ACHP Episode 425 Naked Florida Cruising
Episode Summary
Episode 425 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with Mike Palmer, Mike Stepankiewicz and Boots working through a grab bag of non-cigar news — a clothing-optional Norwegian Pearl "Big Nude Boat" cruise sailing out of Miami in February 2026, Netflix's reported $82.7 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets (and what it might mean for theaters), and Dave Portnoy's demand for an NFL investigation after a bizarre late delay-of-game flag in the Raiders–Broncos game turned a 10-point loss into a 7-point one. That leads into a longer riff on how legalized sports betting has changed the crew's trust in the games, plus Boots' Moneymaker Pick of the Week (Tampa Bay moneyline vs. Atlanta).
The cigar news block is the meat of the episode. Warfighter Cigars has announced it will stop shipping to California ahead of the state's new UTL (Unflavored Tobacco List) requirements taking effect January 1, with a December 15 cutoff for stocking up — the hosts read the brand's statement and vent about over-regulation. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed AB211, which would have created a new tobacco bar license and finally allowed new cigar bars in a state that has banned them since the 2009 indoor smoking ban; Evers cited being a former cigarette smoker and cancer survivor, which sets off a familiar rant about cigars being lumped in with cigarettes and vapes. The Cigar Association of America also elected a new board: Terry Gallagher Jr. of Smoker Friendly succeeds Javier Estades as chairman, with Eric Newman of J.C. Newman as vice chair, Kerry Freed of ITG Brands as treasurer and Henry Romer as secretary, and Scott Pierce remaining president. The hosts dig into the CAA's public financials and salaries.
Mike also delivers a blunt first review of "Succeeding Against the Odds: The Oliva Tobacco Story," the new hour-and-a-half documentary on the Oliva Tobacco Company screened at the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival. Based on the trailer, he pans the audio, camera work and the fairground-style caricature illustrations, even though the subject — Angel Oliva Sr.'s Cuban leaf brokerage and the family's post-embargo planting of Cuban seed across Central and South America — deserves better. There's also a shout-out to a Cigar Collective fan's heated, ventilated ice-fishing-tent winter smoking setup, proof you don't need to downsize to small cigars in the cold.
The episode closes with "What's the Score?", the crew's guess-the-rating game against Halfwheel reviews. First up is the Patina Red Pill 5x54 box press (San Andrés Oscuro wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder, Nicaraguan and US filler, $13) reviewed by Brooks Whittington — praised for construction but hammered for a raw asparagus vegetal note and inconsistency, landing at 88. The redux cigar is the AVO Heritage Lancero from Davidoff, reviewed by Patrick Lagreid, which despite a weak ash scored a 95.
In This Episode
- 01CHPod Merch and Holiday ShippingThe Pressure Is A Privilege apparel is in stock at CHPod.com, with BOGO-style discounts, free shipping over $100 and a realistic pre-Christmas cutoff.
- 02Florida's Naked Cruise and Other Non-Cigar NewsBare Necessities and Norwegian Cruise Line's clothing-optional Norwegian Pearl sailing out of Miami in February 2026, plus its towel-and-lingerie rules and price range.
- 03Netflix Buys Warner Bros. DiscoveryThe reported $82.7 billion deal for WBD's studio and streaming assets, what's excluded (CNN, TNT, legacy cable), and antitrust questions.
- 04Dave Portnoy and the NFL Betting ConspiracyA late delay-of-game flag in Raiders–Broncos moved the game inside the 8.5-point spread, prompting Portnoy's call for an investigation and the hosts' theories about officiating.
- 05Winter Cigar Smoking SetupsA Cigar Collective follower's heated, vented ice-fishing tent makes the case that cold weather is no excuse for only smoking short cigars.
- 06Warfighter Cigars Stops Shipping to CaliforniaWith California's UTL law effective January 1, Warfighter says it won't comply and will halt California shipments after December 15.
- 07Wisconsin Vetoes New Cigar BarsGovernor Tony Evers vetoed AB211, which would have created a tobacco bar license, keeping the 2009 ban on new cigar bars in place.
- 08CAA Elects Terry Gallagher Jr. as ChairmanSmoker Friendly's Terry Gallagher Jr. succeeds Javier Estades atop the Cigar Association of America, with Eric Newman as vice chair.
- 09Oliva Tobacco Documentary ReviewA critical first look at 'Succeeding Against the Odds: The Oliva Tobacco Story' and the Oliva family's outsized role in premium cigar tobacco.
- 10What's the Score?Guessing Halfwheel's ratings for the Patina Red Pill box press (88) and the redux AVO Heritage Lancero (95).
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 a Cigar Hustler Podcast Episode 425, brought to you by Espinosa Cigars and their newest cigar- Oh, no! Come on! No! He wrote me- He's sponsoring us?
He said he would! You do not get to do that. Episode 420. He said he would do it.
" Welcome to the Palmer and Boots Podcast. Brought to you by Espinosa Cigars. And then here joining us is the Mikey Podcast. The Mikey Cigar Hustler Podcast version.
No commercials. m. I'm Mike Palmer, the host of the show, and behind the scenes we have Boots. I just had the winter poops and vomits.
Pushing the buttons and running our gambling syndicate, say hello. The winter poops, the winter poops, the Noro Mars. Now today on the show, 2026 is shaping up to be the year to be naked on a boat in Florida, Netflix has come a long way since the days of mailing DVDs, Dave Portnoy is demanding an investigation, and in cigars, Warfighters is heading only east, there are no new cigar bars on the horizon, the CAA is making changes, And a new documentary on the Oliva family just dropped and we've got the first review. Uh oh.
" Very good gentlemen, very good. And now let's have a big round of applause for the man the industry fears, Mike, I have the power, Stepankiewicz. Yeah! Good morning, Michael, welcome to the show, man, the industry fears.
Good morning, Mr. Michael, how are you sir? It's because you hold the leash to me. That's what it is, that makes sense.
Is that why you buttoned your shirt all the way up? No, this is Monday, I wear a jacket on Monday. It's required. Yes.
How do we get some of this CHPod swag, Michael, that everybody's clamoring for Christmas presents? com for all of our apparel. Our most recent apparel that we launched is The Pressure Is A Privilege. It is.
They are officially in stock, so we started shipping that. If you buy one, you get the second one 40% off. And if you buy three or more or whatever, you spend over a hundred bucks, you're going to get free shipping. com.
And thank you so much for your support. Do we have a cutoff for holiday packages that people weren't guaranteed by Christmas? Nothing is guaranteed. Never.
We guarantee nothing. I guess that's easiest way to do it. No, I mean, we work pretty fast. Yes, yes, I understand.
But it is the, what, the eighth. Yeah. So I would imagine by, let's say, maybe the 20th, we can't guarantee... 20th is probably a little tight, but yeah, I think...
But that would be the absolute latest. Yeah. Is there an express shipping option on the website? There is not, but you can just text us on our phone number, 954-547-5333, and if you need something urgent, we can work that out for you.
Excellent. Express could be $500. So what are we smoking on the Patreon today, Michael? We are smoking...
What lovely cigar from Espinosa Cigars are we smoking? What are the cigars that we smoke? We are smoking the knuckle sandwich off the menu. How's that look?
Turn it a little? There's a little glare from the light, 'cause it's gold. How's that? A little more?
It's beautiful. It's a beautiful cigar. There you go, perfect. Yep, right there.
It's a very pretty cigar. It's very beautiful. 8 grams. It's a nice cigar.
It's a really good looking... Listen... Yes, why? We're not taking the Espinosa money.
Maybe I had a phone call with Jack Taranio early, early this morning. Who knows? Do they do spin-offs? Do they like spin-offs?
Yeah, it's called Down to Her Podcast. Bert, okay. No, we don't get enough off that deal. You gotta take care of your people.
It's not even really worth our trouble at that point. Something's better than nothing, Palmer. You gotta take care of your people, buddy. Time we process and everything.
