's different.
That's what yelling is. No. Yelling is when you elevate your voice. Yeah.
Yelling is like three or four octaves higher. Octaves? I don't know. Octaves.
An octave. Is it octave? I had an octave for dinner last night, I think. Volume six.
All right, we ready to move on? Hey, ChatGPT, what is an octave? Would you like me to use ChatGPT? Yeah.
It's so ridiculous. It's working with ChatGPT. An octave is a musical interval spanning eight notes in a scale. Wrong word then.
It represents the distance between one note and another with double or half its frequency. I think it was correct. Yeah, it's close. But it's octave, I thought.
Maybe it's octave. For example, if you play a C note, the next C above or below it is an octave part. In Western music, an octave consists of 12 semitones and is a fundamental to scales of harmony. I just want you to know everything you just said was not a fundamental scale of harmony.
My brother didn't like my scale. Right. You're a fucking octave. How's that sound?
Again with the word! I gotta edit that one out. You're an octave. Allegedly.
You're a C note. A low C note. A low C. A D.
All right. We all set? I hope so. All right.
Before we get into today's What's the Score, we have to take a minute to recognize someone who somehow managed to survive another trip around the sun. Oh, yeah? Our very own Mikey. There he is.
Happy birthday, Mikey. Happy birthday, Mikey. Happy birthday, Mikey. The show needs that one guy who keeps the conversation moving and somehow manages to keep up with all the chaos we create.
You've been a huge part of what makes this podcast what it is, and we appreciate everything you do in bringing it to the table. That is super sweet. I like to think that a roll... I'm not done.
Oh, you're not done? I'm sorry. I'll be quiet. Now, let's be honest.
Birthdays are a little different these days. Instead of wishing you the latest toys, you're wishing your back didn't hurt when you get out of bed in the morning. The candle's starting to cost more than the cake, and your idea of wild night is making it to bed by 10 o'clock. But in all seriousness, we're grateful for your friendship, your loyalty, and the last you've given us over the years.
We hope this next year brings you good health, great cigars, plenty of success, and enough stories that we'll never run out of things to talk about on this show. Thank you, ChatGBT. Yeah, I was about to say, what wrote that? A robot wrote that.
ChatGBT. That was very nice. But I couldn't get you cake because I can't throw it that far, but I think I'm messed, so... That is broken.
That's okay. That is amazing. It's birthday cake. Little Debbie's?
Yes, Little Debbie birthday cake. Oh, very nice. I know how you enjoy your little snackies. Thank you so much.
That's so sweet. Yeah. I bought him a cold plunge. Oh, nice of you.
You did. Yes. Yes, you did. He had to one-up you there.
You see that? He just big-dicked you. He big-dicked, big-dicked Palmer. Oh, because of the cold plunge?
I don't have this kind of money. I'm not rich. I work for you guys. Yeah.
I work for you guys. It's perfect for you guys. Would you like some ice? I can get you ice.
Could take it right out of the fridge. Right, the big balls over there, get you a bucket of ice. How many you need? Yeah.
All right. All right, now time for the industry's favorite game. What's the score? Play us your clues from 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? " Today's Cigar, May 7, 2025, Brooks Whittington, it's a Caldwell Cigar, Yellow Cake Maduro Robusto.
2025, Brooks, Caldwell, Yellow Cake Maduro. " No. Oh, this is why you went with the cake thing for the birthday? Oh, look at how creative you are.
Yeah. But this is the only one that actually had cake in the name. Oh, very creative. Very nice.
Mikey? He's eating, go ahead. I'm the birthday boy, I go last. Oh, okay.
And he's eating. 88. 89. Cigar reviewed as the Yellow Cake 2025 Maduro Robusto.
Country of origin? Undisclosed. There we go. Factory?
Undisclosed. Rapper? Undisclosed. 72, and they smoked 3.
That was a $6 cigar? Apparently. Wow. Came in a paper wrapper thing.
Good for Caldwell. I'm gonna stick with 88, not a lot of information, much undisclosed. Yeah, he's always been nice to us, he's a good guy. Yeah.
Um, 89. The Yellow Cake Maduro delivers a rich, creamy profile centered on peanut butter and cedar with supporting notes of cocoa, cinnamon, coffee, and honey. The smooth, retrohale, and balanced, medium-full flavor make it an enjoyable, nuanced smoke. Ninety.
Eighty-nine. Clue number two, despite its dark wrapper, the cigar avoids overwhelming strength, maintaining excellent balance throughout. Construction was strong overall, with great smoke production, solid draws in most samples, and a clean finish in the final third. A lot of positive there, a lot of positive.
Let me push it a little bit more and go 91. 89. Third clue: Consistency was the biggest drawback. One sample was noticeably over-packed, developed a metallic note, had a tighter draw, and required multiple burn corrections during the second third, We're going the other way, 87.
89. Final thought. The Yellow Cake Robusto starts out extremely tame, and while it does pick up some strength in body, in the final third, it never punches past a solid medium. The profile is smooth and mellow, which is extremely consistent, some might say monotonous.
Flavors of creamy cedar and peanut butter, along with a touch of white pepper and honey sweetness on the retrohale, sure each of the cigars needed at least one burn correction, but even with those problems, if you are looking for a short morning cigar that won't break the bank, the price point under six bucks is hard to beat. 88. That's a good number. Hmm.
I guess I'm going to go 89 and just take the L. You went the wrong way. Yeah, 87. 86.
86. Wow. What is it that he said when he's robbing the place? Bing bong.
Bing bong. Bing bong. Bing bong. Bing bong.
Okay, you have anything else to add for that? And that is it, that's all I got. com, us, Cigar Hustlers podcast. Thank you very much for listening today or viewing the show, and we hope we provided great edutainment for you, as we do every weekday.
All right, we gotta go guys, thanks, bye.
Show Notes
On today’s show “we told you to slow down the boat! It’s a two for Tuesday in Florida! Ola El Hombre Murcielago! Then in cigars things don’t look good for Chen Zhi, a new bundle cigar and we are hooting again! Then a whats the score