ACHP Episode 433 "Oscars And Chill"

Episode Summary

Mike Palmer and Stepan Kavich (with Boots Hipplehauser on the board) open with media business news: Netflix's multi-year deal with Dave Portnoy's Barstool Sports to take exclusive video rights to Pardon My Take, The Ryen Russillo Podcast and Spittin' Chiclets off YouTube starting in 2026; the FDA recall of So Delicious dairy-free salted caramel cluster non-dairy ice cream over possible small stones; and the Academy Awards leaving ABC for free live streaming on YouTube beginning in 2029. They also revisit the Warner Bros. Discovery board urging shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance's hostile bid in favor of Netflix, and Florida's clarified license plate frame law and its new penalties.

The main event is what the hosts call possibly the biggest cigar story of 2025: the quiet shutdown of Tabacalera de García in La Romana, Dominican Republic — the largest handmade cigar factory in the world and the longtime producer of non-Cuban Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann and Trinidad for the US market. Tracing a Halfwheel report, they explain how sanctioned Cambodian businessman Chen Zhi, accused by the DOJ of crypto fraud, human trafficking and money laundering (and subject to a record $14 billion Bitcoin seizure), held a major indirect stake through Allied Cigar Corp in Habanos S.A. and in factories including Tabacalera de García and Flor de Copán. Once Chen Zhi was sanctioned, Altadis USA was legally barred from buying from those factories, instantly cutting off the plant's biggest customer.

The hosts unpack the fallout: nearly 2,000 factory workers plus farmers, suppliers and box makers sent home, the ProCigar 2026 factory visit quietly cancelled, factory social media gone dark, and production shifted mainly to AJ Fernandez and Plasencia. They discuss whether blends like Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta will taste different coming out of new factories, whether the traditional Montecristo White buyer will even notice, and how Cuban prices for Cohiba and Trinidad ballooned after the new ownership group entered the picture. Side conversations cover the PCA's David Garofalo on cigar advertising restrictions, Joe Rogan plugging Foundation Cigars, and travel stories from Estelí, Nicaragua.

The show closes with a What's the Score segment on Charlie Minato's Halfwheel review of the Baracoa Cigars Voyage Robusto Extra (Dominican, Tabacalera William Ventura, Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper, Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, Dominican and Nicaraguan filler, 5.25 x 52, $9.70). Clues cite an overly open draw, uneven construction and relights offset by creamy, nutty, earthy complexity — the actual score was 80, with Mike's 77 guess taking the win.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Netflix Signs Barstool Sports Podcasts
   Netflix takes exclusive video rights to Pardon My Take, The Ryen Russillo Podcast and Spittin' Chiclets, pulling full video episodes off YouTube in 2026.
2. 02
   FDA Recalls Non-Dairy Ice Cream Over Small Stones
   So Delicious dairy-free salted caramel cluster pints are voluntarily recalled after cashew pieces may have carried embedded stones.
3. 03
   The Oscars Move to YouTube
   After 2028, the Academy Awards leave ABC and stream free on YouTube, taking the red carpet and full Oscar ecosystem with them.
4. 04
   Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Netflix
   WBD's board urges shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance's bid, citing financing gaps and Middle East sovereign wealth funding.
5. 05
   Florida License Plate Frame Law Clarified
   What frames are actually legal in Florida, and the new penalties for obscuring plate numbers or validation stickers.
6. 06
   Chen Zhi Sanctions and Tabacalera de García
   How US sanctions on a Cambodian businessman with hidden stakes in Allied Cigar Corp and Habanos S.A. cut Altadis USA off from the world's largest handmade cigar factory.
7. 07
   Production Shifts to AJ Fernandez and Plasencia
   Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and other Altadis lines move factories, raising questions about blend consistency, SKU delays and 2,000 lost Dominican jobs.
8. 08
   What's the Score: Baracoa Voyage Robusto Extra
   The hosts guess Charlie Minato's Halfwheel score for the Baracoa Voyage Robusto Extra, which came in at 80 despite draw and burn problems.

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 432, I'm Mike Palmer, your host, and today with boots, all I want for Christmas is a parlay to hit Hippelhauser over there pushing them buttons, and on today's show we have Netflix, Alex is now into podcasting. What? Now they have recalled an ice cream. Oh man, that's dangerous.

Now the world's coming to an end. Now the world's coming to an end? Yes, because they're recalling ice cream. The YouTube empire acquires the crown jewels of award shows, some updates on previous stories, then in cigar news, we have maybe the biggest story of 2025, and then we wrap it up with a what's the score?

Bing bong. But before we get started, please, let's have a big round of applause for the man who started it all here at Cigar Hustler, Mike, Greg, I'll do it, but you have to stop talking to me, Stepan Kavich. Yay! What a nice intro.

So lovely. Thank you. All right, Michael, how do I get some of that CH Pod swag everybody's wanting? com.

Check out all our latest apparel. com, you will buy one, you get the second one 40% off, and if you spend $100 or more, you're going to get free shipping. That beautiful black hat there that Mr. Palmer's wearing, we have about three or four of those in.

We also have the Pressure is a Privilege shirt, and we're going to drop a new one next week. Ooh. A new shirt. I like our boots we don't even know anymore.

Yeah, we have no idea. We've been completely taken out of this side of the operation. Right. com, Cigar Hustlers Podcast.

This week has been chaos for me, buddy. buddy i've been doing a lot with with the sports as well as the retail the sports but hopefully the dust will kind of settle this weekend and i will get your beanie i need it for january all right i'm doing my best i'm doing my very best uh okay i did tag the pressure and the privilege shirt for the thursday show you did you put the little product up uh well there was a place to do it and then i just picked which one it shows me all the options and i just click one so today the hat We'll get tagged. There you go. Oh, you can tag it on the videos?

Yeah, we earned that on YouTube. Oh, nice. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

As of like last week. Still kind of working through all that, but it's a learning process. It's a bit of a learning curve. So last night, before we kind of get into your stories.

Yes. I was on the Cigar Guys. Oh, were you really? Yeah.

Is that a scheduled thing or a last minute thing? Kind of both. It was a scheduled last minute thing. One minute thing.

Oh. " So, I text him, I looked at it, and there wasn't anything available except on, like, this Wednesday. " Like, we're booking, we're now booking guests. They probably, what do they use, booksies or something?

I don't know. I'll tell you. So then there was only one opening Wednesday night. Yeah.

So I text him. I'm going to tell you exactly what I text him. That way I don't screw this up. So I looked at the link and I just looked and only day available is next Wednesday.

Okay. Like stating all he has is next Wednesday. Okay. He took that as, oh, you're available next Wednesday.

Gotcha. So he goes, perfect. You know, I'm good with that. It was our final 2025 episode.

Oh, he duped you. He did. He did. He tricked you into that one, didn't he?

P. Johnson me. Wow. So, I was like, alright, whatever, I'll make it work, I'll figure it out.

So, of course, I had the football game, and we won, so now we're in the championship. Nice. We are the champions, my friend. Well, not yet.

We got one more to play. Don't jinx it. Don't jinx it, Bomber. We got one more to play.

I'm proud of these kids either way. And you're a champion either way. So, I was up late... That's for everybody.

So, I was up late because of the podcast and because of the football game, and when I got home, I couldn't fall asleep, you know. Did you go to their studio for the podcast? Yeah. Oh, okay.

I did. I did. Oh, wow. I was going to say, they're local.

You might as well. Jared is now my favorite basic guy. Oh. I only know Alex.

That's the bigger one. That's the bigger one. With the glasses. No, that's Zach.

Oh, okay. So, the middle one with the muscles. So, Jared, the one who has recently lost all the weight and gotten kind of buff? Yes.

Yeah, he's the muscles. He's gotten quite chatty when he originally did our show. He was the quiet one. He didn't say anything.

Yeah. He was awesome on this podcast. Yeah, I have noticed lately he's become quite chatty. Oh, I love it.

I assumed he started drinking or something. No. No. I assumed he started drinking.

