ACHP Episode 448 Parking Fees
Episode Summary
Episode 448 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast opens with Mike Palmer, Mikey Stepanovich and Boots riffing on new CHPod merch ("Smoke and Subscribe" tees at chpod.com), shouting out five more retailers receiving the Powstanie San Andrés Corona Gorda — 1911 Cigars (Cibolo, TX), Smoker's Abbey (Memphis, TN), Oak Glen Tobacconist (Angier, NC), West Coast Cigars and Ramsey Smoke Shop (Ramsey, MN) — and taking their usual round of listener corrections.
The news block starts outside the cigar world with Meta cutting roughly 10% of its Reality Labs division as it pivots from the Metaverse toward AI and wearables (Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses), which spins into a conversation about whether "pay-to-play" influences top-25 cigar lists. The crew then dissects the eye-watering costs around the College Football Playoff national championship at Hard Rock Stadium (Miami vs. Indiana) — $747 stadium parking passes, $2,800–$5,500 resale tickets, and face values that were never offered to the public — plus a broader rant about how stressful and expensive live sporting events have become.
Industry-wise, it's "Q1, entering the portal" season: Willy Marrero-style brand ambassador cuts are discussed with Willie Mariante departing La Aurora, and Jerry Coutrone leaving Joseph Cigars retail to become Texas Territory Manager for SAG Imports. The hosts note halfwheel's 2025 Company of the Year (Raíces Cubanas Cigars USA) and 2025 Factory of the Year (Tabacos Cubanica, home of Padrón), and tease an upcoming guest appearance from Lou Cross of Lure Cigars.
The heavy segment is the fatal shooting of Charles and Richard Geraghi, owners of All American Tobacco LLC — a major handmade cigar importer that has moved product for Aganorsa, A.J. Fernandez, Altadis, La Aurora and Oliva — at their Boynton Beach/Boca Raton-area offices, allegedly by Nassar Dawala over a multimillion-dollar embezzlement case involving his brother. Lighter cigar news follows with J.C. Newman's Jose Gaspar 2026 Gasparilla release (6x54 Toro, Ecuadorian Cuban-seed wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at PENSA in Estelí, 2,000 boxes of 10, Tampa-only). The show closes with "What's the Score?", guessing Patrick Lagreid's rating for the Aging Room La Bohème Poeta.
In This Episode
- 01CHPod Merch and Retailer Shout-OutsThe new "Smoke and Subscribe" shirt at chpod.com plus five shops receiving the Powstanie San Andrés Corona Gorda.
- 02Meta Layoffs and the Metaverse PivotMeta cuts about 10% of Reality Labs as it shifts money toward AI and Ray-Ban/Oakley smart glasses — and what pay-to-play means for cigar top-25 lists.
- 03$747 Parking at the CFP National ChampionshipMiami vs. Indiana at Hard Rock Stadium and the resale ticket, parking and concession costs that have fans staying home.
- 04Q1 'Entering the Portal': Industry Job MovesWillie Mariante exits La Aurora and Jerry Coutrone joins SAG Imports as Texas Territory Manager, with talk of brand ambassador roles being first to get cut.
- 05halfwheel Company and Factory of the YearRaíces Cubanas Cigars USA named 2025 Company of the Year and Tabacos Cubanica — the Padrón factory in Estelí — named Factory of the Year.
- 06All American Tobacco Double HomicideThe hosts break down the fatal shooting of brothers Charles and Richard Geraghi, the alleged $5 million embezzlement behind it, and what it means for one of the industry's key importers.
- 07J.C. Newman Jose Gaspar 2026The annual Gasparilla release returns as a 6x54 Toro with a new Ecuadorian Cuban-seed/Nicaraguan blend, limited to 2,000 boxes and sold only in Tampa.
- 08What's the Score? Aging Room La Bohème PoetaThe crew guesses Patrick Lagreid's halfwheel score for the AJ Fernandez-made Aging Room La Bohème Poeta and debates whether a rough final third should cost it points.
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 448. It's Thursday, January 14th, 2026. I'm Mike Palmer, your host. With me in engineering is Boots.
I'm about to get a camera for the show, Hipple House. Hey! And my co-host, we have Mikey, oh great, now Boots is getting a camera for the show, Stepan Kavich. I'm the one that said let's do that, because we had one hanging around.
It's funnier. It's not funny. Yes, it is. " That'd be funny.
I didn't forget, I didn't have time. Oh, just super busy? Super busy. Like Greg upstairs, you're super busy?
Greg's super busy, he shows up at noon. He shows up at noon. Tells me I did something wrong and then goes home. I love it.
This is very incorrect. You almost had that intro perfect, except you said January 14th again. It is January. Tomorrow will be the 14th.
It's January 15th. What is today's date? 14th. January 14th.
Oh, so close. I'm going to stop saying the date. I was wondering why you said the date. Just eliminate that problem altogether.
On today's show, Meta passes out pink slips. We have a new entry into the portal. We have a couple of new entries in the portal. Oh.
We have some very depressing cigar news. Cigar News. Depressing. Yes, it's depressing.
We talk about some pirates in the cigar news, and then we have a mini, what's the score? Yes, it's Q1, so Q1 is entering the portal time. You did mention this last week, that this would be when it would be going on. This is where the cuts start happening, people start shifting and moving around to different jobs.
Clicky clicky's over there going at it again. He wanted to wait, he wanted to light up the cigar once we started. Yeah, he wanted to wait till the show started so that we could get the clicky clicky on the air. Well, it's authentic.
Makes sense. It's authentic. All right, Mikey, how do we get some of that CHPod swag? Well, Mr.
Palmer, if you notice, I'm wearing our new smoke and... The newest shirt in the line. That's right. Nice.
com. It is smoke and subscribe. So what this is, this is a YouTube-esque, a YouTube-esque logo. Yes.
But instead of this little triangle that was here, I've replaced it with the P. Hello. It's got a little smokey-smokey. Smokey-smokey.
Yes. Smoke and subscribe. Where is the subscribe part? I mean, I see the smoke.
Right here. The words right there, Palmer. I understand that, but he put up a picture of smoke. I thought it'd be something to represent the subscribe part.
I don't know what I would use for that. That doesn't even make any sense. Well, what is it? You could have come up with something.
An empty block with a check in it or something? Oh, maybe. I guess. Something?
You know, I appreciate you fine-tuning after I've already- Well, it's not like you showed it to us before you made it, where we could have had this discussion before. I feel like I showed you this. No, I've never seen it before. Really?
That's why it was up at the window when you walked up, I had no idea what you were wearing. Gotcha. Wouldn't you just hit on the smoke and subscribe, because that would be like the button? Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Yeah. It's like like and subscribe. Right. Yeah.
com. Everybody should have one. Buy one, get the second one 40% off, spend $100 or more, get free shipping. Still doing the free shipping.
Let's get free shipping. Today I'm having the, how's this? Delicious. Postana San Andreas, Corona Gorda, and we are going to shout out five more retailers today.
Oh, we're prepared. Yes, who have received, or are receiving the Postana San Andreas Corona Gorda, 1911 Cigars in, I'm going to screw this up, Cibolo, Texas. Disco, disco, go. Smoker's Abbey, in Memphis, Tennessee, Oak Glen Tobacconist, Angier, North Carolina, West Coast Cigars, on the West Coast, on the West Coast, Ramsey Smoke Shop in Ramsey, Minnesota, in the North Coast, Gordon's Place, Omar's Place, Ramsey Gordon, Gordon Ramsey, the chef, no, not the same guy, totally different, totally different, Omar Ramsey, his cousin, oh, oh, It's actually in the city of Ramsey.
That's why it's Ramsey Smoke Shop. Oh. You know, it's really funny? He's just not funny, Boots.
