ACHP Episode 411 Cigar Media Crisis

Transcript

Welcome to episode 411 of the Cigar Hustler Podcast. This week, China makes you watch an ad just to get toilet paper. A Delta flight attendant accidentally fired off a six-figure slide. Hollywood Steals the Duffer Brothers from Netflix, oh we didn't cover it, we took that story.

You left that one out. We'll hit the NFL Week 8 wrap up, then light into a cigar news from How About That Cigar, signing off to a fresh release from Sinistro, Sinistro. Crown heads and more in sports, smoke, and stories that burn hotter than ever. Let's get Episode 411 started.

A bing bong. But first, Mikey, tell us about the Pete Johnson wine tasting event on November 14th. November 14th, we have a private wine tasting with the one and only Tattoo Pete of Tatuaje Cigars here in the private lounge. Friday, November 14th, you're going to get a cigar sampler, you're going to get wine, there's going to be a charcuterie board, there's going to be a $35 credit towards a purchase of Tatuaje Box the night of the event, as well as a podcast here in front of you.

Limited tickets, only 24 tickets are available, and we are selling them, so better jump on it. If you decide to wait until the night of the event, the price is going to be higher. It goes up, just like tariffs. So jump on it.

It also says on the ad that you get all-day access to the lounge on that particular day. You do, absolutely. That's a nice perk. Absolutely, thank you.

If you ever wanted to try it out... You get to experience it, you come in early. You get to experience for all day long, come early. Mm-hmm.

Nice. Yep. I have other things too, if I can. If I can.

Certainly, please go right ahead. Um, we are, I'm about to release the information of the War Bear. The casing is officially done, and for the first time ever, we're going to show it to the Powstanie Mafia on Facebook. So, if you want to be the first to see it, you need to jump on Powstanie Mafia on Facebook and become a member.

Remember, we will be releasing that photo sometime this week. Subscribe and like. Okay, so check it out. All right, men are going to be very busy over the next couple of days.

And their little fingers just hitting approve, approve, approve. How about that swag, Michael? How do you get that CHPod swag? Oh.

com and check out our latest swag. We still have a few CH Pod murdered out sweatshirts left. XL is sold out at the time for right now. I'm very sorry.

Last one just went out to my guy, Tyler Jones. Oh. Oh. Thank you very much for your support, brother.

And my man, Mark Palmer, who listens to the podcast, got the Man of Smoke shirt. So, if you are interested and want to support us and like the things that we do and love our merchandise, It's really high-quality stuff. com, and if you buy one, you get the second one 40% off. I'm surprised the XL sold out.

I thought it would have been the XXL first. That's nice. Yeah, no. Normally, I don't have an issue with getting more product in.

However, I went back to go order more sweatshirts, and they were all sold out. Oh, man. It's getting me that season. Yeah, they were just zero, zero, zero.

So as soon as they come back in stock, I'll get another one. You know, if somebody really wants it, they can buy it, and as soon as it comes in, I'll take care of it, but I'm going to try and turn it off on the site, so. Yeah. Perfect.

Nice. All right. All right, on with the show. China is testing dispensers that release toilet paper after an ad is watched.

Oh, perfect. China is testing new dispensers in public restrooms that release toilet paper only after the user watches an ad. It's true. It's true.

The dispensers were equipped with optical scanners that display a QR code. People must use their smart phones to connect to the dispenser, which triggers a short ad. Wait, wait, you said optical scanner? Optical scanners, yes.

The QR code. When it's over, the machine releases a controlled amount of paper for your wiping abilities. How many squares? It just says controlled amount.

People who don't want to watch the ad can get paper by paying seven cents a sheet. Local officials say the machines are a response to numerous cases of people taking large amounts of complimentary toilet paper in high-traffic bathrooms. Complimentary. Complimentary means I take it all.

Right. That's amazing. There's some excellent footage for you for the clips. Is there?

Oh, there's pictures and things. Oh, I gotta watch a video. I gotta watch a video? That's amazing.

I gotta watch a video. Can't wait to wipe on my eye. I got a wipe on my butt. Do you have more on that, or can we keep talking?

No, no, we can keep talking, we're on to the next door. S.? Absolutely not, we'd be broke. We'd be broke?

Yeah. How so? I imagine it's seven cents Chinese, so if it's eight for one, I don't even know what that is. Everybody would be watching these ads.

I think, well, besides the ads, have you ever been into a public restroom and seen how much toilet paper, because nobody fucking flushes the toilet. Well, maybe it's all that problem, too. No extra pieces laying around on the ground? No excess, yeah.

No excess? What if you're the guy, though, that likes a big piece so you can wrap the seat? You gotta watch, like, eight or nine commercials. Eight or nine commercials.

By that time, I shit all over myself. Yeah, imagine if you gotta go really bad. Hey, what's another video? They're probably like the ones that are on the gas pumps.

Yeah, exactly. Something short? Yeah. Have you had a Red Bull today?

Tired? If not, don't forget to buy our hot dogs. You can't buy our hot dogs. Are you struggling?

There's a laxative for that. By the way, for the Patreon, we are doing the Sangre de Toro. Oh, the blood of the bull. Good, no?

Down a little. Back a little. Right there. To the left.

Yep, perfect. It's just because the light was a little bright. All right, perfect. Yeah, I'm interested to smoke the cigars, so.

I thought you said I'm interested to scan for the toilet paper. I figured. We should do that here at Hustler. Oh my God, that'd be great.

They've got to watch a part of the podcast. Oh my God, you're giving me ideas, buddy. You're going to have to log in and subscribe. To get toilet paper.

That sounds amazing. Yeah, and then when you get the toilet paper, Keanu literally puts his hand in with the toilet paper. He slides it out, like a little, like a slatch opens by the door and then a hand comes out. We can't afford the high-tech machine.

Yeah, right. Yeah, no, or it should be like a hand on a stick, and it shifts all the way out to you. You can use the garbage grabber I use on Friday. There you go.

I need more toilet paper. Did you like and subscribe? Did you like and subscribe? All right, we're going to need you to comment below.

And you're going to have to hurry up, because I have to go to the Bath Bathwares. There's a line out here. If you're listening now, you need to like and subscribe anyway, so please like and subscribe to our show. And we'll send you toilet paper, maybe.

Yeah, maybe we'll send you some toilet paper. Yeah. All right, a flight attendant accidentally deployed the plane's emergency slide, costing Delta six figures. Accidentally?

Accidentally. I'm intrigued to hear how that happened. No one wants to make a mistake on the job, but in some professions the ramifications are more serious than others. About a hundred grand.

The role of a flight attendant definitely falls into this category, and unfortunately, a flight attendant's recent mistake impacted a plane full of passengers. Sound effects? Bong. Delta Flight 3248 was scheduled to depart from Pittsburgh for Salt Lake City, a post from SF Coyote in the Reddit Delta community said the takeoff didn't quite go as planned.

Somehow, the flight attendant managed to deploy the plane's emergency slide. Hold on. There's a Reddit Delta community? There's a Reddit for everything.

We get together as Delta Flyers and we can talk about Delta? Yeah, whether you like it or not. Wow. There's a Cigar Hustler podcast on Reddit.

Really? Oh, wow. Yeah, when I ask Chet GPT for information, it'll tell me so-and-so commented on Reddit and said they liked this or they didn't like this. Oh, we should go on there.

Yeah, why have we not seen this? I'm not on Reddit. I'm not even sure what it is. Did you make it?

You didn't make the Reddit? No, I didn't make the Reddit. I'll have to check it out. I'm not exactly sure what it is.

It's probably from Coop. That's amazing. It probably is. The incident had ripple effects, leaving many passengers stranded.

Stranded, reversing the air, took a great deal of effort. First, the jet bridge had to be reconnected so that the passengers could get the plane. After that, it took about an hour to disconnect the slide from the aircraft. So wait, it's supposed to come off in the water so you can use it as a raft.

Okay. Well, it'll take an hour? The boat's going to pull it under with it. No, the boat with the airplane.

There's probably like an additional detach button that you can hit. Well, they couldn't figure it out. Pull this train. They couldn't figure it out.

No, it took them an hour to disconnect the slide from the aircraft. Our lives are in their hands. That's what I'm saying. In the end, the plane was delayed almost four hours.

Oh, my goodness. Sounds like a Tuesday. So, apparently, when they shut the door, they hit the slide button. Ooh, that's terrible.

According to View from the Wing, numerous passengers missed their connections and were forced to spend the night in Salt Lake City. Since the airline was clearly at fault, Delta was responsible for placing those passengers in a... I did. passengers in a hotel for the evening.

View from the wing estimates the cost of repacking and repairing the emergency slide up to, now this is not the total, this is just for repacking the slide and repairing it, because they can't leave without it packed back, right? 40 G's. Oots? It's a plane, it's probably like 200,000.

$20,000. 20,000? 20,000? 20,000, that is just to pack up the slide.

Such a slow ball. Just to fix it. Just to fix it and put it back. The outlet also notes that by the time the airplane paid for additional expenses, like hotel rooms, cruise, and repositioning, this may have been a six-figure mistake.

" 26 years? Yes. Let's hope it's also the last. You think she gets fired?

Immediately. You think so? I don't know. I don't think she gets fired.

I don't think she gets fired. I don't think she gets fired. It was a mistake. Yeah, it could happen.

It's just very expensive. It's not week one for her. Right. She's been doing it for two decades.

Yeah, hold on a sec. First time she's had this problem. Hold on a sec. You guys have been on planes, right?

Quidau. Yeah, go ahead, Quidau. Yeah, plenty of times, right? He's suing them.