Maybe he has more confidence now that he's lost a little bit of weight. He's just coming to his own. Good. Yeah, it's pretty impressive.

He's getting older. He's not 19 anymore. Yeah. Oh, is he the youngest one on the show?

I don't know. Is my camera crooked? Mike said this thing looks terribly crooked. No, it looks great.

It does look crooked. Look how long that leg is. It does look crooked. No, you look perfect.

Boots wouldn't care. He'd make me look silly. Yeah. So, you were up late doing the podcast and you were up late at home.

What time did you go to bed? Probably sometime after one, two o'clock. Oh, I was up. I should have called you.

Up at six. I went down at eight and got up at midnight and didn't go back to sleep. Oh, really? Yeah.

You're just excited? Yeah, he loves to watch Santa Claus. I'm a little nervous about the Santa Claus thing this morning, And I had not done any show prep yet because there was no cigar news yesterday at all. Right.

Well, you're getting towards the end of the year. Right. It's going to be a little more few and far between. How did Santa thing go, bud?

It went fairly well. I mean, I got a lot of hugs from the kids, a lot of photos and stuff, but my wife was Cindy Lou, who, the principal was the Grinch, the dean was Max the dog, so all the kids knew them. I'm just the weird guy that looked like Santa Claus, so, you know, obviously the three of them were more favored than Santa was. And did you go no beard?

I did go no beard, but my wife wanted the wig. Your wife wanted the wig. Yeah, she thought the wig looked better. She did.

Okay. Yeah. I think it's more. So, it was fun.

Yeah. Okay. More fun than the Grinch. That Grinch mess was hot last week.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very nice.

All right, well, let's go. Let's get into this. All right. I'm with the news now.

Netflix gets into podcasting. They signed a deal with Dave Portnoy's Barstool Sports for exclusive video rights. The best of three podcasts. Yeah, fuck those guys.

They could make it four if they want. Today only. We give you a good deal. Give you a good deal, Netflix.

Your own little cigar show. Netflix has gone into business with Dave Portnoy with a deal that will bring the unfiltered commentary of Barstool Sports Podcast personalities to viewers worldwide. We are also unfiltered here. Do you guys watch Barstools?

I've seen it upstairs some, but not the podcast. Mikey, do you watch it? No. Because it's more of a sports type of deal.

Yeah, it's a sports, it's a sporty thing. Yeah, the only thing I catch is KFC Barstool when he releases stuff on Instagram, like his posts. I've never seen one of these, so I just don't understand how they're so big. How they're so big?

Yeah. He releases news all that, he's faster than TMZ sometimes. So he's just constant content. Constant.

Like every day, like us. Oh, we're gonna be like Barstool. But he's faster. We're gonna be a Netflix, fellas.

Maybe we should change the name to end table or end table. The furniture thing seems to be working for him. Recliner. Well, isn't it like a pizza place or restaurant or something?

No, Dave Pornoy goes in the reviews pizza. He goes into like a one bite kind of review. Oh. Yeah.

I've seen his sticky talks. Yeah, but all the funny ones are like somebody, he was recording out front of one and somebody said, hey, you can't record here. Yeah, they all yell at him. And then he spit the food out and threw it out.

I was like, whatever, dude. All right, under its multi-year pact with Barstool, Netflix has exclusive rights to video versions of a trio of digital media companies' popular podcasts, Pardon My Take, the Ryan Resilio podcast, and Spittin' Chicklets, the video version of the three Barstool sports shows, will be available Netflix starting early 2026. That means full video episodes of the podcast will no longer be available on YouTube as of next year. S.

to be followed. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal.

I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal.

I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal.

I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal.

I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal.

I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal. Find out how this works.

We're the best cigar podcast you've ever seen. That's right. To date, the company has cut two other licensing deals to bring video podcasts to its subscribers with Spotify for shows, including the Bill Simmons Podcast and Rewatchables. Bill Simmons?

Like Richard Simmons? Probably not. No, it's Bill Simmons. It's not called The Richard Simmons.

It's probably a different Simmons. Probably a different Simmons. And I'm not familiar with the Rewatchables either. Yeah, no.

And with iHeartMedia for at least 15 podcasts, including Radio Talk Show, The Breakfast Club, Co-hosted by Charlemagne The God Charlemagne Is that Charlemagne? It looks like Charlemanga Charlemanga I like how detached you are to society I have no idea who these people are I didn't know who he was talking about until he said The God I was like uh oh Is that Charlemanga? Is that a person? Mike, is he going to end with The God?

We're thrilled to team up with Barstool Sports And bring their top video broadcast to Netflix Lauren Smith, Netflix VP of Content Licensing and Programming. She's the lady I have to call, apparently. The partnership broadens how our members connect with Barstool's leading sports voices and delivers exactly what our members crave, unfiltered commentary, which is what we have here on Cigars Podcast. Sharp takes and undeniable humor.

We have all that. Yes. We look forward to giving fans another exciting way to engage with the conversations they love on Netflix. Pardon My Takes, Barstool top-rated sports podcast, Hosted by Big Cat and PFT Commentator who provide is Big Cat that's a person to him.

All right, sharp sports commentary and fan favorite segments. According to the companies, the Ryan Rosilio Show features the host sports analysis conversations with guests while on Spittin' Chicklets, Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette, and Rear Admiral cover the latest news and trends from the NHL long with a trademark pop culture insights. Maybe that's what we need. We need somebody with a funny nickname.

Boots is not funny enough. You don't think so? I think Boots is funny. I like the rear admiral.

No, look, I got to be honest, man, I think that we, if you kind of look at our seven year span of us doing this, we really started to make more strides within the past, I would say, two years. I would agree. Right. And, I mean, this, it could be possible, that could be possible.

Somebody could, we could get approached and ask, someone could license us for exclusivity. Yes. It could go that direction. Sure.

That'd be amazing. Just by the way, spitting chiclets is a great name for NHL show. You think so? Yeah.

Why? Oh, it's a hockey show. Spitting chiclets. Like spitting up the teeth.

Like spitting their teeth. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

So if you would like to inquire about a licensing deal with the Cigar Hustle Podcast, and we're not even sold on the name, we could change it. Yeah, we're open. Except then I have to get a new tattoo. So no, we're keeping the name.

Yeah, the name stays. The name stays. Just reach out. We're completely open for business.

Open for business. What it's gonna take is it's gonna take more, more socially accepting cigars over the other tobaccos, right? So like, I read a PCA email today that I found was pretty fascinating. David Garofalo talked, he spoke in it, or you know, he had some quotes, and they talked about the fact that you have the ability to advertise and talk about cigars, it's not illegal, like the other things, like cigarettes and all this other stuff, but just a lot of the social media companies and some of these, you know, some of these other platforms and magazines, They choose not to.

I think it's crazy that that's said though. That's how I interpret it at least. Because like, I mean, Joe Rogan smokes cigars on his show. Right, it just has to become socially acceptable again.

Right. And I think that it will. He smokes them, but does he like say, I got this from Foundation Cigars? Yeah, he does.

He plugs Foundation. And then, I mean, Guy, he's got a cigar, he had a cigar in his mouth at the NBA All-Star game. He did. Was he smoking or chewing?

Is he smoking or chewing? No, he was just chewing. You can't smoke it in the stadium. But I just thought it was crazy they had it in his mouth because people would go, "Oh my God, he's going to light it up," you know, that kind of thing.

Well, he's big enough where it's okay. " Of course. One of his handlers. He doesn't care.

No, what are you going to do? Take away his tequila? He's achieved it, you know what I mean? Right, he's at the FU money level.

Right. Right. Yeah. You know what?

We're going to drop you. I don't care. No, they won't. There's one less thing I have to do.

What did he do? He's the money guy. Okay, you know how much money you're going to lose? Yeah, he's the money guy.

Yeah. Exactly. The guy's a friggin' workhorse. Yeah, tell me another show on Food Network.

The guy works his ass off. Other than diners, drive-ins, and whatever? Yeah. The supermarket race.

That he does? Yeah, he does that too. That was the joke, Michael. I used to love supermarket sweep as a kid.