He doesn't play with that joke. Right, yeah. Doesn't feed into him. Nope.
No. Sometimes they're not funny. They aren't everybody else. Well.
Somebody blessed me in Boots. Yeah. By the way, I did see a comment, I think it was from Ben, that sports are okay. That's just Ben.
One. That's one. I have four no's to one yes. When you get five yes's, then you're good.
Listen. You mentioned hockey that you don't mention hockey at all. That's Paul. What difference does that make?
You don't count? Did you call Paul Palmer and tell him the comment in the thing? No, if I called him, I said don't say anything about sports. What else did we, oh, by the way.
He's in charge, did you notice, he's in charge of our special teams. Is he? Paul is. Our special teams.
He's from the Powstanie special teams division. Ah, I got it. By the way, also, Team Money mentioned that your money makers bet was completely wrong. Michigan State was not.
Those teams aren't even playing. Michigan State is not playing Michigan until January 30th. But I was right about the win. So, good job on that.
Paul did say he wants to talk about hockey. C. Yes. Is there?
Yes. Oh, I didn't know. The Naval Shipyard is one of them. You'd think that name would sort of stick out.
I love the corrections. I love the corrections. And I don't remember the other one. Okay.
So, yeah, let's get into this. Yeah, right, it's just every week, or every day now, they just comment and correct us, it's all it is. There's another shipyard there? I want somebody over with a comment, so like, oh, so, you know, when I told you before, they're like, hey, so, you know, can I be dumb too and post and do a podcast or something?
Like, it takes some hard work, but if you reach for the stars, you could accomplish anything. You can be stupid enough, maybe. They wrote back, that was a great answer. All right, now in the news, the Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, have started cutting jobs as it rethinks its long-term strategy amid disappointing results from its Metaverse Investments.
This week, Meta confirmed that it will eliminate roughly 10% of the workforce in its Reality Labs division. I'm not sure what that is. It's a world. Which works on virtual and augmented reality hardware and software that amount to more than 1,000 to around 15,000 rolls, making it one of the first major tech layoffs of 2026.
You're already about to yawn. Yeah. No, my eyes are hurting. You gave me extra lights.
Yes, I need it. Oh, is that it? I wasn't going to yawn. My eyes are burning now.
Good. Reality Labs has been one of Meta's biggest financial drains, losing tens of billions of dollars over the last few years on products such as VR headsets, social VR platforms, And Immersive Metaverse Experiences with Limited Consumer Traction. I didn't even know they had any of this stuff. Yeah, you know, the goggles?
Oculus. Well, I mean, I know what they are, but I didn't know that was owned by Meta. Facebook? Yeah.
Well, originally it wasn't, but then they bought it. Oh, really? Yeah. I feel that could possibly be wrong.
Maybe, but it was a great idea. Was it? Yeah, have you ever used one? Yeah, use it at your house and that made my kids get one for Christmas.
They're great. They're cool. They're great. You know, it's even, have you ever used it for a sports game?
No. I used it one time for basketball, NBA, and it's like you're sitting on the sideline. Really? That's pretty cool.
Oh, so you're just watching the game, you're not playing? How live was the game? Was it a live game? No, it's a live game.
Yeah, like, so they have the camera for basketball where the check-in desk is for the players, and it has two cameras on it that can see, you know, they cone out or whatever. They can see the whole stadium down there. So, you can look left, you can look right with the goggles on, you can see people next to you, people at the stores. So, it's not a video game, they're putting you into the game that's being played.
Well, you can play video games as well. Right, right. So, here's what I can tell you, because somebody asked me about acquiring some for their kids or whatever for Christmas, and I said, well, you know, first of all, you're going to have to buy the best one, you have to buy the most technologically advanced one, whatever that is, right? You always got to kind of keep up with that, so you're going to pay the highest dollar.
And I got to tell you, after a handful of times, it just sits and collects dust. Oh, your kids don't play no more? They're no longer... You should have sold them yours.
The only time that it's... well, it was like a Christmas gift. Here's a slightly used... Well, you clean it up and it looks brand new again.
No. Don't tell Preston it's slightly used. Oh, that's a shot. That was Boots, by the way.
Sorry. So, you know, like, I can understand that it's not tracking. They're not tracking, you know, it's very easy, it's much easier for the kids to get on Xbox, or PlayStation, or whatever, if they want to play a game. What's more common platform?
I would say Xbox, probably the most common. Right, right. And it's easier, because with the Oculus, you have to have, like, a 10 by 10 box, or whatever. Right.
And then, you know, when it goes to, like, doom scrolling, or something like that, the YouTube shorts and all those other things, you can do those on the Xbox and stuff as well. I don't think you can do that, nor would I want my kid doing that. What's doomscrolling? When you start just rifling through reels, whether it's on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
Oh, I didn't know I had a name. It's called doomscrolling. So Palmer doomscrolls every night. He's a big doomscroller.
Oh, yeah, all the time. Yeah. I think you can. Yeah, yeah.
You can look at YouTube on there. Oh, man. Well, I don't want that to happen. Why is that?
Because I don't want my kids sitting there. It reminds me of, like, Batman Forever, where, you know, you would plug your head in with the Riddler, And then, with the Riddler, with Jim Carrey's the Riddler, and it was just, you know, like, Yeah, that's exactly it, I don't, you know, We only had a camera on him, I'm sure that was funny, that would have been hilarious, because I can't see him at all from over here with all this bright light, I'm getting a tan or something over here, yeah, you're doing well, yeah, I mean, you're moving up in the superstardom, yeah, so, well, when we get you a better camera, then we won't need as big of lights, all right, meta, meta executives have acknowledged that those ventures haven't gained the broad adoption they expected, the cutbacks are Part of the broader strategic pivot, Meta is relocating resources away from costly Metaverse projects and toward artificial intelligence and wearable technologies. So what's the difference between Metaverse and AI? Wearable technologies?
Yeah. So that would be like the Apple glasses? Oh, everybody's got those. Stuff like that.
Oakley has a really cool looking pair. Yeah, they do. They're expensive though. But Meta, oh yeah, so you're saying Meta is doing that now?
Yes. Well, how much was the Oculus thing that you had to buy? that you had to buy. Was it like $300, $400?
Probably. The glasses are about that same price, aren't they? Five. The ones that I saw are five.
Yeah, and they're polarized. Well, Meta is directly linked to Ray-Ban and Oakley in these glasses. Yeah. Right?
So that's what they're talking about, wearables. Ah, gotcha. Now, the one issue with how that works is there's already some conflict with the brands. So, from what I heard, Oakley drops their sunglasses, and it's supposed to be kind of a big hit, and Ray-Ban instantly countered with the attachment for your wrist, and there's like a heads-up display in the sunglasses, and like, Oakley didn't even get an opportunity to really kind of promote their brand, allegedly, so...
That's kind of crazy, yeah, because you would think that both brands would be able to do that at the same time, because it's really Meta, who's the front runner on them. Providing the technology. Right. Yeah.
Hmm. So you kind of gave a... Who gives more money. Yeah.
Yeah. Little... You think that's how top 25 cigars are in certain places? It could be.
It could be very possible. Very, very possible. They all claim it's not, but it's, you know, kind of weird. Right.
I don't know. I love Bear. Bear gave us number two for the justice. Yes.
I sent him a big check. Sent him a big check? I hope it wasn't too big. He's changing his last name to Powstanie next year.
Oh, is he? What was the box? Boink. What?
We're broke. We have no money here. Right. We have no money.
Please, smoke and subscribe to the triangle. Will you take this post-dated third-party out-of-state check from us and cash it later? On a foreign bank? Yeah.