Let's just think about how this button looks. I'm pretty sure there is a distinct difference between the button that says slide. It probably has a picture of a slide, three little people on it, you know, yellow. Three little people on it.

Or maybe it's red. Like don't hit this unless an emergency. And the door button has to be pretty close to the door. Well, you've seen when they shut that door, they have to crank that handle and give it a great big old yank.

Maybe when she yanked it, it hit her hand or something. I don't know. You gotta mute your phone. Yeah.

You gotta silent it. Oh, did it connect? Yeah. Hit the silent button on the top.

I'm just thinking. That wasn't the silent button. I don't have a button on the top. Give me the phone.

Geriatrics over here. That's what I did! No, it's not that one, it's this one. Oh, it's on the other side, that's already turned off, but it's because it's connected to Bluetooth.

Oh, where's the button? Don't talk to me. I don't think it's a button, it should just be like a little-- I already turned the volume all the way down, it was down. " Oh, you had this button right here.

It's already off. No, it's not, now it is. No, it wasn't. I silent demoted it for you.

Okay. You're welcome. Okay. Back to the picture of the slide.

Back to the slide. Okay. So, but like, realistically, maybe it's a new plane. Maybe she's not, you know, she's not used to it.

Could be. Maybe she's been on an Airbus 747 this whole time. Maybe she used a biplane. And now she's doing the Boeing ones that like to crash on their own, you know?

But this is a Delta plane. Yeah. But it could still be a Boeing. Boeing, yeah.

It's not an airline. I'm going to guess if it's a new plane, it probably has like neon lights all around this button, And you know, even like a plastic case over it, like lift this in case of emergency. You would think there would be some type of cover on it. It's 2025, baby.

We're all making cutbacks. Do we need to protect the slide? 26 years, it's like he's never hit it before. It'll be fine.

They're not gonna do it. Yeah, let's put it on, there it goes. Yeah. Now we're fine.

Anybody know how this thing comes off? Listen, it's gonna be a little while. Well, if anybody would like to use the slide that I've just deployed, yes, it'll be $20,000, they brought the jetway over, so they probably had problems connected because of slides anyway, right, there's a food court, there's a food court, some guy just walks over with his pocket knife and goes, that'll be $20,000, problem solved, yes, well, what happens if we crash now we don't have a slide, it'd be fine, it was unnecessary anyways, what are the odds, don't parachute on plane, it'd be fine, and those Those cushions really don't float. Yeah, I don't know if I'd trust my life that floating cushion that everybody's been sitting on.

I mean, they don't even know how to deploy the thing, they don't even know how to deploy the raft. Right, they can't disconnect from the plane. The plane starts sinking, the raft's going down too. This is Titanic all over again.

Oh my lord. Do you really know how that seatbelt works? It doesn't feel that safe. All right, ACHP NFL wrap-up, here is the sports.

Uh-oh. Time for some mispronouncing. Week 8 was statement Sunday across the NFL. Denver planted its flag with a 44-24 beatdown of Dallas.

Is that true? Did that happen? I'm just checking here to make sure I'm on par here. I had kids basketball games, so I did not.

Dallas did get beat, yes. All right. Bo Nix tossed four touchdowns. J.

Harvey found the end zone three times and the Broncos ran wild for a season best day on the ground. Dallas never matched the physicality, and Denver looked ever bit a contender. Mm-hmm. The lone nail-biter, the Jets finally cracked the win column.

They did. That is true. 39, oh, barely. 39-38 over the Bengals.

Eeked it out. In a wild back-and-forth decided late. It was aggressive coaching and timely playmaking that snapped the New York skid and gave them their first W of 2025. Yeah, Justin Fields was quarterbacking that.

The crazy is, both teams actually played pretty well. 39, well, it didn't seem like they had, either one of them had a defense, apparently, 39-38. Well, normally, neither one of them have an offense. Okay, that's true.

Maybe they only get one or the other. Okay. Yeah, you only get one or the other. Oh.

All right, Philadelphia bounced back in a big way, 38-20 over the Giants, but paid a price. They sure did. What happened to your boy, Scadaboo? Man, that poor guy's ankle.

Scadaboo? I told you. Saquon Barkley? Saquon Barkley?

That's what they said here. Okay, what about him? Oh, please, God, read this. Giant, but they paid a price.

This guy exited with a hamstring issue in rookie Cam. Scadaboo suffered a significant leg injury. Okay, thank God. I thought you were going to say Saquon had an ankle injury.

Was I talking about that on the podcast last week? Scadaboo and Jones aren't going to be able to sustain playing at the – not Jones. Dart. Yeah, Jackson Dart and Scadaboo aren't going to be able to continue at that rate.

They're going to be injured. It's just a matter of time. Is his real name Scadaboo or is that a nickname? It's his last name.

No, it's his real name. Yeah, that's his real last name? Yeah. Hmm.

Kind of unusual. He is an unusual person, to be honest. You ever seen the replacements? Yes.

You know the crazy guy that plays the linebacker, the SWAT guy? Yes. He's like that guy. Oh.

Just a running back. Oh. Don't hit the red. Yeah.

Don't hit the red. Yeah. The Eagles still controlled the day and reasserted themselves in the East. On Sunday night, it was a torch-passing vibe in Pittsburgh.

Jordan Love lit up the Steelers for 360 and three scores at Green Bay, beat Aaron Rodgers and the black and gold 35 to 25. They did, they tuned them up. I heard they wore an ugly outfit. They did wear an ugly outfit.

Originals. Yeah, it was from like 1960 something. Was it? Yeah.

Yeah, they do that once a year apparently. They had no fashion in 1960. Apparently not. That was bad.

Yeah, it's like wartime. They could only find whatever rags and put them together, I guess. That's what you could find. Everybody's got chocolate and nylons, but we can't get a uniform for the team.

It was kind of like the end of an era, you know, with that game. That's what it felt like. Oh, really? You know, Aaron Rodgers going back to Green Bay, and him getting beat is like he couldn't do it, you know?

It just felt kind of like that's the end. Like this is the end. This is it. He couldn't beat all teams.

He had to beat Green Bay in order to beat all the teams. Yeah, it's kind of like a passing of the torch. Like, Jordan Love is now the guy. That was the only team he hasn't beat.

Correct. And still has not beaten. He still has not yet. I didn't get to watch a lot of sports either because I had the basketball with the kids, and then I went to Halloween Horror Nights.

Oh, nice. How'd you like that? You want to know, like, the top three haunted houses? Yeah, sure.

What the hell? Yeah. Here's Mikey's top three haunted houses. Okay, here are the top three haunted houses in Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights, It's Orlando.

Number three, I would say is El Artista. Okay. Extremely creative. What was that?

What's the concept of it? I guess it was like artistry or something. Okay. But it was cool.

A lot of the... A lot of paint. Jump houses. A lot of the...

Yeah, there was some paint. There was some paint in both. They had specific guys that had screens on them and then their faces would light up. " Oh, yeah.

Like the LED things. Yeah. Number two would be... It's called like Dollhouse Playdead or something.

Oh. Hmm. You look intrigued about this. No, well, I mean, I haven't seen anything on it, so I mean, I can't picture any of it that you're talking about.

Yeah. It's like super creepy as far as the dolls that they had and stuff, that was pretty eerie. And the number one haunted house at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights has got to be the Terrifier. Number one.

For sure the Terrifier. It's not Jason, it's not on the other ones, not the WWE one. The WWE one was pretty good too, but... So, what exactly is the Terrifier?

Terrifier, I don't know, like, you know, Clint's gonna... It's terrifying. Clint, I apologize in advance, this is one of his favorite guys, but he's like this white clown guy, and he's always about murdering people, and he does it with kind of like a smile. Oh, is that the guy that rides a little tricycle?

Uh, no. Oh. No, that was Saw. That's a Saw.

No, you're correct. I know what you're talking about. He's got the little hat. Yeah, he's got a little hat.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

They've showed him in the... Yeah, you stuck my tongue out. You stuck your tongue out? Yes.

They've showed him riding around in the park on a little tricycle. Yes. Wears like a striped clown suit or something. Yeah.

Black and white. Yeah, and his little hat sits off to the side. It's black and white. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's terrifier. Oh.

I feel like I should watch... I've never seen the movie. He's Art the Clown. Yeah.

Yeah. I should probably watch those. I've never seen the movie. They looked, uh, it was pretty, it was really well done.

There's a, there's a toilet area too, and it stunk like crap. You think it is real? Wait, one of the haunted houses was a toilet? There's a toilet section and it's like...

In one of the houses? Yeah. Oh. Would have been great if there was a screen right by the toilet paper.

Yeah. You scan your thing. Gotta watch this horror movie to get some squares. Halloween Horror Nights is pretty good this year, man.

Yeah. I think they did a good job with the houses. I did not attend. No.

But my wife and my daughter did. Oh. They really wanted to go, and I was like, ah, you guys go, there's two of y'all, y'all go ahead together. Why don't you go?

I don't, I don't like that, I don't like to be scared for fun. How old Sophia? For fun. Thirteen.

Is this the first year she's gone? No, third year. So she's been going since she was ten? Yeah.

Damn, bro, I want my kids to go so bad. Oh, they don't like to go? No. Hmm.

No. You're not about that life. Jack's watched Black Phone the other day at a friend's house, and he didn't sleep that night. I was like, you know, just go to sleep, and if he murders you, he murders you.

I mean, that is a scary movie. I didn't say that. I was just kidding. I would never say that.

I'm like, dude, come on, relax. You're not my favorite anyway. Don't worry about it. I should order the Black Phone mask.

You should let Teddy go. Teddy will just beat everybody up. Yeah, exactly. You're not scary.

