ACHP Episode 409 Mikey "Its My Show"

Episode Summary

Episode 409 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with Mike Szczepankewicz getting playfully roasted by co-host Mike Palmer over his guest appearance on The Cigar Authority in New Hampshire. Mikey walks through the trip — flying up for the day, taping the back half of the show with David Garofalo, and the long off-air conversation afterward. The real takeaway is a genuinely reflective segment: at 41, with 16 years in retail, 10 in wholesale and seven years of podcasting, Mikey found it reinvigorating to sit with a retailer 20-plus years further down the road running a nearly identical retail/distribution/own-brand model, and to have his path affirmed. There's also a lighthearted look at podcast mechanics, merch (the new blacked-out hoodies, the Gourds and Goblins shirt, Thanksgiving/Christmas design ideas) and a listener giveaway.

The non-cigar news block covers Paramount Global shutting down five MTV music channels in the UK and Europe by December 31, 2025 and what killed music television, a long riff on AI slop flooding TikTok and Instagram, and Publix confirming it will allow open carry in Florida stores while Winn-Dixie and Harveys (Southeastern Grocers) will not. A 60-second sports recap hits NFL Week 6, the Bucs game and Baker Mayfield's escapability, Chris Collinsworth's Mahomes worship, LeBron's "maybe" retirement, the ALCS/NLCS, and the Bad Bunny halftime debate.

Cigar news is dense: Weller by Cohiba 2025 arriving from General Cigar with a binder aged in Weller Antique 107 barrels (plus the sampler and $119 ashtray and other accessories), The Vow 11.25 from the Small Batch Cigar crew, Arturo Fuente's Don Carlos Sangre de Toro shipping with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, the Crowned Heads TAA Exclusive 2025 from Pichardo/Hatuey, Villiger Year of the Horse (Asia only), the Bentley Green GT 7x70 hitting the U.S., and Plasencia's new Short Smoke Collection (Reserva Original Corona Corta and Alma Fuerte Colorado Claro Robusto Corto).

The meatiest industry discussion is California: the Cigar Rights of America / Rocky Patel Premium Cigars v. Bonta emergency TRO being denied in federal court on Eleventh Amendment/filing grounds, then refiled in Superior Court and denied again, and why registration regimes like this crush boutique brands while big manufacturers can simply write the check. The guys also fall down a rabbit hole on the TAA — its mission statement, the 50-cents-per-cigar cut, the Casa de Campo "Dream Machine" buying event, and the organization's nonprofit IRS filings. The show closes with the cigar-rating guessing game on the Black Works Studio Tigerasaurus (final score 87) and the ACID Kuba Arte (82), plus Shop of the Week Tobacco Cove in Jacksonville.

In This Episode

1. 01
   The Cigar Authority Appearance Post-Mortem
   Palmer critiques Mikey's guest spot on The Cigar Authority, from lighting and wardrobe to all the "I and me's" that left the co-host and sound guy unmentioned.
2. 02
   Sitting Down With David Garofalo
   Mikey reflects on how similar his retail, wholesale and own-brand operation is to Garofalo's, and why hearing an honest 65-year-old retailer's story reaffirmed he's on the right path.
3. 03
   CHPod Swag, Giveaways and Holiday Shirt Ideas
   Blacked-out hoodies, the Gourds and Goblins Halloween shirt, a YouTube comment giveaway winner, and listener input on Thanksgiving and Christmas designs.
4. 04
   MTV Kills Its Music Channels + AI Video Fatigue
   Paramount Global is shuttering MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, MTV Live and Club MTV in the UK and Europe, sparking a talk on AI-generated fake videos flooding TikTok.
5. 05
   Publix Says Yes to Open Carry in Florida
   Publix will permit open carry in its Florida stores while Southeastern Grocers' Winn-Dixie and Harveys will not — and who exactly is supposed to enforce that.
6. 06
   60-Second Sports Recap
   NFL Week 6 upsets, the Bucs game and Baker Mayfield, LeBron's maybe-retirement ticket economics, ALCS/NLCS, and the Bad Bunny halftime show argument.
7. 07
   New Cigar Releases
   Weller by Cohiba 2025, The Vow 11.25, Don Carlos Sangre de Toro's first Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Crowned Heads TAA Exclusive 2025, Villiger Year of the Horse, Bentley Green GT and Plasencia's Short Smoke Collection.
8. 08
   California Lawsuit and the TAA Rabbit Hole
   Federal and state courts deny the industry's emergency TROs over California product registration, plus a look at TAA's mission, 50-cents-per-cigar cut and nonprofit filings.
9. 09
   The Cigar Rating Guessing Game
   Mikey and Palmer guess scores on the Black Works Studio Tigerasaurus (87) and the ACID Kuba Arte (82), the show's first infused cigar review.

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

Welcome to Mike Szczepankewicz's S. Cigar Hustler Podcast, Episode 409, starring Mike Szczepankewicz and his sound guy. Here we go. Oh, sound guy.

Yeah. Hi, Michael, this past weekend you were on the Cigar Authority. Indeed I was. You did a great job, except for some things I would like to go over with you.

Okay. We might as well just start with the appearance right off the top. The obvious. Do you want to talk about how we get swag or no?

Are you just going to go right into it? Oh, well, I have that after, but you can do it before if you'd like. Okay, go ahead. I just want to make sure it was covered.

All right. I just want to address the elephant in the room. Right, let's just get this out of the way right in the beginning. Oh, okay.

All right. There are a few key things that David mentioned. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. He mentioned that the show that keeps David up at night, you took credit for that, that was me. Okay. All right.

Inviting David to our booth at PCA, that was me. Okay. You actually said he wouldn't show up. Yeah.

Yeah. Probably right. Other than that, and all the "I and Me's" on the podcast, you did a good job. Okay, what "I and Me's"?

It was all "I and Me". "I and Me"? My podcast, I did this. Yeah?

You don't normally do it, so it was kind of on. Because I didn't feel like I was really talking about the podcast that much. Well, this only, I don't, none of the other, the brand stuff, the cigars, none of that, that's you. I mean, you are very nice and you include me normally when you're speaking, but I'm not picking at that.

I had a BDP shirt on under my sweatshirt. Well, it was under your sweatshirt, nobody saw it. I was going to show it. I was hoping he was wearing the Alcatraz sweatshirt.

Yeah, I mean, poor Boots, at least, at least he got mentioned though. Boots has an extra chromosome. He was my sound guy, so. Their sound guy is way more intelligent.

I'm just saying. Is he? Yeah. What does he talk about?

Cigars. Dominican cigars? No. He's just a Dominican guy.

He loves the Dominican cigars. Yeah, he talks about Dominican cigars. I don't know if our show comes off the same. I mean, first they have a great show, but when Ed would talk, it just, it always surprised me, They always surprise me because you can't see them, but that's just the way it works.

Right, well we got a guy that you can't see either. I know, that's what I was about to say. I imagine ours does that too, but I don't watch our shows anymore either. Well, I get to live ours for 48 hours.

Yes, I do hear the clips over and over as you're doing it. And like everybody else, I watch all the clips. Do you? I have to.

I have to look at them to approve them so I can share them. Oh, on the Cigar House Service page. You just approve them. Well, you hit the review button and it starts playing.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's not like they're long. I always watch them anyway. Sometimes I go back and re-watch them.

Do you? Because they're funny. Well, I have a great podcast. Yes, you do.

You do. You have a great podcast. You do. You know, it was...

Well, thank you so much for asking me about how the podcast was. Well, it's next. So, I mean, now you can tell us about the podcast. That was it?

You're done berating me? Well, yeah, that was the key thing. You did the back half, so you were on for an hour. Was the first guy on for an hour, too?

Because, I mean, I sort of fast-forwarded through him. I was on for an hour and a half. Okay, I was going to say, he was not a full hour. He was on for 30 minutes.

Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah. He was not interesting, obviously. He was interesting.

He's a Crown Heads broker. His name is Brett. He's a very nice guy. I've met him before.

Oh. They could light you up a little more. Yeah. That would be my only structural complaint on the show.

Yeah. There's no light in that corner. More lighting over there? Yeah.

Okay. You know, I'm sure that that's good critiquing. How was the flying? The flying was good.

The flight home was a little delayed, but the flight in general wasn't bad. It flew Delta, so, you know, you got to knock on wood, you don't have too many issues with Delta. I hear they're getting a lot of new flight attendants. Are they?

Yeah. They're getting new flight attendants. Yeah, they're hiring hundreds of them, it says. Are they aging out or something?

I don't know. Maybe they got more money. Who knows? I don't know.

That's what I said. Well, the ride home was a little rough, so there was no... Bad weather? snacks or whatever.

Yeah. How long a flight is it up there? Two hours? Uh, three?

Two and a half, three? Three. Yeah, something like that. Two movies.

There and back in a single day. See a lot of fall colors? Saw some fall colors. New Hampshire's very pretty.

Yeah. Yeah. Dave's a great guy man you know when he came over at PCA and we had a brief conversation and I started kind of rattling all the all of my accomplishments by myself of course you know you're such a great man yeah thank you well accomplished thank you for noticing so many things you do on your own so it's all so amazing you have enough time in the day yeah I don't really you know it's crazy it was I'm not, I'm just not feeding into his bullshit. I don't know what else you want me to say.

Like, I always praise him. I always talk about him. I always talk about this other dum-dum over here too. All the time.

Except this time. And the one time that I don't talk about him. This is probably the biggest show you've been on. They're worldwide and they're on the military network thing.

Yeah. All the AFL? Yeah. They're on the, yeah.

Well, like, aside from this show that I'm on every week. This show? We're not as big a show as them. I mean, we're the number one show on Podbean, obviously.

We're number one, he's number two. But apparently, now they're after us. Look at you just kind of walking everything down today. What am I walking down?

Like, oh, this is how we do things, we're the best. I mean... I didn't say we weren't the best. I mean, we are the best.

I said it was the biggest show. Well, obviously, I didn't mean our show. I know you're on our show. When are you moving to New Hampshire?

They don't even know I exist, apparently. Yeah, they know you exist. Ted Santa Maria, he's my friend, but he wasn't on the show. Was he there?

Did you see him? I did not see him. Is the studio somehow connected to the shop or a completely different location? Yeah, it's upstairs.

Like, ours is downstairs, theirs is upstairs. I have a question. Did you ask, um, what is his name? David Garofalo, right?

Yeah. Yes. Did you ask David how many t-shirts he sold? No.

No, yeah. He doesn't sell t-shirts, he has ad space. Exactly. Mm.

He sells ad space. Yep, not big enough to sell t-shirts. He was rethinking if he would have done it our way instead of the way he did it. Yeah, and I wanted to elaborate on that, but I just never got the opportunity.

I mean, I think the way that we're doing it is definitely different. Certainly. And it's, I think it's harder on a lot of aspects. Oh, sure it is.