Company leaders are pushing teams to focus on more AI-driven mobile features and next-generation wearable devices, which have shown more user interests and clear paths to revenue. Employees were notified this week and the layoffs are being rolled out across Reality Labs unit throughout the week. Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth has framed the shift as necessary to accelerate adoption of technologies with more immediate market potential. This move makes a significant recalibration for Meta, which once bet heavily on the Metaverse as the company's next frontier.
Now with intense competition from AI from rivals like Google and OpenAI, Meta appears to be betting that AI enhances products, AI enhanced products will deliver more value than immersive virtual worlds in the near term. The AI stuff is already progressing to be kind of wild. Like it's already opinionated on some things that you're just like, wait a second, that's not... I don't think you should do that.
Yeah. That is not a good idea. Like this is not, you're not providing data, you're trying to sway my opinion, which is kind of creepy. It's literally Skynet.
It's literally Skynet. I like mine. Which one do you use? ChatGPT?
Yeah, ChatGPT. Which I hear is not the best one, but I've been using it for so long now, it answers the way I wanted to answer, it knows the things I'm looking for. Yes, Mr. Palmer, huge penis, you have a huge penis.
Yes, that's how it addresses me. Now all you need is the glasses. You are very well endowed, Mr. Palmer.
You know what you can do though, I found out? I found out because somebody did my wife's car. You can have your phone play a certain song or phrase every time it connects to your CarPlay. Really?
Yeah. Interesting. You did that? Yeah, but apparently there's an app where you can get phrases, I mean the songs are kind of long, I've rotated through a couple of songs, like I don't want to hear this song every time I get in the car.
Right. But if it was just like part of it, or like I feel the need, the need for speed, that would be kind of cool when you get in and your car says that. Right. That would be amazing.
You would love that, right? I forgot Maverick over there. I would like the, uh, what's the guy's name from King of Queens, when he did- Kevin James. Is that his name, Kevin James, where he did the NASCAR, he's like, "God bless our troops, God bless America, and gentlemen, start your-" Yeah, that would be great to get into the car, too.
That would be cool, too. I would, I'd have a lot more speeding tickets at that point. I see the TikTok with this, because I think they were doing like the Harry Potter theme song, when you got into the car. Really?
Yeah. You can. I mean, you can set up to do anything. Anything that you have on your phone, it'll play.
That's crazy. Interesting. Have you guys wore the glasses, just by the way, since we're on the top? The Metas?
Yeah. No, my barber has them. Yeah, my barber has them too. Yeah.
Does he help cut the hair? My barber doesn't have them. Yeah. Well, your barber is not as cool as our barber's.
My barber's my wife. You guys have sex with your barber? I do not have sex with my barber. There you go.
No. Can you grab your barber's boobs as she's cutting your hair? Nope. Nope.
I can't do that either. I can't. But if I did, if I could have done analysis, I would also provide her with metas. Why does she need the metas for?
She can barely find her show on TV. She never remembers a streaming service it's on. I think it's great for the barbers because they can video, you know, as they're cutting hair, you know, there's a whole bunch of different things that they do with it. It'd be good for the field, man, for coaching.
Meta record this play. Does it show them how to cut your hair, maybe? Maybe. There's a piece sticking out over here, and it shows them the glasses.
Yeah, maybe. I mean, I've seen, like, construction apps on it. Well, the AI version of the construction app. But, like, it will measure distance.
Right. Oh. Right. So, like, if you're, like, walking a property and you want to put a fence on a property or something, like, you can say, hey, Meadow, start measuring distance from this point.
And you can point where the point is. And it will start measuring as you're walking. Oh, that's wild. My tape measure is.
Yeah, but now you don't need a tape measure. Now you're gonna have $500 sunglasses that gets it done for you. Oh, instead of a $40 tape measure. Yeah, $40?
Where are you buying your tape measure? I've had it for a long time. I take care of my stuff. It's $40?
Yeah, the tape measures are actually pretty expensive. Really? It's a big Black & Decker Fat Max or something it's called. I don't have tools.
I have cool neighbors that have tools. Oh, I don't like to depend on other people. Yeah, they got like, if it has a magnet in it, It throws an extra twenty dollars on it. What do you need a magnet for?
Like if you're doing any type of frame or anything and you want to measure all the way up. That's what the hook's on the end for. Yeah, but it sometimes doesn't always hook, bro. Like say you go up thirty feet.
You don't take care of your things. Okay. All right, moving on. Fans heading to Hard Rock Stadium this week for a college football playoff national championship between the Miami Hurricanes and the Indiana Hoosiers are facing more than just steep ticket prices.
What are the ticket prices? I don't know. They're up there, though. They're retarded.
Yeah. Why? Is this like a really big game or something? I think it's location because it's in Miami and Miami's there.
Miami's there. Miami Hurricanes? The Canes are there, yeah. Yeah.
I mean, it's hard rock. They're also confronting eye-watering parking fees that have sparked widespread frustration online with ticket resale prices already soaring into the thousands. Oh, my Lord. The cost of parking has become another bitter pill to swallow for supporters planning to make the trip.
According to listings on secondary sites like StubHub and TickPick, the cheapest official stadium parking pass is around, oh my lord, $747. That's correct. For parking. Yeah.
So the tickets are anywhere from $2,800 to $5,500 for regular tickets. Jeez. That's probably upper bowl. Yeah, and then if you want premium or club seats.
And then if you want to see the game. Yeah. If you want premium or club seats, it's 8,000 or more. And then ultra-premium or close seats can reach well into the tens of thousands in some resale platforms, 17,000 to 40,000.
Tens of thousands. That's wild, man. Wow. And is it going to be sold out?
Oh, yeah. It's already sold out. It's ridiculous. This is secondary market stuff.
Oh, these are extra tickets. This is people that bought them and now they're flipping them. It's sold out, 65,000 people. What if you bought them originally?
What did you pay? What was the original price? The stadium, yeah, or whatever. Probably a few hundred bucks, I'd assume.
I mean, that's a little more reasonable. Wow, I figured that would have seemed absurd at most any other event. For fans looking to save a bit, there are off-sites across the street with pedestrian walkways into the stadium price lower. Oh, only $280 if you park across the street.
No blocky. Oh, yeah. But those still feel steep compared with normal game day rates and local expectations. To put the numbers in context, even moderately priced events in the Miami area typically have parking fees well under $100.
That means this week's game, one of the biggest in college sports has inflated not just ticket prices, but all aspects of attending in person. The backlash on social media has been loud and clear. Many fans describe the parking lot cost as outrageous with some vowing to skip attending in person at all, opting instead to watch from home or find alternative transport. Oh, it would probably be a big Uber day.
Right. Others note that the spike reflects broader trends in premium sports events, where supply, demand, and third-party sellers drive up costs for everything from seats to tailgate spots. This kickoff approach is a debate over value versus experience continues, but one thing is clear, fans are talking about parking prices almost as much as the game itself. So, how much would you pay?
What do you think is like a "I'm okay with this number to park to go to a game"? 20 bucks. $100? $20 and $100.
Yeah, well, I've been to a football game. You have? Yeah, multiple. Okay.
I've been to football games too, but it still doesn't mean I'm paying $100. If you want to park near the stadium, it's $100 or more. I mean, for all my games that I park close to the stadium, it's usually between $30 and $40. Oh, if you're referring to when I went with you, where we parked?
Yeah, but that's not right at the stadium, right? It's across the street. Yeah. So if you want to park at the stadium, right, it's probably going to be somewhere around $100, $150.
About $100. And you're okay with that amount? Yeah, if you're right there at the stadium, yeah. I pay $60 to park across the street?
That's all it is? What's that? I save $60 by parking on the other side of the road? Yeah.
Why is it a question? Well, sometimes, too, like, let's say it's a football game. Okay. A football game also has all the tailgating, and all the good tailgating people park at the stadium, right, if you will.