And why does it smell like poop in here? All right, so anyways, I apologize. Please continue forward. We watched the new hand that rocks the cradle yesterday.

There's a new one? Yeah, there's a remake. Is it different? It ends completely different than the original.

Okay. All right, before we get off of... I have the Tampa game. Okay, ooh, yeah.

Down in Tampa, methodical Buccaneer defense squeezed the Saints in a 23-3 win as New Orleans benched rookie QB Spencer Rattler. Tampa stays on the front foot in the south with a work-a-man-a-like result. Work-a-man-a-like? Work-a-man-a-like.

He got Spencer Rattler got stuffed. Did you see that play? Yeah, no. I watched this game.

It was... Okay. Yes? Tell me.

I did not like the game because Baker did not do his normal Baker thing. Yes. Where he throws for a lot of touchdowns, a lot of yards, rushes. Yeah.

It was more of a defensive game for Tampa. Yeah. Which was kind of crazy against New Orleans, like I thought for sure he was going to light them up. I heard there were some bad calls.

Yeah, no there was. Yeah. But that's kind of, you know, just kind of off topic here. That's the thing that's going around all the leagues right now is the refereeing stuff because of this whole sports betting issue.

Everything is being slighted. Right. For the sports betting. Right.

Yeah, because there's a, you know, they've come out with people's names. Right. So... Well, it's...

Look, those people that got called out, you think that they're the top dogs of this whole thing? No, but they're probably all gonna disappear now too. The top dogs are the ones that threw them under the bus. Right.

Top dogs, nobody talks about them. Right. Those guys are all gonna disappear. Who?

The ones that names got thrown out and all that stuff. Dude, it's out of hand. It's out of hand. It's out of hand.

Yeah, I mean, it's linked to the Mafia. I mean, that's... I don't even think... I think that the Mafia is just an excuse, in my opinion.

You think? Yeah, I think it's the owners. I mean, maybe. Yeah, of course.

I mean, they want to make more money. Yeah, they're totally behind all of it. It's the actual organization itself. That's my theory, at least.

Well, the Indians, too. Remember I told you the baseball games? There's always an Indian sitting behind a home plate. I'm telling you, watch the World Series game tonight, you're going to see Smokin' Joe right behind home plate.

You mean Native American, sir? Native American? Native American? Indigenous person?

They like Native American? We can't call them Indians. They're not Indians? They don't like Indians.

No, they're indigenous people. I think that is the correct term. Yes, they're indigenous people. What a movie Pocahontas would have been if that's what they would have called them.

Hey, you indigenous peoples over there. This sounds horrible. We apologize. We'd like to recognize you as people that were here before us.

It's the 10-year-old girl that was forced to marry the Spaniard. We will take this land from you. I'm not sure if I like Pocahontas, Sacagawea, come here. So, because you're here already, it's your land, I don't, like that's, is that how that worked?

We have guns. We have guns? What do you have? Oh my goodness.

Check out this flag. Nice. Good for you. Put it on the ground, it's ours.

All right, Michael, you wanted to talk about the Jets player that died, the poor unfortunate man? Yes, Nick Mangold. Well, I sent you a clip, I'd like you to watch the clip, if that's okay. I will mute mine.

Am I playing it with volume? Yeah, go ahead. All right, you can mute it. It's fine.

Oh, you didn't send it there, you sent it here. Well, don't I have to hear it? Yes. The Ohio State family is mourning today as well.

Nick Mangold gone at just the age of people, but particularly for you, what are you doing? What are you? What are your emotions this morning? Let's start it off.

That's just, uh, it's... People, but particularly for you, what are your emotions this morning? That's just, it's brutal. Such a great young man.

I had the pleasure of coaching him for all six years with the Jets. And I remember it was obvious I was getting fired. My last game, Mangold's injured, like injured. " And he wanted to play for me.

That's what I remember about this kid. He was awesome and just way too young. That feels so bad for his wife and family. Rough.

Difficult day, obviously, for so many who knew and loved Nick Mangold and you among those and all of the Jets family and the Ohio State family is mourning today as well. Nick Mangold gone at just the age. He was in his 40s, I heard. 41 years old.

He's my age. Well, I guess he had a kidney disease that he knew would take him eventually, but he thought he would be closer to 60 when it happened. Yeah, so he reached out like a week ago asking Steve. Right, so he waited too long to get put on the kidney list.

Oh, that video right there. Oh, my God. Because of his kidney disease, it was harder to find a match for him. Is that what it is?

Yeah. Because it changed the genetics that he needed to get the kidneys. 41 years old, man. That's horrible.

I mean, just to see the impact, though, like, Rex Ryan, you know, like, I'm not even a Rex Ryan fan. I don't even like the guy. Is that the coach's name? Yeah.

He was a Jets fan, or a Jets coach, and he's got foot addiction. He's got a terrible foot addiction. Well, I mean, you know, he's got like a foot fetish. Oh.

Yeah. Is that why he lost his job? No, he lost his job because... Everybody in the locker room, take off your shoes.

Because nobody in the Jets organization has been able to get the Jets together, unfortunately. Oh, right. Well, I mean, he's a coach, right? So, like, he builds a bond with his players, and that bond is pretty strong.

So, I mean, for something like that to happen for somebody at such a young age, you know, it kind of hits you kind of hard. And he's probably thinking a lot about the kids and the wife as well, as he's speaking. He has five kids. Five kids.

But it shows the character of the person, right? Like this guy, I'm so glad I got to see that video, because this guy, he knows that the career's done, right? He knows that he's injured, but he still went out and played. Right.

Right, it was the coach's last game, so he wanted to play for his coach. For him, yeah. Man, that sucks. I read he stayed on as a spokesperson for the team, even after he was retired.

Really? Yeah, like an ambassador. Ambassador, that's what I was looking for. Yeah, he's still part of the organization.

That's a damn shame. I guess thoughts and prayers go out to the family. Yeah. 41, so young.

So young. All right. On a lighter note, let's move on. Well, you sort of brought down the show.

So sorry. I saw that and I wanted to share it. All right. That's the buzz around the globe.

Now, here's what's burning in the cigar world. Ooh, you know, in this business, it's the community. It's the phrase burn cigars, not bridges means something. And if you have embodied that better than the crew at How About That Cigar, After seven years and more than 300 episodes, the team behind HBTC has announced they'll be suspending operations at the end of 2025.

Really? Their final, yes. This is news to me, I'm sorry. Just the way he jumped in.

Really? He's legitimately just hearing about this. Their final live show will air December 8th. Founder Matt Tai first streamed up HBTC back in 2015, but he waited until the timing was right, building experience, sharpening his craft.

By 2019, he launched the site and HBTC live podcast, giving cigar lovers one of the most authentic, balanced voices in the industry, from Garrett Robinson's legendary Numero de los Muertos segment, to Justin Lawyer's precise production work and trade show coverage, to Raul Ramos, who joined in 2023, he was one of my favorite actors, bringing an energy that reignited the room, HBTC was always more than a show, it was a family built on passion, humor, and respect for the leaf. As they wrap up this final chapter, the team leaves us with the reminder that carried them from day one, burn cigars, not bridges, because in this world, friendship burns longer than any stick ever will. Hmm. Man, this is sad.

This is a big one? Yeah. He's distraught. You thought the last story was sad.

Jesus. Yeah, Boots, can you watch this video? We can videotape it. This is Matt Tye announcing.

I didn't, nobody pre-told me about this. This is, this isn't it amazing. Well, there was a press release. It's been all over the media all weekend.

No big deal. And there's a lot going on because of it. Yes, it has sparked quite the controversy in the cigar media industry. Yes.

And there's a lot to cover there, but like, you want to try and get Matt on the phone? Try to get him on the phone? Let's see if we can call Matt real quick. Everybody put on your headphones?

Donning headphones? We have to use my phone because Michael's phone likes to hang up on people. Yep, sure does. It's the top of the line.

I'm glad that we've prepared ourselves today though. Top-of-the-line, folks, it's the best of the best. How many rings? I don't know, will he answer?

Two. That's two. Only two. Hello?

Yes. Mr. Ty! Yes?

Hello, this is Mike Palmer, Mike Stebonkevich, and some guy over there behind the board. I am Boots. We're on the Cigaroser Podcast, sir! What's going on, buddy?

Never heard of you. That's okay. We hear there's gonna be some listeners that are looking for something. You guys know I'm kidding.

I love you guys. Well, there's a vacuum going on currently, and we're about to absorb more viewers than ever. Oh. Hey, nature abhors a vacuum, so if there's empty space, something's gonna fill it.

Okay, so let me ask you. And I know that, well, listen, we're going on your podcast tonight. That was the next thing I was going to talk about. So I appreciate you coming on here.

I mean, this will air after the HBTC thing, obviously. But I just wanted to cover a couple of things real quick with you. Number one is I just finished your Pete Johnson interview. And it didn't sound like you had any indication that you were done with how about that cigar at that time.

Did something happen within the past few weeks where you're just like, okay, this is it? No, honestly. So you're, well, not the first to hear this, but the first, like outside of my local cigar circle to hear this, this is a decision that I actually came to, it was before the first of the year, so we're talking like December of 2024 is when I decided that 2025 was going to be the last year for How About That Cigar, I just kept it, and I didn't even tell It wasn't until Raul and Justin until, like, I don't know, April, something like that. Okay.

No one told me. Um, I just came to, yeah, I, I felt like, you know, it was, uh, it was the time. Yeah. Okay.

So you've kind of sparked a whole conversation now across the social media platform. I don't know if you've noticed. I'd like to hear about it. No, no, I didn't see a thing.

There's now a crisis, apparently, in cigar media. There's a media crisis. Everybody's burning bridges. And, you know, Coop's blaming some people here.

