ACHP Episode 404 Jet Belly, Stern Shenanigans & NFL Shochers

Episode Summary

Episode 404 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with the crew's usual off-topic riffing — a New York Post piece on "jet belly" (why gas expands in your gut at 30,000 feet, per Cedars-Sinai's Dr. Brennan Spiegel), Howard Stern's fake Andy Cohen "Andy 100" takeover prank on SiriusXM and whether Stern is still relevant, and NFL Week 1 takes covering the Bills' comeback over the Ravens, Josh Allen vs. Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers' four-touchdown Steelers debut, Justin Fields and the Jets' 32 points, and the Dolphins' 33-8 collapse against Daniel Jones and the Colts.

The meat of the episode is cigar news. Jack Toraño of Espinosa Cigars calls in (through a comically glitchy connection) to explain California's Unflavored Tobacco List legislation: a $300-per-SKU registration fee, 150 SKU renewals annually, a full box of cigars shipped to the State Attorney General's office, and a premium cigar definition requiring a $12 wholesale price that could wipe out 80–90% of cigars on California shelves. Toraño says Espinosa may register only robustos and toros, that even that could cost tens of thousands, and that unregistered inventory already sitting in California shops can't legally be sold. The crew discusses how over-regulation crushes small retailers while big shops like Small Batch can relocate, and why non-smokers should still care about the precedent.

New release coverage includes the My Father / Tatuaje La Unión Red Humidor ($2,400 for 40 cigars, a 7¼ x 50 109-head Prominente Especial with Pete Johnson blending for My Father and the García family blending for Tatuaje), Quesada's Oktoberfest 2025 Munich Canadian exclusive, Blackworks Studio's triple-wrapper Tigersaurus at $19, and the return of the Alec Bradley Black Market Filthy Ghouligan at $14.49. The hosts also dissect All Saints Cigars' second round of price decreases and vitola discontinuations under Mickey Pegg — arguing that cutting prices twice signals the cigars were overpriced from the start and burns the retailers who supported the brand — plus a vague tariff-driven price increase from Pure Aroma Cigars. Pete Hernandez phones in briefly, and the episode closes with "What's the Score?" guessing Halfwheel review scores for the Rojas Street Taco El Pastor Toro Grande (85) and a 2016 Alec Bradley Black Market Filthy Hooligan (87).

In This Episode

1. 01
   Events, Swag and Giveaways
   The crew previews The Vault in Orlando, PDB conference, Powstanie Cutting Light events at Escape Cigar Lounge in Leesburg and Treasure Coast Cigars in Vero Beach, and a month-long Camacho grill giveaway.
2. 02
   Jet Belly at 30,000 Feet
   A New York Post story with Cedars-Sinai's Dr. Brennan Spiegel explains why cabin pressure makes intestinal gas expand, and the 'jet belly release' massage trick.
3. 03
   Howard Stern's SiriusXM Prank
   Stern faked his own exit by handing his slot to Andy Cohen as 'Andy 100,' fooling CNBC, Variety and the AP — sparking a debate on whether Stern is still relevant versus Joe Rogan.
4. 04
   NFL Week 1 Reactions
   Bills-Ravens comeback and Josh Allen's kneel-downs, Aaron Rodgers' Steelers debut, the Jets' 32 points behind Justin Fields, and the Dolphins' 33-8 loss to the Colts.
5. 05
   California's Unflavored Tobacco List with Jack Toraño
   Espinosa's Jack Toraño details the $300 per-SKU registration, box submissions to the State Attorney General, the $12 wholesale premium cigar definition, and the 45-day filing window.
6. 06
   My Father x Tatuaje La Unión Red Humidor
   The $2,400, 40-cigar collaboration humidor shipping late September, with Pete Johnson and the García family blending for each other's brands.
7. 07
   All Saints Price Cuts and Discontinuations
   Mickey Pegg's second round of price decreases and dropped vitolas prompts a frank discussion about pricing integrity and protecting retailers.
8. 08
   New Drops and What's the Score?
   Quesada Oktoberfest 2025 Munich for Canada, Blackworks Tigersaurus, Alec Bradley Filthy Ghouligan, a Pure Aroma tariff increase, and Halfwheel score guessing.

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

Green means go. All right, welcome to episode 404 of Cigar Hustler Podcast. Oh. Mm-hmm.

What did you... you have gas over there? Oh, God. Oh, God.

Ever feel like something strange happens to your body at 30,000 feet? Well, dig into the phenomenon known as jet belly, and trust us, it's not just in your head. Plus, Howard Stern had the media chasing its tail with a prank for the ages. NFL Week 1 brought fireworks right out of the gate, and Cigar News, California stirs the pot.

We have the info from our legal reporter, Jack Taranio. New drops hit the shelves, and we close out with the industry's favorite game. What's the score? What is it?

7. 7. 7. But first, this week, Mikey and I will be at The Vault in Orlando.

The famous PDB conference has begun today, and we have the inside track to all the going-ons. Oh. And Saturday, I'll be at the Escape Cigar Lounge. The going-ons.

Things that go on. The going-ons. The go-ons. The go-ons.

This Saturday, I'll be at the Escape Cigar Lounge in Leesburg, Florida, for Pustania Cutting Light from 4:00 to 7:30. And then on the 23rd, I'll be at the Treasure Coast Cigars in Vero Beach for another Pustania Cutting Light from noon to 3:00. Noon to 3. Upstairs, the Cigar Hustler, we're running a month-long Camacho event, giving away a Halo Outdoor Portable Grill.

Yes. It's a nice grill. Griddle. It's a nice griddle.

Yes, I want this griddle. It's like a griddle grill. Yes. It's nice.

I need this. It has caster wheels. You can move it. I would like this griddle.

Give me the griddle. I'm sure you could win if you want to. If you win the griddle, give me the griddle. All right, Michael, how do I get some of that nice CH Pod swag?

That is a great question, Mr. com and check out all of our t-shirt swag, we just dropped the Don Juan Nieve shirt, it's our newest release, red circle, red circle, we're podcasting, we have time right now, for love of God, we have an hour and a half of this work, they have to wait, And, make sure you like, and subscribe, and comment below on this episode, we are going to be giving away a Powstanie lighter this week, yeah, we're going to mix it up, and let me see who our winner is of last week, let's see here, the winner of last week's shirt giveaway is, we got nine people, pick a number, one through nine, Bootsy, Boots, no number, okay, he's retarded, pick a number, Number one through nine Palmer. Six. Six.

Boots. Let's see who six is. You're uneligible. One, two, three, four, five, six.

Members of the staff or employees. We know who number six is. I will contact them directly. They are going to be very excited.

Mr. Patrick Prater. Oh, the kicker. Our guy sent me a nice email this week.

Thank you very much for your support, brother. Appreciate everything you do for us. And, of course, we're not going to charge you for shipping when you place two orders And one of them has free shipping, 'cause it's a month club, we will always do the right thing, bro, and we appreciate you, dude. You have to wait for free shipping?

Oh, well, he placed an order. Oh, just for him, specifically. So here's what's part of the whole deal, like, you order two, no shipping? No, so here's what he did, he ordered it, he's a month club guy.

Right, right. And then he placed an order. Right. " Oh, certainly.

" Right. " And he was like, hey, you didn't have to do that, it was very nice, but I, you know, I was trying to do the right thing. Sure, at least you can do. Yeah, so he showed his appreciation, says that he loves the podcast.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Prater. And you know what? He's a good guy.

Now you've got a Don Juan Nieves shirt coming your way. Oh. The first out ever. Don Juan.

So you bought a shirt, so we even know his size. You know, he hasn't bought a shirt yet. Oh. I thought you said he bought a shirt and you put it in with Month Club.

No. Month Club and plus an online order. Oh. Yes.

Sorry. I was all shirt excited. Please excuse my friend. Been a long day.

The town is back that way. Okay, let's go. What are we getting into? Bing bong.

Skip Martin. Let's go. Feeling gassy at 30,000 feet? You're not flying solo.

Whether you're headed to paradise or jetting off for business, many passengers find themselves battling a different kind of turbulence when their guts revolt midair, leaving them bloated, cramping, and desperate for solid ground. So gassy. See, that's what we knew before. To get to the bottom of the phenomenon known as Jet Belly, The Post spoke to Dr.

Brennan Spiegel, at UCLA professor and director of health services, research at Cedars-Sinai, who also broke down how to prevent it from wrecking your next flight. So you fart on a plane, is what you're saying? I fart on, yeah, I fart on a plane. All the time?

Well, not domestic flights, but international flights, 18 hours, kind of hard not to. So you fart on international, not domestic? Correct. I can wait.

You cork it on domestic? No, it just doesn't seem to bother me as much. Oh. Man, fuck that.

I'm fucking laying the rip. If it's gotta go, it's gotta go, right? No one can hear it. Right, nobody can hear.

So they don't know, unless you do like a lean, right? And then they'll know it's you. Can you imagine how bad those cushions smell in those airplanes? Well, I wouldn't put your face near it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, if you have kids and stuff, sometimes, you know, they lay down. Get your head out of there.

You put both your head in. Well, that's part of childhood. You don't put their head in a plastic bag? No, they kind of suffocate.

Probably frowned upon. Probably frowned upon. Yeah, you know, so yeah. Okay, I could understand that this is a thing.

This is a thing. All right, what is jet belly and when does it happen? It's a nickname for the bloating and cramping many people get on airplanes. At sea level, Spiegel explained gravity pulls air molecules tight to earth, keeping the atmosphere dense, but as you climb higher, the air thins and pressure drops.

Can you take me higher? Even though airplane cabinets are pressurized, they don't fully match sea level, so your intestines inflate a little, said Spiegel, author of Pull, How Gravity Shapes Your Body, Steadies the Mind, and Guides Our Health. That means gases trapped in the gut expand, almost like a sealed sack bag puffing up mid-flight. He continued in a 1969 study, researchers found that the abdominal gas in 18 military men who agreed not to fart during a simulated flight more than quadrupled.