Now, if you have kids, this stuff is different, right, because you're not going there for the drinking and all that stuff, so. So, okay, if I'm going for the tailgating, can I still park across the street and walk over to Mikey's car and eat food and beer? You could totally tailgate crash, yeah. Yeah, you can.
Well, no, I mean, you've invited me. He's talking about the tailgaters spend the $100, so. Yeah, no, yeah, but a lot of them, you know, have their grills and setups and stuff, so they're not going to park across the street and bring all that over. No, you tailgate across the street.
Yeah, there are plenty of people that tailgate in the parking lot that I park at. Yeah, yeah, you know. And it's not far away from the stadium. Yeah, I mean, it's across the street.
It's like here in the dumpster. I would say, yeah, that it's arguably closer than some of the, you know, direct spots in the stadium park. Right, it's like way off on the left side of the building or something. Exactly.
Now, for a basketball game, I'm not paying more than 50 bucks. So it's different per sport. 50's where you draw the line. 50's for basketball, 100's for football.
Yeah. What have you seen in a hockey game? I'm not fucking paying for basketball. Wait a second, you used to do the valet VIP stuff.
50 bucks. That was 50? Yeah. There's more, it's 150.
Yeah, so I haven't been to a game in a minute. It's 150 and it's cash. Like, they don't even... Cash?
And it's weird. It's like on the... Oh, wait, are you on the side where you can't walk in anymore? Uh, correct.
It's on like the north side of the building. It's a different valet. So I think that guy is... I don't think that's real parking, to be honest with you.
What's he doing? Is he just taking cars? Yeah, so... You get cars.
So actually, I did go to one game this year. So Ginger took me and Carlos, when we went, I was like, oh, let's park in the spot I used to park in. He's like, okay, yeah, whatever. So I went in there, and you can't walk in anymore.
But there was like this shady dude, like out front, he's like, yo, right here, right here. I think what he did is like, they maybe open this area like after everybody's passed it a little bit, right, and they open it up, and they probably illegally are parking people, and nobody has caught it yet. Oh, wow. Yeah, because this dude's gone after the start of the game.
Like, he's gone. No kidding. Yeah. Well, why hang around?
You guys have already paid and gone in. I'm out of here. Right. He's just making beer money, baby, for the next week.
At 50 bucks a pop, he's making more than beer money. Or crack money. I don't know how much crack is nowadays. I mean, I got to tell you that the experience that's happened at the stadium is definitely different, especially for me, maybe just because I'm getting a little bit older, but it's stressful, dude.
It is so stressful. I don't, you know, you go to the game, you pay an arm and a leg for the tickets, you park the car, you hope to make it, you know, like, I mean, Tampa's supposed to be an hour and a half away. It's always at least two hours for traffic that is just traffic for no reason. You know, you get the irate person in your vicinity that is mad if your kid's standing or, you know, whatever.
I'm just like, man, I can just sit at home. Well, you haven't even hit the food yet. Right. You've got to crush a minimum 160.
Yeah. To eat? Yeah, if there's two or three of you. Bro, that's even Little Caesars.
At Tampa, they have Little Caesars. Yeah, this is nothing special. You're not walking. I like Little Caesars.
They've got a little PDQ station. You're not walking out of that PDQ station. You're not breaking a hundo if there's more than one of you. PDQ.
It's wild. So, you know, I'm like, that's why I kind of got to the point where I'm like, this is just too much. I'm no longer enjoying myself. It's not fun.
Yeah. I went in to create memories with my wife and kids, right? And some of their friends and stuff. And it's no longer that.
I would much rather. It's going to be something we all discuss in therapy. No, I mean, not to that. Daddy beat up another man last week.
I don't know. It's just not going to be a memory anymore. I mean, well, not a good memory. Yeah, the memories are gone.
Like, Jack's is now, he's a little bit older, right? So, like, I can still, we can still go to a game every once in a while, we don't have to go to all of them, right? So, and not only that, but, like, we can go visit other stadiums at this point, like, hey, let's go fly out. Like, I would love to go to Minnesota, I'd love to see that stadium, right?
Yeah, because what's another $100 per person at this point? Yeah, you know, you spend a couple extra hundred bucks, and then you have a really awesome experience, right? And you get to see different teams, or whatever the case may be, and then, you know, So, if you, whatever, like, I mean, I don't mind the conflict, I guess, to some degree, I think that the harder part is really anticipating that it's gonna happen, and then once it happens, I'm finally better. Oh, if you go to other stadiums with Tampa gear on, yeah.
Oh, no, even at Tampa with, you know, you know, something's gonna happen, the worst part about it is waiting for it to happen. Right, like, when somebody gets mad that Jack's standing, "Oh, can you have your, can you sit down? " Right? " Maybe you should just get completely irate the first time, so you set the standard for the area.
As soon as you walk in, you should go, "Look! " And I will fuck all you up. I will fuck all of you right here and embarrass you in front of your wife. Right.
We all good now? I'm gonna watch the game. Bro, recently, I went to that Daytona Lights Christmas Lights. Remember?
That was a little bit ago when they do that, all the Christmas Lights, Palmer? In Daytona? Yeah. I didn't know they did in Daytona.
I've been to St. Augustine one. At the Speedway. You can drive through.
Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, so you can, you can, you pull up, right? There's a line to get in, of course. And as you're going through, like they have a sign where it says, please shut off your headlights if you can.
Well, my truck does not do that. It's like a safety feature. It's got like the LED lights. Yeah, it's like a safety feature.
So there was this guy in front of me, and he's like flipping out that I have my lights on, right? And I tried everything. I even Googled how to shut off my, yeah, like I shut off my truck, everything. Chad GBT said, you idiot, you flipped the button.
Yeah, no, you couldn't do that. You can't do that. I already did. I tried.
You can't even turn them off if the truck's on. Should have turned your truck off. While you're driving through the thing. Yeah, and just push it.
Yeah, push it. Let it roll. This guy's flipping out, right? That's why you have Ginger, right?
So, he finally pulls over, like, erratically. Right? And I've got Tia and the girls in the car. I got like the old boots like when I was a teenager I was a little different so I got a little a little hyped up okay when this guy got out of his car and started walking towards my truck as I'm driving forward right and he had a dog and his wife in the car or a girl whoever okay but he was an older gentleman he's like why don't you turn off your effing lights and da da da da bro I slammed the brakes on got out of the truck I was like why don't you shut up and get back in your car before I slap you, your wife, and your dog.
Oh my God. Why would you slap the dog? Probably not the right approach then, Boots, just for the record. Well, he got back in the car, and then I got back in my truck.
To get his gun, and then shot Boots. Right. " Sorry, I just said the standard, I guess. I don't know.
That was the standard. Next year, take Tia's car. Well, that's what she said. " Oh, he's embarrassed us again, girls.
I'm so sorry. Well, yeah, I apologized to the girls when I got back in the truck. They can't go anywhere. I was like, oh, sorry, girls.
I got out of character. Why would you apologize for the girls? As they're hiding behind the seats? No, I just don't.
I don't like to get, like, super nutty in front of them. Aggressive? Yeah. The word's aggressive.
Not nutty. It's aggressive. Yeah. You gotta deescalate, buddy.
That is the situation. I usually do, but for some reason. You were triggered. Yeah, I got hyped.
I was like, ugh. He was waiting for the guy, because the guy's brake checking him. He got out. He's waiting on it to happen.
He got outside of the guy. It was like a pipsqueak. Perfect. I can take him and the dog.
I'll kick his ass and his dog. That's right. Slap his wife on the way back. Fucking poodle dog he's got.
All right. What were we talking about? I don't know. We were talking about the sports.
We had some portal. You know, no, that was sports is over now. We're talking about parking, and all of a sudden now we're doing Christmas lights. Yeah, it's not enjoyable.