He's blaming retailers for getting information ahead of time, he's blaming retailers for becoming media, he's blaming a lot of things. Is that us? Wait, is he blaming? Maybe.

Is he blaming things because that's why, how about the cigars closing down? Well, you know, Matt, you got, you have one of the best shows, dude, you know, you do a great job at interviewing people, and I've always said that to you, and it is kind of shocking to see you go, so. I mean, it means a lot that you guys think we did a good job, you know, we always, we always tried to do our best, and I appreciate that. He's going to always give you this, don't burn bridges.

No, honestly, I, so there's nobody, I mean, if, if the conversation is out there that like, you know, there's somebody to quote unquote blame for, how about that cigar shutting down? Or there's somebody to blame for some other cigar podcast shutting down or something like that. There's, and I don't know. I don't know why any other cigar media or cigar podcasts would choose to shut down.

I know why I chose to shut down and there's no, the only person to blame for how about that cigar shutting down is me and it's the only reason I made the decision is, I mean, there were a few reasons, but you know, the biggest one is when I first started it, I said, I want to accomplish I feel like I've accomplished those things and now I kind of want to do other things so that's honestly that's that's it there's no blame there's no animosity there's no you know you did this to me to any other media groups or PCA or anything like that it's just I reached a point where I said yep I feel comfortable with what we did and how we got there and I'm grateful for all of it and Now it's time to do something else. If you had made more money on how about that cigar? Wait, they make money? Oh, wait, there's money involved in this?

How does people make money in this? Yeah. Would you have kept it going? I honestly can't say for sure.

That was part of it is, you know, it was, you know, More money going out than money came in, and, you know, doing that for too many years in a row, obviously, that's not a, you know, that's not a good business model. And could I have-- Heard that's frowned upon, yeah. Yeah, we know. Yeah.

Could I have, you know, put in more work and more time to, you know, get more revenue and things like that from advertisers? I could have. And I didn't put in that work, and that's just because in the last couple years, I've been focusing a lot of my time on my family, and about that, I have zero regrets. Okay.

So, would, you know, if we had, you know, more advertising revenue coming in, maybe I would have kept things going. But honestly, it would have, it would need to have been significant for me to still, you know, put the time in every week that's required to, because you guys know what it takes to, you know, put together content and, and relationships and maintaining all that stuff. It's not just, you know, plug in at, you know, 30 minutes before the show starts and go. But there's a lot of stuff that goes in beforehand.

So if it would have kept going, and if money was going to be a factor, it would have had to be way significant for me to say, yeah, yeah, I'll keep it going. Okay. All right. Well, I don't want to keep you too long, because I'm sure that this is going to become a major topic of discussion on HBTC.

And I don't want to reopen and have the same conversation twice with you. That seems silly, but I did at least want to call and tell you that, man, you're one of the best in the industry. It sucks to see you go. I wish that people paid you more money because I honestly believe that that would have been different.

I would think that would have changed things for you a little bit. It would have made more opportunities for you, more opportunities for your family and it's a big challenge I think it's a huge you know I saw an email recently that a manufacturer did not want to pay the amount for media and I'm like man you know it's like I think it's what's really kind of funny is you see like a lot of people it's like the fat guy. watching the olympian fall and be like idiot you know i mean like you have no idea how much work and effort that person has put in to get to that moment and believe me they're extremely pissed they just stumbled way more pissed than you'll ever be you've never you're not even a man in the arena you never had that experience and for you to say hey it's not worth it you know um but But that media source has always endorsed you and has always done positive things for you, man, that's, I don't think that that's at all fair, you know? So, I mean, that's just one fragment of this conversation.

And, you know, like I said, we could definitely go into this more if you want to. Do you want to go into this more on your show? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, as always, I've got some stuff, you know, kind of prepared to talk to you.

Because, you know, we have you guys on, so you can talk about the stuff you have going on, and we want our viewers and listeners to know about that, but, as always, there's also an openness to the forum, so, you know, we can talk about anything, but I'm just curious, go back to that analogy you made a second ago, am I the fat guy or the Olympian? You're the guy in the arena, right? You're putting in all this hard work, you know what I mean? No, I'm just busting your balls.

And like it's, you know, obviously our format is totally different. We don't believe in the ad space, right? I'm not saying that it's right or it's wrong. I'm just saying that that's not what we choose to do, right?

Because we always want to have transparency. We always want to have the ability to burn the bridge because we like to burn the bridge. We'll build it back later. It's okay.

Yes, but we burn it now. We have no problem. We ignite, we ignite the bridge, and then we'd go back and we can rebuild the better bridge, like build back better. That's our model here.

You know, like that's, we have no, and when you don't have that ad space, it's clear that we can kind of speak how we want to speak, right? At least it's, it can be interpreted that way, right? So that was just, that's just kind of the way that we went about it. Now, but if you go the other direction, and you go with the ad space, you see that it, all the ad space monopolizes a ton of space on these shows, and that's fine, but there's a significant amount of value there, and I don't think that it's possible to actually quantify, well, this is how many views we get, and whatever, and like, you're never gonna know how many people that turns into a person, you know, someone liking that brand, right?

You're never going to know how long that person is going to be on that brand. If that person becomes a lifer, and they buy everything new that you have, they support your core line, they buy all those things, and it's just one person, was it worth that one year worth of ad space? The answer is 100% yes, without question. But I don't think brands see that that way.

I don't think manufacturers see it that way. I think that they're, you know, they don't, I mean, dude, you know, I bought an ad space with you because I want to support you, right? Like, hey, you know, I mean, we didn't even update it this year. I'm like, just fucking run it again.

Who cares? Right? I mean, we were on the top. We were in the list.

We were like number two or three. We were up there. And, you know, you're still saying the same thing. Well, not acknowledged by.

Unrated. The only unrated cigarette. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons that we wanted to have, have you guys and our, you know, for these last five or six shows, however many we have left, you know, we, we, in, in all those slots, we have the people that have consistently advertised with us, just kind of, kind of as a thank you, you know, for the people that have helped, you know, we got coming on, we got you guys coming on, we got Pedro from Drew Estate coming on.

And, you know, it's kind of a homage, like a thank you to, you know, the people that were consistently, you know, in our corner. I get it, man. Absolutely, dude. That's, that's very, very admirable of you, dude.

And not surprising at all. Is anybody, I'm super sad about this. Matt, just so you know. About the show ending?

That's kind of rude. No, I'm, I'm sad about the show ending. He heard Nick Mangold died and he's not nearly as affected. Yeah, they're like, oh, we're gonna call Matt's high, and then they started reading the thing, how your show is, and I'm like, what?

I just heard about this. I haven't seen anything on social media. Oh, you didn't see? Okay.

This is sad, man. You guys do a good job. And, you know, the first time I ever saw some real camaraderie in the cigar industry with the media was one year when we went to PCA in Vegas, and Garrett Robinson had just started working for Don Doroteo. And then he got everybody together from the media over at Don Doroteo to do your birthday and I thought that was really cool man like just seeing everybody in the circle and all the different media guys and just how everybody just like connected and and just rallied together for your birthday and stuff.

I thought it was really cool. So sorry to see you go man. It's a great group of people. I appreciate that.

It's the there's so many you know there's so many great people you know that do podcasts and cigar media coverage. Well, it's about to get dog-eat-dog now, buddy, let's go. Hey, hey, I'll just say turn off the lights when you leave. Okay, cool, brother.

Well, we'll continue this conversation with you in six hours. Yeah, right on. Looking forward to it, as always. And if you're listening to this, that means that we already did have a podcast.

That means that we already did How About That Cigar, and you need to go back and listen to How About That Cigar. That's right. Exactly. All right, brother.

Well, thank you so much, man. We appreciate you. Thanks, Matt. We'll talk to you soon.

All right. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you. Take care.

Bye-bye. Okay, so Matt Ty, how about that cigar? So, it sounds like he just figured he's taking it, he's done everything he wanted to do. yeah you know well he said he accomplished some things yeah look dude this is a lot of work people don't understand that it is an incredible they think you just sit down in front of the camera and just start talking it's an incredible amount of work well i think some people that have come on here to co-host have figured that out you know as they're reading i think that you know what dude that's kind of part of why i like encouraging people you know here's one thing The other thing that I saw that was really kind of funny is I'm a psychopath and I coach 75,000 teams I don't you know like it is what it is I you know I don't know how to tell kids no even if you're not my kid and you want and and we're maxed out and like you know no one's gonna coach this kid because he's not as athletic as the kids that have been doing it for I'm gonna tell that kid yes right right all right come on come with us we'll build another team whatever we'll figure it out and you know through that number you have you it's It's quantified, right?

Let's say you have an average of 15 kids on a team, whether it's basketball, football, whatever, you know, you multiply that by six. He's killing me with that letter. I know. I do.

That's, you know, that's close to, that's 90 kids, multiply that by two, that's 200 parents. Right. Ish, right? Sometimes, of those 200 parents, somebody's got something to say.

They like to give unsolicited advice, right? And more often than not, it's incorrect. It's invalid. I'll still hear them, but it's usually not right.

And what's even funnier is some of those parents will then go out and coach their kid. They're like, I don't like how this is being ran. I'm going to go and do it. Oh, start up a whole nother team.

Yeah. I'm like, great. That's awesome. Sure.

You know, I encourage parents to coach their kids because more often than not, after them doing it two or three seasons, they come back and they're like, Hey man, all that shit I said to you, I was totally wrong, this is extremely difficult, there's a lot to it, there's so many moving parts, and that's the same thing in this realm, when it comes to podcasts, that's why I always encourage a person that's doing it, that's why I'm like, hey man, you know, I appreciate what you do, you're working your ass off, it's not easy, the pace sucks, you know, keep doing what you're doing, right? And, if you haven't done this, you don't have the right to tear somebody apart. Fair enough, I agree. You don't!