Trupled as the altitude climbed from ground level to nearly 30,000 feet. Mm-hmm. Okay. For some, Spiegel said the experience is just mildly uncomfortable, but others, it can be downright painful, and even trigger a flare-up of colitis, a type of colon inflammation.

Mm. That's a fart. " No. No, they did a simulation for the study.

And they said... Yeah, nobody fart, but it wasn't a plane ride. It was just a pressurized container. Oh, they put them in like a can.

A big can. A big... Like big can. Okay.

Like where they pressurize when you get the bends. Okay. You know, I heard somebody did this one time to go look at a ship that was wrecked. Yeah?

Yeah, it wasn't good. Wasn't good? Yeah. That didn't work out too well either.

Do you think that they farted a lot? Possibly, yeah. Yeah. But we'll never know.

Well, at least one big time. Oh, man. God. That's cold.

Okay. All right. So here's the next exercise. Here's one of his go-to tricks is something he calls the jet belly release.

Michael? I'll read the instructions. Okay, you tell me. All right.

All right. Place your hand about two to three inches below your belly button. No? Here?

Here? Okay. Two to three inches below my belly button. Press gently, but firmly.

I'm going to move my gut over. Okay. Start massaging toward the right side in the direction of your right hip bone. And this is supposed to do what?

Make me fart? I'm going to make you fart. I don't need help farting. Keep doing this to help milk guests through some valve.

Well, apparently I don't have to fart. Through a valve, that would probably be the back one. I'm Boach, come massage your belly. Come over here, give me those big hands of yours.

No, thank you. We have Ginger right here. Ginger, Ginger, we need assistance. Yeah, that hand.

The little gateway between the small intestines and the colon, Spiegel said, once air moves into the colon, which has much more capacity, it can be released more easily. You know, I gotta be honest. This is not a department in which I struggle. Farting?

Yeah. Just gotta let it go. If I'm on a plane, I got news for you. Well, you do in the car all the time.

That's not true. Okay. You're never in the car with me. I'm always in the car with you.

You know what? You're never driving with me ever again. How's that sound? You take your own car.

Okay. You won't make it. You'll crash. I've seen you drive.

It's bad. I only hit that thing that one time. Can you see at all when you drive? Not at night.

I can't take it at night, especially during the rainstorms. I think like when the time comes, you're going to need to get like the Tesla or something. Self-driving car? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I still want a self-driving car. But you got to continue to touch the steering wheel, otherwise it won't drive. Do you really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He wants to make sure you're awake. You can just buy one of those fidgeter things off Amazon. Is that how that, does that work? Yeah, it's what people use to get through their jobs sometimes.

Oh, that's what moves the mouse. Yeah. Oh, really? This is the thing.

It says you did not log out. Nuh-uh. Yeah. So wait a second, hold on, what do people do?

Okay, if you're working from home. Okay. And they monitor to see if you're still on, because after it sits idle for a while, it logs you out. Okay.

So there's a thing you can get to move your mouse. No. Yes. And you can collect your 80,000 a year.

Who cre... That guy is a genius. Oh, yeah. I like that there's some where you just use a fan, you know, an oscillating fan.

Put a stick in the front, and hook it to your mouse, so as the fan moves back and forth, your mouse is going like this. I love that guy. Yeah, that's simple. Whoever set that up, they never put their pants on, ever, throughout the day.

He had a lot of money, because he was faking out a lot of people. " And people showed up in like bathing suits, pajamas, no pants. Like naked? Well, underwear.

In their undies? I don't think they would have taken a picture and put it up on Newsweek or whatever it was. Yeah. Hmm.

Okay. Now this guy would take a naked picture. Which guy? Howard Stern is not leaving Sirius XM, at least not now after an elaborate prank.

What a relief. Howard Stern pranked his fans in the media Monday after leaving his longtime Sirius XM radio show. m. time slot, Announcing that he was taking over the channel and rebranding it as Andy 100.

Oh. Why would it be Andy 100? Because he's Andy Cohen. Oh, and you said it's on Channel 100.

And it's Channel 100. Ah. Multiple media outlets, including CNBC, Variety, and Associated Press, published reports that Stern was leaving the radio network. Howard Stern came back on the air about 10 minutes later announcing that it was a hoax.

He criticized inaccurate reports in the media about his employment status during a summer hiatus, calling them bad rumors. The news briefly sent SiriusXM shares down nearly 2% in pre-market trading before rebounding. That's not a lot. 2%?

Yeah, it's like an average move every day, up or down 2%, 3%. But it's pre-market trading. Pre-market trading. So that's the fancy people.

Yeah, if you're special, you can do the... You do the pre-market and the post-market. Right. But you can't do the market-market.

You can't do the market-market. Well, they can do the market-market if they want to, but why do that? We can do it before. Yeah, well, no, I just do it before and after.

Right. Let you peons trade during the normal times. Right. Yeah, and let the special people lose a lot of money while they gain a lot of money.

I feel like they don't lose a lot of money. And they know what they're doing. Yeah. I'm sure they lose something.

So, was that the end of the story? The prank comes as the future with SiriusXM remains unclear after signing a five-year deal in 2025, his contract's up. Stern had previously said he would address his future last week, but pushed it back a week to his Monday because of an illness. Okay, so, here's the real question.

Is anybody still watching Howard Stern? Uh, well, I think it's a listen, because it's not serious. Is serious a video? Can you?

Okay, okay, hold on. Okay, so here's the real question. Is anybody still listening to Howard Stern? Palmer?

I mean, I personally don't, but I used to. You don't, yeah. How many years, when did you stop? Whenever he got off real radio here at local.

Okay, so 20 years ago you decided? Yeah, something like that. I listened to the Monsters every morning. Okay, and so when he went to Sirius, you were done?

Yeah, because you gotta pay. You know, everybody knows I'm cheap. I'm not paying for radio. You're frugal.

You're not cheap. No, I'm cheap. Okay, I'm frugal. Thank you.

Why pay for radio? I mean, that seems silly. It's ridiculous. Boots?

I don't think I ever listened to Howard Stern on the radio. Never listened to Howard Stern? Do you have satellite radio in your new truck? On the radio?

No, I've never listened to them on the radio. I've seen his TV show a couple times. For like, when it was on E? Yeah.

So that was when you were like, fucking 12? But it was, it had to be edited. That was when you could see like, the... Everything was blurred out.

The blurred out, the pixels. Pixelated? The pixel, pixel boobies. That's what you do, is you're like...

" No, this is, yeah, but like, this is, well, you can see the person, but the blanked out boobs. Oh, yeah. I think, I think I've actually seen more Howard Stern nowadays on TikTok. Really?

Ah, really? Yeah. And I've seen, than I saw on E. He's a TikToker?

No, because I like to watch videos of Beetlejuice. Oh, Beetlejuice. That's old school Howard Stern. That's old Howard Stern.

Yeah, yeah. That's old school Howard Stern. What about you, Ginger? Do you watch Howard Stern?

But not anymore. So, okay, so it's safe to say, with the small data that we've gathered here, that sampling, small sampling here, that nobody who really watches Howard Stern listens, I'm sorry, listens to Howard Stern anymore. Not in this room. No.

And this prank? It was a prank? I mean, I don't think anybody cared. Well, his contract is up for renewal.

Right. And there's been rumblings that he that they're not going to renew him. Okay. Because, Because, or if they are, they're going to make a much cheaper offer because he's paid some ungodly amount of money.

He's never on anyways. The guys hardly does, he does episodes like once or twice a week. Seriously, he's not like on five days a week? No, he's no longer on five days.

Do they play reruns? I think they do. They do the reruns. Is that the way Sirius works?

Like Monday's a new show, Tuesday's rerun, then he comes back on Wednesday? I think that's the way Howard Stern runs. Oh, but that's not the way like all the talk shows do. No, not all of them, but he's king of media.

How many shows do we just Joe Rogan do? Oh, I don't know. He does, yeah, it's every day. He does a new show every day?

Yeah. Oh. Yeah, that guy. He's the new king of media.

I would argue. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Okay. So... Wait, wait. Joe, well, I guess he has been an actor.

He's not in that. He's king of all media because he was on radio, he was on TV, and he was doing movies. No, it's just that he has the most viewerships, I think, when it comes to general podcasts. Yes.

Yeah. That would be king of podcasting. It's media. No, but when Howard Stern claimed he was king of all media, it's because he did radio, he did TV, and he did movies.

Is that why? Yes, he covered all the medias. Well, Joe does sports. Yeah, does he cover MMA?

No, but that would be TV. Okay, so. So, if he is on TV, then yes, and he has done movies. Right, and he was a fear factor.

Right. And he smoked cigars. Yes. Was that the one he was on?

I knew he was on some TV show. radio. He was on news radio. Who's that?

Stern? Joe Rogan. Or Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan.

No, no. Okay. Stern did that stupid movie. Which part of the parts?

Yeah, about his life. I thought it was good. I thought it was good. I didn't enjoy it.

Back in the day, I thought it was good. It was on par with like Airheads and stuff. I loved Airheads. Yeah, Airheads was great.

Yeah. Oh, and another reason why I didn't like it. I don't like that movie either. Okay.

So, if they didn't renew him... Yeah, so that was a joke. So, Andy Cohen has replaced him because we're not renewing the contract. And at the end of the show, they went, liar, here I am.

Gotcha. Do you think Andy Cohen is at the same level of Howard Stern? Not even close. No, no, no, no.

He's only big with, what, women. Like Howard Stern in his prime? Because, I mean, Howard Stern now, we've kind of determined, isn't really relevant. He doesn't look bad in the photos I saw today.

I mean, he's worth $75 bajillion. Right, yeah. So he probably gets a blood transfusion with the babies and all the other stuff, allegedly. He eats the children, allegedly.

You know? Takes the blood from his younger wife? Yeah. Oh.

Ha ha. No, I mean, I always liked him. I always thought it was good, but eventually it just kind of faded away. He pushed the envelope back in the day.