They're driving Jags, we're driving Volkswagens. Whatever. And now the news! Or do you want to talk more about his pooping?
Yeah, how's your poop? What's going on? How you doing? You alright?
You gonna make it through the show over there, Booty? Food poisoning. You have food poisoning? Yeah.
What did you eat? Racetrack pizza. Who the hell? What is wrong with you?
Who eats that kind of food at a gas station? What is wrong with you? Don't act like you've never eaten racetrack pizza. I've never eaten racetrack pizza.
I've never had racetrack pizza. The most food I eat at a gas station is maybe a breakfast biscuit type thing, and that's just egg and egg. See, I would stray away from the biscuit part. I feel like you're still asking for it, too, if you have the breakfast burrito, whatever.
Not a burrito. A biscuit. A biscuit. Uh-huh.
Mike, the English version. Did you ever get a racetrack award for Guardian of the Tobacco? No, I have not. I have not.
It's on my desk in my house. It's lovely. It's right there. You should frame it.
Okay. Yes. All right. So, Boots has got the poops.
Boots has the poop. What's the worst thing you've ever eaten at a gas station? Have you ever had gas station sushi? No.
I've seen that. I would definitely draw the line of that. Yeah, I've seen it. I've been always ready even to touch it.
It's definitely a community question. So please comment below as to what you, what's the worst thing you've eaten at a gas, from a gas station. Oh, that's great. Yeah.
I want to hear it. Well, and we'll, we'll talk about the best ones on the next episode. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.
No, no. The show goes up tomorrow. Yeah. Wednesday.
Yeah. We'll talk about it later this week. Yeah. Sometime.
I don't know. And now the news, Florida's getting a naked cruise line next year. Of course it is. Perfect.
A whole new level. This might be the one you finally go on. Yep. Oh.
Might be. A whole new level of Florida man energy is on the way, folks. Apparently, the big nude boat is coming back in February 2026. Yes, an actual naked cruise launching right out of Miami.
Bear Necessities and Norwegian Cruise Line are teaming up to send 2,300 brave souls on a clothing optional Caribbean adventure. They'll be hitting the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Dominica, Martinique, and St. Lucia.
Before limping back to reality on February 14th. Wow, it's a Valentine's Day thing. Limping back. Now don't just show up flip flops and a smile, there are some rules.
The buffet, clothes free zone, you don't have to wear clothes to the buffet. You don't have to wear clothes to the buffet? Nope. That sounds scary.
That's right. But in the formal dining rooms, you have to keep parts covered, you have to wear a towel, and wherever you park that bare bottom, you have to put a towel down first. Any place you sit down. Excursions, staterooms, pool deck, you better be sitting on a towel like a respectable noose.
You also can't stroll around the porch naked unless they specifically tell you it's go time. Oh. Oh, they say it's go time. Confirmed.
Yes, you have to confirm nudity is available in the port. Straight strip off the clothes. Yes, photos and videos without consent are banned. Sorry, Michael.
Yeah, I mean, because like a couple of things have already crossed my mind. Number one. How much is it? No.
Do they charge less because you don't bring clothes? Now, first of all, who's going to be enforcing the bear towel thing? I'd imagine the staff. " Yeah.
Yeah? And they're going to... Oh, I'm very sorry. Probably a really big guy, Harry, and his name's going to be Larry.
Well, it's the general staff, you know, the cruise line people. They don't have a special naked staff. The staff is wearing clothes. Maybe.
Bear necessities. I can't imagine, like, the nudist guys all being, you know, everybody have, like, low body fat and stuff like that. No, if you've seen the type of people who normally take this kind of cruise, you don't really want to. This is going to be a fatty cruise.
" Check out my dog. It's mostly older people. Yeah, they just want to be free. What time frame is this?
A certain time of the day? No, no, no. Oh, it ends on February 14th. Yeah, it's coming straight out of the winter.
People ride out of hibernation. They're definitely not in workout mode. Bulking season. Bulking season.
Awesome. All right, also banned, lingerie. Which is kind of odd. Okay.
You can be naked, but you can't wear lingerie. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are we doing? Put that away.
It's either full nudity or full clothes. There's no halfway in between this thing on the boat. Underneath all the cheekiness, the ship is actually the Norwegian Pearl, full casino, whiskey bar, spa, entertainment, the whole deal. Whoa.
And the price? 99. Wait a minute, there's a window. I have a window of prices depending on the level of your stateroom.
How many days is it? Seven. Oh, it's expensive. Seven day cruise.
Naked Cruz. So they bring extra sunscreen and sunburn after. Wait, you said you had a window. What?
You said you had a window. I have a range on the prices. So like from blank to blank. Oh, okay.
Depending on the size of your room and that type of stuff. I'm going to put it at $1,600. You don't want to do the range, the window, blank to blank? $1,600 to $2,200.
Okay. Yeah, I'm going to be $700 to $1,200. $2,000 to $33,000. Really?
For a naked cruise? $33,000? Yes. If you want a fancy cabin while you walk around like Adam and Eve in the garden.
Oh, wow. $33,000 must be like the executive where you have a... It comes with leaves? butler and, you know, all that kind of stuff.
The suite. It'd be so weird. You walk around naked and the butler's clothed. I don't, you know...
The entire staff of the ship is clothed. They gotta be naked as well. The captain's not naked. Everybody's naked.
What if I want to be like Jack in a stowage? How much is that? That would be the $2,000. That's inside cabin, no windows, down where you can hear the motor.
Yeah, that's a live experience, and you actually have to pay more for that. Like Jack from Titanic, is what you're saying? Right, yeah, yeah. I want to dance naked, the shipping up to Boston.
And they sink. So, you know, for $2,000, they actually throw you off the boat into the water. I heard that there's like a flood room where they actually flood you, and then the gate's locked, so you can't escape. And right before.
Yeah. And it recedes just before you die. Right, right, right. Oh, wow.
It's like an asphyxiation thing. Yeah. It's like an auto-erotic. There you go.
Wow, there's cruises. Erotic asphyxiation or whatever it's called. The one Skip always says is the way you die. It's just when he thought it was getting great.
That's it. Auto-erotic asphyxiation. You go back to the buffet and there is the racetrack sushi. There it is.
Oh, right, right on there. Except it's aqua-erotic asphyxiation. Yeah. Florida Never a Dull Moment!
We should go as a show and do a live show. Absolutely not. I mean, what sucks is you said that there's no video, but it would be awesome if somebody like kind of just tracked it where, you know, you blink everything out, you blink out faces, you blink out all the parts or whatever, and that would take off once. It'd be a lot of blinking.
Meta glasses. Okay, Meta. Don't they record? Yeah.
There you go. I think they pick up on that. Why is everybody wearing those little horn-drimmed glasses? It's so weird.
It's so weird. All right. A big Hollywood shocker. Netflix bought Warner Brothers.
I know. HBO, almost 15. Oh, Warner Brothers and HBO. Almost 15 years ago, the CEO of Warner Brothers' parent company brushed off this little DVD by mail set up called Netflix.
He literally compared them to the Albanian army taking over the world. Wow. Well, fast forward to today, and that Albanian army just bought Warner Brothers. 7 billion deal for Netflix to scoop up WBD streaming and studio businesses, beating out Paramount Skydance and Comcast in a full-on bidding war.
Wow, $82 billion? $82 billion, with a B. 7. Yeah, almost three.
Hey, Netflix got some money, boy. 7. Right, exactly. You know what I mean?
If regulators let this thing go through, Hollywood gets flipped on its head. What Netflix is buying, they're buying Warner Brothers Studio, meaning Harry Potter, DC, Batman, they own the playground now. HBO, The Crown Jewel, Game of Thrones, The White Lotus, the whole prestige lineup. HBO Max, no clue if they keep it separate or fold it into Netflix, but expect yet another name change because that's what Warner Brothers loves to do.