Supermarket sweep. I never watched it. I've never watched it. Okay.

And now that I've found out the one with the angry English guy is fake, I don't watch that. Oh, it's fake? Yes. The cooking is real, the interaction is fake.

He's like, I'm gonna yell at you now and I want you to cry? Yeah, we need you to come yell at this lady over here and make her cry and they go, okay. You're fat, you're ugly. No problem.

No problem. Very interesting. I didn't know it was fake, but I don't really watch any of that stuff. I found an article one time when I was looking for stuff for the show, and it was like the top five fake.

Gordon Ramsay. Yeah, the Gordon Ramsay show. I mean, if it's a reality show, it's fake. I've always come to that assumption.

I assume they are too, but apparently there's some that are more obviously fake than others, I guess. No, Making the Band was real. With Diddy? With Diddy.

Making the Bam? Making the Band. Band. Oh, yeah.

You remember that one? I do. That was like one of the first reality shows. Anything with Diddy real?

No, the first reality shows were on MTV. I mean, there's some trauma involved. I feel like some things were real. It was on MTV.

Oh, was it? Yeah. Oh. It was one of the first reality shows.

It was, Diddy had, well, if you watch the documentary, you'll find this out too, but Diddy had no way to find artists anymore. You're all about this. No, I'm just saying. You continue to mention the documentary.

He does, like every episode, he mentions the thing. Yeah, you are all in on this Diddy. No, but I just remember, because I watched Making the Band back in the day when I was a kid. Did he just loop the episode over and over again?

It's his only connection to news and reality is the Diddy show. No, it was just MTV was the big thing back then. Right. You know?

Is that on the Diddy thing too? Did they cover Making the Band and the Diddy documentary? Briefly, because one of the girls on Making the Band was in the- Lawsuit? Yeah, the sexual assault lawsuit thing.

He drugged her up and rubbed baby a lot? Allegedly. No, no, no. No, it was just he just pushed himself on her kind of thing.

But it was like the prettiest girl from Making the Band. Allegedly. Allegedly the prettiest girl. Wow.

Anyways. Sorry. Anyway. I went off on left field.

All right. This ain't rocky road, gentlemen. All right. So here's one of the made me stop mid-scroll and go, wait, what?

The FDA just announced a nationwide recall on non-dairy ice cream because it may contain, and I swear I'm not making this up, small stones. Small stones. Stones, rocks, pebbles. Somebody fucking really took rock salt to a different level.

It's a different level. Rocky Road. I went with the Rocky Road joke other than the rock salt. Okay.

The kind you skip across the lake. Not flavor note. Not crunchy texture. Actual rocks.

Here's the deal. A New York-based company is voluntarily recalling so delicious, dairy-free, salted caramel cluster ice cream. I don't eat that. Specifically, the pints with the best by date of August 8th, 2027.

According to the FDA, the issue is with cashew pieces or small stones or other hard-forn objects may be embedded. Translation, you're going in for a smooth, creamy, guilt-free non-dairy dessert and instead you might chip a tooth. The FDA is saying flat out, do not eat it if you have it, no, maybe no, probably fine, just don't. So Delicious is owned by Danone USA, the same parent company behind brands like Activa and Dannon.

And to be fair, they jumped on this fast. The recall is voluntary and they say they're already working with retailers to pull the affected pints off shelves. Important note here, this only affects the salted caramel cluster flavor with a specific date. No other So Delicious products or flavors are part of the recall.

If you bought it, you can get a refund. Just contact So Delicious Dairy Free @, and then there's a phone number online, but still, non-dairy ice cream with stones in it, that's not plant-based, that's landscape-based. Follows one under things you never thought you'd hear in a food recall. Yeah, how do you get rocks in ice cream?

Apparently, they're mixed in with the nuts, somehow, the cat, when they did the cashews, the filtering system did not drop the little rocks out, you know, when they picked the nuts. Is there rocks on a bag of cashews? Well, cashews, nuts grow on the ground, if I'm not mistaken, right, so apparently in the gathering of the cashews, they picked up some little rocks and pebbles, the filtering system did not catch them, so they are mixed in with the things, and then they put them in the ice cream, bada bing, bada boom, you got rocks in your nuts. And then here we are.

Right. So these ice cream guys, they have cashew fields? They buy cashews from the cashew man. You want to know what sounds more miserable than eating rocks in your ice cream?

What? Mint chocolate chip. Yes, you're right. No, eating non-dairy ice cream.

Yeah. Who the hell wants to do that? It's not that bad. I've had it before because it's low sugar.

So you go out? It's more like a sorbet. Okay. Or an icy type product than the actual creamy ice cream.

Or like a gelato. Yeah, kind of like gelato. So you would go out of your way to have this ice cream? Yeah, because it's lower in sugar.

With gelato, I would definitely go out of my way. But that's a totally different thing. That's not called non-dairy ice cream. It's not called non-dairy, but it is non-dairy.

It is non-dairy. It's called gelato. You know what I mean? Oh, you mean like sugar-free?

Whatever. Well, non-dairy doesn't have milk in it, so people that are lactose intolerant, I would imagine, but it's also lower in sugar. No, I wouldn't go out of my way. If you're lactose intolerant, just deal with it.

If you really like it, that's what it is. Well, if you really like ice cream. Yeah. What happens if you're lactose intolerant and you eat any dairy?

Stomach pains. Stomach pains. You get the, yeah, diarrhea, gas. Yeah.

I feel like that's kind of standard. That's the daily, yeah. That happens anyways? Yeah.

Maybe you're lactose intolerant there, Mr. Boots. Yeah, you're probably lactose intolerant. Tune in tomorrow for Boots, I can't eat dairy, hip-a-laser.

But I choose to anyways. But I choose to anyway. Everyone else has to deal. Yes.

Okay. All right. Ice cream, stones. Stones in the ice cream.

All right. The Oscars are leaving TV and heading straight to YouTube. Oh, really? So no longer, huh?

The Oscars. Yeah, the Oscars are officially leaving ABC and heading to YouTube starting in 2029. After more than 50 years on broadcast television, Hollywood's biggest night is going full stream. ABC, owned by Disney, will still air the show through the 100th Academy Awards in 2028.

, and it's not just the awards show. YouTube is getting the red carpet, the behind-the-scenes footage, the nomination announcements, the governor's awards, the student awards, filmmaker interviews, podcasts, basically the entire Oscar ecosystem. This is a massive win for YouTube, which has been very clear about the goal, becoming the most powerful media platform on the planet, and landing the world's most watched award show. That's a statement.

The Academy still makes serious money, around $150 million a year, but now they're betting on reach, scale, and younger global audience. Bottom line, this is just the Oscars changing platforms. It's Hollywood admitting the future isn't TV anymore. It's streaming creators and the global access.

Wow. I have more information, but I figured that was a good place to pause. Not Barstools, though. Yeah, did you guys remember when YouTube came out?

No. No. Do you? No, I do because I was a kid.

Yeah. It was the thing. Yeah. It was like the new thing, like MySpace.

You know, like that was the new thing. Right. I never thought YouTube was ever going to be anything like this. The thing that it is now.

No, the global streaming megalodon that it is now. Yeah, I thought it was just like a stupid place for people to post their stupid videos. Right, people put their own stupid videos, exactly, that's what I always thought it was going to be. Tell that to Mr.

Beast. Yeah. Right. Okay, continue.

I mean, look at us now, I mean, we have our own channel, it's, you know, people go to it every day like it's a regular TV show. It's flourishing. And soon, Netflix. And soon, Netflix.

Right. Settle. Settle, settle, settle. Settle, settle, settle.

Oh, that is the end of the story. And YouTube just grabbed the crown, so there you go, that's the end of the story. I thought there was more. Bing.

Bing. So, I mean, we use YouTube here for the streaming upstairs. I use YouTube at home. You use YouTube at home?

Yeah, me as well. Yeah, I got rid of DirecTV, got tired of that. I mean, we just did a story a couple weeks ago where they were strong-arming Disney. Yeah.