Very similar shows, as far as structure. That is the first time I've watched a substantial chunk of their show. Yeah. Yeah.

There's more planning. I used to listen to it when I cut the grass. Right. But it's much different to watch.

Yeah. Well, I mean, dude, I don't know. I don't know what else to say other than it was awesome. It was, it was just a, it was like surreal.

I mean, you know, you're, you're talking to a guy, a retailer that's been in the industry for a long time. And our stories are very similar in a lot of fashion, you know. You know, retail operation, distribution operation, selling our own product to other retailers, you know, similar mentalities, you know, he's lighting a cigar. I look like someone was on fire out of the corner of my eye because the flames come up above the… It's a delicious cigar.

Similar mentalities. Red Anchor? No, it's not Dominican. It's the AWS.

Sorry, please continue. By Roma. Um, he's just, you know, 20 years, 30 years my senior, you know, uh, so I think like the, the, the fascinating part for me is like, I look at things and I'm, you know, I'm 40, 41 years old. I'm like, damn, you know, I'm 41.

Like, where does, where's the payoff? Like, where does it, where is it? Like, okay, you know, you've kind of arrived. We're doing obviously 61.

- You've been, he's 65. - 65. - You've been doing, I've been doing retail for 16 years, wholesale for 10, this podcast by myself for seven. - Right.

- Yeah, just me, only me. - Quite the undertaking, all by yourself. - Um, and you know, when, you know, you hit that 40 mark and you're just like, this has been a lot, right? And then you talk to a guy at 65.

- What age did he start? - You know, I didn't ask that, but it's been... He said he's been in for about 30 years. Yeah, he's...

Oh, did you say 30? Yeah, I believe that maybe... So you're halfway there? He's been doing the podcast for 16 years.

Halfway there? You're halfway there on everything? Yeah. Yeah, so, you know...

Right. So you didn't ask him where the line was, where the payoff line was? No, but you know what, it was... " It was...

I was so appreciative of how open and honest he is, as a retailer, because, you know, it's nice when the bullshit's Mike's one of the bullshits kept to a minimum, right, and he was, he was completely honest with everything, and I'm like, damn, that's exactly how we are, you know. He said he was number two. You are, so you are. No, myself and my brother.

Oh, gotcha. Oh, David has a brother, too? He did. He does, actually.

Oh, wow, you guys really are alike. He did, Michael did mention he had a brother. Is his brother flying around the United States, too? No, his brother passed away.

Oh, sorry. Yeah, bad jokes. Man, what a... This is why their sound guy...

What a downer. This is why their sound guy's way better, just for the record. So tell us about those shirts, Michael. Does Skip have a direct line to Ed?

But his brother used to... Because everything Skip said, Ed repeats. Dude, I gotta tell... Yeah, well, he's handling the board.

Right, so... I know, but was Skip calling him on the phone and doesn't say this now? He's commenting on the... On Facebook.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, he was commenting on the Facebook thread. Gotcha. So, so anyways, as I was saying, like, you know, it was, it's really cool to sit down and talk with a guy who's, you know, 15 years further down the road than I am, at least, right?

Right. The other half. Right. And, you know, just to kind of, it's reinvigorating.

It's like, okay, I can. Right, I'm in the right, I'm on the right path. Yeah, because not only do I feel like I'm on the right path, I got that reaffirmed, it's like, yay man, you're doing everything right. You're like, just keep going.

So that was awesome for me. What? There is the light at the tunnel, at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, you know, that was huge.

I'm like, when I walked out of that store, I was like, that was fucking awesome. You know, it was a great feeling. Nice. And, you know, and as we know, that doesn't happen in every retail store.

You leave and you're like, okay, just got my teeth kicked in. Right. You know, that was amazing. What a, you know, remarkable feeling.

And every day he's still working on making his business better. And, you know, he's got a grandkid now. He's focused. He wants to do that.

He wants to spend more time with him. Yeah, it was, I thought it was awesome. I thought it was, it was every bit of worth going up there for the day, doing the podcast, hanging out with him. I wish I could have stayed longer, you know, and...

Did you have to leave right after the show? Uh, I got, I, I pushed it a little bit. No, we, we sat and talked afterwards. Um, talked to industry stories and, and, you know, some of his stories from the past, um, it's like crazy.

It's, it's kind of like, uh, There was a, I remember back in the day, I listened to a Howard Stern show, and Joe Walsh was on. You know who Joe Walsh is? I recognize the name, but I couldn't tell you who it was. The Eagles?

Oh, it's a sports guy, and I have no idea. No, no, it's a band. You're talking about a band. Oh, the Eagles, the band.

Yeah. Okay, then I do know who Joe Walsh is. " So like, when you hear stories about the people in the past, and how they kind of came to be, and all these things, like, it's so incredible. It's so incredible.

And I will never, I won't tell the stories, because they're not mine to tell. Certainly. And, but wow, it was, it was just so cool, because, again, he was so open and honest about everything. And I'm like, damn, why, I wish every retailer was just like this guy.

You know? And it, and the staff was awesome. Mr. Jonathan, they feed off each other so well.

And they know when someone else is waning or whatever, like when someone has to pick something up and kind of carry, there's a, there's a synchrony there. There's a synergy there that's pretty impressive. Only you had somebody like that that did the show with you. It'd be amazing.

I don't know. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Maybe one day I'll get somebody that will feed off of my things and vice versa and understand where they need to say a little less and not necessarily a little more and double down on certain things.

things. Yeah, you're right. Who knows? Maybe one day.

Maybe one day. I'll get there. Well, until then, you got us. Yeah.

Yeah. So, but, you know, shout out to David Garofalo, Cigar Authority. Did you get to eat with him? Did you break bread?

No, I didn't have time, unfortunately. Sounds like a great trip, though. Did you get the firecrackers? No, I did not.

He did mention firecrackers on the show, though. Are we calling him? Is that him? I'm podcasting again.

What the fuck? We would all like chicken noodle soup, real quick. 11 o'clock. Yes, I checked.

I love you. Okay. Okay, love you. Man, Palmer just striking out today, huh?

I'm sorry. Well, she called the Patreon to say she was getting chicken noodle soup. Well, no chicken noodle soup. Apparently, no chicken noodle soup.

You're not really part of the show. It's a really rough day for me. I really could use a partner that feeds off of me. I mean, my goodness.

So, how about that swag? Yeah, how do you get some of your CHPod swag? You know what? Thanks so much for asking.

First of all, let me start by saying, um, let me say something. I need to pick a winner. You're really one of the chicken doodle soups. I need to pick a winner from last week, so make sure you like and subscribe on YouTube.

Oh, somebody asked me if they won, and I said, I don't know. And if you comment below, I messaged, the last person messaged me, but let's see, let's see if we can pick a winner from last week's. You guys keep doing this like, subscribe, and comment. You guys never know, Mikey likes to give away a lot of things right now.

Yeah. It's a fa-la-la-la-la season. One, two, three, four, oh, I got five comments. Five?

I got five comments, so pick a number one through five. Four. One, two, three. We know this guy.

It's BW Racing 15B. Oh. com and we'll square you away. Nice.

Congratulations. Lucky. Also, shout out to one of our day ones, Miguel Rocha. Oh.

My guy. Miguel. First blacked out sweatshirt hoodie sold. Oh.

Yep. He was our first customer for that. So thank you very much, Miguel. We appreciate you.

Scott Bloom and Alejandro Acosta. What was his last name? Acosta. Acosta.

Yeah. And for the guys that I don't appreciate and don't show enough hard work and effort for, Greg? Did you get Greg something? Oh, now the tone has changed.

I went ahead and brought you guys your own blacked-out hoodies, because, you know, I suck as a person, apparently. No, I didn't say that. Palmer said that. You got mentioned.

Yeah, I'm just the sound guy. You're the sound guy. You're special, too, by the way. I got news for you, you're barely a sound guy.

Oh! I don't know where the sizes are. You're right. I'm an apparel guy.

You're an apparel guy. Oh, you just dropped something. I dropped my cutter and my lighter. I don't know.

Why can't I see the sizes on this? Well, hold them up. Which one's bigger? Give it to him.

Let's see. This one looks smaller. It looks extra large-y. You gonna throw it over my head?

There you go. Right on the microphone. There we go. Oh, God.

I think this one's yours. So, hey, check out, look at this. Boom. Boom.

That looks nice. Can you see that well? Yep. Perfect.

All right. This is 100% polyester. This isn't some cheap stuff, man. This is high-quality sweatshirts.

All our t-shirts are high-quality as well. We don't cut any corners. Just put it on the table. I want to throw it at him.

He caught it. See that? See how that works? You hit my microphone.

He caught it. The other show, you throw it behind me. So, if you would like to participate in some of our fine apparel, jump on to CHC. com.

Oh, this is nice. It's tri-dry? Yeah. Oh.

100% polyester. Paul, we got a switch. You got the extra light? I got the wrong size.

I thought that one looked smaller. Nah. All right. Yours is over here on the floor.

All right. Perfect. Yeah. Okay.

All right. You ready to go? I think so. What shirt are we on right now besides the sweatshirt?

We're on the Goblins one still? Gordles and Goblins still available. We sold a couple of those. Nice.

Last week as well. So there's a few left, and once Halloween is gone, they're gone. Oh, we're on to the Thanksgiving one. Buy one shirt, get the SAG one 40% off.

Are we doing a Thanksgiving shirt, or are we moving right into Christmas? Should we do a Thanksgiving? I don't know. I mean, did the Halloween one, is it done well?

Yeah, it's doing well. Thanksgiving, I guess, what would we do, a turkey? You know what I would like to do, and I want to hear comments, and this is a good thing to comment about below if you want, and then you get entered to win something. I was thinking about the BDP that I have, and then taking you and then putting you in like a turkey outfit.

I think we had one of those. And then maybe taking you and putting you in a Santa outfit, possibly for the next year. But hey, if you guys have suggestions, please include them in the comment below. Why don't we put you in a Santa suit?

Nah, I'm good. No, you don't get enough attention on this about being a part of Cigar Houses Podcast, apparently. So I want to make sure that you shine. So here I am devoting my time and energy, creating imagery about you.

All you have to do is complain and then you get all this stuff. No, that's not true. I've been doing this from day one. Yes.

I just didn't mention you on one podcast. The biggest one you've been on. And so what? So what?

Next time I'll be like, you know what? First of all, I'd like to start off by saying Mike Palmer is Cigar Houses podcast. No, no, I'm not is. I'm part of the team at least though.

No, you're the very fabric. I could be the, you could have just said the co-host. I mean, that'd be like the sound guy. Oh.

I have a co-host. And I have a sound guy. So that would have been the same levels. I wouldn't, dude, it's not that I would purposely went out of my way to talk about how great I was.

It was like, just never found an appropriate place to plug Palmer. I mean, I had you, I had my shirt on under you. I was in your heart, I understand. I, I, cause I purposely was going to show it.

