ACHP Episode 415 Rough Jobs For Rough Times w/ Law Ream
Episode Summary
Episode 415 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast welcomes Law Ream — brand activation guy for Zino (Davidoff) and the man behind the Tobacco Cupcake cross-country van tour — who guest-hosts the show on his one-year wedding anniversary. Between jokes about the studio bathroom door and his wife heckling in Spanish, Law talks candidly about what life on the road actually looks like: roughly 33.5 days of pure seat time behind the wheel in a single year, 33 states covered over 13 months of touring, sleeping on ottomans in the van, and using Planet Fitness Black Card hydro-massage chairs as a mobile chiropractor.
The news block starts with a look at the tightening job market — Bloomberg data on a 40% spike in Georgia Department of Corrections applications, the military finally hitting recruiting goals, and waste/recycling staffing applications up 50% — which turns into a round of "worst job you've ever had" stories (process server, wedding photographer, RTA furniture assembly for Home Depot and Lowe's displays, running a gas station, and Law's infamous Lake Tahoe videography gig). From there the crew covers the Chinese-run toll-text scam networks that Homeland Security says have taken more than $1 billion in three years, AI voice-cloning scams, and the House and Senate votes forcing the DOJ to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Cigar news covers two notable releases. Black Label Trading Co. brings back Deliverance Nocturne for the first time since 2020 with the blend unchanged — Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder, Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania filler — now including Parejo formats (Robusto and Toro) alongside the Perfecto and Short Salomón Snub Nose, with quotes from James Brown. La Palina's Goldie Laguito Especial Series 2 (7x40, Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, rolled at El Titan de Bronze in Miami) ships nationwide at $30 a stick in a run of 1,000 boxes of 10, while the planned Goldie Prominente Series 5 shown at PCA 2025 has been canceled for lack of materials — sparking a discussion about what a canceled order does to retailers. Law also shares Half Wheel data he compiled: roughly 800 SKUs released in 2025, about 400 of them brand-new cigars, and his analysis showing Davidoff scores trending well above Half Wheel's ~84 average.
The show closes with a tour of America's strangest roadside attractions — Cadillac Ranch, the world's largest ball of twine, Carhenge, the Corn Palace, Foamhenge and more (Law, hilariously, has seen almost none of them despite living on the road) — and a round of "What's the Score?" on the CAO Arcana Stoke, which Law wins with a guess of 88. He plugs upcoming events at Cigar Cave in Palm Harbor, Florida and a stop in The Villages, plus his Instagram, Tobacco Cupcake.
In This Episode
- 01Law Ream, Zino brand activation and the van tourLaw introduces himself, jokes about celebrating his anniversary in the studio, and talks about representing Zino on the road.
- 02Rough jobs for rough timesCorrections, military and waste-management applications surge as office hiring dries up, leading to the crew's worst-job-ever stories.
- 03Toll text scams and AI voice cloningHomeland Security ties Chinese criminal networks to over $1 billion in toll-fee text scams, and the hosts discuss AI-spoofed voices and phishing tests at Davidoff.
- 04Epstein files voteThe House votes 427-1 and the Senate unanimously passes a bill forcing the DOJ to release the Epstein files.
- 05Black Label Deliverance Nocturne returns for 2025Black Label Trading Co. brings Nocturne back after five years with unchanged Pennsylvania Broadleaf blend plus first-ever Parejo formats.
- 06La Palina Goldie Laguito Especial Series 2The 7x40 Goldie ships nationwide at $30 a stick from El Titan de Bronze, while the Goldie Prominente Series 5 is canceled after being shown at PCA 2025.
- 07Industry data: 800 SKUs and Half Wheel scoringLaw shares the release-volume numbers he tracked and how he analyzed a decade of Half Wheel reviews to see how Davidoff really scores.
- 08Roadside attractions and What's the Score?A rundown of America's weirdest roadside stops followed by the crew guessing Half Wheel's score for the CAO Arcana Stoke.
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 Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Hey, everyone, I'm Law Ream, brand activation guy for Zeno, longtime cigar obsessive and certified troublemaker. I would never use this language. Never.
This is not my words. Troublemaker. Troublemaker. Feel free to ad lib anytime you want.
Troublemaker in the cigar world. I spend my days helping build stories around great tobacco, connecting with retailers, consumers, and shining a light on the culture that makes this industry special. This is so ridiculous. You want to start over?
No. No. The bathroom door behind him is open. Law's a pro.
I'll turn it up. I'll close it. All right, shut the bathroom door. Is that enough?
This is a shitty start. There you go. It's the smell wafting out of the bathroom. Continue.
Keep going. Keep going. You're a professional. Be a professional.
I'm grateful to hang out, talk cigars, and stir the pot a little along the way. And it's my anniversary, so my wife and I decided what better way to celebrate than to do an episode of Cigar Hustlers Podcast. If you can't hear, she's about 20 feet to my left. I'm cursing at you in the background, yes.
In Spanish, so none of us know what you're saying. We don't know what's going on. We don't have a bilingual show. They're probably loving tropes.
Let's go, and I love my wife. And I love my wife. Quickly, before we get, stop laughing over there. We're filming.
We can't really hear you though, to be honest. The mics won't pick you up. You can laugh all you want. Women.
So quickly, before we get started, Palmer has an update to a story we are watching. Alright, Beverly, our mannequin friend from South Africa, the swimsuit clad mannequin that sits in a farm dam near, I can't remember the name of that word, Neu, Bethesda, in Karoo, she went missing earlier this month in local tourist pages and odd news sites were shouting for her return. In the last day or so, the tourist community post, South African media, has confirmed she was returned after what's been described as a prank or kidnapping adventure. There you go.
Two construction workers moved her during a spring box match, and she eventually made her way back and has been put into the dam. So the mystery of the Missy Mannequin has a happy ending. I gotta be honest, Beverly didn't track well on YouTube anyways, so we're moving on. I'm glad that story's over.
Well, this must be a dry news week. Yeah, it was slow news in South Africa. , and once he starts explaining, I'm like, that's like the other side of the world, what are we doing, you know? It was a trend, it was a trend.
That's the worst thing that happened in Africa this week? Yes, that was the trending news from South Africa. Exactly. Okay.
All right, well, thanks for the update, Mr. Palmer. Certainly, now we can close that story. Okay, put it to bed, we can finally put it to bed.
On today's show, we break down why people are suddenly jumping into gritty, hard-labor jobs as the cushy office gigs dry up. Then we dig into the wild, toll-tech scams, stealing over a billion dollars, Epstein files in their, ooh, on their, on-again, off-again trend is back on, I guess that's on part of the trend, and the latest cigar drops from Black Label and La Polino. So, we wrap up with a quick tour of America's strangest roadside attractions. Light up and enjoy.
I wonder what that is. Could be anything. Could be anything. You never know.
Could be South African roadside things. Before we get started, Mikey, how can I get some of that CHPod swag? Law, that is a great question. Thank you so much for asking.
com and check out all the latest merch. The recent one that is in there is the War Bear T-Shirt in honor of our newest release that's about to happen. If you buy one, you get the second one 40% off, and if you spend over $100, you're going to get free shipping. com today and like and subscribe to this podcast.
Do that. Get your War Bear today. Yes. That's a badass name.
I love it. I feel like I love Law. We can't afford him. I wish he was here every day.
You're the third podcast, well, not in a row, but that said something similar. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, screw them.
Now there's a bit anymore. They're not as cool as us. No, they're not. No, not even.