And they folded and gave it to them. Yeah, they obviously broke. Something broke. Because all the shows are back now.

Right. They worked out the terms. Do you think terrestrial TV will just go away? I think it'll always exist.

Maybe smaller or more limited programming or something? Radio still exists. True. When you say terrestrial TV, do you mean like ABC, NBC?

That's cable-ish, right? Well, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, those are all terrestrial stations that have their own streaming services. Right. But they are ones that you can still get with an antenna.

You don't need a cable. You don't need streaming. Yeah, I think they'll still stick around. I mean, you have to have those to be able to broadcast to YouTube, you know, stream to YouTube.

I just, I don't think, I think it's... No, they don't, they don't have to be, you don't have to have access by an antenna in your house to be a streaming service. Oh. I mean, they could, they could just quit broadcasting over, over the airwaves.

Yeah, I just think that it's easy to just continue forward with it and get the two people that watch and the entire nation on antennas. Right, exactly. So, I mean, they still, I mean, we haven't had it in years. Right.

So, like, I mean, I don't even know, like, what night shows come on mostly anymore, 'cause, you know, it's just there when you want to see it now. But, so, like, ABC, CBS, all, they still have, like, regular programming, like, same shows on 8 o'clock every Monday night, same shows on 10 o'clock, all that stuff still happens? Yeah. Jimmy Fallon and all of that.

Because you could just do live YouTube TV, it's the same platform, if you're on NBC, it's the same thing. Right, well, yeah, then you're streaming it, though, you're not with the antenna. I wonder how many, Boots, if you can look up how many people just use antennas. - I use that in my RV.

- You go sit in your RV and just kinda watch TV? - No, no, like when we go to the racetrack, and we work the racetrack, we have TVs in there, but it goes off of airwaves. - Don't they offer, I mean, is it like a regular RV hookup out there, or you just use it because you're out there doing work? - They have like an RV park where you hook up to water, you hook up to sewer?

- Yup, yeah, yeah, yeah, they have that. - They don't have like a cable hookup? Most of those places have something. - Or internet?

No, no cable. There is an internet, like a Wi-Fi type system, but no, there is no cable hookup. You just plug in a Fire Stick at that point. Yeah.

And you just stream? Is it strung out? Well, it's a Roku. Everybody's TV usually has Roku now anyways, right?

At this point, almost every TV is smart that comes out. So like on Roku, you can go to live TV, the option on that, and it goes based off of like airwaves. Ah, got it. Okay.

Interesting. So it doesn't sound like he's gonna look it up for you. Just so you know. No, it doesn't.

Yeah. Uh, we got noticed they are putting AT&T fiber in my neighborhood. Are they? Oh, we're so excited.

Get that back like we had at the other place. Think you can get rid of the cats while they're out there? That'd be nice, wouldn't it? I mean, they've already tagged the street out in front of me, like, whoops, right here's where it's going, right here's where it's going.

So excited. I can upload like that. And we don't have to, the screen's spinny-spinny when my wife's trying to watch something on TV. I hate that.

Okay. All right, some updates on previously covered stories. Okay. WBD board urged shareholders to reject Paramount's hostile takeover bid.

It could be back to the drawing board for Paramount, Skydance, and CEO David Ellison quest to buy rival Warner Brothers Discovery after the latter's board told investors that Netflix bid is better. A letter to shareholders, the WBD board said Paramount's offer contains gaps, loopholes, and limitations that put the company at risk. WBD also accused Paramount of misleading and about financing. Paramount's latest offer included billions in funding from three Middle East sovereign wealth funds, as well as backing from Affinity Partners, the private equity firm founded by President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Affinity pulled out of the deal on Tuesday, Ellison said he believes that Paramount's offer is still superior to Netflix and was encouraged by feedback received from WBD shareholders. Retainer. Retainer. Right, so they want the Netflix deal instead of the other one, even though the other one is so much more money.

Yeah, but the other one sounded way too good to be true. " Right, and all cash, I mean... You'll never know. You gotta accept the all cash.

Kind of wild. A hundred and something billion dollars. We shall bring suitcases full of money for you. We will load the planes, load the planes.

We will drop the money from the plane, make it rain billions of dollars. Why is there dirt all over the suitcase? They were buried. Don't worry.

It's not blood on the inside, that's marker. Yeah, I mean that's... In the Lindbergh baby, we never had it. Yeah, that's kind of crazy, dude.

I don't know. I think I'm rooting for Netflix on this one. Well, I mean... Well, certainly we are, because we want to be one of their podcasts.

Yes. Yeah. Netflix, Netflix, Netflix. Big Netflix supporters are on this show.

Yeah. I mean, it sounds like the way things are going, it's only going to be YouTube and Netflix. Right. That's all that's going to be left.

Yeah. Yeah, those are the two that are gobbling up everything else. Oh, I like the shows on Paramount. Can Paramount stay?

I like all those shows. Yeah, on Netflix. I did hear Taylor Sheridan left Paramount, but there's so many fake news stories. Who knows?

I don't know, I was, I mean, I watched America Kingstown and Landman. That would be stupid. I like Landman and Linus. Yeah.

Is there another season of that? Linus, they're shooting it. Oh, so it hasn't started. Hasn't come out yet.

Yeah, but there would never be a Landman without Taylor Sheridan. Correct. Right. Well, all those shows are his.

Right. So it's like, Paramount would be stupid to get rid of that guy. Well, I imagine it would be, you know, in his term, because, I mean, Paramount's putting a lot of money into this Netflix thing deal, maybe they don't have money to pay him anymore. That would definitely be retarded.

Huh. Maybe he needs some Middle Eastern money thrown his way. He needs some oil over here. It's like Fast and Furious after the third one.

" I don't know that that's how that played out. I think he said he was done. And then he came back. Vin?

Yeah. Well, I'm just saying, like, he would never come back. They'd be like, ah, nah, man, sorry, we're not going to pay you anymore. Like, Vin made that series.

You think so? We did a story one time that him and the guy that died, Paul Walker, they made a deal that they were going to do five. Right. Paul Walker died at three, and he wanted to make sure that they still did the five.

Right. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then there was a whole legacy thing of... Right, then after the five, I think he was like, well, you know, how much money are you going to give me?

It was no longer a thing he had to do for his friend. He's rolling out a bunch of things lately. Yeah. Supposedly, it's Pitch Black.

Remember Pitch Black? Yeah, I like those. Yeah, that's coming back. He's coming out with another one of those.

Is he getting a little old for that type of stuff? I mean, that's a lot of physical. Listen, I don't like you taking our icons and calling too old. If Schwarzenegger wanted to bust out Conan the Barbarian, the third, today, I'm in.

Yeah. Did you see The Last Expendables? No. I watched it a couple weeks ago, big mistake to watch it.

Yeah, they're getting old. I don't care. Okay, can I ruin the show for the movie before you ever gonna watch it? Yes, go ahead.

All right, Schwarzenegger dies in the beginning of the movie. Not Schwarzenegger, I'm sorry, Stallone. Stallone dies in the beginning of the movie. Because he has to do Tulsa King, yes.

Well, I read he's getting a little old, he doesn't want to be in it anymore, but at the end of the movie, he had to fake his death so that the information would be released, so that they could kill the bad guy or something, so at the end, he makes the big save for Straithman, Straithman, whatever, right, so yeah, so he's out of 75% of the movie, so he didn't have to run around because his knees hurt, his back hurts, his shoulders hurt, all that stuff, yeah, so, but I mean, the movie was terrible, it was, it was, yeah, it was terrible, when did that X-Menables come out? It just popped up on either Paramount or the NBC. Netflix or something. No, the NBC one.

Peacock? Peacock, thank you. I couldn't think of the bird's name. Yeah, there was like a rumble in the Bronx 3.

Like, I would watch that. Yeah, exactly. Jackie Chan is getting tooled. Yeah.

Well, Jackie Chan's still... That man's so broke. Not financially, but, I mean, his body. Physically.

So much. You ever see the video of him watching all the stuff he did with him and his daughter? and people start crying. Yeah, his daughter starts crying, right?