So what did they do with the – how did the Christmas lights set up? They just, like, put them in the stands and stuff? Dude, it's like a tunnel of lights, and, you know, it's a whole bunch of – I've driven through the tunnel on a motorcycle, by the way, but, I mean. No, no, they left it open, and me and a friend were taking a trip, and we're like, look, that's open, let's ride through there.
So I rode my motorcycle on the track a little bit until we got chased away. I think it's like 20 or 30 bucks, and you get to drive through with the kids, and it's, you know, you play music on the radio. That's cool. Cool experience.
Couldn't turn the radio off either, huh? No. Yeah, radio's stuck on, lights are on. Radio's on, and the lights, old man, get back in your car.
I'm like, whatever, I'm gonna slap your dog. I'm gonna slap your dog. Before we move on to the next thing, I do have the face value of the tickets. Tickets.
Okay. The original value of the tickets? The original face value. Oh, yes.
What was that? So the original face value, upper level, 475. Lower end zone, 850. Club sideline, 1100.
Woo! North sideline club, 1400. Freedom dollars, buddy. Yeah.
Shit. God bless. But that's like, if you, you basically 10 times them now. Yeah.
Do they kill each other during the game or something? Is it like gladiator stuff? What is it with the prices of this sports game? Well, I mean, I think that a lot of things have kind of played out here.
It's in Miami, and it is the Canes. The Canes haven't been there in a long time, and the Indiana Hoosiers... Oh, it's not the Canes game, it's a bowl game of some sort. Yeah, and this is the one, this is like the Super Bowl for college.
I didn't know if it was a bowls game. I thought it was just a Hurricanes playing this other team. No, this is... I think this is ridiculous.
No, and the Indiana coach is amazing, and... Go ahead. Go ahead. And so, you know, and they are talking about this team like they are a wrecking ball.
They're comparing them now to the 2019 LSU team. Oh, my word. Which is huge, dude. Huge, huge.
I know that you don't think it's a big deal. No, I don't know what it means. But we're talking about Joe Burrow. We're talking about Jamar Chase.
We're talking about like... Some big players. Yeah. There was another guy, too, that was a big receiver on that team.
Landry. What's that? Jarvis Landry. Oh, yeah.
Jarvis Landry. Like, they were a juggernaut of a team. So, and they're using that. That's what they're – they're not even talking about the Canes at this point.
They're saying, you know, if these two teams could have met up, who would win? Which I don't think is fair because, honestly, I think the Canes are going to give them a run for their money. Yeah. So.
So it says also, here's some little facts of it, is that most of these prices, the initial face value, wasn't open to the public. It was only students, season ticket holders, and donors. And then, after only part of the stadium was sold to those people, then the remainder was still not sold to the public. It was sold to brokers.
Wow. Right. What a racket. Right.
Shit. Wild. Okay, well, let's move on. We've covered enough sports.
Sorry. Sorry, Palmer. You happy, Ben? All right.
Thanks, Ben. Sorry, Mitch. The other four of you, I'm very sorry. The four of you, I'm very sorry.
We have some portal entries now. Uh-oh. The first one in the portal is a sad one. Yes.
Willie Marriante. Marriante? Oh! That's how you said to spell it.
Marriante. Marriante? Yeah. He is separated from La Aurora Cigars.
Oh, man. We have no other further information. We don't know why. We don't know if he was fired, if he quit.
We just know he's no longer with them. And he's gone. That's a sad day. Who is he with before La Aurora?
La Aurora. La Aurora once before. No, he was one in between there. I thought it was two.
Yeah, there was two. He did La Aurora and two other ones and then went back to La Aurora. Right. And now he's gone.
And he was happy to be home. He gave this wonderful post and apparently now it didn't work out. You think, hypothetically, you think because he moved from down south to up here? No.
Okay. No, I don't think anything to do with it. I don't think that's the case at all. I think that if I were to speculate, man, I don't want to speculate because he's the only guy for them.
He seems like a good dude and he seems like a good sales guy. So he was, uh, I don't think they called him say, I think he was like a brand ambassador or something. Normally what happens is if you're a brand ambassador, when it comes to budget cuts, you're the first one to go. Right.
That's why if you notice like Law and Jack, when they're Kamacha, they're, they're not brand ambassadors, they're the brand activators for. A little different. Like, I don't want that term attached to me. Brand ambassador goes to parties.
How was that guy making? Get him out of here. We have somebody else go to the party. Hire an intern.
Right. Make the rep show up. Do you think he stays in the cigar business? Yes.
Yeah, sure. I mean, that's what he knows. He also did like a radio or something before that. Well, I think he's pretty good at what he does.
Yeah. And he's a likable guy. So, I mean, that helps. He's a very likable guy.
Do you have speculation of any company? No. No? Good fit for him?
It's just a question of what's open in the space, right? And who's looking to kind of shake things up. And this is the time where all of this happens. That's why we call it Q1, entering the portal.
General is having their big meeting this week here in Florida. They are. So, I mean, something could pop out of that. Well, sadly, I heard of a passing of a guy that was, I think he's like the Indiana rep in that territory.
I'm going to totally screw up his name because I don't know him. It's like Michael Sorbo or something, but he was big in the industry for a long period of time, and I believe he had a heart attack from what I understand. He didn't make the meeting because he wasn't feeling well. So that's unfortunate, man.
That's... I have a friend who's a general rep, she flew in for it, and I saw Justin was flying in for it too, so, they must all come here. Right. All right, moving on, Jerry Coutrone, is that how you say his last name?
Yes. He has left Joseph Cigars. He has left Joseph Cigars' retail. And as of today, he has announced he is with, did you say SAG or SAG?
Yep, SAG. SAG Imports as the Texas Territory Manager. Yes. Oh.
Congratulations, Jerry. Thank you, Jerry. Oh, no, thank you, congratulations. Thank you, Jerry.
Thank you, Jerry. Thank you, Jerry, for moving on. Jerry, Jerry. Yep.
" Yeah, that should have been the move. " Right? Hmm. " Yeah.
" Yeah, well, like, what's this... And then let's just keep talking. Like, why wouldn't you take my... take my first of all you're not even gonna be dealing with that person tomorrow like you got to deal with me for the rest of your life right and you're not gonna take the right you're not gonna take the call you're out of your mind right right sometimes i like to ask who it is see if i know him too what's his name oh tell him i said hi i don't know how to put him on the phone put him on the phone tell me take your shit and get out of here tell him you need more space for my stuff and he's gonna leave yeah all right half wheel today released company of the year 2025 5.
Oh. Racis, Cubanas Cigars USA. Racis? Really?
R-A-I-C-E-S, how do you say that? Raices. Yeah. Rice?
Raices. Raices. Raices. They're like, Nicaragua.
I'd say, rice. But I'm going to stick with Racis for right now, that sounds good. I like Racis. Yeah.
Racis. Is it a Cuban? Cuban cigars? Cubanas?
Cubanas. Wow, that's, um, isn't that Peter, isn't that the Hernandez brothers? No. Who reps that?
No, so it was Alec Bradley. Oh. And now this guy, like, he was the, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that this guy started the factory for Alec Bradley, and he left the industry and he came back with a very similar name. Oh.
I mean, he's pretty well entrenched in the industry. He's already kind of expanded into international and all these other things, kind of hit the ground running, so he knows what he's doing. And he had all the, well, he had all the connections. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's plug and play.
Yeah, that's another reason why I believe the industry is where your connections are. Yeah. Yeah, you know, like if, you know, if you quit Powstanie or we fired you, like you would go back to, you know, the three or four retailers that you're friends with and they would carry your product, right? Right.
You know, so like, you know what you're doing, right? That was me casually throwing shade. I understand. Right.