Do they take ad space? Yeah, I thought so. Screw them. Yeah.
Exactly. Okay. All right, let's go. And now the trending news.
Rough jobs for rough times. When the job market tightens up, people start looking at gigs they wouldn't normally touch. And right now, folks are lining up for the kind of work you'd usually see on dirty jobs The hiring environment has gotten slow, real slow, so instead of cubicles and ergonomic chairs, job seekers are hiring jobs that are outside gritty and far from glamorous, Bloomberg just ran a piece showing things are getting interesting out there. The Georgia Department of Corrections saw a 40% spike in applications over the last three months compared to this time last year.
S. military, which has been struggling to hit recruiting targets, actually hit their goals. These are one of the few people that are kind of paying their employees. I guess we go to the military.
Could be those pay bumps, could be the fewer job choices out there. And over at Waste Management, a recruiting firm called HireQuest, they're drowning in apps. Not the ones on your phones, I'm assuming. The recycling and garbage staffing arm says applications are up 50% over the past two years.
Why? Because the cushy cubicle jobs are drying up. So, what was the worst job that you've ever done? Oh, pfft.
Besides driving across the country. Other than sticking yourself into a van and driving around the entire... This is pretty close to the dot. I just ran the math on it a couple weeks ago.
If you get rid of, if you just put chair time, like you get rid of stops for gas, or bathroom breaks, or eating, or anything like that, I spent 33 and a half days straight driving. Wow. This year. Oh, that's in one year.
It's over a month of you sitting in that, and you're not a truck driver, you're not hauling an 18-wheeler across, you know, that's not your job. No, but if Davidoff messes up, I have a pretty good backup job ready to go. Yeah, you're taking the van, or this podcast? I'll get my CDO, get back on the road, I have practice now.
Oh, well, we could pay you like 50 bucks a week, and you can do our podcast with us. There you go. 50 bucks? 50 bucks a week.
Yeah. Where are we getting that? I don't know, we'll figure it out, okay? We'll get there somehow.
I could say $100 an hour, since each episode's about 30 minutes, so pay you 50 bucks a week, or $100 an hour, you work half an hour a week. Perfect, yeah. We'll provide a room and board. Just bring the van, you can stay in there.
So, other than the current gig, what's the worst job you've ever done? Oh, that's a tough one. I've had some pretty cool, interesting jobs. Probably, I don't know, maybe a process server?
Ooh, that sounds terrible. When I was 18, it looked like I was 16 years old, so I'd walk into, you know, corporate offices or hospitals and stuff, and be like, "Hi, is Dr. " And he's like, "What? " What just happened?
That's pretty cool. That's still a cool job though. I know, it's hard to, I've had to have a crappy job. I was a manager of an 18 and up nightclub, that was awesome.
Right. Yeah, I don't think I've had a shitty job. You've had cool jobs. Yeah.
Weddings. Weddings sucked. You're a legend. Yeah.
Wedding photographer. That was probably the worst one. That's tough. Yeah.
Because you're never going to make everybody happy. I mean, they're just stressful no matter what. Right. It's intense.
It's high intensity. It's kind of like this podcast. Super high intensity. Yeah.
So stressed. What about you, Palmer? What was your worst job? I assembled RTA furniture for a summer.
Who? RTA? Ready to assemble? Yeah.
For displays. Oh. That sounds terrible. At Kmart?
It's actually Home Depot and Lowe's. I would travel around to different Home Depots and Lowe's and put the furniture together, the new furniture for the display. And those boxes are really heavy. I actually, I used to be the photographer for Home Depot furniture.
Oh, did you really? Yeah, so I put a lot of that stuff together too. Yeah. It always says Team Lift, but you never have a second person.
There's nobody else there. There's nobody else there. It's just you. What else are you going to do?
For me, I don't really know what my worst job would have been. I mean, I've done like little things. You know what, I will tell you, it was running the damn gas station. That was definitely the worst job.
Yeah, it sounds terrible. It really was. It was miserable. Sounds boring.
It was miserable. Margins are low, everybody's angry at you, you can't keep employees, constant drug issues coming in and out of the place, employees selling drugs, employees doing drugs. There's just always, there was always something in that place. And that's if you're in a good neighborhood, if you're in a bad neighborhood, it's getting shot and robbed.
Well, we did have somebody attempt a robbery, and then he waited outside to get arrested. He waited? Yeah, we had employees stealing scratch-off tickets. Wait, you're like, I called the cops, and he's like, I'll just wait outside, so sorry.
He got behind the register, he pulled the knife, and then the employee freaked out, kind of ran away, I think, and then called 911. And he just sat outside waiting to go to jail. That's fine. That's beautiful.
That's fine. It's too bad that it's not on camera. You can just dust that off. Look at that.
That's good. Okay. So, yeah. All right.
I think you're doing... This is fantastic. It doesn't look like you're... Thanks for inviting me to your beautiful studio.
I'm just going to ash all over everything. That's fine. That's not what it looked like you were doing. We don't clean up it down here anyways.
It's this way. Hold on. I just need to... He's almost...
Give him a minute. Tell me about your worst job. Well, I had to do this. All right.
Okay. So... Well, there you go. Well, moving on to the next article.
Actually, I just remembered my worst job. Okay. Well, I just remembered. Oh, okay.
I probably shouldn't tell this, but perfect. So, uh, I was living in San Diego. This guy's like, Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna rent a mansion up in Lake Tahoe. It was the winter.
He's like, and we're going to shoot some porn there. Do you, would you like to be a videographer? He's like, yeah. Yeah, it sounds awesome.
Naked girls, mansion, wintertime in Lake Tahoe. This sounds amazing. So we And it was paying really well. It was like three grand a week.
That's nice. Yeah, back in like the 2000s. " We didn't fully disclose for a reason, sir. We didn't want your opinion on how you felt about it.
We just need you to film. Yeah, for some reason, everyone keeps quitting after the first job. It's so weird. No one sticks around.
I don't know. Sounds like good pay. Just saying. If you stick around.
I was like, how long till the next bus out of here in like a week? Like, oh, that happens to be the filming time. There you go. The worst job ever.
You have just surpassed me, sir, by a landslide. All right. All right, let's go. What else you got?
In with the next article. The trend isn't just about getting back to real work, it's a warning flag about the economy. 9% growth in Q3, but layoffs are quietly climbing. Office hiring is slowing, and everyone's arguing over whether AI is the new job thief.
ADP Payroll Data says hiring did slightly recover last month, but the action was mostly in the fields like healthcare, construction, translation jobs, And if you're just getting into the job market, get ready for a rough road. Companies are leaning hard toward folks with experience making it tougher for freshly minted grads to get that first break. So, hey, when the emails stop coming and the LinkedIn feed is full of "We Regret to Inform You," messages don't be surprised if you start wondering what it takes to become a garbage sorter or a correctional contractor. He might not be sexy, but it's a paycheck.
So is that still kind of into the first topic? That's the end of the first story about the jobs. Okay. You know who's hiring a lot right now is CBP.
What's that? Customs and Border Patrol. Oh, yeah? Yeah.
Really? Yeah, they're hiring like anybody. They don't care if you have experience or not. Can you work?
Yeah. Would you like to carry a gun on the border? Come in today. Have you seen the South Park episode about it?
No. I saw a clip where ICE was going to heaven. Yeah. Is that the same one?