No. Until you sit in the chair, until you bust your ass and put it together, you don't have the right, as far as, your words mean nothing, it's called unsolicited advice, I don't want to hear it, I don't care about it, it means nothing to me, you know, period, period, you know, there are people that I respect that will give me points of view. But those people I will respect in all walks of life and all the things that I do maybe they're not part of the podcast maybe they don't do podcasts but you know they have earned that from me sure right um but if you're chiming in up from the cheap seats I don't really care you know um so you know Cooper just did a lovely article you know and he was stating things that uh he He gets upset, and I'm sure I'm going to get yelled at for fact checking. Sorry, Coop, if I screw this up.

One of the things that he hates, the fact that retailers get information before press release, before media gets releases. That's not entirely true. I could see how that would happen. If I'm having a conversation, and I'm going to shout out my guy James at BL Luxuries because he's one of the greatest.

He's a great guy. And I say, hey, look, Warbear is going to be coming out, blah, blah, blah. And then he jumps on and does a pre-order thing and whatever, then yeah, maybe he got that, that information beforehand. Like that, that's going to happen.

That's the nature of the beast. Right. But you want to know something? James called me.

I had conversation with James, right? There's only one guy in media, one guy in media that calls all the time to see what's going on. Hey, I haven't heard anything. What's going on with this release?

Do you have any information? Whatever. And that's just That's Charlie Minato of Half-Wheel. Yeah, and that's why his empire is so big.

And it's not even close. It's not even close. I'm not shitting on anybody else. But the fact of the matter is, the reason why Charlie gets the information first is because he's out going and getting it.

Yeah, because he's asking for it. He's not waiting for the email to come to him. Right. He's gonna make sure that he gets the intel.

And I got news for you. We do this fucking game of what's the score. Like, you go back into the archives of Half-Wheel. Right.

From 15 years ago, about a cigar and look it up in a blink of an eye, it's an unrivaled encyclopedia of data for this industry, sure, it's not even close, Encyclopedia Britannica of the cigar industry, right, hey, what was the price point of the first Las Cal, right, boom, you could go look it up, right, you could see the production, it's easy, it's easy to look, it's simple, right, and that's because those Those guys bust their ass. And look, I'm not fluffing them because they shit all over my SBC. Right? Right.

They shit all over it. I think they were wrong, but whatever. Yes, they were wrong. I'm still going to acknowledge it.

The fact that, look, they're the only ones that do that. It's not even close. It's not even close. Right.

And not only is it not even close for the hustle, the data is unrivaled. It's super easy to go through their website, to check out information. I mean, we learn about, I learn about stuff from you about what's going on in the cigar industry and you're getting it from Half Wheel. Right, the only place I look anymore.

Right, well, you're talking, Half Wheel is a company, is a real business. The other ones that are just waiting for the emails, those are just hobbyists. Well, I think Coop does it for real. Well, he still has another job though, I think is what Boots is saying.

I think that that's kind of winding down and this is something that he takes extremely seriously. Okay. But, like, the other thing, too, is with the ad space, we don't, I just, I know we just kind of talked about that with Matt, right, we don't believe in the ad space, you know, would the ad space money be nice, fuck yes, it would be great, it would be great, it would be great, because I'm gonna tell you, this has been seven years, this hasn't been two or three or four, this has been seven years of us doing this every friggin' week, twice a week, once for this show, once for the Patreon, right, right. And then I go in, and I clip all of it, and that sucks up two days of my life.

Right. Probably more than that, but yeah. Yeah. The ad money would be nice.

Yeah. But guess what? For me, for what I believe in, and I hope you guys believe in the same thing, it takes away from our authenticity. Like, we get to be completely legit and transparent on this show.

And no one can stop us. I get angry text messages from brand owners. We've had people try. I get phone calls.

I get it all. Yeah. Just call him. It's fine.

I get it. Believe me, I get it. And you know what? I'm not looking to hurt anybody.

No, we're never malicious. No, yeah. We are malicious at times. " No, no.

We just want the industry to be better. Right. I just want this industry to be better than what it is. That's why we're doing this.

Well, yeah, yeah. You always want it to evolve. Yeah, 'cause look, I want more than 3 million cigar consumers in the United States. That's a ridiculously low number, right?

It's obnoxious to me. Right, and podcast is the number one way to get in front of people nowadays anyway. It's an amazing thing to do, to sit down and smoke a cigar, and just kind of relax, right? And just reflect on the day, and be with your boys, or whatever, or hang out with your spouse, right?

Right? We're going to be social. Like, there are a ton of people that are missing out on this opportunity. A ton of them.

And I don't know how to touch them. But I'm going to continue to do this with you until we figure it out. Because it's important to me. Right?

Right. What else did he say? Because now you got me going. He said he was blaming people.

Well, he blamed retailers. Is he blaming retailers because some of them get information first? Yes. So how does that affect his show?

People are watching his four hours. The other thing too is he also blamed retailers for doing their own podcast. Now, I don't know. I don't think that was a shot towards me or us.

I'm sorry. Me is inappropriate. Is there another one? A shot towards us.

There's a couple. But I got news for you. These retailers that are doing the work, they're trying their best to build relationships with consumers. And nothing for nothing, but he's on Abe's show all the time.

Right. Yeah, Abe's a retailer that has a podcast. And you can't discredit Abe, the guy busts his ass. Sure.

He's one of the hardest workers in this industry. It's not close. There's a handful of guys that work as hard as Abe. So he's saying that he doesn't think retailers should have a podcast?

Yeah. He thinks that it takes away from media. I think the majority of them are retailers that have podcasts. Yeah, he says that it takes away from media.

I mean, who else is going to get the information than a retailer? Yeah, he also says trade associates are in an issue. He doesn't like the fact that uh, BCA didn't let him in on time. You know, what's, what's crazy to me is like, look, you know, so, so look, I, Posani's bought some ad space.

Well, I bought some ad space with Bear. I bought some ad space with, how about that cigar? I bought some ad space with, how about that cigar? I bought some ad space with developing palettes.

These are all my guys. Yeah, you try to sprinkle it around. Yeah, you just did it because they're friends. These are all my guys.

Right. I want to support them. Right. I had another one reach out to me.

Mm-hmm. I had another one. I'm not going to say their name because I'm not going to be shitty, all right? No worries.

I had another one reach out to me, and I said, "Hey, listen, I got news for you. I'm really sorry, but I see this guy. I see these guys at every PCA, and they walk right past our booth and go to the next one. We're always super polite to them.

I always say hi to them. We're never invited on their show like I'm gonna give you money for that right I'm gonna give you money like how does that make sense I can't do that sure why why bother the only reason why I would give you money is because I want to support you you don't want to support us at all why would I go out of my way to support you that's stupid right I think we wouldn't be interesting to talk to we're gonna do something stupid yes no you know what it's not that we do something stupid It's that we're really open and honest about things. Well, that's what I mean, I mean, we're gonna do something fun and you're gonna tell the truth and you're not gonna pull a punch. And between the two of us, when we have enough information and work in this industry where we have a lot of information, then we got Dum-Dum and Dum-Dum is worth fucking his weight in gold over there.

Are you kidding me? With the stuff that he says? It's incredible. How do you not want, yeah, if you don't want us on, then like, do you really like your viewers?

Or do you just really like, do you want to feed them propaganda? If you want to feed them propaganda, I get it. I get it. You're right, we are not the right people to be on your show.

No, not if that's what they do. If you want open, if you want authenticity, if you want transparency, yeah, we are definitely that. 100%. I mean, we piss off everybody, including our friends.

Right? Right. So, yeah, look, I mean, you know, it sucks to see him go, you know, it's... He kept it a secret for like six months after he designed it.

I mean, you could see that things have been wearing on him when I've had interactions with him, but I couldn't put it together. I think it was the loss of Garrett. What's that? Like, because Garrett didn't stop doing the podcast?

No, I don't think it was that. I think it's just a combination of things as far as life is concerned. Like, this is a daunting task in itself, plus, like, life. Yeah, you lose half a week.

" You know what I mean? Like, even us. " Like, well then, oh, but you want to go, I got to go run over here, I'm like, okay, well then, shit, maybe we'll, like, what, I mean, what happened a few weeks ago, okay, so, like, let's move it to the next day, well, then the next day's going to be a problem because X, Y, Z, I'm like, okay, well, we can do it the next day, I'm like, now we're getting far out, well, we could do it on Thursday, I'm like, that's a completely different week at that point, right, you want to be consistent, right, so, hey, let's haul ass, let's get here super early in the morning, and let's do this, and let's get it so that it comes up at the same time that it always comes, and we figured it out, right, right, like, that is, that in itself. is super challenging on top of you know being a good spouse being a good parent running a good business running three of them into the ground apparently what i'm really good at um you know like and making sweatshirts and i'm not using yeah i'm not using that as i'm not saying me as example like that's just kind of a blanketing statement sure you have stuff as you know you got to take care of your spouse you got to take care of your kids you got to take care of your job right he doesn't really do much but he cares about the sports betting so you know hey listen Coop, this is not shots fired at you, I don't need you to get butt hurt or whatever the hell, you know, look, stop, I'm not mad at you, I don't hate you, if you want to hate me, then hate me, but I don't hate you, I'm just saying that your points that you're making, to me, seem invalid, and, you know, if you want the information, if you're mad about people getting information for you, then yeah, you're right, go out and search for it, go get it, yeah, go get it, your media, that's what, That's what reporter, you're a reporter.