He's like, oh, I'm happy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he did the recently one. He did the other karate one, whatever it was.

Oh, the Jackie Chan karate movie. Perfectly, I know exactly which one that is. Oh, what's that? Yeah, what was the movie?

When did he ever do a karate movie? That's wild. It was a karate kid. Yeah, it was the next karate kid.

Oh, the karate kid one? Yeah. Oh, I watched that too. That really wasn't that bad.

He looked old in it. He is old. He is old, but he didn't have to do a lot. I mean, he didn't really fight anybody in that one.

No, he's a teacher. He's a teacher. That's what happens when Asians get old. They become the master.

How old? They become domestic? Is that what you said? The master.

Oh, I thought you said domestic. Like what? He has to clean the dojo? Jackie Chan is 71.

Yeah. Yeah, but in Asian years, that's like 40. He's like 25? No.

Okay. He can still jump through a steering wheel. Yeah, no problem. Through a steering wheel.

Oh, we'll just talk about this too. There's another story. John Cena did cut his career because of injuries. It was cut short.

Yeah. Like, I read that he wanted to do 222, like a year-long worth of events and stuff to do it, and Triple H went, dude, you won't be able to walk at the end. We're going to do 22. Right.

I figured, well, I thought maybe he was going to announce like he had cancer or something, because he looked a little rough. I think he's had some health issues. I would believe that. He's got some spine injuries, he's got a shoulder problem, something with one of the knees.

Like we talked about, those guys beat the hell out of themselves for that sport. Yeah. There are no stuntmen in that industry. It is real.

Well, I mean, it might be real, but they're really doing the stuff though. Right. Jumping off the cage. Scripted, but still real.

Scripted, but physical. And now mankind has, I mean, not that he's still wrestling anymore, but because of something Trump said in his affiliation with the WWE, he no longer will do anything with the WWE. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, I mean, what are you, 84 years old?

What are you doing? You got to announce that. And it made headlines, which is even sadder. Okay.

All right, Florida recently clarified its license plate law. We've had a lot of fun with this story. Decorative frames are loud, but they cannot cover the essential identifiers, which all that covers is the alphanumeric plate number and the registration validation decal on the top right corner. com or Sunshine State text at the bottom is generally fine.

I mean, any frame that obstructs the main plate number, decal, or state name for identification can lead to a misdemeanor charge, as the goal is to keep plates readable by cameras and law enforcement. I don't know what generally is okay means in the law. Yeah, that does sound a little vague. Right.

You know, the next headline I'm going to read part of the story, sorry Michael, is what's allowed generally. Yeah, that's like, we're going to get you if we want. Let's see if we want. I mean, that's pretty much how it works anyways.

Yeah. Right, right. I mean, and then who knows what officers is, you know, reading this story. He just, you know, they said frames are no good.

He goes, perfect. I'll pull over everybody with a frame. Right. Right.

So what do you got to print this out and go, hey, hey. I'm going to tell you right now, that cop probably has no friends on law enforcement or at home. You know what I mean? Like that guy.

There's still that guy though. There's always that guy. But he has a lot of misdemeanors on license plates. Misdemeanor king.

Misdemeanor. I've written 75 tickets for the frames, guys. How about you? Yeah.

Now, last time we covered this topic, you were speaking about the fact that you don't even have license plates on your vehicle. Do you now have license plates on your vehicle, Boots? I don't have a license plate. Did he say he didn't have a license plate?

Yeah, you don't remember he said that? I'm going to go with he didn't say it. " Do you have license plates now? I have, yeah, I have license plates.

On all your trailers? Maybe it was trailers. Yeah. Are they?

Oh, I think we were talking about on one of my vehicles I didn't have a license plate because I was selling it. Oh, you don't have a license plate on a vehicle? Yeah. No, we weren't talking about that.

We were talking about all your vehicles in general. You weren't even here. That's the point. Oh, that boot.

Bing, bong, I don't have the... Oh, yeah. Yeah, you did say that. You said you don't believe in license plates.

Yeah. I didn't see that clip. You don't believe in that, yeah. Yeah, you are a free American.

Yeah. Oh. Yeah, Murca. Murca.

com as long as the issuing state is visible, standard dealership frames, that's also allowed, what's not allowed, frames that obscure the license plate number, frames that cover the validation sticker, basically the opposite of the stuff that we just said was allowed. Right. Tinted covers, sprays, or any device preventing plate visibility. Flipping the plate to hide it.

Anybody with a spy car, apparently, they cannot do that. Oh, people do that stuff. Oh, I know they do. You can buy them online.

I've seen the things. Yeah. So that they can run the tolls. Yeah.

A new law effective October 1st, 2025 increased penalties for obscuring plates, causing confusion. It was some fearing all frames were banned, leading to the FLHSMV issuing guidance penalties. Knowingly violating this can be a second-degree misdemeanor potentially leading to court appearances, fines, and jail time. I mean, whatever, man.

Just leave your license plate alone. I took my frame off. Now, apparently, I could have left it. You could have kept it.

It should have read it in the cabinet, but I don't care. I'm not putting it back on. Yeah. Well, what did it say?

Princess on board or something? No, no. com. Oh, okay.

It was on it. So, I mean, I've had it for 12 years. They sell cars with license plate frames. Yeah, and they said that's fine.

Right. Dealership frames are okay. Yeah. Yeah.

And there is one that shows that you support the Florida Department of Law or something too. That one's okay too. Yeah, it covers, it covers all the letters and everything. Right.

It covers everything, but it does say you gave money to the, I gave money to the police. Right. It's tinted. It's like having the sheriff's ticket sticker.

And it spins. It goes around. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Right. It's like having the sheriff's sticker on the back of your car so that way they like you and you don't get a ticket. Is that how that works? It never works.

That's like a, that's like a thing, like a myth. Yeah. That people, Right, so if you give money to like the Policeman's Benevolent Society or whatever, they send you a sticker because everybody thinks it gets them out of a ticket. Right, right.

It doesn't. No, I used to have, when I was a kid, I had a PBA decal, like a metal thing that I put on my, the guy used to come in the bar, he was a regular, he's like, here, in case you ever get pulled over, just say my name and, you know, whatever. So I got pulled over with that decal and I was, I'm so young and I was probably 18 years old. " I was like, "I don't know.

" Oh my God. It's my uncle. But you're supposed to say it. Uncle Bob.

Like, you don't know. Like, I'm drawing a blank. Like, I don't know. Got the ticket.

We call him Johnny Three Fingers. He comes into the bar all the time. He orders three fingers of whiskey. He wears a uniform.

He's awesome. You know. Um, who is, who is the company? Oh, um, Vern.

Yeah. Yeah, Virgil. Virgil. He still follows me on Facebook.

He said something the other day, first time in like two years. Seven years. Yeah, he gave me a card one time, and he said, if you ever get pulled over around here, just throw him my card. Yeah.

Thanks, Virgil. Thank you very much. I never had to try it. Do you think it's still his weight?

Oh, now? No, he's been out forever now. He's out of the game. Yeah, he's out of the game.

Okay. I'm trying to think. There was somebody else, too. My brother works for the police department over in Pinellas County.

He used to always give my dad the sticker for the window because dad thought it was like you were getting a ticket, but he never had to try it, so, but anyway, plus it's at Pinellas County, so, what's it going to help you over here? Right. All right, now into the cigar news. There's only one story, but it's a big story.

It is a big story, and you know what's funny is we actually spoke about this on the Patreon, I believe, a week or so ago. That is correct. We had it first. No, we had it as rumor-based, I would say.

Well, that's Cigars for Podcast. Oh, this is turning into a story now. That's a, actually, you know what, that's a good t-shirt, Cigar Oster Podcast, we rumor-based stories. Nice.

All right, HVL put out a very lengthy, in-depth article yesterday. As always, it's very detailed, very informative, but unfortunately, also very confusing and very long. So here, for everyone, is the Cigar Oster Podcast breakdown into a simple two-minute read explaining what is going on. Perfect.