But you decided not to. It just never happened. Right, I understand. It was awkward.

It just didn't work out that way. Certainly. Right, it was awkward, I understand. Maybe the Christmas one could be all three of us.

This is the shit I gotta deal with. Oh, Santa and two elves. You're Santa. I was just about to ask who Santa was gonna be.

Well, I have the white hair and the white beard, so I mean. Well, yeah, technically, yeah, you could be Santa. One of you guys could be the Grinch, one of you could be Frosty the Snowman. I'll make you a reindeer.

I think Santa and the elves. I don't know. Comment below. I want to hear your thoughts.

If we decide to pick something that somebody else went with other than what we just went with, I'll send you a shirt on us. Oh, bang. Wow. Okay.

'Tis the season. 'Tis the season. Well, it's almost a season. At Walmart, it's definitely a season.

Alright, ready to go? Yep. Alright, this week on the Cigar Oster Podcast, the day the music died, MTV is pulling the plug on its legendary music channels. After four decades, it's the end of an era.

Florida Public says yes to Open Carry Sports. Says yes to Open Carry. Sports went wild this weekend, and the cigar world's buzzing with big drops, legal battles, and TAA news. All that and more in episode 409 starts now.

Bing bong. He is so dug from. By the way, the guy who won last week, his email says, Hello, People. Yes.

Oh, does it? Yeah. See, they're catching on. That shows that he's been a listener for a long time.

Right. All right. The day the music died, MTV is shutting down its music channels after four decades. The network that gave us VJ's music videos and cultural revolution is quietly fading to black in part of the world.

This is sad. There was a time when three letters defined cool MTV. MTV, if you grew up anywhere between the neon 80s and the streaming 2000s, MTV wasn't just television. It was a lifestyle.

It gave us Madonna before social media, Nirvana before YouTube, and Beyonce before Instagram. It shaped music, fashion, and the very idea of youth culture. Now, after more than 40 years of rewiring global pop culture, MTV is beginning to power down some of its most iconic music channels around the world. And for millions of fans, it feels like saying goodbye to an old friend.

Yeah. MTV's parent company, Paramount Global, plans to shut down five MTV-branded music channels in the UK and parts of Europe by December 31st, 2025. The affected channels include MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, MTV Live, and Club MTV. I didn't even know they had all these different channels.

Yeah, they have a lot. Is music television still happening? Yeah, they still have MTV. They still have the MTV Awards.

They have all this stuff. You're going to still have the awards that's not going away. That's mentioned in here. But what channel is there where there's just music?

Are they still making videos? Do people still make them? No, they do have that, but you have to buy, like, the extra package, which nobody buys anymore. Right.

Right, so. I mean, if I wanted to watch an actual music video, which I don't, I would just go on YouTube. Right. Well, that's half the problem.

That's half the problem. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, you can see the videos there now, too. We've evolved. Yeah, you have way too many sources.

Yeah, so, I mean, go ahead. Go ahead. Paramount has not confirmed a full global closure, but industry trackers like Nick Alive report the similar wind-downs are planned in selected markets including Slovakia and other European regions. The truth is simply the internet became the new MTV with YouTube, TikTok, social media giving instant access to music videos, fans stopped waiting for scheduled programming.

MTV shifted towards reality shows and celebrity content and while those shows kept the brand alive, they also changed its DNA. As a result, the once 24-hour music network slowly evolved into a broader entertainment brand. Its regional spinoffs like MTV 80s and MTV Live carried the last torch for old-school video programming. Their closure marks the end of that era in several markets.

MTV isn't disappearing entirely. S. and stream on Paramount, but the global age of music television, the one where you waited by the screen for a premiere, argued over countdowns and fell in love with a band because of a video, a video is officially behind us yeah i mean that's just like anything things evolve over time yeah and uh it's done right you know you know i think another thing that's actually going to happen here relatively quickly is if the if instagram and these social media platforms don't get some of this ai video under control they're gonna lose viewers yeah i was watching uh i watched one set I saw a lot of videos on TikTok and it was dogs saving babies from bears, apparently, or something. Right.

The way TikTok works, when you watch it, then they show you more. Right. All of a sudden, it's the same baby, the same lady. Right.

Different dogs, different bears, throwing a cat. Now the bear's a cougar, but it's the same thing. Yeah. Yeah, and a couple of them, they messed up, and the guy was kicking at the bear, but the bear wasn't there.

So I'm like, "Son of a bitch, they got me. " Right. It's just a matter of time, though, before you're tired of seeing that. Right.

Exactly. So, it either has to get, you know, filtered out of the feed quickly or it has to be kind of banned, I would assume. Now, on Instagram, I think it's Instagram, if you do AI, you have to click the box that this is AI. Yeah.

But on TikTok, I don't think you have to. I want an option for me to opt out of any AI video. Yes. Yeah.

That's the only way that I think that they can sustain because eventually, I don't want, like it's funny right now, but similar things happen to me, right? Where I'm like, oh, that's pretty funny, and then someone's like, yeah, that's, yeah, I was like, oh, well, this sucks. I've been duped! Right, I was so excited, these dogs saved these babies from bears.

I saw an eagle swoop in and try and take a baby away, and then the dog saved it. Oh, now see, I saw that, but it was a cat. Oh. They switched the cat and the baby.

So it's like, hmm, this is ridiculous. Then I saw a leopard attack a person, and the dog save him. Yep, yep, that's fake. We want the real raw shit.

Yeah, I need authentic stuff. Yeah. Do you see the one where the eagle grabbed the baby lion and then the mama lion takes two steps and jumps up, grabs the lion from the eagle, takes the eagle down, and then the next shot is the mama lion walking around with the eagle in its mouth. Really?

Like, that's fake, though. No way that thing jumped that high. It's like this sore thing launched and then it went nuts, like the past week has been insane. Yeah, yeah, it's just recently you get all sorts of stuff.

But I'm already fed up with it. I'm like, okay. Yeah, I don't know, that's enough. Yeah, TikTok's leading, almost everything's AI now, it's really getting...

I do like the videos of the AI babies. Like, when they come out and they say stuff like... Oh, they talk, like, yeah, you don't mess with grandma, that type of stuff? Yeah, I do like those.

Yeah, those are cute, for now. Yeah, those aren't, but you know what, those aren't trying to dupe somebody. Right, right. Right, you know that it's not real.

Right, you know that a baby doesn't talk. Right. Right. Doesn't wear a big gold chain.

You know it's fake AI stuff. Right. Doesn't have a beard. Right, when you see this like faded camera stuff, or it looks like it's a ring camera or whatever, and something's happening at a front door or something, and it could be real, couldn't be real, and then you start, you look at it over two or three times and you're like, oh no, this is not real.

Those things gotta go away. I'm already, I'm already tired of them. Yeah, I saw one. It had, like, Barack Obama.

Oh, no, I was on SNL the other night. Did you guys ever watch a segment of SNL with, oh, what's the black guy's name? They do the news. Michael Che or something like that.

Yeah, Michael Che. Well, they did one, and the white guy was in the background of, like, Epstein and Donald Trump. Wow. It was a crazy AI video that they did, but I was like, wow, that looks real.

Right. I like the segment where they make each other read stuff. Yes, that's the part I'm talking about. Okay.

It was one of those, it was like a thing where he was like, and I was involved in, because Michael Che wrote it for him. He's like, oh wait, hold on a second. Those are funny. Chet and I did it a couple of times on our podcast.

Oh yeah? It's a lot of fun. All right, you know what's real though? Public supermarkets confirmed Wednesday the grocery chain now allows shoppers to open carry firearms And it's Florida stores.

Yes, because it's a problem. You can open carry at Publix. What's a problem? At Publix, it's a problem.

You got to carry in that place. What you need to know, open carry is now legal in the state of Florida following a court decision to strike down a ban in September. Public supermarkets confirmed the business plans to allow open carry in stores across the state. Heard on the news, some store that two guys with rifles were walking through the store shop.

Oh my God. Other businesses like the parent company, Winn-Dixie Stores in Florida, plan to ban open carry. They cannot carry a Winn-Dixie. Okay.

Their clientele is a little rougher, we don't want them with guns. Oh, we don't want to arm the Winn-Dixie? Oh, yeah. We don't want the Winn-Dixie people carrying.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Oh, man.

Stores are in a little tougher neighborhoods. Do you imagine? Do you have more of that article or no? Yeah, yeah.

As of September 25th, 2025, Florida law allows open carry of firearms. Public follows all federal, state, and local laws. Media Relations Manager Hannah Herring said in a statement emailed to Spectrum News, Spectrum News, treating customers with dignity and respect is a founding belief in publics. In any instance where a customer creates a threatening, erratic, or dangerous shopping experience, whether they are open carrying firearm or not, we will engage local law enforcement to protect our customers and associates.

Confirmation came amidst reports that the Sun Sentinel and employees in several stores across South Florida were allowing open carry in the store. In comparison, other grocery chains in the state will not permit open carry in their store. Southern Grocers, a company that owns Winn-Dixie and Harvey Stores in Florida, said that the business plan to forbid open carry in its stores, our priority is creating a safe and welcoming shopping experience for all customers and associates. As a private business, our policy remains unchanged.

We do not permit open carry of firearms inside our stores. We respectfully ask customers to secure your firearms safely before entering, and we appreciate the continued cooperation and help us maintain an environment where everyone feels comfortable and safe. Okay. Do you have a problem with open carry in Publix?

I don't have a problem with open carry anywhere, but I think open carrying in a grocery store is just silly. You think it's a bit excessive? Yeah. But you don't have a problem with it?

I don't have a problem with it. I just think it's silly. Okay. Like, how long are you in there for, first of all?

I don't know. What happens if something pops off in the dairy side? I don't know. 30 to 45 minutes if you're doing a weekly...

I mean, well, but you can, you'll conceal carry in Publix, I would assume. I mean, yeah, sure, but again, like, okay, is Publix really that type of situation where you're like, man, I really feel threatened in this place and I need to bring a firearm just in case? There was two shootings, I think, this weekend. At a Publix?

No, no, one was at a restaurant and one was somewhere else, but I mean, it's still- There's a shooting every second. That's what I mean, it's happening more often, so why wouldn't it happen in a Publix? You think it's happening more often? I think it's happening just as much as it's always happening.

Okay, well, maybe they're just talking about it more. I think that's exactly what the media does, is that they purposely talk about, you know, a hot topic. So I don't understand why it wouldn't happen in a Publix. I just, I feel like there's a different type of person that goes in Publix, and I don't think you really need that there.

So, okay, okay. But that's not what we're talking about here. Right. " In Publix.

In Publix. I said no. okay do you have a problem with somebody opening carrying open carrying publics nope okay all right do you no no i mean i think that you're putting yourself as at a disadvantage if you're carrying open carry right it doesn't make sense to me but you're right if you want to do it do it right sure whatever um now let me ask you this do you think that the manager at winn dixie is going to approach the guy with the open carry firearm and say, sir, I'm going to need you to put that away or you're going to have to leave the store. No.