What Netflix isn't buying, this is what's not included in the deal. Oh, they were just able to concierge? Yeah, they did. That's not the right word, but yes.
A la carte. A la carte, sorry. Yes, they a la carted the deal. We would like this and this, we don't want this.
So, they did not buy CNN, TNT. TNT. Yeah, who wants any of that crap? All the legacy channels stay behind.
No cable TV stuff. I don't want to mess with that. That's all crap. We don't want any of that.
It's garbage. It's garbage. Give us a Comcast. WDB will spin those off in 2026, so somebody else can buy those.
Michael, maybe if you have a check, you could buy yourself TNT. Will you take a post-dated, third-party, out-of-state check? Maybe they will. Yeah, perfect.
7 billion. Maybe they won't care. And Hollywood A-listers are panicking. Everyone wants to know if the theaters are dead.
Netflix says they'll still put Warner Brothers movies in theaters, but didn't say for how long or how many. Now we wait. The deal is supposed to close next year, but it won't be smooth. Antitrust questions are already flying.
And the word is the Trump administration prefers Paramount's bid. Doesn't like Netflix. Yeah, I heard about that. Why?
I don't know. They one time did not send him the DVD he ordered. Oh, really? No, he said something about stocks.
They sent him the Big Red Dog instead of Big Red One. And he got so upset. Wow. He said something about, like, by them doing this move, it moves their stock, like, so much and it was unfair.
Like a monopoly? Yeah. Well, wouldn't if Paramount bought it, their stock would do whatever he's saying Netflix's stock would do? I guess.
Yeah, I guess. Yeah. I think that's fine. Well, that's probably his buddy.
Well, he owns Paramount stock. He wasn't smart enough to buy Netflix. Ah, that makes sense. Allegedly.
Allegedly, yes. Because he's probably a big fan, listens a lot. So, Netflix is winning. This one is Raising Eyebrows in DC.
Wild Times, a DVD by male underdog, just became the heavyweight champ of the world. They've been doing a lot of stuff lately, Netflix. Yeah, there was word that they were going to release some of their streaming-only movies to theaters. Starting next year.
Really? Like new movies? That was a news clipping that we went over on this. Yeah.
Oh, man. I hope they don't destroy movies. I do enjoy movie theaters every once in a while. Do you?
I do. I like going. Yeah, the experience is cool. Yeah.
It's just expensive. What isn't expensive? No, I know. Watching it at home?
I like that my kids are just... Wait a second. It's still expensive even at home. Not the same.
I can see a movie at home a lot cheaper than you can see a movie in a theater. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. But especially if I have somebody else's streaming login.
Oh, but it's nice allegedly, but it's nice to, you know, have like a night out. Yeah, you know, yeah, I wish my wife enjoyed going to the movies. I would go more. Sometimes it is nicer to see it on the big screen.
Yeah, but the surround sound and stuff take a nap. Well, no, then you just spend all the money for the thing. I don't like the new seats where you're laying down because that's what happened. Oh, that's that's what I love.
Yeah, I love those seats. Last one we saw together was the live action, um, Beauty and the Beast. I missed half of it, but I fell asleep. Oh.
Well, I probably fell asleep in that one, too. Why the hell would you go see that movie? My wife agreed to go if we saw that. She likes the story.
Well, you just have to let her know that it's live-action Beauty and the Beast next time and go see Lethal Weapon 5. Oh, yeah. I saw that. It's coming out.
Yeah, right. Is it really? He promised Donner on his deathbed that he would make sure the movie continued. Because they have one more.
Donner wrote another one. Donner just died, the director. Okay. And he promised him on his deathbed.
Who's he? Donner, the director of all the other movies, all the other Lethal Weapon movies. Lethal Weapon. Richard Donner.
Okay, so who promised Richard Donner? Mel Gibson. That's what I was looking for. Well, he just said that.
You didn't hear him say Mel Gibson. I did not. But it's okay. First you stick me with a cigar trick, and now you're not backing me up.
Fine, I understand how it is. I did not say, hey, I just want to be truthful. No, no, it's too late. That's nice.
So, anyway, he did, and Mel said, yeah, sure, thinking nobody would have heard it. Right. But then, after he died, he found out Donner told his wife. He told the movie studio.
He told all these people that Mel Gibson's agreed to do the movie for me if, you know, if something happened to me. Well, I mean, Mel's not, he doesn't have a lot going on anyways. Yeah, but he's kind of old, though. I don't think he can run around do his karate stuff anymore.
So what? They already, like, number four. Maybe he didn't want to do a fifth one. I'm going to do a fifth one.
Sometimes the actors get tired of being the same person. He did karate in Lethal Weapon? I don't remember those parts. You didn't see when he fought Gary Busey in the first one?
That was karate stuff. When he smacked his wrist? No, when they had the big fight outside with the helicopter light flashing. Oh, yeah.
I don't remember that being karate though. He had Jet Li in there. Right, yeah, he fought Jet Li. Yeah, but that was Jet Li.
That wasn't Mel Gibson doing karate. He was doing it. He was getting his ass kicked. But he was doing it.
Yeah, he did. He was getting older at that point. Right. Exactly.
Okay. I think I would love to see it. Oh, I would go see it again, too. Is Danny Glover still alive, too, right?
I think so. Yeah. Probably barely. I think he was saying, "I'm too old for this shit" before.
He really is now. He's really… They would probably be bringing in a younger pair. Of course. Some type of transitional movie.
I could see that. Yeah. That'd be awesome. Sure.
They could bring Reggie from the other movie. Bad Boys. Oh, Crossover? Yeah.
Nice. From Bad Boys? Yeah, like Reggie from Bad Boys. Reggie was.
Okay. All right, so, merger possibly happening, maybe not, who knows? Murder? Merger.
Oh, merger, I thought you said murder, it's like, who just killed somebody? Oh, you're definitely definitely. What are you saying? All right, now, sports and gambling.
Ooh. Dave Portnoy calls NFL investigation following Broncos, Raiders, and well-known New England Patriots fan, Portnoy, wasn't, or wasn't, angered by the Raiders losing. It was in fact how they lost the game to the Broncos. I did see this.
5 points in the game against their AFC West rival, Denver, was up 10 with the clock ticking down in a game that was all but over with the Raiders running out the clock. No one is happy right now inside the Las Vegas Raiders organization. What was supposed to be a year of reloading and making it back to the playoffs has turned into a national nightmare as they sit at the bottom of the NFL standings With a 2-11 record, but no one on planet Earth right now is more upset over today's Raiders-Broncos game than the Barstool Sports Founder, I think this is out of order. Dave Portnoy, who took to social media following the end of today's game, that's the worst beat of all time, he said in a video recorded into his home, or in his home, you have to investigate the Raiders, investigate the Raiders, what are they doing, what the F blank blank, so what the fuck, after a meaningless catch with no timeouts remaining, it was all over, the Broncos win by 10, except it wasn't.
The Raiders player who caught the ball attempted to get up to walk towards the sideline as the time was about to expire, but he had trouble getting up with the Bronco player who was defending him on the previous play. The referee threw a flag, stopping the clock and calling a delay of game on Denver, giving Las Vegas a field goal and turning the defeat from 10 points to 7. Portnoy would then go on a demand justice for his bad betting beat, pointing at the absolute absurdity of a late second call that held no meaning to anyone on the team. Except for bettors and the Raiders kicker.
The barstool owner is advocating for Raiders head coach Pete Carroll to serve prison time for this act. The only punishment Carroll will receive from tonight's game is having to coach the lifeless Raiders again next week as they travel to Philadelphia to play the reigning champions. Look, this is an ongoing thing. Right, yeah, that's why you pulled it because we've talked about this several times.
Like, there have been some apparent things that have happened in the NFL where you're just like, okay, dude, that doesn't make any sense at all, you know? And I don't even bet on these games. Right. But I always say, oh, that looked weird.