So we will take this point by point, and then we will discuss it, and then everyone will know what's going on. S. met at the luxury Casa de Campo Resort in the Dominican Republic for the annual TAA convention and Eyes Wide Shut party. Alleged Eyes Wide Shut party.

Just minutes away by golf cart is Tablacolera de Garcia, the largest handmade cigar factory in the world, home to nearly 2,000 workers and the main producer of non-Cuban money, Cristo, Romeo, and Julieta, H. Upman, and Trinidad cigars sold in the USA. While retailers were relaxing at the resort, something serious was happening at the factory. Workers were quietly told not to come in anymore.

No explanation. Almost overnight, the factory had lost its biggest customer. Want to know why? Yeah, I do.

Tell me. S. government sanctioned tied to one man And Chen Zi. Okay.

I've heard of this guy. Have you? No. Okay.

Who is Chen Zi, and why does he matter to cigars? S. Department of Justice of running a massive global scam operation involving crypto fraud, human trafficking, and money laundering. Oh, no, the deady story.

He's tapping into all three. All three of the big ones. The DOJ seized over $14 billion in Bitcoin. Bitcoin, the largest seizure in its history, and sanctioned Chen along with over 100 companies connected to him.

Wow. Here's the problem, Michael. You know what the problem is? I need to know.

You need to know? Boots, you know the problem? Have you heard of this? Are we talking about Pepin Garcia's?

No. Okay. No. Stop throwing other names out.

You're going to confuse people. I know. I'm sorry. This is in the Dominican Republic.

Okay. All right. Chen Z secretly owns a major stake in the global cigar business. , the largest private shareholder in Habano's SA, the company that controls Cuban cigars worldwide, an indirect owner of cigar factories like Tabacalera de Garcia and Flor de Copan.

Why this blew up Altadish USA? Do you know, Michael? Because his name was announced as part of the corporation in Sweden. Oh, very good.

Boots, I suppose you didn't know. What Mikey said. Just say bing bong. Ditto.

Ditto. You're the ditto house. Ditto. All right.

While this blew up Altadis USA, Altadis USA, which sells Monte Cristo, Romeo and Julieta, Casta de Garcia, et cetera, goes on and on, does not own the factories that make most of their cigars anymore. Interesting. Even though it used to. They've sold off parts of it.

Once Chen Z was sanctioned, Altadis USA was legally required to stop buying cigars from factories connected to him. - Wow. - Right. - Okay.

- We say this man is bad, so you can no longer buy anything from this man. - No longer permitted. - But he does the factory where we get our stuff, we don't care. - Shut it down.

- That instantly cut off Tabacalera de Garcia from its largest customer. - Okay. J. Fernandez, because he owns everything.

- Right. J. J. J.

doesn't own, they do. Only AJ sometimes Placencia. Right. Altidus says it has plenty of inventory and expected no shortage in 2026, but behind the scenes, retailers are being warned that some SKUs could face delays.

Yeah. Everything is fine. Don't order that, we don't have it. And when we say it's fine, that's out of stock.

Right. We don't have that one. But you may get a Garcia. No.

Not right now. Not right now. Garcia, who's that? No, no, no, Garcia.

We don't buy it from any Spanish-Mexican dude. What are you talking about? In other news, Luciana moves in the new factory. It is mine now!

I own it! Come to my new factory in the Dominican Republic. There's nobody here! I got a deal!

Nobody's here! I wish I would have thought of that. We're all going to have heart attacks. Someone's going to knock us all off.

We're going to put a rock in our vanilla ice cream. Get our ice cream. And our non-dairy ice cream. Oh.

All right. The human cause. The biggest fallout isn't in boardrooms. It's in La Romana, Dominican Republic.

Tabaclar De Garcia employs nearly 2,000 people. That's a lot. Plus countless tobacco farmers and suppliers. S.

orders gone, shifts were cut, workers were sent home, and fear spread quickly. You go home. We had no work. You go home now.

No worky, worky. You go home now. Farmer men. No, no, no plow.

Go home. Can you imagine showing up to work and they're like, turn around. Right. Especially for those people because, you know, that's their...

Right. Show up and Luciano's at the gate trying to pick the lock on the padlock. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Talk about disrupting an entire economy. Right. 2,000 people in the Dominican Republic, that's gotta be like everybody. No, that's bigger than that.

It's bigger than that. You're talking about all the other... Oh, all the farmers and everything too. Yeah.

Suppliers, right. So let's say it's 5,000 people. If you don't work at a hotel, you're out of business. There's probably like only one company that does their boxes too, right?

They probably do their own. Oh yeah, so all the box people, yeah. All the box people, everybody's out. Yeah, it's not just 2,000 people rolling cigars, it's 2,000 people at the factory.

Right. Okay, so continue. All right, even worse. The factory visit for Pro Cigar 2026, quietly canceled.

There's nobody there. No one there. Hey, let's go over to the Garcia factory. There's no one there.

We're not going to make it. We're not going to make it. Yeah. So we released this, we talked about this on the Patreon a few weeks ago.

Yes. Not in this detail. Yeah. Because it was like quiet rumblings.

And whenever you heard about it, everybody was so like, oh, I don't know, like they didn't want to, you know. It was around the time that we had Espinosa here. Correct. I believe, yeah.

That's good. We had heard the factory was closed. Yeah. But we weren't exactly sure why.

Nobody wanted to confirm it, and we heard that it was tied to some dude, but we didn't know exactly what that was. We knew that if you mentioned other names that are in the cigar industry, because some of these things are intertwined, but they're not owned by the same individuals, you could possibly get cited or sanctioned or like you get cease and desist or whatever from attorneys or whatever the case may be. Because it was part of a DOJ investigation. No, I mean, I just think that some of these, yeah, but some of these other facts, like, you know, Santa Clara and these other companies aren't tied directly to it.

Right, so they didn't want anybody to say their name with this guy. Yeah, right, right. Because, I mean, if the word got out that, you know, somebody else was taking money from him or something, they would be close to it. They didn't want to get shut down as well.

Anything this guy touched now has been seized. Right. Right. All right, so they're not going to Pro Cigar.

Social media from the factory has gone silent. Right. No posts. No more posts.

No one's there. No one's paying the Wi-Fi. Somebody turn off the Wi-Fi. There's real concern that handmade operations may never fully recover.

Really? Yes. This is fascinating. Wow.

Yeah, the factory may never be the same as it was again. So can we stop here for a second? Yeah, yeah, go ahead. So what does that mean for Monte Cristo and all that?

Well, AJ's making it now and Placencia's making it now. Yeah, there are other places that they've obviously deviated to, right? There's still other great factories in this industry that they can figure, navigate kind of accordingly, but it's gonna be a fine line and those companies have to know what they're doing and who they're dealing with. They probably, you know, they also probably can't acquire tobacco from, I would believe, from specific people that are tied.

Sure, yeah, I mean, some farms and stuff are probably now closed too. Yeah. So does that mean the cigar is going to change? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, they do the recipe thing, but, you know, tobacco from one factory is not going to taste exactly the same as tobacco from another factory. But, like, here's the, I mean, the reality is when it comes to your Monte Cristo, your Trinidads, and all that stuff, that's, I mean, all of those are usually basic, boring, kind of dull cigars. There's nothing extremely elaborate about them, in my opinion, right? So you're just, you can wing that, right?

A lot of those consumers tend to have a tendency to be older guys that never really kind of explored into some of the new modern stuff where people are really kind of pushing the envelope for more flavor profiles and these other things, right? Like your Monte Cristo white guy, he comes in, he's your Monte Cristo white guy. You're never going to get him to buy something else. He's never spoken anything else.

Yeah. Your Romeo and Julieta. So if you tell him it's coming from another factory, he's going to go, I don't care, it's the same thing. Yeah.

And in this article, there was nobody from all to this that got roped in. Let's read on. Oh. Yeah, let's continue.

There's more. And about Cuban cigar prices, many smokers blame Cuba for the insane price hikes, but the timing matters. After Chen Xi and his partners took over, Cohiba prices doubled, Trinidad prices tripled. $100 to $300 cigars became normal.