No, he's going to make somebody else do it. Yeah, the assistant manager. They're not doing it. The guy in charge of the produce.

I'm willing to bet that they're not doing it. There's no way. We have that new cashier, right? Send Gary over there.

Yeah, I'm not going to. Make Gary go do it. Nobody likes him. That guy's just getting his eggs.

He's getting out of here. I'm not, you know. Like, the law states that, hey, open carry is fine. Grocery store, if you want to carry, like, I don't understand the hard line of no, I don't see, it's not like somebody's getting boozed up there or something like that, like, whatever, you know, maybe they want to, maybe they carry everywhere they go, you know, it's like… Right, that's just it.

I mean, I already have it on me. Now I got to take it off because I got to go buy some milk? Yeah, it was already passed open carry in Florida. Right.

So why are we getting specific? Because if you're a private business, you can say whether or not people are allowed to. Yeah, you have the right to say no. Like, you know, and I'm for that right.

I'm for the right of you saying, hey, yes or no. That's fine. Everybody should have a choice, yeah. You can make this announcement, hey, when Dixie says no.

Right. I just want to know who the guy is that's going to enforce it. Right. Yeah.

Because I don't know if that guy's there. It's Gary. You better have a security guard on premises or something. Winn-Dixie's might already have a security guard.

Well, they do have lost prevention. They usually have bad lighting, I can tell you that much. They're not very clean, allegedly. Allegedly.

Allegedly. A little rougher store, allegedly. It's wild, man. It's a wild west when you go shopping for groceries now, apparently in Florida.

You know what's really bad is when I got stationed in Virginia, you know what their store of choice is? What's that? Piggly Wiggly. Foodline.

Oh, okay. That's the name of the grocery store? Yeah. You've never heard of Foodline?

No. He lived in Boston, Florida. He wouldn't have come across from Foodline. Well, they used to be in Florida, but they were like the Save-A-Lots.

Okay. Of Florida. Oh, which they still have Save-A-Lots. Yeah, well, Save-A-Lots survived.

I don't know what happened to Foodline. It completely vanished. The Save-A-Lot bought them. Maybe.

Please continue with your story. I don't know where you're going. Well, I was just saying, it was a crazy, you were talking about Winn-Dixie is the, not a good store. So you're saying Food Line is a comparable to Winn-Dixie?

Well, to me, it's worse than Winn-Dixie here. I think it would be worse. But in Virginia, it was like, they're Publix. It's always nice.

No. I hope Brett's watching this podcast. Yeah, Brett Fry will call you, he'll tell you. He'll confirm?

Yeah. Confirm or deny? A lot of people actually don't go to Food Line. You have two choices, or three choices, I guess.

guess you have food line you have uh it's not farm fresh what's a really nice one is that fresh foods fresh food what about kroger's it's kroger's up there i i don't remember kroger's more midwest yeah they're in tennessee yeah i think they start in tennessee and go up like public's goes up as far as tennessee i think now i know they're in georgia well another big one was uh trader joe's trader joe's yeah those are the three that's way upscale though i don't even i don't never been in No Trader Joe's. They're like local branded stuff like they bring in, local beers. All right, let's move on. We're talking about grocery stores now.

Let's go. But they also do not let you carry. You know what has the best? Piggly Wiggly.

That's the place to go. They got them boiled peanuts right inside the door. Bucky's gas station. They got it.

It's like a superstore. Bucky's. Yeah, that's good. Like a Bass Pro and a Piggly Wiggly on my.

Beef jerky. 75 different kinds of beef jerky. Next one. Are we done?

Yeah. Did we... Really? You know what, Alligate?

Buffalo Wild Wings has a big sign that you can't carry inside their establishment. Really? It's a bar. You can't anyway.

Yeah. Well, didn't we have this discussion? It's just them making a marketing strategy. Oh.

You know? We, too! We, too, claim no guns in here. It's safe.

We will not permit... Like, listen... Don't get all rattled up watching your sports. I mean, I think it's all safe to say that, look, alcohol and guns are probably not a good mixture.

You know? Right. I've done some good parties. My boots just shrugged.

He legit did this. Back in the Navy on the boat. I've done some good parties with alcohol and guns. Back in the Navy on the boat that I wasn't on.

Right, yeah. All right, now we've got a tight 60-second weekend sports recap on Mike Stepponkiewicz's The Carser Podcast. I can't wait. 60 seconds.

I can't wait to hear this this week. Happy Monday! Here's your fast break through the weekend, and the NFL Week 6 brought chaos. The Giants stunned the Eagles 34-17.

Is that right? Yep. On Thursday, to kick things off, and Sunday delivered upsets and statement wins. Carolina clipped Dallas 30-27.

Yes. At the Horn, Pittsburgh smothered Cleveland 23-9, and the Rams handled the Ravens 17-3. Correct. Seattle's defense 8-sacking Trevor Lawrence 7 times in 20-12 win over Jacksonville.

There's player names, Boots. You hear that? There's player names. You got it.

Trevor Lawrence, that one's easy. Jacksonville, okay, this game, so I did this yesterday apparently, because this game already happened. Tonight's capper, Chiefs handled the Lions 30-17. That was yesterday.

Yeah. College football week seven with Spice. That's it for football. Can I talk about football now before you go on to the next stuff?

Well, he's got NCAA coming up, but NFL. He wants to talk about NFL. You want to talk about NFL? You want to do it that way?

Sure, talk about NFL. So we went to the Bucs game. Do your sporty things. And it was a great game.

It was, it was a great game, except for the exit of a wide receiver. Uh, Amika Agupa? Yeah, which messed everybody's parlays up. Wait, what was the name?

Oh, I screwed up all the time. No, that's what I mean. I would not even, that wouldn't have been close to the right if I said it. Yeah.

Amika Agupa? Amika Agupa. Amika Agupa. Amika Agupa.

Amika Agupa. The G is silent. Amika Agupa. Amika Agupa.

Wow. That's what you do when you're scared. We're getting canceled. He's Nigerian.

That's what you do when you're scared. Wow. It is October. I was doing a Halloween thing.

I like it when I'm looking back at him and all of a sudden he gets tight. He's tight right now. He's getting really tight? Yeah.

Now you're loosening back up. Good for you. So what was crazy to me was there was one down. It was like third and 15.

And you thought the Eagles rushed in. Not the band. Not the band. Not Joe Walsh.

The team. Gotcha. And you thought Baker was getting sacked and he made his way out of it. And not only does he make his way out of it, but he runs 15 yards down the field for a first down.

And it was incredible to watch, right? The guy's elusive. The guy's amazing. I mean, you know...

Amazing, he's amazing. He is. He is, and he had a hard task. I mean, two of his top wide receivers are out.

Three! Well, and then, yeah, Buga got... You said he had a heart attack? Yeah.

No, they were out. Oh, I thought you said he had a heart attack. No, he had a hard road ahead of him. Oh.

So... He had a heart attack. We see this play, and then we're driving home, and we're watching the Kansas City refs helping the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Detroit Lions game. They called back a touchdown, which I thought was wild.

Wait, you're driving and watching the game? Of course. Oh, you're watching or listening? Yeah, I'm watching.

Yeah, I'm watching. Okay. And you hear Chris Collinsworth say, wow, I haven't seen or know what other quarterback in the NFL runs like that when Patrick Mahomes ran for like 10 yards I love when he does impersonations. And I'm thinking, yeah, three hours ago, Baker Mayfield just crushed a play, and, you know, the refs aren't on his side.

So, allegedly. Jared Goff also ran in that game. Yeah, so, you know, Chris Collinsworth is way too in love with Patrick Mahomes. It's absurd.

You know who Patrick Mahomes is, right? He's on your team. He's on your team. He is boycotting the Bad Bunny concert because of what he said about the guy that got shot.

Apparently, he really did say something, I guess. Whatever. You have your right to say it. I saw the headline.

I mean, listen, the guy has his right to say whatever he wants, and you have a right to boycott. I don't care either way. I just want you. Just trying to contribute.

I got news for you. Just then, Publix is not allowing boycotting inside of Publix. There's a 90% chance I'm going to watch the Super Bowl, and there's a 100% chance that I do not care who's at my halftime show. I will still watch them.

Supposedly on another channel, there's another one that you can watch. I'm not changing the channel. I'm just leaving it where it is. I just don't understand this.

You only watch the Super Bowl to watch the halftime show thing? No, I watch it for the commercials. Like, I'm watching the Super Bowl to watch the Super Bowl, and if I'm not watching the Super Bowl, I'm going to the bathroom where I'm getting food. Yeah.

Do it during the halftime show. I usually do. I don't watch the halftime show usually. I'm unfamiliar with Mr.

Bunny's music, but I heard a song the other day on the radio. It was good. His music is good. He's a global superstar.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know what he was saying, but the beat and the tempo and the music, it was a good song. It makes sense. He's got one of the biggest audiences, you know?

When I DJ, I play one of his songs, everybody knows it. How did they not get Swiftie to do a halftime show? Yeah, that is kind of weird, because she was the big thing. Right.

With Kansas City and, like, wouldn't that amazing? Don't they make the halftime person pay them? No, it's free. No, it's free.

Okay, I do this one or the other. That's probably why. Why would I do this for free? I'm the biggest celebrity in the world.

Why would I do this for free? You could argue something similar for Bad Bunny. He likes to give back to the people, though, because he did that whole concert in Puerto Rico. He gives to the people?

He gives to the peoples. You know, every time I hear Bad Bunny, I think of that guy in the pink bunny suit that always shows up to PCA. That one guy, yeah. Norm's friend.

That's all I picture all the time. Oh, he's at the Great Smoke all the time. Yeah, he goes to that, too. He goes to all the big cigar things.

All right, Georgia survived to scare to stay perfect. USC grabbed a signature win, and the Indiana – and the Indiana? And Indiana continued to rise into the playoff conversation. Red River delivered drama – what is Red River?

Is that a team? Yes. Red River delivered drama to October is doing October thing. Oh, are you about to talk about this, or is that was it?

That was it. That's all I got for NCAA. That Georgia game was crazy. I didn't see any of it.

No, you don't watch college, do you? I watched some college. I don't know what I was doing on Saturday. You were on an airplane and you went to New Hampshire.

Yeah, you went to New Hampshire and talked about yourself and then flew back home. Yeah, yeah, that was all about your podcast. I talked about my podcast. All right, moving on.

All right, baseball's down to four. The ALCS open with the Mariners quieting Toronto on the road three to one to take game one. NLCS starts tonight. Dodgers at Brewers 8:08 Eastern Time on TBS.