Well, yeah, they went to heaven to raid all the illegals that were up there. But yeah, so the guidance counselor gets fired from his school job and he joins Border Patrol 'cause he has no other option. " And they've made it just like a Disney ride. Right, it's exciting.
But they're also showing how short the training is, so all these people show up and they have no idea what they're doing. Right, what's going on here? Yeah. Dude, South Park's epic.
They just signed a big deal of Paramount Plus. They did. " Every single episode has been anti-Trump. Really?
Yes. That's hilarious, dude. If you haven't seen it, he's just like naked the whole time with a tiny little penis. They pretty much took the Saddam character from before and made that Trump.
Same voice, same everything. He's dating Satan, like everything's the same. Oh my God. Yeah.
And it's already on Paramount Plus? Yeah, I think the season's over, I think. You're very up to date. I'm not up to date.
Yeah. Well, I spent a lot of time in hotels. See, here's a lot of time to watch TV. I haven't traveled much.
Okay. All right, well, let's hit us with the next one. Next up, toll scams. Toll scams are running wild.
You ever get one of those random texts saying you owe money on a toll in Massachusetts, even though you've never set foot there? Or maybe it's about an unpaid postal fee. Spoiler alert, there's no toll fees, just a scam and it's a big one. Homeland Security says Chinese criminal networks have scammed more than $1 billion from people over the last three years.
Yeah, billion with a B. That sketchy link in the message, it takes you to a government-looking website, but it's not. It's fake. You punch in your info and boom.
Your credit card, your driver's license, everything you know, the scammers now have. And these guys run this just like a real business. S. to set up rooms with a ton of SIM cards and devices so they can blast out text nonstop.
Wow. There's where the job market is. Go work for the Chinese scammers. There you go.
When the scam works, they bring in more help, people buying stuff with your stolen cash and shipping it to China where it's sold off, and then by the time you notice, it's long gone. This isn't slowing down either. Proof point, those folks that filter spam say the number of those toll scam texts has tripled since January. S.
That's a large discrepancy there. Yeah, well, you know, somewhere between $5 and $7 billion. $5? Go ahead.
Trust your gut. If it's from an international number or there are a bunch of people on the message thread, red flag, if the message is like, urgent, pay now, and offers a link, don't bite. Legit government agencies won't ask to wire you money, they won't ask for anything, they don't do any work, won't ask to wire you money or buy gift cards ever. So no gift cards?
No, you can't pay your government toll with a gift card. So I can't purchase bitcoin to get me out of hawk or anything like that? Under the Trump administration, they probably do take bitcoin, but I don't think you can pay it off with an Xbox gift card. Have you ever been caught up in one of these scams?
" And it's just like, okay, you don't speak English, but then some were super intricate, and then they would go through all the hard work, and then the biggest scam I got was, "Hey, we're going to send you a check, but the caterer doesn't have an account, so if you So if you could just cash to check and pay them cash, we'll we'll put their amount in your check. They would do all the hard work and message for weeks, and then they'd send me the check and like one side of it's blank because I forgot to do double-sided copy. I'm like, you just did weeks of work and you messed up the easiest step. You screwed up the one thing.
Yeah. Oh my God. So, but you never really got taken. No, no, I never got taken.
Right. Plenty of people did. You'd see in the photography, the forums all the time, like people like, oh, this, this guy sent me money, They sent me money and I cashed out and gave it to their vendor and I never got paid, like it bounced. I was like, you're an idiot.
Right. That sucks. But on the road, one of my favorite podcasts is about like modern scams. It's called Darknet Diaries.
And one of the new, we're going to be so cooked when we, you know how our like parents fall for scams? And we're just like, how'd you fall for that? That's so stupid. You sent $3,000 in gift cards to this guy to pay your bill.
Right. " But if you wire $3,000 cash to this person, they're going to let me out of it. Wow. Yeah, and you can't tell the difference.
It sounds like their voice. They can make it sound distressed, like she's been crying. Like you cannot tell the difference. And it's coming from her phone number.
That's wild. Yeah. So the scams are about to like, we're cooked. We're about to level up.
Yeah. Our kids are gonna be like, how'd you fall for that idiot? Just hang up and call back. It goes to my number and I'll tell you that, no, I'm at the movies or something.
something right holy shit yeah well at least you're the podcast you're listening to exposes some of these things yeah you know so you let your kids leave your your side i mean why at this point well you can't you know just keep them on the leash yeah palmer you ever get uh scammed uh my mother almost did that one time yeah she almost gave a guy access to her bank account right but no i mean i get those texts all the time too but no i dude i mean emails i get a ton of emails and And they make it through any of the stuff, and they look legit. Capital One's been, you know, suspended, suspicious activity, all of these things. Right, we need you to log in. Yeah, all, all the time.
And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, there's gotta be somebody that has a moment of weakness where they do it. Oh, yeah. You know, like, oh, maybe this one's real, right? Or whatever the case may be.
But it's constantly being bombarded. It doesn't go away. Oh, yeah. Especially, like, the big corporations get hit really hard.
We do, at Davidoff, we're pretty good about it. They send us test emails all the time, and they're like, hey, you fell for this one, and we have like a little phishing alert where you can send it to, and they're like, congratulations, you found the scam email. You're a professional scam searcher? Yeah.
So if you screw it up, do you have to take a course? We do have to take a course, yeah. But they know Law has a lot of downtime while he's driving, so just send Law a couple more emails for that. Here's how to identify if someone is trying to take advantage of you, right?
Is it something like that with a weird voice? I feel like you can parlay. You should be able to do those videos for people because you're great with the reels and all the other stuff and the snapping. I saw the snappy one today.
That was good. That's how we should get people at the companies to figure this stuff out. Just do it in reels. We have these 30-minute long videos.
Nobody has that attention span anymore. Yeah. You talk fast. Your voice is spot on.
You could wrap that up in 45 seconds. Don't do this. Don't touch that one. Thank you.
So thank you. If you just got fired from your HR job, just start making reels on how to catch spam emails, and then, you know, you'll get a sponsorship. There you go. Or you could just go call China and join the dark side.
Right, become one of them. Just be the spammer. Yeah, hey, you took my job, so here's what, I'm gonna come work for you now. It's like, perfect, just come on in, get some SIM cards, you're ready to go.
I gotta make my nothing, Kai. Okay. All right, hit me with the next one, what you got? all right getting to the good stuff yeah rolling along epstein files back in the news oh i don't think they've been out of the news they've been releasing stuff for like two weeks now house senate passes bill demanding doj release epstein files in a 427 to one vote that one guy that guy's like i'm super guilty i don't care how bad this looks i'm in the file um there is no way Mike, I have people I need to protect, I am saying no, I said no.
Or you know they have like the two buttons on their desk when they vote? He's probably just so old, he's like, which one's the yes one? Boom, oh shit. Can I vote again?
I haven't been voting right for a decade. House of Representatives passed legislation to force the Justice Department to release all of the files pertaining to the investigation into the deceased child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. House Speaker Mike Johnson and most GOP members had sought to delay a vote but relented after President Trump, a former friend of Epstein's, dropped his opposition to it. Hours later, the Senate unanimously passed the bill, as is, despite Johnson's hopes that it would be amended.
Republican Rep. " Oh, that's a spitch? Yeah. If they're on the list, they're not innocent.
Well, you could argue that maybe they just would travel to a party and you don't know if they'd partake. Oh, they didn't know what was going to happen? This is weird, look at all the young girls. That's been their argument is that it doesn't protect the girls that are accusing Epstein and these other people of being the sex offenders.