Yeah, he did. And now everybody cusses and swears and shows boobs on TV. Yeah, look at us. You know what I mean?

Right. Yeah, who are we? Who are we? Who are we?

Um, we don't have his money. Okay, so, yeah, that's true. So, we don't have the money for the guy that cuts Joe Rogan's grass. I mean, we don't even have money for any of the people that are, like, if there is a guy that edits the audio for Howard Stern, Howard Stern, he makes like 10x us.

Oh, he makes more than us, yeah. Okay, but if he didn't sign a contract to renew with Sirius, what do you think Howard Stern would do? Retire. Retire.

He'd retire. Just be done. Travel, enjoy all my bajillions of dollars of my younger blonde wife. Travel, bajillion, wife.

Sure. Maybe write another book. Yeah, if I did it. J.

Which made a lot of money. Yeah, his book made a lot of money. Did it? Sure.

Yeah. You do a tell-all of the, all the interviews that you've done. Yeah. Who was an asshole, who wasn't?

Like a whole, who would you, but where would, what platform would it be on? In a book. Oh, a book? Yeah, it was like a hardback.

I said, he'd write a book. Well, it could be a book on tape. Okay, what do you think he would do, Boots? Howard Stern?

Yeah, if he didn't renew his contract with Sirius. Yeah, he'd probably enjoy life. I mean, the guy's gotta be coming towards the end. He's gotta be in the 70s, right?

Ouch. You think the 70s are the end? No, I'm just saying, like, okay, if you're in your 70s... Palmer, I got some news for you.

At most... I got 11 good years left. At most, you got, you know, 15 years, right? 15, 20 years, maybe?

85? Well, not if he's transfusing the blood from the babies, logically. Yeah, with the blood transfusions. All right, this guy is not Dracula.

But still though, I mean, yeah, I mean, you get to a point. I don't know, man. And I got to be honest, if I got to that age, that point, I wouldn't want to not work. Well, me personally, I don't think I would either.

And, but this is a guy that's been doing this for a hundred years at this point. If I had a bajillions of dollars, then maybe, but I don't know. I could definitely find something to do a bajillion of dollars. I got to be honest, this is going to sound crazy.

This is going to sound crazy. I'm sure. If I had hit that Powerball, right, I would still want to do the podcast. Well, yeah, but we would do it in a better place, but we would still do it.

We would have top notch. Well, I have to because I didn't win the Powerball. Yeah, you're still working. I'm still working, working, except now I get paid.

What? I'm not giving you my money. No, your money, you're paying me. That's crazy.

Oh, well, then I retire. You're still doing it for free. Wait a minute. My Powerball earnings has nothing to do with your work pay.

It's not fair. I don't get to take my money. It's ridiculous. If I had one, I would pay you.

Well, that's very thoughtful. You're a better person than I am. I'm not going to pay Boots and Ginger, though. I've got to draw the line.

That's ridiculous. You can't pay Ginger, even though he does drop some funny. He's like our Baba Booey now. Oh, we're going to the Howard Stern model.

Yeah, our Howard Stern model. Tickle me racist. You're Howard. I'm Robin Quivers.

He's Baba Booey. No, he would have to be Baba Booey. He'd have to be Baba Booey. Oh, he can be, what was the guy you said you liked to watch?

Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Right. Meh, Beetlejuice.

I don't think that's nice. No, it'd be more like, uh, Retard Ronnie, or whatever that guy's name was. No, Steve. Steve.

Yeah, Retard Steve. You know who? You would be Artie. Do you remember Artie Lang?

Oh, Artie Lang. Yeah, that, I couldn't think of his name, I pictured his face. Yeah. Yeah, he would be Artie Lang.

All right. Okay, well, congratulations, Howard. And we're moving. Well, he still hasn't got his contract.

You pranked us. But he's still working. Right. I mean, if he's only working one day a week now, that's a, you know, small step to retirement.

Hey, I'm showing up to work, but we let you go a month ago. I'm here. Yeah, I'm busy. I got free time, whatever.

Let me just do this. My car might drive its own self-car shows up here every day. Okay. Moving on.

All right, week one of 2025 NFL season opened with thrilling finishes, impressive debuts, and a few early surprises. Yes, it did. The Bills stunned the Ravens in a... I'm still reading.

The Bills... I wanted this nice little intro thing here, you won't let me read it. I'm sorry. The Bills stunned the Ravens in a dramatic comeback, Aaron Rodgers delivered his Steelers debut against the Jets, and Daniel Jones made an immediate impact on the Colts.

Here are the key highlights from around the league. Okay, we're gonna break these down one step at a time. Don't worry, we're gonna save the best of our last boots. For starters, first starters, Buffalo Bills, Baltimore.

Oh my God. Did you watch this? Yeah. Did you watch this game?

Yeah. We did. Absolutely incredible. You know what?

I don't care. We're going to talk about it. You've done your job. Just relax.

I got something to say to all you Buffalo Bills fans and fucking Josh Allen. Only pussies fucking kneel the ball with a minute and 45 seconds left. Hold on. Hold on.

You're getting ahead of yourself. No, I'm not. You just relax. just relax let's first first and foremost josh allen's probably the greatest quarterback in the league some of those throws the way that he controlled the way that he controlled his offense was wait well you're gonna say two is bro come on no i think lamar jackson is definitely better than oh then why didn't he win because josh allen is a better quarterback was neil he got look bro We're not at that part yet.

We are not at that part yet. He proved why he was MVP. He was down 15 points. They went down and they won the game.

Now, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's relax, okay? I will say this: I can't see Buffalo winning the Super Bowl. And the reason why, Mr.

Boots, is because of the fact that the coach dictated that last minute in 45 when they should have went for the touchdown. Yeah. Did it work out? Yes.

Did they win? Yes. Would that work in postseason? I don't know, man.

I don't know. I don't think it would ever work in the regular season another game again. It worked there. Yeah, there.

But you don't have your best kicker, right? He's not playing. You have some guy you just signed, what, fucking four or five days before this game? Who's a Florida guy, by the way.

Yeah, well, that's great. Central Florida. We're talking about father time came back to kick a fucking ball for you. 41, yeah.

Right, and it's not just a chip shot. Gives me hope. It was a long kick. It wasn't super long.

It was, what, 44? It was like a 40-yarder. Yeah, I mean, that's not a chip shot. It's decent.

Have you seen any of the college games that just happened this past week, too? They were missing them all fucking day. Were they? Yeah, and then wasn't there – what was the NFL game?

I want to bring it back. We're going to stay on NFL because we got other things to talk about. Anyways, I'm a little heated because I had some money riding on Knox. I need five more yards from this guy, and fucking Josh Allen goes down kneeling left and right here.

Yeah, look, I don't think that that was the right approach to win the game. No, I don't think so either. And that shows the lack of kind of swag that's going to be needed to win championships. And I've been saying that for the longest time about Buffalo.

And, you know, I think that that's the problem with their coach. Yeah, McDermott, yeah. What? Yeah, McDermott.

Yeah. All right, were you talking about Aaron Rodgers? Yeah, that was another one, yep. Okay, Aaron Rodgers, the guy delivered in Pittsburgh.

He did for first game. Four touchdowns, pretty impressive. Yeah, I'll give him the first game. He did a lot better than last season.

Yeah, exactly. He did terrible last year. Now, the bigger highlight for me out of that game was the Jets. Yeah, Justin Fields looked great.

The Jets did amazing. They lost the game. They still looked incredible. They put up 32 points against Pittsburgh.

That's incredible. Did the Jets make the right move by getting rid of Aaron Rodgers? I think the answer is yes. He doesn't fit into that system.

Obviously, Justin Fields is a better fit. So, I don't disagree with, you know, kudos to Aaron Rodgers for lighting it up. Yep, he looked great. And kudos to the Jets for doing all the things that they did.

Correct, man. Because I always usually have jokes about the Jets, but I don't have jokes this week. You can't, you can't week one, yeah. No, not with 32 against Pitt.

No. And now, my friend, my dear Dolphin friend, let me start by saying, I believe two weeks ago I made a comment in regards to a one Daniel Jones. And I told you that this man is going to be a sleeper in fantasy football. The guy produced.

It will never happen again. He scored every single drive. Because the Dolphins weren't even playing. They were playing.

I mean, they were in the stadium. They were there. Somebody should have informed him that they were playing. Mike McDaniels has got to be by far the worst head coach in the league, and you're finally starting to see that.

Look, vaping on the sidelines does not pay off. Yeah, I don't know what he was doing. It was a horrible game. I love Tua just, I mean, some of those throws went right to the Colts.

I mean, I'm like, "Oh, nope, that guy's in dark blue. You shouldn't have thrown to him. " Right. How do you feel about that?

I don't feel anything. That's why I didn't bet on the game. I didn't do anything with it. Do you think the Dolphins win a game this season?

Yeah. You do? Yes. I don't know if they're going to win a game.

Okay. With that performance, do you think they're going to win a game? Did they score? Yeah, they scored.

They didn't get shut up. What was the final score? A-Chain scored. What was the final score of that game?

I think it was 10-30-something. 10-30-something. 10-30-something? 10-30-something.

Ginger, what was the score of that game? Thank you. Dude, they're a mess. They have no defense.

33-8. 33-8. 8! Bro, that's not good.

It wasn't a shutout. You should have never fired Flores. You should have never fired Flores. He's a better coach.

Why? Because he had a better team. He had better systems. He had better culture, better policies.

All right, well... Red circle, Michelle Swarty. Dude, what are you doing over there? Kelly called again.

No. Just tell them that you're... text them that you're podcasting. I just did.

Okay, hey, I'm podcasting. Okay. While we're waiting for Palmer to respond to that text, let's... How many games do you think the Dolphins are going to win this season?

I mean, I think there'll be over 500. 500? All right, what's the wager? Over 500?

Yeah, 500 is the line. I'll buy you a Pustana if you win. No, I'm not playing that game because you can just give me a Pustana. What?

If I win... I bought all the Pustanias. No, I know. I have...