Hockey Heads, Early Season Note, Caps Edge, the Rangers 1-0 last night in a goalie duel at MSG. That's your minute score, Shocks and October Vibes, light one up, settle in, and let's talk about all that means next. Okay. And that's your weekend in sports, now let's shift gears and fire up this week's Mike Steponkevich's Cigar News.

You guys don't want to say anything about the sports? No, that's it. I thought you just passed it. Sports is over now, so I didn't know if you had something else.

No, that's all. Baseball has returned to being boring because this set of games, they are taking out superstars that should be playing. Oh, to hell with them. If you're in the playoffs, the big names need to be playing.

I don't care what sport it is. People are paying a lot of money for tickets, and for your team to have the best chance, your superstar has to play. Like, there's this guy, his name is Boba Chet, he plays for the Toronto Blue Jays. Boba Fett?

Yes, he's also a bounty hunter. Yes. This is the way. He's a great hitter.

He didn't play. Is it hurt or something? No, they just decided that it wasn't good for the lineup. It's a rest day?

Yeah, it's like, what? There is no rest day right now. Right. Did they still win?

I don't watch baseball. No, you read it. I haven't seen him. You read it, they lost.

Oh, I don't know what team that is. The Mariners beat them. So if he played, they might have won. Maybe.

It would have been a better game. It's nothing better than paying somebody hundreds of millions of dollars to watch them not play. I'd be so pissed if I was a person that bought a ticket in the audience. Well, the NBA is going to be crazy this year.

A fan. If I was a fan that showed up. Hey, Boba Fett's not playing, what's the deal? He likes to talk over everybody's boots.

I'm trying to add to the sports. I don't know anything about sports. He did it. Well, this is LeBron's farewell, right?

He has announced that he may be retiring, right? Like he did last year. Well, and he didn't? He did that announcement?

And he didn't. So this isn't his goodbye. It's his maybe goodbye. Well, it's a maybe.

Whatever. So what ends up happening when they do that, right, is ticket sales go through the roof for that team, right? So when the Lakers come to town to play the Magic, right, the tickets are going to probably be $3,000 a seat to sit in the... in the upper lower bowl, right?

And then he's not going to retire because he's going to want to play with his son the next year because his son's eligible. His second one is eligible to come in next year. So I just think it's stupid. Like the way that these players are able to control the ticket prices, I think it's crazy.

Well, you have a right not to buy them. I mean, that is true, yeah. But it could be the goodbye. But the other problem is now is you've got all these streaming services where you don't have the right to just be able to watch the game You can circumvent that.

There's ways around that. Yeah, but that's, you know. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Allegedly. All right, Weller by Cohiba 2025 arrives. The next release from General Cigar Company's Cohiba brand and Weller bourbon has begun arriving at stores. Sean Williams, brand ambassador for Cohiba, posted a video of the new cigar.

Many of the details about the release are similar to the previous Weller by Cohiba cigars. So it's another same cigar next year. Are these made in a Dominican prison? Cuban prison.

Let's read on. No, it's not Cuban. It's not Cuban. This is a Dominican cigar.

Oh, sorry. It will be a 6x50 Toro that comes packaged in individual tubes on paper. The blend is similar to the 2024 release, an Ecuadorian Sumatra seed wrapper over an American broadleaf binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Nicaragua. However, there appears to be one notable change, now it says 2025 on it.

The label. All right, the 2024 release used a binder that was aged in barrels that previously held Weller full-proof bourbon. The 2025 release is listed as having its binder aged in barrels that previously held Weller Antique 107. Ooh, that's the difference?

Apparently. Each cigar is an MSRP of... Oh, yeah, this is gonna be a good one. This is 50 bucks.

This is $50. $50? You think $50? I think $15.

$15? 99. Oh, that's the answer. I feel like I won.

I was closer. You were closer. 50, he's closer. I overbid anyways.

Right. Weller by $5. 99, you bid 50, he did 15, so he's halfway down. Right.

Thank you so much. Weller by Cohiba has become a highlight of our portfolio and each edition brings a new dimension to the rare partnerships, said Williams in a press release. This year's release is especially exciting as it ties directly to Weller Antique 107. A vermin with a loyal following and profile that mirrors the bold, refined qualities Cohiba is known for.

In addition to the standalone Weller by Cohiba 2025, Cigars General Cigar Company is once again releasing a sampler. This year includes four cigars, one of each from the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 blends, two Weller by Cohiba rocks glasses, and a travel humidor. Then they have four different accessories you can get. You can get the Cohiba Red ashtray.

Anybody want to guess what the ashtray costs? $30. Michael? $50.

$119. Damn, he's closer. The Wellabite Cohiba Precision Cutter is $60. Wellabite Cohiba Lighter is $100.

Wellabite Cohiba Travel Humidor is $150. Wow. 25 debuts. About?

No, The Vow. The Vow. The Vow? The Vow.

Is it from a Vow? Let's read on. Let's read on. This week's A Vow, Cigar Company's latest blend is heading to stores.

25. A reference to November 25th, 2024, the date the blend was approved. Oh. Hmm.

Well, that's nice. Speaking of the blend, it uses an Ecuadoran Habano seed tobacco for both its wrapper and binder. Underneath that are Dominican tobaccos. Criojo 99.

Hmm. Not Corojo. Criolo, 98, Piloto, Cubano, and San Vincent. What is San Vincent?

I'm not familiar with San Vincent. That's a guy. Yeah, but it's a type of tobacco though. It's conquistador.

Slash particles inside. And a whole leaf of Cuban seed leaf grown in Brazil. So it's a Cuban seed from Cuban tobacco grown in Brazil. Oh man.

So it's Brazilian Cuban leaf. Delicious. I gotta be honest, that's probably one of the best descriptions I've heard. So it's originally Habano Seed, but it's grown in Brazil.

So, you know, I think that's, that might be the accurate way to do things. Yeah. 25 offered in a single five and a half by 55 grand Robusto. Each cigar is an MSRP of $20 and it sold to boxes of 10.

25 is a regular production offering for the company. com. A California-based retailer. Oh.

Okay. Small batch. Okay, we'll keep going. I'm excited for them.

Are we going to smoke those? We can, if you want to. Are we getting them? I could call Andrew.

No, are we going to carry them? We do need to carry them. Turo, because there's that whole thing, I carry you, you carry me. No, I just like those guys.

I want to support them. Nice. Well, now that implies you don't like David. Aw.

Well, our relationship isn't as well established. But it's getting better. You know these guys longer. There you go.

You're further down the road with these guys. I mean, am I just going to get tuned up by everybody today? Is that what's going on here? I thought it was just me.

For some reason, though, on camera, Palmer looks like my cousin Vinny right now. Looks like what? With his suit? Yeah.

What do I look like? My cousin Vinny. Oh. Okay.

Okay. Okay. He sounds like Pesci. Toro Fuente.

Shipping Don Carlos. Sangre de Toro. For the first time in this history, Arturo Fuento is using a Mexican San Andreas wrapper. Historical.

So does this mean the Cameroon wrapper issue they've known prior to us was being informed? Maybe. Do they plan ahead? I don't know.

Maybe. You know, you're the cigar guy of the show, Michael. Well, now I'm shutting down. I'm tired of the abuse.

Yeah, you're shutting down. I'm tired of the abuse. It's ridiculous. What?

It's ridiculous. Next week, the company will begin shipping the first two Vitolas of the new Don Carlos Sangre de Toro, a new regular production line. Underneath the Mexican wrappers are a mixture of Dominican tobaccos. As has been the plan from the start, it will debut two Vitolas of Don Carlos Sangre de Toro Puro Cajones, five and a quarter of 54, and a Sangre de Bestia number two.

Not the one, but the two. Can you spell Cajones for us? C-O-J-O-N-E-S. How does the J sound in Spanish?

Not like an N. I don't know, an H? Cajones? Yes.

Is there an N in there? You said Cajones. There is an N in there. Cajones?

Well, at least you didn't go Cajujus. Right? Right? Cajujus.

That said, the cigars are arriving a bit later. Look, you're just a special sound guy. Oh, it all comes full circle. That said, the cigars are arriving a bit later than the original ship date of summer 2025.

We just don't have them ready. Toro Fuente hopes to ship the remaining three vitoles in the next 30 days. The full line will include the 5 7/8 by 55, the 5 by 50, the 5 3/4 by 54, the 6 1/4 by 52, and the 5 1/2 by 46. Sangre de Toro is Spanish for the Bull's Blood.

Okay, now the next serious stories happen in chronological order, so don't jump ahead to the next story. Okay. All right. Cigar industry asked for emergency temporary restraining order in the California lawsuit.

S. District Court on Monday, Cigar industry has asked for an emergency temporary restraining order, a TRO, that would delay a key deadline for cigar makers to keep the products legal in California. In California, Jason Kim, who is listed as the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the Rocky Patel Premium Cigar, Inc. Bonita made his filing on Tuesday.

The case, which was filed last Friday, has been assigned to Judge Monica Ramirez-Amahadini, a Biden appointee. Oh, okay. Should I comment or no? He wants to keep reading.

Comment about this particular story. Section. Don't jump to the next story. Yeah, I understand what you're saying.

Okay. So, with that being said, it's nice to see that the lawsuit is happening for California. Keep talking, it's rather lengthy, and I'm jumping ahead. And I'm very excited, it's nice to see that they're trying to protect our rights for cigars in California.

I hope... Man, that sounds super forced. I hope that nothing, I hope that nothing goes wrong with their lawsuit against California. So this is what we talked about last week where we, we thought they should file one of these to keep, to keep them from, from moving ahead with the program.

Correct. All right, now the next story. Okay. Judge denies a cigar industry's emergency TRO request.

That was quick. "The cigar industry's last-minute attempt to delay tomorrow's key deadline for product registration in California has been denied. She denied the request for the emergency temporary restraining or TRO in Rocky Patel's Premium, Inc. " They actually came in on Indigenous People's Day to deny it.

They denied it last Friday. They did. That was very fast. Michael, any comments on this?

Lots, I'm sure. There's probably lots of comments. Yeah, I mean, where do you want me to start, you know? Day one.

Why do you think she denied it, the judge? Well, for starters, we've had a lot of time in order to initiate a lawsuit, and we never did. The CAA, any of these organizations, never did. Do we have any information on that?

So, on what? On why they waited so long? No. Okay.

Not to my knowledge. So that's kind of a thing. And for two, I mean, I'm sure that they have, the judge came up with some level of justification as to why they deny it. It wasn't mentioned in here, you know.

Hmm. But yeah, like, oh, you're gonna wait till the 25th hour and then submit this? Nope. Right.

Nope, sorry, too late. I could totally see that. I also think that, let me ask you this. Okay.

Do you think that the big brands are pro or against this regulation going through? Well, who is that? C. Newman's already filed, so Rocky Patel is not.

Filed what? They already filled out all their paperwork supposedly and sent everything in. To be able to put their cigars in California. Correct.