See how I, see how you didn't respond to my joke and I don't, I don't respond to your joke. Yeah, but mine are funny. No, they're not. " Yeah.
I mean, somebody blessed me and Boots for being on the show. Yeah, God bless both of you. Oh, they did. Thank you.
Yes. Yeah. All right, they also released the 2025 Factory of the Year. Uh-oh.
It's got another weird name. Tabacos Cubanax. Located in Esteli, Nicaragua. Tabacos Cubanax is the home of Padrón.
Aha. So I assume that's all they make is Padrón? Yes. Yeah, they don't make anybody else's stuff.
No. So why can't they just say the Padron factory? Because it has a name. But, yeah, it's not the Padron factory.
Say his name. Padron. No, that's not it. Yeah, it's just right here on the thing.
No, it's Capacos. Capacos? No, that's what I'm really trying to do. They're having tacos.
Oh, really? Tacos, Cuban tacos for Padron. Perfect. They have Cuban tacos in there.
Okay. Yes. You know, I haven't tried that 60s yet. Apparently, I need to try it.
The 60s? He has the number one or whatever? Padron 60. Apparently it's got a lot of reviews, a lot of raving reviews.
Oh, I have reached out to Lou Cross from Lure Cigars. He is sending us some cigars for the Patreon. Oh, very nice. And then maybe we can have him on to be a guest host.
Does he live here? He lives in Tallahassee. Oh, okay. Sure.
Was that a six hour drive? Yeah, but he does events down this way all the time. We'll work it out when it's convenient for everybody. You got to prepare them though, because it's, you know, a lot of reading.
A lot of reading. Aaron's kind of struggled with the words. And ball busting, so. Well, he'll fit right in.
If I don't know somebody well enough, that might not be true. Yeah, but it's not you ball busting. He's good natured. He could take it.
He'd have a good time. Palmer's the one writing the scripts. That's true. I don't write his script though.
No, but you ball bust on the screen. Maybe I should start writing your script. Start writing my script? We'll have a lot of fish stories for Lou.
Right. What kind of lure would work well for this one, Lou? A large bass pound. All right, now moving on to cigar news.
We're kind of already in it, but all right. Yeah, but it was before. On Monday, January 12th, Charles, again with the names, G-E-R-A-G-I. Pronounce it.
Geraghi? Okay. Geraghi? 67 and his brother Richard, the owners of All American Tobacco LLC, were fatally shot at their company offices in Boca Raton, Florida.
S. from factories in Central and Latin America, working with customs officials and then having the cigars delivered to cigar company warehouses. J. Fernandez, Altadiz, La Aurora, Oliva, and many others.
Yeah. The company also imports a variety of other non-tobacco goods from all over the world according to Boynton Beach Police Department. The two brothers were shot by Nassar Dawala, 39, of West Palm Beach. He's a brother of Saddam Dawala who was found guilty of four felony counts of grand theft over $100,000.
The police claim that, it says sad man, S-A-D-M-A-N, but is that Saddam? I don't know. Saddam. Mr.
Diwalla defrauded the brothers of more than $5 million. Charles planned to meet with Nassar on Monday afternoon to discuss getting some of that money back. , Mr. Diwalla pulled a gun from his waistband and fatally shot both brothers at the company's 2400 High Ridge Road offices.
Diwalla ran across the street and then got into a white Cadillac SUV. 5 miles away from the location on the shooting. A traffic stop was initiated. The police claimed that Diwalla refused to stop.
In less than a mile later, he fatally shot himself before the SUV crashed to a tree. I didn't know that part. Yeah. According to a police statement, Diwalla was investigated as part of the fraud investigation but was not charged.
This is a developing story, and we'll have more information that becomes available. So who gave the money to who? Okay, so people call him Chuck, I believe. Charles.
Charles. And I think, I believe that Skip does business with this guy as an importer. He mentioned they were friends, but he would consider them friends other than a business associate, so he must do business with them. Right.
And I will tell you this, that it takes, you got to be a specific caliber of individual in order to do business with Skip. He has... Sure, right, yeah. Check boxes.
Dot your I's cross your T's type of a person, very, you know, like... So, they're obviously very good at what they did, you know, obviously those are a lot of big names that are in the industry that have done business with them, so there's definitely some notoriety there, right? Number one. Number two, allegedly, what had occurred was this one brother, Dwala or whatever, had worked for them and had taken money, I don't know how, maybe out of checks or something like that, you know, and embezzled the cash out of the company.
Okay. I think, I believe, and again, I'm not 100% positive on this, this is just what I've heard, that it was in the realm of a few hundred thousand dollars. He was, according to this, he was charged with four counts of grand larceny at $100,000. Right, okay.
But they're also throwing the figure around that he took total $5 million. Well, okay, so I think allegedly the case is that when you've taken X amount out over a period of time, you can argue the fact that because this has happened, has cost this business five million dollars okay right that makes sense and that would be the lawsuit against him the estimated value right so now the lawsuit is lingering and because of that because of that going on allegedly he's kept in prison for this time because of the amount right so i'm gonna say allegedly a lot on this one guys uh so allegedly his brother went and took He took the meeting with the other two brothers, the owner of the company, Chuck, and his brother, and he wanted to get the amount for the lawsuit lowered so that he could get his brother out of prison. When, assumably, they said no, and whoever knows how that conversation went down, I mean, I'm not in the room, at that point, when he realized that the value wasn't going to be lowered, he then alleged He allegedly shot them, and then drove down the street. And then shot himself.
That doesn't help the lawsuit. No, no. How does that work? If the brothers of the company were suing, I'm assuming?
Right. That would be why there's a lawsuit. Well, but he is in jail for grand larceny, which is not a lawsuit. That is a crime.
You don't go in jail because somebody's suing you. This is all... This is part of the case. Right, this is the rumors that I've heard around the campfire so far, right?
And again, who knows how accurate they are? It's all allegedly. Like, this is all alleged stuff. Well, what I was getting at, if he, you know, killed the two brothers on the company, part of it, he might have been thinking part of it goes away at that point because now there's nobody to sue.
And then his brother would be, they would be a reduced sentence. I mean, I don't, I don't know. And that seems like a bit of a stretch. Yeah, again, that was a bad idea.
Well, you would think, but now I'm going to jail for murder because I just killed these two guys. He killed himself as well. Well, he did, yes. " Yeah.
Well, I mean, dude, this is... There's security cameras. extremely unfortunate. Yeah.
I've, you know, from the people that I've spoken to have said nothing but good things about these two brothers, especially Chuck, apparently. And, my God, man, that's terrible. This is absolutely terrible. You never know what's going to happen anymore.
I don't know what's going to happen anymore. I mean, the world's a scary place. No. You know, I don't know how I would, like, let's say we were put in this position.
Which one are we? We're the brothers. I don't know if I would take a meeting with this guy. Well, they thought they were going to get back some of their money.
No. Well, obviously, you're not getting back any of the money, right? You should just do this to the court. This guy that's coming to you, obviously, these people are not that good of people.
They've already taken money. Okay, but you're speculating? Yeah, yeah, I'm just speculating. Right.
I mean, you think it's our office, home field advantage, we're gonna be safe here, it's inside our doors. Right. You know, it's not like this guy's killed before. Right, and maybe they know this guy, maybe they, you know, maybe they have a good relationship with both of them.
Yeah, I'm sure, I mean, if the other guy worked for him, I'm sure they met him before. Maybe there is to some extent that they feel bad, I don't know, who knows? Yeah, yeah, maybe. You know, like...
That's just crazy. I don't know, man, you know, like, to lose a couple hundred K, And to finally catch wind of it, like, how many times have the transactions happened where they didn't see it, right? Like, you're talking about large amounts of money being moved, right? Yeah, it's just only what they've found so far.