There's no actual money out of your pockets, what he's saying. Oh, right. Well, the money's already in. All right, let's do a dollar each.

Let's just make it easy. Let's do what? One dollar. One dollar?

One dollar. No, I want you to wear a mask or something. I'm not wearing a mask again. Come on.

He's not on camera. What do you want to wear? He's wearing a mask right now. We'll bring the camera over to him.

Thanks for batting for me, Palmer. He's got that mask on. He looks ridiculous. Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry. All right, so listen, that's the bet. We're going to figure out what the wager is. Does that sound fair?

No, you can't do that. I think a dollar. It's like he loses and you go, okay, the bet was you have to shave your head and put your pants on your head. Hey, comment in the YouTube page what you think the bet should be.

No, we're not letting any of these people think anything. Make it something... He's kidding. He's getting a sex change.

Make it something reasonable. It's got to be reasonable. He's going to Germany, y'all. He's going to Germany.

Call back, excellent. That's nice. And we'll figure out what the wager should be. All right, moving on.

I'm fast-forwarding through the sports. Well, we covered it. I know, that's why I'm fast-forwarding through it, not because I have nothing to say. You got a nice break.

All right, while you're fast-forwarding, I got a public service announcement about Burger King. Oh, my God. Oh, jeez. Me and Jenge went there for lunch today.

Okay. First, when we get there, I'm like, oh, man, you know, I really want to go to Burger King. We passed Culver's, Checker's, all the way better places than Burger King, right? We get to Burger King, I really want this rodeo cheeseburger.

Okay. This already sounds like a design. We order. We're first in line, by the way.

We're first in line. First in line. The lady takes her order, doesn't know how to take the order. Okay.

And then after she takes the order, right, we then waited for what, 25 minutes? 30 minutes? In the drive-thru? No, inside.

We went inside. Oh, I would have had it fitted 25 minutes. Dude, it took, I was able, because we were doing demo work today, I was able to go in the bathroom, wash my whole body. I did a bathroom bath.

Ooh. Oh, cuidado. Yeah. Cuidado.

Cuidado. Came back out, still waiting. I'm like, just, it's ridiculous. So anyways, after we get it, have you guys had Burger King in a while?

No. I have. You have? Sometimes it's just nice for a change.

Have you ever gotten just like a regular cheeseburger or anything off the dollar menu? No, probably not. Okay, so I got a rodeo cheeseburger off the dollar menu. I'm going to get to the point here because you're losing me.

Yeah, no, and a regular bacon cheeseburger. When they came to me, I pulled them out of the bag. They look like sliders. Oh, they're small.

Oh, they're getting smaller. Yeah, and it's not a dollar anymore, right? 80 something. They're like almost three bucks.

Well, that's what happened. The price goes up, the food size goes down. Yeah. We're in a recession.

You know what, Burger King, I'm fucking done with you. Oh my God. I have batted with you forever. No more.

He went out of his way. Ginger has a photo. He's coming around to show you. He went out of his way to announce that on the podcast.

He did. Don't eat a burger. Well, I was just trying to fill time while he's fast-forwarding. Allegedly, Burger King has shrunk down the portions of their food.

Yeah. Fucking horrible. All right, boys and girls, it's time for the Cigar News, the stuff everybody's whispering about, what we're going to say out loud. New drops, bold moves, and who's shaking things up in the industry.

Ooh. We cut through the fluff and give it to you straight. How it should be. We've been talking about this California law for the last couple of weeks.

We have. The Espinosa people met with their lawyer last week and we have some information from Jack Taranio. Do you want to call him from your phone? Am I connected?

I don't know. I will unconnect because I need to anyway because I keep getting a call. You're kind of a big deal. So they have spoke with their lawyer, yes.

Yeah, because this is a big deal. It is. Are you connected? I'm trying.

I have to unconnect. It says I'm not connected because you're connected. All right, try now. I'm not now.

Okay. Do you want me to push the button? Hold on. I'm connected.

You're connected. All right, let's try this again. Hello, Jack? Hello.

Hello, Jack. Jack Taranio. Yes, sir. Of Espinosa Cigars.

How are you, sir? I'm having a little deja vu right now. It's crazy. So it's weird.

It's like we've had this conversation before, but who knows? It is. Yes. So, hey, we were talking on the Patreon about the California law that's about to be passed, and we heard that you have, like, attorneys and you guys are really fancy, so we wanted you to go ahead and check in and tell us exactly what is going on in California against the cigar industry.

California is 100%. I don't think they want cigars there. So we are, uh, we're battling that new, what, what, what, what's it called? Listen to that, Ray.

You hear that? What the hell is always going on with you? That's Ray. Jackson in the bathroom.

It's on sound effects. Jackson in the bathroom. It's the California Unflavored Tobacco List, the UTL. Yeah, but the bill is bill whatever.

AB 119 or something like that. Oh, I got you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, A/B, whatever, and it calls for, it wasn't enough to ban flavored cigars, now there is a non-flavored tobacco list that you, if you want to sell cigars in California, you have to be on that list, and it defines premium cigars in a way that we all are fine with, except for one line. Más Quolesale for at least $12.

And if that's the case, then it eliminates 80-90% of cigars that are on shelves. Got it. Just El Cetimo. So we're trying to get clarity on what they consider a $12 wholesale.

Are they including those 54% tax that they have? They have, you know, even then, it would be hard for us to get to there. So it's three versus a skew that you want to sell the first year, 150 every year thereafter, and a box of cigars for their enjoyment, I don't know, for them to look over and approve. So it's a pricey, you know, listen, I don't know what the generals of the world, the alpadas of the world, and the fentes and those people are going to do, but I know that it's, you know, for boutiques, you're looking at, you know, depending on how much you want to register, you're looking for $5,000 to $20,000.

So, for three, so it's... In reality, there's not a lot of business in California. Right. Right, the juices and the worst of schools.

So there's a million options that we are looking at, I mean, I can't tell you what others are looking at, I know I've talked to a lot of other manufacturers and national sales directors to get kind of an idea of what they're doing, and they're still in the dark, they're still kind of trying to weed through the high grass here and figure shit out. Okay, so it's $300? That's where it stands right now, the 45-day window opened August 25th, and we're gonna wait until as close to the end as possible to decide what we're gonna do. And the worst thing about it is all the cigars that we have currently sitting on shelves in California, if we don't register them, they can't be sold.

They have to throw them away or hide them in a back room, I don't know. Wow, okay, so... Are you guys there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm trying to talk this whole time.

I've been here the whole time, Jack. I'm talking to myself? No, no, can you hear us? Hello?

Are we back at that? Hello? Oh my God. I can't hear you.

I think Jack's messing with us. I don't know if he can hear me, but I can't hear you. Why does this happen to him? Funny joke, Jack.

It's the storm. Another glitch on the show. All right, guys. I'll be back if you want.

We got the information. Okay, I'm gonna call him. This is what happens when you make phone calls in the bathroom. Maybe he needs a new phone.

He's not going to answer. Is that right? I tried speaking several times to you, and you just kept mowing me over. Can you hear me now?

Now I can hear you. I couldn't hear a thing. It's got to be your phone. " And then that's when it happened.

We heard every word you said. So just to quickly kind of surmise here, it's $300 per cigar. Oh, you're gone again. Just so you know, you're gone again.

You're gone again. Oh, my God. And it's not my phone, but you're gone again. I can't hear a thing.

Are you on the Wi-Fi? I don't know. So, my is without me, I guess. I don't know what to tell you, but...

I'll answer your questions, Michael. Go ahead. Are you on the Wi-Fi? Yes.

Take the Wi-Fi off. The Wi-Fi down here is horrible. Okay, so just to surmise, it's $300 per SKU, not per blend, right? Correct, correct.

And you have to send a box of cigars to somebody in California at random, doesn't matter who, just send it, right? Yeah, Tony. So earlier when we spoke earlier, remember I told you that about sending a picture and one cigar? Here's what I want you to do, Jake.

Here's what I want you to do. And act like we didn't talk before, that way it's kind of fresh. The magic is podcasting. Yeah, yeah.

So I have to send a box of cigars to the state of California? Is that correct? Okay, okay. So, some manufacturers are thinking they can get away with sending a picture of the box and a cigar.

Okay. A single cigar. I just got the entire email, you know, after a certain time today, let's say I received an email that spells out everything. And that is not allowed.

I mean, if you sell a 20 count box of cigars, it needs to be that box in the full glory of its packaging. So how many SKUs do you have? How many SKUs does Espinosa have? Probably 100, 100-something.

Okay, at 300 a pull, 30 grand. Oh, we're not coming anywhere near that. Yeah, but I'm just... Our idea was Robusto Toro of every size, and that's still going to cost us quite a bit.

Right, but just to sort of paint a picture, if you did want to do it, if you wanted to cover everything that you've already submitted into the state of California... 20 to 30 grand. 30 G's, plus a box, plus the boxes, per, right? Yeah, and 12 months later, 15,000 more to keep it on the shelf.

Right, and then you got to bless them again with another 15K. Well, and they have a registration fee, right? No, that is a registration fee. Oh, the 300 is a registration fee.

Okay. Stay with the call, Booth. Stay with us. Stay with us.

He's still distraught about the Dolphins of Miami. Let's not talk about that anymore. He's not happy right now. He really likes, he's a huge Mike McDaniels fan.

Has the Dolphins played already? Yeah, yeah, no, there was a game. They played or not. The guys are gone again.

They weren't aware. That is awesome. He can't hear us again. All right, Jack, don't let go, Jack.

I think McDaniels cut this call off, so, Coach McDaniels, thank you for ending this. We'll love you forever, Jack. We're not calling him again. How does it happen to him?

I have no idea. It only happens to him. He made me disconnect my Wi-Fi and fucking everything. Maybe Jack's got like cricket or something.

Matt Espinosa. He's got one of those old guy's phones? Yeah. Oh, the Obamacare ones.

It just has three buttons on it, a picture of a doctor, a picture of a police. And us. And us. And a picture of three idiots.