Yeah. C. Newman did, does that automatically mean Otoro Fuente did too? No.

No, it has to be brand specific, right, is how it read. Well, I didn't know how close the two were. If one did, the other one didn't. You know, that type thing.

You guys are doing it? Okay, we'll do it too. Okay. So, no, I think it's a case-by-case basis.

I don't think all of them are in favor of it, but... Do you think General Cigars is going to do it? I don't know. They got a lot of brands.

Could they... I'm sorry, Boots, could they do it as a General Cigar umbrella, or do they have to do it for each brand they have? Each SKU. Each brand, each SKU.

Right. But I mean, do they have to file the paperwork for... Yes. Each brand and then each SKU.

I guess it doesn't make any difference, the question I'm asking. I put General Cigar on the top of every piece of paper. I guess it doesn't matter. Right.

I think they want this. I think the big brands want this. I think he's right. Who do you think this hurts the most?

Yeah, it hurts the smaller brands. You're right. It does. Yeah.

So do you think that they're going to organize a... Are that many cigars consumed in California where it makes that big a difference? It's nice to slight the odds in your favor, is it not? Yeah, you're about to get a whole bunch of shelf space.

Right? Yeah. For sure. Somebody announced they're no longer selling in California, I don't remember who it was.

It wasn't a big brand, it was a boutique. Smaller brands. It was a smaller brand. Smaller brands get crushed.

Yeah. So this is a perfect example of regulations hurting small businesses, not big businesses, because big businesses write the check, if they wanted to, but the small ones can't. Nope. So explain to me how that makes sense, California.

Well, that, well, they make a lot of laws that way anyways. And favored towards, no matter what side of the table you're on. Would you say that? What's the word for it?

Is it prejudice? Is that prejudice? No, that's not prejudice. No.

It's great that you said that. There's a word for this. Okay. Where they're in favor to help the guy with more money, the rich, and not help the average Joe.

Okay. God, I can't think of it. What's the word? I can't think of it.

You think California's doing it for that reason? I think, first of all, I do think that there is some type of favoritism to maybe some of these companies. From the companies in some way or form from politicians? Yes.

First of all, there is nothing in politics that gets by without some type of favoritism. There's always some type of motive. Right. C.

Newman make more money. Maybe. Why wouldn't they? Yeah.

C. Newman get all the money from the filings? Maybe they donate money to political funds. Maybe they have a lobbyist.

Maybe. C. C. Neumann as the example, to be honest, I'd use somebody like General, like they're, the General's way bigger.

C. Neumann filed the paperwork, the reason that name came up. C. C.

" Right. I don't, I just think that they have enough money where they can play ball. Sure. You know.

But I'm sure there probably is one of the companies that has some type of interest in California. They're like, yeah, go ahead, but pass that. Yeah. Perfect.

I'll send you a check. Let's make sure it's this amount too, so that way these other guys can't get in. Yeah, let's make it something that's, you know, reasonable but not acceptable? Where it would really hurt the smaller brands.

Because that's all it did. Yeah. That's all it's going to do. It's going to hurt smaller brands.

It actually hurts the cigar industry a lot, as a whole. S. Well, I think that was part of California's motivation. They want to get rid of cigars.

I think there should be an exemption level for production. They want to be a smoke-free state. I don't think they want to be smoke-free. I don't think they want to be smoke-free.

I think they want whoever wants to play the game to pay the money, because that's all they care about at the end of the day. Well, they keep certain trucks out of their state because their emissions are wrong. Yeah, but if you pay the money, your emissions are not wrong. Yeah, they are.

You still get a pass. It's not just a fee you got to pay. Yeah. You can't drive your truck in if you're kicking out CO2 out of the back of your truck.

You have to fill out paperwork when boats come in that you don't have this page and a half of stuff in any of your stuff, in any of your shipping that comes in. And that's not pay a fee, that's, we gotta smuggle this in because it's got acid in it or it's got corrosive chemicals in it, or I'm sure there's definitely got lead trucks, I mean, there's plenty of smog that goes through San Francisco and stuff. Right, that's the problem, they want to cut that out. If they pass this law, there needs to be an exemption for a smaller number of production.

Yeah. It's a good idea, you know. But they, but they, but they're not going to do that. No.

No. No. Nor would the bigger guys allow that. Well, it's not like they're saying, well, you know, it's not that I'm pro this law, but I'm not going to stop it.

Right. You know? This is great for us. I'm surprised Drew Estate's not part of the...

I'm sure they'll be in there. The legal finding. I mean, they're not listed anywhere as a plaintiff. I'm sure that they're doing whatever they can to fight their own battles.

I mean, they're, you know, the biggest flavored cigar maker there is. Yeah, and they need to be protected as far as I'm concerned. Well, yeah, but if they pay the money, they're still in, right? No.

No, you still can't bring in flavored cigars. That's the whole reason of doing this, supposedly, is to weed out the flavored cigars. You're proving your cigars are not flavored. Well, that just means that their flavored line will not be there.

But all their other ones will be. You mean like the number one cigar sold in the entire world? Yeah. Or the number two cigar sold in the entire world?

But in California, their number one is going to be the Liga. What? In California, their number one will be the Liga. Dude, you're talking about two totally different consumers.

No, I completely understand. I'm just saying, in California now, there's no flavored cigars, right? And all the small boutique guys are gone. Yeah.

So, if Drew Estate pays all the SKUs for the non-flavored cigars, right? One of them has to be number one. Who's gonna be the number one? I don't know.

It's all frustrating. It is very frustrating for the industry because how do you guys grow as an industry when now you just took out how many people? Dude, I mean, how do we grow as an industry? You're not allowed to talk about it on TV ads.

How do we grow as an industry? You know, Camacho was taken down years ago in one of these stadiums. I mean, you know, how do you, like, you can't advertise cigars at all. Yeah.

At all. Now you're making it even harder. Yeah. You're making it harder to even sell.

And what's crazy is you guys pay a lot of money to these people for the lawsuits. If you could say you guys, you could just say Palmer. Palmer pays a lot of money to these guys. Palmer does everything.

Well, that's why you have no money. You give it all to the guys. Yeah. All right.

Next story. Cigar industry takes California emergency TRO to state court. S. district court judge rejected the cigar industry's request for an emergency temporary restraining order.

Ok, so that didn't work either. It already got rejected in state? It got rejected at state level too. Well, I guess it's got to go up the chains.

Yeah, it has to go up. Well, I think they did, they start up and then, and now they're going down at the bottom and trying to go up to find one? I thought the, because the judge that doing the big thing already said no. So then they brought it down to the state courts and they said no.

So I don't know who else they came in. I think that it went up. I don't know who the first one is. Because like, what happens is when you file on one, on one level and it doesn't go through, then you can bring it to the next level, right?

And if it doesn't go through, you can bring it to the next level. So then we're saying that this is higher than the other one? Yeah, I would assume that this one is higher, and then it can go all the way to Supreme Court at that point. It could.

Which could be what their strategy is, which could be the strategy here for CAA and Rocky Patel and all them. C-A-A-C-R-A-C-B-A. It didn't say specifically why it was denied? S.

District Court for the Central District of California. There you go. So then they went to the state. I guess.

Right. She believed that Rob Bonita, the California Attorney General, who was sued in his official capacity, is protected by the 11th Amendment. Okay, so that's why she turned it down. And that the specific argument made on the TRO petition cannot be filed in federal court.

Yeah, it was a filing issue. In her view, it needed to be filed in Superior Court State Court. They're exactly what the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have done. Attorneys for the plaintiffs have filed a new emergency TRO in Superior Court.

The name plaintiffs are the same as Cigar Rights of America, seven of the family-owned cigar companies that support CRA and the Premium Cigar Association. So now there are two Rocky Patel Cigar Bonita lawsuits that have been filed in the last week. Right. I would guess that there's about to be another one.

Yeah, they're gonna start throwing darts. They're gonna keep, no, they're just, it's not throwing darts. They're going up the chain. Well, you shouldn't have to refile that to go up the chain, but I think the federal court one's already been turned down.

Yeah, because of the way it was filed. It wasn't allowed to be filed there. Right, shouldn't have been filed, it should have been filed in state court. So then they went and filed it in state court.

Then it got turned down, and now they can go file at the next level. Did they say that they turned down the state one already? Yes. Okay, so then, yeah, so maybe it wasn't allowed to be filed there.

Did it say, did it get specific on that? I'm reading, hold on. I mean, an attorney would be nice if we had one. We had one, I think.

Well, we don't have no money, 'cause you guys give all your money to these other people. Going forward, the Attorney General's Office says that it won't, no? No specific. Nothing specific.

Nope. Okay. All right, Crown Heads TAA Exclusive 2025 coming in November. Switching channels here.

Later this month, around 40 cigar manufacturers, about 80 American retailers will meet at the Casa de Campo Resort in the Dominican Republic, where Boots hates to go, for the Tobacco and Association of America 2025 meeting and convention, or what we like to call the Good Old Boys Club. Oh. While the Crown Heads will give those Good Old Boys retailers a chance to purchase a TA exclusive cigar, the Crown Heads TA exclusive 2025 is a 5 and 5/8 of a 54 Robusto Extra that uses an Ecuador and Habano wrapper over in Ecuador and Connecticut. binder, and fillers from Niquiragua.

While last year's Crown Heads TA exclusive was made by Casa Carrillo, this year's release comes from Pichardo de Jutui. Did I say that? H-A-T-U-E-Y? Jutui?

Jutui. In your world? Yes. The same one that produces the Juarez and the Mildias lines for Crown Heads.

95 and production is limited to $750 boxes of 10 Cigars. You know, I wouldn't say I helped you either. Crownhead says that the cigars will ship in November. We are very excited for this year's TA exclusive.

I didn't follow on that. I wouldn't say I helped you either. I mess up so many things in the work and stuff. I wouldn't admit to being working with me.

Thank you. TA exclusive really hits the sweet spot for being easily approachable for novice smokers, yet complex and nuanced enough to be appreciated by the seasoned cigar enthusiasts alike, said Crownhead's John Huber, co-founder of Crownheads in a press release. It's an honor to continue this 11-year partnership supporting the TAA's mission while delivering a cigar that exclusive as it is exceptional. So TAA cigars is a small run usually, right?

Yes, the Tobacco Association of America, was it 40 retailers you said or something? 40 retailers in... 80 locations or something like that? I think it's 80 retailers, 40 manufacturers.

Okay. More retailers than manufacturers. And these cigars... As it should be.

Right. Do not go to any retailers other than who's in that association. Other than TAA people. Yes, you're right.

Okay, now I looked up the TAA's mission statement and here's what it says. Yes, here's the controversy. TAA is proud to stand as a beacon and symbol for the best of the best retailer enterprises in the tobacco industry and the value of individual business enterprises. Okay.

So the mission statement is we're better than everybody else. Pretty much. We support everybody else. We support these people because they're better than everybody else.