What was the spread? Oh, okay, now that makes sense. Like, I always ask, what's the spread? Oh, it's six and a half.
So, okay, so then it's a catch and it's a touchdown, right? Right. Yeah, that game was eight and a half. Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, I heard that there was an obnoxious punt, too, from like the 30 or something. Yeah. Look, it's all over the place. The biggest mistake that has happened is the fact that betting is now totally legit.
Right, so everybody talks about it now. Well, no, not only that, but... There's a lot of money. Right.
There's a lot of money at stake. And the reality is that, you know, things are going to fold the opposite way so that the rich get richer in that scenario. Yeah, when you, at least when you, even if you just do the math on your calculator, right, right. You're talking about billions and billions of dollars each day that these guys are making.
So if you take one guy on a team, right. And you go, Hey, you were the most betted guy on, on, on today's thing, on today's ticket. Uh, we're going to give you a hundred million dollars not to do this. Hmm.
I don't think it's happening like that, to be honest. I think that it's more happening along the lines where it's controlled by the officials. Could be, yeah. Well, that was the first accusations that came out was referees.
Yeah, I think that that's what I would believe. That would be the easiest control point. Yeah, absolutely. And then, because what happens is once it's, if it's exposed by a set of refs, they get terminated.
Sure. Right. So he gets a little message in his ear, "Hey, they made the spread. We need to have a Are we going to lose a lot of money?
Here's the line. Oh, okay, sorry. Throws out the flag. I mean, it's like a blessing and a curse when you have New York and fast time reviewing and stuff, right?
Right. " Oh, you know, it's whatever and move on. Well, that means that they have direct contact with the refs, right? And it can get to them instantly.
" I mean, this is all theoretical, but... Sure, alleged. All of it makes sense to me. All of it makes a lot of sense to me.
Too much money to be just giving up. You don't think there might be like one ref who doesn't want to do it, who's willing to be the guy? He'd probably be dead. He probably would have had an attack.
We're not talking about being fired. We're talking about killing. Yeah, we're talking there is no money where they would just... " Oh, he doesn't want to play?
Oh. Go do his breaks. No, it would be like a heart attack or something like that, you know. Oh.
Allegedly. Somebody pats him on the back in the locker room. Hey, have a good game. And they hit him with the ring with the thing in it.
What was the way that allegedly Diddy was taking everybody out? What was he doing? He was injecting with something. Baby oil.
Baby oil. No, it wasn't baby oil. Something else. Was that Debbie?
I don't remember. There's this whole conspiracy about the blonde girl that was in 8 Mile, Brittany. Oh, her. She was gonna expose him?
Not Griner. With the big eyes. Wow. She had the big eyes.
I know who you're talking about. Brittany Griner's got big eyes, I guess. It was Brittany something. Smith.
Yeah, she died. I know who you're talking about. And then her husband died. You know, like, what's going on here?
He was distraught. No, man, it was something else. I'm telling you. There's a whole conspiracy behind it.
Brittany seems like so. My point is, though, if we believe, if we were to believe that Diddy had the ability to do this, Diddy doesn't have nearly as much money and power as the NFL. Well, it goes further than that, right? They said it was tied into the mafia.
Well, it's always been tied into the mafia. Right. But before, at least, they just ran the books. They handled the book, you know, the betting was on a much smaller scale.
Yeah. The bookies. Brittany Murphy. Brittany Murphy, there you go.
Oh, that's far from grounder. He's far from ground. And cause of death. Let's see here.
Undisclosed. I was about to talk some mold in our home. This must have been when Mikey was watching TMZ. No evidence.
That mold, no. Mold? They tried to blame mold, but no, they said that wasn't possible. I thought it was drugs.
Pneumonia. That's what he was doing. Allegedly, yeah. Injecting people with ammonia?
I don't know if there's some way to cause pneumonia. Remember how Jamie Foxx got sick, too. He almost died. Oh.
There's a whole conspiracy about all this stuff. It was Diddy. Yo, did you guys see the whole thing with 50 Cent? That was Boots, Diddy.
That said Diddy. Go ahead. My wife started to watch it. I want to watch it.
Oh, okay. The Diddy conspiracy thing? The Diddy documentary? It was on here when we had Eric in here.
That 50 released? Oh, man. I saw bits and pieces of it. That was...
I'm just... Just how he did it? 50 Cent released? Is that what you said?
Yeah. Oh, nice. They picked it all up because the only TV station that is shown in prison is ABC, so he did it on ABC so that way Diddy could watch it. Right, so that Diddy could see it.
" Siddy's crazy, man. Nice. Okay. All right, that wraps up the sports rundown.
Now let's shift gears and make you some money. It's time for Boots and the Moneymakers Pick of the Week. Marker's Pick of the Week. Oh, God.
Yeah, tell us. Somebody was upset about your last one. Were there? Yeah, they're like, hey, I took your bet and I lost.
Don't take his bet, whatever you do. I was definitely, I was sick this weekend, so I have not had time. He had the poops. To prepare for this.
So you don't have one today? I don't have one. It's the only day of the week we do it is Monday. Yeah.
All he has to do for five days. Yeah. He doesn't even show up half the other time. Right.
Give me a second. Give me a second. I'll look at something here. All right, I'll do the disclaimer first.
Booge Pick of the Week is strictly entertainment. We make no guarantees and outcomes. Bet responsibly. If you have a problem, call 888-ADMIT-IT.
All right, there you go. Now it's time. All right, let's go, moneymaker. Oh, was that my time?
That was the time you had. Okay, let's see here. We'll go to Thursday night game. Okay.
All right. Who's playing? What sport? It's football.
Oh, last week he did basketball. They said we'll go to the Thursday night game, so. Yeah. Oh, you assumed it was football.
Yeah. Is that the only sport on Thursday? And Falcons, Bucs? Oh, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be there.
Yeah. You're gonna be in the game? Yeah. So you can bet?
Bet at the window. Alright, let's go, we'll just do Tampa Bay on the money line. Tampa Bay outright. Yeah.
What's the spread? Four. Minus four. Tampa's minus four.
Yep. So you're saying Tampa money line. They just had a bad loss to the New Orleans Sunday. Oh, the Falcons are looking rough, man.
So are the Saints. Division game? I don't know, man. You ain't gonna take your home team?
No. Alright, that's what I'm taking. I don't gamble. I gamble on life.
Baker, when he's at home, man, that guy's doing his thing. He just lost at home to the Saints. 24-20. I didn't get to watch again.
Yeah, me neither. Me neither. I gotta be honest, man. This whole season, I've really You really kind of lost?
Yeah, you haven't been, you don't seem as into it as you normally have. I've lost total interest in football when I just saw a couple things be so badly skewed. I'm like, maybe if you gamble, you'll be more into it. And I'm a Pats fan, and they're on the rise, and you know, you think I'd be like...
Want to bet? No, I don't. I do not. Good, because the money makers gave me a tip, and I'm afraid.
Yeah, money makers. Although the Magic just lost Ron's too. Man, they're hurting. How bad was that?
What was his injury? They haven't completely come out with it yet, but I feel like it's ACL, MCL. It was right under his knee he was holding. I saw Mosley at rec ball on Saturday.
Was he fine? This is the coach. That was before the game. It was so funny because then the game was in New York.
It was the next day or whatever. And she's like, we just saw him. I'm like, he got on a plane, obviously. How did he get there so fast?
I got to go. What is it, is there teleportation now? These kids are pretty cool. Nice.
All right, Mike, do you have a video for us? I do. I was going to say, if it's not, I'm just taking it out of the rotation. I sent it to you.
Oh. So, just watch it without the sound. No volume. It's really kind of long, so we'll just kind of talk about it while you're watching it.
But this kind of ends, for me, the argument of smoking small cigars in the winter, okay? Is it on me? Yep. Okay.
Smoking cigars in the winter. It's too cold, and I have to smoke the small cigars. Fred Rouet, I don't know what you're talking about, because this guy, he's got the setup. Yeah, this guy's dialed in.