Yeah, go report. That's, yeah. Shit, after a sports game is done, the first people in front of those faces, yeah, are reporters. How did you feel about beating the hell out of Aaron Rodgers today as a Green Bay Packer?

I felt great about it, thank you for asking. I'm gonna sit up here in the stands, they're gonna come by and talk to me, don't worry, it'll be fine. Yeah, exactly, yeah, right. And you can't, he's coming, he's coming as soon as he gets done with those 75 people that have him in the circle.

Why is he walking out the back door? Doesn't he know I'm sitting up here? I've been waiting for hours! Well, he'll send me an email, don't worry.

I'll get a press release, it'll be fine. I'll watch one of these other shows, I'll get the information that way. I've done that before too. Rant over.

Moving on. Trump administration threatens 100% tariffs on all Nicaraguan products, citing a variety of alleged human rights abuses. S. S.

On Monday, October 20th, the USTR announced that it is seeking public comment on a variety of allegations and proposed remedies, the most consequential of which would be an immediate tariff of 100% on all Nicaraguan goods and suspending Nicaragua's rights of Dominican Republic, Central America, United States. S. and Latin American countries, including Nicaragua, the CAFTA threat is not new. S.

businesses could not compete with. Today, a 46-page report included some of those accusations but goes further accusing Nicaragua's Ortega, how do you say his last name? What's his name? He's got it.

Ortega. You have the last name. Ortega Murillo? Is he Italian?

Murillo? Murillo? He's Italian. Government of gross violations of human rights, including attempted assassinations, extrajudicial killings, and revoking his citizenship, torture, forced exile, human trafficking, and more.

S. State Department for further investigation. Wait, wait, wait, wait, they said evidence of third world country stuff? Of this man specifically killing people, allegedly killing people, assassinating people, kidnapping people, using children to do things, all sorts of bad stuff.

Look, he's a dictator, right? I mean, I, okay. First of all, it's a socialist country. I don't know, I don't know if any of that exists.

I've never seen any of that with my own two eyes. Could it exist? Possibly. I don't know.

I can tell you that I've been to numerous cigar factories and I've never seen a hint of any of that. Death, human trafficking, nothing. None of that. Well, I don't think that would be in the cigar factory.

But the child labor part, though, you've never seen any children there rolling cigars. No, never seen it. I've never seen that. So, you know, kind of ridiculous to make that statement.

You know, you better be able to prove it. You know, like the whole reason why all of these things are made outside of this country is because to make things inside of this country costs more. So are we going to go after Nike then? Like, you know, are we going to go through all of these things and make it so that it's absolutely absurd because we heard this?

We heard it's happening. Yeah, you know. A guy I know who works for a guy, told a guy. Yeah, I spoke to a gentleman who, yeah, that guy.

What kind of suits does Trump wear? Here's the big issue that I have. They're not from Nicaragua. Here's the big issue that I have is I have a problem with anybody that follows and reads a news media statement and uses that to back whatever their political beliefs are or whatever the case may be.

and it because it doesn't matter what they say you're just going to agree with it and i think that that is the biggest mistake that we do as our society you should always ask questions period ask questions right um because i saw statements of like well it's for human it's for the humanitarianism like okay well i didn't see any of that uh the company that i work with doesn't do So, I'm going to get punished as well, for one, that's a problem. For two, you know, if you support Trump and you believe in Trump, then the whole purpose of why he wanted tariffs to happen in the first place was to level the playing field for the countries that were taking advantage of us. Right. That was the original reason.

Well, it's safe to say that the cigar industry does not qualify in those parameters. No. Oh, with this statement. Yeah.

Well, in the original statement, right? Yep. And it's safe to say that the cigar industry doesn't qualify in these parameters. So why anybody would blindly just say media says this, this is for humanitarianism, this is what I support.

Like, no, no, that's not, you should ask questions, man. Why is this happening? Why are they doing this? There's more to it than what they just tell you, right?

And following anybody blind makes you a fucking idiot. I mean, let's be honest. I don't care who you support. Like, that's the reality.

Don't be stupid, man. Ask questions. You've been awful quiet over there. I'm letting you talk.

I don't want to get yelled at for interrupting. You're on a roll. Okay, thank you. All right, continue.

All right, the comment period is open Ben and currently runs through November 19th, 2025. Great. The end. The end.

Yeah, let me put my full name, my address. Yeah, yeah. My email. Yes, send it to the government, please.

Let me put all of that intel into why I'm against you doing that. Right. Why you're against the government. That's awesome.

Send all that information. Click this box. I'm not a robot. Okay.

All right. Sinistro. Sinistro. Is that what we agreed to saying?

This is The Last Cowboy Ghoul and 13-year anniversary. Sinistro has a pair of new limited-edged cigars heading to stores this week. The Last Cowboy Ghoul. Oh, maybe it's The Last Cowboy Ghoul.

And its 13-year anniversary. The Last Cowboy Ghoul is the latest extension to the company's Last Cowboy line, this time with a bit of a Halloween theme to it. The blend features a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper with a pair of Dominican Candela stripes on the front of the cigar. Underneath that is a Mexican San Andres binder and a filler of Dominican Piloto, Cuban Lajero, or Cubano Lajero, and Nicaragua-grown tobacco.

The company calls the blend rich and earthy, driven by Rapperleaf. It is offered in two sizes, the Robusto at $1,350, and the Toro, a 6x56 Toro, at $1,450, box of $2,290. The other cigar is a 13 year anniversary is also a limited edition, this time celebrating the company's latest milestone. Its blend features a Mexican San Andreas Maduro wrapper, a Dominican Piloto Cubano binder, and filler that contains Dominican Criollo 98 and Orlo Nicaraguan Criollo tobacco from Paraguay, and Marafel African Cameroon.

They have found a place to put it, gentlemen. It was offered in one size, a 6x50 Toro priced at... We've moved our production to Sinistro. Meh.

They are buying everything now. We have changed my hat to a cowboy hat. 50 Toro priced at $11 per cigar box or $220 for a box of 20. Production is limited to 200 boxes, but that might change if they sell more, I'm guessing.

Maybe. Maybe. The 13th anniversary is something special for us. The company wrote on a press release, once we started sampling the final blend, we knew we had something truly exceptional.

I don't know if it's optional on our hands. There's already been internal discussion about making it a regular production cigar because it's just that good. Both cigars were produced at the Artista Cigar Factory. Oh, is that connected to the Halloween Hardness?

It's connected to the Halloween Hardness. Oh, nice. Yeah. Dominican Republic.

They had a cigar section in there. Oh, with the blend developed by James Agapins and Estro's co-owner and blend. Agapins? I don't know his name.

Agapins. Agapin. Crown Heads is releasing... Oh, did you want to talk about the...

No, that's good. All right. Crown Heads is releasing the Belgian Blue as it's returning again for 2025. Aha.

Next month, Belgian Blue, limited edition from Crown Heads will get its sophomore release. Unlike a lot of the company's limited edition cigars, which return in the same Vitoli cheer, the company is keeping the same blend, but changing the size. This year's release will be, anybody want to guess? Robusto.

Boots. The big 60 gauge. Completely went the other way. 5x56 double Robusto, a change compared to last year's 6x54 Toro Extra.

Everything's Extra with him. The blend uses a Mexican San Andreas wrapper over Ecuadorian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Niquiragua. Crownhead says that the blending style for Belgian Blue is unique because 75% of the fillers are from the Lajero Priming. Lajero refers to the leaves at the very top of the tobacco plant, which tends to be smaller and stronger than those in the middle and bottom.

Many companies avoid having Lajero dominating blends due to its reduced combustion. Each crown heads Belgian Blue LE 2025 as an MSRP of? Gentlemen. $13.

A double Robusto? Yes. And this is a regular production? No, this is an LE.

It's probably like $16, $17. 50. Production is limited to $2,500. He's completely off today.

Not looking forward to what's the score. No, I'm not. Crownhead says the cigars will ship in early November. Miguel has yet to contact me.

I heard you say 75% of the fillers and stuff, but you didn't say like the wrapper or anything. Yes, I did. It was earlier. The Belgian Blue?

E. When you asked us regular production. All right, we'll move on. While we knew we had something special with the Belgian Blue Blend, the reaction to the cigar surpassed even our expectations, said John Huber, co-founder and president of Crown Heads and a press release.

We have received many requests asking for us to produce more, bring it back, or even make it a regular production line. So far, be it for a must not to listen to our customers, Crown Heads Belgian Blue LE is produced at Dahouy, Dahouy Tobacco, as I say, Same Nicaraguan factory that produces Juarez and Mildias for Crownheads. I like Juarez. That's a good one.

That's a bull one, right? That's Pichardo, buddy. I'm just reading the names. Hatui.

Remember you said his last name, Hatui? Oh, is that Pichardo? It said Hatui. Yeah, that's his last name.

Remember you said Hatui at the last show? Yes, but I mean, there was not Pichardo on this. That was what they said his name was. They said Hatui.

Oh, gotcha. So his name is Pichardo Hatui? Yes. I mean, that's not how you say it.

Oh. Yes, that's how you say it, in my world, I like when you said that, didn't you? I hope I never see this guy. Ah, Mr.

Hatoui! Bless you, what? Blackworks Studios, the Five Temples, Seven Star, Fist of Shallow, is shipping next week, and has the longest name of any cigar. The what?

Back that up, say it one more time. Blackworks Studio is releasing the Five Temples, Slash, Seven Star, Fist of Shaolin. This has to be a plan Wu-Tang. Shaolin Shadow Boxing.