Well, all I'm saying is that, like, it happened more than once, allegedly, and eventually you catch on to it, and then, like, you have no other choice at that point but to report it, right? even if you don't want to but you know the only way that you're gonna ever see any type of uh i guess redemption or whatever restitution rest thank you restitution is with like all this is terrible man this is unfortunate yeah you got one guy in jail one you know his brother's now dead and then you got two supposedly great guys that are part of this industry and now they're gone too How does something like that happen when, because I've never been a part of this, or I've heard the story afterwards, how, who takes over the company at that point, like? I have no idea. I don't know.
They had an older brother. Like if you and, if this happened to you and Greg, who would be next in line, like? Well, I have kids. So the kids would take it over?
I mean, my, my shares would go to my family, and then they would have to decide at that point either to sell They would destroy the company, or it would just dissolve if it couldn't sustain, right? You know, something to that extent. You know, these guys are intelligent individuals. I think, you know, attorneys and stuff like that.
I know that they had one other older brother who also had an unfortunate passing like 15 years ago. Oh, I thought you were going to say they had one older brother left. I was like, well. No, I think that he was...
I don't know. I read an article where I think that he wanted to die or something, allegedly. And, um, one of his friends went, he asked his friend to do it or something, I don't know. Wow, that's a good friend.
Is it? Is it? Yeah. Is it?
I mean, but, well, he's gonna go to jail. Like, what was the case? Was it terminal cancer or something? Like, I don't know.
Like, I have no idea. So, like, I don't know. Like, you know, if you're going through some shit, like, I'm gonna do everything. Well, he's just depressed or something.
Yeah. But I mean, you would have, like, if he wanted to die, it was some type of terminal illness. Right. I'm going to do everything I can to bring you back, you know?
You know, getting to the end is going to be worse than if I just didn't now. Yeah. You know, that's a way older article, so. Yeah.
Yeah, man. It's terrible. Terrible stuff, dude. Yeah.
So, sorry for the families and stuff. They all have to deal with all of that. That's rough. That's a lot to unwind.
Yeah. C. Newman has kicked off the new year with a release of its Jose Gaspar cigar created by Tampa's Gasparilla, or for Tampa's Gasparilla Festival. This year's release is a 6x54 Toro, the same Batola used for the last two years, but the blend is different.
The Jose Gaspar 2026 gets a Cuban seed Ecuadorian wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers. C. Newman Penta factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. Each cigar is an MSRP of...
Gentlemen, gentlemen. Gasparilla cigar. C. Newman over at their factory in Esteli.
$25. $9. $8. Yeah.
C. Newman cigars, I guess. Production is limited to 2,000 boxes of 10 cigars. C.
Newman's home city in Tampa. During Gasparilla. Well, until they're gone, then I could take them back off the shelf. Oh, is that how that works?
Yeah, they'll steadily sell out. I wonder if they sell out. They probably do. I bet they do.
I mean, only 2,000 cigars, and there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, oh, King Corona, but we heard they closed, apparently they did not, 13, 14, 15, 16, 16 different cigar shops. So they basically get like 110 cigars each? Yeah, a couple of boxes-ish, you know.
C. Newman, in a previous press release, sailing from his base near Tampa Bay in the late 1700s, He terrorized the Gulf of Mexico and amassed a great fortune. Victory, uh, Gaspar celebrated victories with a bold and flavorful cigar. This cigar honors his legacy and the tradition of Gasparilla.
You think the pirate really smoked cigars? Yes. Maybe. You think so?
The name Jose Gaspar is a reference to the legendary pirate who inspired the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which is celebrated each year in late January. No, he didn't smoke cigars. I don't think he did. He celebrated conquering other ships.
Where's my cigar? We just sank this thing over here. Did you look that up? Yeah, he looked it up.
I looked it up. No, I mean, like, did you look up that he didn't really smoke cigars? No. Yes, he did.
Well, anyway, that's why his wife called it. Jack is listening to the Patreon, which is apparently open out a day early. Oh, must have been. Yeah.
He doesn't know what today is. Yeah. Just remember that. He has no idea what today is.
I have no idea. Well, he might be one of the most famous pirates in history and has his own Wikipedia page. There's little to no evidence that there was even a real pirate named Jose Gaspard. What did you say?
There's no proof that this guy ever existed. Oh, that's right. Other than he has a Wikipedia page that somebody made. Yeah, you mentioned that last year as well.
Oh, last year, did he? Yeah. Each year, Tampa plays host at a festival that begins each January into March, during which three major parades and other smaller events take place, and now Greg will be attending this year. Oh.
Guys, you know, the guy's not living his best life. He is. He's not going to dress as a pirate, though. Of course he's not.
Everybody dresses as a pirate for this thing. You know his wife's going to? I mean, he kind of dresses like a pirate. All black.
She may make him. I hope she makes him. She's probably gonna make him. If you listen to the show, please make him.
First of all, you can't go to Gasparilla dressed in jeans, boots, and a black hat and a black shirt. I would. I would. It's on the beach.
Oh. Right. I'd wear shorts. It's on the bay.
Yeah. I'd wear shorts and sandals at least. Oh, Greg would wear his white shorts? I don't know.
His white sneakers? His one pair of sneakers? Too many people. No, he has sandals, remember.
I would love to go, but that's why I don't go. There's so many people who do this thing. There is a lot of people. It's just ridiculous.
Too many people. Alright, now it's time for What's the Score? Why'd you go in so quick? Just trying to get it out.
You know what it is? You lose your patience as we progress throughout the week. Yeah. That's what happens.
It's a lot to do a show every single day, it's a lot. Well, stop quick, quit your bitching, at least we're, you know, we get to do it, it's fun. For you. No, you don't have a good time on this show?
I do for the 54 minutes we do it, but not the two hours it takes to put it together, and then the three and a half hours to put it out. What if you got the $500 a week? Whoa, the three and a half hours or you just hit a button and it's uploading, you're not. Yeah, but you still have to, you can't just walk away because sometimes it has a problem.
Okay, but you're not just sitting there staring at it. Sometimes you check on it periodically. No, sometimes I do other things, like last night I put that order in that you sent. Okay.
So there are other things that I do at the time. Or I try to maximize my time and work on the new show while the old show is going up. Look at you. See, there you go.
Multitasking. I have a great time. So what are you crying about? Wait till you get a mask.
Then I will not have a great time. Yes, you will. Most annoying. Yeah, but I did request certain masks.
Yeah. So Palmer now knows the criteria. Yeah. Phantom of the Opera.
There's a lot of gray area in that mask you were going. There's no gray area. A lot of gray area. I told you how it had to be.
As long as your chin's not covered, it's all I understood. No, it wasn't just my chin. As long as your chin and your mouth are open. No, he wants his mouth to be accessible.
Right. For various reasons. Yeah. All right, first cigar is from June 3rd, 2025.
First and only cigar. Yes. Patrick Lagride. It's the Aging Room Boutique Brands.
The Bohemian Poeta. Okay. Can you spell Poeta? P-O-E-T-A.
P-O-E-T-A. That's right. That sounds right. Bing bong.
Hey, listen. Bing bong. Sometimes it's questionable with you. P-O-E-T-A.
Poeta. Okay. I imagine it's Spanish for poet. Bing bong.
Bing a bong. Okay. I have such a headache from these lights. Uh, what do you, do you want me to go?
I guess I'll go first this time. Yeah. Oh, oh, this is the game. I thought this was the story.
This is the game. You thought what? I thought it was another story. Yes, another story.
I'm going to go, I'm going to start 90. Bing bong. I don't think we've ever done an aging room before. By Patrick?
Yep. Yeah, he tends to be a little higher. You think so? Yeah.