Since 2021, profits paid up the chain, exploded from, oh, it's not in, it's not in freedom dollars, 19 million to 70 million, it looks like, euros annually. This wasn't just Cuba raising prices, it happened after new owners entered the picture. Well, the argument there, I think, back in the day was, they said that everything is now based off of Hong Kong pricing. Right.

Well, apparently it's Cambodia pricing. Right. Somebody couldn't tell the difference. Yeah, it's so wrong.

It's so racially stereotyping, it's terrible. So tone-deaf. It's horrible. Wow.

Okay. Okay. All right, the bottom line... So many words, you're saying so many words.

S. dollars. 3 million. Freedom dollars.

Freedom dollars. All right, the bottom line here, gentlemen, a man accused of running a global criminal empire quietly became one of the most powerful figures in cigars. S. sanctions forced Altanist to abandon its longtime factories.

Thousands of Dominican jobs are now at risk. The Cuban cigar prices skyrocketed during the ownership era. The cigar world is still trying to untangle the damage and all of it traces back to one name most cigar smokers had never heard of before until now. Chen Z.

Chen Z. What is it Chen, like my Chen? Or is it like Chen? C-H-E-N.

Chen, not Chen. I didn't know if it was like Gen. Chen Z. Z-H-I.

It would have been crazy if his name was G-E-N-Z. It would have two G's. 2G's, like Greg. Like Greg, right.

And he's not a large, imposing figure looking at a man either. Yeah. He's kind of a small, debure Asian man, it looks like, but apparently he's one of the kingpins of a large international cartel. He's probably got like 800 times your worth, though.

Well, yes. What do they do with all that Bitcoin? Do they put it up for auction? They seize it.

No, no, I know, but anything that's usually seized gets put up for auction unless it's a legal substance. It's a legal substance. We just put it back into the economy. Yeah, just Trump took it.

I mean, they have to wait until this is all over at this point. This is mine now. There'll be a movie that comes out where Vin Diesel steals it all out of some. He's using a 1969 charger in order to get back to Bitcoin.

Oh, beautiful. Two of them that drag a giant vault through the city. There's a hard drive of 161,000 Bitcoin. One of those Bitcoin wallets.

And John Cena and Kevin Hart are the villains. John Cena's a good guy in Fast and Furious, God, man. Yeah, but he turns back. No, he doesn't.

No, he doesn't. No, I'm saying in this one. Oh, oh, oh. I thought he died.

Yeah, he dies in one of them, doesn't he? Yeah. Saving Vin Diesel. Yeah.

Oh. Because he was his brother. Right, that was his brother. They look nothing alike.

They look the same to me. I believe it. They look close. Did you believe it?

One's got a big round bald head, and the other's got this big square Frankenstein face. Seemed believable to me. Right, seemed believable. Well, I don't know.

You couldn't see him. Can't see him. Where is he? Where is he?

You know, Kevin Hart would make a great villain, though. I mean, you're. He's too little. Nobody's afraid of him.

That would be like Napoleon. That would be like perfect. You're like Napoleon? Yeah.

Just a black ball. You're hard on the Kevin Hart stuff, too, lately. Yeah, he's big on the Kevin Hart. He doesn't even like black people.

He's all over the TV, man. Every time I'm watching sports, he's on the DraftKings thing. I mean, he's hilarious. Give me Shaq.

Oh. Was that his impersonation? Oh. He was making fun of Shaq.

Oh. Then he made fun of The Rock. Does he make fun of all the big people? Pretty much.

That is the thing. You can get away with it when you're two foot five. Yeah, exactly, right. You know, it's like Hezbollah.

Hezbollah's stuck and punched Jack in the face. Yeah. And he got away with it. I would have thrown them off the boat.

Yeah, here you go. There you go. Is there more to this? No, no, that's the end.

That concludes it? That concludes the, yeah. Yeah, they're a 17 page article I put down into just two minutes. So, nobody in Altidus got roped?

No, I don't think so. No, Altidus was just told you can no longer buy from this factory. Right. So, then they had to figure out alternative ways.

Right. So, everybody announced Altidus factory was closed, but technically it was not their factory. Oh, because Altidus lawyers said that they did not know of the clause. Well, it's not their factory anymore.

Well, it never was. They just bought from the factory. Right. But everybody thought they had their own factory.

I can't wait to see someone. Oh, I can't wait to see Ryan from Altidus. " Oh, yeah, apparently not, huh? A lot of ball busting.

You got a Monte Cristo there in your pocket I can have, huh? Yeah. No, I guess not, huh? You got some extras laying around?

No, you don't? J. Monte Cristos? Yeah.

J. Are they Placencia, Romeo, and Julieta? I mean, it's not really like a bad move. J.?

J. Oh, I thought... J. and Placencia.

Right. J. Yeah, he needs the money after the fire. He needs the money after the fire.

I don't think he needs the money. I think he's okay. I don't think he needs the money either. I think he's okay.

I was being sarcastic. I saw the new place being built. Yeah? Yeah.

Is it like three stories? No, it's not like the... It has its own monorail. Does it have a water slide?

It's not like the Opus Palace. No? No. Which was humongous.

Is there an underground train? I don't know. Like at Disney, you see all the people just move around underneath? That would probably be a good thing to have in Nicaragua.

They just pop up underground? But it may be seized. Yeah, the water table might be high. It's nearby, it's near the water.

Oh, maybe. It's in the mountains. Yeah, it is in the mountains. All of it?

Estelillo? Yeah, Estelillo's in the mountains. Oh, is that where his factory is in Estelillo? Yeah.

Well, then how does he have a coast where he owns the coral reef? I don't know, he did buy that, right? Yeah. Right.

Because they said he couldn't run his boats in the little harbor there because of the coral reef, so he bought the coral reef. Right. Now we just chew it up, we don't care. Now we destroy the coral reef.

You destroyed the coral. It is mine. Allegedly. I cut it into the shape.

It says only AJ now. Right. Only AJ. Only AJ.

In Nicaragua, I think you gauge everything by how many times you pop your ears. That's how you gauge, like, how high you're going and stuff. Oh. Going to Astoria, it was like 30-some times.

Your ears popped 30 times? Yeah, I had to pop my ears. Did you have to do sexual favors at the border crossings where you were, you know, expected? You know, believe it or not, we did not get stopped one time, Which I thought for sure.

I was like, oh, big white guy in the back of the truck. Like maybe they, you know, we'll be that guy. He'll give us 20 bucks. And they know you're in the back of the truck until they pull you over.

That's not how that works. I'm sure that's how it works. Did you have large sums of cash with you just in case? No, actually, Carlos told me not to carry cash on me.

He said, you can just use your card. Which I did. Yeah. What did you buy by a card?

I'm just curious. Where would you get it? I bought, like the only, there's only like two energy drinks in the whole country. Either you get Monster, or there's like some weird fury one or something like that.

So you opted for the weird one? No, no, no, I got the Monster. I normally don't drink Monster, but they have like this pineapple flavor. So I tried that one, it's actually pretty good.

In China, I always got the Chinese Red Bull because you don't know what's in it. You have no idea what's in it. That's why I did not buy the Furio. Right.

I mean, it's just loaded with all sorts of shit. It worked great, I got to tell you. Yeah! Right.

It just had the, uh, the logo was the same, but you couldn't read any of the writing on it anyway. Nice. You can use your card at any of the places. I'm just curious what you would have bought while you were there.

Coffee? Oh, they had like, uh, like, Snicker, like, Skip-like Snicker bars, so me and Carlos would always go down to the corner store from the factory. Yeah. And we would buy like, well, first of all, we'd buy snacks for ourselves because eating sometimes is scarce.

But, of course, with Skip, you know, he wakes up at a certain time, he only eats at certain times, so me and Carlos, we're like starving. Yeah, you're a grown-ass man, figure out how to eat. Right, so we would go, and we'd go to the corn store, and we'd get snacks, and we'd pay with card there. It's like candy bars, chips.