He's got a tent... Oh, wow. Wait, wait until you open it up. That must be a little bit further than you guys.
He's got a whole podcast in this thing. He's got a vent. Is that a vent system goes under the door? He's got a ventilated system.
Two heaters. He's got a drinking problem as well. Blantons. Oh, wow.
I was in that ruined by all the smoke. I'm just kidding. I don't think you have a drinking problem. This is funny.
Heater? Oh, yeah, but isn't that like a... My guy's got two heaters going. Isn't that a thing you're not supposed to do with heaters?
What? Like not supposed to put them inside or something? Yeah, but he vents it out the back though. Maybe it's all part of the ventilation system.
Oh, maybe. It seems like this guy's dialed in. I'm not going to question what he's doing, you know? But, shout out to Cigar Collective, man.
Yeah. Nicely done, bud. Nicely done. So, if it's cold where you're at, if you really want to have a cigar and relax...
Spend $7,000. I feel like you could do it. I feel like you could do it. I don't think that's $7,000.
I was including the podcast equipment. Well, a ventilation system and a tent. Is that really a tent or that looks like it might be a tarp for a camper or something? It's like an ice fishing tent.
Oh, okay, gotcha. Wow, quite an impressive setup he's got there. I think that that's pretty amazing. Good job, buddy.
Yeah, good job there, boss. Okay. Does he have a name? Do you want to give his name?
Do you want to give his name? I said Choward Cigar Collective. Oh, I made like a Bob Smith. Oh, I didn't look that far.
Oh. I just looked at Instagram. I was like, this is cool. Oh, I got you.
All right. Yeah, it was pretty cool. I know. It's a nice little setup.
So, little cigars in the winters. If you like little cigars, that's fine. But if you like having bigger cigars, figure it out. I figure if we were in a cold state, we would understand and know how to smoke other cigars and small ones.
Yeah, it'd have heaters. Right. Or we'd have like a separate building. Those heaters could have just worked in his garage without the tent.
I love, but he has it vented. Yeah, yeah. So like the smoke does not get into the house. I had my garage venting.
I had the same deal. I had a bathroom fan on the ceiling that the vent tube ran outside down to the back. Yeah. Yeah.
It's not hard to do. No. Or you just use your shed in the back. So stop being lazy.
You'll embarrass yourself. You'll embarrass yourself. All right, Warfighter Cigars with California's new UTL Law kicking in. Are we getting into Cigar News?
Yes, this is Cigar News. Oh, I'm sorry. Let's light one up and get into Cigar News. Thank you.
Now I know. I'm aware. Well, I said Warfighter Cigars. I know, but what about the listeners?
They heard me say Warfighter Cigars. New UTL Law kicking in January 1st. The clock is officially ticking for anyone in California who wants Warfighter Cigars. You can still stock up, but only until December 15th.
After that, well, California's gone to California. The short version, the states slapped on another massive unnecessary fee, let's call it what it is, a bribe. And we're not playing the game, the cost, the red tape, the headache, it's ridiculous. This is a statement from Warfighter.
So, Warfighter cigars won't be able to ship it to California going forward. We hate it, you hate it, our loyal California smokers absolutely deserve better, but politics ruin everything, cigars included. So, grab what you can, while you still can, and check our dealer locator, if you're planning a road trip, stock up before the slate, before the state shuts it down. " Okay.
I just don't understand how, like, what am I missing as far as why people still vote this way in a state? So, it just doesn't make sense to me. Like, we talk to people that are in California, and they're like, this is all really bad. Well, was it a public vote, or was it legislation?
Either way. Like, you know who's making the voting. Right, I mean, you cannot vote for them the next time around. Right.
But they're there now, though. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, they're so dominantly that way. Like, it's been that way for years.
Like, whoever goes into office, they just kind of move along that way. Well, California is so, you know, anti-everything because they want their state to be so clean and everything. " Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. But, you know, when you go around to Texas, eh, they don't care.
If you're from California and you think that all of this is good, I would like to hear your comments as well. Well, yeah, because I haven't had I haven't come across a person in our realm that said, yeah, this is awesome. Well, people in our realm aren't those people, but unfortunately, there's more out of the realm than in the realm. There's I think there's cigar smokers that are in that realm.
There's cigar smokers that don't want certain cigars going to California. I don't I don't think that in their mind, but I just think that they like the laws in California. I just want to know where over-regulation is actually a good thing and someone says, "Yes, this is fine. " You know, and not be a bot.
There's some Karen somewhere who's all gung-ho with everything they're doing, I'm sure. Probably. Crazy. It's wild, man.
Yeah. I'll pray for you guys in California. Just kidding. I don't really pray.
No, you're not going to? Just kidding? You're not really going to? I don't really pray.
Okay, maybe I'll pray for you. Maybe. Well, it's getting worse, Michael. Oh, God.
Wisconsin governor vetoes a bill that would have allowed for more new cigar bars. Oh, my God. Why? Wisconsin?
Wisconsin, no new cigar bars in Wisconsin. Turns out there would not be new cigar bars in Wisconsin on Friday. Governor Tony Evers announced that he was voting vetoing nine bills that were recently passed by the state's legislature, including one that would have allowed for new cigar bars in the state. Last month, the Wisconsin Legislature passed AB211, a bill that would have modified the state's 2009 smoking ban to allow for a new license for tobacco bars.
In 2009, law bans a creation of new cigar bars in the state, but an effort was made to try to exempt them. AB211 would have allowed for a new license if they met nine different conditions, including having air filtration, banning anyone under the age of 21 years of old from mirroring the premises, Now those efforts are for naught. Cigar bars that were operating as of June 4th, 2009, when the state's indoor smoking ban was signed into law, are able to remain open. In a statement, Evers said that as a former smoker and cancer survivor, he could not sign the bill.
Okay, that's a smoking gun right there. Former smoker of what? What did you formerly smoke? Oh, I'm sure it was.
Cigarettes. And that brings me back to the second. Same thing over and over again that we continued to have a problem with in this industry. Every time that we're mentioned cigars, like, "Hey, I ran into a guy today.
" He asked me. " Hey, buddy, not the same thing. It's not the same thing. You're not like us.
So stop. You're not one of us. Stop telling people you are. You know?
Oh, and it's like, oh, well, you know, I smoked a couple cigars, too. I'm like, okay. But which one did you smoke habitually? Oh, cigarettes.
I'm like, okay. All right, dude. We're in two totally different realms. Right.
Stop lumping it all together, man. Stop lumping us together with vape. Stop lumping us together with cigarettes. Well, they're not really lumping, though.
Like, if you think about it, like, in California, do cigarettes have to do the same thing that cigars are having to do? Yeah, they don't do the mentholated, I think, anymore. Well, it's all banished at this point. But in California, it's more geared towards vape.
So they have to pay the whatever per UPC? No, there's no vapes at all, because all vapes are flavored. There's not like an unflavored vape, is there? Oh, they're all gone?
They're all flavored. Yeah. They want to be a smoke-free state. You can't be a smoke-free state.
It's wild. Well, you can. I mean, all you have to do is look at something. They smoke weed there.
If you go back and look at... That's not the same thing. If you go back and look at basic data, you can see that the state of Florida has... He has cigar smoking places all over the place, no problems.
Just go look at the data. Instead of just making these ridiculous rules and regulations, it makes absolutely no sense. We're all dying of skin cancer, not lung cancer. No, you know what, we're, look, heart attack, cancer, one's gonna get you.
It doesn't matter what you do. I'm going to the hospital. If you're a male, especially, right, heart attack, cancer. If you survive those two, Alzheimer's will get you, right?
Oh my God. Oh, jeez. That's the reality. This is not good.
We all have freaking ADHD and anxiety. You're just kicking us off right now, Mike. What are those three? Oh, I went to three.