I'll go 89. All right, this is the aging room, La Bohemia Poeta, from Nicaragua, Tablica, the factory. Put your phone down. Put your phone down right now.
I don't have my phone. The factory is AJ Fernandez, wrapper is USA Connecticut Broadleaf, Habano Hybrid. Okay. 52.
How, $22? 40 for the box. Golly. It's an aging room, that's why we don't do these.
Released January 2025. Ooh, it's only a year old. And they smoked tres. Three.
I'm gonna stay 90 right now. 89. It's weak. Oh, sorry, back to me.
Clue number one. The cigar delivers an engaging profile with earthiness, toffee sweetness, creaminess, and put your phone down, Michael. I'm looking, I'm approving orders. You're looking it up?
Here you go. Jeter, Jeter, Jeter, Pumpkin here. That looks like... That's me working, buddy.
No, that's literally Charlie Monado's text message group. Yeah, hey, what'd you get for this? Hey, what did Patrick give for this? Ask Patrick, what do you score this?
All right, delivers an engaging profile with earthiness, toffee sweetness, creaminess, and bright... What's bright pepper? It's not dim. It's not black?
Later, involving into caramel macchiato, vanilla custard, pistachio, and sweet wood notes. Ooh, I like Patrick's descriptions. Keeping the experience, and no nibs, there's no nibs. Nope, that's Brooks.
Well, he's not a nib guy. Keeping the experience interesting and layered throughout most of the smoke. How do they get all this? I would be so confused if I could pull this stuff out.
Very layered. It's what they're eating. When it goes past- He's having a coffee macchiato right now with some cookies and some sweet wood. Yeah, when it goes past just the salty, sweet- Oh, the sweet wood is the stir stick in the coffee.
He pulls it out and does that little lick before you throw it away. That's it, yeah. Oh, sweet wood. Dryness, all that stuff.
If it goes past that, what are you eating? It goes past the salt and dryness. Okay, what are you guys eating? Come on.
You said Skittles. Right. 89. Oh, you came down.
Yeah, just to mess with you. To the great number of 89. I, too, will choose 89. I thought I'd get another move.
Okay. Clue number two. Clue number two. Despite some variations, the draw, burn line, and smoke production are generally very good.
With solid consistency across most of the The most of the cigar and an appealing medium plus flavor body that never feels overwhelming. That was the first clue out of all the ones that we've done. That sounds right. That makes sense.
Yeah, there was no like bullshit, like taste or anything. All right, what have we got? You should have been on me the whole time. No, I'm on you.
No, but you weren't before when you got him drinking. No, I've been on you the whole time. Ninety. What do you want to go on me when you're drinking?
You're going to go on you when you're eating. He told me when you're eating. I did. 89.
So what do you want to go on me while I'm drinking? No, he thought the camera was on you. Oh, I don't care. I'm just drinking.
My throat gets dry. I do a lot of talking. That's why you flip. All right.
Third clue. Pay attention. Third clue. Third clue.
Yes, yes, sir. Over here. Very sorry. My eyes are right here.
One cigar. I don't know. I can't see you because there's a big light there. You're doing great.
I feel like I'm going into the light like this is it. Step into the light. You shouldn't wear a bright colored jacket, by the way. Because it makes his face more the color of the jacket.
I wore black yesterday. So I wore something brighter today. I like it. I think it looks great.
Because that way we can tell what day we do what show when somebody has to figure it out. Right. One cigar becomes sharp, rough, and irritating in the throat. While the others still show noticeable harshness near the end, along with multiple relights in two samples, creating an uneven and less enjoyable finish.
As I Smoke It In The Car. 87. 87, huh? Yep.
86. Final thought. For the first two thirds, the aging room La Bohemian Poeta was a very impressive cigar, rich with flavors, moving gracefully through transitions, and keeping the senses thoroughly engaged and stimulated. The final third was where things got interesting.
The three cigars offered rather different experiences. One was quite harsh, and as a result, hard to smoke, let alone enjoy. The second was better, and it had me optimistic that there was more to be had in the final section. The third cigar completely scrambled my expectations, and it was not only the most flavorful and enjoyable of the bunch, but it delivered one of the best expressions of the blend that I had likewise construction and combustion with.
Mike Sincron, The First Two Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds.
Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds.
Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds.
Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds.
Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. Mike Sincron, The Final Thirds. The cigar was described as a stellar smoke. However, that's not what happened, and I hate to think of the final third diminishing what the Blanda has to offer.
I still recommend it. Just cross your fingers that you get the final third that the cigar not only deserves, but is capable of. I tried to read it like a story. Hmm.
Who's going? I don't know. I am. I'm thinking.
Oh. You don't like a third of the cigar, you got to build a cigar out of the three of them, one cigar. Right. One cigar to smoke them all.
86. Would you like to try again? Even though, you can't say that. It just means it's not the score, that's all it was.
What? Here's the problem with these guys. Even though he didn't bash it but said it wasn't a good cigar. He looked it up.
He looked it up. No, I didn't look it up. it's not a great cigar at the end of it when they say that they're still scored high because it's an aging room or i don't think so i don't think that's the case they listed all their advertisers in one of their lists that they're putting out is aging room one of them no it's mostly shops not very many brands no they do a great job of that like here's the here's our top 25 and then here are the ads here's the ad space for the people that like they do a fantastic All right. All right.
84. And what did you say? 86. 89.
I think you said 86. See, you see what I'm saying? No, I moved down to 86. See, I was right, though, in what I was saying.
Then why did you go down? Even though it was a horrible cigar at the end. It wasn't. Two thirds of it was great.
Two thirds of it was great. So you got to take two thirds from one cigar and give it with a third of the other cigar, and then you make a one good cigar. I will say this to you. Hold on a second.
Wait a second. I will tell you this. I think that you are accurate in your analogy here, in your analysis of this rating. I think that it is too high for this particular cigar, after you hear the description.
However... Well, now again, you're only hearing pieces. Right. However, we're only hearing pieces.
So... I mean, that's three small paragraphs out of the... But you did get the final thought. Yes.
Which is a... We can almost just do this off the final thought. Maybe. It's like, okay, it's like us when we do cigars on the Patreon, right?
If it doesn't taste good, then we can't say that we would buy it again. Yeah. He is true. The way we do ours is a little more methodical in the thing, you know, like, you can't say the price is okay if you hated the cigar.
com, A Cigar Hustlers Podcast. We rate cigars. Right. And we talk more inside baseball about cigar industry stuff.
Right. The Patreon commercial is at the end of every show. Is it? Is it?
Yeah, the one that you mash together with the three guys. Oh, that's what that thing is when I watch the show. Yeah, Saka and Espinosa. That's perfect.
And that other guy. Pete. No, it's not Pete. It's the guy from Marifel.
I can't remember his name. Renard. Renard. Thank you.
Reinhard. Did you wish Mr. Marifel a happy birthday? His birthday was the other day.
No. Has still nothing come out of that whole separation? No, nothing. Nor will it.
No, we won't hear anything else. Yeah. Unless 50 Cent gets a hold of it. Unless 50 gets the film.
There's your Diddy documentary add-on. He slid it in 65 minutes. Wow, yeah, he hasn't mentioned it in all week. Yeah.
Okay, well, this concludes episode... This has been episode 448 of a Cigar Hustler podcast. It was 47 in the beginning, so now we're at 48. It was 47, it was yesterday's.
When I read it, I said 48. Wherever we're at. It's the Thursday show, I think. Okay, it is.
Thank you. Enjoy the Patreon, Patreon peoples. Thank you, everybody. All right, bye, we gotta go.
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Fuck that one up.
Show Notes
On today's show Meta passes out pink slips, We have a new entry into the portal, Huge Parking Fees at The Hard Rock Stadium. Cigar news two icons of the industry are taking to soon, New Cigar and What's The Score