That's what's all it is for. All right, so I can take the headset back off. Well, we got most of the information we needed. We got all the information out of Jack.

We did. And obviously, they were thinking only Robusto and Toro was a little bit of the information, but they're not going to do the whole thing. Well, that's their plan of attack as of right now. Right, just make a smaller assortment.

But they're holding off. I mean, but the hard part with that is if you have retailers that have other brands, I don't understand even how you regulate that. Like, oh, wait, let me see, carry the one came in, oh, looks like this one's not under our yada yada. Well, they'll eventually have a list of all these cigars that have been cleared.

" Right. "Oh, wait, this is a Parejo. We don't have that size on this list. " Or he takes it and puts it in his trunk.

Or there's a fine. Well, is it legal to give free goods to the government? It does say in the article that I have that it's sent to the State Attorney General's office. Got it.

This is where you send all the cigars. And the money. This is so bad. I just don't understand the tribal mentality of anybody and people that commit to following a state's belief or political beliefs or anything without asking questions of, does this actually make sense?

And the problem here is that cigar smokers are probably 1% of the United States population. So, and of that, there's even a smaller number that are premium cigar smokers. So, when other people don't stand up and say, "Hey, you know what? This isn't right.

This isn't... " You start losing your rights. Right. Right.

I mean, and they obviously don't know what they're doing because it says a wholesale price of $12 or more. Right. Yeah, they don't have a clue. No, they have no idea.

Well, they should have said retail. That's probably what they meant, but they don't know the words. We're still at retail, I mean, there's still a lot of cigars you can get that don't cost $12. Yeah.

Well, yeah, well, you know, another thing is, have you, Mikey, or Palmer, have you guys been able to talk to any retailers in California on what they will do? I have. Do we have a majority? They don't know what to do.

Yeah, because there's no list, like you said, there's, Jack said, there's no grace period. I mean, it could be, at January 1st, if you're not on the list, you go in the trash, of stuff they've already bought. Yeah, it's insanity. Like, if you're a big retailer, like, Small Batch is one of our best customers, and I love those guys, man.

They're awesome. Yeah, they're great guys. You know, if, well, the bigger, you would have to, honestly, like, at that point, if you're a retailer, and you, and you sell a lot, you need to consider moving to another state. Yeah, that's what it is, like the big guys can do that, the small guys can't.

Yeah. No, the Uncle Earl Cigar Lounge people, no, they can't. So again, who gets crushed? The small guys.

Small business gets crushed with over-regulation. And there, I mean, there's no way for them to police it, but they're even saying, like, if we shipped somebody in California and it's not on the list, we could be fined. Right. But I mean, how are they going to know?

They're going to show up to somebody's house? Somebody could tell. Wait a second, how can the state of California... Right, I mean, you're not going to pay it.

Like, wait, wait, wait, no, you're a totally different state, it's called the United States, like, you can't, well, you're, I wasn't even there, like, good luck with that. No, but you shipped a product. That's, that's called a federal violation. Yeah, that's not a state.

Well, then, one state to another, you would need the federal government involved at that point, and they're not going to get involved. I don't, I'm just telling you what they're saying. Right. I mean, there's no, there's no way for them to go into the post office and go, we need all the boxes from Cigar Hustler that go all over California.

You would need warrants. Right, they can't do that. Yeah, you would need warrants. Are they going to show up at Mitchie's house?

Knock, knock, knock? Let's see your cigars. I just don't understand it. It doesn't make any sense to me.

It doesn't. Obviously, it's a ploy, right, to try to ban smoking. Try to be the first tobacco-free state. Well, they won't be tobacco-free.

This is outlying cigars. Well, after they get done cigars, I mean, they've already flavored cigars you can't do. I don't know what they are. What about cigarettes?

But you can smoke as much weed as you want. Yeah, you can smoke weed. Just make it make sense. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah, but what about cigarettes? Did they outlaw that in California? I have no idea. I'm not in the cigarette industry.

Have they outlawed Zen? I'm not in the cigarette industry. Zen's a pouch. But it's still tobacco product.

Yeah, but you don't smoke it, so it doesn't offend me if you're smoking it. It doesn't hurt my feelings. But you're saying that the law generalized tobacco products. Well, it could just be step one of our 10-step program to become tobacco-free.

They could easily outlaw the zen packs and stuff. Listen, if you're not a cigar smoker and you see that these regulations are happening, just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it should be removed. So, stand up for your rights. Yeah, how come the bigger companies of like cigar makers, brands, whatever you want to call them, like let's say STG, Swisher, like the bigger guys, right?

Yeah. How come they have not – well, I haven't seen any news about those guys like on Half Wheel or anything. Well, Joshua Hiburski is working on a PCA. Well, yeah, that's PCA.

I understand that because that's their job. Right. But, I mean, the bigger companies, like, why is there no news about them moving anything? They've got too many meetings, bro.

They're probably in a meeting for the meeting. They're in a meeting to figure out how they can do this. They're thinking we have until January. We still have plenty of time.

Well, I mean, Espinosa is not a super small company or anything. No, they're just medium-sized. So they're saying that it's just not worth it. They don't make enough money in California to do it, so maybe that's what the other companies are doing, too.

Well, like you said, think about General. How many cigars would they have they'd have to do? It's just ridiculous. Yeah.

Crazy. Okay. All right, moving on. Yep.

My father and Tatuaje's La Union Red Humidor are shipping in late September. After showing it off at the 2023 PCA Convention and Trade Show, it appears that the time has come for my father's cigars, And Tatuaje to release the La Union Red Humidor. What do you think, Michael? This is the second of the two-part releases as collaboration between the two companies.

While my father produces all of Tatuaje cigars for this project, Pete Johnson of Tatuaje blended two cigars for my father, while the Garcia family blended two cigars for Tatuaje. Your father blended cigars. The first two cigars were released in February 2024. In 2014, the company shipped the La Union Black Humidor.

While the Black Humidor and Red Humidor share many of these same details, the cigars inside are different. Do you know how they're different, Michael? Are you going to his chair when I dress it? Yeah.

Great. For the Red Humidor, Tatuaje Cigar, which has a covered foot, uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra seed wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and filler, Filler, while the My Father Blend uses a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper of undisclosed origin over a Niki Ragwan binder and filler. Man, he keeps saying it like that, you're gonna get locked out. Both cigars come in a 7 1/4 by 50 Vitola that uses a 109 style head.

Michael, what is a 109 style head? The 109 style head is like a Bellicoso, but it's a little more rounded. Ah, what is a 108 style head? Bless you.

What is a 108 style head? It's a totally different head. Ah. Yeah, it requires lube.

Ah. With the Vitola being referred to as a Prominent Especial, the Johnson Blended Cigar carries a secondary band that says "For My Father", while the Garcia Blended Cigar has a band that says "Para Tatuaje". "Para Tatuaje". Production is limited to 15,000 boxes which are described as humanors, with 300 of those boxes designated for non-US market.

Each box contains 20 of each cigar, as well as a Zykar Perfect XI-1 Cutter. The cigars were created by two pairs of rollers and bunchers who were limited to creating 250 cigars per day. Pricing is set at... How many cigars?

20. Thank you. Yes. You're incorrect, sir.

You weren't paying attention. It's two different types at 20. It's 40 cigars total. Contains 20 of each cigar.

So that's right. There's 40 total. Boom. Let's see.

20. Let's call it. So it's 40 total. Call it 25 a stick.

You mean 25 a stick? He's guessing. It's a special. Oh, okay.

It's a special cigar. Okay. I don't know. I don't know.

Maybe like a thousand bucks. What do you got? 800. 800.

800. He's terrible at this game. $2,400 per humidor. $2,400.

Never spoken that. American? American. I'd rather buy a humidor of 50s.

For the La Union Black Humidor release, which was released in February 2024, and is pictured above, not pictured above, Tatuaje created a Niki Raguan Puro with Corojo 99 wrapper, while my father created a cigar with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper atop a Niki Raguan binder and filler. $60 a cigar. Yeah, that's nuts. For Sumatra.

Oh. I don't have prices for that one. I assume it's the same. We had a distribution for that.

Is it my father or is it Tatuaje? Is it my father or is it Tatuaje? It doesn't say, but I would gather is probably my father. You think it's my father?

Yeah, well you, I hear they're in the same building, so... There'd be one person I'd probably know. Who's that? Pete Johnson.

No, Pete Hernandez. Pete Johnson? Well, I'm sure Pete Johnson would know too. Yeah.

Well, we, there's no way that Pete Johnson's gonna answer our phone call. Does Pete know we're calling again? Does he know we're calling again? No.

Probably not. No. This will be great, too, because he's completely unprepared. He's not unprepared.

Let's call Peter Hernandez of the twice the guys. Oh, excellent. We haven't spoken to him in forever. Yes, sir.

Peter Hernandez. Yes. Pete, you're on the podcast. Am I on the air?

Am I on the air? Yes. You're on the air. You're the third caller.

Say the phrase it pays. Oh, my God. The phrase it pays. Can I put on my pants?

Hey, so we're doing this, we're covering this article here, and we're talking about the La Réunion cigar. The red one. The red one. The one I don't do, the one I'm not selling.

Oh, you're not selling. I said to the fellas, I said, you know who probably know this? He said Pete Johnson. Pete Johnson, but then I said Pierre Ennis.

So you're not selling it. Do you know who's selling it? I'm not selling it. Yeah, the other guy.

His father is. Joaquin, yeah, his father. Yeah, his father. It's not Pete, his dad is.

Joaquin. Yeah, Joaquin, your guy. Gotta call Joaquin, maximum accessory. Although, I'm actually texting with Pete Johnson now.

Would you like me to ask him something? Yeah, ask him when is he coming up for our private-- What about they can do? Ask him when is he coming up for our private event, and we would like some La Reunion. Are you still on the air?

Yeah, you're still on the air. Uh-oh, we lost him. It's your phone. We lost him.

Hello? Pete, can you hear us Pete? Is he gone? Hello?

It's my phone. It's your phone. It's my phone. Oh.