Right. But these girls are like at every trial, they're out in public saying we're the ones, like they're everywhere, so they don't want to be protected, they want all this out there. Right, well, I think that he's, but that's referencing more along the lines of the people that went to the parties but didn't partake in like the dubious acts, you know, like the evil garbage. They just went, "Oh, I just went to get drunk" or whatever.
I mean, I kind of feel bad for people, because have you ever had a friend that you're just like, they're always in your friend's group, you don't even know them that well, and then something comes out later, and you're just like, now you're associated with that person, it's like, "Oh, I just, I didn't even have a chance, like, to say no, I don't want to hang out with that person. " Right, we were just there. Yeah, and then put on top of that, like, Jeffrey Epstein had the key to every door out there. He was like, hey, you want a Nobel Peace Prize?
You want a billion dollar science grant? You want this? You want that? I got it all.
Right. You want Victoria's Secret models? I got those too. Like, he had everything.
There's always a guy, yeah, and he was the guy. So, okay, what else has he got? What else is the story? The bill now heads to Trump's desk to be signed.
Okay. Well, I mean, I'm glad that this is happening. Yeah. You know?
Finally. Yeah, um, yeah, this is, it's ridiculous, this is kind of ongoing, and, you know, I, I hope that there's, you, the problem is, I think that you're gonna see this list, and there's gonna be blacked out names. Well, it's not just that, but they purposely uploaded them all as photos instead of PDF files, so you have to search them with your eyes, you can't search them with, like, just, you know, control, find, look up, like, someone's name or something, you can't do it that way, you have to read through every single page manually. Wow.
Yeah. So they're still trying to hide it. Right. And a lot of names are blacked out.
Are they? Yeah. That's wild. So they're still going to protect people.
They're still going to cover things up. Of course they are. Yeah. But it just takes away a lot of their power, because everyone's been in lockstep with Trump since he took power, and that's probably because he has these files.
Well, I mean, one of the things that they were talking about, that they were going to release this list, and then all of a sudden there was, oh, there's no list. Like, wait. Hold on. Wait a second.
Yeah. There's no fucking list? Zero, there's no proof of any of it whatsoever. Yeah, Pampani's like, what, what list of files on my desk, like, the one you said in this video clip, where I have the list of files on my desk.
Yeah, six days ago, you stated that I have a list, it's on my desk, and now you're saying that it doesn't exist. That's, that was incredible, dude. " No, we still care. Everybody still deeply cares about this.
I just love it when there was something that would come out and then somebody would just comment on the bottom like, release the list. I'm like, yeah, that guy's right. Whatever that guy's saying. Yeah.
Are you excited about the list coming out? No, I mean, it doesn't affect me one way or the other. But if the rumor is that Trump is on the list, why would he approve the bill to release the list? Maybe he's figured out a workaround.
Maybe he's one of the blackout names. It says Rump or something? It says Ronald. Ronald Rump.
Ronald Slump. The main girl, Virginia Dufri, the one that was in the pictures with Prince Charles, she made a statement, I think it was in court, where she was like, hey, look, Trump was there, he was nothing but kind, he never did any of the stuff that I witnessed. So she's kind of like, defending him. Yeah.
But at the same time, people are like, some of the emails have already been released. And it's like, Trump knew about everything going on. Maybe he didn't participate. He didn't start taking it, but he knew that Jeffrey Epstein was doing these things.
Okay. Maybe. Good luck proving something like that. Yeah.
You knew! Okay. Okay. That's a bit of a reach.
They hit reply all. It's not my fault. They hit reply all. I was in the same room.
Okay. Well, one of the main guys, I just heard about this this morning, the former, whatever Scott Besson is now, the former treasury secretary, Larry something. Fucking Larry's. Fucking Larry's.
He's like a teacher at Harvard now and he's like got all these other things going on. He's like, all right, I'm gonna have to step back from everything now because he got hit hard by this release. And they haven't even released the full files yet. Yeah.
So it's coming. And we're done here. Yeah. Well, hey, that's good, man.
There should be some, you know, I want to see, I want to see some heads roll. Yeah. I think everyone does. Yeah.
It's the most uniting thing between the left and the right, like everyone wants this open. Yeah, except that one guy. Yeah, except that one guy, yeah. No, no, no, no lace, no lace, no lace, no lace.
This is bad for everybody, this is bad for everybody. No, no, no, I've hit no 75 times. Okay, perfect dude, you're doing a fantastic job. Please continue forward with our next article.
This is, Jack makes this look so much harder than it is. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Well, you're a pro, dude. That's right.
You hear that, Taranio? I'm a pro. And now for Cigar News. Black Label's Deliverance Nocturne is back for 2025.
Well, well, well, look who's back. For the first time since 2020, Black Label Trading Co. is blessing us once again with their beloved Deliverance Nocturne blend. If you've been waiting for this one, buckle up.
Four different Vitolas are shipping out next week. And yes, they kept the blend the same as 2020 release: Pennsylvania Broadleaf Wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano Binder, And fillers from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. That sounds awesome. Yeah.
That sounds amazing. Pennsylvania Broadlee is one of my favorite. Mm-hmm. Classic Nocturne, dark, bold, and gritty, with that black label flair we all crave.
Here's what's coming. 50. 50, or a box of 20 for $270. Deliverance Perfecto, I love Perfecto shape.
5x56, $12 limited, no box. Deliverance Short Solomon Snub Nose. Comes in a Ziploc. In Ziploc.
A Ziploc bag. 56. $12 limited. Some of those are hard to read.
Yeah, also comes in a Ziploc, I'm assuming. Additional Ziploc. Yeah, more Ziplocs. With the colors, the blue up top, and then it has the little pink line to let you know that it's sealed.
So it's like an actual Ziploc. Yeah, actual Ziploc bags. This portion of the show brought to you by Ziploc bags. For sealing cigars without the box.
Procter & Gamble, we are looking for some, or not looking for sponsors. No, Procter & Gamble, we'd take. Okay. We'll do it for seven million dollars.
They wouldn't even notice. Okay, so like a rounding error for us. Yeah, exactly, exactly. The two Figurados, Perfecto, and Snub Nose are packed together in 16 count boxes, ringing Coming in at $192 a box.
Quantities? Pretty tight. S. James Brown himself chimed in with the vibes.
Nocturne is definitely a fan favorite. It's one of the cigars we get asked about the most. This year we want to change things up for the first time ever. We're dropping Nocturne in Parejo formats.
Robusto and Toro, but don't worry, purists, we've still got some of those sexy perfectos and short solomons coming too. One thing's for sure, if you want them, don't sleep, this one's not lingering on shelves for long. Okay. Are you excited about the Black Label?
I like Black Label. Do you smoke a lot of Black Label? Not a lot, no. I just, you know, I go to a lot of lounges that carry like Davidoff and stuff.
They're usually pretty limited in what they carry, so you don't see Black Label too much on the shelves there. They're more legacy brands and boutique. Yeah, the big eight, as they call them. They're called the big eight?
Yeah. Really? Yeah. Oh.
There's eight? Yep. I feel like there's three. There's eight?
That's what I'm... That's what they say to you? Yeah, that's a phrase that some lounges use, big eight. Big eight.
They carry only the biggest eight companies and that's it. So who are the big eight? Tell me. You got Davidoff, Fuente, Perdomo, my father.
Okay. Let's see. What is that? Four?