Shaolin. And the Wu-Tang Souls. The second of two special samplers from Black Label Trading Company will begin shipping to stores next week. It's part of the Black Work Studios portfolio, a sub-brand within Black Label, and includes 24 cigars, all of which are Bellicoso rolled in various blends.

"The collection is something I've wanted to do for a long time," said James Brown, founder of Black Label Trading Company, in a press release. " It's finally time to do a production release! The vibe I wanted was an old-school kung-fu movie, and the Five Temples Seven Star Fists of Shaolin definitely has that feel! That explains the name!

It feels old-school kung-fu-y! The concept was to create a collection that not only introduces a new Vitola for the Bees and Hornets... I'm getting undertones of Bruce Lee on this one... but also showcases different wrappers.

Each cigar is a unique representation of the blend, and the pyramid shape symbolizes the form of a Shaolin temple. The box is in the box? No, no, the cigars. The cigars are pyramids.

It has a Chuck Norris finish. The icing on top of that is the two new versions of the Shaolin. Overall, I think this is the most exciting collection we've ever done for Black Works. For anyone who's a fan of the Killer Bee and Green Hornet, this is a must-have.

Seven plays an important role in the release. The hexagon-shaped box has seven different compartments, and there are seven different cigars included. Inside are 24 cigars. There are two of each version.

version, the Hornet Pyramid, for each of the others, Blackworks Studio Killer B, which is a Connecticut Pyramid, Blackworks Studio Killer B, Maduro Pyramid, Blackworks Studio Killer B, Sumatra Pyramid, Blackworks Studio Shaolin, Candela, Ecuador, Maduro, Bellicoso Pyramid, Blackworks Studio Shaolin, Habano, Ecuador, Maduro, Bellicoso Pyramid, Blackworks, the Hornet Pyramid, PA, broadly, Blackworks Studio, the Hornet Pyramid, San André, there's I thought it said it was only seven. How many have I read so far? All right, you're good. Actually, it's really 10.

All right. In a related story, Poshik would like to announce a... No, no. Don't do it.

Don't you do it. Don't you do it. The love of God, don't do it. But it would be called The Six Temple's Eight Star Fist of Shot.

Palm of... Palm of the fist, the palm. All right, Kesa... What'd you say that word was, Boots?

Atui? Oh, no, no. Caballero? Caballero.

Caballero releases Spymaster. Casa Caballero has released a new regular production line that it calls an experience crafted for those who understand that mastery doesn't seek attention, it earns it. It's called Spymaster, 6x54 Toro with a blend developed by Mario Caballero, founder of Casa Caballero Cigars. Also, it's not Caballero.

Caraballo? Caballero. It's not Caballero. Oh, okay, that's like cowboy or something, isn't it?

It's a gentleman. A gentleman, ah. Uses Ecuadorian Maduro, it could be his last name. Maybe he's from Mr.

Hatui. Maybe. Uses an Ecuadorian Maduro wrapper and a Niki Ragwan binder and filler described as a medium-bold profile that balances creaminess and complexity with nuance-flavored, a slow, deliberate journey that rewards reflection as much as it does celebration. Pricing is set at $14 per cigar, $140 for a box of 10.

The cigars are made at the Pepito Gomez Tobacco Company, Esteli, Nicaragua. Part of the cigars' inspiration came from the 9/11 attacks on the United States, with the company paying tribute to those who served and observed and operated in silence. Inspired by the clandestine world of intelligence, Pymaster honors the men and women who shaped history through instinct and precision. The company wrote in a press release, "Spymaster isn't for the loud," said, whatever that guy's name is, we can't decide on, in a press release, "it's for the few of us who move through the world unseen, those whose presence is felt not announced".

If one of these cigars is not named Jason Bourne, these are not real spymasters. They didn't name the individual cigars. You think that Jason Bourne would be tied into 9/11? Maybe.

Never forget? Maybe. Okay. Okay.

Maybe. I see how you got that. It's not there, but okay. And finally, the Knuckles Sandwich goes off-menu for a new TA release.

Ooh. Off-menu. Off-menu. That's the name of the cigar.

I would like... The Knuckles Sandwich cigars are announced off-menu. It's a new exclusive limited edition for the Tobacco Association of America. I would like the grilled cheese off-menu.

It's a 6x54 box-pressed Toro with a blend that uses a Pennsylvania broadleaf wrapper atop a Niki-Rogwin binder and filler. The company calls it a bold, balanced, and complex profile worthy of the knuckle sandwich name. The cigars are made in the San Latino factory in Octal, Nicaragua, with production limited to... Ooh, this is a tough number.

Booths, what do you got? This is TAA numbers. 500. I would say 5,000.

1,250 boxes of 20. He won. Total run of 25,000 cigars. Oh, never mind.

I won. I won. You just got the box count wrong. Yes.

No, I thought it was 5,000 cigars made. Oh. Pricing is set at? Boots Love.

Wait, wait. For a knuckle sandwich? For a TAA knuckle sandwich. Mm-hmm.

Boots Love's Espinosa cigars. I think the last TAA one I had from them was... Would have been the Chaka Khan. Yeah.

With the black box with the gold eyes. No. I didn't know. No.

What was he talking about? The white owl. The white owl? The white bird, there was a bird on it.

The bat. Oh, it's a white bat. Mercer Lardo? Yeah.

Like the whole thing with Espinosa? Guano. Or whatever it is. Yeah.

Price needs to set at? Let's go 17. Ooh, good number. I'm going to say 16.

Oh, $16. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Woo! $320 a box.

It's almost like you probably knew this. I actually didn't. I was actually going to go 15 until you threw 17 out there, and then I brought it up to 16. We built the knuckle sandwich line around creativity and respect for craftsmanship, said Eric Espinosa.

Oh, wait, hold on. Sorry. Yeah, come on. Back it up.

Yes. Bro, we built the knuckle sandwich line around creativity and respect for craftsmanship, said Eric Espinosa, owner of Espinosa Premium Cigars, a press release. The off-menu is something special. A new experience for our bros, loyal smokers, and exclusive reward for the TAA family and that one lady that works here.

If you could shove the cigar all the way into the back of your mouth when you do that, that'd be great. I would choke. I don't know how he does that. Who continued to support our brand.

As for the name, it's a fitting tie-in to the Guy Fieri. Yes. Guy Fieri. The celebrity chef who created Knuckle Sandwich Cigars in collaboration with Espinosa.

We, I don't know how to do his voice. We called it Off Menu because it's something made just for those in the know, Fieri said in a press release. This one hits big with flavor and attitude, just like everything that we do. The cigars are scheduled to begin chipping early November.

All right. Typically, oh, sorry, one more thing. Typically, around a dozen manufacturers release new exclusive cigars for the retail members of the organization under the TAA Exclusive Series Program, ESP Manor. Those manufacturers agree to give a portion of the proceeds to the organization, a minimum of 50 cents per cigar is required.

Minimum. Minimum. Minimum. It's a minimum.

Sometimes you pay a dollar, sometimes you pay 50 cents. It all depends on what you're going to do. So how exactly, what exactly do I, well, how do you decide how much you're going to pay? There's literally a guy, maybe his name's Atui, or I don't know, he's sitting there shaking a Magic 8 ball.

You roll the dice, you see what you get. A dollar. Yeah, we got one of those 10-sided die. It's happening.

There it goes. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the biggest game going across the cigar industry when there's not a crisis. Oh. What's the score?

Whoa. We didn't do it together. That's okay. The whoa part was good.

I like that. We'll go with that. Whoa. All right.

First cigar. October 18, 2025. This is the most recent one of the two. Reviewed by Mr.

Charlie Monado, the man who goes after the stories, not the man who waits on the stories to come to him. From General Cigar Company, limited edition, Nicaragua reviews the Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary. That was a good cigar. All right.

We have an extra bit of information on this one, gentlemen. Hey, I'm podcasting stuff. Okay, never mind. All right?

I'm telling you I got a Jack's trap shoes. All right, love you. Bye. 79.

Carry on. All right, I also saw a large gold-painted statue of Johnny Tobacco. It's a cool-looking prop, but I didn't think much beyond how detailed it was. I figured it was just another prop for the booth, one of many props in the booth.

Two days later, I was regularly distracted by the statue. Mike Szczepankewicz, who is part of the family that owns Postana and Cigar Hustler, a Florida-based store and podcast, was walking around with the statue. Eventually, I saw it in the Postana booth, then another booth, and then I'd see an SCG employee retrieving the statue. Quite frankly, Szczepankewicz's habitual theft of the statue was probably better marketing And then any of the banners that the cigar company purchased.

You're welcome. And there's a picture of Mikey going like this, carrying it on his shoulder. That was a fun day, you know? That was a fun day.

Of course, you know, look. And get more attention from a boy. " Listen, we would really, we built this thing. It's not heavy, it's hollow, so it's easier to carry.

It's easy for you to take. Let's go ahead and drag it around. I had, I took pictures with, I brought it to-- It looks like Palmer, nobody's ever gonna know. I brought it to Herklotz, I brought it to Pete Johnson.

I thought it's a Pete Johnson, and I had everybody take pictures with it. Was this really in the story? Yes. That's hilarious.

Yeah, that's why I told her I would make sure I could find that and I'd work that in. It was. And the picture. There's a picture of him on this review.

And he's right. It's probably the best marketing ever. Best marketing I've ever seen. I'll take this.

Thank you for the acknowledgement, Charlie. Yeah. All right. Now you guys got to vote.

Based on that. Off of that. Oh, well, you got the name of the cigar. All right.

Do you want me to go first? Yeah, you go first. We did this on the Patreon, I think, right? Yeah.

Yeah, we smoked on the Patreon. The JT10. I thought it was good. Yeah, it wasn't bad cigar.