Pete, over. What happened? You need a new phone. Oh, damn it.

All right, hang up. We got our answers. Yeah, well, we just want to know who sold it. Right.

Oh. Hmm. Well, suddenly Jack is off the hook. Ask him.

And ask him about our private event at the end of the year. " Hello? Hello? Why do you think that's happening?

I have no idea. I don't know. When we called earlier, we didn't know this problem. It's immunity.

It's immunity. Well, speaking of people that nobody wants to talk to, I have another story. Oh, yes, please tell. All Saints Announces Discontinuations and Reduced Prices.

Wow, dear God. All Saints Cigars has announced a major restructuring of its prices and products. First, the company has discontinued two of the six Vitolas that it offers, so they only have four left. The seven and 48 coach and the four and a half by 44 Vesper.

In a phone conversation, All Saints co-founder, Mickey Pegg, huge, told Cigars for Podcast that there is no remaining stock of either Vitola, And any of the company's lines, meaning whatever is currently at retailers is all the remains of those cigars. Man, I can't wait to hear this guy call us and then us drop his call. Second, yeah, let's call him and drop his call. Second, All Saints has standardized the available Vitolas among its Dedication, Dedication Habano, St.

Francis, and St. Francis, Colorado lines. Each of the four lines will now include the same four sizes. And finally, All Saints has lowered the price of those four Vitolas with an average price decrease of 14%.

The most significant reductions were on the Colorado and Habano Robustos, which saw the prices cut by 23%. Wow. Regardless of the blend, the new prices are, and then there's a list of them. He's got a Robusto, a Toro, the Huge.

While those are the passing tariff costs to consumers, we're taking a different approach, said Mickey Pegg in a press release. We believe premium cigars should remain accessible and we're willing to absorb these costs to maintain our value proposition our customers expect. He stated that the change took effect on September 1st and there is no change to the blends in East Line which are made at the Tabla Calera, Vila, Cuba, SA, and Esteli, Nicaragua. You know, the Colorado is a good cigar.

Yeah, it is. In the St. Francis. But this is all very interesting.

Yeah, so he decreased them not too long back, too. Right, this is his second time. All right. So there's two price decreases.

Mm-hmm, significant price decreases. This one's in with 23%, that's a big drop. Yeah. 23%.

Okay, so, I love Mickey Pegg, and I don't want to use him as a punching bag. No, I like Mickey. Well, yeah, we all like Mickey. But I do have some questions here, and something's just like, sometimes the math doesn't math, right?

Right. Okay, so, like, case in point, Postanya, like, we received an allocation and it had tariffs, but we still have product as well that we haven't sold entirely out of stock yet, right? So, we decided at that point that the tariffs would be absorbed on this go-round, and we would do our best to kind of keep prices stagnant. Right?

So… Across the board you're talking about? Yeah. So, did he get product in with the tariff? Because if he did, the cost went up.

I'm sure he did. No, I don't think, who's selling his stuff now? If he even wanted, who do you call? Mickey Peck.

Yeah, but he's not answering the phones and stuff. Well, no one's getting it. He's not out beating the, you know, he's not out on the street, allegedly. He's not out trying to sell the stuff.

So, I would imagine what he's got is in his warehouse or wherever he keeps it. His house. So he hasn't got anything new. I'm saying.

I'm assuming. Right. Okay. So that would explain why he doesn't have to raise his price for tariffs.

Right. So you're thinking, just on a recap, you're thinking that he just has product from a while back. No tariffs, Mikey. You're thinking.

Right. I'm thinking also no tariffs. Because it's not new product. I mean, you're thinking that it's...

I mean, he would have had to have gotten it in, in what, the last 30 days, if even that long? You're thinking that it's God's gift and he constantly sells out of it and he has to... No, I just think he's making bad business decisions. Okay.

I think that that may be. Okay, so, if we're assuming, with a two to three vote here ratio, that he hasn't received new product and he's reduced it twice, here's my, here's another case in point: I can't reduce the price of Postana. No. Because when I launched, or when, excuse me, when we launched Postsanya originally, we determined what a fair price would be for that price point.

Right. With the margin you needed to run the business. To be, with the margin for the business to be successful. Right.

Not Ferrari money. Certainly, no. Not jet money. Right.

Just sustainability, growth, reinvestment in the organization, all of that. Right. If I could never ever look back and say, you know what, we're going to reduce our price, because I know how much money I have into that cigar, and the margins are already low, and the cigar price is competitive, how pissed off would you be a retailer if you had this product, and then all of a sudden, boom, it was reduced, and then boom, it was reduced again? Well, if it is reduced, does that mean I have to reduce my prices?

Not necessarily. I guess not. Well, if Mikey releases a news release and saying he's decreasing prices, if people read that, right, let's say consumers, they're going to go, well, why the hell is it still the same price? They said that it was decreasing 24% or whatever it was.

Whatever it was. Because I paid the higher price. Does the average consumer check halfway alone? Some of them do, I think.

I think there are some, but I bring it up quite often because of our high reviews and stuff, except for that one cigar. " What is it? These are shop owners. These are industry people.

Well, we're talking like box buyers and people who follow these. Ginger, do you ever look at Half Wheel? Should we start invoicing Half Wheel for the promotion that we do for them? Yes, every time we say it, 20 bucks.

Well, then they're going to invoice us for all the news we steal from them. No, they're a news source. We're allowed to steal news from them. Oh, are we really?

We're not a news source. We honor the source. We are a news source, technically. And we honor the source where we got the source.

We are a news source. Well, we don't say according to Half-Wheel. Sometimes we do. I stopped doing it.

I got tired. No, you say according to Mike Palmer, and then you say Half-Wheel, and then you keep going. Yeah. Everybody knows at this point.

Okay, so... Coop's the only one that gets mad. So let's back up. Okay.

If you are a brand or a manufacturer and you have the ability to reduce your price and then to reduce your price again, it's safe to say that you charge way too much for your cigar off the jump. Yeah, just showing your hand, yeah. Right? Right.

And that's a terrible look. Sure. Not only that, but you're also pissing off all the guys that bought from you, all the retailers. The people that originally supported you.

Yeah. That still have your product. I have a theory. Tell me.

I think he is slowly trying to get out of the business. Yeah. Getting out by completely destroying the name? Yeah, but he's going to leave.

Who cares? He's liquidating. Just liquidate it. I cannot find a price where this stuff moves and I at least break even.

Here's a way to liquidate it. Or lose less money than I want to lose. That would make sense. Here's a way to liquidate it.

He could just sell all of his stuff to Cigar Page or any of those, Cigar Bid, any of those guys, right? Maybe he's tried. Yeah, maybe he's tried and hasn't. His brand does not have the cachet that it once did.

Or you could just take all the bands off and sell them to Brian Descent. That's more work. I'd make Brian Descent take the bands off. Okay, give him to him at a discount.

I'm out. Brian's going to want to pay $250 a stick. Okay, well, what does Mickey care? Well, because he's...

He's not going to sell him a $250 a stick. He's not at the $250 price yet. Yeah. And if he tells you this is what he's doing, then the shops aren't going to buy it.

Well, I don't want to buy a dying brand. Right. I'm not buying it. But, this is all theoretical.

This is all theoretical. I can get this at 23% off. Oh. Well, my question is, is the price decrease for retailers, or is the price decrease for his wholesale?

Well, this is wholesale. That's what I'm saying. I mean, if I own a shop, and I buy this at 23% off, and most people don't know they're just selling it at 23% off, I still sell it at full price, and then I make more money. Right.

Oh, yeah, I don't know, man. First of all, it's a bad business decision by putting out that high of a... I don't think this is a long term plan. I think this is, I gotta get out.

Yeah, but I think that you, I, but I still agree with you Boots. I think that it was a bad approach. If he wanted to clear it out, then he should have done like a discount. Yeah.

He should do it without the press release. If it was a 20%, if he wants to run a 20% discount, then he should have done like a buy five, get one. Yeah, like a holiday special or whatever. Hey, if you buy five of these, you're gonna get one free.

Right. You know, or if you want to make it a little bit deeper at that point. Buy five, get two. Right.

Something. Right. That would be smarter. And then I would have protected the integrity of the price point and, and he wouldn't have come out and made all these comments.

Right. So, but either way, man, we wish the best for Mickey. Yes. We want, we want him to, to do well.

So. Sign back up for the Patreon, Mickey. So I hope that, oh, that just took the one, just took the one Patreon where he didn't use it. You know, what's funny is that was Volta last year.

Because I had to call him during the vault and have a conversation. Oh, was that a year ago? Yeah. Yeah.

He's like, well, maybe you guys don't like me. I'm like, no, we actually do like you. But just because we like you doesn't mean we're not going to be honest about our opinions. Right.

If you want to come on and guest host the show, that would be crazy. That would be funny. That would be a good show. That would be crazy.

We'll take it at a 24% discount. We're going to get Pete Hernandez on here to co-host. Yes, we're going to get Pete. Yeah, but he couldn't hear you on the phone.

No. Because apparently, that's your phone. Yeah. Is there a mute button over there, boots hitting the mute button?

Oh, it's not working. Oh, it's so weird. Oh, it's not working. Uh-oh.

Hit the button. Hit the button. All right, Quesada's releasing the Oktoberfest 2025 Munich this month as a Canadian exclusive. Can't wait.

A Canadian exclusive? It's a Canadian cigar. You can't get it. Yeah, exactly.

That's why I can't wait. Later this month, Quesada will release the company's first Oktoberfest Vitola made exclusively for the Canadian market. Overfest, 2025 Munich is a 5x50 short perfecto made up of a Mexican San Andres wrapper covering a Dominican binder and Dominican fillers. This is the first time that the company has used this Fatola for the line, which is an annual limited edition release specifically blended to be paired with Marzan style beer.

What's Marzan style beer, Boots? It's German, Boots. Yeah. You know, like when you go over to the club.

When you go to the bar. Do they serve that there? Do they serve that at the bar? I don't know.