Look, I'm so nervous. I'm getting the wrong cameras over here. So there's three of us here. I mean, each one of us is going to have one of them?
Right. Right. Alzheimer's, heart attack, and cancer? Look, I'll tell you this.
I'll tell you this. I'll tell you right now. My dad had a heart attack and he died. He didn't take care of himself.
But I got news for you. Genetically, I'll probably have a heart attack. Maybe he'll skip. He'll skip a generation.
I'll probably have a heart attack. I'll probably have a heart attack. Oh, sorry. Now, I'm hoping that it's at a later age because I do everything right as far as- Sure.
Yeah, you're pretty healthy all the time. I eat right, I exercise, cold plunge, the sauna. Hot box, cold plunge, cereal, whatever the book says. The new hair gel.
I do my best to take care of myself. So hopefully, but the reality is that it's probably going to be that. My aunt, she got COVID, heart failure. You're making it so worse for me and Palmer right now.
Oh, I'm getting Alzheimer's. I'm going to the hospital right after this. My grandmother, my father, my mother, no, yeah, they all had it. I'm on a roll.
Yeah, you don't know what the hell's going on right now. Right, I don't even know who you guys are. And you're not even officially diagnosed yet. I'm glad I can just read this, at least I have something to talk about.
Thank God there's words there. Right. But like, that's, that's the reality. I think that there's, it's, you know, what was it, I've used this quote, like episode 200 and something, but, you know, gladiator, right?
Death smiles at us all, all you can do is smile back. It's the truth. I say it to my kids too. Like when they're terrified of going on a roller coaster, I'm like, here's the best approach.
Just go on thinking, maybe you're going to die. Oh God. It's what I do when I fly. And just accept it for what it is.
Is that what you do every time you get on a plane? Yeah. It's nothing I really do. This is it.
This is it. If you accept it for what it is, the anxiety is gone. It's out the door. Yeah.
I'm not worried about dying. You're not panicking. There's no way around it. Everybody does eventually.
Right. Nobody gets out of life alive, not a single person. There's one guy. There's not one guy, he's dead now.
No, Highlander. He never died. But there can be only one. There can only be only one of those.
There can only be one. And if you're not, they cut your head off and you die, so there you go. How are you at sword fighting? Any good?
I'm really good at hiding. Good at hiding? They can find you. They can't cut my head off if they can't find me.
They can tell when one's in the other room or something, there's a thing. When they get close, their dick vibrates or something. Oh, is that how that works? What kind of show are you watching?
This must be one of those movies on the cruise lines. It was Bylander, I'm sorry, it was completely different shows. They still were killed, so I don't know, I thought I had the right movie. Oh my goodness.
Chyna, you just don't have to speak in English, you watch it, I don't know. Wow. Now we're all depressed, we're all dying. Well, I'm going to the hospital and having tests done.
What do we say to the Lord of Death? Not today. Not today, ISIS. Given that the bill passed 1815 in the Wisconsin Senate, it seems unlikely there will be enough votes to meet the two-thirds of the supermajority that it would take to override Evers' veto.
You got to love it when the people voted for something or it goes through the proper channels and then it goes to the top guy and he's like, nah, fuck that. Just throws it out the window. Oh, you guys wanted this? Oh, you have spoken?
You know what? Why do they bother? Why not just let him decide? Yeah, you know, why don't we just give him a crown?
We could have saved six months if you guys are arguing, just bring it to me. Yeah. Gotta be a little quicker. Gotta be quicker than that.
All right, Terry Gallagher Jr. was elected the chairman of the CAA. That's Cigar Associates of America. Last week, the Cigar Association of America CAA held its annual meeting where it elected a new board.
Oh, I wonder where they have their meeting. Probably in a garage. Bora Bora. I don't know, TAA gets always down in the Dominican Republic at that fancy hotel.
Yeah. , the CEO and chairman of the board of that company that owns Smokers Friendly, has been elected as the new chairman of the CAA. Do you know, is this a singular job? I mean, do you just do in charge of CAA now?
I have no idea. I didn't know if you knew. No, I don't. There was not, I tried to look it up, there was no mention.
Probably, because they're getting paid millions. You know, I didn't think to look up what he was getting paid. I don't think they were getting paid millions, but it's a decent check. It's a six-figure thing, I'm sure.
He succeeds Javier Estedes, the head of Tablical Era USA, who has served in the role for nearly a decade. Okay, so if he's still in charge of Tablical Era USA, maybe it's not a singular. There you go. Smoker Friendly is a Colorado-based company that includes a few different verticals.
Mostly notable is more than 350 smoker-friendly tobacco outlets. It also owns gas stations, liquor stores, some cigar-focused retail locations, and the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival. Javier's leadership, vision, and steady hand have strengthened CAA and helped unite the industry through... You all right with it?
I ashed all over myself. I thought you were on fire or something for a minute. It happens all the time. " Right.
He has yet to really tell me. So I love doing my clips, and I'm like covered in ash. Covered in ash? Well, I'm not used to-- I feel like you're doing great.
Thanks. I'm not used to sitting like this, lean back with the mic here where you can't move, so. I'm honored to follow in his footsteps and look forward to working closely with our members as we continue protecting and promoting the interest of the entire cigar industry. In addition, the CAA elected the following officials.
Vice Chair, anybody want to guess? Do we want to guess? He's a famous person. Oh, is it like, wait a second, is he famous in the cigar industry?
Famous in the cigar industry, sorry. Outside the cigar industry, nobody knows who any of us are. Newman. C.
Newman Cigar Company, Treasurer. That was right? Yeah, that was right. D.
Dejarme, Dejarme? Dejarme? Dejarme? Dejarme?
I don't know. T. Barnum, and then I caught myself. On behalf of the entire cigar industry, I want to express our deepest gratitude to Javier for his extraordinary leadership, wisdom, and unwavering dedication over the past nine years, said Scott Pierce, the CEA's president.
Oh, wait, so chairman's not the same as president? Nope. Ah, so the president is a singular job, that's all Pierce's stuff. The president's getting paid.
Scott Pierce's getting paid. I don't know if the chairmen's getting paid. I don't think chairman, so why do they need a chairman if they have a president? Uh, I don't know, probably a pool of voting and decision-making and all of that stuff.
I know that you're used to the dictatorship of just me just calling the shots or whatever. Right. What do they need more than one person? Yeah.
It's back to the governor thing. He just goes, you know, poop, we're not doing that. Vetoed. Javier leaves the association stronger and more focused and better positioned to protect and promote the cigar industry.
The CAA is one of the three main cigar related trade groups. Ooh, there's a, there's like a head, there's like a three headed monster that runs everything. His membership is unique in that includes companies that sell handmade and mass marketed cigars. Some of those companies, like Scandinavian Tobacco Group and Swisher, produce both types.
Though other companies, like CLE Cigar Company or ITG, what's ITG? I don't know. International Tobacco Group? Probably.
That sounds good. Produce only one type of cigar. He's not clicking anymore. Some of the largest cigar retailers are also CAA members.
What did you say? He's on his phone. No, I was looking at the Cigar Association. I have some money.
You guys want to hear? You have some money? Yeah, money talks of them. Oh, you would know like how much they make?
Sure. Okay. Allegedly. Allegedly.
Yeah, allegedly. This is from 2023. Their total revenue was $5 million. $5 million.
Wow. $5 million, $5 million. 2 million. Number of employees was four at the time.
No taxes that way. Number of employees, what, four? Was four at the time. Brian Fochtick, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, He made 199,000.
I'll take that job. Christopher Newbery, this one makes a little bit more. What's he do? Vice President of State Relations.
I'll take that job. 200,000. I was like, ooh, I'll take a dollar more. Yeah, you can have that job.
There's 50 things I gotta do, you only gotta do one. They got some grants, they got 376,000 dollars in grants. From who? The government?
The government? The government's the one who don't want us to do stuff! None of this makes any sense. I don't know.