I'm gonna go 90, even with Charlie Minato. You think he'll go 90? I'm just going. I honestly don't remember what it was.

I gotta be honest, I'm just basing it off of the fact that I've actually smoked this cigar at this point. No, yeah, I think it's a great cigar. And I haven't had any, he hasn't given us any data just yet. Okay.

So that's where I'm at. All right. Um, I'll go 89. Okay.

J. 99. And they smoked three cigars. So with all that, would this be considered a Puro, Mikey?

It sounds like technically. Did they say it was all Nicaraguan? Yeah, I guess it would be. It would be, if the information given here is accurate, we like to think that it is, especially with the marketing, right, but however, there's still no information for me to change my number yet, so I'm gonna stick with 90.

Yeah, 89. Yeah, that just tells you what's in the cigar. All right, first clue. All three are medium full, the only difference is the second cigar, which was slightly more muted scents.

Smelling the feet, continues to trace the Tremmed of consistency, they each smell medium-full with a very dense chocolate flavor that overwhelms the mirthiness. Based on what happens before I cut the cigars, weighing, measuring, smelling the wrappers, smelling the feet, it's difficult to find much of any difference between the trio. Bravo for consistency. That's a good thing.

Yeah, that's all good. Stick at 90. Yeah, I'll stay 89. I always think it's weird that he always says chocolate.

Is he like just always eating like chocolate bars or something? He's always on his fingers or something. Yeah. The first and second cigars remain similar, earthiness and pine, alternate turns being the leading flavor.

There's also buttermilk, creaminess, mild white pepper, and an underlying sweetness. The third cigar is different with nuttiness and leather, though there are rarely anything else beyond a generic tobacco note and some burning sensations when the smoke increases. Shit. So he was eating a biscuit in a leather jacket while he was smoking a cigar.

I must stay 90. You're going to stay at 90? Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to stay at 89.

I think he's going to be in this room, 89, 90. Alright, next clue. The finish... He didn't say anything great about it right there, though.

The finish of the first cigar has great syrup flavor. Not a real maple syrup, but with the most basic store-bought variety. I'd like to know what that is. The second cigar's finish is the least exciting.

Earthiness, black pepper, and lemon. The third cigar is led by Rosemary, though there are some bitter earthiness in there, too. Rosemary or Rosemary's Baby? Just the...

It's Halloween. Not the baby. Not the baby? Not the baby.

You did say it was bitter, though. I'm going to slide down to 89. Yeah? Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's 89. I'm going to stick there. Are you going to stay there? Okay.

Whether or while there were moments of separation, the Room 101 Johnny Tobacconot 10th Anniversary was a story of consistency. From the pre-light experience to the smoking itself, the three cigars rarely stayed too far from one another and more often than not, were identical. Given how wildly inconsistent many of the cigars I review end up smoking, this was an eye-opening experience and the factory should be proud of achieving the consistency And while we don't score consistency, I think we probably should, instead of scores are mostly based on taste, this must be the final thought. Yeah, sounds like it.

And smoking this first cigar, I thought to myself, does this taste like Room 101? It's a question that led to another one. What does Room 101 taste like? And while I'm unsure what the answer to the second question is, the answer to the first one is no.

Quite simply, for a brand that is anything but, this is anything but, this was far too boring. It was never bad, but it was really dynamic. It's as if they put the bands on the wrong cigars. Really?

Wow. Yeah, that's a little harsh at the end there. 87. It was a good cigar, but this isn't your normal Room 101 cigar.

Well, he said it was consistent, but then he said it was consistently boring. What is consistently boring to Charlie? That is the question. That is how we determine the number.

Bing bong! That we're trying to guess. I'll go 88. I said 87.

Oh, I'm sorry. 89. Oh, man, we were on the money, dude. You were there the whole time, and then his final thoughts bashed us.

Yeah, he did. Damn it. But I won. Next.

All right, this is from June 19th, 2021, Charlie Monota, Baracoa, Charlie Monato, sorry, no, no, it's his brother, that's his cousin, yeah, some affiliation with Monato, Baracoa Cigars, Oh, Monota with Baracoa, yes, Dominican Republic Review, Baracoa, The Voyage Robusto Extra, 2021. This is the original. No, this is the second one. This, oh, it's been that long.

Yeah. Son of a bitch. Wait, wait, wait. Who made this?

Barracoa Cigars. Our boy. He doesn't know. Okay, so.

No, no, but I've heard about the original Voyage. Yes, this is the, this is the re-voyage. All right. The second one.

And how do we know this person? Pick your number. No, you know the number. I don't.

No, he doesn't. He doesn't know the number. First of all, if I do, I will tell you. Like I did in the last review, I told you that I knew.

I have not smoked this cigar, I know nothing about it, so I'm just gonna start at 85. I have had the honor and the privilege of smoking this cigar. Both of them, the original and the second, I use that term loosely. All right, 85, I'm gonna start there.

85, 79. Oh, it was a bad cigar. All right, the Voyager Busso Extra 2021 from the Dominican Republic, Factory Tablacalera, William Ventura, who allegedly still waiting to be paid. oh i remember the story now i didn't know it's a five-year-old story so i mean who doesn't yeah right rapper ecuadorian criollo binder ecuadorian sumatra filler dominican republic and nicaragua five and a quarter by 52 to robusto extra nine dollars and 70 cents and they smoked unfortunately three of them oh geez um okay so you went pretty low so i'm gonna go to 80 81.

First clue. The foot is a bit milder in profile around medium plus and smells very different. My best description is a mixture of Thousand Island dressing and some paint. Oh, wow.

I remember somebody told me that. It's not the smell I get when I'm concerned that paint or chemicals from the box making it have gotten into the scars, but it does remind me a bit of a freshly painted room. Sounds horrible, by the way. Thousand Island Dressing, Paint, Go.

Yeah, 75. 79. Sometimes, lighting a cigar can help to tighten a draw, but that's not the case with these. The Voyage, the first puff is still open, though there's enough resistance that I'm able to get enough smoke to pick up nuttiness, pretzels, and a touch of creaminess.

All together around medium plus. Again, I have not. You looking it up over there? No, no, no.

My daughter's got to get picked up soon. I have not had the joy, it sounds like, to smoke this cigar. I'm just going to, let's go to, I was at 75, right? Yep, yes.

I'll stick there. I'll stick 79. On two cigars, the construction is more or less the same as the first third, but one cigar just keeps going out and doesn't seem to want to stay lit. More specifically, one side of a cigar doesn't as no matter what I can do, I can't seem to get it to stay lit for longer than five minutes at a time.

Maybe it's a thousand-pound dressing. Or possibly the paint. You think the paint would burn? Maybe the paint, you're right.

It's the dressing, too much dressing. It's the dressing. Yeah, 75. 78.

Oh man, you're just inching, huh? Well, I smoked playing with my food is what I'm doing. I'm playing with my food. Well, I smoked three cigars for this for you.

I experienced two different cigars. The two good ones were an interesting profile that tasted more intense than the body and strength would suggest. When not retrohaling, the profile was fine and easy enough to handle, though this is one of the times in which retrohaling didn't produce the most enjoyable smoking experience. The second sample inevitably hurt the final score quite a bit and was difficult to smoke during the second half.

Unfortunately, difficult to smoke is the last thought I have regarding this new version of the voyage. of the Voyage. While the first and third samples did better, I felt like the inability for the cigars to stay consistently in lint meant that even when the best of examples, I was forced to smoke far quicker than I would have liked, and is required to pay too much attention to the cigars from start to finish. Is that the final thought?

That was the final thought. Yeah, 75. I really want to nail this one. I'm gonna go.

Shit. I'm gonna go shit. Do we need to pause? No.

It's like I feel like I want to go 77 and then if I go 77 I'm covered but I feel like it's gonna hit 79 and then I don't nail it. I'm just going to go 79. But then at that point, if it's 77, it's a tie. What to do, what to do?

I'm going to go 77. What did Boots say? 75. 80.

It was an 80? 80. It sounded like a horrible score, the way he was describing it. It did.

It was. 80 is a bad score. That's a bad score? Yeah.

And it's not 25, like the bat. Yeah, I mean, that's a bad score. That's a terrible score. Yeah.

Yeah, 80's still, if there is a 25 out there, 80's still not that bad. It probably should have been a 79. Oh, shit. I hit camera three on accident, sorry.

All right, listener of the week. Bong. Who you got? We have a three-way tie.

Uh-oh. Justin Lahr, Raul Ramis, and Matt Tye from How About That Cigar. Bong. Oh, very nice.

You have a shot of the week, Michael? No. Luxury Cigars in California. Bong.

In California. That's where they are, right? Yeah. No, they're in Arizona.

Okay. Are they in Arizona? Yeah. Okay.

That's it. That's all we got. This has been episode 411 of Cigar Hustler Podcast. Thank you for your support.

Thank you for listening. Support us. com. Like and subscribe.

We would appreciate it. Check us out on the Patreon next. Patreon next. Goodbye.

Bye. Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, the show brought to you commercial-free. But a massive shout out to our amazing Patrons on the Patreon. Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to do unfiltered, unbiased opinions.

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That one up.

Show Notes

Another top-tier cigar show has announced it’s calling it quits at the end of the year. After years of dedication, countless interviews, and hundreds of episodes — it’s over.

Is this the beginning of the end for cigar media as we know it? Or just another example of how much work goes into these shows for so little return — in money, recognition, or respect from within the industry?

This week we break down what’s really happening behind the microphones. From burnout to bandwidth, sponsorship struggles to platform restrictions, we’re asking the hard question:

👉 Is cigar media in crisis… or just evolving?

Join us as we take an honest look at what it takes to survive in the cigar media space today, and whether the grind is still worth it.