Okay. I like how he shuts down. Alright, so just so I have this correct. Yes.

German named cigar. Yes. Being released in Canada. Yes.

Where it has to be covered by bands anyways. Yes, you can't see it. Sold by a Dominican company. Correct.

Not only is it covered by bands, but it's got all the weird warning labels on it probably. That's what he means. Like the ears and the mouth and everything. Yeah.

May cause cancer. Yeah. They do that too? Yeah.

Jesus. A total of 3,000 cigars packaged in 10 count bundles are being released. Pricing varies by provinces as each one has its own tax structure. But in Ontario, the cigar is priced at Canadian dollars, anybody?

Canadian dollars. C-A-D, CAD dollars. I would say 18 Canadian. What did you say, Boots?

15. 1826. Boom! Or 1324.

Who the fuck smokes in Canada? 24 in Freedom Dollars. $13 in Freedom Price. $18.

Even in America, $13 for a Casada. Have you had a Casada? I have. Palmer, have you had a Casada?

I have had this actual cigar. Not the 25. You smoked this one? You've had the Munich?

No, no. I have had other versions of the Oktoberfest cigar. Were there hostages involved? No.

No, they were all released. It was fine. I just, I don't know, man. I've had one before.

I just don't like it. What did you think of it? It was so long ago, I don't remember. I believe, actually, Pete gave it to me, to be honest with you.

He used to be. He used to do this brand. " All the brands he no longer has. All the brands that are all gone.

We got HVC. and we got it oh and we got aladino tonight i was like oh my god he was three for three on that one and loving memory the brokers got it rough man i swear to god yeah oh so sad yeah there's a list here of all the different sizes that are available oh they have the uber six by 65 so they made so they made 300 bundles of 10 yeah four of the munich of the munich yes the five by 50 perfecto I mean, that's a good size. They made 5,000 cigars of each of these seven different Vitolas. Do you think they missed Terrence?

" It's a picture of him right inside. They've drawn horns on him, they've drawn a little mustache on his picture. Yeah, they make fun of him. From the employee of the month photos that he left.

You think that's what they draw on people on the photos? No, no, he used to be their sales manager. He's a manager. Oh.

He used to run Quesada. Oh. Or kind of, sort of, whatever. " Thanks for listening.

Okay, so yeah. German, Canadian, Dominican. We'll never see it again. Well, there's like nine different Vatolas available in the United States, but they're just that one.

Let's call on John McTavish to send us three. I don't, I don't think, I just don't understand why you would make a exclusive cigar for Canada. It makes no sense. When.

They're less cigar friendly than California. I mean, they should almost merge. We should give, we should either A, we should just give them California. Oh, that'd be great.

I think that's a better move. It's almost connected, dude. You just gotta go around. Yeah.

Wyoming, whether it's up there in the corner, whatever. Montana, I don't know what's in the corner. Washington. Is that Washington State?

Yeah, top left. Gotcha. I was so close. National sales manager, everybody.

Doesn't mean I have to know the map. What's that? All right, Blackworks, Tigersaurus, shipping next week. Blackworks?

Blackworks. Blackworks Studio says a bigger, bolder version of its Tiger is heading to stores next week. It's called Tigersaurus. Oh, man.

Five and a half by 48 Parejo that uses three different wrappers. Broadly from both Connecticut and the It's a good size. It's a good size. As well as a green Candela over an Ecuadorian binder and fillers from Nicaragua.

Each cigar is an MMSRP of... anybody? Anybody? Anybody?

Anybody? Okay, hold on, hold on. These are American dollars. 13.

No, no, no, it's gotta be higher. It's a big cigar. 14. I'm gonna say, you know what?

I'm gonna roll with 18. 18 seems to work. 19 dollars. Oh!

That's so close. Production is limited to 850 boxes of 15 cigars. Over the past decade, the Tiger series has helped define what black brands are. To help define what Blackworks Studios cigars are all about, says James Brown, godfather of soul.

James Brown. Yes, godfather of soul. No, the shoemaster. We call him the shoemaster.

Did you see his shoes? Yes, I saw his shoes. Creator of Black Label Trading Company and a press release. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary, we're introducing our first limited Tiger release.

The Tiger began as a factory-exclusive cigar in Nicaragua, and later became event-only Blackworks Studios, a sub-brand within the Black Label Trading Company. Oh. Portfolio, oftentimes showing off creative-looking cigars. In this case, the cigars have three wrappers.

The company says the cigars will begin shipping next week. In addition, they will be shown off at the Inter Tobac 2025 trade fair, which takes place September 18th to 20th in Dortmund, Germany. Just 50 boxes have been allocated for European markets. It looks like the Tiger Lily, but it is, I think it's like a Maduro wrapper.

Well, Connecticut Broadleaf and Pennsylvania Broadleaf are going to be darker. In an unrelated story, Pochic Cigars would like to announce the release of the Karol Bashkinasaurus, a similar cigar, but not the same thing. Not the same as the Karol Bashkin? No, it is an Ecuadorian Connecticut and a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapped in the same way.

Come on, shoot it, shoot it, let's go. You haven't worked out the story. It's just, it's all in the, you know, we're just now releasing the pressure. We're just formulating the details.

Yes, details to come later. Of a triple barber pole. We have to wait and see a good picture of the other one. Triple barber pole.

It's going to be Toro's size, though, slightly bigger. Yeah, slightly bigger. 6x52. Alec Bradley, black market filthy ghouligan, returns to stores.

Good job. Not a hooligan, but a ghouligan. Not a hooligan. The Alec and Bradley black market filthy ghouligan has returned to store shelves for an encore appearance.

Thank God they got one back. Because we still have some. We still have some? No, he's saying that's what they said.

That's what they said. That's why they're releasing it again, because they have some left. Oh. S.

grown broadleaf in Ecuador and Habano wrappers underneath as an Indonesian basuki binder and fillers from Nicaragua's Jalapa, Esteli, and Condega regions, as well as Dominican Piloto. That's good tobacco. The cigars are made at STG Donnelly in Honduras with production limited to 2,000 boxes, 24 cigars. Pricing set at how much for a ghouli again, gentlemen?

It doesn't matter because after they're all sold out, it's going to discontinue probably. That's why they're releasing them, because they got something like, "You got to get these out. " Mickey Pegg is now a verb. It's called lower your prices.

It's called lower your prices. Oh. Did you just peg that? Oh.

Did you just peg that one? That one got pegged? Yeah, I got pegged. I'm going to say $16.

Booty? 15. Oh, Booty wins, 1449! Plus tax!

Plus tax! Filthy Hooligan is our way of having a little fun with the season, but under the spooky brand and Halloween hype, it's still a seriously good cigar, said Mikey's friend Bradley Rubin. Bradley needs to make one, like, called the mustache or something. A brand ambassador for Alec Bradley via a press release.

With seven distinct tobaccos from five countries, it delivers layers of flavor and complexity that make it more than just a fun release. It's a really great cigar. The Filthy Hooligan debuted in 2024. It's the latest offshoot of the brand's Black Market line, which debuted in 2000, 2011.

20,000. The brand used the line to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in 2013 by releasing the Filthy Hooligan, a Candela wrapper cigar known for its green color. But now they put a ghost on it, and it's a Ghouligan.

And it's darker. And it's darker. Three years later, another version would be added, this time using three wrappers and called the Filthy Hooligan Shamrock. The cigar uses 300 wrappers, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Alex Bradley, straight by Ford Cigar Company, sorry. You know what's really interesting? Yes. Is the Tiger Lily was a lighter Connecticut with the barber pole, but it had three.

Yes. And the Filthy Hooligan was like a lighter with the Candela. Oh, everybody's going darker. And then the Tigerosaurus, or whatever the hell it is, is now the three again, but now dark.

And the Karole Bashkinosaurus. Yeah, that too. And then the Filthy Ghouligan is also the dark with the green. Somebody had a whole bunch.

So who's copying who is the question? Does the Ghouligan have, is it a triple purple? Double. Oh, so it's not exactly the same.

Not exactly the same. The Tigerosaurus is a triple. 20% different. Yeah, 20% different, they're fine.

Yeah. All right, and finally, Pure Aroma Cigars announces tariff-related price increase. Oh. What's the name of this company?

Pure Aroma Cigars. Pure Aroma? Yes. You don't know who they are?

No. Pure Aroma Cigars has announced a price increase due to the Trump administration's tariffs. We remain committed to delivering exceptional products and services, said Islaas Santana Diaz, president of Pure Aroma Cigars LLC, in a press release. While external factors have necessitated this price change, we have taken every step to minimize the impact of our loyal customers, on our loyal customers.

Diaz declined to discuss specifics of the increases, which other than to note that they're having one. So no specifics. We're raising the price. We're not telling you how much it is.

So just want to confirm that the price is going up? Yes. We don't know what the cigars are? No.

And it's going up? And we don't know why. It's not been pegged. It's the opposite.

It hasn't been pegged. No, it's the opposite. It's going up. It's going up.

Oh, Lord. I don't want to know what the opposite is. Price increase. Price increase.

No, I'm, never mind. He means the words. Yeah. He got excited with the pegged.

Nah. He heard pegged and he's woo, woo, ee. Oh, back to Germany. All right, folks.

You know what time it is. It's the cigar industry's favorite game. What's the score? The rules are simple.

The guesses are never boring. And the bragging rights last a week. Let's see who's got the chops and who's just blowing smoke. You know, you turn a decent color red that I can see when we start talking about Germany boots.

We're all red, it's the light of it. September 5th, 2025, this is a recent cigar, Charlie Monado Cigars, Niki Ragua reviews the Rojas Cigar, Rojas Street Taco, El Pastor Toro Grande. We smoked this one. I don't know if I smoked this one in particular.

I can't keep up with these guys. Charlie, Rojas. Charlie, Street Taco, El Grande, yada yada yada. What do you want, Boots?

That was it, that was the only description. That's how we start. That's the original thing you get. All right, I'll go first.

You find out who and what. I'll go first. 80. Okay.