I got four. Yeah. Four. Padron.
Padron. Five. Yeah, we're at five. And I already have questions about two.
Yeah, right? So, there's a big eight. I would love to talk to the guy who says these are- Oliva, I think, is one of them. Okay.
Six. I'm trying to picture the humidors as I walk in. Right. Drew Estate.
Seven. One more. I don't know. I don't know.
Zeno. Zeno's Davidoff. I was trying to help. Camacho?
That's also Davidoff. That's also Davidoff, Michael. Wow, so aggressive. Yeah, so what's...
First of all, I don't even think that the seven that you have even count. I think there's three in that name. Yeah. You're like, okay, here's the three.
You know, Davidoff. I mean, Fuente, Padrón. Yeah, I guess LFD, maybe? I don't know.
No, they're not massive. Yeah. Maybe? Maybe.
Maybe. Yeah, no, there's the three, and then there's five more. This is what the term should be. If there's three, then there's five more.
There's the big three, and then the- There's alternates. And then the five. Yeah. The midterm five.
Okay. Do you smoke a lot of Black Label bomber? No, we don't carry it here. We don't carry it here, no, we don't.
They have been releasing a lot of stuff lately though. Yeah. Well, you know, that could be because of tariffs, that could be because of, you know. Could be, yeah.
Right. When I actually had some time in the office this year, I was tracking metrics thanks to, like, Half Wheel has a bunch of data on their website. Right. There have been 800 SKUs released this year.
Really? And 400 are new releases. Really? So, 400 are, you know, just extensions, and 400 are brand new cigars.
Right. That's insane. What's your average, what's the average that is released every year? I have no idea, I just checked in.
You just checked this year? Yeah, just 2025, and we're still not over yet. Right, you're getting close. So all these new ones are coming out, but Sakai is holding this back.
They're all Dunbarton. There are 390 of them are Dunbarton Tobacco & Trusts. Yeah. Well, it's mostly General Cigar.
Yeah. Like, do you guys carry General? Uh, kind of? Yeah.
Like, General Light? Like, I'm not going to tell a customer that I don't have Macanudo if they want Macanudo. Right. Romeo and Julietas, we'll have that.
Like, you know, your standard, like a Cohiba, you know, we have the Cohibas. Yeah. So, and you're not going to be able to convince that customer of anything else. Right.
Yeah, they've been smoking the same thing for 30 years. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm going to take care of that customer. But, like, so a lot of the shops I've visited, they're like, yeah, when General comes in, they're like, hey, we have five new releases this month in, like, six Vitolas each.
Right. Well, those usually go right to the catalog or online or whatever, you know. They're going to take care of themselves before they take care of anybody else, allegedly. Yeah.
But, yeah. Okay. All right, good. So, congratulations, Black Label.
Looking forward to the Nocturne. Yeah. I've heard good, I've heard good things about Black Label. I love his shoes.
Yeah. Have you seen this? He's got great shoes. Yeah, he does.
I'm like, what are those? Those are incredible. If you have to ask, you can't afford them. Yes, and that's true.
And I can't. Right. Yeah. But he answered.
He told me what they were. I don't remember. Oh. He wasn't a dick to me.
Not a brand you'd ever heard of? No. Oh. They're like, you know, some guy's name.
Yeah. They're Law Reams. I was going to say, the Law Reams? Yeah, these are the Law Reams.
The white platform boots? They're yellow. Oh, they're yellow. Yes.
Oh, there you go. There you go. All right. Hit me with the next one, buddy.
La Paulina Goldie Laguido Especial. Series 2 hit shops, but there's a catch. The long, slim beauty that is the La Paulina Goldilaguito, especially Series 2. You had to put that twice in a row.
I nailed it the first time. I don't write the... No, you mentioned the story. I don't write the stories.
I get it. Okay. But you read the stories. No, not always.
You should. Did you AI some of these other ones before? Did you modify them? This set ones I have.
Yeah. I think we need to cut out the sizes when we talk about a cigar too, because that just gets redundant. Yeah, that's... Nobody...
Nobody really cares that there's a Toro or a Busto or a Proyecto or whatever. Yeah, I agree. All right. We're just gonna get better.
Seven years running. We're about to turn a corner here. Well, we're bringing other people in now. We're about to learn from our mistakes.
Yeah. We're bringing other people in. One of these days. We're gonna start figuring some stuff out.
As soon as the money starts. It's just a matter of time. So, that cigar is finally hitting shelves nationwide after a limited teaser run earlier this year. If you've been waiting for the cigar, good news, you can get your hands on it now.
The bad news, the second Goldie slated for 2025, the Prominente Series 5, has officially been axed. More on that below. Let's talk about the La Guido Especial Series 2. There's a third one.
This one's in a 7x40. Your wife just left you. She's gone now forever. She's just walked out the door.
She's taking the van and she's not coming back. My husband's a loser. She's not taking the van, Michael. There's one thing you don't have to worry about.
She is not taking the van. This one's a 7x40. A long, elegant stick. We have We haven't seen since the original release in 2014.
For years, La Polina would drop a new Goldie size annually, but lately they've been dipping back into the humidor and giving us Series 2 editions, reissue runs of those fan-favorite Vitolas. As always, the blend is unchanged: Ecuadorian Habana wrapper, Ecuadorian binder, filler from the Dominican Republic in Nicaragua, and yes, still rolled at the legendary El Titan de Bronze Factory in Miami. This one will run you $30 per cigar, and they only made 1,000 boxes of 10, so 10,000 cigars total. That's a very limited run.
Pure limited release energy. William C. " Great name. Honors them both.
Because Series 1 is no okay, we go Series 2. I have a great name, how about the Series 2? And if my grandmother has a mustache, she is grandfather. I don't know, some of those Middle Eastern European countries, they both have mustaches.
The Goldilag Guido Especial Series 2, that's the fourth time, is nothing short of a spectacular, is nothing short of spectacular. I want to make sure that you know what you're talking about. He's not wrong, and if you were lucky enough to visit Michael's Tobacco in Uless, Texas this summer, you might have gotten an early crack at these, though they were bundled because the boxes weren't ready yet. And Ziplocs.
And Ziplocs. More Ziplocs. More Ziplocs. A few also popped up at the events in October.
Now the full haul is shipping. Grab them while you can. And now, for the bummer. 5x48 beauty, shown off at PCA 2025 for attending retailers only.
That one's officially canceled. Why? A rep says they couldn't source the right materials. Tough break for Goldie fans, but hey, at least the La Guido Especial Series 2 is here to take this thing away, light up and enjoy the ride.
Okay, so if you went to PCA, PCA is obviously the big cigar convention for us, if you went to PCA, you could have ordered this other cigar, but guess what, thanks for placing the order, not happening. Yeah. I mean, that sucks, dude. Who does that?
How do you write the order? I mean, La Polina, this isn't the first year they've been in the game. Yeah. So, I don't understand how you not cover that.
Yeah, that's embarrassing. That's hard to recover from. Yeah, that's silly. I mean, it's one thing when you're like, priced unseen, like some retailers have done.
Like, hey, buy it, we'll tell you the price later. And then they're like, it's $120 a stick. You're like, right. God damn it.
Yeah, I got 'em. But that's not as bad as, like, thank you for your order, and you can't have it. Right, and it's not happening. I mean, that did happen to me early on.
I got duped by making a cigar, or, like, Shogui was supposed to release a cigar, and I took orders for it, and then he just disappeared. How bad does that hurt you, though? Did you have, like, that shelf space planned out? You had that budget set aside?