How much does Scott Pierce make? Does it say how much he makes? Because we know he left to make more money here. Yeah.
No. Doesn't say him. Well, wait, we know how much Joshua makes. Yeah, what did Joshua make?
It was like two or three? It was like 300 or something. They're not on here as personnel for CAA. So there must be two different things.
There must be a committee and then a board. Right, that's what I was saying. There's a president, a vice president, but there's also a chairman, a vice chairman. Yeah, so the...
Who tells who what to do? The chairman and vice chairman are not on here. That must be the committee. Maybe they're not in a paid position, maybe those are.
I would love the job. You want to be the unpaid job? No, no, I want the paid job. Yeah, the paid one.
I want the paid job. Yeah, that'd be great. I want the lady's job, that all she does is plan the trip for the TAA every year. I'm going to go to AAA every year.
What do you think state, like, becoming state friend thing, the 200k, like what does that require? Do you go and you have some dinners? Yeah, you have some dinners, shake a few hands, talk to a governor or two, you know? Maybe a couple of daddy parties.
A couple of daddy parties. I'm not going to that. I hear you inject you with ammonia if you don't like it. Yeah, I'm not getting sucked into that.
I'm not going to that. I'm going to get all greasy and then smell like ammonia. Yeah. Then they're going to want you to vote not to have cigars in California.
Right. Yeah. We're just going to veto it. Like, okay, great.
Here's what I need you to do. Hey, remember that bar thing? Yeah, it passed. Okay, what are we going to do?
Just shut it down. Really? I'm not going to do that. Do you want another 500,000 in grants?
Yeah, just tell them no. You know, I used to smoke cigarettes. I couldn't get to all the state people, so you just say no one time for me. Right, right.
You know, I used to smoke cigarettes, and the media just dumps all this off to stupid people, and they all think that that's the same thing. So, perfect. Perfect. I had cancer from the things I used to smoke.
It's like the Epstein list. It's like, what, you guys are still talking about that? Like, yeah, we are, we're still talking about it! There is no list that you can see.
Whatever, I guess we'll, okay. Wow, wild, it's wild stuff. What a country. America.
Where are we off at? No, it's a new story, that's the end of the story. All right, there's a new documentary, Chronicles the Oliva Tobacco Company, a historical and present-day look at one of the industry's most important, On Friday, the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival will be screened a documentary that chronicles the Oliva Tobacco Growing Family and its enormous importance to the premium cigar industry called Succeeding Against the Odds: The Oliva Tobacco Story. The documentary was shown at 3:15 at the NCG Cinema in the Citrus Park Center Town Mall.
The contribution that the Oliva family has made and continues to make to the cigar world cannot be overstated. In 1934, Oliva Tobacco was started by cigar aficionado, Hall of Famer, Angela Oliva Sr. S. market back when And there was a thriving cigar manufacturing industry in the United States, especially in Tampa.
After the Cuban embargo took hold, Oliva began planting Cuban seeds throughout Central and South America. If you talk to the veteran cigar makers of today, many say that the industry wouldn't be where it is now if it weren't for the Oliva's foresight and fortitude. Well, that's good. Yeah, so I watched the trailer.
That's all the availability I had to it was the trailer. Okay. Okay, first, they had a microphone, but they didn't turn it on. No.
So they had lapel mics, but they didn't turn it on. So you could just see their mouths moving? No, no, you could hear it, but it was, like, far away. Oh.
That's one of the biggest pet peeves I have is the sound quality of something now because of the eight years we've been doing this. Like our Espinosa show that we just aired. Right. Where Eric's talking like this.
But you and him talked at the same time, and you can't separate. We don't have the ability to separate the sound things. We can do music and vocals separate, but we can't separate vocal, vocal, vocal. Not the way our system records.
Well, all the clips that I had was him talking, and it was low. Oh, could you just turn up on those clips? Not with what I'm using, but when I can do it, I can do it on CapCut. Oh, it's already on your hard drive upstairs.
Perfect. And they didn't even mention some of the best clips. So I'm going to drop a couple bombs here this week, it's going to be fantastic. And the camera quality was terrible.
It was terrible. If this was a real movie-type thing, it was terrible. It was shot bad. It sounded terrible.
And to be honest with you, it didn't seem too exciting. Sigh. Maybe that's where we go in the future. Maybe that's the direction.
Are we going to documentary filmmaking? You know, we become the... Storytellers of the industry? The storytellers of the industry.
Yeah, but we will need, you know, some sponsors to do that. Money? Maybe we can get two more cameras. Right.
Two more cameras? We're going to need money for plane tickets? I got news for you. We're in Florida.
Where are you flying to? We got two more cameras. You want to know what else we're going to have to start buying? What?
Masks. No. Right. Oh, yes.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. The return of Phil, my friend.
Phil's dead. No, he's not. No, he's not. Everybody loved Phil.
Everybody loved Phil. No, they didn't. They did. They just thought it was great to see me tortured.
Go back and look at some of the comments on the videos, and like, Phil's the best. Phil's incredible. Those are rough days. They're not behind you.
I got news for you, buddy. All right, the hour and a half documentary was researched and written by executive producer Seth Schwartz and directed by Alvin Daniels, who shot the footage on a digital HD Canon T7 and a 4K Blackmagic pocket camera. I'm sorry, that's a good camera. Are those good cameras?
The Blackmagic one is. The classic one is. He must not know how to use it. , and Trey Oliva, and such prominent cigar makers as Carlos Fuente Jr.
and Eric Neumann. Now, between people they would interview, they use these caricature drawings that look like they were done at the fair, and they were terrible. Really? I could do those.
You can AI something better right now. Oh, certainly, yeah. I watched the AI video of a storyline of Little Mac from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. Like, he just needed a better storyline.
Like, I needed to know more about him. And somebody built this whole thing about him and how he was coming up. He was struggling to pay the bills. And then he was, and then they had him fighting all the, they had him Glass Joe.
They had him fighting all, everybody. And then it led up to, at the very end, him fighting Mike Tyson. they didn't show that fight. It was awesome.
It was like two minutes long. It was incredible. I'll clip it on here. Perfect.
All right. Now it's time for What's the Score? First cigar. Now, I was 500 against Espinosa, and I beat him on his own cigar.
On his own cigar. Just for the record. Oh, you guys played? Yep.
Sure. Why wouldn't we? We had to explain the game to him, but other than that. You think it just ends because you're not here?
I do like the show, I like the way we set, okay, first, everybody's wrong, that should not be the way we do the show all the time. No. No, but I did like how when the camera was on me sometimes, he would lean into the shot so he could look at the teleprompter. Cheater.
You looked shorter in that, too. The table, the table was up to here. Yeah. All right, December 6th, 2025, this is reviewed by Brooks Whittington.
The cigar is the Patina, Rebu, Patina, Red Pill, 5x54 BP. Okay, box press. Would you like to go first, sir, or would you like me to go first? No, you go first.
Brooks, Patina, Recent, Small. This is the new one. We have a new one and an old every week. Eighty-six.
Mr. Boots? 84. This is the Patina Red Pill 5x54 Box Press, Country of Origin is Nicaragua, Factory, Nicaragua, American Cigars SA, Wrapper, Mexico, San Andreas Oscuro, Binder, USA, Connecticut Broadleaf, Filler, Nicaragua and USA.
Length, 6 inches by 54, Box Press, $13, they smoked a free. Ooh, San Andreas and Broadleaf. And American Fillers. I'm sticking 86.
Yeah, 84. I think the only thing that might save this is the box press. The consistency, okay, first clue. The consistency in construction is impressive.
Yep, there it is. Great draw, strong smoke output, and a visually sharp box press presentation. This presentation, even with the flavor variations, all three cigars performed smoothly and showed real craftsmanship, clicky, clicky, clicky, clicky. You make them mad.
You do that a lot with your nose when you're doing this video too. Oh, my mustache goes up when I talk and it tickles my nose. Was that the end? Yes.