Okay. I'm gonna go 88. My standard Charlie 88. All right.

Cigar Review, the Rojas Street Taco El Pastor Toro Grande. It's a Niki Raguan cigar from the Rojas Cigar Factory. Ecuador and Habando. Binders Mexican San Andreas.

Filler Dominican Republic in Nicaragua. Links six and a half by 56 is round. Original release was April 2025. The number of cigars smoked for the review, three.

Of course. Sometimes it's less, that's why I say. I have 80, I'd have nothing to go off of. 80.

It's a bigger gauge, 56. Yes. It's Charlie. Charlie.

86. He's angry. He's always angry. Alright, first clue.

Once I make my first puff, it's clear that the open draw has carried over. Despite a lot of smoke pouring out of the cigar, there's about half as much smoke in my mouth He can see the smoke in his mouth. Yes, smoke coming out the cigar, he can feel it fill his mouth, when he lets it out, half of it's gone. Where is this?

Where did it go? Where is the smoke? Wow. Well, thanks, Charlie, for that description, but I'm going to stick with 80.

80. Show it 80. I'll stick 86. Secondary flavors include leather, white pepper, and paprika, with isolated examples of pepperoni and creaminess.

While the third cigar tastes like a slightly aged version of this profile, the largest difference are the amounts of acidity and saltiness, which, both of which can get overwhelming. The first cigar sounded gross. The second one sounded okay. I was cool with the pepperoni flavor.

Creamy pepperoni. You're a paprika guy? No, no, no, no. The second one is creamy pepperoni.

He likes the sausage. German. The third one is just weird. So.

Score? Is he still at 80? I don't know. I'm going to stick at 80 for right now.

I mean, this guy, the description of the flavors, first of all, I don't know why he's tasting leather. What he's eating, I have no idea. Well, he didn't say if he likes it or if he doesn't like it. He just explained flavors.

And he mentioned enough of them, so I'm going to stick 86, I guess. The second half of the Roja Street Taco, Al Pastor Toro Grande, is getting a touch bitter. Though it also brings out more bread flavor including ciabatta and French crisp crust. Nothing like a taco.

French crisp crust. Yes, crisp French crust. Again, the amounts of acidity and saltiness play big roles in the impacting each individual puff, sometimes becoming overwhelming. I want to go to dinner with Charlie.

Why? You're going to eat leather and fucking... Yeah, I want to see what happens. You want to see the experience?

I want to see, I want to experience dinner with Charlie. Why? He's pulling all these flavors and everything out. He, you know, if he goes backwards and goes, this steak tastes like a Roja Street taco.

Oh, like he compares them to cigars? Yeah, he compares all the food to cigars. Oh man, yeah, taking them to a Golden Corral would be fucking epic. Or if he's going, this steak tastes like French crust of bread.

Did you hear the Puzo, oh yeah, taking them to a Golden Corral? I don't think Charlie eats a Golden Corral. It sounds like he does, this guy, what are you talking about? I don't think he does.

Alright, so that was the end of that? That was the end of that one. Does he like French cuisine? I don't know.

It's not mentioned. Let's go 82. Finally, the needle moves. He went to 82.

Yeah. He knows something. Maybe Charlie likes French bread. Just the crust, apparently.

He looks like he likes French bread. What does that mean? Nothing. Just saying.

He likes it. Yeah, I think he likes it. I'm going to stick 86. Alright, I don't know how much better the flavor of the Roja Street Taco Pastor Grande could be, but I do know the draw could have been better.

Because the draw impacts everything, I have little doubt that had I smoked three cigars with normal draws, the flavor would be different. I just don't know how much. Our largest issue with the flavor profile with the acidity, which occasionally got to be overwhelming, though never consistently affecting consecutive puffs. While I don't think putting the cigar in the humidor for a while will improve the draw, I do wonder if it might make some parts of the flavor profile calm down a bit.

Look for a Redux review sometime in 2026. So, he's saying that it doesn't have a lot of flavor because if it had a better draw, he could get more flavor. Yes. But he's saying if it sits in, oh, it wouldn't get any more flavor than what I already have.

But he's going to redo it in 2026. Unless he redoes everything. I don't know. I don't think he redoes everything.

I think he likes it, but he doesn't completely like it. So I think I'm going to go to 84. Michael. That's where I was going to go.

You can pick the same thing. Yeah, we can pick the same number. We went over that. It just doesn't make a winner.

Yeah, that's the problem. He wants to win. Well, more importantly, he doesn't want you to win. Right.

That is more important. All right, I'm going to say, sir, we need an answer. I'm going to go 84 then, because you're making me panic. You're both at 84.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Score is 85.

Oh! You both lose. No, we both got a half a point. You both lost, neither one of you got it right.

Yeah, that's the gamble. You're both the second losers. That's the gamble. Alright, the next cigar from 2016 is reviewed by Brian Burt.

It is the Alec Bradley Cigar Honduras Limited Edition Review Alec Bradley Black Market Filthy Hooligan. Discontinued. From 2016. Yeah, this one they don't make anymore.

Brian is our local half-wheel representative. Oh, okay. Vote for Brian. Okay.

Mr. Brian. Have we had one for Brian yet? I can't see him.

We have had one from Brian. I'm trying to mix it up a little bit. 88. 86.

Oh, nice. Sorry. Alec Bradley, Black Market Filthy Hooligan 2016. This cigar is from Honduras.

It is a Tabaco de Oriente. Rapper, Honduran Candela. Honduran Candela. Nicaraguan Jalapa.

Binders, Ecuadorian Sumatra. Fillers, Honduras, and Panama. It's a 6x50 Toro. Sounds like a horrific tasting cigar.

Original release date is February 10th, 2016. Number of cigars smoked is 3. Eighty, would you go eighty-six before? Eighty-seven.

Until you went down. Because it's going to go ninety, so I'm going to stick right next to you. Eighty-seven, what did he pick? He hasn't picked anything yet.

Oh, pick one. Eighty-eight. Eighty-seven, eighty-eight? Okay, first clue, for having a fairly complex profile in the cold draw, the cigar definitely starts out in the more reduced state.

The burn is mostly good, however, as I come to expect with the barber pole, cigars, it's obviously not the most perfect with the contrasting wrappers, sometimes fighting to stay even. Bad burn. Bad burn, but he expects the bad burn. 'Cause it's Barberpool.

Barberpool. 87. 88. Clue number two.

As the cigar shifts into the final third, the grass notes that has dominated so much seems to fade slightly, allowing spice, wood, and earth to shine a little brighter. While the pepper continues to stay mostly in the background, a retrohale brings the pepper forward significantly, while it also brings out some nice, nutty, grassy notes as well. It doesn't really change much. So, it tastes like grass, now it don't taste like grass.

A retrohale, now it tastes like grass. Grassy Grass. Too much grass, 86. I feel Brian is a good raider.

I feel he's going to rate this 84. So is that your vote? Yeah, I'm at 84. Next clue.

How do you think that makes him a good raider? Because I don't think this cigar is good. Okay. The second third continues to see the grassy note lead, with the vanilla fading slightly along with the pepper, which has slid towards the background again.

again. Spicewood and earth intermingle in the middle. Complimenting the grassy notes nicely. More grass.

More grass. Well, I think that it goes above 84, so I'm going to say 85. 84. Final thoughts.

I enjoy Candela wrapped cigars, but the filthy hooligan never really hit home for me. The blend change is a welcome one, giving us not only a new Candela wrapper, but an addition traditionally cured wrappers to give the cigar more depth than just a grassy blast of Candela. The mix works well, really giving the cigar a pleasant profile, with the bright grassy notes complemented by earthy pepper and wood. The only downside is the burn, that was less than ideal.

Though on the flip side, it's something I've come to expect with barber pole wrappers. While these are still looking like they're available at various stores, the bad news is, unless it's a local store, you'll have trouble getting them to you before tomorrow. Apparently this is right before St. Patrick's Day.

The good news is, though, these smokes just as good on days that aren't the 17th of March, so go grab them while they're available and have a mini celebration of St. Patrick's on whatever day you like. Alright, I'm completely confused on what just happened. does he like it does he not no one knows no one knows this is like a fucking willy wonka riddle like it is i don't like it doesn't burn right i'm going to put pressure on i'm blowing up like a balloon i'm gonna put pressure on boots and say 84 86 that's it that's it scores 87 Boots, I got news for you.

Good job on winning both of these. Congratulations. I appreciate it. I did both of these reviews earlier.

I wasn't going to pick the winning numbers. All right, Chef of the Weeks is the Escape Cigar Lounge in Leesburg, Florida. Well, I will be Saturday from 4:00 to 7:30. Okay.

Congratulations. Listener of the week, Matt Ty! How about that cigar? Matt Ty!

How about that cigar celebrating a anniversary? 300th episode. 300th episode. Congratulations, Matt Ty.

I like that. And Patrick Prater. And Patrick. And Patrick Prater.

Yes. That's not the guy that reviews the cigars, right? No. Okay.

No. Anybody got anything else? That's it. Make sure you like and subscribe.

Comment below for a chance to win a Postanya lighter. Wait, do that one more time. That's it. Make sure you like and subscribe.

- Subscribe, comment below to win a Powstanie a lighter. - Bing bong. - All right, guys, we gotta go, bye. - All right, thank you.

- Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, the show brought to you commercial-free. - But a massive shout-out to our amazing patrons on the Patreon. - Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to deliver unfiltered, unbiased opinions. All things cigars, personalities in the cigar world.

- Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. - Cheers to you. com and search the Cigar Hustler Podcast. That one up.

Show Notes

Ever feel like something strange happens to your body at 30,000 feet? We’ll dig into a phenomenon known as ‘jet belly’—and trust us, it’s not just in your head. Plus, Howard Stern had the media chasing its tail with a prank for the ages, NFL Week 1 brought fireworks right out of the gate, and in cigar news—California stirs the pot we ave the info from our Legal Reporter Jack Torano, new drops hit the shelves, and we close it out with the industry’s favorite game—What’s The Score?”