No, not for me, but, like, I had agitated retailers with me. Like, dude, where is this cigar? We were selling it. We were selling it.
You're holding out on me. And I'm like, if I was holding it out on you, somebody else would have it, right? Right. And he's like, yeah.
Like, I want to make the money. Right. I would sell it to you. Like, nothing would make me happier than to give it to you.
Yeah. Right. However, but now, this was not a PCA exclusive. This isn't me, you know, saying, hey, thanks so much for coming to PCA.
And because you're part of this, I'm going to award you with said cigar, you know? So that, I think that makes it even worse. And not to mention, that happened in my infancy, right? Like, lesson learned, won't be doing that one again, right?
Did you order the Goldie? No, I didn't order, I didn't order the Goldie, but the original one was the best one. When I go to the show, we don't really have time to place orders anymore. Yeah, you're selling.
Yeah, I'm in the booth, you know, we try and do whatever we can, you know, we go see the big 75, what you like to call them. But, you know, no, there just really isn't time to handle any of that stuff, and we don't really care La Polina. So anyways, so, okay, what about you? Are you excited about La Polina or no?
No. No? You're playing on your phone. Are you flipping the buttons?
" Ah. Okay. That'll be cool. All right.
So, my guy is over here, he wants to make sure that we reach the hour. Right. So, you know what's the score, right? The game we play at the end of the show?
" Yes. Okay. You're going to partake of that game. Yeah.
It's a great game. We've been playing it in the office. Have you? Yeah, we have.
It's carried on. Yeah. It's becoming growing. It's a great game.
It is. It's fantastic. And because their descriptions are so all over the place, you have no idea what the actual score is going to be. No clue.
Yeah. Especially with Charlie. Charlie's the toughest. He is.
We were actually, that's why I started pulling data from their site because we were like, hey man, we advertise with these people and they just shit on our cigars all the time. Right. So I pulled out every single one of the reviews for the last 10 years, and I put it all into Excel, and I did the math. You sent me the data, right?
Oh, I sent it, yeah, I did. You did. On your cigar, yeah. Yeah, you said, hey, you're trending above, way above the average.
Above average, yeah. I was like, oh, fucking yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I did a lot of them, and it's shocking. Right.
So, but Davidoff specifically is like, hey, man, they're just destroying us. And I did it, I was like, no, we're actually way above average. It's just, they're such assholes when they score. I think their average score is like 84.
That sounds about right. Yeah. Okay, so I have to find a new cigar. He already knows all his.
Yeah. Okay. Do we have another news article? I think there's one more.
We have the Roadside Attractions. Roadside Attractions. Oh, yes. That's right.
And here's a list of the top 15 roadside attractions in the USA. Perfect for road warriors, Instagram addicts, and anyone who loves the quirky charm of Americana. These stops are iconic, weird, giant-sized, or just plain, unexplainable, in the best way possible. Now something I am an expert at.
We want to know if you've seen them. Yes. I don't leave Florida, really, at this point. I mean, I may fly out to an event, I just see the shell of a store, and then I leave again.
We don't do any touring. I feel like 99% of these I have not seen. I see the road signs, like, hey, this attraction over here. Or I like sometimes I'll have like half a day where I can actually do something because I'm ahead of schedule and like, oh, can I go over here?
And it's like, oh, no, it's two hours out of your way. It's like, okay, never mind. How do you not capitalize on that, dude? I've like, well, because I'm so exhausted from all the work and driving that when I actually do get half a day off, I'm like, I just want to sleep an extra three hours before driving again.
I think that's fair. But to be honest, the ones that, like, I watch all your reels, you know, the ones that pop in my head instantly in this conversation. First of all is Area 51 with the fucking, with all the poop, uh, you know, like 203 poop flavored candies and yeah, exactly. You know, those, and you have the opportunity where you're close to some of these things.
I mean, that would be great for great marketing for you. Yeah. You know, like who's this wild guy? Oh my God, this guy's driving around the world or the U S the, the, the smoking cigars and whatever.
And then you kind of parlay that link with all those other things. I think that that's, there's so much There's so much value in that. There is, but I planned out the tour as efficiently as I could, so even if I do get ahead of schedule, it just, it kind of ruins that if I go to any of these attractions, because they're anywhere between one and five hours off of my path. Right, so we need to give you more money, and then more time, less events.
Yeah, spacey events. Yeah, that's how, but that's honestly what needs to happen. I know it probably won't, but that's what needs to happen. I need more money, Davidoff, so I can play more.
So I can take more time off. Well, you need more viewers. Like, that's how you gain more viewers. That's true.
It's how I gain more viewers, not Davidoff. It's how I gain more viewers. Well, you're Davidoff at this point. Well, that's the value and, you know, like, yeah, yeah, that's the, you know, I get that.
They don't own you, right? You don't own me. You don't own me, Davidoff. Except for that paycheck you give me every month.
It's not like you got a huge tattoo on your back or something in the van. Yeah, it's not like you have like a tramp stamp of a Camacho or anything like that. I mean, there's still time. Zeno, Zeno.
All right, go ahead, tell us the attractions that we're all missing out on, apparently. Number one is embarrassing for me. Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, which I did actually spend the night in Amarillo, Texas. Oh, you missed the first one.
A row of half-buried Cadillacs sticking out of the ground, spray-painted daily by visitors. Bring a can and leave your mark. You could write Zeno on all this stuff. Wow, you were there.
I was there. I was like 20 minutes away. Mmm, opportunity missed. But that was just like, I drove for 10 hours, I was driving from Phoenix to Arkansas, and I just drove for 10 hours, and I pulled over, slept, and then got right back on the road.
So not even a hotel stay? Just van? I mean, hotel stay, yeah. Oh, okay.
But like eight hours, I was there for eight hours. Is there a mattress in the van? Sometimes. I have these like Ottomans that I put in a line and I can sleep on those.
If you have to. Yeah. When you wake up, they have separated. Always, yeah.
Why does my back hurt so much? How old are you? I'm laying on the floor. Okay, I mean, yeah, dude, at 40, dude, this is not fun.
" Yeah, like maybe driving a delivery van all the way around the country. Yeah, no, I was, yeah, you're right, I was driving for 30 minutes in my wife's car, and I was like, "Man, my leg is bothering me. " I don't know how you do what you do, bro. I don't know either.
Well, I have a membership to Planet Fitness, and they have that black card spa, which has like the hydro massage machine and the massage chairs, yeah, I do it just for that. Do you really? Yeah. That's brilliant.
So I throw on some like, some icy hot on the back, and I sit in one of those massage chairs for like an hour and get back on the road. You gotta talk to Sean Wilson. Like, Sean Wilson is a pro on the road. Yeah.
I need to get you to talk, I need to link you up with him. That guy is, he knows how to handle the road. A lot of these reps are. They're like, how many miles you got this year?
I'm like, 40,000. And they're like, oh, I thought you drove a lot. I'm like, that's not a lot. Right.
That's four times the average year of driving. Right. No. But you're efficient with your travel.
Yes. Yeah. You got to be efficient. You got to keep the budget down.
That's it. Turn on investment, you know. Right. It's all about the ROI.
All about it. Yeah. Okay. All right.
Go ahead. Number two, the world's largest ball of twine in Cocker City, Kansas, one of the most famous, bizarre roadside stops in America, still growing thanks to locals adding twine every year. I hate Kansas, I hate driving through there, so I never stop. Never seen it.