You may have to trim it. I'm growing it out to be Santa for the school. Are you? Yeah.
Oh, you haven't heard? No. Oh, yeah, on the, what's the last day? m.
to greet the children as they come to school for the last day. And then this Friday, I am the Grinch for How the Grinch Stole Christmas Movie Night at the elementary school. When are you the Santa? Hold on.
When is this? I'm Santa on the 18th. On the 18th, which is what? Yeah, I told them I couldn't do the 19th to their party.
Yeah, it's a Thursday. I couldn't do Friday because we have a thing here. Oh, can I make that? Film you?
If you want to. I don't care. Can't really tell it's me. As Santa Claus?
Yeah, I mean, there's a hat, there's a beard. My beard won't be long enough by then. You should just be like the miracle on whatever street. I am going to be him here on the 19th.
First of all, you should totally just rep the beard that you have. I would not add a beard. No? No.
All right, we'll see when it gets to be the 19th. There's still a week. I think that you're good where you're at. Yeah, you're like the interim Santa Claus.
No, I think it's a reasonable Santa. Like you're, you know, you're groomed. Right. Yeah.
I wouldn't. I would rock that. How about the wig? Because it gives you the long flowing white hair.
The wig and the beard are separate. I wouldn't rock either one of those. Gotcha. Because you look authentic.
It's like, wait a second. Like, the hair, you know, this is the guy. This isn't fake. He's the guy.
And then they're going to run into, when they turn, you know, the age of 21, they're going to say, wait a second. Wait a minute. Who was that man? I know him.
All right. Did you guys vote? No. Do I need to read it again?
No, no. The draws are all good. I'm going to slide up to 88. I knew the the box press is gonna make it smoke well.
Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna stay at 84. Again, I don't see anything changing. Okay. All right, next clue.
For all the complexity this blend tries to deliver, the flavor profile ends up feeling more confused than balanced. There it is. Once the second third hits, the raw asparagus and gritty earth combinations take over. It tastes like a raw asparagus.
Over so aggressively that it drowns out the more appealing notes like the cocoa, the cinnamon, the peanuts. Instead of evolving, the profile feels hijacked by that vegetable note, which makes the cigar come across as harsh and uneven. The lack of spice and pepper on the retro hill also leaves the profile feeling flat when it should be opening up. It's a lot of movement, but not a lot of harmony, and the cigar never quits or finds a satisfying direction.
And we're back to 86. Yeah, 84. Alright, next clue. The inconsistency between the three cigars is hard to ignore.
Each one seems to be telling a slightly different story from the varying levels of ammonia on the foot to the shifting sweetness. Milk chocolate in one, dense fudge in another, burn issues pop up as well with several touch-ups needed despite the cigars looking identical and well-pressed. Even the finish jumps around. Horseradish on some, earthy coffee on the others.
Instead of feeling like a controlled variation, it feels unpredictable and a little sloppy, making it tough to understand what the cigar is truly supposed to be. 84. Your move. Was this the last one?
Yeah, then we have final thoughts. Oh, 84. All right, final thoughts. I've enjoyed some-- Fuses to move.
Fuses to budge. I've enjoyed some patina releases in the past, including Fantastic Oro de Nicaragua, and was interested to see how the red pill brought to--see what the red pill brought to the table. The profile is full of indifferent flavors, including cocoa nibs, raw asparagus, oak, and mesquite, and while it is a fuller-bodied blend, the lack of anything significant, pepper, or spice, The spice combined with some stronger sweetness on the retrohale makes his cigar extremely approachable. This is one of the better patina cigars I've smoked and a nice option for someone who is looking for a fuller-bodied blend with a smoother profile.
Now what? Uh-oh, this cigar sucks, but it's the best one I've had that he has made. When I say it sucks, I mean that it was... Can any of you stand raw asparagus?
I love it. I'm to the point where I don't even like regular asparagus. Raw asparagus, you love it? No, I'm just kidding.
It's got to at least be roasted or something, like just for a second. Adrian likes it, so we buy it all the time, and I just don't, I'm not, I'm tired of it. 86. He sounds like he fucking loves it.
I'm gonna go 87. No, what he said, okay, you guys are both voted. What he said was it's the best one that I've had from him, from Bettina. That doesn't mean he likes it, it means it's the best, could be the best of whatever.
It's 88. Yes! Wow. I was right off the jump, or no, I was close.
You're close. No, your second one, 'cause you did go up to 88. All right, next cigar. From 2015, it is reviewed by Patrick.
It is Davidoff Dominican Republic Limited Edition Redux, the Avo Heritage Lancero. I never had it. It's your turn. Oh, uh, there's only one AVO that I like.
This is it. No, I like the Karib. What is it? The Korean one?
What? Karib. Oh. Um, but a lot of people like AVO because it's Davidoff, I guess.
So, I'll go 90. 88. It's the AVO Heritage Lancero. It's from the Dominican Republic.
Oh, Lancero. It is the factory OK Cigars. The wrapper is Ecuadorian Sun Grown, that's O period, K period, cigars, that's where it was made, Ecuadorian Sun Grown, because we found out there's not an Ecuadorian shade, Dominican Republic, Vicente is the binder, Dominican, the filler is Dominican Republic, Lajero and Seco, Peruvian Seco, it's a seven and a quarter by 40, Lancero, they only smoked one because it is a redux, I'll stick at 90, 88. The ash performance is disappointing, dropping unexpectedly at barely half an inch.
For a Lancero that otherwise burns clean, the inability to hold even a modest ash makes the cigar feel less refined and more fragile than its presentation suggests. Boots? 89. 87.
The pepper buildup becomes excessive as the cigar progresses. What starts as a balanced profile slowly becomes dominated by white and black pepper, The final third takes a downturn as the profile shifts into a chalky, earthy finish after promising start with warm, sweet, and bready notes ending on a dry, muted chalkiness. Makes the cigar feel like it loses its identity right when it should be delivering a memorable close. 86.
Is that the final thought? No. What? Final thoughts coming next.
Okay. 87. Final thought. Given how much I enjoyed the AVO Heritage Lancero when I smoked it 10 months ago, I had fairly high hopes for how it would smoke for a redux, and unfortunately, the answer is simple: fantastic.
The only thing I didn't like about the AVO Heritage Lancero was the Ash's unwillingness to hold on for more than the shortest of spans. Though, if that's all I have to complain about for an otherwise fantastic cigar, I'll gladly take it without a single word more. Go ahead, Boots. 88.
89. I win. 95. 95?
95. Boom. I should have known better about... I was going to strike up to 92, but I still wouldn't have nailed it.
Should have known better. Okay. Alright, does anybody got anything else? Nope.
Make sure you like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe. This has been episode 425, I think. Something like that.
We're ripping through them now. It's hard to keep track now. Pedal to the metal. Have we still got no recognition of being the bad guys of the industry?
Nothing else has been said as far as I know. No, they're not going to talk about us. They're not going to mention us at all. I'm perfectly fine with that, to be honest.
We should make that a shirt. You're perfectly fine with that? No. You're not going to talk about us?
We're bad for the industry. Bad for the industry. Well, the next one that's coming out is called Smoke & Subscribe, so it's pretty badass. Oh.
All right, guys, thank you very much. Make sure you stick around for the Patreon. That's coming up next. All right, thanks.
Go join. Bye. Bye. Bye.
Hereducing the warbear of mass destruction, the shirt that roars attitude. com. 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, all things cigars, personalities in the cigar world.
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Show Notes
Now Today on the show: 2026 is shaping up to be the year to be naked on a boat in Florida, Netflix has come a long way since the days of mailing DVDs, and Dave Portnoy is demanding an investigation. In cigars, Warfighter isn’t heading east, there are no new cigar bars on the horizon, the CAA is making changes, and a new documentary on the Oliva family just dropped—we’ve got the first review. Then we wrap it all up with the industry’s favorite game: “What’s The Score!”