Because they're the best. Now the TA, oh here we go, 80 retailers and approximately 40 manufacturers, they gather annually to discuss issues facing industry and retailers as well as to have its annual trade show, a unique event that works on a group buying format in order to secure exclusive deals for these generally high volume merchants. During an event, which takes place between October 26th and 30th at Casa de Campo and La Romana, the Dominican Republic, the organization holds two selling events, one known as the Dream Machine, where the retailers collectively order to secure large discounts, while the other is more of a traditional trade show, typically around a dozen manufacturers release new exclusive cigars for the retail members for an organization under the TAA Exclusive Series Program. Those manufacturers agree to give a portion of the proceeds to the organization a minimum of 50 cents per cigar.

Whoa. Okay. That's a lot of bone. I fell down a rabbit hole about the TAA and started looking some things up.

Oh, yes, I bet you did. All right. Now, according to their IRS filings, they have one employee of the TAA. Okay.

And she is called the Executive Director, and currently her name is Stephanie, I apologize your last name, well, she's been here since 2012. She's been the only one they've ever had, and she's the one that's there. Guadagno, G-U-A-D-A-G-N-O. Okay.

Yeah. All right. She made last year $149,468. On paper.

On paper. Right. Now, they collected roughly about a little, a little more than that. But their expenses exceeded what they collected.

Of course it did. Now, there's no list of what all the expenses cover. Right. You can't see that.

Right. There's no difference in exactly what she does, but from information gathered online, she arranges the buying show every year and keeps the books for the organization. She's been the director since 2012, which is the same year she made her Twitter profile. I guess you would have to have that for this.

Other than that, there's no other information about this lady. She has more than one Facebook profile? Of course she does. And you can't tell which one is the current one because they seem like they're all being used?

Okay. And it's a nonprofit organization that runs a loss, a minimal loss every year because what they bring in is just, uh, or what they, their cost is slightly more than her expenses. Every time, like clockwork. Every time, right.

It's a nonprofit, huh? Right. Like she, yeah, like she cost them $149,000. And they bring in like $152,000.

I mean, it's very close. On paper. On paper. That's interesting.

It is interesting. I'm sure that, you know, our friends in the cigar industry will tell you exactly who she is and explain things once they hear the podcast. Okay. What did you say, 40 manufacturers?

Yep. Yes, but apparently only a dozen produce cigars every year, is what it said. That sounds accurate. So what did the other ones get?

They do the deals, the discount. No, the other manufacturers. Oh, they just show their regular stuff. Yeah.

We didn't make anything special. Right, here's part of the dream machine, whatever. Gotcha. Any idea what the difference between the dream machine and the regular one is?

It's, to my knowledge, and I could be wrong here, but to my knowledge, it's when you buy X amount as a whole, you get, it's tiered for bigger discounts. Right, they all go in together. Yeah, so if you hit X, you get 10% off. If you hit Y, you get 15.

If you hit Z, you get 20, or more, you know. So let's just say, every company is just like Crown Heads. Okay. And has 7,500 cigars for this thing.

Well, there's 12 of them. There's 12 of them. Okay. 12 companies?

Yeah, it says 12 manufacturers produce cigars for this every year, roughly, on average. Oh, I thought you said 45. There are 40 members, but only like 12 make special cigars. But the other ones still sell cigars, which they get 50 cents off each cigar.

That's what Micah was saying that, yeah, but they just offer their regular core lines. Yeah, okay, but let's entertain this. Go ahead. Okay, let's just say you do that.

So that's roughly 300,000 cigars, just a minimal. How'd you get that number? Well, I just took 7,500 times it by 40. Okay.

It's 300,000. That's not the case. We just said 40 of them are, they're not producing 7,500. So they just go, they don't bring any cigars or sell them?

They don't bring it, they don't make a TAA special cigar. So they only get money off of TAA special cigars? No, they get money off of every cigar sold. Every cigar sold?

Yes. Correct. Wow. So that's what I'm saying.

So let's just say it's only $7,500 per person. Which, definitely not. Right, it's probably more. Right.

That's 300,000 cigars, which would be $150K, which is her salary. Right. And then we know it's way more cigars than that. We would assume.

We don't know. It's what is bought, not what is, not what they bring. Right. So if Crownhead doesn't sell all 7,500.

I'm sure they do. You know, and say, you know, say Postano was one of the things that we didn't make a special cigar, we sold 200 cigars. Yeah. We only give them 50 cents for the 200.

But 750 boxes, 10 count cigars for Crownhead, that's no problem. Yeah, I'm sure. It's per cigar, not box. Yeah, but what I'm saying is, let's say they, you're saying, let's say they didn't sell those boxes.

That's, that's an easy sell for them. 750 boxes is an easy sell for ground heads. Okay. Yeah.

Especially if you have a limited edition. They probably, I would probably have to guess off the top of my head, not knowing anything. Yeah. About cigars.

Or life. Yeah. They're probably selling, they're probably getting probably about a half a million dollars. You think, you think.

Yeah. It's a half a million bucks. Minimal just off the cigars. And that's not including anybody having to register or anything for it.

I'm sure they pay for space and all that. I mean, if they're collecting money, they've got to report it on their… Well, technically, yes. That's what I'm getting. Are they bringing silver suitcases full of cash to these things?

Ooh, pirate coins. Pirate coins. Yeah, minus the 20%. From the guy off the coast of Florida.

How much were the expenses, you said? It doesn't disclose. It doesn't break down. Oh, it doesn't say the amount.

Even a non-profit has to list their employees and how much they make. But it didn't it didn't list the amount of expenses. No. Yeah, so.

No, not from the information I can get to, just the rest of the money went towards expenses. May upset a lot of people with this one, Palmer. Yeah, I'm sure they have, you know, $900,000 in expenses. Fascinated by this secret organization.

Did you hear about the mask party at the end? We talked about that before, yes, I wasn't gonna bring it up again. I was just kidding. I thought that might have been the magic party.

Oh. Eyes Wide Shut. Eyes Wide Shut with the magic party. That was the magic part.

That's a joke. Allegedly. Well, I know someone's gonna see this clip. And this is why it's your podcast.

Great. And she lives in Georgia, apparently. Okay. It's scary that you know that, but okay.

Her Facebook page, you can find it. Okay. Did you make a friend request? No, but we did have similar friends in common, though.

Yeah? Mutual friends? Yeah, mutual friends. What's the difference?

Industry people. All right, Villager. Sure. Okay.

Villager, year of the horse slated for early 2026 delivery. Villager. Villager. Oh, did I say Villager?

I did say Villager. You said Villager. For the fourth time, Villager will be releasing a cigar in honor of the Chinese. Still Villager.

I said Villager this time, didn't I? You said Villager. Oh, Villager will release between Villager, Nicaragua. Oh my Lord.

S. The Villager, year of the horse is a six way 552 Torpedo that uses Ecuador and Habano Oscuro wrapper over a Mexican San Andres binder. Another year of the horse. And fillers from Nicaragua is produced by the Villiger de Nicaragua factory, which is owned by Villiger, but run by Hoya de Nicaragua.

It will have an MSRP of $25 per cigar and limited to a thousand boxes of 10 cigars. Those boxes are expected to ship in January, though the release is exclusive to the Asian market only. S. None for you.

Oh man, I wish I could get some, please. Only in China. Well, I guess Gurker can't do anything about that one. Yeah, it's only in China.

Right, so I skipped the joke. Bentley Green GT shipping stateside this week. Oh! The Bentley Green GT, the largest cigar in the German company's portfolio, will begin arriving in stores this week.

It measures a 7x70 and uses a standard Bentley Green blend, an Ecuadorian Rosado wrapper, over a blend of Nicaragua tobaccos, mostly from the Jalapa region. The line is produced at Fabrica de Tobacos, Joya de Nicaragua, and each cigar is an MSRP of 7x70, made in Nicaragua? Nicaragua? We have smoked it.

$10. $16. $19. Oh, yes.

Oh, that's right. It's Bentley. What was I thinking? Comes in a box at $20.

Well, the cigar is not new. S. Bravely, it has been offered to select African markets. Oh.

But the press release says I did not add that. Okay. Bentley Tobacco. I just want to make this clear.

It was not a joke. I just want to make that clear. That was not a joke. That is true.

The 7x70 has been sold in Africa. Bentley Tobacco, Which has no relationship to the car brand, is led by Martin Schuster, he is the son of Philip Schuster, the head of August Schuster GmbH, based in Bunde, Bunde, Bunde? Bund? Bund?

I don't know, you said three different ways. I know. One of those is right. The Schuster family has been involved in tobaccos for more than a hundred years and is one of the last families to still make cigars in Germany.

In addition, the family is the German distributor for brands such as CLE, Debonair, Foundation, Patoro, and And others. Earlier this year, Bentley launched an American subsidiary that is headed by... John Carney. John Carney.

I've heard John Carney. The legend himself. Right. The chef.

The chef, yes. Chef Carney. Don't eat the potatoes. Don't eat the potatoes.

Don't eat the potatoes. Apparently him and Mike have all grown the under the neck beard lately. The under the neck beard. Just, yeah, you know, no beard here, just under here.

Oh, chin strap. I don't know, it's weird. No, no, not chin strap, it's full under here. That would bother me.

Yeah, that would be itchy, that's the part I shave off, because it itches. Yeah. Like, they're Amish now. Did he mess his lineup, and he had a shave off the top?

I don't know, there was a picture the other day, and I had to look closely, and Mike is very short compared to all these other people. Yes. Yes. I like that Mike followed suit with the under the...

Yes, right, exactly, like it's a company thing. You know what, I'm gonna do it too. Okay. Right.

It'd be funny if it was like for some charity or something, and here we were bashing. It is no shave November, but it's not November yet. Yeah. Placencia announces Short Smoke Collection.

Oh, it's wintertime. Just for people that like short smokes. Placencia Cigars has announced a new series named, Mike is Wrong, The Short Smoke Collection. Fred Rui is going to buy all of these.

And two cigars in that series are already on the way to stores. The first cigar is the Reserva Original Corona Corta, a 3 7 8 x 48 short rebusso. Placencia states that the Reserva Original Blend is the world's first The first and only organic cigar made entirely from tobacco certified by the Organic Crop Improvement Association. Oh.

Every cigar they make has special tobacco. Everything that's grown is organic. I don't understand that concept. No, not necessarily because if you spray it with pesticides, it's not organic anymore.

It's still organic. But it has to be certified by the Organic Crop Improvement Association. No, the term organic is misused in that scenario. Correct.

Yeah. If it's grown from the ground, it's organic. Now, pesticide-free is a different terminology that should be used. Now, Palmer, you know what you could do?

You could go bless all the tobacco that Skip has, and it could become kosher, because you are a rabbi. I'm not a rabbi. Oh, you're not certified as a rabbi? No, I'm a minister.