Nope. Okay. That's the worst state to drive through. People can add twine to it?
Apparently so. Why is it the worst state to drive through? It's just when you have a wind sail on, you're towing a wind sail, a box behind you. Right.
It's very windy there. There's a lot of windmills and stuff. So it just blows me all over the road. It's flat.
There's nothing to see. There's no sights. You drive through the north, you're going through beautiful mountains. There's different colored trees and rocks everywhere.
It's beautiful. You drive through Kansas, it's just farmland the whole way. And a giant ball of twine. Yeah, you're missing out on the twine, buddy.
It would block the wind. There is that. Number three, car hedge. Carhenge.
Is that like Stonehenge? I imagine. 0. Not stopping there.
Stonehenge, but with cars. A full-scale replica made from old vehicles, artfully spray-painted gray. Kind of sounds cool. Yeah.
It does, actually. So you haven't seen that? I haven't seen that either. Nope, I've driven through Nebraska like four times, and nope.
Not doing it. Maybe we just cut the list down to things he has seen. Yeah, it's going to be like one of these. I did stop at like one of these places probably.
Number four, the Korn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, a massive building covered in murals made of corn, yes, corn, rotating designs every year. Never made it, that's one of the 12 states I didn't make it to this year. Intercontinental. 12?
Yeah. You didn't make it to 12. Have you been to all of them over the course of the years you've been doing this? Yeah, over the last 13 months I've been on tour, 13 total months.
Yeah, I've hit 33 states, I think. Okay. Yeah. That's not math, and that's 17 states I haven't been to.
15 of Intercontinental. Okay. All right. Yeah.
All right. Number five. Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, Bemididji, Minnesota. Bemididji, Minnesota.
Larger-than-life statues honoring the Lumberjack legend, classic Northwoods, Kish. Kish. Kish. Kish.
It's not a cheese breakfast thing. For no Paul Bunyan? No Paul Bunyan. Hmm.
Okay. Number six, the mystery spot, Santa Cruz, California, gravity defying shack where balls roll uphill and people lean at impossible angles might break your brain. No? Nope.
Okay. Nope. Seven? The Fremont Troll, Seattle, Washington, didn't make it there.
A giant troll statue clutching a Volkswagen Beetle under a bridge, surreal and selfie-ready. Okay. Number eight? Didn't see that one.
Wow. This is not going the way that we thought it would. Nope. This guy's seen everything, man.
Started good with number one. Yeah. Could have seen that. Yeah.
Off the jump. The Muffler Men. Various locations, these towering fiberglass giants appear all over America, often holding giant tools, hot dogs, and other props. I think I've seen one or two of these.
Yeah. Yeah. Now you're going to be on the lookout. I think there's like a couple between like Nevada and California and California and Arizona.
Hmm. Let's see. I love the guy on the road that hasn't seen shit. Apparently not, no.
It's not going well. A lot of the time I'm driving at night, too, or just pitch black, so you can't see half of these things anyways. Right. Number nine, Foamhenge.
We have more than one fake Stonehenge. Natural Bridge, Virginia. A full-size replica of Stonehenge made entirely of styrofoam. Weirdly impressive.
Okay. Doesn't sound environmentally friendly. Yeah. Could hit that with a van and break the whole thing.
Doesn't sound impressive. And coming in at number 10, final. One more thing you haven't seen. Number 10, Enchanted Highway, Regent, North Dakota.
Didn't make it to that state either. 30 miles of massive metal sculptures, giant grasshoppers, fish, birds, and more along country roads. A lot of North Dakota's flat, too. Yeah.
he avoids the flag states flag states no good I've been there once not a lot to see there no is that where Mount Rushmore is? no South Dakota yeah he was close it's Dakota totally different Dakota totally different it's a completely different Dakota okay there's five more nuh-uh yeah there's 15 I think and we're gonna make time so why don't we just cut it and we just move it let me just skip through here see if I saw any of these and we're gonna go to what's the score? Lucy the elephant? No.
The Big Duck Flanders, no. Let's see. South of the Border. I did see South of the Border.
Nope. Nope. That's in South Carolina. That's a different one.
That's a different South of the Border. 14, The Thing in Dragoon, Arizona. No, didn't see that. And number 15, the world's largest pistachio in New Mexico.
Nope. All right. And now Palmer has the industry's favorite game. What's that score?
What's the score? All right, we got time to squeeze one in here. We got the CAO, Arcana Stoke. It's one of Palmer's favorite cigars.
One of my favorite cigars that everybody else hates. And we haven't done this yet? No, we haven't done this one. Okay.
All right. Let's see. It was reviewed in September 14, 2025 by Brooks. Okay.
You got to get a score. Do you want to go, you want to guess your first score? You want me to guess? You're the guess.
I'm with 86. Okay, I'm gonna go 88. Alright, it was, origin is Nicaragua, factory is SCG Esteli, it's a USA Broadleaf over a Nicaraguan binder, fillers Dominican Republic, Andulo, Honduras, and undisclosed, length is 6 inches, 52 inch ring gauge, it's round, and they smoked 3. I also have an undisclosed length of 6 inches.
An undisclosed 6 inches. Solid. 36 gauge. What do you got?
I mean, those sound like pretty tasty tobaccos. Pretty diverse. I'll bring it up to 87. Okay.
All right. I'm going to stick 88 for right now. All right. The first thing I noticed about the CAO Stoke cigars is the massive gold foil band, which takes up much of the cigar's exterior real estate, that it is hard to even see the wrapper.
Okay. Bring it back down to 86. Okay. I'm going to start to follow you a little bit here.
I'll slide down to 87. All right. Starting out, the CAO Stoke cigars features a combination of black pepper and gritty earth, along with a small amount of spice on my tongue. After the assault of scents from the wrappers and feet, it is almost a letdown when the main flavors of the first third consist of more traditional combinations of gritty earth and oak.
I'm going to drop down to 84 here. It's 84 here. Disappointing. It's a letdown.
Okay, I'm going to slide with you to 85. Mr. Palmer? I have to find the next clue.
I didn't have this already pulled. However, just before the burn line hits the halfway point on two of the cigars, right after the halfway point on my final cigar, the profile makes an abrupt shift by introducing the entirely different set of flavors. Campfire and gritty earth notes quickly take over the profile, followed by secondary notes of smoked meat, leather, peat, oak, and beef jerky, all clamoring for space. And it's the greatest cigar ever, just like that.
One third in, shit. Two thirds, amazing. That sounds pretty good. I'm going to jump back to 86.
Okay. 86. That's a good number. I'm going to slide to 85.
Am I at 85? I'm going to stick 85. Final Thought. Final Thought.
At its core, the CAO Stoke is a tale of two very different cigar profiles. The first half is a full of more traditional, dare I say, tame flavors of oak and gritty earth, along with some enjoyable maple syrup sweetness on the retrohale. That all changes around the halfway point as much more aggressive flavors take over, including main notes of campfire and smoked meat, along with significantly more black pepper and a new blackberry sweetness on the retrohale. on the retro hill.
Oh, it's sounding like a pretty complex cigar. Yeah. And they like that over there. They do.
Yeah. Of course, such a major change in the second half also affects the overall balance, although it was less of an issue than I would have expected. This is easily the most enjoyable member of the Arcana series that I've smoked so far and a great choice if you're looking for a cigar with an interesting twist to change up your regular lineup. See, it's an excellent cigar.