How about go to a restaurant and eat food, like a normal human being? Yeah, no, we'd, well, we didn't have our own vehicle. Yeah, it's Esteli, you can walk. Yeah.

Yeah, you're two big, large, American-looking guys, you can have any trouble. Yeah, we're both three feet taller than everybody there. Nobody would have given you a hard time. No, we didn't really have a problem, which, you know, like...

Walked the streets all the time in Esteli. The way Greg set up the conversation with me before I left was like, "Oh, I gotta be careful. Don't do this. " And like, I'm like nervous at this point going into Nicaragua.

Well, you're a nervous guy. Yeah. Well, Greg likes to over-exaggerate things too. Yeah.

I used to walk, I would walk to the gym. I love when Greg tells the stories about us in China. They're so much better than how it actually happened. Right.

Yeah, it really wasn't an issue. And even Skip took us to like a restaurant that was like one of the local ones. Yeah. And then there was no issue.

Which one? I don't know the name of it, but it's the one with the Mercedes-Benz grills. The front of the cars are like cut. Yeah.

And he turned them into grills. Oh, really? Yeah, I don't know the name of it, but... Oh, apparently he doesn't take you there.

No, I go to the nice steakhouse. Yeah, is that the one with the fake fire? I think so. Has like Florida Con on the wall?

Yeah. Yeah, we went there multiple times. Yeah, that's Skip's favorite spot. Yeah.

So. Okay. All right, everybody ready? We have an episode of What's The Score?

Today's cigar juice from June 19th, 2021. Charlie Minato reviewed it. It is the Baracoa Cigars, Dominican Republic Reviews, the Baracoa, the Voyage Robusto. So, extra, from 2021.

82. Booty, the one that you love so much? This may not be fair. You probably know the score.

I don't. This is one of your favorite cigars, though. You loved it. I mean, I would think it'd be, yeah, 85.

If you're a Patreon fan, this episode on the Patreon is absolutely epic, and you need to. I've gotten a lot of comments on it already. They love the episode. And it opened, it aired today.

Today, yes. When this is released, it'll air yesterday. Yes. All right.

The Voyage, Robusto Extra, Country of Origin, Dominican Republic, Factory, Tablet Calera, William Ventura. The Rappers, Ecuadorian Corojo, Binder, Ecuadorian Sumatra, Filler, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. 70, a box of $2,194. 70 is kind of a weird price.

They smoked three. Code 3. Well, I mean, he had to try and figure out how he would make enough money to pay back the person. 78.

Apparently, he guessed wrong. Yeah, just, you know, and when I say I'm going to pay you back, what I really mean is that's not going to happen, allegedly. And I'm moving into the new factory and all to this. 85?

Stealth. Okay. All right, clue number one. This cigar is terrible.

The draw remains consistently too open across all samples, and rather than improving after lighting, it forces the smoker to adjust their cadence throughout the cigar. This lack of resistance makes it difficult to smoke at a relaxed pace and ultimately pulls attention... Oh, I'm sorry. Are we bothering you?

It's time to take your medicine? It's time for your medicine, yeah. ultimately pulls attention away from the flavor experience, turning what should be an effortless smoke to something that requires constant management? 78.

85. 85. Clue number two, construction proves uneven from sample to sample, ranging from acceptable to outright frustrating. One cigar exhibits a messy, unreliable burn line, while another repeatedly goes out, particularly on one side.

Despite repeatedly attempts to correct it, the need for frequent touch-ups and relights interrupts. It helps the flow of the smoke, and detracts from what could otherwise be a more immersive experience. Seventy-seven. You loved it.

Eighty-two. Only drop down three. Remember, this was your cigar. This is the one you loved.

You loved this. Pleasant smoking experience, I think, was the actual wording. Yeah, it was incredible. I didn't say incredible, I said it was a good cigar.

" You thought it was going to be the next Opus. Yeah, it was right up there. No, because I don't like Opus. Well, you thought it should be the next Opus, because you don't like Opus, but you loved it.

Yeah. Sorry, I misspoke myself the first time. Okay. All right, clue number three.

When the cigar is burning properly and the smoking rhythm is dialed in, the flavor profile showed a satisfying level of complexity and balance. Creaminess, nuttiness, earth, and subtle sweetness rotate through the spotlight, supported by expressive retro hails that delivered layered notes of spice, citrus, and savory depth, Creating moments that are generally enjoyable and engaging for the attentive smoker. That cigar you know right there. That's the one.

77. Says Boots will love this in the future. Yes. In five years.

82. In four years Boots will love this cigar. What did you say Boots, I'm sorry? 82.

82. And you are at what, Michael? 77. While I smoked three, this is a final thoughts now.

While I smoked three cigars for this review, I experienced two different cigars. The two good ones were interesting profile that tasted more intense than the body and strength would suggest. When not retrohailing, the profile was fine and easy enough to handle. Though, this is one of the times in which retrohailing didn't produce the most enjoyable smoking experience.

That second sample inevitably hurt the final score quite a bit and was difficult to smoke during the second half. Unfortunately, difficult to smoke is the lasting thought I was regarding in the new version of the Voyage while the final score was difficult to smoke during the second half. Unfortunately, difficult to smoke is the lasting thought I was regarding in the new version of the Voyage. While the first and third samples did better, I felt the inability for cigars to stay consistently lit means that even with the best of examples, I was forced to smoke far quicker than I would have liked, and was required to pay too much attention to the cigars from start to finish.

77. Is this the last, this final? Now you give the score, this is the end. You said 77?

I did. 79. Oh, he's playing the scores. What was it?

80. Oh! I was hoping he was going to go 83, then it would have been right in the middle. We'd have to do a tiebreaker.

There's no tiebreaker. I win again! Second day in a row, baby. You got a roll here, Michael.

Just for the record, it should have ranked as a two. Yeah, I was surprised it was ranked so high. Yeah. Well, Charlie's nice to all the cigars.

Okay. All right. Anything else to add? This is only two less than our SPC.

Right. Who ranked the SPC? Charlie. I think Charlie purposely likes to do our stuff.

Like, they're supposed to on you? I will do it. I don't know. I think that he normally likes our stuff.

Well, that's probably why he wants to do it. Yeah. Yeah, but what if, what's the guy that we always do, not Patrick. Brooks.

Brooks. What if Patrick had the cigar and ranked it? You think it would be higher? No.

Really? Yeah. It was a bad cigar. No, no, no, I'm talking about Patanya.

Not this one, he means our cigar. Oh, if Brooks did ours? No. Oh, yeah, it would have ranked higher.

Can we put it on a request? No. You send him one to do, look, just do this, nah, he's got so much going on, why would he do a free one? Oh, we don't care, we're moving on.

War Bear just came out, I'm looking for that review. Send it to Brooks. Speaking of which, did we send that to media? We have not.

No, we didn't send out samples. You need to do that. You want to send out samples? Yeah.

I thought we decided not to. Oh, no, let's take care of media, man, you always gotta take, these guys are working their asses off for peanuts. Alright. Okay.

Are you guys gonna send three to Boots' house? No. You're not media. No, I'm gonna send it to your RV.

We're not media? I'm gonna send it to your RV. No, we're not media anymore, we don't get samples. We're on the Netflix.

We're now entertainment. Yeah, we're on the Netflix. Yeah, that's right. We're going to be on Netflix.

Take that. All right. It's been episode 432. All right.

Of the Cigar Hustler Podcast every weekday, Monday through Friday, coming to you with 60 to 90 minutes of pure, magical content. All right. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.

All right. Bye. Bye. com.

The chiroli comes in black. Bold, clean, and built for battle. Available in multiple sizes for warriors of every shape and strength. And remember, the actual image does not dance or move, but it definitely makes a statement.

com before they're gone! 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. Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. Cheers to you. com and search the Cigar Hustler Podcast.

F*** that one up.

Show Notes

Netflix is now into podcasting ,Now they have recalled ICE cream!, The Youtube empire acquires the crow Jules of award shows.  Somme updates of previous stories then in cigar news we have t=maybe the biggest story of 2025 then we wrap with a what’s the score!