I thought you took the test online. No, no, I'm a minister. You can't be a rabbi. I have a friend who's a rabbi.

Oh, well, there you go. We just get the guy with the curly hair and the hat, and have him go... I mean, that might be Mike and John Carney, who might be working their way that way, who knows? It's possible.

It's very possible. All the leaves in the Nicaragua Puro are aged for five years after curing the fermentation. Each reserve original Corona Corta is MSRP of. What's this little cigar cost, Michael?

$16. Yeah, it's a Placencia. It's definitely going to be. 99.

Really? In addition, Placencia is shipping the Alma Fuerte Colorado Claro Robusto Corto. That's a long name. The box is huge.

Cigars, very little. Yeah. It's a 4x52 Niki Ragwan Puro, covered in a wrapper grown in the Jalapa region that has been aged 10 years. Okay.

The Alma Fuerte Colorado Claro is a line extension of the company's original Alma Fuerte line that debuted in 2016. The Alma Fuerte Colorado Claro Busto Cordo has an MSRP of? $20. 99.

Every cigar we craft tells the story of our family and our land and our commitment to excellence, says Nestor, Plasencia, And a press release. With these new short smokes, we honor the modern smoker's lifestyle, offering moments of indulgence that can be savored fully in less time. That makes sense. Because everybody wants a short smoke.

They didn't say anything about the cold. No, they just want short smokes. Premium cigars that take less time to smoke. I think that's fine.

I understand that. But that's not because of cold weather. Maybe it's just a coincidence. It's because of time.

Maybe. Who knows? Can't wait till the pressure lease comes out in December. It takes longer to say the name than it does to smoke the cigar.

Yeah, probably. Now, it's time for the industry's favorite game, which is lightly copied on this week's Cigar Authority. Aww. What's the score?

They copied us? They did a version of it with a similar process. But not as good. With the podcast guy, with the Cigar Hauser's podcast guy, they did it.

They didn't have the other half. Because that means that David really listened to more than a recent story, because that comment he said, I said, was way back. So, he listened more than one episode. He's a fan.

Yes. Yeah. He likes this part. All right.

The cigar guy. Are you guys ready? Yeah, I'm ready. You ready?

I mean, I've been beaten down all day. What difference does it make at this point? Yeah, you look kind of out of it now. I've just been teed off on a lot.

October 10th, 2025, reviewed by Brooks. It's a black label trading company, cigar limited edition. Review the Blackworks Studio, Tigarsaurus. Oh, God.

Who's going first? The tee-off guy. 90. Really?

You're just trying to throw me off. Black-a-saurus, or track-a-saurus, what is it called? Tiger-a-saurus. Tiger-a-saurus.

Yes. A vague copy of the Powstanie Cigar. No, it's not. No, it's not.

I'll go 82. Don't you dare say that. 82. 82 and 90.

, Connecticut, Broadleaf, and Pennsylvania Broadleaf, and Undisclosed, Candela. Wait, why did they say Undisclosed and then put Candela in parentheses? Binder, Ecuador, Filler, Nicaragua, it's a five and a half by 48 round cigar, sells for $19, three cigars were smoked. Ninety.

I'm gonna stick at 82. When squeezed, first clue, when squeezed, all three cigars are nicely firm, which makes it easier to notice a large soft spot between the lines near the foot of my first cigar. They were all firm. Aromas from the wrapper are surprisingly faint with spicy woodiness, leading leather, tack, dry earth, barnyard, and a light but generic sweetness.

89. This sounds like a horrible cigar. A barnyard? He likes smoking barnyard?

Tastes like barnyard. I don't know how he knows what barnyard tastes like. 82. One cigar needs help from my lighter to stay on track, but the draws are excellent, and there is more than enough thick smoke.

89. 82. Unfortunately, all three cigars require touch-ups. Two need a single correction, while the other one needs two corrections, but the smoke production and draws continue to give me He's zero issues.

So, needed corrections, but zero issues. 88. The only thing he's really commented on is the construction, the draw, yeah, the construction, the draw, yeah, whatever. The taste, he doesn't say anything about the taste.

Okay. Well, there's only so much I can pull. Yeah, he did, he said it tastes like barnyard. Barnyard, remember?

Well, he didn't say that was good. He didn't say it was bad. He didn't say I enjoyed it, nothing. 82.

Bites his thumb. All right, final thoughts. First things first, the Blackworks Studio, TigerSaurus, does take a bit of time to get into a groove, with the first third comprising mostly charred meatiness and gritty earth flavors, along with some black licorice sweetness on the retrohale. However, around the time the burn line passes the second third, the profile becomes noticeably more complex, as cloves, cinnamon, and creamy oak flavors take over the top spot, then shifting to peanut butter, And the oak in the final third.

" Do I need to say that again? No, I got it. Okay. Um, this blend would be one of the best I have smoked from Blackworks Studio, but even with the slow start, the Tigasaurs is more than worth the effort to try for yourself.

I'm, 88. 86. 86 and 88? Yep.

87, you guys split it. Wow! It's high. I was gonna move to 87, too.

Told you I'm off my game. All this negativity you guys showed me. All right, next cigar. He would have hit the Blackosaurus.

I mean, the whatever it is. From 2019, Brooks again. Cigars, Drew Estate, Flavored, Infused, Lemon Edition, Niki Ragua Review, the Assa Cuba Arte. We have not done an Infused Cigar before.

Not one? Nope. Oh. 84.

When we smoke them, we don't want to do them again. I'm going to go first again. 84. You want 84 on this?

Yeah. This is the number one cigar, right? No, this is a Cuba Arte. This is a limited edition cigar.

Oh, but it's an acid? It's an acid Cuba. Arte is the one that came out when they did the water towers, if you need to picture it. I mean, I used to like acid.

Okay. I will put this probably 87. All right. 90, they smoked three cigars.

86. Did you go up? I don't know, are you paying attention? Yeah, I'm paying.

You went up. Uh-oh. 87. All right, first clue.

Well, it may look like a traditional cigar on the outside. Even the double artsy bands could be considered tame by today's standards. That changes once you take the acid Cuba Arte out of the cellophane and are salted with a multitude of aromas, including sweet mocha, coffee, sweet milk, chocolate, earth, cream, and a touch of oak. From a visual perspective, the cigar is extremely attractive, covered in a modded, mottled, mottled, I don't know, dark espresso brown wrapper that is fairly smooth to the touch and featuring an abundance of oil.

86. 86. What did you say 86? The multitude of different notes leads to a profile that is extremely unbalanced, almost sweet on one puff, while the The next puff is full of woody notes and so on.

There is very little way of pepper or spice to be had, making the retro hell extremely smooth, but there is an underlying bitterness on the finish, and the sweetened cap is extremely obvious almost to the point of being distracting. Hmm. Eighty-four. Eighty-five.

All right, special clue. Ooh. Additional clue. Ooh.

Construction-wise, the draw is excellent. After a Dick Man Cut. All right, we're stopping. I'm sorry?

That's why it's a special clue. He said that? Yes. Construction-wise, the draw is excellent.

After a Dick Man Cut. Wow. Okay. I'm not sure what that is.

Me neither. Boots, any idea? Mikey's first. What did I say before?

I don't know. I'm completely baffled by the dick man cut. I think you're at 86, 84. It's never good when a dick cuts involved.

This sounds horrible, I'm one. Dick man cut, did they just put a hole in the end of it or something? It slits. I'm at one.

No, you're not. All right, I'll stay at 85. The draw continues giving me no issues, while the burn has evened up nicely, it is not sharp. Finally, the overall strength has gone almost nowhere, ended up just shy of the median mark by the time I put the nub down with a little more than an inch to go.

Is this a final note? No. No, no, because it was an extra one. That was a clue.

Eighty. Who reviewed this? Brooks. Can we get him on the show to ask him what a dick man comes from?

Would you clarify what the dick man is? Clarify the dick man, please. I don't know, 85, I'm going to stay at 85. All right, this is going to be one of those rare, this must be the final thought.

This is going to be one of those rare reviews where the final score that most people look at first does not come close to telling the whole story. While there is no doubt that the first third of the Acid Cuba Arte is full of interesting, unique, and most enjoyable flavors, those same flavors come at the expense of both nuance and balance, the latter of which is absolutely atrocious interesting the final two-thirds of the cigar turn and almost complete 180 ending up exhibiting flavors that belong in more of a traditional cigar which makes the senses given how drew estate which makes sense given how drew estate described the infusion above having said that uh while the lack of balance in the first third affects the overall score in the negative way the abrupt change over the final two-thirds did a great job of keeping It became me engaged and really added to my enjoyment of the blend, as I realized that I had no idea where the profile was headed at any given point. In the end, while I doubt that one review will change many minds, people who love infused cigars will most likely love the cigar regardless, and people who don't smoke infused cigars will probably not run out and buy them regardless. If one of the purposes of Cuba Art Day is to try and bridge the gap between traditional cigar smokers and infused cigar smokers, Drew Estate nailed it.

It's atrocious, but they nailed it. They nailed the connection. So what's the lowest rating Brooks would ever give? Well, we had a 76 from him one time.

We did? Yeah. From Brooks? Yeah.

Really? I don't know who, I get lost. I don't know. I know we had a 76, I couldn't tell you who it was.

It was Brooks because his, when he reviews cigars, it's all over the place. I'm going to go... 82. I'm going to go 80.

82! It was 82? It was 82. On the fucking mail.

So you guys split... well, you had a tie, so... You had a tie on the last one? You had a wash?

Nobody gets a point? I won this one. No, I understand it, but on the tie, nobody gets a point. Yeah.

Okay, then you won. won you won the day even if i didn't nail it yeah he won the day no matter what yeah if i got if i said 83 or 81 is that helping your mood so and she said 80 you feeling better now no no i know you won today i was just saying who won the day you won that one yes whoever won that one won the day well that's why i was asking so on a tie nobody gets a point correct okay we've never had a tie before nobody likes a tie okay okay all right shop of the week tobacco cove in In Jacksonville, Florida, the newest member of the Bosania family. Welcome, gentlemen. Welcome.

And listener of the week, we have a tie there. Oh. We have Nick Trigg from Tobacco Cove and David Garofalo from Two Guys Tobacco. Is that what it's called?

Two Guys Smoke Shop? No, no, they've changed the name. Yes. To Two Guys Tobacco, I believe.

Yes. Yes. Congratulations. Congratulations, gentlemen.

I don't know if anybody was saying anything. That's just the way it works. Yes. Anybody got anything else to say?

com and search the Cigar Hustler Podcast that one up.

Show Notes

This week on The Cigar Hustlers Podcast… the day the music died. MTV is pulling the plug on its legendary music channels after four decades — the end of an era.

Plus, Florida Publix says yes to open carry, sports went wild this weekend, and the cigar world’s buzzing with big drops, legal battles, and TAA news.