Just like that. Disappointing. Most amazing. And when I say it sucks, what I'm trying to tell you is I fucking loved it.
Well, it made me doesn't like that whole series. It's the best of the ones I don't like. OK, what are you going to do now? I think I'm going to go to my original 86.
OK, do I think it's better or worse than 86? Ah, I'm going to go 85 and say it's less than 86. 85. Ah, Mr.
Ream wins, 88. Oh, that's where I was originally! Damn it! See, when you knew nothing about the cigar, you nailed it.
Yeah, I was like, perfect. Yeah. And then they started talking, and then I screwed it all up. That's why this game is so great, nobody knows where it's going.
Yeah, yeah, no direction. Nobody knows. No direction. I could fake the answers, and it still wouldn't make a difference.
Right. Yeah, right? You could write a whole different description the entire time. I'm like, yeah, actually, that's not anything what they said.
I'm like, okay, perfect. Okay, where are you going to be? Because we're going to post this up tomorrow. So where are you going to be in the upcoming couple days that we could plug you?
So tomorrow we have Cigar Cave in Palm Harbor, Florida. Okay. And then Friday we have... Uh-oh.
I just had a brain fart. We broke him down. We broke him. Oh man, they're gonna be so mad.
They text me like 10 times a day. Do you wanna look at your phone and see? It's in the villages. Oh, holy smokes.
Holy smokes, thank you. I just had a total brain fart. There you go. They've actually painted their walls Xeno yellow.
Did they? It's the most dedicated Xeno cigar lounge that I had a brain fart. So, it's a very interesting event. Yeah, they do a really good job, you know, you get hit on by all kinds of people.
Yes, are you bringing your different color bandanas? Lufas, lufas. Is that what it is? Yeah, different color lufas.
To let them know what you're, what you're available for? Yes. Excellent. So, just avoid the black lufa, because that means I'm available for anything.
Oh, you're down. Yeah. It's your down down. The black lufa means whatever comes this way.
Let's go. Okay. Alright, so you got three events coming up. How do people find you?
Tobacco Cupcake on Instagram. Don't follow me on Facebook. I don't accept any new friend requests. Tobacco Cupcake on Instagram is definitely worth following, so you should definitely follow it.
You do a great job with all your shorts, dude. Thank you. Area 54's Jackass Joe's Beef Jerky Emporium. More emporium.
More poop. But you did, I like the snap thing that you did too. You're like, bam, you just did, that was today, right? Yeah.
Yeah, that was a great one. I mean, you do a lot, you take a lot of time on those. That's right, bringing those like 2019 trends back to life. Yeah, you think so?
I feel like you're more up to date. Sometimes. Sometimes? It depends on where my brain's at each day.
Yeah. Like recently, I was drinking, just to be healthy, I drink water all day, it's getting boring, so I started, I was like, AI, what's something else healthy I could drink besides water? I was like, oh, just unsweet tea, it's full of antioxidants. There you go.
So I was just blasting through those, and all of a sudden I couldn't sleep at all. Like I had the worst insomnia ever. So weird. I just didn't even think about it.
Unsweet tea is made with black tea, which is like super high in caffeine. So yeah, I couldn't sleep for like a whole week. I was like, what's going on? This is so weird.
I'm driving so much. Yeah. In hindsight, it's very obvious. Very obvious.
Yeah. I've learned to cut off the energy drinks now. Like, you gotta, there's a time. It's like three, four o'clock, anything past that.
m. or else I won't sleep. Yeah. I think it's also because we're getting older, dude.
That too. Yeah. Bodies are sensitive to everything. It's inevitable.
Yep. Okay. Anything else, Mr. Palmer?
Nope, that's it. Thank you very much for taking the time to be on. Yes, this was fantastic. Where does he rate?
Where does he rate? Now we got, we got a couple under our belts here. Is he better or worse than Jack Taranio? Ooh, I like this game.
I think he's better than Carney. You think he's better than Carney? I think he did a better job than Carney. Okay.
Especially for his first time. Carney's got two under his belt now. Okay. It's my second time.
Yeah, but this is the first time. First time hosting. That's what I mean, first time hosting. On the new format.
And, like, the last time we did it, I wasn't as good at what we're doing now. Because as far as, like, reels and all the other shorts and all the other stuff, like, you kind of just came at the tail end of me, like, I really need to do more clips of those things, you know? So I've gotten better at that, but like this, I'll rip to shreds with all kinds of stuff. Oh, there's a lot of good clips in this one.
Yeah, we did the singer that committed suicide or whatever, and a girl at my office was like, dude, I can't believe you guys did that on Star Hustler. It was so insensitive. I was like, yeah, that was all them. I had nothing to do with that.
Those guys are terrible. There was a suicide in the news today, but we're staying away from the dead people stories, don't we? Uh, well, at least, you know, hey, we're going to the African mannequin smugglers, that's it, well, at least, uh, at least people are watching, uh, you know, I'm sorry to upset you, yeah, okay, perfect, well, um, he didn't answer if you're better than Jack Taranio, he knows better, oh, uh, yeah, I'm just gonna stay away from that, I get enough angry phone calls, Jack Taranio, like, once a week at least, he's like, you rat bastards, well, we haven't heard from him yet, cuz he's still recovering from the Zonapalooza, so. Right, he took off for Alabama or something today?
Did he? Georgia, Atlanta? Something, maybe it was Atlanta, I don't know. He's going to the villages, he's got an event at Holy Schmokes.
Yeah. Yeah. He could do some damage there. He's a black loofah guy, for sure.
Yeah, for sure. He's a 100% black loofah guy. Coming off the TAA Eyes Wide Shut party, so he's ready to go. We're actually, I know we're trying to wrap things up here.
You're good. You're fine. Like, my fourth or fifth date ever with my now wife, we went to this Peruvian restaurant in downtown Miami And Jack Taranio and his wife just happened to be there. No shit.
Yeah, it was totally random. Yeah, did you make him pay? Was he a general at that point? Did he have the general card?
I don't know. That's a good question. Yeah. How long ago?
I should have just been like, hey, put this on this guy's tab. Yeah. See the big guy over there? Yeah.
He said he'd cover us. That's my dad. He said he'd pay. That's my dad.
It's our anniversary. He's gonna pay for it. All right, perfect. Well, dude, thanks for coming in.
It's always a pleasure. I know this is kind of last minute, so we slid you in, and I'm glad you did it. I think we set this up 12 hours ago? Yep.
Yeah, we got word that you were in town. We're like, holy shit, where is he? Dude, you're Johnny on the spot. I knew you were going to deliver.
Alex told us from La Fesa. You know what? If I'm going to spend my one year wedding anniversary with anyone, it's you guys. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. All right. We're available for other anniversaries if anyone else in the industry is having. Well, thanks again for coming on, dude.
I appreciate you, bro. My pleasure. Hey, on the way back, there is the RVs that are stuck in the ground right past Haynes City. Oh yeah, there you go.
Okay, I can catch some of those. You can not see that one as well. I did not see that one. I did not see that one.
All right, guys, bye. Bye.
Show Notes
On Today’s show we break down why people are suddenly jumping into gritty, hard-labor jobs as the cushy office gigs dry up. Then we dig into the wild toll-text scams stealing over a billion dollars, Epstein Files in their on again off again trend is back on and the latest cigar drops from Black Label and La Palina. We wrap up with a quick tour of America’s strangest roadside attractions. Light up and enjoy.